Original subtitles

Narrator: worldwide, 300 Million surveillance 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.

There's got to be some Explanation for what's going on.

[ screams ]

Narrator: coming up...

Surveillance cameras capture a beast

Straight from a nightmare...

This is definitely something Out of the ordinary.

Something very strange.

Narrator: ...A cataclysmic Roadside blast sparks fears

Of a nuclear disaster...

Is this the end times coming at me?

Narrator: ...Scientists investigate

Unexplained balls of Fire lighting up the skies.

They look distinctly odd.

Narrator: and has this nanny cam Captured a demonic possession?

[ screams ]

This kid does a full-on "Exorcist."

Narrator: bizarre phenomena...

...Mysteries caught on surveillance...

What's the truth behind This strange evidence?

A dashboard-mounted camera Records an apocalyptic event.

The entire horizon line has been lit up

By whatever it is that's happening.

This is truly terrifying.

Something catastrophic Has been captured on camera.

The question is what.

♪♪

Narrator: st. Petersburg, russia...

February 6, 2012, 9:13 a.M...

Rush-hour traffic in the Country's cultural capital.

A dash cam records a regular commute.

As the driver hits a Traffic jam on the highway,

The camera captures an Extraordinary apparition.

[ boom ]

Something big and bad just happened.

Big bright light, lots of energy.

Narrator: drivers slam on their Brakes and brace for impact.

[ brakes screeching ]

Wallace: if I was sitting Behind the wheel of the car,

I would really be concerned.

Is this the end times coming at me?

What was that?

[ boom ]

No one knows, and that's the scariest part.

Narrator: experts race to Explain this terrifying event.

Pappalardo: the speculation Begins immediately,

And there are no answers forthcoming.

All that people know is That whatever happened

Couldn't have been good.

Narrator: this isn't the First time a blinding blast

Has lit up russian skies.

Chelyabinsk, 2013...

Another morning commute caught on camera.

People on their way to school, On their way to work looked up

And saw a bright streak of Light racing across the sky.

Narrator: a 60-foot-wide meteor Hits the upper atmosphere

At at 40,000 miles an hour.

Mostly, our atmosphere Protects us from space rocks,

Which is very lucky for us.

But every so often,

There are pieces that are Big enough to get through.

Narrator: the chelyabinsk meteor Creates a flash brighter than the sun.

[ boom ]

Its sonic boom shatters Windows across the city.

♪♪

But when experts analyze the St. Petersburg dash-cam footage,

They notice something strange.

There's a clue that rules Out this being a meteorite,

And that's that you see multiple flashes.

So, if this were a meteorite, You would see one explosion,

And it'd be done.

But we didn't see that.

This was clearly something else.

Narrator: physicist dianna Cowern studies the footage.

She detects the potential signs

Of a more sinister type of explosion.

It's amazing that this low-quality dash cam

Captured the different Colors of the explosion.

So, we see blues and yellows,

And that's a key to what's happening.

Narrator: within milliseconds, The sky is burning

With a brilliant blue glow.

It's the signature of an Energy release so immense,

It suggests a nuclear detonation.

During a thermonuclear blast,

The energy and radiation Excites nitrogen molecules,

And they give off light

Which we would see as This kind of blue glow.

Narrator: analysts fear a Potential nightmare scenario.

Rogue nuclear weapons that are available

From the russian arsenal Sold to the black market.

When you see a gigantic flash, And something like this happens,

A lot of people will immediately Jump to the conclusion,

"My god, it could be a ground-based nuke

That has been set off by a terrorist."

♪♪

Narrator: no terrorists claim Responsibility for the blast,

But this is the former soviet union,

And the specter of nuclear catastrophe

Can't be easily dismissed.

April 26, 1986... Chernobyl.

A flawed reactor at the nuclear power plant

Suffers a catastrophic core failure.

Pappalardo: when chernobyl blew its top,

It spewed 80 tons of radioactive material,

Contaminating the countryside for decades,

If not hundreds of years.

It turned an area the size of Colorado into a no-go zone,

And spiked cancer rates for years to come.

♪♪

Narrator: yet russia still Relies on nuclear power.

There's always a chance Of a chernobyl-like accident

Happening again.

And, as it turns out, there Is a nuclear power facility

Located just on the Outskirts of st. Petersburg.

This facility has the same kind of reactor

That blew up in chernobyl.

Narrator: but for some, the st. Petersburg dash-cam footage

Is missing key elements of a Nuclear power plant collapse.

There are a couple early indicators

That this is not a nuclear meltdown.

One of the big dangers Is that it is invisible.

We don't see these bright flashes,

Leading to the question...

"What the hell just blew Up over st. Petersburg?"

Narrator: coming up, a mysterious Beast lurks in the shadows...

I don't know what this thing is.

It looks dangerous.

Looks like something out of my nightmares.

[ roaring ]

Narrator: ...A nanny cam captures

A haunting night terror... [ screams ]

There's something about this That just seems otherworldly.

[ screams ]

Narrator: ...And the investigation Into the st. Petersburg blast

Uncovers a vital clue.

This blast knocked out All the lights on the road.

Narrator: a blinding explosion

Rocks the russian city of st. Petersburg.

Investigators analyze the dash-cam footage

For signs of the cause Of the apocalyptic blast.

If you rewind back through the footage,

You notice that this Blast... Whatever it was...

Knocked out all the lights on the road.

The only thing left were the car lights.

Narrator: electrical engineer David wallace believes

This blackout is a significant clue.

He pinpoints something else in the footage

That suggests the strange Properties of electricity

Could be at work.

Wallace: I see this bright ball appear.

You notice that the ball sort of shimmies.

It gets brighter, it gets dimmer, it grows.

This sort of leads me to tend to think

That it's an electrical arc occurring,

Which, then, will kill The power to the grid,

Which will cause all the lights To go out in a surrounding area.

♪♪

Narrator: wallace runs Mississippi state university's

High-voltage laboratory.

To put his electrical Arc theory to the test,

Wallace generates an arc in his lab

To analyze its color and behavior.

So, let's see if we can recreate What we saw in the video.

We have our jacob's ladder here set up

That will generate our arc.

Narrator: a jacob's ladder Is a v-shaped device

Used to create a train of large sparks.

We're ready to go.

Narrator: it's connected To a powerful generator,

Producing 30,000 volts.

Everybody ready?

Yeah, yeah.

Fire.

♪♪

Let's bring the lights down.

Narrator: the current Courses through the poles,

Jumping the narrow gap between them.

It breaks down, or Ionizes, gasses in the air

To create a super-hot plasma.

Wallace: okay, now that We've got the arc going,

Let's introduce the element of smoke to see

If we can recreate the cloud coverage

And the glow like we see in the video.

We're now getting a glow around the smoke

As the arc goes up through it.

Narrator: as the heated ionized air Rises, the electric arc rises, too.

The trail of ionization gets longer,

Becoming more and more unstable,

Triggering a change of color From orange to white to blue...

The same colors seen in the footage.

Wallace: we got a nice glow Around it as the arc went up.

It was reflecting off the smoke.

Narrator: wallace believes His results are conclusive.

What this demonstration is showing me is,

What we are seeing in the video Is some sort of electrical arc

Being reflected off of the clouds.

[ boom ]

Narrator: investigators consider What roadside structure

Could pack enough voltage

To create an arc of the Size seen in the footage.

[ boom ]

Cowern: in cities, you've got High-voltage power lines,

And you've got low voltage in your house.

So, you need something That can convert in between,

And that's called a transformer.

Narrator: st. Petersburg has 379 transformer substations

With a total capacity of 23,000 megawatts.

That's more than twice the Power consumed by new york city.

Pappalardo: that blue-white Glow is something you see

When a transformer blows Put on your street corner.

You magnify that by 100-times over,

You've got a big electrical explosion.

Wallace: so if we have a Substation where we have

A transformer failing,

You're gonna get a tremendous Amount of arcing occurring,

Which will light up the area around it.

[ boom ]

Narrator: in the wake of the event,

Russian state media confirms

A substation in south st. Petersburg has exploded.

[ boom ]

They blame it on an unspecified Technical malfunction.

If you think someone has Dropped a nuclear bomb on you,

You'll be pretty relieved to know

It was just a power station that blew up,

But you might be really angry It scared the hell out of you.

[ boom ]

♪♪

Narrator: now, a b-movie Monster in the flesh.

This is definitely something Out of the ordinary...

Something very strange.

Narrator: a creature filmed Lurking in the shadows.

It's like something out of my nightmares.

It's weird, it's maybe dangerous,

And it's in your backyard.

[ growling ]

♪♪

Narrator: brazil, 2007...

Sao goncalo dos campos,

800 miles north of rio de janeiro,

A sleepy rural community

Steeped in ancient culture and tradition.

[ howling ]

As night falls, a security Camera monitors a backyard.

All seems normal until a Shadowy figure emerges.

It's dark, it looks like it might be hairy,

And its movements are very inhuman.

It's hard to see any real features,

But it's definitely got This elongated face.

There's a snout, perhaps.

You can almost see a Row of sharp teeth there.

It looks to be either Ape-like or wolf-like,

And it kind of stays in the Shadows as it moves around.

Narrator: the mysterious creature Appears for a few short moments

Before disappearing into the night.

But it's not the last time it's seen.

An hour later, local Resident rolildo aputolodo

Is woken by an unearthly howl Outside her bedroom window.

♪♪

♪♪

[ growling ]

♪♪

♪♪

For the next few nights,

The local radio station is inundated

With reports of sightings Of the strange beast.

♪♪

[ growling ]

Many believe the slaughtered livestock

Coupled with the surveillance sighting

Is evidence of a legendary beast

Is terrorizing the town.

♪♪

Blackburn: brazil has a long History of werewolf sightings.

People have reported being Attacked by these creatures.

Perhaps this film has captured One of those creatures.

Narrator: coming up, mysterious Balls of floating fire...

What is causing it? What is creating it?

Narrator: ...And investigators Consider who or what is behind

Brazil's werewolf sightings.

Blackburn: it could be Somebody mentally deranged.

It could be literally somebody Who believes they're a werewolf.

Narrator: a backyard surveillance Camera captures a mysterious creature

That some fear is evidence the Mythological werewolf is real.

Zoologist darren naish analyzes The footage, looking for clues.

In the footage, we do see some Particular parts of anatomy

Where we can get measurements And work out the proportions.

Narrator: freezing the footage,

Measurements reveal That the figure's upper arm

Is an almost identical Length to its lower arm.

This ratio of 1-to-1

Is characteristic of a Well-known local species.

Naish: this does have the Characteristic proportions

Of our species... Of homo sapiens.

This footage basically Has all the hallmarks

Of an elaborate prank.

♪♪

Narrator: but if this is a human, a Prank isn't the only explanation.

Biologist kelly price researches Unusual medical conditions.

She believes there are some rare disorders

That could explain a Werewolf-like appearance.

There is a genetic condition Known as hypertrichosis

That runs in families,

Where members of the family

Who have it have hair All over their bodies,

Including their faces ...Even on their eyelids.

And it's often known as The werewolf syndrome.

Narrator: fewer than 100 Cases have been recorded.

Nobody knows how many People with the condition

Are alive today.

And some doctors suggest that The super-rare werewolf syndrome

Isn't the only medical condition

That could be afflicting the creature

In this surveillance tape.

Naish: there have been occasional cases

Of a psychological condition Known as lycanthropy.

And this is where people become deluded

And actually believe they Are wild animals of some kind.

Typically they think that They've transformed into a wolf.

It could be somebody mentally deranged.

It could be literally somebody Who believes they're a werewolf.

♪♪

Narrator: but further anatomical analysis

Suggests this may not be a human figure.

The thing about it is, if it's a person,

Then they have to be on all fours,

And so their legs Should be bent in the back.

But it really does look like... Whatever this creature it is...

It has two straight legs.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: investigators Consider what native animals

Match the anatomical analysis.

The yard in this footage backs Onto a natural area in brazil.

So we have to think, "What Native animals in brazil

Might be coming into this backyard?"

When you look at the list of All the animals that live in brazil,

Nothing matches this character.

Narrator: but scientists haven't catalogued

Every species on the planet.

There are gaps in the record.

Price: a large part of brazil Is swathed in rainforest,

And we know that there are many Species that live in that forest

That we haven't quite discovered yet.

So, one could think, "Maybe This is one of those animals."

Blackburn: if we're talking About an unknown species,

What better place to hide Than a brazilian rainforest?

Narrator: many locals fear This nightmarish beast

Still remains on the loose.

Price: I don't think we're Gonna get to the bottom

Of whatever this creature is Based on this footage alone,

But what we can tell is

Whatever it is, it's very creepy.

Until we catch whatever it is, I suppose we'll have to assume

That there is a werewolf Roaming the forests of brazil.

[ howling ]

♪♪

Narrator: now, unexplained Fireballs light up a mystical river.

It's really quite bizarre, And it does make you wonder,

"What's actually going on?"

Narrator: locals believe they're Evidence of a fire-breathing monster.

Boonya: I do respect the naga.

I believe in the naga.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: phon phisai, thailand...

An ancient town built upon the banks

Of the mighty mekong river.

Flowing 2,700 miles From the tibetan plateau

To the south china sea,

It's a river rich in myth and legend.

As dusk approaches, Locals flock to the mekong,

Hoping to witness an Extraordinary phenomenon.

The light fades, and cameras are trained

On the sky.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Hundreds of balls of Light rise from the river.

Some seem to hover.

Others streak great distances.

♪♪

♪♪

When pyrotechnics expert mike samson

Examines the footage,

He confirms this is no Regular firework display.

It's not a firework that you See on your fourth of july

Garden display like this... A rocket.

Now, this sends up Huge sparks into the sky,

And then explodes at the end.

[ booms ]

And, of course, you Don't see that in the video.

Narrator: locals' assessments agree, And some are convinced they know

What's behind the mysterious light show.

They believe a mysterious creature

Lurks in the swirling depths of the mekong.

A ferocious, fire-breathing Beast... The naga.

♪♪

Coming up, nocturnal nursery terror...

[ screams ]

There's something about this That just seems otherworldly.

[ screams ]

Narrator: ...And explosive new evidence

In the mekong fireball mystery.

Bell: the fact we have These phosphine gas seeps...

Maybe that could be behind these fireballs.

Narrator: scientists investigating Fireballs propelled above

A thai river consult local folklore.

♪♪

♪♪

For thai buddhists, The naga is a divine being,

And the fireballs it creates Bear a special significance.

♪♪

If a colossal, fire-breathing monster

Is living in the river's depths,

It wouldn't be the first Gargantuan beast found there.

The mekong is a river of giants...

From soft-shell turtles Weighing more than 100 pounds

To mega-catfish growing More than 9 feet long.

Evidence potentially supporting The existence of the naga

Emerges in the form of A surprising photograph.

Local people claim it shows A mekong river monster

Captured by u.S. Marines During the vietnam war.

♪♪

♪♪

But when investigators dig deeper

Into the picture's origins,

They discover it was Taken thousands of miles

From the mekong in san diego, california.

Biologist dr. Jessada denduangboripant

Has studied the image

And can identify the so-called naga.

♪♪

Oarfish are extraordinary giants.

Originally believed to be sea serpents,

They can grow up to 56 feet long,

But they simply don't have The anatomy to breathe fire.

[ birds chirping ]

Some scientists suspect the Murky waters of the river itself

Could hold vital clues.

There will be quite a lot of organic matter

That will be decaying down in the depths.

It wouldn't be at all surprising

If bubbles of methane gas came up.

Narrator: methane, or natural gas, Has the potential to be explosive.

If that got ignited close To the surface of a river,

Maybe we would see Some lights on the surface.

Narrator: chemist andrea sella knows

That methane can be ignited naturally,

And that it can form floating fire.

He builds a rig to demonstrate how.

Let me just show you.

We've rigged this up in Which we have the river,

We've got a source of natural gas.

Narrator: what's missing is a spark.

Sella believes in nature, that Spark would come from lightning.

Now, we're going to create A lightning strike here

In the beaker.

This is where I get nervous.

We'll prime our system.

Let's just see if we can ignite.

Wow.

And you can see that every so often,

What we get is a little flare, And that's the gas igniting.

It's going to rise as it Burns, and in doing so,

It'll create a rather ghostly effect.

Narrator: the fireball the Gas forms is short-lived,

But its shape and color matches the orbs

In the surveillance footage.

Yet when sella re-examines The mekong video,

He finds no evidence of an Electrical storm that night.

Of course, you're not always gonna have

A convenient lightning bolt,

Which will set fire to Your gas on a dark night.

Narrator: sella considers an Alternative ignition source.

There are plenty of reports of these things

Igniting spontaneously.

And what could that be?

Narrator: a likely suspect emerges.

Bell: the study found that there Were relatively high concentrations

Of something called phosphine gas.

The fact we have these Phosphine gas seeps...

Maybe that could be behind these fireballs.

Narrator: phosphine is a Rare and highly toxic gas

Produced when organic Matter decays on a riverbed.

Sella: the thing about phosphine

Is that it ignites spontaneously On contact with air.

Narrator: sella believes it's only When methane and phosphine

Are found together that They can trigger a fireball.

It's perhaps a mixture Of methane and phosphine,

Which break the surface.

And at the very moment when It comes into contact with air,

It's the phosphine that provides The ignition and the methane

That then provides the fuel For the flame to continue.

♪♪

Narrator: examining the footage once More, pyrotechnics expert mike sansom

Casts doubt on the explosive gas theory.

I don't believe it's a Natural occurrence at all.

Narrator: mike believes he Can identify a special type

Of pyrotechnic device

Capable of producing a Fast-moving glowing ball

Just like the orbs in the Surveillance footage.

I think it's one of these... A mortar.

In here, I've opened up the Mortar, and you see the star.

This is it.

It's a composition that burns Really hot and really brightly.

And this launches into the Sky, and then just goes out,

And that's what I think it is.

And I can prove it.

So, I've got my firing system,

I've got my mortar set up in the field,

I'm gonna set them off with this,

And I think it's gonna look exactly

The same as in the video.

♪♪

These fireworks in the Video, they do make a noise

When they're launched, But they're so far away...

They're the opposite Side of the mekong river...

And by the time that noise Has reached the audience,

There's lots of oohs and Ahhs, and that muffles it out.

So, it could be that this Was a natural phenomenon...

Maybe quite rare...

But because of this festival, It's now become a ritual,

And the lights in the sky

Have been accentuated my manmade means.

[ crowd oohs and ahhs ]

For the crowds gathering On the banks of the mekong,

There remains only one Explanation for the fireballs...

The fire-breath of the Fabled naga river monster.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Coming up, every parent's worse nightmare.

There could be some kind Of a possession going on.

[ screams ]

♪♪

Narrator: a child displays Superhuman powers.

[ screams ]

It's like that kid is being held Up by some invisible force.

It doesn't seem normal.

It doesn't seem physically Possible, almost.

Narrator: some fear it's the devil's work.

There could be some kind Of a possession going on.

[ screams ]

Narrator: austin, texas... March 2016...

Nighttime on a quiet, suburban street.

Cameras guard property, monitor pets,

And nanny cams watch the children.

After midnight, baby Connor cries for attention.

[ crying ]

You can see the baby's in distress.

And then, in the strangest motion

I've ever seen, the baby climbs Up onto the rail of the crib,

And then suddenly stands up.

[ screams ]

There's something about this That just seems otherworldly.

[ screams ]

It's his glowing eyes.

It would seem as though He's definitely possessed.

This kid does a full-on "Exorcist."

[ screams ]

Narrator: the baby balances on the Crib rail for more than 20 seconds.

Wise: his balance is perfect On this narrow thing...

Not even swaying. He's just sort of, like,

Rigid like a gymnast.

Narrator: the toddler falls Back into the cot, unharmed.

His parents upload the footage, And the internet goes wild.

[ crying ]

Many question the tape's authenticity.

Pearson: these days, the first assumption

Is that somebody's messed with the video,

And somebody's tampered with it.

It's got the demonic kid, the Supernatural balancing act,

The creepy shadows,

And that dubious security-cam footage.

The question is... Is it real?

Narrator: conor mccourt is A video forensics specialist

With over 20 years experience.

He analyzes the footage frame by frame,

Searching for signs of tampering.

When I examined the sequence of the baby...

The slats are obscuring The body of the child.

And to do some kind of post-production fax

To make that look real Is very, very difficult.

He falls backwards, And he hits the mattress.

During that fall, I examined Those images as he went down,

And as he hits the mattress,

You see kind of a Compression of the mattress.

Watch in this area here.

See, there's a slight bounce there.

I don't think it's a fake.

Narrator: mccourt's initial Analysis can't explain

Why the baby's eyes appear so terrifying.

One really important part Of this video that needs to be

Highlighted is that This kid's eyes are crazy.

It truly looks like demonically Possessed eyes glaring out.

Narrator: mccourt believes The nanny cam holds the key

To the child's devil-like eyes.

Mccourt: it's not a ghost.

It's not a devil.

It's not any of those things.

Narrator: nanny cams work by Illuminating the room with infrared light.

The camera captures any infrared light

Reflecting back from an object.

One part of our bodies Is especially reflective.

When the eye is dilated, There's a reflective area

In the back of the eye which Causes the eyes to glow.

It's kind of like redeye when You see it in a still camera.

Narrator: experts still need To explain baby connor's

Superhuman balancing.

This little child is doing something

That some adults would Have a hard time doing.

Wise: the way that this kid climbs up

Doesn't seem physically possible.

[ screams ]

Narrator: experts are baffled By nanny-cam footage

Of 2-year-old connor's Astonishing feat of strength.

[ screams ]

Pediatrician randal Pearson examines the area

Outside the crib.

He spots a vital clue.

Pearson: the blanket on the Floor that you see in the footage

May be a sign that he's Frustrated and anxious and angry

And has tossed that over.

[ screams ]

He's upset.

That can trigger an adrenaline response.

It makes your heart rate go up And your breathing rate go up,

Which thereby gives your Muscles more access to oxygen.

Narrator: pearson believes Baby connor could be

Experiencing the physiological reaction

Called "Hysterical strength".

Hysterical strength is Basically when you are

Under intense psychologic pressure...

Like if an animal is chasing you,

Your child is trapped under a car.

There have been documented cases

Where people have reserves of muscle power

That are otherwise not available to you.

Narrator: footage emerges that Appears to show another child

With hysterical strength.

The toddler sees his sibling

Have a cabinet fall on top of him,

And has to figure out How to help his sibling out

From under the cabinet.

Narrator: somehow, the toddler Is able to push the heavy cabinet

Off his brother.

It's like we're looking at baby superman.

[ screams ]

Narrator: connor's nanny-cam footage shows

There must also be something else going on.

He seems to have an unnatural Sense of balance for his age.

This is a small child, and Children of this age general

Have larger heads and smaller feet.

Therefore, they have a Higher center of gravity,

Which makes them more Likely to fall or to be unstable.

Narrator: neuroscientist monika haga

From the norweigian university Of science and technology

Studies child development.

She analyzes the complexity Of baby connor's achievement.

Haga: to keep your balance And keep your postural control

When you're so small, It's quite challenging,

Especially when you are Balancing on this narrow edge.

So, when I'm standing on the beam,

It is only this area where My foot is touching the beam,

So it's really small area.

It's so difficult even just to stand here.

We should also remember That he is doing this

Quite high up in the air,

And he is also standing in a dark room,

So he has no point of references.

You need a lot of motor Coordination and control

To be able to do this.

Haga considers if baby Connor's early experiences

Could help explain his Incredible sense of balance.

Developmental therapists In iceland use special

Exercises to improve a baby's balance.

The program's results are astonishing.

Some of them are about four months.

What we observed was this instructor

Was able to make them stand.

This shouldn't be possible.

Narrator: experts advise Against trying this

Outside of the supervised program,

And believe it works Because babies are forming

New neural connections in the brain.

♪♪

Haga: it shows that children... Infants...

Are able to do things That we may not expect.

Narrator: experts don't yet know Exactly how or why some children

Demonstrate these remarkable Abilities at an early age.

Until more evidence is captured,

This superhuman feat remains unexplained.

Wise: maybe this kid is a special kid.

Out of all the many millions Of hours of nanny-cam footage,

This kid, you know, I think stands out.

[ screams ]

Blackburn: if this kid is Doing that at his age,

Imagine what he could Do in 20, 30 years from now.