In 1872, the age of steamships and locomotives, the once immense world has arguably shrunk to the point that an audacious bank robber could escape to any quarter of it undetected. In the same vein, a gentleman of means claims he can circumnavigate the world in the unheard-of time of 80 days. Had a less dispassionate man suggested the adventure, he might be accused of folly and dissuaded, but Phileas Fogg is a man of precise methodical process. Accompanied only by Passepartout, the French servant he hired just that morning, Fogg sets off on a rollicking race against time. He’s made a wager, and he intends to win it.