Though I don’t want to call Werner Herzog a nature documentarian, the acclaimed and highly influential filmmaker has crafted what I consider some of the most transformative and evocative nature films of all time. With dozens of critically acclaimed documentaries under his belt, the prolific German director has explored how people find purpose and themselves in the wild, and it’s no different for his latest effort, Ghost Elephants.
In the new National Geographic documentary, which has just premiered on the 2026 movie schedule, Herzog follows naturalist Steve Boyes as he searches for what is believed to be an undiscovered species of African elephants hidden away atop the High Plateau of Angola, while the director explores what happens when dreams become reality. While the entire documentary is great, there’s one scene that still has me rattled weeks after watching it.
Early on in Ghost Elephants, the camera crew follows an elephant as it walks and plays in a body of water to escape the midday sun. This sequence, which plays out for nearly three minutes, is utterly mesmerizing with its focus on the gentle and seemingly weightless creature escaping the grueling heat of the midday sun. For those few moments, the sequence allows the audience to escape reality and enter a dreamlike state where nothing else exists.
When I caught up with Herzog ahead of the film’s release, I mentioned how elated I became upon watching this sequence and how much it added to the experience, and I was shocked to discover that he had a similar experience upon first seeing the footage. Describing it as “the finest of all surprises,” the director revealed:
Well, there were surprises every day. And the finest of all surprises was the underwater footage that you see in the film of elephants underwater. It's so incredibly beautiful that I can't even describe it.
It is indeed incredibly beautiful. The sequence, which was previewed in a 2025 interview Herzog gave with 60 Minutes, is one of the moments throughout Ghost Elephants where the audience is reminded that this is more than an expedition to find an elephant that may or may not exist, but instead a meditation on the beauty and purity of the natural world.
When I asked Herzog about this scene and how it gives the documentary this dreamlike quality, he was quick to point out that this isn’t just a report about an expedition. Instead, it’s something “much deeper,” a story about our dreams becoming reality:
It's almost a story like Moby Dick in pursuit of the white whale. And then what happens when you come so close to your white whale? Well, sometimes I think it's better never to meet the white whales. The pursuit has a certain nobility and gives meaning to your life.
This pursuit he’s alluding to is that of Steve Boyes, the main subject of the documentary. After spending decades in search of these mythical creatures, larger than any elephant ever seen alive by man, the naturalist comes closer than ever to meeting his dream. To that point, Herzog offered a simple, yet deep observation:
Is it not sometimes better that we never meet our dreams, that they remain? It's so much more beautiful, maybe so much more rewarding for our lives.
Does Boyes find his Moby Dick? Do his dreams become reality? Best not to give it away.
Ghost Elephants is playing in select theaters nationwide and will be broadcast on the National Geographic Channel on Saturday, March 7th, with a streaming debut the following day for anyone with a Disney+ subscription.
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