Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

♪

This is the hardest terrain.

Patagonia is a different environment entirely.

Everything out here is so hard.

Patagonia's no joke.

Are you willing to give up who you are

for what you will become?

It's Patagonia, for God's sake.

Patagonia!

It's tougher than I ever imagined.

Just missing home right now.

You get a feeling of helplessness,

like, "why am I doing this?"

Oh, my God!

The last person left wins $500,000

and is a badass.

-Bam! -Ugh.

[animal growling]

What is that?

It's just how far you can push yourself

and what you're able to do.

Yeah!

You don't have anyone to lean on.

Oh, my God, I got a fish.

Go to bed hungry, wake up hungry.

Can't believe we did that.

Ready, guy?

It's gonna come down to mental endurance

and food deprivation.

[ces]

Person'll be dead in a week at this rate.

[animal growling]

♪

Whoa.

That's a big cat.

♪

We're about to get dropped off at the edge of the earth.

Patagonia is some of the most desolate terrain known to man.

This is the hardest challenge anyone can do.

Such a vast, harsh location.

And we're completely alone.

We're all gonna be on this new, foreign land.

Leading into winter, it's gonna get nasty.

Snowstorms, the wind--

and it's just gonna come down to pure guts.

Holy cow.

All alone.

The biggest thing to be worried about are predators,

boars just running rampant,

and there's pumas.

I mean, who's not gonna be scared of a cat

that weighs almost as much as me

that wants to attack from the back by grabbing my neck?

[yells and laughs]

[yells]

Oh, my God, this is it.

We don't know what the resources are like down here,

so it's up to me to figure out all the different ways

to live on a foreign land

for an undetermined amount of time.

♪

What did I just do?

[laughs]

Wow.

♪

♪

Patagonia!

♪

I'll never be in a more beautiful spot.

I see some cool things around here, already.

I see some bamboo,

I see a stream running into a lake.

I see humungous peaks. I see awesome trees.

And I see a lot of opportunity...

For me to succeed.

I'm gonna try to get a quick shelter set up tonight.

Think I found a sweet little spot.

I want to get something set up quick

and easy so that I can just get out of the elements

if it starts to rain and I have a place

to lay my head for night one.

I need to keep myself warm,

I need to keep myself dry and get a fire going

and stay out of the elements, because those are the things

that are gonna kill me first.

This is no joke.

I mean, this is the edge of the earth.

It's very remote.

This is rugged country out here;

it's cold, mountains are huge.

It's not easy living.

This is the real deal.

I feel that I'm ready to be tested

and to really put my mind to the test

and my skills to the test for this journey.

♪

Let's go.

-Hey-o. -[giggles]

Come here, baby.

[whistles] Come!

My current job is a high school teacher.

I did start a survival class there.

[whistles] Come here.

Probably about eight years ago.

So my knowledge of survival from when

I started that class till now

has grown exponentially.

Come here. [whistles]

Here I come.

My strongest skill set is probably

my positive attitude.

PMA is what I teach all my kids in all my classes.

Positive Mental Attitude.

I'll have kids walking down the hall, you know,

they'll be like, "PMA, Mr. Shields, PMA,"

I'm like, "PMA!" You know?

And that's what I teach in my classes,

because it makes a difference between everything in life.

My wife and I, we had some trouble

having our own children.

It was a little bit sad for a while,

but we kind of feel like it's happening for a reason.

We're in the process of adopting three boys,

and, you know, we've been involved in this process

probably since last summer.

We were looking for siblings, you know.

We didn't just want one child.

So as soon as we kind of, like, started the process,

they're like, "Wait, you want three?"

We're like, "Yeah, that's exactly what we want."

And we have three boys coming to us.

Guys gonna miss Daddy? Huh?

-Are you kidding? -Of course they will.

♪

How's it gonna effect me, knowing that the kids

are on their way, so to speak, and my wife is sort of

dealing with this on her own.

I knew that it was happening and she knew

and we had a long talk-- well, many long talks--

and this is what I wanted to do,

and she wants me to live my dreams,

and this is one of my dreams.

♪

My strategy is to kind of mentally block that stuff out.

I mean, I hate to say it, and--

but to get through this, I think that's gonna be

something I'm gonna have to do.

Not bad for just a little bit of a day's work.

♪

So I'm trying to get some fire stuff together.

[sighs]

Got some of this shaggy stuff,

and bark, as you can see.

Kind of want to scrape it down.

♪

Matter of fact, this is looking pretty good.

So let's give this a shot.

I just want to test a little piece of this tinder

and see if it goes up.

♪

There we go, baby, come on.

♪

There's no messing around now.

I have a long way to go.

But at least I got fire, I got a little shelter set up

for the first night.

So I'm feeling...

feeling pretty good.

♪

[sighs]

Still trying to get situated.

I figured I would just take a quick little walk...

and see what my new property has to offer.

And I'm just gonna try and take in the whole area

and just examine the landscape and then figure out

what my first step is gonna be.

I should probably go over towards where the sun is.

But that also might be where it gets more wind,

because of the exposure.

I'm looking for a spot to set up

for at least tonight.

And then when first light hits tomorrow,

finding a nice spot for a long, long time.

Just trying to get a feel for the landscape right now.

Pretty steep.

Very gnarly and wet.

Better make sure you're careful with your steps,

everything's slippery.

Watch your feet, Campbell, that's what I always tell you,

watch your feet.

Watch your feet.

See if you see any tracks in the mud.

Here's a deer track.

Yup, which way is it going?

-This way. -Yup.

My son, Campbell, he's so special to me.

And everything I do is for his betterment.

And we have a bobcat around our house

and we're gonna try to catch it.

This is my fort.

Everything I learned through the culmination of my life,

I get to share with that little boy.

And I'm trying to build him into a great person

and he's already well on his way.

Do you want to know anything about the way it looks

or the animals or anything?

Yeah, I want to know what the animals are.

I'll tell you what, there's gonna be something like Zuko,

but it's much bigger.

-Bobcat. -Bigger.

-Lion? -Not a lion.

But a mountain lion or a puma.

These are cool, aren't they?

Mm-hmm.

Are you gonna really hunt them?

I'm not hunting those, and hopefully they won't be

hunting me.

How long will you be gone?

More than 30 days?

We'll see how long I'm gonna be gone,

but it could be 30 days.

It could be 40 days.

-50, 60, or 70? -It could be 50, 60, 70.

-It could be 300. -[screams]

-We'll see. -Not 300!

But you'll be fine while I'm gone.

I work in accounting,

which is such a contrast to the things

that I enjoy to do outside of work.

Bushcraft is kind of instilled in my brain.

It's something that I've always been doing.

I want to show what I can do.

What I'm capable of.

-Bye, Daddy. -Bye, buddy.

-Take of Mommy, right? -Okay.

-Be a good man. -Mm-hmm.

-I'll be the man of the house. -There you go.

♪

I'm looking for a plot

that's about 20 by 20 feet and is flat.

And that's gonna be hard.

♪

Let's see what's over here.

♪

Oh.

Hello, hello.

I like the feel, this is nice and soft.

Oh, it's really soft.

All this pincushion moss.

That would be just so delightful to sleep on.

And the view.

And this tree.

And the water.

It's nice and flat.

This is one possible location.

♪

I'm looking up--widowmakers.

The thing about the big trees,

is you get something falling out of this tree

and coming straight down,

that might be all she wrote.

It's not the spot.

I don't feel like getting impaled in my sleep.

Let's keep on keeping on.

♪

Definitely need to shed some layers.

I'm getting hot in here.

Don't want to start sweating.

Then I'll get cold really fast.

So...

♪

Look at that.

A complete skeleton.

And over here...

it's a cow skull sitting up here.

Good gracious.

You know what? Look at that.

There's another size mandible in here

that does not go with the size of that skull.

♪

It's possible that it was taken out by a puma...

and dragged it back here and had a fantastic feast.

Maybe I'm sitting in a damn puma kill zone.

♪

What's that?

[trees rustling]

I hear a noise.

♪

Something's around here.

♪

[trees rustling] What's that?

[trees rustling]

I'll dismiss it.

[chuckles]

You won't hear a puma.

♪

Still on the search for a good first night camp location.

Got a bunch of game trails right here.

Pathways are trampled to death.

♪

Oh.

Now, that is a lot of very fresh boar scat.

Flies-still-on-it fresh.

That kind of gives you the idea of the size of pig

I might be dealing with.

♪

And I was worried about seeing boar activity.

♪

Boars like to come out right when the sun goes down

and disappear right before day.

I might just set one little snare, just out of curiosity.

♪

So I just put a little simple slipknot on the end

and made a loop.

I'm gonna have it hanging head level,

maybe a little bit lower.

Not exactly sure of the size I'm dealing with, so...

♪

Anything coming down this path

in low light will go right through there.

Hopefully, I'll hear it

and be able to get out here to it.

And that'll be my dinner bell.

I plan on setting a lot of these.

This is just the first one.

♪

I'm worried about losing daylight.

♪

I'll tell you what, right now,

I can make that into a nice little shelter.

Keep it simple for today.

Venture out tomorrow.

♪

Keep it simple.

♪

Whoo!

Oh.

Oh!

Ugh, okay.

That felt really good.

It always feels good to jump in the water.

♪

Yeah--ah.

[inhales] Okay.

♪

Anytime I come to a new place where there's a body of water,

I go in it.

♪

It's a way of deepening my connection with the earth.

♪

I'm really inspired by the land.

I really see a lot of possibility

for little things I want to do.

I was able to put up my little temporary shelter.

It's cozy.

But I'm gonna take my time,

take it slow.

This isn't about trying to survive out here.

That is not how I'm looking at it at all.

I am totally...

looking at this as...

this is my home.

This is where I'm moving to.

♪

We like to thrive in my world.

♪

I am not planning on being out here

and not being comfortable.

♪

So I'm going to make a chair.

Check this out.

Now we've entered the bamboo forest.

No, a chair is not a necessity.

But being comfortable is so important out here.

It's just a way of feeling at home.

♪

I would not claim that I'm the most skilled by any means,

in terms of bushcraft, but my lifestyle

lends itself to doing something like this.

I've lived off grid for many years

and I've been pretty much alone most of that time.

Knowing how to problem-solve and think critically

and self-soothe, all that,

is really what I think separates the people

who make it long-term, versus the people

who go home early on.

The prize money is a huge factor for me doing this.

What I would do is buy the piece of land that I live on.

You know, I don't have a partner, I don't have kids,

but I have this incredible net and support system,

my family and my community and my friends.

When I'm out there, I can draw upon that foundation.

But I've never, ever gone more than

two weeks without talking to my mom.

That's gonna be the biggest challenge for me.

Okay, so we got the frame of our chair.

It's kind of a recliner.

Digging it.

Dig it.

Okay, so now, I'm gonna go--[rolls tongue] up

and [rolls tongue] out.

So we need to do a little bit of...

fashioning of these.

♪

Already, I feel like I'm thriving.

You know?

I can see that...

already, I'm using projects

as a big form of distraction.

And, um...

I feel very good about the home I'm creating here

and I have so many projects in my mind.

♪

That should do it.

♪

[sighs]

Oh, yeah.

[sighs]

♪

Even something as little as a chair...

can make all the difference.

♪

I hope I see a UFO while I'm out here.

♪

This would be prime UFO locating.

♪

[fire crackling]

[animal squealing]

[animal squealing]

I hear a noise.

[animal squealing]

And it-- I'm trying to figure out

if it sounds like a distressed call,

like something is stuck in my trap...

[animal squealing]

That's what it sounds like.

I want to confirm before I go running off into the woods.

[animal squealing]

Something's--whoo.

Let's go check it out.

♪

[animal squealing]

Got my knife.

♪

[animal squealing]

[animal squealing]

Sounds like something in distress.

♪

[animal squealing]

It's a creepy sound.

♪

I can... hear my heartbeat.

I set my trap over here.

[animal squealing]

That circle right there.

♪

So...

[animal squealing]

♪

[animal squealing]

What is that?

[animal squealing]

♪

Sounds like something in distress.

Got my knife.

♪

My trap is still set.

♪

Right there.

[animal squealing]

What is that?

♪

[animal squealing]

It's way up there.

♪

I do have my, uh, sheath unsnapped.

In the unlikely occasion

I do have to put it out and fend off something.

♪

I'm no easy win.

♪

I guess I'll just head back to the fire.

♪

Predators out here--

or something that's definitely lurking

in the recesses of my brain.

I just have to be very careful and mindful

and not be careless and just try

and stay focused.

Sleep time.

♪

♪

Day two.

Feels good to say day two.

Feels really good to say day two.

[sighs]

Been waiting a long time to start day one,

and now I'm on day two.

I like that.

Got big plans for today.

But I got to take advantage of all the daylight.

I think I'm gonna try and make a tepee today.

♪

Hey-oh.

I'm gonna have to build a pretty kick-butt shelter

to withstand the winds, the snow that's gonna come.

♪

It's gonna be one of the most serious winters

I've ever experienced.

One of the primary concerns is thermoregulation

and keeping my core body temperature

where it's supposed to be.

So I've decided to whack down a couple trees with my axe,

put up my wrap and frap kind of tripod.

Could work. Maybe.

Now the moment of truth.

♪

And just add probably five or six more logs to that.

And then wrap the tarp around it.

♪

The reason I like this design

is because you can keep a fire in the middle of it

to keep you warm through the night,

and also the smoke will escape through the top.

♪

Hey, America.

How are you?

Hey!

♪

Time to try to get a bed going real quick.

You don't want to lay on the ground,

it's too cold.

Suck the heat out of your body.

♪

And then you get sick and die.

♪

Single bamboo stick wouldn't hold anything,

but you get all of them together,

pretty sturdy.

It's weird to think about that this is not me just

teaching a class at school or messing around

in the woods near my house, it's--this is real.

♪

My body is so

awesomely tired right now.

You know when you've had a really great day

of working hard, physically?

And your body's just like,

"blah!"

♪

Today, I spent the day doing some more exploring.

Coming out here, it was very clear

that I was not going to be hunting boar.

[chuckles] You know, I'm not a huntress.

I really wanted my focus to be

on foraging and fishing.

♪

I just set one line out.

♪

I found a nice little stash of firewood,

which I think I'm gonna go and try and gather more of tomorrow.

I also foraged.

Found a lot more mushrooms

and tons of berries.

Look at this beautiful bowl of fruit.

♪

This place is unbelievably abundant

and so beautiful.

I'm just so looking forward to the future here.

♪

Oh, my God!

Wow, what a beauty.

Okay.

[sings]

So--oh.

Thank you for your life, fish.

Thank you so much.

I'm gonna make nice fish head soup.

♪

Whoop.

And all this, I'm gonna save for bait.

Shall we see what was inside the fish's stomach?

[gasps] Wow, look.

An entire shell.

Ooh.

Aha, look.

A beetle.

So the trout seemed to be eating

full snails, pieces of stick,

and a beetle.

So I'm gonna use the beetle

from the inside of the stomach

as bait.

♪

Fishing.

A very slow and patient process.

♪

I feel like I'm starting to get into a groove here.

♪

Understanding the different rhythms

and patterns and how you interact with the land,

how the land interacts with you,

what resources the land has.

♪

Oh, my gosh.

Check it out!

Wow, thank you!

Happened so fast.

♪

I can't believe I caught two fish.

It's an amazing feeling.

Da da da!

Hello.

[yelps]

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

♪

[rain pattering]

[sighs] I'm just having a moment here.

[clears throat]

It's raining out.

[rain pattering]

What am I gonna do?

I have all these ideas--I want to put in a stone floor,

expand my shelter.

I found a tree cache for wood.

[rain pattering]

But it's raining.

And I just...

[sighs]

It's dark all the time here.

And then it rains when it's light out.

♪

Day three, day three, day three.

♪

I keep thinking about my wife.

And I keep thinking about the three kids

we're adopting this summer.

♪

I thought, "If I can just stay busy,

it would just go away."

But...

I'm just sitting here

and the thoughts kind of just...

are overwhelming.

[sighs]

[rain pattering]

♪

I can't get that out of my head.

♪

It just won't go away.

♪

Number one rule of survival:

stay positive.

PMA.

Positive Mental Attitude.

♪

♪

♪

I wouldn't be here if I didn't have the skills.

It's just a matter of...

The one skill that I can't control...

♪

My brain.

♪

Hello?

I am tapping out.

♪

I do feel ashamed, I really do.

Thousands of people would've wanted to be in this spot.

And I got here, and this is what I did.

♪

Hi, guys.

♪

[sighs] I'm done.

I tapped out.

Ugh, just...

I have so much going on at home--

I have my wife and we're adopting these three kids

this summer and it's like,

I can't get it out of my head.

I go crazy and work hard, and, you know,

just stay busy, but it just keeps

getting back into my brain.

And I can't-- I just can't get rid of it.

When you're really, truly alone,

it's--it's another story.

Um...

so that hit me pretty hard.

That hit me hard after just the few days,

and that was it.

♪

I probably underestimated Patagonia.

♪

I really thought I could do at least a month.

♪

It's cold here.

It's wet, it's dark.

♪

And survival's not easy; it's not easy at all.

♪

It's harder here than you think.

♪

Being alone...

it takes a special kind of person.

♪

It's just not something that

I guess I was ready for.

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

♪

All right, this is me.

On the third day.

Oh, I'm not doing it right.

I'm supposed to be looking at the camera,

I'm looking at the thing.

All right.

This is me.

Ugh, do it again-- no looking at the lens.

All right.

[sighs] Man, I got to turn that thing away.

I just cannot not look at it.

This is me...

on the third morning.

All right, that's all you get.

♪

I found myself a little area.

It's only, like, 15 feet from where I was dropped off.

♪

But my choices are limited.

And my site was almost completely uphill.

It rained all night.

This whole area was soaked with water

just coming down the hill.

All my stuff is damp.

I need to move further up and further in.

When you're going somewhere to settle a place,

you don't just stop at the most miserable place you can find

and try to make the best of it.

You push on till you find the Promise Land.

So I got to explore my territory,

find a spot where it plateaus above, where it's safe,

where I can make something permanent.

♪

Just looking at the best way to go up this hill.

This is what I'm working with here.

It's a 45-degree angle,

heading up into the woods.

It is really rugged over here.

This is one tough place.

♪

This whole side,

it's so treacherous.

♪

Almost impossible to walk through.

♪

There could be a whole different ball game going on up there.

It's kind of the way it is here at Patagonia,

you go around the corner and over a hillside

or around the bend

and it's a different environment entirely.

♪

Must be a sign of game.

That looks like big boar [bleep].

♪

I just got to be careful.

[grunts]

♪

This is crazy.

This is...

pretty freaking crazy.

Boar will aggressively attack.

You can't let your guard down.

♪

I read somewhere, the plan of attack

never survives first contact with the enemy.

Already, I have found that to be true.

♪

Maine's nothing compared to this.

♪

Big spin.

-Whoa! -Wee!

I live in a yurt off grid in Maine

with my wife, Jamie, my daughter, Abigail,

who's four, and our daughter, Sparrow,

who was just born to us almost a year now.

Yay!

We think of ourselves as minimalists.

We don't have running water unless we run and get it.

We don't have power until we turn the power on

at night for lights.

My skills for survival and things are self-taught.

I am living a survival situation every day.

My greatest skill set is my ability to build stuff.

If I can imagine it, I can make it.

So are you gonna miss living in the yurt?

[both laugh]

Run away!

The prize money's kind of a big deal to us.

We could really use it.

We want to build a bigger house.

It would be like a ten year jump

in getting us towards that goal.

And you remember, trust your struggle

and just don't give up when it gets hard.

-I won't. -I'm gonna miss you so much.

I know.

♪

I see this as an opportunity and a stepping stone

to build a better life for my family.

Down there, somewhere,

is my beach area.

♪

Look at that mountain range.

♪

Gorgeous.

♪

The way I live at home is so tough and rugged,

that I know about not giving up

until you are safe and secure for the night.

Further up and further in.

Wow, look at this.

This massive tree tipped over.

The root base is up there

and it goes down.

And it's just...

it's huge.

I was thinking of incorporating this big tree

into the back of my shelter as the back wall.

So if I slept up against it,

and the rest of my shelter came out from there,

it might protect me from anything that fell

from the trees.

I think building a shelter here will work really good,

but heading up and down that hill every day

will be a real challenge.

♪

Holy crap.

Look at this.

Big pile of bones.

♪

This is unreal.

♪

Could a puma take down a cow?

♪

I move up here, I might be moving closer to his territory.

♪

My goodness, this is crazy.

♪

♪

Down here, setting up fish line.

I want to try out fish hook way out in the water.

♪

I found a spot where I plan to build my shelter.

With all the resources of bamboo and stuff

that are up there, I can build a pretty damn awesome shelter.

I'll just go up and work on what I can each day

and come back down.

Maybe a little work on the trail as I go up the hill.

This'll be the interesting part.

[grunts]

I got one fish line in.

Get one in every day and...

[branches crackling]

♪

Heard something big crashing around out there.

[trees rustling]

♪

Just caught a glimpse of his eyes.

♪

Whoa.

That's a big cat.

[rustling] Whoa, cat!

♪

Whoa, cat.

♪

Where did he go?

♪

A lot of people go through life,

never learning how to be alone.

Out here, there's no time off.

You take a break, you're done.

Oh, my God, it's like quicksand.

I'm in Patagonia so that I can evolve as a human being.

-[Tarzan call] -Thank you.

I am who I am and I got to do what I got to do out here.

I can't get warm.

I can't move my hands.

Water's coming up about a foot from my bed.

This is a bad situation.

When all of the things aren't going very well for you,

then the isolation is what starts to get to you.

Got the fish.

[shushing]

Haven't heard that noise yet.

The duck trap-enator.

Gonna motor out there.

Survival isn't about being happy.

It sucks.

Oh, my gosh.

There's definitely something outside.

[growling]

♪