Original subtitles

On this episode of Mythbusters... I'm so excited, I just can't stand it. Jamie

and Adam do a little painting and detonating. You can paint your house

explosives? That's crazy!

When they ask the question, can you decorate with dynamite? Fire in the

And the Bill team go mental when they test mind control techniques.

I'm ready to make him take his breath.

Who are the Mythbusters?

Adam Savage.

And Jamie Heineman. Aren't Tracer rounds illegal?

Between them, over 30 years special effects experience.

That's what I'm talking about!

Joining them, Tori Bellacci.

Science is fun.

Carrie Byron. Guess what I did today?

And Grant Imahara.

You guys ready for this? They don't just tell the myths, they put them to the

test.

After extensive research, watching old TV reruns, Adam and Jamie have lit the

fuse on a myth of explosive proportions.

Attempting to take the pain out of painting, Mr. Bean shows us a home

improvement shortcut.

A bucket of paint, the mythical stick of dynamite, and the perfect paint job.

So that's our task.

This British comedy show, the guy is lazy, doesn't want to paint his room,

a stick of dynamite in a gallon of paint, and blows it up, and that's going

paint the whole room.

You know, it's a chance for us to do some creative exploding of things, and I

think we can have a lot of fun with it. To recreate the myth, they'll need a

small room, a gallon of paint, one unlucky neighbor for the human

and a dash of dynamite. What's the plan?

Well... Because it'd sort of defeat the purpose of this whole thing if you blew

up the actual house that you were trying to paint in the process of using

explosives to spread the paint. Yeah. So I think we should use a real house,

like we did in Bug Bomb.

Big boom! Big boom! Big boom!

In Bug Bomb, they used a real house and did some real damage.

But with house prices heating up, they'll have to build a house of their

That's what we're talking about!

To stick to the myth, their property needs just one property. It has to have

structural integrity of a real home.

But with only a day to build it, the schedule is tight.

Okay, here's what I've got for a materials list.

They have their list for supplies, and they head for the hardware store.

So you got your list?

No, I forgot the list.

You did? I totally did. I drove down here without my truck.

You know what? I have to say, I think forgetting your truck is worse than

forgetting the list.

Yeah, well, I don't know. I was like, let's go, and everybody's like, okay.

Does someone want to take Jamie back and get the truck?

Yeah, well, you can pull the order, you know, and I'll be back probably by the

time you get done. Yeah. All right.

We're on fire today.

The only thing burning is the schedule, but sales associate Tom Stein comes to

the rescue. We're building a 10 by 10 foot.

Eight feet high.

We're going to build it. We're making a box.

A simple box with one window, one door. And with Tom leading the way, Adam is in

hardware heaven. In just 20 minutes, he's got everything he needs.

Timber, drywall, screw gun, a window, a door, and free home delivery.

Really glad you brought the truck.

Yeah, so am I.

Next, an Adam goes shopping for paint. Cue the weird retail request.

We're looking at painting a room with dynamite. Oh, neat.

Neat is unlikely to feature on this paint job.

So after Adam picks out a few colors, he gives the paint store the brush off.

Back at the workshop, and the construction for destruction is

One of the first questions that comes up in looking at this myth is, can a room

withstand an explosion?

An explosion big enough to paint that room. So there'll be no shirking on

quality. Because when the paint hits the walls, they don't want to blow the

house down. Now we're on the construction phase. We've got to build

blow things up in, and we can't just build the whole thing and take it on the

truck. We've got to build it in pieces.

The modular house includes two floor and ceiling sections, which Jamie tackles.

And Adam assembles the four sheetrock walls.

Note the difference in style.

Dude, this is the rockinest thing.

That is the cool ass.

They're done and on schedule.

This is convincing me to hire someone else because there's a renovation in my

house. And with the neighbors a little sensitive about dynamite in the

our team of painters and detonators pack up and head for the Alameda County Bomb

Disposal Range. Hold on.

Don't tell me.

So you checked the height on them, right?

It's a miracle!

The team load up and find that it's not the size of the house you erect, but

whether it fits in the truck.

I understand you guys have a real mind -bender of a story here.

Yeah, we're actually going to test the classic, conspiracist favorite of

government mind control.

Well, that could be all sorts of things, couldn't it? I mean, like hypnosis, for

example, or I know they did some testing where they put electrodes into your

brain and put a little current through it that can make you do certain things.

Look into the hypnotic eye.

It's long been a sci -fi favorite. In the 1950s, mind control was a recurring

theme in B -movies, where women became the playthings of a psychic psycho.

Your body is glowing stiff.

Today, conspiracy theorists claim governments still use an array of mind

techniques to have their wicked way with Joe Public.

Yes, it could be many, many things, but ethically here on Mythbusters, we can't

go around putting chips in people's heads.

So we're going to start right off from the beginning and define it very

narrowly. And our definition of mind control is a device which can remotely

influence a person's behavior without their knowledge or their consent.

We're also going to use the criteria that you guys used on free energy. We're

only going to use plans, kits, or patents that we can find on the web. And

are a lot of them.

Mind Control follows the well -trodden MythBusters path of Oogie Boogie Myth.

Wow. Adam and Jamie established the genre when they tested and busted the

conspiracy theory that government microchips were being secretly planted

blood donors.

Then there was the Pyramid Power Puzzler, which Carrie and co. consigned

busted bin.

All right, Grant, so we have three kits that we got off the Internet for Mind

Control. One here is psionic helmet.

We got here an electronic hypnotizer, and then this is a silent sound mind

control device.

Which one do you think you want to do first?

Well, I do the electronic stuff all the time, so I think I'm most interested in

the psionic helmet.

This is the psionic helmet, and I am not exactly

sure what principle it works on, but if I would have to guess...

I think it would be able to enhance my own inherent telepathic ability.

At $290, the Build It Yourself kit consists of, let's face it, a bicycle

and a wooden dowel wrapped in leather and topped with a crystal.

But there's more to it than that. According to the plans, the psychic

the crystal rod require fine tuning, so Grant wires it up to a couple of control

knobs.

And the helmet's ready for action.

Jamie and Adam are coming over here to do a blueprint.

I'm going to see if I can use the helmet to influence Jamie to remove his beret.

The bereted one is unaware that he's the subject of a psychic experiment.

Then he spots the hat.

Hi, Jamie.

What you doing?

Nothing.

Should I have a good weekend?

Tori attempts casual conversation while trying to tune in the psionic helmet.

Jamie's baffled, but Tori's feeling the force.

That was perfect, because as we have a conversation, I was able to dial into

identity. He has no clue.

Now I'm ready to make him take his beret off.

For 90 minutes, Tori summons up all his powers of concentration, but Jamie's

beret stays firmly on his bumps.

My opinion right now is that the iconic helmet is totally busted.

But I'm not going to give up yet.

I'm going to keep trying.

Jamie and Adam are taking on Mr.

Bean and tackling the explosive TV myth, can you really decorate with dynamite?

And for that, they pack up and head out of town.

I'm sitting in a crater at the Alameda County Sheriff's Department bomb range,

or as I like to refer to it, happiest little place on earth.

Joining Adam and Janie for the TNT party are fellow

explosive enthusiasts, Sergeant J .D. Nelson of Alameda County Bomb Squad and

retired FBI agent Frank Doyle. The main thing I'm concerned with about...

This test is whether or not our room, which is built to code, building code,

whether it's going to hold up to stick a dynamite in the middle. Or is it just

going to, like, you know, blow out?

With the quantity of explosives we're going to use, I would say that the room

will probably hold together. But don't hold me to that. Okay.

Before they put FBI Frank's prediction to the test, they have to assemble their

very own little house on the bomb range.

I'm putting the foundation down.

Cue the build sequence.

And with a little help from the post -production department, they finish in

record time. Remember, kids, I've got health insurance.

After Adam comes back to Earth, he and Jamie check out their handiwork.

The location could be a problem. After all, who wants a room with a view of the

bomb range?

But with a little interior decorating, it'll be home sweet home. We built a

house in a half a day.

It ain't pretty, but I think maybe it'll dress up with a nice coat of paint.

To match the myth, the explosion has to completely cover the room in paint,

except for the human silhouette.

Jamie couldn't find a real volunteer to stick around while the dynamite

detonates, so he volunteers Rescue Randy the Simulade. I'm going to hang the

Simulade. I'm going to put him about here because we want to get one of these

sort of patterns on the wall from the spray of paint, hopefully.

Adam takes care of the paint placement, but with a slight deviation from the

clip. I took the paint out of its metal can and put it in a plastic bucket

because, well, the sheriff's department, the owners of the bomb range, the FBI

are all a lot more comfortable if we don't have metal creating shrapnel and

just use a plastic bucket full of paint.

Makes a lot more sense than that.

Which leaves just one key ingredient, the dynamite.

And arson investigator Joe Konefal arrives just in time. But he's not here

arrest Adam and Jamie for their history of explosive exploits. He's the man with

the bang. What we have is a plastic container that contains one -third pound

of... And that's about as much as we can tell you. Of course, even if you should

happen to have the ingredients and blasting cap for a binary explosive,

don't try this at home.

So in the clip we're working from, it looks like he...

Putting a stick of dynamite or something equivalent to a stick of dynamite in

this bucket of paint. Is this roughly equivalent to that?

Actually, it's depending on what type of dynamites. There's a whole bunch of

dynamites, but this is pretty hot stuff. This actually detonates right around 21

,000 feet per second.

21 ,000 feet.

So this is definitely... That's like more than 10 times as fast as a bullet.

Yes, it would be. Wow.

There's no turning back.

Joe finishes mixing the myth -equivalent stick of dynamite, and with the

explosive cocktail ready for detonation, the final preparations are carried out.

The bucket of paint is in position.

J .D. lays out the firing line.

Non -essential personnel are cleared from the area.

The blasting cap is attached to the explosive, which, just like the myth, is

simply placed in the paint.

And finally, the firing line is attached to the blasting cap.

With the system hot, the anticipation builds.

I'm so excited, I just can't stand it.

This is just another one of those days where you go through the motions and you

put everything together. You know, you build a house in the morning, then you

decide to figure out how to paint with explosives in the afternoon. Just

day for us on Mythbusters, man.

There's just one question.

Who's the button man?

Heads.

Heads it is.

Give me my quarterback.

With Adam's finger twitching, J .D. clears the area and... Fire in the hole!

Fire in the hole!

Everyone gets serious. What does this do?

Well, almost everyone.

It's go time.

Painting with explosives.

In five, four, three, two, one.

Tori has been trying to get his head around taking Jamie's hat off.

But the beret remains firmly in place.

Meanwhile, Grant has been busy assembling the two other mind -altering

he found on the Internet.

First, the electronic hypnotizer. Believe it or not, its flashing light

pulsing tone can supposedly send people into an hypnotic trance. The tones go

from very fast and very high pitch to very slow and droney.

Mostly they're just really annoying.

Next, Grant tackles every conspiracy theorist's favorite, subliminal sound.

This device works on audio, takes your voice commands and embeds them in some

kind of music or other program material, audio program material.

Subliminal messaging. Exactly. That's cool.

This whole subliminal advertising idea started in 1957.

There was a man named James Vickery. He was an advertising promoter. Now, he

claims that popcorn sales went up by 58 % and soda sales went up by 18 % when

subliminal messaging was inserted into movies in a New Jersey theater.

Well, that's a good story. But no one has been able to substantiate those

or reproduce those results ever since then.

From the subliminal back to the ridiculous, Torrey takes to the road to

the psionic helmet on the American people.

We are on a serious mission to test the mind control device, so we're going to

take it out into the public.

We're going to go to one of our favorite coffee shops. We're going to test it

there, see if it works.

Torrey's psychic master plan is to place an order without moving his lips.

That's lunch.

General Manager Rachel Lobb plays along, suspecting this guy in the helmet may

have escaped from an institution.

Double espresso.

Cappuccino. Juice squeeze.

Coffee. She runs through every beverage on the menu, except the one that Tori is

trying to project.

Half an hour to sit.

All right, give me a mocha. Mocha. Single.

Make it two.

All right.

So, you didn't get the method of mocha.

No. We did.

They did.

We got it. No, we're. That guy wants a mocha.

I think he figured it out.

Are you sure you didn't have it pointed the right way? Yeah. You must have had

it on backwards.

Right?

That's what happens. Tori's fooling no one.

If they want to test mind control properly, they're going to have to quit

clowning around.

Back at the Alameda bomb range, Adam and Jamie are about to test an explosive

home improvement myth. My money's on that this is going to cover roughly 30

40 percent of the room with yellow paint.

It's DIY myth buster style.

Not so much do it yourself, more detonate it yourself.

It all comes down to that moment when you hit the switch, and then either it

works or it doesn't.

If it doesn't work, there's always take two.

If it does work, you'll get the, I can't believe I do this for a living laugh.

Three, two, one.

There's the explosion.

And there's the laugh.

I don't think I'd want to be in that room.

I think it got a little larger.

It may have got larger, but what about the paint job, the state of the room

after the blast, and was there any sign of a simulated silhouette?

It

was

kind of hard on the room.

That's hilarious.

Well, I think we set everything up just right, and when we set off the

explosive, the first thing it did was destroy this room.

The second thing is it only covered about 40%. I mean, both of those bust

thing wide open. It's not possible with something equivalent to a stick of

dynamite to paint a room.

There's your table. But what about the human silhouette?

There's no outline to speak of. And more importantly... If you were in this

room, I would say you would go from something like a chuck roast to a filet

mignon. In other words, you'd be very tenderized.

Myth busted. Yeah. A shocking one.

What we saw on television is not replicable in reality.

Having said that, I think there are ways that we can replicate the results of

the myth and still keep to the spirit of it.

So Mr.

Bean and his bucket bomb are busted.

But back at the workshop, these painter and detonators aren't giving up yet.

They think with a little MythBuster ingenuity, they can dream up a design to

that perfect paint job. I'm thinking about small -scale experiments to try

ferret out the best technique.

Yeah, I think we definitely need to go small scale. And personally, I don't

really have an idea of what I want to do, but working incrementally through

I think, is the answer. Yeah. So it's time for some creative conflagration. To

learn more about how paint is distributed by explosion, they'll need

for small -scale benton.

Let's come back when they're ready.

In the myth of mind control, Grant and Tori have been putting a so -called

psionic helmet through its paces.

In theory, it works by enhancing the wearer's own psychic ability.

But in practice, it's done zip. It's time to inject a little more science

the proceedings.

I think we're not taking this whole experiment seriously enough.

I definitely think that we need to introduce a really controlled

get a little more rigorous with our regime.

I think what we need to do is build some kind of a chamber that isolates the

subject, gets rid of all the distracting variables, so that way we can kind of

see if there is any influence that these mind control devices are having. Also,

I mean, they all claim to affect the brain waves in some way.

So I would really like to get an EEG in here and hook it up because that is how

they measure brain waves in medicine.

EEG machines monitor the working of the human brain in real time.

A network of electrodes detects minute changes in electromagnetic energy

released when neurons in the brain fire.

So using one to measure mind control is a bit of a brainwave.

This is perfect because if we could see that these mind control devices affect

any bit of the brainwave, that there might be some validity to this mind

stuff.

So they get to work building an isolation chamber in which they'll test

various devices on an unsuspecting subject who'll be wired up to an EEG

As well as creating a test arena, they're also on the hunt for more mind

products. They will test out Carrie's hypnotizer.

Grant has been trawling through a pile of plans from the patent office.

Well, we started with a patent search because these 94 patents...

constitutes evidence that conspiracy theorists use to say that the government

in fact conducting mind control experiments.

If mind -molding machines truly exist, this is where to find them.

Grant spends hours categorizing the patents and evaluating their potential.

All right, Grant, so you had all day and all night. Did you narrow it down?

Yeah, I've chosen two.

One has to do with pulsed air.

and the other has to do with a rotating bar magnet. And both of them excite the

half -hertz sensory resonance.

Machines that pulse a weak electromagnetic field once every two

supposedly excite the brain's half -hertz sensory resonance, leading to

of tension, sleepiness, or even sexual excitation.

So out of all 94, these are two that you think are the best for us to try? Yes.

These were the two easiest things to build, and they sounded like they had

highest chance of success.

Grant swings into action on the rotating magnet device.

Apparently, this spinning magnet is ideal to stimulate that half -hertz

resonance, as long as you get the speed spot on.

In fact, it's got to go really slow.

Which means one revolution every two seconds.

That's about right.

Meanwhile, Tari is struggling with the concept of the pulsed air machine.

I'm building a subliminal acoustic simulator now.

Generator. Manipulator.

Nervous system.

I'm manipulating the nervous system, and what I'm trying to do is manipulate

that frequency by changing the atmospheric pressure.

Torrey might not be able to say subliminal atmospheric acoustic pulses,

can rig up a fan to make them.

All right, so I've installed my wind interrupter, and I'm about to attach the

fan. And if you want to take a look here, I'll show you how it works. Each

this disc rotates, it'll break the airstream.

The fan blows air exactly once every two seconds. The magic half -hertz cycle

that causes sensory resonance in the subject.

But unfortunately, the rig sucks.

Literally. Oh, man.

Sucking out instead of blowing in.

Tori Flick. The fan, that is.

Everything's in place for the great mind control marathon.

Adam and Jamie know all about the Big Bang Theory.

For gratuitous use of TNT, look no further.

Well, there's your problem.

But today, it's all about subtlety.

With a small -scale mock -up, they're using their explosive mouse to paint a

-room house.

This blast chamber will contain the explosions, and the white walls will

illustrate the paint coverage.

That's beautiful.

Adam, inspired by yesterday's state -of -the -art binary explosive and firing

system, designs his own ignition switch.

With standard 5 -gram packets of black powder and a set volume of paint, the

determining factor will be the delivery device.

Their first test is a control using a replica of Mr.

Bean's bucket bomb.

A repeat of yesterday's results, and they know their scale setup is accurate.

three, two, there's just as likely nothing's going to happen, but here we

One.

Yay!

That was fabulous.

Well... All right.

Oh.

I didn't get to see this. That's great.

Yep. With 40 % of the rooms splattered unevenly, they've made the same mess as

yesterday. Here's what I'd like to do. I think you've got a couple of ideas and

I've got a couple of ideas. I'd like to make, using the five grams of powder,

I'm going to try something.

Okay. And why don't you try something and we'll run a couple more tests.

You can easily fit it in before the end of the day and...

See if we can't get better coverage. Okay.

So Adam and Jamie are two devotees of detonation face -off for a blast -off.

Adam's approach utilizes tubes of paint with a straw packed with black powder

suspended in the middle.

In three, two, one.

That was a little more energetic.

That was.

Well, I definitely got the middle of the room.

Yeah, take a look at that.

It's almost like... Just looking at this band where my charge was, that in order

to use this method to paint the whole room, you'd need a column of paint and

explosives the height of the exact room.

Jamie's idea is based on the mortar. A metal vessel will hold and direct the

paint. An explosive charge beneath the paint will provide the spray.

Here we go. In three, two, one.

Well, that worked just like you said it would.

Well, not perfectly even, but that's the most even spray that we got.

So it's clear that making something very directional, like a cannon, is somewhat

effective. It's time to scale up. Adam had some good information for his tube

paint idea. And Jamie's beret brain is bubbling away with grand designs

involving clusters of pyramid -shaped mortars.

Our mind control masterminds have turned M5 into a psychic observation center.

They've built an isolation chamber and several mind control devices, which

they're about to test with the help of an EEG machine.

Behind me here, we have mission control.

We have our audio and visual feed, so we can see exactly what's going on with

our subject inside the isolation chamber.

We also have a monitor, which is going to show us their brain waves, and we can

see if there's any sort of odd activity when we're doing our tests.

Everything is set, but before they try the mind control devices, Carrie

volunteers to make sure the EEG machine works.

But she could be in for a shock.

Hand me a bobby pin. I'll tie this in a knot.

Stylist Grant Imahara has come up with a new look, which involves electrodes and

conductive paste.

You're doing great, Carrie. You're really... Dude, you sound like the

You're doing great. Whenever they're putting you through something painful.

Okay, so now we're going to do your ear. It's going to be weird. Ready?

You just chill out here.

And relax.

I'll let you know when it's done.

Okay. As she settles, her neural activity decreases and stabilizes.

But with the baseline established, Tori and Grant can't resist playing mind

games with Carrie.

We can see what's going on in her brain.

Yeah, yeah, hang on.

Okay, ready? Go ahead.

Good. It's cool. It works.

Grant's seen enough. And what he's seen, he likes. We did see a huge spike in

the response when Tori kicked the door.

So that indicates that the system is working.

I'm glad we know how to use it now.

So it's all go for mind control. They have a working EEG machine that will

quantify any changes in the subject's brainwave activity.

An important consideration.

because the five devices may be having an effect without any visible outward

signs. Now all they need is an unsuspecting lab rat.

Here's one.

Terry, the M5 shop general.

I'm Terry. Hey, Terry, what's wrong? What are you doing? Would you please

be our subject for our experiment?

All you have to do is sit in there and relax.

You're good at that.

Okay. I'm a little high strung, but I think I can relax.

Okay.

Terry's led into the chamber with all the enthusiasm of a condemned man.

Okay? Okay. You ready? I'm ready for the gel. Here we go, dude. He doesn't have

a clue what's happening, but he's resigned to his fate.

It's just all of these work around here.

He's wired up to the EEG machine. Let the mind games begin. Good luck, my

friend.

How's it look?

Extremely relaxed.

He's got pretty low activity going on. After five minutes of zero stimulation,

the baseline is well established.

So Tari dons the psionic helmet and attempts to control Terry's mind.

Through the power of thought alone, Tari's trying to change the pattern of

Terry's brain waves, a result that will show up clearly on the EEG machine.

At first, it's a rerun of the cafe fiasco. Then there's a sudden spike in

activity.

I don't know. Something spiked.

I don't know where it went.

Yeah.

To see if the helmet just worked, the team must wait until the EEG data comes

back from the lab. But first impressions are that Terry may have fallen asleep.

If he is asleep, that little glitch could have just been a dream.

Or your psychic energy.

Possible.

During the final five minutes of zero stimulation, Terry's brainwaves continue

to do the labada.

You know, I wonder if Terry's mind is too advanced for the technology.

Or he could just be psychotic.

At the end of 20 minutes, he leaves the chamber and claims to have been

dreaming. I had a dream I was going straight in the left lane, and a big

-truck made a right.

I think we saw that right there. We saw you right before the accident. Yeah,

there was one point where everything was off the chart.

Grant sends off the data, and when the results come back, they make slightly

disturbing readings. His brain's freaking out our system.

Yeah. In particular, the theta waves, which are related to sleep, were way up

if he were asleep, actually. To begin with? Even from the beginning of the

He's like a walking zombie.

Torrey breaks the bad news.

You had your shot and you blew it.

So, step forward, John, the Mythbusters researcher.

It's time to get down to business.

He's the only one in M5 still in the dark about the mind control experiments.

So he qualifies for the job.

How do you feel about high voltage shock?

On myself or others?

That's the right answer. John might actually make mind control material.

After carefully replicating Mr.

Bean's painting with dynamite myth, Adam and Jamie have blown it away.

Right off the bat, Jamie, I think this one's busted.

But this explosive tale is not over yet. The guys believe they have the designs

to make it work.

Jamie is working on a cluster of five pyramid -shaped paint mortars, one for

each wall and the ceiling.

It's going to be basically a cluster of pyramids.

with an explosive at the point of each pyramid.

But crunching the numbers on this complicated piece of 3D geometry is

even for a beret -wearing engineering genius.

Meanwhile, Adam has built a pool raft for a short, thin person.

I've got to tell you, right off the bat, I'm really liking that.

See, what I'm thinking of is I use a thin strand of deck cord, which is

detonation cord or primacord. It's basically like an explosive rope.

It's an extremely high -speed detonation, which should vaporize the

more efficiently than black powder.

So what I do is I wrap several, like a gallon's worth of tubes of paint around

central core of dead cord, and the world is my oyster to paint.

Back with Jamie and his careful design work has paid off. Each set of four

triangles goes to make what is known in the industry as a pot.

in the pyrotechnics industry.

And the pot will have a charge at the bottom of it and a blob or a bag of

in front of it. And these things are fairly precisely calculated to aim that

paint when the explosive goes off out onto a wall.

That will weld together quite nicely.

I've worked on these kinds of things a number of times, usually on commercials.

And what these do typically are they directionalize the blast to make

specific happen.

Like if you want to blow a hood off a car, you would put one of these under

hood, and it would direct the blast upward.

After hours lathing over a hot welder, Jamie has the finished product.

A carefully crafted five -way tape mortar.

Well, should be fun.

Well, I guess it's time to get back out there.

Both of our devices are ready. All we've got to do is do a little bit of

rebuilding on that house.

Yeah, I've got my device, which is going to paint each individual wall a

separate color.

Because of that, I'm worried that you're actually going to blow out some of the

walls with this, so I'm going to...

Go mine first. The paint tubes, I think, should be the first test.

Well, we've got a lot of work to do. Let's get at it. All right, cool.

So it's back to Alameda County Bomb Disposal Range to meet Frank.

I'm glad they left the building roughly standing.

Where the house that Adam and Jamie built needs to be rebuilt.

This is, without a doubt, returning to the scene of the crime. I've got to

somehow make this building salvageable and reusable within the next 90 minutes.

The worst of the damage was to the drywall, so that has to come down.

Whatever you do, don't do this at home.

Don't do what at home?

Bang your head against the wall? Or tackle a demolition job on stilts? These

drywall stilts. These are specifically made for people to hang drywall and do

exactly what we're doing. And it means that I don't have to keep moving a

as I go around working up at a height. And they're really cool.

I'm not used to the terrain.

He may look like a newborn giraffe, but with screw gun in hand, Adam is on

sounder footing.

Could I have another string of nails?

And I need another sheet of drywall.

Managing just fine without stilts, Jamie has fixed up the roof. And using the

forklift, he slides it into place.

Oh, that is good stuff.

The room is ready.

Rescue Randy is ready, and Adam steps up to the plate.

This is my super simple solution for attempting to meet all the criteria that

see in the Mr. Bean episode, i .e., a perfectly evenly coated room, a perfect

outline of a person who was in that room, and a room that's still standing.

This is tubes of, I think this is 4 or 6 mil polyethylene.

Heat sealed into long tubes filled with paint. It's a half gallon up here and a

half gallon down here.

They're thinned down with water. And running up the center of them, this

stuff, I think it's a 50 -grain detonation cord.

Adam's bag of paint is in position.

And after the bomb techs prepare the detonation cord for the blasting cap,

ready to blow.

As the team hunker down in the bunker, there's time for an expert prediction

from Jamie.

What the hell do I know what kind of coverage this is going to do? There's

to be some paint that will get on the wall, and it's not going to be that

Painting with explosives in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Help.

Back in the realm of mental manipulation, and John the researcher is

lab rat.

The build team are attempting to bend his brainwaves from outside the

chamber. They have four mind control devices to try, but first they establish

his EEG baseline.

Five minutes without stimuli, and John's baseline is looking steady. Time to

fire up the first mind -molding machine.

The interrupter.

They run the pulsed air experiment for 10 minutes, keeping one eye on John's

behavior and the other on his brainwave patterns. These atmospheric pulses are

supposed to excite John's half -hertz sensory resonance. The effects can range

from sleepiness to sexual excitation. To Grant and Tori's untrained eye, John

appears unaffected. He hasn't fallen asleep.

and doesn't look excited. But for confirmation his brain waves haven't

affected, we'll have to wait for the EEG results to come back from the experts.

I feel good. Good.

Do you have the bees ready?

It's time for the rotating magnet. Just like the pulsed air machine, it's

supposed to excite the half -hertz sensory resonance.

So Tori and Grant are once again looking for changes in either John's brainwave

activity or his behavior. But once again, John looks unmoved. Two tests

and the only sign of a result are Tori's delusions of power.

Don't change the channel.

Back at the psychic circus, Grant and Tori have subjected John to the rotating

magnet and pulsed air. Next up is the subliminal sound device. This device

apparently works by sending out a secretly encrypted audio message that

be heard by the unconscious mind.

Give Tori your money.

Give Tori your money.

Realizing this suggestion won't lead to an immediate visible result, Tori

changes tack.

Go.

Touch nose.

Touch nose.

Touch nose.

Eight minutes in, and it's Tori, not John, who starts to crack.

Touch your nose, you little punk.

I swear to God, you better touch your nose.

Touch nose.

Touch nose.

Touch nose.

Don't make me come in there. Touch your nose. John's nose remains untouched, and

it's time for the final test.

Next is Carrie's electronic hypnosis. This flashing light and tone apparently

combine to induce an hypnotic state, which we'll be able to see on the EEG.

thing we're going to do is make the pitch a little bit lower now, because

now it's kind of annoying and fast.

There's a jump in his brainwave.

This time, John's brainwaves are clearly affected.

And distracted by the pulsing tone themselves, Tori and Grant miss what

the most significant result of the experiment so far.

John touches his nose. Was it a delayed reaction to the subliminal sound? Or

just an itch? The jury assembles, and it's time for the result.

I gotta tell you.

I really thought this was going to be a pyramid power waste of your time, but it

sounds like you might have gotten some real results on this mind control thing.

First one up is psionic helmet.

Psionic helmet totally works.

No. No, I'm just kidding.

No, until you can prove ESP.

You're not going to be able to test this one, so we're calling this one busted.

Not surprisingly, a crystal mounted on a bicycle helmet does not give the wearer

a third eye. Okay, pulsed air. The pulsed air, it didn't show any effects

brainwaves, and there's no real scientific evidence that proves that it

So, so far, it's a waste of time. The results from the EEG experts showed the

rotating magnet may have had an effect on John's brainwaves. Rotating magnet.

Now, the rotating magnet actually did have an effect on... John's brain waves

while it was spinning.

However, there's a slight possibility that it was affecting the EEG itself.

There is scientific evidence to say that direct electrical stimuli can influence

behavior. So we're going to call this one plausible.

So with the score at two busted and one plausible, what were the results for

silent sound?

Although John did eventually touch his nose, it was during the final test with

the hypnotizer. Plus, the expert analysis of the EEG readings came back

negative, proving silent sound is busted, and it really was just an itch.

hypnosis. Well, we did see a change in John's brain wave. There's evidence to

suggest that remote hypnosis does work, so this one is also plausible.

But it's a really limited effect. And like all of these mind control devices,

they're not sophisticated enough to, say, make you buy more popcorn or drink

more soda.

Or kill the president.

Yeah. So that's it. We can all sleep safely in our beds. The final score is

three busted, two plausible. And one more mind -boggling myth laid to rest.

Jamie and Adam are having a blast.

Their quest to paint with explosives.

has led to two very different designs.

Adam is first, and he's painting by numbers. The numbers are... Five, four,

three, two, one.

I see a lot of green.

And the building's still standing.

Well, that's good. That is a very good thing.

Let's go look. Are we clear to look?

Let's have a look.

Well, there's paint on all the cameras.

But what about the walls?

Oh, man.

Yep, the walls have a coat of paint, but is it any good?

I thought it would be a little better than that. The detonation cord looks

it was ideal.

It spread the paint in a fine mist without damaging the walls. But it's not

perfect paint job. Coverage, total crap, unfortunately.

Yep, that we can see. So how about some analysis?

You think that...

It makes sense to your brain that you get some dynamite near paint and that

paint's just going to go everywhere.

But in fact, actually, it's quite obvious from looking at this.

From the explosion, there's a pressure wave and it travels in a very

pattern, 360 degrees from the point of detonation.

And if you don't have paint in its way all the way around in equal amounts,

you're going to get screwed. I'm hoping that fans have a real problem with this

and email everybody about it so we get to revisit it.

Before you send in those emails, Jamie still has to launch his pyramid paint

bomb. Are you ready to set up yours?

Yeah.

Mythbuster pride is on the line.

Jamie and his pyramid paint bomb is the team's last chance for success.

Precision is the cornerstone of Jamie's design.

And as the actress said to the bishop, Dude, one more inch.

That's dead center.

Next, our explosive experts help give this paint bomb its bang.

Through each of the five pots, they feed separate pieces of detonation cord. The

blast is concentrated by tying them into a knot.

Now to load the ammunition.

Are you going to try and coat each one a different color?

That's the plan.

Excellent.

With five half -gallon paint bombs ready to pop, Jamie carefully tapes them into

position. How's it going, neighbor?

I'm going to paint my house. You better clear out.

You're going to paint your house with explosives?

That's crazy!

All five mortars are ready to fire.

I think we're good to go. Let's get out of here.

And Jamie is as proud as Punch.

One of the most wonderful things about the work is that oftentimes we're

to do things that nobody else has ever done before.

And, I mean, the explosives guys are looking at this and going like, wow,

pretty cool.

Back in the bunker, and Jamie's creation gets a MythBuster moniker. The flower

of death.

Los flores de los muertos.

That's it. Okay.

Are you ready?

Yeah. Los catadores de mito.

Let's go. Okay.

Stop talking. Plug in.

This is it. With the system hot, the flower of death loaded, Jamie just needs

count back.

Three, two, one.

The remote cameras take one for the team. But the force of the blast means

pictures are inconclusive. And the view from the bunker is Jamie's pyramids

ain't so great.

The window looks pretty red.

Yeah, it doesn't look like it did what I wanted it to do from here. But let's go

find out.

That's horrible.

Dude. That is not at all effective.

No, it's actually a fantastic way to do.

Abstract expressionist painting.

This is a masterpiece in here.

I swear to God. Really, this is Jackson Pollock through and through and through.

Each wall actually is like a different phase of his career.

Adam is obviously talking complete Pollock.

Let's see if Jamie has some science for us. The only thing that I can see that's

some sort of indication of what actually happened is that we've got more or less

a vertical stripe here, a vertical stripe here, a vertical stripe here. I

it did directionalize the paint. It just didn't spread it. There was direction,

but each of the five colors hit its target wall with a splat rather than a

spray. So Adam's patchy undercoat of green is still clearly visible.

Basically, you won't be picking up Janie's flower of death or Adam's bag of

paint at your local hardware store anytime soon. With another couple of

four or five more full -scale explosions, we might get pretty close to

that did some kind of reasonable complete coverage of the walls, but it's

going to leave debris and shrapnel and all sorts of stuff.

This proves to me that there is no way.

To viably paint your house with explosives, much as you would like to

So, our experiment in home improvement with dynamite, painting with explosives,

what's the verdict?

Mr. Bean version, busted.

Our version was also busted.

Yeah, I think the best that can be said about what we achieved was that you

found a stunning way to make instant modern art. Yep, but it's still busted.

Yeah, it's busted.