Lone Target (2014) s01e05 Episode Script
Swim to Survive
1 Narrator: Almost every country has a specialized military tracking unit [ All grunt .]
trained to capture terrorists [ Shouting in Spanish .]
guard borders [ Dog barking .]
and hunt criminals.
Stand back! and now they're about to face one of their toughest targets Joel lambert.
Let's go.
Come on.
Narrator: A former Navy seal and expert in escape and evasion All right.
Come back.
Joel's mission is to put them to the test They're not prepared for this.
This is my turf.
Narrator: And evade capture for 36 hours.
Quitting is never an option.
I'm gonna die before I quit.
Narrator: This time, Joel challenges senafront, Panama's elite counter-drug and border-security task force.
[ Shouting in Spanish .]
Narrator: They must track, hunt, and capture Joel before he can cross San Jose island and reach his extraction point.
[ Shouts in Spanish .]
Narrator: The hunt is on.
-- Captions by vitac -- captions paid for by discovery communications today, I'm in the pearl islands.
It's a small island chain off the Southern coast of Panama.
These islands are all black, volcanic rock.
They are like cheese graters.
So I've got to be careful where I roll out.
It's gonna be a tough one.
All right, boys.
See you in the green.
Narrator: Joel's boat speeds back to the mainland, leaving him a mile from San Jose island.
Senafront knows at some point this morning, Joel and his camera team will be infiltrating this island.
They just don't know where.
Using six patrol boats, senafront scours the island's 20 Miles of shoreline.
The tide will take care of our tracks.
Let's get into the jungle before we get seen.
[ Men shouting in Spanish .]
[Bleep.]
They saw us! Go, go, go! [ Breathing heavily .]
Narrator: Knowing he was spotted, Joel rushes to put as much distance between him and the beach as he can.
Lambert: Come on, come on! Narrator: The small, four-man boat team immediately starts looking for Joel's entry point into the jungle.
But since they're only a patrol [ Speaking in Spanish .]
Narrator: They quickly radio their location to the main tracking force.
[ Speaks Spanish .]
Narrator: Led by captain oriel de gracia, senafront is engaged in daily combat in the war against drugs and last year alone were responsible for the seizure of over 5½ tons of cocaine from neighboring countries.
Experts at jungle tracking, the core 12-man team will use ground, mobile, and marine units to surround Joel and catch him.
The quickest way to transport de gracia and his men from the mainland, 60 Miles away, is by air.
Lambert: [ Breathing heavily .]
[ Grunts .]
All right.
We've got enough distance.
Let's go over the plan.
I've just inserted on the Southern tip of San Jose island in the pearl islands of Panama.
It's 17 square Miles of tropical-island jungle.
I have just 36 hours to travel 10 Miles and evade senafront, and they have no idea where my extraction point is.
Just north of this airfield, a boat will be waiting for me.
The problem is, the island is sparsely populated.
I have to be careful of the locals.
They could compromise me.
I can't let them figure out what direction I'm going and where I'm trying to end up.
I'll be done if I do that.
Let's keep moving.
[ Grunts .]
Narrator: To survive on San Jose island, Joel carries a knife, machete, compass, small-gauge rope, supplies for a booby trap, marine-issue fins, and 32 ounces of water, but no food.
Anything else he'll have to find along the way.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
[ Shouting in Spanish .]
As soon as he hits the ground, captain de gracia surveys Joel's entry point onto the island.
His right-hand man and lead tracker is officer Felix Blake.
In addition to his immediate team, he has both patrols and atvs at his command.
But due to the dense jungle-tree cover, their helicopter is rendered useless.
Lambert: Oh, man.
[ Grunts .]
In the jungle, you can't see [ Rustling .]
very far ahead of you, so you're constantly, constantly feeling your way, kind of like navigation by braille.
I'm really gonna have to rely on my compass.
Oh, man.
There's no way I can get through this.
Massive devastation.
Something big came through here.
It must have been a waterspout.
That's when a tornado forms over the ocean.
They're incredibly powerful and very common out here.
So what I'm gonna do is what's called a box technique.
So I'm gonna come in.
I run into my obstacle.
I back off of it.
I take a little bit of distance away from it and try to go back in and find a place to cross.
All of this destruction is forcing me to find a way around, and that's gonna take time.
Narrator: Officer Felix Blake begins the process of casting, searching in a circular pattern for spoor, tracks, or signs left behind that indicate Joel's direction of travel.
Most military units assign code names to their targets.
Senafront has labeled Joel catracho -- a common name for their Honduran allies.
This red mud is just horrible.
Every step I take is leaving just a beautiful, smeary footprint.
I got to be careful.
This is not where we want to be.
We've got to get out of this area.
Narrator: After following Joel's spoor for a half a mile and with his knowledge of the island's terrain, captain de gracia is certain Joel is heading north, so he deploys another asset.
The atv unit uses San Jose island's limited roads, patrolling ahead of Joel's known direction of travel, looking to cut him off or find new spoor.
[Bleep.]
I was just walking by, grabbed a whole mass of black palms.
I didn't recognize it as I went by.
You got to be so heads-up in the jungle.
That will fester and get infected.
If your hands and feet go, you're screwed in the jungle, so I'm gonna take a moment here and cut this thing out.
Better to bleed a little bit now than lose a hand later.
And there we go.
Take care of that.
All right.
Watch where you put your hands.
This is a forest of four-inch-long black palm.
Yeah, this has extremely long, brittle needles on it that get in your skin and break right off and will infect you like nobody's business.
Nasty stuff.
Might want to roll your sleeves down for this one, gents.
Watch out.
Be careful.
Narrator: Officer Blake has already tracked Joel to the waterspout damage site and is now just one mile behind Joel.
[ Speaks Spanish .]
That's actually a downed plane.
These islands, drug smugglers use them a lot as a staging ground to bounce their drugs in, dropping bales, bringing them into the states.
This very likely could be a drug-runner plane.
There could be drugs or a dead pilot in there.
I don't see a body.
If there's a stash in here What the [Bleep.]
Narrator: Seven hours into the hunt and with senafront closing in, former Navy seal Joel lambert has stumbled upon something he didn't expect.
That's actually a downed plane.
I don't see a body.
If there's a stash in here What the [Bleep.]
is that?! [ Squealing .]
[ Chuckles .]
[Bleep.]
Pig.
You didn't get that on camera, did you? This is a great place for a booby trap.
You see how the natural channeling with the plant and the airplane wing forced me to walk a certain path.
It forced me.
It's gonna force them.
I'm gonna take advantage of that.
I'll put right here.
I have just an electronic alarm.
It won't hurt them, but it will let them know that I could have hurt them.
Plus, I'll be able to hear if they're close.
And they'll also have to assume that there may be more ahead of them, so that will force them to slow down and go cautiously, and that will buy me time.
Narrator: Now only half a mile behind Joel [ Speaking Spanish .]
senafront discovers unusual spoor from their target.
We have a leaf.
There's a little blood on it.
Narrator: Knowing an injured animal would leave a wider, messier blood pattern, captain de gracia knows his cleaner pattern could only be from a human.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
[ Breathing heavily .]
This is really rough going.
The humidity is going up.
The heat is going up.
I'm losing fluids.
You can see how sweaty I am.
We got a long ways to go.
Oh, man.
Come here -- look.
Come here, come here.
Look.
It's a python or a boa, some sort of constrictor.
That might be my dinner.
Narrator: With no food in Joel's pack and 30 hours until his extraction, this might be his only opportunity to load up on protein and calories to keep going.
[ Groans .]
Where's a [Bleep.]
good stick to There we go.
[ Snake hisses .]
Be careful -- these will bite.
They're not venomous, but they've got a mouth full of razor teeth.
Definitely can wake you up.
[ Snake hisses .]
Yeah, see those fangs in my boot.
The most dangerous part, obviously, is the head.
By grabbing onto its tail and I redirect its strikes with a stick, I can pin its head down and grab it right behind its head, and that neutralizes it.
Got him.
[ Snake hisses .]
Look at that guy.
You see those teeth? They're like needles.
Yeah.
He's just one big muscle.
I can feel the squeeze happening already.
This is what they do with their prey.
Sorry, buddy.
You're dinner.
The circle of life.
[ Grunting .]
Snake is just one big steak, and out here in the jungle, I'm gonna need all the calories I can get.
Now you know why they call us special-forces guys snake eaters.
Narrator: The senafront atvs continue to patrol the northern roads, while the ground team is just a third of a mile behind Joel and closing.
[ Whistles .]
They've arrived at the downed aircraft that Joel was at less than an hour before.
Knowing that this plane is likely that of a drug smuggler, senafront switches their tactics to anti-drug mode and move in to investigate.
[ Whistles .]
[ Alarm blaring .]
[ Alarm blaring in distance .]
Sounds like they found my booby trap.
But that means they're close.
So come on.
Let's get out of here.
[ Blaring stops .]
Narrator: Suddenly, the sound disappears, and senafront realizes that not only has the alarm alerted Joel to their position, but had this been a real booby trap, the outcome would have been different.
Lambert: All right.
What we've come up on is a road -- a linear feature.
I found a spot right on a bend, and I've hit it where I can cross.
Crossing on a bend gives limited visibility.
If you cross on a long, straight path, people can see all the way up and down and spot you from a good distance off.
Crossing on a bend limits the distance you can be seen from.
Are you guys ready? [ Engine revving .]
Back, back, back! [ Revving continues .]
Narrator: Senafront continues to gain on their target, just 1½ Miles behind.
And now Joel faces a dangerous road crossing, unaware that there are atvs patrolling the area.
[ Engine revving .]
Just as I was moving out, there's a vehicle coming around the bend, and because we're on a curve, it was right there.
We're gonna stop, wait.
All right.
I'm convinced he didn't see us.
All right.
Here we go.
Step where I step.
Narrator: Just 30 minutes later, captain de gracia and his men follow Joel's spoor to the road.
He crossed the street.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
Narrator: But now they must find where he re-entered the jungle.
[ Speaks Spanish .]
Tell me where.
Tell me where.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
So, now we're getting that way to follow this guy.
Okay.
Hold up.
Hold up.
It looks like it's a big, open area.
I got an idea.
Come on.
Let's go.
So what we're gonna try to do is get up in this tree.
And see that branch that goes all the way across, up about 15 feet? We're gonna try and climb up, go across on the branch.
That should take us across this open area without leaving any spoor.
As far as they're concerned, our tracks will have vanished.
Hurry.
Hurry.
Clip your camera in.
Go.
Got it.
All right.
Stop here.
Narrator: With clear spoor heading northeast, the tracking team advances, trying to close the gap on Joel.
[ Grunts .]
Good.
Got it.
Stay on the roots.
Stay on the roots.
Stay to the roots.
Good luck finding a trail now, boys.
Narrator: Joel's spoor has led captain de gracia and his men to the tree their target was at just 15 minutes ago.
The track is lost.
You send three guys over there, they're gonna track all around.
Narrator: But with no new spoor in any direction, Joel's tree tactic pays off.
Better find a place to lay up for the night.
I am not going back in there.
We might have to swim out to that island, and we can hole up.
I have to assume that they might have patrol boats scanning the beaches or looking for fires at night, but that island will give me a place to stay out of sight, and it also offers me 360-degree views of the area.
I hate to do this before last light, but we got to get out there before it gets too dark for you guys to see what you're doing.
Time to swim, boys.
[ Grunts .]
Oh, this will have to do.
It's actually pretty concealed.
I'm feeling pretty good about maybe having a small fire and cooking up some of that snake.
Narrator: With sunlight rapidly falling, senafront is forced to make camp, unable to track in the dead of night.
Let's get a little something in the bellies.
All right.
I want to use a coconut husk, which is good tinder.
Make a little nest here.
This is a block of magnesium with a flint strip down the side.
Magnesium is extremely flammable, and it burns very, very, very hot, so it should catch really well.
Okay.
Get a little snake fillet out.
There we go.
And I'm just gonna roast it up and eat it bit by bit.
I think that's done.
See how this turned out.
Yeah, that's not bad.
If you're in a survival situation, it can really start to play on your emotions.
But you know what? Your mind is your enemy.
It's not the ocean.
It's not the jungle.
It's not senafront.
It's your mind.
One time in bud/s, which is s.
E.
A.
L.
S selection and training, I thought about quitting.
But the one thing that I thought of was, if I quit, I'm gonna have to call my dad and tell him I quit.
Now, read into that what you will, but that did the trick.
Plus, it's in the DNA.
S.
E.
A.
L.
S don't quit.
That will be enough light to do this safely.
Come on, guys.
It's time to swim.
We should be able to move pretty much due east.
We really got to get moving.
I was hoping to move right as it was getting light, and we're way past that right now.
Listen -- we got some making up to do.
All right.
Let's go this way.
Narrator: Joel has a 1½-mile lead on senafront but still 6 Miles to reach his extraction point.
[ Speaks Spanish .]
Frustrated by the first day's hunt, captain de gracia's team heads back to where they lost Joel's trail and begin casting for any new spoor.
Every place that your skin rubs against your clothing when it's full of saltwater and sand is just like sandpaper.
You get a pretty nasty rash.
Definitely not comfortable right now.
Got a road or something right here.
We got to go for it.
Oh [Bleep.]
there's a dude right there.
He just saw me.
Oh [Bleep.]
Narrator: Joel has been evading senafront for 28 hours, but he has just been compromised.
Lambert: [Bleep.]
There's a dude right there.
He just saw me.
Yeah.
Just act natural.
He's already seen me.
Don't act like there's anything sneaky.
Just walk across.
Come on.
Let's just go.
It looks like a local fisherman.
There's so few people on this island, there is no way we don't stick out.
Let's get away from that boat ramp.
And if they come to that boat ramp, that dude saw me, and he's gonna tell them what direction we went.
[ Grunts .]
[ Radio chatter .]
[ Beeps .]
[ Speaking Spanish .]
Narrator: Joel's suspicions were right.
As the local fishermen call the authorities and senafront races to where he was spotted.
[ Beeping .]
Thanks to the boatman's tip, Joel's advantage gained the previous day has been completely erased, and senafront is heading straight toward him.
Lambert: It's really starting to get very humid, like a sauna in here.
Shh! Whoa, whoa! Shh! [ Clicking in distance .]
[ Clicks mouth .]
That might be senafront.
They might have spotted me back there.
And if they did, you can be sure they're sending assets around in front of me.
Narrator: Senafront believes they are closing in on Joel, but they must put their hands on him to classify this as a win.
So they fan out to cover any possible escape route.
All right.
This is what we're gonna do.
We're gonna go up this bank.
[Bleep.]
There they are.
See them? Right through that gap in the trees? [Bleep.]
They are right on my spoor.
We got to get out of here.
[ Speaks Spanish .]
Damn it! Oh, my God.
You have got to be kidding me.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
[Bleep.]
Cliff.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
I got no choice.
I got to go over the edge.
Narrator: Joel opts to rappel down the cliff, gambling that senafront won't follow.
Strictly an emergency move.
Give me that small camera.
Narrator: Making this decision forces Joel to separate from his camera crew.
Here we go.
[ Man shouts in Spanish .]
[ Shouting continues .]
[ Shouting in Spanish .]
[ Shouting continues .]
Narrator: Senafront is now forced to make a difficult descent through the thick jungle surrounding the cliff's edge.
[ Men shouting in Spanish .]
Narrator: But it's too late.
Back in the cover of the jungle, Joel turns east toward his extraction boat, while senafront searches the area where he entered the jungle, trying to determine which way he went.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
[ Speaking Spanish .]
Narrator: Using GPS tracking, a camera team is sent to Joel's location one mile inland.
Come on.
Let's go.
I've just broken trail for those guys so they can move much, much faster, and they don't have to really do any tracking.
They just follow a smashed trail through the jungle.
This is my worst nightmare.
[ Speaks Spanish .]
Narrator: While the dense foliage slows Joel down, senafront makes up ground quickly.
[ Shouts in Spanish .]
You got to be [Bleep.]
kidding me, man.
This is just [Bleep.]
insane.
Definitely delivering our pound of flesh to the Panamanian jungle.
Narrator: Still one mile behind, captain de gracia thinks he may have an idea of where Joel is heading.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
Narrator: Directly east of their position is an airfield they believe could be Joel's extraction point, and it looks like Joel's trail is headed right for it.
He deploys his atv units to set up a perimeter around the airfield.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
Since senafront can only spare four men to secure the 1½-mile-long airfield, they place noisemaking booby traps around the perimeter that will alert them if Joel comes near.
With clear spoor heading east and only one hour until Joel's extraction, captain de gracia needs to take a gamble.
Okay.
Let's go.
Using the roads, he decides to leapfrog his entire ground team ahead of Joel's predicted direction of travel.
We know that the enemy have a short distance from the team.
[ Men talking indistinctly .]
Be perfectly quiet and still.
Don't move.
They're right there.
These islands used to be pristine, and now all this garbage that's not from the island is washing ashore from tidal currents from the mainland, just bringing in plastic bottles, styrofoam, pieces of kids' toys, oil cannisters.
This stuff won't decompose for a million years.
I don't mean to get all "hippy granola birkenstock" on you, but, now, we only got one planet.
Let's take care of it, huh? Narrator: Knowing Joel has only 45 minutes left until extraction, captain de gracia takes his team on the roads in an attempt to cut Joel off.
[ Rustling .]
Get down.
Get down.
Be perfectly quiet and still.
Don't move.
They're right there.
Come on.
Narrator: After crossing underneath the road, Joel is now only one mile from his extraction boat.
However, he is unaware that senafront has booby-trapped the airfield, which he must cross to reach his extraction.
Go up this way.
We're gonna move down.
There's a bigger tree I can use for some concealment.
We're just gonna observe this for a minute and see if I can see any movement or any sign of patrols or anything.
Yep.
There they are.
Probably 20 or 30 meters.
They're making their way around.
Since they have been narrowing my movements towards the airfield, it's pretty obvious -- [ explosion .]
[Bleep.]
[Bleep.]
Go, go, go, go, go! What the [Bleep.]
was that? [ Speaking Spanish .]
Mother[Bleep.]
[Bleep.]
[ Speaking Spanish .]
[ Shouting in Spanish .]
Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Keep running, man! Keep running, man! Ow [Bleep.]
Watch the blackthorn.
[Bleep.]
[ Shouts in Spanish .]
[ Shouts in Spanish .]
That way! Come on! [ Shouting in Spanish .]
[ Grunting .]
This way.
Let's go.
[ Breathing heavily .]
I think -- yes! Thank you, baby Jesus! [ Men shouting in Spanish .]
Lambert: Come on! Keep up! [ Shouting continues .]
[ Shouting continues .]
[ Shouts in Spanish .]
Am I glad to see you.
trained to capture terrorists [ Shouting in Spanish .]
guard borders [ Dog barking .]
and hunt criminals.
Stand back! and now they're about to face one of their toughest targets Joel lambert.
Let's go.
Come on.
Narrator: A former Navy seal and expert in escape and evasion All right.
Come back.
Joel's mission is to put them to the test They're not prepared for this.
This is my turf.
Narrator: And evade capture for 36 hours.
Quitting is never an option.
I'm gonna die before I quit.
Narrator: This time, Joel challenges senafront, Panama's elite counter-drug and border-security task force.
[ Shouting in Spanish .]
Narrator: They must track, hunt, and capture Joel before he can cross San Jose island and reach his extraction point.
[ Shouts in Spanish .]
Narrator: The hunt is on.
-- Captions by vitac -- captions paid for by discovery communications today, I'm in the pearl islands.
It's a small island chain off the Southern coast of Panama.
These islands are all black, volcanic rock.
They are like cheese graters.
So I've got to be careful where I roll out.
It's gonna be a tough one.
All right, boys.
See you in the green.
Narrator: Joel's boat speeds back to the mainland, leaving him a mile from San Jose island.
Senafront knows at some point this morning, Joel and his camera team will be infiltrating this island.
They just don't know where.
Using six patrol boats, senafront scours the island's 20 Miles of shoreline.
The tide will take care of our tracks.
Let's get into the jungle before we get seen.
[ Men shouting in Spanish .]
[Bleep.]
They saw us! Go, go, go! [ Breathing heavily .]
Narrator: Knowing he was spotted, Joel rushes to put as much distance between him and the beach as he can.
Lambert: Come on, come on! Narrator: The small, four-man boat team immediately starts looking for Joel's entry point into the jungle.
But since they're only a patrol [ Speaking in Spanish .]
Narrator: They quickly radio their location to the main tracking force.
[ Speaks Spanish .]
Narrator: Led by captain oriel de gracia, senafront is engaged in daily combat in the war against drugs and last year alone were responsible for the seizure of over 5½ tons of cocaine from neighboring countries.
Experts at jungle tracking, the core 12-man team will use ground, mobile, and marine units to surround Joel and catch him.
The quickest way to transport de gracia and his men from the mainland, 60 Miles away, is by air.
Lambert: [ Breathing heavily .]
[ Grunts .]
All right.
We've got enough distance.
Let's go over the plan.
I've just inserted on the Southern tip of San Jose island in the pearl islands of Panama.
It's 17 square Miles of tropical-island jungle.
I have just 36 hours to travel 10 Miles and evade senafront, and they have no idea where my extraction point is.
Just north of this airfield, a boat will be waiting for me.
The problem is, the island is sparsely populated.
I have to be careful of the locals.
They could compromise me.
I can't let them figure out what direction I'm going and where I'm trying to end up.
I'll be done if I do that.
Let's keep moving.
[ Grunts .]
Narrator: To survive on San Jose island, Joel carries a knife, machete, compass, small-gauge rope, supplies for a booby trap, marine-issue fins, and 32 ounces of water, but no food.
Anything else he'll have to find along the way.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
[ Shouting in Spanish .]
As soon as he hits the ground, captain de gracia surveys Joel's entry point onto the island.
His right-hand man and lead tracker is officer Felix Blake.
In addition to his immediate team, he has both patrols and atvs at his command.
But due to the dense jungle-tree cover, their helicopter is rendered useless.
Lambert: Oh, man.
[ Grunts .]
In the jungle, you can't see [ Rustling .]
very far ahead of you, so you're constantly, constantly feeling your way, kind of like navigation by braille.
I'm really gonna have to rely on my compass.
Oh, man.
There's no way I can get through this.
Massive devastation.
Something big came through here.
It must have been a waterspout.
That's when a tornado forms over the ocean.
They're incredibly powerful and very common out here.
So what I'm gonna do is what's called a box technique.
So I'm gonna come in.
I run into my obstacle.
I back off of it.
I take a little bit of distance away from it and try to go back in and find a place to cross.
All of this destruction is forcing me to find a way around, and that's gonna take time.
Narrator: Officer Felix Blake begins the process of casting, searching in a circular pattern for spoor, tracks, or signs left behind that indicate Joel's direction of travel.
Most military units assign code names to their targets.
Senafront has labeled Joel catracho -- a common name for their Honduran allies.
This red mud is just horrible.
Every step I take is leaving just a beautiful, smeary footprint.
I got to be careful.
This is not where we want to be.
We've got to get out of this area.
Narrator: After following Joel's spoor for a half a mile and with his knowledge of the island's terrain, captain de gracia is certain Joel is heading north, so he deploys another asset.
The atv unit uses San Jose island's limited roads, patrolling ahead of Joel's known direction of travel, looking to cut him off or find new spoor.
[Bleep.]
I was just walking by, grabbed a whole mass of black palms.
I didn't recognize it as I went by.
You got to be so heads-up in the jungle.
That will fester and get infected.
If your hands and feet go, you're screwed in the jungle, so I'm gonna take a moment here and cut this thing out.
Better to bleed a little bit now than lose a hand later.
And there we go.
Take care of that.
All right.
Watch where you put your hands.
This is a forest of four-inch-long black palm.
Yeah, this has extremely long, brittle needles on it that get in your skin and break right off and will infect you like nobody's business.
Nasty stuff.
Might want to roll your sleeves down for this one, gents.
Watch out.
Be careful.
Narrator: Officer Blake has already tracked Joel to the waterspout damage site and is now just one mile behind Joel.
[ Speaks Spanish .]
That's actually a downed plane.
These islands, drug smugglers use them a lot as a staging ground to bounce their drugs in, dropping bales, bringing them into the states.
This very likely could be a drug-runner plane.
There could be drugs or a dead pilot in there.
I don't see a body.
If there's a stash in here What the [Bleep.]
Narrator: Seven hours into the hunt and with senafront closing in, former Navy seal Joel lambert has stumbled upon something he didn't expect.
That's actually a downed plane.
I don't see a body.
If there's a stash in here What the [Bleep.]
is that?! [ Squealing .]
[ Chuckles .]
[Bleep.]
Pig.
You didn't get that on camera, did you? This is a great place for a booby trap.
You see how the natural channeling with the plant and the airplane wing forced me to walk a certain path.
It forced me.
It's gonna force them.
I'm gonna take advantage of that.
I'll put right here.
I have just an electronic alarm.
It won't hurt them, but it will let them know that I could have hurt them.
Plus, I'll be able to hear if they're close.
And they'll also have to assume that there may be more ahead of them, so that will force them to slow down and go cautiously, and that will buy me time.
Narrator: Now only half a mile behind Joel [ Speaking Spanish .]
senafront discovers unusual spoor from their target.
We have a leaf.
There's a little blood on it.
Narrator: Knowing an injured animal would leave a wider, messier blood pattern, captain de gracia knows his cleaner pattern could only be from a human.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
[ Breathing heavily .]
This is really rough going.
The humidity is going up.
The heat is going up.
I'm losing fluids.
You can see how sweaty I am.
We got a long ways to go.
Oh, man.
Come here -- look.
Come here, come here.
Look.
It's a python or a boa, some sort of constrictor.
That might be my dinner.
Narrator: With no food in Joel's pack and 30 hours until his extraction, this might be his only opportunity to load up on protein and calories to keep going.
[ Groans .]
Where's a [Bleep.]
good stick to There we go.
[ Snake hisses .]
Be careful -- these will bite.
They're not venomous, but they've got a mouth full of razor teeth.
Definitely can wake you up.
[ Snake hisses .]
Yeah, see those fangs in my boot.
The most dangerous part, obviously, is the head.
By grabbing onto its tail and I redirect its strikes with a stick, I can pin its head down and grab it right behind its head, and that neutralizes it.
Got him.
[ Snake hisses .]
Look at that guy.
You see those teeth? They're like needles.
Yeah.
He's just one big muscle.
I can feel the squeeze happening already.
This is what they do with their prey.
Sorry, buddy.
You're dinner.
The circle of life.
[ Grunting .]
Snake is just one big steak, and out here in the jungle, I'm gonna need all the calories I can get.
Now you know why they call us special-forces guys snake eaters.
Narrator: The senafront atvs continue to patrol the northern roads, while the ground team is just a third of a mile behind Joel and closing.
[ Whistles .]
They've arrived at the downed aircraft that Joel was at less than an hour before.
Knowing that this plane is likely that of a drug smuggler, senafront switches their tactics to anti-drug mode and move in to investigate.
[ Whistles .]
[ Alarm blaring .]
[ Alarm blaring in distance .]
Sounds like they found my booby trap.
But that means they're close.
So come on.
Let's get out of here.
[ Blaring stops .]
Narrator: Suddenly, the sound disappears, and senafront realizes that not only has the alarm alerted Joel to their position, but had this been a real booby trap, the outcome would have been different.
Lambert: All right.
What we've come up on is a road -- a linear feature.
I found a spot right on a bend, and I've hit it where I can cross.
Crossing on a bend gives limited visibility.
If you cross on a long, straight path, people can see all the way up and down and spot you from a good distance off.
Crossing on a bend limits the distance you can be seen from.
Are you guys ready? [ Engine revving .]
Back, back, back! [ Revving continues .]
Narrator: Senafront continues to gain on their target, just 1½ Miles behind.
And now Joel faces a dangerous road crossing, unaware that there are atvs patrolling the area.
[ Engine revving .]
Just as I was moving out, there's a vehicle coming around the bend, and because we're on a curve, it was right there.
We're gonna stop, wait.
All right.
I'm convinced he didn't see us.
All right.
Here we go.
Step where I step.
Narrator: Just 30 minutes later, captain de gracia and his men follow Joel's spoor to the road.
He crossed the street.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
Narrator: But now they must find where he re-entered the jungle.
[ Speaks Spanish .]
Tell me where.
Tell me where.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
So, now we're getting that way to follow this guy.
Okay.
Hold up.
Hold up.
It looks like it's a big, open area.
I got an idea.
Come on.
Let's go.
So what we're gonna try to do is get up in this tree.
And see that branch that goes all the way across, up about 15 feet? We're gonna try and climb up, go across on the branch.
That should take us across this open area without leaving any spoor.
As far as they're concerned, our tracks will have vanished.
Hurry.
Hurry.
Clip your camera in.
Go.
Got it.
All right.
Stop here.
Narrator: With clear spoor heading northeast, the tracking team advances, trying to close the gap on Joel.
[ Grunts .]
Good.
Got it.
Stay on the roots.
Stay on the roots.
Stay to the roots.
Good luck finding a trail now, boys.
Narrator: Joel's spoor has led captain de gracia and his men to the tree their target was at just 15 minutes ago.
The track is lost.
You send three guys over there, they're gonna track all around.
Narrator: But with no new spoor in any direction, Joel's tree tactic pays off.
Better find a place to lay up for the night.
I am not going back in there.
We might have to swim out to that island, and we can hole up.
I have to assume that they might have patrol boats scanning the beaches or looking for fires at night, but that island will give me a place to stay out of sight, and it also offers me 360-degree views of the area.
I hate to do this before last light, but we got to get out there before it gets too dark for you guys to see what you're doing.
Time to swim, boys.
[ Grunts .]
Oh, this will have to do.
It's actually pretty concealed.
I'm feeling pretty good about maybe having a small fire and cooking up some of that snake.
Narrator: With sunlight rapidly falling, senafront is forced to make camp, unable to track in the dead of night.
Let's get a little something in the bellies.
All right.
I want to use a coconut husk, which is good tinder.
Make a little nest here.
This is a block of magnesium with a flint strip down the side.
Magnesium is extremely flammable, and it burns very, very, very hot, so it should catch really well.
Okay.
Get a little snake fillet out.
There we go.
And I'm just gonna roast it up and eat it bit by bit.
I think that's done.
See how this turned out.
Yeah, that's not bad.
If you're in a survival situation, it can really start to play on your emotions.
But you know what? Your mind is your enemy.
It's not the ocean.
It's not the jungle.
It's not senafront.
It's your mind.
One time in bud/s, which is s.
E.
A.
L.
S selection and training, I thought about quitting.
But the one thing that I thought of was, if I quit, I'm gonna have to call my dad and tell him I quit.
Now, read into that what you will, but that did the trick.
Plus, it's in the DNA.
S.
E.
A.
L.
S don't quit.
That will be enough light to do this safely.
Come on, guys.
It's time to swim.
We should be able to move pretty much due east.
We really got to get moving.
I was hoping to move right as it was getting light, and we're way past that right now.
Listen -- we got some making up to do.
All right.
Let's go this way.
Narrator: Joel has a 1½-mile lead on senafront but still 6 Miles to reach his extraction point.
[ Speaks Spanish .]
Frustrated by the first day's hunt, captain de gracia's team heads back to where they lost Joel's trail and begin casting for any new spoor.
Every place that your skin rubs against your clothing when it's full of saltwater and sand is just like sandpaper.
You get a pretty nasty rash.
Definitely not comfortable right now.
Got a road or something right here.
We got to go for it.
Oh [Bleep.]
there's a dude right there.
He just saw me.
Oh [Bleep.]
Narrator: Joel has been evading senafront for 28 hours, but he has just been compromised.
Lambert: [Bleep.]
There's a dude right there.
He just saw me.
Yeah.
Just act natural.
He's already seen me.
Don't act like there's anything sneaky.
Just walk across.
Come on.
Let's just go.
It looks like a local fisherman.
There's so few people on this island, there is no way we don't stick out.
Let's get away from that boat ramp.
And if they come to that boat ramp, that dude saw me, and he's gonna tell them what direction we went.
[ Grunts .]
[ Radio chatter .]
[ Beeps .]
[ Speaking Spanish .]
Narrator: Joel's suspicions were right.
As the local fishermen call the authorities and senafront races to where he was spotted.
[ Beeping .]
Thanks to the boatman's tip, Joel's advantage gained the previous day has been completely erased, and senafront is heading straight toward him.
Lambert: It's really starting to get very humid, like a sauna in here.
Shh! Whoa, whoa! Shh! [ Clicking in distance .]
[ Clicks mouth .]
That might be senafront.
They might have spotted me back there.
And if they did, you can be sure they're sending assets around in front of me.
Narrator: Senafront believes they are closing in on Joel, but they must put their hands on him to classify this as a win.
So they fan out to cover any possible escape route.
All right.
This is what we're gonna do.
We're gonna go up this bank.
[Bleep.]
There they are.
See them? Right through that gap in the trees? [Bleep.]
They are right on my spoor.
We got to get out of here.
[ Speaks Spanish .]
Damn it! Oh, my God.
You have got to be kidding me.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
[Bleep.]
Cliff.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
I got no choice.
I got to go over the edge.
Narrator: Joel opts to rappel down the cliff, gambling that senafront won't follow.
Strictly an emergency move.
Give me that small camera.
Narrator: Making this decision forces Joel to separate from his camera crew.
Here we go.
[ Man shouts in Spanish .]
[ Shouting continues .]
[ Shouting in Spanish .]
[ Shouting continues .]
Narrator: Senafront is now forced to make a difficult descent through the thick jungle surrounding the cliff's edge.
[ Men shouting in Spanish .]
Narrator: But it's too late.
Back in the cover of the jungle, Joel turns east toward his extraction boat, while senafront searches the area where he entered the jungle, trying to determine which way he went.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
[ Speaking Spanish .]
Narrator: Using GPS tracking, a camera team is sent to Joel's location one mile inland.
Come on.
Let's go.
I've just broken trail for those guys so they can move much, much faster, and they don't have to really do any tracking.
They just follow a smashed trail through the jungle.
This is my worst nightmare.
[ Speaks Spanish .]
Narrator: While the dense foliage slows Joel down, senafront makes up ground quickly.
[ Shouts in Spanish .]
You got to be [Bleep.]
kidding me, man.
This is just [Bleep.]
insane.
Definitely delivering our pound of flesh to the Panamanian jungle.
Narrator: Still one mile behind, captain de gracia thinks he may have an idea of where Joel is heading.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
Narrator: Directly east of their position is an airfield they believe could be Joel's extraction point, and it looks like Joel's trail is headed right for it.
He deploys his atv units to set up a perimeter around the airfield.
[ Speaking Spanish .]
Since senafront can only spare four men to secure the 1½-mile-long airfield, they place noisemaking booby traps around the perimeter that will alert them if Joel comes near.
With clear spoor heading east and only one hour until Joel's extraction, captain de gracia needs to take a gamble.
Okay.
Let's go.
Using the roads, he decides to leapfrog his entire ground team ahead of Joel's predicted direction of travel.
We know that the enemy have a short distance from the team.
[ Men talking indistinctly .]
Be perfectly quiet and still.
Don't move.
They're right there.
These islands used to be pristine, and now all this garbage that's not from the island is washing ashore from tidal currents from the mainland, just bringing in plastic bottles, styrofoam, pieces of kids' toys, oil cannisters.
This stuff won't decompose for a million years.
I don't mean to get all "hippy granola birkenstock" on you, but, now, we only got one planet.
Let's take care of it, huh? Narrator: Knowing Joel has only 45 minutes left until extraction, captain de gracia takes his team on the roads in an attempt to cut Joel off.
[ Rustling .]
Get down.
Get down.
Be perfectly quiet and still.
Don't move.
They're right there.
Come on.
Narrator: After crossing underneath the road, Joel is now only one mile from his extraction boat.
However, he is unaware that senafront has booby-trapped the airfield, which he must cross to reach his extraction.
Go up this way.
We're gonna move down.
There's a bigger tree I can use for some concealment.
We're just gonna observe this for a minute and see if I can see any movement or any sign of patrols or anything.
Yep.
There they are.
Probably 20 or 30 meters.
They're making their way around.
Since they have been narrowing my movements towards the airfield, it's pretty obvious -- [ explosion .]
[Bleep.]
[Bleep.]
Go, go, go, go, go! What the [Bleep.]
was that? [ Speaking Spanish .]
Mother[Bleep.]
[Bleep.]
[ Speaking Spanish .]
[ Shouting in Spanish .]
Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Keep running, man! Keep running, man! Ow [Bleep.]
Watch the blackthorn.
[Bleep.]
[ Shouts in Spanish .]
[ Shouts in Spanish .]
That way! Come on! [ Shouting in Spanish .]
[ Grunting .]
This way.
Let's go.
[ Breathing heavily .]
I think -- yes! Thank you, baby Jesus! [ Men shouting in Spanish .]
Lambert: Come on! Keep up! [ Shouting continues .]
[ Shouting continues .]
[ Shouts in Spanish .]
Am I glad to see you.