From The Amazon To Antarctica: Will Smith’s Epic Travel Journey Unveiled

Published on December 14, 2025

National Geographic always has the best documentaries, and their newest will take viewers on a trek that the rest of the world has only dreamed of traveling to. Pole to Pole will air on January 13 and will be the. beginning of a trek of a lifetime for actor Will Smith. Smith will travel to both the North and South poles on a North to South expedition that will last for 100 days. Smith will push both his mental and physical capabilities to their limit while moving to and from various ecosystems, collaborating with scientists and experts, and discovering things no one else has before.

Smith’s trek will span all 7 continents and will be an experience for the ages. Smith will travel to Antarctica, to the Amazon, the Himalayas, deserts in Africa, and end in the Arctic. Each episode is guaranteed to be educational and full of material that will be worthwhile as Smith continues on his expedition. However, the main focus of the docuseries is to capture the beauty of the world and the ecosystems that need to be protected.

Earth’s Extremes: The Pole to Pole Journey

To start this enormous trip, Will Smith has to ski to the South Pole, leaving Antarctica while enduring the harshest of weather. Will has to cross the giant icefields and face the steep ice cliffs, which are the biggest challenges of this leg of the journey. He has to join Richard Parks to get over the cliff and finish the last leg of Antarctica. This leg gives the audience a good preview of how much suffering and willpower are needed to pull off just about any kind of research in any given part of Earth, but especially in Antarctica, where the climate can get unbelievably and unbearably harsh.

Once he’s gotten over Antarctica, he can move on to the Amazon rainforest, which, like Antarctica, presents a variety of challenges, such as spiders and the disease vector jungle. He and his team go deep into the disease vector jungle to find some of the most dangerous species on Earth. This part, like the Antarctica part, is informative, and the audience gets to learn about some of the interesting, new, potentially life-saving medicinal techniques that are being developed, such as using the giant tarantula’s venom.

World’s Wildest Places: Continuance of the Journey

For his next adventure, Smith goes to the Amazon looking for the world’s largest snake, the giant green anaconda. Smith learns about the snake’s importance with the Waorani. He learns that the Waorani experts remove a scale of skin from the snake. It helps scientists learn more about the environment, track the health of the ecosystem and the surrounding wildlife, and human populations.

After the Amazon, Smith goes to the Himalayan mountains in Bhutan, the world’s happiest country. Smith and happiness expert Professor Dacher Keltner, and a local author, Tshering Denkar, go to the world’s highest and happiest village. At 13,000 feet elevation, Smith thinks of mountain living and the life lessons experienced from endurance, and the endless happiness in life’s hardships.

Here’s what got me really engaged in the episode: Smith’s keen concern for the remote communities in the Pacific Islands. When sea levels rise, they become isolated. Smith documents the residents’ near-extinct languages with local ecologists and linguists. This intertwines the relationships of culture, language, and the environment. Smith promotes climate change initiatives in the preservation of biodiversity and, more importantly, culture.

Into the Heart of the Kalahari Desert and the Arctic Circle

The Kalahari Desert is next on Smith’s journey. Here, Smith gets to spend time with the San people. They are one of the longest hunter-gatherer groups on Earth. Traditional co-hunting with Smith is a way for them to share their extensive knowledge on survival and resourcefulness with him on how to successfully thrive in one of the world’s most difficult environments. It informs them of their remarkable resilience as a people to desert and climate change.

Getting an education requires determination, discipline, and sacrifice; Smith is no stranger to these. He spends countless hours diving under the ice, gathering samples that he hopes will revolutionize the understanding of polar ecosystems. Smith has to complete these dives before a snowstorm starts and the machinery malfunctions. Smith fights to complete the samples; he learns teamwork, bravery maintains the unsullied remoteness of the polar regions.

A Journey of Resilience and Discovery

With overwhelming beauty, complex fragility, and perhaps the most extreme environments, the planet holds within it uncapitalized ice and wild lands. Adventures such as these must be documented, and Smith goes polar, taking the viewer with him. Smith demonstrates outer and inner human wonders; the outer will. While drifting from the coldest ice to the deepest jungles, Will Smith opens up about his personal experiences and the changing nature of the planet’s most remote corners. He showcases the mental and physical challenges of the trek and conquers all that Smith portrays. Smith gets to know the San people of the Kalahari Desert and the indigenous people of the Amazon. Pole to pole captures the true essence of perseverance, the love for nature, and the superb marvel of human connections built all along the trek.

Wisdom Smith has gained from his travels around the world, motivating people to understand and protect the remote and most vulnerable parts of the planet. Smith reflects on the deepened love for the environment and the hope for the planet gained through the adventure. Pole to Pole offers viewers the most remote and beautiful parts of the planet. Hope is the most beautiful part of the planet. Extreme ecosystems encourage viewers to reflect on actions they can take to protect ecosystems. Smith explores the planet and its wonders like never before.