Vertical Limit

I love climbing books. I love climbing movies. Therefore, I was thrilled when this movie came out. It is an action packed, edge of your seat, high altitude climbing film. No doubt about it. There is even a cameo appearance by mountaineer Ed Viesters. The only real problem with the film is the plot. It is downright unbelievable, at times. If, however, you can suspend disbelief, you will still enjoy this film. I know that I did.

The film revolves around a brother and sister, played by Chris O'Donnell and Robin Tunney, who are estranged following the death of their father while climbing. His death scene is a real nail biter, as it deals with a situation that a climber hopes never occurs. Three years later, the sister is climbing professionally, while the brother has retired from climbing and is, instead, working as a photographer for National Geographic.

He and his sister inadvertently meet up on K2, the second highest peak in the world and probably the most perilous to climb, while he is on assignment for National Geographic, and she is there to climb. The sister is set to climb K2 as part of the climbing team put together by a millionaire played by Bill Paxton. For him, K2 is a trophy mountain, and he plans to climb it with the intention of reaching the summit just as the inaugural flight of the airline he owns is flying overhead. He has put together an ace team, but, alas, K2 has a mind of its own.

While climbing, they are overtaken by a storm, after the millionaire disregards his lead climber's warning that the team should turn back. The sister ends up falling into a crevasse. An avalanche kills off the rest of the team, except for the lead climber and the millionaire, who join the sister in the crevasse. Hypoxic and injured, they maintain radio contact with base camp and let them know of their predicament.

The brother now steps up to home plate. Organizing a six person, rescue team led by a stereotypic mountain man, wonderfully played by Scott Glenn in a standout performance, the brother sets out to rescue his baby sister, and the fun begins. The climbers each set out with a canister of nitroglycerine, as they plan to set off the nitroglycerine in order to get the three surviving climbers out of the crevasse which has been covered over by the avalanche. This is a totally absurd plan of action, and it is unfortunate that the screenwriter could not come up with something more plausible.

So, instead, give yourself over to the dazzling mountain views, the stunning, hair raising, mountains madness, and try to ignore the silly plot. Anyone who knows anything about mountains would know that setting off explosives on snow packed slopes is tantamount to an open invitation to avalanche, something no climber wants. Notwithstanding this, get set for an action packed adventure. Despite the silly plot, it is an otherwise entertaining and enjoyable film.

If the crunch of crampons on ice is in your blood, if you love the idea of an ice axe saving you from a fall thousands of feet off a cliff, if the idea of a cornice breaking off, while you are standing on it, is a challenge to your climbing skills, then this is definitely the movie for you. If the words avalanche, hypoxia, and pulmonary edema are all in your everyday vocabulary, then you, too, will enjoy this film. If you just like action packed adventure, make sure you also see this film. I am sure that you will enjoy it.

The DVD itself is an excellent value. It comes laden with a number of special features, including a National Geographic special on K2, featuring Jim Wickwire and Rick Ridgeway who, in 1978, along with Lou Reichardt and John Roskelley, were the first Americans ever to reach the summit of K2. The DVD also shows you how some of the stunts in the film were done. All in all, this DVD is well worth buying, and the film is well worth watching

"Vertical Limit" fosters comparisons to "Cliffhanger" because they both start out the same way as the hero, Chris O'Donell as Peter Garrett this time around, faces a fatal mountain climbing accident which makes him swear off such nonsense until circumstances force him to conquer his demons and a bigger, badder mountain. The mountain in question is K2 and the person he needs to rescue is his estranged sister, Annie (Robin Tunney), who is actually trapped INSIDE the mountain. This twist is necessary to justify carting volatile nitroglycerine around the mountain for a series of spectacular explosions. But then everybody with a brain in their head has refused to join in the rescue attempt, leaving it to Peter to take a couple of drunken Aussies who do it because everyone else is too chicken, (Steve Le Marquand and Ben Mendelsohn), the sherpa who is doing it because his cousin is one of those missing on the mountain, (Alexander Siddig), a French-Canadian babe who is doing it for the money (Izabella Scorupco), and the legendary half-crazed mountain climber who has a score to settle with someone (Scott Glenn). Ultimately "Vertical Limit" is a film where the computer generated special effects overwhelm the cartoon characters, because there really is no reason to care for most of these fools. The visuals are stunning, the sound track loud, and the melodrama moronic. I would have thought that mountain climbing could be exciting enough without throwing a "Perils of Pauline" plot into the mix, but I guess I was wrong. Bill Paxton's billionaire Elliot Vaugh is the obvious villain in the piece, badgering exprienced climbers into going against their better judgments and continuing climbing K2 as a publicity stunt for his new airline. But in the end O'Donnell's character is no better since he insists on a rescue attempt that ends up killing way more people than it saves. Ask him why he climbed the mountain and he will tell you: "Because it was in the script."

Very good movie plenty of dramatic action, and a very good quality picture.The superbit version has the same quality picture as the standard version, more the dts sound.It,s better buy the superbit.