Time Warp (2008) s01e19 Episode Script
Mouse Trap
I guess I'm ready.
NARRATOR: What happens when trap meets tongue? -[Click.]
-That's just so wrong.
NARRATOR: Hurricane meets man? HALL: I've been doing this for 35 years.
It's just so cool to see it in slow motion.
NARRATOR: What happens? Time warp.
MAN: Uh-oh.
[Laughter.]
NARRATOR: Take two guys whose slo-mo cameras can stop the world in its tracks I'm gonna run down there and catch all the action.
-Good luck.
-All right.
Matt, you ready? All right, Greg.
I reset this camera.
We're gonna take a look at your takeoff this time.
NARRATOR: add a high-tech laboratory, where anything can and will happen Oh, boy.
NARRATOR: and toss in some of the world's wildest talents.
What happens? We pride ourselves on featuring guests with a diverse range of skills and talents.
Hey.
[Chuckles.]
NARRATOR: Performance artist Thomas Nealeigh of The FreakShow Deluxe falls decidedly on the warped side of this "Time Warp" equation.
LIEBERMAN: What do you do when you're putting a spike through your body? Do you just deal with it, or is there actually specific places that are NEALEIGH: Just deal with it.
-NARRATOR: Just deal with it? - [Record scratches.]
Is Thomas really the king of pain management or the lord of illusion? We just had to ask.
When we discovered he puts his own appendages in animal traps NEALEIGH: It's gonna go in like this.
NARRATOR: we felt close-up warping was in order to find out if he's the real deal.
Do not try this ever.
This is the worst buffet I've ever seen.
[Laughs.]
NEALEIGH: I would have to agree with you, and so would most of the animals that are meant to step into this variety of traps.
NARRATOR: Let's start with a demonstration of what happens when a rattrap, well, traps.
NEALEIGH: Onetwothree.
Ah.
Yeah, you don't want your tongue in that one.
NARRATOR: Uh, Matt, we'll get to that tongue thing later.
NEALEIGH: Yeah.
NARRATOR: This is a bone analogue, a substance with skeletal density.
As you can see, it's not enough to endure the rattrap.
Watch again.
The snap of the trap sends energy all along the stick, causing not just one, but two three break points, creating four fragments.
Not unlike what might happen if you got on the wrong side of a ski accident.
LIEBERMAN: The second break happened, you know, from a shock from the first break, before any of that made any contact.
One frame later, it's already broken all the way down there.
NEALEIGH: It goes in a couple different directions, which makes more sense of why bones get multiple fractures.
NARRATOR: Now our next test -- something truly trappy.
NEALEIGH: This is a beaver trap.
This is a dual-spring trap.
Two long springs, one on each side, are gonna hold the jaws open while we set the trap.
We're gonna take this brick.
We're gonna stick it in there.
We're gonna watch what happens.
And here we go.
Onetwo three.
Oh.
There it is.
Oh! Wow.
Look at that.
LIEBERMAN: I really wasn't expecting that.
NARRATOR: Let's watch that again.
It's pretty frightening to think what that would do to something more organic, like a beaver or maybe an arm.
Hey, it's Thomas' idea, not ours.
We just want to see if he's legit.
Take a look at what I brought -- right down here.
This is the big daddy right here.
-This is a bear trap.
-LIEBERMAN: A real one? Wow.
The real one.
It's the real deal.
It will probably break the table trying to compress that spring.
We have to put it down on the ground.
One foot.
Make sure you put all your weight on there.
We got to compress the springs.
Set the trigger, like so.
And the trap is set.
Want to cover it to make sure that anything that comes along doesn't know it's there, but we need to be able to find it.
NARRATOR: Now, this is a great idea -- Hide deadly trap in grass.
And while we're at it, let's call lunch and forget about it.
Do you want me to leave the trap here? NARRATOR: In case you wondered, that's why our insurance premiums are soaring.
KEARNEY: Does a bear trap in the woods? NEALEIGH: All right, carefully.
Thomas is gonna let you stick it in his trap.
- [Laughs.]
-Great.
NEALEIGH: All right.
Just walking through the straw fields.
-There we go.
-Oh, get it out? NARRATOR: In super slo-mo, the bear trap's camouflaged teeth rise through the grass and seize the target.
There's no chance for escape.
NEALEIGH: Take a look what would happen if the bear trap was out covered KEARNEY: And the bear were made of balsa wood.
And you can't really see that until it's too late.
-LIEBERMAN: Ohh.
-NEALEIGH: Ouch.
-Oh! -Ouch.
Ow.
NEALEIGH: Now, look at that.
You can see the teeth have cut into it right there.
Okay.
Let's get this out of here and do something a little more realistic.
-Huh? -LIEBERMAN: Like your tongue.
NARRATOR: No, boys.
Not the tongue! Just what kind of show do you think this is? I'm gonna put my own forearm directly into the trap right there.
NARRATOR: An arm.
Yep, yep.
That's the ticket.
Thomas' arm in a bear trap.
Now, that is responsible TV.
This is not anything that anybody should try on their own.
It's very, very dangerous.
NARRATOR: Oh! Ya think?! We need some time to prepare for this.
-Not to mention this.
-three.
NARRATOR: So we're going to take a short detour to the heart of Hollywood, where Matt and Jeff get ready for their close-up.
[Gunshots.]
Ever found yourself hitting "pause," "rewind," "slo-mo" in the middle of a great action scene to try to fathom how it got done? We sure have.
Faithful Warpies may recall the time we busted up a Hollywood fight sequence.
Well, fast-forward.
We've gone Hollywood to the company whose name says it all -- Special Effects Unlimited to get an even deeper look at what goes into a blockbuster action film.
We're still standing.
NARRATOR: Two-time Oscar winner Allen Hall has created effects for "Pirates of the Caribbean 2," not to mention "3," "Top Gun," and dozens of other action films.
Pretty impressive.
NARRATOR: What happens inside the frame of a special effect? How can such explosive mayhem not result in death and dismemberment? And even more pressingly, can Allen make action heroes out of Matt Kearney and Jeff Lieberman? We're ready to be part of the explosion.
NARRATOR: A challenge, to be sure.
But Allen decides to sign up.
All right.
Let's do it.
[Laughs.]
Show us where we can be.
NARRATOR: First, a crash course in blast du cinema.
At its most basic, an explosion is simply a sudden burst of energy.
Instead of gunpowder, Allen uses an air mortar to release compressed air all at once and create the illusion of a real explosion.
The debris is lightweight balsa wood, chunks of cork, and shiny vermiculite, ensuring producers see the biggest possible bang for their buck.
Pretty cool at normal speed.
But way cool when we get warped.
Now, an explosion is one thing.
But what about the human element? Ladies and gentlemen, Mad Matt and the Liebernator are ready for their screen test.
[Blows.]
I think we take the big mortar, put it down on the ground.
You guys will come over the top.
We'll have stunt pads here.
We'll chase you with the big explosion.
-Let's do it.
-Good.
NARRATOR: Jeff and Matt are poised to launch themselves to stardom with a little push from Allen Hall.
MAN: All right, Allen! Action! Boom! Oh.
You guys okay? KEARNEY: Yeah.
I can't see a thing, man.
[Laughs.]
-Oh, my - [Laughter.]
They want to do it over again.
-MAN: Hey, get some water.
-That went as planned.
[Applause.]
Can you eat this stuff? Is that okay? Yeah.
-Yeah? -Goes in your garden.
NARRATOR: How long were Jeff and Matt able to outrun that explosion? Not long, as the debris is moving at 35 miles per hour.
LIEBERMAN: That's pretty unreal.
KEARNEY: That's really cool.
So, how can we take this up to the next place? NARRATOR: It seems Conan the Librarian just won't quit.
Well, we got fire.
LIEBERMAN: Why don't we grab the high-speed? Then we'll set off the whole "kill Matt with fire" thing.
-HALL: Sounds great.
-MAN: Nice.
The whole what? LIEBERMAN: The whole kill thing.
NARRATOR: These special-effects guys have made "Don't try this at home" a career-enhancing opportunity.
So, you go cutting through here.
When you get to about this line, we'll pop them.
Then you go down on the furniture pad.
We'll bring up that flame, and you'll be engulfed in flame.
Boom! NARRATOR: So far, Matt and Jeff survived an explosion staged by Allen Hall and his crew at Special Effects Unlimited in Hollywood.
But now it's time to up the ante, and Matt's up first.
Scene 105.
Take one.
No! NARRATOR: It's not easy to "Die Hard.
" Okay.
We're all dead.
Perfect.
NARRATOR: Those fireballs are a scorching and are traveling at 35 miles per hour in one-second bursts.
LIEBERMAN: Just the distortion from the heat.
There's, like, three of you back there.
-You've just passed the flames.
-Oh, look at the pain.
NARRATOR: We're not just looking through the camera's lens.
As the air directly surrounding those flames is heated, it expands tremendously, lowering its index of refraction.
And when you've got a varied index of refraction, you've got a warped lens.
While Matt seems to be enjoying this particular circle of Hollywood hell, Allen's crew is setting up yet one more terrible force of nature to unleash.
Hollywood Hurricane? Yes.
Standard rain, 7-foot fan.
We'll bring that up, and then we'll release the water cannon.
I was in Hurricane Andrew in Miami.
So this has been the dream for, you know, 16 years -- -Relive the moment.
-Hurricane reporter.
Jeff, you ready? If you think I'm ready, I'm ready.
Kyle, bring up the rain.
NARRATOR: A 7-foot airplane propeller bolted onto a 70-horsepower gasoline engine provides the wind.
And a water cannon provides that extra little kick.
KEARNEY: You got the right head for this.
LIEBERMAN: I've been working on this for you.
Hey! -HALL: Oh.
-Where'd he go? [Laughter.]
LIEBERMAN: Oh.
Resistance.
-MAN: He's still there.
-LIEBERMAN: Oh, there I go! [Laughter.]
MAN: He goes down.
NARRATOR: The water cannon is aptly named.
Traveling at 40 miles per hour, most of the water arrives all at once.
LIEBERMAN: There.
I'm not on the ground anymore.
I'm floating.
NARRATOR: "At once" being a relative term when you're watching at 1,000 frames per second.
You know, I've been doing this for 35 years.
And it's just so cool to see it in slow motion -- to see everything, why and how it happens.
It's so cool.
And next time you need two extras for a fire, earth, air, or water scene, we're here.
Okay.
NARRATOR: What? And leave show business? Okay.
Where were we? Oh -- Oh, yeah.
We've shown you how to burn drench and blast two superstar wannabes.
But what about that dude and that tongue trap? We thought you'd never ask.
Thomas Nealeigh has a thing for pain.
It's all part of his performance-art act.
Oh.
Oh.
Wait.
For you people in the cheap seats.
NARRATOR: But how much is performance, and how much is act? Oh, there we are! NARRATOR: First, the ultimate statement of obviousness.
This is not anything that anybody should try on their own.
It's very, very dangerous.
per square inch could easily snap my arm.
It's about technique, skill, concentration.
NARRATOR: In the long and proud history of "Don't try this at home" disclaimers, we have now achieved perfection.
Do not put your arm in a bear trap.
KEARNEY: Is everybody ready? On the count of three.
One, two, three.
NARRATOR: Our response to Thomas' experiment is simple yet all-encompassing.
-NEALEIGH: Oh! -LIEBERMAN: Oh! Oh ho! Ah! NARRATOR: It's all about technique.
Thomas positions his arm so that the jaws only hit soft tissue.
If he gets it wrong, his arm could be shattered by 150 pounds of force per square inch.
LIEBERMAN: Look at the veins on your hand.
They kind of -- Your blood pressure goes up immediately.
Oh, yes, it does.
LIEBERMAN: Does it feel like two separate hits at all? NEALEIGH: Ugh! No, no.
It -KEARNEY: Let's watch it again.
-Let's watch that again.
No, it happens so quickly it just feels like one hit, because -- Oh, the back one, you can see, is pushing my arm forward into the second trap.
Wow.
LIEBERMAN: That's not good, man.
Really, the reason I think that it doesn't break it is because there is that amount of give.
NARRATOR: And in conclusion NEALEIGH: I might be reluctant to do that particular stunt again, actually.
NARRATOR: Okay.
We know what you're thinking.
What about that tongue thing you keep mentioning? This is very dangerous.
There's a lot of risk to it.
So no one should ever try this without being a trained professional like myself.
Take a good look.
And here we go.
One, two -three.
- [Click.]
NARRATOR: Was that "trained professional"? Ugh! That's just so wrong.
NARRATOR: Or "insane professional"? -three.
- [Click.]
-Ew.
- [Chuckling.]
Oh.
-You all right? -Uh-huh.
Take that thing off.
Hey, Thomas.
You got a little thing right -Ugh! -Yeah.
There we go.
NARRATOR: The more you slow it down, the more painful and, of course, disgusting it looks.
Filmed at 1,000 frames per second, you can actually see the amount of time it takes for the pain to travel from nerves in Thomas' tongue to his brain.
And that would be roughly 90 milliseconds.
KEARNEY: Ow! [Laughs.]
Oh.
I don't know if I want to do that again ever.
Thisis gross.
NARRATOR: No, Matt.
This is gross.
KEARNEY: Man! [Laughter.]
LIEBERMAN: Oh.
-Ugh.
-NEALEIGH: [Laughs.]
KEARNEY: Wow.
[Laughs.]
Looks to me like you're lucky that it didn't snap your tongue in half.
NARRATOR: Believe it or not, there is some science to be learned here.
It's so different if you hit something really hard from if you hit something really soft.
You know, your tongue started up here.
And it's through that entire distance that the spring's being slowed down when it's soft.
If you have a solid object in there, like a bone, it has to slow down in maybe .
01 that distance, which means the force on the bone is 100 times as strong.
NARRATOR: Now, we know what you're thinking.
We will never, ever get this image out of our mind.
We feel your pain.
So we have one more final demonstration that turns the sideshow into even more science.
Ever wonder about the process of chain reaction? How innocent little atoms turn into mushroom clouds? Wonder no more.
High-speed ready? NARRATOR: Take one tank full of mousetraps.
Combine with one case of Christmas balls.
Everyone grab two.
NARRATOR: Yes, this did take a whole long time to set up, but the end justifies the means.
-KEARNEY: All right.
Ready? - [Laughter.]
NARRATOR: Wait for it.
It's gonna be three, two one.
[Snaps fingers.]
Ready? NARRATOR: Uh, wait for it.
Hard as you can.
Three, two, one.
[Laughter.]
Nice! NARRATOR: And freak show becomes physics lesson.
NEALEIGH: [Laughs.]
LIEBERMAN: And this is actually -- Oddly enough, this is exactly what happens in nuclear fission.
NARRATOR: Now, pay attention, or we'll show you that tongue shot again.
LIEBERMAN: You have all this stored energy in every nucleus between the neutron and the proton, and that's the spring that's loaded in there.
You take enough energy that sets it off, and what's critical mass -- You know, you have critical density of these atoms -- and you release it, and it starts its own chain reaction until it dissipates all the energy everywhere.
This is nuclear fission? This is nuclear fission at a trillion-times scale.
Yeah.
Although it's about a trillion times less energy.
Yeah, that's pretty amazing.
NARRATOR: So amazing we almost forgot what happened a few minutes ago.
Well, all good things must come to an end.
I'm gonna go.
You guys have fun.
Be safe.
Remember, don't try anything you saw me do on your own.
I've heard that before.
Okay.
I want to make sure.
Take care.
NARRATOR: Now, where did we put that bear trap? Walk across? I guess.
NARRATOR: If there's anything you'd like to see warped, check us out on the Discovery Channel Website, discovery.
com/timewarp, and the warp you see just might be your own.
NARRATOR: What happens when trap meets tongue? -[Click.]
-That's just so wrong.
NARRATOR: Hurricane meets man? HALL: I've been doing this for 35 years.
It's just so cool to see it in slow motion.
NARRATOR: What happens? Time warp.
MAN: Uh-oh.
[Laughter.]
NARRATOR: Take two guys whose slo-mo cameras can stop the world in its tracks I'm gonna run down there and catch all the action.
-Good luck.
-All right.
Matt, you ready? All right, Greg.
I reset this camera.
We're gonna take a look at your takeoff this time.
NARRATOR: add a high-tech laboratory, where anything can and will happen Oh, boy.
NARRATOR: and toss in some of the world's wildest talents.
What happens? We pride ourselves on featuring guests with a diverse range of skills and talents.
Hey.
[Chuckles.]
NARRATOR: Performance artist Thomas Nealeigh of The FreakShow Deluxe falls decidedly on the warped side of this "Time Warp" equation.
LIEBERMAN: What do you do when you're putting a spike through your body? Do you just deal with it, or is there actually specific places that are NEALEIGH: Just deal with it.
-NARRATOR: Just deal with it? - [Record scratches.]
Is Thomas really the king of pain management or the lord of illusion? We just had to ask.
When we discovered he puts his own appendages in animal traps NEALEIGH: It's gonna go in like this.
NARRATOR: we felt close-up warping was in order to find out if he's the real deal.
Do not try this ever.
This is the worst buffet I've ever seen.
[Laughs.]
NEALEIGH: I would have to agree with you, and so would most of the animals that are meant to step into this variety of traps.
NARRATOR: Let's start with a demonstration of what happens when a rattrap, well, traps.
NEALEIGH: Onetwothree.
Ah.
Yeah, you don't want your tongue in that one.
NARRATOR: Uh, Matt, we'll get to that tongue thing later.
NEALEIGH: Yeah.
NARRATOR: This is a bone analogue, a substance with skeletal density.
As you can see, it's not enough to endure the rattrap.
Watch again.
The snap of the trap sends energy all along the stick, causing not just one, but two three break points, creating four fragments.
Not unlike what might happen if you got on the wrong side of a ski accident.
LIEBERMAN: The second break happened, you know, from a shock from the first break, before any of that made any contact.
One frame later, it's already broken all the way down there.
NEALEIGH: It goes in a couple different directions, which makes more sense of why bones get multiple fractures.
NARRATOR: Now our next test -- something truly trappy.
NEALEIGH: This is a beaver trap.
This is a dual-spring trap.
Two long springs, one on each side, are gonna hold the jaws open while we set the trap.
We're gonna take this brick.
We're gonna stick it in there.
We're gonna watch what happens.
And here we go.
Onetwo three.
Oh.
There it is.
Oh! Wow.
Look at that.
LIEBERMAN: I really wasn't expecting that.
NARRATOR: Let's watch that again.
It's pretty frightening to think what that would do to something more organic, like a beaver or maybe an arm.
Hey, it's Thomas' idea, not ours.
We just want to see if he's legit.
Take a look at what I brought -- right down here.
This is the big daddy right here.
-This is a bear trap.
-LIEBERMAN: A real one? Wow.
The real one.
It's the real deal.
It will probably break the table trying to compress that spring.
We have to put it down on the ground.
One foot.
Make sure you put all your weight on there.
We got to compress the springs.
Set the trigger, like so.
And the trap is set.
Want to cover it to make sure that anything that comes along doesn't know it's there, but we need to be able to find it.
NARRATOR: Now, this is a great idea -- Hide deadly trap in grass.
And while we're at it, let's call lunch and forget about it.
Do you want me to leave the trap here? NARRATOR: In case you wondered, that's why our insurance premiums are soaring.
KEARNEY: Does a bear trap in the woods? NEALEIGH: All right, carefully.
Thomas is gonna let you stick it in his trap.
- [Laughs.]
-Great.
NEALEIGH: All right.
Just walking through the straw fields.
-There we go.
-Oh, get it out? NARRATOR: In super slo-mo, the bear trap's camouflaged teeth rise through the grass and seize the target.
There's no chance for escape.
NEALEIGH: Take a look what would happen if the bear trap was out covered KEARNEY: And the bear were made of balsa wood.
And you can't really see that until it's too late.
-LIEBERMAN: Ohh.
-NEALEIGH: Ouch.
-Oh! -Ouch.
Ow.
NEALEIGH: Now, look at that.
You can see the teeth have cut into it right there.
Okay.
Let's get this out of here and do something a little more realistic.
-Huh? -LIEBERMAN: Like your tongue.
NARRATOR: No, boys.
Not the tongue! Just what kind of show do you think this is? I'm gonna put my own forearm directly into the trap right there.
NARRATOR: An arm.
Yep, yep.
That's the ticket.
Thomas' arm in a bear trap.
Now, that is responsible TV.
This is not anything that anybody should try on their own.
It's very, very dangerous.
NARRATOR: Oh! Ya think?! We need some time to prepare for this.
-Not to mention this.
-three.
NARRATOR: So we're going to take a short detour to the heart of Hollywood, where Matt and Jeff get ready for their close-up.
[Gunshots.]
Ever found yourself hitting "pause," "rewind," "slo-mo" in the middle of a great action scene to try to fathom how it got done? We sure have.
Faithful Warpies may recall the time we busted up a Hollywood fight sequence.
Well, fast-forward.
We've gone Hollywood to the company whose name says it all -- Special Effects Unlimited to get an even deeper look at what goes into a blockbuster action film.
We're still standing.
NARRATOR: Two-time Oscar winner Allen Hall has created effects for "Pirates of the Caribbean 2," not to mention "3," "Top Gun," and dozens of other action films.
Pretty impressive.
NARRATOR: What happens inside the frame of a special effect? How can such explosive mayhem not result in death and dismemberment? And even more pressingly, can Allen make action heroes out of Matt Kearney and Jeff Lieberman? We're ready to be part of the explosion.
NARRATOR: A challenge, to be sure.
But Allen decides to sign up.
All right.
Let's do it.
[Laughs.]
Show us where we can be.
NARRATOR: First, a crash course in blast du cinema.
At its most basic, an explosion is simply a sudden burst of energy.
Instead of gunpowder, Allen uses an air mortar to release compressed air all at once and create the illusion of a real explosion.
The debris is lightweight balsa wood, chunks of cork, and shiny vermiculite, ensuring producers see the biggest possible bang for their buck.
Pretty cool at normal speed.
But way cool when we get warped.
Now, an explosion is one thing.
But what about the human element? Ladies and gentlemen, Mad Matt and the Liebernator are ready for their screen test.
[Blows.]
I think we take the big mortar, put it down on the ground.
You guys will come over the top.
We'll have stunt pads here.
We'll chase you with the big explosion.
-Let's do it.
-Good.
NARRATOR: Jeff and Matt are poised to launch themselves to stardom with a little push from Allen Hall.
MAN: All right, Allen! Action! Boom! Oh.
You guys okay? KEARNEY: Yeah.
I can't see a thing, man.
[Laughs.]
-Oh, my - [Laughter.]
They want to do it over again.
-MAN: Hey, get some water.
-That went as planned.
[Applause.]
Can you eat this stuff? Is that okay? Yeah.
-Yeah? -Goes in your garden.
NARRATOR: How long were Jeff and Matt able to outrun that explosion? Not long, as the debris is moving at 35 miles per hour.
LIEBERMAN: That's pretty unreal.
KEARNEY: That's really cool.
So, how can we take this up to the next place? NARRATOR: It seems Conan the Librarian just won't quit.
Well, we got fire.
LIEBERMAN: Why don't we grab the high-speed? Then we'll set off the whole "kill Matt with fire" thing.
-HALL: Sounds great.
-MAN: Nice.
The whole what? LIEBERMAN: The whole kill thing.
NARRATOR: These special-effects guys have made "Don't try this at home" a career-enhancing opportunity.
So, you go cutting through here.
When you get to about this line, we'll pop them.
Then you go down on the furniture pad.
We'll bring up that flame, and you'll be engulfed in flame.
Boom! NARRATOR: So far, Matt and Jeff survived an explosion staged by Allen Hall and his crew at Special Effects Unlimited in Hollywood.
But now it's time to up the ante, and Matt's up first.
Scene 105.
Take one.
No! NARRATOR: It's not easy to "Die Hard.
" Okay.
We're all dead.
Perfect.
NARRATOR: Those fireballs are a scorching and are traveling at 35 miles per hour in one-second bursts.
LIEBERMAN: Just the distortion from the heat.
There's, like, three of you back there.
-You've just passed the flames.
-Oh, look at the pain.
NARRATOR: We're not just looking through the camera's lens.
As the air directly surrounding those flames is heated, it expands tremendously, lowering its index of refraction.
And when you've got a varied index of refraction, you've got a warped lens.
While Matt seems to be enjoying this particular circle of Hollywood hell, Allen's crew is setting up yet one more terrible force of nature to unleash.
Hollywood Hurricane? Yes.
Standard rain, 7-foot fan.
We'll bring that up, and then we'll release the water cannon.
I was in Hurricane Andrew in Miami.
So this has been the dream for, you know, 16 years -- -Relive the moment.
-Hurricane reporter.
Jeff, you ready? If you think I'm ready, I'm ready.
Kyle, bring up the rain.
NARRATOR: A 7-foot airplane propeller bolted onto a 70-horsepower gasoline engine provides the wind.
And a water cannon provides that extra little kick.
KEARNEY: You got the right head for this.
LIEBERMAN: I've been working on this for you.
Hey! -HALL: Oh.
-Where'd he go? [Laughter.]
LIEBERMAN: Oh.
Resistance.
-MAN: He's still there.
-LIEBERMAN: Oh, there I go! [Laughter.]
MAN: He goes down.
NARRATOR: The water cannon is aptly named.
Traveling at 40 miles per hour, most of the water arrives all at once.
LIEBERMAN: There.
I'm not on the ground anymore.
I'm floating.
NARRATOR: "At once" being a relative term when you're watching at 1,000 frames per second.
You know, I've been doing this for 35 years.
And it's just so cool to see it in slow motion -- to see everything, why and how it happens.
It's so cool.
And next time you need two extras for a fire, earth, air, or water scene, we're here.
Okay.
NARRATOR: What? And leave show business? Okay.
Where were we? Oh -- Oh, yeah.
We've shown you how to burn drench and blast two superstar wannabes.
But what about that dude and that tongue trap? We thought you'd never ask.
Thomas Nealeigh has a thing for pain.
It's all part of his performance-art act.
Oh.
Oh.
Wait.
For you people in the cheap seats.
NARRATOR: But how much is performance, and how much is act? Oh, there we are! NARRATOR: First, the ultimate statement of obviousness.
This is not anything that anybody should try on their own.
It's very, very dangerous.
per square inch could easily snap my arm.
It's about technique, skill, concentration.
NARRATOR: In the long and proud history of "Don't try this at home" disclaimers, we have now achieved perfection.
Do not put your arm in a bear trap.
KEARNEY: Is everybody ready? On the count of three.
One, two, three.
NARRATOR: Our response to Thomas' experiment is simple yet all-encompassing.
-NEALEIGH: Oh! -LIEBERMAN: Oh! Oh ho! Ah! NARRATOR: It's all about technique.
Thomas positions his arm so that the jaws only hit soft tissue.
If he gets it wrong, his arm could be shattered by 150 pounds of force per square inch.
LIEBERMAN: Look at the veins on your hand.
They kind of -- Your blood pressure goes up immediately.
Oh, yes, it does.
LIEBERMAN: Does it feel like two separate hits at all? NEALEIGH: Ugh! No, no.
It -KEARNEY: Let's watch it again.
-Let's watch that again.
No, it happens so quickly it just feels like one hit, because -- Oh, the back one, you can see, is pushing my arm forward into the second trap.
Wow.
LIEBERMAN: That's not good, man.
Really, the reason I think that it doesn't break it is because there is that amount of give.
NARRATOR: And in conclusion NEALEIGH: I might be reluctant to do that particular stunt again, actually.
NARRATOR: Okay.
We know what you're thinking.
What about that tongue thing you keep mentioning? This is very dangerous.
There's a lot of risk to it.
So no one should ever try this without being a trained professional like myself.
Take a good look.
And here we go.
One, two -three.
- [Click.]
NARRATOR: Was that "trained professional"? Ugh! That's just so wrong.
NARRATOR: Or "insane professional"? -three.
- [Click.]
-Ew.
- [Chuckling.]
Oh.
-You all right? -Uh-huh.
Take that thing off.
Hey, Thomas.
You got a little thing right -Ugh! -Yeah.
There we go.
NARRATOR: The more you slow it down, the more painful and, of course, disgusting it looks.
Filmed at 1,000 frames per second, you can actually see the amount of time it takes for the pain to travel from nerves in Thomas' tongue to his brain.
And that would be roughly 90 milliseconds.
KEARNEY: Ow! [Laughs.]
Oh.
I don't know if I want to do that again ever.
Thisis gross.
NARRATOR: No, Matt.
This is gross.
KEARNEY: Man! [Laughter.]
LIEBERMAN: Oh.
-Ugh.
-NEALEIGH: [Laughs.]
KEARNEY: Wow.
[Laughs.]
Looks to me like you're lucky that it didn't snap your tongue in half.
NARRATOR: Believe it or not, there is some science to be learned here.
It's so different if you hit something really hard from if you hit something really soft.
You know, your tongue started up here.
And it's through that entire distance that the spring's being slowed down when it's soft.
If you have a solid object in there, like a bone, it has to slow down in maybe .
01 that distance, which means the force on the bone is 100 times as strong.
NARRATOR: Now, we know what you're thinking.
We will never, ever get this image out of our mind.
We feel your pain.
So we have one more final demonstration that turns the sideshow into even more science.
Ever wonder about the process of chain reaction? How innocent little atoms turn into mushroom clouds? Wonder no more.
High-speed ready? NARRATOR: Take one tank full of mousetraps.
Combine with one case of Christmas balls.
Everyone grab two.
NARRATOR: Yes, this did take a whole long time to set up, but the end justifies the means.
-KEARNEY: All right.
Ready? - [Laughter.]
NARRATOR: Wait for it.
It's gonna be three, two one.
[Snaps fingers.]
Ready? NARRATOR: Uh, wait for it.
Hard as you can.
Three, two, one.
[Laughter.]
Nice! NARRATOR: And freak show becomes physics lesson.
NEALEIGH: [Laughs.]
LIEBERMAN: And this is actually -- Oddly enough, this is exactly what happens in nuclear fission.
NARRATOR: Now, pay attention, or we'll show you that tongue shot again.
LIEBERMAN: You have all this stored energy in every nucleus between the neutron and the proton, and that's the spring that's loaded in there.
You take enough energy that sets it off, and what's critical mass -- You know, you have critical density of these atoms -- and you release it, and it starts its own chain reaction until it dissipates all the energy everywhere.
This is nuclear fission? This is nuclear fission at a trillion-times scale.
Yeah.
Although it's about a trillion times less energy.
Yeah, that's pretty amazing.
NARRATOR: So amazing we almost forgot what happened a few minutes ago.
Well, all good things must come to an end.
I'm gonna go.
You guys have fun.
Be safe.
Remember, don't try anything you saw me do on your own.
I've heard that before.
Okay.
I want to make sure.
Take care.
NARRATOR: Now, where did we put that bear trap? Walk across? I guess.
NARRATOR: If there's anything you'd like to see warped, check us out on the Discovery Channel Website, discovery.
com/timewarp, and the warp you see just might be your own.