Until now, the Icelandic-born director’s shift from eccentric character studies (“101 Reyjavik,” “Jar City”) to studio projects suggested his interests had shifted to slick but disposable genre fare (“Contraband,” “2 Guns”).
There are conflicting viewpoints about oxygen use, Anatoli Boukreev (Ingvar Sigurosson, "Jar City") vehemently against it, although an agreement is made to stash oxygen tanks for use during the descent.