Finally, a movie for the REI set! For all those mountain-climbing aficionados who devoured Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air and similar books (as well as the IMAX film Everest), Vertical Limit attempts to translate man-against-the-mountain adventure into compelling, albeit fictional, drama. And while the climbing action is pretty darn breathtaking, somebody forgot to put the brakes on the cliché machine while penning the screenplay.
Two siblings (Chris O'Donnell and Robin Tunney) are mentally scarred by a climbing accident in which their father died to save them. She becomes a famous mountain climber (catch that Sports Illustrated cover?); he never climbs again, and becomes a National Geographic photographer. She agrees to accompany a shady billionaire (Bill Paxton) up the icy carapace of K2, the world's second highest mountain; he just happens to be 'in the neighborhood' when she starts. After the requisite argument, she sets out, but an avalanche strands her and the billionaire in some kind of underground cavern, and bad weather forbids a daring rescue. It's up to her determined brother to bring her back, along with a ragtag team of rescuers that includes a French-Canadian babe, two wisecracking Aussies, and a crusty old sage (Scott Glenn) who has a few scores to settle.
It's easy to pick out the rest of the story from here (though you probably didn't count on that faulty nitroglycerine, now did you?), but Vertical Limit is less about the hackneyed plot than it is about putting its characters into increasingly dangerous situations and hanging them precariously over various mountainsides. It's a credit to director Martin Campbell (GoldenEye) that the impressive action keeps the film moving along past the bordering-on-absurd plot twists. O'Donnell tosses his mane of fluffy hair admirably, but it's still disheartening to see this once-promising actor turning into a pretty-boy stand-in; only Glenn manages to overcome his character's predictability. Mountaineering enthusiasts will recognize a cameo by world-renowned climber Ed Viesturs, who as an actor proves that he's... a very good mountain climber.
The basic plot revolves around a brother and sister, Peter and Annie Garrett played by Chris O'Donnell and Robin Tunney. In the opening scene Peter cuts his dad loose, high on a desert climb in Utah, while they all dangle from the end of a rope, in one of the most fabricated, fictional incidents that could ever be dreamed up. After you've said 'what the?', several times trying to figure the sequence and system that leads to this tragedy it's plain pretty quickly that this tale resides firmly in fantasy land.
The plot then moves to K2, the world's second highest peak, wherein some rich dude decides to hire the best guides money can buy so he can bag the summit as a marketing ploy. Needless to say the mountain has other plans, and half of them wind up dead, or trapped, including Annie, who now needs brother Peter to come to her rescue.
The scenery is simply stunning, and if you're into explosions you won't be disappointed. People leap out of helicopters with nitroglycerine strapped to their backs – a statement that pretty much sums up the whole film. Numerous people fall off cliffs, have avalanches crush them, disappear down crevasses, and get blown up. The old cut-the-rope-to-save-yourself, concept is pushed into realms of the painfully unconvincing.
Like I said, it's got as much realism as a cartoon, but at least it does have some actual rock & ice climbing scenes even if they look fake, and the backdrop of the mountains are pretty amazing. If you're a non-climber who's into action films you'll possibly quite like it.However, I'd be guessing that most climbers would be pretty disappointed, and would probably enjoy the movie more, out of the few mainstream climbing movies available. Region 1 DVD (USA etc), used in excellent condition.
