Into the Inferno Page #3

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And what was wonderful...

he was very philosophical.

A very poor black farmer.

And I sensed that, after a while,

he didn't feel so comfortable

with us anymore,

and he sat up and started

to tie his worn-out tennis shoe.

And then, all of a sudden,

he sings a song against the camera,

and I knew that was that.

So, go away, we'd better get out.

We met in Antarctica

during the shoot

of Encounters at the End of the World,

and I knew a little bit about you.

I'd seen some of your movies

when I was a youngster,

and I knew something of your reputation.

And we, in our field team,

we were anxious that you were going

to have us propelled

down towards the lava lake.

There was some concern that you would be

looking for lengths of rope

with which we could be lowered down

within meters of this fiery lake

on Mount Erebus, volcano.

And instead, you were interested

in what we were doing

and why we were doing it.

For me, there is no personal excitement

to go down.

There's a curiosity.

Yes, I would love to see it from close up.

But since it is too dangerous,

it would be silly.

We have, in some ways, similar...

Um, you know, we both...

As a volcanologist,

of course, there's a risk

doing the measurements,

and you ask yourself, "Well, is it worth

dying to get this measurement?"

And the answer is no,

if you look at it in those terms.

But you're always trying to evaluate

how far you're going

to tolerate the risk.

I mean, even here,

the volcano could explode now

and we could all be hit

by one of these five-meter bombs.

I'm the only one in filmmaking

who is clinically sane,

- taking all precautions.

- That's very clear. Oh, absolutely.

I mean, you wouldn't still be here

if you were insane.

You would've been consumed long ago

by a pyroclastic current

or a gas flare or a grizzly bear

or whatever.

So, it's quite clear that you're sane.

I never doubted that for a moment

from our first encounter.

Deposited out from the volcanic gas.

Very nice.

- That's a good swoosh.

- Yeah, a good swoosh.

- We're very blas about all of this.

- Yes.

But let it come at us.

We'll face it and step aside.

We would often discuss

the life and work of a French couple,

Katia and Maurice Krafft.

They were famous for capturing

incredible images of volcanoes.

But this meant that they had to get

dangerously close to their subject.

Too close,

as it would eventually turn out.

They were both instantly killed

by a pyroclastic flow in Japan,

together with 41 other people.

This is the very avalanche

of super-heated gases that killed them.

What is rushing down this slope

at over 100 miles per hour

has a temperature

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