Year:
2000
Studio:
Columbia Pictures
Movie:
3/5
DVD:
3/5
Vertical Limit is
a mountain climbing movie shot mostly on location on a New Zealand
mountain, giving the movie very realistic look to it. The premise is
relatively simple. Peter (Chris O'Donnell) and Annie Garrett (Robin
Tunney) are siblings and good mountain climbers. Both are on K2 for
different expeditions, Peter for National Geographics and Annie for
private businessman Elliot Vaughn (Bill Paxton).
Annie's party is hit by an avalanche and the survivors are stuck in
deep crevice. They are above the "vertical limit" with little water, so
they only have about 36 hours to live. The vertical limit is the
altitude at which there is not enough oxygen to survive. The body
slowly dies and without water you develop pulmonary or cebrebral edema
(water in the lungs or brain). You literally drown or your brain is
crushed.
So Peter has to go up there to save Annie. It's going to dangerous and
probably suicidal, especially because the team needs to take unstable
nitroglycerin in order to blast their way to the stranded party. But he
gets five people to join him: Montgomery Wick (Scott Glen), legendary
mountain climber but a bit eccentric; Monique Aubertine (Izabella
Scorupco), a feisty French-Canadian mountain climber; Cyril (Steve L
Marquand) and Malcolm (Ben Mendelsohn) Bench, California-tude mountain
climbing brothers; and Kareem Nazir (Alexander Siddig -- Dr Bashir on
ST:DS9), local native who wants to find his cousin.
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They split up
into three teams with three charges of Nitro and naturally mishaps
occur and people blow up and die. But the movie is going to end more or
less predictably rescuing the one survivor that really matters. It's a
mountain climbing action movie with nice scenery.
The DVD has a commentary track with director Martin Campbell. There are
about 40 minutes of mountain climbing and behind-the-scenes
featurettes. There is a 15-minute National Geographics special on
mountain climbing. I think that was it.
What I liked: great location and scenery.
What I didn't like: the get-off-the-helicopter scene looks and is fake.
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