I always wondered about the life of IR outside the freezer. I just processed my last roll of HIE. It was expired in 2001. The first go-round, I went on a trip a couple summers ago with it loaded in an SLR. I loaded it in the dark, and didn't realize until about 15 frames into it that the leader did not reach the take-up spool. Unloaded it in the dark, reloaded it in the contax. Again, it didn't go on the take-up spool. Hit the rewind, not realizing I forgot to code it to leave the leader out.
Later, went in the darkroom and opened the cannister, the film spooled out on the floor (which I sweep about annually). Rewound the spool and put it in a plastic cannister and back into the freezer for a couple years. Pulled it out last month for a trip, finally got it on the take-up spool, shot the roll and developed, and the negatives look pretty normal to me (i.e., all over the place).
Gee, digital would be soooo: boring