THE PERFECT SNOWSNOWSTORM
By Chris Tilly
The modern disaster movie has taken many shapes and forms over recent years, from the bombastic spectacle of San Andreas, The Day After Tomorrow and World War Z to more intimate survival stories like Gravity, 127 Hours and All is Lost.
Everest is a combination of the two, the film filled with big-budget spectacle atop the planet’s tallest mountain, but revolving around a very human tale of bravery, survival, and ultimately tragedy.
Based on a true story, the film takes place in 1996, a few years after expeditions became commercialised on Everest, with professionals and non-professionals alike scaling the summit.
Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) helped popularise this form of mountaineering, his company Adventure Consultants taking teams of tourists up Everest throughout the early 1990s.
On this fateful trip, his group consisted of Guy Cotter (Sam Wothington), a guide and friend of Hall’s; John Krakauer (Michael Kelly), a journalist writing a feature about such expeditions; Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin), a gung ho Texan pathologist; Yasuko Namba (Naoko Mori), an experienced climber who had already reached six of the seven highest peaks in the world; Doug Hansen (John Hawkes), a mail man who narrowly failed to make the summit a year previous, and a pair of Sherpa guides (who aren’t played by stars and predictably barely get a mention).
Before they endeavour to conquer the mountain, the group has to acclimatise to their surroundings and get to know each other, which in turn allows us to get to know them. Trouble is, this passage seems to last an age, and yet while they get more screen time than the Sherpas, we barely get beneath the surface of any of the characters to find out why they are driven to attempt such a dangerous undertaking.
In fact Hall is the only truly three-dimensional member of the expedition, being responsible, conscientious and something of a control freak. In fact, just the kind of guy you’d put your trust in when heading to one of the most dangerous places on earth.
That attitude briefly brings him into conflict with Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal), whose ‘Mountain Madness’ tours are competing for the same dollar as Hall’s own company. It’s a culture clash, with Fischer as laid-back and relaxed as Hall is organised and uptight.
Fischer also seems to represent the negative side of the business, shepherding tourists who have little respect for Everest or the environmental effect that such an influx of climbers will have on the area. But while this issue and these tensions are briefly touched upon, they are never fully explored.
Instead, the mountain finally calls, and a journey that starts out joyous soon becomes unnecessarily challenging thanks to the large numbers causing delays, and the questionable quality of some of the ropes and ladders in use.
The mountaineers press on, only to be battered by a blizzard that ruins visibility, and hit by unexpected avalanches that make the climb even more precarious.
We’re told that human beings aren’t designed to function at that height – equivalent to the cruising altitude of a 747 – and we see evidence of that as the struggle becomes deadly serious, and yet those that can continue upwards.
Trouble is, as they near the summit, the noise and snow – combined with the fact that the majority of faces are hidden under beards and obscured by hoods and goggles – mean that it’s quite hard to make out what the climbers are saying or tell them apart.
And though characters describe the geography of the mountain repeatedly, it’s still tough figuring out who is where and how that relates to the rest of the group.
From here-on-in, as the situation becomes ever-more grave, the film ricochets from the climbers on the mountain, to those at base camp trying to get them down, to their families at home desperate for good news. Which means multiple scenes of actresses – including Emily Watson, Keira Knightley and Robin Wright – emoting at the end of walkie-talkies and phones. They’re somewhat thankless roles, though Wright makes the most of her screen time as Beck’s wife Peaches, refusing to give up on her husband, enlisting the US Embassy for help, and even persuading the Nepalese military to send a helicopter in what is the film’s most spectacular sequence.
Back up the mountain, life and death decisions are being made, with oxygen becoming a precious commodity and timing suddenly everything. There are several contradictory versions of the real-life story, and screenwriters William Nicholson (Unbroken, Gladiator) and Simon Beaufoy (127 Hours, Slumdog Millionaire) seem to have pieced together a version that avoids any kind of blame game in favour of celebrating the bravery of those involved.
Director Baltasar Kormakur (2 Guns, Contraband) and DP Salvatore Totino shoot proceedings in spectacular style, the camera-work sure to induce vertigo, especially if the film is watched in 3D IMAX.
But it makes for an uncomfortable viewing experience – being a true story you can’t root for who should live and die like you would in an Irwin Allen or Roland Emmerich movie. And seeing death up close and witnessing the effect that is has on their families back home makes you question why these individuals felt the need to tackle the mountain in the first place.
It’s a question that’s goes unanswered, with the mountain having the final word.
Everest features a brilliant ensemble cast, with everyone involved getting a moment of drama, even if it’s just at the end of a phone. But Jason Clarke’s Rob Hall aside, the film never truly gets under the skin of any of the other characters, which does a disservice to them when disaster finally strikes. So while it looks stunning, the result is a film that largely puts spectacle before substance, with this tragic story deserving of more.
