What Happens in The Great Alaskan Race?
The complete story of The Great Alaskan Race, from the first scene to the last, in 286 words (about 1 minute). Spoilers throughout.
Spoilers ahead
The film opens in 1917 Alaska with Leonhard Seppala winning the Sweepstakes Race for the third time in a row. Things change for Leonhard when his wife Kiana dies after giving birth to their daughter Sigrid, leaving everything up to him.
In 1925, in Nome, Alaska a child begins to cough during a ceremony in the village church. This passes without being noticed by Dr. Welch, but when other children start coughing as well, he realizes something is wrong and decides to visit some of them. When he realizes it’s diphtheria, he immediately looks for the antitoxin, but in vain. Welch then decides to warn the mayor of the town and so a quarantine is triggered for the town.
All the neighboring towns try to send the serum to Nome, but the snowstorm prevents the planes from flying and the frozen sea does not allow the ships to leave. The mayor then calls all the mushers and tells them that in Nenana, the nearest town to Nome, they have the serum but that it will be necessary to create a transfer with which to get the antitoxin. Seppala initially doesn’t want to leave, because Sigrid has only him in the world, but then Constance, one of the nurses at the hospital and a very important figure for Sigrid, convinces him to leave.
After an extreme effort, the antitoxin finally reaches Nome, but Leonhard has no more strength and is about to die. In a dream, he has a vision of Kiana who tells him not to give up and to return to his daughter. Leonhard wakes up in his bed at home, ready to start living his life again and spend it with Sigrid and Constance.
