The Wildest Dream

The documentary tells two stories together. One is George Mallory's: he was on the first expeditions to Everest in the twenties and disappeared in 1924 while climbing toward the summit with Andrew Irvine. Whether the two of them reached the top was never established. The other is Conrad Anker's: the climber who found Mallory's body in 1999 returns years later to climb the same route in period equipment and try to get closer to an answer. The hardest passage is Anker and Leo Houlding attempting the Second Step in twenties clothing and nailed boots, to work out whether Mallory could have done it. The answer does not come out definite, and the film makes no claim to certainty. Natasha Richardson reads the letters of Mallory's wife Ruth; it was among the last work she did. Liam Neeson narrates. The summit footage was shot in large format.