How Is Tenzing the Only Film About the Men Who First Climbed Mount Everest?

On May 29, 1953, a Nepalese Indian Sherpa mountaineer named Tenzing Norgay became the first person in the world to reach the summit of Mount Everest, alongside New Zealand climber Edmund Hillary. It was an amazing feat not just because of its physical difficulty but because of how Tenzing was able to achieve his dream against the force of both the mountain and the racial barriers of the time. Somehow, more than 70 years later, it’s a journey that’s finally been adapted to the screen.

Tenzing is a story about a lot of things, but the film—streaming on Apple TV this Friday, October 16—mostly centers on one man’s spiritual relationship with a mountain. Guided by accounts of Tenzing’s life from his son Tenzing Norbu, who served as an executive producer, breakout actor Genden Phuntsok captures his subject’s quest with true emotional depth. The film portrays the climber as a man who simply sensed his life’s calling from an early age and was compelled to reach the top. Phuntsok’s performance helps the viewer feel the hardships Tenzing faced along the way, thanks to the way he’s able to capture it all on his face. The actor’s pained eyes juxtaposed with his wide smile perfectly mimic the real-life photos of a mountaineer who gave everything to his pursuit of climbing Mount Everest, all just to “know her better.”

Wouldn’t you know it? The mountain makes for a damn good background for a film. You’ll likely ask yourself, How the hell did they film that? multiple times throughout the movie. Though the script is nothing new as far as emotional dramas go, director Jennifer Peedom’s breathtaking views of Mount Everest elevate the picture from the genre’s typical formula to create an intriguing mix of nature documentary and sports biopic.

Before directing Tenzing, Peedom spent the past two decades helming documentaries about Nepal and India’s Sherpa people—a group of Tibetan traders known best for their high-altitude farming and Himalayan tours. Nearly two dozen other Sherpas accompanied Tenzing and Hillary during their ascent. So though Peedom is an expert in the field, this film is her first true narrative work on the subject.

Tenzing covers the climber’s entire life leading up to the 1953 ascent, with the film picking up a year after he helped a Swiss expedition travel farther up the mountain than any group before. He’s living as a Sherpa, carrying hikers’ supplies as they trek for mountain-view picnics. But when British colonel John Hunt (Willem Dafoe) decides that he wants Norgay as his head Sherpa for another expedition, Norgay’s one condition is that he’s part of the main climbing team as well.

So as the crew departs on its journey, Tenzing is forced to split his time between translating for the Sherpas, who are paid a meager wage to carry his fellow climbers’ supplies up the mountain from one base camp to another, and leading the expedition with the Brits. It’s physically and emotionally challenging, as Tenzing straddles the racial divide like it’s a crevice in the ice.

We also travel back in time to flashbacks about how Tenzing became a climber—which aren’t always necessary—even when they display the prejudice he’s faced throughout his life. But instead of focusing only on how Tenzing’s exceptional talents eventually convince Colonel Hunt to allow him to lead the group, Tenzing also takes great care to paint his aims as a sacred act.

Does the climber’s position as a member of both worlds, and also of neither, tell a worthwhile story? Of course. Yet the more compelling narrative comes along once the film introduces his shared worldview with his climbing partner, Hillary, played by Tom Hiddleston.

Unlike Colonel Hunt’s aim to conquer the mountain like an adversary of war, Hillary and Tenzing hit it off over their shared love of the game. Hillary simply feels most alive when he’s climbing. Tenzing, in part, views the mountain as an ally. He calls it by its Tibetan name, Chomolungma, and the words “Mount Everest” rarely ever appear throughout the film. Tenzing understands that the man climbed Everest simply because he respected its power. Unlike the other members of Hunt’s team, who fail to reach the summit, his making it to the top is the only way to fully comprehend the mountain’s might.

You can see it in one of the film’s final images, as Phuntsok’s Tenzing reaches the summit and brandishes a tooth-filled smile. As a Western viewer, you might expect this moment to come with tears running down his cheeks and the bitter-cold winds freezing them onto his face. This stoic yet determined figure, accomplishing a moment he’s lived his entire life for, breaking down in tears and releasing his pent-up pain. Instead, Tenzing just grins—understanding something spiritual and powerful about the world that you can only learn by standing at the top.