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Kon-Tiki – Conversation Lesson

Joe: Hey AJ, I watched that movie Kon-Tiki that you were telling me about, finally watched it because I know you’ve been telling me about it for a while.

AJ: Oh yeah, it’s a great movie. Did you…it’s quite an adventure those guys had, y’know, sailing across the Pacific from Chile, right?

Joe: Yeah, I was…I was telling Kristin that she needs to watch it but I didn’t really get into much detail as to what it’s about. So basically Kon-Tiki is the name of this raft - I guess you would call it - that was used by these Norwegian guys. The main guy who was in charge was named Thor. I think his last name was Heyerdahl. Anyway, the movie was about this expedition that they made in 1947 on a raft across the Pacific Ocean and they tried to go from South America to the Polynesian Islands. And the goal was basically to prove this guy’s theory. And his theory was that people migrated from South America to the Polynesian Islands and obviously they didn’t have any big, y’know, ships at that time. He’s talking about thousands of years ago. So he wanted to show that there was a way that they could have migrated from South America to the Polynesian Islands. And the way that he suggested this happened was just through these rafts that were made of, y’know, logs and that basically just moved through the currents.

AJ: Yeah, I think it was quite an amazing story. I mean they basically just put this raft in the water. They had a sail but they couldn’t really steer it so they’re just drifting through the Pacific for, I can’t remember how long it was, but weeks and weeks. And a pretty dangerous thing to do because they had no real contact…I think they lost contact pretty quickly with…with the outside world. So there was a good chance they would have just died. And so it took a lot of guts for those guys to just take off like that. You should see it, Kristin. It’s a pretty good movie.

Kristin: Why is it that they did it again?

AJ: They…the main guy was an anthropologist, I think. He’s just trying to prove that it was possible.

Because everyone told him no, no, it was impossible. The Polynesian Islands, the islands in the Pacific, everyone thought definitely they were populated by people coming from Asia.

Kristin: Yeah.

AJ: Sailing over from Asia, and his theory was no, they actually came from South America and they all populated the islands that way. And he didn’t really prove that was the case, he just proved it was possible because he tried to use the same technology. He built a simple boat that those guys could have used, y’know, thousands of years ago.

Kristin: Okay.

AJ: So he’s trying to recreate this possible voyage…

Kristin: Right.

AJ: …of these primitive people.

Kristin: How did he get involved with this?

AJ: I don’t know. Like I said, I think he was an anthropologist or something already so this was the area, his area of expertise, studying Polynesian cultures and so then within that field there’s this controversy, did they come from Asia or did they come from South America.

Joe: Yeah, in the movie they show he and his wife in the Polynesian Islands somewhere and he’s doing some research. Whether this really happened or not you never know because obviously, y’know, this is a movie and a lot of the times they just throw in things to be dramatic. But his wife and he were on this island and he was like reading this book that either showed native plants either of the area he was in or in South America and he was just basically drawing parallels. Like he would say, “Wow, look there’s mangoes here and there are mangoes in South America,” y’know, as a way of just trying to say maybe there was a link or something like that between these two.

Kristin: So what happened on the boat? How long were they on…how long were they doing this for?

How long did it last?

AJ: I can’t remember exactly how long it lasted.

Joe: I think it was maybe like two months or something like that.

AJ: Yeah, it was long, long time.

Kristin: So what…how many guys?

AJ: Five…

Joe: Five maybe?

AJ: Yeah, something like that…five.

Kristin: And they were all like seamen, I’m assuming?

AJ: No, like none of…I think only one guy had any sailing experience.

Joe: Yeah, one guy used to be in the Navy of whatever country he was from. And one guy they showed had no experience whatsoever.

AJ: Yeah, the main guy couldn’t swim.

Joe: Oh yeah, yeah, Thor couldn’t swim but…

AJ: Leader.

Joe: …they didn’t seem to know about that at the time that they set sail.

AJ: He didn’t tell anybody.

Joe: Yeah, he didn’t tell anybody.

AJ: Yeah, so then they…

Kristin: Wow, that’s pretty crazy. That’s interesting, he couldn’t swim.

AJ: Yeah, he couldn’t swim and then they…they’re just, y’know, drifting. It was almost like a scene from Mutiny on the Bounty a few times where they’re just almost going crazy because they’re just out on the ocean for…

Joe: And they don’t know where they are.

AJ: They don’t know where they are. They don’t know if they’re going to…where they’re going. They… Joe: Oh remember the…that they suddenly ran into all these sharks that were trying to attack the boat.

AJ: Yeah, that’s the part I think they added for the movie. It seemed a little too much, right?

Joe: They seemed to have taken a lot of liberties.

AJ: Yeah, yeah, over the top, definitely. Suddenly they’re fighting sharks in the water and just, I can’t imagine that actually happening in real life.

Joe: Yeah, you would have freaked out about the number of sharks that they were showing because I know you have a bit of fear of sharks, Kristin. I mean I don’t…I think a lot of people do. But they were showing these scenes that really had…had the viewer on the edge of his or her seat. It was almost as if you could feel the…the danger, y’know, with the sharks circling them and they didn’t know about it in the movie. Remember AJ?

Kristin: That’s pretty courageous that these guys, except for one I guess you said, only one had experience out at sea, that they would do something like this. Just basically floating aimlessly, is what it sounds like…

AJ: Yeah.

Kristin: …hoping that they reach these Polynesian Islands, but who knows…for a couple of months?

AJ: Yeah.

Kristin: That’s, yeah, that’s pretty courageous.

AJ: It is and…and the hardships they go through, y’know, they’re…they’re pretty intense and it’s just hard to imagine nowadays people really doing that kind of an expedition with such, with limited technology like they did and with the very real possibility of all being killed or all dying.

Joe: Yeah, it’s pretty crazy to think that that was only about 60 years ago.

AJ: Mm.

Joe: I mean when you hear about someone doing something like that, it seems like that must have been hundreds of years ago.

AJ: Yeah, I think people were tougher then. That’s for sure.

Joe: Well, y’know what movie I want to see next? I don’t know if you knew about this, AJ. Kristin, they actually made a movie while they were doing this. Like they had a camera on board and they made a little documentary about the Kon-Tiki voyage. Kon-Tiki was actually the name of the boat and it won an Academy Award in 1951. So I don’t know if it had sound or anything like that. Maybe it’s just someone narrating or something like that. But I’d be really interested to see that because that shows the real footage. There’s no way for the film maker to overly make it dramatic.

AJ: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe: I wonder if we’d see any sharks.

AJ: Probably not.

Joe: You know there’s also a Kon-Tiki Museum I read, I guess it’s in Norway somewhere.

AJ: Oh yeah, cool. That would be nice to visit someday.

Joe: Yeah.

AJ: If I ever make it to Norway.

Joe: Well, I think they have the actual raft that they used there.

AJ: Mm.

Joe: Wait, I don’t know. Maybe…it’s probably just a replica because in the movie, remember at the end, right before they actually reach the land they have to do some crazy maneuver where they have to like surf over these like the reef that has these really sharp points that could like really hurt somebody, I guess. I don’t know.

AJ: Yeah, yeah. Huh, those Norwegians, they’ve got a long history of exploring the sea so I guess it’s that…that Viking in them.