The Terror

The troops aboard HMS Terror anticipate victory beyond measure. Included in the 1845 Franklin Expedition, which were the first steam-powered ships to explore the fabled Northwest Passage, they represent the most scientifically substantiated endeavor in history. However, they find themselves stuck in a terrifying environment of increasing ice and darkness as they go toward a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw. 126 men struggle to live in the bitter cold, with depleting rations and poisoned food, a finite amount of coal, and ships collapsing under the weight of falling ice. However, their true adversary is far more terrible. Something is out there in the bitter cold, a horrible nightmare that is persistently pushing its way into their spacecraft, an invisible predator.

Following the tragic death of expedition leader Sir John Franklin, Captain Francis Crozier assumes charge and rallies the remaining crew members to make a last-ditch effort to escape over the ice and southward. They are accompanied by a non-speaking Inuit lady who might hold the secret to their survival or serve as a warning of impending doom. However, Crozier and his men start to worry that there is no way out as another winter draws near, as scurvy and famine worsen, and as the nightmare on the ice pursues them south.