In post-apocalyptic Paris, a group of humans living on the ruins of the Eiffel tower try to survive in the face of vicious mutants on the ground below.

SYNOPSIS:

One hundred and seventy years in the future, a rag-tag tribe of humans struggles for survival. After an apocalypse, they have lived for six generations on the Eiffel Tower, where two levels a hundred yards off the ground are converted into farming and quarters. But an unusual drought has them all starving. Many on the Tower have genetic mutations related to the holocaust. Monthly, a ceremony called “Powdown” is held to decide if a child turning four years old is sufficiently “human” to stay “up top”. Kids found lacking are exiled to the ground, where they must live (or die) among the severely mutated. At the ceremony, five people, including the well-respected patriarch Pare and the physically imposing, often explosive Big Jib, are voted to take a cage elevator down to the much-feared world below them. They are joined by Pare’s granddaughter Nanky, a mute four-year-old girl with a long tail, whose fate hinges on her behavior on the ground. The group approaches the old Notre Dame cathedral, where deer were seen by another search party years earlier. On the way, they encounter hostile mutated dogs, gigantic albino rats and a family of humanoid ogres at the cost of a life. Throughout their travails, they are watched by a horde of starving hare-lipped mutants. Meanwhile, Jax and Crax, a pair of massive, eight-foot tall, Siamese twins, conjoined from the waist down roam the city in search of food. Jax’s head is perfect, but his nature savage. Crax’s head is grotesquely ape-like, but he has a heart. Unfortunately for Crax, Jax controls most of the body. Jax impels the pair to mount the elevator cable up the tower in search of prey. Elsewhere, the foraging party finds the cathedral inhabited by another group of mutants (the “Saved”) who look a lot like Nanky. Inside, the cathedral is a jungle-gym town, traversable via ropes and ladders. The Saved accept the visitors when they see Nanky’s tail, and escort the group to the roof, where they meet Yancey, a human survivor from the last Tower mission who stayed behind due to the gentle nature of the Saved. He shows the group an old telescope he uses to observe the Tower. When the humans look through it, they are shocked to see the conjoined mutants pulling themselves up the cage cable toward the levels where their kinfolk live. They must get back! The Saved ambush the Harelips to help the humans when they leave. They also provide the humans with deer meat, but water won’t be needed as clouds are gathering. At the Tower, the conjoined mutants reach the tower tribe’s levels. After spotting goats near a shed, they grab one and eat it. Nearby, Chubbs, Jib’s huge, moronic son has cornered Pare’s pregnant daughter Josie inside the same shed, where he intends to have his way with her. The human group rushes back to the elevator cage, but not before losing Big Jib, who sacrifices himself to rescue Nanky from a huge horde of giant albino rats. The cage is pulled to the top, then Josie’s screams impel the tower folk to rush to the next level to save her. Josie’s screams also alert the conjoined mutants, who burst into the shed and slaughter Chubbs. Unfortunately, Jax also has rape and a meal in mind. Just as Jax is about to grab Josie to devour, Crax skewers his brother through the skull with a pick-axe, also dooming himself. The tribe charges into the shed, ready to finish Crax off, but Josie stops them, blurting out that Crax saved her. She tries to comfort Crax, who touches her hand with affection and says his name before dying. At the conclusion of the tale, Par’s family gathers for a meal where he talks about their experiences with the Saved, concluding that despite their weird appearances, they possess what is best in humans. It may be time for them all to return to the ground…

CLIMBERS