Original subtitles

Narrator: worldwide, Six billion 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.

[ people screaming ]

Narrator: coming up...

Outside area 51, Under heavy police escort,

In the wee hours Of the morning.

Oh, my heart was racing. There was cops everywhere.

I was really scared To actually take the video.

This is the closest I've seen

To what we actually imagine A flying saucer looks like.

Narrator: in the land Of countess dracula,

Something is stirring.

It's like someone hit The self-destruct button

On the forest.

Narrator: and engineer Matt kutcher blows up t.N.T.

To investigate Potentially lethal,

Unidentified yellow blobs.

Is it manmade, is it chemical, Is it organic?

We have no idea.

Narrator: bizarre phenomena.

Mysteries caught on camera.

What's the truth behind This strange evidence?

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

captions paid for by Discovery communications

Two local men Overhear a cop talking

And hours later, They capture this footage.

That's a spaceship.

It was a circle shape

With a white tarp Covering the thing.

It looks like something From another world.

♪♪

Narrator: has area 51 Finally been exposed?

There was cops everywhere. I was really scared.

This has "Top secret"

Written all over it.

♪♪

Narrator: the mojave desert In california stretches

Almost 50,000-square-miles From l.A. To nevada.

Deep in this arid wasteland

Lies edwards air force base

And its highly classified center For black op tests,

Area 51.

Kurth: it's pretty strange.

it's a lot of desert, Lot of open space.

there's not a lot of people.

Narrator: may 30, 2012, Late evening --

Friends jeff kurth And jason moyer

Stop at a gas station

About 20 miles From edwards air force base.

I overheard these two highway Patrol officers talking.

They were real secretive.

And they said they had To move something at 1:30.

And it was very suspicious.

What were they moving At 1:30 in the morning?

Narrator: the friends park

At a safe distance From the road,

Turn off the lights, Lie low, and wait.

At 2:00 a.M., In the dead of night,

A massive security presence Suddenly shows itself.

I did not want to get caught With -- with the cameras.

Oh, my heart was racing. There was cops everywhere.

I was really scared To actually take the video.

Narrator: but not as scared As they feel when they see

What these cops are escorting.

♪♪

That's a spaceship.

Never seen anything Like that.

It was obviously something

That was under the control Of the government.

This incident takes place

Outside the perimeter Of area 51.

Jeff has his own theory.

Something crashed,

And they're transporting it To another base.

The footage amazes experts.

it's the dead of night. There's a police convoy.

what exactly is On the back of this truck?

this is a close encounter Of a weird kind.

Moran: that big Security presence --

They clearly don't want anyone Getting too close to this thing.

The footage reaches Lindsay moran.

As an ex-cia Undercover operative,

She has direct experience Of top-level cover-ups.

for decades, Conspiracy theorists

here in the united states

have thought that The u.S. Government

does possess alien technology.

Narrator: believers insist This alien technology

Must be stored at the military's Most secret installation,

Area 51.

But until 2013, The u.S. Military

Refused to acknowledge That area 51 even exists.

The timing of this video Is kind of curious,

Because this was in 2012.

A freedom of information Act request

Revealed on The 23rd of june, 2013,

That edwards air force base Also controls area 51.

If the government knew they were Going to have to reveal

The existence and location Of area 51

And they did have Alien technology there,

It stands to reason

That this might be The ideal time to move it.

♪♪

Narrator: whatever the nature And origin of this object,

Why is it being moved With a police convoy

In the dead of night?

To move something that secret, Right out in the open,

On the back of a truck, It's just seems --

It just seems preposterous.

Narrator: was this An emergency of some sort?

Did something go wrong On the area 51 base?

♪♪

One persistent theory About area 51

Is that government agencies

Deliberately fostered rumors Of extraterrestrial craft

In order to conceal Their own experimental aircraft.

This is the closest I've seen To what we actually imagine

A flying saucer looks like,

From all of The science fiction movies.

If the public is believing That there's a ufo

Or some kind Of alien technology,

It might divert The public's attention

From some controversial Top-secret technology

That the government doesn't want The public talking about.

Narrator: does the lack Of a tarp suggest

That the agency That runs area 51

Intends for this craft To be seen?

♪♪

Declassified documents reveal How, in the 1980s,

Ufo hunter paul bennewitz

Stumbled across A black ops project,

Just like kurth and moyer.

When it was feared That bennewitz

Was about to expose A top-secret stealth helicopter,

He was the target of a so-called "Misdirection operation."

Air force agent richard doty

Actually fed bennewitz Fake documents

That proved an alien invasion Was imminent.

Bennewitz believed These documents to be true

And ran with the story,

Telling the entire ufo community That an invasion was coming.

[ siren wails ]

Narrator: the plan worked, Diverting bennewitz away

From the top-secret program

And towards a mental breakdown.

Bennewitz became obsessed

With the idea of an imminent Alien invasion,

And the idea actually Ended up driving him mad.

He had to be institutionalized, And he lost all credibility.

This was a textbook example Of misdirection

By the air force.

Narrator: are kurth and moyer The latest innocent pawns

In another sinister Government program

Of misdirection?

They really don't care About the well-being

Of individuals caught up In these stories.

Now, you have to wonder whether Or not these two witnesses

Are being used in the same way.

Narrator: but kurth and moyer Are convinced of what they saw.

I really believe that The government

Has alien technology

And they've Reverse-engineered crafts.

There's extraterrestrial life

Out there,

Other than us.

Whatever its origin, A military analyst examines

The shape of the craft For additional clues.

There are noticeable Flat sections

On the side of the object,

Which is where You could attach wings.

It's not uncommon for wings

To be removed or folded over On an aircraft

To make it easier to transport.

So, I think what we have here Is something with wings.

Narrator: but wings or no wings,

There's something not right About this mystery craft.

The profile of this object Doesn't match any

Of the combat drones Currently in flight right now.

And that is a pretty Scary proposition.

Narrator: coming up, ex-dogs.

Is there a genetic mutation Turning these dogs blue

And could it be passed on To a human?

It certainly turned His skin blue --

Seriously blue.

Narrator: Exploding toxic alien blobs.

♪♪

And a craft controlled By non-human intelligence.

Narrator: in california, Two locals capture footage

Of an unidentified craft

Being escorted In the dead of night,

Close to area 51.

that thing had no visible Engines or motors

of any technology That we currently possess.

Military analyst Carlo muñoz wonders

If this might be something new In the u.S. Arsenal

That's controlled By non-human intelligence.

what it does look like is Something that was tested

by the u.S. Navy in 2011.

and that was northrop grumman's X-47b carrier drone...

Minus its swings.

♪♪

Narrator: when munoz Compares both images,

He's left without a doubt

That the craft On the back of the truck

Is the x-47b drone.

The x-47b launches Drone technology

Into a new era.

Unlike the predator,

This doesn't need A ground-based pilot.

It's autonomous and intelligent.

smart enough to land On an aircraft carrier,

tough enough To survive at sea,

And have a big enough bomb bay To drop weapons.

This robotic aircraft makes Science fiction a reality,

An a.I. Killer Stalking the skies,

Able to terminate targets Without a human handler.

But the invention Of a new generation

Of artificially intelligent Killer robots

Brings a future, Which many people dread,

Closer to reality.

Muñoz: you don't have a person Behind the controls,

So if the program within The drone somehow messes up,

You could have a catastrophe On your hands.

They can be hacked by the enemy.

Once the enemy takes control Of that aircraft,

It can basically do Whatever it wants with it.

Narrator: whatever Happens in area 51,

The existence of This bizarre craft

Is undeniable.

Jason moyer and jeff kurth Remain mystified

By the strange events Of that night.

every time I drive by This gas station,

I think about it.

every time.

It was definitely A crazy night

To see something So spectacular.

♪♪

Now, one day, This is a normal beach,

The next, It's covered by objects

That scientists don't recognize,

And no one dares to touch.

What's scary is, we don't know Where this came from.

Who knows what the tide Could've brought in.

Is it organic or synthetic? Is it toxic or not?

Narrator: according To one theory,

These blobs are A form of weapon.

These things are volatile

And potentially explosive And dangerous.

Narrator: northern france --

Famous for its vast, Pristine beaches.

July 18, 2017 --

Local thomas hemberger Strolls down the beach,

Where he sees something bizarre.

One day, nothing,

And suddenly, The yellow blob invasion.

Narrator: countless thousands Of strange yellow blobs

Pepper the sand Over a 19-mile stretch.

No one knows where They have come from

Or what they are.

everything about this substance Is baffling.

Is it manmade, is it chemical, Is it organic?

We have no idea.

I don't even know If it's healthy

to pick it up and touch it.

Narrator: the footage reaches

Former army colonel Daniel davis.

He recognizes this beach

As one which played A crucial role

In the second world war

And wonders If these yellow blobs

Could be the lethal remains Of deadly explosives.

These fortified beaches, Known as the "Atlantic wall,"

Acted as a dividing line Between nazi-occupied europe

And the free world.

the atlantic wall was -- Was germany's impregnable wall

Of obstacles And defensive capabilities

That would prevent the west From attacking them.

The germans stored Hundreds of thousands

Of tons of ammunition here,

Because it's the closest point To britain,

Where they expected The allies to attack.

But the allies invaded 100 miles south in normandy,

Causing the germans to abandon This massive weapons cache.

Locals fear this ammunition Is coming back to haunt them.

Upwards of 300,000 tons

Of conventional And chemical munitions

Were just thrown into the water.

It's possible that Something ruptured

And only now, at 70 years later,

It's finally coming To the surface

And mixing with who-knows-what.

♪♪

Narrator: highly Combustible t.N.T.

Formed the explosive bases Of most munitions

During world war ii.

Chemist ken hanson believes

This could be what's washing up On these beaches.

chemicals like t.N.T. Are very explosive.

♪♪

They're also typically A yellow color.

Narrator: it was found That handling t.N.T.

Has a deadly side effect

When something weird started Happening to munitions workers.

the canary girls were women

who made shells During world war I.

They got their nickname

Because prolonged contact With t.N.T.

Turned their skin yellow.

Narrator: over time, It caused toxic jaundice,

Killing many.

♪♪

Since this is a public beach, The first concern is,

Are these spheres toxic, Are they lethal?

These bombs and bullets and Things can decompose over time.

And so depending on what They decompose into,

They can be very unstable.

Narrator: could these Sinister yellow blobs

Be evidence of a vast Undersea store

Of unstable and toxic t.N.T.?

Engineer matt kutcher Is a pyrotechnics

And weaponry specialist.

He thinks the yellow blobs Look too decomposed

To be live t.N.T.

Instead, he suspects These blobs are t.N.T.

That has already Exploded underwater.

To find out, he sets up a test

To see if he can use t.N.T. To recreate the yellow blobs.

I want to find out Whether or not these blobs

could be the remnants Of some kind

of underwater explosion.

Narrator: kutcher sets up A reinforced plastic tank

Containing just 3 1/2 pounds Of explosive t.N.T.,

Then adds 100 gallons of water.

The plastic tank will capture

Any debris from the explosive.

We'll be able to look around,

Look inside of it, Look around it,

And see what remnants Are left over.

Narrator: with the drum full, It's time to test the theory.

All right. Let's get ready and do this.

Narrator: they wire The explosive charge

Into the detonation desk.

♪♪

3...2...1...

Hit it!

♪♪

Now, that's An explosion.

Narrator: the powerful explosion Sends a plume of water 90 feet

Into the air

And rips the plastic tank apart.

Let's go see What's left, huh?

Inside the shredded tank,

Kutcher spots a layer of debris,

But it's not yellow.

It's just the plastic casing From the primacord.

Apart from the plastic wrapping That encased the explosive,

There is no other residue In the tank.

Everything has been consumed In the blast.

Kutcher: what this experiment Has taught us,

Although cool to watch,

It's clearly not What washed up on that beach.

It must've been the remnants Of something else.

♪♪

Narrator: but now The investigation

Takes a bizarre twist.

Could these weird blobs Be so-called floating gold

Worth millions of dollars?

This stuff is beautiful, Expensive,

And has a really Weird origin story.

Comes out of the butt Of a sperm whale.

Narrator: coming up,

A celestial light With a dark edge.

This is the kind of weapon that Can basically destroy armies.

Narrator: scientists fear A monstrous mutation

Is turning dogs blue.

It happens to one animal And then it spreads over time.

Narrator: and investigators Believe this beach might have

Struck gold --

Floating gold.

They've hit the lottery.

A couple kilos of this substance Is worth thousands of dollars.

♪♪

Narrator: thousands Of unidentified yellow blobs

Invade a french beach.

Locals and experts Struggle to understand

What they are.

But marine biologist Danni washington knows

One substance Which looks just like it.

based on the evidence, The color of the substance

looks a little bit Like ambergris,

or floating gold.

ambergris -- It's beautiful, expensive,

And has a really weird Origin story.

Comes out of the butt Of a sperm whale.

Ambergris is a byproduct Of a sperm whale's

Voracious appetite for seafood.

A sperm whale's diet Primarily consists

Of cephalopods, or squid.

They love squid.

The only thing is, with a squid,

They have a couple of hard parts In their body,

Including the beak.

Narrator: scientists Consider squid beaks

A marvel Of biological engineering.

Set between its tentacles,

It's tougher than any known Metal or polymer.

A beak can be as big as my fist.

What the whales do Is produce a substance,

Kind of a waxy coating,

That coats over all those beaks, Compresses it down,

And then they pass 'em Right out of their body.

Once the ambergris, Or floating gold,

Reaches the surface, The sun rays hit it,

Eventually bleaching it And changing its color,

Which looks very similar

To the yellow blobs Seen in the footage.

Narrator: ambergris produces A highly-prized musky scent

That perfumers pay Handsomely for.

Washington: if this town has Ambergris on its shoreline,

Well, they've hit the lottery.

A couple kilos of this substance Is worth thousands of dollars.

♪♪

Narrator: but chemist Ken hanson believes

The blobs are simply too bright To be ambergris

And that their garish Yellow color must be manmade.

that color is not part Of the natural kingdom.

♪♪

Narrator: investigators Analyzing the footage

Look beyond the beach, To the sea, for answers.

These beaches flank the busiest Shipping route on earth,

Carrying one-quarter Of all the world's traffic.

Rapp: did it spill Off some ship?

kind of makes me concerned

that this could be A public health issue.

Narrator: the man who first Came across the beach blobs

Musters up the courage To touch one.

♪♪

The blobs' toxic smell And waxy texture

Suggests to ken hanson Another possibility.

Could this be a substance Known as paraffin wax?

Paraffin wax is A hydrophobic material,

Which means it basically Doesn't like to be

In contact with water.

And so when you take Liquid paraffin wax

And you throw it in water, It starts to solidify

And generate these yellow blobs.

We use paraffin wax For beauty treatments,

To make candles, And as a lubricant.

If it is paraffin wax,

How did so much of it End up on the beach?

Paraffin is also A component of crude oil.

It can clog the storage tanks And hoses on tankers,

Adding to transportation costs.

It's possible that such A large quantity of this stuff

Washed up on the beach From an unscrupulous captain

Dumping the stuff Close to shore.

Narrator: but with No official report,

We can still only guess As to the origin

Of these yellow blobs And their legacy.

It might get in, Even our own food,

Working its way up The food chain.

♪♪

Narrator: now, a bizarre sight That defies nature.

Moran: the dogs are Actually bright blue.

I've never seen any animal That color.

I've seen black labs, And I've seen golden retrievers,

But I haven't seen Blue mangy dogs.

Narrator: investigators fear These dogs are undergoing

Some sort of grotesque mutation.

Genetic mutations That change color do happen.

Chemicals can do some really Weird things to animals.

And if it's doing that To the dogs,

What is it doing To the local population?

♪♪

Narrator: mumbai, india,

Home to the bollywood Film industry,

And the 12th wealthiest city In the world.

♪♪

But mumbai has a darker side.

Half of the population Lives in squalor

And scavenges for food,

Alongside 90,000 stray dogs In this city alone.

[ dogs bark ]

August 11, 2017 --

Locals can't believe their eyes, A bright blue dog.

♪♪

Then, more.

The sight of powder-blue hounds

Shocks and baffles scientists Across the globe.

What has colored these canines?

Narrator: in hindu culture,

The powder-blue color Of these dogs

Is the shade of many gods,

Including kali,

The goddess of death.

Some locals fear these dogs' Bizarre blue hue

Is a portent of doom.

Godfrey: I'm sure many people Had in their minds,

are we being told something, Is it an omen?

Should we be taking special care Of these dogs,

Because they're this blue color?

Narrator: could dogs have Unknowingly inhaled

Or ingested something That's given them the blues?

Scientists know Of one substance that,

If consumed regularly,

Can dramatically Alter skin color.

Users swear that silver Is good for their health,

Provided it's ingested In tiny particles,

Known as colloidal silver.

Medical studies have Found no benefits.

there's a number of people Who believe that

if you eat colloidal silver, Or drink colloidal silver,

It'll help treat diseases And prevent diseases.

Narrator: in 2007,

Reports reveal that Paul karason from oregon,

Turned blue after Taking colloidal silver

As a health supplement For more than a decade.

he would drink silver ions In water every day.

I'm not sure if It improved his health or not,

But it certainly turned His skin blue --

Seriously blue.

others, like montana politician Stan jones, follow suit.

silver has Antibacterial properties

And featured in Over-the-counter medicines,

Until 1999.

The f.D.A. Banned it, Because of its

Skin discoloration side effects.

It ends up going Through the body,

Through the bloodstream, And, ultimately,

Ends up in the skin,

Which is why we see The blue coloration.

Could it be possible That these dogs

Found a puddle full Of colloidal silver?

Narrator: the historic Zaveri bazar in mumbai

Boasts 30,000 artisans Crafting jewelry,

Often on the streets,

But the low-tech melting

And molding of silver Can leave residue.

Samuel: they don't really Even need to eat it.

if we have a bunch of Silver particles in the air,

could that get into their skin

And could that be causing What we're seeing?

Narrator: but journalist Joshua rapp spots a flaw

In comparing the color Of these dogs

To silver-induced Blue human skin,

Like that of paul karason's.

Rapp: the thing About karason is,

His hair remains unaffected.

With these dogs, It's just the opposite,

It's their hair that's blue.

I don't think these dogs Ingested silver.

♪♪

Narrator: ex-cia agent Lindsay moran

Analyzes the footage of The blue dogs frame-by-frame

And spots a clue In the background.

when you see more of the video,

you realize that these dogs Are located in,

essentially, an industrial zone.

It certainly appears like Pollution has caused this

And, without a doubt, This has got to be harmful.

Narrator: coming up, A death-ray targeting earth

Baffles investigators.

You have this Massive beam of light.

If it's not the sun, Then what the heck is it?

Narrator: terror for tourists, When trees go on the attack.

There's trees everywhere.

There's nowhere to run.

Narrator: and experts fear A frankenstein-like mutation

Is turning these dogs blue.

[ dogs bark ]

Narrator: blue dogs roam The streets of mumbai, india,

Alarming experts.

The images are sent To mumbai city authorities

For analysis.

They confirm that the dogs Were filmed in taloja,

An industrial hub On the outskirts of mumbai,

And home to almost

1,000 pharmaceutical And chemical factories.

this waste must be the trigger

that's turning these dogs blue.

number one, What chemicals are they,

and number two, Are these dogs now in danger?

Chemicals can do some really Weird things to animals.

Makes dogs act erratically And viciously.

So, could it have Affected life down there

And caused mutations That spawned this thing

That we're seeing?

moran: and if it's doing That to the dogs,

what is it doing To the local population?

Narrator: the authorities Trace blue textile dye

In the local river To a nearby plant,

Which they shut down.

They clean up the dogs,

Who show no ill effects.

But many remain fearful That kali,

The goddess of death,

Has issued a dire warning.

♪♪

Now, sunlight,

But it's going In the wrong direction.

What the heck is going on here?

Narrator: some believe It's a miracle

Or message from god.

This absolutely looks biblical.

Others fear A "Star wars" death-ray

Connected with the nazis.

This is the kind of weapon

That could burn whole cities To the ground.

♪♪

December 29, 2015 --

In the city of salta, Northwest argentina,

All eyes look to the sky.

♪♪

and what's cool About this video,

is it's kind of backwards From what we usually see.

Beautiful rays of light Shooting up from the ground,

To the sky.

Narrator: what is the source

Of this massive and intense Beam of light?

At first, experts assume

It's the sun shining Below the horizon,

Until the camera turns To reveal the sun in the sky,

Behind a thick layer of clouds.

you have this massive Beam of light.

if it's not the sun, Then what the heck is it?

Narrator: military analyst Carlo muñoz can't think

Of anything ground-based

That could create Such an intense light.

He believes it's coming From outer space

And is more concentrated At the horizon

For a chilling reason.

You have this concentrated Beam of light

Coming straight from the sky

Onto some unknown target Onto the ground.

Whatever it is, It's not very good.

Muñoz fears this is a "Star wars" weapon

In outer space

And the brain child of history's Most evil regime.

This makes me think of a program

That was being run By nazi germany,

Who had actually come up With a crazy idea --

A massive sun gun.

♪♪

Narrator: coming up,

Investigators fear a forest Is in meltdown.

Imagine every leaf, every twig,

Just being eventually burned And dissolved away.

Narrator: and has someone Finally perfected

The nazi's most devastating Weapon design?

Narrator: a syrian Sinister ray of light

Blasts the horizon in argentina.

Many nazi scientists found Refuge here after the war

And some of them continued To work on evil projects.

the nazis were looking for Any battlefield advantage

they can get over their enemies.

German scientist hermann oberth,

He had actually come up With a crazy idea --

A massive sun gun.

♪♪

Narrator: oberth planned To launch a parabolic dish,

Measuring 3-square-miles, Or 1,000 football fields,

Above the earth on a satellite

To direct the sun's rays Onto a specific point on earth.

Oberth predicted That his sun gun

Could boil sections of the ocean And torch entire cities.

It can focus a tremendous amount Of light and heat

On a particular target On the ground,

From space.

After the end of The second world war,

Many nazi scientists carried on Their experimental work,

Some of it funded by The u.S. Government.

♪♪

Now, this strange footage of An intense beam above argentina.

This is the kind of weapon that Can basically destroy armies,

Burn whole cities to the ground,

With an immense amount Of light and heat

Directed on a particular target.

And what it might look like

Is what we're seeing In this video.

Narrator: the sun gun Would certainly explain

Why this light ray Gets more intense

The closer it is to the ground

And the fact it doesn't appear

To come directly from the sun,

But could a parabolic mirror

Really be converted Into a lethal weapon?

To explore the power Of such a device,

Engineer matt kutcher Sets up an experiment.

Kutcher: we all have an idea Of how powerful the sun can be,

but if it's singularly directed,

what damage can it really cause, What can it do?

♪♪

Narrator: sunlight consists Of 54% infrared rays,

Which the parabolic mirror Focuses into a single hot spot.

Kutcher and colleague Chris reynolds

Use a smoke machine

To locate the exact point where The deflected light rays

Converge into a single White hot spot.

There it is there, Yeah.

Oh, there you go.

That's sweet, right? Can you see it?

Let's see what This can generate.

Kutcher's dish has a surface Area of 5-square-feet,

Focusing 1,800 watts of energy Into a single point.

The heat generated by the dish

Could boil a half-pint of water In about 20 seconds.

A device the size Of 1,000 football fields

Could create 30 billion watts,

The equivalent of 52 nuclear power stations.

I mean, it's kind of amazing. You could take a --

A dish that one person Can carry,

In a dish this small, That could create so much energy

That it lights A piece of wood on fire.

I mean, that's a focused Amount of energy.

Seems like you could make A weapon out of it.

But if this concentrated beam Of light in argentina

Is a white-hot death-ray,

By now, we'd be seeing It's catastrophic effects.

Meteorologist angela fritz

Believes what we're seeing May not be manmade,

But instead, A rare atmospheric event.

this is an awesome example

of something that is An optical phenomenon

that is one of my favorites.

It's called Anticrepuscular rays.

Narrator: An anticrepuscular light ray

Appears to come from the ground,

But is a rare spectacle.

It occurs when clouds Act like a funnel

And focus sunbeams onto A concentrated point

On the earth's surface.

If the clouds are situated In a very particular way,

You can get that light To converge in

On a point on the horizon.

And so it's -- It's really an optical illusion,

That the source of the light Is -- is the horizon,

But really, it's the sun.

I did not expect such An incredible example

Of this atmospheric Phenomenon.

It's truly amazing.

Narrator: now, a pleasure drive In the mountains

Ends in disaster.

All hell breaks loose.

Narrator: tourists are Crushed in their car.

The forest starts to collapse All around them --

Behind them, in front of them, On top of them.

There's nowhere to run.

There's trees everywhere.

Narrator: this attack Of the trees

Baffles experts.

I've never seen this many trees Falling all at once,

In unison.

Narrator: have these Human intruders angered

An ancient forest spirit?

Slovakia, europe --

Among these forests Are the strangest,

Most terrifying And forbidding medieval castles.

One of them, cachtice castle,

Is the seat of a blood- Thirsty noblewoman,

Who became known to legend As the countess dracula.

May 2014, A russian couple on vacation

Explore the tree-covered Mountains.

But then, something stirs In the dense and ancient woods.

The forest attacks.

They reverse to Escape the carnage,

Only for trees to fall Behind their van,

Trapping them.

Each of the trees weighs Around 2,000 pounds,

About as much As two grand pianos.

After their miraculous escape,

They post the footage online.

The trees come down Almost like dominos.

Kourounis: it's like someone hit The self-destruct button

On the forest.

Fritz: it's very strange that They're just falling,

Seemingly out of nowhere, At this exact moment.

Narrator: in the homeland Of countess dracula,

Trees go on the attack.

♪♪

trees don't normally Just fall on their own.

Narrator: investigators struggle To work out why so many trees

Topple over.

♪♪

Beneath the beauty Of the carpathians

Lie ancient horrors.

Legend goes, That countess dracula

Killed over 650 peasant women And bathed in their blood.

But folklorists know That it's not vampires

That the locals fear the most.

Monteith: leshy is The protector of the forest

and if you disrespect His territory,

he's coming after you.

Narrator: Leshy the tree thrower,

Is feared across eastern europe

For stealing children And killing humans

Who wander into the woods.

He uses nature itself As a weapon

Against those who anger him.

It doesn't surprise me That leshy is mad.

They've put a road Right through his forest

And they cut down his trees.

If it was my land, I'd be mad.

♪♪

Narrator: the footage reaches

Atmospheric scientist Chris walcek.

He locates the incident

In the northern carpathians Of slovakia,

Which leads him To a fresh theory.

slovakia lies in The black triangle

of pollution Of central europe.

Narrator: the black triangle

Lies behind The old iron curtain.

In the 1940s, Soviet forces built

So many coal-burning, chemical, And steel plants here,

That it unleashed a mass killer From the skies, acid rain.

Kourounis: acid rain -- It's bad for everything.

I've experienced acid rain That's been so strong,

that it has burned my eyes And stung my skin

and corroded anything metal.

Narrator: over decades,

Acid rain kills Thousands of people

And 80% of the region's forests.

♪♪

Kourounis: almost nothing Can live in these

Dense, acid rain environments.

Imagine, just every leaf, Every twig,

Just being eventually burned And dissolved away.

♪♪

Narrator: but communist russia Collapsed decades ago

And when kourounis Examines the footage

For tell-tale signs Of toxic acid rain,

There are none.

Taking another look At the video,

The leaves are not Really scorched,

There's no evidence Of long-term exposure

To tremendous amounts Of acid rain,

And it really wouldn't Affect the roots so much,

That an entire forest would Come down that quickly.

There's more at play here.

Meteorologist angela fritz

Checks the weather Records for 2014

And comes up With a fresh theory.

She discovers that prior To the tree collapse,

The area suffers eight days Of the heaviest rainfall

Since records began.

maybe the rain had something To do with this.

they're driving on a slope,

they're all falling In the same direction.

It -- it does make me wonder.

Narrator: analyzing the footage,

George kourounis sees that

The trees position On a steep slope

Makes them particularly Vulnerable to water.

The weight and the mass of that Tree being anchored in place,

Just by the mud, Is not much at all.

So, when that soil Becomes really saturated

By flooding rains Over many days,

suddenly, the root system Is ineffective,

and gravity takes over.

♪♪

narrator: experts agree The most likely explanation

is that water-logged soil Dislodged all the trees at once.

however, the couple who narrowly Escaped death that day

remain convinced that it was The wrath of the forest gods.

♪♪