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“Never Let Go” is the tagline on posters for this movie, based on the true story of an exceedingly ill-fated trek up the title mountain in 1996. “What The Hell Are You All Doing Up There In The First Place?” might be a more apropos. The transformation of massively risky mountain-climbing, as an activity exclusively for scientists and highly-trained explorers to an adventure-tourism endurance test for the rich and obsessive, gets taken care of here in a series of three title texts at the beginning of the movie, starting with the ostensible conquest of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary’s team. Beginning with some tantalizing/troubling glimpses of the heedless and colonialist aspects of adventure tourism culture, "Everest" then gets down to business. This movie, scripted by William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy and directed, with meticulous regard for the elements and action, by Iceland-born filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur , is a detailed and realistic depiction of climbers—of various experiences—facing the worst possible conditions, at heights and climates that seem designed to shut a human body down.

Jason Clarke ’s Rob Hall is an experienced climber and the head of a company called Adventure Consulting. He’s a good-hearted bloke who’s got a devoted team and a relatively diverse clientele. The climbers putting out big bucks (or, in some cases, as it happens not; Hall, we learn at one point, is even more good-hearted than he appears) for a spring jaunt up Everest include cocky Texas businessman Beck Weathers ( Josh Brolin ), good-natured workingman Doug Hansen, and very game Yasuko Namba ( Naoko Mori ) a petite powerhouse who’s topped six of the so-called Seven Summits and now wants Nepal’s Everest, the highest of the bunch. The conditions at base camp are hectic and slightly tense. A star journalist, Jon Krakauer , is part of Hall’s expedition, which has aroused the envy of a Hall's pal Scott who’s now a rival climb organizer (played Jake Gyllenhaal , portraying the more hippie-ish side of the climbing gestalt). There are scheduling issues and various manifestations of pissiness between the teams that go up the mountains and prep climbing tools for their clients. Clearly, there’s a lot that can go wrong. Particularly if the weather turns bad.

There’s a resemblance here to both the story and the movie adaptation of the story told in “ The Perfect Storm .” The characters involved are making a good faith effort—but good faith efforts by humans can only go so far. “ Nature always has the last word, ” one character observes early on. As the movie expertly depicts freezing conditions, approaching and full-blown storms, mini-avalanches hitting at just the wrong place and just the wrong time, and more, the movie provides an object lesson with respect to that adage.

As much as "Everest" trades in a kind of authenticity, it also trucks in the most banal of disaster movie clichés; for instance, one of the principal characters in the trek is leaving behind a pregnant wife. While this part of the story is as true as any other, the dialogue between the characters at the outset: “ You better be back for the birth, [Full Character Name] ;” “ You try and stop me, ” practically screeches to the audience, “Start worrying about this guy NOW.”

What it all amounts to, finally, is an excruciating and dispiriting simulated recreation of excruciating and dispiriting real life events. While leaving the theater, I overheard several sets of people discussing the various actions some of the characters took and what they, the viewers, might have done in their stead. This occasioned some slight despair on my part. " You can’t stop what’s coming, " as someone once said in another movie starring Josh Brolin, and I rather doubt that the filmmakers’ aim in making this picture was to excite the vanity of its audience. The point, as far as I understand it, isn’t “ You could live if you did things differently than X ” but rather that even the best-prepared are not really prepared.

Not that I’ve ever been a “What’s the point?” kind of person in my aesthetic enthusiasms. But in spite of the excellent technical work and the efforts of a first-rate cast, “Everest” did not exhilarate or scare me as much as leave me flatly sad. A real-life footage coda to the movie suggests that the participants signed off on this portrayal, and in a sense it’s an apt and sensitive tribute. A good many accounts of the 1996 events have been told in book and movie form—Krakauer’s own highly-regarded book “Into Thin Air,” Beck Weathers’ memoir, and more. I myself worked on a piece for Premiere magazine focusing on the event from the perspective of David Breashears, who made the IMAX film “Everest” (1998) and who appears as a minor character here. I’ve not read Krakauer’s book, but perhaps I should. Coming out of this movie, the story remained upsettingly senseless to me, and an inapt one for a movie that. Despite its attempts at empathy, "Everest" often plays the cinematic thrill ride card.

Glenn Kenny

Glenn Kenny was the chief film critic of Premiere magazine for almost half of its existence. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

Everest (2015)

Rated PG-13 intense peril and disturbing images

121 minutes

Jason Clarke as Rob Hall

Jake Gyllenhaal as Scott Fischer

Josh Brolin as Beck Weathers

John Hawkes as Doug Hansen

Sam Worthington as Guy Cotter

Robin Wright as Peach Weathers

Keira Knightley as Jan Hall

Clive Standen as Ed Viesturs

Emily Watson as Helen Wilton

Mark Medoff
Simon Beaufoy
Justin Isbell
Baltasar Kormákur

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Everest Reviews

Pulling on heartstrings and playing with tension, Kormákur and his team straddle territory occupied by similarly-minded, slick actioners on one side and biting emotional dramas on the other — neutralizing everything they have worked to build.

Full Review | Aug 2, 2023

A hard watch...however, these emotions are heightened by the excellent work of actors and cinematography, who make the mammoth, deadly mountain and its treacherous conditions come to life through the screen.

Full Review | Aug 31, 2022

It isn’t a brash, bombastic popcorn flick. It isn’t a by-the-books ‘real events’ movie. Sure, it has its big name ensemble cast and its share of visual ‘wow’ moments. But at the same time it felt small, concise, and restrained.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 20, 2022

Marketed like a thrilling disaster film yet playing like a respectful drama, "Everest" still carries the sheen of every other Hollywood mountain climbing movie while offering enough of an eulogistic history lesson to be respectful of its true story.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 14, 2022

The viewer truly feels transported atop Everest, dizzied by the heights, beauty, and impressive scope of the scenery, which only further immerses us in this effective tale of daring and survival.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 27, 2022

The film collapses from the inside

Full Review | Jan 14, 2022

Where Everest fails to engage is in the writing, which is perfunctory at best.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Aug 29, 2021

Go for the scenery, but don't expect great drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 3, 2021

Everest is a slow burn of a movie but it's one that proves to be worth it.

Full Review | Jan 15, 2021

The sights can't sustain a two-hour picture, which struggles to contain enough survivalist adventure to counteract all the impotent, overly sentimental moments.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Dec 4, 2020

Not all small moments are trifling ... [and] the real-life subjects of this story deserve to be remembered as more than a footnote to its spectacle.

Full Review | Aug 13, 2020

'Everest' is a great visual show with an involved cast so that we are interested in its characters, but that only at specific moments manages to reach the heart of the spectator. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Apr 15, 2020

The best of 'Everest' is its cast, delivering and believing in what it's doing. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Sep 4, 2019

Everest is effective as disaster tragedy, personal drama and nature documentary.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 4, 2019

Although you can appreciate the fact that the events of the film stay relatively true to what actually happened and the technical aspects of the film are fantastic, it's still disappointing that the characters aren't given enough attention.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 11, 2019

I'll recommend it for what it is: a far-too-real disaster film. Bring the tissues.

Full Review | Jan 30, 2019

Best seen in IMAX 3-D, the movie takes full advantage of the format, showcasing the wondrous rock-and-ice covered landscape and extreme elements.

Full Review | Jan 24, 2019

The special effects are dizzying and truthfully, director Baltasar Kormakur seems to have dedicated most of his effort to giving the audience the feeling of being right there with the climbers.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 2, 2018

Everest is an engrossing cinema experience when it focuses on the intensity and drama of this real-life disaster, but its ultimate downfall is its unmanageable scope.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 1, 2018

Though it is set in 1996, Baltasar Kormakur's stunningly shot Everest is an old school disaster movie of the kind that flourished in the 1970s.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 23, 2018

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Film Review

Review: ‘Everest’ Revisits a Fateful Adventure in 3-D

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By A.O. Scott

Sept. 17, 2015

“Because it’s there” is a perfectly valid justification for climbing an enormous mountain — a famous one, at any rate — but maybe not a good enough reason to see a movie. Or to make a movie, for that matter. Technically, of course, a film isn’t really “there” until someone makes it, and “Everest,” a breathless, large-scale 3-D action spectacle (directed by Baltasar Kormakur) about an ill-starred attempt to scale the planet’s highest peak, was called into being with impressive star power and technical bravura. It definitely exists. But it never seems to get anywhere, taking up space and time without managing to be especially memorable or imposing.

In theory, the stakes should be high and the drama intense, as human beings battle the brute forces of nature in a life-or-death struggle. But though it assembles a first-rate cast in a story taken from reality, “Everest” feels icebound and strangely abstract, lacking the gravity of genuine tragedy or the swagger of first-rate adventure.

In Making ‘Everest,’ Filmmakers Embrace Towering Ambitions

To make it real, filmmakers contended with freezing temperatures, thin air and avalanches.

This may be partly because one of the film’s themes is the commodification of adventure, the colonization of a wild and dangerous terrestrial spot by tourists and thrill seekers. The individual climbers who receive most of our attention are treated with empathy and respect — the Westerners, that is; the Nepalese Sherpas who guide and assist them barely figure at all — but Everest itself is a mob scene. The feeling of discovery, of primal wonder at the inhuman sublimity of the mountain, has been compromised. People with a lot of money and little climbing experience turn the base camp into a virtual trailer park and litter the upper slopes with discarded ropes, flags and oxygen tanks. Professional tour leaders are expected to ensure the safety of clients who insist on pushing toward the summit despite potentially fatal risks.

“Everest” turns partly on the rivalry between two seasoned climbers: Rob Hall, a stoic, disciplined New Zealander played by the ever-solid Jason Clarke; and Scott Fischer, a gonzo American played with marvelous mischief by Jake Gyllenhaal. Their ascent in the spring of 1996, during which eight people died and many others suffered severe frostbite, was the subject of Jon Krakauer’s best-selling book “Into Thin Air.”

This movie, written by William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy, tells a somewhat different version of the story, with Mr. Krakauer (Michael Kelly) as a marginal and not entirely sympathetic character. His participation in the climb as a writer working on an article for Outside magazine is part of the competition between Hall and Fischer. Both climbers crave the publicity a magazine feature would bring, even though Hall is also aware that such attention is contributing to dangerous and unpleasant conditions on the mountain.

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Venice Film Review: ‘Everest’

Although hardly a peak achievement, Baltasar Kormakur's Himalayan epic is a properly grueling, strikingly unsentimental chronicle of the 1996 Mount Everest tragedy.

By Justin Chang

Justin Chang

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Following the 2014 and 2015 avalanche disasters that killed more than 35 people trying to scale the highest mountain on Earth, the timing is either wildly inappropriate or grimly right for “ Everest ,” though it would be awfully hard to argue that it’s too soon. A properly grueling dramatization of the ill-fated May 1996 expedition that saw eight climbers expire in a blizzard, this brusquely visualized, choppily played epic serves as the latest cinematic opportunity for Mother Nature to flaunt her utter indifference to human survival. Achieving fitful flurries of emotion amid an otherwise slow, agonizing descent into physical and dramatic paralysis, director Baltasar Kormakur ’s latest and biggest U.S. studio effort should ride its Imax 3D event-picture status to decent theatrical returns worldwide, aided by a topical resurgence of interest in the movie’s subject. Still, with its more stolid than inspired execution, it’s unclear whether the Sept. 18 Universal release can reach its desired commercial apex.

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Sharing that fundamental respect for the danger of their undertaking is New Zealander Rob Hall ( Jason Clarke ), the cautious leader of an expedition guiding company called Adventure Consultants, which helped popularize the climbing of Mount Everest in the early 1990s. In April 1996, we see Hall bidding farewell to his pregnant wife, Jan (Keira Knightley), and heading to Kathmandu to meet the eight clients he’ll be leading up Everest. They include Weathers ( Josh Brolin ), a Texas native who seems determined to conquer Everest on cocky charm alone; Yasuko Namba (Naoko Mori), a Japanese woman who’s already got six of the Seven Summits under her belt; and Doug Hansen (John Hawkes), a humble Seattle mailman who’s taking another stab at Everest, having made it within a few hundred feet of the summit in 1995.

There’s also Krakauer (Michael Kelly), a high-profile journalist whose presence is a source of some early tension between Hall and Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal, sporting a real nightcrawler of a beard), the leader of a competing expedition company called Mountain Madness. Hall tries to broker a truce and suggests the two teams join forces during the climb; much discussion ensues about important, barely comprehensible matters involving fixed ropes and oxygen tanks. Meanwhile, as both teams make their ascent from one mountain camp to the next, the movie spits out so many rapid-fire destination names and altitude statistics that you wonder if any of it will be on the final. On a certain level, though, it’s clear that the shallowness of the character interplay and the sketchiness of the details hardly matter: The mountain will settle everything soon enough.

As the climbers acclimatize to conditions at the South Base Camp (17,598 feet), Adventure Consultants coordinator Helen Wilton (Emily Watson) briefs them on the potential perils of their journey, which we see illustrated in an effective bit of B-movie foreshadowing: Climbers can lose motor function, cough up blood and even succumb to a form of stealth hypothermia that makes them feel as if they’re burning up. A step above 8,000 meters (26,246 feet) will take them into the “death zone,” a realm of pure entropy where their goal is to make it to the summit and back as quickly as possible, lest they succumb to frigid temperatures, tricky terrain and dangerously thin oxygen levels. “Why climb Everest?” Krakauer asks his teammates before they begin their big push upward, and though we hear a few of their responses (i.e. “It would be a crime not to”), the grim developments to come feel all but designed to frustrate a satisfactory answer.

There is, to be sure, the impossible thrill of reaching the summit, planting your flag and taking in the unbeatable view. But getting to that point will require a person to cross rickety bridges over staggering thousand-meter drops, navigate treacherous mountain passes with poor visibility, maintain their balance when unexpected avalanches strike (which is distressingly often), and deal with an ever-waning oxygen supply. Is the sheer level of danger an enticement for some? Kormakur never sufficiently individuates his characters to answer that question. He’s too busy setting some of them on a course for death to fully tap into the obsession that gives them life.

And in a way, this proves to be a thoroughly reasonable, even refreshing dramatic strategy. This is a movie not about a few human beings who tried to conquer a mountain, but rather a mountain that took no notice of the human beings in its midst. Kormakur doesn’t make the mistake of exalting his subjects as extraordinary individuals, or suggesting that they were obeying some sort of noble higher calling. “Everest” is blunt, businesslike and — as it begins its long march through the death zone — something of an achievement. The specifics don’t get any clearer, but editor Mick Audsley’s cross-cutting among the different climbing factions creates its own propulsive logic. We get to know the characters not just by their appearances and personalities, but by their different positions on the mountain, where many of them find themselves trapped as a freak storm sets in.

Death seeps into the picture slowly, practically on tiptoe. At times it proceeds with an almost merciful swiftness, but for most of those who succumb, the process is brutally slow and drawn out: Their steps get shorter and slower, their breaths quickening into futility, and eventually the camera plants itself next to them and watches slowly as all blood, sensation and feeling drain away. With the exception of one miscalculated sequence involving a sun-dappled hallucination, “Everest” is strikingly unsentimental; under such cruelly elemental circumstances, the usual platitudes about perseverance and love winning the day simply cease to apply. There is only death and survival here, and the human spirit, it turns out, has little to do with any of it.

The mountain in question is no stranger to the bigscreen, and viewers hoping to see it in all its glory might do well to start with a documentary like the landmark 1998 Imax film “Everest” or 2010’s “The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest.” For all the resources that Kormakur and his crew have expended on persuasively re-creating a Himalayan climb (shot on location in Nepal and the Italian Alps), their “Everest” seems more concerned with verisimilitude than visual rapture. Kormakur, working in the quick-and-dirty style he demonstrated in his earlier Hollywood outings (“Contraband,” “2 Guns”), isn’t one to linger on even the most staggering images that pass before his camera; while the landscapes do benefit from the eye-popping quality of the 3D, the overall aesthetic strategy here might be boiled down to “Beauty is for wusses.” (There were points at the Imax screening attended in which certain details of Salvatore Totino’s generally crisp cinematography looked weirdly indistinct.) The most transporting element of the technical package may be the superior sound design and mix, in which the ever-present howl of the wind and the scrape of boots on snow are kept in just the right balance with the characters’ voices.

If the film is weak on characterization, the actors provide strong links nonetheless. Clarke, typically cast in roles that take advantage of his gift for brutish menace, does some of his most appealing work as a patient, meticulous and unfailingly loyal team leader. Brolin and Hawkes are superb as two climbers whose abilities aren’t entirely equal to their ambitions, while Sam Worthington provides a sturdy anchor as Hall’s friend Guy Cotter, a seasoned climber who helps try to navigate the climbers to safety from base camp. Mori’s Yasuko, the lone female climber on the Adventure Consultants team, stands out as a figure of sweet yet unshakable determination, while Watson is heartrending as the team’s coordinator and den mother; beyond the mountain, Knightley and Robin Wright give deeply felt performances as women haunted by the possibility that they may have seen the last of their husbands.

Given that the cast of “Everest” includes 11 real-life Sherpas, it’s a shame we don’t see more of them in action or learn more about their crucial, underappreciated role in helping climbers realize their goals (audiences looking to learn more would do well to seek out Jennifer Peedom’s “Sherpa,” a documentary that’s presently making the fall festival rounds). Likewise, those hoping for a critically nuanced inquiry into the downsides of Himalayan tourism won’t find it beyond the movie’s fairly unambiguous cautionary tale. David Breashears, who co-directed the 1998 doc of the same title, wore many hats on the set of Kormakur’s film: He’s credited here as co-producer, second-unit Everest d.p. and yak wrangler, and indeed they are nothing if not well wrangled.

Reviewed at AMC Century City, Los Angeles, Aug. 26, 2015. (In Venice Film Festival — opener, noncompeting.) MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 121 MIN.

Production: (U.K.-U.S.-Iceland) A Universal (in U.S.) release, presented with Cross Creek Pictures, in association with Walden Media, of a Working Title production, in association with RVK Studios and Free State Pictures. Produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Baltasar Kormakur, Nicky Kentish Barnes, Brian Oliver, Tyler Thompson. Executive producers, Angela Morrison, Liza Chasin, Evan Hayes, Randall Emmett, Peter Mallouk, Mark Mallouk, Lauren Selig. Co-producers, David Breashears, David Nichols.
Crew: Directed by Baltasar Kormakur. Screenplay, William Nicholson, Simon Beaufoy. Camera (color, Arri Alexa digital, widescreen, Imax 3D), Salvatore Totino; editor, Mick Audsley; music, Dario Marianelli; production designer, Gary Freeman; supervising art director, Tom Still; costume designer, Guy Speranza; sound (Dolby Digital), Adrian Bell; sound designer/supervising sound editor, Glenn Freemantle; re-recording mixers, Ian Tapp, Niv Adiri; special effects supervisor, Richard Van Den Bergh; special effects coordinator, Nina Smith Stevens; visual effects supervisor, Dadi Einarsson; visual effects producer, Roma O'Connor; visual effects, RVX; line producer, Toni Parry; assistant director, Matthew Penry-Davey; casting, Fiona Weir.
With: Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Robin Wright, Emily Watson, Michael Kelly, Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Martin Henderson, Elizabeth Debicki, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Naoko Mori, Tom Goodman-Hill.

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DVD & Streaming

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In Theaters

September 18, 2015
Jason Clarke as Rob Hall; Keira Knightley as Jan Arnold; Josh Brolin as Beck Weathers; Jake Gyllenhaal as Scott Fischer; Emily Watson as Helen Wilton; John Hawkes as Doug Hansen; Sam Worthington as Guy Cotter; Robin Wright as Peach Weathers

Home Release Date

January 19, 2016
Baltasar Kormákur

Distributor

Movie review.

It’s just another climb. Nothing to worry over.

It’s true that ever since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first broke through to Mount Everest’s peak back in 1953, more than 200 people have died attempting to duplicate the feat. But, hey, this is a new day. The death rate in the 1990s hovers just above 5%. The equipment’s better. Most of the mountain is roped. Experienced guides and surefooted Sherpas are successfully making this climb all the time. And New Zealand-based guide Rob Hall is one of the best at the job.

Now, Rob would rather not have to leave his lovely and very pregnant wife, Jan, at home alone. Again. But she’s a trooper. She knows this is Rob’s business, and she understands that May is the best and safest month to make the famed ascent.

Besides, Rob’s got a good group to take up this go-round. The experienced climbers include a hard-driving Texas doc, a blue-collar postal worker (making his second attempt) and a fortysomething Japanese woman who’s already climbed the six other major peaks in the world. It’s a solid crew. Oh, and there’s a journalist who’ll be coming along as well. A good write-up from him could make Rob’s operation “sweet as” for some time to come.

As every experienced and level-headed guide would, though, Rob still points out the dangers—to his clients and to himself. The human body isn’t made to function at the cruising altitude of a 747, after all. “Your bodies will literally be dying,” he tells the team.

OK. They’re still game to go. So Rob will see them right. They’ll prep for a good 40 days for this trip¬—climbing up and back between base camps, acclimating their bodies. Then they’ll shoot for the peak. They’ll brave the tortures of this icy chunk of rock, squint through frosty storms, suck on bottled oxygen and drag themselves to the very top of the world. It’ll be another choice climb.

Like I said. Nothing to fret about.

Of course, even a pro like Rob can sometimes forget that reaching the peak is really only the halfway point. Then there’s the problem of getting back down.

Positive Elements

There’s no question that Rob and Jan are a loving couple, dedicated to each other. They speak repeatedly of their love and their soon-to-be-born child. And as for that Texas physician, in spite of Beck making some bad choices, his wife proves to be a devoted and loving spouse, moving heaven and earth to facilitate her husband’s rescue. (You knew they’d need rescuing up there, didn’t you?) Beck reveals that his choice to climb Everest was a selfish and deceitful one—especially since he lied to his wife about going. But when all seems lost, it’s his visions of his family that drive him to struggle on (almost as though he might redeem himself by doing the tough work of surviving). Doug (the postal worker) says he struggles to climb mountains to inspire kids back home with the idea that an ordinary person can reach for extraordinary goals.

Once the storm blows in, threatening the lives of everyone in the expedition, a number of people leap into action to try to save as many as possible. They brave the elements at great peril to themselves. A helicopter pilot risks crashing to save an injured man. And Rob refuses to leave a struggling climber, ultimately sacrificing himself in the process.

Spiritual Elements

Rob’s group visits a Tibetan monastery built at 12,000 feet. They and the Sherpas participate in a brief prayer-like ritual before climbing. When one of the climbers staggers to the Mount Everest peak, she kneels and says a brief prayer.

Sexual Content

Violent content.

We never see anything truly gory, but the peril of the mountainside disaster and the agonies on display still carry a certain gruesome feel. During a vicious, lashing ice storm, people are quite literally tortured by the physically debilitating effects of cold, elevation and oxygen deprivation. Rob had previously listed some of the ill effects that climbers can suffer … and indeed we see most of them take place, from a swollen-brain form of insanity to a pulmonary edema that causes people to vomit blood.

Someone dangles over a seemingly bottomless crevice. Several fall from high precipices. People crumple over and freeze to death. (We’re told that the bodies of the fallen are never removed from the mountain because of the extreme difficulty of doing so.) Others are hit with large sliding chunks of ice. A man’s nose and fingers burn black with frostbite.

Crude or Profane Language

Drug and alcohol content.

Some of the guides and clients drink beer and hard liquor while in the lowest base camp. A group leader named Scott pushes his boozing beyond what the rest do, appearing a bit inebriated. We see him also inject himself with a drug used for elevation acclimation.

This cling-to-a-cliff disaster pic is based on the real-life 1996 tragedy chronicled in Jon Krakauer’s bestseller Into Thin Air . It’s beautifully shot, and so realistic in its wind-whipped peril and frozen-chasms-dropping-into-oblivion effects that viewers will likely be clenching and unclenching their theater seat armrests just to assure themselves that they’re still solidly anchored. (Not to mention keeping the frostbite at bay.)

Here you will find moments of heroism mixed with scenes of despair and icy, blackened-flesh death. It’s not a cheery tale. There’s no real “woo-hoo!” moment by film’s end. It’s quite simply a well-acted, documentary-like chronicling. A pic that uses its first half to hail the potential of a great mountain-climbing adventure, and its second to point out how completely insane the idea was.

If you ascend those stadium theater steps looking for the big payoff that drives people to spend tens of thousands of dollars, abandon loved ones, brave skin-crisping temperatures, submit their bodies and minds to the torturous effects of extreme elevation and oxygen deprivation, and risk losing everything from fingers and toes to their very lives … well, you’ll be disappointed. No answers on that front. But you’ll see plenty of pluck in the midst of all that. And you’ll probably wish you had brought a coat.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Compelling tale of real-life expedition is intense, moving.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Themes include perseverance and courage. Explores

Many scenes of people behaving in courageous, gene

Disturbing scenes when the climbers are in danger,

"Damn," "hell," "stupid,&

Mountaineering requires gear, and most of the alpi

Adults drink at dinner and at base camp. In one sc

Positive Messages

Themes include perseverance and courage. Explores issues of life and death, asking hard, worthwhile questions: When is a dream worth risking your life, and when is it OK to abandon morality and save yourself -- or to stand by someone even if it could cost you your safety? A strong support system -- a loving family, an enthusiastic community -- can help fuel your dreams. Also brings up questions about the ethics surrounding guided expeditions.

Positive Role Models

Many scenes of people behaving in courageous, generous, and kind ways, even when you might think they'd do all they could to just save themselves. Rob Hall, in particular, could have chosen to abandon Doug Hansen but remains with him, even though he knows it could cost him his life. Despite descending safely, Anatoli Boukreev went back to save the lives of three clients stuck further up the mountain. Beck Weathers summons his courage to walk back down to the nearest camp.

Violence & Scariness

Disturbing scenes when the climbers are in danger, start hallucinating due to oxygen deprivation, and even fall off the mountain. Moments of intense peril and scenes in which characters look dead and are covered in snow and frostbite.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Damn," "hell," "stupid," "Jesus," "God" (as exclamations).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Mountaineering requires gear, and most of the alpine gear (snow suits, parkas, hats, etc.) in the movie have visible logos: Patagonia and The North Face in particular, but also Marmot, Mountain Hardwear, Helly Hansen. Starbucks and Gatorade, Frosted Flakes, and Mrs. Butterworth also make an appearance.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults drink at dinner and at base camp. In one scene, a group toasts vodka in Russian.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Everest is a disaster film based on the actual events of May 10, 1996 -- which was then considered the deadliest day on the mountain, claiming eight lives, including those of experienced guides. Viewers will feel intense, harrowing peril as the climbers attempt the summit and then descend during an unexpected blizzard. And scenes of characters dying and succumbing to the elements are viscerally upsetting. There are a couple of scenes of adults drinking, some mild language ("damn," "Jesus" as an exclamation), and plenty of high-end alpine gear on display. For those who are old enough to remember the disaster, the movie feels tragic from the start. But ultimately this is a moving story about the risks involved in reaching your dream -- and how sometimes helping someone else can come at a huge risk to your own safety. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 10 parent reviews

What's the Story?

EVEREST is the retelling of the tragic events surrounding the May 10, 1996, disaster that claimed eight lives on Earth's highest peak. Inspired by multiple narratives of what was then the deadliest day on Mt. Everest, the film focuses on New Zealand guide Rob Hall ( Jason Clarke ), whose Adventure Consultants team hoped to get clients -- including Outside magazine journalist Jon Krakauer ( Michael Kelly ), Texan doctor Beck Weathers ( Josh Brolin ), and modest mail carrier Doug Hansen ( John Hawkes ) -- to the summit. But during the acclimatizing time at Base Camp, Hall discovered the mountain was chock full of other commercial guides, like laid-back American Scott Fischer ( Jake Gyllenhaal ), who was leading his own high-profile reporter, socialite Sandy Pittman ( Vanessa Kirby ), and other paying clients. Then, on May 10, when both teams headed up the busy mountain, small setbacks -- coupled with an unexpected blizzard -- led to a catastrophe so memorable that it led to dozens of memoirs and years of debate about the place of commercial guided mountaineering on the world's riskiest peaks.

Is It Any Good?

As viscerally intense as Gravity and tinged with the same level of inevitable doom as The Perfect Storm , this is a fittingly harrowing depiction of a most tragic day in mountaineering history. Those familiar with Krakauer's Into Thin Air , David Breashears IMAX documentary, or the countless other stories and memoirs about May 10, 1996, will find the story spot on in its facts, without veering too much into controversy or assigning blame to anyone involved. The entire cast is wonderful: Clarke is perfectly cast as organized, detail-oriented Hall, as is Gyllenhaal as Hall's foil, ski bum/mountaineer Fischer, and Keira Knightley as Hall's pregnant wife, Jan Arnold, who stayed behind in New Zealand.

Director Baltasar Kormákur ( 2 Guns ) makes good use of 3D during the climbing scenes and ramps up the tension around the idea that every single step could lead to doom or death. One of the only disappointments is that, with their full gear on, most of the characters are hard to distinguish, unless you memorize who wore the North Face versus the Marmot or Patagonia. Also, don't expect much back story for anyone but Hall and the uber-Texan Weathers, whose matronly wife Peach is played by a miscast Robin Wright . Hall's plotline works well, but Weathers' feels overdone with Lone Star aggrandizement. Despite these minor quibbles, the movie delivers on most fronts; if your stomach can handle the unnerving life-and-death nature of the story, Everest is respectful and realistic, affecting and difficult to forget.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how movies like Everest depict tragic historical events. Is it harder to watch disturbing death scenes knowing they really happened? How much scary stuff can kids handle?

How important is historical accuracy in a movie based on actual events? Why might filmmakers decide to change some facts? How can you find out more about what really happened?

What are Everest 's messages about the physical and emotional risks of mountaineering? What are your thoughts about the commercial aspect of climbing Everest?

How does Everest promote courage and perseverance ? Why are these important character strengths?

Movie Details

In theaters : September 18, 2015
On DVD or streaming : January 19, 2016
Cast : Josh Brolin , Jake Gyllenhaal , John Hawkes
Director : Baltasar Kormakur
Studio : Universal Pictures
Genre : Action/Adventure
Topics : Science and Nature
Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance
Run time : 121 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : intense peril and disturbing images
Award : Common Sense Selection
Last updated : June 14, 2024

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The Ambition of Everest Isn’t in Its Grandeur, But Rather Its Menace

Baltasar Korm á kur’s Everest is not the majestic mountaineering epic you might have expected. Despite the IMAX 3-D promotional gloss, this is a movie that gets down to eye level with its characters — a movie not of expanse but of close-quarters despair. Even when people plummet to their deaths, the film treats it quietly, modestly; the horror is in the no-big-deal-ness. As such, Everest may disappoint those looking for a more awe-inspiring film with big vistas and jaw-dropping stunts and acts of surreal heroism. Unlike many mountain-disaster stories, this is the kind that makes you never want to look at a mountain again.

Everest recounts the true-life tragedy in 1996, when a deadly blizzard and other mishaps led to what was then the deadliest day in Mt. Everest’s history. Numerous books and articles have retold the story, including Jon Krakauer’s best-seller Into Thin Air . Those who know the events well — and who remember the specific fates of the climbers involved — may have a different response to the action of the film than those coming to it with little advance knowledge. The initiated may feel like they’re watching a sad, deliberate march toward the inevitable; for others, it may feel more like an adventure story gone horribly, horribly tragic.

Actually, we have a term for those. Everest feels more like a disaster movie than anything else. And, true to that genre, this isn’t about one or two guys trying to make it against the odds (as with Kormákur’s wonderful 2012 film, The Deep ), but rather a whole group of people from different walks of life, each dealing in his or her own way with a situation spiraling from bad to worse. So, we start off with some conventional introductions: There’s Rob Hall (Jason Clarke), the dedicated and ambitious entrepreneur who turned helping ordinary climbers scale Everest into a cottage industry with his company Adventure Consultants; there’s Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal), the stereotypically laid-back American (and Hall’s friendly competitor), whom we first see soaking up some sun at base camp; there’s Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin), the brash, gung-ho Texan with a Dole for President T-shirt; and Doug Hansen (John Hawkes), the mild-mannered mailman who’s climbing to inspire elementary-school kids back home.

That’s just part of the dramatis personae . We also get Rob’s wife, Jan Arnold (Keira Knightley), who would ordinarily be climbing with him, but is now pregnant and stuck back home; and Beck’s wife, Peach (Robin Wright), whose initial coolness toward her husband seems almost cruel. Then there’s Krakauer himself (played by House of Cards ’ Michael Kelly), who has come to write a magazine piece on Adventure Consultants. The promotional value of that article gives additional impetus for Hall to soldier on with the climb, even though the weather forecast seems increasingly dire.

Then, of course, there’s the mountain itself. Throughout, Everest is treated as both another character and an existential fact, and the dialogue captures the foolhardy, romantic fatalism of those who brave the elements for sport. “The mountain makes its own weather,” we’re told. And: “The last word always belongs to the mountain.” Also: “We don’t need competition between people! There is competition between us and the mountain!” In fact, that the mountain will always win is a constant. As the climbers go farther up, we’re told, they’re literally dying, because “human bodies weren’t meant to exist at the cruising altitude of a 747.” Even before the true chaos starts, these men and women are already starting to fall apart — moving, thinking, and talking slower. This isn’t a journey of heroism; it’s a journey of faster and faster decay.

Kormákur has a tough task here, juggling an impressive number of characters at different stages of the climb. Compounding the difficulty is the fact that the film has to struggle with the elements almost as much as the people onscreen: It’s often hard to see the climbers’ faces, and we have to make out who is who based on the color of their outfits. Kormákur shot in authentic locations — both in and around Everest, as well as the Italian Alps and Iceland — dragging his actors and crew to some of the most remote places on Earth. But he hasn’t turned that search for authenticity into a fetish: The setting bears down on the performers and the characters, and when the director shows us a vast expanse, or a deadly cliff, or an eerily approaching storm, he always does it in context, making sure to keep the actors in the frame. In his hands, Everest becomes a film of intimate menace.

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Directed by Baltasar Kormákur

The Storm Awaits.

Inspired by the incredible events surrounding a treacherous attempt to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, "Everest" documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind. Their mettle tested by the harshest of elements found on the planet, the climbers will face nearly impossible obstacles as a lifelong obsession becomes a breathtaking struggle for survival.

Jason Clarke Josh Brolin John Hawkes Sam Worthington Emily Watson Martin Henderson Michael Kelly Keira Knightley Jake Gyllenhaal Robin Wright Thomas M. Wright Clive Standen Naoko Mori Mia Goth Elizabeth Debicki Tom Goodman-Hill Vanessa Kirby Mark Derwin Ingvar E. Sigurðsson Ang Phula Sherpa Charlotte Bøving Pemba Sherpa Amy Shindler Simon Harrison Chris Reilly Tim Dantay Todd Boyce Justin Salinger Stormur Jón Kormákur Baltasarsson Show All… Demetri Goritsas Chike Chan Micah A. Hauptman Nancy Baldwin Lucy Newman-Williams Vijay Lama Avin Shah Johnny Otto Andrew Moore

Director Director

Baltasar Kormákur

Producers Producers

Baltasar Kormákur Nicky Kentish Barnes Eric Fellner Evan Hayes Tim Bevan Tyler Thompson Brian Oliver David Nichols David Breashears Mylan Stepanovich

Writers Writers

Simon Beaufoy William Nicholson

Casting Casting

Alice Searby Fiona Weir

Editor Editor

Mick Audsley

Cinematography Cinematography

Salvatore Totino

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Brandt Andersen Randall Emmett Mark Mallouk Peter Mallouk Lauren Selig Liza Chasin

Lighting Lighting

Paul McGeachan Felice Guzzi

Camera Operator Camera Operator

Jason Ewart

Additional Photography Add. Photography

Shaun Cobley Kent Harvey Fraser Taggart

Production Design Production Design

Gary Freeman

Art Direction Art Direction

Alessandro Santucci Gianpaolo Rifino Ed Symon Tom Still

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Raffaella Giovannetti

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Glen Pratt Arne Kaupang Stefan Andersson Priyanka Balasubramania Måns Björklund Dadi Einarsson Simon Hughes Roma O'Connor Melody Woodford Tim Caplan Hjörtur Grétarsson Viktor Petrov

Stunts Stunts

Nellie Burroughes Sarah Lochlan

Composer Composer

Dario Marianelli

Sound Sound

Glenn Freemantle Niv Adiri Dillon Bennett Danny Freemantle Adrian Bell Peter Burgis Jack Stew Glen Gathard Nina Hartstone Peter Hanson

Costume Design Costume Design

Guy Speranza

Makeup Makeup

Annette Field Federico Laurenti Zoey Stones Jan Sewell Matteo Silvi Laura Lilley

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Laura Lilley Zoey Stones Carmel Jackson Jan Sewell Annette Field Alex Rouse

Cross Creek Pictures Working Title Films Walden Media RVK Studios Universal Pictures Free State Pictures Working Title Films

Iceland USA UK

Releases by Date

02 sep 2015, 04 sep 2015, 25 oct 2015, theatrical limited, 18 sep 2015, 10 sep 2015, 15 sep 2015, 16 sep 2015, 17 sep 2015, 21 sep 2015, 22 sep 2015, 23 sep 2015, 24 sep 2015, 25 sep 2015, 01 oct 2015, 08 oct 2015, 13 oct 2015, 03 nov 2015, 06 nov 2015, 22 dec 2015, 23 dec 2015, 01 feb 2022, 01 jun 2022, 10 dec 2015, 19 jan 2016, 27 jan 2016, 28 jan 2016, 02 feb 2016, 08 feb 2016, 05 oct 2016, 10 oct 2016, 01 dec 2016, 29 jul 2016, 01 jan 2018, releases by country.

Theatrical M
Theatrical 12
Theatrical PG
Theatrical 15+
Theatrical 11
Premiere Deauville Film Festival
Theatrical 10
Digital VOD
Physical DVD & Blu-Ray
Physical 4K UHD
Digital 12 Prime Video
Digital 12 Netflix
Physical 12
Theatrical K
Theatrical 12A
Theatrical הותר לכל הגילאים
Premiere Venice Film Festival
Premiere G Tokyo International Film Festival
Theatrical N-13

Netherlands

Physical 12 DVD, Blu ray
TV 12 Net 5

New Zealand

Theatrical 13

North Macedonia

Philippines.

Theatrical 16
Theatrical M/12

Puerto Rico

Russian federation.

Theatrical 12+

South Africa

South korea.

Physical 11 DVD, Blu-ray & 3D Blu-ray release
Physical 11 4K UltraHD release

Switzerland

Theatrical limited PG-13
Theatrical PG-13
Digital PG-13
Physical PG-13

United Arab Emirates

Physical Blu-ray

121 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by matt lynch ★★★ 4

Review by cláudio!!! ★★½ 22

i will never understand people that climb mountains.... it's literally a big fucking rock..... go hug your father or something

Review by lauren ★★★ 2

at one point jake gyllenhaal’s character is told he looks horrible and i really needed that laugh

Review by isabel ★★

ok but who asked them to climb that mountain

Review by a ☭ ★★★★★ 1

There's this part in this dumb movie where Jake Gyllenhaal summits and he literally just touches the tip of the mountain and it's the most beautiful shot I've ever seen in my life

Review by 🤎jess🤎 ★★★½ 4

this needed more ..hmm....uhh what's the word?.........oh yeah.....jake gyllenhaal.

he was serving some serious hipster mountain man looks....i mean that hoop earring?...this bitch was not prepared.

Review by Holly-Beth ★★★ 1

alright, taking climbing everest off my bucket list

FUCK THAT SHIT

Review by Gonzo ★★★ 7

▶ 2015 Movie Rankings

The Good: Outstanding ensemble cast. Incredible, award-worthy sound work. Breathtakingly stunning cinematography. No (noticeable) CGI or green-screening. The whole thing looks fucking real. Intense middle act.

The Bad: Slow to start. Too serious. No attempts to lighten the mood or make the characters interesting in the first act. Ending feels rushed. Not something I'll be watching again.

The Bottom Line: Everest is one of the most technically impressive films you'll see this year. And with such a game all-star cast and an extraordinary story, it's a shame that the film is bogged down by some plain vanilla writing.

The Scorecard: Direction: ★★★½ Acting: ★★★★ Writing: ★★½ Editing: ★★½ Visuals: ★★★★★ Sound: ★★★★★ Entertainment: ★★★½ Overall Rating: ★★★

Review by justinC ★★★ 1

Rich people find expensive ways to die.

Mo'money Mo'problems.

Review by bree1981 ★★★★★ 10

I know I'm in the minority rating this film so high but I couldn't ask for anymore from an Everest disaster movie, from the spectacular cinematography, the great performances from the ensemble cast, the well defined characters and an intelligent script, this is really a true spectacle of a movie. An absolutely brutal film about the needless loss of human life when man doesn't show nature enough respect. This film had me a wreck by the the end of it, even though I knew where the story was going the film took me through a whole glut of emotions from joy and sadness to even anger that these brave men and women really should have known better. Telling the story…

Review by Theyo Theyo ★★★ 2

it's so weird seeing mia goth play a normal person.

Review by sofi✨ ★★★ 1

needed more Jake Gyllenhaal

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Movie Review: Everest (2015)

Greg Eichelberger
Movie Reviews
11 responses
--> September 26, 2015

Many critics are calling Everest absolutely beautiful, but without the human emotion necessary to make it a truly great adventure movie. I take some exception to that, though, as I saw much emotional impact, but with the actors wearing googles, oxygen masks and heavy clothing, it was often difficult to distinguish one from the other and only at the conclusion do we actually know who was who. Still, that does not detract from the power of the true story of a group of climbers who are led to the summit of the world’s most daunting mountain by dedicated guides and sherpas in 1996, only to falter on the way back down.

The film is based on writer Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster , but opts to make Krakauer (Michael Kelly, “ Man of Steel ”) a very peripheral figure (his big scene is when he queries the group why they are there) while Rob Hall (Jason Clarke, “ Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ”), a Mt. Everest expedition group leader from New Zealand, becomes the center of the picture. Up to that time, he has led dozens of commercial climbs, but still feels concern about how crowded Everest is getting.

Everyone is. During the short window where weather is optimum and the climbing is relatively easy (if trudging more than 30,000 feet up the side of a snow-covered granite monstrosity can be called such a word), often dozens upon dozens of would-be adventurers pay extortionate amounts of money to risk life and limb. Why? Well, as the famous clichéd answer says, “Because it’s there.” Here the guide group, Adventure Consultants, takes almost six weeks to acclimate the armchair Mountaineers (although some do have extensive experience) in preparation for the dangerous journey.

Meanwhile, As Rob works hard to ensure that all of the climbers under his supervision are properly prepared, his competing group leader, the hippy-dippy Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal, “ Southpaw ”), dismisses Rob’s style as “hand-holding.” He even says, “If these people can’t make the Summit on their own, they don’t deserve to be on the mountain.” In a way, he is right, but he continues to lead unqualified people as close as he can to the top.

As in any film of this ilk, we are introduced to distinctive individuals, all of whom have different reasons for taking the challenge. Doug Hansen (John Hawkes, “ The Sessions ,” who looks more like Adrien Brody than Adrien Brody) is hoping to inspire his children as well as a group of young students who helped him pay for the trip. Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin, “ No Country for Old Men ”) climbs mountains as a means of fighting his depression. Yasuko Namba (Naoko Mori, “Absolutely Fabulous” TV series) has climbed six of the world’s seven tallest peaks, and is now aiming to complete her quest.

The ascent seems rather docile as most in the group make it to the Summit, while a few others falter and are forced to turn back. The timeline has to be precise in order to come back down before nightfall. A series of unfortunate events (no new ropes in a very strategic location, a tardy climber insists on making it all the way, etc.), however, and a freak deadly storm conspire to wipe out as many people as possible. I suppose most of the fun lies in predicting who will not return (I found myself guessing correctly about 50 percent of the time).

Burdened with heavy clothing and not too intriguing of a script, most of the actors take a backseat to the cinematography and Everest compensates by concentrating on the beauty and ultimate cruelty of the mountain. The amazing sights and ethereal vistas provide the uninitiated with just a small reason why so many would take the plunge (literally on many occasions). Director Baltasar Kormákur (“ Contraband ”) has invested blood, sweat and tears (as well as cinematographer Salvatore Totino, “ Angels & Demons ,” “ Frost/Nixon ,” “Cinderella Man”) to make this as matter-of-fact as possible. For instance, when characters begin to lose their lives, the deaths aren’t violent. They simply pass out, freeze or fall of a ledge. Plus, with everyone struggling to descend before they become victims themselves, there is little time to weep or grieve. Life may not be cheap up here, but it certainly isn’t very expensive.

Not much motivation on why these people are doing this, however, and that is one aspect which could have been explored a bit more. Also, the juxtaposition of those in peril on the mountain is mollified by scenes with the helpless women (including Robin Wright, “ A Most Wanted Man ” and Academy Award nominee, Keira Knightley, “ The Imitation Game ”) in their lives and there is a certain predictability now and then, but so much of it works because Kormákur shot a great deal of the movie on location in Nepal (while locations in Iceland and Italy were also used). And though there are certainly plenty of shots that emphasize the natural beauty of Everest, there’s far more visual emphasis on the countless dangers the mountain poses: Such as the deadly ledges, slippery slopes, bottomless crevasses (often only accessible with flimsy aluminum ladders) and walls of ice and snow that threaten to crumble and overwhelm at any moment.

With all of the emphasis on location, though, a few of the actors do stand out, especially the cocky Texan Beck, who is seen sporting a (Bob) Dole/(Jack) Kemp (the GOP ticket from 1996) shirt in the movie’s beginning. When he realizes he may not be as strong as he thinks, we see the bravado melt off into a very palatable vulnerability. This scribbler may be in the critical minority, but I was on the edge of my seat during most of this (with the exception of some slowness in the middle) and recommend Everest as one of the more effecting productions of the year.

Tagged: blizzard , expedition , mountain , survival , true story

I have been a movie fan for most of my life and a film critic since 1986 (my first published review was for "Platoon"). Since that time I have written for several news and entertainment publications in California, Utah and Idaho. Big fan of the Academy Awards - but wish it would go back to the five-minute dinner it was in May, 1929. A former member of the San Diego Film Critics Society and current co-host of "The Movie Guys," each Sunday afternoon on KOGO AM 600 in San Diego with Kevin Finnerty.

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'Movie Review: Everest (2015)' have 11 comments

September 26, 2015 @ 11:56 am brett

“[…] with the actors wearing googles, oxygen masks and heavy clothing, it was often difficult to distinguish one from the other […]”

That’s why each of them wore brightly colored jackets.

September 26, 2015 @ 12:23 pm Jayson Meritt

Looks intense, but I think seeing a film involving Sir Edmund Hillary and his ascents would be even more intense. Not taking anything away from the guys in the film, but the guys in the 50s didn’t have any of the high-tech equipment available to them nor a well plotted out course.

September 26, 2015 @ 12:49 pm gbald

How good can the film be when the author of the book is distancing himself from it?

September 26, 2015 @ 7:13 pm chancellor

Sour grapes.

September 26, 2015 @ 1:20 pm relative po

Visually its breath taking but kinda average otherwise.

September 26, 2015 @ 2:02 pm wyvern84

I want to climb a mountain now.

September 26, 2015 @ 2:34 pm Seaman Scourus

Worth watching in IMAX 3D? I usually stay away but this looks like the type of movie that would look great in both.

September 26, 2015 @ 10:44 pm yourit

I don’t know about 3d but IMAX is a definite plus for any movie with powerful visuals.

September 26, 2015 @ 3:47 pm jailbreak

Never fuck with Mother Nature. I love movies that highlight this universal factoid that extreme sportsmen always forget.

September 26, 2015 @ 9:15 pm functioning_meathead

If you liked this I suggest watching Meru and Touching the Void. They don’t have all the production values of Everest but they still capture the sheer craziness (I mean thrills) of mountain climbing.

September 27, 2015 @ 6:10 am DSPARE

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Everest (2015)

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Movie Review: Everest (2015)

Drew Robinson | January 12, 2020 January 20, 2016 | Movie and Book Reviews

In 1996 , eight climbers got caught in a blizzard and died while attempting to climb Mt. Everest. They achieved their goal of reaching the summit, but in doing so lost their lives. The events of the 1996 Everest disaster were made famous by author and climber Jon Krakauer in his riveting book, Into Thin Air . Krakauers account of what happened on the mountain makes for a real page turner, so much so, that I read the entire book in one day.

This week, the movie Everest was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital download. I don’t know how I missed this one in the theater, but I was excited to see the events of the 1996 Everest disaster recounted on the silver screen. Starring Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robin Wright, Sam Worthington, and Keira Knightley, this film packs some serious star power. In my opinion though, it was lead actor Jason Clarke who steals the show.

Clarke plays guide Rob Hall of Adventure consultants, and brought a life to this character that I didn’t quite get from Into Thin Air . The opening sequences of the movie start with Hall saying goodbye to his pregnant girlfriend (Keira Knightly) in a New Zealand airport. He then meets up in Kathmandu with the group of climbers who are paying him as a guide to lead them to the summit of Everest. His team consisted of Frank Fischbeck, Doug Hansen, Stuart Hutchison, Lou Kasischke, Jon Krakauer, Yasuko Namba, John Taske, and Beck Weathers. Beck is one of the more memorable characters in this movie, a strong willed Texan short on experience, but high on confidence. I was also drawn to the story of Yasuko Namba, a 47 year old Japanese woman who climbed the Seven Summits. Then of course there is Jon Krakauer, played by Michael Kelly. He was the only one in the group not paying to be there. He was a journalist on assignment for Outside Magazine.

After leaving Kathmandu, the crew heads to Everest Basecamp. From the moment the climbers begin to acclimatize, you get a sense of the dangers that lie around every corner for those aspiring to reach the summit of Everest. One of the more gripping scenes was when Beck (Josh Brolin) was hiking on a ladder over a crevasse. This is the scene depicted in the main title image above.

Climbing Mt. Everest is a real challenge, even though it’s been heavily commercialized. 1996 was the year these hand-holding guided companies really started to take off, a point made clear by character Rob Hall as he talked to American guide, Scott Fisher, of Mountain Madness. The debate as to what truly happened, who was at fault, and who could have been saved, will never be agreed upon by everyone, but this movie does a great job of presenting a cinematic retelling of the events while staying true to the story. From the moment the Adventure Consultants team reaches the summit of Everest and begins their fateful descent, you feel every twist and turn right along with the characters.

The cinematography for this movie is incredible. Director, Baltasar Kormákur, did a masterful job of meshing real life climbing sets with CGI and green screen sets for a fully immersive experience that makes the viewer feel as though they’re on the mountain. The attention to detail was incredible to see. All of the actors worked well as a cast, and you can tell they had a great time shooting. I would become an actor overnight if all gigs were like this one!

The one knock I have on this film is a personal one. I didn’t like how invisible the sherpas were. This is a problem all too common in the telling and retelling of westerners’ mountain adventures in the Himalayas. I understand this is a Hollywood production and there is only so much budget and screen time available, but I would have liked to see a little bit more of the sherpas story told in this movie.

Everest was a really good movie, and one I recommend for all hikers, trekkers, climbers, and mountaineers. It’s rare we get a great Hollywood production that focuses on the activities we love, and does so without any nonsense.

Have you seen Everest ? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Short of heading to the Himalayas and climbing the world’s highest mountain yourself, seeing Everest in 3D IMAX is the next best thing, a dizzying visual adventure that will knock the wind out of you. As personal drama, not so much. Working from a script by survival experts William Nicholson ( Unbroken ) and Simon Beaufoy ( 127 Hours ), Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur ( 2 Guns ) must hew to the stark reality of the May 1996 expedition in which eight climbers died by mountain and blizzard. The Everest tragedies that killed 35 people this year and last only underscore the relentless risk.

It’s up to an expert cast, many in beards and similar parkas, to provide the emotional lifelines for audiences. Jake Gyllenhaal excels as the American Scott Fischer, as does Jason Clarke as the Aussie Rob Hall, both leading their own rival groups up the crowded mountain. They are joined by Russian guide Anatoli Bourkreev (Ingvar Sigurdsson) and a host of amateur warriors, including Texan Beck Weathers (a very fine Josh Brolin), Seattle mailman Doug Hansen (John Hawkes) and Japan’s Yasuko Namba (Naoko Mori), the only woman on the trip — Everest will be the last of the Seven Summits she is conquering.

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In cutaways, we see the pregnant wife (Keira Knightley) Hall left back home, and we get a glimpse of Weathers’ domestic issues with his wife (Robin Wright). Cheers to Emily Watson for playing base-camp coordinator Helen Wilton with a compassion that never slips into sentiment. Sadly, there are too many characters to fit coherently into a two-hour movie. I should mention Michael Kelly, who plays Jon Krakauer, a climber whose landmark book about the trip, Into Thin Air, fills in blanks the film cannot.

Still, there’s only one star in this movie: Everest. Kormákur couldn’t shoot higher than base camp, around 14,000 feet, without sickening the actors. But a crew traveled to the top to get footage, while much of the climbing was shot in the Dolomites. No matter. You watch Everest and you believe.

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The Sad Truth Of What Happened To Anatoli After The Events Of Everest

Everest ending explained, “never even got off”: a private jet flew spielberg to ‘90s thriller set just to yell at the director for 15 minutes.

Everest uses filming locations worldwide to provide an authentic view of the 1996 Mount Everest Disaster, enhancing the audience experience.
Santa Monica Mountains in California and the Dolomite mountains in Italy played key roles in bringing Everest's intense scenes to life.
From Kathmandu to Iceland, each location was chosen for a specific purpose in capturing the challenges and triumphs of climbing Mount Everest.

Universal Pictures's Everest features many shooting locations in an effort to recreate the tragic events the movie is based on with as much accuracy and authenticity as possible. Based on the 1996 Mount Everest Disaster , Everest centers around the challenges a group of mountaineers attempting to brave Mount Everest face, while also demonstrating their sheer will and determination. While the story itself is incredible, the filming locations that Everest uses to help tell its gut-wrenching story are also noteworthy because they help put the audience into the characters' perspectives .

Additionally, Everest illuminates stark truths associated with mountain climbing that most people overlook given the sheer spectacle of accomplishing such a feat. Everest provides a hopeful and inspirational tone despite the harsh reality of its subject, which results in a movie that is just as terrifying as it is insightful. With strong performances from its leads and tense action and suspense that keep the anxiety high, Everest excels in many things. However, perhaps the most important aspect of the storytelling is the variety of filming locations used to tell Everest 's story .

Jason Clarke as Rob Hall in a scene from Everest.

A group brave a harsh storm while making their way to Mount Everest's summit. However, one character's real-life fate is much worse than the movie's.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Kathmandu, nepal doubled as the film studio for the production..

Climbers explore the mountains in Everest

The Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal acted as Everest 's film studio for many of the shots seen earlier in the movie. While the movie primarily takes place in the harsh mountainous ranges, the earlier portions offer audiences reprieve as the protagonists meet up and discuss their plans. In addition to serving as the exterior and interior shots of the airport, the scenes also feature some of Kathmandu, Nepal's notable streets and neighborhoods , such as the iconic Buddha Stupa - that is, the central place of meditation in Nepal.

Santa Monica Mountains

Jake gyllenhaal and josh brolin trained in the santa monica mountains to prepare for their roles..

The Santa Monica Mountains in California served as a perfect double for Everest 's more intense scenes given the nature of the story. Additionally, they were host to stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Josh Brolin's training as they prepared for their roles in the movie. However, Gyllenhaal and Brolin got lost during their preparation and would have succumbed to exposure - something that happens to many of the characters in the movie, had it not been for a Boy Scout troupe helping them back to safety.

Everest Base Camp

The production received permission to shoot on location for a brief period of time..

The production crew received permission from Nepal to briefly shoot on the actual grounds, which adds even more authenticity to the ambitious project. As such, many of the Everest Base Camp scenes were shot on the Mount Everest grounds themselves for about a month altogether. Tragically, however, the 2014 Mount Everest avalanche claimed the lives of multiple sherpas and other climbers during the second unit's shoot. No one on the Everest shoot was injured, but the tragedy contributed to the production wrapping up shooting on the grounds early. In addition to the added authenticity, the scenes are great because they provide a moment to relate to the characters and understand the significance completing their mission has to them.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Jason Clarke in Everest (2015)

The 2015 film Everest's ending, especially concerning what happened to Beck Weathers, requires an explanation. Here's what the end of Everest means.

The Dolomites

The production was moved to the dolomite mountains in italy after completing shooting at everest base camp..

Jason Clarke as Rob Hall and Jake Gyllenhaal as Scott Fischer in Everest

After production wrapped at the Everest Base Camp, the crew then moved to the Dolomites in Italy to resume shooting the exterior shots. Although Everest is one of Jake Gyllenhaal's best movies , it sees him die during the events of the group's expedition, which highlights the severity of climbing Mount Everest. Gyllenhaal plays Scott Fischer, one of the expedition's leads, and his affable personality helps keep the morale high during the events of Everest . The Dolomites were chosen as a replacement for the actual Mount Everest because of its relative safety and proximity to Rome's sound stage .

Rome, Italy

The crew shot at the cinecittà studio in rome, italy..

Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin) at camp in Everest

Rome, Italy's Cinecittà Studios was chosen for one of the movie's locations because the natural lighting that graces the studio's back lot provided the exact look the filmmakers were searching for. While the scenes in the movie themselves are fairly brief, they do provide audiences with the necessary scope to adequately soak in the intensity of climbing Mount Everest. Furthermore, filming at Cinecittà Studios killed two birds with one stone as it also helped the filmmakers prepare for the remaining shooting required at Pinewood Studios and Iceland during breaks in production.

Shooting in Iceland proved to be more practical for the production crew.

Rob Hall's body (Jason Clarke) overlooking Everest in Everest (2015)

Director Baltasar Kormákur is from Iceland, so it was a natural decision to do some of the filming in his native homeland. As such, filming in Iceland only lasted for a month because of Kormákur's intimate knowledge of the country's geography. Additionally, many of the scenes that were shot in Iceland were some of the most poignant, as most of the characters, like Jason Clarke's Rob Hall, Gyllenhaal's Fischer, and many of the clients perish during the Iceland scenes. Irrespective of the daunting scenarios depicted onscreen, filming finally moved to Pinewood Studios in England for the climax .

Pinewood Studios

The hillary step scenes were shot at pinewood studios..

The scenes filmed at Pinewood Studios centered around the expedition's trek through Hillary Step - a location situated near the summit of Mount Everest, which necessitated filmmaking trickery to successfully emulate. As such, many of the scenes shot at Pinewood Studios were done with the assistance of green screens and CGI technology in order to convincingly give off the impression the expedition was really braving Mount Everest. While many of the scenes in Everest are hard to watch, seeing the expedition reach the summit speaks to the efforts of the real-life crew as well as the filmmakers involved.

What To Watch Next?

Everest is based on the true story of the worst tragedy ever to happen on the worlds highest Mountain. This truly epic adventure is a sobering reminder of the dangers of climbing in the Death Zone.

Everest is seen as the pinnacle of the climbing world. Ever since Sir Edmund Hillary first summited the mountain, countless numbers of people have followed in his footsteps.

In the early nineties, the mountain became a focus for commercialized climbs. Technology and new equipment enabled people to attempt the climb assisted by teams of paid professionals who had perfected the technique of summiting the peak.

It seemed that if you had the money, you could stand on top of the world. What was once seen as the impossible became achievable to the masses.

However, in 1996 this perception changed dramatically. Two commercial teams were caught in a horrific storm high on the mountain which lead to eight deaths. They included the lead climbers from both of the commercial teams.

Everest Official Trailer

What Is The Everest Movie About?

Based on the book “ Into thin air ” by Jon Krakauer, Everest follows the story of two main commercial teams.

They were the Adventure Consultants led by New Zealander Rob Hall and Mountain Madness led by American Scott Fisher.

As you would expect the star of this movie is Everest itself. Filmed in IMAX, the camera work is spectacular, and director Baltasar Kormakur shows great respect for the story.

Where other mountaineering movies are unbearably overdramatized, Everest simply sticks to the real story which has all of the drama that you could ever want in a movie.

Is Everest Worth Watching?

The cast is solid with great performances from Josh Brolin ( No Country For Old Men ), Jason Clarke and Jake Gyllenhaal.

But the stand-out performance is from Emily Watson who plays the head of base camp and the person who attempts to control the chaos that unfolds when the storm hits the mountain.

The film can be very painful to watch at times and the scenes involving Keira Knightly who plays Rob Halls's wife, are suitably touching.

All in all, Everest is a big-budget disaster movie that delivers on every level.

Climbing at altitude is an extremely dangerous pursuit, and after watching this movie, it is hard to understand why anyone would ever put themselves into such a dangerous environment.

If you are interested in mountaineering or have read any of the books that focus on the 1996 disaster, then I would strongly recommend watching Everest .

Stunning Camera Work
Limited Introduction to the Characters

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EVEREST (2015)

"the most dangerous place on earth".

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

What You Need To Know:

(BB, C, Pa, FR, L, VV, AA) Strong moral worldview with some redemptive content focusing on strong moral characters that exude generosity, selflessness, sacrifice, teamwork, and the conclusion implies that love of family may be more important than following a dangerous dream, man points up and says “somebody up there loves us,” plus some false pagan content such as a brief scene in a Hindu temple, a Hindu ritual, and a Japanese woman says a prayer, though it’s unclear to whom; two possible light profanities, though not clear, no other foul language; very intense peril, two men fall to their deaths, people freeze to death and get hypothermia, man gets terrible frost bite and eventually loses his nose and hands, man coughs up blood; no sexual content; no nudity; some moderate drinking with possible drunkenness; no drug use; no other immoral content.

More Detail:

EVEREST is a stunning, thrilling, tragic true story of one fateful climb up the tallest peak in the world, Mt. Everest. Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) is an avid climber from New Zealand and runs a company called Adventure Consultants, an expedition service specializing in taking amateur climbers up to the top of Everest for a hefty price, and hopefully, back down alive. It’s 1996, Rob has a full client list, and Rob’s hoping this year that he can actually get his clients to the top safely, unlike the previous year where they had to turn back. Some of his clients include Beck (Josh Brolin), a Texas doctor, Journalist Jon Krakauer who wants to write a piece on Hall and Doug, a mailman who tried reaching the top of Everest before but failed. Things are different for Rob this time around because his wife, Jan (Kiera Knightley), is expecting, and he’d like to be there for the his child’s birth. The team assembles in Nepal, where Rob explains the difficulty of the climb and the danger they’ll be in the entire time. To reach the peak, there are four camps where they can rest and regroup before continuing. At camp four, they’ll have a small window of time to climb to the peak in between bad weather. At the altitude of 29,029 feet, their bodies will start to self-destruct and die, so they have to be quick. Along the way up the mountain, Hall’s team decides to team up with another expedition group led by Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal). Scott is much more of a risk taker and has a different leading style, but they decide it’s better for everyone if they team up anyway. The hike up is brutal, and not everyone is able to complete the climb. When a storm rushes into the mountain, the descent back down the mountain causes chaos and the situation becomes deadly, especially for Hall who’s stuck near the peak with no oxygen tanks. EVEREST is a stunning piece of cinematic work, especially in IMAX 3D, which captures the grand magnitude of Everest in the most realistic way possible without actually being there. The experience is both awe inspiring and terrifying. Icelandic Director Balthasar Kormákur does a fabulous job at keeping the epic grounded with the characters, and the all-star cast is exceptional. The third act does become cluttered and slightly confusing due to the chaos of the storm drowning out some of the dialogue, which also isn’t helped by some of the characters’ thick New Zealand accents. However, it’s never forgotten who’s in jeopardy, and what must be done for them to survive. For anyone familiar with the actual events that took place, they know the story is a tragic one. It was the deadliest day on Mount Everest up until 2014. So, needless to say, EVEREST isn’t a happy movie, and the writing doesn’t force individuals into caricatures or clichés. The filmmakers are so intent on avoiding a fabricated conclusion that it nearly becomes tragic in an unhelpful way. EVEREST definitely has strong moral points. Rob Hall is a generous man who cares more about the safety of his clients than his pride and risks his life for others, even though he deeply loves his wife. When asked why they risk their life, marriage and money to climb, Doug answers that if he, a regular mailman, can do something incredible, maybe he can inspire children to do the same. These points are especially touching, and in the end, the movie puts an emphasis on the importance of family over climbing. Happily, there’s hardly no offensive content in EVEREST. There is some incredibly intense peril, with some deaths, and some drinking, so a caution is advised, especially for older pre-teens.

Listen to a discussion on the movie Everest on the Official Movieguide® Podcast

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Everest (2015) Parent Guide

The imporatnat and worthwhile messages that distill out of this harrowing experience are those of sacrifice, teamwork, persistence and the importance of careful planning..

Things go badly for a group of climbers when a snowstorm hits them while scaling Mt. Everest. This movie is based on the true story of the May 10, 1996 summit attempt.

Release date September 18, 2015

Run Time: 150 minutes

Official Movie Site

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by rod gustafson.

It wasn’t many years ago that climbing Mount Everest was a rare activity that only professionals would dare to approach. But since the first officially recorded summiting by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, a commercial enterprise has erupted. About the mid-1980s, tour groups began leading hundreds of people in the attempted to climb to the peek—with many succeeding. However the sad reality is that a significant number never return to tell their tales, as evidenced by the large number of corpses littering the popular routes to the top.

1996 was a particularly bad year in which 12 deaths were recorded on Everest. Of those, eight people perished during one blizzard. And it is this tragedy that forms the plot of this movie which, ultimately, examines the business of armature climbing and whether or not some of the clients are experienced enough to make the ascent.

The large group of over 30 climbers makes their way to Camp IV, the final stopping point prior to the summit, despite increasingly difficult winds. Early the next morning the weather clears and Hall declares it safe to proceed. Working their way up the difficult slope it becomes evident to Hall that safety would be better served if he and Fischer join forces and work as a team. Reluctantly Fischer agrees. However as they near the peak they discover that, for some unknown reason, the fixed ropes that provide additional support for inexperienced climbers, have not been set. Precious time is spent placing the ropes, only to have the group discover, yet again, that ropes have not been placed at the Hillary Step, the final accent to the top.

When the first climber, Mountain Madness guide Anatoli Bourkreev (Ingvar Sigurdsson) reaches the summit shortly after 1 PM, it was evident the large group may be in serious danger. To have enough time to return to the camp, the participants must reach and leaving the peak by 2 PM – yet many don’t arrive until long after. Making matters worse, a severe storm is quickly moving toward them. Staying to assist his paying customer achieve their goal, Hall doesn’t depart the mountaintop until 3 PM, only to find yet another client, Doug Hansen, just above the Hillary Step. Despite admonishing him to abandon the quest, Hansen begs to complete the journey.And Hall agrees to accompany him. It’s a decision that will cost both their lives.

Anyone familiar with the actual events of this disaster will know not to expect a happy ending. Characters are seen in frequent peril and the elaborate makeup convinces us of the severity of frostbite and abrasive ice pellets on exposed flesh. These issues may make this film unsuitable for children. However, for teens and adults, the movie is surprisingly devoid of profanities. Perhaps the greatest content concern will be the frequent boozing indulged in at the initial base camp while adventurers wait to have their bodies adjust to the high altitude.

The creators of this dramatization avoid obvious judgments of whether mountain climbing is worth risking your life over. Certainly audiences will leave with their own opinions in this area. Still, the messages that do distil out of this harrowing experience are worthwhile examples of sacrifice, teamwork, persistence and the importance of careful planning. In addition, the performances from many of these actors are award worthy and the special effects are invisible to viewer’s eye. Obviously the production crew didn’t ascend Everest, but as you engage in this literal cliffhanger, you’ll feel like you did.

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Rod Gustafson

Everest (2015) rating & content info.

Why is Everest (2015) rated PG-13? Everest (2015) is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for intense peril and disturbing images

Violence: Frostbit injuries are graphically shown, along with the healed stumps. Characters transverse treacherous territory and attempt to scale tall peeks—they are in peril of falling and have to endure severe weather conditions. Altitude sickness is discussed, and some characters show symptoms of it (including snow blindness and vomiting blood). Memorials are seen for climbers who have died. Frozen corpses are shown. Characters fall off cliffs ore ladder bridges. Characters fall and knock down other climbers, Avalanches occur causing danger and injury. Characters suffer from hypothermia, and some freeze to death. Characters get lost in a blizzard. Characters risk their own lives to save others. Some characters are left behind because the safety of the rescuers is put first. A helicopter flies in thin atmosphere and is in danger of crashing.

Sexual Content: A married couple kisses. Various people embrace. A shirtless man is shown sunbathing. A character is pregnant and an ultrasound of the baby is shown.

Language: A term of deity is used as an expletive. A couple of sexual slang terms are used.

Alcohol / Drug Use: Characters pack and ship alcohol for their expedition. Characters are frequently shown drinking, sometimes to excess. Medical oxygen is used. Characters take medicine, and one injects himself with a hypodermic needle.

Other: Monks and climbers participate in religious ceremonies and pray.

Page last updated July 17, 2017

Everest (2015) Parents' Guide

Mount Everest is the world’s highest peek. Learn more about the real May 10, 1996 Everest summit attempt , and subsequent tragedy.

The first know summit of Everest was accomplished in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay . After that, a handful of other professionals attempted to reach the top, but the success rate was low and the fatality rate was very high. It wasn’t until 1992, when experienced climbers began offering guided tours to armatures wanting to scale the peak that the commercialization of Everest began. How do you feel about this money-making endeavor? Do you think the bragging rights make this journey worth the risk? Do you want to conquer Everest? Why or why not?

Because of the popularity of summiting Everest, conditions at base camp have become crowded. Nor do all of the potential climbers co-operate with each other. With this in mind, why does one of the guides state, “Competition shouldn’t be between man and man, but between man and the mountain.” How might this advice be used in situations other than mountain climbing?

Journalist Jon Krakauer authored the best selling book Into Thin Air that provides his perspective on what happened during the eventful descent from the top of Mount Everest.

A lot of attention and praise is given to those who climb Everest, but little attention is paid to the Sherpas , the local people of the area who assist them to the top. How important is their help? Why do you think they get so little credit for their contributions?

The most recent home video release of Everest (2015) movie is January 19, 2016. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: Everest Release Date: 19 January 2016 Everest releases to home video (Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy or Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy) with the following extras: - RACE TO THE SUMMIT: THE MAKING OF EVEREST – The trials and tribulations of cast and crew as they journey to the foothills of Everest and beyond, battling the elements and forming deep bonds along the way. - ASPIRING TO AUTHENTICITY: THE REAL STORY – Recollections of the tragic events of May 10, 1996, from those who were there, as the cast and filmmakers discuss bringing this harrowing tale to life with authenticity and respect. - FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR BALTASAR KORMÁKUR - LEARNING TO CLIMB: THE ACTOR’S JOURNEY – Cast members and the two film consultants who helped them prepare for the shoot discuss getting ready for the arduous production. - A MOUNTAIN OF WORK: RECREATING EVEREST – Bringing Everest to life required the filmmakers to recreate the mountain through state-of-the-art studio work and visual effects. The teams involved talk about how they made the seemingly impossible possible.

This Drone Video Shows What It’s Like to Climb to Mount Everest’s Summit

The latest aerial footage from the world’s highest peak follows the popular Western Cwm route from Base Camp to the 29,032-foot summit

Don't miss a moment of the 2024 Tour de France! Get recaps, insights, and exclusive takes with Velo's daily newsletter. >","name":"in-content-cta","type":"link"}}'>Sign up today! .

Video footage of Mount Everest continues to get crisper, clearer, and more dizzying. If climbing to the roof of the world on your own two feet seems out of reach, you can now take to the skies—virtually—and see the summit for yourself.

On July 10, Chinese drone manufacturer DJI released a stunning video of the world’s highest peak. The four-minute clip takes viewers on a high-definition aerial ride from Base Camp , at 17,598 feet, all the way up to the mountain’s 29,032-foot summit. The video was filmed via a DJI Mavic 3 Pro drone—yep, a device you can purchase at your local Best Buy.

As a self-proclaimed geek of Everest footage, I wholeheartedly recommend this video. No, it’s not quite as breathtaking as the virtual reality film The QUEST: EVEREST VR , which I viewed earlier this year. But it does surpass the 2022 drone video of Mount Everest, which was also filmed with a DJI device.

The latest video provides a complete overhead view of the route to the top of Mount Everest. The device follows the traditional Western Cwm route from Nepal—the same one that hundreds of climbers followed this past May to access the summit. Along its trip, the devices flies over the landmarks that Everest aficionados like myself have committed to memory: the Khumbu Icefall, Geneva Spur, Balcony, and Hillary Step , just to name a few. The video shows the Khumbu Glacier’s dangerous ice towers, the soaring walls above the Western Cwm, and the sheerness of the Lhotse Face . It also captures the incredible vertical rise that climbers must tackle after leaving Camp IV at 26,000 feet en route to the top.

There are four separate video clips that are edited together to complete the entire journey.

DJI is at the forefront of drone experimentation on the world’s highest peak. Earlier this spring, the company tested its cargo drone, the FlyCart 30, at Base Camp. Working alongside Nepali officials, DJI engineers piloted the device over the Khumbu Icefall up to Camp I at 19,900 feet while carrying two oxygen tanks . Officials believe the flying devices may someday be used to ferry gear onto the mountain and take trash back down. For now, the aerial devices will be used mostly for creating vertigo-inducing videos to stare at on your lunch break.

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Forget Mt. Everest — it's not even close to the most difficult mountains to climb, according to mountaineers

When climbing huge mountains, height and difficulty don't always go hand in hand, mountaineers say.
Mt. Everest may be the world's highest peak, but it's easier to summit than other smaller mountains, like the Seven Second Summits.
Three professional mountaineers explain why these shorter peaks are so challenging, and why Mt. Everest is easier to climb than ever before.

Just because Mt. Everest is the world's highest peak, that doesn't mean it's the most difficult to climb, according to three professional mountaineers.

In fact, one expert even described Everest as a "fun" and "playful" climb compared to other peaks she's summited around the world.

Mountaineers generally agree that the highest peaks on each of the seven continents — aka the Seven Summits, which include Everest, Denali, and Kilimanjaro — are easier to climb than the second highest peaks on each continent: the Seven Second Summits.

The three mountaineers shared why Everest isn't the hardest and which peaks they found most challenging in their years of climbing.

Climbing the Seven Second Summits

Don't let the name fool you — when it comes to difficulty, there's nothing secondary about the Seven Second Summits.

K2: The Savage Mountain

If you ask Garrett Madison what the hardest mountain he's climbed is, his answer won't be Mt. Everest, either.

This world-class mountaineer has summited Mt. Everest 14 times, in addition to other massive peaks like K2 , Denali, and Mt. Everest's smaller but formidable neighbors, Mt. Lhotse and Mt. Nuptse.

K2 is the hardest mountain he's ever climbed, he said, and other mountaineers agree that although it's secondary to Mt. Everest in height, it's much more challenging.

"The major differences are that K2 is steeper, it's got more objective danger — rock fall, ice fall , crevasses — and the weather is more unpredictable," Alan Arnette, a Mount Everest summiter and climbing coach who writes an Everest blog , told BI.

But just because Mt. Everest is easier than K2, that doesn't mean that anyone can hike up the world's highest mountain on a whim, Arnette said.

Climbing Mt. Everest is still risky

In 2023, a record-breaking 18 climbers died attempting to summit Mt. Everest. Even with a pre-set route, established camps, and highly skilled Sherpas to guide you, summiting this mountain is still incredibly dangerous.

As a Mt. Everest summit coach, Arnette requires that his clients already have experience climbing at least 23,000 foot tall mountains , camping in harsh winter conditions, and have some basic mountaineering knowledge before he agrees to work with them. And even someone with that level of experience might need a year of training to get ready to summit, he said.

But professional mountaineers like Arnette, Drummond, and Madison go searching for even greater challenges, paving the way for others who aspire to reach the same heights. For Drummond, becoming the first woman to climb the Seven Second Summits was deeply meaningful.

"It just shows how far society has come for women to be in these places," she said.

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Polaroid’s Latest Collab Puts Vintage Spin on a Modern Instant Camera

Polaroid , no stranger to collaborations , has announced a project with Eames Office that will bring a sleek new version of the Polaroid Now Generation 2 instant camera to market.

“Since the 1970s, Polaroid and the Eames Office have been at the forefront of design and technology, democratizing creativity and pushing innovation boundaries,” Polaroid explains. “Charles and Ray Eames, among the most important designers of the 20th century, believed in accessible design, mirroring Polaroid’s aim to simplify photography for everyone.”

Image of a black Polaroid camera with the name "EAMES" printed in white letters on the front. The camera features a large lens in the center, a flash on the left, and a viewfinder on the right. The bottom part has a slot for film ejection.

Charles and Ray Eames (née Kaiser) were an American married couple and industrial designers who are well known for their work in modern architecture and furniture, although they also worked in graphic design, fine art, and film. Charles died in 1978, aged 71, and Ray passed away a decade later at age 75.

A smiling couple stands closely together outdoors. The woman has curly hair and wears a red jacket with a white scarf. The man has short hair and wears a beige jacket with a red bandana around his neck. He has his arm around her shoulders.

The tail end of their careers overlapped with Polaroid’s height of instant camera influence, and both brands have long been known for their practical designs and blending of technology and art.

A vintage-style photograph of modernist buildings with a grid-like pattern of glass and opaque panels, partially obscured by tall, leafy trees. The sun casts dappled shadows, creating a tranquil atmosphere.

“Charles and Ray’s holistic vision of design encompassed communication and education, which became evident in their masterful films for Polaroid. In turn, the instant camera soon led to an expansion of their creative signature and became an important feedback tool in the design process. The Eames Office is delighted to build on this shared design legacy with the Polaroid Now — Eames Edition,” says Eames Demetrios, artist and director of Eames Office. Demetrios is the grandson of Charles and Ray Eames.

The new Polaroid Now Generation 2 instant camera model comes in “Elephant Hide Gray,” and features a bold wrist strap inspired by the iconic Eames Toy’s geometric pattern. The gray colorway is said to be an homage to “the timeless Eames aesthetic,” and reflects “elegance and sophistication.”

A retro-style Polaroid camera with a black body, branded "Sun 600," suspended in mid-air against a white background. The camera has a colorful, geometric-patterned strap attached.

Aside from its facelift, the Eames Edition camera is identical to the standard Now Generation 2 . The instant camera features a self-timer and double exposure modes, a two-lens autofocus system, and recharges via USB-C. The instant film camera uses Polaroid i-Type and 600 film.

“It’s a collector’s item not to be missed,” Polaroid says.

The Polaroid Now Generation 2 Eames Edition is available now for $129.99 directly from Polaroid. It’s also available in a bundle with color i-Type film and a Polaroid photo box for $149.99.

IMAGES

Movie Review: Everest
Everest Movie Review & Film Summary (2015)
Everest
Everest Review
Movie Review: 'Everest'
Review : Everest

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Watching EVEREST movie has changed the life of a badminton player forever #podcast #hasvi #interview
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COMMENTS

Everest movie review & film summary (2015)
As the movie expertly depicts freezing conditions, approaching and full-blown storms, mini-avalanches hitting at just the wrong place and just the wrong time, and more, the movie provides an object lesson with respect to that adage. As much as "Everest" trades in a kind of authenticity, it also trucks in the most banal of disaster movie ...
Everest (2015)
On the morning of May 10, 1996, climbers (Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin) from two expeditions start their final ascent toward the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. With little ...
Everest (2015)
Everest: Directed by Baltasar Kormákur. With Jason Clarke, Ang Phula Sherpa, Thomas M. Wright, Martin Henderson. On May 10, 1996, mountain guides Rob Hall and Scott Fischer combine their expedition teams for a final ascent to the summit of Mount Everest. With little warning, a storm strikes the mountain and the climbers must now battle to survive.
Everest
Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 20, 2022. Marketed like a thrilling disaster film yet playing like a respectful drama, "Everest" still carries the sheen of every other Hollywood mountain ...
Review: 'Everest' Revisits a Fateful Adventure in 3-D
"Everest" turns partly on the rivalry between two seasoned climbers: Rob Hall, a stoic, disciplined New Zealander played by the ever-solid Jason Clarke; and Scott Fischer, a gonzo American ...
Everest (2015 film)
Everest is a 2015 biographical survival adventure film directed and produced by Baltasar Kormákur and written by William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy.It stars an ensemble cast of Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Robin Wright, Michael Kelly, Sam Worthington, Keira Knightley, Martin Henderson and Emily Watson.It is based on the real events of the 1996 Mount Everest ...
Venice Film Review: 'Everest'
Venice Film Review: 'Everest' Although hardly a peak achievement, Baltasar Kormakur's Himalayan epic is a properly grueling, strikingly unsentimental chronicle of the 1996 Mount Everest tragedy.
Everest Review
Everest. Released in 2015, Everest is a biographical survival movie boasting a star-studded ensemble cast. It tells the story of two expedition groups who find themselves in the midst of a violent storm while attempting to reach the peak of the titular mountain. Though they're able to endure the initial onslaught, the harsh weather conditions ...
'Everest' Movie Review
The film follows more than 20 individuals, portrayed by the likes of Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Hawkes, and "House of Cards" star Michael Kelly, as they prepare to summit Mt. Everest.
Everest
Movie Review. It's just another climb. Nothing to worry over. It's true that ever since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first broke through to Mount Everest's peak back in 1953, more than 200 people have died attempting to duplicate the feat. But, hey, this is a new day. The death rate in the 1990s hovers just above 5%. The equipment ...
Everest
Inspired by the incredible events surrounding a treacherous attempt to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, Everest documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind. Their mettle tested by the harshest of elements found on the planet, the climbers will face nearly ...
Everest Movie Review
Parents need to know that Everest is a disaster film based on the actual events of May 10, 1996 -- which was then considered the deadliest day on the mountain, claiming eight lives, including those of experienced guides. Viewers will feel intense, harrowing peril as the climbers attempt the summit and then descend during an unexpected blizzard.
Everest (2015)
Back in 1992, New Zealand's intrepid mountaineer, Robert "Rob" Edwin Hall, started guiding amateur climbers on Mount Everest. With his company named "Adventure Consultants", he successfully led 19 clients to the summit without a single fatality--and his 1996 Everest expedition, which consisted of eight clients and three guides--was the perfect example about the increasing demand for ...
The Ambition of Everest Isn't in Its Grandeur, But Rather ...
Everest recounts the true-life tragedy in 1996, when a deadly blizzard and other mishaps led to what was then the deadliest day in Mt. Everest's history. Numerous books and articles have retold ...
‎Everest (2015) directed by Baltasar Kormákur • Reviews, film + cast
The Storm Awaits. Inspired by the incredible events surrounding a treacherous attempt to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, "Everest" documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind. Their mettle tested by the ...
Movie Review: Everest (2015)
Many critics are calling Everest absolutely beautiful, but without the human emotion necessary to make it a truly great adventure movie. I take some exception to that, though, as I saw much emotional impact, but with the actors wearing googles, oxygen masks and heavy clothing, it was often difficult to distinguish one from the other and only at ...
Everest (2015)
Everest is a film that tells the story of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which a climbing expedition is devastated by a severe storm. The film was directed by 2 Guns director Baltasar Kormakur and written by William Nicholson (Gladiator, Les Miserables) and Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours), starring Jason ...
Movie Review: Everest (2015)
Movie Review: Everest (2015) In 1996 , eight climbers got caught in a blizzard and died while attempting to climb Mt. Everest. They achieved their goal of reaching the summit, but in doing so lost their lives. The events of the 1996 Everest disaster were made famous by author and climber Jon Krakauer in his riveting book, Into Thin Air.
'Everest' Movie Review
Everest. An expert (and bearded) cast provides the lifeline for this high-altitude man-vs-nature drama. Short of heading to the Himalayas and climbing the world's highest mountain yourself ...
Where Was Everest The Movie Filmed?
Summary. Everest uses filming locations worldwide to provide an authentic view of the 1996 Mount Everest Disaster, enhancing the audience experience. Santa Monica Mountains in California and the Dolomite mountains in Italy played key roles in bringing Everest's intense scenes to life. From Kathmandu to Iceland, each location was chosen for a ...
Everest Movie Review
As you would expect the star of this movie is Everest itself. Filmed in IMAX, the camera work is spectacular, and director Baltasar Kormakur shows great respect for the story. ... Latest Reviews. 4.5 Poor. Spaceman. 9.4 Amazing. Shōgun. 7 Good. Hunter Killer. 8.8 Great. Poor Things. 8.3 Great. Deadwater Fell. 6.5 Fair. Wira. 6.8 Fair. Role ...
EVEREST (2015)
EVEREST is a stunning, thrilling, tragic true story of one fateful climb up the tallest peak in the world, Mt. Everest. Rob Hall is an climber from New Zealand. He runs a company called Adventure Consultants that specializes in taking amateur climbers up to the top of Everest for a hefty price, and, hopefully, back down alive.
Everest (2015) Movie Review for Parents
Things go badly for a group of climbers when a snowstorm hits them while scaling Mt. Everest. This movie is based on the true story of the May 10, 1996 summit attempt. Release date September 18, 2015. Violence B ... Family movie reviews, movie ratings, fun film party ideas and pop culture news — all with parents in mind. About Us. About ...
This Drone Video Follows the Route Up Mount Everest
But it does surpass the 2022 drone video of Mount Everest, which was also filmed with a DJI device. The latest video provides a complete overhead view of the route to the top of Mount Everest.
Mt. Everest Is World's Highest Peak but Not the Hardest Climb
Mt. Everest attracts hundreds of climbers each year, and is surrounded by a booming tourism industry. The spring 2023 climbing season alone generated $5.08 million in revenue for the Nepal ...
Polaroid's Latest Collab Puts Vintage Spin on a Modern ...
The instant film camera uses Polaroid i-Type and 600 film. "It's a collector's item not to be missed," Polaroid says. The Polaroid Now Generation 2 Eames Edition is available now for $129. ...

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