Splat
it’s a sequel, and it shows in every possible way.
Fall 2: Deadpoint
Directors: Peter Spierig, Michael Spierig • Writers: Scott Mann, Jonathan Frank
Starring: Harriet Slater, Arsema Thomas, Tom Brittney
USA • 1hr 37mins
Opens Hong Kong September 3 • IIB
Grade: C
Back in 2022, Scott Mann’s Fall became the little thriller that could. It came out of nowhere (with a massive nod to 47 Meters Down and its ilk) to be the nasty little “Oh shit!” isolationist survival epic we didn’t know we all needed at peak COVID lockdown. It wasn’t Citizen Kane or anything but Fall’s strength was its simplicity. Two adventuring friends climb an abandoned radio tower and get stuck several hundred metres up – 2,000 feet in ancient parlance. That was it. The drama came from watching these women try to figure out how to get down, or let someone know where they were, and confronting some lingering resentments between them. The end. And it worked, because it didn’t rely on any bells and whistles. It understood less is more.
Welp, you can kiss that wisdom goodbye for Peter and Michael Spierig’s follow-up – penned by Mann and original co-writer Jonathan Frank – Fall 2: Deadpoint. Typical of… checks notes… almost every sequel of the modern era (seriously The Godfather Part II and Aliens were nothing like their part ones and were better for it), Deadpoint starts as a carbon copy of its predecessor and then proceeds to pile on one heaping helping of plot nonsense after another until the refreshing simplicity of the original has been buried under so many condiments it’s just a tasteless mess. The Spierigs proved they can handle layer after layer of plot in 2014’s way underrated time-travelling, sci-fi mindfuck Predestination, but that film also knew where it was going, and it had Sarah Snook. This is not that.
No training necessary?
For the record, “deadpoint” is a climbing term that refers to the microsecond when a climber’s upward momentum to a handhold is simultaneous to the moment gravity takes over and starts dragging you down. Or something along those lines. To quote Mysta Crooks, me nah do dis, but daredevil influencer, or something, Shiloh Hunter would. She died in the first Fall from a, erm, fall, and has become a posthumous Instagram idol or some such. She’s an inspiration to live every day to the fullest blah blah blah. Because no one in movies has names that don’t come out of internet generators her sister Jax (Harriet Slater) is mourning her loss – they ended on bad terms, because movie – when Shiloh’s old friend Luce (Arsema Thomas) shows up to buy Shiloh’s magic jeep. They get to talking and after some “For Shiloh” nonsense they wind up in Thailand to do the plank walk on treacherous Mount Kwan. In typhoon season. Brilliant. They hire a dodgy guide, Jon (discount Jai Courtney, Tom Brittney, or maybe Dougray Scott) and promptly get stranded on the cliff’s Devil’s Elbow at 4,000 feet.
Even the fall needs to be from higher up in Deadpoint to, you know, double down on just how grim this is. We got it the first time. But no, Mann and Frank shoehorn in every possible side plot and red herring and backstory drama they can come up with – much of it useless considering the inherent drama of being trapped on the side of a mountain 1,200 metres in the air. That’s not enough, so there’s illnesses and double crosses and international crime and landslides and storms and deep jealousy of Shiloh’s best friend Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and gymnastics to rival The Lost World.
Seeing as they literally trot Becky out for Deadpoint’s closing frames my assumption is that Fall 3 will take place 6,000 feet up and pivot on Jax’s bloody catharsis over per possessiveness of her sister. Then at least we may get the gory Cat III adventure Fall should have been all along.