Vertical

Vertical is a planned film by Edward Hannis (screenwriter, composer, director), produced by Dimitri Noble and distributed by Heritage Studios, on the 1879 climbing expedition of Mount Smith. The film was officially requested on November 20, 2010, and work to film it began the very next day. The screenplay had been completed two months prior to the film's commencement.

Synopsis
The begins following Peter Anderson climbing on shoreside cliffs somewhere in Lovia. As he returns home from this, he receives word of a family reunion in Train Village, and so makes the voyage from Noble City to his family by bicycle. Upon arriving there, he meets with many family members who do not like him at all; they view him as a failure due to the fact that he has a poor job (he is a mailman) and practices an extremely dangerous pastime (rock climbing). His uncle, who is especially disapproving, accuses him of being someone who would forever be forgotten. In an off-hand remark, he suggests climbing Mount Smith, which at the time was known as the "unclimbable mountain." Anderson bets to his uncle that he would be such a great climber he would never be forgotten.

Anderson decides to look for his past friend Johann Veit, a brilliant climber who lived in Germany at the time. When he arrives at the snowy mountain, he is told that Veit was currently climbing (Veit only stopped climbing if it were raining; snow was apparently not dangerous). Anderson chases after him on the cliffs, trying to catch up with Veit. They eventually meet, and after a difficult conversation muffled by heavy winds, they climb back down and meet in a pub, where Anderson explains his plan: to climb the unclimbable mountain of Lovia.

Veit and Anderson arrive in Lovia, ready to climb. Since leaving, many others have heard of their attempt, and when the Lovian-German team arrive at the foot of the mountain (which they reached by bike, making them a laughingstock of their rivals), there are a dozen other teams ready to attempt. Many plan to leave from the northern side of the west face (the east face being a dangerous climb due to extremely sharp rocks at its base), while Anderson and Veit want to start south and make their way up diagonally to the Great Chimney.

As Anderson and Veit climb up, they realize that the area between them and the Great Chimney, the "Great Dead Zone", was nearly unclimbable. As others were bivouacking below the mouth of the Great Chimney (another extremely difficult area), Anderson and Veit were all the way across it, at the correct height but all the way across it, on the southern side instead of the northern. Early in the morning, as others were mocking them, claiming that they were stuck, Veit climbed across until he was directly between the Great Chimney and Anderson. Then, in an unbelievable move, Anderson traverses all the way across the mountain in a single move, arriving in the Great Chimney. The other climbers are amazed. The wisest of these climbers warns of the danger of such a move: a rope could be burned straight through (through the friction against the rock face) if one were to make a mistake.

As the day continues, Anderson and Veit climb their way up the Great Chimney, planning to bivouac that night on Leestkans, a little flat area of the mountain, in reach of the summit. At the end of the day, Veit and Anderson are near the top of the Great Chimney, meters away from Leestkans. Below them, other climbers watch; they had given up their attempt. Veit arrives at the top of the Great Chimney, securing onto Leestkans as Anderson begins his way up.

Suddenly, a rock Anderson was using as a hold falls, sending Anderson downwards, a nut placed by Veit exploding under the pressure; it had been badly placed. Anderson swung across the Great Chimney, the rope holding him. Veit was now stuck in an extremely difficult position, the full weight of Anderson pulling him. Anderson, struggling for hours to make his way up, would only arrive half way before dying of exhaustion. Under the watch of other climbers, Veit releases the dead-weight of Anderson, unclipping him, letting his body fade into the distant ground below.

Other climbers want to help Veit, but cannot; his entire path is almost inaccessible. Veit climbs his way down to the bottom of the Great Chimney, Leestkans being impossible to reach without the help of another climber. The climber is now stuck: he must perform the Anderson traverse on his own. Veit climbs across to the point where Anderson had clipped himself in, then climbed back to where he was before. Other climbers watch as he attempts the move, disappearing occasionally behind large pillars of rock. Behind one pillar, however, Veit doesn't reappear.

Other climbers investigate, and find a loose rope dangling from its nut, one end burned through, dangling in the wind.

The film concludes with Anderson and Veit's funeral, their bodies inside bivouacking sacks, rolled off the cliffs seen on the opening scene of the film, crashing into the waters below.

Title cards (words on screen) explain the fate of the next two major attempts, the Smith-White and the Oliviera-Tennison expeditions. The final image is of Veit and Anderson posing together, words reading: "Anderson won his bet: he would never be forgotten."

Cast
Casting, to date, has not yet begun.