The Climb (2017)
Directed by Ludovic Bernard
No — The Climb is not especially woke, scoring 27 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
The Climb, or L'Ascension to those who met it in its native habitat, arrives from 2017 with the modest ambitions of a French crowd-pleaser and the quiet distinction of being based on a true story.
Consciousness Markers
The film centers a Black French protagonist of Senegalese origin (Ahmed Sylla) and features a largely Maghrebi and Sub-Saharan cast, a notable departure for mainstream French comedy, though the casting flows naturally from the banlieue setting rather than as an explicit representational statement.
The film engages with the immigrant experience in the French banlieue, unemployment, and a young Senegalese-origin man proving himself to a skeptical society, but treats these as backdrop for a feel-good adventure rather than as a racial-justice thesis.
A light French crowd-pleaser that aims to charm rather than preach; any social observation about the banlieue is delivered with comedic warmth rather than sermonizing.
Nadia exists primarily as the romantic prize motivating Samy's Everest quest, a classic damsel-as-goal structure with no feminist critique or agency-centered framing.
No LGBTQ+ characters or themes appear anywhere in the film.
No environmental or climate themes; Everest is a personal challenge, not an ecological statement.
The film touches on unemployment in the housing projects but offers no critique of capitalism or wealth structures.
No body-positivity themes; the protagonist's physical transformation is framed around athletic training, not self-acceptance.
No neurodivergent characters or themes are present.
The film adapts a real story straightforwardly without reinterpreting or revising historical narratives.
Why it received this score
The Climb, or L'Ascension to those who met it in its native habitat, arrives from 2017 with the modest ambitions of a French crowd-pleaser and the quiet distinction of being based on a true story. Samy Diakhate, a young man of Senegalese origin living in the Cite des 4000 in La Courneuve, informs Nadia, the supermarket employee he has adored since middle school, that he will climb Everest to win her. She laughs. He goes anyway. The film follows him from the housing projects to Nepal with a cheerful disregard for the logistics of either place.
The casting deserves a moment of acknowledgment. Ahmed Sylla anchors the picture, and the ensemble around him is largely Maghrebi and Sub-Saharan, which is simply what the neighborhood looks like. The film never stops to announce this as a statement, and that restraint works in its favor. Unemployment, the immigrant grind, the itch to prove oneself to a skeptical republic: these surface, linger for a scene, then yield to the next comic beat. Nadia remains a prize waiting at the summit, which is the oldest arrangement the genre offers, and nobody here sees fit to interrogate it. Everest functions as a personal obstacle, not a planetary one, and the housing projects get no economic autopsy.
Elsewhere the cupboard is bare. No queer characters, no environmental sermon, no reflection on the body, no interest in the mind's varied wiring, no revision of the historical record beyond a straightforward adaptation of one man's story. The tone stays warm throughout. This is a film that wants to be liked, and it mostly is. It charms where it could scold, and it keeps its social observations light enough to carry up a mountain. A modest cultural footprint, then, and a correspondingly modest accounting. In this house we record that as a small mercy.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Synopsis
A true story of Samy, native of La Courneuve, who is out of love for Nadia, decides to climb Mount Everest.
Questions about The Climb
Is The Climb woke?
No — The Climb is not especially woke, scoring 27 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Based.
Does The Climb have any woke elements?
2 of the 10 markers register at 30 or above, led by Representation Casting (45) and Racial Consciousness (35). On Representation Casting: The film centers a Black French protagonist of Senegalese origin (Ahmed Sylla) and features a largely Maghrebi and Sub-Saharan cast, a notable departure for mainstream French comedy, though the casting flows naturally from the banlieue setting rather than as an explicit representational statement.
How does The Climb compare to other 2017 movies?
It ranks #70 of the 309 films from 2017 we've scored; their average is 19. The wokest is I Am Not Your Negro (92).
How is the Woke Score calculated?
An AI-assisted process researches the film and its reception, scores it 0–100 on ten markers, then combines those into one 0–100 Woke Score. It measures a specific set of 2020s cultural themes, not film quality.