Living Planet: An SC Johnson Company-Sponsored Film Brought a Bird's-Eye View of Nature to Millions

From hiring Frank Lloyd Wright to design our Administration Building and Research Tower, to producing the Academy Award-winning film To Be Alive!, SC Johnson has a long history of supporting the arts and creating inspiring works.

So, when filmmaker Francis Thompson approached Sam Johnson with a sponsored film project in the late 1970s, Sam listened.

A Movie about Nature, with a Breathtaking View

The idea was bold: to celebrate all life on Earth, from lush jungles to barren desert to polar north, with a movie about nature shot from a plane. And, the film would be shot on 70mm IMAX, ten times larger than the standard 35mm movie frame. At the time, there were only 12 theaters in the world equipped to show IMAX films.

But Sam knew Thompson, who had created the company’s beloved 1964 film To Be Alive! Just as important, Sam cared deeply about the message of conservation that Thompson and Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum hoped to convey. So, he said yes.

With the company’s support, director Dennis Moore and his two film crews shot over 18 months and logged a quarter of a million miles. They traveled the world with 59 cases of equipment weighing 3,600 pounds and used nearly five miles of film in the process.

Showcasing spectacular aerial shots of five continents, Living Planet took viewers on a half-hour journey around the globe. From the Andes to the African plains, and from the Parthenon at sunrise to modern cities, Living Planet captured the majesty of nature, as well as some of humanity’s finest architectural achievements.

Corporate Sponsorship of a Call to Action

Living Planet was heralded as “a genuine visual delight” and “a visual hymn… to Earth.” And as an audience member wrote, “I don't see how anyone could leave the theater without feeling a real determination to preserve this priceless, irreplaceable beauty of our earth.”