By Steven Hartman · December 18, 2023
Cold weather. Snow. But not quite Christmas. Are you looking for some of the best winter movies that leave actors and film crews shivering for the sake of a great take? Or do you have an idea for a great wintertime narrative but want to gather some inspiration?
Check out this script collection of cold weather movies, from drama to thriller to comedy, that will help you beat the wintertime blues. Download the scripts for some great reading to see how writers incorporated the season into their stories.
The smash hit that inspired sequels, a musical, and countless sales of toys and dresses centers around two orphaned princesses (because Disney kills off parents in every movie!) who have spent their childhood apart. Elsa is secluded from everyone due to her inability to control her freezing powers and Anna wistfully roams the castle trying to present a sunny disposition but longing for a relationship with her sister. On coronation day, Anna falls immediately in love with a prince and Elsa is displeased by the quick courting. This leads to a fight that reveals Elsa’s secret powers leaving the kingdom of Arendelle in a frozen landscape.
Is this a winter movie? Or does Elsa just unleash a never-ending winter onto the kingdom? I believe it’s a winter movie, and if you disagree, we’ll just have to Let It Go.
A well-crafted, brilliant film about a writer’s descent into insanity is filled with several familiar lines to people who have never even seen this winter movie. Jack (Jack Nicholson) along with his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd) spend the winter as caretakers of a summer resort shut down for the season. Jack wants to use this opportunity to write his great American novel but the spirits of the hotel are making it impossible.
Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece presents a good wintertime scare and shows how you can use weather to trap your characters in a single location, whether you’re writing a holiday rom-com or the next haunted house film.
Every writer wants people to love their work. But Misery, the second Stephen King story in this script collection highlights the downside of fame. Annie (Kathy Bates) is obsessed with her favorite writer’s character to the point that she kidnaps him after a car accident, nurses him back to health, and insists, sometimes violently, that he writes the next book in his Misery series. This Stephen King classic is not only a great wintertime thriller but it also shows, along with The Shining, how you can build high stakes and lots of tension with minimal locations and characters.
It’s definitely a winter movie that will chill you to the core.
Considered one of the best comedies of all time, Groundhog Day is not only a classic but it has inspired other films with similar concepts of reliving the same day over and over. The film follows narcissistic weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) as he heads to the small town of Punxsutawney to cover the famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, as he pops out on Groundhog’s Day and provides the weather forecast for the rest of winter. Phil (the weatherman) suddenly finds himself trapped in a town he doesn’t care for and repeats the day he despises the most.
It’s a story with a lot of undertones and philosophies, comedy and drama, and gives a unique look at constructing a complicated narrative.
This Oscar-winning film showed why we’re scared of bears…and camping…and the 1820s. Hunters set out on a fur trading expedition which is fraught with danger and peril. Leonardo DiCaprio, in his Oscar-winning performance as Hugh, is mauled by a bear and left for dead. His supposed BFF is responsible for abandoning him thinking that Hugh will die from his wounds. But that’s not the case and now Hugh uses his skills, will to survive, and motivation for vengeance to find his way back to the party.
This winter movie looks cold and is definitely an achievement in filmmaking so take a look at the script and see how writers Mark L. Smith and Alejandro Iñárritu crafted this screenplay from Michael Punke’s 2002 novel.
While the Coen Brothers made films that broke through to mainstream audiences prior to Fargo, it was this Oscar-winning film that really made them a household name. Wintertime in Minnesota and North Dakota can be cruel but not as brutal as a pair of criminals who turn the kidnapping of a car salesman’s wife into something far more sinister. The Coen Brothers fill their movies with seemingly bumbling people who think they are far smarter than they are (like the criminals) and those who may appear a little dense into simple and sharp characters (like the police officer) — Fargo is no exception.
During the indie heyday of the mid-1990s, Fargo shined as a unique voice in cinemas garnering an Oscar win for the writers and Best Actress in a Leading Role for Frances McDormand.
Snowpiercer is a lot like Frozen in that its story centers around a perpetual winter. Actually, that’s probably where the similarities end. Snowpiercer is about a train that circumnavigates the globe nonstop with the world’s remaining population on board after a failed climate-altering experiment. It’s a sci-fi story focusing on class systems and the struggles between the haves and the have-nots. On the eve of a revolution on the Snowpiercer, the leader of a group of lower-class citizens is determined to turn the bleak winter into something more sunnier.
What happens when three people suddenly find millions of dollars in a crashed airplane? For these folks, a married couple and the husband’s brother, life’s a matter of living paycheck to paycheck and eager to catch a break. They want to keep the money hidden from authorities and those who might want to claim the lost catch. But in doing so, the seeds of mistrust are planted as each has their idea of how to spend, save, or hide it. When the FBI shows up looking for the missing plane and the money, things get tense and soon this simple plan becomes complex and dangerous.
This rural winter movie is from Sam Raimi who tones down his unique filmmaking style to bring a hauntingly suspenseful tale. A Simple Plan was written by Scott B. Smith who was nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.
What if you had a hot tub that turns into a time machine so you can go back to experience one of the best nights of your life? As silly as it sounds, the plot of Hot Tub Time Machine, which sells itself just by the title like Snakes on a Plane does, works with a solid cast and a funny script by Josh Heald (based on his story) and Sean Anders & John Morris and was directed by constant John Cusack collaborator Steve Pink. Three down-on-their-luck friends head to a ski resort to relive their glory days only to be sent back in time to a fateful night in the 1980s to literally relive it one more time. Were things as great as they seemed, or was it all just a distant past looked through by rosy lenses?
Chill out this winter to a seasonal classic and read the script to see how the filmmakers turned the words on the page to what you see on the screen.
Read More: Are These Christmas Movies?
Steven Hartman · December 11, 2023
Ken Miyamoto from ScreenCraft · January 1, 2024
Steven Hartman · December 25, 2023
Steven Hartman · December 11, 2023
Ken Miyamoto from ScreenCraft · December 4, 2023
