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: oh, 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.

[ screaming ]

[ horn honks ]

Narrator: coming up -- The indestructible boy.

Scientists look for A genetic mutation.

Price: It makes the bones very strong.

You might even say kind of Indestructible, unbreakable.

Narrator: According to japanese legend,

Just looking at this footage Could lead to your death...

Something very creepy Is going on here.

Narrator: ...And the alien being Living inside a small boy.

When you see a camera Like this,

You don't expect to see A creature

At the other end of it.

Narrator: bizarre phenomena,

Mysteries caught On surveillance --

What's the truth behind this "Strange evidence"?

-- captions by vitac -- Www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by Discovery communications

[ tires screech ]

Narrator: a fatal accident With a difference...

[ woman screams ]

This is terrible footage.

You see this car basically Run over this kid,

Run right over his head.

[ woman screams ]

Narrator: the boy's head and Neck are twisted and crushed.

He must be dead, but he's not.

wolshon: how does a little boy Whose head is literally run over

by a car survive With next to no injury?

Narrator: experts wonder if They've found a real-life x-man.

Price: in terms of mutations, It makes the bones very strong.

You might even say kind of Indestructible, unbreakable.

Maybe this kid is some kind Of superhero.

♪♪

Narrator: Anápolis in central brazil,

Famous for its legendary Statue of saint anne.

This is a city of faith And of miracles.

January 21st, 2014 --

On a busy morning, a woman And her 5-year-old grandson

Are crossing the street.

A cctv camera captures What happens next.

[ tires screech ]

All of a sudden, boom.

Narrator: A vehicle out of control

Crashes into a parked car.

[ woman screams ]

wolshon: this is The stuff of nightmares.

I would just assume that there Would be two fatalities.

Narrator: the disturbing footage Comes to the attention

Of forensic video analyst Conor mccourt.

if we go image by image, Frame by frame,

We see the back of the car

Strike the two individuals In question.

It's terrible. It's dragging them back.

They're starting to slide Under the car,

And they move over to the right,

And they get caught By the rear wheel.

It's a really bad situation For the both of them.

the back wheel is going over The leg area of the older woman.

What we do see is That front wheel approaching.

his head is actually caught Underneath that front wheel

and appears to be Run completely over.

Mccourt: We're horrified at this point.

We're sure he's dead.

There can be no other answer.

And then, lo and behold,

as we go forward, The little boy gets up,

and not only does he stand up, He goes,

and he looks at his grandmother Lying on the ground.

narrator: the grandmother Is badly injured.

the boy is killed for certain.

his skull is crushed, His neck broken.

but then he stands up Like nothing has happened.

How does a little boy whose head Is literally run over

By a car survive

With next to no injury?

the kid bounces up, and you're Like, "How did that happen?"

♪♪

price: this footage raises The question,

"Is there something special About the boy?"

[ woman screams ]

[ cameras whirring ]

♪♪

Narrator: biologist roland kays Is an expert

In evolutionary adaptations.

He discovers that, Incredible as it may seem,

There are certain Physical conditions

Which can give humans Real-life superpowers.

There's a gene that humans Have called lrp5

That regulates bone density.

And some mutations,

Some variations on this gene Actually result in people

Having extra thick, Extra dense bones.

Price: it makes the bones Very strong.

You might even say kind of Indestructible, unbreakable.

This might have helped This kid survive the crash.

Narrator: if this boy has bones As strong as wolverine's,

He is not alone.

Roland kays discovers That in 1994,

A case of super bones from gene Lrp5 was medically documented.

There was a guy who was in A horrible car accident,

Was rushed to the hospital,

And doctors were amazed to find He had no broken bones.

Narrator: The patient is referred To the yale bone center,

Where doctors make An astonishing discovery.

He has the bone density Of a grizzly bear,

Eight times higher Than an average human.

Upon testing, they discovered That he had this mutation,

Upregulation of lrp5.

♪♪

Narrator: kays learns that lrp5 Is not the only gene

In which a rare mutation

Can lead To apparently superhuman powers.

There's a kid in michigan Who has abnormal super strength

Because of a mutation associated With the myostatin protein,

And as a result of this, he has Abnormally large muscle growth.

Narrator: Liam hoekstra of grand rapids

Astounds his family

With feats of super strength At just 5 months old,

Performing gymnastic moves, Including the iron cross.

By 3, he has 40 percent body Muscle and minimal body fat.

By the time he is the age Of the boy in the footage,

He becomes strong enough To lift heavy dumbbells

Without breaking a sweat.

♪♪

Journalist jeff wise learns There have been

Attempts to breed superhumans.

It's a perverted science Known as eugenics.

Wise: in nazi germany, they had A program called lebensborn,

which was an attempt to breed A genetically superior race

of humans For the glory of the nazi reich.

[ chanting in german ]

Narrator: wise discovers That the nazis would force

So-called Physically perfect women

To bear children For the program.

Hitler hoped to create A legion of aryan super soldiers

Who would bring the terror Of nazism to the world.

[ screaming ]

After the war,

The most notorious Nazi eugenicist escaped --

The demon, dr. Josef mengele,

A.K.A. The angel of death.

Mengele actually survived The war,

Escaped to south america,

And there was rumors that he had Maybe continued to work

On this kind Of eugenics experiment

Trying to produce His nazi super race.

narrator: This boy is not the product Of a nazi eugenics program,

but whether Natural or induced,

could this indestructible boy Really have superpowers?

[ cameras whirring ]

Coming up, a killer ghost stalks Her victim into his taxi.

This cab is now Officially haunted.

Narrator: over the ocean, A blood-red tsunami

Caught on camera...

Holy moly. Get the hell out of there.

Narrator: ...And in the city of miracles,

The boy who refuses to die.

Price: my gut feeling When I first saw this

Is that I had Just witnessed a miracle.

[ static blips, camera whirs ]

Narrator: Investigators can't explain

How a boy escapes uninjured

When a car runs Right over his head.

But physicist john di bartolo Researches

The boy's medical history And finds no telltale clues

Of previous prodigious Physical abilities,

Ruling out the possibility that He's had superpowers from birth.

I don't think there's anything Superhuman about this child.

I think he's extremely Fortunate,

but this is just A normal young boy.

wolshon: so the mystery is, What happened here exactly

that would've spared The life of that boy?

♪♪

Narrator: Civil engineer brian wolshon

Is an expert in crash forensics.

he notices That at the vital moment,

the rear of the car is falling Off the curb and into the road.

so at the exact moment, Just as that boy's head

was about to be run over By that front tire,

that vehicle was rotating And was tilting back,

Lifting that tire just enough

To clear over his head.

there's a lot of pivots And a lot of circumstances

that are causing this boy To survive.

It's going through A series of bumps.

The shock absorbers Are jumping up and down.

It's like a choreographed Ballet of pivots.

So even though his head appears To be under that wheel,

Just for a split second, The forces of that vehicle,

In particular that front tire,

Were not going in a downward Direction,

But moving slightly upward.

wise: I mean, what we're seeing Is a sort of

Once-in-a-lifetime Turn of events.

Narrator: while some Investigators believe

That the remarkable coincidence

Of the lifting tire Saves the boy's life,

Others believe there are Higher forces in play.

Every once in a while, things Will just magically work out

that makes it almost seem like There's a divine intervention

that's protecting these people.

my gut feeling When I first saw this

Is that I had Just witnessed a miracle.

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator: now, In the land of the vikings,

A phantasmal burst Of fiery fury.

It's like a bolt of lightning Hanging in the air.

Wise: there's this leaping, Dancing fire

That's seemingly demonic.

Narrator: did modern Black metal pagans

Conjure an act of aggression From another world?

It's really impossible Not to think of thor,

The god of thunder.

[ static blips ]

Narrator: norway -- Land of the vikings...

[ thunder crashes ]

...Home of thor,

The god of thunder.

Mid-winter And through a blanket of snow,

A camera captures this.

♪♪

Pappalardo: it's not behaving Like lightning.

It's not behaving like fire.

It's bending. It's playing around the tree.

Wise: I have no idea what this is.

It does not look of this world.

[ caws ]

Narrator: investigators struggle To account for the strange,

Otherworldly lightning bolt.

what we're seeing is a mystery. It seems to defy physics.

wallace: is this something Natural, or is this something

unearthly happening unto these Forests and these trees?

Narrator: science journalist Jeff wise wonders

If the unearthly incandescence

Is connected With some kind of viking ritual.

Wise: it doesn't look like It's consuming anything.

it looks very supernatural. It looks very weird.

[ heavy metal plays ]

Narrator: He learns that in the '90s,

Norwegian black metal Satanists

Burned 28 churches

In a string of anti-christian Arson attacks.

Some of the most notorious Of these satanists

Have turned to odalism,

A pagan religion Based in norse mythology.

Could this arctic sword of flame

Be evidence of cultists Trying to open the bifrost,

The fiery pathway From asgard to earth?

Pappalardo: Looking at the image, It's really impossible

Not to think of thor, The god of thunder.

[ thunder crashes ]

Narrator: Thor, lord of lightning,

Remains one of the most Venerated of the viking gods.

To this day, he's worshipped by Thousands of people worldwide.

[ thunder crashes ]

[ whirring ]

It leads some experts to wonder If this sword of flame might be

An unknown natural phenomenon Inspired by the original

Viking legends of thor And his lightning hammer.

So you imagine yourself, You're in the middle

Of a nice dark forest,

And all of a sudden, Out of the blue, voom,

You've got this bright light, This fire.

You wonder to yourself, "What's going on here?"

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: aviation journalist Joe pappalardo

Considers the possibility That this is man-made.

It occurs at the border Of nato territory.

Norway is definitely On the frontlines

Of any kind of conflict Between russia and nato.

It guards the entire approach To the northern atlantic,

And as such, It's strategically vital.

[ gunfire ]

Narrator: with the threat From russia increasing,

Pappalardo wonders If the weird footage

Might reveal a classified test Of a prototype

American lightning weapon,

The laser-induced Plasma channel, or lipc.

Pappalardo: so the system Shoots a laser to the target.

Along that path of the laser,

It strips all the electrons From air molecules

And creates a plasma channel,

And when they pulse electricity Down that channel,

It'll stick right to it, Creating a bolt of lightning

That reaches out And hits the target.

[ thunder crashes ]

Narrator: One bolt of lightning

Can carry as much As 500 trillion watts

Of power at 30,000 amps,

Enough to kill 3,000 people.

Pappalardo: If military scientists could

Harness the power of lightning, It would make a good weapon.

It's a very powerful Natural force.

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator: coming up -- Don't look now.

The footage That carries a curse.

Lovell: the idea of a ghost Coming in behind you

Without you realizing And getting in the car --

How creepy?

Narrator: The towering red tsunami Threatening australia...

Talk about the apocalypse Come true.

Getting hit by that is really Going to ruin your day.

Narrator: and the lightning That appears to defy science

In the land of thor.

[ static blips ]

Narrator: In the land of thor,

A phantasmal, Hovering bolt of lightning.

Experts examine the evidence.

Is this footage of A laser weapon test,

A laser-induced plasma channel?

[ explosion ]

Narrator: Physicist steven schowalter

Is not convinced such a weapon Is yet ready for testing.

the physics that underpin This technology are sound,

but there's still a lot Of technical challenges

That need to be worked out Before this is deployed

In the real world.

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator: forensic image analyst Conor mccourt

Is a former new york city cop.

He enhances and manipulates The footage

And sees something towards The top of the picture.

I can see that there's Some kind of line

coming through the video, And it would indicate

That there's some kind Of electrical wire.

Narrator: There are electrical wires All over the world,

But electricity does not fly From them to this extent

Or in this manner.

[ electricity crackling ]

Yet mccourt can see no other Logical explanation

For what he's seeing.

We're definitely seeing Some kind of electrical bolt

Coming out of this wire.

Narrator: the electric chair Uses 2,000 volts to kill.

Edison electrocuted an elephant Using 6,600 volts.

A typical electricity cable

Might carry A massive 132,000 volts,

Enough energy to kill 66 people.

♪♪

Analyzing the elements In the footage,

Mccourt attempts To determine the distance

The arcing electrical Discharge is jumping.

Mccourt: It's really hard to judge,

But if they're Average-sized trees,

Say they're 20, 30 feet, We're looking at an arc

That's about maybe 10 feet long.

Narrator: is it really possible For a 10-foot-long arc

Of dancing electricity

To leap from a cable To the branches of a tree?

Electrical engineer David wallace puts this

To the test In his lightning lab.

He will run 137 kilovolts Through an exposed cable

And try to recreate Such an arc.

Wallace: are we ready?

-man: ready. -we're ready.

I love this.

Narrator: at 10 feet from The cable, there is no arcing.

Wallace: Bringing the tree in slowly.

All right. Start to pull.

Narrator: 9, 8, 7 feet -- no arcing.

The tree is now far closer than The 10-foot gap in the footage,

And still this voltage is not Enough to create an arc to it.

Bring it.

Narrator: finally...

[ crackling ]

All right.

Now that is a beautiful arc.

We've got a good jump From the power line to the tree.

This is a beautiful design.

That's what you expect to see.

I like this. Very beautiful.

[ crackling ]

Kill it.

Ground it.

so here in our experiment, We have the 2-1/2-to-3-foot

arc gap, But in the video at 137 kv,

It really looks a lot further

Than what we see here In the lab,

So something else May be going on

That we really don't know about.

as the name implies, A high-voltage line

carries a lot of power Inside it.

however, it's not Going to produce

the kind of arcing over 10 feet

That we're apparently Seeing in this video.

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator: So while investigators

Conclude These unearthly pyrotechnics

May be caused by a cable, The sheer amount of power

Unleashed here Remains a mystery.

something is going seriously Wrong in arctic norway.

it's supposed to be filled With ice and snow.

it's not supposed to be filled With fire and dancing flames.

Narrator: In the land of thor,

It seems that electrical Lightning does strange things.

Pappalardo: It's a very strange image.

It doesn't have any clear answer Of what it is.

[ cameras whirring ]

♪♪

narrator: Now, cameras capture

what looks like a female demon With a deadly reputation.

[ low growl ]

Hyde: she's very translucent.

I mean, she does look Like a ghost.

Narrator: she seems to follow A man into a cab.

Lovell: it definitely looks like Something out of

A japanese horror movie.

Watching this footage Gives you kind of chills.

Narrator: According to japanese legend,

Even watching this video Might prove fatal.

This cab is now Officially haunted.

♪♪

[ static blips ]

[ birds squawking ]

Narrator: Ishinomaki, japan --

Surveillance cameras At a taxi stand

Capture a terrifying 20 seconds of footage.

Wise: We're in a parking garage.

We're looking at a security cam, And a guy hails a taxi.

The taxi pulls up, Which is all normal.

Narrator: but what follows Is far from normal.

A spectral figure appears,

Matching the look Of a japanese ghost.

[ thunder crashes ]

[ low growl ]

Hyde: This figure is pretty creepy With the long, dangly hair,

Definitely seems to be female.

she's stooped over With a hunched back,

And you can't really Very distinctly see her feet.

the apparition clearly follows The man into the vehicle,

But if we back up a little bit,

There is no sign Of a person behind him.

Narrator: the passenger seems Completely unaware

Of his unearthly ride sharer.

the idea of a ghost Coming in behind you

without you realizing And getting in the car --

How creepy.

It's really hard to come up With a good explanation.

♪♪

Narrator: Investigators wonder if this Could be some kind of glitch

Or ghosting effect Caused by the video recorder,

But neuroscientist jayde lovell Is skeptical

That the spectral woman

Can be the result Of simple video artifacts.

It's probably not an error Based on the video quality.

It seems fine everywhere else But this one image.

It's a very clear figure.

It kind of makes you wonder,

What is the real reason For this?

♪♪

Narrator: science writer Jeff wise

Has studied The mythology of japan.

He notices the strange Apparition bears

A striking similarity

To creatures That stalk japanese nightmares.

[ low growl ]

In japan, They have a traditional

In their culture of the yurei,

Which is equivalent To our ghost.

It's a spirit of a person Who has to, you know,

Roam the terrestrial plain.

♪♪

The ghosts are mainly to do With unfinished business,

So it's these sort of unrequited Emotions and desires

That are left over When somebody dies too soon

Or they die too violently.

♪♪

Narrator: Yurei are said to return

To take brutal vengeance On the living...

♪♪

...Killing them with fear

And dragging their spirits Down to demonic realms.

♪♪

Could the man in the video Be in terrible danger?

Hyde: she's following Very closely behind him.

I mean, it looks like he Personally is being haunted.

If there's a ghost following Him, it makes you wonder,

"What's that guy done In his past?"

♪♪

Narrator: According to japanese legend,

Seeing a yurei, Even on video,

Puts the viewer in mortal danger

And could bring horrific death Within seven days.

♪♪

Wise: so this matches What the japanese believe

About the afterworld,

The power of the spirits of the Dead who haven't left us yet.

Narrator: could even watching This clip be a deadly mistake?

♪♪

[ beeping ]

Coming up -- surfers surrender To the face of this monster.

This looks like some Kind of wall of death.

[ thumping ]

Narrator: a pulsating alien mass

Inside a young boy Threatens to kill...

If you don't get it out, He may not even survive.

Narrator: And is this a real phantom,

Or is someone taking us For a ride?

♪♪

[ static blips ]

♪♪

Narrator: experts fear Cctv images show a killer ghost

Known as a yurei Getting into a taxi

With an unsuspecting victim.

japan in particular Has a culture of ghosts.

there's lots of ghost stories.

And a lot of japanese people Still believe in ghosts.

♪♪

Narrator: female yurei often Appear with long, dark hair,

Not pinned up As in normal-day life,

But left to hang freely As it would be for burial

And ragged as it would Become in the grave.

Traditionally, they appear To be levitating

With no visible legs or feet.

the interesting thing about This figure as we see it

Is that she has the long, Matted hair over her face,

And we can't Quite see her feet.

Now, this is An exact description

Of a restless spirit In japanese folklore.

♪♪

Narrator: deborah hyde believes The traditional appearance

Of the ghost in the footage

Offers a clue About its true nature.

♪♪

I'm interested in just how Perfect this particular ghost

Is in japan.

If you were to invent A scenario in japan,

You wouldn't have a fairy.

You wouldn't have a djinn. You wouldn't have a demon.

You'd have this.

So the thing to ask Is whether or not

This could be some Kind of deliberate effect.

[ low growl ]

♪♪

Narrator: there is a long Tradition of hoax images

Of ghosts And the supernatural,

Going back To the dawn of photography.

Hyde: ghost photography Became popular

In the 19th century, And the way they achieved this,

Because each of the plates Would take so long to expose,

Was that you could Expose them twice --

Once with their flesh-and-blood Solid kind of appearance

And then once again

With somebody Who didn't really develop,

Looked a bit transparent, Looked a bit ghostly.

Narrator: Looking closely at the footage,

Deborah hyde spots more clues Which make her believe

The footage may have been Deliberately manipulated.

Hyde: We all know what japanese ghosts Look like because of films,

And she conforms Exactly to the stereotype.

her feet are supposed to be Indistinct in the folklore,

and it looks like somebody's Put a digital effect on it.

I think it's interesting That she just emerges

From this lamppost.

It could be that she has just Literally come from nowhere

Or that somebody who has done A digital effect

has used this very convenient Vertical line

within the frame To introduce their ghost.

♪♪

[ beeping ]

♪♪

Lovell: Given the amount of interest

There is out there On the internet,

And particularly Around ghosts in japan,

Anyone that created A hoax like this

Knows that it's going To get a lot of attention,

So there's a lot of incentive To perhaps create a hoax.

♪♪

Narrator: investigators may have Their suspicions,

But without more proof, They cannot be sure

If this terrifying taxi customer Is taking us all for a ride.

For now, the video Of the ghostly yurei

Remains shrouded in mystery.

If the figure behind that man Is real,

Something very creepy Is going on here.

[ low growl ]

It's not a taxi ride I'd want to take.

♪♪

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator: Now, inside a young boy...

[ thumping ]

Doctors find an alien creature.

Mccourt: when you see A camera like this,

You don't expect to see A creature

At the other end of it.

This looks like a scene From a sci-fi horror movie.

♪♪

Ugh, that's disgusting.

Narrator: the alien organism Inside the boy is alive.

[ thumping ]

What is it, And how did it get there?

[ static blips, camera whirs ]

Narrator: august 2014 --

A busy city hospital.

Medical staff race to get A 12-year-old boy to the e.R.

He's having trouble breathing, But they don't know why.

Doctors run a camera Down into the boy's lungs.

When they do, This is what they see...

[ thumping ]

A palpitating, wriggling object

Apparently growing inside The left lobe of his lung

Is choking the boy To death from within.

[ thumping ]

Prabhu: so we see this slimy, Brown, speckled object,

And it seems to be Alive and moving.

[ thumping ]

my first reaction is, "That should not be there."

Prabhu: is this something That came from within,

or is this something That has invaded his body

from the outside?

Narrator: if there is anything Remotely ridley scott

About this alien organism,

Then everyone in the hospital Could be in terrible danger.

[ heavy exhale ]

[ cameras whir ]

Coming up -- A tower of terror,

But nowhere to run.

What's going to happen When that advances

Over the top of the people Holding the camera?

Narrator: and investigators Race discover

The identity of the lurker In the lung.

Ugh, that's disgusting.

[ static blips ]

[ siren wailing ]

Narrator: in india,

A 12-year-old boy Is choking to death

Because of a weird, Pulsating mass inside his lung.

Biomedical engineer raj prabhu First suspects

The alien object might be Some kind of malignant growth.

Prabhu: When we see an object like this In a place that it shouldn't be,

our immediate thought is That this might be a tumor.

Narrator: Prabhu knows that there is A horrific kind of growth

Which could resemble this Strange form in the footage...

[ thumping ]

...An extremely rare phenomenon

Which can actually develop hair,

Teeth, hands or feet, Even eyeballs.

In 2007, a woman had one removed From her torso.

The lump contained A number of internal organs,

In the middle of which Was one fully formed eye.

♪♪

In february 2014, Doctors in maryland

Removed another From a young boy's swollen head.

It had fully grown teeth.

The name of these tumors

Is derived from the greek For monster,

The horrific teratoma.

Prabhu: we don't know how Dangerous this object is.

If I were the doctor For this patient,

I would be very concerned.

♪♪

Narrator: but biologist Kelly price discounts

Prabhu's teratoma theory.

this is definitely not a tumor

because it's clearly alive, And tumors don't move.

[ thumping ]

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator: Marine biologist erik cordes

Has experience In tropical climates.

He fears that the monstrous mass

May be a parasite feeding off The young boy's body.

my first guess was some kind of,

like, a flatworm, Like a tapeworm.

They're usually in the digestive Tract, in the intestines.

Narrator: Some tapeworms can be found All over the human body.

[ monitor beeping ]

Rosemary alvarez Of phoenix, arizona,

Is operated on For a suspected brain tumor

When surgeons discover That the lump is alive.

A species of tapeworm burrowed Through her brain

And is heading For her brain stem.

♪♪

Digging deeper, Cordes identifies

One hideous monster parasite Which can infest the lung,

A terrifying creature Known as a roundworm.

[ thumping ]

[ whooshing ]

Roundworms are worms That are actually ingested,

And the eggs go Into your digestive system,

And when they hatch, the larvae Actually find their way

To your lungs Through your bloodstream.

Roundworms Grow to be about 14 inches,

And when they mature, There's two scenarios.

Either the victim Coughs them up...

Or they swallow them,

And the roundworm goes back Down to the intestines

To begin the cycle again.

As a biologist, I'd say That's the consummate parasite.

[ monitor beeping, Faint chatter ]

Narrator: erik cordes fears The wriggling mass

Choking the boy From inside his lung

Might be a mature roundworm

Which just Doesn't want to leave.

[ gurgling ]

But biologist kelly price Is not convinced

That any worm matches The bizarre creature

Seen in the video.

[ thumping ]

Price: it's unlikely That this was a worm

Simply because Of the shape of it.

While they do wiggle around, Like what we saw in the video,

The critter in the video Is much shorter.

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: the mystery Comes to the attention

Of forensic image analyst Conor mccourt.

He scans the footage for clues

To determine what the bizarre Lung monster might be.

Look. This thing is moving.

It's flipping around.

I looked at this video sequence,

And I slowed it down,

And then I picked This specific image.

[ whirring ]

I'm seeing what looks Like a tail

With a couple of pigments Or dots on the skin,

A ribbed kind of fin, maybe,

And then some kind Of dorsal fin on the top.

There's a plausible explanation. It's a fish.

[ thumping ]

Narrator: It's a breathtaking discovery.

How did this child get This fish in his lungs?

Where did it come from?

[ camera whirs ]

♪♪

Narrator: there is a terrifying Parasitic fish

Which is reputed to be able To get into human bodies

By wriggling through The genitals --

The candiru.

The candiru are attracted To urea, to urine,

And they will follow the scent

And will swim right into The urinary tract.

Ugh, that's disgusting.

Narrator: but kelly price

Doubts this fish Can be a candiru.

It swims into people's bodies Through their urethras

And matures in the bladder,

But there's just no way

That a fish could get From the bladder to the lung.

But I think It's much more likely

That the boy himself Actually swallowed it

And the fish just took A wrong turn on the way down.

[ thumping ]

[ monitor beeping ]

Narrator: doctors eventually Manage to extract the fish

From the boy's lung, And he makes a full recovery.

The exact species of fish Is never determined.

This lung-dweller remains A mystery.

[ cameras whirring ]

Now, a fishing boat faces Blood-red doom.

It's totally Apocalyptic-looking.

This looks like some kind Of wall of death.

Lovell: you're in danger.

You don't have very long To get out of the way.

Narrator: but experts fear There's no escape.

The way it's moving forward, You know that

There's just nowhere You can go to hide.

I would be terrified.

What the hell is going on here?

[ static blips ]

Narrator: the indian ocean, January 2013 --

Off the coast Of western australia,

A fishing boat Is heading back to harbor

When suddenly a towering Blood-red surge

Blocks out the horizon.

Terrified crew snatch This photo,

Which investigators determine Is not manipulated in any way.

When I first see this, I think, "Holy moly.

Something huge Is happening here."

The first thing you see Is this massive wall of red.

Kays: it's really big. It's thousands of feet high.

What's going to happen When that advances

Over the top of the people Holding the camera?

Talk about the apocalypse Come true.

♪♪

So the question is, What the hell is it?

[ static blips ]

Narrator: experts are baffled By a photograph

Snapped from a fishing boat Of a towering blood-red wall

Advancing across the ocean.

Geologist sian proctor Checks location data

And discovers that the boat Is 25 miles off the coast.

Proctor: When I look at the image,

it clearly looks like This huge wave

May be coming towards The people that are there.

I immediately think tsunami.

[ people screaming ]

Narrator: in 2004, the infamous Boxing day tsunami

Wrought havoc Across the indian ocean.

proctor: It affected 14 countries,

And over 200,000 people Lost their lives.

♪♪

Narrator: if this is A towering mass of sea water,

Biologist roland kays suspects

That a red tide algal bloom Might explain the color.

in these red tide events,

the algae really does turn The water red,

So if there was a massive wave, That wave would also look red.

♪♪

Narrator: but earth scientist Alessandro grippo

Discounts the tsunami theory.

if a tsunami had hit Along the coastline,

we would see Catastrophic damage.

There would be A lot of destruction.

We don't see any of that.

I would absolutely say This is not a tsunami.

[ rumbling ]

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: atmospheric scientist Angela fritz

Searches the records For other evidence

Of the weird red menace.

She unearths revelatory New video footage,

This time taken on land,

Which turns the investigation In a new direction.

the first thing you see Looks like a giant red cloud,

You know?

If you've ever watched The show "Lost,"

It kind of looks like The smoke monster, only red.

You know, that's kind of What it brings to mind for me.

The weird thing about This cloud formation

Is how tightly packed it is.

It really looks like An advancing wall.

Narrator: Fritz recalls that january

Is the height of summer In australia.

She wonders if the Incredible phenomenon

Might be smoke From a massive wildfire.

Australia Is known for its wildfires.

It's a very dry region.

Maybe this could be Wildfire smoke.

It's a little red.

It depends on what That wildfire was burning.

Narrator: fritz learns that In january 2013,

Australia records Its hottest day ever,

With the nationwide Average temperature

Hitting a blistering 104 degrees.

Bushfires rage across almost 300,000 acres of the country

And can be seen from space.

Fritz: knowing that it's The peak of wildfire season,

This must be An effect of wildfire

Because it sure does look Like smoke, doesn't it?

Narrator: but out here In the barren western desert,

Jayde lovell doesn't Buy the bushfire theory.

the fires that were happening Were happening

on the east side Of the country.

this was filmed on the west.

So it's not an area That's often hit by bushfires,

So it's likely To be something else.

[ camera whirs ]

♪♪

Narrator: focusing in on The swirling movement

Within the advancing wall,

Lovell notices that it looks More dusty than smoky.

She wonders if this wall Might be a terrifying sandstorm,

A potentially deadly haboob.

♪♪

A haboob is when a huge storm Creates this massive wind.

In an area with lots of dust Or sand,

It can whip up a huge sandstorm That moves incredibly quickly.

It's the iron in the dirt, In that area of australia,

Is what makes it so red.

So you can see the winds Were whipping up,

Pulling that iron-rich red dirt

And sending it into the air In a huge wall of dust.

A haboob, I love saying That word, "Haboob."

They happen where I live, In phoenix, arizona.

We tend to get a couple Of these haboobs

Roll through During the monsoon season.

When they do impact, you know, Cities like phoenix and tucson,

they can be a big disaster.

[ wind whooshing ]

if you've never been in A sandstorm, they can kill you.

♪♪

narrator: investigators fear

that as this Awesome haboob advances,

witnesses on the beach Could be in terrible danger.

proctor: When you see a haboob coming,

the best thing to do Is go cover up.

grippo: you might choke.

you might be buried in the sand.

so there's a lot Of possible dangers.

I hope the guys with the camera Got inside.