Dead Mountaineer's Hotel

Description

Because police received an anonymous call from a secluded hotel in the Alps, Inspector Peter Glebsky (Uldis Pucitis) drives his car down a snow-covered winding road in a difficult journey toward the "Dead Mountaineer's" Hotel. While that sounds a little bit morbid and perhaps does not make this appear to be the ideal vacation retreat, the hotel makes up for it with booze, billiards, a mini-nightclub and the scenery. When Glebsky arrives, he notices hang gliders overhead. Upon entering the hotel, the owner Alex Snewahr (Jüri Järvet) points out that the hotel's name, "Dead Mountaineer's," refers to the fact that a climber perished here after falling from a cliff. He left only his faithful dog. a St. Bernard called Lel, behind. In the hotel there is a rather bleak portrait of the climber near which faithful Lel likes to sleep. Snewahr reports that all is well to his superiors and that perhaps one of his guests may have phoned in the false alarm. With fog rolling in, Glebsky decides to stay the night and Lei carried his bag to Room No. 7. After a shower, Glebsky begins to encounter other hotel guests. First he catches a glimpse of a beautiful woman before meeting a man named Hinckus (Mikk Mikiver) who suffers from tuberculosis. Next is the jittery physicist Simon Simonet (Lembit Peterson). The eccentric Simonet first claims to be "commander of the cyber-forces" but then confesses to actually being a government physicist working on the top secret "Midas Project." He has come there to climb but since there's too much snow to do that, he opts to climb the walls instead. At dinner, Glebsky is introduced to Alex's distant relative Brun (Nijole Ozelyte), who's basically just there loafing and smoking weed along with Olaf Andvarafors (Tiit Härm), the only other guy there under the age of 40. Then there is the attractive and glamorous, though very peculiar-acting Mrs. Proua Moses (Irena Kriauzaite), who's married to the significantly older Mr. Harra Moses (Karlis Sebris). There is also Snewahr's zaftig assistant Kaisa (Kaarin Raid). Their dinner conversation revolves around a debate about the existence of aliens. Later the guests play billiards and drink at the bar. As they exit the billiard room where Olaf has shown off his game playing brilliance, Simonet hands Glebsky a note which he believed the inspector had dropped. Glebsky chats with Alex over a drink and learns that Mr. Moses has claimed to be some kind of "traveling businessman" who just kind of sits back and watches as his wife flirts with anything in pants. Glebsky dances with Mr. Moses. The anonymous note on the floor addressed to Glebsky states that Hinckus is actually a dangerous gangster and homicidal maniac known as "Owl" who is hiding out here and is plotting to murder someone. Glebsky then remembers Hinckus was absent from dinner, and he sees his silhouette still reclining on the roof's deck. When he hurries up top, he finds the fur coat has been packed with snow, and that Hinkus has vanished.Before the inspector can confront Hinckus over the validity of those claims, there's an avalanche. Both the power and the phones lines are knocked out and it will take at least a week for someone to dig out the roads leading there. Olaf is soon found dead in his room. His arm outstretched toward a briefcase and his head rather unnaturally twisted around almost completely backwards. Coinciding with the discovery of the body is the arrival of a mysterious man who just sort of turns up there out of the blue claiming to be a friend of Olaf's. He is Luarvik (Sulev Luik) and proves to be every bit as strange as the other guests when he gains consciousness, claiming that while he knows Olaf though he does not know what he looks like. He seems to be after something in his suitcase, which the inspector has hidden. Luarvik is also pallid, physically weak and needs to sleep a lot. Glebsky begins an investigation and begins locating and questioning the hotel's guests. Though Hinckus would be high up on the suspect list, he is found knocked out and tied up to a bed. Simon is then found delirious and claiming he found and tried to get romantic with Mrs. Moses' corpse, though she is soon found still alive a short time later. Brun seems curiously unperturbed by the murder of Olaf and even jokes around about it. She does reveal that she saw Hinckus in his fur coat in the hall after 10:00 p.m. A strange contraption is found among Olaf's belongings that Simon hypothesizes is either from the military or outer space. When Hinckus is confronted, he tells Glebsky that he was knocked out and tied up by what he observed as himself. At this point, the murder investigation of Olaf comes to a standstill. Glebsky says his only mistake at this point was not sensing the danger he was in. Mr. Moses is incensed that his wife was awakened in about all the events that night and that his wife will be questioned by the inspector. When Glebsky enters the Moses's suite, he learns that Mrs. Moses saw Olaf and Brun hand in hand like lovers in the hallway. Glebsky returns to Brun and tells her that she was the last person to see Olaf alive. Brun intimates the details of how she and Olaf were kissing when the avalanche struck. Alex keeps casually bringing up things like aliens and zombies which Alex claims are "the third state of living organisms". Glebsky falls asleep and dreams he skis off a high ledge. Glebsky is awakened by Lel's discovery of a gun in the snow that was likely thrown from the roof. Glebsky reasons that Hinckus was indeed stalking someone. Luarvik has again regained consciousness. Glebsky tries to question the self-described foreigner but with little success. At one point, Glebsky dismisses Mr. Moses from entering the room. Luarvik wants to talk with Olaf even after Glebsky reveals that Olaf has been murdered. Luarvik seems to be searching for something and Glebsky reasons it is the briefcase he confiscated. Luarvik is relieved that Glebsky has it. Luarvik does not understand the need to answer Glebsky's many questions. Finally, Luarvik is weakened and needs rest. Glebsky begins to conclude that Olaf, Luarvik and Mr. Moses belong to the same gang and do not want that information to be public. Hinckus may have been a rival. Glebsky then states that it may have been a mistake not to associate Moses or Luarvik with Olaf's murder and holding HInckus may be a mistake. He instructs Alex Snewahr to see that everyone is at breakfast the next morning. Dawn breaks. At breakfast, Glebsky tells those gathered that they are cut off from the outside world but he has sent a message to local police by carrier pigeon that a police helicopter would soon arrive as a ploy to see who would react. After breakfast, Glebsky detains Hinckus calling him the Owl. A physical altercation results in Hinckus injuring Glebsky's arm but is knock unconscious by Simonet's pool cue. HInckus eventually confesses that he is a member of a hit squad sent by the Boss to take out "The Master" who pulled a major bank heist but seemed to operate differently than other criminals with his unwillingness to kill hostages. When he completely stopped working with Hinckus's associates, Hinckus was sent to find him. Hinckus insists that a helicopter will soon be arriving and the Boss is coming with three associates to finish the job on Mr. Moses. Glebsky fails to realize there are forces at work in the realm of the supernatural. Simonet explains that Moses is an alien, sent to observe but made the mistake of interacting with humans and he got caught up working with terrorists who robbed the Second National Bank but are now set on killing him. Luarvik is the space ship pilot who is slowly dying. Olaf and Mrs. Moses are their robots, though they are quite human like. They died when the avalanche hit and the power failed by are brought back to life by backup battery supplies. The four are seeking to escape and return to their planet. Upon this revelation, Glebsky struggles to believe what he is observing. He struggles with the mindset created by over 40 years of police work based on reason and logic and accepting possibilities that are far beyond his experience. Ultimately, Glebsky decides that Moses has broken the law in the National Bank heist and should be arrested and taken to trial. Burn and Simonet advocate on behalf of the aliens. Alex and Simon wrestle with the injured Glebsky and a sympathetic Snewahr reclaims the suitcase from its hiding place. Olaf is brought back to life. The quartet of aliens make their break skiing toward the mountains to avoid being hunted by a helicopter that is either gangsters arriving to finish the job, or the government coming to eradicate evidence of an alien encounter. In the mountains the aliens suffer a calamity when they are decimated by rocket releases from the helicopter and killed. The inspector had a chance to do great service to the aliens, but Glebsky behaves like a typical cop, subordinate only to common sense and official instructions which leads to the tragic outcome. He says if they were merely thieves, they got what they deserved, but if they were not of this world, logically there is no reason to care about them. As he explains to the audience in a sepia-toned, on-camera coda, he makes no apologies for how he handled the strange events during his stay, but he does not back down from believing the entire murder plot was tied to something less earthbound. Still, the inspector is plagued by doubts whether he did everything he could. ***

Director By:

Writer By:

Arkadiy Strugatskiy, Boris Strugatskiy

Actors By: