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Everest: The Other Side Movie Review
Content guidance
A fatal avalanche, recovery footage, injury, and sustained mountain peril can be deeply upsetting. Bereavement and the loss of parents and children are central themes.
Official rating
PG-13
Bottom Line
Extraordinary mountain photography and nerve-racking skiing make this a compelling big-screen experience. Its treatment of grief and heroic risk-taking is far more divisive, especially when families and local guides bear the costs.
Mountain-sports and adventure fans who want an immersive large-screen experience, with spectacular terrain and sustained suspense. It also offers substantial material for discussion of ambition, loss, and responsibility.
Viewers seeking soothing nature scenery, those distressed by heights or intense peril, and anyone especially sensitive to sudden death and bereavement. Its conventional heroic framing may also frustrate viewers wanting a more searching examination of the expedition’s costs.
Verdict
Everest: The Other Side earns its strongest recommendation as a big-screen encounter with an almost inaccessible landscape. Sweeping aerial views and intimate climbing cameras make the ascent and ski descent exceptionally tense, even when the outcome is known. The personal losses behind the expedition also give it emotional force beyond a sporting record. The harder question is whether its account of perseverance sufficiently examines the consequences. Some find a moving, thoughtful exploration of grief and ambition; others see an uncritical celebration that sidelines children, local guides, and doubts about continuing. Mountain and adventure enthusiasts have substantial reasons to see it in IMAX, provided they are prepared for real death and distressing mourning. Viewers seeking a calming nature film or a fully searching ethical investigation are less likely to be satisfied.
Feature Scorecards
Summary
49 reviewed features-
Very positive 4.5-5.014 (29%)
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Positive 3.5-4.414 (29%)
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Neutral 2.5-3.416 (33%)
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Negative 1.5-2.45 (10%)
Pros highlights
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Sweeping drone shots and intimate on-mountain cameras make Everest’s scale, icy surfaces, and exposure startlingly vivid. Even strongly negative assessments praise the images, though a few find their polish more commercial than adventurous.
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Morrison’s attempt to keep living after devastating losses gives the expedition its emotional core. Reactions divide over whether the climb offers a moving expression of mourning or turns bereavement into an overly tidy triumph story.
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Raw mourning, accounts of family loss, and the eventual climb create a powerful emotional experience. Some find that cathartic; others feel intruded upon or troubled by the same material.
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The expedition is widely described as gripping, visceral, and difficult to look away from. Enjoyment falls sharply for viewers who experience the romantic framing and human costs as aggravating or depressing.
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Avalanches, exposed climbing, and the eventual ski descent sustain exceptional tension. Knowing the expedition’s outcome does little to soften the sense that catastrophe could arrive at any moment.
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The filmmaking excels at conveying altitude, danger, and intimate emotion. Its central weakness for detractors is the directors’ closeness to the participants, which can soften scrutiny of the very risks their images capture so effectively.
Cons highlights
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The film raises substantial questions about ambition, mortality, grief, and responsibility. Its willingness to pursue those questions divides opinion sharply, with some finding insight and others seeing difficult issues abandoned for spectacle.
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The central journey is often presented as a heroic memorial to a lost partner. That framing moves some viewers but frustrates others who want the film to question whether completing the goal justifies the risks.
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Personal access brings remarkable intimacy but raises questions about filming loss and enabling further danger. Some see valuable self-examination; others find the directors’ doubts too quickly set aside.
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The guides emerge as engaging people with families, expertise, and reasons of their own for joining the expedition. Opinion splits over whether those perspectives receive meaningful space or remain subordinate to the Western climbers’ story.
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Children and partners make the risks feel consequential beyond the mountain. Several accounts value these intimate scenes, while others object that family anxieties are sidelined, underexplored, or treated as obstacles to the quest.
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The contrast between well-funded adventurers and local guides doing hazardous work gives the story an important social dimension. Some welcome the acknowledgment of unequal choices, while many want a much fuller examination of wealth, labor, and who gets celebrated.
Use Cases
Best for
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IMAX and other large screens are repeatedly recommended for the immense landscapes and precarious first-person views. The scale makes the visual achievement more overwhelming and the danger harder to distance yourself from.
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The immersive photography offers a powerful way to experience Everest’s beauty and exposure from a safe seat. It can satisfy a fascination with the mountains without requiring the physical risk of the expedition.
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The film offers substantial material for discussing risk, parental responsibility, labor inequality, and the ethics of recording tragedy. Its unanswered questions can prompt a richer conversation than the climb alone.
Not ideal for
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Stress-sensitive viewingSustained peril, sudden disaster, and real loss make this a demanding choice for viewers who avoid anxiety-inducing films. The tension is central to the experience rather than an occasional interruption.
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Emotion-sensitive viewingA fatal avalanche, recovery footage, and acute bereavement can make the film deeply upsetting. Viewers sensitive to sudden loss may find the emotional turns especially difficult.
Cast & Creators
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DirectorHis access and mountain expertise help create exceptional images and visceral suspense. The same personal proximity attracts criticism that the film celebrates the expedition more readily than it interrogates its costs.
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DirectorHer co-direction helps deliver striking spectacle and intense suspense alongside intimate grief. Critical responses divide over whether the film sufficiently questions its own participation and the risks imposed on families.
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CinematographerHis contribution to the camera team helps turn the climb into an expansive, physically immediate experience. Strong visual achievement sometimes outpaces the originality of the film’s overall form.
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CinematographerHis cinematography helps give the ascent a dizzying sense of height and scale. The footage is admired even where the broader cinematic form is considered conventional.
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ProducerHis production contribution is specifically praised as critical to this film.
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EditorHis editing helps reveal anguish and motivation in carefully placed stages, keeping the personal story integrated with the climb.
Compared With Category Average
Compared with other Movies, this product is above average in Religious messaging, value for money, suspense, near average in entertainment value, Grief portrayal, below average in message quality, family dynamics, Filming ethics.
Comparison summary
46 compared features-
Above average 0.4+ pts higher17 (37%)
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Same as average within 0.3 pts19 (41%)
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Below average 0.4+ pts lower10 (22%)
Largest category differences
| Attribute | This product | Category average | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| message quality | 2.0 | 3.6 | -1.6 |
| Religious messaging | 4.5 | 2.9 | +1.6 |
| value for money | 5.0 | 3.4 | +1.6 |
| family dynamics | 2.7 | 3.9 | -1.2 |
| Filming ethics | 2.8 | 3.9 | -1.2 |
| ethical handling of deaths | 2.2 | 3.4 | -1.2 |
| suspense | 4.8 | 3.7 | +1.1 |
| realism | 4.8 | 3.4 | +1.3 |
Consider This Instead
If you want better runtime
Choose Possible Love. It scores 4.6 vs 1.8 for runtime, with a 4.7 overall score.
If you want better family dynamics
Choose Closure. It scores 4.8 vs 2.7 for family dynamics, with a 4.1 overall score.
If you want better film framing
Choose Misty Green. It scores 5.0 vs 2.8 for film framing, with a 3.5 overall score.
Compared in Reviews
Products reviewers directly compared with this model, grouped into quick takeaways.
- Compared: Documentary authenticity Everest is seen as an antidote to the artifice associated with the named documentary.
Free Solo (2018)
- Compared: Assurance of the protagonist’s survival Unlike the reassurance provided by Free Solo, this film offers no guarantee that its central people survive.
- Similar: Appeal to extreme-sports documentary fans The film is recommended to viewers who enjoyed Free Solo and mountain-sports documentaries.
- Similar: Empathetic documentary direction Chin’s direction is judged comparably sharp and sympathetic.
Meru (2015)
- Similar: Strain on the filmmakers’ relationship The earlier documentary supplied a preview of the relationship strain surrounding dangerous ascents.
- Compared: Consequences of extreme climbing The earlier filmmakers’ fear of fatal consequences becomes real in this expedition.
- Compared: Mountaineering documentary benchmark The film follows a high standard previously established by Chin’s mountain documentaries.
FAQ
Is IMAX worth it?
Large-screen presentation is the clearest recommendation across the responses. The aerial scale and first-person exposure are central to the film’s impact.
Is it mainly a climbing film?
The ascent and ski descent provide the spectacle, but romance, bereavement, and the reasons for continuing occupy substantial space. Some viewers want more explanation of climbing and skiing technique.
How intense is the film?
Expect prolonged exposure to steep drops, avalanches, and dangerous climbing, as well as footage connected to a fatal accident. The emotional aftermath can be as difficult as the physical peril.
What age is it suitable for?
Generally 13 and up, with sensitivity to real death, family loss, and intense peril taken into account. Its U.S. rating is PG-13, confirmed by the [IMAX listing](https://www.imax.com/movie/everest-the-other-side).
Does it examine the ethics of the expedition?
It raises questions about parental responsibility, filming tragedy, and the risks borne by local guides. Opinions differ sharply on whether it explores those questions deeply enough.
Do you need prior Everest knowledge?
The central emotional story is accessible, but some mountain hazards are insufficiently explained. One assessment specifically notes the lack of discussion of the death zone.
Is it an uplifting watch?
Some find the eventual achievement cathartic and life-affirming. Others cannot separate it from the bereavement and continuing risks, so it is a demanding choice for inspirational viewing.
Sample Expert Reviews We Analyzed
These are a few of the reviews included in our analysis.
Video Reviews
YouTube - Breakfast All Day movie reviews
- Review score
- 3.1
YouTube - Next Best Picture
- Review score
- 4.8
Article Reviews
latimes.com
What drives climbers to set their sights on the most dangerous peaks? A new documentary from the 'Free Solo' team takes you there in every sense.
- Review score
- 4.7
screenanarchy.com
In films like Meru and Free Solo, Jimmy Chin set a high bar for mountaineering documentaries. His latest, co-directed with Elizabeth Chai...
- Review score
- 4.1
reelviews.net
Spoiler warning: Although this is a documentarychronicling historically established events, I am aware that some potentialviewers may not...
- Review score
- 3.1
bostonglobe.com
The documentary explores the lives of a pair of mountaineers who wanted to summit Mount Everest.
- Review score
- 1.5
indiewire.com
Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin's 'Everest: The Other Side' follows climber Jim Morrison up the mountain's North Face in a gripping climbing doc.
- Review score
- 4.7
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