Fall 2: Deadpoint Review - Vertigo-Fueled Sequel

We reunite with Jax (Harriet Slater), who’s clearly been through some stuff since we last saw her. To be fair, surviving a 2,000-foot fall will do that to a person. She’s trying to move on, but the trauma is still very fresh, which is where her best friend and climbing partner, Luce (Arsema Thomas), comes in. Luce, a pro climber with a daredevil streak, thinks the perfect therapy is to tackle the notoriously brutal Mount Kwan in Thailand. What could go wrong?

The plan: a scouting trip for a new climbing route. The reality: a terrifying ordeal that involves a crumbling rock face, a stash of smuggled goods (hello, Andrey Kasushkin’s shady character), and a whole lot of bad luck. When a crucial anchor point fails, Jax and Luce find themselves trapped on a sheer, exposed cliff face, thousands of feet above the jungle floor. With no way down and a storm rolling in, they have to rely on their wits, their physical strength, and their bond to survive. Tom Brittney and Einar Haraldsson show up as fellow climbers, adding a layer of “can they be trusted?” to the mix.

Let’s be real: you’re not here for a meticulously plotted exploration of the human psyche. You’re here for the gasp-inducing, thigh-clenching spectacle of people clinging to life by their fingertips, and “Deadpoint” delivers in spades. The Spierig brothers, who also directed the first film, clearly learned a few tricks. The scope is grander, the setting is more epic, and the cinematography of Mount Kwan is genuinely stunning, all sweeping vistas and dizzying, stomach-lurching drops.

The film’s secret weapon is its relentless pacing. There’s very little fat on this 98-minute runtime. It gets you to the mountain, sets the trap, and then spends the entire second and third acts putting Jax and Luce through the wringer. The sequences are inventive and terrifying, using the mountain's unique features - loose scree, overhangs, and sheer vertical drops - to create a series of unique, pulse-pounding scenarios. A particular scene involving a lightning storm and a metal piton will have you muttering “nope, nope, nope” under your breath.

Harriet Slater is fantastic as the trauma-stricken Jax. She carries the weight of her past with her, and her physical performance sells every moment of strain and exhaustion. But it’s Arsema Thomas who’s the real revelation here. Her Luce is a force of nature - confident, capable, and fiercely loyal. The dynamic between the two women, one scared and one seemingly fearless, gives the film its emotional grounding. It’s a straight-up buddy movie, but the buddy is a sheer cliff face.

Look, the dialogue can be a little on-the-nose, and the plot is as thin as the mountain air. There are a few leaps of logic that would make even the most seasoned BASE jumper wince. But you don't care. The movie works because of its masterful, almost sadistic ability to build and sustain tension. It knows exactly when to let you breathe, and exactly when to yank the rope (figuratively, of course). It’s a high-octane, high-elevation B-movie done with A-level polish, and it’s an absolute blast.

Pros

• Utterly terrifying and brilliantly executed climbing sequences.
• Harriet Slater and Arsema Thomas have fantastic chemistry and sell the physicality of the roles.
• Pacing is relentless; it never lulls.
• Gorgeous, widescreen cinematography of the Thai landscape.

Cons

• The plot is a thin, purely functional device to get to the “good stuff.”
• Some dialogue is clunky and on-the-nose.
• A few plot conveniences strain believability, even for a movie about climbing a mountain to heal trauma.

“Fall 2: Deadpoint” is the cinematic equivalent of holding your breath for an hour and a half. It’s not trying to be “The Revenant”; it’s trying to be a relentlessly entertaining, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride, and on that front, it succeeds spectacularly. It’s the perfect film to see with a crowd, where gasps and nervous laughter are part of the shared experience. It might not win any Oscars, but it absolutely wins the weekend. Don’t look down, but definitely don’t look away.