Meeting

EXT.  HIGH ON A LARGE SNOWY MOUNTAIN - ESTABLISH

TWO MEN are climbing laboriously up a snow ridge: their breathing is laboured and gasping; their hearts are pounding; they take slow, heavy steps, as if with leaden feet.  The POV is that of the second man, looking only at his own boots and those of the man in front.  They are making painfully slow - but gradual - progress.  They do not speak.  The pounding heartbeat, which we can hear loudly, seems all consuming, and grows louder as the scene holds.  The two men are nearing the summit of MOUNT EVEREST.  The year is 1924. 

A STRONG BUT YOUTHFUL VOICE, BARELY OUT OF ADOLESCENCE:
SANDY (V.O)
So: this is the Death Zone.  Where one feels too heavy to move; where the air is too thin to sustain life; where every step taken is a labour one wishes not to repeat; where if one sits down to rest one may fall asleep with a deathful slumber - never to awake.  This is not the first time I have asked myself in this endless day: Why am I here?

EXT.  THE BANKS OF THE RIVER THAMES - 1923

A rowing 'eight' pulls swiftly and strongly up the Thames at OXFORD, ENGLAND.  We can hear, distantly, their COX calling time.  The EIGHT YOUNG MEN are athletes, rowing in perfect time.  This is the Oxford University boat race crew in training. A man on a bicycle - the team's COACH - pedals furiously along the riverbank footpath.  He has a loudhailer, and is shouting encouragement. He reaches a predetermined point, drops his bicycle, and whips out a stopwatch from his sports jacket breast pocket.  With a theatrical gesture, he clicks on the time that the 'eight' has taken on the measured course.

COACH
        Twenty minutes, and fifty-six seconds!

The 'eight' collapse, spent, in their boat, having given their all.  The COX congratulates them, having beaten the twenty-one minute barrier.  The camera zooms in on SANDY IRVINE, a blond-haired, broad-shouldered giant, who is grinning broadly.

EXT.  SNOWDONIA – 1923

SHOT: HELICOPTER VIEW SWOOPING OVER THE SNOWDON HORSESHOE -NORTH WALES.
We first see a road sign saying PEN-Y-PASS, and then the camera swoops over the ridge of CRIB GOCH to zoom in on the huge rock precipice of LLIWEDD where we see two tiny figures high on the face.  The LEAD CLIMBER is lithe and nimble, climbing swiftly, gracefully, and without the slightest pause.  His PARTNER is more hesitant and less skilled, but the LEAD CLIMBER is encouraging him and ensuring his safety.  The camera zooms in on the LEAD CLIMBER.  This is GEORGE MALLORY.  He is handsome, beaming, and radiates energy, confidence and charisma.
EXT.  ON THE SLOPES OF FOEL GRACH, A 3000 FT MOUNTAIN IN NORTH WALES – DAY

We see the panorama of Snowdon and all the other great North Wales mountain summits on a gorgeous summer afternoon.  The year is 1919.  We hear songbirds and silence.  Then, the distant sound of a motorbike, growing louder, punctures the tranquillity. SANDY, against all odds, is riding his old Clymo - an old British motorcycle - up the steep mountainside, where there is barely a path.  He looks determined but happy, bent over the handlebars, egging the machine on.  He hits a patch of mud, slides a little, regains control, and then emerges on the ridge, silhouetted against the Snowdon massif.  He looks triumphant.  Slowly, as if to savour the moment, he takes the old bike to the very highest point he can identify, where there is a large cairn [a pile of stones].

A COUPLE are sitting by the cairn, eating their sandwiches.  They look at once astonished and amused.  This is NOEL ODELL and his wife MONA.  ODELL is a lean, wiry man, 29, with twinkling eyes.  He is smoking a pipe as he surveys SANDY, muddy, oily and suppressing his glee, who approaches the cairn and cuts the engine. SANDY nods to MONA politely, removing his helmet and accidentally muddying his face.

SANDY
        Madam.

SANDY turns to ODELL.
SANDY
Good Afternoon, sir.  I wonder if you would be so kind as to tell me the way to Llanfairfechan?

As Odell points the way, we see the two engage in conversation as MONA looks on.  ODELL is animated and clearly taken with this young man's escapade.  Then SANDY waves and departs, shouting over the noise of his engine.
SANDY
        I SHALL BE LATE FOR TEA!

INT: THE FABIAN SOCIETY PREMISES - READING AUGUST 1922 – EVENING

A dusty church hall of a building with dark unvarnished panelling and assorted benches and folding chairs.  The room is not large and is about three-quarters full of university students, both men and women, local climbers, and the curious.  The room is in semi-darkness, with a small screen set up at the head with a large table before it, and a slide projector near the front.
GEORGE is standing in the aisle, the cord to the machine in his hand.  On the screen is a photo of GEOFFREY BRUCE crossing a crevasse.

GEORGE
Here you see Captain Bruce, one of our medical officers and liaison with the porters, crossing a crevasse on the Lakpa La.  He proved to be our most successful new team member, but not for the reasons just mentioned.  For while it is true that Captain Bruce vastly increased the happiness of our porters and thus the happiness of everybody, his great success comes in having been one of two - along with Mr. Finch - to climb highest with bottled oxygen.  To an altitude of 27,300 feet, as some of you may already have heard, as it is the record for our expedition.
(beat)
But what makes Captain Bruce's achievement even more remarkable is that prior to this expedition he had never climbed anything at all.  He was a complete novice.  I may say that novice or no, he acquitted himself more than handsomely, and became a very fine climber in a short space of time.  It helps tremendously that, despite his youth, he has spent a great deal of time at altitude in the Himalaya as a member of the Gurkhas.  Nevertheless, he benefited from the use of gas demonstrably, and helped some of the rest of us including myself to come round a bit more to the idea.

A MAN in the audience raises a hand.
MAN
Are you then of the opinion, Mr.  Mallory, that the use of artificial bottled oxygen is necessary to reach the summit of Mount Everest?
GEORGE
        Thank you, Mr...
MAN
        Aames.
GEORGE
Thank you, Mr. Aames, for your very good question.  The honest answer would be that I am not sure, certainly less sure than I was at the beginning of the expedition.  Having climbed at lesser altitudes without trouble on both expeditions, I am naturally not keen to encumber myself with unnecessary equipment, for as I mentioned the frames and the canisters are very heavy and unwieldy, disturbing the natural balance, and in some cases being dangerous in themselves.
(beat)
However, the benefit of oxygen, in especially at altitudes above 25,000 feet has been demonstrated unequivocally in comparing the climbing rates of men of equal experience and fitness, as well as its being used prophylactically to retain fitness as in the example of Mr. Finch's use of it overnight.  It might be best to say that if the problems of weight and design can be overcome, the use of bottled oxygen might be the key to the summit of Mount Everest.  At present, we still do not know what to expect at the summit, so it is an open question.

GEORGE clicks to the next slide.

DISSOLVE TO:
INT: THE FABIAN SOCIETY PREMISES, READING AUGUST 1922 - LATER THAT EVENING

End of the lecture.  GEORGE is standing at the head of the room surrounded by half a dozen people, men and women, animatedly answering their private questions and accepting their thanks.  The rest of the room is empty now and the lights are up, revealing its spartan quality.
On the walls are several handbills for Fabian lectures past; on the table behind him is a very large photographic map of Everest, marked with red and blue pencil.  SANDY is among the group and when it has dwindled away to the two of them, he speaks up, a little shyly.

SANDY
        Thank you for your talk, sir.  It was very inspiring.

He glances at the map behind GEORGE.
GEORGE
        Mallory, please.  Not even my students are allowed to call me 'sir'.

GEORGE holds out his hand.
GEORGE
        I'm pleased you found it inspiring.  Are you a climber, Mr...
SANDY
Irvine.  No.  Well, I've climbed a little.  Walls and church towers and sort of thing, but everyone does that.  A bit of scrambling in Wales.
GEORGE chuckles.

GEORGE
I was known to do that myself as a student.  Have you been to Snowdonia, Mr. Irvine?
SANDY
Oh YES! I rode my motorcycle to the top of Foel Grach.  I've been there several times with my sister and friends.
GEORGE
A motorcycle! On Foel Grach?  Good Heavens! I wouldn't have known that was possible.  Mr. Irvine, you're a man after my own heart! I must say, I've bashed about on a motorcycle...
He looks ruefully at his foot.
GEORGE
I broke that, during the war.  I was home on furlough.  Crashed the bike into a gatepost.  Are you a student, Mr. Irvine?
SANDY
        Yes, S...  Mr. Mallory.  Engineering, at Merton, Oxford.

GEORGE
Then you must be most interested in what I was saying about the oxygen apparatus! Any chance of your helping out?
He is joking.
SANDY
I have actually sent some designs to the War Office, mostly for machine guns and aeroplane fittings during the war...
GEORGE
Remarkable!

GEORGE is mostly listening, but is also beginning to pack his papers into his leather satchel.  He has some attention on some notes he has written.
SANDY
        ...but they told me that someone else had just beaten me to it.
GEORGE is still reading his notes.
GEORGE
            (distracted)
        How old were you?
SANDY
        Fifteen.
GEORGE turns round and stares at SANDY.
GEORGE
        Good Lord!
The SECRETARY appears at the door with an enquiring look.
SECRETARY
I'm sorry, Mr. Mallory.  I didn't realise that you were still here.  I need to lock up, if you don't mind.  I'm terribly sorry.
GEORGE
Not at all.  I'll have this all in hand in five minutes.  Will you wait, Mr. Irvine?
SANDY glances again at the map on the table.
SANDY
No, S... Mr. Mallory.  I wish I could, but I have friends waiting on me.  Thank you very much for your lecture, and for talking with me, Mr. Mallory.
GEORGE
A pleasure.  Good luck to you, Mr. Irvine!  You sound a brilliant young man.  Perhaps I'll see you in Wales some day.  Thank you for your interest.
He shakes SANDY's hand then turns away to the table and begins rolling up the map.  SANDY leaves by the door into the foyer.
GEORGE (V.O.)
That remarkable boy was from my very own town.  My family had moved to Birkenhead where my father was a vicar.  Sandy grew up there.  The Irvines, as I subsequently learned from my mother, were quite wealthy.  I was not impressed by their status, but by their proximity.  I might have met Sandy any number of times on visits home over the years.
            (beat)
It is curious to me how the Fates conspire to throw us together with people over and over again, as if to impress on us the interleaved quality of life.  And I ask myself: Are we drawn on, beyond our will, to our own particular destiny?

MONTAGE
1) GEORGE arrives home at The Holt, and puts the map up on the wall over the desk again in his untidy 'Arts and Crafts' style study.
2) SANDY walks away to a car, hands in pockets.
3) SANDY, as a child of four, chases noisily round the cavernous nursery at his home in Birkenhead with EVELYN, his sister, who is five.  Both are of Nordic blondness, with boisterous personalities.  They are the 'naughty ones' in this regimented household.

INT.  ENGINEERING LECTURE THEATRE, OXFORD – DAY

A LECTURER is droning on.  SANDY is present, but is not listening to the lecture.  He is reading a book of the 1922 Everest Expedition, carefully concealed in a pile of untidy notes spread over his desk.  He is entranced by a photograph of the great NORTH FACE.
LECTURER
And, Mr. Irvine, you will doubtless be able to tell us how an estimate of the coefficient of friction on this inclined plane will enable us to calculate the moment of inertia of the cylinder.
SANDY is oblivious.  His POV is in Tibet, gazing at the NORTH FACE, which fills his vision.
LECTURER
Mr. Irvine! Perhaps you could be so kind as to lend us your good attention?
SANDY looks up, and around, as if awakened from a dream.  His colleagues are stifling their laughter, and are nudging and whispering to each other.
SANDY
Sir?
LECTURER
Mr. Irvine, we are awaiting your considered response to my question.  How can an estimate of the coefficient of friction on this inclined plane enable us to calculate the moment of inertia of the cylinder?
SANDY comes to with a start.
SANDY
Well, Sir, er, I would say that the coefficient of inertia... I mean, the coefficient of friction...
The other STUDENTS are laughing openly now.
SANDY
...the coefficient of friction must be in proportion to the sine of the angle of inclination, or else the cylinder will not roll.  If the only force acting on the cylinder is gravity, the moment of inertia is actually irrelevant in this instance.  So, with respect, sir, I would say that your question is not quite the correct one.  The best question to ask in this case, for practical purposes, is what the coefficient of rolling friction may be to prevent the cylinder from rotating.
The STUDENTS have now fallen silent.  The LECTURER is staring at him.  He realises that SANDY is correct.
LECTURER
(slowly)
Very good, Mr. Irvine...
EXT.  OUTSIDE THE LECTURE HALL - LATER
SANDY is walking out of the theatre with two other STUDENTS, his friends.  The two are laughing again.
FIRST STUDENT
Sandy! I can't believe you told old Ponsonby that his question wasn't the right one.
(imitating)
"Sir, I would say that your question is completely idiotic.  The best question to ask in this case, for practical purposes, is what on earth you are doing trying to teach me anything about eng..."
SANDY jumps on his friend and playfully wrestles him to the ground, while the SECOND STUDENT adopts the role of the referee.
SECOND STUDENT
And the winner is... ANDREW IRVINE!
He holds SANDY'S arm aloft in triumph.  SANDY, now embarrassed, but still laughing, wriggles away.  He brushes the grass off his clean trousers.
SANDY
I say, let's go and have some tea.
INT.  A STUDY IN OXFORD - DAY
Five YOUNG MEN are sitting round a heavy oaken table.  On the wall is a map of SPITSBERGEN, an arctic island north of Norway.  They are deeply engrossed in planning an expedition.  They are GEORGE BINNEY, ANDREW WILDER, BASIL CLUTTERBUCK, TOM GUNDRY and ERIC RELF.
There are maps and papers spread all over the table, and a large put of tea, several cups, and a plate of toast and jam.  There is a hubbub of animated conversation.
BINNEY calls the meeting to order.
BINNEY
Gentlemen, gentlemen.  A moment please.  I think we can safely conclude we need more men. 
BINNEY
This is going to be awfully hard work.  I agree that we do need strength in reserve.  But how many men? I don't want to make the team large and unwieldy.  This for me is the key question.  Tom?
GUNDRY
I think two more will do it, IF they are the right men.  The question for me is not how many, but who.
BINNEY
(nodding)
Andy?
WILDER
Irvine from my college is a fine man.  He's as strong as an ox, very practical, and a good egg.  He's a rowing blue and built like Hercules.  He'll work night and day if he has a goal in mind.
CLUTTERBUCK interrupts with laughter.
CLUTTERBUCK
Well, that'll be a real asset! Seeing as one can't tell night from day up there anyway.
BINNEY looks artificially pained.
BINNEY
Basil! Please.  Order in the house.  This is a serious question...
CLUTTERBUCK
... and it was a serious answer.  I know Irvine well.  I agree with Wilder that he's a very decent man.  He WILL work night and day, too, which is just what we want.  I propose that we meet him for a chat.
BINNEY
Very good.  Eric?
RELF is a square-jawed man, built like a bulldog: slightly overweight, but clearly immensely strong.  He is demonstrably heavier than the others, who are all tall and slim.  He is nodding.
RELF
Fine by me. 
RELF
If Hercules can lend a hand, so much the better.  I swear I've still not regained the weight I lost last summer.
The meeting lapses into laughter and more hubbub.
ALL
You poor thing! Have some more toast!
I know, after all, you did do all the work.  We're just a bunch of slackers, after all.
Well now, maybe you'd better spend the summer taking bed rest.
RELF
All right! Enough.  I concede.  I promise to eat more toast...
Laughter.
RELF
Seriously...
His friends all assume an artificially sober expression.
RELF
... I agree that we invite Irvine.  I don't know him well, but I've seen him around.  Popular, cheerful, and strong.  Do we agree?
There is general assent.  BINNEY regains control of the meeting.
BINNEY
Thank you Eric.  Very good.  So we agree.
INT.  THE SAME STUDY - THE NEXT DAY
This time BINNEY is alone.  There is a knock on the door.
BINNEY
Come in!
Sandy pokes his head round the door.
SANDY
I say, am I in the right place? Are you Binney?
BINNEY rises to greet him.  They shake hands warmly.  BINNEY's expression shows that he is taken by the friendly giant.  He gestures SANDY to take a seat, and leans back in his chair to light a pipe.
BINNEY
Well now, Mr. Irvine.  I'm delighted to meet you.  Let me tell you what we have planned.  My friends and I would like to extend an invitation to you...
DISSOLVE TO:
INT.  THE SAME STUDY - AN HOUR LATER
BINNEY
... So on Wednesday I would like you to join me to meet Mr. Odell, who is the team's geologist.  He's an experienced expedition man and he will make the final decision about the composition of our team.  Can you make it for dinner at 7.30?
SANDY
(humorously)
Sir... it would be a pleasure.
INT.  A LARGE BALLROOM AT THE WALDORF-ASTORIA IN NEW YORK - JANUARY 1923 - DAY
GEORGE is giving a press conference.  There is a crowd of journalists and reporters.
REPORTER ONE
Mr. Mallory, aren't all the men on your team, all the really great men on the expedition, the climbers, aren't they all scientifically trained?
GEORGE
No they are not.  Some are doctors and scientists it is true, but we also have military men, three teachers and an accountant.
REPORTER TWO
Well, now, wouldn't you say that with all those teachers and doctors that it is mental training, endurance, that matters more than physical prowess?
GEORGE
Not in the least.  I have been a climber for twenty years and there is no mental training whatever that will substitute on mountains, and most especially on this mountain for
GEORGE
sheer physical fitness and the right sort of physique.  It wants strong but agile men, of excellent stamina and endurance.  Mental preparedness is nothing in the face of gale force winds at 25,000 feet, I assure you.
REPORTER ONE
But hadn't the expedition valuable scientific results?
GEORGE
Yes.  The first expedition made a geological survey that was very valuable, and both expeditions made observations and collected specimens that were very valuable, both geological and botanical.  But scientific enquiry is a by-product of or an excuse for exploration.  Everest is the highest mountain in the world and no man has reached its summit.  Its existence is a challenge.  The answer is instinctive, a part I suppose of Man's desire to conquer the universe -
REPORTER TWO
But why endanger your life climbing this mountain? Men have already died.
GEORGE shuffles his papers, colouring.
GEORGE
(quietly)
Yes they have.  Before we ever reached Everest, it is true.
(beat)
Climbers notoriously endanger their lives.  With what object? One must conquer, achieve, get to the top; one must know the end to be convinced that one can win the end — to know there's no dream that mustn't be dared.  We do not climb to increase the knowledge of man for incidentals, for the stone from the top for geologists, or the knowledge of the limits of man's endurance for the doctors.  There is no scientific end to be served; simply the gratification of the impulse of achievement, the indomitable desire to see what lies beyond, for the spirit of adventure to keep alive the soul of man.
GEORGE's eyes scan the unseen horizon, the vista of the mountain.
GEORGE
I have not been on these two expeditions to witness the spectacle of myself breaking a record.  In the whole scale of values, clearly, I think, records of this sort can't weigh in the balance against the serious work of everyday life.  Yet, if only for some physical pleasure, to enjoy certain movements of the body and to experience the zest of emulation, then it is not worthwhile.  The only defence for mountaineering puts it on a higher plane than mere physical sensation.  A great mountain is always greater than we know; it has mysteries, surprises, hidden purposes; it holds always something in store for us.
He regards the reporters earnestly.
GEORGE
Sunrises and sunsets and clouds and thunder are not incidental to mountaineering, but a vital and inseparable part of it; they are not ornamental, but structural.  We learn about ourselves from our direct contact with forces beyond our control.  For those of us who have survived the war...
He surveys the group for sympathetic faces of veterans.
GEORGE
... it is a reaffirmation of life, and this reaffirmation of life is vital.  To refuse the adventure is to run the risk of drying up like a pea in its shell.
(beat)
I suppose we go to Mount Everest, granted the opportunity, because - in a word - we can't help it.  Or, to state the matter rather differently, because we are mountaineers.
REPORTER THREE
But Mr. Mallory, why go halfway around the world to do that? Can't you find an affirmation of life digging in the garden?
GEORGE smiles patiently.
GEORGE
Can you?
REPORTER FOUR
Tell us about what you ate to keep yourself going up there.
DISSOLVE TO:
As the conference ends, GEORGE looks tired and fraught.  He has been on his feet all day.  Mentally, he has ended the conference already and is assembling his papers to leave.  But there is one more question.
REPORTER
Mr. Mallory, what is the REAL reason you are returning to Everest yet again?
GEORGE is exasperated.  He has been explaining for the last hour what the personal allure of the mountain is for him.  He searches for a pithy answer.
GEORGE
(tetchily)
...Because it's there!
GEORGE leaves the lectern swiftly.  He takes no more questions and brushes through the assembled journalists, keen only to get away.
INT.  YMCA GYMNASIUM - IMMEDIATELY AFTER
SERIES OF SHOTS
1) GEORGE is on the floor in sleek trunks and a jersey, doing presses, entirely supported by his hands.  His face is intense, angry, concentrated.  It is his way of letting off steam.
2) Slowly, very slowly, he manoeuvres one leg around to the front, then another, passing under his hands.  He does this twice before vaulting into a back walkover.  On a set of parallel bars he then swings his way from one end to the other and back again in a complicated series of shifts.
3) On the wall, which is covered with horizontal poles, he nimbly traverses from one end of the room to the other.  When he reaches the front of the room, there is a burst of applause.  In the entrance there is a knot of REPORTERS (two from the lecture just ended) and sightseers.  We can hear their exclamations.
4) GEORGE jumps down with a look of disgust and takes a towel from the ATTENDANT on the way to the lockers. 
GEORGE shakes his head.
GEORGE
(muttering)
Am I to have no peace, even here?
INT.  HOTEL ROOM - SHORTLY AFTER
The POV is that of GEORGE, who is writing a letter to his wife RUTH in angular writing, using the hotel's embossed notepaper.  A slightly battered - and clearly beloved - photo of RUTH is carefully placed on the table beside the letter he is writing.
GEORGE
(as he writes)
My darling Ruth: It has been a long day, and I miss you so.  When we arrived this morning, the weather put me in mind of Tibet.  There were at least twenty degrees of frost! You will be happy now that we spent so much on the fur coat.  I won't come home with frostbite! We then came straight to the hotel, which is quite nice.  I amazed them by walking up all twenty flights of stairs rather than taking the lift, laughing when they thought it a feat.  Americans, it appears, cannot walk up more than two flights of stairs without relying on a lift.  They were simply boggled...
(beat)
Darling girl, it is very lonely here without you.  I do wish that you had been able to come! I have nothing but your dear picture to sustain me.  Dearest, it is irreplacably valuable to me!  It is my lifeline for these three long months until I see you again.  I wish we had not spent so much time since I got back from Tibet apart.  I wish I were at home with you and the children.  It is ghastly here and I miss you awfully.  So I will keep your dear picture near to hand with me always, as I did on Everest.  But it is a poor substitute for your presence, dear girl.
(beat)
Ever your devoted - George