Endurance follows a modern-day team of explorers as they search to find Sir Ernest Shackleton’s sunken ship under the ice of Antarctica.

Against all odds, Shackleton was able to keep his crew of 27 men alive from the time they left in 1914 until their rescue over many months later. The same, however, cannot be said for the dogs. When they know that they won’t last for much longer if they bring the dogs with them, the decision is made rather quickly. There won’t be an Eight Below-esque rescue for the dogs so I’m warning you on that front right now. Over a century later, another crew is racing against the clock to find the ship. After not having any luck in their first ten days, they get an extension and find it in the nick of time. There’s no attempt to search the ship after over a century. They take their 3D scans and move along. It’s quite the opposite of the Titanic with all the trips to the seafloor.

The initial plan was for the Endurance crew to trek 1,800 miles across Antarctica. But it was not meant to be. Their ship would find itself stuck in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea. The crew would have to survive on penguins, seals, and as I mentioned earlier, their sled dogs. They ate limpets and then the menu called for boiled seaweed after reaching Elephant Island. Anyway, Shackleton would recruit five men to join him on the 800-mile trip to South Georgia. Their goal was to find a way to rescue everyone else. While the rescue mission was an ultimate success, we cannot say the same about their original mission. Interestingly, the crew would embark on their initial expedition months after the start of World War I. It would prove to be the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

As far as the present day goes, it is a thrilling race to see if they can find the ship. Assuming you’re already familiar, they discovered the ship on March 5, 2022. A number of attempts have been made in the years since 1998. It finally took Endurance22 and using submersible technology. I applaud everyone for deciding to scan the ship in 3D rather than make it a tourist destination.

Directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, and Natalie Hewit split the action between present day and the original expedition. They utilize colorized archival footage, previous interviews, and recreations. In revisiting this era, they also turn to AI in bringing previous writing to life. This could prove to be a bit too controversial to some but for what it’s worth, the AI technology studied the person’s previous interviews in learning their voice and vocal patterns. The way I see it, it’s no different than how Lucasfilm has used technology in bringing a younger Luke Skywalker into Star Wars series such as The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, releasing to both excitement and controversy. But again, utilizing AI will always bring controversy with it. In this case, it appears to be the only way to give the crew its voice back.

Endurance is a modern-day race in time in the search for Sir Ernest Shackleton’s sunken ship under the Antarctic ice.

DIRECTORS: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Natalie Hewit
FEATURING: Captain Knowledge Bengu, Mensun Bound, Maeva Onde, Lasse Rabenstein, John Shears, Dan Snow, Nico Vincent, Charles J. Green, Lionel Greenstreet, Frank Hurley, Leonard D.A. Hussey, Alexander H. Macklin, Sir. Ernest H. Shackleton, Frank Worsley

Endurance holds its world premiere during the 2024 BFI London Film Festival in the Special Presentations program. National Geographic Documentary Films will release the film at a later date. Grade: 4/5

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