All language subtitles for Strange Evidence - 4x07_track3_eng

[ camera whirs ]

narrator:
Worldwide, 27 billion cameras
are watching us --

on our streets,
at work, and in our homes.

They capture things
that seem impossible.

It defies the laws of physics.

Man:
This is unbelievable, man.

Narrator:
Experts carry out analysis
of these unusual events.

Now, that's an explosion.

[ screaming ]

there's got to be something
we're missing in this video...

Something we're not
seeing, right?

What else is going on here?

Narrator: Coming up,
nashville rocks

as bizarre blasts
come from below.

Oh, my god!
What on earth was that?

Narrator: A restaurant
where the meat is on the move.

How did food just crawl
its way off the plate?

Narrator: And a mutant
the size of a school bus...

Oh, man! Oh, man!
Oh, man!

What is this monstrous creature?

Narrator: Bizarre phenomenon.

Whoa.

Narrator:
Mysteries caught on camera.

What's the truth behind
this strange evidence?

-- Captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

now nashville
becomes flashville.

Oh, my god!
What on earth was that?

Narrator: City streets
descend into panic

as explosions blast up
from below.

If we see it happening
on this street,

it can happen on anyone's
street, and that's terrifying.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator:
Nashville, tennessee,

the country-music capital
of the world.

Beyond the honky-tonk bars
and the grand ole opry

is a city of over
600,000 people.

August 2014,
the suburb of sulfur springs --

a foul stench fills the air.

Then, a bizarre
and terrifying explosion.

Fireballs leap
from below the ground

blasting a 300-pound
manhole cover skyward.

I don't know what it is.

Is it a natural disaster
that's happening?

Whoa!

Well, this is terrifying

'cause this out in front
of someone's house.

Narrator: Fireballs
shoot up from the ground.

This isn't normal.
Streets don't just blow up.

Something's going on here,

and we need to know
what's happening.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: The cause of
the explosion is a mystery.

There are no natural-gas pipes
nearby,

so it can't be a gas leak,

and no normal amount of sewage
methane could do this.

Science journalist
athena brensburger believes

there could be some secret,
highly combustible substance

hidden under this quiet suburb.

Now, there could be some type
of explosive events

happening underneath the surface
that we don't see just yet,

and as a result, that could be
what produced the flames

and the smoke that we see.

Narrator: Military historian
marty morgan

considers that the explosion
and flashes of flame from below

are linked to ancient tunnels
said to lie beneath nashville.

Morgan:
Nashville is well-known

for having a tunnel complex
beneath it.

There are rumors about
what these tunnels are

and what they were,
and the rumors range --

everything from big tunnels

built during the era
of the underground railroad,

when slaves were being smuggled
out of the southern states

to freedom in northern states.

And then there's another one
still that's underneath

what was effectively
nashville's red-light district,

called printer's alley.

And that invites speculation
about nefarious purposes.

Narrator:
Historian tony mcmahon wonders

if the explosion
was caused by mobsters

who used the old,
underground tunnels

to conceal their activity.

Over 80 years ago, nashville
and everywhere else in the u.S.

Was under prohibition.

Alcohol was illegal,

and of course, gangsters stashed
illegal hooch, as it was known,

in tunnels away from
the prying eyes of the police.

Narrator:
Between 1920 and 1933,

prohibition created a $3 billion
black market for drink

and fueled the rise
of brutal mobsters

like al capone
and lucky luciano.

Nashville had its own gangsters,
who distilled illegal booze

and are said to have
used the tunnels

to store and transport it.

Many were gunned down

before they were able
to move their product.

Maybe what we're seeing here is

that alcohol that's been there
for decades

has been giving off
alcoholic vapors,

and the whole thing
has ignited.

Narrator: In the english town
of boston in 2011

and illegal vodka distillery

exploded after one
of the moonshiners

discarded a lit cigarette.

The blast killed five men
at the scene.

A forgotten bootlegger's stash
under nashville

could explode with the same kind
of force and produce fireballs.

We know alcohol
is really flammable.

One spark -- boom, off it goes.

Narrator: But when engineer
mike sansom

looks at underground plans
of this suburban street,

he finds no tunnels --

only evidence of a large network
of waste pipes.

This is a sewer system, and it's
flooded out all the time,

so that moonshine wouldn't have
stayed there for many years.

Somebody would've found it,

or it would've gone
with the floods.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator:
Tony mcmahon finds news reports
from the day of the blast

that may be a clue
to the origin of the fireballs.

It turns out that emergency
services

were called to an incident
down the street

from where those
explosions happened.

So, that might indicate
the cause of those explosions.

Tv news reports showed
an oil tanker that had crashed,

and it had leaked
an enormous amount of fuel

into the sewer system.

Narrator: Pyrotechnics expert
matt kutcher

has worked with explosions
in hollywood movies

for over 20 years.

You think your sewer's blowing
up around you,

you certainly wouldn't
want to be around that.

Narrator:
Kutcher sets up an experiment

to test the theory that spilt
fuel from an oil tanker

flooded the sewer,
setting off block-wide blasts.

Nice.

Kutcher's scaled-down copy
of the nashville sewer

is filled with water
and replicas of other things

you'd find in a waste pipe.

Kutcher: When I got
into the movie business,

I never imagined I'd be working
this closely to poo.

Narrator:
With the pipe full of sewage,

kutcher and his team carefully
prepare the explosive

and detonators.

Kutcher:
So, that's contact cement.

Basically, it's glue.

It's a thicker,
more viscous gasoline.

So, this is the proverbial
cherry on the top, right?

The actual manhole that,
hopefully, will blow off.

What we wouldn't normally see
under the ground, we will today.

It's all above ground now.

Okey-dokey.

Narrator:
To simulate the explosion,

kutcher will ignite the fuel
with a small spark of the type

that could come
from a faulty underground wire

or discarded cigarette butt.

All right, gentlemen,
watch your eyes.

All clear.

In three, two, one.

[ camera whirs ]

coming up,
can matt kutcher reproduce

the nashville fireballs?

Kutcher: That was
one big sewer blast-off.

[ camera whirs ]

woman: Aah!

Narrator: And terror is on the
menu in a downtown restaurant.

Is it really possible
for a piece of meat

to come back to life,
like a zombie?

Narrator: In nashville,
tennessee, a weird smell

and then explosions that shoot
up from below the ground.

Pyrotechnics expert
matt kutcher

wants to test his theory
that a fuel leak

got into the city sewer system,
causing a catastrophic blast.

He fills a replica sewer
with fuel and water

and wants to find out
if a tiny spark

could make it erupt like
the fireball in the footage.

All clear.

In three, two, one.

Hit it.

♪

as the simulated manhole cover
is blown skyward by the blast,

gasoline fumes ignite just as
they did in the street sewer.

Kutcher: That was
one big sewer blast-off.

Did you see the top of it?

It looked
just like the footage.

We have sewage.
We have flame.

Our manhole cover.

It's still recording...

In the poo.

[ tapping ]

clean up on aisle six.

Narrator:
Kutcher's experiment proves

the spill from the tanker caused
the manhole covers to explode.

With the amount
of explosive potential

caused by this tanker spill,
it's amazing that nobody died.

Narrator:
It's a scary thought.

With a hundred thousand oil
trucks on america's streets,

our underground waste pipes

could funnel death
directly into our homes.

Brensberger:
It's quite terrifying to think

that something as simple
as an oil spill

could essentially create
a bomb beneath our feet.

Who's to say it can't happen
on your street or my street?

Narrator: Now, a meal where
the meat is on the move.

That piece of meat looks like
it's coming back from the dead.

Narrator:
It can't be alive.

There's no brain,
there's no spinal chord,

there's organs of any kind.

Narrator:
Is this a kentucky-fried zombie?

If my food were walking,

I'd be walking too --
out of the restaurant.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator:
Man has been eating meat

for more than two and half
million years.

Its calorie punch
allowed our brains to grow,

giving us enough intelligence
to start cooking it

around 800,000 b.C.,

and finally,
from the 18th century,

start serving it
in fancy restaurants.

But in 2019, one customer,
to her horror,

discovers her meal
is still alive.

First, it jerks into life.

Woman: Aah!

Then, it jumps off the table.

There's just this hunk of meat.

It looks like a piece
of chicken,

and all of a sudden
it starts moving,

and it crawls off the plate.

Narrator: Experts are baffled by
this raw piece of mystery meat.

How does a plate of food just
crawl its way off the plate?

Is it really possible
for a piece of meat

to come back to life,
like a zombie?

Narrator:
Biologist leslie samuel
believes this meat is chicken.

An animal that's usually
resilient,

even when clinically dead.

You know, everyone's heard
the saying,

"running around like
a headless chicken."

basically, when a chicken
is slaughtered

and the head is removed,

it can actually
still continue running around

even though the brain
is no longer sending signals.

Narrator:
Unlike in humans,

where the frontal lobe
of the brain

is essential
for daily functions,

in birds, this part of the brain

is much smaller
and largely redundant.

Most of the important stuff
for running around

happens in the chicken's
brain stem

which is actually
further down in the neck.

Narrator:
Normally, after decapitation,
a brainless chicken

gets only
a few extra minutes of life.

Headless chickens
don't run around forever.

Usually, they'll stop running
around after 10, 15 minutes.

They're not still gonna be
running around

by the time you see them
on your dinner plate --

that's for sure.

Narrator: However,
in one extraordinary case,

a chicken named mike

seemed to overcome
the immutable laws of death.

So, there's this one story

about mike,
the headless chicken,

back in 1945 in colorado.

He got decapitated,
but he continued to live.

Narrator: Mike's owner,
farmer lloyd olsen,

is stunned
by his chicken's survival.

He takes mike on tour
around the country,

where thousands of curiosity
seekers flock to see him.

Olsen keeps mike alive by
feeding him a liquid diet

through an eye-dropper

and keeps his throat clear
of mucus using a syringe.

But after touring the u.S.
For 18 months,

olsen makes a grave mistake.

Tragically, farmer olsen
misplaced the syringe

and little mike
choked on his own mucus.

Narrator:
If olsen had been less clumsy,

mike could've been undead
to a ripe, old age.

As long as there is still oxygen
in the blood

and the cells
haven't broken down,

it can still continue
to move around

because the spinal chord
is still telling it to.

Is that what we're seeing here?

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Coming up,
is this mysterious meat

the victim of
a gruesome culinary craze?

This is way too fresh for me
to be eating.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator:
And a mutant from the deep.

Oh, man! Oh, man!
Oh, man!

Narrator:
In an asian restaurant,

a suspected piece of chicken
crawls off the plate

and jumps off the table.

Biologist greg szulgit
studies the footage and suspects

this moving meat
may not be chicken after all

but flesh
from a different type of animal.

If you look carefully at it,

you can see that the body
is long and slender at the back,

and it doesn't
look like chicken.

If this was
such fresh chicken meat

that it could still move around,
where's the chicken bones?

Where's the chicken blood?
I don't see either of these.

Narrator:
Szulgit suspects this could be
an amphibian that's still alive.

I think this might be frog meat,
and if it is, it's frog meat

that's prepared in one of
the most horrific ways possible.

Narrator:
Sashimi is a popular dish

in restaurants
all over the world --

raw meat served fresh.

But a disturbing new
gastronomic trend is emerging.

In japanese,
it's known as ikizukuri,

which means "prepared alive."

the creature is dismembered
for you at your table

and served to you alive.

It would seem that sashimi,
while served up fresh,

isn't fresh enough for some.

Narrator: But the practice
of eating live animals

comes with
a potentially huge risk.

Cooking meat kills harmful
bacteria.

Raw meat can contain e.Coli,
salmonella, and listeria.

This is the perfect example
of why I decided

to be a vegetarian.

Narrator: But a live frog is
perhaps the most disturbing meal

ever created.

That's live frog served up
before it's even croaked.

This takes it
to a whole other level.

Narrator:
Greg szulgit discovers footage

that could prove
this is frog meat,

but it's not
an easy film to watch.

I would feel much better
if the frog's brain

had been pithed first
so that it wouldn't feel pain.

Oh, gosh!
Oh, whoa, oh!

He skinned it.

Wise: Now he's, like, flailing
and waving his arms

and trying to escape,
and he's only half a frog.

Oh, it's looking right at --
oh, it winked!

That's just brutal.

Narrator: Szulgit is sure that
the freaky frog footage

solves the mystery
of the moving meat.

Looking at the actual footage
of a frog

being slaughtered at the table,
I'm now convinced

that that's probably
what's going on here.

Narrator: Even though
the amphibian's leg

is no longer connected
to it's brain stem,

it's so fresh
that muscle cells themselves

are still living
and contracting.

This is genuinely a frog
from beyond the grave.

This is way too fresh
for me to be eating.

It's so fresh that it's
literally complaining

to you,
that you killed it.

[ croaks ]

[ camera whirs ]

narrator:
Now, has a deep-ocean camera
caught a prehistoric predator?

Holy smoke, it's like
a winnebago going by.

Oh, man! Oh, man!
Oh, man!

What is this monstrous creature?

This is a huge animal.

Narrator: An ancient killer
seems to have returned.

For a megalodon to still exist,
is that a possibility?

[ camera whirs ]

narrator:
Japan, land of monsters.

Atomic bombs spawned the idea
of godzilla,

a relic of the jurassic era
brought back

and made far, far bigger

by the effects
of massive radiation.

Suruga bay in the shadow
of mount fuji --

there are real
giant monsters here.

In December 2012,
fisherman landed

the largest japanese
spider crab ever caught.

Crabzilla is 13 feet long,
the size of a sedan

and over four times bigger than
its normal-sized relatives.

But nothing found
off the coast of japan

is as weird as footage from
the same area captured in 1989.

A 10-foot-long bait cage
is lowered to the ocean floor.

Everything seems normal,
when something comes into view

so gigantic and strange,
no one can believe their eyes.

What the heck is that thing?

It's huge!

Have we unearthed
the godzilla of the sea?

This thing is enormous.

Narrator: It's a vast
sea creature of some kind,

but it's not one that's ever
been seen before by human eyes.

Mccourt: Those kind of bait
cages are about ten feet long.

That would make this shark
at least 60 feet long.

That's the length
of a bowling lane.

Narrator:
This mega creature of the deep
is ten times longer than a man

and as huge as a humpback whale.

But marine biologist
danni washington

doesn't think that's what
we're looking at here.

Most marine mammals in the ocean
are very large.

But when I take a closer look,
I see certain features

that clearly say
this is not a whale.

There are gills on the sides

which means that this is
some type of fish.

And then as I look closer
at the pectoral fins,

it reminds me of a shark.

Narrator: There have been
reports of a super-sized shark

from fishermen in the pacific.

Off the coast of california,

fishermen claimed to have seen
the biggest shark ever,

and they nicknamed it
the demon shark.

It's huge, and it's similar
to what we see in the video.

Narrator:
The demon shark is reported to
be bigger than a school bus

and to be able to attack

and eat an entire group
of seals with one bite.

There are always reports
out there of mega-sharks

that may be hard to believe,
but in this case, you wonder,

is this one that might be true?

[ camera whirs ]

narrator:
Marine biologist eric hovland

considers if a prehistoric
monster has returned.

Hovland: There is one shark
that comes to mind

that fits these proportions --
the megalodon,

a prehistoric shark
that could've reached lengths

up to 60 feet,
with a huge set of teeth

that dwarfs
any shark species on earth.

Narrator:
Megalodon was king of the ocean
for over 20 million years.

It ate other sharks
for breakfast

puncturing lungs
with one titanic bite.

Its name comes right
from "mega tooth," "megalodon."

like, it's all about
those big teeth.

Narrator: The meg's mouth
was over 20 feet wide,

the size of a double-garage --

a jaw containing 276 teeth,
some over 7 inches long.

When they were first discovered
in the 16th century,

fossil hunters thought they were
the tongues of dragons.

It was the apex predator
of earth's warm seas.

If a megalodon decides
that you're on the menu,

that megalodon's gonna win, and
with a biting force ten times

that of the great white shark,
that's what I call "jaws."

narrator:
The meg only seemed to vanish
around three million years ago,

as it faced increased
competition for food

from killer whales
and great white sharks.

The footage could be proof

megalodons aren't as extinct
as scientists believed.

This is real life.
It's not the movies

so, there's real-life
consequences to unearthing,

so to speak, a creature
of this size and magnitude.

Narrator: There is other
compelling evidence

for an enormous, undiscovered
predator swimming in our oceans.

In 2019, off the coast
of south australia,

a fisherman hauled
in the disembodied head

of a mako shark,

a brutal apex predator
that can grow up to 14 feet long

and weigh 1300 pounds.

Even a great white could not
have wreaked such devastation.

The thought
that the megalodon shark

could possibly still exist
in the ocean is terrifying.

Narrator: Seas and oceans cover
136 million square miles

of the earth's surface,

but 90% of them
remain unexplored.

At a depth where you could bury
mount everest

live creatures
that are being discovered

with each new exploration --

all able to withstand pressures

1,000 times greater
than on land --

pressures that would instantly
kill a human.

The more we explore the depths,

the more we find
giant creatures.

Narrator:
For decades, giant squid were
thought to be a myth of the sea.

It wasn't until 2006
that one was caught on camera

and definitively
proved to exist.

So, could it be that there's
a giant shark down there

that we've never found?

Narrator:
But biologist danni washington

believes the footage shows
another mysterious creature

thought to live
over a mile below the waves.

Washington:
What I can see is that it has
a short, rounded snout.

It moves gracefully,
but very slow through the water.

And that grayish-black color
on its skin --

that's clearly marking that
this is a pacific sleeper shark.

Narrator:
These ravenously hungry monsters
terrorize the ocean floor.

They're bottom dwellers,

and they generally scavenge
for their food.

They're almost like the garbage
cans of the ocean.

Sleeper sharks will eat
anything they can.

They'll go for these rotting
carcasses at the bottom,

but they've also been found

with giant jellyfish-like
creatures in them.

Narrator:
But while the morphology
of the creature in the film

matches
the pacific sleeper shark,

there's a problem,
and it's a big one.

Szulgit:
The sheer size of this thing

doesn't match up
with what we know.

No one has come across a
sleeper shark that's this big.

Narrator: Sleeper sharks grow
to 23 feet as adults.

This thing is 60 feet.

If it is a sleeper shark,
it's almost three times bigger

than the biggest one
ever spotted.

Szulgit: That would be like
a human who's 18 feet tall.

It just doesn't seem right.

Narrator: Coming up, did
japanese seawater mutate sharks

into monsters?

It's terrifying that is
this giant mega-toothed monster

just off the coastline.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator:
And in hong kong, the sea parts
like a scene from the bible.

The ocean doesn't crack open,
so this is weird.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Underwater cameras
near a popular tourist beach

capture images of a shark

three times bigger
than any previously discovered.

It seems too big
to be a sleeper shark,

but its similarities
are hard to ignore.

Is there any way
a pacific sleeper shark

could triple in size?

Narrator: Science journalist
steve potvin

thinks this could be a mutation

that occurs
at great depths in the ocean.

Nature does find ways of making
super-sized versions of animals.

We call it gigantism.

One theory that might explain
the size of this shark

in the deep ocean
is that it's cold,

and animals tend to get bigger
in colder environments.

So, maybe that explains why,
in the very cold, deep ocean

you could have a giant shark.

If we're witnessing a shark
experiencing gigantism,

that means that we've got
some massive animals

down beneath the ocean's surface

that we have yet
to really understand.

Narrator: If there is
a 60-foot-long mutant shark

off the coast of suruga bay,

vacationers need to be wary
before they enter the water.

It's terrifying that there is
this giant mega-toothed monster

just off the coastline.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Now,
it's holiday season in new york.

Suddenly, there's something
weird in the sky,

and it isn't santa claus.

The air over queens flashes
an eerie neon blue,

freaking out locals.

I'm a new yorker.
I've seen everything.

But I'd never seen
something like this.

Narrator: Locals ask if the
military is fighting a battle

against an aggressive
secret weapon.

Terrorism -- it's a real
and present danger.

Something has gone
seriously wrong.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator:
New york at christmas --

skating in central park,

santa land at macy's,

the rockefeller
christmas display,

and on December, 27th, 2018,
an apocalyptic flash.

New yorker peg samuels is having
a quiet evening watching tv,

when something
catches her attention.

Samuels:
I looked out the window,

and I saw this light
that I'd never seen before.

Narrator: All over the city,
residents are stunned

as the pulsating blue glow
turns night as bright as day,

but it's like no daylight
new yorkers have ever seen.

I thought, "should I even be
standing by the window?

What is this?"

there's eight million people
in new york

and we're world news
on the daily about anything,

so it definitely makes us
a target for terrorists.

I thought, "am I an idiot
for just taking footage of it?

Should I be in the stairwell
right now?

I mean, is this it?

Like death? Is this it?"

narrator:
The city erupts in panic.

You look outside.
It's glowing blue.

You don't know what's going on.

There's nothing on the news yet.

All you have is
social media going wild.

Given the track record
of terrorism in new york city,

this had to be
extremely alarming.

I would be terrified.

Teitel: This is unlike anything
anyone had ever seen before.

Whatever this thing is,

it definitely looks like
it's coming from above the city.

But where from above?

Narrator:
Physicist steven granade

examines the flash's
color signature

and believes it could be
ultraviolet light,

a signal that new york is
under attack from terrorists

with a deadly weapon.

One of the things that u.V.
Light is used for

is dealing
with biological contaminants,

you basically pump enough
ultraviolet light into it

that it breaks it down,
and it neutralizes it.

This does raise my suspicion
that we're maybe seeing

a biological attack
against manhattan.

Narrator: But when rocket
scientist nick householder

looks at the flashes,

he calculates a u.V. Light
of this magnitude

would cause more devastation
than it would cure.

Householder: If this was
a u.V. Light this bright,

it would be like
staring into a sun

four inches from your face.

We're talking blindness, cancer,
skin burns.

I don't think that
this is a giant u.V. Light.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Ex-cia operative
lindsay moran

studies the footage

and considers
if the flashing blue light

could be from one of the navy's
latest weapons, a laser gun.

The u.S. Navy has developed
a directed-energy weapon

which can be used to
eliminate threats from uavs

and also small boats.

These types of weapons

are intended
to be mounted on warships.

The benefit is that
there's no ammo.

This thing can shoot anything
in its sight without reloading.

Was this an accidental firing
of an experimental weapon?

It is certainly something with
which we need to be concerned.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Coming up,
can david wallace recreate

the terrifying blue light
seen in the skies of new york?

Wallace: We're gonna get up
to around 100,000 volts,

so if something goes wrong here,

you'll find me
laying on the ground.

Narrator: And a sight last seen
in the old testament.

This means that the story
of exodus could be true.

Narrator: It's holiday horror
in new york,

as a weird, blue flash looms

over manhattan's
christmas skyline.

Civil engineer brian wolshon
looks at a map of new york city

and believes he knows
the source of the blue light.

There's over a hundred
and thirty thousand miles

of electrical lines
running throughout the area.

That's enough to reach more
than halfway to the moon.

And in the new york area alone,

there's 24 high-voltage
substations.

Narrator: The terrifying light
that lit up new york

came from the direction
of a power plant

and the next day,
city officials reported

that a substation generator had
suffered a catastrophic failure.

♪

electrical engineer
david wallace

sets up an experiment

at mississippi state
university's high voltage lab

to find out
if an exploding transformer

could create the lights
seen over manhattan.

So, when we talk about an arc
flash, what you're looking at

is basically
an electrical explosion.

We're gonna be generating
approximately 100,000

to 120,000 volts
to create the arc.

Now, when you put this
into perspective,

it only takes 25 volts
to really kill a human being,

so this is gonna be
a rather interesting time here.

Hopefully everything goes right,
and I'll walk away.

Narrator:
In new york, every minute,
272 million watts of electricity

is flowing through skyscrapers
and suburban homes.

If that power were to be
unleashed in just one hour,

it's enough
electrical currant

to electrocute
over a million people.

To mimic the conditions
in new york,

wallace uses an insulator used
in high-voltage power lines.

Wallace: We're really gonna have
to amp up the voltage on this

to try to get that color blue
that we're looking for.

Narrator: A smoke machine will
recreate the smog-filled skies.

Wallace:
Let's see if we get that nice
glow that we see in the video.

We're gonna get up
to around 100,000 volts,

so if something goes wrong here,

you'll find me
laying on the ground.

All right, jason, shoot it.

All right,
we're at a hundred k.V.

[ electricity crackles ]

[ electricity blares ]

all right, so,
we saw as the arc formed,

we had a nice reflection coming
around in the smoke there --

sort of illuminating
the area around it.

Narrator:
The light effect is close,

even if it doesn't exactly match
the vast blue sky

seen in the footage.

For that, we'd need to explode
a sub-station,

and unfortunately
I don't have one around here.

[ electricity blares ]

narrator:
City officials reported

that a sub-station generator
had blown that day,

but locals aren't convinced.

Most new yorkers that I spoke to
about this

thought this was the end.

[ cameras whir ]

narrator: Now, a sight not seen
since the time of the bible.

The ocean doesn't crack open,
so this is weird.

This defies everything we know
about the laws of physics.

Narrator:
The sea seems to be parting,
as a terrified sailor looks on.

Are we capturing the beginning
of a miraculous event?

It looks like the parting
of the red sea.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator:
Victoria harbor, hong kong.

Over 350,000 vessels

enter this normally safe haven
on the south china sea

every year
for business and pleasure.

But for one sailor,
the fun turns to horror

as a bizarre chasm
opens in the sea before him.

Oh, my goodness!
That is not natural.

The water is splitting.

What could cause that?

Narrator:
The ocean appears to be parting.

As the chasm widens,

a wall of water
seems to cascade down inside it.

Mother nature can do
some incredible stuff,

but this is too weird,
and I don't like it.

Narrator:
Author patrick tomlinson
studies the footage

and sees echoes
of the most famous miracle

in the old testament.

Many people would look at this

and be reminded
of the biblical story

of the parting
of the red sea in exodus.

It would take some incredible
force to part water in this way.

Narrator: In the old testament's
book of exodus,

egyptian pharaoh's
chariots pursued

moses and the israelites,

who find themselves
trapped in front of the red sea.

Moses parts the waters, allowing
the jews to pass to safety.

As the egyptians follow, god
closes the water and they drown.

No archaeological evidence
has ever been found

to confirm
this miraculous event,

but new research suggests

that it may not be entirely
the stuff of myth

and could explain what we see
in hong kong harbor.

Most people assume that
the parting happened

at the red sea in egypt.

However, recently it turns out

that it may have been a
mistranslation of the reed sea.

Narrator:
The sea of reeds is believed
to have been a marshy lagoon.

The bible says
god used a mighty east wind

to part the water,

and scientists have seen
a 60-mile-per-hour wind,

called a wind set-down

doing just that
to shallow lakes and lagoons.

A wind set-down drains
an entire area

as if
it was hit by a very low tide.

Narrator: When the wind stops,
the water floods back in,

drowning anything in its path.

But when kiki sanford
analyzes the footage,

she doubts it shows
the water in victoria harbor

beginning to parted
by a wind set-down event.

A wind set-down
will move a body of water

as if there's a low tide,

but it doesn't create walls
in the water,

especially
not in a large body of water

like we're seeing in this video.

So there has to be
another explanation.

Narrator:
Coming up, do parting waters
reveal chinese aggression?

Chinese president xi jinping
has said that

any attempt to divide china
would result in bodies smashed

and bones ground into powder.

Narrator: A hong kong sailor
is astonished,

as the sea appears to part
like a biblical miracle

before his very eyes.

Military expert carlo muñoz

thinks the apparent parting
of the water

could be linked
to chinese military aggression.

Looking at the video and kind of
trying to get an idea

of exactly what is going on,

whatever it is, you're gonna
need a lot of resources

and a lot of manpower
to get it done.

There's only a few organizations

that can really pull something
like this off --

one of them being the military.

Now, take that into account

from where this video
was actually filmed,

which is near hong kong,

which is an incredible
flash-point now

for the chinese government.

Narrator: Hong kong became
a british colony in 1842

after china lost a war
against the europeans

over the control
of the drug opium.

The colony went back
to the chinese in 1997,

but the modern population

doesn't like
china's draconian rule.

March 2019 --
the people of hong kong

start fighting back
against communist china.

Violent street clashes escalate,
and protesters are killed

by an increasingly
ruthless police force,

clearly under the direct orders
of the chinese government.

Chinese president xi jinping
has said

that any attempt
to divide china

would result in bodies smashed
and bones ground into powder.

Narrator:
The chinese are determined
to hold onto hong kong,

which has an economy worth
over $362 billion a year.

To protect their interests,
it's believed

they built 3,000 miles
of secret underground passages

to store a military arsenal

five times longer than
the u.S. Pacific coast highway.

It could be that these tunnels
have been extended

under hong kong harbor

and that an accidental firing
of a missile

could cause a tunnel
to collapse,

leading water rushing down.

[ camera whirs ]

but geologist devin dennie

suspects the weird phenomenon
in the video

could be a terrifying
natural geological fault line

opening beneath the bay.

One possible explanation
for what we're seeing

is the earth below the ocean
on the sea floor

could be moving in some way.

If the earth below
is ripping apart,

causing this parting to happen,

then something crazy's going on.

Narrator: Around the globe,

the plates of the earth's
surface are moving,

tearing huge cracks wide open.

An excellent example
of plates being ripped apart

is in iceland.

You can actually go there

and see the north american plate
on one side

and the eurasian
plate on the other side

and walk the crack between them.

Narrator:
Called the mid-atlantic ridge,

the giant scar extends
for 10,000 miles.

Along its entire length,
the earth's crust

is quite literally being
ripped apart,

unleashing
from the planet's interior

a seething, molten mass.

Proctor: When that magma's
coming up to the surface,

the temperature can be up
to 2,000 degrees fahrenheit.

That is deadly.

Narrator: Hong kong lies
on the ring of fire,

a chain of fearsome volcanoes
that circle the pacific.

If a rift is happening
in hong kong bay,

it could have
devastating consequences

for the seven million
inhabitants there.

Narrator:
An underwater earthquake
caused the indian ocean tsunami

that killed over 220,000 people

and it was a deep sea
mega-thrust earthquake

that led to the tsunami waves
that devastated japan in 2011.

[ indistinct exclamations
in japanese ]

20,000 people died.

And the force of the quake
shifted japan's honchu island

eight feet east.

If this footage shows
a geological fault

opening up in the sea
near hong kong harbor

it could be a warning
of worse to come.

A wall of water
would smash skyscrapers

and swamp the packed streets.

Like a modern-day atlantis,
it would be utterly destroyed.

If this really is a rift
and the earth is thinning here,

we should expect not only
earthquakes, but possibly gases

or even volcanoes
forming in this area.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator:
But whatever is causing

the bizarre parting of the waves
in the footage,

it vanishes as quickly
as it appears,

and nothing like it
has been reported

in victoria harbor since.

So, whatever this was,

it's gonna have to remain
a mystery for now.