Into Thin Air: Death on Everest

Plot synopsis:
The film portrays the 1996 Mount Everest disaster and the events that preceded it. The film mainly follows Jon Krakauer, the author of the book on which the film is based (Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (1997)); it also follows the climbing teams of summit guides Rob Hall and Scott Fischer.
The film begins with Krakauer giving a monologue about the events about the disaster. The guides, Rob Hall (Nat Parker), and Scott Fischer (Peter Horton) introduce themselves, their teams, and discuss with the clients how they intend to reach the summit by the set date. Hall's group contains Doug Hansen, a mailman from Seattle, Krakauer, Yasako Namba, and several others. Fischer's group contains a New York socialite, Sandy Pittman, who will perform what Krakauer does for Hall's group, reporting and bring attention. At base camp, Hall speaks with his pregnant wife Jan, in New Zealand, about potential names for their daughter. The groups slowly make their way through camps 2, 3, and 4, and then begin their ascent for the summit. However, in camp 2, Fischer is forced to go all the way back down, so he can take a sick client, Dale Cruz, down for help. Scott refuses help, and returns exhausted and out of breath.
The ascent begins well, with both groups making steady pace. However, upon reaching the bottom of the Hillary step, they realize that there are no fixed ropes. The Sherpa there states it's a two-person job, and the other Sherpa never arrived, mostly due to being too tired and sick from dragging Pittman and all of her heavy equipment all the way up. Mountain Madness guides Anatoli Boukreev and Neil Beidelman set the fixed ropes, but by then dozens of climbers had already reached the step, and now a large jam is at the bottom. Krakauer continues up, and reaches the summit with Anatoli Boukreev, where shortly afterward they are joined by Adventure Consultants guide Andy Harris. Krakauer begins his descent, but reaches the step only the find the jam has only gotten worse, and is forced to wait it out. Meanwhile, Hall is forced to tell client Doug Hansen that they have to turn around and go back. Hansen refuses, as he failed to reach the summit the year before, and he knows he won't be able to afford a third attempt. Hall and Hansen argue before Hall finally caves in and they continue, missing Hall's 2:00 PM turnaround time. Finally, the path down the step clears and Harris begins to descend; Krakauer meanwhile begins to hallucinate from a lack of oxygen. Earlier he had asked Harris to decrease his oxygen flow, but Harris instead increased it, and Krakauer nearly falls over the side, but manages to catch himself. He makes his way down the step and to Harris, and realizes something is wrong with Harris, who thinks the completely full bottles at the oxygen drop are empty. As he descends, he runs into Hansen and Hall, and points out to Hansen that storm clouds are making their way up through the valley and up the mountain.
Shortly after 3 PM, the majority of Hall's and Fischer's groups finally reach the summit. As Krakauer continues his descent, he runs into Scott Fischer, who is completely exhausted and refuses to turn around. Shortly after 4 PM, Rob Hall and Doug Hansen finally reach the summit, where Hall remarks to Hansen that a storm is coming. As he continues to go down, and the weather starts to get bad, Krakauer runs into Beck Weathers, sitting alone by himself in snow. Weathers had eye surgery performed prior to the trip, and has lost vision in his eyes during the summit ascent. He declines to leave with Krakauer, explaining he had promised Rob Hall that he would wait for him to go down. At 4:30, Fischer and his Sherpa, Lopsang, finally reach the summit where Scott feels ill and collapses. Around 5, Krakauer finally reaches the tents at camp 4, where he goes to sleep. The weather continues to worsen, and later, Beidelman, Mike Groom, and the majority of both teams' clients stop to rest, where they run into Beck Weathers, who agrees to descend with them. Storm clouds and thick snowfall cause the guides to lose their positions and not know where they need to go. Higher on the mountain, Hall and Hansen watch as Scott Fischer is dragged by them, so weak he can no longer stand.
Night falls, and Krakauer is awoken in his tent by Rob's Sherpa, Angdorjee, who informs him that the storm is getting increasingly worse, and that Rob and majority of the clients have yet to return. The pair make an attempt to find them, but quickly turn back when they realize the conditions are too treacherous. Meanwhile, Rob attempts to convince Doug to stand up and continue descending, but Doug begs Rob to leave him, telling Rob he will die if he attempts to save him. Rob refuses to leave him behind, and they continue. Scott, suffering from edema, walks off the side of the mountain, and is only saved when his Sherpa pulls him back up with their connected short rope. Scott then begins to fall into unconsciousness, and Lopsang radios for help. Rob continues to struggle down with Doug. In the darkness, Rob slips and falls down, and becomes separated from a hallucinating Doug. He then watches helplessly as Doug, too far away to help, tumbles over the side to his death. Rob is then found by Andy, who attempts to help him up. Andy then leaves, telling Rob he is going to get help. Despite Rob's plea's, Andy continues to go. Andy disappears from view. Rob then hears him cry out, and crawls forward to find Andy's hat lying next to a large drop off, and assumes that Andy has fallen to his death. Rob, buried under snow, communicates with Krakauer attempting to get direction on where he can find oxygen. He gets direction, but then falls down again, and begins to moan. The oxygen bottles are then revealed to be less than twenty feet away from him, but he doesn't see them. Beidelman and Groom's group becomes hopelessly lost, and they take only the clients who can walk with them, dropping Yasuko, Beck, Sandy Pittman, and Charlotte Fox. Scott continues to drift in and out of consciousness, only muttering the words "I am invincible" to his Sherpa, before again losing consciousness. Anatoli Boukreev appears, and helps down Charlotte Fox and Pittman, but is unable to get a third client. Rob begins to hallucinate about seeing his wife Jan, but then snaps outs of it, to realize he is still stuck. He also begins to realize that his hands and his legs are getting extremely frostbitten, and he is having trouble moving. He then blacks out again.
Rob then awakens the next morning, to realize that he is still alive, but barely. He radios the camp, who put him onto the radio with his wife Jan. He asks her if Sarah would be an appropriate name for their daughter, and she agrees. They both tell each other they love them, and then Rob says goodbye to his wife. He dies shortly afterward from hypothermia. Beck Weathers then wakes up, somehow having survived being buried under the snow with no oxygen. Still blinded, he stumbles back to camp, where he receives help. Meanwhile, Anatoli climbs up, and finds the now frozen corpse of Scott Fischer. He says goodbye, and after pulling Fischer's backpack over his face, he leaves. Back at base camp the survivors reminisce about the friends that they have lost.

Tags: tragedy

Review:
I have that film as well.Too me the Into Thin Air group did a good job of simulating the conditions on Everest and the quiet heroism of both Hall and Scott at the end.The real reason to watch Into Thin Air is to watch Nat Parker as Hall.
This scene had me in tears, just as the real voice of the real Rob Hall recorded in the Miramax documentary made me cry.Not a great film by any means, but still worth watching.
"Into Thin Air: Death On Everest" is a wonderful film and a good start into understanding -- if that is possible -- the need some people have to climb mountains.
To mark a landing spot, those on the mountain made a large X in the snow with a red sports drink.Since the film was produced directly from Krakauer's book, it does not reference other accounts.
Krakauer's book is only one of several accounts of the tragic climb that took a fifteen lives in all.
Anatoli Boukreev wrote a reply to Krakauer in his book "The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest." Scott Fisher's lead Sherpa, Lopsang, also responded to Krakauer's criticisms in writing.
Tragically, both Boukreev and Lopsang died in separate climbing accidents not long after the fatal Everest events (Lopsang in September 1996 and Boukreev in December 1997).For those who wonder about what it would be like to climb Everest, it is much safer to watch the film.
Based on Jon Krakauer's book, the story is a fascinating account of the tragic event of May 10, 1996 when two ill-fated expeditions to climb Mt Everest took place and the mishaps that occurred.
Jon Krakauer did a good job of describing the Everest climb in which he participated and which was a fatal disaster for a dozen of those who were with his team.The book was probably the most popular and best-selling mountaineering tale of all time.
The movie is perhaps a greater disaster for those who never read Krakauer's book - the editing leaves one wishing for a guide, the acting leaves one wishing for a dinner theatre musical, and the overly trite 'messages' that the movie pounds into the viewer ("be prepared", "you can't always be prepared for disaster", "respect the mountain") left me wishing for a quick ice axe to the forehead..
I feel compelled to comment as the film tarnishes the good names of Rob Hall and Scott Fischer.
As John Krakhauer notes in his book, Into Thin Air, Fischer looked up to Hall.Anyone who wants to know what REALLY happened in 1996 should read the following books.
After all, these words are from the people who experienced it, not by a poor director's interpretation.Into Thin Air by John Krakhauer The Climb by Anatoli BoukreevThe reading mentioned above will show you that errors in judgement were compounded by the totality of the situation: not just a small group of leaders..
I found the portraits well-drawn and well-acted given that the production had only two hours to convey the entire story, which of course is much more complex and horrific than could be possibly be presented in a TV movie.While I could not comprehend the obsession that drove these people to take what seemed an extreme and ultimately deadly risk to climb and "conquer" the mountain, I really wanted them to survive and was saddened when they didn't.
I thought Jon Krakauer's book on the 1996 Everest climbing disaster, while not great literature and while a rather subjective and partial account, was well-observed and reasonably absorbing.
The acting is at least professional; Nat Parker as guide Rob Hall is quite convincing, though his NZ accent switches to London Cockney at times, and Peter Horton does a good impression of the ebullient American guide Scott Fisher.
It's not likely to change anyone's ideas about mountaineering though I suppose there is some schadenfreude in seeing rich doctors and socialites with no or limited climbing experience attempting to wipe themselves out in various stupid ways at very high altitudes.
I felt a little sorry for the guides, generally people who love the mountains, having for economic reasons to take such awful people up them; in my day as an amateur climber I at least got to choose my companions, though some of them were pretty wild.
After reading Jon Krakauer's book and MANY other reliable sources on the subject of the 1996 Everest tragedy, I was dismayed by what I saw in this film.
One cannot understand what goes into an expedition like the one portrayed in the movie, the  many personalities and complex decisions occurring on such an expedition, and the emotions and needs of someone participating in such an expedition, by watching a 90 minute movie.
I feel that the writers took the characters and reduced them into stereotypes - Scott Fischer, the reckless daredevil; Rob Hall, the calculating, stern guide; Anatoli Boukreev, the non-caring, self-serving workhorse; and, finally, the many clients, unexperienced and not prepared for such an undertaking.On a technical note, the writers reduce a +- 7 week acclimatization/climbing process into a 5 day climb!
Obviously, they need not go into extreme medical detail, but the scenes showing Scott Fischer and Rob Hall talking to their groups about the climb do not show the complexity and difficulty of the acclimatization process.
Many of the climbers had serious Himalayan experience under their belts, but these scene portray them as mere babes attempting their first climb.Obviously, the film had to be simplified from the book to fit into 90 minutes, but I feel that the film was an insult to those who lost their lives that day, and to those who gave everything they had to save their comrades' lives.
For one, Anatoli Boukreev went out into the storm three times, and single-handedly saved three lives.Finally, and this is the most important point, Mr. Krakauer was criticized to the extreme for his seemingly one-sided perspective in his book.
Although the movie is based on Mr. Krakauer's book, it seems to me that the writers would want to show what REALLY happened that day..
The movie was confusing but piqued my interest and I spent the next few days researching the event on the internet, and reading Jon Krakauer's book, as well.Of course, no movie would do justice to the events of the 1996 expedition (or any other expedition for that matter), but for those who find climbing and mountains in general thrilling, it is a good starting point.
It is unsurprising that several accounts of the events exist, and thanks to the movie I was motivated to find out more about it.Since this film is very closely related to real events, I wouldn't think it wise for anyone to focus their attention solely on a 90-minute adaptation made for TV..
Jon Krakauer's story of climbing Mount Everest earned him his first best seller.
This movie has a good cast featuring Christopher McDonald as Jon Krakauer, Peter Horton as team guide Scott Fischer, and Richard Jenkins as Beck Weathers.
Jon Krakauer's book has had its share of controversy but overall was a good attempt to tell a harrowing story as it was.
Under the constraints and parameters of trying to re-create historically-accurate, emergency conditions on Mt. Everest, as experienced by a somewhat disparate and hodge-podge assembly of climbers and guides, this movie excels.
Anatoli Boukreev is depicted as complex, demanding and rigid, but his act of heroism: Going back out into the storm to find lost climbers after just barely making it back to his tent with his life, is one of the high points in the movie, and unexpected, as well.
Considering that the two group leaders lost their lives on this climb, it is very likely that the relentless heroism as portrayed in Into Thin Air is quite close to the truth: They probably ended up sacrificing themselves to save others.
As someone who has read Jon Krakauers novel I was really interested in this movie although I did not expect much and how right I turned out to be.
I just finished watching "Into Thin Air" after having read Anatoli Boukreev's book "The Climb." I was aware of the book on which this movie was based (I gave it to my mother for Christmas) but not the controversy over what really happened.
I have ZERO experience with mountain climbing (I live in Kansas) but I could tell from comparing the book to the movie that the authors/director didn't really care to even try to correctly portray what mountain climbing is all about.
Mr. Boukreev makes a good case in his book that Mr. Krakauer did not accurately portray events on the mountain.
I wish all climbers would look at this film as a learning experience and when faced with unnecessary difficulties in a climb to stop and take a long moment to consider options, enjoy the view, look at the time and the conditions and if necessary seek safety quickly so you can climb another day, another mountain.
'Into Thin Air' is a film based on a true story of one occasion when high-altitude guiding went desperately wrong, and several climbers died in one day, including two expedition leaders.
The exploits of Anatoli Boukreev, the senior guide who survived (until another climbing accident a year later) but who was much criticised for his behaviour (including in the book on which this film is based), are less featured.Since this film was made, of course, 'Touching the Void' has set new standards for mountain movies.
That film eclipses this one in several ways: the less melodramatic rendering of events; the use of real interviews with the participants (instead of the ponderous voice-over we get here); a better invocation of the true viciousness of mountain conditions; and not least the superior storyline and dignity of its characters.
The book in which this film is based was a good read because of the events it described in the adventure of climbing the highest mountain on earth, Mount Everest, in the Himalayas.
Even though the screenplay tries very hard to present an even-handed and fair account of a complex and chaotic series of events in under two hours, the way the story is filmed sinks the movie.
I assumed, going 'blind' into this movie (I know of the book, I've read discussions of the book and the events it portrays, but I haven't actually read the book), that since it involved disaster while climbing at high altitudes, that we would be hearing a lot of strained respiration, a lot of gasping and panting, a lot of throaty vocals.
This movie did an excellent job laying out the events that led to the May 10, 1996 disaster on Mt. Everest.
It makes the movie a lot more interesting.The cinematography was excellent and I can imagine how the actors felt when trying to film the story.
By the way, the scene which really tugged at my emotions was when Rob Hall called his wife from the top of the mountain, in the middle of the storm.
After reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer then watching the movie I can say that the movie is almost nothing like the book.
The movie paints Scott Fischer as a reckless person, determined to get his people to the top no matter what, makes for great story telling, unfortunately for this movie completely false.
While it seemed like a pretty good and realistic portrayal of a climb of Everest (I am not a climber and have no intention of taking up the "sport"), I found the book far better than the movie.
Krakauer's book was subtle in places where the movie felt it had to slap you in the face.
And the movie failed to show the up and down climbing that the team has to do -- going up to another base camp to get acclimated, then back down to regain strength -- in order to be ready to begin the final assault on the mountain..
Into thin air is a movie based on a true story that was originally written as a book.
This technique of using bestsellers to create a movie makes the film the most popular and  appealing to those who have read the book.
This movie does not do an excellent job of maintaining your interest because it shows the same basic scenes over and over again, such as showing the climbers climbing slowly up the mountain.
For one, the setting of the book is in the Himalayas on Mount Everest, however the movie was not filmed on Everest, but on a mountain in Australia.
I think that it is ok for a movie to differ from the book if it is something that is hard to portray, but this is one difference that could have been made correctly.
On the mountain the dialogue is very scarce and doesn't give you a good sense of who the people are.The general effect from this movie is that it could have many changes to the plot and improved dialogue.
However I sympathize with the director because I can't think of a better way to do it, climbing up a mountain is very repetitive, and he is more limited when he has to make it to correspond with the book..
I believe the book of this film is a minor classic in climbing circles - the film must rank as a minor disaster.Watching this film left me with not one single shred of sympathy for any of the climbers who died in fact I was disappointed so many survived.Are we led to believe that on an expedition to climb Everest one of the climbers successfully chatted up another (female) climber and we had the absurd scene of him entering her tent with the Sherpa wisely shaking his head and remarking that "the spirits of the mountain will not be pleased"?
This movie is based off the book about a deadly day on Everest where 8 hikers died in a massive storm, but an amazing survival story of Beck Weathers emerged.
Although the account on which this film was based has been criticized for implications by Krakauer as to where and upon whom blame for the disaster should fall, the movie falls short of the sense of camaraderie, the overwhelming sense of wonder (albeit the film's greatest asset is the location/sets/cinematography), and the intense sense of loss and tragedy of the book.The acting is slick and rather true to the book, but the casting (anyone remember Shooter from Happy Gilmore and Peter Horton's character from Thirtysomething?)makes it more than a little hard to believe, especially if you have already read the book; it did not measure up to the characters I had "created" for myself while reading Krakauer's account.
Or if you have seen the film, read the book.
Some people were saying stuff about the movie was unrealistic, some of the stuff that actually happened, such as Beck Weathers not having gloves on...in his book he says he took his gloves off.
(A book I'd encourage everyone to read: "Left For Dead" by Weathers...surprisingly well-written, engaging, humorous...) All in all, I love this movie a lot, but I agree, it could have more attention to detail...
Having never read the book, I began watching this movie without any prior knowledge of climbing or the story of the book, however I found the movie extremely informative of Mt.Everest and climbing in general.
Tragic but true story about the disastrous mountain climbing expedition of Mount.
Two teams assemble at the foot of Everest headed by world renowned mountain climbers Rob Hall and Scott Fischer with a group of armatures climbers who paid as much as $65,000.00 apiece for the opportunity to scale the highest point on earth; the 29,028 foot five and a half mile high Mount.
This is what happens to a mountain climber reaching these heights, +20,000 feet, who's not fully aware and prepared for the reception that he'll get up there from Mother Nature.Going towards the Everest summit in sub-freezing weather the men, and women, of the expedition scale the dangerous "Hillery Step" which is the last step to climb before reaching the very top.
Earlier on the climb at camp #1 Sherpa guide Ang Dorge spotted two of the climbers, a man and woman, embracing outside their tent and got very upset feeling that they, not being married, were very disrespectful to the mountain and that it would lead to an angry response from Everest.
Among those who perished in the snows of Everest were the two team leaders of the exportation Scott Fischer and Rob Hall.
The story of the climb is told to us in flashback by the author of the book "Into Thin Air: Death on Everest" writer Jon Krakaur who also was on the expedition but unlike some of his fellow mountain climbers lived to tell, as well as write, about it..
I defy anyone not to weep at the scene where Rob Hall speaks to his wife as he lies dying.I have seen it three times now, and intend to read the book upon which it is based, and others.
I appreciate that the film may be a partial view, based as it is on one man's account, and I agree that at times it can be confusing, but the story and action are so strong that they carry you through.As most of the audience won't be expert mountaineers, and as anyone interested can find out as much as they like by reading the books, I think this film is an admirable success..
I have read the book and watched the recent Everest film.The acting is bad, direction terrible, over the top operatic soundtrack not appropriate, over dramatisation of the deaths disrespectful.It's also way of the mark in terms of staying accurate to the book and missed several key events.
I am only writing this review because of the half witted comments made about it by people who have not risked their lived climbing mountains.
I have NOT read the book but I have climbed not a few mountains.