Encounters at the End of the World

Herzog's unmistakable voice-over, English with a German accent, accompanies the images of his visit to the South Pole: "Who were the people I was going to meet at the end of the world? What were their dreams?" He talks to scientists and staff - "professional dreamers," according to a forklift driver and philosopher. He meets a linguist, who smiles. "If you take everyone who is not tied down, they all sort of fall down to the bottom of the planet." A bus driver turns out to be a former banker; a plumber prides himself on his Aztec descent. At the McMurdo base camp, which Herzog calls "an ugly mine town," Scott and Shackleton's building from 1902 still stands - Herzog shows us archive footage of the famous expedition. He also visits more remote locations, where scientists dive below the ice or look for the edge of a crater. This results in gorgeous footage of Antarctica, of shining plains, glittering snow and inaccessible ice walls, with shellfish and jellyfish under the water and penguins and seals above the ice. Herzog films a lone dazed penguin walking to the mountains, towards its death, and scientists with ears pressed to the ice, listening to the unworldly sounds of swimming seals, which are mixed in with the meditative soundtrack. Meanwhile, in his musing voice-over, Herzog laments the disappearance of the old pioneer spirit and - perhaps before long - of all of humanity, if global warming continues.