Original subtitles

After seven weeks in remote Alaska...

Let's get to work.

Been here done this.

This stuff is what dreams are made of right here.

The Hot Mess is running some dirt.

Here we go.

...it all comes down to this.

The Hoffman family...

Let's run it. Go!

...need just 47 ounces of gold

to earn another season in this rich claim.

But the wash plants are on the brink.

Flame on. Shut it down.

The whole chain's off motor.

Okay. This is a big problem.

I think she's toast.

And both rock trucks...

Oh! Man.

...are out of condition.

Okay, let's go!

Todd Hoffman is close to success.

I'm not going home a loser.

But has he learned enough...

Go for it.

...to beat a mine that is trying to break him?

Come on, baby. Million dollars.

You know what? No guts, no glory.

Todd to Andy. Todd to Andy.

Yeah, go ahead.

We got a problem.

We need pay dirt and we need it right away.

Always something around here.

So it's 18 degrees,

once it gets below 13 degrees,

you can't mine.

The Z plant's down.

Right now we're only running the Hot Mess and then the Test trommel.

But we got a big storm front coming in and once that hits,

it's going to bring too much weather.

And I know it's going to shut us down.

But the problem right now is that both our rock trucks are down

and I'm starting to run out of pay dirt.

Oh, we didn't need this.

Randy couldn't fix the 350.

There's just no way to expand this tire.

Not in this weather.

That leaves us only the 400.

And without that truck, it's all over.

So, I got a chance to work on the 400 this morning,

and I got all the broken pieces out of it.

We had three broken hoses, two U-joints,

and we have a pipe that's broken

and that pipe is possibly two weeks away.

That ain't going to make it in time.

Oh, come on, now.

The drive line between the engine and the transmission,

the bolts sheared off of the yoke

and the drive line started swinging.

The drive line hit two of the hydraulic pumps really, really hard.

We don't know if they're cracked.

We can't start it,

until that drive line's back in.

We're trying to see if we can make it work.

If not, it'll sit here until next year,

because there's... I can't get parts to put it back together.

Things must be going too good.

You're not cussing.

Yet. Key word there, yet.

Yet!

We've got some parts that we're kind of like

having to rig that are not perfect,

but we're going to try to make them work

and we'll see if we can get the 400 running right now.

Son of a... Damn it.

Ahh!

I hate this *bleep* truck.

We're too close to quit.

We're only 47 ounces to beat this mine.

We've been to the playoffs before.

Holy brick.

We got gold in that pan.

Guys, our luck just frickin' changed,

and we lost.

Any gold at all, Jack?

There's nothing.

But we've learned how to win.

And Andy found us some of that super rich paydirt that we knew was here.

This is the richest ground we've ever mined.

54.

Oh, my gosh.

It's about 89,000.

Jeez, man.

Now we just got to get that rich pay dirt to the plant.

Most guys would snap under the pressure,

but not Randy.

When you can't feel your fingers

and you can't feel your toes.

Oh, that's a good one.

The ball's in your court right now.

Oh, okay.

Nose, hose.

Fingers, toes, nose, water hose.

And this really blows.

This is fun.

I got the drive line and the yokes all aligned.

Now I just got to hold it up with one hand

and start the bolts with my numb fingers with the other hand.

I'm going to go in and see if I can get it.

Boy, this is really a pain in the butt.

Is there any way I could drop you down a rope or something through there?

- That would be nice. - Oh!

I'm gonna to reach that down through there.

That looks like good job, Andy... Randy.

- Yeah. - Andy... Randy.

I'm hoping that it'll hold.

Are you kidding me?

Is that a good oh or...

Yeah, it slid right into place.

No!

Oh. Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!

That frickin' bolt went in.

I can hear threads going into threads.

Yeah.

Ooh!

We win.

Be careful, my friend.

- See that accumulator sticking up? - I do.

That hose is right underneath of it.

And if that hose goes, it could catch on fire.

Okay, well, I'll keep a fire extinguisher right handy there.

Okay.

So why don't you hop in this girl

and let's see if we can get her started.

- All right. - Good, sir.

We can get to rolling and hauling some pay.

Let's see if this girl will key up.

We're having troubles with the computer.

Come on, computer.

- I have contact. - Lights.

- We're good. - Are you ready?

All right! Take her easy.

Only way I know, buddy.

Andy's waiting for you back there.

All right! We will get this thing turned around and go.

Hopefully, everything works out all right

and we don't have any more issues.

Well, here we go!

Looks like everything works.

We get up there and get Andy to break this frozen load out of here,

because it's been sitting in like 20 degrees.

Copy that! Thank you, buddy.

After a brutal 24 hours without a rock truck.

We are back in business.

Now we got to work twice as fast to get that rich pay dirt

over to the two remaining plants that we got running.

And hopefully, we get it done before the weather chases us the hell out of here.

How's it going, Dakota? How's everything looking?

Everything's looking pretty good.

Everything's coming out clean.

Plant's doing good.

Right now we're at the homestretch.

This is the hardest part of the season.

And the most crucial part of the season is right now.

We got a lot of yardage to cover,

so we've just got to go like hell.

We are burning the midnight oil tonight.

All right!

It would be nice.

We need 47 ounces to get to our 300 ounce goal.

So the pay has been good.

It's kind of the only thing that's keeping us alive.

There's a super-rich river channel right here.

Now we got everything back up and running,

so this can be our big break to get everything caught up.

You know, we've all been putting our blood, sweat and tears into this.

If we fall short,

I know it's not going to be a good feeling.

Holy *bleep*.

Did you hear that?

Nick, get over here.

What's going on, man?

Hit that conveyor.

What's going on?

The whole trommel just jumped.

The whole chain is off the motor.

Hey, this is a big problem.

I heard a big pop and the whole thing jumped forward.

Dude, this cannot not be happening right now.

Hey, Randy, you got a copy?

Yeah. Go for Randy.

I really hate to say it,

but we need you up here at this test trommel. Things are bad.

All right. I'm on my way. I'll be right there.

With the Z plant already being broke down,

you know, we moved everything up here.

Every second down,

there's less and less gold going through the sluice.

Only a few days left in the season.

So we got to make every day count right now.

Hey, what's going on?

- Whole trommel hopped forward. - What?

It threw that chain off the motor.

And we think it, maybe even hurt the motor a little bit.

Dude, look at that gearbox.

Holy!

It's not even in the right location.

It's busted off the bottom mount.

I'm not sure if the trommel caused the damage

or if it was the gear drive busting off the floor

that caused the trommel to move forward.

But the mount that was welded to the deck

has completely been ripped off the deck.

That motor is done.

There's no way you can fix it?

That's the equivalent of 20,000 pounds of sheer force.

There's quite a bit of metal that has been just ripped off the deck.

I don't think we're going to be able to fix that.

Oh, oh. What?

I got some bad news.

Dude, when you come in like that,

it's always bad news. Like how bad?

The test trommel...

- Yeah. - ...imploded.

What?

So the gear drive on the bottom that drives the trommel,

it broke up off the deck and the trommel has slid forward

an inch-and-a-half.

Can we fix it?

It looks pretty nasty over there.

I don't think we can fix it.

You telling me it's over?

I think it's done.

So, now that we don't have the little trommel,

we don't have the Z,

the only thing we got left is the big... big plant.

Well, all hands on deck, then on the big trommel.

And let's just keep it running till the end.

Dang it.

I really would like to have seen that little guy make it all the way through.

The big trommel runs the most amount of dirt.

But the problem with the big trommel

is that a lot of things can go wrong.

That's what worries me,

because if one thing goes wrong,

it's a domino effect and all these other issues are going to pile on

and then we're done.

Hey, next time you come in here,

can you make it good news?

I'll try not to break anything.

- All right? - But I'm just the fixer.

- Well. Thank you. - All right!

For all your work. Appreciate it.

- I got work to do. - Thanks, Randy.

We are down to one plant.

We got to run the wheels off that thing.

Yeah.

Little frozen up in here. Not too bad.

It's coming out.

Well, this is the last pull of the season. Test plant broke down.

Putting a nail in it.

This is the last time

the test plant will be used for the next year.

So it's crucial they remove

every last bit of potentially gold bearing dirt.

Even one scoop can make the difference in the Hoffman team

hitting their goal of 600 ounces of gold this season.

It's kind of heavy.

All right, let's get up to Thurber.

You ready?

That's good enough. Hey, guys.

Hey, Jack.

Thurber.

That's it?

That's not much.

Not in that one. That was the last one.

- Oh! - This is our scrape off.

Well, you guys got a lot of carpet.

I wonder how much gold's still in it.

You know, it's a good thing you had that little test plant.

I think it outperformed everything else on your claim here.

Oh, I know it.

But worked her too hard.

- The little test plant that could. - Well, now it can't.

Right now, everybody's beaten down, worn out.

We've been battling problems since the day we got here.

Everybody's put in a lot of work,

and I'm just hoping we make it to our goal.

Because it's either going to be a big loss or a big win.

Chuck, you got a copy?

Yeah, I got a copy.

All right, bring her in, man.

Chuck's bringing the last couple of loads.

So, we're good to go to run through the night.

Dump her right there.

Copy that, buddy.

Yeah. You're all good. Peel out of there.

Thank you, Chuck.

You too, buddy, get some sleep.

We got another long day tomorrow.

Copy that. We'll see ya later.

With enough paydirt to last through the night...

Good, we got the B-team here.

...the Hoffman crew's ace miners are ready for their night shift.

A team is here, we're ready to take over.

Holy crap!

Andy and I got brought in to run night shift.

We used to do night shifts together for years.

We got the Chorus Creek Boys down here.

The money's going to be made here at night with these guys.

Everybody knows we... we're kind of the backbone of the operation.

We're going to get more dirt through this plant than anybody else,

probably in the world.

I'm really excited to have you guys here

for your actual first real night shift you've ever done.

It's not our first night shift.

So we're on the final push.

Todd and I are going to come out here tonight and help.

It's not the first time I've done this.

These young guys think that they know what they're doing.

We're going to show them a few tricks.

She's warmed up and ready for you.

- Is she ready? - She's good to go.

Ready to go. We're about ready to put on a clinic.

Me and your old man.

I'm ready to see it.

We used to run night shift for a long time

when you were in diapers.

So I heard.

You know, all the plants were shut down except for the trommel.

We don't have a lot of time left.

- Thank you. - Yeah.

Hopefully I don't screw stuff up too bad.

Dude, I forgot.

I forgot how to drive a loader in the dark.

I wish we had the Hitachi.

This thing is running on about four out of six cylinders.

Everything is tired, the equipment's tired.

Guys are tired.

All we got to do is keep the sucker running

and keep dirt going through it.

She ain't pretty.

She's losing dirt.

Oh, you want that paydirt a little closer.

Okay.

I don't know about Andy and my dad running night shift.

- It's been a while. - It's in their hands.

It's in their hands now. Let's get to bed, dude.

Let's go.

Todd to Andy, how are you doing?

Good.

We're back at square one.

These guys are superior miners, man.

These young guys have turned into damn good miners.

There's a future of all this stuff,

but it's us guys here that can open that door.

And part of that is just running a night shift and being part of the team.

And there's a lot of guys at home right now

that would love to be running dirt,

sluicing with their sons right now.

I'm just so thankful.

I'm grateful to God that I'm running dirt.

I'm with my best buddy, Andy, best miner out there.

If we never got to do this again,

if we didn't get to do this day over again, it'll be okay.

This day here goes in the record books for me.

Todd and Andy do their part to give the young guns

time to get a few hours of sleep.

Had a good one in the books, man.

Number 5 cell.

This is us.

Yeah.

You have a good day today?

Nope. Do you?

No.

Sort of went pretty normal.

As long as we're both suffering,

I guess it's not that bad.

What's on my brain right now is that big trommel and the spray bar up top.

Yeah.

What if it bursts?

Probably.

It's probably going to, if we're being honest.

Sometimes, I just sit here and dream about the Z and wonder if...

I know, I hear Nick sometimes, in the sleep.

"Turn off the water.

We need more pay."

I calm him down, rub his head. "Nick, it's just a dream."

Get your three hours of sleep.

Got to get up.

Good night.

Good night, dude.

See you in the a.m.

Well, dude.

Leaving me hanging, dude.

My eyes were closed, man.

We're running out of fuel fast.

The fuel truck was supposed to come out today,

but was called off due to the fact that the pass was iced over.

They are unable to bring us any more fuel.

This is our fuel storage.

This front tank is completely full,

but it is the smaller of the two tanks.

And as you can see, that one's full.

But this one here...

bone empty.

We've only got the front tank,

which is probably about, oh, 6... 700 gallons here,

plus whatever's in the white fuel truck,

which is probably about 1,200 gallons.

The only problem with that is if you run all of your fuel out,

it's an 80-mile drive back to town.

So we need to save at least enough fuel to get out of here,

because I really want to go home.

Right now, we're washing the ancient river channel concentrate.

This will be the final mat hole from the test plant this season.

Those guys have been busting their butt,

working hard outside.

We're inside. It's heated, but Jack and I will be running nonstop.

Got a coffee pot over there plugged in.

We'll just keep drinking coffee and working.

The season is getting to the end,

freezing, it's coming and has hit several times.

Once our water freezes up,

I'm done with the cleanup room.

As the temperature drops,

Jack and Jim perform their final cleanup from the test plant.

They're hoping for nearly 20 of the 47 ounces needed to reach the 600 ounce goal.

Get this stuff washed and dried.

We'll weigh it and see what we got.

But crucial that we do well. It has to be good.

As they say, come hell or high water,

you know?

When gold looks like this...

kind of get your heart going.

Only 7.3 ounces.

It's not good.

It's not good at all.

This is it. Last run. Winter's coming.

A lot of our future here is on the line here, if we get this gold or not,

but we're in God's hands on this whole thing.

Can we pull it off?

I don't know, we're going to have to find out.

I get a lot of invested in this mine.

A lot of people invested in us with family memories.

I believe in Todd and his crew.

I believe in the Hoffmans.

I think that he's going to pull it off.

I mean, everybody on this entire mine

put their heart and soul into this operation.

And I think, now that we're coming to the end,

I think everybody is super happy and excited

about what we've done here.

Fingers crossed

nothing breaks on it, because if it shuts down,

it's going to freeze solid.

He's going to come down on the RPMs a little bit.

This is where the problem happens.

We're starting to fill up the slurry line.

Hey, Hunter.

How's it going into the trommel?

I like it.

It's our last chance.

We got to make this thing work.

It's our last line of defense against the winter.

We don't have much time left.

So, we are 47 ounces short.

We got a cold front that's already moving in.

It's only 15 degrees.

Of course, we're almost out of fuel.

But you know what?

I just feel like we're going to win.

I smell victory on this one.

I think, we're going to kick this mine's ass.

What do you think?

I'd love to get another day out of her.

I talk to Matt and Luke.

They were just struggling with it all night,

so I think they ended up shutting it down,

because the water was just so cold

and it was moving so slow that the trommel

just wasn't even working right.

If we're not catching gold,

I don't think there's any point in running it.

We're just circulating mud.

It's been a pain, but it did catch gold.

Where are we at on gold? Do we have enough?

That's the question.

You know, it's not going to run in this weather.

I say we just pull the mats, clean it out.

Hope for the best.

How do you break up with something like this?

This is a hot mess.

Yeah. It's a cold mess now.

The Hot Mess is done.

I feel like it needs some kind of a ceremony.

Let's give a little fake drink.

Raise our glasses. To Hot Mess.

For the last time, let's yell it out there.

Shut her down.

And you know what?

Let's not talk about this plant ever again.

Agreed.

With all three wash plants down for the season,

the Hoffmans future relies on the last big trommel mat pull.

I don't know about you,

but I'm actually really, really happy

that we never have to touch these mats again.

We should celebrate.

Was all this shoveled already?

Let me do this bucket.

That is 20 buckets settled in.

Still definitely one of the hardest job to do for sure.

Definitely why nobody's volunteering for it.

That's why we're in here, grinding them out.

Let's do it.

Special delivery.

It's four in the morning.

It's your 4 a.m. pay day.

Geez, it's cold, man.

This is the last pull of the season.

And I got to do it with my boys back over here at the big trommel.

And now we get to hand this over to Jack and Thurbs

and we get to see the huge gold reveal.

And I know, we're going to make our goal.

We worked too hard this season for not.

Wow. That is a bunch of dirt.

It's a big load.

God, how are we going to do this?

Put it straight on,

you guys just pull it straight on.

Wow.

So, this is the whole...

Everything.

Everything.

I've actually never pulled this whole box before.

We've only ran enough yardage to pull the top mat,

so it's kind of a lot to deal with.

- Oh, dude. - Good job, boys.

- Look at that. - You guys are crazy.

- Nice work. - Good job, boys.

- Good job, boys. Good job, boys. - Nice work.

After only getting seven ounces from the test plant,

I'm actually getting pretty worried

that we're not going to make our goal.

It's all coming down to the big trommel clean up,

the Hot Mess.

That's the plant that we've been battling all season.

What I don't want to do is fail my team.

This has happened before.

It can't happen again.

We got to get this gold.

I'll get started. Get this thing running.

You can see all the buckets, the bins,

the carpets that got to be cleaned.

It's all from the big trommel.

And that's what we need.

We needed that machine running.

As soon as the water freezes, we're done.

But Jack and I will be running nonstop.

That's what we do.

With just seven ounces of gold from the test plant,

the Hoffmans, now need the big trommel to bring in 40 more ounces.

So this is good. This is what we need.

So kind of excited to see what we have,

when we get done.

Right now, when you get this amount of gold right here,

a band of about 3 to 4 inches, that's awesome.

And that's the way it should be all the time.

It's imperative that we get the amount of gold that we're after.

Yardage is the name of the game

and we're putting through as much as we possibly can.

All right. Shut her down, man.

Okay.

This is my favorite sound right here.

Oh, you almost pass out.

That's not bad.

It's pretty good.

But look at here.

Oh, my word.

- What is that? - That's baby powder.

What it means for me is we're definitely catching everything

that the land has in it.

I'd rather have a jar of fine gold than a jar of nuggets,

it'll weigh 10 times as much.

God, look at how fine that is.

Can't capture this fine gold

unless you do it our way.

I was thinking maybe after a couple of weeks,

we could switch bunks.

I go up top, you hit the bottom.

I mean, it's only fair.

It's hard to sleep with the mice running around on your feet.

Yeah, that's what I was going to get to. You know?

I came in here the other day to get my hard hat,

and I saw a mouse jump out of the Nick's sleeping bag.

Little ratatouille likes to climb in my bag.

And now, in the middle of the night,

I always think that there's mice climbing around my feet,

and then I can't really sleep that well.

He checks his bag. Gets in.

About an hour later,

check it again.

Yeah. Maybe if I put in 140 hours a week,

I can get that top bunk status.

- You only worked 120 this week, so... - Dude?

You're close to the top bunk status, but...

I'm going to work my way up there, man.

You watch.

Hey, guys.

We made it. We're here.

Oh, my God!

Hey, here is Jack.

Here's the crew.

I've been waiting for this.

So for three years we haven't mined.

We always had this feeling of unfinished business.

When I came here, I didn't want to say, no.

I knew that this would be our very last chance of gold mining.

Hunter and I had some repairing to do with our relationship.

- Night, big daddy. - Love ya, buddy.

But my dad needed to keep going on his mining dream.

If you don't go,

you're going to be wondering why you didn't.

- Let's do it. - All right.

When I heard that we only needed 300 ounces

to set my friends and family up for years to come,

I thought, no problem.

Let me see that.

But everything was a problem.

Oh, my God.

This plant sucks.

We busted our ass, Todd.

That ground is *bleep*. I'm done.

We failed a lot in the past at mining.

You are frickin' kidding me.

But whether I hit the goal or not...

We got water. Big trommel in action.

That's it.

...for me personally...

I love it.

...this season was a win.

So, we're trying to get 300 ounces.

It's about a half a million dollars.

Maybe we made it. Maybe we didn't.

But I just want to tell you guys,

I'm super thankful for the opportunity.

I am thankful that I got to mine with my son and my dad.

Coming in together, our team, and your team,

and you guys accepting us in as brothers,

that meant the world to everybody.

And I'm sure you guys feel the same way.

So whether we mine here next year,

I'm just thankful for the time that we had.

Thurber, Jack, where we're at, man?

Well...

so far.

That is 253 ounces.

We need 47 more to get to our goal.

Well, your final cleanup is going to tell

you whether we really made it and it's right here.

Is it good? Feel good?

Is that heavy one, Thurb? Come on.

Thurber, you want to pour it?

- Okay. - All right. Here we go.

Jack, call it out.

Let's pour some gold.

There's 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15 and 20, 25,

27, 28, 30, 36,

37, 39, 40,

44.

Come on.

48, 49, 50,

52, 60.95.

- We did it. - We did it, dude.

You know what, we didn't set any records,

but hey, you guys did it.

All you guys out there did it, man.

You did it.

I'm proud of you guys.

314 ounces gets you the money you need for the investment.

Thank you, Todd.

I can't believe we made it.

It's been a fight.

I'm not a miner. I'm an investor.

And I needed a team here that would take the...

the operating mantle and just kind of run with it and man,

I'm impressed that you came and you went over and above.

We talked about what would happen if we hit our goal.

I want you guys back here.

Do you want to mine here?

Is this where your future is?

I want to mine here.

But we need several million dollars worth of equipment,

- I think, to do this right. - Agreed.

Because I believe that this ground deserves that kind of an effort.

There's pay everywhere. There's gold everywhere.

All this river channel.

When I found that ancient riverbed,

I just couldn't believe it.

We get into the bottom of that.

That is going to be loaded with gold.

I came at a perfect time

because we were able to make it a win.

And there's a lot more area, just like this.

This is maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity on this ground.

Hey, Hunter, do you want to tell these guys

what you found at Atlas?

So, I brought back some samples

when I went out in the Nodwell.

Supposed to be some legendary ground out here.

And I don't think anybody's laid foot on this ground in a long time.

And no BS,

it's around 86 ounces a hundred.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

And we did, we did multiple pans and they all look the same.

So, background's 86 ounces a hundred.

There's something crazy out there.

We just can't get out there yet.

But maybe we can figure out a way next year.

It's going to be a huge investment

if we decide to tackle this thing.

So, I mean, I'm throwing it back into your guys's lap.

I can't mine without you.

What do you say?

There's no way I'm going to miss this. Right?

And you young guys have no idea

what we're going to experience.

So, we're in.

All right, well, let's make this official.

I'm excited about what this means for next year,

having them come here and then to find gold everywhere they looked

and in areas that I wouldn't even have looked.

It's a great investment property.

Now we have a great team that wants to come mine it.

Let's do it.

There was times here, where I was thinking,

this is going to be our last year.

We need this running. Period.

I'll try that's all we could do.

I'm just happy for everybody, for the whole team.

It was a make or break moment and we pulled it off.

I feel really good about next season.

Sorry, God. You got to wait.

I gotta mine this ground.

I'm personally investing.

I'm putting it all on the line.

A lot of people don't do that.

But, you know, I've always said, no guts, no glory.

And you know, if I lose it, I lose it.

If I win, I win.

And I've got a funny feeling.

This is gonna be a winner.

Hey, Dad, will you bless us real quick?

You bet.

Lord, we thank you for this opportunity.

We thought it was his last shot.

But you know what?

It looks like Jack's going to get another season.

This period of time that we've been able to mine together,

for me, it's been priceless.

Both teams have worked together to do your will

and we give you the thanks and praise and the glory.

It's in your name we pray.

- Amen. - Amen.

I've had wins and I've had a lot of losses.

And at the end of the day,

my relationship with my son is better.

We have a future here on this mine.

My dad and Jim are as happy as ever,

and Andy looks like he wants to start mining tomorrow.

But we've got seven months to wait.

Ice is coming, guys. Let's get out of here.

I love you, buddy.

This is God's country up here.

And you know what?

For the Hoffman family today, that was a good day.