The film's source material is the manhunt for , a mysterious fugitive in Northern Canada.
: In 1931, Johnson allegedly interfered with local trappers' lines in the Northwest Territories. When the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrived to question him, he shot and wounded a constable through his cabin door. Death Hunt
: This was the first Canadian manhunt to utilize airplanes (a Bristol open-cockpit bi-plane) to track a fugitive from the air. The film's source material is the manhunt for
Directed by Peter Hunt, this action-thriller reimagines the manhunt as a tale of rugged individualism versus a corrupt community. Death Hunt