All language subtitles for Pole.to.Pole.with.Will.Smith.S01E07.1080p.WEB.h264-GRACE

Okay, it's freezing.

We are making our way
to nine-zero-zero-zero.

I'm gonna try to find the North Pole.

Look at that.

Look how crazy that is.

I don't know how it's okay
to let me get off the boat

and walk on the ocean.

Oh, jeez.

At least they'll find
my body in 1,000 years.

Come on. I'ma find this.

There is a geographic North Pole,

but it's a difficult thing to find

because the ice is moving.

It felt like I was chasing the North Pole.

Ninety-seven, ninety-seven. Ninety-eight!

Ninety-five.

So it's 98 there, hold on.

I set out for 100 days...

and here I am
looking for 90 degrees north.

There it is. The North Pole.

Whoo!

Whoo-hoo-hoo!

Here I am...

top of the world.

North Pole, baby!

There's not many people who
have been from Pole to Pole.

To actually reach the North Pole

was a delicious moment of accomplishment.

But I knew we weren't finished.

Because my final goal
wasn't to just get to the pole.

It was to dive under it.

What was I thinking
when I said yes to that?

Ladies and gentlemen,
boys and girls,

our odyssey across the globe
is coming to an end.

I set out on this journey
because my mentor Dr. Counter told me

that the answers to everything important

are out at the edges of our world.

And, man, was he right.

It's been an incredible journey.

We've discovered deadly creatures
which could save millions of lives.

That's insane.

We've learned of rivers in the sky.

We recorded a language
on the verge of extinction

and explored the secret of happiness
in a land above the clouds.

And now the final leg

of our journey.

I'm putting my neck on the line

for a discovery
that could eclipse all of that.

We're landing, we're landing.
Let me get my stuff.

Ah.

- Hey.
- Hey!

Allie. How you doing?

-Nice to meet you.
-Good. How are you?

- Hold on.
- Let's get in there.

Thank you for coming all the way up here.

Uh, no. This is fantabulous.

It is a very beautiful place.

You know how to pick locations.

-For sure.
-I do. I do.

I'm very, very excited for you,
'cause it gets better.

I'm ready. Let the games begin.

Follow me. This way.

My name is Allison Fong,

and I'm an oceanographer
and sea ice ecologist.

So, you know, this moment in history,

our planet is facing a very big crisis.

By burning fossil fuels,

we created an abundance of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere...

that is warming the earth

and causing all sorts of extreme events.

And so Will and I are embarking

on a scientific expedition
to the North Pole

to see if there's anything
that we can do about it.

There used to be tons of snow
covering these mountains.

Doesn't look like
there's a lot of snow here now.

That's kind of the problem.

I believe that living under the ice
at the North Pole,

there are some of
the most efficient organisms

on planet Earth

at removing carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere.

If my theories are correct,

then this could be a breakthrough
for climate change.

-Alright.
-Alright, here we go.

Headed north.

There we go.

The only way to do this kind of work

is to dive under
that ice and collect samples.

But first, we've got to get there.

There she is!

That's our ride to the top of the earth.

That is a big, giant boat.

She's a big icebreaker,
and that's what we need where we're going.

Yeah, for me an icebreaker,
it's like, girl, your feet must be tired

'cause you've been running
through my mind all day long.

How's that? I hope,
I hope that's a better--

I hope that's a better
icebreaker than mine.

The ambition of the entire journey
is gigantic.

You know, it was like, wow.

We're on a scientific mission
to help save the planet.

Oh, thank you.

And if somebody offered me
that script as a movie,

I'd be like, come on, man.
Come on, really?

Send that to Matt Damon,
'cause he's smart.

Like, Matt's gonna have to make that.

Welcome onboard.

Nice to meet you.

Welcome in my, my office,
the best office in the world.

Right, so this is my first time
on an icebreaker.

How, how does it break the ice?
I'm not nervous.

I'm not nervous, I'm just asking.
How does the ship break the ice?

We use the weight of the hull.

Thirty thousand tons,

and we jump above the ice
and we break the ice

to optimize this route to the North Pole.

Alright, so you feel confident
that crashing the ship into the ice

is going to be successful
and you'll get us to the North Pole.

Yeah, but you know,
which is very important

is don't take it for granted.

We're entering a different world.

Only ice and weather will decide.

I'm just breaking down this mission,

getting a sense of what we're doing.

And so, essentially,

um, the captain, you see the captain?

That's the captain right there.
You see, right there.

He's just gonna slam the boat on purpose
into the ice for a week,

um, till we get to the North Pole,

and he's pretty sure
that the boat will be fine.

And Allie thinks it's a good idea for us
to get out of the boat

and scuba dive under the North Pole.

Between the three of us,

one of us has made
a really bad life decision

and I'm not sure which one of us it is.

Welcome on board.
Uh, my name is Eli.

- Eli. Um...
- Yeah.

I wanna learn my way
around the boat, so...

Alright.

Here we have which deck we're on
and which main vertical zone.

- Okay.
- Some of these zones

can be locked away
if there's water intrusion

or something like that.

- Oh! Water intrusion.
- Yeah.

That's like when you're on a plane,

and they say,
"In case of a water landing..."

It's like, yo,
there ain't no water landing.

What that-- That means you crashed.

What do, what do these things mean?
What are all of these?

So it's basically
the documents for abandoning.

Everything on the walls
is about if the damn boat crash.

Damn, where is the fun stuff
on the damn boat?

Okay. So I've been to, to the South Pole,
I've been to Ecuador.

I fought anaconda,

and now I'm about
to explore the dessert tray.

Now, this is how exploration
is supposed to be.

I was telling them from the beginning.

I was saying, "This is how
we're supposed to be doing it."

I'm gonna see if that's strawberry
or raspberry.

That's what I need to know.

This is gonna be the first part
of my expedition.

This is your captain

speaking from the bridge.

We are just arriving
at the edge of the sea ice.

We, uh, we ran out of ocean.

Whoo! Whoo. That was a big one.

To watch the ship break the ice...

It's not little ice.

It's from the size of a car

to giant apartment-sized pieces of ice.

That is so thick.

It's really, really loud.

And it's rocking the ship.

Seeing the ice made it more real for me.

It made me realize just how crazy
this expedition really is.

Diving under ice is new for Will,

but it's also new for me.

I've dove in warmer waters,
temperate waters that are cold,

but never this cold,
and certainly not frozen.

Growing up in Rhode Island,
we have tons of coastline.

So the ocean was just
a natural place for me to be.

I love understanding how things work.

And so science was a way
of taking my natural curiosity

and investigating the world around me.

When I told my parents
I was gonna be a scientist

and not a medical doctor,
they're like, "Why would you do that?"

I was like,
"There's something beautiful and amazing

and awe-inspiring
in the power of science."

And so I thought to myself,
"What can I do?"

Where is it that I can
really make a difference?

And it's microbes.

Because microbes are
the unsung heroes of our planet.

They're what makes this planet
unique in our universe.

Okay. Alright,
so you got your little Batcave.

This is where all the, like,
real magic happens actually, right?

So we're in the lab
and I wanted to give you a chance to see

what we're actually looking for

-under the ice.
-Okay.

But first, let's, uh,
work on the atmosphere here.

Mm-hmm.

-Ooh.
-Ooh! Okay.

- Check this out.
- Wow.

This is a single-cell organism
called phytoplankton.

They're just absolutely incredible.

Oh, phyto... phytoplankton, yeah.

Um... I knew everything.

When I was growing up, phytoplankton
was all we, we talked about.

We would be on the corner in Philly
and somebody would walk up and say,

"Yo, man.
Did you hear about phytoplankton?"

And we would stop basketball games

when, when a new phytoplankton,

uh, discovery was made.

It was the, it was the biggest thing
when I was growing up.

Alright, so take me all the way
back to five years old.

Okay, so that is a phytoplankton.

Yep. So phytoplankton
are tiny little plant-like cells.

Trillions and trillions of them
live in the ocean.

They're the reason
that this planet is habitable

for all the other living organisms
that use oxygen.

Wow.

Around 2.4 billion years ago,

our planet's climate was
transformed by phytoplankton.

Through photosynthesis,
they harness the energy of sunlight.

They consume huge amounts of carbon

and fill the atmosphere with oxygen...

making life possible
for all of the animal kingdom.

Phytoplankton are like
the lungs of the planet.

So they clean the atmosphere of CO2,

and they create oxygen.

Yeah. So that CO2
doesn't get back into the atmosphere.

It stays trapped there
for thousands of years.

So, we gotta get
phytoplankton their flowers.

They-they don't get their flowers.

- No, they don't.
- It's like the trees,

the trees get all the props
for us being able to breathe.

We know how efficient phytoplankton are

at utilizing sunlight for energy.

But in the Arctic,
it's dark for half of the year.

So the big question has always been,

what do they do when
there is no direct sunlight?

Do they still have the potential
to photosynthesize?

This area of research can transform
our understanding of climate change.

That's why we need that sample.

This is, uh, officially

the wildest day of my whole life.

Yeah, check this out.

That's a doggone polar bear.

That's my first polar bear right there.

I don't know why I'm whispering
'cause it's a really long way away.

It just seems like you should whisper
when you see a polar bear.

For multiple reasons.

Craziness, folks.

This is your captain speaking

from the bridge.

North Pole just ahead of us.

As we got to the North Pole,

you know, the excitement
of that was very short-lived.

I, I was very insecure about the dive.

We're gonna stop the ship,
and we're gonna get off the ship.

Yeah.

And then we're gonna stand
on a piece of floating ice,

and then we're gonna
scuba dive under the ice.

Yeah.

It's dangerous
because we're going into an environment

where maybe 5 to 10 meters of ice
are hanging over your head.

If you run into a problem,
you can't just go directly up.

You have to find that hole in
the ice to properly resurface.

I generally do well with stress,

but I was very concerned

that this time I had bitten off
more than I could chew.

Is that, is that a storm in the distance?

- Are you worried we're gonna--
- No, no, no.

I'm just, I'm trying to keep my eye out,
and I just wanna be alert.

Alert, okay, yes.

The idea of coming up
and bumping into ice

and knowing you can't get out
right there if you had to...

I was really thinking to myself,

"Oh, no. Is this the one
where it goes wrong?"

The weather's terrible now.

Terrible, terrible, terrible.

The whole doggone trip
coming down to this moment.

Calum, how are you feeling about today?

- Optimistic.
- Optimistic. Okay.

The word was "optimistic,"
but his voice didn't sound good.

Ready to go?

Stand by.

Oh, this is terrible.

This is absolutely terrible.

I ain't no professional diver,

but this don't seem like dive weather.

Hey, so how many people

have you taken out to dive
in this kind of weather?

Oh, you are the first one.

Oh, I'm the first.

There's no way this is a good idea.

The weather was not good for the dive.

When we got there, you know,
it was like a snowstorm rolled in.

This is ridiculous, man.

I can't even see the damn dive site.

The captain with the weather coming in,

said, "It was a now-or-never
kind of situation."

Uh, the boat is supposed to be leaving.

The captain has given us, uh, one shot.

Then we got to go over here.

Jeez. Oh, good heavens.

This was the highest fear point
for me in the entire journey.

The thing is, Arctic weather

can change in, like, a snap.

So 20 minutes from now
could be bright sun.

- Beautiful. You never know.
- Or it could be worse?

-Or it could be worse.
-Or it could be worse.

Yeah, it could be worse.

- Oh, it can always be worse.
- Yeah.

This is
exceptionally cold water,

so I don't want you guys
completing this task

any longer than 10 minutes.

If anybody gets any sort of serious leak,

the dive is terminated.

Uh-oh.

Come on, you can do it.

That's better.

Diving in general is a risky endeavor.

Diving under ice is inherently more risky.

And in a very remote place,

you're really stacking the challenges.

Okay, I'm going.

But this research could change
our outlook on the planet.

Going in.

How can you not be all in?

Oh, my goodness.

Freezing?

Cold.

I was legitimately scared

but I could tell
the weather was coming in.

I could tell we were pushing.

Yep.

I wanted it to be perfect,
and I wanted to get the sample.

And I could feel the, the tension.

Good to go?

Hang on, guys, I got a problem.

Okay, I'm gonna sit you back down.

Frozen. See ice in there, see?

Yeah. Hot water's coming in.

My thing froze.

And it was right before
I was about to jump in.

That's how cold it is at the North Pole.

I'm seeing bubbles.

And I'm supposed to be down there.

It's getting cold.

At this point,
Will's taking more time than anticipated.

But because we're a team,

we're on standby until all of the divers
are safely in the water.

You're gonna need
more hot water, guys.

Time is ticking.
Time is ticking away

before I can actually
do what I came to do.

Let's try again.

Come on, Will. Come on, Will.

Three, two, one. Go.

Wow!

Look at that. Jeez.

I could see under the ice sheet...

and it was like an upside-down
ice mountain range.

And the sun was coming through
and all of that.

It was just stunning.

It was definitely those

once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience.

Allie to WS.

Holy . This is amazing!

It was incredible.
It was absolutely incredible.

It was like going through
a crystal castle.

All of the ice crystals
are reflecting the light

that's shining in on you.

It was literally incredible.

Let's go towards the areas

that look greenish
along the bottom of this ice.

Show me the way.

The dive was going well.
I see the target samples that I want.

And all we need to do was
swim two and a half meters

and slurp a sample.

No. My valve.

No.

Yeah, we've got a problem.

My face mask went into free-flow.

Abort! Abort!

I started hearing,
"Abort dive. Abort dive."

And that's not what you wanna hear.

This is it.
I have to surface.

Break the ice.
Break the ice.

There we go. There we go.

- There we go.
- Wow.

Oh, my God.

Well, that was terrible.

No samples.

Literally, it's within my fingertips.

Right? And that's
the hardest part about this.

We have no samples.

So it would have taken waiting

at least until the next day
to try it again,

and the weather was still relatively poor.

We weren't going to be able
to convince the captain

to stay another day.

So it was gut-wrenching when
I actually felt the ship move.

It was the realization
that the opportunity was gone,

really gone.

So we missed the sample.

Yeah.

Uh, well, that sucks.

Yeah,
I guess that's putting it pretty lightly.

And the hardest part about, I think,
this is that when you're so close,

-and I mean, we were, like...
-I know. My God.

-...you know, you could feel it.
-Yeah.

Like, we were there.

It was in our, in our grasp.

For me, to miss out on this is just,

there's just a lot of feelings
that I have about it.

Yeah.

To come all the way
to the North Pole and miss.

Yeah.

I can see, you know,
how heartbreaking this thing is.

Yeah.

It's like...

Yeah, just, it feel,
it feels like I slowed you down.

For me, it feels like
being in the way, you know.

You know,
there are a lot of moving parts.

And, um, when we got out of the water,

and I was thinking about
what it is that went wrong

and what part of the process
could have been better.

And could I have been better?

But it's not your fault.

You know,
it's not any single person's fault

for having not brought
their very best to the work.

Sometimes you fail.

There's probably people all over the place

who have failed somehow
at doing something.

Just not as big as us.

That might be, that also might be true.

Uh, it's a pretty,
it's a pretty significant fail.

Seeing Allie's disappointment
in missing the, the sample,

I realized Allie had missed

a part of her life's work,

something that she may never have
another opportunity to pursue.

That's where it really
started to, uh, feel bad.

The second day,
I'm sitting in my room, feeling horrible,

and someone is communicating via the radio
that we've been called by the captain.

There's a good weather window
and so there's the opportunity

to get back in the water under some ice.

We've moved significantly further south,
but it's still in the high Arctic.

I'm definitely used to being the guy

that takes the shot at the, at the buzzer,

but we're on an expedition
that has a mission.

And with a more experienced dive buddy,

Allie's got a better chance to
bring her discoveries back home.

So I'm gonna step aside.

Step it in in three, two, one.

Allie.

And we're there.

And it's again, incredible.

My dive buddy and I
worked quickly to collect material

off the bottom of the ice.

That's the moment where all of the hope
turns into reality.

We collected samples.
We collected really, really good samples.

Welcome back to the lab.
Let's see what we got.

- Let's see what you got.
- See what we got.

So I wanted to give you a chance
to see some of the things that we found...

-Okay.
-...while we were out there.

-You ready?
-Yes, I'm very, very ready.

- Okay.
- I'm excited.

This is, this is the, uh,
the part that I most enjoy.

- You most enjoy.
- I'ma enjoy, so--

Is it because it's warm, and not cold
and not freezing and snowing in your nose?

-Exactly.
-Yeah. Me too.

-Let me show you.
-Yeah.

There.

We put part of the sample
that we collected in these bottles,

and these bottles are gastight.

And we've been keeping them
in an incubator

that has a control setting
for temperature and light, right?

So it's cold and it's low light.

And we've been measuring
all of the oxygen and CO₂

that they've been using and creating.

And if you look at the top,
do you see those little dots?

-Yeah, so that--
-Those are gas bubbles.

Okay, so that was gas bubbles all created

within a sealed environment in the dark.

That's right.

This experiment shows
that Arctic phytoplankton are incredible.

They produce oxygen while consuming carbon
at imperceptibly low light levels.

So you can imagine, like,
when people are designing

and thinking about how do we
like, create cooler technology

that might slow down climate change,

they're looking at how you
can create power out of things

like CO2 and sunshine.

That's spectacular.

These polar phytoplankton
are some of the most light-sensitive cells

we've ever seen.

If we can figure out
how to harness their potential,

it could revolutionize
the future of green energy.

But not only that,
it could also help reverse climate change

because they not only generate power,

they do it by consuming CO2.

But this single entity
has all of the power

to create an earth that
is habitable for all of us.

You have no idea
that all of that is going on

in a drop of seawater.

-It's a whole universe.
-A whole universe, yeah.

It's a whole universe of microscopic life.

It blows my mind
that just a single drop of water

could open up an astonishing new frontier

for the future of our planet.

I guess my mentor, Dr. Counter, was right.

The answers to everything important...

are at the edges of our world.

And the point of all of our exploring
is to return to the place where we started

and know that place for the first time.

Three, two, one.

Traveling Pole to Pole

has not only changed
the way I see our planet,

it's changed the way I see myself.

I've been inspired

by the truly extraordinary
people I've met,

to ask burning questions
about our place on Earth.

Questions about our health...

happiness, history,

even our ultimate survival.

I've been to the edges of our world.

But coming home,

it feels like my journey
is just beginning,

because I'm even more curious
now than when I first began,

and that is a beautiful thing.