The ads for Vertical Limit promise, in typically hyperbolic fashion, that nothing you've ever seen, experienced, or imagined can possibly prepare you for it. But a passing familiarity with adventure-movie clichés should serve audience members just fine. Not content with the usual man vs. nature struggle, director Martin Campbell's mountain-climbing drama throws in corporate greed vs. hippie mysticism, caution vs. recklessness, and self-sacrifice vs. self-interest, weighing down its cast with narrative baggage before it ever takes off. A lightweight Chris O'Donnell stars as the fresh-faced protagonist, a National Geographic photographer who stopped scaling mountains after a climbing mishap forced him to sacrifice the life of his father to save himself and sister Robin Tunney. Three years later, O'Donnell is conveniently afforded an opportunity to redeem himself by saving the life of Tunney, who has become stranded on a treacherous mountain alongside Bill Paxton, a flamboyant billionaire who stops short only of tying Tunney to railroad tracks to announce himself as the villain. A motley gang of heroes joins O'Donnell on the rescue mission, most notably mysterious, noble mountain man Scott Glenn, an attractive French-Canadian medic, and a pair of rascally Australian brothers whose comic antics rob the film of what little urgency and suspense it has. Campbell, who directed GoldenEye and Mask Of Zorro, knows a thing or two about breathtaking action sequences and working on a large canvas. But he's defeated at every turn by a script by Robert King and Terry Hayes, who've apparently never encountered a hoary back story or unnecessary subplot they didn't like. Vertical Limit drives home its message of selflessness and bravery with all the delicacy of a landslide, but its forgettable mixture of impressive stunt work and paper-thin human drama make it all too tempting to root for the mountain.