He was hired to make the third Alien film. His vision was a planet made of wood: a monastery in space and an order of monks who had renounced technology. Fox rejected the concept and he left the project with only a story credit.

What Vincent Ward made instead was MAP OF THE HUMAN HEART (1993). It was an epic love story seen by few, but those who did see it never forgot.

Avik, an Inuk boy, is carried out of the 1931 Arctic by a British mapmaker and treated in a Montreal hospital where he develops a deep bond with a Métis girl named Albertine. The children are forced apart by prejudice and strict authorities.

Years later, the world is at war. Avik serves as an aerial photographer and Albertine works for the British military. Their rekindled bond grows into passion when they reunite in London, but misunderstanding, jealousy, and the horrors of war tear them apart once again.

The story crosses thirty years and half the planet. Its most talked-about sequence is a love scene staged on top of a barrage balloon.

Ward's father had flown in the actual raid on Dresden. On the day Ward finished shooting the Dresden firebombing sequence, he learned his father had died.

He dedicated the film to him.

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MAP OF THE HUMAN HEART (1993) was an independent international co-production involving the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Australia.