TENZING Trailer Sends Tom Hiddleston on a Historic Mission to Conquer Mount Everest
Apple TV has released the full trailer for Tenzing, an epic true-story adventure about the historic first ascent of Mount Everest, with Tom Hiddleston stepping into the climbing boots of legendary New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary.
The film comes from Jennifer Peedom, the filmmaker behind Solo, Miracle on Everest, Sherpa, Mountain, River, and Deeper. After years of making documentaries in some of the world's most extreme mountain environments, Peedom makes her narrative feature debut with a story she clearly knows how to bring to the screen on a massive scale.
At the center of Tenzing is Genden Phuntsok as Tenzing Norgay, the gifted Himalayan climber who joined Hillary on the first successful expedition to the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953.
Rather than simply turning that achievement into another survival movie about people battling their way up a mountain, Tenzing digs into Norgay's place within the expedition and what reaching the summit meant to him personally and spiritually.
Tenzing doesn't view Everest the same way as the Western climbers around him. To them, the mountain represents something to conquer. To Tenzing, Chomolungma is sacred, the mother goddess.
That becomes an important part of the story as the expedition navigates class, cultural divisions, ambition, and the very real possibility that the mountain could kill them.
Encouraged by his wife Dawa, played by Thinley Lhamo, Tenzing finds support from expedition secretary Jill Henderson, played by Caitríona Balfe. The two help convince British expedition leader Colonel John Hunt, played by Willem Dafoe, that Tenzing deserves to be part of the climbing team rather than simply serving the expedition.
Eventually, Tenzing and Hillary find themselves high above everything that separates them, relying on trust and mutual respect as they attempt something no one had successfully accomplished before.
The synopsis reads: “What follows is an ascent defined as much by tensions between backgrounds, classes and competing ambitions as by the perils of the mountain itself. But high above the world, empire, rank and aspiration fall away, leaving two outsiders bound by mutual respect and trust — and for Tenzing, the fulfillment of both a lifelong dream and a spiritual calling.”
Luke Davies wrote the screenplay, with Desray Armstrong, Iain Canning, Davies, Peedom, Emile Sherman, and Liz Watts producing.
The movie is premiering at the 2026 Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals before Apple TV releases Tenzing in select U.S. theaters for a one-week run beginning October 9, 2026. It will then make its streaming debut on Apple TV on October 16.