Original subtitles

[ Whip cracks ]

[ Ominous music plays ]

[ Triumphant music plays ]

You don't look anything like him.

I know.

Let's get to work.

Okay.

Captions by vitac... www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications

why are you dressed like my old archaeology professor?

No, no. I'm dressed as Indiana Jones.

That's him, Dr. Jones from Indiana.

Anyway, what's the story?

Okay, the story is there's also a movie

called "raiders of the lost ark,"

starring a guy named Indiana Jones.

And we're gonna tackle some myths from that movie.

First and foremost, his famous sidearm, the whip.

We're gonna look at some of the science of indy's whip

and some of the remarkable things he does with it.

But the opening sequence

of "raiders" is where we're beginning.

Indy is escaping from a south American temple

that is attempting to kill him with all manner of booby traps,

including our first test,

a floor filled with pressure pads

that shoots poison darts at indy.

Well, sounds like fun. Let's get into it.

Okay.

Narrator: In the exhilarating opening scene

from the iconic '80s adventure story,

there's a question to be answered.

By simply running for it,

would indy really have escaped unharmed?

And, as a massive fan of the franchise,

Adam's in his element.

We're gonna do this temple run

and really figure out if we truly can outrun the darts.

We're gonna need to know how long that run is going to be.

So I'm gonna look at some video, do some measurements,

and actually work it up in a little diorama

for little indy Adam here.

You can't tell, but he's totally psyched about it.

This kind of work is something i used to do

all the time in the film industry.

It's all comin' together.

In the film industry,

it's often used as a previsualization technique.

[ Laughs ]

Now I'm just havin' fun.

Like, i will mock up a set in foam core,

just so i understand all of its dimensions

before building it in the actual materials it'll be built in.

Got hot glue threads on my face.

Ugh, aah.

Seeing something in that white space,

for some reason, to me it's deeply, deeply satisfying.

I put my head down and i can see what it looks like

from different angles.

It's like I'm building a playground for my brain.

I've actually also learned a few things.

I have carefully checked screenshots of Harrison Ford

against many parts of the set.

Knowing how tall he is,

i have determined the dart pads are about 40 inches long,

and that that room is about 30 feet long.

If it's 30 feet long,

and the dart pads are the size they are,

Harrison Ford, indy,

will encounter at least 16 of those pads,

likely setting off 16 darts.

That's how many he's gotta outrun.

That's how many we're gonna set up.

You notice that i managed to keep the label of the pipe

facing the thing, so you really see 450 psi.

That's really shattering the illusion.

In the temple run, indy gets shot at

by Mayan poison darts.

But because these are potentially lethal,

I'm gonna do the same thing using paintballs.

14.

You know, i buy this crap salvaged.

But who knew that 14 wasn't enough?

I need 16.

And so it's my job to figure out how to put together...

Nope.

A 16-gun, pressure pad-operated

paintball gun array.

I think those will work.

This item right here is a solenoid switch.

The wire gives power to an electromagnet,

which opens the flow of air.

[ Air hisses ]

These kinds of things are how

we can fire pneumatic projectiles on cue.

[ Chuckles ]

It works.

I love it when I've got

all the parts i need to put together something like this.

The sequence is gonna go like barrel connected

to a pipe nipple, a solenoid,

and that will screw into one big, long tube,

and that'll be our air feed.

And so it's just gonna be like a little assembly line

of, you know, barrel, barrel, barrel, barrel.

And out comes the paintball and shoots us.

Narrator: With the first of the 16 air-powered guns

attached to its solenoid trigger...

[ Buzzing ]

Sounds kinda like a... a seal.

Narrator: Adam arrives to up the pressure.

Dude, they arrived.

Oh, cool.

That is our pressure pad switch activation.

Well, let's, uh, let's check it out.

[ Air hisses ]

Point it that way. Pointing.

Yeah. Three, two, one.

[ Air hisses ] Oh!

[ Laughs ]

That couldn't have worked any better.

[ Air hisses ]

Inside this pad is an electrical switch

such that when you step on it, it completes a circuit, like so.

Now that opens the flow of air,

and out comes the paintball,

and we get shot when we step on the pad.

[ Air hissing ]

That is beautiful. There we go.

Awesome.

Narrator: That's how each gun will be triggered.

The next step is to combine them

into a single, coordinated, air-powered system.

Jamie: This white tube is the air supply

for our paintball gauntlet,

which we'll be installing in the temple.

Now, each one of these guns will be wired

to its own pressure pad...

Three, two... [ Firing ]

Whoa! [ Laughs ] Beautiful.

Which, as we run along, will be setting off these guns,

one after the other,

while we possibly are screaming in pain.

That is going to hurt.

Well, let's, uh, pack it up, put it on the truck,

and take it out to the location.

[ Laughs ] Okay.

Narrator: Before they pack up their temple run gun,

while the team gets busy

prefabricating a fake Mayan temple,

Adam and Jamie get cracking

on another iconic indy inquiry.

Well, good luck there, buddy.

So, whips. Exactly.

Indy's whip is, like, almost mythological.

He does all sorts of incredible stuff,

including one i think we should test:

When he disarms an opponent with a gun using only the whip.

So, would the whip be accurate enough

and would it hit the hand hard enough

to knock the gun out of it, or something?

Exactly. And i think the other thing we should look at

is the opening sequence,

when he loops the whip around a log

and swings across a chasm.

Is that really possible?

Yeah, i wonder whether the whip would actually have enough grip.

And then, if it did, how are you gonna get it off?

I think we need to deeply look into the science of whips.

[ Imitates whip cracking ]

If we're gonna put whips through their paces

in this episode, we're going to need...

Wait a minute... whips.

Whip making is something i taught myself

about 17 years ago.

I built a whip i had always wanted

from "raiders of the lost ark."

And to start this episode,

I'm going to build the first whip.

This is kangaroo hide.

Don't let anyone tell you any different.

This is the strongest leather in the world.

Narrator: Whip making is an art,

an art for which Adam clearly has a passion.

Adam: Now, astonishingly, this right here

is everything required

to make a eight-foot leather bullwhip.

[ Grunts ]

Mm, animal fat.

But before i start, i actually need to prep the laces.

[ Laughs ]

I need to treat them with a leather dressing

that softens them and allows me to stretch them

to bring them out to their natural state.

Then I'm going to braid them.

I'm gonna do a four-plait braid.

That is using four laces.

And this will comprise the inner

and smallest core of the whip.

This will be the center.

Now you're starting to see where this is going.

That is called the belly, the first belly,

the interior belly, of the whip.

I'm going to cover this belly with a bolster,

which is effectively a long triangle of leather.

That bolster will then get another belly laid over it,

because the Indiana Jones whips

are what are called two belly whips.

Narrator: The braided core and leather bolster

is doubled up to form the second belly.

And in the middle of this meticulous process,

Adam couldn't be happier.

Adam: In case you haven't guessed already,

i loves me the bullwhips.

I started out inspired by "raiders."

I'm done with the second belly.

And i quickly learned

that i love two distinct things about the practice.

These will be the 12 laces

that make the actual outer coating of the whip.

One was that i loved the practice itself,

the craft of whip making.

The meticulous, repetitive stretching,

checking, cutting, lacing.

It is deeply meditative.

Hold on, i gotta drink my own urine.

I'm kidding, i wasn't drinking my own urine.

I was drinking someone else's.

The second thing i love about it is the form and function

coming together magnificently.

I mean, you've got this beautiful form

of a smooth leather object

that is tapered from one end to the other.

Dude, it's looking so good.

And then that tapering turns out

not just to be lovely and compelling,

but, in fact, crucial

for delivering the energy from your hand

out to the tip of the whip with the maximum amount of strength.

That is really cool.

I am really pleased with how this is looking.

Narrator: For the finishing touches,

Adam decorates the handle.

And then, to make the whip actually crack,

attaches two thin strips called the fall and the cracker.

But will all that work pay off with a working whip?

All right.

Phew! This is very exciting.

[ Whooshing ]

Oh, it sounds good.

[ Whip cracks ]

Yeah!

[ Whip cracks ] [ Laughs ]

[ Whip cracking ]

Oh, that's pretty loud. Can you hit anything with it?

You know, I've never actually tried.

Why don't i set something up?

Let's do it.

Narrator: Indiana Jones nonchalantly

and surgically disarmed his armed foe.

Come on.

Adam, however... [ Laughs ]

can't seem to take out a few cans...

[ Whip cracks ]

Not exactly precision shooting.

Until he gets real close

and the laws of probability weigh in.

Yeah!

[ Laughs ]

Yes. He hit it.

As long as I've got 10, 12, 15 tries,

you are in trouble, man!

Narrator: Yep, to find out

if you can indeed disarm armed adversaries,

Adam and Jamie clearly need some expert help...

[ Whip cracks ]

And a spectacular change of scene

to set up for some temple run fun.

Totally gonna get shot.

Adam: Indy's whip is a character in its own right

in the "raiders" films,

and it does some unbelievable things in the film.

First and foremost,

he is able to disarm someone who pulls a gun on him,

just pullin' this off his belt and giving it a crack.

And that's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna give that a crack.

Narrator: But there's a problem.

Adam: Now, I'm pretty good at making these,

but we've already established that i am not that good

at operating them.

Let's just say you're a work in progress.

Aren't we all?

Narrator: Yep. To test indy's mythical ability

to disarm gun-toting foes,

Adam and Jamie need a whole heap of whip-wielding tips

from the very best in the business.

De longis: The science of the whip

is the acceleration of kinetic energy.

All energy added to the whip is multiplied.

A small amount of focused energy

literally produces explosive results.

Wherever i point the handle,

this is where the whip is gonna go.

So I'm literally aiming with my whole body,

instead of this kind of, "i sure hope this works."

That's pretty much the school I'm in.

Weight on the back foot. Weight on the front foot.

Adam: We've brought a lot of experts onto this show over the years,

but Anthony might be my all-time favorite right now.

And then...

Now it's just timing.

Adam: I have rarely ever had someone

teach me something so quickly.

[ Whip cracks ]

And i got results i really didn't think were gonna happen

within such a short period of time.

Open your hand, straighten your arm, close your hand.

[ Whip cracks ] Hey!

Perfect. That totally worked.

This is awesome.

This is a far more precise tool than i thought it was.

Bend.

Jamie: We've gotten a lot of the basics

of whip handling from Anthony...

Excellent.

But now it's time to see if we can't use the whip

to grab a gun out of somebody's hand.

[ Whip cracks ]

But it's important to note

that we never actually see how indy disarms the bad guy.

So, to cover all our bases,

we're gonna run a couple of tests.

Now, stretch it out and send it out.

Better. Okay.

First, we're gonna see if that whip tip

could wrap around the wrist and/or the gun

and yank it in such a way as to spoil the shot.

We're gonna see if a direct hit to the wrist

with the whip tip is enough to make somebody drop the gun.

This is the scariest thing I've done all day.

Is it? [ Chuckles ]

Go ahead.

[ Whip cracks ] That was perfect.

That was a nice crack you got there.

It was right on the tip of your thumb.

That would have hurt a lot.

Narrator: Jamie's making contact,

but there's no mythical grab and aim-spoiling pull.

Go for the wrist. Go for the wrist, hyneman.

That's it.

Not quite the first-time accuracy of indy,

but novice Jamie is dialing in on the technique...

Yes.

Narrator: Surprisingly quickly.

De longis: Yes. There we go.

Good job. [ Laughs ]

All right, my turn. [ Laughs ]

Did i get ya? Yeah.

Adam missed his target a couple of times

and connected with me instead,

but he was actually able to wrap the tip of the whip

around my hand... Ha ha!

To where he would be interfering

with my aiming of that gun.

De longis: Yeah.

And that was actually pretty effective.

Narrator: The grab and tug is clearly plausible.

But what about the second option,

the hit to the hand?

Would that force you to drop the gun?

Well, Jamie, with the short straw drawn,

adds extra protection

and prepares to face the whip-cracking might

of the whip master.

Jamie: Ow!

[ Whip cracking ]

Jamie: I'm positive i wouldn't have been able

to hold on to that gun if i didn't have this glove on.

It would be equivalent to somebody slicing at your hand

with a sharp knife.

[ Whip cracks ] [ Chuckles ]

You'd drop the gun.

Narrator: Yep, without padding,

Jamie's dropping the gun every single time.

Yeah, i don't think there's any way

i would have been able to hold on to this

if i hadn't had this protection.

So, Anthony, it strikes me that we have

enough experimental evidence gathered thus far

to conclude that the first appearance of a whip

in "raiders of the lost ark"

is actually pretty reasonable...

That it is feasible to disarm someone with a gun

if you're only holding a whip.

Would you agree? De longis: I do agree.

I think a targeted strike to bare flesh

is going to make it pretty much impossible

to hang on to the gun, let alone operate it accurately.

So this is plausible.

Is that what you would do if you were in the same situation?

Absolutely not.

No? Well, okay. What would you do?

I would go straight for the face.

Ohh.

Narrator: With the gun-whip myth all tied up,

it's time to set the scene for the temple run.

Not many people realize,

but the Mayans built their temples just like this... yeah.

Narrator: And Adam's having a whole heap of fun.

Adam: Look, i know that some of the lengths we're going to

seem a little bit over the top.

Now, I'm thinkin'... Right about this level.

Yeah, upper torso? Yeah.

We could have just set up 16 paintball guns

on, like, a wooden rack in about an hour and a half.

[ Chuckles ]

But, honestly, we couldn't.

We're special-effects guys.

This is what we did for a living for decades.

[ Chuckles ]

Looks pretty good.

I know it looks like crap, but it's fun.

It would offend our sensibilities

not to make it look period and timely

to the actual film we're replicating.

Jamie: Of course, any decent temple's got

its share of deities and gods, so we've got ours.

Adam: It would offend my sensibilities.

Frankly, i think Jamie thinks this whole experiment

is an excuse for me to dress up...

Which it might be.

Narrator: While Adam completes the scene setting...

Yeah.

Narrator: Jamie's connected the pressure pad and gun one

for a test run.

Three, two, one.

Oh! [ Laughs ]

That works perfectly.

Perfectly, except for a timing tweak.

Oh!

Adam: That was fantastic.

Our Mayan temple dart room is operational,

except with paintballs instead of darts.

The only thing is, that hit was instantaneous.

Pad touch, dart hit.

And in the movie, there's actually a delay when indy tests the rig.

My question is, how much of a time delay is there

between the time that torch pushes the pad

and the time the dart hits the torch?

[ Stopwatch clicking ]

That's one second. That's gonna be our delay.

Narrator: Over to Jamie.

It's tricky, but by inserting a timer

between the pressure-pad trigger

and the air-powered paintball gun,

he can delay the firing by the required one second.

And with the guns not loaded, he steps up the test the timing.

[ Air hisses ]

Jamie: Hmm.

Narrator: Hoosier, we have a problem.

That's, uh... Not quite what we had in mind.

Narrator: As soon as this episode got rolling...

That's great. That's great.

It was clear the mythbusters...

One... Oh!

Idolize all things indy.

And with one myth already cracked...

the fun is set to continue.

[ Air hisses ]

Or is it?

Jamie: As it turns out, this timing setup that we put together

is really screwing us up,

because while they're delaying the firing of our valves

like we want them to,

they're also holding the valves open way too long.

Which means that, by the time we get to the end of the array,

our tank is empty.

Adam: Our solution is to actually give them more air,

or more of a tank.

I'm about to build that tank out of a bunch of pvc plumbing pipe...

You stay.

While Jamie plays around with the timers.

Narrator: And with the larger air supply hooked up...

Good.

It's time for the temple-run test run take two.

[ Air hissing ]

That was good! Jamie: Yeah.

That's exactly what we wanted! Yep.

With the rig successfully firing on the big cylinder,

the set dressing is complete, the guns armed for action...

16 barrels, 16 paintballs.

There we go.

Narrator: And Adam's geared up, ready to run the paintball gauntlet.

Adam: Any second now, I'm gonna grab that idol

and hightail it across this chamber.

Now, if the myth is true,

if the movie's version of events are correct,

i should make it to the other side alive.

That's what we're gonna find out.

Narrator: Remember, their run

has the same number of booby traps as the movie,

and they'll shoot with the same one-second delay.

You ready?

Yep.

See you down the other end. Okay.

The question is, will Adam, who will run

with the same hunched, protective shuffle as indy,

make it out unscathed?

Okay.

In three, two, one. Go.

Something's not turned on.

[ Chuckles ] That was anticlimactic.

Anticlimactic and a mystery...

Three, two, one, go.

It's still not working.

Maybe even a Mayan mystery.

Adam: Well, i think it's clear what's going on here.

It's this guy.

"Mythbusters" is clearly suffering the idol's curse.

[Bleep]

The circuit's not collapsing the way it should.

[Bleep]

The curse may not be real, but ours are.

This rig is kicking our butt.

Hold on. I got to take all my [Bleep] off

if we're gonna really solve this.

Narrator: Some rolled sleeves and brainstorming later...

We're only gonna pressurize it to like, what, 70?

Yeah, i mean... We could try that.

And they think they may have it sorted.

We have figured out the problem.

It's a simple, little, dumb problem.

We just got a couple of leads misplaced.

And we should be up and running...

Literally running... In a minute.

A minute and a test fire later...

Oh, yeah.

With vigor.

The, uh, curse of the crossed wires is lifted...

All right.

And the temple run is ready to rock.

Three, two, one. Go.

I didn't feel a thing! I don't think i got hit.

Jamie: You were a mile ahead of them.

Really?

With a one-second delay,

you were halfway across the thing

before they started to fire.

Fantastic. So indy really could have made it out?

Easily.

We had all the parameters we needed

from the setup of the temple in the film

and we applied them to our set

and discovered that indy

would, indeed, have made it out alive with his idol.

Wouldn't he?

But now let's assume the Mayans could make darts

that shot almost instantaneously as indy ran.

We'll see whether he gets shot or not now.

Here we go.

And frankly...

I pretty much expect to get shot at this point.

Totally gonna get shot.

Instantaneous firing in three, two, one.

Go.

[ "The raiders march" plays ]

Ow! [ Laughs ] I totally got hit.

I got one in my back, right there.

That's the only one i see on you.

Really? Yeah.

As i expected, when we set the darts to instantaneous,

i got shot and I'm dead.

It's a poison dart, after all.

What i didn't expect is that i only got shot once.

So as far as I'm concerned, if you ever find yourself

looting a piece of precious Mayan gold from a temple,

while you'll probably gonna die, i say run for your life.

Ow! [ Laughs ]

So, why do you think

the Mayans set such a long delay on their dart mechanism?

Well, it is an ancient temple.

Maybe the machinery was getting kind of rusty.

That's a good idea. So, how do you want to call it?

Confirmed, i guess.

I'm there with you, but it is a fictional universe,

so I'm inclined to give them plausible.

Suits me. Okay.

So, all episode, we've been learning

the mechanics and the operation of whips.

And we've actually gotten pretty good at it.

[ Whip cracks ]

Yeah. Ha ha!

But before we continue,

we think that we'd be remiss if we didn't address the idea

that a whip is supposed to break the speed of sound.

Is this really true? Is there enough

of a kinetic-energy transfer from the handle out to the end?

That's we are about to test. All right.

Using our high-speed camera

and all of the stage craft we've learned

in 10 years of doing this show, we're gonna try and prove

that the end of the whip breaks the speed of sound.

Three, two, one.

[ Whip cracks ]

Because the tip of the whip

is moving so fast and over such a large area,

it makes it really difficult to see

where and when it's making the crack.

[ Whip cracks ]

[ Whip cracks ]

Yeah, the tip's starting to swing around at about 4-d.

[ Whip cracks ]

So, with that in mind,

we've created this background with a grid on it.

[ Whip cracks ]

Yeah, right about there, a little bit below it.

So we can hopefully zoom in on it with the high-speed camera.

[ Whip cracks ]

Oh, spank. Right on the same mark.

Narrator: But with the camera recording at the 6,000 frames per second

required to measure the speed of sound,

zooming in and capturing the exact moment of the crack

is a very tricky task.

Adam: Okay. Are you ready?

Yeah.Yeah.

Okay, here we go.

[ Whip cracks ]

Too low.

[ Whip cracks ] Try that.

Jamie: In terms of time,

this is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

There's a lot of increments

when you're looking at 6,000 frames per second

to find the exact instant that that passes through the frame.

Narrator: Yep, not only does Adam have to get a clean crack...

[ Whip cracks ] That was too low.

And pull off the unlikely feat

of hitting the exact same mark,

the guys then have to find those four or five frames of action.

So the signal you're watching me on right now

is transmitting 29.9-something frames per second.

[ Whip cracks ] Low.

I'm aiming at the same [Bleep] spot every single time.

Our high-speed camera is catching

almost 2 seconds of footage at 6,000 frames per second.

[ Whip cracks ]

That's gonna be too high.

It is, uh...

It's a little bit of a hunt-and-peck.

[ Whip cracks ]

[ Whip cracks ]

There it is. [ Laughing ] Oh!

Narrator: Finally, in glorious

6,000-frames-per-second high speed.

Now, how fast is it going right here?

[ Whip cracks ]

That's 5 frames to travel 12 inches.

1,200 feet per second.

That beats the speed of sound. That is awesome!

We caught the speed of sound being broken

by these little fuzzies.

[ Chuckles ] That is so cool.

[ Whip cracks ]

It took hours of Adam whipping

for us to finally capture that tiny piece of string

traveling over the speed of sound in front of this grid.

But we finally cracked it, so to speak.

Narrator: With the science whipped into shape,

Adam and Jamie head back to the warehouse

to test the whip's mythical ability to swing indy to safety.

[ Truck beeping ]

Jamie: This story has indy swinging across a chasm on his whip.

[ Thud ] Yeah.

Foom! Cool.

And since we don't happen to have a chasm ready to go,

we decided to build our own.

Adam: This thing weighs 5,000 pounds empty.

You got room. You can keep comin' in.

Kill someone in a heartbeat.

Pull, pull, pull. Yeah.

We're using these containers, which we love...

That's it. Perfect over here.

Miles, pull.

Because they're kind of like big bricks.

Yeah! Phew!

We can build whatever we want instantly.

Threading the needle.

But like a 5,000-pound needle. [ Laughs ]

Phew.

Adam: The containers here stacked up

represent exactly one half of our chasm.

All right. Here we go.

We're going to bring in the other pair of containers

and make the other half of the chasm.

They're going to be a certain distance apart,

but "how far apart?" Is the real question.

Narrator: An answer found with a little high-speed camera magic.

That was good.

Adam: So we've got my jump on high speed,

but how are we going to use that

to determine how wide our chasm is...

Especially since I'm jumping on flat ground

and indy was jumping across a chasm,

which he hit the edge of with his chest?

Editors, can you help me out, please,

and load up the high-speed footage of my jump?

Excellent.

Okay, now, fast forward until my foot leaves the starting line.

Right there. And put a dot on my chest.

Great. Now, continue to put dots on my chest

through the full arc of my jump,

until my left foot touches the ground.

Excellent.

Now, draw a line that intersects all those dots

until you've got a curve,

and continue that curve

until it hits the ground where my number stripes are.

Perfect. Okay.

Can you count up how many number stripes those are?

12? Beautiful.

That is the distance of our chasm... 12 feet.

Narrator: With the exact distance marked off,

the far side of the chasm is dropped into position...

Nice!

Some protective padding put in place...

That's a long way to fall.

Narrator: The key structural component brought up...

This is a branch.

Narrator: Some more safety measures manhandled...

Indy never fought a beast like this.

This is like a "doctor who" villain.

Yeah, that's it!

Narrator: Before the movie-accurate scene is set...

Good luck there, buddy.

[ Laughs ] I'm gonna stand back here.

For Adam's date with whip-swinging destiny.

Narrator: If you wondered exactly how Adam and Jamie

got the ball rolling on this Indiana Jones junket,

wonder no more.

Believe it or not,

this is actually going to be our spherical temple-run stone.

Rise! Rise!

[ Laughs ]

[ Laughs ]

Oh, hey, man. Check it out.

It's our temple-run ball. Whoa, dude!

Jamie: So we've got our big, clear plastic ball,

but to make it look like a Boulder,

we had the idea that we'll take this two-part foam

and mix it together and slather it all over the surface.

If we do it kind of sloppy but in the right way,

it might just look like a big stone thing,

which is what we want.

[ Grunts ]

Adam: That looks like a piece of stone.

[ Laughs ]

Inflatable stone? No problem.

It's called safety stone.

Jamie: This test is all about the relationship

between the whip and the tree branch.

And so we've looked very closely at the film

and tried to replicate the diameter of that tree branch

with this log and its placement above the chasm.

Now, the next thing that we've got to do is take our whip

and throw it across the tree branch

and see whether it creates a knot

that's strong enough to hold a person.

Here we go.

Because if it ain't...

[ Laughs ]

I've waited my whole life for this moment.

They're falling to their death.

Narrator: But before Adam tests the strength of the swing...

Adam: Ho! Hey!

Wasn't bad. That was not bad.

He has to actually secure the whip on the log.

Adam: This test goes down in history as one of my all-time favorites,

but it did not start out looking that rosy.

[ Groans ]

First, just trying to wrap the whip around the log,

i was not getting enough surface area,

not getting enough friction.

I want to feel that solid bite, the leather on the log.

What i really needed was a kind of a knot.

Actually, the technical term is a half hitch.

Oh, that looked so promising.

You had a crossover. I did.

I need a second crossover.

But that tested my whip-wielding skills to the absolute limit.

Dude.

That's not bad.

I think i got a hitch.

Oh, man.

Well, good luck there, buddy.

[ Chuckles ] I'm gonna stand back here.

Narrator: With the whip grip seemingly secure, this is it.

[ Chuckles ]

Actually, I'm genuinely scared.

Was indy's mythical swing to freedom feasible

or a fictional fancy?

[ Dramatic music plays ]

[ Music warps, stops ]

Whoa! [ Laughing ] Oh!

I'm good, I'm good. I'm okay.

So i got the loop around the log.

It felt really, really secure.

I think i got a hitch.

And then just before my feet reach the other side,

the whip unwinds from the log and i go tumbling.

Whoa!

Whoa!

Oh!

All right. We got to try this again.

That was too much fun. [ Laughs ]

Jamie: Even though Adam fell, i have to say,

I'm surprised he did as well as he did,

because from this distance,

you're only gonna get around three wraps out of it.

There you go.

So a single half hitch

holding a close-to-200-pound guy?

Pretty low odds, if you ask me.

Oh, yeah. You're moving the whole log, dude.

Am i? Yeah.

I think you're gonna do it, buddy.

Here we go.

Hup!

[ Dramatic music plays ]

Oh!

[ Groans ]

[ Both laugh ]

I thought that was gonna be mine!

Narrator: Once again, the whip, and potentially the myth,

unravels at the last second.

But, as Edison almost said,

"mythbustering is 1% inspiration

"and 99% repeatedly throwing yourself into a chasm

for science."

Oh, dude.

Well, no guts, no glory.

No guts, no glory. Three, two, one.

You're gonna make it.

Oh! Oh, drat!

[ Chuckles ] [ Groans ]

[ Groans ]

Three times so far, I've attempted to lasso our log

with my whip and swing across this chasm.

And three times, just as glory seemed within my grasp,

the whip slipped and i fell to my death.

But, for due diligence, we are going to cover our log

with some bark-like friction material and give it another go.

This sandpaper, or our psuedo-bark,

may not seem like that much.

But it may not actually take that much

to allow the whip to bite.

Without this, it can just slide.

It's almost like it's lubricated.

With this, it'll just give it a little bit of tooth

so that those coils can actually cinch onto the log.

All right.

One more time?

Jamie: Go for it. Okay, here we go.

Narrator: So, what difference will this small real-world detail make?

Oh!

Narrator: A first-time grip, and it's looking good.

But Adam's been burned before.

[ Breathes deeply ]

As many times as I've done this, it's still scary.

All right. [ Breathes deeply ] It's now or never.

Here we go.

Hup! Oh!

Yeah!

Yeah! Give me some!

Hop! Oh!

Oh!

Oh!

Whoo! Whoo!

Narrator: You could say Adam's happy with the result.

Yeah!

[ Laughs ] Oh! Yes!

Whoo! Whoo!

[ Laughter ]

Not quite an indy reaction,

but, dude, we totally did it! Yeah.

All right. Throw me the idol.

[ Chuckles ] Come on.

Oh!

[ Laughs ]

Well, the question now is, can you get it off there?

Oh, right. Okay, here we go.

Come on, come on.

So, once we added a little bit of friction,

some bark, to our log,

the whip grabbed easily and i swung across handily.

It was beautiful.

Hup! Oh!

Come on, baby. Come on. This is the final thing.

Indy's whip grabs when you want and lets go when you want.

Come on, come on.

Now, i still don't think the whip

has the kind of magical properties that indy uses it

as an extension of his hands.

How does this work? There we go!

Almost. Almost.

[ Laughs ] Awesome!

But we've pretty much proved

it can do everything we've seen in the movie.

[ Both chuckle ]

Narrator: With that, this archaeological adventure romps to a conclusion.

[ Whip cracks ]

And indy's iconic status is quo.

Dr. Jones was not doomed in the temple.

Indy really could have made it out?

Easily.

And when it comes to a tight spot...

Jamie: You're gonna make it.

His trusty weapon...

I think you're gonna do it, buddy.

Is all it's cracked up to be.

Yeah!