The Leading Edge

The Leading Edge was Michael Firth's update of his Oscar-nominated ski movie Off the Edge (1977) — this time with a high octane pop music soundtrack. In the full-length feature, Canadian Matt hitches from Auckland to meet a bunch of Kiwi extreme thrill-seekers at a southern ski field (including real life Olympians Bruce and Christine Grant). They throw themselves off volcanoes, glaciers, mountains and into an Iron Man with "get more go" abandon. Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh's first feature shoot — "I was relatively cheap and I could ski" — is notable for its ski sequences, and a cameo by Billy T James as a mad pilot.   

[Bruce Grant's] role in The Leading Edge took a truly dramatic turn when an avalanche stunt went wrong, landing him in hospital with yet another broken leg. With only a week's filming "in the can", the script had to be severely rewritten to accommodate the hobbling co-star.

– Contemporary article in NZ Skier

Key Cast & Crew

Mark Whetu

As: Mark

Stuart Dryburgh

Cinematographer

Mike Farrell

Composer

Barrie Everard

Producer

Michael Firth

Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Producer

Billy T James

As: Pilot