The film begins with a primitive
hunter-gatherer attempting to kill a deer to no avail, and then being chased by a tiger; he then jumps to the sea. The narrator, historian
James Burke, remarks that humans have always desired to move faster than the status quo, even at the risk of one's life; this film examines that desire. Henceforth, it is divided into five parts: "The Dawn of Original Thinking", "The Engine Revolution", "The Sky Has No Limit", "Faster than Man", and "We Have Just Begun to Crawl". In 1839,
Kirkpatrick Macmillan modified the wheel and invented the first self-propelled bicycle using the principle of leverage, which could travel at approximately . Later improvements allow for bicycles to go up to , despite various factors like gravity, friction, and
wind resistance. The film then depicts the
velomobile, whose streamlined enclosure allows for less wind resistance, hence moving six times as fast as the bicycle. The 1900s saw the invention of the
Stanley Steamer, breaking a world record of . With the creation of the
internal combustion engine, cars began to travel at faster speeds, inadvertently increasing the risk of accidents, prevalent with
hot rods. The film demonstrates this by depicting
Billy Vukovich, who would win the
Indianapolis 500 in
1953 and
1954, before being killed in the
1955 race. The introduction of auto racing further increased the top speed of cars, culminating with
jet dragsters at . Although airplanes are significant as vehicles free from ground constraints, attempts to break the
sound barrier failed fatally, until the invention of the rocket-powered
Bell X-1 in 1947, with
Chuck Yeager flying it at . This launched a series of
supersonic aircraft production, the fastest bring the
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird with a top speed of . The film then depicts the
Blue Angels, whose movements are equated to auto racing. In 1969, astronauts of the
Apollo 10 were returning to Earth from the Moon, reaching up to . Burke reveals that humans travel more than a year. Speed becomes an important element in every aspect of human life, such as communications. While some opine that this fast-paced society only causes fatal stress, the film also highlights stress-relieving and recreational manifestations of speed, such as
ultralight aviation, surfing,
hiking in sailing, skiing, and roller coasters. While the top speed humans can achieve will increase dramatically in the near future, it will not compare to the fastest speed according to
Albert Einstein, the
speed of light. However, scientists have begun to wonder if the true achievable top speed are only limited by one's imagination. The film ends with a surreal visualization of the speed of light progressively going faster towards the Sun. == Reception ==