For the last 2.5 million years, our planet has been in the grip of an ice age. As ice advanced across the Northern Hemisphere, life was forced out. Mammals, who were able to adapt well to the cold, dominated the
northern latitudes where they could. While ice didn’t expand to cover the entire planet, its impact was still global. With much of the planet’s freshwater locked up as ice, the Earth dried up. Rainforests shrunk and our closest ancestors, the primates, were forced out into the open. But as much as the advance of ice is part of the ice age story, so too is its retreat.
Periods of glaciation were followed by periods of great melt, causing upheaval for life across the planet. Mega flooding events proved catastrophic for life in their path – the scars of which can still be seen across the North American continent today. For the last 11,700 years the ice has been in retreat, and our climate has been remarkably stable. Humans rose to dominance, taking advantage of these stable conditions to grow plants for harvest and domesticate animals. Our population grew on a truly global scale and the consequence is grave: we are causing the next mass extinction.
What happens next is in our hands, but whatever future awaits, there’s one thing the past has taught us – life always finds a way.
Key moments
Cave Lion Cold Open – Filmed in a cave in Scotland, the crew were subjected to gale force winds while climbing up. Though used to filming around the world in all sorts of hostile environments, they were almost caught out in their own backyard! Icy conditions made the narrow footpaths very difficult to navigate, and because it was the UK they didn’t think to pack crampons. It was quite a nerve wracking trek up to the cave carrying heavy filming gear, but luckily, no one toppled off the footpath.
The human handprints superimposed onto the cave wall were based on real cave art designs from caves in Europe. Humans and cave lions would have inhabited the same caves (just not at the same time).
Mammoths vs. Cave Lions – The mammoth sequence was the most expensive and ambitious VFX sequence of Life on Our Planet. The closer you are to modern animals, the better the creatures have to look and behave. In this case, multiple hairy creatures interacting with one another and performing high energy behavior made for very complex animation.
After looking into many Arctic locations to serve as an epic, Ice Age backdrop, the team decided on Iceland. When planning a shoot many months ahead of time, they had to gamble on a week and hope that the snow cover would be just right. Luckily, when it came to filming the road was just passable and they were able to access the area we loved with the spectacular backdrop, taking care not to make too many footprints and car tracks.
Buffalo Jump – To accurately recreate the hunting methods of Native American tribes, the team approached the Blackfeet Tribe and involved anthropologist Maria Zedeno who works closely with them. They received permission from the elders, who are proud of their heritage and their ancestors’ respect of nature, upon which their survival was inextricably linked. Before filming started the Blackfeet carried out a ritual to bless their presence and to pray that filming went well.
The bison “stampede” shots were filmed in Custer State National Park, and presented several challenges, not least of which was that the bison didn’t care much for running. The crew managed to capture enough footage of the little they did run in a group together to use in the sequence. But of course this scene also features VFX bison – rest assured that no bison ever actually fell off a cliff!
Human Montage – Beginning as a celebration of human achievement in civilization, agriculture, and engineering, the focus shifts to the collateral damage this has caused the planet. The team felt it was important to keep this montage free of narration and fast-paced to reflect the rate of change humanity has recently undergone. The montage spans the three major revolutions in recent history: agricultural, industrial and digital.
To represent early civilization, the team sought a location where human infrastructure looked as natural as possible and blended into the landscape. This meant finding a location where traditional building methods were still used, as well as local materials. COVID restrictions narrowed options considerably, but Morocco opened up just in time to film one of their very picturesque kasbahs, Aït Benhaddou (a UNESCO World Heritage Site, also featured in Game of Thrones and Gladiator).
The very last shot in the series also happened to be its very last shoot. Wanting to project beyond the present day and into the not-too-distant future and show a possible reality for a well known city, London was chosen. With instantly recognizable landmarks and an architecture that blends old and modern buildings, it’s meant to be a thought-provoking image about what the future holds — not just for us, but for all life.
Sixth Mass Extinction – The team believes that Life on Our Planet is uniquely positioned to offer a fresh perspective on the climate change narrative, what they call the “Life on Our Planet” lens. After going on a journey through time through Chapters 1-7, by the time viewers reach the finale, they will have learned about all the major mass extinction events. Aiming to reflect and draw upon this learning and tie it all together, the hope i that people will understand the impact rising CO2 levels have had in the past, and draw their own conclusions on the future that lies ahead. Flashbacks to the past drive home the point that the dominant species going into a mass extinction event never come out the other side, but that optimistically life always seems to find a way.