Original subtitles

[ominous music]

[Dan narrating text]

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] What if I told you a railroad once put its trust

and its trains in the hands of a baboon?

- The baboon starts pulling the levers

for the trains to move on different tracks.

- This isn't just about flipping switches.

Because if you flip the wrong switch,

that could actually lead to killing people.

- Or that a man in Paris became a superstar

by turning flatulence into fine art.

- He can effectively fart on command.

- The audience, they love it.

They can't get enough.

- [Nick] They want to know.

How does he do this?

- How about a four-legged combat unit ready

to jump into action?

- You think that they're gonna be

like these badass combat dogs.

But these are adorable, cuddly little pets.

And, now, they're thrown into war.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] These are the stories of beings so astonishing,

they are truly unbelievable.

[dramatic music]

- Animals do a lot for us.

They keep us company.

Keep us safe.

And, occasionally, even help out around the house.

But, in the 1800s, one furry friend steps

into a role so unexpected it becomes the stuff of legend.

[suspenseful music]

- So it's late 19th century in South Africa.

And a local rail worker, James Jumper Wide,

is hobbling through a market.

Now, James got his nickname

'cause he always had this habit of jumping

between the rail cars as they were moving.

But, one day, he didn't make it.

He fell through the gap

and actually lost the lower part of both legs.

But he kept the nickname.

- Jumper now has no legs below the knees.

Now, he does have these prosthetic pegs

that he can use to get around.

But it's become very difficult for him

to navigate his way through life and his job.

- [Dan] Then, creaking along the market thoroughfare,

Jumper spots what could be his salvation.

- [Rutledge] So, he sees an oxcart

moving through the market,

which is a pretty ordinary sight.

What is definitely unusual is who's driving it.

A baboon.

[ominous music]

- [Sami] Chacma baboons are native to South Africa.

James has seen them before.

But he's never seen one drive a cart around.

- [Dan] Mesmerized, Jumper has an idea.

Perhaps this trained primate could help him.

- [Rutledge] So Jumper takes whatever cash he's got

and starts to negotiate with the owner.

And, before long, they're able to strike a deal.

And, after that,

Jumper and the baboon named Jack are inseparable.

- [Dan] Soon, Jack is helping Jumper with everything

from picking things off the floor

to fetching items from across the room.

Like his own personal monkey butler.

- Baboons are known for being smart.

But Jack is exceptional in this way.

And he's able to pick up new tasks really fast.

[suspenseful music]

- [Rutledge] So Jumper takes Jack to work with him.

And, of course, Jack's just sitting around,

watching Jumper do his job.

He's moving these big levers

for the trains to move on different tracks.

- [Sami] Now, to be clear, this isn't just about

flipping switches.

Because getting it wrong can have some serious consequences.

If you flip the wrong switch,

that could actually lead to killing people.

[train horn blaring]

- Trains blow a specific whistle

to let the signalman know

what track they need to be switched onto.

Then, based on that signal,

the track lever gets pulled to move the track

in the right direction.

- [Rutledge] Pretty soon, Jack starts

to recognize the whistle patterns.

And he decides he wants to help Jumper.

So he starts pulling the levers for the trains.

And guess what?

He's nailing it.

He gets every single one right every time.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] As you can imagine, having a baboon

in charge of a train station is going to get some attention.

And not everyone's amused.

[suspenseful music]

- [Rutledge] One day, a passenger sees a baboon working

the levers and they do not have the warm fuzzy feeling

that most people do.

- [Sami] So the furious

and irate passenger informs the authorities.

And it completely blows the lid off of Jumper scheme

to hand out his job to a monkey.

- [Emily] So the authorities show up to the train station.

They see him working these levers.

And they are shocked about what's happening.

- [Dan] But instead of pulling the plug,

railroad brass decide to see what this monkey's made of.

[ominous music]

- [Sami] They watch as each train passes by seamlessly.

Jack is hitting every single lever,

every single switch correctly.

The authorities cannot believe

what they are witnessing in front of them.

Jack, the baboon,

may very well be the greatest signalmen they have ever seen.

[suspenseful music]

So the authorities let Jumper and Jack keep their jobs.

And they even take it one step further

by giving Jack a weekly salary of 20 cents.

And they also give him a bottle of beer once a week.

- [Dan] Jack continues operating the signals

for nine years with a perfect safety record

until, sadly, he passes away from tuberculosis in 1890.

- [Sami] James is devastated by the loss, as is the entire town.

And so what they actually end up doing

is preserving Jack's skull

and placing it on display in a local museum

as a sort of tribute to the one and only baboon signalman,

probably, in all of world history.

[ominous music]

- [Dan] Some miraculous beings, like Signalman Jack,

learn their strange talents,

while others are just born with them.

[suspenseful music]

- 19th century Paris is basically the cultural hub

of Europe.

- And the absolute center

of all this entertainment is the famous Moulin Rouge.

- [Adam] Whether you are a poet, a playwright, a painter,

a ballet dancer, this is the place you want to be.

A performer by the name

of Joseph Pujol is very elegantly dressed,

cuts a dashing figure,

as he walks across the stage and saunters up

to this microphone that's connected to the floor itself.

- [Nick] Pujol purposefully backs towards this megaphone.

He then unleashes a torrent of flatulence.

[Pujol farting]

And the audience goes wild.

[audience clapping and cheering]

- [Dan] Behold Joseph Pujol,

better known as Le Petomane.

A self-proclaimed fartiste who turns gas

into a sold-out spectacle in Paris.

- [Nick] He opens the act with an impression

of a bride on her wedding day.

So it's a tiny, quiet, shy,

demure little piece of flatulence.

[Pujol farting]

He follows this up with a lengthy ten-second fart.

Now, this is supposed

to be a dressmaker tearing a piece of fabric.

[Pujol farting]

- [Adam] He could also do very complicated melodies

using a very skillfully placed rubber tube and an ocarina.

And the real showstopper,

the 11 o'clock number,

the one that maybe quite literally

could bring the house down,

is known as Le Coup de Canon.

The blast of the cannon.

It's exactly what it sounds like.

[Pujol farting]

And instead of the audience being appalled or grossed out,

they love it.

They can't get enough.

[audience clapping]

- [Nick] People come from far afield to see this amazing act,

as he can effectively fart on command.

And he's the only person doing it.

- [Dan] Passing wind

with such professional precision is no easy task.

But, incredibly, it's a talent the fartiste discovers

at an early age.

[suspenseful music]

- According to Pujol, as a young child,

he was swimming in the ocean.

And his belly muscles started

to pull and stretch with each swim stroke.

And he started to get this cold sensation

throughout his lower belly.

- It's a little unnerving.

And so he ends up swimming

as quickly as he can to the shore,

having the sensation that he really, really needs

to go to the bathroom.

[dramatic music]

- [Adam] Except when he goes to the bathroom,

he expels an enormous amount of sea water.

- [Nick] This is when Pujol realizes

that he has this uncanny ability

to control his abdominal muscles and his sphincter

so that he can actually inhale air and then exhale it.

- [Adam] It also allows him to never run out of flatulence.

[dramatic music]

- [Dr. J] Why do audiences love it so much?

One, it's hysterical.

Two, it's pulling in clean air.

So when it comes out, it doesn't smell.

- [Nick] Pujol's act attracts the attention of some doctors.

And they're really fascinated.

They want to know.

How does he do this?

And they want to examine his sphincter muscles.

But Pujol says, "No."

Perhaps he wants to keep a little bit of the mystique.

- [Adam] For years, Le Petomane rules the stage

at the Moulin Rouge.

He's apparently paid more than any other performer.

More than top singers or can-can dancers.

He is the marquee draw.

[Pujol farting]

[audience clapping and cheering]

- [Dan] I can tell you from experience that any behavior

that might get you thrown out of church

as a child will probably serve you well as a performer.

- [Dan] Surfers spend hours alone in open water.

Just them, their boards, and whatever's swimming underneath.

Most days, it's peaceful.

But for one man, when real danger strikes,

the rescue team comes from a pod of unlikely bodyguards.

[wave crashing]

[suspenseful music]

- [Rutledge] It's 2007 in beautiful Monterey, California.

And surfer Todd Endris is out on his surfboard,

just bobbing around, waiting for that perfect tasty wave.

- He is hyper-focused.

He's just watching the break

'cause he's not gonna miss his opportunity.

And he's so focused that he misses

what is going on right underneath him.

[dramatic music]

- [Rutledge] Suddenly, without warning,

Todd is hit by something on his board

that completely knocks him off.

It's like getting hit by a freight train.

When he gets his bearings,

he sees a huge dorsal fin headed right for him.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] Unfortunately, Todd is now face to face

with a massive 15-foot great white shark.

[dramatic music]

- [Holly] Todd races back to his board.

And he tries to get on.

But, at that point,

this enormous shark clamps down on both him and the board.

- [Dan] Todd is now trapped in the shark's vice grip.

Its powerful jaws bearing down

with 4,000 pounds of pressure.

[dramatic music]

- [Rutledge] Todd screaming in pain

as the great white is just peeling off his skin

and his wetsuit like a banana peel.

- The shark lets go briefly,

but then spins around and grabs his leg.

It starts to pull him under.

And, in that state of panic,

Todd starts gasping for air and swallowing water.

- [Rutledge] Todd knows, if he pulls his leg,

the shark is just gonna pull the meat right off the bone.

So, instead, he thinks,

I've gotta get the shark to let go of my leg.

So what's he do?

He starts kicking the shark with his other leg.

Incredibly, the shark lets go.

But Todd knows it's coming back.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] As terrified beachgoers look on in horror,

one woman places a desperate call to 911.

[dramatic music]

- [Holly] At this point, Todd is bleeding out.

He knows that the clock is ticking

and that he needs to get to shore.

But, as he looks around,

he then sees even more dorsal fins.

And they're all coming at him with incredible speed.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] Todd braces for another attack

until he realizes it isn't more sharks.

- [Holly] These are wild dolphins.

And they are all swimming until they form,

essentially, a circle around Todd.

- [Rutledge] The dolphins start slapping their tails,

splashing the water all around.

Almost making like a smokescreen.

Then the dolphins start jumping over him.

Swimming all around to try

to distract the shark so Todd can get to shore.

- [Mark] Keep in mind.

While they're doing this, they are in peril.

A lone dolphin is a snack for a great white shark.

- [Dan] The dolphins may be outmatched in size.

But not in strategy.

- [Holly] Dolphins have big brains.

They are known to be incredibly intelligent.

And they are able to put together coordinated efforts

to protect the vulnerable in their pods,

just like they're doing with Todd at this point.

[ominous music]

- [Dan] Eventually, the shark gives up and swims aways.

But the dolphins don't.

With the help of a fellow surfer,

they escort Todd all the way back to shore.

[dramatic music]

- [Rutledge] Todd's injuries are massive.

And you can see right through him.

You can see his lungs through this open flap in his back.

And it takes doctors over 500 stitches

to put them back together.

- [Holly] Todd survives this whole ordeal.

And, perhaps more unbelievably, just six weeks later,

he is right back in the water on his board.

And he is always quick to tell people

that he 100% believes that these dolphins saved his life.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] It's comforting to believe

that animals help us out of pure instinct or love.

But, sometimes, they have ulterior motives.

Like one clever canine in France.

[suspenseful music]

- It's 1908 in France.

And an elderly man walks his large Newfoundland dog

alongside the banks of the Seine.

This is a waterway that cuts right

through the center of Paris.

It passes cathedrals and palaces.

Centuries and centuries of history.

[suspenseful music]

[dog barking]

- Suddenly, they hear splashing and screaming

from a child in the river.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dr. Agust�n] The Seine might look calm.

But it's unpredictable and dangerous.

In certain places throughout Paris,

the currents are powerful and fast.

[dramatic music]

- [Tom] This child is being whisked out.

He's in trouble.

Someone's gotta save this kid quick.

- [Emily] The old man is desperately looking around

for somebody else to help.

But before he can do that,

his Newfoundland clears the bush.

[dramatic music]

And ends up paddling furiously toward this drowning boy.

- [Dan] The heroic Newfie quickly reaches the boy

as the desperate child wraps his exhausted arms

around the dog.

- [Emily] Before you know it,

this dog has pulled this boy back to shore.

He's getting all the belly rubs.

And everybody is celebrating this incredibly heroic event.

- [Tom] Even better.

Somebody, as a reward, gives the dog a steak dinner.

[suspenseful music]

- When it comes to water rescue,

Newfoundlands are the pinnacle.

They were bred specifically for this task.

[suspenseful music]

They're equipped with webbed feet,

double coats for insulation and buoyancy,

and these massive lungs that allow them

to have a lot of stamina when swimming

in these cold, treacherous waters.

- [Dan] But there's little time

for this hero dog to bask in his glory.

- [Dr. Agust�n] Incredibly, two days later,

there's another panicked child in the river.

And the same super dog leaps into the water,

rescues him, and brings him back

to the shore, safe and sound.

- [Dan] Once again, the brave pooch is rewarded

for his valor with a juicy steak.

- [Tom] Then it happens again.

[dramatic music]

Another kid.

Water, rescue, steak.

- And then it happens again.

And again.

There's another fall into the river.

Another near drowning.

Another rescue.

Another steak.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] The parents begin taking turns watching the river

to see how this could possibly keep happening.

That's when they see something unbelievable.

- [Dr. Agust�n] Some kids are frolicking at the river's edge

with a dog keeping a watchful eye when, suddenly,

[water splashing]

the dog runs up and shoves the kid into the river.

Then the dog jumps into the river.

Saves the kid.

Comes back. Takes a bow.

Ready for his steak.

- [Negin] Their parents are scolding this dog.

They're like, bad boy.

And he's like, I don't see what the problem is.

I rescued this kid.

So you're welcome.

And I'd like my steak please.

Rare.

- [Tom] He knows, if you hear a child,

get him in the water and you'll get a steak.

So the good news is the rate

of children nearly drowning plummets.

The bad news.

Poor guy doesn't get steak anymore.

- [Dan] Needless to say, from this point on,

the hero pup is kept on a short leash.

- [Dan] The D-Day invasion is one

of the most documented operations in military history.

But few people realize that some of the first Allied forces

to hit the ground were not human at all.

[suspenseful music]

- On June 6th, 1944, over 160,000 troops prepared

to state the largest amphibious invasion in history.

Highly trained paratroopers strap on their parachutes

and prepare to jump behind enemy lines.

- [Dan] But they're not dropping in alone,

thanks to a special breed of commando.

- [Jason] Now, at the height of the war,

British citizens are struggling to make ends meet.

And, due to war rationing,

they can barely feed themselves,

let alone feed their dogs.

- The War Department comes up with a novel solution.

They're going to offer to pay the room and board

for people's dogs.

Feed them.

But there's a catch.

- [Dan] That catch is a big one.

Because the War Department isn't just looking for mascots.

These family pets are

about to be turned into frontline paratroopers.

[dog barking]

[dramatic music]

- [Tom] When you think of dogs who are bred for combat,

you think that they're gonna be

like these badass combat dogs.

But these are adorable, cuddly little pets.

And, now, they're thrown into war.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] Among these unlikely recruits is Brian,

an Alsatian, Collie mix

from the Fetch family in Loughborough.

The dog who, just days ago,

was chasing sticks in the yard.

Now, he's reporting for bootcamp.

- [Jason] Lance Corporal Ken Bailey

of the 13th Parachute Battalion comes up

with the whole training plan

to turn dogs like Brian into warriors on the battlefield.

[plane engine shrieking]

[bombs exploding]

The battlefield is full of loud noises and percussions.

First, he trains Brian and his fellow dogs

to become accustomed to anti-aircraft fire

and mortar rounds that would be exploding all around them.

[dramatic music]

- [Jonathan] Then he's trained to sniff out the landmines

and booby traps that litter the battle space.

- [Dan] After months of training,

Brian's prepared to take on his most important mission yet.

[suspenseful music]

- [Jason] On D-Day, Brian's ready for combat.

He even gets a new name for the mission, Bing.

And he's strapped into his parachute harness.

And he's ready to jump into the unknown.

[suspenseful music]

- [Jonathan] Flak is exploding all around the plane.

His squad jumps.

His chute opens.

And then there's a problem.

[ominous music]

- [Jason] Commando Bing lands in the tree line.

And he's suspended and tangled

in his parachute risers and his lines.

So he's now exposed to the enemy.

And he needs rescue.

[ominous music]

- [Dan] Thankfully, his handlers are able to get him down.

And once his paws are on the ground,

Bing really hits his stride.

[suspenseful music]

- [Jonathan] Turns out he's a prodigy.

He's sniffing out booby traps and landmines.

He's finding wounded soldiers

so that medics can rescue them.

But, most importantly, he's a bird dog for Nazi soldiers.

When he sniffs out an enemy position,

he freezes and points so his squad knows where they are.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] Sadly, just as with any brave warriors,

there are casualties.

[slow music]

- [Jason] Two of Bing's canine counterparts are wounded.

And they don't make it through the invasion.

Bing is also wounded by an enemy mortar attack.

But this doesn't stop Bing.

[dramatic music]

He recovers and he's redeployed to the battlefield.

In March of 1945, he parachutes over the Rhine

and helps force Germany's surrender

in Operation Varsity and Operation Plunder.

- [Dan] By the time the Nazis surrender,

this canine commando has seen 18 months of combat.

- [Tom] After the war, Bing goes back to his family.

Becomes Brian all over again.

And, just like his human counterparts,

gets a bunch of medals.

And he lives to 13 years old.

- [Jason] He's still recognized as a war hero to this day.

He's actually stuffed and on display

at the Imperial War Museum

with his parachute by his side.

[ominous music]

- [Dan] Parachuting dogs must have been quite a sight.

But not every battlefield presence could be seen

or explained.

[ominous music]

- [Holly] It is a cold night in the French trenches

in 1917 during World War I.

And there is a Canadian corporal named Will Bird

who was just trying to grab a few winks in the dugout.

But, as sunrises, he's awakened

when he has the sensation of two warm hands on his back.

- Immediately, Corporal Bird thinks that it is just one

of his comrades waking him up for guard duty.

But he turns around.

And he's absolutely shocked to see

that the hands belonged to his brother, Steve,

who had been killed in combat two years earlier.

- [Dan] The spirit beckons Will to follow him

outside into the horrors of no man's land.

Toward the bombed out remains

of an old house at the edge of the war zone.

- [Holly] Bombs are going off all around.

And Will is begging his brother's ghost to speak to him.

But the spirit refuses to say a word.

And then, suddenly,

[bomb exploding]

it vanishes into the smoke that fills the battlefield.

[ominous music]

- [Dan] Will runs back to his dugout.

And when he returns, he's shocked at what he sees.

- [Jason] Where his dugout was only minutes ago is now a

crater, filled with nothing but smoke and debris.

It's been hit by a German mortar.

[dramatic music]

- As Steve looks and sees this gaping hole in the ground,

just a chill goes through him.

And he realizes that his life has just been saved

by his dead brother.

- [Dan] Surprisingly, it's not the first time

something like this has happened.

Two years earlier, another Allied soldier

in Belgium reports something even more bizarre.

- [Mitch] British Lieutenant William Speight

and a comrade of his are hunkered down

in a dugout with bombs bursting all around them.

[bomb exploding]

- [Jason] The shelling is deafening.

And the men are both keeping their heads down

until they both notice a presence

in the trenches with them.

[suspenseful music]

They pick up their heads.

And they both see the same thing.

A ghostly apparition of one of their fallen comrades.

- [Holly] The two men are trying not

to even acknowledge that this is happening.

They're trying to look away.

But the spirit is very adamant

and continues to point assertively

towards the floor of the dugout.

But then, just as quickly as he appeared,

he vanishes.

[bomb exploding]

- [Troy] Well, the two men are frightened by this.

But they are also curious

as to what it was he was trying to tell them.

So they start digging.

And that's when they make a chilling discovery.

[suspenseful music]

- [Holly] While the Germans have been attacking from above,

they have also been secretly attacking

from below by creating this tunnel

and rigging it with enough explosives

to blow them all into the sky.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] Thanks to their ghostly warning,

the soldiers are able to disarm the device

before it goes off.

[suspenseful music]

- [Troy] War museums,

letters that have been written home,

diaries from soldiers,

all of these things tell stories of strange things

that happened on the battlefield.

Supernatural things that no one can truly explain.

And, in some cases,

as in the case with William Speight,

there were multiple witnesses.

- [Holly] Skeptics will usually approach something like this

and explain it away as a mass hallucination.

These are traumatic circumstances.

But in an instance where that hallucination

or delusion actually saves you from a mortar,

that's a pretty big coincidence.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] As someone who knows a lot about ghosts,

I can tell you.

They don't get any friendlier

than saving your bacon in the trenches of war.

- [Dan] In the realm of astonishing beings,

few are more baffling than the man

who doesn't need fists or a weapon to win a fight.

[suspenseful music]

- In the 1980s, the Cold War's raging.

And the US Army Intelligence Division is attempting

to create a brand new set of military operatives,

designed to have a set of skills

that the enemy will never see coming.

- [Dan] The unofficial program

is called First Earth Battalion.

And its goal is to train soldiers in psychic warfare.

[dramatic music]

- [Troy] They're trying to achieve some skills

like becoming invisible or walking through walls,

which would make them pretty hard

to defeat if they could accomplish it.

[dramatic music]

- There's a two-star general named Albert Stubblebine

who's really into the idea of walking through walls.

He keeps attempting it in his office.

But all he ever gets is a badly bruised nose.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] The wall walking might have been a bust.

But there's another alleged skill

that could be even more useful.

- [Sami] There is a special forces commando and a kung fu

expert, Guy Savelli, who has been brought in

to train these soldiers in the art of hand-to-hand combat.

[suspenseful music]

According to witnesses, Guy showcases special talents

and abilities that are far beyond what they ever expected.

Specifically, just by looking at his opponent

in a certain way, he can stop their heart completely.

[heart beating]

[suspenseful music]

Now, if this were true and it did work,

imagine the implications.

You would have the deadliest team

of silent assassins in all of history.

- [Troy] This is the kind of thing

that army intelligence has been working on for a while.

They've tried to use other soldiers

to psychically stop beating hearts.

But they were experimenting with dogs.

And they weren't having any luck with it.

[ominous music]

- [MJ] Those in charge of the program claim that it didn't

work because dogs are man's best friend.

And we're naturally bonded with them.

So the solution is to find an animal

that people are a lot less fond of.

Goats.

[goat bleating]

[suspenseful music]

According to some witnesses,

Guy Savelli enters a small nondescript building

in Fort Bragg and locks eyes with an unsuspecting goat.

[suspenseful music]

- Guy stares down the goat for hours and hours intensively.

Guy starts to become covered with sweat.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] Then blood begins to trickle from the goat's nose.

- [Sami] And, apparently, in front of all these witnesses,

this goat just drops dead right at Savelli's feet.

Guy Savelli stops the goat's heart.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] The goat incident

becomes the program's most infamous story.

But when no one else can recreate Savelli's feat,

the First Earth Battalion quietly drifts

from the classified files into folklore.

- [Sami] As for Guy Savelli, his story goes on

to become a novel called "The Men Who Stare at Goats"

that's made into a movie starring George Clooney

and Ewan McGregor.

[ominous music]

- [Dan] If you think a man learning

to stop a goat's heart with a stare is shocking,

just wait until you see what scientists taught rats to do.

[upbeat music]

- At the University of Richmond,

neuroscientist Kelly Lambert is studying stress.

- [Dan] She believes that a major cause

of stress is people feeling a lack of control

in their daily lives.

And that gives her an idea.

[upbeat music]

- [Nick] Dr. Lambert theorizes

that giving people back control will help deal

with this stress.

- To do this, she decides to gather a group of test subjects

and teach them a new skill so that they feel in control.

This group of test subjects isn't human.

It's a bunch of rats.

[upbeat music]

- [Dan] And what Dr. Lambert is

about to teach them isn't just unusual.

It's unprecedented in the animal kingdom.

- She's gonna teach rats how to drive a car.

- [Scientist] There we go.

- [Nick] By literally putting these rats in the driving seat,

she's going to give them an increased level of control.

And, hopefully, improve their happiness.

- [Adam] So she and her students basically fashion

these little cars that have plastic cereal boxes.

And the idea is, let's see

if we can get the rats to press the gas pedal

and drive themselves over to their favorite treat.

A Froot Loop.

- [Dan] With food as a motivator,

these rats learn to drive really quickly.

And then something incredible happens.

- [Nick] Normally, you'd expect the rats

to just take the shortest route.

And some do.

But other rats seem to take the scenic route.

It's almost as if they enjoy the drive.

- [Adam] But is there a measure

of whether or not these rats are actually happy?

And, suddenly, a bit of evidence presents itself.

They start doing something pretty unusual with their tails.

They sort of raised it up

in this little question mark curve.

And it's a behavior

that Lambert herself has never seen before.

- [Jenny[ But another colleague has seen it before.

In rats who are given morphine.

[dramatic music]

- [Nick] It seems that the act

of driving itself has triggered the same pleasure centers

as happens when they take morphine.

Now, that's a happy rat.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] To be fair, those rats never had to face LA traffic.

- [Dan] We've seen some astonishing beings tonight.

But our next story proves you don't need claws, fins,

or superpowers to be truly unbelievable.

[dramatic music]

- [MJ] In the 1950s,

a young child named Kim Peek is brought to his doctors.

He has some cognitive and neurological challenges.

He has trouble performing

some typical functions like dressing himself

or connecting with others socially or emotionally.

- [Dan] His doctors sent him to a neurologist

where Kim is diagnosed

with a condition called agenesis of the corpus callosum.

[ominous music]

- That basically means that the structure

that connects both the left and the right sides

of the brain doesn't exist in Kim's brain.

- Typically, when we see this condition in individuals,

it results in really severe developmental delays.

But, with Kim, it seems to have unlocked something magical.

[energetic music]

- [Dr. Chris] Somehow, the two sides of Kim's brain are able

to work independently

in a way that most neurotypical brains cannot.

- [Dan] The result?

Kim begins to demonstrate some truly astonishing abilities.

- When Kim reads a book,

his left eye and right eye process the pages independently.

So, at a glance, he's able

to memorize vast swaths of information and recall them.

- [Jenny] Kim's photographic memory is off the charts.

Pretty soon, he has read and memorized

over 12,000 books on economics,

history, classical music, art.

Anything you can think of,

he has read it and then locked it away.

[suspenseful music]

- [Andrew] He's one of the most unusual cases

of Savant syndrome ever discovered.

- [Dan] As word of Kim's extraordinary abilities spread,

his family travels the country,

sharing his gifts with researchers and audiences alike,

eventually drawing the attention of Hollywood.

- [Jenny] In 1980, Kim meets a screenwriter named Barry Morrow.

And Barry is so moved by the experience

of meeting Kim and talking to him

that he ends up writing a screenplay

that's based on Kim's life.

And that movie, of course, is "Rain Man."

- [Andrew] The movie goes on to win four Academy Awards.

But the added benefit is it brings attention

to people with Savant syndrome and to Kim himself.

And he goes on something of a world tour.

- [Alicia] So, naturally, everyone wants to know

whether Kim can actually go to Vegas and count cards

or break the casino, just like Dustin Hoffman's character.

And the truth is, we will probably never know.

Because, even though Kim has the ability,

he refuses to do it because he thinks it's dishonest.

[upbeat music]

- [Dan] Kim Peek passes away in 2009 at 58.

His legacy forever cemented in Hollywood history.

Next up.

A woman who gets into the Guinness Book of World Records

for a much smaller achievement.

[ominous music]

- [Mitch] It is 1864 in Veracruz, Mexico.

A young woman is giving birth with the help of a midwife.

And they soon discover

that there is something very unusual about this infant.

She is tiny.

Almost unbelievably so.

- [Dr. Jen] She weighs 2.8 pounds.

That's less than half the size of a typical newborn.

You'd think that she was premature.

But she's not premature.

She's born after about nine months of pregnancy.

She's fully developed.

And she's actually quite healthy.

- [Mitch] Her parents named the newborn Lucia,

which means light.

They love her, care for her.

And she does start to grow for a time.

[ominous music]

- [Dr. Jen] Lucia stops growing at a normal rate

by her first birthday,

topping out at about 4.7 pounds.

- [Mitch] To give some scale,

some people say that Lucia's calf was

about the size of a male thumb.

[ominous music]

- [Alicia] Naturally, being this size poses some problems.

She can't really shop off the rack.

Instead, she's actually wearing doll clothes.

- [Mitch] Because of her size, Lucia cannot perform labor.

She can't reach things.

She can't even fit in an ordinary chair

at a dinner table.

So, her family decides that she's left

with virtually no choice but to enter show business.

- [Troy] Well, her act is fairly straightforward.

She will just stand there when people come to see her.

But, when they get close, she'll speak,

which can be a real shock to people.

Some people even faint.

[ominous music]

- [Mitch] Lucia is so tiny and her voice is so delicate

that some audience members actually believe

she is a living fairy.

[dramatic music]

- [Troy] Lucia's act becomes a tremendous success.

And she's bringing in a fortune.

The average salary in Mexico

in the 1870s was only $600 a year.

And Lucia's making $1,000 a week.

- [Mitch] Lucia travels much of the world.

She meets celebrities

and leaders like President Rutherford B. Hayes

and Queen Victoria herself.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] But after living such a remarkable life,

Lucia's journey would take one final unexpected turn.

At just 26, while traveling through the Sierra Nevadas,

a devastating blizzard swallows her train,

trapping it beneath more than 20 feet of snow.

[dramatic music]

- [Troy] Temperatures at night go down far below zero.

And with Lucia's tiny body, she becomes hypothermic.

And, eventually, she passes away.

[suspenseful music]

- [Mitch] Lucia's legacy lives on.

She holds the Guinness world record of lightest human adult.

A record that lives on today.

[ominous music]

- [Dan] Most legends are built on heroic deeds

or remarkable talents.

This one is built on hunger.

An appetite so extreme, so uncontrollable

that it had baffled doctors and terrified witnesses.

This is the unbelievable tale of the Insatiable Man.

[ominous music]

- [Adam] It's 1792 in Eastern France.

And a very large amount

of French military have taken up residents

in a commune called Soultz-Haut-Rhin.

- [Troy] Well, a couple of the soldiers are out there,

along the garbage pile,

when they notice something moving.

It's a young man wearing a French military uniform.

And he's crawling around in the garbage, eating it.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] His name is Tarrare.

And, like everyone else,

he gets rations of food every day.

But, for this soldier, it's not nearly enough.

- His hunger is insatiable.

Even after doing extra work

for the other soldiers to get their rations,

he's eating snakes, rats.

Anything he can get his hands on.

Even bloody bandages from the hospital.

[ominous music]

- [Troy] So the military surgeon takes a look at him.

And, for a man who eats constantly,

he can't understand why he's rail thin.

He weighs less than a hundred pounds.

- [Adam] So the army surgeon begins to do experiments

and starts feeding him and feeding him and feeding him.

Ultimately, feeding him enough rations for 15 men.

And he has no idea why Tarrare is still hungry.

[dramatic music]

- [Alicia] There's another curiosity.

And that is the stench.

The smell is so bad

that the military surgeon actually faints.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] But beyond his overwhelming odor,

Tarrare's insatiable appetite makes him a major liability

for the French military.

- [Troy] No one knows what to do with him

until an intelligence officer comes up with an idea.

He could be a spy.

- [Adam] For a spy, it's incredibly dangerous

to keep something secret on their person.

But what if they could have a top secret note

inside their person?

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] They have Tarrare swallow a secret message

and send him to Prussia for an undercover mission.

Unfortunately, the intelligence officer

forgets the first rule of espionage.

Be invisible.

- [Adam] He stinks terribly.

He looks weird.

- [Alicia] He's quickly noticed by locals.

They rough him up.

And his mission was a failure.

So he is quickly dismissed from army intelligence.

[ominous music]

- [Dr. J] After they bounce him from the army,

he is then on the streets, fighting dogs for scraps.

And he's even caught sneaking

into the hospital to eat corpses.

[ominous music]

- [Adam] Ultimately, the only thing that can save Tarrare

from this tortuous overbearing hunger is death.

And, in fact, he succumbs at the age of 26.

Not from starvation.

But from tuberculosis.

- [Dr. J] The official autopsy doesn't reveal any obvious cause

for this man's symptoms.

Some people theorize that it could be hyperthyroidism.

Some people theorize it could be a parasite.

Maybe even psychosis.

Or this crazy cocktail of all three.

[ominous music]

- [Dan] Tarrare might have been terrible at blending in.

But our next astonishing creature

is a master of disguise.

[suspenseful music]

- [Emily] Hanging on a tree

in the Amazon rainforest exists a creature

called the sphinx moth caterpillar.

Its bright green and yellow coloring

makes it a really easy target for birds.

- But nature has instilled a pretty remarkable trick

to keep this little guy from becoming a bird's next meal.

- [Dan] When faced with a threat,

the sphinx moth caterpillar transforms itself

into something no hungry predator wants to mess with.

[dramatic music]

- [Jarod] A perfect impression

of this large snake head with menacing black eyes.

- [Emily] The snake eyes even have a little white dot

to make it look like it's reflecting light back.

- [Rutledge] And if a bird is even brave enough to get close,

the caterpillar actually strikes just like a snake would.

[dramatic music]

Just goes to show you that,

in nature, even an easy meal isn't so easy.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] Whether it's a monkey train track operator,

or a man with an amazing talent for flatulence,

a heroic dolphin who saves lives,

or a psychic super soldier who takes them,

these are the stories of beings so astonishing,

they are truly unbelievable.

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