Original subtitles

[Dan narating on screen text]

[mysterious music]

- What if I told you

the fate of an entire World War I army battalion

rested on the wings of an unexpected warrior?

- They take this last carrier pigeon and send Cher Ami off.

- The Germans immediately fire on this bird.

[guns blasting]

- He's bloody, he's battered,

and its leg is now hanging on by a thread.

- Or there once lived a pig with a heart of gold

and a strange superpower.

- Lulu waddles up to Jo Ann

and realizes her human needs help.

- So Lulu employs the one trick

that she's got up her sleeve.

- How about some very unconventional lifesavers?

- They're locked out, and baby Dallas is inside.

[baby crying]

- The baby is crying harder and harder.

[baby crying]

- [J. Mack] Nearby, there are a bunch of convicts

doing road work.

- The parents were thinking it's going from bad to worse,

'cause now, one of the prisoners

starts moving quickly towards the car.

- These are the stories of heroes so unlikely,

they are truly unbelievable.

[lively dramatic music]

In the chaos of World War I, when all seems lost,

one unlikely hero steps up, defying the odds

and charging headfirst into danger

to prove that even the smallest of creatures

can carry the weight of a nation.

[tense dramatic music]

- It's late 1918 in the Argonne Forest.

The United States military,

with French allies and Siamese allies,

have launched the Meuse-Argonne offensive,

[gun blasts]

the largest ground defensive operation

in which the American military has ever participated.

[heavy artillery booming]

- At this point, the Allied soldiers,

totaling 1.2 million troops,

move in to try to push the Germans back.

- The Germans have held this forest for four years,

and the Allies know that they're not gonna get this back

without a serious fight.

[heavy artillery booming]

- On October 2nd, thousands of troops are sent forward

to attack the Germans.

[explosion blasts]

Among them are 554 men

of the American 77th Infantry Division.

Leading them is Major Charles Whittlesey.

- As Whittlesey leads his troops forward

through the dense forest,

they suddenly get separated from other Allied forces.

- And before long, they find themselves behind German lines

and surrounded on all sides.

[explosion blasts]

- [Dan] Things quickly go from bad to worse

when they're detected by the enemy.

- So once they're spotted,

the Germans start throwing grenades in at them

and shooting flamethrowers at them.

[rousing dramatic music]

But then they also have friendly fire

coming from other Allied forces

that are trying to shoot those German soldiers.

[cannon booms]

- [Yohuru] Because radio is in its infancy and quite

unreliable, there's no way for them to radio back to command

to let them know their location.

- [Dan] Out of options and under pressure,

the military turns

to a different kind of communication strategy.

[birds flapping]

- [Rutledge] So 600 carrier pigeons were drafted

and trained in the US

before they were sent over to be used in the war.

The carrier pigeon's job is to aid

in battlefield communications.

- Pigeons are fairly low-maintenance.

They don't need to be fed much.

They're great at remembering physical landmarks

and successful at delivering a message

from point A to point B.

- And because they're really fast flyers,

they can deliver a message much faster

than anybody on a motorbike or on a horse, or on foot.

- [Dan] Luckily, on this particular mission,

the Lost Battalion have with them eight carrier pigeons.

[tense uneasy music]

- [Edward] Whittlesey and his men scrawl short notes on paper

and roll them up and put them in canisters,

which they attach to the pigeons' ankles.

- [Martin] The pigeons are then one after the other released,

hoping that they will make it back to their roost

and pass on the message

about the location of the Lost Battalion.

[birds flapping]

- Unfortunately, the Germans know that the Allies

are using carrier pigeons to communicate,

and they've trained sharpshooters to take them down.

- And so one after the other, they release seven pigeons

that are brought down by German fire.

[guns blasting]

This is to the great frustration of Whittlesey and his men,

who are isolated, surrounded,

and under constant enemy and friendly artillery fire.

- [Dan] Now all hope rests on the one carrier pigeon

the Americans have left.

His name is Cher Ami, which means "dear friend" in French.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Rutledge] So they take this last carrier pigeon, Cher Ami,

and they write a note.

It's got their position, the Germans' position,

and a note that says, "Please, for God's sake,

stop firing on us."

And then they send Cher Ami off.

[bird flapping]

- Almost as soon as he takes off, the Germans spot him,

and they immediately fire on this bird, and they hit him.

[gun blasting]

- Cher Ami's been shot in the breast, lost his right eye,

and his leg, where the message canister is being held,

is almost completely severed

and is now hanging on by a thread.

- [Martin] Everyone's hopes are completely dashed by it

because now they know, "We can't communicate.

We're just gonna sit here until the enemy either overruns us

or our own artillery kills us."

- [Dan] The soldiers' future seems dim,

but Cher Ami is one tough little pigeon.

- Somehow, he musters the energy to fly again.

- He's bloody, he's battered.

His leg is hanging on by a thread,

yet he still perseveres through 25 miles of enemy territory

to successfully deliver the message.

- Three days later, thanks to Cher Ami,

200 men from the Lost Battalion are rescued.

Now, Cher Ami was given a prosthetic leg

and sent home to the States,

where it was given a hero's welcome.

- He's awarded the coveted oak leaf medal

for having delivered the message

that saved the Lost Battalion.

And after his death, he was stuffed

and maintained at the post library at Fort Monmouth.

- [Dan] Cher Ami's bravery is a testament to the belief

that there is no such thing as an impossible mission.

But he's far from the first lifesaving little soldier.

[dramatic orchestral music] [soldiers yelling]

- [Mitch] It is May of 1861.

Abe Lincoln calls for volunteers to fight

in the War of the States against the Confederacy.

- And men all over the North wanna be part of this effort,

but there are also younger people

that try to get involved in the war cause.

- There are no age limits to join the Confederate Army,

but the Union Army requires fighting men to be at least 18

and musicians bearing fife and drum to be at least 16.

[light thoughtful music]

- [Holly] In Newark, Ohio, little Johnny Clem is nine years

old, and he only stands about four feet tall,

but he really, really wants to be part of the war effort.

- What he lacks in size, Johnny makes up for in gumption.

He walks right over to the 3rd Ohio Regiment,

tries to enlist,

and is told, "Son, we are not enlisting infants."

- [Dan] But little Johnny Clem won't take no for an answer.

- Next, Johnny tries to enlist

with the 22nd Michigan Regiment,

and they won't let him fight.

But they do say that they can take him on,

kind of unofficially, as their drummer boy.

And he takes that deal.

So he kind of becomes the regiment's mascot.

[tense dramatic music] [soldiers yelling]

- [Martin] But then in September of 1863, the regiment is sent

to the border of the state of Tennessee and Georgia,

where it will participate in the Battle of Chickamauga,

one of the bloodiest engagements of the entire Civil War,

second only to Gettysburg in terms of casualties.

[dramatic orchestral music] [guns blasting]

- The Confederacy breaks through the Union line,

and there are so many losses

that the 22nd is finally put in a position

where they have no choice but to ask Johnny

to actually step into the role of a grown man.

- [Dan] Armed with only a musket

sawed off so he can carry it,

little Johnny Clem surges into battle.

- He's continuing to fight for one of the infantry companies

in the regiment, when he is left behind when they withdraw.

Because of this, he comes face-to-face

with a Confederate colonel.

[tense mysterious music]

- And the colonel looks at Johnny,

little 12-year-old boy with a sawed-off musket,

looked at him and starts laughing.

And he tells him, "Aren't you a bit young?

Why don't you put that down and just run along home?"

- Rather than dropping the weapon, though,

Johnny raises it, points it directly at the colonel, pulls

the trigger, and hits him in the middle of the chest.

After that, he drops it

and runs back to return to the company.

- And he makes it back to his unit unscathed.

But a lot of men are not this lucky.

Of the 455 men deployed with the 22nd Michigan,

389 are captured, wounded, or killed in battle.

- [Dan] Despite these heavy losses, Johnny presses on,

proving he's not just lucky; he's relentless.

[tense dramatic music]

- Turns out little Johnny has got a flair for fighting.

[gun blasts]

The tween hero sees action in places like Perryville,

Murfreesboro, Kennesaw, and Atlanta,

where he's wounded twice.

- He actually turns what people would think

was a disadvantage into an advantage.

He uses his short stature

to basically sneak around in these engagements.

He is the equivalent of a ninja on these battlefields.

- Johnny earns the nickname "Damn Little Yankee Devil"

by the Confederates

because he is a force to be reckoned with.

Johnny does such a great job

that he actually earns the rank of sergeant,

which is not a bad rank to achieve

all by the tender age of 13.

[dramatic orchestral music]

- [Dan] The young fighter commits his life to serving his

country and changes his name to John Lincoln Clem

in honor of the man who was president

when he first answered the call.

He retires in 1915 as a major general.

- Most retirees spend their golden years golfing

or binge-watching the latest crime dramas.

But one man's peaceful life takes an unexpected turn

when he finds himself face to face

with a threat that's anything but ordinary.

[tense uneasy music] [wind whistling]

- It is 5:00 a.m.,

and 69-year-old William Ayotte is awakened from his slumber

by some really weird sounds coming from outside.

- As he peers through his curtains in the predawn light,

he can actually make out a horrifying scene.

- Just 40 feet away from his front steps,

his neighbor, Erin, is being mauled by a bear.

- [Dan] And not just any bear,

a big, white, hungry polar bear.

[bear growls] [tense dramatic music]

- [Rutledge] Now, a polar bear might look cute in pictures,

[bears growling]

but in person, these things are eight feet tall,

up to 800 pounds of apex predator

with claws that would just shred right through you.

[bear growling]

- [Dr. Hakeem] The bear has Erin in its jaws by her head,

and he's swinging her back and forth like a rag doll.

William knows that she's not gonna last long like this.

- But he's also kind of frozen

because he isn't really prepared for an event like this.

He doesn't have any ready weapons.

- [Rutledge] Now, William knows this is a suicide mission,

but he tells himself,

"You're either gonna do something or you're not."

- William grabs a snow shovel, charges outside,

and stacks himself up against the bear.

- He's kind of waiting for his moment

'cause he knows the best place to hit this animal

is in the eye.

- [Dr. Hakeem] When the animal takes a look directly at him,

he swings that snow shovel right into that bear's face.

[shovel thuds] [bear growls]

And it's a direct hit, right in the bear's eye.

- [Holly] This stuns the bear.

He actually drops Erin, who is able to scramble to safety.

Now, William has become the target of this animal's ire.

[bear growling] [dramatic orchestral music]

- He starts mauling William with his claws.

So William starts playing dead.

- But the bear, he's intent on getting his lunch today,

and so he starts gnawing on that man's ear,

just like Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear off.

[bell dinging] [crowd cheering]

- William can feel the hot breath

and the tongue inside his ear.

He can feel the polar bear ripping his ear off.

[intense dramatic music]

- [Dan] Just in the nick of time,

one of William's neighbors rushes in

and revs his car engine to scare the bear away.

- When the neighbors get to him,

he's pretty confident that he's going to die.

- He asks his neighbors to prop him up

so he can die with dignity like a man,

rather than laying down on his face like an animal.

- But that's not what they do.

They pick William up, put him in the back of a pickup truck,

and drive him to the emergency room of the nearest hospital.

- It takes surgeons four hours

to attach his ear and staple him back up.

- In an interesting twist, when he is recuperating,

William is actually put in the room next to Erin's

while she is recuperating,

but it appears that the two of them

never really talk about the bear incident.

- [Dan] For his selfless act,

William earns the Star of Courage,

one of the highest honors of bravery in Canada.

The next tale: no medals, no press,

just ghosts with impeccable timing.

[tense mysterious music]

- [Nick] Captain Bob Loft and flight engineer Don Repo

are at the helm of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 from

JFK to sunny Miami, Florida.

- [Mitch] They're transporting 163 passengers

and 13 crew when a light goes off in the cockpit,

telling them that something is gravely wrong.

- [Nick] There's a malfunction somewhere in the landing gear.

They don't panic; they just engage the autopilot

while they try and fix the problem.

[alarm beeping] [suspenseful dramatic music]

- [Dr. Hakeem] Suddenly, the autopilot turns off

and the plane starts to descend rapidly.

And it's only after they hear the scream from the passengers

do they rush back to the cockpit.

- [Mitch] The ground is fast approaching,

and no matter what they do,

the pilots cannot course-correct in time.

[airplane engines roaring]

- [Dan] Flight 401 crashes into the Florida Everglades,

[explosion blasts]

19 miles from Miami, going 227 miles an hour.

[tense somber music]

- [Nick] 101 of the 176 people on board are killed,

including Captain Bob Loft and flight engineer Don Repo.

At the time, Flight 401

is the second-deadliest air crash in US history.

- After investigations of the crash were complete,

it was discovered that Captain Loft

incidentally bumped into the yoke,

which caused the autopilot to disengage.

- [Dan] The crash was no longer a mystery,

but what started happening on other flights sure was.

- [Mitch] On subsequent Eastern Airlines flights,

people report receiving visits from the deceased crew.

These reports come from passengers

and flight crew members alike.

- The two ghosts reported most often, Bob Loft and Don Repo.

- [Dan] Don't worry, they're not here to haunt.

They're here to help.

- [Nick] Prior to takeoff, one pilot reports

the ghostly apparition of Don Repo in the cockpit,

warning him of an impending mechanical failure

relating to the autopilot.

- [Mitch] The pilot checks, and they do in fact discover

a problem with the autopilot function.

They fix it, and the flight continues as planned.

[tense mysterious music]

- [Mitch] Another pilot reports that while going through

incredible turbulence,

when the plane is bucking like a bronco,

he suddenly gets this very reassuring feeling.

- [Nick] The pilot manages to land the aircraft safely,

and he credits this calm feeling that descended over him

just when it was needed most.

And who does he give the credit to for that?

Bob Loft.

- One flight attendant reported

having an extended conversation with Don Repo

when he suddenly just vanished right before her eyes.

- [Mitch] She is so unnerved that she quits the field,

but later she is able to recognize

Don Repo from a photograph.

- [Dan] What may be more unbelievable

is that all of these sightings have one thing in common.

- The strange sightings only occur on aircraft

that were using the salvaged parts from Flight 401.

[tense mysterious music]

- [Dr. Hakeem] Finally, Eastern Airlines removes all the parts

from all the planes that 401 was incorporated in,

and at that point, the sightings stop.

- Eastern Airlines ceases operations in 1991.

Yet stories of the heroic ghost pilots

of Flight 401 live on.

[dramatic orchestral music]

- Traditionally, parents are meant to look after

and protect their children,

but when a tornado blows through an Oklahoma town,

one heroic nine-year-old flips the script.

[tense dramatic music] [siren blaring]

- It's a Saturday in May 2024

in the small town of Dixon, Oklahoma,

right in the middle of what is known as Tornado Alley.

[intense dramatic music]

This particular day sees a outbreak of many tornadoes,

and they're bad, some as bad as F4.

[wind rumbling]

- The winds in a single F4 tornado are catastrophic,

strong enough to destroy major steel structures

and uproot big trees.

- [Dan] Local residents Linda and Wayne Baker

know they cannot stay home,

so they grab their nine-year-old son, Branson,

and head for safety.

[ominous dramatic music]

- A family friend has a storm cellar in nearby Marietta,

so that's where they're headed.

Parents are in the front seat, and Branson is in the back.

- Through the windshield, Wayne, Lindy, and Branson

can see several tornadoes ahead of them.

They turn, but the tornadoes turn with them,

and now they're barreling right towards them.

- They start to hear the truck

actually be pelted with debris.

It sounds like glass shards or pebbles are hitting them,

and Wayne floors it.

[car engine revving]

But the bottom line is you cannot really outrun a tornado,

and soon this vehicle is picked up like a toy.

[wind whistling] [tense suspenseful music]

- They hear a massive boom,

[explosion booms]

and then all falls silent.

[sparse uneasy music]

- Lindy and Wayne are trapped and badly hurt.

Lindy, who's in the passenger seat,

she's even got a punctured lung.

Of course, they're still concerned about Branson,

and they're calling out to him.

- [Dan] Miraculously, Branson is okay.

- He's able to crawl through the mangled truck

to reach his parents, and he can see out the window

the predicament they're in.

[tense ominous music]

- Branson says to his parents, "I'll be back.

Please don't die."

- [Dr. Hakeem] The kid is scared out of his mind,

but somehow he musters up the courage,

and he just takes off.

- [Holly] Branson is running through

essentially a natural disaster war zone.

There are downed power lines.

There's debris everywhere,

but he is absolutely focused on getting some help.

[rousing dramatic music]

- [Dan] Branson runs a mile in under 10 minutes,

finds a nearby neighbor,

and brings them back to the mangled truck on foot.

- [Dr. Hakeem] When the rescue crews get there,

thankfully, Lindy and Wayne are still alive,

and they owe their survival to their son, Branson.

- [Dan] But Branson's not done saving the day yet.

Turns out he has one more rescue mission in him.

- Wayne and Lindy are taken to the hospital

and are given treatment, but they're both contractors,

which means that they can't work to earn money

while they're in the hospital recovering.

- Branson persuades his baseball team to hold an event,

and they raise over $10,000 to cover his parents' expenses

while they recuperate.

[bright thoughtful music]

- [Dan] At the charity game,

the small but mighty Branson hits a home run

and dedicates it to his parents.

It's that kind of undying devotion

that drives our next improbable hero.

[bright lively music]

- For her 40th birthday, Jo Ann Altman gifts her daughter

this adorable Vietnamese pot-bellied piglet

named Lulu.

The mom thinks this is gonna be a great gift,

but the daughter,

not so much.

- One weekend, she asks her mom to babysit the pig

while she goes out of town,

and then she never comes back to claim the pig. [chuckles]

[light thoughtful music]

- So Jo Ann and her husband gladly take Lulu in

because, I mean, she's family.

- [Dan] Life with Lulu settles into a comfortable rhythm

until a quiet getaway in August 1998

takes an unexpected turn.

- The family's on vacation at a lakefront trailer park.

Jo Ann rises early to see her husband

go off to go fishing for the day,

so she starts making breakfast for herself

when all of a sudden, she starts

not feeling all that well.

[tense uneasy music]

- Jo Ann gets really dizzy

and ends up collapsing to the floor.

She has this terrible pain in her chest,

and it's obvious she's having a heart attack.

- She can't move, and the closest phone

that she has available to her is in the trailer park office,

which is a few hundred yards away.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Dan] As Jo Ann's thinking, "I'm gonna die alone,"

Lulu the pig springs into action.

- Lulu waddles up to Jo Ann, sniffs her,

and realizes something is wrong.

Her human needs help.

- She needs human help.

So Lulu is trying to figure out, "Well, where can I go

to find humans?"

And she figures out, "I gotta get outside."

So Lulu looks at the door and assesses the doggy door flap.

- Knowing Jo Ann's life is at stake,

Lulu squeezes herself through the doggy door,

and even though it's tight, she struggles and gets out.

Gathering her courage,

she then walks out to the middle of the road.

- And when she's out there, Lulu employs the one trick

that she's got up her sleeve.

Lulu lays down and plays dead.

- [Dr. J Mack] Lulu's in this dead piggy position,

but the cars, they don't stop.

They just slow down a little bit, look at it,

wonder what's going on, and keep going.

After no one stops

for what feels like forever in pig minutes,

she ends up going back to Jo Ann

to check on her in the trailer.

- [Dan] For 45 minutes,

Lulu pushes herself through the tiny dog door,

back and forth from the trailer to the road,

desperate to find someone who will stop and help.

- Lulu is just frantic, doesn't know what to do.

She knows that Jo Ann is getting worse,

and she's like, "I gotta go out one last time

and find somebody."

- But this time, she scrapes her potbelly

so bad on the doggy door that it opens a wound,

and she starts to bleed.

- When Lulu sees a pickup approaching,

she lays on the ground and plays dead

right in front of that moving vehicle.

She's bleeding from her belly all over the asphalt.

Amazingly, the bleeding is enough

to finally get this driver to stop.

- [Sami] She springs up,

and she leads the guy over back to the trailer.

All the while, the man is screaming,

"I think there's something wrong with your pig!

I think your pig is in distress!"

- [Dr. J Mack] Still conscious, Jo Ann calls back

that she's in huge trouble

and they need to get to the trailer park phone

and call for help.

[siren wailing]

- Paramedics are able to arrive

and get Jo Ann to a nearby hospital.

- Jo Ann has open-heart surgery,

and thankfully, she pulls through with flying colors.

- Lulu is awarded the Tiffany and Company Angel Medal

by the ASPCA and gets awarded with all sorts of sweet treats

and jelly donuts.

[intense dramatic music]

- From unwanted piggy to neighborhood hero,

her name should be spoken along with all the greats:

Babe, Wilbur, Miss Piggy,

and Lulu.

- We all have hidden talents, maybe a couple of magic tricks,

shadow puppetry, even parkour.

For one unlikely hero, his special skill

is called on to save a life,

even though it's technically a felony.

[tense thoughtful music]

- In 2019, a couple is driving through Florida

with a crying baby in the back seat.

The wife tells the husband to pull over so they can get out

and attend to Baby Dallas, who's inconsolable.

- [Dr. J Mack] The parents open up the front door,

close the front door, and go to open up the back door,

and realize that the keys are inside.

They're locked out, and Baby Dallas is inside.

[baby crying] [tense dramatic music]

- It's getting hot in the car.

The baby is crying harder and harder,

and the parents really don't know what to do.

- This is a bad situation for Baby Dallas.

Temperatures being too high in the body

can end up leading to some really serious outcomes,

including heatstroke and death.

[police radio chattering]

- [Dan] When police arrive,

they can't get the door open either.

That's when help comes from the most unexpected place.

[tense mysterious music]

- Nearby, there are a number of workers in uniform,

black and white striped uniforms,

because they're actually convicts outside doing labor.

- During the commotion,

one of the inmates goes up to a nearby car

and talks to the driver,

and is given, of all things, a wire hanger.

- I'm sure the parents were thinking

it's going from bad to worse because now,

these convicts are walking up to the car.

But he shapes up the coat hanger,

and he goes to work to try to break into the car.

- Meanwhile, the other convicts

are chiming in with their own advice.

- [Dan] But he doesn't need their help

because he has his own checkered past as a carjacker.

[tense suspenseful music]

- There, after about five minutes,

that noise that everyone was waiting to hear, that click

of the doors being unlocked, happens.

- [Shadow] Oh, yes!

Thank God!

Whoo!

Thank you so much.

- Nice job, boys. - Appreciate it.

- The carjacker has been able to utilize

his illicit knowledge for good.

- Unlock them damn doors.

Don't ever lock them again.

- The parents and baby are reunited,

and they're back on the road in short order.

- [Shadow] Honey, was that stressful?

[baby crying]

- Mom is so grateful that she ends up donating

to the convicts' commissary funds.

- [Shadow] Thank you.

You guys have a great day.

- Hey, it's not every day your baby gets rescued

by the best car thieves in Florida.

Here's another tale of being in the right place

at the right time.

[suspenseful electronic synth music]

- [Kavitha] It's London, 1966.

Just four months before the World Cup

is set to be held in England.

People are flocking to get a glimpse of the World Cup trophy

that's on display at Westminster Exhibition Hall.

- On March 20th, just the second day of the exhibition,

the cup suddenly goes missing.

- The cup was stolen from this case between 11:00

and 12:00 o'clock this morning.

The thieves broke in by forcing the padlock

on the back of the building

without attracting the attention of two security guards

who were on duty in the building.

- Naturally, the World Cup organization, a.k.a. FIFA,

is livid.

How are you gonna let the World Cup get stolen

only two days after you put it on display?

- [Dan] With no solid leads,

police are running out of options

until a break in the case comes from a surprising source.

- Dave Corbett is about to take his dog out for a walk

in South London.

His dog is a very excited Border Collie named Pickles.

[suspenseful orchestral music]

- Dave opens the front door, and Pickles just takes off.

So Dave's running after him with his leash,

wondering where this dog is off to.

- Pickles is going crazy.

Something by his neighbor's car

has really caught Pickles' attention.

- Dave approaches the car to see what Pickles is on about,

and he sees something rather peculiar.

- Lying there, right next to his neighbor's tire,

is a package that is tightly wrapped in newspaper

with string around it.

- Dave tears off a piece of the newspaper wrapping,

and when he sees what's inside, he can't believe his eyes.

- [Dan] It is the World Cup, found in the most unlikely way,

courtesy of a determined Border Collie.

- [Sami] Dave grabs the statue,

runs to the nearest police station,

slams the World Cup trophy on the sergeant's desk,

and goes, "I think I found the World Cup."

[lively orchestral music] [camera shutter clicking]

- Clearly, the police are very curious as to how he got it.

They question him extensively

and eventually rule him out as a suspect.

- When Dave arrives back to his home,

there is a massive media frenzy outside of his door.

- [Dan] But the press is not there for Dave.

- [Dan] They're interested in Pickles.

- [Dan] Everyone wants a picture of the hero pooch

who saved the day.

[camera flash clicking]

- Pickles turned out to be a source of good luck too,

because somehow, England goes on

to win the World Cup that year.

- [Dan] As for the thief, that stayed a mystery for decades

until a long-buried family secret comes to light.

- Finally, in 2017, the nephew of a London gangster

named Sidney Cugullere confirms to the newspapers

his uncle took the World Cup on a lark.

- [Dan] Dave may have claimed the $5,000 reward,

but it's Pickles who steals the spotlight,

earning a year's supply of dog food

and a starring role in the film "Spy with a Cold Nose."

- They came to see the animals of the zoo,

but what this family witnessed was something wild all right,

just not in the way they expected.

[tense suspenseful music]

- It's a sunny day in 1996 in Chicago.

Families were out enjoying a lovely day

at the Brookfield Zoo.

[bear growls] [children screaming]

- One mom in particular is hoping that the zoo

will keep her own wild child entertained,

and it seems to be doing the trick.

[bystanders gasping]

The pair wander to and from many different animal exhibits

while the child points

and talks excitedly about what he's seeing.

[bird chittering]

- This kid is getting as close to the animals

as he possibly can, and the mom is thankful

for the guardrails that are keeping him safe.

- [Dan] As they approach a popular exhibit,

the Western Lowland gorilla pit,

one great ape in particular catches the boy's eye.

[tense uneasy music]

- [Dr. Thor] Her name is Binti Jua,

and she is a full-grown eight-year-old female gorilla,

very powerful and arguably the star of the exhibit.

- [Rutledge] Lowland gorillas are known to be really strong.

They're usually a couple hundred pounds

and very protective of their surroundings.

Now, this goes double for Binti because she just had a baby.

- The boy is spellbound by Binti,

so he leans over to get a closer look at her.

[tense suspenseful music]

- [Dan] In seconds, the boy goes from standing

on the outside of the barrier

to falling inside the 20-foot gorilla pit.

[mom screaming] [gorilla yelling]

- [Dr. J Mack] The mom goes into a panic.

She's looking down, and her baby is unconscious

in the bottom of a gorilla pit!

[dramatic orchestral music]

- [Dr. Thor] To make matters worse,

there are seven massive primates

in the pit with him, and they might not be very happy

about this unexpected guest dropping in.

- [Dr. J Mack] The mom is screaming,

the crowd is screaming.

Everybody's trying to get one of the zoo employees

to do something to help.

- [Cameraperson] Hey! Over here!

[tense dramatic music]

- [Dan] Just as the gorillas begin to process

that a human child has entered their enclosure,

Binti makes her way over to the boy

and begins to shout loudly and aggressively.

[gorilla yelling]

[intense dramatic music]

- The terrified mom and all the folks watching

are bracing themselves

as Binti edges closer and closer to the child.

- And her mind is going to the worst possible scenario,

where Binti rips her son to shreds before her eyes.

[mom screaming] [gorilla yelling]

- [Dan] But that isn't what happens.

Binti appears to be yelling at the other gorillas

to stay away.

- Binti then takes the boy, who is still unconscious,

and puts him under her shoulder like a ragdoll,

and then runs toward the enclosure door

and sets him down right next to it

so the zookeepers can get him out of there.

Amazingly, the boy not only survives,

he comes through with only a couple of cuts to his face

and a broken hand.

- The zoo officials suggest that one of the reasons

Binti might have been so gentle

with the boy during this incident was the fact that Binti

was actually hand-fed and raised by human zookeepers.

So there is a possibility that there's a little soft spot

in her heart for humans.

[soft thoughtful music]

- [Dan] Not the babysitter she expected,

- Wanna talk about heroes?

Raising kids is not easy for a single mom,

especially if you're raising children

who may one day grow up and try to eat you.

- It's August 2008, and rural Kansas might seem like

a strange place for Bengal tigers,

but at the Safari Zoological Park,

three beautiful female tigers are born.

Their names are Nasira, Anjika, and Sidani.

- [Dr. Thor] Sadly, though, within 15 hours,

[tiger cub screeches]

the tiger mother abandons her triplets.

She has the tiger equivalent of postpartum depression

and can't be made to care.

- The cubs need a mother,

but unfortunately, the zoo is on

the brink of financial collapse,

and they can't afford to bring in

another Bengal tiger to nurse them.

- [Dan] Then, as all hope seems lost,

a golden hero emerges to save the day, the cubs,

and the park.

- [Dr. Thor] Enter Isabella for the win.

She is the zoo owner's one-year-old Golden Retriever,

and she obviously doesn't care about the species divide.

- [Kavitha] Isabella begins taking care of the tigers

just like they're her own.

She licks them and even nurses them with her own milk.

They start out at about 11 pounds,

but that won't last long.

- Under the care of their adopted mom,

they quickly become about 140 pounds apiece.

- [Dan] As for the Safari Zoological Park,

the unusual adoption is a major draw.

Ticket sales skyrocket, bringing in much-needed cash,

but as the tigers grow, so do some concerns.

[light pensive music]

- As the Bengal cubs' first birthday approaches,

experts warn the zookeepers

that the tigers still have predatory instincts,

and the older and larger they get,

the more dangerous things will become for Isabella.

- Though the tigers never raise a paw to their adopted mom,

the zoo feels it's better to be safe than sorry.

On June 25th, 2009, the large, furry family

celebrates one last day together

as a huge crowd watches them romp and play,

having one last hurrah.

- [Dan] Isabella's maternal instinct single-handedly saves

the zoo from financial ruin,

along with the lives of 150 animals,

who are able to thrive for years to come.

Our final hero, also of the four-legged variety,

faces a big disaster that will test its enormous heart.

[light tense music]

- It's 2004 in Phuket, Thailand,

and a little girl named Amber Owen

is there on holiday for Christmas

from England with her family,

and the resort they're in has a really cool extra attraction.

- For the kids' amusement,

there's a four-year-old elephant named Ning Nong,

and her young handler allows folks

to take pictures with Ning Nong.

The kids can take rides on her back,

and of course, everyone loves it.

- Amber's never seen a real elephant in real life before,

but when she sees Ning Nong,

it's like they connect instantly.

The two become inseparable, and Amber's thinking,

"This is like the best Christmas ever."

- [Dan] However, what begins as a dream vacation

for Amber's family is about to spiral into a nightmare.

- [Holly] At 7:58 a.m., 249 miles southwest of Phuket,

an earthquake registering 9.1 on the Richter scale

begins about 30,000 meters under the ocean.

[earthquake rumbles] [tense dramatic music]

- At 9:15 a.m., while Amber's sitting atop Ning Nong,

she notices that the sea has pulled out

really far back from the shore.

- [Eyewitness 1] Oh, my God! Look at that!

- [Eyewitness 2] I know. I can see it coming.

- When water pulls back from the beach like that,

that's a sign that a really bad tsunami

is about to come your way.

[ominous dramatic music] [waves crashing]

- [Eyewitness 1] Tsunami!

- [Eyewitness 2] Just look at that!

- In just a matter of minutes,

Phuket is completely engulfed in water.

[waves crashing]

- [Eyewitness] Get in, get in, get in!

- They get hit with a 100-foot rolling wall of water

that collapses buildings, destroys the city,

and kills around 100,000 people instantly.

[tense thoughtful music]

- [Dan] As the water recedes,

the destruction is catastrophic,

and Amber's mom fears the worst.

- She goes running through the hotel, screaming her name.

- [Holly] As she is yelling, getting no answer,

her fear heightens,

but then suddenly she hears the sound

any mother in that situation would yearn for:

it's Amber, and she's okay.

Amber tells her mom that as that water

was being pulled out to sea,

Ning Nong started acting really weird.

She suddenly turned and ran with Amber on her back

as far away from the beach as she possibly could.

She got Amber to safety and saved her life.

[tense electronic synth music]

- Whether it's a bird with a mission,

a convict with a cause, or a ghost with unfinished business,

these are the stories of heroes so unlikely

they can only be called unbelievable.