Everest

Geez. Why would anyone try this?! Why?! Going down the Wiki rabbit hole on this now...

Impressionante, subir foi fácil, difícil foi descer!

While Everest does remind me a lot of the 1992 film K2; I couldn't help but be compelled by the film through-out. The cast is stellar and if you don't the story it's based on; it has you at the edge of your seat. The film is engaging but also heartbreaking at times.
Of course there's fine work by Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal and Josh Brolin. It's Sam Worthington who surprised me though with probably the best work of his career.

‘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.

A fantastic film. Impeccable performances by all the actors. A faithful and dramatic portrait of one of the many stories that ended in tragedy on the fearsome Everest

This was brilliantly filmed, brilliantly acted. Has the bonus of being based on a true story. The script was a bit formulaic in parts but this is still a very decent movie.

Great looking and emotive but falls shy of a perfect grade

A stunning, moving dramatization of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, drawn from the accounts of several survivors. This incident actually involves author Jon Krakauer, who documented his own experience in the '97 page-turner Into Thin Air, though some disputes have been raised against his work and it's not cited as a reference for the film.

As one might expect, there's no shortage of breathtaking scenery and bowel-shaking peeks down into the gaping abyss, and those are clearly a high priority for the production. They're a grand mix of CGI and on-location footage, real IMAX-quality eye candy that should scratch a giant itch for lovers of the outdoors or fans of air-sucking Earth porn.

The film's dramatic turns, surprisingly enough, are just as effective. Though it's overloaded with big names, from Josh Brolin and Jake Gyllenhaal to Keira Knightly and Robin Wright, each effectively fades into a more pedestrian role and none, save a few appropriately loud-mouthed scenes from Brolin, threaten to take the production over.

Though the passage of time is occasionally a bit underplayed, especially as the climbers acclimate to altitude, it works very well as both a pulse-pounder and a gut-punch. Powerful and arresting, it reaches brazenly for the heavens without losing track of its human origins, which is far easier said than done.

Was quite hard to get sleep after this. Kept me thinking the happenings that this have really happened for someone and to their families. Worked for me, apparently.