Original subtitles

[dramatic music playing]

LUCAS: I got a fish!

[laughing]

Those lines out there are actually going to do some good.

Fresh fish-- it's a pretty amazing resource to have.

ALAN: No joy on the fish basket.

There's nothing in there.

Sometimes, you don't always like what you see.

Maybe you need to change some things.

MITCH: I can't believe this is happening.

My net is gone.

Oh, my god.

This is very bad.

If I can't produce any fish, I'm done.

SAM: That looks like a tail--

mousy feast-- not a task for the faint of heart.

[dramatic music playing]

MITCH: This is going to be a bitch.

LUCAS: We have to film it.

And we're totally alone.

ALAN: Nobody knows what it's like here except for the 10

guys out here doing it. LUCAS: It's time to get shelter.

ALAN: There's nobody here but me.

LUCAS: It's just so hard doing this alone.

ALAN: I'm scared to death right now.

I feel like I'm starving.

I'm pretty sure I just saw a cougar.

Oh, [bleep].

SAM: The last man standing wins $500,000.

I don't want to go home.

I want to win.

It's the chance in a lifetime.

But it's not worth dying over.

[dramatic music playing]

LUCAS: I'm going to do something really risky.

I'm about to pull down my structure with the idea

that I'm going to build a yurt within the next day or two--

so, insane.

But I'm just going to go for it.

That's how I work best is just having a goal,

and just breaking it out, and busting it up.

So what you're about to see is me deconstructing this thing--

this thing and having an open shelter.

And, go.

[dramatic music playing]

Why would I even want to move?

Moving could bring greater access to resources.

That's really what it's all about.

The First Nations people live down by the sea.

Because you have fish year-round in the river.

And then you have all the fish trying to swim into the river,

like the salmon.

If you're living out in the wild,

you want your walk between your daily needs

to be as short as possible.

And so I'm realizing that maybe my camp isn't in the best spot.

Food isn't close.

[dramatic music playing]

I'm just tired of hauling stuff up and down that hill.

The first load-- one of many.

A move is a big deal.

It's a huge deal energetically.

Emotionally, it amps everything up.

I've got to be able to establish a safe place to rest

my head for the night.

And I gotta hope for good weather.

I could go over there and be hit with a storm.

But there's food over there.

You gotta go where there's food.

Otherwise, [clicks tongue] I'm not going to make it.

[dramatic music playing]

[birds squawking]

So, folks, this may not look like much.

But this is the future site of my yurt.

Right now, I'm going to clear out an area, find a nice circle

space that's about 8 foot in diameter--

except I have a low-hanging branch.

This guy right here is right in my way.

So I'm going to climb the tree and drop it.

It's a little dangerous considering

I'm the only person out here.

[dramatic music playing]

So I got about four or five hours to make something happen.

[grunting]

[dramatic music playing]

[sawing]

Whoa.

It about took out my leg.

Good thing I had points of contact and moved real fast--

cat-like reflexes.

OK, now I have this space above me clear, which is huge.

Now I can do some of the work that I really want to do.

[dramatic music playing]

You know, how I feel physically here is tired.

There is a lack of simple sugars and carbs here.

And it's amazing how having sugar in your body

changes your chemistry.

Working on just proteins and fats, I feel slower.

Walking up the hills is like, oh,

my gosh, this is, like, the longest hill in all the world.

Moving around is a little bit more sticky and tricky,

for sure.

The energy isn't there.

[hammering]

[birds squawking]

Yes, little birdie, I'm making a house.

I will be your neighbor for as long as I possibly can.

And hopefully, one day, a bunch people in a boat

will come and get me with oatmeal cookies, my girlfriend,

and pumpkin pie.

[dramatic music playing]

I can't operate without sustenance in my body doing

the stuff that I'm doing.

Like, I'm out there swinging an ax

with my head reeling, because I haven't put enough calories

in it.

It's dumb.

[dramatic music playing]

SAM: [sighs]

I feel a lot better today, well rested, no rain.

But you probably can't see it.

It's snowing ever so slightly--

snow!

Not very much, though--

very cool.

Anyway, I'll probably work on more traps today.

Cause that's-- I mean, that's how you get food out here.

Let's go ahead and check, uh--

check the traps out, actually.

[dramatic music playing]

Let's go to trap number one.

Dang it.

[sighs]

Nothing.

Oh, well, can't win them all.

Let's go to trap number two.

It definitely went off.

[dramatic music playing]

Moment of truth.

[dramatic music playing]

Huh.

The wind must have blown it over.

Let's check trap number three, which is basically right by it.

[dramatic music playing]

Hey!

We got something-- maybe one little mouse.

But hey, that's food.

So it's a trophy to me.

[laughing]

Dead-fall traps are getting more and more frustrating to set.

I'm not getting myself a sustainable amount of food.

Uh, I haven't been able to catch more than one mouse a day.

And that is nothing real substantial.

I always have in the back of my head--

I have this duty to my wife to protect her,

and to take care of her, and to comfort her.

She is pregnant.

And so I always want to be the provider for my family.

I am pretty bummed that I have to miss

seeing all the progression.

And that's what's been really exciting so far

is just to see how things go along and, you know,

watching the baby grow.

Yeah.

Not being around to-- to take care of--

of you and the baby, emotionally,

it's it's-- hard to take.

Not a lot of meat--

but I do like the taste of actual meat.

Being away from my wife, it really

puts me in this weird place where I doubt my purpose.

And that really just wears on me.

[dramatic music playing]

Either I'm just nuts or the mouse doesn't taste that bad--

probably nuts.

And I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing this at home--

well, obviously.

[laughing]

Ah.

Yum-- one mouse.

[dramatic music playing]

[water flowing]

LUCAS: Night is quickly approaching.

It's going to be a cold.

As you can see, all my stuff is just behind me.

I don't have a roof over my head tonight.

I didn't quite get far as I'd like today.

I mean, that's about as vulnerable as I've--

I've been.

And out here, it's just me, just me perpetuating, maintaining.

[zipping]

I just don't always know what-- what to do.

[dramatic music playing]

It's so cold.

Before I left, my mom said, Lucas, it really just

comes down to making good decisions.

MOM: Trust your instincts.

And, uh, I think you'll do wonderful.

I think you should watch your back,

and just always be alert, and--

and do what you need to do.

Keep yourself warm.

And just hope that, uh--

that you'll be OK.

LUCAS: Yeah.

I'd like to think, for the most part,

that I am making good decisions.

But it's damn cold.

It's about a damn cold as you get.

That could be really dangerous for me.

I'm just hanging on to life by a thread.

[sighs]

[dramatic music playing]

ALAN: Good morning.

It is frigid.

I mean, I've been sleeping in gloves here.

Yeah, it's it's, uh--

my water is frozen.

I mean, it's not solid ice.

But it's-- it's frozen around the outer edges of the--

all the canteens and containers of water.

And I slipped my boots on and went down

to check the shoreline just to see where the tide was at.

And in the time it took me to walk down there and straight

back--

we're talking, I don't know, 10 minutes, 12 minutes--

my extremities, fingers, and toes, no good.

Bone chilling.

Wow, this is frozen, man.

You can hear the blades of grass cracking under your feet.

So yeah, way cold.

[exhales deeply]

Way achy.

The outermost half of my foot and my hands

is still very numb.

If you're wet and it's this cold, you can die within hours.

You can be in some serious trouble.

No matter how many years you've been a bushman, or a woodsman,

or whatever, if you get complacent, that can kill you.

I'm back into bed covered up, bundled up,

and put everything I had on.

And I'm grateful for every blade of grass

that went into building this little mattress.

Uh, because it's insulating me now.

You want to be up off the ground when it gets this cold.

This is the wise thing to do to.

Stay inside.

Keep your body as warm as you can on a day like today.

This is the view inside my little cave here.

That's my wood supply that I had laid in.

And I was just noticing that I didn't hear a drip anymore.

And the reason is because the drip has frozen.

I have icicles in my bedroom.

So the next time you think it's cold, in your bedroom

look for icicles.

[dramatic music playing]

LUCAS: I'm just waking up.

Oh, my gosh, is it cold.

It's freezing.

And my bag is covered in dew.

And it was just cold last night.

I got to get this yurt done today.

It's all about the yurt.

[dramatic music playing]

Having fire and a structure is always a hazard.

So how I'm going to counteract my structure from going up

in flames since it's made of canvas--

I'm going to create a small half-moon structure out

of pounded-in logs and line that half-moon structure with rocks,

things that don't burn.

And it also will retain heat and also will

reflect the heat towards me.

I love a yurt.

For me, it's about getting a warm place set

up so that I can get as dry as possible at the end of the day.

And I can be warm, and cook my food, and have the rain off me.

That's huge.

That's paramount.

That's number one.

[dramatic music playing]

[wolves howling]

Wolves are out.

I love having walls around me.

It makes me feel pretty safe.

When I smell a bear or hear some animals poking around,

I know I've got a few minutes to grab my deterrent

or whatever I've got to scare them away.

I'm going to cut a hole in the top.

That's where the smoke goes up out.

So I got to make sure everything's looking good.

Otherwise, it's bad news.

[dramatic music playing]

This ain't easy, this whole making decisions and trying

to figure out everything as you go.

I'm bound to make mistakes.

And I'm probably got a few more in store.

Today, I'm going to be a little bit more easy on myself.

Well, it looks like I just created the world's largest

smokehouse.

Ay-yi-yi.

[dramatic music playing]

ALAN: I've got to tell you.

My fingers and toes are numb.

I dry my socks, and then I dry my feet.

And then I put my socks back on my feet,

and dry the socks some more.

You've got to take care of your feet.

[dramatic music playing]

MITCH: I wish my camp was on the other side.

Because, right now, the sun could be hitting my camp

right now.

Instead of my fingers going numb right now

because I'm in the cold, dark shade,

I could be getting warmer and warmer.

It's only going to get colder.

[dramatic music playing]

SAM: Winter is definitely here.

I didn't expect it to come this soon.

But it's here.

And it's here for good.

My biggest concern at this point is the onset of hypothermia.

If that temperature drops just a little bit more,

I mean, that could end this whole thing.

[dramatic music playing]

ALAN: That's my gloves that were left out here.

You can see, I can't bend them.

They're, uh-- they're frozen solid.

It is definitely cold out here.

[dramatic music playing]

It is epically cold tonight.

Man, my hands are like ice.

It's like bone-dead cold.

It's silent.

Everything that's alive is just, like, hunkered down

and just trying to, like, get through the night right now.

It's crazy cold tonight.

ALAN: My hands are numb.

It's very cold.

Winter time is here.

LUCAS: This is the first time that I'm actually worried.

If I get hypothermic tonight, I'll

be forced to quit this thing.

This is rough.

This is as tough as it gets.

[dramatic music playing]

[sighs]

It's so cold.

[dramatic music playing]

SAM: It's so [bleep] cold.

[dramatic music playing]

ALAN: It is frigid.

It's the coldest it's been.

It's been snowing.

There are snow flurries out here.

So down we go to my trusty shoreline

to see what can be seen and consume whatever we may find

there that is palatable.

My hands are numb.

Not numb-- not feeling numb-- numb, as in painful.

But I go by the time of the tide,

not when I feel like eating.

All right, what a beauty.

What a beauty!

Yeah, that's nice, huh?

Look at that.

This has scales instead of skin.

So I'm going to have to dress it out a little differently.

So yeah, I scraped the scales off.

Look at that beautiful, pink meat.

That is going to be some new kind of delicious right there.

Look at that.

That's food.

So I'm going to wash that off off.

And into the pot he goes.

Not only did I find a fish, but I found a duck.

This is really a blessing for me today,

because I'm going to get some nutrients off of old Daphne

here and, uh, see what meat I can get from him

and throw him next to the fish.

Into the pot he goes.

The clouds are moving in again.

I'm always fighting against something-- dark, or weather,

or tide times.

If there's something challenging about this place,

it's definitely the weather.

After a while, it just does kind of grate on your nerves.

Every time you get ready to do something, boom, the deluge

strikes.

I got to keep going if I'm going to eat.

I was not aware of a full-on blizzard.

I got snow packing up on the lens of the camera.

[blowing]

Get this out of the--

at least, get a shot of my meal.

I worked so hard to get it cleaned and prepared.

All right, I just cleaned up the fish and the, uh, duck.

Look at that.

Is that not a thing of beauty?

Kings eat no better than I.

I put a little sea lettuce in there for something green.

And I'm going to put a lid on and cook it low and slow.

Basically, I'm just going to steam all that in and let

the flavors of the duck and the flavors of the fish

shake hands and love one another.

So, uh, all that's going to happen today is to cook a meal

and lay in.

[dramatic music playing]

My mind's just racing thinking about my lack of calories.

It's kind of like a downward spiral right now.

If I'm not careful, eventually I'm going to crash.

I lost my net.

It's gone.

I need to figure out how to get more food

and figure out how to fish every day.

So I just set up a system to do that easily.

I want to set up some trout lines.

This place is literally transformed at low tide.

See that grass line way up near the trees?

That's what high tide goes.

It goes just shy of the trees.

This is all usually underwater.

It's incredible.

[dramatic music playing]

You know, my over-arching plan was to figure out

how to have automatic food by setting up trout lines,

or by setting up nets, and whatever I've got to do-- trap.

Just to get food coming in on a consistent basis

is just really tough.

I'm making some bait.

Look at that one.

It's going to be to hook-- really nice.

By having my bait station right here next to my trout line,

it's going to create a bunch of scent that's going to attract

fish to this area.

They're going to find my hooks with the bait hanging in front

of their faces.

So hopefully, they'll say, oh, that's what I smelled--

perfect.

And I get them.

So there's my first trout line up.

I've got four hooks baited all ready to go.

Once high tide comes in, it's going

to dip them all into the water.

One of them is already touching the water.

And I should be good to go.

[dramatic music playing]

[rain falling]

LUCAS: Calories are running short.

It's intense out there today.

Like, it's blowing pretty hard.

I don't know if you can see how gray is, how nasty it is out.

What I'm concerned about is the fact that my traps--

they're way out there.

And I hope they're not getting beat up.

If they are, I lose a big source of food for myself.

Oh, [bleep].

[dramatic music playing]

Ooh.

I get out there.

And tied up in my lines, there was a bird fishing it.

I don't even know what it is. But he's a fisher.

That's for sure.

He's got a beak that tears.

He was wrapped up in my nets real good.

He's probably not tasty.

He's a meat eater.

And he's got a belly full of my fish.

He looks lean.

If you've ever had to not eat, if you've been without food,

it's just such an awful feeling.

So I'm so grateful for any food that I bring in.

It really is truly a gift.

I feel like I'm living paycheck to paycheck, except paycheck

is food to food.

And so, when you get food, it's this near spiritual experience

of just deep gratitude, especially because I'm

eating meat.

It ate my lunch, so now it's lunch.

I've been a vegetarian for almost three years.

It wasn't that I had this big falling out with animals.

I just decided to try it.

And, uh, my digestion felt incredibly stronger.

I didn't feel sluggish.

[grunting]

Meat is just-- it's a hardier substance.

It sticks with you longer.

But there is a difference to a point.

You know, you're taking something's life.

It doesn't weird me out.

I grew up eating animals.

Like, you know, bigger things eat littler things,

and so on, and so forth.

But you know, it's still, like, a more powerful experience.

I tell you what, you appreciate food to such a higher

level out here.

I mean, really, when you get something, it's like Christmas.

And when you eat it, it's, like, so special, so special.

Nobody taught me really how to butcher.

I kind of just teach myself doing it.

[dramatic music playing]

I'm sure I'm losing weight out here.

But having food on my so-called plate has been such a blessing.

I'm so grateful for it.

Here we go.

[music playing]

There's nothing wrong with that.

That's good.

Mm.

It tastes kind of like steak.

Yum.

I got some fried fish to go with it, too.

Mm.

Wow.

Well, it turned into kind of a bum day at first.

It's turned into a better day.

You ever seen a vegetarian eat meat like this?

[dramatic music playing]

SAM: So not a good end to the day emotionally.

I don't know.

Something just hit me just like a pile of bricks--

just started losing it.

It's like, right now, I would just give so much just to see--

just to see my wife and talk to her.

[dramatic music playing]

I've been out here for so long.

And I'm so sick of it.

I'm sick of everything.

Everything about this place is gone.

For the first-- whatever--

few weeks, I was happy seeing these beautiful views

and just soaking in this place.

And it was new to me.

And it was exciting and everything like that.

But after you've been in one spot for so,

so long, it's terrible.

It's like the worst, worst thing on the planet.

I'm so just done with it all.

I'm ready to leave.

I'm ready go home.

But I just want to keep pushing, and pushing, and pushing.

But after a while, man, just not being able to contact

your family or not being able to contact your wife is just

so difficult. It just reminds me how much I love her

and how much I love all these people in my life.

And when I get home, I'm just not going

to take it for granted at all.

[rain falling]

And it's raining again.

[sighs]

Just to make things a little happier,

it did start raining, yeah.

I just want to--

at this point, I just want to go home.

I want nothing more to do with this place.

Living in the woods is not the hard part of this thing.

It's the fact that you're away from the people you love.

That's the hard part.

I'm so sick of this place--

sick, sick of it, sick of it, so sick of it.

Goodnight.

[dramatic music playing]

MITCH: Headed now to go check my trawling--

another frosty day in the Northwest.

It looks like the tide is in right now.

My stuff might still be underwater.

And, as you can see, straight out there is my trout line.

The difference between high tide and low tide

here is astronomical.

I mean, during low tide, that's dirt for, like, a quarter

mile or something.

I'm just going to wait to see if the tide is coming or going.

It's hard to figure out the tides.

It's coming in.

I mean, I'm not going to walk in that water.

The water would be over my boots.

With freezing temperatures right now, the last thing

I want to do is get wet.

I haven't gotten a lot done in the couple days.

I'm trying to conserve calories.

I'm trying to stay positive.

But I'm not getting it done.

I think maybe, if I imagine I'm trying

to provide for my family, maybe I can provide better

for myself.

Because I know, if they were out here with me,

I would be a different person.

This is it.

Wow!

A bunch of pictures with us, huh?

Mm-hmm.

Because I'm real.

MITCH: Oh, us dancing in the puddles.

DAUGHTER: Yeah.

Oh, look how young you are here--

my little pumpkin.

DAUGHTER: But now I'm much more bigger.

Yeah.

If they are out here with me, it would be like--

I'd be a maniac.

And I would be a game-getting machine.

Because right now, what I'm getting

isn't good enough for my daughter and my wife.

Like, I want the best for them.

It's just interesting.

What you're willing to do for yourself

is different than what you're willing to do for your loved

ones.

Man, this place really felt like a land of abundant resources

a couple of weeks ago, like salmon and all geese around,

and everything else.

It doesn't feel that way anymore.

I just hate that the tide is messing me up.

What else am I going to do?

I don't know.

I need to be careful what I do.

Because I can't do too much more before I run out of calories.

I need to figure out how to get more food.

[birds squawking]

This is just a very hard time to live.

[birds squawking]

[dramatic music playing]

ALAN: The, uh, weather broke a little bit.

I haven't filmed much, because there's

just not much happening.

It's just the same old thing.

I'm just kind of in a-- in a rut now.

It just kind of goes day to day, you know?

Just regular, old routine.

At this point, for me, you know, the psychology

is definitely there, the mental aspects of it.

I mean, I've done this.

I know I can do it--

not just survive but thrive here.

So it's like, what's left to prove, you know?

Um, kind of--

I don't know.

And then you get to thinking, you know, just little stuff.

I'd-- I'd rather be home reading a book to my kids right now.

[kids shrieking]

My daughter, Joanna, the oldest, she kind of

understood what was going on.

And she asked me.

She said, do you have to do this?

And I didn't really know how to answer that.

I mean, in a way, yeah, I did have to do it but not in a way

that she would--

that I could convey to her.

But when she asked me that-- do you have to leave?

I thought, uh, no, I don't have to.

But I really, really want to--

you know.

[kids yelling]

It's behind you.

I miss home a lot.

[kids shrieking]

But, uh, I don't know.

It's just one day at a time.

[dramatic music playing]

I've been out here for over a month now.

You know, I feel pretty good about being out here.

And having a shelter is so crucial to,

like, enjoying this experience.

I just feel safer.

But, the shelter is not about that.

It's just about the ice that settles on the ground at night.

It's about having a place to organize your things,

having a constant.

So the yurt has proved to be really worth its time.

I'm going to start looking at making a bit more efficient.

In my yurt, I have an open ceiling in the very center

where smoke comes out.

I need to build some sort of umbrella on a stick,

so when it gets rainy, the smoke can still go out.

But the umbrella covers it and allows for rain protection.

And I also want to get a crab pot in the water.

And what else do I want to do?

Oh, yeah, I'm working on a stringed instrument.

When I get started on these projects,

sometimes it's hard for me to stop.

I just want to show it to you.

You just peel off all the--

the bark.

It's going to be kind of like lute or a guitar.

[music playing]

See how it's relatively flat?

This will be the face where there's playing--

ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

I'm starting to gouge out the acoustic area--

so the hollow area that makes an echo sound, which

is right here.

[chiseling]

[music playing]

So what I'm carving right now is the bridge.

And this transfers the sound down to the sound box.

So now I'm carving a little pegs that will go in these holes

up here--

and tighten up my chords.

[music playing]

So I'm taking a moment to burn out the sound box a little bit

more.

[music playing]

Check it out.

I put on my first string.

It's now, um--

It doesn't have the face on it yet.

But check it out.

[playing instrument]

I just got the--

the face put on.

[playing instrument]

In the next week, I'm going to start

looking at making a sauna.

[music playing]

Before I left, my mom said, Lucas, please don't go crazy.

And I said, Mom, that already happened long ago.

And she laughed.

[rain falling]

[chuckling]

[playing instrument]

[SINGING] This is my tune, no song.

This is my tune, no song.

Cheery, and happy, and fun, this is my tune, no song.

[humming]

[SINGING] Been in the woods too long.

This is my tune, no song.

Been in the woods too-- been in the woods too--

been in the woods too long.

[humming]

[SINGING] I could use an apple pie.

I could use a pumpkin pie.

Instead, I eat seabird.

Instead, I eat up clams, eat weeds stewed up.

I never wash my hands.

Because I don't got no soap, and don't got no sink.

I wish I had a drink.

I'd pour myself a drink.

[humming]

[dramatic music playing]

ALAN: I haven't found anything for a few days

because life has just been that bad here.

When you think, for as long as I have, out here in the woods

alone, it changes you.

I'm not eating the past couple of days.

I feel like I'm starving.

LUCAS: [bleep],, I wish I was stronger.

I just don't know if I got it in me.

Ugh.

SAM: I'm definitely not losing--

not good mentally.

I am not good in the head right now.

[dramatic music playing]