All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S06E07.Attack.of.the.Raging.Inferno.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

[narrator] Worldwide,

thirty-six billion cameras
are watching us.

On our streets,

at work,

and in our homes,

they capture things
that seem impossible.

Science says,
this shouldn't happen.

[man 1] Do you see that?

[narrator] Experts carry out
forensic analysis of these
unusual events.

Wow, what a blast!

[woman screaming]

This doesn't make sense.

There has to be
some sort of explanation.

What else is going on here?

[narrator] Coming up...

Is something beneath Seattle

-making its power lines
drop like dominoes?
-[Martin] Woah!

[David] You could be driving
down any road,

and it could possibly
happen to you.

[car glass shattering]

[narrator] An Arctic circle
appears in the Arctic circle.

[Kevin] It's like a whirlpool,

made out of animals.

You wouldn't wanna
get sucked into that.

[narrator] And...

an express train to hell.

Whatever that train
is carrying,

I don't wanna be
anywhere near it.

[narrator] Can Matt Kutcher
solve the mystery?

Mattie, go hot!

[cameras whirring]

[narrator] Bizarre phenomena.

Oh, my God! [gasps]

[narrator] Mysteries caught
on camera.

[screaming]

[narrator] What's the truth
behind this?

Strange Evidence.

[narrator] The snowbound step
near Pavlodar,

in Kazakhstan, Central Asia,

January, 2015,

train cars sit
on a quiet railway.

[Brian] It's clearly
a very bleak,
empty landscape.

It looks like it's freezing!

[narrator] Something
seems wrong.

Just the way that the
camera person is backing away.

It's like something bad
could happen.

[narrator] Suddenly...

What?

What was that explosion?

It's a very high energy blast.

It's like the side
of this train

has been blown apart.

Why did this blast occur?
What is happening?

[narrator] Historian,
Martin Morgan

suspects this railway
isn't carrying ordinary cargo.

This doesn't look like
a regular train.

It looks like,
it has some sort of
an industrial container on it.

[Nick] At first,
it's difficult to make out.

But when I looked closer,

I can see the central part
of the train car is turning.

Whatever this train car
is carrying,

it's being dumped out
on purpose.

[clanking]

[narrator] Engineer,
Nick Householder,
discovers that

Kazakhstan's Pavlodar region
produces three quarters

of the country's
vital ferro alloys.

Iron is mixed with
other elements

like manganese or silicon,

in an extremely
dangerous process.

[Nick] To make the alloys,

iron ore is melted
at incredibly
high temperatures

inside of a blast furnace.

[Brian] Red hot liquid metal,
is one of the most

dangerous things
that I can think of.

[narrator] And
the byproducts of smelting
can be just as hazardous.

This process creates
a lot of waste material.

[narrator] The molten waste
can be as hot as 2600 degrees,

a quarter as hot as
the surface of the sun.

This waste material

is taken away
and dumped into slag heaps.

[narrator] Worldwide,
around 500 million tons

of this waste is produced
every year.

But normally, when molten
waste material is poured
onto the ground,

it just solidifies.

It doesn't explode violently.

[metal clanking]

There must be something else
causing the blast.

Could this explosion be caused
by hot waste slag

that's been dumped
onto cold ground?

[metal clanking]

[narrator] Matt Kutcher
is the man who can tell us.

A Hollywood
pyrotechnics expert,

he has over
20 years' experience

creating massive explosions.

[man 2] Come,
check this video out.

What you looking at?

[man 2] Kaboom!

[Matt] Man, the guy knew
it was coming.

-[Matt] Did you see how he
started to back away already?
-Yeah, he's backing away!

The amount of thermal energy
coming from that is intense.

-[man 2] So gnarly
-[Matt] It is gnarly.

[narrator] Kazakhstan's
temperatures in January,
when this footage was filmed,

plunge as low
as 35 degrees below zero.

Matt wants to discover whether
the frozen ground explains
the molten waste explosion.

[Matt] So, can hot
molten metal

poured right on the ice,
create that big
of an explosion?

I'm sure we could work
something out, as in, test it.

Let's test it, huh?

[narrator] Matt and his team
build a rig

to simulate molten metal
pouring out of a train car.

I got a nice big block of ice
in here.

[narrator] The ice will stand
in for the frozen ground
of the Kazakh steppe.

Now, the team figure out
how to pour molten metal
over it,

while standing
a safe distance away.

Pour it in.

There you go.

That'll work.

[narrator] Instead
of iron waste,
Matt is using copper

with a melting point
of almost 2000 degrees.

All right, we got our ice,
we got some molten copper,

It's on the way.

We'll get the crucible
to pull up in here,

we'll take our trip,
pour it on the ice

and see if we can
get it to explode.

[narrator] If Matt's theory
is right, this is a disaster
waiting to happen.

[Matt] Okay, we gotta go!

The cable's gonna break.

[man 2] Mattie, go hot!

[Matt] In three,

two, now hit it!

Wow!

What an explosion!

[narrator] The molten copper
pours onto the block of ice,

transferring its heat energy
to the frozen water
on contact.

The ice melts,
boils and turns into steam,

expanding to more than 1700
times its original volume,

in a fraction of a second.

The explosion throws
molten globules of copper
clear across the room.

[Matt] That's one way
to break the ice.

Look at all the copper!

-That's what
I'm talking about.
-[man 2] That was pretty cool.

I mean look at it,
just shattered all the ice,
it's everywhere.

What ends up happening,
right is that molten metal
hits the ice and it boils it.

It boils it, creates steam,
steam expands, it explodes.

The big railway car,
obviously, had something
melting in it,

something hot, right?

And when that hot metal
or whatever it was, poured out
into the snow or into the ice,

it created a huge burst
of steam,
and off it went, kaboom!

Kaboom.

[Matt] That's what I call
"letting off some steam".

[narrator] Matt's experiment
shows the explosive power

unleashed when water
and molten metal meet.

[narrator] But,
Brian Wolshon, notices
that Kutcher's experiment

does not cause a fireball,
like the one seen
in the original footage.

In this transition
of frozen water into steam,

what we would not expect,
is to see a flash of flame.

So, the question is,
what is causing
that release of energy?

[narrator] Coming up,
hell on wheels.

Is there a secret ingredient
that caused the flames?

[Nick] This seems
to indicate that

there's a chemical reaction
going on,

that produces the boom.

[narrator] And,
are Seattle's secret
subterranean chambers

causing power lines
to plunge onto cars?

They've got live electricity
all around.

You're at death's door,
knocking.

[narrator] In Kazakhstan,
a man runs backward,

as a train dumps hot,
molten metal waste
onto frozen ground.

[metal clanking]

Explosives expert,
Matt Kutcher, suspects

the ice being boiled
instantly into steam

causes the initial blast.

But that doesn't explain
the huge fireball
that comes with it.

[Nick] When ice or water
flash into steam,

you don't really expect to see
an explosion like we see here.

This seems to indicate
that there's a chemical
reaction going on

that produces the boom.

[narrator] Water molecules
are composed

of two atoms of hydrogen,
and one of oxygen.

H2O.

But, split them apart,
and you get trouble.

Pure hydrogen gas
is highly combustible.

It's the fuel,
that powers the sun.

Studying the footage,
engineer Nick Householder

is convinced the flames
are caused

by a massive explosion
of hydrogen.

It's possible, that the heat
from the slag is high enough

to separate the oxygen
from the hydrogen
in the water,

creating an incredibly
explosive mixture.

Clocking it at something
like 2500 degrees.

[narrator] Incredibly, no one
was injured by this massive
hydrogen explosion.

As a transport engineer,
if I see an explosion
like this,

I'm getting out of there
as fast as possible.

This video shows us
how simple physics

can result
in dangerous explosions.

[narrator]
Now, the Tukwila district
of Seattle,

April 9th, 2019. 3:50 p.m.

[David] Here, we have
a local rainy day.

This camera's shaking,
bouncing all over the place.

[Martin] Oh, here it goes,
here it goes!
It's coming down.

It's, down! Look at that.

Whoa!

And that pedestrian
just barely makes it

through that intersection
without being hurt or killed.

How lucky is he?

[narrator]
Then another pole falls.

And another.

It's just snapped in half,
like a matchstick.

[narrator] One driver
can't stop in time.

It just slammed
into the windshield.

It almost cuts that car
in half.

I see, part of the power line
components inside the car.

[Brian] I mean,
that's just crazy!

A genuine
"what the hell" moment.

They've got live electricity
all around,

and if you're at a point
like this, you're at
death's door, knocking.

[narrator] Altogether,
a chain of 26 utility poles
mysteriously slammed down

like massive guillotines
across the road.

Incredibly, the couple
in the crushed car survived.

But the cause of the collapse
is unknown.

How did all of these
power poles,

all come down
at the same time?

[narrator] David Wallace
discovers that Seattle
may seem like a modern city,

but it has an ancient secret
hidden under the metropolis.

Below the surface,
is a network
of 19th century streets,

condemned in 1907,
for fear of bubonic plague.

The disease, better known
as the Black Death,

that wiped out 25 million
Europeans in the 14th century.

[David] Really makes
you wonder as you're driving
over these streets,

running above the ground
and you have all these
underground tunnels,

that's beneath you.

And if they start collapsing,

what would happen to you?

[narrator] Some of these
underground plague chambers

have been accessed to create
illegal gambling dens
and flop houses.

[narrator] If this dangerous
subterranean honeycomb
is beginning to crumble,

the effects
at modern street level,
could be devastating.

It's entirely possible
that this has destabilized
the ground above it

to such an extent,

that with a hard rainfall,
you suddenly get power lines
collapsing.

[narrator] Studying
the footage,
entomologist Kevin Kasky,

suspects the polls themselves
may hold a clue.

[Kevin] These utility poles
have a dark brown color.

They appear to be
made of wood.

Makes me wonder,

is there some sort
of critter infesting the pole,

that could cause
this kind of damage.

[narrator] Seattle is known
as the Emerald City

for its lush, evergreen
forests.

But Kasky discovers
that's changing fast.

[Kevin] The city
is quickly becoming
the "brown rusty city",

because the surrounding
forests are being devastated

by infestations
of the bark beetle.

[narrator] There are over
600 species

of the bark beetle in America.

These tiny terrorists
mostly feed on dead
or dying trees,

but some will attack
healthy ones,

with devastating effects.

[Kevin] The bark beetle
burrows in

to the bark of a tree
and lays its eggs.

And therefore, the larva
then start to eat the tree,

exposing it to outside
elements such as disease.

As the climate warms,
the bark beetle has spread

north from California
up into the lush green
of Seattle.

[narrator] But engineer,
Brian Wolshon,

finds these poles fell
in a place,

where a potentially
cataclysmic geological fault

was recently discovered.

This area of Washington State
sits on what's known
as the Cascadia Fault Line,

which was virtually unknown
to science until
the last 30 or 40 years.

Could, what we see
in these video clips,
actually be

the result of an earthquake?

[narrator]
The last major seismic
shock a magnitude 6.8 quake,

shakes Seattle
on February 28, 2001.

It causes $1 billion of damage
to roads and buildings,
and injures 400 people,

but it's nothing compared
to what's coming.

The Cascadia subduction zone
runs for 700 miles

along the Pacific Northwest
Coast.

[man 3] Every major city
in this area
of the United States

has been built
without knowledge
of this fault line,

putting them directly
in the line of fire.

[narrator] Scientists believe
tension has been building

in the Cascadia
subduction zone since
the last mega quake in 1700.

The mother of all earthquakes
has long since overdue
on the Pacific coast.

When it happens,
it is not going to be pretty.

[narrator] First,
seismic waves
will destroy bridges.

and shake
unreinforced buildings
off their foundations.

The ground under
Seattle will liquefy.

It'll cause dams to breach.
It will cause fire.
It'll cause flooding.

After the shaking,
a 700 miles Tsunami

will blast
the western seaboard.

[narrator] A wall of water,
anywhere from
20 to 100 feet high

will devastate
around 140,000 square miles.

Everything,
west of Interstate 5

will be what the authorities
call, "Toast".

As the massive wave of water
recedes,

it will leave
an unrecognizable landscape
in its wake.

The entire region will be
in an utter state
of devastation.

[narrator] Experts fear
that the cascadia catastrophe

will be worse
than any earthquake

in the United States'
recorded history.

The odds
of the big one happening
in the next 50 years

are estimated to be
one in three.

We've all been sort of waiting
with bated breath
for a long time.

And one of these days,
it's going to happen

and it will devastate
the city of Seattle.

[narrator] No major earthquake
is registered on the day
the power lines collapse.

But regular miners shaking
from the cascadia fault

known as episodic tremors
happen every few years.

Could an episodic tremor
be strong enough

to cause those utility poles
to collapse?

If what we're seeing here
is the result of these
episodic tremors,

could that also be a forecast
that the big one is very near?

[narrator] But not even
an episodic tremor

was recorded
in Tukwila, that day.

This has to be something else.

[narrator] Coming up,
could all of America's
power lines

be about to come
crashing down?

We can't fix this fast,
we're looking at
the dark ages reappearing.

[narrator] And in the Arctic,
a weird whirlpool
of living creatures.

It looks like they're under
some sort of trance.

[narrator] In Seattle,
26 utility poles
mysteriously slammed down,

trapping a driver
and his passenger.

Engineer, David Wallace
suspects that the polls
themselves are at fault.

[David] A power pole,
is basically, constructed
out of a tree

and over time, this tree
is going to start rotting.

It's going to get weak
and it can eventually,
fall over.

Your average utility pole
lasts about 45 years.

But the climate
in the Puget area
is mild and wet.

And this just increases
the chances for rot.

[narrator] One rotten pole
can become the weak link
in a whole chain.

Utility lines like this
are usually 35 feet tall.

As you can imagine,
it's like a lever.

[David] You have these
power cables that are pulling
on broke directions.

You add a little bit of wind
or any other motion to it,

that adds these extra forces
which can overwhelm

the strength of the pole
and you get a snap.

[narrator] Investigators
discover that winds that day

are blowing
at 30 miles per hour
with gale-force gusts

While rainfall
softens the ground.

Utility company engineers
later discover

that six of the falling polls
show advanced internal decay.

[Martin] Got a bit of a
perfect storm going on here.

All of these circumstances
conspired to collapse,
these power lines.

[narrator] More checks reveal
some 6,000 other polls
that need urgent attention.

So if we can't fix this fast,
we're looking at
the dark ages reappearing.

This problem is not unique
to Seattle. This problem
affects the entire country.

They're nearing the end
of their life expectancy

and there are millions
of miles of them
in the United States.

[Rachel] These polls weigh
over 700 pounds,

and when they fall,
it's like getting hit
by a flattering ram.

[narrator] It takes
emergency crews an hour
to turn off the power

and cut the unfortunate couple
from their wrecked car.

They escaped
with severe bruising.

I mean these guys got away,
that's some lucky people
right there.

They say,
the most dangerous thing
on the road is other drivers.

Well, it seems like
on this day,
it was a power line pole.

[narrator] Now, the Lovozero
Tundra, in Russian Lapland,

a pristine wilderness,
north of the Arctic circle.

April 30, 2018,

a drone captures
a mysterious spinning mass
in the barren snowfields.

You can see this circle,
it's kicking up snow.

[Kevin] What is that circle?

It is huge.

[narrator] As the drone
gets closer, it reveals
a herd of reindeer.

It's like a tornado
of animals.
It's kind of surreal.

Why are all those animals
circling around each other?

[Jayde] It's like they have
a hive mind.

Is there something wrong
with the reindeer?

Is this mother nature
gone mad?

[narrator] Biologist,
Jayde Lovell studies

the dizzying rotation
of the reindeer herd.

She has seen
this kind of behavior before
in other species

and it's not
a good sign.

We know that some animals
will walk around in circles

if they're sick,
if they have a brain infection
or a parasitic infection.

[narrator] In some
wild animals,

walking in circles
is a sign of rabies or worse.

In the Northeast region
of the United States,

there has been a noted rise
in moose's dying unexpectedly.

And this has been linked
to a parasitic worm
in the brain

that causes the moose
to just wander aimlessly
in circles.

[narrator] The parasite,
which is killing the moose,

Parelaphostrongylus tenuis,

normally lives
in white-tailed deer.

[Kevin] When the parasite
gets into a moose,

the worms, move up
the moose's spine,

making its way to the brain
devouring the gray matter,

slowly driving
the moose insane.

The moose begins walking
in circles and they do this
without eating.

So eventually,
the moose expires.

This parasite is becoming
more common

because with rising
temperatures,

it's allowing
the white-tailed deer

to move into areas
previously uninhabitable.

Could this strange
reindeer behavior be caused
by parasites on the brain?

[narrator] Parasitic
brain worms don't just attack
wild animals.

Humans can
become victims, too.

We know that
it's certainly possible

for brain parasites
from animals to infect humans.

So it makes you wonder
when you see
this reindeer behavior,

if there's anything
that the humans in the area
should be worried about?

[narrator] Suicidal thoughts
among reindeer herders
in Sweden,

are twice as high as among
the general population.

A hidden epidemic
of brain eating parasites

could slowly
be driving the Arctic
human population mad.

This is even worse
than being a zombie.

Imagine a whole village
of people walking around
in circles until death.

[narrator] But biologist
Carin Bondar,

does not believe
these ungulates are unwell.

[Carin] These rangers
are actually, moving
quite quickly

and in a really
coordinated fashion,

which makes me think
that they aren't confused
at all.

And this isn't a parasite.

But why are they doing this?

[narrator] Coming up,
is this spinning disk of deer
a way of fighting humans?

[Ashanti] Imagine being
plowed down by
by 100 reindeer,

you'd be pummeled
like a sack of potatoes.

[narrator] And
a shape-shifting riddle
in the skies over Germany.

This fits the description
of what one might imagine

an alien craft
from another planet
would look like.

[narrator] On the remote
Arctic Tundra,

reindeer are filmed spinning
in what looks like
a terrifying dance of death.

But Ashanti Davis,
suspects these reindeer

are acting in a logical
and coordinated way

to fight off a stealthy
and cunning enemy.

Large herds of animals
often stampede
as a form of defense.

This large mass makes them
harder to target by predators.

[narrator] Schools of fish
are known to swim in circles
to confuse attackers.

Birds circle in the air
for the same reason.

The reindeer
want to stay together
so they stampede in a circle.

Creating almost like
a reindeer cyclone.

[narrator] But what could be
attacking these reindeer

here in the high
Arctic Tundra?

Biologist Jayde Lovell
discovers, Vikings
1,000 years ago,

used to encounter
these bizarre
reindeer cyclones.

An effective defense against
human hunters.

It's possible
that this is warming
in a circle,

may have been
an evolved threat response
behavior

to being hunted by Vikings.

They would put
their vulnerable members
in the center of the herd

and the strongest members
on the outside and run
at this huge speed.

And you can imagine
as a Viking with maybe
only a sword,

or a spear would be
pretty difficult to take down

a bunch of stampeding
swarming reindeer.

[narrator] Reindeer weigh
up to 660 pounds
and can run 50 mph.

During the spring,

they can mass in super herds
of 500,000 individuals.

So when they feel
under threat,

the danger to humans
is very real.

These are huge creatures
and like any of the large game
in the north,

reindeers are big enough
to trample a human to death.

[Ashanti] Imagine being
plowed down by 100 reindeer,

all of that power
moving through those hooves

would mean you'd be pummeled
like a sack of potatoes.

[narrator] Forget Bambi,
worldwidem deer are a doe-eyed
danger to humans.

In the U. S.,
they are the deadliest animal,

killing more people
than dogs, bears, sharks

and alligators combined.

But nothing
in this drone footage
shows anything

that might be
a potential threat

to these rapidly
rotating reindeer.

Investigators
can only speculate

about what is sending them
into a spin.

[Carin] They may be sensing
danger.

Something that we humans
can't see or feel.

Whatever is happening,
the reindeer are not happy.

They are ready to do
whatever it takes
to protect the herd.

[narrator] Now, Ruckersdorf,
outside Nuremberg, Germany.

September 9, 2020.

A local resident spots
a strange glinting shape
moving through the sky.

What exactly
are we looking at here?

It looks like something
metallic because the sunlight
is glinting off it.

[Patrick] It's moving
in such a strange way.

I can't quite make out
its shape.

It seems to be
shifting constantly.

[narrator]
This is no ordinary
flying object.

It's not like a aircraft
where you're going to have
wings.

It's not like a drone,
where you're going to have
propellers going about.

[narrator] Weirdest of all,
it seems to change
its appearance as it hovers.

[Nick] I don't know of anyone
who's developed an aircraft

that just constantly
changes shape in the sky.

[woman 3] There's no engine
sound.

I can't tell what this is.

This fits the description
of what one might imagine

an alien craft,
from another planet
would look like.

[narrator] Historian,
Craig Gottlieb
finds a cold war era report

smuggled out from behind
the Iron Curtain in 1952.

It might explain
what this mysterious object
could be.

Germany during this period
was a hotbed of UFO activity.

Lots of sightings
on both sides
of the iron curtain.

[narrator] The declassified
CIA file, details
the sworn testimony

of East German defector,
Oscar Link.

The former town mayor claims
he had a close encounter

with a weirdly shaped
aircraft.

[Craig] He didn't know
what it was.

Said it looked like
a frying pan.

[narrator] A crude sketch
shows what Link claims
he saw,

including the craft's
two occupants.

Oscar described
how the center part
of the craft

could move with ease,

which could explain
that once it's up in the air
it could change shape.

Mr. Linker seeing this
thought to himself,

I might be seeing
something top secret
and really sensitive.

He thought,
what he saw was a top-secret
soviet super weapon.

[narrator] Military historian,
Martin Morgan

discovers reports
of an extraordinary aircraft

developed by the Communist
super state,

the EKIP.

It looks like a Buck Rogers
concept of what space travel
would look like.

It doesn't look like
it has wings
that will support lift.

It uses some other system
to achieve controlled flight.

[narrator] Soviet engineers,
claim the disc-shaped fuselage
acts like a single wing

providing almost
all of the EKIP's lift.

Jets which provide thrust
are located inside the craft.

It can supposedly travel
long ranges with heavy cargo

and doesn't need
a runway to land.

[narrator] But descriptions
of the EKIP never mentioned
shape shifting abilities.

[Martin] It might be that
what we're looking at
in this footage

is the 21st-century
adaptation

of something first created
by the Soviet Union.

It begs the question,
is that what we're seeing
in the sky?

[narrator] Coming up,

Nick Householder finds
a new top secret substance

that could morph
an object as it moves.

It's very possible
that the shape shifting object

maybe using a memory metal
construction technique
like this.

[narrator] And is this film
proof,

there's a pet door between
this world and the next?

If there's any animal
capable of coming back
from the dead.

It's gonna be a black cat.

[narrator] Over Germany,

an unexplained
aerial object hovers

and appears
to shape shift in the sky.

Aerospace engineer
Nick Householder

is struck by the way
the objects casing

seems to have no clearly
defined shape.

[Nick] The way the aircraft
is changing
and morphing implies

that the skin of the craft
has some sort of unusual
physical properties.

This reminds me of something
called memory metal.

Metals that can change shape
almost at will.

[narrator] NASA's scientists
are experimenting

with the memory metal Nitinol,

an alloy of Nickel
and Titanium.

Nitinol is said to be
the secret sauce
in NASA's next mars rover.

Nitinol wheels will bend
around obstacles
on the planet's rocky surface.

And then revert
to their original form

to carry on
the robot's mission.

This is Nitinol wire,
it looks like any other wire
you might see,

but it has a special
arrangement of its atoms
where when you deform it,

it actually remembers
the original position
it was in,

so that no matter
how much you change it,

it can still go back.

But what takes it back
is interesting.

You can use either heat
or electricity

to free up the atoms
and allow them
to realign themselves

to their
original orientation.

So, if I take this lighter
and apply
a little bit of heat,

the wire jumps back
to its original shape.

Straight as an arrow.

I'm going to attempt
to replicate what we're seeing
in the video

by embedding some Nitinol
into this piece of Mylar
making a hybrid material.

We'll have the flexibility
and the shimmery-ness
of the Mylar material

mixed with the rigidity
and shape-changing properties
of the Nitinol.

[narrator] Nick creates
the original shape
to be flat.

Now it's ready to go.

[narrator] He deforms
the crystal lattice
of the wires

and this time he uses
electricity to energize them,

allowing their atoms
to shift and reform.

Moving back
into their original
crystalline structure.

[Nick] We have a hybrid
shape shifting material here.

It's very possible
that the shape-shifting
object maybe

using a memory metal
construction technique
like this.

[narrator] The possibilities
of memory metal

are only beginning
to be explored.

[Nick] NASA has used
memory metals to make wings

that can deform
and change shape
during the flight.

Nitinol has also seen
some uses
in adaptive robotics.

You can imagine this being
used like a muscle

that is deformed
and then when a little bit
of electricity is applied,

it returns
to its original shape.

This is science fiction,
made real.

And just imagine,

if this is the stuff
that we're allowed
to know about

how far the tech
has actually gone
behind the scenes.

What if the next evolution
is that we can make

an aircraft that
like the T-1000 flow
into a different shape.

Maybe there's some super
advanced research laboratory

that has broken through
and achieved that.

[narrator] But even a craft
like this would make noise
as its engines roar.

Within seconds, the mysterious
shifting shape vanishes
into the sky

without any
perceptible sound.

Without further evidence,

investigators can only
speculate

about who is flying it,
over a civilian neighborhood.

The troubling thing
is we still don't know
who built this

or for what purpose?

Maybe that's something
that we should take pause
and be concerned with.

[narrator] Now Swindon,
an ancient market town
in Wiltshire, England,

May 24th, 2020.

A security camera monitors
an ordinary home.

This is a bog-standard
living room, comfy furniture.

And we can see a white cat
crowding around
the household cat.

Hang on. Whoa!

[narrator] As the lights
come on,
a ghostly guest appears.

Whoa, wait now there's a cat.

The cat appears on the couch
from nowhere.

[Greg] You can see,
it kind of fading in

as if it was coming
from the ether.

That's kind of creepy.

How does a cat
just materialize
out of thin air?

[Dustin] Nothing and then
all of a sudden we have a cat.

What is going on here?

[narrator] Coming up,

is this proof
of a paranormal pet?

What's a little bit creepy,
is that the woman
had a black cat that died?

This was his favorite spot
on the couch.

[narrator]
In Swindon, England,

a ghostly cat
appears to manifest
on a living room couch.

Image analyst Conor Mccourt's
studies the curious footage.

What we have here
is a cat appearing
out of thin air.

Right here, we see
what appears to be ears.

[narrator] McCourt deploys
analytic software
which will identify

any movement
of a solid object.

We have two cats
in the video

where you see these lines
that indicates
actual movement.

See the cat jump off the bed.

The other cat,
there's no movement at all.

No indication
that this thing is alive.

What's going on here?

What's kind of strange
is that the woman comes
into the room

and she looks around
and seems to take no notice
of the cat.

So either she's not surprised
at all or

we're seeing something
that she isn't.

Is it possible
that the camera
is picking up something

that the woman can't see?

[narrator] Historian
Karen Bellinger discovers
that the homeowner

didn't see the cat,
until she reviewed
the footage.

But she has reason to believe
the camera captured
something supernatural.

What's a little bit creepy
is that the woman
who owns this place

had a black cat,
that died a year before
this film was taken.

His name was BlackJack.

And according to the lady,

this was his favorite
spot on the couch.

[narrator] Pet owners often
feel the presence of a beloved
deceased companion.

One former feline friend
is even said to haunt

one of America's
most famous buildings.

Ghost cats have been reported
stalking the US Capitol,
in Washington DC.

And people have even reported
seeing cat paw prints
on the floor.

[narrator] Psychologists say
encountering
a ghostly version

of a dead pet
is a hallucination.

But this apparent apparition
on the video,

can't be a figment
of its former
owners imagination.

Ghost cat or no cat.

Something
very strange happened
in that colorful living room.

[narrator]
Physicist Chad Orzel

believes the answer
can be found in the data
on the footage.

There's a combination
of events

that lead to that cat shape
appearing on the sofa.

The light coming through
the window looks bright,

but the time on the footage
says it's 9:30 p.m.

So it's evening.

The footage
is also black and white,

which tells me
the camera is in some sort
of night vision mode.

Seeing the world through
infrared light.

[narrator] Everything
in the universe
with a temperature

over 450 degrees below zero
emits infrared radiation.

Humans and other warm-blooded
animals can't see it.

But we can feel it as heat.

[Chad] Colored objects
look the way they do

because they're reflecting
light that our eyes can see.

The same things will reflect
infrared light differently

and will appear different
colors under infrared
illumination.

[narrator] Orzel sets up
an experiment

to discover if a shift
from recording
infrared to visible light,

might explain the curious
case of the couch cat.

I've got a similar home
security webcam here

with an automatic
night vision mode,

and on the couch,
I've placed a camouflage
print blanket,

a solid blue t-shirt
and a stuffed black dog.

What we're going to do
is switch off the lights,

the camera will go
into its night vision mode

and we'll see how different
these three things look

under infrared light
compared to the visible light.

[narrator] Orzel's camera
reveals a magical
metamorphosis.

When recording infrared light,
the appearance
of the objects change.

[Chad] This three materials
that looks so different

under visible light
look almost exactly the same
in infrared.

The camouflage print
on the blanket
has completely vanished.

The solid blue shirt
is almost the same color
as the blanket,

and even our little black dog
is looking much lighter,

nearly the same color
as the other two objects.

[narrator] It's possible
that a similar effect
in the British living room

conceals the ghost cat
under infrared light.

And reveals it on the couch
in daylight mode.

This is definitely
a light bulb moment.

In the black and white
night vision mode,

you can't pick up
the differences between
these materials,

so, it looks almost like
there's nothing there.

As the lights come on,
the camera readjusts
it's settings

and all of the dark objects
reappear.

It's almost like magic.

[narrator] Infrared
camera technology
seems to explain

this ghost cat, but the owner
still believes
the video is proof

of an animal afterlife
and her beloved
BlackJack is back.

Maybe this woman's old cat
decided to cash in on
one more of those nine lives.