Fall Review

Fall is a small-scale survival-thriller that is about the perils of climbing and heights.

Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) has been in a year-long depression after the death of her husband during a climbing accident. Her friend, Hunter (Virginia Gardner), believes Becky needs closure and suggests climbing an abandoned TV tower in the middle of the desert. However, things go wrong when they reach the top of the tower and they are left stranded 2000 feet up in the air.

I have a fear of heights so the idea of getting trapped that high in the air without any safeguards would be my nightmare. I would never climb that high, so Fall would be the closest I am ever going to experience that high up in the air. The filmmakers certainly give audiences the feeling of what it would be like to be high in the sky. There were loads of drone shots showing the women on the top of the tower and doing death-defying stunts like hanging off the platform with one hand. As Becky described it, potential ‘death by selfie.’

Fall did a great job at building up the tension. When the women arrive at the tower the film highlights that it was a rickety relic. There was an emphasis on the rust and the loose screw. Any force like strong winds or the weight of people could be enough to make things tumble down.

Fall was a ‘Murphy’s Law’ film because anything that can go wrong will go wrong. When the women finally get stranded up on the platform they have to figure out a way to communicate with emergency services. They tried to use items like their mobile phones, and a flare gun, and they needed to find a way to get their backpack that was hanging off a satellite dish.

However, Fall does come off as really ridiculous. The women did actions that defy logic, even in the context of their desperation. It comes off as unintentionally funny like when they dangled a phone off the edge of the platform. One of the silliest moments in the film was the characters had to figure out how to recharge their drone. Becky and Hunter could have saved themselves a lot of bother if they had told a friend they were climbing up the tower and if they don’t hear from the pair after 24 hours then call 911.

Fall reminded me of The Aeronauts and Horizon Line because there were survival-thrillers where people were trapped high in the air. The big difference was the characters in Fall were stationary whilst the pairs in The Aeronauts and Horizon Line were in an aircraft, so there was movement and they faced perils like the weather and losing fuel. For long periods of the film Becky and Hunter were just waiting for the emergency services. It took away a lot of the momentum.

Fall had a run time of 107 minutes which was long for this type of film. They usually last 90 minutes and be a lean experience. Fall was stretched out.

The filmmakers did try to give the film some character drama. Becky was stuck in a depression cycle of drink and sadness. She pushes her dad (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) away who was trying to help her. Becky even contemplates taking an overdose. Becky and Hunter reconnect during the film but there were some tensions. There were some nice little touches in their performances that hint at events later in the film.

From a technical level Fall was an impressive feat, especially when the $3 million budget is put into consideration. But it was a baggy affair and the visuals and stunts had limits on how much they could sustain.