When World War II breaks out, Norway declares itself neutral.
However the small town of Narvik is the main source of iron ore for Germany, and Great
Britain considers it important to stop the ore transportation.
In April 1940, the British marine force arrives at Norwegian waters, so a troop of Norwegian
soldiers are sent to Narvik as neutrality guards, unaware of the fact that Norway's
neutrality has already been breached.
Among these soldiers is Tofte, who is delighted to go back to his hometown and see his family
again.
When they arrive at Narvik, soldiers are disappointed to hear their day off has been canceled, so
Tofte asks for a special permission because it's his son's birthday.
The permission is granted but he has to come back before midnight.
Tofte rushes to visit his wife Ingrid, who works as a waitress in a hotel and sometimes
helps as an interpreter because she knows German.
Today there's a meeting with the town mayor, discussing the possibility of an agreement
over the ore with British consul Ross and German consul Fritz.
Tofte reunites with Ingrid, then goes outside to spend time with his son Ole and his father
Aslak while he waits for his wife to finish working.
When the meeting ends, Ross asks Ingrid if Fritz gave any kind of opinion when he called
her over to translate, but Ingrid has no information to share.
Afterward the family has dinner together, and after Aslak and Ole go to bed, Tofte and
Ingrid get frisky together.
Tofte ends up falling asleep by mistake, and he's woken up by the sound of explosions in
the area.
Once Ingrid has said goodbye to him, Tofte rushes out and sees fire at the coast.
He meets with his colonel, who explains their ships have been sunk by the Germans and now
marines are scattered all over the harbor.
Tofte rejoins his companions to defend the town, but the colonel goes to talk to the
German leader and hears his army has taken over the rest of Norway, so they don't stand
a chance.
The colonel decides to surrender to avoid more death and tells his men to let the German
soldiers pass.
Now the Norwegian soldiers must travel to a new meeting point because returning to the
base is begging to be captured.
The next morning, Ingrid goes to work and finds Ross' assistant sneaking inside through
the employee door, explaining it's a matter of life or death.
When Ingrid reaches the reception, she discovers the German army has taken over the hotel as
a base, and Fritz asks her to be their translator, he also requires all the room keys.
Ingrid can tell they'll shoot if she doesn't obey, so she gives them the keys and asks
about her husband.
Fritz promises they let the Norwegian tropes leave in peace.
Meanwhile Tofte's group is leaving town, and the Germans try to stop them, but the colonel
ignores them and they keep on marching.
Back in the hotel, a few German soldiers arrive through the back door and Ingrid distracts
them with breakfast to give her friend and coworker Bjorg the chance to help Ross and
his assistant escape.
Before they leave, Ross asks Ingrid for a place to hide, but Ingrid doesn't want to
take them home because of her son.
Instead, she tells them of a cabin in the mountains and sends Bjorg to guide them there.
When Ingrid goes home after work, Aslak tells her they should leave town.
Ingrid worries about Tofte, but Aslak points out the soldiers left and they won't be able
to come back as long as the Germans are here.
They go to the harbor, where they find the waters filled with dead Norwegian marines,
and they discover the ferry isn't available, so they'll have to take the train.
Tofte and his team are currently marching along the train tracks.
The major discovers this section of the bridge was supposed to be blown up but they can't
find the dynamite, so he asks Tofte for help because he used to work for the train station
with his dad before he joined the neutrality watch.
Tofte doesn't know anything about the dynamite and calls his dad for help, Aslak tells him
the location of the dynamite but also warns him there's a train coming and Ingrid and
Ole are in it.
Tofte passes this information to his superiors and requests to blow up the bridge after letting
the train pass, but the major refuses because the entire point is to stop the train from
bringing the ore to German hands.
Suddenly they hear some noises in the tunnel and the soldiers get ready to shoot, but it
turns out they're the civilians that couldn't catch the train because the Germans stopped
it.
Tofte quickly says hi to his family before sending them to hide in the other tunnel,
then he helps his fellow soldiers set up the dynamite, which means he has to climb up the
beams that hold the bridge.
Inside the tunnel, most of the civilians keep moving, but Ole makes her mother stay back
to wait for Tofte.
At that moment, the Germans arrive and open fire, killing various Norwegian soldiers.
The major orders the detonation of the explosives before Tofte can climb down, so he has to
jump and land on the snow before he's hit by the explosion too.
Moments later, the Germans find Ingrid and Ole and since she speaks their language, she's
saved instead of captured.
On her way back to town, Ingrid discovers that the Germans captured a few Norwegian
soldiers as prisoners of war, including Tofte.
When they return to town, Ingrid leaves Ole with Aslak before she's taken to see Fritz,
who requires her help with translation to talk to the mayor again.
Fritz knows the mayor telegraphed someone and wants to know why, thus the mayor explains
he tried to warn the British about the invasion, but he never got to because the Germans caught
him first.
Since Fritz clarifies the British won't come as long as the Germans are here, the mayor
wants to evacuate the remaining civilians, but Fritz won't let him do that either.
The mayor leaves furious and promises to take over the pedestrian tunnel to use as a shelter.
Then Ingrid begins cleaning up and accidentally breaks a glass.
Fritz wonders why she's so nervous, and Ingrid explains she's worried about Tofte, so Fritz
promises he'll see what he can do about it.
Sometime later, Bjorg shows up at Ingrid's home, saying Ross wants tobacco and specifically
asked for her.
Ingrid doesn't want to go, but she accepts when Bjorg points out that she can't do everything
alone.
Ingrid goes to the cabin in the mountains and after she hands in the tobacco, Ross asks
her to spy for them.
At first she refuses, but then Ross implies he will tell the Germans that she's hiding
him, so she has no choice but to accept.
Ross knows his ships are the best, but he needs her to find out how the Germans would
protect the city against a land attack.
The next time Ingrid is serving coffee to Fritz and his men, she pays attention to the
drawer where they put away their maps and plans.
Suddenly an explosion can be heard from the harbor, and Ingrid looks through the window
to discover the British are attacking.
She rushes out of the hotel and meets with Aslak and Ole to hide in a basement with the
rest of the neighbors.
By the time the battle ends, night has fallen.
Ingrid returns to the hotel where she learns that the British sunk all the German ships
but they haven't come ashore yet, she guesses they're waiting for her intel.
She helps take care of the wounded soldiers, and when she sees Fritz, she asks for any
news on Tofte.
Unfortunately Fritz explains things are too tense now to ask for favors regarding the
soldiers the blew up the bridge and ruined things for the Germans.
Since Frit won't help her, Ingrid decides to take advantage of everyone being distracted
to sneak into the office and steal the maps and plans.
Afterward, she takes them to Ross, who makes a copy and makes his assistant send the information
to the British forces.
Ingrid returns to town with the originals and is stopped by the German soldiers on guard,
luckily as a hotel worker she has the papers that allow her to transit freely.
The soldiers let her pass, but when Ingrid is about to enter her home, there's an explosion
in town that pushes her back: the British are already using her intel to attack.
Ingrid's house is now in ruins and she rushes inside to search for her family.
Sadly Aslak has died under the debris, while Ole is alive but heavily wounded.
Four weeks later, the Germans have established an iron ring around Narvik.
French and Polish troops have disembarked to attack from the north and south, but first
the Norwegians must neutralize the German positions in the mountains.
In Roasme, Tofte and the other Norwegian prisoners are being slaved by the Germans to make them
work in the sheer cold, to the point one of them passes out.
It worries Tofte that they may kill them if they don't help, so he makes his friend stand
up again by reminding him Bjorg is waiting for him to return.
The Norwegian soldiers are sent to the trenches and when the French suddenly attack, the Norwegians
are put in charge of the wounded.
Tofte takes the chance to steal some food and overhears others talking about the attack
on Narvik, which sadly allows him to learn that his father is dead.
Tofte wants to know if Ole also died, but everyone gets distracted by the enemy fire,
and the Norwegians take the chance to escape.
The Germans notice this and try to stop them, but at that moment the French get close enough
to kill the captors and rescue the Norwegians.
Tofte is quickly handed a gun and he helps the French kill all the Germans on their way
until they finally get to leave the trenches, then Tofte discovers his old team and his
mayor are there working with the French as well.
He learns they'll eventually return to Narvik, but first they have to finish killing all
the Germans in the area.
One week later, civilians are caught in the crossfire between German positions and British
ships, so they're all staying in the shelters, where Ingrid continues to take care of Ole's
wounds.
One afternoon, Bjorg informs her the Germans are going from door to door looking for the
people that are hiding the English, they're also asking for Ingrid.
After leaving Ole with Bjorg, Ingrid goes to translate for another meeting between Fritz
and the mayor.
Fritz wants to know where Ross is and doesn't believe the mayor when he says he doesn't
know, thus the mayor gets arrested.
At that moment a small explosion hits the side of the hotel, but they ignore it because
it's routine by now.
Fritz invites Ingrid to stay with him in the hotel, but she prefers to be with her son.
Later in the evening, Ingrid is devastated to discover Ole's unconscious and burning
with fever because his wound got infected.
Ingrid immediately takes him to the hotel and asks Fritz for a doctor, but Fritz turns
her request down, explaining the soldiers are their priority.
Desperate, Ingrid offers to tell him Ross' location in exchange for help for her son.
Moments later, a doctor is taking care of Ole's wound, which was infected because a
little piece of metal got caught in it.
Bjorg shows up to warn Ingrid that the Germans caught Ross, but as soon as she sees a doctor
with Ole, she realizes what Ingrid did.
To calm her down, Ingrid assures her she never mentioned her.
Two weeks later, Norwegian and French soldiers attack the Germans in Rombaks Fjord, their
last stop before Narvik.
They think that thanks to Ingrid's intel they'll do fine, but now the Germans are waiting for
them and immediately open fire.
Tofte has to help his friend get to a safe spot, and the group notices they're at a great
disadvantage so they try to leave.
However the major shoots at the sky and threatens to kill anyone that dares behave like a coward.
The key is destroying the cannons, prompting Tofte to take two men and go up the hill through
a hidden road at the back.
After killing the guards, they enter a tunnel, where Germans open fire at them again.
The Norwegians exchanged a few shots before throwing a grenade to kill most of the enemies.
Then they shoot the survivors directly before putting a bomb inside the cannon to destroy
it as well.
Afterward the trio goes back outside to announce the cannon is down, now their team can advance
and finally win the battle.
In Narvik, the Germans begin getting ready to leave and Fritz asks Ingrid to come with
him to Berlin, warning her that the Germans will retaliate later with brutal air raids.
Ingrid turns him down, reminding him she has a husband, causing Fritz to shows her the
prisoners list to reveal their Norwegian slaves were lost in action.
Devastated, Ingrid runs to her son and is found by her boss, who comforts her and gives
her all her pay so she can leave Narvik with Ole.
Meanwhile Norwegian and French soldiers celebrate their victory, which is considered Hitler's
first loss in World War II.
Sometime later, the group finally makes it back to Narvik, and all the citizens receive
them with pride.
Tofte is shocked to see Ingrid isn't there to welcome him too, and when he asks Bjorg,
she explains it's been hard for Ingrid after dealing with the Germans.
Tofte goes to his old house and is hurt to find it in ruins, but inside he's relieved
to see Ingrid and Ole.
The family reunites with hugs and kisses, but Ingrid quickly reminds them they need
to leave.
Tofte demands an explanation, and Ingrid confesses what she had to do to save her child.
She doesn't feel guilty because it was a British grenade that hurt Ole and killed Aslak, but
Tofte is still furious and calls her a traitor since she betrayed the people that protected
the town.
Ingrid reminds him that nobody was here protecting Ole, and when Tofte points out that people
just die during the war, Ingrid says it would've been better if he never came back.
Ingrid tries to leave with Ole alone, but at that moment, German planes begin bombing
the area.
Tofte rushes to drag his wife and kid behind a wall for safety and tells Ingrid this is
her fault.
Some screaming can be heard outside and when Tofte goes to check, he's distressed to discover
his best friend is dead.
The mayor shows up with the rest of the soldiers to discuss new tactics, but Tofte only has
eyes for Ingrid, who is leaving with Ole.
At the harbor, all the citizens are trying to leave on the next boat.
Because they heard rumors about Ingrid's betrayal, they push her out of the way and don't help
her when she falls.
Ingrid begins picking up her things thinking she'll forever be alone, but suddenly a pair
of hands appear to help: it's Tofte, who has quit the mission to be with his family.
Fortunately there are enough fishing boats to take all the civilians away before German
bombers leave the city in ruins.
The recapture of Narvik is considered Hitler's first defeat in World War II, but the victory
was brief.
Without informing Norway, Great Britain and France ordered a full withdrawal.
Norwegian forces were left alone and forced to lay down their weapons.
The battle of Narvik is the largest battle on Norwegian soil.