All language subtitles for The Explosion Show Series 1 Part 1 When Mountains Explode 1080p EN SUB

My name is tory belleci,

and this is
the "explosion show."

[ explosion ]

now, when I was on
"mythbusters,"

I blew up all sorts of stuff.

[ explosion ]

that was crazy!

This is my buddy
tommy passemante.

What up?

He loves exposes just
as much as I do,

but he's more of a enthusiast.

On this show,

we're gonna meet people
who blow stuff up for living.

Do you guys love your job
or what?

-It's a blast.
-[ laughs ]

we're gonna blow stuff up
in the name of science.

It's like a balloon,
so it goes in three dimensions.

Tory: And then we're gonna blow
step up because why not?

Ah, it sneaks up on you!

It's just plain awesome.

That was insane!

So stick around.

You might enjoy this
just as much as we do.

That seemed a little
anticlimactic.

Yeah, I felt like there

should've been like
an explosion...

[ explosion ]

♪

oh, god.

[ laughter ]

-oh!
-[ laughs ]

♪ here come the boom ♪

-- captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

have you ever asked yourself
where's the best place to be

during an explosion?

I would imagine away from it.

Nowhere near it.
That would be my guess.

But what if you couldn't
actually get away from the blast

and you had to find
the safest place to be?

We're here at new mexico tech.

Hello, good to see you.

Tory: And that's exactly
what they study.

You see, one of the most
dangerous parts of an explosion

isn't the fireball,
it's called the blast wave.

It's a concussive energy

that pushes outwards
from an explosion.

Van: This is
10,000 pounds of anfo.

This is like a wall
coming at you.

When it hits you
that pressure pulse

will cause a lot of damage
to your body.

Tory: New mexico tech is one of
the only schools in the world

that studies explosions
to see how to protect people

and buildings from blast waves.

To get a look at how these waves
work in the real world,

tommy and I are gonna
complete a series of challenges

starting with something small.

Yeah, here we go.

A letter bomb.

Just when you thought
working in an office

couldn't get any worse,

someone goes off and sends you
an explosion real cool.

Okay, so what we've got
is essentially a letter bomb,

for lack of a better term.

-That's a bomb?
-That's a bomb.

Tory: Letter bombs are
particularly dangerous

because they can be
really difficult to recognize.

One of the most notorious
bombers to use this method

was ted kaczynski,
also known as the unabomber.

Between 1978 and 1995 kaczynski

sent a series of bombs
through the mail

killing three people
and injuring 27 others.

Although kaczynski included
clues with his bombs,

such as frequently using

the same
$1 eugene o'neill stamps,

the fact that he hand-built
every component of his bombs

made them
virtually untraceable.

He was so meticulous
in hiding his identity

that it took a tip
from his brother

to finally track him down.

And how will, like, how would
you be able to set that off

in a letter bomb?

Probably don't want to go
into that detail.

Forget I asked that question.
Let's move on.

The other thing that we're going
to be doing with this,

like most letter bombs,

people like to add
shrapnel to them.

We're gonna put some
paper clips on the explosive.

Tory:
It's pretty terrifying.

This tiny bomb has enough force
to turn a paperclip weighing

just half a gram
into a deadly projectile.

-It's very creepy.
-It just got real.

Tory: So tommy and I
each have our own room.

Inside the room there are
a couple of places

that are safer than others.

Tory: Our task is to find
the safest spot

to place the dummy
inside that room.

Mike,
why do they look like us?

[ laughs ]

are you trying to tell us
something?

So if you also notice we have
some pressure gauges right here.

So we're gonna
actually measure

how much pressure you see
from this letter bomb

where you place your dummy.

And so what's the foil for,
is that the safe?

The foil is called
a bikini gauge.

Tory: In 1946, the united states
began a series of nuclear tests

in the marshall islands
at a place called bikini atoll.

Among the many tools
used to measure

the magnitude of the blast
was the bikini gauge,

a diaphragm of thin aluminum

or copper foil
placed over a hole.

If the foil broke,
researchers knew

the approximate amount of peak
pressure placed on the gauge

based on the diameter
of the hole

and the thickness of the foil.

What were you thinking
when you said bikini gauge?

My brain went in the gutter.

Tory: The bikini gauges on these
dummies are configured to burst

at two pounds
of pressure per square inch.

Roughly the amount of pressure
required to burst your eardrums.

So these things pop,
we know our eardrums are gone.

Mike:
Let's place your dummies.

Okay, so I'm thinking like,
I'm gonna get right behind

the guy who was opening
the letter bomb.

I hear something ticking,
I think that, you know,

his body's probably
gonna protect me from frags.

That's a good choice.

All right.
Tommy, what do you want to do?

Yeah, so, like,
I'd be under the desk

because I totally dropped
my pencil,

so I'm looking for it.

Do you think maybe that desk

is gonna protect you
from the blast?

Yeah, it's gonna deflect.

Everything hanging out.
All right, I think we're good.

Let's go ahead and shoot it
and see what happens.

Tory: Now it's time for jon
rig up the detonator.

As the ordinance technician,
jon is an expert

on all things blast-related,

so we're glad he's around
to keep us safe.

Based on total guesswork,

we've both decided
where to place our dummies.

I'm cowering behind
my coworker in one room

and tommy's doing something
under the desk in the other.

Time to see how
it all plays out.

Okay, here we go. First shot.

-Ready?
-Ready.

Three, two, one.

[ explosion ]

dude, that was the size
of a letter?

Yes.

Tory: That was just one ounce
of sheet explosive,

small enough to fit inside
of an envelope.

All right, mike,
we ready to go?

Jonathan: Let's do it again.
Let's see how tommy's fares.

I got no faith.

Yeah, you're so dead.

Is everybody ready?

Yeah.

Okay. Here we go.
In three, two, one.

[ explosion ]

it never gets old!

I feel like I'm a goner.

It's okay.

Let's go check it out.

-Oh, man.
-Oh, my god.

Look at this.

It's like a perfect rectangle
of where the bomb was.

Your head is pretty tore up.

-Not really.
-Look at it.

You got all this shrapnel,
look it blew its face off.

Yeah, but that's just like
my ear and stuff.

Dude, I don't know.
Should we check the...

-My bikini?
-Yeah, check your --

-oh.
-Oh, she gone.

All right, well.

So based on the bikini gauge
being blown,

we know tommy's ear drums would
have ruptured at the very least.

The blast basically
shattered the table

and then all of that
came down this way,

hit the side of your face
and the back

and then
if you look up here.

Holy...

-That is the paper clips.
-Whoa!

Dude, look at all the paper
clips embedded in the dry wall.

That is terrifying.

It is. Yep.

Tory: We need to download
the results

from the neck pressure gauge

to get the official results,

but based on the face
full of desk,

tommy isn't looking so hot.

Time to head over
to the other room

and see if my choice to hide
behind my coworker paid off.

Well.

-Oh, yeah.
-Your gauge is blown as well.

Okay.

We'll know for sure
when we download the data,

but it's not looking good.
Sorry.

Tory: Blast wave pressure
is measured in psi --

pounds per square inch.

Anything above two
is enough to burst eardrums,

the most sensitive part
of your body.

Six to 12 psi
could start to damage

other sensitive organs
like your lungs.

And pressure higher than 20 psi

means your chance of survival
drops off quickly.

According to the pressure gauge
around my dummy's neck,

I experienced
4.1 psi of pressure,

so I'm probably okay.

So wait, so what you're saying
is my coworker is dead

and I probably survived?

There's a good chance.

All right, I'm getting
a promotion after all.

By diving under the desk,
tommy actually managed

to shield himself
from some of the pressure.

His dummy only saw
three psi pressure,

but there's one little problem.

All of the fragments
from the desk

probably would have
impaled you.

I didn't like that job anyway.

You guys both chose cover
over distance.

Tory: This is important
information we didn't have

when we were
placing our dummies.

If we had chosen the corner
opposite of that desk,

we might've survived?
-You might have.

Tory: Distance is almost always
preferable to cover

when you're trying
to survive an explosion.

So even though I survived,
I might've salvaged my eardrums

if I had chosen
the opposite corner of the room.

Why did we want to get so close
to the letter bomb?

-Are we just that curious?
-I don't know.

You guys want to see
what a whole lot can do?

Uh, that's why we came here.

Let's go see.

I'm gonna stick to emails.
No more letters for me.

This is like cold war.

Oh! [ laughs ]

I was not expecting to feel
that in here.

-Whoa!
-Ah!

Mr president,
there's no survivors.

Tory: We're here at
new mexico tech

where they conduct
industry-leading research

on the properties
of blast waves.

Our experts mike and jon
are about to show us

a one-of-a-kind
testing facility --

the urban canyon.

This model of a city block

is designed to simulate a blast
in an urban environment.

The structure is so menacing,
this is like cold war [bleep].

Tory: The urban canyon tests
the way the blast waves ricochet

off of the building's geometry.

The data gathered here is used
to construct safer buildings

like the freedom tower
in new york city.

Are those solid concrete?

These are hollow blocks,

and then the bars
sticking out of the top

are actually a deformable
steel rod that we take a jack

and we stretch the rod,
tighten the nut,

and then let the pressure off
and it holds the stack together

so that when we hit it
with the blast, it does it.

Sorry you said tight nuts.
Sorry, mike.

-[ laughs ]
-all right. All right. You good?

Okay, yeah.
Can we blow it up yet?

-Let's go and check it out.
-All right.

Tory: Our next challenge
is a big one.

Tommy: We just got to stretch
the rod and tighten the nuts.

Tory:
We got a fresh set of dummies,

so we're going to examine
the geometry of the urban canyon

and attempt to place
the dummies in a spot

that is sheltered
from the blast waves.

Good luck.

Don't need it. Good luck.

So dumb.

♪

-oh, hey, what's up?
-Hey, what's going on, buddy?

♪

I would imagine you would want
to get low to the ground, right?

In order to demonstrate
the way blast waves

can bounce off buildings
and wrap around walls,

we're placing a few
extra dummies in other spots.

Tory, look out! Ah!

You saved me! You're my hero.

[ laughs ] yes, sir.

♪

tory: Now that the dummies
are in place

and tommy's done
some light tagging...

I can't take him anywhere.

...It's time to load up
our explosives.

This is anfo or ammonium nitrate
and fuel oil.

This was first used as
an explosive in the 1950s.

The canadians actually
developed this

for blasting coal mines,
initially.

Tory: Anfo quickly grew in
popularity

in the mining industry.

It was much safer
than dynamite

because it was difficult to set
off accidentally by impact,

so workers could load it

without fear of
an unexpected detonation.

And because anfo has
a relatively low detonation

velocity compared to
other explosives like tnt,

the pressure from its
blast waves travel slower,

but it sustains that pressure
for longer periods of time.

That makes it more effective
for things like moving earth.

In other words,
it's got a lot of push,

not a lot of punch.

Tory: 70 pounds of explosives
is no joke,

so we're gonna observe
from inside

the thick concrete walls
of this bunker.

When the apocalypse happens,
this is where you want to be.

Right, in we go and nobody
comes out till we're done.

-How cool is that?
-Jeez.

Mr president,
there's no survivors.

[ laughs ]

♪

tory: So where are you guys
firing it from?

Right in the next room.

-Oh, whoa.
-The red cage.

When you unlock the red cage,
that's when the boom comes.

♪

do you guys want to do
the countdown?

Yeah.

All right, here we go.
In three, two, one...

Whoa! [ laughs ] whoa!

Dude, I was not expecting
to feel that in here.

Dude, the whole building shook.

That's crazy.

Tory: In the replay,

you can actually
see the way the blast waves

traveled through
the urban canyon.

Mike: I mean, it's, like,

kicking up dust
almost every single spot.

So the way that the shock works
is it's like a balloon.

You're blowing up a balloon.
So it goes in three dimensions.

So you get the pressure
of the shockwave coming by

and then behind it
there's an area

that's a negative phase,
it's called.

So everywhere you
see dirt kicking up,

that means the shockwave
has passed by already.

Tory:
Look, I'm still smiling.

You picked the best spot
to be on this face of this wall

because the blast wave
wraps around over the top,

it comes around here,
there's a vortex,

and then it'll
come back over here.

-Unfortunately...
-His disc is ruptured.

Tory: Dang.

We'll see what the numbers say
about my chances of survival,

but for now, I've blown another
set of perfectly good eardrums.

Now this guy here.
This one really got hit hard.

This one, I don't think
there's any chance of survival.

So we know,
which one was this.

Oh, this one was over here.

And how did he get over here?

It actually got sucked in
by the negative phase

of the blast.
-No way!

-That's crazy.
-Yeah.

Tory: The negative phase
of the blast wave

is like a powerful wind
that actually draws objects

back toward the source
of the explosion.

So it was almost like
a tornado.

It's like a tornado, yeah.

That is rad,
but terrifying.

Oh, guess what, tommy?
Your -- your dummy's gone.

Yeah, I don't think
I saved anybody.

Big surprise.

The one inside may have the best
chance of all of surviving

because it's shielded
on two sides

and he's kind of
in the corner over there,

so he may be shielded a little
better even than yours out here.

Tory: We'll see
what the numbers say.

But tommy may have
picked a good spot.

Being down inside
that structure

is probably the safest
position possible.

I mean, those blast waves really
ricochet, travel everywhere.

It's like the walls
almost make it more violent.

Let's check out
the pressure data

and see if either
of us survived.

This time, we're measuring
both the peak overpressure,

which is the amount of force at
the blast, most powerful point.

And the total pressure, which is
the combined amount of force

experienced during the entire
duration of the blast,

including all the ricochets.

-So this first one is you, tory.
-Okay.

So the peak overpressure
was 7.5 psi.

Tory: 7.4 psi is enough to cause
some organ damage

though not necessarily fatal,

but the total pressure
was almost 50 psi.

And you probably
would not survive the event.

Tory: I mean,
I thought I did pretty good.

Aside from the punctured lung
and the bleeding,

and drowning from your blood
filling up your lungs,

but other than that, fine.

With tommy being inside
the block,

he only saw about five psi

and the total pressure
that you saw was just about 20.

So you probably have a 60

to 70% chance
that you would live.

-You survived.
-I made it. I made it.

-I made it.
-Oh, I'm so happy.

At least one of us --
as long as one of us survived.

So we've seen what a one ounce
letter bomb could do.

We've seen the kinds
of blast waves

that 70 pounds
anfo could create.

Let's hope we never have
to choose what spot to be in

when a blast is about
to go off.

Now it's time to go
even bigger.

Tommy: There's some junk
in that trunk.

-Ugh.
-Bad idea.

Oh, god. Yeah,
it sneaks up on you.

No chance, I'm surviving.

-Yeah!
-[ laughs ]

tory: We've been working
with the experts

from new mexico tech
to study blast waves

and find out what would be
the safest spot in an explosion.

Well, that car
looks suspicious.

Tommy: There's some junk
in that trunk.

What do we got here?

We got 500 pounds of anfo
in the trunk.

-That explains the suspension.
-Wow.

Tory: This 500 pound car bomb
were to go off in a city

instead of on this bomb range,

it would cause a massive amount
of death and destruction

in the surrounding area.

So we did 70 at the canyon
and now we're doing 500.

We're gonna step it up
a little.

So how big is the shockwave
gonna eventually get?

Like, how far out
from ground zero?

The shockwave will actually roll
all the way up to the hill

to where you guys
are going to be at.

Oh, my god.

Similar to the other challenges,
our goal is to place our dummies

in the safest possible spot
along this wall.

The bikini gauges
on their chest

and the pressure gauges
around their necks

will tell us if they survived
the blast or not.

-I'm confused.
-About what?

He said the shockwaves
going all the way up the hill.

Yeah, so how is standing behind
a wall gonna save us?

Yeah. How are any of these
gonna survive?

So if you recall
at the urban canyon

we only had
a six foot high block

when that shockwave came.

-Right.
-This is over 10 feet tall,

so that means the shockwave has
to come up and over that wall.

Tory: The wall is used to test
another property of blast waves

called a blast shadow.

As a blast wave
hits an obstruction

and begins to wrap around,
a blast shadow is created.

People and objects
in that blast shadow

are protected from the blast
wave's concussive force.

That's generally the safest
place to be in a blast,

is in a blast shadow
of something.

Gotcha.

Back at the urban canyon,

we saw how blast waves
can wrap around objects,

so I'm a little skeptical that
this wall can protect my dummy.

So what you're saying
is a 500-pound blast,

we could actually put him
somewhere back here

and he'll survive?
-Yes.

Tory: To get the maximum blast
shadow protection.

Tommy and I are placing
our dummies

in the center of the wall.

Then jon places his dummy
in the same spot

with one crucial difference.

He's not gonna be
against the wall.

-Oh.
-Ah...

We want them
to be off the wall.

You already picked your spots,
you're stuck.

Tory: Then just for fun,
we placed two more dummies

totally outside
the blast shadow.

One far behind the wall

and one squarely
in front of the wall.

We've got the explosives
in the rear end of the car.

So what do you think
is gonna come this direction?

-The engine block.
-The engine block.

Oh, this is gonna be like
a fast ball pitch.

Jon's gonna try to see

if he can hit this dummy
with pieces of the car.

It's 50-50 chance
everything's got a light right.

That's so awesome.
[ laughs ]

we've got one final dummy
to checkout.

I swear these guys are keeping
the dummy industry afloat.

So what we're looking
to see here is if there's enough

of a blast wave
to blow out the window

and come
and hit this mannequin.

[ speaking indistinctly ]

tommy: He's like, man,
this is gonna be good.

All right, should we get
to the bunker?

-Yeah, bunker.
-Bunker, all right.

Tory: This bunker is different

than the one
at the urban canyon.

This one is open
on the backside,

which means we can really feel
the concussive blast.

You ready for this, dude?

We're, like, not underground.

So you're gonna feel it, dude.

Mike: All right, standby for
count. Everybody looking.

Everybody ready? Here we go.

Five, four, three, two, one.

[ explosion ]

-yeah!
-[ laughs ]

yeah, it sneaks up on you.

Dude, look at that cloud.

-Oh, my god.
-Look at that cloud.

That was so dope.

[ explosion ]

do you really think
our dummy survived that?

Dude, the car,
there's nothing there.

It's gone.
It's like a magic trick.

Now you see it, now you don't.

I don't know how anyone
could survive

a massive blast like that,

but let's go find the dummies
and check it out.

Oh, my god. Look at the crater.
That is insane.

-Crazy.
-It's a pretty good hole.

Yeah. [ laughs ]

and look,
you hit your dummy.

Yeah, we got him with a bit
of suspension parts.

The engine block is pretty much
all that's left.

He got snagged up
on a little bit of frag.

Got some good aim there, jon.

Tory: All right,
so how did we fare?

-[ laughs ]
-I don't know what you're doing.

You're doing some yoga
or something.

Tried that before.

Jonathan: So that's why you
don't sit against the wall

when a shock
goes off behind you.

-If you noticed yours moved --
-yeah.

...That one didn't.

We knocked his hat off,
but he's still sitting there.

You guys got the shock
of the shock waves

going through the wall.
-Oh...

It smacked you in the back
and knocked you forward.

So like in all those movies
and they're like,

they're like, "oh!"

bad idea.

All right,
what about this guy?

He got hit and his foils
blown out.

So the shockwave just went
straight over the wall.

Straight over and hit him.
He's definitely dead.

Tory:
After checking out the data.

My dummy saw a peak
pressure of eight psi

and a total pressure
of 54.7 which means...

You're a goner, bro.

Tory: Tommy saw peak pressure
at 6.6 psi

and a total pressure of 47.

So even though both of us
were safely in the blast shadow,

there was enough
concussive force

traveling through the wall
to take us both out.

But the mannequin
in the chair survived?

Right.

Because he was just
in the right space.

He's in the exact right spot.
He's in the center of the wall,

so he's protected on three sides
from that shockwave

coming around the wall.

And he's not sitting
against the wall.

That's what shielding
can do for you.

That's amazing.

So we didn't make it this time,

but what about our instagrammer
behind the window?

I can't believe
this phone survived.

Yeah.

-Whoa.
-Oh.

If the blast wave
didn't kill him,

the glass definitely would've.

I'd hit him with follow.

Tory: Now that we've learned
some strategies

about blast shielding,

we've got one last chance
to apply our knowledge

and prove ourselves.

There's no way.

Or you failed the test
and we kick you out of school.

Is that really gonna
do anything?

I didn't even slow it down.

-What?
-Go...Yourself.

♪

tory:
We've got one final challenge

here at new mexico tech.

It's time to see if tommy and I

could put together all we've
learned about blast waves.

You've learned a lot
with all this blast wave work.

Now you're gonna put
that knowledge to use

or you failed the test
and we kick you out of school.

[ laughs ]
oh, great. No pressure.

Here's how this final challenge
is gonna work.

We've got two walls.

Tommy's is made out of brick
and my wall

is made out of cinder block.

Mike and jon are gonna
try to knock them down

with 200 pounds of anfo.

Tommy and I have to try and stop
them using only these buckets.

Tommy's are full of water.
Mine are filled with sand.

This is gonna be a good test
of what you've learned.

So the question is where
do we place

-these protective materials?
-Right.

Are we going, like,
against our wall,

in the middle or right
against the explosives.

We're also gonna go back
to our tried and true dummies

and see if they can survive
the blast waves

from inside the room.

-Good luck.
-Whatever.

I was talking to my dummy.

We've learned our lesson
from the other glass.

Both of us place our dummies
as far away from the blast

as possible
in the back corner of the room.

Tommy's up first.

[ laughs ]
I just had a good idea.

-Yeah?
-Yeah.

I feel like the water
is gonna be a factor

in, like,
destroying the wall.

So I'm gonna make it
as safe as possible

by putting it as far over there

as possible and high
so it's not wide.

Okay. Get stacking.

-All right.
-All right.

I feel like
that's my best bet.

Tory: So sometimes
when water is hit

with a really strong
explosive force,

it essentially becomes
a projectile and inflicts

even more damage
than a blast would on its own.

So tommy might be
onto something here, maybe.

Well, it's just on
a little bit of angle.

Tory:
But you know...

Look out for...
[ speaks indistinctly ]

tory: ...Probably not.

Uh-oh. I didn't do that.

Tory: After a quick cleanup on
aisle seven,

it's time to see
if his strategy works.

Let's head back to the bunker
and blow this popsicle stand.

Jonathan: Okay, charging.

Do you want to say anything
before you say

goodbye to your wall?

Any last words, tommy?

Go...Yourself.

Okay, here we go.

In three, two, one.

[ explosion ]

what the hell?

[ explosion ]

that was huge.

I don't think anything
would have stopped

that wall from
getting destroyed.

All right, let's go see
if you survived.

[ laughs ]

♪

whoa. [ laughs ]

dude, your dummy is gone.

I knew it was gonna be bad.

I didn't know it was
gonna be that bad.

Any sign of him yet?

-Nope.
-It didn't even slow it down.

Jon huffed and puffed
and blew my wall down.

Rotten bastard.

-Hey, there he is.
-[ laughs ]

do you want to check
the sensors?

See if he survived.

Do you want to catch
a fast brick?

I don't think
he's gonna survive.

The fact that the sensors
are destroyed

pretty much tells us
everything we need to know here.

I'm gonna go work on mine.
Good luck saving your dummy.

I don't even think there's a way
to save these walls

after seeing how big these
200-pound explosions are.

I mean, I think he would
have been better off

doing something
with those buckets.

But now it's my turn.

My strategy is --
I'm just gonna load up

a bunch of the buckets of sand
right next to the blast.

Pile everything up
on top of my anfo.

So that way when it goes off,
this absorbs all that energy

and then it doesn't
reach my wall.

I'm just wondering like what
the best way to stack these?

Do I just do
like a double wall?

I mean, most of the shockwave
is gonna be hello

or do I have, is that it?
That's all the buckets I have?

Like some further backs of it.

Hmm, I don't know.

Is that really
gonna do anything?

All right there.

Oh, I think that one bucket
on top

is just gonna do it for you.

Is that that bucket there
for balance?

See? This is what I got
to deal with.

[ laughter ]

tory: Forget it. I'm just going
to go with my gut.

Let's head to the bunker
and see what happens.

-Okay. Is everybody ready?
-Ready.

Here we go in three, two, one.

[ explosion ]

-there's no way.
-Yours looks like it was bigger.

There's no way
that wall survived.

I get the feeling that no matter
how I stack my buckets,

that wall was doomed.

Just look at the way
the blast reaches

all the way over to tommy's room
and knocks debris off the roof

and I'm pretty sure
those are some of my bricks

flying through the air.

There's no way.

I can't even see,
there's a big cloud of dust.

But as long as I have
one tiny cinder block standing,

I'll have done better
than tommy.

So your scheme, even though
the wall fell down,

it worked pretty good.

There's just a slight amount
of debris on the back wall

and your mannequin.

Look, I put him
in the right spot.

You put him in the exact
right location.

Tory: So just like the walls
at the urban canyon

and the bigger wall
in the car bomb,

my buckets of sand essentially
created a small blast shadow,

which deflected
some of the damage.

This same principle
has been used to design

military bases for decades.

The fact that you actually put
your mitigation scheme

between the wall and the charge
made all the difference.

Tommy's if he would have put it
next to the charge,

but not in contact
with the charge,

it might've worked
to help mitigate the blast.

I may have gotten beaten today,
but the best part

about explosions is,
I mean, hey, we all win

because we've got to watch
an explosion.

[ explosion ]

I did suck, though.

Well, it has been a very
informative day

here at new mexico tech.

You guys are awesome.
Did great job.

Well, we've enjoyed
having you guys here

and we hope
to see you again soon.

Tory: We sacrificed a lot of
dummies to learn one thing --

best place to be in an explosion
is as far away as possible.

Not that we're gonna
actually heed that advice.

What else can we blow up, tommy?

60 thousand pounds.

That is the most
anfo I've ever seen.

-What shouldn't I touch?
-I just got more nervous.

-Oh, my...
-Whoa!

Man: And action.

♪

action.

On this show, we talk...

[ beeping ]

whose idea was it to shoot

the intro right next
to the weigh-in station?

That's what I want to know.

On this show, we talk a lot
about blowing stuff up,

but today we're gonna
be blowing stuff down.

What?

Tory: We're here at the arizona
drilling and blasting company

where they use
massive explosions

to turn big rocks
into aggregate,

the small stones used
in building materials

like concrete and asphalt
for their clients

in the construction industry.

They're gonna show us

how they create
explosions large enough

to literally move mountains by
drilling holes in the earth...

♪

packing them with anfo

and blowing them up.

[ explosion ]

scott, the area manager here
at the quarry

has a set of freshly
drilled holes

that need a dose
of our good old friend anfo.

How much are we using?

60 thousand pounds.

-What?
-Jeez.

That is the most anfo
I've ever seen.

Are you gonna let us
fill the holes?

Yep, as a matter of fact, we got
a job waiting for you right now.

[ laughter ]

tory: For centuries,
the process of quarrying rocks

required hand tools
and hundreds of workers

doing backbreaking labor.

It was generally
not a good time,

but then along came explosions
and everything got a lot better.

[ explosion ]

the kinds of explosives
used in mining

and quarrying have evolved
from black powder...

[ explosion ]

...To tnt...

[ explosion ]

...To today's preferred
explosive -- anfo,

which is cheap to produce, easy
to control, and very powerful.

♪

that whole truck is filled
with nothing but anfo.

Absolutely terrifying.

And how many pounds
is it there?

20 thousand pounds.

-20 thousand pounds?
-Yeah.

When you're dealing with massive
amounts of explosives,

safety is key.

At least you would think so.

I love that they just let anfo
just spray out everywhere,

like you remember how careful
they were with it

up at the bomb range?

And they're just like...
[ mimics machinery ]

I don't know.

When we were out
in new mexico

and we were, like,
handling the anfo

like it was like this precious
compound that if we dropped it,

it was gonna blow up
in our faces.

Jon:
Don't pour it too fast now.

Tory: Out here, these guys are
just dumping it everywhere.

It's like they're having
a good time.

All right, should we start
filling holes?

Yep, let's do it.

Yeah, here we go.

[ horn honks ]

oh, no. All right. I just got
a little bit more nervous.

All right, man, I know
I'm supposed to be driving

this really dangerous truck
right now,

but, like, what shouldn't
I touch?

-Everything.
-[ laughs ]

-that's not a good help.
-Yeah.

Tory: The first job is doing

something called
priming the hole.

Anfo is what's called
a tertiary explosive.

That means he can't be set off
directly by fire or by impact,

instead it needs
a primary explosive,

in this case, a small blasting
cap of black powder,

and a secondary explosive
called a booster.

When triggered, the blasting cap
is ignited remotely,

which sets off the booster,
which in turn sets off the anfo.

Hey, man, get out of the way,

I ain't got time
for stupid today.

Tory:
Once the hole is primed,

it's time for tony
to bring over the anfo.

He kind of looks like he worked
here already, huh?

Yeah, he looks like
that guy over there.

-That's his brother.
-[ laughs ]

yeah. That's the boom juice.

All right.

Hey, man, you ready
for a squishy?

Tory: As tommy delivers
the boom juice,

I'm measuring
how much he's using.

That's a lot of anfo.

It's like a really,
really dangerous video game.

-Exactly.
-We're there.

We're there. Whoo!

How many holes
did we have to fill?

98 holes.

-98?
-98.

Tory: 98 is a lot of holes.
Let's speed this up.

I think it's time
for a montage.

Release the anfo!

Yeah, man.

We're there.

All right, we're there.

Moving on.

Let her rip.

♪

you're good.

On to the next.

♪

there we go, perfect.

I feel good.

I feel like the most
dangerous part of this whole day

is having
tommy behind the wheel.

I'm doing my dream job right
now, filling hot holes, man.

Yeah, it's like
your wedding night.

Only better. It's not gonna
be so disappointing.

[ laughs ]

tory: When we filled the holes
up with anfo,

we left about 16 feet
of space at the top.

That's because we need
to top them off

with stemming material,
which sits on top of the anfo

and forces the blast
to break up the rock.

It doesn't sound like much,

but it's actually
a really important step.

So, like, if you don't pack

the rock enough
on top of the anfo,

what happens?

Basically that hole
is just gonna shoot

a big wide puff of smoke
straight up in the air.

And you don't want to see that?

No, because then that means
nothing around this whole area

is broken up now
for them to dig.

Tory: With the stemming process
complete,

it's time to blow
this mountain to bits.

♪

[ alarm wailing ]

we're about to set off
60,000 pounds of anfo

and knock the side
of the hill down.

You excited?

We've been hearing about anfo

and how that has the heaving
power, the pushing power.

Now we're gonna
see it firsthand.

Let's light this hill on fire.

All right,
guys, we all ready?

Attention personnel,

firing in ten, nine, eight,

seven, six, five...

Fire in the hole!

[ explosion ]

-oh, that was awesome.
-Oh, man.

That whole mountain
just, like, lifted up.

♪

that was a lot of energy.

-Dude.
-That was sick.

-We're like regular quarrymen,
-I got get me one of these.

Yeah, get you one of those.

This was amazing to witness.

All that anfo just released

roughly the same amount
of energy is an earthquake.

Now you know what 60,000
pounds looks like.

Tory:
In just a matter of seconds,

we transform a solid mountain

into 61,000 cubic yards
of building material.

You guys ready
to go do it again?

Yes, sir.

The next one is gonna be
a lot better.

Awesome.

Better than that?

Oh, hell, yeah.

-A little bit higher out here.
-I felt this whole earth shake.

Go faster, guys.

Oh, oh, oh...

-That's wild.
-That was worth all of this.

♪

ooh, a little bit higher
out here.

Yeah, so on the other side of
these holes is a 90-foot cliff.

So what's the difference between
this quarry and the last quarry?

We're blasting a little bit
different material.

We're blasting dolomite
on the other side we were on.

This is conglomerate.

Tory: Conglomerate
is tougher to blast apart.

So the holes have to be drilled
in a tighter pattern

and they need to use
even more anfo.

Now on the last shot

we use about 1,100 pounds
of anfo per hole.

How much are we using
on these holes?

So these holes up here are about
1,430 pounds in total.

-Per hole.
-Per hole.

And that's just because

the material here
is much stronger.

Yeah, because if you look
at the way

the material lays in there,

it kind of lays out an angle
this way, going along the wall,

so we're trying to use
the lay of the rock,

how it's laid in there
to shoot against it

to hopefully get
the better fragmentation.

So it's not just about
breaking it down,

it's about the size
of the debris.

Yeah.

Tory: Once scott and his team

get the rock broken down
into a manageable size,

it can get fed into machines

and eventually turned
into building materials

like concrete.

Everything here just seems like

it's a lot more involved
in the last site.

Yeah, the last site
it's pretty straight forward.

But this is the stuff
that I really like

because there's a lot
of planning

and everything that went into
laying that shot out

and drilling it
the way that we did.

Tory: The plan here is to time
the explosions

in a specific sequence

so they use the leverage
of the cliff side

to push the material
out and away from the site.

If everything goes right,

they'll leave a straight line
at the back

and push all of
the material forward

where it's ready
to be hauled away.

The anfo has arrived.

Think we're gonna get this done
before sun down?

If we get going right now,
we should have her licked.

Well, then why don't we just get
out of your way

and we'll just be
your cheerleaders.

That would be awesome.

I have feeling this is gonna go
a lot faster

with us out of their way.

I don't feel like
we sucked that bad.

I don't know, kind of feel
like we do.

Now I know it may seem
at first glance

that tommy and I got demoted,

but the way I look at it,
it was a promotion.

We're not working.
We're actually foremen now.

Hey scott, you're doing
a great job.

Yeah, man. That mix looks great,
the hole looks great.

You guys are doing
awesome, man.

We're management, baby,
middle management.

All right, how are we looking?

We're all loaded up.
All that's left to do now

is the stemming so we can get
this thing blown by sunset.

All right, let's get
the heck out of here.

It all comes down to this.

Time to see
if all of scott's hard work

and our extremely important
supervision will payoff.

♪

oh, here we go.

[ beeps ]

-irish, are you still clear?
-Yep.

-Travis, you steal clear?
-Yeah, we are.

So you're gonna say,
"attention personnel,"

blasting 10 to five and then...

Attention personnel,
blasting in ten,

nine, eight, seven,

six, five...

Fire in the hole.

[ explosion ]

-oh!
-Whoa!

What?

♪

oh, my god.
That was worth all of this.

That legit felt
this whole earth shake.

-Dude!
-[ speaks indistinctly ]

tory: As you could see, it went
exactly according to plan.

[ explosion ]

tory: The precise timing of
scott's charges creates an angle

that naturally pushes
the material forward

and away from the mountain.

♪

look at the dust cloud.

-That's wild, man.
-I know.

Pretty amazing
what that stuff can do.

Yeah, and all that hard work,

up in, like, a millisecond.

Pretty much.

Tory:
Now that the rock is broken up,

it's time to start
hauling it down the hill.

All right, scott,
thank you so much

for the hospitality, man.
It's been a blast. [ laughs ]

thanks for coming out, guys.
We appreciate all your help.

Thank you for letting us
get in your way

and letting us blow stuff up.
This was awesome.

Any time you guys want to come
back, you're more than welcome.

Thanks, buddy.

I mean, don't tease me
with a good time.

[ laughs ]

oh wait, we're all driving
to the same truck?

-Yep.
-This is awkward.

We've got to say
goodbyes again.