Let me start by saying this is an entertaining movie. And it was very successful given its budget of 3 million. And kudos to the actresses. And worth watching just for the twists and turns in the action.
It’s about two women who climb a 2,000 foot radio tower and once they get to the top the last section of ladder they used falls away trapping them.
But you must be willing to suspend a LOT of disbelief at a number of basic flaws in the action. And have empathy with people who do stupid things for the rush and publicity.
Spoilers ahead.
It’s billed as a “survival” movie yet the two women do so many fundamental things wrong, starting with the basic “tell someone where you’re going and when you expect to be back”. That is an ironclad rule of basic survival. Basic camping. Basic hiking. Guess they never saw the movie about the guy who got trapped with the boulder crushing his arm and having to amputate it (127 Hours)? Hell, they didn’t carry a bone saw. Or even a Leatherman.
Plus, she did post to her thousands of followers from the base of the tower with her plan to climb it. Then simply disappeared for a couple of days. No one wondered?
Actually, the opening scene where the boyfriend falls to his death violated a rule of climbing— always have two pieces of protection in place. The first thing I did when I arrived at 10th Special Forces Group was going through International Mountain Climbing School where I learned enough never to want to climb a mountain for “fun” again. Pay and mission, yes. Sort of the way I feel about parachuting despite triple-digit jumps and being a jump master.
But, okay, they were kind of stupid anyway, so yeah, his one piece of protection failed. I knew it was inevitable that it would be revealed he’d slept with both of them. He was a guy. He was dead. Sure. Let’s throw that in. As if they didn’t have enough problems. “You slept with my boyfriend? Really, bitch?”
I had to blink when they got to the top of the 2,000 foot tower and said they had no cell phone signal even though they’d had one on the ground at the base of the tower. “We’re too high for a signal”. What???? I mean they even put cell phone transmitters ON TOP OF TOWERS! WTF??
I know that was necessary for the plot, but come on. You can drive an entire plot through that plot hole.
And let’s not talk battery life on the phones. They were concerned about the drone’s battery life, but those phones lasted forever and they wasted a lot of power on dumb things like pictures of better days. What about SOS using the flashlight at night?
The recharging of the drone using the light at the top? First, the scene in the diner was dumb. Really, a waitress isn’t going to let you plug in to charge your phone? Second, if the lamp was plugged in, why not use THAT plug? I don’t even know if you can actually charge a cell phone using a light socket. And I’m not going to try. Unless a waitress tells me I can’t use the plug. In which case, I’m not tipping.
But I do know the warning light at the top of a 2,000 foot tower IS NOT running off 110 volt. There’s some serious juice up there. I mean, come on? What might have been smart, if they were going to climb to that light, is disable it the first night. Don’t you think some people might notice that lack? Then use the flashlights on their cell phones?
Then the one actress hanging up there by her arms to charge the drone to four bars, really? Every try to hang like that?
There were little things like when the ladder went and the one woman fell, the other held on to the pole with one hand and managed to stop her fall. Sorry. Nope. No one’s grip is that strong. I’m sure people who are climbers were screaming at the screen many times during this movie, much like ex-military at action movies. In a way, this was the John Wick of mountain climbing.
Here’s the real kicker. They had a decent length of rope with them after the ladder fell. There are versions of a Prusick knot, that you can use to tighten down on a rod (or pole) and alternately tighten and loosen. It’s one of the basic knots of mountaineering. They had more than enough rope for each of them use such a knot (actually two for each) to climb down.
Honestly, I’d have a hard time tying a Prusick from memory. Which is why I have a downloaded knot-tying app on my cell phone. Along with a knot-tying book. Downloaded. So I don’t need the signal at 2,000 feet to access. PS: I have a list of free and cheap sruvvial Apps and books I highly recommend on my website.
In summation, back to the beginning. Entertaining. Worth watching. Don’t get mad at me. I’m just trying to keep people grounded in the reality of survival. And tower climbing.
A very interesting synopsis of a movie of something I would not do without being paid a very large sum of money. I too have exits from perfectly good aircraft in the triple digits spanning 2 decades and some months of Military service starting with the 173rd Airborne in Viet Nam, the 101st Worst Airborne, U. S. Army Reserves in Ventura Ca., 19th Special Forces of the Utah National Guard while getting my major in Nursing and a minor in Engineering at U of U. Contracted all over the U.S. of A. and continued jumping with whatever Unit I could maintain my jump status with. I have really enjoyed your books, especially your Green Beret Guides to Great Disasters and the tales they tell.
My Kindle is having issues and am unable to download any other books of your authorship.
Lol. Ya I agree 100%. Then there is the idiot BF or GF who says “it’s just a movie”. That one always gets me. Well if just a movie. Have them fly down using the Vulture. Ya this movie was a mess.
I’m watching it now, it’s so bad I had to google reviews to confirm how ridiculous the plot is
Hah, so true, my husband and I aren’t climbers, but we were yelling at these stupid girls. Still, the film was very entertaining and certainly gave me adrenaline rushes without having to climb anything.
How about not being able to look down through the open grated platform to see if her friend Fell. How about the rope going down through the open grated platform so you got another 6 foot of rope and then have no problem getting down to the satellite dishes. How about throwing the other shoe when the guy was there although the guys turned out to be jerks. I’m not a jumpmaster Nora mountain climber but I know stupid when I see stupid
First of all , if your climbing a tower ,and bolts are falling out , I don’t know about you , but I would get my ass down ,second radio waves go in all directions ,like throwing a rock on a still pond ,makes no sense that it would not work , and if it did not work they could have made a simple parachute out of their clothes , to get the phone down , and oh yea charging the phone with a light socket , there’s a good idea , now you will have YouTube challenges, and kids getting the shit zapped out of them !
I think this movie ignored one basic fact that towers are removed when decommissioned. I don’t know if any radio tower of that height that has been left standing, especially with an anti-collision light that would require regular maintenance to keep on.
A standing tower is a flight hazard and requires lights, and that means maintenance, and that means someone who can climb to the top. They wouldn’t let a tower rust into a dangerous condition for maintenance crews. If towers are decommissioned, they are torn down immediately. The girls were clearly stupid in a dozen different ways, but hey, we’ve all seen stupidity, so that part wasn’t unrealistic.
Fuck I was writing a novel and accidentally pushed F5, while trying to open my translation website and the whole text disappeared. (no accident can happen in this movie, right ?)
I paused the movie mid-way and came search a website talking about how absurd this movie is. I think this is the only one that criticizes it correctly. How many moron will try to copy them !?
I won’t re-write everything I wrote before I pushed F5. I was giving the list of the wrong things this movie has. I probably had to write 20 more points. I better just say that ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING IN THIS MOVIE IS WRONG! The girl has almost no climbing experiences, she is drugged with the alcohol, she isn’t in shape, she is traumatized and she go climb one of the highest tower in the world, without anything protecting her WTF! This rope is 100.000000000000000000000000% useless ! They don’t protect themselve on every bar and she saw the boy dying because he protected himself with a single one BUT THE HAVE 0 !!!!!!!!!! If one girl drop, there is no way the other can old with only her hands! They for sure both drop dead on the ground and even if she would succeed, the rusty metal would not. And they go there in hot weather, the metal is supposed to be hot, they have no gloves, no hat, no sunglasses, not even sun cream, at this height it supposed to be much more windy WTF ! They old themselves in the air with a single hand WTF! And they climb back on their feets as if they weighed barely 1 pound, WTF ! The magic of the cinema !!!!!
I have not finish this movie but so far I’m always like *mmmeeeeeuuhhhhhh wwwwwtttttfffffff !!!!!! omg these girls are sssooo mmuuuccccchhhh ssstttuuuuppiiddd !!!!! wwtttttffff is this movie !? wwwtttfffff !!!!! It’s sooo bad !!!!*
btw I love these websites on which we can comment super easily without making an account!
Something that I immediately thought of. Why not just change your phones voicemail to where you are at and you’re stuck. And when people call (ie, her dad) they will hear it.