Zip Wire (2026) Review
Zip Wire (2026) Review
HANG ON TIGHT! It’s a deadly game of cat-and-mouse in the Dolomite mountains with high-octane thriller, ‘Zip Wire’. When her groundbreaking pharmaceutical discovery is stolen & partner murdered, researcher Amy must face her fear of heights to escape nefarious attackers, with the only path to salvation being a treacherous aerial runway. To outsmart the mysterious hostiles, she has to summon every ounce of courage to protect the world-changing scientific discovery — and herself — before it’s too late.
Starring MyAnna Buring (The Descent), Joseph Millson (Casino Royale), Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea), Silvia Presente (Outlander), and Michael Amariah (Ghosts). Zip Wire is written by Tom Boyle (The Ledge) and directed by Howard J. Ford (The Dead).
This survival horror initially brings to mind 2022’s Fall, in which two best friends find themselves stranded at the top of a 2,000-foot television broadcasting tower. Here, the midsection presents a similarly precarious predicament, with two women becoming stranded high above the ground—but this time, they’re dangling from a zip wire.
Unlike Fall, however, director Howard J. Ford isn’t particularly interested in inducing giddying, vertigo-driven thrills. Instead, he opts for a fast-paced survival thriller that happily leaves logic at the door and throws itself headfirst into the territory of silly, dumb fun. And, to its credit, it does so with considerable gusto.
The result is the kind of undemanding Saturday-night entertainment that doesn’t require you to overthink proceedings. The final third does slacken somewhat, but you don’t mind too much because the first hour ramps up the tension and proves to be a giddy joy to watch, even when the increasingly convoluted plot makes little sense. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
There is something particularly enjoyable about the way the film initially establishes OCD scientist Amy (MyAnna Buring) as being terrified of virtually everything, including something as mundane as getting into the lift at her place of employment. Following the death of her partner, however, that fear appears to vanish almost overnight. There’s no gradual character development or convincing transition; the shakes simply disappear, and Amy suddenly becomes inexplicably cool-headed whenever the situation demands it. It’s hardly subtle, but then subtlety isn’t exactly what this film has signed up for.
Joseph Millson is arguably the standout among the cast as Evan, the head of a group of assassins tasked with extracting a code from Amy. Millson clearly relishes the role, delivering his lines with a knowing relish and bringing an entertaining sense of menace to proceedings.
Ultimately, this is best approached for what it is: a breathless, occasionally ridiculous survival thriller that prioritises pace and entertainment over logic. It may not deliver the stomach-churning vertigo of Fall, but its first hour in particular is a great deal of silly fun—and sometimes that is precisely what you want from a Saturday-night movie.
Zip Wire is available on Digital HD from Aug 31 and DVD from Sept 7. Distributed by Signature Entertainment
UK Trailer
