Fall (2022 film)
| Fall | |
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.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Scott Mann |
| Written by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Miguel "MacGregor" Olaso |
| Edited by | Rob Hall |
| Music by | Tim Despic |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
Release date |
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Running time | 107 minutes |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $3 million[2] |
| Box office | $12.4 million[3][4] |
Fall is a 2022 survival thriller film directed and co-written by Scott Mann. The film stars Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. It was released in the United States on August 12, 2022 by Lionsgate, and received generally positive reviews.
Plot
Best friends Becky and Hunter are adrenaline junkies. Becky suffers a great loss when her husband Dan falls to his death while rock-climbing.
51 weeks after Dan's death, Becky is a depressed alcoholic who has distanced herself from her father, James, because he suggested that Dan was not as good a guy as Becky had made him out to be. In desperation to support Becky, Hunter invites her to climb a 2,000 foot (610 m) TV tower in the desert. Though Becky is hesitant, she changes her mind and decides not to live in fear.
The girls make it to the top of the tower, where they spread Dan's ashes. However, the ladder they used earlier breaks before they can climb down. Although they have two smartphones with them, neither has a signal. Becky and Hunter combat dehydration, starvation and vultures while trying to reach out for help. They attempt to send a message from Hunter’s phone by throwing it off of the tower in a shoe, but the phone breaks. Some people below notice Hunter and Becky stranded on the tower, but decide to steal their car rather than help.
Hunter tearfully admits to having had an affair with Dan before he married Becky, which contributed to distancing herself from her after his death. Hunter climbs down and reaches their bag with water and a 4K drone that landed on a communications dish. Becky tries to use the drone to deliver a piece of paper with a message asking for help to their motel. Unfortunately, the drone is destroyed by a passing mining truck in the last minute only a few yards before arriving at the motel.
Becky finally realizes that she had been hallucinating and that Hunter actually died after she fell from her harness, landed on the communications dish below and bled out. Becky had only managed to pull the bag up and, delirious from the lack of food and water, hallucinated Hunter's presence on the tower with her for some time. After killing a vulture that attacked her and eating it for sustenance, Becky makes one last attempt to survive by climbing down to Hunter's body and sending a message for help to James by stuffing her phone inside Hunter's body for protection and then throwing the body off the tower so the phone could receive a signal at lower altitude once it crashed on the ground.
The plan works, the authorities find her, James shows up and Becky reconciles with him.
Cast
- Grace Caroline Currey as Becky
- Virginia Gardner as Shiloh Hunter
- Mason Gooding as Dan
- Jeffrey Dean Morgan as James
- Darrell Dennis as Randy
Production
Filming
The film cost $3 million to produce.[2] It was filmed in IMAX format in the Shadow Mountains, in California's Mojave Desert. The look of the radio tower in the film was inspired by the KXTV/KOVR Tower radio tower in Walnut Grove, California. According to director Scott Mann, 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 hundred feet off the ground.[5][6]
Post-Proudction
After production finished, Lionsgate Films acquired the film's distribution rights without a minimum guarantee for the producers. After it did well in test screenings, Lionsgate decided to release it in theaters.[7] They ordered the crew to change or remove over 30 uses of the word "fuck" from the film so it could earn a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association instead of an R-rating, to increase profitability. As reshooting the scenes would have been time-consuming and expensive, they turned to Flawless, a company established in 2021 by Nick Lynes and Fall director Scott Mann, to deepfake the actor's faces and artificially redub the "fuck"s they said to PG-13-acceptable epithets like "freaking." The first project to use Flawless's services, Fall eventually received a PG-13 rating. According to Mann, "neural reshoots" were completed within two weeks during the final stages of post-production.[2][8]
Release
The film was released in theaters in the United States on August 12, 2022, by Lionsgate.[9] Lionsgate spent $4 million to release and promote the film.[7]
Reception
Box office
In the United States and Canada, Fall was released alongside Mack & Rita and the wide expansion of Bodies Bodies Bodies, and was projected to gross $1–2 million from 1,548 theaters in its opening weekend.[10] It made $923,000 on its first day,[11] and went on to debut to $2.5 million, finishing 10th at the box office.[12] In its second weekend it made $1.3 million, dropping 47%.[13]
Critical response
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 76% of 118 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The critical consensus reads, "Fundamentally absurd yet as evocatively minimalist as its title, Fall is a sustained adrenaline rush for viewers willing to suspend disbelief."[14] Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 62 out of 100, based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[15] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak gave the film a 69% overall positive score, with 44% saying they would definitely recommend it.[12]
References
- ^ "Fall (2022)". letterboxd.com. Retrieved September 6, 2022.
- ^ a b c Spangler, Todd (August 9, 2022). "Lionsgate's Fall Used Deepfake-Style Tech to Change 30-Plus F-Bombs, Bringing Movie From R to PG-13 Rating". Variety. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
had a production budget of about $3 million
- ^ "Fall (2022)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
- ^ "Fall (2022)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
- ^ https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/how-they-filmed-fall-exclusive/
- ^ "Director of New Fall Movie Says Actors Were Never More Than 100 Feet High". Inside Edition. August 12, 2022. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
- ^ a b D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 12, 2022). "Bullet Train Heading For $12M+ Second Weekend During Sluggish Summer Frame – Friday PM Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
- ^ Goldsmith, Jill (August 14, 2022). "Director Scott Mann's AI Startup Helps Fall Nab PG-13 Rating, $2.5M Open – Specialty Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
- ^ Griffin, David (June 8, 2022). "Fall: Exclusive Trailer and Movie Poster Reveal". IGN. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
- ^ Rubin, Rebecca (August 10, 2022). "Box Office: Lionsgate's Action-Thriller Fall and A24's Bodies Bodies Bodies Hope to Benefit From Utter Lack of New Blockbusters". Variety. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
- ^ Murphy, J. Kim (August 13, 2022). "Bullet Train Repeating on Top as August Box Office Slows Down". Variety. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
- ^ a b D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 13, 2022). "Bullet Train Second Go-Round Now At $13.3M As Summer 2022 Clocks Lowest Weekend To Date With $64M – Saturday PM Box Office Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
- ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 19, 2022). "'Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero' Rolling To $17M-$20M Opening; 'Beast' Seeing $10M – Friday Midday Box Office Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 19, 2022.
- ^ "Fall - Rotten Tomatoes". Retrieved September 1, 2022.
- ^ "Fall". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved August 14, 2022.