Everest is a 1998 theatrically released IMAX documentary, directed by David Breashears, Stephen Judson and Greg MacGillivray, and narrated by Liam Neeson. It depicts the real life struggles faced by mountain climbers when climbing the eponymous Mount Everest, on the borders of Nepal and the People's Republic of China.
Besides the expected depictions of mountain climbing and avalanches, the film crew was on the ground for the May 10, 1996 Everest disaster
. Eight people were killed during summit attempts and others were trapped in a blizzard. Since the film managed to record at least part of the events, it became historically significant on its own.
In 2006 David Breashears directed a documentary detailing the events of the disaster for PBS Frontline called Storm Over Everest. It includes interviews with survivors, still pictures and footage taken during the 1996 IMAX expedition and reenactments of the events on the mountain during the storm.
In 2015 a film came out with the same name as the IMAX film which dramatized the events of the tragedy.
This film features examples of:
- Blade Brake: Jamling Norgay is shown practicing arresting his slide down a hill using his ice axe.
- Determinator: Beck Weathers. Left for dead in the storm, he eventually walked into Camp Four despite being severely frostbitten and was rescued. Also, every single Sherpa guide, especially the ones who had to carry the camera equipment and Roger Bilham's geology equipment.
- Documentary: The filmmakers initially intended to document Ed Viesturs's attempt at summitting Mt. Everest, after he'd previously scaled it part of the way. Due to the circumstances that unfolded on May 10, they also ended up getting a firsthand account of the 1996 disaster that claimed eight lives, the worst loss of life in a single event on Everest until 2014.
- Challenge Seeker: The reason that so many people want to scale Everest in the first place; some, like Ed Viesturs even go so far as to climb without bottled oxygen, which is both much more difficult and very dangerous at the extremely high altitudes that Everest reaches.
- Heroic Bystander: In plural. As the events unfolded of the May 10, 1996 Everest disaster, the IMAX team (who had decided to postpone their summit bid) helped search for lost climbers, gave equipment to those who needed it, and were part of the group who helped Beck Weathers to Camp Two where he and 'Makalu' Gau Ming-ho were rescued by helicopter (Gau's story is not mentioned in the documentary). Ed Viesturs also tried to encourage Rob Hall by radio to start climbing down, to no avail.
- Heroic Lineage: Jamling Norgay, one of the IMAX climbers, is the son of Tenzing Norgay, the first man (along with New Zealander Edmund Hillary) to summit Everest. He is the 10th member of his family to climb Mount Everest.
- Hostile Weather: Everest and other mountains that reach extreme heights are known for unpredictable and inhospitable weather conditions at the peak, with high-speed winds and temperatures that drop extremely fast. The deadly snowstorm of May 10-11, 1996 is a very tragic example, as it claimed the lives of several climbers that the IMAX team were friendly with.
- Multinational Team: The climbers of the IMAX expedition include Brits, Americans, Nepalese, a German, a Catalan/Spanish woman, and a woman from Japan. The tie-in book lampshades this by describing how a customs official was surprised by the stack of different-looking passports they handed him.
- Passionate Sports Girl:
- Araceli Segarra became the first Spanish woman to summit Everest as part of the IMAX expedition. She also enjoys randonee skiing, rock climbing, and ice climbing.
- Sumiyo Tsuzuki made a third summit attempt on Everest as part of the IMAX expedition. She had to turn back at the South Summit because of a cracked rib.
- Araceli Segarra
- Scaling the Summit: The documentary follows some of the many mountaineers and researchers who flock to Mt. Everest every year in order to try reaching the very peak of the mountain, as well as their various personal reasons for doing so.
- Scenery Porn: It's Everest, and it's an IMAX film. What else would it be? Sometimes it can cross over into Scenery Gorn to underline just how inhospitable being at that elevation can be.
- Unreliable Narrator: A moment of levity following Ed's struggle to reach the summit and the tragic results of the May 10 blizzard features Ed in his voiceover saying that he calmly contacted his fiancee at base camp to tell her he'd made it, immediately followed by the recording of him gleefully whooping over the radio during the actual call.
