‘Tenzing’ True Story: Apple’s Tenzing Norgay Movie Re-Centers the Famed Mount Everest Climb

By Anna Menta

Not only will viewers be treated to a thrilling adventure when they watch the Tenzing movie on Apple TV, they’ll also receive a much-needed history lesson of an often-overlooked hero of mountaineering history.

This new biographical drama that began streaming today, stars Genden Phuntsok—in his English-language debut—as Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa mountaineer who, alongside New Zealander Edmund Hillary (played by Tom Hiddleston), became the first people to summit Mount Everest in 1953. The expedition, led by British Army officer John Hunt (played by Willem Dafoe) is often told as a story of British victory. But director Jennifer Peedom and write Luke Davies re-center the story to its rightful protagonist: the man who was raised in the shadow of Earth’s tallest mountain, and dedicated his life to both climbing it himself and helping foreigners (usually white Europeans) to climb it.

Screenwriter Luke Davies relied heavily on the 2003 biography, Tenzing: Hero of Everest by Ed Douglas, to the tell the story of Tenzing’s life leading up to his 1953 ascent. Douglas himself briefly appears in the film, in the scene set in the Himalayan Club alongside Caitríona Balfe, who portrays the club’s secretary Jill Henderson.

Read on to learn more about the Tenzing movie, and everything the Tenzing production did to ensure the movie was accurate as possible to the real story of Tenzing Norgay.

Is the Tenzing movie based on a true story?

Tenzing is based on the true story of Tenzing Norgay, a Nepalese-Indian Sherpa mountaineer who reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953, alongside New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary. Tenzing Norgay died in May 1986. He was estimated to be around 71 or 72 years old.

Tenzing true story: Who was Tenzing Norgay?

According to Tenzing: Hero of Everest by Ed Douglas, Tenzing Norgay was born in Tibet, but his family was forced into exile after the death of their yak herd in the 1920s. As a young boy, he went to Nepal to work for a Sherpa—the people indigenous to the mountainous regions of Nepal, India, and Tibet—family in Khumbu, near the base of Mount Everest. (Or, as the Sherpa people call the mountain, “Chomolungma,” which rough translates to “Holy Mother.”) The Sherpa people have a long history of mountaineering, and many work as climbing guides in the Himalayas.

Tenzing director Jennifer Peedom has a long history of studying and working with the Sherpa people via her documentaries Sherpa, Mountain, and River, and has been traveling to that region for over 20 years. On Tenzing, Peedom employed consultants Dr. Lhakpa Norbu Sherpa and Dr. Nima Namgyal Sherpa, to ensure the Sherpa people were portrayed accurately—including working with the actors on speaking the native Sherpa language.

“We tried to make everything as authentic as possible,” said Dr. Nima Namgyal Sherpa in an interview for the Tenzing press notes. “It’s very significant that Tenzing’s story is being told. It’s going to help more people learn about the Sherpa people, how crucial their role is on the mountain, and how hard they work to help others to achieve their dreams and goals, risking their own lives to earn a livelihood on the
mountain.”

Also on set to ensure the accuracy of Tenzing Norgay’s story was his eldest son, Norbu Tenzing, president of the American Himalayan Foundation, who was an executive producer on the film and been working on the project with Peedom for 10 years.

“For a long time, we wanted to make a film about my father and needed to find the right person,” Norbu said in an interview for the Tenzing press notes. “Soon after Jen made Sherpa, I went to Sydney for the opening. I planted the seed of doing this film, and she had already thought of it! So it’s been a 10-year journey that we’ve gone on together. Jen is somebody we trust and have unconditional faith in. She understands Sherpa culture, she understands our religion, she understands our customs, and above all, she has a great deal of respect for our people. Everybody was motivated to make a film that reflects the legacy of my father. It has been wonderful to see it all come together.”

More of the Norgay family, including Norbu’s brother Jamling and nephew Tashi, and Norbu’s sister Deki, also spent time on the set of Tenzing and attended the film’s premiere. (Tom Hiddleston, in turn, spent time with the real Ed Hillary’s son Peter, and grandson, Alexander.)

“We needed someone who understood our family, my father, and our culture,” Jamling said in an interview for the Tenzing press notes. “When I spoke with Jen and others involved in the film, we all wanted to highlight Tenzing as a father and as a person. He’s famous for climbing Everest, but many people don’t know who Tenzing Norgay Sherpa was — the simple, humble man behind the legend. He was caring, giving and deeply dedicated to what he did. These are the qualities I hope come through in the film, so audiences can truly see the man behind Everest.”

Tenzing’s children were thrilled with Genden’s Phuntsok’s portrayal of their father.

“Genden is a manifestation of my father,” Norbu Tenzing said in an interview for the Tenzing press notes. “Genden is a very special human being, and he reflects the spirit of who my father was. At the time of the shoot, he was 39, the same age as my father when he climbed Everest. He was born the year my father died. He has done a good job and has made us so proud. There’s something about Genden that I think will resonate with the rest of the world when they see this film. My father’s spirit is there.”

As is seen in the movie, the real Tenzing and Hillary were sent up the mountain after a failed attempt from two other members of the climbing team. On the final ascent, Hillary went first, finding a rock face later named after him, the “Hillary Step,” that allowed him to wedge his way up to the top, and Tenzing followed. For years it wasn’t clear who was “first” atop the mountain. John Hunt claimed they reached the summit together.

But in his 1955 autobiography, Tenzing revealed that Hillary was first, writing, “A little below the summit Hillary and I stopped. […] I was not thinking of ‘first’ and ‘second’. I did not say to myself, there is a golden apple up there. I will push Hillary aside and run for it. We went on slowly, steadily. And then we were there. Hillary stepped on top first. And I stepped up after him. [… ] Now the truth is told. And I am ready to be judged by it.”