Free Solo

Free Solo is a 2018 American documentary film directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin that profiles rock climber Alex Honnold on his quest to perform the first-ever free solo climb of a route on El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park, in June 2017.

The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2018, and also screened at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award in the Documentaries category. It was released in the United States on September 28, 2018 and grossed over $28 million.

The film received acclaim from critics and numerous accolades, including winning Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy Awards.

Synopsis
Climber Alex Honnold has been dreaming of free-soloing the 3,000 ft rock wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, a feat no one has performed. His choice of big wall climbing route on El Capitan is called Freerider, a route that was created by Alexander Huber in 1998, and which is graded at in difficulty. No climber has ever completed a big-wall free solo at such a grade of difficulty in rock climbing history. Honnold, who has completed Freerider several times with protection equipment, is a shy loner, who lives in his van with then-girlfriend (now wife) Sanni McCandless.

Honnold goes climbing with McCandless, but while she is feeding the rope through a grigri, she makes a mistake and Honnold falls. He visits a physician, who diagnoses a compression fracture. Honnold then admits wanting to break up with McCandless. In the summer of 2016, Honnold and Tommy Caldwell are climbing in Morocco in preparation for his free solo. The crew also prepares, discussing where to place cameras to best capture Honnold’s climb while minimizing distractions and interference. Producer Jimmy Chin discusses the ethical dilemma of creating this documentary knowing Honnold could die on camera. Honnold also receives a magnetic resonance imaging scan in order to understand his brain's response to fear.

In the fall of 2016, Honnold sprains his ankle on El Capitan while climbing with protection equipment on the first section of Freerider, the giant multi-pitch slab known as Freeblast and graded at. Although his foot is swollen, he continues to climb in fear of his schedule being delayed. Around Halloween, Honnold and McCandless visit Caldwell and his wife and children for carving pumpkins. This prompts Honnold to describe his upbringing: the word "love" was not used in his household, as his father lacked the ability to form emotional bonds. Honnold and Caldwell rappel down Freerider on El Capitan and Honnold outlines his route, discussing the areas about which he is apprehensive: one section offers him two alternative pathways on Freerider that he calls "The Teflon Corner" (a right-angled section with a smooth slippery surface), or the "Boulder Problem" (an intricate piece of the rock wall that he must finish either with a jump or a wide "karate kick" stance). Both the crew and McCandless suggest abandoning the plan, and Honnold admits that he does not want his friends to see him die if he falls while free soloing; he finds out about the death of Ueli Steck and reflects on his own risk-taking. In a trial run, Honnold sets off to climb El Capitan without equipment but abandons the climb after the slab section of Freeblast. As a result, Chin grows apprehensive of filming Honnold, fearful it will put unnecessary pressure on him.

On June 3, 2017, Honnold begins his free solo climb of Freerider on El Capitan; McCandless leaves and expresses her apprehensions. As Honnold is climbing, the crew narrates his progress, and watches nervously as Honnold completes the "Boulder Problem"; one cameraman turns away as he cannot bear to watch. Honnold continues with his climb and completes the free solo in 3 hours and 56 minutes. He celebrates at the top with Chin and McCandless over a phone call.

The documentary ends with information on the climb, and Honnold contemplating his next steps.

Production
Prior to filming, directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin struggled with the ethical ramifications and decisions behind creating Free Solo, knowing Honnold could die on camera. They ultimately decided to go through with the film and devoted some time to documenting its own production process, with Chin and his camera crew (all experienced climbers themselves) discussing the challenge of not endangering climber Alex Honnold by distracting him or pressuring him at all to attempt the climb. According to Vasarhelyi, filming while not endangering Honnold was achieved with careful planning and practice. As the cameramen were all climbers, they were able to effectively capture Honnold’s climb from different vantage points. The production team captured 700 hours of footage using 12 cameras. This included cameramen on the ground, cameramen on the cliff face, remote trigger cameras, and a helicopter with a 1,000 mm lens to capture the 4k video. Wireless mics, however, could not be used to record sound from Honnold due to his distance from the cameras. As a result, the filmmakers created a special recording device and had Honnold carry it inside his chalk bag.

The film was made by National Geographic Partners, which at the time of the film's release was majority-owned by 21st Century Fox, with the remainder owned by the National Geographic Society.

Release
Free Solo premiered in the United States on August 31, 2018 at the Telluride Film Festival and in Canada on September 9, 2018, at the Toronto International Film Festival. It has been shown at multiple film festivals internationally since then. Free Solo was later released in theatres in the USA on September 28, 2018.

Box office
Free Solo grossed $17.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $11.1 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $28.6 million.

The film made $300,804 from four theaters in its opening weekend, surpassing Eighth Grade and An Inconvenient Sequel, respectively, for the highest per-venue average of 2018 and of a documentary all-time with $75,201. It expanded to 41 theaters in its second weekend, making $562,786. The film grossed $859,051 from 129 theaters in its third weekend and $1 million from 251 theaters in its fourth weekend. During its fifth weekend, it earned $1.06 million from 394 theaters, bringing the total box office gross to over $5 million.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on  reviews, with an average rating of. The website's critical consensus reads, "Free Solo depicts athletic feats that many viewers will find beyond reason – and grounds the attempts in passions that are all but universal." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Writing for Variety, Peter Debrudge praised the pacing of the documentary: "Apart from a slow stretch around the hour mark, the filmmakers keep things lively (with a big assist from Marco Beltrami's pulse-quickening score, the nail-biting opposite of Tim McGraw's soaring end-credits single, "Gravity")." Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair called the film "bracingly made" and thought the filmmakers properly conveyed the challenges and dangers faced by Honnold in his endeavors: "Free Solo's detailed, transfixing portrait of their hero will at least show some sort of barrier to entry, communicating to those eager wannabes that very few people indeed are built quite like Alex Honnold. And thank goodness, in a way, for that."

Michael Hale, London-based journalist for Sight and Sound, praised the filming techniques and the resulting effect. He argued that an image reminiscent of Greek mythology is evoked in Alex Honnold as the height and scale of El Capitan is captured. Film critic for the Globe and Mail John Doyle similarly praised the film, focusing on the “texture” of Free Solo. He specifically praised the tension and intensity when Honnold repeatedly risked death, along with the relatability of Honnold and his girlfriend. Similarly, journalist Sam Wollastan argued that Free Solo effectively captures an amazing athletic feat, the emotional development of Honnold, and the budding romance between Honnold and McCandless. The emotional development is further praised by The Times journalist Jane Mulkerrins, who remarks on the duality of the documentary as it examines the preparation and climb of Alex Honnold along with his relationship with girlfriend Sanni McCandless: “[Free Solo] captures the death-defying climb with vertigo-inducing camerawork. We see Honnold getting ready for the climb… At the same time, the armour of invincibility he's built up over the years fractures when he begins to fall in love with Sanni.”