The Wildest Dream (2010)

In 1999, renowned American mountaineer Conrad Anker made a discovery that reverberated around the globe. High in Mount Everests death zone, he found the body of George Mallory75 years after the British explorer mysteriously vanished during his attempt to become the first man to summit the worlds tallest peak.

Mallory had risked everything as he set out, dressed in gabardine and hobnailed boots, in pursuit of his dream of reaching the top of Everest, which in 1924 was the last great adventure left to man. He was last spotted alive just 800 feet below the summit. Then the clouds rolled in and Mallory vanished into legend. After discovering his body, Conrad Ankers life became intertwined with Mallorys story. Remarkably, Mallorys body was found with all his belongings intact. The only thing missing was a photograph of Ruth, which Mallory had promised to place on the summit. Haunted by Mallory's story, Conrad longed to return to Everest to lay Mallorys ghost to rest. Directed by Emmy® Award-winning filmmaker Anthony Geffen, narrated by Academy Award® nominee Liam Neeson and featuring the voices of Oscar® nominee Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Hugh Dancy and Alan Rickman, The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest is a breathtaking mountaineering adventure that seeks to answer the enduring mysteries surrounding George Mallorys death on Mount Everest. Foremost among them: Could Mallory have succeeded in reaching the summit before he and fellow climber Andrew Sandy Irvine disappeared in 1924? In the quest for answers, Anker finally returns to Everest in 2007 with British climbing prodigy Leo Houlding, replicating as closely as possible Mallorys ill-fated expedition. The men retrace the North East Ridge Route, even removing the ladder from the infamous Second Step to free climb this dangerous 90-foot sheer rock wall just as Mallory and Irvine would have had to do 83 years earlier. Far more than a film about mountain climbing, The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest tells the remarkable story of George Mallory, whose famous reply to a reporters question about his reason for wanting to climb Everest (Because its there) has inspired generations of adventurers. Mallory was a passionate and complex man, torn between two overwhelming and competing loves: his wife and the mountain that ultimately took his life. Told through the poignant and evocative letters between Mallory and his beloved Ruth, the film combines previously unseen archival photos, specially restored film footage and dramatization with the present-day story of Ankers expedition to tell the tale of the quest to conquer Everest and the compelling longing for home. In this, Ankers story parallels Mallorys in a tale of obsession as relevant today as it was in 1924.