Directed by Werner Herzog • 1985 • West Germany

Werner Herzog’s career-long concern with individuals who test the limits of human achievement receives one of its most extraordinary expressions in this portrait of mountaineers Hans Kammerlander and Reinhold Messner. Following the pair as they embark on an expedition in the formidable Gasherbrum mountains without oxygen tanks, Herzog captures both the majesty and mystery of nature as well as the humble humanity of his subjects—seemingly ordinary men driven by an obsession that borders on madness.