MythBusters (2003–…): Season 10, Episode 1 - Duct Tape Island - full transcript

Please do not try what you're about to see at home.

We're what you call experts.

Can't you tell?

On this ship-wrecked episode of Mythbusters.

Jamie and I are tend to survive on a deserted island

with nothing but a pallet of duct tape.

That's right, the duct tape versus wild

in the most extraordinary survival challenge in history.

We'll spend almost 4 day without water.

It's hard.

As Adam and Jamie take on mother nature



using nothing but duct tape.

That hurt.

My stomach crows and I'm thirsty.

Can they use it to collect water?

Why does everything have to be so difficult?

Can it stop them from starving?

And will it be sink or swim

in the ultimate great escape?

There we go!

How will this mythical material manage

in this mother of all trials by tape?

Can two grown men get by on a deserted island

without driving each other crazy?

Who are the "Mythbusters"?



Adam Savage.

That's disgusting.

And Jamie Hyneman.

It's party time.

Between them, more than 30 years of special effects experience.

Together with Grant Imahara.

Can't wait for my car.

Kari Byron,

You have seen your last martini, 003.

and Tory Belleci.

They don't just tell the myths,

they put them to the test.

Pack your shades and sun hat,

because it is time to be cast as castaways.

What are you so happy about?

I'm happy because I'm excited,

What do you have in mind?

I think it is time to do something truly spectacular.

One, if you were stranded on a deserted island

and you could choose only one material to bring with you,

what would it be?

- Duct tape. - Exactly.

We strand ourselves on a deserted island,

and all we have to survive is duct tape and duct tape alone.

It certainly would be the ultimate test for duct tape.

Exactly.

As any castaway will tell you,

staying alive on a deserted island is no mean fete.

But could duct tape be the survival solution?

So, what's the plan?

Well, of course, first we have to be marooned, stranded.

Then we have to do all the things that we need to do,

like find food, water, shelter to survive,

using only duct tape.

Then I imagine we have to get off the island using only duct tape.

Well, what are we waiting for?

Let's get ship wrecked.

Okay.

To survive being marooned in the tropics,

there are a series of life and death challenges

that the "Mythbusters" like any castways simply have to overcome.

The only difference for Adam and Jamie

is that they have to overcome them using primarily duct tape.

And to get started,

there's two things they're going to need.

First, a not quite deserted tropical island.

And second.

So, where does the duct tape come from.

I don't know, maybe it washes up on the beach,

like over there!

Conveniently inexhaustible supply of their favorite fabric.

With this much duct tape, we are set.

We can build just about anything with this.

Totally.

The fact is, if you find yourself lost in the woods,or on a deserted island,

your odds of being found diminish the longer you're gone.

Therefore, one of your first

and most primary tasks is to increase the ability to be detected.

By a search party.

Our plan is to use all these duct tape we've got to make a giant SOS signal.

Hopefully somebody will see it

if they're flying overhead and come rescue us.

Signaling for help is certainly an urgent challenge for any strandee.

The duct tape is acting like a sail.

But in the tropical heat, it is also a dangerous one.

It is hot and it is windy.

And if you're moving around a lot

trying to do stuff with no water,

gets pretty uncomfortable, pretty quickly.

And pretty soon it is already

too uncomfortable for Adam to continue.

Jamie?

Yeah.

This sun is killing me.

I'm going to have to stop.

'Cause otherwise I'm going to fry.

Okay.

The sun and I, we always had an agreement to disagree.

I don't like him and he doesn't like me.

So if I'm going to get any substantive work done,

I am going to have to protect my head

so that I can see and not get sun burned.

This wind is brutal.

It is a crucial change of course.

Sun exposure is actually something to be avoided.

Not only can you be raised burn skin,

because it's even mild exposure can cause dizziness,

nausea, and fever.

All which could compromise our desert island survival.

Which is why Adam's sticky stetson...

This is great.

is a tangent worth taking.

All right, let's get back to work.

I'm back.

Nice hat.

Thank you.

With a reinvigorated Adam.

Now we're talking.

It is not long before their giant sign looms large.

Our SOS signal is nice and large.

And most importantly, it doesn't look like it belongs here.

It is unnatural,

which is what you want to catch somebody's eye from a plane overhead.

The only bad thing about duct tape is that

while it is slightly reflective, it is gray.

It's not the most optimal thing to catch somebody's eye.

But we're using what we have,

so it will have to do.

Covering 900 square feet

and visible from 4 miles up,

the giant duct tape SOS is a good start for our canny castaways.

But task two is something that's much more do or die.

The next thing that is at the very top of our list is water.

We need fresh water and we need it soon.

Ow, sand's hot.

That means we got to make it or find it.

One way or another,

we've got to be able to move around well to do that.

That means that we need shoes.

Here's the thing,

this ground is really not very friendly.

If I were to puncture my feet,

I could get infection and I could get a parasite

that could put me way out of commission

and compromise my survival significantly.

Despite being tremendously thirsty,

making shoes is another safety-first approach.

That looks like a good spot.

After all, going lame before finding water

would be very bad news indeed.

Long time ago,

people discovered leather was a great thing to make shoes out of.

I'm going for a Roman sandal type thing.

Me, too.

As it happens, not long ago,

we made a duct tape boat and

found when we worked with it,

it was very very similar to leather.

That means that duct tape

is actually a perfect material to make shoes out of.

I am getting cautiously optimistic about these.

Despite the tremendous tropical heat,

the guys cover their way through rips,

twists--

Look at that, instant rope.

--and turns.

Dude, check it out.

Those look great.

Until both sets of shoes are all set.

My shoes are completed.

They're light, they're comfy.

I'm not sure exactly how well they're gonna hold up.

But the best part about are being made of duct tape, is that it doesn't matter,

they're infinitely repairable.

There we go.

Those are great.

- You know what I am? - What?

I am fricking thirsty.

Let's go get some water.

All right.

With their footwear finished,

the guys can finally begin the hunt for some H2O.

Water is essential to life.

A person can go for about three weeks without food,

but can go only about three days without water.

Water is our number one priority.

There's got to be water around here somewhere.

I really hope so.

It's been hours since their last drink,

and staying positive ain't easy.

Not only am I thirsty, I'm cranky.

But with dusk not far away,

Adam at last thinks he struck gold.

Oh, thank God.

Hold on there, cowboy.

I wouldn't touch that.

Why?

This is stagnant water.

You'll get sick.

With how thirsty I am, we can't drink any of this?

No, we got to do it right.

Crap.

Look, when it comes to water,

there are certain things you can't do.

You can't drink saltwater, drink your own urine,

you can't drink murky, still,

stagnant water.

If you do any of those things,

you'll and up with losing more water than you'll gain.

That's all there is to it.

Jamie is right.

The smell alone says that this water is not for drinking.

And that's not the only bad news.

Dude, it's getting dark.

Yeah.

I think we need to stop trying to find water

and find a place to sleep instead.

Okay.

It is the survivor's worst case scenario.

With daylight fading,

the guys have to abandon their search for water

and instead, make an emergency camp.

Let's just make some mats

so we don't have to lay on the bare ground.

With no time to waste,

their only option is to literally tape a duct tape sheet

straight to the ground.

With any luck, the bugs will get stuck on the adhesive

instead of crowling on you.

It's not a good wrap for a not very good day.

There it is when I've been proud of the work

we have done on the show.

Escaping an underwater car.

I survived.

Firing the world's first hail rocket.

Today is not one of those days.

We built some stuff,

but we did not succeed getting food

and definitely not succeed getting water.

Consequently I am both thirsty,

famished, uncomfortable, and really tired.

Honestly. I am a little daunted about what tomorrow holds.

Still to come.

On November 14th,

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman were removed

from civilization with only their wits and duct tape to survive.

You know there's an awful lot of footprints

on this beach for it being a deserted island at all.

Let's not think about it.

It could drive yourself crazy.

The mythbusters started their

duct tape survival special with high hopes.

We are stranded on a deserted island with nothing

but several miles of duct tape.

I am feeling pretty optimistic

about our chance of survival.

Although day one didn't go according to plan.

I can't drink any of this?

They're beginning day two

by trying to stay upbeat.

Might as well take this with us.

Oh, that's nasty.

Well, I suppose we could take the two of these we made,

put them together, we would have a nice mattress.

There's no doubt that they are in a sticky situation,

but with shoes refitted.

Not pretty but they get the job done.

Adam grabs some duct tape and sets out to try to find drinkable water.

Good walking stick.

This time he is heading in the opposite direction to yesterday's route.

Clearly these plants are getting water from somewhere.

I just need to find it.

By following the lusher vegetation,

he hopes to increase his chances of finding a water source.

But it is still no walk in the park.

I have been walking around for a while.

And I still haven't found any water.

What we have here is a classic Catch-22.

I need water

and I'm burning through a lot of it

just to try to find water.

If I don't find it soon, it's going to be bad.

So let's hope Jamie can do better.

It's hot out here and I'm thirsty.

I got water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

Except I can make fresh water out of this saltwater

with the sun's help and some duct tape.

It may sound as though Jamie has been in the sun too long--

It's already getting moist.

But his fresh water from saltwater idea

is rooted in reality.

I found water.

He is going to build a device called a solar still,

which is considerably more complicated

than finding salty water in a sandy hole.

A solar still uses the sun's rays

and condensation to collect water.

Here is how.

The hole I've dug is deep enough that it is wet with saltwater.

At the bottom,

I'll place a collection cup made from duct tape.

Above the hole, I'll put clear plastic sheeting.

The hot sun shines through,

evaporates it from the sand

leaving the salt behind.

The water vapor than condenses on the cool inside of plastic surface,

and drips down into the cup as pure, drinkable water.

That's the theory, at least.

Let's see how well it works.

Having made his well and taped up a collection cup.

There it is, guarantee it is waterproof.

All that's missing is a clear plastic overshoot.

For that, Jamie is bending the duct tape rules.

I'm making a duct tape spider web as a framework

for which to hold together this stuff, shrink wrap.

I know that you're saying it is not duct tape.

Why are we using it.

It did come on the duct tape pallet.

I don't know what I'm going to use this stuff for,

but I bet you it's going to come in real handy.

You know, it is survival.

We have to use everything at our disposal.

The thing is that all these little pieces don't really help us so much.

But once they're held together in one big sheet, we're golden.

There we go.

Hopefully I didn't use more water

making it than it will make for me.

The last step is to carefully position the sheet over the hole.

Here we go. That's the ticket.

And almost immediately, there are encouraging signs.

All of that fog you can already see

forming on the underside of the plastic is what this is about.

It is picking up moisture from damp sand,

which is evaporating, collecting on plastic.

Eventually, those will form larger and larger droplets

which will run downhill into my collection container.

Now we just have to wait.

It is the moment of truth.

Two hours cooking in the midday sun.

What's the verdict?

Well, there it is.

That's pure water.

But that's like a quarter of a cup.

With less than 5% of their daily watery needs,

it is a disappointing result.

Why does everything have to be so difficult?

But back at the rumble in the jungle,

Adam is welling up with excitement.

It is fresh!

All right, water bottles.

Half my task is down. I've found fresh water.

No small feat.

That's really important for our survival.

Now I simply have to get it back.

So I'm going to build something to carry the water.

But in the middle of the bush--

Beeping mosquitos.

that's something not as easy as it sounds.

I would kill for a workbench right about now.

Adam's making a kind of tubular bottles

which should hold about ten pints of water,

provided of course that it doesn't leak.

If I get a single wrinkle in this thing,

it is a place water can get out.

Can't have that.

Water has got to go from the pond

into here into here.

It is a painstaking operation.

But eventually, there's only one thing left to do.

Oh, oh, it is cold.

Fill it up.

Fill up, baby. Come on.

Please hold up.

First impressions are good.

It's working!

And second impressions are even better.

Seems to be holding.

Awesome!

I better get back to Jamie.

I bet he's thirsty.

It is the most crucial survival challenge overcome,

thanks incrediblly to duct tape shoes and duct tape water vessel,

Adam source that never ending water supply.

That means things are finally looking up.

Because for the time being, at least,

the myth busters aren't going to drop dead.

How did the solar still work?

It worked.

But I only got about half a cup.

I have some good news.

How about six liters' worth.

That's fantastic.

The hunt was worth it.

Look at that.

Cheers!

Oh, that's good.

You know what I am ready for now?

A nice, fat, juicy steak.

- Time for food? - Yeah.

Let's do it.

Next, will dinner be served?

Chasing a chiken,

which is not a euphemism.

This is harder than I thought.

Without doubt,

tropical islands can be the very epitome of paradise on earth.

Yet for the "Mythbusters,"

it's been more a case of paradise lost.

But having finally quenched their thirst.

Cheers.

Their duct tape survival is improving.

Now that we've got fresh water,

it's time to figure out how to get food.

Adam is going to tackle the land,

and I'm going to tackle the sea.

With the hunger clock ticking,

Jamie decides there's only one solution.

Spear fishing.

There we go.

And while mother nature does provide the main component.

Give it up, tree,

You're going to lose.

Duct tape is an integral part.

Might be able to do something with that.

There're three things that I can do to help

with duct tape to help make a spear.

First it will allow me to attach and easily replace multiple points on the tip.

Perfect.

I dare say any little fish or critter

wouldn't really want to get stuck by that.

Then I can also use it to mark the balance point of the shaft

which will help with accuracy.

There we go.

And finally, the line on the end

helps me retrieve it once I have thrown it.

I'm going to go catch me some fish!

Meanwhile, in the forest,

Adam is on a wild chicken run,

Literally.

I'm really hungry, and I saw some chickens out here.

Wild chickens are good eating.

It flies?

Nobody told me that chickens could fly.

Clearly chasing them is a low percentage game.

I'm gonna need to outsmart them,

and make some kind of trap.

I'm thinking --a snare

Usually consisting of an anchored wire noose,

snare traps are one of the simplest of all hunting tools.

But can one made of woven duct tape really work?

I've got to study that baton twirling.

Now the whole idea of snare,

is taht this loop sits unassumingly on the ground

until a chicken walks by, I yank it,

and hopefully I catch the chicken by the leg.

Now it is a waiting game.

And while Adam waits,

let's cut to the chase with Jamie.

What I've got to do is pretty straightforward.

Spot a fish and spear it.

Like snaring a chicken, it sounds easy in theory.

Okay, fish, hold still.

But in practice, it's a bitch.

I'm not leaving here without dinner.

On the plus side go,

the duct tape spear is holding up well.

I like my wired string, work like tree.

Now if I can get just the fish to hold still.

Just like fishing with a rod and real,

spear fishing is about patience.

It is not like they're going to sit there like ducks

and wait for you to spear them.

You have got to just hang it out,

wait for the right time, and then throw.

And there's no time like the present.

Yeah!

About time.

At last, he nailed it.

Oh, yeah, baby.

Sushi for dinner.

It's a great result.

Sorry, little buddy, it's for a good cause.

Yeah, I know.

Especially because in the jungle,

Adam's snare affair is a dud.

Damn!

Consequently, he has been busy

taping up plan c.

I have been unable to coax a bird into my snare.

I've changed direction.

And I am not actually building a duct tape spider web here,

I'm building a net,

that a layer cross the forest floor.

When a chicken walks across it,

I'll snatch it up kind of like the Ewoks from the Star Wars.

Why?

Because if anyone knows about hunting in forest,

it's the Ewoks.

Getting close.

Now it's time to conceal it.

So surely this is a homerun.

The net is concealed on the forest floor here.

I'm hoping to chase chicken through

from this direction.

I can be as far back as 15 feet behind him,

and I got this lean on this line,

and all the sidelines go up,

along with the net, along with the chicken.

And that's dinner.

Moments later, Adam carefully crows out some passing poultry

into the danger zone.

Until --

Oh, no.

He got away!

He squirmed right out the side.

The force is strong with this one.

There he is, taunting me.

He's taunting me.

It's like "In your face, Mythbuster".

But a quick reset later,

and Adam is soon on the prowl once more.

I got it!

I got the chicken!

Look, look!

My net caught the chicken!

How're you doing there, buddy?

We're going to eat good tonight.

Ain't that the truth?

With two food groups captured in one day,

it's another tick for the chanllenge tape.

But before moving to the next survival challenge,

here is a quick word from our sponsor.

For those of you playing at home,

I just want to be clear,

that this is in fact a wild chicken in Hawaii.

We did chase it and we did catch it in my net.

We're not, however, going to kill it, cook it and eat it.

The chicken you see us eat later in the episode

was store bought.

Next, on Mythbusters

Who's made it homy?

Adam and Jamie sharpened up their shelter.

By the way, what's with the chicken?

Well, that's Wilson.

He's my new friend.

Please don't try what you're about to see at home.

We're what you call experts.

Yeah.

Food has featured in many an episode of "Mythbusters."

That's so wrong.

But rarely is it ever actually eaten.

Tenderizing steak with explosives.

But on day three of this duct tape survival special,

I got the chicken!

Food is finally on the menu.

Sushi for dinner.

Provided, of course, the "Mythbusters" can cook up.

It's time to do the most primordial of human inventions.

It's time to build the fire.

How is this gonna work?

Jesus crow.

Come on.

It's gonna work by friction,

specifically the friction between this piece of wood

and the base piece of wood,

created by what's called a friction bow.

I have a duct tape string streched on a piece of bamboo.

I will roll it back and forth,

which cause the stick to spin very rapidly,

hopefully creating enough friction to creat an ember

which will be the germ of my fire.

The so called bore-drill

is one of the most traditional ways to start a flame.

I don't want to get optimistic yet.

It's also one of the hardest.

No, no, no, no.

But Adam tries, tries, and tries again.

Until at last his duct tape bow goes ballistic.

I got it, Jamie!

I got it!

It took freaking forever.

And once the fire really takes hold,

Now we're cooking.

it's not long before dinner is served.

Not bad living here on the deserted island.

Nothing beats home cooking.

Nope.

With food and fire now sorted,

the real life and death hurdles have been cleared comfortably.

But there's a lot more to taming an island paradise than that.

And next, it is time to better their abode.

So with a new day dawned,

Adam is searching for some respectable real estate.

And will this do?

Look at that!

It's beautiful!

Looks like a cathedral.

This is the perfect place for us to set up a more permanent camp.

I love it!

One of the reasons this place is perfect

is that I can string a couple of hammocks.

Hammocks are great.

Not just 'cause they're comfy.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

In an unfamiliar place,

you don't really want to sleep on the ground.

You don't want to give yourself such easy access to things like,

I don't know, centipedes,

scorpions and other things I don't want to think about.

Adam, how come you used up

all our good duct tape ropes on those hammocks.

Jamie, staying on a deserted island for weeks,

I want to be comfortable when I sleep.

I don't really care how I sleep.

I could sleep on a pile of rocks and millipedes.

I wouldn't care.

Alright, here goes enough.

This is seriously comfortable.

Like I'm not even kidding for television comfortable.

As home renovations go, it's a solid start.

But there's much more to this castaway crave

than good hang time.

Oh, hello!

I'm so glad you stopped by.

Welcome to banion estates.

Can I give you the grand tour?

This is the buster's accommodations with the master bed,

shelter and rain capture all in one,

with a nice foot mat, so one can get in and out of bed

without having to wear shoes.

The guest accommodations are almost as nice

with guest rain catcher and roof along with extra rope

for anything that needs rope.

It is all the comforts of home

on your own deserted island.

And if that weren't enough.

I can't tell you how good it is to sit

after all this time.

Adam goes the extra "Mythbusters" mile

by building up table and chairs.

Now, for the pieces.

And a chess set,

which should give their duct tape camp that little bit of luxury.

Meanwhile, Jamie's been taking an experimental tangent.

These waves make me wonder,

Maybe I can make a surfboard

out of duct tape.

Yep, with hunger and thirst no longer an issue,

Jamie's decided to get gnarly.

The surf boards came together pretty much the way that I had planned.

It has four pontoons that are all taped together into one big thing

that is the size and shape of a surfboard, more or less, and,

I imagine it will work like one.

Time to go surfing.

Despite the optimism,

there's a major drawback.

Look at that.

Jamie's never surfed in his life.

And learning on a slightly leaky duct tape surfboard

was never going to be plain sailing.

Here we go!

Well, that was exhausting,

but I'm actually kind of happy with it,

because I learned that while duct tape is okay at sealing things up,

it is not perfect.

It eventually stops in leaks.

So if you built something that's relying on a sealed pontoon,

then you're screwed,

because you got no ability to bail it and empty it out anyway,

and it's gonna sink.

So failure as a surfboard, yes.

But success as an experiment.

And that's not the only success.

Because physical exercise,

along with mental stimulation

I don't think we ever actually played a game of chess together before.

are two very important goals for any survivalist.

There's a bug on my bishop.

It is actually a proven fact

that keeping yourself mentally acute

with something like a game of chess

makes you better at problem solving.

And surviving in a situation like this

is all about problem solving.

Checkmate.

- Nicely done. - Thank you.

Which means another key target in the survival challenge

has been met.

And that leaves only one thing.

Escape.

Although Adam and Jamie's island survival

has not gone quite this well.

This is going to be a fish.

It has been a resounding success,

because after four days as duct tape castaways,

they're physically fresh,

mentally focused,

Oh, quag. I'm in check.

and so well fed

that a nosey chicken is more a pet than picking.

By the way, what's with the chicken?

Well, that's Wilson.

He's my new friend.

So with their short term survival sorted,

the "Mythbusters" are dreaming of one final thing.

Escape.

We made ourselves a nice little home on this island.

Duct tape provided us everything we need.

Food, fire, water.

We can stay here as long as we like,

but rescue is not coming.

It is time for us to get ourselves off this island.

In other words, it is time to build a boat.

So cue the banian tree brainstorm.

So we gotta make a duct tape boat,

and it's gotta be ocean worthy for

probably a significant distance.

We're gonna have to have a couple weeks' worth of water

couple of weeks worth of food.

- Bailers. - Bailers. Yeah.

It's gonna have to be pretty good size, like 20 feet or so.

What about a canoe design,

where we paddle it.

Yeah, a canoe design is pretty efficient.

But if we do that, we have to make outriggers.

You mean like one of those pontoon things off to the side.

Yeah, for stability.

We'll make it all out of duct tape and bamboo.

It's light and it's strong.

- Let's do it. - OK.

Our boat design is straightforward.

It's basically gonna be a canoe,

It's gonna be about 20 feet long.

This should be plenty of room for both me and Jamie

and all the provisions we're going to need

for our ocean journey.

The canoe will also have an outrigger for stability.

Its frame could be made of bamboo,

and it's going to be skinned in several layers of duct tape.

Said like that, it sounds easy.

- Bamboo. - We can totally use this.

But this project will put all of their other island

innovations firmly in the shame.

We're no strangers building duct tape boat

But for the first one,

we had steel and a welder to make the frame.

It's pretty.

Out here, all we've got is this stuff and duct tape.

That's a whole different kettle of fish.

So you kind of have to build your own work table,

your own jig.

'Cause otherwise, you end up with this stuff

full of dirt and pine needles

and everything is all sloppy.

We can't have that,

especially when we're talking about a waterproof boat.

So having jerry-rigged a jig,

Perfect.

Adam and Jamie first focus on

the canoe's bamboo mainframe,

starting with the sides.

Look at that.

That's already feeling like a boat.

One in front, one in back paddling.

Yeah, this is just wide enough to sit inside there.

Next, the guys turn their attention to the hull's base.

That's gonna be awesome.

Then they position a myriad of internal cross struts

for maximum strengths.

Everything of course, bound together with duct tape.

The boat design we have here is basically a canoe,

and that's fine if you're on a lake, but we're not.

We are on the ocean,

and we need a lot more stability so we don't tip over in the waves.

You know, the traditional way of dealing with that

is with an outrigger,

and so that's what we're gonna put on this.

The outrigger is like the canoe's baby brother.

It, too, has a bamboo frame.

Well, that ought to work.

And it, too, needs a duct tape skin.

We're gonna skin this boat once with the tape facing out.

Attention to detail means the boat doesn't leak.

And we're gonna skin it again with the tape facing in.

My fingers are raw from being

stuck to tape repeatedly.

This should give us a really secure, leathery duct tape skin.

Hopefully it keeps the water out

and gets us home.

You know, Adam, I sure hope this works.

You and me both, man.

It's a time-consuming,

Getting closer.

and somewhat painful process.

All this sticky stuff is giving me nightmares.

After a full six hours, their rescue raft is as good as done.

Look at that!

I think this is gonna work great.

That is really, really pretty.

A couple dozen rows of duct tape,

couple hundred feet of bamboo and some ingenuity,

I am super pleased with how the boat has turned out.

My fingers are raw from tearing

so many thousands of pieces of tape.

I think it might just be sea worthy.

The "Mythbusters" canoe confidence is high.

But with sunset approaching,

That's it.

Those are all of our provisions.

her maiden voyage has to wait.

Coming up, in the finale of the duct tape island special,

will it be sink or swim for Adam and Jamie's canoe?

Here we go!

The "Mythbusters" duct tape island adventure

has been eventful, to say the least.

Jamie and I, we've had our highs.

I got the chicken!

we've had our lows.

I'm thirsty and I actually think I've got

ants in my hair.

And now we've determined that it's time to go home.

So we built ourselves a boat.

We have provisioned it for at least a few weeks at sea,

and soon we're about to head out into the great blue yonder

to try to get ourselves home.

And when Adam says they provisioned it for a few weeks,

he is not exaggerating.

Here is what we're taking on the journey.

We got rope, we got fishing line.

We got bailers, oars, duct tape.

We have tarps. We have water bags,

food bags, and a fishing speer.

That doesn't help us make it, we weren't meant to.

I think we're ready to put it in, huh?

- Let's carry it out. - All right.

At this point we found that

duct tape is not a perfect solution for anything.

But with some creativity in a pinch,

it's an adequate solution for just about everything.

Now, whether it will hold up to a boat

that has to get us across the ocean,

there's only one way to find out.

Okay.

And in it joins the waves.

As the guys clamor in,

it's worth highlighting

that the one thing they don't have is a map.

It's working.

Oh, yeah, baby!

Like real castaways,

they're simply going to paddle until they find land or sink.

Pontoon is looking great.

But with the breaking waves approaching,

sinking is a very real possibility.

Oh, no, here we go.

It took it.

There's another one coming.

It is bigger.

Dude!

There we go!

There's no two ways about it.

Those breakers were intense.

We're sitting there in the canoe made of duct tape,

paddling towards waves that're three or four feet higher

than the prow of our boat.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

It was absolutely terrifying.

But once the minute past,

totally knew we have passed one of the worst hurdles we could

and the boat was gonna be okay.

Adam's right. Having survived the breakers,

How does she look like she's holding up in the water?

the main question now,

Looking great.

is whether the canoe will hold together

long enough for them to find civilization.

Man, it is hot out here.

Given that we're in the ocean and it is about 90 degrees,

we got bold in spades,

but the only bailing I'm having to do so far

Adam, I've got a little water back here.

is because of water that's being splashed into the boat

rather than any sort of leak.

Are you saying my oar technique sucks?

Two hours in and with their island now a distant memory,

I can't see the shore anymore.

We are in open water now.

Adam and Jamie start raiding their provisions.

First water.

You want some?

And then food.

Three hours in, an impromptu fishing stop

There. Right there.

is all that slowed them down.

I think you missed it.

As three hours becomes four,

Dude,

I'm gonna take a little break, okay?

and four becomes five.

Let's just hope we're not paddling in circles.

Let's put this maritime masterpiece in contest.

Adam and Jamie's yesterday's news,

I'm kicking the world.

broke apart in twenty minutes.

The duct tape dinghy was on the water not much longer,

Try not to push your feet through the bottom.

and their Alcatraz escape raft was an accident waiting to happen.

I have no idea where we are.

But their duct tape canoe has now been in the open ocean

for over a half day,

and is still going strong.

This boat, strongest case yet.

The duct tape is a fricking miracle material.

Yep, there's no underestimating in the power of duct tape.

With neither a leak nor a tear,

you might say it has been plain sailing.

And what's more.

Dude, land!

I see it.

At last,

after close to seven hours at sea,

land looms large on the horizon.

Dude, we are saved.

I think so.

And what that means is it's mission accomplished!

Because their final challenge to build a sea worthy boat

and escape their myth worthy deserted island

has like all their other duct tape demands

been a total triumph.

I can't believe this boat actually held up.

I know!

Our little duct tape boat did great.

Held up through the breakers,

Here we go.

held up in the open water and it held up in the sun.

And it did that despite only weighing about 100 pounds.

- I'm out. - I'm out.

which for a boat that size is incredibly light weight.

I've got to say,

I'm pretty impressed with the duct tape right now.

Excellent.

Well, duct tape this stuff

not only did it help us climb on the island

and it helps us get off the island.

And ultimately, it helps us find civilization.

Adam.

It's the same island.

Have you had enough? Of course you haven't.

to get more of your mythbuster's fix.