Not content with getting herself killed, thrill-seeking menace Shiloh Hunter (Virginia Gardner) returns from beyond the grave with a fresh thing to get stuck on. In the months since the events of Fall, Shiloh has gone viral, inspiring a legion of… errr… Fallowers. Sister Jax (Harriet Slater) isn’t so enthused, and continues to grapple with her difficult feelings surrounding Shiloh’s death. In selling her sister’s car, she meets Luce (Arsema Thomas), an old friend of Shiloh’s. Luce is keen to honour Shiloh’s legacy in kind – breaking out an old notebook to tackle one of her planned climbing routes.
This takes Jax and Luce to Mount Kwan in Thailand, where they plan to (illegally) conquer one of the world’s most intimidating and dangerous ascents. With limited supplies and even less skill or experience, the pair enlist the help of Jon (Tom Brittney), who agrees to lead them to the summit for a hefty fee. What happens next is exactly what you’d expect to happen after taking holiday advice from a woman stupid enough to die on (or at the bottom of) an abandoned tower in the middle of nowhere. Say what you will about Shiloh, though, at least she was switched-on enough to scope out the weather forecast before her own climb.
One earthquake later, and Jax and Luce find themselves stranded on the side of a mountain with no way down. Michael and Peter Spierig’s sequel faithfully follows the structure of the original Fall to a fault – grieving protagonist, mid-movie betrayal and high-flying acts of derring-do included. Its setting is less unusual but more visually striking, giving the ladies plenty to look out upon from their vantage point. What it lacks is a sense of scale. Jax and Luce are 4000 feet up, but it never really feels that way, and the camera rarely takes advantage of the vertiginous mountain setting. The action, when it comes, will invoke sweaty palms in its viewers (Chekhov’s Monkey Bars, anyone?), but it lacks the inventiveness or urgency of its predecessor.
Beyond its gravity-defying thrills, Fall is best remembered for its characters’ frankly lunatic behaviour. Deadpoint only doubles down on this, to the point where the viewer will be left questioning whether Jax and Luce were dropped on their heads at some point prior to the story beginning. It’s ludicrous, even by the standards of the first film, and reaches peak bone-headedness during a finale so out of left field that we questioned whether it might all be in one of the characters’ heads. Not so – the directors double down enough to set up a third film in the trilogy (!), and one which promises to come full circle. Shiloh would be proud, the bone-headed, chaotic sociopath that she is.
You know what, though? We’re all in. The drop-off is real, but we can’t wait to see where it goes next.
FALL 2: DEADPOINT is out in UK cinemas now.
