"Do not try what you're about to see at home." "We consult with experts." "We take every precaution." "And we have years of experience in dangerous situations." "NARRATOR:" "On this daredevil episode of "Mythbusters"..." "Okay, go." "NARRATOR:" "...Adam and Jamie get a grip..." "I think I had a nightmare just like this once." "NARRATOR:" "As they test that old movie myth... can you cling to a moving car?" "Come on, give it to me!" "NARRATOR:" "Then Kari, Tory, and Grant..." "Lock down number three!" "NARRATOR:" "Break out more liberating jailbreak myths." "Son of a [bleep]" "NARRATOR:" "Can you floss yourself to freedom..." "Let's see you get out of this one." "Whoo-hoo!" "NARRATOR:" "Or shoot yourself from servitude..." "This is my favorite part." "I'm not gonna lie." "NARRATOR:" "With a cannon and a ball and chain?" "That was cool!" "NARRATOR:" "Who are the Mythbusters?" " Adam Savage..." " That's significant data." "NARRATOR:" "...and Jamie Hyneman." "I think we're gonna set something on fire." "NARRATOR:" "Between them, more than 30 years of special-effects experience." "Joining them..." "Grant Imahara..." "Freedom!" "NARRATOR:" "...Tory Belleci..." "I don't think this one's gonna work." "It's just too big." "NARRATOR:" "...and Kari Byron." "I'm starting to get the idea that this shouldn't be done inside." "NARRATOR:" "They don't just tell the myths." "They put them to the test." "Why are you working out?" "Ohh, our next myth, man." "We're gonna need all the arm strength we can get." "Why is that?" "Ah, it's a classic Hollywood-action-movie staple... the car-roof cling." "Oh, you mean where somebody jumps on top of a car and tries to hang on while it's driving?" "Yeah, but the driver is trying everything he can to shake him off." "NARRATOR:" "Getting a grip has been the speciality of stunt men since motors and movies first teamed up." "But in reality, is clinging on to a wild ride really plain sailing?" "You know, hanging on to a car is one thing, but falling off, we could get seriously hurt." "Yeah, I've been thinking that, too." "That's why I've been picturing in my mind a crane arm that would come out of the trunk of a car and go over the top of it." "Then we could tie into it, and that would allow us to show one of us losing his grip, but not losing his life." "Exactly, and I think we should make it long enough not only to test holding on to the roof, but also being able to hold on to the hood." "Well, we can build it, but we'll have to do a thorough job of it, 'cause our lives are gonna depend on it." "They will." "[Horn honks]" "So, if you're a stunt man in Hollywood and you're holding on to the roof of a car like this while it's driving, chances are you're wearing a harness that tethers you to the car." "Similarly, if you're on the hood, you're also wearing that kind of system." "This isn't gonna work for us, because Jamie is gonna try and shake me off of this car, and it's got to be demonstrable that I'm being shaken off the car without letting me hit the ground," "which tells me that some kind of cable tether isn't good enough." "My legs could slip over and hit the ground." "There's a lot of problems with that from a safety standpoint." "NARRATOR:" "And in theory, their overhead crane idea should overcome those problems." "But in practice, the boys are baffled at how to build it." "Um..." "NARRATOR:" "So, cue the brainstorm." "Shatter out this back window." "Get away with using a counter spring of some sort." "It's gonna be like a double-masted thing." "And that's all that additional weight that we don't need up high." "If it does fail, whoever is up there, we're in deep trouble." "NARRATOR:" "After a frightening two hours of back-and-forth..." "Okay." "NARRATOR:" "The Mythbusters finally have a plan." "Okay, good." "I like that." "JAMIE:" "Yeah, it looks good." "NARRATOR:" "A plan that's all about junk in the trunk." "They're going to cut into the trunk to get to the frame." "To this they'll weld a steel tower that they'll attach to a crane beam." "The crane beam will link to a safety-harness T-bar that they'll clip into while holding the roof and the hood." "Attention, former car." "Prepare to be modified." "Resistance is futile." "NARRATOR:" "Ain't that the truth, especially because there's a savage Savage on the loose." "This used to be a car, right?" "A few minutes ago, even." "NARRATOR:" "With the car frame exposed and the trunk tower support system time-lapsed into place, next the boys strain with the crane." "ADAM:" "When you just heard the V.O. Guy saying we were straining with the crane," "I want to point out that's not entirely true." "This is not a crane part we're using." "It's triangular antenna truss, used in radio towers and stuff like that." "But the reason we're using it is because its triangular structure, just like in a crane, affords it a tremendous amount of lateral strength." "NARRATOR:" "So tremendous that it's ideal for supporting the weight of the odd Mythbuster." "Okay." "Well, that works for me." "NARRATOR:" "And it better work for Adam, too, because it's this T-bar that will literally hold the Mythbusters hanging by a thread." "ADAM:" "The rig is almost done, but still it lacks that visual punch that I'm looking for." "I'm about to add it." "[Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "With a fresh coat of high-speed pink, the cling-on car rig is ready to roll." "[Engine sputters]" "But, uh, Houston, we have a problem." "Well, unfortunately, the car won't start." "Adam was really quick with cutting this all apart, but maybe he was a little too quick." "At this point it looks like Adam cut the electrical power to the fuel pump, so we can find that wire and hook it up again, then we'll be back in business." "It's always something." "NARRATOR:" "But after a bit of hot-wiring..." "[Engine turns over] ...the guys are revved up and ready for the test track..." "Ah-ahh" "NARRATOR:" "And what could be the ride of their lives." "All right, so what's up with the convict suits again?" "Have your shady pasts caught up with you?" "KARI:" "Well, actually, yes." "Remember a few months back when we devoted an entire episode to prison-break myths, and we rappelled down a wall using bedsheets, toilet paper, and hair?" "Of course." "And we escaped." "Yeah, well, the trouble is, the fans want more." "Ever since that episode, we've been inundated with ideas for new prison-break myths." "Are you sure these are fans and not prisoners sending in these requests?" "We're bustin' out of here, see?" "NARRATOR:" "Yep, in one of the all-time most memorable mythbusting moments, ropes made of bedsheets..." "KARI:" "God!" "NARRATOR:" "...human hair..." "KARI:" "I see split ends." "NARRATOR:" "...and toilet paper successfully aided and abetted a 14-story prison break." " GRANT: [Laughs]" " Freedom!" "All right, so what's up this time?" "Well, two things." "First of all, the fans think that you can escape from prison using a little muscle and a lot of this." "What?" "Yeah, they reckon you can cut through the bars using dental floss." "All right." "What else?" "Well, the other one's a little bit higher octane." "Supposedly back in the day, a prisoner took the ball from his old-timey ball and chain, put it in the prison's ceremonial cannon, and launched himself over the fence to freedom." "NARRATOR:" "But first up is the fan-fueled fable that flossing can set you free." "And back at the big house..." "Alameda County Courthouse Jail..." "Hey, Uncle Billy!" "NARRATOR:" "Some of the team are about to get an inside look at the myth." "Lock down number three!" "You... [Laughs] You did!" "There you go." "There's some dental floss." "I'm gonna go talk to J. D." "Good luck getting out of this jail cell." "Dude, is this really locked?" "TORY:" "Dead man walking!" "That's really locked!" "NARRATOR:" "So while our duo of desperate dental hygienists attempt to break out..." "Oh, look." "I removed some plaque." "NARRATOR:" "...Tory gets some inside info from friend of the show Sergeant J. D. Nelson." "So, have you ever heard of this myth... using dental floss to cut through a jail bar?" "Well, I think that'd be pretty difficult just because dental floss doesn't have a lot of grit." "But given enough time, I guess anything is possible." "KARI:" "What do you think of this?" "There's silica in most tooth-whitening toothpastes." "We could use it as an abrasive." " Oh, yeah, a little bit extra..." " Yeah." "...to accelerate the process." " Yeah." "NARRATOR:" "That abrasive silica, or sand, as many of us know it, is a grinding agent used to remove those stubborn stains." "But will it remove those stubborn steel bars?" "Hey!" "Knock that off." "Troublemakers." "We're gonna have to keep them locked up for a long time." "NARRATOR:" "After two hours of hard labor, one thing has become very clear... testing the myth manually is not feasible in the time available." "GRANT:" "Made it through the paint, but fortunately, I have a secret weapon." "And it could have something to do with special robot knowledge." "NARRATOR:" "So, they're going to head back to the shop, where Grant, staying true to the spirit of the myth, wants to use only materials he could find on the inside." "She's out of control." "She's out of control!" "So, trying to free ourselves using dental floss, flossing by hand, didn't really work out." "But fortunately, I have a backup plan, and it involves this." "This is your average, everyday cassette recorder/player, which I have stolen." "I'm going to use this to make a machine that will floss for me." "NARRATOR:" "So Grant goes to work, turning an old-school tape recorder into a dental-flossing robot..." "Easier than I thought." "NARRATOR:" "While Tory builds the kind of jail every inmate dreams of..." "one with just one wall." "TORY:" "Now, I know this isn't a real jail, but I wasn't trying to make a jail." "But we needed something to test whether or not dental floss could cut through a steel bar." "So I made this." "Let's see if Grant can floss his way out of this one." "GRANT:" "So, my flossing robot is finally complete." "It incorporates the guts of a standard cassette-tape recorder with a specially modified cassette that contains, instead of tape, dental floss." "I'm gonna set this up on the bars and go to it." "But I'm also going to incorporate Kari's idea, which is to put a little bit of toothpaste on it to get that little extra bit of abrasive." "Here we go." "[Honk!" "]" "Okay, so we've got a little jam." "Already got a little minor problem with the flossing machine." "NARRATOR:" "So it's back to the drawing board..." "I've made a few changes to the dental-floss machine." "NARRATOR:" "Where Grant throws everything he has at the problem." "[Honk!" "]" "NARRATOR:" "But after a full day's work and several failed prototypes..." "Hopefully, the 27 th time is a charm." "NARRATOR:" "...he throws the problem at the wall." "I don't think this is gonna work." "NARRATOR:" "The Mythbusters are testing whether you can really cling to a wild-ride car roof, as Hollywood would have us believe." "After all, with a grip as strong as that, hanging on for dear life could prove to be very doable indeed." "And at the Alameda runway, it's time to put that theory to the test." "We've built a full-size rig to hold on to us in case we can't hold on to the car, and we've come out here to the Alameda runway to test it full-scale." "Yeah." "NARRATOR:" "But before trying to shake a Mythbuster, the boys first want to test the rig with someone a little more, uh, expendable." "ADAM:" "So, currently Buster is bolted into our safety rig for a stop test." "It's a perfect opportunity for me to show you how it ought to work." "He's on a track that runs fore and aft." "Jamie is gonna run this car up to speed, slam on the brakes as hard as he can." "At that point, Buster is gonna slide all the way forward and stop." "And hopefully, we're gonna learn how safe this rig is to use by watching what happens to poor Buster." "NARRATOR:" "And unlike Adam or Jamie, poor old Buster won't be holding on at all." "ADAM:" "All right, Mr. Hyneman, are you ready?" "I'm ready." "Start your engine and begin the untethered Buster stop test in 3, 2, 1." "Go." "NARRATOR:" "Jamie floors it and takes the car up to 45 before slamming on the brakes." "[Tires squeal]" "Uhh." "NARRATOR:" "The good news is that the rig did indeed hold Buster off the tarmac." "The bad news is that pain-free it wasn't." "ADAM:" "Here's what scared me about that test." "This guy right here, he's made for firemen to carry up and down stairs, to drop in burning, smoky buildings." "He's made to take the kind of abuse you just saw and come back for more." "He's engineered for that." "I'm not." "NARRATOR:" "So nervous are Adam and Jamie about safety that they run Buster through more tests." "Go!" " NARRATOR:" "Brake tests..." " [Tires screech] ...swerve tests curve tests, but none of it makes for pleasant viewing, and that makes what Adam is about to say all the more surprising." "Well, from my perspective, that test was lovely and successful, as far as the rig was concerned." "We put a huge amount of stress on it, and it was absolutely solid." "I think that it's time to give Jamie Buster's harness and strap him to the roof." "NARRATOR:" "Yeah, that rig is looking real good." "But Buster's backbreaking performance is not filling our next contestant with joy." "If I can't hold on, my big concern is, is it gonna keep me safe?" "I don't want to snap my neck when I reach the end of my travel." "So I'm gonna hold on real nice." "NARRATOR:" "And real hard, Jamie, because this myth could get dangerously ugly." "Lock down number three!" "NARRATOR:" "Kari, Grant, and Tory are getting positively penitentiary." "KARI:" "All right, weapons check." "Against the wall." "Go on." "Come on." "Okay, you're all right." "What's this?" "Is this a file?" "Off to solitary confinement." "You, to the yard." "[Dog whimpering]" "NARRATOR:" "Our fun-loving criminals are testing to see if they can free themselves with floss." "I don't think this is gonna work." "KARI:" "I think Grant's gone through like maybe 300 incarnations of his dental-floss tape-recorder robot." "They don't seem to be working." "At least that's what I'm getting from the throwing and swearing." "[Bleep]" "[Bleep]" "[Bleep]" "GRANT:" "All right, so the tape recorder sucked." "But it's gone." "It's history." "Now I'm gonna ramp it up and use whatever materials I want to make the ultimate automatic dental-flossing machine." "And then we'll see if it's possible to floss through bars." "NARRATOR:" "This time, Grant is unleashing all his robot resources, creating a tension system that will simulate the grip and sawing action of a human being." "GRANT:" "Okay, so, the ultimate dental-flossing robot is finished." "Now it's time to give it a shot." "And if this works, it should go bzzz one way and bzzz the other way." "NARRATOR:" "So, cue take two for Grant and Kari's escape attempt." "GRANT:" "You hear that high-pitched sound?" "Uh-huh." "That's the sound of freedom!" "NARRATOR:" "And once the ultimate dental-flossing robot is up and running, there's nothing to do but sit back and wait..." "Do you have any 8s?" "KARI:" "Go fish." "NARRATOR:" "Except for some scheduled maintenance." " Ohh." " [Bleep]" "Son of a [bleep] Hang on." "Why are you going that way?" "Okay, one second." "Oh [bleep]" "[Bleep] Hang on." "My prediction is that we'll get out on good behavior before we actually get out of prison." "Maybe Grant and I will get out on good behavior." "Tory is probably a lifer." "He's a bad boy." "[Bleep]" "Spirits are down in cell block "A."" "Looks like we need a good cavity search." "NARRATOR:" "But in spite of the oppressive regime, there is hope." "So, after 31/2 hours, the ultimate flossing machine has given us a glimmer of hope." "There's a shiny spot worn into the bar." "Now, it's not very deep, so it's a very tiny glimmer of hope, but that's only 31/2 hours." "We're gonna let it go for more and see how far we get." "NARRATOR:" "So, our merry metalworkers leave the robot flossing for a full week before they check the results." "And while it may not be as fast as a hard-core hacksaw blade, amazingly, Grant's gadget is doing its job." "So, it looks like we got a little progress." "How'd we do?" "Well, over our week, we did a total of 2, 111.5 minutes of flossing, which corresponds to 35.2 hours." "Wow." "We got.015 of an inch." "TORY:" "So it's actually cutting through the bars." "It's gonna take you forever, but you can actually do it." "At that rate, it'll take us 140,767 minutes." "What's that break down to?" "Well, assuming you could do eight hours of flossing a night, that would be 293 days." "But remember, that's only one cut in one bar." "Theoretically, if you can cut into one bar, you can cut two." "So we're calling this one plausible." " Yeah." "Plausible." " Plausible it is." "NARRATOR:" "In the movies, people hang on to all sorts of things." "But can you really cling onto a car?" "That's what the Mythbusters are about to find out." "Despite Buster's backbreaking behavior..." "I'm gonna hold on real nice." "NARRATOR:" "...Jamie figures that his grip will brace him against the movement of the car and he won't become a missile like a dummy." "Well, so far, I'm convinced that our rig is safe for us to use." "As for the myth, honestly, it's not looking that good as far as the dummy's behavior." "That doesn't necessarily have any bearing on what happens when Jamie gets on the roof." "This is a guy who scaled a building on a knotted rope." "This is a guy who water-skied behind a rowboat." "He broke down a door with nothing but his shoulder." "NARRATOR:" "So while superhuman Jamie psychs up and clips on, here's the plan." " I'm toast." " Yeah." "NARRATOR:" "The boys are going to break the car-cling myth into three classic, testable elements." "At speeds up to 45 miles an hour, will Jamie cling or fling?" "So, we were thinking, if you're driving down the road and someone's on the roof of your car, the first thing that's gonna occur to you is to do a kind of swervy maneuver to shake them off." "That's what we're gonna start with." "Well, the insurance company won't let us go above 45 miles per hour, so I say let's go to 45 and give it all we got." " I'm ready for you, buddy." " Let's go." "I think I had a nightmare just like this once." "NARRATOR:" "To make things a little bit easier for Jamie, for this initial test, although the speed is up, the windows have been rolled down." "Will Jamie get a grip?" "Okay, here we go." "Multiple swerves in 3, 2, 1." "Go." "[British accent] I've got to get into character." "Who's that on my car?" "Yeah, baby!" "Come on, give it to me!" "ADAM: [Normal voice] Here we go." "Swerve one!" "Swerve two!" "Serve three!" " Come on!" " [Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "Amazingly, despite the considerable G-forces," "Jamie hangs in there with ease." "How was that, dude?" "It wasn't a problem holding on, but it's a little thrilling." " [Chuckles]" " ADAM:" "Really?" "Yeah, let's go for 100." "NARRATOR:" "So far, it's a walk in the park for the Hyneman." "But let's face it, when did the movie villain roll down the windows?" "It's time to get serious." "Adam takes her up to 45." "Jamie grips on to not very much." "He holds the first swerve, but then he's off." " Dude, tell me you're okay." " I'm fine." " Really?" " Yeah." "I lost it on the second turn." "The first one I was okay, but that little two-step got me, and I went over the side." "I was holding on as hard as I could, but I just slid." "NARRATOR:" "So with our cling-on cowboy slung off at 45 miles an hour, part one of the car-cling trio is busted." "So it's onward and upward." "This next one, I'm calling this test the long turn." "Effectively, I'm gonna be driving in circles, applying centrifugal force on Jamie, starting off slowly, but eventually ramping it up to see if I can find his limit." "NARRATOR:" "And from here on in, the boys are only going to test with the windows up." " JAMIE:" "I'm ready." " ADAM:" "All right, here we go." "Centrifugal turn with a single complication." "Uh-oh." "NARRATOR:" "Even as Adam reaches 15, it's clear that Jamie's struggling." "JAMIE:" "Aah!" "NARRATOR:" "Then, at only 20 miles an hour, he's down." "JAMIE:" "Aaah!" "That's it." "[Laughs]" "I'm okay." "How are you doing there, brother?" "[Laughs]" "JAMIE:" "That's kind of hard." "I was doing all right, but all my weight is just right on that little tip of the finger, and sooner or later, they give." "NARRATOR:" "In fact, it's virtually impossible, meaning that part two is also busted." "So it's time for the finale." "Windows up." "As we usually do, we have saved the worst for last." "We are now going to subject Jamie to the sudden stop, which hopefully will send him virtually tumbling forward on the car." "I won't be adding the second part that you always see in the movies in which I drive over him." "That's what our rig is supposed to prevent, but I'll tell you, I don't think he's gonna be able to hold on during this test." "Sudden stop, here we go." "In 3, 2, 1." "NARRATOR:" "For safety's sake," "Adam takes the car up to just 25 miles an hour." "Jamie desperately braces himself with all the strength he can muster." "[Tires screech]" "[Tires screech]" "I'm okay." "NARRATOR:" "But the Hyneman heave ain't enough." "JAMIE:" "I'm all right." "Well, I think that test is done." "ADAM:" "[Laughs] I think so." "I'm actually seeing some stars from that." " Really?" " Yeah." "NARRATOR:" "As Jamie flew off the roof like a giant piñata, the G-force was so great that he nearly blacked out." "It's a seriously close call, but after a medical checkup, he's given the green light." "MAN:" "Good job." "[Chuckles]" "That one was a little too close for comfort." "I really dug my fingers into the windshield." "I knew exactly when Adam was gonna hit the brake, and I was braced for it, but it still just wasn't quite enough." "But in a real-life situation, you're not gonna know when something's gonna happen." "You're not gonna be able to brace for it." "So that's a huge difference, and, like as not, you're gonna be flying off the car in a heartbeat." "NARRATOR:" "In other words, it's part three busted." "And after drama like that last test, you'd think the Mythbusters would pack up and head home, but, no, no, no." "Next up, another fan-fueled jailbreak myth." "Okay, so our last prison-escape myth is a bit bizarre." "It comes from a fan posting under username "Pizzazz I. P.,"" "and it's a story of an 18th-century prison escape." "And according to our message-board friend, in this prison, all the prisoners had ball and chain." "But instead of being a hindrance to his escape like you might think, it was actually his method." "How?" "Well, in this particular prison, there was a cannon on the roof." "Every hour on the hour, the cannon would fire." "So one day while no one's looking, he sneaks up to the roof, drops his ball in the cannon, and you see where I'm going here, right?" "Yeah, he fires the cannon, the cannon sends him over the wall, he survives, and returns to a life of crime." "Exactly." "Sounds like it's boom time." "NARRATOR:" "It's a preposterous prison parable." "Can a felon armed with a cannon, black powder, and a ball and chain really fire himself to freedom?" "This sounds like a crazy myth." "Sounds like a perfect job for Buster." "Yeah, but no one is gonna let us use their cannon to fire ball and chains out of them." "We're probably gonna destroy it, so we're gonna have to build our own so that way we can fire it up at the sky and see if we can get Buster to escape." "Cool, but if we're gonna start building cannons, balls, chains," "I think we need to do a bit of research first." "Sounds good." "NARRATOR:" "So our budding jail busters are going to blast off with some Homemade Cannon 101." "[Bell jingles]" "Whoa, there it is!" " How are you doing?" " How are you?" "NARRATOR:" "And Mythbusters pal Frank Tabor is the guy with all the gumpf on guns." "Big ones." "We're trying to build a cannon, and we heard you had a mortar, so we thought we'd come down and take a look at it and maybe get some ideas." "Yeah, it's gonna be the same principle." "You're just gonna have a longer barrel on yours." "Mortars are shorter." "NARRATOR:" "And, of course, the stuff that sets these babies off is black powder." "How much powder do you use?" "For us to send a 16-pound bowling ball, we use three 12-gauge shotgun shells full of black powder, and that'll push it out about 700, 800 yards." "NARRATOR:" "Sounds perfect." "So our fantastic fabricators measure up." "I think we've got some good stuff." " Yeah, I think we're good." " Where's Frank?" "What are you doing?" " How fast can you run?" " Very!" "NARRATOR:" "With the smoking-cannon design sussed," "Tory and Kari next walk the line with some ball-and-chain chatter." "KARI:" "To investigate what a real ball and chain would look like, we've come to Folsom State Prison, because not only is this a famous prison, but it has a long history, and we think that this will be a great place to start." "NARRATOR:" "So cue prison-museum manager Jim Brown." "So, say a prisoner is about 170 pounds, which is the size of our crash-test dummy." "What size ball would he have?" "Would it be like this?" "BROWN:" "Probably be more like this one." "This one with shackle and chain is 37 pounds." "That looks about 5 inches in diameter." " It's 55/8 diameter." " All right, cool." "Now we know what size ball to get." "NARRATOR:" "So, with the research all sorted..." "TORY:" "Take it away!" "NARRATOR:" "It's time to get down to work." "One cannon coming up." "NARRATOR:" "But will it work?" "To avoid a bad case of cannon malfunction," "Tory is using 2-inch-thick steel for the barrel and solid 101/2-inch-thick steel for the combustion chamber." "TORY:" "So, this big chunk of steel right here is our combustion chamber for our cannon." "We've bored it out to hold the black powder and a barrel." "Now, I'd pick it up and show you, but it weighs 225 pounds." "But it has to be strong, 'cause the last thing we want is for this cannon to explode." "NARRATOR:" "So, while Tory welds his ancient artillery together," "Grant bashes out some period-perfect ball and chains." "It's a prisoner's best friend." "NARRATOR:" "And they're good to go." "That's assuming, of course, that Tory's piece stays in one piece." "It's a thing of beauty." "This is my first cannon." "Let's hope it works." "Over the years, we have done some pretty outrageous things with automobiles." "We've built custom ejection seats into them and activated them on Buster." "We have jumped them 175 feet and remote-controlled them." "And we've put rockets in the back." "This mod right here is up there with one of the coolest things we've ever done." "NARRATOR:" "And they've been using it to find out if you can really cling on to the roof of a moving car." "And the results are not good." "With windows up, Jamie was forever flung off." "But the roof was just one half of the myth." "The other movie staple is the hood hang." "First, the zigzag." "All right, dude." "Give me all you got." "NARRATOR:" "And rather than give it all he's got," "Jamie's going to take it slow... three zigzags at 20 miles an hour." "How do you like that?" "How about that?" "NARRATOR:" "But that's all it needs for Adam to get airborne, and it's all down to a tenacious grip." "ADAM:" "The problem with the swerve-swerve is what you're holding onto here on the hood." "It's not uniform like the car doors." "There's a whole bunch of vents and windshield-wiper parts in there." "My hands were very close to going into places where they'd start to incur some serious damage." "I have to say, swerve-swerve..." "boop... it's out." "NARRATOR:" "So after a quick reset, it's on to the long-curve test." " JAMIE:" "Are you ready?" " I'm ready." "About 15 miles an hour." "NARRATOR:" "Jamie pulls away, and Adam starts off confident." "ADAM:" "Oh, I can still hold that." "Go faster." "Whoa!" "But soon gets his comeuppance at just 20 miles an hour." "ADAM:" "Oh." "Whoa!" "[Laughing]" "Yeah, that was about my limit right there. [Laughs]" "ADAM:" "The problem with the long centrifugal turn isn't a problem with my grip." "It's with my attitude." "And I don't mean my mental attitude, either." "I mean my orientation to the car." "My grip on the hood is linear to the car, but the force on me from the turn is perpendicular to the car." "So it doesn't matter how hard I'm grabbing." "Eventually, I'm being pulled so hard this way," "I just can't hold on any longer." "NARRATOR:" "So the roof hang is none from two, and that just leaves the emergency brake, where anything could happen." "Adam on the hood with a sudden stop?" "I think he's gonna be able to hold on, because he's in line with the direction of force, he's got a good handhold on the inside edge of the hood." "I don't see him coming off at all." "NARRATOR:" "Well, there's only one way to find out." "I'll be careful." "25." "NARRATOR:" "And at 25 miles an hour," "Adam pulls it off with room to spare." "[Brakes squealing]" "25 miles per hour?" "No problem." "Let's go to the maximum, 45." "NARRATOR:" "Throwing caution and insurance to the wind," "Jamie floors it for the finale." "JAMIE: 35." "45 miles an hour." "[Tires screech]" "[Laughing]" "Yeah!" "I held on!" "NARRATOR:" "Again Adam gets no ain'time, and that's because Jamie was right." "The huge force Adam's under is parallel with his body." "That means it's much easier for him to get a grip." "JAMIE:" "I think we're done here." "You want to go back to the city?" " I do." " You want to stay up there?" "Absolutely." "Give me a second." "Okay, go." " KARI:" "What are you doing?" " Nothing." " How fast can you run?" " Very!" "NARRATOR:" "Kari, Tory and Grant are testing a bizarre jailbreak myth." "Can a man blow himself and his ball and chain to freedom out of a cannon?" "GRANT:" "So, we're here at the Alameda County Bomb Range, which is where Mythbusters come when they want to blow something up." "We're gonna get our cannon out, set it up, get Buster in place, put a cannonball on his leg, and see if we can launch him to freedom." "NARRATOR:" "But if our eager escapologists are going to blast Buster over a prison wall..." " Right here?" " Looks good to me." "...they'll need a wall." "KARI:" "So, according to the myth, the cannon was on the roof of the building and then the cannonball, with prisoner, was shot over a fence." "That's why we're doing sort of an imaginary low-set fence to shoot our cannonball over." "NARRATOR:" "But before Buster gets involved, the team need to test Tory's artillery." "TORY:" "All right, so, for this first test, we're just seeing if the cannon even works." "So there's no Buster." "It's just the ball and chain." "Yeah, 'cause we don't know what's gonna happen when we launch this." "It could explode." "All right, I say we start off small, and we'll ramp our way up." "Is that you, Tory?" "Are you Mr. Safety now?" "I like it." "I like new Tory." "NARRATOR:" "But safety officer Tory still doesn't quite convince Kari, so she takes charge of the charge." "So, we have everything set except for our charge." "So we're gonna start with one shotgun shell of black powder." "NARRATOR:" "So it's boom or bust for Tory and his cannon." "This is my favorite part." "I'm not gonna lie." "[Laughter]" "As you see the fuse getting shorter, the tension mounts!" "[Laughter]" " Yeah!" " Yes!" "Touchdown!" " Nice!" " That was sick!" "Nice." " All right." " Good pop." "Cannon works!" "NARRATOR:" "Traveling at more than 130 miles an hour, the ball and chain shot 80 yards." "That's way over the wall and just perfect for our myth." "[Cheering]" "All right, buddy, it's time for the old ball and chain." "So now the team is ready to load the cannon and let rip once again, this time with Buster in tow..." "It's nothing personal, you know." "You know that, right?" "NARRATOR:" "And with a bit more grunt to get him on his way." "Okay, two shotgun shells of black powder." "GRANT:" "Okay, so, our cannon is in place." "It's aimed at the wall." "The wall is all set up." "We've got our cannonball attached to Buster's leg, and our prisoner Buster is ready to fly." "All we need to do is light the fuse." "Yeah!" "Something good is bound to happen." "Something's gonna happen." "KARI:" "Let's hope it just knocks him over the fence and the myth's confirmed." "[Cheering]" "NARRATOR:" "The ball and chain shot out of the cannon okay, but it failed to lift Buster over the fence." "So what does that mean for our myth?" " Buster moved!" " He moved!" "About 6 feet." "But, hey, maybe we just add a little more black powder." "Maybe if two shotgun shells get him 6 feet, maybe three shotgun shells get him 18 feet." "Why three?" "Let's go to five, six even." "I say ramp it up." "[Cheering]" "TORY:" "Well, Buster is made of metal, so he's totally missing the human element." "Well, we do have some rope." "To the best of our research, it's the closest that we could find to the breaking strength of human tissue." "NARRATOR:" "This half-inch synthetic rope has a breaking strain of nearly half a ton..." "KARI:" "Okay." "NARRATOR:" "About the same as the muscle and ligament in a real human hip joint." "All right." "Everybody clear?" "Here we go!" "GRANT:" "Come on!" "Here we go!" " KARI:" "Aah!" " [Cheering]" "[Laughter]" "NARRATOR:" "Is it a bird?" "Is it a plane?" "No, it's a leg traveling at over 200 miles an hour." "But it's still not enough to lift Buster's body into the wild blue yonder." "TORY:" "Oh, dang!" "That is what I'm talking about!" "The only thing that's free is his leg from his body." "So did he escape from prison?" "'Fraid not!" " [Laughter]" " TORY:" "But you know what?" "No matter how you look at this one, it's still busted." "Yeah, from the human analog perspective, not only did it separate the leg from the body, but it ripped off all the flesh." "There's no way you're surviving that." "Even with an entirely metal skeleton, he's not making it over the wall in one piece." "Yeah." "This would never happen." " Busted." " Busted." "Totally busted." "NARRATOR:" "Adam and Jamie have been flung left..." " NARRATOR:" "Right..." " Whoa!" "NARRATOR:" "...and center..." "[Tires screech] ...testing the myth of the car cling, and the results are in." "JAMIE:" "I'm all right." "How are we gonna call it?" "Dude, I'm calling this one fun with a capital F." "I swear, this is a whole new amusement park..." "Oh, you mean busted, plausible, confirmed?" " JAMIE:" "Yeah." " Okay." "Holding on to the hood of the car," "I was knocked off for two out of the three tests we did." "And as far as the roof goes," "I was pretty much able to hold on through anything." "Yeah, but that was with the windows down." "In an action movie, man, those windows are up." "In which case, I'd be toast." "I guess that means we have to call it busted, huh?" "I agree, but I don't want to finish up just yet." "There is one more shake-off technique that I've been dying to try." " Are you game?" " Sure." "All right, let's do it." "NARRATOR:" "And the final flinging fable is not a swerve or a stop or even a crash." "It's something way more bizarre, straight from the fan site." "It is, of course, the car-wash knockoff." "ADAM:" "As long as we're testing methods for removing unwanted pests from the outside of your car, we couldn't finish this without going through the car wash." "NARRATOR:" "And first up, it's soap dodger Jamie Hyneman." "Oh, you're ready?" "Here we go!" "JAMIE:" "Oh, God." "ADAM:" "[Laughing]" "This is awesome!" "NARRATOR:" "Now, how often do you get to wash yourself, your clothes, and your car at the same time?" "Oh, that's cold!" "ADAM:" "[Laughs]" "JAMIE:" "I feel like I'm going through a noodle machine." "Uh-oh." "NARRATOR:" "After a quick blow-dry, this noodle is done." "[Laughs] How was that?" "That was definitely one of those" ""What the heck am I doing?" Moments." "What was the worst part?" "The cold." "NARRATOR:" "With a water temperature of 55, it sure was chilly, but Jamie stayed on." "Now, can our boy from the hood equal this effort?" "ADAM:" "I'm ready." "You're gonna go through that butt-first, huh?" "Absolutely." "All right, then." "Well, have fun." "I will." "[Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "Adam have fun?" "Surely not!" "Oh, no!" "Oh, that's cold!" "NARRATOR:" "Adam clings on through the rinse..." "ADAM:" "Hoo!" "Hoo!" "Hoo!" "Hoo!" "NARRATOR:" "...and through the spin." " [Adam laughs]" " The drying gives him a shock but not a knock." "JAMIE:" "It's a thing, isn't it?" "Yeah." "I'm glad I did that, and I'm glad I don't ever have to do it again." "Okay, so the story is, this is supposed to knock you off the car." "Not even close." "I didn't even have to hold on." "It's not very pleasant, but it's not gonna knock you off the car." "[Chuckles]" "This falls into the category of the kind of thing that 10 years from now, someone's gonna say to me, "I wonder what it's like to ride a car on the outside through a car wash."" "And I'll get to say, not only have I done that," "I did it in the name of science, because this myth is busted."