What Is Troll Movie on Netflix About and Who Is In the Cast? - Netflix Tudum

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    By Anne Cohen
    Dec. 20, 2022

It’s time to talk about trolls — don’t worry, not the evil internet kind.

Troll, a Norwegian action-fantasy-adventure film directed by Roar Uthaug (Tomb Raider) has quietly accumulated over 128 million hours viewed since its streaming debut on Dec. 1, making it the most popular non-English language film on Netflix. If you haven’t seen it yet, here are a handful of reasons you should throw it on right now — popcorn not required but highly recommended. 

What is Troll about?

When a project to build a railway through Dovre, a Norwegian mountain, wakes up a dormant monster, the government calls in paleontology professor Nora Tidemann (Ine Marie Wilmann) to advise. With her father and a ragtag band of assistants, Nora tries to figure out what exactly has been causing a wave of mayhem and rampant destruction and, more importantly, how to stop it before it reaches Oslo. 

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Who’s in the cast of Troll?

Troll stars Norwegian actors Wilmann (Bloodride); Kim Falck as Andreas Isaksen, advisor to the prime minister of Norway; Mads Pettersen (Home for Christmas) as army captain Kristoffer Holm; and Gard B. Eidsvold as Nora’s father, Tobias. Eidsvold in particular is a veteran troll hunter. In 2017, he starred in Mikkel Brænne Sandemose’s The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King, a fantasy feature that tracks a young farmer’s quest to rescue a princess from a vindictive — you guessed it — troll. 

OK, but why should I watch Troll?

The real question is, why shouldn’t you? This insane import has it all: family, friendship and an absolutely enormous monster made of stone and earth who simply will not stop stomping on stuff. Still not convinced? Here are five reasons to stream Troll on Netflix right now…

It’s the perfect holiday movie. Really.
How many times are you going to watch Die Hard with your dad? Switch it up this year and throw on a movie that’s as much about the values and interests that parents pass on to their children as it is gigantic folkloric creatures ripping up the Norwegian countryside. 

It’s based on actual Norwegian folklore. 
Trolls date back to Norse mythology and are a staple in Nordic fairy tales. In the film’s opening scene, Tobias Tidemann lays out one such legend, reminding his daughter about creatures “made of earth and stone” who cannot withstand sunlight. Little does he know that they’ll soon be called in to help wrangle one. But Troll does more than use these tales as source material — it actively explores how myths are made and by whom. That’s right: thrilling and educational. 

It makes paleontologists look cool. (Don’t tell Ross Geller.) 
Wilmann carries most of the film with an irresistible mix of grit and humor. She’s as comfortable digging for dinosaur bones in the mud as she is fighting off a truly gross-looking troll. Plus, hers is the kind of role that 99% of the time goes to male action leads: the brusque scientific genius who tells it like it is.

It’s got a killer ending. 
We won’t spoil it, but just know that it involves many, many tanning salon beds. Do with that information what you will. 

It’s very, very fun and very, very bonkers. 
What other film is going to deliver a high-stakes chase through the streets of a desolate Oslo where a truck has a troll skull strapped onto the back of it? Ladies and gentlemen, we give you... cinema!

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