The Dawn Wall (2017)

The Dawn Wall (2017) is a gripping documentary that follows elite rock climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson as they attempt to free-climb the seemingly impossible 3,000-foot Dawn Wall of El Capitan in Yosemite. Built on six years of painstaking preparation, the film traces the pair’s final, high-stakes push in January 2015 — weeks living on a sheer vertical cliff, a global media frenzy, and a tension-filled climax in which loyalty, ambition and friendship collide. Interwoven with the climb are intimate parts of Tommy Caldwell’s life story — his captivity in Kyrgyzstan, the traumatic loss of his index finger, and the personal costs of pursuing an obsessive goal — showing how the ascent becomes the culmination of a lifetime spent overcoming obstacles. Viewing experience: you’ll be taken to the edge of your seat by breathtaking, vertigo-inducing on-the-wall cinematography and suspenseful sequencing of each pitch, while candid interviews and archival moments provide emotional depth and context. The film delivers both nail-biting sport cinema and a moving human portrait: it’s thrilling, humbling and ultimately inspirational, leaving the viewer awed by nature, moved by sacrifice, and compelled to consider what it means to risk everything for a dream.

Actors: John Branch, Tommy Caldwell, Kevin Jorgeson

Directors: Josh Lowell, Peter Mortimer

Runtime: 100 min

Genres: Biography, Documentary, Sport

7.8 /10 81 /100 8.1 /10 8.0 /10