Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

♪

This is gonna be

one of the most epic experiences of my life.

You're by yourself.

Anything could happen at any point in time.

- All of your success and all of your failure

is all on you.

This is it.

It has begun.

- Who are you when everything's been stripped away?

[bleep].

[yelping]

- It's scary out here in these woods.

- I have not had a serious meal in a week.

- If I can't get a fire, then I can't stay here.

- It's always in the back of your mind,

"Well, I could tap out."

- Putting up with this filming [bleep]?

- Running into a predator, it's not an if.

It's a when.

Get the hell out of here.

I see you. Get out of here!

- I need to get out of the woods.

I'm just demolished.

- I'm living a hand-to-mouth existence.

Yes! Ah!

- $500,000 is a lot of money.

- It's just gonna keep getting harder.

- not the world that needs to change.

It's me that needs to change.

[moans]

♪

We're about to embark

on an extended wilderness survival experience.

How long, I don't know.

- What we're doing out here is dangerous.

The wilderness is the unexpected.

We have an idea of the conditions.

We have an idea of the resources.

But until you get on the ground,

you have no idea what you're going to do.

- Oh, my God, I'm alone.

[laughs]

- Last person left wins $500,000.

That can make you push yourself past the limit.

Holy crap.

What the hell have I done?

♪

- We get to take only ten survival items,

which is hard enough as it is,

but documenting everything

is an entirely different level craziness.

♪

There they go.

♪

Alone at last.

That's past the boot line.

[bleep].

Go, go, go, go.

Damn it!

Now I'm soaking wet.

I'm in for it.

- It's beautiful, but with beauty

also comes the danger.

The predators-- the bears, the cougars,

or the wolves-- they are part of the circle,

and I just need to learn to find my order.

- What's gonna be more difficult,

being alone

or staying alive?

[pensive music]

♪

- All right, just got dropped off.

Uh...

the bush is just crazy, crazy thick over here.

Uh, got a good water source already.

Won't have to worry about water at all.

Uh, right now, I'm just looking

for a area to set up my shelter.

♪

Water, shelter, and food--

those are the orders that I'm gonna go in,

and then fire, of course.

Mike Tyson said,

"Everybody has a plan until they get hit in the face."

As long as I come out here with a open mind,

taking everything day by day,

I know I can develop my plan as I go along.

$500,000 is a lot of money.

Motivates you to do a lot of things out here.

Wow.

Area's really thick.

The woods are really wet,

not what I expected it to be.

Look, look, look.

♪

[exhales]

That's bear scat.

Definitely a bear presence here.

♪

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it.

I'm a little concerned right now.

Feeling a little anxious right now.

The woods have a eerie feeling with them.

I swear they do.

Feels eerie out here,

but, uh, I'm gonna keep pushing forward,

see if I can find a place to make this shelter.

♪

In the military, you have to push through everything,

so that's what I plan on doing while I'm out here.

Hello, everybody. How's everybody doing?

all: Hey!

- I did seven years, ten months in the army.

Enjoyed every moment of it.

It's a great experience.

Love to serve my country.

This is the rest of my family right here.

That's my mom right here.

- Hey. - Hi.

I'm doing this because it's just another opportunity

for me to be a positive role model

to my family, friends, and people that look up to me.

Put it in the bag. Put it in here.

Oh!

Being alone won't bother me one bit.

I look forward to it.

60 days.

I think it'll be easy to do.

Being in the military helps me out here

iving you the intestinal fortitude

to push through any adversity

that you might have or you might encounter.

The military has just given me drive.

There's no stop.

You know, I ain't gonna tap out, that's for sure.

Bear gonna have to grab me, you know?

- You got to do some physical altercation.

- Yeah, and then if the bear grab me,

if somebody see the bear fight, they need to help the bear.

Right.

[laughter]

I'm just saying.

I'm gonna be fine out there.

♪

This area's dense.

Really dense.

Oh, [bleep].

This is fresh.

This is fresh bear scat right here.

I mean, this is probably

20 to 30 minutes old.

I'm not sure, maybe a hour.

Um, I got to get out of here.

All right, let me, uh, get moving.

[ambient music]

♪

- That's a super steep slope right there.

So, I mean, I can't really

pitch a tarp right there or anything.

I need to--

I don't really want to dive into the woods

right there.

So...

let's get off this beach.

Let's go exploring.

♪

My priorities for tonight are--are purely shelter.

I-I just want to make sure I got a shelter,

and it doesn't have to be an elaborate shelter.

There's no flat spots.

It's all deadfall.

It's all, you know, super brushy.

It's gonna be hard to find a good shelter location.

And directly in front of me

is a-- is a creek bed.

If it starts to rain,

that creek is gonna rise, and it's gonna flood me out.

So what I'm gonna do is rethink my situation.

And, you know, if I have to climb this hill

to find a good night's sleep tonight, I will.

But...

I barely scratched the surface of where I'm at,

barely.

Okay.

I've reassessed my plan,

and that's okay.

I'm gonna just do something super simple.

You can see these cedar trees behind me?

I'm just gonna take my tarp and drape it over it.

That's all I'm gonna do. The heck with it.

That's my shelter for tonight.

♪

You never know, when you come out into the woods--

it could be an hour, two days, three months

before you are sick and tired of things

or something scares you or, you know,

you miss your family too much or whatever.

Your mind gets ahold of you.

Hunger gets ahold of you, whatever.

So you never know what's gonna happen,

but I'm not sure what could want me

to come out of this place.

♪

All right, after looking at where I put my shelter,

I--this is my first moron moment.

I was a moron for putting it there.

The water's right next to it,

but we're talking by not very much.

That's a stupid place to put a shelter.

My first moron moment.

That's all right.

It'll happen.

I can change it.

[water rushing]

I need to find a shelter location.

The shelter location I have sucks.

I could sleep there tonight if I absolutely have to.

I would really rather not sleep there.

I'm gonna follow this creek up

and see what happens after that.

[tense music]

♪

Honestly, I still can't believe

that I'm actually out here doing this.

Before I came out here, I shaved my beard.

It was kind of a "I'm gonna start changing

the way that I live my life now."

[soft music]

I've been married a long time.

My two kids, they're already grown up.

They already left.

This is my son.

This was a graduation picture.

This is my daughter.

This is, uh, my wife, Rachel.

So we've been married for--

How long has it-- [both chuckling]

How long has it been now?

27 years, something like that?

26.

- I think what I want to put in there next is my ax.

I just focused my entire adult life--

after 18, basically-- in raising my kids.

Obviously, I love my wife

and I love my family dearly,

but there comes a time sometimes in a person's life

where they need to step back away from their life

and have an experience,

have a journey,

a spiritual journey, kind of.

I don't know how else to explain it.

- Like, really excited. - I know you are.

And when you're out there, remember us,

and remember that we support you

and we love you and we're really happy for you.

- I love you. - Love you too.

I want to step back away

from the life that I'm living right now,

get a little more introspective,

and find out what's my next step in life.

- You're welcome. There was never any question.

[ambient music]

- That is where I came from.

Right down there.

I'm gonna keep up this steep son of a gun

'cause I see this one overhang is pretty small,

but there's another huge one up there.

It looks like it flattens out.

God, I hope it gets easier. [laughs]

Oh, I need a shelter.

Oh, my God.

Okay.

Back up the mountain,

one step at a time.

[rain pattering]

♪

It's crazy walking here.

You can be walking along, and then all of a sudden,

you can step in a hole, and you can be up to your armpits,

or you can be down to your ankle.

You never know. It's not solid ground.

♪

Oh, [bleep], this next bit's gonna be fun.

♪

It's just so thick.

Holy crap.

All right, onward.

♪

[grunts]

[grunting]

Yeah, this is pretty freaking steep.

♪

I used to have [indistinct].

♪

[bleep].

[grunts]

Damn it.

Fricking jacket's getting wet.

♪

Damn it!

Stick in the eye, stick in the eye.

♪

Red alert, stick in the-- God.

[bleep].

Piece-of-[bleep] [bleep].

Get the [bleep] out of my way, you [bleep].

[bleep] you.

Get the [bleep] out of my way.

[bleep]. Damn it!

[bleep] hate this place.

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

- I've seen a lot of sign of bear around here.

What I want to do is make sure I have my food out of reach

and away from-- um, away from me as well.

That way, I don't attract anything into my area.

[tense music]

♪

In Iraq or in Afghanistan,

any of those places that I've been before,

at least I know what--

what conditions I'm gonna be in

and, you know, what to expect,

and, you know, at the end of the day,

I know I have, um, other people there

that have my back.

If something happens to me here,

the only person you have is yourself.

Aw, man.

The fear factor of the unknown,

it's just overwhelming.

[line snaps]

[bleep].

I won't be able to get it up without the line breaking off.

Either have to find some rope,

or I have to think of a different option for tonight.

Let's go see if I can find a different location.

[dramatic music]

♪

- I can't believe this weather.

It's amazing.

But after jumping off the plane today

and getting soaking wet,

my boots are wet,

and so I got to move fast.

I was hoping that maybe I wouldn't need a fire tonight,

um, 'cause it's warm enough,

but now that all my gear's wet, I'm pretty much screwed.

Um...

but nowso that--that was's wet, I'm all the unknownswed.

I was worried about.

[laughs]

It's what makes me nervous.

It's thick. It's dense.

It's green today,

but it's gonna be dark tomorrow.

This is it. This is it.

It's what I got.

It's here. Let's do it.

♪

Go look around here,

see what I got for shelter space.

There's so much going through my mind, it's--it's unreal.

I'm scared. I'm nervous.

I'm excited!

Just the thought of being alone

and--and the unknown, it's--it's not gonna be easy.

I'm gonna set up over here, I think, for the night.

So I'm gonna clean out this area over here,

um, this way.

♪

The hardest challenge is going to be

leaving my children.

I miss my daughters terribly.

They're always on my mind.

- Here-- - [giggling]

Good girl.

My daughter's all over the place.

She's four now.

Hey, don't stop swinging.

- She does know I'm gone.

She does know that I love her.

Greta, she's just a baby,

uh, so I don't get to talk to her much,

but I get to hear her.

She's rolling around. She's doing good.

I was part of the Hobart Hotshots

out of the Tahoe National Forest.

Hotshots are wildland firefighters.

They are known to be the biggest, the best,

the strongest in the field.

And it was one of the hardest challenges I've ever done.

What I learned was that

mental strength can get you just about anywhere.

I'm doing this because I want to see

how far I can actually make it.

How far mentally and physically can I survive on my own?

I want my kids to say, "My mom did that,"

or, "Why would something stop me?

I can do that."

Are you gonna miss me?

Yeah.

I'm gonna go

high to low with this guy.

[sniffles]

I feel that if I pass this adventure up,

I would be shorting myself and my children,

because there should be no limits in life.

There shouldn't--you should push yourself

to your personal extremes

and see how far you can always go

to better yourself and those around you.

Uh, anyway,

it looks like [bleep].

It's kicking my ass.

I wasn't--

It's good.

It is what it is.

It's a large tarp.

I'm going to go ahead

and brace down the other side of my tarp

so that it's usable for tonight.

[tense music]

♪

- Pretty much right now just feeling, uh--

feeling the place out.

I haven't been out here very long.

Couple hours.

Everywhere I go, I'm starting to see

more and more signs of bears.

Um, just, uh,

looking for a area to set up my shelter.

Just want to stay focused,

don't want to start getting upset right now.

Got a lot of things to accomplish and do.

Anytime you get frustrated out here in this environment,

it can, uh, mess with you.

♪

[animal calling]

I just heard a noise, a loud noise, out there.

I'm not sure where it was.

Um, it was kind of a little far off, uh,

but definitely heard something.

[whistles] Hey, bear.

Yo, bear.

♪

This is real now. This is real.

♪

[animal calling]

This is bad.

I got to get out of here.

♪

This is crazy.

♪

♪

I got to get hustling.

I got much to do.

Well, I'm gonna get in here and try to get things situated.

That way, I can make the first night easy

and not stress myself out too much.

[ambient music]

♪

So I'm going to, uh,

get my shelter up for tonight.

♪

You never know what's over your head unless you look.

And I'm gonna show you why

it's so important to look.

[wood cracks]

[exhales]

That could have come down on me

while I was sleeping

with the right kind of, uh,

wind coming through here.

So...

always check above.

Look for, uh,

widowmakers,

deadfall.

'Cause you never know what you got above your head.

♪

There are certain skills, you know, basic techniques

that if you don't follow

and you suffer a mechanical injury,

there's nobody here to help you.

You have to know how to help yourself

because rescue is a ways away.

This is the type of environment

that you need to know how to effect self-rescue first.

If you don't, then it could be pretty harsh for you,

and it could definitely take you out.

That's difficult.

So I'm looking forward to using that knowledge

that I have gained over the years

in helping me in this experience.

♪

[gunshot]

I am former military and former law enforcement.

[laughter]

I am very fortunate. I still have my parents.

- All right, good boy.

- I have my daughter and my son,

three grandchildren,

and my best friend, Molly.

[dog growls] [growls]

With the children having grown and left,

living their lives, Molly's always been there.

Molly, here.

I think she's upset with me right now

because I am leaving.

For me, this is a spiritual journey.

I'm looking forward to having this time

to go within myself

to resolve a lot of unanswered feelings

and emotions and events

in my law enforcement and military career.

Be safe,always.

- Remember I love you. - I love you too.

Been witness to a lot of very difficult things.

I'm here for the inner journey

and spiritual aspects of healing myself.

♪

I can't forget it,

but at least I can make peace with it

and try to step forward

with a new perspective and a new beginning.

All right.

One throw-together temporary shelter.

This will get me through tonight.

[dramatic music]

♪

- Okay, well, I'm gonna be brutally honest.

I am at a loss as to what to do for a shelter.

I mean,

I want to do a plow point of some sort,

but...

I thought I'd have, like,

a little bit of level ground.

And, I mean, I do have a little tiny bit,

but it's right next to this creek.

I've been up along this ridgeline.

Tomorrow I'm gonna explore around that ridgeline.

What I need to do today

is quit screwing around.

I need to start cutting some logs.

♪

So my preferred shelter is a plow point shelter.

♪

Basically what I do is, I take a square tarp.

You take one corner and you incline it

on a tree branch.

And I can drape my tarp over the top of that.

Pretty tough to work with a tarp

when you don't have much real estate to work with.

♪

And just manufacture stakes.

And then I can stretch my tarp tight enough

so I don't have to worry about cordage.

That will at least work for this first night.

♪

Man, it's beautiful here.

Holy crap.

Wow.

♪

Um...

I'm being honest with you, I'm feeling a little worried.

I feel like I bit off more than I can chew,

uh, being out here right now.

Um, a little frustrating.

[brooding music]

♪

Didn't think I'd have a problem worrying about animals,

but the minute I seen that bear scat

when I got off the boat,

um, really changed me.

It changed my whole psyche about the--the situation.

♪

The woods, they have a eerie feeling about them.

The forest is so dense.

Every little sound that I hear is bothering me.

It's getting to me.

♪

It's a different animal being out here

and knowing you have to do this all by yourself.

I know everything to do.

I know--I know what I want to do,

but going inside them woods is, uh...

♪

Just--I just don't know.

♪

t a military background.

I'm thinking I'll be able to go off in here

and turn on that switch

and, you know, just focus on what I need to do

in order to survive.

But, uh, as of right now...

♪

As of right now, I'm not, uh--

I'm not feeling it.

I'm not feeling it at all.

[dramatic music]

♪

That's just incredible.

[sniffles]

Check this out.

The whole place

is a mussel bed.

Look at that.

Everything right here.

Mussels...

are my absolute favorite.

This would be enough food

that I could collect

every day... [sniffles]

and not run out

for six months,

and I can't touch it.

♪

When we came out here,

they told us that we could not partake

in any of the shellfish out here

because of red tide.

♪

Ugh.

This is tough.

This is a hard part.

It's so hard looking atething so awesome

knowing that it could kill you.

This is one of those little things

that rocks your world.

[sniffles]

Ugh.

♪

- Right now, this is feeling like the toughest thing

I've ever done in my life.

It's like I had all these ideas in my head

about what I wanted to do,

but everything just went out the window.

It's like I don't know anything right now.

It's like I'm-- I've never been

out here in the woods.

My entire morale

just went down the drain.

♪

This was a personal choice

to come and do something to make a better living

for myself and my family.

I don't know that it was right decision.

At this point right now,

all I want to do is go back home.

♪

[somber ambient music]

♪

- I mean, it was just--

I-I just never experienced nothing like that before.

♪

I'm good.

So I guess I'm officially tapping.

♪

I'm good.

♪

Got a lot of people looking up to me

to do good things.

I'm feeling like I've let them down.

♪

It's a different animal being out here

and knowing you have to do this all by yourself.

♪

I mean, 'cause when they say "alone,"

you're really alone.

[ominous music]

♪

[rain pattering]

[branches rustling]

♪

- I believe I hear...

♪ The neighborhood residents.

I just have not seen any.

But my thought is that

they will come to visit tonight.

♪

[rain pattering]

♪

[branches snapping]

There was a crashing through the brush.

♪

It is just amazing the amount of noise

that I'm hearing

in the woods here.

♪

I mean, I figured I'd hear a bit,

but this is quite a bit.

♪

[branches rustling]

Like that.

[branches rustling]

♪

[branches snapping]

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

[rain pattering]

It's raining.

It's gonna be raining

cats and dogs probably all day.

My shelter's holding up okay, though.

That's all that matters.

[sighs]

And my boots are still wet,

which pisses me off.

I can't stop thinking about that.

I don't have dry boots.

[sighs]

All right, I'm gonna try and go back to bed.

♪

[rain pattering]

[laughs]

♪

Well, let's see here.

♪

See if we see an eye shine back,

'cause I heard...

♪

I am mostly concerned with the cougars.

I will do my very best to stay out of their way

and let them do what they need to do

to get through their winter,

and I'm hoping they'll do the same for me.

But when you weigh 275 pounds,

you learn that running isn't much of an option,

so you better be ready to fight.

Hopefully, they will find me not interesting.

♪

Little thump-thumps

in the night.

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

[sighs]

♪

[sighs]

It rained all night.

No big surprise.

[sighs]

I'm still just pissed off about my boots.

I can't--

It's gonna be days before my boots dry out.

Days.

♪

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

Stop right there.

I'm finding all kinds

of [bleep] water in my tent.

The bottom of my bag is soaking wet.

♪

My sleeping bag is down,

and once down gets wet, it's near impossible

to get dry in these conditions,

and I need a dry sleeping bag.

♪

[ominous music]

♪

All of my kindling,

everything I collected, wet.

Soaking wet.

What the hell?

[exhales]

I screwed up.

Day one.

All my [bleep]'s wet.

[sighs]

First things first.

Ridgepole check.

So I plan on building, uh,

the same sort of structure, an A-frame.

The construction that will be different

is the fact that I'm going to tie

my grommets together underneath,

and then I'm going to put the grommets

under my ridgepole.

Uh, point being that the rain

can't get in on the sides at all.

The rain will come in from underneath.

And then from there, I have an extra tarp

as one of my items, and I'm going to lay that

on the floor and create a boat

so that if any water sheds from the inside of the tarp,

it misses me in the center of the boat.

I put that green tarp on top

so if any water comes in on my ground tarp,

my bottom tarp should stay dry.

Hopefully.

See, it's all up on the sides there.

♪

If I can stay dry, I can stay out here

as long as I want to.

♪

♪

- Where to look for firewood in a rain forest...

When it's dry out, no less?

Winter's gonna be a bitch.

♪

[snipping]

[exhales]

All of that just for one little handful

of firewood that's wet anyway.

[ambient music]

♪

Let's hope I can get this fire going.

[flint striking]

♪

Wow, winter's gonna be a pain in the butt, man.

♪

I'm just...

♪

This creek by me, I know it's gonna swell

as soon as the rains start.

And trying to make a move in the rain

is just gonna be just a pain.

So I don't know. [sniffles]

♪

The alone part

doesn't bother me at all,

but it's only been two days.

But just the--

the crappy-ass shelter that I made

and the freaking difficulty I'm having with fire

and just the steep terrain is kicking my butt.

I mean, if--if I-- if the terrain

was just even just a little bit easier...

These have got to be just about the hardest woods

I've ever had to try to survive in.

I just feel like I'm not, uh,

performing like I should be.

♪

[insects chirping]

♪

[bears grunting]

♪

There's a bear outside.

[bear growls]

Hey, don't come over here.

[bear grunting]

Sounds like a damn bear to me.

I don't know what else it could be.

[harsh voice] Get out of here!

Get out of here!

Get out of here!

Get out of here!

[dramatic music]

- It is not easy going up here.

Oh, ah.

- I woke up, and the whole side of my shelter was glowing.

I almost caught the entire forest on fire.

- It's basically fighting an inner battle all day long.

I can't do no more!

- I way underestimated this place.

[air horn blares]

- You heard me, get! [air horn blares]

- One wrong move and I'm done.

Ooh!

- What am I doing out here?

Look at that.

Squished mouse, my favorite.

Oh!

- God, I just feel like I'm letting her down.

- I'm slowly dying of starvation.

Oh, my God.

Mama bear just stood up on her hind legs.

Not good.

♪