Vertical Limit

Mountain climbing thrillers occupy a small niche in the movie world. Every few years someone comes out with one, to variable effect. Generally they are long on vistas and stunts and short on characterization and drama, but if they are well done they are worth the tradeoff. “Vertical Limit” is extremely well done, and well worth the tradeoff. Stuffed to the edge with heart stopping stunt work and climbing effects, the movie is the best thrill ride in recent memory. I would pay admission all over again just to see the first ten minutes, which comprise the most exciting opening sequence of any movie since the much maligned but technically rather accomplished Sylvester Stallone vehicle “ Cliffhanger.” After I read “Into Thin Air," Jon Krakauer’s account of the disastrous (and by now well known) 1996 climbing season on Mt. Everest, I could not help but wonder, just a little bit, if I had what it takes to summit Everest. I mean, if I spent, say, three years training, could I make it to the top? The answer of course, is probably not, and neither could most of us. Not only that, but from the looks of “Vertical Limit,” I wouldn’t want to.

If you have ever harbored the secret desire to be an alpinist, this movie will quickly disabuse you of that notion. There is nothing about the exploits depicted that seem even remotely fun, except the scenery, and all we have to do to appreciate that is go to the theater and pay our eight bucks. “Vertical Limit” begins with Peter and Annie Garrett (Chris O’Donnell and Robin Tunney), on a climb with their father (Stuart Wilson) somewhere in the American Southwest. Things go badly (though I won’t go into detail so as not to spoil it for anyone) and we flash forward three years to the Himalayan foothills. Peter is now a nature photographer for National Geographic, while Annie has continued her climbing career. She has signed on to a K-2 expedition mounted by Elliott Vaughn (Paxton) a billionaire climber who wants to summit the peak in order to promote his new airline. The expedition presses on despite ominous warnings about the weather, and when the inevitable disaster strikes, Peter must assemble a rescue team for what seems to be a suicide mission. Joining him are a number of the movie’s bit players (most of whom serve the same sacrificial function as the anonymous crewmen who always accompanied Captain Kirk on his landing parties).

These include the wisecracking Aussie Bench brothers, on hand for some comic relief, the noble Pakistani who wants to rescue his brother, and Monique (Scorupco), who must be the best-looking medical student of all time. Then there is Montgomery Wick (a perfectly cast Scott Glenn), part shaman, part mountain climbing genius, who lives on the mountain, and is prone to saying things like, “On the mountain, Mr. Garrett, you're not dying, you’re dead.” Wick, it turns out, has his own reasons for joining the rescue attempt. When watching a mountain climbing thriller, we always know that disaster is just a step away, and the measure of the filmmakers’ skill is whether they can still surprise us. Writers King and Hayes and director Martin Campbell (who also directed “Goldeneye” and “The Mask of Zorro”) rise to the occasion, packing the picture with action sequences that left my jaw hanging open, even though I had seen them several times in the previews. I have no idea how they accomplished some of this stuff, but it hardly matters. Sometimes a movie has no intentions other than to knock your socks off, and this “Vertical Limit” does in high style.

It is a genre picture, to be sure, but genres survive precisely because they offer us something we want, in this case hair-raising thrills in a spectacular location that most of us will never visit. I am not going to quibble with some of the medical, technical, dramatic, or logical gaffes the picture makes. And I will certainly defer to the vast team of technical advisors that I am sure they had on hand. The picture looks absolutely authentic, and with first-rate cinematography and a pounding score, it doesn’t let your heart slow down for a second. If you are looking for a bit of escapist entertainment that will make your own problems seem utterly trivial, you simply cannot beat “Vertical Limit.” (12/11/00)