Original subtitles

What you are about to see is extremely dangerous.

Do not try this at home.

Any attempt to recreate these escapes could result in permanent injury or

Illusion. The art of tricking the brain, distorting the senses, challenging

perception. This is taken to a whole new level with the art of the escape.

Meet the Masters of Illusion.

Hello everybody, I'm Dean Cain and welcome to Masters of Illusion.

You know, ever since the great Harry Houdini stunned the world with his

and dangerous escapes a hundred years ago, people have been captivated by

escapes and the artists who perform them.

Well, this special edition of Masters of Illusion is dedicated to this most

dangerous form of magic. I guarantee you, you will be on the edge of your

I know I will.

Are you ready to feel your blood pressure rise?

Yes.

Over the next hour, in addition to the escape that you're going to see

live right here on this stage, we will also bring you escapes too big for the

stage, performed outside and surrounded by spectators.

So, let's get started.

or face a certain demise.

It is truly a race against time.

Here, performing the Jaws of Death, is the amazing Ben Black.

Thank you.

The straight jacket escape is very difficult.

It's even more difficult when you're hanging from the Jaws of Death.

The Jaws of Death, as you can see, has razor sharp teeth on both sides.

There's a rope at the top that holds the teeth up in the air. Holly, after she

puts the jacket on me, will set that rope on fire, which will give me

approximately a minute and a half to escape from the straight jacket and

myself before the teeth crash down into my body.

Straight jacket, it's made of canvas, heavy canvas, leather straps.

Holly's buckling up a series of buckles in the back.

When she gets to that, there's a strap in the middle, which prevents the jacket

from coming easily over my head after she does that. So I do the strap that

restrain my hands to my body, making it virtually impossible to make the escape.

For this next escape, we travel to China for Man vs.

feeding train.

Any miscalculation in the timing could result in their demise.

Why would anyone do this?

Well, answering that question, here is Fran Ferrari.

Hi, I'm Fran Ferrari.

I'm a magician. I'm an illusionist.

That is an enigmatic discipline, and it's very difficult to explain. We are

in Guiyang, China, and we're here for one principal reason.

These guys. If you steal something, if you hurt somebody in this city in China,

you're going to prison for a really long time.

But if you want to hurt yourself, if you want to do something to yourself, who

cares? Nobody cares. This guy sure doesn't care.

So that's why we're here.

Let's do this.

Wolf, you got communication with the girls, right?

All right.

Stay on that cell phone.

Wait for their call.

The moment we hear anything, let me know, because that's the only way I'm

to know how much time we've got.

Get the rope.

Lock me in.

What do we know from the girls?

I haven't got any responding from her.

We had trouble with the cell phones this morning.

Get them just to respond. I want to make sure they're there.

Okay. Okay, carry.

Rope me up.

And then make that rope as tight as you can.

Tie it to the post over there.

Seriously. I need it. Seriously.

Get in here. Get out of here.

Houdini's water escapes are legendary.

A hundred years ago, he captivated the world with his daring episodes of Facing

Death. He never revealed how he performed The Impossible.

Well, tonight we present his famous water escape.

Here is Alex Ramon.

Thank you.

In the teens of the 1920s, Harry Houdini would be locked inside a tank of water

submerged.

A velvet curtain would cover the tank so you couldn't see what was going on. You

had no idea what was happening. A few minutes went by.

The curtain ripped open. Houdini was standing there dripping wet. He had

escaped. And no one knew how he did it. I'm not saying that Harry Houdini

escaping a tank of water was easy or even magical because it wasn't.

It takes a lot of hard work. It takes precise execution.

And most critically, it's extremely dangerous.

I need someone from the audience.

Hello, sir. How are you?

What's your name? Sonny.

Sonny. Sonny, I have a few things for you to take a look at. I have a set of

handcuffs here.

I want you to pull on the cups. Make sure they do, in fact, lock shut. They

don't just pop open. Pull on the cups. Make sure they're locked.

Good.

Here's the key.

Key goes in.

Clockwise turn. Cups open right up.

Key goes in. Clockwise turn. Cups open right up.

I have a commercial lock for you, Sonny. Take a look at that lock. I want you to

lock the lock. Pull on the shackle. Make sure it doesn't just pop open.

Is the lock shut? Is it good?

That's all you got to do.

So, we had the cuts examined.

We had the lock examined.

And now, finally, the water.

55 gallons in a clear plexiglass tank, so you can see everything.

Now, I'm going to give you a secret that Houdini always kept.

This ring was Houdini's priceless secret. Hidden on the inside

this ring is a little tiny shim metal lockpick, smaller than a toothpick. With

this ring, Houdini escaped.

With this ring, I'm going to escape.

Now, the average person can hold their breath for only 30 seconds under

stressful conditions, and I think you'd all agree, this is going to be a very

stressful situation.

If you want to hold your breath with me, you can.

And when you start gasping for air, you'll know how I feel.

You know, sometimes when you know the secret of magic,

like this ring, it's even more amazing.

There's no curtain hiding you from what you're about to see.

You're going to see exactly what it takes, exactly how it's done.

There is no trick.

Up next, one of the most dangerous escapes ever attempted. David Merlini is

burned at the stake.

What you are about to see is extremely dangerous.

Do not try this at home.

Any attempt to recreate these escapes could result in permanent injury or

Fire is one of man's most deadly adversaries.

So when man deliberately fuels that fire in an attempt to defy the element, it

would seem nothing good would come from it.

Here is David Merlini.

Fire is not only hypnotizing majestic power, but it's also something

extremely dangerous.

Tonight we will attempt an escape never done before, invented by the late Harry

Blackstone.

I will be tied up to this version stake and I will be filled with flammable

material and lit on fire. I have to escape before it will be too late.

I'm okay.

To ensure survival, an escape artist's life is reliant upon personally

inspecting every single detail of the preparation of their performance.

They cannot afford to let anyone else take that responsibility.

It is a matter of life or death.

Let's welcome the fearless Brandi LaPlante.

So what's going to happen here?

is Matt and Chris are going to latch me by my wrist, by my ankle, and around the

waist. That car is going to go up 40 feet in the air, and Matt is going to

the fuse, and that car is going to fall.

This is a Sweeney trick.

The car hangs from here, and the fuse gets lit, it travels up, lights this

pyrotechnic device, which opens the latch, and the car drops.

Hard drop is a variation of an earlier escape that had the escape artist

restrained under a grand piano.

The ropes holding the piano were lit on fire, or they used some other way to

time release the piano.

The SUV we're using weighs about 5 ,000 pounds.

That's why I've got a crane that's rated for 40 tons. It's more than adequate,

but I always want to err on the side of caution. Nothing worse.

than having a crane tip over in the middle of an escape.

I got it. 70 seconds.

So go ahead, latch me in.

Yep.

All right.

Make it really tight.

Good. Good height.

Ready?

Light it.

Okay, they're lighting the fuse. Heads up.

She's having trouble.

This is taking too long.

Next, 1 ,300 pounds of steel, including 28 spikes.

Josephine Lee faces off with the table of death.

What you are about to see is extremely dangerous.

Do not try this at home. Any attempt to recreate these escapes could result in

permanent injury or death.

Our next escape artist is a woman who allows herself no time for mistakes.

40 seconds, to be exact.

This stunt requires precision and perfect timing. To miscalculate could

death. From England, here is the amazing Josephine Lee.

This is 1 ,300 pounds of steel.

28 steel spikes hung by this rope.

Once this rope is set on fire, I have only 40 seconds to free

myself until that happens.

But instead of standing here, I risk being underneath those spikes.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is about precision.

It's about accuracy and having one shot at getting this right.

Once again, we go out on location, this time the Mojave Desert, where our next

escape artist has cooked up a unique performance using found objects, a stick

dynamite, and a cave you have to see to believe.

With assistance from Kurt Anderson, here is Farrell Dillon.

This is Farrell Dillon outside of Baker, California.

I happened upon this cave on a hike the other day. I also found this.

container inside the cave. I'm going to use the items that I found inside the

cave to escape from a stick of dynamite that I've already planted inside the

cave.

It's not a stick of dynamite. It's a pack of dynamite. It's a bomb.

This is a bad idea.

You've done some crazy things.

This is a bad idea.

Trust me, it's a good idea. Here, let's go see what we have inside.

Come with me.

Here we are inside the cave.

Here's the deal.

This, is a bundle of dynamite set to explode when the timer goes off.

The next thing that we're going to have are these three items, which I will use

to pick the locks on the restraint.

Let's talk about the restraint.

This is an old set of Darby shackles. These are mid -1800s or so.

They're not like the strength that you're used to?

No, they're actually made completely different. They have a different locking

mechanism on them, and I'm not certain that I'm really familiar with the actual

locking mechanism for the Darby restraint.

So this is going to lock your neck in. I've got two that are going to do your

hands. They're strapped to the back of the chair.

Then we've got two strapped to the chair to put your legs in so the chair can't

move or anything.

All right, let's give it a try.

All right.

You ready to do this?

As ready as I'll ever be.

Perfect.

My arms go behind my back.

That way I don't have access to the item on the table right away.

Is it too tight?

No, you're good. These are the old kind. They're really tight.

Yeah, they don't actually make different sizes of these either.

When you make them,

it's all about the crescent part.

Normally on a new style handcuff, they're one size fits all. These,

only certain people.

These blocks are corroded.

This is crazy. This is a stupid thing to do.

Last one right there.

Do not try this at home.

You good?

Can you hand me the items off the table?

Put one of the rings on my fingers.

Yeah.

Is that going to hold there? That's perfect, yeah.

Good luck.

Thanks.

Coming up, escape artist Spencer Horsman risks being buried alive under 1 ,700

pounds of wet cement.

What you are about to see is extremely dangerous.

Do not try this at home. Any attempt to recreate these escapes could result in

permanent injury or death.

How far would you go to prove your ability as an escape artist?

Straight jacket, fire, handcuffed underwater?

Well, here performing his own unique and death -defying escape is Spencer

Horseman.

I took the plastic Houdini water torture cell, which was lowered inside of a six

-foot -tall container filled with water. It was padlocked shut and covered up

with a cloth. He would make his escape a few minutes later. Took the same idea

of the tank.

and wanted to add something a little bit more dangerous than just water inside

of it.

We are going to be pouring 150 gallons, 1 ,700 pounds worth of wet

cement on top of me.

You put the bar in.

Keep it going.

Keep it going.

Keep it going.

Keep it going.

Take deep breaths. Take a little deep breath, babe.

Keep your head up. Keep it up one more time.

Come on, keep it going. Anyone?

Keep it going.

Anyone?

Earlier tonight, David Merlini battled fire, but that wasn't enough for him.

With his next challenge, David will add liquid nitrogen to the equation.

How impossible is that?

We're about to find out.

Welcome back, David Merlini.

Tonight, I will attempt one of the most dangerous escapes ever conceived.

In this cup, we have liquid nitrogen, which is 199 degrees below the zero

centigrade. It's just the same contact of the tanks behind me. This portion of

liquid nitrogen would transform any organic being in a piece of porcelain in

fraction of a second.

Same place.

Preparation has to be divided into two parts. We have a physical preparation

a mental preparation.

The physical preparation is basically the easiest. You have to prepare your

to survive an extreme temperature.

The mental preparation is slightly more difficult. You have to accept that you

will be in a situation never attempted before by other people. Anything almost

can happen when you're in there. There is no way that anybody can save you, can

rescue you.

you

Next, Ben Black returns for a terrifying crossbow finale that will have you

holding your breath and covering your eyes.

What you are about to see is extremely dangerous.

Do not try this at home.

Any attempt to recreate these escapes could result in permanent injury or

I cannot watch this next artist without getting a little bit nervous. His task

depends on exact timing, perfect preparation, and precise coordination.

Every single detail must be checked and rechecked. A wrong move in the slightest

direction means severe injury.

I hold my breath every time I watch Ben Black.

Thank you so much for joining us for this very special edition of Masters of

Illusion, celebrating the most impossible escape of all time.

We hope you've enjoyed this remarkable mixture of danger and excitement.

I'm Dean Cain.

Good night.

Supposedly.