Everest
Tags: tragedy

Plot synopsis:
In May 1996 several commercial expeditions at base camp of Mount Everest prepare for a climb to the summit. Rob Hall, who popularized commercial Everest missions, leads Adventure Consultants; Scott Fischer is chief guide for Rob's rival, Mountain Madness. Rob's clients include Beck Weathers, an experienced climber; Doug Hansen, a former mailman pursuing his dream; climbing veteran Yasuko Namba, who hopes to complete her final Seven Summits ascent; and Outside magazine journalist Jon Krakauer. Helen Wilton manages Rob's base camp.
A month earlier in New Zealand, Rob says goodbye to his pregnant wife Jan and promises he will be home for the birth. At base camp Rob receives a fax from her, informing him their baby is a girl. He wants to name her Sarah, but Jan disagrees.
Worried about climber crowding, Rob persuades Scott to cooperate to reduce delays. On the summit attempt, Rob's group departs Camp IV before dawn, planning to complete the ascent and turn around by 2 pm, the latest safe time for return before nightfall. The group is delayed over an hour after discovering guide ropes are not installed on upper reaches of the climb. Beck has eyesight problems and stops. Rob tells him to return if his condition does not improve in a half-hour. Scott hurries back down to camp to help another climber, but plans to re-ascend. Rob warns him about over-exertion.
Rob reaches the summit on time and is joined by other climbers including Yasuko, who jubilantly plants her Japan flag in the snow. Descending, Rob encounters Doug struggling just above the Hillary Step and orders him to turn back. Doug insists on continuing, saying he won't get the chance again. Rob reluctantly agrees and they reach the summit two hours later, well past safe return time. At the summit Scott is exhausted and increasingly suffering from altitude sickness.
As Rob helps Doug descend, a blizzard strikes the mountain and Doug's oxygen bottle runs out, causing him to suffer hypoxia. No extra bottles are stored on the route where Rob asked and he radios Helen to send someone up with oxygen. Doug, left alone briefly by Rob, semi-consciously unclips himself from the guide rope and walks unsteadily along the narrow path. He silently topples to his death a moment later.
Scott's condition worsens. He tells fellow climbers to continue descending without him. He lies down and later dies. Returning climbers reach Beck, his vision still impaired, but they all become lost as the blizzard obliterates the trail. Three climbers go for help, leaving Beck and Yasuko behind.
Guide Andy 'Harold' Harris reaches Rob with spare oxygen, but it is frozen shut. They huddle in place in the storm. While Rob sleeps, Andy hallucinates, a danger the camp doctor warned of. He strips off his outer clothing and slides off the mountainside to his death. In the morning, Rob radios Helen that Doug and Andy are gone and that his hands and feet are frozen. Helen calls Jan, hoping Rob will respond to her voice. Jan tells Rob that he must start moving. Rob tells her he is cold but comfortable and asks her to name their baby Sarah. He soon dies.
Returning climbers tell the camp that Beck and Yasuko are stranded. The weather, however, makes rescue impossible. Helen calls Beck's wife, Peach, and informs her of the situation. In the morning, Beck miraculously awakens, sees Yasuko's corpse and stumbles back to camp alone, severely frostbitten and in dire need of medical help. Peach calls the American Embassy and organizes a helicopter rescue. Nepal Army pilot Lt. Col. Madan Khatri Chhetri successfully flies a harrowing high altitude mission to evacuate Beck. Meanwhile, one of Scott's guides, Anatoli, finds his body and moves it off the trail.
Returning home, Helen has an emotional reunion with Jan, who later gives birth and names her daughter Sarah. Beck returns to his family, heavily bandaged. Closing titles reveal that he lost both hands and nose to severe frostbite and that Rob's body remains on Everest.

Review: A lot of times I browse through other reviews when contemplating what I want to say about a movie, and never have I been more disturbed than by reading people's reviews of this film.
One IMDb reviewer placed a post on the page for Everest (2005) in which he attacked Jon Krakauer, author of the spectacular novel Into Thin Air, not only of selfishly misrepresenting the actions of people on the mountain, but also of sleeping away in his tent while people were stuck outside freezing.
So a bunch of boneheads completely missed the point and clearly have no idea about what really happened on the mountain, and are just writing reviews pretending like they have some right to criticize events and actions that they don't understand, right?
First of all, Mr. Kirkland displays a prodigious capacity for ignorance, apparently having managed to sit through this entire film and still not realize that no climber on earth could make it to the top of Everest without massive climbing skills.
The IMAX expedition simply coincided with the tragic events that unfolded on Mt. Everest in May of 1996, it is not a documentary of those events.
This is why the movie does not go into detail about what happens besides Liam Neeson describing them briefly in the voice-over, and is also why we now have so many people posting scathing reviews about a tragedy that they know nothing about.
I would love to see the expression on one of these people's faces if they were asked why May 1996 was the deadliest month in the history of Everest, and yet given the statistics, actually had less deaths than the average year.The people that 'just crawled back in their tents and ignored the crisis,' a group of people which included Jon Krakauer himself, did so for three reasons.
It is more than a little difficult, Mr. Kirkland, to 'ignore' events that you don't even know are occurring.In Into Thin Air, tragedy does not begin to unfold until almost 300 pages into the book, the IMAX movie passes that point in less than 15 minutes.
In a startling act of heroism, when he and his team learned of the tragic events occurring at higher altitudes, as they were on their way up, they immediately abandoned their $5.5 million IMAX project to participate in the rescue effort, providing their more than 300 pounds of oxygen canisters to whoever needed them.
It was not until the rescue effort had saved as many lives as they could that the IMAX team regrouped to decide whether they should still try to salvage their film project.
While I was not able to see Everest at an IMAX theater, I was still impressed with it on the small screen, probably because I had read Into Thin Air literally the day before I watched this film, and was able appreciate what these people went through on their expeditions.
There are a lot of reviewers on the IMDb who say the movie is pointless to watch on a small screen, but it is only pointless if your imagination is so small that a smaller presentation is not enough for you to understand the sheer magnitude of the event.
I could have done without the Jurassic Park music throughout the film, because it only tries to add to the greatness of the mountain, the expeditions, and the people involved, when no augmentation was necessary.
Everest's soundtrack could have been nothing but wind across the microphone and it would have been more than sufficient.Since I had read the book so soon before I watched the movie, I had an unfair expectation to see more coverage of the events that I had read about, because Jon Krakauer goes into stunning detail, covering every aspect of the expedition.
It was not until I read some reviews of Everest, particularly on the IMDb, when I really appreciated the quality of the film and was startled by the idiocy of the people writing about it.
The film is marketed by its connection with Into Thin Air, but unfortunately its association with that book only detracts from the movie because of its separation from it.
Associating it with the book gives the impression that it will cover some of the same events, which it does with unfortunate brevity, and worst of all, the association of the film with Krakauer's book gives some viewers the impression that they know what happened on the mountain just because they have seen this film.
And the mere fact that the crew was able to lug a bulky, heavy IMAX camera and film to the summit of Everest is a testament to sheer guts and determination.
There are moments of great emotional intensity (most notably, the miraculous Beck Weathers rescue), but, like a few others here, I got the feeling that much of the potential of the IMAX format simply went to waste.
IMAX is, after all, an overwhelmingly visual medium, so why waste so much time on trying to create a Hollywood style `story' out of it?
I mean, if I had gone to all the effort of getting that camera to the top, I'd have damned well given the audience some spectacular panoramic shots of the view from the summit instead of wasting valuable footage on two climbers hugging each other (a scene that would have worked just fine if shot on plain old videotape).
In summation, this film has some truly amazing moments, but as a whole, it seems the creators failed to use the IMAX format to the maximum potential.
I thought this was an amazing movie, whether viewed on IMAX or at home.People who have said they are interested in seeing the story of the Sherpas or how the movie was made should check out the special features on the DVD, Broughton Coburn's book "Everest," or Jamling Norgay's book "Touching My Father's Soul"; they are all about the climb, Norgay especially devotes time and pages to the Sherpas, considering he is also ethnically a Sherpa, who someone mistakenly said were Tibetan; in fact they are Nepalese.This was an interesting movie in its own right.
I don't understand why some reviewers did not enjoy the back stories and time devoted to the climbers' emotions and personal lives...would you rather watch a movie about people you didn't empathise with, care about, or even know?
He is the prominent North American mountaineer of our times, and since the movie was made has ascended all 14 8000 meter peaks without the use of oxygen, a climbing skill he has acquired over many years and excels at.
He doesn't do so because he 'likes the challenge' as one reviewer says, but merely because he feels it is a better way of climbing.
Viesturs did not have to coerce his wife into coming to Base Camp; she'd been on the mountain before and I believe enjoyed the atmosphere and the climbers.
(There would have been a considerably lower death rate on the mountain if only experienced climbers looking after themselves had climbed that season.) Ed Viesturs WAS a hero of the movie, although he is extremely humble about it, he did considerably assist in the rescue of Makalu Gau and Beck Weathers, as well as coordinating rescue attempts from Camp II, and I have no doubts that had Viesturs been at Camp IV on May 10/11, he would have climbed up and searched for missing climbers himself (most likely using oxygen).
If you are not a professional climber yourself, I do not think you have the right to insult the personal practices of a mountaineer like Viesturs, especially when his choices (such as using or not using oxygen) affect, in the long run, only himself, as he was not guiding the peak or responsible for any other climbers at the time.I loved the movie; every time I see it I get chills at the stunning Breashears images of the mountain.I definitely recommend seeing this movie.
Typical IMAX movie: impressive mountains, impressive views, impressive falls...
In fact, the true heroes in my opinion are the people who went all the way up the Everest *carrying* the IMAX camera...
If you are a true climber then sure I can imagine it might disappoint, but I'm not sure why.This isn't supposed to be the final word on what Everest is like, it's a picture of the ascent of one team, and what it takes to get there.After seeing this gorgeous film I want to try for Everest myself in a few years.
This superb documentary contains beautiful shots of Mt. Everest and its surroundings, as well as discerning cinematography to make us aware of the challenges involved in scaling it.
But perhaps the most noteworthy thing to take from this film is that it is simply crazy to want to climb Mt. Everest, at least for me.
This film is as close as I EVER care to get to that mountain of death.
And while most of the story is already well known (through best sellers THE CLIMB and INTO THIN AIR) the film still manages to keep you on the edge of your seat (and on the edge of a crevice).
An IMAX movie on how this camera crew shot this film.
Wow, this movie is amazing, I saw it in the IMAX theater and was stunned.
The fairly well known story, that was depicted in 'Into Thin Air' is brought to new heights (quite literally) and a new understanding of just how dangerous this mountain is.
I liked this movie because of the courage shown by the climbers, the have to face challenge after challenge, but they persevere.
I have seen many climbing movies, but this just blows them all away, taking mountain filmography to never-before-seen perfection.
I have, in place of actually climbing, resigned myself to reading every book I can, seeing every film I can on Everest and climbing.
To anyone who has a sense of adventure, especially those who, like me, will probably only ever dream, this movie is a MUST see.
For length/time, well-developed characters who aren't actors but real-life true climbers & adventurers (who don't just sit in there living rooms but get out in the elements.)  Film conveys the climbers diverse motivations and struggles as they accept the risk to ascend the highest mountain on Earth and as they attempt to deal with the concurrent tragedy on May 10th.As wonderful as the climbers are, the real star of the film is *the* mountain.The cinematography is breath-taking.
The reality of the tremendous effort to film those few minutes at the summit in IMAX format makes it even more impacting.Only criticism is would have appreciated if the camera men directing the gaze back at themselves..
stirring documentary about the experience of climbing Everest.
Generally, if a movie is an IMAX film I like it, and this one proved no exception.
It seems that producers believe audience interest would lag if a film about Mt. Everest focused primarily on climbing technique and mountain scenery.
In any case, the IMAX production, "Everest," joins a group of similar offerings in seeking to retain the audience's attention by making human interest stories its central focus.
In "Everest," we follow Jamling Tenzing Norgay as he seeks to emulate his father Tenzing Norgay (who, together with Edmund Hillary, was the first person to reach the summit); Ed Viesturs, a world-class climber who is spending his honeymoon on the mountain; and Araceli Segarra, who is attempting to be the first Spanish woman to reach the summit.
It is interesting to learn about them, but the process of meeting them and following them to Katmandu consumes roughly one-fourth of "Everest"—rather too much in view of the fact that its duration is only about 42 minutes.There are some good shots of the IMAX expedition's trek up to the base camp.
They wanted to document a climb to the summit, and just happened to be on the mountain when the disaster occurred.
The film does offer a six-minute interlude about the disaster; and this is appropriate, because some members of the IMAX expedition participated in the rescue efforts.
The film's final eleven minutes take viewers to the top of the mountain.
There are some spectacular views of the mountain and its surroundings; but these do not adequately exploit the wide-angle panoramic potential that is the special strength of IMAX photography.
In a decision symptomatic of the film's unfortunate priorities, on breathtaking views from the summit, the producers chose to superimpose snapshots of the climbers panoplied in climbing suits that concealed both their identities and their emotions.In a sense, the extras are better than the feature.
This is especially true of "The Making of Everest," a 37-minute segment that explains how the movie was made.
But this was not "Candid Camera"—with this technology, there could be no close-up pictures of a climber ascending the Hillary Step."Everest" provides five minutes of footage that was omitted from the main feature.
Given the costs and technical requirements of IMAX photography, all the filming was carefully planned.
Weathers describes his reasons for climbing and its dangers; and offers his perspective on 1996, especially on his own nearly miraculous survival.This is a good film; but it would have been improved with more panoramic shots..
Everest is the ultimate goal for those who are mountain climbers but it is very dangerous even for the healthy.
Everest (1998) *** (out of 4) Liam Neeson narrates this rather uneven documentary about climbers trying to reach the summit of Everest.
Throughout the 44 minute running time we hear about the history of the mountain as well as its location and why it's such a dangerous journey.
We then meet some of the climbers as they take the camera crew up the mountain to the summit.This is certainly very uneven and you have to wonder why we didn't get more footage on the mountain since that's clearly the highlight of the movie.
I think there's way too much time spent on the history of the mountain and just talking about things that aren't overly interesting.
People are going to be coming to this film to see the mountain climbing and when this is happening there's no question that the film is highly entertaining and contains some nice suspense..
I can't decide whether is a movie or a documentary, the story it's horrible, you don't get to know the characters so you don't feel sorry for any of them.
The only think I liked was that you can see the mountain pretty good but that's ALL.
It takes a medium as big as IMAX to capture a location as grand as Mount Everest, and this film does not disappoint on that score.
The only true hero in this movie is the Nepalese helicopter pilot who put his own life at grave risk to save a wounded climber (who, it should be emphasized, got himself into the mess that the pilot had to go and pluck him out of!)If you can overlook the climbers themselves, and focus on the object of their climb, you won't be disappointed, especially if you're fortunate enough to see it in an IMAX theater..
Like most IMAX films, Everest has impressive vistas.
Not only that, he then attempts the summit without the oxygen all the rest of the climbers use because he "likes the challenge." Challenge or not, it seemed very selfish to the group I went with for him not to use it, to deliberately put himself in greater danger than he had to be with his wife down below, particularly in light of the fact that another climber (with a wife 7 months pregnant at the time) had just died a few days before.If you can ignore him, however, the rest of it is well worth watching, particularly the story of the son of E.
IMAX films are designed for screens over three stories tall.
So, if you want to see this film, do not watch it on video, watch it in an IMAX theater.
Also, remember that this film is targeted at all age groups, so do not expect to learn much about climbing..
Fair documentary, Not good IMAX, Read the book..
Most center around how heroic a feat it was to lug the bulky IMAX eq up through the death zone, or on the personal stories of the climbers.Hello!
However, the film only contains about 5-10 minutes of high quality visuals, and I expected a lot more.
In fairness, a 50 minute IMAX feature has no chance against a book like Into Thin Air. So, I argue, why try?
Within 46 minutes, the movie spent too much time on things that are not related to climbing: introduction of climbers, expression of their feelings.
Other bonus parts were disappointing too, like 360 degrees overlook from the top is simulated, that is not what you expect considering the fact that they managed to get IMAX cameras there on top.
I think they gave too much time to human stories of the climbers and the story of the killer storm on Everest.
In the end we got little about people, very little about tragedy on the slopes and definitely not enough of beauty of the mountains.
And finally, when a film gets this much positive criticism and makes a bucket of money, isn't it a bit creepy to learn (in the end credits) that some of the climbing scenes were re-created and shot in the United States?
But the mountain is simply stunning, and you understand the true meaning of the phrase "on top of the world" when the incredible IMAX camera captures the final shot..
This film is an insult to the mountain climbing community.
This is a 45-minute IMAX film from almost 20 years ago about a group of mountain climbers who have the goal to reach the summit of the highest mountain on Earth.