Stranded 610 meters up an abandoned radio tower, two expert climbers fight to survive. A film by Scott Mann, starring Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jasper Cole, Darrell Dennis, Bamm Ericsen, Julia Mitchell, Evie Mann, Joseph Mann, Nick Lynes, and Branden Currey.
FALL
Scott Mann
(2022)
Becky Connor (Grace Caroline Currey) loses her boyfriend Dan (Mason Gooding) in a tragic accident while rock climbing with her best friend Hunter (Virginia Gardner). Deeply traumatized, Becky spends nearly a year consumed by grief. Meanwhile, Hunter distances herself and disappears from Becky’s life.
Out of the blue, Hunter comes to visit Becky at home. Now a social media influencer with over 60,000 followers, Hunter was contacted by Becky’s father James (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). He had reached out in a desperate attempt to get through to his daughter, who ignores all of his advice.
Hunter proposes an idea to help Becky overcome her grief and fear. She invites Becky to join her in climbing the B67 TV tower, a 610-meter structure that is nearly twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower. Hunter is already planning to scale the tower for her content. She convinces Becky that the climb will be more than just an adventure. Once they reach the top, Becky can scatter Dan’s ashes and finally find closure.
The two scale the abandoned, rust-covered television broadcasting tower, navigating crumbling ladders and loose bolts. The steel tower has stood in the middle of the desert for years. Eventually, they manage to reach the very top of the B67. Becky conquers her fear and scatters Dan’s ashes, while Hunter captures death-defying footage for her followers.
Then, the unthinkable happens. (Well, unthinkable to the girls. It is completely predictable for the audience. Any more hints and this would turn into a Final Destination movie!) The rusted steel ladder detaches from the tower. Now, both women are stranded at the top of the tower in the middle of nowhere. They have no way down, no food, no water, and no cell signal to text or call for help.
Don't look down.
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A film by Scott Mann, starring Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Directed by British filmmaker Scott Mann from a screenplay he co-wrote with Jonathan Frank, FALL is a survival thriller that relies on the fear of being trapped at vertigo-inducing heights. It is enough to make viewers with acrophobia break into a cold sweat just looking down at the ground from over half a kilometer in the air. The visual composition makes the view feel terrifying and real, while also looking stunning to anyone who isn’t afraid of heights.
Unfortunately, the film gives the impression that the director was not confident in his own concept. He seems to doubt whether two women trying to survive at extreme heights could hold the audience’s attention for nearly 70 minutes. (The movie takes about 30 minutes of runtime just to reach the tower.) Instead, he forces in unnecessary drama, plot twists, and jump scares that give supernatural horror vibes. It’s baffling since the premise and the visuals were already fantastic on their own.
Several sequences designed to build tension often backfire because they defy logic. In one scene, the protagonist wakes up just as she is about to roll off the tiny platform. While she may have just dozed off from exhaustion, a normal person still would have tied themselves to the pole beforehand just in case. In another scene, they climb a rope without clipping themselves in, despite this being common sense for any experienced climber.
If you can overlook some of the unrealistic elements and try not to nitpick, you have to admit that FALL still delivers a thrilling experience centered around the fear of heights. However, the musical score is occasionally distracting. While intended to enhance certain scenes, the music ends up overpowering the visuals because it is way too loud.
FALL was theatrically released in the United States on 12 August 2022.
The B67 TV tower seen in the movie is not a real location, but rather a fictional structure inspired by the real KXTV/KOVR radio tower in Walnut Grove, California. At 625 meters tall, the real tower is one of the tallest structures in the world. Instead of just using green screens, the filmmakers constructed a partial tower replica atop a mountain in the Mojave Desert. This allowed them to create a visual illusion of the actors being hundreds of meters above the ground.
FALL (2022)
Fear reaches new heights.
