All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S02E10.Curse.of.the.Monster.Spider.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

[ electronic whirring ]

Narrator: worldwide, six billion
Cameras are watching us...

On our streets, at work,

And in our homes.

They capture things
That seem impossible.

It defies
The laws of physics.

Man: ah, 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.

[ women shouting ]

[ crash, horn honks ]

Woman: oh, my god.

[ screaming ]

Narrator: coming up,

A city street is
Swallowed whole.

In that instant, it was gone.
You know, in one second.

[ loud crash, screaming ]

It's disturbing to watch.

Narrator:
An eight-legged invasion.

400 foot long wall of web.

You can't escape.

Narrator: is man on the menu?

I just thought that
They will eat me alive.

I know they will.

And an unwelcome
Visitor from above.

All of a sudden, boom!

[ ice shattering ]

Just another couple of feet,

And these two
Would've been on ice.

[ cameras whirring ]

[ bursting ]

Narrator: bizarre phenomena --
Mysteries caught on camera.

What is the truth behind
This "Strange evidence"?

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

captions paid for by
Discovery communications

[ cameras whirring ]

A texas park is
Engulfed in a mega-web.

400 foot long wall of web.

You can't escape.
How terrifying?

♪♪

Kays: what kind of prey are
They trying to catch?

Could a deer get stuck in that?
Could a person?

Narrator: locals fear
An eight-legged invader

Has developed a taste
For human flesh.

My biggest fear was being
Eaten alive by a spider.

♪♪

[ static blips ]

♪♪

Lake tawakoni state park,
Texas --

A quiet, rural retreat
Just 50 miles west of dallas.

[ various animal calls ]

August 6, 2007.

Park ranger freddie gowin
Is checking a trail

When he stumbles on
A vision from a nightmare.

I came around this one corner,

I saw the strangest thing
I've ever seen in my life.

Narrator: a gigantic spiderweb

Spread right across the trail.

I thought I got caught up in
A sci-fi movie or something.

Narrator: the sinister web
Towers over 40 feet high

And spreads sticky threads
Hundreds of feet across.

♪♪

Woman: it was terrifying.

It would scare you to death.

♪♪

Gowin: what scared me was
It could take over

And totally destroy the park.

♪♪

Kays: the first thing
I wondered

When I saw all
This spiderweb was,

is it from one giant spider?

♪♪

[ whirring ]

Narrator: zoologist roland kays

Fears the world's biggest spider

Has made itself
At home in texas.

The largest spider in the world
Is called the giant huntsman,

And it's so big that if you
Stretch its legs out,

It can be up to a foot long.

Narrator:
The giant huntsman is just one

Of a large group of
Carnivorous huntsman spiders.

They use their venom
To feed on cockroaches,

And in this footage, a mouse.

[ siren wailing ]

But some spiders
Also attack humans,

Their bite causing necrosis,
Death of human cells.

Woman: oh, ha ha ha.
Send help.

Narrator:
One aggressive huntsman spider

Even traps this australian
Woman in her home.

those are very, very
Dangerous spiders.

you don't wish to
Have one of those

End up in your sleeping bag.

[ spider screeching ]

♪♪

Narrator:
But spider expert kevin kasky

Finds a flaw in kays'
Huntsman hunch.

The huntsman isn't
A web slinger.

They don't create a web

Because they are what
We call active hunters.

They run after their prey.

Narrator:
Kasky suspects that the culprit

Might be a spider that
Kills not with venom,

But with the stunning
Strangulating strength

Of its web.

♪♪

Darwin's bark spider
Makes the biggest web,

Measured at 25 meters
Or about 82 feet.

Narrator:
Darwin's bark spiderweb

Is the strongest biological
Material ever studied.

[ gunshot ]

Ten times tougher than kevlar,

One of its 30-square-foot webs

Could support
A two-ton family car

Or easily trap a human victim.

I don't think I'd want to
Come across one of those

In a dark passage

'cause I don't think I'd
Get out of their web.

♪♪

Narrator:
But biologist kelly price

Spots a clue in the footage

That suggests the web
Can't be the work

Of the darwin bark spider.

webs are usually
Built solitarily

and to a very
Organized pattern,

But here we see a mishmash

Of a whole bunch
Of different webs

In no organized
Pattern whatsoever.

Narrator: this leads experts to
An alarming discovery.

the monstrous tangle
Of spider silk

hasn't been spun by
A single giant specimen.

This park has become
The domain of an army

Of thousands of
Web-spinning arachnids.

we didn't know what
Kind of spider it was.

That's the scariest part.

♪♪

Narrator:
What they fear most is a pack

Of the lone star state's
Deadliest native spider --

The black widow.

One bite can kill a human.

♪♪

Black widow spiders

Kill seven people
In the u.S. Each year.

so to see this many spiders
All working together

is kind of terrifying.

♪♪

Narrator: black widow venom
Is 15 times stronger

Than a rattlesnake.

Although solitary, they do
Socialize in mating season,

And this is
Black widow mating season.

♪♪

Female black widows
Kill males after mating.

Could these homicidal females

Be turning their violent dating
Methods towards bigger prey?

♪♪

When you see a spiderweb
This big,

You wonder, what kind of prey
Are they trying to catch?

How big of a prey?
Could a deer get stuck in that?

Could a person?

♪♪

[ birds chirping ]

Narrator:
Spider expert mike quinn

Steps up to the challenge.

But when he examines
The massive web,

He spots something incredible.

Quinn: there are at least
16 species of spiders

Living in the web.

Narrator: species of spider

That would normally
Fight to the death

Are working together.

♪♪

Quinn:
Most spiders are territorial,

so having all these
Different spiders all together

was really unusual.

Kasky: spiders are not
Normally social insects.

The only time that they
Enjoy other spiders' company

Is when it's time for dinner,

And usually meaning that
They've invited them over

To be the dinner.

♪♪

Narrator: arachnids have
A ferocious appetite.

[ squirming ]

Scientists estimate

The global spider population

Eats up to 800 million
Tons of prey each year.

These eight-legged predators
Could eat every human on earth

And still have room for dessert.

I just thought they're gonna
Attack all at one time.

They will eat me alive,
I know they will.

♪♪

[ trilling, camera whirs ]

Narrator: coming up --
Experts race to discover

What these flesh-eating
Spiders are feeding on.

It raises the question, why did
They build one massive web?

Narrator:
And a city street swallows cars.

[ screaming ]

Proctor: the cars move
And they disappear,

And the people,
They're in shock.

[ static blips ]

Narrator:
A monster web in a texas park

Is packed with a skin-crawling
Assortment of spiders.

it's not normal behavior

to have spiders
On top of spiders.

♪♪

Narrator:
With an armored exoskeleton,

Toxic venom,
And eight-eyed spidey senses,

The only thing stopping
Spiders from world domination

Is that most of them
Operate as lone wolves,

Until now.

[ eerie music ]

it raises the question,

why are these spiders
Congregating all together,

And why did they
Build one massive web?

[ beeping ]

♪♪

Narrator: zoologist roland kays
Reexamines the footage

And discovers a clue
To the spider behavior.

Vast numbers of small flies
Called midges

Have been caught in the web.

if there's lots to eat,

their populations can
Grow really quickly

and that seems to be what
Happened in this case.

Lovell: it's kind of a spider
Feeding frenzy.

with all these
Midges in the air,

all the spiders have
Come into this one area

to catch them all
While they can.

Narrator:
The worry for local texans is,

What will happen when
The spiders run out of midges?

[ squishing ]

[ cameras whirring ]

In the hometown of horror
Writer edgar allan poe,

The earth opens up and swallows
A u.S. City street.

[ screaming ]

Woman: oh, my god.

It brings down all the cars,

Much of the pavement,
The light posts, the fence.

Woman: oh, my god.

Bam! The cars move
And they disappear,

And the people,
They're in shock.

Narrator: are secret tunnels
Collapsing beneath baltimore

Threatening the entire city?

This is kind of like
Watching a disaster

Happening in slow motion.

[ screaming ]

[ loud crash ]

[ cameras whirring ]

♪♪

Narrator:
Baltimore, maryland --

Home to over 600,000 people.

At the heart of the
300-year-old historic city

Is charles village.

April 30, 2014,
East 26th street.

Beneath the pretty neighborhood,

An ancient godzilla-like
Monster appears to be awakening.

[ low growl ]

Reyes: there was a lot
Of people outside.

I came out and noticed
Across the street

was sinking in
Farther and farther.

Woman: oh, my god.

Narrator: the terrifying footage
Stuns investigators.

Proctor: what is going on?

because you don't normally see
The earth swallowing up cars.

The whole street started to
Cave in and sink down slowly.

♪♪

[ screaming ]

Woman: oh, my god.

[ screaming continues ]

[ loud crash ]

Narrator: east 26th street
Collapses into the gully below.

That instant, it was gone.

[ screaming ]

I lost my car

And then I just had to stand
There and watch it fall.

[ loud crash ]

[ panicked chattering ]

Narrator:
Residents fear the worst.

Reyes:
We didn't know if the entire
Street was gonna fall.

We didn't know if our
Houses were gonna fall in.

We really didn't know
What was going on.

Di bartolo: how can something
Like this happen?

it's disturbing to watch.

[ screaming ]

[ loud crash ]

[ camera whirring ]

♪♪

Narrator:
One local believes he knows

What caused the collapse,

And it may provide hard evidence
For a chilling local legend

That a haunted tunnel system
Lies beneath baltimore.

I've been in baltimore
My whole life.

There's all kinds of tunnels

That have been built
Through the years,

going back to the civil war.

Katsikides:
Growing up in baltimore,

I heard lots of folklore
About the tunnels

and how they might have
Been used in the past.

Lovell: the question is,
Was this car-eating event

On 26th street caused by one of
These secret tunnels collapsing?

[ loud crash ]

[ woman screams ]

♪♪

Narrator:
Although old timers tell tales

Of baltimore's
Honeycomb of tunnels,

Most residents believe they
Were nothing but folklore.

That was, until the 1950s,

When construction workers
Rebuilding lexington market

Discover a long-forgotten
Secret doorway.

We're in the sun now.

♪♪

Narrator: guide martha wise

Holds the only key to this vault

And knows subterranean baltimore
Better than anyone else.

Wise: around 1951,

They discovered the entrance
To the underground vaults

That had been forgotten
For who knows how long.

♪♪

Narrator:
According to legend,

The subterranean network

Runs from the washington
Monument in the city center

To fort mchenry,
Two miles away on the coast.

[ cannon fires ]

It is said american soldiers

In the battle of baltimore...

[ horse whinnies ]

...Used them to thwart
A british invasion in 1812,

A triumph that inspired
Francis scott key

To write
"The star-spangled banner."

♪♪

Some believe the ghosts of
The 19th century soldiers

Still stalk these tunnels.

Though many dismiss
The passageways

As figments of the imagination,

Wise begs to differ.

Wise: there very easily could be
More tunnels down here.

Over here is something
Very interesting.

We do indeed have
Evidence of a tunnel

Behind this wall.

It's now concreted over.

♪♪

Narrator:
If wise is right,

The tunnels dug out by hand

Now support areas of a city

With more than 30 skyscrapers.

If they're beginning
To collapse,

The whole city is in danger.

Woman: oh, my god!

[ screaming ]

This is kind of like
Watching a disaster

Happening in slow motion.

[ screaming ]

[ loud crash ]

[ trilling, camera whirs ]

Narrator: coming up --

An enormous block of ice drops
Out of a clear london sky.

Where could this massive
Chunk of ice of come from?

Narrator: and investigators in
The baltimore street collapse...

Woman: oh, my god.

...Get that sinking feeling.

Landslides usually
Don't just happen.

They need a trigger.

[ static blips ]

[ screaming ]

Narrator: could a network of
Civil war passageways

Be to blame for the
Baltimore street collapse?

♪♪

[ whirring ]

♪♪

According to local legend,

Secret tunnels run from
The washington monument

in the city center
To fort mchenry on the coast.

but if that's the case,

They don't pass beneath
East 26th street.

there are no major tunnels
In this particular area,

so something else must
Have caused this event.

Narrator: planetary scientist
Sian proctor

Studies footage of the collapse.

She spots a detail that
Leads her to a fresh theory

About what caused the
Retaining wall to fail.

Proctor: when we look at
The meteorological records,

the east coast was just
Getting hammered by rain.

Narrator: mother nature dumped
Nearly four inches of rain

In an hour.

That's the second largest
In recorded history.

A tremendous amount of rain.

Narrator:
The torrential downpour
Overwhelms the city drains

And saturates the ground.

if you suddenly combine water
With dirt, what happens?

it turns into mud, it liquefies,
And the mud moves.

And mud moves downhill.

[ screaming ]

Proctor:
When I look at this video,

I am absolutely
Seeing a landslide.

♪♪

Narrator: landslides cause
Widespread destruction,

Killing up to 50 people
In the u.S. Each year

And costing $3.5 billion.

The largest ever recorded

Struck mount st. Helens,
Washington state, in may 1980,

Shifting enough debris to
Fill 250 million dump trucks.

[ beeping ]

Proctor believes
East 26th street's construction

Above the rail line
Sealed its fate.

When the ground becomes
Super saturated,

That can trigger a landslide,

And this is what's
Happening here.

♪♪

Narrator: proctor thinks that
Mud had been building up

Against the retaining wall.

The rainwater turned the mud
To heavier liquid,

which caused the wall to
Buckle, then collapse,

bringing down the street
With it.

This amazing amount of
Rainfall is literally the straw

That broke
The retaining wall's back.

Narrator: once again,

Nature overpowers
A manmade structure,

Miraculously injuring no one.

[ loud crash ]

♪♪

Although this collapse

Hasn't uncovered baltimore's
Legendary tunnels,

Locals haven't given up hope

That one day they
Will be discovered.

baltimore is still
Holding some secrets

very close to its chest

And it will show them to us
When it's ready.

♪♪

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator:
Now, a sleepy suburban street

Receives an unwelcome
Visitor from above.

All of a sudden, bam!

[ ice shattering ]

Something falls from the sky.

Narrator: it leaves locals
Frozen with fear.

Just a few feet further
Over, I would be dead.

Narrator:
And a cold case to be solved.

Price: could this be some type
Of extreme weather event

With super-sized hailstones
Smashing the streets of london?

[ ice shattering ]

[ whirring ]

[ ice cracks ]

♪♪

Narrator: february 7, 2018,
London, england --

Three million londoners
Start the working day.

Among them is
Dentist howard stean.

There was a whistling sound
As if a bomb was falling.

Narrator: a camera captures
A shocking event.

[ ice shattering ]

all of a sudden, boom,
Something giant

comes crashing down on 'em.

Narrator: an enormous block of
Ice explodes on the ground

Just feet from two
Unsuspecting men.

[ ice shattering ]

that guy came so close
To getting iced.

[ trilling, camera whirs ]

Narrator: coming up --
An unidentified light

Spells disaster for a city.

They must have looked up
And thought,

"This is the end of the world."

Narrator: and the ice bomb
Investigation gets a lift.

We're at 140 miles an hour,
And there we go.

♪♪

[ beeping ]

Narrator: an ice bomb

Falls out of a clear-blue
London sky.

it is a miracle that
Nobody was hit.

just a few feet further over,
I would be dead.

[ ice shattering ]

[ trilling ]

Narrator:
This isn't the first case

Of unexpected things
Falling from the sky.

In 1954, a woman in alabama

Was struck by
A grapefruit-size meteorite

That crashed through her roof.

She lived to tell the tale,

Unlike the unfortunate
Boy in turkey

Who was killed by a goat
That fell off a building.

Ex-nypd video analyst
Conor mccourt

Studies the surveillance footage

To work out the size of the
Mysterious falling ice block.

we have things that
We can compare it to.

We have people
In the foreground here,

and we can use that as a base.

[ camera whirs ]

it's about the width
Of a human being.

[ beep ]

Narrator: mccourt calculates
That an ice block that size

Would weigh around 45 pounds.

wow, 45 pounds!

that's like a microwave
Smashing on top of your head.

where could this massive
Chunk of ice have come from?

[ shattering ]

Narrator: in freezing climates,

Falling ice is a known hazard.

In the united states,
About 15 people are killed

By icicle-related
Accidents each year.

But with no ice and snow
In london that day,

Experts race to discover the
Source of this lethal missile

Before someone else is hit
By an ice bomb from the sky.

could this be some type
Of extreme weather event?

Narrator:
Aviation expert joe pappalardo

Studies the location

And discovers
The near-death ice event

Occurred directly under
A flight path to heathrow,

One of the world's
Busiest airports.

if you look at
The flight records,

you see that there was
An airplane that flew overhead

not so long before
This ice ball dropped.

[ airplane engine roars ]

Narrator: 3,000 aircraft swoop
Low over london every day,

And things do occasionally
Fall out of inbound aircraft.

In 2015, police discovered
A body on the roof

Of a building
Two miles from here.

He's identified as a stowaway
On a flight from south africa.

Usually, these stowaways
Try to stow away on, say,

The landing gear on the
Outside of an airplane cabin.

Usually, they pass out
Because up above 25,000 feet,

The oxygen is so thin that
You can't stay conscious.

Narrator:
Investigators believe

The man tragically
Fell from the plane

When the landing gear lowered.

Lovell believes the chunk of
Ice also dropped from a plane.

Lovell: while frozen human
Bodies falling from planes

Is quite rare, there have been
A number of cases

Of blue ice falling from planes.

Blue ice is the term that
People use for latrine water

That is dropped
From an airplane.

Narrator: airplane toilet water
Is blue in color.

If it leaks from the aircraft,

It freezes in the subzero
Temperatures at high altitude,

Forming a solid bomb that
Plummets to the ground.

[ bombs whistle, explosion ]

What a way to die,

Being hit by a huge ball
Of plane toilet waste.

Airplanes aren't flying around

Opening up the lavatory doors

And dropping human waste
All over the place.

That's not how
That works at all.

Blue ice occurs when there's
A leak in those systems

And it's a very rare accident.

Narrator:
But image analyst mccourt

Notices something in the clip

That challenges
The blue ice theory.

Mccourt: looking at the color of
The object that hits the ground,

It's very white.

When they have
Airline discharge,

It's usually accompanied
By some blue chemical.

We're not seeing that here.

[ trilling, camera whirring ]

Narrator:
Planetary scientist sian proctor

Believes a freak weather event
Is a possible explanation.

The first thing that
Comes to mind is hail.

Narrator:
Most hailstones are pea-sized.

[ hail crashing down ]

But sometimes super-sized
Stones plummet to the earth.

The largest hailstone ever
Recorded in the united states

Was in south dakota in 2010.

It was just under two pounds,
Eight inches across.

It was the size of a grapefruit.

[ shattering ]

Narrator:
Meteorologist chris bell

Has seen the devastating effect
Of giant hailstones.

♪♪

there's been instances
In america and in africa

where herds of cattle
Have been wiped out

By a large hail storm,

So they can
Potentially be deadly.

Narrator: but bell finds a hole
In the hail theory.

Bell: when you get hail,

You're not just gonna get one
Or two hailstones falling.

You're gonna get lots
Of hailstones falling.

So just seeing one massive
Chunk of ice hit the ground,

That almost rules out
The potential of hail.

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator:
Meteorologist chris walcek

Examines the latest
Academic research

And comes across
A frightening possibility.

This ice bomb has the
Hallmarks of a megacryometeor.

a megacryometeor is
A very large piece of ice,

larger than any
Known hailstone,

Falling out of the sky
Under clear sky conditions.

The formation mechanism is
Not too well understood.

Narrator: some scientists
Believe the origins

Of these mysterious ice bombs
Are extraterrestrial.

Walcek: maybe it's the core
Of an icy comet

That re-entered the atmosphere

And this is the piece
Of what survived.

[ ice shattering ]

Comets are sometimes
Many kilometers across.

If you have a big ball of ice

hitting the earth at huge speed,
It's gonna do a lot of damage.

[ explosion ]

Narrator:
Other scientists believe

That the lethal megacryometeors

Are an extreme weather event
In the tropopause,

Miles above the earth.

But the mystery is how a giant
Block of ice can grow so big.

[ ice shattering ]

In order to hold
A 45-pound hunk of ice

Up in the atmosphere,

You would need a huge updraft
Carrying very moist air

Up to colder regions of the
Atmosphere where it freezes.

♪♪

Narrator:
Meteorologist chris bell
Designs an experiment

To find out what wind speed
Would be needed above london

To keep a 45-pound block
Of ice suspended in the air

Before crashing down to earth.

All right.

We're turning on
The wind tunnel now

And we're gonna be
Simulating wind speeds

Of up to 30 to 40
Miles per hour,

Which is gale force winds.

And, at the moment,
The block of ice is not moving.

Narrator:
Bell cranks up the wind machine.

We're at 140 miles an hour,
And there we go.

We can see the block of ice is
Now being lifted into the air

At 140 miles an hour.

This suggests that the ice

Could have been suspended in
The air by powerful updrafts,

But bell spots a problem.

Those are the types of winds
That we would only find

In some of the strongest
Hurricanes on the planet.

And it's just not the
Type of conditions

We would have seen over
London at that time.

The origin of the ice bomb
Remains a mystery.

It's absolutely worrying.
If these chunks of ice that big

Can fall from the sky
Without warning,

Then any one of us could be
Hit at any time.

[ ice shattering ]

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator:
In a war-torn city under siege,

A ceasefire's nervous calm
Is shattered

By an incoming fiery orb.

People must have
Looked up and thought,

"This is the end of the world."

Narrator: is it an attack by
The enemy at the gate,

Or is it something
Even more terrifying --

A visitor from another world?

Don't know where it came from,

Don't know what its
Impact could be,

But it's bad and it's
Coming in your direction.

♪♪

[ beeping ]

Narrator:
City of donetsk, ukraine,

February 24, 2015.

[ missiles launching ]

For over a year, the country
Has been tearing itself apart.

[ gunfire ]

Its citizens are used
To cowering in fear

As the glow of missiles
Fill the night sky.

But then comes a ceasefire

And an eerie quiet
Descends on the city.

♪♪

Lindsey moran, a former
Clandestine officer for the cia,

Is an expert
On modern war zones.

Moran: this ceasefire
Was very tenuous, at best.

and nobody knew if it
Was really going to hold.

but it was a dangerous,
Dangerous time in the ukraine.

Narrator:
Day six of the ceasefire,

10:50 p.M. --

A surveillance camera
Spying on the city

Captures a fiery object none
Of the war-weary inhabitants

Have ever seen before.

Wallace: so you have this ball
Of light up above the city.

is it a friend or is it a foe?

Seeing something like this,
The immediate thought might be,

"That's a u.F.O."

♪♪

Narrator: this isn't the first
U.F.O. To spook the ukraine.

In 1982, reports of a large,
Mysterious object

Hovering above a nuclear base
Nearly starts world war iii.

Senior base officials
Claim that the u.F.O.

Takes control of the missile
Launch codes for 15 seconds,

Plunging the military
Into red alert.

No explanation has ever been
Found for the incredible event.

Moran: the people of donetsk,
They must have

Looked up and thought,
"This is the end of the world."

Narrator: coming up --
Residents of donetsk

Fear a weapon
Of mass destruction

Is heading their way.

It's like no weapon
I've ever seen before.

Narrator:
And the tree that gushes blood.

It's like a horror movie,
It really is.

Trees don't bleed.

[ saw buzzes ]

[ beeping ]

♪♪

Narrator: a dazzling,
Unidentified orb of light

In the sky is approaching
The war-torn ukrainian

City of donetsk.

♪♪

Military analyst carlo muñoz
Fears the fragile ceasefire

Is about to be shattered.

Muñoz:
If you're a soldier in donetsk

And you see this
Light orb kind of

Moving towards your position,

your automatic assumption
Is that it's a weapon.

it's a weapon being used
Against you by your enemies

To kill you.

Narrator:
Paco chierici, a former
U.S. Navy fighter pilot,

Inspects the footage.

He believes the object is
Actually moving too slowly

To be any kind of
Incoming missile.

Chierici:
What seems to be a time lapse,

there's no time stamp
On the video itself,

so it's hard to know exactly
How long it takes place,

But it seems to be
A matter of many minutes,

Just by looking at the cars,
You know,

The rate of the car lights
That go by.

♪♪

Narrator: when slowed down,
The footage shows

That the object
Traverses the skyline

In approximately eight minutes.

moran: if it's a weapon,

it's like no weapon
I've ever seen before,

because it's
Really going through the sky

at a snail's pace.

[ gunfire ]

Narrator: instead,
Moran believes the footage

Could show a weapon designed
To wreck the morale

Of the besieged city's
Jittery inhabitants.

Psychological warfare has
Been used throughout history.

So, psychological warfare
Includes doing things

To intimidate
Or unsettle a population.

[ gunfire ]

[ heavy metal plays ]

[ soldier shouts ]

Narrator:
In present-day afghanistan,

The u.S. Army blasts out
Metallica to strike fear

In the taliban.

New laser technologies
Allow moving images

To be projected onto
Clouds from aircraft.

In one particularly
Outlandish plan by the u.S.,

They were going to project a god
Above an enemy stronghold

To scare them into giving up.

Muñoz: seeing something
Completely alien

To what you've been
Surrounded by,

It raises the fear level
By a factor of 10.

Narrator:
Military analyst carlo muñoz

Has seen the use of
Intense light to create

Panic in war zones.

Muñoz: the u.S. Military
Has experimented

With technologies
To blind or confuse.

They were called dazzlers.

Any weapon designed to blind
A city the size of donetsk

Would likely have taken out the
Camera that took this video.

So, I have to assume that
Something like this is

Not what we're seeing right now.

[ cameras whirring ]

♪♪

Narrator: experts struggle
To explain the composition

Of the mysterious orb.

It's burning so brightly
And it's moving so slowly,

It's almost like a mini moon
Lighting up the night sky.

Narrator: chemist andrea sella
Believes there is one

Obvious candidate
For the chemical compound

That can create
Such bright light.

Sella: could it be that white
Phosphorus is being used here?

it's well known for the fact
That it ignites

spontaneously in air.

[ gunfire ]

Narrator:
White phosphorus has been used
As a terrifying weapon.

It burns continuously
At 1,500 degrees.

If it strikes a victim,

It can melt skin from bone
Like butter.

Phosphorus has been banned
Under the geneva convention

And basically deemed
A chemical weapon.

Narrator: but moran reveals
That while phosphorus

Cannot be used in weapons,
It is still used in warfare.

It does have a military purpose.

It can be used to
Illuminate a battle space.

[ gunfire ]

It does show some
More characteristics

Of an illumination flare.

This is in common use
By militaries

In the united states, in russia,
Other world powers.

Narrator:
If the russians use phosphorus

To light up donetsk in advance
Of a night attack,

Then the ceasefire
Will be over.

For something weird, glowing,
And unexplainable

To be menacingly traversing
Over their city sky,

It must have been really scary.

♪♪

[ cameras whirring ]

[ chainsaw buzzing ]

Narrator: now, a chainsaw
Cuts into a tree

And it spurts crimson blood.

It's bizarre, it's unnatural,

And it's bleeding
All over the place.

Trees don't bleed.

Narrator: if it's not the trunk
Itself that's bleeding,

Is it something it ate
For breakfast?

[ screaming ]

A man-eating tree
Uses its tendrils

To ensnare prey, including
Large prey like people,

And it can drain their blood.

Woman: this looks like
Absolute carnage,

Like a chainsaw massacre.

Narrator:
China, fujian province,
September 2015 --

A lumberjack sawing a tree trunk
Triggers a bloodbath.

it's almost like he hit
An artery or a vein

inside the tree, but trees
Don't have arteries,

so I don't know what's going on.

I have never met a tree
That even bled once

a little bit, let alone
Spewed like bleh, bleh --

spewing blood and guts.
It's like a horror movie.

we know what tree sap
Looks like.

this doesn't look like tree sap.

Sap comes out like
Drip, drip, drip.

This is like...
[ exploding noise ]

The blood just
Comes gushing out.

♪♪

Narrator: incredibly,
Cultural anthropologist

Deborah hyde discovers this
Is not the first report

Of a tree with a bloody history.

19th century explorers mapping
The jungles of madagascar

Returned with terrifying
Stories of a man-eating tree.

Hyde:
It allegedly was sacrificed to.

There was a woman that was
Taken up, and its tendrils

Gathered her and it ate her.

Narrator: more recent reports
Describe a creeper

In central america with
A thirst for human flesh.

♪♪

It's the tale of the so-called
Vampire vine of nicaragua,

Which uses its tendrils
To ensnare prey,

Including large prey
Like people,

And it can drain their blood.

Narrator: no specimens
Of the vampire vine

Have ever been found.

But have lumberjacks in china
Stumbled upon

A tree with a taste for blood?

[ whirring ]

♪♪

Coming up -- bloody botany
Gives experts the shivers.

Nature is weird
And sometimes disgusting.

[ beeping ]

[ saw buzzing ]

Narrator: a chainsaw
Cutting a tree in china

Triggers a fountain of red.

it's not just oozing a bit,
It's actually gushing.

♪♪

Narrator: the footage comes
To the attention

Of biologist jeffrey dean.

Dean confirms that
Flesh-eating plants

Aren't just a creepy plot device
In horror movies.

there are a few hundred
Species of carnivorous plants.

Narrator: the most ravenous
Thrives in the wetlands

Of north and south carolina
And traps living creatures

With booby trap hairs
On its leaves.

When an invading insect
Or beetle touches a hair,

It triggers the leaves
To slam shut

Like a spring-coil trap.

It then breaks down its prisoner
For consumption

By releasing digestive enzymes.

It's called the venus fly trap.

Once the insect's trapped,
It's going to die

And it's going to degrade.

And as it comes apart,
It releases nitrogen

That the plant is able
To absorb and feed on.

Narrator: the four-foot high
Pitcher plant,

Discovered in the jungles
Of southeast asia,

Has an even more
Voracious appetite.

The skeletal remains of
Mice and lizards and snakes

Have been found in
The bottoms of these

Larger pitcher plants.

♪♪

Narrator: for dean,
A carnivorous plant's ability

To eat a creature raises
A tantalizing possibility,

That a plant could develop
The ability to consume a human.

If there were such a thing
As a venus fly trap

With a trap big enough that
A human could walk into it,

There's nothing that would
Prevent that leaf from

Eventually absorbing you
When you passed away.

That's just the nature
Of how it operates.

Narrator:
The average human body contains

Four pounds of nitrogen,
More than enough

To keep a tree healthy.

But dean doubts that there
Are man-munching trees.

There's never been
Any evidence at all

Of a plant that would be large
Enough to trap and devour

A creature the size
Of a human being.

[ wailing ]

[ beeping, camera whirs ]

♪♪

Narrator:
Zoologist tara pirie

Analyzes the huge
Quantity of blood

And considers if the logger

May have sliced through
An animal inside the tree.

Pirie: usually snakes are very
Sensitive to their surroundings.

However, when it
Is in hibernation,

Obviously, it is very
Lethargic, very slow moving.

and there has been
Occasions where people have

chopped down trees and cut
Snakes in half.

Man: oh, my god!

Narrator: but zoologist
Roland kays' analysis

Of the amount of red liquid
Coming out of the tree

Casts doubt on the snake theory.

when you see all this goop
Coming out of this tree,

you have to ask,
What size animal would it take

To make that much blood?

So it would've had to been
Too giant of an animal

To make this much blood,

And it just couldn't have
Fit in that tree.

Narrator: jeffrey dean
Steps through the footage

Frame by frame.

He identifies the tree
As a eucalyptus.

A fully grown eucalyptus tree
Can contain

Over five gallons of sap,

And its most active ingredient

Is a gum called kino,
Whose color is blood red.

This red sap,
Or kino material,

Is used in a wide variety
Of traditional medicines.

narrator: the sap in the footage
Is easily mistaken for blood,

due to a unique quality
Both fluids share.

sap and blood both have
Clotting compounds to prevent

the liquid from just flowing
Out of the tree or the body.

so that could be why the sap
Looks like the consistency

of clotted blood.

it's like when you bite
Into that jelly donut

and you hit the pocket
With the jelly in it

and it comes squirting out
And gets all over your slacks.

♪♪

nature is weird
And sometimes disgusting.