Beautiful, majestic, and profoundly stressful — these are but three of the ways one can describe Everest, the new film from director Baltasar Kormákur chronicling the grisly 1996 Mount Everest disaster. The dramatization tells the horrifying true story of a disastrous attempt to summit Mount Everest. During what should have been a routine attempt to summit the mountain, a powerful blizzard struck, claiming the lives of eight people. This tragic event made international headlines, raised many concerns about the increasing commercialization of Mount Everest by touring companies, and highlighted just how deadly Earth’s highest mountain can be. Now, nearly 20 years after it happened, the story is being brought to the big screen with an all-star cast including Jake Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Robin Wright, Keira Knightley, and many more.
Recently, at a press day in Los Angeles, I sat down with Gyllenhaal, Clarke, Brolin, John Hawkes, Michael Kelly, Emily Watson and Kormákur to talk about why this story needs to be told, what it was like to actually film on Mount Everest, and much more. Oh, and Josh Brolin has some choice words about my complexion. But I guess that’s why he’s the Mad Titan and I’m not.
Everest is in select theaters on September 18 and everywhere on September 25.
Would you ever attempt to climb Mount Everest? Let us know in the comments below. In the meantime, take a look at what else is coming to theaters this month in our September movie guide.
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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of 100 Things Avengers Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. You can follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious)
