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Critics Consensus

Fundamentally absurd yet as evocatively minimalist as its title, Fall is a sustained adrenaline rush for viewers willing to suspend disbelief. Read critic reviews

Audience Says

As long as you don't go in expecting anything realistic, Fall is a solidly suspenseful B-movie done right. Read audience reviews

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Fall videos, fall photos.

For best friends Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner), life is all about conquering fears and pushing limits. But after they climb 2,000 feet to the top of a remote, abandoned radio tower, they find themselves stranded with no way down. Now Becky and Hunter's expert climbing skills will be put to the ultimate test as they desperately fight to survive the elements, a lack of supplies, and vertigo-inducing heights in this adrenaline-fueled thriller costarring Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Rating: PG-13 (Intense Peril|Bloody Images|Strong Language)

Genre: Mystery & thriller

Original Language: English

Director: Scott Mann

Producer: David Haring , James Harris , Mark Lane , Scott Mann , Christian Mercuri

Writer: Jonathan Frank , Scott Mann

Release Date (Theaters): Aug 12, 2022 wide

Box Office (Gross USA): $7.2M

Runtime: 1h 47m

Distributor: Lionsgate Films

Production Co: Tea Shop Productions, Capstone Studios

Cast & Crew

Grace Caroline Currey

Virginia Gardner

Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Mason Gooding

Julia Pace Mitchell

Jasper Cole

Dog Walker Dan

Jonathan Frank

Screenwriter

David Haring

James Harris

Christian Mercuri

Roman Viaris

Executive Producer

Barry Brooker

Cinematographer

Robert Hall

Film Editing

Original Music

Scott Daniel

Production Design

Pete Hickok

Art Director

Lisa Catalina

Costume Design

Colin Jones

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‘Fall’ Review: A Don’t-Look-Down Thriller That Will Have You Clutching Your Seat

Two women climb an abandoned TV tower in the desert, and we're with them every shivery step.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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“ Fall ” is a very good “don’t look down” movie. It’s a fun, occasionally cheesy, but mostly ingeniously made thriller about two daredevil climbers, Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner), who decide to scale the B67 TV tower — an abandoned 2,000-foot communication tower that juts up in the middle of the California desert. It’s based on an actual structure (the KXTV/KOVR Tower outside Sacramento), which is used like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the skyscraper that became the pedestal for Tom Cruise’s you-are-there stunt sequences in “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol.” And if, like me, you loved that movie in part because of how deviously it toyed with your fear of heights, “Fall” is likely to hit you as an irresistible piece of vertigo porn. It’s for anyone who ate up “Ghost Protocol,” as well as the awesome rock-climbing documentaries “Free Solo” and “The Dawn Wall,” and wants to continue that shivery vicarious high.

Critics, for some reason, now like to mock the visual sleight-of-hand that goes into a thriller like this one, as if the CGI involved were all too easy to see through. But in this case I couldn’t disagree more. “Fall” was shot in the Imax format in the Mojave Desert, and there are moments when I honestly don’t know how the director, Scott Mann , the cinematographer, MacGregor, and the two actors did it. Were they actually on a tower — and, if so, how high up? Were there stunt people, or was every bit of this brought off with computer trickery?

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The abandoned TV tower, like the KXTV/KOVR Tower, is, we’re told, the fourth highest structure in the U.S. It has a photogenic vermilion finish (imagine the Golden Gate Bridge as a rusty hypodermic needle), and it turns out to be the perfect setting for a movie about climbing into the sky. As the two women ascend, the desert below looks like something viewed from an airplane. The trick is that the elements of the image are all visually united: tower, horizon, climbers. Without a cut, the film will glide from close-ups to vertically angled drops to death-defying panoramas; the light and shadow are always just right. You know how it feels when you watch an old movie with rear projection that’s laughably fake? “Fall,” by contrast, represents a totally credible and innovative use of CGI. Watching the movie, we believe our eyes and, therefore, our raised pulses.

The two women have agreed to make this climb as a way to wrest Becky out of her funk. In the film’s opening sequence, we see the two ascending a vertical rock face along with Becky’s husband, Dan (Mason Gooding), who winds up plunging to his death. A year passes, and Becky can’t let go — of him, or of the anxiety that has calcified around the tragedy. Facing her fear, scaling that TV tower along with her best friend (they plan to scatter Dan’s ashes when they get to the top), is the only thing that will purge the demon.

As terrifyingly tall as the tower is, it doesn’t strike us as something that would offer that much of a challenge to highly experienced climbers. There’s a ladder on the inside of the caged needle that goes up for 1,800 feet. For the remaining 200 feet, the ladder is outside the structure. I wouldn’t want to climb 30 feet of it, but these two aren’t scared of heights, and the feat they’ve laid out for themselves looks a hell of a lot easier than shimmying over the smooth plunging rock faces they’re used to. That’s why they succeed pretty quickly. Half an hour into the movie, they’ve ascended to the small circular platform up top.

But along the way the whole structure has been quivering, with telltale shots of a nut or a bolt coming undone here and there. It’s the outside ladder that’s getting loose, and as they take the last steps, a chunk of it falls out from under them, the weight of that chunk pulling the rest of the ladder down with it. Just like that, they’re stranded. The cylindrical pole that’s left is too smooth to climb down. The rope they have isn’t long enough. And though they’ve got their phones, they’re up too high to get service. There is nothing up there but the two of them and their do-or-die ingenuity.

At the start of the movie, Hunter is all giddy enthusiasm, like a Reese Witherspoon go-getter from the ’90s, and Becky, lost in her malaise, is all po-faced misery and dread. But the two actors show you how these women come alive, and connect, by climbing. It’s through their expressive skill that we believe in what we’re seeing. “Fall” was made for just $3 million, and it’s good enough to remind me of another perilous small-scale thriller centered on two people doing all they can to survive: “Open Water,” the scary 2003 indie that basically extended the opening sequence of “Jaws” over 80 minutes. Movies like these come with built-in narrative devices — like, for instance, the soap-opera revelation that comes up between Becky and Hunter. There are moments when the script overdoes the millennial effrontery, especially when it’s focused on Hunter’s identity as a YouTuber who wants to document the whole climb for her 60,000 followers (“This bad boy is over 2,000 feet tall, and your homegirls are going to be climbing to the tippy tippy top!”).

Mostly, though, we’re with these two, living through every vulture attack and sudden drop that involves something like hanging from a rope and trying to grab a stranded backpack. Is there a pedestrian below who could save them? The movie deals with that possibility in a way that recalls the Robert Redford-stranded-at-sea movie “All Is Lost.” “Fall” is a technical feat of a thriller, yet it’s not without a human center. It earns your clenched gut and your white knuckles.

Reviewed online, Aug. 9, 2022. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 107 MIN.

Production: A Lionsgate release of a Tea Shop Production, Capstone Studios, Grindstone Entertainment Group production, in association with Flawless, Cousin Jones. Producers: David Haring, James Harris, Mark Lane, Scott Mann, Christian Mercuri. Executive producer: Roman Viaris, Barry Brooker, John Long, Dan Asma.
Crew: Director: Scott Mann. Screenplay: Jonathan Frank, Scott Mann. Camera: MacGregor. Editor: Robert Hall. Music: Tim Despic.
With: Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Mason Gooding.

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Review: Two women alone on a platform 2,000 feet in the air? ‘Fall’ somehow makes it work

Two women perched on a small platform high in the sky.

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One of cinema’s great wonders is the way a few moving pictures on a flat screen — composed and choreographed just so — can make a viewer’s palms sweat and heart race. Just look at “Fall,” a survival thriller that at times feels like an extended experiment in audience-poking, testing how many times director Scott Mann can induce a state of mild panic by repeatedly showing the same image. That image? Two young women standing on a small metal platform, perched 2,000 feet above the ground, attached to a narrow tower with no ladder.

“Fall” stars Grace Caroline Currey as Becky, a skilled mountain climber still reeling a year after witnessing the accidental death of her husband during an ascent. Virginia Gardner plays her best friend, Hunter, a social media influencer and daredevil who tries to shake Becky out of her torpor by inviting her along as she shimmies up an abandoned communications tower in the desert. On the way up, the ladies do have a ladder — rusty and shaky. But while they’re triumphantly taking selfies at the top, the way back down collapses.

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Mann and his co-writer, Jonathan Frank, follow a lot of the formulas for these kinds of movies, for better and for worse. On the downside, they pad out their story with Becky’s personal trauma, making her unresolved feelings about her husband’s death a bigger part of the plot than they need to be.

On the upside, “Fall” does what the best survival movies do, by carefully enumerating the resources the heroes have at their disposal so that we can enjoy watching them figure out how to deploy these pieces wisely — or wince as they waste chances. At the moment when the ladder crashes, Becky and Hunter have no cell service, and the backpack with their water is stuck on a dish about 20 feet below them. But they do have a drone camera, a flare gun, two phones and climbing gear. How can they use what they have to get help, while avoiding the circling vultures and whipping winds?

A similar question could be asked of the filmmakers: Can they do enough with this tiny amount of material to fill a whole movie? Well … sort of. Mann and Frank throw in some unexpected twists and obstacles; but while this film is quite long, it still feels like it’s missing one or two more story beats, either early or late. The space occupied by Becky’s heartbreak could’ve been filled with something more viscerally gripping.

That said: Oh jeez, that tower is so tall, and that platform so small, and those women look like they’re barely hanging on. For the most part, “Fall” works because it plucks on the same raw nerve, over and over. How many times can Mann freak out the audience by cutting to a vertiginous shot of the unfolding crisis? Every time. Sometimes cinema is simple.

'Fall'

Rating: PG-13, for bloody images, intense peril and strong language Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes Playing: In general release Aug. 12

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A Movie So Ideal for the End of Summer That It’s Actually Called Fall

August has always been a wasteland, the Sunday night of months, when the weather is at its sticky worst and everybody who has the ability to fuck off to someplace more pleasant has already done so. If you don’t have the means, there’s the cheaper sanctuary of the cineplex, with its welcoming darkness and arctic air-conditioning — except that after a summer in which theatrical releases mounted a rousing comeback , the studios neglected to schedule any big movies for this period in which we most need something dumb and fun. Fortunately, there’s a not-that-big movie that fits the bill of being silly and simple enough to fill a lazy afternoon without demanding anything strenuous from its audience at all. That movie is Fall , in which two young women climb up to the top of a remote TV tower for the sake of closure — and also content — and then get stuck up there.

Fall is part of that grand cinematic tradition in which attractive actors get trapped somewhere dangerous and have to struggle to save themselves, hopefully for at least the 80 minutes required for an acceptable feature-length. Recent-ish participants include Ryan Reynolds, who in a lull in his career back in 2010 spent the entirety of Buried in a wooden coffin; his spouse Blake Lively, who was trapped on a rock in the ocean by a persistent shark in the improbably good in 2016’s The Shallows ; and Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore, and Kevin Zegers, who got marooned on a ski lift suspended over some convenient wolves in 2010’s Frozen . Like those movies, what Fall offers is a double layer of tension. Will Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner) figure out a way to make it off a 2,000-foot TV tower unscathed? And will writer-director Scott Mann figure out a way to draw out the suspense for long enough when there are only so many things that can happen on top of a 2,000-foot TV tower and one of them is in the title?

Does it really matter? I’m tired. Tapped out. I have no means for a vacation at the moment and nothing else left to give to this season, and Fall asks for so little that it feels like too much to demand something as basic as logic or characters in return. See, Becky’s husband Dan (Mason Gooding) died during a rock-climbing excursion the two of them were taking with Hunter, and a year later, Becky’s still mourning — you can tell by the fact that she drinks alone at bars. Then Hunter, her internet-famous bestie, shows up with a proposal that will help Becky get her mojo back: They’re going to climb the decommissioned B67 TV tower out in the California desert. Becky is a sad brunette and Hunter is a fun blonde, and that’s about all there is to the two, despite a brief gesture toward an extreme-sports frenemies dynamic right out of The Descent . Braving the height looks like the bigger challenge at first — there’s a ladder up the side of the tower, so it doesn’t require Spider-Man-like free-climbing skills. But then the ladder, rusted and neglected, sheers off, leaving the two women trapped on a narrow platform high above the earth.

There’s blistering sun, and an attempt to get help with a flare gun, and when things get really desperate, some marauding vultures. Mann and his crew built a version of the tower close to a cliff to give his shots a real sense of dizzying height and a more tangible sense of danger. An incredibly weak twist pays off with a hilariously gruesome, triumphant finale. But what really makes Becky and Hunter’s little saga so seasonally appropriate is that it feels like a consolation for those of us feeling a little stuck ourselves. These two daring, adventure-seeking women head off for what’s supposed to be a fun getaway that tests their limits and restores their sense of self, and what happens? They get stranded, sunburnt and dehydrated, unable to get a phone signal or anyone’s attention as scavengers try to eat them. Sure, the vertiginous shots up the side of the tower are stomach-turning, but what’s really satisfying is the message that sometimes it’s better just to stay home. It’s Fall , get it? Summer is over.

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Screen Rant

Fall review: an unexciting entry in the survival thriller genre.

Fall will be torturous for anyone afraid of heights but could otherwise be a bit of a bore for someone looking for thrills that go beyond that.

Like spinning a wheel labeled with people's greatest fears and landing on acrophobia, the latest entry in the thriller subgenre of single-location, anxiety-inducing situations is Fall , a movie that will be torturous for anyone afraid of heights but could otherwise be a bit of a bore for someone looking for thrills that go beyond that. Movies like Fall don't require much character work, nor do they need much plot beyond the situation at the center of the film and Fall is no overachiever. With predictable twists and one grating character, the Lionsgate movie tries to do something different from others like it, but it can't quite reach the heights that its main characters aren't (and should be) afraid of.

Fall follows Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner) who, when the movie opens, are climbing a rock face with Becky's husband Dan (Mason Gooding). When Dan tragically falls to his death, Becky is sent into a tailspin of grief, giving up her favorite pastimes of free-climbing and pole-dancing to wallow alone at the bar. Soon enough, Hunter shows up with a proposition to climb a 2,000-foot tall radio tower. Mainly, it's so she can film a drone video of Becky hanging from the ledge for her 60,000 followers. When Becky and Hunter reach the top of the out-of-commission tower, the ladder falls, and they are stuck nearly half a mile above the desert with no cell service, no water, and no way down.

Related: Prey Review: Predator Franchise Is Revived In Efficient & Violent Thriller

As far as survival thrillers go, Fall follows the playbook established by films like 47 Meters Down or Crawl . As Becky and Hunter look out at the desert surrounding them, Fall offers plenty of visuals that are rendered well enough, with the desert surrounding them becoming even more deadly 2,000 feet above the ground. With limited space to move, it adds a new dimension to claustrophobic thrillers, one that makes the sky just as scary as the endless ocean in survival thrillers like Open Water .

Unfortunately, it doesn't add much to the genre itself. One twist that's supposed to land with an emotional punch is telegraphed early on and in a way that will make what's coming quite obvious to keen viewers. Another twist, while not as obvious, doesn't land as well as it's supposed to. Fall's nearly two-hour runtime also makes the circumstances feel drawn out when thrillers like these are better served with brisk runtimes that don't allow for much thought in between their obligatory plot points.

As Becky and Hunter's circumstances become increasingly dire, their efforts at rescue become almost laughable. That's the problem with Fall's setup. There's not much they can do except watch from 2,000 feet in the air as their attempts fail. There's no way for them to climb down and no way for them to call for help. They must rely on hair-brained attempts at contacting those on the ground and when those fail, there's not much left. While their attempts at rescue are funny, nothing is as funny as the film's incorporation of Becky's pole-dancing skills or its use of the song "Cherry Pie" by Warrant in one nail-biting sequence.

Gardner and Currey do what they can with the material, but both Gooding and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (as Becky's father) are criminally underused, a fault of the film's setup more than anything else. Sure, the film adds a new perspective to the survival thriller genre, but it relies so heavily on the idea that heights are scary (even if its protagonists don't think so) that there's not much left beyond that by the end of the film. When Fall concludes, it commits a cardinal sin of the genre that may have audiences scratching their heads.

Fall releases in theaters on August 12. The film is 107 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for bloody images, intense peril, and strong language.

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Profanity and mixed messages in perilous pulse-pounder.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Themes of friendship, facing your fears, and livin

The main characters are young women who are incred

Story centers on two strong, brave female mountain

Explicit modeling of reckless, dangerous choices.

Women wear low-cut tank tops, athletic gear, night

Frequent use of profanity, including "ass," "a--ho

Grieving character gets drunk and has to be stoppe

Positive Messages

Themes of friendship, facing your fears, and living life to the fullest. That said, living by this mantra gets the characters into a life-threatening situation.

Positive Role Models

The main characters are young women who are incredibly strong and brave, as well as creative problem solvers.

Diverse Representations

Story centers on two strong, brave female mountain climbers/adventurers, Becky and Hunter, though there are moments in which they're objectified. Black supporting character.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Explicit modeling of reckless, dangerous choices. Peril comes from characters putting themselves in a dangerous situation, but threats that come from nature are terrifying, realistic, sometimes fatal. Wounds are bloody and graphic. Vultures peck and disembowel a carcass; organs seen. Suicidal intent displayed.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Women wear low-cut tank tops, athletic gear, nightgowns and are photographed through "the male gaze." Hunter is a YouTuber whose memorable mantra is "t-ts for clicks!" Pole-dancing reference and quick visual. Romantic conversation between married couple in bed together.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent use of profanity, including "ass," "a--hole," "d--k," "screw that," "s--t," "son of a bitch," "t-ts," and "whore." One use of "f--k off."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Grieving character gets drunk and has to be stopped from driving. Prescription pills are taken, and a character pours many into her hand to indicate that she's considering intentionally overdosing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Fall is an action thriller dealing with overcoming grief and fear. It centers on two young, adventurous women -- Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter ( Virginia Gardner ) -- who may be aspirational figures for teen girls. They're incredibly brave, and one is a fearless daredevil. But -- and perhaps this is because almost everyone behind the camera is a middle-aged man -- there are elements that undermine the female-empowering storyline. For example, there's a gratuitous pole-dancing scene. And the camera doesn't miss an opportunity to show how their tops just can't contain their breasts ("t-ts for clicks!" is Hunter's mantra). The women are trying to survive the elements, and the peril they face is nonstop and intense. Injuries are graphic, bloody, and even deadly. A despondent character gets drunk in a bar, almost drives home, and contemplates suicide. Persistent use of profanity includes "ass," "d--k," "s--t," and "f--k off." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

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Kids say (62)

Based on 18 parent reviews

Warning, not for young teens

Great 11 and up., what's the story.

In FALL, rock climbers Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter ( Virginia Gardner ) set out to climb one of the United States' largest structures, an abandoned radio tower. When the 2,000-foot climb doesn't go as planned, the women must find a way to get to safety -- or die trying.

Is It Any Good?

Two women climb to new heights, only to find they can't escape the patriarchy in writer-director Scott Mann's vertigo-inducing actioner. Fall is competently made, with cinematography that will have viewers on the edge of their seats. It's one part suspense, one part horror. This is about surviving the elements, like a different kind of Cast Awa y -- one borne out of the main characters' recklessly overconfident decisions. And, just like in a horror movie, viewers will want to yell at the screen: "Don't do it!"

From a parenting standpoint, there's a great benefit to that approach: Perhaps, when faced with the option of participating in dangerous situations, teens who've seen Fall will "know better" because they've walked in the characters' shoes. There's no doubt that Mann is a dad, especially when the storyline takes a turn that reinforces the idea that "Father knows best." But there's also no doubt that Mann and his co-writer Jonathan Frank are men who grew up seeing women portrayed on screen in a different way than we expect today -- and that's where Fall plummets. Warrant's "Cherry Pie" blasts throughout, and it's hard to imagine that two 28-year-old women in 2022 would even know this sexist 1990 anthem, much less make it their ring tone. They're wardrobed so that their breasts spill out of their shirts, with Mann so aware that it's objectification nonsense that he writes a justification into the script. And, somehow in this story that's about a woman finding her inner strength when she's already incredibly physically strong, the script finds a way to make it about men ( sigh ). Just like Becky and Hunter's plans, this film starts with promise, only to drop with a thud.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the appeal -- and risks -- of extreme sports. Why do you think people choose to participate in dangerous activities? What role do YouTube and social media play in encouraging creators to attempt wild stunts?

Would you call Fall "female-forward storytelling"? Why, or why not? How do you think it might have been different if it were written or directed by a woman?

What are the movie's messages? Does the story undercut those messages? If so, how? What will you take away?

Is drinking glamorized? Are there realistic consequences? Why does that matter?

Talk about the courage that Becky and Hunter demonstrate. Is it misguided, given the events that transpire? Where's the line between daring and foolhardy?

Movie Details

In theaters : August 12, 2022
On DVD or streaming : September 27, 2022
Cast : Grace Caroline Currey , Virginia Gardner , Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Director : Scott Mann
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Lionsgate
Genre : Thriller
Topics : Sports and Martial Arts , Friendship
Character Strengths : Courage , Teamwork
Run time : 107 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : bloody images, intense peril, and strong language
Last updated : September 29, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Fall – Movie Review (3/5)

Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | Aug 11, 2022 | 4 minutes

FALL is a new thriller that is part survival and part fear-of-heights terror. It works surprisingly well, and can even handle the fairly long runtime. In other words, do check it out. Read our full Fall movie review here!

FALL is a new fear-of-heights thriller that is every bit as much a subgenre as “shark horror” is. I mean, just think about how many people suffer from fear of heights. Also, for most people, it’s a fear they’re confronted with quite often. Not many people, who fear sharks, ever have to be near them.

I wasn’t sure that this movie could handle a runtime of 1 hour and 47 minutes. In my mind, this should be around the 90-minute mark. However, yet again, I had to just pack away my own ideas about what “should be”. This movie has enough to last as long as it does.

Continue reading our Fall movie review below. The film is out in theaters from August 12, 2022.

Simple concept, perfectly executed

The story that turned into Fall was actually conceived as a short film. Fortunately, it turned out that there was enough there to create a feature film.

Inspired by movies such as Brad Bird’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (where the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai is scaled) and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin’s Oscar®-winning documentary Free Solo , they went to work. Especially that last one is easy to see in the opening scene.

The result: Best friends Becky ( Grace Caroline Currey ) and Hunter ( Virginia Gardner ) climb 2,000 feet to the top of a remote, abandoned radio tower. After reaching the platform and getting ready to get back down, pieces of the tower collapse and they find themselves stranded with no way down.

For a few moments, I did fear that some relationship drama would take up space. However, it was just a small part of the movie. Also, while some elements along the way might annoy you, just hang in there until the complete story has been told.

No green screen, just pure terror

To keep it real and get all the best shots, the filmmakers decided to actually shoot this on a platform out in the real world. Sure, some movie magic is included (they’re not the full 2,000 feet in the air with no safety net). But no green screen was used for Fall .

Of course, this also meant that the casting included making sure that the two stars could handle heights. Fortunately, both Grace Caroline Currey (Becky) and Virginia Gardner (Hunter) could work with heights. Both work remarkably well in this movie!

In the only other two roles that actually matter, we see Jeffrey Dean Morgan ( The Unholy ) as Becky’s father, while Mason Gooding ( Scream 5 ) plays her husband.

Fall (2022) – Review | Fear-of-heights Action-Thriller

Insanely sweaty palms

While I am not crazy about heights, I don’t really have a fear of heights. I know as much because my Heaven of Horror co-founder, Nadja, does have a fear of heights. As a result, her palms (and even her feet) started sweating profusely… and that was from just watching the trailer !

Watching the entire Fall movie was like an actual workout. Within the 107-minute runtime, there is probably at least a good 90 minutes of full-on terror for anyone uncomfortable with heights.

While I was experiencing increased heart rate and thought it was very fascinating (and yes, out of my comfort zone), she was sweating and squirming. So much that her Fitbit complimented her on the fact that she was getting a solid workout.

What I’m trying to say is simply that watching this survival movie will probably feel like an actual survival experience if you have a fear of heights.

Consider yourself warned!

And also, go for it , it’s a great way to explore just how bad your fear of heights is.

Watch Fall in theaters – if you dare!

Scott Mann is the director of Fall with the screenplay written by him and Jonathan Frank ( Mara ). Scott Mann previously directed the movies The Tournament (2009) and Heist (2015) . Currently, the two have a new survival movie in pre-production.

The title is Tsunami LA which probably tells you all you need to know!

To double down on having people attached who knew how to create survival terror, producer James Harris is also onboard. He produced the movie 47 Meters Down which deals with both the fear of sharks as well as claustrophobia and fear of drowning.

With Fall , the filmmakers have stated that they “wanted it to be the ultimate fear of heights movie” and they might just have succeeded. The simplicity of this concept is executed so well that it gets under your skin as the story (and survival element of the story) evolves!

Fall is out in theaters from August 12, 2022.

Director: Scott Mann Writers: Scott Mann, Jonathan Frank Cast: Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, Jeffrey Dean Morgan

For best friends Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner), life is all about conquering fears and pushing limits. But after they climb 2,000 feet to the top of a remote, abandoned radio tower, they find themselves stranded with no way down. Now Becky and Hunter’s expert climbing skills will be put to the ultimate test as they desperately fight to survive the elements, a lack of supplies, and vertigo-inducing heights in this adrenaline-fueled thriller costarring Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

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About The Author

Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!

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Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner in Fall (2022)

When a high-rise climb goes wrong, best friends Becky and Hunter find themselves stuck at the top of a 2,000-foot TV tower. When a high-rise climb goes wrong, best friends Becky and Hunter find themselves stuck at the top of a 2,000-foot TV tower. When a high-rise climb goes wrong, best friends Becky and Hunter find themselves stuck at the top of a 2,000-foot TV tower.

Jonathan Frank
Grace Caroline Currey
Virginia Gardner
Mason Gooding
937 User reviews
204 Critic reviews
62 Metascore
4 nominations

Becky Connor

Shiloh Hunter

James Conner

Police Officer

Diner Server
(as Julia Mitchell)
Flower Girl
Confused Truck Driver
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Trivia The filmmakers had considered green screen or digital sets, but ultimately opted for the real thing. They decided to build the upper portion of the tower on top of a mountain so that the actors would really appear to be thousands of feet in the air, even though in real life they were never more than a 100 feet (30 meters) off the ground.
Goofs IPhone battery indicator shows fully charged when the main character uses her phone for the last time.

Becky : Life is fleeting. Life is short, too short. So you gotta use every moment. You have to do something that makes you feel alive, and that shit, that would spread that message far and wide.

Alternate versions The UK Blu-ray includes both the theatrical version and the uncut version.
Connections Featured in Projector: Fall (2022) (2022)
Soundtracks I Have Never Felt More Alive Written by Madison Beer and Big Taste (as Leroy Clampitt) Performed by Madison Beer Courtesy of Epic Records By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment

User reviews 937

Aug 12, 2022
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August 12, 2022 (United States)
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Cú Rơi Tử Thần
Shadow Mountains, Mojave Desert, California, USA (Tower)
Capstone Global
Tea Shop Productions
Capstone Studios
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$3,000,000 (estimated)
Aug 14, 2022
$17,363,261

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 47 minutes

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Fall Movie Review : A terrific survival thriller with heart pounding intensity

Times Of India

In-depth Analysis

Our overall critic’s rating is not an average of the sub scores below.

Fall - Official Trailer

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Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive . Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.

Saumen Bagchi 921 329 days ago

It is not so horrific and spine chilling , there was more room to make it better

K K 402 days ago

Could have been better. However, worth a watch as it conveys a message to the vloggers to be cautious and absolutely sure of what they want to do before engaging in dangerous stunts in the name of adventure and gaining fame through social media

Surya Manupati 24 405 days ago

Another Version of the 2013 movie Gravity. Same tropes and everything. But yeah not bad, nothing great either.

Smruti Ranjan Jena 32213 471 days ago

one time okay movie................

Kaushik Biswas 5481 472 days ago

A really wonderful one. A new type and tension build up is nicely done. A very good story and script. Nicely done movie.

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’Fall' is An Edge-of-Your-Seat Thriller Filled With Gravity

Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner star as thrill-seeking climbers who become trapped in this taught new movie.

(L to R) Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner in 'Fall.'

‘ Fall ’ is now in theaters and it might just have you re-thinking plans to climb abandoned, rusty, remote towers that stretch 2,000 feet high above the desert sky.

Actually, if you were already considering planning to climb abandoned, rusty, remote towers that stretch 2,000 feet high above the desert sky, you might already want to re-think your life choices as a whole.

Still, stranding a pair of thrill-seekers thousands of feet in the sky certainly makes for a pulse-pounding drama, which gets a lot out of a little. And that’s not a criticism – ‘Fall’ offers stripped-down thrills and eschews excess for an effective story, at least until close to the end.

The movie kicks off with a throwback to Sylvester Stallone classic ‘ Cliffhanger ’, in which Becky ( Grace Caroline Currey ), husband Dan ( Mason Gooding ) and daredevil Hunter ( Virginia Gardner ) are climbing an impressive cliff face when Dan falls and is killed (this is hardly a spoiler, as it literally kicks off the movie).

Becky is shattered by the event – though probably not as much as Dan – and, mired in grief for nearly a year, shies away from any dangerous activities beyond getting drunk in bars. Her father James ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan in a small, but emotional role) tries to pull her out of it to little effect.

Yet it’s Hunter who finally convinces Becky to get back out there, proposing a new challenge – the women will climb the 2,000-foot-high B67 TV Tower that sits abandoned in the sweltering, dusty California desert. Becky is naturally nervous to attempt it, but Hunter’s energy and cajoling helps her come back out of her shell and clambering on to the ladder.

Climbing up the tower is scary yet exciting for the pair, but when a rusted external ladder breaks and falls away, they’re left stranded high above the ground. And that’s where the drama really begins.

Director/co-writer Scott Mann and co-writer Jonathan Frank originally conceived the idea as a short for a program that didn’t go ahead and have since re-tooled it into this feature. Its roots as a short piece are still evident – a lot of the kinks have been worked out, and the movie uses its sparse premise to figure out some fresh dramatic opportunities.

Grace Caroline Currey in 'Fall.'

Currey, who you might know from ‘ Annabelle: Creation ,’ ‘ Shazam! ’ and TV’s ‘Revenge’ shares the lion’s share of the screen time with Gardner (2018’s ‘ Halloween ’, ‘ Project Almanac ’). Both actors make their characters work as the story unfolds and the pair tries to let someone that they’re stuck.

You buy into the idea that these women have known each other for years and, as the mood shifts slightly on the windswept top of the platform, they both ensure that characters (particularly Hunter) who could be annoying, never go fully that way.

With the main throughline, it’s Currey who makes the biggest impression, carrying the weight of a character searching for a way out of her crushing grief and sadness. She finds it in the thrill of accomplishment, though that soon turns back into nerve-shredding fear. Gardner does good work as Hunter, too, though.

You’ll want both of them to survive, even if you do wonder what the hell they were thinking in the first place. Being brave is one thing, but stupidly failing to bring tools that could help in the event of different scenarios is quite another.

Virginia Gardner in 'Fall.'

Outside of our dynamic duo, the cast is mostly limited to Morgan’s brief moment and the few people on the ground who come anywhere near the tower – suffice to say, it doesn’t usually go well.

A smart move here was deciding against the original plan to shoot on an LED “volume” (as seen on ‘ Star Wars ’ series ‘ The Mandalorian ’), the budget instead necessitating using platforms of different heights, including one 60 feet up. The reality plays into the tension, and you actually feel the danger that the characters are in.

If you’ve ever had issues with vertigo or a huge fear of heights, we’d caution that you’ll be in for a visceral, scary experience that could test the limits of watching something like this in the theater. And that’s to Mann’s credit – he, cinematographer MacGregor and editor Robert Hall craft something that works on different levels, many of which are likely to raise your blood pressure.

Shots of screws slowly wriggling free from their warped holes, jiggling cables and impressive sound work with groaning structures and whistling wind and it whips our protagonists’ hair around their faces.

There is some overreliance on fake-outs in the early going – handles suddenly breaking free from ladders, for example. There’s foreshadowing and then there’s fore-slapping you in the face with the idea of what could happen.

And, as the story moves along and the drama deepens, one or two of the turns stretch credibility. Though it’s an ambitious way to go, there’s something about it that doesn’t quite ring true.

That said, it doesn’t detract too much from the vicarious thrills that ‘Fall’ has to offer. It will keep you guessing as to how the situation will resolve, and there are some smart visuals on display, not the least of which is the use of a drone that the two women initially use to document their achievement and then attempt to fly to a nearby town to alert the authorities to their predicament.

Provided you don’t mind a cold chill pooling in your stomach if you have any issues with height while watching, ‘Fall’ offers an entertaining ride at the movies and offers proof that it’s not just Tom Cruise that can entertain while clinging to very high things.

You may just end up at the edge of your seat… but do try to hold on, even if it’s only a two-foot fall to the floor.

‘Fall’ receives 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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DVD & Streaming
Drama , Thriller

Content Caution

In Theaters

August 12, 2022
Grace Caroline Currey as Becky; Virginia Gardner as Shiloh Hunter; Mason Gooding as Dan; Jefferey Dean Morgan as Dad

Home Release Date

September 27, 2022

Distributor

Movie review.

Becky is completely and desperately stranded in her pit of despair.

Her beloved husband, Dan, died while out on a rock-climbing jaunt. Despite all the proper precautions taken, his equipment failed, and he fell like a helpless stone from a very high mountain wall. Becky was right there, climbing beside him. And she saw it all.

Now all these (what is it?) weeks (months?) later, she wanders hopelessly with little to guide her. The postage-covered cardboard box that holds Dan’s ashes still sits on the entryway counter where Becky dropped it. It silently watches as she leaves for the local bar and then staggers back home to get another drink, pop another pill.

Her dad is trying to get her to snap out of her funk and start life again. But all Becky can see is dark clouds. All she can feel is pain. And all she can say to her father is … well, hurtful, nasty things. He once spoke harshly of Dan, you see. And Becky’s current cup of misery spills over so easily these days.

Just before Becky fatally drowns in that cup, however, she gets a call from her BFF Shiloh Hunter. Hunter was a great friend to both Becky and Dan. And if anything, she was the best climber of all three of them. And so even though Becky doesn’t want to be “saved”—for this surely is another ploy orchestrated by her Dad—she opens the door and lets her girlfriend in.

Hunter has plans. Yes, she admits that Becky’s father called her. But she would have been there soon in any case had she known how bad off Becky was. In Hunter’s opinion, the only way Becky will ever pull herself up by her own carabiner is to face her fear straight on. Hunter knows exactly what to do: They’re going to climb.

In fact, they’re going to climb up the B-67 TV tower. Haven’t heard of it? That’s no surprise. It’s in the middle of nowhere, and it’s been defunct and abandoned for years now. But this skinny tower of iron and steel stretches some 2,000 feet straight up. It was once the tallest structure in the United States—so high that it needs a constant blinking red beacon on top to ward off low-flying aircraft.

And this, this will be Becky’s salvation. Together they’ll climb to a small platform at its peak and Becky will scatter Dan’s ashes. Like Dan used to say, “If you’re scared of dying, don’t be afraid of living.” That’s exactly what they’ll do, ‘cause there’s no living that compares to hanging off a small platform by one hand 2,000 feet in the air.

Of course, anyone who takes even a little time to think about a long-abandoned TV tower might wonder, Uh , wait, doesn’t iron and steel rust? And their answer would be, sure enough. Ladders, railings, rungs and supports do indeed rust. And old, rusty bolts rattle and wobble loose.

Becky and Hunter are indeed climbing together, hoping Becky will climb out of her pit of despair. But what they’ll find at the peak of tower B-67 is another question altogether.

Positive Elements

Becky and Hunter are good friends who both are willing to give their all for the other. Hunter repeatedly encourages her friend that she is much stronger than she gives herself credit for being. During their time together we learn of some points of strain in their relationship. But the two apologize and forgive.

Dan, on the other hand, is revealed to be less than what Becky always thought he was. In fact, her father’s harsh words about Dan—for which Becky had pushed him out of her life—turn out to be pretty accurate. Dad tries nonetheless to help his struggling daughter at every turn. Eventually, Becky and her father have a moment of healing and forgiveness, too.

Bravery and self-sacrifice abound here. Hunter and the film make it clear that people should live their lives to the fullest. (Though those statements could be misinterpreted as a license to take foolish risks. And on that front, there are some rather foolish choices made here.)

Spiritual Elements

Sexual content.

Becky and Hunter both wear tank-tops that reveal some skin. Moreover, Hunter has a social media channel that she’s recording herself for, so she wears a push-up bra to emphasize her attributes and takes a number of pictures and videos with that feature in mind. (The movie’s camera watches closely, too.) “T—s for clicks,” she proclaims. Later, though, she removes that bra to use it for something else. (She removes it while still under her top.)

We find out that Dan had an affair with someone.

Violent Content

Things get pretty violent and bloody in this PG-13 film. We see one person fall from a great height, but don’t see that person impact the ground. On the other hand, we do see one dead body that’s bloody, ripped and torn and then being eaten by vultures. Someone stuffs a large object into a wound on this corpse. The camera also examines a small animal that’s still alive with its organs hanging out. Vultures swoop in and begin eating this creature, too.

The birds swoop in an attempt to knock an injured person off a tower pole. One of the women also sustains a large cut on her leg that the vultures go after. However, one of those birds is grabbed, has its brains bashed out and is eaten in turn.

People dangle from heights in precarious ways in high winds. They swing on ropes and slam into the metal side and crossbeams of the tower. The tower falls apart under the weight of people climbing on it. They’re cut, injured from falls, and have their flesh torn from rope burns. Someone is almost hit by a speeding truck. Becky has a dream of waking in bed covered in blood. People feel the effects of having no food or water.

Crude or Profane Language

There are at least two f-words (perhaps more) in the tensest moments, along with more than 30 s-words. Joining those are several uses each of the words “d–n,” “b–ch,” “a–hole” and “h—.”

God’s and Jesus’ names are misused a total of 17 times (God being combined with “d–n” on three of those). Crude reference to male genitalia are uttered.

Drug and Alcohol Content

After her husband dies, Becky hits the liquor bottle hard. We see her staggering drunk in a bar and then going home to reach for another drink to wash down a prescription drug of some sort. In fact, it appears she’s about to take a handful of the pills before a call from Hunter stops her.

Other Negative Elements

We see one of the women urinating off the side of the tower platform (seen from a long distance away). Someone falls over and vomits. Two guys steal a vehicle instead of offering rescue to people in need.

Fall is a tense but spare film. After all, how much can you do when your characters are trapped 2,000 feet in the air on a 4-foot-wide platform?

That location and those story limitations certainly intensify the film’s acrobatic dangling, especially when you layer in up-close rusted breakage and acrophobia-inducing camera angles. But those constraints also tend to hold a magnifying glass up to this pic’s kinda rusty and formulaic seams. At times it almost feels like someone pasted a What If? or a And Then sticker on the various sky-high scenes.

That aside, though, the bigger problem for family audiences comes in the form of Falls constant flow of profane and foul language, along with some gore and booziness. Those bits cause this fingertip hanging flick to slip and they make it far less suitable for an exciting climb into your local theater seat.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Fall (2022) Movie Review & Ending Explained: Did Becky actually survive?

Single-location movies have a practical purpose: executing a story without worrying much about budgetary constraints. And as the proclivities of humanity have shown, the more the limitation, the more the abundance of creativity. However, the lack of acknowledgment of the fundamental flaw in the premise sometimes stops a movie from becoming great. Notwithstanding, sometimes, a movie’s sole purpose is to entertain, either by eliciting a palpable sense of horror or a nail-biting sense of tension. Scott Mann’s latest film, “Fall (2022),” falls more on the latter side of the category.

It is easy to lampoon “Fall” as “47 Meters Up”, as it is being bankrolled by the producers of “47 Meters Down”, itself a cult classic and a fantastic companion as a double feature. Both of these films follow two close female friends who must work together to get out of an unsolvable jam when the extreme sporting event they are a part of inevitably goes wrong. While “47 meters down” finds these women submerged in a cage in shark-infested waters, “Fall” finds them stuck 2000 feet up on top of a radio tower. But we are getting too ahead of ourselves.

Fall (2022) Movie Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis

Why does becky agree to climb the tower.

Virginia Gardner & Grace Caroline Currey in Fall (2022) Movie

The movie opens with best friends Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner), with Becky’s husband, Sam, rock climbing. While manipulating a particularly tricky opening, Dan is startled by a bat flying out of the crevice he was holding on to, disturbing him and losing his foothold. As Dan hangs in the air, his body connected to his harness, he tries to swing back but falls to his death. Fifty-three weeks later (one year for those counting), Becky’s life is a mess.

Swallowed in grief, resigned to alcohol, and distanced herself from her father (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) because her father did not trust Dan to be good enough for her, she tried to commit suicide until Hunter visited her. Hunter tries to console her and suggests that Becky accompany her in climbing a 2000-foot TV tower situated in the desert. It would serve a dual purpose of both spreading Dan’s ashes once they climb to the top and providing a cathartic experience for Becky to gain closure on her loss and fear.

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Hunter, the adrenaline junkie, has now become an Instagram influencer. The climbing of the tower is the latest in a long line of crazy stunts she executes to attract fame and satiate the adrenaline junkie within her. As they drive towards the tower, they stop at a restaurant for dinner, where Hunter teaches her to charge her phone by connecting her charger to the leads of the lamp and using that as a power outlet. The girls drive towards the tower the next day but cannot pass the gate. Thus, they start walking toward the tower, where they come across a pack of vultures picking up a half-dead coyote.

As they shoo the vultures away, Hunter shoots a picture of the dead coyote. The girls soon reach the foot of the tower, where they start climbing the internal ladder. Becky almost backs out due to nerves, but Hunter convinces her to keep going. There are shots signifying how rickety the entire structure of the tower is and how the screws connecting the ladders and holding them upright are precariously close to unscrewing themselves due to the pressure being exerted on the steps.

Virginia Gardner as Shiloh Hunter in Fall (2022)

How do the two women get trapped at the top of the tower?

The girls reach the end of the internal ladder, which leads to a platform. From there, they must climb another 200 feet until they reach the top of the tower. As Becky and Hunter climb up the ladder, unbeknownst to them, one of the bolts comes loose. The girls finally make it to the top of the tower, where they manage to spread Dan’s ashes. An emotional moment that hit both Becky and Hunter hard. They also take pictures of them hanging in precarious positions with the help of Hunter’s 4K camera drone.

Finally, they decide to start climbing back down, but as Becky starts to climb, the unscrewed part of the ladder comes loose, causing the entire ladder to topple and fall to the ground. It also causes Becky to drop the bag containing their drone and water bottle on top of one of the satellite dishes attached below. Hunter manages to pull Becky up using the harness. It presumably causes a large gash on her knee, which Hunter helps her to stop bleeding by making a tourniquet. They also found a flare gun and binoculars in the compartment at the base of the tower.

Stuck at the top of the tower, Becky and Hunter cannot find a signal, thus rendering their smartphones effectively useless. After waiting for five hours and realizing that no one had heard the ladder crash and no one was coming to help them, the two tried to search for help via their binoculars and saw a trailer parked up near the gate. They planned to lower the phone a couple of feet so that the phone could regain signal, which would send an already prewritten message via Hunter’s Instagram.

How do the girls try to communicate?

They finally decide to drop the phone by putting it in one of Hunter’s shoes and reinforcing the shoe by padding it with Hunter’s sports bra-the logic being that the phone would regain the signal while falling and send the signal. However, the phone breaks, and even a dog belonging to one of the trailer park men sniff the shoe and finds the phone but doesn’t look up at the tower. The girls finally wait until dark before launching the flare from the flare gun and attracting their attention. Unfortunately, instead of driving the trailer to help them drive up to the gate, the men stole the car they had parked there.

Becky and Hunter start getting hungry and dehydrated. As charged emotions flare up, Becky watches a video of her and Dan’s wedding and notices Hunter’s gloomy face in the video. With the tattoo emblazoned on Hunter’s ankle (“1 4 3”), this compound forces Becky to confront Hunter by revealing to her that Dan had trouble proclaiming he loved her, choosing to say those three numbers instead. Hunter admits to having had an affair with Dan for four months, initiated by Dan after a drunken encounter. It forced Hunter to distance herself from Becky after Dan’s death because she had broken off the affair with Dan as she valued her friendship with Becky far more.

The following day, having ruefully acknowledged that the phone is broken and no one is coming, Hunter decides to climb down to the satellite dish and try to retrieve the bag containing the water and the drone. Using the harness, she lowers herself to the top of the satellite dish and manages to jump to the other dish and retrieve the bag. Hunter uses the selfie stick to reach the harness and manages to reach up. As she starts climbing up, Becky pulling her from the top, she appears to slip and fall to the dish. Becky, terrified, manages to peek down and sees her still alive, albeit her hands are profusely injured. But Becky manages to pull her up.

Do the girls manage to get the drone working?

Becky then tries to deliver a piece of paper using the drone to the motel where they had stayed the night before, but the battery starts running out, which forces them to retrieve the drone. Remembering Hunter’s trick of charging the phone via the lamp leads, Becky climbs up to the port where the tower’s night light is attached. Her wounded leg is already starting to smell, but she manages to climb up the pole with considerable effort, unscrew the light, and connect the drone’s charger with the leads and her marriage ring as a conduit. As the drone charges slowly, Becky holds on for dear life throughout the night, barely dodging the vultures smelling blood from her wounded leg.

Finally, after the drone is charged, the girls attach the piece of paper to the drone and fly it over the gate towards the motel. But, as fate would have it, and as a callback to a previous scene in the first act, a truck crashes into the drone and destroys it, shattering her hopes of ever sending a message. Becky soon starts to lose herself from delirium and dehydration, almost falling from the platform. She finally asks Hunter for her other shoe, so she can drop her phone and ask for help. But Hunter coolly replies that she doesn’t have the shoes because she isn’t here in the first place.

Fall (2022) Movie Ending, Explained:

What happened to hunter.

It is then revealed that she died when Hunter slipped and fell into the dish. Becky had only managed to pull up the bag. The “Hunter” who had been helping Becky throughout the rest of the events up to this point had been a figment of her imagination. It does make sense, as the “Hunter” who had been at Becky’s side after climbing back up to the platform had been more cautious, trying to provide Becky with moral support by talking about wrestling—a hobby which only Becky enjoys—or how Hunter convinced Becky to climb up the tower to connect the drone’s charger, to make Becky manage to survive.

Also, Read: ‘Fall’ Sequel to Double Down on Vertigo-inducing Thrills

Did becky actually survive.

One of the vultures flies down the following day and rests on the platform. Inching closer to Becky’s leg, it starts to nibble at the flesh. Waiting for that moment, Becky manages to capture that vulture by the throat and bash it, killing it. After eating it to regain strength, Becky finally manages to connect herself to the harness and pull herself down to the dish, where Hunter’s dead body lies half mangled by the impact of the Fall. The vultures tear apart her stomach exposing it further. The vulture nibbling Hunter’s flesh looks up at Becky’s bloodstained face and flies away, realizing there is another hunter. Becky, weeping with grief and whispering that she loves her, types a message to her father, inserts the phone inside Hunter’s shoe, stuffs the shoe in Hunter’s exposed stomach, and then pushes off the satellite.

In the next scene, we see Becky’s father, James, driving toward the tower and reaching the base to see police cars and paramedics already present. His heart sinks when she sees a dead body being carted off by the paramedics, but, he finally sees Becky, and the movie ends with their tearful reunion.

Fall (2022) Movie Review

Grace Caroline Currey in Fall (2022) Movie

From the standpoint of the premise itself, Fall is a flawed movie because it inherently exposes how underwritten and cliched the characters are. To undergo closure, the two protagonists decide to climb a 2000-foot tower, which is already rickety and falling apart. But what makes Fall so effortlessly engaging is Scott Mann’s direction, especially during the moments where he records the characters climbing and keenly focuses on the bent steps, the loose screws of the ladder, or the moments of physical prowess exhibited by the two protagonists.

It manages to make Fall reveal itself as a movie not having enough depth from an emotional perspective (the pedestrian dialogue doesn’t particularly help matters). Still, as a movie capable of eliciting tension and forcing you to have clammy hands due to Mann’s choosing to deploy wide shots and drone shots to evoke the feeling of standing atop a structure of great height, Fall does its job.

This movie proves Scott Mann’s expertise as a technically proficient and sound director, and Fall is one of those rare and engaging mid-budget movies. The visceral excitement and tension smooth over the dodgy CGI at specific segments. The performances, especially by Grace Caroline Currey as Becky, make you believe in her character arc, even if the writing doesn’t.

Fall (2022) Movie Links – IMDb , Rotten Tomatoes Fall (2022) Movie Cast – Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding

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A cinephile who is slowly and steadily exploring the horizons of the literature of films and pop culture. Loves reading books and comics. He loves listening to podcasts while obsessing about the continuity in comics.

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Fallout First Reviews: A 'Violent, Fun, Emotional, Epic' Video Game Adaptation, Critics Say

Critics say prime video's new series benefits from strong storytelling, committed performances, and a deft balance of tone, making it one of the best video game adaptations ever..

TAGGED AS: First Reviews , streaming , television , TV

Fallout is the latest video game adaptation to hit the small screen. Created by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner , and executive produced by Westworld ‘s Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy , the eight episode series, inspired by the hit game franchise from Bethesda Softworks drops on Wednesday, April 10 to Amazon Prime Video.

The post-apocalyptic series stars Ella Purnell as Lucy; Aaron Moten as Maximus; and Walton Goggins as The Ghoul. Joining them is an ensemble cast that includes Kyle MacLachlan , Sarita Choudhury , Michael Emerson , Leslie Uggams , Zach Cherry , Moises Arias and Johnny Pemberton , among others.

With nearly three decades of lore under its belt, the video game franchise has drawn a massive fanbase. Needless to say, there’s a lot of hype surrounding the new series. Does it live up to expectations? Here’s what critics are saying about Fallout :

How does it compare to the video games?

Prime Video’s TV adaptation of Fallout does something the games in the legendary franchise never have—put storytelling above all else. — Bernard Boo, Den of Geek

Fallout is the new standard for video game adaptations. This series is violent, fun, emotional, epic, and just plain awesome. — Alex Maidy, JoBlo’s Movie Network

Opting for a new narrative that simply takes place in the Fallout world, the series is a mix of adventure and puzzle-box mystery, with more than enough action scenes to satisfy the RPG faithful. It’s fun, and only occasionally overcomplicated. — Kelly Lawler, USA Today

Fallout takes the ideas of the games and crafts its own story in an already interesting world. Nails the satire, the wackiness, and about everything a fan could want. — Zach Pope, Zach Pope Reviews

Bodies fly, heads explode, and video game logic reigns triumphant. — Niv M. Sultan, Slant Magazine

How is the cast?

(Photo by Prime Video)

All of the performances are great; Purnell is a strong, loveably naive lead, while Moten delivers a fascinatingly, sort-of loathsome turn. Excusing the wonderful pooch that plays CX404, aka Four, Goggins is the runaway MVP, an agent of chilly, smooth-talking chaos somewhere between John Marston and Clarence Boddicker. — Cameron Frew, Dexerto

“I hate it up here,” Lucy mutters early on, and given the horrors to which she’s subjected, nobody could blame her. Yet her quest not only involves no shortage of carnage but also insights into her community and its origins, as well as encounters (some relatively brief) with a strong array of co-stars, including Moisés Arias, Kyle MacLachlan, Sarita Choudhury, Michael Emerson, and Leslie Uggams. — Brian Lowry, CNN

The Ghoul serves as the perfect foil for Lucy and Maximus, with Goggins deploying megatons’ worth of weary charisma in his performance as Fallout’ s resident lone wolf, black hat archetype. — Belen Edwards, Mashable

Emancipation’s Aaron Moten and And Just Like That… standout Sarita Choudhury nail the determined, world-weary drive that propels their characters forward while Justified’ s Walton Goggins gives one of his best performances yet as Cooper Howard, a mutated ghoul of a gunslinger who gives everyone a hard time with biting quips and searing bullet work. — David Opie, Digital Spy

How’s the writing and world-building?

The show’s creators have done such an impeccable job fleshing out the world of Fallout that it feels like the characters are treading stories and quests you’ve experienced yourself in one way or another. — Tanner Dedmon, ComicBook.com

Story-wise, Fallout smartly eschews trying to adapt specific storylines or side-quests from any of the games, but rather concocts a new one set in the rich and familiar landscape. — Brian Lloyd, entertainment.ie

There are plenty of Easter eggs, as you might expect from a video game adaptation, but Fallout manages to make them seem like part of the world, too. It all feels real and believable as pieces of a whole existence that these people have scraped together, which goes a long way toward helping the show’s humor land. Even the Easter eggs feel carefully designed to fit into the world and the lives of the characters, rather than drawing focus away from them or sticking out as a glaring distraction. — Austen Goslin, Polygon

Do the violence and humor work?

It’s strong, it’s goddamn hilarious, and it highlights exactly how to swing for the fences while still knowing where Homebase is. It may be a new series, but Fallout is an instant classic of the streaming age. — Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community

A bright and funny apocalypse filled with dark punchlines and bursts of ultra-violence, Fallout is among the best video game adaptations ever made. — Matt Purslow, IGN Movies

Finding a tonal balance between the drama and the comedy is a razor’s edge, but Fallout makes it look effortless. As a result, spending time in this hardened world is as fun, engaging, and engrossing as the games. — William Goodman, TheWrap

It’s an equal parts funny and nightmarish show that, like its protagonist, isn’t content to live inside a projection of the past. — Kambole Campbell, Empire Magazine

Crucially, these laugh-out-loud moments of disbelief don’t detract from the harsh reality of this world, which is perhaps even more violent than you might expect, especially for newbies to this franchise. — David Opie, Digital Spy

Any final thoughts?

Fallout is a clever, twisted apocalyptic odyssey that soars as both a video game adaptation and a standalone series. — Lauren Coates, The Spool

For those who have never played the Fallout series, especially those of the time-strapped ilk who can’t just pour hundreds of hours into a game, they should give Prime Video’s Fallout a go. — Howard Waldstein, CBR

Fallout is both totally rad and an absolute blast. — Neil Armstrong, BBC.com

The show’s clearly committed to being the definitive Fallout adaptation, a love letter to fans, no question, while still opening the vault door to welcome in just about everyone else brave enough to step inside. — Jon Negroni, TV Line

There’s really nothing like Fallout on television right now, and that’s ultimately a good thing. — Therese Lacson, Collider

Thumbnail image by Amazon Studios. On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News .

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Fallout review – an absolute blast of a TV show

This immaculately made, supremely witty post-apocalyptic drama is yet another brilliant video game adaptation. It’s funny, self-aware and tense – an astonishing balancing act

The following review contains spoilers for the first episode of Fallout .

The first thing to note is that, as with The Last of Us, there is no need for any viewer to be au fait with the source material of Fallout, Amazon’s new competitor in the field of hit video game adaptations (though a fan of the game who watched it with me assures me that there is much to enjoy in addition to the basic narrative if you are).

For newcomers such as me, this intelligent, drily witty, immaculately constructed series set in the Fallout universe fully captivates and entertains on its own terms. It opens in 1950s America, at the height of the cold war and the “red scare”, with former TV star Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins) reduced to appearing at a children’s birthday party after being tarred with the pinko brush. A mushroom cloud appears on the horizon, the blast wave hits, the apocalypse arrives.

All those who can afford it rush to the secure vaults they have had built in preparation. We cut to Vault 33 two centuries later, by which point they appear to be doing very nicely. All the naivety of the 50s and the better parts of its mores – politeness, consideration, cooperation, modesty and restraint – have been preserved, albeit with the occasional twist. Like daily weapons training, and chipper approaches to the avoidance of marrying one of your many cousins.

The underground idyll is shattered when they are brutally raided by surface dwellers led by a woman called Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury). Vault Overseer Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan) is kidnapped and his daughter Lucy (Ella Purnell) defies orders from the remaining Council and leaves the Vault to find him. As a wide-eyed believer in the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you), she is wildly unprepared for the array of delights surface-dwelling holds. It’s not like she can disguise herself effectively either. As one gnarled resident of the desperate nearby town of Filly says – “Clean hair, good teeth, all 10 fingers. Must be nice.”

Surface threats include, but are not limited to: giant cockroaches, godawful sea monsters (the Gulper’s innards haunt my dreams), radiation poisoning, strung-out survivors, fanatics of various kinds, puppy incinerators and cannibalistic Fiends. The Brotherhood of Steel try to control the Wasteland but you can’t help but feel, committed warrior faction though they are, that they are on a losing wicket. The Brotherhood is divided into Lords (in battered Iron Man-esque suits), Squires who attend and hope to become them and Aspirants training as Squires. Aspirant Maximus (Aaron Moten) is our guy and we follow him as he rises from bullied victim to rogue Lord. His mission? Acquire the severed head that Lucy also needs to find, containing a chip that Moldaver wants (and which Lucy hopes to trade for Daddy MacLean).

The biggest threat of all, however, is the Ghouls, and one in particular – a noseless, mutated remnant of Cooper Howard who is also hunting for the head and the bounty on it. He is the first to cross paths with Lucy, and oh the fun we have! By the end of a fishing trip, she’s in such a state that if she were to return to Filly, they would probably accept her unquestioningly as one of their own.

Co-creators Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner somehow manage to combine traditional post-nuclear apocalypse tropes with semi-ironic takes on 50s motifs, B-movie conventions and horror-level blood and gore (and work in plenty of Easter eggs and other pleasures for gamers). It’s a perfectly paced story that is both funny and self-aware without winking at the camera, undercutting our increasing emotional investment in characters who reveal – and sometimes unexpectedly redeem – themselves layer by layer. If I tell you that the organ-harvesting robot is voiced by Matt Berry, that the Ghoul’s meeting with a long-lost, rotting colleague almost made me cry and that neither element jarred with the other, perhaps that will convey something of the triumphant balancing act that is maintained throughout the eight-episode series.

It is, if you’ll pardon the pun, an absolute blast. Goggins is wonderful as both the unsullied golden boy Cooper and the wretched Ghoul, Moten brings such nuance to what could easily be a one-note role and Purnell performs Lucy’s fall from innocence brilliantly. The growing mystery back at Vault 32, as Lucy’s brother Norm (Moises Arias) becomes suspicious of the origins of the murderous raid and the supposedly benign Council that has protected them all these years, adds yet another strand to the story and ratchets up the tension even further. In short, for Fallout, I’m all in.

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, don't tell mom the babysitters dead.

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Director Wade Allain-Marcus ’s “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” is a remake of the 1991 original, repurposing an older narrative for a new generation and, this time around, centering on a Black family. Seventeen-year-old Tanya Crandell ( Simone Joy Jones ) looks forward to her summer in Spain with her friends. But when her mother ( Patricia Williams ) is shafted at work, losing out on a promotion to a younger, whiter, male-r counterpart, she has a mental breakdown that warrants a summer-long R&R stay, which co-opts Tanya’s budget for abroad and leaves her indignantly stuck at home.

In her absence, Mrs. Crandell hires an elderly babysitter, Ms. Sturak ( June Squibb ), to watch the kids: Tanya, her stoner teen brother Kenny (Donielle T. Hensley Jr.), macabre little sister Melissa (Ayaamii Sledge), and nerdy kid brother Zack (Carter Young). Ms. Sturak is not the warm, fuzzy granny she appears to be, swapping out freshly baked cookies and comforting hugs for crude, blatantly racist remarks. When the siblings throw an all-out rager disguised as “Bible study,” the underage drinking, smoking, and queer romancing happening under their roof throws the conservative sitter into cardiac arrest. The kids are forced to hide the body and learn how to take care of themselves for the summer.

The responsibility falls on Tanya as the eldest and most responsible; with some clever Google deep dives and intricate Canva work, the siblings create a 25-year-old simulacrum of their sister, who uses her newly faked identity to land a job at Libra, a fashion company helmed by the ultimate girlboss, Rose ( Nicole Richie ). As Tanya juggles a summer of office politics, adult responsibilities, and a freshly spawned romance, “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” comedically centers on older sibling syndrome and the daunting pressures of adulthood and agency.

Writers Chuck Hayward , Neil Landau , and Tara Ison deliver a script chock full of hilarious one-liners that are kindly doled out evenly among the ensemble cast. Whether quipping on the quotidian precarities of being young Black kids in a wealthy white neighborhood (even aside from the dead white woman they disposed of) or the situational comedy of Tanya’s manufactured identity and adjustment to the 9-to-5 lifestyle, the script hands out laughs with generosity. Kenny’s penchant for weed and Melissa’s true crime fascinations also present familiar comedic archetypes for the film to lean on.

Unfortunately, many of these comic opportunities fall flat in the execution. Shoddy line deliveries keep you from recognizing the joke, requiring a few seconds of processing time to land. The performances often feel responsible for this; they feel uncanny and solitary as if the cast were projecting lines to the expectant ears of a studio audience that doesn’t exist. While this awkward independence of the functioning characters muddles some moments, it doesn’t entirely erase the recognizable humor that remains consistent throughout.

Jones acquits herself quite well in her first role as a leading lady. She displays a formidable amount of range, from the short fuse of an eldest sister’s stoicism to the personal and professional confidence she develops as the summer pushes her to expand her comfort zone. The dynamics of the sibling ensemble are also generally believable in their moments of union and annoyance. Hensley Jr. is a reliable source of comic relief, and his antics test his siblings’ patience and perseverance.

Tanya’s employee-employer relationships with Rose and her budding romance with aspiring architect Bryan ( Miles Fowler ) get more screen time than those with her siblings, making “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” more of a portrait of her than that of the family. While Richie’s performance is rather flat and one-note, it’s a testament to the hollow girlboss identity the film crafts in the shape of a chronically-online millennial Miranda Priestly. At the same time, the chemistry between Tanya and Bryan is the most persistent: Fowler and Jones feel natural, weaving through the attraction, timidity, and frustrations of young, insecure, and poorly communicated relationships. Yet this particular pairing has the least bearing on the film's events, and this display of potential exacerbates the desire for magnetism in the core sibling dynamic.

“Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” is laid-back and funny but ultimately whiffs on its swings too many times to make a lasting impression. It has all the right components, earnestly eliciting a few chuckles and a true investment in its characters. Still, it comes together like a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces aren’t fully pressed into place: a flimsy portrait of teen comedy and coming-of-age that won’t stand the test of time.

Peyton Robinson

Peyton Robinson is a freelance film writer based in Chicago, IL.

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‘Fallout’ Finds the Fun in an Apocalyptic Hellscape

TV’s latest big-ticket video game adaptation, from the creators of “Westworld,” takes a satirical, self-aware approach to the End Times.

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A man with a scarred face and missing nose wears a cowboy hat and smiles

By Austin Considine

The scream was just right — bloodcurdling, if also very funny — and the practical effects crew had finally found the proper volume and trajectory of the water cannon. The idea was to film what might happen if you ripped a man from the throat of a mutant salamander, exploding its guts like a giant water balloon.

All that remained was to decide what color of bile to slather on the actor (Johnny Pemberton) and on the salamander’s many teeth, which nuclear radiation had transformed into rows of humanlike fingers.

Based on observations made during a visit to the Brooklyn set of “Fallout” in early 2023, Amazon had spared no expense to make the show, the latest genre-bending series from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the creators of “Westworld.” So it was no surprise when Nolan, on set to direct that chilly afternoon, was presented with not one but some half-dozen buckets of bile to choose from, in a variety of revolting hues. He settled on a pukey pinkish yellow.

“This is the closest thing to comedy that I’ve worked on,” he said later by phone. With writing credits on films like “Memento,” “The Dark Knight” and “The Prestige,” Nolan has tended to skew dark. Comically exploding monster guts — this was new territory.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he said.

A fun apocalypse? Amid all the doom and gloom of most sci-fi spectacles and social media feeds? Yes, please.

“Fallout” premieres Wednesday on Prime Video, and at first it may sound familiar to viewers of a certain postapocalyptic HBO hit from last year, “The Last of Us.” Imagine: a sprawling, expensive adaptation of a beloved videogame franchise that features an unlikely duo — a nihilistic old gunslinger with a tortured past and a tough young woman whose mission overlaps with his. Together, they travel a lawless America plagued by criminals, fanatics, killer mutants and trigger-happy survivors.

But where “The Last of Us” had a decidedly serious and heartfelt tone, “Fallout,” in keeping with its source material, is satirical and self-aware, rich with ironic detail. Sets and costumes lovingly blend B-movie conventions from multiple genres, including westerns, horror and Atomic Age sci-fi. The violence is comically over-the-top.

That unlikely duo? The man (Walton Goggins) is a disfigured former western star who, among other things, puts the woman (Ella Purnell) on a leash and tries to hawk her organs. Their overlapping mission? To find a severed head.

“I am still wrapping my head around it to be quite honest with you,” Goggins said during a brief production break on set. He was dressed in the kind of immaculate Hollywood cowboy duds — think golden fringe and a tidy matching neckerchief — that a real cowboy might spit a beer on.

“It’s ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ meets. …” He paused, searched for the perfect comparison. “It’s ‘Strangelove’ meets the ‘Star Wars’ bar.”

Until recently, live-action video game adaptations were mostly a losing proposition for television. “The Last of Us” by most accounts broke the streak . A commercial and critical darling, it earned eight Primetime Emmys in January, and its 24 total nominations included one for best drama.

Such success seemed remote five years ago, when Nolan had his first conversations with Bethesda Game Studios, the company that owns the Fallout franchise. An avid gamer, Nolan had long been a fan. The original game, which debuted in 1997, established the premise: In an alternative America, the postwar optimism and kitschy aesthetics of the Eisenhower Era never ended, only evolved. There was no Vietnam, no Watergate, no Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Then in 2077, a nuclear war between the United States and China wiped out modern civilization worldwide.

Those who could afford it retreated into vast underground networks of shelters, known as vaults, until it was safe to come out. The game begins in 2161 when a “vault-dweller,” who has never known anything but the Beaver Cleaver-ish culture preserved underground, ventures into the irradiated wastelands around Los Angeles on a vital mission. (Later games travel to other cities and times.)

Several Fallout adaptations had been aborted or turned down over the years, said Todd Howard, Bethesda’s executive producer, who is also an executive producer of the show. After seeing and loving “Westworld,” however, Howard approached Nolan and Joy. He had heard Nolan was a gamer.

“He had clearly played a lot,” Howard said — Fallout 3 especially. “He could speak to it with authenticity and had a view of what made it tick.” (“Fallout 3 was a game that you could play comfortably for 50 to 100 hours,” Nolan said.)

Bethesda’s priorities were twofold: A TV series had to stay true to the lore of the games but also be written like a whole new chapter, same as any game sequel.

“It was very important to us not to have a show that translated one particular game story but that told something original,” Howard said. “The main character in the Fallout series is the world of Fallout.”

Amazon signed on to produce in 2020, part of an overall deal with Nolan and Joy’s production company, Kilter Films. To begin building the Fallout world, Kilter brought in two creator-showrunners: One, Geneva Robertson-Dworet, had written scripts for big adaptations before, including “Tomb Raider” (2018) and “Captain Marvel” (2019); the other, Graham Wagner, was a TV comedy writer, with credits on “Baskets,” “Silicon Valley” and 50 episodes of “Portlandia.”

For them it was a “best of both worlds” situation. They had been given a trove of intellectual property to start with, already popular among millions. But they also had freedom to simply craft a good story without worrying so much about satisfying gamer fan police.

“The fans of the games want to hear us say that we take the I.P. seriously,” Wagner said in a joint interview with Robertson-Dworet. “Of course we do, because we like it. But you don’t want to let that burden make it feel like a job. Because then everyone’s watching you do a job, and then it just feels like work.”

Robertson-Dworet later added, laughing: “We talk a lot about the [expletive] we’re going to eat for the show. It’s going to be either too woke, too fascist, not fascist enough. … ” She trailed off. The possibilities were endless.

In a separate video call, Kyle MacLachlan, who plays a guest role in the show, didn’t seem worried. And he knows something about protective fan bases. (See: David Lynch’s “Dune.” Or David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return.”)

“I think it’s evident, when you look at the sets and the production value and the tone of the show, that they’re making a big effort to try to incorporate the reality of that world,” he said. “It’s a perfect place to put a story.”

For all the new material, fans of the game will find plenty that is familiar about the story. The show’s other male lead, Aaron Moten, plays an initiate of the Brotherhood of Steel, a fanatical warrior faction found in all of the games. (They suit up in Iron Man-like robotic armor that, 219 years after the end of modern civilization, is prone to breaking down.) Though Purnell’s character arrives over 130 years after the events of the first game, she draws heavily from it.

“She goes up to the wasteland, and she finds out that everything she ever believed is a lie,” Purnell said on a video call with Moten. “It makes her start to question everything,” she added. “And she has to make that choice, right? Adapt or die. Who’s she going to be?”

However fans respond to “Fallout,” no one can doubt the creators’ commitment. Back in Brooklyn in early 2023, a set tour with the show’s production designer, Howard Cummings, offered a glimpse of the massive scope. Indoors, a mazelike series of corridors and chambers amounted to a multilevel reproduction of the vaults. Outdoors, a ramshackle junk city included whole buses and the front end of a 747 jet, trucked in from California. The New York production alone had 35 welders working at once, Cummings said.

This was to say nothing of the location shoots in the Utah desert, or on the Skeleton Coast in Namibia , a stand-in for a postapocalyptic Pacific Palisades, all shot on widescreen film instead of digital. (“The power of dragging yourself to a beautiful and remote place to capture that beauty on film, it still works,” Nolan said. “It always works.”) Or of the 360-degree virtual soundstage, made up of thousands of LED tiles — for when you need the location to come to you.

“New York didn’t have one,” Cummings said. “But it does now!”

Unsurprisingly, “Fallout” looks great. Still, all the money in Amazon’s coffers can’t make a show good, and the streamer, which declined to share budget numbers, has reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars on large-scale series, like “Citadel” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” that have yet to make much of an impact with viewers or critics. Amid the glut of heavier end-times material out there, it seemed like a refreshing start, at least, that the “Fallout” creators’ goal was to entertain viewers, not pile onto them.

Nolan called making it an “expiating” experience: Coming out of a pandemic, amid global instability and a deterioration of political discourse, you had to laugh sometimes, he said.

“It’s the only way to make it through.”

Because of a surprise programming change by Amazon the night before publication, an earlier version of this article misstated the premiere date of “Fallout.” It is Wednesday, April 10, not Thursday.

How we handle corrections

Austin Considine is The Times's assistant TV editor. More about Austin Considine

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Fallout Season 1 Review

“War. War never changes.” It’s the ominous line that opens every game in the 26-year-old Fallout RPG series. But while that may ring true for the tone of the eternal nuclear wasteland setting, thankfully the tide has largely turned for TV adaptations of video games. Following in the footsteps of HBO’s The Last of Us and Netflix’s Arcane , Prime Video now has itself an all-time great in Fallout, a confident and accomplished post-apocalypse show that proudly wears its heritage on its sleeve – quite literally, when it comes to its iconic blue-and-yellow Vault-Tec jumpsuits – while simultaneously being a compelling sci-fi drama all of its own.

It’s not hard to see why Amazon went to bat for Fallout. This is a weird, often hyper-violent, sometimes satirical black comedy that sits comfortably next to The Boys . While never quite as puerile or gross as some of Vought’s most extreme moments, Fallout consistently uses the darkness of its irradiated landscape to spin surreal jokes, from a talking brain-in-a-jar to an organ-harvesting robot spouting the honeyed tones of Matt Berry (of What We Do in the Shadows fame).

What's the Best Fallout Game Ever?

Pick a winner.

Produced by Westworld ’s Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, Fallout is set canonically within the world and continuity of the games, but its eight-episode first-season isn't directly connected to anything you may have played. That means no prior experience is necessary in order to jump in with this entirely new cast of characters, starting with Ella Purnell’s Lucy . Raised in Vault 33, one of many fallout shelters built by the Vault-Tec company over 200 years ago , she’s never known life outside its impressively realized steel-and-concrete walls. As such, she’s an embodiment of the can-do spirit of pre-Great War America, which has been preserved for generations in this underground tin can.

In a knowing echo of Fallout 3 ’s opening, Lucy is forced to explore the surface when her father (Kyle MacLachlan) goes missing. Bright and sparky, polite and friendly, she’s totally unequipped for an adventure in the blasted California that awaits outside the vault’s sealed door. The way Purnell is able to project a delightfully naive sense of optimism amongst so much rusted devastation is the source of many early jokes – but more importantly it’s the starting point for an engaging character arc that demands she open her eyes to a world where lies and deceit are everywhere and life is cheap. While Fallout does have well-drawn villains hiding in the shadows, the real antagonist is the wasteland itself and the dog-eat-dog attitudes it forces even our heroes to adopt.

But while Lucy’s outsider (insider?) status makes her the default protagonist, it’s Aaron Moten’s Maximus who proves Fallout’s most compelling lead. Orphaned as a child, he’s found refuge in the Brotherhood of Steel; a faction of military zealots modeled on medieval knights. It’s an organization ill-suited to him – Maximus is an awkward, often cowardly man lacking the bolshy confidence of the Brotherhood’s power-armored warriors, and that clash creates both great humor and drama. It’s through a haphazard lie that he finds his footing in the story, twisting himself into something he’s not, and watching him desperately grapple with that precarious falsehood makes for Fallout’s most fascinating moments . It’s not always easy to root for Maximus – so flawed is his character – but that complexity made him the figure I found myself most invested in.

Lucy and Maximus provide an interesting duality: She’s only ever known the safety of the vault , and he’s only ever known the brutality of the wasteland. But Fallout has another sharp contrast, that of pre- and post-nuclear destruction, explored fantastically through The Ghoul. Played by Walton Goggins, this 250-year-old irradiated mutant is Fallout’s most magnetic presence – a drugged-up lone wanderer with a give-no-shit attitude. Compared to Lucy and Maximus, The Ghoul is the least complex character due to a relatively shallow arc, but he’s no doubt the most enjoyable to watch thanks to Goggins’ all-in performance.

But The Ghoul is just part of who Goggins plays here. Fallout frequently takes trips back in time to before the apocalypse to explore the life of the man The Ghoul used to be. An all-American movie star living a charmed life in retro-futuristic Hollywood, Cooper Howard initially seems the “boring” side of Goggins’ dual role, there simply to establish humanity for a character later totally stripped of it. But this story gradually builds into a truly compelling mystery, providing Goggins a much-needed sense of purpose. This plotline is also where Fallout gets to deliver its source material’s signature satire, with an anti-capitalism message that’s suitably haunting.

What video game RPG should be adapted for TV next?

Cooper’s life could have felt relatively divorced from the main events of Fallout, so different is the visual and narrative fabric of the two, but the past directly connects to the present in a much more interesting way than mere backstory. This design is one of Fallout’s greatest strengths; even what can initially feel like superfluous strands, such as the continuing story of Vault 33 after Lucy has left, turn out to be vital building blocks. Everything is propellant and accelerates towards a killer finale. And while there are a couple of episodes in the second half that slightly falter in terms of balance between storylines and momentum, this is an otherwise superbly structured show.

Every episode tells its own tale from beginning to end – such as Lucy’s run-in with the aforementioned organ harvester, or an encounter with a giant mutant salamander – and while these are clearly smaller parts of a greater whole, they still work as satisfying stories in their own right. In other words, the show is crafted like a chain of RPG quests. It’s a welcome change of pace from the mushy plotting and interchangeable episodes of so many other streaming series; that considered, it’s baffling that all eight episodes are launching simultaneously. If Fallout were a weekly show, we’d have the fun and suspense of discussing it relentlessly between debuts.

One of the greatest challenges Fallout faced was turning the world of the games into a live-action universe. Thanks to a truck-load of Amazon money and talented production designers, though, Nolan, Joy, and showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner have done an admirable job of it. This is a wonderfully tangible apocalypse, full of colourful oddballs and soundtracked by the 1950s’ best bops. Every space bursts with personality, much of that arriving via the astonishing attention to detail in all the items, weapons, and recognizable iconography. Nuka Cola bottles litter shelves, characters heal themselves with stimpacks, and Vault 33 is inch-for-inch damn near perfect, right down to the emergency override switches. You don’t need to know the games to appreciate the craft behind it, but if you do there’s a lot to love.

By far and away the most enjoyable thing, though, is the Brotherhood of Steel’s T-60 power armour, which is an absolute delight to watch in action. Where you’d expect something ripped from the games in its computer-generated feel as well as its faithful design, instead we get a largely physical prop that feels incredibly present and powerful. And while Fallout isn’t really an all-out action show, when the violence kicks off it’s at its best when the T-60 is involved – that’s when the Bloody Mess perk is activated and the delightfully gloopy gore effects get wheeled out.

Fallout: Complete Playlist

These characters, locations, and situations all feel authentic to Fallout. And yes, while the immaculate, game-accurate production design is partially responsible for this, most of the show’s ultimate success is down to the work of Robertson-Dworet and Wagner and their efforts to make an original story that’s distinctly Fallout. It’s in direct contrast to Paramount+’s dull Halo series , which fails to capture the urgency and spectacle of its source material, despite all the ripped-from-the-games armour designs and FPS action sequences. Fallout’s scripts nail the humor, capture the satire, and understand the subject matter of the series, all without leaning on any pre-existing story. This could have been a live-action replica of game characters and cutscenes you’ve seen before; instead, it’s a fresh and essential story that uses a new medium to enrich the Fallout universe for die-hard fans and rolls out a welcome mat for new audiences.

A bright and funny apocalypse filled with dark punchlines and bursts of ultra-violence, Fallout stands up there with The Last of Us among the best game adaptations ever made. Brilliantly constructed, its three distinct leads travel through cleverly linked storylines that build to a fantastic finale. Along the way, there’s a megaton of treats for long-term fans thanks to immaculate production design and attention to detail, but never at the expense of making this an ideal starting point for the uninitiated. It’s another special effort from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and easily earns a big thumbs up.

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COMMENTS

Fall
Movie Info. For best friends Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner), life is all about conquering fears and pushing limits. But after they climb 2,000 feet to the top of a ...
Fall movie review & film summary (2022)
Fall. Scott Mann 's "Fall" belongs to the trapped horror subgenre of films like " The Shallows " and " Open Water ," but it takes a dynamic that usually unfolds in the middle of deep water to thousands of feet in the air. Mann and co-writer Jonathan Frank have a clever concept that results in a film that should be avoided by ...
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The director Scott Mann has certainly packed this latest venture with enough jump scares and bloodshed to blur genre lines. As a result, "Fall" occasionally feels overrun with gimmicks and ...
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Credit: Lionsgate. Hunter's dirty secret of infidelity is out, stinking up that platform worse than Becky's festering leg wound. 24 hours have passed since they tried dropping Hunter's phone in a ...
Fall review
Fall review - wildly effective survival thriller delivers seat-edge suspense This article is more than 1 year old Two young women are trapped on top of a 2,000ft tower in an absolutely absurd ...
'Fall' Review: A Perilous Don't-Look-Down Thriller
"Fall" is a very good "don't look down" movie. It's a fun, occasionally cheesy, but mostly ingeniously made thriller about two daredevil climbers, Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) and ...
'Fall' review: Preposterous survival thriller somehow works
Aug. 11, 2022 5:42 PM PT. One of cinema's great wonders is the way a few moving pictures on a flat screen — composed and choreographed just so — can make a viewer's palms sweat and heart ...
'Fall' Review: A Movie Perfect for the End of Summer
There's blistering sun, and an attempt to get help with a flare gun, and when things get really desperate, some marauding vultures. Mann and his crew built a version of the tower close to a ...
Fall Review: An Unexciting Entry In The Survival Thriller Genre
As far as survival thrillers go, Fall follows the playbook established by films like 47 Meters Down or Crawl.As Becky and Hunter look out at the desert surrounding them, Fall offers plenty of visuals that are rendered well enough, with the desert surrounding them becoming even more deadly 2,000 feet above the ground.With limited space to move, it adds a new dimension to claustrophobic ...
Fall (2022)
I really don't have a fear of heights, but this film sure made me realize that I just wasn't high enough to get scared. Co-writer, producer and director Scott Mann did a superb job filming this smart little thriller so well, I got vertigo, dizzy and an upset stomach in some scenes. Don't get me started on my constant anxiety and elevated blood ...
Fall Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 18 ): Kids say ( 62 ): Two women climb to new heights, only to find they can't escape the patriarchy in writer-director Scott Mann's vertigo-inducing actioner. Fall is competently made, with cinematography that will have viewers on the edge of their seats. It's one part suspense, one part horror.
'Fall' review: Extreme climbing reaches scary terrain
Fall is a high-stakes movie about besties in extreme sports horror. In Fall, accomplished climber Becky's (Grace Caroline Currey) sob story begins with a rockface climb where her handsome husband ...
Fall (2022)
With Fall, the filmmakers have stated that they "wanted it to be the ultimate fear of heights movie" and they might just have succeeded. The simplicity of this concept is executed so well that it gets under your skin as the story (and survival element of the story) evolves! Fall is out in theaters from August 12, 2022.
Fall (2022)
Fall: Directed by Scott Mann. With Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. When a high-rise climb goes wrong, best friends Becky and Hunter find themselves stuck at the top of a 2,000-foot TV tower.
Movie review: 'Fall' reaches new heights for thrills
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- As much as movies can show us infinite possibilities, movies about extreme limitations can be equally thrilling. Fall, in theaters Friday, mines suspense at the top ...
Fall
Oct 5, 2022. Limited but thrilling adventure horror. The two leads are passable at best but nevertheless the movie is a nail biting experience throughout. The script is incredibly weak with an unbelievable dialogue and empty characterisations. Read More.
Fall Movie Review: A terrific survival thriller with heart pounding
Fall Movie Review: Critics Rating: 4.0 stars, click to give your rating/review,Replete with relentless mounting tension and not a moment of respite — Fall is an absolute nail-bite
Movie Review: 'Fall'
Moviefone. August 13, 2022 - 7 min read. (L to R) Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner in 'Fall.'. ' Fall ' is now in theaters and it might just have you re-thinking plans to climb ...
Fall (2022 film)
Fall is a 2022 survival thriller film directed and co-written by Scott Mann and Jonathan Frank. Starring Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the film follows two women who climb a 2,000-foot-tall (610 m) television broadcasting tower, before becoming stranded at the top.. It was theatrically released in the United States on August 12, 2022 by ...
Fall
Movie Review. Becky is completely and desperately stranded in her pit of despair. Her beloved husband, Dan, died while out on a rock-climbing jaunt. Despite all the proper precautions taken, his equipment failed, and he fell like a helpless stone from a very high mountain wall. Becky was right there, climbing beside him.
Fall (2022) Movie Review & Ending Explained: Did Becky actually survive?
Fall (2022) Movie Review. Grace Caroline Currey in Fall (2022) Movie. From the standpoint of the premise itself, Fall is a flawed movie because it inherently exposes how underwritten and cliched the characters are. To undergo closure, the two protagonists decide to climb a 2000-foot tower, which is already rickety and falling apart. But what ...
Anatomy of a Fall movie review (2023)
There's a vastly inferior version of "Anatomy of a Fall" that leans on overcooked melodrama and mystery—this one is all about character, and it's the trust between Triet and Hüller that grounds every single scene and holds it all together. Sometimes, it seems like 151 minutes is more than this story needs, but that length adds to how ...
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Prime Video's TV adaptation of Fallout does something the games in the legendary franchise never have—put storytelling above all else. — Bernard Boo, Den of Geek Fallout is the new standard for video game adaptations. This series is violent, fun, emotional, epic, and just plain awesome. — Alex Maidy, JoBlo's Movie Network Opting for a new narrative that simply takes place in the ...
'Fallout' Review (Amazon Prime Video): I Have Some Good News
Amazon. Fallout is a huge gamble for Amazon, a sprawling, expensive series that must simultaneously create a brand new story in the video game's world, while pleasing longtime fans of that world ...
Fallout review
Fallout review - an absolute blast of a TV show. This immaculately made, supremely witty post-apocalyptic drama is yet another brilliant video game adaptation. It's funny, self-aware and tense ...
The Fall Guy (2024 film)
The Fall Guy is a 2024 upcoming American action comedy film directed by David Leitch and written by Drew Pearce, loosely based on the 1980s TV series about stunt performers.It stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, with Winston Duke, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, and Stephanie Hsu in supporting roles.. The Fall Guy premiered at SXSW on March 12, 2024, and is scheduled to be released in ...
Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead movie review (2024)
Powered by JustWatch. Director Wade Allain-Marcus 's "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" is a remake of the 1991 original, repurposing an older narrative for a new generation and, this time around, centering on a Black family. Seventeen-year-old Tanya Crandell ( Simone Joy Jones) looks forward to her summer in Spain with her friends.
'Fallout' Finds the Fun in an Apocalyptic Hellscape
Walton Goggins plays a disfigured former western star in "Fallout," based on the popular video game franchise. Amazon MGM Studios. By Austin Considine. April 9, 2024. The scream was just right ...
Fallout Season 1 Review
Verdict. A bright and funny apocalypse filled with dark punchlines and bursts of ultra-violence, Fallout stands up there with The Last of Us among the best game adaptations ever made. Brilliantly ...

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‘Fall’ Review: A Don’t-Look-Down Thriller That Will Have You Clutching Your Seat

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Fall – Movie Review (3/5)

FALL is a new thriller that is part survival and part fear-of-heights terror. It works surprisingly well, and can even handle the fairly long runtime. In other words, do check it out. Read our full Fall movie review here!

Simple concept, perfectly executed

No green screen, just pure terror

Insanely sweaty palms

Watch Fall in theaters – if you dare!