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Cross-posted from /r/rational:
Fall (2022 Film): When two best friends who climb a 2,000-foot-tall television broadcasting tower become stranded at the top, it is up to them to think of a way out.
Holy shit.
When I put on Fall this afternoon, I was expecting another random Netflix movie; low-budget, second screen dialogue, ham-fisted politics, etc. But it was about to leave the platform, and I've always been a sucker for stories about characters trapped in a survival situation, so I decided to give it a chance. I was not expecting... this.
The movie begins with a trio of adrenaline junkies climbing a cliff. They consist of married couple Dan and Becky and their friend Hunter. Unfortunately, Dan has an accident and falls to his death. A year later, Becky is an alcoholic mess, still unable to deal with Dan's passing. Hunter, who has since become a YouTuber, persuades Becky to climb an abandoned television tower with her and spread Dan's ashes as a way of moving on. Inevitably, things go wrong, and the girls get stuck on top of the antenna. It is now up to them to find a way out before they succumb to thirst, hunger, exposure, wildlife, or simply fall off the edge.
Okay, so right off the bat I was impressed by the way the girls reacted to their predicament like level 1 intelligent characters. They remain calm, or at least as calm as they can realistically be under the circumstances, and they keep looking for ways out. They don't break down crying or get into emotional fights or throw down precious resources in a fit of rage to create a dramatic moment. This already makes them better than most Hollywood movies.
But what made me post this on /r/rational proper instead of the Monday Recommendation Thread is when the characters started solving problems with previously foreshadowed materials and mechanics. Not just things that were mentioned once briefly, but things that were mentioned over and over again or were given prominent focus. For example, Hunter's push-up bra is brought up early, and her huge tits take up a lot of screen time, but it is not just fanservice;the same bra is used to stuff the shoe on the first attempt to throw a phone down the tower . Likewise, I literally said "of course!" when they used the lifehack to charge up the drone off of the same lightbulb that had been flashing for half the movie . These characters are not just level 1 intelligent; they are level 2 intelligent.
On top of that, they are fucking awesome. Hunter is great from the beginning, encouraging Becky to get out of her funk and doing crazy stunts like hanging off from the tower's platform one-handed. Once things get serious, she is the one doing risky maneuvers to increase their chances of survival, likeclimbing down on a rope to try to get reception for Becky's phone . Becky takes a little longer to grow into her power, since she starts out the movie as a grieving widow, but by the end of the story she's got her mojo back; she displays creativity worthy of Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres and a will to live that would make Carissa Sevar proud. Playing dead to lure a vulture so she can fucking eat it was goddamn beautiful, as was cushioning her phone in Hunter's body to make sure it survives the fall .
And then there is all the other things. The dialogue is very strong, naturalistic and witty; no second screen here. The girls had great chemistry, to the point where I kept wondering if they were going to lez out. The background shots are gorgeous, with luscious visuals from 2000 feet in the air. The film has a great sense of tension; it's basically r/SweatyPalms: The Movie. And the music was just right, from the diegetic cellphone videos to the credit sequence.
Flaws? The twist thatHunter died halfway through and Becky has been hallucinating her ever since is just stupid and the movie would have been much better off without it. And the bit where the ladder falls looks fake AF. Other than that, everything was great.
TL;DR: This movie is fucking awesome and you should watch it immediately before it leaves Netflix.
Other movies I have watched recently:
The Last House (2026): Again, I have a weakness for isolated survival movies. But this one was a disappointment. I couldn't take the disaster seriously (everyone is locked up inside by magic rain), a lot of the survival stuff is opaque (like the building of traps and weapons), and the ending displays the worst tendencies @KulakRevolt called out in "Hollywood Anti-Justice: The Morality of Modern Depravity". At least the CGI was decent. Only reason to watch this film is if you are into WMAF couples (with children, even!).
Labyrinth (1986): Watched this one more because it was an old fantasy movie than for any other reason. Huge letdown. The special effects mostly hold up (except the battle against the robot gate guard, which seems to happen in slow motion) but the writing is atrocious. The supernatural elements get introduced with no buildup, the protagonist is an annoying brat who does nothing to make me root for her, there are no rules which means anything can happen which means I have no reason to care what happens (at one point, the Goblin King alters his own arbitrary deadline!), etc. The most interesting thing to appear onscreen is a basic-bitch knights and knaves puzzle. Maybe if I was a tween girl who could shlick to David Bowie's enormous package I would have enjoyed it more, but I'm not.
Can we ever have a climbing adjacent movie that does not start with a fatal accident caused by the characters' idiocy?
Because of the lack of an idiotic accident, Mission Impossible 2 remains the best climbing movie. (Actually the best one is Eiger Sanction.)
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The exact same thing happens in Adrift (2018).
And Gravity (2013).
I was so disappointed in Gravity. I dragged my girlfriend to come see it with me in theaters.
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At least in the above, you forgot a pretty amusing aspect of Fall—the realistic world-building as to female mate-choice copying in the form ofShiloh Hunter hopping onto her best friend Becky Connor's husband's cock, then a boyfriend/fiance.
Due to YouTube suggestions, a while ago I watched one of those movie channels recapping this film. Going into it, my suspicion was that it was going to be about two chicks having an extended coffee moment in a silly premise (who would be stupid enough to get stuck on a TV tower? I'm sure between the two they have a stepbro, or stepbro-adjacent).
The video did not exactly disabuse me of such an impression. However, perhaps the video undersold the film.
You're right. That bit of evopsych wouldn't have fit an /r/rational review, but I should have mentioned it here.
A lot of people think the girls are stupid for climbing the tower in the first place, but I'd file that under "the utility function is not up for grabs". Like I said, they are adrenaline junkies; they think life has no meaning unless you are willing to risk it all.
Everything that happens after they get trapped is the opposite of a coffee moment.
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Man I find Labyrinth to just be so fun!
Wish they made movies like that still - still I’m gonna take the rec for your first film if only for the big knockers, and the second cuz bad horror is ok.
A fellow man of refinement, I see.
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