Original subtitles

This is home. I'm a complete lunatic.

Yeah!

This is the last guy standing.

Let's see who can come out here and survive or suffer,

depending on your point of view, the longest.

I guess this is it.

Game's on.

It was just the feeling of complete vulnerability.

Truly the scariest night of my life.

-Hey, bear. -I'm done, dude.

Come get me.

I will not spend another night in there.

Makes you really question what--

what the I was thinking.

I just wanted to do better.

I just want something edible.

It's all about having food production out here.

I'm not very well nourished right now.

Bone dead cold.

Just trying to get through the night right now.

This place has just driven me into the ground.

There's just no end in sight.

♪ ♪

I'm disappointed, but I'm not embarrassed.

I was worried about my safety.

What if something happens?

I want my son to have his dad.

My little girl needs her dad.

Of course, my wife's pregnant.

So I'm going home.

I mean, you know, you feel like a complete failure,

but it's not worth the risk to me to get hurt.

I got too many people that count on me.

I hate that it was so fast,

but there's nothing I can do about that.

It is what it is at this point.

But I'm big enough to admit that I was scared less,

and that's why I've got to leave.

I was glad I wasn't first.

You owe me one.

I was--

I don't know about you, but, like, when they dropped me off

and they left, I was trying to assess how I felt.

And immediately, as soon as I got out there, like--

I can't--I don't even know how to describe it.

Like, I kind of felt like...

the fight was already taken out of me

because I felt completely out of my element.

There are multiple bears down here.

Up here a little ways,

I found some other tracks.

They didn't really--

they really didn't look like bear tracks.

They look like...

dog tracks.

Like wolf.

You know, we chose to go out there by ourselves,

and we knew what it was.

Yeah.

But when I was faced

with the actual situation like that,

it kind of--

the reality of what we were doing

was more than just fun and games.

And then, right before I went to bed for that first night,

like, it was, like, the most awesome experience.

Like, you know, I'm sitting there,

I'm able to watch just the light fade away,

and, like, all you can hear is the ocean.

I've never felt two extremes of emotion

in such a short period of time ever in my entire life.

What was it like for you there when it got dark?

I didn't have a problem with it.

Like, I was actually able to go to sleep.

I felt--it was the most peaceful sleep

that I had when I started initially.

And I kind of felt something on my back,

and it immediately scared me, so I sat there.

As soon as I felt it, you know, I just--

Tighten up.

Yeah, I can't--

I mean, you can't even breathe.

And all I can hear is:

Like this. Just--

I'm terrified.

I'm starting to, like, try to grab for,

like, my bear spray,

and I'm sitting there sleeping

with my ax right next to me, and...

I'm grabbing them both,

and I'm, like, literally just laying there hoping

whatever it is doesn't just,

like, smash through this little blue tarp.

Hey, bear!

The amount of fear--

it was just the feeling of complete vulnerability.

And...

honestly, like, it made me sick to my stomach.

When you get that feeling, you better listen to your gut.

I had that gut feeling.

I told my family and my wife and my daughters

that I'd do it as long as it was safe,

and that didn't feel safe.

It was the second night,

and it hadn't been dark terribly long,

and I was in my shelter.

I was good, wrapped up in my sleeping bag.

And I think I just started to go to sleep.

You know, you hear something, and it's like,

you wake up and you're like, "Did I just hear that?"

And it sounded like a dogfight--

growling, snarling and, you know, going at it.

You could hear them knocking crap over

and crashing through the bush.

Me laying there in the absolute pitch black,

it sounded like they were on the other side of the canvas

from me.

And it was just--it was terrifyingly scary to me.

And so I'm sitting there with a can of pepper spray,

and I even had the little flare in my hand,

and I'm looking, and I'm thinking,

"What am I gonna do with this

"if these things come down here?

There's nothing I can do."

And that feeling of utter helplessness, really,

scared the out of me.

I mean, it was truly the scariest night of my life.

I mean, I'm with you.

That's all I needed. For me that was it.

That was my wall right there.

The guys that are still out there--

in my opinion, they're animals.

They really are.

I got nothing but respect for all of them.

That's the truth.

♪ ♪

There's my ride.

This is it for me.

I hate quitting.

I'm very disappointed.

I'm disappointed in myself like crazy.

More than I can explain.

If I can't even hold on to something as valuable

as a fire steel when I only have ten items,

do I even belong out here?

Honestly, I don't want to go, you know what I mean?

But without a fire steel, what am I gonna do?

Including me?

Are you serious?

Are you serious?

Holy--I thought I was the first for sure.

Welcome to the party, Joe.

What was the very first thing that you thought about?

This smells like rotting fish.

That's what it was.

Like, it really smells like bears

have been feeding around here.

Was there a lot of dead fish around?

Yeah, everywhere I looked.

Carcasses everywhere, for sure.

Was there any time that, like,

you felt like you were in danger at all?

I never felt in danger one bit.

I actually came face-to-face with a bear.

Oh, there's a bear. There's a bear right across.

Let's see if I can see him.

There he is. He's actually coming my way.

Hello, bear.

Please turn around and go back.

I watched him for a good ten minutes, videotaped him.

When it was time for me to go on my way,

I was like, "Okay bear,

I'm bigger than I really am," you know. All that.

And he just looked at me like it was all good.

But I never got any sense of danger out of it.

Definitely not. I was like, "okay," and I just left.

I turned around and walked away and never saw him again.

Was it ever, like, an issue,

like, missing your family while you were out there at all?

When I first got off, it was fine,

but second day I felt like I missed my family, yeah.

I didn't feel like I didn't want to be alone.

I knew that's what it was coming into it

and I was fine with that. That was never an issue for me,

being alone, either.

Of all the pieces of gear to lose,

like, the key to your survival.

How'd you even get in a position

to lose your fire steel?

It was just stupidity, honestly.

I got a fire going.

I got water boiled up, and that was great.

I had set my fire steel on top of my jacket.

And then after that, I must have grabbed my jacket

without noticing my fire steel was there,

and it went into the sand or into the water,

and then the tide came up,

and by the time I noticed, it was completely gone.

So, how long after you lost that steel

did you decide that that was it for you?

I scoured that beach, raked it out,

you know what I mean, for two hours,

and in those two hours, it was kind of just like--

I just convinced myself that that was it.

The whole point was to see how long you can survive,

and it's like, "I know I can't last indefinitely without fire.

"Why am I gonna stay out here for another three days

when I can just bail and go home and see my family now?"

That's basically what I convinced myself.

I just wanted to do better.

Wayne!

Might be a fire.

There.

There he is.

-Yeah. -Wayne!

Hello!

Hello!

That bear. He should have smelled me.

He should have smelled me.

He was not scared of me at all.

And that--

as you know, a bear that's not scared of humans--

I was told that, you know,

all you got to do is, "Hey, bear,"

and they see you and they're gone.

He did not. He just kept coming.

I'm the first one out, though, right?

Or you're not allowed to say?

Yeah?

What? Really?

Wow. Wow.

It is.

The natives laughed when we said that we were gonna do this.

You know, they laughed because they knew what it was like.

I mean, I can't--

I can't sleep up in the, you know, tarp,

and, no, he's--

he'll be coming around again.

And another one bites the dust.

So, Wayne,

what was your thoughts when you got dropped off?

I felt pretty good,

and I felt pretty ready until I started looking around.

Okay.

I'm here, and...

This is a gorgeous place.

Yeah.

It's all bushes, all bushes.

Bushes. Bushes.

Great big, giant trees.

I needed to get a permanent shelter done up,

and I was in nothing but game trails.

Yeah, look at this, guys.

Bear.

Did you ever settle on someplace?

Yeah, I said to hell with the bears, basically.

And you went back into the trail?

I went into the bush right beside a game trail.

It's the only place I could set up.

So I just decided, "Okay, I'll make a raised bed here."

And made a ridge pole,

and set up my camp and, you know, it was all set.

I was all set. Now I finally got my position.

Then all of a sudden I just started thinking of my family,

and that choked me up.

You know, I planned on being out there for maybe a year.

Going minute by minute right now.

Like I said though, pretty-- it's a pretty spot.

It really is.

It really is a pretty spot.

I was getting ready to turn in,

so I had carried my camera,

everything, already up into my shelter.

Walked off to the beach,

and I grabbed my ax and went to turn around,

and all of a sudden, about 20 yards away, I look over,

and there's a black bear.

Oh,.

Hey, bear!

♪ ♪

And I just went up into the woods

and sat down in my shelter.

I contacted the crew.

They told me grab my flare.

So I had my flare in one hand, my pepper spray in the other,

and I just waited.

-I was done. I was done. -That was it?

Yeah, I was done, because a bear

that's not scared of a human is a dangerous bear in my eye.

That means that he didn't want me on the beach.

I'm in his territory.

The next time I'm on the beach,

he's gonna drive me off a little bit more aggressive

and so on and so forth.

And plus, if he wants anything in my camp at night,

he's gonna take it.

He was not scared of me at all.

How'd the extraction go? How'd they come get you?

That was not so fun.

Yeah, we have flares, spray, all that stuff.

Dan's GPS says this is gonna take over three hours.

The thing is is that they had to drive

down logging roads and stuff and hike down a big mountain

going through some pretty hard-core terrain.

I mean, that's our best option at the moment.

It's clearer.

Ah!.

My shoulder's out.

Argh!

Whoo.

Yeah.

No.

When I was sitting there,

I wasn't sure if they were coming or not.

I was wondering if they just figured,

"Okay, he's tapping out.

"We'll wait until morning

when it's light out," you know, kind of thing.

I had no clue,

and I was in nothing but game trails.

It's kind of freaky.

Hope they get here quick.

This is a chance in a lifetime.

It really is.

But when you fear for your life...

I mean,

it's quite a difference.

Then all of a sudden I heard a holler,

and, yeah,

it made me feel really good.

Wayne.

Hello!

Hold on.

I'm falling.

Here they come.

Yeah, that was enough for me, man.

Here's the boat.

It's hard. Dude, it's hard.

I've been in some hard places.

I've been in combat.

I worked in some of the worst places in the world.

I will not spend another night in there.

I was petrified.

I couldn't stay out here tonight.

I can't stay out here tonight.

I'm tapping out. I'm done.

I think that everything on top of everybody.

I think it just piled up.

The fact that I'm drinking water from brackish water.

Just this place.

Just this darkness.

That silence.

My mind.

Mentally, it's just pushed me to the limit.

I think, too,

another big part is spilling your guts on that camera.

Sitting here all day long spilling my guts

on that camera--

it wrecked me, you know?

All it did was just pulled up emotions that,

you know, probably are repressed a lot of times, you know.

It's the opposite. I think it's the--

it may be for some, but it just--all it did is just--

it completely broke my spirit.

It broke my will.

-Wow. Unbelievable. -Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Gosh.

This place is--it does--

I'm a tough guy. I think I'm a tough guy.

I'm not that tough.

That place is crazy.

Welcome to the club.

A lot of us kind of, like, had our own little ideas

or takes on, like, what we wanted to achieve or,

like, a goal that we had in mind.

Did you achieve goals?

Well, what I do-- it brought a lot of

things to light to me.

What I need to work on.

Things that I weren't comfortable with.

Things that I don't know anything about, you know.

I definitely don't have the skill sets

that all you guys have,

and the guys out there right now.

Did you ever end up finding any fresh water to drink?

Well, the freshest water I found

was the fresh water that entered the salt marsh

and was on the way out towards the tide.

And I waited till an hour

after the lowest part of the tide to collect it,

and then I filtered it through sphagnum moss.

So you drank it without boiling it.

You just filtered it through moss?

And it was very--oh, it's very much a gamble.

It tastes kind of nutty.

And the water actually tasted really good.

It actually tasted clear.

You know, you don't taste any sodium in it at all,

but it does have high levels of sodium.

-How did you find out? -I started having--

Well, at first I started having just crazy dreams.

Ears started ringing. Some slight hallucinations.

Like at night, when I was lying inside under this canvas,

I would have these flashes of light.

I would have--

I would see symbols or see things in my--in my--

you know, just under my--

under the canvas.

What bothered me was, I guess, not being able to tell

when I was awake and I was asleep.

When you close your eyes-- it's actually brighter

when you close your eyes than when you keep them open.

So you're trying to sleep with your eyes open.

Survival, to many people-- it's very linear.

A to B, you know.

There's so many more depths to it, you know.

The physiology of it. How it's affecting your body.

Okay, then it's the psychology of it, you know,

how it's affecting your brain.

And then all these are kind of pulling away from each other

and adding to each other,

and it just keeps going back and forth.

And what happens eventually is you just keep loading

that up with good or bad.

And then the bad outweighs the good,

and things start to fall apart.

So in my survival style, you know, the type of survival I do,

I just accomplish the mission.

I called for extract. I got extracted.

I stayed dry. I stayed warm.

I stayed alive.

I wasn't in the greatest of health, you know,

with the water I was drinking.

But I accomplished the task and I got off the X.

Well, they're coming to get me. It's over for me.

It's time to go.

I don't have to prove anything to anybody.

I came out here

and tried something way out of my comfort zone.

And I felt good about it

until it started pouring down rain and blowing sideways.

I got in my shelter, and I just sat there

and started thinking about what I was doing.

And all my thoughts led me to just go home now.

You're bull me.

There's no way.

I'm just glad I wasn't first.

So, Dustin, you know, tell me,

what were your thoughts when you hit the beach?

My first thought was it's pretty dark already.

I was on the beach for maybe five minutes,

and I decided to find a spot to put my shelter up.

Were you able to make a fire on the first night?

No. I tried for two days to make fire.

I just got frustrated and I walked away from it.

Nothing. Complete and utter failure.

I don't know.

What made you go?

When did you decide that your stay was over,

that you hit the wall?

Well, my problem was,

the last full day I was there we had those wind gusts,

and that storm blew in,

and I was basically stuck in my shelter all day.

And I just sat there for eight hours.

That was the first time I had to just sit down and think

about what I was doing there.

It makes you really question what the I was thinking.

You know, I just came to the conclusion that,

you know, I have a good life at home,

and there's no reason for me to be out here and be miserable.

I just, you know--and then I started thinking more about why

I wanted to do the show in the first place,

and I just decided that day, right there,

that I was there for the wrong reasons.

Are you glad you did the show?

Yeah, it was awesome.

I mean, it's like anything else in life.

It's an experience so you learn from it,

and I got to meet you guys, and I learned a lot about life

and primitive skills and survival.

People that are still going,

they'll keep going as long as they can feel they're out there

doing the right thing.

Here we have it.

I'm on the rainy coast.

You guessed it--

it's raining.

Would you mind giving me fire?

So I hear wolves howling as dark is starting to fall,

and I'm on an island collecting firewood.

I don't even have a weapon on me except for my knife.

I don't have a ax.

I don't have my bow.

Nothing.

That was a beautiful crane right there.

Oh, yes, I just made a fire.

Interesting encounter last night.

There was a animal about 30 feet from my tent.

I believe it was a wolf.

Brushed it gently,

and if something decided to come into my tent,

I would have no issue turning this on,

blinding him instantaneously, and...

Striking numerous times.

I haven't found fresh water yet. That's a big deal.

'Cause I can't rely on just rain to survive for water.

Pretty soon I'm gonna be in dire straits.

I've been looking for water all day,

probably for at least eight hours today.

Yeah, I'll have to cross all that.

I'm not even sure how I'm gonna do that yet.

I might have to make a boat.

If I have a problem and I fall in on this makeshift tarp boat,

I mean, we're talking serious hypothermic situation.

I hear some water running over here.

That's what I heard.

A freshwater mountain stream.

Oh, yes.

I just moved my camp.

It's cold.

It's raining.

You know, this is a pretty unwelcome place to live.

Kind of have, like, a clock over my head right now--

like a starvation clock.

It all depends on if I can get fish over here, yes or no.

I'm gonna put that inside my tinder bundle.

Yes.

I think I finally cracked the code, fire-wise,

to this place.

Today is a pretty special day.

It's my little girl's birthday.

I'm sorry I'm not with you on your special day.

I see a huge fish, no doubt.

Look at this fish.

Holy.

Huge fish. What a blessing.

Mmm.

Still juicy.

I'm pretty sure I just saw a cougar

about ten feet from my front door.

Two bright flashing eyes.

I could hear it out there.

Last night was the longest night I've had here.

I had a hard time sleeping.

I haven't seen that cougar again.

My gear is growing mold.

That's bad news.

I can't believe this is happening.

My net is gone.

This is very bad.

If I can't produce any fish,

I'm done.

♪ ♪

Well, no question about it.

I am definitely crazy.

So, here we are.

Wow.

Almost hesitant to walk into this bush

because it's so thick.

Man.

Look at the size of that tree.

Wow.

This is almost cave-like underneath this tree.

That may very well be home.

♪ ♪

Come on, baby.

Yes!

Hell, yes.

I've sweated so much

running around trying to get the lay of the land here.

I'm starting to feel kind of dry.

If I could just get that one drink

and a decent night's sleep, I'll be okay for today.

So I'm gonna find the place where the water runs in,

try to fill my water bottle up in it,

and get a fire going to sterilize the water.

♪ ♪

There's definitely things to eat here.

You can forage.

I found a slug.

Starting to get into a rhythm.

The first couple of days has been challenging

trying to find my groove out here

and get in it.

And now it's time for a celebratory dance

I like to call the backwoods shuffle.

Just doing it one day at a time.

Bull kelp.

You got to stay focused.

I just turned 40.

You look back at your life and think, "Where did it go?"

Just poof.

Here I am, 40 years old next to a log in British Columbia.

You spend a lot of time alone in the wilderness,

you better like yourself.

♪ O sole mio ♪

I have found a place

that I think would make a suitable cooking camp.

I put out a gillnet, and that way,

if the gillnet yields anything, I'll have a place to take it.

You know how, you hear the expression all the time,

"Man battling against nature."

Any man that does that is going to die.

You have got to learn to work with it,

or it will run you over like a beer truck

with no brakes on a downhill slope.

Yep. I can see the weather getting to be clear.

When you spend two or three days in your shelter,

it feels less like a home and more like a tomb.

I feel slightly restless.

Days like this make you want to hit the old button.

Tap. "I'm ready to go home.

Bye!"

Is there no sun in this cursed land?

Oh, the sun.

I think that victory for me

would be leaving here at peace with myself,

and I don't know what that is yet.

Unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

Would you do something like this?

Most people wouldn't.

It's gnarly in here,

but beautiful.

If this is a spring, I'm gonna flip.

I'm over the moon. Water right there.

This is an incredible challenge.

I didn't put too much time in scouting initially

because I figured rain was coming,

and shelter was incredibly important.

So, I need to get some firewood,

and I also want to build a cabin.

So I think it's time we do some serious work.

Now, why am I building a cabin?

I really want four walls around me that I can feel secure in.

If a big, bad bear's gonna come knocking on my door,

I'm gonna have a few moments to be able to grab my ax,

my spear, or whatever.

So close.

I found clay

so I would be able to have a fire indoors

with some stone and clay mixed.

Whoo! Well, it's nearing the end of the day,

and I just did some preliminary testing on the clay,

and it looks like it's just not gonna work.

All these logs behind me and all that work--

I'm feeling pretty crushed right now.

It's rainy and very windy out.

Today is all about making a boat.

If you're living out in the wild,

you want to be close to food,

which I am not.

I want to explore and see if there is a place

that would be better to camp.

I've never built a canoe in my life.

There are things out here that make my heart go pitter patter,

but what I fear most isn't out in these woods.

I'm feeling things I don't think I've ever felt...

Because there's always been distractions.

And with everything just completely obliterated

out of my life--no phone, no computer, no friends--

I actually feel what it's like to be me.

Getting there.

Today's a big day.

I got to see if this floats.

It's possible that this is actually what takes me out

or what shoots me through the roof.

♪ ♪

Oh, my God.

It works.

Whoo!

Yeah!

I just landed on a clam beach.

This is huge.

I have found a reliable source of protein, of calories.

♪ ♪

If anything threatens me, it's the weather and the cold.

Yeah, I wonder if what I'm looking for is really

to be the last survivor,

or more so just really to see what's inside me.

Oh, thank you, Lord. Oh.

This whole process has been quite a roller coaster

of emotions.

No hits or nothing.

And, um, I wonder where it's gonna take me.

It's just so hard doing this alone.

Oh.

I've been preparing myself mentally for this

since I was 14 years old.

Yeah!

I feel like a mosquito in a nudist colony.

So much work to do.

Home sweet home.

Day three.

I still look pretty good. Yeah, I'd say so.

There's this big, old, rotten log right by my camp,

and I decided to make it into a water catch.

So we're gonna hollow out a big old hole in the middle here,

and then we'll put up my plastic sheet over it

and we'll arrange it so that the water just

runs down into the water catch.

So, I'm gonna really get going on that primary shelter.

I'm just gonna put up a quickie roof here.

It's gonna be kind of an A-frame style.

That should shed the rain pretty well.

Going over to the water catch.

Oh, man, it's full to the brim.

Not bad.

That's good water.

This storm's coming in pretty quick.

The sky looks evil.

My shelter's whipping around.

Oh, man.

Yeah, it's definitely time to hunker down.

This is nuts.

I'm surprised my shelter's still up.

Daily photo. Day eight.

I've been hunting for a while.

Nothing.

I know there are little crabs in the area.

So who knows?

Maybe today will get me where I need to go.

Bunch of them. Man.

Just a bunch of crabs.

This is awesome.

Oh, man.

Holy crap.

It's getting tougher and tougher as the days go by.

Really, really difficult at times.

All you want to do is go home and be warm and dry

and eat some good food.

For all of week one,

I just pushed it aside as hard as I could.

Like,

I didn't think about home.

I didn't think about my wife or my soon-to-be little boy,

'cause I knew the second--

the second I thought about those guys,

it would just tear me up,

and my days here would just be numbered.

Bam!

Salmon.

Freaking huge. Wow. He's lively.

He's lively, everyone.

I think I'm going a little bit nuts now.

Whammo.

Mousy feast.

Ugh.

My hands are numb.

If I don't eat, I'm gonna die.

My whole plan has gone out the window.

I don't have a roof over my head tonight.

It's so cold.

You can hear the wind.

I'm gonna put on socks and boots.

Oh.

My feet feel numb.

The pins-and-needles, achy kind of numb.

I'm not very well nourished right now,

just to be honest with you.

I've not--

I've not eaten the past couple of days like I need to.

I feel like I'm starving.

What I'm concerned about is the fact that my traps--

they're way out there and I hope they're not getting beat up.

Man, it's, like, bone dead cold.

It's silent.

Everything that's alive is just,

like, hunkered down and just trying to,

like, get through the night right now.

I'm definitely losing it.

I am not good in the head right now.

Man.

I'm not used to feeling this...

Uh,

this helpless.

I hope my fire's still lit.

Gone. Daggum, that fire is gone.

Full, raging fire.

Walk down to the beach.

Come back. It's gone.

♪ ♪

Everything is a constant struggle.

Maybe my camp isn't in the best spot.

Food isn't close.

I got to go where there's food.

Otherwise I'm not gonna make it.

So, folks, this is the future site of my yurt.

Except I have a low-hanging branch.

This guy right here is right in my way,

so I'm gonna climb the tree and drop it.

♪ ♪

My mind's just racing.

I lost my net.

I need to figure out how to get more food.

I'm gonna set up some trout lines.

The difference between high tide and low tide here

is astronomical.

Straight out there is my trout line.

I'm trying to stay positive, but I'm not getting it done.

I need to be careful what I do because I can't do too much more

before I run out of calories.

I'm so hungry,

and it's just wearing on me.

I'm gonna go ahead and take the bow

into the enchanted forest back here.

This is totally just a last ditch effort to get some food.

If I don't eat,

I'm gonna die.

I haven't eaten much in days.

No food again today which is kind of a bummer.

The isolation has just been terrible.

She knew she might not be there when I get back.

Made me promise I'd stay.

I don't know if I can do that.

You know, the isolation, not eating,

I just don't know if I've got it in me.

I have no enthusiasm for any of this anymore.

This place has just driven me into the ground.