Strange Evidence (2017–…): Season 4, Episode 1 - Nuclear Mummy Demon - full transcript

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Worldwide,

27 billion cameras are watching us...

On our streets, 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.

Now, that's an explosion.

[ people screaming ]



there's got to be something
we're missing in this video.

Something we're not seeing, right?

What else is going on here?

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Coming up...

In the mojave desert, a
man is rattled by a snake.

Kennedy: Oh, man, I
don't know what this is.

We don't know what it
is, it's in our airspace,

and we need to find out.

Narrator: In china, a delivery
driver erupts into flames.

Did we just witness
spontaneous human combustion?

Narrator: And found in russia,
the body that defies biology.

Szulgit: It's really disturbing.

It's dried up and desiccated and bizarre.



Oh, what the hell?

Narrator: Near a mysterious temple,

a catastrophic blast.

Boom! Massive explosion.

Is there a connection between
this mysterious temple complex

and this explosion?

Narrator: A three-foot-tall
humanoid attacks.

It's like a little red demon from hell.

This is potentially as big of a
find as landing on the moon.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: And locals suspect
ghostly manifestations

in England's spookiest store.

Alright, that's not possible.

What's doing that?

[ woman screams ]

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Bizarre phenomenon.

Whoa.

Narrator: Mysteries caught on camera.

What's the truth behind
this strange evidence?

Now in the mojave desert...

Kennedy: Pull over or something.

...A mysterious light pulsates in the sky.

Oh, man. I don't know what this is.

It twists and turns against the wind,

as if powered by an inhuman intelligence.

We're fully underneath the thing.

There's no noise.

I mean, it moves almost like it's alive.

Narrator: This is ground
zero for unexplained ufos.

We don't know what it
is, it's in our airspace,

and we need to find out.

♪

Narrator: The mojave
desert, southern california,

over 47,000 square miles.

This is the driest desert in north america,

but it isn't empty.

This sparsely populated
place is home to two thirds

of the marine corps training facilities

and many secret testing installations.

July 2019, just west of
the city of twentynine palms,

cody kennedy and his girlfriend, monica,

are on a mission of mercy.

Kennedy: We spend a lot of
our nights, when it's warm out,

going through the desert
and finding rattlesnakes

and other species of snakes on the road

and moving them out of the way.

So we're gonna let this guy go here.

Just wanted to make
sure I didn't step on him.

It started to get too cold,

so we decided to wrap up
for the day and head home.

It was very dark out.

And then suddenly everything changed.

We saw this bright light.

I immediately took my
phone out and started to film it.

Narrator: Puzzled by what they see,

they drive towards the light.

Slow down. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

Kennedy: I'm tired of seeing ufo footage,

and it's just blurry and
grainy and makes no sense.

And so I figured I would try and be

the one that changed that

and see a ufo in the sky
and get perfect video of it.

Yeah, we're fully underneath the thing.

There's no noise.

Figured if it was a drone, you'd hear it.

Even a drone in a windy
situation will start wobbling.

And it didn't seem like
it would wobble at all.

Like, how... how is that a thing?

How is there a ribbon just in the air?

There's lights on it. It's not moving.

Narrator: This can't be a
plane, a rocket or even a drone.

It looks like a loose electrical cable,

but it's far too high up
and cables don't glow.

It seemed unnatural but
yet controlled somehow.

Oh, man, I don't know what this is.

When the light vanished,

we were really weirded out, for one thing,

because it had stayed lit
the entire time from the road

all the way through the half-hour

that we were watching it

and why would it just suddenly
turn off when it hit the ground?

Narrator: Experts are
baffled by what this weird,

undulating light could be.

It doesn't look like any kind of aircraft

or other drone or anything.
This one really doesn't look

like anything we see on a regular basis.

I mean, it moves almost like it's alive.

Narrator: This snakelike
craft isn't unique.

More have been reported across the country.

Wolshon: There have been
examples of other incidents

just like this snake-like
lights in the sky.

There have been ones in
wyoming and in new york.

Narrator: These things, whatever they are,

haven't just been spotted on earth.

December 2, 1993, nasa's sts-61 mission

films a similar weird object
369 miles above the atmosphere.

Astronaut story musgrave
reports a snakelike object

strikingly similar to whatever
cody filmed in the desert.

This doesn't look like any technology

that I recognize.

I can't quite wrap my head around

what it could be other than the obvious,

"hey, it's some sort of ufo."

kennedy: What is this thing in the sky?

Narrator: It sounds crazy,

but there are those who
will think this is a craft

or some other manifestation
of nonhuman, intelligent life.

For those that are willing to
consider such a possibility,

this area is rich in sightings.

Just 21 miles from here is giant rock,

a 7-story freestanding boulder.

In 1953, george van
tassel, a former test pilot,

claims that he was visited by an alien

who showed him his ship.

For decades, giant rock became
the ufo capital of the world.

♪

Author erica lukes
believes that the location

the footage was filmed
could offer a vital clue.

Interestingly enough, this
took place in twentynine palms,

which is an aerial testing facility,

one of the largest in the united states.

Narrator: Twentynine palms marine base

covers over 998 square miles of desert.

More than 12,500
personnel are stationed here,

making this one of the most
secure locations in the country.

And so it gives them the
ideal cover for their testing.

Moran: It makes perfect
sense to me that the military

could be testing some
kind of advanced technology.

Narrator: Could this be
a novel military weapon?

Space historian amy teitel knows
the desert is an ideal location

to test anything secret.

The harsh climate and sparse population

means there's little reason
for prying eyes to be out here.

In the mojave desert

saw a lot of american nuclear
testing during the cold war.

Now, though, it's where a lot of companies

are working on spacecraft
and rocket development.

Narrator: Mojave's spaceport is home

to more than 60 companies
engaged in flight development,

highly advanced aerospace
design and flight research.

Orzel: So maybe this is something

that's being developed,
something experimental.

Narrator: There's some
very strange experiments

being done here,

but nothing that looks like this.

Coming up, is this sky
snake the work of man

or an intelligence from beyond our world?

While the idea of reverse-engineering a ufo

may seem pretty out there,

some people take the idea very seriously.

Narrator: And why does
this man just... Combust?

Explosions don't just happen like that.

Narrator: A couple film
a weird serpentine light

writhing over the mojave desert.

It's like no known craft.

With no rational explanation,
even scientists start

to consider the improbable.

From here, the mojave
stretches up into nevada,

where there are even
more secret facilities.

Best known amongst them is area 51.

Area 51, of course, is where
many people believe that the ufo

that may have crashed
outside of roswell, new mexico,

was then moved, where american scientists

could reverse-engineer the technology.

While the idea of reverse-engineering a ufo

may seem pretty out there,

some people take the idea very seriously.

Narrator: Deet presar,

the c.E.O. Of a quantum computing firm,

has publicly stated his
ultimate goal is to find

and then reverse-engineer a ufo.

Tomlinson: And he isn't
alone in this ambition.

I've learned about a group
of investors and technologists

out of silicon valley
that are looking to do

exactly that...
Reverse-engineer ufo technology

so that they can use it to push
mankind ever further into space.

Narrator: It seems impossible

that alien technology could have fallen

into the hands of the u.S. Authorities.

But strange claims have been made

since the middle of the 20th century.

Back in the '80s, bob lazar claims

he was hired to work on an antimatter craft

that was reverse-engineered
from this alien technology

that supposedly the
united states government

had at area 51.

Narrator: Lazar claims he was hired

by defense contractor eg&g

to reverse-engineer alien
technology held inside area 51.

He claims that this technique
had already been used

to develop lots of the
technology we rely on today,

like certain radios and superconductors.

There is a great deal of controversy

about whether what bob
lazar is saying is actually factual

or if perhaps he's spreading disinformation

on behalf of the american government.

Narrator: Lazar and others
who make similar claims

could have been spreading disinformation

to throw researchers off the trail

of real secret government defense projects.

But none have ever mentioned
a glowing, snakelike craft.

There really is no viable explanation

to this light in the sky.

But the fact that it's close
to two military locations,

I mean, we can't rule out

that it's some kind of military experiment.

♪

Narrator: Now, in an
industrial city in china,

a man erupts into flames.

Did he step on a bomb?

Narrator: Is this the first confirmed case

of spontaneous combustion?

Foom. Instant flame.

The whole trucks'
engulfed. The guy's engulfed.

Everything's burned.

Narrator: Is every human
a ticking time bomb?

If just one spot could
cause a massive explosion,

scary thought.

Narrator: Dongguan city, china.

This industrial hub is
known as the world's factory

and is home to the "made in china" label.

75% of its 8.3 million inhabitants

are migrant workers living in dormitories.

January 22, 2019,

a week before chinese new year

and the start of the largest
human migration on the planet.

Almost 3 billion people head
home to see their families.

A warehouse security
camera captures two workers

finishing loading the truck
with rolls of packing material

when the unthinkable happens.

When the man's foot hits the floor,

he is immediately engulfed in flames.

It's just not natural.

Explosions don't just happen like that.

Narrator: Experts are baffled
by what they have witnessed.

I've never seen anything like this.

Narrator: Viewing the footage,
author patrick tomlinson

is reminded of a controversial phenomenon

widely reported in both
fiction and in the press.

Did we just witness
spontaneous human combustion?

The theory dates back decades.

And as the name suggests,

it says that humans could simply catch fire

for no apparent outside cause.

Narrator: Spontaneous combustion

is a subject of controversy
among scientists.

While everything explodes for a reason,

that reason may not be obvious.

And there are more than 200 reported cases

of spontaneous combustion.

Victims' bodies are burnt so severely

that they are reduced to ashes.

But bizarrely, their
extremities remain intact.

Biologist leslie samuel believes that

if spontaneous combustion was possible,

then it would need to be under
a very specific set of conditions.

Number one, the object has to
be heated to ignition temperature.

Number two, the heat building
up inside of it can't escape.

And number three, if it's exposed

to a steady stream of
oxygen, but it's not enough

to cool it down, you get
spontaneous combustion.

Narrator: On December 22, 2010,

the body of 76-year-old michael faraday

was found in his home in galway, ireland.

His charred remains
were in the sitting room.

The only other damage was
burns to the ceiling above him

and the floor below.

After a thorough investigation,

the coroner ruled the cause of
death as spontaneous combustion.

Spontaneous human
combustion could be possible

thanks to the gases

that we create within
our own intestinal tract.

Methane is a highly flammable gas

and could easily create an explosion.

Narrator: Coming up,

a common household item
that's primed to explode.

How many other containers
that are running around

on the freeways

have got this sort of stuff in them?

Narrator: And scientists
fear creepy new creatures

are being created.

Could this have come into
contact with radioactive waste?

Narrator: A man loading a
truck in a chinese industrial hub

unexpectedly erupts into flames.

But when civil engineer brian wolshon

studies the footage closely,

he believes the source of
the fire isn't the man himself.

We can see that the explosion
and the flames themselves

are contained within the truck.

We can also see clearly

when the man jumps out
of the back of that trailer

that the flames are clearly behind him.

Narrator: But what could have fueled

such a volatile explosion?

Wolshon: In investigating a little further,

we find that in the back of the truck,

this material is pearl cotton,

and pearl cotton is used
as a packing material.

Narrator: Pearl cotton is one

of the most common types of packaging.

It's not real cotton. It's a plastic.

Butane gas is used as a
blowing agent in its manufacturing.

It is forced into the plastic

when it's a liquid, puffing it up.

The puffier it is, the
more it will absorb impacts

and keep the items safe.

But as pyrotechnics
expert matt kutcher knows,

butane can be highly volatile.

Kutcher: So one of the
products we use in hollywood,

especially to do
combustible-type explosions

is the small butane bottles.

We fracture them at a high rate of speed.

We then ignite the gases coming out

and make beautiful fireballs

that chase people into buildings
or chase them down corridors.

Narrator: Although butane gas

is used in the production of pearl cotton,

any trace of it should be long gone

before it is packed into a truck.

Chemist mike sansom wonders if the timing

right before new year could be significant.

They cut a few corners or it's
come straight out the factory

and that butane, that
flammable gas is still there.

Narrator: But even if traces of butane

had been left on the pearl cotton

after it left the factory,

one vital piece of information is missing.

There's no obvious source of ignition.

There's no cigarettes.

There's no no naked flames you can see.

So what caused the spark?

Narrator: When sansom zooms in on the man,

he notices that his foot

gets stuck inside the plastic covering

and suspects this could hold the answer.

Sansom: This guy is suspended in the air,

so he's got no grounding whatsoever

and he's moving around.

He might be wearing synthetic clothes

or he might be rubbing
against the packaging

and that could create
some sort of static spark.

Narrator: But could this
spark from static be enough

to cause this explosion?

Electrical engineer david wallace

designs an experiment to find out.

So here we have a van de graaff generator.

Now, this is also known

as an electrostatic discharge generator.

And what I'm going to do

is use this to mimic
what we see in the video.

Now, as I bring this one closer to it...

We get a static spark.

Narrator: After generating a spark,

he replicates the conditions in the truck

by setting up a bottle
with limited ventilation

and places two electrodes inside.

Wallace: This electrode is
going to represent the man

or the positive charge.

This electrode is going to
represent the bed of the truck

or the negative electrode.

Have a can of butane here.

Narrator: Wallace fills the
container with butane gas

to represent the buildup
in the back of the truck.

At this point,

we're going to energize the machine

and see what will happen.

Narrator: As soon as the
static spark is triggered,

it instantly lights the butane gas

and erupts in a fiery torrent.

Wallace: So it looks pretty good.

We had a spark. We ignited the gas.

Exactly what we thought.

This mimics exactly
what we see in the video.

Narrator: We all build up
static electricity on a daily basis.

Usually this results in nothing
more than a small shock,

but occasionally it can prove fatal.

You're sitting inside your car,

getting ready to fill up with gas.

As you just come out of the
car, you rub across the seat,

you build up a static charge.

As you touch that body of your car,

you create a spark.

Narrator: The man in the video was lucky

and escaped with minor burns.

But china accounts

for almost half of the
container imports to the u.S.

Sansom: How many other containers

that are running around on the freeways

have got this sort of stuff in them,

have got this explosive gas?

Just one spark could
cause a massive explosion.

If there was no way for this
gas to escape and it was lit,

it would have been a bomb.

That truck could have
been going down the street

and completely exploded,

wiped out who knows how many humans.

Narrator: Now on the
bank of a russian river,

an earthly creature.

Oh, what the hell?

Narrator: Its twisted form

doesn't resemble any known animal.

Are we looking at some sort
of genetic experimentation?

Narrator: Experts ask,

is a malevolent force at work here?

It looks kind of demonic.

Narrator: Sosnovy bor,

43 miles west of st. Petersburg.

This town was built in
1958 to house workers

for the new nuclear power station.

It is so close to the classified facility,

you need a special permit just to enter.

August 30, 2015.

A local man discovers a
small creature of some kind.

It looks like a newly hatched baby

of some species, but of what?

Ew. What is that thing?

It doesn't look like any
animal I've seen before.

It's really weird.

Narrator: This doesn't correspond

to any known creature
on earth, alive or extinct.

Scientists do occasionally find new kinds

of fossilized dinosaurs,

but they're always variations
of those we already know.

This thing is different.

Everyone's seen the movie
"alien," where this kind of

looks a lot like the
creature that pops out.

Narrator: Experts are baffled
as to what this animal could be.

I've never seen an actual
animal kind of look like that.

It's really disturbing.

It's dried up and desiccated and bizarre.

Narrator: Biologist greg szulgit

considers that the
location where it was shot

could offer a clue to
the creature's origin.

This was found near the
leningrad nuclear power plant.

And when you think nuclear power plants,

you start to think,

"well, are there some
kind of crazy mutations?"

narrator: Everyone who's ever
seen a superhero movie will know

that radiation causes cell mutation.

But in real life, those
effects can be horrific.

Radiation can cause,
well, cancer on a basic level.

And that's a mutation.

That's where your cells
don't grow how they should be.

They grow wildly out of control.

Could this have come into
contact with radioactive waste?

Is this some kind of eunuch?

Narrator: But for this creature
to be a nuclear mutant,

there would need to have
been some sort of accident.

Szulgit: There are a few different ways

in which you can have accidents
with a nuclear power plant.

The worst would, of course, be a meltdown.

But you can also have
chemical spills coming out,

which could leave nuclear
waste in the environment.

The safety record at the
leningrad nuclear power plant

has been spotty, to say the least.

It has had a long history of
mishaps and outright accidents

since it came online in 1975.

Szulgit: In 1976 and in '79,

there were fires and the
water used to extinguish the fire

did leak out into the environment.

Much later in 2015, there
was a steam pipe that broke.

So there had been
contamination issues in this area.

Could some sort of creature
been unfortunate enough

to have encountered some sort
of high-level radioactive source

and been mutated or changed by it?

Narrator: Coming up,

could the twisted form
be a man-made monster?

Are we looking at some sort
of genetic experimentation?

Boy: It just, like, keeps getting bigger.

Narrator: And beauty and the beast

above the skies of costa rica.

Should these people
be running for their lives?

Narrator: An unknown creature
is found in western russia.

It doesn't match any
known animal alive or extinct.

When entomologist kevin
kasky studies the footage,

he thinks this demonic-looking creature

could have been made on purpose.

Kasky: Looks like the head of a dinosaur

on the body of a chicken
with the body of a snake.

Narrator: Kasky wonders

if this disturbing creature is a chimera...

The result of humans tampering with nature.

Bioengineering is something that mankind

has been messing with for decades,

probably even longer than that.

But documented proof.

We think that we can create things

out of things that already exist.

Narrator: There are many
hybrid creatures in nature.

The most famous is the mule...

The progeny of a horse and a donkey.

But there are many others like the liger,

the offspring of a lion and a tiger.

Towering over its parents,

this is the largest big cat in existence.

But some scientists have
tried to push the boundaries

by merging two very
different organisms into one.

This specimen is in russia
and russia has had a history

of trying to mess with
bioengineering things.

[ church bells tolling ]

narrator: Western states

generally limit scientists' ability

to mess around with human
genes, not so in totalitarian regimes.

The nazis wanted to
breed a genetic master race.

And the early soviets believed

they could scientifically
control the whole world,

including the genetic
makeup of living creatures.

In the early 20th century, the
post revolution government,

the bolsheviks, had an ideological reason

for wanting to support
these kinds of experiments.

They wanted to prove that
there was no god or soul

or anything mystical about creating life,

that it was a scientific,
mechanical kind of a process.

Narrator: One pioneering
scientist and follower of darwin

is at the forefront of
bioengineering in russia,

making major advancements in this area.

Ilya ivanof actually experimented

with cross-breeding animals
using artificial insemination.

Ultimately, his goal was to
try and take characteristics

from one animal and
merge them with another.

Narrator: Ivanof's radical
cross-breeding program

gave rise to the guinea pig mouse,

cow antelope and zebra horse.

But his ultimate plan is to
try and cross-breed a human

with an ape to create a race
of ape-man super warriors

that would be invincible
against enemy armies.

Guinea, February 1926.

The authorities discover ivanof

is planning to inseminate three
african women with chimp sperm.

He is expelled from the country.

Kasky: Ilya ivanof experimented

with trying to create a new species.

I don't care what your
motives are for that.

Nothing good can come from it.

That's all I got to say.

Narrator: Ivanof returns

to the soviet union and
opens a secret institute,

where it is believed he
continues his twisted work.

Stories of disturbing genetic experiments

continue to this day.

The russians have been
working on a super chicken.

I know it sounds like
something out of a comic book,

but they've been working on
this to expand the food productivity

of the chicken to help feed the russians.

Narrator: Russia imports a
massive amount of chicken

from the u.S.,

but after american restrictions

following russia's invasion
of the ukraine in 2014,

things have been tense.

Relations between the
united states and russia

have soured in recent
years, leading to big cutbacks

in food imports.

Re-enter the super chicken.

The russian breed known as the smena-8

is actually now
available for market trials.

Narrator: Could this
creature be a failed attempt

to create a super chicken?

We may never know.

The creature's body is taken away

for examination by experts

at the institute of
biophysics in krasnoyarsk.

All they are saying is
that whatever was found

was some kind of unviable mutant.

But this still begs the question,

did nuclear mutation or human science

have the final hand in its creation?

Are we looking at some sort
of genetic experimentation

that nobody wants to claim,

nobody is doing, but
once again, it's there?

It's right there for all to see.

What's the main purpose of it?

Narrator: Now a strange celestial disk

appears in the sky over costa rica.

Woman: Look at the sky!

Oluseyi: Heavenly indeed.

That is cool.

Narrator: Onlookers are mesmerized.

Boy #2: It's the most
beautiful thing I've ever seen.

I'd be a little bit more careful right now.

We don't know what that is.

Narrator: But could this strange vision

be evidence of a deadly phenomenon?

There's something just
a little bit weird about it.

Narrator: San josé, costa rica.

Nestled in the shadow

of the seros de escazu mountain range,

the trendy suburb of escazu.

This is where the most affluent
and influential costa ricans

reside in luxury.

September 2015, the people of escazu

were going about their business as usual.

Suddenly they are confronted
by a spectacular sight above them.

Woman: Look at the sky!

This looks like a cloud
and a rainbow had a baby.

Narrator: It has amazing
colors, but this isn't a rainbow.

It looks more like a
massive object than a cloud.

Boy #3: This is awesome.

Foster: Nature can do
some wonderful things,

but having a kind of
disc-shaped rainbow like this

is really phenomenal.

I don't think anyone's ever really seen

anything like this before.

Boy #1: Yeah, it just,
like, keeps getting bigger.

Girl: Like, wow.

Narrator: Experts are concerned

that this may be more
sinister than it looks.

It almost has the shape
of a mushroom cloud,

which doesn't exactly bring
the happiest thoughts to mind.

Should these people
be running for their lives?

Narrator: Coming up...

Is death about to rain from the sky?

If there is fuel that was
dumped from an aircraft,

that's coming down to the ground,

and that could be very terrifying.

Narrator: And why is this paradise island

crippled by crimson chaos?

Everything is blood red.
Everywhere you look is red.

Narrator: A mysterious
celestial disc lights up the sky

above costa rica.

When physicist chad
orzel analyzes the footage,

he thinks the effect looks like something

that is usually seen
on earth not in the sky.

The pattern up there looks
kind of like oil on water.

You see this sort of the swirling colors.

We have some pollution

spilled on the surface
of a puddle or a lake.

And that's generally not a good thing.

Narrator: Large commercial aircraft

can carry over 150 tons
of fuel when taking off.

Exact calculations should ensure

that they're at minimum weight on landing.

Brensberger: Well,
airplanes are actually heavier

during takeoff than landing

because they burn through all their fuel.

But sometimes if an emergency
landing needs to happen,

airplanes can actually
dump their fuel mid-flight.

Then when an airplane dumps their fuel,

there are water molecules
present in earth's atmosphere.

There could be some type of combination

between the airplane fuel

and the water molecules in the clouds.

Boy #2: It's the most
beautiful thing I've ever seen.

If there is fuel that was
dumped from an aircraft,

and it was over a populated area,

that's coming down to the ground.

And that could be very
flammable and very terrifying.

Narrator: Could this bizarre
phenomenon be the result

of highly toxic fuel raining down to earth?

Shapiro: If this were a fuel dump,

you'd expect to see it
in a line across the sky

or some sort of linear pattern.

But in this case, it's circular.

It's following the shape of the cloud.

When you see a plane flying overhead,

you see the straight line contrails.

So if this was caused
by a plane dumping fuel,

it would be a straight-line
rainbow, not a disc.

Narrator: Chemist simon
foster has seen this kind of thing

before in outer space.

Could this be a genuine
extraterrestrial phenomenon?

Rainbows are not just an
earth-based phenomenon.

They do happen elsewhere.

They actually happen out in the cosmos.

People have been looking through telescopes

and found rainbows in space.

Narrator: 2013,

nasa's chandra x-ray
observatory space telescope

picks up strange, unexplained images.

There is this one image from
the chandra x-ray telescope

that's called an extraterrestrial rainbow.

It is a system with a binary star.

And one of the stars is a neutron star

to siphon enough
material from the other star.

It's really dense and heavy.

And it's sucking... it's drawing material

off its other partner's star.

And as it's doing so, it's emitting x-rays.

Now, these x-rays are passing through dust

and debris surrounding these stars.

And as it does so, it
acts almost like a lens,

like water droplets in the atmosphere

due to visible light.

This is doing it to x-ray,

and it produces this
incredible interstellar rainbow.

So it's incredibly beautiful,

but the light is being produced by x-rays.

So at the same time, it's deadly.

We know how damaging x-rays can actually be

if you're not well-protected.

Narrator: X-rays are a
form of ionizing radiation.

Over-exposure can lead

to unnatural chemical
reactions inside cells,

causing mutations

that lead to a number of
diseases, such as cancer.

For this to have been
some kind of space rainbow

this close to earth just doesn't work.

The amount of radiation
would be so intense,

it would seriously injure

or even kill everyone in the area.

Narrator: Science writer alan shapiro

reviews the footage

and thinks he may have the answer.

Maybe the solution has something to do

with the weather on the day.

You've got a cloud with water
droplets high in the atmosphere.

You've got the sun
lighting it up from behind.

Again, the water breaking those colors out.

It's really similar to when
you see water and oil interact

and you get that kind of rainbow effect.

Narrator: The best guess

is some rare set of atmospheric conditions.

Water vapor high in the atmosphere

refracting light into a spectrum of colors.

To be able to see that
firsthand would be incredible.

It's going to be 10
times better in real life.

Boy #3: This is awesome.

Narrator: Now in the land of volcanoes...

[ motorcycle engine revving ]

...The sky turns blood red.

A burning hellscape turning the sky red.

Narrator: This ominous crimson cloud

engulfs everything in its path.

It must have been absolutely terrifying.

It's like a scene from a disaster movie.

But for the people living
there, this is everyday life.

♪

Narrator: Sumatra, indonesia.

A volcanic island mostly
covered in thick rainforest

with its own species
of tiger and rhinoceros.

September 2019.

In a quiet rural community,

a motorcyclist experiences
an out-of-this-world sight.

Shapiro: The sky is blood red.

This looks like something

you'd find on mars, not on earth.

It looks like something
out of "total recall."

walcek: It's hard to explain

this very bizarre and
cataclysmic-looking video.

Woman #2: It's everywhere.

It looks like whoever filmed this

is trying to get away from it.

But there... there's no
getting away from this.

Narrator: It looks like a sandstorm,

but this is a wet tropical island.

There is no desert for hundreds of miles.

Foster: Everything is blood red.

Everywhere you look.

It's not like he's coming
from one particular area.

The entire countryside,

everything around this person is red.

Driving through this red cloud,

it probably felt like the end of the world.

Narrator: Coming up...

The apocalyptic sky with
deadly consequences.

Shapiro: Bromine isn't
something you want to be inhaling.

At higher concentrations,
it can lead to death.

Narrator: The air above a
volcanic indonesian island

turns blood red.

Chemist mike sansom
wonders if what we are seeing

is evidence the air itself is toxic.

We know it's indonesia and indonesia

has the greatest
concentration of volcanoes.

So is it something to do with volcanoes?

Narrator: Indonesia has
127 active volcanoes.

This island alone has 67.

It is situated in the
volatile ring of fire.

A 25,000-mile chain of volcanoes

and seismically active sites
that outline the pacific ocean.

The region has 75% of the world's volcanoes

and 90% of its earthquakes.

Could these skies be a
portent of another eruption?

Indonesia has the most volcanoes
of any country in the world.

76 of them have erupted

more than 1,000 times
in our current record.

Narrator: Mount tambora, indonesia, 1815.

After a few centuries of dormancy,

mount tambora unleashes the
most powerful eruption known to man.

Shapiro: It sent ash and
dust high into the atmosphere.

That accounted for the deaths
of more than 80,000 people.

Narrator: The explosion can
be heard 1,600 miles away.

People are immediately burnt alive

as they drown in the boiling lava.

For others, death is more
painful as they are poisoned

by toxic gases and ash.

One thing we might expect
if this were from a volcano

was that you would have usually
a lot of very black, dark ash,

a big cloud that would
be blasting out in the sky.

We don't see that, but
there have been volcanoes

that have thrown out other
strange-colored gases.

Hawaii's kilauea volcano erupted in 2018

and had a pink plume.

This came from the
rock around it, the basalt,

that had this red color and
accounted for the pink ash.

Narrator: Sansom has a
theory as to what gases

need to be present in indonesia

to create such an apocalyptic crimson haze.

One thing that could turn
this volcanic eruption red

is bromine.

It's an element, a liquid element.

And if you boil it, it turns
into this brownish-reddish gas,

which looks exactly like the video.

Narrator: Bromine is a
naturally occurring chemical

found in the earth's crust.

But when combined with heat,

the molecular structure
alters dramatically.

Volcanic eruptions can cause temperatures

of thousands degrees,

and that's plenty of
heat to cause the bromine

to turn from a liquid into a gas.

Bromine isn't something
you want to be inhaling.

At lower concentrations,

it can lead to coughing
and shortness of breath.

And in higher concentrations,
it can lead to death.

Narrator: But sansom isn't convinced

that the flaming-red heavens

are caused by oxidizing bromine.

Sansom: You'd need
massive deposits of bromine.

I mean, a huge salt plain of bromine

to actually create this vast amount.

Narrator: It would take something

the size of the dead sea

to cause a crimson sky like this.

And there aren't deposits
of that size in this area.

But when chemist simon
foster studies the footage,

he wonders if the color of the sky

could be the sign of a different
kind of impending danger.

Different gases in
different concentrations,

they can actually bend light

and split light in different ways.

And that could be what's going on here.

Walcek: This could be the
same principle of sunsets.

But you need to have
exactly the right size of smoke

or haze particle for this to happen.

Narrator: Meteorologist
chris walcek believes that

this apocalyptic sky

could be caused by a
huge quantity of smoke.

One of the ways you can produce this effect

is with widespread forest fires

that produce huge
amounts of dust and smoke.

[ thunder crashes ]

narrator: Wildfires are one
of nature's deadliest killers.

A raging fire on a forested island

like this could be disastrous.

Kutcher: So if your island's on fire,

where do you run that's safe?

Fires out of control in california,

they evacuate us to someplace that's safer,

someplace away from the actual fuel.

If you're on an island
and the whole island's fuel,

where do they evacuate you to?

Narrator: Further investigation reveals

this is a catastrophic wildfire,

one of almost 4,000 that
ripped through southeast asia

between February to September 2019.

This air was so polluted, it
left almost 10 million people

gasping for breath with countless deaths.

This really was an
apocalypse for these islands.

Kutcher: Smoke is horrible to inhale.

There's the fire that's far too hot.

There's fire tornadoes.

There's nothing good that
comes from being in that position.

It would have felt like
the end of the world.

[ camera whirs ]

american travelers are leaving
a revered jungle temple complex

when nearby...

Fireball. It looks like a
building has been torn apart.

Narrator: Locals and tourists
are hit by the explosion.

We need to figure out
what exactly this blast is,

because whatever it is, it could be deadly.

Narrator: The town lies in the shadow

of one of the greatest
wonders of the ancient world.

I think it's impossible to
see something like that

and not think about terrorism.

Narrator: It was the real-life location

of the first "tomb raider" movie.

Angkor wat in cambodia
is amongst the largest

and strangest religious
monuments in the world.

♪

Dedicated to the protector god vishnu

whose avatars are believed

by his followers to still
be active in the world.

The temple design is
mysterious and complex.

It was a huge center for
the technology of that time.

Narrator: Angkor wat sits just
outside the city of siem reap.

August 2019, american tourists
are here to see the temple,

and some are filming
when just a few miles away...

Boom! Massive explosion.

Narrator: The shock wave
knocks motorcyclists of their bikes

and sends people fleeing.

Holmes: Oh, it's still on fire.

Oh, my gosh.

That is terrible.

Mcmahon: Imagine you're
going about your daily routine

and something like this happens.

Something so disruptive,
so explosive, so dangerous...

A terrible event.

Narrator: An american teacher
is among those badly injured.

There have been local
rumblings in siem reap

about westerners visiting
the temple complex.

Wise: This took place in
a town which is actually,

it's only a few kilometers
away from angkor wat.

Narrator: The proximity to the temple

leads to some wild and bizarre speculation.

This belief that angkor wat
once included two temples

that were gold plated.

And they were gold plated in order

to capture the rays of the sun

at key times of the year, the equinoxes.

Narrator: The temples were
built by king suryavarman,

who according to legend

was a demigod who used advanced geometry

to lay out the buildings
to mirror objects in space.

They could harness the power of the sun,

effectively creating a ray,

a powerful beam of light
with destructive capability.

And so, is there a connection

between this ancient
mysterious temple complex

and this modern mysterious explosion?

Could there be some kind of lost technology

that somehow is still active,
somehow still dangerous,

could still somehow
cause things to explode?

Narrator: But material
scientist doug holmes believes

the location of the blast
could point to an act of terror.

I think it's impossible
nowadays in this climate

to see something like that
and not think about terrorism.

In a region like this that
has been historically war torn,

you can't rule it out.

Narrator: Cambodia borders vietnam.

In the early 1970s, the country
is invaded by the viet cong.

Despite american efforts,
a communist dictatorship

is installed known as the khmer rouge.

The party's leader is pol pot,

whose methods are brutal and terrifying.

The khmer rouge execute people
just because of their appearance

and use their bodies
as fertilizer in the fields.

The communists take
and slaughter the children

and babies of those
who dare criticize them.

Women are subjected to
hideous medical experiments.

Wise: About two million people,
about a quarter of the population,

was wiped out by the
khmer rouge under pol pot,

who is remembered as
one of the most vicious

and deranged homicidal leaders of history.

Narrator: Several of the
khmer rouge's evil leaders

have recently been
sentenced to life imprisonment

for their disgusting crimes.

Holmes: Knowing it's happening in a place

where there is a long
history of conflict, you...

I mean, you can't help but think, you know,

maybe these are kind of
rebels, local terrorist groups,

something that could
cause an explosion like that.

Kutcher: So this is an area of the globe

that we know has been under siege.

This is a terrorist area.

And this type of explosion
resembles that type of attack.

Narrator: Matt kutcher
has spent over 20 years

as a hollywood explosives
and pyrotechnics expert.

Kutcher: Blow it.

There's a little hollywood
magic today, right?

Narrator: He wants to see
whether the blast in the footage

matches the blast produced by a bomb.

Kutcher: I think the first thing
we do is we're going to have to get

some kind of shed, something
to represent a building.

We're going to need some high explosives.

And we're going to
see if we can't blow it up.

Right there.

Nice.

We'll have the high
explosive around this barrel,

and we'll have some
high explosive in the barrel.

And to replicate everything
we see that's blowing

through the roof, blowing out the doors,

we're going to add the water inside of it

and use the water as actually
what devastates this building.

Alright, ty, go ahead and fill her up.

This type of high explosive is no joke.

We're going to have to
stand pretty clear of this.

And it's going to blow this thing apart...

Just one big bang.

Narrator: Coming up, matt kutcher discovers

if the blast near the
temples was an act of terror.

Three, two, one.

And in indonesia,

cameras capture what
appears to be a humanoid

scientists thought extinct.

It's like this little evil hobbit

running around in the jungle.

♪

Narrator: An explosion near one
of the greatest wonders of the world

followed by a lethal blaze.

Pyrotechnics expert matt kutcher

has built a terrorist-style
explosive device

to see if it matches
the blast in the video.

Alright, gentlemen, lets
get to our firing positions.

Alright, guys, we are
ready. We're going to go hot.

Fire the horn. [ air horn blows ]

alright, and here we go.

In three, two, one.

♪

♪

There's no question.

It completely decimated that building.

It did quick business of that, didn't it?

And what it really looked like
was there was no flash at all.

It's gone.

Absolutely gone.

And not an ounce of flame.

♪

Narrator: The flames are only visible

when matt watches his
explosion slowed down by 90%.

Kutcher: Although it looks
very similar at the beginning,

the mass transfer of energy,

it's certainly missing
something at the end, isn't it?

In the video, you clearly
see a sustained fire,

as if there was something
else in the building.

So it couldn't be high explosives.

We've got to gain some more information

as to what was actually in this building,

what held the sustained the fire,

and is the sustained fire relative

to what caused the explosion?

Narrator: Engineer adam hadhazy
wonders if the fuel behind the explosion

could be gasoline.

But government records show

there were no licensed
gas stations in the area.

Gasoline is a highly desired commodity

pretty much anywhere you go in the world.

And if you can make a buck selling it,

someone's probably going to
sell it then on the black market.

So that could open up
some possibilities here of

bootlegged gasoline that could
be behind what we're seeing.

Narrator: Since 1979,
the country has been ruled

by the cambodian people's party,
who took over the khmer rouge.

These marxists have introduced
some free-market reforms,

but they still levy punishing taxes,

especially on the sale of gasoline.

As a result, in some cambodian
cities, pirate gas stations

outnumber legal gas stations by two to one.

Now listen, cambodia
is a developing country.

A lot of these things
get kind of loosey goosey

in a developing country,
and you can have situations

where dangerous chemicals or substances

are not handled in the safest possible way.

Narrator: Unlicensed gas
stations and street-side vendors

selling gasoline out of
bottles are a common site

throughout the country, leading experts

to believe that the
explosion occurred at a site

where gas was being sold illegally.

Wise: Given that it's on a
busy street, you can imagine

this is the sort of place where
you might have a gas station,

perhaps an illegal gas station.

Perhaps somebody has paid
some bribes to the local inspector

or someone is just cutting corners

and doing things on the cheap.

Szulgit: This video serves as
a warning of how dangerous

something like an
illegal gas station can be.

When standards are skipped,
then things like this can happen.

[ people screaming ]

narrator: Now, on the
exotic island of sumatra,

men entering the jungle on motorbikes

come across a human-like creature.

It's like this little,

evil hobbit running around in the jungle.

Narrator: Locals believe this
may be the first filmed encounter

with a legendary jungle-dwelling race

of humanoid cannibals
known as the ebu gogo.

The ebu gogo are three feet tall,

are known to steal food,

kidnap children, and even eat humans.

Growick: If this actually is
a long-lost human cousin,

this is potentially as big of a
find as landing on the moon.

Narrator: Sumatra, the
sixth-largest island in the world,

sitting in the java sea in southeast asia.

It is an island of deadly
volcanoes and exotic animals,

from dozens of species
of amphibious creatures,

to rhinos, elephants, and tigers.

The island stretches over
almost 200,000 square miles

and is largely covered in
dense tropical rainforest.

Or at least it was.

Sumatra is fast losing
its rainforest as humans

gradually transform the once
impenetrable jungle into farms

to grow much sought-after sumatran coffee.

March 2017.

Four young men are riding along
a dirt path on their motorbikes.

Suddenly, something leaps from the jungle.

It's shape is similar to an adult

but it's much too small to be a man.

This naked man with a
spear comes and attacks you.

It's like a little red demon from hell.

It's small, but it doesn't
mean that it's not deadly.

Narrator: A biker is knocked from
his vehicle, and the creature flees.

Gottlieb: It looks like the
bikers surprised this thing.

It attacked to protect itself

and then thought better and ran away.

[ man panting ]

narrator: Historian craig
gottlieb analyzes the video.

Gottlieb: If you freeze
the video, what you see

is about a three-foot-tall humanoid,

an adult with musculature
standing butt naked

in the forest and carrying a spear.

Narrator: The average
male human is 5'9" tall.

This creature is half the size,

but it shows none of the
characteristics of dwarfism.

Kasky: In the jungles, there are legends

of other types of beings.

So could this be one of
those subspecies or species

that's inside the jungle?

Potvin: Myths throughout the
islands of southeast asia speak of evil,

human-like people that
actually feast on humans

and live in the forests.

Could there be some truth to these myths?

Narrator: Scientists have long
known that on these islands

once lived a distant cousin of humans

which archaeologists call homofloriensis

and nicknamed the hobbits.

Small bodies, small
heads, and small brains.

Remains of these small human-like creatures

have been found and dna tested.

Although it was thought these
hobbits had died out around

100,000 years ago, locals have long claimed

that they still inhabit
the jungles of sumatra.

Local legends speak
of these little, evil beings

lurking in the forests.

Could this be one of them?

Montieth: These legends and stories

have been around for thousands of years.

When people go missing in the forest,

these creatures are still blamed.

Could this be what we're seeing?

Narrator: These legends may
be more than mere fantasy.

In 2017, archaeologists in indonesia

discovered cave paintings

depicting weird humanoid
creatures attacking animals.

Further evidence emerges
when scientists recently unearthed

the remains of small
creatures who do indeed belong

to a strange race of humanoids.

Gottlieb: The archaeologist
uncovered the remains of a previously

unknown species of primates
about three to four feet tall.

Narrator: Locals call the
jungle-dwelling creatures the ebu gogo.

Their appearance is said to be
somewhere between human and ape.

These tiny ape men are
said to talk to each other

in a strange murmur and
can parrot back human words

but have no way of
understanding what is being said.

Their name "gogo" means "eats everything,"

and according to legend,
they are cannibals.

It's claimed that they
have stolen human children,

some say to learn the secret of fire,

others say to eat them.

Growick: If this actually is
a long-last human cousin,

this potentially as big of a
find as landing on the moon.

Narrator: Coming up,

the hunt is on for
indonesia's secret cannibals.

How many more of these
people or creatures are there?

Narrator: And what's
going bump in the night

at England's eeriest emporium?

When you see stuff falling off the walls,

it's a sign to get out.

♪

Narrator: On the
volcanic island of sumatra,

a helmet cam captures what appears to be

a small human-like creature

emerging from the jungle
and wielding a spear.

Science journalist jon farrow asks

if this is a non-human species

or a long-lost tribe of super-small humans?

The jungle is so dense
that there's lots of places

that we've never been,

and that raises the possibility
that there are tribes of people

that live unconnected
with the rest of civilization.

Narrator: Historian tony mcmahon
studies a legendary prehistoric tribe

long thought to have died out.

About 400 years ago, a tribe
called the mante was sighted,

a tribe in the jungle who
had never made contact

with the rest of humanity.

For the mante people, offroad bikes

are going to be a complete mystery,

and if anything, something
extremely frightening.

Narrator: The very small size
of the person is hard to explain,

but science journalist steve potvin recalls

and indigenous tribe
known for their small stature.

It makes me think, could
this be a long-lost pygmy tribe?

Narrator: Spanish colonists to
this area hundreds of years ago

spoke of a people they
called the small ones.

Pygmy tribes are found
mostly in dense jungles.

Scientists speculate the lack
of sunlight leads to a sustained

lack of vitamins, inhibiting
bone development.

But something doesn't make sense.

Even so called pygmies
are taller than this.

The average pygmy male is around five feet.

This fuels speculation that
this may indeed be evidence of

a human-like creature from
the age of the neanderthals.

How many more of these
people or creatures are there?

Farrow: These people live a lifestyle

untouched by modern civilization,

without electricity or the internet.

They'd be following the same way of life

that they have for thousands of years.

Narrator: Isolated prehistoric tribes
have been known to be aggressive

when confronted with the terrifying

and strange signs of modern civilization.

There's plenty of evidence of
tribespeople all over the world

defending themselves with primitive weapons

against what they view as
incursions by the outside world.

In 2008, a light aircraft

flew over a tribal village in the amazon.

The tribespeople who had
had no or minimal contact

with the outside world were
actually firing bows and arrows

and trying to shoot at the aircraft.

Narrator: In 2018, on the andaman
islands off the coast of india,

a young christian missionary
was killed by bow and arrow

when he approached a stone age tribe.

And that gives you an
indication of the fear and hostility

that some of these tribespeople
have towards the outside world.

Narrator: Indonesian
government officials viewed the film

and sent search parties into the area,

but no tribe of miniature
humans have been discovered.

We are none the wiser as to who he is,

which tribe he represents, and how long

they've been isolated
from the rest of humanity.

Narrator: The nature of the small
humanoid caught on the helmet cam

remains a mystery.

Jon farrow believes
that may be for the best.

Modern civilization doesn't
have a great track record

of respecting indigenous people.

And so perhaps we should
leave this unexplained.

♪

Narrator: Now, England's spookiest store.

Objects are moved... Whoa.

Narrator: ...And fall over as
though pushed by unseen hands.

People are running. I don't blame them.

Narrator: Locals suspect a cursed mineshaft

1,000 feet below the store

could be sending something
sinister up to the surface.

I've never seen anything like this before.

Narrator: In the english
county of yorkshire is barnsley,

an ordinary north country mining town.

September 2014.

In the middle of town is
the barnsley antiques centre.

Cctv captures bizarre activity.

A fog-like presence appears
to seep up through the floor.

Wait, wait, there seems to be
something almost like a mist.

That would really creep
me out if I was in this store.

Narrator: A reign of terror follows.

While the shop is empty,
pictures fall of walls,

old glass cabinets shatter,

and an antique rocking
horse crashes to the ground.

When you see stuff falling off the walls,

it's a sign to get out.

Narrator: Store owner daniel parker

and his 9-year-old daughter kasey

have experienced even
stranger things on the shop

when the cameras have been turned off.

All of a sudden, my daughter's friend

came running out shouting, "dan, dan,

kasey's crying in the
basement," screaming and crying.

[ screaming ]

I said, "what's the matter?"

and she says, "an arm's
just reached out to grab me."

[ woman screams ]

I understand completely
why somebody would think

that there was a poltergeist in this shop.

We do tend to see these kinds
of things as being supernatural.

Personally, I could think
of other explanations.

Narrator: Geophysicist sian
proctor looks into the mining history

of the town and sees
a potential explanation

that lies buried 1,000
feet below the store itself.

To move objects like that,
there has to be a force.

But we clearly don't see one in the video.

So maybe there is an invisible
physical force at play here.

Narrator: Coming up, does a mining tragedy

that killed hundreds explain
the barnsley poltergeist?

This is potentially a ticking
time bomb waiting to go off.

Narrator: And is an eerie beam of
light over canada secret communication

with other worlds?

One reason scientists
shoot lasers out into space

is actually to signal to
potential alien lifeforms

on other planets.

Narrator: An antique store in
yorkshire, England, is plagued

by what seems to be an angry poltergeist.

It appears as a mist and smashes

and throws things from
the shelves of the shop.

Something weird and
unnatural is going on here.

Narrator: The owner, daniel parker,

investigates the history of his street

and discovers bizarre activity
hasn't just struck in his store.

There used to be a
cafe just across the road

and they got someone in because
they had weird things happening.

I think they got some
sort of spiritualist group in

to sort of rid their shop of spirits

because things were moving in their shop.

Narrator: Material scientist doug
holmes believes this discovery

suggests the footage from parker's store

doesn't show a ghost,
but a vibration from below

that affects the whole neighborhood.

Holmes: You see this all the
time in footage of an earthquake

in which you have these
grumbling vibrations

which causes all sorts
of things to fall down,

topple over, and break.

And so a natural question

is, well, what's the
source of these vibrations?

[ cameras whirring ]

narrator: Barnsley is a long
way from an earthquake zone.

But in the 19th century, this sleepy town

was the center of a revolution.

Newly invented trains
and mechanical factories

needed coal to power them,

and barnsley had huge amounts beneath it.

Historian craig gottlieb
discovers this boom time

for barnsley came at a heavy cost.

The history of coal mining
goes back centuries in this area

and there have been many
accidents and tragedies

involved in the industry.

Narrator: The antique store
is close to the oaks colliery,

a mine 1,000 feet deep.

Mining of this sort can be very dangerous

because it releases a
number of flammable gases.

Narrator: In 1866, a massive
explosion tore through the mine,

killing 361 miners, some
as young as 10 years old,

and the rescuers who went into save them.

The devastating series of blasts

caused by a mixture of
gases, including methane,

known as fire damp, destroyed the mine.

It was England's greatest mining disaster.

The oaks colliery shaft is
now abandoned and sealed.

Some locals even say it carries a curse.

Geophysicist sian proctor

suspects the explosive
power of the fire damp

in the mine below has
not been totally spent.

We need to consider whether
these small little explosions

that are being caused by fire damp

are actually the cause of what
we see in this antique shop.

Narrator: The weird
mist filmed in the store

could be a gas escape from the mine,

and the falling objects
could be being moved

by the blasts from deep down below.

The vibrations felt across town

may well be a warning
of a much bigger blast

that could threaten the whole community.

These trapped gases
don't need much to explode.

This is potentially a ticking
time bomb waiting to go off.

All you need is some
kind of spark, and boom.

Narrator: It seems whatever the
cause of these weird phenomena,

the future doesn't look good for the store.

People have said that
they don't come in our shop

because they've heard
of the, like, hauntings

and spooky goings on.

[ woman screams ]

narrator: Now, in the dead
of night, a vertical shaft of light

appears suspended in the sky.

This doesn't look like
anything we've seen before.

Narrator: It pulsates and
terrifies local residents.

I kept thinking something is
coming, something is happening.

This is just the start.

Narrator: It seems to be ascending
to or descending from space.

This looks really scary.

♪

Narrator: Edmonton, alberta.

A city of 970,000 people
with a shopping mall

that's over five million square feet,

making it the largest
mall in north america.

December 28, 2018, early evening.

Writer marina reid
hale is relaxing at home.

It was just a normal night like any other.

I was watching tv.

Narrator: But then, as
hail heads into her kitchen,

she notices something out of her window.

It was this big glowing, line in the sky.

Narrator: Hail decides to film it.

Hale: It was just right there.

Completely vertical, really orangey,

kind of pulsating slightly almost.

It looked like something opening.

You know, just that crack through a door

as a door was about to open.

Narrator: The light is like nothing
hail or other residents in the town

have ever seen.

I was thinking, "oh, this is bad news.

Something is happening and it's not good."

it really felt like you were
about to see alien ships

just rushing in coming to attack

or something really bizarre like that.

Narrator: As the strange
bright light in the sky

hangs ominously over the city of edmonton,

scientists are as baffled as
locals by the phenomenon.

This is really weird.

Where is this light coming
from, or where is it going to?

It kind of looks like a kind
of demonic finger of light,

you know, appearing in the gloom.

This pulsating vertical
light in the middle of the sky

kind of reminds me of "independence day"

when the giant spaceship
goes over the white house

and then destroys everything.

Narrator: Coming up, is the edmonton light

connected to a bizarre incident in space?

There was a kind of bright laser

that had struck the
international space station.

Narrator: And does a
strange frothing whirlpool

point to a japanese horror
weapon unleashed after 80 years?

[ siren wailing ]

morgan: A strong possibility at work here

is that this is some sort of
explosion underneath the water.

♪

Narrator: In the city of edmonton, canada,

a sinister pulsating
light hangs in the sky.

Science journalist jon
farrow discovers this is not

the first time such a beam
has been captured on camera,

and the last time was from space.

In December 2017, the year
before this video was shot,

there was a video making the rounds online

that there was a kind of bright laser

that had struck the
international space station.

Narrator: Cameras on board
the international space station

captured the strange beam of light.

The footage was then
broadcast to millions of americans

via the station's live video feed.

To this day, nasa have
given no official explanation

for the occurrence.

The idea of a space
laser really caught many

people's imagination.

And so when a mysterious
light appears above edmonton,

people recall the year before,
the mysterious light above them

on the international space station,

and they start to connect the two.

Science writer amy shira teitel

wonders if the beam is
an attempt to communicate

with extraterrestrial beings.

One reason scientists
shoot lasers out into space

is actually to signal

to potential alien
lifeforms on other planets.

Narrator: Nasa is open
about its search for life in

and beyond our solar system.

In October 2019, it
announced its instruments

had picked up noises on mars,

which it described as dinks and donks.

[ clang ]

the possibility of finally
establishing contact

with intelligent alien life is intriguing.

Though in 2016,
astrophysicist stephen hawking

warned against the possible dangers

of reaching out in this way.

He claimed that if we make
contact with intelligent aliens,

they may not come in peace,

but would invade and conquer
us for our rich natural resources.

Astrophysicist hakeem
oluseyi looks for possible

causes for lights in the sky.

He checks the records for that date

and discovers a clue near the location

where the phenomenon occurred.

Oluseyi: There was a huge oil
refinery fire, and it was very bright.

And there was a huge
flare-off that occurred,

and given the fact that
there are clouds in the sky

that could scatter the light,

under the right conditions, you could see

exactly what we see in this video.

Narrator: The refinery
fire may have produced

what meteorologists
refer to as light pillars.

These are caused by
reflective ice crystals in the air,

which are illuminated by a
light source from the ground.

But there's a problem with this theory.

The beam in the footage looks wrong.

Usually when we see light pillars,

there's multiple pillars,

and this is only one.

Farrow: There is still
an element of mystery

as to what is causing this light.

Narrator: Marina reid hale,
who filmed the light, is convinced

this was no natural phenomenon.

The idea that it was
caused by the refinery flares

seemed a little too convenient.

There's at least a part of me thinking

that there was something more interesting

than just some strange fluke.

♪

[ cameras whirring ]

narrator: Now, a weird foam erupts
out of a river in a chinese megacity.

Holy cow, that's a huge... what?

This thing is absolutely massive.

Narrator: Experts fear a
destructive japanese weapon

from world war ii has
accidentally exploded.

The fact that this looks
like a chemical reaction,

it immediately attracts my
suspicions to special unit 731.

Narrator: Hangzhou is china's
answer to silicon valley...

A bustling, technologically
advanced city of

7.5 million people.

October 17, 2018.

Office workers look out their windows

to see a strange disturbance

on the normally tranquil qiantang river.

The source is a circle of ominous bubbles,

and the vortex spreads over
an area of hundreds of feet.

This is really unusual.

I'm not quite sure what I'm looking at.

Hovland: As we zoom in,
I realize it's not something

floating on the water, but more like

a froth that's generating
around a whirlpool.

This is something you
would not see on a daily basis.

Alright, I need to see that again.

That was crazy.

Narrator: Coming up,

locals fear a deadly
legacy of world war ii.

Hovland: If what we're
looking at here is a toxic spill,

this is seriously bad news.

♪

Narrator: In the city of hangzhou,
china, a mysterious vortex

is emerging in the middle
of the qiantang river.

Military analyst carlo
muñoz looks to the location

to find a possible explanation.

He discovers this is an
area with a dark history.

Muñoz: Now, this particular town in china

where this river is located,

hangzhou, was actually under
japanese control from 1937

all the way to the end
of world war ii in 1945.

Narrator: Towards the
end of the second world war,

many weapons were
dumped in seas and rivers,

especially weapons of mass destruction,

which contravened
international conventions.

A strong possibility at work here

is that this is some sort of
explosion underneath the water.

Narrator: If so, the froth
points to one notorious branch

of the japanese military.

The fact that this anomaly
on the river surface

looks like a chemical
reaction, it immediately attracts

my suspicions to special unit 731

because they introduced chemical
weapons to the war in china.

And maybe whatever it is
below the surface of that river

is left over from that time period.

Yah!

Narrator: After japan invaded
china, the japanese military subjected

the country's citizens
to an onslaught of terror.

The japanese did not look at
chinese people as being equal.

And they looked at them
as being disposable people.

Narrator: Under general shiro
ishii, the japanese ran a covert

chemical warfare unit
in china named unit 731.

Japanese military scientists
tested the effects of diseases

like bubonic plague, cholera, and smallpox

on the local chinese population,

killing hundreds of thousands of people.

♪

The unit's methods
were twisted and bizarre.

Special unit 731 engaged in experimentation

on chinese subjects
that sought to determine

how quickly someone would
lose an arm in exposure to frostbite.

They engaged in vivisection operations

against chinese men, women, and children.

All of this was being done in the interests

of pseudoscientific research.

Narrator: Unit 731 experimented
with horrific biological bombs

deployed from aircraft,

including a bubonic plague bomb,

which they dropped on
at least 11 chinese cities,

leading to outbreaks of
the gruesome disease.

The unit also experimented
with chemical weapons.

But when marine biologist eric hovland

examines the footage, he notices

that the foam had expanded
to over 8,000 square feet,

which leads him to believe
that the strange occurrence

could be part of a
terrifying modern problem.

Hovland: Within 20 minutes,
that foam had expanded.

This could be some kind
of toxic foam buildup spill.

Narrator: But if this is
toxic, the blame may lie

not with japanese fascism
but chinese manufacturing.

Communist china has
a frightening track record

of environmental disasters.

In the past 20 years, well
over 1,000 people in china

are known to have died or suffered injuries

as a result of chemical
explosions at factories here.

And the government has had
to evacuate many local residents

following factories
illegally dumping poisonous

and hazardous waste into china's rivers.

There have been a lot of
toxic chemical spills in china.

Narrator: In 2005, a series of explosions

took place at a petrochemical plant

in the city of jilin in north east china.

Over 100 tons of the
lethal chemical benzene

seeped into the surrounding river.

Washington: Benzene
is a highly toxic chemical,

not only to humans, but
to everything around it.

So you want to avoid it at all costs.

Even an amount as small
as a teaspoon of benzene

is lethal to humans.

Narrator: Following the catastrophe,
the local government had to evacuate

over 10,000 people,

as well as cut the water
supply to 3.8 million residents,

depriving a city larger than
chicago of any way to wash,

cook, or clean.

Hovland: If what we're
looking at here is a toxic spill,

this is seriously bad news.

♪

Narrator: But geophysicist
sian proctor discovers a possible

engineering disaster

just below the point in the river

where the frothing occurred.

Proctor: The plans do show
something else that's really intriguing.

I can see that a new subway
tunnel is being constructed

that goes under the
river right at that location.

Narrator: The bubbles
rising up through the river

raise the suspicion that explosive gas

is leaking into the water

as a result of the subway construction.

When organic material gets into a river,

it settles on the riverbed and
decomposes, forming methane gas.

During the construction of the tunnel,

you need to add chemicals
and lubricants to the machinery.

When the lubricants
combine with the methane gas,

reactions occur and it all
comes bubbling to the surface.

Narrator: But this froth is
huge, leading proctor to wonder

if the chinese government
has been entirely honest

about the severity of the incident.

This could have ended
in a really deadly situation.