Ice Spiders is a 2007 B-Movie set in the mountains of Utah. The instructor at a ski resort and a local scientist get caught up in trying to stop mutated giant spider that are immune to cold and trying to kill the various locals. The film stars Stephen J. Cannell as Frank the lodge owner.
Tropes:
- And I Must Scream: The various cocooned spider victims know what is happening to them.
- Asshole Victim: Professor Marks, who is responsible for the entire mess to begin with and perfectly fine endangering lives without remorse to get the spiders back, ends up spider chow.
- Badass Bookworm: April is a scientist first but capable to fighting back a spider with a ski pole.
- Career-Ending Injury: Dash's Olympic ski career came to an end when he hurt his leg. He’s still a good skier, but the recovery time cost him his Olympics window and left him a bit skittish about skiing rocky slopes.
- Chimney Entry: One spider gets into the barricaded lodge this way. The people hiding inside were smart enough to set a fire to try and prevent that, but the spider knocked wet snow down the chimney to snuff it out.
- Communications Officer: Johnny, who mans the radio trying to call for help.
- Cool Old Guy: Frank the lodge owner is a genial man who is supportive to Dash and doesn’t hesitate to try and save people during the spider attack.
- Egomaniac Hunter: A pair of elk hunters at the beginning. One is a bit unprepared and goofy but in awe of the stag they see. The other is better-equipped, clearly out for a trophy and overconfidently willing to take on the first spider he sees.
- Furniture Blockade: The guests who make it inside the ski lodge stack up all of the furniture they can to block the spiders from getting in. This actually manages to keep the spiders out without being too much stuff to move whenever other survivors show up needing to be let in. That being said, they did forget to block the chimney.
- Giant Spider: The films villains.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: The spiders were created in order to harvest their silk for utilitarian purposes. They were made so big in order to make them able to produce enough. Unfortunately, Professor Marks decided to push things too fast and too far, resulting in them breaking out and going on a maneating rampage.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: April and Mrs. Stewart are nice and wear purple.
- Heroes Gone Fishing: The Marines who help contain the spiders are playing basketball and sunning themselves on lawn chairs when they hear the alarm.
- Ignored Expert: April warning Marks how his experiments could let the spider adapt to the cold doesn't deter him at all.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Dash grabs a deer head from the wall and impales the spider that gt in through the chimney with the antlers.
- Insufferable Genius: Professor Marks, the head of the spider experiment, is a patronizing guy convinced of his experiments infallibility and determined to preserve it despite the danger.
- Just Think of the Potential!: Marks' argument for not just killing the spiders. Of course it was his fault the things ended up becoming maneaters in the first place, as his reckless attempts to make them even bigger resulted in them breaking out and going on the warpath.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Bob and Rocky the hunters try to flee after seeing the spiders can dodge arrows. Emphasis on try.
- Men Act, Women Are: Averted hard with April and downplayed with Mrs. Stewart but played straight with the female ski team members Brittany and Christina who get limited screen time before the spiders arrive and don’t do much except jump back in fear and make the occasional comment or look after an injured friend afterwards.
- Men of Sherwood: The soldiers take a backseat to the main protagonists, but they respond to the breakout at the lab, kill the spiders, and evacuate any nearby civilians they can in an impressive and effective way.
- Nice Girl: Mrs. Stewart. She’s enjoying her ski lessons despite repeatedly falling, doesn’t seem offended by Dash’s annyoance at their progress and later is the one to let him in to the barricaded lodge and shushes her husband when he questions a strategy Dash proposes.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Captain Baker doesn’t immediately shut down Marks arguments to t keep the spiders alive but does so as soon as it's clear their endangering lives and that Marks has a poor idea of their capabilities.
- Scientist vs. Soldier: Upon finding out that the genetically-engineered giant spiders might be escaping from the lab, the main scientist drags his feet at even considering there's a problem (although his colleague is much more helpful) and tries to keep his man-eating creations for being destroyed, while the soldiers rapidly deploy to contain the threat and protect the nearby civilians and tend to ignore him.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Implied with the ruthless scientist Marks Marks, who admits to having been fighting and seeing a lot of death in wars.
- Shout-Out: The local forestry official is named Ranger Rick.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Professor Marks.
- Spoiled Brat: Chad from the ski team is introduced bemoaning how his expensive cell phone has no signal complaining about how with all the money his father paid to the team they should be login to a better resort.
- Squee: Brittany is excited to meet Dash and mentions that her father took a video of a skiing tournament he took part in.
- "Stop Having Fun" Guys: A non video game In-Universe example. Dash is frustrated by how two of the customers, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, don’t pay attention to his lessons as well and are more focused on having fun and don’t mind falling down.
- Totally Radical: Johnny uses words such as “dude” a lot.
- Uncertain Doom: Mrs. Stewart is bitten once or twice in the back by a spider but the wound didn’t look that deep, or close to the heart.
- The Watson: Dash serves as this for a lot April explain about the spiders.
