10 Film Documentaries That Accidentally Uncovered Major Scoops

3. Everest - Training Doc Turns To Disaster Doc

Gimme Shelter 1970 documentary
Miramax

While not a "scoop" in the traditional sense, the directors of the 1998 IMAX film Everest certainly encountered a twist in the tale when they set out to make a documentary about the training required to scale the titular mountain.

In a horrifying turn of events, the film ended up being in production at the exact same time as the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which eight climbers died after a blizzard interrupted their descent from the summit.

Understandably, this drastically affected the focus and tone of the documentary, with the filmmakers deciding to construct their edit around this great tragedy - and incredibly, the final cut even features footage of the disaster itself.

This wasn't the last time a documentary filmmaker happened to be rolling cameras at the same time a shocking event occurred, either. The 2002 film 9/11 was supposed to be about a probationary firefighter's first day on the job, but ultimately ended up capturing one of the only known recordings of American Airlines Flight 11 colliding with the World Trade Center.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.