Trailer
Plot summary
On the morning of May 10, 1996, climbers from two commercial expeditions start their final ascent toward the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. With little warning, a violent storm strikes the mountain, engulfing the adventurers in one of the fiercest blizzards ever encountered by man. Challenged by the harshest conditions imaginable, the teams must endure blistering winds and freezing temperatures in an epic battle to survive against nearly impossible odds.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Everest (2015)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Christian Bale was originally in talks to play expedition leader Rob Hall, but he dropped out around the time Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, Jason Clarke and John Hawkes were cast as the film's leads, with Clarke taking the Hall role instead.
- While the second unit was still shooting at Camp II on the real Everest, a 2014 avalanche killed 16 Sherpa guides carrying climbing supplies nearby, halting production for a time even though no cast or crew were hurt.
- To recreate Everest's uniquely sharp sunlight on a greenscreen soundstage, the crew rigged giant SoftSun lamps nine feet long and rated at 100,000 watts each, so heavy they had to be repositioned on cranes.
SPOILER
For Rob Hall's death scene in the storm, cinematographer Totino sealed part of the set in heavy plastic sheeting and brought in refrigeration units the size of half a semi-truck to chill it to roughly 26-28°F with real snow, so actor Jason Clarke would genuinely feel frozen.- Everest's IMAX opening weekend of $7.2 million was the biggest September IMAX debut of all time worldwide, breaking the record previously set by Resident Evil: Retribution's $6 million.
- Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air, publicly denounced Everest as fabricated and defamatory and said he regretted how quickly Sony had acquired the book's rights, prompting director Baltasar Kormakur to respond that Krakauer's account was never used as source material.
