Vertical Limit

(Martin Campbell, USA, 2000)

Vertical Limit begins with a happy-go-lucky bout of mountain climbing that quickly spins into trauma. Peter (Chris O'Donnell) and Annie (Robin Tunney) joke and sing as they scale a sheer expanse of rock with their father. When everything begins giving way, the three find themselves dangling on a single rope, facing the prospect of imminent death.

What happens next creates a legacy that Peter and Annie do not readily resolve until they are inadvertently thrown together years later on K2, the world's second highest peak. They are part of a team urged onwards and upwards in dangerous conditions by the foolhardy entrepreneur, Elliot (Bill Paxton).

As directed by Martin Campbell (The Mask of Zorro, 1998), Vertical Limit is closer to a psychological action movie such as The Edge (1997) rather than an all-out blockbuster like Cliffhanger (1993). At its worst, the spread of stereotypical characters – including Steve Le Marquand and Ben Mendelsohn as two proudly vulgar Aussies – reduces it to the level of Twister (1996).

At its best – which is mainly its second half – the film is taut, exciting and elemental. One can wish the film had taken a more minimalist, focused approach, rather than having to keep a laborious scoreboard of secondary characters dispatched to oblivion in the catastrophic course of events.

Two gifted writers worked on Vertical Limit: Robert King (Speechless, 1994) and Terry Hayes (Mad Max 2, 1981). Many of their plot moves are predictable, but there are some clever twists of action-film logic – such as playing up to an audience's respect for compassionate, humanitarian resolutions as well as its lust to see revenge enacted.

As in the best action movies, physical clinches represent moral and ethical dilemmas – giving familiar moments of suspense (will the rope be cut? will the villain be hurled over the cliff edge?) a special resonance.

Vertical Limit tries to include rather too much material, but Campbell and his writers know all the crafty tricks enabling most of it to be held in a tense equilibrium – such as introducing the mysterious Montgomery (Scott Glenn), the older, eccentric, troubled figure we more usually see in movies about surfing. His own past trauma manages to bring everything full circle for Peter and Annie in a corny but satisfying way.

MORE mountain climbing: Touching the Void

© Adrian Martin December 2000