The Fall is a 2006 adventure fantasy film produced, co-written, and directed by Tarsem Singh and starring Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, and Justine Waddell.

[7] In 1915 Los Angeles, stuntman Roy Walker is hospitalized, bedridden and paralyzed (possibly permanently) after jumping off a bridge for a stunt for a film.

He meets Alexandria, a young Romanian-born patient in the hospital who is recovering from a broken arm, and tells her a story about her namesake, Alexander the Great.

As he falls asleep he attempts to finish the story with the Bandit finding love, and he tells Alexandria not to return the next day.

Roy finally agrees, and the epic tale comes to an end; Governor Odious lays dying and the Bandit and his daughter are alive and together.

The intimidating X-Ray operator becomes an enemy soldier; the 'Indian' is seen by her as a South Asian immigrant co-worker from the orange groves, while Roy's dialogue makes it clear to the audience that he meant 'Indian' to mean a Native American man from the Western film he was involved in.

Roy took inspiration for his story's bandits from early 20th century news; the controversy over credit for Charles Darwin's ideas in On the Origin of Species between Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, as well as Ota Benga's imprisonment in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri were prominent news stories around the time period of the film's setting.

[10] Tarsem Singh largely financed the film with his own funds, and paid members of the cast and crew on an equal basis rather than in more typical Hollywood fashion.

The film was made over a period of four years and incorporates footage shot in 24 countries,[11] including India, Indonesia (Bali), Italy, France, Spain, Namibia, and China (PRC).

Singh stressed the importance of on-location filming and lack of special effects, as he found that modern techniques would not age well in comparison.

He only took advertising jobs in places that he wanted to do location scouting for, and flew cast members to shoot scenes for the film using the same crew as he did for commercials.

[15] Lee Pace remained in a bed for most of the early filming at the director's suggestion, convincing most of the crew that he was in fact unable to walk.

[16] The intention, Tarsem and Pace noted, was to maximize the realism of Roy's physical limitations in the eyes of Catinca Untaru, whose lines and reactions as the character Alexandria were largely unscripted.

Alexandria's misinterpreting the letter E as the number 3 in a note written by Roy came about from an accidental misreading by the 6-year-old actress during filming, which the director adapted into a twist in the story.

The website's critics consensus reads, "More visually elaborate than the fragmented story can sometimes support, The Fall walks the line between labor of love and filmmaker self-indulgence.

"[6] In July 2024, Mubi announced that they had acquired rights to the 4K restoration of The Fall for North and Latin America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux, Turkey and India, with its subsidiary The Match Factory handling sales elsewhere.