2022's Fall was a tidy little thriller about a pair of hot babes trapped atop a 2000-foot-tall broadcast tower in the desert. Since it made money, of course they made a sequel so here we are with Fall 2: Deadpoint, where what comes after the colon is just a word with no meaning.
It's six months after the death of Shiloh Hunter (Virginia Gardner) and her sister Jax (Harriet Slater, Pennyworth) is still grieving her and dealing with unwanted attention from Shiloh's large social media following who want a piece of her sister through her belongings including her truck. Not wanting to sell it to a fan, she agrees to sell it to Luce (Arsema Thomas, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story), a friend who contacts her.
While going through Shiloh's stuff stored in the truck, they come across a journal which logs the adventures she had gone on and future ones she had planned. One is to do a plank walk on the side of fictitious Mount Kwan in Thailand which leads to a dragon statue which is said to eat one's fears. Luce cajoles Jax into taking the trip to honor Shiloh. So off they go to Thailand because I guess money is no object and lack of mountaineering skills no impediment.
They arrive at a bar a distance from the mountain and find Jon (Tom Brittney, Grantchester) who agrees to take them on this forbidden and illegal climb for many monies. He provides them with small oxygen canisters that he chides them to not lose because they're expensive and may be needed for altitude sickness though this mountain is only 4000 feet tall. Huh? (It gets worse.) The travel far along the sheer rock face of the mountain on the path of rickety planks loosely bolted to rods projecting from the mountain, but then an earthquake occurs and in the subsequent rockfall the path is broken and Jon appears to be swept away.
The girls turn back but after clearing a corner called the Devil's Elbow, another rockfall sweeps away a lengthy stretch of the walkway and leaves the backpack with the radio hanging off a rod too far to reach. Attempts to attract attention fail and things look bleak for the pair. How will they get out of this predicament?
Actually, it will turn out to be super easy, barely an inconvenience, as very obvious foreshadowing pays off and rescue seems at hand before the entire plot sails off the rails with a string of convenient contrivances and shortcuts which dissipate the respectable thrills which came before. (If Deadpool was watching he'd repeatedly say, "That's just lazy writing.") There's a certain suspension of disbelief we're willing to buy in with, but the reveals and off-camera moments to handwave away real questions of "HOW????" just leave a cheated feeling.
The visual effects are respectable and capture the vertiginous views familiar to viewers of movies like Free Solo or the Hobo Max docuseries The Dark Wizard, but similar attention to detail was not paid to the script and, to be rude, this pair isn't as hot as the original babes. (Oink.)
Score: 5/10. Catch it on cable/streaming.
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