Review: FALL 2: DEADPOINT is Another Thrilling Climb With a Wonky Story

If there’s a promise that Fall 2: Deadpoint keeps as a sequel, it’s upping the ante. That’s not to say Fall was a straightforward, don’t-look-down thriller. On the contrary, The Spierig Brothers push beyond the single-location nightmare that is being stranded in the sky. Previous director Scott Mann reteams with Jonathan Frank to pen a continuation of Fall’s saga by tethering to Shiloh Hunter’s little sister, and it just gets battier from there. That’s not to say they fix any of the visual effects issues and cackamamie storytelling stumbles, if you were hoping for a more refined take on dangling from high ledges and absurd death drops.

Harriet Slater stars as Jax Hunter, who is still grieving the loss of her daredevil influencer sibling after the now-famous B-67 TV Tower climbing incident. Jax arranges a meeting with Shiloh’s friend Luce (Arsema Thomas) to sell off her sister’s recovered truck, but Luce sees an opportunity when thumbing through Shiloh’s “Fuck It” list (a scrapbook of future climbing locations). Luce convinces Jax to accompany her on an illegal climb atop Mount Kwan in Thailand to honor Shiloh, where, at the end, you encounter a dragon statue that devours your fears. So they ascend behind non-native guide Jon (Tom Brittney), reaching a thousand-miles-high plank walk, but it’s on the rickety wood planks spiked into Mount Kwan’s stone walls that an earthquake strands Jax and Luce, fastened to a rusty chain as their only safety precaution.

In simpler terms: scardycat lil’ sis tries to conquer her demons by doing the exact type of extreme stunt that killed the person she’s honoring.

Everything’s in the style of Fall, wherein the red flags of Jax and Luce’s trip are laid bare. Tourists aren’t supposed to climb in July because the weather is too dangerous; camera shots zoom in on the decrepit nature of loose steel rungs and unfastened bolts; Fentanyl smugglers die in an introduction attempting Jax and Luce’s same path. That’s not the draw—we know Jax and Luce will find themselves stuck in the clouds. It’s about what happens after, including absurd gymnastics with no harnesses, secret backstories, Jon’s disappearance-or-death, and the girls’ ability to stand (or sleep) on a two-board-wide surface with no impairments. If you thought Fall was ridiculous, Fall 2: Deadpoint leans into the “who cares” of survivalist details even further, which is both entertaining and outrageous (derogatory).

Therein lie my issues with Fall 2: Deadpoint, which I struggle to engage with as pure popcorn excitement. Storytelling pieces are shoved together to reach the ensuing trapped-on-a-ledge spectacle, with more unstable footing than what’s on screen. Jax and Luce use a secret password to meet Jon, a shady businessman hiding in a bar’s shadowy backroom, and think nothing of the predicament? After an earthquake divides Jon and the girls, he’s just … gone? Nothing to see here, move along? Then there’s Jax and Luce, who seem somewhat comfortable with their forced accommodations for the time being, not bothered by the elements or tiredness. That’s not to say certain parts aren’t worth a gasp, as the girls get resourceful when trying to lasso a far-away radio or shine laser pointers at disgruntled pool players in the aforementioned drinking establishment. But this isn’t A Lonely Place to Die or Cliffhanger, both of which handle unthinkable climbing scenarios far better.

Alas, Peter and Michael Spierig are working with the same iffy visual effects that weaken Fall. When the camera can focus tightly on climbers, framing small sections of wooden walkways as Jax, Luce, and Jon shuffle across, the illusion of height is maintained. The further back cinematographer Andrew Strahorn pulls, the shakier the green-screen blending and digital touches become. As someone with sincere vertigo feelings (The Rock’s Skyscraper had my palms sweaty), I never felt overwhelmed by Jax and Luce’s blurred gazes from high atop their perch. The practical Thailand sets all look fine, but when the film attempts to construct Mount Kwan and its cloud-piercing height—or to highlight further-away landscapes—the magic fades. There’s a lack of crispness to VFX backgrounds during the most adrenaline-pumping scenes; a duplication of the problems in Fall.

Slater and Thomas are hampered by their characters’ designs in a tale that layers on emotional hardships because, apparently, “fall and you die” wasn’t dramatic enough. Interactions can feel hollow and hokey, given how there’s plenty of trauma addressed that’s hardly earned. Questions pile up as Jax blindly follows a stranger, and the duo ignores fairly standard warnings, only for an absurd third act that piles on even more last-minute development on a speedrun level. Neither Slater nor Thomas calibrates their acting for the horrific event on hand, which distorts any sense of tonal balance. 

Fall 2: Deadpoint is a faithful sequel that largely retains the positives and negatives of Fall, while taking things a sizeable step forward. We haven’t heard from the Spierigs since 2018’s Winchester, so it’s nice to see their credit once more, and you can see certain aspects of Fall 2: Deadpoint that feel more cinematic. Unfortunately, Mann and Frank’s screenplay lays an unstable foundation that keeps zigging and zagging in ways that leave the experience a bit too wobbly. Frankly, no one on the production learned anything from the original film’s mistakes. At least that makes it easy? Wherever you landed on Fall, that’s probably where you’ll land here as well.

Movie Score: 2.5/5