All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S02E09.Wrath.of.Thor.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

Narrator: worldwide, 300 million
Surveillance cameras

Are watching us on our streets,
At work, and in our homes.

They capture things
That seem impossible.

It defies the laws of physics.

Man: oh, this is
Unbelievable, man.

Narrator: experts carry out
Forensic analysis

Of these unusual events.

There's got to be some
Explanation for what's going on.

[ screaming ]

[ horn honks ]

Narrator: coming up --
The indestructible boy.

Scientists look for
A genetic mutation.

Price:
It makes the bones very strong.

You might even say kind of
Indestructible, unbreakable.

Narrator:
According to japanese legend,

Just looking at this footage
Could lead to your death...

Something very creepy
Is going on here.

Narrator: ...And the alien being
Living inside a small boy.

When you see a camera
Like this,

You don't expect to see
A creature

At the other end of it.

Narrator: bizarre phenomena,

Mysteries caught
On surveillance --

What's the truth behind this
"Strange evidence"?

-- captions by vitac --
Www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
Discovery communications

[ tires screech ]

Narrator: a fatal accident
With a difference...

[ woman screams ]

This is terrible footage.

You see this car basically
Run over this kid,

Run right over his head.

[ woman screams ]

Narrator: the boy's head and
Neck are twisted and crushed.

He must be dead, but he's not.

wolshon: how does a little boy
Whose head is literally run over

by a car survive
With next to no injury?

Narrator: experts wonder if
They've found a real-life x-man.

Price: in terms of mutations,
It makes the bones very strong.

You might even say kind of
Indestructible, unbreakable.

Maybe this kid is some kind
Of superhero.

♪♪

Narrator:
Anápolis in central brazil,

Famous for its legendary
Statue of saint anne.

This is a city of faith
And of miracles.

January 21st, 2014 --

On a busy morning, a woman
And her 5-year-old grandson

Are crossing the street.

A cctv camera captures
What happens next.

[ tires screech ]

All of a sudden, boom.

Narrator:
A vehicle out of control

Crashes into a parked car.

[ woman screams ]

wolshon: this is
The stuff of nightmares.

I would just assume that there
Would be two fatalities.

Narrator: the disturbing footage
Comes to the attention

Of forensic video analyst
Conor mccourt.

if we go image by image,
Frame by frame,

We see the back of the car

Strike the two individuals
In question.

It's terrible.
It's dragging them back.

They're starting to slide
Under the car,

And they move over to the right,

And they get caught
By the rear wheel.

It's a really bad situation
For the both of them.

the back wheel is going over
The leg area of the older woman.

What we do see is
That front wheel approaching.

his head is actually caught
Underneath that front wheel

and appears to be
Run completely over.

Mccourt:
We're horrified at this point.

We're sure he's dead.

There can be no other answer.

And then, lo and behold,

as we go forward,
The little boy gets up,

and not only does he stand up,
He goes,

and he looks at his grandmother
Lying on the ground.

narrator: the grandmother
Is badly injured.

the boy is killed for certain.

his skull is crushed,
His neck broken.

but then he stands up
Like nothing has happened.

How does a little boy whose head
Is literally run over

By a car survive

With next to no injury?

the kid bounces up, and you're
Like, "How did that happen?"

♪♪

price: this footage raises
The question,

"Is there something special
About the boy?"

[ woman screams ]

[ cameras whirring ]

♪♪

Narrator: biologist roland kays
Is an expert

In evolutionary adaptations.

He discovers that,
Incredible as it may seem,

There are certain
Physical conditions

Which can give humans
Real-life superpowers.

There's a gene that humans
Have called lrp5

That regulates bone density.

And some mutations,

Some variations on this gene
Actually result in people

Having extra thick,
Extra dense bones.

Price: it makes the bones
Very strong.

You might even say kind of
Indestructible, unbreakable.

This might have helped
This kid survive the crash.

Narrator: if this boy has bones
As strong as wolverine's,

He is not alone.

Roland kays discovers
That in 1994,

A case of super bones from gene
Lrp5 was medically documented.

There was a guy who was in
A horrible car accident,

Was rushed to the hospital,

And doctors were amazed to find
He had no broken bones.

Narrator:
The patient is referred
To the yale bone center,

Where doctors make
An astonishing discovery.

He has the bone density
Of a grizzly bear,

Eight times higher
Than an average human.

Upon testing, they discovered
That he had this mutation,

Upregulation of lrp5.

♪♪

Narrator: kays learns that lrp5
Is not the only gene

In which a rare mutation

Can lead
To apparently superhuman powers.

There's a kid in michigan
Who has abnormal super strength

Because of a mutation associated
With the myostatin protein,

And as a result of this, he has
Abnormally large muscle growth.

Narrator:
Liam hoekstra of grand rapids

Astounds his family

With feats of super strength
At just 5 months old,

Performing gymnastic moves,
Including the iron cross.

By 3, he has 40 percent body
Muscle and minimal body fat.

By the time he is the age
Of the boy in the footage,

He becomes strong enough
To lift heavy dumbbells

Without breaking a sweat.

♪♪

Journalist jeff wise learns
There have been

Attempts to breed superhumans.

It's a perverted science
Known as eugenics.

Wise: in nazi germany, they had
A program called lebensborn,

which was an attempt to breed
A genetically superior race

of humans
For the glory of the nazi reich.

[ chanting in german ]

Narrator: wise discovers
That the nazis would force

So-called
Physically perfect women

To bear children
For the program.

Hitler hoped to create
A legion of aryan super soldiers

Who would bring the terror
Of nazism to the world.

[ screaming ]

After the war,

The most notorious
Nazi eugenicist escaped --

The demon, dr. Josef mengele,

A.K.A. The angel of death.

Mengele actually survived
The war,

Escaped to south america,

And there was rumors that he had
Maybe continued to work

On this kind
Of eugenics experiment

Trying to produce
His nazi super race.

narrator:
This boy is not the product
Of a nazi eugenics program,

but whether
Natural or induced,

could this indestructible boy
Really have superpowers?

[ cameras whirring ]

Coming up, a killer ghost stalks
Her victim into his taxi.

This cab is now
Officially haunted.

Narrator: over the ocean,
A blood-red tsunami

Caught on camera...

Holy moly.
Get the hell out of there.

Narrator:
...And in the city of miracles,

The boy who refuses to die.

Price: my gut feeling
When I first saw this

Is that I had
Just witnessed a miracle.

[ static blips, camera whirs ]

Narrator:
Investigators can't explain

How a boy escapes uninjured

When a car runs
Right over his head.

But physicist john di bartolo
Researches

The boy's medical history
And finds no telltale clues

Of previous prodigious
Physical abilities,

Ruling out the possibility that
He's had superpowers from birth.

I don't think there's anything
Superhuman about this child.

I think he's extremely
Fortunate,

but this is just
A normal young boy.

wolshon: so the mystery is,
What happened here exactly

that would've spared
The life of that boy?

♪♪

Narrator:
Civil engineer brian wolshon

Is an expert in crash forensics.

he notices
That at the vital moment,

the rear of the car is falling
Off the curb and into the road.

so at the exact moment,
Just as that boy's head

was about to be run over
By that front tire,

that vehicle was rotating
And was tilting back,

Lifting that tire just enough

To clear over his head.

there's a lot of pivots
And a lot of circumstances

that are causing this boy
To survive.

It's going through
A series of bumps.

The shock absorbers
Are jumping up and down.

It's like a choreographed
Ballet of pivots.

So even though his head appears
To be under that wheel,

Just for a split second,
The forces of that vehicle,

In particular that front tire,

Were not going in a downward
Direction,

But moving slightly upward.

wise: I mean, what we're seeing
Is a sort of

Once-in-a-lifetime
Turn of events.

Narrator: while some
Investigators believe

That the remarkable coincidence

Of the lifting tire
Saves the boy's life,

Others believe there are
Higher forces in play.

Every once in a while, things
Will just magically work out

that makes it almost seem like
There's a divine intervention

that's protecting these people.

my gut feeling
When I first saw this

Is that I had
Just witnessed a miracle.

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator: now,
In the land of the vikings,

A phantasmal burst
Of fiery fury.

It's like a bolt of lightning
Hanging in the air.

Wise: there's this leaping,
Dancing fire

That's seemingly demonic.

Narrator: did modern
Black metal pagans

Conjure an act of aggression
From another world?

It's really impossible
Not to think of thor,

The god of thunder.

[ static blips ]

Narrator: norway --
Land of the vikings...

[ thunder crashes ]

...Home of thor,

The god of thunder.

Mid-winter
And through a blanket of snow,

A camera captures this.

♪♪

Pappalardo: it's not behaving
Like lightning.

It's not behaving like fire.

It's bending.
It's playing around the tree.

Wise:
I have no idea what this is.

It does not look of this world.

[ caws ]

Narrator: investigators struggle
To account for the strange,

Otherworldly lightning bolt.

what we're seeing is a mystery.
It seems to defy physics.

wallace: is this something
Natural, or is this something

unearthly happening unto these
Forests and these trees?

Narrator: science journalist
Jeff wise wonders

If the unearthly incandescence

Is connected
With some kind of viking ritual.

Wise: it doesn't look like
It's consuming anything.

it looks very supernatural.
It looks very weird.

[ heavy metal plays ]

Narrator:
He learns that in the '90s,

Norwegian black metal
Satanists

Burned 28 churches

In a string of anti-christian
Arson attacks.

Some of the most notorious
Of these satanists

Have turned to odalism,

A pagan religion
Based in norse mythology.

Could this arctic sword of flame

Be evidence of cultists
Trying to open the bifrost,

The fiery pathway
From asgard to earth?

Pappalardo:
Looking at the image,
It's really impossible

Not to think of thor,
The god of thunder.

[ thunder crashes ]

Narrator:
Thor, lord of lightning,

Remains one of the most
Venerated of the viking gods.

To this day, he's worshipped by
Thousands of people worldwide.

[ thunder crashes ]

[ whirring ]

It leads some experts to wonder
If this sword of flame might be

An unknown natural phenomenon
Inspired by the original

Viking legends of thor
And his lightning hammer.

So you imagine yourself,
You're in the middle

Of a nice dark forest,

And all of a sudden,
Out of the blue, voom,

You've got this bright light,
This fire.

You wonder to yourself,
"What's going on here?"

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: aviation journalist
Joe pappalardo

Considers the possibility
That this is man-made.

It occurs at the border
Of nato territory.

Norway is definitely
On the frontlines

Of any kind of conflict
Between russia and nato.

It guards the entire approach
To the northern atlantic,

And as such,
It's strategically vital.

[ gunfire ]

Narrator: with the threat
From russia increasing,

Pappalardo wonders
If the weird footage

Might reveal a classified test
Of a prototype

American lightning weapon,

The laser-induced
Plasma channel, or lipc.

Pappalardo: so the system
Shoots a laser to the target.

Along that path of the laser,

It strips all the electrons
From air molecules

And creates a plasma channel,

And when they pulse electricity
Down that channel,

It'll stick right to it,
Creating a bolt of lightning

That reaches out
And hits the target.

[ thunder crashes ]

Narrator:
One bolt of lightning

Can carry as much
As 500 trillion watts

Of power at 30,000 amps,

Enough to kill 3,000 people.

Pappalardo:
If military scientists could

Harness the power of lightning,
It would make a good weapon.

It's a very powerful
Natural force.

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator: coming up --
Don't look now.

The footage
That carries a curse.

Lovell: the idea of a ghost
Coming in behind you

Without you realizing
And getting in the car --

How creepy?

Narrator:
The towering red tsunami
Threatening australia...

Talk about the apocalypse
Come true.

Getting hit by that is really
Going to ruin your day.

Narrator: and the lightning
That appears to defy science

In the land of thor.

[ static blips ]

Narrator:
In the land of thor,

A phantasmal,
Hovering bolt of lightning.

Experts examine the evidence.

Is this footage of
A laser weapon test,

A laser-induced plasma channel?

[ explosion ]

Narrator:
Physicist steven schowalter

Is not convinced such a weapon
Is yet ready for testing.

the physics that underpin
This technology are sound,

but there's still a lot
Of technical challenges

That need to be worked out
Before this is deployed

In the real world.

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator: forensic image analyst
Conor mccourt

Is a former new york city cop.

He enhances and manipulates
The footage

And sees something towards
The top of the picture.

I can see that there's
Some kind of line

coming through the video,
And it would indicate

That there's some kind
Of electrical wire.

Narrator:
There are electrical wires
All over the world,

But electricity does not fly
From them to this extent

Or in this manner.

[ electricity crackling ]

Yet mccourt can see no other
Logical explanation

For what he's seeing.

We're definitely seeing
Some kind of electrical bolt

Coming out of this wire.

Narrator: the electric chair
Uses 2,000 volts to kill.

Edison electrocuted an elephant
Using 6,600 volts.

A typical electricity cable

Might carry
A massive 132,000 volts,

Enough energy to kill 66 people.

♪♪

Analyzing the elements
In the footage,

Mccourt attempts
To determine the distance

The arcing electrical
Discharge is jumping.

Mccourt:
It's really hard to judge,

But if they're
Average-sized trees,

Say they're 20, 30 feet,
We're looking at an arc

That's about maybe 10 feet long.

Narrator: is it really possible
For a 10-foot-long arc

Of dancing electricity

To leap from a cable
To the branches of a tree?

Electrical engineer
David wallace puts this

To the test
In his lightning lab.

He will run 137 kilovolts
Through an exposed cable

And try to recreate
Such an arc.

Wallace: are we ready?

-man: ready.
-we're ready.

I love this.

Narrator: at 10 feet from
The cable, there is no arcing.

Wallace:
Bringing the tree in slowly.

All right.
Start to pull.

Narrator:
9, 8, 7 feet -- no arcing.

The tree is now far closer than
The 10-foot gap in the footage,

And still this voltage is not
Enough to create an arc to it.

Bring it.

Narrator: finally...

[ crackling ]

All right.

Now that is a beautiful arc.

We've got a good jump
From the power line to the tree.

This is a beautiful design.

That's what you expect to see.

I like this. Very beautiful.

[ crackling ]

Kill it.

Ground it.

so here in our experiment,
We have the 2-1/2-to-3-foot

arc gap,
But in the video at 137 kv,

It really looks a lot further

Than what we see here
In the lab,

So something else
May be going on

That we really don't know about.

as the name implies,
A high-voltage line

carries a lot of power
Inside it.

however, it's not
Going to produce

the kind of arcing over 10 feet

That we're apparently
Seeing in this video.

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator:
So while investigators

Conclude
These unearthly pyrotechnics

May be caused by a cable,
The sheer amount of power

Unleashed here
Remains a mystery.

something is going seriously
Wrong in arctic norway.

it's supposed to be filled
With ice and snow.

it's not supposed to be filled
With fire and dancing flames.

Narrator:
In the land of thor,

It seems that electrical
Lightning does strange things.

Pappalardo:
It's a very strange image.

It doesn't have any clear answer
Of what it is.

[ cameras whirring ]

♪♪

narrator:
Now, cameras capture

what looks like a female demon
With a deadly reputation.

[ low growl ]

Hyde: she's very translucent.

I mean, she does look
Like a ghost.

Narrator: she seems to follow
A man into a cab.

Lovell: it definitely looks like
Something out of

A japanese horror movie.

Watching this footage
Gives you kind of chills.

Narrator:
According to japanese legend,

Even watching this video
Might prove fatal.

This cab is now
Officially haunted.

♪♪

[ static blips ]

[ birds squawking ]

Narrator:
Ishinomaki, japan --

Surveillance cameras
At a taxi stand

Capture a terrifying
20 seconds of footage.

Wise:
We're in a parking garage.

We're looking at a security cam,
And a guy hails a taxi.

The taxi pulls up,
Which is all normal.

Narrator: but what follows
Is far from normal.

A spectral figure appears,

Matching the look
Of a japanese ghost.

[ thunder crashes ]

[ low growl ]

Hyde:
This figure is pretty creepy
With the long, dangly hair,

Definitely seems to be female.

she's stooped over
With a hunched back,

And you can't really
Very distinctly see her feet.

the apparition clearly follows
The man into the vehicle,

But if we back up a little bit,

There is no sign
Of a person behind him.

Narrator: the passenger seems
Completely unaware

Of his unearthly ride sharer.

the idea of a ghost
Coming in behind you

without you realizing
And getting in the car --

How creepy.

It's really hard to come up
With a good explanation.

♪♪

Narrator:
Investigators wonder if this
Could be some kind of glitch

Or ghosting effect
Caused by the video recorder,

But neuroscientist jayde lovell
Is skeptical

That the spectral woman

Can be the result
Of simple video artifacts.

It's probably not an error
Based on the video quality.

It seems fine everywhere else
But this one image.

It's a very clear figure.

It kind of makes you wonder,

What is the real reason
For this?

♪♪

Narrator: science writer
Jeff wise

Has studied
The mythology of japan.

He notices the strange
Apparition bears

A striking similarity

To creatures
That stalk japanese nightmares.

[ low growl ]

In japan,
They have a traditional

In their culture of the yurei,

Which is equivalent
To our ghost.

It's a spirit of a person
Who has to, you know,

Roam the terrestrial plain.

♪♪

The ghosts are mainly to do
With unfinished business,

So it's these sort of unrequited
Emotions and desires

That are left over
When somebody dies too soon

Or they die too violently.

♪♪

Narrator:
Yurei are said to return

To take brutal vengeance
On the living...

♪♪

...Killing them with fear

And dragging their spirits
Down to demonic realms.

♪♪

Could the man in the video
Be in terrible danger?

Hyde: she's following
Very closely behind him.

I mean, it looks like he
Personally is being haunted.

If there's a ghost following
Him, it makes you wonder,

"What's that guy done
In his past?"

♪♪

Narrator:
According to japanese legend,

Seeing a yurei,
Even on video,

Puts the viewer in mortal danger

And could bring horrific death
Within seven days.

♪♪

Wise: so this matches
What the japanese believe

About the afterworld,

The power of the spirits of the
Dead who haven't left us yet.

Narrator: could even watching
This clip be a deadly mistake?

♪♪

[ beeping ]

Coming up -- surfers surrender
To the face of this monster.

This looks like some
Kind of wall of death.

[ thumping ]

Narrator: a pulsating alien mass

Inside a young boy
Threatens to kill...

If you don't get it out,
He may not even survive.

Narrator:
And is this a real phantom,

Or is someone taking us
For a ride?

♪♪

[ static blips ]

♪♪

Narrator: experts fear
Cctv images show a killer ghost

Known as a yurei
Getting into a taxi

With an unsuspecting victim.

japan in particular
Has a culture of ghosts.

there's lots of ghost stories.

And a lot of japanese people
Still believe in ghosts.

♪♪

Narrator: female yurei often
Appear with long, dark hair,

Not pinned up
As in normal-day life,

But left to hang freely
As it would be for burial

And ragged as it would
Become in the grave.

Traditionally, they appear
To be levitating

With no visible legs or feet.

the interesting thing about
This figure as we see it

Is that she has the long,
Matted hair over her face,

And we can't
Quite see her feet.

Now, this is
An exact description

Of a restless spirit
In japanese folklore.

♪♪

Narrator: deborah hyde believes
The traditional appearance

Of the ghost in the footage

Offers a clue
About its true nature.

♪♪

I'm interested in just how
Perfect this particular ghost

Is in japan.

If you were to invent
A scenario in japan,

You wouldn't have a fairy.

You wouldn't have a djinn.
You wouldn't have a demon.

You'd have this.

So the thing to ask
Is whether or not

This could be some
Kind of deliberate effect.

[ low growl ]

♪♪

Narrator: there is a long
Tradition of hoax images

Of ghosts
And the supernatural,

Going back
To the dawn of photography.

Hyde: ghost photography
Became popular

In the 19th century,
And the way they achieved this,

Because each of the plates
Would take so long to expose,

Was that you could
Expose them twice --

Once with their flesh-and-blood
Solid kind of appearance

And then once again

With somebody
Who didn't really develop,

Looked a bit transparent,
Looked a bit ghostly.

Narrator:
Looking closely at the footage,

Deborah hyde spots more clues
Which make her believe

The footage may have been
Deliberately manipulated.

Hyde:
We all know what japanese ghosts
Look like because of films,

And she conforms
Exactly to the stereotype.

her feet are supposed to be
Indistinct in the folklore,

and it looks like somebody's
Put a digital effect on it.

I think it's interesting
That she just emerges

From this lamppost.

It could be that she has just
Literally come from nowhere

Or that somebody who has done
A digital effect

has used this very convenient
Vertical line

within the frame
To introduce their ghost.

♪♪

[ beeping ]

♪♪

Lovell:
Given the amount of interest

There is out there
On the internet,

And particularly
Around ghosts in japan,

Anyone that created
A hoax like this

Knows that it's going
To get a lot of attention,

So there's a lot of incentive
To perhaps create a hoax.

♪♪

Narrator: investigators may have
Their suspicions,

But without more proof,
They cannot be sure

If this terrifying taxi customer
Is taking us all for a ride.

For now, the video
Of the ghostly yurei

Remains shrouded in mystery.

If the figure behind that man
Is real,

Something very creepy
Is going on here.

[ low growl ]

It's not a taxi ride
I'd want to take.

♪♪

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator:
Now, inside a young boy...

[ thumping ]

Doctors find an alien creature.

Mccourt: when you see
A camera like this,

You don't expect to see
A creature

At the other end of it.

This looks like a scene
From a sci-fi horror movie.

♪♪

Ugh, that's disgusting.

Narrator: the alien organism
Inside the boy is alive.

[ thumping ]

What is it,
And how did it get there?

[ static blips, camera whirs ]

Narrator: august 2014 --

A busy city hospital.

Medical staff race to get
A 12-year-old boy to the e.R.

He's having trouble breathing,
But they don't know why.

Doctors run a camera
Down into the boy's lungs.

When they do,
This is what they see...

[ thumping ]

A palpitating, wriggling object

Apparently growing inside
The left lobe of his lung

Is choking the boy
To death from within.

[ thumping ]

Prabhu: so we see this slimy,
Brown, speckled object,

And it seems to be
Alive and moving.

[ thumping ]

my first reaction is,
"That should not be there."

Prabhu: is this something
That came from within,

or is this something
That has invaded his body

from the outside?

Narrator: if there is anything
Remotely ridley scott

About this alien organism,

Then everyone in the hospital
Could be in terrible danger.

[ heavy exhale ]

[ cameras whir ]

Coming up --
A tower of terror,

But nowhere to run.

What's going to happen
When that advances

Over the top of the people
Holding the camera?

Narrator: and investigators
Race discover

The identity of the lurker
In the lung.

Ugh, that's disgusting.

[ static blips ]

[ siren wailing ]

Narrator: in india,

A 12-year-old boy
Is choking to death

Because of a weird,
Pulsating mass inside his lung.

Biomedical engineer raj prabhu
First suspects

The alien object might be
Some kind of malignant growth.

Prabhu:
When we see an object like this
In a place that it shouldn't be,

our immediate thought is
That this might be a tumor.

Narrator:
Prabhu knows that there is
A horrific kind of growth

Which could resemble this
Strange form in the footage...

[ thumping ]

...An extremely rare phenomenon

Which can actually develop hair,

Teeth, hands or feet,
Even eyeballs.

In 2007, a woman had one removed
From her torso.

The lump contained
A number of internal organs,

In the middle of which
Was one fully formed eye.

♪♪

In february 2014,
Doctors in maryland

Removed another
From a young boy's swollen head.

It had fully grown teeth.

The name of these tumors

Is derived from the greek
For monster,

The horrific teratoma.

Prabhu: we don't know how
Dangerous this object is.

If I were the doctor
For this patient,

I would be very concerned.

♪♪

Narrator: but biologist
Kelly price discounts

Prabhu's teratoma theory.

this is definitely not a tumor

because it's clearly alive,
And tumors don't move.

[ thumping ]

[ cameras whirring ]

Narrator:
Marine biologist erik cordes

Has experience
In tropical climates.

He fears that the monstrous mass

May be a parasite feeding off
The young boy's body.

my first guess was some kind of,

like, a flatworm,
Like a tapeworm.

They're usually in the digestive
Tract, in the intestines.

Narrator:
Some tapeworms can be found
All over the human body.

[ monitor beeping ]

Rosemary alvarez
Of phoenix, arizona,

Is operated on
For a suspected brain tumor

When surgeons discover
That the lump is alive.

A species of tapeworm burrowed
Through her brain

And is heading
For her brain stem.

♪♪

Digging deeper,
Cordes identifies

One hideous monster parasite
Which can infest the lung,

A terrifying creature
Known as a roundworm.

[ thumping ]

[ whooshing ]

Roundworms are worms
That are actually ingested,

And the eggs go
Into your digestive system,

And when they hatch, the larvae
Actually find their way

To your lungs
Through your bloodstream.

Roundworms
Grow to be about 14 inches,

And when they mature,
There's two scenarios.

Either the victim
Coughs them up...

Or they swallow them,

And the roundworm goes back
Down to the intestines

To begin the cycle again.

As a biologist, I'd say
That's the consummate parasite.

[ monitor beeping,
Faint chatter ]

Narrator: erik cordes fears
The wriggling mass

Choking the boy
From inside his lung

Might be a mature roundworm

Which just
Doesn't want to leave.

[ gurgling ]

But biologist kelly price
Is not convinced

That any worm matches
The bizarre creature

Seen in the video.

[ thumping ]

Price: it's unlikely
That this was a worm

Simply because
Of the shape of it.

While they do wiggle around,
Like what we saw in the video,

The critter in the video
Is much shorter.

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: the mystery
Comes to the attention

Of forensic image analyst
Conor mccourt.

He scans the footage for clues

To determine what the bizarre
Lung monster might be.

Look.
This thing is moving.

It's flipping around.

I looked at this video sequence,

And I slowed it down,

And then I picked
This specific image.

[ whirring ]

I'm seeing what looks
Like a tail

With a couple of pigments
Or dots on the skin,

A ribbed kind of fin, maybe,

And then some kind
Of dorsal fin on the top.

There's a plausible explanation.
It's a fish.

[ thumping ]

Narrator:
It's a breathtaking discovery.

How did this child get
This fish in his lungs?

Where did it come from?

[ camera whirs ]

♪♪

Narrator: there is a terrifying
Parasitic fish

Which is reputed to be able
To get into human bodies

By wriggling through
The genitals --

The candiru.

The candiru are attracted
To urea, to urine,

And they will follow the scent

And will swim right into
The urinary tract.

Ugh, that's disgusting.

Narrator: but kelly price

Doubts this fish
Can be a candiru.

It swims into people's bodies
Through their urethras

And matures in the bladder,

But there's just no way

That a fish could get
From the bladder to the lung.

But I think
It's much more likely

That the boy himself
Actually swallowed it

And the fish just took
A wrong turn on the way down.

[ thumping ]

[ monitor beeping ]

Narrator: doctors eventually
Manage to extract the fish

From the boy's lung,
And he makes a full recovery.

The exact species of fish
Is never determined.

This lung-dweller remains
A mystery.

[ cameras whirring ]

Now, a fishing boat faces
Blood-red doom.

It's totally
Apocalyptic-looking.

This looks like some kind
Of wall of death.

Lovell: you're in danger.

You don't have very long
To get out of the way.

Narrator: but experts fear
There's no escape.

The way it's moving forward,
You know that

There's just nowhere
You can go to hide.

I would be terrified.

What the hell is going on here?

[ static blips ]

Narrator: the indian ocean,
January 2013 --

Off the coast
Of western australia,

A fishing boat
Is heading back to harbor

When suddenly a towering
Blood-red surge

Blocks out the horizon.

Terrified crew snatch
This photo,

Which investigators determine
Is not manipulated in any way.

When I first see this,
I think, "Holy moly.

Something huge
Is happening here."

The first thing you see
Is this massive wall of red.

Kays: it's really big.
It's thousands of feet high.

What's going to happen
When that advances

Over the top of the people
Holding the camera?

Talk about the apocalypse
Come true.

♪♪

So the question is,
What the hell is it?

[ static blips ]

Narrator: experts are baffled
By a photograph

Snapped from a fishing boat
Of a towering blood-red wall

Advancing across the ocean.

Geologist sian proctor
Checks location data

And discovers that the boat
Is 25 miles off the coast.

Proctor:
When I look at the image,

it clearly looks like
This huge wave

May be coming towards
The people that are there.

I immediately think tsunami.

[ people screaming ]

Narrator: in 2004, the infamous
Boxing day tsunami

Wrought havoc
Across the indian ocean.

proctor:
It affected 14 countries,

And over 200,000 people
Lost their lives.

♪♪

Narrator: if this is
A towering mass of sea water,

Biologist roland kays suspects

That a red tide algal bloom
Might explain the color.

in these red tide events,

the algae really does turn
The water red,

So if there was a massive wave,
That wave would also look red.

♪♪

Narrator: but earth scientist
Alessandro grippo

Discounts the tsunami theory.

if a tsunami had hit
Along the coastline,

we would see
Catastrophic damage.

There would be
A lot of destruction.

We don't see any of that.

I would absolutely say
This is not a tsunami.

[ rumbling ]

[ camera whirs ]

Narrator: atmospheric scientist
Angela fritz

Searches the records
For other evidence

Of the weird red menace.

She unearths revelatory
New video footage,

This time taken on land,

Which turns the investigation
In a new direction.

the first thing you see
Looks like a giant red cloud,

You know?

If you've ever watched
The show "Lost,"

It kind of looks like
The smoke monster, only red.

You know, that's kind of
What it brings to mind for me.

The weird thing about
This cloud formation

Is how tightly packed it is.

It really looks like
An advancing wall.

Narrator:
Fritz recalls that january

Is the height of summer
In australia.

She wonders if the
Incredible phenomenon

Might be smoke
From a massive wildfire.

Australia
Is known for its wildfires.

It's a very dry region.

Maybe this could be
Wildfire smoke.

It's a little red.

It depends on what
That wildfire was burning.

Narrator: fritz learns that
In january 2013,

Australia records
Its hottest day ever,

With the nationwide
Average temperature

Hitting a blistering
104 degrees.

Bushfires rage across almost
300,000 acres of the country

And can be seen from space.

Fritz: knowing that it's
The peak of wildfire season,

This must be
An effect of wildfire

Because it sure does look
Like smoke, doesn't it?

Narrator: but out here
In the barren western desert,

Jayde lovell doesn't
Buy the bushfire theory.

the fires that were happening
Were happening

on the east side
Of the country.

this was filmed on the west.

So it's not an area
That's often hit by bushfires,

So it's likely
To be something else.

[ camera whirs ]

♪♪

Narrator: focusing in on
The swirling movement

Within the advancing wall,

Lovell notices that it looks
More dusty than smoky.

She wonders if this wall
Might be a terrifying sandstorm,

A potentially deadly haboob.

♪♪

A haboob is when a huge storm
Creates this massive wind.

In an area with lots of dust
Or sand,

It can whip up a huge sandstorm
That moves incredibly quickly.

It's the iron in the dirt,
In that area of australia,

Is what makes it so red.

So you can see the winds
Were whipping up,

Pulling that iron-rich red dirt

And sending it into the air
In a huge wall of dust.

A haboob, I love saying
That word, "Haboob."

They happen where I live,
In phoenix, arizona.

We tend to get a couple
Of these haboobs

Roll through
During the monsoon season.

When they do impact, you know,
Cities like phoenix and tucson,

they can be a big disaster.

[ wind whooshing ]

if you've never been in
A sandstorm, they can kill you.

♪♪

narrator: investigators fear

that as this
Awesome haboob advances,

witnesses on the beach
Could be in terrible danger.

proctor:
When you see a haboob coming,

the best thing to do
Is go cover up.

grippo: you might choke.

you might be buried in the sand.

so there's a lot
Of possible dangers.

I hope the guys with the camera
Got inside.