All language subtitles for The.UnXplained.S08E07.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[William Shatner] Deadly
mountain ranges

that draw thousands

of ambitious thrill-seekers.

Boiling hot eruptions

whose lethal beauty

lures scientists
to the edge of imminent peril

and a lush mysterious island

that hides the prospect of

certain death.

[man screams]

All over the globe,

there are places so hazardous,

volatile and precarious,

visitors are urged
to "keep out."

And yet, despite
monumental challenges,

unmistakable signs of peril

and even deadly consequences,

there are those who are
compelled to push fear aside

and rush headlong
into the unknown.

Why are some people
willing to risk their lives

for the thrill of
experiencing a dangerous place?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

[Shatner] Every day, we all face
a certain level of risk

in life's normal routines.

We trust other drivers
on the road

and fly in airplanes

at 30,000 feet.

We even take our chances
walking on a flight of stairs,

a simple activity that claims
around 12,000 lives each year.

But while danger
is an inescapable part of life,

there are those
who choose to deliberately

put themselves in
unmistakable jeopardy.

[Ken Carter] There are

some people who are
sort of drawn towards

dangerous things
over and over again

without really considering
the risks.

You would think that danger

would sort of
suppress curiosity.

But for some people, the danger
actually heightens it.

I would never want to go

off of a cliff
or cliff dive or skydive,

jump out of
a perfectly good airplane.

What would make someone
want to do that kind of thing?

And I think really,

it's sort of
who they are as a person,

as part of their identity.

[Shatner] Through
human evolution,

our brains have become
programmed to prioritize

self-preservation
and survival above all else.

So what is really
going on in the minds of those

who seem to be all too willing

to put their lives at risk?

The psychological
concept is called

sensation seeking, and there are

different components to it.

One is called
thrill and adventure seeking.

These are dangerous situations
that are more physical.

Like skydiving, bungee jumping.

But there's also
experience seeking.

That's sensations of
the mind and of the senses.

The really interesting thing
about high sensation seekers

is they have different
kinds of chemical alarms

that may go off in their body

during these really
chaotic situations.

When we're around things
that are dangerous,

we have that fight,
flee or freeze response.

It gets our body ready to either

fight the danger directly,

freeze to avoid detection,

or flee from those
dangerous situations.

And that's set off by a chemical
called cortisol in our body.

The high sensation seekers,
when they're around these really

chaotic experiences,
don't have that much cortisol,

so they're pretty calm
in those situations.

What they do have is an increase
in a chemical called dopamine.

It's a pleasure
neurotransmitter.

So, when they're in these really
highly chaotic situations,

they're feeling
a lot more pleasure,

but less stress
than average people.

The world is full of danger
and-and new things to explore.

If we-we only had people
who were low sensation seekers,

we would never
explore those things.

[Shatner] Could unique brain
chemistry be the difference

between a risk taker

or someone who plays it safe?

And while the pursuit of
a dopamine rush may trigger

certain dangerous behavior,

the prospect
of a life of adventure

is also motivation

for those
who seek their next thrill.

I've had this conversation
many times with friends.

"How did you end up
being this guy

"who wanted to go off
and do these crazy things?

To go off into the wild
blue yonder and risk it all?"

It was born into me.
Something started very early,

and it would often be fueled
by the books that I read

of adventurers
and mountain climbers

that I aspired to be like.

And come hell or high water,

I found a way to go find
some amazing adventures.

There's a certain type of person

who's just
looking for adrenaline.

I'm more interested
in the unknown.

I think I was born
with extra curiosity,

and when I go to these places,
it's gonna be dangerous.

And I'm like,
"Woo-hoo, this is cool."

'Cause I don't want
my last few minutes

to be filled with terror,

if they are my last few minutes.

I do have less fear
than most people.

So, I think that's not normal.

[Shatner] For some, walking in
the footsteps of their heroes,

or simply experiencing
the unknown, is a rush.

But is it also possible
that some adventurers are just

addicted to danger?

[Victor Vescovo] I feel most
comfortable and happiest

when I'm pushing
the edges of risk.

I don't know if I was
destined for adventure,

but it certainly was a

intense compulsion to explore.

And it became
somewhat addictive.

The Explorer's Grand Slam
is climbing the highest mountain

on all seven continents

and skiing at least

100 kilometers
to the North and South Poles.

I've done that.

That took me on this

25-year path to climb

the Seven Summits.

But after I climbed those,

then I was very curious

about the Poles.

What would it be like
to go for a long distance

in extremely
difficult conditions?

I've been able to go into
high altitudes in aircraft.

I've been to space
on a rocket that exploded

a couple of months
after I went up in it.

I've been
to the bottom of the ocean

with my submersible.

It takes four and a half hours

to go from
the surface to the bottom.

If there was any kind
of catastrophic failure

with the submersible,

you would be gone

before your brain
could even register it.

It was one of the most
dangerous things I've ever done.

These are things

that are not normal, and yet

I have to explore or I'm bored.

[Carter] One of the concepts we
look at for sensation seeking

is called
"boredom susceptibility,"

how easy it is
for a person to get bored

and how irritated
they get when they get bored.

I worry a lot about
high sensation seekers

who get bored really easily.

Those are the people
who are gonna try

the next thing, the next thing
and the next thing.

[Shatner] While elite explorers

and highly trained athletes
venture into

hazardous environments
for a variety of reasons,

remarkably,
there's a growing trend

where inexperienced people
risk their well-being

in a dangerous pastime
known as extreme tourism.

[Johnston] Extreme tourism is

people wanting
to go into an environment

that they are
not qualified to enter.

Whether you're going into space,

you're running
hardcore white water,

you're going to high altitude.

This is someone who,

without the infrastructure
and the guide,

cannot survive
in that environment.

It's quite dangerous.

Extreme tourism
makes an opportunity

that was never there before,

but it also means
that anyone can say,

"I've always had a dream to
be able to go up into space."

And so, if you have the money
to be able to finance the trip,

then you don't have to have all
the training of an astronaut.

I mean, it's always
been a dangerous thing

to do, when you strap
someone to a big tube

full of fuel and then you shoot
them rocketing up to space.

And now, more and more
people can do that.

[Ben McGee] Some people
will spend money

to travel halfway
across the world

to go visit something
like the Claw at Chernobyl.

This was a grappling fixture

which was meant
to move material around

and got intensely contaminated
with a lot of radiation.

That can cause
human health problems.

Not just cancer, but a breakdown

of the cardiovascular system,
Alzheimer's-like effects.

And, well, there are people

who travel all the way
around the world to see this,

and, in some cases, sit on it.

Tourists are lining up
all over the world

to visit abandoned minefields.

They could be war zones
or places where

there have been
natural disasters.

I think people are drawn to
places where they shouldn't be.

This is a kind of
exploration of ourselves.

If I had a box
that said "do not open,"

there are certain people

that are gonna want to
open it to see what's inside.

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

Breaking above
the horizon like a jagged

20,000-foot granite tooth
is Mount McKinley.

It is considered
the most dangerous mountain

in North America,
having claimed over 130 lives.

In 1994, mountaineer
and filmmaker Thom Pollard's

attempt to scale McKinley
took a sudden turn

when his high-climbing adventure

became a harrowing
tale of survival.

[Pollard] I was
guiding a trip on

a semi-technical route
called the West Rib, and

we became aware that

there was gonna be
bad weather coming in.

-[wind whistling]
-And that storm came in

like a complete firestorm.

The winds were over
100 miles an hour.

Our tent
was completely destroyed.

So we started digging
a small snow cave.

And we crawled into
this snow cave,

and the winds were so high,

it literally shook the mountain.

And we thought, well,

we very well could die here.

It is terrifying to think

the force of nature,
how great it was.

But we emerged the following
morning with our toes,

with our fingers,
with our lives.

And it was after that storm

that I thought to myself,

all right,
I had all the qualities

that I could
ever imagine needing

to go and climb a big mountain.

I'm ready for Mount Everest.

[Shatner] Why would someone who
had just narrowly escaped death

want to take on an even bigger
and riskier expedition?

Mount Everest,

located high in the Himalayas

on the border
of Nepal and Tibet.

It is the world's tallest peak.

At over 29,000 feet,

Everest rests just below
the cruising altitude

of most commercial jets.

There have been
around 12,500 attempts

to summit this iconic mountain,
which in many ways

represents the height

of physical human achievement.

Mountain climbers are willing
to risk hypoxia, death or injury

to have the sensations
that they're after.

Do they have a death wish?
They say they don't.

And the fear is just enough
to help them to feel alive.

It's something spiritual
in terms of

what they're seeing,
that sense of awe

because they're just
after that experience.

[Shatner] It's safe
to say that anyone

that gazes up at this titanic

heap of rock would know that

climbing it would be
unspeakably dangerous.

But just how deadly
is Mount Everest?

[Johnston] I think
it's just over 300 people

that have died on Everest,

most of whom
are still on the mountain.

Because there are places
on Everest where if you fall,

you're falling
thousands and thousands of feet.

We're just not gonna find you.
So that happens.

But people that die on a route

generally are found by other
people climbing that route.

It's hard to get a body
down from that altitude.

[Vescovo] Things can happen
very quickly on Everest

that will kill you.

It is like
playing Russian roulette.

You can go hypothermic.

If the weather is bad, it can be

very dangerous very quickly.

And then, of course,
there's avalanche.

You cannot outrun an avalanche.

Even at base camp of Everest,

avalanches have struck

and killed people
out of nowhere.

If you do not clip in
your rope and you slip,

you are going to die.

70% of accidents
happen on the way down

because you're exhausted.

And so, Mount Everest
is a brutal place.

It is not for
the faint of heart.

[Shatner] And no place
on Everest is as brutal

as above 26,000 feet,

which is known
as the death zone.

With shearing,
hurricane-force winds,

minus-30-degree temperatures,

and too little oxygen for humans

to survive without
supplemental air,

it's certainly earned
its menacing nickname.

There's a lot up there
that can take your life away

when you're going up
into the death zone.

And it is almost
impossible to understand

the bitter cold
at that altitude.

If you were
to take off your glove

for even just a few moments

in a bitter wind up there,

you could easily
lose your fingers to frostbite

in just a few moments.

Because of that
high, cold, thin air,

your body is literally
dying up there.

[Shatner] Not only do
people face avalanches,

falls and
bitter cold on Everest,

climbers are also
at risk for developing

a mysterious mental affliction
known as "summit fever."

[Carter] Summit fever is
a psychological phenomenon

that happens

when climbers are so focused

on getting to the summit

that they don't consider
the apparent risks

that they're experiencing.

Because they're so focused,
they're not listening

to those obvious
signals of danger

that might be around them.

Um, people that are
telling them to turn back

or even physical sensations
that they're ignoring

in order to achieve their goal.

[Johnston] The human mind
drives people

beyond what they should do.

And they ignore where they are,
they ignore what time it is,

they ignore
how much water they've had,

how much food they've had,
so that summit fever,

it blurs people's judgment.

[Shatner] Summit fever's
dangerous psychological effects

can overwhelm a mountaineer
with the compulsion

to completely ignore
their survival instincts.

And perhaps even more
frightening is the uncertainty

of who will be caught
in its fatal grip.

I've been on mountains before

where all hell breaks loose

and I've seen people
completely collapse

and lose
all senses of themselves.

But here's the deal.

You don't know
until something happens.

The only way
to find out is to go there

and learn if you have
what it takes.

Standing on the top is great,
but believe it or not,

when you are in those
times that are trying,

that test you,
those are the times

that I feel most connected
on the mountain.

Climbing Mount Everest is not
only a monumental achievement

in mountaineering,
it's also an unparalleled thrill

that contains a very real
possibility that the mountain

could become an adventurer's
eternal resting place.

But there's another
beautiful location

in the wilds of New Mexico

that is possibly
even more dangerous,

where unwitting travelers
seem to vanish

without a trace.

[Shatner] The Santa Fe
National Forest, New Mexico.

This wild and scenic landscape

draws upwards of
a million visitors every year,

making it one of
the most popular outdoor

recreational areas in the state.

But this breathtaking wilderness
has also drawn law enforcement

and independent
investigators to solve

the mystery
of a dangerous expanse

known in local folklore
as the Pecos Triangle.

The Pecos Triangle
is a dangerous place

because of the natural phenomena

that you can experience
while you're there.

You have cave systems,
you have sinkholes,

you have weather patterns

-that change within seconds.
-[thunder crashing]

And what's interesting
about this place is

that there are some people
who have gone missing

that have never returned.

[Shatner] While you won't find
the Pecos Triangle on a map,

locals define it
as a region stretching from

north-central New Mexico,

and roughly bounded by Santa Fe,

Taos and Las Vegas.

At least 15 people
that we know of

have mysteriously disappeared

in this 6,000-square-mile zone.

[Allan Pacheco] A classic
example would be Mel Nadel.

This is September the 6th, '09.

He's with some hunters,
and Mel says,

"I'm gonna go down
into these trees here,

"I'm gonna set up a blind.

You guys, head on out."

So, they come on back.

It's dusk.

Mel's not there.

It's getting dark.
He doesn't show.

They go to the ranger station,

have to call the state police.

Get a big search there.

This search
has professional trackers,

cadaver dogs, Cessnas.

Since that time,

no bone, no clothing
has been found of this guy.

Another missing person
was Emma Tresp.

She vanished
in the Pecos Triangle in 1998.

She had gone
to Pecos many times before

so she knows the area.

They find her car up there
on this dirt road.

And her footprints
go around the car,

and that's it.

They don't go up the road,
go down the road,

go to either side.

And people
want to say, oh, well,

she just ended on up
going into the wilds

and, uh, dying and succumbing.

Well, how come there's no body?

There's no sign
of struggle, of an animal

or whatever taking her.

How come her tracks
just end right there?

Despite extensive searches,

no one knows the circumstances
surrounding some of

the baffling disappearances
in the Pecos Triangle,

which is why researchers

continue to risk
their own safety

in this mysterious wilderness

to identify
why people seem to just

vanish into thin air.

The facts surrounding
these two disappearances

aren't normal.

So when I started
to review national park reports

and U.S. Forest reports,

immediately, I started to see
that the New Mexico State Police

would bring K-9s to the scene

and the K-9s wouldn't
be able to pick up a scent.

Or they brought
professional trackers in.

Well, in a vast
majority of these cases,

they can't find tracks either.

So, when you have an instance
where someone's missing

and there's no tracks
and there's no scent trail,

that points to
something highly unusual.

[Pacheco] As far as this
so-called Pecos Triangle,

I've, uh, been on different
searches, investigations,

and those scenarios
never made sense to me.

You say to yourself,
how can this person

vanish into thin air

and there be

no clues? Gone.

[Shatner] With no tangible leads

for investigators to follow,

some researchers
have turned to native folklore

surrounding the area,

where the history and beliefs
of the local Indigenous people

may provide surprising insights

into the forest's
dangerous nature.

[Thompson] The Pecos Triangle
has had a very,

very interesting
and tragic history.

It was once known
for the Pecos Pueblo,

where the Pecos people

had a very, very large
and thriving city,

drawing people in
from all over to discuss things

about spirituality, the cosmos.

But after, you know,
attacks by the Spanish,

violent attacks
and diseases during the 16th,

17th and 18th century,
this pueblo was abandoned.

So this once had
a major civilization here

and that has all been
sort of wiped from the map.

And so some of the legends
and the mystique of this area

is that it regularly
does claim people.

People have gone
in there and not come out.

[Jeff Williams] The Native
Americans do have

these folklore stories
about shadow people

and giant snakes that
live there in the forest,

whispers in the night,

luring people off of the trail.

These are the things that

you can't rationalize
or put a finger on,

and this only adds to the fear

and the confusion
when you're out there.

[Shatner] Are
supernatural forces

behind the bizarre
disappearances

in this foreboding section
of the Santa Fe National Forest?

Allan Pacheco has ventured
into the Triangle himself,

and based on his own
unsettling experience,

he believes
these perplexing vanishings

may involve visitors
from another world.

I have seen
UFO activity on up there.

I saw this bright light
coming on down.

Fire, fire, fire.
White, white bright light.

And in it was this purple
triangular-type of shape.

As far as the vanishings
in Pecos, there is

something there
that is intelligent

that takes out people.

As far as some of
the unusual things that are seen

around the area where
Mel and Emma disappeared,

one of
the consistencies are orbs.

They're various colors.

And imagine just a ball
of light.

These orbs have been seen
where people have disappeared.

But to explain

how they disappeared,

it's impossible at this point.

The Santa Fe National Forest

is a dangerous place.
It's a complete mystery.

Could the vast landscape
of the Pecos Triangle

be hiding the remains
of lost visitors,

or is something far stranger
at work in this desolate area?

We may never know.

But there are
far more dangerous places

that continue to draw
brave visitors every year

like the openings
in Earth's crust,

that at any moment can rain down

a deadly storm of fire and ash.

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

The top of this active volcano
explodes in a jet of ash

rising several miles
into the atmosphere.

Hundreds of villagers
flee for their lives

as an unstoppable
torrent of destruction

moves towards their communities.

There's no shortage of ways
for a volcano to kill you.

You can have lava erupting.

You can have pyroclastic flows,

which are giant,
broiling clouds of ash

at upwards
of 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit.

You can have
toxic gasses be released

and that can asphyxiate you,

even if the burning
doesn't get you.

Volcanoes can
also generate firebombs.

They're ejecting rocks
that can smash people,

and some of them are huge.

Maybe the size of a car,
a house.

And so, any of these things can

just take you out
like you weren't there.

[Shatner] It's estimated
that around the world,

upwards of 800 million people
live within 62 miles

of a dangerously active volcano.

And history's
littered with tragic

volcanic eruptions that have
extinguished countless lives,

from the buried
residents of Pompeii

after Mount Vesuvius
erupted in 79 AD

to the largest eruption
in human history in 1815,

when Indonesia's Mount Tambora
claimed 100,000 souls.

With such perilous
prospects of human loss,

why do people continue
to live near these

unpredictable mountains of fire?

[Oppenheimer] We often
focus in on the catastrophe,

but people live on volcanoes
for centuries

or millennia between eruptions,
and in that time

they're living with the volcano,

they're benefiting from

the fertility
of the volcanic soil.

The crops are very productive.

And you can go up at altitude

and have a nice
environment to live in.

[Lance Geiger] People like to
live on the sides of volcanoes

because, I mean,
there's just a natural beauty

that occurs around volcanoes.

There's reasons why you would go
to where we knew a volcano was

to see the flora and the fauna

and the geology
and all that sort of stuff.

But any volcano
that's been active

in the last 50,000 years
could become active tomorrow.

And there's
inherent risk to that.

[Shatner] Despite the benefits,

we can't predict
when a community

might be decimated
by lava and ash.

It's a fragile existence
to be sure,

but there are those
who embrace the danger

like the risk-takers
who seek to witness

a volcano when it erupts.

[McGee] A volcano is you
watching that act of creation,

geologic creation happen live.

There's a little bit
of the thrill of the power,

just glimpsing what
the Earth is capable of.

And then there's also
a desire to see

and understand more about these
processes as they're happening.

The opportunity
to see something happening

raw can just be too compelling

to ignore, even if there's risk.

[Oppenheimer] I think
of volcanoes,

in some ways, they're
windows, they're apertures

into the deep Earth,
from the Earth's interior.

A volcanic eruption is-is such

an extraordinary spectacle,

to see the fireworks
go into the sky

and ash clouds roiling up
into the atmosphere.

Sonically, the detonations,

the whistles,
the roars, the wailing

from gas vents to the biggest
explosive eruptions

where you can feel
the rumbling earth

through your feet,
the seismic energy,

and you can smell
and taste the gases.

So volcanoes assail
all the senses and-and

you can't
take your eye off them.

[Shatner] An erupting volcano
is truly a profound sight,

but it's not the only reason
why scientists are so willing

to risk their lives in
these explosive environments.

For centuries,
fundamental questions about

the nature of
these earthly cauldrons

has drawn researchers
directly into harm's way.

As a volcanologist,
I'm always humbled when I read

scientific works
from 200 years ago,

and they're asking the same
questions we're asking now.

Why did the volcano erupt?

Why did it explode
in that particular way?

We're asking the same questions,

and we have, of course,
much more sophisticated tools.

We can watch
volcanoes from space.

But there's still so much
that we don't understand.

And so,

if we look
at the historical record,

we have eruptions that are
more than a hundred times bigger

than anything we've seen.

We call them super eruptions,

and these can change
the global climate.

They can have enormous
impacts on pasture and crops.

[Andrew Collins] You have
supervolcanoes around the world

that have the potential
to destroy human life on Earth.

I mean, this happened

around 70,000 years ago

with the Mount Toba eruption

in the Pacific region.

90% of humanity
were actually wiped out.

So that could happen again.

That's why what
the volcanologists are doing

is just so important
to the future of humanity.

[Shatner] Let's face it,
there's probably

no safe place on the planet
if a supervolcano explodes.

And it's believed that
there are between 12 and 20

active supervolcanoes
across the Earth.

But by putting themselves
in peril,

perhaps scientists can
discover the secret signs

to predict future
apocalyptic eruptions.

[Oppenheimer] When it comes to
forecasting volcanic eruptions,

there are things we can do.

Gases will leak out,
and we can detect those signals

and try and make an assessment

of how likely
an eruption is to take place

in a certain time frame.

But there are
so many processes involved,

that we will
never know with certainty--

how would I forecast it

to forestall a future disaster?

So, there are
so many secrets yet

to, uh, discover and unveil.

Until scientists can actually
predict a volcanic eruption,

when it comes to such
a destructive force of nature,

it's probably wise
to keep your distance.

But there's a remote
and forbidden island

in the Indian Ocean where danger
is not caused by Mother Earth

but rather by mysterious
inhabitants who think nothing

of killing unwelcome visitors
on sight.

[Shatner] The Andaman Islands.

This chain of over 300 islands
off the coast of India

is a true tropical paradise,

attracting hundreds of thousands
of visitors every year.

But, in stark contrast,

at the remote southwestern
edge of this archipelago,

lies one of the most dangerous
places on Earth--

North Sentinel Island.

North Sentinel Island is really

a little speck of land,
relatively.

It's just about
ten miles across,

about the size of
the island of Manhattan.

It's almost impossible to,

even from the air, see much

of what's going on
on this island.

It really looks the part
of a mysterious,

impenetrable place.

[Everett] The North
Sentinel Island is

one of the most isolated places

in terms of difficulty
of access in the world.

It's surrounded by coral,
there's no natural harbor,

so ships can't really

dock there,
and it's very dangerous

to get too close to the island.

[Shatner] While the waters
surrounding

North Sentinel Island
are treacherous,

the real danger lies
with its mysterious inhabitants,

the most isolated
Indigenous people in the world,

known as the Sentinelese.

[Everett] The Sentinelese people
of North Sentinel Island,

they're unique
because no one has ever

successfully contacted them.

They've probably been there
for 50,000 years

or something along those lines,

but we know next to nothing
about the people.

We know that they're hostile.

They've tried to kill
most people who've landed there.

[Thompson] This is,
in some ways,

the most dangerous place
to be an explorer.

Number one, uh,
as an outsider coming there,

you'd probably be killed.

Right? They-they very often
kill, uh, intruders.

They shoot arrows at people
who come too close regularly.

The North Sentinelese
have adamantly

distanced themselves
from the outside world.

It's something that you're
never gonna be allowed to study.

[Shatner] In 1956,
the Indian government,

which maintains
territorial control

of North Sentinel Island,

made it illegal
for non-Sentinelese people

to even set foot on the island.

But when did the outside world

first become aware
of this deadly tribe?

The first time
that anyone from the outside

is recorded as having landed
on North Sentinel

and interacted with
the local people was in 1867,

when a merchant ship
was actually shipwrecked

just off the coast
of the island,

and about 80-some passengers
and 20 crewmen

got safely to the beach

and promptly,
some native people came out

with bows and arrows,
and as they told it,

began to attack these survivors
of the shipwreck.

They put up with attacks,
regular attacks

from the Sentinelese,

until they were rescued
by a larger boat.

So, they wrote up reports,

and we learned that this
is a very hostile island.

It has probably been
hostile to outsiders

for probably thousands of years.

[Shatner] Experts estimate
that there are around

50 to 100 Sentinelese

currently living on the island,

but for the most part,
this isolated culture

remains a complete mystery.

It's both extremely dangerous
and illegal

to visit North Sentinel Island.

So, why have people
continued to risk their lives

to visit these deadly shores?

[Goodheart] A lot of people
in the rest of the world

first became aware
of North Sentinel Island

in 2018,
when the news broke globally

that a young American had
been killed on the beach there.

The man's name
was John Allen Chau,

and he had gone there
with the intention

of bringing Christianity
to the native inhabitants.

He befriended some
of the local fishermen,

and then he went
in a small fishing boat.

He launched
a little portable kayak

and paddled onto the beach
holding a waterproof Bible.

He got out of his boat,

waited for some native people
to approach,

and then opened the Bible

and began reading
to the Sentinelese.

Then a young boy came up

and, at point-blank range,

drew his bow

and shot the arrow
into this waterproof Bible

that Chau was standing there
reading from.

And so, he backed off,
he got back into his kayak,

and he then returned
the next day.

What happened to him next
is a mystery.

Because the fishermen who had
brought him to the island

circled back around
to that beach a few hours later

and saw the Sentinelese

dragging his lifeless body
across the beach

and burying it in the sand.

So, that concern
for possible outsiders coming

continues to worry me
to this day.

[Everett] I was interested
at one time in going

to North Sentinel Island
and studying the Sentinelese.

It's exactly what I do:
study hunter-gatherers.

But, uh, knowing now what I know
about the North Sentinelese,

no, I don't have any desire
to go there at all.

North Sentinel Island
is a dangerous place

if you're not Sentinelese.

We see this group of people
on this island

that we don't know
anything about.

It's a mystery, sure,

but there are a lot
of mysteries in the world,

and some of them we have no
business trying to figure out.

[Shatner reads on-screen text]

Along the country's
Atlantic coast

is a 300-mile stretch
of deadly coastline

that has conjured unbridled fear

in the hearts of sailors
and seafarers for centuries.

It's one of the largest
graveyards for ships

in all the world,

known as the Skeleton Coast.

[Rebecca Simon] Today,
the Skeleton Coast has become

a huge tourist destination
for the elite

who might want to have some
sort of dangerous expedition.

No one is even allowed
to attempt to go

to the Skeleton Coast
on your own.

You literally have
to cross these gates

that have a huge
skull and crossbones

because it's probably
the most inhospitable place

in all of Africa.

And it's known
as the Skeleton Coast

because it's always been
littered with the skeletons,

literally,
of things like whales...

...other animals...

...and of shipwrecks.

Thousands of ships have crashed
along the Skeleton Coast

for centuries.

The coastline
is extremely dangerous.

It gets very, very windy,
which means if you're sailing,

the wind is blowing
these really choppy waves

against the ship.

And also, really,
really dense fog builds up

very frequently along the coast,

creating zero visibility.

[ship horn blows]

It's a perfect recipe

for all kinds of disasters
to happen.

[Geiger] It's not a good place
to get shipwrecked,

because essentially,
it is a very hot,

very dry desert
right up into the ocean.

And so, if you happen
to swim off your boat,

when you get to shore,

there's a very good chance
that you're going to die

of thirst or starvation before
anyone can come and help you.

[Shatner] While
the Skeleton Coast

is undoubtedly
an extremely dangerous

natural environment,

based on local folklore,
some have wondered,

might the true peril
of this place

be of a supernatural nature?

The two Indigenous groups

who live closest
to the Skeleton Coast

are known as the Himba
and the Khoisan.

According to the Himba,

the Skeleton Coast
is a place for angry spirits,

evil spirits,

and other kind of

deadly supernatural
phenomena to occur.

The Khoisan,
the Bushmen of the region,

they believe that the gods
deliberately created the area

as a forbidden zone.

The Skeleton Coast
has been referred to

as "the land God made in anger."

[Shatner] Whether or not
this savage shoreline

is inhabited by hostile spirits
may be debatable,

but there's no denying
the Skeleton Coast

is an extremely
deadly environment.

And like with
so many dangerous places

around the world,
people continue

to risk their lives
to experience them

because maybe facing death

is the most profound reminder

that we are alive.

The world is full of danger
and-and new things to explore.

Things like volcanoes,

places like Mount Everest.

I think that visiting
these dangerous places

is an exploration of ourselves.

It's an exploration
of our fears.

[McGee] I think, nowadays,

so much of our world
has gone virtual,

the idea that you could
get out into the world

and actually risk something--

get close to heat,

ice,

space--

I think this is gonna have
a deeper and deeper draw

the more that
our day-to-day experience

lacks the kind of fundamental
thrill of being human.

Why are humans attracted
to dangerous places?

Is it an unquenchable thirst
for knowledge

or to simply go
where few have dared to tread?

Maybe it's the physical
and mental challenges

these locations provide?

Some may claim
it's to escape boredom,

get that adrenaline rush
and be the first

to make a great discovery.

Whatever the reason,

how each of us measures

the risk versus
the reward of entering

hazardous, threatening
and perhaps deadly terrain

remains unexplained.

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