Racing Extinction (2015) on Netflix
NR20151h 30mActionAdventureDocumentary
Scientists predict that half the species on the planet may be lost by the end of the century. Activists go undercover to document the wildlife trade and the emissions driving the loss.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb8.1/108,457 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes82%
Trailer
Plot summary
Scientists say the planet has entered a sixth mass extinction, an era they call the Anthropocene, or Age of Man, and that as much as half of all species could be gone by the end of the century. A team of activists, photographers and scientists sets out to document the causes, among them climate change and poaching. Undercover work follows the international wildlife trade, including a whale meat restaurant in the United States and shark fin and manta ray gill markets in Hong Kong and mainland China. Specialized cameras make methane and other gases visible to the eye, and lab experiments and archived photographs show what is happening to coral reefs. A car fitted with a projector throws images of endangered and extinct animals onto public buildings.
Cast
- Leilani Münteras Herself
- Charles Hambletonas Himself
- Heather Dawn Rallyas Herself
- Paul Hiltonas Himself
- Travis Threlkelas Himself
- Christopher W. Clarkas Himself (as Dr. Christopher W. Clark)
- Shawn Heinrichsas Himself
- John Veronas Former Chief Scientist, Australian Institute of Marine Science
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Racing Extinction (2015)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Director Louie Psihoyos and his crew filmed an undercover exposure of a whale meat restaurant in the United States on the same day he had originally been scheduled to collect his Academy Award for his earlier documentary The Cove.
- The filmmakers work with Obscura Digital to design a custom Tesla Model S fitted with a 15,000-lumen projector system, using it to project images of critically endangered and extinct species onto public buildings including Shell factories, Wall Street, the Headquarters of the United Nations, the Empire State Building and the Vatican.
- The film's advocacy helped get manta rays added to the CITES Appendix II list of protected species, which stopped the Indonesian village of Lamakera on Solor from killing the rays to supply demand for them in China.
- "Manta Ray," the song J. Ralph and Anohni wrote for the film, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song against entries from Fifty Shades of Grey, The Hunting Ground, Youth, and Spectre, but lost to Sam Smith's "Writing's on the Wall."
- Carbon dioxide and methane emissions from transportation, animals and factories are made visible to the human eye for the first time with a specially designed high-definition FLIR (forward-looking infrared) camera fitted with a special color filter.
