Original subtitles

My name is Ewan McGregor.

And in 2004,

my best friend Charley and I rode around the northern hemisphere

and documented our trip

on a series called the long way round.

We left London and we rode to New York City.

We did it! New York!

And it was one of the highlights of my life.

And in 2007, we decided to do it again, down through the African continent.

And we left London and we rode to Cape Town.

Unbelievable.

And then, in 2019,

we rode from the tip of South America, ushuaia,

to Los Angeles.

And this time, we decided to ride on electric motorcycles.

So, we've decided to do it again.

- Okay, here we go. Into Europe. - Let's do it.

So we're spending the summer riding a spectacular loop

through 17 of our closest neighbors.

Starting at my house in Scotland, we'll cross over to the continent,

travel up through the nordics, and into the arctic circle,

down to the baltics before winding our way through the alps and across France,

returning home about two months later.

We're gonna throw caution to the wind

by doing the journey on temperamental 50-year-old bikes

that have been given a new lease of life.

My bike's making a funny noise.

Riding alongside them on a third motorcycle

are cameramen Claudio and Max.

And the guys will also be taking personal diary cameras.

Russ and I will be following with crew and two trucks.

Only meeting up with the guys when necessary.

So, this summer, Europe is our playground.

Wow!

And we're gonna follow our noses and see what we find on the open road.

Here it is.

This is the bike that I wanna do this next trip on.

A 1974 moto guzzi eldorado californian police bike.

Silly. Okay.

Don't tell Charley. I'll scare the shit out of him one day.

It does look a bit like it came out of a river,

and I love that.

As you can see, you know, most of my stuff looks like that.

'Cause that's what I love.

I've always enjoyed collecting and riding old motorbikes.

And I thought, "I wanna go on one of my bikes."

But who knows if it's gonna perform.

It's an old bike. We'll see.

Hopefully, there will be people that know how to fix it better than I, if it breaks.

I've always ridden moto guzzis.

It was my first big bike.

My mum and dad had never let me get a motorbike,

and I finished drama school and I thought, "god, I can"

I can do… it was a revelation. I can do what I want now.

I don't have to have their permission, you know.

And I fell in love with it and it changed my life.

I just love them to death. You know, I just think they're brilliant.

Shouldn't say that.

I just love them.

Knock. Touch wood.

Don't love 'em to death, Ewan, for Christ's sake.

Motorbikes are dangerous enough as it is, you know what I mean?

This time, we're leaving in June,

and it will be summertime.

So it'll be pretty nice, I think.

I don't know how nice it'll be up here.

We can cut back to me saying that when we're standing in the icy rain somewhere.

I think it's going to be amazing.

These big trips, they're a luxury. I-I'm aware of that.

Stepping out of your

everyday responsibilities as a dad and as a husband.

Hi, baby boy.

There's a sort of freedom to it

that we don't normally have in our adult lives.

How are you?

You surprised me.

…say, ""

he wants you to say, ""

what a surprise!

Hello, my love.

How's he feeling? He's not well?

He's not very well, no.

- Yeah. - What, baba?

- Daddy, it was under… I go in it. - Yes.

- You wanna go in it? - Well, you can.

You wanna come in, Laurie? I gotta shut this door.

Ready? You wanna do it? You pull it.

One, two three. Go.

Boom! You did it.

Do it again.

Do it again?

One, two, three.

- Boom! You did it. - Ba-boom.

- Let's do it again. - One more time again?

This is gonna be the one.

Okay, come on.

This will be the one.

Do it again.

I've been thinking about taking an Italian bike,

so I'm gonna meet this dealer who specializes in them.

Look at this.

This is a similar kind of look as the one that Ewan is gonna take.

I thought it would be really nice to get something of sort of a similar age.

Then you're gonna be looking at something like the 900 gts.

Really nice bike.

Left-foot gear change, electric start.

Electric start sounds amazing.

Just because of so many accidents recently.

Well, in the last six years, just destroyed my legs.

I smashed my legs really badly in 2016.

I got clipped by a car and then hit a wall,

and had 27 operations to… to get those right again.

And then, just before doing long way up,

I had a terrible crash.

Much, much worse.

I woke up in intensive care

and I'd had a massive brain injury.

And I broke my pelvis.

My forearm was snapped backwards and all the bones came out.

And I collapsed this whole left side of my lungs.

The ribs were smashed, collar bone was broken.

- Good job, thanks. - That's it.

- There you go. - Breathe.

When I went into intensive care I was.

I mean, it was awful seeing Charley in so much pain.

Nice and deep breaths. So you can get oxygen in.

How was that, Charley?

It's good.

Better than I thought it would be.

- Under the circumstances. - Good.

Confidence, isn't it?

He had to then be pinned back together,

and I think that was really hard for Charley.

And very hard for, you know, us all.

Now,

finally, I've been able to sort of start to walk…

Better and can do stuff.

But there were still things like kick-starting that I'm struggling with.

Of course, you know, you think, "gosh. He's off on another trip."

I just hope that we're not going to face another accident,

and he's done with them. But then, he rides more carefully now

especially at his age.

And he's excited about being on another adventure

with his great friend Ewan,

and they always have the most incredible time.

Sounds beautiful.

Well, there you go. Well, this is a real possibility.

I like it.

Ewan's just coming in a minute.

He's now four minutes late.

We're meeting Russ and Dave to discuss the new adventure.

And also to celebrate our 20 years of making long way.

I'm gonna share my live location with you, Ewan.

I think the relationship Ewan and I have together,

each person gives a… gives something to the relationship.

There you are.

I don't know that anyone knows me as well as Charley.

- I thought you were… - smooth.

I thought you were at this gate here.

No, I… it was the gate over there.

In the spirit of never ever knowing where the… we are.

Ewan is a very kind person.

And he's very loyal.

Certainly very loyal to me.

He understands me tremendously well.

Really, that's what makes him a nice friend.

That's my daughter do one.

Ewan's known do one since she was six months old.

- Should we go up? - Yeah.

I keep saying to do one, do one and kinvara, "I'm going up to Manchester."

I'm going to do some work." And they laugh.

I said, "what are you laughing for?" They go, "work."

- Work. - Really.

- Charley, it's not as easy as it looks. - It's not fair.

It's not as easy as we make it look. You know?

- Yeah, exact… - that's…

That's what I say every time. I say that.

What up, mate? What kept ya?

Got a bit lost.

He got lost in Manchester.

Happy long way to you happy long way

- it's our 20-year anniversary. - Is it 20 years' anniversary today?

Yeah.

Long way, dear long wayers, and Russ and Dave

happy long way to you - wow.

- Look at that. - Doone.

- Hey! - Happy 20th!

- Miles and miles of smiles. - Thanks, do one.

- And then the blow. - Thank you.

- One, two… three. - One, two, three.

Yay!

- Congrats, mate. - Well done, guys.

- That's brilliant. - Charles.

Well done. Twenty years.

- Superb. Wow. - Well done, man.

- You don't look a day older. - Thank you, don't feel it.

- You ready for the map? - Yeah.

Well, we gotta go there.

Look how beautiful it's gonna be.

- Yeah. - God, I can just

- smell the fresh air. - It's mainly water.

I don't know scandinavia,

and I love the idea of the countryside up there.

The Norway coastline looks rugged and spectacular,

and the sort of fjords that you hear about in Norway.

Okay, so now we're getting to the top of…

- The world. - …Norway.

Svalbard.

So it's about as far north as we would go.

Reasons to go… global warming, that's

Svalbard is supposed to be the litmus paper of the world, you know.

- The ice is melting and… - yeah.

So if we wanted to go there and talk to glaciologists…

We can also camp on the glacier,

and there's polar bears up there.

- And we got time to go. - We have a chance to show people that.

- I think we should do it. - Yeah.

You tend to forget about the places that are on your doorstep.

That adventure that isn't that far away from home.

I love the planning of it. I love the dreaming up of the trip,

and then can't stop sort of dreaming about it until the day you're… you set off.

And we're coming back through Finland now?

- So, naked saunas… - yes?

- Are you in? - I'm done.

Well, I don't know.

I think I might need a little more detail.

Whatever I said… whatever Charley does.

- I'm not gonna let him... - I'm going in. - Talk to me.

I'm not letting him dangle alone.

The camp shop is just over there.

Tent options. Look at that.

- Look. - Yeah. It's magnetic.

That's quite clever. So you can…

So look, we can… both bikes

- this is my room. Your room. - Both…

Or this one.

Yeah, that's what I slept in after we split up in long way round.

- You slept in that tiny thing. - You had our two-man tent, didn't you?

- Yeah. - And I had this little…

When we had the divorce.

…pissy little thing, didn't I?

But not that I'm bitter about it in any way or…

- No. Well... - …holding on to that.

It's just give, give for me.

That's what you often find.

I think it saved our relationship, you know,

having that sort of divorce on the Russian steppes.

What I remember was just how quickly you fell asleep.

So we'd go in, he'd lie down

and I'd lie down, and I'd sort of settle myself down

and you'd be asleep already. Like, out.

And then I'd lie there, like, just listening to Charley being asleep.

And then there was snoring.

You'd snore in the night,

- I'd snore in the morning. - He'd snore in the morning.

- And it was just… yeah. - It was just… didn't work.

Okay, let's go look at other trek stuff.

- So I got… I bought two of these. - Yeah.

So that I've got two liters of extra fuel for us.

If we need it.

- Sharing, see. - Share… caring.

- Caring and sharing. I know. - You're just so good at…

Are you taking a plastic horse with you or not?

- Well… - I'm not gonna take mine.

- Are you not gonna take yours? - No.

I'm gonna leave my plastic horse because last time it just got damaged and…

It's difficult to sort of squirrel it away, isn't it really?

And what to do with it, really. What to do with your plastic horse.

Go outdoors.

Get up and get off your sofa.

- It's the name of a shop… - catchy.

…and it's also, like, a good piece of advice.

I loved doing long way up so much with Charley and our team.

I'm really, really excited about it.

You're not meant to ride a motorbike when you're making a movie.

If you were to fall off and break a wrist or something, it would stop the machine.

So I miss it.

And when you're on a film every single thing is decided,

you know, you… we'll pick you up at this time,

gonna do these scenes, this is what you can have for lunch.

And you don't really have any decision making,

and then when you're on the road afterward everything is in your own hands again.

And it's nice, you're sort of taking back

ownership of your own self.

- How are you, mate? - Okay. How you doing?

I'm good.

- See ya. Good to see ya. - Good to see you, mate.

What do we need to do today on it?

I'm just gonna leave it with you.

- Okay. All right. - Yeah.

- There you go. - What about a new seat?

- So this would sit… - right about there.

This would sit up there. I'd be able to open the boxes.

- Yeah. - I think a pillion seat.

- Okay, here's an old one, we can… - okay.

- This might match the bike a little more. - Yeah.

Okay.

Can we open the boxes?

- Yeah. - Yeah.

So we can just leave it on.

- We can just leave the pillion seat on. - That's perfect.

- Should put some new tires… - probably ought to put new tires on it.

- Yeah. - New rubber.

- Rear shocks. - Yep.

I would check the forks. Just to see that you're happy with the forks.

- Yeah. - I think that's it.

I don't know what you wanna do to just have a… service it and put new oil in it

I'll just do a regular service and make sure everything's good.

You know what you do need? A new windshield.

I know. You can't see through this one very well.

We'll get you a new one 'cause that's a safety issue,

so I think it'd be good.

As long as it doesn't look crazy, like

- well, it'll look new. - It'll look new, yeah.

I guess we got everything figured out?

Great.

- Cheers, moe. Brilliant. - Cool.

Should we FaceTime Charley?

Why don't we give him a bell?

- Charley boorman. - Look at that. What's up, buddy?

G'day, mate. How are you?

I'm all right, mate.

- What we're wondering is… - yeah.

…If you've… have you got a bike yet to ride on this trip?

I'm just sort of having a little sniff around and seeing what's around.

It's not easy looking for motorbikes. I know.

You're all good.

I was just saying to the boys that I think I'm gonna

put a little games console here.

So I've got something to do while I wait for you

to get your bike running again.

No, fantastic. Well, at least you know the bike.

I haven't even got a bike.

You'll find something perfect, Charley. I know you will.

- All right. - See you, Charley. Lots of love, mate.

See you guys later.

If the boys wanna go on old bikes that's fine,

but they're gonna be unreliable.

I don't think we can afford to have unreliable camera cars.

I've calculated that we've got about seven-and-a-half thousand miles

from Ewan's house on this route to Charley's house.

We've gotta take all the camera equipment, all the medical equipment,

all the camping equipment

and the two extra camera people.

So we need to be a bit more reliable.

And sustainable. Potentially, right?

- If we can go electric. - Yeah.

I think Norway, Sweden, Finland

have a real history of a charging network,

and I think we should be fine there.

We took electric vehicles last time, had a great experience.

So, I prefer that.

We know that area is very strong with regards to renewable energy.

We don't know so much about this.

But chances are, if the distances aren't that great

and we've got decent range in the vehicles, we shouldn't have a problem.

- Okay. I'm in. - Yeah?

Electric. Decision made.

Finally, I think I've got the motorbike to ride on the trip.

BMW r75.

I really like it.

Modern but retro at the same time.

So, my love.

Finally, the bike should be arriving now.

- Is that it? Perfect. - Look. Here it is. That's it.

Look at that timing.

Hello.

Gosh, it's in a lot worse state than I thought.

Shit.

It's… there's rust everywhere.

Panicking slightly because there's quite a lot to do on the bike.

Time is really against us now.

We literally have weeks to go.

My god. This is a mess.

Well, I'm glad it's here.

Anything that's metal is… it's just rusted.

The whole engine needs to be redone.

A whole lot of electrics need to be done.

Nice and… okay.

You ready?

Okay.

Here we go. Okay.

First ride.

Well, she is pretty. She really is pretty.

I like it.

Moe is finally finished working on the bike,

and I can't wait to see what he's done with it.

It's nice to be on a bike that I know already,

that I'm not getting to know on a trip,

but I already have history with it.

- Hello. Hello there. - Hello.

Very nice.

That looks like it's ready for doing some miles now.

Good work, man.

It looks great.

You've got your extra fuel. Everything's got fresh oil.

I love it.

…be doing a lot of miles and I wanna make sure nothing happens.

As I cross my fingers.

It looks like it's ready.

Look at that.

- I like this. This is nice. - It's all

it's quite useful being able to see through it, isn't it?

Fire it up.

Very nice.

Sounds like it wants to go to scandinavia. That's what I think.

All right, let's go.

Yes.

I love it. I just love it.

It's like before but better.

Fantastic.

I'm ready to go.

You need some water or what?

No, it's all right. I've just swallowed a fly or something.

Time to pack this baby off to Scotland.

Let's get the ramp out, I suppose, first.

- Yeah. - That's it.

We're good, Mac.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

Okay, I'm jumping down.

Okay.

Now pull a little bit. What do you think?

- Is it stuck in that ru… - yeah, you're bottoming out right here.

I see.

Shit. Okay.

Ready to pull it? I just want to make sure we all

well, I'll lift this way. Ready? One, two, three.

- Yeah. - The ramp's going.

- The ramp's sliding off. - Okay.

Can we put it back on?

- Put it up. Put it back on the… - push this.

A little bit more. That's okay. Roll it back.

- You ready? Going down. - Okay, it's going down.

Nice one, Mac.

- Okay. - Okay, slowly now.

That's how we do it.

My god, that's not how it's done.

Lift it up a little bit.

God, that did my back the world of good.

Pulling that. Holding the bike up there…

- Yeah, man. That was… - …in mid-air.

I'll leave it in your hands.

- Thank you very much, gents. - You're very welcome.

How about that delivery?

Ewan has always been the organized one.

So once again, I'm playing catch-up to try and get my bike ready.

Did stuff arrive?

Yep. This is our camping gear.

Turned up just in time.

That's fantastic.

This is the spade for digging our toilet.

- Come on. - Look at that.

Shut up.

Everyone, hold on. Ewan's calling us.

- How's it going? What're you doing? - I think very well, just

we're having a production meeting.

Somebody on the team, I'm not sure who,

they made… they bought a poo shovel. The poo shovel.

- Yeah? - It's the McGregor brand.

- I couldn't not when I saw that. - We're on brand.

I mean, that's my main worry. Is that it's such a huge one.

Like…

Just need a little trowel.

How are you, Ewan?

I'm good.

Be up in Scotland from the 27th… we arrive.

Start packing my bag, you know?

- Is everything sorted from your side? - Yeah.

Got myself all set up, and then my dad had organized…

A couple of my bikes in Scotland needed their mot's,

so he ordered… organized a couple of his mates to come and pick them up.

I got an email the next day saying,

"Ewan, we got the bikes mot'ed. Everything went fine,

but both of the boys and myself have got major concerns

about the motorcycle that you've chosen to do this trip on."

- Come on. - All right, lots of love to you all, guys.

Kevin has just arrived, said he's pulled an all-nighter

getting all the electrics done and everything like that.

Interested to see it.

Okay, that's good, kev.

Welcome.

What a ride.

Long way.

You were up burning the candle last night.

What would normally take us two months we've had to cram into two days.

Wow.

Well, look at that.

You put the new starter motor in and

yeah, a new starter is in there.

New silencers.

- 'Cause they were just rusty as anything. - Wow.

That's brilliant.

Geez.

- Wow. - A thing of beauty.

- That is… - I know, it's gorgeous.

- And that's the… - root beer.

- The root beer. He's done… - not black, not brown, not gold.

- Root beer. Have you got it? Sure? - My god. That is… yeah.

It could go further down.

Doesn't matter. We'll pop him in now.

- You in? - That's it. Beauty.

That's brilliant. Well, thank you for that.

Laurie.

Are you hiding from me?

Where are you?

Laurie.

Mate, how are ya?

- We're here. Isn't it amazing? - Well done.

- Yeah. - God, it's so good to see you.

- My god. - So good to see you.

It's been bloody ages.

Here we are.

- Long way four. - Long way four.

No shoes on the carpet upstairs.

So, let me just show you quickly where all your gear is.

Yeah.

We can go through it all and make sure we've got the right stuff.

Laurie's up!

Wait a second.

Did anyone see Laurie?

Where's Laurie?

Did anyone see that boy Laurie?

That's very good.

I'm gonna show you how…

- Now that… - …you ride on my bike.

That looks too fast for you.

Are you sure you're old enough to ride that, Laurie?

You know you can steer a bit?

Steer a bit to go round the corners.

- There we… - that's it.

That's a good steer.

See ya.

Should we have a look at the bikes?

- Is that what we're gonna do? - Yeah. Let's do it.

Here we are.

Well, now that they're side by side,

I think they look like quite a splendid pair.

They do.

I'm just gonna put my heated grips on, Ewan.

Not that, you know… do you have a pair of heated grips?

Do you know what's funny? I opted not to go for heated grips,

- just for the sake of originality. - To keep it original.

Come on, baby.

He's got… I'm very jealous of his brakes.

He's got twin discs.

He's got twin disc brakes.

Good stopping power. I've got a little old, shitty drum brake.

Well, you'll be… you'll probably be in the lead, so…

So long as I miss you.

…two, three.

- So, David put his phone here. - Okay.

And then Laurie was in playing with Rachel and he was bouncing, bouncing…

- No. - …and David's phone fell down the back.

And it's taken us about an hour…

- And we have to get it out. - One, two, three.

Okay, pull it.

- It goes down for ages. - Let me see.

No way, you're not… you can't even touch the bottom.

Shit.

One more. A little bit.

Wait. How did y'all do your backs in before the trip started?

Tell you what would work. Tongs from the kitchen.

Something. A pole with a sticky thing on it.

The lady who did the food has got a telescopic magnet.

No.

- Okay, here. - Yeah.

There, there.

Is there another thing that we could use?

- I don't think it's gonna be magnetic. - It's not gonna be magnetic.

- It's not picking it up. - Nah.

What's it called when they stick a camera up your bum?

This should work.

Okay, you said you saw it move, right?

You got it, right?

- I mean, it's kind of… - you can actually see it.

- Okay, hold on. - Wait, no, it's moving over.

- Right, we'll turn it off. - Turn it off.

So, here we are, trying to recover Dave's phone.

Here, here, here.

Three men trying to rescue a phone stuck down the back of the seat.

Okay, yeah. Keep going.

Okay, that's coming up. That's come up an inch.

Turn a little… Jesus.

Pull softly.

Nobody say anything.

- He's got it. - She's got it.

No way!

You might want to keep this.

A message from apple. The show is canceled.

- Morning, rusty. - Morning.

- Charley. - D-Day.

- Yes. - The big one.

Since the last one, 2019, the world changed,

and was stuck for a while.

And for the first time in a long time, I got used to being at home.

How are you guys feeling now that we're all leaving now?

- Fantastic. - Fantastic?

- No, seriously. It's going to be… - if you could lie and just say,

"you know, I was tossing and turning all night in bed."

And I think olly and I got used to it,

and now, suddenly we're leaving each other.

It's mixed emotions.

Yeah, there you go.

As we've been doing our preparations here,

it's also just been getting closer and closer

to having to say goodbye to Mary and Laurie.

That's the hardest bit of all.

Well, that's it, Charley. If we've forgotten anything,

it's too late.

Really have got a nerve… nervy feeling on myself.

My school pipe band are gonna arrive.

Morrison's academy.

I used to be a side drummer in this pipe band,

and my dad before me and my uncle and…

Come from a long line of drummers.

And my dad, he's arriving with them shortly.

And then, the idea is they'll play a set

and then we'll get off.

Here they are right now.

Dad, massive band, isn't it?

God, it was like nine of us.

- In my… the band I was in. - That's right. I know.

My god. Wait till they crack off.

- Gets the hairs on the back of your neck. - File right, quick, march!

This is all far too emotional, I have to say.

Anyway, sorry I'm gonna cry.

- Take care. - It's gonna be all right.

Don't worry. It's gonna be all right.

- I know. - Don't worry about us.

It brings tears to my eyes.

I'm sure they'll have a wonderful time.

Thank you.

See you soon.

I'll see you soon, wee man.

- Okay. I love you. - I love you so much.

Farewell, everybody.

Now the adventure starts.

Here we go.

Look at the horses. They're saying goodbye.

Look at them.

They're loving it, aren't they?

They're going, "we wanna come," is what they're saying.

- Here we go. - Let's go.

So great!

It's fantastic to be on the road again.

Newcastle.

Very nice to be riding along with this man again.

Riding along with Charley boorman.

Wow, what a lovely road. Look at this.

- This is what it's all about. - It's great, isn't it?

Off on a great adventure.

Everyone thinks my bike looks like a piece of old crap, but they'll see.

Don't judge a book by its cover, you know?

That's what I say.

All right, man. How does it feel? Good?

- Excellent. - It feels good?

- The bike feels nice. - Nice.

And that's a bit of a relief. She runs kind of smoothly.

Yours is sounding very pretty as well.

- It's not… - yeah.

You know, I was worried they were both gonna be a bit noisy,

but they're actually quite quiet.

It's funny, isn't it? Twenty years this year, of doing this.

That's bizarre, isn't it?

All the shit we've done in between is quite extraordinary.

The lives we've led.

Absolutely.

Amazing bridge.

What a beautiful sight.

Wow.

Had to run half naked over this bridge in trainspotting 2.

And the rain… yeah, the rain.

Wow, that rain, I think, is

not getting any better.

Classic Scottish send-off here.

We're gonna have to…

Might have to pull over and put some waterproofs on.

Yeah, find somewhere to stop.

It's not what we signed up for, Ewan.

- Okay. - Okay.

- Here we go. - Nicely done, everyone.

We're heading to get the ferry

which says we're gonna get there at 4:00.

They said, "get there by no later than 3:00."

The needles of the open-face helmet in the rain.

Like any trip or any adventure or any holiday,

you just got to enjoy the moment.

Glad I put on my boots.

There's a bit of blue sky up there.

Looks like we've made it just on time. Four o'clock.

There's the ferry.

Yeah. Look at that. That's a big one.

That's just beautiful, isn't it?

Here we are, Ewan.

Thank you.

Amsterdam, here we come.

This place is amazing.

Can't have my fingers. No. Those are…

What he really wants is the gin.

Yeehaw, let's go.

Shit.

You okay, Ewan?