Xtreme Teams

The team's preferred method of maximizing speed is through parallel processing. Meetings are a series of entrances and exits choreographed by Brevig and Lopez. Whether it's the morning critique, the midday production meeting, or the end-of-day critique, no one sits through an entire session. Animators leave as soon as their shots are critiqued; production assistants leave when they get new assignments; model makers exit after they give their opinions on the logistics for a new scene. "When there's work to be done, keeping people in a meeting longer than they need to be there is pointless and aggravating," Lopez says. "When we get down to the wire, our artists need every second they can get in front of their computers."

The "Wild Wild West" team made its deadline -- just 36 hours before Brevig left for a vacation in the Caribbean. The team cut it so close that the beginning of the final scene was being processed into film while the end of that scene was being digitally retouched. Lopez says that despite the crunch of 70-hour workweeks, the team's morale remained pretty high -- in part, no doubt, because of Lopez's practice of bringing in massage therapists, springing for pizza or dim sum, and generally playing the role of cheerleader.

Taking care of your team, Brevig says, is another secret to maintaining speed over time. "The actual process of creating a lot of visual effects for a movie doesn't worry me," he says. "I worry about creating an environment in which people can perform at that level and not be totally burned out when they're done. Three months from now, we'll all be working as a team on another project. You can't afford to treat people like they're disposable."

Extreme Pressure

Here's Team EcoInternet's idea of fun: Hop on a plane bound for another country. Hike 45 miles through the jungle, carrying 8 days' worth of food, water, and other supplies on your back. Jump into a kayak, and paddle 35 miles through white-water rapids. Rappel down the side of a cliff. Ride a mountain bike through a valley. Cover 235 miles in 8 days, getting no more than a total of 10 hours of sleep. And throw in leeches, saltwater crocodiles, and poisonous snakes -- just to keep things interesting.

Welcome to the sport of adventure racing, a world in which extremity borders on insanity. Adventure racing combines hiking, biking, paddling, climbing, and running through wilderness. There is no official course. Teams of four or five athletes race across, say, the Australian outback or the Sahara Desert, with no more than a compass, a map, and their experience and wits to guide them.

To win such a race, you must be fast and strong. But you must also be part of a complete team. If your team loses even just one member during the race, you lose.

Some of the world's most physically qualified teams have lost races because they lack the particular brand of teamwork that adventure racing demands. While most events draw teams of Navy seals or Army Rangers, no military team has ever placed in either of the top two slots at any major adventure race. Why not? "In the military, showing weakness is itself a weakness," says Robert Nagle, 41, one of EcoInternet's founders. "But in racing, we practice asking for help. We're all really good athletes in our own right, and we've had long, successful careers. But we're all able to make that switch and say, 'Right now, I'm the weakest person on the team. And in order for the team to move faster, I should ask for help.' "

Nagle, who is director of software development for InterSystems, based in Boston, knows what he's talking about. He and the other members of EcoInternet -- including an Australian entrepreneur, an American firefighter, and a window washer from New Zealand -- have won all three of the major adventure races at least once. So far this year, they have had two first-place finishes and one second-place finish. They are the New York Yankees of adventure racing. And they're experts on teamwork in extreme settings.

The founders of the team, Nagle and Ian Adamson, first met via the Internet in 1994. The following year, they put together the nucleus of their team. The squad has since grown to include about eight people from all over the world (they rotate on and off the team throughout the year, depending on the race). All of the members are world-class athletes in at least one sport, but they say that it isn't the physical challenge that draws them to adventure racing -- it's the mental challenge. "Your limits are constantly being pushed by the surprises that are built into the race, and then there are other surprises that are based on your execution," Nagle explains. "You may make a poor navigation choice, or forget to bring a critical piece of gear, or lose your maps, or run out of food. You have to deal with all of those situations. And that type of test is completely different from the test that's imposed by the physical prerequisites."