Vertical Limit establishes the stakes of its dangerous game in the openingsequence, which makes abundantly clear that rock climbing, despite the high-techequipment and experienced enthusiasts, is a deadly hobby that, in a heartbeat, can lead totragedy.

The film begins with a harrowing scene that, even if you never were before, will make youafraid of heights. Staged in Monument Valley, Utah, it depicts with breathtaking terror arock-climbing expedition that goes suddenly wrong in every conceivable way. Anchors pullaway from the flat rock face, ropes swing perilously loose, and climbers plummet to theirdeath below. The sequence ends with Peter Garrett (Chris O1Donnell), his younger sister,Annie (Robin Tunney), and their beloved father (Stuart Wilson) hanging from a single ropethat, with only one anchor in the rock, may not hold their combined weight. When thefather, who is at the end of the line, asks Peter to cut the rope in order to save himself andhis sister, Peter must make a decision that will haunt him and Annie and drive them apart.

Fast forward three years, and Peter is a photographer for National Geographicwho has not been able to bring himself to climb since that day in Utah. Annie, on the otherhand, has dealt with her demons by facing them head-on in route to becoming one of theworld's preeminent rock climbers.

She agrees to take a flamboyant Texas billionaire named Elliot Vaughn (Bill Paxton) to thetop of K-2, the Himalayan mountain that is considered the most difficult climb in theworld. Unexpected weather closes in on them, and most of their expedition is killed in anavalanche. Annie, Elliot, and Tom McLaren (Nicholas Lea), the expedition's leader, aretrapped in a deep crevasse that is covered over by the avalanche. They have less than 48hours to live before they are killed by the cold, dehydration, and lack of oxygen. With theunpredictable weather and their position high on the mountain, it seems that they aredestined for death.

Thus, the story in Vertical Limit is first and foremost a race against time. Peter,who happens to be at the K-2 base camp when Annie and the others are trapped by thesudden storm, has to get together a group of climbers who are willing to risk their owndeaths for the slim chance that they can save the other climbers. With less than 22 hours togo, Peter and five others begin a speed ascent of the mountain in a suicidal race against timeand the elements. And, just to ensure maximum danger, they are carrying with them threecontainers of nitroglycerin to blast open the crevasse in which the other climbers aretrapped. Echoing Henri-Georges Clouzot's superior Wages of Fear (1953), thetreacherous climb is made all the more dangerous because any sudden jarring movements,impact, or sudden changes in temperature will result in an enormous explosion.

Director Martin Campbell (The Mask of Zorro, GoldenEye) makes themost of the race-against-time scenario cooked up by screenwriters Robert King(Cutthroat Island) and Terry Hayes (Payback). Using a combination oflocation shooting on New Zealand's Mount Cook and extensive and convincing setsextended by digital imagery, he stages half a dozen nail-biting sequences that put the rescueclimbers in every conceivable high-altitude danger.

In one scene, a climber is hanging by an ice axe from the edge of a snow mass that isconstantly threatening to fall off the side of the mountain. In another scene, the climbersrealize that having the nitroglycerin exposed to the sun risks it exploding, and they mustrush to get it in the shade to cool it off (why they weren't informed of this earlier issomething of a mystery). And, because the opening sequence is so memorably terrifying, itis of little surprise that the climax replays the sequence atop K-2 and forces anothercharacter to make a similar decision.

Vertical Limit works well in just about every conceivable way. The plot isgenerally ludicrous and the emotional investments are unashamedly melodramatic. Still,because everything is slightly over the top, it all functions together. It makes the most ofthe strained, but intense relationship between Peter and Annie, as well as the selfishsurvival tactics of Elliott Vaughn, who would rather sacrifice his companions than risk hisown death. Scott Glenn has an amusing supporting role as Montgomery Wick, an eccentricold mountain climber who lost his wife on K-2 five years earlier and has been searching forher body ever since. He agrees to join Peter's mission, and wouldn't you know he hasulterior motives that involve revenge for his wife's death.

There is little subtlety in either the conception or execution of Vertical Limit, butthat's the point. It is engineered in every moment to keep you throttled on the edge of yourseat, tense with acrophobic queasiness. Campbell stages each sequence to emphasize heightand depth--lots of overhead shots looking down at climbers with a seemingly infiniteamount of space between them and the distant ground below--which makes clear that thecharacters are always on the brink of falling to their demise. The movie is structured sobluntly and it establishes so effectively what is at stake at every moment that you neverstop to think that so many people are dying on the mountain to save so few. It's the actionthat counts, and it rarely lets up for a moment. Silly? Yes. But also quite entertaining.

©2000 James Kendrick