In June 1985, two British mountaineers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates made the first-ever climb of the West Face of the 21,000 foot snow-covered Siula Grande mountain in Peru. It was an exceptionally tough assault - but nothing compared to what was to come. Early in the descent, Simpson fell and smashed his right knee. Yates could have abandoned him but managed to find a way of lowering him down the mountain in a series of difficult drops blinded by snow and cold. Then Simpson fell into a crevasse and Yates eventually had no choice but to cut the rope, utterly convinced that his friend was now dead. In his subsequent book on the climb entitled "Touching The Void", Joe Simpson wrote: "As I gazed at the distant moraines, I knew that I must at least try. I would probably die out there amid those boulders. The thought didn't alarm me. It seemed reasonable, matter-of-fact. That was how it was. I could aim for something. If I died, well, that wasn't so surprising, but I wouldn't have just waited for it to happen. The horror of dying no longer affected me as it had in the crevasse. I now had the chance to confront it and struggle against it. It wasn't a bleak dark terror any more, just fact, like my broken leg and frostbitten fingers, and I couldn't be afraid of things like that. My leg would hurt when I fell and when I couldn't get up I would die." The survival of Yates himself was extraordinary. That Simpson somehow found a way of climbing out of the crevasse after 12 hours and then literally crawled and dragged himself six miles back to camp, going three days and nights without food or drink, losing three stone, and contracting ketoacidosis in the process, would be the stuff of heroic fiction if it was not so true. Indeed, six operations and two years later, he was even back climbing. All because, against all the odds, he tried ...******1985年，英國登山運動家耶茨（Simon Yates）和辛普森（Joe Simpson）前往南美秘魯征服高達(dá)2萬多英尺的安第斯山某峰。在成功登頂后下撤途中，Joe不慎跌下陡坡，摔斷右腿。Simon用救生繩拉住他，在暴風(fēng)雪中一起下降。但下降到3千英尺時，Joe不幸又墜空在一個冰崖動彈不得，無法將自己的重心轉(zhuǎn)移開救生繩。經(jīng)一段時間的努力，懸系兩人生命的繩子不堪重負(fù)，隨時都有同時跌下山谷的危險，溫度已經(jīng)降至-70℃，嚴(yán)寒已把兩人凍僵。Simon已隨繩索下降，不得以只好割斷繩索，自己攀出陡壁，回到營地。Joe隨著割斷的繩索跌進(jìn)深淵，但懷著堅強(qiáng)的生存意志，拖著折斷的雙腿爬出深淵，歷經(jīng)三天千辛萬苦，就在Simon準(zhǔn)備撤離時，Joe拖著傷腿出現(xiàn)在他的眼前……這是一個真實的故事。根據(jù)1988年辛普森的同名回憶錄改編，采用真人采訪與再現(xiàn)場面結(jié)合的手法，由登山親歷者Joe Simpson和Simon Yates講述，并由演員重現(xiàn)當(dāng)時情景。本片的情節(jié)是極其震撼人心的。這震撼不止是在耶茨割斷繩索的那一刻，更在于辛普森絕地求生的毅力。這兩位登山者在挑戰(zhàn)自然極限的同時，也在挑戰(zhàn)著自身的極限，不管是心理上還是生理上。人在絕境下究竟會爆發(fā)出多少能量？我想，這是個永遠(yuǎn)不可能被量化的東西。1985年六月，兩個英國登山者Joe Simpson和Simon Yates來到秘魯，第一次攀登海撥21，000英尺白雪覆蓋的Siula Grande山西坡。上山是一趟非常艱難的旅程，但比起后來遇到的困難就只是小兒科了。在下山途中，Simpson摔斷了右腿。Yates本來可以扔下Simpson，可是他沒有。風(fēng)雪和寒冷使他們看不清前面的路，Yates想方設(shè)法把Simpson帶下山去。他們輪流把對方往下放。后來Simpson掉進(jìn)了一個裂縫里，Yates沒有辦法，只好割斷了繩子。他相信他的朋友是九死一生了。Simpson在他的書《冰峰168小時》里寫道：我看著那遙遠(yuǎn)的冰磧石，我知道我必須至少要試一試。我很可能會在那些巨石中丟了性命。但是這個念頭沒有讓我驚慌，因為它看起來很有道理并切合實際。這就是事實。我可以計劃一下，如果我死了，那不足為奇，但我不能在這里等待死亡降臨。對死亡的恐懼對我的影響不像在裂縫里時那么大了。我現(xiàn)在能面對它并努力擊倒它。死亡不再是無望的陰暗的恐懼，它只是一個事實，就像我的斷腿、我凍僵的手指一樣的事實。我不能害怕這樣的事實。如果我摔倒，我的腿會斷，但是如果我不站起來，我會死。Yates自己能活下來也令人難以置信。12個小時后Simpson不知怎么想辦法爬出了裂縫，拖著他自己慢慢地爬了六公里回到營地。他爬了三天三夜，沒有食物沒有水，體重輕了42磅，途中還感染了酮癥酸中毒。如果這不是事實的話，那就是英雄式虛構(gòu)小說的情節(jié)了。事實上，經(jīng)過六場手術(shù)，兩年后Simpson甚至又開始爬山了。一切只因為，對于種種可能發(fā)生的事，他選擇了去嘗試。