Original subtitles

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: Worldwide, 27 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: This is unbelievable, man.

Narrator: experts carry out Forensic analysis

Of these unusual events.

Now, that's an explosion.

♪♪

[ screaming ]

There's got to be something We're missing in this video,

Something we're not Seeing, right?

What else is going on here?

[ creature roars ]

Narrator: In the canadian wilderness,

Something big and angry Goes on the attack.

Man: wow!

Whatever than thing is Is super strong.

Narrator: a farmer films A horrific harvest --

Half animal, half vegetable.

Is that a plant Growing out of a rat?

Are you kidding me?

Narrator: and thousands of miles From any war zone,

A mysterious object falls Onto a peaceful village.

Oluseyi: Hearing these people scream,

You could tell that Something is very wrong.

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: bizarre phenomenon.

Whoa.

Narrator: Mysteries caught on camera.

What's the truth behind This strange evidence?

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

captions paid for by Discovery communications

♪♪

Now on a remote, fog-bound Canadian construction site,

Something terrifying Comes out of the woods.

When the footage is enhanced,

We see what appears to be A creature

With superhuman strength.

This squat, brownish figure

Seems to have chucked This tree like,

I don't know, 30, 40 feet.

Narrator: terrified workers React in panic

As it rampages in the mist.

You know that's got to weigh A couple hundred pounds,

And he launches it like It's a tinker toy.

What is this? Is it a man?

Is it a woman?

Is it a creature?

[ creature roars ]

[ camera whirs ]

♪♪

Narrator: alberta, A vast canadian province

Of mountains and forest.

61% of its land is wilderness,

And its trees Are a rich resource.

Over 18,000 people here Work in logging,

Producing timber, Pulp wood, and biofuels,

An industry worth $7 billion a year.

[ helicopter blades whirring ]

2015, contractors preparing To get to work at a remote site

Spot something prowling In the mist.

[ creature roars ]

One of the men grabs his phone And starts to film.

it's kind of spooky To begin with

because it's this kind of Shadowy, murky figure,

You know, just sort of peeking,

Just barely visible At the tree line.

Narrator: the terrified men Watch in horror,

All witnessing the same Disturbing event unfold.

they're swearing, They're scared.

narrator: the workers are Convinced they have seen someone

or something displaying An immense show of force.

it's a big creature, And I don't think

that person taking the video Footage is far enough back.

narrator: former nypd Image analyst conor mccourt

runs the video through His enhancement software.

there's a mist, and there are Shadows from the forest.

this all causes the image To be blurry.

What I'm gonna do here Is do a level adjustment.

It adjusts the brightness And the contrast.

There we go.

This is our target right here.

Narrator: Mccourt's enhancement clearly Reveals the figure in the woods

And its incredible strength.

Man: wow!

whatever that thing is Is super strong.

I don't know the size Of that tree or its weight,

But man, it really flies.

Kasky: when you look at The size of canada

And the amount of square miles

That are unexplored, Uninhabitable,

There's no telling What's in there.

♪♪

Narrator: Reports of bigfoot-like Creatures in north america

Stretch back hundreds of years,

Although no concrete evidence

Has ever been found For their existence.

♪♪

As forests and wilderness spaces On the continent are depleted,

The number of sightings has Increased by 248% since 2011.

there are thousands of reports In north america alone.

There's something out there that We're coming into contact with

More and more.

Narrator: Mccourt's analysis is unable to Confirm the creature's identity,

But he does believe The video is genuine.

Mccourt: it doesn't seem like There's any cuts,

Special effects, Or anything like that,

But maybe there's Something going on,

Like a man in a monkey suit, That has to be considered.

If an ordinary human Were to do that,

They would need super strength.

Narrator: mccourt establishes The size and weight of the tree

Thrown by the apparent humanoid Creature in the footage.

Mccourt: it looks to be About 12 feet long.

I've calculated that the Projectile travels

From left to right About 40 feet.

narrator: that would mean this Tree weighs around 175 pounds.

♪♪

Matt kutcher has worked For over 20 years

As a hollywood explosives And ballistics expert.

To find out if a human Is capable of doing it,

Kutcher wants to know How much force it takes

To make a log of this size

Fly the 40-foot distance Seen in the footage.

that's what this Experiment will be.

it will be us with a log

seeing just how to get Something that heavy

To fly through the air.

Narrator: Kutcher thinks he's got The perfect tool for the job.

Come on in, come on in!

Don't be scared. The water's fine. Let's go.

So, what we have here Is a car flipper.

It's what we use in hollywood.

It flips cars, buses, boats.

But today, we're actually Going to put this log on it

And try to mimic What we've seen in that video.

Narrator: but first, his team Needs to modify the rig

So that it can Hurl the tree trunk

In a forward direction.

Kutcher: let's bolt this Piece on and get this log on it.

We're gonna need a forklift To get us all the way, right?

Narrator: the flipper operates Using pressurized nitrogen gas.

Let's go ahead and fill this Thing with air and make this go.

Narrator: kutcher can adjust The amount of gas being used

To launch the log The distance seen in the video.

Kutcher: Okay, what do you got now?

Man: we're at about 500 psi On the high side.

Kutcher begins by loading The pneumatic cannisters

With around 600 pounds Per square inch of pressure,

The flipper's minimum Operating force.

We're at 600 now On the high side.

Kutcher: Excellent. Here we go.

Disconnect. Let's go.

So, gentlemen, Let's get in places,

Make sure all the cameras Are rolling,

And get this thing to fall Like she's in the forest.

All right, we ready?

All right, let's go hot.

[ air horn blows ]

3, 2, 1, timber.

[ metal clangs ]

♪♪

Kutcher: I mean, come on. Is that not fun or what?

[ chuckles ] It's amazing.

It took a lot of force To get it there,

But it seems like we've hit The 20 and 40.

Narrator: the log is hurled Almost 40 feet,

A similar distance as the Tree trunk in the footage.

But kutcher doesn't believe This proves an ordinary person

Is capable of this mighty feat.

Kutcher: so, the average Human could exert

Somewhere around 200 pounds of force.

This, at 600 psi, is about 40,000 pounds of force.

That's a heck of a lot more Than a human.

Narrator: that means Whoever chucked this log

Is 200 times stronger Than a normal human being.

Not even martins licis, 2019's world's strongest man,

Has that kind of power.

There's got to be something We're missing in this video,

Something we're not Seeing, right?

Like, what is it that possibly Could throw something

That hard and that far?

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: coming up...

Does a secret cyborg technology

Offer a clue to the Alberta tree chucker?

morgan: the superhuman strength That we're seeing

may have been created

Through the use of an Exoskeleton system.

Narrator: and in oklahoma,

Locals report a poltergeist In a parking lot.

There have been sightings Of ghosts in old-time clothing,

Lights dramatically Flashing on and off.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Construction-site workers in The canadian wilderness

Are terrified by an incredibly Powerful humanoid figure

That seems to pitch A 175-pound tree

Over 40 feet across the ground.

No ordinary person could do What is captured in the footage.

Military historian Marty morgan considers

If loggers could be using A top secret machine-like suit

That gives them the muscle To move heavy logs.

so, the superhuman strength That we're seeing demonstrated

in this film footage May have been created

through the use of an Exoskeleton system.

wise: there's an actual suit That's under development

called the guardian xo suit.

its intended purpose is for, Like, the construction industry.

this would be a way that You would enable a worker

to accomplish more.

You can imagine somebody,

Perhaps, testing a prototype Of this suit in the wilderness

In, maybe, kind of a logging Camp kind of environment.

♪♪

Narrator: but after kevin kasky Studies the footage, he suspects

This might be a powerful animal Native to alberta.

in the canadian woods, The apex predator

is probably the grizzly bear,

so it could be What we're seeing there.

[ roars ]

Narrator: grizzly bears can Weigh up to 1,700 pounds

And can easily lift Over a 1/2 a ton.

But they don't have Arms like us.

They have four legs.

It's not physically possible For them to throw an object

In the way seen in the footage.

we do know examples where bears Play with rocks

or manipulate them and possibly Even throw them a little bit.

But the idea of A single-handed launch

Of something like a javelin,

To my knowledge, Is completely new.

Narrator: One animal that does possess Both the strength and dexterity

To chuck a tree trunk

Is the silverback gorilla.

The male can easily lift 1,800 pounds

And, if in danger, Will aggressively defend

Their territory.

But that's still not Powerful enough

To explain the incredible Strength seen in the footage.

There's no way of knowing what We're seeing in these woods.

Whatever it is, it's big And it's powerful.

But we do know that if you're Working in the outdoors

And you see whatever that was, That threw that tree that far,

I don't think you'd want To venture off alone.

[ cameras whir ]

Now, in an oklahoma parking lot,

All the lights start To flash wildly.

[ electricity crackling ]

This is literally a scene From a horror movie.

Narrator: This sinister flickering rages

As though beating out a message From beyond the grave.

Normally, you don't see The lights flashing at all.

I mean, they're either on Or they're off.

Something is warning people, "Stay away."

Narrator: locals connect This ominous flashing

To a nearby schoolhouse

With a disturbing reputation.

Even the security guards Have quit

Rather than spend the night At this location.

The guy in that video Needs to get out of there.

[ camera whirs ]

♪♪

Narrator: edmond, oklahoma.

This sleepy railroad town...

[ train horn blares ]

Established in 1889 during The great oklahoma land run

Is one of the oldest In the state.

Considered the crown jewel Of oklahoma,

93,000 people call this home.

January 8, 2018.

Local resident joshua trope

Is returning from An evening shopping trip.

As I was walking out Of the store,

I saw people running Very fast to their cars,

Just kind of covering Their eyes,

And my initial thought went, "What is going on?"

Narrator: then he sees The lights flashing

As though controlled By some inhuman intelligence.

He starts to film.

It's kind of spooky -- You're in the middle

Of a parking lot In the middle of the night.

It's pitch black.

And the lights just kind of Flash in a sort of pattern.

I've never seen anything Like that.

if I came out of a store and saw Lights flashing like that,

I'd think something Was very wrong,

And I'd be really concerned, "What's going to happen next?"

My initial thought was,

"Wow, I am in a horror movie Like 'poltergeist.'"

[ electricity crackling ]

♪♪

Narrator: trope is one of A number of locals

Who believe they know The cause of the lights

Flashing with strange menace.

Just a few blocks away From here,

There's supposedly A ghost that roams

Around central middle school.

Historians have said That this school was built

On unmarked graves of Early pioneers in the 1800s.

Narrator: not long after The school opened,

Teachers and pupils Begin to report

A series of Disturbing phenomena.

There have been sightings Of ghosts in old-time clothing,

Lights dramatically Flashing on and off.

Narrator: the alarming activity In the schoolhouse

now seems to have spread To the parking lot

that lies just beyond it.

they're almost coordinated In the way

they're turning off and on, And it looks very spooky.

[ electricity crackling ]

♪♪

narrator: Stephen granade wonders if The strangely flashing lights

could be a sign Of a deadly natural danger.

when I see something like these Kinds of industrial lights

in a parking lot, Flickering, that indicates

That something is wrong With the power distribution,

And I start to worry, Is something going to blow?

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: coming up...

Are these lights Flickering out a warning?

This flashing could be A precursor

To a potentially deadly event.

And a disturbing Plant-rat hybrid.

There's so many Questions about this.

It's a car wreck.

I have to look away, But I got to keep looking back.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: In oklahoma, the lights of A parking lot flash ominously.

Locals connect it To a nearby school

With a sinister reputation.

Chris walcek believes Eyewitness joshua trope

Has found himself in the middle Of a deadly blast

Of pure electricity.

Walcek: if this is the beginning Of a power surge,

Anyone near here is in danger.

[ sparks crackle ]

Narrator: a power surge is A massive explosion

Of uncontrolled Electrical energy.

Unchecked, These bursts of current

Coursing through America's power networks...

[ alarm blaring ]

Kill over 400 people per year.

a power surge in a home Can be deadly,

but this is a whole parking lot.

the amount of electricity Involved here is huge.

I would be tempted to hightail It out of there very quickly.

[ electricity crackling ]

narrator: if this is a Potentially fatal power surge,

what might have triggered it?

one cause is an unusually High spike in voltage

that comes directly From the power grid itself.

what's strange about this

is it's only localized To this parking lot.

if you look behind it, All the other lights are normal.

So what is going on here?

Narrator: journalist jeff wise Examines the footage.

He suspects the eerily Flashing lights

Could be the work Of a criminal gang.

well, this is taking place In oklahoma, and oklahoma

has been experiencing A spate of copper thefts.

so what could be happening here

is someone is stealing Key pieces

of the electrical grid That powers this light.

Narrator: Copper has rocketed in value, And in just eight months,

Oklahoma city has been stripped Of over 13 miles of cable

Worth hundreds Of thousands of dollars.

The brazen gangs disguise Themselves as maintenance crews

Wearing safety vests And hard hats.

In order to steal the copper, They'll open up

The boxes at the base Of two different lamp posts,

Cut the wires at one,

And pull the cabling Through from the other,

And then cut it off And carry it away.

Wallace: Once you take the copper,

You've now lost the ground To the system.

When the system Has lost the ground,

You have the possibility Of the lights flickering,

Being damaged.

Narrator: it's a theft that can Have deadly consequences.

Now, this can be A very dangerous

Proposition for the thief.

If he cuts the wrong wire, He's not a thief anymore.

And in august of 2019, A man was killed

While trying to steal

Some copper cable From a radio transmitter.

Narrator: despite the risks,

the illicit trade continues to Cause chaos across oklahoma.

and the threat to the public Could be catastrophic.

If the lights go out In the city,

Nighttime highways Will become death traps.

Alleyways a mugger's paradise,

And hospitals without power Will turn into morgues.

So knowing the history Of this area

With the amount of Copper thefts that we see,

It's a pretty good explanation

For what we're seeing In this video.

[ electricity crackling ]

♪♪

[ cameras whir ]

Narrator: now, in an Indian farmer's field,

A harvest of horror.

I that a plant growing Out of a rat?

Are you kidding me?

What the heck? No!

Narrator: a living rat lies Helplessly on the ground

As a plant seems to be Emerging from its head.

That's pretty horrific.

I mean, I didn't even think That it was possible.

Kasky: it's like some Sort of sci-fi flick

Where the plants Take over the host.

♪♪

[ camera whirs ]

♪♪

Narrator: india -- An agricultural powerhouse.

The world's biggest producer Of mangoes, bananas, and lemons.

♪♪

In august 2018, A farmer goes to check his field

And finds a very Strange crop, indeed.

it looks likes someone's Inspecting a field of crops,

and then they stumble upon This rat that's stationary

And not running away.

[ speaking hindi ]

Narrator: the creature, At first, appears lifeless.

Then the farmer tries To move it.

Incredibly, it's alive,

And it's got a green stalk Protruding from its head.

Washington: there's a plant Growing out of the rat.

How is this possible?

Kasky: there's so many Questions about this.

It's a car wreck.

I have to look away, but I got To keep looking back.

♪♪

[ explosion ]

Narrator: science journalist Steve potvin

Analyzes the footage and wonders

If the rat has been Somehow impaled by the plant.

Looking a bit more closely, It seems as though

the rat is stuck in place,

so maybe this plant Has grown from the ground

and up through The poor little rat.

Narrator: historian tony mcmahon Considers if this plant

Could have the same Qualities as bamboo.

He is reminded of A gruesome punishment

Used by the japanese Against american soldiers

During the second world war,

Recorded by author Woon ping chin.

The accounts of bamboo torture Are pretty grotesque,

the idea being that The person to be tortured

is suspended in some way Above some young bamboo shoots,

which are then deliberately Sharpened into points.

kasky: bamboo can grow An inch per hour,

so it wouldn't take very long

for that to pierce The body of the captive.

narrator: this horrific torture Was thought to be a myth

until 2008, when an Experiment proved bamboo

really could puncture and Push through human-like flesh.

the thought of plants growing In living bodies

is the stuff of nightmares.

narrator: kevin kasky considers If the rat in the video

has somehow become The unlucky victim

of a similar Plant-based torture.

kasky: when you look at How a sprig grows,

it's a very powerful organism.

It has the ability to push Rocks out of its way

As it busts through The surface of the soil.

So the rat, if it was injured And laying there,

It's no different Than a rock laying there.

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: coming up...

Is this rat the victim Of a killer crop?

It's hard to see how This rat could survive,

Given what's happened to it.

Narrator: and a weird object Falls from the sky and explodes.

Holy moly. Was that supposed to happen?

[ indistinct shouting ]

♪♪

♪♪

narrator: In an indian farmer's field,

a rat appears to have been Impaled by a green plant.

but when tony mcmahon looks Closer at the footage,

he makes a horrific discovery.

the stalk isn't coming From the ground.

if you look at the video, You'll see that the farmer

Turns the rat over, And to our surprise,

There's nothing growing Out of the other side.

So the plant hasn't grown Through the rat.

It appears to be Growing out of the rat.

Narrator: zoologist roland kays Wonders if this plant

Could be some kind of parasite, Harvesting the rat's brain.

it looks like the sapling is Growing out the animal's brain,

and it seems To be having an effect

because the animal itself

Doesn't seem to be able to have Much control over where it goes.

Samuel: Is it sucking out its brain?

Is it a zombie plant?

Washington: plants taking over Another body has been a trope

In sci-fi movies for years,

but this right here looks like It could be happening for real.

Narrator: danni washington Studies other examples

Of organisms hitching a ride On the brains of their hosts.

Washington: In the amazon jungle, There is a parasitic fungus

That takes over The body of tarantulas.

So it can serve its own purpose Of regenerating.

Narrator: the fungus spores Burrow into the tarantula's body

And begin to devour the spider From the inside out,

Slowly replacing The host's tissue with its own.

When the unfortunate Victim is dead,

The killer fungi embarks on The next stage of its plan

For jungle domination.

the fungus grows out of its head And puts its little spores out

At the top where there's A lot of wind,

And the spores Are caught by the wind

And go on to Infect more victims.

Could this rat Have fallen victim

To a similar parasitic organism?

Narrator: Biologist leslie samuel Identifies the species of plant

Growing out of the rat.

It's a soya bean seedling.

Samuel: It looks like a sapling plant,

And when they grow up From the seed,

All they need is somewhere dark,

They need some water, And some nutrients.

Narrator: the brain is the Perfect fertilizer for plants --

Moist, dark, And full of nutrients.

great news for The parasitical plant.

bad news for the rat.

What will follow will be a slow And agonizing death as the roots

Suck out the nutrition In its tiny cerebellum.

Did, somehow, a seed From a soya plant

Get underneath the rat's skin And grow there?

Narrator: cases of parasitical Plant growth have been found

In other mammals, Even humans.

Amazingly, There have been some cases

Where plants have germinated Inside of a body.

In 2010, massachusetts man Ron sveden

Is rushed to the hospital Suffering a collapsed lung.

An emergency x-ray reveals A horrifying dark entity.

The mass actually turned out To be a pea shoot

That went down the wrong way And sprouted in his lung.

It wouldn't have got the Leaves and the branches yet,

But it did germinate, And it was 2 inches long

When the doctors pulled it out.

narrator: This rat somehow seems to be Suffering from the same fate.

the plant doesn't care whether It's soil or brain tissue,

as long as it has what it needs.

So it's perfectly plausible That, you know,

If a seed got into a wound

Or some opening, into the head, It started growing.

♪♪

That's kind of scary If you think about it.

[ cameras whir ]

♪♪

Narrator: now the tranquility of An ancient village is shattered

By an unidentified Falling object.

[ explosion ]

Wow.

It just comes plummeting Out of the sky.

It looks like a bomb.

Narrator: But its shape and trajectory

Are like no bomb Ever seen before.

Panicking locals watch As their buildings burn.

You can tell how terrified These people are.

Their screams make My blood run cold.

[ screaming ]

[ camera whirs ]

♪♪

Narrator: Guangxi province, china.

The mountainous region In the south

Is one of the most beautiful and Unspoiled parts of the country.

January 2018.

A small village where little Has changed for centuries,

When suddenly,

A weird object falls from The sky and violently explodes.

this looks like A rural area in china,

and clearly, The people living there

have been startled by something That's whizzing,

Hurtling through the air.

Narrator: a villager spots the Mysterious object in time

To capture it on their phone.

Wise: it's kind of small.

It looks sort of cylindrical Or elongated.

Narrator: whatever it is,

It's unlikely to be From a passing aircraft.

This is a remote part of china, Not on any regular plane routes.

[ explosion, screaming ]

Hearing these people scream, You can tell

That something is very wrong.

They are afraid.

they must think They're under attack.

it looks like They're under attack.

This is a village far from Any modern theater of war

In the heart of a country

That has seen no conflict For over 70 years.

It's like instant panic.

One minute, You're going about your day,

And the next minute, You're in a war zone.

[ explosion ]

♪♪

Narrator: ex-cia analyst Lindsay moran considers

If it could be a stray ordnance

from secret chinese Military tests.

this looks unmistakably like A pretty substantial explosion,

and what's really alarming is It lands in a residential area.

Narrator: china has over 260 Fully armed nuclear missiles,

Almost one for every city In the united states,

Including the dongfeng-41,

The world's Longest-range missile.

At its unveiling in 2019,

Beijing issues The chilling warning

Its deadly payload Can be delivered

To any target in the u.S. Within 30 minutes.

Moran wonders if the footage Is evidence the chinese

Are testing their latest Hardware in a remote area,

Away from the west's Prying eyes.

[ explosion ]

It really makes me question If the leadership

Even value these people's lives.

Narrator: But historian tony mcmahon

has reason to believe The mystery object

is the property Of a foreign aggressor.

China's ambition to achieve Super-power status

Has made them few friends.

If it is a bomb, immediately, The question you have to ask is,

Who would decide To attack china?

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: coming up...

Does the mystery explosion point

To a superpower's Secret military plan?

Their firepower could reach Across the globe,

And they could launch Full-scale assaults

On any country they wanted to.

Narrator: and in a Drought-stricken country,

The rain shower No one could explain.

This looks impossible, but I'm Seeing it with my own eyes.

♪♪

♪♪

[ man speaking chinese ]

Narrator: in china, an exploding Object in a rural village

Sparks rumors Of a foreign attack.

I mean, which of their neighbors Would aim a bomb at china?

Narrator: during the cold war,

China and russia Were locked in a bloody conflict

Over a disputed Border territory.

For seven months in 1969, Bitter fighting raged,

Bringing the two former Communist allies

To the brink of war.

Relations have remained Volatile ever since.

is this the first shot in a new Conflict that we're seeing here?

Narrator: Yet military analyst carlo munoz

Thinks there is only One superpower with the muscle

To go toe-to-toe with china.

the only country in the world With the military strength,

technological know-how, And kind of the fortitude

To carry out an attack, Much less a military operation,

Against the chinese Would be the united states.

Narrator: the u.S. Military Has previously bombed

Chinese buildings and people.

In may 1999, During the war in kosovo,

American fighter jets destroyed The chinese embassy in belgrade.

[ sirens wailing ]

Official reports declare it To be a terrible accident,

But some claim the cia Discovered the building

Was being used to assist Yugoslav war criminals.

So the question now is

Whether or not what we're Seeing in this video

Is another example of A covert u.S. Strike

Against chinese interest.

Mcmahon: we could be looking At the return of, kind of,

The horror of the cold war.

anybody taking on china Really is very foolhardy.

Narrator: after the initial Explosion, villagers run towards

The wreckage And continue filming.

Space journalist Amy shira teitel

Spots debris with distinct Red markings on the side.

china is the only country That uses this specific pattern

on its booster rockets For tracking during launches.

So, what normally happens is That these boosters are then

Jettisoned as the rocket Goes up into space.

In the u.S., When we test rockets,

We do it at places like Cape canaveral, florida,

Which is near an ocean,

Or vandenberg air base In california -- desert.

So, when things fall out Of the sky, nobody gets hurt.

♪♪

Narrator: why, then, are these Boosters being jettisoned

Very populated areas?

The footage reveals china Is conducting launches

From remote locations,

Deep in the interior Of the country.

Munoz can think of only one Reason beijing would do this.

These launches are carrying Payloads the communists

Want to keep secret, At any cost.

The space domain is one Where many countries --

China, the united states, And others --

Are really focusing Their efforts

In terms of their militaries.

Narrator: For the last three decades, China has quietly amassed

An arsenal of Space-based weapons

And sophisticated Surveillance technology.

In 2018 alone,

The country successfully Put 38 satellites into orbit,

More than any other nation In a single year.

Most terrifying of all, Chinese scientists are rumored

To be developing Directed-energy weapons

That can obliterate Ground- or space-based targets

Using lasers, microwaves, Or particle beams.

their firepower could reach Across the globe,

and they could launch Full-scale assaults

on any country they wanted to.

Narrator: if the Chinese government persists

With its alarming Quest to control space,

the people of rural china

will continue to live in fear Of fire from the skies.

It really is incredibly Irresponsible

To have these things Falling near residential areas.

[ cameras whir ]

♪♪

Narrator: now in the Parched heat of southern italy,

The sinister rain for which Science can find no explanation.

My first question is What is this?

And my second one -- Is it dangerous?

Narrator: shocked pedestrians Look on in horror

As a strange column of liquid Falls to the street

From a clear night sky.

If this is just ordinary rain,

Why is everybody Driving around it?

Narrator: in this ancient city Steeped in religious belief,

Locals fear this is No natural downpour.

This isn't normal.

I mean, it just doesn't Rain like that.

♪♪

Narrator: palermo, capital of The italian island of sicily,

One of the most drought-ridden Parts of europe,

Just 24 inches of rain Falls a year.

In the summer, None normally falls at all.

September 2016.

The daytime temperature Has soared to 80 degrees.

As night falls, So does a mysterious shower.

Proctor: when I look at The video, you can see that

There's this really Narrow column of rain

That's just falling in one spot.

Narrator: the weird downpour Falls in the middle

Of an otherwise dry street,

Creating a wet patch Only a few feet across.

you might think, "Oh, maybe there's a sprinkler

or something overhead," But then the camera tilts up

and you see It's just open skies.

this looks impossible, but I'm Seeing it with my own eyes.

Narrator: cars drive around The bizarre liquid,

Scared to pass through it.

Palermo resident jessica sacco

Is drawn to the Curious manifestation.

Sanford: when you see Something like this,

you should really be careful

because who knows Where it's coming from?

It just doesn't seem Right or normal.

Narrator: coming up...

Can a secret Government experiment

Explain italy's strange shower?

The whole event was A terrible tragedy.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: in palermo, italy,

A mysterious rain shower Falls from nowhere.

Neurophysiologist kiki sanford

Examines the footage And can find no obvious cause.

Whatever this is, it's like Nothing she's ever seen before.

I really can't think of any Scientific reason

why this would happen this way.

No rain cloud acts like that.

Narrator: But when astrophysicist Athena brensberger

Studies the clip of bizarre rain In a drought-stricken city,

It reminds her of a post-war British government experiment

To create artificial weather.

they nicknamed it Operation witch doctor,

and it was designed to create Very heavy rainfall.

Narrator: on august 15, 1952,

A royal air force plane releases An unidentified substance

Into clouds Over southwest england.

Sanford: we don't know what Chemicals they were using,

But the experiment seems To have been successful

Because shortly after They sprayed them into the sky,

There was rain.

[ rain falling heavily ]

Narrator: over 24 hours,

9 inches of Torrential rain falls.

A wall of water surges towards The unsuspecting rural community

Of lynmouth In the county of devon.

The rainfall was so intense

That it sent 90 million tons of water

Rushing toward the village.

Reporter: lynmouth lies shattered,

as though blitzed by a saturation raid.

♪♪

39 buildings were destroyed, 35 people killed,

And many were washed out to sea, Never to be found again.

♪♪

The whole event was A terrible tragedy.

Narrator: to this day, The british government refuses

To confirm its role In the disaster.

Although the flood was never Officially linked

To the military's actions,

The r.A.F.'s experiments Were halted the very next day.

But geophysicist sian proctor

Wonders if the weird rain Captured on camera

Is evidence of a different kind Of meteorological event.

there actually is a type of Weather phenomenon

where you can get a very Localized shaft of rain,

and it's called A wet microburst.

it's very deadly.

microbursts form When rainwater evaporates

as it's falling out Of a thunderstorm.

Shapiro: this process is tied to Heat exchange in the atmosphere,

This intense downdraft of air

That brings precipitation With it.

but it's also something That comes with high winds,

up to 150 miles an hour.

[ thunder crashes ]

Microbursts are Intense processes.

There's a lot of water Coming down

In a very quick amount of time.

Narrator: but when Weather expert chris walcek

Takes a closer look At the video,

he doesn't believe it shows A typical microburst.

if this was a micro-burst, You would be seeing tremendous,

swirling, destructive winds In the vicinity, also.

and it's apparent from the video

that this is a pretty calm Weather environment.

narrator: The weird rain vanishes

shortly after the eyewitness Stops filming,

and nothing like it Has been reported since

in the italian city.

its origin remains a mystery.

is it some kind of A meteorological phenomenon,

never documented before?