DAYS OF 23 HOURS
AND 55 MINUTES

“There’s always been something different about your generation.”

An uplifting riff of sustained beeps in C major gains momentum over a wide-angle shot of a circuit vessel bursting like a chariot from the rising sun. The sun’s rays collect around it like water pulled up by a leaping whale and then return to uniformity as the vessel breaks free. It tears through creaseless sky. Sky even bluer than sky-blue.

The voiceover says: “You’re a generation of explorers, learners, and sharers.”

A young woman on a scooter negotiates a hairpin turn in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter to discover a market with booths extending far as the eye can see. Docking pods disappear into night, as we cut to a bubbly rooftop toast in Zurich, backlit by firecrackers reflected off the shimmering Limmat while St. Peter rings in the New Year. Arrows trail ceremonial silk tails, chasing airplanes into the potable firmament; they tilt down and seize earth with a thunderous gong. “Your generation values theexperience of just being present.” A young person in designer sunglasses enjoys a compost beer in a convertible in Cuba.

It all dissolves, back into that trademarked hue. Title card:

CWC

Moving the World!

This was perfectly familiar to the viewer. But then someone new came on . . .

He said, “Where in the world am I?”

Victor Bickle wore a safari hat carefully positioned to thrust forward his distinctive ears. His nose was plastered with sunscreen.

“This West African capital,” he said, “was connected to the circuit back in A.H. 880,000, and ever since, it has ex