Izabella Scorupco and O'Donnell attempt a crevasse rescue. Accordingly, mountaineers who expect strict accuracy in their sport's depiction should skip Vertical Limit and wait for the next IMAX revival of Everest . Nevertheless, moviegoers who expect holiday thrills in the first big action movie out this month may find Vertical hasn't taken enough liberties with high-altitude alpinism. The Wages of Fear , which Vertical glancingly acknowledges. Things go wrong, so our hero has to go rescue her in traditional Hollywood fashion.
Base camp is a crowded international village with a laptop in every tent.
Peter has his choice of colorful climbers to assist in the rescue effort, including the requisite babe. Then out steps grizzled climber Scott Glenn like the Ancient Mariner to rebuke the billionaire's hubris. Toss in your avalanches, heroes dangling from helicopter skids, and regular cliff-hanging scenes and you've got a reasonably entertaining, if corny, movie. Glenn's appearance adds elements of murder mystery and revenge flick to the film, which signals its hypoxic desperation. The ragged script falls back on groaningly bad dialogue to communicate obvious plot points.