“Tower”: what is the film about and why did the girls climb a 600-meter mast

On August 11, the premiere of the thriller “Tower” took place in Russia. It cannot be said that the audience eagerly expected the film, but, judging by the reviews, they liked the movie. We figured out why the audience was attracted by the story of two girls on a high tower, how the creation of the picture almost turned into a disaster, and why the radio tower is not the best place for a screenwriter.

The plot “Tower”

“The Tower” is an action-packed thriller dedicated to the struggle of a person with a fear of heights. This picture has become another representative of the so-called “new horror” direction, which explores the problems of society, culture and the psyche through the prism of horror films, chilling stories or, in this case, psychological films.

The plot tells the story of two lovers of extreme sports, Becky and Hunter. They never feared death and looked their fears in the face. The girls performed impossible stunts, climbed, jumped with a parachute in the most dangerous places on the planet.

Their adrenaline-filled lives continued until the day Becky learned that her husband had tragically died. Then for the first time she felt for herself what it means to be afraid to die. The girl promised to give up a dangerous hobby and start a new quiet life. But Hunter persuades her to make one last ascent in memory of her husband, to climb to the top of the largest radio tower 600 meters high.

The way up is easy enough. However, the rusty climbing ladder breaks and leaves the girls trapped on top of a huge tower. It seems that the insidious structure has sensed Becky’s fear and is not going to let go of its victims.

Who played in Vyshka?

The concept of chamber horror, which the film adheres to, does not imply that there will be many actors in this movie. Most of the time we see only the two main characters on top of the ill-fated radio tower. Therefore, the creators wisely decided to take the path of not the most famous performers, but precisely those who would look most organically against the backdrop of the endless landscapes of the Mojave Desert, where the shooting took place. With a very modest budget for Hollywood of $ 3 million, their cast turned out to be really interesting.

The role of Becky in the film was played by American actress Grace Fulton. Many may know her from the superhero film Shazam, in which she played the half-sister of the protagonist Mary.

The image of Hunter was embodied on the screen by Virginia Gardner. Unlike Fulton, this is far from her first central role in a big movie. Long before The Tower, the actress became famous thanks to the TV series The Runaways from Marvel, in which she played Caroline Dean.

Also from the interesting faces in the project you can see Jeffrey Dean Morgan, whom all viewers probably remembered from the series The Walking Dead and Supernatural. Here he played the role of Becky’s strict father, who periodically appears in her flashbacks.

The director of the project and the author of the idea was Scott Mann. For Scott, this is not the first time he has taken the director’s chair. Previously, he has already worked on the films The Final Score with Dave Batista and Pierce Brosnan, Speed: Bus 657 with the same Jeffrey Dean Morgan and the TV series The Oath. At the same time, it is interesting that Mann never received large budgets, but always shot his breathtaking paintings for rather modest sums.

According to the director, Vyshka was inspired by his own fears: “The creative impetus was that I myself was afraid of heights. It started when I was filming a scene for another movie on top of a big stadium. Right there, where the whole team was standing on such a small island in the middle of the abyss and looking straight down, I thought: The height has not yet been fully explored in the movie.

However, the shooting of Mann’s idea almost turned into a real disaster. It’s all about the banal complexity and budget of the project. All the scenes had to be done from the first take on top of a real radio tower in the middle of the desert. No one had a chance to make a mistake, because there would not be enough money for reshooting. But Scott believes that the final result justified all their efforts: “This film is simply living proof of the principle: How difficult it is to make a movie, says how good it will turn out. And I would say that since this film turned out to be so difficult, then it definitely turned out to be just as good.

Reviews about the “Tower” of viewers and critics

The specialized press, including Russian, immediately praised Mann’s new film. First of all, critics liked the level of cinematic immersion that the director managed to achieve. Each movement of the heroines, each swaying of the tower and the breath of the wind, the viewer feels as if he himself is in the center of the action. Also, many reviewers liked the picturesque views from a height of half a kilometer, which were clearly worked on by the best operators in the business.

On the other hand, some of them did not like the plot of the picture. Several publications noted that the plot of the story and its chamber concept immediately drove the screenwriter into a very narrow framework, in which it is difficult to come up with something really original. In fact, it worked in such a way that the film can literally surprise with one unexpected twist in the entire hour and a half of running time.

Ordinary viewers of the film also greeted the picture very warmly. Many in the reviews note that despite the modesty of the action, “Tower” does not have time to get bored, gives an amazing fullness of sensations from the constant proximity of danger and pleases with a wonderful pair of main characters in the center of the story. Kinopoisk score – 7.1.