MOVIE: FALL
- CrimpyJug
- Apr 2
- 2 min read
Trigger warnings and spoilers in this review of Fall (2022): violence, death-falls, blood, and gear used so badly we shouted at the screen.
We love movies with climbing! Keep making 'em!
The best things about Fall are:
· Two women as the main characters. Virginia Gardner (Hunter) and Grace Fulton (Becky) did their own stunts. The film dynos over the Bechdel test.
· Fall’s thriller qualities. My palms and feet were sweating. I’m sweating just thinking about Fall.
· How they made it.
But…why take a rope and wear harnesses if you’re not going to clip to anything ever!?
The first scene is nice cliff (Shadow Mountains, Mojave Desert?). I was hopeful. But then it looks kind of like free solo but Dan’s placing gear, and then they seem to be attached to both ends of the rope but not belaying... and Becky dynos and Dan catches her a hug on a cliff.
Sweet, but not beta I’m trying any time soon. The opening scene ends in Dan’s death when he tries to place a little cam into a massive hole, and something flies out. He falls, rope catches him, but then he tells Becky to unclip her belay. Nooooo!
As a writer I understand, stuff like that has to happen to drive the story forward, but…
A year later, Becky is always drunk and missing dead Dan. ‘Friend’ Hunter talks her into climbing a decommissioned 2000-foot tall TV tower, then the ladder falls off, and they’re stuck up there. At no point when they’re climbing up do they clip the rope to anything. Sometimes it’s not even there… [[[magic rope]]].
Hunter is a bad friend. Don’t let people talk you into climbing rusty old shit.
There were twists and turns, my stomach included, so I definitely bought the thriller side. But why does no one ever have a belay device in these movies? Instead they haul each other up by hand. Lol.
Interesting that to make the film they built a 100 foot tall tower on a 1000 foot tall mountain to give the impression they were up higher. That sure worked. It was gripping!
