To ring in the new millennium at the North Pole is the ambitious goal of an intrepid explorer (Susanna Speier as the Explornographer), but her determination is outflanked by a pesky Y2K Bug (Ian McCulloch). The Bug must be placated at all costs or the electronic tools in Speier's survival kit will go kaput one by one. A tricky negotiation ensues, with each vying for the upper hand. Their complex and ultimately perverse relationship exacts a physical toll on the weary, white-clad Speier. She can barely react when her friend's plane crashes as they are exchanging New Year's greetings via her paramilitary cell phone with fiber-optic satellite connection. The century expires with Speier on Greenland's ice cap far from the magic spot that will guarantee her fifteen minutes.
Both in her performance and her writing, Speier de-emphasizes a humanistic interpretation for the mutual dependency of Explornographer and Bug. Instead she articulates a philosophy of technological pantheism that ultimately condemns people to pre-rational doom and gloom. Using Asiel Kneeland's costumes for some quick changes, Speier acknowledges two predecessors in Greenland that had a distinctly easier time of it: PR master Leif Ericsson and Victorian era Arctic venturer Sir John Franklin as seen through his wife's diaries. Ericsson merely had to con sufficient, restless chumps to fortify his discovery of Greenland, while Franklin simply required sufficient hope to sustain his challenge to man's limitations. Director David Cote combines sci-fi sensibility with precision timing. Notable in Cote's portfolio of hi tech enhancements are Pete List's animation for the Y2K Bug and video and digital effects by Kosta Potamianos.
Stefan Weisman's epic-sounding music conveys the Explornographer's ironic heroism. Best of all are the enveloping sound design by Speier and Cote and the sound effects for the Bug, with McCulloch's sure hand on the control knobs.
