As silly as these movies are, for some reason I always seem to enjoy them. Much like movies such as Jurassic Park, you can point out which characters are going to be alive in the end. Such is the case with Vertical Limit, a mountain climbing movie that kills off its cast one by one just for kicks.

The death frenzy begins with the decision of Elliot Vaughn (Bill Paxton), a business owner, to climb the mountain for the sake of promotion of his company. He brings with him four climbers, one of which is Annie Garrett (Robin Tunney), an expert climber who lost her father in a rock climbing accident.

The group inevitably gets stuck in an avalanche, and a group of six climbers, including Annie’s brother Peter (Chris O’Donnell), go up to rescue them. To make things interesting, they bring up bombs (which inexplicably explode with extended exposure to sunlight), in order to blow their way through the snow.

One by one, climbers get knocked off, particularly the less-significant, less-attractive, and less-amiable figures. Limit almost seems anxious to kill its characters, often putting them in extreme situations and unbelievably contrived deaths. Despite its frequent silliness, though, it’s still kind of fun.

Vertical Limit’s attempt at dramatic tension begins with its title. Apparently, humans can only survive under a specific altitude, above which we can contract a pulmonary artery disease, which apparently kills within hours and can only be treated with frequent injections of an antidote – which the climbers carry only a few of.

Trapped in a cavern beneath the snow, the stubborn Elliot desires to keep the antidote away from the injured team leader because he’s going to die anyway. All the while, Annie struggles to protect him.

The script as a whole is actually terribly silly. The lines often feel like they’re straight off a screenplay and predicaments are perpetually preposterous. Strangely enough, it’s still a fairly good time at times. It’s fun to see hikers cheating death in dangerous situations. And, for some reason, it’s even more fun to see them die.

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