Vertical Limit (2000)
Directed by Martin Campbell
Trapped near the summit of K2, the world's second-highest mountain, Annie Garrett radios to base camp for help. Brother Peter hears Annie's message and assembles a team to save her and her group before they succumb to K2's unforgiving elements. But, as Annie lays injured in an icy cavern, the rescuers face several terrifying events that could end the rescue attempt -- and their lives.
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What critics compared Vertical Limit to
Sharing far more similarities with real-life 1993 drama "Alive" than the action-centric likes of 1993's "Cliffhanger" and 2000's "Vertical Limit," director Kormákur is forthright in telling a story more about the ordeal of human endurance than calculated thrills.The ensemble is bursting with great actors, which makes their roles' shortage of complexity somewhat of a missed opportunity.
The impressive CGI devastation includes a Russian freighter floating up Fifth Avenue during a giant tidal surge, the Statue of Liberty covered in an icy crust and the "Hollywood" sign crumpling in a Los Angeles tornado, albeit reminiscent of "Twister," "The Core," "Deep Impact," "Armageddon," "Vertical Limit," etc..
A lot of that is due to an uneven focus between Quaid and Gyllenhaal, the former making a perilous cross-country journey but barely gets any screentime (short of one very “Vertical Limit”-esque sequence) to explore that, whilst the latter when not sitting around burning books, has a rather contrived (nevertheless fun) piece involving some CG wolves, a tanker ship and a rapidly descending quick freeze effect.