Strange Evidence (2017–…): Season 3, Episode 10 - Curse of Poltergeist Hill - full transcript
When a ghostly encounter in a cemetery is caught on camera, experts use cutting-edge tech and the latest science to investigate if something paranormal is at play.
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: Worldwide, 6 billion
cameras are watching us...
On our street, at work, and in our homes.
They capture things that seem impossible.
It defies the laws of physics.
Man: This is unbelievable, man.
Narrator: Experts carry
out forensic analysis
of these unusual events.
I want to know what I'm looking at.
There has to be some sort of explanation.
What else is going on here?
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: Coming up,
a man with the
indestructibility of a robot...
He runs into the back of this
car, basically like a machine.
Narrator: ...A mysterious force
attacks passengers at sea...
[ screaming ]
the people on this boat were
not expecting to get what they got.
Narrator: ...And a
glowing ghoul brings terror
to a desert highway.
Wise: It is using that
light for illumination,
or is it luring its prey?
Narrator: Bizarre phenomenon.
Whoa.
Narrator: Mysteries caught on camera.
Now, that's an explosion.
What is the truth behind
this strange evidence?
Now, cameras capture
a naked humanoid figure
with durability beyond
that of any normal man.
He ran full-on body mass
airborne into that window.
I would think that would
leave a normal person dead.
Narrator: Impervious
to pain, he seems to be
on an obsessive rampage of destruction.
This guy is doing things
that are practically suicidal.
He's the terminator,
man. He just keeps going.
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: March 7, 2015,
los angeles, california,
a city famous for year-round sunshine
and the glitz and glamour of the movies,
but as the sun sets on the city,
one sleepy suburb is
about to experience an event
straight from a hollywood
action blockbuster.
We've been here for about 20 years.
I mean, little things
happen here and there,
but nothing like this.
Narrator: Late in the evening,
local resident charlie barnes and his wife
are driving back from a friend's party.
So we got home exactly around 11 o'clock.
We were ready to go to bed.
Five minutes later,
someone knocks on our door
letting us know someone hit our car.
Well, the first thing I
saw was my neighbor.
She looked like she was pretty shook up.
So I asked her, "hey, did you hit my car?"
the first thing that came
out of her mouth was,
"no, I didn't. Some naked guy did."
I didn't believe her at first.
I had to get the evidence, and
I know we have cameras here.
Narrator: Barnes is staggered by
what he sees on the security video.
A naked man launches himself
through barnes' back window.
We were just dumbfounded.
He runs into the back of this
car, basically like a machine.
Narrator: The man rebounds onto
the ground after receiving a blow
that should knock him out,
but he doesn't stay down.
It's like nothing else
seems to bother this guy.
Narrator: Barnes' neighbor
tries desperately to escape
from the madman,
but the mysterious assailant
now turns his attention on her.
Then he jumps on the car
like he has not had enough.
My neighbor freaked
out, puts it in driving,
guns it, hits my van...
Narrator: The naked man is
flung to the ground at high speed
with what looks like a
bone-crunching impact.
How do you get up from that?
After this whole thing,
he can still run five blocks
down and not be phased.
Muñoz: This just doesn't
seem like something
an ordinary human would be able to do.
Narrator: Greg szulgit is an expert
in physiology and biomedical science.
He's built an experiment to find out
if a human could walk
away from this type of event
without serious injuries.
The question is, how typical
is he as a human being?
That's what I want to find out.
Narrator: Szulgit isn't going
to launch himself at the car.
He's brought along a stunt double.
Newton here is about
the same weight and build
as the guy who went through the window.
I'm gonna hook him up to
a rope swing on a harness,
swing him into the back of the window,
and see how he fares.
Rig you right up.
Narrator: Szulgit has
calculated the impact force seen
in the security footage.
The man is running at
just over 11 miles per hour
when he strikes the car.
That should be about
the equivalent of newton
on a 5-meter rope swing
falling at 45 degrees,
which is around there.
I'm expecting he's gonna
go through the window
but only because he's got a hard
head and a stiff neck and back.
Narrator: Newton should
smash through the back window
like a sledgehammer.
The question is, how much
damage will the dummy suffer?
All right.
3, 2, 1... let's see what you got.
Narrator: The dummy's head hits the window
with a blunt force of 2,187 newtons,
which is the equivalent of
an adult male silverback gorilla
standing on your head.
It's also about the same blunt force
required to crush an adult human skull.
But incredibly,
this isn't enough force
to break the window.
The man in the footage must
have hit charlie barnes' car
with even more force
than this, which leaves
szulgit unable to explain
the seemingly impossible.
The guy in the video,
I don't know how he walked away from it.
Narrator: The naked man may
look like a newly arrived terminator,
an android sent from the future,
but barnes finds evidence that
he's no indestructible machine.
There was actually skin
and blood on the actual glass.
Not only that, he left a fingertip.
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: Author heidi hollis
examines the footage for clues.
She wonders if the man
survived this crippling impact
because he wasn't entirely
conscious to begin with.
When I saw this clip of this guy
running full force, naked, at the car,
it makes you wonder, is
that a zombie mentality?
[ zombies groaning ]
narrator: The living
dead have been invading
hollywood movies for decades,
but the origin of the zombie
comes from the vodou religion.
In a lot of cultures where
vodou is dominating, it's very real.
Narrator: Worshipers believe
that priests of the vodou religion,
using a potent cocktail
of poisons and drugs,
can place someone in a zombie-like state.
A zombie under the control of the drugs
is unable to resist any
instructions given to them.
Zombies may attack you
because if the master says,
"get that person,"
they may do whatever it
takes to take you down,
and they won't stop until
their master says to stop.
Narrator: Physicist michio
kaku considers if it's possible
to use science to make
a technological zombie.
Is it possible to hack into his spinal cord
and hack into his body
so that these motions can
be done by pushing a button?
And the answer is, in principle, yes.
Narrator: In the 1960s, juan
delgado, a yale university professor,
created a remote-controlled bull
by implanting electrodes
in the bull's brain.
He could make it charge or
halt with the touch of a button.
Now, the implication
of this was so enormous
that that line of research was abandoned.
Narrator: But other lines of research
have led to extraordinary
advances in body hacking
by sending electric
pulses directly into muscles.
Now, if you think about
how muscles are controlled,
it's basically electrical signals
that are usually coming from the brain
that are controlling the muscles.
But the beauty is, you can
actually bypass the brain.
What happens if somebody
gets this technology
without your permission?
Then all of a sudden, you are
a puppet inside your own body.
Now, that's a freaky idea, right?
Someone can actually take over your body,
and you could have no control of it.
Narrator: Could the man
in the footage be the victim
of a body hack like this,
a technological zombie
controlled by a malign puppet master,
helpless to stop his body
from being pulverized?
Forensic image analyst conor mccourt
examines the footage for any telltale clues
that this type of technology
might be being used.
There's been a suggestion
that this is body hacking.
So we captured images from the rampage,
and we lined them up on a chart.
What do we have here? He's naked.
We would see those electrodes.
There's nowhere to hide that technology,
so that's not what's going on here.
Narrator: Professor of biology
leslie samuel investigates
if a sinister biological agent
could explain the carnage
he's witnessing in the footage.
Could this guy be infected by a parasite,
and could that be causing the
behavior that we're seeing here?
Narrator: One widespread
parasite that is known
to control the behavior of
its host is toxoplasma gondii,
a single-cell protozoa
that causes the disease toxoplasmosis.
When it comes to toxoplasmosis
causing risky behavior,
this happens because it's evolved
in literally a cat-and-mouse game.
Narrator: The parasite lives in cats
and is spread through their feces,
but it has evolved to
specifically target cats' prey
like mice and rats. [ mice squeaking ]
what the parasite is actually
doing is infecting the rats
in a way that makes them fearless,
and not just fearless... reckless.
Narrator: Infected
rodents lose all fear of cats
and will actually seek
out the scent of cat urine.
The host puts itself in a suicidal position
of being available to be eaten.
Narrator: And this is exactly
what toxoplasma gondii wants.
When the rats get eaten by the cat,
the parasite gets back where
it wants to be, inside the cat.
Now, if you think that's crazy,
that's not the terrifying thing.
It doesn't just infect rats.
It actually infects humans, too.
Narrator: Coming up, a
terrifying object menaces a town...
There are things in the sky
that can kill us at any moment.
Narrator: ...A car is pulled up and
down a hill by a mysterious power...
Wise: It's essentially
one of the deadliest
forces one can imagine.
Narrator: ...And is this
man being controlled
by a parasite that's taken over his body?
It gives you an incredible
numbness to killing, violence.
♪
♪
Narrator: A naked man on a
violent rampage in an l.A. Suburb...
Experts investigate if he's been infected
by a parasite that causes toxoplasmosis,
a disease that can trigger
self-destructive behavior.
Research has shown that
about 1/4 of the population
is actually infected.
Narrator: Toxoplasmosis causes
cysts to develop in human brains.
These cysts can permanently
alter someone's personality,
making the individual more likely to engage
in high-risk behavior.
It can trigger aggression,
schizophrenia, or suicide.
A lot of people are
walking around with this
and don't even know it.
Narrator: But science journalist
jeff wise thinks this behavior
is too crazy even for someone
suffering from toxoplasmosis.
Parasites that affect behavior,
they do so in order to benefit themselves.
This doesn't seem like that's happening.
Here you have a host that's
just kind of destroying himself.
If this is a parasite,
it's not really getting anything out of it.
Narrator: Military analyst carlo
muñoz analyzes the footage.
The behavior of the man on the rampage
reminds him of what he's learned
about super-soldier programs.
Militaries all across the
world spend billions of dollars
trying to improve every
piece of their arsenal,
and that includes soldiers.
One of the ways they
do that is drugging them.
Narrator: A cocktail of powerful
drugs can allow combatants
to push past normal human boundaries,
like smashing through a
car window with their head.
A lot of work in this field was
pioneered in nazi germany.
One of the drugs german commanders
would give their men in world war ii
was something called d-ix,
which would give them superhuman strength
and in a way, turn them into
some sort of super soldier.
Narrator: In recent
decades, the drugs-arms race
has continued with terror
groups dosing their fighters
with unregulated black-market drugs.
They've taken to using
something called captagon,
which basically turns
them into killing machines.
Narrator: Easily manufactured
and highly addictive,
this drug has fueled the syrian civil war
with groups like isis using
it to ensure suicide bombers
complete their missions.
Muñoz: The thing with
captagon is, once you take it,
it gives you this incredible
sense of euphoria.
It also gives you an incredible
numbness to killing, violence.
The scariest thing about this is,
this guy is in the united states,
and he's doing this stuff
in someone's backyard.
Narrator: And as anyone who has
faced these drug-fueled super soldiers
in combat knows, they
are almost unstoppable.
Muñoz: If this is a drug-induced rampage,
this guy is basically a
biological terminator.
Narrator: The man was
eventually arrested by police,
and it is believed that an unknown narcotic
did fuel his destructive rampage.
Barnes: On that one incident,
there's a lot of carnage.
Who knows if he'll be back or not.
Narrator: Now in a michigan cemetery,
a car is pushed backwards up a hill.
What the heck's going on here?
Man: It's the weirdest darned thing.
Narrator: Experts are
baffled by what or who
has taken control of the vehicle.
Have the rules of gravity somehow changed?
Narrator: Or is this an
attempt at communication?
This could be a haunting
from beyond the grave.
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: June 2013, detroit, michigan...
Nowhere in the quiet suburb of farmington
is quieter than farmington's
oakwood cemetery.
Lonnie williams is visiting the graveyard.
He stops his car at the bottom of a hill
and puts it in neutral.
Then the impossible happens.
Williams: Rolling backwards, up the hill.
Narrator: Something seems to be pulling it.
Williams: I have no idea.
Narrator: And then even stranger,
it seems to be pushed back down.
Williams: It looks like
by this tree, we stop,
and we start going forward again.
Narrator: And then up again,
as if moved by an invisible hand.
Williams: Yes, my feet are off the pedal,
car is still in neutral.
It's the weirdest darned thing.
Narrator: Baffled, williams returns
to the graveyard time and time again.
Williams: This is about the spot.
And the same mysterious
phenomenon occurs each time.
I'm not sure why it's
working, but it always does.
Wise: What we see
here is some kind of force
that's moving the car first one
way and then the other way.
That's the really strange thing about it.
I don't get it.
As if it has some
kind of a will of its own.
Narrator: Journalist mallie fox
studies the audio in the footage
and hears something sinister.
If you listen to the clip carefully,
it sounds like someone
is saying the name sarah.
[ indistinct whisper ]
that's gonna send a chill
up your spine. It's so freaky.
[ indistinct whisper ]
I did walk around here and
found a couple of gravestones
with the name sarah on them.
[ indistinct whisper ]
I think it's really weird.
Fox: Some people
believe that spirits or ghosts
can actually move objects
without touching them,
and it's called psychokinesis.
Could it be a spirit
pushing the car to get it
maybe out of the cemetery?
Maybe they don't want you in there.
Narrator: Coming up, a glowing creature
unknown to science stalks
the pan-american highway...
Washington: One of the ways these organisms
will use this light is to attract prey.
Narrator: ...Passengers
on a boat are attacked
by a violent force from the deep...
[ explosion ]
[ screaming ]
these people are in terrible danger.
Narrator: ...And in the place of the dead,
a creepy effect that warps
the minds of the living...
Proctor: You think you're doing one thing,
and yet, something else is happening.
♪
Narrator: In a detroit cemetery, a
car is possessed by a mysterious force
that pushes it up and then down a hill.
I don't get it.
Narrator: Planetary scientist
sian proctor investigates
if the footage shows an ominous
glitch in the forces of physics.
Normally, what goes down, stays down,
but in this case, it goes
down and then comes back up.
That's not right.
Narrator: Ever since newton
saw an apple falling from a tree,
humans have believed they
understand how gravity works.
It's the force that anchors
everything to the planet,
but a recent nasa mission has
uncovered something disturbing.
One of the interesting
things that we found out
is that the hudson bay area in canada,
well, the gravity is... it's less.
Narrator: We think of
gravity as a constant force.
The idea that it's weaker in
places is an alarming thought.
That doesn't mean that
people are floating up in the air
over that part of canada.
Gravity is still working.
It's just slightly less strong.
Narrator: Science journalist
jeff wise investigates
what phenomenon could
have such a powerful effect
on the gravity in the cemetery.
Something to pack that
much gravitational punch
would have to be enormously dense.
It would have to essentially be
some kind of microscopic black hole.
Narrator: The idea of a
microscopic black hole in a cemetery
might sound utterly crazy,
but it's not beyond the laws of physics.
Tiny versions of normal
black holes are so dense
nothing can escape them, not even light.
The idea of a micro black
hole is fairly terrifying.
It's essentially one
of the deadliest forces
one can imagine.
Narrator: Theoretical physicist michio kaku
has been following the work of scientists
who are currently experimenting
with microscopic black
holes right here on earth.
In geneva, switzerland, we
have the large hadron collider,
the most powerful atom
smasher on the planet earth.
One set of experiments is
to create mini black holes.
Narrator: The black holes
that the large hadron collider
creates are unstable
and exist for less than
a fraction of a second,
but naturally occurring
microscopic black holes
out in the galaxy
are much more stable
and far more destructive.
But when kaku does the math, he calculates
that a stable microscopic
black hole in this cemetery
would send us all to the grave.
Kaku: A mini black hole
will allow you to yank a car,
but realize that even a mini black hole
would be sufficient to eat up the earth.
[ wind whistling ]
narrator: Kaku re-watches the footage.
He wonders of the shape of
the hill itself could be messing
with the perceptions of
eyewitness lonnie williams.
How does the brain know
what is up, down, left, right?
It looks at the horizon.
It looks for guideposts.
It looks for reference points,
and if you shift those reference
points, you can fool the brain.
Narrator: For instance, is this
young boy as tall as a grown man?
How many dogs are being groomed?
And how can this hill not be what it seems?
Proctor believes that this
could be a phenomenon
known as a gravity hill.
When you look at the video
and notice the gravestones
and the trees, what's
happening is that they're leaning
a certain way that they
throw our senses off.
Narrator: When we're on a
gravity hill, the scenery around us
tricks us into believing
were on a downward slope,
but if we were able to look at the hill
from a different perspective,
we would see that we are
actually on an uphill slope.
You think you're doing one thing,
and yet, something else is happening.
And all of a sudden, you
are defying the laws of gravity.
Narrator: But if this is a gravity hill,
why does the car move in two directions?
Williams: And we start going forward again.
Narrator: And what's the
origin of the voice in the car?
[ indistinct whisper ]
witness lonnie williams doesn't believe
that any natural force
is scrambling his senses.
Williams: An optical illusion?
I don't know that that's really the answer.
The mystery is still strange to me.
It is still a mystery to me.
[ woman speaking spanish ]
narrator: Now on the pan-american
highway, a mysterious jaywalker.
I don't know what that is, but
I would not want to get near it.
Narrator: One brave man with a
smartphone approaches this menacing being.
The creature is glowing,
and it looks really weird.
Narrator: Could this be some kind
of unknown bioluminescent creature?
Wise: Is it using that
light for illumination,
or is it luring its prey?
♪
[ camera whirs ]
♪
Narrator: August, 2016,
the pan-american highway.
Stretching from alaska to
argentina at over 19,000 miles,
it is the longest road in the world.
♪
Late at night on a remote
stretch of the highway in peru,
a group of friends
encounter a strange figure
at the side of the road.
[ conversation in spanish ]
the group nervously
films the sinister entity.
You kind of hope it isn't dangerous.
Narrator: The being
appears to glare at them
with glowing internal eyes...
It looks like a walking jellyfish.
Narrator: ...Before
gliding off into the night.
Experts are dumbfounded by
what the friends encountered.
What is it, and what is capable of?
I sure wouldn't want to be
following that with a camera.
Narrator: Forensic image analyst
ben radford examines the footage
for clues to help identify
this mysterious apparition.
Radford: The form keeps changing.
Sometimes it looks like it has legs.
Sometimes it looks like it has tentacles.
Sometimes it's just floating up in the air.
Sometimes it seems to be walking.
It does all these weird, different things,
and that makes trying to solve the mystery
all the more difficult.
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: Coming up,
something terrifying in
the skies over siberia...
It's alarming because
this is something you'd see
at the onset of world war iii.
Narrator: ...Thrill seekers get too
close to a terror from the deep...
[ explosion ]
[ screaming ]
turns deadly, then it
becomes a survivor situation.
Narrator: ...And is an unknown
predator stalking the highways of peru?
If it is, those people should be scared.
♪
♪
Narrator: A group of friends
approach a strange entity
by a peruvian highway,
a sinister shape-shifter
that appears to defy explanation.
Biologist danni washington
examines the footage.
She believes that the
blue light could be a clue
that the thing in the
footage is a type of animal.
The thing that's most
noticeable about this footage
is the creature is glowing,
which reminds me of bioluminescence.
Narrator: The ghostly light
emitted by bioluminescent organisms
is triggered by two naturally
produced chemical compounds.
One is called luciferase,
and one is called luciferin,
and once those two combine,
the reaction produces light.
Bioluminescence is most
commonly found in the ocean,
whether in squid, fish, tiny
worms, and dinoflagellates,
single-celled organisms
that live near shore,
but bioluminescence can
also be observed on land.
Wise: For most people in north america,
the most familiar example
of bioluminescence
would be fireflies.
Narrator: Fireflies use
their glow to attract a mate,
but another bioluminescent
land creature, the glowworm,
uses its light for more sinister purposes.
One of the ways these
organisms will use this light
is to attract prey.
Wise: It's covered in
this kind of sticky mucus.
The insects draw close, touch it,
get stuck, can't break free,
and there, the glowworm has its dinner.
Narrator: Every day, an
average of two people in peru
vanish without a trace.
Locals believe that luz mala,
a malevolent glowing entity,
could be behind such disappearances.
Wise: Seeing this weird
creature with this blue glow,
you kind of have to ask yourself,
is it using that light for illumination,
or is it luring its prey?
Narrator: Image analyst ben
radford analyzes the glow.
He spots a detail that throws doubt
on the bioluminescence theory.
In the footage, it looks like it's emitting
this weird, eerie blue
color, but is it really?
Is it, for example, illuminating
the ground or trees nearby,
and the answer is no, it's not.
This tells us that it's reflecting light,
not giving off light,
and that means that
the surface of it is shiny.
It has to be.
Narrator: Physicist grant
denn examines the footage.
He has a theory that could explain
the shiny, reflective
nature of this sinister entity.
This could be a robot
or a drone of some sort.
It seems to be hovering above
the ground as it moves slowly,
and there are plenty
of drones that do that.
Narrator: Science journalist
brian malow examines
the latest advances in robot technology
and believes they could explain the bizarre
tentacled appearance of
the object in the footage.
Bio-mimicry is very popular
in the design of robots,
making robots that mimic real creatures.
We have robots like the big
dog that walk on four legs,
and we've had some that
try to fly like a hummingbird
or crawl like a snake,
and there are definitely fish robots
and even jellyfish-shaped robots,
and this looks kind of like a jellyfish.
In 2017, the u.S. Navy announced
that it was working with mit
to develop a swimming
robot shaped like a jellyfish.
It wasn't driven like most
robots by motors and actuators.
It was actually made of this
kind of jelly-like substance
that flexed and moved its arms.
These things were tested catching fish
with their robotic tentacle arms.
Lazareck-asunta: You could
imagine that it could be scaled up
so that you could pick up
something the size of a human.
Narrator: The jellyfish robotic design
isn't just confined to
aquatic environments.
A prototype has been developed
that can hover and move around in the air.
Lazareck-asunta: These
kinds of robotic jellyfish actually
move in a really similar way
to what we see on the video.
Narrator: Military tech
expert carlo muñoz questions
how such a seemingly advanced machine
could have appeared on this lonely highway.
Muñoz: Is this some sort of
new drone that's just lost its way?
It's some sort of prototype
system gone awry.
Narrator: A damaged or malfunctioning robot
could behave in an unpredictable
or even dangerous manner.
If it is, those people should be scared.
Narrator: But electrical engineer
lisa lazareck-asunta notices
something in the footage that
makes the robot theory unlikely.
In the video, it looks
like whatever this thing is
gets hit by a truck.
Now, it should have been smashed to pieces,
but it appears completely unharmed.
Narrator: Experts are unable to say
for certain what the eerie entity was
that the friends encountered
on the pan-american highway.
Wise: What is it? What does it want?
I mean, your impulse has got to be
to get the heck out of there.
Narrator: Now, a sinister orb
appears in the siberian skies.
What is happening over russia?
Narrator: A beam of energy
appears to point towards earth.
It almost looks like it's some
sort of weapon shooting down.
Narrator: Locals fear
they're about to be hit
by a devastating attack from above.
[ man speaking russian ]
there are things in the sky
that can kill us at any moment.
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: November 17, 2015, omsk, russia.
Russia's seventh largest city
has been called the chicago of siberia.
In recent years, the biggest
threat to the city's residents
has been the deep cold
of the siberian winter,
where temperatures can plummet
to a bone-chilling 31-below,
until a terrifying event
shatters the peace of an ordinary night.
[ man speaking russian ]
narrator: A large,
circular, cloud-like shape
appears with a sinister
dark orb at its center.
A bright beam points towards earth.
[ man speaking russian ]
then suddenly, the bright object disburses
in an expanding ball of vapor,
as though violently destroyed.
[ man speaking russian ]
multiple cameras capture
the unnerving phenomenon
that leaves locals confused and frightened
and experts dumbfounded.
How could you possibly know what that is?
Narrator: And the location of the
event leads to dark conclusions
as to what this might be.
Is this some secret
russian weapons program?
Narrator: Investigative
journalist linda zimmerman
examines the footage.
She investigates if this strange anomaly
could be evidence of a
conflict happening far above us.
It certainly looks like
some space-based weapon
and then something defending against it.
Narrator: Could this strange event
be evidence of a spacecraft's defenses,
possibly an impact on
some kind of energy shield?
Zimmerman: You want to
stay competitive, defensive.
We're offensive.
You need to go to the next level,
and the next level now is space.
Narrator: It might seem like
something from science fiction,
but space is now the new
frontier in global conflict.
When it comes to defending america,
it is not enough to merely have
an american presence in space.
We must have american dominance in space,
to establish a space force
as the sixth branch of the armed forces.
Narrator: The president's
announcement increases the possibility
of an orbital skirmish between
the u.S., russia, or china.
Space is the ultimate high ground.
World superpowers are going to want
to have assets operational
in a space environment.
Narrator: Aerospace expert
marna kagele searches
for evidence of space vehicles
that could be made combat-ready.
The x-37b is an unmanned aircraft.
It looks like a small space shuttle.
Narrator: The x-37b is a revolutionary
autonomous space drone
developed by the u.S. Air force.
It has the ability to lie and
wait in orbit for long periods.
Durda: We know it's operating
in space, we see the photos of it,
but we don't know what it's doing there.
Kagele: In theory, it can
hold any kind of payload
that you want it to send,
whatever the military sees as their goal.
Planetary scientist dan
durda believes the russians
are probably developing
their own space weapons.
We know there must be
vehicles that are being tested
that are being held pretty closely secret
because you don't want to
advertise those capabilities
to your potential enemies.
Narrator: Omsk is home
to one of russia's secretive
space research and development centers.
It's also one of the closest russian cities
to the soyuz rocket
launch sites in kazakhstan.
The idea of an orbital skirmish
between u.S. And russian spacecraft
has potentially frightening implications.
It's alarming because
this is something you'd see
at the onset of world war iii.
Narrator: Coming up,
the tourist trip from hell...
[ screaming ]
these people clearly don't
think they're in danger.
Narrator: ...And siberian townsfolk swear
they're witnessing a space battle.
Zimmerman: If this is something military,
it poses a great danger to the population.
♪
♪
Narrator: Residents in the
siberian city of omsk fear
that they are witnessing
a conflict waging in space.
[ man speaking russian ]
aerospace expert marna
kagele analyzes the footage.
She thinks the size of this
strange phenomenon over omsk
makes the prospect of
an orbital battle unlikely.
Kagele: Even thinking about
these kinds of spacecraft
encountering each other,
it doesn't seem to me that it
would explain what we're seeing.
This amount of light seems to me like it
would be in the atmosphere.
It wouldn't be in orbit,
so it doesn't seem like
that's the explanation
that we're looking for.
Narrator: Durda believes that a
different type of space technology
could hold the explanation
for this mysterious atmospheric event.
It looks like a rocket launch,
where as one stage of the
rocket separates from another,
very often the remnant fuel in the tanks
will be vented through the engine valves,
and it can lead to some rather
interesting visual phenomena.
Narrator: Analyzing the footage
the moment of separation is clear.
The bright area disappears as
the rocket's engines extinguish,
and the expanding circle of vapor
is the fuel remnant being vented
as the next stage is jettisoned.
But zimmerman notices the
trajectory of the phenomenon
appears to be the opposite
of what she would expect
to see in a rocket launch.
I would say it was a launch,
except it's not going up.
It is coming down, and it is
headed toward the surface.
Narrator: It does appear that the
object's trajectory is pointed downwards,
which means that whatever
payload it is carrying
is being launched towards the ground.
If this is something military,
it poses a great danger to the population.
Intercontinental ballistic
missiles do get tested,
and it's something we'd
see a pattern in the sky,
but in this case, this is not a
pattern that we would expect.
It looks different.
Perhaps we are seeing
a new kind of capability
or evidence of something
new that's going on.
[ explosion ]
narrator: The prospect of a
new kind of nuclear missile
being tested raises the
specter of ever-growing tensions
between russia and the west.
Zimmerman: It certainly has
russian military written all over it,
so I'm not surprised that
people are still in the dark
and are still worried about it.
Narrator: Coming up,
passengers on a boat are attacked
by something deadly from the deep.
[ screaming ]
doesn't happen often, but
when it does, it can be fatal.
♪
♪
Narrator: Now a boat full of
people are drawn to a strange vision.
These people clearly
don't think they're in danger.
Narrator: An otherworldly
glow splinters the darkness.
You have no idea what's happening here.
And then all of a sudden, bam!
[ explosion ]
[ screaming ]
the people on this boat were
not expecting to get what they got.
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: The pacific
ocean... 12,000 miles wide
and plunging in places
to over 35,000 feet deep.
Its floor is one of the most
unexplored placed on earth.
July 16, 2018, passengers onboard a ship
are transfixed by an unearthly display.
It's crazy yet beautiful.
Narrator: Thick clouds boil on the water,
lit from beneath by an eerie red glow.
The sea is on fire.
Narrator: And then... [ explosion ]
[ screaming ]
turns deadly, then it
becomes a survivor situation.
[ explosion ]
[ screaming ]
narrator: Scientist greg
szulgit investigates if the video
could be connected to a
mysterious graveyard of ships
in the pacific.
You've probably heard
of the bermuda triangle,
but there's an equivalent
out in the western pacific
where ships are more likely
to go down for some reason,
which many sailors fear.
Narrator: Known as both the
devil's sea and the dragon triangle,
it's a stretch of ocean
with a grim reputation
that goes back centuries.
In 2016, 34 ships sank
in the dragon triangle,
around 40 percent of all the boats
lost around the world in that year.
Szulgit that believes
that a rare and destructive
oceanic phenomenon
could explain these
mysterious disappearances.
You can often have methane
gases that come up from
the bottom of the seabed, and
these bubbles come rising up.
By the time they reach the surface,
the sea is just boiling.
If the ship is sitting on top of that,
it no longer has the buoyancy,
and it just goes right down,
and it can be swamped within a second.
If that's what's happening here,
these people are in terrible danger.
Narrator: Engineer lisa
lazareck-asunta examines
where the footage was recorded and notices
a problem with the devil's sea theory.
[ explosion, screaming ]
the devil's sea by definition
is the 750-mile stretch
between the coast of japan
and the island of iwo jima,
but this footage was
taken on the other side
of the pacific near hawaii,
so it must be something else.
Narrator: Planetary
scientist sian proctor thinks
the strange red glow looks familiar.
All of that steam that's being generated
and then the glowing red color,
I immediately think lava
flow flowing into the ocean.
Narrator: The location of this
footage ties in with that theory.
The hawaiian islands are
an excellent example of
land that was born from fire.
Narrator: The big island is still forming
and is home to the world's
most active volcano, kilauea.
Kilauea has been erupting
for about 30 years, off and on.
Sometimes the lava flows
have actually come down
and touched the ocean,
and it's a spectacular thing
to watch when it happened.
Narrator: And kilauea has been
producing strange phenomena.
The violence of the current
eruption has been bringing up
thousands of semi-precious
green gemstones called olivines.
Harder than glass, these beautiful stones
have been showering the island,
and larger stones present a
hazard to anyone struck by them.
But that doesn't explain this very rapid...
Suddenly, everything going black
and apparently an explosion of some kind.
[ explosion ]
[ screaming ]
narrator: Proctor believes that
what was captured in the video
was a rare and highly
destructive volcanic event.
You get a situation
where the gas can build up,
and that's what we see,
a literal volcanic bomb
exploding in front of these people.
Doesn't happen often, but
when it does, it can be fatal.
Narrator: The lava bomb
exploded right next the boat,
blasting it with steam and hot rocks.
Twenty-three people were injured,
including one with a broken thigh.
Imagine if they'd
been just a little closer,
or if the lava had
punctured the ship's hull.
They would have sunk into boiling water.
[ screaming ]
the passengers are lucky
to have even survived at all.
[ screaming, clatter ]
narrator: Worldwide, 6 billion
cameras are watching us...
On our street, at work, and in our homes.
They capture things that seem impossible.
It defies the laws of physics.
Man: This is unbelievable, man.
Narrator: Experts carry
out forensic analysis
of these unusual events.
I want to know what I'm looking at.
There has to be some sort of explanation.
What else is going on here?
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: Coming up,
a man with the
indestructibility of a robot...
He runs into the back of this
car, basically like a machine.
Narrator: ...A mysterious force
attacks passengers at sea...
[ screaming ]
the people on this boat were
not expecting to get what they got.
Narrator: ...And a
glowing ghoul brings terror
to a desert highway.
Wise: It is using that
light for illumination,
or is it luring its prey?
Narrator: Bizarre phenomenon.
Whoa.
Narrator: Mysteries caught on camera.
Now, that's an explosion.
What is the truth behind
this strange evidence?
Now, cameras capture
a naked humanoid figure
with durability beyond
that of any normal man.
He ran full-on body mass
airborne into that window.
I would think that would
leave a normal person dead.
Narrator: Impervious
to pain, he seems to be
on an obsessive rampage of destruction.
This guy is doing things
that are practically suicidal.
He's the terminator,
man. He just keeps going.
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: March 7, 2015,
los angeles, california,
a city famous for year-round sunshine
and the glitz and glamour of the movies,
but as the sun sets on the city,
one sleepy suburb is
about to experience an event
straight from a hollywood
action blockbuster.
We've been here for about 20 years.
I mean, little things
happen here and there,
but nothing like this.
Narrator: Late in the evening,
local resident charlie barnes and his wife
are driving back from a friend's party.
So we got home exactly around 11 o'clock.
We were ready to go to bed.
Five minutes later,
someone knocks on our door
letting us know someone hit our car.
Well, the first thing I
saw was my neighbor.
She looked like she was pretty shook up.
So I asked her, "hey, did you hit my car?"
the first thing that came
out of her mouth was,
"no, I didn't. Some naked guy did."
I didn't believe her at first.
I had to get the evidence, and
I know we have cameras here.
Narrator: Barnes is staggered by
what he sees on the security video.
A naked man launches himself
through barnes' back window.
We were just dumbfounded.
He runs into the back of this
car, basically like a machine.
Narrator: The man rebounds onto
the ground after receiving a blow
that should knock him out,
but he doesn't stay down.
It's like nothing else
seems to bother this guy.
Narrator: Barnes' neighbor
tries desperately to escape
from the madman,
but the mysterious assailant
now turns his attention on her.
Then he jumps on the car
like he has not had enough.
My neighbor freaked
out, puts it in driving,
guns it, hits my van...
Narrator: The naked man is
flung to the ground at high speed
with what looks like a
bone-crunching impact.
How do you get up from that?
After this whole thing,
he can still run five blocks
down and not be phased.
Muñoz: This just doesn't
seem like something
an ordinary human would be able to do.
Narrator: Greg szulgit is an expert
in physiology and biomedical science.
He's built an experiment to find out
if a human could walk
away from this type of event
without serious injuries.
The question is, how typical
is he as a human being?
That's what I want to find out.
Narrator: Szulgit isn't going
to launch himself at the car.
He's brought along a stunt double.
Newton here is about
the same weight and build
as the guy who went through the window.
I'm gonna hook him up to
a rope swing on a harness,
swing him into the back of the window,
and see how he fares.
Rig you right up.
Narrator: Szulgit has
calculated the impact force seen
in the security footage.
The man is running at
just over 11 miles per hour
when he strikes the car.
That should be about
the equivalent of newton
on a 5-meter rope swing
falling at 45 degrees,
which is around there.
I'm expecting he's gonna
go through the window
but only because he's got a hard
head and a stiff neck and back.
Narrator: Newton should
smash through the back window
like a sledgehammer.
The question is, how much
damage will the dummy suffer?
All right.
3, 2, 1... let's see what you got.
Narrator: The dummy's head hits the window
with a blunt force of 2,187 newtons,
which is the equivalent of
an adult male silverback gorilla
standing on your head.
It's also about the same blunt force
required to crush an adult human skull.
But incredibly,
this isn't enough force
to break the window.
The man in the footage must
have hit charlie barnes' car
with even more force
than this, which leaves
szulgit unable to explain
the seemingly impossible.
The guy in the video,
I don't know how he walked away from it.
Narrator: The naked man may
look like a newly arrived terminator,
an android sent from the future,
but barnes finds evidence that
he's no indestructible machine.
There was actually skin
and blood on the actual glass.
Not only that, he left a fingertip.
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: Author heidi hollis
examines the footage for clues.
She wonders if the man
survived this crippling impact
because he wasn't entirely
conscious to begin with.
When I saw this clip of this guy
running full force, naked, at the car,
it makes you wonder, is
that a zombie mentality?
[ zombies groaning ]
narrator: The living
dead have been invading
hollywood movies for decades,
but the origin of the zombie
comes from the vodou religion.
In a lot of cultures where
vodou is dominating, it's very real.
Narrator: Worshipers believe
that priests of the vodou religion,
using a potent cocktail
of poisons and drugs,
can place someone in a zombie-like state.
A zombie under the control of the drugs
is unable to resist any
instructions given to them.
Zombies may attack you
because if the master says,
"get that person,"
they may do whatever it
takes to take you down,
and they won't stop until
their master says to stop.
Narrator: Physicist michio
kaku considers if it's possible
to use science to make
a technological zombie.
Is it possible to hack into his spinal cord
and hack into his body
so that these motions can
be done by pushing a button?
And the answer is, in principle, yes.
Narrator: In the 1960s, juan
delgado, a yale university professor,
created a remote-controlled bull
by implanting electrodes
in the bull's brain.
He could make it charge or
halt with the touch of a button.
Now, the implication
of this was so enormous
that that line of research was abandoned.
Narrator: But other lines of research
have led to extraordinary
advances in body hacking
by sending electric
pulses directly into muscles.
Now, if you think about
how muscles are controlled,
it's basically electrical signals
that are usually coming from the brain
that are controlling the muscles.
But the beauty is, you can
actually bypass the brain.
What happens if somebody
gets this technology
without your permission?
Then all of a sudden, you are
a puppet inside your own body.
Now, that's a freaky idea, right?
Someone can actually take over your body,
and you could have no control of it.
Narrator: Could the man
in the footage be the victim
of a body hack like this,
a technological zombie
controlled by a malign puppet master,
helpless to stop his body
from being pulverized?
Forensic image analyst conor mccourt
examines the footage for any telltale clues
that this type of technology
might be being used.
There's been a suggestion
that this is body hacking.
So we captured images from the rampage,
and we lined them up on a chart.
What do we have here? He's naked.
We would see those electrodes.
There's nowhere to hide that technology,
so that's not what's going on here.
Narrator: Professor of biology
leslie samuel investigates
if a sinister biological agent
could explain the carnage
he's witnessing in the footage.
Could this guy be infected by a parasite,
and could that be causing the
behavior that we're seeing here?
Narrator: One widespread
parasite that is known
to control the behavior of
its host is toxoplasma gondii,
a single-cell protozoa
that causes the disease toxoplasmosis.
When it comes to toxoplasmosis
causing risky behavior,
this happens because it's evolved
in literally a cat-and-mouse game.
Narrator: The parasite lives in cats
and is spread through their feces,
but it has evolved to
specifically target cats' prey
like mice and rats. [ mice squeaking ]
what the parasite is actually
doing is infecting the rats
in a way that makes them fearless,
and not just fearless... reckless.
Narrator: Infected
rodents lose all fear of cats
and will actually seek
out the scent of cat urine.
The host puts itself in a suicidal position
of being available to be eaten.
Narrator: And this is exactly
what toxoplasma gondii wants.
When the rats get eaten by the cat,
the parasite gets back where
it wants to be, inside the cat.
Now, if you think that's crazy,
that's not the terrifying thing.
It doesn't just infect rats.
It actually infects humans, too.
Narrator: Coming up, a
terrifying object menaces a town...
There are things in the sky
that can kill us at any moment.
Narrator: ...A car is pulled up and
down a hill by a mysterious power...
Wise: It's essentially
one of the deadliest
forces one can imagine.
Narrator: ...And is this
man being controlled
by a parasite that's taken over his body?
It gives you an incredible
numbness to killing, violence.
♪
♪
Narrator: A naked man on a
violent rampage in an l.A. Suburb...
Experts investigate if he's been infected
by a parasite that causes toxoplasmosis,
a disease that can trigger
self-destructive behavior.
Research has shown that
about 1/4 of the population
is actually infected.
Narrator: Toxoplasmosis causes
cysts to develop in human brains.
These cysts can permanently
alter someone's personality,
making the individual more likely to engage
in high-risk behavior.
It can trigger aggression,
schizophrenia, or suicide.
A lot of people are
walking around with this
and don't even know it.
Narrator: But science journalist
jeff wise thinks this behavior
is too crazy even for someone
suffering from toxoplasmosis.
Parasites that affect behavior,
they do so in order to benefit themselves.
This doesn't seem like that's happening.
Here you have a host that's
just kind of destroying himself.
If this is a parasite,
it's not really getting anything out of it.
Narrator: Military analyst carlo
muñoz analyzes the footage.
The behavior of the man on the rampage
reminds him of what he's learned
about super-soldier programs.
Militaries all across the
world spend billions of dollars
trying to improve every
piece of their arsenal,
and that includes soldiers.
One of the ways they
do that is drugging them.
Narrator: A cocktail of powerful
drugs can allow combatants
to push past normal human boundaries,
like smashing through a
car window with their head.
A lot of work in this field was
pioneered in nazi germany.
One of the drugs german commanders
would give their men in world war ii
was something called d-ix,
which would give them superhuman strength
and in a way, turn them into
some sort of super soldier.
Narrator: In recent
decades, the drugs-arms race
has continued with terror
groups dosing their fighters
with unregulated black-market drugs.
They've taken to using
something called captagon,
which basically turns
them into killing machines.
Narrator: Easily manufactured
and highly addictive,
this drug has fueled the syrian civil war
with groups like isis using
it to ensure suicide bombers
complete their missions.
Muñoz: The thing with
captagon is, once you take it,
it gives you this incredible
sense of euphoria.
It also gives you an incredible
numbness to killing, violence.
The scariest thing about this is,
this guy is in the united states,
and he's doing this stuff
in someone's backyard.
Narrator: And as anyone who has
faced these drug-fueled super soldiers
in combat knows, they
are almost unstoppable.
Muñoz: If this is a drug-induced rampage,
this guy is basically a
biological terminator.
Narrator: The man was
eventually arrested by police,
and it is believed that an unknown narcotic
did fuel his destructive rampage.
Barnes: On that one incident,
there's a lot of carnage.
Who knows if he'll be back or not.
Narrator: Now in a michigan cemetery,
a car is pushed backwards up a hill.
What the heck's going on here?
Man: It's the weirdest darned thing.
Narrator: Experts are
baffled by what or who
has taken control of the vehicle.
Have the rules of gravity somehow changed?
Narrator: Or is this an
attempt at communication?
This could be a haunting
from beyond the grave.
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: June 2013, detroit, michigan...
Nowhere in the quiet suburb of farmington
is quieter than farmington's
oakwood cemetery.
Lonnie williams is visiting the graveyard.
He stops his car at the bottom of a hill
and puts it in neutral.
Then the impossible happens.
Williams: Rolling backwards, up the hill.
Narrator: Something seems to be pulling it.
Williams: I have no idea.
Narrator: And then even stranger,
it seems to be pushed back down.
Williams: It looks like
by this tree, we stop,
and we start going forward again.
Narrator: And then up again,
as if moved by an invisible hand.
Williams: Yes, my feet are off the pedal,
car is still in neutral.
It's the weirdest darned thing.
Narrator: Baffled, williams returns
to the graveyard time and time again.
Williams: This is about the spot.
And the same mysterious
phenomenon occurs each time.
I'm not sure why it's
working, but it always does.
Wise: What we see
here is some kind of force
that's moving the car first one
way and then the other way.
That's the really strange thing about it.
I don't get it.
As if it has some
kind of a will of its own.
Narrator: Journalist mallie fox
studies the audio in the footage
and hears something sinister.
If you listen to the clip carefully,
it sounds like someone
is saying the name sarah.
[ indistinct whisper ]
that's gonna send a chill
up your spine. It's so freaky.
[ indistinct whisper ]
I did walk around here and
found a couple of gravestones
with the name sarah on them.
[ indistinct whisper ]
I think it's really weird.
Fox: Some people
believe that spirits or ghosts
can actually move objects
without touching them,
and it's called psychokinesis.
Could it be a spirit
pushing the car to get it
maybe out of the cemetery?
Maybe they don't want you in there.
Narrator: Coming up, a glowing creature
unknown to science stalks
the pan-american highway...
Washington: One of the ways these organisms
will use this light is to attract prey.
Narrator: ...Passengers
on a boat are attacked
by a violent force from the deep...
[ explosion ]
[ screaming ]
these people are in terrible danger.
Narrator: ...And in the place of the dead,
a creepy effect that warps
the minds of the living...
Proctor: You think you're doing one thing,
and yet, something else is happening.
♪
Narrator: In a detroit cemetery, a
car is possessed by a mysterious force
that pushes it up and then down a hill.
I don't get it.
Narrator: Planetary scientist
sian proctor investigates
if the footage shows an ominous
glitch in the forces of physics.
Normally, what goes down, stays down,
but in this case, it goes
down and then comes back up.
That's not right.
Narrator: Ever since newton
saw an apple falling from a tree,
humans have believed they
understand how gravity works.
It's the force that anchors
everything to the planet,
but a recent nasa mission has
uncovered something disturbing.
One of the interesting
things that we found out
is that the hudson bay area in canada,
well, the gravity is... it's less.
Narrator: We think of
gravity as a constant force.
The idea that it's weaker in
places is an alarming thought.
That doesn't mean that
people are floating up in the air
over that part of canada.
Gravity is still working.
It's just slightly less strong.
Narrator: Science journalist
jeff wise investigates
what phenomenon could
have such a powerful effect
on the gravity in the cemetery.
Something to pack that
much gravitational punch
would have to be enormously dense.
It would have to essentially be
some kind of microscopic black hole.
Narrator: The idea of a
microscopic black hole in a cemetery
might sound utterly crazy,
but it's not beyond the laws of physics.
Tiny versions of normal
black holes are so dense
nothing can escape them, not even light.
The idea of a micro black
hole is fairly terrifying.
It's essentially one
of the deadliest forces
one can imagine.
Narrator: Theoretical physicist michio kaku
has been following the work of scientists
who are currently experimenting
with microscopic black
holes right here on earth.
In geneva, switzerland, we
have the large hadron collider,
the most powerful atom
smasher on the planet earth.
One set of experiments is
to create mini black holes.
Narrator: The black holes
that the large hadron collider
creates are unstable
and exist for less than
a fraction of a second,
but naturally occurring
microscopic black holes
out in the galaxy
are much more stable
and far more destructive.
But when kaku does the math, he calculates
that a stable microscopic
black hole in this cemetery
would send us all to the grave.
Kaku: A mini black hole
will allow you to yank a car,
but realize that even a mini black hole
would be sufficient to eat up the earth.
[ wind whistling ]
narrator: Kaku re-watches the footage.
He wonders of the shape of
the hill itself could be messing
with the perceptions of
eyewitness lonnie williams.
How does the brain know
what is up, down, left, right?
It looks at the horizon.
It looks for guideposts.
It looks for reference points,
and if you shift those reference
points, you can fool the brain.
Narrator: For instance, is this
young boy as tall as a grown man?
How many dogs are being groomed?
And how can this hill not be what it seems?
Proctor believes that this
could be a phenomenon
known as a gravity hill.
When you look at the video
and notice the gravestones
and the trees, what's
happening is that they're leaning
a certain way that they
throw our senses off.
Narrator: When we're on a
gravity hill, the scenery around us
tricks us into believing
were on a downward slope,
but if we were able to look at the hill
from a different perspective,
we would see that we are
actually on an uphill slope.
You think you're doing one thing,
and yet, something else is happening.
And all of a sudden, you
are defying the laws of gravity.
Narrator: But if this is a gravity hill,
why does the car move in two directions?
Williams: And we start going forward again.
Narrator: And what's the
origin of the voice in the car?
[ indistinct whisper ]
witness lonnie williams doesn't believe
that any natural force
is scrambling his senses.
Williams: An optical illusion?
I don't know that that's really the answer.
The mystery is still strange to me.
It is still a mystery to me.
[ woman speaking spanish ]
narrator: Now on the pan-american
highway, a mysterious jaywalker.
I don't know what that is, but
I would not want to get near it.
Narrator: One brave man with a
smartphone approaches this menacing being.
The creature is glowing,
and it looks really weird.
Narrator: Could this be some kind
of unknown bioluminescent creature?
Wise: Is it using that
light for illumination,
or is it luring its prey?
♪
[ camera whirs ]
♪
Narrator: August, 2016,
the pan-american highway.
Stretching from alaska to
argentina at over 19,000 miles,
it is the longest road in the world.
♪
Late at night on a remote
stretch of the highway in peru,
a group of friends
encounter a strange figure
at the side of the road.
[ conversation in spanish ]
the group nervously
films the sinister entity.
You kind of hope it isn't dangerous.
Narrator: The being
appears to glare at them
with glowing internal eyes...
It looks like a walking jellyfish.
Narrator: ...Before
gliding off into the night.
Experts are dumbfounded by
what the friends encountered.
What is it, and what is capable of?
I sure wouldn't want to be
following that with a camera.
Narrator: Forensic image analyst
ben radford examines the footage
for clues to help identify
this mysterious apparition.
Radford: The form keeps changing.
Sometimes it looks like it has legs.
Sometimes it looks like it has tentacles.
Sometimes it's just floating up in the air.
Sometimes it seems to be walking.
It does all these weird, different things,
and that makes trying to solve the mystery
all the more difficult.
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: Coming up,
something terrifying in
the skies over siberia...
It's alarming because
this is something you'd see
at the onset of world war iii.
Narrator: ...Thrill seekers get too
close to a terror from the deep...
[ explosion ]
[ screaming ]
turns deadly, then it
becomes a survivor situation.
Narrator: ...And is an unknown
predator stalking the highways of peru?
If it is, those people should be scared.
♪
♪
Narrator: A group of friends
approach a strange entity
by a peruvian highway,
a sinister shape-shifter
that appears to defy explanation.
Biologist danni washington
examines the footage.
She believes that the
blue light could be a clue
that the thing in the
footage is a type of animal.
The thing that's most
noticeable about this footage
is the creature is glowing,
which reminds me of bioluminescence.
Narrator: The ghostly light
emitted by bioluminescent organisms
is triggered by two naturally
produced chemical compounds.
One is called luciferase,
and one is called luciferin,
and once those two combine,
the reaction produces light.
Bioluminescence is most
commonly found in the ocean,
whether in squid, fish, tiny
worms, and dinoflagellates,
single-celled organisms
that live near shore,
but bioluminescence can
also be observed on land.
Wise: For most people in north america,
the most familiar example
of bioluminescence
would be fireflies.
Narrator: Fireflies use
their glow to attract a mate,
but another bioluminescent
land creature, the glowworm,
uses its light for more sinister purposes.
One of the ways these
organisms will use this light
is to attract prey.
Wise: It's covered in
this kind of sticky mucus.
The insects draw close, touch it,
get stuck, can't break free,
and there, the glowworm has its dinner.
Narrator: Every day, an
average of two people in peru
vanish without a trace.
Locals believe that luz mala,
a malevolent glowing entity,
could be behind such disappearances.
Wise: Seeing this weird
creature with this blue glow,
you kind of have to ask yourself,
is it using that light for illumination,
or is it luring its prey?
Narrator: Image analyst ben
radford analyzes the glow.
He spots a detail that throws doubt
on the bioluminescence theory.
In the footage, it looks like it's emitting
this weird, eerie blue
color, but is it really?
Is it, for example, illuminating
the ground or trees nearby,
and the answer is no, it's not.
This tells us that it's reflecting light,
not giving off light,
and that means that
the surface of it is shiny.
It has to be.
Narrator: Physicist grant
denn examines the footage.
He has a theory that could explain
the shiny, reflective
nature of this sinister entity.
This could be a robot
or a drone of some sort.
It seems to be hovering above
the ground as it moves slowly,
and there are plenty
of drones that do that.
Narrator: Science journalist
brian malow examines
the latest advances in robot technology
and believes they could explain the bizarre
tentacled appearance of
the object in the footage.
Bio-mimicry is very popular
in the design of robots,
making robots that mimic real creatures.
We have robots like the big
dog that walk on four legs,
and we've had some that
try to fly like a hummingbird
or crawl like a snake,
and there are definitely fish robots
and even jellyfish-shaped robots,
and this looks kind of like a jellyfish.
In 2017, the u.S. Navy announced
that it was working with mit
to develop a swimming
robot shaped like a jellyfish.
It wasn't driven like most
robots by motors and actuators.
It was actually made of this
kind of jelly-like substance
that flexed and moved its arms.
These things were tested catching fish
with their robotic tentacle arms.
Lazareck-asunta: You could
imagine that it could be scaled up
so that you could pick up
something the size of a human.
Narrator: The jellyfish robotic design
isn't just confined to
aquatic environments.
A prototype has been developed
that can hover and move around in the air.
Lazareck-asunta: These
kinds of robotic jellyfish actually
move in a really similar way
to what we see on the video.
Narrator: Military tech
expert carlo muñoz questions
how such a seemingly advanced machine
could have appeared on this lonely highway.
Muñoz: Is this some sort of
new drone that's just lost its way?
It's some sort of prototype
system gone awry.
Narrator: A damaged or malfunctioning robot
could behave in an unpredictable
or even dangerous manner.
If it is, those people should be scared.
Narrator: But electrical engineer
lisa lazareck-asunta notices
something in the footage that
makes the robot theory unlikely.
In the video, it looks
like whatever this thing is
gets hit by a truck.
Now, it should have been smashed to pieces,
but it appears completely unharmed.
Narrator: Experts are unable to say
for certain what the eerie entity was
that the friends encountered
on the pan-american highway.
Wise: What is it? What does it want?
I mean, your impulse has got to be
to get the heck out of there.
Narrator: Now, a sinister orb
appears in the siberian skies.
What is happening over russia?
Narrator: A beam of energy
appears to point towards earth.
It almost looks like it's some
sort of weapon shooting down.
Narrator: Locals fear
they're about to be hit
by a devastating attack from above.
[ man speaking russian ]
there are things in the sky
that can kill us at any moment.
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: November 17, 2015, omsk, russia.
Russia's seventh largest city
has been called the chicago of siberia.
In recent years, the biggest
threat to the city's residents
has been the deep cold
of the siberian winter,
where temperatures can plummet
to a bone-chilling 31-below,
until a terrifying event
shatters the peace of an ordinary night.
[ man speaking russian ]
narrator: A large,
circular, cloud-like shape
appears with a sinister
dark orb at its center.
A bright beam points towards earth.
[ man speaking russian ]
then suddenly, the bright object disburses
in an expanding ball of vapor,
as though violently destroyed.
[ man speaking russian ]
multiple cameras capture
the unnerving phenomenon
that leaves locals confused and frightened
and experts dumbfounded.
How could you possibly know what that is?
Narrator: And the location of the
event leads to dark conclusions
as to what this might be.
Is this some secret
russian weapons program?
Narrator: Investigative
journalist linda zimmerman
examines the footage.
She investigates if this strange anomaly
could be evidence of a
conflict happening far above us.
It certainly looks like
some space-based weapon
and then something defending against it.
Narrator: Could this strange event
be evidence of a spacecraft's defenses,
possibly an impact on
some kind of energy shield?
Zimmerman: You want to
stay competitive, defensive.
We're offensive.
You need to go to the next level,
and the next level now is space.
Narrator: It might seem like
something from science fiction,
but space is now the new
frontier in global conflict.
When it comes to defending america,
it is not enough to merely have
an american presence in space.
We must have american dominance in space,
to establish a space force
as the sixth branch of the armed forces.
Narrator: The president's
announcement increases the possibility
of an orbital skirmish between
the u.S., russia, or china.
Space is the ultimate high ground.
World superpowers are going to want
to have assets operational
in a space environment.
Narrator: Aerospace expert
marna kagele searches
for evidence of space vehicles
that could be made combat-ready.
The x-37b is an unmanned aircraft.
It looks like a small space shuttle.
Narrator: The x-37b is a revolutionary
autonomous space drone
developed by the u.S. Air force.
It has the ability to lie and
wait in orbit for long periods.
Durda: We know it's operating
in space, we see the photos of it,
but we don't know what it's doing there.
Kagele: In theory, it can
hold any kind of payload
that you want it to send,
whatever the military sees as their goal.
Planetary scientist dan
durda believes the russians
are probably developing
their own space weapons.
We know there must be
vehicles that are being tested
that are being held pretty closely secret
because you don't want to
advertise those capabilities
to your potential enemies.
Narrator: Omsk is home
to one of russia's secretive
space research and development centers.
It's also one of the closest russian cities
to the soyuz rocket
launch sites in kazakhstan.
The idea of an orbital skirmish
between u.S. And russian spacecraft
has potentially frightening implications.
It's alarming because
this is something you'd see
at the onset of world war iii.
Narrator: Coming up,
the tourist trip from hell...
[ screaming ]
these people clearly don't
think they're in danger.
Narrator: ...And siberian townsfolk swear
they're witnessing a space battle.
Zimmerman: If this is something military,
it poses a great danger to the population.
♪
♪
Narrator: Residents in the
siberian city of omsk fear
that they are witnessing
a conflict waging in space.
[ man speaking russian ]
aerospace expert marna
kagele analyzes the footage.
She thinks the size of this
strange phenomenon over omsk
makes the prospect of
an orbital battle unlikely.
Kagele: Even thinking about
these kinds of spacecraft
encountering each other,
it doesn't seem to me that it
would explain what we're seeing.
This amount of light seems to me like it
would be in the atmosphere.
It wouldn't be in orbit,
so it doesn't seem like
that's the explanation
that we're looking for.
Narrator: Durda believes that a
different type of space technology
could hold the explanation
for this mysterious atmospheric event.
It looks like a rocket launch,
where as one stage of the
rocket separates from another,
very often the remnant fuel in the tanks
will be vented through the engine valves,
and it can lead to some rather
interesting visual phenomena.
Narrator: Analyzing the footage
the moment of separation is clear.
The bright area disappears as
the rocket's engines extinguish,
and the expanding circle of vapor
is the fuel remnant being vented
as the next stage is jettisoned.
But zimmerman notices the
trajectory of the phenomenon
appears to be the opposite
of what she would expect
to see in a rocket launch.
I would say it was a launch,
except it's not going up.
It is coming down, and it is
headed toward the surface.
Narrator: It does appear that the
object's trajectory is pointed downwards,
which means that whatever
payload it is carrying
is being launched towards the ground.
If this is something military,
it poses a great danger to the population.
Intercontinental ballistic
missiles do get tested,
and it's something we'd
see a pattern in the sky,
but in this case, this is not a
pattern that we would expect.
It looks different.
Perhaps we are seeing
a new kind of capability
or evidence of something
new that's going on.
[ explosion ]
narrator: The prospect of a
new kind of nuclear missile
being tested raises the
specter of ever-growing tensions
between russia and the west.
Zimmerman: It certainly has
russian military written all over it,
so I'm not surprised that
people are still in the dark
and are still worried about it.
Narrator: Coming up,
passengers on a boat are attacked
by something deadly from the deep.
[ screaming ]
doesn't happen often, but
when it does, it can be fatal.
♪
♪
Narrator: Now a boat full of
people are drawn to a strange vision.
These people clearly
don't think they're in danger.
Narrator: An otherworldly
glow splinters the darkness.
You have no idea what's happening here.
And then all of a sudden, bam!
[ explosion ]
[ screaming ]
the people on this boat were
not expecting to get what they got.
[ camera whirs ]
narrator: The pacific
ocean... 12,000 miles wide
and plunging in places
to over 35,000 feet deep.
Its floor is one of the most
unexplored placed on earth.
July 16, 2018, passengers onboard a ship
are transfixed by an unearthly display.
It's crazy yet beautiful.
Narrator: Thick clouds boil on the water,
lit from beneath by an eerie red glow.
The sea is on fire.
Narrator: And then... [ explosion ]
[ screaming ]
turns deadly, then it
becomes a survivor situation.
[ explosion ]
[ screaming ]
narrator: Scientist greg
szulgit investigates if the video
could be connected to a
mysterious graveyard of ships
in the pacific.
You've probably heard
of the bermuda triangle,
but there's an equivalent
out in the western pacific
where ships are more likely
to go down for some reason,
which many sailors fear.
Narrator: Known as both the
devil's sea and the dragon triangle,
it's a stretch of ocean
with a grim reputation
that goes back centuries.
In 2016, 34 ships sank
in the dragon triangle,
around 40 percent of all the boats
lost around the world in that year.
Szulgit that believes
that a rare and destructive
oceanic phenomenon
could explain these
mysterious disappearances.
You can often have methane
gases that come up from
the bottom of the seabed, and
these bubbles come rising up.
By the time they reach the surface,
the sea is just boiling.
If the ship is sitting on top of that,
it no longer has the buoyancy,
and it just goes right down,
and it can be swamped within a second.
If that's what's happening here,
these people are in terrible danger.
Narrator: Engineer lisa
lazareck-asunta examines
where the footage was recorded and notices
a problem with the devil's sea theory.
[ explosion, screaming ]
the devil's sea by definition
is the 750-mile stretch
between the coast of japan
and the island of iwo jima,
but this footage was
taken on the other side
of the pacific near hawaii,
so it must be something else.
Narrator: Planetary
scientist sian proctor thinks
the strange red glow looks familiar.
All of that steam that's being generated
and then the glowing red color,
I immediately think lava
flow flowing into the ocean.
Narrator: The location of this
footage ties in with that theory.
The hawaiian islands are
an excellent example of
land that was born from fire.
Narrator: The big island is still forming
and is home to the world's
most active volcano, kilauea.
Kilauea has been erupting
for about 30 years, off and on.
Sometimes the lava flows
have actually come down
and touched the ocean,
and it's a spectacular thing
to watch when it happened.
Narrator: And kilauea has been
producing strange phenomena.
The violence of the current
eruption has been bringing up
thousands of semi-precious
green gemstones called olivines.
Harder than glass, these beautiful stones
have been showering the island,
and larger stones present a
hazard to anyone struck by them.
But that doesn't explain this very rapid...
Suddenly, everything going black
and apparently an explosion of some kind.
[ explosion ]
[ screaming ]
narrator: Proctor believes that
what was captured in the video
was a rare and highly
destructive volcanic event.
You get a situation
where the gas can build up,
and that's what we see,
a literal volcanic bomb
exploding in front of these people.
Doesn't happen often, but
when it does, it can be fatal.
Narrator: The lava bomb
exploded right next the boat,
blasting it with steam and hot rocks.
Twenty-three people were injured,
including one with a broken thigh.
Imagine if they'd
been just a little closer,
or if the lava had
punctured the ship's hull.
They would have sunk into boiling water.
[ screaming ]
the passengers are lucky
to have even survived at all.
[ screaming, clatter ]