Original subtitles

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 Believe.

Great to see you. Come on in.

It's an honor.

One million dollars.

Transform it into a bird.

I want to be the first person to escape from a medieval torture device while

suspended high in the air above a pit of hungry alligators. You slip, you're

done. That's it. What the f*** am I thinking?

If I don't do this fast enough, I have all of that weight bared on my neck. If

fall in there, I'm done.

If you fall in there, there is nothing that anybody can possibly do to get you

out.

Chris Angel, Believe.

I don't think you've been back here before, have you? I don't think so.

Well, Chris is going to be thrilled to see you. Right this way. I've been

performing Believe for five years, and you never know who's going to walk

through the door. Thank you so very much. Thank you so much.

Great to see you. Come on in.

Come on in.

Wow. People don't know that you are a big magic buff. Yes, I am. Yeah.

I'm going to do something real simple because I know you've got limited time,

and I appreciate you doing it.

I didn't know if I could use your cell phone, but I'm looking for a phone to

show you something. Personal phone? Yes.

Great. Okay. Thank you. I'm freaking nervous. I never get nervous either.

we go. Check this out.

Chris, this is amazing.

Thank you.

Enjoy that? Too much.

This is too much. Here's a little bit more.

Watch the phone.

Check it out.

We're going to take it to another level right now with a picture.

Drop the phone into the pitcher.

If you just put your hand out like this, you're going to hold on to the pitcher.

I want everybody to see that you can just turn just like that. Great.

Keep your finger right above so your plate doesn't fall.

Take the phone and take the phone. This is incredible.

You want to see one last thing?

Sure. Hold it in your right hand between your thumb and index finger for me.

All right. Like this? Yeah, just perfect.

Now check this out. Watch.

It looks like you have a phone call.

It's a message.

Well, maybe I can't say that.

Well, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Always. Amazing is my favorite word for you. Oh, well, it's an honor. And I'm so

delighted that you chose to come see me. Thank you so very much. I wouldn't have

it any other way.

Be good, Chris. All right. We'll see you always.

All right.

Magic has been my life since I was six years old. I sleep, breathe, and dream

it. Hey man, how are you? How are you?

I'm always excited to present new challenges to my team.

We got a lot to talk about guys, alright, and gal.

We are going to be doing something in this demonstration that I've never done,

nor has anybody ever done.

I saw a picture that was very engaging to me.

This image is like, you know, this medieval torture device that Clevador,

Houdini's rival, his nemesis, back in the day, early 1900s,

devised this torture device to escape, to one -up Houdini, except

no one ever got out of this thing. That looks painful.

It looks insane.

And the concept is that you have to pick your way out.

I think I can maybe be the first person to do this.

So my question is this, because it looks complicated and complex. How many locks

are you thinking to have on this thing? The original one, I believe, had two.

One on this side and then one down by the right side of the foot.

It's like being hog pot, but being held up in the air. I was working in Mexico

City and they had an exhibition of medieval torture devices.

And I think we can take and kind of tweak that and go in that direction.

Dark wood and steel and metal, and it was really kind of creepy. I think it's

just a device. We just show people how I'm doing it. I'm picking my way out.

Chris has been picking lots since he was 12 years old, so picking one or two

lots normally wouldn't be a challenge. But picking multiple lots while hanging

from the head and neck would definitely put those skills and Chris's ability to

focus and withstand pain to the test.

Maybe I can hang over something again, raising up the stakes.

You know, because how do you get out of that? Do you release your hands?

But then, like, what do you grab onto?

So why not fall into something that would kill me?

Like spikes? That's too magic -y.

Sharks? That's dangerous.

What if it's, like, lions or tigers? I think we do something, like, crazy.

We should do something like an alligator.

Alligator.

Alligators have a bite force of over 3 ,000 pounds.

That's more than any animal in the whole world.

Now, if Chris wants to perform this escape over something dangerous that'll

him, alligators are the perfect choice.

Because, like, sharks, when you put chum and everything, they go crazy. You

become human chum.

I think that's the idea. I think that's actually a great idea. If maybe we pour

some type of blood, I don't know what they feed them.

But we're talking about...

Alligators, dude. We're not talking about... Yeah, and what are we talking

with everything else that we're doing? Yeah, I know. Everything. This is

I mean, you slip. You're done.

That's it.

I mean, why are we making mountains of oil?

Until we know what the issues are, why are we making issues out of anything?

Let's relax, take a deep breath, and figure it out.

What we got to do is two things.

We got to make up a mock -up. Just something I can get into to see, number

is that physically possible to be hanging there for any duration of time

can physically pick my way out?

and how many locks that will be.

Secondly, very important, talking about alligators, none of us are an expert

alligator. We need to bring in an expert consultant.

And we've got to figure out where we're going to find all of these alligators. I

know, but that's... Let me see you. Let me see you, man. Spiro.

Here you go. All right, guys. All right. This demonstration features a medieval

torture device, ankle restraints, multiple padlocks.

Chris will be suspended from a crane over a pit of alligators.

Category of magic, escape.

Hey,

how are you? Oh my God, how are you?

That's the one that just worked. That's the witch.

I was wishing that I was going to meet you all right now.

I had a vision of this.

Do you mind if I try something with you right now? I'm always, you know, kind of

chilling and trying things with just people. You're throwing pennies in

Do you have any quarters? Do you have any quarters?

Who has a quarter?

Anybody? You have a quarter? Is it all right if I reach in there? I want you to

see at home what's in there. Look, we have a penny, a couple pennies, a dime,

and a quarter. You know what? I'm going to go big. I'm going to take the

quarter, okay?

Now check it out.

And anybody have a pen?

A pen.

You have a pencil, okay.

An artist?

Something like that. Yeah?

Cool.

Check this out.

I want you to see that you can actually see on both sides.

Completely goes right through the quarter.

Now, do me a favor. Come here, man.

Come here. I want you to pull your shirt out. Just pull it out with both your

hands, just like that.

Now, look, this is where it gets really, really kind of trippy. Not only does

the pencil go through the quarter, but watch.

When we take it out, look, look, look, look. Here, take that. Take it.

Take that.

Watch.

You see that? Watch the hole. Watch the hole. Watch the hole.

Watch the hole. It's going to mend itself.

I don't know how he did it. It just went right back together. It was no TV magic

or whatever you guys want to call it. It was real.

You know what? Make a wish with it.

Oh, my God.

Coming up.

If I phone it, I'm done.

That's really crazy.

To be suspended above a bunch of alligators. I could totally see myself

something like this.

Really? Can you find yourself doing something like that? Wait, what's that?

don't think you would want to do that.

If he gets that caught in his neck, that's going to freaking hurt him. I

know. Chris has a wild idea to attempt an escape where he'll be locked in a

medieval torture device, covered in blood, and dangled from a crane over a

of alligators. Now, the backside, we're just going to keep this. That just stays

in there?

Exactly.

We don't know if this is too far for him to reach.

You've got to try and get all the way over here. It's really too impossible.

John's designed the stockade based on the only reference photo we have, and

built it out of solid mahogany. It'll be heavy, but our goal is to be as

historically accurate as possible.

You know, from here to here, it's tough, but if he's able to do that, maybe.

It's about custom fitting it.

Yeah, we don't want it that high, Doug.

A little lower? We want to go more for the straight squat. When he's in, he's

going to tend to want to do this.

Yeah, there's going to be a lot of pressure on it.

All of your weight on this next arcade is here.

It's literally choking you.

I hope they have this.

What is it?

I want to know, this feathered face thing.

Oh, what? It's a type of bird mask.

I first met Kristen at Lance Burton's house after she won the National Junior

Magic Competition.

I'm grooming Kristen to perform in my brand new live tour, Whimsical.

But first, you have to understand the process.

There's no difference between street and stage.

Hi, how are you today? All right.

Good. How are you? Good. What can I help you find today? I am looking for and

heard that you had like a bird face or something.

Sure. All of our masks are going to be right in this area. These are all of our

Venetian half masks. Oh, I see.

Do you have that white one?

Uh -huh. It's cool.

Looks good. If it was like a full face.

Okay. Do you have it like in a full face? I don't have one in stock. I can

definitely custom order one. You can?

Can I see that one? Yeah, for sure.

Real quick. Yeah, this one's really cool. No, this one I was thinking for

Belize show. What? You know, have a mask, boom.

And then I could transform it into a bird just like that. Just like that.

just like that. That's awesome.

And I handed him the mask, and it turned into a bird right in front of my eyes.

You just never know what's going to happen.

I pulled some crazy locations out of my ass working for Critic.

But a pit of hungry alligators is not something anyone's going to find here in

Las Vegas. Look at the alligator farm here.

Is that where all the alligators are? Right in that pit there.

But we got this cool guy. His name is Jeremy. He's like the alligator handler.

He's like one of the best handlers in the country.

Usually it's Bureau running around last minute, but I got to hand it to him.

He's already got his job done.

I don't even have the padlocks yet.

All right, dude. All right.

This place that I found in Florida has 250 alligators and enough space for the

crane where Chris is going to suspend himself from.

Unfortunately, the only time they can accommodate us is in two weeks. And

going to light a fire under John and Doug to dial in and test their medieval

poacher device.

Hi. Good, how are you? How are you?

Awesome. You got your cookies? Yeah.

Not only is Jesse an amazing researcher, but he definitely knows his food.

Hi, how are you?

What's up? Hi.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Very kind of you. Thank you. Where are you from?

We're from England. Hi, nice to meet you.

Hi, how are you?

Can you show us something?

I can make a cookie disappear.

There you go. Okay, Jeff. Whenever I'm out, people always want to see me do

something. So I do my best to deliver.

All right, I'm going to try something.

I'm going to try something. All right, let's try something.

I'm going to try something with your salt and your pepper, all right? So what

we're going to do, and just real quick, pause.

Okay, I take the salt and pepper and integrate it.

About 50 -50 each, yeah?

The crazy thing is when I mix it all together like this, now, if your girl

doesn't like salt, You don't have to be here with a tweezer all freaking night

trying to pick each grain of pepper out, yes?

But you can see it's all integrated. Is that fair?

It's good to me. It's fair.

All right. I have an interesting concept.

Instead of doing it physically, can I do it mentally?

I want you to take your right hand and just open it up. Just open it up, and

you're going to place it literally right on top of the pile like this. Good.

Now watch.

You're going to feel your hand get warm.

Tell me when you feel your hand get warm.

It's getting warm now.

It's getting warm.

Watch.

No way.

Now, move your hand.

Look, look, look, look.

There's the sapper, and there's the dog.

I got to run. Thank you so much. Come on.

We got to go.

I got a cookie.

Cool. Cheers.

He got my hand, put it on top, and my hand got really warm.

I don't know how it happened, but the pepper came through the table. It just

went right through.

I was like right there. I don't know how he did it.

Most magicians don't want you to see behind them. You know, you're on stage

they don't want you to see certain angles. But he was right there. You

everything. There was nothing to hide. It was right there. Pure magic.

Like, amazing.

Coming up.

I have to whip through this as quickly as possible. Or I'll hang myself.

As an 11 -year -old kid, Houdini worked for a locksmith.

That's how he was able to acquire the skill set to be able to escape many of

demonstrations he did later in life.

I'm going to give you a very beginner's crash course, okay?

Jesse just picked up the locks from the hardware store that I'll be using for my

escape. I know he has an interest in understanding how to pick a lock, so I'm

going to share a basic method with him. Every lock has a series of pins.

When you put a key in there, it pops the pins up. But when you're working with a

pick in the beginning form, you need something to create leverage and torque

that you can constantly keep pressure on the pins that you're pushing up.

Now, if you notice, I put this little leverage, a little wrench, if you will,

toward the bottom. I take my pick.

You see the little point there, this little curve?

Yeah. What I'm going to do is I'm going to take that, and I'm going to take each

pin that's in this lock, and I'm going to push it down.

Put some pressure with my little wrench here, creating torque so that the pins

don't fall back down. Now look, I just did it. You see, now you can spin this

open like this, and the lock will open right up. Whoa, that's awesome. Just

that. What's complicated is I'm not going to be able to have two hands free

you know, to have my little wrench. And it's basically, I have to create

leverage and pick my way through each pin at the same time using one tool.

So if I don't do this fast enough, I have all of that weight being bared on

neck, on my chin.

And so I have to whip through this as quickly as possible.

Wow. I'll hang myself.

Yeah, I'll hang myself.

So good luck and see if you can pick that and see how long it takes you.

They're just going to get a hinge on the backside.

Hinge on the backside. And a half spin in this lock in the front.

But for the fitting, because we don't know if this is too far for him to

Prince has challenged himself to escape from a medieval torture device that

Houdini's rival, Clevedore, designed as a way to one -up Houdini.

The other part of this equation is this guy. The question is, when he has these

in here, it's massively heavy.

It's ridiculous. It may be a big problem.

The build for this demonstration is complex to begin with, and it doesn't

that Spiro has backed us into a date less than two weeks away in Florida. You

know, normally we'd have four weeks to develop an escape like this, so we'll

need to fast -track production without compromising Chris's safety.

Here he comes now.

Hi.

How are you?

Good, man. How's it going? I know John and Doug haven't had a lot of time to

really work out the stockade, but it's putting me in a tough situation because

need to rehearse the thing.

before it needs to ship to Florida.

So how does that lock work?

We're going to drill a hole and put a lock in right here. The lock over here?

And the whole chain.

You can't push me back because I'm going to fall.

Seeing Chris in this thing for the first time as his friend, I know it's kind of

sadistic, but from a design standpoint, it's beautiful.

I want this escape to really depict that photo of Clevador.

Now that I'm in this thing, I see how incredibly stressful it is on the body

why Clevador failed and why Houdini never even attempted it.

Now, can you reach your left wrist with your right hand right now?

Come down.

Come down. Down.

Stop. Stop, stop, stop.

The most pain is right here. I don't know. Your thighs.

He's carrying a lot of load here, too.

Well, I think it is.

Yeah.

Mouthpiece. I'm going to bite down on my teeth.

You've got to, at one point, let go with one of your hands.

How do I get my hand out? You've got to pick this lock.

No, he doesn't pick that lock. It's the hasp. It's the hasp. It's the hasp right

here. You are prying the hasp loose so all the screws and bolts come out, and

the lock is still there for the first look.

And it's a one -handed pick.

I think I've got to pick it.

But then you pick this one, and then you pick that one. No, I'm going to pick

them all. And then you pick this one and this one.

You're going to have to pick them all.

To make the demonstration even more challenging for himself, Chris has taken

Clevador's original two -lock configuration and upped the ante to

People are going to think, oh, that's fake.

But if I'm showing that I'm just picking it like I normally do in this crazy

balance, holding my weight scenario, then it really is a challenge for me, a

challenge that I've never attempted.

This demonstration is challenging my physical condition, and I just hope.

that I can escape before I'm choked out. All right, let's go.

Hey, how are you?

I'm good, thank you. Good. How are you?

Hi. Hi.

How are you? The Magic Factory is normally not open to the public. Come

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

Come on over.

I need somebody to go behind me, okay?

I want you to see a stare.

As a student of human behavior, it gives me the opportunity not only to blow

people's minds, but to bring out the wonderment when they see something they

can't comprehend.

In my first attempt, I learned that this is painful.

It's difficult.

It's uncomfortable.

and it puts a tremendous amount of torque on my body and my neck.

With the

amount of stress and pain caused by hanging like this, I have to figure out

I'm going to escape five locks over a pit of 250 alligators.

I just hope I can do it.

Well, fortunately for Chris, he's in the best physical condition of his life,

which should at least give him a fighting chance at success.

That's it. The alligators try to jump up until you pull up like that. And now we

bring you around and we swing you to the ground.

Coming up.

If you fall in there, there is nothing that anybody can possibly do to get you

out.

Chris wanted me to try to, I really want to learn how to pick this lock and he

said to try and I'm so close.

We're going.

Right now.

In three days, I'm going to attempt a demonstration in Florida that no one has

accomplished and no one has attempted in a hundred years.

I'm going to be up against the clock then, but right now I got to test my

ability to perform under pressure. I wanted to create a challenge for myself

put my talent literally on the line and have some consequences if I was wrong.

Now, I know you don't know what you will win if I am wrong.

One million dollars.

One million dollars right here.

You will gain a million dollars. If I am wrong, I will give you the opportunity

to hide this $100 ,000 in any bag you'd like.

I'll have three minutes to find this $100 ,000.

If I don't do it in three minutes with the art of Hellstromism, which is the

of muscle reading, then you'll get $1 million cash.

I'm going to go in that corner over there. I will be completely blind with

hands. You'll cover up my eyes.

And one person is going to hide this money.

And you're standing in front of me, looking at me like you can use a million

dollars. Can you use a million dollars?

I can. Very much so.

You are going to be my challenge.

What is your name?

Now,

honestly, have we ever met before? No.

The term muscle reading goes back to the 1870s to describe the work of mentalist

J. Randall Brown.

I don't think Brown had a million dollars on the line, but I'm definitely

putting my skills to the test.

You have that $100 ,000?

I do. Take it and hide it now.

Okay. Wherever you like, don't talk to me. I don't want to know where you are.

don't want to get a sense of what part of the story you're in.

$1 million on the line if I don't find that money.

In three minutes.

Shay, please let me know when you're back.

I'm back. Are you happy with where you put the money?

Yeah. So you hid it in a place you don't believe I'll find it, yeah?

Yeah. Good. All right, you can remove your hands. Why don't you see my eyes

still closed?

Now, Shay, come to my right, please.

Take your right hand and touch my wrist. Hold on to my wrist.

Take your left hand, grab my shoulder. No matter where I move, you're going to

follow me, no matter how fast or how slow.

You're going to follow me. I'm going to try to determine where that money is by

how you react to my movement.

Okay. Start the time now.

For me, it's about always keeping in tune mentally, physically.

Everything is controlled upstairs, and the mental drives the physical. It tells

your body what to do.

In the alligator escape, I really got to be as sharp as I possibly can, and

that's going to require me just making sure my chops are up to speed.

What's the time?

2 .13.

2 .30.

What is it?

I've never been around that much money before. It didn't really hit me until

timer. went down for the three minutes. And I was like, oh my goodness, this is

real. My heart was racing.

I was sweating.

I was just kind of in shock. I could have been a millionaire today.

This million dollars goes back to the bank.

Thank you so much, everybody.

And we're off to Florida.

It could be a tight squeeze.

It could be a really tight squeeze.

It's going to have to come like right through here.

Come straight at me.

It's freaking tight.

Spiro was the first one to say, okay, I got my job done. Let's all pack up and

go to Florida.

No, no, no, no, no. Back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back.

Well, now that we're here, it's looking like the crane we need to suspend Chris

from might not even be able to make its way inside of the location.

Hold it, hold it, hold it.

Holy.

It's going to hit right here.

I hate to say it, but this is typical Spiro.

I think you're going to have to back up again. It would have been good to figure

this out before we got here, but right now, we've got to get this handled

together before Chris gets wind of it.

This is Jeremy, the alligator handler. I'm 24 hours away from the

My team is attaching the torture device to the crane that I'll be hanging from.

The first thing I want to do is get my eyes on these alligators.

Wow.

That's incredible.

Pushing the limits is what makes Chris Chris. But this isn't making a dove

appear from a mask. There's no illusion of this escape.

And if he falls, he dies.

I come up with this stuff when I'm in my shower, in my car, in my house. And

then we get together and we talk about it. And then I'm here and I'm like, what

the f*** am I thinking?

I was all for alligators in the beginning.

I know they'll definitely excite the crowd. But now that I see them up close,

it's clear that it's a life and death situation.

Will it be a quick death?

It's going to be a painful one.

It won't be quick? How long will it take them to kill me?

Depends on where they get you.

Because if they get you in the head and they can't spin anything off, they're

going to sit there and bite and crush and push down.

Right. There's no way to sugarcoat this. If you fall in there, there is nothing

that anybody can possibly do to get you out.

Hopefully I won't have to worry about that. If my team has done their job

correctly. And I can escape before I get suffocated. You're eight feet from here

to your fingertips.

Hold on a second, guys.

You're going to make this how high one more time? 20 feet.

Subtract how many feet? 8 feet.

That's 12 feet from the ground. He's saying that he has a 13 -foot alligator.

How many feet do we want from his fingertip to the ground?

You've got to remember that they can go up the whole length. So you have a 12

-foot alligator.

So 20 feet is where we want to be then. You want to be up 20 feet? You guys need

to figure this all out, seriously.

That's what we're doing.

That's what the... We're doing right now, okay?

Spiro's problem is he doesn't worry about the most important details.

And if he'd done his job right, he would have known how big the alligators are.

He's giving us the information we're facing. No, I know. I understand.

This is the time that we're doing all of this. All right.

Are you spot welding this, Tuggy? No. That's not spot welding. Those are weld

welds. Don't you go across the whole thing? You don't have to go across the

whole thing. Why don't you go across the whole thing? That's why there's double

the money. You realize if I phone it, I'm done. No, no. I'm done. There ain't

coming back.

We don't want.

That's the last thing. I'm just explaining to you. Just think bells.

I'm finito. That goes without saying.

Supposed to be my mom on Saturday.

I like a death -defying stunt. Criss Angel, the magician of the century. I'm

CBS4's Gabby Quachman out at the Everglades Alligator Park where

Criss Angel will get shackled into this contraption here. Criss Angel.

Death -defying stunt.

It is amazing to me how magic can go so wrong even when you know what you're

doing.

I can't believe the amount of cars down the street as I freak a mile long.

Good luck.

Thank you.

Chris is here in Florida to prove to himself and to the world that he can

execute and escape Houdini's rival, Cleveland, or fail that, and Houdini

wouldn't even attempt.

All his body weight will be supported by his head and his neck, and we figure he

has just about five minutes to escape before he's rendered unconscious.

is the coming together of weeks of preparation.

The pressure on my shoulders to deliver is overwhelming, but it's something I

gotta do.

We're good and locked on this one.

The bucket hanging above Chris's head will drip rat blood at a constant flow

excite the alligators below.

All right, we're going to get messy.

Defeating Houdini's rival has been a real team effort.

But as much work as it's been getting here and as painful as it was, I can't

imagine doing anything else.

All right, Chris, is this a good spot right now?

Now where do I go? Stay right there.

And what, let go? Just let go.