Search

EXT.  CAMP IV - THE NEXT MORNING
ODELL stirs from his sleeping bag and looks briefly around.  He sees he is still alone in his tent.  With a grave expression and with some urgency, he unfastens the tent flap and peers outside into the early morning.  The mountain is snowy and still.
EXT.  ABOVE CAMP IV - AN HOUR LATER
ODELL makes his way, as hastily as he can, with no oxygen set, to the higher camps where he is hoping that GEORGE and SANDY have returned late the previous day.  Although perfectly in control, he is breathless, climbing with urgency and intention.
EXT.  CAMP V - AN HOUR LATER
ODELL nears the empty Camp V.
ODELL
I SAY! MALLORY! GEORGE MALLORY! SANDY, ARE YOU THERE?
There is only the wind and the flapping of the tent canvas.
ODELL
(under his breath)
Damnation.
He looks determined, and hastens on up the North Ridge to Camp VI, breathing heavily.
EXT.  CAMP VI - TWO HOURS LATER
ODELL approaches the empty Camp VI.
ODELL
HELLO! MALLORY! SANDY IRVINE! ARE YOU THERE?
There is silence from the abandoned camp.
ODELL tears open the tent flap and sees there is no-one there.  He slumps down, a glazed expression on his face.  He knows that now there is no hope.
EXT.  ADVANCE BASE CAMP - A FEW MOMENTS EARLIER
SOMERVELL has been watching ODELL through his field glasses.  He is talking to NORTON, SHEBBEARE and GEOFFREY BRUCE.
SOMERVELL
He's approaching the camp.  It looks terribly still there.
(beat)
He's stopping.  He's just below the camp.  Maybe he's talking to them.
(beat)
Now he's walking again.  He's at the tent door.  He's going in.
(beat)
Pray God that they are there.
(long beat)
Odell's coming out now.
SOMERVELL sees ODELL with two sleeping bags, laying them into a cross in the snow.  He starts to speak, but cannot.  Wordlessly, he hands NORTON the glasses and turns away.
NORTON almost snatches the glasses from SOMERVELL and raises them to his eyes.  He looks through them for several long moments. 
SHEBBEARE and GEOFFREY BRUCE exchange nervous glances, as SOMERVELL walks away from the group before stopping a few feet away, gazing into space through unfocused eyes.  Eventually NORTON lowers the glasses and looks down at his feet.  His voice is wavering a little.
NORTON
My friends: they are not there.
EXT.  BASE CAMP - LATER THAT AFTERNOON
NORTON, SOMERVELL, SHEBBEARE and GEOFFREY BRUCE arrive at Base Camp.  Their colleagues greet them, eager for the news.  They converse briefly.  The shock and dismay is visible on the faces of the Base Camp team.
INT.  THE ALPINE CLUB, LONDON - 19 JUNE, TEN DAYS LATER
There is a ring on the doorbell.  A Post Office messenger delivers a telegram.  A secretary receives the telegram and thanks the messenger with courtesy.  The secretary hurries into another room.  He knocks briefly and does not wait for the reply.
INT.  THE ALPINE CLUB, LONDON, HINKS' OFFICE - CONTINUOUS
SECRETARY
A telegram, sir.  From Darjeeling.
HINKS
Well, don't just stand there, man! Open it.
The secretary, slightly flustered, opens the telegram, scans it, and looks blankly at HINKS.
HINKS
Go on, then!
SECRETARY
I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand it.
HINKS
What does it say?
SECRETARY
(reading with deliberation)
It says, "MALLORY IRVINE NOVE REMAINDER ALCEDO".
He looks up at HINKS expectantly.  But HINKS is looking thunderstruck.  At last HINKS looks up.
HINKS
(quietly)
Thank you, my good man.
(beat)
Mallory and Irvine have been taken by the mountain.  The rest of the men are coming home.
MONTAGE
1) RUTH is at her friends WILL and KA ARNOLD-FORSTER's house in Cornwall.  A local newspaper reporter comes to the door, and asks RUTH for a response to GEORGE's death.  This is the first she had heard of it.
2) RUTH walks in the garden after the reporter leaves, with WILL and KA.
3) INSERT: 1924 Newspaper headlines: "Tragedy on Everest" "Mallory and Irvine vanish into the clouds" "Did they reach the top?"
4) Hillary and Tensing return to Base Camp from their successful 1953 climb.  "Well, we knocked the bastard off", says Hillary.
5) INSERT: 1953 Newspaper Headlines: "Coronation Day and Everest, too!" "Everest climbed at long last"
6) 1999: climbers in modern, brightly coloured suits sweep search the North Face and discover GEORGE's body.
7) INSERT: 1999 newspaper headlines: "George Mallory found after 75 years." "Where is Sandy Irvine? Could they have climbed Everest after all?"
8) The great Everest North Face shines in the moonlight.  We zoom in until a tiny speck, which is not snow or rock, becomes visible in a crevice:  it is a body, with its knees drawn up tightly to its chest.  Then we zoom in further - until we can eventually see the little camera... still safely clasped in Sandy's frozen hands.


THE END

Fall

EXT.  BELOW THE SUMMIT OF EVEREST - CONTINUOUS
GEORGE and SANDY plod down the northern part of the summit pyramid, towards the head of the Norton Couloir through the thick lying snow as the sun starts to set.  The two are roped together on ten feet of rope, the unused length coiled round GEORGE's shoulders.  SANDY leads the way, GEORGE holding his rope from behind and above in case he slips. 
They near the bottom of the steep snow slope of the summit pyramid.  SANDY stops and removes his mask, panting.
SANDY
George, which way should we go?
GEORGE removes his mask, a little clumsily.
GEORGE
Eh?
SANDY
Which way? The Second Step is too much in the dark, surely?
GEORGE
Yes.
(beat)
Quite right.
(coughing)
We'll go down the couloir.
SANDY
Is it safe?
GEORGE pauses.  His eyes flicker a little, and betray his disquiet.
GEORGE
Yes.
He nods the way on, turning down to the left a little.  They put their masks back on and continue down.  They come to a stop at the head of the couloir and remove their goggles.  Though bright, the twilight is gathering.
GEORGE nods, indicating that SANDY should go down first.  SANDY looks at him uncertainly.  GEORGE nods again, and picks up the rope, holding it strongly before him.  SANDY begins to downclimb and we see him from GEORGE's POV.  There is a small ledge about twelve feet down, on which SANDY pauses, looking up, and then back down again.  His eyes show the verge of panic.
GEORGE's POV: He nods and begins to downclimb. 
SERIES OF SHOTS:
1) We are between GEORGE and the rock. 
2) GEORGE's POV.  His head is aching, his heart pounding violently, but his movements are clean and automatic.  Half way down to the ledge, there is a violent burst of pain, the wrenching headache has become an intense explosion of searing colour and palpitations seize in a moment of dizzying sickness and darkness.
3) A dark, shadow world, hearing voices from far away: a woman's voice, his mother's when he was a little boy.  There is a long panelled corridor of the rectory at Mobberley.  His sister Mary calls to him from the nursery.  He is running down the dark hall to the stairs, hurtling down the stair rail in the dark night. 
4) A woman's voice again, not his mother's - an Eastern voice, enchanting, murmuring his name.  Violent sickness and a nightmare quality.  The darkness turns an electric blue
5) Suddenly GEORGE is back on the Norton Couloir, clinging nimbly to the rock.  He is sick and pale and drenched.  He has made it to the ledge, but is utterly spent.  It is a tremendous effort to take off his mask.  He speaks as if drunk, leaning against the rock to support himself.
GEORGE
This is not a go.
SANDY pulls off his mask.
SANDY
What do you mean?
GEORGE
It's too dark.  Too late.  Too snowy.
SANDY looks down the couloir.  There is very little snow, except down at the bottom.  The rock is almost totally clear.
GEORGE closes his eyes. 
SHOT:
1)GEORGE is in Cambridge, at the boat launch beside the Cam with his team mates, in a jersey and shorts, laughing with them, young and astonishingly beautiful.
SANDY
Are you sure?
GEORGE snaps back to present, a little surprised to find himself standing on a ledge with SANDY.
GEORGE
Of what?
SANDY
That it's not safe?
GEORGE
Ab.  Sol.  Yes.  Bad day.  For it.
GEORGE closes his eyes again. 
SERIES OF SHOTS:
1) He is in the Alps, on the Moine Ridge on a day of the worst weather in twenty years, traversing through an almost complete whiteout. 
2) There is another blinding burst of pain in the head, and lurching halt from the heart.  He is tumbled back to the present.
GEORGE
Yes.  Damn.
He looks at SANDY, trying to remember who he is.
SANDY
George, all you all right?
GEORGE
(beat)
Yes.
Slowly GEORGE pulls himself out of his fog and looks about.
GEORGE
We need to climb back.  Up.  Try the tra.  Verse.  I'll go.
Turning, he pulls on his mask again and makes one sweeping reach for a hold far above his left hand, pulling himself up, finding hand- and footholds by instinct.  He is at the top of the couloir again in a few moments, and looks out over the vastness of the North Face before them, and the setting sun turning the nearby mountain tops rose and violet.
GEORGE
What a glory, this world, and a bloody terror.  I had no hope of getting us down, by any means.  Everything was now reliant on Sandy's strength and endurance.
Wearily, he makes his belay, mechanically hauling in rope as SANDY ascends the few feet they have downclimbed.  Pointing out over the Face, he nods to SANDY who leads down over the slabs of the Grey then the Yellow Band.
EXT.  YELLOW BAND - 8.15 PM
The two men stop, sitting to the west of where SOMERVELL stopped a few days before.  The oxygen frames are beside them, the now empty canisters lying about the rocks.  It is falling full dark now.
GEORGE has his head in one hand on his knee.
GEORGE
We need to move.  I know we need to move, but I cannot.  The body will not obey.  I can't see clearly.  What is wrong with me? Is this snow-blindness? How shall we get down? I must rouse myself.  He's saying something.  What?
SANDY has been doing calculations on a bit of paper with GEORGE's pencil.
SANDY
So that will put us at Camp VI at about 3.30.
GEORGE
A.M.
(beat)
Twelve hours.
(beat)
Damn.
SANDY
(apologetically)
Yes.
GEORGE looks out over the Face.
GEORGE
I think we
(beat)
should try for
(beat)
Five
SANDY
There's no stove there.
SERIES OF SHOTS:
1) GEORGE is at Charterhouse, before the Christmas Hols, in the house he shares with the other Masters.  There is a roaring fire in the grate.  Outside, through the window, the boys are playing in the rare early snow.  The room is dark and strewn with books and comfortable cast-off Victorian furniture.  There is a knock on the door
2) GEORGE is back on the North Face, in the encroaching darkness with SANDY.
GEORGE
We must go.
Wearily and unsteadily, he gets up, looking without enthusiasm over the Yellow Band and the expanse of the Face.  The traverse is over a mile to the North Ridge and 2,000 feet beyond that to Camp Five.  Faint, flickering lights are visible at Camp IV on  the North Col.  The night is clear and very cold.
GEORGE nods, and picks up his ice-axe.
EXT.  YELLOW BAND TO SNOW TERRACE - LATER
GEORGE's POV: The two men start off, SANDY leading down, with GEORGE belaying behind.  They are ten feet apart, but as the night progresses, GEORGE lets out more and more rope, until there is some twenty slack feet between them.  GEORGE steps slowly, carefully, mechanically.
SERIES OF SHOTS:
1) GEORGE in a grey haze of the shadow world.
2) A little dark woman appears in his vision.  She is wearing ancient Nepali dress, with painted eyes and a strange hungry smile.  She murmurs his name and sings a low haunting song in Sanskrit:

"The fire blazing from your heart symbolises that the warm and blissful wisdom of Dumo-heat will melt the ice of wandering thoughts.  The Sun and moon shining from your heart presage your e'er remaining in the never-coming, never-going Realm of Great Light." 
FADE TO:
3) A red-black haze of pain, the heart skipping, no mind.  GEORGE is stumbling and drifting in the shadowland
4) SANDY and GEORGE out on the Face, a quarter of the way across the Band.
5) GEORGE is with RUTH in a meadow in Tuscany, knee-deep in flax in flower.  Rhe has armfuls of it, and is laughing ahead of him, in a pale blue dress, the colour of the flowers, the colour of her eyes.
GEORGE
I shall always think of you in springtime.
RUTH
It shall always be our time.
FADE TO:
6) The words echo into the grey fog.  Far off, we hear the deep sound of Tibetan long horns, and the faint low rumble of chant.  It builds to the clash of cymbals and the red-black pain.  GEORGE is stumbling through the snow.
GEORGE
I cannot go on.  I shall never leave this place.  This hell will never end.  It is my karma, for the porters.  I have displeased my little goddess.
EXT.  SNOW TERRACE - LATER
The moon has now set and the brilliant light with it.  Now only the stars guide the two men.  They are half way across the Face, at the edge of the Snow Terrace.  SANDY is far ahead now, twenty feet or more.  GEORGE is now belaying the rope with his ice axe at every step, mechanically, an instinctive gesture.  The snow is not very deep. 
SERIES OF SHOTS:
1) GEORGE's POV: He is on a narrow path in an uncharted part of the Himalayas.  In the distance to the right we see the Everest massif. 
2) Immediately ahead of him is the top of a pass, and a snow-cave.  We see only the path before him, feet in Tibetan boots, occasionally his hands swinging out on dark clothes, brown with sunburn. 
3) In this white world there is a woman singing, the daikini, singing the same song as before, and, more distantly, chant and bells and horns, which grow steadily louder - as does sound of his breath and heart pounding.
4) The North Face, SANDY and GEORGE moving diagonally downwards.
5) The daikini, singing and the chant and bells and horns grow steadily louder - as does sound of his breath and heart pounding.
6) The North Face, SANDY and GEORGE moving diagonally downwards.  GEORGE forgets to belay.
7) Back in the Himalaya, with the woman before him, leading him on with an enticing, ghastly smile.
8) North Face.  Step.  Breathe.  Step.  Pause.  The singing and chanting and heart sounds grow louder, the heart racing wildly.  In his own vision he is ascending.
9) Himalyas/North Face.  The daikini is now before him on the Snow Terrace, between him and SANDY.  The horns become deafening, the chanting intense, the cymbals overwhelming, the heart racing until it can race no more.  There is suddenly stillness and total silence.
10) North Face.  GEORGE stops, but SANDY still trudges on through the snow of the terrace, unaware that GEORGE has stopped, as the rope is slack.
EXT.  TOP OF SNOW TERRACE - CONTINUOUS
The rope grows less slack and becomes taut.  We can see the slightly frayed area from the abrasion at the Second Step.  SANDY takes another step, and is abruptly jerked off his feet by the taut rope.  As he begins to slide, SANDY utters a strangled cry and manages to catch himself on a small, projecting piece of rock with his outstretched arm. 
Suddenly, with horror, he realises that GEORGE has also fallen, and is sliding away below him with accelerating speed.  At first he hears GEORGE's urgent cry, but it turns into a gasp and a shout and then fades as GEORGE falls from sight.
Still gripping the jutting rock, SANDY instinctively grasps the rope with his other hand - and realises that it has broken about five feet from his body: precisely where the rope had frayed slightly over the edge of the Second Step much earlier in the day.  GEORGE has fallen from sight down the shadows of the North Face into the night.
EXT.  MIDDLE OF SNOW TERRACE - CONTINUOUS
GEORGE's axe is knocked from his hand.  He slides and tumbles with increasing speed down a snow slope under the moonlight, knocking against shadowy islands of rock, which injure and wind him, on the way to a final resting place about a hundred feet below where the slope shallows out very slightly.
He crashes his head against a large rock at the foot of the slope, incurring a fatal head wound.  But he is still alive.  His lower leg is broken.  He is losing consciousness quickly as his life ebbs away.  He is lying prone, with both arms outstretched in their final position, finally having arrested his fall.  He crosses his uninjured leg over the other.  He closes his eyes and grimaces with pain.
EXT.  TOP OF SNOW TERRACE - CONTINUOUS
SANDY, unhurt, picks himself up and scrambles as fast as he can down the dangerous slope, slipping and sliding but somehow staying in control.  He is shouting in panic and despair.
SANDY
GEORGE! GEORGE!!
EXT.  BOTTOM OF SNOW TERRACE - CONTINUOUS
SANDY reaches GEORGE's body and kneels down beside him.
SANDY
Geo...
GEORGE
(whispering)
I'm so sorry.
GEORGE slumps into lifelessness.
Tears stream from SANDY's face.
SANDY
GEORGE! NO!! NO!!
SANDY weeps openly.
SANDY
NO!! NO!! NO!! PLEASE GOD, NO!!
The tears stop flowing and SANDY, now still, stares at GEORGE's body for a long time.  He shakes his head over and over again.
SANDY
I would not wish any man to experience my plight at that moment.  I had killed my friend, my mentor, my guide.  I, a clumsy tyro, ending the life of this the greatest of mountaineers, the greatest of men.
(beat)
What was I to do now?
SANDY stares at GEORGE's body for a few more moments, then reaches into GEORGE's breast pocket and lifts out the camera with the precious images.  He slips it into his jacket side pocket, and rolls GEORGE back over.
SANDY slowly struggles to his feet and, wobbling slightly, looks around.  Disoriented by the fall, he is no longer at all clear where he is.  Unsteadily, he picks a way towards where he believes Camp IV is situated, where ODELL is sleeping.  He stumbles across the slope for about two hundred yards, going more and more slowly, then slumps to his knees.
SANDY
It is impossible for any man who has never been in my position to know my great distress.  Sandy Irvine: the man who killed George Mallory.
SANDY, still on his knees as if in supplication, raises his eyes to the night sky.
SANDY
How was I to cope with this?  With the accusations? With the gossip? With the cruel comments?
(beat)
And the kind words?
SANDY's head is spinning.  He weeps again, briefly, then is still and silent.  He pulls the camera out of his pocket and regards it.
EXT.  SUMMIT - FLASHBACK
SANDY is taking three photographs of GEORGE on the summit.
EXT.  BOTTOM OF SNOW TERRACE - CONTINUOUS
SANDY is still looking at the camera in his hand.
SANDY
(slowly, as in a trance)
I shall ensure the camera is found.  ODELL will find us both.  He will find us in the morning.
(beat)
Then the world will soon know that George Mallory climbed Everest this day.
SANDY holds the camera in both hands briefly, then places it carefully back in his pocket.  Still on his knees, he looks around and spies a final resting place for himself.  He staggers up unsteadily, and settles down in a crevice between two rocks.  He draws his knees up to his chest and hugs them tightly.  He is shivering violently, and we see his tear-stained cheeks in the moonlight.  He closes his eyes and angles his head forwards so his chin is resting on his chest.  The scene fades.

Summit

EXT.  BETWEEN CAMPS V AND VI - CONTINUOUS
ODELL, wearing his goggles but without any oxygen apparatus, climbs steadily upwards alone.  His gaze alternates between the rock at his feet and the skyline.  He is looking for fossils, and also for his comrades up on the ridge.  He stops periodically, examining pieces of rock.  Each time he looks upwards, he sees the ridge shrouded in cloud.
EXT.  BETWEEN CAMPS IV AND V - CONTINUOUS
NOEL is perched on a sheltered piece of elevated flat rock, where he has assembled his movie camera.  He has a couple of boxes at his feet.  His gaze, and the camera, are both trained on the ridge.  But nothing is visible through the cloud.
LHAKPA and two other porters are with him.  They look cold and are huddled together behind a makeshift windbreak, but wait patiently and dutifully.
NOEL
(to no-one in particular)
Not a sign.  Besides George and Sandy, God alone knows whether it's clear up there.
LHAKPA
Sahib?
NOEL says nothing, and continues to look through his viewfinder.
EXT.  BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD STEPS - CONTINUOUS
The ground is now increasingly snowy.  The POV is SANDY's: the same POV as in the opening sequence.  SANDY places each foot carefully in GEORGE's steps.  The pair move slowly but steadily.  Every twenty paces they stop for a rest before continuing.  We hear the pounding heartbeat.
SANDY
I now doubt myself as never before.  I have to go on.  I cannot let George down.  The summit is so close now.  But I have never known such work.  Every fibre in my being is in pain.
SANDY
(beat)
I hope I can do this.  I hope I am man enough to do this.
EXT.  BETWEEN CAMPS V AND VI - A LITTLE LATER
ODELL, perched comfortably on a rock, gazes up at the ridge above, his eyes scanning the rocks high on the North face.  But the ridge itself is still obscured with cloud.  Suddenly, the cloud clears and the entire ridge is revealed.
ODELL gasps audibly, removes his goggles, and squints earnestly at what he can now see.  He spies two miniscule figures, mounting a distant step on the ridge, close to the bulk of the summit pyramid, moving swiftly.  One climbs to the crest of the step, and then the other moves up to join him.  Then the cloud closes in to obscure his view again.
ODELL
My goodness.
He is grinning to himself.
ODELL
My goodness.
There is a gleam in his eye as he continues to scrutinise the ridge, now shrouded again in mist.
EXT.  TOP OF THE THIRD STEP - CONTINUOUS
GEORGE takes off his mask.
GEORGE
I say...
He pants and catches his breath.
GEORGE
The clouds parted there for an instant.  I could see the North Col.
SANDY looks down, seeing only mist, and then up at GEORGE enquiringly.
GEORGE
Maybe it will be clear for our descent.
He replaces his mask and slowly turns towards the bulk of the final pyramid.
EXT.  BETWEEN CAMPS V AND VI - CONTINUOUS
ODELL continues to peer upwards.  He has a thought, looks at his watch, and notes the time in a small notebook. 
He then resumes his vigil.  We see his eyes: sharp, hopeful, waiting patiently.
EXT.  BETWEEN THIRD STEP AND SUMMIT SNOWSLOPE - A LITTLE LATER
The ground is now a little steeper, and is almost entirely a low-angled, but relentlessly steady, snow slope.  The pair now take ten paces each before resting.  GEORGE turns round and wordlessly hands his axe to SANDY, who hesitates for a moment before accepting it.  The two move on slowly, as if each step were now a labour.
EXT.  BETWEEN CAMPS IV AND V - CONTINUOUS
NOEL and the three porters are still stationed where they were.  NOEL looks up at the gathering clouds.  As the wind picks up, it suddenly begins to snow quite heavily.  NOEL buttons up his collar against the squall, puts his gloves on, and ducks behind the windbreak to join LHAKPA and the other two porters.  The three porters look at him expectantly.
LHAKPA
What shall we do, Sahib?
NOEL
We shall stay right here, Lhakpa.
EXT.  BETWEEN CAMPS V AND VI - CONTINUOUS
ODELL reaches the empty Camp IV.  He is in the same squall.  He ducks into the vacant tent for shelter, and looks around him.  He sees various items of equipment lying around, including some bits and pieces of the oxygen apparatus and a number of personal items belonging to various members of the expedition.
EXT.  SUMMIT SNOWSLOPE - CONTINUOUS
The going is now very hard and the snow is softer, shin deep.  The pair now stop every five steps.  SANDY rips off his mask and thumps GEORGE on the shoulder.  He tries to speak but can only gasp.  He takes off his frame, and GEORGE helps him balance it on the snow slope.  SANDY battles to change the bottles in his thick gabardine mittens, and then takes one mitt off to complete the job.  GEORGE helps him as best he can. 
Neither man speaks.  SANDY is gasping for breath.  Eventually, the new bottle is in place and SANDY clamps the mask to his face and breathes deeply.  He nods at GEORGE, then launches the empty bottle down the Kangshung Face, as he did earlier in the day.  The two turn upwards.  GEORGE resumes his trailbreaking in the deep snow, and SANDY follows.
MONTAGE [TO SOUND OF POUNDING HEARTBEAT]
1) Aerial view of the summit pyramid, swooping down over the two tiny figures low on the final slope.
2) It is now GEORGE's turn to be brought to a sudden halt, his second bottle exhausted.  The two men stop, and with SANDY's help the old bottle follows SANDY's to the foot of the face.
3) SANDY's POV again, following GEORGE's steps in deepening snow.
EXT.  NEAR THE SUMMIT - A LITTLE LATER
SANDY's POV, as before.
SANDY
(to the rhythm of his slow foot placements)
Stroke... Stroke... Must Go On... Must Go On... Must Go On...
FADE TO:
EXT.  BOAT RACE, HENLEY-ON-THAMES, 1923 - FLASHBACK
The POV is SANDY's.  The COX is shouting time.  We hear the pounding heartbeat, and the slow crunch of SANDY's boots in the snow.
FADE TO:
EXT.  SUMMIT - LATER
The pounding heartbeat continues.  The POV is SANDY's.  His vision blurs and dissolves between the sun in his eyes in the Boat Race and the dazzle of the snow of the summit pyramid.  As the COX calls time...
COX
STROKE! STROKE! STROKE! STROKE!
... the POV focuses on the blurred figure of a man standing before him, some dozen feet away and in a slightly elevated position.  SANDY stops, while we still hear the pounding heartbeat.  He removes his goggles for an instant and is met by the blinding glare of the snow of the very summit of Everest.
GEORGE is standing there, his mask and goggles removed.  His eyes burn intently and while he is standing stock still he is glowing with energy and vitality.  He has been in a world of his own, having a transcendental experience.
GEORGE
It is this for which I have lived, this for which I have climbed mountains; not for records, nor glories, but to be fully alive, at one with the soul of all Life.  And here, as no other place, I became what I most truly was.
GEORGE
Sandy.
(beat)
Welcome to the roof of the world.
He extends his hand.  Sandy plants his axe in the highest point and clasps GEORGE's hand with both of his.  He too removes his mask and gasps.
SANDY
We're here! Ye Gods, ye Gods, ye Gods.
GEORGE
Make that the Cathedral spire.
He reaches deep into an inner pocket and produces a camera.  Wordlessly, he hands it to SANDY.  SANDY removes his mitts and, gasping with the cold, takes two pictures in quick succession as GEORGE strikes a pose.
SANDY
And a special one for Ruth.
GEORGE gazes into the camera lens, his eyes aglow.  SANDY snaps a third, and hands the camera back to GEORGE.
GEORGE
Thank you for reminding me.
He reaches into a different breast pocket and produces a little sheaf of papers wrapped in a coloured silk handkerchief.  Removing a thick mitten with his teeth, he picks out a small photograph.
GEORGE
(to himself)
Darling girl.
With infinite care, he bands down on one knee, takes the axe, and carves a shallow scoop at the topmost point.  He touches the photo to his lips, places it in the scoop, and with a couple of strokes of the axe, buries it in the snow.  He puts down the axe and pats the snow around the photo with his mittened hand.  After a few seconds of smoothing, the snow appears again undisturbed.
GEORGE
It was what I promised.
SANDY is gazing out over hundreds of miles of mountains.
SANDY
Look.  Lhotse.  Nuptse.  And that must be Makalu.
GEORGE
And our friends on the North Ridge.
He points to SANDY.
GEORGE
I wonder if they can see us.
GEORGE picks up the axe and holds it aloft.  SANDY waves his arm.  Suddenly, GEORGE drops the axe and coughs, gasping.  He falls to his knees, holding his head with one hand.
SANDY
George?
GEORGE
(gasping)
I'm all right.  Just short of...
(gasping)
...Breath.
SANDY
We should go down.
He squints at the sun, low in the western sky over Makalu.  GEORGE is still on one knee, looking dazed.  SANDY puts his goggles back on.
SANDY
George, old man, do put your goggles back on.
GEORGE does not move.
SANDY
George!
GEORGE
Eh?
SANDY
Your goggles.  Best put them on, you know.
GEORGE
(slurring his voice a little)
Oh.  Yes.
GEORGE fishes for a while in his pocket and finds his goggles.  He fumbles with them hopelessly as he tries to place them over his lined leather helmet, eyes and ears.  SANDY takes off a mitten and helps him.
SANDY
That's it.
GEORGE
Thank.
(beat)
You.
SANDY
(now a little alarmed)
George, we should go down.  Please put your mask on.
GEORGE looks baffled for a moment.
SANDY
Your mask.
GEORGE
Mask.  Yes, my mask.
George fumbles for his mask, and SANDY helps him.  SANDY now puts his own back on, picks up the axe, and points downhill the way they came.
EXT.  BETWEEN CAMP IV AND V - CONTINUOUS
NOEL and the three porters are huddled together.  NOEL continues to peer through his viewfinder, but is shivering.
LHAKPA
Sahib?
NOEL
I know, Lhakpa.  It's too late.  We've missed them, wherever they are.
He looks dejected.
NOEL
Come, we have to get to camp.
NOEL gets up and, stiff with the late afternoon cold, starts to dismantle his equipment.
NOEL
They'll tell us tomorrow if they made it.

Last Climb

EXT.  CAMP V TO CAMP VI, 3 JUNE - MORNING
NORTON, SOMERVELL, and three PORTERS climb to CAMP VI, arriving at 1.30 PM.  The PORTERS descend.
INT.  TENT, CAMP VI, 26,800 FT. - EVENING
The tent is strewn with clothes and food stores and a couple of oxygen cylinders with frames.  NORTON and SOMERVELL use the oxygen to be able to get some rest.
INT.  TENT CAMP VI, 4 JUNE - MORNING
NORTON and SOMERVELL wake early.  The sun is not quite up.
NORTON
Damn.
SOMERVELL
(dully)
What's the matter?
NORTON
The thermos has leaked.
He pulls the thermos out from his sleeping bag, to reveal a loose-fitting cap, and pours half a cupful of water into a tin mug.
SOMERVELL
How is it?
NORTON
Tepid.  Here...
He hands over the mug to SOMERVELL.
NORTON
You need it.
He struggles out of his bag.
NORTON
(resignedly)
I'll go melt some more snow.
EXT.  CAMP VI TO THE NORTH-EAST RIDGE - LATER
NORTON and SOMERVELL are ready to start off.  NORTON looks at his watch.  It is 6.45 AM, later than they wanted to start.  The day is clear and warm and perfect, windless, and remains so all day.
They climb up the North Ridge, making a slow, careful way.  About 500 feet below the crest of the Ridge they stop to consider the way.  SOMERVELL is beset by a violent fit of coughing.  NORTON scans the Ridge above and the Yellow and Grey Bands to their right.
NORTON
Do you feel fit enough to climb those rock steps? I can see at least three from here.  They don't look bad, but they're fairly exposed.
SOMERVELL scans the Ridge above them.
SOMERVELL
(dubiously)
I could, but I'd be doubtful of downclimbing them.
NORTON looks out over the North Face.
NORTON
Well then.  We could traverse over.  There's a chimney I see that leads up to the summit.  That would make it one climb rather than several.
(beat)
What do you think?
SOMERVELL
That's more appealing, if not a terrific challenge for you.
NORTON
(smiling)
Everything is a terrific challenge just now.  I'd be happy with less.
(beat)
Let's do it.
SOMERVELL nods, coughing, and NORTON starts off ahead of him, picking his way to a gully leading to the top of the Yellow Band.
EXT.  YELLOW BAND - NOON
NORTON is twenty yards ahead of SOMERVELL, breathing hard and long between steps.  He is not wearing goggles on the dark rock, and passes his hand across his eyes, squinting, every few minutes.
SOMERVELL stops, overtaken by a violent fit of coughing, worse than any yet, which nearly topples him down the North Face.  He sits down.  When it is over and he has recovered he shouts across to NORTON repeatedly.  NORTON stops and sits, waiting as SOMERVELL laboriously makes his way towards him.  They are very close to the Couloir, and the summit is a 1000-foot climb above.
SOMERVELL
I don't think I can go on.
SOMERVELL
(beat)
I can wait here while you have a dash.
NORTON
Are you sure?
SOMERVELL
Yes.  This throat has taken it out of me.  I nearly fell back there.
There is a long moment of silence.
NORTON
(shivering)
All right, old son.
(beat)
All right.
Wearily, he gets up and starts off.
EXT.  NORTH FACE - AN HOUR LATER
View from afar.  NORTON traverses the last few feet to the Couloir.  The base of it is clogged with snow.  He makes several attempts to begin the climb, sinking knee-deep then waist-deep in the snow.
View close up.  NORTON scans the rock above him, the North Face, and the sky.  He shakes his head in frustration, then resignation.
Looking up at the Couloir route and the summit once more, he turns away, and begins traversing back over the ground he has just crossed.
EXT.  BELOW CAMP V - NIGHT
NORTON is far below SOMERVELL, finding his way carefully in the dark with an electric torch.  SOMERVELL stops with another bout of coughing.  This one puts him on the ground.  He is choking, able to breathe neither in nor out.  His face turns red, and then purple.  Gaping, eyes wide, he tries repeatedly to dislodge whatever is stuck in his throat, but cannot.  At last, he lies down on the sloping ground and gives a tremendous, rib-cracking push inward on his chest with both hands.  Coughing, gasping, he rolls over and coughs up the obstruction and a lot of blood.  He yells in pain.  Breathing free, he weakly struggles up to a half-sitting position and examines the coughed up matter: it is the frostbitten lining of his throat.
SOMERVELL slowly rises wearily and stumbles down the mountain towards CAMP IV.  Eventually he catches NORTON up.
NORTON
There you are.  Are you all right to glissade? We can make it to the Col in half an hour that way.
SOMERVELL
No.
NORTON
All right.
He switches his torch back on and they go down together, climbing slowly and carefully.
EXT.  CAMP IV NORTH COL - LATER THAT NIGHT
GEORGE and ODELL meet NORTON and SOMERVELL about 100 feet above the camp, with oxygen cylinders.  When they are in sight, GEORGE shouts to them.
GEORGE
We have OXYGEN!
NORTON
(shouting)
WE DON'T WANT THE DAMNED OXYGEN! WE WANT DRINK!
He shouts this several times, like a mantra, before his voice gives out.
INT.  TENT, CAMP IV - LATER
NORTON sits on a camp stool, while NOEL, ODELL, and GEORGE examine his eyes and feed him soup and tea.  He has begun to go snow-blind and is in great pain.  SOMERVELL is lying in a sleeping bag, propped up.  SANDY is feeding him soup.
INT.  MESS TENT, 5 JUNE - MORNING
Breakfast is breaking up.  GEORGE and SOMERVELL are at the table, GEORGE listening to SOMERVELL's descriptions of the route.
SOMERVELL
...I got some fairly good pictures in the Band, when I wasn't coughing.   Noel can develop them today if you like.  You'll see that the ground is much steeper than it appears.
GEORGE
Thank you, Howard, I'd appreciate that.
(beat)
Damn!
He runs a hand through his hair.
GEORGE
I forgot my camera at II! I say, can you lend me yours?
SOMERVELL
(smiling)
Of course.  I've got more film, but if you think you might run out you can get some from Noel.
GEORGE
I might take one or two pictures, I think.  I'd be keen to see yours before we start off.
SOMERVELL
I'll take the finished rolls to Noel right now.  I need to look in on Teddy anyway.
He rises.
GEORGE
He was pretty bad last night, despite the laudanum.
SOMERVELL
I know how he feels.
(beat)
Come round in an hour and we'll see what Noel has cooked up. 
EXT.  CAMP VII, 27,000 FEET, 8 JUNE - 2 A.M
The camera swoops in from the shadowy vastness of the North Face to pick out a tiny speck, visible in the moonlight and perched on a small rocky platform high on the North Ridge at 27,000 ft.  It is a small bivouac tent.  This is Camp VII.
INT.  SMALL BIVOUAC TENT - CONTINUOUS
It is dark.  GEORGE AND SANDY are cocooned in their sleeping bags.  They are wrapped and muffled in all the clothing they have.  Each is awake, but each has been careful not to disturb the other.  They have been able to snatch one or two hours of restless half-sleep.
An alarm goes off.  It is not loud, but quite audible.  GEORGE stirs, and fiddles with his watch.  The alarm ceases.
GEORGE
Sandy, are you awake?
SANDY
Of course.
SANDY
(beat)
How are you this fine morning?
GEORGE
(shivering)
Never felt better.
(beat)
This reminds me of my wedding day.  I couldn't sleep then, either.
(beat)
The finest day of my life.  But this day may be finer.
SANDY
I couldn't sleep before the boat race either.  It didn't stop us winning.
(beat)
You woke up at two in the morning on your wedding day?
GEORGE
One day you'll be married, and then you'll understand.
SANDY laughs.
Both men stir with some difficulty.  It is clearly bitterly cold.  With slow efficiency of movement, as if rehearsed, they prepare themselves for leaving the tent.  They do not need to dress, for they have nothing else to put on.  SANDY lights the small stove to melt some snow.  GEORGE retrieves his boots from deep inside his sleeping bag and holds them one by one, inverted, over the stove.  A muddy drip falls into the melting snow in the pan.
GEORGE moves to pick out the offending dirt.  SANDY motions to stop him.
SANDY
It'll add some flavour.  I could do with a change.
GEORGE
We could boil them both, if you like.  That might add wings to our heels.
EXT.  BIVOUAC TENT - TWO HOURS LATER
The sky is slightly lighter, and the moon is lower in the sky.  GEORGE emerges from the tent, followed by SANDY.  Each man moves slowly and deliberately.  SANDY stands up straight and looks at his watch from beneath his gloves.
SANDY
Ten past four.  I say.  Not bad at all.
GEORGE
The best Alpine days I've had have always started like this.  Not a breath of wind.  I can hardly believe it.  It won't stay like this.
(beat)
But the gods may have given us a reprieve to get us moving along.
SANDY reaches down to pick up a pack frame with three bottles of oxygen.  He holds it for GEORGE to put on his back.  Then he picks up his own, hands it to GEORGE, who holds it for him.  Neither speaks.  GEORGE extends his gloved hand to SANDY, who shakes it firmly.
GEORGE
Here we go.
SANDY
Here we go.
SANDY adjusts something on GEORGE's oxygen frame.
SANDY
There.  Half flow.  How does that feel?
GEORGE takes a few deep breaths from his mask.
GEORGE
Perfectly fine.
SANDY
We'll have until sundown.
GEORGE
We'll be back in time for tea.
MONTAGE
1) The two men set off, moving slowly but without pause up the ridge, gradually picking their way.  GEORGE leads.  SANDY places his feet deliberately and precisely where GEORGE does.
2) The camera swoops in again over the North Face.  The sky is lightening as dawn approaches.  Two tiny dots move gradually upwards.  The camera zooms in to reveal the two men making slow and steady progress.
3) The two men emerge on the North-East Ridge, silhouetted against the brightening sky where the sun will rise.  They stop and look down the giant Kangshung Face.  This is their first sight of this immense precipice. 
GEORGE points downwards.  They remove their masks to exchange some brief words, then replace them again.  They start to move on up the ridge towards the summit of the mountain, a mile to the right.
4) The sun rises.  The two men, picking their way methodically along the ridge, stop and admire the sunrise.  It is a clear and fine morning.
5) They approach the First Step, a significant obstacle on the ridge.  They stop.
6) One man puts down his ice axe, takes off his frame, fiddles with the fixings, unfastens one bottle, and tucks it into a cleft between two rocks.  They continue.  One man is carrying two bottles while the other has three. 
7) INSERT: The ice axe, lying forgotten on an easy-angled slab of rock.
8) GEORGE climbs the First Step with slow, precise, economical movements.  He encounters no difficulty.  He trails a loose rope.  SANDY follows and arrives at the top of the step.  GEORGE has the rope belayed over his shoulder.
EXT.  TOP OF THE FIRST STEP - MORNING
GEORGE takes off his mask.
GEORGE
Well done! Sterling work.  Are you all right?
SANDY is breathless.  He nods.  He does not take off his mask, but his goggles are lifted to his forehead.  He appears happy and relieved.
GEORGE
Good show.  I must change my bottle now.  It expired down there but I wanted to press on.
He moves to take off his frame, but SANDY turns him round and deftly unfastens the empty bottle, connecting a new one.  He takes the empty bottle, looks around, and then moves to cast it down the North Face.  GEORGE motions to stop him.  He points down the Kangshung Face.
GEORGE
No, the other side.  They'll think one of us has fallen.
SANDY nods and casts the bottle down the Kangshung Face.  It slides and cartwheels down the two mile high slope to the glacier below.  It is a long fifteen seconds before it disappears from view.
SANDY removes his mask.
SANDY
Ye Gods.
GEORGE
Where's your axe?
SANDY is still looking down the giant face.
SANDY
Eh?
GEORGE
Your axe.  Where is it?
SANDY
I have it here.
He looks around, as does GEORGE.
SANDY
(alarmed)
Is it in my frame?
GEORGE peers at his frame.
GEORGE
No.
(beat)
Have you forgotten it?
SANDY
I had it when we were climbing the Ridge.  And I used it to point down the East Face.  You remember?
GEORGE
I do.
Both men are silent for a moment.
SANDY
George, I think I left it when I changed my bottle.
(beat, alarmed)
What shall I do?
GEORGE pauses.
GEORGE
Nothing.  It's an encumbrance here.  And up above, we're walking up the snow.
(beat)
Relax, my boy.  There's no problem.
SANDY is shaking his head as if in self-reproach.  GEORGE pats him on the back.
GEORGE
Come on, old boy.  Noel will be watching for us.  And we're about...
He looks at his watch, then looks again, and briefly down at the step.
GEORGE
Damn.  I've broken it.  The hand's come off.  Can't think how I did that.  Well.
He takes off the watch and puts it in his pocket.
GEORGE
No matter.  You've got one.  Come on, then.  We can't keep Noel waiting.
Both men look down to a sea of cloud through which none of the camps can be seen.
EXT.  BETWEEN THE FIRST AND SECOND STEPS - MORNING
The two men pick their way painstakingly along the blocky and irregular ridge.  It is a continuous scramble among large rocks, sloping ledges and minor steps, with occasional drops which must be downclimbed with care.
SANDY
I can't believe I left my axe.  I just can't believe it.  It must be true what they say about a man losing his mind at high altitude where there is no oxygen.  I feel I can hardly think.  But I've endangered our party now that I have no axe.  How could I, on this most important day? How could I let George down like this?
EXT.  FURTHER ALONG THE RIDGE - A SHORT WHILE LATER
SANDY
(in the rhythm of his footsteps, sounding as if he is in a semi-trance)
Mustn't let the team down.  Mustn't let the team down.  MUSTN'T let the team down.  Got to get there.  Got to get there.  GOT to get there.  Keep going.  Keep going.  Keep going.
FADE TO:
EXT.  HENLEY-ON-THAMES, THE OXFORD V. CAMBRIDGE BOAT RACE, 1923 - FLASHBACK
The POV is that of SANDY, looking at the back of the oarsman in front of him.  The COX is shouting time at the top of his voice.
COX
STROKE! STROKE! STROKE! STROKE!
SANDY
(as if under his breath)
Keep going.  Keep going.  Keep going.  Another stroke.  Another stroke.  Another stroke.  Got to finish.  Got to finish.  Got to finish.  KEEP GOING.  KEEP GOING.  KEEP GOING.
FADE TO:
EXT.  THE NORTH-EAST RIDGE, APPROACHING THE SECOND STEP - LATER
The 80 ft high Second Step looms before the pair, resembling the prow of a ship.  The rocks appear sheer and the drop on either side is extreme.  On the left side is steep snow and ice above a dizzying drop.  On the right is a steep and narrow ledge traverse which appears to skirt the main prow towards slightly easier ground.
GEORGE takes off his mask and points to the ledge.
GEORGE
That's the way.
GEORGE heads to the traverse without any further ado.  SANDY stands there for a moment and gazes at the formidable obstacle before them.
GEORGE arrives at the beginning of the traverse.  He scans it quickly, then turns to SANDY sharply.  He lifts his goggles to his forehead.
His eyes are intense, but his voice is quiet.  His eyes never leave SANDY's as he speaks.
GEORGE
Nothing to worry about here.  It's an easy go right round this outcrop.  Then we're down on that ledge.  Just do EXACTLY as I do.  I will go slowly.  Follow my hand and footholds.  All right there.  And easy.  Just do EXACTLY as I do.  Understand?
SANDY
Yes.
GEORGE nods, pulls on his mask, leaves his goggles on his forehead, and starts off, slowly, delicately picking hand- and footholds.  SANDY lifts his own goggles to his forehead and starts across, placing hands and feet exactly where GEORGE does.  Behind and below them the vastness of the North Face is visible.  As they traverse, a small rock skitters down and down, but GEORGE moves nimbly and surely.  SANDY follows with deliberate precision.
EXT.  AT THE END OF THE TRAVERSE - A FEW MINUTES LATER
At the very top of the broken section is a steep crack with a fearsome appearance.
GEORGE arrives on the ledge and waits for SANDY to follow him.  SANDY traverses slowly and carefully, and joins GEORGE.  His eyes are wide and startled.  He takes his mask off to speak.
SANDY
(gasping for breath)
Ye Gods and little fishes!
GEORGE
Splendid, what? This is much easier than I expected.
SANDY
It is?
GEORGE
Up there.
GEORGE points to the broken rocks above.  There is a small snow terrace, above which is the steep crack.
GEORGE
That's the way now.  It looks easy to the crack.  Then we may climb that, or we may climb the crack on the right.  But either way, there's no problem here.
FADE TO:
EXT.  NESTHORN, ALPS 1909 - FLASHBACK
GEORGE, GEOFFREY YOUNG and DONALD ROBERTSON are near the summit of the mountain, faced with an almost identical pitch.  ROBERTSON and YOUNG discuss how best to climb the narrow crumbly exposed crack.  GEORGE scans the rock quickly.
GEORGE
Right.
He launches himself up the narrow crack in less than five minutes. 
At the top there is an overhang, which he smoothly surmounts in a single vaulting gymnastic move.  Standing up at the top, he looks out over the Oberland, then down at his companions, who gaze at him in astonishment.
YOUNG
(smiling at last)
Galahad, old thing, you've left us the rope! How are we to follow on, after that?
GEORGE
(beaming)
Throw it up, Geoffrey.  Come on up.  The view is fine.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT.  SECOND STEP - CONTINUOUS
SANDY bites his lip and puts his mask back on.  GEORGE is already climbing the blocky broken rocks.  SANDY takes his mask off again.
SANDY
GEORGE! Shall I belay you?
GEORGE is already fifteen feet above him.
GEORGE
(over his shoulder)
If you wish! But I shan't fall here.
GEORGE is gaining height rapidly.
SANDY
(shouting)
WELL, PLEASE HOLD MINE!
SANDY puts his mask on again, checks the knot round his waist, and looks up, squinting against the brightness.  GEORGE reaches the little snow terrace and examines the steep rock above. 
There is a wide crack reaching vertically upwards for about 15 feet.  To the right, there is a flank of more broken, looser rock, with several other evident fissures; but it is still steep.  GEORGE steps to the right, and tentatively pulls himself a few feet up the steep wall.  A small rock comes loose and falls towards SANDY.
GEORGE
(shouting over his shoulder)
BELOW!!
SANDY nimbly steps to his left, and the rock, the size of his fist, explodes a couple of feet to his right.
GEORGE
SORRY!
George pulls himself up the steep, loose crack.  Balancing on small holds, he makes a couple of gymnastic moves.  He is now half way, balanced on a small ledge about a foot wide.  He pauses, as if in reflection.  Then he extends a foot high to the right, pulls on a small handhold, and reaches up with his left hand to reach the edge of the top of the step. 
He pauses again, as if for breath.  Then he moves his left foot to a small hold, reaches up with his other hand, and rolls over the top of the steep wall.  He is then lost from sight for a few moments.
GEORGE reappears, having taken off his mask.  He is blowing strongly, but looks triumphant.
GEORGE
IT'S ALL RIGHT! DID YOU SEE THE WAY? I HAVE A GOOD BELAY HERE.
GEORGE disappears again, then returns to sit on the edge of the step.  He has taken off his oxygen frame and has the rope over his right shoulder, held firmly against his body with his left arm.
GEORGE
UP YOU COME, OLD BOY!
The rope comes tight on SANDY and he starts to climb up the steep blocky steps to the snow terrace.  He goes slowly but surely, and reaches the snow after a couple of minutes.  He looks up apprehensively.
GEORGE
MARVELLOUS!
GEORGE looks down expectantly.  SANDY surveys the loose crack before him.  He picks out a few loose pebbles and throws them down the face, watching them fall till they vanish from sight.  He reaches up tentatively, as GEORGE pulls tight on the rope.
GEORGE
CLIMB AWAY!
SANDY attempts to emulate GEORGE but finds it hard.  He balances up awkwardly, and reaches for a hold which comes off in his hand.  He steps down with all his weight now on the tight rope and lands heavily, though still in balance, in the snow.  He looks up at GEORGE with considerable anxiety.
GEORGE
I'VE GOT YOU, OLD BOY!
GEORGE pulls hawser-tight on the rope as if to prove his point.  SANDY closes his eyes, breathes deeply, and steps forward again to the rock.  He reaches up tentatively.
GEORGE
YES! THERE'S THE HOLD YOU WANT.
SANDY slowly teeters up with his right foot on a small hold, with his whole body held in balance by a combination of his handhold and the tight rope.  His left foot struggles to find a hold, and eventually finds a small purchase.  SANDY remains there, spreadeagled, for a short while.  He looks up anxiously.
GEORGE
GOOD!
GEORGE grips the rope more tightly still and looks down.  SANDY is still stuck.
GEORGE
YOUR RIGHT HAND.  HIGH!
SANDY stretches his right hand as high as he can.  His left leg is shaking.  He inches his arm upwards and reaches a good hold.  As he grasps it, his left leg shoots off the rock and he is left hanging partly on the tight rope and partly on his right arm.
GEORGE
EXCELLENT!
SANDY is trying to regain a purchase with his left foot.  His strength is evident as he pulls himself up with his straight right arm, supported by the rope and a small purchase for his right foot.  His left hand is brushing the rock above, looking for a hold.  His left foot, now at waist level, finds the foot-wide ledge.  His left hand finds a small side-pull and with the aid of the rope he teeters on to the ledge, gasping for breath.  With his eyes closed, he looks as if he is praying.  Both legs are shaking.
GEORGE is now just a few feet above him.
GEORGE
Just a couple of moves to go, old boy.  Not far.
SANDY opens his eyes and looks up.  Their eyes meet.  SANDY looks as if he is pleading for help.  GEORGE meets his gaze steadily.
GEORGE
Not far.  Two moves and you're here.  Then we're a stone's throw from the top.  Wait till you see.
SANDY nods.  He reaches up with his left hand.  Then, abruptly, the ledge gives way beneath him.  He falls sharply on to the rope, which chafes briefly over the sharp edge.  GEORGE reacts with lightning speed and holds him fast.  The large block crashes on to the rocks below and bounces down the north face, generating a little avalanche of smaller stones.  SANDY, still with his oxygen mask, tries to speak.  GEORGE holds the rope with an iron grip.
GEORGE
SANDY! Find your handhold.  THERE.  Good.  Now the other.  GOOD.
SANDY is trying to regain his hold on the rock.  He now has two high handholds and is scrabbling with his feet.  He finds a small purchase and wobbles up.  Again, he looks in alarm.  GEORGE holds the rope tight.  SANDY reaches up again with a high right hand and grasps the edge of the step.  With an almighty effort, scrabbling with both legs, he heaves his upper body over the edge but can go no further.  He looks up at GEORGE, gasping through his oxygen mask.
GEORGE, his left arm firmly gripping the rope from over his right shoulder, extends a strong right arm and hoists him up over the edge.  Now safe, SANDY lies slumped on the flat rock as if unable to move, panting heavily and rapidly.
GEORGE
(with kindness)
Come on, old boy, you're making this look difficult.
It is a while before SANDY can speak.  Eventually he sits up and takes off his mask.  GEORGE is still holding the rope.  SANDY appears to have tears in his eyes.
SANDY
Thank you...
(beat)
I'm sorry...
GEORGE interrupts him.
GEORGE
Come on, old man.  We'll be at the top in a jiffy.  Look over there.
He points to the summit, which appears extraordinarily close.
GEORGE
Are you safe?
SANDY nods.  GEORGE unwinds the rope from his shoulder.  SANDY stands up unsteadily.
SANDY
What now?
GEORGE
To the top.

Rescue

EXT.  CAMP III TO THE NORTH COL, 20 MAY - DAY
GEORGE, NORTON, ODELL and LHAKPA make their way up to the NORTH COL.  They come to the place of the avalanche in 1922 and veer to the left.  To the right is a crevasse, a half a mile long.  Before them is a 200 foot ice wall and narrow chimney.  GEORGE climbs up it, with wooden spikes and spare rope in tow, protecting the route, cutting steps as he goes.  Soon all four men arrive on the North Col.  They dump their loads, eat and drink, and head down.
EXT.  NORTH COL - CONTINUOUS
SEQUENCE OF SHOTS
1) NORTON and GEORGE lead down, unroped, with ODELL and LHAKPA behind.  GEORGE is ahead of all, coughing almost continuously, cutting steps occasionally.  Behind him, NORTON, who is wearing crampons, slips.
2) Shortly afterward LHAKPA slips as well.  His rope comes unknotted.  He shoots down toward the edge of the ice cliff and a drop of 200 feet, stopped just in time by a soft snow patch.
3) Ahead, GEORGE scouts a shorter way over the route, and prods the snow clogging a crevasse with his axe.  He takes a step and disappears.
4) He hurtles into the narrow gap.  He yells.  Snow falls in on top of him.  Finally, he comes to a stop.  His ice-axe, in his right hand, is caught across the blue-white ice of the crevasse.  Above him is the searing blue sky; below, a very unpleasant black hole.  He is supported only by the ice-axe and the precarious grip of it in his right hand. 
His grip is sliding, snow is falling all round him and he cannot get a foothold on the wall of the crevasse.  Swearing furiously and coughing, he grips the axe with both hands, struggling against the still-falling snow for a foothold.  With a great cry, he throws his left leg upward and manages at last to wedge himself across the empty space.
5) Panting and coughing, he waits endless moments before he yells for help.  He is unwilling to bring any more snow down in trying to get himself out, for one false move will send him to the bottom.  After growing hoarse with shouting, breathless and coughing, he inches his other leg up the wall and braces himself crosswise.  With great care he wiggles the axe out of the wall.  Using the hole it has made as a handhold, he balances himself crosswise in the crevasse and climbs up some distance to chip a hole through the ice.  But he is on the downslope of the crevasse and there is nothing beneath him but empty space.  Above is a sleep slope of very hard ice.  He sinks his axe into this, and with a great gymnastic effort he swings himself up onto the slope.  He manages to climb up it by inches, kicking and cutting hand and footholds laboriously, until he comes to a patch of ice and snow.
6) Struggling over it, staggering and coughing and exhausted, he sees the rest of the party some twenty yards ahead.  The sun is setting, and he makes it to the end of LHAKPA's rope just before it sets.
INT.  TENT, CAMP III - NIGHT
NORTON and GEORGE are sharing a tent.  The two Meade tents are door to door once more.  ODELL and SOMERVELL are in the opposite tent.  NORTON and GEORGE are both in their sleeping bags.
NORTON
(calling out)
How's all at Sandringham?
SOMERVELL
All well! How's Balmoral?
NORTON
All well!
INT.  TENT - LATER
Through the night GEORGE coughs and tosses and sits and coughs.  NORTON tosses and sits and rubs his feet.  He pulls on several extra pairs of socks and piles on all his spare clothes and blankets.  Neither sleeps.
EXT.  CAMP III TO IV, 21 MAY - DAY
SANDY, SOMERVELL, HAZARD, and 12 PORTERS leave in a snowfall for CAMP IV, following the route of the party the day before. 
At the headwall of the North Col, SOMERVELL leads up, carrying SANDY's ROPE ladder.  All make it quickly and safely to the shelf of the North Col and continue climbing to the camp.  The men and porters dump their loads then SANDY and SOMERVELL return to CAMP III, reaching it after dark.
EXT.  CAMP III - EARLY MORNING
SANDY examines the thermometer outside the tent.
SANDY
Ye Gods!
INSERT: THE MERCURY READS -24 DEGREES F.
EXT.  CAMP III, 23 MAY - EVENING
HAZARD staggers into camp with 8 of his 12 porters.  Tiffin has just concluded and the men are making their way to the tents for their evening occupations or sleep.  NORTON is ahead of SOMERVELL and GEORGE, both of whom are coughing.  ODELL staggers behind them, obviously not having slept.  NORTON stops still at HAZARD's advent.
NORTON
Hullo! Good God, John!
NORTON hurries over to him.  HAZARD is incapable of saying anything.  They get him into the doubled tent and wrap him in as many sleeping bags as they can lay hands on.  SANDY is wrapped up in one of the bags at one end of the tent, not in his workshop, ill.  KAMI, the cook, brings in tea for HAZARD at intervals and eventually they get the story out of him.
HAZARD
(haltingly)
I went out first, to find the traverse.  And to test the condition of the snow.  I thought they all were coming on.  They were following on one by one.
(beat)
When we came down, I discovered that four of them had turned round.  Two have frostbite rather badly, and all are ill.  I was told that Phu had slid some way in the snow, and turned round.  The others must have followed his lead.
(beat)
I don't know how it happened.  We're all rather muddled.  On the way up one of the loads, one with food, came lose and went over the cliff.  So they won't have anything decent to eat up there.
NORTON
Good God!
HAZARD
(plaintive and bewildered)
I didn't know what to do, but try to get the men down as quickly as I could.
NORTON puts a hand on his shoulder.
NORTON
It's all right, John.  I wasn't blaming you.  But we MUST get those men down! George, Howard, will you go up with me tomorrow?
GEORGE
(coughing)
Yes.
SOMERVELL
(coughing)
Yes.
NORTON
Stout fellows.  Thank you.
EXT.  NORTH COL - NEXT DAY
NORTON, SOMERVELL and GEORGE and slogging up to the COL.  The snow is very deep; in places they sink to the waist.  All look exhausted, but GEORGE harries the other two like a sheepdog, continually before and behind as he did with the porters.  He arrives at the foot of the ice-cliff before the others and stands impatiently shifting from one foot to the other, poking his ice-axe into the ground, trying to control his temper.
NORTON and SOMERVELL are twenty yards away, stopped, just standing.  GEORGE looks from them to up the ice-cliff and into the storm-laden sky.  Finally, he stalks down the snowy stretch and shouts at the pair.
GEORGE
What the bloody hell is wrong here? Why are you standing about?  We MUST get on! The porters are in extremis up there and it's going to snow again! Why are you standing about?
He reaches them, breathing heavily.  NORTON looks at him apologetically.
NORTON
I'm sorry.  I can't feel my feet.  These crampons...
He looks down at his feet.
NORTON
Somervell thinks he might be able to warm them up, but I need to sit down.
(beat)
We were debating whether it were better to do it here, or at the foot of the cliff.  Or how I should get there.
GEORGE
I'm sorry.
(beat)
Can you walk with help?
He looks at SOMERVELL, for his medical opinion.  SOMERVELL nods.
NORTON
I should think.
GEORGE
Right.
GEORGE takes one of NORTON's arms and SOMERVELL the other, and they get him to the foot of the ice-cliff.  NORTON sits down and takes off his boots, one at a time, and SOMERVELL rubs his feet to restore circulation.
EXT.  ICE-CLIFF - LATER
GEORGE, NORTON and SOMERVELL climb the ice-cliff and the chimney.  Above them, standing on the edge of the ice-shelf is PHU.  All four continue on to the final traverse to the stranded porters.  The wind has come up, and PHU is stupid with the altitude anyway.
NORTON
Hi Phu! Are you all fit to walk?
PHU
Sahib.
NORTON
I say, ARE you ALL fit to WALK?
PHU
Sahib?
NORTON
WALK, WALK! CAN YOU WALK?
PHU
(brightening)
Up or down?
NORTON
DOWN, you fool!
PHU charges off as quickly as he can ahead, leaving the others puzzled, to the crux of the traverse up to the porters, where he stands pointing.
EXT.  NORTH COL TRAVERSE - CONTINUOUS
It is now 4 pm.  The sun is angling low and the wind is picking up.
SOMERVELL
(coughing)
I'll go up.  Belay me.
GEORGE and NORTON dig in their axes, and slowly pay out the 200-ft.  rope from them.  SOMERVELL slowly and laboriously makes his way diagonally, punching big safe steps, pausing now and then in a coughing fit.  After one of these, he leans his head on his forearm against the snow, for the slope is nearly vertical.
Ten yards from where the men are waiting, the rope runs out.  SOMERVELL turns to look at GEORGE and NORTON.  If he should slip now, the rope will not stop him going over the cliff.  They cannot haul it in fast enough.
SOMERVELL
(shouting)
What shall we do?
He coughs.
NORTON
(shouting, to GEORGE)
What shall he do?
GEORGE
(shouting)
They must come down!
He looks about.
GEORGE
(shouting)
If we anchor to the serac, they'll think it safe.  It's all that matters!
NORTON
(shouting)
If they fall...
GEORGE
(shouting)
It's the only way!
(to SOMERVELL)
Bring them down! TELL THEM TO COME DOWN TO YOU!
He has to shout this several times before SOMERVELL nods.  The wind is howling.
The FIRST PORTER makes it down.  SOMERVELL is holding out his hand and catches the man in a strong grip.  The FIRST PORTER takes told of the taut rope, and starts down to GEORGE and NORTON.
The SECOND and THIRD PORTERS eye each other and the wild weather, and start down the slope together.
NORTON
Oh my God!
The PORTERS are flying down the slope.  A big patch of fresh snow surface gives way, and the men are going down on their backs, feet first, in an almost upright position.  There is nothing to stop them from shooting off over the ice-cliff into oblivion.
SUDDENLY, after a free-fall of ten or so yards, they stop.  The snow under their feet has been bound by the cold to a holding consistency.  They are at the very edge of the shelf.
SOMERVELL
(coolly)
Tell them to sit still!
Untying the rope from his waist, SOMERVELL digs his axe into the soft snow up to the head and passes the rope around it.  He makes his way down to the porters.  Grasping to rope with one hand he grabs each of the porters in turn by the scruff of the neck, swearing at them, and puts them onto the rope.
SOMERVELL
Bloody idiot! Fool! Imbecile! What were you thinking  that you could fly?
SECOND PORTER gives an involuntary bark of laughter.
The pair are completely nerveless and slip and slide down the traverse, ruining the steps, saved only from a repeat of the tragedy by the rope handrail.  Finally, they make it down to GEORGE and NORTON.
SOMERVELL follows, tying the rope round his waist, balanced and erect, crossing the ruined track without a slip or mistake.
EXT.  NORTH COL TO CAMP III - EVENING
SERIES OF SHOTS
1) GEORGE leads down with PHU.  SOMERVELL follows with FIRST and SECOND PORTERS.  NORTON is last with THIRD PORTER (NAMGYA), whose hands are badly frostbitten.
2) Out of the darkness, almost a mile from the camp, NOEL and ODELL appear, carrying thermos flasks of hot soup.  They shepherd the party back to camp.
3) The next morning the whole expedition descends to CAMP I through terrible weather.
4) At CAMP I there is another meeting about how to tackle the mountain.  All the climbers are present.
5) GEORGE spending days in his sleeping bag, reading, writing.
GEORGE
It was a bad time altogether.  I look back on tremendous efforts and exhaustion and dismal looking out of a tent door onto a world of snow and vanishing hopes.  And yet, and yet, and yet the party has played up wonderfully.  Norton was right to bring us down for rest.  It's no good sending men up the mountain unfit.  The only chance now is to get fit and go for a simpler, quicker plan.  The issue will be shortly decided.  The third time we walk up East Rongbuk glacier will be the last, for better or worse.  We have counted our wounded and know how much to strike off the strength of our little army as we plan the next act of battle.  The train is all laid now. 
All sound plans are now abandoned for two consecutive dashes without gas.  It will be a great adventure, if we get started before the monsoon hits us, with just a bare outside chance of success, and a good many chances of a very bad time indeed.

Setting Camps

EXT.  BASE CAMP TO CAMP II - NEXT DAY
GEORGE, SANDY, ODELL and HAZARD climb the same route as the first party the day before, along with the 50 porters who mutinied.  They have left BEETHAM behind, who is still not well.  GEORGE and ODELL herd the men across the glacier carefully, start up themselves with energy.  Behind them, SANDY takes some of the loads of several of the porters, so that he is carrying a standard porter's load himself. 
He makes steady progress up the moraine beside the porters, with HAZARD behind him harrying stragglers.  The weather is very cold and windy, and the wind is against them sweeping from the east.  They arrive at Camp II where there are a few tents set up and a huge dump of stores, with a great number of men milling about. 
NORTON, SOMERVELL, SHEBBEARE, AND GEOFFREY are not present, only the GURKHA NCO and his two assistants.  On the arrival of the party they come out of their tent.  It is LATE AFTERNOON and the wind is now howling.  There are plainly not enough tents for all the men.
NCO
(to GEORGE)
Good afternoon, sahib.
GEORGE
(irritably)
Good afternoon.  Why the bloody hell are all these men here?  What have you been doing?  Why aren't the sangars built? Are these men supposed to sleep in the open? Did they sleep in the open last night?
NCO
Yes Sahib, they did.  They are here because they could not go on to the next camp.  We did not have the energy to built the sangars, Sahib.  So the men made do with blankets.
GEORGE runs a hand through his hair.
GEORGE
BLANKETS! BLANKETS! In the open! It was minus 10 degrees last night! Are you mad?
His face is murderous.
GEORGE
Blankets! While you slept in your tent I suppose with your goons!
He is completely disgusted.  ODELL comes up.
ODELL
Easy, old man, they're done in.
GEORGE
(angrily)
And so will they be completely, with another night out in the open!
GEORGE looks at the NCO with contempt.
GEORGE
(to ODELL)
We need to get some tents up and these poor men warm and fed straightaway.
(Beat)
SANDY!
SANDY is immediately behind him.
SANDY
I'm right here.
GEORGE swings round.
GEORGE
Good man yourself.  Let's get started on the sangars.  Perhaps our good NCO can learn by example.  Are you up to it?
SANDY looks cold and weary.
SANDY
Certainly.
GEORGE
Thank you.  Odell, can you and Hazard get the stoves going and get these poor bastards something hot fixed up?
He runs his hand through his hair again.
ODELL
Will do, George.
GEORGE
Right.
GEORGE
(to the NCO)
I'll speak with you later.  Go do something useful!
He stalks off toward the pile of rubble that was meant to be built up into sangars [rock walls in the Tibetan manner, roofed with canvas].  SANDY follows him.  They build walls until darkness falls, with some of the porters joining in after a while.  GEORGE now glows with good cheer.
EXT.  CAMP II - EVENING
GEORGE shouts in the wind to SANDY, working beside him.
GEORGE
Lord, will you look at them!
He nods toward the porters putting up walls near by.
GEORGE
It's an extraordinary thing, watching the conversion of men from listlessness to the spirit of enterprise.  All they want is a good example for encouragement.
SANDY
You've given them that.
GEORGE
WE'VE given them that! Don't think I didn't notice you taking their loads up the moraine today.
He looks askance at SANDY, smiling.
SANDY
It seemed the right thing to do.
GEORGE
Exactly what I meant.
(beat)
Come on then, let's get these buildings up: Mallory and Irvine, Housewrights.  Do you think it would go?
He grins.  In the distance the porters, who are working on the walls of another hut, are singing.
EXT.  CAMP II - LATER THAT EVENING
The building has stopped for the night because it is now, at 6 pm, too dark to see.  SANDY goes off to his tent, holding a handkerchief to his face.  He has a nosebleed and is going to lie down. 
HAZARD asks at the door of the tent [a pair of MEADE tents aligned door to door] if he is all right, at which SANDY nods.  In the distance, GEORGE and ODELL climb up, scouting the route to Camp III.
INT.  NOEL'S TENT, CAMP II - NIGHT
GEORGE, SANDY, ODELL and HAZARD are having dinner with NOEL, who in a spirit of mischief has donned one of his old Tibetan chupas.  There is no camp table in his tent, but several low boxes pushed together, with all sitting about like Tibetans.  NOEL sits at the head of the 'table' pouring endless cups of tea and telling about his secret adventure into Tibet in 1913.  Everyone feels warm and welcome, despite the wind outside.
EXT.  CAMP II, 5 MAY - EARLY NEXT MORNING
A blizzard howls across the camp, blowing down some of the tents in the night.  HAZARD, ODELL, SANDY and GEORGE struggle out to put the porters' tents to rights for them.  They return to their own tents as the faint glimmer of dawn is seen on the horizon.
GEORGE flings himself onto this sleeping bag, too weary to get in.  Everyone crawls into their bags, without bothering to remove their boots.  They will be up in an hour.
GEORGE
What time is it?
He draws his arm down from above his head and squints at his watch.
ODELL
(yawning)
Four.
GEORGE
Bloody hell.
SANDY picks up the thermometer.
SANDY
And minus 20!
HAZARD
(mumbling)
What was that about hell freezing over, gentlemen?
ODELL
(smiles a little)
Go to sleep, John.
EXT.  CAMP II - LATER THAT MORNING
The glacier is covered with a layer of powder snow a foot deep.  The world is crystalline, sparkling, and very very cold.  There is no sign of the porters, nor of anyone moving about the camp.
INT.  TENT, CAMP II - CONTINUOUS
It is full daylight out before anyone stirs.  The ochre light and ominous low-slung walls of the tent tell their own story of the weather outside.  The men all seem to wake at once and move about under their sleeping bags like reluctant bears.
GEORGE looks at his watch.
GEORGE
Eight o'clock! My God, what an appalling night.
He sits up, ruffles his hair and squints at the others.
GEORGE
I say, ODELL! SANDY! HAZARD! Rise and shine! We must get the porters up.
HAZARD
Must we?
ODELL
They won't rouse themselves.  They're afraid of the cooker.
SANDY
Are you speaking of me?
HAZARD
Only very indirectly.
GEORGE
What's the temperature?
HAZARD
(as if in an aside in a Shakespeare play)
Morbid curiosity bids him ask...
SANDY
Thirty-one degrees of frost.
HAZARD
You had to ask.
ODELL
(sits up)
Where's Jeeves with tea?
He rummages round in his sleeping bag.
ODELL
My boots are frozen, INSIDE my bag.
GEORGE laces his boots inside his bag.
GEORGE
If that's all we have to bother with being frozen, we'll be lucky.
He looks up at the ominously bulging tent, then crawls out from his bag toward the door of the tent and unties the flaps.  A draft of frigid air rushes in.
EXT.  OUTSIDE THE TENT - CONTINUOUS
GEORGE is outside.  The tents are bowed with 6 and 8 inches of snow and the whole camp is a foot deep.  He wades through the powder to poke his head into NOEL's tent.  They have a brief conversation, then GEORGE is outdoors again, hurrying over to the Mess, which is a sangar. 
He lights the yak dung powered stove with some difficulty.  NOEL, ODELL and SANDY appear, take saucepans and gather snow to dump into the large pot for water for tea.  HAZARD rouses the cook (one of the NCO's assistants).  GEORGE stops setting out mugs for tea, and goes to rouse the porters in their various tents.
EXT.  TENT ON THE GLACIER - LATER THAT MORNING
NOEL and his porters are up the glacier from the Camp: a knot of eight men, black figures against the dazzling blue white seracs that form the walls of the moraine.
Below, GEORGE and ODELL divide up the porters into groups to go on ropes.  ODELL and SANDY each have six, HAZARD has eleven, and GEORGE has none.  One of the porters takes up a very light load, much lighter than he is capable of.  GEORGE shouts and threatens him with a fist in his face before he takes a proper load of necessary items.
GEORGE
The glacier, which had looked innocent enough the night before was far from innocent now.  The days, I suppose, had been too cold for melting, and these surfaces were hard, smooth, rounded ice, almost as hard as glass and with never a trace of roughness.  Between these projecting humps lay the new powdery snow.  We should have all we could do to reach Camp III.
MONTAGE
1) SANDY leading his group of porters up the gorge.  The porters stop every five minutes to catch their breaths.
2) The parties follow along the trough.  The walls are 100 ft high, with dazzling seracs.  GEORGE goes back and forth along the line, chivvying, encouraging or shouting at the porters as required.
3) They come out of the trough on to the open glacier and are blasted with the wind against them straight down from the North Col.  Every step is a fight.
4) The man behind SANDY on his rope hangs back.  They change loads.  GEORGE comes up and makes them change back.
5) The exhausted party arrives in Camp III in the late afternoon.  GEORGE's boots are frozen to his feet.
EXT.  CAMP III - LATE AFTERNOON
GEORGE
Our progress was a bitter experience.  But our arrival at Three was worse.  It was a queer sensation reviving memories of that scene, with the dud oxygen cylinders piled against the cairn which was built to commemorate the seven porters killed two years ago.  The whole place had changed less than I could have believed possible, and brought a shudder to my soul.
(beat)
The stores were not properly organised as we had been promised they were. 
There was nothing for soup, which all the men badly needed, and the jam and cheese, those quick energy-giving fillers, were frozen solid.  But our wonderful Kami, who stationed himself at III in wait for us, made up a wonderful meal of mutton and veg and coffee.  If it was not plentiful, at least it was warm and we could, after pitching the porters' tents, retire to our sleeping bags and take a well-deserved rest.
MONTAGE: EXT.  CAMP III - NEXT THREE DAYS
1) Blizzards.  Porters and men all suffer from altitude sickness.
2) GEORGE wakes in the middle of the night to remember high altitude sleeping bags for the porters left at Camp II. 
GEORGE leaves at dawn for Camp II, bringing up more bags, and meets a party of porters coming up to Camp III.
3) There are too many men at Camp III.  Some porters are sent down to Camp II.  NORTON, SOMERVELL and GEOFFREY arrive from Camp IV.
4) GEORGE shepherds men down to Camp II.
5) GEORGE goes back up to Camp III in a howling gale.  He spends the evening tucked up in a sleeping bag playing cards with NORTON, SOMERVELL, and GEOFFREY.  SANDY remains in the other half of the doubled Meade tent, working on one of the cookers.
EXT.  CAMP III TO CAMP II, 10 MAY - DAWN
There has been a howling gale, -21_F overnight.  The porters and men are all suffering from altitude sickness.  The camp is covered in snow.  GEORGE, GEOFFREY, and NORTON are out in the middle of the camp, with ice-axes, trying to measure the snow depth in various places.  Violent gusts of wind hamper their progress.  They retreat to the Meade tent.  They consume mugs of coffee, and discuss what to do next.
INT.  CAMP III.  TENT - NIGHT
GEOFFREY
Retreat down to Base is the only way to spare the porters.  They are not acclimatising at all.  You saw them this morning: worse sickness and altitude headache than any of us sahibs.  They're just not up to it.  Perhaps it's the unusually bad weather.
GEORGE
But we can expect the weather to improve now!  And if it doesn't, then we can decide to retreat down to Base.  It would be demoralising for all of us now to retreat all the down to base ~
He breaks off coughing.  He is suffering from the pervasive 'high altitude throat'.  He takes up his mug of coffee and drinks it down while NORTON counters.
NORTON toys with his watch-chain on the table.
NORTON
Mallory is right that morale would suffer.  It would be an admission that the weather is too much for us, and would spoil the game. 
NORTON
The weather could turn at any time and we don't want to be all the way down the mountain when it does.
He looks at them all.
NORTON
We know the hardest go in the lower camps is from II to III, but being at II is better than being at Base.
(beat)
But there's no reason for all of us to be up here.  It's very hard on the fuel supply.  Lower down we can make use of the yak dung rather than solid Meta, which we'll need at VI and VII.
GEOFFREY
Would you be willing to send the worst of the porters down with me tomorrow? We can keep those who are stronger at II, in case the weather should change.
NORTON
Absolutely! George, will you see the stronger ones down to II?
GEORGE
I will, and I'll take Sandy with me.  He's still got a headache and it might do him good to sleep lower.
NORTON
Good.  Then, if you gentlemen are game...
He turns to ODELL and SOMERVELL.
NORTON
We can slog up to IV and set up camp there, so the climbing teams can come up in a few days, weather permitting, and finish the good work.
ODELL
I'd be happy to.
SOMERVELL
Me too.
NORTON
Then it's settled. 
NORTON
Geoffrey, you can tell the sirdars to pick which of their men need to be at which camps, and tell them we'll start early tomorrow.
GEOFFREY
Thank you, sir.
INT.  CAMP II - EVENING
GEORGE is in a tent with BEETHAM and NOEL.  He sits crosslegged before an upturned box writing a letter, coughing now and then.  DAWA, his porter, pokes his head in the tent, and speaks in Hindi.
DAWA
I'm sorry to bother you, Sir.  There is a note from the Colonel.
GEORGE looks up, and DAWA brings the note.
GEORGE
(in Hindi)
Thank you.
INSERT: THE NOTE IN NORTON'S NEAT HAND.

Dear Mallory: Have decided to evacuate III for the present and retire all ranks to the Base Camp.  Everyone very seedy.  Weather terrible, morale low.  Please proceed tomorrow.  Norton.
EXT.  CAMP II TO BASE CAMP, 12-18 MAY
SEQUENCE OF SHOTS
1) The two parties move down the glacier to BASE CAMP.  At Base GEOFFREY organises the porters into hospital tents.  2) In SANDY's party one of the porters falls, breaking his leg, which at BASE CAMP is seen to by SOMERVELL. 
3) One of the porters has severely frostbitten feet, which need to be amputated, and another is suffering from cerebral oedema and dies before reaching BASE.  The weather does not improve, with the same blowing snow and threatening grey weather as higher on the mountain.
4) GEORGE is sharing NOEL's tent and paces continually among the photographic gear when he is not reorganising lists for the stocking of the camps or revising the climbing schedule.  He is still coughing and appears very ill and feverish.  NOEL watches him from his workbench with a keen eye.
5) SANDY is in his workshop tent with parts of NOEL's cine-camera motors all over the place.  He is making gadgets for it, and fitting bits together from defective motors to make a workable whole.  He is also making a ladder from large tent pegs and rope.
GEORGE
I was going through a hard time, like I never did in '22.  Our retreat has meant a big waste of time.  III being so disorganised and no one who had been at that altitude before to help contributed to the disaster of lost time.  I could not abide the waste of time.  The later we made the summit day, the greater the chance we would be caught by the monsoon.  I revised my schedule of the summit day to 28 May, but it felt so very late.

Everest

EXT.  EVEREST BASE CAMP, 29 APRIL - DAWN
The landscape at Base Camp is like the moon, barren and rock-strewn, but for the tents and gear of the expedition and the presence of Everest up the Rongbuk glacier 12 miles away. 
Behind the camp, away from the glacier route, is a stream; the reason for the choice of this place.  At a little distance, away from the rest, near the water, is NOEL's photographic tent.
NOEL walks whistling from his tent to GEORGE's.  It is very early.  The only people stirring in the camp are the personal servants of each man on the expedition, who huddle round the Primus stove in the mess tent or move to and fro bringing tea and tins of hot water to their charges.  NOEL is fresh-faced with the weather and alert.  He has obviously been up some while.  He flings up the flap of GEORGE's tent and bends his head inside.
INT.  GEORGE'S TENT - CONTINUOUS
GEORGE sits against a pile of gear at the head of his sleeping bag, resting on his feet, with his hands flat on his knees before him, meditating.  The candle lantern beside him is lit against the dimness.  There is a strongly peaceful atmosphere in the tent.
NOEL
WHAT HO, Mallory!
NOEL pauses in surprise.
NOEL
Oh, I say! Terribly sorry!
NOEL begins to back out.
GEORGE opens his eyes slowly, smiling a little, but his gaze is intense.  He does not move.
GEORGE
Don't go, John.  It's fine.  What did you want?
NOEL comes back in and folds his tall body to sit before GEORGE.
NOEL
This is a surprise.  For all your talk of karma, I had thought it something of a joke.  Didn't know you went in for this sort of thing.
GEORGE
(smiles)
I didn't used to do, until I came here.  But Tibet casts a spell on one.  I find it quite useful.
He unfolds himself and reaches over to fill his pipe.
GEORGE
(conspiratorially)
It's not something one wants spread about amongst the hearties!
NOEL
No.
(beat)
I do agree with you.
(beat)
You know, I came to feel the same when I was here the first time.
NOEL smiles.
NOEL
Did I tell you that I was disguised as a pilgrim for ten weeks? Those were long weeks! I swear I've not been quite the same since.  I learnt a very great deal from the wise men I encountered.
NOEL pauses.  GEORGE remains still and silent.
NOEL
How to still the mind.
Another long pause.
NOEL
It does impart a wonderful clarity.
GEORGE is smoking and reaches over to move a volume of Grey's poems away from the candle lantern.  There is another long pause.
Eventually GEORGE speaks.  NOEL looks deep in thought.  GEORGE regards him with an intense focus.
GEORGE
It does.  I get my best ideas for everything then, whether it's routefinding or for writing, or how to structure the school curriculum.  But more...
He spits out a piece of loose tobacco.
GEORGE
Pardon me.  But more, it gives me answers to questions I never knew I had.
NOEL looks at him quizzically.
NOEL
It does?
(beat)
Say more.
GEORGE nods slowly.
GEORGE
You said to me in London, John, that I should have to ask Chomolungma if it were my fate to be here.  I thought about that late into the night.  Even after I came here I was sceptical of the natives' idea of the personification of this mountain in a GODDESS, even a wrathful one.
(beat)
It seemed to me to be much more of a masculine character.
(beat)
But when I was here alone on our reconnaissance that first trip, I had such a sense of this place as a...
GEORGE gropes for the word.
GEORGE
... Personification...
(beat)
... that it was almost frightening.  I'd thought of the spiritus mundi of a place as a general thing, before that.  Oh you know, in the Alps, the way the Aiguille Verte can look of a morning.  But here, it was different.  The land breathes, the sky encloses one, a living thing, and there are shapes in the dark that one cannot account for.
The men are silent again.  At last NOEL speaks, nodding slowly.
NOEL
I had this too, in the Phari plain.  Back in 1913.  I thought I was hallucinating.
GEORGE listens intently.
GEORGE
So did I.  Until one morning, I was up quite early for an early start. 
GEORGE
I was above Camp Three at about 5 AM, and I felt such a siren's call to the wall above the glacier.  John, I felt a sort of COMPULSION.  I felt it like a woman, drawing me on.  I looked up the wall, and there about ten feet above my head was...
(beat)
...I climbed up, and there was the most astonishing crystal ice-cave.
NOEL gasps.
NOEL
Good God! I know that photograph! It's extraordinary.
GEORGE nods.
GEORGE
It was an extraordinary place.  I stepped inside, and put down my ice-axe.  John, I tell you truly, before me there was a little dark woman...
NOEL is startled.
NOEL
A dakini!
GEORGE
(softly)
A dakini.
Both men are again silent.  NOEL stares at GEORGE.
GEORGE
I can see need not describe her to you.
He peers at NOEL keenly.  NOEL looks stunned.
GEORGE
I see that you have seen her too.  I had the strangest, most rivening sense of having been there before.  John, I was rooted to the spot. 
She did not speak but to my mind, and smiled and told me an old name.  And that it was my fate to come back to this place.
(beat)
There was nothing soft about her, nor her invitation, but she haunts me, and I know she is the spirit of this place.
He shakes his head.
GEORGE
I have fought her, but she is like a mistress one cannot let go of.
(beat)
I am of this place, John, in a way that words can scarce describe.  I love it, I hate it.  But it is what I am.
There is a long silence.  NOEL has tears in his eyes, and can barely speak.
NOEL
GEORGE.  My friend.  You are the only man I have ever heard brave enough to speak these things.  I've known them for almost twenty years.  I always felt there was something DIFFERENT about you, George, that went beyond books and your passion for the mountains.  Many of us have that.  But I never dreamed it was what I see in you now.
There is another rich silence, full of acceptance of what has passed between them.  It will remain between them, silently.  Presently, GEORGE relights his pipe.
GEORGE
So, what DID you come in here for?
NOEL laughs.  The tension is relieved.  George finds himself laughing too.
NOEL
To ask you if you wanted to come out and take some photos with me!
GEORGE
Done!
MONTAGE
1) GEORGE and NOEL climb up to the ice-cave with cameras, crampons and ice-axes. 
GEORGE'S POV: THE VIEW FROM THE INSIDE, LOOKING OUT ON THE GLACIER ABOUT BASE CAMP.
2) The expedition treks over to the Rongbuk Monastery for a puja.  Everyone is given a kata, which they accept graciously.  GEORGE, NOEL, SANDY and SOMERVELL leave theirs on, and the Abbot ruffles SANDY's hair as he makes his bow.  The party shows varying responses to the ceremony, from boredom to polite interest to scientific curiosity to devotion. 
NOEL and GEORGE exchange speaking glances.  There is a green thangka painting on the wall, of a snow mountain with the pure white body of a dark-haired man beneath it, lying at angles.
EXT.  BASE CAMP, EVEREST, 1 MAY - EVENING
It's cold, and the wind is blowing.  It's after dinner and everyone is in their tent.  One person climbs out of his tent with an object in his hand.  He walks over to another tent, holding the object and looking it over as he does so.  It is NOEL, and he holds one of his cameras.
INT.  SANDY'S TENT - CONTINUOUS
Sandy hears a voice from outside the tent.
NOEL
WHAT HO! Anyone at home?
SANDY
Noel! Is that you? Do come in.
There is a minor commotion in the bell end of the tent, and NOEL pops his head through the tent flap.
NOEL
(smiling)
What ho!
SANDY
Hullo, Noel! Another for the repair shop?
NOEL looks slightly sheepish.
NOEL
Well, actually, yes.  Can you help? You did such a dashed good job with my penknife yesterday.
SANDY
It was a pleasure.  Just needed cleaning and a spot of oil and the main blade straightened out a little.  It'd opened one too many tins of sardines for its own good.
He eyes NOEL slightly teasingly, but he is friendly and willing to help.
SANDY
What do you have for me tonight?
NOEL
I fear this may be a rather different proposition.  My camera shutter works perfectly nine times out of ten.  The tenth time, it jams.  I've lost several grand photographs because of it.  I've had as much of a play with it as I dare, but I find nothing wrong.
NOEL looks baffled but determined.
NOEL
Irvine, I must be able to count on my equipment.  I've invested £8,000 in the photographic rights and this is dreadfully important.
He now looks rather more pleading.
NOEL
Do you think you can have a look? Are you also good with cameras?
SANDY
If it's made of metal and has moving parts, I can see what I can do.  All machines obey the laws of physics.  If something's not working properly, then there's a reason.  When the reason is found, the cure is also discovered.  It's not complicated.
NOEL
Well, it's dashed difficult to the rest of us mortals.
(beat)
Here.  There's no film in it.
Sandy takes the camera gingerly, as if he were being handed a baby.  Examining it, he clicks the shutter half a dozen times.  On the seventh time, it jams open for a couple seconds, then closes.
SANDY
Ah, I see.
(beat)
Leave this with me.  I'll return it in the morning.
(beat)
You weren't going to take any photographs of the night sky, were you?
NOEL
Good Lord, no.  Far too cold, if I may say so.
SANDY
I agree!
NOEL
Well, thank you.  If you can undertake camera repair as well as everything else you have fixed, I think you're well-blessed by the goddess of engineering.
SANDY
(laughs)
How do you know it's not a god?
NOEL
Because I suspect that good engineers possess an intuition that is similar to that which women have.  They know what to do but cannot explain it in any language which mortal men can understand.
SANDY
(smiles)
Well, when I fix your camera I'll explain what I've done very precisely.
(beat)
Now, pray, Noel, please go to sleep and relax.  Your camera is in good hands here.
NOEL
I know that.  Thank you.
NOEL retreats backwards out of the tent, precisely the way he came.
NOEL
Goodnight!
SANDY
Goodnight!
Sandy delves into a large metal box, where he finds a fine set of watch screwdrivers.  Carefully selecting one, and with infinite care, he undoes a screw in the camera's housing.
Like a surgeon performing a delicate operation, he undoes another three screws.  He carefully places the screws into a small leather pouch, lays out a small sheet of clean linen over part of his groundsheet, and carefully eases the camera lens housing away from the body.
SANDY
Ahh!
(beat)
So simple.
Sandy turns again to his toolbox and this time selects a pair of needle-nose pliers.  Again, with great precision, he twists something slightly that is within the housing.  He now selects a piece of thin wire, and we see him poking the wire into a corner of the lens unit.
SANDY
That does it.
(with satisfaction)
Voila.
Reassembling the camera but ignoring the screws for the moment, he clicks the camera shutter twenty times.  It operates perfectly on each occasion.
SANDY
Good.
He now retrieves the four little screws and deftly re-assembles the camera.
SANDY
There.
He stretches, gently wraps the camera in the piece of linen, and places it carefully in a corner of the tent.  He then stretches out on his camp bed and makes himself comfortable.  He reaches into a bag for a notepad and pen, and begins to write.
SANDY
Dear Mother, It has been another cold day here but I must say that the scenery has been magnificent.  I had a jolly good ride with Mallory and Norton today, and Mallory laughed so much at he and me trying to stop our ponies from galloping away with us that he nearly fell off his own.  I am slightly saddle sore again today but it is better than being a footsore soldier.  I vow that I will get the hang of these animals, but Norton said that it was more the problem them getting the hang of me! That also made Mallory laugh.  It is good to see him so merry.  Sometimes he is deep in thought, and replies to one's questions and comments with the briefest word.  At other times, such as today, he is full of levity and amusement and witty observation, and it is a great pleasure to spend the day in his company.
SANDY pauses for thought, his pen in the corner of his mouth.
SANDY
I must say, I find myself hoping that I may climb with him on the mountain.  He is the best mountaineer in England if not the world, and I shall learn such a lot from him.
(beat)
That is, as long as he is willing to be my guide.
(beat)
It would be wonderful for me but would I fear be rather an unequal partnership.
(beat)
I could only hope to acquit myself as best as I can and not let him down.
(long beat)
Some of the men are sharing tents with one another.  I am on my own in mine.  I do not mind that very much, because it allows me to stay up late at night effecting repairs.  I think when I repaired Nim Tharkay's primus, I did too good a job and Nim was too keen to sing my unwarranted praises.  I should not have mended it so well! 
So now my tent has become a kind of repair shop that is always open and in which no customer is ever turned away
(beat)
or charged a penny for the service.
(beat)
The men seem grateful enough, but sometimes I wish I were regarded more as a human being than an engineer.  It is as if I have it stencilled on my forehead in large letters.  Andrew Irvine, engineer, mender of cameras
(beat)
oxygen sets, primus stoves, penknives, crampons, wristwatches, field glasses, walking sticks and spectacles.
(beat)
I receive visitors every evening, but they all come for a reason.  Not since we left the last Dak bungalow and started camping every night have I received a visitor who just wishes to talk to enquire how I am or what I am thinking.
(beat)
The answer to that question is that I am in good health and cheer, and
SANDY
that it is flattering to be regarded as an invaluable member of such an important expedition.  And I would work all night until dawn broke each day if need be in order to do my small part to ensure that the expedition is successful and that every man's personal equipment and effects are in good order.
(beat)
However, it is hard on the spirit at times to spend so much time alone.
SANDY writes nothing more for quite a long time.  Then he screws up his letter, and throws it into a corner with Noel's camera.  He then turns down his lantern, the light fades, and he closes his eyes to sleep.
EXT.  BASE CAMP, 2 MAY - EARLY MORNING
NOEL sets up his camera.  Before him, the expedition members drift in from the Mess, rather unwilling to have their picture made so early, but knowing it must be done.
GEOFFREY
(to SHEBBEARE beside him)
Once more into the breach my friends...
SHEBBEARE
I bloody hope not.  I'm not falling into a crevasse for anyone's benefit.  The Times will have to wait on that story.
MACDONALD
(to BEETHAM)
How are you, Beeters? You still look a bit seedy.
BEETHAM
Ah! Better, better!
His face tells another story.
MACDONALD claps him on the back.
MACDONALD
Right, you'll be back to your old tricks in no time.
NOEL emerges from under his cloth.
NOEL
Where's Mallory?
Laughter from them all.
GEOFFREY
Just coming! Can't a man fortify himself?
He arrives from NOEL's right, munching a sausage and wearing his battered porridge-coloured hat.
GEORGE
Where do you want me?
NOEL
Over in the back.  Next to Norton.
NORTON
I think we can make room for him.
NORTON smiles at SANDY.  GEORGE pulls his hat over his eyes.
NOEL
(good humouredly)
Will you take off that bloody hat, Mallory? You look like the village idiot.
Laughter from all.  BEETHAM mocks up a North Country accent.
BEETHAM
Dornee know nowt about picturalising, mon?
GEOFFREY
I told you he'd be back to himself in no time.
GEORGE
I hate having my picture taken.
Choruses of merry doubt greet this.
SOMERVELL
(affectionately)
Says the film star!
GEORGE
Bernard Shaw said we looked like picnickers in Connemara surprised by a snowstorm.
He winks at SANDY.  More laughter at this.  Everyone knows he adores Shaw.
NOEL
Please, gentlemen, now let's be serious and get this done, and George, take off that hat!
GEORGE takes off his hat.
GEORGE
Aye, Captain.
Laughter.  His hair is standing on end.
NORTON
Maybe he should leave it on.
NOEL
(with mock impatience)
Please!
Everyone sobers up very stiff and straight and NOEL takes the picture.
NOEL
I say, not that sober! You look like a lot of undertakers.
Laughter.
NOEL
Mallory, give us a summit pic for all the girls back home.
ODELL
For all those bloody postcards!
NOEL
(to GEORGE)
Put your foot up.  The conquering hero and all that.
GEORGE
On what?
GEORGE puts his foot on SHEBBEARE's head.  Laughter.
NOEL
No, too high.
GEORGE puts his foot on SHEBBEARE's shoulder.
BEETHAM
We've finally found something too high for George!
Amusement all round, except for GEORGE, who looks intensely into the camera.
NOEL snaps the picture.
NOEL
Thank you gentlemen, you may now get on with whatever social engagements await you.
EXT.  CAMP I TO CAMP II - LATER
NORTON, SHEBBEARE, SOMERVELL, GEOFFREY, and three Gurkha NCOs climb up to the glacial moraine between CAMP I and CAMP II.  With them are 150 porters, carrying loads, going slowly.  The desolation of Base Camp has given way to the high rising walls of the glacier and a river of ice.  Some of the porters are having a very bad time.
EXT.  BASE CAMP - CONTINUOUS
The remaining porters at Base Camp, seeing the loads their fellows have shouldered, and the long way to go, decide amongst themselves to go and see the abbot at Rongbuk.  They are about a mile out of Camp when GEORGE and ODELL catch them up.  GEORGE goes up to the man at the head of the line, a cousin of the interpreter KARMA PAUL.  The conversation is in Hindi.
GEORGE
What's the matter here, Chembal?
CHEMBAL
We are very worried, sir.
GEORGE
What are you worried about, Chembal?
CHEMBAL
Sir, my men are very new, they have never climbed, and last night they were hearing stories from those who have gone on about how difficult the work is above Camp I.  Then this morning, we see the great loads they are carrying, with their own blankets and other belongings.
ODELL comes up.
GEORGE puts a hand on Chembal's shoulder.
GEORGE
Chembal, thank you for telling me the truth about this.  I can understand that your men are concerned.
He looks out over the knot of men, nodding.
GEORGE
I understand that you all are worried.
GEORGE
(to CHEMBAL)
But what you must know is that today is a day like no other.  The loads will never again be so large as the ones the others carried this morning.  The climb will never be so far at once.  I promise you.  Do you understand?
He looks into CHEMBAL's eyes earnestly.
GEORGE
I promise you.
There is a long moment of silence.
CHEMBAL
Thank you, sir.  I understand.  And I believe you.
He pauses, and looks at GEORGE keenly.
CHEMBAL
I believe you because of how you were with the Lama at the monastery.  You showed him great respect and I saw that it was real.  And that is why I believe what you say.
There is another long moment of silence.
GEORGE
Thank you, Chembal.  Thank you.  You will come back to camp now, you and your men?
CHEMBAL
(with dignity)
Yes, sir.
GEORGE
Good man.
(beat)
But tell me, why were you going off to the monastery just now?
CHEMBAL stops then laughs.
CHEMBAL
We wanted to consult the abbot, sir, on what was right to do, whether we should leave or complain or say nothing!
GEORGE smiles.
GEORGE
That's a very long way to go for an opinion! Next time, ask one of us, myself or Norton or Captain Bruce.  We'll tell you the truth.
CHEMBAL
Thank you, sir.
The group all cluster round and as CHEMBAL talks with them, GEORGE and ODELL walk back to camp.
ODELL
Well, that was remarkable diplomacy!
GEORGE smiles.
GEORGE
Coming from me?
He shoves his hands in his pockets and looks out across the plains of Tibet.
GEORGE
I can hardly fault them, when I thought it a bloody load as well, and wonder how we are going to get up in this uncertain weather; when I wondered if I should come out at all.
He turns to ODELL with grinning good cheer.
GEORGE
Still, we're here! And by God, we shall get up!
ODELL
(smiles a little)
But you left out the important bit for them: that you respected their lama.  He spoke with something akin to reverence.
GEORGE
(grins)
Mere awful superstition!  Because he sees me in company with Norton late into the night.  I am friend to the big sahib so I must be important.  It's purely a matter of self-interest.
ODELL
You can't fool me, George.
GEORGE
As you will, old man.
He turns round to look at the company of porters, who have started their march back to camp.
GEORGE
Ah, they're coming on!