"Narrator:" "On this episode of "MythBusters"..." "There's earth..." "Aah!" "...wind..." "That was awesome!" "...and fire as the MythBusters' top 12 most precious places..." "I was less excited after my first kiss." "Narrator: ...get declassified." "Here comes chaos." "Narrator:" "Why are we banned from a quarry?" "And that's why we can never go to Esparto again." "Narrator:" "What really happened at the White House?" "I swear that Jamie actually got a little choked up." "Narrator:" "And what keeps all five MythBusters awake at night?" "After dark, it's pretty scary." "Narrator:" "So, pack your shades, your thermals..." "It's really cold here." "Narrator: ...and your bomb suit to get the inside scoop on the MythBusters' most dangerous destinations." " Fire!" " Ooooh!" "Narrator:" "Who are the MythBusters?" "Adam Savage..." "[ Crying ] ...and Jamie Hyneman." "I call it my little pop gun." "Narrator:" "Between them, more than 30 years of special-effects experience." "Together with Grant Imahara..." "I was totally scared!" "...Kari Byron..." "Give him another shot." "...and Tory Belleci." "Let's chop this car up!" "Narrator:" "They don't just tell the myths." "They put them to the test." "MythBusters 9x19" " Location, Location, Location!" "Original air date November 9, 2011" "Get ready, because this is going to be quite a journey." "Throughout "mythbuster" history," "Explosive quarries and crash-test facilities." "High deserts and frozen lakes." "The jungle and the deep blue sea." "In this episode, we've gathered together the dozen best "mythbuster" locations." "And we're gonna count 'em down." "So, let's start the show." "Narrator:" "And first up in this location countdown, where better to start than home sweet home?" "Whoa!" "I want lift-off this time." "Narrator:" "Because over the years..." "Ohh!" "...these little shops have seen a lot of horrors." "But as to why they make this location countdown... here's the landlord." "He's a trouper, man, I'll tell you." "Nowadays, M5 is pretty well dominated by "MythBusters."" "Ohh!" "Surrender your candy." "[ Laughs evilly ]" "But when I started it about 15 years or so ago..." "This is M5, my special-effects shop." "...it was where a director could go, and pretty much anything he could dream up, we could make it." "Adam:" "Jamie's built entire special-effects sets out of lard." "Why is it called M5?" "Jamie had a contest among his employees over what the name of that studio should be." "I said, "you should call it M5," because I was thinking that was the name of the British secret service, which I didn't realize was MI6." "It's Hyneman, James Hyneman." "[ Gunshot ]" "He's never formally credited me with coming up with the name, even though it's the wrong name, and I've never gotten my $50 prize for coming up with the name of this business." "Jamie:" "Big baby." "[ Laughs ]" "Narrator:" " Naming rights aside..." " Whoops." "...M5 is the perfect location..." "Hey!" "We got one!" "Narrator: ...for the MythBusters to boldly go where no scientist has gone before." "Are they getting bigger?" "Roger that, mission control." "My breasts are expanding." "Repeat... breasts are expanding." "Narrator:" "But as time went by, with more myths came more mess..." "Don't tell Jamie, okay?" "This is a secret between us." "Narrator: ...and more room was required." "Oh, this is bad." "The thing is, M5 is my shop." "I own it." "But "MythBusters"?" "Well, let's just say they're not really very good tenants." "I swear I think I can smell it through the concrete. [ Insects buzzing ]" "Eventually, I put my foot down, and they got another space." "Narrator:" "And so halfway through season two, half the MythBusters moved to M6." "Kari:" "That was the shop that Scottie, Tory, and I were gonna work out of." "[ Engine revs, backfires ]" "Our neighbors didn't quite like us so much." "[ Electricity crackling ]" "[ Gunshot ]" "The amount of noise..." "[ Imitating monkey howling ] ...and stink..." "Ugh." "[ Gags ] ...discomfort, really, we caused them..." "Great, eh?" "!" "...caused us to lose the lease on M6, and, thus, M7 was born." "Aah!" "Narrator:" "M7, the new home of Kari, Grant, and Tory." "A space in which they would spread their experimental wings..." "Oh!" "and supposedly cut down on neighbor-related issues." "I just wanted to let you know we had a little accident in the shop, and I punched a small hole through the wall." "You got to stay on your toes when you're a neighbor of "MythBusters."" "Whoa!" "Holy moly!" "It's a little funny coming here every day." "I mean, for us, this is the place where we work." "Whoa!" "[Bleep]" "We drive up to a really nondescript, gray, concrete building, inside of which we've spent almost 10 years making 200 hours of this show." "Oh!" "This is our job." "[ Laughs ]" "So much of our lives and history is tied up in this place that, you know, it feels, in a way, like home." "Narrator:" "A home with a difference." "Don't try what you're about to see at home." "Narrator:" " A home where science lives..." " Wow!" "...breathes, and fires chickens into the wall." "Ha!" "Whoo!" "That was so cool!" "Hot on the heels of home, it's some blasts from the past." "Jamie: "MythBusters" and quarries have a special relationship, very simply, because if you want to make a really, really big explosion, there's no place else to go." "Tory:" "Oh, look at that!" "Where else can you go to launch a car off a cliff?" "Oh!" "Or shoot a torpedo at a boat?" "Adam:" "Whoa." "I don't know." "Maybe that was a little too powerful." "What do you think?" "Adam:" "Well, the first time we went to a quarry was one of our all-time biggest explosions." "It was "cement truck."" "We had actually filmed that entire episode of "cement truck"" "without the final explosion." "3, 2, 1..." "[ Thud ]" "That sounded like you hit it with a sledgehammer." "And they got it back to the edit suite, and they cut it and they looked at it, and they thought," ""eh, it's missing something." "It's missing a big finale."" "You know how anticlimactic that was?" "The fire truck's leaving." "So, we had to find a location big enough to completely decimate this truck, and then that's when one of our producers found the rock quarry we eventually blew it up in." "[ Siren walls ] It was a picture-perfect location for that story." "Several square miles with a body of water separating us from the explosion so we could watch it safely from a mile and a half away." "3, 2, 1..." "Narrator:" "As a first quarry blast, it was a steely success." "Adam:" "MythBusters, 1, cement truck, zero." "But when testing the myth of knocking your socks off..." "[ Bell dings ] ...things didn't go quite so well." "Grant:" "After trying different techniques and failing to get the socks to be knocked off..." "Oh!" "...we decide to go to explosives." "So, we go to a quarry which is just outside of the town of Esparto." "Wow!" "Oh, my gosh." "This is awesome." "With the help of Frank Doyle and the local bomb techs, we set up a giant ANFO explosion..." "You know what they say." "Safe exploding is good exploding." "...and a perimeter of different legs with socks on them." "Our blast zone is set up way over there, but we've come really, really far back to make sure all MythBusters, big and tiny, are perfectly safe." "We set off the explosion..." "Tory: 3, 2, 1..." "Yeah!" "...and we got a lot of feet blown off but no clean socks having been blown off." "That's definitely not blowing your socks off." "But that's not all we got." "We set off the blast wave, and despite the advice of our experts, it's much larger than any of us have anticipated." "And so we start getting reports from the town that people had been knocked off their sofas..." "[ Indistinct shouting ] ...windows had broken..." "[ Glass shatters ] ...car alarms had gone off..." "[ Car alarms blaring ] ...ceiling tiles fell down." "That's reality." "The news reports, on the other hand, said that we had leveled the town accidentally, that the MythBusters had done this, which is not the case." "I'll tell you something really funny about Esparto." "When we started getting all the phone calls that things had gone awry..." "You might say it was a blast." "[ Telephone rings ]" "[ Laughs ] ...the producer grabbed me, being that I was extremely pregnant, and said, "you're coming with me."" ""Nobody can be mad at a pregnant lady."" "[ Laughing ] And so we went from place to place, begging for forgiveness, 'cause, really, can you be?" "And that's why we can never go to Esparto again." "Narrator:" "Next..." "And the elephant goes..." "[ Imitates elephant ]" "Tory: "If you ever do anything stupid like that again,"" ""I'll come up there and break your legs."" "Narrator:" "And later, find out the ultimate "mythbuster" happy place." "You know something great is gonna happen." "[ Gunfire ]" "Narrator:" "From the desert to the deep blue sea..." "Apparently sharks like medieval armor." "Narrator:" "...the MythBusters are counting down... 3, 2 their all-time favorite locations." "...1..." "And next up is a destination with bite." "We don't travel a lot for this show." "We have almost every climate we want within a day's drive of us here in San Francisco." "Today's forecast... 70% chance of science!" "Jamie:" "It's well over 100 degrees out here." "Adam:" "Yeah, yeah!" "It's cold!" "So, when we found out we were gonna go literally halfway across the globe, we were psyched." "The focus of the trip was sharks." "In False Bay, South Africa, there are great white sharks that leap completely out of the water when they attack seals." "Jamie:" "Little do they know that death is lurking below." "If you've seen footage of great whites leaping out of the water..." "Here, fishy, fishy, fishy." "...that's where it happens." "Oh!" "And that's why we went there." "[ Jamie and Adam laugh ]" "I've spent a lot of time on the water, and I've seen a lot of wildlife..." "Quack, damn you." "but normally a top predator like a great white is actually pretty rare." "Whoa!" "Oh, my lord!" "So, to go someplace like South Africa, where they're just jumping out of the water like salmon... there's no place else in the world like it." "Narrator:" "But there was more to South Africa than jumping the shark." "Wow!" "That was awesome." "So, we're in South Africa, filming with the sharks, and an unseasonal hurricane comes through." "Now, for our crew, this is potentially a disaster." "[ Both chuckle ]" "We're trying to figure out a way to salvage what we're getting in South Africa, and we thought," ""hey, let's do the story, 'elephants are afraid of mice.'"" "I found out that there's a preserve that's inland a little ways, and it's out of this weather, and they have elephants." "What are we gonna do with elephants?" "[ Chuckles ] Mice." "We had no idea we were about to film an actual and astonishing myth." "Narrator:" "And that astonishing myth..." "You go that way." "I'll go this way." " Don't get eaten by a lion." " Okay." "...began with a surprisingly awkward question." "Jamie:" "How are we gonna introduce the mice to the elephants?" "Slingshot." "[ Laughs ]" "Are we gonna just release both into a paddock and wait for them to approach each other?" "No, of course not." "So we take this big chunk of elephant dung..." "Hey, Adam, got some." "...and we cut it in half and hollow it out and make it a little shell to hide the mouse in." "The mouse wasn't too pleased about this arrangement." "That ball of dung is set and ready to go." "We took this shell of elephant dung with a mouse underneath it, and we actually puppeted it." "That's right." "We puppeted dung, so that as the elephant approached the path, we would pull aside the elephant dung." "The mouse would be visible, and the elephant would react." " Let's see what happens." " Okay." "What actually happened, though, is astonishing." "The elephant's walking down the path, and we pull the dung, and the elephant goes..." "[ Imitates elephant ]" "And then very carefully... if it's possible for an elephant to move carefully... it's exactly what it did." "Carefully tiptoes, I swear, around the mouse." "What just happened is a classic "MythBusters" scenario." "It would seem that elephants are at least somewhat wary of mice." "Narrator:" "It was certainly a memorable "MythBusters" moment..." "What do you think?" "[ Elephant exhales sharply ]" "Hello." "...that was all thanks to the South African Savanna and an unseasonal storm." "Adam:" "This is a case where the location really provided the story." "It was because we were in South Africa and we knew we could find elephants close by in the wild that we went and did this story." "We might never have done it otherwise." "Narrator:" "Next, it's time to run away to the runway." "We've probably been out on the runway at Alameda more than any other location on the show." "In fact, we were just out there yesterday." "Okay." "Rims versus manhole covers." "In 3, 2, 1..." "The thing is that it's got about a mile and a quarter of straight, open road." "Adam:" "Oh, no!" "And it's also the most beautiful place in the Bay Area." "As many times as I've been out there, I still love going." "[ Tires screech ]" "Look, with the sun setting behind San Francisco in the distance..." "Nice gun, but you got some accuracy problems." "Yeah, I need to practice." "...with the towering cranes that inspired the at-at walkers from "Star Wars:" "The Empire Strikes Back,"" "the Alameda runway is probably the most iconic of "MythBusters" regular locations." "In fact, we use it so often..." "Here comes chaos." "...that most people that say hi to me on the street, they follow up with, "so, you guys are based in Alameda."" ""Actually, no, we're based in San Francisco,"" ""but we test at the runway a lot."" "Narrator:" "But despite the obvious fun and frivolity of the runway, for Jamie, it's always tinged with regret." "One of the earlier episodes we did was called "Tree Cannon,"" "and we shot that out on the runway." "The thing was that it involved firing a cannonball that I had meticulously carved out of a piece of granite, and it was perfect." "[ Chuckles ]" "It was just this beautiful, little sphere." "Everybody was impressed." "Adam:" "Do you think we'll be able to find it?" "Jamie:" "You know, I'm feeling pretty certain that it's gonna launch that thing a fair ways." "So, we fired it..." "Fire in the hole." "...and the cannon actually worked really well, and it shot it down the length of that runway." "I don't have a clue where that went." "[ Laughs ] I didn't see a darn thing." "Did you see anything?" "Narrator:" "That day, Jamie searched high, low, and everywhere in between for his beloved ball." "But it was all in vain." "I'm a little bummed out not to find the ball, you know?" "It was..." "I put a lot of work into that thing." "Narrator:" "And seven years on, he still mourns this tragic loss in the name of science." "Every time I go out there," "I kind of poke around in the bushes to see if I can find it." "We never have." "Narrator:" "Later..." "It's like the calm before the storm." "3, 2, 1..." "Narrator:" "But first..." "Like a post-apocalyptic wasteland." "Kari:" "Two words... nas-ty." "Narrator:" "It's the "MythBusters Location Special" countdown." "And next, it's the "dawn of the dead."" "Adam:" "Look, it's no secret that most of our experiments over the years have had to do with destroying things or hurting things or leaving them in a state much worse than when we started..." "All right." "Go ahead and fire up the engine." "...including the locations we're filming at." "Tory:" "Didn't plan for that one to happen." "I guess the MythBusters were here." "What that means is that we're often looking for locations where people don't mind that we might leave a big hole in the ground or the side of a building destroyed..." "Starting the timer." "Big boom, big boom, big boom!" "...and that's when abandoned military bases, houses, and bunkers come into play." "As it happens, there are a number of ex-military bases in the Bay Area." "Tory:" "Like a post-apocalyptic wasteland." "But there's one in particular that's an abandoned residential neighborhood, and when the military pulled out, they just left it all intact, with streets and parks and houses and everything." "And let me tell you... after dark, it's pretty scary." "We call it zombie town." "[ Woman screams ]" "Grant:" "It's creepy as all get-out." "It is like those post-apocalyptic zombie movies." "It looks like a regular town, but there's just no one around." "Narrator:" "But zombie town is child's play compared to the setting for "elevator of death."" "Abandoned locations are so creepy." "The very worst of all of those was for "elevator of death."" "Oh, my God." "Since we're here anyway, can we film a horror movie?" "Adam:" "The "elevator of death" story is basically this... people imagine that if you are in an elevator that is plummeting to the basement, if you time a jump perfectly at the moment that elevator hits the floor," "you will survive." "Now, this building had been condemned for asbestos, and it had been condemned and abandoned for a long time." "92 feet to the top of the pulleys." "92 feet to the dead bird." "[ Laughs ]" "We need to clean it up before we can use it, particularly the basement." "Two words... nas-ty." "To clean this up, we had to gear up in tyvek suits and respirators and goggles and gloves that needles couldn't pierce so that we could clean up trash, old food, rat carcasses, hypodermic needles," "and some really large women's clothes." "I have no idea what went down there, but... [laughs] sure wish somebody else cleaned it up before we got there." "Don't leave me alone." "[ Laughing ] Oh, my God." "Narrator:" "But once clean..." "I'm terrified." "I'm totally excited." "...the experiment worked like a charm." "And the myth, like Buster, was busted." "This is more damage than we've ever done to Buster in one myth before." "The "elevator of death" story is one of the earliest abandoned locations and, honestly, one of the all-time best." "[ Laughs ]" " That blew my face back." " Whoo!" "Man, that was intense." "We got the ability to take that elevator and do anything we wanted to it in a building slated to be completely destroyed." "I think Buster feels good about a job well done, and he just hopes that we don't put his head on backwards." "It gave us a tremendous amount of freedom to test this myth at a scale I don't think anyone else has ever tested it at." "Narrator:" "From locations to fear to locations to cheer, and here's why." "Now, one of the great things about "MythBusters"" "is we get access to some incredible university and government research facilities." " Cool." " Wow!" "We did a brain scan at UCSF... one of the premier brain labs in the world." "They're gonna fry my brain." "Grant:" "We got a chemical analysis on our homemade diamonds at U.C. Berkeley." "Charcoal." "You've got charcoal." " No diamonds?" " I don't see any diamonds here." "We tested the myth of blue ice at the Icing Research Tunnel at NASA Glenn in Cleveland." "[ Both scream ]" "That thing blew off in one giant chunk!" "And then, there's New Mexico Tech, which, I have to say, is my favorite because of two words... rocket sled." "Adam:" "Rocket sled in 3, 2, 1..." "Kari:" "We've crushed cars." "We've split cars in half." "They actually have a major at their university in energetic materials." "I hear since the "MythBusters" episodes have aired that they've had a lot more applications." "Narrator:" "Without doubt, science centers of excellence play a key role in much "MythBusters" mayhem." "That was awesome!" "But be they spectacular stunts or data to die for..." " That's pretty cool." "I want to see the high-speed." " Yeah." "...it's not only the location that counts, because the experts found therein are just as important." "The thing that surprises me most about this job is what I've learned, and it's not just because of the experiments we've done or the things we've been allowed to do." "It's about the people that we've had access to, because we've gone into some of these institutions where these people are just absolutely brilliant." "They're at the top of their field, and to see things through their eyes has been incredibly enlightening." "Narrator:" "Coming right up..." "[ Electricity crackles ]" "It's alive!" "[ Adam laughs ]" "[ Smacks lips ]" "Narrator: ...six favorite locations down six to go... and you might say the best is yet to come..." " Whoa!" " Oh, my God!" "Narrator: ...starting with a location that's truly shocking." "The thing about electricity myths is while they seem like a good idea in theory..." "Ow!" "...in practice, they're often very, very difficult." "Come on." "How hard is it to get a light bulb to light?" "But it's not just that electricity myths are awkward." "They can also be pretty unvisual." "Firing." " It's working." " Okay." "There aren't these gigantic, "Frankenstein" lightning bolts flying around all over the place." "1..." "Wow." "That was great." "There is one exception to this." "Our local power company has a testing facility about an hour north of us." "It's a lightning dome." "Why is it a cool location?" "I don't know." "I mean, except for the fact that it's a huge geodesic dome that looks like a mad scientist's laboratory..." "What are your plans, my master?" "We're going to take over the world." "Oh, yes." "...with massive lightning-generating balls you can turn on and off at will." "[ Electricity crackles ]" "Jamie:" "That actually worked." "That was beautiful." "It's not that interesting." "That was awesome." "Jamie:" "We've done several stories there, like "phone in a thunderstorm"..." "It's alive!" "[ Laughs ] ..."Franklin's kite"..." "Kari:" "There it goes." "...and "golf club."" "What a shocker." "Adam:" "There's something that doesn't quite come across on television, which is before we generate any lightning bolts, there's this whole protocol, where doors are shut, red lights are set to spinning." "Okay." "I'm going hot." "Adam:" "And then these massive capacitor banks are charged up, and you hear this..." "[ Imitates whirring ]" "You really feel like you're in a "Frankenstein" movie." "It's really unnerving, because you know the charge is building." "Okay." "We're up to 243, almost 250 kV." "You just don't know when that lightning bolt and that big crack is gonna happen." "We're at 440,000 volts." "We're gonna go to 480,000." "And then it goes... crack!" "[ Electricity crackles ]" "And then you just see this, like..." "[ Imitates electricity crackling ] ...lightning bolt." "There's nothing better." "Kari:" "Aah!" "I think based on how awesome it is, they should rename it the Thunderdome, don't you?" "Write them and tell them." "Yeah!" "Wow!" "Narrator:" "Beyond the Thunderdome is a place to let it all hang out." "I think one of my all-time favorite hangars is Hangar 2 out at Moffett Field at the NASA Ames Center." "It is 230 feet from the floor to the center of the arch." "It's a quarter of a mile long." "It's overwhelming." "It used to house these big airships for the Navy." "Now, they don't use those anymore, so it left this great piece of architecture that's completely made out of redwood, hundreds of feet high." "It's a beautiful indoor space." "It's cavernous and echo-y." "Smells great 'cause of all the wood." "And we got to do our whole experiment there on the floor." "Narrator:" "That experiment being the world-record-breaking "seven paper fold."" "Grant:" "We're basically gonna have to fill this whole area." "Exactly the type of test requiring protection from the elements and acres of space." "But for this myth, the hangar did have one drawback." "Grant:" "We had laid out this giant, giant piece of paper, like 100 yards long or something like that, and we had to leave for the night." "So, we come back the next morning, and this perfect, pristine sheet of paper that is gigantic is now covered in owl dung." " It's everywhere." " Nasty!" "Grant:" "They saw this giant, white surface and said," ""let's..." "let's bomb that."" "So, first order of the day, go around and scoop up all the owl dung." "There's another one over here, dude." "Narrator:" "Poop cleaning aside, one of the biggest tasks the team has ever tackled..." "Kari:" "Everybody to this side for six." "...worked like a charm." "And we did it!" "Yeah!" " Eight!" " That is eight." "Turns out you can fold a piece of paper more than seven times." "You just need to supersize the paper and the location." " 11 folds." " I didn't think it was possible." "Should we go to the NASA gift shop?" " Yeah." " Whoo!" "Narrator:" "Still to come... this location countdown has friends in very high places." "I don't think it gets any cooler than that." "That is an iceberg." "Narrator:" "Next up in the "MythBusters Location Special,"" "we're going straight to the top." "You know, some viewers may be watching us and thinking," ""huh, the boys are standing on a very accurate set"" ""of the White House library."" "But they'd be wrong." "When it comes to locations, how do you get any cooler than the White House?" "I don't think it gets any cooler than that." " Hey, guys." "Welcome to the White House." " Thank you, Mr. President." "In the space of one year, I was at the White House three times, and I met the president each time." "Did I ever think I would do that?" "No, not at all." " So what can we do for you?" "Obama:" " I think that we've got a big one that hasn't been thoroughly tested." "Which one is that?" "Well, it is Archimedes' solar ray." "Well, that is a classic." "It is a classic, but I'm not sure that we've really finally disproved or proved this myth, and so I'm hoping that we can take one more crack at it." "We chose that story because while we had tested that myth twice before..." "I'm standing right in it, and I'm not dead yet." "...we had never done it the way it was actually originally described..." "I.E., with 500 soldiers holding polished shields along a shoreline, trying to set fire to a boat." "Do you want Marcellus to take your city of Syracuse?" "!" "All:" "No!" "Those soldiers could be kids, we realized." "In fact, we ended up getting 500 students from the school that Jamie's wife has been a science teacher at for 20 years." "How's that for serendipity?" "All:" "Hoo-ah!" "[ Scottish accent ] That's the spirit, soldiers!" "Narrator:" "Using people power was the ultimate way to test this presidential challenge." "The intensity from these mirrors is incredible." "Narrator:" "But the result was not good news for Archimedes." "1, 2, 3!" "All:" "Myth busted!" "Yeah!" "You hear that?" "I got one more thing." "When we were rehearsing the lines before the president showed up..." "Here we go." "...there was an exchange between the president and Jamie where Jamie says, "why do you want us here?"" "So, what can we do for you?" "And the president gives this long speech about how important he feels "MythBusters" are in educating kids in science." "But when the president finally showed up and did that in front of Jamie..." "What can we do for you, sir?" "...I swear that Jamie actually got a little choked up." "Nothing's more important to our country's future than getting young people engaged in math and science." "So, I'm just thrilled that you guys do such a great job making it fun." "I think you can hear him go, [ as Jamie ] "Well, that means a lot to us, Mr. President."" "Well, thank you, sir." "That means a great deal." "Adam:" "Like he was seriously bowled over by hearing the genuine tone in president Obama's voice about his feelings about our role in educating kids in science." "Narrator:" "Next on the countdown conundrum, it's time to break the ice." "There's nothing quite like the awe-inspiring majesty of snow-covered mountains..." "[ Record scratches, gunfire ] ...at least until the MythBusters turn up." "Throw out." "Wow." "Narrator:" "Because it's "snow" joke that whatever cold case they're cracking..." "Bye-bye!" "...chillsome carnage ensues." "Whoa!" "But one thing is for sure." "The toughest snowy situation was actually in California." "Tory:" "Now, "spinning ice bullet"" "was probably done in the worst conditions that we've ever seen on "MythBusters."" "Rumor has it there's a lake out here." "Grant:" "Let me set the scene." "We are in the Sierra Nevada, in the area where the Donner Party experienced all its problems." "This looked a little more picturesque in the brochures." "We're at 9,000 feet, so just walking from the car to the curb, you're already exhausted." "Save yourselves." "It was a blizzard." "I'm getting that feeling again, that lost feeling." "Tory:" "It was like zero visibility." "It was like 60-mile-an-hour winds, well-below-zero temperatures, and the whole time, it was dumping snow on us..." "I mean, the entire time." "Grant, get yourself some snowshoes." "There are shoes for this?" "Narrator:" "And when they got to the lake, things weren't any easier." ""Spinning ice bullet"" "means we have to get down to the icy surface of the lake." "It's buried under 4 feet of snow, so before we even start the experiment, we have to dig out 4 feet of snow just to get down there." "It's like we keep digging it out, and mother nature just keeps filling it back in." "Narrator:" "But showing true grit, the MythBusters persevered." "Whose $%#^@% [bleep] [bleep] [bleep] [bleep] [bleep] [bleep] idea of a myth is this" "^%$@!" "[bleep] [bleep] [bleep] [bleep]" "Narrator:" "Until, after several misfires..." "[ Gun shots ]" "I can't feel my fingers, and I can't see any bullet!" "Narrator: ...they finally hit pay dirt." "1..." "It's spinning!" "It's spinning!" "Look at that!" "Whoo-hoo!" "Seeing that little bullet spin in the ice like a top," "I mean, it was worth it." "It was worth the 60-mile-an-hour wind." "It was worth trekking through the snow and shoveling off the snow from the ice." "It was worth losing my foot from the frostbite." "It was worth it." "Where's that rescue party?" "Kari:" "We are the rescue party!" "Narrator:" "Next up, this is it." "I'm ready." "Are you ready?" "Narrator:" "The final, most spectacular location, location, location." "It is our favorite location." "Whoo!" "Narrator:" "After thrills..." "[ Elephant trumpets ] ...spills and chills..." "There are shoes for this?" "...we're almost at the finale of the location special." "[ Zip!" "] It's my best work yet." "Narrator:" "And at number two, it's off to the middle of nowhere." "There are some myths that are too big for the runway..." "Wow!" "...too big for the bomb range..." "Grant:" "Oh, my God!" "...too expansive for even a quarry." "Say it with me." "Jamie wants big boom." "And that's when we packed up all our gear and headed out to the Mojave Desert." "Tory:" "Listen." "It's quiet." "Too quiet." "It's like the calm before the storm." ""Ming Dynasty astronaut."" "[ Jamie laughs ]" "Adam:" "His ass is on fire!" ""Luxury car drop."" "Release the car!" ""Jato rocket car."" "I'm gonna have to have a grin-ectomy." "These are myths that need a wide-open space." "Man:" "Okay." "We're in line." "Okay." "Coming out of full throttle." "And that's why the Mojave is perfect." "Okay." "Helicopter's at speed." "Something you may not know about the original Jato rocket car is that I was there." "3, 2, 1..." "Firing." "I was actually interning for Jamie at the time, and I drove all night to catch up with them..." "Firing." "Whoo!" "Jamie:" "Yee-haw!" "...slept in the parking lot of the hotel, jumped in the car with them, and then said, "I will help out."" ""What can I do?"" "That was absolutely outrageous." "Narrator:" "Thanks to Kari and the whole team," "Mojave was the location that put "MythBusters" on the map." "It was so beautiful." "It was like... zoom!" "But it's not without its problems." "The Mojave Desert is a really difficult place to work." "I mean, it's the desert." "It's either really, really hot..." "Tory:" "We're four hours into the experiment." "It's still hot as hell." "...or really, really cold." "I don't usually associate the terms "freezing cold"" "with "desert," and yet I got to tell you it is freezing-expletive cold out here." "There's no power anywhere, and there's definitely no bathroom." "[ Toilet flushes ]" "It can also be muddy, as Jamie found out." "We're on "confederate rocket,"" "and we've got our massive, 20-foot truck out on the desert floor, and Jamie gets it stuck in the mud." "And we're stuck." "So, we call up this tow truck, and the tow truck slowly, excruciatingly drags the truck back out of the mud." "And instead of them backing out the way he came..." "[ Horn honks ] ...Jamie makes a left turn and gets the truck stuck in the mud again." "Is there anything I could say that would make this more poignant?" "I don't think so." "So the tow truck has to come back out again and drag the truck back out of the mud." "I think we spent $1,500 on towing fees on that one day alone." "Whoo!" "Narrator:" "But despite the mud, sweat, and tears," "Mojave is a must-have location." "Here it goes... the big boom." ""Civil war rocket."" "In 3, 2, 1..." "Ignition!" "Narrator:" "And it's a location that comes with an added bonus." "Jamie:" "Go." "Wow!" "[ Laughs ]" "Yeah!" "Jamie:" "One of the unique things about Mojave is that there are places that we can go that have existing permits in place that will allow us to shoot a rocket straight up in the air thousands of feet and not worry about hitting an aircraft." "Narrator:" "Although that's a bonus that, as of yet..." "Go ahead and make the system hot." "...the MythBusters haven't exactly made the most of." "This is a salami rocket firing in 3, 2, 1..." "Hey!" "Look at that!" "[ Laughs ]" "The final stop on this whirlwind tour of most-loved locations is the home of the countdown." "♪ Fire in the hole ♪" "♪ fire in the hole ♪" "♪ fire in the hole ♪" "Fire in the hole!" "Fire in the hole!" "Situation room, controlled explosion." "I'm ready." "Are you ready?" "Ready with explosives." "Kari:" " Charging." " 3... 2... 1..." "[ Beep ]" "It's always a good day when you come into work and see that the bomb range is slated for the day..." "Oh!" "...because you know something great is gonna happen." "Narrator:" "Yep, coming in at number one, the bomb range sure is a blast." "But the real bonus of this home from home..." "Jamie:" "Feel like I'm ready to go out clubbing." "...is that it's a uniquely versatile experimental space." "What can we do there?" "What can't we do there?" "Build troughs to swim in syrup, fire cannons, blow up bombs, build houses..." "Whatever you do, don't do this at home." "Ah!" "Oh!" "...watch them as they burn, roll giant lego balls downhill, and always have fun." "It is our favorite location." "Jamie:" "What a lot of people don't realize is that there's a very, very good reason that we use the Alameda County Sheriff's bomb range, and that is that a lot of the stuff that we need to do" "would normally be just flat-out illegal." "So, we figured it'd be a good idea to just do it there with all the cops watching." "Then it's okay." "Narrator:" "And it's two cops in particular," "Frank Doyle and J.D. Nelson... that really put the "bomb" in bomb range." "Adam:" "The chief bomb tech at the Alameda County Sheriff's Bomb Disposal Range is sergeant J.D. Nelson." "I'll tell you what... if I have a problem, I'd take it to J.D. Nelson." "I know he'll make it disappear." "Kari:" "In 3, 2, 1... go, J.D.!" "Jamie:" "He's very professional, but he's just totally relaxed, and when you're working with explosives, relaxed is a good thing." "On the record, I'm just gonna say" "I'm totally against this burning of wine and champagne." "Adam:" "Who is Frank Doyle?" "I can tell you he's a retired FBI special agent." "I can tell you that he led the task force that stormed the unabomber's shack." "But, really," "I feel like at some point in my life when I'm in real trouble, having his phone number is gonna help me out." "In the vicinity of five minutes, his pants should be in New York." "Narrator:" "But despite our bomb techs' specs, there is a behind-the-scenes situation that they can't help with." "Adam:" "There is one complicated limitation to the bomb range, which is that the land of the bomb range has been blown up and carved up and dug up for so many years, there is nothing approaching topsoil in the whole area." "It is all clay." "It's the Swedish mud dance." "[ Imitates traditional Swedish song ]" "So, when it rains at the bomb range, you're gonna ruin your shoes." "It's horrific." " Are you all right?" " Oh, no!" "Adam:" "It makes working there really, really, really difficult." "And then it makes it all worth it when you get to watch the high-speed of things blowing up." "Narrator:" "And speaking of explosions on high-def high speed, the fan-favorite moment at the bomb range was the supersized sawdust cannon, where things didn't quite go to plan." "So, we said, "okay, this is MythBusters."" ""Let's ramp it up."" ""What's more flammable than sawdust?"" ""Coffee creamer."" "Non-dairy creamer cannon in 3, 2, 1..." "I don't think we quite expected the results we got, because we were standing awfully close to what turned into a giant, growling ball of fire that started to come towards us, dripping napalm of burning sugar." "Tory:" "It was like armageddon, and everybody took off running." "Oh, my God!" "That was frightening!" "It was one of those moments where it was like, "oh, crap."" "Narrator:" "But it's exactly that type of chaos, coupled with the diversity of myth mayhem..." "Whoa!" "Narrator: ...that makes the bomb range the MythBusters' most-loved location." "Man:" "Are you gonna paint your house with explosives?" "So, while the credits roll, here's our tribute to the team's home away from home." "That was perfect." "[ Laughs ]"