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The Fatal Game

6 votes

In 1994, New Zealand mountaineer, Mark Whetu, summitted Mt Everest with climbing partner and friend Mike Reinberger. However it was late in the day and after a freezing night on the summit, Whetu was faced with a terrible decision...to leave Reinberger or stay with him forever.

Status: Released

Released Date: 1996-05-17

Runtime: 52 mins

Director: Richard Dennison

Writer: James Heyward, Richard Dennison

Spoken language: English

Genres: Adventure, Documentary, Drama

Original title: The Fatal Game

Production Companies: Making Movies, Raytora Pty Ltd, Orana Films

Production Countries: New Zealand

Cast

Himself

Mark Whetu

Reviews

narrator56

This is a one-hour documentary that covers on a personal level one of the most volatile issues that come up when mountaineering is discussed, especially by non-climbers. This is the ethical and survival decisions made by people on whether to leave other climbers behind, probably to die. But this isn’t a vague case of climbers walking by a stranger in distress, perhaps pausing to urge them to continue or perhaps ignoring them. This is a climbing team member who was filming the summit attempt having to make the wrenching decision, with suggestions by radio from others at base camp, to save himself and leave his climbing partner behind. It is an interesting study of his personal dilemma and the issue overall. But mostly it is his own story of survival and the costs that came with it, both personal and physical. Mountaineering films rarely have the luxury of detailing this ethical aspect of mountaineering so closely, so it is well worth watching for that reasons alone.

2021-12-12

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