Original subtitles

Tory: Coming up on "the explosion show,"

we're meeting up with the fbi's top bomb experts

to see how they use forensics and science

to investigate bomb cases.

At a crime scene, you cannot face one way.

Tory: And then we're heading to new mexico tech

to learn about the awesome power of shaped charges...

You're going to use glass

to go through steel? Yep.

...And to see what kind of damage they can do.

Ohh! [ laughs ]

I'm tory belleci, and as a special effects artist,

I've spent years blowing stuff up for a living.

That was insane!

This is my buddy tommy passemante.

He blows up stuff just for fun.

That was sick.

So on this show, we're going to meet

people that are experts in the world of explosives.

We won't throw our explosives around.

We will not throw our explosives around.

These are the lucky few professionals

that get to spend their careers making things go boom.

Do you guys love your job or what?

It's a blast. [ laughs ]

with their help, we're going to blow stuff up

in the name of science.

Pop quiz, guys. Where did the bomb go off?

Tory: And then we're going to blow stuff up because why not?

Aah, it sneaks up on ya!

It's just plain awesome.

♪ here come the boom ♪

ohh, god!

♪ get back, I'm the fuse ♪

♪ here come the boom ♪

[ both laugh ]

♪ here come the boom ♪

-- captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications

we're here at the fbi,

where they're going to train us how to be agents

and hopefully let us blow some stuff up.

Hopefully you can get in.

So sad.

We're kidding. Alright.

You can open the door. Let him in.

[ beeping ]

oh, access granted. You're in.

You're in.

Were you afraid they weren't going to let you in?

No, I'm afraid they're not going to let me out.

♪

tory: The fbi is on constant alert

for bomb threats around the country.

To learn how they stay one step ahead of criminals,

we're here at the fbi's state-of-the-art, high-tech,

cutting-edge, kind of creepy tool shed.

Nothing like meeting two random dudes

in a shed out in the middle of nowhere.

Hi. Are we deep-frying a turkey?

-Not quite. -How are you? I'm tory.

-Jack barrow. -Jack? How are you, jack?

-Pat race. -Tommy. Nice to meet you.

Tory. Nice to meet you. So, you guys are fbi?

-Yes, sir. -Yes.

Okay. Not what I was picturing.

I figured you guys would be, like, in your suits.

More of an actual laboratory.

We have that, but sometimes for field work,

the way that we do our preps has to adjust.

This is the way a lot of the bad guys

are going to be doing their stuff.

So, what exactly do each of you guys do?

I'm a special agent bomb technician.

Anytime there's an explosive involved

or the things that make them

or someone who's thinking about making them, we get involved.

And I am one of our improvised explosives, chemistry experts.

A lot of what I focus on is using my chemistry

to understand

the improvised explosives that the bad guys are making

so that we can appropriately assess our threat.

When we have something that's potentially an improvised lab,

jack and his colleagues are my first phone call.

So, what are we cooking up today?

Fertilizer bombs. Okay.

They have been used as a weapon against our country

on a few occasions.

Tory: One of the most notorious fertilizer bombs

was used to attack a federal building

in oklahoma city on April 19, 1995.

Anti-government conspirators built a fertilizer bomb

inside a rental truck and detonated it,

killing 168 people and nearly leveling the building.

You're actually going to show us how to make explosives?

I'm going to walk you through how I make explosives.

I'm not going to teach you how to build a bomb.

-Yeah, probably wise. -Don't take this wrong way.

I really don't want to visit your house.

No, I appreciate it.

Tory: Fbi chemistry experts like jack

have to continually analyze bomb compositions

so that agents in the field, like pat,

know what clues to watch out for.

There's different size gloves. Most people are large.

-You don't have any magnums? -Oh, we got x.L. Yep.

Normally, this stuff is sensitive information.

-Copyright. -Alright. Bend over.

But I think jack and pat could tell

that tommy and I are professionals.

Jack: So, just like dissolving sugar in tea,

you're going to pour that in slowly.

And how much water to fertilizer do you need?

What's the ratio?

[ laughs ]

tory: Uh, our tax dollars do pay your salary, federal agent jack,

so tell us the damn bomb recipe already.

Not too much. Not too little.

Little of this, little of that.

Some of jack's chemistry is like baking a cake.

Baking is very precise.

But only grandma knows what that recipe really is.

So, you're not going to tell us the exact measurements?

No, sir. I have a feeling

there's going to be a lot of beeping out,

but it won't be us cussing.

Next, we're going to do some chemistry on this

to convert it into [no audio]

so we need to put some hazmat gear on.

♪

we're going to be adding a very corrosive acid

called [no audio]

with a touch of [no audio]

to our fertilizer solution.

So we're putting on hazmat gear,

because, hey, I like my [no audio]

I'd like to keep it.

How do you protect your precious face?

I saw you crash that bike on "mythbusters."

my face is very important. [ laughter ]

I feel like the julia childs of boom right now.

[ as julia ] before the cake can rise,

we have to get the proper mixture of fertilizer and --

aah! [ laughter ]

we're going to transfer the fertilizer solution

into our bucket. That's going to be our reaction vessel.

Tory: The idea behind this process

is to get the nitrogen in this fertilizer

into a high-energy, unstable state,

kind of like a toddler on a sugar rush.

Pour it in the side here.

Once the process is complete,

the nitrogen compound's unstable chemical bonds

can be broken by a detonated charge,

triggering a massive energy release

in the form of an explosion.

But we still got some work to do

before we can set this charge off.

[ coughs ]

yeah, it's strong, right?

It's not really like a smell. It just burns my nose.

Smells like burning.

The burning means it's working.

You can slowly pour. Try to minimize splashing,

'cause there is still acid in there.

For some reason, the fbi is trusting tommy

to handle the explosive material with total precision.

Just slowly pour.

There we go.

He said "slowly," tommy.

Well, at least we aren't dead.

Oh, this is just like making cheese.

I've never made cheese before,

but I imagine this is what it would be like.

Making homemade explosives helps the fbi know

what kinds of materials to look for

when they're investigating a bomb site.

I feel like a columbian drug dealer right now.

Using forensic testing, the fbi is able to detect

traces of chemical compounds used in bomb making.

"freeze!" "hey, I'm just making cheese."

[ laughter ]

"I'm just making cheese."

if we walked through the airport,

we would get dinged instantly, right?

I hope so. [ laughter ]

good answer.

Our work here is done,

so it's time to get out of the hazmat suits.

Takes me back to my "thunder from down under" days.

Wait, we're supposed to reuse those.

Huh? Well, we're not anymore.

There's our taxpayer dollars.

If you follow me, we'll get something going boom.

-Cool. -Alright.

♪

tory: Now that we've converted this fertilizer

into a high-energy, unstable form of nitrogen...

We're going to transfer that...

-Yes. -...Into this bag.

...It's time to pack this explosive powder

into an actual bomb.

I'm going have you guys make a ball out of this.

Gonna get that started.

Just keep rolling, and you'll have your nice ball.

Alright. You guys happy with that?

Love it.

I think you're probably there, tommy.

I like to be thorough. Pretty crazy to think

that we actually made this explosive ourselves

without burning off our eyebrows.

Luckily, jack was there supervising,

making sure we didn't do anything dumb.

We won't throw our explosives around.

We will not throw our explosives around.

[ giggles ] and...

At least not, like, super dumb.

Not only did he catch it midair,

but he hit me with the dad face.

Tory: We both were like, "eee!"

"we don't throw the explosives."

"sorry, dad."

alright, we ready to blow this up?

-Let's go. Get it done. -Let's go.

Tommy, go long.

Pat: We do not throw our explosives.

This is like both of our first time making explosives.

And we're not going to jail.

I know. That's the best part.

Pat: Yet.

[ laughter ]

well, yeah. Thanks for letting us

do illegal stuff and not go to jail.

And most importantly,

we're keeping you from killing yourselves.

That's important.

♪

tory: We made this with our own two hands.

Tommy, you got your big-boy voice?

Fire in the hole!

It's a good thing I had these in.

You know the drill. Here we go!

3, 2, 1!

-[ laughing ] oh, my god. -Whoa!

-Nice. -That's awesome!

Tory: In the replay, you can actually see the blast wave

that's created when our 5-pound fertilizer bomb,

which is equivalent to about 10 sticks of dynamite,

breaks down the chemical bonds in the nitrogen

and releases all of that energy at once.

See the smoke ring? [ laughs ]

that's art, baby.

The blast wave wraps around the sides

of the circular barrel our bomb is sitting on,

creating a low-pressure vortex.

So when the blast wave hits the ground, bounces back up,

and it kicks some dirt up.

Tory: The dust maintains that shape as it travels upward.

That was awesome.

Told you it would work.

Just a little taped-up bag.

That's all it is. There's no magic to it.

I don't know. I felt like a wizard.

You kind of look like a wizard.

You just need to go a little bit gray.

This looks like an explosive out of a cartoon.

Dropping it is a bad thing, though.

No, dropping is bad.

Fire in the hole!

-Oh! -Whoa! [ laughs ]

tory: Today, we're at one of the fbi's explosive labs

to see how they investigate bomb cases.

We already worked with jack in the lab

to see what kind of chemicals are used in bombs.

Now pat is going to show us how his team

can analyze the blast site for clues about the bomb.

So, what we've done is we've built three charges identical

out of commercial dynamite.

This looks like an explosive out of a cartoon.

Cartoon explosives are patterned after the real thing.

It looks like dynamite, which it is.

Probably stop handling it like that.

Like -- like what? You just reached into the box

and grabbed it. Maybe we use two hands.

Yeah, how about you just wait for him

to tell you to touch stuff? So, what we have here is --

whoa.

♪

okay. These are cartridges of dynamite

with what we call a hasty whip.

This concentration of det cord

will actually crush these sticks hard enough

so that the explosive in it initiates,

and we get detonation. This hasty whip knot

is a knot that bomb technicians use to concentrate explosives

so explosives can set off other explosives,

and that's what we're doing here.

We're about to perform what's called a 3-3-3 explosion,

where we set off three identical charges at varying depths.

What do you hope to gain from these three explosions?

If we've used these shots to train crime scene teams

and bomb technicians on how this looks

when it's buried, when it's not buried,

then when they're called to the scene of an explosion,

we can use forensics to figure out what explosive was used,

perhaps how big the charge was, and then how it was configured.

And that many times leads us back to who the bomber was.

One bomber that definitely had a profile

was the mad bomber, who set off 33 bombs

in new york city between 1940 and 1956.

He detonated crude pipe bombs made of metal and black powder

in public places like phone booths,

train stations, and movie theaters.

With the help of an expert

in the newly developed field of criminal profiling,

police were eventually able to track down george metesky.

Do bombers always have, like, a signature or something?

We look for patterns. Yeah.

I'm left-handed, for example. Yeah.

You may find a twist as a left handed versus right hand,

so we do see profiles and signatures.

Pretty sure I'd be easy to catch.

Feel like your bombs might have

a bunch of your beard hair in it.

Barbecue sauce. And barbecue sauce.

[ both laugh ]

to the bomb range? To the bomb range. Let's go.

Fun part.

It's time to place the dynamite

in three different configurations...

-Don't drop those, tommy. -[ laughs ]

...On the ground, in a hole...

Dropping it is a bad thing, though, right?

No, dropping is bad. Tory: ...And buried.

You guys are going to tie in so we can blow these up?

Yeah, we're going to make it go boom.

♪

confirm green?

Got it! Check!

So exciting.

-Wait for me. -Right now?

Yep. Do it right now.

In 3, 2, 1!

-Oh! -Whoa! [ laughs ]

whoa!

Boys, we get 'em every time. [ car alarms blaring ]

tory: The size difference of each explosion plume is easy to see.

All three charges were the same 3 pounds of dynamite.

Because the charge on the right is highly compressed,

it launched projectiles of rocks and dirt

hundreds of feet in the air,

while on the far left, the uncovered charge

sitting on the ground created a minor cloud of dust.

And the charge in the middle that sat uncovered in the hole

had a decent-sized plume but no projectiles.

It's kind of like goldilocks,

except every explosion is just right.

That was awesome. Should we go check the damage?

Yeah, let's go.

-So -- -I mean, just from the shot,

you can tell which one did more damage.

Exactly, right?

Like, dust, little bit of dirt,

and then that far right one just looked like a big --

tory: As expected, the one that was just laid on the ground

created the smallest impact.

But, I mean, it still made a decent crater.

Well, it's 3 pounds of explosives.

It's got some kick.

The one we placed in a hole and left uncovered

created a bigger impact.

The fbi's bomb specialists can measure an impact like this

and reverse-engineer the charge.

Then we can start to actually piece together

what the bomb looked like.

Now go over to the one that was buried.

Oh, my god! I mean, this is like

a good 2 feet deeper than that other hole.

It's the identical charge to the first one and the other one.

And its size, dimension,

you start to accumulate those data points --

the smell, sound, the color of the smoke.

Those are all very good questions we ask of witnesses

that help us figure out what happened here.

So we do this in a training environment

so then when we roll up on something,

not knowing what happened,

it helps us kind of follow a logic tree.

Tory: The size and type of crater

made by an improvised explosive device, or I.E.D.,

gives fbi bomb techs valuable information

on what type of explosives were used

and where the I.E.D. Was planted.

Tommy: It's like you guys just get to blow up whatever you want

and be like, "oh, we're testing. We're testing." [ laughs ]

the watermelons are designed to show you

the effects of the blast.

Fire in the hole!

Geez.

That went right in the ballistic gelatin.

That's crazy.

Tory: Here at the fbi's testing facility,

we've already studied

the chemicals used to make a bomb,

and we've seen how pat and his team

find clues at a blast site.

Now we're meeting with the evidence response team

to see how fragmentation can help identify a bomb.

-Hi, rebecca. -Hi, pat.

-Tory. -Nice to meet you. I'm rebecca.

-Tommy. Very nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you.

So, rebecca is our senior team leader

for our evidence response team.

That's the real-world csi for this division.

What exactly do you do? I collect the evidence.

Tory: When rebecca gets called to a bomb site,

her job is to meticulously investigate the scene

and capture every single shred of evidence

so that it can be sent back

to jack's team in the lab for analysis.

Typically, after a blast goes off,

there's evidence left of what it was,

not only the destruction itself.

Have you worked on any cases that we've heard of?

San bernardino?

Oh, no way. Mm-hmm.

On December 2, 2015,

two attackers opened fire on a holiday party

at the san bernardino health department,

killing 16 people and wounding many more.

They also planted a pipe bomb,

which thankfully failed to explode.

Later, a dozen more remote-controlled pipe bombs

were found at the residence of the attackers.

♪

pat and rebecca have another demonstration set up for us.

Inside that mailbox is a bomb.

The watermelons are designed to show you

the effects of the blast

and what fragmentation coming off of the mailbox

will do to people and things.

There's also some ballistic gelatin that was set out,

which is a great way to capture the effects of blast

and the things coming off of an explosion.

How cool.

Once this bomb goes off,

rebecca will show us how she approaches a bomb scene

to make sure that she captures all the clues.

Are you guys ready to do the shot,

and then rebecca can go to work?

I was wondering what was taking so long.

[ chuckles ]

♪

-you got a green light? -Yep.

Firing in 3, 2, 1!

Tommy: Geez.

♪

wow. That was --

that was pretty serious.

Pat: Secure up-range. We're safe.

This side of that thing was doing cartwheels --

holy crap.

It's time to go check out the damage.

You all may be focused here, but when I'm walking up...

You're already looking for frag. ...I'm already looking.

We know where the charge was planted

because, well, we watched it explode.

But if rebecca were to come onto the scene cold,

she could find the bomb's origin

just by looking at the pattern of fragmentation.

So, this is ground zero. Correct.

Now, when you step onto a scene,

what are you looking for?

We have watermelons here that haven't been touched,

but this one over here was.

So the blast is going in this particular direction.

Tory: Bomb blast waves explode their energy

equidistant in all directions.

Since the bomb was placed inside the mailbox,

some of the blast wave ricocheted

and pushed in that particular direction.

So if I look out here, notice I'm not seeing as much debris,

but I'm seeing a lot more of it going this way.

Tory: The first test for rebecca is securing the scene

so she can collect all the evidence.

I would do a perimeter walk,

and we would find the farthest points

of where we can see evidence.

And that would become my crime scene

where I would then go in with my team,

and we would begin collecting the evidence.

Now, a lot of the watermelons and the ballistics,

they didn't seem to catch a lot of frag.

Well, it doesn't appear, but you got your face turned this way.

At a crime scene, you cannot face one way.

You've got to look around. Turn around.

Look what we've got.

Tory: Oh, my god! What?

There's where your crime scene went to.

Man. That went right in the ballistic gelatin.

That's crazy.

Rebecca: Those are the things that actually took the blast

and went outward.

Yeah. That's where all those big chunks of metal went flying.

Exactly.

So you can even see...

-Oh, whoa. -Here...

-Yeah. -...That it did get hit,

but it wasn't strong enough to even knock it over.

I'm going to say that was probably from the mailbox.

The frame of the mailbox

and the placement of the bomb inside of it

dictated the shape of the blast wave

and direction of the shrapnel,

which is why the explosion was mitigated

in part of the perimeter, while the damage was excessive

in other directions of the scene.

Of course, this was just a demonstration.

So we're not going to make rebecca pick up

all the little pieces. Besides, I'm pretty sure

the crime scene is contaminated anyways.

Tory: He's getting friendly with the ballistics gel.

Rebecca: Oh. Let's get you out more.

We'll give tommy a moment. Everyone, turn the cameras off.

The battery actually got stuck in --

[ clattering ]

[ laughter ]

[ sighing ]

are we, like, just completely contaminating your crime scene?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

So now that we know what to do at a bomb scene --

well, mainly what not to do...

We got to interrogate some of these witnesses.

What farm did you come from?! Are you organic?!

What are these chemicals?! He's had a hard day.

Nah, forget this guy! He's not going to save you.

You're going to spend the rest of your life in jail!

I'm not watching this. We're going to be over here.

You guys go ahead. I'm not gonna watch this.

Tory: ...We're ready to put our knowledge to the test

and investigate a full-on car bomb scene.

Jack: Car bombs generally come in two forms.

Fire in the hole!

♪

who's cleaning that up?

Not it. You. [ laughs ]

not it.

Tory: We received a crash course

at the fbi's bomb testing facility

that's been, well, the bomb.

-Oh! -Whoa! [ laughs ]

dang!

Now we're putting it all together

by setting off our own car bomb.

Car bombs generally come in two forms.

It's the smaller charge -- somebody's trying to maybe

assassinate the person that is in the car --

or it's the large-vehicle bomb

using the car as a transport mechanism

to take down a target, like a large building.

We're talking like oklahoma city

or bali or world trade center one

are the large-vehicle bombs that you've seen all over the news.

One deadly use of a car bomb was in the 1993 bombing

of the world trade center in new york.

The attackers detonated a truck full of urea nitrate

in a parking garage underneath one of the towers.

The blast left a 100-foot hole and killed six people.

300 fbi investigators

dug through the rubble looking for clues.

They found a truck axle containing a vin number

which led them to the rental contract

the attackers had signed for the truck.

♪

pat is going to place some bombs somewhere in the car,

and it's up to us to use the knowledge we've acquired today

to look for clues and determine where the bomb was placed,

what type of explosive was used, and how big was the charge.

Tommy: I feel like this is a really cool game of clue right now.

-Yeah. -I'm excited.

I'm going to win this.

[ laughter ]

♪

pat: You guys ready? Okay.

Rebecca: Good.

Push and hold. Wait for my count.

Green light.

Car in 3, 2, 1!

♪

♪

wow, that was spectacular.

Tory: You made a mess!

Who's cleaning that up?

Not it. You. [ laughs ]

not it.

Tory: That was fun, but now it's time

to put our fbi skills to the test

and survey the crime scene.

Oh, my god. We got a moon roof now.

Alright. Pop quiz, guys. Where did the bomb go off?

I would say in the back seat, right behind the console.

I'd say favoring that side a little bit.

Why do you say that?

Because it looks like the roof is like this,

and then the floorboards are poking out.

That ain't gonna buff out.

Well, you're not gonna drive it home.

The hood and the engine block is completely intact,

so it didn't hit here.

There goes our producer, tampering with evidence.

Now you have to eat it.

Mmm.

Alright, you guys want to look at the high-speed?

-Absolutely. -I want to see that --

tory: We correctly figured out

that the bomb was detonated in the back seat.

Now let's see if we can estimate the size of the charge.

-Right out the windows. -Yep. Middle --

look at the front of the car not really being touched.

The engine's protecting it.

Pat: Compare this to the mailbox shot.

No flash, right? We're dealing with something different here.

Tory: There was no flash like the mailbox.

And unlike the dynamite in the 3-3-3 shot,

which kicked up a lot of dust

but didn't produce any actual smoke,

this one produced a puffy cloud of bright-white smoke.

When we see that fluffy white smoke like that,

thinking in the fertilizer family.

This looks a lot the fertilizer bomb we made.

Tells me it's one of a couple of basic groups of oxidizers.

We still want to know how big the charge was.

The car is still there. Like, it just got peeled open.

So, we've seen what happens when you put 500 pounds in.

It literally disappeared.

Hey, I remember that episode! I love my job.

So this was definitely less than 500 pounds,

but it feels like more than the 3 pounds of dynamite

we used earlier. Not much more, though.

5 pounds-ish?

It was in that neighborhood.

Yeah, you're dealing with a fairly small charge here.

But, I mean, you call that a small charge.

It took out a car. I mean, look, it literally

peeled the car open.

It doesn't take much, especially in a car like that,

where you've got closed windows and you're over-pressuring it.

♪

you know what was impressive was how much goes into the forensics

after an explosion goes off.

Like, they literally walk in blind.

They don't know what explosive was used.

They don't know where it was. And then they can go in

and assess the situation and figure out what happened.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Thank you guys for showing us what you guys do.

Tommy: We're in the perfect environment of having an explosion.

It's like having a lab for explosives.

But to think about the real-world situation,

I mean, you're dealing with a whole new animal of variables,

like screaming people and e.M.S.

And first responders of all kinds and fire departments,

and everything's getting wet and destroying your crime scene.

Like, you're doing all that with all those variables.

It's insane.

Tory: We learned a lot today,

but for now, we're perfectly happy

to keep all of our explosions on the test range.

We'll leave the real-world stuff to the fbi.

Hopefully, we never see you guys knocking on our doors.

Stay on this side of the law, and you'll be okay.

Don't take it this way, but I hope I don't see you again.

Especially you, tommy.

[ laughter ]

tory: So, john, we're dealing with shaped charges today?

Yes, we are dealing with shaped charges today.

You're going to use glass to go through steel?

Yep.

Tommy, I'm excited.

You know why? No.

'cause we're blowing [no audio] up today.

[ laughing ] yeah, it's "the explosion show," bro.

But I'm especially excited today,

because we're going to be talking about shaped charges.

Now, shaped charges have been around for 100 years,

but I am still blown away by what they're capable of doing.

I'm super excited, too, man. This is going to be fun.

That was a pretty easy setup for a segment.

Mm-hmm. Now what?

I don't know. Maybe walk out of frame,

find john, get some shaped charges?

That works for me.

♪

oh, I guess we're going that way.

♪

tory: We're here at new mexico tech,

the premiere school for all things explosive

with our good, old buddy john.

Technically, he's the ordnance technician at new mexico tech,

but we like to think of him as professor boom-boom.

-Hi, john. -Hi, guys.

And he's going to help us blow some stuff up.

No wisecracks about our mini-van?

Oh, I got loads of wisecracks about your mini-van.

I got some capri sun in the back if you want one.

[ laughter ]

so, john, we're dealing with shaped charges today?

Yes, we are dealing with shaped charges today.

Shaped charges specifically

are anything that you pack into a given shape

to create an explosive effect.

You know what that sounds like to me, john?

What?

A voiceover.

The discovery of shaped charges was first applied

in mining practices in the 1900s,

but shaped charges weren't widely used

until world war ii in the form of anti-tank missiles

and torpedoes.

This is called an oil well perforator.

They load these in a gun, so there's a whole bunch of these

that they lower down into a wellhead,

and this actually punctures the casing to let the oil flow up.

So this is actually punching through rock --

this is actually punching through rock and steel.

Shaped charges make explosives more efficient and focused.

When detonated, an explosive like tnt or c-4

will merely dent steel.

But when the same explosive material

is inside a shaped charge,

the explosive shockwave collapses the ballistic liners,

stretching it into a molten jet formation

that penetrates through materials

like thick plated steel, oil wells, and armored trucks.

Shaped charges are still used today in anti-tank missiles,

torpedoes, and the oil and gas industry.

How this works,

since tommy doesn't know anything about shaped charges...

Unh-unh.

[ chuckling ] that's not very nice, john.

You put that on your piece of steel, and we set it off.

Projects that molten metal slug down through the plate.

This is a linear shaped charge.

You end-initiate it. It crushes this down,

and you end up with a linear flier plate.

So you can cut a straight line.

You can cut a straight line.

How thick of steel can you cut through with this?

That's not normal steel.

That's r.H.A., which is rolled homogenous armor.

What's the difference? It's a lot tougher.

Oh. And it's a lot heavier.

Holy -- it's very dense.

♪

[ laughing ] that's ridiculous.

That is -- [ coughs ]

we're shooting through armor steel just to give you an idea

of what they will actually do.

Shaped charges are designed to do one thing.

They're designed to cut. They are very hard to stop.

I feel like we've talked to this subject to death.

Let's blow some stuff up. Okay, let's blow some stuff up.

Yeah. Tory, grab that piece.

Tommy, grab that piece, and let's go for a walk.

Things are heavy.

Just a little bit.

[ grunts ] just get a little quick pump-up

before we get this scene going.

We're power-lifting these armored steel plates

to demonstrate the ballistic blow of the shaped charges.

One charge for that one, and one charge for that one.

Tory: The linear shaped charge

will cut straight across the plate,

while the oil well perforator

should punch a round hole through the armored steel.

And isn't it just the most adorable

little deadly explosive?

Dude, we're going to have so many cool souvenirs from this.

I don't know that you want to put that in checked luggage.

That's really heavy.

[ both laugh ]

tory: John is tying into the charges with a shock tube,

a thin plastic tube filled with explosive material,

while we head to the bunker

and make some extra room in our luggage.

-Okay, eric, you ready? -I'm ready.

Okay, here we go. In 3...

2, 1.

Whoa!

There was a fireball. It was kind of neat.

Tory: The dust has settled.

Now we'll see how things have shaped up.

Oh, wow. Look at that.

Okay, so, this was the little charge.

-Oh, whoa. -So, we went through both sides.

Oh, my gosh.

It just punched a perfect hole through the steel.

We learned with shaped charges, size doesn't matter.

It's all about how you penetrate.

Okay, now if you want to grab that piece,

I'll grab this piece.

Look at that.

So, set them down like that so they can see them.

Now, here's something that I couldn't show you

off the other one. That is a piece of your jet.

That small piece of metal is a fragment of the jet.

That's what actually did the cutting.

The jet is the molten liner of the shaped charge

that travels at speeds of 6 miles per second

to penetrate its target with pure kinetic energy.

John, this is very impressive. We cut a hole in steel.

We cut steel in half. But when you said shaped charges,

I was picturing more like we were going to breach

a bunker door or something.

Would it impress you more if I told you

I'm going to use a wine bottle to do it?

You're going to use glass to go through steel?

Yep.

Tory: Copper is the most commonly used material in shaped charges,

but metal can fragment into dangerous projectiles,

so various powders and even glass

can be used as the liner jet.

How exactly does that punch a hole through steel?

You're thinking of glass like it is now where you can shatter it.

We're talking explosively compressed and heated glass.

I'm just having a hard time.

I know you're having a hard time.

I know you won't believe it until you see it.

Some of the bottle will shatter, but this part turns into a jet.

And that's what does the work getting through the steel.

We're going to do two variations. First one's

going to be a bottle filled with sensitized nitromethane.

The second one, because I know how much you guys like c-4 --

-[ laughs ] -hey, it looks like a candle.

Lavender?

Yeah, sure. It's lavender. Right.

So, we're going to use c-4 on this one.

This one we'll actually put on the table

so you can watch it shoot through the bottom.

You're very romantic -- bottle of wine, candle.

-Candles. -Think of everything, john.

Romancing tommy.

Ah... [ laughter ]

tory: John is truly the perfect date --

an exploding glass wine bottle and a cozy bunker in the desert.

Who wouldn't swipe right?

You guys are never satisfied till we go over the top.

Why are you always playing games, john?

♪

well, well, well, the table's gone.

Tory: Earlier, john showed us some shaped charges

that were, well, kind of meh.

You guys are never satisfied till we go over the top.

Why are you always playing games, john?

Tory: So john claims a glass wine bottle

can be made into a shaped charge

and cut through armored steel.

I thought you and tommy polished all these off yesterday.

Sorry, john. We drink white.

Tory: So johnny bordeaux is setting up

the wine bottle shaped charge experiment.

We're kicking it up a notch

with three armored steel plates per charge.

John: C-4 on the table. Nitromethane on the ground.

Tory: We wanted to test different surfaces,

so we're using this table and the ground.

I'm having a hard time believing that a wine bottle

is going to go through three pieces

of armor plating.

We hope to detect the subtle hints of kaboom

and taste the sweet notes of kablooey.

-You guys ready? -Yes, sir.

Okay, here we go. In 3...

2, 1.

♪

well, well, well, the table's gone.

It always smells so good.

Tory: Let's go check out the damage.

Shut up. Are you kidding me?

Our nitromethane wine bottle shaped charge

went through two armored steel plates

and stopped halfway through the third.

He put a hole through a steel plate using a wine bottle.

Alright, should we take a look at the c-4?

The c-4 half wine bottle shaped charge on the table

had the bigger explosion and totally destroyed the table.

We're ready to see some smoldering steel.

Oh, so we only got through --

we didn't even get through one of the plates.

This is what happens when you don't have enough mass

behind what you are shooting.

So, as it's trying to punch through it,

everything's moving away from it at the same time.

As the table explodes,

the plates fall away from the shaped charge.

More space is created, and the time of collision is extended,

which lessens the impact force of the charge.

This makes it more difficult

for the c-4 half wine bottle shaped charge

to pierce the plates.

The jet came out and hit the plate.

It started moving the plates,

so as it's trying to punch through it,

everything's moving away from it at the same time,

so it doesn't have enough mass behind it

to allow the jet to do its job.

Just like how it's difficult for a boxer

to land a knockout punch when their opponent leans back.

One of the easiest ways to defeat a shaped charge is space.

Basically there, you created space

because the plate's moving.

Still an impressive amount of damage for it falling.

To defeat anti-tank missile shaped charges,

modern tanks sometimes use explosive reactive armor.

It's designed to create a counter-explosion

to disrupt the shaped charge jet,

directing it away from the tank.

Now, one last thing. Did you notice --

the sparklies? The sparklies.

It's melted glass.

Melted glass.

That's hot as hell.

Oh, yeah, it's hot.

I wouldn't hold it for too long, but yeah, that's hot.

Hope you enjoyed that. Oh, man.

Tommy's over here trying to singe his fingerprints off.

That was impressive, the fact that you were able

to punch holes in the armor with glass.

You guys figure out they're really hard to stop.

Biggest takeaway is don't get in front of them.

Basically stay in the bunker.

Exactly.

Alright, so what's next? What else could we put holes in?

Got a lot of stuff here. What about that tank?

No. What about a dump truck?

No. What about that tractor?

No. How about we pick something that you think we can blow up?

What can we blow up?

Can we blow up that rock?

Why don't we blow up the rock? We can blow up the rock.

We can blow up the rock. With glass?

With glass.

Alright, let's try that.

I bet you we're going to find gold

or something cool underneath.

Tory: John made us believers in this ballistic wine bottle,

so let's see if an entire six pack can crack this rock.

John: We're going to put the wine bottles on tables,

and then we'll ring them around the rock.

I'll try and line them up across from each other.

Tie them all together, so they all go off

at the same time, and boom.

What should we expect to see?

I honestly don't know.

I've never tried to blow up a rock this big

with wine bottles, so let's find out.

Okay. Can I move the rock now?

Sure. I'm going to go prep charges.

You guys take care of getting the rock moved.

[ laughing ] yeah.

Thanks, john.

♪

well, what happened was they went and got people

that work here to move the rock.

I'm sorry, tommy. I really wanted you to move the rock.

I didn't want to move the stupid rock anyway.

♪

move a rock. Stupid car.

Tory: Tommy can't get no satisfaction

from that rolling stone.

Can I pee on the rock?

Maybe. I have to ask.

That's not a no.

Tory: But at least we get to do the super-interesting task

of setting up these tables.

We want to find out if six wine bottle shaped charges

can blow up this big boulder. And we're using the tables

so that the shaped charges are lined up

with the midpoint of the rock.

Have a hard time believing that this is going to work.

We did pick that rock because it's the only thing

that sourpuss john would let us blow up.

Shaped charges are used in mining

and quarrying practices to bore holes in rock.

♪

this kind of feels like one of those bad morning talk shows.

♪

welcome back to "goodbye rock." on today's episode,

we're going to be blowing up this rock.

For today's show, we have a good example

of problems in life like this rock.

Once you blow them up and make your pieces smaller,

they're not such a big problem.

That's so good.

That is such good advice.

Life lesson.

[ studio audience applauding ]

♪

tory: Since the nitromethane wine bottle shaped charge

cut through three steel armor plates earlier,

we're using that same explosive once again

to turn these six wine bottles into shaped charges.

John, how's your wine bar coming along?

Oh, it looks gorgeous.

Tory: We're hoping that the six pack of shaped charges

cracks the rock down the middle and shatters it into chunks.

On second thought, could we just keep the rock as it is?

It looks really cool.

Too late.

Tory: John is tying in using shock tube.

Do you think this is going to work?

Yeah, I think it's going to work.

It's almost boom time.

How many of you guys think it's going to work?

-What do you think? -What do you guys think?

Alright, so how many bottles did you put out there?

Six. You think that's going to be

enough to split this rock?

If it works, great.

If not, well, we learned something.

Alright, let's see what happens.

Okay, here we go.

3, 2, 1.

♪

[ laughing ] ohh!

Damn!

[ tommy laughs ]

oh, wait. The rock's still there.

Still looks like a rock.

[ laughter ]

better get the -- out, buddy.

Whoa.

Jackhammer.

Tory: The rock remained solid, solid as a -- something solid,

but let's see if our wine bottle shaped charges

did any damage, in the name science.

Whoa! I mean, it did some damage.

From the video monitor, it looked like nothing happened.

Oh, no, no. No, you blew some chunks off.

I mean, see where it hit here?

Totally. It went in a little ways.

Look at how deep that hole is.

Dude, it fractured the entire rock.

It fractured all this up here.

It didn't do a complete split, though.

But, I mean, this wasn't such a ridiculous idea after all.

The other thing you're fighting against with rock

is rock is porous.

Every time you hit an opening in the rock,

it's slowing that jet down a little bit versus steel.

Steel's pretty solid.

The rock was able to defeat the shaped charge jet

because it is very porous, with many pockets of air

similar to the design of non-reactive armor on tanks.

The shaped charge jet was slowed down

and redirected by the air pockets inside the rock,

making it less effective.

You'd have been much better off drilling a hole through this

and filling it with dynamite and blowing it up.

Well, why didn't you tell us that in the first place?

It takes more than wine bottles to break a rock.

And let's face it. I mean, nothing good really comes

after emptying more than two bottles of wine.

[ laughs ]

are we done walking yet?

No, they're still filming.

Hi.

[ laughs ] whiff.