Strange Evidence (2017–…): Season 4, Episode 3 - Stargate in the Jungle - full transcript

[ 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.
- This is unbelievable, man.

Narrator: Experts carry out
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?

Narrator: Coming up...

A tunnel carved out of rock
begins to pulsate violently.



Scientists struggle to
explain this otherworldly event.

A wormhole is a subway system

connecting two distant
points in space and time.

Narrator: Horror on long island
...the mass killer from the canal...

This is the closest thing
we have to a vampire

living in the sea.

Narrator: ...And unexplained sightings

above a u.S. Government top-secret lab.

They're not moving in a way

that you would expect
something in the air to move.

-Bizarre phenomena... -Whoa.

Narrator: ...Mysteries caught on camera...

Now that's an explosion.

...What's the truth behind
this strange evidence?



Narrator: A tunnel...
Solid walls, solid ground,

but then this happens.

The whole tunnel appears to pulsate.

Astonished onlookers capture it on camera.

Orzel: It seems almost like a
tear in the fabric of space and time.

Narrator: In the footage,
some kind of cloud

seems repeatedly to appear then disappear.

Is it gas? Is it liquid?

Is it dust? Is it poisonous?

It might be deadly.

Narrator: Is this event on the
fringes of our understanding

of how the universe works?

It's understandable why they
call this the stargate tunnel.

♪

Narrator: Northwest
colombia, may 17, 2018...

Construction workers are underground

working on a government building project.

Inside what seems like an ordinary tunnel,

something incomprehensible
happens that none of them

have ever seen before.

It's as if the tunnel has
come alive, and it's breathing.

Narrator: The tunnel seems
to move as a cloud repeatedly

and very suddenly
appearing and disappearing.

Workers who witness it are terrified

including juan antonio sanchez.

♪

Narrator: Footage of the weird
pulsing energy baffles scientists.

There's also this booming
sound that's associated with it.

Is this dangerous?

Is the whole thing going to collapse?

What the hell is going on here?

Narrator: Physicist chad
orzel reviews the footage

and considers an incredible theory.

There's a very regular pulsation,

so it seems like something
must be controlling it.

If you were going to
imagine an intergalactic portal

to a distant galaxy, this
is what it would look like.

Narrator: Many physicists
are convinced they exist,

but nothing like it has ever been filmed.

A wormhole or stargate is considered

by some to be a possible
future means of interstellar travel.

These kinds of wormholes
are frequently used as ways

to travel interstellar distances in space.

They show up in the movie "stargate."

they show up in the movie "interstellar"

as long-distance travel arrangements,

so this seems like a really great idea.

Narrator: Stargates and
wormholes sound like science fiction,

but some of the greatest minds in science

believe they might be possible.

Introduced by albert
einstein himself in 1935,

a wormhole is a shortcut, a subway system

connecting two distant
points in space and time.

Narrator: Using conventional
space travel, a journey

to alpha centauri a, the
nearest star from the sun,

would take approximately 165,000 years,

but scientists think a
wormhole could shorten

the voyage to just 4 years.

Imagine this as sort of
like taking a sheet of paper

and folding it over so that points

on the two ends of the paper
are very close to each other.

If you could punch through
and connect those points,

that path would be very short

while someone who was constrained to travel

only along the paper would
have to go a very long distance.

Narrator: Physicist michio kaku
believes wormholes or stargates

are theoretically possible
but even the enormous forces

being unleashed above and below ground

that day would not be enough to power one.

Kaku: You need enormous amounts of energy.

We're talking about the energy of a star.

We're talking about
energy far beyond anything

that we humans can muster
here on the planet earth.

Narrator: Explorer george
kourounis analyzes metadata

from the video.

He discovers that it was
shot at the sight of one

of the country's largest-ever
construction projects...

The ituango dam.

When complete, it will contain over

34 billion cubic feet of water
and stand over 700 feet tall,

making it one of the highest in the world.

This isn't just a construction project.

This is a mega engineering project.

Once this dam is completed,
it's going to account for close

to 20% of all of
colombia's electricity needs.

Narrator: The project is
just months from completion.

The last thing construction
workers need is a delay.

Physicist chad orzel
reviews the footage to try

and identify the substance
that forms the pulsating cloud.

Orzel: There seems to be a cloud
of mist, comes up from the ground.

It seems extremely unnatural
sort of behavior for fog,

which usually appears very slowly

and dissipates very slowly.

Narrator: Deep in the tropical
rainforest, humidity is high.

There are lots of tiny water particles

suspended in the air inside the tunnel.

If conditions are right,

this water vapor forms larger droplets

and becomes a visible cloud.

♪

Geologist sian proctor has a theory

that could explain why clouds

are suddenly forming in the tunnel.

To test it, she sets up an
experiment with steve potvin.

When you're constructing,
you need a lot of concrete.

What a lot of people
don't realize about concrete

is that it actually
generates a lot of heat.

Narrator: When water is added to cement,

it causes a chemical
reaction that produces heat.

In tropical climates like colombia,

there is a danger that concrete
can become too hot as it cures,

causing it to crack.

One of the things that we use to make sure

that the concrete sets
correctly is liquid nitrogen.

Liquid nitrogen is extremely cold.

When you put that with the concrete,

it helps keep the temperature right

so that the concrete can be cured.

Narrator: Proctor's theory
is that a liquid nitrogen

spillage in the tunnel

could be responsible for
the strange cloud in the video.

Reviewing the footage,
proctor spots wet patches

on the road inside the tunnel.

If liquid nitrogen were spilled here,

conditions could be
perfect for a cloud to form.

I am going to take a drum
filled with liquid nitrogen,

and I am going to drop in it water.

I'm going to analyze the cloud
that's going to be generated,

and I'm going to see whether or not

that matches what we see in this video.

Narrator: To remain in liquid form,

nitrogen must be kept cool in
specially insulated containers.

The tunnel is hot and humid,
so proctor uses warm water

to accurately replicate conditions.

Okay. Let's do this.

Whoa! Whoa, whoa!

Narrator: When warm water
hits the cold liquid nitrogen,

it causes the nitrogen
to instantly vaporize

into a super-cold gas.

That's unbelievable.

Narrator: This cools
moisture in the surrounding air.

Whoa! Whoa, whoa!

So it condenses into a visible cloud.

The experiment proved
that liquid nitrogen and water

can produce a cloud,

but there is still a
problem with the theory.

Proctor: You can see that
the cloud is being generated,

but the thing about it
is it's staying around.

It's not dissipating.

Narrator: The weird behavior
of this pulsating cloud suggests

that some other forces are at work.

[ camera whirs ]

coming up...

Mass murder in the murky waters...

Just as far as the eye can see, death.

Narrator: ...And the
freaky pulsating tunnel

is followed by a terrifying human disaster.

No, no, no, no!

This is a really dangerous situation.

This dam is in trouble.

♪

Narrator: In the colombian
jungle, a tunnel appears to pulsate

as a cloud repeatedly
appears and disappears.

It's almost like a breathing tunnel.

Narrator: Above the tunnel,

a hydroelectric dam is under construction.

Explorer george kourounis investigates.

This dam is under extra stress

because there's been recently
flooding rains, lots of rain.

Narrator: The heavy rains
have triggered a landslide

that has blocked a tunnel

built to divert the river around the dam

while it's under construction.

Water is building up to dangerous levels

in the reservoir behind it.

It could bust the dam.

That would be the worst-case scenario.

Narrator: In a bid to save the dam,

engineers take desperate measures.

They release water from the reservoir

through a partially
constructed turbine chamber.

Kourounis thinks this sudden
surge through a part of the dam

that was never designed to carry water

could explain the pulsating apparition

in this access tunnel.

We've all taken a water
bottle and emptied it out.

It doesn't always pour
out smoothly, does it?

It glugs and gurgles as
the air tries to get back in

to replace the water that's
coming out of that bottle.

The same effect is happening
here but on a much bigger scale.

Narrator: According to this theory,

as floodwater escapes
through the turbine chamber,

it causes a pressure wave of
air to pulse through the tunnel.

Erbach: Now when the pressure
wave moves through this tunnel,

it causes the water vapor in the air

to condense into droplets,
giving you a cloud-like effect.

Narrator: Each pulse of pressure
instantly turns the vapor into cloud.

Then as the pulse passes,

the cloud turns back
into an invisible vapor.

Releasing water through the
turbine room saves the dam,

but the consequences
downriver are catastrophic.

Too much water ended up going downstream,

and that floodwater was devastating.

Narrator: Tens of thousands of
people are urged to flee their homes

as a giant torrent of water
gushes down the valley.

The terrifying wall of water
sweeps everythinbefore it,

destroying whatever it meets.

The homes and belongings
of many hundreds of people

are gone in an instant.

If a dam breaks or something goes wrong,

it's a national disaster.

Narrator: Countless lives destroyed
...the dam is an engineering disaster

that must be fixed before
the next big rain comes.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Now, long
island, new york... dead fish.

Not one, not a few, but what
looks like literally millions.

It was just bubbling. It
was just boiling with fish.

This is a catastrophic nightmare.

Narrator: Something
unnatural is happening here.

Looks like some kind of
mass suicide thing for fish.

Narrator: Is this weird fish
apocalypse the intended

or unintended result of human action?

Is it a war zone?

Muñoz: Worst-case scenario,

this is a biological weapon
that's been released

on the east coast of the united states.

♪

Narrator: Hampton bay's long island...

One of the most exclusive

vacation destinations in the u.S.

November 14, 2016...
Amateur fisherman roger hubbard

is visiting the shinnecock canal.

The 4,700-foot-long waterway

was built in 1892 to service clam

and oyster fisheries in
peconic bay to the north.

I normally stop down here to
see if anybody is catching fish

or anything cool to take a picture of.

As I looked into the sun,

I can see a lot of sparkling on the water.

As I got closer, looked down,

and I could see a huge
quantity of fish just struggling.

Narrator: As far as hubbard
can see, the lock is packed

with what looks like millions
of dead and dying fish.

Like a giant can of sardines.

I really would never
want to see that again.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Experts are
sent the grisly footage

of the carnage in the canal.

What's in there that's
just driving these fish

to their death?

We can't rule out poison.

Is there some sort of
environmental catastrophe

unfolding?

Narrator: Biologist leslie
samuel examines the footage

to try and identify the species of fish.

One fish there that
matches this description

is the manhattan carp.

They have round bodies.

They also have kind of a silvery color,

and they travel in large numbers.

Narrator: Manhattan carp,
also known as bunker fish,

are found all along the
east coast of the u.S.

Humans find these fish too bony to eat,

but they are an important prey species

for bigger fish such as tuna and shark.

Investigative journalist chris
o'brien studies the footage.

He believes the location of
the canal could hold a vital clue.

This fish die-off happened
25 miles down the beach

from the plum island facility.

Narrator: The top-secret plum
island animal disease center

opened just after world war ii ended.

No one has really been allowed to go inside

and see what is actually going on in there.

Narrator: Its highly confidential
mission was to capitalize

on the research of
captured nazi scientists.

Among them was biological
weapons expert eric traub.

Traub was working on a
top-secret program for hitler.

One of traub's programs was
to design a biological weapon

that could basically
eliminate a food chain.

Narrator: The weapon was said to be capable

of infecting whole populations of livestock

and wiping out entire crops.

Muñoz: The beautiful
thing about traub's weapon

was it went along with the old saying,

"an army runs on its stomach."

if an army can't eat, an army can't fight,

and any army that can't fight

is one you're probably going to beat.

Narrator: Today, the
facility's island location

means it is the only
laboratory in the u.S. Certified

to study live viruses like foot-and-mouth,

a disease deemed too high-risk
to be kept on the mainland.

This is a very, very sinister place.

We know that there's been
a problem of containment

at plum island.

Lyme disease may have escaped from here.

Foot-and-mouth disease in
cattle may have escaped from here.

Narrator: Due to its
proximity to new york city,

this facility has been the
target of a terrorist plotting

to release disease on the country's

most densely populated area.

When you have a facility
that's basically home

to the deadliest diseases in the world

a few miles away from this
place where we see hundreds

and thousands of fish just end up dead,

you've got to ask yourself the question...

"is there some way these
two could be connected?"

narrator: But marine
biologist danni washington

thinks it's unlikely the
fish in shinnecock canal

were poisoned by a toxic
attack from plum island.

If it were a biological outbreak
of some animal disease,

we probably would've
seen it more widespread.

This was an isolated incident

that affected one school of fish.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Samuel re-examines the footage.

It almost likes like some kind
of mass suicide thing for fish.

Narrator: There are other examples

of mysterious mass deaths of creatures.

Samuel: Now, let's
just think about the sea.

There are many reports of whales

that seem to just beach themselves

and come up onto the
shore and die en masse.

Narrator: But these beaching
may not be deliberate.

Samuel: Now, one theory that
attempts to explain that is that

these are social animals,
and if one gets sick,

it tends to come up in the shallow water

and onto the shore,
and others just follow suit.

Narrator: Consciously
deciding to commit suicide

requires a capacity for
complex decision making

and an ability to experience emotions

such as depression or grief.

It's possible that some animals' brains

are developed enough to be capable of this.

When a family member dies,
elephants have been observed

pushing their bones
around for up to a week,

and zoologists have interpreted
this as a display of grief.

Narrator: But when science journalist

steve potvin reviews the footage,

he isn't convinced the fish
are committing mass suicide.

There are lots of members
of the animal kingdom

with very high intelligence.

Bunker fish are not one of those animals.

They simply don't have
the brains to commit suicide.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Coming up...

Cops on the trail of a
paranormal jailbreak-er...

I saw an object that looked like a ghost.

Narrator: ...And scientists try to explain

why all these fish are dead or dying.

This is the closest thing
we have to a vampire

living in the sea.

♪

Narrator: Long islanders
are fearful and horrified

by the sight of hundreds of thousands

of dead and dying fish.

Journalist jeff wise studies the footage

to try to work out what's killing them.

Perhaps some kind of
parasite has, you know,

infected their brains or their
nervous systems to cause them

to undergo this self-destructive
behavior en masse.

Narrator: Parasitic mind
control may sound outlandish,

but there are examples
across the animal kingdom.

So for example, with bullet ants,

you have this fungus that can infect them,

and when it infects them,

it takes control of their bodies.

Narrator: The fungus forces
the ant to climb a nearby plant

and permanently lock
its jaws around a leaf.

It then grows a long stalk
through the ant's head

with a capsule of fungal spores at the end.

Often, the ant climbs
a leaf near its colony's

foraging trails,

so the spores rain down on fellow ants,

spreading the infection.

The nickname that they give
this is the zombie ant fungus,

and you can see why.

It basically takes over the body
and controls it like a zombie.

Narrator: And below the ocean,

there are a huge number of
parasites known to attack fish.

There's this really weird
one that infects the fish

and actually takes over its tongue.

Narrator: The tongue-eating louse
embeds itself in its host's tongue

and begins to feast.

It just continuously sucks
the blood from the fish.

This is the closest thing
we have to a vampire

living in the sea.

Narrator: But marine
biologist danni washington

sees a problem with the theory.

Washington: You can't
see any physical distortion

or any type of outer harm on the fish.

When a biologist conducted
a postmortem examination,

there were no traces of parasites.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Eye witness roger
hubbard learns from local fishermen

that a deadly predator has
been spotted in the area.

I had heard that guys were
doing great with bluefish,

which is a predatory fish
that eats this type of fish.

I think that this pod
got chased into the bay

and just corralled down into a dead end.

Narrator: To escape the killer
bluefish, the huge school of bunker

heads into the canal, a literal dead end.

As the tide rises,

the tidal defense gates
automatically close.

The fish are trapped, but
why are they dead and dying?

Biologist greg szulgit calculates the size

of the enclosed area.

It holds over 8 million gallons of water,

but these adult bunker
fish filter 7 gallons of water

every minute in order to
get the oxygen they need.

You pack that many
fish into a tiny little spot,

they're going to use up
that oxygen in a snap,

and then they just essentially
suffocate and just die.

Narrator: By the time the tide comes in

and reopens the gates, it's too late.

This vast school of fish
crammed one on top of another

has literally drowned.

See that kind of waste,
it's just a sad, sad feeling.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Now, on a highway in tennessee...

Woman: The hell is that?

Narrator: ...A formation
of strange luminous

flying objects in the night sky...

Is it dangerous?

Is this some sort of an attack?

Moran: Who has put these lights up there,

and who's controlling them?

♪

Narrator: Oak ridge, tennessee,
September 21, 2012...

Evening commuters are alarmed

by a pattern of gleaming
objects in the sky.

Woman: I don't even know what that is.

You see some that are
going faster than others.

Narrator: They neither look nor
sound like any conventional flying craft.

A helicopter kind of makes sense,

but we don't hear any noise.

Narrator: The glowing objects are too large

and too bright to be drones,
but then, what are they?

So one easy explanation
would be chinese lanterns.

Narrator: But chinese
lanterns, again, are too small,

and they don't hover.

They continue to rise
until the candle goes out,

and they fall to the ground.

Some even wonder if they
are owls hunting at night.

Ramkisoon: I can count
nine lights in the sky,

so this can't be barn owls

because barn owls are solitary hunters.

Narrator: The size,
appearance, and behavior

of these objects defy explanation.

They're not moving in a way

that you would expect
something in the air to move.

They're not going fast,
but they're also not moving

in a straight, linear
trajectory like a plane,

so it's just a mystery.

What are they?

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Coming up...

At a new mexico jail,

a prisoner is sentenced
to afterlife without parole...

First thing that came to my mind is, like,

"it's probably a ghost."

narrator: ...And the weird lights

seen over america's spookiest secret labs.

♪

Narrator: In oak ridge, tennessee,

nine mysterious lights hover in the sky.

Woman: What the hell is that?

Narrator: It's a place
where weird aerial activity

has been spotted before.

In 1950, 11 unidentified objects
were seen flying over oak ridge.

Several military officers
spotted it independently,

and there was radar to corroborate it,

and so it would seem pretty realistic,

so the fbi stepped in to investigate.

The fbi were never able to
fully explain what happened

in that 1950s incident,
which led a lot of people

to speculate that it was ufos.

Narrator: Ex-cia analyst
lindsay moran examines

maps of the surrounding area

and finds they are hovering close

to one of the most
secretive places in the u.S...

Oak ridge national laboratory.

This place has secrets
built into its foundation.

Narrator: The top-secret lab is
hidden on a 58-square-mile site.

Here, scientists carry out experiments

at the very edge of known
science with quantum physics,

condensed matter, invisible nanotechnology,

and controversial artificial intelligence.

Oak ridge even houses a
spallation neutron source,

which creates the most
intense pulse neutron beams

in the world.

It is also home to a
real-life mechanical monster,

the largest and most intelligent
supercomputer on planet earth.

Few can ever hope to understand

the scientific experiments
carried out here,

much of it funded by the military.

Science journalist jon farrow considers

whether the lights are caused
by one of the secret tests rumored

to be going on at the site.

There are some people that believe

that there's a secret government project

called tr-3b, which is
developing a nuclear aircraft.

Narrator: A nuclear-powered aircraft
has been the dream of designers

since the 1950s, but
while small nuclear reactors

have been used to power
ships and submarines,

the u.S. Military officially canceled

its nuclear aircraft program,
project pluto, in 1964.

No official explanation was ever given,

but military officials
were said to be worried

nuclear aircraft would
escalate the cold war.

But rumors persist that
the project was buried away

and continued in secret.

The tr-3b is rumored to use
some sort of pressurized mercury

combined with nuclear power.

Narrator: Although tr-3b
does not officially exist,

some ufologists claim this nuclear-powered

aircraft accounts

for sightings of notorious
black triangle ufos.

These unexplained lights
have got a lot of people

wondering if this could
be a potential test flight

of the tr squadron.

Narrator: The energy released
during a nuclear reaction

is so powerful that just 1
pound of uranium produces

the same amount of energy
as 385,000 pounds of jet fuel.

It means that a nuclear-powered
aircraft would be much lighter

and able to travel farther

than any existing jet-fueled aircraft.

If tr does exist, it would be
completely new to science

and totally revolutionary.

Narrator: But when former
cia analyst lindsay moran

reviews the footage, she is unconvinced

it shows the world's first
nuclear-powered aircraft.

Why would they test it

in a populated area with the lights on?

I mean, that's not
covert, that's advertising.

Narrator: It is unlikely that the
american public will ever be told

or will ever be able to understand

the science going on at the
oak ridge national laboratory.

The cause of the strange lights in the sky

above the labs remains unexplained.

Narrator: Now, in a police
station in new mexico...

You just get this feeling
like you're being watched.

It's a secure area.

It's totally locked down.

Narrator: ...A jailbreak
that police can't solve.

No human can actually walk
through a chain-link fence.

Narrator: A phantom prisoner,

or a spectral murder
victim back from the dead?

This used to be a landfill,

and there was quite a few unsolved murders

that they dropped off the bodies here.

It made me think that it could be a ghost.

♪

Narrator: September 20,
2014, espanola, new mexico...

Police officer karl romero
is on a routine night shift

manning the city's police station.

That night, I was the only officer on duty.

Narrator: The station is
located 2 miles out of town

in an isolated industrial park.

Romero: Night is pretty quiet.

It's, like, dead silence,
and all the sudden,

you hear sounds, or you
think you're seeing things.

It's kind of scary sometimes.

Narrator: Besides the police
officer, the only person here

is a prisoner locked in their cell.

Romero: I was just
sitting down on that chair

over there looking at the cameras,

making sure everything was secure.

Narrator: 18 cctv
cameras cover the 12 cells,

the front lobby, the booking room,

and the station's exterior.

All is normal until romero switches

to the live feed from camera 5,

which faces the secure rear compound.

The gates were closed.

There was no way of
someone entering or exiting.

So when I was looking at the screen,

there was, like, a white
object walking across it.

Narrator: There is no video glitch.

There is no tape being used.

This is a digital record.

Whatever is being
captured is definitely there.

Romero replays the image.

The police are in the station,
the prisoner accounted for,

and whatever this is can
walk through solid objects.

So the object that we're talking about,

it came from the corner of this fence here

and walked straight through
the fence and walked southwest.

Narrator: The object appears to
have gotten out of the police station

by passing right through its
heavily guarded perimeter.

So this is a very secure
place because of this,

and then we have razor wire on the top,

so they can't crawl over it.

Narrator: For a human,
the only way in or out

is if the duty officer inside
buzzes the door open.

If that was a person,
they shouldn't be able

to walk through a chain-link fence.

First thing that came to my mind is, like,

"it's probably a ghost."

♪

Narrator: Coming up...

A green smog monster
threatens to eat moscow,

and is a supernatural presence
stalking an american jail?

I personally didn't believe
in ghosts or anything like that

until I saw it for my own two eyes.

Narrator: In new mexico,
police officer karl romero

is on the graveyard shift at espanola jail

when security cameras capture
footage of a mysterious figure

with seemingly supernatural powers.

The footage is only the latest weird event

at the espanola police station.

There's also been a lot
of incidents here at night,

weird stuff that you can't just explain.

We have officers that
come here all the time.

Doesn't matter if they're
state police, sheriffs...

They won't want to come back.

Not by themselves, anyways.

Narrator: Officer martinez
was alone in the station

at 3:00 a.M. In the morning.

I had my chair leaning back,
and I had my eyes closed,

and I opened my eyes,

and I saw this shadow
standing on top of me.

I can't explain what it
was, but I fell off the chair.

I personally didn't believe
in ghosts or anything like that

until I saw it for my own two eyes,

and then I think anything is possible.

It could've been a ghost.

Narrator: Experts are
baffled by the eerie footage.

These are security guys,
and their job is to watch

and monitor those screens
because it could be a jailbreak,

but this is not what they think it is.

These are law enforcement personnel

reporting a spectral image.

I mean, this is a prison.
It's a secured area,

and something is just
able to drift right on through.

Narrator: To help determine if there
could be a spirit on the premises,

officer romero searches the town records

but finds no deaths
reported at the police station.

However, he does find the site its built on

has a sinister past.

Romero: This used to be a landfill
back in, like, the '70s and '80s,

and there was quite a few
unsolved murders or murders

that they dropped off the bodies here.

Narrator: Military correspondent
carlo munoz examines the footage

and thinks he sees an explanation

for the shadowy object.

Muñoz: As the figure moves past the poles

on the right of the screen,

the objects to the left
seem to distort just a little bit.

That kind of reminds me of the effect

a stealth cloaking technology would have.

Narrator: Invisibility cloaks
have long been associated

with folklore and fairy tales,

but today, the u.S. Military is
trying to produce one for real.

It's a technology that could revolutionize

battlefield camouflage.

And the national labs at los alamos

have a very large hand

in trying to develop
this kind of technology.

Narrator: Los alamos national laboratory

is a top-secret government facility

and is just 21 miles from
the espanola police station.

Is this some sort of black ops test

where somebody is testing their technology?

Narrator: But when o'brien
examines the footage,

he doubts it shows a covert
test mission caught on camera.

This could be a cloaking
device, but that doesn't explain

how this person actually got
through the chain-link fence.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: The footage
comes to the attention

of physicist grant denn.

He considers if the phantom
could be something dangerous

but not yet dead.

Denn: As the thing moves
across the field of view,

it's actually not far in the courtyard

but rather in front of the lens itself

and being distorted optically.

Although there may appear to be long legs

all the way across the courtyard,

there could actually be very short legs

likehat of a spider as it
crawled across the lens.

Narrator: New mexico's arid landscape

is home to two deadly venomous spiders...

The widow and the recluse.

A bite from a recluse can be lethal.

Victims have suffered organ
failure, convulsions, and death.

Could a crawling spider
look like a walking phantom?

The police at this jail monitor
these screens every night.

They do see bugs, but
according to the officers,

they don't ever look like this.

Martinez: I've been here 9 years.

Whatever passed that night, I do not know,

but it wasn't no bugs.

It wasn't... I can't explain what it was.

Romero: A lot of people
have different speculations

of what it could be.

Most of us at our
department thinks it's a ghost,

but it's basically unsolved right now.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Coming up...

Is this sinister green
cloud a strike on moscow?

This could be a chemical
attack on the russian state.

♪

Narrator: Now, on the 26th
anniversary of the chernobyl disaster...

People in moscow are
terrified, and I don't blame them.

The question is, "what is coming for them?"

narrator: A terrifying green
cloud engulfs moscow.

I would get in my car,

and I'd put the pedal to
the metal, and I would drive.

Narrator: Russians fear a new
and even deadlier catastrophe.

It's like a postapocalyptic situation.

Is it radioactive?

Is it toxic?

What could this possibly be?

♪

Narrator: April 26, 2012,
the outskirts of moscow...

A normal morning is interrupted

by a terrifying haze engulfing the sky.

Once this moves into the
city, people really start to panic.

There was huge traffic on social media

telling people to
basically evacuate the city.

Authorities really had a tough job

to try to calm people down and not panic.

They don't know what this
is, and it looks pretty harmful.

Narrator: Experts wonder what
could be behind this sinister cloud.

What sort of chemicals could people

have been pumping into the air

to make green clouds appear on this scale?

Narrator: Journalist jeff
wise examines the footage

and considers if a chemical horror

is unfolding in the russian capital.

When you see this, when you
see the color of this substance,

it's hard not to think of chemical weapons.

Narrator: There is one deadly gas

that bears a striking resemblance

to the green cloud... chlorine.

Zimmerman: Chlorine gas has
instantaneous and devastating effects.

If this cloud is toxic chlorine,

it will be a mass murder
on an unprecedented scale.

Narrator: Chlorine gas was first
used as a weapon during world war I.

Zimmerman: When chlorine gas is inhaled,

it reacts with the
moist lining of the lungs

and turns to hydrochloric acid

that starts to immediately
corrode the lungs,

basically melting them away.

You have no chance of survival.

Narrator: Chlorine gas has been
officially outlawed as a weapon since 1925,

but the united states has
accused some rogue nations,

who have close links to
russia, of using them today.

Has chlorine gas catastrophically escaped

from a secret moscow laboratory?

But studying the footage,

military analyst carlo munoz doubts

what we are seeing is chlorine gas.

The characteristics of
a chlorine gas attack...

It's a very dense material.

It's heavy, so the cloud
really kind of hits the ground

and sits there.

What we're seeing here in this video

is the cloud rising up,
which really calls into doubt

whether or not this
could be a chlorine attack.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: The footage
comes to the attention

of meteorologist angela fritz.

She analyzes weather records for the area.

The winds were pretty strong that day,

up to about 40 miles per hour,

so you think about things that
are easily transported via wind,

and the first thing I think of is pollen.

Essentially what we're
looking at is a pollen bomb.

These trees wait all year

for this one moment of
explosive reproduction.

In this moment, the birch trees
collectively create this cloud

so massive it turns the red square green.

Narrator: Moscow is surrounded by
hundreds of square miles of dense forest.

Birch trees are prevalent throughout

and produce distinctive green pollen.

A single tree can
produce 5 pounds of pollen

in a matter of weeks,

so if you get a very strong
wind and thousands of trees,

you could get this green cloud.

Narrator: Experts agree, a
pollen bomb is the best explanation

for the weird green sky,

but some residents remain unconvinced.

Wise: When the residents of moscow heard

what the explanation for
this was, they didn't believe it.

They said to themselves, "look.
We've always lived in a forest.

This has never happened before."