If I were National Geographic, who probably funded this expedition, I would be VERY disappointed in these guys! Instead of saving their energy to canvas the area where they theorized Sandy Irvine might be, they instead expended their energy just making another Everest Summit. With the summit climb done, they had no energy to truly search the area in question which was the documentary's sole purpose. They should've forgone the summit and have gone directly to the area in question, fix themselves some safety ropes, and canvas the entire area and film all the crevices where the body and camera may have been. Instead we get a half baked dangerous solo attempt with no safety rope to briefly look at the area with no video footage!
24 Reviews
Summit fever got in the way of a potentially great documentary
mikemcmann-1428512 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Embarrassing
chasekolpath1 May 2024
Before watching this I thought the reviews about them not searching only summitting were relatively harsh. After watching this, I don't know what to say.
This isn't a documentary and I'm really embarrassed for the crew. How come they published this? Are they not ashamed?
I have read The Third Pole by Mark Synnott. It's the book about this expedition and I liked it a lot. If I remember correctly, he describes that they had problems with the sherpas because they wouldn't allow them to search or go off rope and they would only help them go up the mountain, if they summitted. So they had to change their mission, they had to make it look like they want to summit. This made sense to me, especially because there was a notion of the Chinese removing Mallory's and Irvine's bodys etc. But actually summitting wasn't necessary I think, they could've blown their cover the moment they were at the search site and this film makes this as obvious as it can get. Sure, they may had to descend on their own, but who knows if the sherpas would actually left them there on their own.
And why is this whole thing about not being allowed to search for the bodies not covered in this so called documentary? Is it even true? After watching this, I don't know anymore.
This isn't a documentary and I'm really embarrassed for the crew. How come they published this? Are they not ashamed?
I have read The Third Pole by Mark Synnott. It's the book about this expedition and I liked it a lot. If I remember correctly, he describes that they had problems with the sherpas because they wouldn't allow them to search or go off rope and they would only help them go up the mountain, if they summitted. So they had to change their mission, they had to make it look like they want to summit. This made sense to me, especially because there was a notion of the Chinese removing Mallory's and Irvine's bodys etc. But actually summitting wasn't necessary I think, they could've blown their cover the moment they were at the search site and this film makes this as obvious as it can get. Sure, they may had to descend on their own, but who knows if the sherpas would actually left them there on their own.
And why is this whole thing about not being allowed to search for the bodies not covered in this so called documentary? Is it even true? After watching this, I don't know anymore.
Obnoxious and Self Indulgent
edwardschris8858 December 2020
A very disappointing documentary. The weak theme throughout this film was searching for Andrew Irvine, but it became glaringly obvious it's a facade to summit Mt Everest. I found the entire crew to be very selfish and disrespectful to the Sherpas, who received no acknowledgement for carrying and guiding them up the mountain. Wouldn't recommend, unless you're interested in watching a bunch of old men bathe in their own self righteousness and describe dead climbers as "spooky"
Gripping stuff, beautiful cinematography
maccas-5636719 October 2020
Have long been intrigued by the mystery of Mallory and Irvine. I love basically everything about Everest, and have since I was a kid. This National Geographic documentary is no exception!
Some spectacular cinematography and footage of Everest. Viewers are made to feel like they're part of the adventure and expedition. The conditions and danger of Everest are captured well.
Numerous moments made me go "whoah". Full credit to all the guys for the risks taken. It just got slightly frustrating towards the end. For a film that is basically all about Mallory and Irvine, and looking to solve the mystery, it then descends into a usual 'lets summit Everest' documentary.
The actual search for Irvine's body seemed to take a real backseat towards the end - just seemingly tacked on. But still, this was a great documentary for Everest buffs and those into unsolved mysteries. National Geographic have been putting out some excellent climbing films recently.
Some spectacular cinematography and footage of Everest. Viewers are made to feel like they're part of the adventure and expedition. The conditions and danger of Everest are captured well.
Numerous moments made me go "whoah". Full credit to all the guys for the risks taken. It just got slightly frustrating towards the end. For a film that is basically all about Mallory and Irvine, and looking to solve the mystery, it then descends into a usual 'lets summit Everest' documentary.
The actual search for Irvine's body seemed to take a real backseat towards the end - just seemingly tacked on. But still, this was a great documentary for Everest buffs and those into unsolved mysteries. National Geographic have been putting out some excellent climbing films recently.
lost a sense of their mission
happy_quadruped22 May 2022
Warning: Spoilers
If they didn't find the body after looking hard, then I think it would be understandable. But in this case it seems they didn't find the body because they were too exhausted from doing the summit, which wasn't supposed to be part of the plan in the first place. It just goes to show that you can't serve two masters.
Nice and decent work
baranceylanli9 September 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I really don't understand the disappointment expressed in those comments above. How can someone expect that those 5-10 men will find an unknown tomb, supposedly dug 150 years ago, in the middle of nowhere, without the support of any institution and with a limited budget? Do I need to add whether conditions? Did you see Her Majesty's offer, and no one could get it? Who found those guys? And you are still blaming them for not finding the rest of the crew? Be gentle and respectful the effort here. I don't think that someone will be willing to search for those sailors for at least the next 10 years. Good job, guys. I loved it. Keep doing what you are doing.
Self Indulgent
markspoelhof20 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Guy (and his crew) spend the early part of the film bashing those who climb Everest. Then proceeds to make a film about himself climbing the mountain under the pretense of searching for Irvine. There is a 4 minute digression in which he goes off-rope, risking the safety of the rest of his party, while "he looks" for Irvine.
There are so many other great documentaries about Everest, watch those instead.
Shocked by the actions of selfish individuals.
mm-079738 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
The selfish mindset, actions and lies of Yaar and Yuval are disgraceful, far beyond belief. They both continued to justify their "self preservation" and "self survival" decisions with no regard or apology given to the locals of whom they GREATLY disrespected. I have no doubt that those four left that poor woman to die and made no attempt to carry her out of that valley.
Weak individuals without an ounce of integrity. They should all hold their heads in shame but surprisingly showed no true remorse for their actions. Yuval, a weak crybaby. Yaar, a thief and liar. Saahar, self preserving behavior as well. I feel as much anger towards them as the local community and families felt by their actions. Not once did any of them show any compassion for the deceased or their families.
Weak individuals without an ounce of integrity. They should all hold their heads in shame but surprisingly showed no true remorse for their actions. Yuval, a weak crybaby. Yaar, a thief and liar. Saahar, self preserving behavior as well. I feel as much anger towards them as the local community and families felt by their actions. Not once did any of them show any compassion for the deceased or their families.
National Geographic should get their money back!!
cdjmhawk-8451615 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This wasn't a film about finding Irvine and the camera. It was a guise so these guys could summit Everest free. The fact that they use a drone and topography maps, and they only decide to"maybe" look After the summit, What kinda S*** is that. National Geographic was Used!!
Frankly boring with overly loud music
JurijFedorov26 October 2021
The version found for free on Youtube is called "The Ghosts Above" and is 36 minutes long, but I have watched many such docs with exactly the same fake "goal". This search for a camera from a 1924 climb is actually a idea many climbers have. It's just a cheap way to give your summit a "point". You either do it to push yourself, to do fake "research", or to do some fake historical studies. It's largely just an excuse to climb the mountain and then make a doc about it to earn some profit.
In the "research" docs on Everest you never see any actual research or even measurements. And you also have to wonder what new and crucial research you could even do there as you also summit the mountain?
This doc is a short doc jumping from shot to shot. Some shots are cool, but they last 3-5 seconds and then we see something new. It feels a bit like a Powerpoint slideshow. The music is VERY LOUD. This part is hard to understand music is obviously crucial for these docs. But when it's this loud you can't hear the dialogue or focus on the story. The narration is... super... slow... he... speaks... like... this. It's curious because the interviews have way faster speaking voices even in the death zone where people have a hard time speaking or moving. It's slow on purpose to add some artistic depth to it, but instead the narrator/producer just sounds overly depressed, tired and completely unengaged. It feels like he really didn't want to be there or record the narration which obviously makes you not really want to see his personal journey either.
They talk about how Sherpas carry 3 times more weight than the climbers and you feel like they are talking down to Sherpas as they talk about friendship and respect in extremely on the nose ways. There is no personal connection it's just this "we must respect Sherpas" fakeness. Either way it's an oxygen climb where Sherpas do most of the work so it's pretty much a tourist climb where you just pay to get up. Ropes are fixed, Sherpas work hard, the climbers largely just need to move slowly upward without any thinking or any technical climbing whatsoever. It's still impressive, but it's not quite top climbing you see in many other more groundbreaking docs.
They claim that this is a search mission where they may also summit. But this is a lie. It's a summit. Then at minute 32 one guy unclips himself from the rope then walks a few meters down to look around. We see him maybe go 3 meter away from the rope, that's it. Totally pointless and just for show so that the camera can film him. A drone made for the thin atmosphere could search 10 times the area in the same time. There is no need to unclip yourself when Sherpas tell you not to do it. These are tourist climbers so they ought to listen to the professional guides. But frankly none of them respect Sherpas or listen to them. So it's nothing new.
In the "research" docs on Everest you never see any actual research or even measurements. And you also have to wonder what new and crucial research you could even do there as you also summit the mountain?
This doc is a short doc jumping from shot to shot. Some shots are cool, but they last 3-5 seconds and then we see something new. It feels a bit like a Powerpoint slideshow. The music is VERY LOUD. This part is hard to understand music is obviously crucial for these docs. But when it's this loud you can't hear the dialogue or focus on the story. The narration is... super... slow... he... speaks... like... this. It's curious because the interviews have way faster speaking voices even in the death zone where people have a hard time speaking or moving. It's slow on purpose to add some artistic depth to it, but instead the narrator/producer just sounds overly depressed, tired and completely unengaged. It feels like he really didn't want to be there or record the narration which obviously makes you not really want to see his personal journey either.
They talk about how Sherpas carry 3 times more weight than the climbers and you feel like they are talking down to Sherpas as they talk about friendship and respect in extremely on the nose ways. There is no personal connection it's just this "we must respect Sherpas" fakeness. Either way it's an oxygen climb where Sherpas do most of the work so it's pretty much a tourist climb where you just pay to get up. Ropes are fixed, Sherpas work hard, the climbers largely just need to move slowly upward without any thinking or any technical climbing whatsoever. It's still impressive, but it's not quite top climbing you see in many other more groundbreaking docs.
They claim that this is a search mission where they may also summit. But this is a lie. It's a summit. Then at minute 32 one guy unclips himself from the rope then walks a few meters down to look around. We see him maybe go 3 meter away from the rope, that's it. Totally pointless and just for show so that the camera can film him. A drone made for the thin atmosphere could search 10 times the area in the same time. There is no need to unclip yourself when Sherpas tell you not to do it. These are tourist climbers so they ought to listen to the professional guides. But frankly none of them respect Sherpas or listen to them. So it's nothing new.
Disappointing and off topic
nicolaiseifert30 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I was so disappointed with them just doing it for themselves to summit, and totally neglecting what the documentary was supposed to be all about. They should've just gone searching for Irvine, not doing it for them to teach the top. The start of the documentary was quite exciting and I felt that it was building up to something, but after the point I realised they were going for the summit and maybe have a little look for Irvine on the way down, it was just a documentary about the crew and their trip. Nice guys and all, but this turned out to be something rather different from what the documentary promised.
A Selfish Summit
beaumontjsmith11 February 2023
A Selfish summit.
Putting personal ambitions to summit ahead of historical science.
The aim of the expedition was suppose to be to find Irvine's camera. Not to summit and have no strategy/energy to look for Irvine's body or camera.
It seemed as though they had the mountain to themselves in the window they had. Why didn't the take the 'direct route' up to the summit along irvines route.
A more scientific process would have drawn more conclusions than a Nat geo funded summit for a couple of guys who "never had the desire to summit" until it was funded with camera crew.
Save yourself 1hour..
Putting personal ambitions to summit ahead of historical science.
The aim of the expedition was suppose to be to find Irvine's camera. Not to summit and have no strategy/energy to look for Irvine's body or camera.
It seemed as though they had the mountain to themselves in the window they had. Why didn't the take the 'direct route' up to the summit along irvines route.
A more scientific process would have drawn more conclusions than a Nat geo funded summit for a couple of guys who "never had the desire to summit" until it was funded with camera crew.
Save yourself 1hour..
Well, since we're here, we might as well...
burnettwm1 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
There's a big build up to finding the two original climbers of Everest and to retrieving the camera that one of them carried because it would show whether or not they reached the peak. One of these climbers had already been found, no camera, but they had a good idea where the second might be. Going to the top of Everest was not part of the mission. But, as soon as these self indulgent guys got a ways up the mountain, the primary objective was to summit the mountain. Ultimately one member of the team spent five minutes walking off the trail to see if he could find the body. Just an excuse to make another movie about the nonsense of climbing the tallest mountain as though it is an important use of money.
Not worth your time
blah5422200020 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This is a story of 2 guys and a team climbing Everest with the excuse of looking for "The first people to climb Everest" the "Search" was 4 mins of drone coverage early in the doc and 4 mins of off rope searching towards the end. The initial drone searching had me thinking they would use this to do the actual searching for safety when they were in the search area that would've been too smart.
Anyone who rates this Documentary highly is doing so out of the shear beauty of the mountain.
If you enjoy being disappointed and have an hour to waste here is your film.
Anyone who rates this Documentary highly is doing so out of the shear beauty of the mountain.
If you enjoy being disappointed and have an hour to waste here is your film.
It's not on Irvine's body. It's a scam from spoiled guys robbing NatGeo.
nashtags11 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I read other reviews and thought they were a bit harsh but in the end, they are not far from what I could see.
Very nice cinematography with a starting point that was really interesting. It changes throughout the film from a search for a dead body to rewriting History (quite interesting) to self indulgent white males spitting on everybody else who think differently than them and who praise the fact that too many people in line and traffic jam on Everest is normal and good. Then, while you could focus again on Irvine search, the audience has to go through the trauma of a crying old man that sees his dream of summiting Everest disappear because he had a stroke on location. He's not whining because he can't search Irvine, he's whining because of his selfishness.
In the end, yep, the starting point was appealing. The result is a great deception.
Plus: Cinematography and Archives.
Minus: Self indulgent old white males whining and complaining during all the film instead of doing what they were supposed to do on location.
In the end, it's not on a search for Irvine's body, it's about spoiled old white male trying to get sponsored for free by NatGeo to summit Everest for their own pleasure and pride. It's so big you can't miss it.
Very nice cinematography with a starting point that was really interesting. It changes throughout the film from a search for a dead body to rewriting History (quite interesting) to self indulgent white males spitting on everybody else who think differently than them and who praise the fact that too many people in line and traffic jam on Everest is normal and good. Then, while you could focus again on Irvine search, the audience has to go through the trauma of a crying old man that sees his dream of summiting Everest disappear because he had a stroke on location. He's not whining because he can't search Irvine, he's whining because of his selfishness.
In the end, yep, the starting point was appealing. The result is a great deception.
Plus: Cinematography and Archives.
Minus: Self indulgent old white males whining and complaining during all the film instead of doing what they were supposed to do on location.
In the end, it's not on a search for Irvine's body, it's about spoiled old white male trying to get sponsored for free by NatGeo to summit Everest for their own pleasure and pride. It's so big you can't miss it.
Just a paid trip to the sunmit
dairm27 April 2022
Ridiculous
notforgayjesus-284313 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
If you go look for someone lost somewhere 100 years ago your first objective should be to focus on the search. The prelude was to go inspect a precise zone on the mount Everest for Irvine body and then they absolutely forget about him and went for the summit.
"Oh this summit is so hard look how cool I am on the top...." This is way beyond a farse.
Shame on you.
"Oh this summit is so hard look how cool I am on the top...." This is way beyond a farse.
Shame on you.
Hypocritical and exploitative
stefan15-219-81695213 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This documentary really had me on premise. The film spends its first half trashing Everest as an adventure, citing that summitting is a selfish adventure with no sense of exploration. Instead they have a noble objective to uncover the mystery of Irving's body and maybe even recover the fabled camera. Inexplicably and without explanation, the team makes summitting the primary objective. They burn oxygen needlessly and trash their bodies making the team completely incapable of addressing their original objectives. There was a few minutes of off-trail searching that didn't appear to align with the original recommendations for a search area. I'm not really sure what happened but after a mediocre search in potentially the wrong area while being exhausted from summitting, the team concluded there's nothing to find and returned home. This movie is hypocritical and was just yet another excuse to climb Everest.
What was missing was a search.
qhmcjrr9 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Supposedly they are looking for Irving's body but seemed far more interested in reaching the submit.
The actual search element was extremely dangerously - not roped on - not organised in anyway and was little more than a wander by one man off piste who came very close to dying.
It was also clear from the Sherpa's reaction that they had little or no idea that this was anything else other than an attempt to reach the summit. That was totally disgraceful.
I've climbed off many years and been involved with searches for missing and injured people in awful terrain and these guys where an utter joke.
Not only did they not put their own safety first but there was absolutely zero attempt to carry out a proper search.
In searching a term called probability of detection is used (POD). POD of 100% is when you find what or who you are looking for. From what the film showed the POD could be as low as 5%.
A very poor film with shocking disregard for safety and that seemed to also relish in showing the bodies of climbers who had succumbed to Everest.
The actual search element was extremely dangerously - not roped on - not organised in anyway and was little more than a wander by one man off piste who came very close to dying.
It was also clear from the Sherpa's reaction that they had little or no idea that this was anything else other than an attempt to reach the summit. That was totally disgraceful.
I've climbed off many years and been involved with searches for missing and injured people in awful terrain and these guys where an utter joke.
Not only did they not put their own safety first but there was absolutely zero attempt to carry out a proper search.
In searching a term called probability of detection is used (POD). POD of 100% is when you find what or who you are looking for. From what the film showed the POD could be as low as 5%.
A very poor film with shocking disregard for safety and that seemed to also relish in showing the bodies of climbers who had succumbed to Everest.
Great photography but way too long
ctbehr9 November 2020
The photography is remarkable. The talent and determination of the climbers and crew was also admirable. But it's about 15 minutes too long. We got the message very quickly that we are watching an heroic search for a dead explorer. So don't keep hammering that into us every few minutes.
It's also redundant to keep telling us what difficulties the crew had to endure. It sounds like a rationalization to make us feel better about what turned out to be just a massive ego trip.
Just a fee sumit
pacificsurfdivecharters8 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
After watching this documentary, I actually found it insulting to national geographic. These people where to look for the two list climbers 90% of the doco was on them climbing to the summit and not leaving enough in the tank except for a 5 minute look. Summiting Everest should never have been in their thoughts. They could have spent their time more on the drone, setting up ropes to climb down to the GPS locations it was certainly not a mission to find them, just selfish people looking after themselves, and apparently climbed Everest several times so why did they exhaust all their energy climbing it again when they were there for a specific mission Nat geo should be pushing the cost onto these selfish individuals.
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