Original subtitles

I got a big infection on my back.

That hurt?

Ah! Ah!

Ah! Ah! Ah!

Narrator: They survived in pairs and in groups,

and now the best of the best are taking

on their greatest challenge yet: To survive 21 days...

Holy [bleep]

...with no support...

Oh, my god.

...no one to watch their back...

Man: This is my shot.

Narrator: ...Completely exposed.

[ Groaning ]

I'm terrified.

Narrator: "Naked and afraid: Alone."

I'm headed out on a dirt road in Belize,

headed out into the jungle alone.

No one else to fall back on.

No one else to rely on.

Just me.

Always got to be aware.

Always got to be on top of things.

It's going to be quite an adventure.

My name is Gary Golding.

I come from Redondo Beach, California.

I'm known as Tarzan of Los Angeles,

and I teach nature awareness.

One of the things I do with my time is I save bees,

and I use them to educate children.

Look how cute they are. Little...

- They are not cute. - What?

Bees. [ Groans ]

I just got stung on the forehead.

[ Laughs ]

Don't play with bees, kids.

[ Laughs ]

I've done this challenge three times,

but this will be my first jungle experience.

My past challenges were dry savannahs.

I've never actually survived in a jungle before.

Narrator: Based on his past three "naked and afraid" challenges,

Gary's solo survivor rating was established

using three criteria:

Self-reliance, mental toughness and skills.

On his first 21-day challenge in Brazil,

Gary's partner tapped out on day three.

You got to get in shade, Karen.

I can't do it. I want to go home.

But showing great mental toughness,

he survived 13 days on his own

and proved his self-reliance as a master scavenger.

This is what I want.

Narrator: But ultimately scavenging unripe fruit

ended his challenge on day 16. [ Retching ]

That hurts bad.

Medic. [ Retching ]

Narrator: On his 40-day "XL" challenge in Africa,

Gary's scavenging got him through...

This head smells of life.

If you're not willing to eat maggots,

you're not really a survivalist.

Narrator: ...But proved too risky and controversial

of a survival strategy for the rest of his teammates.

This is so gross. That meat, we're not eating.

What a bunch of ungrateful [Bleep]

Because that's exactly what the [bleep] you are.

Narrator: On his third challenge, Gary exhibited mental toughness

against an angry visitor.

[ Elephant trumpets ]

He's leaving.

Narrator: And this time, his scavenging skills pulled the team through.

Anybody up for impala backstrapping leg meat?

- Hell yeah. - Smell.

- Oh, that's nice. - That's fresh.

Let's eat.

Starting him on his alone challenge

with a solo survival rating of 8.5.

Gary: This is going to be a wet humid place

with more creatures per square inch than anywhere I've been.

It's a beautiful place,

but it's also a place that could eat you alive.

The only challenge I didn't complete

was when I was alone in Brazil.

In this particular one, I just have to survive in order

to carry my message to the world:

Consume as little as possible.

On this challenge, I'm going to survive off of insects

and what I can scavenge.

I've been judged for my scavenging before.

This time, I'm going to do it my way.

Let's do this.

Alright. I guess this is it.

This is where the clothes come off.

♪♪

Get out there.

Now this is a first for me.

Walk up to a bag without a partner.

Narrator: For this challenge, Gary was allowed to choose

just three essential items to keep himself alive.

I love this fire starter. It's amazing.

Same kind I brought with me to Africa on "XL."

I'm going to need this out here in the jungle especially.

And the map.

I got to make my way up to here, it looks like,

where the fish and the resources would be.

All right.

Let's go.

♪♪

Narrator: To reach his water source,

Gary will have to traverse

4 miles of dense sub-tropical rainforest

alive with venomous vipers

and the largest concentration of jaguars

in all of Central America.

Alone in the jungle, he will be easy prey

for these night stalkers

who kill by biting through their victim's skull.

It's dense for sure with vegetation in here.

Bugs and flies trying to land on you.

Narrator: These humid jungles are home to more

than 50,000 insect species per square mile.

I'm concerned about botflies getting under my skin.

There's all kinds of stuff.

Narrator: Gary will be the perfect warm-blooded host

for botflies who parasitic larva burrow

under the skin until maturity,

and at this time of year,

the heavy rainstorms that occur almost daily

will provide the ideal breeding ground for mosquitos

and other biting and blood-sucking insects.

Water collects downhill,

so I want to keep kind of moving on a downhill path.

♪♪

Look at this.

Oh, wow. Water feels terrific.

[ Grunts ] Right.

I got to be concerned about crocodiles.

♪♪

Right now, I need to just find a good spot

within the vicinity of this to build shelter.

♪♪

Wow. We got some cohune nuts here.

These are edible with very good meat inside of them.

You need a couple rocks to smash them open.

The fact that these are here on the ground

is a good sign for a potential source of nutrition.

See it up there on the tree, a whole bunch of it.

Cohune nuts.

I like it.

♪♪

Huh, got a creek here that I can get water from.

Right here I can see the bottom.

There's less chance of a crocodile right here.

I can take a dip.

Those are some big palms.

You might as well build where your resources at.

If I want to do it, it'd be right in here

I guess.

First, I want to get a fire going because

I'm worried about how much daylight I have left.

I don't have anybody to help me, like, you know,

one person tend the fire

while one person builds a raised shelter, you know?

Shaving off some magnesium.

Magnesium burns at like 3,000 degrees fahrenheit.

This has a much better chance of catching on fire.

I just want to get a steady bed of coals,

then I can get a fire going anytime.

Time to hustle.

Doing this by yourself is,

you know, that it's down to only you.

Okay. And those are thorns.

My number on concern is to make a raised bed

off the jungle floor actually.

So if you sleep on the dirt at nighttime in the jungle,

the creatures, they're looking for warmth,

and they'll find you.

I'm actually strategizing using physics and engineering

to avoid tying down anything,

and this right here is operated on leverage.

Look at that.

Holds all my weight no problem.

This is a fool sized bed

because this fool is going to sleep in it.

[ Laughs ]

Being out in a jungle with jaguars walking around,

it's intense.

Anything can happen, so I keep things close to me if I can.

I hit this, make some noise.

Bang!

I don't have fangs and claws,

so you got to have your own fangs and claws at hand.

Fire, water, the beginnings of a shelter.

It's not a bad day one.

Naked and alone, day one in the jungles of Belize.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Animals growls ][ Screams ]

[ Screams ]

♪♪

It's night one.

There's something big out there.

There's a lot noise in the jungle let me tell you.

Something big is out there like 20 feet from me, maybe closer.

[ Growls ]

Oh, my god.

[ Screams ]

♪♪

I made it through night one, which is interesting.

Lot of animals coming right up

and like to investigate who and what I am.

It looks like it's going to rain.

It feels like it's going to rain.

So today it's about getting a roof over my head

and refining my shelter.

Your body gets way cooler when it gets wet,

so if the rain hits, can lead to hypothermia.

Bottom line is I got to get this roof built.

I know how brutal storms can be when your naked and unprepared.

Oh, my god. Give me a damn break.

Oh, my god.

It's going. It's going. It's going.

Welcome to Africa.

♪♪

I am in a downpour like you wouldn't believe.

I'm talking a deluge of rain.

I got to get this roof completed on my shelter

if I'm going to pull this off and stay dry,

so I got to work my butt off in the rain.

Let's get busy shall we?

Let's go.

♪♪

The deluge has eased up, but look.

That's how wrinkled my hands are.

Look at that. It's waterproof in there.

Look that shingling.

Not bad, huh?

[ Camera lens squeaks ]

[ Insects buzzing ]

I'm standing up outside my shelter now.

Inside my shelter are mosquitos.

The buzzing is intense.

The biting is intense.

I'll just get out of there.

Aw, man. I tell you. It's nuts.

I'm going to have to stand up out here all night.

♪♪

The mosquitos were horrendous.

They were absolutely horrendous.

Bugs are actually the biggest factor out here, biggest.

In Brazil, I got eaten alive by bloodsucking flies every day.

That was one heck of an experience.

My back has been riddled with flea bites

and covered in flies eating my sores.

Get out of here.

Okay. You got me.

You got me.

That was tough, but I was just, like,

"I like it. I love the pain."

This is how you need to think to get through this

because if your mind goes the other direct and goes, like,

"oh, these things are eating me alive.

They're killing me," then that's exactly what'll happen.

♪♪

I haven't really in the first few days

put any energy into eating.

I feel tired. I feel weak.

So day three here I think it would be a wise idea

because I'm using a lot of calories.

I need to try to eat a little bit.

Got an ant trail right here.

Narrator: A handful of ants only has 30 calories,

but Gary has burned close to 10,000 calories

since the beginning of the challenge.

They're actually good.

Delicious ants.

I know I don't want to get one of those

with the big white head.

That one got me.

Ah, and it's still clamping down tighter.

[ Grunts ]

I need more food.

[ Thunder rumbles ]

I'm feeling weaker every day.

I'm definitely not getting stronger.

Getting scared if my gas tank gets too low

then I'll start dragging real hard.

I really need to start thinking about a source of nutrition,

and cohune nuts are great.

In my challenges, I'm known as a scavenger,

but I also climbed trees and provided figs

and a lot of other things.

70 feet up in a tree

is a place where you don't make mistakes.

You fall from this height, you die.

Whoa.

Figs are delicious.

There is no branches to climb on this cohune tree,

so I need to improvise.

♪♪

Narrator: The fruit inside the rigid shell of the cohune nut

is similar to a coconut

and can be stored for long periods of time

without spoiling.

Busting my ass and securing food.

Now I just got to find a good place to bust a nut.

[ Laughs ]

Oh-hoh, wow.

Busted clean open. Kept everything in there.

♪♪

When it comes to cracking nuts in the wild,

nothing like the rocks.

♪♪

The mosquito level is insanely high today.

This is crazy.

[ Groans ]

They won't stop biting, and they're ravenous.

Oh, god.

I can't stop scratching just to the point

of not trying to draw blood.

♪♪

The nights keep getting worse

because the mosquitos keep multiplying.

If you look at my body, it's just torn up.

I would say every inch of me is covered in bites,

but it's more than that.

It's every centimeter.

I'm just completely eaten alive.

I can't keep going on like this.

You know, mosquitos are known to carry malaria,

dengue fever, zika

and not to mention, mosquitos carry the botfly larva.

The mosquito actually injects the larva in your body,

and then it feeds on you,

your flesh under your skin and grows

and then finally chews its way out

and hatches its way out and flies away.

Out of all the predators out here,

the mosquito is the one that's killing me.

It's time to focus on controlling

botflies and mosquitos.

That's the next smart move for me in survival,

and that's what I'm going to do.

♪♪

I'm going to go get some clay to cover myself

as a shield against the mosquitos

because it's hard for them to penetrate through clay.

[ Groans ] Clay galore.

I found some gray stuff.

I'm going to get a whole bunch of this,

take it back to camp and put it on if it's time for bed.

♪♪

Mosquitos are here.

They're buzzing around my head.

I'm going to apply my clay now.

Here I am clayed up from head to toe.

Hopefully this will be a reprieve from mosquitos.

♪♪

The mud mask burning my face, starting to irritate me.

Ooh.

That didn't do nothing for them.

They just hung out and did their thing.

Ouch.

♪♪

It feels good to get this clay off me.

Sleeping with it on me all night.

It was a pain in the butt.

The mosquitos have me doing a lot of thinking.

They're getting up in my head.

They really do.

I'll be honest with you.

They're wearing me down.

The mosquitos have effected my productivity hugely

because, I mean, I'm talking...

I get a lot of blood sucked out of me every day.

And then you're not putting enough nutrients into your body

to even replace that.

My imagination goes to just the thought of how many

are just piercing the same exact spot that's been pierced,

and I've got some pretty big sores.

The odds are good that I'll walk away with botflies in my skin.

This type of punishment.

I don't think any human is meant to endure that.

♪♪

Gary: Here we are.

Morning of day 10.

I've been getting my sleep a lot in the morning

because then the mosquitos finally stop

and then I'm worn out.

You got to get your sleep sometime during the day.

Narrator: Prolonged lack of protein and sleep will adversely effect

Gary's brain functions linked to motivation,

productivity and focus

and also lower his levels of serotonin and dopamine,

chemicals in the brain known to enhance mood.

I got a little feeling of sadness for the people

I love at home and who like to have me around to lean on,

so as I'm struggling I'm wondering

if their struggles are a little harder

without me around to give them...

Because I'm a real motivator.

Yeah, I get off on that energy of being a motivator,

and sometimes you'll finish a challenge

just so you can the other person finish, you know?

Without having someone here to do that too,

I don't have that purpose here.

♪♪

I'm hungry, and I want some protein.

I want some fish. I want some whatever.

I think about working on a fish basket today.

I cut down the black palm, and I split it at the end in fours.

It's all connected already at the bottom.

I just got to weave through here.

A bunch of vines for the netting.

So now I have the beginnings of a fish basket.

It may end up being my main source of protein.

Ah! [Bleep]

I just cut my thumb open pretty good.

Narrator: In this jungle teaming with bacteria,

Gary's open wound could easily get infected.

Gary: It's a pretty good gash, and the only thing I know

that can work out here for something like that

is the soldier ant that has big head on it

and some jaws because what they'll do is

if they clamp down, they won't let go.

If I can find some of those, I can clamp down on there

and use them like sutures.

Will it work? I don't know.

♪♪

You got to stir them up.

Here they come.

There I go.

♪♪

Just like that.

Rip the body off.

Wow, that worked.

I've been playing with bugs my whole life.

The whole thing with the ants is something

I've never done before, but I've always wanted to try,

and I guess I got my chance.

Morning 12.

Thoughts going through my head about these sores on my bodies

that are making holes in my back,

imagining a botfly wiggling around.

It's the little things, you know?

It's the little things out here that are just eating me alive,

but I got to keep pressing forward.

I'm getting weaker. I'm hungry.

I'm going to go work on that fish basket,

try to get me some food.

♪♪

So I take the vine and just weave in and out,

in and out of every layer.

Basket weaving is a slow and tedious process,

but if it gets me protein it'll be worth it.

It's tough out here.

You almost wish something bad would happen to you

so you can leave.

The answer to not being eaten alive by insects every night.

That crossed my mind.

Just you get chewed up and eaten alive, and you're naked.

The misery.

You can't focus.

You're in pain the whole time.

It's like, "what's the point?"

I'll be honest.

I may tap.

I want to finish, but I don't know that I'm going to finish.

♪♪

Look at that. Time to fish.

It looks like basket material, but it is more of a fishing net.

Some cohune nut for bait.

If you look down in that water,

there is a bunch of fish around it.

If I'm lucky, I'll start eating.

I'm hungry. I want to catch something.

I want to eat something. I want some protein.

Damn it. Nothing.

♪♪

♪♪

There's something.

It's walking circles around me.

[ Branch snaps ]

Hear that?

Every night, something big comes through here, and it's bold.

And it does not care that I am here.

♪♪

[ Grunting ]

♪♪

[ Grunts ]

[ Grunts ]

♪♪

So here we are. Day 14.

I made it through night 13.

I am starving.

Ooh, wow.

Look at this.

That's a big paw.

Looks like it took a poop or something and then buried it.

Now I know for sure there is a Jaguar close.

This is literally like 30 yards from my camp.

It kind of takes being alone out here to, like, another level.

♪♪

I'm going to put a fence around my shelter

because there is a Jaguar roaming around me.

When I'm working out here at night and it gets dark,

I feel very vulnerable, and even sleeping in my shelter.

It's completely open.

Something could walk right up to it no problem.

My fence, it might be more psychological for me,

so that's literally what I'm working on

is just making this Jaguar resistant.

Feeling that hard work on my body.

It's taking a toll on me.

I really need protein. Bad.

I've been living off things like nuts.

It's time to take it to the next level.

♪♪

♪♪

Yeah!

Wow.

There's these little ground birds,

and one flew away and left these two eggs.

That's really barely anything to eat.

I'm thinking about just, you know, leaving them.

God they look delicious though.

But maybe I will take those eggs.

Sorry, little birdie.

If it was a significant amount of food,

I would feel differently.

That bird is losing everything it lives for.

I'm gaining barely anything.

Narrator: After 14 days surviving on insects and nuts,

Gary has ingested less than 200 calories.

The raw eggs will provide only 40 calories,

but they're rich in protein which can boost dopamine levels.

Eggs are delicious right now.

It sent something to my brain, and it feels good.

I'm having a conflict in a survival world

a little bit with some of the stuff

I'm eating because I could have survived without those eggs.

And I'm here for one reason.

This message on my back.

Consume as little as possible.

Man, I tell you.

I sure could use some company out here

to help keep my mind away from how real the hunger is.

It gets really tough.

I'm deprived of everything.

Most of all, I miss love.

I miss the people I love in my life.

I miss my dog, Frankie.

I miss talking to my mother,

and I miss the gentle touch of my girl.

I'm missing that love a lot.

♪♪

♪♪

Oh, whoa.

You're never going to believe this.

Look what's right on the trail in front of me as I'm walking.

A turtle.

[ Chuckles ]

You're friendly.

You remind me of my little dog, Frankie.

♪♪

A turtle.

Why you're the friendliest thing I met out here.

And I have to say maybe the cutest.

[ Laughs ]

Wow.

High five.

I'm going to have to give you a name.

How about Timmy? You like Timmy?

Timmy the turtle.

You're going to be hard to eat.

You're coming back with me.

I have to think about this.

So I don't know what I'm going to do about Timmy.

I'm not exactly sure now.

I can use Timmy to boil in my water and make a little stew,

but I'm alone out there.

I don't know. I'm on the fence with Timmy.

Let me show you my water hole.

You want to see my water hole, buddy?

Well, I've been trying to catch fish.

You're probably good at catching fish.

Look at that. I can pet Timmy.

♪♪

There.

This is where I spend all my time, buddy.

You like it?

I almost want to keep you just for my own company.

We're going to hang out, you and I.

Timmy is like my little adopted pet out here.

I'm not sure if I could eat him.

I don't know.

It would be hard to kill that guy.

No? Not into kisses?

Not into PDA?

I shouldn't have named him.

Timmy, your feet are going to be free, buddy.

It was nice while it lasted.

Go find a Tanya the turtle or something.

[ Laughs ]

Oh, Timmy, Timmy, Timmy.

Go on. Get out of here.

Don't look at me like that.

Go on.

Go.

Go on. Oh.

There goes Timmy.

There goes Timmy.

♪♪

♪♪

Bye, Timmy.

Bye, buddy.

♪♪

So morning 18.

I let Timmy go, but I'm starving.

♪♪

Whoa.

Just found a tarantula hole.

I actually saw it run back down,

so I know for a fact there is a tarantula in there.

In order to fish this tarantula out,

I have to get a very thin piece of, like, grass,

and I put it down the hole and I wiggle it.

Got to make it think it's a little bug.

Damn it.

Got away.

Oh, yes.

Here is one.

♪♪

Narrator: Tarantula fangs produce a painful bite,

and their barbed venomous hairs trigger an allergic reaction

with burning sensations.

Now those red hairs will shoot,

and it'll irritate my eyes and nose.

I got to be careful.

I'm going to cook this thing up and eat it, but I'm not done.

I'm not done looking.

Whoa.

Another tarantula.

It kicked all it's hairs off to try to deter me.

Bam.

I'm going to try a little fishing today

with my fish basket.

♪♪

I think the big one got away,

but I got a fish.

Time to go cook up two tarantulas and a fish and eat.

This is the biggest protein meal

I've had yet.

Just like mama used to make.

[ Laughs ]

To some people this would be a nightmare.

To me it's a dream come true.

♪♪

Mmm, dinner is served.

Taste like kind of chicken and crab.

Mmm.

Perfect end.

♪♪

The mosquitos are still just terrible.

And I...

I think I feel my first botfly

living in my skin on my back.

It's just itching a different way.

It feels like it's itching kind of underneath my skin,

moving around.

So now I have to live with the knowledge

that there is something living inside of me.

Oh, my gosh.

It's freaking horrific.

♪♪

Now the mosquitos.

That's where the hell is.

I got a big infection on my back,

and I sleep on it every night, and it sticks to my boards.

On my first challenge, I spent time in the hospital

after one of these things.

I want to make sure that doesn't happen.

Narrator: A medic is called in to evaluate

the sore on Gary's back.

Let me have a look at it.

Turn that way.

Turn that way. Should I sit down?

The medic determines that there is no larva

growing under Gary's skin,

but the area is severely infected.

I'm going to put some iodine. This is to sterilize the area.

Okay.

[ Groans ] If I leave it,

it can go down to your muscles, and then we have gangrene.

What happens if you get gangrene?

That hurt? No.

No? Not yet.

That hurt?

Yeah, that hurts a little bit.

Okay.

Ah!

All right. [ Grunts ]

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Oh!

[ Grunts ]

Good morning.

Everybody stretch those legs and stretch.

I tell you.

Survival is a bitch.

You ever had your nuts chewed on by chiggers?

I have.

Hello, Clarice.

I'm having a couple friends for dinner.

Won't you join me?

Ow.

Just kidding.

[ Giggles ]

Ah!

Alright. [ Grunts ]

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

[ Grunts ]

This is your... Holy crap.

That's fish bait. [ Laughs ]

That's fish bait.

This is the size of the dead tissue she cut out of my back.

♪♪

So I'm going to feed this to the fish.

Let us see if they eat my dead flesh.

♪♪

Oh, big one got it.

It is the circle of life.

♪♪

My last night of hell.

I miss the people I love.

One more night of getting eaten alive.

No escape.

No escape.

♪♪

Morning 21.

Extraction day.

The jungle, it really ate me up.

I'm definitely weaker and more beaten up

than when I started this challenge for sure.

I have to go here.

Crocodiles. That's not a good thing.

I got quite a walk ahead of me, so on my way out of here

I'm going to make sure to hydrate real good.

I'm going to drink the last of my water,

and there's mosquito larva swimming in it.

These are the babies of the mosquito

that were feeding on my baby.

Alright. Down the hatch, little mosquito babies.

Mmm.

Little protein in there.

Let us do this. Let's get out of here.

Narrator: To get to his extraction point,

Gary faces a steep 4 mile hike through stagnant

and bug infested water and dense jungle terrain

that conceals the most dangerous snake

in Central America, the fer-de-lance.

He will then have to cross a river

infested with 10-foot crocodiles.

♪♪

Gary: This is definitely my first extraction alone.

I think I'm going to pull this off,

but there's still no guarantees.

Anything can happen at any moment.

You got to walk slow.

There's jaguars.

And my biggest fear is there is still a possibility to step

on a fer-de-lance snake.

[ Groans ] Whoo.

And it's thorny in here.

Oh, gosh dang.

This is quicksand.

♪♪

The chiggers are waking up. That's for sure.

My legs are getting eaten.

I've never wanted to get out of a place so bad in my life.

Being eaten alive constantly.

Yeah, that's something that I wanted to be over for sure.

[ Groaning ]

Ooh, it's been a long haul, a long tortuous haul.

I got to be getting closer to water now.

Look at that. There it is.

There's the body of water.

Map says there is crocodiles.

Whoa.

I just saw something underwater over there.

I've decided to swim across this thing

even though there's two crocodiles for sure.

Right down there.

I think I can make it across before they can make it to me.

Swim, baby, swim.

♪♪

♪♪

Oh, my god.

[ Grunts ]

♪♪

♪♪

I did it.

Yes. Ah.

I see a road.

Yeah.

There it is.

[ Laughs ]

So, you my ride?

Yeehaw.

I didn't think I'd come out quite as battered as I did.

Being eaten alive constantly.

That's something that I wanted to be over for sure.

Of all my challenges, the bugs on this one

were the worst thing ever, but I got through it.

I stayed true to my methods and my motto:

Consume as little as possible.

Narrator: Gary lost a total of 17 pounds during the challenge.

He showed extreme mental toughness

in the face of bugs and large predators.

His SSR rises to 9.6.

Battered, bruised, beaten, but, hey, not defeated, right?

Now I have more knowledge of myself and the jungle.

I can't wait to hug the people I love.

Can't wait. Mama, I'm coming home!

Yeah!