Build a movie plot around this: How long does it take Gabe to return to the rangers station? Eight months
As the movie opens, we see a guy climbing along the underside of an outcropping from a tall mountain peak. He turns out to be Gabe Walker, a ranger with Rocky Mountain Rescue. (Yes, that makes him "Ranger Walker," and he is addressed as such several times during the course of the movie.) He is in communication with his co-worker and girlfriend, Jessie, who is on a chopper piloted by an older co-worker, Frank. The three are mounting a rescue of yet another co-worker, Hal Tucker, and his girlfriend Sarah, who is on her first climb. Hal and Sarah made it to the top of the mountain, but Hal has aggravated an old knee injury and can't make it back down.Gabe makes it to the top of the peak where Hal and Sarah are. The chopper drops Gabe a cable, which he secures, while the chopper lands on a nearby peak. All is set for the three to shuttle across the cable to where the chopper is. There is a lot of light-hearted banter as this is a routine operation that they all (except Sarah) do all the time. Hal goes first, and as he is crossing, Gabe asks Sarah how Hal persuaded her to accompany him on this escapade. She replies laconically, "He told me it's better than sex."Hal makes it across and now it's Sarah's turn. She is a little frightened at the thought of hanging from a cable 4,000 feet above the ground, but the fact that Hal crossed without incident is reassuring. Halfway across her equipment fails and suddenly she is hanging by a strap and unable to reach and grab onto the cable. Gabe quickly crosses to her and grabs her arm just as the strap breaks free. But they are unable to keep their grip on each other, and Sarah falls 4,000 feet to her death. This is by far the most dramatic and gripping scene in the movie and some viewers will be haunted by it for weeks afterwards. But really, except for providing some background for the interpersonal dynamics among the remaining characters, it has nothing to do with the plot of the rest of the movie.Fast forward eight months, and we pick up two different plot lines that will...