Apple TV has unveiled the official trailer for Tenzing, a sweeping true-story drama about the historic 1953 ascent of Mount Everest. Tibetan actor Genden Phuntsok stars as Tenzing Norgay alongside Tom Hiddleston as Edmund Hillary, with the beautifully shot footage teasing an inspirational adventure on an impressive scale. Watch the trailer above and get everything to know about the film below.
What Is Tenzing About?
Tenzing places legendary climber Tenzing Norgay firmly at the centre of the story, following his journey from a childhood spent dreaming of Chomolungma, the Tibetan name for Mount Everest, to his attempt to earn a place on the British expedition determined to reach its summit. Getting onto that team is a challenge in itself.
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Although Tenzing is an exceptionally experienced Himalayan climber, the trailer makes clear that he isn’t initially viewed as an equal by the Western mountaineers around him. Encouraged by his wife, Dawa (Thinley Lhamo), he finds an ally in expedition secretary Jill Henderson (Caitríona Balfe), who helps convince expedition leader Colonel John Hunt (Willem Dafoe) that Tenzing belongs on the climbing team rather than simply serving it.
That divide looks to be a major part of the drama. For some members of the expedition, Everest represents the ultimate prize waiting to be conquered. For Tenzing, Chomolungma is the sacred mother goddess, giving the climb an altogether more personal and spiritual meaning.
Tom Hiddleston Plays Edmund Hillary
Enter Edmund Hillary. Hiddleston plays the New Zealand mountaineer who ultimately becomes Tenzing’s partner for the final push towards the summit. The trailer builds their relationship from tentative cooperation into something much stronger as worsening conditions begin stripping away rank, background and ego.
And those conditions look absolutely brutal. Blizzards, crevasses, collapsing ice, sheer drops and vicious high-altitude weather fill the footage, while the quieter moments continually bring the story back to what Tenzing risks leaving behind if the expedition goes wrong.
Hiddleston told Deadline that he and Phuntsok understood the weight of portraying two figures whose achievement has become part of mountaineering history:
“We were both very aware of the enormous responsibility and duty we felt to tell this story truthfully and sincerely with commitment and conviction.”
Who Else Is in the Tenzing Cast?
Phuntsok appears to be very much the emotional centre of the picture, despite the high-profile supporting cast around him. Tenzin Dalha plays a younger Tenzing, while Lhamo portrays Dawa, Tenzing’s wife. Balfe plays Henderson and Dafoe takes on Colonel Hunt, the leader of the 1953 British expedition.
Johnny Flynn also appears as famed British mountaineer George Mallory, introducing another fascinating piece of Everest history into the film. Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared while climbing high on Everest in 1924. Whether they reached the summit before their deaths has never been conclusively established, leaving one of mountaineering’s most enduring mysteries hanging over what Hillary and Tenzing would accomplish almost three decades later.
What Is the True Story Behind Tenzing?
Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the summit of Mount Everest at around 11:30am on May 29, 1953, becoming the first climbers known for certain to have stood at the highest point on Earth.
Their achievement came during the major British expedition led by Hunt, but Tenzing was no newcomer to Everest. He had already participated in several expeditions and came agonisingly close to the summit in 1952 during a Swiss attempt alongside Raymond Lambert. The pair reached approximately 28,200 feet before exhaustion, problems with their oxygen equipment and worsening conditions forced them to turn back.
By the time the British expedition arrived the following year, Tenzing was one of the most experienced Everest climbers alive.
That’s part of what makes the perspective of Peedom’s film so interesting. The achievement is widely remembered through the partnership between Hillary and Tenzing, but Tenzing appears determined to look beyond the famous summit photographs and explore the man himself, including his family, faith, ambitions and complicated position within a Western-led expedition.
And then, of course, there’s the Mallory question. Mallory and Irvine were last seen high on the mountain on June 8, 1924, still heading upwards. Mallory’s body was discovered in 1999, while remains believed to belong to Irvine were found in 2024, but definitive proof that either man reached the summit has never emerged. Hillary and Tenzing’s ascent therefore remains the first confirmed successful summit.
Director Jennifer Peedom Has a Long History with Everest
Australian filmmaker Jennifer Peedom comes to Tenzing with considerably more Everest experience than your average director. Her acclaimed 2015 documentary Sherpa examined Everest expeditions from the perspective of the Nepalese workers carrying much of the danger and physical burden. She later directed visually spectacular documentary Mountain, narrated by Dafoe, which explored humanity’s fascination with reaching some of the world’s highest places.
Tenzing marks Peedom’s narrative feature debut, but the project grew directly out of the years she spent working in the Himalayas and her fascination with Norgay.
Speaking with TheWrap, Peedom explained why she eventually felt the story needed drama rather than another documentary: “It was an interior journey and it needed drama to be able to tell it properly. It was really the story that dictated the form.”
Peedom has also stressed that Everest couldn’t simply be treated as an enormous obstacle waiting for the characters to conquer. Her years in the Himalayas shaped an approach that places the culture, families and spiritual beliefs of those living beneath the mountain alongside the physical adventure.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, she explained that Tenzing’s relationship with Chomolungma was deeply personal and spiritual, with belonging and faith becoming central to how the filmmakers approached his journey.
It’s an important distinction for a story that could easily become another adventure about humans conquering nature. Here, Chomolungma isn’t simply the giant obstacle waiting at the finish line. What the mountain represents to Tenzing appears to be just as important as whether he can physically reach its summit.
How Genden Phuntsok Became Tenzing Norgay
Finding the actor to carry all of that took time. Phuntsok was already an established Tibetan actor, particularly through his collaborations with acclaimed late filmmaker Pema Tseden, but had never previously performed a role in English.
Peedom told TheWrap that she first discovered Phuntsok through those films and immediately saw what she was looking for. After eventually bringing him to Kathmandu for casting sessions, the filmmaker said she had known from seeing his work that “Genden was our Tenzing.”
Phuntsok immersed himself in Norgay’s life once he landed the part, reading books and studying documentaries about the mountaineer, some of them repeatedly. He also told Entertainment Weekly: “I was thrilled to get the opportunity to share Tenzing’s story with the world.”
The trailer certainly suggests the film is placing a great deal of weight on Phuntsok’s performance rather than allowing the internationally recognisable names around him to overwhelm the story. There are big adventure beats here, but many of the strongest moments in the footage appear to be quieter ones: Tenzing with his family, his frustration at how he is treated by the expedition and the enormity of what reaching the summit represents to him personally.
Phuntsok and Hiddleston also spent time together before cameras rolled, including travelling through the Everest region as they prepared to portray the partnership at the centre of the film.
There’s a Major Australian Presence Behind Tenzing
There’s also a significant Australian presence behind Tenzing. Peedom is joined by Australian screenwriter Luke Davies, whose credits include Lion, Beautiful Boy and News of the World. Davies wrote the screenplay from a story credited to himself and Peedom.
Australian cinematographer Stefan Duscio is behind the camera, bringing credits that include The Invisible Man, Upgrade and The Dry. Production designer Melinda Doring adds another major Australian name to the creative team.
The producing side has plenty of Australian talent as well. Liz Watts produces alongside Australian Oscar winner Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Peedom, Davies and New Zealand producer Desray Armstrong. Sherman and Canning’s See-Saw Films has deep Australian roots, while Australian filmmaker David Michôd is among the executive producers.
So while the story stretches from Tibet and Nepal to a British expedition featuring one of New Zealand’s most celebrated figures, there is a very noticeable Australian creative backbone helping bring it to the screen.
How Was Tenzing Filmed?
Duscio appears to be making full use of the landscape, with enormous snow-covered expanses and vertigo-inducing drops repeatedly reducing the climbers to tiny figures against their surroundings. Judging by the trailer, he’s had one hell of a canvas to work with.
Rather than keeping the actors safely surrounded by green screens, the production headed into some genuinely unforgiving terrain. Filming took place across Nepal and New Zealand, with the South Island’s Aoraki/Mount Cook, The Remarkables and Mount Head among the alpine locations used to help bring Everest and the surrounding Himalayas to the screen.
Peedom has said shooting in those environments was essential not just for authenticity, but for the performances, with the mountain needing to feel “beautiful, terrifying and sacred.”
The production also drew heavily on specialist mountain crews and safety experts in New Zealand to pull off the high-altitude sequences. That practical approach is certainly coming through in the trailer. There are visual effects involved, of course, but the scale, snow and rather alarming drops surrounding these actors frequently look very real.
Simon Njoo serves as editor, Rebekka Karijord (All the Old Knives) composed the score and Doring serves as production designer. Tenzing Norgay’s son Norbu Tenzing is also among the executive producers, giving the project an important direct connection to the man whose story it is telling.
Could Tenzing Be an Awards Contender?
We’re obviously not handing out trophies based on a trailer, but you can see the ingredients Apple may be hoping translate into an awards-season run.
There’s the extraordinary true story, the large-scale location work, a filmmaker with a deeply personal connection to the subject, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, an experienced creative team and what appears to be a substantial leading showcase for Phuntsok.
The film has already begun its festival journey, screening at Telluride before heading to the Toronto International Film Festival, and Apple is giving it a theatrical window before its streaming debut.
Whether all of that translates into nominations is another matter, but Tenzing certainly looks designed to be more than another inspirational survival drama. And if the finished film matches the imagery and emotional sweep of this trailer, Apple may have something worth watching closely.
When Is Tenzing Released?
Tenzing opens in select U.S. cinemas on October 9, before streaming globally on Apple TV on October 16, 2026.
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