All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S04E10.Doomsday.Vegas.UFO.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

[ 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.