The 12th Man

This is based on the story of Jan Baalsrud (played by Thomas Gullestad), one of twelve Norwegians trained in England and sent back to their country to hamper the Nazi war effort. Jan is the only one who survives an ambush, but now he's got to get the hell out of Norway. Which wouldn't be so bad, since most of the Nazis are convinced he died trying to swim across a fjord in late March. Unfortunately, there's one Gestapo officer (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers), who won't be satisfied until he's got a body.

So it's the Nazis, with their typical tactics of beatings, torture, murder, and intimidation, trying to track down this one, half-frozen guy who got his toe shot off in his initial escape. I lost track of how many times he ended up in near-freezing water. His survival hinges on being able to find people who are willing to help him, and risk reprisals if they're caught. From his perspective, it's a matter of whether he can trust the people he approaches not to turn him in, and whether they can keep him one step ahead of pursuit. 

The latter seems like the greater risk, since the movie does make sure to note Norwegians that are working with the Germans. (At one point, one of the guys protecting Jan asks a countryman in an SS uniform if it was difficult to join, and if he is fully committed to that cause. I think he means it sarcastically, but the guy responds more or less seriously.)

There's a bit of text at the beginning that says all the most fantastic elements are absolutely true. Which I assume includes the repeated exposures to freezing water, the gangrenous toes, being left under a rock on a mountainside to be picked up by the next set of helpful people, except those people went to the wrong goddamn mountain. It's almost too much for me to believe how they got him across the border into Sweden, but I guess it's true.

Gullestad plays Jan with an increasingly desperate air. Initially he's in fairly good cheer, manages to take the ups and downs well, but that wears off as the story progresses. He knows the longer he's in Norway, the more likely he is to be caught. He gets scared, gets angry when he wakes up to learn they didn't get him across the border the first time because of a storm. It feels believable. Just the fact he made it that far is incredible, you can't really blame him for feeling like he's at the end of his tether.