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:

This December. Fear will Fall. Courage will Rise.

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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

Director Martin Campbell's third collaboration with Stuart Wilson, with whom he had previously worked on No Escape (1994) and The Mask of Zorro (1998) and Campbell's second collaboration with Izabella Scorupco, with whom he worked on GoldenEye (1995).

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Goofs

In the helicopter, when Peter is going to the base camp, the headset the pilot is wearing keeps shifting position. In one shot, it is behind his right ear, the next shot it covers his ear, and the third shot it is back behind his ear again.

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Quotes

Montgomery Wick: You did the right thing to cut the rope. Any good climber would have. If Royce had had the knife, he'd have done it himself.

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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

Great Sound & Stunts, So-So Story

When I saw this shortly after it came out on DVD, it got high marks just for the spectacular sound alone. It had some of the best rear-speaker sound I had ever heard. It was a showpiece for DVD players at the time.

The movie is interesting with it's main fault being a common one: overdone action at the end. Along the way, however, it has many almost jaw-dropping scenes and some spectacular mountain scenery which looks great on the sharp DVD transfer. The stunt work in here is also incredible. Martin Campbell, the same director who did The Mask Of Zorro and Goldeneye, is good at producing eye-popping action scenes.

The dialog at times is juvenile, but it could have been worse. The profanity was lower than expected, too. How accurate is it concerning mountain-climbing? Probably like most films: totally inaccurate, at least that's what a mountain- climbing expert told me, and I believe him.

All in all, however, a far better film than I expected.....strictly for the entertainment.