This film is a last goodbye for an Olympic great—a personal story used to tell a bigger brand message.

The film lets us see exactly what Michael Phelps has built his legacy on: a lifetime of going dark and becoming invisible, both literally and metaphorically—a lifetime of training in the relentless pursuit of sporting greatness.

The film is split between an honest portrayal of his psychological and physical journey—cupping, Graston treatments, oxygen chambers, being sick. This is juxtaposed with a shot of an infinite pool as a backbone throughout, which represents his endless pursuit of going dark and becoming invisible to the outside world as he makes his own pilgrimage to his own mecca—the Olympics.

The film work towards the brand message “It’s what you do in the dark that puts you in the light.”

In 2012, Michael Phelps, the greatest Olympian of all time, retired from swimming with 18 gold medals to his name. He retired at the top—the most decorated athlete, in any era, across any sport. What followed was a year of public slip-ups, DUI charges and other misdemeanors.

In 2014 he announced he was coming back out of retirement—something he didn’t need to do—putting his legacy on the line to go for gold again.

This is his final farewell to his triumphant yet turbulent career.

These films were developed to be a deep, accurate reflection of Michael Phelps’s story, capturing not only the physical but also the psychological side of his training. We worked with Michael Phelps in person over three in-depth interviews to inform and develop the ideas for our script. A fluid, documentary-style approach was used to capture the raw physicality of Phelps’s training lifestyle, along with a series of more abstract depictions of its metaphorical side. Throughout the film, dark, sullen lighting was used to create a sense of disconnection and to help to convey the lonely single-mindedness of Phelps. This was reflected as a key feature in the infinite lane that we showed throughout. The entire piece is intended to feel dreamlike and allude to a feeling of higher purpose: Phelps’ pilgrimage to his own sporting mecca.