‘Fall 2: Deadpoint’ Review: A Mostly Successful Sequel to the Dizzy Word-of-Mouth Sensation

A sequel should be similar to the film that preceded it, but not the same. That’s the conventional wisdom that, for better or worse, not all filmmakers observe when picking up the mantle of a series or franchise. But when they’re working from a high-concept premise, it’s a challenge especially fraught with risk. And following up Scott Mann’s “Fall” feels outwardly as risky as the climbing stunt that strands its daredevil best friends atop a 2,000-foot broadcasting tower.

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“Fall 2: Deadpoint,” directed by the Spierig Brothers from a script by Mann and his “Fall” cowriter Jonathan Frank, successfully replicates the vertiginous tension of the first film without feeling like a carbon copy. Unfortunately, its determination to recreate its predecessor’s personal conflicts and revelations, along with its narrative twists and turns, slightly hamstrings what is otherwise an extremely effective thrill ride, especially on the big screen.

Harriet Slater (“Tarot”) plays Jax Hunter, older sister to Shiloh (Virginia Gardner), who died in the first film. While selling off Shiloh’s belongings, she meets Luce (Arsema Thomas), a close friend of her sister who suggests that the two of them honor her legacy by tackling the next death-defying obstacle Shiloh hoped to conquer: the Devil’s Elbow, a treacherous plank walk on the side of a mountain in Thailand. Nursing regrets over the last words she said to Shiloh before her death, Jax agrees, especially after learning that the “Death Dragon” awaits them at the summit, promising to eat their fears if they reach it.

Upon their arrival in Thailand, Jax and Luce find a guide named John (Tom Brittney) who agrees to shepherd them around the Devil’s Elbow, despite inclement weather that makes the journey even more dangerous. But halfway through the trip, an earthquake strikes, causing an avalanche that destroys their mountainside path, separates them from John and strands them 4,000 feet in the air. Forced to go back the way they came, the duo navigates unforgiving terrain and unpredictable weather to try and get back to the ground, battling friction with each other — and their own fears — on the journey.

“Fall 2” follows “The Devil’s Mouth” as the second film released in as many months to be shot in Thailand, and you must wonder what tax rebates the country’s government is offering filmmakers to get them to set their young-adult thrillers there. Peter and Michael Spierig do a passable job matching the sets where the actors pretend to risk their lives with some real-life locations (there is a real Devil’s Elbow in Thailand, but this isn’t it), and notwithstanding enough loose steps, screws and cables to fill a “Final Destination” movie, the stunts are believably harrowing. (The most consistent danger characters seem to face is tetanus.) The brothers pepper in POV shots of the climbers to literally put the audience in their shoes, but don’t overplay their hand, maintaining palpable reality even when the challenges mount to comical levels.

But without delving into spoilers, the script also duplicates the unexpected disclosures from “Fall” that complicated the central friendship and challenged their survival, and quite frankly, they’re silly. A flashback reveals circumstances of the entirely justifiable rift that weighs on Jax after Shiloh’s death, but what transpires between her and Luce unfolds more like bullet points on a screenwriter’s checklist than natural developments in a burgeoning relationship. A third-act confrontation occurs at exactly the wrong time for people who are supposedly desperate to get off a godforsaken trail, turning a story of survival and self-actualization into a cartoon, and scuttling the tension.

Slater and Thomas are both likable, too often a rare quality among young adult protagonists, and Mann and Frank mostly give them good choices to make. Their leaps in fearlessness and ingenuity are believable, and you want to see Jax and Luce survive this ordeal, even with names straight out of a screenwriter’s imagination. Thomas isn’t a newcomer (she was a standout on TV’s “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story”), but hers is the breakthrough performance here. As their sherpa, Brittney conveys a convincing authority as John, even when his motivations don’t always seem honest.

Grace Caroline Currey briefly reprises her role as Becky from the original “Fall,” but given the announcement that Mann and Frank are set to tackle a third film in this series, her appearance feels more like the introduction of a new foe at the end of a Marvel movie than an organic tying-together of these films’ disparate strands. Admittedly, “Fall” doesn’t seem like the kind of film that one could even make a sequel for: Becky doesn’t seem likely to go up on a tower again, particularly after the deaths of both her husband and best friend. But Lionsgate, distributor of the 2003 shark survival movie “Open Water” and its two sequels, are savvy businesspeople, and with the Spierigs, they made the right choice to push the story forward.

That said, in an era of constant virality (we learn that Shiloh’s exploits and untimely death were a cultural flashpoint on social media), it’s easy to imagine other individuals trying copycat stunts — in which case, somebody at the studio probably could xerox a few more installments and just change the cast. Yet “Fall 2” still feels kinda special: if not hand-crafted, then at least mostly guided by the author of the original. Given the first film’s word-of-mouth success (it was discovered on Netflix after debuting in theaters in tenth place), it’s unclear if there’s actually a devoted fandom for this altitudinally-advantaged franchise or it was simply a welcome time-filler in the waning days of the pandemic. But anyone hoping for a similar-but-not-the-same experience will likely be satisfied.