Everest is a different animal from a garden-variety disaster movie. Although some of the beats are the same, the symphony is darker and more haunting. The true story aspect is one reason; the lack of reliance on genre tropes and clichés is another. Everest is not replete with hard-to-believe acts of heroism, annoying kids, and plucky pets. It also doesn’t feature an unnecessary human bad guy; the mountain is sufficiently implacable adversary. And, if Everest serves no other purpose, it functions admirably as a deterrent to answering the age-old question of “Why [climb the mountain]?” with a glib “Because it’s there.” James Berardinelli