FEATURE
TROUBLE AT THE TOP Based on the incredible true story of survival in the face of nature’s devastating power, Everest looks to reach new astonishing yet deathdefying cinematic heights.
THE DEATH ZONE
WORDS BRODY ROSSITER RELEASE DATE 18 SEPTEMBER / Director Baltasar Kormákur / Starring Jake Glyllenhaal, Robin Wright, Keira Knightley / Genre Adventure, Drama, Thriller
M
ountaineers Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary completed the first official ascent of Mount Everest in 1953. Half a century later, the uncompromising monolith has been repeatedly conquered by individuals from all walks of life. From postmen to stockbrokers, commercial climbing has allowed many to pay their way to Everest’s perilous peak, and what was once an unparalleled feat of mankind’s physical and mental resolve is now a routine guided tour. Nevertheless, despite losing its
increasingly thinning air of deadly mystique, Mount Everest still towers menacingly over the Tibetan landscape; one wrong move can turn a thrill-seeker’s holiday into a one-way trip. Everest documents the true story of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, a notorious day in the mountain’s history that claimed the lives of several climbers. The attempts of two expeditions to reach the summit rapidly became a terrifying struggle to survive as a lethal blizzard shrouded them in peril. The depth of Everest’s cast is as impressive as its subject matter’s scale, as Jake Gyllenhaal, Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington and Josh Brolin join a climbing party packed with impressive actors to recall this tragic and astonishing tale of mankind versus mountain.
EVEREST
18 March / April 2015
Mountaineers refer to any point above 26,000 ft (the summit of Everest is 29,000 ft) as “The Death Zone”. At this height not enough oxygen is present to sustain human life, and every moment the human body spends above this lethal threshold it is essentially dying. The fatal effects of The Death Zone have contributed to, or directly caused, the majority of high-altitude climbing deaths - whether it’s due to the failure of vital organs or down to poor decision making while under vast psychological stress. Extended exposure to this inhospitable altitude without a readily available supply of oxygen and medication results in bodily deterioration, loss of consciousness, and ultimately, you guessed it, death.