Everest (2015) * * *

Directed by: Baltasar Kormakur

Starring:  Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Sam Worthington, John Hawkes, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emily Watson, Keira Knightley, Robin Wright

At one point in Everest, the climbers are asked by a reporter why they would risk life and limb to climb to the top of Mount Everest.     They are stuck for an answer.     One says, "Because it's there," but no psychological reasons are revealed.      Do the climbers even know?     The same character admits that he is at home and peace only when he trying to climb the mountain.      He feels lost anywhere else.      Everest depicts a 1996 ill-fated climb based on true events in almost documentary-like fashion.     We don't learn much about the people, except that some have tried and failed, but we do learn that they pay hefty sums to scale this mountain.      Hefty sums to the tune of $65,000.     It makes you wonder.

Mount Everest, of course, is the world's tallest mountain.     Team leader Rob Hall (Clarke), who leads the expedition up the mountain, explains that once they cross a certain altitude, "Your body starts to die."     Everest peaks at a height near where 747's hit their cruising altitudes.      Getting to the top is hard enough.    The bigger problems occur when two consecutive winter storms hit and some of the climbers can't get back down.      Humans are not meant to exist in temperatures that cold and altitudes that high.      That doesn't stop people from risking everything to climb it.     I think it should be illegal to climb, but that's just pie-in-the-sky thinking.

Climbing Mount Everest means the possibility of falling, freezing to death, passing out from lack of oxygen, frostbite which may quickly advance to losing body parts, and oxygen tanks freezing up.     Is the risk really worth the reward?     It is to these climbers.     If someone is willing to fork over $65,000 to attempt the climb, then no amount of logic or sensibility will be able to dissuade that person.      Character development is not a priority here.     The people all have the same goal, which is to get to the top and back down in one piece.     We are not any more in sympathy with one person over another, although Rob has a baby due in about two months.      Another named Beck Weathers (Brolin) has a family at home worried about him, but don't all of the climbers?

Everest is not meant to be exhilarating.     It is at its strongest when it clearly and brutally shows us the hell the climbers must endure.     The film convincingly places us on the treacherous slopes of this daunting mountain.     The weather screams at people to keep away.     The climbers themselves probably realize that not everyone will make it back alive.     The bodies of those who perish stay buried in the snow since it is too high to send a helicopter up to bring them down.    Climbers certainly aren't going to carry the bodies.     They have enough trouble just getting themselves down.

Everyone has a personal goal.    For the climbers of Mount Everest, the ability to one day tell others they climbed to the top of Mount Everest is their goal.     Is it the ultimate adrenaline rush?    Likely.   Is it the ultimate test of human endurance?    Likely.     Is it stupid even to attempt?     We may think so, but these climbers probably think running marathons is too easy.    Everest maintains an intrinsic level of suspense because of our universal fear of possibly not returning from a treacherous situation alive.    Of course, the climbers put themselves there, but our judgment won't help them much.