Two young climbers find themselves trapped, with no signal, atop a high radio tower in a desert, in this vertiginous low-budget thrill-ride.
Don’t look down! Unfortunately, that’s exactly the direction Scott Mann places his camera as he details Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter’s (Virginia Gardner) attempts to descend a 2,000-foot slither of a tower – the tallest structure in the U.S. – after the ladder that got them to the top falls away. The reason for their climb is explained in the film’s opening minutes – as much an act of recuperation as it is a thrill-seeking stunt, and Hunter’s solution to drawing Becky out of her emotional torpor. But they should have perhaps checked on the structure’s upkeep before embarking on the climb. Now, atop the tower, in the baking sun and with no way of contacting anyone on the ground (not that there’s a single living soul within a hundred miles), they have to rely on their skill, and overcome any fear of heights, to make it down.
Mann’s film revels in the minimalism of its conceit. It’s unlikely that his leads were ever more than a few feet off the ground, but cinematographer MacGregor’s spiralling camera and the use of convincing visual effects maintain the illusion of Becky and Hunter’s lofty position, while Currey and Gardner convince in their panic at the predicament they find themselves in.
