The Morning Watch: 'Free Solo' Star Breaks Down Climbing In Movies, The Best Movies Within Movies & More
The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.
In this edition, Free Solo documentary subject Alex Honnold breaks down some of the most famous rock climbing scenes in movies like Mission: Impossible 2 and Point Break. Plus, a video essay explores the best movies within movies, and the crew at Tested takes a close look at a showcase of rare, vintage Star Wars collectibles from decades ago.
First up, Alex Honnold is a daredevil rock climber who makes an impressive harness-free climb in the intense documentary Free Solo. That's why GQ had him take a close look at some of the most famous rock climbing scenes from movies like Mission: Impossible 2, Point Break, The Dark Knight Rises, Cliffhanger, Vertical Limit and more. Which are the most realistic?
Next up, Patrick (H) Willems takes a closer look at some of the best movies within movies and talks about what they accomplish within the films they occupy. While some movies like Coming Up Daisy in Burn After Reading and the Scorcher franchise in Tropic Thunder are farcical, they do much more than bring some meta laughs.
Finally, the Tested crew takes a look at some incredible vintage Star Wars toys and collectibles that are somehow still in amazing condition after all these years. The folks at Prop Store are the owners of these items, and the discussion turns to prototype mock-ups during the process of making the toys, retail display pieces that are now prized possessions and more.