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.

[ 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...

Have terrorists got A weird new type of car bomb?

Holy cow.

Narrator: what are these balls Writhing on a texas road?

I've never seen anything Quite this weird at the park.

Narrator: and is las vegas Getting a visit

From the ultimate Out-of-towners?

Kerr: I turned and looked up In the sky

And saw what looked like A big explosion.

This is unreal.

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

♪♪

In an underground parking lot, Smoke billows from under a car.

And then...

Oluseyi: holy cow.

Is this some international Spy game going on here?

Did they try to blow a dude up?

Narrator: experts fear An assassination attempt.

Is it some kind of attack That's gone wrong?

Narrator: it points

To a notorious International crime syndicate.

Qiantang province in china Is kind of well-known

For having Organized crime activity.

The triad gangs have routinely Used high explosives

As part of their crimes.

Shanghai, china, A megacity of 27 million people

Over three times The size of new york

And a global Economic powerhouse.

Here, finance, manufacturing And shipping

Generate $550 billion a year,

Making it The country's richest city.

April 21, 2019.

A luxury car is parked In one of the city's

Many underground parking lots.

So basically it just looks like This car is just sitting there.

Just no one's there, No one's around.

Narrator: smoke begins to pour Out from the car's underside.

And then suddenly...

This car Just explodes out of nowhere.

It's just sitting there One minute

And a ball of flames the next.

Narrator: Analysts struggle to explain

The bizarre explosion.

there's nobody around the cars, So the car's not being driven.

it can't be overheating.

Narrator: The blast is suspicious,

But the burnt-out shell That remains

Offers few clues As to what or who is to blame.

You know, it's really lucky That no one was in there.

Narrator: military analyst Carlo muñoz studies the footage.

He finds the origin Of the blast suspicious.

and one of the first questions That pops up to me

in seeing this video

is this has to be Some sort of targeted attack.

Because the explosion itself,

While it did spread To the other cars next to it,

It really was focused On this one vehicle.

was this a car bomb, perhaps An attempted assassination?

Narrator: car bombs are a method Of murder

Favored by terrorists And hit men worldwide.

They have a long And bloody history.

but the 1920s is when you start To see car bombs

being used on a regular basis.

Narrator: but they really took Off a few decades later.

Throughout the 1970s,

Irish mobster danny green Terrorized ohio's underworld.

In a single year, There were 36 attacks.

Green's taste For explosive homicide

Ultimately leads To his own demise.

Fittingly, it's a car bomb That kills him.

Muñoz believes if the footage In china

Does show evidence Of a targeted attack,

The location may provide A clue who's behind it.

Now, the video was shot In shanghai,

Which is one of The largest cities in china.

Now, in any large city, You're going to have

Some sort of organized Crime element operating it.

Narrator: china's triads

Are one of the most feared Criminal gangs

In the world with hundreds Of thousands of members.

Their evil grip extends globally With chapters in many countries,

Including america, canada And even in north korea.

Muñoz: the tribes participate In all kinds

Of traditional Organized-crime activities,

Everything from extortion To prostitution,

All the way to drug trafficking.

Triad gangs have routinely Used high explosives

As part of their crimes.

Now, in 2019, The hong kong police

Actually raided a triad Hideout/bomb factory.

And inside they found 4.4 pounds Of high-explosive materials.

♪♪

Narrator: in 2015, police Arrested 19,000 suspected triads

In a 3-month operation,

But it didn't put an end To their hold here.

The fact that it's an expensive Car only hardens that belief

In maybe an assassination And the car bomb.

Narrator: car bombs are designed To explode

When someone gets Into the vehicle.

Is this a bomb That went off too soon?

♪♪

Matt kutcher is A hollywood pyrotechnics

And ballistics expert

With over two decades' Experience.

The explosive whisperer.

Yeah, I guess You could say that.

Narrator: He's devising an experiment

To see if the explosion In the video matches a car bomb.

we've really emptied this car Out of just about everything

so we could focus All of our attention

On the explosive charge.

Does it resemble what we've seen In this parking garage?

Rock back on the forks!

Narrator: the first thing That kutcher's team

Needs to do is to move the car To a place

They can safely blow it up And record the results.

We want to get this car In a position

That the high-speed camera Can film it in a way

Where we can see the front,

The back and everything That happens within it.

Narrator: next, the team Carefully sets

The explosive charges.

So we're gonna use Some high explosives

And the gasoline, The fuel, that's been found

In pretty much every car.

And together, combined,

That should be quite a hell Of an explosion.

We're ready to go. Let's blow it.

Narrator: When everything is ready.

Kutcher retreats To a safe distance.

All right, gentlemen. Ty, sound the all clear.

[ air horn blows ]

3...

2...

1. Hit it.

♪♪

Now, that's an explosion. Huh? Come on.

♪♪

So clearly this explosion Completely decimated the car.

And it happened In a matter of seconds.

I mean, it's just A raging inferno

And nobody could survive that.

It's certainly nothing like

What we witnessed In the video, right?

♪♪

Narrator: in the footage, first Smoke builds under the car.

Then a few seconds later, The vehicle erupts into flames.

But in the experiment, The blast is instantaneous

And far more explosive,

Powerfully launching shrapnel In every direction.

For kutcher, this means Only one thing.

So in the video, Clearly what we witnessed

Is not a car bomb.

Because what we just did Doesn't look similar in any way.

We've got to figure out What it was.

Narrator: coming up, Are cars of the future

Going to make Their drivers history?

It's crazy to think we're going To have millions of pounds

Of these flammable chemicals Driving around on the streets

By the end of the decade.

Narrator: What are these writhing masses

Of horror on a texas highway?

So I get close and I decide

That it's not something I want to touch.

Narrator: a car In a shanghai parking lot

Erupts into flames.

When engineer Lisa lazareck-asunta

Takes a closer look At the footage,

She thinks that the smoke That billows out

Before the explosion Could be a vital clue.

was something wrong Before it was parked?

Narrator: she thinks That what's under the hood

Could be significant.

We're dealing with Very expensive,

Sophisticated, battery-run car.

Looking at the footage again,

The smoke originates From under the car

And the batteries are stored on The chassis, on the underside.

I think we might be looking At a battery fire.

Narrator: Each car like this is packed

With over 7,000 individual Lithium-ion batteries,

Enough to power A small house for a week.

one of the things about Lithium-ion batteries

that makes the really good As fuel cells

Is also what Makes them dangerous.

They can store a lot of energy

And that energy Is chemical energy.

Narrator: lithium is a highly Volatile compound.

If it's not handled properly, The consequences can be deadly.

usually what happens is The battery gets shorted, swells

and then produces a lot of smoke Before catching on fire.

and the flame is usually A jet of flame

Bursting out from the battery As it begins to burn.

the slightest crack or Bang on that lithium battery,

and it comes in contact With the air,

you've got big fire.

Narrator: the car In the footage appears to have

Suffered a similar catastrophic Lithium-based fate.

Today, there are approximately One million electric cars

On america's roads.

Over the next decade,

That number is expected To jump to almost 20 million.

It's crazy to think that If estimates are right,

We're gonna have Millions of pounds

Of these flammable chemicals

Driving around on the streets By the end of the decade.

♪♪

Narrator: now, on an ordinary Texas highway,

Writhing balls Of serpentine creatures

Appear in the middle Of the road.

I've never seen anything Quite this weird at the park.

These look to be sort of Moving together as one entity.

Narrator: What are these creatures

And why are they In such a uniform pattern?

Just some bizarre, Natural-occurring event.

Narrator: Locals fear these strange,

Slimy masses are a harbinger Of deadly danger to come.

Animals can sense natural Disasters before they happen.

♪♪

Narrator: Eisenhower state park,

463 acres of rugged wilderness

Nestled on the banks Of lake texoma.

May 29, 2015.

Park ranger katie sailing Is out on a routine patrol.

We got a lot of rain. The weather was just bizarre.

It hadn't happened Like that for years.

Narrator: the severe weather Forces half the park

To close down,

But rangers still need to check The campgrounds for damage.

I see something really strange In the middle of the road,

Something I'd never Seen before.

Narrator: the ranger find 10 Or more bizarre clusters

Lining the middle of the road.

As she approaches, sailing makes An horrific discovery.

It looks like clumps of dirt.

But as soon as I get Close enough to see,

I can tell that it's not dirt And that it's moving.

Narrator: Not just moving, but squirming.

So I get close and I decide

That it's not something I want to touch.

So I grab a stick

And that's when we realize It's bunches of worms.

Narrator: but what are they Doing on the road?

And why are they spaced out

In an almost Mathematically precise line?

I've seen lots of earthworms In my day,

but I've never seen them Behave like this.

♪♪

Narrator: there is a lot Of animal behavior

That seems weird And alien to us.

When threatened, horned lizards

Increase the blood pressure In their sinuses

So much that they explode,

Shooting blood out of their eyes Up to 5 feet away.

The hairy frog Is a real-life version

Of the superhero wolverine.

They break their own toe bones And push them through their skin

To act as weapons.

And a species of termite

In the rainforests Of french guyana

Turns itself Into a suicide bomber.

Toxic crystals are produced By glands in the abdomen

That creates a liquid That explodes on enemies,

Paralyzing them And killing the termite.

But biologist danni washington Believes these worms

Would only have to come To the surface like this

If there is some Impending catastrophe

They are desperate to escape.

animals can sense natural Disasters before they happen.

I, for one, Know that ibis birds in florida,

Well, they get out of dodge.

They leave the area whenever A hurricane is on the way.

Narrator: it isn't just weather

That animals are believed To be able to predict,

But natural disasters, too.

Szulgit: Cats and dogs, for example,

behaving in slightly strange Ways just before an earthquake

is something That's widely reported.

Narrator: it was the ancient Greeks who first noticed

That animals appeared to have This predictive power.

People still take these natural Early-warning signs seriously.

This belief is so widely held That in 1975 in a city in china,

They actually evacuated The city

Partially based On animal behavior.

People noticed that cows And horses

Were restless and chickens Refused to enter their coop

And even the rats were Acting like they were drunk.

Amazingly, There was an earthquake.

And had they not Evacuated the city,

The casualties could have been

In excess Of 100,000 people.

Narrator: Scientists are unable to explain

Why animals Have this super sense.

But greg szulgit has studied One credible theory.

It's possible that some animals Could be picking up

On low-level p-waves That come from earthquakes,

That we don't pick up ourselves Without equipment.

So they may be sensing Something before we do.

so are these clumps -- Is this behavior a clue

that something bad Is about to happen?

Narrator: coming up...

Is texas about To be flooded with worms?

As that water starts to rise up,

They allow themselves To float up out of the ground.

Narrator: And how does this man

Appear out of nowhere Near a secret test facility?

Many believe that teleportation

Is really Just around the corner.

Narrator: A texas park ranger

Finds wriggling balls Of worms on a highway.

Bizarrely, they seem to be Routinely spaced

A few inches apart,

Straight down the middle Of the road.

Worms. Lots of worms.

But why are they In these clumps?

Fascinating and kind of gross At the same time.

Narrator: Storm chaser george kourounis

Looks at weather records for The day the footage was shot,

And he wonders If these creatures

Could have been fleeing For their lives.

Kourounis: the weather records Tell quite a tale

and could be Directly responsible

for what we're seeing here.

may of 2015

was the rainiest may on record For texas.

hovland: worms need to breathe Just like you and me.

yet they don't breathe Like you and me.

we breathe through our mouths And our nose.

worms breathe Through their skin.

Narrator: air dissolves In the worms' mucus exterior.

Oxygen is then Drawn out of the membrane

Into the worm's body.

And this is why worms Have to be moist all the time.

Narrator: But while worms like the rain,

They can mistake the tremors Caused by heavy downpours

To be the vibrations of A predator digging towards them.

As that water starts to rise up,

They allow themselves To float up out of the ground.

Kourounis: could this possibly Be some mass migration

Of the local earthworms Out of the soil

That has been completely Saturated by record rainfall?

And the only safe high ground That they can find

Is in the middle of the road.

Narrator: But the sides of the road

In the footage Don't look flooded,

And this is the only location In the state of texas

Where this was reported To happen.

And that doesn't explain

Why they appear To be uniformly spaced.

Hovland: looking closer At the big picture,

Sure, the worms are in piles To help each other,

But it's just not natural...

The level of organization.

Kourounis: why are they spaced Apart and why exactly here?

What's so special About this particular spot?

Narrator: the eerily precise Distribution along the highway

In neat and even clumps Remains a mystery

Even to those Who know the park well.

Sailing: I've never seen anything

Quite this weird at the park.

And so we still aren't Quite sure

Why they gathered like this At this time.

♪♪

Narrator: now close to the World's leading research center

In quantum physics, Something freaky is going on.

What? There's no one there.

And the car stops, He's there.

That is pretty weird.

Narrator: A man appears out of nowhere

Before getting up And running off.

This is like something out Of "The terminator."

Out of nowhere,

Someone just appears In the middle of the road.

Narrator: experts ask If this could be evidence

Someone has achieved the holy Grail of secret technology.

Many believe that teleportation

Is really Just around the corner.

♪♪

Narrator: tsukuba, japan,

About an hour's drive From downtown tokyo is home

To the national laboratory For high-energy physics,

One of the world's Leading particle physics

Research facilities.

Hundreds of scientists work On top-secret projects

That few outside the sphere Would fully understand.

They have built vast proton,

Electron and positron Accelerators

And are investigating The relationship

Between matter particles And their anti matter.

January 2017.

A driver travels down A rainy city road

As a dash cam films Through the car's windshield.

As he drives around a bend,

An oncoming vehicle Emerges on the opposite side.

Then, shockingly, A figure appears out of nowhere.

When this footage leaked online, It got people talking.

This doesn't look like something That should be possible.

Wise: what? There's no one there.

And the car stop, And he's there.

Narrator: even more bizarrely,

After the vehicle Comes to a halt,

The man gets up from the ground And runs away,

Seemingly uninjured.

you're just driving along the Road, and then suddenly,

out of nowhere, Someone just pops up.

Narrator: ex-nypd image analyst Conor mccourt

Studies the footage for clues.

Mccourt: so the mystery Of this video is

Where does this guy come from?

That's the question.

so what I'm gonna do

is pinpoint that moment In which he appears.

The problem with this video Is that it's low quality.

There's a lot of digital Compression.

And we also have raindrops All over the windshield.

This isn't gonna be An easy one.

We're gonna have To do some digging

And think outside the box.

♪♪

Narrator: Such a bizarre incident

So close to a weird World-renowned science lab

Has excited Some wild speculation

Straight out of sci-fi.

But the disturbing thing is The most far-out notions

Often have some basis In fact and science.

So you see this person Appearing from nowhere,

And you can almost say It's like teleportation.

Narrator: physicist simon foster Has studied teleportation --

The idea of instantaneously Transporting physical matter

From one location to another.

Now, you think that's out Of the movies,

But in actual fact,

It's something That's scientifically possible.

Chinese scientists have managed To beam photons,

That's little parcels of light, Up to a satellite

Orbiting 500 miles Above the earth.

And this wasn't a one-off.

They managed to do it 90 times.

So this is repeatable.

Narrator: the scientists were Able to do this via process

Called quantum entanglement,

Where two particles are Entangled or locked together.

When you split them up,

What happens to one Instantly happens to the other,

No matter where it is.

Foster: you can take them Thousands of miles apart.

But the key thing is What you do to one,

You do to the other.

So if you turn one, You turn the other.

Instantaneously, it happens At the same time.

you can transfer information Across huge spaces,

the entire width of the galaxy In a fraction of a second,

Far faster than The speed of light.

Narrator: Using this new technology,

The future Of teleporting large particles

Or even living beings Could be closer than we think.

Shira teitel: scientists are Actively working on a way

To teleport complex particles.

So many believe That teleportation is really

Just around the corner.

think about that.

instantaneous transfer Of goods and services

across the world.

We wouldn't have to have Jet airplanes.

The transportation sector Would be pretty much dismantled.

We would instantly go From place to place.

It would change human history.

Narrator: coming up, Is this video evidence

Of something even stranger Happening at the nearby lab?

Shrinking a human down To the size of an ant

Is not outside The realm of possibility.

Narrator: And what happens in vegas

Leaves scientists baffled.

Kerr: I turned and looked up In the sky

And saw what looked like A big explosion.

Narrator: a dash cam Captures the moment

A man seems to appear out Of nowhere

On a japanese city street

Before running off Into the twilight.

Intriguingly, this footage was Filmed in the city of tsukuba,

Home to one of the world's

Leading particle physics Laboratories.

Is there any link Between what happened here

And the facility in tsukuba?

Narrator: science journalist Jeff wise examines the footage

And is reminded of a superhero.

the clip kind of reminds me Of the movie "Ant-man"...

...Where you've got this -- This guy who can switch

Into a really tiny, tiny guy.

And then he gets -- boop.

He pops up and it looks like He's just materialized.

Shrinking a human down To the size of an ant

Is not outside The realm of possibility.

Narrator: it may sound crazy,

But experts believe That it is possible.

In order to shrink A large object such as a human,

First you would have to reduce The empty space

Inside of all of its atoms.

if you blow an atom up To the size of, say,

a football stadium, The nucleus would be tiny

Right in the middle On the 50-yard line,

Whereas the electron That orbits it

Would be no more Than the size of a baseball

And would be all the way At the end of the end zone.

All of that space in between Is completely empty.

Narrator: squashing this space Down seems logical,

But there's A problem with this idea.

unfortunately, you can't simply Just reduce the space.

you can't squash things down

because the more You try to squash it,

The more they squish back,

They push back And then repel back down.

Narrator: The laws of the universe

Dictate that this empty space Inside an atom

Cannot be shrunk without Destroying the atom itself.

But in 1936, scientists studying The cosmos discovered something

Which could make Shrinking humans a possibility.

It's called muonic matter Or muons.

they are heavy electrons,

so heavy That when they form an atom,

The atom is about 200 times Smaller than an ordinary atom.

Think about it.

The same chemistry That we learned in high school,

Except these objects are 200 times smaller than normal.

Narrator: if you could replace All the electrons

Inside a human body with muons, Would shrinking a human being

To the size Of an ant be possible?

So you can imagine If you had a person

That was made entirely

Out of these sort of Muonic elements,

That it would be much tinier.

And somehow If all those muonic elements

Turned into normal elements,

There you are suddenly Paul rudd or whatever.

You know, you're sort of A big-size, normal person.

Foster: governments have been Very keen to get hold of this,

Because obviously, if you can Shrink a man or a woman down

200 times in size, They can get anywhere.

So this would be incredibly Useful for good and for bad.

Narrator: but could there be A simpler explanation?

There is a bridge close by.

Could this person Have just dropped from it?

Mccourt: what we have here Is a black s.U.V.

If we take the measurements Of the black s.U.V.

And compare that to the bridge,

We can figure out what The height of the bridge is.

the average height of an s.U.V. Is 6.2 feet.

If we stack four s.U.V.S On top of each other,

That's about 25 feet, which is About the height of the bridge.

Narrator: A drop of 10 feet

Can be enough To fracture your spine.

How could a man have fallen Or jumped from 25 feet

In a fraction of a second

And then walked away Seemingly uninjured?

The identity of the man Remains unknown.

Who he was and however He got there remains a mystery.

Shira teitel: the way the guy Gets out of there real quick

Seems like he might have Something to hide.

really wasn't interested in Answering any kind of questions

about what just happened.

♪♪

Narrator: Now high above area 51,

An unidentified ball of fire

On a collision course With earth.

It looks like a firestorm Just streaking across the sky.

Kerr: this is unreal.

It's headed straight For las vegas.

Narrator: sin city appears to be Under attack.

Kerr: what is that?

Narrator: but by what?

If I was that guy, I'm not sure I'd be filming it.

I'd be, like, running away.

Narrator: las vegas, nevada.

Each year, 42 million tourists

Descend on the desert Gambling mecca.

The strip has over 15,000 miles Of neon tubing,

Making this The brightest spot on earth.

July 27, 2016, 9:40 p.M.

Local resident trevor kerr is Driving home.

I was headed home.

A friend of mine Called from out of state

And we haven't spoken In a while.

So I thought I'd pull over To the car park

And have a proper chat.

Narrator: as he talks, trevor's Eyes are suddenly drawn

To a fiery streak illuminating The darkened skies.

Kerr: I turned and looked up In the sky

And saw what looked like A big explosion.

This is unreal.

It was pretty shocking.

I've never seen anything Like that before.

And it's just Blowing across the sky.

So I hung up the call.

I pulled the phone out And just started filming.

Narrator: kerr stands mesmerized By the bright, burning object

Consumed by a sense Of foreboding.

Kerr: my first thought was maybe An airplane had exploded.

I'm thinking, "Is this -- Is this something bad?

Is it like 9/11 Happening all over again?"

But it's just moving too fast. It couldn't be an airplane.

Narrator: coming up, Are chinese space men

Making an unscheduled visit To vegas?

Orzel: you would end up with, You know, bits of hot metal

Falling in the wrong places And doing some sort of damage.

Narrator: And a monster in a bedroom.

This is in the closet In a house that people live in.

Get out of the house.

Narrator: a fiery streak creeps Across the vegas sky.

What is this light Traveling at such high velocity?

Kerr: I don't know what that is.

Narrator: The most obvious answer

Was the initial response Given by the government.

nellis air force base initially Came out and stated

that this object Was most likely a meteor.

Narrator: But the fireball in the footage

Bears none of the hallmarks

Of a superheated space rock Crashing to earth.

Proctor: when I think of A typical, like, meteor

entering the atmosphere,

it lasts for just A second or two.

but this thing just goes on And on and on.

szulgit: It's not one quick streak.

in fact, it's several of them.

and they just kind of Slowly move along, burning.

Narrator: whatever this is, It clearly isn't a meteor.

There were suggestions That the air force statement

May have been intended To deceive the public.

Witnesses have reported U.F.O. Sightings over las vegas

For a long, long time.

There is no doubt

That there are lots Of things going on in the area.

Area 51 is not far from vegas.

So you just never know

What you're gonna see In the night sky.

Narrator: in 1958, 38,400 acres of land

Located 120 miles north Of las vegas in remote desert

Was withdrawn from public use

By the u.S. Atomic energy commission.

This became the location For a top-secret military base

Known by various names -- Paradise ranch,

Watertown, dreamland,

Or most famously, area 51.

It is so secret that when skylab Astronauts inadvertently

Took pictures of it in 1974, The film was confiscated

And locked In a restricted vault.

The cia only publicly Acknowledged

The existence of the base In 2013.

Orzel: this is an area That's been used for testing

Of experimental aircraft Since the early 50s.

so this has been going on For a very long time

and accounts For a lot of the sightings

of strange aircraft In the nevada area.

♪♪

Narrator: astrophysicist Athena brensberger

Considers if the u.S. Military

Is trying to conceal The catastrophic result

Of its latest Aerial prototype testing.

if that aircraft development Has been continuing

up till today,

maybe this is what we're seeing In the video.

Maybe it was A secret aircraft development

That's gone horribly wrong.

Narrator: but when space Journalist amy shira teitel

Views the footage,

She suspects the date the video Is filmed can help identify

What the object is And where it's from.

one possibility is that this Is actually a man-made object

re-entering the atmosphere.

There are reports That a chinese mission

That launched a month earlier

Actually had Some pieces of hardware

That took that full month To re-enter the atmosphere.

It's possible that that light Over las vegas

Is part of that chinese rocket.

Just like a meteor,

The air resistance will Break them apart

And they'll burn up Into fragments

As they fall back to earth.

Narrator: but why would A chinese rocket booster

Fall close To a major american city?

Shira teitel: the chinese space Program is incredibly ambitious

And hopes to catch up with

And eventually surpass American-russian efforts.

China has already built A prototype space station

And is planning A human mission to the moon.

Narrator: china didn't send A man into orbit until 2003,

But it is quickly Becoming a space superpower.

To fuel this ambition,

China currently launches More rockets

Than any other nation on earth.

Shira teitel: When you launch something Like a satellite into orbit,

Most of the rocket Is actually just the booster,

The part needed to actually Get that tiny satellite

Off the earth and into space.

Everything that doesn't go into Orbit has to fall back down.

Narrator: as the 6-ton Second-stage booster

Of the long march 7 rocket

Collides with The earth's protective shield

At an incredible 18,000 miles per hour,

This is the dramatic result Of flaming ball of fire

Over the las vegas skyline.

Kerr: I've never seen Anything like that before.

♪♪

Narrator: An unsuspecting family

Finds something terrifying Lurking in their bedroom.

This is in the closet in a house That people live in.

Get out of the house.

The way it hangs, It's so creepy and gangly.

Narrator: it looks like no Creature known to science.

Szulgit: I want to know What this thing is,

If it's dangerous, And if there are more of them.

Narrator: coming up, The unbelievable truth

Behind this bizarre creature.

Sometimes nature can be weirder Than anything we could imagine.

Narrator: a bizarre creature is Filmed in a tropical bedroom.

The islands of indonesia.

This unreal volcanic landscape

Is like the land That time forgot.

Amazed zoological explorers To this part of the world

Have described it As a lost world of beasts.

On the indonesian Island of sumba,

Scientists have discovered The bones of dwarf elephants,

Giant rats, And other extinct creatures.

Huge komodo dragons,

The largest lizards In existence,

Still roam the forests here.

June 17, 2019.

While relaxing at home, Local resident hari toet

Suddenly sees A monster in his bedroom.

there's this Crazy-looking creature

hanging from this guy's closet,

and it's got this Inflatable appendage

Or antenna of some sort.

It's really weird.

it kind of reminds me to A degree of the "Alien" movies.

it's the sort of thing

that would suddenly jump Onto your face

and impregnate you.

I mean, it's a really Horrible creature.

Narrator: as hari moves in Closer to film,

The thing suddenly reacts with Swift and apparent aggression.

Is it trying to grab on To something?

I wouldn't want to be the one To be grabbed onto.

Narrator: the creature's Bizarre appearance

Seems to defy Rational explanation.

there's something really Crazy going on here.

this biologist is intrigued.

♪♪

Narrator: biologist greg szulgit Studies the footage.

He thinks we could be watching

Some kind of horrific Dance of death.

Szulgit: the two halves of this Thing seem really different.

could it be that this is Actually two creatures together

where one is either Eating the other

Or interacting with it In some way?

Narrator: the insect world has No morality, no scruples,

And the only rule Is survival at any cost.

We certainly know that there are Some insects

That intentionally paralyze Their victims,

Like parasitic wasps.

Narrator: the opportunistic Female lays her eggs

Inside the body Of a newly hatched caterpillar.

The larvae eat the insect until They're ready to break free,

Using saw-like teeth.

Szulgit: and the poor thing is Alive until the eggs hatch

And eat Their way out of the victim.

Narrator: if you think That sounds disturbing,

Meet the terrifying Assassin bug.

Its preferred method Of execution

Is to impale its victims

With its razor-sharp proboscis, Suck them dry,

And then carry the corpse On its back

As a macabre form of camouflage.

Sometimes nature can be weirder Than anything we could imagine.

Narrator: investigators consider If the footage has captured

A grotesque display of nature.

Now, I've never seen anything Like this before.

But there are, we estimate, About 4 million insects

That we still have not Identified and cataloged.

♪♪

Narrator: But when biologist carin bondar Examines the footage,

She thinks the time of year The thing was spotted

Points to a different Explanation.

I immediately went To my calendar

because this footage was taken In the summertime --

Prime mating season for insects.

Could this be some kind of weird Mating display?

Narrator: Insect mating rituals

Are some of the strangest In nature.

When it comes to sex,

No one is weirder Than the insects.

Everything is on the table,

Whether it's hanging From the ceiling,

Cutting each other's heads off Or ripping off

Various other body parts.

Sex is weird.

Narrator: Entomologist kevin kaski

Looks closely at the features Of this weird creature.

Kaski: I think I found

The creature That matches the description.

It is a creatonotos gangis,

But the specimen that we're Looking at in this video

Is larger than normal.

Narrator: bondar believes

The bizarre-looking creature's Enhanced size

Is a sign it wants to reproduce.

They have a superpower and that Is these unfoldable tendrils

That are actually scent glands

That males can use To emit signals to females

When they're looking for a mate.

Narrator: The alien-looking creature

Has four semi-transparent Hairy scent glands,

Or coremata,

That inflate like balloons From its behind.

Weirdly, before transforming Into an adult,

The infants feast on toxic Alkaloid plants

like indian heliotrope,

also known as scorpion's tail.

deadly to humans,

the more these creatures devour, The bigger their glands can grow

when they reach maturity.

mcmahon: I think this animal Proves to us yet again

that nature can be Utterly disgusting,

really quite horrible.

bondar: despite the fact That this looks really bizarre,

it's actually just a guy Looking for love.