Kon-Tiki

Thor! Wait for us!

Thor! Wait!

Thor! Wait!

Thor, don't do it!

Thor, don't do it!

- It's dangerous! - Don't do it!

Come back, Thor!

Don't, Thor!

' Thor! ' Thor!

- Are you OK? - Cold...

You were showing off again, weren't you? Hm?

Thank God Erik was able to save you.

- God had nothing to do with it. -

What got into you? Why did you do it?

I hope you've learned a lesson.

Promise me you'll never take a risk like that ever again. Promise?

Promise?

Smile.

No,no,no. There shouldn't be smiling.

Just be yourself.

- Monsieur! -

Liv! Liv!

So, no smiling.

You look very handsome.

You'll make this island famous.

It will be just like Darwin and the Galapagos.

When people hear of Fatu Hiva they will think of Thor Heyerdahl.

- Whoo! -

Into the current. No, into the current.

It's really heavy.

Listen, you said that Polynesia first was populated from the west, right?

Yes.

Imagine paddling all the way from Asia against the current.

They must have been really strong.

Yes.

- Are you OK? -

I'm fine.

Listen to this. "Faa-hoka is the Marquesan variety of pineapple.

It was found in abundance by the first European explorers."

- Same pineapple? - Indigenous, it says, to South America.

Maybe it can swim.

- Tiki, the sun god... -

...brought us to these islands...

...from the land behind the ocean.

Tiki!

- -

- So how long are you in New York? - Leaving in a few days.

- Going home for Christmas. - Hm.

The wise men of anthropology are quite clear

that Polynesia was not populated from the east.

Wise men are not always right, sir.

Look around you. Every book in here offers some theory or another.

Most written by one man, read by perhaps only ten,

of whom nine disagreed with the theory.

But my theory provides evidence

that Polynesia was settled from the east.

I've spent ten years writing and researching my thesis.

I lived on Fatu Hiva, professor. I lived my theory.

How many publishers have you seen before me?

The fact that I'm your last hope ought to tell you something.

Yes, that scientific publishing is completely closed to new ideas.

You claim that the Peruvian pre-Incan civilization

was remarkable, I agree.

And that the prevailing winds and currents

in the Pacific down there move from east to west.

But it is also the case that Tiki could not have traveled to Polynesia

- because his people had no boats! - No.

But they had rafts.

They had balsa wood rafts.

Rafts!

Now that would be evidence.

You want your theory to be accepted? Then, go ahead.

Drift from Peru to Polynesia on a balsa wood raft.

Good luck.

Mr. Brownberg's here to see you, professor.

Gentlemen.

Your magazine will be with me on a raft

at the mercy of the winds, all the way to Polynesia.

It's further than from Chicago to Moscow.

Here to here, 5,000 miles.

You'll have some sort of engine in case of emergency?

Absolutely not. We will surrender to the current

and the wind, exactly as Tiki did.

And by undertaking this extraordinary voyage, you are proving...?

That the oceans were not barriers, but roads.

Not impediments, but pathways.

I will prove that South American people

sailed to Polynesia 1,500 years ago.

Every schoolboy knows that Polynesia was peopled from Asia,

not South America.

And it's my job as a scientist to prove the schoolboys,

and those who quote them, wrong.

- Being sun worshipers... - Mr. Heyerdahl.

Doubtless, the story of Norwegians drowning in the Pacific will sell

a lot of magazines, but not this one.

This is a scientific expedition...

Our magazine has a higher purpose than to finance

and enable men bent on suicide.

I doubt you'll have any success in recruiting anyone.

- - So, a dozen logs

lashed together, big balsa wood logs, like that.

A hut for five crew. All very capable, of course.

Mast and rudder...

And, uh, there it is.

The Kon-Tiki.

I spent 22 days on a raft. Torpedoed. North Atlantic, winter of '43.

You can't sail it, steer it.

All you can do is sit there and wait to die.

- No, no, no. - These logs, they are gonna

move against each other in the waves,

and eventually they're gonna break the lashings.

And you'll each be sitting on a log floating your separate ways

at the mercy of the elements.

Thank you for your time.

- Hey... - Excuse me.

- You're Norwegian, right? Back there... - Yes?

- ...I couldn't help overhearing. -

Back there I couldn't help overhearing about your raft. Interesting.

- Are you a sailor? - No. And neither are you.

Let me show you something.

That will lessen the drag a lot.

We engineers can't help ourselves.

- You're an engineer? - Yeah.

But nowadays I mostly sell refrigerators.

Herman Watzinger.

- Thor Heyerdahl. - So you're going on a raft, are you?

...the evidence is just overwhelming, you know?

It's possible to actually drift there on the current.

The wind and the current. That's the key, and I've got that.

Five months to finance, equip and mount the entire expedition.

So there's a lot to do.

- Mr. Heyerdahl, may I help you? - We have an appointment.

The money in place by Christmas, buy the balsa in January...

Mr. Heyerdahl, you are not on the list.

Look under his name. Watzinger. W.

Get a crew down to Peru in February, build in March, sail in April,

land by August and hope the hurricane season starts late.

Just following my instincts...

Peter Freuchen.

We damn near died when the zipper froze.

- - We all walk in his shadow.

Mr. Heyerdahl, you are not allowed in here.

Well! My friend from Fatu Hiva!

You look like a man who just got dumped by a glossy magazine!

Thank you.

Don't worry, Heyerdahl.

Scientific committees, my ass.

- Am I right, McGregor? Or am I right? - Always. Of course.

Frostbite, the winter of '24.

It taught me one thing: do as the natives do, down to the smallest detail.

Don't use nails if they use rope,

don't use steel if they use bone.

It took their ancestors a thousand years to learn.

Go with them, and you just might hang on to your leg.

Skol.

Whoo!

I'm 32 years old.

I'm a refrigerator salesman, stuck in a marriage that doesn't go anywhere.

And I'd really like to go on that raft with you.

OK, I know it's going to be dangerous,

but you have no idea how risky the fridge business is.

Paughs]

There will be no one to save us out there.

Except your theory.

Captain.

At least you won't lose your leg to frostbite.

You know, Bamse's convinced you're Santa.

Oh, I hope you tell him it's not like that.

Well, you tell him. They are just so excited.

It will be so good to have you home, Thor.

Yes, Liv... I couldn't raise the money for the trip, so uh...

...I have to go directly to Peru now,

and see if I can borrow enough money.

Are you...

Are you not coming home?

It has been difficult, Liv. Really difficult.

And I just can't keep begging anymore.

Don't do this.

I have to, Liv.

- Don't do this to the children. -

Don't you understand? If I come home now, I'm finished.

I spent ten years working on this, Liv. I spent ten years.

You can't even swim.

You should have come home, Thor.