All language subtitles for Dark.Marvels.S01E08.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

Narrator:
From ritual Maya games
played with killer balls

possibly made
from human heads...

A captive victim sacrificed
against their will.

The person who dies, there
is a decapitation involved.

Narrator: ...to fatal
gladiator fights...

Joyce Salisbury:
Every day was carnage day.

You could see broken limbs,
severed limbs.

The crowd wanted blood,
and that they got.

Narrator:
...to knights wielding
lethal lances...

Shane Adams:
A shard came up
into the king’s helmet

and entered in
through the king’s eye.

Narrator: ...history
is full of contests

with players fighting
for their very survival.

Aaron Irvin:
These are all of the people
who we have conquered,

forced to kill each other
for your pleasure.

Narrator: Now we explore
the dark origins

of the world’s
deadliest games.

Not all inventions are
made with good intentions.

Unlock the twisted history

behind the world’s
darkest marvels.

Chiapas, Mexico, 2020.

While excavating beneath
the Temple of the Sun

in the ancient Maya city
of Tonina,

a team of researchers
discovers a hidden tunnel...

...and a chamber
filled with 400 pots.

Guy Hepp:
And among those pots
they discovered

human cremains,
or cremated human bone.

Narrator:
Some archaeologists believe

these remains
come from players

of the notorious
Maya ball game

that originated
some 3,000 years ago.

Michael Livingston:
It is an incredibly brutal
and hard game

that could be at times
a battle of life and death.

Narrator:
Though venues differ,

most games take place
at a large stone court

in the center of town.

Michael Livingston:
When we’re talking about
the Mayan ball game,

we usually associate this
with ball courts.

We see variations
of the ball game

across Mesoamerican
and ancient American cultures.

Unlike our ball courts today,

which are always
standardized, right?

A basketball court
is always the same size.

These varied incredibly.

Dan Dickrell:
The court that the Maya
ball game is played on

has a similar layout
even though the sizes differ.

It’s a narrow I-shaped field,

and then on the interior
there are slanted walls

that keep the ball contained
from the people in the stands

or the people
that are watching.

Narrator:
Teams of two to six players

volley the ball
back and forth,

keeping it in the air while
trying to gain territory

on their opponent’s side
and score in their end zone.

If a player manages to get
the ball through a stone ring

mounted high on the wall,
he automatically wins the game.

It’s sort of like soccer,
but you are not allowed

to touch the ball with
your hands or your feet,

but the rest
of your body is fair.

Narrator: To the Maya,
the ball game is more

than a form of entertainment.

Archaeological records
indicate it carries great

religious and political
significance.

These games likely
took place at calendrically
significant times.

I’ve even seen
interpretations

that it was kind of
a proxy for warfare.

It could be a way to work out
intergroup conflicts,

border politics,
and those sorts of things.

Narrator:
One of the earliest written
mentions of the game

comes from a legend in
the Maya’s most sacred text,
the Popol Vuh.

Guy Hepp:
The Popol Vuh tells the story
of the hero twins

Hunahpu and Xbalanque
growing up and learning

that they are actually
ballplayers and not farmers.

And ultimately,
they go out to the ball court

and they start to play.

The game is rambunctious,
the game is loud,

the ball is bouncing off

those sort of galley ways
on the side.

And the lords
of the underworld Xibalba
hear the twins playing,

and they call them
to come down to play.

Michael Livingston:
In the land of the dead,
essentially.

They’re trying
to trick these hero twins,

trying to cause them pain,

trying to cause them suffering,
trying to kill them.

And ultimately
the hero twins win.

They defeat
the lords of the underworld
in the ball game.

They ultimately ascend
to be the sun and the moon,

and this sort
of symbolizes the ways

in which the ball game itself
is where you can play out

the cycling of life and death

in real time with an audience.

Narrator: Unlike some
modern day sporting events,

the ancient Maya games
are long.

For those of you who think
a tennis game is long,

you’ve never seen
a Mayan ball game.

The games were very intense.

Sometimes it would go
on for hours,

sometimes even days.

Narrator: They’re
also extremely violent.

It was a very deadly game
because the amount of injuries
that these players endured.

Narrator:
Most of which come
from the ball itself.

We do have some
eyewitness accounts

recorded by
the Spanish conquistadors.

There are some discussions
of the ball game,

the fact that people
might be injured

in just the playing
of the ball game.

That they might even die

from the injuries sustained
from being hit by the ball.

The ball might vary in size
from, you know,

something like a softball
to something like a melon,
and weigh up to ten pounds.

You know, the weight
of a modern bowling ball.

But this is
solid natural rubber.

Shane Adams: Just imagine
being hit by a sledgehammer.

Well, that’s what
it felt like to be hit
by this rubber ball.

- It hurts.
- Michael Livingston: In some
of the imagery we have,

they have thick rubber belts
to protect themselves,

because the ball
would have hurt so much

and you wanted
to have a good game.

Dan Dickrell:
The construction of the ball

is like a primitive
vulcanized rubber.

So it would bounce.

They found the right number
of ingredients

to effectively vulcanize rubber
through the introduction

of sulfuric juice
from the morning glory

and then sap
from a local tree.

Those two together
with a combination of heat

would create this material
that would make the ball.

Even though it’s heavy,
it can bounce,

and they figured this out
so long ago.

Narrator:
Some archaeologists believe

that the recent discovery
of human remains

under the Temple of the Sun
in Tonina

suggests the Maya
used a grisly alternate
source of material

for making the ball.

There is sufficient amount
of sulfur in the body of a human

so when that body is converted
into ash through cremation,

you introduce it
into a heated environment
with the rubber,

a certain amount
of vulcanization can occur

and creates
that bouncy rubber.

You know, if you don’t
have the morning glory juice,

human remains are
potentially a substitute.

Narrator: But according
to other accounts,

human remains might have
been used in a different way.

Guy Hepp: In the Popol Vuh,
there is a representation

of briefly using
an actual human head
to play the ball game.

I think it’s probably
speculative to say

that a real human head would
have been used as a ball.

But some of the famous art,
for example,

that shows ballplayers
standing over a ball that
contains a human skull,

may be kind of symbolically
referring to the relationship

between sacrifice
in the ball game

and not necessarily
showing us

that they’re using an actual
human skull as a ball,

though some researchers
have speculated that
that’s possible.

Michael Livingston:
If there’s a sacrifice,

the person who dies, there
is a decapitation involved,

and we have some artwork
that has survived

that shows that head is actually
used as a ball in the game.

It becomes a place where
life and death collide,

and that actually does match

what we see in some
of the stonework,

which is that this was a game

that could have absolutely
deadly consequences.

Narrator:
This has led some historians

to speculate
that after a match,

the defeated team could lose
more than their pride.

Larissa Tracy:
The suggestion is
that the whole idea

of the game itself
was a ritual sacrifice.

It’s reenacting the battle
of the gods of life

with the gods of death
from the Popol Vuh.

And so ritual sacrifice
afterwards

would be an honor
to those gods.

Guy Hepp:
It may be that the person

who is sacrificed
on the ball court

is actually sort of
the team captain

of either the winning
or losing team.

That person may be
voluntarily being sacrificed

or they may be
a captive victim

who is being sacrificed
against their will

in essentially a rigged game.

Michael Livingston:
There is a school of thought

that the winners
actually were killed.

That by winning this game,

you were becoming a sacrifice
for the greater population.

So it was actually something
you wanted to achieve.

"I wanna win the game,
and I will then die,

but in so doing give life
to the population around me,"

and that that
was a great honor.

Narrator:
But the Maya ball game

isn’t the only ancient sport

where humans were sacrificed.

Narrator:
From the 8th century B.C.
to the 5th century A.D.,

Rome is
a dominant world power

with an insatiable lust
for bloody entertainment.

Rebecca Simon:
Ancient Roman culture really
loved this bloodsport,

and it was for anybody
of any class, including
enslaved people.

Everybody went to the games.
Everybody went to the arena.

Narrator:
Among their most dangerous
pastimes is chariot racing.

Aaron Irvin:
Chariot races early
in Rome’s existence

were connected to
the most important festivals,

the most important events
that were put on
on behalf of the gods.

Shane Adams:
People from all over came
to watch these chariot races.

They were a very awesome
spectacle of entertainment,

and they knew that
that’s what the people
wanted to see.

Narrator: To create a place
for mass spectacle,

King Lucius Tarquinius Priscus

builds Rome’s first stadium
in the 6th century B.C.

Known as the Circus Maximus,
this vast oval arena

could hold a quarter
of Rome’s population.

Aaron Irvin:
Because the purpose
of the Circus Maximus

was so central
to day to day life,

it was built so it could contain

upwards of 250,000 people.

It looks very much like
a racetrack, but only larger.

This is an enormous structure
that has the capacity

to hold as many people
as five Yankee stadiums.

Narrator: The Circus Maximus
measures the length
of 5 1/2 football fields,

and it is 387 feet wide.

The track itself
is half a mile long.

It would take 15 minutes
for the chariots to go,

and you would have 12 teams.

I can’t imagine the chaos.

Shane Adams:
When the spring-loaded gates
would drop,

the start of the race
would begin,

and that’s where the collisions
would start happening.

There were
so many horses at high speeds
without control,

really without rules.

The chariots themselves
had spikes on the wheels,

so if they got in close
to another charioteer,

that could destroy a wheel and
cause the chariot to flip over.

People are not
just gonna come and sit

and watch horses
go around in circles.

There has to be some sort
of thrill behind it.

There has to be some bloodshed.

Christine Axen:
Chariots races were designed
to be dangerous.

We’re seeing high-speed
of chariot racing
up to 40 miles per hour,

and horses drawing
an open back chariot

that would have the combatant
standing in it.

So people could get dislodged,
trampled by horses,

caught in reins, dragged.

Collisions between the chariots
were common and purposeful.

Kelly Devries:
There’s a lot of destruction
because men are being pulled

by horses at a rapid rate.
So they could die.

And when they die,
the crowd gets excited.

Kind of like NASCAR.

If the car blows up,
we love it.

That’s what
the Roman chariot races were.

Joyce Salisbury: Of course,
every day was carnage day.

You could see broken limbs,
severed limbs.

It makes NASCAR look easy.

This was an incredibly
devastating sport

if you made a mistake.

Narrator:
But the ancient Romans

hold other bloody contests,
including beast hunts.

Aaron Irvin:
Hunting events were famous

for their destruction
of hundreds of animals.

And in fact,
some of the earliest events

were leopard hunts,

primarily because
Roman territory

was overrun
with wild African leopards.

The fiercest animals from all
over the empire are presented.

Sometimes it’s hunters
fighting the animals,

demonstrating
that they can win.

Sometimes they hook animals
on animals.

Kelly Devries: Hundreds
of thousands of animals,

whole species of animals

were taken to various
Roman arenas for the games,

and they would face off
against each other.

It’s like watching a zoo
if the cages were open.

They wanted to see a tiger
against a lion.

They wanted to see an elephant
against a rhino.

Joyce Salisbury: Some of
the most popular and iconic

was an elephant
linked to a rhinoceros,

as the two giants
would attack each other.

So, by having
the animal fights,

people watching are secure

that they are in charge
of nature.

The crowd wanted the blood,
and that they got.

Narrator: But the animals
aren’t always the victims.

In one particularly brutal
form of punishment,

damnatio ad bestias,

they are used
to execute criminals.

Kelly Devries:
They wanted to see criminals
being eaten by lions,

criminals eaten by tigers
and facing against predators.

Criminals didn’t last long.
They didn’t win.

These types of displays
were quite deadly indeed.

You know,
to watch a human being
get mauled by a lion,

it’s gotta say something
about the human race

and for those people
that actually went there
to witness it.

But it wasn’t just criminals.

We’re talking, you know, the
Romans throwing Christians

into the arena to get mauled by
these lions or other animals.

Joyce Salisbury:
There are some examples

of Christians waiting
to be sent into the arena.

And one says,
"Oh, I hope I get a leopard.
They kill quickly."

"I hope I don’t get a bear.
They maul us."

Narrator: An early instance
of wild animals

used to execute Christians
happens under Emperor Nero

when he targets
a small group as scapegoats

for the Great Fire of Rome
in 64 A.D.

Joyce Salisbury:
The Roman emperor Nero

is remembered
for being cruel and ruthless.

He tortures Christians
in strange and exotic ways.

And when Christians
are executed,

it’s to the beasts
or the flames.

Narrator:
As Christianity spreads,

more accounts
begin to surface,

including letters
by Ignatius of Antioch,

who is allegedly
fed to the lions

and becomes
a Christian martyr.

They had people
who were willing to die

rather than be converted.

Many of the stories
that we have of them today

are probably 90% invented.

Maybe some of them are
real people who really died,

but the stories told
about them afterwards

are filled
with embellishments.

Narrator: But there’s one
infamous ancient pastime

where the brutality
is undisputed.

Narrator: Directly
in the center of Rome

stands the ancient world’s
most storied arena,

the Colosseum.

Built in the 1st century,
the Colosseum is renowned

for the brutal entertainment
that took place there.

Rebecca Simon:
The Colosseum is one of the
most fantastic marvels

to survive
since the ancient period.

It’s still in phenomenal
condition in Rome today.

It could hold
up to 50,000 people.

It’s unimaginably huge.

And so people were drawn to it
from all over,

and it was known to be
a massive celebration.

Narrator:
When events are held,

they could include anything

from mock battles
or beast hunts

to the violent deaths
of outlaws.

But the main event
is always the same--

gladiator combat.

Rebecca Simon: People are
very drawn to this.

It almost brings out
your primal instinct

of watching these fights happen.

Narrator:
The practice is first used

as a way to honor the dead.

Christine Axen:
Gladiator games kind of
emerged from this tradition

kind of like a blood rite,

and they’re brought
into the Roman Empire

in 264 Before the Common Era.

Aaron Irvin: Games connected
to funerary events

is something that’s
actually pretty common

throughout
the Indo-European peoples.

These are groups
that include the Greeks,

but then also the Hittites,
the Persians,

shedding blood
on behalf of the deceased.

And it’s with this tradition
that we see the starting point

of gladiatorial contests
within the Roman world.

Narrator: Rome’s leaders
know the political value

of sponsoring
such public games,

none more so
than Julius Caesar.

Shane Adams:
Julius Caesar could see
the people’s attraction

to this type of violence

and started to use it
as a political campaign

to be able to, well,
entertain the people.

And if you
entertain the people,
then you win their votes.

You win their votes, and you
retain your leadership

for years and years
and years to come.

Aaron Irvin:
This opens the door
for all Romans

who are ambitious,
who are looking for office,

who are looking
to gain popularity,

to likewise put on
these massive shows.

The Romans come to expect that
these massive events are normal.

Narrator:
Prized above all,

gladiator games that come
with the promise of death.

These gladiators,
most of them were slaves.

They were prisoners,
and they had a chance

to finally fight
for their freedom.

Romans began dressing up
the gladiators as peoples
that they had conquered.

What the gladiators
turned into then

was a representation
of Roman dominance.

These are all of the people
who we have conquered

forced to kill each other
for your pleasure.

Narrator:
Gladiators are divided
into different archetypes,

each with distinct weapons.

Aaron Irvin:
So you had the Hoplomachus,

who was modeled after
the Greek hoplite,

armed with a spear,
with a shield,

and a small sword
at his belt.

You had the Thraex,
who was modeled after
the Thracians,

with a curved
what was called a sika,

a kind of reverse
curved blade

that was specially designed
to hack off limbs.

Shane Adams:
Now, of course,

in the arena, most people
think that gladiators

were these massive
strong men, killers,

but also they were trained
to not necessarily

every strike
make a kill strike.

They were trained to be able
to just show blood,

to be able to cut flesh
in such a way

that the person
would still be able

to continue fighting

and would be able to survive

for future fights to come.

So you can just imagine
how the sand

was filled with blood.

Narrator: Ultimately,
the fate of gladiators

is in the hands
of the Emperor.

Joyce Salisbury:
Sometimes, of course,

if someone is pinned down,

the crowd would be involved.

And they would be asked,

"Do I kill him
or do I save him?"

Now, Hollywood
indicates thumbs up

as a way of saving someone.

But probably
the reverse was true.

A thumb up meant,
"Put the blade up here
and kill him."

Thumb down, meant lay
the blade down and he’s saved.

Narrator: Those who survive
become legends.

Rebecca Simon: Career
gladiators are very similar

to career athletes today.

People will support
specific fighters.

You can buy items of clothing.
You can buy little figures.

Narrator: One such legend
is the notorious
gladiator Spartacus.

Spartacus was
a slave in attendance

at a gladiatorial school

who started an uprising
in southern Italy

that swelled to the thousands
upon thousands of people.

Spartacus winds up
dying in battle

fighting for his freedom.

And as a result
of this kind of treachery,

the Romans
have 6,000 men crucified
along the Appian Way.

Narrator: But not all
gladiators are slaves.

In a surprising twist
on tradition,

Emperor Commodus
steps into the arena.

He has claimed
to have 1,000 victories

over other gladiators.

Kelly Devries:
Those who were fighting
Commodus could not win.

They could not
kill the Emperor.

They may have wanted to,
but they couldn’t do it.

Commodus knew this.
He stacked the deck.

He put men together
that he knew he could take.
He did all the slaying.

Christine Axen:
But we know that he was
playing some tricks

and that he would have,
you know,

improper weapons for them
and special ones for him,

or that they would be
throwing fake things at him,

just all for
the spectatorship of it

and not at all to prove

his actual skills
on the battlefield.

Joyce Salisbury:
Commodus doesn’t think
of himself as an emperor.

He doesn’t have to adhere
to the rules of the games.

He doesn’t realize that
he has to listen to the crowd,

that his future depends on
how popular he is.

It doesn’t take them long
to kill him.

Narrator: Commodus
is eventually murdered

by the Roman wrestler
Narcissus at the behest
of the senate.

Christine Axen:
After his death,

it became clear just how much
the Roman public hated him.

And as was tradition
with an unpopular emperor,

they tear down and destroy
all the statues of Commodus.

Not a trace remains.

Narrator:
Gladiator games start
to fall out of favor

by the 3rd century,

due in part to
the rise of Christianity.

But a thousand years later,

crowds cheer for
a different type of warrior,

the knight in shining armor.

Narrator:
While many associate jousting

with chivalrous knights
and their adoring maidens,

the reality
is much more brutal.

In jousting,
the rules are simple.
The execution is not.

That is the ultimate thing
with the sport of the joust.

It is a very dangerous sport.

Just riding a horse
is one thing.

But to ride a horse
in a suit of armor upwards
of 140 pounds,

that changes riding
just on itself.

Then you add
a 12-foot-long lance

that’s couched
underneath your arm,

but it’s still sticking out
in front of you

upwards of nine to 10 feet,
that ten-pound lance

now feels like
50-60 pounds at the tip.

Narrator: Jousting sprang
from 11th century medieval
military training

and cavalry exercises,

but quickly becomes a popular
form of entertainment.

Shane Adams:
In the sport of jousting,

though there are
different styles,

it’s basically rounds off
to you get points

for striking the target area,
points for breaking your lance.

You’re charging
in one direction

at upwards
of 30 miles an hour,

and then all of a sudden,

you’re finding yourself
going backwards

with this 2,000-pound

armored horse
landing on top of you,

crushing you into the ground,

which was quite
deadly indeed.

It is such a violent impact,

the only way I can describe it
is by being hit by a car.

Rebecca Simon:
And your armor is only
about the width of a coin,

so you have to
withstand this blow.

It can have
really devastating results.

Larissa Tracy:
An early example of a joust
that turns deadly

is in the 13th century
in Neuss, Germany,

where 80 knights lay dead,

some speared through the chest,
some trampled by horses.

Shane Adams:
They used actual war lances,

and the lances
were not blunted.

They were tipped
with spear tips.

So when they jousted,
it was a joust to the death.

Narrator:
By the 16th century,

jousting evolves into
more organized competition,

with formal rules,
but it’s still dangerous,

as evident
from an infamous face-off.

Narrator:
England, 1536.

King Henry VIII enters
a jousting competition
at Greenwich Palace.

So, Henry VIII
was an avid sportsman.

He loved to wrestle.
He loved to fight.

He played tennis.
He was a real athletic person.

And for the joust, that was
the cherry on the top.

It was the most
competitive thing that
Henry VIII could do,

and he promoted jousting
and jousting competitions.

And in this competition,

Henry was going up against
one of his friends,

and unfortunately for Henry,
he was struck hard enough

that it
just unseated him enough,

and when a knight’s in armor.

I myself, I’m 415 pounds
in my suit of armor,

and as you start to rock over,
that amount of weight

could also bring
your horse down.

And unfortunately,
that’s what happened to Henry.

Just that inertia
took the horse’s feet

from underneath it,
and he was crushed.

Basically,
not just from the joust,

but from his horse
landing on top of him.

Rebecca Simon:
His leg is pierced and
becomes extremely injured.

In fact, he’s actually
unconscious for hours.

It’s believed he might die.

And this is a very,
very big deal

because he does not have
any sons yet.

So who would possibly
succeed the throne?

Larissa Tracy:
It’s entirely possible that
the injuries he sustains

stay with him
for the rest of his life

and potentially caused
the neurological problems

that lead him to paranoia.

Now, he had all kinds
of other problems.

He had ulcers on his legs
that wouldn’t heal
because he had gout.

Kelly Devries:
Whether the lance had caused
the wound on his thigh,

or the horse caused
the wound on his thigh,

it creates an ulceration
in his leg.

The whole thing
is just gross.

I mean, the whole bedchamber
must have smelled,

and you can imagine
the linen bandages around this

that had to be removed and
that had caked with this puss.

Rebecca Simon:
It’s constantly festering.

It’s angry, and it’s smelly.

That’s the big thing.

People could smell Henry
coming down the hall

from many feet away.

Instead of cauterizing it
or keeping it sealed up,

the surgeons actually say
he should keep the wound open

and have the air come in
and try to have the air heal it,

and also so that the puss
can continuously be drawn out.

The leg injury
never fully heals,
and so as a result,

Henry VIII is unable
to participate in sports
after this.

So his physicality changes.

He goes from being someone
in prime shape

and will eventually
start gaining weight

until he becomes
extremely obese.

Shane Adams:
And it was said
because of the stress

of watching her husband
get into this wreck

and he himself
becoming injured,

Henry’s wife Anne Boleyn,
the queen,

was close to giving birth
and lost the child,

his potential only heir.

Kelly Devries:
After his wound,

I mean, we do see Henry
become evil.

Larissa Tracy: And he starts
worrying about his line
of succession even more,

which drives the events
that lead him to behead
Anne Boleyn,

marry Jane Seymour,
marry Anne of Cleves,

then behead Catherine Howard.

Kelly Devries:
Only his last wife,

Catherine Parr,
will be in there cleaning
the wound every day

till he finally dies.

Narrator: But Henry’s is one
of many jousting incidents
that influences history.

Narrator:
France, 1559.

King Henry II hosts
a jousting tournament.

Shane Adams:
King Henry II of France
had a five-day celebration

for his daughter’s wedding
and his sister’s wedding.

He was jousting
against a dear friend,

Gabriel de Lorges,
Count of Montgomery,

a person that
he’d been jousting against

time and time again
without any problems.

Both of them professionals.

Michael Young: Henry’s wife
Catherine de’ Medici

had urged him not to engage
in this joust

because of a prophecy

from the prophet Nostradamus.

Nostradamus had foretold
that the younger lion

would defeat
the older one in battle.

That he would be wounded
in the eye

and that two wounds
would become one.

In that joust,
the count struck Henry

and almost unseated him.

He came back
and regained his balance.

And then even though his wife
Catherine de’ Medici

tries to stop him
from jousting again,

he gets back on his horse.

Shane Adams: The next pass,
the lance hit proper and true,

breaking the lance,
and a shard of lance came up
into the king’s helmet.

Shane Adams:
The king, instead of wearing
a proper jousting helm,

was wearing a beston helm,

a helmet that had bigger
openings for ocularium

for them to be able
to see out of.

Well, that opening allowed
a lance to come in through

and entered
in through the king’s eye.

The king survived
for ten more days.

His surgeons were
telling him, you know,

we’re basically just
a "wait and see" situation.

Meanwhile, the pressure
was building up

on the back
of the king’s brain,

and ultimately the king died

because of a hematoma
from that injury.

Narrator:
A conservative Catholic,

Henry II rigorously suppressed
all protestant worship,

and his death ignites years
of religious turmoil.

Henry II’s death
creates the problems

that France will have for
the rest of the 16th century
and into the 17th century.

It will create the animosity

between Protestants
and Catholics.

Larissa Tracy:
And it’s this freak accident

in the noble sport
of jousting

that kills a king,

and that affects the lineage

that irrevocably changes

the history
of the European monarchy.

Narrator:
Jousting proves that even
the most skilled competitors

can suffer
unlucky consequences.

But there’s another
even deadlier game

entirely left up to chance.

Ed O’Donnell:
The rules of Russian roulette
are actually quite simple.

You take a gun, you pop out
all the bullets but one,
spin the chamber,

and then the gun is passed
from person to person,

each one putting it to their
head, pulling the trigger,

and with each click,
and no gun going off,

that means that the next person
now has worse odds.

And so each time
the trigger is pulled,

the chances of the gun going off
and killing the person rise.

Greg Jackson:
This is one of the deadliest
games ever conceived of.

Your best odds
are five out of six
that you’re gonna survive.

Ed O’Donnell: With each
pull of the trigger,

the laws of probability
indicate

that it gets more likely

that there’s gonna be
a fatal shot.

So the first person
that pulls the trigger

has a 16.7% chance
of killing themselves,

The next person, it’s 20%.

The next person,
it’s 25%, on up to 100%.

Narrator:
The origins of this dangerous
game are murky at best.

Ed O’Donnell: The legend
of Russian roulette

is that it originates in
19th century Russian prisons

where sadistic prison guards
forced prisoners

to play Russian roulette.

But the historical record
indicates

that there’s very little
evidence for any of this.

Rebecca Simon:
The first real description
that we come across

about Russian roulette
comes from the 1840 novel

"The Hero Of Our Time"
by Mikhail Lermontov.

In the final chapter,
the two characters place a bet

about whether or not free will
or fate exists.

So to prove
that there is fate,

one of them picks up a pistol,
aims it at his temple,

and presses the trigger,
but nothing happens.

He then takes the gun,
and he aims it up
at the ceiling,

and this time a bullet
actually hits the ceiling,

thus proving that fate is real.

Narrator:
Lermontov’s novel ties Russia

as the birthplace
of this dark concept.

But in the 20th century,
the term "Russian roulette"

becomes part
of global pop culture,

sometimes with
lethal consequences.

Narrator:
Austin, Texas, 1938.

At a party to celebrate
his 21st birthday,

Thomas H. Markley plays
a fatal game of chance.

Greg Jackson: Thomas Markley,
a young Texan with a bright
future ahead of him.

He’s recently pushed
through university,
gotten his education.

On his 21st birthday,
he plays Russian roulette,

and he loses.

That’s the first death

in the United States
from Russian roulette.

Narrator:
Markley’s tragic death
occurs only one year

after the term
Russian roulette

is coined by writer
George Surdez in a work
of pulp fiction.

Michael Shelden:
George Surdez,

in an article for
"Collier’s Magazine" in 1937,

actually uses
the phrase Russian roulette

to describe exactly
what we today think of
as Russian roulette.

Even the Oxford English
Dictionary cites that

as the first example
of the use of that phrase.

Narrator: Before long,
the game catches on,

attracting some
now famous players.

Greg Jackson:
Malcolm X is well-known
for his contributions

to the Civil Rights movement.

On his path to coming to
some of those ideas though

was a darker phase,
the phase that took him
ultimately to jail.

Part of what led him to jail
was a burglary ring

that he participated in
and kind of ran.

Michael Shelden:
Malcolm X wanted to impress
his fellow burglars.

He wanted them to know
that he was one hell
of a strong guy,

that he would take risks,

and he used to say that
he had played Russian roulette.

Greg Jackson: He describes
this in his autobiography.

He mentions using
Russian roulette

as a way to demonstrate
his prowess, his dominance.

So he picks up the gun,
gives it a spin,

puts it up to his head,
pulls the trigger.

Nothing.

And then he does it again,
and again.

And of course, every single
time he’s doing it,

that cylinder’s clicking away.

So those who are watching,

they’re sure that death
is just around the corner.

What they don’t know
is that he’s actually
palmed the round.

Rather than actually
loading it in the gun,

he took the bullet
and he put it into
the palm of his hand.

So he was in no danger,

but had the bullet
actually been in there,

he would have been.

Narrator: From there,
Russian roulette takes hold

in the entertainment industry.

Greg Jackson:
So, in 1954 it was reported

that Johnny Ace--
a blues musician,

celebrated,
brilliant musician--

he decides to
give Russian roulette a go,
and he loses.

Freddie Prinze in the 1970s,

at that point he’s a young
twenty-something comedian,

and he plays it frequently.
He doesn’t think much of it.

He’ll call his friends,
kind of laugh about it.

He plays in front
of his manager,

spins the cylinder,
goes for it.

( gunshot )

Narrator: While Prinze
eventually dies

from a self-inflicted
gunshot wound

on January 29th, 1977,

it’s not from
Russian roulette.

However,
it has been estimated

that well over
a thousand people in the U.S.

have died
from playing the game.

But perhaps the most famous
example of Russian roulette
is fictional.

Greg Jackson:
Hollywood films over several
decades glamorized it.

It’s what made it
seem like a way

to demonstrate manliness,
bravado,

in an extremely unhealthy,
dangerous way.

Narrator:
The game plays a major part

in the 1979 Oscar winner
for Best Picture

"The Deer Hunter."

Starring Robert de Niro,
Christopher Walken,
and Meryl Streep,

the film uses
Russian roulette as a metaphor

for soldiers fighting
in the Vietnam War.

Michael Shelden:
"The Deer Hunter"
uses Russian roulette

to great effect
and to frightening effect.

It’s always been
a kind of desperate resort

for people who felt
so downfallen that they
didn’t want to live

and wanted to see if
they could take a chance and go.

But it’s also been seen
as a way of testing your will,

of proving really
whether you cared enough

to continue playing or not.

Narrator:
These fictitious accounts

keep this adrenaline-fueled
deadly game alive

in the popular imagination,

with lethal consequences.

Michael Shelden: It’s common
to have copycat crimes,

and I think
when Russian roulette
is popular in the culture

and people
are talking about it,

somebody’s going
to be tempted

to try to do
that particular act

because we’ll always
have bored and depressed

and anxious
and desperate people.

If more than a thousand
Americans have died

since the 1940s
playing this game,

that’s very serious.

Greg Jackson: In my opinion,
this grew out of literature.

It grew out of pulp fiction,

and society at large
convinced itself

that there was
a deeper history to it.

And once society decided that
Russian roulette was a thing,

it seeped to existence.

Regardless of its origins,
it’s very real now.

It really speaks to the power
of the written word,

of literature.

Russian roulette is part
of a long historical trend

of people being attracted
to not just dangerous games,
but deadly games,

games where they might in fact
lose their life,

like jousting
in the medieval period.

Why would anybody do that?

Narrator:
While winning a deadly game
could bring bragging rights,

fame, and fortune,

the price for losing
could be your life.

( crowd cheering )