Fall

47 Meters Down, but 2,000 feet up in the air. If that sounds mean to extreme climbing survival thriller Fall, it's actually a compliment. The 2017 aquatic creature feature was a surprisingly elegant thrill ride that took a simple conceit and executed it in a simple, efficient way. Fall jettisons that leanness in favor of some character development that it never really needs, but it's far from a thin-air imitation of the pulpy fave.

That said, there are more than enough shared character and narrative beats to make the two films feel like Mad Libs variations on a very simple setup. In the soggy precursor, a woman gets dragged to the bottom of the ocean by her sister after she gets dumped by her boyfriend. Replace "bottom of the ocean" with "top of an out-of-service TV antenna in the desert," swap out "sister" for "best friend," and the boyfriend is now a dead husband who fell off a cliff. Still, just like Mandy Moore's shark-dodging diver, widowed Becky (Currey) is trying to prove that she's not afraid of the world by doing something really, really dumb. In this case, getting dragged by outdoorsy influencer Hunter (Gardner) up a third of a mile of spindly, rusting metal. Of course they get stuck right at the top and, well, swap great whites for vultures, and running out of oxygen for dehydration, and you've got Fall.

It actually even has a few advantages over 47 Meters Down, not least that it doesn't have to hide its leads' faces behind masks or shoot everything submerged in oceanic gloom. There's that big sky wildness in which they are always framed and lost, and being able to see the look of fear every time another bolt falls off the already rickety ladder is a big improvement over peering through bubbles. Plus, if you weren't afraid of heights before, then Fall will give you the fear. Welcome to vertigo hell, mainly due to the work of cinematographer MacGregor. After rapidly ascending past its setup, Fall requires creative ways to make you feel every inch of the tower (pity the poor theatre staff who, inevitably, will deal with some barf eventually), and MacGregor finds new ways to keep you clinging to the edge of your seat. That's essential, because there's a surprising amount of Becky and Hunter just sitting at the top of a very, very, very … sorry, feeling a bit lightheaded … very high pole.