We Are As Gods (2021) on Netflix

Plot summary

The film follows Stewart Brand across decades of work and into an expedition in Siberia. Archive footage, photographs and diaries trace his role in the 1970s counterculture, the Whole Earth Catalog and a hackers conference. His current project is de-extinction, and with the biotech pioneer George Church he wants to recreate the genome of the woolly mammoth. The journey begins at Pleistocene Park, where two Russian scientists have settled in self-imposed exile. When Stewart arrives, it is the hottest year recorded in Siberia, and the thawing permafrost threatens to release greenhouse gases. The two hosts believe that returning ancient animals to the land would keep the soil colder. Stewart examines ice caves, lights a plume of methane on fire and digs mammoth bones, hoping for a sample with enough ancient DNA. Environmentalists ridicule the idea and dismiss him.