Why would someone want to climb to the top of a mountain? In an early voiceover, we hear the thoughts of a mountaineer who considers the question first from the bottom and then from the top. At the bottom, it seems impossible. At the top all the world is left behind you—except for the one you love.

North Face chronicles an attempt to be the first to climb the North Face of the Eiger in the Alps. It is 1936 and the Nazi propaganda machine is preparing for the Berlin Olympics, but knows that if Germans were to scale this last unconquered mountain in the Alps, it would show their superiority to the world. Andreas Hinterstoisser and Toni Kurz are two German soldiers (who don't much like being soldiers) who set off to try to scale this monster of a mountain—its name is "the ogre." There are also two Austrians trying to climb it, and the destinies of the two teams become linked.

Why are they climbing the Eiger? For Toni, it is about proving himself. Andi wants to be immortalized for being the first. (In fact, a key section of the ascent now carries his name: the Hinterstoisser Traverse.) They have been urged on by part of the Nazi media through the unwitting collaboration of Luise, a friend from their childhood who obviously has a thing for Toni. Luise's boss, who has brought her along to the hotel at the base of the Eiger to watch this ascent, envisions this as a glorious story of German heroism—regardless of whether they are successful or not. A tragedy could be just as newsworthy as a success. Only retreating would be a failure.

Based in fact, the film is full of tension and suspense as the climbers face injury and death over and over. The cinematography shows us both the grand beauty of the Alps as well as the danger and at times hopelessness of the setting. Not only is the mountain itself dangerous, but the weather can change quickly. At the hotel below, spectators (including Luise) watch from luxury as the mountaineers bivouac in freezing temperatures. There is a tension there concerning the extent to which Luise can be seduced by the call of success as a propagandist.

At the heart of the story is a question of responsibility for the decisions one makes. It could be the decision to climb or whether or not to abandon the attempt because of an injury or what role one will play in a machine that would use the people in uncaring ways to promote ideology. The climbers must make very difficult choices. Is reaching the summit worth the lives of two climbers? And each choice that one makes affects his comrades as well. Often choices carry consequences that aren't really considered—such as if Toni and Andi would be willing to be held up as heroes of the Nazi werhmacht. And what of those who sit and watch it all as the danger plays out? Should they try to do something to save the lives of the endangered climbers even if it puts the rescuers in danger as well?

Perhaps the choices we face daily don't carry the obvious import as the decisions made on the face of a mountain, but the significance often reaches far beyond ourselves. Even when we give them little thought, we are responsible for those consequences.