Curiosity (2011) s01e09 Episode Script

Host: lt's the ultimate test of survival -- 1 0 regular people totally cut off from the modern world and deprived of the most basic human needs lt's working.
Yeah, yeah.
[ retching .]
lf we don't get water, it's gonna be really dire out here.
on a journey back to an ancient way of life.
We're gonna take these primitive weapons and we're gonna go hunt down some elk.
There will be danger Look at this tree.
There's bear tracks all the way up it.
hardship [ sobbing .]
lt's literally the toughest day l've ever had in my life.
conflict l'm not feeding all these people.
The girls -- none of them are my girlfriend.
l don't sleep with them.
l live in a different century.
l'm not a [bleep.]
cavewoman.
and there will be blood.
Some won't make it You weren't with us this morning.
l understand.
That killed me.
That was the game-changer.
and some may never be the same.
[ voice breaking .]
That will probably be one of the, um, critical moments of my life.
20,000 years ago, cavemen lived in landscapes just like this.
We definitely have more stuff than cavemen, but have we lost touch with our own instincts? Sure, we live longer, but do we live better? Or were we better off as cavemen? 1 0 of us are about to find out.
l'm Morgan Spurlock, filmmaker and sometime human guinea pig.
You may know me as the guy who ate nothing but McDonald's for a month to see what fast food really does to our bodies, but now l'm ready for an even more epic challenge.
At stake is our whole modern way of life.
l've assembled 1 0 individuals, and together, we're going to travel back in time.
For the next 1 0 days we're going to live exactly as our earliest ancestors did, in an effort to discover if the modern world, with all its cities, supermarkets, and cellphones, helped us or harmed us as human beings.
Some of my companions have skills that are more ancestral.
Man : l think a lot of people in this modern world have lost touch with where we come from.
l've been studying primitive skills for years, but l think this experience is gonna be a challenge.
Man 2: l consider myself a warrior Aah! Oh! so l figure warriors have to come up with different ways to challenge themselves.
My whole makeup is so survival-like.
Ugh.
Man 3: My biggest dream is to go to Africa and go after, like, king of all beasts.
Oh! And l want to get it and put his head above my bar at my house.
Spurlock: Others have modern-day skills we hope will prove useful.
l'm a registered nurse.
l'm not necessarily a survivalist.
So, there's a real need to depend on each other.
l definitely think l bring leadership and athleticism.
All right! l'm not afraid to take on a challenge.
l'm not a quitter.
[ retching .]
Spurlock: Observing us from a distance will be a team of four experts -- an archaeologist, a prehistoric-survival expert, a wilderness physician, and a biological anthropologist.
They're here to ensure the authenticity of this experiment and to help measure its impact on our minds and bodies.
l think they're probably underestimating what they're about to engage in.
Without experience, they have no way to really have an idea of what's gonna happen to them.
Spurlock: The whole experiment will be based here in Colorado -- the closest environment to that of our ancestors.
lt's rugged and scattered with forests.
By day, it's warm, but at night, temperatures drop to just above freezing.
We've had two days of survival training.
We're gonna get an ember in this little notch.
We've learned how to make fire, basic shelters, and stone tools.
Nice one! Look at this hand ax he just produced! You could take a tree down with that.
But how will we survive when we're on our own with just each other for company, for help, for survival? That's amazing.
Ooh, wow.
Look at that! Amy: l see what looks like a buffalo, and l'm like, ''What the hell is that?'' And as we slowly move towards it, l start to realize, this is where we're staying.
Spurlock: Cavemen lived in caves, right? Well, a few did, but apparently the vast majority lived in shelters like this, so our experts have constructed us one from branches and animal skins.
Kuipers: lmagine yourself 20,000 years ago in a Stone Age camp.
The tent is built with traditional materials.
lt's covered with hides.
You've got all the basic raw materials of Stone Age life that you need here.
Spurlock: They've also left us a few basic tools and two days' supply of water but no food.
Then, the final step in our transformation.
You're gonna have to change out of these clothes and into your paleolithic outfits.
ln this tent, we have bags.
Change into what you find.
l feel like a barbaric animal cavemen.
l'm ready to, like, seek and destroy [bleep.]
Are these pants? [ chuckles .]
Get this vest on.
Janeshia: The wardrobe is pretty heavy, and it's not very easy to move in.
lt's definitely making me feel like l was there during that time.
Spurlock: All our clothes are fashioned from indigenous animals, like elk, deer, and rabbit pelts, sinew, and bone.
And according to our experts, they are accurate replicas of Stone Age dress.
Todd : We tend to think of hunter-gather clothing as primitive, but it's quite sophisticated.
ln the upper paleolithic, we're fairly certain that people had well-made, tailored clothing, because we find bone needles.
We're gonna take all your modern clothes.
And good luck to you all.
Spurlock: While we prepare to face the elements, our experts retreat to the observation tent.
Todd : l was thinking, ''Mother of God, what am l getting myself into?'' l'm feeling like, ''Am l going to be able to survive this situation?'' Spurlock: l'm not sure if everybody in the group is gonna make it.
We're on our own.
This is it.
There are only a couple of hours until dusk, and now a storm is brewing.
First off, l think we should get firewood.
lt's got to be for all night.
That's the thing we got to realize.
lt's always better to have more than not enough.
Spurlock: Man first learned to control fire more than 200,000 years ago.
lt was arguably the most important moment in our early ancestors' history.
Took that tree down like a caveman.
Spurlock: lt allowed us to sharpen tools, forge weapons, cook meat, and keep away predators.
lt's this last function that may be the most valuable, for this, as l'm about to discover, is bear country.
Look at this tree.
There's bear tracks all the way up it.
The first order of operation that l have right now is getting a fire kit put together.
All of this area was under snow, just literally a couple of weeks ago, so we're looking everywhere.
We're trying to find anything that's dry.
Spurlock: To make fire, we're going to use a basic friction fire kit.
The kit consists of three parts -- a spindle, a hearth board, and kindling to keep the embers going and nurture them into flame.
We're gonna prep this with a hand drill and get a little depression started.
Then, we're gonna get this thing set up, and we're actually gonna score this and then we'll be able to get an ember out of that and then get the fire going.
And we'll keep getting firewood.
But if you look over there, the sky is very gray, so, hopefully, none of that rain comes our way.
Spurlock: The struggle to make fire becomes more urgent as the storm gets closer.
There are lots of different things that could go wrong -- hypothermia, dehydration.
They should make their top priority getting a fire in this wet weather so that they can dry out and they can keep the shelter warm.
The cold weather is my worst enemy, because my body just shuts down.
Spurlock: Caveman clothing may work when it's dry, but in the rain, it's a disaster, soaking up water like a sponge and clinging to our bodies.
When you're wet, the wetness sucks the heat off of you about 20 times faster than being dry.
lt's starting to sprinkle.
All right, let's go.
As you get colder and colder, you can actually become profoundly hypothermic.
You can start having heart dysrhythmias, you can pass out, you can die.
lt's starting to rain, guys.
Spurlock: The problem is, we don't have fire yet, and with nightfall approaching, time is not on our side.
At this point, everything is beginning to set in.
We need fire.
Everybody slide over.
l'm like, ''[bleep.]
what are we gonna do now?'' [ thunder rumbling .]
Spurlock: We're only a few hours into our 1 0-day quest to live as cavemen.
We're struggling to make fire right now, and we're being deluged with rain.
Things don't look good.
We're having rain flurries, every once in a while, some hail.
lf we can't get a fire, we're gonna have some problems.
This has just got to happen.
Yeah, it's not going down in there.
lt's not getting in the groove, but it's moving.
[ wood squeaking .]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
lt's working.
Yeah, yeah.
Kuipers: So, fire by friction is a difficult method of making fire, and at this altitude, it can be difficult, especially in the kind of weather that we're having.
Do one more, and then, Billy, you jump in.
Whew! Okay, switch that over.
Spurlock: Making fire is easy if you're experienced, but this is all new for us and we're struggling.
[ growling .]
Nice.
Come on, baby, come on.
lt was very important for us to acquire fire, especially considering the weather conditions that we were facing.
Come on, l saw smoke.
Billy: That was one of the most important aspects that we were gonna have, as far as survival out here.
Go right there.
Come on.
l started drilling that hand drill down, and l saw that smoke.
l knew l couldn't quit.
lt was something we had to have.
lt was do or die.
[ growling .]
Spurlock: lt's thought that cavemen could create fire in under a minute.
Come on.
We've been at it for 40, and there's a chance we might not get it at all.
Oh, there it is.
There it goes.
Come on.
Hold on.
Right there.
Billy: Once that smoke started coming, l kept bearing down on that drill as hard as l could to ensure we had a nice-size ember that we could blow into a flame.
Oh, God, he got it, we got it.
Oh, no.
My hands are so sore.
Dude.
Oh, my God.
Mine too.
l didn't think they were that sore.
Go ahead and blow it.
[ blowing .]
He's still with it.
We got it.
We got a window of clear sky so Yeah, build up another fire outside.
Look at that fire.
Look at that.
That's it.
See that? Argh! Argh! Argh! Yeah.
Spurlock: We've taken our first steps towards living the caveman life, but we've also expended a ton of energy.
Now we're hungry.
Problem is, we have no food.
Amy: l'm really hungry, and l thought for sure l ate enough food to last me through the day, and l was totally mistaken 'cause l'm starving.
Man : When you look at the sheer numbers that they're up against, the men are gonna have to procure for themselves, on average, about 3,800 to 4,000 calories a day.
We need to bring some food back.
The women somewhat less -- about 2,500 to 2,600 calories a day.
And so it's not surprising that we're already beginning to see spirits flagging a little bit and lethargy.
Spurlock: The most substantial food source our ancestors had was meat, but meat means hunting, and we don't yet have the skills or weapons for that, so we're gonna do what cavemen did and start with plants.
Amy: Where are these damn cattails? [ chuckles .]
What do you look like? Spurlock: Time for gathering.
But what's edible and what's not? Some plants here are poisonous.
American licorice, which is edible, could be confused with water hemlock, one of the most deadly poisons in the wild.
Come on! We've been taught cattails are among the most nutritious plants in the environment, if we could find any.
You got cattails? Well, we're not sure they're cattails.
These aren't cattails.
Spurlock: l'm not about to eat something that might be edible.
Out here, we have to know for sure before we start chowing down.
Billy and l have decided that we should supplement our diet with snails.
Did cavemen eat them? l don't really know, but l've heard the French do, and right now, that's good enough for moi.
There's a whole bunch here.
ls there? You see some? l'm getting them off.
Those things are pretty good, actually -- those snails.
Look at that -- a little jungle escargot.
Mmm.
Just take some coals and scoop some coals on top of them and just let them sit there.
Are they cooked? Eat it.
Don't look at it, eat it.
Manu : Close your eyes, Amy.
l just can't do it.
You just wasted it.
You're gonna have a tough time.
That's not cool.
Hey.
Oh! Girl.
Don't throw that away.
Beggars can't be choosers in this situation.
You got to eat everything that is provided.
Spurlock: We've created fire, and we've had a little something to eat, but just as we're beginning to feel we're getting a handle on this, Manu starts to struggle.
Her clothes got wet from the earlier rainstorm, and they won't dry out.
Manu : l can't feel my feet.
Everything's just really numb.
The cold affects me to the point where l can't think clearly and l can't keep motivated.
Get you sitting down and your feet up on that log, and then we'll start getting them warm so we can dry them out.
Careful, careful.
[ sighs .]
Or do you want cold feet? l can't feel my feet.
Then let's sit you down.
Amy: That's not a good sign.
Get them off.
No, you don't take them off.
You get them up there.
l can't feel my feet.
Put them on the fire like mine.
Sit there, get them high, put your feet up here like they did, and you'll be okay.
You'll be fine.
Just grab a seat right there.
She was just completely noncompliant.
Like, she would not listen to any type of suggestion.
lt was about getting warm, getting by the fire.
l'm not okay right now, okay? So What's wrong? l'm just not okay right now.
l don't like the cold, and it's just way [bleep.]
wet, and l'm just Everything's just really numb, and l can't feel nothing.
The cold weather is my worst enemy.
Start drying them right now, and then they'll be half dry before you go to bed.
Okay, it's your feet.
As you get cold, you might get a little grumpy.
You start seeming a little drunk, and those are signs of some severe hypothermia.
Spurlock: lt's obvious to us that Manu should warm up by the fire, but she has other ideas.
Lay like this.
As night falls, we're tired and hungry and the first signs of tension start to appear.
[ sighs .]
And why is she cold? Because she got her feet wet today and she didn't go by the fire like everybody else did? What do you do when you're cold and you're outside? You go to the fire.
lt's common sense.
Courtney: Sometimes you get to the point of where common sense is not clicking, you know? Should we just all evacuate the tent and just give it to her? How about that? Why don't we just put everybody's health in danger for one person? Let's do that.
Listen here.
My body cannot handle cold weather.
Why wouldn't you go by the fire? Because the fire is not enough source.
We all told you to go by the fire, okay? Spurlock: l think some of us may have underestimated just how hard this is going to be.
Manu : lt's kind of frightening because l'm affected by the cold, [voice breaking.]
and l felt like that l was gonna become a burden as a result of that.
l slept about 35 minutes last night.
l know.
Like, a Beirut prison is probably more comfortable.
-- [ laughter .]
-- Seriously.
Spurlock: We've made it through the first night, but everyone is exhausted and feeling the first effects of the wild.
One here, one here, one here, one here, staggered.
Might need some water, kiddo.
Oh, my head is pounding.
Manu : Last night, l was trying to get warmed up and trying to stay warm so l could actually sleep.
l'm hoping that tonight is just a little warmer and we don't get that rain.
Spurlock: l think, if l was lucky, l pulled in a full solid hour the whole night.
Was just, like, people on top of each other, and people were talking.
And there was one point where l was balled up in a ball, trying to go to sleep, and my head was up against Robert's ass.
Yeah, this is great.
This is gonna be the best 1 0 days ever.
Eating my pine needles.
l'm beginning to realize that getting food is gonna be a really, really big issue for us.
l don't need to eat this stuff.
My energy is running low, and l'm thinking, ''How am l gonna get through this?'' Spurlock: l could really use some eggs and hot coffee right now, but that's not gonna happen.
We're cavemen, and it's up to us to find food.
At some point, l'm gonna start getting really hungry, and then l'm gonna start chewing on someone's leg.
Billy's kind of the biggest.
Should probably eat Billy first, because we could make him last for days.
Spurlock: l'm following in the footsteps of my ancestors, scouting for a food source, when suddenly lt's a good time to round up the troops and go do a little reconnaissance.
Just saw a 4-point buck up on the top of the ridge.
He saw me, and he bounced off into the woods.
So, we'll go scout, then come back, weapon up.
l'm all about it.
Kuipers: So, they went out to track the elk, but right now, l think all they have is rabbit sticks and rocks, so one of my concerns about them hunting is that they'll be too close to the animal and they'll get hurt in their adrenalin-crazed attempt to take this big game.
Be ready.
There might be more.
Spurlock: Turns out, getting too close to an elk is going to be the least of our problems.
Generally, with foraging peoples, they focus on those resources that give them the most energy for the least effort.
They're working hard.
They're spending a lot of energy.
lt's a long walk, man.
Even longer, carrying an elk up.
[ sighs .]
Give me a hand, Billy.
Thanks, brother.
[ sighing .]
Oh.
l don't know about you guys, but l'm worn out and we didn't make it all the way to the valley.
Yeah.
lf we do get something down there, l don't even know how we would get it out.
lt's straight down.
lt's really deceiving how far away that valley is.
Yeah.
lt's a good -- it might be 5 miles from here.
-- Back to camp? -- Yeah.
Maybe we can see something on the way.
Spurlock: So we just wore ourselves out looking for an elk, and we weren't even prepared to deal with it if we found it.
We're like a dog chasing a car.
Once the car stops, what's the plan? We need a real plan and real weapons.
We want, like, nice thin flakes that we can shape easily and they'll be real sharp.
-- Like that.
-- Yeah.
That's a good cutting tool, too.
And you sort of chip it back the other side.
Just watch your eyes when you do this, because it's -- this thing sends razor-sharp flakes in all directions.
This technology may seem simple, but l tell you what -- l'm having a hell of a hard time trying to get it to thin out the way l want it.
lt takes years of practice to get proficient at this -- years.
Aw, dang it.
l'm bleeding, too.
Spurlock: Cavemen were masters at flint napping -- honing the pieces of flint into razor-sharp tools and weapons.
Turns out, Billy's a bit of an expert.
That's it.
-- Thins that base out.
-- Yeah.
-- That's a spearhead.
-- Yeah.
l mean, you butcher an elk with that or a deer, no problem.
Hunting and gathering peoples make rather simple technology from simple materials, but they're not simple to make.
That's the real deal, huh? Yeah, pretty amazing.
Kuipers: The projectile points that Billy made were very functional and very lethal.
-- Getting it done.
-- Getting close.
With handmade everything, l actually -- this is my stick.
l'm going to chisel it down and fit a blade in there that l made, and this will be my spear.
lt's a little bit shorter than most, but l like to get up close and personal.
And that's all pine sap that the girls chewed into gum for me, 'cause for some reason, my spit won't make it turn to gum.
But then it's all in there, and you pack that blade in there, and l'm gonna wrap cordage around it and then let the damage begin.
Spurlock: lt's day 3 of our 1 0-day experiment to see if modern people have what it takes to live like our Stone Age ancestors.
So far, it's been rough -- not much sleep and even less food.
Todd : The question of what happens when you take 1 0 modern people and put them in an upper paleolithic setting is fascinating to me.
And l wanted to see if modern people could pull it off.
What happens out here could inform my work in the future.
Make sure you drink while you can.
That's the last of our water.
-- ls that the last we've got? -- That's it.
Spurlock: Humans can live without food for three weeks, but we can only survive without water for three or four days.
We need to find potable water, and we need to find it soon.
We got to make that a priority, then, right now, as soon as we bring the wood down.
The concerns we have right now are all about our drinking water.
We've had a couple people today who are dehydrated.
lt's gonna get worse.
[ retching .]
The group is becoming dehydrated, so l think they should probably cover themselves with mud as much as possible.
Any way they can cover up and block the sun is gonna be to their advantage.
That's cave love right there.
Grant: The water around here is potentially infected with a lot of different cysts that can cause severe Gl distress.
Once water is at a boil, the thermal energy is enough, it's gonna kill most of the infective issues like giardia or cryptosporidium.
Spurlock: ln the modern world, we take drinking water for granted.
But for cavemen, it wasn't easy to get water, and it was even harder making it safe.
Cavemen did boil water, and we're going to use their techniques to make our drinkable.
Oh, my God, these things are heavy as hell.
Billy: ln order to purify our own water, we're gonna have to take a hide, drop it down into a hole, and then heat up lava rocks in the fire, drop them into that pit lined with the hide, and boil that water to get it hot enough to boil and kill any microorganisms.
There you go.
That's what you want.
l don't know how that water is gonna taste.
lt's not looking good.
lt's cooked in the elk skin, so it's gonna have fat in there.
lt's gonna have old, dried meat in there.
Ugh.
[ indistinct conversations .]
Tastes like socks.
You didn't throw up.
That's a good sign.
l know, it's no good, is it? Manu : l have never tasted anything so disgusting.
My gosh, if we have to drink from that, l'm gonna have to create a filter.
What is this? l'm doing a watering filtering thing.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
l collected some coal from the fire, and then the rest of the coal that was in here from the rocks.
We're gonna go and find some good, long grass.
We pack it down and it will come out the bottom, and it will make it a hell of a lot more drinkable.
Manu : We have a filter.
Awesome.
l want to try it.
Just pour it in, scoop the water.
Right? And then you just bring it up.
And there's a little hole here.
[ slurping .]
That's pretty great.
Mmm.
That's 1 ,000 times better than that meat-water [bleep.]
Spurlock: lt's a big relief to have clean water, but it still doesn't alleviate the hunger.
All we've had to eat in the last 48 hours are a few snails and some questionable cattails.
l don't deal well with hunger.
lt changes my mood.
Like, l turn into a jerk-off.
And l know l do, but l can't help it.
Yeah, it does it to everybody, though.
Our inner carnal instinct is, like, coming out.
All we want to do now is, like, kill some big animal that we can eat.
Spurlock: At this point, we'll kill a small animal.
We don't care.
Chipmunks, mice, anything is fair game.
l haven't seen one frog -- not one.
We have trout.
We got to build that up so they don't jump.
Why don't we just try to grab them with our hands.
Okay.
Manu : Oh, they're slippery little suckers.
[ chuckles .]
Come over here.
l'll throw them in the bush.
l caught one.
Spurlock: The oldest fish hooks only date back 1 2,000 years -- right at the end of caveman life.
For most of prehistory, all we had were harpoons and our hands.
Thank you, thank you.
What are you doing? l'm thanking the fish, God damn it.
My God, that just changed our day dramatically.
Let's eat.
lt's just delicious.
Tasting it, it's just, like, the best l've ever tested.
[ chuckles .]
This is, like, the best fish l've ever had.
l don't know if it's because l'm hungry or this fish is that good, but, man l think it's a little bit of both.
[ chuckles .]
Spurlock: Our euphoria is short-lived.
Tension soon re-emerges.
Are you guys gonna cut the head off and -- and -- please? Screw it.
Don't gut them.
Jam a stick in their mouth and put them over that fire.
Can you at least do one of them, and we can share that one? Robert: ''Can you cut the head off of it?'' You're supposed to be out here surviving.
This isn't Chez Robert.
Like, you got a fish.
Eat it.
Why do you care how we eat it, Robb? Because we're just trying to survive.
Like, ''Can you fillet it? l can't eat this, l can't eat that.
'' Like, you know what l mean? Well, then you just don't do it for us.
You're spazzing out, dude.
Spurlock: Ultimately, we're still hungry.
Half a fish and a few plants and flowers are not nearly enough to sustain us.
So, we're going on the hunt tomorrow, correct? We finished making our hunting spears, and now we're ready to go for the big prize.
We've agreed that we'll set out at dawn.
So, what l'm hoping is that we can get maybe close.
Worst-case scenario, l can throw it.
-- Yeah.
-- Yeah.
l want my face to be black.
Okay, let's rock.
We're up on this hillside, and we see this elk on the hill.
And me and Morgan, like, we're licking our chops.
She's the one on the left.
What do we want to do? Just want to be able to push her towards us.
Watch her back down.
As soon as she looked up, it was abrupt, so l knew we were spotted.
Want to walk through the wash across the path? We're gonna try and keep bushes in between her and us all the way up so she doesn't see us.
[ elk grunts .]
We hear her talking to her calf, and we're like, we're gonna eat today, man.
This is our time.
Spurlock: We may not get another chance like this.
An elk would keep us well-fed for the remainder of our time in the wild.
This is a critical moment.
Spurlock: lt's day 4 of our epic quest to live like cavemen, and we're closing in on dinner.
Robert: Our strategy was to go up, circle around the elk, and then drive him back down towards the other two hunters.
We're kind of coming together like this and we're closing in on it, and you can hear the mom talking to the baby.
And then, all of sudden The baby pops up, and me and Morgan were probably like 20 feet from each other.
And it popped up right in the middle of us, man -- like right in the bush -- and it took off.
We didn't give Billy enough of a head start either.
We didn't get up around behind him far enough.
Spurlock: Lesson learned -- l should be holding my spear, ready to throw, rather than holding it here, ready to lunge, 'cause as soon as that calf took off, if l could have chucked it, l could have gotten at least one shot in, so l kind of blew that.
Once again, we're headed back to the camp, empty-handed.
What did you catch? We caught a whole lot of nothing.
-- lt's okay, guys.
-- We got close.
We got like 20 feet away.
Spurlock: Just as we are beginning to lose hope, a figure emerges from the woods.
Hi.
How's it going today? Good.
My name is Atlatl Bob.
My colleagues and l have been observing you valiantly attempting to hunt elk with thrusting spears.
Okay? But today you're gonna evolve.
We're gonna give you some atlatls and darts.
Whoo-hoo! -- All right! -- All right! Spurlock: Turns out, the experts have been worried about our lack of weapons.
As a result, they called in Atlatl Bob -- yes, that's his real name -- to teach us the one thing we hadn't covered in basic caveman training -- how to use the deadliest weapon in our Stone Age ancestors' armory.
The atlatl is a weapon system that consists of two parts -- the atlatl itself, which is a throwing implement, and the dart, which is a projectile.
The atlatl and dart is the first true weapon system developed by humans.
This took us from the role of opportunistic hunter-gatherer-scavengers to full-blown big-game hunters.
We went straight to the top of the food chain with this weapon.
l had the feeling there was more than a little caveman in Atlatl Bob.
With this, we owned the world, became the supreme predator.
And that's what we are, right? -- Right.
-- Yeah.
-- Yeah! -- Yeah! Two basic things about holding this thing.
You put the dart in the spur there.
You put your thumb and middle finger through the loops.
You reach up a little on the dart and pinch it, just so you can push it back.
As soon as you start your throw, you let go of the dart and swing and follow through.
All right, now just take aim, cock back, take aim.
Okay, that was good, but you stopped.
Okay, now, you kind of did the same thing that this young lady did.
You kind of stopped.
You got to swing all the way.
l don't have to tell you nothing, right? l hope not.
Don't embarrass yourself in front of the girls.
That was good, but you didn't hit it.
Go for it.
Wasn't even in the same zip code as the target.
Cock your arm back and follow through, through the target area.
That's where the dart should go.
-- Yeah! -- Yay! -- Aah! -- Yeah! -- Awesome! -- Whoo! So, you see how that worked? Yes.
Now, with these things here, you should be able to get something.
Whoa.
That was terrible.
So, Atlatl Bob showed up with some atlatls, which, hopefully, will improve our hunting, so long as, right now, somebody besides me throws those darts [chuckles.]
'cause you saw how well l did.
l think the people who are throwing well right now are the people we want to get out there with those darts.
lf we can get close, l think we got a good shot at hitting something.
This morning, Robert and l are just gonna go see what other kind of freshwater locations are close by and also see if we see any game when we're out.
So, we're looking for a new place to come hunt.
l'm ready to club anything, anything l can eat, l'm gonna hit with this stick.
-- What is it? -- Frogs.
-- Big ones? -- Damn.
You know, they vanished, dude.
There's another one right there.
-- Hold on.
-- Hell, yeah! -- Nice job.
-- Look at that.
Frogs' legs for dinner, boys.
Spurlock: lt's my first caveman kill, and l want more.
l want to bring back something big for the group, because back at camp, things are getting desperate.
There's a rat.
Where'd you get him at? He was in the water well.
We just threw the whole thing in the fire and cooked it until it was well done.
lt was so small that if you were to gut it and clean the meat off of it, you'd have maybe a teaspoon of meat.
lt's just a lot more efficient to just go ahead and eat the whole thing, bones and all.
Come on, Janeshia, try some.
l can't do it.
God, l can't believe l'm about to do this.
Manu : l got his ribcage.
Billy: The intestines were kind of a really weird sort of sweet/bitter taste.
They weren't appetizing at all.
What did it taste like? -- A little overdone.
-- A little overdone.
Overdone? Actually, yeah.
Shh, shh.
What is it? Morgan and l have stumbled across this pond, and we see these two muskrats floating in there.
At this point, we're ready to eat anything.
Anything that moves, we're gonna get it.
Where'd he go? He dove under the water and then took off.
They're not the smartest of animals.
They're just really fast.
So we come up with this strategy that we're gonna wait them out, see if we can get them on their way back to their hole, and try to get some food.
So, we were waiting for them to come out -- waiting and waiting and waiting.
Finally, the one came out and not out of the hole that l thought he was gonna come out of.
So, l saw him scoot across the water, and l was like, ''l can't let something pass me by.
l got to go for it.
'' Oh.
lt looked like the water was only 6 inches deep, but it had all this silt mud underneath, and he just sunk in the mud.
[bleep.]
He speared at the muskrat, totally missed, and now he's stuck in -- he's stuck in the mud.
Aw! He didn't come out of the same hole.
He came out of the side.
[bleep.]
That was a hell of a jump.
That was funny, dude.
lt made my day, actually.
-- Dude, l thought l had him.
-- So did l.
Tell you what -- there's a lot of food down here.
l know his game.
l know what he's up to, so we're gonna go back a little bit later and we're gonna try to nab him.
So, we had some folks come back from scouting, and folks were just, like, kicking back, laying out, dragging, super hungry, super tired, you know, just lethargic.
Spurlock: The energy in the group is low -- so low that somehow they've left the fire go out.
Robert isn't happy.
[bleep.]
[bleep.]
Who was the fire watcher? lt wasn't me today.
Who was it? There's eight of youse here.
There's what? Eight people here while we're out hunting.
Spurlock: There's one thing that hasn't changed in 20,000 years.
When someone feels that they're doing more than their fair share of the work, they get resentful.
Robert: We go out hunting.
l'm up at 6:00 this morning.
l must have walked 1 0 miles.
And l come back, everybody's sitting around in the shade.
Nobody's doing nothing.
Like, the fire's out.
l'm not feeding [bleep.]
1 0 people.
Come back, everybody's laying around in the shade.
We brought all the frogs back.
Now everybody's right around.
They're ready to eat.
lt's [bleep.]
like, why do l -- l'm not feeding all these people.
The girls -- none of them are my girlfriend.
l don't sleep with them.
Like, why do l got to feed them? Spurlock: We're five days into our caveman experiment, and tensions are flaring up.
l ain't supporting everybody.
[bleep.]
can't do it all, dude.
Everybody's got to contribute.
lt's [bleep.]
talking about people not pulling their weight.
Go to hell with that.
Amy: Communicating through online, websites, it makes it easier to deal with people.
l mean, l don't know how cavemen got along back then, 'cause when you're in each other's faces like this, l mean you can kind of drive people a little crazy.
Spurlock: Some of us are a little grumpy, and all of us are hungry, so l call a cave meeting.
-- All right, we got everybody? -- Yep.
All right, everybody's here.
The most important thing, as we put together the hunting party, is realizing that all that food is far away.
Spurlock: Right now, our camp is about 5 miles from where we saw the elk.
That's half a day's walk.
Not only that, a single elk can weigh up to 1 ,000 pounds.
lf we did get one, how would we drag it back? ln my view, there's only one solution.
lf the elk won't come closer to the camp, we need to move the camp closer to the elk.
The most proactive thing that we can do as a group is move closer to where the game is gonna be.
l think it's gonna be better for us in terms of food.
l think it'd be better for us in terms of resources.
Building a shelter will be difficult, but l think if we make that a priority and we all do our own little part, it'll all work out.
Well, just -- l mean, everyone feel like we've exhausted all the stuff here? l feel like there's so many other vegetation out here that we can live off.
We've been here, we've been there.
We haven't killed [bleep.]
so, basically, on a hunch, is -- You know what l mean? You went out hunting, you didn't bring back anything.
Now you're saying, ''Oh, if we move over there, then we will bring back something.
'' That doesn't even make any sense.
There obviously seems to be a lot more game there than there is here, both large and small.
This is a big problem for something that we're not sure of.
We're not 1 00% positive that we're gonna catch anything down there.
You guys were out all day.
Couldn't even catch a damn thing.
Now you want to move the entire tribe to an unknown land that only two scouters were at, and we're just supposed to trust that.
My concern is that, tomorrow morning, our energy is gonna be depleted 50% more, and that this move could be the end of some of us.
Part of the reality of the whole experiment is to kind of experience what these tribes went through.
And ultimately, the tribes moved to where the food was.
We need to vote.
l mean, l think, if we're gonna be a tribe, we should let majority rule.
Manu : Well, yeah, we agreed on that, so Okay, who thinks we should move and who thinks we should stay? Who thinks we should move? One, two, three, four, five, six.
So it's six to four.
lt's six to four.
We know what we're gonna do.
Okay.
So let's all work together as a team tomorrow.
-- And move.
-- And move.
And move.
Amen.
We should do this first thing in the morning.
Robert: When we got the most energy.
lt's gonna be a good boost for everybody.
Todd : ln the Stone Age, if you quit, you're dead.
You don't have anywhere else to go, right? The reason why hunter-gatherers tend to be nomadic is that they exploit the local resources in their environment, and eventually, it makes sense to move to a new location.
6 out of 1 0 wanted to move, so there are four people today that aren't gonna be very happy to be walking down the hill.
You up for the move, do you think? Yeah, that's why l'm just trying, to like, rehydrate.
Robert: Moving is good.
lt's like a change of scenery, give everybody a new start.
Those that have been kind of just sitting around, now we're gonna pick them up and make them come with us, so l think it's a really positive thing.
Robb: We're just gathering up gear.
We're kind of cutting all of our kits down to the bare essentials, which is really very, very much the way the hunter-gatherers would have done this.
We're gonna leave this winter shelter, which is pretty cozy but just insanely heavy.
We're gonna bring a fire-starting kit, a toolmaking kit, any of the flexible skins that we can use for bedding, and that's pretty much it.
So, how long will this walk take now? l'd say, with everybody, two to three hours.
Spurlock: lt's a long, long walk, about three miles, four miles.
lt's gonna be long.
lt's gonna be hard.
[ chuckles .]
l'm not ready for this.
Anytime anybody wants to stop, just speak up.
This move is a step in the right direction.
This is something that prehistoric people did all the time.
When we get on to our new campsite, we're gonna have to make shelter, we're gonna have to make another fire, we're gonna have to kind of re-establish ourselves there.
-- Everybody got everything? -- Yeah.
-- All right, let's go.
-- All right.
Spurlock: As we head down the mountain, we're a group divided.
Some of us are optimistic about the new camp, while others seem like they're on their last legs.
Hopefully, we made the right choice.
Next time on ''l, Caveman'' Amy: Right now, we've moved, and there's no meal.
[ voice breaking .]
There's no guarantees of anything right now.
[ sobbing .]
We were going to find an elk, and we were going to kill.
Oh! You got one, you got one.
That one's hit.
We got one.
l got it in the neck.
We're rushing as fast as we can to get this thing butchered so that we can get it back to camp.