PARK CITY, UTAH Jan. 28 (UPI) -- The Weight, which premiered Monday at the Sundance Film Festival, is a harrowing thriller. It joins The Wages of Fear and The Revenant amongst great treacherous terrain adventures.
In 1933, Sam Murphy (Ethan Hawke) is arrested and separated from his daughter, Penny (Avy Berry). At a labor camp, warden Clancy (Russell Crowe) offers Murphy a job for early release.
Murphy chooses Singh (Avi Nash), Olson (Lucas Lynggard Tønnesen) and Rankin (Austin Amelio) to join him. The job is transporting gold across Oregon before President Roosevelt confiscates it or looters find it.
The four carry gold bars on their back, which guards Amis (Sam Hazeldine) and Letender (George Burgess) value more than the men's lives. Anna (Julia Jones) follows them from the mine and letting her tag along seems safer than sending her back to tell the miners where they're going.
The forest is full of dangerous terrain made even more menacing by the heavy bars on their backs. A rope bridge across a chasm won't hold all the gold so they have to heave it bar by bar across before they can walk themselves.
