Man on a Ledge


Man on a Ledge is a 2012 American action thriller film directed by Asger Leth, starring Sam Worthington, Jamie Bell, Elizabeth Banks, Edward Burns, Anthony Mackie, Genesis Rodriguez, and Ed Harris. Filming took place in New York City on top of The Roosevelt Hotel. It was met with mostly negative reception by critics, and grossed $8 million in its opening weekend. The film's soundtrack, written by Henry Jackman, was released alongside the film, also to negative reception from critics.

Plot

In New York City, Nick Cassidy checks into the Roosevelt Hotel under the false name of Walker, goes to his hotel room on the 21st floor, and climbs on the ledge, ready to commit suicide. The crowd below calls the police, with Dante Marcus controlling the crowd, while Jack Dougherty tries to talk with Nick. However, Nick will only speak to negotiator Lydia Mercer, who is on a leave of absence, after failing to save a suicidal policeman on the Brooklyn Bridge. Lydia arrives at the hotel room and manages to acquire Nick's fingerprints from a cigarette they share, after his initial resistance to revealing his true identity, going as far as to wipe any surface he touched in the main room to remove fingerprints. Dougherty has them analyzed and discovers that Nick is an ex-policeman, arrested for stealing the $40 million Monarch diamond from businessman David Englander. Nick was given a 25-year sentence but escaped from the Sing Sing Correctional Facility one month before the main events of the film, after being allowed to attend his father's funeral. Nick, however, maintains his innocence and accuses Englander of framing him for the theft of the diamond, as Englander lost his fortune and was too proud to sell the diamond.
Unknown to the police, Nick is merely distracting them while his brother, Joey, and Joey's girlfriend, Angie, break into Englander's vault across the street, using the cover of Nick's theatrics to detonate explosives on the roof to gain entry, in order to steal the diamond and ultimately prove Nick's innocence. Cassidy must make use of double entendres in order to provide instructions to Joey and Angie through an earpiece whilst not revealing their plan to the police. Meanwhile, Dougherty informs Marcus of Nick's identity, and Marcus orders the jewelry store's security to check the vault. Joey and Angie are able to evade them by hiding in a ceiling vent, but do not find the diamond. They deliberately set off the heat-sensing alarms, tricking Englander into retrieving the diamond and ambush him in his office, stealing the diamond at gunpoint and forcing him to handcuff himself to his safe. Meanwhile, Nick's ex-partner, Mike Ackerman, arrives at the hotel with evidence that Nick is planning something and demands to be allowed into the hotel room. Lydia does not trust him, and Dougherty backs her up. Ackerman claims he has found bomb schematics in a storage unit Nick rented and is convinced that he will detonate an explosive somewhere. While the crowd is evacuated by the bomb squad, Lydia, believing in Nick's innocence, calls Internal Affairs and discovers that three of the cops employed by Englander were suspected of being corrupt: Ackerman, Marcus, and a deceased officer called Walker, whose name Cassidy uses when checking into the hotel.
Joey and Angie enter the hotel and hand the bag containing the diamond to the hotel concierge. The concierge pockets the diamond while placing the bag onto the rack. Englander calls Marcus, one of the corrupt cops who helped him frame Nick, and has him capture Joey and Angie as they reach the street. Nick begins to make his escape through the hotel, with a tactical team in hot pursuit, at one point being aided by the concierge who tells him "everyone is rooting for you, kid," while handing him a disguise, with the diamond hidden in one of the pockets. Marcus chases Nick to the roof, where he has Lydia arrested for obstruction, removing her from the rooftop to allow him to deal with Nick alone. Englander brings Joey and Angie, threatening to throw Joey off the roof if Nick does not give him the diamond. Nick turns it over, under protests from Joey, and Englander leaves. Meanwhile, Lydia escapes custody whilst in an elevator and rushes back to the roof. Marcus attempts to force Nick to jump off the roof, but Ackerman arrives and shoots Marcus, who wounds Ackerman. Nick rushes to Ackerman's side, who apologizes and reveals that he had no idea that Englander would frame Nick for stealing the diamond. Marcus survives, as he is wearing a bulletproof vest, and is preparing to kill Nick, when Lydia shoots him, but does not kill him. Seeing Englander leaving the area, mocking him with a wave, Nick jumps from the roof onto an airbag set up earlier by the police, catches up to Englander, beats him with the assistance of a crowd member, and pulls the diamond he had only just recently given him from his jacket, proving Nick's innocence in front of both the police and public, resulting in Englander being arrested.
Later, Nick is cleared of all charges and released from custody and meets Joey, Angie, and Lydia at a bar owned by Nick's father, where it is revealed that the bartender, also the hotel concierge, is in fact Nick and Joey's father, Frank Cassidy, who had faked his own death in order to allow Nick to break out of prison under the guise of attending his father's funeral, and prove his innocence. Lydia at this point in the film asks Nick to "explain everything" to her before Joey proposes to Angie with a diamond ring presumably stolen from Englander's vault. She accepts and they all celebrate together.

Cast

On September 3, 2010, it was confirmed that Jamie Bell had joined the cast. Filming began on October 30 in New York City. On November 1, it was confirmed that Ed Harris and Titus Welliver had joined the cast.
The first image from the set was revealed on November 2, 2010. The first teaser poster for the film was released on November 5, 2010. The first trailer was released by Summit Entertainment on September 22, 2011. The film was distributed by Summit Entertainment and E1 Entertainment.
During development a large, on-rails prop was used to make the Roosevelt hotel seem taller, so that the hotel would remain consistent with the shots filmed in-studio instead of on the hotel itself. During the scenes where Nick is running along the sides of the hotel, extra floors were added during post-production in order to save the need for a second attachment. In post-production crowds were edited in from other shots so that the crowds would appear consistent throughout the film. The lead actor, Sam Worthington, admitted during interviews that he had a fear of heights that he had to tackle during recording of the film.

Release

Critical response

The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 32% approval rating based on 159 reviews, with average score of 4.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Uninspired acting and preposterous plotlines defuse Man on a Ledges mildly intriguing premise." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said "The movie cuts back and forth between two preposterous plot lines and uses the man on the ledge as a device to pump up the tension." According to Ebert, too much depends on Nick securing a leave from prison, escaping from two armed guards, reaching Manhattan, checking into the correct hotel room on the correct floor and not falling off prematurely. Anna Smith felt that the film "embrace its own lunacy readily enough", but criticised the "ridiculous ending". Similarly, The New Zealand Herald considered the film "a missed opportunity" that doesn't live up to its potential", pointing at the "limited" location Sam Worthington had to work with, praising how he still appeared "suitably terrified".
The film placed fifth in the box office top ten with a low $8,300,000 gross on its opening weekend. Overall, the film grossed $46,221,189 from its $42 million budget.

DVD and Blu-ray

The DVD and Blu-ray Disc was released in the United States on May 29, 2012, with a rating of PG-13.
The disc contains a 20-minute featurette which shows behind-the-scenes footage, with an explanation of how various shots or effects were achieved. For instance, producer Lorenzo explains how shots of the crowd were composited onto a green chroma keying carpet, laid down underneath the fake ledge used for shots recorded in-studio. For those who are visually impaired, a version of the film is included where a voiceover explains everything that is happening so that people with these visual ailments are still able to enjoy the film.
The Steelbook version of the film completely lacks any menus to speak of, and as a result is missing the special features present in the DVD and Blu-ray releases.
The 4K UHD Blu-ray was released in April 2019.

Music

The soundtrack to Man on a Ledge was released on January 27, 2012.

Critical reception

The soundtrack was met with mixed to negative reception. James Southall commented that whilst "there is occasionally some reasonably tense action music", he found most of the score "very tired-sounding". However, Jørn Tillnes described it as "succeed in almost every way", but that he "would prefer more variation", as he found that "as a complete listening experience, you get bored with it"..