All language subtitles for The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd s02e17 Astonishing Escapes.eng

[Dan narrating]

[upbeat music]

What if I told you a man
attempted a prison break

wielding nothing but
a piece of fruit?

- It's almost like a
Mexican standoff of sorts.

As they're on the roof,
the helicopter comes down.

Michel jumps onto the skids.

- Or there's an
animal escape artist

who could give Houdini
a run for his money?

- The zookeepers are
getting kind of desperate.

- They go undercover, but he
sees through their disguises.

Harry Houdini escapes 11 times.

[orangutan vocalizing]

- How about the acrobat who
fled a brutal communist regime

using an old circus trick?

- He makes his way to the
western side of Berlin

unseen by the guards.

- But as he gets closer
and closer to freedom,

he stumbles and falls.

- These are the tales of
escapes so astonishing

they are truly unbelievable.

[intense music]

[intense music continues]

[music crescendos and ends]

Some walls are built
to keep people out,

and others are built
to keep people in.

From the moment the Berlin
Wall goes up in 1961,

millions of Germans on the
Soviet side of the wall

plot how to bypass it.

Some take the direct approach.

[dramatic music]

- A 19-year-old man by the
name of Konrad Schumann,

who is a guard
at the Berlin Wall,

is tasked with
placing barbed wire

down where the wall
has not been built yet.

But he slowly starts to realize
there's gonna be a barrier here.

[suspenseful music]

And once that barrier goes up,

I'm trapped behind
the wall as well.

He decides there and then

to hop over the barbed
wire and escape.

[suspenseful music]

- He's immediately ushered
into a waiting automobile,

and he's now a resident
of West Berlin.

- [Dan] After the
wall is fully built,

complete with watchtowers
and anti-vehicle trenches,

escape attempts become
a bit more creative.

[tense music]

- It's December, 1962.

A trapeze artist
named Horst Klein

is living in East Berlin.

He's a vocal anti-communist.

He's not happy
about being forced

to live in the DDR,
or East Germany.

- Because he's willing to
espouse his beliefs openly,

the government decides to
take away his livelihood.

They don't allow him to
perform in the circus anymore.

- Horst is thinking
about his escape.

He's trying to figure out
how he's going to

get out of East Berlin.

And he's near the wall

when he spots a power line

traveling from
East Berlin to West Berlin.

And he has a thought.

- If I can tightrope walk
right over the guard's heads,

I can make it into West Berlin.

- A rational person
would probably think that

this strategy is
insane, for two reasons.

First, this could be
a live power line,

and he could get electrocuted
before his escape even begins.

Second, this power line
is 30 feet off the ground.

The East German
guards are authorized

to shoot people trying to
flee East Germany on sight.

It would be a shot that
would be hard to miss.

[gun firing]

- This plan involves
extreme risk,

but the juice is worth
the squeeze for Horst.

He's gonna give it a shot.

- He climbs the pole,
he finds that there's

no electricity running
through the cable.

And he begins to cross.

- Using all of his acrobatic
skills, he makes his way

to the western side
of Berlin on this wire

unseen by the guards.

- [Martin] But as he gets
closer and closer to freedom,

he stumbles and falls.

[intense music]

When he crash lands,
he breaks both arms.

Horst Klein paid a price to
get there, but now he's free.

[tense music]

- Sure, tiptoeing your way
over the wall is a risky move,

but it's nothing compared
to an even bolder try

that very same year.

[ominous music]

- In 1962, 20-year-old
Heinz Meixner is in love.

There's a little
problem with this

because the woman that he
loves, Margarete Thurau,

lives in East Germany.

- He wants to bring
her to the West,

and he's not gonna let the
Berlin Wall stand in his way.

- Because he's Austrian,
he is able to come and go

through the border crossing
without a problem,

but she can't leave East Berlin.

- So Heinz is staking
out Checkpoint Charlie,

and he notices that one
of the gates is kind of high.

He stealthily measures it

to be 37 1/2 inches
off of the ground.

So Heinz comes up with a plan

that the East Germans
will never see coming.

- He rents an Austin-Healey
Sprite, which is not a big car

to begin with,
but it's about 47 inches high.

That is obviously
too high, unless...

you remove the windshield,
which is something you

could do at this point in time.

- To ensure that
he has clearance,

he loads the trunk with
bricks, to weigh it down,

and partially
deflates the tires.

Now there is one big catch.

Not only does he have to
bring his future wife,

but she also comes
with her mother.

[tense music]

On May 5th, 1963, at midnight,

Heinz approaches
Checkpoint Charlie.

[suspenseful music]

He hands his passport
to the border guard,

who reviews it,
takes a look at him,

and then starts
looking around the car.

[suspenseful music]

The border guard suspects
that there's something up,

and he waves him
over for inspection.

Heinz is gripping the
wheel tighter and tighter

as he starts to steer over,

and then makes his move.

[engine revving]

He floors it

straight under the
barrier which has come down.

He misses it by
just a couple of inches.

[dramatic music]

And about 600 yards later,

he skids into freedom
in West Berlin.

- Going over and under the
wall both have challenges,

but what about going
straight through?

[tense music]

- In East Berlin, 1963,
we meet Wolfgang Engels,

a 19-year-old who's in
the East German army

as a driver and as a mechanic.

He comes from a family who
are staunch socialists.

In fact, his mom works for
the East German secret police,

or the Stasi.

So Wolfgang's not
somebody that's been

dreaming about
escape his whole life.

- [Dan] That changes one night

when he and some friends try
to catch a concert in a cafe

by the eastern side
of the Berlin Wall.

- The East German police
immediately suspect

that they're attempting
to flee into the west,

and so they follow
them and harass them.

And after this harassment,
Wolfgang has had enough.

- [Dan] Inspiration
and opportunity

both present themselves

during the 1963
May Day Military Parade.

- As a driver and mechanic,
he's living on one of

the local military bases.

This is where the vast
majority of the vehicles

for the May Day Parade
are being marshaled.

And that's when he notices
one vehicle in particular,

the BTR-152.

[suspenseful music]

- This could batter its way
through almost anything,

maybe even batter its
way through a wall.

- [Dan] One day, when the
BTR drivers break for lunch,

Wolfgang puts
his plan into motion.

- He climbs aboard the
vehicle and roars off in it.

[suspenseful music]

He famously stops in front
of some pedestrians and says,

"I'm going to the West.
Who's with me?"

And nobody takes him up on it.

[dramatic music]

- So Wolfgang puts
the pedal to the metal

and he drives this BTR
right into the Berlin Wall,

and he smashes through.

[crash banging]

- Unfortunately, he
comes in on an angle.

The front of the BTR
actually breaks the wall,

but it doesn't get
all the way through.

- So the driver's side
is still in East Berlin,

but the passenger side
is in West Berlin.

- So he rolls out of
the driver's side.

He then gets hit by a bullet.

Because the East German
guards are firing at him,

their bullets are
going into West Berlin.

And now the West German
border guards can fire back,

which gives Wolfgang
the ability to escape.

[guns firing]
[suspenseful music]

- Patrons at a nearby pub
end up grabbing Wolfgang,

bringing him into the bar,
laying him on top of the bar,

and start tending to his wounds.

[siren blaring]

- He realizes in the
midst of all this,

he's actually reached freedom,

because when he looks up,

he can see all the
bottles of booze

that just aren't
available in the East.

He knows he's now
in West Berlin.

[dramatic music]

[protesters cheering]

- The Berlin Wall
comes down in 1989

after an estimated 5,000 people

successfully escape to the West.

- From "The Count
of Monte Cristo"

to "The Shawshank Redemption,"

when it comes to fictional
prison escapes, long,

arduous tunneling seems to be
the preferred path to freedom.

But if we're talking about
daring, real life jailbreaks,

why spend years tunneling
under prison walls

when you can just go over them?

[tense music]

- It's 1986 in
Sante Prison in Paris.

Michel Vaujour is serving
20 years in prison

for a botched bank robbery

in which he actually
shot a police officer.

[ominous music]

- Now he's got about 20 years
left on a long sentence,

and he's thinking, I
gotta get outta here.

Michel has a wife back home.

Her name is Nadine, and she is
looking to take up a new hobby,

so she takes up
helicopter lessons.

Nothing suspicious about that.

- On May 26th, she pays for
a helicopter rental in cash

and takes off with another
man as her co-pilot,

with her course set
for Sante prison.

- [Dan] You'd think
that a helicopter

circling a maximum
security prison

would raise a few red flags,

but it seems the guards at the
prison are a bit preoccupied.

- While Nadine is making her way

towards the prison
in the helicopter,

her husband Michel and
his cellmate Pierre

are threatening prison guards

with what appears
to be a hand grenade

that they somehow
figured out a way

to smuggle into a prison.

Michel and Pierre are
threatening to pull the pin

if the guards do
not clear the way

and facilitate them
getting to the roof.

- It's almost like a
Mexican standoff of sorts

because if they pulled the pin,

then everybody within
a 30-foot radius

is going to be eviscerated.

So the guards of course
are forced to back up

and give them the room they
need to make it to the roof.

That's where Nadine and
the helicopter show up.

[suspenseful music]
[helicopter whirring]

As they're on the roof and
the helicopter comes down,

Michel jumps onto the skids.

[suspenseful music]

But Pierre, for some reason,
has a change of heart,

and he turns around
and gives himself up

just as the
helicopter takes off.

- In a final coup de gras,

as Michel takes off into the
sunset, he tosses the grenade.

[grenade clanging]

- The grenade bounces
down to the roof,

but there's no boom.

[tense music]

It's not a grenade at all.

[liquid squelching]

It's a nectarine painted black.

[dramatic music]

- If the guards had
actually done their homework

and read Michel's file,
they would've known that he'd

done something like this before.

- He once made a gun
out of a bar of soap,

painted it with shoe polish,

and forced his way out
of yet another prison.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] After a masterful
escape like this,

you'd think Michel and Nadine

would head to a lush, tropical
beach to lead a quiet life,

but you'd be wrong.

- He quickly gets busted in

another botched bank
robbery three months later.

[tense music]

Michel gets shot in the
head, but he survives.

After spending a week in a
coma, he's tried and convicted

and he returns to a
maximum security prison.

- And in perhaps the
strangest twist of this story,

after all the effort
that his wife put in

to learn how to
fly a helicopter,

to facilitate his escape, when
he is convicted yet again,

she divorces him a month later.

- Of course not every escapee

has a willing accomplice
with a helicopter,

so one Japanese prisoner
uses something much simpler.

[dramatic music]

- In the world of
prison escape artists,

few can compare
to Yoshie Shiratori.

He has earned the nickname
'The Man No Prison Can Hold.'

- In 1936, he is convicted

of a murder that he swears
that he didn't commit,

and then he is imprisoned
at the local penitentiary.

- His first escape is simple.

He uses the metal
handle of a wash bucket

to pick his cell lock.

Another time, he is locked up

in a narrow cell
with a skylight.

- Using shifting body weight,
he's able to sort of crab-walk

his way up the walls,
and he takes advantage of the

rotting wood around the skylight
to push it out, open it,

and make his escape.

- [Dan] After these escapes,
Yoshie is recaptured

and placed in a remote high
security prison in Hokkaido.

[tense music]

- They place him in
heavy iron shackles

that they claim only a
blacksmith could get out of.

- There is an
incredibly heavy door,

and the only way that
they can access his cell

is through a very small
section at the bottom

where they slide him his food.

- Each time he is
delivered his meal,

all the items delivered on the
food tray must be returned.

They're not leaving
anything to chance.

[dreary music]

- He's being fed every day
this very, very salty miso soup

that can sustain human life.

It's not very good, but
he finds another use for it.

- Yoshie starts
secretly putting drops

of this salty miso
soup in the locks,

on his wrist, and on his ankles,

and also on the lock on the
slot for his food in the door.

Yoshie is being pretty
brilliant here because,

the salt water will
cause iron to rust,

but it's a slow process.

- Yoshie's playing
the long game.

For weeks, he is spitting
droplets onto the shackles

and the lock on the food
tray slot of the door.

- Finally, on August 17th, 1944,

he gets the lock on
his shackles to break.

- [Dan] But the only way out

is through the tiny opening at
the bottom of his cell door.

- To fit through this
20-inch by 8-inch slot,

he does the unthinkable.

- He wedges and
contorts first his head

through the small opening,

and then he
intentionally dislocates

both of his shoulders,

wiggles and wriggles his
way through this

incredibly small opening
to the other side of the door.

Laying on the floor, he
resets both of his shoulders

and continues with his escape.

[tense music]

- After his third
escape from prison,

Yoshie hides in a mine for
two years to evade capture.

- But in his search for
food, he encounters a farmer.

In the farmer's field,
he stole a tomato

and he ends up stabbing
this farmer, killing him,

in an act that he
described as self-defense.

[suspenseful music]

- Yoshie is thrown right
back in prison again

for a fourth time.

But, 'The Man Who No Cell
Can Hold' again proves

his ability to escape a prison.

And again, he uses miso soup.

His prison cell
has a dirt floor.

He takes the cups from the
miso soup to dig a tunnel

through the floor and
out of the prison.

[suspenseful music]

- Yoshie will be in and out
of prison a couple more times

before eventually
receiving parole in 1961

for good behavior.

Helping his cause,
he used his wits,

not violence, to
commit his escapes.

- An escape in the heat of
battle usually means

there's no time to prepare.

That's exactly what
one Soviet pilot faces

during World War II.

[dramatic music]

- 6 months into Operation
Barbarossa one of the bloodiest

invasions in history,

when the Germans crossed
the Soviet border,

fighting is bitter.

[explosions booming]
[apprehensive music]

[gun firing]
[artillery firing]

There is a pilot by the name
of Lieutenant Kuznetsov.

He happens to be
on reconnaissance

when he's jumped
by several ME109s,

the best fighter, at the time,
that the Germans possess.

[gun firing]

He takes heavy fire and damage.

[gun firing]

And he's forced down in an
open field near a wooded area.

[tense music]
[crash banging]

- Now on the ground
in enemy territory,

Lieutenant Kuznetsov
realizes that his only hope

is to abandon the aircraft
and to hide in the wood line.

- [Dan] The area is
crawling with

German Wehrmacht and SS troops.

Kuznetsov's chances of
avoiding capture are near zero,

until fate intervenes

in a truly unbelievable way.

- As he's hiding in the woods,

he notices something
absolutely bizarre.

The German pilot
that shot him down

decides to land his
aircraft in the field

right next to Kuznetsov's
smoking plane.

[tense music]

He starts rummaging
through the cockpit.

Was he interested in
grabbing the intelligence

that may be on this
type of aircraft

or was he just trophy-seeking?

Either way, Kuznetsov
sees this as his moment.

- Lieutenant Kuznetsov
recognizes

that this German pilot is
extremely distracted

and also realizes
that the German pilot

left his aircraft running.

And he makes the bold call
to sprint from the tree line

to the German's aircraft, climbs
inside of it, and takes off

in the same airplane
that had just shot him down.

- The German pilot is
standing there in disbelief.

His own Messerschmitt
is taking off.

He's thinking, how the heck
am I gonna

explain this to my bosses?

- [Dan] Kuznetsov is not
out of the woods yet.

He's now flying an
enemy German aircraft

back to a Russian air base.

- Sure enough, anti-aircraft
fire and fighters attack him.

[tense music]
[anti-aircraft firing]

Of course he can't shoot back
because that's his own side.

And for the second
time that day,

poor old Kuznetsov is shot down.

[suspenseful music]

- And his day's still not over.

Obviously the Russian forces

are going to come
and investigate.

And to their surprise,

an individual gets out of that
aircraft in a Soviet uniform.

- He has escaped from the jaws
of the German war machine.

They give him the
highest award possible,

the Hero of the Soviet Union.

This guy epitomizes
the resistance.

[dramatic music]

- It's one thing
to steal a plane from

a distracted German pilot,

but how do you smuggle
15 tons of precious art

past the whole Third Reich?

- On August 25th, 1939, there's
something strange going on

after hours at
the Louvre museum.

[dramatic music]

- Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa,"

G�ricault's
"Raft of the Medusa,"

the 11-foot tall
"Winged Victory of Samothrace,"

thousands of masterworks

all being taken off their
pedestals and off the walls.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] It looks like the
biggest art heist in history.

But these people aren't
stealing these masterpieces.

They're saving them.

- The Nazis are about
to invade Poland,

and they know that
France is next.

[suspenseful music]

Failed artists Adolf Hitler
and his lackey, Hermann G�ring,

are art collectors,
they're art hoarders.

They're art thieves.

- If Hitler comes into Paris,

the Louvre will be one
of his primary targets.

- Deputy director of the
Louvre Jacques Jaujard

has concocted a plan.

He has decided that he's gonna

shut the museum
down for 72 hours

under the guise
of performing necessary repairs.

During those three days,

a massive escape
plan is executed.

[dramatic music]

Anyone who loves art
and can be trusted

comes on board to very
carefully pack away

the most massive and beautiful
art collection in the world.

- [Dan] In August of 1939,
the clock starts ticking.

- Jaujard needs
to be a logistician.

They get hundreds of trucks to
carry these priceless works out

to 70 different
locations, mainly castles.

Castles are hard to get to.

They have thick walls and
lots of hiding places.

- [Dan] When the Nazis
reach Paris in June of 1940,

they immediately
begin seizing assets.

- The German officer tasked
with looting the Louvre

on behalf of the Nazis
expects to find a full museum.

- What he's greeted
by are empty hallways

filled with frames that
have no paintings in them.

There's nothing there.

They have been duped.

- Jaujard is considered a hero.

His contribution to the
art world is immeasurable.

- After the war is over,
thousands of these pieces

are returned to the Louvre,
but they have all been part of

what is really one
of the greatest escapes

of the 20th century.

- [Dan] Jaujard is named the
Commander of the Legion of Honor

and awarded the Medal
of the Resistance.

Today at the Louvre, there's
an exit named for him

to serve as a reminder

of how he got the collection
out of there during the war

and back on the walls

of perhaps the world's
greatest museum.

- We've seen daring escapes that
require brutal physical feats,

like smashing through concrete
walls and dislocating joints.

But some astonishing plots
only require a costume change,

and of course, nerves of steel.

[dramatic music]

- It's 1716.

And William Maxwell,
the Earl of Nithsdale,

is currently being held
in the Tower of London.

He supported
the Jacobite rebellion,

and he was arrested for it.

As a consequence, he has
been branded a traitor

and he is scheduled
for execution.

Things are not
looking good for him.

- His wife the
Countess of Nithsdale,

has been trying to figure
out any and all ways

to get her husband
out of the tower.

She has begged and pleaded for
his life over and over again,

but unfortunately, no dice.

Now she knows she
has one last chance

to visit her husband
before his execution.

- The Countess of Nithsdale
arrives at the Tower of London

accompanied by two
of her lady friends,

Mrs. Morgan and Mrs. Mills.

When they arrive, the
Countess and her attendants

make a big show of their grief,

crying, sobbing, gnashing
of teeth, wailing.

This is not a genteel
display of emotion.

- And they are
so emotive about it

that it kind of makes the
guards there at the prison

really uncomfortable because
nobody wants to stare

at three aristocratic women
who are keening and wailing.

- [Dan] And this is exactly
what the Countess is counting on

as they're led to the Earl's
cell for their final goodbye.

- Countess' friends are not
just there for moral support.

They're here to aid in the plan
that's about to take place.

- [Holly] Mrs. Morgan
starts taking off her dress.

She is wearing two dresses
layered on top of one another.

She gives it to him so
that he can put it on,

and they give him this bonnet.

- But Lord Nithsdale has been
in prison for quite some time.

He's a little disheveled.

He's also a very large man.

How are Mrs. Morgan's
petty coats and bonnets

going to disguise him?

- And this is where
the next phase

of the escape plan begins.

- [Dan] The women take
turns leaving the cell,

hysterically begging the guards
to spare the Earl's life.

- This essentially
turns this plan

into sort of like a game
of 3-card monte,

where you don't know who's
coming in, who's coming out.

- [Dan] The hope is that
amidst all this confusion,

the guards won't notice
as all four exit the cell.

[suspenseful music]

- To buy them just
a little more time,

the Countess hangs back
and asked the guards

to give her husband a
little bit of privacy,

time to say his prayers and
make his peace with God,

ensuring the guards
wouldn't check the cell

while they made their escape.

- Miraculously, the
Nithsdales escaped to Rome

where they live with other
Brits in exile until 1740.

[dramatic music]

- The Countess is clearly
a mistress of deception,

but one of the greatest
escape artists of all time

isn't even human.

[dramatic music]

- It's the San Diego Zoo,
and it's February, 1971,

and we're meeting Ken Allen,
an orangutan named

after the zookeepers,
Ken Willingham and Ben Allen,

who saved the infant
when his mother orangutan

was about to smother him.

We don't know how that
trauma affects him,

but we do know that
he doesn't wanna spend

the rest of his life in a cage.

- Even when he is
still a baby orangutan,

he actually figures out how to
unscrew the gate on his cage

so he can just walk out.

- That's obviously a
cute trick as a baby,

but as he grows bigger and
potentially more dangerous,

he's eventually moved
to the orangutan exhibit

which is thought
to be escape-proof.

- [Dan] The key word
here being thought.

[people chattering and laughing]

- On June 13th, 1985,
zookeepers are shocked

because wandering around
the paths, like a tourist,

is a Bornean orangutan.

Ken Allen has escaped.

- [Zookeeper] Can everybody
back up that way please?

- There had never
been another orangutan

to escape from that
enclosure before,

so they're not sure
how he even got out.

- In 1985, camera
surveillance doesn't exist

like it does today,
so the zookeepers

are taking turns observing Ken.

Whenever the
zookeepers are around,

he doesn't try anything funny.

- Ken Allen is extremely smart.

He's very perceptive.

He knows he's being watched.

- A month later, Ken
Allen is found again

just moseying around the zoo.

And so they have to escort
him back to his pen again

with no resistance.

- So at this point,

the zookeepers are
getting kind of desperate.

They really have to figure out

how this orangutan
is getting loose.

- They go undercover in
the audience of the pen,

posing as tourists,

but Ken Allen sees
through their disguises.

- The zoo was forced
to spend about $45,000

to reinforce the security
on his holding pen.

And they actually hire
professional rock climbers

to identify any
potential footholds.

And then they sandblast
the whole thing

to make it perfectly smooth.

- [Dan] These new walls
might be tougher to climb,

but zookeepers soon find out

Ken Allen is more
than an escape artist.

He's a bad influence.

- Ken Allen stays
put for a few weeks

until somebody leaves a
crowbar in his enclosure.

Ken doesn't use it himself,

but he tosses it to another
orangutan named Vicki.

And Vicki uses that
crowbar to open a window

and let Ken Allen out.

- [Dan] Unable to prevent
Ken Allen's escape attempts,

they try a different strategy.

- They move some
female orangutans

into the adjacent enclosures.

He seems to like the company,

and he's less inclined to try
to get out and run around.

[suspenseful music]

- Ken Allen escapes 11 times,

thus bestowed upon him

the nickname Hairy
Houdini, H-A-I-R-Y.

- You can cage the orangutan,
but you can't cage his spirit.

We salute you, Hairy Houdini.

- Most escapes follow one rule,
get out as fast as you can.

But when freedom is
a thousand miles away,

it can take both time and an
incredible feat of acting.

[locomotive horn blaring]
[locomotive rumbling]

- It's December, 1848
in Macon, Georgia,

and a rich, white
southern plantation owner

takes his seat in the first
class section of a locomotive.

He's a real Southern dandy,

but it also looks like
he's had some misfortune.

His arm is in a sling.

It appears that he has
a bandage on his face.

Perhaps an accident befell him.

[dramatic music]

- Another rich white gentleman
sits right next to him

and looks him
squarely in the eye.

And then panic washes over him.

He's not what he appears to be.

- [Dan] He's not rich,
nor white, nor even male.

- Her name is Ellen Craft,

and she's a runaway
slave in disguise.

And the gentleman who
just sat down next to her,

she recognizes as a
friend of her owner.

But she can't be sure
if he recognizes her.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] Ellen and her husband
William, in the next car, have

been planning this daring and
complicated escape for years,

and it may be over before
they even make it out of town.

[suspenseful music]

- William and Ellen are in love.

And they know, if they have
children while enslaved,

that is the property
of their masters.

They could be sold at a whim.

Their only hope is to
find freedom in the north.

- So the plan is this.

Ellen, who is very fair skinned,

will dress up as a
white, male slave owner

and will transport
William as his property

up to the northern states.

Passing for a wealthy white man

during this period
of time is not easy.

Neither William or
Ellen can read or write

because it's illegal at the time

to teach slaves
even basic literacy.

To get around this, they
add a sling to Ellen's arm

so she can say it's broken

and she's unable to
sign hotel registries

or boarding passes.

- William and Ellen are trusted

by the family that owns them,

so they give William
and Ellen a written note

to travel three days
before Christmas.

Now that buys them some time

before they're actually
reported missing.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] But now,
boarding the first train,

they may already
be in big trouble,

with a friend of Ellen's owner
sitting right next to her.

- Ellen is fighting
back the urge to flee.

And just as she's trying
to figure out what to do,

this other gentleman leans
forward and says to her,

"It's a very fine
day, isn't it, sir?"

[tense music]

He has no idea who she is.

- She must be
incredibly relieved,

but there's still a problem.

What if he wants to
make conversation

throughout this journey?

He might recognize
Ellen's voice.

This could be a total disaster.

[suspenseful music]

She decides to feign being deaf.

The gentleman stops
trying to talk to her.

- [Dan] This is just the
first of many close calls

the Crafts have on their
1,000 mile journey.

- The slave holders
in Ellen's car

are perpetually telling her,
as you get further north,

the abolitionists are gonna
try to take your slave.

You shouldn't travel with
your slave this far north.

Meanwhile, in the
back of the car,

William is hearing
from abolitionists,

"Leave that cripple,
have your liberty."

Little does anyone know

that that's exactly
what they're doing.

- There's one close call

in which Ellen thanks
William for carrying her bags,

and is severely scolded
by other slaveholders,

who advise her that she must
show a constant firm hand

to her property.

[tense music]

- Imagine how difficult this
is for both William and Ellen.

They're completely separated
throughout this journey.

They don't know what
conversations each is having.

They don't know if the
other has been found out.

And there's so many
things that can go wrong.

- Baltimore, Maryland
is the last major stop

before free Pennsylvania,
and a suspicious railway officer

demands that both Ellen and
William get off the train

to show proof of ownership.

- This is documentation
that Ellen does not have.

She is panicking
trying to figure out

how to get out of this.

- As the railway officer is
continuing to demand the papers,

they're holding up the train.

Other passengers are
beginning to get upset.

Ellen summons all the
indignation she can

and demands that he has
no right to detain her.

[suspenseful music]

[locomotive horn blaring]
[locomotive bells ringing]

- The railway agent, in order
to not be further delayed,

just tells them,
"Get back on the train."

[inspiring music]

- They've now passed
the last major hurdle

on the road to freedom.

- The Crafts make it to freedom

in Philadelphia on
Christmas Day, 1848.

They eventually end
up in England

where they start a family.

But perhaps the most
unbelievable part of this escape

is that after the Civil War,

they returned to the very place
they fled, Macon, Georgia,

to establish a school
for newly freed slaves.

- During the long years of the
Cold War, America's leaders

ponder how to survive a nuclear
attack from the Soviet Union.

One answer lies hidden

inside a mountain in
rural Pennsylvania.

[tense music]

- When you get to the
entrance at Raven Rock,

it doesn't look like much.

There's a simple guard
shack and a fence.

[dramatic music]

But when you get through that,

you reach two
massive blast doors

protecting an
underground facility.

What's inside this facility
is functionally an escape plan

for the United
States government,

giving it a chance to survive

under the circumstances
of a nuclear war.

[explosion booming]

- The theory is that within
a few months or maybe years,

they can rebuild something

resembling the United States
government.

- Inside of this mountain,

they basically
built a small city.

There's electricity,
there's water,

there's a fire department,
a police department.

It has everything.

[tense music]

- [Dan] The extended
escape plan itself

is exceedingly detailed,

albeit a tad morbid.

- For starters, the post office

would no longer necessarily be

the agency for delivering mail.

The post office has
everybody's address.

They would now be the agency
designed to register the dead.

- The National Archives
have their own escape plan,

and they prioritize
key documents.

For example, the
Declaration of Independence gets

saved before the Constitution.

And you can imagine
the conversation.

"Leave the George Washington
Military Commission."

"We gotta go."

- While it is reassuring to know

that our government
provides a plan

for the continuity of
the American experience,

it's also a little bit chilling
to imagine that Raven Rock

can sustain about 5,000 people.

Where does everybody else go?

- Some escapes cannot
be so carefully planned.

For instance, when one
is unexpectedly trapped

in a medieval bathroom.

[eerie music]

- On the campus of
Cambridge University

is Queen's College,
which was founded in 1448.

It's built like the castles
and prisons of the era,

but it is also one of the
most prestigious schools

in the world.

- [Dan] Being a top tier
university, with thousands

trying to get in,

it's hard to imagine anyone
would want to escape.

- Research fellow
Dr. Krisztina Ilko

is a history scholar
residing in one of

Queen's College's
medieval era dorms.

[dramatic music]

- She gets the
distinction of staying

in the building that once housed

16th century philosopher
Desiderius Erasmus,

which for a history scholar
is pretty darn cool.

- [Dan] What happens next,
however, is decidedly not cool.

- Dr. Ilko is in the bathroom,
and there's a maintenance worker

who somehow engages the
outside lock on this ancient,

thick, wooden bathroom door.

[tense music]

She beats on the door.

she pushes on the door

to no avail.

[dramatic music]

- She's in the 21st century,
but without her phone,

without a way to access
the outside world,

she's stuck in a 15th
century windowless tower,

with no route for escape.

- She starts screaming,
but no one can hear her.

She starts to envision
the horrible headlines

that will appear
about how she died.

A scholar that starves
to death in a bathroom

is not how she wants
to be remembered.

[tense music]

- [Dan] As the hours pass,
she reflects on the hundreds

of texts she's read during a
lifetime steeped in academia.

There must be something in
her countless hours of study

that can help her here.

- And then it dawns on her.

The solution to this problem

is not gonna be
found in academia.

[rhythmic music]

- The thing that comes to
her mind in all of this

is a TV show that she used
to watch when she was a kid.

[upbeat music]

MacGyver could find his way
out of seemingly any situation

just by using whatever
tools were at hand.

- There it is right
in front of her,

an eyeliner and a Q-tip.

[dramatic music]

Dr. Ilko is no
mechanical engineer,

so she's not really
sure what she's doing.

But she's got nothing
if not persistence.

One hour, two hours, almost
four hours later, click, pop.

[lock clicking]

She MacGyvers her way out
of a 15th century bathroom

using just an
eyeliner and a Q-tip.

- Astonishing escapes require

many different things, perfect
disguises, weaponized fruit,

even a wife with a helicopter.

Whatever the method,

these daring escapes

are all truly unbelievable.

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