The Mountain Between Us (film)

After their flight is canceled due to stormy weather, neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Bass (Idris Elba) and photojournalist Alex Martin (Kate Winslet) hire private pilot Walter (Beau Bridges) to get them from Utah to Denver for connecting flights to Alex's wedding in New York and Ben's emergency surgery appointment in Baltimore. Walter, who has not filed a flight plan, suffers a fatal stroke mid-flight, and the plane crashes on a mountaintop in the High Uintas Wilderness. Ben, Alex, and Walter's Labrador Retriever survive the crash but Alex has injured her leg quite badly. Ben attends to her cuts and injured knee, and buries the pilot while she is unconscious.

Once conscious, Alex thinks Ben has a better chance of finding help if he leaves her behind, but Ben refuses. Stranded for days with dwindling supplies, Alex grows skeptical that they will be rescued, although Ben wants to wait for help with the plane's wreckage. He agrees to climb a ridge to see if there is any sign of a road, but sees nothing but mountains and narrowly avoids falling down the side.

Alex goes through Ben's things and listens to a message from his wife saying, 'I'm glad to have had this time with you'. Alex is found by a cougar who attacks the dog. She shoots a flare at the big cat, killing it. The dog returns and later, when Ben comes back he tends to the dog’s wounds. They cook the cougar giving them, Ben thinks, ten days of food.

The two argue over waiting for rescue or descending the mountain to find help/a phone signal. Alex starts a lone descent down the mountain. Ben catches up, having located the tail end of the plane he finds a beacon - but it is smashed. The two hike down to the tree-line and spend the night in a cave.

Using her telephoto lens, Alex thinks she sees a cabin. At the same time that Alex falls into freezing water, Ben comes across the empty cabin. He pulls her out, but she remains unconscious and severely dehydrated. Ben again saves her life by fashioning an IV. They stay there for several days while Alex recovers, and eventually they have sex. Ben reveals that his wife died two years prior from a brain tumor. As he sleeps, Alex takes his picture. Later, she again tells Ben to leave her behind to find help. Ben initially agrees but soon returns; they press forward again.

The dog alerts them to a nearby timber yard. On their way toward it, Ben's leg gets caught in a bear trap. Alex cannot free him, but she reaches the yard and collapses in front of an approaching truck. Ben awakens in a hospital and goes to Alex's room, where he finds her with Mark (Dermot Mulroney), her fiancé. After a brief conversation, Ben leaves, heartbroken.

Ben and Alex go their separate ways after the hospital, with Ben keeping the dog. Alex tries calling Ben, but he ignores her calls until she sends him photos she had taken on the mountain, writing that only he can understand them. This encourages Ben to call Alex. They meet at a restaurant in New York, where it is revealed that Alex is now a part-time teacher, and Ben is a consultant at trauma clinics in London because his frostbitten hands will not recover sufficiently for him to perform surgery again. Ben says he did not call Alex because he thought she had married; Alex says she could not go through with it because she fell in love with Ben. Outside the restaurant, Ben admits to Alex that they survived because they fell in love. Alex dismisses her feelings and reminds Ben of something he said on the mountain: "the heart is just a muscle." She tells him she doesn’t know how they could be together in the real world. They hug goodbye, and begin to depart in opposite directions. While walking away both become distraught, and finally turn and begin running back to each other. A split second before the two embrace, the screen cuts to black and the credits roll.

• Idris Elba as Dr. Ben Bass, a neurosurgeon
• Kate Winslet as Alex Martin, a photojournalist
• Dermot Mulroney as Mark Robertson, Alex’s fiancé
• Beau Bridges as Walter, the pilot of the charter plane
• Raleigh and Austin as Walter's dog

The project was first developed in January 2012, with Mexican director Gerardo Naranjo set to direct a script by J. Mills Goodloe.[8] In August 2012, Scott Frank was hired to re-write the script.[9] In November 2014, Hany Abu-Assad replaced Naranjo,[10] and Chris Weitz was later hired to re-write the script.[11]

Abu-Assad has said of the film, "I really didn’t see an epic love story against the background of survival, I think optimism and hope is crucial to survive. And to go on with your life even if you’ve had a lot of bad luck. So if you give (in) to the bad luck, you will die. (But) if you fight the bad luck, you have a better chance to survive and make your life better. This is very simple wisdom, yes? But still very crucial especially in these kind of days, when everybody feels entitled to their good luck."[12]

German-Iranian composer Ramin Djawadi composed & conducted the music for the film.[22] The official trailer for the movie was released with "Dusk Till Dawn" by Zayn Malik and Sia Furler as the official soundtrack. The score from the film is now released at Lakeshore Records. Soundtrackdreams reviewed, 'The main theme from “The mountain between us” is the best advertisement for this score; a sweeping piano and violin theme, both grandiose and intimate at the same time, a proper dramatic opening that gets emotional from the first minutes without an adjustment period. The first cue is the kind of piece that could have very well sat at the end as the dramatic climax of the movie. The horn buildup towards the end joins the rolling piano in making sure this theme will end up as one of the most memorable he has every written.[23]

The film premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, on September 9, 2017.[24] The film was initially set for release in the United States on October 20, 2017[25] but was later moved up to October 6, 2017.[7]

• Official website
• The Mountain Between Us at IMDb
• The Mountain Between Us at Box Office Mojo
• The Mountain Between Us at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Mountain Between Us at Metacritic