ABC movie explores Everest's cruel heights

November 5, 1997
Web posted at: 4:17 p.m. EST (2117 GMT)

HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- Adventurers worthy of Lewis and Clark test their skill every year against Mount Everest. Some never come back. Such was the case last year, when an IMAX climbing expedition encountered disaster on the world's tallest mountain. Eight people died.

They were not the first to pay the ultimate price while trying to reach Everest's peak, but they were among the most publicized. The story, later recounted in three different books and on television documentaries, gripped the world's attention. Now, Americans can see the events replayed in "Into Thin Air: Death on Everest."

Watch scenes from the movie 1 min. VXtreme streaming video

The made-for-television movie airing Sunday, November 9, on ABC, stars Peter Horton as climbing guide Scott Fischer.

"It really has sort of the grand scope of epic tragedy, as well as the emotional largeness of it," Horton said of the movie.

"Into Thin Air" is based on the best-seller by climber Jon Krakauer, one of three books now out about the climbers' deaths.

The media outpouring on this story is just part of the mounting interest in the world's highest peak. In addition to Krakauer's book, National Geographic has published Broughton Coburn's account, "Everest: Mountain Without Mercy."

The third book on the Everest expedition, "The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Mt. Everest," presents climber/author Anatoli Boukreev's personal perspective on the climb and the disaster.

The National Geographic book features pictures from director David Breshears' IMAX film, set for release early next year. He is excited about the prospect of bringing the thrill and the danger of an Everest climb to viewers in 3-D imagery.

"You will feel the wind. You will hear the wind. You will know what it is like to struggle at 26,000, 27,000 feet and you will know what it's like to be caught up in the sad moments of that tragedy," Breshears said.

The IMAX team that scaled Everest that fateful May did find a silver lining in the devastating storm: They were at least able to rescue severely frost-bitten climber Beck Weathers, a Texas pathologist.

Breshears recalled that before the rescue, climbers ahead of his group "called down to us and they said, 'Beck's dead.' And they called his wife Peach in Dallas and said, 'Beck's dead.' And lo and behold, Beck Weathers was not dead."

In the ABC movie, Richard Jenkins plays Beck Weathers, whom Horton describes as "the type of man, if he broke his ankle, he'd keep climbing and you'd never even know it ... he was the type of man," he continued, "who fell 70 feet off a rock face, cratered into the ground, got up and climbed again."

Christopher McDonald player author Krakauer. Meanwhile, Krakauer himself served as a consultant during shooting in Austria.

Any misstep on Everest can prove fatal, as it did during the May 1996 climb. "In the end," Breshears said, "You can say people were overconfident and they let their guard down, and there were too many people on the mountain with too little experience."

For Horton, making the movie brought home the inexperience of many climbers. "Today, what has happened is anyone who has $65,000 can basically pay a guide to go up," he said.

And now, millions of readers and viewers can explore the price paid on Everest.

Correspondent Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.

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  • Sunday Night Movie
• National Geographic

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