THE EIGER SANCTION (1975)

Clint Eastwood and mountain climbing, how can it get any better? An art professor with a secret assassin past, Eastwood's former organisation, run by an ex-Nazi, blackmails him to perform one last job — to kill a member of a group of climbers attempting the Eiger — but he isn't told which one. The resulting levels of suspicion and paranoia build to a dramatic climax on the mountain. The climatic sequences were actually filmed on the Eiger's North Wall, and include impressively filmed fall sequences, performed by Eastwood himself

K2 (1991)

Starring Michael Biehn as an impulsive, brash American and Matt Craven as his friend and teammate, the film is about two climbers stranded below the summit of K2, one of whom is injured with a broken leg. Mount Waddington in Canada serves as a stand-in for K2, and the climbing sequences are impressively filmed, and do convey some of the struggles of high altitude mountaineering. The film does have some hokey moments, but it also has good points

CLIFFHANGER (1993)

Sylvester Stallone plays mountain rescue worker Gabe Walker, who while on a climb with a group of friends is involved in a tragic accident that leads to the death of his best friend's girlfriend. Wracked with guilt, he's determined to leave the mountain behind when a distress signal comes in from a plane crashed up in the mountains. The disaster is mainly the fault of a group of murderous thieves led by John Lithgow, who hijacked the plane that contained $100 million in three suitcases that are now strewn about the snow. Gabe is roped in to help. A good watch, though it is more of an action thriller than a mountain movie

VERTICAL LIMIT (2000)

A high-adrenalin tale of a young climber who must launch a treacherous and extraordinary rescue effort for his sister stranded on the ascent to up K2. Peter and Annie Garrett are siblings whose lives have been scarred since their father sacrificed his life to save theirs while they were all out on a climb. A few years later, Peter has given up climbing while Annie has become a world class expert ready to attempt K2. When her expedition goes awry, Peter mounts a dangerous rescue mission. Vertical Limit attempts to translate managainst-the-mountain adventure into compelling, albeit fictional, drama

TOUCHING THE VOID (2003)

In 1985, British mountain climbers Joe Simpson (21) and Simon Yates (25) decide to conquer one of the world's highest and most rugged peaks, the 6, 344-metre (20, 813-foot ) Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. Clearly crazy, but in love with the peaks, they didn't bargain for the physical and emotional ordeal they encountered over four days. On their descent, they both get into trouble culminating in Yates cutting the rope that bound both he and his severely injured friend together. Using Simpson's bestselling non-fiction novel as a template, director Kevin MacDonald recreates a docu-drama of the highest order. This is a well directed adventure and it's real. There are no monsters except the ice, cold and wind

NORTH FACE (2009)

Based on a true story, the film follows two German climbers who decide to take on the unconquered north face of Eiger mountain in 1936. It's just before the Olympics come to Germany and the Nazi regime is hoping some homeland heroes will climb the Eiger, giving the Reich a boost just before the competition. Filmmaker Philipp Stoelzl's story of the two young Aryans — Toni Kurz and Andi Hinterstoisser's — audacious attempt under the gaze of the Nazi party, is charged enough (ultimately, it was to end in tragedy — as so many attempts to climb the summit's face did)