After watching the latest Everest movie to hit the cinemas, we thought back to some pretty awesome movies already made about scaling the world’s toughest and highest mountains. Some people love to drive the fastest cars, others dream of surfing the world’s biggest waves, while still others don’t feel completely alive until they climb the highest mountain.
Mountaineers brave the harshest natural elements at altitudes requiring oxygen tanks, and talk about death zones, edema, and losing limbs to frostbite like the rest of us talk about blisters and paper-cuts. What drives these people to want to risk their lives for a few frozen minutes on top of a mountain?
“Everest” is the latest blockbuster to bring us into the mountaineers’ mindset featuring a star-studded cast in Jake Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Keira Knightley and others
From the Himalayas, to the Swiss Alps and all way round to South America’s Andes, we decided to pick our top Everest mountain climbing movies. The following films focus on man’s burning desire for adventure and conquest where the air is thin and the view is indescribable.
Top 6 Everest Mountain Climbing Movies:
1. Everest (2015)
Everest is a 2015 survival film directed by Baltasar Kormákur and written by William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy. The film stars are Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Robin Wright, Michael Kelly, Sam Worthington, Keira Knightley, Emily Watson, and Jake Gyllenhaal.
2. Touching the Void (2003)
This heart-stopping film is a reenactment of two mountaineers’ experience of climbing the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. Narrated by the two British climbers, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates, the plot focuses on how Simpson broke his leg and then (spoiler alert!) miraculously survived a long fall, only to make it back to base camp despite all the obstacles. It’s guaranteed that you will hold your breath the entire time, in disbelief that this is a true story and that Simpson actually survived.
3. North Face (2003)
Based on real events from 1936, North Face (or Norwand) is a German film about Nazi propaganda that challenged climbers to attempt to climb the north face of Eiger in the Swiss Alps. This is the story of two German friends who dared to accept this challenge. Other than being extremely suspenseful with several twists around every corner and crevice, this work of historical fiction has spectacular scenery that will make you shiver with fear.
4. Into Thin Air: Death on Everest
This movie follows a disastrous 1996 climb in which eight climbers were killed and a storm stranded others on Everest. The movie also shows the other groups that were trying to climb on the same day, and how competition may have played a role in the catastrophe.
5. K2
When two avid but beginner climbers encounter a man focused on conquering K2, they push him to let them join the group. What they face on their journey, however, was unimaginable and just might prove their undoing. This flop from 1991 tells the story of an attorney and a scientist who just happen to climb mountains as a hobby, as attorneys and scientists often do. Taylor (Michael Biehn) and Harold (Matt Vraven) attempt to climb K2 before disaster strikes, as the pair lose one of their expedition partners and go on the search for him.
6. The Wildest Dream
This documentary is a tribute to the story of George Mallory, the first person thought to have reached the top of Mt. Everest but who disappeared before reaching the base, and mountaineer Conrad Anker, the person who found his body 75 years later. Their stories are shown through reenactments with incredible visual detail. With the likes of Ralph Fiennes and Alan Rickman doing the voiceovers for Mallory and mountaineer Noel Odell, the gripping narration pulls you into this history-changing movie.
Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments!
