All language subtitles for The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd S02E10 1080p WEB h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[pulsating electronic music]

- What if you survived not
one catastrophe but three?

[suspenseful music]

- After the crash
of the Olympic,

this has to be
deja vu for Violet.

And these propellers
are spinning

and pulling the
lifeboats towards them.

- It's an indescribable
scene of slaughter.

- Or that being thrown in prison

was the best thing that
ever happened to you?

- The city is about
to be destroyed.

[explosion booming]

- Putting him in this half
underground cell with no windows

and a tiny slit for air

is going to have some
surprising consequences.

[suspenseful music]

- And yes, miracles do happen,

but this many in one man's
lifetime is just plain weird.

- He has suffered
a heart attack,

an allergic
reaction, and a coma.

- [Mitch] But then he wakes up.

- A year later, he's
playing his scratch-offs

like he always does.

- Bill Morgan thought his
luck had run out last year.

- I just won 250,000.

- These are the stories
of odds so surprising

they are truly Unbelievable.

[mysterious music]

War is hell.

And any soldier might take
along a good luck charm

to help them survive
the trenches.

It might be a rabbit's foot,
or a picture of a loved one,

or in some cases,
that good luck charm

might not reveal itself
until the heat of battle.

[artillery firing]

- During World War I, Britain
has the highest number

of civilian and
military casualties

any nation has ever sustained
in a four-year period.

Horace, Billy, and John Trickett
are brothers and soldiers,

which doesn't bode well
for the Trickett brothers.

- The three brothers are
all members of the infantry.

And if you serve in the
infantry in World War I,

you have a 65% chance of
being killed or wounded

throughout the
course of the war.

Sadly, Horace and Billy
failed to beat the odds

and are killed in combat.

- [Dan] It would've
been all three

if it weren't for a
very common lucky charm.

- John Trickett's on the
Western Front in 1918.

He's fighting in the trenches,

bullets are flying everywhere,

and a German bullet
comes in his direction.

It's aimed right for his heart.

- [Dan] But something unexpected

keeps the bullet from
reaching its target.

- It manages to strike a
penny that's in his pocket.

- Because the bullet
hits this penny,

it doesn't hit him in the heart.

Instead, it changes trajectory.

The bullet goes up through
John Trickett's nose

and exits out of his ear.

- It's an incredibly
lucky chance

that the bullet
strikes this penny.

The penny is the
size of a thumbprint,

yet it has the ability to
spare John Trickett's life.

He's lost two of his brothers,
he's lost his left ear,

but I'm sure that his
family's beyond relieved

to at least have one son
make it back to them.

- Given the brutality
of trench warfare,

the odds of losing
two brothers in combat

might seem pretty high.

But the chances of
finding a twin sibling

you never knew you had, that's
gotta be almost impossible.

I said almost.

[rhythmic music]

- Two identical twins are born

to an unwed 35-year-old mother.

She has no means
of supporting them,

so she has to make the
incredibly difficult call

to put both of her
twins up for adoption.

- We're just coming
out of the Depression,

and families can't afford to
adopt two children at once.

And the boys are adopted
by two separate families.

- One brother goes to the
Springer family of Piqua

and the other brother

goes to the Lewis family of
Lima, Ohio, just 45 miles away.

- [Dan] In the first

of what will be many
striking coincidences,

both families name their
new sons James, or Jim,

as the two will go
on to be known as.

- Jim Lewis grows up knowing
that he has a twin brother

somewhere out
there in the world.

And while it weighs on him,

he never does anything
about it until he turns 39.

[suspenseful music]

- It's 1979.

This is long before
web resources

that could help you find
long lost relatives,

so Jim Lewis has
to go to courts.

He has to go to
halls of records.

And eventually, after digging,
he does find a phone number

for his long lost twin brother.

[suspenseful music]
[phone ringing]

- Jim Springer is, of course,
shocked when he gets the call

to find out he
has a living twin.

But things get stranger.

- They find all
these coincidences

despite not living
together for 39 years.

- Both Jims named their first
pet dog Toy, both of them.

Not only that, they both
have adopted brothers

both named Larry.

If that's not enough, they
both meet, fall in love,

and marry women
with the name Linda.

- The coincidences
keep stacking up.

Both Jim Lewis and Jim Springer

divorce that woman named Linda.

Both Jim Lewis and Jim
Springer get remarried

each to another
woman named Betty.

The coincidences move
beyond the pale of belief.

- Both Jims end up having sons
with their respective Bettys

and they end up naming
these sons James Alan Lewis

and James Allan Springer.

Not just the same first name

but the same first
and middle name.

- They both have a lifelong
passion for woodworking,

they both suffer from migraines

that started when they were 18,

and they both went
into law enforcement.

- [Dan] The twins
unbelievable story

reaches Dr. Thomas Bouchard
Jr, a psychologist and director

of the The Minnesota Study

of the Twins Reared
Apart project.

- It became apparent

just from working with
the twins right away

that there was just
a lot of similarity

across all kinds of
behavioral characteristics.

- Bouchard is studying
twins and triplets

because they share
the same genetics,

but what he finds is that
twins and triplets raised apart

share identical traits
that they would've had

had they been raised together.

- But the story of the two Jims

blows away even Dr. Bouchard.

He even says that if he
didn't know them personally,

he would not believe this.

[mysterious music]

- In a final
strange coincidence,

Dr. Bouchard's Minnesota
twin research study

was conducted in the
Twin Cities area.

Some believe a sure way to
turn life's odds in your favor

is to do good deeds,

that good karma will
flow back to you.

If you've never
believed that before,

the unbelievable story

of one heroic nurse
from Buffalo, New York

is about to change your mind.

[rhythmic music]

- Penny Brown, an
intensive care nurse

at Buffalo General Hospital,

unexpectedly gets a night
off thanks to a slow shift.

She decides to go see
her son's baseball game

and surprise him.

[spectators chattering]

- Meanwhile, Kevin
Stephan is at the game,

acting as the bat boy for
his little brother's team

when one of the other players
loses the grip of the bat

and it hits him in the
chest, stopping his heart.

[rhythmic music]

- The phenomenon is
called commotio cordis.

It happens when a
sudden fierce blow

hits the anterior chest wall.

It can stop the
heart immediately

and basically
cause sudden death.

- Cardiac arrest by
blunt force trauma

is not something
parents, or coaches,

or anyone are
prepared to confront.

- Luckily for Kevin,
Penny is in the crowd,

and begins CPR, and is
able to resuscitate him.

[rhythmic music]

When an event like that happens,

it takes someone who
knows what they're doing

to actually help.

And thank goodness that
fate aligned in a way

where Penny had the night off.

- This is an intense
situation of near tragedy.

We can only imagine the
relief the parents feel.

And for people employed
in emergency medicine,

they're often told, you know,
"I owe you my life for this.

I don't know how I'll ever
be able to repay you."

- [Dan] But on this
night in Buffalo,

a simple thank you is all Kevin
and his parents can offer.

- Kevin makes a full recovery.

Seven years later,

he is a bright and engaged
high school student.

He's a volunteer firefighter.

He has this need to help people,

probably influenced by the
fact that Penny saved his life.

He's also working
as a dishwasher.

[tense music]

Kevin is supposed
to have the day off,

but his boss asks
him, can he come in

and pick up an extra shift?

Kevin agrees.

- In the restaurant, a
woman begins choking.

[tense dramatic music]

Incredibly, this 17-year-old kid

who's working on his day off
busts into the dining room

and begins giving her
the Heimlich maneuver.

After a few tries, he's
able to clear the blockage,

and this panicked woman
starts breathing again.

- Another coincidence is even
though it's Kevin's day off,

his mom is there in
the restaurant too.

- She recognizes the woman.

It's Penny Brown, the same woman

who saved Kevin's life seven
years earlier on her night off.

- If Kevin's mom hadn't
been in the restaurant,

no one else would've
made the connection

that these two people

have saved each other's
lives at some point.

[mysterious music]

- It's like they say, the
life you save may be your own,

well, at least eventually.

- They say the odds
of a plane crash today

are 1 in 11 million.

This figure definitely did
not apply to combat pilots

during World War II.

More than any other
branch of the military,

the odds were stacked
against their survival.

One, however, is a soldier
of unbelievably good fortune.

[explosions rumbling]

- [Roosevelt]
December 7th, 1941,

a date which will
live in infamy.

- Sergeant Alan Magee

joins the United
States Army Air Forces

in the immediate aftermath
of the Pearl Harbor attack

in late 1941.

He's assigned to the 360th
Bombardment Squadron,

which is a B-17 squadron.

- [Reporter] American
squadrons of Flying Fortresses

stand ready to raid
enemy-occupied territory.

- Magee's job is one of the
most important on the aircraft,

of the ball turret gunner.

He is suspended ventrally
beneath the aircraft,

and it's his job to
protect it from an attack

by a fighter
interceptor from below.

There are very few environments
more dangerous than that.

[explosion booming]

He receives that assignment

at a particularly
difficult time of the war

for a B-17 air crew.

[anti-aircraft guns firing]
[dramatic music]

- The life expectancy
of someone who's a part

of a B-17 bomber crew, on
average, is only 11 missions.

[dramatic music]

This is Sergeant
Magee's seventh mission,

so his nerves are a bit frayed

because they're flying
over Saint-Nazaire, France.

[suspenseful music]

- The Germans at the
time are producing

most of their U-boats here,

so they've got the city
completely up-armored

with anti-aircraft weaponry.

[anti-aircraft guns firing]

- During the raid, flak
fire strikes the aircraft.

That flak fire injures Magee.

It also shreds his parachute.

As a result of his injuries,

he makes the decision to
crawl out of the ball turret.

And when he enters the
fuselage of the aircraft,

the right wing tip is blown
off by an anti-aircraft round.

And so then suddenly, Magee is
thrown clear of the aircraft.

- At one point
during his free fall,

Sergeant Magee prays that God

will give him one
more chance to live.

Suddenly he crashes into
the top of a train station,

which is assembled with
glass and steel girders.

And this glass actually absorbs

some of the shock of his fall,

which leaves Sergeant Magee
badly injured, but still alive.

[suspenseful music]

- The wounds that Sergeant
Alan Magee is suffering from

are beyond extensive.

We're talking 28
shrapnel wounds.

We're talking
several broken bones.

He has sustained severe damage
to his liver and his lungs

and his arm is almost
completely severed off.

- [Dan] Magee cannot
believe he's still alive

and neither can the German
troops who find him.

Instead of finishing the
job or leaving him to die,

things take yet another
unexpected turn.

- One of the German soldiers
happens to be a physician.

And this physician states that,
"Although you are my enemy,

I am a physician first
and I am going to give you

my best attempt at
saving your life."

[suspenseful music]

- Now, despite this
German doctor saving him,

Magee still has a
long road of recovery

and actually remains
a prisoner of war

for two years until
he's liberated in 1945.

- Magee is ultimately
awarded the Purple Heart,

obviously for the wounds
that he receives in combat.

He also receives the
Air Medal for valor.

- And what's even
more impressive,

Sergeant Alan Magee will go on

to receive his pilot's license.

Being a survivor of such trauma
isn't enough to dissuade him

from wanting to stay in the sky.

[mysterious music]

- Few would count being
taken prisoner as lucky,

but for one man in
captivity in Martinique,

it turns out to be
a very good thing.

- Ludger Sylbaris
is definitely a guy

who you would want on
your side during a fight,

but not the kind of guy that
you want dating your daughter.

He's a convicted
felon, he's a drunk,

and he's always in and
out of jail for fighting.

May 7th, 1902, Ludger
gets in another fight.

The police, they decide that
they've had enough with Ludger

and they stick him straight
into solitary confinement.

- Putting him in this
half underground cell

with no windows and
a tiny slit for air

is going to have some
surprising consequences.

- Unbeknownst to Ludger,

the city of
Saint-Pierre, Martinique

is about to be destroyed
by a nearby volcano.

[eruption rumbling]

It erupts on the morning
of May 8th, 1902.

A 1,075-degree pressure wave
sweeps across Martinique,

destroying everything
in its path.

Anything more combustible than
stone just burns immediately.

This is as close to an actual
hell on Earth as you can get.

- And unfortunately,
due to this eruption,

nearly all 30,000
residents of Saint-Pierre

are killed instantly.

- [Dan] Nearly, but not all.

Ludger Sylbaris is alive in
his solitary confinement cell,

unaware of the scale
of the disaster,

but he knows something is off.

- The ash, the smoke, the heat,

they're all penetrating
his tiny cell

via that small slit at the top.

And it's getting dire.

So he urinates on his clothes
and jams them into the vent

to prevent this burning ash
from getting into his cell.

Ludger can feel the intense heat

despite not having a window.

He is badly burned, but
still inside his cell

in a city filled only
with charred corpses.

[dark music]

- And it's not till days
later, when rescue crews

can finally approach
the ruins of the city,

that they hear Ludger's
screams coming from below.

- [Dan] Now here is where
Ludger's fortune changes

in a most unpredictable way.

[mysterious music]

- The unbelievable story

of his survival
through this disaster

makes him instantly famous.

He even becomes a
circus performer.

Barnum & Bailey hire
him and promote him

as the an who
survived Doomsday.

- [Dan] While the newfound
fame changes his life,

he doesn't let it change
who he is as a person.

- Barely a year after
this incredible survival

through Doomsday, during
a circus performance

Ludger goes berserk.

He attacks his
fellow performers.

He stabs a tent builder.

He even assaults Mr. Bailey
himself, his own boss,

before the police are able
to subdue him and arrest him.

[dramatic music]

- The more things change,

the more they stay
the same, I suppose.

[haunting pulsating music]

Ludger is eventually released
and lives until he's 55,

dying of natural causes
instead of a natural disaster.

- The vast seas account for
139 million square miles

of the Earth's surface.

Given all that space,
you would think the odds

against being in a
single maritime disaster

are pretty much in your favor.

But a century or so ago,

one young ship stewardess
named Violet Jessop

upends that thinking.

[mysterious music]

- It's 1911, and Violet
Jessop works as a stewardess

aboard the RMS Olympic,
one of the three flagships

of the vaunted White Star Line.

The Britannic, the
Olympic, and the Titanic,

they are the greatest ships
ever built at the time.

They're a pinnacle
of technology.

They're engineering marvels.

- Harland & Wolff, the
ship builders, say,

as far as it is
possible to do so,

these ships are designed
to be unsinkable.

[siren blaring]

- [Dan] On September 20th,
1911, Violet is on the Olympic

as it departs
Southampton for New York.

But before even
reaching the Atlantic,

something completely
unexpected occurs.

- A British naval ship
called the HMS Hawke

is traveling
alongside the Olympic.

The wake of the
Olympic is so powerful

that it causes the Hawke

to actually collide
with the passenger ship.

[collision banging]
[suspenseful music]

= Bam!

The front of the Hawke

hits the starboard
side of the Olympic

and causes a massive tear
into the side of her,

and she starts to take on water.

Despite the collision and
despite all this water

being taken on by the ship,

everybody safely makes
it off of the ship,

including Violet Jessop.

- She's definitely lucky that
she survived a shipwreck,

but on the other hand,
she's out of a job.

Thankfully, there is
another job available

on another White Star
vessel called the Titanic.

[tense rhythmic music]

- One night, Violet
hears a giant crash,

[booming and crunching]

followed by a low,
dense, tearing sound.

[tense dramatic music]

- You have to imagine, after
the crash of the Olympic,

that this has to be
deja vu for Violet.

- Men, women,
children, ship staff

are all scrambling to
try to make it out alive.

[suspenseful music]

There were 17 lifeboats
on the Titanic,

only enough for about half

of its more than
2,000 passengers.

- Violet does make it
onto one of the lifeboats

and survives yet
another shipwreck.

- [Dan] You'd think after
enduring two maritime disasters,

Violet would stay far
away from the sea.

- Cut to four years
later, Violet takes a job

as a ship stewardess aboard
the third White Star Line ship

known as the Britannic.

- During this time,
World War I is raging,

and the Britannic has been
converted into a hospital ship.

- The German Navy has decreed,

be it military, be it
cargo, be it civilian,

it's open season on these ships.

[suspenseful music]

- On the morning of
November 21st, 1916,

Violet is preparing
breakfast for a sick shipmate

when she suddenly
hears an explosion.

[explosion booming]

They don't know if it's a
torpedo or an underwater mine,

but they do know the
damage is catastrophic.

- It took the Titanic about
two and a half hours to sink,

but the Britannic is gonna
go down in about 40 minutes.

- Violet is actually on one
of the first four lifeboats,

so you would think that
her odds of survival

are pretty high.

- [Dan] But you'd be wrong.

[suspenseful music]

- When the Britannic
is being evacuated,

the captain is still
trying to save the ship

and has the engine
going at full speed.

But the ship is going
down at the bow,

which is raising the stern

and pulling the propellers
slightly out of the water.

And these propellers
are spinning

and pulling the
lifeboats towards them.

[suspenseful music]

- One of the lifeboats
is actually drawn

into the spinning blades.

It gets absolutely destroyed.

- It's an indescribable
scene of slaughter.

I mean, that's just the
stuff of nightmares.

- [Dan] Everyone aboard her
lifeboat can see what's coming

and jumps into the water,
including Violet who can't swim.

- As Violet is struggling
to stay afloat,

a small motorboat comes
along and pulls her aboard.

Even though she is scraped
and has suffered bruising,

she's alive and she lands safely

on the nearby island of Kea.

- Violet manages to walk away
from this third ship sinking.

And here's the crazy part.

She would continue
to work on sea

up until the year 1960

when she retires
at the age of 63.

- Some say if you're
lucky enough to survive

a near-death experience,

you should probably
buy a lottery ticket.

Australian Bill Morgan would
tell you that's smart advice.

This unlikely story
begins in a car,

when a mundane commute
becomes anything but.

- Suddenly, his check
engine light comes on,

which we all know
is not a good time.

So he's already thinking
he's gotta get home,

try to diagnose what's
going on with his car.

- He begins to feel
sick and dizzy.

He's actually having a heart
attack while he's driving.

He ends up passing out and
getting into a bad accident.

[suspenseful music]

The paramedics
arrive and find him.

They determine that
he's had a heart attack

and they start
administering treatment.

- A very small
percentage of people

are allergic to the
standard medications

that are given by paramedics
during a heart attack scenario.

Bill is one of them,
but he's unconscious.

He's not able to tell the
paramedics about this allergy.

Bill's heart stops
for 14 minutes,

which is an unbelievable
length of time.

[electrocardiogram beeping]
[dark suspenseful music]

Usually, medical personnel

would give up after
seven minutes,

but they keep fighting
for Bill's life

for another seven minutes

and they are able to
restart his heart.

- [Dan] The bad news, however,
is that's all the doctors

are able to do.

While he has a heartbeat,
Bill's in a deep coma.

- After 12 days,
his family is faced

with the agonizing decision
of whether to keep him alive

in a brain-damaged state
or to allow him to die.

- [Dan] As the family
weighs the choice,

they're approached
by a specialist

who offers a long shot
experimental treatment.

Despite the low
chance of recovery,

the family agrees to try.

- Bill is transferred
to a new hospital,

the specialist
applies the therapy,

and now the waiting begins.

[electrocardiogram beeping]

- [Don] For 15 days, nothing
happens, no sign of life.

- But then, miraculously,
he wakes up.

Even more miraculously,
his cognition is normal.

- [Paul] He recovers in
the hospital and goes home.

- Bill must feel an
appreciation for life.

Although he has
suffered a heart attack,

an allergic
reaction, and a coma,

he is basically able to pick
up right where he left off.

- [Dan] He even continues
his daily routine

of buying a scratch-off.

- A year later, he
wins a brand new car,

a Toyota Corolla worth $30,000.

What a win for our man Bill.

- Bill Morgan thought his
luck had run out last year.

- [Dan] Bill's lucky
break earns attention

from a local news channel,

which sends a crew to do a story

about the coma-surviving
lottery winner.

- As they're putting
this news story together,

they ask Bill to recreate
his winning lotto ticket.

He says, "Well, why don't I
just buy another scratch-off

and scratch it off
in front of you?"

What happens next
truly defies the odds.

- I just won 250,000.

[news crew laughing]

I'm not joking.

- [News Crew]
You're not, are you?

- I just won 250,000.

- After the second win,
Bill calls his wife,

gives her the delightful news.

They can buy a second
house, he retires early,

and he enjoys what he
calls his bonus years.

What a wonderful way
to frame your life.

- Bill beat incredible odds

by surviving clinical
death and a coma.

But winning the
lottery twice as well?

I'd call that unbelievable.

- Never is it more obvious
that the odds are against you

than when you play the lottery.

But if you're one

of the hundreds of
millions of Americans

who buys lottery
tickets each year,

you may find this next
story oddly encouraging.

[rhythmic suspenseful music]

- It's 2012, and Virginia Fike

stops by the Olde Stone Truck
Stop to buy her lotto ticket.

They say that the odds
of winning the lottery

are one in hundreds of millions.

You have better chances of
getting struck by lightning.

[thunder cracking]

But Virginia knows
this, she doesn't care.

It's just for fun.

- When people play the lottery,
they often have a system.

They pull numbers from
life events, birthdays,

meaningful dates,
that kind of thing,

even though playing the
lottery is extremely random.

Virginia chooses
her lottery numbers

based on her
parents' anniversary,

their ages at the time, and
the year they were married.

- On this day in 2012, Virginia
orders her lotto tickets

and the clerk mishears her.

Instead of giving
her one lotto ticket,

he gives her two lottery tickets

with the identical
number selection.

Rather than correct the
clerk, Virginia goes,

"It's just an extra dollar.

Who cares?

Let's let it ride."

- [Dan] Unbelievably,

this very specific
combination of dates

matches the lotto drawing,
and it's worth $1 million.

- But that's not the most
interesting part of this story.

Virginia has two tickets
with the exact same number.

They both win, and
she doubled her prize.

- I mean, think about
what the odds are

just of winning
the lottery once.

It's against all odds that
she's winning twice in one day

on a ticket that was an error.

[mysterious music]

- Virginia's winning numbers

might have been a very
lucky coincidence,

that is if you believe
in coincidence.

In the 1960s, one
scientist convinced himself

that with some
careful observation,

he could take the luck
out of lucky numbers

and bring casinos
to their knees.

[suspenseful music]

- Dr. Richard Jarecki, a
physician and a researcher,

is one of those
people that believes

that if one applies
scientific observations

towards any problem,

a scientific solution
can be derived.

- [Dan] In the early 1960s,
Dr. Jarecki uses this theory

to take the chance out
of games of chance.

- He looks at casinos, he
breaks them down into two parts,

controls and variables.

Poker and blackjack
have human components,

card decks gets switched
out, dice are changed,

so there's no real way to
control those variables.

But there's one game he notices

that has the fewest number of
variables, and it's roulette.

Jarecki realizes that the
longer a roulette wheel

is put in service,
the more likely it is

to develop nicks, and
dents, and scratches,

things that will force the
ball to fall on certain numbers

with greater frequency.

- [Dan] Before
ever placing a bet,

Jarecki and his wife
watch thousands of spins

at different roulette wheels

and painstakingly
write down the results.

- He finds that one
table, the number 33

comes up 3 to 5
times every 35 spins,

way outside the normal pattern.

- He also notices that
one wheel in Monaco

is prone toward a
certain set of numbers,

7, 8, 9, 17, 18, 19,

22, 28, and 29.

[suspenseful music]

- So in 1964,

Dr. Jarecki makes his way
to a casino in Monaco.

He's got a hundred
dollars with him.

He sits down at a table that
he's very familiar with.

He knows this roulette wheel.

And he starts making bets.

[tense suspenseful music]

[roulette wheel rattling]

And he starts winning
and winning and winning.

- [Dan] The meticulous
studying is paying off.

He turns his initial
$100 into $5,000.

And that's just the beginning.

- One casino in particular
in a place called San Remo

becomes Dr. Jarecki's favorite.

The tables in there
are a little bit older

and he finds some
exploitable biases

that he can use
to his advantage.

- One night he walks
out with $42,000,

another night with $158,000.

He comes back eight months later

and wins $192,000
over a weekend.

- [Dan] That's not
exactly a typical outcome

for roulette players.

And the casino
owners aren't happy.

Adding insult to injury,

crowds start applauding
Jarecki as he plays.

- The owners are forced to
ban Jarecki for two weeks

so they can recoup their
losses and stay in business.

- Dr. Jarecki returns.

He wins over a hundred
thousand dollars.

And he says, "If the casino
owners don't like losing money,

they should get a new
job selling vegetables."

- [Dan] The casinos
are desperate

to figure out his method,

but when asked by the press,

the doctor isn't
exactly forthcoming.

- He invents a story.

He calculated odds
using a super computer

at the University of London.

But the truth

is more unbelievable
than the cover story.

Supercomputers at that time

cannot accomplish what
Dr. Jarecki is doing

using his powers of observation
and a paper and pencil.

- Eventually the
casino owners discover

the source of his success,

and so they spend a lot of money

to replace these old
rickety roulette wheels.

But it's a lot less money
than what they were losing

when they had the old ones
that he could predict.

- All told, Dr. Richard Jarecki
made an estimated 8 million

in today's dollars at
the roulette table.

If he'd tried this
method in Vegas,

he might be sleeping
with the fishes.

- Charles Darwin once said,

"It's not the strongest of
the species that survives,

nor the most intelligent.

It is the one that is
most adaptable to change."

When nature stacks unbelievable
odds against one tiny puppy,

she fights to
prove Darwin right.

[rhythmic suspenseful music]

- In Oklahoma City,
a puppy is born

with a severe birth defect.

Both of its front
legs are deformed

and it can't walk on its own.

- The dog's mother realizes

that the dog does
not stand a chance.

And because of that, the
mother dog's instincts

tell her to smother the child.

- [Dan] The pup's mother
isn't the only one

who's ready to give up on her.

- Because the dog can only
really move itself with its chin

and drag itself along,

the vet is pretty much on the
same page as the dog's mom

and thinks that putting
the dog out of its misery

is probably the best idea.

- [Dan] But the Stringfellow
family in Oklahoma City

fall in love with this puppy

and decide to give her a chance,
even naming the dog Faith.

- They eventually get this
dog to start raising her chin

by offering her peanut
butter on a spoon.

And they get her to raise up
a little higher and higher

by offering treats, and
affection, and rewards.

- With time and patience,
the Stringfellow family

eventually train Faith
to do the unthinkable,

to become bipedal.

Faith can now walk around
only on her hind legs.

- This dog was given a
zero chance of survival,

and now look at her.

Faith is eating,
going to the bathroom,

walking around, doing
all these things

that nobody expected
her to do and more.

- [Dan] Faith's standup
approach to getting around

quickly goes viral.

And as she racks up views, she
gets Uncle Sam's attention.

[tense music]

- It's the early 2000s,

right at about the time
of the surge in Iraq.

[gun firing]

And there are a lot
of wounded warriors

who have been
injured by everything

from small arms fire to RPGs

to the improvised
explosive device.

[rocket whistling]

[explosion booming]

And so they returned
as amputees.

They may have survived
the physical injury,

but how will they navigate the
emotional side of the injury?

And that's where Faith comes in.

- When you see Faith cuddling

and being playful
with these soldiers,

you can kind of see this
transfer of intent in her eyes,

where she's kind of
letting them know

things are gonna be okay.

And it really does kind of
elicit a lot of emotion.

It can bring a tear to your eye.

[light rhythmic music]

- Faith visited more than
2,300 wounded soldiers

all over the world, earning
her the rank of E5 Sergeant.

After living a long
and happy life,

she passed away
at the age of 12.

But she's not the
only furry fighter

to inspire troops
by beating the odds.

[suspenseful music]

- The battleship
Bismarck is the largest

and most-feared vessel
built by the German Navy

in the Second World War.

[naval guns firing]

It boasts eight 38-centimeter
SK C/34 naval guns.

[naval guns firing]

Each one can fire a
thousand-pound projectile

up to 25 miles.

[naval guns firing]

- [Dan] Also aboard, a much
smaller four-legged weapon.

- Cats have a long tradition
of being brought aboard ships,

obviously for the practical
purpose of controlling vermin

but also for companionship,
good luck, a ship's mascot.

This goes back as
far as the Egyptians

and certainly didn't
stop in World War II.

- [Dan] But on May 26th, 1941,

this cat has more than
rodents to fend off

as the ship comes under
devastating attack

by the British Navy.

[plane buzzing]

[explosion booming]

- Naval warfare is
particularly terrifying.

When the attack begins,
there's really nowhere to go.

Your only chance of escape

is to run through these
skinny, maze-like hallways

that are filling with
water, and smoke, and fire,

and to get to the top deck,
where you can abandon ship.

- There are 2,200 souls
aboard the Bismarck

and only 115 survivors.

That's like a 5% survival rate.

- [Dan] Sinking the Bismarck
is a big win for the Allies.

But when a British
destroyer called the Cossack

is sent to inspect the wreckage,

they get quite the surprise.

- What they see is just carnage.

The ship is destroyed.

There are bodies
floating in the water.

Yet, amidst all
of this wreckage,

aboard a wooden plank
floating in the water,

there is this cat.

The fact that this cat
is able to navigate

all of this debris, all
of this destruction,

and find a wooden plank

to just sit on in the
middle of the ocean,

is kind of a miracle.

- [Dan] Impressed with his grit,

the British sailors adopt
the cat and name him Oscar.

[suspenseful music]

- The cat stays aboard
the Cossack for months.

He's like a mascot.

Everyone on board knows
the dangers of war,

and yet here's this
cat who survived.

He gives them hope that
they can make it out alive.

- After Oscar joins
the HMS Cossack,

it is escorting a convoy
through the Strait of Gibraltar,

where it's struck
by a German torpedo.

[bomb exploding]

- Out of the 220 crew
members on board,

only 61 of them, including
Oscar, actually survived.

- He's rescued and taken aboard

the aircraft carrier
HMS Ark Royal.

- [Dan] Unfortunately,

Oscar just can't seem
to catch a break.

- A couple of weeks later, a
torpedo strikes the carrier,

blowing a 130-foot sized
hole in the side of the hull.

After it begins
tilting 18 degrees,

an evacuation order is given.

- The destroyer HMS
Legion is dispatched

to help out the sinking ship.

And yet, once again, Oscar
is plucked from the sea

by a brave British soldier.

The cat has managed to survive

three of the most
notorious sinkings

of the Second World War.

- When the story is
retold among sailors

and eventually makes its
way into the newspapers,

Oscar's name is changed to Sam

because Oscar just sounds
a little too German.

- Given the cat's history

of having ships shot
out from under her,

a desk job sounds like a
good idea for everyone.

- They say brevity
is the soul of wit,

so it's usually a good idea

to keep speeches short
and to the point,

or you risk losing
your audience.

But for Teddy Roosevelt,

a shorter speech
might have killed him.

[fanfare music]

- It's October 1912,
and Theodore Roosevelt

is in Milwaukee, campaigning
for a third term.

And he pulls up to
the Gilpatrick Hotel,

he stands up in the open
car, raises his arm,

holding his hat, waving to
the crowd, and suddenly, bang.

[gun firing]

- A 38-caliber bullet
tears through his chest

at near blank range.

They're convinced
that Teddy's dead.

[rhythmic music]

- But within just a few
seconds, he gets to his feet

and he realizes he's not dead.

He opens up his vest,

sees a little bit of
blood on his shirt,

and then he pulls out his
speech and his eyeglasses case.

- [Dan] A bullet at such
close range, by all logic,

should be fatal.

But for Teddy Roosevelt,

something stands in the way of
certain death, his verbosity.

- The case for his
glasses is bent

and his 50-page folded up speech

has the bullet hole
through it as well.

All of these things contributed

to slowing down the
bullet just enough.

- It turns out that Roosevelt
being both long-winded

and nearsighted
probably saves his life.

- Of course, these
days we take notes

and pay for our lunch
with our smartphones,

but it turns out we can
even count on new tech

to save our lives.

[suspenseful music]

Nimbin, New South Wales
is a small, quiet town

known for open-mindedness,
environmental awareness,

and strong support for the
legalization of marijuana.

In other words, it's very chill.

It's one of the last places
you'd expect to be attacked

by a rogue archer
in your driveway.

[arrow thwacking target]

- A 44-year-old man
pulls into his driveway

to see one of his neighbors
armed with a bow and arrow.

- Australia is very well known

for having extremely
tight restrictions

on the ownership of firearms.

However, no
restriction whatsoever

on the possession or
wielding of a bow and arrow.

- An argument ensues.

And as the situation
gets more heated,

the bow wielder decides
to draw back the arrow.

- The man who has the
arrow being pointed at him,

he doesn't run, he doesn't
try to defend himself.

He pulls out his phone to try
and document the situation.

Just as he raises the
phone to eye level,

the other man
releases the arrow,

and the arrow hits the phone
directly in front of his face,

and the force of
it knocks him back.

[suspenseful music]

The arrow goes through the phone

and it does cause some minor
lacerations on the guy's face.

But another fraction of a second

and basically he's impaled.

- The archer is
brought into custody

and he makes a statement.

And in that statement, he says,

"I wasn't trying
to kill the man.

I only wanted to maim him."

Had this been a flip
phone, like an old boomer,

he would've never made it.

- So sometimes we're
saved by a cell phone

or spared by
solitary confinement.

We may beat the house
or the grim reaper.

We may even win the lottery

while we're pretending
to win the lottery.

So next time you're afraid
to take a chance in life,

just remember that
mankind's wild history

of beating the odds
is truly Unbelievable.