British director Scott Mann’s premise is deceptively simple. Two young women get stuck on the top of a rusty, 2,000ft TV tower with no apparent way down.
The opening act efficiently sets the scene for this ludicrous display of daring-do. Becky (Grace Fulton), her husband Dan (Mason Gooding, son of Cuba) and best friend Hunter (Virginia Gardner) are rock climbing when tragedy strikes.
Intrepid Dan is startled by a nesting bird, loses his grip and tumbles to his death. Almost a year later, booze-soaked Becky is dodging calls from her concerned dad (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) when the annoying Hunter strolls back into her life.
After subjecting the widow to a belated barrage of platitudes, Hunter makes a proposal – to mark the anniversary of Dan’s death and help Becky rediscover her zest for life, the pair will head into the Mojave desert to scale the B67 TV tower, an abandoned metal needle that stands twice the height of the Eiffel Tower.
The climb does seem pretty straightforward and after ascending by ladder the pair are trading high fives on the top. But Mann has been playing with our nerves all the way up. Bolts come loose, rusty joints creak and influencer Hunter tempts fate with cocky pronouncements for her YouTube channel.
Shortly after reaching the top, the ladder tumbles to earth and the pair are stranded. There is nobody for miles and they’re too high to get a mobile signal.
Like the best survival thrillers, the dilemma puts us in its victims’ shoes.
But it’s the awesome, vertigo-inducing spectacle of the thing that really gets to you. The fact that these seamless special effects were delivered on a miserly $3million budget is a truly astonishing feat.
Tom Cruise must be fuming.
