Captain R.F. Scott John Mills is entrusted with leading a second Antarctic expedition, but he is given command over the men without securing the funds needed to support the venture. Kathleen Scott Diana Churchill works on a bust of him and reassures him that she is not the least bit jealous about his return to the ice. Dr. E. A. Wilson Harold Warrender hopes to join the mission, but his wife Oriana Wilson Anne Firth is more doubtful, though Wilson agrees to go if the journey is framed as a scientific expedition.
Scott also visits Fridtjof Nansen, who argues that a true polar expedition should rely on dogs rather than motor sledges or ponies. The expedition becomes a fundraising effort with mixed results: Liverpool businessmen show skepticism due to short-term economic concerns, while schoolchildren rally to fund the purchase of sled dogs. A government grant finally comes through, allowing the expedition to proceed with careful economies.
After a stop in New Zealand, the ship heads to Antarctica and establishes a coastal camp. There, the crew spends the winter and holds a ceremonial Midwinter Feast on 22 June 1911. In the spring, a smaller party of men, ponies, and dogs begins the trek toward the pole. About halfway, the ponies are killed for food and some men are sent back with the dogs. At the three-quarter mark, Scott selects the five-man team for the push to the pole, hoping to return by the end of March 1912. They reach the pole only to discover Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian flag already planted there and a note asking Scott to deliver the flag to the King of Norway.
Disappointment weighs heavy as the team begins the long return. When they reach the mountains along the polar plateau, Wilson reveals sea plant and tree fossils he has found, along with a piece of coal, evidence that the Antarctic was once a warmer place. Scott remarks on the potential economic implications, even as concern grows for the health of two crew members: Lt. Teddy Evans [Kenneth More] and Lt. L.E.G. Oates [Derek Bond], the latter suffering a severe frostbite in his foot. Evans eventually collapses and dies, buried beneath the snow. As the strain increases, Evans is laid to rest, and Oates makes a final, selfless decision.
> I hope I don't wake tomorrow
When he wakes, he sacrifices himself by leaving the tent, saying:
> I’m just going outside; I may be away some time.
The remaining two men persevere but die just 11 miles from a supply depot, holding to the belief that they have done all they could. Each man writes farewell letters, and Scott, even in frostbite, composes his well-known “Message to the Public,” declaring:
> I do not regret this journey…
Months later, a search party finds the tent buried under fresh snow. A glimpse of Scott’s recovered diary precedes the closing image: a wooden cross bearing the five names of the dead and the inscription of a line from Tennyson’s Ulysses:
> To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.
