Introduction
If you're new here, hi. This blog leans more on discussing the things I liked or disliked about the movie, it's all preference. I will try not to mention spoilers, but in a plot where there's only two major cast and a single location, there is only so much information I can talk about. Anyways... onto the movie!
The Movie
Which is worse? Fear of heights or fear of a clickbait thriller movie? Let's find out!
The movie centers on two friends; Becky and Hunter. After the death of Becky's husband from climbing a mountain, she gave up on climbing and her life goes south. Time skip to her BFF inviting her to climb again, this time not on a mountain but a 2000-foot tall radio tower. Does this plot seem familiar? No? I will tell you in a bit.
So the two climb, yipee. But then an expected scenario happened. The ladder breaks and now they're both stranded on top with no way of calling for help.
I'll be honest, I discovered this movie on TikTok. I saw a clip, it looked really intense and thrilling. I've seen movies like Open Water, Vertical Limit, Frozen (2010, not the Disney one), Nowhere, The Shallows and 127 Hours and while I'm not a fan of them (except The Shallows because hello, Blake Lively), I still opt to watch these type of survival movies because I never know if it's something I'd enjoy.
Why I watched the movie?
That seven-minute clip I watched on Tiktok, of the main character hanging by a thread, banging on the pole, twisting and turning out of control and thankfully, was able to climb back up to safety—that is probably one out of two thrilling scenes of the movie. The second being the best friend bravely retrieving their backpack (I would have applauded this bravery if we didn't find out she actually had had an affair with the MC's husband.) Another familiar plot device? I'll get on to it in a bit.
There's a plot twist that I loved (probably not as WOW to everyone, but this is my type of psychological twists) but it's not enough to compensate for my 2 hours. What can two people talk about in a 107-minute movie to make it intriguing? Because really, Frozen (2010) was killing me and that's 93 minutes. Although, I'll be honest, I'm not sure how a survival-stranded theme is going to be interesting without portraying unnecessary comical reliefs or out-of-place jokes without taking away the representation of a thrilling survival story. So I'll take what I can get and move on.
Affair Plot Device
I'm not going to expand on this, I'm sure you guys have seen the MC's reaction. But it felt that she wasn't as angry (?) as she was written to be (?). I mean x-months of affair with physical touch BEFORE the wedding, neither of them told her and said friend has a tattoo of the same way the hubby says "I love you" to her... doesn't that provoke some kind of emotional response from her? She could be angry. She could be upset. Jealous maybe? Suspicious maybe? Wasn't she curious why it was kept a secret? Like, give me something, girl!
What the MC did at the ending, probably BFF deserved it, but where was the realistic reaction to it?
Let's get on to the movie I find similar with this plot device.
Similar movie I was talking about
While there's many others you could probably name, but this is the one I want to use as an example. The Descent (2007) is a horror suspense movie casting six women who unknowingly explores an undiscovered cave. Main characters; Sarah Carter (Macdonald) and Juno Kaplan (Natalie Jackson Mendoza) are very similar to Becky and Hunter.
Sarah is on her way home with her husband and child from kayaking when they got into an accident. Sarah survives but her family died (gruesomely. It was off-screen, but the imagery in my head as those spike metal thingies was hinted to have plunged on the husband and child's heads). What's next? You've guessed it! Juno invites Sarah to join her on an adventure!
I'm going to skip the other elements/cast of the movie and focus on this part. Sarah later discovers that Juno and her husband had an affair. And she, my friend, is not happy about that news. (SPOILER ALERT)
I haven't watched this movie in almost 20 years, but if my memory is right, Sarah abandoned Juno in the cave as she escaped to save herself.
Where is this kind of reaction from the MC? Maybe Becky is the forgiving type but not even one bit expression?
Anyways, that aside. The movie is not something I enjoyed. Sure, there are scenes I loved, but kinda hoped I didn't get clickbaited into watching it. I watched it in my own volition, it wasn't the the clip's fault. I was baited into watching that most interesting scene after all.
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