A ChucksConnection Film Review

 

Virgina Gardner wears red high top Converse “Chuck Taylor” All Stars in the film.

 

 

Fall

 

by Marcus Angulo

 

Hunter wears her red high top chucks as she and Becky approach the tower.

 

Are you afraid of heights? Do your knees knock if you are stuck in the sky? If you answered yes to either of these questions then you probably should not watch the 2022 film Fall. A survival thriller film directed and co-written by Scott Mann and Jonathan Frank, Fall stars Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Making $21 million against a $3 million budget, it was a box office success and proof that simple setups can make for great films.

Do NOT look down!.

Best friends Becky (Currey) and Hunter (Gardner) are climbing a mountain with Becky’s husband Dan (Gooding), who loses his footing and falls to his death. A year later, a heartbroken Becky has given up climbing and is an alcoholic recluse contemplating suicide. She’s also distanced herself from her father, James (Morgan), because he disapproved of her relationship with Dan. Before the anniversary of Dan’s death, Hunter asks Becky to come with her and climb a decommissioned 2,000-foot tall B-67 TV Tower in the desert before it is demolished the following winter. Hunter frames this as a good idea by saying that Becky can scatter Dan's ashes from the top as a form of healing. A fearful Becky initially refuses before agreeing to go, hoping to finally move on and be the person she used to be.

 

Nowhere to go but down.

 

The next day, Hunter and Becky arrive at the tower and begin their climb. There are plenty of warning signs on their way up, like loose screws and rusted metal, but they press on willed by Hunter’s enthusiasm. Eventually, they successfully climb a severely corroded ladder to a tiny platform at the top of the tower, where Becky scatters Dan’s ashes. The two then begin their descent, but the ladder breaks, stranding them several hundred feet above the next intact section and almost two thousand feet above the ground. To make matters worse, the backpack with their water and drone have fallen onto a communications dish, just beyond the reach of their rope. The radio signal of the tower interferes with their cell service so they are unable to call for help. They are stranded on a platform 2,000 feet up with only each other to rely on as their friendship and will is tested.

 

Go for help Lassie!

 

This film is a throwback to when a movie pitch was simple and effective. The bulk of this film is just two actors holding onto dear life on a ten-foot platform 2,000 feet in the air. There are no huge sets or complicated concepts, it is concise and that draws you in. This puts a lot of weight on the chemistry between your two leads and Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner knock it out of the park. They seem like lifelong friends and it helps you buy into why Becky would agree to go up this tower in the first place. This also makes the heartbreak at the end of the film much more tragic and emotional. A thrilling and quick film, Fall is an easy choice to watch on a weekend when you’re looking to be stressed and tense.

Best Chucks Scene

 

The twist that comes in this scene is an all-timer.

 

The best chucks scene in the film is also the best scene in the film and it is what took this film to another level. (Spoiler Alert) At the climax of the movie, Becky and Hunter are delirious due to the lack of food and water. Becky decides that they will try to drop the phone again with Hunter’s other shoe. She tells Hunter to hand over her remaining red Chuck Taylor but Hunter says that she can’t. Becky asks why and Hunter reveals that she isn’t there, she’s “down there”. Hunter had actually fallen onto the communication dishes when retrieving the backpack and died; Becky has been hallucinating her presence since then. The shock and reveal of this moment is staggering as you realize one of the two main characters has been dead for a good chunk of the movie, and seeing Becky’s reaction to this realization is heartbreaking. The next day, Becky climbs down to the dish where Hunter’s body lies and types a text message to her father. She then puts the phone into Hunter's shoe for protection, shoves it into a hole that vultures had eaten in her corpse's abdomen, and pushes it off the tower. Hunter’s body cushions the impact and the message is sent as Becky cries for her lost friend. It is a truly heartbreaking and impactful turn that makes the movie.

 

Becky uses Hunter’s remaining high top in a last-ditch effort to get help.

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