K2 stands tall in the range of adventure thrillers centered around mountaineering, and if you’ve harbored some banzai charge desire to tackle the 28,251 foot peak it’s set on, the 1991 movie is gripping enough to save you the trouble. Harassed by the studio suits, dismissed by reviewers and  defeated at the box office, the reception of his hard-won movie soured director Franc Roddam, who expressed “sorrow and disgust” with how studio interference messed with it—he had no love for that cuddly gentleman known as Harvey Weinstein. It was the last of six feature films Roddam made. Cult status has hiked it back to the elevation it deserves. *

“You know what I love about you Taylor? You’re too dumb to let reality stand in the way of success.”

Seattle-based climbing buddies ‘Taylor Brooks’ (Michael Biehn) and ‘Harold Jameson’ (Matt Craven) are set to go to Alaska and ascend Mt. McKinley when spots become available to join a team bound for Pakistan, the Karakoram Range and the world’s second highest mountain, daunting K-2, which kills one out of four who risk scaling it. While they’re united by their love of mountaineering, the guys are otherwise dissimilar: brash hotshot Taylor is a corporate attorney, and determinedly single, Jameson is a scientist, happily married and a dad to a tot. Though his wife (who does not like Taylor) is furious and frightened, Harold is convinced by Taylor to go for the big prize. Heading the group is billionaire ‘Phillip Claiborn’ (Raymond J. Barry), the team leader is ‘Dallas Wolff’ (Luca Bercovici), as arrogant as Taylor, while ‘Jackie Metcalf’ (Patricia Charbonneau) is a mediating influence between the alpha-males. Like Matt,  ‘Takane Shimuzu’ (Hiroshi Fujioka) is genial and laid-back. Styles and egos are an issue, but the mountain is more than just an irritating adversary: it’s a deadly enemy. **

The screenplay was written by Patrick Meyers and Scott Roberts, off of Meyers well-received 1982 play K2: it also fits in elements of the K-2 climb done in 1978 by Jim Wickwire and Louis Reichert. Biehn’s trademark intensity is nicely counterpointed by Craven’s easygoing mien. Barry conveys respect, Charbonneau radiates intelligent sexiness (the kind to climb a kill hill for) and Bercovici is shrewd enough to not play testy Dallas as a closet villain. Gabriel Beristain’s cinematography is stellar, one heck of a feat accomplished in British Columbia (on 13,177 foot Mt. Waddington and on Steinbok Peak, 6,601 feet), in the Pakistan section of Kashmir around Skardu, and with some pickup shots done in Utah around Snow Bird.

The US and European releases had different scores. The bombastic Euro go by Hans Zimmer sounds more suited to a war movie. Much better, the lofty-dreamy US version composed by Chaz Jankel evokes the stunning vastness and majestic solitude of the setting, the spiritual vibe in the alpinist mindset—quest/test/conquest/acceptance/humility—and the part eerie/part beckoning warning/dare of the mountain itself.

After $12,000,000 and five months of back-breaking, bone-chilling effort, the soporific critical response was a drag, but more disheartening was the free-fall plummet to 135th place at the box office, $3,106,000 not even getting out of base camp.

With Julia Nickson-Soul (Matt’s wife ‘Cindy’), Jamal Shah (‘ Malik’, boss of the quarrelsome porters) and Kehli O’Byrne (a tart bit as one of Taylor’s unamused co-workers). 102 minutes.

* Six to one—Franc Roddam’s dirty half-dozen: Quadrophenia, The Lords Of Discipline, The Bride, Aria, War Party, K2.  Roddam: “Usually on a film, no matter where it is, when you’re finished shooting you can go back to your hotel. On this film, you went back to an icy-cold tent.”  Biehn: “”I was involved in The Abyss, but this was a much more difficult movie. Our call sheet would have different scenes for three or four different weather variances. By the time they figured out the weather, and got all the equipment and everybody out there, we only had about four hours a day to shoot.”   Craven: “Every day was just an amazing challenge. You got a knock on your tent in the morning — ‘Matt, the helicopter’s ready.’ You’d fly to 9,000 feet on a cliff of ice and snow. I’m blown away by some of the shots we got.”

** Lookout above!—really, wouldn’t it be faster and cheaper to just jump off a bridge? Leave an explanatory note about your search for nobility. And nobody else would have to risk their life trying to save yours. All right, gutless snark to the side, from this mountain goat’s viewpoint, up close and personal K-2 is topped only by the superb fact-based epics Everest and North Face,   Lower down on the slopes are The White Tower, Third Man On The Mountain, The Mountain, The Eiger Sanction and Vertical Limit (set on K-2).  There a dozen documentary feature films about the allure and cost of our planet’s second loftiest peak; the best-received include K-2: Siren Of The Himalayas, The Summit, K-2 and the Invisible Footmen and The Last First: Winter K-2.