Vertical Limit: A film on an expedition to K2

A review of the movie
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A movie that clearly shows how mountaineering has changed. Made in the year 2000 by Martin Campbell, the movie tells the story of an expedition to K2, a Himalayan peak, the second highest and one of the most treacherous mountains in the world.
At the base camp, Peter Garrett, a photographer, meets his sister Annie who has joined the expedition led by Elliot Vaughn. Vaughn, a rich industrialist, wants to reach the peak, at a particular time and date. He is launching an airline and plans to be on the summit when the first flight of his new airline passes overhead. As he waves from the peak at the aircraft, a photoshoot will ensure great publicity.
In earlier times every mountaineer approached a mountain with reverence. Before an expedition, he trained hard, refrained from smoking and drinking, and tried to be totally fit. This movie depicts how commercialisation has overtaken mountaineering. Before the expedition there is a late night party at base camp. There is drinking and dancing, instead of preparation for the great day.
The expedition starts well, but then a storm threatens. Vaughn is warned through communication with base camp. Tom Mclaren, the nominal leader of the expedition, wants to turn back, but Vaughn refuses. The weather gets worse, and three of the summitteers, Annie, Vaughn and Tom are swept into a crevice. They are alive, but trapped. They others seem to have died.
With new technology now available, even those in the crevice can be in touch with base camp. Peter learns that his sister Annie is alive, and is desperate to rescue her. Peter, once a mountaineer, stopped climbing after an accident on a mountain, in which his father died. Though there was nothing he could have done to save him, he felt responsible. Now he asks for volunteers to rescue the trapped summitteers, which everyone knows is almost a suicide mission. They obtain nitroglycerin from the Pakistan army camp, in case they need to blast the rocks. Peter and five others set off in pairs. An interesting character, Montgomery Wick, is part the rescue mission. Wick has lived on the mountain ever since his wife died in a previous expedition with Vaughn. He believes Vaughn is responsible for her death.
As the rescue mission proceeds, there are many climbing scenes with most of them gasping for breath. One wonders why, with all the technology available, they are not using oxygen? Was it too much to carry, as they were already carrying nitroglycerin? But even the trapped summitteers don’t seem to have any oxygen.
Wick finds his dead wife, frozen in a standing position. The find confirms his suspicion that Vaughn was responsible for her death. With her is an empty case of dexmethasone that climbers these days use in extreme situations. Vaughn had claimed they had none. Now he shows he’s a real murderer as in the crevice he kills the injured Tom, to give himself a better chance to survive.
In the end Peter brings his sister Annie back safely. Wick had planned to kill Vaughn, but finds himself unable to do so. Peter, he and Vaughn are roped together, and are being pulled out of the crevice, but with an impending disaster, he cuts the rope above him, enabling Peter to survive, while he and Vaughn plunge to their death. Annie has already been pulled up. Monique is the other survivor of the rescue team.
The film was a box office hit, yet it raises so many questions. To save Annie, four more people died, was it worth it? Weren’t their lives as precious? It also shows the deterioration of mountaineering as a great sport, the lack of repect for nature, and for the mountains.