2022’s Fall, while an ultimately narratively disappointing feature, found a second life through minute long clips on TikTok. This flipped the view on this movie from being a slow, boring character study on two people who aren’t as complex as a 90 minute movie would require to ‘one of the greatest twists in cinema’. Though I’d hesitate to call this a cult classic, mostly because I’d hesitate to say even more than half of the people praising the twist have actually seen the movie, this somewhat second life in the cultural zeitgeist would mean a sequel was inevitable. Fall 2 takes us higher and further than the original ever did, though nothing ever feels bigger in any way.
Much of the first hour of this runs essentially the same road as its predecessor, with anything actually differing from that formula usually being quite predictable anyway. While of course this would have a few similarities, it’s a sequel to quite a narrow concept, after all, there are so many that, at times, this can feel like I’m watching the exact same movie as I did in 2022, just with a different background.
Following the death of a loved one, our main character finds herself wallowing in her own sadness, unable to escape the depressive spiral she’s wound up in — questioning whether she even has any desire to. An old friend then appears, calling her to a new climb, in pursuit of closure and moving on: “It’s what they would have wanted.” At some point throughout, around the point where they both believe they’re never leaving alive, a secret is revealed which changes their entire dynamic going forward and puts into question the amount of care they now have for the other’s life.
This may sound familiar, as it’s the exact story beats of 2022’s Fall, however that was me describing the first hour of Fall 2. That is how much I felt like I was retreading the same steps, rewatching the same movie I’d already regrettably seen. I knew what was happening around every turn because I’d already seen it… four years ago. I didn’t enjoy it then, I sure am not going to enjoy it more now that the characters have different faces and are higher up.
The secret revealed in this hardly changes the two main character’s dynamic at all, at least much less than it should have. In the 2022 movie, after Becky finds out Shiloh had a secret relationship with her late husband, she becomes much less caring for Shiloh’s life and safety. In this, that resentment — stemming from Jax finding out a stranger posed as a friend of Shiloh’s to lure her to a different country, to what seemed like and almost was certain death — lasts for essentially the scene it comes from. It’s almost immediately forgotten about and is made to be a much smaller deal than it should be.
The only difference this has in any part of the movie is the relationship between Shiloh and her sister, who takes up the helm of this addition. We constantly go back in time to moments in their lives that showcase their broken relationship, one which never managed to get repaired. These flashbacks show how Jax always felt second best to Becky, Shiloh’s best friend and the main character of the previous movie, as well as proving to be thematically similar or relevant to what Jax is going through at this point in her life. My problem with this, however, is that we’d constantly go back to the same two moments — either them skydiving or Jax trying to impress her sister on monkey bars. It got to the point where it felt as if they either thought we’d forget or they just forgot to film more scenes. This was hardly ever relevant, and when it was, you could see it coming from a mile away — like the monkey bars scene.
One thing I did like was how this movie managed to subvert the big twist of its predecessor. In Fall, when Shiloh dies — unbeknownst to the viewer — we see a strangely long moment of Becky pulling a rope, until Shiloh finally grabs onto their platform. This movie has essentially the same shot, making you instantly think Luce must be dead now. You go along with this belief until they’re finally rescued, then their guide interacts with her. This takes you by surprise because you’ve just gone through the last ten or fifteen minutes believing she’s now a figment of Jax’s imagination, and suddenly your perception of that entire time has been broken.
My only complaint is that this was never played with, making it feel like nothing more than a callback, rather than a way to keep the audience in suspense. This could’ve been so much better if it was delayed a bit more, we don’t see their guide talk to Luce at all, all the way up until she catches him smuggling drugs. Not only would this give more impact to that twist, but also amplify it with the fact that it essentially revealed another twist — or lack thereof — and her actual death would catch us by even more surprise than it already did.
I will say, once this was released from the shackles of its former, Fall 2 really improved — it’s just a shame it took until the third act. There were a good few turns that I really didn’t expect and made me feel so much more, even if that isn’t the highest of praise with how little I felt in the previous hour. The writing may not have improved in any real way, but they were almost able to convince me it did with how much more exciting this became, even if we were near the end by this point.
Even though Fall 2 takes this concept much higher and further — at least in location — than its predecessor, it never manages to do the same with its story or character study. This leans so much more into its action while keeping its story all the way back in 2022, retreading the exact steps we’ve already seen years ago. There was absolutely no need for this, though I’m sure it’ll soon find its second — or possibly even first — life on TikTok soon enough.
