Ok, I’ll tell you now, this is either a film that you will love, or quite like. Vertical limit is one of those fast paced, all action films with a love story thrown in to complement all the action. However, in this film, the love story isn’t your typical love story and is the story of the very tested love between a sister and brother.
Vertical limit is set (as you might have guessed already) in a scenic mountain range, but most of the film takes place on the top of K2, although I wouldn’t personally know the difference between K2 and any other mountain, it was just snow and rock, so it could have been any mountain for all my little brain would have known! The film is said to be a bit like Cliffhanger, how true this is or not I do not know as I have never had the pleasure of watching cliff hanger as yet!
One of the first things you will notice when you are watching this film is the lack of ‘feeling’ that the characters are actually where the are supposed to be, i.e. on the side of a mountain. It just looked so unreal to me, what with all of the camera shots. The problem was, you could tell pretty easily that the background was a backdrop, a bit like on Neighbours when they open their front doors and you can see that hazy painting of a street behind it! Forgive the film for this, and the unrealism only lasts for the first half hour of the film. Just wait until your viewing the helicopter scene! That looks highly unreal! But ahh well, I don’t spose we can’t have it all can we! However, I do have to say that the type of things that do happen in this film can very very easily happen to mountaineers in real life, so it’s one to bear in mind when viewing it.
It was made with a budget of $75m, and I do actually fail to see where most of this money went. I’ve already told you about the lack of realism, so it wasn’t spent there. The crew must have been either very highly paid, or they used to many stuntmen! Unlike the last film I reviewed, Enemy of the Gates, I don’t see why they needed this much to make this film, but there we go. For any of you that are interested, the film did do pretty well at the box office taking $68.5m in the US and £6.28m in the UK.
Talking about the first half hour of the film, when viewing it, I wondered what I was watching. I had been told this was all action and I did actually get prepared to be pretty bored and pulled the video remote even closer so I had easy access to the stop button (yes, I am so lazy!). However, give it a wide berth as everything that happens in the first half an hour is vital to the rest of the film and will build up some sort of relationship with the characters in the film.
The film opens with a scene showing a father (Stuart Wilson), his Daughter Annie (Robin Tunney) and his Son Peter (Chris O’donnel) climbing up the side of a mountain, all enjoying themselves but all equally being pretty careful. That is until one of the mountaineers above them drops his rucksack, narrowly missing Annie. She thinks she’s ok, until he drops too. As the 3 of them are all roped together for safety, the falling mountaineer hits 2 of them which takes the 3 of them down. No problem, the 3 of them are now hanging off the side of the mountain, but they are all together. That’s what you think anyway, until they realise that the bolt type things that are holding them are not strong enough and they start to pull themselves out of the rock. They are on their last bolt, so the dad tells Peter to cut the rope which will let the dad fall to his death, the way he say’s it is that 1 person dying is better than 3. The real meaning is that the father loves his children so much that he doesn’t want them hurt. Peter now has a huge decision to make, does he cut the rope or not? His dad persuades him by telling him that if he doesn’t cut the rope, he’s not only killing his dad, but he’s also killing his little sister. Peter doe’s it, and the ropes cut.
Peter and Annie both go their own way from here, but were fast forwarded in time where they meet up again. Peter has found out that Annie has been asked to attempt a climb up K2 which is sponsored by Sekonda with a couple of other mountaineers. It’s essentially a business venture, but Peter doesn’t want Annie to have anything to do with it really, so he goes to try and tell her not to do it. However, she’s determined to do it, if not for her, then for her dad who would be extremely proud of her. Peter sees this and lets her go, but always keeping a watch on her from down in the control tent.
The mountaineer she is climbing with has attempted this before with another team, but he was the only one found alive. He doesn’t really care about anything but his business and what the climb will do for it. We soon find out that a severe storm is brewing. Peter wants Annie down, but theres a lot of people in the control tent who are only concerned about business aswell, so he finds himself radioing Annie to tell her of the storm. However, Elliot (Bill Paxton) won’t let them turn around and go back as he say’s the storm will change direction. Hence, they carry on. The storm gets up, but Elliot still wants to continue. That is until they fall down into a cave as it was covered by snow. This is where the action really picks up and where the film comes into it’s own. Peter knows he has to rescue Annie. After what happened to his dad, he’s not going to let the same happen to Annie, so he goes on a rescue mission.
This is all I’m going to tell you. As always, I don’t like to ruin a film for you, so if this has wet your whistle so to say, you’ll have to give the movie a watch!
The actual film is very good, after the first half hour. It’s pretty tense, especially with what happens between the 3 mountaineers. It’s a typical action film in a way, but it’s good, and I like it. The film has some good moments in it, but the film also has some moments where you think ‘oh come on, that’s so obvious, we knew you were going to do that’. It’s a film where you just know how it is going to end, but you keep watching it anyway just so that you can see it!
The soundtrack isn’t all that good really to tell you the truth, that’s from what I can remember of it anyway. It again is one of those films that doesn’t have any song’s in it, just music in parts of the film and the soundtrack resembles this with all the tracks on it listed as parts of the film i.e. ‘the avalanche’ (oh drat, now you know there is going to be an avalanche….ahhh, but just how many!?)
This film is a no brainer. It’s one where you can sit back, enjoy the ride and the pack of Doritos to go with it. It’s a film that my girlfriend would start criticising afterwards, knowing full well that she liked it, but it just didn’t do enough to stimulate her (her mind that is!). For me however, who after the first hint of stimulation cant handle it for more than a couple of seconds, the film was a good show. If you like things such as The Mummy and Gone in 60 Seconds, i.e. relaxation movies, then this is one for you to pick!