Sympathetically played by Jason Clarke, Hall is portrayed as a natural leader and expert climber dedicated to the safety of his clients, even at great risk to himself, but the film does not lionize him, making it clear that commercial climbing is the culprit in the disaster as much as weather: The narrow route to the summit was so crowded that day that climbers lost precious time at bottlenecks.
And, as rival guide Scott Fischer( Jake Gyllenhaal) points out in one key exchange, Hall is hand-holding on Everest. His group includes clients who have limited experience with high altitude climbing and lack his physical stamina, but still have expectations – at$65, 000( U.S.) a head – that he will deliver the summit to them. Beck Weathers, the brash Texan who goes partially blind on the way up but proves surprisingly resilient in the end, typifies the problem: Josh Brolin plays him as the quintessential American tourist, determined that every locality should bend to his will and his wallet.
There’s also Doug Hansen( John Hawkes), just an average American mailman who is working three jobs to pay for this trip – and who didn’t quite make it to the top the previous year, adding extra pressure for Hall. Yasuko Namba( Naoko Mori) is the one female climber, a surprisingly modest Japanese woman who has already notched up the other six of the world’s top seven summits.
And then there is Krakauer himself( Michael Kelly), on assignment for an adventure magazine. He asks the why question early in the film and doesn’t get many good answers.
Even if viewers don’t remember the exact details, most will recall the expedition went badly: The first half of the film is excruciatingly tense with our foreknowledge. Director Baltasar Kormakur and cinematographer Salvatore Totino deliver the jaw-dropping mountain scenery and vertiginous overhead views, but there’s little emotional space to enjoy the grandeur, especially as Dario Marianelli’s overwrought score keeps intruding.