The Ledge Plot Synopsis
If you have enjoyed such movies as Cliffhanger, K2, and Vertical Limit, you might be interested in this mountain climbing thriller. This isn’t to say it’s a particularly good movie but if you’re looking for a story that features lots of cliffside peril, you might get something from this if your expectations are low.
The Ledge is set in Northern Italy and it initially focuses on Sophie and Kelly who have ventured into the mountain district to embark on a climbing expedition. The day before they are due to climb a group of men arrive. As Sophie likes the look of Josh, the group’s ringleader, they decide to spend the evening relaxing beside a campfire with their newfound friends.
It’s not long before events take a dark turn, however, and Kelly is left alone without Sophie. She is forced to free climb a mountain but her journey to the top is one that is fraught with peril. Does she survive the climb? Keep reading to find out more.
Why is Kelly left alone?
After tiring of the men and their inane banter, Kelly decides to head back to camp. Sophie stays behind but when she goes off into the forest to find a place to do her toilet business, she is followed by Josh.
After catching up with Sophie, Josh makes some sexual advances and tries to force himself on her. Sophie fights back, screams, and runs towards the nearby rockface which she then starts climbing.
Josh summons the other men together and they pursue her by taking the easy route up the mountain. They catch up to her, cause her to fall onto a ledge, and then kill her by smashing her head in with a rock.
Meanwhile, Kelly has started to realise that her friend might be in trouble. When she gets to her location, she is forced to watch in horror as the body of her friend is thrown from the cliffside ledge to the ground below. Luckily, she has managed to capture this tragic event on film but when the men notice her filming their actions, they then start to pursue her.
What does Kelly do?
Kelly runs back to camp to collect her belongings and then starts to climb a mountain, thinking the other men will be too inexperienced to follow her up there. But one of the guys, Taylor, does try to pursue her up the rockface but Kelly is able to fend him with off her foot and she sends him plummeting down to the ground below. He isn’t killed but as his leg is messed up by the fall, he isn’t able to pursue her any further.
Josh takes Taylor back to camp to get some painkillers but instead of giving Taylor the medication he needs to ease his agony, Josh decides to end his pain another way and kills him. Why? Well, they previously got into a disagreement but you can be forgiven if you think Josh takes things a little bit too far here. Believability is not this movie’s strong point.
Do the men catch up to Kelly?
On his return to the mountain, Josh is still adamant that they must catch Kelly, presumably to kill her but to also get the camcorder that contains the incriminating footage of them killing Sophie.
He and the remaining guys, Nathan and Reynolds, pursue her but as they don’t have the climbing ability to scale the rockface, they go up the mountain another way and sit at the peak waiting for her to join them.
Kelly continues her climb, has a run-in with a snake, and then decides to rest for the night in a tent that has been conveniently left behind on the rockface. She is somehow able to attach this to the rockface and dangles precariously within it, hundreds of feet above the ground.
But before she can get some shut-eye, the guys try to dislodge the tent by throwing things at it. They fail so Josh sends one of the men down by rope to get inside the tent. He cuts his way through but the plucky Kelly manages to cut his hand and make him retreat. Josh is understandably frustrated at this, as despite being above Kelly, they clearly don’t have the upper hand.
Does Kelly survive the climb?
Kelly is able to fend the guys off but she is still in peril. She is trapped on a ledge below the three guys and she doesn’t have a lot of rock to stand on.
Thankfully, Josh makes life easier for her by disposing of his own men. He throws Nathan off the mountain after getting into an argument with him (you really don’t want to get into a fight with this creep) and he sets Reynolds on fire. He then dangles the burning man from a rope in another effort to cause Kelly to fall. Fortunately, the rope snaps so if Reynolds wasn’t dead already, he certainly would be after making his rapid descent!
This leaves Kelly and Josh. He drops down by rope and asks her for the camcorder. She gives it to him but he is annoyed when he discovers she has removed the memory card. She tells him it is a hole in the cliffside but when he puts his hand in there, he is bitten by a snake. Annoyed, he tries to strangle Kelly but she stabs him, cuts his rope, and causes him to fall.
As Josh desperately tries to hang onto the ledge to save his life, he begs Kelly for help. She doesn’t listen to him, of course, and instead, stands on his hand to make him loosen his grip. He falls to his death and this gives Kelly the opportunity she needs to make it up the mountain without any further problems.
The film ends with Kelly standing on the peak of the mountain next to a wooden cross, which is presumably there in memory of her late boyfriend, the man who taught her all she needed to know about rock climbing and mountainside survival!
Read More: The Ledge Movie Review
Hey Archibald – I’m not a rock climber so appreciate your feedback about my choice of wording.
” in a tent that has been conveniently left behind on the rockface.”
Things like this are often left on the side of mountains for other climbs, it’s convenient in that it is convenient, not your implied meaning here that it is out of place.
“She is somehow able to attach this to the rockface and dangles precariously within it, hundreds of feet above the ground.”
… she uses the tools designed to do it, to do the thing that this is designed to do. You sound a bit clueless as to what you are talking about.
thanks for that! I will have another look.
So in the movie they don’t show Josh killing Taylor. He gave him a bunch of medication, and it doesn’t even show what it is, gives him something to drink it down with, and then they all leave. I figured he had killed him, but they don’t show it, not like they show him killing his other two friends.
Thanks, I will amend that.
The tent wasn’t “conveniently placed in her backpack.” It was a tent that had obviously been left from a previous climb. You can see here climbing towards it above her