Voyage of Time: Life's Journey

Details

Release year: 2016

Storyline

An exploration into our planetary past and a search for humanity's place in the future. With narration by Cate Blanchett.

Top credits

Did you know

• Terrence Malick has been designing and working on the film with large-format cameras for over thirty years.

• The film was originally intended as a conceptual piece entitled "Qasida", and began production in 1979 before Terrence Malick abandoned the project. It was conceived as a multi-character love story set in the Middle East during the First World War which begins with a prologue set in prehistory. Eventually, Malick removed the W.W.I narrative and the prehistoric prologue became the whole film, with the narrative becoming more metaphorical and involving a prehistoric Minotaur or a "sleeping god" resting in the depths of the water while dreaming about the origins and formation of the universe.

• The film actually started shooting in 2003 when renowned nature cinematographer Paul Atkins (who also happened to be the director of photography of the film) alerted the filmmakers that volcanoes were erupting in Hawaii. So, they sent him off to capture some of the most extraordinary shots in the film, as molten lava bursts up under the ocean. One cameraman took the IMAX camera so close to exploding magma that his boots melted.