A Movie Review: Everest

Everest. This is based on a true story. Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) ran Adventure Consultants. He and his team assisted climbers who wished to ascend Mount Everest. For 1996, climbers who join him included Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin), Doug Hansen (John Hawkes) and Yasuko Namba (Naoko Mori). All were experienced climbers. From the movie, it appears that Beck Weathers was an experience climber who had to turn back after attempting a climb of another challenging mountain. Doug Hansen was a mailman who was on his second attempt to climb Everest. Yasuko was attempting to be the first woman to climb the Seven Summits.

When they arrive at the base of Everest, they discover it is packed with other firms and climbers. It doesn't take long for various guides to determine that too many individuals are attempting the climb. Rob Hall teams up with a competitor named Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal).

After a number of mini-climbs to get the climbers acclimated to the altitude, they head out. Things slowly start to unravel, though that is probably normal. Scott Fischer is forced to return down the mountain when one of his climbers falls ill. In order to rejoin the larger group, he rushes back up the mountain too quickly and becomes ill. Also, a major storm is seen heading their way.

The two teams make it to the final camp site. A little after midnight, Rob Hall sees that the weather is clear. He gets everyone ready to head out. Scott Fischer, still tired, stays back to get a couple additional hours of rest. The team heads out, but then perhaps the most major obstacle of the climb hits. Two individuals -- one from both teams -- were supposed to make sure the ropes were secure. Unfortunately, the two never got to it. The climb has to stop while the ropes are secured. This delays things, but the majority of the team is still able to hit the summit by 2 p.m.

They start to head down. As they head down, they come across a struggling Doug Hansen. Rob Hall encourages him to turn around, but Doug argues that this is his 2nd attempt and he won't go back for a third. Rob takes this to heart and helps Doug reach the summit. This is where emotions over-took common sense and chaos arose. The major storm hits and then Doug runs out of oxygen and isn't able to continue the climb down, which results in Rob Hall getting stuck with a client who is unable to help himself.

A number of people end up dying on the mountain, including both Rob Hall and Scott Fischer.

The movie seems to indicate a number of reasons why the climb went south.

1. Obviously, the weather took a turn for the worse.
2. Rob Hall made a serious error in judgement by allowing Doug Hansen to continue his climb.
3. Scott Fischer made an error in judgement by rushing back up the mountain, though I think one can understand this as he had teamed up with Rob Hall and probably didn't feel it was appropriate that Rob Hall lead both teams up the mountain.

I think one has to wonder if Scott Fischer was healthy and if Rob Hall had stood firm with Doug Hansen if there would have been any deaths on Everest even with the storm.

This movie shows how unexpected events and miscues can often lead to disaster. The two teams had well planned out strategies, but when the strategies weren't properly executed an unexpected event resulted in disaster.

I enjoyed this movie. It plays like an action movie. My one criticism is that the climb perhaps gets a touch confusing. There are a ton of characters that are followed during this climb up. Some of them are given only a couple seconds of screen time such as Sandy Hill Pittman (Vanessa Kirby). It almost feels like some of these characters shouldn't have been given the screen time they were given or the movie should have gone ten or fifteen minutes longer.