In 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton embarks with his crew aboard the Endurance. They're manifested to cross the continent of Antarctica. After lengthy preparation, everyone is excited for the adventure. A voyage of this magnitude and consequence has never been attempted before.
Tragically, the Endurance crashes into some ice and takes on water. This occurs somewhere in the Weddell Sea. Somehow most of the crew manages to launch escape boats before the ship sinks, but some men are forced to leap overboard and are lost to the ice. Those who make it into the boats drift among the ice floes for over a year, gradually trying to make their way to land.
Eventually they arrive at Elephant Island. At this point Shackleton takes five other crew members with him aboard the much smaller boat, the James Caird, and travels through the Drake Passage. They sail 650 miles until they reach South Georgia Island only to face the dangers of the vast untouched arctic wilderness. Shackleton, along with two of the remaining five, crosses the island to reach help. After another three months he manages to return to Elephant Island to rescue the rest of his crew.
