Idris Elba is a man of many talents. He has an inarguable and overwhelming charisma that makes him as likable as he is intimidating. When he’s not starring in massive blockbusters, he’s a musician, fighter, and political activist. Few would push against his appointment as one of the era’s finest movie stars. Right now, Netflix audiences want to see him struggle to survive in films like Beast and The Mountain Between Us.
Both of these films come from somewhat memorable directors. Hany Abu-Assad of The Mountain Between Us came from Palestine. His earlier films include The Idol and Omar, and he won a Golden Globe in 2006. Baltasar Kormakur of Beast hails from Iceland. His previous works include action thrillers like 2 Guns and other survival projects like Everest. You could honestly see either of these filmmakers working on the other one’s film.
Idris Elba Survives and Thrives on Netflix’s Top Ten
Beast and The Mountain Between Us have little in common, but they both focus on Idris Elba surviving awful conditions. Oddly enough, Elba also plays a doctor who recently lost his wife. Beast is the more straightforward of the two. It follows Elba as a now-single father who brings his two daughters on a safari in South Africa. A rogue lion attacks, forcing Elba to risk his life for his kids. The Mountain Between Us sees him take an unsanctioned flight with a photojournalist to get across a frozen landscape. After they crash, Elba and Kate Winslet struggle to reach civilization. The films share some themes, but the tones are radically different. Mountain is a grim and gritty frozen journey with hints of romance in the meantime. Beast is a more classical man versus nature tale with a lion as a visual metaphor.
Neither The Mountain Between Us nor Beast made a ton of money at the box office. The former cost $35 million and made $62.8 million, falling considerably short of the usual break-even point. The latter earned only $59.1 million on a $36 million budget, performing even worse. Despite that financial mismatch, Beast generally did a bit better with critics than Mountain. The voices at Rotten Tomatoes unleashed a 68% positive score onto Beast and left Mountain in the cold with a 39%. These survival movies are a dime a dozen, slipping easily into the cultural memory hole after their release. Each one kind of belongs on streaming, but the bump they receive from a theatrical run speaks for itself. Mountain is #5 on Netflix, while Beast sits just two spots below it.
Idris Elba will always be a superstar, but these films will never be his main spotlight. He stars in a massive array of unique and interesting films. He’s the kind of actor who can do Sonic the Hedgehog 3 one year and a long-awaited Luther movie the year before. A ton of actors do these survival projects, but they tend to blend into the background. Idris Elba handles the dangers of nature better than most, but maybe the next one should drop straight onto Netflix.
