The film takes part of its inspiration from contemporary affairs surrounding the competing claims of Robert E. Peary and Frederick Cook over who had first reached the North Pole. Peary claimed he had reached the North Pole on 6 April 1909, however Cook, claimed he had done so a year earlier, on 21 April 1908. Méliès is quoted as saying that he thought both had pretended to have reached the North Pole, so he decided he was going to go there.