Director: Kevin Macdonald (2003, English, 106 mins)

Reviews: RottenTomatoes (93%), IMDB (8.0), Wikipedia, Amazon, Roger Ebert.

Watch online: Hulu, Amazon Prime.

Similar movies: adventure, intense, true story.

Summary: An inspiring movie that showcases the strength of human spirit in tackling adversity. The movie is based on a true story that was captured in a book by the same name: Touching the Void by Joe Simpson. In 1985, he and his companion Simon Yates successfully climbed the Siula Grande in Peruvian Andes, becoming the first team to do so. On their way back, Simpson breaks his right leg and the pair gets separated. With great courage and determination, Simpson finds his way to base camp despite a broken leg.

North Face (2008, German) is an equally great movie on climbing but it's depressing because the expedition failed and everybody dies in the end. In contrast, Touching the Void is inspirational. The expedition is successful and everybody makes it, injured but alive.

Director: Philipp Stölzl (2008, German, 126 mins)

Reviews: RottenTomatoes (84%), IMDB (7.4), Wikipedia, Amazon, Roger Ebert.

Watch online: Amazon Prime.

Similar movies: adventure, death, depressing, intense, true story.

Summary: A riveting, tragic true story of a team of two German and two Austrian climbers who attempt to climb the Eiger in 1936, a peak that had not been climbed before. Shooting was done near the Eiger itself. The movie has superb scenes of snow covered mountains and climbers making difficult decisions as they encounter one challenge after another. The movie ends on a tragic note when all the climbers die, one after another. Also, the love story sub-plot is quite unnecessary and detracts from the main story, which is about climbing.

Touching The Void (2003, English) is an equally great movie on climbing but more inspiring and positive. The expedition in Touching The Void is successful and everybody makes it, injured but alive. Still, North Face is a great movie that reminded me that mountain climbing is not about the winners alone; there are fatalaties as well.

Director: Hayao Miyazaki (1992, Japanese, 94 mins)

Reviews: RottenTomatoes (100%), IMDB (7.8), Wikipedia, Amazon.

Watch online: WatchAnimeMovie.

Similar movies: adventure, anime, joyful.

Summary: Awesome movie! Like a Tintin comic :) Porco is an ace fighter pilot who lives life with gay abandon. He has the face of a pig. He rides a bright red plane and fights sea pirates. He doesn't realize that he's genuinely loved by many, including a long time woman friend of hers, and a young girl engineer who idolizes him. Lovely movie with fighter planes, pirates and comic gangsters.

Director: Jillian Schlesinger (2014, English, 82 mins)

Reviews: RottenTomatoes (82%), IMDB (7.6), Amazon, Roger Ebert.

Similar movies: adventure, childhood, true story.

Summary: A delightful movie! The story of Laura Decker, a 15-year old girl who sailed around the world in a sailboat by herself. Almost all scenes were shot by her using her camcorder. So it feels like a documentary. The movie shows how Laura changes over the course of two years and the challenges she faced. Wikipedia has an article: List of youth solo sailing circumnavigations.

Director: Tomm Moore & Nora Twomey (2009, English, 75 mins)

Reviews: RottenTomatoes (N/A), IMDB (7.7), Wikipedia, Amazon, Roger Ebert.

Similar movies: adventure, anime.

Summary: The Secret of Kells is a French-Belgian-Irish animation fantasy based on Celtic mythology. The movie is a wonderful work of art. It exudes a feeling of playfulness and serenity. The animation style is unique, and the music is awesome! So the movie may be watched purely for experiencing the creativity that went into the audio-visuals.