When I started watching Apple TV’s latest original film, Tenzing, I was expecting something fairly straightforward. Following the life of famed Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay, one half of the first pair of people ever to summit Mt. Everest, I expected Jennifer Peedom’s film to be a basic biopic rooted in action scenes focused on the physical challenges and risks of climbing the world’s tallest mountain. Instead, I had the pleasure of watching a delicate, sweeping tale of the memories that make up a man, following Norgay as he navigates childhood loss, finding true love, and following his dream to touch “his mountain.”
When I started watching Apple TV’s latest original film, Tenzing (2026), I was expecting something fairly straightforward. Following the life of famed Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay, one half of the first pair of people ever to summit Mt. Everest, I expected Jennifer Peedom’s film to be a basic biopic rooted in action scenes focused on the physical challenges and risks of climbing the world’s tallest mountain. Instead, I had the pleasure of watching a delicate, sweeping tale of the memories that make up a man, following Norgay (Genden Phuntsok) as he navigates childhood loss, finding true love, and following his dream to touch “his mountain.”
Norgay (Genden Phuntsok), Edmund Hillary (Tom Hiddleston), and John Hunt (Willem Dafoe) size up the final summit
Tenzing tells the tale of Norgay’s childhood in the shadow of Mt. Everest, known in Sherpa as Čhomolangma. After a fateful meeting with doomed climber George Mallory (Johnny Flynn), Norgay realizes his dream to climb Čhomolangma, “the mountain so high a bird cannot fly over her.” Left by his parents to be a servant to a Sherpa family in Nepal when an epidemic kills their yak herd, a climbing industry quickly coalesces around the Himalayan region. As colonial powers converge on South Asia, European nations like Britain, Switzerland, and Belgium begin competing to be the first to summit Čhomolangma. Through flashbacks, we see Tenzing fall in love with the daughter of the family he works for, elope with her to India in pursuit of finding a climbing expedition to join, and earnestly try to promote himself in English (fumbling “Mister, I am an amazing worker,” as “I am Mr. Amazing!”).
A young Tenzing Norgay (Samdrup Dorje Lama) grows up in the shadow of Mt. Everest
After a storied career on various climbing expeditions, Norgay is hired onto the latest British expedition led by John Hunt (Willem Dafoe). Quickly, ethnic tensions begin to erupt, and Norgay must navigate the mistrust of the other ethnic Sherpa guides who are reluctant to be led by an ethnic Tibetan as well as the dismissive colonial attitudes of Hunt and his team. From Hunt insisting that Čhomolangma is a “British mountain” to insisting the Sherpa team sleep in the stables while supplies are packed for the mission, Norgay finds himself with divided loyalties, especially when his request is granted to be made a full climbing member with a shot a reaching the summit.
Norgay (Genden Phuntsok) accepts a position on the latest climbing expedition
As the team begins their epic climb and quickly find themselves facing obstacles they are unable to cope with – without the quick thinking and natural skill of Norgay, of course – the team makes it to the final stretch but is unable to continue on amidst the altitude and the freezing monsoon, leaving Norgay and his new ally Edmund Hillary (Tom Hiddleston) to reach the top hand in hand.
Far from being a basic adventure movie or a Cliffhanger ripoff painted over the life of a historical figure, Tenzing is a moving portrait of an adventurer at heart that asks: when we push past the limits of nature, do we provoke God or do we go home to her? Is the desire to summit Čhomolangma merely a search for fame and glory, or, like for Norgay, is it a pilgrimage toward the divine? Infused with Buddhist ritual and meaningful depictions of the indigenous cultures of the Himalayas, Tenzing is an instant biopic classic.
