Mountains are dope. But you know what's even more dope? Mountain MOVIES, an underrated genre that can cover everything from survival thrillers (127 Hours) to romantic dramas (Brokeback Mountain). It can even stir up IRL romance! (Didn't Renée Zellweger meet Jack White while shooting Cold Mountain?) Well, whatever. Anyway mountain movies are automatically beautiful because Mother Nature does half the work, but it's better than other nature-setting movies. Woods are too common and oceans are too fucking vast, whereas mountains are seemingly everywhere and yet so unattainable (tell me the last time you climbed Everest or K2, yeah I thought so). Thus mountain films are the perfect lens for cinematic voyeurism, letting the audience experience what so many die trying without the brutal cold, shortage of breath, frost bite, trench foot, avalanche, friends dying left and right. Or, you know, it lets you experience your fantasy of having a cowboy romance.
This year alone has seen a couple great mountain movies: the Jake Gyllenhaal-starring Everest (does that make Gyllenhaal the ultimate mountain movie man?), based on a real expedition in 1996 in which climbers were faced with an unexpected and severe snow storm. There was also the acclaimed documentary Meru, which is another on-the-edge-of-your-seat survival drama, except it's real life. There are so many stakes in mountain movies, you can't not be even just a little thrilled by them. This year also marks the 10-year anniversary of Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, everyone's favorite gay cowboy movie. In celebration of the film's anniversary and a generally good season for mountain movie-watching (it's cold out, so why not stay in and watch people survive much harsher climates?), we ranked all the mountain movies we could think of:
14. K2 (1991)
13. Into Thin Air: Death on Everest (1997)
12. 127 Hours (2010)
11. Cold Mountain (2003)
10. Seven Years in Tibet(1997)
9. Alive (1993)
8. Scream of Stone (1991)
7. North Face (2008)
6. The Wildest Dream (2010)
5. Meru (2015)
4. Everest (2015)
3. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
2. Cliffhanger (1993)
1. Vertical Limit (2000)
