Narrator: On this episode of "MythBusters"...
[ tires screech ] ...we get behind the wheel...
[ indistinct shouting ]
...ride the rails...
...and take flight...
Whoo! Ho, ho! Ho, ho!
- ...as we go behind the scenes... Adam: - Jamie!
...get the inside story...
He for some reason forgot to turn off the key.
Tory: You're sitting there watching it.
Your mind cannot process it.
Narrator: ...and count down the top 12
plane, train, and automobile moments.
That was definitely the strangest thing I had ever done
in my life up till that point.
[ chuckles ]
Today, it's just another day at the office.
Narrator: Who are the MythBusters?
Adam Savage... [ electricity crackles ]
It's scientific!
...and Jamie Hyneman.
Jamie: Is that hot enough for ya?
Between them, more than 30 years of special-effects experience.
Joining them... Grant Imahara...
He's alive! [ laughs ]
...Kari Byron...
I was less excited after my first kiss.
...and Tory Belleci.
Dude, that was the coolest thing I've ever done!
They don't just tell the myths,
they put them to the test.
MythBusters 9x10 - Planes, Trains, & Automobiles Original air date June 15, 2011
Sync and corrected by atrn97g www.addic7ed.com
Buckle up and stay on track, because it's chalks away
for the "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" special.
[ horns blaring, tires screeching ]
[ siren wailing ]
- What are you doing? - Oh.
[ record scratches ]
I'm, uh, adding a little special-effects wizardry
to the opening of the show.
Wizardry, huh?
Yeah! Check it out! I could be in space.
[ beep, radio chatter ] Wooooshh.
Or underwater.
Or, in the case of this particular episode,
a plane, a train... [ train whistle blows ]
...or an automobile.
That's what this whole episode is gonna be about...
our favorite behind-the-scenes moments and never-told tales
about anything we've ever had to do
with planes, trains, and automobiles.
You mean like when you peed on the third rail.
Exactly.
There we go.
Or when you got sick with the Blue Angels?
Precisely.
Or like when you crashed your concrete glider.
[ sighs ]
Okay, are we gonna be totally negative
about everything to do with this episode?
No. I'll go along for the ride.
Good. Let's go.
Narrator: And to kick-start this dirty dozen,
where do we begin?
Adam: Vehicles have always been fertile for us.
You might even say that vehicles have provided the cornerstone
of "MythBuster" material.
Trying to pick out 12 moments in all of these years...
...it's gonna be tricky.
But if we're gonna start anywhere,
I would start with planes.
[ engine turns over ] - Yay! - Yeah!
Narrator: Roger that.
Because the aviation wing of "MythBusters"
has been in full swing for some time.
And for our first moment, here's captain Hyneman.
[ ding ]
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.
Put your tray tables and your seats
in the full upright position.
Make sure you have all your seat belts engaged,
and kiss your ass goodbye. [ ding ]
Narrator: It's the magic moment
the MythBusters earned their wings
being talked in to land.
Adam: [ british accent ] The pilot has died.
For some reason, I'm the one they turn to to land the plane.
I get on the horn and say, "Hello? Hello?"
"Air traffic control, talk me how to fly this beast",
"land these people safely, man".
And he says, "Yes."
That's my task.
Narrator: And to test that, they got their hands
on one heck of a big boy's toy.
Adam: Over the years, we've been given
some pretty amazing toys to play with...
the bloodhound for "Beat the Bloodhound"...
Whoa! Ho ho ho ho!
...fighter jets for "Sonic Boom"...
Holy crap!
...and that huge hurricane-producing thing
called "The Medusa" for "Hurricane Window."
That was awesome!
But we've never been actually allowed
to fly a plane for an experiment.
It turns out the F.A.A. is pretty strict about the rules
under which someone's allowed to fly a plane,
and we don't apply.
Narrator: But thanks to air-traffic controller Terry Rager,
they didn't need to take to the sky.
Welcome aboard.
Jamie: Eventually, we were able to get the next-best thing,
and we got access to a flight simulator at NASA.
Of course, we broke it in the process,
but what are you gonna do?
[ alarm blaring ] What?
Narrator: The control, where the guys had to land
without any assistance from the tower...
[ alarm beeping ]
Terrain. Okay.
That means I'm really close to the terrain. [ chuckles ]
Narrator: ...went just about as well as could be expected.
I pretty much crashed and burned almost immediately.
It was grisly.
[ alarm blaring ] Okay. Wait. Oh, my!
Aah! Aah!
[ laughs ]
Oh, I don't think I did so well.
I was really surprised how difficult it was
to try and fly that plane with no help
and no experience at all.
The thing was that all the gauges in the plane,
they're not really labeled.
I need to find my speed. Why can't I find my speed?
Narrator: And inside the ultra-realistic simulator,
not being able to find the controls
was the least of Jamie's problems.
Male voice: Don't think.
Why's it telling me not to think?
Don't think.
We were wondering, what sort of narrative
occurred at the F.A.A. for them to put this phrase into a plane
to start yelling at the pilot under some kind of crash conditions,
"Don't think"?
- Don't think. Jamie: - Yeah, shut up.
Adam: It was only later we realized that the plane was saying...
"Don't sink."
Ho!
Narrator: And after two crash landings,
enter air-control swami Terry.
Okay.
Could he talk our rookie pilots down?
The most astonishing thing was, though,
with guidance from our air-traffic controller,
we were able to land the plane.
Okay, what's your pitch attitude?
Uh, I'm at 5 degrees. Over.
Very good.
Narrator: Yep, despite flying blind,
Terry calmly and precisely talked
not just one mythbuster...
Jamie: I'm stopped.
Congratulations, Jamie. You made it.
...but two through two landings.
Okay, pull the nose up.
[ tires screech ]
Whoo! I did it!
That plane wasn't gonna fly again,
but all the people inside of it were alive.
It might have been a different story with 300 passengers,
but quite honestly, if I'm ever in a plane
and someone asks, "Can someone fly this plane?"
I might just raise my hand.
[ tires screech ]
Narrator: Next is a moment about staying on your "tows".
Kari: Though towing is our best choice
when we're trying to crash vehicles,
because we're not gonna drive them...
[ laughs ]
...it can present a few problems.
Narrator: Indeed, and those problems are familiar
to every "MythBusters" viewer...
Jamie: It's gonna go into the water.
Adam: Oh, no, no, no, no, no! Yes!
...which is why occasionally we get professional help.
[ laughter ]
Adam: Specifically in the area of crashes...
- Yeah! - Yeah!
...we've needed a level of accuracy that exceeds anything
we've been able to achieve on the show.
And in those cases, we've actually resorted
to specialized crash-test facilities.
At these testing facilities, they crash cars all the time.
That was so Hollywood!
They have ironed out all the bugs.
They do this every single day...
except for when we show up.
[ horn blares ]
For instance, "Instant Convertible".
I don't think that went quite as planned.
Narrator: Not quite as planned, but it's no accident
that this memorable mistake made the countdown.
Now, we were testing the myth that you can drive a car
- underneath a semi-truck trailer... - Park it!
...cut the top off, turn it into a convertible,
and continue on driving.
Get in there. All right, good luck, buddy.
Myth seemed simple. The setup was simple.
But getting the thing to work was far from simple.
10, 20, 30, 40...
Now, we knew the roof was gonna come off.
We knew we were getting ourselves a convertible.
...and 70!
Kari: Whoo!
Ohh! Ho!
Ohh! Ohh!
What we didn't know is that it wouldn't stop.
It kept going.
Narrator: Sometimes failure is not only an option,
it's a spectacular surprise.
Whoo! Ho, ho! Ho, ho!
Oh!
What's on the other side of that berm?
Uh-oh.
[ chuckles ]
When I watched the rough cut
and saw that look on Kari's face...
that mix of fear, panic, and excitement altogether...
[ camera shutter clicks ]
if there is one facial expression
that sums up the totality of "MythBusters",
that would be it.
Narrator: Yep, you'd think the MythBusters would be used to it by now.
They should always expect the unexpected.
Kari: What I always wanted to imagine
is what the people on the freeway were thinking
when they saw a car fly up into the air vertically.
That must have been a crazy sight.
Tory: It was one of those moments where I'm glad nobody got hurt,
but I'm also very glad that it went so wrong.
Narrator: After the break,
there's more automotive mayhem...
Well, there's your problem.
...and even a flying car.
[ laughs ]
Narrator: There's more rails, wheels, and wings
as we count down the top 12
plane, train, and automobile moments.
Next is the story that proves road rage doesn't pay.
Adam: I think it's the fact
that either rising gas prices hit us all where we live
or the fact that everybody at some point or another
has had to tinker with their car...
Well, there's your problem.
...and thus can really kind of get into what we're talking about.
We've done "Truck tailgate up or down",
"Windows versus A.C."...
This test is being done by professional drivers
on a closed track. Your results may differ.
...we've done "Dirty versus clean car",
- and turned a car into a golf ball. Jamie: - The fact is, it worked.
I feel like eating my beret.
We've also tried a whole bunch of mythical gadgets
you can purchase, like magnets and super carburetor filters,
and all sorts of other crap.
This is such total horse %$#@.
None of it has increased fuel efficiency
by more than 2% or 3%,
and most of it hasn't worked at all.
Until Kari, Grant, and Tory tested whether or not your mood
had a large effect on your fuel efficiency.
Narrator: And it's the astonishing result of "Don't drive angry"
that puts this story into the countdown.
After the boys had completed driving a circuit normally,
Kari began her psychological torture.
Grant: So, getting to the truth of this myth
is not something that I remember fondly.
[ grunts ]
There are a lot of people that don't understand this.
9 out of 10 people do not understand this.
However, that 10th person is like, "Yes! I totally get you!"
"And I don't like the fish touching me, either!"
Aah! [ tires screech ]
Tory: Imagine this...
being stuck in a car, loud noises blaring in your ear...
[ beeping, blaring ] You guys got me %#$@&...
This is definitely... you did a great job.
...a rat crawling all over your body...
Where did those rats go?! Where did you go?!
...you have to !@#*...
[ tires screech ]
...how do you think you would drive?
Narrator: Well, as it turned out,
three times more expensively than a mild-mannered driver.
Grant: Which says to me that, you know, people who drive angry
are gonna be angry not only at the people on the road,
but they're gonna be really angry
because they're using all this gas.
And then they're gonna be even more angry at that.
Narrator: So remember... to save on gas and cash,
- don't drive angry. - Aah!
And at number 9, we're bending the rules.
Planes, trains, and automobiles are all very well and good,
but when you're talking sheer fun,
nothing beats a motorcycle.
[ tires screech ]
They're not strictly within the remit,
but the MythBusters and bikes have a memorable relationship...
[ Adam imitating motor ]
...none more so than trying the Indiana Jones myth
that a flagpole could flip a motorcycle.
Adam: 3, 2, 1, go!
[ laughs ]
It totally doesn't work like that,
but it was really fun to dress up as Indiana Jones.
♪ Ba-da-da-da! Ba-da-da! ♪
Jamie actually got into the character of Henry Jones
and called me "Junior."
[ laughs ] Well, the timing was perfect.
If you say so, Junior.
[ laughs ]
Narrator: But that was just a precursor
to the ultimate in motorcycle mayhem.
Without a doubt, the best two-wheel story we've ever done
is "Tablecloth Chaos".
Jamie: The myth here was that you could pull a tablecloth out
from under a banquet table full of settings
without upsetting a single dish,
but here's the catch... using a motorcycle.
Adam: What other story has Jamie trotting out his muscle bike,
walking around for several days in full leathers,
which he didn't complain about one bit,
and then the repeated destruction
of flatware and china tumbling onto the ground?
[ clang ]
Oops.
[ Adam laughs ]
I've been riding a bike since before I had a driver's license.
So I never miss an opportunity, especially on this show,
because we're often allowed to do things
that you're really not supposed to do on a road.
Narrator: Despite Jamie pushing the throttle
to 105 miles per hour,
it was impossible to pull off this trick
without filmic fakery.
Jamie: A lot of viewers wrote in after that episode and said,
"My bike goes a lot faster than 100 miles an hour".
"I could have done that stunt".
You missed the point.
The point was, taking off from a dead stop.
And you're just not gonna get anywhere near fast enough
to do that with any kind of vehicle.
Narrator: Nope. It won't work...
Unless, like Adam and Jamie, you use special-effects wizardry.
[ laughs ]
It's busted.
Narrator: At number 8,
it's the myth that a car could skip a lake.
Kari: "Car Skip" was one of those stories
that happened while I was on maternity leave.
The car is on! This is it, you guys!
Hit it.
It was the perfect "MythBusters" story.
Narrator: Perfect, but the start didn't go quite to plan,
which is often the case with our remote-control escapades.
Tory: That car didn't skip!
Now, Grant is known for his remote-control skills.
I don't know if he did a lot of video-gaming when he was a kid,
but he is our go-to guy when it comes to the remote control.
Narrator: And with good reason.
Because this car had a nitrous booster,
making it twice as fast and also...
Grant: Exponentially harder to control.
I could potentially have a rocket on my hands.
Narrator: With that kind of power comes a lot of pressure.
This is crazy, man!
This is totally crazy.
We're like Thelma and Louise!
We are?
Tory: In 3, 2, 1, hit it.
Narrator: But it was water off a duck's back,
as Grant skipped the car across the lake
and into remote-control history.
- We skipped a car across a lake! - Yeah!!
Grant: That is a moment of joy for me,
to see that car get across the lake
and then, you know, just keep going.
I mean, that's sort of the pinnacle of an experiment,
when it works exactly as you planned.
[ laughs ]
Narrator: Buckle up, 'cause this moment is all about designated drivers.
[ train whistle blows ]
Tory: Looking good, Grant. Stay on target.
Adam: It's fun to make cars remote-controlled.
[ tires screech ] Yeah!
But when you need real precision in a myth...
[ laughter ]
...you got to drive the cars yourself.
Narrator: And, thanks to some extreme driving tuition...
Oops. Sorry about that.
...the MythBusters have tried all kinds of stunt driving.
Okay, I'm buckling up.
[ laughs ]
[ horn blares ]
But for Grant, the biggest test of his wheel-man skills...
Adam: Bringing it on in.
...was for finding out if you can save fuel by drafting.
They wanted me to drive within inches of the rear bumper...
Grant: That is crazy!
Yeah, boy!
...which, you know, is a really scary thing.
I mean, it's one of the scariest things you can do in a car.
[ Grant laughs ]
- Nicely done. - Whoo! [ laughs ]
Narrator: Grant confirmed that drafting saved fuel,
but they weren't finished yet.
Grant: Here you go, power ranger.
All right. I'm gonna go save the universe.
Now, one thing that didn't actually make the show
is the fact that we not only did drafting with a car,
but with a bicycle.
Tory drafted a big rig on a bicycle.
Grant: Go.
Tory: I just had, like, a helmet and some body armor.
20 miles per hour. Maintaining speed.
I mean, if that truck goes off course or stops,
I'm gonna be right underneath the back of it...
Maintaining 20 miles per hour.
...and that's not gonna be good.
Narrator: Luckily, Tory stayed in the saddle...
This is ridiculous. It's so easy.
...and proved that drafting on a bike is a smooth ride.
Tory: Once I got up to 20 miles an hour,
it felt like there was no resistance whatsoever.
Narrator: But when it comes to big rigs and stunt driving,
one myth reigns supreme.
I can't wait to do this!
The stunt-driving move that I'm most proud of on the show
has to be "Knight Rider".
Jamie: The point of this story was to see
whether you could drive onto or off of a moving semi trailer truck.
Narrator: The TV show may have made it look easy,
but for Adam, it was anything but.
Adam: So, the testing procedure
looks like it's pretty straightforward.
Truck drives in front of me with a ramp down,
while I drive up behind it at 55 miles an hour,
and drive up the ramp and into the truck.
Except that it started to rain.
We couldn't abort. We only had one more day at that location.
So I had to do that stunt without actually being able
to see the 18-wheeler in front of me
until I was right up on top of it.
And this spray of rain is spraying in my windshield,
and I'm going on pure faith that I've aimed the car correctly,
which I did,
and, luckily, it worked.
Look at that!
Good job!
Narrator: The stunt certainly worked.
But one thing didn't.
There was one problem with this sequence,
and it was in terms of coverage.
Back then on "MythBusters" we were using tape cameras,
magnetic tape read by little magnetic heads,
and at the moment my car hit the ramp of the 18-wheeler,
we bumped all the cameras,
disengaged the heads for a second,
and they all stopped recording
for that key moment when I went into the 18-wheeler.
Narrator: Thankfully, however, the main camera caught all the action,
just like it did when Jamie tried this stunt backwards.
That "Knight Rider" stunt
was either the most fun I've ever had with a car,
or the most terrifying.
I'm not sure which.
Narrator: Fun and terrifying.
That's exactly why it makes the list.
Well, for now, at least.
[ Adam laughs ]
Jamie: Would I say that was the apex of my stunt-driving career?
I wouldn't think so.
I would like to think that the high points are yet to come.
Narrator: Indeed. And our next high point
is the most controversial myth of all.
I must say I was surprised when "Plane on a conveyor belt"
turned out to be so darn controversial.
This myth was basically a thought experiment that said
that if you're a plane trying to take off on a conveyor belt
that was going in the opposite direction
that the plane wanted to go,
you wouldn't be able to take off.
[ motor whirring ]
Adam: In the beginning, Jamie didn't even want to do this story,
because when I first explained to him
that it was a controversial concept,
he was like, "Why would anyone believe"
"the plane wouldn't take off? That's idiotic."
Jamie: It was like, "I'm gonna be able to fly"
"if I flap my arms fast enough."
It's not gonna happen.
I had to print out 2-inch-thick pile of Internet arguments
to show him that this was absolutely worth
us doing on the show.
Narrator: And once they started testing...
Adam: - I'm ready. - Okay, go.
...their mini plane and makeshift conveyor belt
proved the myth was clear for takeoff.
Is that a flying plane?
That is a flying plane,
and it was on the paper when it took off.
Adam: Excellent!
Narrator: So it was time to go full-scale.
Jamie: Because we couldn't find a conveyor belt
that would accommodate an airplane taking off,
we decided to go out to a runway and just cover the entire runway
with a material that was like a conveyor belt...
It's like making a very big bed.
...and then we pulled it.
Man: Light sport, you're clear to take off.
All right, this is full-size "Airplane on a conveyor belt",
for real this time!
- All right? Adam: - Go, Jamie, go!
The result of the test showed that the plane
actually was able to take off,
because what the wheels are doing on the ground
doesn't have any relevance to what the plane is doing.
[ laughing ]
The plane flies by moving forward through the air,
and there's nothing that is happening with the conveyor belt
that is keeping it from doing that.
Oh, that was beautiful!
Narrator: But despite proving once and for all
that a plane on a conveyor belt would take to the air,
believe it or not, there are still some
who say the plane would remain grounded.
For those of you who still do not believe me,
here is an experiment you can actually do at home.
Go buy yourself a little balsa-wood airplane
with a rubber-band propeller.
Take that treadmill you've had sitting in the closet
and pull it out into the living room,
and turn it on its highest setting.
Put the plane on it, and you will notice
that no matter how fast your treadmill is going
in the opposite direction,
that plane will still move forward.
Myth busted.
Narrator: Coming right up...
Jamie: What can I say? It's nuts.
It's the kind of thing you'll only see on "MythBusters".
Narrator: So far on "Planes, Trains & Automobiles"...
[ beeping, blaring ] You guys got me !@#*!
Narrator: ...getting from "A" to "B" has never been so much fun.
[ laughing ]
And coming in at number 5
is a myth all about risking life and limb.
Tory: Now, a lot of times on the show, we have to use a human being to test a myth.
There's no way around it. [ tires screech ]
Narrator: And when it comes to thrills and spills,
one shocking moment has it all.
Jamie: Urinating on the third rail
was about somebody that peed
on the electrified portion of a railroad.
Allegedly, he got electrocuted.
Testing this involved several key components.
We had to replicate an anatomically correct human body,
that body had to be able to urinate...
Looks like a pretty convincing stream to me.
Jamie: Yeah.
...and we had to have an electrified third rail.
[ chuckles ]
Narrator: And to replicate an accurate human flow rate,
they needed a point of comparison.
And at that point, I had to...
pee on high-speed camera.
[ laughs ]
All right, here we go.
This is not our ballistics dummy
that we're looking at here, right?
Peeing for the high-speed camera
was definitely the strangest thing I had ever done in my life
up till that point...
Today, it's just another day at the office.
All right.
Narrator: Adam passing water passed muster.
And they put the data to use
with their anatomically correct dummy.
Adam: We've gotten a few complaints over the years from the fact
that we've built what we called an "anatomically correct" Buster
and then hid that part behind a fig leaf.
But the fact is, it was a tube.
It was a tube that looked a little suggestive for our show,
which is, really, you have to admit, a family show,
and thus the fig leaf.
Narrator: Well, fig leaf or not, the myth was busted...
Nothing. Not a thing.
...until the viewers challenged the result.
Jamie: A lot of people are sending us e-mails,
saying that, well, "I peed on an electric fence on the farm",
"and I got a shock".
And, of course, that shocking statistic
had to be put to the test.
Ohh! [ laughs ]
[ chuckling ] It works. [ laughs ]
So Adam was, uh, volunteered
to literally put his body on the line.
Adam: I'm not looking forward to it,
but I'm ready to... to try the experiment.
- Are you? - I'm not doing it.
Can I point out that I've already been painted with gold paint
and had an anal probe today?
You're doing a wonderful job.
[ laughter ]
Adam was a good sport anyway, and he took one for the team.
Okay, we're gonna try and aim here.
I tried to watch Adam pee on the electric fence,
but when I started to look down there,
I realized I'd have to look at his junk,
and so I decided not to.
Narrator: Well, there's no doubt our shock jock took charge.
Wait. I gotta... I gotta work one up. Hold on.
Is there a problem? [ laughter ]
Adam: I'm just grateful that the shock was that small.
[ urinating ]
Oh! There we go. I got a shock.
It was nothing.
I have been shocked by the full force of that electric fence
in the "Baghdad Battery" episode...
[ electricity crackles ]
and I'm really glad I didn't take that in my privates.
Narrator: And at number 4,
it's the ultimate automotive transformation.
Grant: Oh, yeah!
Jamie: We've done a lot of weird things to cars.
Oh! And it's away!
Jamie: Nice try!
- We've put rockets on them... Man: - Fire.
...covered them in clay...
[ laughs ]
...we've installed diesel-powered speakers in them...
and yet, I think we're just getting started.
[ laughs ]
I'd say, without a doubt,
cutting a car body off and re-attaching it backwards
was the wildest thing we've ever done.
And that's what we did in "Reverse Engineering".
Adam: This is a myth I heard in the '80s,
that there was a certain model of sports car,
which shall remain unnamed, that was so poorly designed,
it was more aerodynamic going backwards than forwards.
Narrator: So to test that...
Adam: Lift!
Look at that.
...the guys reversed the engineering of a car.
Nice!
[ chuckles ]
[ chuckling ] I'm confused.
What exactly is this?
Narrator: The result...
[ tires screech ]
...was a car with its lid literally flipped.
Adam: Well, I know, for all intents and purposes,
it looks like I'm sitting on the hood, but check this out.
[ clang ] That's the exhaust.
Narrator: It was an unmistakably "MythBusters" mod.
Jamie: What can I say? It's nuts.
It's the kind of thing you'll only see on "MythBusters".
Narrator: But for our backseat driver, the most important test
was if the reverse-engineered car could vanquish
its right-sided counterpart.
A lot of people say, "Oh, you can't race one car"
"against another like that",
"because the engines could be tuned differently".
That's exactly why we went with a drift.
"Reverse Engineering" drift-off.
Gentlemen, start your engines.
[ engine turns over ]
3...2...1... go!
Adam: Think of it.
When we get those two cars neck and neck
up to 100 miles an hour
and then cut into neutral, those cars drift.
Alan: And... drift!
Adam: As they head towards the finish line,
the only difference between them is their aerodynamics...
not the engine tuning, not the exhaust tuning,
not anything.
So we were eliminating all of that as a possibility
in terms of the aerodynamic efficiency of both cars.
Thus, the first one off the finish line
is the more aerodynamically efficient.
I love how simple that is.
Narrator: Simple and, since the reverse engineering
didn't engineer a win...
busted.
Oh! Ah.
Narrator: Next...
the "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" special
goes supersonic.
Oh, no!
Narrator: Coming in fast and furious at number 3
is one for the speed freaks.
"MythBusters" and speed go together like this.
Best friends forever.
We love speed. We love going fast.
We love things that go fast, and even Jamie...
[ Jamie laughs ]
...gets a big, fat smile on that mustachioed face
when he goes really, really fast.
Narrator: That need for speed has seen the team
put the pedal to the metal...
Adam: Yeah!
...and put rockets on cars for explosive acceleration.
Or not.
But those can't compare to traveling at the speed of sound.
It is absolutely easy to determine
the fastest we've ever gone on the show.
It is when I flew with the "Blue Angels"
to test the sonic-boom myth.
Strap in. It's time... to go supersonic.
Jamie: The question here was whether or not
every time you have an aircraft
creating a sonic boom when it flies over a house,
it's gonna break glass in that house.
Walborn: - You ready to go flying? - I am.
Adam: We discussed it in house who would fly,
and we realized that it had to be me,
because I was gonna get sick, and that was going to be funny,
as opposed to Jamie's stoic face under 7 G's,
which would just look, you know, a little heavier.
Narrator: And from the very first surprise rapid ascent...
Walborn: - Ready to go flying? - I am.
Ready, hit it.
...the G-forces had Adam's stomach churning.
Oh-ho!
Adam: I'd like to add a couple of notes
about the vomiting and the passing-out thing.
Wow!
One is I didn't actually vomit
until the third time we pulled 7 G's
in some kind of barrel roll.
I managed to make it two full times without getting sick.
I'm starting to feel a little nauseous.
I think I may throw up.
All right, you got the bag back there?
[ coughs ]
The other one about the passing out, which really surprised me,
was that the pilot knew that I was about to pass out
before even I knew.
Going on up to 5 G's. We got 5 G's. 5 1/2.
And he's looking at me through this tiny little mirror.
But he could see this telltale sign of my eyes going cloudy...
[ grunts ]
...and then my head, and he's like, "Stay with me, Adam".
Stick with me, Adam. You got it. You got it.
And I was like "Huh! huh!", [panting]
and I brought myself back out of the tunnel,
and then I went all the way in the tunnel,
and I totally passed out.
Come on. Stay with us. Stay with us.
We got it. Come back.
You with me?
I'm with you. I have almost quite passed out there for a second.
Narrator: But Adam's aerobatics were just the beginning.
MythBusters, "Blue Angels", test site.
The real question was...
would the sonic boom shatter glass?
That ought to do it.
We are headed straight for them.
2,000 feet at Mach 1.07.
[ sonic boom ]
Wow!
That was something.
How loud was it on the ground?
Well, we were wearing earplugs and earmuffs,
if that tells you anything.
Narrator: The sound may have been ear-splitting,
but despite flying as low as 200 feet...
Adam: Oh, no!
[ sonic boom ]
...it wasn't the boom that broke the glass,
but the distortion of the frame.
Well, there's your problem.
But for Adam, it was all worth it.
You know, when you're a kid, you always want to end up
being some kind of secret agent or superhero.
And "MythBusters" has really allowed me
to explore so many aspects of that.
[ sonic boom ]
[ laughs ]
I have literally been faster than a speeding bullet.
I have not yet leaped a building in a single bound,
but that's on our list.
Narrator: Coming in at number 2 is a story so big,
we did it twice.
The myth was that a taxi drove behind a jet airliner
as it was taking off,
and the blast from the jet
picked up the taxi and just threw it.
Narrator: The first time the MythBusters tried to test this myth,
the insurance company took the wind out of their sails.
"Jet Taxi" was our first intimate experience with insurance.
And the thing that I couldn't wrap my head around
was how we were going to damage a jet airplane
by putting something behind it.
We don't know what the jet will do to the taxi.
But there's no way in hell that taxi is gonna do anything
but go farther away from the jet.
I didn't get it.
Oh, that would have flipped our taxi!
Narrator: But two years later,
the guys got wind of another chance at a jet.
When an opportunity came up again to do it,
there's no way we're turning it down.
Narrator: Yep... in Michigan, Kalitta Air and their 747
were more than happy to let the MythBusters blow off some steam.
- I love you, man! - I love you, too!
The taxi was lined up,
and the engines roared into action.
And all of a sudden, part of the runway peels up.
This whole bed of pavement just flies away,
kind of like a roof in a hurricane.
And that was it. I was like, "That's it. They're gonna shut us down",
"they're not gonna let us continue testing".
The owner came out, looked at it, laughed, and we kept going.
Narrator: By this stage, it was clear,
come hail or high water,
the cab was going into the jet stream.
Man: Coming up. Power.
Kari: I had no idea what we were about to see.
Grant: Ohh!
[ laughter ] Yes!
Kari: That taxi tumbled down the lawn just head over heel,
over and over.
I mean, it was so much force.
[ laughter ]
Tory: Getting the cab to flip was good enough.
But, I mean, this is the one chance
that we get to play with an actual 747.
I mean, do you really think we're gonna stop there?
You're gonna be a bus driver now!
Grant: This is a full-size school bus.
And the jet wash just picked up the bus like it was nothing...
Kari: Whoo!
...flipped it over and slammed it down right on its roof
and crushed the whole thing.
I mean, it was amazing.
Narrator: Yep, it certainly was the school of hard knocks
for our bus,
making the jet-taxi myth literally a blast.
Grant: You know, with footage like this, it's easy to see
why this is the biggest and most bad-ass moment.
Narrator: Well, not quite, Grant.
There's one more to come.
Kari: Whoo!
Next up...
the ultimate "Planes, Trains & Automobile" moment.
I highly recommend it. Forget therapy.
[ tires screech ]
Narrator: And now the number 1 moment,
the fantastic finale of "Planes, Trains & Automobiles".
And it's all about our destructive relationship
with cars.
We've set them on fire. We've shot them up.
[ squeaks ]
We've crashed them.
We've dropped them from helicopters.
- We've blown them up. - Bye-bye!
Adam: The fact is, we've destroyed so many,
that choosing one as a perfect representation
of the ultimate car explosion is impossible.
It's like trying to decide which is better...
"Star Trek", or "Star Wars".
"Star Wars", by the way.
At any rate, we've each decided to pick our own favorite.
Narrator: With so much car carnage over the years,
our hosts just can't agree on the best.
And that means that we've got five times
the awesome automotive mayhem.
Grant: So, my favorite car-destruction sequences
was when we split the car with a snow plow in Wisconsin.
Tory: Now, that is the plow we're looking for!
Grant: So, picture this wonderful snowy landscape,
car at one end,
giant, razor-sharp snow-plow blade
and this giant snow plow at the other end.
In 3, 2, 1, go!
Grant: Tow the car really fast,
go straight down the track...
Whoa!
...and the thing splits like a banana peel.
The car almost split in two.
That's once in a lifetime.
Narrator: Once in a lifetime.
Like driving a car stuck together with duct tape
after Kari has had her evil way with it.
All right. Time to wreck this car.
Personally, my favorite way to destroy a car... by hand.
I love destroying cars...
Breaking glass, crunching metal.
It's awesome.
Taking a car apart, completely destroying it,
is this really amazing, cathartic experience.
The shattering of glass, the smoking of the torch,
the just metal falling apart before you.
Every bit of angst you've ever had gets released.
Whoo! I love it!
I highly recommend it. Forget therapy.
Narrator: Yep, for the MythBusters, the best therapy is destruction,
something Jamie knows a lot about.
Kari: Whoo!
I have to say,
I think "Dukes of Hazzard" was my favorite,
because that involved running a car at a ramp at high speed,
and it had to go through the air something like 175 feet
without going splat.
Narrator: And for that, all they did was build a ramp...
Nothing like a good hump is what I always say.
Narrator: ...and then remote-control a car over it at 70 miles per hour.
Simple, right?
Jamie: The thing was that it all had to come together perfectly
for it to work, and that was a pretty tall order.
We can totally do it.
Narrator: A tall order, which Jamie more than matched.
[ Adam and Jamie laugh ]
Jamie: Oh, my Lord!
The car flew 173 feet through the air.
But the landing was a little rough.
Adam: The car is busted. The myth is busted.
It's very hard on a car if you do that.
Narrator: Hard on the car for sure.
But when it comes to automotive torture,
Tory's choice has it all.
Kari: Oh!
"The Green Hornet" episode,
we probably did more damage to cars than we've ever done
in the history of "MythBusters".
I mean, we took this beautiful classic car...
Now, that's a pretty car.
...shot it up with machine guns...
[ gunfire ]
That didn't suck.
...and then stuck it in a steel elevator
to see if we could crush it in half...
[ metal screeching ]
Kari: - Whoa! Grant: - Do it! Do it!
Tory: - Stop! - Ohh!
Yeah!
That didn't work, so then we just chopped a car in half...
Whoo!
...and drove that around.
[ laughs ]
Dude, that is crazy!
Whoo!
It was brutal.
Narrator: Brutal indeed.
They did everything bar blowing it up.
But that's okay, because Adam's favorite has that covered.
Mine is the "Viewers' Special" explosion.
This kid had written to us
saying he wanted us to blow up his parents' car,
and we agreed to do it.
Narrator: And in typical "MythBusters" style,
they granted this wish not once, but twice.
First time, it's gonna be a movie-style explosion,
like from the '70s TV shows that you grew up with.
Narrator: For that movie-style explosion,
the guys created some movie-style action.
Jamie and I stood a safe distance away.
I think it was about 100 feet.
I had a mat in front of me, and Jamie had an explosives plunger.
Fire in the hole!
3, 2, 1!
Jamie's action was to push the plunger,
and mine was to be running and to be hopefully in midair
at the exact second he pushed that plunger...
...so that when the actual explosion went off,
there I was in midair on that high-speed shot.
Man, it is my favorite high-speed shot.
It is me reliving my 7-year-old desire
to be an action-movie hero.
And we got the shot.
Narrator: But the Hollywood stunt action took a dive
when it came to the real-world explosion.
Fire in the hole!
3, 2, 1!
Narrator: Because one thing is for sure...
with the MythBusters around...
it doesn't matter how...
[ gunfire ]
...it's gonna be car-mageddon.
[ laughs ] No more car!
Sync and corrected by atrn97g www.addic7ed.com