Infinite Storm

A24's SXSW Opener everywhere togetherbleaker streets infinite storm and Sony Pictures Classics' mothering Sunday Offer something that has been a rarity of ...

Infinite Storm is a snowy survival drama with chilling atmosphere and a great performance from Naomi Watts.

She’s spent a lifetime training to live beyond her personal demons, and ultimately “Infinite Storm” doesn’t afford her the quiet dignity of resolve this character seems to have relished all along. We don’t need to know anything about Pam because her story of struggle is evident in each gust of wind and barren vista and the metaphorical landscape that makes survival dramas so intriguing. You’ll spend the first hour of “Infinite Storm” glued to the screen, swept up in a gale of winds, howls, and trumpeting skies. Perhaps it would’ve been better had it taken place entirely in the alps, but when “Infinite Storm” makes its way back to civilization, it all goes off the rails. As survival cinema, “Infinite Storm” has a slippery, unpredictable energy, where the wild-card that is John butts up against Pam’s stay-with-me-humor, which keeps things moderately warm like a Patagonia jacket in a blizzard. In the past month, we’ve been offered five of them from various distributors, including Hulu‘s “No Exit,” Netflix’s “Against the Ice,” and now, the nearly-silent thriller “Infinite Storm” from Bleecker Street. This gripping, taciturn thriller set in a frozen landscape isn’t necessarily any different from the other titles, but the well-crafted drama is a good reminder of how tangible atmosphere can transcend predictable narrative.

The best climbing disaster films, such as the documentary Touching the Void, are intense and suspenseful enough to approach horror. Infinite Storm, the latest ...

There is nothing revelatory here because Szumowska seems to have internalized that, as long as she adhered closely to them, genre tropes would work in the film’s favor. In fact, Pam makes up the name “John” just so she has a name for this barely responsive person she’s attempting to save. The anxiety is heightened by the complication that Pam effectively must handle the situation for two. Ignoring the man and any suggested caution from weather reports—Mount Washington is known for its erratic weather—she soon finds herself in harsh conditions. She correctly realizes someone else is on the mountain, and they’re wholly unprepared for its challenges. Maybe it’s the combination of high altitude, exposure to the elements, and the physical strain of moving along something so imposing and vast.

Pam Bales did the impossible and fought against a storm to save a man's life and in the new movie 'Infinite Storm', Naomi Watts brings her incredible story ...

For Bales, her kids even noticed the amount of detail that Watts put into bringing her to life. With Naomi Watts in the lead role, the movie is a story of bravery and resilience for Pam and her “John” that she discovers on her hike. “Every time I play a real-life person, especially, if they’re still around is different case by case, and you don’t know how accessible that person’s going to be,” Watts said of getting to know and work with Bales. “But in this case, Pam was super available.

'Infinite Storm' is another true-life story about surviving the elements starring Naomi Watts. The film is well-photographed, and the epic adventure is ...

In The Impossible, it was a tsunami. On the way she finds a young man she calls “John”, half-dead from hypothermia, frostbite and terror, and determines to save him, too, even though it means dragging him in across the mountain range in a blinding snowstorm. In King Kong, it was a humongous gorilla’s paw. She says a lot with a full range of facial expressions and a minimum of dialogue, and stands tall in films that dwarf her with the kind of extreme stress and physical punishment other actors avoid. Chugging her way up the snowy ledges of Mt. Washington, despite a weather forecast that spells doom, gloom and disaster, she faces a frozen hell that presents a challenge to even an experienced climber like herself. Her first brush with near-death comes when she plunges through a hole in the ice, burying herself in the frozen waste with only a frail sounding whistle to call for help that never comes.

Joshua Rollins, screenwriter for the new film “Infinite Storm,” discusses the humanity and humility behind the heroic actions of hiker Pam Bales.

We have a moment in the script now where Naomi … has a mini breakdown, and a moment of just “How am I going to do this?” But then she takes a breath and she goes back. And to see Pam allow herself a night where everyone got to appreciate her was extremely uncomfortable for her to do. That helped shape her philosophy which was, if I can get to someone on time, I’m going to get them down the mountain. She literally kissed her children goodnight, went to bed, and woke up in the hospital being told that her children were dead. She made choices in her life to rebuild, and it’s sort of made things easier. The thriller is also a mystery: Who is the survivor, known only as “John,” and why was he up there? Pam, when we were talking, talked a lot about how one of her very first jobs on a search and rescue was a recovery. The movie, starring Naomi Watts, reveals how the mission was ultimately an emotional rescue not just for John but also the hero. After I tracked her down and talked to her that first time, [Pam] opened up to me about her life and the loss that she suffered. The movie, starring Naomi Watts, reveals how the mission was ultimately an emotional rescue not just for John but also the hero. A movie opening March 25, “Infinite Storm” recounts how Ms. Bales saved the man’s life. A few people, including my wife, sent me the story because we had hiked that hike numerous times.

The Lost City” has an 80s movie vibe. Sandra Bullock plays a novelist whose series comes to life and the guy from the cover of her books comes to her rescue ...

Naomi Wattsl, left, and Pam Bales attend an "Infinite Storm" screening at Regal Union Square on Thursday, March 24, 2022, in New York.

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Here, Watts stars as Pam Bales, a nurse and mountain guide prepping for a sojourn to the peak of Mount Washington. An experienced climber and member of the ...

Infinite Storm is based on the true story of Pam Bales, a woman born near those White Mountains, where she learned to hike and ski and where she volunteered with the local search and rescue team. It’s just that once off the mountain, the film loses the surety of its footing, surrendering to obligations to tell what it couldn’t show. Pam Bales is exactly the kind of woman about whom Hollywood needs to tell more stories: hers is one of conviction, courage, and self-sacrifice. For her to channel her own trauma into her personal triumph and self-sacrifice through her skill and dedication is nothing short of remarkable. The Desperate Hour provided a perfectly serviceable narrative conceit to place Watts alone against nature, and the veteran actor is one of the few whose range and ability can carry a storyline nearly by themselves. Infinite Storm, out now in theaters, takes Watts to her limits, once more, this time to the snow-capped peaks of New Hampshire’s White Mountains, where she must confront inner demons and physical challenge to rescue a stranded, injured fellow climber.

Billy Howle plays a despondent hiker who is rescued by heroic search-and-rescue volunteer Pam Bales in 'Infinite Storm,' a Bleecker Street film directed by ...

We wanted to make sure there was this connective level that was beyond the fundamental expositional stuff, like why were up the mountain. It was quite a juxtaposition from being in my one-bedroom flat in London to suddenly being in Slovenia on the side of a mountain looking over this expanse. He may or may not be called John. But there’s this artistic license I was given but as with most things—and this is quite a human trait—when we are given a plethora of choices, oftentimes we kind of freeze because we don’t know which direction to go in, so we can easily become overwhelmed. These were the conversations we were having at the time we shot it and afterwards, and in preparation for it too. Howle: The thing I was aware of in those early conversations with Malgo was that there is this responsibility. So, in the time I had to prepare, I really created a palette for him. How was it bringing this character to the screen? So, suddenly, within three weeks I was on the side of a mountain, scantily clad, doing this crazy stuff that really happened to someone. Just based on our conversation she liked what she saw of my previous work and wanted me involved, and then I heard that Naomi (Watts) was playing Pam Bales, and it was all quite exciting. With darkness approaching, it was up to Pam and her reluctant patient to get back down the mountain before they both perished in the dangerous snowstorm. I had a six-month stint at the beginning of the pandemic when I wasn’t working at all. It became clear to Pam that the man had climbed the mountain that morning with no intention of coming back down.

The actress turns in a strong performance as a hiker caught in bad weather and saddled with a man who doesn't want to be saved but it's not enough.

And then that part of the story, for all its seemingly built-in suspense and tension, is suddenly dispensed with quickly, despite being fleshed out with brief flashbacks to an earlier incident in Pam’s life. For much of the film, Pam might as well be accompanying an especially recalcitrant sack of potatoes down the mountain, for all that Howle’s character - found sitting Buddha-like and almost comatose in shorts on a snowy peak - contributes to their interaction. The film’s enervation is certainly not the fault of “Storm’s” star: As Pam, Naomi Watts more than holds our focus, in a two-hander to which her co-star (Billy Howle, playing the anonymous, uncommunicative hiker she dubs “John”) contributes very little.

Naomi Wattsl, left, and Pam Bales attend an "Infinite Storm" screening at Regal Union Square on Thursday, March 24, 2022, in New York.

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'Infinite Storm' is a thrilling survival film directed by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert. It follows Pam Bales (Naomi Watts), a mountain climber ...

Moreover, actress Naomi Watts who plays Pam in the movie, closely worked with the mountain climber and rescuer to deliver a realistic on-screen portrayal. Moreover, the narrative closely sticks to Pam Bales’ real-life experiences with a bit of dramatization, which adds to the cinematic appeal of the film. She found that aspect of Pam’s story moving and recognized the healing process hidden in Pam’s literal and metaphorical journey. However, by 11 am, she realized that the weather was turning against her, so she decided to return to her car. The heartfelt and motivating film highlights the fighting spirit of its protagonist as it showcases Pam’s will to survive. After its initial print in Appalachia in 2018, the article was republished in the New Hampshire Union Leader and Reader’s Digest.