[leadin]In 1968, a man with no arctic experience boarded a snowmobile and drove it to The North Pole. His name was Ralph Plaisted, and he’s soon to be the subject of a film and portrayed by comedy superstar Will Ferrell.[/leadin]
Ferrell is reportedly in line to portray the little-known adventurer who became the first person to surface travel to the Earth’s northernmost point in a feature film by Sony Pictures and producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen.
Ralph Plaisted: Polar Explorer’s Legacy Becomes Movie
Ralph Plaisted, the Minnesota-born insurance salesman who took on the insane challenge of snowmobiling to the North Pole — on a bar bet — died in 2008, yet few recognize his name, despite the fact it’s indelibly recorded in the history books.
(Note: Others claim to have reached the North Pole by surface were made long before Plaisted, but are disputed. See below.)
That might change when Ferrell takes on the role of the foolhardy Plaisted, who, in 1968, embarked on a remarkable expedition with six ordinary men, comprising a mechanic, a doctor, an engineer, a schoolteacher, and a snowmobile racer. None of them were lauded as experienced explorers, but they managed to endure minus 60-degree temperatures and relentless 40-mph winds to become the first men to travel across the Arctic surface and reach the North Pole.
The story was captured in a New York Times feature that inspired the upcoming film. Sony Pictures has reportedly purchased rights to the feature, awesomely named “Ice Pack: An Insurance Salesman and a Doctor Walk Into a Bar, and End Up at the North Pole.”