Fall 2: Deadpoint is an unusual sequel in that the heroes of the previous film aren't at the center. As thoroughly detailed in our Fall ending explainer, only one of the two besties who climbed a 2,000-foot pole made it back to terra firma alive. And she only makes a brief appearance in the second film. However, Fall 2: Deadpoint does follow closely to the structure of the first film… until it doesn't.
If you're wondering about that ending, we've got you covered.
What is Fall 2: Deadpoint about?
The sequel, written by Fall screenwriters Scott Mann and Jonathan Frank, focuses on Jax (Harriet Slater), the younger sister of the late Shiloh Hunter (Virginia Gardner).
Jax is spiraling not only from grief but also from the surreal experience of seeing Shiloh (who was most often called Hunter in the first film) become posthumously famous as #fallgirl. But a college friend of her sister's, Luce (Arsema Thomas), has a radical plan for coping with such big emotions: Do a big, risky climb in Shiloh/Hunter's name.
Why is it called Fall 2: Deadpoint?
Well, aside from the macabre tone the sequel's subtitle sets up, "deadpoint" is a climbing term. Paradigm Climbing describes a deadpoint as "the moment a climber's vertical or lateral velocity reaches zero, before reversing direction."
Where does Fall 2: Deadpoint follow Fall?
Both films center on two young women who take on a perilously high climb in an attempt to overcome a past trauma. In Fall, Hunter urges Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) to climb the radio tower to get over the death of her husband (Mason Gooding), who died on her last cliffside climb. In Fall 2: Deadpoint, Jax and Luce climb a plank walk, 4,000 feet above sea level (so, twice as high as Hunter and Becky went). This trek is on the face of Thailand's Mount Kwan, and is said to end before a statue of a death dragon that will "eat your fears."
Luce gets the idea for this particular adventure from Hunter's "fuck-it list," a scrapbook where she plotted out the stunts and climbs she'd perform for her online followers. This leads her and Jax to a bar in Thailand. There, the codename "Icarus on the rocks" (not a good omen) connects them with a non-native guide named Jon (Tom Brittney), who agrees to take them on the illegal climb for a steep fee that Luce says she'll cover. On top of the dangers of falling, this trek is more dangerous still because of reported rock slides. And then there's the added dangers around drug smugglers and the authorities determined to crack down on them and their mules.
Much of that is added sequel flare. But Fall 2 hits some very familiar story points. Like Becky and Hunter before them, Jax and Luce see a vulture feeding on carrion in an ominous sign before their climb. They are warned they might suffer from "mountain bends," a version of altitude sickness that Jon says could cause "headaches, hallucinations, nausea, and worse."
Once trapped on the mountain, they too will be trapped by a crumbling man-made artifice. In this case, a rock slide shatters the planks, leaving Luce and Jax stranded 4,0000 feet up. As for Jon, he goes missing during their scramble to dodge the falling rocks.
Then, like Becky and Hunter, the women will find their backpack of necessary provisions just out of reach. The steps to recover it might well give audiences flashbacks to Hunter's attempt to reclaim a backpack in Fall. And then there's actual flashbacks, giving backstory to Jax and Shiloh's dysfunctional sister bond.
Like her sister did in Fall, Jax will use a video recording device to try to find someone on the ground that can help rescue them. And once more, that won't be what does save them.
But, there will be a big twist, where the person who proposed the trip admits to a brutal betrayal of their companion.
What's the twist in Fall 2: Deadpoint?
While Jax is Hunter's sister, it's Luce that follows in her footsteps. She has struggles that recall the events that led to Hunter's fatal fall, including an injury to her upper limbs while trying to recover the backpack. From there, audiences might well anticipate that Jax is having an experience like Becky's, having witnessed her friend's death and hallucinating the fallen friend surviving to get her to the end of the path. But Fall 2: Deadpoint's big twist is not that!
The personal twist comes when Jax watches old footage from Hunter's video recorder of a group hang with Luce. That's when she (and we) learns the Luce she knows isn't the real Luce. Her name is Billie, and she'd never met Hunter. But after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, she found inspiration in Hunter's videos, which had a carpe diem vivacity. She's a fan.
When Billie saw Jax was selling Hunter's recovered vehicle, she wanted to buy it. But Jax didn't want to sell to a fan, so Jax did some light social media stalking and learned Hunter had a Black friend named Luce. She lied about her identity to buy the car, but then felt genuinely connected to Jax. So, she proposed the trip.
Like Hunter, Billie was deceitful to her climbing partner. In the first film, Hunter's big reveal was she'd been sleeping with Becky's husband before his death. But Luce is not a hallucination. However, she will fall to her death all the same.
How does Fall 2: Deadpoint end?
With Jon's talk about the necessity for the small oxygen tanks to prevent mountain bends, Mann and Frank set up the potential to retread the hallucination twist. However, ultimately, their script pivots to a more Hollywood action ending.
After attempts to get help have failed, Jax and Billie are surprisingly rescued by Jon, who helps them scurry up to safety. Viewers might well doubt that this is really happening, even as the reunited trio proceeds to the death dragon statue as if this were a happy ending. But then comes a new twist; after they cross a dizzyingly precarious rope bridge, the women learn that Jon was using them as unaware drug mules for fentanyl.
He'd stored the drugs in the O2 tanks, which each client carried. He said he wasn't carrying one because he was essentially immune to mountain bends. But in truth, he knew the stiff penalties he'd incur should he be caught with drugs on him. Yet the jail time in a Thai prison would be nothing compared to what the dealers would do if Jon failed them again. He shows Jax he's already had two fingers severed for failing in his drug runs. One more failure, he warns, and they'd take his head. This is why he came back — for the drugs, not the girls. Still, he was planning to get them picked up in a helicopter and flown to safety. But he tells Jax that the price of that ride is a package of drugs.
This lesson comes too late for Billie. She's so outraged by Jon's deception that she hollers at him and pitches her tank off the mountain. He's so incensed by this that he shoves her to her death. From there, Jax and Jon fight, which pitches them back onto that flimsy bridge. And ultimately, he'll fall (too), while Jax will get to the mountaintop, securing a ride home by handing over the drugs.
Will there be a Fall 3?
The ending of Fall 2: Deadpoint suggests so!
Having survived the "Icarus on the rocks" of it all, Jax turns the page of the fuck-it list to another Hunter-planned adventure. This time, it seems she wants to go with Becky.
In the film's ending, Becky visits to her mailbox to find an invite for a memorial of Hunter. Naturally, it'll be a treacherous location. The music seems ominous, which might lead the audience to wonder: Is Jax looking to bury the hatchet with Becky? Or is she looking to confront her sister's childhood friend about her resentments and how Becky's last trip with Hunter led to the latter's death (and being treated like a DIY phone protector)?
We'll have to wait and see.
Fall 2: Deadpoint is now in theaters.
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