Original subtitles

Warning, what you're about to witness can be dangerous.

Attempting it can result in death.

Don't try this at home.

On this episode of Bully.

Now! If I'm wrong, call 911.

I wanted the first person to catch a bullet. No one has ever

attempted to do it for real. No way.

Absolutely impossible.

If we drop that speed too low, we hit him in the face instead of his head.

though it's his hand, a bullet can travel within his skin and hit something

vital.

Twelve people have died attempting to catch a bullet. We are going to attempt

really catch a bullet. No trickery.

Chris Angel, believe.

What's your name? I'm Forrest. Forrest.

I'm Jenny.

No, Forrest and Jenny, for real? Yeah.

To stay on my game, I make it a point to perform demonstrations anywhere,

anytime, in front of total strangers.

All right, I'm going to try something right now. Can I borrow that sheet over

there? I want you to, you're going to grab an N. I'm going to grab an N over

here. Just going to lay this out just like this. Now, Jenny, grab an N like

this. Just lay it down, right? Right on the floor there, just like this. Now

watch.

My God.

Jenny,

grab that end.

Hold the bottom end.

Hold the bottom down.

Come here, Dougie. I want you to cover her up for me. Come and cover her up.

Come here.

We're going to cover her up. Come on.

Come here, Jenny.

Put your hand. Everybody put your hand on her. Don't let go of her. Keep your

fingertips touching her. Watch.

Watch.

What the hell is going on?

What the hell is going on? What the hell is going on?

What the hell is going on?

What the hell is going on?

It was crazy.

Criss Angel walks up and makes this girl appear and levitate out of nowhere.

She just appeared. It was crazy.

That's how you do it. That was insane.

People don't get why I keep taking chances, but life is death without

What's up, guys? How are you? What's up?

How's it going? Death doesn't scare me.

Not living my life to the fullest does.

That's why I want to attempt to be the first person to catch a bullet for real.

No trickery, no bullshit.

What have you got for us today?

This is a good one. 12 people have died attempting to catch a bullet. And those

12 people, including the people that have been successful, have all used

trickery. Right. And they still lost their life.

No one has ever attempted to do it.

For real.

Chung Ling Su, I think he's the most famous example.

He had two barrels.

And one night there was like a powder block up in the real barrel. And that

ended up firing right into his chest.

Well, that's the thing. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

The typical bullet catch has always pretty much been the mouth. Because

using employing trickery, they also go, hey, can you sign the bullet? And then

afterward, oh, look, is that your signature?

If you shot a f***ing bullet, you can't make sense of the bullet anymore. You

would never be able to read the signature. It would be completely

the mere fact that somebody's asking it to be signed is saying that it's not

real. Does the science, does the physics support that being done

completely and utterly legitimately?

My first response, no.

A bullet can travel over 1 ,000 feet per second. And on top of that, Chris would

have to have lightning reflexes just to be able to catch it. This is really

dangerous. I want to look at the ballistics of it. Can we slow a bullet

Can you take a bullet right off the shelf and put it into a gun and fire it

catch it? No way.

Absolutely impossible.

That's what, 1 ,200 feet per second? Some are even more, depending on the

of round. The load of gunpowder you put in it, what all of that matters. But

it's like anything else we do. You take the laws of physics, you take the laws

of nature, and you bend those and you adjust those. John's absolutely right. I

think it's plausible, but it's still going to be very dangerous.

We're going to need some way.

That I could catch this thing and protect my hand.

Let's say we make a steel plate or whatever it is. Just a force. That's

don't know. What I would do is explore what they use in ranges to stop bullets.

Body armor and materials like Kevlar have been developed to stop a bullet if

soldier or law enforcement officer gets caught in the line of fire.

But as Chris's friend, the idea of him purposely putting his body in the path

a speeding bullet has me really concerned.

Chris, who's going to pull the trigger?

Maybe it's somebody that is a martial firearms handler.

Because there have been performers who weren't even doing a bullet catch or

shooting a movie, like Brandon Lee, who've been hurt with blanks. Yeah.

No live ammo anywhere.

We've got a lot of work ahead of us. First, we've got to figure out how to

the bullet down. We have to figure out how far away he needs to be from the gun

and still be accurate.

And then third, we've got to figure out what kind of safety equipment is even

available. We're reverse engineering what it is we want to accomplish.

We know what the goal is, and we're trying to figure out, working in

how to get there. We have to take one thing at a time, and we have to look at

solution to the challenges and to the problems.

We know what we need to do. What makes me different from the 12 people who died

trying to make this attempt is, one, my team, two, time, and three, the

technology and science to make this possible.

You know what you have to do. I got to go, guys.

This demonstration features a 9 -millimeter round fired from a rifle.

Chris Angel will stand down Ray.

The bullet will travel through a pane of glass.

Category of magic, superhuman.

But this demonstration will be firing live rounds outdoors in front of a live

audience. Before I go too far down the path and invest money in research, I

to make sure that this demonstration will be able to be pulled off legally,

at all.

Hey.

Come on in. Chris Angel here. Hey. Hey, Chris. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet

you. Thank you so much for having me here. Why don't you just grab a chair

let's talk about this.

So I wanted to attempt to be the first person to catch a bullet without

trickery. I know Chris is a magician, and he does a lot of great illusions,

catching a bullet, a real bullet, you know, that could be fatal. Have you even

thought about what type of weapon you would use or what type of bullet yet? We

did some preliminary research, and we're trying to use potentially like a 9mm

round, but not make it such a hot load.

Sounds like Chris has done his due diligence in this.

And technically, it's not illegal what he's doing.

So I can provide my support by making mistakes as possible in this attempt.

So I think first and foremost, we can, you know, assist you in being safe. That

might even be something maybe to sink the equipment for you. The most

thing is you have to develop a mindset and a focus.

It's going to be important to even have to do something like this.

So what I think is I have a special unit.

SWAT team, very professional, highly trained.

And I think if you hang out with them, you will develop that focus. But I think

it's going to be pretty important to do something like this. I am absolutely, I

think I'm going to wake up. And this is just a dream. This is absolutely

amazing. The chief giving me his blessing is a major step in the right

direction. Not only will I be able to train with the SWAT team, his team will

help John and Doug figure out how I can do this demonstration without getting

killed. So thank you so very much. This is amazing.

Oh, no, thank you.

This is crazy.

Can I open it? Yes, go for it.

Look. What I'm going to do is deal with reality.

We have two cans that are literally in line with each other. True?

They're in line with each other. Now, this is what we're going to try to do.

going to cover each one up just like that.

I'm going to move the orange one up so you can see it's the orange one here.

color one's here. Let's crop them like this.

Where's the orange?

Right there.

Now watch, watch, watch, watch. Now I'm going to do it again. I'm going to do it

again. I'm going to do it really slowly for you. Watch.

Really slowly. Now watch. I'm going to do the reverse, right?

Now where's the orange?

Here.

Orange is here.

Orange is here. Exactly.

The color is here. Now watch. I'm going to do it really, really fast. Watch.

It's done.

You see that? Look.

And I want you to see what gets really

crazy though.

What gets really, really crazy is what?

I'm going to play with your perspective.

You were drinking orange. That's what you wanted.

You would drink the cola with it. Now watch.

Hold that in your hand.

Hold that in your hand. Hold that in your hand.

Just like that.

If you feel your hand get warm, let me know.

The

orange

is now cola.

Look, I want you to see. This is steel. This is steel. Look. This is steel.

Look. Look.

Steel.

And the clue is on.

It's crazy.

Criss Angel is awesome, fine.

Yeah. All that. And he's so real.

Coming up.

It is unbelievable.

Even though it's his hand, a bullet can travel within the skin and hit something

vital. Boom.

Boom.

I got some riot gear here.

Sorry about that.

Yeah,

that was close. You almost got me right in the hand.

It didn't hurt.

Technology has consumed our lives with a false world of reality which inspired

this real world perspective that just might change how you look at things.

Want to see the magic reveal?

It appears I'm in a wooden trunk, but in reality, I'm hiding behind a miniature

one. It looks like a hoop is passing through a solid triangle, but there's no

triangle. This chair is not what it seems. It's actually a miniature.

Next, I pour wine into a giant glass that is far away, so it appears to be

normal size.

The sign reality is perfected is just a cover.

I'm covering the view of the trunk to switch to real lid with the miniature

Nothing as it seems.

We know the weight.

We know the distance.

We know the speed.

We can calculate whatever we need to calculate.

There's ballistic calculators out there that you can enter your bullet weight.

Distance. I'm here to help John record the optimal distance between the shooter

and the target. What's like the highest force that he can catch it at and be

like safe?

We don't know. We don't know yet. We drop that speed too low.

When there's our accuracy, we hit him in the face instead of the head.

We keep that speed too high.

They go right through his hand.

So that's what we're trying to find out. Accuracy is going to be a major concern

in this demonstration.

By reducing the amount of gunpowder behind the round, we can effectively

down without blowing it right through Chris's hand. As we start to lower the

pressure that's behind this slug, we have to aim

a little higher.

Oh, okay.

So we're trying to get this thing to come slow enough.

that it's not going to go through his hand.

And because of that, now we're having to aim, you know, and that's what we're

working on now is trying to find that aim. Since we're slowing the bullet

we're going to have to adjust our aim to compensate. And when we do this

outside, heat and wind can become a major factor.

The margin for error on this is really zero.

Fire in the hole.

Here.

Wait.

I'm having a hard time seeing it, so he may be in front of it.

Getting hit with his hands is going to close.

Well, that's what I'm counting on because... Provided we aim it in here.

Okay. These two would have completely missed if I was holding my hand that

Now, if I had his whole hand like that and that hit my wrist, I mean, right now

he's only plated for here.

That would definitely break your skin and go into you. One of our biggest

is it missed the plate and hits the seam between the plate and go right through

his hand.

We're finding that Chris really needs to stay still. If he moves an inch or two

in any direction, not only could he fail, but he could sustain major

his wrist and arteries.

My goal is to become the first person to catch a speeding bullet and survive.

The demonstration will be physical and mental. And the chief of police?

to set me up with the SWAT team to actually train in the gear I'll be

Even cooler, it's been a lifelong dream of mine to ride a police bike, and he

let me roll to the secret location on his.

I cannot believe that we have access to your training facility here. I know this

is something that you typically don't do.

And I just want to tell you that I'm honored.

Let's get started. This looks amazing.

We've got some cool things planned. I'll turn you over to Mike.

You ready for this? We're going to get you ready for that bullet catch. Let's

it, Lieutenant. Thank you so much.

And get out of the street, but I can't put a bull's professor.

Hup! Stand by.

Hup!

Hup!

Firing this gun, you have to focus on that target right in front of you, and

nothing else exists around you.

It's 110 degrees outside, and in this gear, it feels like 130.

So holding perfectly still to catch a bullet will be a major challenge.

In your job, what percentage would you equate to mental, and what would you

equate to physical?

95 % mental.

We're going to simulate that we're on a vehicle barricade with a hostage. The

only way to safely resolve the situation is to take out the hostage taker. Stand

by. Three, two, one, fire.

Gear one, shot out. Copy, gear one, shot out.

To be this precise, Sniper sees what's called combat breathing, which is

basically taking four seconds to breathe in and another four seconds to breathe

out. I'm thinking this form of breath control is definitely something I'll be

able to use when it's me on the other end of the gun.

That's amazing.

From 136 yards.

Wow. Coming up.

They're in front of the laser tracked onto your palm. And then it's like, oh,

what did I get myself into?

With over

1100 demonstrations I have under my belt, the number one thing I get asked

is to levitate.

There's no better place to do this demonstration than outside in front of

who have no idea what to expect.

Gather around. Gather around. You can go anywhere you want. I want you to see

it, though, 360 degrees and around.

Everything's fair.

All right.

I saw absolutely everything.

Criss Angel was just, like, levitating, like, out of nowhere.

It was, like, unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

It was fantastic.

My friends back at home are not going to believe it when I tell them what's

happened today.

What the hell is going on?

Did we get the glove in?

We got the glove.

Awesome. So this is all the padding that they have on it, about a quarter inch,

real thick, almost like a very dense neoprene. And that's going to cushion

Obviously, it's got to protect my hand, but I just want to make sure that the

round will get embedded anywhere on that glove.

Chris wants to be the first person in history to catch a bullet and survive.

The guys at SWAT have sent over ballistic materials to work with, and

building a protective glove to give Chris enough flex to catch the bullet,

enough thickness to stop it. Right now I'm manufacturing a steel plate.

Is that what they spec'd out? Exactly, yes. These are off the specs they gave

us. So I'm going to shape this, and this steel plate is going to get attached to

all of this foam here. This is just a model that I made up to see if it would

fit on there. So that's going to be there. There'll be another one here.

You know, like, it happens so fast.

Yes. The moment that you actually hear it, it's over. Yeah, it's done. It's

me. It's like I have to see, can I actually close my hand before, like, you

hear that sound, which then gets me concerned for the back of my fingers. So

there protection on the back? That's also going to get another steel plate on

well. Now we've made another one that's going to go here.

You know, you've got protection here and just hopefully, you know, nothing

enters here or here. It seems like Doug has it under control. But looking at the

glove, I keep thinking about those 12 people who died trying this. I have to

remind myself that I have the team, the time and the technology to get this

demonstration right. The whole key is, is that they don't slow down the round

much that it starts to change.

because then you get direction you know what i mean because then that becomes

very dangerous we'll make

something so that literally you'll just begin to materialize taboo and i have

been friends for years we actually collaborate on some music together and

now i'm helping him out with some effects for a solo tour for the taboo

experience this will be man people will freaking bug out This is what we need.

This is exactly what I need to take it to the next level. Well, this is what

we're going to do. The Magic Factory is normally not open to the public, but

we've got some contest winners here whose prize was a tour of the factory.

And they're about to get more than they bargained for. You're all here on a very

special day because I have Tabu, who has his new tour going out, the Tabu

Experience. We're working on some material, but since you're here, I'm

do something special for you. Come over here. Check this out. Hello.

All right, just come over here.

You know what?

Let's try something, Tabu. Now, honestly, be completely on God as your

We have not set anything up, right?

No. Check this out. I have a paper here. I want you to pick a word on the page,

and I want you just to focus in on that word and just get it in your mind. All

right. Do you have a word? Yes, sir. All right, Tabu. This is me getting inside.

You're ahead, okay?

I'm just going to come from the top.

I want you to see the word.

Starting from here, look at me.

Here's the first letter.

And we're going to go this way. Second letter, third letter, fourth letter,

whatever it is, okay? Yep. I want you to see it.

There's an A right here, isn't there?

There's an A.

Do it again, please.

An A right here, right? Yes, sir.

An E over here, right?

Yeah. Are you absolutely thinking of Blaine right now?

Blaine, is that it?

Yeah, that's it. Put this down.

Watch, watch, watch.

Yeah, watch.

Yeah, watch.

I want you to focus. I want you to just completely focus.

Immerse yourself on that paper right there.

Imagine it materializing into that word.

Focus everything as if you're going to burn away

your sins.

Oh my, this angel brings the heat again.

Not only is this guy a genius when it comes to the art form, he's the greatest

on the planet, and I'm just a big fan, and I'm glad that he's one of my

brothers.

My hat's off to him.

That was amazing.

12 people have lost their life trying to catch a bullet.

If you're lucky in your career, opportunities align themselves in a way

be historic.

We don't know the outcome, but we're going to know very shortly if this hand

catch a bullet.

Bullet catch is going to be part focus and part physics.

Right now, I'm here with my friend Randy Couture. I will attempt a demonstration

that will truly test my focus.

I want you to examine it. I mean, honestly.

Wow.

It's one of the sharpest knives that they manufacture.

You can slice it if you want. See for yourself.

Fair? Honestly, right? It's sharp.

This will go right through you. We made a little stand for it. What I'm going to

do is I'm going to take, give me four cups out of there, please.

You're going to hide this under one of the cups. Okay. And I'm going to take my

boot off and I'm going to smash the cup.

I'm going to try to use what's called hellstromism, muscle reading. You're

to touch my shoulder and I'm going to determine where the knife is by how you

react to me. But I don't want you to tell me where it is with how you push or

pull on me. I want you to try to fool me.

All right. So if I'm wrong.

Call 911.

Stitches, yeah. Yeah, I think it could be worse.

Yeah,

it could be pretty bad.

Hellstromism is a technique that you can employ to get information from somebody

through body contact.

I'll be able to read his involuntary body movement to determine which cup the

knife is under.

So what we're going to do is I'm going to put this down, and you pick whoever

you'd like, somebody that maybe trains here or whatever.

That you want, that you trust to assure you that I'm not getting any

information, that no one's telling me anything in my ears, I have nothing in

ears, right?

Fair? Okay.

Okay? Yeah. All right, so pick somebody you want. Mike.

Yes. Be our blindfold.

All right, Mike, I'm going to come over here.

Come over here, Mike.

What I want you to do is I want you just to, my eyes are closed, right? Right.

Is that fair?

Yeah. I'm going to keep my eyes closed.

And I want, Randy, whenever you want, I'm not facing you, I'm facing Mike.

I want you just to take the knife, hide it under one of the cups, whatever cup

you'd like.

And then when you're done, just let me know so I can turn around. I'll keep my

eyes closed.

Okay. You done? Yep. Okay, look, my eyes are still closed.

I'm going to look down because I don't want you to think that I'm looking at

camera or I'm looking at anybody. I want you to see that it's there.

I'm going to remove one of my shoes here.

You're going to come over here. Are you a righty? Yes, you are. I'm a righty.

Yes. You're going to hold my right shoulder just like this.

Now, what I want you to do is I want you to try to throw me.

You were going to do it for a second.

I thought you were going to step on it for a second.

You know, you don't want to see a guy stomp on a knife standing on a stand

that. So I'm sure that my pulse rate probably went up as his foot went over

cup. And he's probably in tune enough with his subconscious that he picks up

some information that the average person doesn't pick up. So pretty remarkable.

Put my best poker face on, but obviously it wasn't good enough. He figured it

out. You gave me a little tough, tough time. Yeah.

The police chief has offered up his SWAT training facility as a location for the

demonstration, which is really, really cool.

Now we're at their indoor range to meet with weapons specialist and Desert Storm

veteran Scott Grimes. All right.

This is the thinnest, most minimal layer of protection right now. It will give

you the greatest flexibility.

It gives you the most mobility and flexibility of reaction.

I don't think that's going to work, but let's try it. Let's see what happens,

okay?

So, John, there'll probably be about eight versions of this glove?

Yes, this is most likely the worst -case scenario.

Okay. Hot round, thin plate. Okay. Not only do we have to determine the optimal

thickness of the glove, now that we've reduced the amount of gunpowder in the

9mm round, we have to determine that exact distance between the glove and the

gun to ensure accuracy.

Here we go. We're going hot. Cover your ears. Test one.

Version one. Here we go.

One, two, three.

Clear.

Weapons clear.

Are we clear?

We are clear.

That's like the heart of my palm right there.

Good shot.

Wait,

wait, wait. Look at the back.

Went right through it.

Well, we obviously have a long ways to go.

No, this is why we're doing this.

So we got to go up.

I mean, a drastic difference, which now we have to look at.

What my mobility will be like. Yeah, are you going to be able to even close your

hands? This first glove would have obviously sent me to the emergency room.

And that's why we do so many stringent tests. And we'll keep doing this process

until we have success.

And then we'll retest and test again before we move on to the next obstacle.

Fire in the hole.

All right, stand by.

All right, everybody.

One, two.

Well, it dented it.

It barely dented it, though.

All right, let me go up there and do it once. This demonstration is going to be

as much mental as it is physical.

I'm going to have the gun loaded with one of SWAT's rubber bullets to prepare

for making this attempt with an actual 9mm round.

Ready? Ready.

I'm rounding my hand right now. You want me to go ahead and load?

Everybody.

One.

Two.

Looking at the playback from our slow motion camera, I can see that my

even a little bit at the sound of the gun firing is enough to make me miss the

bullet. It's going to be very important for me to keep perfectly still.

Cool. All right.

Cool. Thank you, guys.

Thank you very much.

Coming up. Tall people have lost their life trying to catch a bullet.

Today, I hope to become the first person in history to catch a speeding bullet

and survive.

Twelve others have died attending this, thanks to my team, the Anderson Police

Chief, and the members of the SWAT team.

I'm prepared as I'll ever be to make this attempt.

It's really hot. How hot is it? It's 110.

It's 110?

Yeah.

110. And with this outfit on?

It's so hot out here that my cameraman has already passed out.

The heat will definitely make this demonstration way more challenging for

It's going to dent it just a little bit. That's where you get the padding.

I'm trying to get my little dent.

Three, two.

Chris is about to attempt to become the first person to actually catch a bullet

and survive.

Now it's up to Chris whether he wants to make history.

So people have lost their life from trying to catch a bullet and they use

trickery. We've broken down the science of this and worked with ballistics

experts and we are going to attempt to do what has never been done is to really

catch a bullet.

No trickery. So thank you so very much to all of you who are helping me do this

and to all of you who protect me. Thank you so much.

Even though it's his hand, a bullet can travel within the skin and, you know,

hit something vital.

To attempt to catch a bullet to some might seem like a death wish. But for

it's about raising the stakes and doing something that no one else has been able

to accomplish.

I'm going to make as many attempts as needed to not have this be a waste of

and effort for everyone.

Are we ready to go?

Yes.

Chris is suited up, and the pane of glass is positioned in front of him to

the laser more visible so he can align his hand with it. Everybody ready?

On hot!

He has to be feeling about 120.

There's like 100 pounds of armor on him.

It's all black.

Ready? Three, two, one.

You missed it?

I did not catch it. You missed it.

Are we ready to go again?

All right.

come on in trying to get a laser hold on a little more to the left on your left

your left yeah around there down down down right there that's it you're dead

dead on buddy hold it right there all right everybody there it is okay i

see it all right going hot

I think everything's getting hot. Maybe the heat's affecting the barrel.

Every time we've rehearsed this, it's been inside.

So it's affecting the trajectory of our rounds.

That's still reliable.

Higher to the left. If I miss it, if I get it.

So it's going to be a little bit further out.

That's it.

You're dead on.

Dead on, buddy. Hold it right there.

Okay. Three, two.

Check it out. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

I can't get to it. You okay?

You got it? She did it, man!

See that?

You saw it for yourself, honestly.

Unbelievable.

We have just made history.

Don't lose it. I'm putting this in the lobby.

When Chris first brought this to me, I got to tell you, I thought he was a

little crazy.

Very dangerous.

And, you know, I was truly amazed by what he did today.

I didn't believe it could be done.

It's amazing that we were able to deconstruct the science of this

and be the first to do it for real.