Better Than Its Predecessor, but Still Falling Short
Rating: ★★½☆☆
Fall 2: Deadpoint is better than its predecessor, but it still has problems with characterization.
When I sat down to watch the movie, one of the first things I saw was the BuzzFeed Studios logo. If you know anything about BuzzFeed, you know they’re all about lists: “The Top 10 Most Dangerous Things to Do in Your Bathroom,” or something like that. Knowing that this was one of the studios behind the film braced me not to expect very much.
It cleared that very low bar, and I enjoyed myself. I’m not going to give it a particularly high rating, though, because the characters are only barely three-dimensional.
The movie opens in the middle of a rainstorm, apparently on the side of a mountain. One man, held at gunpoint by another, is prodded forward along a very rickety-looking series of planks. Then an earthquake strikes, and both men fall to their deaths.
From there, the movie cuts to a young woman named Jax. She turns out to be the younger sister of Shiloh Hunter, the woman who died in the first movie and used the social-media handle “Danger D.” Jax has received her sister’s Ford Bronco from the police and is trying to figure out what to do with it. With her is Luce, who was apparently one of Shiloh’s friends from college.
From this exchange, we learn that Jax is considerably more timid than her sister—and that there is evidently a story behind their strained relationship.
Luce finds a journal that is essentially Shiloh’s bucket list. Looking through it, they discover that Shiloh completed only about half of the entries. Luce asks whether she can photograph the unfinished pages, but after giving her permission, Jax tells her to keep the entire book. She doesn’t want it.
Once they go inside the house, Luce gives it back and suggests that Jax complete the challenges Shiloh never got around to. She argues that doing so might help Jax feel closer to her sister. Jax’s response is basically, “Why would I want that? She was a better friend to Becky than she was a sister to me.”
We then see a flashback in which a young Jax is hanging from what I think is some sort of monkey-bar apparatus, repeatedly trying to get her older sister’s attention. Shiloh, however, is too busy talking with Becky to pay any attention to her. From that brief little scene, we’re apparently supposed to go, “Oh, I get it now.”
I will tell you that this moment is telegraphed so heavily that you just know it will become important later—and you would be right.
After some hemming and hawing, Luce manages to prod the timid Jax into attempting the next item on Shiloh’s list: the infamous plank walk of Mount Kwan in Thailand
Evidently, if you reach the end and “meet the dragon,” it will devour all your fear. I don’t know whether the mountain or the trail exists in real life, but the movie presents them as real, and that’s good enough for me.
Jax and Luce travel to Thailand, where a secret phrase written in Shiloh’s journal helps them identify the right man to smuggle them onto the mountain. The trail is closed, and climbing it is illegal.
They also arrive during the rainy season, so climbing the mountain isn’t merely illegal—it is contraindicated by basic common sense. Lots of rain means lots of slippery surfaces. You go onto a mountain with lots of slippery surfaces, you fall down.
Luce, however, is far too invested in boosting Jax’s spirits to let a little thing like mortal danger stop them. The guide warns them that smuggling them onto the mountain will cost a great deal of money, but apparently Luce is loaded, so off they go.
Evidently, Shiloh compiled her list only after doing a considerable amount of research. Jax and Luce, meanwhile, simply take advantage of that research without bothering to investigate the climb for themselves.
They make their way up the mountain and out along its increasingly precarious planks. Then, of course, disaster strikes. Jax and Luce become stranded on a couple of isolated sections of plank with no apparent way down. That is the central premise of the movie.
It is handled better than the predicament in the first film, simply because everything feels more real. This seems like something people might actually attempt. The danger feels genuine, and the views are terrific.
The movie also relies heavily on flashbacks, not just the monkey-bar scene. Each one is triggered by something Jax notices in her surroundings, although I wouldn’t call the transitions natural. The clunkiest example has a ceiling fan prompting her to remember a skydiving experience with Shiloh. Yes, a ceiling fan reminds her of skydiving.
The flashbacks are clearly intended to give the sisters’ relationship more depth, but they never quite manage it.
There are also some identity-related shenanigans. Luce may not be who you think she is, the guide may be up to something nefarious, and eventually we get the obligatory final fight for survival.
Shiloh—or, rather, Virginia Gardner, the actress who plays her—makes several appearances in flashbacks throughout the movie. Becky also appears, first in a photograph and then in person as she checks her old-fashioned, rounded-top mailbox. Inside, she finds an invitation to celebrate Shiloh’s life.
That makes it fairly obvious that we’re getting a third movie. There is nothing after the credits, however.
I’m giving Fall 2: Deadpoint a straight-down-the-middle 2½ stars. You will probably be entertained, but the movie is also easily forgotten.
Cast
- Harriet Slater as Jax Hunter
- Arsema Thomas as Luce
- Tom Brittney as the mountain guide
- Virginia Gardner as Shiloh Hunter
- Grace Caroline Currey as Becky Connor
- Juju Journey Brener as Teen Jax
- Evie Mann as Young Jax
- London Nuovo as Young Becky
- Einar Haraldsson as Joe
- Andrey Kasushkin as the smuggler