re: "...also interesting to note how much differenc studs make...."

Don't get me wrong -- I'm an enthusiastic stud user, and I've had them since the early 1970's on all my snow tires -- and back when everyone thought I was crazy putting 4 snow tires on my cars. And I've used Nokian tires (actually starting when it was still Nokia) for almost all this period, the NR-09s in the early '80s, the Hakka's later, and currently the Hakka-2.

But there are conditions when studs (and sipings, too) don't help, and that film depicted one of them. Studs only work when they can "scratch" against a sheet of ice, or sipings against a paved surface -- but no such hard ice was visible. It was all deep, packed snow -- and with this, deep blocks that retain packed snow in them* grip best.

( * it used to be thought that self-cleaning treads -- those they quickly shed the snow to expose empty cleats in the next revolution -- was best, but now it's been learned that the best traction on snow is presented by a tire coated with snow, so you want a tread that holds a layer of snow on the tire.)