‘Everest’ is based on a true story of the 1996 catastrophe at Mount Everest when a major storm struck a climbing expedition on May 10, 1996. The film clings close to the facts, including climber names, events, and even the radio broadcasts being almost verbatim as recorded. The filmmakers also filmed much of it on location at Everest, excluding the scenes at the upper high-altitude camps/Summit and base camp. A team of mountaineers spends $65,000 each for a private expedition group led by Rob Hall, played by Jason Clarke, and his team to reach the summit. The team sets off without knowing that a massive blizzard, one of the worst to strike Everest, is headed their way. Hall’s team and another team led by Scott Fischer, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, link up at Camp 2 to help each other during the climb to the summit. The teams must fight through the storm while low on oxygen and brutal conditions at over 25,000 feet altitude. The health of several mountaineers also deteriorates, and it becomes a test against time.

The filming and cinematography are amazing. The casting across the board is very well done. ‘Everest’ always keeps you on your toes with no-nonsense plots. The challenges that climbers face are apparent and require no sensationalism. It’s a flat-out biopic.

An interesting (but sad) fact is that until this film was made, the 1996 catastrophe held the record as the worst in the history of Everest. While this film was being made at Everest in 2014, an even bigger catastrophe took place, which resulted in the deaths of 16 Sherpa guides. While the film crew wasn’t involved in that avalanche, the filming had to be stopped and postponed. Rob Hall had climbed the Everest summit a record 5 times, and his wife Jan also did once. The rescue of a survivor was also the highest-altitude flight ever in a helicopter. What is not shown is the helicopter returned a second time on the same day to rescue another survivor.

Would I recommend this? Yes. The things people do to test their limits are truly something. Fighting through such brutal conditions takes courage, will, and determination.

"Director Baltasar Kormákur’s vast, encompassing vision thematically broaches the existential drive that consumes extreme climbers, questioning both the brusque heroism and innate fatalism of those that attempt to conquer such harsh climes..."

Full review here: http://screen-space.squarespace.com/reviews/2015/9/10/everest.html

1996, and Mother Nature's big mama is playing her hand again.

Based on a true story, Everest tells about a climbing expedition on the world's highest mountain that would become devastated by a severe snow storm.

She stands and watches over us all, she is Mount Everest, and climbing her is seen as one of the pinnacles of mountaineering. No matter how many lives are lost over the years, there will always be another group of adventurers ready to take on the mountain and the elements that come with her.

The ill fated 1996 trek up Everest gets a worthy cinematic treatment here. Sure it suffers from some of the pitfalls of the disaster movie genre, such as weak characterisations and fake sequences, but emotional investment is high and ready to be grasped by those so inclined. The drama on the mountain is gripping, and thankfully this is matched by the frantic concurrent story strands involving the family and friends waiting at base camp and the family homes. Cinematography is often breathtaking, the acting performances as solid as one of Everest' rock faces, but it's the story that sells itself. A tale well worth reading about, and the cynical among us should do well to remember this fact. 8/10

> One of the most realistically approached adventure movie based on the real.

I was completely surprised with the movie. Because I was expecting 'Vertical Limit' kind of movie. Like, you know, there's no heroic adventure with the incredible stunt sequences in it. But it was very real and more real. Usually while adapting the true events for the screen, unnecessary overdose stunts created to commercialise the product. But in this it was too much closer to the real world adventure, like a documentary film.

It was a man versus the mother nature and nothing else. The human villains were not included or the romance and other subplots. It was a multi starrer movie. Lots of big names played only a small role and magnified the expectation for the movie. But like I said expecting awesomeness will lead you to a great disappointment. One must approach this movie with a clear mind for a good result, because I felt the film very honest, and being honest is always a bit boring.

The film was emotionally very strong. No character developments, not individually, but the entire film was focused on one particular expedition taken by a couple of trekking teams that goes wrong after they got hit by a storm. This is Jason Clarke's one of the best films in a lead role, as well as for the director of 'Contraband'. I definitely regret missing it out in digital 3D. It is a good watch, absolutely refreshing from the mainstream commercial films.

7/10

Based on true events, this rather beautifully shot film tells the story of Kiwi Rob Hall (an adequate Jason Clarke) who ran an exclusive adventure agency that took well-heeled climbers up Mount Everest. In 1996 he decided to team up with accomplished but rather enigmatic mountaineer Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal). What now ensues are a rather join-the-dot series of predicable escapades as the mountain decides that it's had enough of these messy and polluting human gadflies on it's slopes, and so it fights back - impressively and decisively. That leads us to the problem with this - the characterisations are seriously undercooked. I didn't really feel that I knew any of them, nor did I actually find - especially with Gyllenhaal - that I cared whether they survived or not. That might be a testament to their acting skills - some creating an aura of complacency and arrogance that well deserved their just desserts, but for the most part the script and the story were just all a bit flat. The cinematography is astonishing though, with actuality of the Nepalese base camps and of the rather benign looking mountain itself. It features quite a notable supporting cast, but again they offer little to beef up the sense of personality here or give us any real sense of the danger, teamwork and camaraderie that must have prevailed in real life. It is watchable for the imagery, and it also serves to remind up that mankind is pretty insignificant when the planet decides to stir itself against us, but as a piece of drama it's all just too lacklustre.