Living in the Age of Airplanes
Appearance
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.
Narration
[edit]- 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.
- 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.
- Airplanes liberated us from the ground.
- 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.
- Each gate is a doorway to another part of the world.
- We bridged the gap that once
- 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.
- 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.
- We're truly living in a time of science fiction.
- If we couldn't fly, we probably wouldn't go.
- And if we didn't go,
- imagine how different our lives would be.
- 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.