Rescue Mission at Vertical Limit in 2000, a film that takes place in the true story of a mountain climber’s children
Solidarity in the Big Indonesian Dictionary means the nature (feeling) of solidarity, the nature of one feeling (like fate and so on), and the feeling of being loyal to friends. The nature of high solidarity is generally known among mountain climbers.
The survival film Vertical Limit, which was produced by Columbia Pictures in 2000, includes the value of solidarity. Vertical Limit is a film that tells the story of a brother’s efforts to save his sister who is trapped in K2, Himalaya. The heaviest mountain in the world.
Annie Garrett (Robin Tunney) joins Vaughn’s (Paxton) team as a climber in a marketing campaign. The team is led by a climber who knows Everest’s terrain by heart, Tom McLaren (Nicholas Lea).
Unfortunately, due to Vaughn’s arrogance, the team became caught in a storm at 26,000 feet. Annie Petter’s brother Garrett (O’Donnell), who from the start had his doubts about this climb, gathered several people to start a rescue mission. A mission better known as a suicide mission.
In the name of solidarity, he managed to invite six people to join his team. Although, the intentions of each are different. However, Peter’s one goal is to save his sister. “I won’t let Annie die!”
In a different place, Annie and two other people who were trapped in an ice cave due to a snowstorm began to be overshadowed by edema or lung disease at high altitude. Annie’s sense of solidarity made her sincerely care for the leader, McLaren, who was dying. He is willing to share dex injections that can slow down edema.
From this film I learned a lot about climbing values. As Peter said at the beginning to his sister, before climbing a mountain we should have studied the character of the mountain. Not “chasing deadlines”. Because field conditions could say otherwise.
Each member must honestly give the field situation. This is because hiding natural phenomena and actual weather can be fatal to a person’s life. This is because the weather on the mountain is prone to change. That mountains have always been a mystery as Montgomery Wick had warned him, the night before Team Vaughn left.
In this film, I feel most “disgusted” by Vaughn’s arrogance. From the start he neglected climbing safety. Even when climbing, they don’t follow what the leader suggests. His ambition to be on top of the mountain to wave goodbye to his industry premiere flight has brought him misfortune.
In the end, I learned from the words of the Pakistani Commander who was on duty at the Himalayan basecamp. More or less he said, National Geographic people were always accepted because they were the only ones who didn’t want to conquer (in the context of being in Pakistan). When I ponder for a moment, it’s best when we decide to climb a mountain we never intend to conquer except for the ego within ourselves. Because every mountain has a guard. Because every mountain is an earth stake that carries the mandate of the Almighty.
How does this story by Martin Campbell end, is it better to watch it yourself? I recommend this film because it is fun, has lots of values to pick up, and you will fall in love with the charms of the Himalayas.
Vertical Limit (2000) – Synopsis
Annie Garrett and Peter Garrett are brothers and sisters of a famous mountaineer, Royce Garrett. On one hike, their partner was so careless that all three of them were hanging by a rope. Her condition was getting critical because Annie, who was at the top, was unable to reach the cliff wall. Their father, Royce Garrett told Peter to cut the rope so they both survived by sacrificing himself. Peter hesitated and Annie didn’t want to. But his father kept pushing for at least the two of them to survive. Finally Peter cut the rope so their father fell and died, but Annie and himself survived.
That incident made Peter stop being a mountain climber, people say he lost his courage. He works at National Geographic. But Annie continued her career and even peaked. Three years later, on an expedition, Peter meets Annie again after a long time of separation. Annie became one of the guides of Elliot Vaughn, a billionaire who likes to climb mountains. The group intends to reach the top of the Himalayas, led by a senior climber, Tom McLaren.
The climbing plan was opposed by Montgomery Wick, a senior climber, colleague of Royce Garrett who had saved Vaughn 4 years ago in the same place. At that time, Vaughn and 8 other people were caught in the storm. No one saved him, only Montgomery alone went to save him because his wife was the guide on the expedition.
Montgomery managed to save 3 people including Vaughn, but had to have his toe amputated because it froze. After all, his wife still could not be found. After that, for 4 years, Montgomery was around the mountain looking for his wife’s body. Montgomery also suspects that Vaughn acted fraudulently by hiding Dex’s injections so that his wife died and was not found. He was sure that his wife always took the injection with her on every expedition.
Vaughn continued on with the mission despite the threat of a storm because he had big ambitions. It finally happened. A big storm hit the group of climbers. Only 3 made it into an underground pit, namely Vaughn, Annie and Tom McLaren. The three of them were trapped underground with minimal supplies, they could only drink the water they brought with them, then cook snow and finally use dex injections so they could survive. They lasted about 27 hours.
Annie manages to contact headquarters for help, but isn’t sure exactly where they are because they’ve been hit by an avalanche. Peter insists on saving the three of them and forms a team. They also brought liquid nitroglycerine bombs to blow up the basement where the three of them were trapped. Peter seeks help from the famous and phenomenal Montgomery. At first, Montgomery didn’t want to, but after learning that Vaughn was still alive, he finally agreed to become the leader of the rescue team. Peter suspects that Montgomery will seek revenge, but he has no other choice in saving Annie because only Montgomery is the one who can lead the group.
The group is divided into 4 groups in the search. After moving in a marathon, the group fell hit by an avalanche. Only Peter, Montgomery and Monique were able to find the three victims. But it seems that among the three victims there is also conflict. Tom knew that Vaughn would have let him die from his injuries. Vaughn won’t give Dex the shot because he’ll use it himself. Annie, who knew about this, was angry and was about to inject Dex into Tom, but Vaughn prevented it on the grounds that whatever happened Tom would surely die.
Annie tries to find a bag from an old hiker they found and turns out Dex is there. Finally he was able to give Tom an injection. But Vaughn ends up killing Tom by smothering him without Annie’s knowledge. When Vaughn found out that Montgomery was coming as a rescue team he attacked him. But Montgomery doesn’t hold grudges and keeps helping Vaughn. In the process of lifting Annie’s unconscious body, there was another avalanche so that they were suspended by a thin rope. Finally Montgomery cut the rope himself and fell with Vaughn to save the others.
