100:01:15,408 --> 00:01:19,936WERNE

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WERNER HERZOG: These images taken
under the ice of the Ross Sea in Antarctica

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were the reason
I wanted to go to this continent.

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The pictures were taken by a friend of mine,
one of these expert divers.

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The best connection is on
military planes out of New Zealand,

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loaded with chained-down parts
of polar stations.

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Most of the passengers had tucked
into their laptops and their books,

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and many of them were sleeping.

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Who were the people I was going to meet
in Antarctica at the end of the world?

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What were their dreams?

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We flew into the unknown,
a seemingly endless void.

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I was surprised that
I was even on this plane.

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The NationaI Science Foundation
had invited me to Antarctica,

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even though I left no doubt
that I would not come up

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with another film about penguins.

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My questions about nature,
I let them know, were different.

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I told them I kept wondering

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why is it that human beings put on
masks or feathers to conceaI their identity?

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And why do they saddle horses
and feeI the urge to chase the bad guy?

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Hi-yo, Silver!

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HERZOG: And why is it that certain species
of ants keep flocks of plant lice as slaves

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to milk them for droplets of sugar?

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I asked them why is it
that a sophisticated animaI like a chimp

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does not utilize inferior creatures?

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He could straddle a goat
and ride off into the sunset.

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Despite my odd questions, I found myself
landing on the ice runway at McMurdo.

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For most of the austraI spring and summer,
which lasts from October through February,

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planes can land on
the 8-foot thick ice of the Ross Sea.

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In the distance,
the mountains of the Transantarctic range.

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McMurdo itself is situated on an island.

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The Ross Sea is the largest bay
in the continent.

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This bay alone covers the size
of the state of Texas.

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On this very same frozen ocean,

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the early explorer's ship
got wedged into moving ice flows.

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Here, Shackleton's expedition
evacuates their vesseI,

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which would later come to ruin,
leaving them stranded there.

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Everything in this expedition was doomed,

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including the first ancestor
of the snowmobile.

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The idea was too big for
the technicaI possibilities 100 years ago.

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At that time,
every step meant incredible hardship.

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The first thing that caught my eye
upon landing

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was the humongous bus and its driver.

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- We're clearing the apron now, thank you.
- MAN: Hey, you're welcome.

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This is Ivan the Terra Bus.
It's one of seven in the world,

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weighs 67,000 pounds
and is the largest vehicle on the continent.

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HERZOG: What do you do when you are
back home? Are you a taxi driver?

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I am not a taxi driver at home.

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Before I came to Antarctica,
I was actually a banker in Colorado.

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And after two years there,
I changed my pace a little bit

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and decided to help
the people of Guatemala,

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so I joined the Peace Corps, and there
I worked in small business development.

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Just realized that the world's
not all about money.

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ROWLAND: Where I lived in Guatemala
was in the northern part.

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It's a Kekchi Mayan village, 99% Mayan,
and therefore nobody spoke Spanish.

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I had to learn the Mayan dialect, Kekchi.

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When I first moved to Chisec, I was just out
on a normaI walk, and before I knew it

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I had six people with machetes
chasing me down, wanting to talk to me.

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Turns out the little brother
told them I was there to steal children.

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I was, however, not there to steal children.

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They took me back to my:. My judge
and jury was the 14-year-old boy in the town

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who could speak both Spanish and Kekchi.

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Luckily, they let me go,

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and we ended up being
great friends over the two years.

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- HERZOG: The jury acquitted you.
- I was acquitted. I made it out of there.

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But it could have been dangerous.

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It is, it is.
And, you know, a story not too long ago is,

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a lady was just taking a picture of a child,

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you know, the same type of group of people
with machetes, and she wasn't so fortunate.

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- She didn't make it out.
- What happened to her?

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She was killed, by a machete.

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HERZOG: Approaching McMurdo Station,
the largest American base,

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in fact the largest settlement in Antarctica.

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Right there is Captain Scott's hut,
built in 1902.

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HERZOG: During the austraI summer,

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about 1,000 people live here
experiencing a strange state,

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five months of no nighttime.

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McMurdo serves as a logisticaI hub

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and provides fixed laboratory facilities
for research.

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All the decisions about scientific projects

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are the domain of my host,
the NationaI Science Foundation.

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Day to day logistics
are run by a defense contractor.

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I had been told by some
disgruntled former inhabitants

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that they ran things
in the spirit of a correctionaI facility.

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Actually, they were decent people,
just too concerned for my personaI safety.

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Of course, I did not expect
pristine landscapes

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and men living in blissfuI harmony
with fluffy penguins,

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but I was still surprised to find McMurdo
looking like an ugly mining town

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filled with Caterpillars
and noisy construction sites.

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Who are the people
who drive the heavy machinery,

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and what brought them to Antarctica?

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(LAUGHING) It's a long story.
I've explored many different

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lands of the mind and many worlds of ideas,

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and I started before I even knew
how to read and write.

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My grandmother was reading
The Odyssey and The lliad to me,

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so I started my journey in my fantasy,

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before I even knew the means

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of accomplishing it, but my mind
and my psyche was ready for it.

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I was already traveling with Odysseus
and with the Argonauts

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and to those strange and amazing lands,
and that always stayed with me,

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that fascination of the world,
and that I fell in love with the world.

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And it's been very powerful
and has been with me this whole time.

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HERZOG: And how does it happen that
we are encountering each other here

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at the end of the world?

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I think that it's a logical place to fin