Is Fall 2 Based On A True Story?
Fall 2 strands two women aside a mountain, but is it inspired by a true story or a totally fabricated tale?
Scott Mann’s Fall was a massive hit when it landed on streaming. The film saw two friends get stuck atop a disused television tower during an adventure stunt for a YouTube channel. It did an incredible job of inducing vertigo and even the most steady at height viewer was left clinging to their seats.
The success led to a sequel and Fall 2 ups the ante of the first, replacing the — in comparison — relative safety of a tower with a wobbly plank of wood on the side of a cliff face. It is a truly nightmarish scenario, but one that is surely a work of pure fiction, right?
What Happens In Fall 2?
Fall 2 joins Jax as she grieves the death of her sister Shiloh (one of the girls seen in Fall). As Jax tries to come to terms with her accident, Shiloh’s friend Luce arrives and convinces her that the best way to honour her sister’s memory is to complete her next planned feat, a plank walk 4,000 feet up Mount Kwan in Thailand.
Jax agrees and it isn’t long before history repeats itself and she and Luce find themselves in a very similar situation to Shiloh as a sudden rockslide cuts off their path in either direction and leaves them stranded aside the mountain.
Is Fall 2 Based On a True Story?
While so many stories of survival, especially those involving climbing, are based on true events, Fall 2 is a complete work of fiction. Even the setting of Mount Kwan is fake and made up purely for the story.
The place is, however, inspired by a real location: Mount Huashan in China. Just like in Fall 2, Mount Huashan has a plank walk trail that clings to the side of its structure. The hike is rightly viewed as one of the most dangerous trails in the world, and yet, there are frequently hours-long queues of people willing to take the death-defying trek.
The Real-Life Plank Walk Is Somehow Even Scarier
Mount Huashan is one of five Sacred Mountains in China and is located just outside of Xi’an in Shaanxi Province. The plank walk is located 2,000 feet in the air, which although not as high as the height in Fall 2, is extremely daunting. The plank walk is thought to have been built over 700 years ago by Taoist monks seeking seclusion. Now, it is a popular tourist attraction where thrillseekers walk across the very narrow (around 30cm wide) planks. As in Fall 2, the only ‘safety’ measure in place is a metal chain bashed into the side of the mountain. Adventurers like Jax and Luce must operate the two carabiner system, clipping onto and off of the chain to slowly manoeuvre around.
One aspect of Mount Huashan not replicated for Fall 2’s Mount Kwan is that the real location sees climbers have to go back on themselves once they’ve reached the end. This means that as you are traversing the tiny planks, at any point you could have to navigate past someone else going in the opposite direction.
Survival Movies That Are Inspired By True Events
The survival aspect of Fall 2's story might be entirely fictitious, but that is not always the case in other movies. Some people have been unfortunate enough to live through some hellish situations, inspiring entertainment for the masses.
One of the most famous survival movies based on a true story is Alive. The 1993 movie adapted the story of the 1972 Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes. Two months after being considered lost forever by search and rescue, 16 of the original 45 people aboard were finally rescued. The film fills in the story of how the group survived the freezing temperatures, which included turning to cannibalism as they ate those that had died in order to keep themselves alive.
While the team of Alive had others to rely on, mountain climber Aron Ralston was alone when he became trapped in a Utah canyon. Ralston wound up with his arm stuck between two rocks with no easy way out. Over the course of the next 127 hours, he had to ration his water, and brave extreme temperatures, before ultimately deciding that his only way out was to leave his arm behind. The gruelling story makes for an equally gruelling movie. Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours is an uncomfortable watch from start to finish and gives a whole new meaning to the phrase nerve-shredding.
