The Balloonists
In John Dower’s engrossing documentary, two great balloonists look back on a daring flight in 1999.
Brian Jones above the Sahara
Image courtesy of Dogwoof Releasing.
by MANSEL STIMPSON
John Dower’s involving documentary is about the balloonists Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones who set out in 1999 to become the first to circumnavigate the globe flying non-stop in a hot-air balloon. Piccard was Swiss while Jones was English and had been born in Bristol and these two men, now aged sixty-eight and seventy-nine respectively, are the key figures looking back on that endeavour in this film. Contributing alongside them are Joanna Jones, Brian's wife, and the Belgian meteorologist Luc Trullemans who is seventy-four. Also present and in his seventies is Andy Elson, a balloonist engineer and pilot who was an earlier colleague of Piccard but who in 1999 and in partnership with Colin Prescot would share the same aim as Picard and Jones and be their rivals.
It is quite remarkable how much footage was shot on board the craft known as Brieitling Orbiter 3 in 1999. Contemporary interviews are blended with archive material from various sources but a very great deal of the film utilises what was recorded during the flight. Since both Piccard and Jones are the central figures, it is appropriate that Dower’s film should include details about their respective backgrounds. It is Bertrand Piccard whom we see first reminiscing in good English (as he should since for part of his childhood he lived in the USA). His house is a virtual museum of aviation history and he records how on becoming aware of the Apollo 11 space mission in 1969 he was inspired to want to live the life of an explorer and how he consequently turned to the world of balloonists. Even as he talks of a disastrous flight attempt in 1997, Piccard’s commitment and enthusiasm come across and he goes on to describe two later failures which preceded the 1999 endeavour but had the same aim.
We learn too that Piccard’s own father, Jacques, had like his father before him been an undersea explorer, but that grandfather Auguste had been even better known as a balloonist so that Bertrand was in fact following in his footsteps. All of this was very different from the background of Brian Jones, albeit that he and Bertrand Piccard became very close and a well-nigh perfect team. When describing his early history Jones reveals that as a child he was regarded as a wimp and that he became so unhappy that he ran away from home. His wife Jo, who during the 1999 flight would be present in the control centre in Geneva, explains the extent to which she recognised that accepting Piccard’s offer to make Jones his co-pilot was something that her husband could not bring himself to refuse - and that despite the risks being so high. In part that may well have been born of the need he felt to prove himself after the way he had been treated as a boy. Whatever weight one gives to that, the film makes very apparent Jo’s support for the flight but also what it cost her during the close on twenty days taken up by it.
Even if one knows the outcome of the flight, The Balloonists is so vivid in its telling of what happened that there is real tension. In his contribution Luc Trullemans explains clearly how, with no fuel involved to move the craft forward, the balloonists were dependent on being guided by advice that would enable the balloon to take full advantage of jet streams. Its journey is fully charted in the film and what we see brings out moments of sheer beauty (as in the shots of flying over the Sahara and of glimpsing the Himalayas poking out of the clouds). No less it brings out as well times of extra special risk. The latter arose in various ways. When passing over China the permission given meant that if they were unable to keep to the exact line approved they could be shot down. Subsequently when crossing the Pacific ocean it was a simple fact that should the balloon ditch there for any reason its vastness was such that the chance of survival was nil. Even more acute fears would arise when at one stage all contact between the balloon and those on the ground was lost and again, late on, when the number of fuel tanks left and needed for vertical control became so low that in crossing the Atlantic from Mexico they might be unable to reach Africa.
There is no doubt that the format adopted in the making of The Balloonists is a decidedly traditional one, but that should not lead one to underestimate the skill of John Dower and of his editor David Charap. The blending of the footage taken on the flight with the interviews and the extent to which fresh voice-overs accompany the shots taken on Breitling Orbiter 3 show admirable judgement and the film’s length (86 minutes) is well chosen too. I have to admit that engaging as Piccard, Jones and the other participants are I personally find it difficult to understand and fully justify the commitment to something so dangerous, especially since it imposes such strain on others. Even though Jo Jones is wonderfully supportive one can't ignore the strain on her. Then there is Piccard's wife, Michèle and their children, whom Piccard tries to keep out of mind so that throughout the flight he can concentrate on the job in hand: what they felt can only be imagined since they do not appear as contributors to the film. To some extent concern over that could be a factor which would add to the likelihood of Dower’s film appealing most to those with a passionate attraction to endeavours of the kind chronicled here. But, whatever view one takes on that, there is no doubt but that The Balloonists is a very well judged and genuinely gripping work.
Featuring Bertrand Piccard, Brian Jones, Joanna Jones, Luc Trullemans, Andy Elson.
Dir John Dower, Pro Teddy Leifer and Guy Horlock, Ph Will Pugh, Ed David Charap, Music Nick Foster and Sam Thompson.
Anonymous Content/Red Bull Studios/Rise Films-Dogwoof Releasing.
86 mins. UK/USA/Germany. 2025. UK Rel: 22 May 2026. Cert. PG.
