As undoubtedly one of the greatest climbers in history, Free Solo star Alex Honnold knows a thing or two about rock climbing — he’s even given a TED Talk about it that’s been viewed over four million times. So one GQ magazine editor figured that also made Honnold perfect for serving as a very specialized film critic…
ALEX HONNOLD: MOVIE CRITIC
With the fear of heights ranking highly for people since the advent of depth perception, movie makers have often included climbing scenes to add a dash of daring to their films. Gentlemen’s Quarterly had Honnold look at iconic clips from a number of films to rate their authenticity…
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE II (2000)
''The whole sliding down, like, 'Oh, gosh!', then catching the lip of something is actually somewhat realistic.''
— Alex Honnold, on Mission Impossible II
POINT BREAK (2015)
''The whole hanging with one hand and flailing with the other, that's not a thing. Like, no climber has ever done that.''
— Alex Honnold, on Point Break
STAR TREK V (1989)
''This is much closer to real rock climbing, and especially free soloing. He's moving slightly more methodically, he's placing his feet carefully, he's moving with intention.''
— Alex Honnold, on Star Trek V
FAILURE TO LAUNCH (2006)
''This is all surprisingly realistic in a lot of ways. One of my friends has a classic story of basically exactly that (belayer mishap) happening.''
— Alex Honnold, on Failure to Launch
VERTICAL LIMIT (2000)
''This is the type of situation where you should be like, 'Let's take one deep breath', compose ourselves, and do the right thing, which is never to cut the rope and your partner basically — particularly if it's your father.''
— Alex Honnold, on Vertical Limit
CLIFFHANGER (1993)
''I don't really understand what's happening, but you can't really climb ice barehanded. That isn't a thing.''
— Alex Honnold, on Cliffhanger
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