The Balloonists

Launching on March 1^st 1999, the explorers Bertand Piccard and Brian Jones were launched on the Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon with the intention of becoming the first balloon voyage to make it around the world with no stops. 19 days, 21 hours and 55 minutes later, the journey concluded in the Egyptian desert with no injuries, forced stopovers or malfunctions to speak of. It’s a fine adventure story, with just the right amount of suspense and derring-do, and director John Dower (who helmed Louis Theroux’s Scientology deep dive My Scientology Movie) has brought it to the big screen in a solidly linear, engaging form. However, there is a slight, itching feeling that The Balloonists has brought little more to its subject than that.

On the one hand, perhaps The Balloonists simply knows the measure of its own Icarus story (though in this case, the sun-grazing flight does not result in a crash and burn, which can hardly qualify as a spoiler when the very much alive Icaruses in question are sat for interviews to tell all about it). It’s one that doesn’t need much embellishment to compel, not with the copious amount of in-balloon footage to which Dower and co. have access, nor the yin-yang contrast of larger-than-life Piccard and the more earthbound Jones. Himself the grandson of a balloon pioneer, Piccard is driven to honour a legacy and refute an early life marked by rejection in the sporting world; he’s an ebullient tour guide, freely owning the alienation of multiple past colleagues prior to Jones, who simply weren’t able to endure his single-mindedness. Werner Herzog would likely have perceived a death wish in him, or at least a ravenous, neurotic pursuit of greatness. But really, it’s Jones who sets the tempo for Dower’s documentary, a man whose most vivid memories of those weeks in the air concern all that he could have lost back down on the ground.

At times, one suspects a full feature on the marriage of Jones and his wife Joanna – herself a collaborator in his expeditions, and part of the on the ground crew monitoring his and Piccard’s progress – in which the fateful flight was but a single occurrence may have made for a documentary with greater emotional focus and purpose. Equally close and pragmatic, openly caring and unsentimental, this duo’s half of the story both powers The Balloonists and, ultimately, undercuts it. While Piccard still reflects with reverence on his time in the air (upon disembarking, he likens his footprint in the Egyptian desert to Armstrong’s on the moon), Jones shows modest pride but is largely unruffled by the whole business. With memorabilia from the flight indifferently decorating his home, the aeronaut reflects that, “Sometimes I think, ‘You were the first to fly a balloon around the world. That’s pretty cool.’ But it didn’t change my life.” Indeed, sometimes a film cannily provides its own review. The Balloonists is meant as a whoop of triumph at a story of human endeavour and persistence, and thanks to the crisp competence and propulsion of its telling, it is. Still, with little real psychological curiosity regarding what motivated the flight (and one will have to turn to Google for any insight into how the toiletry and sleep requirements were managed during it), it’s simultaneously a bit of a shrug. They were the first to fly a balloon around the world. That’s pretty cool.

Ultimately, The Balloonists makes for an engaging look at a spectacle of ingenuity and endurance, as well as the two opposed personalities collaborating to make it happen. However, there’s also a perfunctory quality to the recounting of the tale, failing to locate a greater purpose for itself. The story’s “wow” factor is implicit, but the aspects of it that resonate most clearly are more earthbound.