Vertical Limit (2000)

A climber must rescue his sister on top of K2, one of the world's biggest mountains.

Director:

Martin Campbell

Writers:

Robert King (story), Robert King (screenplay)

Stars:

Scott Glenn, Chris O'Donnell, Bill Paxton

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 2 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chris O'Donnell	...	Peter Garrett
Robin Tunney	...	Annie Garrett
Stuart Wilson	...	Royce Garrett
Augie Davis	...	Aziz
Temuera Morrison	...	Major Rasul
Roshan Seth	...	Colonel Amir Salim
Alejandro Valdes-Rochin	...	Sergeant Asim
Nicholas Lea	...	Tom McLaren
Rod Brown	...	Ali Hasan
Scott Glenn	...	Montgomery Wick
Steve Le Marquand	...	Cyril Bench
Ben Mendelsohn	...	Malcolm Bench
Izabella Scorupco	...	Monique Aubertine
Bill Paxton	...	Elliot Vaughn
Ed Viesturs	...	Himself

Storyline

A high-adrenaline tale of young climber Peter Garrett, who must launch a treacherous and extraordinary rescue effort up K2, the world's second highest peak. Confronting both his own limitations and the awesome power of nature's uncontrollable elements, Peter risks his life to save his sister, Annie, and her summit team in a race against time. The team is trapped in an icy grave at 26,000 feet - a death zone above the vertical limit of endurance where the human body cannot survive for long. Every second counts as Peter enlists the help of a crew of fellow climbers, including eccentric, reclusive mountain man Montgomery Wick, to ascend the chilling might of the world's most feared peak to save her.

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Plot Keywords:

rescue | k2 | death | die hard scenario | urination | 

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Taglines:

The Mountain Will Decide.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense life/death situations and brief strong language

Details

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English Urdu

Release Date:

8 December 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Límite vertical

Filming Locations:

Glacier National Park, Montana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$75,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$15,507,845, 10 December 2000, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$69,243,859

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$215,663,859

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Global Entertainment Productions GmbH & Company Medien KG, Mountain High Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The toeless feet of character "Montgomery Wick" seen at the beginning of the film actually belong to mountaineer Mark Whetu, who lost his toes while spending a night outdoors above twenty-eight thousand feet during a 1994 attempt on Everest.

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Goofs

When Bill Paxman says Ed Viesturs is the only man to have climbed 12 of the world's 14 highest peaks, all without supplemental oxygen, he is wrong. At the time of filming three people had climbed all the 14 highest without any supplemental oxygen, starting with Reinhold Messner in 1986. Ed Viesturs was the 5th person to accomplish this feat, in 2005.

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Quotes

Skip: How about it Mal? You and Cyril have been up there before.
Malcolm Bench: No. I mean why would we want to leave this place?
Cyril Bench: Luxurious accomodation. Fine cuisine.
Malcolm Bench: Sultry weather. Frostbite's off my dick.
Cyril Bench: I reckon we should wait until they chuck in a ski lift.
Malcolm Bench: Good idea. Imagine coming to the Himalayas and actually having to do some climbing. Especially when you have to complete your autobiography.
Cyril Bench: And rustle up those all important endorsements. You wankers! What's bloody wrong with you?
Cyril Bench, Malcolm Bench: We're in.

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Connections

Edited into Killer Mountain (2011)

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Soundtracks

Take It To The Limit
Written by Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner

User Reviews

Too unconvincing to enjoy.

It's not the painfully thin story line, predictable plot or shallow stereotypical characters featured in this movie. It's not even the constant stream of amazingly improbable events, which give you the feeling the director hopelessly underestimated the reasoning abilities of his audience.

What left me disappointed and even a bit annoyed after seeing "Vertical Limit" is the absolute and total failure of this movie to capture any of the real thrill, excitement and hardship involved in scaling the world's second highest mountain.

Books like Jon Krakauers' "Into thin Air" and movies like David Breashears' "Everest" prove that you don't need helicopter rotor blades threatening to dismember climbers or unstable nitroglycerine that explodes if exposed to sunlight to create an exciting story. When Martin Campbell decided to deny the audience any sense of the real technical, physical and emotional challenges of climbing K2, and therefore had to resort to action-movie style heroes, villains and explosions, he left behind a movie too unconvincing, for me to enjoy.