Sam Worthington Fights to Survive in Everest Trailer

Posted on June 5, 2015

Sam Worthington, Keira Knightley and Jake Gyllenhaal and star in the first trailer for Everest, which is based on the 1996 Everest climbing disaster that claimed the lives of eight people.

There were two main expeditions climbing the day of the disaster, with some other, smaller parties, as well as solo climbers. The two main expeditions were lead by American Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal). and New Zealander Rob Hall (Jason Clarke).

When a major blizzard hit the mountain, many people died and others were injured. What is not clear is exactly what happened. There were people climbing both the north face and the southern route. There were a number of books written about the incident, none of which agree with each other as to who was at fault. The only fact everyone agrees is that there were 34 climbers attempting the summit that day, which is far too many to make the time cutoffs to make a safe summit.

This film is based on journalist Jon Krakauer's book, Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster. Krakauer was a journalist on assignment with one of the climbing parties. His version of events was disputed by the Russian guide of the other book, who also wrote a book.

The movie looks like it's going to be a real nail-biter, based on the trailer. Climbing Mount Everest is an extremely dangerous project to undertake, even for extremely experienced climbers. The mountain claims lives every year, which has led to a debate about allowing commercial entities to continue to mount expeditions which kill native guides and tourists alike. In 2014, another disaster struck leading to the deaths of climbers and number of native guides.

Michael Kelly (House of Cards) portrays Krakauer. The film also stars Josh Brolin, Robin Wright and John Hawkes. Take a look:

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JAKE GYLLENHAAL