Mads Mikkelsen has played a cannibal, a Bond villain, and a wizard with a drinking problem. Now, in The Last Viking comedy, he gets to play a guy who just got out of prison and immediately starts digging. It’s the most Mikkelsen role imaginable—intense, slightly unhinged, and somehow still charming while committing crimes.
The Last Viking comedy follows two siblings, Anker and Mikkel, played by Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Mikkelsen respectively. Anker has just finished a fifteen-year sentence for robbery, and the money from the heist was buried somewhere that everyone apparently forgot about. The brothers embark on a quest to find this lost fortune, which leads them through increasingly absurd situations involving family dysfunction, criminal underworlds, and the general incompetence that defines Danish black comedy.
What makes The Last Viking comedy work is the chemistry between Kaas and Mikkelsen, who have worked together multiple times before and have developed the kind of shorthand that only comes from genuine friendship. They bicker like real siblings, support each other like real siblings, and occasionally try to kill each other like real siblings. It’s the heart of the film, grounding the criminal caper in emotional reality.
The Last Viking comedy is directed by Anders Thomas Jensen, who specializes in this particular brand of Nordic darkness—films where terrible things happen to decent people who probably deserve it. Jensen’s previous work includes Riders of Justice and Men & Chicken, both of which blend violence with unexpected tenderness. The Last Viking comedy appears to continue this tradition, finding humor in desperation and humanity in criminals.
The trailer reveals a film that doesn’t take itself seriously, even when its characters are facing genuine danger. There’s a sequence involving a coffin that has to be seen to be believed, and a running gag about the brothers’ inability to use modern technology that feels painfully relatable. Mikkelsen, who can intimidate with a single glance, here gets to be the slightly more grounded of the two siblings—a reversal that generates its own comedy.
Danish cinema has a long tradition of finding humor in bleak situations, and The Last Viking comedy fits neatly into that lineage. It’s not quite a heist film, not quite a family drama, not quite a road movie. It’s all of these things simultaneously, filtered through Jensen’s peculiar sensibility and elevated by two performances that remind you why Scandinavian actors keep getting hired for American blockbusters.
The title itself is ironic—there’s nothing particularly viking about these brothers except their stubbornness and their willingness to resort to violence when cornered. They’re modern Danes trying to solve a problem from fifteen years ago, using methods that haven’t been updated since the robbery itself. The Last Viking comedy suggests that the warrior spirit isn’t about raiding foreign shores; it’s about refusing to give up on a bad idea.
For Mikkelsen fans, The Last Viking comedy offers a rare chance to see him in full comedic mode. He’s not the Hannibal Lecter-esque figure who eats your liver with fava beans. He’s a guy who can’t remember where he buried the money, arguing with his brother about whether they should dig clockwise or counterclockwise. It’s a performance that requires the same intensity he brings to dramatic roles, just pointed in a different direction.
Dig in—see The Last Viking comedy in theaters and on digital May 29, and watch Mads Mikkelsen search for treasure he definitely buried somewhere.
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