Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Religious Music & Entertainment
The Inspirational Isolation of Free Solo

The Inspirational Isolation of Free Solo

Last updated on: November 28, 2018 at 8:27 am by Paul Asay

The Inspirational Isolation of Free Solo 2018-11-28T08:27:46-06:00 Paul Asay

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Alex Honnold in National Geographic’s Free Solo, photo courtesy National Geographic

I review movies for a living, and I’ve seen plenty of horror flicks this year. From A Quiet Place to The Nun to the newest Halloween, I’ve been subjected to my share of jump scares and creeping chills.

But National Geographic’s Free Solo is the most terrifying movie of the year.

No homicidal maniac haunts this film, no hungry alien lurks in its corners. The terror is right in front of you—El Capitan, a 3,200 feet of granite cliff shooting straight from California’s Yosemite Valley like a gigantic tooth.

El Capitan is the ultimate monster in the world of rock climbing, so fearsome that no one successfully crawled up its face until 1958. Oh, and it took those first climbers 46 days over 16 months to do it—fighting the beast by stages.

Alex Honnold plans to do it in around four hours.

By himself.

Without a rope.

“People who know a little bit about climbing, they’re like, oh, he says he has this. He’s totally safe,” Alex’s friend Timmy Caldwell says in Free Solo. “And then the people who really know exactly what he’s doing, they’re freaked out.”

No one has ever free soloed El Capitan—that is, scaled it by themselves without a rope. Caldwell, a rock climbing legend himself, admits he’d never even consider it. “I think everybody who’s made free soloing a part of their life is dead now,” he says. It scares the fritters out of the documentary makers, too. Director Jimmy Chin talks about how the filming could make it even more difficult for Honnold, and he discusses the possibility of “him falling through the frame to his death.”

Even Honnold admits, in the opening scenes of the movie, that the challenge terrifies him. And as he talks with Chin and other members of the doc crew, he suggests they not film pitch 23—the place where Honnold would be most likely to fall. “Nobody wants to see that,” he says as a quiet settles over them all.

But if El Capitan is a slab of unfeeling granite, some might say the same of Alex Honnold himself.

It takes a special sort of person to take on the sort of challenge Honnold does here. Doctors discover that his amygdala—the part of the brain in charge of excitement and fear—is so chill to seem almost comatose. He’s curiously reserved, even distant, around even those closest to him—his friends, his family, his worried-sick girlfriend, Sanni McCandless. “I had to teach myself how to hug when I was 23 or something,” he admits, as though he was practicing a climbing move. “Now I’m a pretty good hugger.”

When Honnold freaks out at one point over the daunting challenge, Caldwell admits that he’s glad to see it. “It’d be somehow reassuring that Spock has nerves,” he says. Solo indeed.

Free Solo is meant to be an inspiring film about human achievement, and that it is. But it’s a cautionary story, too. And when we see a sad litany of skilled climbers who lost their lives doing things not nearly as dangerous as Honnold aspires to do, we understand the risk. Or so I hope we do. As inspirational as this film is, I worry a little that it might inspire other would-be adventurers—blessed with just as much heart as Honnold but not as much skill—to take a chance they’re not quite ready for.

Honnold’s preparation is an antidote for such foolhardiness, admittedly. He practices on El Capitan (with a rope) endlessly. He practices every move again and again until it becomes, in his words, boring. “I work through the fear until it’s just not scary anymore,” he says.

But for us, the viewer, it is scary. Through this breathtaking doc, Honnold carries us on his back, and we feel the thrill. And the terror.

Previous Post

November 26, 2018

Daredevil is Television’s Bloodiest, and Best, Show About Faith

Next Post

December 1, 2018 George H.W. Bush is Gone, But His Faith Lives On

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books celebrities Editor's Choice games movies music news sports superheroes television Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 December 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 September 2023 March 2023 February 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 December 2021 October 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Christian denomination places great emphasis on "justification by faith alone"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Orthodox Catholics Methodists Lutherans

Books by This Author Books by Paul Asay

See All Titles »