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Living in the Age of Airplanes

2015 film directed by Brian J. Terwilliger

Living in the Age of Airplanes, formerly titled Aviation: The Invisible Highway and Aviation Epic, is a 2015 epic experimental IMAX documentary about the significance of aviation within humanity. It is directed by Brian J. Terwilliger, narrated by Harrison Ford, and backed by a James Horner soundtrack. It was shot on all seven continents, the first of its kind.

Tagline: A mile of runway can take you anywhere.

Narration edit

 
"The airplane became the first World Wide Web, bringing people, languages, ideas, and values together." Quote from Bill Gates in opening placard
  • Since we were all born into a time when airplanes already existed,
they don't seem exciting, new.
Their golden age was over long ago.
Even though it's only been a few decades since flying became possible,
our opinion of it has quickly swung from fascination
to frustration.
As we get lost in the details of the process,
it's easy to forget how extraordinary it is
that we can fly so far, so fast...
or that we could even fly at all.
  • [In ancient times], traveling from one distant place to another
wasn't a matter of hours or days,
it was a matter of lifetimes.
  • In ancient times, we rarely traveled more than 20 miles from where we were born.
We saw more of the universe than we did with our own home,
which is why we mapped the sky
long before the Earth.
  • When we mastered the sea,
travel became faster,
but our world became larger.
  • [Referring to steam transport] Instead of harnessing power,
we created our own.
 
In just a flicker of time, life on Earth changed forever. In a single century, aviation went from impossible... to nearly perfected.
  • The network of airplanes is practically invisible,
yet their constant circulation
is the lifeblood of the modern world.
  • When we enter an airport, we're entering a portal to the planet.
Each gate is a doorway to another part of the world.
In a sense, we're walking distance to almost anywhere.
separate and isolate entire cultures.
We go beyond what we've learned about our history,
and set in the very places where it unfolded.
The airplane...
...is the closest thing we've ever had...
...to a time machine.
  • [Referring to the seaplane] Part plane, part boat:
it bridges the sky and the ocean.
 
Deep cracks in the ice [of Antarctica] are concealed by thin layers of snow, creating deadly trapdoors. [...] But the challenges of the terrain have only fueled our curiosity.
  • In the age of airplanes,
we've become explorers once again.
  • Aviation's influence is all around us,
but much of it is never seen.
  • Although not everything in our homes is flown in,
we may not realize how many things
we own from far away places.
  • [Aviation] even impact[s] those who've never flown.
  • When we work together and combine our discoveries.
we achieve much than we ever could on our own.
And the faster the ideas can connect with each other,
the faster the progress of the modern world.
  • If we couldn't fly, we probably wouldn't go.
And if we didn't go,
imagine how different our lives would be.
 
This view is unique to our time and history. We see more in a single glance than people once saw in a lifetime.
  • We tend to romanticize the past
and feel nostalgic for the way things used to be.
At the same time, we're eager for what the future holds:
"the promise of something better."
But as we go about our fast-paced lives,
sometimes the hardest thing to do is to slow down
and appreciate the time we're living in.
In its own way,
every era is a golden age.
It's just a matter of perspective.
  • In the world we've made, everything is connected,
and nothing seems impossible.
No virtual technology can ever do what the airplane does.
It allows us to stay physically close
to the people and places we love.
And of all the places an airplane can take us,
perhaps the most meaningful...
...is home.

External links edit

 
Wikipedia
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