Disney+ Endurance Tells The True Story Of A Legendary Expedition
The search for the wreck of the ill-fated ship, the Endurance, has long held a legendary place in exploration lore. The Shackleton expedition was lost in 1915 after the ship Endurance became frozen in arctic ice while attempting to cross the Arctic coast, and a new National Geographic documentary floors the path of the star-crossed expedition as well as the 2022 voyage to recover the wreckage.
Marine archaeologist Mensun Bound takes the audience on an epic quest to discover the ultimate fate of the crushed ship and retrieve historical treasure in the Nat Geo doc, Endurance.
Endurance is a combination of footage from the original Trans-Arctic Expedition, led by Shackleton, and footage from the 2022 expedition to find the wreck of Endurance.
The Shackelton expedition became a piece of popular lore in the early 1900s because, despite the loss of their ship to the seasonal ice pack, the crew of the Endurance survived, led back to civilization by Shackleton himself. The tale of Shackelton and his crew’s tenacity in the face of one of the most unforgiving environments on Earth won the expedition a place in history that’s still discussed today.
The discovery of the shipwreck they left behind 110 years after it was swallowed by the ice has given the legend some new legs in the new documentary Endurance.
Fully intact, the wreck still has its wheel and several items on board appear as though the crew had simply left them days or minutes before, instead of over a century ago.
Endurance is a combination of footage from the original Trans-Arctic Expedition, led by Shackleton, and footage from the 2022 expedition to find the wreck of Endurance. Using stills as well as 35mm moving picture footage filmed by Frank Hurley, the documentary follows the stranding and ultimate rescue of the crew of the ship. The modern footage is taken on a variety of cameras, and follows appropriately named Mensun Bound and Dan Snow on a voyage to locate the wreckage of the crushed Endurance and document the historic site.
The original film used in Endurance was restored and color-treated by the British Film Institute, available in color for the first time in the documentary. The incredible footage documents the journey that the crew of the Endurance made, first, optimistically attempting to traverse the Arctic coast, then getting stuck in the ice, and finally trekking out of an almost certain death to rescue. Some of the images in the film were miraculously rescued from the shipwreck by Shackleton and Hurley so that the story of the voyage could be told for future generations.
The Shackelton expedition became a piece of popular lore in the early 1900s because, despite the loss of their ship to the seasonal ice pack, the crew of the Endurance survived, led back to civilization by Shackleton himself.
Over a century after the Endurance sank, the documentary makers and historians searching for it discovered the ship at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, after nearly giving up due to ice and weather conditions. Fully intact, the wreck still has its wheel and several items on board appear as though the crew had simply left them days or minutes before, instead of over a century ago. Finding the ship so undisturbed is an incredible moment that audiences can watch along with the crew in Endurance.
Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin direct Endurance arriving on Disney+ and Hulu on November 1. The participants include Dr. John John Shears, a polar geologist, Nicolas Vincent, a subsea engineer, Mensun Bound, a maritime archaeologist, and Dan Snow, a historian. The crew of the Endurance is also featured in the archival footage of the original expedition.
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