I'm Bear Grylls.
Whoo!
I've travelled to the most dangerous parts of the planet
in search of the most extreme challenges -
all to show you how to survive.
I've been to the edge. This is where the fun starts!
(SCREAMS)
But now I'm back. Whoo!
With a countdown of my 25 all-time favourite moments.
OK, let's go.
Whoa! God!
I've taken on the toughest tests that nature has to offer
and pushed my mind and body to the absolute limit.
It's often been painful.
Gotta cover your face. I'm getting devoured here.
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.
And hasn't always gone to plan.
Never eaten raw goat's testicles before.
(RETCHES)
And been chewed up... Whoa!
..and spat out.
Very...hot.
Come along for the ride. It's gonna be a blast.
(SCREAMS)
I've travelled to the ends of the earth,
taking on the world's wildest places.
Come on, keep with me.
It's been one hell of a journey, both for me
and the hugely dedicated team of people
who are with me every step of the way.
The team and I are always asked for our favourite moments from the show,
so we've put together a top-25 countdown
of the very best.
(SHOUTS)
There've been so many moments for me on Man vs. Wild,
and it's always gonna be hard to narrow it down to 25,
but I'm gonna kick it off 9,000 feet up in a helicopter
looking down on a little desert island.
Magic.
When Bear falls out the aircraft, and behind him
you see this little island - it's like a James Bond moment.
We travel to some of the most remote places on earth.
In Sumatra, Indonesia,
just getting on the ground was a huge challenge.
But letting go was the easy bit.
My plan was to land in the water, but to do that,
I needed to release the parachute just before entry.
Nothing below me to judge distances
and tell me when to detach - it's a high-risk manoeuvre.
Release too early, and it'd be just like hitting concrete.
Whoo!
Now, THAT'S how to make an entrance.
Number 24 is a time in Montana
when I was faced with one of my toughest-ever climbs.
That must be 200 foot high.
At least.
Stuck in the bottom of a steep-sided valley,
my way out was up.
Climbing up that railway bridge in Montana
I would describe as buttock-clenching.
MAN: It looked big,
but once you got partway up there
you really saw how big it was,
but also how fragile it was.
That bridge was in excess of 100 years old.
It was a very physical climb which took a big toll on me.
Pump some blood back into the hands, and the arms.
You just gotta be 100% on each handhold and foothold,
you start going this high.
You're just not human if you don't feel a flutter.
Just when I thought I had it all worked out, was almost at the top,
I realised there was a big flaw in my plan.
How on earth am I gonna get over this lip?
I wanted to swing the chain out over the lip
and get it hooked on the railing.
(GROANS)
It's caught. It is caught.
OK, it's officially time
for a courage pill.
I'm up.
I was definitely scared.
See my hands...
You can see how my hands were shaking when I got to the top.
In Belize, deep underground in a cave,
I found food...of sorts.
Disgusting.
We saw this amazing-looking
prehistoric insect, almost,
hanging from this cave.
Flipping Nora.
And sort of just thought, "That's food."
This thing must be the most evil-looking creature
you'll ever see.
Look at the size of that.
You see, that's a whip scorpion.
It's like a cross between a scorpion and a spider.
Let's see if I can get him. Hold on.
Bear classic technique - Bear Grylls technique - whack it with a stone.
Bingo. Look at the size of that.
Well, at least you're gonna maybe pull a few legs off, all that.
No chance.
I don't even know where you begin to eat it.
Probably the back end. That's the bit I got.
That is a big meal.
I've included this at number 23
because I think it's the biggest insect I've ever eaten.
In Alaska, what should've been a simple river crossing
very nearly ended in big disaster.
Probably actually use this one as well to get across.
You see this huge, huge tree trunk wedged across this canyon.
You look at it and think it's not moving anywhere.
You could hang a truck off it.
Would you believe it? The thing went.
Whoomph!
Even today I find this one hard to watch.
Got it, I got it.
God, I hate it when that happens.
That was very, very close.
Number 21 has to be Transylvania.
It involves me, a length of rope and a helicopter.
Guess the rest.
Heading for the Carpathian Mountains in central Romania.
And it's reckoned to be the last great wilderness in Europe.
But getting there is not gonna be easy.
The clouds are moving in
and there's only a tiny weather window.
All of a sudden, you see that coil just moving. Whoop.
The pilot says he can't land up there.
So it means I go in on a rope!
(LAUGHS) Up he goes. Like a dope on a rope.
I'll never forget being suspended underneath a helicopter
flying at 100 miles an hour across the Transylvanian wilderness.
Brilliant.
Clear!
(GRUNTS)
Number 20 - it's my Tarzan moment in the jungles of Belize.
Look at that for a drop-off!
(BANGING SOUNDS ECHO)
That's what I call a death drop.
Really, anything over 30 foot, especially onto rocks like this,
you're just not gonna walk away from.
And this must be at least 60, 70 foot down here.
There was only one way to get across this chasm -
and I'd always wanted to try this.
Here was my chance.
(GRUNTS) That's all my weight on it.
And it's holding. OK, let's give this a field test.
PEARCE: Well, no-one knows what IS gonna happen.
Jeepers.
Takes a lot of courage. It does take a lot of ----.
(GRUNTS)
I'm across.
Like most things on this show,
it's probably best to only do them once.
(GRUNTS)
Number 19, in the Sahara desert,
I had to get in - and get in fast.
Oh, I love a gentle drive in the countryside.
The Land Rover's doing about 50km.
And that sand's not so soft.
If we slow down on the hot sand, more than likely gonna sink
and get stuck.
So when the driver gives me the nod, I'm gonna have to jump.
What a great way to start, with a mouthful of sand.
(SPITS)
Coming up on my greatest moments,
I go on a fishing trip with a difference in the deep south.
Ow!
Take the ride of my life in a biplane
and get in a fight with a bee.
I'm Bear Grylls and welcome back to my 25 greatest moments.
At number 18, it's the seriously committing rope traverse in Texas.
(GROANS) It's never easy, is it?
It must be a good 60 foot straight down, this.
Under the baking-hot Texas sun, I had to act fast.
Instead of turning back,
I placed my trust in a length of rope and an old trap
to get me across to the other side.
PEARCE: In a tough environment,
working with equipment that's substandard,
you don't know if it's really gonna hold.
Bullseye!
Feels like it's caught.
I've chosen this one because, looking back,
it really could've ended very, very differently.
It's risky stuff. It's heart-in-the-mouth.
The rope's holding...so far.
But there was always that chance it could slip.
And it blooming did - while he was on it.
Nicely, it's working quite nicely...
(EXHALES DRAMATICALLY)
Oh, my God.
(SCREAMS)
Bad place for the anchor to slip!
(GRUNTS)
(GROANS AND SPLUTTERS)
PEARCE: It's that ability to use that level of fear and anxiety,
not let it take over you.
- Whoo! - Because that could be disastrous.
Number 17 happened in Vietnam,
when I was given a brutal reminder of the awesome power of water.
CANE: When you're operating in an extreme environment,
things can change really quickly.
Stop, stop.
The water level here is definitely rising.
Look back up at the waterfall.
There's definitely more water coming down now.
I want us out of the water, OK?
Suddenly, the level of risk goes from fairly steady
to...boom!
With the water level rising by the second,
I knew we had to act fast.
Up you come, up you come, up you come.
Good, I got you.
PEARCE: Rivers flood instantly.
You watch these things rising minute by minute.
Whoa, look, look, look! Look at the waterfall!
That was just a kind of small torrent before.
There is a load more water coming down here now.
That wind is just incredible.
I've chosen this clip because
I'd always wanted to witness a flash flood.
Look at that!
And here I was, right in the thick of it.
Power of nature, it can easily grab you by the backside
and shake you around quite violently.
This river is definitely now out of action.
We're back into the jungle.
Whoo!
Number 16 is a moment in Montana that I had to run for my life.
(CHUCKLES) What were they thinking?
Straight through this tunnel.
Be quicker and easier than going over it as well.
Let's get through.
OK, hands up, it was a bad idea.
Hang on, stop, stop.
But it made my list because, to be honest, it got interesting.
- (TRAIN HORN BLARES) We need to move. Come on, go, go.
Keep up with me! Run!
You don't quite know how fast a train is.
You don't know anything because you hear the noise
and see this light barrelling towards you
and you just run.
Righto. Keep going, keep going. Keep going.
(HORN BLARES)
Run!
AHHH!
At number 15, it's a magic moment of creating fire.
Chihuahuan Desert, Western Texas - I'm setting up camp for the night.
Look, there's a whole cave up here.
My plan was to build a fire using an ancient survival technique -
the hand drill.
No matches, no flints, just two bits of wood.
To start a fire in any environment without matches
is a tough undertaking.
OK, that's the rough shape of it.
Now, what you want is just a tiny little pinch of sand.
And that's gonna add a little bit more friction.
It does take a good level of skill and craftsmanship.
What you want is a continuous plume of smoke
coming from the ember pan.
And then you know you got the potential
to make fire.
Come on!
When you do see it happening, with the right techniques,
it's wonderful to watch.
Super-gently with this, just tip that in.
And what you wanna do is tip it like this
so it stays as one ember.
OK. There we go.
However many times you do it,
nothing beats that feeling of creating fire.
This breakfast in Morocco was bad.
That's why it's in at number 14.
Couple of locusts,
beetles, couple of moths as well.
Even got a praying mantis.
Squidge all that up together.
Bear's always saying when he eats bugs that,
"This is a good source of protein."
And he's often saying that after he's eaten maybe an ant.
But this time he did deliver his protein hit.
(MOIST CRUNCHING)
Well, for me, personally, it's just that crunching sound,
knowing you're going through the abdomen of a beetle or some kind.
Oh, God. I've really learnt to hate that taste.
It's like cold, sandy, crunchy goo
with a very off-mustard taste.
Try always not to think of the taste, just get it down.
When we're on the shoot and we kill any animal,
I insist that we all share it.
You gotta keep chewing it to get the stuff down. Come on.
The crew don't like it, but I think it's only right.
We kill it, we all eat it.
Truly terrible way to start the day.
Eugh. Yeah. But we shared some.
Coming up, the most difficult
helicopter insertion we've ever done.
Can you guess which one it is?
Bear is on the run!
Just go! Time to get over this!
I'm Bear Grylls and welcome back to my 25 all-time greatest moments.
So far, I've eaten the unthinkable, taken a few tumbles
and had to run for my life.
Run!
All that, and we're only halfway through the countdown.
This is in here at 13,
and it was difficult and dangerous
and I definitely had second thoughts.
Hurricanes rage through here, earthquakes rip it up
and molten lava spews from volcanoes.
Welcome to Guatemala.
That was a risky, risky entrance.
In Guatemala, we planned to rappel from the helicopter
down onto an active volcano.
And that then became interesting.
No way the heli's gonna be able to land on the volcano itself.
So I'm gonna get the pilot to hover just above the summit
and fall straight down.
And I've never done that onto a volcano before.
(MAN SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE)
PEARCE: You know, we had pilots who didn't speak any English,
so we had to have an interpreter there.
So there's always a delay.
OK, can we go forward 10 and down 10?
There's all these winds doing different things up there.
Are we good...? No, not yet.
We've just... Not yet.
The very nature of the terrain now, on a slope
with a helicopter with rotors turning,
wind's doing everything, pilots fighting...
(OVER RADIO) Bear is on the rope.
The end of the rope is sometimes on the ground,
sometimes it's 5 feet, 10 feet up.
Steady there. Hover. He's nearly at the bottom.
I've got a pilot saying to me, "Dave, I've gotta go now.
"I've gotta go now." Like that.
You can't go now 'cause I got two people hanging off these ropes.
I didn't know at the time just how close things had been
to going seriously wrong.
Ropes and lava do not mix.
Thankfully we pulled it off, but that was it.
There was no more flying then. Pilots were out of there, gone.
Back to base. Never to be seen again.
In at number 12 is my most memorable night's sleep ever.
I mean, he's not just Mr Action.
He's got some bushcraft skills as well that he puts into play.
It's ingenious.
Guatemala provided another great moment.
After getting off the volcano, I headed deep into the jungle.
The plan is to get myself way up, high off the ground.
And the reason for that is jaguars.
Jaguars are the Americas' biggest and most dangerous wild cat.
I didn't want to take any chances, especially at night.
To sleep safely out of their reach,
my plan was to construct a hanging bivouac.
All I need from this is to make a triangle
of a bed frame.
That's my shape.
And then we'll cross one like that.
We need to get a wiggle on with it.
It's getting dark, and fast.
So this is just another great demonstration
of what you can do in these situations
to make your life safer.
I've included this because it's ingenious bushcraft
and I love ingenuity.
Let's see if this vine holds.
Nothing's ever easy in the jungle, is it?
(GRUNTS, HISSES)
(GRUNTS)
Feels a bit precarious, this.
But at least I'm out of reach of any jaguars.
Actually, it's not too uncomfortable.
(SIGHS) Mad day.
In at number 11, it's Kenya -
searching for fluid and doing the unthinkable.
Gut-wrenching.
One thing you can do if you're stuck out here with no water source at all
is actually drink the fluid from a fresh elephant dung.
It's pretty disgusting, but it could save your life.
(GROANS)
(SPITS)
Not one of the better drinks I've ever had.
We shared that as well. (CHUCKLES)
With 15 down, we're now into the top 10 all-time greatest moments.
These have attracted many comments, but what do you think?
HELP!
Now, I love fishing,
but fishing in the Deep South took it to a whole new level.
I think if you ask anybody,
stick your hand in a dark, black Louisiana swamp river
which is full of snakes, alligators about,snapper turtles,
the vast majority of people
would be like, "No. "No, I don't want to do that."
And they sit at home and have a cup of tea.
I was determined to use a local technique
to catch one of the huge catfish
that live in the swamp's muddy banks.
What I'm trying to do is just use my hand
and fingers
as a kind of hook and bait.
Let's see if I get myself something.
It's murky water, and we're all like...
"Is it gonna happen? What's down there?"
Ahh!
Man, there's something... there's something down here.
The suspense you can cut with a knife.
All my instincts were telling me, "Get your hand outta there."
Oh. Ah. (GRUNTS)
And this thing bit onto his hand and was like this.
(SPITS)
Got my finger right down its mouth.
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.
And he's just shredded my finger.
That must be 20 pounds of fish.
A seriously painful catch,
but I reckon it's worthy of my top 10.
Coming up, I quench my thirst with a seriously disgusting drink.
Eat an explosive meal.
Oh, my goodness!
That's coming fast!
And have a very close scrape with death.
I'm Bear Grylls and welcome back to my 25 greatest moments.
(BLOWS)
I've experienced every possible extreme of temperature on this show,
but an Arctic river crossing took things to a whole new level.
It was amazing. It was absolutely freezing.
This one's in at number 9,
and it's probably one of the coldest things I've ever had to do.
At minus-26, deep inside the Arctic Circle,
a river blocked my path.
REAY: The last thing you'd possibly want to do is cross that river,
but when there's no choice, you go for it.
Course he wanted to keep his clothes dry, so he got naked.
(GRUNTS)
Whoa! It's low down my back!
OK, let's get into it.
The water was so cold it immediately froze on the camera lens.
At this point, it's critical to keep focus
on reaching the other side.
Of course, what you don't see as the audience
is you can't feel how cold that is.
And minus 25 - it's where you put
your meat or your veg to freeze.
So far it's looking...looking OK. Oh, hang on. Ohhhh!
OK, we're in.
OK, it's over the deep bit. Let's get ashore.
(SPLUTTERS)
(GRUNTS) Flipping Nora!
Ohhh, man! That is nice.
Sometimes my boys watch these sort of programs
and they go, "Is it really that cold?"
When you can show them a shoelace out horizontal,
then you know it's cold.
In at number 8, it's the Sahara desert,
where I found fluid in the strangest of places.
The Sahara is the largest and hottest desert in the world.
The temperature is 130 degrees
and finding fluid is my biggest priority.
I've been given a camel by a local Berber tribesman,
an old beast that had been put out of its misery.
What I'm looking for is the liquids.
I was hoping that the undigested contents of the camel's stomach
would contain vital fluid.
(COUGHS)
Stench of camel digesting food straight up my nostrils.
You can see everything that it's been eating.
And that is just sort of partially digested.
And the fluid in this, again, is drinkable.
When he was drinking, I thought, "Bear, I don't wanna share."
(CHUCKLES)
I didn't want to share with him this time.
Drinkable. But truly... (SPITS) ..disgusting.
I was hoping this would be the worst drink I'd ever have to taste.
But little did I know there was something even worse in Mexico.
But let's hold that one.
In at number 7 is Alaska,
where my escape onto a passing ship nearly went very, very wrong.
HHHEEEYYY!
Yeah, we had a really dodgy situation in Alaska.
He was on an iceberg,
then he was being picked up by this large boat.
And it nearly went really wrong.
There could be no better sight in the world for the survivor
than seeing a rescue ship turn towards them!
I knew the boat wouldn't want to hang around in these icy waters.
I'd have one chance and one chance only to get out.
Now, that's coming fast.
And straight towards us.
Need to move to make this.
That boat was on top of us within no time.
And I gotta be 100% confident of making this jump!
Do not wanna end up crushed
between this and the ice!
It's coming too close, smashes into the side.
If he'd gone down between those two,
he would've been brown bread, you know? Dead.
I just managed to keep my balance, which probably saved my life.
Crushed between ice and ship would've been bad.
And that was a bit of a closer shave than I normally like, for sure.
Coming up, my most extreme bug eat ever.
Oh, my goodness!
I'm not gonna forget that one.
OK, let's go.
I'm Bear Grylls, and welcome back to my all-time greatest moments.
If you thought the whip scorpion at number 23 was bad,
this bug-eat in Zambia was so disgusting...
(SIGHS)
..it's hitting in hard at number 6.
Often when he eats
these large bugs or insects or grubs,
um, they do explode.
It's a rhino beetle larva, this.
You can just eat them raw.
He brought out the first one, it was about this big.
I thought, "That's pretty cool ."
Then he munched it.
No wonder they fry them.
(GROANS) Ready for this?
Then he carried on exploring, he found one This Big.
It was so full of juice. (CHUCKLES)
Oh, my goodness.
(SPLUTTERS)
It's the size of your thumb.
Actually, bigger than my thumb. And, full, full of pus.
I'm not gonna need to eat for a week after this one.
That still makes me feel bad.
(GROANS)
This actually ranks as one of the worst things
I have ever, ever eaten.
(SPITS)
Choosing the top five is always gonna be hard.
There are lots of contenders, but I've made my choice.
In Mexico, it was a case of Bear versus bee.
And the bee won.
- (BUZZING) OK, let's get in there.
See, that's what I'm after.
How hard can it be just trying to get some honey?
Look, it's on my forehead.
Go away. Go away. Go away.
One of the bees has stung me right between the eyes.
No big deal.
You know, one sting for
a load of honeycomb isn't too bad.
After about 30 minutes, his head started to explode.
He looked like the Elephant Man.
Been quite a brute of a bee sting, this.
It's made all of this part of me swell up.
REAY: Every hour that went by,
we could chart a big difference in the look of his face.
You know, scary, dangerous moment.
Feels like a big price to pay for a bit of honey.
But if you risk nothing, you gain nothing.
Just this time it hasn't quite worked out.
In the Sahara desert, in search of shelter,
I found myself somewhere that I never thought I'd end up.
When Bear says these things, eyebrows raise -
"Are you really gonna do that, Bear?"
I'd heard a story of a Berber tribesman
using a camel carcass as an emergency shelter in a sandstorm.
The smell was absolutely disgusting.
OK, it's all just being held on at that one point.
Now I've to hold my breath, get in there and cut it.
Oh, it stinks!
(GROANS) I got it!
Little did I know that this clip would follow me for a long time
and not just the smell.
It's here at number 4.
The Berbers could use this as an emergency shelter in a sandstorm.
And all they'd do is get inside it.
Pull it over.
And I'll be 100% protected from the sun.
My number 1 has to be the Texas biplane.
The Texas biplane was a fun one,
and it barrel-rolls its way into number 3.
Our insertion into the Chihuahuan Desert
was definitely one of my favourites,
and we've done a lot of them.
Helicopters, balloons, planes - you name it.
But hanging inverted under a biplane at 80,000 feet -
life definitely became interesting.
That was a stunt and a half.
Skydiving from a biplane is anything but straightforward.
The simplest way is for the pilot to flip the plane upside down
and drop me out.
MAN: OK, Bear, we're coming up on 8,000 feet now. Get ready to jump.
So he had to get out of the canopy, get on top of the plane,
and then if he jumped off the plane from that point,
he would've hit the tail fin.
The only way to get his body further away - flip the plane upside down
so he could just fall away.
Bear's feet being next to me here -
literally on a heartbeat his feet were now complete 180.
Brilliant moment, brilliant moment. I absolutely loved that moment.
To this day, it still makes me smile that we pulled this one off.
There's the plane outta here.
Now to where the hell I'm gonna land.
Argh!
Coming up, my two favourite moments.
Will you agree?
I'm Bear Grylls. Welcome back to my 25 greatest moments.
So far, I've made some grand entrances,
had some very close shaves,
put my stomach through some tough tests.
But now it's time for my top two moments.
Definitely eaten some pretty disgusting things on Man vs. Wild
but, you know, it's amazing what you can do when you're hungry
and I kinda like to think I've got a pretty strong stomach.
But this one definitely took me to the edge.
That's why it's my number 2.
In northern Mexico,
I was walking through the sand dunes
on the edge of the Laguna Salada salt pan.
In this environment, dehydration is the biggest enemy.
I need to pee, and I don't want to waste that,
so what I'm gonna do is use this snakeskin.
REAY: When he filled that up
from his own flask, so to speak...
I mean, the snakeskin stunk to start with.
It's not so easy to hold and aim.
(LIQUID TRICKLES)
And then that's ready to go.
Let's get into the salt pan.
CANE: That one, there was a story of people -
one drank urine, one didn't.
One survived, one didn't.
Of course, the guy who drank the urine survived.
And I'm not expecting this to be
particularly...appetising.
I'm all for cocktails,
but snake innards and pee is not high on my list.
This one always draws in the comments.
(COUGHS)
When you think he's probably done, he goes "There's a little bit left."
There's still a bit left.
No-one can see that. I can't see that. He didn't need to do that.
Hopefully that will help.
Help me go a bit further.
(SPITS)
And that's a taste that I can still taste,
and I close my eyes and wince - bad.
Definitely the most difficult, definitely the most painful
and definitely for me the most memorable moment...
..at number 1, on a raft in the Pacific,
giving myself an enema.
Whoa, whoa, yeah. Ow! (GRUNTS, SPLUTTERS)
Yeow! I'm getting devoured here.
Ow, ow, ow, ow.
Physical discomfort is definitely a part of Man vs. Wild for me.
But this next clip was eye-watering in its discomfort.
Panama is quite a historic moment, I think, in the program,
and for Bear and all of us who were involved.
This is my number 1.
Not expecting this to be particularly pleasant.
But there are stories of this saving people's lives.
There's one particular family who was stranded in a life raft
and all this water had gathered in the bottom of it.
But they'd been feeding off turtles, and it was mixed with turtle blood.
It had gone fetid.
And the only way they managed to stay hydrated -
by using that fetid water and giving themselves an enema.
Ohh!
And then once it's in...
..I guess all you can do is lie back and think of England!
A gentle reminder that survival is rarely pretty.
That's something I hope I never, ever have to do again.
CANE: Yeah, I mean, the show's been so successful, you know.
Everything that Bear does has to be better than what it was before.
But that's alright for him.
But he's also dragging a few of us along as well.
Choosing my all-time greatest 25 moments
was always gonna be hard.
The scars are a good legacy
and the memories still very vivid.
But it's been a huge privilege
to explore some of the most incredible environments
this planet has to offer.
But there's still many more remote corners of the world
that I haven't yet been.
And I can't wait to get out there,
take on the wild once more.
To see more great moments from the show,
Whoo!