Everest

Director Baltasar Kormákur and writers William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy recount the notorious 1996 disaster on Mount Everest, when a sudden blizzard, along with some (possibly) avoidable delays and (possibly) reckless chance-taking, led to the deaths of eight climbers as their weather, oxygen and luck ran out. The movie focuses on two fatalities, New Zealander Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) and American Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal), and one incredibly lucky survivor, Texan Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin). The movie could possibly stand to be 10 minutes shorter, and characters become hard to distinguish as the snow and beards thicken, but it's riveting nonetheless, especially in IMAX 3-D, and utterly convincing, whether filmed on the actual slopes, in the Italian Alps, or in studios in Rome and England.