[dramatic music]
narrator: Since it started as a humble experiment,
"Alone" has developed into a cultural phenomenon.
‐ Yeah!
narrator: It's a simple idea: drop ten willing participants
into the world's harshest conditions
and have them chronicle their life
as they attempt to survive with almost nothing.
‐ We are cooking up the leeches.
‐ Freaking find bears. Freaking crazy.
narrator: Over the years, the people on "Alone"
have experienced devastating setbacks.
‐ I'm not sure what to do.
narrator: And triumphed over incredible odds.
‐ I just stabbed this muskox to death.
Oh, my Lord.
‐ Oh, yeah, got a fish!
‐ Ahh!
‐ Put the [bleep] fight in me!
♪ ♪
narrator: This is "Alone: Ultimate Moments."
♪ ♪
[fire crackling]
‐ [snarls]
I'm just kidding.
Hope I didn't scare you too bad.
♪ ♪
narrator: "Alone" features
the best survivalists in the world
dropped into some of the toughest conditions on Earth.
‐ Ah...
narrator: And the locations
have brought new challenges every season.
♪ ♪
‐ So we are here. This is crazy.
narrator: The first group of "Alone" survivalists
tested their skills on Vancouver Island...
‐ I don't even know how to describe it.
There's a sick feeling to my stomach right now.
narrator: Where the constant rain and rough terrain
brought an endless amount of suffering.
‐ The way this wind's blowing is gale‐force stuff.
narrator: After Vancouver, "Alone" went south
to the Andes Mountains of Argentina.
‐ Patagonia!
narrator: Here, the participants faced
complete desolation,
fighting against solitude at the edge of the world.
‐ Holy cow. All alone.
narrator: In the open Plains of Mongolia...
‐ This is going to be challenging.
[laughs]
narrator: Each returning survivalist
adjusted to life with its turbulent winds
and even deadlier predators.
[animals howling] ‐ It's not that far away.
narrator: But how would a new group fare
in the extreme conditions of the Far North?
‐ This is real winter.
narrator: Ten more participants braved the Arctic
where temperatures below zero were the norm.
‐ I don't know what it's going to add up to,
but it's dropped a couple inches,
just slicker than [bleep] here in about an hour.
narrator: And competitors
faced new threats from the wild.
‐ Wolverine. Get out of here. Get out of here.
[whistles] Hey, get out of here!
narrator: "Alone" is the ultimate test of skill,
but you won't last long if you don't have
a solid roof over your head.
‐ All nicely insulated.
narrator: Here are some of the best shelters
across all seasons.
♪ ♪
‐ No goofing around today.
I need to get the shelter done.
My shelter plans are to have a shelter I can stand up in.
My design idea for the walls is a bamboo wattle.
Takes a lot of sticks to make this.
The inner walls are done. It is looking good.
♪ ♪
I got my new shelter up. So warm.
So dry.
A little shelf I made last night.
All nice and neat.
Yeah, this is coming out awesome.
‐ All right, let's get to work.
We're going to take two posts and hammer them in.
And then we're going to fill this inside with debris.
If I had to kind of peg down my survival philosophy
or strategy, it would be creating a home.
You know, is going to be the environment in which
I will‐‐I will thrive.
It's looking very tiki hut.
We made hangers. A cozy bed.
I'm so happy.
‐ The idea is we're going to put up a little cabin.
What I was kind of thinking about doing
is digging a trench all the way around
and then standing the logs up stockade.
‐ It's a cabin we're going to build.
Well, he'll start digging a trench
and I'll start cutting trees.
‐ Once the trench is dug,
all you're doing at that point is cutting seven‐foot logs.
Stick it in the hole. Pack it in there. Lash it off.
♪ ♪
‐ I feel like the cabin is absolutely
the best decision we have made.
‐ I'm no checker wizard.
I mean, you suck, but I'm‐‐
I'm no genius at it.
So you'll get so much better.
You'll be a savant by the time we're out of here.
‐ I hate you.
[laughter]
[tense music]
‐ Heading for Stoneville.
I found a spot where I want to have my permanent shelter
and I've made good progress on that.
This is it. This is where we winter it in.
We're going to live in stone.
It's gonna be a project.
Today's goal is to have the rock part
of the rock house finished.
Ahh!
Stone, stay there, you mother.
I know when it's done,
I'm going to have what I want to go the distance.
Look at that.
Oh...nice.
Last big log in place.
Rock house is coming along.
♪ ♪
narrator: A well‐built shelter
will protect you from the elements,
but you can't stay inside forever.
And when you go out, you need to be alert
because you never know what may be lurking nearby.
♪ ♪
Just found a bear den.
It's full of fish heads
and everything else.
[branch snaps]
[tense music]
Oh, man. This is crazy.
Freaking find bears.
♪ ♪
‐ Holy [bleep].
♪ ♪
Oh, my God. Oh, my God. A wolf.
♪ ♪
There's like five of 'em.
♪ ♪
They move so swiftly.
They just move swiftly and silently over the land.
I don't know why, but I'm going to follow the wolves.
‐ Heading up the shoreline here to prospect for fishing sites.
Oh, [bleep].
♪ ♪
[growling]
♪ ♪
There it goes.
That [bleep] was close.
‐ All right, good morning.
I gotta get firewood.
Work on traps. Get more firewood.
[growling]
[bleep].
♪ ♪
narrator: Predators are a real threat,
but participants often find themselves in danger
and it has nothing to do with the local wildlife.
‐ Ow! [bleep].
narrator: To win "Alone,"
you have to take calculated risks.
‐ Peel it down.
narrator: Sometimes they pay off.
Sometimes they don't.
‐ [groans]
[tense music]
♪ ♪
‐ Another day of boat‐building.
I can't wait to see her in the water in time
to get to that salmon run.
I'm taking a huge gamble to fish offshore.
♪ ♪
[gasps] Oh! Oh!
♪ ♪
‐ I gotta get going.
I hope it backs off a little bit.
It's coming down hard.
I got to get back while I can still see where I'm going.
We're entering full‐blown whiteout conditions right now.
♪ ♪
You can get turned around and lost bad in whiteouts.
There's been men perished
within 50 yards of their cabins in whiteouts.
♪ ♪
Right now, I got to get off this ice.
It's just blinding out here.
♪ ♪
‐ Thank you.
Thank you, fire gods, for giving me fire
just when you're just about to run out of hope.
♪ ♪
Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch.
I can't lift my thumb. I can't lift my thumb.
Mother[bleep]. Ahh.
♪ ♪
Ow! [bleep] damn it.
♪ ♪
‐ Elevate. Hold it up.
‐ Pressure. And pressure. ‐ Pressure.
♪ ♪
‐ I'm just going to have a look at it.
Whereabouts is it? Just here?
‐ Uh‐huh, uh‐huh. ‐ It's about an inch long.
Can you feel your finger? Do you feel me do that?
‐ I can feel them, but they're cold.
‐ Okay, what we're going to do is we're just going to bandage
that up and then take you out to hospital.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
‐ Tapping into a new food resource.
Um...
This is like the hidden gem of Mongolia.
So Mongolia actually has virtually unlimited snow cones.
You got to remember not to eat the lemon ones.
narrator: To survive on "Alone,"
you've got to be creative
and find a way to make a lot from a little.
‐ Check it out. Beautiful woven rabbit.
Whoo‐hoo!
narrator: The strongest participants
tend to think outside the box and keep their minds busy
focusing on one project after another.
♪ ♪
‐ Found myself a surfboard.
What I'm trying to do here
is make a little paddle wheel that goes in here.
We all have our strengths and our weaknesses.
We all had different abilities, you know.
Mine being the ability to make stuff.
Almost a perfect fit to get my duck trap out there.
'Cause I don't have a boat to paddle out there
and set it, I was thinking about taking
some of the elastic from my slingshot
and seeing if I can't make it wind up.
Hmm. I guess that's all that's left is to try it out.
So this is what we got going on.
As you can see, the propulsion to take it out there.
A rock with a line tied to it,
two of these and a line to a fish hook in a fish head,
which I'm hoping the ducks will take
and it'll pull their heads under and finish them off.
I christen the Duck Hunter 3000.
♪ ♪
On your first mission, seek and destroy.
♪ ♪
Eh.
I'd say that's good.
Success.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[light plucky music]
‐ ♪ This is my two‐note song ♪
♪ This is my two‐note song ♪
♪ Cheery and happy and fun ♪
♪ This is my two‐note song ♪
♪ ♪
‐ What's that?
Holy [bleep].
That's an old boat.
You know, maybe I can raise it up with some rocks
and build a fire under the metal.
And you got yourself a sauna or a hot tub.
[tense music]
It's a crazy day to be trying to go and taking a bath,
but nobody can argue with a nice hot bath.
♪ ♪
Oh, that's hot.
♪ ♪
That's hot.
[sighs, laughs]
♪ ♪
Northwest territory, who?
Arctic Circle, what?
I'm out here in a hot tub full of green tea.
Come on, man.
[laughing]
narrator: To keep their projects going,
participants need food.
‐ Thank you.
narrator: So scoring huge fish or moose
can mean the difference between staying out for weeks
or going home in days.
♪ ♪
‐ Good morning.
It's cold, and we're going ice fishing.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
I think I got one.
[laughing] Yes!
Yes! Oh!
[laughing]
We got a fish!
[laughing]
‐ Holy cow, I nailed it.
I'm gonna wait and see if it goes down.
♪ ♪
[laughs] It's dead!
[laughing]
Yeah!
Hallelujah.
Oh. Thank you, Lord.
What a beast. This is awesome.
♪ ♪
‐ There's a muskox right up there
behind this one rock ridge.
♪ ♪
We struck it.
I gotta do something.
You won't [bleep] believe this.
I just stabbed this muskox to death.
Oh, my Lord. Whoo‐hoo‐hoo!
We got big game.
Big game at rock house. Ha!
We are very thankful.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
‐ Dawned on me.
Brady...
Why are you doing all this laundry by hand like an idiot
when you could have a machine do it for you?
You're excited, aren't you?
All right, you ready?
Yeah.
No big deal. No big deal.
Does anybody else out here got a laundry machine?
I don't think anybody else out here has a laundry machine.
I have a laundry machine.
Yeah.
narrator: There are tried and true ways
of surviving in the wild.
‐ There's the brain.
It's even good for chapped face.
narrator: But to thrive on "Alone,"
participants need to come up with new solutions
to get an edge on the competition.
♪ ♪
‐ Now, kids, oral hygiene is very important.
Charcoal.
See? Much better now.
[laughing]
‐ I'm going to go looking around
for a nice piece of birchbark that I can harvest.
That's a nice piece right there.
I'll just make a pair of birch goggles,
which makes it so you can go out into a snowy,
bright environment without damaging your eyes.
One eyeball is there. One eyeball is there.
They don't look too bad.
I even got the nose part pretty good.
‐ I got some projects I need to work on today.
Make some pitch glue 'cause I'm out of that completely.
This is solid pitch.
What an amazing find to have a wet weather fire resource
like that just fall into your lap.
I'm going to use this shell to melt the pitch in the coals.
And then with the shredded cedar,
I can throw that in there and mix it all around
and make more fire lighter.
That's enough fire lighter for weeks.
narrator: Survival hacks aren't just
about brushing your teeth or making fire starters.
‐ Eating rabbit intestines is next‐level.
narrator: They're also about finding food in places
most others wouldn't even consider.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
‐ So what we're doing tonight is we are cooking up
the leeches that we got in the fish trap.
About the grossest thing you can eat
is a leech that's been feeding off of mouse blood.
I'm gonna boil them for like five full minutes.
I do not want this to be, like, slightly undercooked
and get some kind of crazy worm thing in me.
What are the odds that this tastes good?
I'm going to put a wire through them and roast them.
Alrighty. One leech kebab coming right up.
Bon appétit.
♪ ♪
Still, like, deciding if I'm going to throw up or not.
Wow.
[laughs]
Gross.
‐ I found a slug.
♪ ♪
It's a pretty good size there.
♪ ♪
I'm going to boil him first to get all the slime out
and then I'll probably chop him up
and sizzle him on there for a minute.
♪ ♪
Mmm.
No doubt about it.
It's exactly as you would expect.
It kind of tastes a little bit shrimp.
It has the texture of calamari.
‐ Just another long, cold‐ass night in rock house.
Right here's my stomach paunch
that I brought off of that muskox.
That's just a piece of his stomach with its contents.
That's what's gonna go in the pot.
Hot and ready, rock house.
Spinach. Muskox stomach contents.
♪ ♪
I am never taking food for granted.
Never, ever again.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
‐ I tell you what, as soon as that helicopter leaves,
it gets quiet.
Okay. What the [bleep]?
Did they forget something?
[laughing]
They did.
I forgot something. My hat.
[laughing]
narrator: On "Alone," any simple mistake can make
the difference between going the distance...
‐ Ow.
narrator: And going home.
Compound that with a lack of food and isolation.
It's a recipe for disaster.
‐ [grunts]
♪ ♪
‐ To try to maximize my fishing ability,
there's a couple of overhanging trees and logs.
So I'm going to hang some line and hooks off of those
in hopes that fish coming by whenever they do,
will take ahold of the bait and bite.
Yay, biggest fish.
Ah! [bleep].
That went in my skin all the way.
I'm not sure what to do. It's in really deep.
♪ ♪
I wish I could rewind time right now and not do that.
♪ ♪
‐ I see a squirrel right there,
right there on that tree.
It's hiding right there.
♪ ♪
Got him. Oh, wow. It's not dead.
Oh, sorry, guy.
Oh, buddy.
Ugh.
How am I going to do this?
♪ ♪
Ow!
♪ ♪
It bit me, like, bad. Ahh.
It's just a disaster. There's blood everywhere.
‐ Now I've got to go get bamboo.
Now it's the hard part.
Which means I gotta walk up into that [bleep] again.
♪ ♪
Should go get that bamboo.
Aw, [bleep].
Aw, [bleep]. Cut myself.
♪ ♪
Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.
Oh, my God!
♪ ♪
‐ Stitches? ‐ Stitches.
I can't take off the tape there
'cause it's going to start the bleeding again.
It looks as though it's got some debris in there as well.
‐ Okay. ‐ I can't do that out here.
‐ [bleep]. Okay.
♪ ♪
narrator: Participants on "Alone" endure weeks
of complete isolation
and that can lead to intense psychological stress.
♪ ♪
‐ It's getting tougher and tougher as the days go by.
Really, really difficult at times.
All you want to do is go home and be warm and dry
and‐‐and eat some good food
and talk to your wife at the end of the day.
That's all you wanna do.
For all of week one, I just pushed it.
I just pushed it aside as hard as I could.
Like, I didn't think about home.
I didn't think about my wife
or my‐‐my soon to be little boy.
'Cause I knew the second‐‐the second
I thought about those guys, it would just tear me up
and my‐‐my days here would just be numbered.
[crying]
‐ I had never‐‐I don't remember ever giving up
anything in my life.
It's a sucky ass feeling.
I still don't want to let my family down, man.
♪ ♪
‐ Please, God, help me.
Please, help me.
[sobbing]
Please, God.
Make it end soon, please.
Just make it end, God.
I don't have the energy for this.
I don't have the will for this.
Please, God, help me.
Please help me, man.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
‐ So tired, so thirsty.
[bleep] starving. But that sweet‐‐sweet water.
♪ ♪
Oh, this is kicking my [bleep].
I just want my wife and kids, man.
[crying]
This is so [bleep] hard, man.
I'm starving.
Put the fight in me again.
Put the [bleep] fight in me!
♪ ♪
[sobbing]
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
‐ Do a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
And a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
A little bit of this and a little bit of that.
And do this. A little bit of this.
And a little bit of this.
[vocalizing]
You get the point.
We're going to do some of that.
narrator: The experience of being on "Alone"
can initially lead to a sense of euphoria,
but eventually, even the strongest survivalists
can succumb to the elements and tap out.
♪ ♪
‐ Let's just‐‐you're good here, bud.
♪ ♪
‐ Just pull everything up. ‐ Okay.
♪ ♪
Oh...
‐ Breathe deep with your mouth.
♪ ♪
‐ No.
I've got food.
I can continue to eat.
‐ You're risking organ failure.
And so we need to pull you.
‐ No.
You can't...
I've got food. I can eat.
I got food.
‐ It's dangerous for you to stay here.
[somber music]
‐ We're taking you to the hospital.
♪ ♪
‐ Okay.
[sighs]
‐ Tastes like fish.
♪ ♪
[bleep] damn it.
♪ ♪
Ah! Damn it.
♪ ♪
Oh...
Ahh!
[grunts]
[dramatic music]
Oh, [bleep].
There it is.
Half a million dollars up in smoke.
♪ ♪
Hey, this is Nathan.
My shelter caught fire in a big way.
I don't think sunrise is still around 8:00 a. m.
or‐‐or so these days.
Could be later.
So I've got at least a seven‐hour wait,
and this isn't going to burn for seven hours
and it's only going to get colder.
♪ ♪
‐ Okay. All right.
‐ Okay.
♪ ♪
So we brought the doctor out.
‐ Yeah. ‐ And the doctor confirmed
that there was spreading of frostbite
in your right big toe.
The doctor also noticed that there was a little bit
of new frostbite in your left big toe.
And so as a result, I'm going to have to extract you
from the field for medical reasons.
♪ ♪
‐ It's such a challenging situation because my spirit
feels really strong out here...
♪ ♪
[sobs]
♪ ♪
But I don't want to lose a toe.
[laughs]
I love my feet very, very much.
I want to‐‐I want to do what's best for my feet.
♪ ♪
‐ All night, I shivered.
I just can't seem to warm up here.
I've got hypothermia,
and I'm almost hallucinating.
♪ ♪
That's scary.
♪ ♪
Ah!
♪ ♪
I'm done. I'm officially tapped out.
Now all I've got to look forward to
is going back and doing drywall again.
That's my future now.
♪ ♪
I can't even explain the devastation.
That was my retirement.
That was a house for my daughter.
I don't even know how to go about telling her.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
‐ Here they come.
The sensation of Great Slave Lake,
hot and rare, live at rock house.
[vocalizing rhythmically]
I live in rock house and eat wild muskox meat
and squirrel mushroom stew.
And when I catch a fish, I'd turn its guts into soup.
If we get a rabbit, we'll eat its head.
And if you come here with the wrong 10 items,
you are dead.
Rock house!
Ahh!
narrator: To win "Alone," participants must persevere
through one challenge after another,
and the odds are stacked against them.
‐ [groans]
narrator: Here are the lucky few
to go the distance and outlast all others.
♪ ♪
‐ So, Alan, we need to tell you something.
You've outlasted everybody.
‐ Are you [bleep] me?
For real? This is it.
All right, let's burn this place down.
[laughter]
Got a lighter in your pocket? Holy crap.
♪ ♪
What are you doing here? ‐ Hey.
‐ What are you doing?
♪ ♪
‐ Why go home now? I'm eating crab.
I mean, I am eating Dungeness crabs practically every night.
Why would I go home now?
♪ ♪
‐ You did it.
‐ I did it. ‐ You did it.
‐ Good‐bye, Destination Cove.
A perfect ending to a beautiful day.
♪ ♪
‐ I miss my girls so much.
♪ ♪
[gasps] Oh, my God.
[crying]
‐ You won. You won. ‐ What?
I won.
♪ ♪
If there's something that you want,
it's not something you accomplish in one night.
As long as you just keep pushing forward,
you're achieving something.
♪ ♪
‐ To just put your boots on is exhausting.
I‐‐I'm actually amazed with how far...
‐ Hi! ‐ I can re‐‐really push it.
[overlapping shouts, cheers]
[laughter]
[muffled speech] You've gotta be kidding me.
♪ ♪
‐ I just keep thinking, like...
[sniffs]
♪ ♪
‐ Hi, babe. Hi.
‐ [sobbing]
‐ You did it.
‐ I feel like when I left Vancouver Island,
I was just angry at the place.
But in Mongolia, I was just thankful
for every little tiny thing that came my way.
And when I had a thankful attitude,
it just taught me to love the land
rather than look at what it couldn't provide.
♪ ♪
‐ Yeah, you know, I feel mentally crisp.
I feel good.
I don't know if I'll be able to physically make it,
but‐‐oh, my God.
[speaking indistinctly] Oh, man.
‐ Is this your pull‐up bar?
‐ No, it's where I hung the hide, the moose hide.
‐ You got a moose?
‐ I got a moose. It's very important for me
to stay connected to my time in the Arctic.
It just feels like a more real way of life.
It's much simpler.
♪ ♪
‐ We did it. Today's day 100. We did it.
‐ Hey, Roland.
‐ [laughing]
Oh, man.
[both cheering] Oh, my God!
The bulk of this money,
I don't even know yet where it's going.
It's going to last me the rest of my life.
I'm gonna slow it down
and start spending some more time with family.
Spend more time with my sister and my dad.
narrator: "Alone" has never been about winning or losing.
It is about the triumph of the human spirit
and how much it can endure.
‐ At least I can say I gave it hell.
narrator: It is about learning what is truly
important in life.
‐ You miss everything.
narrator: And what happens
when people are totally alone...
‐ [snarling]
♪ ♪
While the whole world is watching.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[helicopter blades thrumming]
♪ ♪