All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S04E08.Alien.of.the.Amazon.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator:
Worldwide, over 27 billion
Cameras are watching us --

On our street,
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 analysis
Of these unusual events.

Now,
That's an explosion.

[ explosion ]

[ people 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?

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator:
Coming up, "Apocalypse now"
On a busy highway...

What is going on?
That's a wall of fire.

[ siren wails ]

Narrator: ...A weird blob
In the heart of the amazon...

We don't know of anything that
Big that lives in the jungle.

Narrator:
...And is this a video call
From beyond the grave?

You just want to scream at her,
"Turn around!"

Narrator: bizarre phenomenon.

Whoa.

Narrator:
Mysteries caught on camera.

What is the truth behind
This strange evidence?

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

captions paid for by
Discovery communications

Now, a family road trip
On the highway to hell.

[ indistinct talking ]

[ woman crying ]

[ baby crying ]

Sheets of flames
Chase the family

As they desperately
Back up to escape.

Holy moly. That's brutal.

That is a nightmare.

Holmes: you see a wall of fire,
Like a line of fire,

And, I don't know,
You kind of --

You naturally think of something
From "Apocalypse now."

This almost looks like
A war zone.

Narrator: what turns a highway
Into a blast zone?

It's kind of like
A napalm attack.

♪♪

Narrator:
The beijing-harbin highway,

A 795-mile road linking

The ancient chinese capital
Formerly known as peking

To harbin,

The largest city
In northeast china,

Known as the ice city for its
Winter ice and snow festival.

February 2018.

A family are driving down
The beijing-harbin highway

When traffic slows up ahead.

[ conversing
In foreign language ]

One of the cars in front
Is trying to turn around.

Then...

[ conversing continues ]

[ woman crying ]

[ baby crying ]

♪♪

♪♪

holy moly. That's brutal.

that is a nightmare.

at first glance, I mean, if
You've seen "Game of thrones,"

this looks like a dragon attack.

There's just a line of fire
That develops around these cars

And goes down the highway.

A modern equivalent, maybe,
To think of

Is something like
A napalm attack.

Narrator: material scientist
Doug holmes studies the footage

And is reminded
Of scenes from vietnam.

you see a wall of fire,
Like a line of fire,

and, I don't know,
You kind of --

you naturally think of something
From "Apocalypse now."

Narrator: napalm burns
Are so excruciating

That people have died
From the pain alone.

It's a highly flammable
Sticky gel

That combined with gasoline
To create an incendiary device.

♪♪

[ conversing
In foreign language ]

Whatever we're seeing ignite
In the video

Causing this ferocious fire

And the speed with which
It spreads

Is clearly
A highly-flammable concoction.

♪♪

Neuropsychologist kiki sanford

Considers if the swerving blue
Car is the source of the blast.

the car in the right-hand lane
Is driving very strangely.

it's turning but not
Completely backing up,

Making strange decisions.

I wonder what could be going on
With the driver of that car.

Narrator:
Carbon monoxide is odorless.

If this car is filling up
With this lethal gas,

The driver wouldn't even know.

Carbon monoxide reduces the
Amount of oxygen in the brain,

Which may have disoriented
The driver, making him dizzy.

Most people are aware that
Carbon monoxide is dangerous.

It can make you pass out,
Maybe even kill you.

Narrator:
Within minutes of exposure

To this highly-dangerous gas,

It starts to poison the body.

Maybe the driver
Was starting to experience

Neurological effects
Of a buildup of carbon monoxide

And was going to get out of
The vehicle when it was too late

And it burst up into flames.

Narrator:
But could the carbon monoxide
Have caused the explosion?

Holmes:
If this is simply an explosion
Coming from the car --

I mean, cars are producing a gas
That is explosive,

Something like carbon monoxide.

Narrator: in 2018,
On manhattan's upper west side,

An entire gym was destroyed
By a carbon monoxide explosion

After a spark
Ignited a gas leak.

The intensity of the blast
Shook buildings

And shattered windows
Up and down broadway.

But though carbon monoxide
Can be explosive,

The flames on the freeway
Extend over 1,000 feet,

Far too much to have been fueled

from the cabin and fuel tank
Of one single car.

kiki sanford zooms in
On the video

and spots something barely
Visible in the background.

it looks like a tanker,
Its cab turned on its side.

If this is a tanker up ahead
In the video,

It suggests to me

That it could be the source
Of some flammable liquid

That would only need a spark
To explode.

Narrator:
Could a spill from this truck
Have been ignited

By a spark from the blue car
Driving over it?

Ballistics and explosives expert
Matt kutcher

Has spent over 25 years

Spearheading
Hollywood special effects.

He wants to find out
If an unseen spill

From the stranded oil tanker
Could be ignited

Simply by a spark
From the car driving over it.

the spark could be anything
From a faulty electric circuit

to, actually, the ignition
That makes the car work.

Well, gentlemen,
We have another experiment.

So there's this video I saw.
It's this massive inferno,

This wall of fire.

So we're going to
Need a few things

To kind of get this experiment

Off the ground.

We're gonna need fuel
To simulate the spill.

We're gonna need a spark
And something on wheels.

Narrator: matt uses
A gasoline-powered lawnmower

To stand in for the blue car
In the footage.

And see if we can't get the fuel
That was on the ground

To ignite.

Finally, the fuel spill
Is reconstructed on the ground,

And the team runs for cover.

All right, guys,
Let's get back. Come on.

♪♪

-coming up...
-all right, here we go.

Narrator:
...Is an invisible spill

The source
Of the great fire wall of china?

And could a weird blob
In the amazon jungle

Prove the existence
Of a legendary monster?

Montieth: it is said to be
Over seven feet tall,

And sometimes it eats
The people that it comes across.

♪♪

[ conversing
In foreign language ]

Narrator: in china,
A family flee in terror

As a horrific fire wall engulfs
The beijing-harbin highway.

[ woman crying ]

Ballistics expert matt kutcher

suspects there may be a hidden
Fuel spill in the footage

and wants to discover
If a spark from the blue car

Seen swerving
Moments before the blast

Could have caused it to ignite.

All right, guys,
Let's get back. Come on.

All right, here we go.

The lawnmower is rigged
With a flashback

Which will mimic the spark
Given off

By a hot engine while driving.

Hit the flashback.

[ explosion ]

♪♪

♪♪

Kutcher: I think most certainly
It's the spark

That actually set the fuel off.

Whatever was in that tanker
Was very volatile.

It laced the street completely,
And off it went, right?

Narrator:
The tanker had left an almost
Mile-long trail of fuel

As it leaked along the road.

All it took was
A single spark,

And a horrifying wall of flames
Shot up the street.

China's roads are some of
The most dangerous in the world.

Over 700 people are killed
Every single day.

In 2017,
China's 262,000 road fatalities

Make up more than 20%
Of the global total.

it's pretty scary to think
That you could just be
Going down the road,

regular old highway
Like you're used to,

And that there could be
Chemical vapors of some sort,

Gasoline vapors,
Something on the roadway

That, if the wrong thing happens
At the wrong time,

You could be in the equivalent
Of a war zone.

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: now, in the heart
Of the amazon rainforest,

Locals discover
A weird giant blob.

We don't know of anything that
Big that lives in the jungle.

It looks like
It doesn't belong there.

Gray, decomposing.

That looks scary.

Narrator: locals believe
This could be proof

Of a monster they think
Stalks the rainforest.

In legend, it has this gaping,
Stinking hole in its belly

That's used to consume humans.

♪♪

Narrator: the amazon jungle.

This vast rainforest covers
2.3 million square miles,

A dense, damp forest over
Eight times the size of texas.

It's home to the world's richest
And most varied biological pool,

Containing over
One million species.

Scientists are convinced

That there are many other
Forms of life

Yet to be discovered here.

But they weren't expecting
To stumble upon this.

February 2019.

In the rainforest,
A huge horde of vultures

Are seen circling over a spot
On the jungle floor below.

imagine you're in
The brazilian rainforest

and you see circling above you
Vultures -- lots of vultures.

that is an immediate indicator
That something nearby has died.

narrator: there is, indeed,
A carcass below,

but it's no ordinary dead body.

♪♪

this is one of the weirdest
Things I've ever seen.

It's unclear what it is.

This had to have been alive
At some point,

Because vultures exclusively
Feed on dead carcasses.

Narrator: what's incredible
Is both the shape and the size.

At 36 feet in length,
It is longer than a school bus.

we don't know of anything that
Big that lives in the jungle.

Narrator:
Biologist danni washington

Analyzes the bizarre blob
In the footage.

If you zoom in, you can see that
There are these grooves
In the flesh,

And that, to me, marks
A humpback whale.

This whale should be
4,000 miles away in antarctica.

Narrator:
They migrate to breeding grounds
Off the coast of brazil

Between june and november,
Not february.

The real question is,

What is a humpback whale
Doing in the amazon?

This fleshy creature,
Whatever it is,

Got here somehow.

But -- but how?

Narrator:
Further analysis confirms

That this is the carcass
Of an adolescent whale

Marooned in the middle
Of the jungle.

The amazonian tribespeople here
Have never seen a whale

Or even a picture of a whale.

There's only one creature
Locals can think of

That's powerful enough
To pull a whale into the jungle.

there's a legend of
A huge monster in the amazon

called the mapinguari.

[ creature growls ]

Narrator:
The mapinguari is said to
Be the size of an elephant...

But covered in fur.

It's believed to be fast-moving

And has huge talons
On its front paws.

Amazonian tribespeople
Are terrified of this creature

And tell fantastical stories
Of its ravenous appetite.

In legend, it has this gaping,
Stinking hole in its belly

That's used to consume humans.

[ creature growls ]

Narrator: locals believe

That one or more
Of these legendary beasts

Might just be powerful enough

To drag a young whale
Into the jungle from the coast

Or from the mighty amazon river,
Which stretches 4,000 miles,

Penetrating deep
Into the jungle.

Descriptions of
This legendary monster vary,

But some correspond to
A prehistoric giant mammal

Called megatherium,

Whose huge bones have been found
All over south america.

It reaches up to 20 feet long

And has huge claws
At the end of each arm.

Paleontologists once thought
This monster had died out

At the same time
As the woolly rhino,

10,000 years ago.

But an incredible discovery

Finds the latest remains
Of this giant beast

Dating back to the time
Of the pyramids.

The megatherium
Has walked the earth

Far more recently
Than previously thought.

Some people believe
That stories of mapinguari

Prove it still lives today.

Montieth: could it be
That this giant sloth

Came out of its secret cave?

♪♪

Narrator: coming up,
Could some extreme natural event

Have flung this whale
Into the rainforest?

You get these
Biblical-type stories

Of fish raining down
From the heavens,

And these are actually possible.

Narrator: and has a killer clown
Staged a home invasion?

you just want to scream at her,
"Turn around!"

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: the rotting carcass
Of a humpback whale

Inexplicably winds up

In the middle
Of the brazilian rainforest.

Storm chaser george kourounis

Considers if the whale
Literally fell from the sky.

Kourounis: one of the weirdest
Things that can happen

when rotating winds
And water combine

are waterspouts.

♪♪

Narrator: these immensely
Powerful aquatic tornadoes

Form over the ocean,

Causing devastation
When they make landfall.

To see a waterspout,

This sinewy, wispy,
Ghostlike apparition

But yet has so much power,

They're just fascinating
To behold.

Narrator: a terrifying
Tornadic waterspout is created

From what meteorologists call
A mesocyclone,

Or a supercell thunderstorm.

It is rare but deadly.

The rotating column of water
Creates a powerful vortex,

Sucking up
Everything it touches.

People talk of waterspouts

Lifting frogs, fish
Up into the air,

And then you get these
Biblical-type stories

Of fish raining down
From the heavens,

And these are actually possible.

Narrator:
According to historic reports,

These ocean super tornadoes

Can suck up objects
Of gigantic size.

Valletta, malta, 1551.

A tornadic waterspout
Moves over a harbor

In which an armada of
1,000-ton warships are moored.

Great chunks of the ships
And their crews are sucked up.

More than 600 men
Are carried off,

Only to be smashed
To the ground elsewhere.

Creatures and other objects
Sucked into the tornadic funnel

Fly around like clothes
In a dryer,

Trapped in the walls
Of the watery vortex.

And when the force
Of the tornado wanes,

The contents are deposited
Often hundreds of miles away.

[ thunder crashes ]

Storm chaser george kourounis
Has seen such monsters himself.

I've witnessed
The largest tornado

That was ever documented.

It was 2.6 miles wide.

This thing was a monster.

It's too big to outrun
And too strong to ride out.

So it is totally conceivable
That something big

Could have been picked up
By a tornado here in brazil.

And they do get tornadoes
In brazil.

Narrator:
Volatile winds can carry away
Homes and trucks,

Can suck bridges and buildings
From their foundations,

Objects much heavier
Than a juvenile whale.

[ wind howling ]

And when the tornado weakens,

These objects fall from
The skies from a great height.

I have seen what has happened
To cows that have been flying.

Meteorologist chris walcek
Analyzes the weather reports

For the time
This footage was filmed

And finds evidence
To support the theory.

there were storms in the area
Before they shot this video.

To pick up a whale
And lift it this distance

Would require
Hundreds-of-miles-an-hour wind.

Narrator:
There's no conclusive proof

That this whale is brought here
By a mega-storm.

But even veteran storm chaser
George kourounis

Wouldn't have wanted
To have been around to find out.

As someone that's been chasing
Tornadoes for over two decades,

I'm trying to envision
In my mind

The reaction that I would have

If I were to look up
At the storm

And see a whale coming at me.

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator:
Now, in an american suburb,

A woman video calls
To her friend...

[ sighs heavily ]

...When something appears
Behind her.

You know?

Wait. Did --
Did you see that?!

But...

Narrator: unknown to her,
She is not alone.

And one that's --

The thing that's creepy
About this thing

Is it's recognizably human.

Narrator: or is it?

It seems humanlike in form,

And yet it does not
Look quite human.

You just want to scream at her,
"Turn around!"

♪♪

Narrator:
Yakima city, washington.

With a population
Of less than 100,000,

This close-knit community
Sits alone

In the middle
Of the yakima valley.

Christmas 2018.

47-year-old mother of four
Lori simmons

Is complaining to her friend
Shana about her bad back.

I'm gonna go and look
For another bed today.

Like, maybe a daybed
Or something.

I mean, I have that credit card.
I'm not going to buy
Anything expensive.

I'll try, like,
Salvation army.

Suddenly, a figure
Appears behind her.

You know?

I definitely...

It seems to move quickly
Around her living room

As lori continues to speak.

Because it's killing me.

The figure moves
Into the doorway

And disappears
Before the call finishes.

Because, um...

Lori continues chatting,

Totally oblivious
To her bizarre home intruder.

Experts are baffled by the
Recorded footage of the call.

the peculiar thing
About this figure

is that it isn't
Moving intentionally

from one place to another.

it seems more to be lurking.

narrator: could the apparition
Simply be lori's shadow?

former nypd image analyst
Conor mccourt thinks not.

mccourt: something doesn't
Really add up here.

the shadow isn't projected
Onto a solid surface.

it seems to be floating
In midair.

this is not possible
Because the light source

is behind the shadow,

so we have to discount this.

♪♪

narrator: biologist greg szulgit
Studies local police records

and wonders whether this could
Be a case of home invasion.

yakima county actually has

around twice the typical rate
Of home burglaries.

so, she's living in
A home-intrusion hot spot.

narrator:
There have been bizarre examples

of intruders who do not
Merely rob and then flee.

a man in new york actually found
That there was a woman

living in his cupboard
In his apartment for weeks.

And he noticed that food
Had been going missing.

So he set up a camera,
And he caught this person

Creeping around in his flat
In the night.

So, these things do happen.

Narrator: intruders will
Sometimes enter a property,

Even if the homeowner
Is present.

Known as hot prowling,

The assailant normally has
A violent or sinister motive.

In 2016, there was a couple
In chicago

Who had a home surveillance
System already.

What they saw horrified them.

At 3:30 in the morning, when
They were asleep on the couch,

A figure appears
At the top of the stairs.

[ floorboard creaks ]

It's unsettling
Because you don't know

What could have happened
Had you awoke.

You don't know if this person
Would have simply fled

Or become violent.

Narrator: coming up,
Does the intruder's outfit

Point to
A blood-thirsty prankster?

But why lori? Why her house?

Narrator: and has a traveler
Found a mutant

On a pacific island?

I have never seen anything
Like this before.

That is disgusting.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: in a suburban home
In yakima, washington,

Lori simmons is being watched
By a sinister, uninvited guest

As she makes a video call.

I went and bought
Decaf coffee.

but this figure doesn't look
Quite like a burglar.

in fact,
It doesn't look fully human.

its head seems too big,
Its shoulders too narrow.

science writer
Athena brensberger

considers if this is some kind
Of costume or disguise.

there was this global craze
Called killer clowns.

people were dressing up
In demonic clown costumes

and then scaring people
Or even killing them.

[ evil laughter ]

narrator:
In 2016, the craze comes to
Lori's hometown of yakima.

one of the things
Some of these clowns would do

is go right up
To people's doorbell cameras

And peer in
To add an extra level of spook.

Is this an example of someone
Trying to be caught on camera

To add an extra layer
Of scariness to it?

Narrator:
Parents in yakima are terrified,

As children appear
To be the main target.

This craze was so big in yakima

That schools
Were actually closed down.

Narrator: one notorious
Early killing clown

Is the terrifying pogo.

Cook county, illinois, 1978.

Police have a search warrant
For 8213 west summerdale avenue,

An ordinary suburban house.

They're investigating
The disappearance

Of 15-year-old robert piest.

The last person believed
To have seen him alive

Is children's party entertainer
Pogo the clown,

Real name john wayne gacy.

When they search gacy's house,

They're horrified
By what they discover.

The decomposing bodies
Of 29 boys and young men

Were found under the house.

The smile is finally wiped
From pogo's face 16 years later,

When he's executed
By lethal injection.

♪♪

But the killer,
Or creepy clown, craze

Has continued to spread.

So, is this the work
Of one of these killer clowns

Trying to pull off
The ultimate prank?

But why lori? Why her house?

Narrator: the figure
Caught in this footage

May be a so-called killer clown,

But they've never returned
To lori simmons' house

and hasn't been seen
In the area since.

Your home is a place
You think of as your sanctuary,

Your safety zone.

And so, the possibilities
Run through your head afterward

Of what might this
Have turned into.

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: now, in taiwan,
A truly weird creature

Is found and filmed
In the undergrowth.

I have never seen anything
Like this before.

That is disgusting.

Doesn't look like any sort
Of land-dwelling creature

I've ever seen before.

Narrator: that's because
This is a real-life zombie.

When we think of a zombie,
We think of the undead,

Something that's
Come back to life

And is completely powered
By something else.

You know what?

Zombies are all over
The animal kingdom.

♪♪

Narrator: changhua,
On the pacific island of taiwan.

August 2019.

Tourist lin ruian
Is hiking in the hills

When he's horrified
By something on the ground.

♪♪

In disbelief, he pokes it
To check if it's real,

Then takes a video of this
Alien-like creature as proof.

oh, looks like something
Out of a tim burton movie.

narrator:
Its eyestalks are green, red,
And white, like candy cane,

and they are strobing
Horrifically.

it's pulsing, and there are
These strange colors.

I have never seen anything
Like this before.

that is disgusting.

♪♪

narrator:
Biologist leslie samuel
Analyzes the footage

and confirms it is a snail.

but it's like no other snail
He's seen before.

the only explanation here
Is that

nature has got something
Very, very wrong.

narrator: could this be
Some type of mutant?

horrifically malformed creatures
Are found throughout nature.

there was a disturbing story
Where people found

a three-headed, six-legged frog.

The frog was still alive,

And all of its heads
Functioned independently.

Narrator: man's impact on
The world's delicate ecosystem

Could be to blame.

Kays: if it was pollution,
Chemicals in the river

Could have
Altered the frog's dna

When it was
A developing tadpole,

Resulting in this
Three-headed monster.

Narrator:
When biologist greg szulgit
Studies the footage,

He thinks the horrific
Strobing psychedelic effect

Could be evidence
Not of a mutation,

But of a parasite,

One which has captured
This entire snail

And turned it into a zombie.

we know that parasites
Have evolved to do this

with their hosts
In many different ways.

Can you imagine
What it would be like

To have some kind of
Parasitic creature

Slowly take over
Your entire body

So that you become a shell,

A zombie under
Somebody else's control?

This is the stuff of nightmares.

Narrator:
Zombies are often considered
To be mythical monsters,

But biologists know
That they are very real.

Bondar:
When we think of a zombie,
We think of the undead,

Something that's
Come back to life

And is completely powered
By something else.

You know what?

Zombies are all over
The animal kingdom.

♪♪

Narrator: coming up,

This zombie is subject
To a hostile takeover.

Being parasitized,
Getting your mind taken over,

Can you imagine
This kind of existence?

Narrator:
And the frozen glaciers
Of antarctica

Give up a bloody secret.

Who knows what's locked away
Underneath?

♪♪

Narrator:
On the island of taiwan,

A traveler films
A horrific sight,

A possessed snail
That has become a zombie.

Studying the footage,

Marine biologist
Danni washington thinks

She knows
The zombie-making parasite

That's taken over
This unfortunate creature.

there are some clues
In this video

that leads me to believe
That this snail has been

impacted by
The leucochloridium parasite.

Narrator:
The snail eats the parasite eggs

And they hatch near its liver
Before growing into a strange,

Mouthless blob that
Sucks nutrients from its host.

But this parasite's disgusting
Life cycle has only just begun.

When the time comes,
It needs to reproduce.

It can only do so inside
The stomach of a bird.

The leucochloridium parasite
Eventually needs

To leave its host.

So it grows tentacles into
The eye stalks of the snail.

And then eventually larvae
Will begin to grow,

Which is what we're seeing here
In this video

As they dance
Along the eye stalk.

narrator: the psychedelic larvae
Control the snail's brain,

forcing it to climb up plants
Where birds are attracted

to the pulsating eye stalks
Like living candy cane.

At some point, birds may come
Over and eat the eye stalks,

Taking away the parasite
From the snail.

Narrator: then, horrifically,
The eyes grow back.

But it's not free
Of the parasite yet.

The snail is trapped
In an endless cycle

Of having its eyes possessed
And eaten and possessed again.

We can only hope and pray

This parasite
Does not mutate itself

And shift
Its attention to humans.

Kays: can you imagine this kind
Of existence,

being parasitized,
Getting your mind taken over,

getting attacked by giant birds
That peck out your eyeballs

Only to go back down
To the ground

And have it all happen again?

♪♪

Narrator: in antarctica, a scene
That makes the blood run cold.

It's like something
Terrible's happened here.

It's -- it looks like it's --
It's almost oozing blood.

Narrator: what has made
The white continent run red?

It's kind of seeping out
Of the ice.

Looks really gory.

Narrator: is a world
Thought to be dead

About to unleash
An ancient terror?

They could be a ticking time
Bomb in many ways.

♪♪

Narrator: antarctica --

A continent over 5 million
Square miles

Almost completely
Covered by ice,

Except here in
The mcmurdo dry valleys.

Here, there is no snow
Because the humidity is low

And the surrounding mountains
Block seaward-flowing ice

From the east antarctic
Ice sheet.

With the temperature
Dropping as low

As negative 58 degrees
Fahrenheit,

It's one of the coldest
Places in antarctica.

January 2019.

Research scientist john priscu
Is a principal investigator

In the mcmurdo valleys.

On a routine research trip
Gathering samples,

He comes across a weird sight.

Here, nature has only
Two colors -- brown and white.

But this is red...

And it's moving.

it looks like
A waterfall of blood.

This bright red against
The very white background

Of the snow, it's very creepy.

Narrator: scientists call
This place blood falls.

that is so weird.

why does the ice look
Like it's bleeding?

potvin: looks really gory.

it's kind of seeping
Out of the ice.

Narrator: author mallie fox
Looks at the footage.

She considers
A gruesome possibility.

the most horrifying explanation
Is the most obvious one.

could it be blood actually
Coming out of this glacier?

Narrator: steve potvin has
Studied cases of ancient bodies

Preserved in frigid wastelands.

Scientists have actually
Found bodies from animals

In these places that are tens
Of thousands of years old.

And when they defrost them,
The blood actually melts.

And then you get this
Liquid blood that's just been

Sitting there for thousands
And thousands of years.

Narrator: april 2019.

The frozen body
Of an extinct lena horse

Is found in eastern siberia.

Scientists are able
To defrost it.

This thing was so well preserved
That its blood was still liquid.

Narrator: after 42,000 years
Entombed in ice,

Its blood is so fresh
That scientists try cloning it.

I don't know about you,
But when I have something

In my freezer for a few months,
It often goes off.

So 42,000 years
In what's essentially

The world's biggest freezer
Is pretty impressive.

♪♪

Narrator:
Could living creatures

In the melting red ice
Threaten all human life?

We don't have the medicines
To combat those things.

Narrator:
Research scientist john priscu

Has filmed a blood-red waterfall

In the middle
Of the mcmurdo valleys.

When biologist karen bondar
Sees the footage,

She thinks the red color might
Be evidence of something alive.

Bondar: so I did some uncovering
And I found reports

of red-colored snow

in several places
In the arctic and antarctica.

It may be due to the coloration
Or pigments

That come
From a specific kind of algae.

what this algae needs
Is a small amount of fresh water

and loads of sunlight.

So usually it's dormant
In the winter

And then it blooms
In the summer.

We mostly think of algae
As being green,

But there are actually
Red and brown algae as well,

Giving them the entire spectrum
Of pigmentation.

Narrator: but there is a problem
With this theory.

Algae needs plenty of light
To bloom

And this liquid was emerging
From deep under the ice --

A dark and frigid place.

It's coming
From within the glacier.

It's not coming where
The light is beaming down on it.

It's coming from underneath.

So it can't possibly
Be the algae.

Narrator: the water trapped
Under this glacier

Comes from the miocene period.

It's been trapped
For nearly 2 million years

Without air or sunlight.

Any life that it once had in it
Should have died out long ago.

But when scientists
Take samples,

They are shocked to find it
Is teeming with life --

At least 17 kinds of creatures
That shouldn't exist.

These dangerous microbes
Are called extremophiles.

They are weird organisms
Able to survive

By using chemosynthesis.

They turn the iron
In the water into energy.

And that's what is giving
The glacier

Its blood-red color
As it leaks out.

The worry is what else
Is escaping?

Sanford: bacteria that have been
Frozen for millennia

Are suddenly
Coming back to life.

maybe they're also coming
Back with ancient diseases

that could be unleashed
On humanity.

we don't have the medicines
To combat those things.

Narrator: humans and bacteria

Are locked
In a biological arms race.

The bugs and viruses
We live alongside

Have been attacking us.

As they evolve,

We build up new immunities
And resist

All but the most
Devastating infections.

Most are fended off.

The great danger lies
In bacteria

That human bodies
Have never encountered before.

There are dangers lurking
Under the ice,

Pathogens that were born tens
Of thousands of years ago

And have been laying preserved
Until that ice melts.

Some of those diseases

Could really come back
To haunt us.

In areas where you have ice

Or permafrost or
Preserved bacteria,

Some of which we may never
Have even encountered before,

Those have potential threats
To our own immune systems today.

Narrator: in 541 a.D.,

The bubonic plague
Spread across europe.

It killed up to a quarter
Of the population

Of the eastern mediterranean.

their bodies have never
Encountered a virus

like this before.

10,000 people a day died.

could the organisms

in the rapidly melting
Blood-red glacier

present
A similar terrible threat,

but this time on a global scale?

as they're thawed out,

they could be carried out
To sea,

where they could interact
With all sorts of things.

who knows what'll happen?