Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

♪♪

[helicopter blades whirring]

- This is it. It has begun.

- God. [bleep]

Piece of [bleep]. I hate this place.

- This is bad. I've got to get out of here.

This is feeling like the toughest thing

I've ever done in my life.

I guess I'm officially tapping.

- Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

I'm finding all kinds of [bleep] water in my tent.

- I believe I hear a neighborhood resident.

There's a bear outside.

Get out of here!

[bear growling]

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

Yes! Aah!

- $500,000 is a lot of money.

- It's just gonna keep getting harder.

- It's not the world that needs to change.

It's me that needs to change.

[moans]

♪

[dramatic music]

♪♪

Good morning.

It rained like a son of a bitch all night.

I woke up this morning to, "Mom, Mom!

Mommy!"

And I woke up, and I'm looking around.

It was the geese flying in.

[mimicking geese]

So there you go.

I thought my girls were waking me up.

Today, the rain's slowed down a little bit,

but I know it's gonna get worse.

[yawning] I need to set up a fire shelter,

like a place that I can count on having a fire every day.

Something that's dry.

So, I'm gonna...

take this here ridge pole.

I'm gonna carve in a couple notches

into this tree and this tree,

kind of like a divot notch,

and so I can wedge it into the tree a little bit

and then tie it down with some fish string.

What I'm most scared of is after the adventure,

after this is all done

and we all go home,

I'm scared of what's next.

It's like, what's the next thing

that's gonna capture you the way this has captured me?

You know,

when I was home,

my mom brought up the fact that there is gypsy blood our line.

Maybe that's where I get all this from.

Just the need to run, the need to go all the time.

A change of scenery,

a change of pace, a new adventure.

♪♪

I want to tell my kids

that you can do anything that you want to do.

I want to raise strong women

in this world.

Then I'm gonna pull my tarp over, 5-foot up,

and then maybe out.

Check it out.

If you think you can do it, try it.

If you want it, go get it.

I think that that's a huge lesson,

especially for my daughters.

[dramatic music]

♪♪

- Our journey this morning begins.

Yay.

I do things a little differently.

Whereas most people are probably

sitting around surviving,

I want to keep active just to try to stay sane.

I'm gonna explore the area a little bit and go from there.

It's kind of ingrained in you in the military

to just constantly go 100 miles an hour.

- You are prepared for what's gonna happen.

- Yeah. - You know a lot

about what's gonna happen.

- I was in the Army for about 15 years.

I recently got out.

For the majority of that time,

I was either a sniper

or working down at the sniper school.

There's a huge suicide epidemic in the veteran community.

I started noticing some of my friends

that had gotten out of the military,

and they were having a real hard time

transitioning into civilian life.

I came up with the idea of taking guys

out on hiking trips.

I think there's a connection with nature there

that can be really helpful.

And, to me, that's what keeps me going.

All the years in the military,

if you have one thing, it's gonna be this.

- So, I have two blades. I have one, just regular.

And then the other one is serrated.if you have one thing, it's gonna be this.

Being in the military, you still have people around,

you know, that kind of keep you going.

You have a mission or a purpose to do together.

So you still have that human interaction.

Very few people have ever gone out by themselves,

completely shut off from everybody.

For me, going out in the middle

of nowhere completely reliant upon myself,

it is that challenge

that I've always wanted to put myself through.

I'm gonna head into the woods.

I'm gonna be looking for signs of some sustainable food.

You never know.

I feel like if you sit in one place,

you might miss a whole lot of stuff.

♪♪

I have a duck. [laughs]

I have little duck that's hanging out.

I don't know, I might leave him.

Depends on how hungry I get. He might be dinner.

[footsteps crunching]

[bird chirping]

What?

The bird up there, he's either trying to tell me something,

or trying to tell everybody else that I'm here.

♪♪

- Life alone on Vancouver Island.

My goal is to be out here for the entire year.

So, it's...survival...

of the fittest.

I spent eight years

teachiilots and air crew members

how to survive behind enemy lines.

You know, if they got shot down,

what would they do to survive?

Once you get the shelter and the water figured out,

firewood and food.

So, I plan to eat some seaweed this morning.

I want to show you the different kinds of foods

there are on the beach.

There's this type of seaweed,

seagrass.

You eat down at the base where it's white.

And it is quite sweet.

Very good.

I believe, also, you can...

eat the rhizome.

And that's very sweet as well.

It's kind of like candy, I mean, it's so sweet.

Bull kelp

has this long tail

that goes

down and around

and way off out there.

And you can eat...

the vine as well.

Normally, you slice it into little rings

and then you cook it.

[crunches] Ha-ha!

Mmm.

Got a lot of salt water that time.

So, that is breakfast.

And it looks like we've got low tide,

so I'm gonna go ahead and try and put up my gillnet.

[hammering]

So I've got this freshwater creek flowing into the cove.

I'm gonna put my gillnet right out in front of it.

Perhaps that's the best place to put it.

I'll find out.

Every day, that low tide/high tide transition,

I'm gonna look forward to going out

and checking my traps.

I really hope I get a fish in there tomorrow.

♪♪

Looks like we should get out the tennis rackets

and start playing tennis, right?

[splashing]

I'm gonna go walk, see if I can find

some more edibles this morning.

There's my seaweed spot.

Oh, my goodness.

Check this out.

There's a very large pile of bear poo.

[tense music]

One...

two...

three...

four--that's still steaming--

five...

six.

[laughs] I've got friends already.

And I thought I was gonna be alone out here.

[laughs]

♪♪

- I've been looking around... through the woods.

I have to look for the most sustainable food source.

And I'm not seeing too much,

as far as wildlife signs.

I don't see really any scrape marks

on...the tree I just walked across.

We're gonna start heading down to the beach.

See what we can find down there.

♪♪

[sighs]

Biggest thing I'm seeing right now,

as far as resources go,

is the inlet, is what I'm thinking.

That most of my food is gonna come out of the water.

I don't see my little duck friend.

I've got a duck that hangs out over here.

Let's see if we can find him.

[water running]

♪♪

Holy crap.

♪♪

My duck...

is somehow dead.

[splashing]

That's pretty weird.

I'm not sure what the hell killed this thing.

There's no bite marks,

no blood.

I don't see any tracks.

So this is a pretty big decision.

On the one hand,

if something killed this thing

that somehow infected the meat,

and I don't cook it well enough,

I'm gonna get sick.

That sucks, you know?

On the other hand, if I get rid of it--

'cause I can't leave it here, 'cause all it's gonna do

is attract cougars and bears.

More than likely, a cougar.

If I get rid of it,

it's getting rid of a lot of meat.

[dramatic music]

♪♪

[bleep].

[dramatic music]

♪♪

[water running]

♪

[footsteps crunching]

♪♪

So, I've made my decision.

I'm not gonna eat it.

Ah, it kind of sucks.

I was really hoping this dude was gonna give me food

when I really needed it,

and not have to waste food when I don't.

All right.

Mr. Duck,

it was nice knowing you, bro.

And...take care.

Do you have duck funerals?

Is that a thing? I don't know.

Anyway, we're gonna throw this dude out into the bay.

Hopefully, he'll get drug away and not...

wash up on my beach again.

That would suck.

Yeah.

Bye, duck.

Quack.

♪

Wasting food is a huge thing,

because you're running on miniscule calories.

It's pretty disheartening,

but the risk of me potentially

getting sick from some crazy bird flu

or whatever this thing died from--

it's not worth it.

♪♪

- So, here's a little bit of my...

[clears throat]

Hemlock tea.

♪♪

I have big plans for today.

Food is a priority.

I'm not a fisherman,

and the ocean is super abundant.

There's tons of fish in there.

I just haven't figured out how to catch them yet.

So, I need to go by what I know,

which is the land.

Every single year, my dad, all my uncles, my grandpa,

we would basically go up to our cottage

that we have in northern Michigan.

And we would go out hunting

and, you know, it was always just,

like, so much fun.

♪♪

- There he is. His senior picture.

We're gonna miss him.

- I think, just as a young man, I was just--you know,

not knowing what I wanted to do with my life,

I know that I loved being outside.

I sort of, like, have just a very, very strong connection

to the natural world.

Just being outside in nature does a lot for my spirit.

- So, how long you think you're gonna last?

Last one standing?

Hopefully.

I've never really been a conventional-type person.

Currently and for the last eight years,

I've been working for a survival school

in southern Utah, teaching sort of primitive skills.

And this is a huge test for me.

You know, this is sort of, like, a culmination

of all of the years of training,

like, all of the books that I've read,

all of the going out and doing it

and getting in the dirt time.

I want to look back on this experience

in 10, 15, 20 years from now, and I want to say,

like, that experience definitely propelled me,

and helped me grow,

and made me a better human being.

Blow him a kiss.

- Experiences like this don't really come along that often.

Being able to procure food, I mean,

is gonna be the difference between me staying, like,

a couple of weeks and me staying a couple of months.

So, I'm gonna set up some traps.

So these traps are super, super simple.

Great for game ranging from

a mouse to maybe a rabbit.

Deadfalls themselves can be

used to take things as large as a bear.

That'll loop around there.

The weight of the rock

will be here.

So, the rock will be pressing down on this,

and then there will be a bait stick,

which is running from

your toggle

to the end of the rock,

or the end of the log, or whatever you have.

So what will happen is, the creature will come up,

pick off that bait stick.

That'll cause...

the trap to trigger,

and then the rock to fall

and collapse on the animal.

So, it's a very--

it's actually a very humane way to kill it.

♪♪

In the forest, there aren't really any rocks.

So I have to make do with what I have.

And that's probably, like, you know,

25, 30 pounds of force.

So, a pretty good amount.

And we'll see, maybe I can get something

by the morning.

This place is very beautiful.

If you could live just off beauty,

then you'd be pretty full here.

♪

But unfortunately, we need food to survive.

I need to figure out this food situation.

I don't know if I'll have the energy to do this.

I need to figure out this food situation.

♪♪

[water running]

♪♪

What I intend to do is

head over right away before the tide comes up

and makes it more challenging and difficult

to get over to the gillnet,

check and see if I have a fish.

There's the gillnet.

I really hope I get a fish in there.

I see something dark out there,

and, man, it looks like a fish.

Holy moly, it is a fish.

Look at that. Thank Jesus.

♪♪

Let's see if there's any more.

♪♪

Oh, yeah. There's a halibut.

There's another fish right there.

Three fish.

Man, today has just been a stellar day.

Three fish. Come on.

Thank you, Jesus.

I don't intend to eat all three fish.

I think I'd get sick from eating that much.

I intend to cook them,

and then

I'll bury it nearby here.

The only thing that could make this better

is if I was in a restaurant

eating this with Barbara.

If you were going with me,

we could share body heat.

Without you to help heat, I need this much bigger bag.

Barbara is just this kind, compassionate woman.

I am blessed that she loves me

and likes being married to me.

♪♪

Before I went into the Air Force,

my two brothers and I,

when we were eight, nine, and ten,

we were sent to an orphanage.

I got kicked out when I was 15.

Those are really, really painful memories.

♪

I have three children. I'm a grandfather by three.

When my daughter passed, she was only ten years old.

That's gonna work on me.

And so my main motivation

is I want to prove to myself

that I can deal with my painful past

and hurtful history.

Just know that in those situations

where I am alone without Barbara,

those memories are larger

than they are ever at any time.

[dirt scraping]

You know, it's--it's work.

And I hope that I can get through the tough times.

That fish is on the plank.

There'll be lean days,

and at that time I'll have these fish laid up

in my hole-in-the-ground refrigerator.

And I've got them stacked one on top of the other.

And I've got that moss on them.

And I've got seaweed from down below

and maybe mask the smell.

The temperatures are cool enough here

that it'll keep for two days,

but I don't think it would keep for longer than that.

Hopefully that'll be there for me tomorrow morning,

and some bear or animal hasn't dug it up.

♪♪

I'm completely relieved.

My gillnet caught three fish.

Hallelujah, give me more, give me more!

I am gonna be eating like a king out here.

[dramatic music]

♪♪

Man.

Well, my trap was triggered last night.

Um...

♪♪

I can't believe this.

Nothing.

It's both a good thing and a bad thing.

It's a good thing because they triggered the trap.

It's a bad thing because I'm definitely, like,

running pretty low on fuel.

I haven't really eaten any meat.

Just some mushrooms.

That's about it.

♪♪

I'm so disappointed in myself right now.

Um...

But I can't let it get me down.

I have to adapt.

And that's really the name of the game

of survival, is just adaption.

So, hopefully this...

Hopefully this works.

♪

So I don't know. I've got to try something new.

I've got to try to make a living off the sea.

I mean, I just need to take advantage

of as many food sources as I can.

I need to have my gillnet out.

If one thing doesn't work, then try another thing,

and if that doesn't work, then try another thing.

The land will show you and it'll teach you

what you need in order to live out here.

But, you know, if you're not open to it

or if it doesn't want to show you, then it won't.

[fire crackles]

♪♪

I don't know,

maybe I just need to be doing something new.

♪♪

[dramatic music]

♪

- So now I need to do the rest of my home, here.

I've got to get the rest of this protected,

and so I just, I got to get after it, here,

or I'm gonna be screwed.

When it rains really bad,

I get all this stuff that goes inside my tent.

And being in this environment,

your bones get cold pretty quick.

So I was thinking about making a front door.

If I do that, I can stay out here

as long as I want to.

♪

I'm just gonna take a log and go across here like this.

♪♪

So that covers that pretty good.

Then I can still kind of see out if I need to.

It's not great seeing out, but it's a little bit at night.

If I go to about here,

then I hang a lot of those ferns

off of here,

they're long and they'll go all the way down.

The ferns act like shingles on a roof.

With the hope that, when it rains,

it sheds off instead of inside of my tent.

Kind of see what's going on here?

See that?

Just tying her up, like this.

Kind of weaving her in there.

Nice and thick.

The better my house is, the warmer I am,

the safer I am,

the dryer I am,

the happier I am.

Put a few more in there, and we'll call it good.

♪

Boogie, boogie, boogie!

So, I'm gonna build a tripod

to keep the door lifted up off the ground

and out of the mud.

Pretty good knot.

See if this thing stays together

long enough to hold up my door.

This will serve as a door holder

on nice days like today.

There.

All right, done.

Project, mission, accomplished.

Let's go take a look.

I put it up here like this, pull it.

Wow!

♪

Not too shabby.

I can still see out, see what's going on.

Hello!

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

I always look angry.

Why is that?

♪

I'm not an angry guy.

I just look that way.

♪

I'm happy to be here.

So why, when I look at my frickin' face...

♪♪

Do I always look like I'm about to punch somebody?

I very rarely punch anybody.

♪♪

Okay, either Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster

has to show up on film at some point

in season two of "Alone."

♪♪

A good Sasquatch sighting.

All these cameras rolling out in this wilderness?

♪♪

It could happen.

♪♪

Things that go through your head when you're out here

in the middle of nowhere.

♪♪

Who are you when everything's been stripped away?

When everything you've relied on to have a sense of life

or purpose or meaning is gone?

♪♪

How long can you live with yourself by yourself?

And as a divorced man,

I guess I'm figuring out that answer.

I am leaving behind my three kids.

I'm gonna miss you guys, all three of you, terribly.

I wish I could take you guys with.

- Um, no. - Oh, you haven't lived

until you've wiped your butt with moss.

[laughs]

- I was a pastor for 15 years in Brazil as a missionary,

and my three kids have been through so much.

All the different things that have gone on

in the last couple years--

you know, the divorce and moving back from Brazil--

it's all been difficult to bear up under.

Are you sure you want me to do this?

- Dad, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

- Your whole life has been building up to this,

I feel like, so...

- If anybody deserves this, it's you.

If anybody's prepared for this, it's you.

- I am not married. I do not have a girlfriend.

I am as free as a man can be at this moment.

Knowing that I have their support

and the fact that I am a Christian,

I am a believer, I think it'll be a strength.

You're gonna do great, Dad.

- I've been through all kinds of stuff in my lifetime,

and when I look back on it, I think I wouldn't be

the person that I am now if I hadn't gone through that.

♪

[birds squawking]

♪

In terms of immediate survival--

you know, fire, shelter, water--I think I've got that.

I could stay here until I starve to death.

But I've got to crack the code of feeding myself out here.

I just have to do that.

I've got to get my beach working for me,

which means I'm gonna try to set out a trotline here.

One line with a bunch of hooks on the end.

I've got some of that green rope, which I salvaged.

♪

And these are gonna form the base

of my trotline.

I think I can put four hooks on this.

Maybe three.

I should have baited these after, but...

♪♪

♪

I want fish.

What are the odds of me catching a fish on that?

I have no idea.

But if I can't make this cove produce food,

I mean, I won't make it.

♪♪

♪

- All right, I'm turning in for the night.

I'm just feeling some, uh-- some heart sickness.

It's a mild pain. It's not, like, excruciati

it's just a low-grade feeling in my chest,

and--and thought maybe I was responding to something I ate.

You know, all this new stuff that my body's not used to.

But I don't think it's that.

I think I'm just thoroughly,

thoroughly missing Barbara.

I felt this kind of heartache

when I was in the orphanage.

And on Christmas,

they would gather the boys around

and open presents.

♪

And they never did call my name

because there wasn't a gift for me there.

And I remember going to bed that night

and the--the heartache.

It feels like that now. I...

♪

They don't call this "Alone"

for no reason.

I miss you, baby...

and my heart's heavy.

♪♪

[dramatic music]

♪♪

♪

♪

- I'm coming out to check my trotline.

So much for a sunny day.

[footsteps crunching]

♪

Oh, somebody over there

is getting a sunny day, but not me.

♪♪

I've got four hooks in the water,

and that's a good thing.

I'm banking on fish.

That's the catch of the day.

Some kind of gnarly looking seaweed.

I've got to fix this thing and re-bait it.

♪♪

[fabric scratching]

That was kind of depressing. I pulled it up,

all I caught was seaweed, and I lost one of my hooks.

♪

All the crabs were gone off my hooks, though.

So, wherever--

something down there likes crabs.

♪

When you don't have anything to eat,

you feel like you have nothing to show

for all that you've done.

If I don't start catching fish, and soon, I'm a goner.

♪

♪

♪

- So, I have a pretty big problem.

I can't...

seem to find my ferro rod.

Yesterday after I got the fire, um...

I usually set it aside

and then put it right in my bag when I'm done.

I was really tired yesterday, and so...

I don't remember putting it in my bag.

And it's not in there now, so...

But I was able to sort of rewind

the footage from yesterday,

and I can see

the footage yesterday of right when I got the fire,

I set the ferro rod down

and it rolled down the fire pit

into the fire.

♪

So, now I'm just sifting through the fire pit.

I don't know what happens

when a ferro rod goes in a fire pit.

Does it just burn up?

I don't know.

I hope I can find it.

♪

There's no way I can be here without a fire.

♪

I can't believe this.

♪

It's not here.

Nothing you can do about it.

♪

[sighs]

♪

And if I can't get a fire, then I can't stay here.

♪♪

It's really as simple as that.

♪♪

It's really as simple as that.

♪♪

♪

♪

Day seven.

I miss my girls.

Say good morning.

Good morning, Boden!

Good morning, happy Greta Tuff!

Aw, isn't she cute?

♪

She's cute.

♪♪

Boden.

She's giving you attitude. See that?

Hello, hello.

So, today's Greta's side for a picture up.

It's Greta day.

I flip them over every day,

so one day it'll be Boden on the front,

and then the next day is Greta on the front.

I'm extremely thirsty.

My goal this morning is gonna be to get a fire started.

Fire must happen today for me.

I'm gonna be a thirsty cat.

♪

I've got to raise my girls

to be smart and strong.

Strong is huge.

Life is so short,

you've got to get out there and live.

You've got to listen to music,

and you've got to dance, and you've got to love.

My God, and we're all gonna die someday,

and then what?

What do you got to say for yourself?

You got up and drank coffee at the same coffee shop

every day of your life?

What kind of a life is that?

I hope my daughters have that sense of adventure, you know,

where they just feel like, "Yeah, I can do that.

I could go there and be that and see that."

Thank you.

Thank you, fire gods, for giving me fire.

♪♪

Just when you're just about to run out of hope...

♪

You just keep plugging away, folks.

Just got to keep working hard.

♪

Never give up.

Only give up, only stop

when your heart says stop.

But never give up because the challenge is hard.

♪♪

♪

Does it literally take everyone else this long to start a fire?

Is it just me?

It must be just me. It's got to be just me.

[bleep]! Son of a bitch.

Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch.

I can't lift my thumb,

I can't lift my thumb, I can't lift my thumb.

Mother[bleep].

♪♪

I don't know how deep it is.

[groans]

♪

- I'm so disappointed in myself right now,

but I can't let it get me down.

♪

- When you're out here in the woods, it's just amazing

how hard everything is.

♪

[bleep], I'm lucky that didn't go in my [bleep] collarbone.

- I heard, like, a crazy noise. [mimicking growls]

[gasps] There's a bear.

Oh, my [bleep] God, there's a bear.

♪

- It's like a whining and huffing

and a sniffing right here at the back of my head.

[air horn blares]

[bear growls] Get on out of here!

[flare hissing]

[bear roars]

Get the hell out of here.

[bear growls] I see you.

♪