[Dan narating on screen text]
[mysterious music]
- What if I told you
the fate of an entire World War I army battalion
rested on the wings of an unexpected warrior?
- They take this last carrier pigeon and send Cher Ami off.
- The Germans immediately fire on this bird.
[guns blasting]
- He's bloody, he's battered,
and its leg is now hanging on by a thread.
- Or there once lived a pig with a heart of gold
and a strange superpower.
- Lulu waddles up to Jo Ann
and realizes her human needs help.
- So Lulu employs the one trick
that she's got up her sleeve.
- How about some very unconventional lifesavers?
- They're locked out, and baby Dallas is inside.
[baby crying]
- The baby is crying harder and harder.
[baby crying]
- [J. Mack] Nearby, there are a bunch of convicts
doing road work.
- The parents were thinking it's going from bad to worse,
'cause now, one of the prisoners
starts moving quickly towards the car.
- These are the stories of heroes so unlikely,
they are truly unbelievable.
[lively dramatic music]
In the chaos of World War I, when all seems lost,
one unlikely hero steps up, defying the odds
and charging headfirst into danger
to prove that even the smallest of creatures
can carry the weight of a nation.
[tense dramatic music]
- It's late 1918 in the Argonne Forest.
The United States military,
with French allies and Siamese allies,
have launched the Meuse-Argonne offensive,
[gun blasts]
the largest ground defensive operation
in which the American military has ever participated.
[heavy artillery booming]
- At this point, the Allied soldiers,
totaling 1.2 million troops,
move in to try to push the Germans back.
- The Germans have held this forest for four years,
and the Allies know that they're not gonna get this back
without a serious fight.
[heavy artillery booming]
- On October 2nd, thousands of troops are sent forward
to attack the Germans.
[explosion blasts]
Among them are 554 men
of the American 77th Infantry Division.
Leading them is Major Charles Whittlesey.
- As Whittlesey leads his troops forward
through the dense forest,
they suddenly get separated from other Allied forces.
- And before long, they find themselves behind German lines
and surrounded on all sides.
[explosion blasts]
- [Dan] Things quickly go from bad to worse
when they're detected by the enemy.
- So once they're spotted,
the Germans start throwing grenades in at them
and shooting flamethrowers at them.
[rousing dramatic music]
But then they also have friendly fire
coming from other Allied forces
that are trying to shoot those German soldiers.
[cannon booms]
- [Yohuru] Because radio is in its infancy and quite
unreliable, there's no way for them to radio back to command
to let them know their location.
- [Dan] Out of options and under pressure,
the military turns
to a different kind of communication strategy.
[birds flapping]
- [Rutledge] So 600 carrier pigeons were drafted
and trained in the US
before they were sent over to be used in the war.
The carrier pigeon's job is to aid
in battlefield communications.
- Pigeons are fairly low-maintenance.
They don't need to be fed much.
They're great at remembering physical landmarks
and successful at delivering a message
from point A to point B.
- And because they're really fast flyers,
they can deliver a message much faster
than anybody on a motorbike or on a horse, or on foot.
- [Dan] Luckily, on this particular mission,
the Lost Battalion have with them eight carrier pigeons.
[tense uneasy music]
- [Edward] Whittlesey and his men scrawl short notes on paper
and roll them up and put them in canisters,
which they attach to the pigeons' ankles.
- [Martin] The pigeons are then one after the other released,
hoping that they will make it back to their roost
and pass on the message
about the location of the Lost Battalion.
[birds flapping]
- Unfortunately, the Germans know that the Allies
are using carrier pigeons to communicate,
and they've trained sharpshooters to take them down.
- And so one after the other, they release seven pigeons
that are brought down by German fire.
[guns blasting]
This is to the great frustration of Whittlesey and his men,
who are isolated, surrounded,
and under constant enemy and friendly artillery fire.
- [Dan] Now all hope rests on the one carrier pigeon
the Americans have left.
His name is Cher Ami, which means "dear friend" in French.
[tense dramatic music]
- [Rutledge] So they take this last carrier pigeon, Cher Ami,
and they write a note.
It's got their position, the Germans' position,
and a note that says, "Please, for God's sake,
stop firing on us."
And then they send Cher Ami off.
[bird flapping]
- Almost as soon as he takes off, the Germans spot him,
and they immediately fire on this bird, and they hit him.
[gun blasting]
- Cher Ami's been shot in the breast, lost his right eye,
and his leg, where the message canister is being held,
is almost completely severed
and is now hanging on by a thread.
- [Martin] Everyone's hopes are completely dashed by it
because now they know, "We can't communicate.
We're just gonna sit here until the enemy either overruns us
or our own artillery kills us."
- [Dan] The soldiers' future seems dim,
but Cher Ami is one tough little pigeon.
- Somehow, he musters the energy to fly again.
- He's bloody, he's battered.
His leg is hanging on by a thread,
yet he still perseveres through 25 miles of enemy territory
to successfully deliver the message.
- Three days later, thanks to Cher Ami,
200 men from the Lost Battalion are rescued.
Now, Cher Ami was given a prosthetic leg
and sent home to the States,
where it was given a hero's welcome.
- He's awarded the coveted oak leaf medal
for having delivered the message
that saved the Lost Battalion.
And after his death, he was stuffed
and maintained at the post library at Fort Monmouth.
- [Dan] Cher Ami's bravery is a testament to the belief
that there is no such thing as an impossible mission.
But he's far from the first lifesaving little soldier.
[dramatic orchestral music] [soldiers yelling]
- [Mitch] It is May of 1861.
Abe Lincoln calls for volunteers to fight
in the War of the States against the Confederacy.
- And men all over the North wanna be part of this effort,
but there are also younger people
that try to get involved in the war cause.
- There are no age limits to join the Confederate Army,
but the Union Army requires fighting men to be at least 18
and musicians bearing fife and drum to be at least 16.
[light thoughtful music]
- [Holly] In Newark, Ohio, little Johnny Clem is nine years
old, and he only stands about four feet tall,
but he really, really wants to be part of the war effort.
- What he lacks in size, Johnny makes up for in gumption.
He walks right over to the 3rd Ohio Regiment,
tries to enlist,
and is told, "Son, we are not enlisting infants."
- [Dan] But little Johnny Clem won't take no for an answer.
- Next, Johnny tries to enlist
with the 22nd Michigan Regiment,
and they won't let him fight.
But they do say that they can take him on,
kind of unofficially, as their drummer boy.
And he takes that deal.
So he kind of becomes the regiment's mascot.
[tense dramatic music] [soldiers yelling]
- [Martin] But then in September of 1863, the regiment is sent
to the border of the state of Tennessee and Georgia,
where it will participate in the Battle of Chickamauga,
one of the bloodiest engagements of the entire Civil War,
second only to Gettysburg in terms of casualties.
[dramatic orchestral music] [guns blasting]
- The Confederacy breaks through the Union line,
and there are so many losses
that the 22nd is finally put in a position
where they have no choice but to ask Johnny
to actually step into the role of a grown man.
- [Dan] Armed with only a musket
sawed off so he can carry it,
little Johnny Clem surges into battle.
- He's continuing to fight for one of the infantry companies
in the regiment, when he is left behind when they withdraw.
Because of this, he comes face-to-face
with a Confederate colonel.
[tense mysterious music]
- And the colonel looks at Johnny,
little 12-year-old boy with a sawed-off musket,
looked at him and starts laughing.
And he tells him, "Aren't you a bit young?
Why don't you put that down and just run along home?"
- Rather than dropping the weapon, though,
Johnny raises it, points it directly at the colonel, pulls
the trigger, and hits him in the middle of the chest.
After that, he drops it
and runs back to return to the company.
- And he makes it back to his unit unscathed.
But a lot of men are not this lucky.
Of the 455 men deployed with the 22nd Michigan,
389 are captured, wounded, or killed in battle.
- [Dan] Despite these heavy losses, Johnny presses on,
proving he's not just lucky; he's relentless.
[tense dramatic music]
- Turns out little Johnny has got a flair for fighting.
[gun blasts]
The tween hero sees action in places like Perryville,
Murfreesboro, Kennesaw, and Atlanta,
where he's wounded twice.
- He actually turns what people would think
was a disadvantage into an advantage.
He uses his short stature
to basically sneak around in these engagements.
He is the equivalent of a ninja on these battlefields.
- Johnny earns the nickname "Damn Little Yankee Devil"
by the Confederates
because he is a force to be reckoned with.
Johnny does such a great job
that he actually earns the rank of sergeant,
which is not a bad rank to achieve
all by the tender age of 13.
[dramatic orchestral music]
- [Dan] The young fighter commits his life to serving his
country and changes his name to John Lincoln Clem
in honor of the man who was president
when he first answered the call.
He retires in 1915 as a major general.
- Most retirees spend their golden years golfing
or binge-watching the latest crime dramas.
But one man's peaceful life takes an unexpected turn
when he finds himself face to face
with a threat that's anything but ordinary.
[tense uneasy music] [wind whistling]
- It is 5:00 a.m.,
and 69-year-old William Ayotte is awakened from his slumber
by some really weird sounds coming from outside.
- As he peers through his curtains in the predawn light,
he can actually make out a horrifying scene.
- Just 40 feet away from his front steps,
his neighbor, Erin, is being mauled by a bear.
- [Dan] And not just any bear,
a big, white, hungry polar bear.
[bear growls] [tense dramatic music]
- [Rutledge] Now, a polar bear might look cute in pictures,
[bears growling]
but in person, these things are eight feet tall,
up to 800 pounds of apex predator
with claws that would just shred right through you.
[bear growling]
- [Dr. Hakeem] The bear has Erin in its jaws by her head,
and he's swinging her back and forth like a rag doll.
William knows that she's not gonna last long like this.
- But he's also kind of frozen
because he isn't really prepared for an event like this.
He doesn't have any ready weapons.
- [Rutledge] Now, William knows this is a suicide mission,
but he tells himself,
"You're either gonna do something or you're not."
- William grabs a snow shovel, charges outside,
and stacks himself up against the bear.
- He's kind of waiting for his moment
'cause he knows the best place to hit this animal
is in the eye.
- [Dr. Hakeem] When the animal takes a look directly at him,
he swings that snow shovel right into that bear's face.
[shovel thuds] [bear growls]
And it's a direct hit, right in the bear's eye.
- [Holly] This stuns the bear.
He actually drops Erin, who is able to scramble to safety.
Now, William has become the target of this animal's ire.
[bear growling] [dramatic orchestral music]
- He starts mauling William with his claws.
So William starts playing dead.
- But the bear, he's intent on getting his lunch today,
and so he starts gnawing on that man's ear,
just like Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear off.
[bell dinging] [crowd cheering]
- William can feel the hot breath
and the tongue inside his ear.
He can feel the polar bear ripping his ear off.
[intense dramatic music]
- [Dan] Just in the nick of time,
one of William's neighbors rushes in
and revs his car engine to scare the bear away.
- When the neighbors get to him,
he's pretty confident that he's going to die.
- He asks his neighbors to prop him up
so he can die with dignity like a man,
rather than laying down on his face like an animal.
- But that's not what they do.
They pick William up, put him in the back of a pickup truck,
and drive him to the emergency room of the nearest hospital.
- It takes surgeons four hours
to attach his ear and staple him back up.
- In an interesting twist, when he is recuperating,
William is actually put in the room next to Erin's
while she is recuperating,
but it appears that the two of them
never really talk about the bear incident.
- [Dan] For his selfless act,
William earns the Star of Courage,
one of the highest honors of bravery in Canada.
The next tale: no medals, no press,
just ghosts with impeccable timing.
[tense mysterious music]
- [Nick] Captain Bob Loft and flight engineer Don Repo
are at the helm of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 from
JFK to sunny Miami, Florida.
- [Mitch] They're transporting 163 passengers
and 13 crew when a light goes off in the cockpit,
telling them that something is gravely wrong.
- [Nick] There's a malfunction somewhere in the landing gear.
They don't panic; they just engage the autopilot
while they try and fix the problem.
[alarm beeping] [suspenseful dramatic music]
- [Dr. Hakeem] Suddenly, the autopilot turns off
and the plane starts to descend rapidly.
And it's only after they hear the scream from the passengers
do they rush back to the cockpit.
- [Mitch] The ground is fast approaching,
and no matter what they do,
the pilots cannot course-correct in time.
[airplane engines roaring]
- [Dan] Flight 401 crashes into the Florida Everglades,
[explosion blasts]
19 miles from Miami, going 227 miles an hour.
[tense somber music]
- [Nick] 101 of the 176 people on board are killed,
including Captain Bob Loft and flight engineer Don Repo.
At the time, Flight 401
is the second-deadliest air crash in US history.
- After investigations of the crash were complete,
it was discovered that Captain Loft
incidentally bumped into the yoke,
which caused the autopilot to disengage.
- [Dan] The crash was no longer a mystery,
but what started happening on other flights sure was.
- [Mitch] On subsequent Eastern Airlines flights,
people report receiving visits from the deceased crew.
These reports come from passengers
and flight crew members alike.
- The two ghosts reported most often, Bob Loft and Don Repo.
- [Dan] Don't worry, they're not here to haunt.
They're here to help.
- [Nick] Prior to takeoff, one pilot reports
the ghostly apparition of Don Repo in the cockpit,
warning him of an impending mechanical failure
relating to the autopilot.
- [Mitch] The pilot checks, and they do in fact discover
a problem with the autopilot function.
They fix it, and the flight continues as planned.
[tense mysterious music]
- [Mitch] Another pilot reports that while going through
incredible turbulence,
when the plane is bucking like a bronco,
he suddenly gets this very reassuring feeling.
- [Nick] The pilot manages to land the aircraft safely,
and he credits this calm feeling that descended over him
just when it was needed most.
And who does he give the credit to for that?
Bob Loft.
- One flight attendant reported
having an extended conversation with Don Repo
when he suddenly just vanished right before her eyes.
- [Mitch] She is so unnerved that she quits the field,
but later she is able to recognize
Don Repo from a photograph.
- [Dan] What may be more unbelievable
is that all of these sightings have one thing in common.
- The strange sightings only occur on aircraft
that were using the salvaged parts from Flight 401.
[tense mysterious music]
- [Dr. Hakeem] Finally, Eastern Airlines removes all the parts
from all the planes that 401 was incorporated in,
and at that point, the sightings stop.
- Eastern Airlines ceases operations in 1991.
Yet stories of the heroic ghost pilots
of Flight 401 live on.
[dramatic orchestral music]
- Traditionally, parents are meant to look after
and protect their children,
but when a tornado blows through an Oklahoma town,
one heroic nine-year-old flips the script.
[tense dramatic music] [siren blaring]
- It's a Saturday in May 2024
in the small town of Dixon, Oklahoma,
right in the middle of what is known as Tornado Alley.
[intense dramatic music]
This particular day sees a outbreak of many tornadoes,
and they're bad, some as bad as F4.
[wind rumbling]
- The winds in a single F4 tornado are catastrophic,
strong enough to destroy major steel structures
and uproot big trees.
- [Dan] Local residents Linda and Wayne Baker
know they cannot stay home,
so they grab their nine-year-old son, Branson,
and head for safety.
[ominous dramatic music]
- A family friend has a storm cellar in nearby Marietta,
so that's where they're headed.
Parents are in the front seat, and Branson is in the back.
- Through the windshield, Wayne, Lindy, and Branson
can see several tornadoes ahead of them.
They turn, but the tornadoes turn with them,
and now they're barreling right towards them.
- They start to hear the truck
actually be pelted with debris.
It sounds like glass shards or pebbles are hitting them,
and Wayne floors it.
[car engine revving]
But the bottom line is you cannot really outrun a tornado,
and soon this vehicle is picked up like a toy.
[wind whistling] [tense suspenseful music]
- They hear a massive boom,
[explosion booms]
and then all falls silent.
[sparse uneasy music]
- Lindy and Wayne are trapped and badly hurt.
Lindy, who's in the passenger seat,
she's even got a punctured lung.
Of course, they're still concerned about Branson,
and they're calling out to him.
- [Dan] Miraculously, Branson is okay.
- He's able to crawl through the mangled truck
to reach his parents, and he can see out the window
the predicament they're in.
[tense ominous music]
- Branson says to his parents, "I'll be back.
Please don't die."
- [Dr. Hakeem] The kid is scared out of his mind,
but somehow he musters up the courage,
and he just takes off.
- [Holly] Branson is running through
essentially a natural disaster war zone.
There are downed power lines.
There's debris everywhere,
but he is absolutely focused on getting some help.
[rousing dramatic music]
- [Dan] Branson runs a mile in under 10 minutes,
finds a nearby neighbor,
and brings them back to the mangled truck on foot.
- [Dr. Hakeem] When the rescue crews get there,
thankfully, Lindy and Wayne are still alive,
and they owe their survival to their son, Branson.
- [Dan] But Branson's not done saving the day yet.
Turns out he has one more rescue mission in him.
- Wayne and Lindy are taken to the hospital
and are given treatment, but they're both contractors,
which means that they can't work to earn money
while they're in the hospital recovering.
- Branson persuades his baseball team to hold an event,
and they raise over $10,000 to cover his parents' expenses
while they recuperate.
[bright thoughtful music]
- [Dan] At the charity game,
the small but mighty Branson hits a home run
and dedicates it to his parents.
It's that kind of undying devotion
that drives our next improbable hero.
[bright lively music]
- For her 40th birthday, Jo Ann Altman gifts her daughter
this adorable Vietnamese pot-bellied piglet
named Lulu.
The mom thinks this is gonna be a great gift,
but the daughter,
not so much.
- One weekend, she asks her mom to babysit the pig
while she goes out of town,
and then she never comes back to claim the pig. [chuckles]
[light thoughtful music]
- So Jo Ann and her husband gladly take Lulu in
because, I mean, she's family.
- [Dan] Life with Lulu settles into a comfortable rhythm
until a quiet getaway in August 1998
takes an unexpected turn.
- The family's on vacation at a lakefront trailer park.
Jo Ann rises early to see her husband
go off to go fishing for the day,
so she starts making breakfast for herself
when all of a sudden, she starts
not feeling all that well.
[tense uneasy music]
- Jo Ann gets really dizzy
and ends up collapsing to the floor.
She has this terrible pain in her chest,
and it's obvious she's having a heart attack.
- She can't move, and the closest phone
that she has available to her is in the trailer park office,
which is a few hundred yards away.
[tense dramatic music]
- [Dan] As Jo Ann's thinking, "I'm gonna die alone,"
Lulu the pig springs into action.
- Lulu waddles up to Jo Ann, sniffs her,
and realizes something is wrong.
Her human needs help.
- She needs human help.
So Lulu is trying to figure out, "Well, where can I go
to find humans?"
And she figures out, "I gotta get outside."
So Lulu looks at the door and assesses the doggy door flap.
- Knowing Jo Ann's life is at stake,
Lulu squeezes herself through the doggy door,
and even though it's tight, she struggles and gets out.
Gathering her courage,
she then walks out to the middle of the road.
- And when she's out there, Lulu employs the one trick
that she's got up her sleeve.
Lulu lays down and plays dead.
- [Dr. J Mack] Lulu's in this dead piggy position,
but the cars, they don't stop.
They just slow down a little bit, look at it,
wonder what's going on, and keep going.
After no one stops
for what feels like forever in pig minutes,
she ends up going back to Jo Ann
to check on her in the trailer.
- [Dan] For 45 minutes,
Lulu pushes herself through the tiny dog door,
back and forth from the trailer to the road,
desperate to find someone who will stop and help.
- Lulu is just frantic, doesn't know what to do.
She knows that Jo Ann is getting worse,
and she's like, "I gotta go out one last time
and find somebody."
- But this time, she scrapes her potbelly
so bad on the doggy door that it opens a wound,
and she starts to bleed.
- When Lulu sees a pickup approaching,
she lays on the ground and plays dead
right in front of that moving vehicle.
She's bleeding from her belly all over the asphalt.
Amazingly, the bleeding is enough
to finally get this driver to stop.
- [Sami] She springs up,
and she leads the guy over back to the trailer.
All the while, the man is screaming,
"I think there's something wrong with your pig!
I think your pig is in distress!"
- [Dr. J Mack] Still conscious, Jo Ann calls back
that she's in huge trouble
and they need to get to the trailer park phone
and call for help.
[siren wailing]
- Paramedics are able to arrive
and get Jo Ann to a nearby hospital.
- Jo Ann has open-heart surgery,
and thankfully, she pulls through with flying colors.
- Lulu is awarded the Tiffany and Company Angel Medal
by the ASPCA and gets awarded with all sorts of sweet treats
and jelly donuts.
[intense dramatic music]
- From unwanted piggy to neighborhood hero,
her name should be spoken along with all the greats:
Babe, Wilbur, Miss Piggy,
and Lulu.
- We all have hidden talents, maybe a couple of magic tricks,
shadow puppetry, even parkour.
For one unlikely hero, his special skill
is called on to save a life,
even though it's technically a felony.
[tense thoughtful music]
- In 2019, a couple is driving through Florida
with a crying baby in the back seat.
The wife tells the husband to pull over so they can get out
and attend to Baby Dallas, who's inconsolable.
- [Dr. J Mack] The parents open up the front door,
close the front door, and go to open up the back door,
and realize that the keys are inside.
They're locked out, and Baby Dallas is inside.
[baby crying] [tense dramatic music]
- It's getting hot in the car.
The baby is crying harder and harder,
and the parents really don't know what to do.
- This is a bad situation for Baby Dallas.
Temperatures being too high in the body
can end up leading to some really serious outcomes,
including heatstroke and death.
[police radio chattering]
- [Dan] When police arrive,
they can't get the door open either.
That's when help comes from the most unexpected place.
[tense mysterious music]
- Nearby, there are a number of workers in uniform,
black and white striped uniforms,
because they're actually convicts outside doing labor.
- During the commotion,
one of the inmates goes up to a nearby car
and talks to the driver,
and is given, of all things, a wire hanger.
- I'm sure the parents were thinking
it's going from bad to worse because now,
these convicts are walking up to the car.
But he shapes up the coat hanger,
and he goes to work to try to break into the car.
- Meanwhile, the other convicts
are chiming in with their own advice.
- [Dan] But he doesn't need their help
because he has his own checkered past as a carjacker.
[tense suspenseful music]
- There, after about five minutes,
that noise that everyone was waiting to hear, that click
of the doors being unlocked, happens.
- [Shadow] Oh, yes!
Thank God!
Whoo!
Thank you so much.
- Nice job, boys. - Appreciate it.
- The carjacker has been able to utilize
his illicit knowledge for good.
- Unlock them damn doors.
Don't ever lock them again.
- The parents and baby are reunited,
and they're back on the road in short order.
- [Shadow] Honey, was that stressful?
[baby crying]
- Mom is so grateful that she ends up donating
to the convicts' commissary funds.
- [Shadow] Thank you.
You guys have a great day.
- Hey, it's not every day your baby gets rescued
by the best car thieves in Florida.
Here's another tale of being in the right place
at the right time.
[suspenseful electronic synth music]
- [Kavitha] It's London, 1966.
Just four months before the World Cup
is set to be held in England.
People are flocking to get a glimpse of the World Cup trophy
that's on display at Westminster Exhibition Hall.
- On March 20th, just the second day of the exhibition,
the cup suddenly goes missing.
- The cup was stolen from this case between 11:00
and 12:00 o'clock this morning.
The thieves broke in by forcing the padlock
on the back of the building
without attracting the attention of two security guards
who were on duty in the building.
- Naturally, the World Cup organization, a.k.a. FIFA,
is livid.
How are you gonna let the World Cup get stolen
only two days after you put it on display?
- [Dan] With no solid leads,
police are running out of options
until a break in the case comes from a surprising source.
- Dave Corbett is about to take his dog out for a walk
in South London.
His dog is a very excited Border Collie named Pickles.
[suspenseful orchestral music]
- Dave opens the front door, and Pickles just takes off.
So Dave's running after him with his leash,
wondering where this dog is off to.
- Pickles is going crazy.
Something by his neighbor's car
has really caught Pickles' attention.
- Dave approaches the car to see what Pickles is on about,
and he sees something rather peculiar.
- Lying there, right next to his neighbor's tire,
is a package that is tightly wrapped in newspaper
with string around it.
- Dave tears off a piece of the newspaper wrapping,
and when he sees what's inside, he can't believe his eyes.
- [Dan] It is the World Cup, found in the most unlikely way,
courtesy of a determined Border Collie.
- [Sami] Dave grabs the statue,
runs to the nearest police station,
slams the World Cup trophy on the sergeant's desk,
and goes, "I think I found the World Cup."
[lively orchestral music] [camera shutter clicking]
- Clearly, the police are very curious as to how he got it.
They question him extensively
and eventually rule him out as a suspect.
- When Dave arrives back to his home,
there is a massive media frenzy outside of his door.
- [Dan] But the press is not there for Dave.
- [Dan] They're interested in Pickles.
- [Dan] Everyone wants a picture of the hero pooch
who saved the day.
[camera flash clicking]
- Pickles turned out to be a source of good luck too,
because somehow, England goes on
to win the World Cup that year.
- [Dan] As for the thief, that stayed a mystery for decades
until a long-buried family secret comes to light.
- Finally, in 2017, the nephew of a London gangster
named Sidney Cugullere confirms to the newspapers
his uncle took the World Cup on a lark.
- [Dan] Dave may have claimed the $5,000 reward,
but it's Pickles who steals the spotlight,
earning a year's supply of dog food
and a starring role in the film "Spy with a Cold Nose."
- They came to see the animals of the zoo,
but what this family witnessed was something wild all right,
just not in the way they expected.
[tense suspenseful music]
- It's a sunny day in 1996 in Chicago.
Families were out enjoying a lovely day
at the Brookfield Zoo.
[bear growls] [children screaming]
- One mom in particular is hoping that the zoo
will keep her own wild child entertained,
and it seems to be doing the trick.
[bystanders gasping]
The pair wander to and from many different animal exhibits
while the child points
and talks excitedly about what he's seeing.
[bird chittering]
- This kid is getting as close to the animals
as he possibly can, and the mom is thankful
for the guardrails that are keeping him safe.
- [Dan] As they approach a popular exhibit,
the Western Lowland gorilla pit,
one great ape in particular catches the boy's eye.
[tense uneasy music]
- [Dr. Thor] Her name is Binti Jua,
and she is a full-grown eight-year-old female gorilla,
very powerful and arguably the star of the exhibit.
- [Rutledge] Lowland gorillas are known to be really strong.
They're usually a couple hundred pounds
and very protective of their surroundings.
Now, this goes double for Binti because she just had a baby.
- The boy is spellbound by Binti,
so he leans over to get a closer look at her.
[tense suspenseful music]
- [Dan] In seconds, the boy goes from standing
on the outside of the barrier
to falling inside the 20-foot gorilla pit.
[mom screaming] [gorilla yelling]
- [Dr. J Mack] The mom goes into a panic.
She's looking down, and her baby is unconscious
in the bottom of a gorilla pit!
[dramatic orchestral music]
- [Dr. Thor] To make matters worse,
there are seven massive primates
in the pit with him, and they might not be very happy
about this unexpected guest dropping in.
- [Dr. J Mack] The mom is screaming,
the crowd is screaming.
Everybody's trying to get one of the zoo employees
to do something to help.
- [Cameraperson] Hey! Over here!
[tense dramatic music]
- [Dan] Just as the gorillas begin to process
that a human child has entered their enclosure,
Binti makes her way over to the boy
and begins to shout loudly and aggressively.
[gorilla yelling]
[intense dramatic music]
- The terrified mom and all the folks watching
are bracing themselves
as Binti edges closer and closer to the child.
- And her mind is going to the worst possible scenario,
where Binti rips her son to shreds before her eyes.
[mom screaming] [gorilla yelling]
- [Dan] But that isn't what happens.
Binti appears to be yelling at the other gorillas
to stay away.
- Binti then takes the boy, who is still unconscious,
and puts him under her shoulder like a ragdoll,
and then runs toward the enclosure door
and sets him down right next to it
so the zookeepers can get him out of there.
Amazingly, the boy not only survives,
he comes through with only a couple of cuts to his face
and a broken hand.
- The zoo officials suggest that one of the reasons
Binti might have been so gentle
with the boy during this incident was the fact that Binti
was actually hand-fed and raised by human zookeepers.
So there is a possibility that there's a little soft spot
in her heart for humans.
[soft thoughtful music]
- [Dan] Not the babysitter she expected,
- Wanna talk about heroes?
Raising kids is not easy for a single mom,
especially if you're raising children
who may one day grow up and try to eat you.
- It's August 2008, and rural Kansas might seem like
a strange place for Bengal tigers,
but at the Safari Zoological Park,
three beautiful female tigers are born.
Their names are Nasira, Anjika, and Sidani.
- [Dr. Thor] Sadly, though, within 15 hours,
[tiger cub screeches]
the tiger mother abandons her triplets.
She has the tiger equivalent of postpartum depression
and can't be made to care.
- The cubs need a mother,
but unfortunately, the zoo is on
the brink of financial collapse,
and they can't afford to bring in
another Bengal tiger to nurse them.
- [Dan] Then, as all hope seems lost,
a golden hero emerges to save the day, the cubs,
and the park.
- [Dr. Thor] Enter Isabella for the win.
She is the zoo owner's one-year-old Golden Retriever,
and she obviously doesn't care about the species divide.
- [Kavitha] Isabella begins taking care of the tigers
just like they're her own.
She licks them and even nurses them with her own milk.
They start out at about 11 pounds,
but that won't last long.
- Under the care of their adopted mom,
they quickly become about 140 pounds apiece.
- [Dan] As for the Safari Zoological Park,
the unusual adoption is a major draw.
Ticket sales skyrocket, bringing in much-needed cash,
but as the tigers grow, so do some concerns.
[light pensive music]
- As the Bengal cubs' first birthday approaches,
experts warn the zookeepers
that the tigers still have predatory instincts,
and the older and larger they get,
the more dangerous things will become for Isabella.
- Though the tigers never raise a paw to their adopted mom,
the zoo feels it's better to be safe than sorry.
On June 25th, 2009, the large, furry family
celebrates one last day together
as a huge crowd watches them romp and play,
having one last hurrah.
- [Dan] Isabella's maternal instinct single-handedly saves
the zoo from financial ruin,
along with the lives of 150 animals,
who are able to thrive for years to come.
Our final hero, also of the four-legged variety,
faces a big disaster that will test its enormous heart.
[light tense music]
- It's 2004 in Phuket, Thailand,
and a little girl named Amber Owen
is there on holiday for Christmas
from England with her family,
and the resort they're in has a really cool extra attraction.
- For the kids' amusement,
there's a four-year-old elephant named Ning Nong,
and her young handler allows folks
to take pictures with Ning Nong.
The kids can take rides on her back,
and of course, everyone loves it.
- Amber's never seen a real elephant in real life before,
but when she sees Ning Nong,
it's like they connect instantly.
The two become inseparable, and Amber's thinking,
"This is like the best Christmas ever."
- [Dan] However, what begins as a dream vacation
for Amber's family is about to spiral into a nightmare.
- [Holly] At 7:58 a.m., 249 miles southwest of Phuket,
an earthquake registering 9.1 on the Richter scale
begins about 30,000 meters under the ocean.
[earthquake rumbles] [tense dramatic music]
- At 9:15 a.m., while Amber's sitting atop Ning Nong,
she notices that the sea has pulled out
really far back from the shore.
- [Eyewitness 1] Oh, my God! Look at that!
- [Eyewitness 2] I know. I can see it coming.
- When water pulls back from the beach like that,
that's a sign that a really bad tsunami
is about to come your way.
[ominous dramatic music] [waves crashing]
- [Eyewitness 1] Tsunami!
- [Eyewitness 2] Just look at that!
- In just a matter of minutes,
Phuket is completely engulfed in water.
[waves crashing]
- [Eyewitness] Get in, get in, get in!
- They get hit with a 100-foot rolling wall of water
that collapses buildings, destroys the city,
and kills around 100,000 people instantly.
[tense thoughtful music]
- [Dan] As the water recedes,
the destruction is catastrophic,
and Amber's mom fears the worst.
- She goes running through the hotel, screaming her name.
- [Holly] As she is yelling, getting no answer,
her fear heightens,
but then suddenly she hears the sound
any mother in that situation would yearn for:
it's Amber, and she's okay.
Amber tells her mom that as that water
was being pulled out to sea,
Ning Nong started acting really weird.
She suddenly turned and ran with Amber on her back
as far away from the beach as she possibly could.
She got Amber to safety and saved her life.
[tense electronic synth music]
- Whether it's a bird with a mission,
a convict with a cause, or a ghost with unfinished business,
these are the stories of heroes so unlikely
they can only be called unbelievable.