This story of a climb of K2 is loosely based on the first American ascent by Jim Wickwire and Lou Reichardt.
Michael Biehn plays a Seattle attorney (Wickwire)who talks his friend, a physics instructor (Matt Craven, based on Reichardt), into joining a party with plans to climb the tallest and least accessible mountain in the world, K-2. Biehn's arrogant character immediately bumps noggins with the tour's leader (Raymond J. Barry) and the latter's strong-willed girlfriend (Patricia Charbonneau).
But when various disasters begin to strike at the group, cooperation ensues, followed by assorted acts of heroism, friendship, and self-sacrifice under almost unimaginable conditions of lethal distress. Based on a play that examined the view on human values from a perch far above the world most of us know, K-2 surrounds that essential drama with extraordinary location footage. Director Franc Roddam (Quadrophenia) succeeds very well at turning a thoughtful piece into a fine action movie--and vice versa. DVD.
K2 is one ofthe few climbing movies to make it into the mainstream. As opposed to the hard to find documentary films, this one is available from just about any local video shop, in the same aisle as Cliff Hanger and Vertical Limit.Unlike those titles, however, K2 is actually almost believable. It’s still pure fiction, full of melodramatic cliché and emotionally charged, fabricated moments where-in it’s stars, Michael Beihn & Matt Craven play characters who test their friendship, and mountaineering skills high on the peak. But at least some of the technical aspects have a certain degree of realism, making the movie watchable, and even quite enjoyable to an audience of climbers.
The plot centres around Michael & Matt’s characters obtaining a place on a team, funded by a billionaire headed up K2, the second highest mountain in the world. About half the movie builds background on the two as a climbing partnership and friendship, before the action moves to the ascent itself. There’s several rock and ice climbing scenes. Including a lead up a steep granite wall, complete with hanging belays, pendulum traverses, and the occasional lead dyno. The bright blue and red tights, and supposedly stirring music remind you that it was probably shot in the late 80’s. The body belays are a nice touch. Most of the drama, however, occurs during the assault on K2, where we see ice climbing leads and hard slogging up fixed ropes, mixed in with the close ups and conversations that build the plot.
You won't be suprised to hear that the scenery is not really that of K2 (Karakoram Peak 2 at 28,250 feet), but in fact various mountainous regions of Canada and Pakistan. The plot touches slightly on issues such as leaving loved ones behind to do something crazy like climbing mountains, and general expedition dynamics though how relistically either topic is protraited is undoubtedly somewhat distored by dramatic flair.
In summary, this is one mainstream climbing video that is actually worth buying and watching with the intention of enjoying it for the drama, action, scenery and climbing. I’m not saying it doesn’t suffer from poetic license and over dramatised incidents, but at least it’s not a complete joke. You won’t see any bolt guns, explosions, computer graphics, or car chases. Nobody cuts a rope letting their comrades fall, nor does anybody leap out of a helicopter, or double dyno, solo 1000m off the deck. Instead the movie is forced to rely on acting skills and an interesting plot. Fortunately, at least in my opinion, it more or less succeeds despite the lack of big name actors, predictable sequence of events and total absence of nitroglycerin. However, bear in mind that to non-climbers this movie will probably seem dull incomparison to Vertical Limit.
