"Don't try anything you've seen on the show at home." " We are what you call..." " Experts." "Narrator:" "On this episode of "MythBusters"..." "[ Grunting ]" "Adam:" "Whoa-ho-ho!" "Narrator: ..." "Adam and Jamie cross a bridge too far..." "Hi, mom." "...as they test a Cliffhanger of a movie myth." "Did you hear me?" "I said, "running from explosions."" "Narrator:" "Can you really leap up on a bridge... 3, 2, 1..." "Narrator: ..." "That's going down?" "Adam:" " No!" " Like a knife edge." "Narrator:" "Meanwhile, there's hail hijinks..." "Man:" "Get inside now!" "Narrator: ... as Kari, Tory, and Grant break the ice..." "Tory:" "Go to the hail!" "Narrator: ..." "Finding out if the mother of all hailstorms..." "Rough seas ahead!" "Narrator: ..." "Can ever sink a ship." "Fire!" " Whoa!" " I think we got a problem." "Narrator:" "Who are the MythBusters?" "Adam Savage." "That's the spirit, soldiers!" "And Jamie Hyneman." "[ Chuckles ]" "I'll be darned." "Between them, more than 30 years of special-effects experience." "Together, with Kari Byron..." "[ Screams ]" " That is messed up!" "Narrator: - ..." "Grant Imahara..." "Somebody order an explosion?" "...and Tory Belleci..." "Let's chop this car up!" "Narrator: ..." "They don't just tell the myths..." "[ Screaming ] ...they put them to the test." "MythBusters 11x03" " Hail Hijinx Original air date October 21, 2012" "Jimmy, you did a fair amount of mountain climbing in your youth," " didn't you?" " I did." "All right." "This story comes from the movie "Cliffhanger"" "about a mountain climber played by Sylvester Stallone." "At the end of the movie, he is running across a suspension cable bridge, on which the bad guys have put a bomb." "They set off the bomb, blowing up one of the moorings of the bridge." "After the explosion, Sly, who's already running, takes two further steps and a final leap to safety." "While the bridge is falling?" "While the bridge is actually falling." "That sounds dubious." "I think the same thing, and I think that's why we should tackle it." "It's a Cliffhanger climax." "When a blast destroys one side of his bridge, our high-altitude hero hurls himself to safety." "But can you really make a running jump on a rope bridge seconds after one side has been severed?" "[ Screaming ]" "Obviously, I think we have to finish the story by doing it in full-scale, you and me on a bridge we built that we destroy repeatedly." "Yeah, but you know what?" "I think we should do some bench tests first." "I agree." "Perhaps just after the object started falling, there's some tiny period of time in which you can get a jump." "And maybe we can tease that out in scale." "Sounds like a plan." "So, first up, they're scaling this mountain myth in small scale, where they'll need a baby bridge..." "[ Italian accent ] That's a flexible bridge." "...a boom to bust it..." "[ Explosion ]" "[ Normal voice ] That'll do it." "...and a gas-powered, pint-sized piston." "Hey!" "Now, to stick it all together." "Adam:" "So, we are trying to determine if, after you've destroyed one side of a suspension bridge, could you still jump off that sucker?" "And this is the scale experiment we've built to tease this out." "We've built a real suspension bridge, mounted hard on one side with an electrically activated solenoid on the other that allows us to precisely destroy the moorings on this side of the bridge." "We also have a jumper, built off of a pneumatic cylinder that we can also control precisely." "That control comes from these two timers, which will allow us to control the destruction of the bridge and the jumping of the jumper to within one millisecond." "If there is anything at all to this story, this rig ought to tease it out." "Narrator:" "Yep, it's a precision bridge-drop mini rig." "But first up, they're going to do a control to measure the height of the jump on an unbroken bridge." "3, 2, 1." "[ Laughs ]" "Narrator:" "And with that leap reaching 22 inches..." " That's really nice." " Yeah." "...Jamie jumps in with the plan." "Jamie:" "To figure out how long you've got to jump off a falling bridge, we're gonna start by dropping the bridge" "50 milliseconds before our mini Adam jumps." "Now, if he's successful at leaping away, we'll add another 50 milliseconds and try it again and keep doing that until he's just falling and not able to leap away." "That way, we'll figure out what our butter zone is for jumping off the falling bridge." "Narrator:" "So it's time for test one, where Adam's Mini Me will jump exactly 50 milliseconds after the bridge has been busted." "50 milliseconds away in 3, 2, 1..." "Narrator:" "Adam sure shot up, but how did this leap compare with the control?" "[ Laughs ] You like the little pirouette?" "Sure." "Narrator:" "To find out, the guys check the high-speed..." "Adam:" "Amazing." "He really did jump off the falling bridge." "Narrator: ..." "Where the news is good and bad." "Adam:" "Clearly the highest he reaches." "Narrator:" "While their jumper did jump, he peaked at a puny 10 inches, less than half the height of the control." "I think we're ready." "So, what'll happen with double the delay?" " You ready?" " I'm ready." "100-millisecond-delay bridge jump in 3, 2, 1." " Ho-ho." " Yeah." "It's starting to get bad at 100 milliseconds." "Yeah, but he's still doing it." "Narrator:" "Jumping 100 milliseconds after the bridge gets broken," "Adam did make the leap, but the height is slashed to just 41/2 inches." "And when they delay the drop again..." "Here we go. 150 millisecond jump. 3, 2, 1." "[ Laughs ] Nothing." "It really didn't look like anything." "Narrator: ..." "A fraction of a second later, there's nothing left for Mini Me to jump off of." "Yet, in "Cliffhanger,"" "the hero seemed to have time for a running jump." "Yeah, but you know what?" "In the clip, he's not jumping straight up." "He's jumping forward." "Right." "Okay, so let's run these three tests again with him angled." "Narrator:" "So, to match the cinematic scenario, they change the angle of the dangle and set a new control." "Ho-ho!" "[ Laughs ]" "Wow, he jumped really far." "Yeah." "Narrator:" "And then the delay tests can begin." "Adam:" "All right." "Here we go." "Angled bridge jump, 50 millisecond delay. 3, 2, 1." "He's jumping a lot farther at an angle." "There might be something here." "100 milliseconds, 1/10th of a second." "Here we go." "But, as the bridge plunges further into free fall, they spot the same pattern as before." "150 milliseconds." "As they up the delay, the leap length is slashed, until, by 150 milliseconds, the miniature mythbuster is barely making it to the end of the bridge." "Adam:" "Well, the results from our small-scale tests are interesting but not necessarily making it look very good for this story." "Now, while we found that a life-saving jump off a collapsing bridge is, in fact, possible, it's only possible within a window of about 150 milliseconds." "Now, will that time change when we go to a full-scale 80-foot-long bridge?" "That's what we got to find out." "Narrator:" "Now batton down the hatches 'cause a storm's a-brewing." "All right." "I love a bit of hijinks." "What's the story, Tory?" "All right, so this is an old fishermen's myth." "Now, the story goes that a hailstorm can be so intense that it can actually sink a boat." "What?" "What kind of a hailstorm are we talking about here?" "We're looking at hailstones around the size of a baseball." "Okay, so does the hail penetrate the boat and make it sink 'cause there's holes in it, or does it fill up with hail and it sinks because it loses buoyancy?" "Don't know." "But that's what we're gonna find out." "Narrator:" "There's no doubt that hail can be hostile." "Man:" "Get inside now!" "But could a boat really go belly up by being hammered by hail?" "Or is this a classic fishermen's tale?" "All right." "So, obviously, the details of this myth are a bit cloudy." "Yeah, I mean, we have no idea whether it was a hail fastball that punctured the boat or whether it was the sheer volume of hail that caused it to go under." "Well, ultimately, we're going to have to test both, so why don't we start with the puncture theory?" "All right, well, we can't wait for a hailstorm." "Why don't we create our own?" "We'll get some hailstones traveling at storm-wind speeds, and we'll fire it at different types of boats." "It's a great idea." "I can build a cannon that'll fire hail that fast, if you guys can find out whether baseball-sized hail even exists." "Sounds good." "Narrator:" "So, first up, the guys are gonna take aim at the sunk-by-puncture theory, and step one is to get some ice advice, courtesy of Professor John Monteverdi." "All right, Professor, so we're talking about hail." "What exactly is it?" "Monteverdi:" "It's a glob of ice that grows in the upper parts of a thunderstorm cloud." "When it grows too large, it will fall to the ground, usually in a large mass." "All right, so the myth talks about baseball-sized hail sinking a boat." "Now, can hail grow to be that big?" "Oh, indeed." "This video shows baseball hail." "And those things are flying." "Look at that." "It's actually knocking down branches." "Don't you think that a hail ball that size could probably sink a ship?" "It think it's conceivable it could punch a hole in the ship." "It depends on the material and the speed that hail gets accelerated at." "So, according to the prof, this stormy story might be true, meaning it's on to step two..." "nailing the hail." "We learned from our meteorologist that hail at 2, 21/2 inches is not uncommon." "So I've come to the San Francisco Ice Company to do a little carving." "Always makes me feel dangerous." "[ Chainsaw whirs ]" "Narrator:" "And she's dicing just the right ice." "Kari:" "This block of ice I'm working with is completely clear because as it's frozen, air is circulating through it." "Now, that's gonna make it the hardest that it can be, give us the best possible chance." "Now I've got my ice blocks." "Time to press them into balls." "The weight should slowly press this into the mold until it's a beautiful, perfect sphere." "Narrator:" "Yep, with her melting mold moving fast, it's not long before Kari's box of balls are ready to get fired up." "[ Singsong voice ] Hail balls." "Narrator:" "And while Kari's been prepping the ammo," "Tory's tracked down the target." "Avast, you scallywags!" "We got ourselves a boat." "Narrator:" "Make that "targets."" "Kari:" "To give this myth a fighting chance, we've opted for a single-hull boat." "And, by using all the most common materials, we've covered all of our bases." "Narrator:" "And those common materials are wood, fiberglas, and aluminum." "All three of which may be tough nuts to crack." "And that's where the cannon comes in." "Got this valve right here." "It's gonna go on the tank." "We're gonna run compressed air and have a super long barrel." "And hopefully with all that, we'll get our hail to hail speed." "Narrator:" "And when Grant says "super long,"" "he's not exaggerating." "Grant:" "Gonna need the whole shop for this." "Narrator:" "Because the longer the barrel, the greater the chance their ice ball will fire intact." "[ Laughter ]" "Oh, my God." "That is ridiculous." "How long is this?" "Grant: 40 feet." "Narrator:" "But to put that idea to the test, it's time for a test fire." "Kari:" "We're going to be firing hail at different speeds at our boats and we're gonna start at 80 miles per hour, which is the terminal velocity for hailstones this size." "Narrator:" "And wrapped a cloth sabot to ensure a strong seal, the question is, will the hail hang together for the steel-plate test?" "Okay." "Ready for 80 miles per hour." "I hope this doesn't pulverize like the ball before it actually makes it out of the cannon." "I know this is either gonna be hail cannon or a snow-cone maker." "[ Laughs ] Okay you guys ready?" "Yeah." "Here we go." "Calibration test in 3, 2, 1." "Oh, no." "That looked solid." "Narrator:" "It's mission accomplished." "Their slice of ice survived the 80 mile an hour fastball without breaking up." "Buh-dum-bum-pss!" "It's like snow glitter." "Narrator:" "Which means it's time to bust out the steel plate and take aim at the boats." "Grant: ...1!" "Narrator:" "Later..." "Oh, gosh." "...will the MythBusters match Stallone's Cliffhanger leap?" "Adam: 1, go!" "Narrator:" "In the movie "Cliffhanger,"" "our Sly hero leaps up as a blown-up bridge falls down." "But back in the real world, the guys ain't jumping for joy." "'Cause their mini mythbuster's bridge jump has fallen short." "It is not looking very good for the story at this point." "I mean we are finding a little window where you can get some push off but it's a tiny window and honestly, I don't think that's enough time for a human to react to the sound of an explosion." "I think this is where we need to go full scale because as we move up in size, the mass increases." "There is wind resistance to consider." "A lot of the physics change." "All right so shall we go on to building the full size bridge and launch ourselves into the abyss?" " Yep." " Excellent." "Narrator:" "So it's time to launch from a full scale rope bridge." "But first the guys are gonna have to build it." "So this is our bridge?" "This is it." "They just delivered it." "1,800 pounds of wood and cable." "Well, let's start putting it together." "All right." "The guys snap to it." "They've got a design in mind for a classic Cliffhanger rope bridge." "With wood planks underfoot and steel cables bridging the span." "And making it all happen is Jamie's new favorite toy." "This thing's awesome." "I need to attach this cable to all these planks." "Now I don't know how this is normally done, but I've tracked down this machine here which is a thing for nailing fences together." "And it puts down really nice little staples so that's what I'm gonna use, and it's gonna make this happen really fast." "And an hour later, you have a bridge." "Narrator:" "It's 80 foot long, heavy going..." "Adam:" "Freaking hard to push that thing." "Narrator: ..." "And ready to roll." "You know I think we need to start marketing these and selling them." "[ Adam laughs ]" "After carefully studying the footage from the film, we believe we've made our rope bridge pretty darn accurate." "It's comprised of two wire ropes, about 130 pine boards." "It weighs about 1,600 pounds." "All that's left for us to do is to attach some railings to this, take it out to the location, and we start running from explosions." "Did you hear me?" "I said, "running from explosions."" "Narrator:" "And for running from an exploding suspension bridge, they've got the perfect location." "Today we are at one of our all time favorite locations." "The Mare Island Shipyard dry dock." "They used to service nuclear submarines at the bottom of this thing." "Narrator:" "Today the MythBusters will be stretched to breaking point because across this dry dock they'll rig their bridge too far before they commence their Cliffhanger collapse caper." "Adam:" "Our plan here is really pretty simple." "This is the side of the bridge that doesn't get broken." "It's the permanently attached side." "So we're going to weld a steel structure to hold the bridge on this side and then we're gonna lower all this down to the bottom of the dry dock, pull it up attach it to its permanent mooring." "Jamie:" "Given that the bridge weighs about 1,600 pounds, you need a solid anchoring point." "So what we've done is drilled holes into the concrete around here, inserted these anchor bolts and then we've got this sturdy steel frame that we've welded together that'll get bolted to the concrete." "And hopefully it'll hold." "Narrator:" "Indeed with Adam and Jamie trusting their lives" " to this bridge..." " Watch your fingers." "...having it hold firm is vital." "And thanks to a giant crane..." "Okay I need all hands over here." "Let's get on this side and flip." "...and plenty of muscle..." "Beauty." "Oh it's like a DNA." "With the forklift holding and the truck pulling, the bridge starts to take shape." "Will you look at that?" "Just not quite the shape they had in mind." "Jamie:" "It's quite a droop." "Oh, it is gonna be a hell of a lot of droop." "Yeah." "Narrator:" "After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, the guys soon zero in on the butter zone." "Back up about 1 yard." "That looks like the perfect amount of droop." "And with that, the guys achieve suspension perfection." "It's a real bridge, and all I can think is" "I don't want to walk out on that." "And if I don't want to walk on it" "Jamie really doesn't want to walk on it." "Oh, gosh." "Man:" " Get inside now!" "Narrator:" " Hail can wreak havoc but could a hefty hailstone really punch through a boat and sink it?" "Kari, Grant, and Tory have their 40-foot cannon calibrated and their ice balls ready to fire." "It's time to go hail versus hull." "All right." "That looks good." "Let's start firing the hail balls." "And the aluminum boat is first in the firing line." "Tory:" "The boat is perpendicular to the ground and the cannon is parallel to the ground." "Now in this configuration, it's like the boat is getting rained down in a hailstorm." "Now we're gonna take a shot and see how much damage it does." "Narrator:" "And with the hail all wrapped up for the tightest fit its first launch is at its terminal velocity." "Ready for 80 miles per hour." "But will that be enough to hole that hull with hail?" "3, 2, 1." "Well, in a word, no." "Hail versus aluminum boat at 80 miles an hour." " No hole." " No." "Ain't that the truth?" "Their first fastball barely made a dent, let alone a hole but their aluminum boat is just the tip of the iceberg." "Kari:" "What's this boat named?" "Tory:" "Fiberglassy." "Fiberglassy." "[ Chuckles ]" "Now, fiberglass isn't as tough as aluminum." "Good to go." "3, 2, 1." "But it's still too tough for this stuff." "No hole." "It didn't even budge it." "Next." "So what about a boat made from wood?" "Steady as she goes." "And an old boat at that." "Kari:" "We all right?" "Let's take a shot." "See if it puts a hole it." "Grant:" "Here we go. 3, 2, 1." "Narrator:" "But the hail doesn't hole, and that's three boats without a breach." "At terminal velocity, their baseball hail has struck out." "But what if the ice balls weren't just falling at terminal velocity?" "What if they were caught up in a hurricane and they were being blown down to earth at 150 miles an hour?" "So it's time to up the ante." "Could the force of a force 10 give the ice the impact it needs?" "150 miles an hour." "This is one serious hailstorm." "Aluminum boat." "Go. 3, 2, 1." "Narrator:" "Well, not for the aluminum." " It definitely hit harder." " That was a good hit." "Narrator:" "Nor for the fiberglass." "This ain't gonna work." "So to keep this myth afloat, their wooden boat really needs to splinter." " Whoa!" " Whoa!" "Looked like it did some damage but it did not punch a hole through it." "Narrator:" "The guys decide to take things to the extreme." "So now we're ramping up to over 300 miles per hour, which is the highest ever recorded wind speed in a tornado." "Now, I know that there's not typically hail in tornadoes, but what this myth needs right now is more speed." "Narrator:" "Will 300 miles per hour send their ballistic ice ball through aluminum?" "3, 2, 1." "It was a good hit but no hole." "How about fiberglass?" "300 miles an hour." "Fiberglass boat." "Hey!" "It's like it's snowing in here." "[ Laughs ]" "So at 300 miles an hour, all the hail ball did was knock some of the paint off the fiberglass boat." "There is still no hole." "So with two boats down and no holes to show, even at tornado speed, this myth's chances all ride in their old wooden boat." "Grant:" "I know that 300's ridiculous, but I got a good feeling about this." "It could happen." "In 3, 2, 1." "[ Laughs ]" "I can't even see it." "We punched a hole in the boat!" "It's a perfect clean hole." "Narrator:" "Finally, at a worst case scenario wind speed their boat failed to weather the weather." "That's just silly." "Or did they?" "Oh, wait a minute." "I think we've got a problem." "I think this boat is rotten." "It's rotten luck." "They've scored a direct hit on weakened wood." "[ Groans ] I think we need to try this again." "So they zero in on a zone that's rot free." "In 3, 2, 1." " Oh, my God." " Did it go through?" "I mean it looked like some serious damage." "It did some damage, but I don't think it punched through." "Damage but not a hole." "Yeah, that is definitely not a hole, and you're looking at a hail ball that's traveling 300 miles an hour." "Narrator:" "As far as penetration goes, the myth is busted but that's only half the story because the boat may have been sunk by the sheer quantity of hailstones." "Oh, my God." "It's almost filled." "But could mass alone send a boat to the bottom?" "Narrator:" "In a Cliffhanger myth that's high on drama and long on suspense," "Adam and Jamie have strung a rope bridge to see if you can hurl yourself to safety when one side's in freefall." "That's a bridge, man." "[ Chuckles ]" "I can't wait to walk on it." "Adam:" "I'm about to take an inaugural walk out on the rope bridge and I honestly don't have any idea how this is gonna go but there's only one way to find out." "Here we go." "Narrator:" "It's the moment of truth as Adam takes one small step for man and one giant leap for MythBusters." "Whoo!" "[ Chuckles nervously ]" "My calves are tingling." "I've never had my calves tingle before." "Narrator:" "And while the bridge is holding firm, it's not yet all systems go." "Adam:" "Standing on our rope bridge is giving me some real pause about the experiments we had planned." "It's making me feel a little bit spooked." "There's a lot of things that can go wrong with something this big when you're purposely making it fail." "So, before we continue, we're gonna be discussing and buttoning down every last little bit of our safety protocol." "[ Exhales deeply ]" "Narrator:" "And that buttoning down involves testing whether their bridge-collapse system can safely drop first time every time." "It's fully padded." "Shall we do it?" "Jamie:" "Yeah." "No mean feat, given that it's triggered by explosives." "We need to release all four of these cables precisely at the same time and so to do that" "Matt Heron and his team here are setting up some quick releases with squibs." "They're small amounts of explosives that'll be triggered electronically so it all happens perfectly." "Narrator:" "That's the theory, and once the bridge bombs are primed, it's time to put that to the test." "All right." "Blow the bridge in 3, 2, 1, go." "Oh, no." ""Oh, no" is right." "Only three of the four cables break free, meaning that there's a snag, literally." "No!" "But moments later..." "[ Chuckles ] ...the bridge falls." "Fully, entirely, and most importantly, without any other complications." "Jamie:" "It's a good thing we did a test run because that's when you work out the bugs and in this case, the bug was a quick release that got jammed and it sort of left the bridge hanging there cockeyed." "But now it's my turn to go out on the bridge and do the drop." "Narrator:" "Yep, with the bridge hoisted back up it's time for Jamie to put this Cliffhanger myth to the test." "Armed, of course, with some serious safety supplies." "Adam:" "It's called a yoyo." "It's got a little spring-loaded pulley inside that lets the cable out really nicely until you put too much force on it and it stops you from hitting the ground, thus saving your life." "Jamie:" "Okay." "Let's go." "Hook me in." "Narrator:" "Jamie tip toes into position, and once there here's how the test is gonna go." "Jamie:" "To test this story, I'm gonna start running full speed towards the end of the bridge." "Now when I cross that orange plank there, our pyro Matt will release the bridge from its moorings here by detonating four explosive squibs." "When I hear that bang," "I'm gonna take a couple of steps and dive for that board and we'll see whether this is possible." "Narrator:" "Yep, for the myth to be confirmed, that boom, step, step, leap is the play they need to see." "But Jamie's got other concerns." "Jamie:" "I should point out here that what we're about to do is not a stunt." "In the movies they do stunts." "They can use computers." "They can do wire removal." "They can do all sorts of things that you don't see in the final edit." "In our case, we're doing it for real, and that implies a certain amount of risk because this thing, it's heavy." "It's unpredictable, what it's gonna do." "Once we get on it, our lives are at stake and it's worth being really careful with." "Narrator:" "Very careful because Jamie's life is literally hanging in the balance." "I'm hot." "Adam:" "He's hot." "All right." "Jamie, you feeling good?" "Okay." " On my mark." " Hold on." "Okay." "Just trying to get into the zone." "Okay." "Narrator:" "This is it." "There's no turning back." "Jamie:" "Okay." "All right." "On my mark." "Bridge jump in 3, 2, 1." "Go." "Narrator:" "Coming up..." "Here comes the hail!" "...could the world's heaviest hailstorm sink a boat?" "Do not try anything you are about to see at home." "[ Grunts ]" "One!" "Narrator:" "In hail hijinks, even a tornado-powered hailstone could not penetrate a boat." "Damage but not a hole." "All right." "So the hail did not punch a hole in the boat." " Ice penetration is busted." " Totally." "Now for this myth to have any chance whatsoever it would have to be the sheer volume of hail that's gonna sink this boat." "Okay, well, it sounds like it's time for us to put a boat in the water and load it up with ice and see how much it takes to sink it if it does at all." "You know, the science is really interesting." "I don't know which way this one's gonna go." "Yeah." "Me, neither." "Narrator:" "So solo hailstones seems sunk." "Yet overloading a boat is another way to send it to the bottom." "And if a heap of hail could do the same, this myth might be true." "But how?" "To find out, the guys hit the docks with their aluminum ark..." "Rough seas ahead!" "Narrator: ..." "And a plan for one hail of a hailstorm." "Kari:" "Now we've seen that a hail ball, even with a 300 mile per hour wind behind it cannot put a hole in the boat." "But what if we had a huge storm?" "What if a massive amount of hail dropped into the boat." "Well, that's what we're doing out here at the Port of San Francisco." "We're gonna throw a boat in the water." "Grant:" "That's perfect." "We're gonna make a huge storm and we're gonna see what happens." "Narrator:" "And they'll rustle up that record-breaking storm courtesy of a freezer truck and a conveyer belt." "All right." "That looks good." "This is our own special MythBusters' massive hailstorm right here." "These bags of ice are in our refrigerator truck at exactly 27 degrees Fahrenheit." "They're going to storm down this conveyer belt into the boat and hopefully sink it." "Looking at that boat," "I think we might actually have a shot at this." "[ Grunts ] Okay, fire up the conveyor belt." "Here come the hail!" "Whoo!" "It's coming down in buckets." "All right." "It's 100 pounds." "We know the record amount of hail fall in an afternoon is four feet." "Grant:" "That's 200 pounds." "Keep it coming." "So what we're gonna do is fill up our boat completely to the lip with hail." "400 pounds." "If it sinks, this myth is plausible, but if it doesn't sink, this myth is busted." "Oh, my God." "It's almost filled." "Narrator:" "With the hail now piled 3 feet deep..." "Grant:" "I can see the boat's starting to dip a little." "...the boat is surprisingly buoyant and Grant knows why." "Grant:" "Here's the catch." "See the ice that we have..." "it's not just one big block." "It's a bunch of little pieces." "500 pounds of hail." "It's still floating." "Grant:" "Which means that air can get in the middle." "So you're not entirely displacing the air as you would with water." "Tory:" "All right." "That's 600 pounds." "But you can stack the ice higher than the edge of the boat." "So at this point, it's not entirely obvious what's gonna happen." "Tory:" "All right." "That is a whole entire pallet of ice." "That's a ton of ice." "Yeah." "And it doesn't even look close to sinking." "Narrator:" "The guys brought enough ice to recreate the world's heaviest hail fall of 4 feet." "Even that amount is proving insufficient." "How's it going, Grant?" "Are we almost there?" "Yeah." "We're at 2,500 pounds." "It's just a few more inches above water." "Narrator:" "But by topping it up with more ice..." "Tory:" "All right." "We are at 2 tons." "Get some more towards the back." "Yeah." "Right there." "Narrator: ..." "The boat finally starts to list and then..." "Tory:" " It's sinking." " That's crazy!" "We're sinking the boat with 2 tons of ice." "Narrator: ..." "At last, she's going down." "And while the scale of the hail may be unfeasibly large, it is finally mission accomplished." " We sunk a boat with hail." " That's cool." "Or is it?" "Whoa!" "I think we've got a problem." "It's coming back up." "That's the last of the ice." "So we piled our ice onto the boat." "Piled it on, piled it on." "It's going lower and lower and lower in the water until finally the edge dipped under the surface of the water and it started filling up." "It started to sink." "And then it popped back up." "What the heck is going on?" "Well, ice floats." "So once it hit the water, the ice actually started to support its own weight and was no longer pushing down." "We did technically sink the boat, but look at how much hail it took." "That's a totally unrealistic amount." "Kari:" "And even with this salvaged falling apart boat, it didn't entirely sink." "Tory:" "This one's busted." "Busted." "Narrator:" "But wait just a sec because this myths got a twist in the tail." "And fire." "[ Laughs ]" "Welcome back." "We are testing the exploding bridge jump from the end of the movie "Cliffhanger."" "And in this movie," "Sylvester Stallone is running from a bomb on a suspension bridge." "The bomb goes off and he takes two and a half more steps, before leaping to his salvation at the very end of the rope bridge." "Everything is in place, and we are just about to test this in full scale." "Narrator:" "And full scale means" "Jamie's going to need some fancy footwork." "Just trying to get into the zone." "Because if this myth is true..." "Okay." "...Jamie needs to make his step, step, and leap after the explosion fires." "All right." "On my mark." "But will he even have a leg to stand on in the first place?" "Bridge jump in 3, 2, 1." "Go." "Jamie sprints, the bridge blows and in the blink of an eye, he drops like a stone." "Jamie, are you okay?" "I'm fine." "Excellent." "But did he make any headway?" "Pretty much everything I was trying to do came to a halt the minute I heard that bang." "It was just no further progress." "That's all there was to it." "Jamie's right." "At the moment the cables are cut, the bridge goes into freefall and almost immediately Jamie has nothing solid left to run on, let alone jump." "So the boom step, step, leap combo is busted, but if the guys eliminate the two-step start, maybe this myth will find its feet." "We find ourselves wondering if there is a tiny period of time when one could still get some push off the bridge even after it's been compromised." "So that is what I'm about to test." "I will be standing on the bridge within leaping distance of the top bar of the bridge." "I will wait until I hear the explosion." "No one's gonna tell me when it's coming, and the moment I hear it" "I am going to push off and go for that top bar." "If I make it, then, presumably, there is a tiny period of time when it is feasible to leap on a falling bridge." "Narrator:" "But can Adam's reflex leap succeed where Jamie's running jump failed?" "Let's do this." "Or is it a bridge too far?" "Jamie:" "Based on my experience, once the bridge is released the person on the bridge is pretty much done." "So as far as what Adam does," "I don't think we're gonna be seeing any leaping." "Narrator:" "Jamie is skeptical." "Jamie:" " Good?" "Adam:" " Yep." "And after a few dummy jumps..." "[ Grunting ]" "Yeah, that's it." "...it's time to put his prediction to the test." "Adam:" " This is scary." " Are you all set, Adam?" "Narrator:" "Adam doesn't know when the boom is coming." "I'm in position." "I'm ready." "Go, Matt." "But he crouches, focuses and then..." "Adam:" "Whoa!" "[ Laughs ]" "There was nothing." "There was nothing at all." "I heard a crack, and then there was no ground." "There's no grace period there." "[ Laughs ]" "Narrator:" "The fall was so fast and furious that Adam had no time at all to react." "From my standpoint, that was kind of anticlimactic." "One moment there was a bridge." "Next moment no bridge." "Yeah, it's like I said." "Once you hear that sound, it's like a knife edge." "You're done." "Just like their small-scale tests the bridge drops almost the moment the explosion happens." "There's just no time to think, let alone leap." "I know it looks like I'm hanging out over a void." "But technically, experimentally, I'm dead." "The moment I heard the sound," "I didn't have time to actually leap or anything." "I was just falling." "That's pretty definitive right there." "Narrator:" "Yep, there is no doubt about it." "Once the cables are cut, the bridge and its passenger are going down." "This is safety equipment, having kept me alive one more time." "Hi, mom." "Narrator:" "And here's why." "The moment the cable is cut the tension disappears, and the bridge acts like a piece of rope swinging through the air, offering nothing for Adam or Jamie to jump off." "Adam:" "This is totally impossible." "This thing's completely busted." "It is." "But you know, if I was on a bridge and something bad was happening" "I would think that I would just hold onto my handrails." "You want to try that?" "I mean, it's an option, isn't it?" "I think it is." "Let's do it." "Let's try it." "Okay." " Still to come..." " Fire!" "It's hail on high water." "But will the MythBusters get that sinking feeling?" "We have impact." "Hail hijinks is busted." "Tory:" "That is definitely not a hole." "Totally busted." "That's 6,000 pounds down there." "Grant:" "It's still floating." "You guys, I think we're missing something really critical here." " What's that?" " We've never fired a hail ball at a boat while it's on the water." "So do you think that because water's incompressible that it's going to make the boat flex less and it might have more success?" "Well, I'm not sure, but I think we have to do it." "Hey, I'm game." "Let's try it." "Narrator:" "So for this myth's final, final test it's off to a fresh location, the water-quality control plant." "Will having water under the boat stop it from flexing, and make a hail puncture possible?" "To find out, the guys will leave no cannon unturned." "Is it in?" "Kari:" "Not yet." "And to cut to the chase, they'll only test their two most likely boats, wood and fiberglass." "[ Beep ]" "Next stop, cannon." "Tory:" "So this is the plan." "We have our wood boat and our fiberglass boat." "What we're gonna do is place each of the boats in the water and start firing hail balls at 300 miles an hour into each of the boats." "Okay, I'm loading." "And we'll find out if that's enough to punch a hole in the boat and sink it." "Narrator: 300 miles per hour is the most extreme wind speed possible." " But in the shop..." " One!" "...it failed to fire up a hole." "Okay fiberglass boat at 300 miles an hour." "Narrator:" "But now will water underneath the boat create the right conditions for a rupture?" "Ready... fire." " Well." " Is there a hole?" "I don't see a hole, and the boat's still floating." "Narrator:" "While the water did dampen the flex of the fiberglass, this boat was still too tough to be torpedoed, even at tornado speed." "Which leaves them with one last shot across the bows." "We had our best luck with this experiment in the shop when we used the wood boat." "And if we're gonna get any sort of penetration, it's gonna be with this boat." "Narrator:" "But if this wood boat doesn't get a hole at 300 miles per hour when it's on the water..." "We might see this thing sink." "...then this hail myth is going down." "Okay." "Fire at will." "All right." "This is 300-mile-an-hour hailstorm versus wood boat on the water." "Grant:" "Fire." "It's a hole." "We got a hole." "Narrator:" "Now, that is what you call a bona fide hail hole." "Kari:" "Man, it's taking on water fast." "Look at that. 300 miles an hour punched a hole." "All right, that did punch a hole, but, I mean, 300 miles an hour." "That is a ridiculous amount of speed for a hailstone to be traveling." "Narrator:" "Hmm." "Tory's right." "Hail has never been recorded at 300 miles per hour." "So if they're to really confirm this myth they need to slow their hailstone to a realistic speed." "I want to know if just terminal velocity, 80 miles an hour will do it." "Tory:" "Let's patch it up and try it." " Yeah." " You ready, Grant?" "Remember, 80 miles per hour is the slowest speed that a hailstone this size would hit the ground." "Grant:" "Ready, fire." "We have impact." "That's a negative on the hole." "There's no hole." "But this time, the water underneath the boat doesn't add to the impact." "But there's one last speed they can try." "A more realistic speed with downdraft would be around 150 miles an hour, just like our expert said." "So, we've repatched the boat." "We're gonna send it back out." "Fire at this boat with 150 mile an hour hailstone." "If that punches a hole, then, and only then, can we call this one plausible." "Narrator:" "Remember, in the shop this test was negative." "So will the water underneath make all the difference?" "All right." "This is 150 mile an hour hailstone against a wooden boat on the water." "Grant:" "Okay." "Fire on my mark." "And fire." "We punched a hole in the boat." "It's taking on water." "It's gonna sink." "Narrator:" "Yep, finally there's fire in the hole." "Tory:" "We did it." "Grant:" "So we came out here to test whether you could sink a boat with hail while it's sitting on water." "And what we found is that it requires a wooden boat and 150-mile-per-hour speed, which is a recorded wind speed in a hailstorm." "And we found that you could punch a hole in the boat." "What does this mean?" "Well, it means that it is possible but it requires an extreme situation, and that's what we call plausible." "Narrator:" "The classic rope bridge is the simplest way to span to distant points when the ground falls away in between and it's the falling that interests the MythBusters." "All episode long we have been falling off of bridges, literally." "Trying to imitate Sylvester Stallone's jump from the exploding bridge at the end of "Cliffhanger,"" "and, I'm sorry to say, that we have failed." "[ Screams ]" "This one is totally busted." "It's completely not possible." "However, Mr. Hyneman, in his infinite wisdom, ponders the conundrum that if he were running off of an exploding bridge and he heard a bomb go off, he would merely hold on and see what happens." "So that is what he is about to do." "Narrator:" "It's a substitute survival strategy." "In case of bridge drop, is your best bet just to hold on for dear life?" "To find out, they add some cushioning to the cables." "I tell you what." "It's gonna be a lot nicer holding onto that rope than a hard steel cable." "And then Jamie assumes the position." "What's gonna happen here is I'm just going to run like heck and when the bridge blows," "I'm gonna try and hang on to these." "And lest you think the yoyo here is helping Jamie hang on, it's not." "It's merely keeping him from dying." "Dying may be off the agenda, but injury is always an option." "Especially when you're hanging onto 1,600 pounds of falling bridge, 40 feet above concrete." "You know, it's kind of unsettling." "It's like you know that any minute the rug is gonna be pulled out from under you." "You know you're gonna get creamed but you're just gonna have to do it." "I know exactly what you mean." "I felt precisely the same way out there." "So, with the tension dialed in..." "All right." "On my mark." "...it's the bridge's last call." "3, 2, 1." "When you're ready." "And, Jamie, please hold the line." "Okay, here we go." "Ho, ho!" "How you doing?" "I'm on." "I'm holding." " You're holding yourself?" " Yeah." "That is manly." "It's taken the grip of a gorilla to hang on through the fall and the landing but Jamie's done it." "And the next question is..." "Could you climb up if you had to?" "[ Grunting ]" "Like a walrus on steroids, Jamie slowly inches his way up." "The now vertical bridge has no footholds." "Come on." "You can do it." "But the Hyneman is climbing out." "If you get to the blue bar, you are a hero." "It's only 16 inches above your head." "You're almost there." "Yet when the target's just a whisker away..." "[ Both laugh ]" "Okay." "Whoa!" "Jamie's muscles give up for good." "If my life depended on it, I might have made it." "[ Laughs ]" "But it doesn't." "Adam:" "Once again, that was a scary experiment that went perfectly." "At the moment pyro blew the bridge," "Jamie grabbed onto the railings, held on for dear life and rode it all the way to the mountainside." "It was beautiful." "But there you have it." "I think we have tested this every way from Sunday." "I think we're done dropping this bridge." "So that story's pretty much busted." "It is totally, definitively busted." "I think the take home here is that if bad guys are blowing up the bridge that you're on, don't waste time running or jumping." "Hold on for dear life." "It's your best chance." "Yep." " Let's climb out of here." " All right."