1947年，挪威探险家托尔·海尔达尔（Thor Heyerdahl）与五名男子一起乘坐balsawood木筏穿越太平洋，以证明前哥伦布时代的南美洲人本可以漂洋过海，在波利尼西亚群岛定居。在用贷款和捐款资助了这次旅行后，他们开始了一次长达101天、跨越8000公里的史诗般的旅行，而全世界都在等待旅行的结果。这部电影告诉了这个想法的起源、准备工作和旅途中发生的事件。“Kon Tiki”是以印加太阳神维拉科查的名字命名的，“Kon Tiki”是这个神的旧名字。海尔达尔拍摄了这次探险，后来在1951年成为奥斯卡获奖纪录片。他写了一本关于探险的书，被翻译成70种语言，在世界各地售出了5000多万册。Heyerdahl认为，来自南美洲的人可能在前哥伦布时代就已经在波利尼西亚定居，尽管大多数人类学家现在认为他们没有。 The Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Pacific Ocean in a balsawood raft in 1947, together with five men, to prove that South Americans back in pre-Columbian times could have crossed the ocean and settled on Polynesian islands. After financing the trips with loans and donations, they set off on an epic 101-day-long trip across 8000 kilometers, while the world was waiting for the result of the trip. The film tells about the origin of the idea, the preparations, and the events on the trip. The "Kon-Tiki" was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, and "Kon-Tiki" is an old name for this god. Heyerdahl filmed the expedition, which later became the Academy Award winning documentary in 1951, and he wrote a book about the expedition that was translated into 70 languages and sold more than 50 millions copies around the world. Heyerdahl believed that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbian times, although most anthropologists now believe they did not.