Dir. Amir Bar-Lev · 2026 · 98 min · Apple TV and limited cinemas
In January 2021 the world's second-highest mountain was about to host something that had never been done: a winter ascent of K2. The Last First is Amir Bar-Lev's documentary about the crowded, quarrelsome rush to claim it. It is a sober, well-made film that asks hard questions about blame and about the cameras on the mountain. It is also familiar in places, and critics split on how far it rises above the genre. Three and a half stars.
Pakistan had eased its COVID-era restrictions, and the winter season suddenly drew climbers of every kind. The film follows several parties on the same mountain: an Icelandic climber, John Snorri Sigurjónsson, who joins Pakistani mountaineer Ali Sadpara and his son Sajid; a large Nepali team led by Nirmal "Nims" Purja, who wants recognition for Nepal and its Sherpas; and a group of less experienced clients who paid the company Seven Summit Treks to guide them. About sixty climbers are in play. They agree to cooperate at first, but their reasons for being there pull them apart.
Bar-Lev did not film on the mountain. In an interview with Moveable Fest he explained that the film is built mostly from footage the climbers shot themselves, some of it for their own planned documentaries, with new interviews recorded about three years after the events.
The structure is the film's best idea. Rather than choosing one hero, it lets competing accounts sit side by side, and the director has described the result as Rashomon-like. Jason Gorber, reviewing it from Sundance for POV Magazine, calls it an extraordinary portrait of a climbing window in 2021 and notes that the interviews are probing without overstepping. Jacob Oller at The A.V. Club likewise finds its picture of reckless experts, paying tourists and proud professionals compelling, and singles out the way the film considers the act of recording itself: nearly everyone up there carried a camera, and the film does not exempt itself from the questions that raises.
It is also a film about who gets credit. Gorber notes that it looks at how Sherpa and local climbers are overlooked while Western names collect the glory, and the film gives that thread real room.
It's a movie that shows us the dark side of literally getting high.
Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Here the critics divide. Matt Goldberg at TheWrap gives it three out of five and argues that it "means well but struggles to stand out among other extreme mountaineering documentaries", pointing to the familiar story of hubris and competing agendas. Oller finds the narrative over-busy, with government tensions, national pride, a romance and corporate behaviour all competing for space. Gleiberman at Variety wants more vertigo and calls the result engrossing but not exhilarating. Emily DuGranrut at In Review Online calls it "standard adventure documentary fare" with a clear ceiling, though she credits its unresolved argument over responsibility with keeping it from a tidy ending.
The praise is more widespread than the complaints: the film holds a very high share of positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metascore of 72 on Metacritic. Opinion on the tension differs: Gorber calls it thrilling, while others find it sombre rather than exciting. Either way this is a film about consequences more than summit-day spectacle.
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The film premiered at Sundance in January 2026. It arrived on Apple TV and in a limited cinema run on 2 October 2026. Availability varies by country, so check your local listings.