Morrison and his partner Hilarie Nelson aspired to climb the north face of Mount Everest, something only five people had ever done. No one had ever taken it down. Judging by the long line of climbers lining the south face, you could call this the toughest lift line escape ever accomplished.

“Everest: The Other Side,” “Free Solo,” by filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, is a big-screen history of Morrison and Nelson’s mission. He has a strange ambition: to climb the world’s highest peak and then descend.

But “Everest: The Other Side” is as much a document of tragedy and sorrow as it is one of extreme sports. Bidding their time on a similar expedition to Everest in 2022, Morrison and Nelson – partners in love and adventure – reach the top of a Nepali mountain. But after just a few turns of his skis, a sheet of snow spread beneath Nelson. He died in an avalanche.

Nelson’s death reverberated through the mountaineering world and shaped the film being made by Vassarhelyi and Chin. In “Free Solo”, which documents Alex Honnold climbing El Capitan in Yosemite without ropes or a harness, the filmmakers had to consider the possibility that Honnold could fall to his death.

In “Everest” that terrifying possibility occurs. Nelson’s fatal fall, as well as the recovery of Morrison’s body two days later, are captured with harrowing IMAX clarity. If “Free Solo” was about a relentless conquest, “Everest” grapples with a dark side of such dangerous adventures.

“The worst thing happened in this movie,” Vasarhelyi says in a brief moment on screen.

Risk tolerance is a common theme for Vassarhelyi and Chin, filmmakers who have fearlessly combined nature documentaries with adventure drama. Chin himself is a decorated mountaineer; He climbed and skied the South Face of Everest in 2006.

But in “Everest,” the question of whether it’s worth it is front and center. The film is based on the moments when Morrison and his team leave their home, separated from the children, for a two-month stay, during which they will risk their lives on desolate peaks on the other side of the world. When Nelson dies, she leaves behind two boys. As the years go by in the documentary, we see them growing up without their mother.

Yet within months of his death, Morrison, from his home in Lake Tahoe, resolved to pursue a climb of Everest. Tragedy is not new to him. Years earlier, he had lost his wife, Katie, and two children, Wyatt and Hannah, in a plane crash. The first time the road was impassable on foot, Morrison resolved to live for them.

So his goal of reaching the summit of Everest and skiing down it may be an adventure, but it is also a sad, heavy-hearted quest. He describes his desire to ride “the highest ski line in the world”. But what’s compelling him is also something that can’t be easily expressed.

“Everest: The Other Side” is, to some extent, alive to these dilemmas. Filmmakers also take part in them. Chin was involved with Morrison in both an aborted climb and a successful attempt in 2025.

The decision to continue the project is a debate of its own for Chin and Vassarhelyi. He has two children of his own. His proximity to extreme expeditions has already brought the tragedy closer to home. “How many people eating at our dinner table have died?” Vasarhelyi asks him. The couple divorced in 2025, although their separation is not mentioned in the film.

While these debates are often present in documentaries, “Everest: The Other Side” seems to shy away from them. The higher Morrison climbs the ladder, the less intriguing the film becomes. At the first attempt at climbing, some Sherpas became wary of the risks involved. His understandable hesitation doesn’t put Morrison, who was beautifully dressed by his North Face sponsor, in the best light.

By the time Morrison realizes his dream, it feels as if many people, away from the cameras, have moved on with their lives. The family back home is left out of the film. “Everest: The Other Side” becomes a mournful and increasingly solitary march.

Perhaps this is appropriate. Morrison’s excessive compulsion inevitably pulls her away from us, leaving behind an even more unsettling film. Even he couldn’t help but notice while climbing up that the snow conditions he would be skiing in were rocky and terrible. The four-hour long descent is a feat of skill, tenacity and bravery. Even on a bad day, he has to admit that it would be better to be back home and skiing.

Walt Disney Co.’s release “Everest: The Other Side,” in theaters Friday, is given a PG-13 rating by the Motion Picture Association for thematic content and brief strong language. Running time: 115 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

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