Our Planet: Behind the Scenes (2019) - full transcript

[WALRUSES BAYING LOUDLY OUTSIDE]

- The Night of the Living Dead.
- Yeah.

Zombie attack. We're just trying
to zombie-proof our home.

[BAYING CONTINUES]

Yeah, you look over the top,

you can see the zombie eyes.

You can see them.

They're right there.

They're massive.

Their head's about that big.

[BAYING CONTINUES]



Let the battle commence.

Okay, I can see the bait.

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: The team have come
to the remote islands of French Polynesia

in the South Pacific.

Here, sharks are fully protected.

This is one of the few places left

where they still thrive
in the numbers they once did.

Good to go.

Divers, divers, this is topside.
This is topside.

Do you copy?

DIVER: Yeah, reading you loud and clear.
Can you hear me?

I can hear you loud and clear,
loud and clear, over.

Enjoy your dive,
and let's go find some sharks.

[CHUCKLES]
DIVER: Fingers crossed.



Finding the sharks isn't a problem.

DIVER #1: Okay, here they are.

Wow.

DIVER #2: Plenty of sharks.

They're gathered in the main channel,

hanging in the tidal current.

But working against such a strong current

is tough going for divers.

To film the sharks hunting at night,
the crew need powerful underwater lights.

They've mounted them onto a scooter
to help with the current.

That's a motor underwater scooter,
DPV.

Diver propulsion vehicle.

Right here are the lights.

They are attached to the front.

On this side back here
you have the propeller.

It's like a torpedo with lights.

The rig is designed to light
a large enough area of reef

to capture the full scale
of the spectacle.

It's kind of spooky...

to see shark eyes reflecting.

The lights are working well,

so the crew descend towards the channel.

Unconcerned by the lights,

the sharks begin to hunt.

DIVER #1: Wow. They're all here, right?

The divers approach cautiously,

keeping their distance from the sharks.

DIVER #2: Plenty of sharks,
and this is a different mood to daytime.

Know what? These guys
are switched on, they're active.

Be careful in there.

Just as the action hots up,

the lighting rig fails.

Back to the boat.

There are few species more elusive
than the Siberian tiger,

and the Our Planet team has come up

with a remarkable plan to film them.

MAN: We're gonna be going into the hides

with the prospect
of doing approximately...

800 hours...

in a small, wooden box...

by the end of the shoot.

To have any chance of filming the tiger,

they'll have to live inside the heart
of tiger territory themselves.

They're using specially built hides

just big enough for one person to live in.

So it's a bit like caravanning, um,

but sort of bizarre winter caravanning

where you're looking for a place
with good views of tigers.

The hides had to be placed precisely

to afford the best view.

[MEN SPEAKING RUSSIAN]

But perhaps some
are just a little too precise.

- [MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
- Yes?

Okay.

[MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN]

I don't know, it's kind of like
you've just moved into a new house,

and you don't know where anything is.

But the trouble is this house is...

very, very small.

And you've got a lot of stuff here.

The camera team will live
inside these hides

over the next two winters.

- All right, see you later. Bye, Paul.
- Cheers. Okay, bye.

Bye.

For six days at a time,
they will never even open the door.

No, I'm not staying in there.

Siberian tigers have the largest
territories of any cat,

and they are notoriously shy.

So by living in these hides,

they hope to stand a chance
of being there at the right moment

without disturbing the tiger.

While the others sit patiently
in their box,

Kieran is using the knowledge
of local scientists

to build a network of camera traps

across the tiger landscape.

The least comfortable thing
I've ever done.

The slightest movement
will trigger these cameras,

so he must return regularly
to check his catch.

Initial signs are not very promising.

I think it looks like more of nothing.

Damn.

An Our Planet team
are in the Canadian Arctic.

They've heard reports
that at a few spots along the coast,

and for just a couple of weeks a year,

polar bears have learned
to do something extraordinary.

At their base camp
on the Barnoin River in Quebec,

bear guide Alain shows them
some tantalizing footage

from the previous year.

Forced ashore by the summer ice melt,

the bears here have learned
to catch fish from the rivers.

This brief feast provides them
with valuable energy

in the increasingly long ice-free season.

There's lots of fish over there,

and something we even see the wolf
fishing with them.

Good, expectations
are pretty low, actually.

Yes, exactly, yeah.

But there are only a few rivers
shallow enough

for the bears to catch migrating fish.

These are over a hundred kilometers
further north,

and for the crew,
only accessible by small float plane.

If you tell me
we're gonna have good weather,

your chance of seeing polar bear
catching char in the next two weeks

are just 90...

95.

- Perfect.
- No big deal.

Not phased by a little drizzle,

the team test their kit.

They're hoping to capture
the first ever underwater footage

of polar bears fishing

and have built a special camera trap
for the job.

Yeah.

Horizon good?

No, actually,
that's slightly off, I think.

Once it's working...

they get the rest of their cameras ready.

All they need to do now

is to get them in front of a polar bear.

Extensive quarter-mile
to two-mile fog drizzle,

so...

non-fit weather for flying.

I mean, you're gonna fly maybe one mile

and you run into a fog bank,

and...

you've got no visibility, you're stuck.

- Another day in camp.
- Yeah.

We were thinking weighing ourselves
with all our kit. We started yesterday.

Thirty-two pounds.

The drone weighed, done.

247, now there's 206.

Oh dear, this is not good.

I'm over weight capacity
and we're maxing out this bush plane,

and it looks like since I am the fattest

I'm getting left behind,
and I'm not happy about it.

Okay, let's have a look at this.
What are we at?

We're at 226.

- What?
- I know!

Too many pancakes have been eaten.

My slight concern
is we've got another week.

Absolutely.

Weaher dictates everything
that we do, every day.

In French Polynesia, good news.

The lighting rig is back in action.

To capture the ultimate sequence,

the crew need to get right in
amongst the sharks,

and for that they need extra protection:

bite-proof chain mail suits.

If you don't use it,

you have a big chance,
I think, to be bitten.

Everything is right here,
from a safety point of view.

So it's no fear, it's just...

intensity, excitement, exhilaration.

Tonight the sharks are gathering
in even greater numbers.

ANDERSON:
Oh, that is a lot of sharks.

Using all his experience,

Doug carefully judges the moment
to move closer.

They look all right tonight.
I'm gonna get in there.

By remaining calm and moving slowly,

the cameramen get right in the middle

of the hunting sharks...

ANDERSON: That's a lot of sharks.

...and managed to film hundreds
of top predators

in a feeding frenzy...

without becoming part of it.

ANDERSON: Really great action.

Yep, wonderful.

You're really in the middle
of a predation scene,

and you feel very small at the end.

Today such incredible scenes only occur

in places like French Polynesia
where sharks are protected.

And we could have so many sharks
hunting together

and being so close to each other,

it's like a river flow.

It's really special.

I really like-- I'm enjoying this spot.

These top predators play a vital role

in the health of our coastal seas.

It's crucial that we protect sharks
in all our oceans

so they can thrive once again.

A month into filming the tigers,

and the unremarkable days
are passing slowly.

Not much else to do
apart from give you a tour of the hide.

So let's be quick about it and very quiet.

So, here we go.

This is my big knife,

thermometer,

box of nuts,

satellite communication device,

tea, coffee,

toilet paper,

flare for, uh, frightening the tiger off,

if it decides to eat me.

Fat chance.

These are down booties
to keep my feet warm,

kettle, cooker,

all my gas stuff,

bottle for peeing in.

That's the toilet there.

I sit on that about once a day
just to give myself a treat.

Even I'm bored now.

Two months in, and Kieran's routine checks
are well under way.

Well, it seems like the camera
is still working.

There's a lot of footage on this...

card.

Question is, footage of what?

Lots of tiger food.

But still no tiger.

Cool.

We've got a... lynx.

First time we've got something
like that here.

You know, it's not a tiger
but it's a pretty cool animal.

But not what they're looking for.

That evening, though,
Paul receives a visitor.

Well, I appear to have been surrounded
by maybe two tigers.

I don't know if you can still hear that,
but it's still...

still roaring out up the track,

- and it seems to be...
- [TIGER ROARING]

...that there's another tiger
also calling back.

So...

- I'm clearly in the right place.
- [TIGER YOWLING]

I just have to hope
that they're still around by morning.

That is an incredible sound.

Sadly, the two tigers are not
still around the following morning.

Wow, it's beautiful.

But the scientists' camera traps
confirm Paul's nighttime visitors.

MAN: No snoring tonight, Paul.

PAUL: No, well, draw them in.

- Stunning, eh? I like to see those.
- Yeah, it's great.

Fingers crossed.

So we should see this... this tiger.

Frustratingly close,
and yet still not filmable.

It's their second year of filming,

and the camera trap team
finds some promising signs

on their way to the ridge.

The-- Stop.

It's very fresh.

And it's heading in the right direction.

Kind of kept coming down the trail a bit
and then it turns up into this area

where there's no snow.

But it looks like the tiger continued up
the ridge to where our camera traps are.

By now the team has learned
through trial and error

the most likely tiger routes
through the forest.

But Kieran knows through experience

that the cats are still highly sensitive
to any signs of humans in their domain.

To succeed, one needs a lots of luck.

[CHUCKLES]

[QUIETLY]
Yes!

Finally, the camera traps
are beginning to pay off.

Oh, man, I can't believe it.

This is, like-- this is two years of work.

Like two years of work for, like,

just minutes of footage,

and, uh...

you see a shot like this
and it's just all worth it.

I mean, it's like the perfect setting,
this ridge,

where you've got the mountains
in the background, you've got nice light,

and flare going on in the lens,
you have this incredible animal...

Just, I don't know, I mean, it's...

Yeah, it's incredible.

There is no guarantee
of success in hide work.

A tiger must present itself to you,

which makes the two winters endured
by the hide teams

a remarkable feat of determination.

Yet thanks to the collective efforts
of all involved,

we now have just a few precious images

of the remaining Siberian tigers
on our planet.

Let the battle commence.

Working in a hot, steamy,
mosquito-infested jungle

is testing for anyone.

It went deep there.

That's pretty deep.
I think that's pretty deep.

That's what we call a hole.

But from a filming perspective,

this particular patch of rain forest

really is hell.

This is ridiculous. This is ridiculous.

But for those willing
to take on the swamp,

the Suaq Reserve in Sumatra

is home to some unique animal behavior.

The orangutans that live here
have learned to make and use tools,

the only wild members
of their species known to do so.

Truly pristine orangutan habitat
is not easy to find.

And after three exhausting days of travel,

they get their first taste
of the challenges ahead.

It sort of feels
as if the whole forest floor

is knitted together.

Sometimes I think
I can pick up a vine here.

If I gave it a yank, somebody would
trip up, you know, 50 meters that way.

One of the things you see everywhere
are these roots,

these aerial root.

They're like croquet hoops, and they
are literally all over this forest.

So you're walking along,

get your foot caught in one of those,
and you're on your face pretty quickly.

It's not even 6:30
and I'm completely soaked.

All fun.

All part of humor of the wood.

You all right?

The orangutans spend all of their time
up in the canopy,

never coming to the ground,
and are constantly on the move.

So the big problem
will be keeping up with them...

and getting a clean shot
through all the foliage.

Oblivious of the struggles
going on down below,

the orangutans are in their element.

We've been charging
through the understory

trying to get shots
of an orang with her baby,

and she always seems to be
ten seconds in front of us.

I mean, we're always playing with seconds.

You set up the camera, you've got
a few seconds to get the camera ready,

focused, fired,

but in that time,
very often she's just moved off,

so you get nothing.

Nothing.

It's pretty much impossible.

Well, not impossible, surely.

Shall we just call it difficult?

Difficult.

Very difficult.

Matt, I've got
an important question for you.

Yeah, what's the important question, Huw?

HUW: So what do you think our shot
per setup ratio is?

Twenty-five to one.

HUW: So 25 times--

Twenty-five times camera on, camera off--

Hauling the camera and tripod
through the jungle.

Hauling, yeah,

scratching shins...

going up to my waist in water.

HUW: After all that,
we end up with just--

Nothing. We end up with just nothing.

As the days turn to weeks...

jungle living is beginning
to take its toll on Matt,

and he's forced
to take some unscheduled time off.

It's an enforced break.

I've got this...

It's a plant allergy, it's an allergy
to a plant like a poison ivy

or a poison oak.

And unfortunately, it's hit
the whole entire back of my legs.

I'm trying to give it some sun
to try and dry it out out.

I'm not really one for sunbathing,
but, you know...

certain situations demand it,
and this is one of them.

Finally, we have the weather
to go and film polar bears.

We've been sitting here,
seems like forever, maybe ten days.

But...

today's the day.

At last, the rain has let up enough
for the team to head north.

Up in the air for the first time,

it becomes clear
that all this rain has had an impact.

There's much more water everywhere
than normal.

Some in that area, maybe.

WOMAN: Bear to the left.
Bear to the left.

Finally the crew spot a bear.

They make their approach on foot,

hoping at last to film their sequence.

But as they get closer,

they see all is not as it should be.

Though there are bears here,
there are no signs of fishing.

[BEAR SNARLS]

It seems that all of this rain
has filled the rivers

to levels much higher than normal,

allowing the fish to run
straight upstream to the lakes

without becoming trapped in pools
along the way.

Perhaps this is why
the bears aren't fishing.

Underwater, the team's fears
are confirmed.

At this time of year,
the river should be crammed full of fish.

But there's nothing here
for the bears to eat.

The team must finally admit
that they've been defeated by the weather,

and return home empty-handed.

The whole point of our freshwater film
is to demonstrate how important it is

that the right amount of water
hits these systems at the right time.

So this kind of demonstrates
that perfectly

in that the wrong amount of water
has hit the system

and the behavior
that we wanted to film can't happen.

It's good for the fish but obviously bad
for the bears and bad for us.

We don't have a sequence,
I think, for the simple reason

that the water levels are too high.

The fish aren't trapped,
the bears can't feed.

Um, we can't film what's not happening.

Very frustrating. I think everybody feels
like we failed somehow.

But it's nature.
You don't win them all with nature.

It's been going on here for 20 years
for Alain, but this year, no.

Weather over the years in the Arctic
has just been getting really weird,

and this summer has just been
the worse weather in the last 15 years.

It just basically rained all summer,
you know, cloudy,

high water levels so the fish
weren't able to get up to the...

were able to get up to the lakes
too quickly

and the bears aren't able to fish.

So it's...

weird environmental
climate change factors that are...

really hitting the Arctic hard and...

this is a classic example of it.

As the climate changes,
the planet's weather

and the flow of its freshwater

are becoming much harder to predict.

For a film crew, this is frustrating,

but for wildlife,
this rapidly changing world

now threatens their very survival.

In Sumatra, the weight of expectation
is still on Matt's shoulders.

He must press on with the search
to find orangutans using tools.

Progress has been painfully slow so far,

but often, a month-long shoot
can boil down

to just a few minutes of action.

Huw and Matt are hanging in there,

knowing their luck can change
in an instant.

Ah, good, good.

Yeah, good.

[LEAVES RUSTLING]

Whenever you hear that chucking noise...

[CLICKS TONGUE]

...that's them eating ants.

So you can hear it from some distance.

[ORANGUTAN CLICKING TONGUE]

Orangutans often use tools
when foraging for ants.

This could be the moment
the crew have been waiting for.

Only through a small window
in the foliage,

they catch their first glimpse
of what they came for.

A female orangutan is using a stick tool

to dig out ants from their nest.

Tool use by animals is extremely rare,

even amongst our closest relatives.

This is a groundbreaking moment
for the team.

MATT: It's an incredible thing to see
and witness.

I'm pretty blown away by the fact
that we've actually got this, you know?

It's been a slog, but it's been worth it.

The swampy conditions
that made life very difficult for the crew

are also the very thing that has protected
this small patch of rain forest

from exploitation.

Today, this area supports
the highest density

of Sumatran orangutans
anywhere in the world,

and it's thought to be
the only viable population that's left.

In just a few decades,

well over 50% of Sumatra's rain forest
has been lost.

What remains could be gone

within the lifetime of these individuals.

The Store Glacier in Greenland,

the location of Our Planet's
most nerve-wracking shoot...

The ice face stands 100 meters
above the ocean's surface

and extends 400 meters below it.

In summer,
skyscraper-size blocks break off,

and all that submerged ice
comes racing to the surface.

In the three-week filming window,
this might only happen once.

But these ice falls mean
the glacier is shifting,

and may calve very soon.

A transport helicopter has delivered
the land-based team.

But the aerial's team
in another helicopter are delayed.

All they can do is set up camp and wait.

With 24-hour daylight,

a calving event is filmable
anytime day or night.

[GLACIER RUMBLING]

SOPHIE: More bits, just.

Yeah, and down over there too.

It's got to go.

Yeah.

[RUMBLING, CRASHING]

SOPHIE: So it's now nearly midnight.

It's still bright daylight.

And if the light wasn't enough
to keep you awake,

you just hear all these sounds,

and I think they sound even louder
when you're in your tent.

Dash outside and everything goes quiet.
As soon as you come back in the tent...

- Like that.
- [GLACIER RUMBLING]

They're seeing more and more ice falls.

But the aerial team still haven't arrived.

But today the sun's out
and the glacier has woken up.

So we've been waiting on tenterhooks a bit
in case it calves before they get here.

It's building up.

Helicopters aren't always needed
to get a camera in the air.

The teams turn to a different solution
on the high seas.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's it, the bait.

Okay, I can see the bait, you're good.

Exposure looks good.

Moving now. Keep the bait. There they go.

MAN: Okay, dropping it.

Wildlife spectacles
in the open ocean are unpredictable

and very short-lived.

Filming these from the air
has always been a challenge

because helicopters can't venture
far from land.

MAN: Keep up with the bait.

Hold it there.
I'm gonna come back towards the boat.

- Yeah, it's going up top, isn't it?
- Yeah.

Now, with the very latest drones...

- Drop in a bit more.
- Nice?

Looks amazing.

...we can at last
get an aerial perspective

on these fleeting events

out on the high seas.

So it's the first time we've got a drone
that's fast enough

and small enough and practical
to launch from a boat.

So when we're out here
miles and miles offshore,

it really is opening up
a whole host of opportunities for us,

which is really exciting.

The team have come
to Mexico's Gulf of California,

one of the best places in the world
to see blue whales.

A blue whale.

It's our first blue whale. We've just...

We spotted it a second ago.
It's absolutely enormous.

That's quite an obvious thing to say
about a blue whale, but...

it is a huge, huge whale.

Whoa.

Whoa.

Oh, my God!

There it is, it's up.

It's a good start,
but the crew have a more ambitious goal:

to film a blue whale mother
and her calf from the air.

Drone's ready, let's go.

Filming is a two-man operation.

Hector flies the drone
and Olly operates the camera.

They have to get the drone in position

then work out the best altitude
and orientation for the shot.

OLLY: Hold it there.

Blue whales only surface
for two to three minutes at the time

before diving for up to 15 minutes.

It's a narrow window
for everything to come together.

- Can't see it.
- There.

OLLY: Don't twist too much into the sun.

The light's so bright.

Too much. Okay, let's start again.

HECTOR: Ah, she's diving.

So fast.

She's gone.

JAMIE: This is the little room.

Cold store, makeshift filming,

and a bucket...

We poo in a bucket.

It's the glamour.

That's Hector, Patrick,

Anatoly, Evgeny, Max...

This is where we eat, sleep,

dry things, get warm.

This is where everyone sleeps.

One, two, three people sleep in there.

It's luxurious.

SOPHIE: Is that it? Is that the tour?

That's the tour, yeah.
There's nothing else.

Then there's outside.
There's a lot more outside.

[WALRUSES BAYING OUTSIDE]

The Night of the Living Dead.

Yeah.

Zombie attack.
We just started to zombie-proof our home.

JAMIE: Zombies.

[WALRUS BELLOWING]

JAMIE: It's the middle of the night
and we've just been woken up by...

The hut has been absolutely
surrounded by walrus.

Every little hole you can look out of,
where the generator goes out,

the crack in the door,

there's another hole out that way,

we're completely surrounded by walrus.
It's amazing.

You hear banging against the sides
of the hut. Hut feels like it's shaking.

You can hear their tusks on the wall.

It's quite amazing.

It's really exciting
because we wanted them to come.

So yeah, it's brilliant.

It's like being surrounded
by 50,000 Wookiees.

If we didn't know what they were
that would be really scary.

[WALRUS BAYING]

When the team came to Russia

to film the largest gathering
of walrus on the planet,

theyt never expected them
to come knocking on their door.

The beach is absolutely jam packed full.

The problem with that is that the cabin
is completely surrounded.

There's just walrus everywhere.

[GRUNTING, BELLOWING]

With walrus blocking all exits,

there was only one place suitable
for filming.

The cabin's surrounded
so we have to film on the roof.

We had every form of weather
from sunshine to snow to hail.

Seen all weather in a day here.

Rooftop filming in bad weather
has its limitations.

What the team was really waiting for

was an opportunity
to get the drone in the air.

We've got a break in the weather
and there's walrus everywhere

and a gap, a break in the walrus as well.

We're gonna try to get the drone
in the air and show the spectacle.

Yeah, straight along the shoreline.

Numbers are unbelievable.

Tens of thousands of walrus,
as far as you can see.

The whole beach is full,
the cliffs are full.

There's thousands in the water.

It's only from the air that you can
truly see the scale of this spectacle.

Over 100,000 individuals
hauled out on one beach.

There's no walrus left.

Overnight they've all gone.

I can't believe it goes
from 80,000 walrus,

every single inch of beach
has been covered,

to just empty.

In one night. Amazing.

Oh, there he is.

He's up, yeah.

- You taking off?
- That's us.

Okay, forward.

There he is.

- Okay, go hard left.
- Hard left.

Hard left.

In these ideal conditions,

and with the whales unconcerned
by our drone,

the crew are able to capture
intimate close-up images.

- Yeah, rolling. Move right.
- Move right.

Yeah, hold it.

They even managed
to film a blue whale feeding...

...its extended throat
full of water and krill.

He is feeding there.

- Forward a bit.
- Slow.

[whale exhaling air loudly

Sounds like he's quite close.

Wow.

Just got a big wide of a feeding whale.

Whoa. Let's go.

Keep rolling. It's good.

Yeah.

Mom and calf, mom and calf,
let's go. Let's go.

- Yeah.
- Ready?

Yeah.

That's it. Come up, move left.

- Left.
- Nice.

Don't twist.

Keep going forward.

Yeah, keep to the left.

Okay. Oh, beautiful.

I'm gonna hold the shot there. Gonna hold.

Okay, holding.

Yeah, that's nice, it's beautiful.

Let's just keep gently into him.
Just keep, this is the shot, don't worry.

Coming back.
Coming back just real gently with him.

Beautiful. That's the one.

She's coming straight at the drone.
Let's get lined up on her.

You can see its face.

Whoa. That's lovely.

Seeing some of the calf,
and seeing its face

and seeing it dip under Mom
and come back out

and that sort of behavior was...

yeah, I think that's definitely
the winner.

Yeah, that was pretty special.

With their innovative use of drones,

the team were able to capture
these rare intimate moments...

revealing a new tender side

to the largest animal that has ever lived.

At the glacier,
the sound everyone has been waiting for.

[HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING]

And not a moment too soon.

Hello, Jamie. How are you?

Welcome to Store.

JAMIE: Yeah, beautiful.

But with the aerial team finally in place,

the glacier's activity drops
without warning.

All they can do is wait,

and hope it calves
before their time runs out.

MAN: Everything's gonna come together.
Sun's gonna come out,

the ice is gonna calve,
and we're gonna capture it all on film.

On the last day.

It's usually what happens.

Mmm.

[GLACIER RUMBLING]

Yep, that's another bit coming up
from the bottom.

SOPHIE: More to the right.

- Where?
- Right, to the right of that bit.

- We've got bits on the--
- Oh, look. That bit.

I'd get on the wide, if I were you.

MAN: Wow! Look at that one.

Rising up, that pillar.

Okay, we're good to go.

MAN: Okay, Mateo,
let us know what you see.

Okay, we'll let you know
if there's any activity on the nose. Over.

Okay, I'm going in for details.
Are you on the wide?

Okay, just go straight ahead.

Does it look like that bit
above the arch is gonna go?

They must get close to film.

I don't wanna be this close
to the wall ahead.

But how close is too close?

Okay, let's try and get above this now.

MAN: Let's just get a bit higher.

With the pilot dodging
truck-sized ice blocks,

it's clear something much bigger
is about to happen.

MAN: Jamie, camera left.

The whole face is going.

A kilometer of ice breaks off the front.

And half a kilometer of underwater ice

starts rushing to the surface.

MAN: Jean Michel, get us in as close
as you think you can.

JAMIE: Okay, hold this line,
as steady as you can go.

That's great.

Can we get a little bit lower?

Yeah, that's really good.

MAN: Jean Michel, pull up. Up! Up!

The pilot must navigate
around 75 million tons of ice

crashing about the bay.

MAN: Wider, wider, wider.

JAMIE: Yeah, that's really good.

Okay, let's try
and get around this if we can.

JAMIE: Can we slide left from this?

Looks amazing.

Unbelievable.
I've never seen anything like it.

MAN:
We're just gonna work around the icebergs.

We need you to let us know
if there's more calving.

Yeah, we will do but... [BLEEP] Hell.

That was unbelievable.

How was it from the helicopter?

[LAUGHS]
Oh, [BLEEP] amazing.

It was like a video game, honestly.

It was just like around that bit there
and there was like a whole mountain

rising out of the sea
and then flipping over and then turning.

Did you see, we went high, it's calved?

- We get the plan view.
- Yeah.

- And we were looking in...
- And then we saw--

...something came,
it was just a whole face was collapsing.

We just came in on absolute--

- SOPHIE: I saw that, yeah.
- That second calving was just immense.

And it just came up to the left
of the helicopter.

- JAMIE: I forgot about that, yeah.
- And he was going, "Wider!"

MAN: Were you pulling back,
or what, at the time?

At some point I needed to because I saw,
actually, an iceberg in the mirror.

And then he said,
"Pull up! Pull up! Pull up! Whoa!"

I could just hear Adam,
"Come here, okay, camera left, no!"

Jamie in the back, "Oh, my God!
This is...! Oh, my God!

The most amazing thing I've ever seen,
let alone filmed.

Yeah, it's worth it.

- Absolutely fantastic.
- Yeah.

Oh, boy.

Right, kettle's on.

Oh, boy.

On the Russian coast,

the polar celebrities have turned up.

This, polar bear country.

Luckily, Russian walrus biologist
Anatoly Kochnev

is no novice when it comes
to fending off polar bears...

and has developed his own unique way
of dealing with them:

a long stick.

I stick and he staying in...

around stick.

Yeah.

Yes. See, and...

I'm the polar bear.

[GROWLS]
Then...

Yeah.

A little bit worried that all we've got
is a stick when there's 12 bears

that you can see from here.

But I trust Anatoly.

My trust in science.

Let's go.

SOPHIE:
So I'm not sure I wanna go now.

Anatoly's stick technique,

combined with years
of experience reading bears,

appears to be keeping them at bay.

JAMIE: They're all fat and happy so...

we haven't had any bears here
that aren't really chilled out,

and they just walk straight past you,
totally ignore us.

If anything, when they get a scent of you,
they tend to move away a bit,

give you a bit of distance
but, no, they're really chilled out.

With the bears relaxed, the team
could turn their attention to the walrus

that had started to come ashore.

But they never expected
what was to follow.

Walrus climbing
to the very top of the cliffs

to get away from the crush below.

[GRUNTS]

I don't understand.
Why are they going up there?

Like...

literally to the top
of the rockiest part of the cliff.

Once at the top
of the 80-meter cliffs they rest,

until it's time to return
to the sea in search of food.

SOPHIE: That last little section
is the steep bit, and they all just...

It's really steep. That bit.

Oh, God.

Gently.

JAMIE: One's gonna go.

There's one right on the edge.

It's the worst thing I've ever filmed.
They're not designed to climb cliffs.

It's the least evolutionary
stable strategy I've ever seen.

I don't understand it at all.

It's just so horrible.

It's just un...

You can't fathom why, how...

It can see the walrus out at sea
and it just wants to go straight to them.

And it has no concept of...

falling, I think, I don't know what it is.

Still really depressing,
but today, I'm just really annoyed

at how ridiculous it is that they just--

They're not being pushed, there's no
stampede. It calmly walked off a cliff.

JAMIE: There's probably two
or three hundred dead walrus

on, like, a half mile
stretch of beach here.

They're exhausted 'cause
they're having to swim 100 miles

to get food and then come back here
'cause it's the only place to sleep.

They used to sleep on the ice, dive down,
eat the food, sleep on the ice, easy.

Now they're swimming a hundred miles,
coming to this place, climbing cliffs,

and they're exhausted
and falling down and...

are either being killed falling
or just crushing each other

'cause there's several thousand
crammed onto little tiny bits of beaches,

and then polar bears
just have a field day.

They're not being attacked by polar bears.
They just fall to their death.

Completely on their own now
'cause they can't get down the cliffs.

They're clearly not designed
to climb cliffs.

SOPHIE: This is the sad reality
of climate change.

They'd be on the ice right now
if they could be.

But there's no option but to come to land.

And they're just a danger to themselves.

It's really hard to watch
and witness this.

It's just...

Thing is, it's not like a...

a quick death, they just, like, tumble...

and they get internal injuries
and they just lie here.

It's just so heart-breaking.

Really sad.

to discover how our planet
can thrive again.

♪ I can hear the whole world
Singing together ♪

♪ I can hear the whole world
Say it's now or never ♪

♪ 'Cause it's not too late
If we change our ways ♪

♪ We can make a start on our problems ♪

♪ I can hear the whole world
We're in this together ♪

♪ We're in this together ♪

[VOCALIZING]