PEAK PERFORMANCE

It’s a road movie on a mountain! Jake Gyllenhaal scales new heights in an epic true story.

Director Baltasar Kormákur Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Keira Knightley, Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Sam Wort hington

ETA 25 September ount Everest: forbidding, aloof, terrifying. While recent tragic events have reminded us of the dangers of the world’s highest mountain, a previous disaster will be spotlighted this September in Baltasar Kormákur’s epic retelling of the May 1996 incident when rival groups became trapped on the Himalayan slopes.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Scott Fischer, whose Mountain Madness expedition crosses paths with the Adventure Consultants, led by New Zealander Rob Hall (Jason Clarke). Events are complicated by the inclusion of several unqualified climbers, as well as journalist Jon Krakauer (Michael Kelly), whose planned article about the climb indirectly fuels a risky race to the summit against an impending snowstorm. In charting the complications that left the teams perilously stranded, the film provides a rich narrative for a superb cast also including Keira Knightley, Emily Watson, Sam Worthington and Josh Brolin. As Beck Weathers, who underwent one of the disaster’s most extreme experiences, the latter could be in contention for Supporting Actor nods come awards season.

For the Icelandic director, too, it’s his biggest career challenge to date. Following his two Mark Wahlberg thrillers, Contraband and 2 Guns,

Everest both confirms Kormákur’s growing status in Hollywood while sharing a kinship with his homegrown movies, especially 2012’s The Deep, a true-life survival fable set in freezing North Atlantic waters. In that film, actor Ólafur Darri Ólafsson braved sub-zero temperatures for weeks – how does Everest compare? “This was even harder!” Kormákur laughs, while taking a break from post-production to discuss the arduous shoot.

Intent on authenticity, Kormákur secured permission to shoot on Everest’s slopes, taking cast and crew to the 17,000ft-high Base Camp in January 2014. Without assistants or home comforts (stars slept under electric blankets, while equipment had to be dropped off by helicopter), conditions were tough. “We were hiking up and people were getting sick because of the height. It gave them a real sense of what it is!” Kormákur confirms. “[ In] that situation there isn't much space for being a prima donna.”

The threat of an accident precluded filming any higher up, so Kormákur relocated to the Italian Dolomites to complete shooting in safer surroundings. Even so, at -30C degrees it wasn’t without risk, with the crew watchful of avalanches and frostbite; “We had to check each other's noses because you might lose it, you know.”

Considerable technical challenges included the director’s insistence on crane shots: “You've seen so much [ Everest] footage that is handheld and documentary-style; my real desire was to try to have a big scope.” (Post-conversion 3D will add an extra level of vertiginous awe.) That old-school style, allied to the ensemble cast, suggests a throwback to ’70s disaster movie classics, but Kormákur is mindful that he's recounting real events. “We didn't want to use the scare factor, I was more into the wow factor. You get ‘oomph’ in your stomach, when you realise the magnitude and the scope of the mountain... you can't believe it when you're standing there.”

The film has an intriguing ambivalence about attempts on Everest. On the one hand, Kormákur believes, “It’s a road movie on a mountain, it's about regular people who take on this incredible feat of climbing Everest.” On the other, it’s a cautionary tale about “the commercialisation of nature.” The screenplay – with contributions from William Nicholson ( Gladiator) and Simon Beaufoy ( Slumdog Millionaire) – focuses on the moral dilemmas involved in letting mankind loose on the mountain. While reportedly based on Krakauer’s best-selling account, Into Thin Air (filmed for TV in 1998), Kormákur stresses that

Everest isn’t a direct adaptation. “There have been seven or eight books about this, people have different opinions. I tried to bring out the truth

"you can't believe the magnitude"

as much as possible, to be sensitive but not weak, not shy away from controversial moments. Let the audience be the judge.”

With a death toll of eight, this was the biggest climbing tragedy to strike Everest until the 2014 avalanche – which occurred only three months after Kormákur’s shoot – and this year’s earthquake. These later tragedies give additional resonance to the film; Kormákur confirms that producers are discussing whether to acknowledge them on-screen. (The day after our interview, Nepal endures another aftershock.)

Clearly, the film could not be more timely, relocating the themes of modern-day survival movies such as Gravity and All Is Lost into a real-life scenario. For Kormákur, whose native land has made him keenly aware of nature, this was key. “When the Icelandic volcano went off [ Eyjafjallajökull, in 2010] and stopped the world, we all got shocked and realised, yes we do live in a place where nature can take control.

“I think that's why people are climbing Everest, coming out of their boring daily jobs to have an adventure, because it's a way of understanding who you are,” he concludes. Prepare, then, to brave the elements – but make sure you tread carefully.