Justice is best served cold.
At least, that’s what the cast and crew team of “Justice League” (out now) think. Key scenes in the superhero flick were shot in some of Iceland’s bleakest — and most beautiful — corners.
Arresting sights, including glaciers, volcanoes and hot springs in Vatnajökull National Park and the tiny coastal village of Djúpavík, lured the “League” location scouts.
With Superman out of the picture, Batman (Ben Affleck) attempts to honor the superhero’s legacy by rallying together “a team of metahumans” to stop villain Steppenwolf — a horned god dead-set on taking over the world. Iceland’s hauntingly beautiful environment matches the somber intensity of the heroes’ mission.
During the opening scenes, the camera careens over a foreboding landscape blanketed with snow and ice that’s riddled with ragged crevices. Across this barren heath, Batman makes a pilgrimage on horseback to find Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and convince him to join the fight against this new threat to humanity.
Chosen for these montages of Batman’s journey is Fjallsjökull. A valley glacier of Öræfajökull, an ice-covered volcano, Fjallsjökull is located within Vatnajökull National Park. “Justice League” directors Zack Synder andJoss Whedon wanted to capture the vastness of the landscape as well as with the feeling of isolation Batman experiences, executive producer Jim Rowe tells The Post.
In reality, though, the park is a hiker’s paradise in pleasant weather. Spanning 14 percent of the country’s southeastern swath, Vatnajökull’s combination of volcanoes, glaciers and geothermal activity, like steam plumes and hot springs, make for breathtaking sights.
The village of Djúpavík — located in the Westfjords, Iceland’s least populous region — also sets the tone at the beginning of the movie. It’s where, after his cross-country equestrian slog, Batman descends to woo Aquaman.
Here’s how rugged the area is: The municipality of Árneshreppur, where Djúpavík is, has a mere 53 inhabitants. Today six or so residences, tucked into the region’s craggy Strandir coast, serve as bucolic summer homes for Iceland’s city dwellers. (It’s all relative: Reykjavik’s population doesn’t even crack 125,000.)
In 1917, an industrial herring factory rose in Djúpavík; it was subsequently abandoned in the ’40s due to the fish’s plummeting price.
The factory, situated near a small creek by the fjord called Reykjarfjörður, appears in “Justice League” as a key meeting point for Batman and Aquaman. Exterior shots were filmed on location, but the gray concrete interior of the factory was recreated on a soundstage and filmed in the UK.
The otherworldliness of Djúpavík is highlighted in another scene that shows Batman perched an imposing cliff. That takes place on top of a waterfall that overlooks Djúpavík, called Djúpavíkurfoss.
The dramatic vistas meant filming in Iceland was relatively easy. “Here, there was no need for visual effects — just good old-fashioned camerawork and capturing the natural environment,” says Rowe, adding how simple it was to capture the cliff sequence. “We set up three crane cameras, including one strapped onto a helicopter, and shot Ben [Affleck] as his character peered into the tiny village.”
Djúpavík quickly won over Rowe and the rest of the production team when they were searching for places to shoot the Aquaman-Batman scenes. “We wanted alternative locations to the UK … and once we saw the remoteness of this part of Iceland, we found it to be most intriguing and wanted to film here,” he says. “It was our first time, and I would return in a heartbeat. If not with a movie crew, then definitely with my family.”
The owners of Hotel Djúpavík — the only accommodation in town (from $193) — Evu Sigurbjörnsdóttir and Ásbjörn Þorgilsson hosted an intimate cod-fishing trip for Rowe and his crew a few days before filming began, in October 2016. “We caught some fish that day, and they prepared it for us as a meal in the evening,” Rowe says. “Everything was excellent and incredibly fresh.”
During eight days of filming in the village last year, the hotel was converted into a production office, while 200 mobile homes for the cast and crew were set up next door. Rowe says that prepping for the day’s shoots, surrounded by rocky cliffs and a twisting shoreline, was surreal.
Despite the film’s depiction of Djúpavík as a tiny hamlet in the middle of nowhere, there’s plenty of hospitality and adventure to be found there for those willing to make the trek. Sigurbjörnsdóttir and Þorgilsson facilitate activities from mountain walks to kayaking in calm waters for their guests. In the winter, visitors can drive along a scenic narrow roads, taking in views of the Norðurfjörður fjord, to reach the nearby Krossnes pool (a 50-minute drive). There, take a dip in geothermal heated waters that are a soothing 100 degrees year-round.
It’s not just the hot springs. Even in fall and winter, Iceland is appealing to visit. The cast and crew, in fact, filmed on-site during a month when temperatures hovered between 36 ad 45 degrees.
Rowe recalls Momoa’s good spirits — especially his willingness to plunge into the icy waters of the Strandir coast during a scene in which Batman is talking Aquaman into fighting Steppenwolf.
Based on photos Momoa posted on Instagram, the 38-year-old actor (formerly of “Game of Thones”) is clearly captivated by Iceland off the silver screen, too. In a caption, he likened the wildness and quietude of the country to that in his home state of Hawaii — albeit with chillier weather.
The upsides to visiting in colder climes: The country is less packed with tourists and more affordable to access. Round-trip flights from New York this fall and winter start at $900, compared with up to $1,800 in the summer.
Even though daylight hours are relatively brief, temperatures aren’t unreasonably frigid. Thanks to the Gulf Stream, which blows warm water and air across the Atlantic from lower latitudes, the weather is relatively mild. In December, the average low is 28 degrees, while the high is 39 degrees.
If you go
While Reykjavik and its surrounding “golden circle” of waterfalls, hot springs and mountains have been the objects of desire for Instagram-hungry visitors in the last few years, smart travelers are venturing farther afield.
Thanks to low-cost carriers like Wow Air and Norwegian, plus national carrier Icelandair’s layover program on flights to continental Europe, it’s also cheaper than ever to visit the land of the midnight sun (and, in winter, the northern lights).
The southeastern town of Höfn houses Vatnajökull National Park’s visitors’ center. Stop here first for all the information about camping, hiking, road conditions and other vital information before proceeding to the park itself to see the glaciers and other sites. Höfn is a 5 1/2-hour drive from Rekyjavik or a 2 1/2-hour drive from the northeastern city of Egilsstaðir, itself a one-hour flight from Reykjavik via Air Iceland Connect (from $126 one-way).
The Icelandic tourism board recommends renting a car from an agency like Europcar (between $50 and $100 a day), which affords travelers the freedom to explore these regions at their leisure. Just make sure whatever vehicle you book has four-wheel drive and, depending on the time of year, even snow tires.
To get to Djúpavík, take one of Icelandair’s 40-minute puddle-jumper flights (from $103 one-way) from Reykjavik to Ísafjörður, the biggest city in the Westfjords. Then drive on from there.