This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Breathtaking
Plot Overview
There's a hierarchy to three friendly climbers on the face of a dizzying rock: Free climber Shiloh “Danger ‘D’” Hunter (Virginia Gardner) takes pics for some unspecified entity (“I get paid for this sh!t.”) She'd been maid of honor for her best friend Becky “Beck ‘C’” (Grace Caroline Currey) who married the beta dog Dan (Mason Gooding) to whom she is now roped—as well as hitched. The alpha dog by default would be Becky's dad James (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who has ongoing tension with the beta man. He's what could pass as their ground crew kept at a distance by testy Becky. James loves his son-in-law too little and Hunter loves her BFF's husband too much (“It got out of hand.”)
A climbing tragedy leads to separate mourning for 57 weeks, and then to a comeback climb for Becky with Hunter on the derelict B67 TV tower, the fourth highest structure in the United States (“That's insanely high.”) Up top the girls sort themselves out.
Ideology
Dan's finger-tapping code for I love
you, is 1 4 3, counting out the respective letters, which
he applies to two different women on separate occasions.
Numerologically 1+4+3=8, which biblically is the number
of people (including wives) in Noah's ark by which God (2Peter 2:5) “spared not the old
world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.” This movie
plays into that archetype with the three climbers, one of them now
as a box of ashes, “stuck on a pizza size platform in the middle
of nowhere” representing the three sons of Noah on the ark.
It was good riddance to the wicked men at the base of the tower, from
the top of which was observed rain coming down in sheets and a girl's
pee coming down in drivels.
There's a rather straightforward application
from the old story to this movie as long as one is familiar with the
former, which unfortunately many are not. For those not settled in
the sands of time, I offer this remedial history lesson, with apologies
to those who don't need it. The biblical story is widely known of
Adam & Eve's temptation and fall in the Garden of Eden, how the
woman ate the forbidden fruit and gave it to her husband to eat (Gen. 3:6), God responding by increasing
the severity of the woman's childbirth pains (Gen. 3:16) and making man's toil onerous
(Gen. 3:17-19.) What is less well
known—except in places like the Bible Belt—is a redo of
sorts to ameliorate man's difficult labor. Noah's father Lamech had
(Gen. 5:29) “called his name
Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil
of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.”
They still had to follow the earlier template to get a reprieve. Instead
of the forbidden tree to be respected by the first couple, there was
old man Noah whose work break was to be respected by his three sons.
(Gen. 6:10) “And Noah begat
three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” They formed themselves
into two pairs: the eldest Shem & Japheth, and the youngest Ham
paired with his own son Canaan making the numbers even. In the Genesis
account of the Flood, is a mystery woman, the mother of Ham. (Gen. 9:18-19) “And the sons of
Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth:
and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah:
and of them was the whole earth overspread.” Let's look again
at Noah's story (Jasher 5:14-17):
“And the Lord said unto Noah, Take unto thee a wife, and beget children, for I have seen thee righteous before me in this generation. And thou shalt raise up seed, and thy children with thee, in the midst of the earth; and Noah went and took a wife, and he chose Naamah the daughter of Enoch, and she was five hundred and eighty years old. And Noah was four hundred and ninety-eight years old, when he took Naamah for a wife. And Naamah conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Japheth, saying, God has enlarged me in the earth; and she conceived again and bare a son, and he called his name Shem, saying, God has made me a remnant, to raise up seed in the midst of the earth.”
Shem and Japheth were full brothers, Ham was born at a later date (the youngest, see Gen. 9:24) perhaps from a different mother. Noah's wife was older than he was. Perhaps at 580+ years she was no longer able to bear children after the first two. She didn't have any more after the flood, even though it was a time to repopulate the earth. Maybe she stopped bearing before the flood. Ham could then have been stepbrother of the other two.
Researcher Mark DeWayne Combs posits that, “Although Jasher specifically references the births of Japheth and Shem, there is no such reference to the birth of Ham. … that Ham may have been much younger than his brothers and that he may have had a different mother” (389). Combs also observes, “Fathering a child, particularly a son, through a handmaiden or servant girl would not have been an uncommon or forbidden practice in that time period” (165). Historian Kenneth M. Stampp remarks that “Apologists for slavery traced the history of servitude back to the dawn of civilization and showed that it had always existed in some form until their own day” (14).
If Ham experienced a lower status than his brothers, it is not paralleled in this movie that treats everyone on the level. The inexperienced climber Becky represents Noah's youngest son Ham. Becky is loved by her husband (1 4 3), her friend loves her more than she does him, and her father thinks she could have done better than Dan. Whatever trouble Becky brings on herself is not rooted in disfavor.
Come the deluge and the ark's passengers could well be a model for, (James 5:13) “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.” There was undoubtedly a lot of distress on their voyage occasioning a lot of prayer, and their eventual landfall would have been accompanied by much celebration.
When (Jasher 6:40-41) “they all went out from the ark, they went and returned every one to his way and to his place, and Noah and his sons dwelt in the land.” They'd been cooped up together long enough, so now they spread out somewhat according to some preestablished pecking order. God (Jasher 6:42) “said unto them, Be fruitful and fill all the earth; become strong.” To become strong meant, among other things, taking their needed meds when sick, along the lines of, (James 5:14) “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” Children are always getting sick. Here it seemed to be Canaan's turn whose elders would have been his father Ham and grandfather Noah. Oil in Bible times was a medication, (Luke 10:34) “bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine,” as was, to (1Tim. 5:23) “use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.” Grapes grow in the summer, but once they're fermented, the wine can be stored throughout the year. Noah got into the store while setting an example for a work break, establishing period(s) of escape from hard work per Lamech's saying. By chance or design it interfered—it had to inconvenience someone—with Ham's youngest son Canaan's need, and Ham could well have been the low-status brother from another mother.
In “Fall” it was Becky's drone that had a weak battery that needed to be recharged from the tower's beacon light on top, set there to warn airplanes. Pirating power from it took away the safety lighting.
Instead of the wily serpent we had Noah's wife as an on-the-spot influencer, who since she isn't mentioned, did well incurring no rebuke. She would have made herself scarce giving Noah some space to relax when he started drinking, (1Tim. 2:9-10) “that women adorn themselves … (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.” Being a virtuous woman (Prov. 31:27) “She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.” She would not have let grass grow under her feet but would have gone straight to visit Ham to make adjustments regarding their diminished store of medicinal alcohol, to advise him to water down the old supply, or whatever. Ham showed up shortly thereafter to check it out. He fell to temptation by mocking his dad to his two brothers, but they would have none of it. This is parallel to Eve earlier failing first then offering the fruit to Adam who accepted it, but here the older brothers did not go along with Ham, so we'd expect them to receive a blessing rather than a curse such as it was. The distribution of labor had to be readjusted to account for the new workers' break(s), and Ham for his insolence left himself and his family line open to taking up the slack. Depicted below is that scene rendered in a Civil War vintage woodcut, made after a drawing by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (German painter, 1794–1872) from his archive, published in 1877.
The alternate image text by licensor iStock.com/Getty Images explains what happened here to Noah and his fermented grapes: “When he drank some of the wine, he got drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers who were outside. Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it on their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered up their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so they did not see their father's nakedness (Genesis 9:21-23).” They covered the old man to prevent him from catching a chill as it was no longer summer.
Ham had put himself in jeopardy according to, (Prov. 30:17) “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.” Especially pertinent in this case is Noah's control over the animals including the raven (Gen. 8:7) and he is not unique, at least not in literature. Novelist Ted Bell writes of a chief inspector who “had been beaten to within an inch of his life and nearly pecked to death by countless killer ravens. All the while locked inside the cage of a Victorian aviary” (357.) There is even biblical precedent for it when some kids mocked a man of God for not having a covering of hair on his head and they got mauled by beasts. (2Kings 2:23-24) “And … as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.”
However allegorical we may take mutilation by birds for disrespect of parents, this movie does show Becky having mocked her father for “stalking” her when he had just come by for a visit, and she ends up like to die while being eyed by hungry vultures who'd take a piece of her for an aperitif. Whatever happens she brought it on herself according to the proverb.
There's a parity of eye loss and servitude
given in (Exodus 21:26) “And
if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that
it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.” Ham
and his line—represented by Canaan in his lineage—could
be given servitude rather than mutilation. This would be in keeping
with the sentiment of Job in, (Job 31:7-8) “If my step hath turned
out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any
blot hath cleaved to mine hands; Then let me sow, and let another
eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.” In that woodcut-derived
picture above we see Ham after disregarding his mom's caution, checking
up on his dad, getting carried away by an eyeful of the dishabille
inebriate, and gesturing with his hands to his brothers. If he were
to “sow, and another eat” and his “offspring
be rooted out,” that would mean he becoming a slave and his
offspring being carried away in slavery. Okay.
The Bible's account leans towards the latter. (Gen. 9:24-27) “And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son [Ham] had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” When Noah woke up, he blessed as a pair the lines of his two respectful sons and cursed Ham's line—pairing Ham with his youngest son Canaan as was Noah's wont to go by twos—giving them servitude to his other two sons'. (Jasher 73:35) “For the Lord our God gave Ham the son of Noah, and his children and all his seed, as slaves to the children of Shem and to the children of Japheth, and unto their seed after them for slaves, forever.”
Ham's youngest son Canaan is the particularly noted recipient of the punishment. Later when the Israelis invaded the promised land, the Canaanites were due for destruction, but the Gibeonite branch (the Hivites of Joshua 11:19 & Gen. 10:15-17) did a deal with Joshua who was the Jewish leader. They'd heard what happened to other Canaanite tribes, so they sent ambassadors dressed as if they'd come from a long journey (Joshua 9:3-6) and persuaded Joshua to make a league with this “distant” tribe. When it was discovered they'd tricked Joshua into sparing them, (Joshua 9:24-27) he made them bondmen, which was more to their liking. If this trick is indicative of the character of the original Canaan, he might well have been malingering to get out of his chores, which would also help explain Noah's hesitation to coddle him with wine. And when it came time to deal with the sin, it affected the whole line of Ham.
More germane to modern times is perhaps the lineage of Cush, Ham's oldest son (Gen. 10:6,) Cush meaning black in Hebrew, having settled in Africa, some of his to become in later years African-American slaves. Researcher Bodie Hodge confirms that, “As a general trend, Ham is the father of many peoples in Africa” (122). Dr. Ide adds, “Ham sired four sons: Cush (translates as ‘black’) … and Canaan the youngest” (62).
In “Fall” the two adulterers
Hunter and Dan seem to be paired for their fate on the desert floor.
Becky the odd man out is of necessity paired with the black drone
seemingly destined to be roadside trash.
Production Values
“Fall” (2022) was directed by indie man Scott Mann who co-wrote it with Jonathan Frankand. It stars Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Gardner and Currey did come across beautifully as the best of friends they were portraying. Gardner sports a robust frame suited for tackling the mountain, while Currey is the “scrawny” one needing a hand here and there. The former is photogenic as appreciated by her followers and the one chump.
MPAA rated it PG–13 for bloody images, intense peril,
and strong language. Some AI guided dubbing was employed to obtain that
mild rating. Fall's soundtrack is enough to put
one on edge if the scenery doesn't. The title is a double giveaway.
The cinematography of MacGregor does the trick; it's like
looking down from an airplane. The vultures were ugly, but they
had their place (“survival of the fittest”) in nature.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
I've done my share of antenna work atop a tower, but it was just a fifty foot amateur radio deal. For commercial towers we paid professionals. If nothing else this movie is a cautionary tale not to ignore the danger signs. It's a workable drama and a first rate acro-thriller. Not for the faint of heart.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat slow paced action. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Don't watch this movie alone. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769, 1873. Print. Software.
The Book of Jasher. Translated from the Hebrew into English (1840). Photo lithographic reprint of exact edition published by J.H. Parry & Co., Salt Lake City: 1887. Muskogee, OK: Artisan Pub., 1988. Print, Web.
Bell, Ted. Patriot. Copyright © 2015 by Theodore A. Bell. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. Print.
Combs, Mark DeWayne. End the Beginning. USA: Splinter in the Mind's Eye Pub., 2014. Print.
Hodge, Bodie. Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of Our Ancestors. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Pub., 2013. Print.
Ide, Arthur Frederick. Noah & the Ark: The Influence of Sex, Homophobia and Heterosexism in the Flood Story and its Writing. Las Colinas: Monument Press, 1992. Print.
Stampp, Kenneth M., Professor of American History at the University
of California (Berkeley).
The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the
Ante-Bellum South. Vintage Books, 1955. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org