Hey folks, Harry here... Since Moriarty and I saw the ShoWest trailer for VERTICAL LIMIT, I've wanted to see the film. I'm a huge fan of the 'mountain movie'. To me, there is a majesty to mountains and the low hanging clouds that I adore on the silver screen... and it seems that our fella flicka... I mean Flint grooved and slinked his way in to see this latest climber. His verdict is Quite Quite positive. Read and await...
Hey, Harry... I wanna tell you about a movie I saw last Friday over at Sony Studios. It's amovie called VERTICAL LIMIT and to use one word to describe it, the word isAWESOME. There hasn't been a whole lot of buzz on this movie, only a trailer I saw in the theaters a couple of times which looked pretty good, but I couldn’t get much of a sense of it except it just looked like another CLIFFHANGER. All that's gonna’ change when a movie opens, because it kicks ass like nothing you’ve seen before.
The screening I managed to get into was the first ever showing of the finished print of the film. The movie is locked and the version I saw is the one that will be released. The reason I know all this is because the director of the movie, Martin Campbell, introduced the film and said so. I consider him to be a reliable source. He seemed like a cool guy.
In fact, the reason I snuck into this particular screening was because of Martin Campbell. I'm a really big fan. His direction of GOLDENEYE is the whole reason the Bond franchise got revived in the first place, in my opinion. And like a lot of people on this site, I really loved THE MASK OF ZORRO.
There were about 300 or 400 people in attendance at the screening in the studio’s big Cary Grant Theatre. Some of the members of the cast were there as well as a lot of executives, friends of the filmmakers and people like Dean Devlin, whom I recognized.
Being a fan of Martin Campbell's, I kept an open mind about the movie because it deals with mountain climbing, which isn't anything I'm into. Plus, I'd already seen CLIFFHANGER and THE EIGER SANCTION and figured there's only so many things you can do action wise dangling from mountain peaks.
One other drawback, the movie stars Chris O'Donnell who ain't no action star... but you gotta remember neither was Bruce Willis beforeDIE HARD.
In VERTICAL LIMIT, O'Donnell plays a guy who was taught mountain climbing by his father, a professional climber. You're given the sense that it's more a family thing than a macho thing, which works not only for O'Donnell's character, but also for the sort of actor he is. He’s the nice, sensitive sort going along with his old man’s wishes.
In an opening that will remind everybody of CLIFFHANGER, a horrible accident happens involving O'Donnell's father. Now, this may sound like a spoiler but it's not. Part of the cool thing about this movie is how many unexpected things happen, and I ain’t gonna be the one to blow it for everybody else.
Needless to say, O'Donnell's father dies... but it's how he dies that is the key. Without giving anything away, O'Donnell's character is shattered and gives up climbing, but not thinking about his father, as well as blaming himself for what went down. (Namely, his old man was what went down… and some people looked away when he literally hit rock bottom.)
O'Donnell has a sister who is played by Robin Tunney. Dealing with his grief, O'Donnell has sworn off climbing while his sister goes the other extreme: becoming the top female climber in the world. She and her brother are on bad terms. Tunney’s character had something to prove and has proven it, yet keeps pushing herself. She feels ashamed of O’Donnell, and still hasn’t forgiven him for the choices he made.
Sponsored by a magazine like National Geographic, Tunney’s character is part of a team that will be attempting to scale the ultimate climb: the K2 itself. Heading up the group is Bill Paxton; another professional mountain climber with something to prove as well. Paxton attempted to climb the K2 some years before, but his team met with tragic consequences that have become legendary.
They embark on their journey and are soon hit by an unexpected pocket storm from the east. It’s debated whether they wait it out or scratch the whole thing. Along for the climb is a character played by a dude from THE X-FILES, Nicholas Lea, who advises the team to turn back. While arguing the point, a crevasse opens up and some members of the team fall in as the ice shifts hurriedly above them. The survivors are now enclosed in a constantly shifting cavern without food and only some water as well as scant medical supplies. All their injuries are serious and the lot of them are technically as good as dead.
They’re still able to make faint radio contact with their base camp, using Morse code. Upon hearing word that his sister is trapped with only a few days to live, O'Donnell forces himself to overcome his shame and fear and embarks on a rescue mission that everyone describes as impossible. Besides the elements, there isn’t enough time to reach the survivors before they succumb.
A reward is offered to anyone that will assist O'Donnell,the money comes from the magazine that funded the climb. The reward is as steep as the mountain: $1million to any climber that makes it back alive.
Needless to say, a handful of climbers are willing to take the risk... which is made even more hazardous by the fact that they have to carry nitroglycerin along with them, in order to free the people trapped under the ice.
Rest assured, I haven't given anything away from this movie. That's about the first 20 minutes I just told you. O'Donnell and his team now go on a suicide mission that makes William Friedkin’s SORCERER seem like a Griswold family vacation.
Martin Campbell stages and choreographs some of the greatest action scenes you'll ever see in your lifetime in VERTICAL LIMIT. They are terrifying. The tension in the theater was clear during these moments as people literally gripped the seats.
There's a sequence where a helicopter drops the climbers onto the mountain ledge in the midst of a storm that is the ultimate white knuckle ride of all-time, especially when the fierce winds start whipping the chopper around... sending its blades almost inches away from the climbers trying to huddle against the rocks. When that scene was over, you could hear the audience let out a collective sigh of relief.
However, the movie was only beginning.
Unlike CLIFFHANGER, or RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK for that manner, the reason VERTICAL LIMIT works so well is because O'Donnell and the other climbers are not superheroes. They are all too human. They get injured, they get scared and in the best Irwin Allen tradition... they all don't make. You grow to care about these people, which only adds to the suspense as you watch and worry, wondering who will survive.
An actress from the movie GOLDENEYE is in VERTICAL LIMIT and I almost didn't recognize her because she has different hair color and is also playing a much different character: Isabella Scorupco (I checked the spelling from my GOLDENEYE video box) plays a nurse that goes along with the team. Unlike other movies that cast a babe that looks like her, she's totally believable in the role. Thanks to her European background, as well as her strong acting,she's totally credible scaling the Alps. She is the big surprise in this movie, and handles the action stuff so well that you hope to see her starring in her own kick ass flick next.
Besides Nicolas Lea, there's another genre face you'll recognize in the cast: Alexander Siddig, who portrays one of the climbers on the rescue mission. If you liked him on Deep Space Nine, you’ll like him in this… and if you didn't like him on Deep Space Nine, you'll like him in this. I was really impressed by the guy.
I'm sure you're wondering how Chris O'Donnell does in the movie. He's a pretty boy, sure and he was also part of what Joel Schumacher did to BATMAN and it's easy to hold him accountable for those crimes. Well, he gets to redeem himself under Martin Campbell's direction. O'Donnell is great because you believe he would do anything to rescue his sister and you also believe that he might not be able to do it. He's underestimated by the other climbers and even gives into his emotions on a few occasions and makes mistakes... but his character is smart enough to know that he's going to need some serious help on his mission, which is why he enlists Scott Glenn.
Scott Glenn is the character I liked best in VERTICAL LIMIT,and everyone else will too. He plays a long retired mountain climber that many regard as half crazy. Due to frostbite, half his toes are missing on one foot. He's cynical in the best movie sense, and feels that those who went up on the mountain got what they deserved... but something draws him out to help O'Donnell, and it's not the money. You'll be surprised by the plot twist. I've never really given Scott Glenn much thought as an actor, but I think he’ll have a real cult following thanks to this character which is kind of a mix of Obie Wan Kenobi, the way everyone think he’s nuts, and Caine from Kung Fu.
Make no mistake; the star of VERTICAL LIMIT is Martin Campbell. He pushed himself to the brink and also did the same for the audience. I've never seen a crowd worked over like this. Obviously when people are carrying nitroglycerin in a movie, the odds are good there will be an accident. When and who it happens to in the movie is a surprise, and when it does I leaped half out of my chair. The last time an audience screamed that loud and jumped was when Carrie’s hand came up from out of the grave and grabbed Amy Irving.
The score by James Newton Howard is also superb and unlike other action movie soundtracks, it never calls attention to itself. Just supports the stuff on the screen.
VERTICAL LIMIT will probably get many technical Oscar nominations for its cinematography and brilliant editing, but it is Martin Campbell who is the biggest hero on the screen and off. He has made a classic action adventure film that trusts the audience’s intelligence while still putting them through two of the most nerve racking hours you'll ever spend in a theater. I can't wait to see it again with a paying crowd that will go crazy.
Martin Campbell is the man. VERTICAL LIMIT is the movie.
Your man,
Derek Flint
