“Imagine an Olympic gold medal-level athletic achievement that if you don’t get that gold medal, you’re gonna die,” his friend and fellow climber Tommy Caldwell says in the documentary. Honnold’s awareness that a movie is being made only ratchets up the pressure. Chin, a mountaineer himself in addition to being a director, appears as an on-camera presence to discuss, among other things, the proper camera placement for the climb. This is a rare case in which a film’s subject deserves a veto; he can’t have any distractions as he concentrates on each crevice and grip. Chin is also relieved when Honnold turns back during a first attempt. It’s “reassuring that Spock has nerves,” he says. But more seriously, the reversal shows that Honnold isn’t risking things for the cameras’ sake. He won’t go until his head is in the right place.