For some movies you watch the coming attractions and say “hey, that looks like a pretty good movie” and other pictures you just know are going to be tacky, but you have to watch it. The second feeling is what I had after see attractions for Vertical Limit.

I never bothered to catch the movie in theaters and hadn’t thought about it much until I was flipping through one of the movie channels at home and saw that it was coming up. I didn’t have much else to do that afternoon, so I started to watch the movie.

The plot, if you could call it one is that a climber’s sister, who is also a climber is trapped near the top of K2, having fallen down a crevasse with several other climbers. Somehow the radio continues to work in the crevasse and the brother organizes a rescue party to ascend the mountain, rescue the people in the crevasse and get back down the mountain. As someone who has some knowledge in mountaineering, this is where the plot starts to get a bit ‘iffy’ in reality and dips very deeply into fantasy.

The rescue party makes it way up the mountain, encountering various obstacles to their climb and eventually they make it to the crevasse. The end of the climbing sequences is where reality defiantly takes a backseat. They are climbing without oxygen at 20,000 feet and don’t appear (other than occasional coughing fits or deep breaths) to be impacted by the lack of air at that altitude. The brother even runs across a ridge and then jumps across a large space without breaking a sweat it seems.

During this time drama occurs in the crevasse, as one of the victims, apparently suffering from altitude sickness kills one of the other victims with a syringe and then tries to kill the sister of the climber rescuing her. He doesn’t succeed, but with her acting skills, you almost wish that he had so you wouldn’t have to watch her again. In another burst of anti-reality movie making – the two left in the crevasse figure out that to be found they must fill a bag full of the dead guy’s blood, lift it to the top of the crevasse and then explode it with a flare (they just happen to have a flare) so that the snow is stained at the surface.

Once the rescuers get to the crevasse, they realize where they are from the big red splotch on the snow. The pull out C4 explosives I assume and blow off half the glacier (avalanches anyone?) then begin hoisting out the two still stuck in the crevasse. However the crazy one is still crazy and the one rescuer sacrifices himself and the crazy victim so that the sister is able to get out of the crevasse.

Flash to base camp, (gloss over the fact that no one could physically carry someone off the top of K2) and the rescue party and the sister are resting and recuperating.

It was a weak movie. If you are interested in some awesome visuals and some nice scenery, it’s worth watching, but otherwise, steer right on past this movie.


Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older