This article was first published in the October 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
When Baltasar Kormákur decided to make Everest, he knew he had to shoot there - and that the experience would test his team's limits. "When you're going from Camp 4 to the top and back, the body starts falling apart," says the Icelandic director. "It's a slow death. If you're up there for more than 12 hours, you won't make it down."
Out this month, Everest is a mammoth, IMAX-sized dramatisation of the 1996 blizzard that killed eight climbers. Kormákur wanted to honour the dead with authenticity. So in January 2014, he took the cast, crew and equipment to base camp, filming at altitudes higher than 5,400m. "I probably would have shot with the actors on top of Everest if they'd have let me," he says. "But I wouldn't be here now."
After Nepal, they moved to Italy to shoot in the Dolomites which, at -30°C, were no less forgiving. "We were filming with Jake Gyllenhaal and he was frozen to the bone," Kormákur says. "I pushed him until he couldn't take it. His face was frozen and his nose was icy."
Finally, the team relocated to the lower altitudes of Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. "We built a huge see-through box, cooled the air in it to below zero, and imported snow from the Netherlands to blow into actors' faces," he says. "It's not an easy watch. I really want the audience to feel it."
Everest is out on September 18
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
