9 Mountain-Climbing Movies To See Before You Scale 'Everest'

Some people love to drive the fastest cars, others dream of surfing the world's biggest waves, while still others don't feel completely alive until they climb the highest mountain. Mountaineers are, for lack of a better term, totally crazy. They brave the harshest natural elements at altitudes requiring oxygen tanks, and talk about death zones, edema, and losing limbs to frostbite like the rest of us talk about blisters and paper-cuts. What drives these people to want to risk their lives for a few frozen minutes on top of a mountain? This question is not only the most prominent common denominator of all mountain climbing films and documentaries, but also is the major reason why we as an audience are so attracted to these perilous extremities.

"Everest" is the latest blockbuster to bring us into the mountaineers' milieu: Featuring a star-studded cast in Jake Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Keira Knightley and others, Baltasar Kormakur's film expands wide this...