How "Everest: The Other Side" Examines the Moral Complexity of Great Ambition

At the BFI London Film Festival, director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and producer Shannon Dill, who also collaborated on "Free Solo," discussed raising the risk and scale of their new cinematic adventure.

If you thought the Oscar-winning solo game was a wild ride, take a deep breath and brace yourself before watching Everest: The Other Side.

After following rock climber Alex Honnold in Free Solo, directors Elizabeth Chai Vassarhelly and Jamie Chin follow a few passionate adventurers who push themselves to the limits of human endurance and the possible. They are Jim Morrison and Hilary Nelson, who share a dream of becoming the first people to successfully climb and ski the North Face of Everest.

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As you can imagine, this idea worries friends and family. Everest: The Other Side, currently showing at the 70th London Film Festival (LFF), is "a compelling and moving portrait of perseverance", says the festival's website.

Discussing the Walt Disney Studios film at LFF, Vassarhelly and producer Shannon Dale (Free Price, She Called Me Malala) told THR about raising the stakes for their latest cinematic adventure.

"A lot of my work has looked at this basic human condition, where you have these bold dreams, but also the psychosis, the hard work, and the determination or the drive to do the work to get there," Vassarhelly shared. "Hilary was what disarmed me. She was very open about her drive and her obsession with these outdoor feats, but she also wasn't in love with it. 'It's a mountain,' she said. 'It might not matter [to others], but it means everything to me.'

The two female children left together and let the filmmaker see that she was a great mother. So I was interested in exploring that in a woman, and I thought Hilary brought an honesty that I hadn't seen before.

How did the film compare to Dale's previous works? "The scale of this project is unlike any other project I've worked on and nothing else I've seen documented," he shared with THR. And I had the same experience with Hillary. She is ambitious and a working mother and I was very curious to know more about her and the fact that she was at her level. She is at this level not only as a woman, but also as a mountaineer and as a ski mountaineer. He was on top and I was fascinated by it. And when you meet him, you realize that the light he shines and brings with him is real.

The timing is also appropriate. We were just coming out of Covid, so when they called at the end of 2020 and said they were thinking about making a film of this scale, with this landscape, going to Everest, getting out, chasing a dream, it was just a no-brainer.

Does the hope of inspiring the audience play an important role for the creative team? "It's an idea that I've looked at in a lot of movies — this basic human paradox of having these really ambitious dreams but taking real work to get there," Vassarhelly said. We had a very long and difficult journey in which great tragedy also happened. So I'll be happy if that floating feeling comes out. "I think there's a lot of hope and inspiration in the film, but I think we're really trying to create a very frank and honest look at the moral complexity of these big ambitions."

Dale added: "Even though Jim and Hilary were middle-aged and had been doing it as athletes for over 20 years, it was also interesting. They've had complicated lives that they've lived, a lot of loss, and so they were really interesting as characters. "As people, they already bring a lot to the table and this is a special sport in itself."

Are there more films being made on or near mountain peaks by a director or producer? "I think this is my last mountain film," Vesarhelly said. But Dillon suggested, "Never say never."

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