Free Solo provided me a movie-going experience that I haven’t had in a long while. First off, I really haven’t been watching many documentaries as of late, so watching Free Solo was a nice change of pace to the norm for me. However, more than that, I went to see it in IMAX, an experience I haven’t had in around a decade or so. While I don’t think that many theaters will still be playing Free Solo since it came out a few months ago, I think that the IMAX experience is absolutely worth it for this. It really heightened the emotions that I felt during the movie, which was already strong enough as it is.

As the name suggests, Free Solo is about the sport of free soloing, which is essentially rock climbing without any gear. This is an extremely dangerous sport that only a handful of rock climbers ever do, because if you slip you have no rope to catch you. You’ll likely die, as many have in the past. While the movie does give general glimpses into the sport itself, it focuses on one man in particular: Alex Honnold. Alex is one of the best in the business, but he’s always had one goal that he’s wanted to build to. He’s always dreamed of climbing the El Capitan Wall, which is a 3000 ft rock in Yosemite. Free Solo documents Alex’s journey towards free solo climbing this wall, and all of the terrors and hardships that come with it.

So, let’s get the obvious out of the way. One of the biggest reasons you’re going to want to see Free Solo is for the thrill of it. The documentary does a fantastic job of instilling the fear of the task into the viewer, and so after all of the initial set-up, the actual documented climb in the last 20 minutes or so is nothing short of nail-biting and breathtaking. The movie clearly highlights all of the dangers that come with doing this, and so while I was always pretty sure that Alex was going to make it (I don’t think they’d create a whole documentary about a guy who died doing this), the tension was always there, and the IMAX experience really helped intensify that by making me feel like I was up there with Alex at times. This is one of the easiest reasons to recommend Free Solo, so if the idea of it interests you, then I recommend it without hesitation.

Another reason to see the movie that might be a bit more overlooked, though, is that it provides a very interesting character study into Alex Honnold himself. I was fascinated by him, and the movie really delves into his psyche quite a bit. The obvious questions of why he would ever want to do such a risky sport are addressed, but it also explores the way his lifestyle affects his personal relationships. A big focus of that aspect is on how it affects his girlfriend, but we see it played out with other people as well. In a movie with a man climbing a deadly mountain without gear, it’s a real testament to say that some of the most interesting parts of the movie were simply the ones where Alex is talking. I found him to be such an intriguing person, and so the movie never skips out on exploring the actual person that’s completing the task.

Free Solo is one of those movies that’s just a very easy recommendation to me. I’ll stand by the fact that the IMAX experience really heightened the movie for me, but I can recognize that not many people will still have the chance to experience that at this point, so luckily I’d recommend the movie even on a smaller screen. The only kinds of people I wouldn’t recommend Free Solo to are those that have no interest in seeing someone free solo, or just people that don’t like documentaries in general. If you fall into either of these camps, then Free Solo won’t be for you, but if the concept intrigues you then it’s definitely worth checking out.

4.5/5