The Unbelieveable with Dan Aykroyd (2023-…): Season 1, Episode 9 - What Lies Beneath - full transcript

- Imagine, strange
creatures lurking deep

Below the ocean's surface.

Creatures, some say,

Are responsible for
countless tragedies.

- The ship disappears,

All 31 crew members
are lost, gone.

I know exactly what I saw,

It's a dragon in the water.

- Or shocking evidence
of the undead,

Buried in a new
England hillside.

The skull has
been detached from the body.



- Everyone gets superstitious,
is whipped up into a frenzy,

And starts desecrating graves.

- How about uncovering an entire
lost city in your basement?

Little do you realize

That beneath your feet
is an engineering marvel.

- These are the
stories of things

That lie beneath that
are so surprising,

They're truly unbelievable.

For many of us, the
most disturbing answer

To what lies beneath is also
the most common, the dead.

But do you know what's
even more disturbing?

The undead.

- It's 1990 in
griswold, connecticut,

And what is about to
happen is insanely creepy.



A group of boys are
playing in the woods

And they discover a human skull.

The griswold, connecticut police
think it's a serial killer

And immediately cordon off
the area as a crime scene.

- But once forensic
anthropologists

Start doing their analyses,

They figure out
that this is someone

Who was buried many
years ago, in the 1800s.

As they dig deeper,

They uncover something
even stranger.

- There's four burials,
three of them are normal,

But the fourth, they
find that the skull

Has been detached from the body

And it has been laid
on top of the coffin

With the two thigh bones
crossed in front of it.

In other words, like a pirate
flag on top of the coffin.

- And carved upon it
are the letters, jb.

- They dig down and
they opened the coffin,

That's when they
find this one grave,

Honestly, it looks like it

Could have been ritualistic.

You've got a decapitated skull,

You've got the
ribs cracked open.

As the forensics
experts do their thing,

They're able to
tell that this body

Was dug up five
years after death

And then dismembered
and rearranged.

- They call archeologists,
they call museums,

They call universities,

And finally someone
tells them, well,

You know about the jewett
city vampires, right?

It turns out those
kids playing in the woods

Stumbled across the
first physical evidence

Of something deeply irrational.

- The new England vampire
panic sweeps new England

From the late 18th up through
the late 19th century.

- When a death seems
foggy or strange,

Everyone gets superstitious,
is whipped up into a frenzy,

And starts desecrating graves,

Making sure that the
dead don't rise again.

- Not entirely
dissimilar from the tests

That were used in salem or
in other eras with witches.

If we have a series
of deaths in a village

And we have a suspected undead
member of the community,

We'll exhume that
body, cut it open,

Remove the heart,
cut the heart open,

And if there's
blood inside, bingo,

We've found our vampire.

The mysterious jb

Is just one of many
suspected vampires dug up

During the panic.

Perhaps the most notorious
is the poor mercy brown.

- In the 1880s, mercy's mother

And sister both succumb
to tuberculosis,

And mercy is left with
her brother and father.

Mercy seems fine for about
10 years, but when she's 19,

She too develops the symptoms
of tuberculosis infection.

By the dawn of the 19th century,

Tuberculosis has killed one
in seven people on the planet.

So there's reason to be afraid.

- Tuberculosis is not fun.

It's a bacteria and
it attacks your lungs,

But it also does a lot
of other terrible things.

It rots part of your body,

It can cause you to spit up
blood, you can't breathe,

You get gaunt and pale,

And this sort of looks a
little bit like maybe vampires.

- Mercy is being greatly
diminished by this disease.

Death is on her door, but
rather than having compassion

Or have mercy shown to
her by her neighbors,

They think she was the
source of her mother

And sister's death
a decade before,

And they accuse
mercy of vampirism.

That resentment
continues even after she dies.

Though she's dead and buried,

The entire village
remains terrified.

- It just so happens
that mercy's brother

Is also ill at this point,

And the neighbors think
mercy is coming back

To feed on her family members.

They convince her father
to exhume the bodies

So that they can examine them

For what they believe will
be proof of vampirism,

Namely that there will
still be blood in the heart.

So they open the graves
of mercy's mother, sister,

And mercy's grave as well.

Of course, her mother and sister

Have been dead for 10 years.

There's no blood
left in their hearts.

Mercy's only been dead
for a little while,

So of course, when
they open her chest,

Her heart still has blood in it,

And they determine
she must be a vampire.

And how the
villagers plan to stop

The vampire virus
is, well, merciless.

- They take mercy's
heart, they burn it,

Those ashes are then fed
to her younger brother

As basically a vaccine
against vampirism.

- Hopefully at this point
in time he's too fevered

To recognize what was happening.

But mercy's scorched
heart can't save her brother,

And two months later he
too dies of tuberculosis.

- Mercy's story is well
covered in the media,

It goes global.

- Following these events,
bram stoker is writing

His soon to be world
famous novel "dracula",

And there is supposition

That mercy brown is translated

Into the story of lucy
who also withers away

And then returns as
a child of the night.

- But what legend inspired
stoker's infamous blood sucker?

Most believe it was an
actual medieval prince,

One with a very real
thirst for blood.

- Vlad the impaler is
the original dracula.

And he does execute
people in nasty ways.

He's famous for impaling
alive his enemies.

- He will go on to
earn his moniker,

The impaler, where
he would kill,

According to greek historians,
upwards of 80,000 people,

More than a quarter
of whom were impaled.

Tales abound of vlad dining

Among his impaled victims,

Even dipping his
bread in their blood.

- Some reports even say
that vlad drinks the blood

Of his enemies, which would
make him the closest thing

We have to, well,
a real vampire.

The question is what
caused this unholy bloodlust?

- Early in his life,

Vlad the impaler is imprisoned
for political reasons.

According to lore,

Vlad spends years in
an underground dungeon

In a castle called tokat.

- He develops this
taste for impaling rats,

Essentially conducting
certain kinds

Of grotesque experiments
on the corpses of rats.

Mind you, if you were
incarcerated in a dungeon

Or dark, damp cave underneath
a castle for years on end,

You might go a little
bloodthirsty yourself.

Makes a weird kind of sense,

But most historians
write off this story,

Because the castle where
vlad was imprisoned

Doesn't have dungeons.

At least that's what
they think until 2014.

- The historical site of
tokat castle in turkey

Is finally excavated,

And the archaeologists
discover something

That they never
thought they'd find

In a million years, tunnels.

Tunnels that lead
to two hidden dungeons.

- They start to realize
this was a place

Where people were imprisoned.

- They put two and two together

And realized that these tunnels

And dungeons closely matched
the accounts of those

Where vlad and his
brother suffered torment.

Does this prove that the tales

Of the real life dracula
are actually true?

- So this chance
discovery in tokat castle

May actually be the connection

That we need of the dungeons
and the terror experienced

By vlad the impaler that
led to the inspiration

For bram stoker's
prince of darkness.

- Dungeons, the undead,

What else could lie beneath?

As we'll find out,
the deeper you go,

The stranger it gets.

- The age of exploration
opened the world's eyes

To just how vast the
planet's oceans are.

It also opened the
door to many questions,

Like just how deep
are those waters

And what the heck is down there?

- In 1875, the hms challenger
is circumnavigating the globe

In what was really the first
great oceanographic expedition.

- Pretty big adventure here.

They're making the first charts
of the ocean, if you will,

And this is pretty important.

So they roll up to the area
called the mariana trench,

And they drop a line, and
it keeps going and going.

With five
miles of rope on board,

The crew figures they have
plenty to reach the bottom,

Until the unbelievable happens.

- They run out of rope

And they can't actually
get the exact depth.

- And then 76 years
later in 1951,

The hms challenger ii goes out.

Do they bring a bigger
piece of rope this time?

No need when you've got sonar.

What they find shocks the world.

- The challenger ii
measures the mariana trench

To be seven miles deep.

It is officially the
deepest part of the ocean.

- It is also the
deepest place on earth.

- Let's put how deep
this goes in perspective.

It's as if you stacked
25 empire state buildings

On top of each other,
that's how deep this is.

That's pretty deep.

So deep it makes curious
explorers worldwide wonder,

Can anything live there?

- The first ones to take the
plunge are oceanographers,

Jacques piccard and
don walsh in 1960.

- And they get in this
thing called the bathysphere

That descends underwater.

- These guys get
down to the bottom,

They see what appears to
be a barren landscape.

The pressures are so great,

There's no light to
support photosynthesis.

But when they look more closely,

They see that there

Actually is life.

- There is life at the bottom.

I mean, this is unbelievable.

This changes
everything people know

About what is happening
in the ocean depths.

After a three hour ascent,

The divers return
to tell their tale,

But now there are new questions.

How many creatures
are down there

And how on earth
do they survive?

- Most of the life that
we see in the ocean lives

Within the first 600 feet
where the waters are warmer

And there are kind of thriving
ecosystems based on the sun.

Below that, you enter
the twilight zone

Where not a lot of
light filters down

And the ecosystems
are kind of different.

Below that, it's pitch black,

And you get into alien worlds
like something out of space,

But they're happening
right here below the ocean.

- The creatures
that live down there

Sound like creatures of
darkness, vampire squid,

Zombie worms, goblin sharks.

- One of my favorites
is the dragon fish.

And the coolest thing about them

Is that because it's
so dark down there,

They don't really use
their eyes that much,

But they've evolved to
use bioluminescence.

And so along their
face and their jaw,

They have these little spots

That light up in
different colors.

And that actually
attracts smaller fish,

Which when they approach
the mouth of that animal,

Become a meal.

To say the trench's
temperatures fluctuate

Is an understatement.

It can range anywhere
from a chilly 34

To a scalding 700
degrees fahrenheit.

- At those depths,

There are also vents
into the earth's crust

That release boiling hot water.

And believe it or not,
there are actually creatures

That are also evolved

To survive in those
extreme conditions as well.

- I'd say that the coolest
thing about the trench

Is that it still remains
largely unexplored.

We've landed more people
on the surface of the moon

Than we have in the depths
of the mariana trench.

So there is so much
more there to find.

There are more
surprises to come,

And more evil, deadly
creatures to discover.

- Just off the coast of japan
dwells a creature legend calls

Both evil and deadly,

One that lies hidden

Deep beneath these
treacherous waters.

- There's this area
of the pacific ocean

That's between japan, taiwan,

And yap island that could
give the bermuda triangle

A run for its money.

It's called the devil's sea,

And it has a ton of
shipwrecks and disappearances,

but according to chinese legend,

It's not the ocean
that's to blame.

- 3000 years ago, chinese
sailors tell stories

Of this huge undersea dragon
pulling ships underwater

And feasting on their crews,

Which is how the area
gets its other name,

The dragon's triangle.

The dragon's triangle continues

To claim countless
victims over the years,

Including a hoard of fearsome
13th century warriors.

- The conqueror, kublai khan,

Who is the grandson
of genghis khan,

Decides to invade japan.

And according to records,

Lost 40,000 sailors
to shipwrecks

And determined to discontinue
his planned invasion

And to stay away from
the dragon's triangle.

The place is considered
too dangerous.

So what actually
destroys kahn's massive armies?

Some say a typhoon,
others say the gods,

But khan himself thinks
something different.

- Kublai khan and and
his advisors believed

That their navy was
swallowed by a sea dragon.

Even one of history's
most fearless warriors

Was rattled by these waters.

The legend endures
well into the 20th century,

Galvanized by an eyewitness
account during world war ii.

- It's now 1944, and in the
heat of a naval aerial battle,

Japanese airman, toshiaki lang,

Swears, as he looks down,

That he sees the loch
ness monster-like head

Of a giant sea serpent.

In his after action report,
toshiaki says to his superiors

That the beast was at
least 150 feet long

And used giant triangular
wings to paddle

Its way through the
tumultuous seas.

- He's pretty
indignant about this,

Because when he mentions it,

People think, "have you been
drinking a little bit?

Or maybe you're mistaking
it for a submarine."

And he's like, "I know
exactly what I saw.

It's 150 feet long,
this thing is a monster,

It's a dragon in the water."

the pilot's
warning is brushed aside.

But after nine more ships
vanish in the devil's sea

Between 1946 and 1951,

The japanese government

Can no longer ignore

That what's happening

Here could be fishy.

- In 1951, the maritime
safety agency assigns

The task to a
research vessel known

As the kaiyo-maru no. 5.

And what happens?

The ship investigating the
disappearances disappears.

All 31 crew members
are lost, gone.

- So the japanese
government decides

That maybe investigating this
is not the best thing to do.

So what they do is they
just issue this thing called

The notice to mariners
and they say, okay,

Just officially avoid this area,

'cause bad things happen.

Even with the warning,
ships continue to vanish.

Some say as many as a
thousand since 1951.

- One thing seems certain,

No matter what you think
causes these problems,

Whether it's rogue super waves,

Or underwater volcanic activity,

Or here's another favorite
theory, methane gas eruptions,

Or here's another favorite
theory, methane gas eruptions,

Something weird is happening
in the dragon's triangle.

Something weird is happening
in the dragon's triangle.

- If you know where to
dig, all kinds of strange

And interesting things
can be uncovered,

But sometimes it's the hole
itself that's the mystery.

- In the early 2000s,
geologist heinrich frank

Is driving in novo hamburgo
in southern brazil.

And he passes a
construction site,

And something catches his
eye, something weird.

He sees this tunnel. It's
a hole about 15 feet wide.

This is a Friday afternoon
and he has to keep driving.

But frank thinks about
this all weekend.

I mean, what is it?

Is it a tunnel?

Who made it?

Where does it go?

Why is it there?

- He can't stop
thinking about it.

So a few weeks later,

He goes back to the

Site to investigate.

He goes up to this tunnel
that is leading underground

And he starts walking into
this giant 15 foot hole.

- And right away he
notices something weird.

Remember, he's a geologist,

He knows that earth
shaped by water

Is not gonna create a
perfectly round opening.

So this is an odd thing.

- As he walks into this
tunnel, the deeper he gets,

He looks up at the ceiling,

And he's noticing
these giant claw marks.

Even as a geologist,

Frank now understands
the chilling reality.

He's standing in the home
of something very big

And very deadly.

- These look like the homes
of giant jungle creatures.

And frank wants to know
what kind of creature

Makes a tunnel this big?

Local paleontologists
are thrilled to share

That these huge burrowed tunnels

Are the work of giant
prehistoric sloths.

- When you think
of a sloth today,

You think of something that
is slow and beyond adorable.

But these prehistoric
giant sloths,

They put today's
sloths to shame.

- The extinct giant
sloths all belong

To the genus megatherium,
which is an awesome word,

That I think sounds like the
name of a heavy metal band.

These are huge animals.

They can be 10 feet long
and weigh 2000 pounds.

That's a ton.

And they have these
huge, long, hooked claws.

They're nine inches long.

Think about your kitchen knives,

Now imagine that being
on the end of the hands

Of these animals
and them using it

To pull tree branches
down to their mouth.

They can also use those
claws as a form of defense.

Turns out those same claws

Are the perfect tool to dig
giant burrows in the ground.

- So frank, super curious guy,

Starts using satellite imagery

To map out these
network of tunnels,

And he finds out there's
not just one, not just two,

There are 1500 separate tunnels
that are kind of snaking

Through this southern
brazilian area.

I think it's incredible that
these 2000-pound creatures

That once roamed the earth,

That there's still
evidence of them, like,

Next to a construction site.

It's wild.

- Created more than
10,000 years ago,

Today these ancient tunnels feel

More eerie than frightening.

Now, that's not the case

With a mysterious
cave in the americas.

Here it's not the size that
matters, it's what's inside it.

- In the jungles
of yucatan, mexico,

Near a place called
kantemo village,

There is a cave that
could only be described

As a living nightmare.

- So you go into this cave,
it's a 65-foot mouth,

But it narrows a little bit.

And once you get into
this narrower part,

There are things hanging
from the roof of the cave.

They kind of look like vines,

But they're not
vines, they're snakes.

- It's the yellow-red rat snake.

And there's this one
population of them

That have evolved to
live only in this cave.

- At night, when the bats leave,

They leave in this giant drove.

And the snakes see this
opportunity as dinnertime.

Tucked into the
crevices of this cave,

They'd open up their mouths
and pretty much allow the bats

To impale themselves
on their fangs.

It's easy picking, especially
with the amount of bats

That are in this cave.

- And there are so
many of the bats

In this particular cave system

That this population
of snakes has learned

That they don't ever
need to leave the cave.

- They're very aware
of the time of day.

They know when the bats
are gonna be coming out,

And they actually get
themselves into position.

So it just goes to show you

That these are actually
very intelligent creatures.

Believe it or not,
visitors are actually welcome

To tour this dangling
hall of terrors.

- I've been to the cave
of the hanging snakes

And it is one of the eeriest

Places I've ever been to.

The ceilings are very low,

And as a human inside that
cave, you have to crawl in

With your head nearly
touching the ceiling,

And then hundreds, hundreds
of snakes coming out

Of the ceiling to
catch little bats,

Grab them with their mouths,
and back up into the ceiling.

It is the definition of
a living horror movie.

- No, thank you.

This is my nightmare.

This is my nightmare, cave
with the hanging snakes.

This is my nightmare, cave
with the hanging snakes.

That's one cave you
won't find me hanging around.

- Sometimes what hides beneath
is neither deadly nor evil,

But rather a glimpse
into a mysterious past.

Take this astonishing
find by a miner in 2022.

- In the klondike gold fields of

The yukon territory of canada,

You have a man by the

Name of travis delawski.

He's working in a trench

And in this trench
you have this creek

That is covered with permafrost
that's sitting on the top layer.

- As travis is chipping
away at the rock hard ice,

Suddenly a crevice opens.

- Inside, he discovers
something strange,

Some kind of creature.

He sees a short tail

And at first he thinks it's
a mummified buffalo calf.

But as travis
looks more closely,

They see something a buffalo
doesn't have, a trunk.

- So he immediately
calls his boss to try

And figure out what the
hell he just came across.

So the boss comes down to see
what travis actually find,

And he's shocked.

He sees fur and it looks like
it died maybe an hour ago.

So he immediately yells out

For everyone in the
trench to stop working.

And he takes some
photos with his phone,

And then he calls some
local paleontologists

To come in and
inspect the scene.

When they see the photos,

They confirm the unbelievable.

It's a baby woolly mammoth
straight out of the ice age.

- And they're all hands on deck,

And they have to
act immediately,

Because once this woolly
mammoth baby is exposed

To the elements, it can
start to deteriorate.

And there's a storm coming

That is gonna totally
flood out the trench.

With moments to spare,

They manage to get the
woolly mammoth baby out.

They carefully
wrap it in a tarp,

And then they transport
it to a location

Where they actually
have a ceremony

With local indigenous elders.

Gathered in a circle, the
tribal elders offer a blessing

And name the mammoth nun cho ga,

Which means big baby animal
in their native haen language.

With the clock ticking,

Scientists must examine
the baby mammoth quickly

Before getting it into a
freezer for preservation.

- But they're able to determine
that nun cho ga is a female,

And she was only about a
month old when she died.

They estimate that she died
around 30,000 years ago.

- The geology of where the
mammoth is found indicates

That she was walking
across the grassland,

Strayed from her mother,

And then she fell,

Gets stuck in the mud,

And is preserved under tons
of permafrost to be found

By us thousands of years later.

Incredibly, they find a piece

Of grass in the woolly
mammoth's stomach.

Fortunately, this means
nun cho ga died quickly.

- While it's sad that nun cho
ga only lived about a month,

Her discovery today
is really incredible.

- This is the most intact
mummified ice age animal

Found in north america,
if not the world.

- While a 30,000-year-old
creature trapped beneath the ice

Might be fascinating,
something terrifying lies

In an otherwise
enchanting setting,

Something that has locals
afraid to go anywhere near it.

- This place is 25
miles south of merida

In an area surrounded
by dense jungle.

There's this little opening,

This hole, which
enters into a void,

And inside this void
is a drop into an abyss

Of watery darkness.

It's called sac uayum,

And it's one of at least 40
cenotes, or underwater caves,

That lie beneath this
mysterious region.

They collect so much
naturally filtered groundwater

That in the 13th century
the mayans decide

To build their new
capital here, mayapan.

- This walled city of
like 17,000 people thrives

For centuries, and it has dozens
of life sustaining cenotes

Inside the city.

- Most of them are within
the walls of mayapan,

Except for one,

That for some reason the
walls zigzagged around

And moved around to avoid having

That one cenote inside

Their city, sac uayum.

- They believe sac
uayum is a sacred place,

A pathway to the underworld.

The maya also believed
that this place is guarded

By a feather covered
serpent with a horse's head,

Who will snatch children
who get too close.

- I've personally
visited mayapan,

And wanted to go to sac uayum,

And every villager I have
met have told me their story,

That they have seen a
snake-like creature that flies

And has a horse head that
is guarding that place,

And I should not get
anywhere close to sac uayum.

Is it possible

That sac uayum's legendary
feathered serpent is real,

Or at least once was?

In August of 2013,
archaeologists,

Led by dr. Bradley russell
attempt to find out.

- You can imagine
that getting in

And out of a sinkhole
that has a 40-foot drop

Is quite difficult.

So they basically have to be
lowered down into the water

And then they can
start their dive.

But remember, if
something goes wrong,

You gotta be hoisted
back out that 40 feet.

You're being slowly lowered,

Now you're in this
dark, murky water,

And you know you have to
actually penetrate through

And go into a cave.

- As bradley and his team scuba

Through these tight passages,

Their tanks are
hitting the limestone,

I mean, it's so tight.

That's where they
discover human skeletons.

Could these be ancient victims

Of the notorious
serpent monster?

- There are just dozens
of skeletons of men

And women in this place.

In mayan civilization,

We do not have evidence of
mass graves or mass burials.

These people seem to be
in the prime of life.

There's nothing that
shows, for example,

Damage through warfare
to the skeletons.

And there's nothing
that suggests

That they're victims
of human sacrifice.

So the fact that in this
cenote there are dozens

And dozens of human remains
makes it a bit of a mystery.

We don't know why these people
ended up in this cenote.

- Whatever science might
eventually uncover here,

Many of those who live
by sac uayum believe

Many of those who live
by sac uayum believe

The legends are true,

And that this mysterious
pool is indeed an entrance

To the underworld.

- The city of paris
is known for romance,

Art, and cafes.

But below its
charming street lies

Something quite different,

Miles of tunnels stuffed
with human remains.

- The tunnels themselves
are the result

Of limestone quarries that are
dug around the 13th century.

But quarrying was unregulated.

People just dug
where they wanted to

And then when the
limestone ran out,

The tunnel was abandoned.

So by the 18th century,

This part of paris
was like swiss cheese.

By 1780, the
city of paris is left

With nearly 200 miles of
abandoned mining tunnels

Beneath its streets,

Until they find a
dark, new purpose.

- Parisian cemeteries are
literally overflowing.

Graves are buried on top of
graves on top of graves

On top of graves.

- It gets so bad
that a building next

To the cemetery has its basement
wall completely collapse,

Because there are so many bodies

On the other side of the wall.

- The paris city
officials realize

Something has to be done.

They think, what we really need

Is a good underground
storage area,

And we have one, all of
those limestone tunnels.

- So in 1786, thus commences

The most macabre public
works project of all time.

Wagon upon wagon

Upon wagon cloaked in black
cloths are shipping bones

From the cemetery down
into the disused mines

To create the paris catacombs.

We're talking about millions
upon millions of human remains.

Today, visitors can
tour this bizarre display

Of over 600 years of the dead.

- There's an official
door to the catacombs

Where you can pay
and you can go tour

A certain small section
of the catacombs.

But not everyone
sneaks down there to gawk

At old bones.

- The catacombs also plays host

To a very interesting
and amazing heist.

A team of people start going
down through the catacombs,

Using the tunnel as
a means of getting

To a very fancy
luxembourg apartment.

They drill up 20 feet in order
to get into this apartment.

What's there are really
expensive bottles of wine,

Each bottle at least $1,000,
and they steal 300 of them,

And disappear back down
into the catacombs,

Just melting into the darkness.

The wine
thieves are never found,

But it's not even the
strangest secret use

Of this underground labyrinth.

- The paris police department

Has a unit to patrol
these tunnels,

And they regularly go
down there to train.

They're going along
this dark tunnel

And they suddenly
see a sign that says,

Building site, no access.

And they haven't been
informed of any kind

Of city construction project
happening underground.

So they push through this tarp
to find out what's beyond.

- They lift the tarp away
to find a security camera,

And suddenly dogs begin
barking from everywhere.

They don't turn out
to be real dogs.

It's pumped through speakers
to frighten people away.

But that makes it
even more intriguing.

Who is trying to keep
us out of this space?

What they find is truly bizarre,

Even for catacomb
police, a movie theater.

- Not only that, this
movie theater has attached

To it a fully-featured
restaurant and bar.

Not only that, it
has telephone lines.

So that means someone knows
the reservation number.

They're like, "hi, secret bar?"

They're like, "yeah?"

Like, "table for four?"

"yeah."

this underground
theater is obviously illegal.

But when police return
three days later,

They get another surprise.

- They come back,
everything's removed,

And there's a sign that
says do not try to find us.

- A photographer
named patrick alk,

Whose whole thing is to document

The underground
exploration movement.

Is disappointed that the
movie theater got busted,

But he says, "you know,

No problem, there are dozens
more where this came from.

You guys have no idea
what's down there."

- Finding unusual
things in your basement

Is fairly common
for most people.

But what one man finds in his
home in turkey, unbelievable.

- In 1963 in the turkish
town of derinkuyu

A man is doing a home
improvement project.

Now, most of us who do
this kind of diy stuff,

You expect to find old
stuff in the walls,

You know, old photos
and maybe some jewelry.

Well, this guy takes
his sledgehammer

And he hits the wall

And he hits it again and
again, and he breaks through.

What he finds is a passageway,

Which, when he crawls into it,

Leads to another tunnel and
another tunnel beyond that.

- And the tunnel goes
on a little bit longer,

And a little bit longer, and
then opens into chambers,

And then more chambers
and then more tunnels.

He's discovered an
ancient subterranean city

Right in his cellar wall

All through the throw
of a sledgehammer.

It's the 2000-year-
old lost city of derinkuyu,

One of the largest subterranean
towns in the world.

- What he uncovers is
absolutely unbelievable,

A tunneled city that can
house up to 20,000 people,

Animals, livestock,
grain stores.

The first eight stories
have ventilation shafts

That ensure that
fresh air circulates

Through the entire
subterranean city.

- They've dug out troughs

For the camels that
are down there.

They have large vats for the
wine that they're fermenting.

All of this is dug
of the stone itself.

It's very, very resourceful.

But why build such an
elaborate city underground?

- The main purpose of
this underground city

Is for the people of derinkuyu

To come in and hide
from outside forces,

From dangerous people who may
have infiltrated the area.

- One of the most
amazing sites is there

Are these huge millstones

Which are in place
still to this day.

They have a round
hole in the middle

And you can roll this
millstone into place,

Which would then
block the tunnel

And stop the enemy
from going any further.

This defense
system works so well,

The city remains
in use until 1923

Before it's sealed up and
nearly lost to history.

Good thing for diy projects.

- If you're just walking
in one of these areas

With one of these
underground cities,

Nothing looks different.

I mean, it's just life
as normal on the surface.

Little do you realize

That beneath your feet
is an engineering marvel.

Makes you wonder
what unexpected things

Could be on the other side
of your own basement wall,

Or in your own backyard.

- In 1974, a plumber named
rosendo cruz from alhambra,

California, buys his wife
a brand new ferrari dino

For her birthday.

She's so excited, she
can't wait to take it out.

They cruise on out
to the brown derby

To have a birthday dinner,
have a wonderful time,

Come outside the restaurant,
and the ferrari is gone.

- Police are never
able to find the dino,

And ultimately, it becomes a

Cold case that's unsolved.

- Four years later,

You have a couple of boys
playing in the backyard,

And these boys decide, let's

Dig up stuff in the backyard

And see if we can find
some buried treasure.

And then their shovels start
to make a clinking sound.

No, did we hit a pipe?

So they immediately run out

And they flag down an la
county sheriff's cruiser.

- The policeman
contacts the city,

They bring out a bulldozer
and begin to dig,

And lo and behold,
what do they excavate?

A 1974 ferrari dino 246 gts,

The same ferrari
dino that was parked

Outside the brown
derby four years ago.

But after a little more digging,

They noticed something
totally unexpected.

- So when investigators
uncover the car,

They find that it's been

Almost impeccably preserved.

It's been wrapped in
plastic, and tarp,

And even blankets, and
someone clearly wanted

To maintain this car.

- Another thing that
helps preserve the vehicle

Is that it's in southern
california where it's dry.

And during this time, there
was actually a drought.

So they basically
made a ferrari mummy.

No one was ever charged
for the theft of the dino,

Though theories abound
as to who stole it

And why it was left there.

Maybe the thieves just
forgot where they put it.

But even after four
years underground,

This dino isn't destined to
just be scrapped for parts.

- Believe it or
not, to this day,

The dino still lives.

After it was recovered, it
was sold to a collector.

He decided to keep as much

Of the original
materials as possible.

It still has two of
the original wheels,

The original chrome,
and today it sports

A license plate
that says, dug up.

- Whether it's a perfectly
preserved baby mammoth,

Mysterious bones, or a vintage
ferrari in mint condition,

What lies beneath us is
fascinating, terrifying,

And sometimes, unbelievable.