- 20 hours ago
Hollywood danger, viral stunts, and real-world disasters collide in this grim compilation of movie-set tragedies and internet deaths. From Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Crow, Rust, and Midnight Rider to reckless YouTube and gaming-related incidents, the stories trace how a fictional moment, a prop, or a bad decision turned fatal.
The narration moves through film production accidents, stunt failures, and shocking cases where online fame, arcade stress, or a video game dispute ended in death. It also covers extreme examples from social media culture and dangerous challenges, making this a dark history of entertainment, true-crime style storytelling, and cautionary real-life tragedy.
If you search for movie set accidents, Hollywood deaths, film tragedy documentary, true stories about dangerous stunts, or viral video disasters, this storytime-style narration fits that lane. It also works for listeners who enjoy dark documentary narration, real-life tragedy stories, and long-form true incident coverage about movies, gaming, and internet fame.
The narration moves through film production accidents, stunt failures, and shocking cases where online fame, arcade stress, or a video game dispute ended in death. It also covers extreme examples from social media culture and dangerous challenges, making this a dark history of entertainment, true-crime style storytelling, and cautionary real-life tragedy.
If you search for movie set accidents, Hollywood deaths, film tragedy documentary, true stories about dangerous stunts, or viral video disasters, this storytime-style narration fits that lane. It also works for listeners who enjoy dark documentary narration, real-life tragedy stories, and long-form true incident coverage about movies, gaming, and internet fame.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00The Low Pass. Movie sets are built to make danger look real.
00:04But on the 23rd of July, 1982, the danger on the set of Twilight Zone, the movie, was real.
00:10At roughly 2.20 a.m., 53-year-old actor Vic Morrow was carrying 7-year-old Micah Din Le
00:16and 6-year-old René Xinyi Chen through shallow water near a mock Vietnamese village outside Valencia, California.
00:24The children were working after permitted hours and beside live pyrotechnics.
00:29A-Bell-UH-1B Huey flew low overhead as special effects explosions erupted around it.
00:36Then one explosion engulfed the tail rotor.
00:39The helicopter spun out of control and dropped into the stream.
00:43Its main rotor blade, about 44 feet long, decapitated Morrow and Micah.
00:49The falling helicopter crushed René.
00:52All three were on the ground when it came down.
00:55Investigators concluded that debris and heat from the explosions damaged the helicopter and caused the uncontrolled descent.
01:02California authorities also cited the production for child labor violations and exposing the children to an extreme hazard.
01:09Director John Landis and four others were charged with involuntary manslaughter, but all were acquitted.
01:15The battle was fictional.
01:17The failures that put two children and an actor beneath a damaged helicopter were not.
01:23The hospital bed.
01:24A film set is supposed to control the environment around its performers and crew.
01:28But on the 20th of February 2014, the Midnight Rider production placed 27-year-old camera assistant,
01:35Sarah Elizabeth Jones, on an active railroad trestle over the Altamaha River near Jessup, Georgia.
01:43CSX had denied the production permission to film there in writing.
01:47The crew went onto the bridge anyway and placed a metal hospital bed across the tracks for a dream sequence.
01:53Two freight trains had already passed.
01:56Then another appeared, with almost nowhere to escape on an elevated bridge and no refuge beside the rail.
02:02The train struck the hospital bed and tore it apart.
02:06Jones was killed in the collision.
02:08Six other crew members were injured.
02:10Director Randall Miller later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass.
02:15A civil jury awarded $11.2 million in total damages, although CSX later settled its part of the claim.
02:23The dummy round.
02:24A prop gun is supposed to create the illusion of danger.
02:27But on the 21st of October, 2021, a revolver on the set of Rust contained a live round.
02:34At about 1.47 p.m., 42-year-old cinematographer Helena Hutchins was preparing a scene at Bonanza Creek Ranch
02:41near Santa Fe, New Mexico.
02:44Assistant director Dave Halls handed the revolver to actor Alec Baldwin, believing it contained only dummy rounds.
02:50Five days earlier, two firearms had reportedly misfired on the same production.
02:55Live ammunition had no business being on the set at all.
02:59During rehearsal, Baldwin aimed the revolver toward Hutchins and director Joel Sousa.
03:04It discharged.
03:06The projectile struck Hutchins in the chest and continued into Sousa.
03:10Hutchins was transported for treatment but died from the gunshot.
03:13Sousa survived.
03:15New Mexico safety officials found serious violations and penalized the production.
03:19Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months.
03:27Halls pleaded no contest to negligent handling of a firearm.
03:31No helmet.
03:32Stunts look spontaneous on screen, but safe ones are planned down to the smallest detail.
03:37But on the 14th of August 2017, 40-year-old professional motorcycle racer Joy S.J. Harris performed a Deadpool
03:462 stunt in downtown Vancouver without a helmet.
03:50The move required Harris to ride a Ducati Hyperstrata 939 through the Vancouver Convention Center, down a ramp built over
03:59stairs, and stop on a landing.
04:01On the first film take, she passed the stopping point, continued down a second ramp, and entered the roadway.
04:08The motorcycle struck a concrete curb.
04:11Harris was ejected and thrown through a ground floor plate glass window at Shaw Tower.
04:15She died at the scene.
04:17WorkSafe BC found that the production had not completed an adequate risk assessment, had not insured protective headgear, had provided
04:25inadequate supervision, and had installed no barriers to keep the motorcycle inside the stunt area.
04:31It imposed a penalty of about C-290,000 dollars.
04:36Harris was an experienced racer, performing a carefully planned move.
04:40But experience could not replace the protections the production had failed to provide.
04:45The transferred soil.
04:47Not every feared film set death begins with one visible accident.
04:51During the summer of 1,000, 954, roughly 220 cast and crew members worked outdoors on The Conqueror near St.
05:00George, Utah.
05:00But the location sat about 137 miles downwind of the Nevada test site, where 11 atmospheric nuclear tests had been
05:09detonated the previous year.
05:11Years later, multiple members of the production developed cancer.
05:16John Wayne died of stomach cancer in 1979 at 56.
05:21Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorhead, and director-producer Dick Powell also died of cancer.
05:27Pedro Armendariz died by s**t after learning that his kidney cancer was terminal.
05:33Stories also claimed contaminated soil had been transported back to Hollywood.
05:38This case has one crucial limit.
05:40No authoritative record proves that fallout caused any individual illness, and the widely repeated cancer totals are not firmly established.
05:49The warning film, sword fights in movies are carefully rehearsed illusions.
05:54But on the 15th of November, 1958, the physical strain surrounding one of them became real.
06:00Tyrone Edmund Power III, a 44-year-old American star, had spent about six weeks in Madrid filming Solomon and
06:08Sheba when he reported to Sevilla Film Studios.
06:11That morning, Power performed a strenuous sword-fighting sequence opposite George Sanders.
06:18It was the film's climactic duel, and roughly three-quarters of the production had already been completed.
06:24When the scene ended, Power became unwell.
06:28He collapsed and died that day.
06:30Contemporary accounts attributed his death to a heart attack or coronary failure.
06:35No sword had touched him, and the death was treated as natural.
06:38There was no criminal investigation or safety sanction.
06:42Sanders took over the role, and the film was completed and released in 1959.
06:47The grocery bag.
06:48A blank cartridge is supposed to create noise without firing a bullet.
06:52But on the 31st of March, 1993, a handgun on the North Carolina set of The Crow turned that assumption
07:00into a fatal mistake.
07:02Brandon Bruce Lee, 28, was weeks from his wedding and preparing to film his character's death.
07:08The scene was simple.
07:09Lee entered carrying groceries, while another actor fired from about 20 feet away.
07:14Michael Massey pulled the trigger.
07:16Lee fell, and for a moment, the crew thought he was acting.
07:20There was one problem.
07:21A dummy-round projectile from earlier filming was lodged inside the barrel.
07:26When the blank discharged, its force launched that projectile forward and into Lee's abdomen.
07:32The gun had effectively become loaded without anyone recognizing it.
07:36Lee was taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center and underwent hours of surgery.
07:42He died roughly 12 hours after the shooting.
07:45The medical examiner ruled the single gunshot wound accidental, and Massey was never charged.
07:51The Crow was later completed with doubles and visual effects.
07:55Lee had walked onto the set to perform a fictional death.
07:58The prop failure made it real.
08:03The Dragon's Saber.
08:05Chu Chengwei was 41, a Chinese gamer in Shanghai who had spent countless hours in the Korean MMORPG Legend of
08:13Mir,
08:14three to win one of its rarest items, a virtual sword.
08:17He lent that sword in-game to his friend, 26-year-old Zhu Kaoyuan.
08:22Zhu sold it without asking for 7,000, 200 yuan, about 870 U.S. dollars.
08:30Furious, Chu went to the police to report the theft.
08:34They told him virtual property wasn't recognized under Chinese law, so no crime had occurred.
08:40Zhu reportedly promised to hand over the cash.
08:42Chu lost patience.
08:44He armed himself with a real knife and, according to one account, broke into Zhu's home while he was sleeping.
08:51Zhu was barely able to put his pants on before Chu stabbed him in the left chest, killing him.
08:57Chu turned himself in and pleaded guilty to intentional injury.
09:00In March 2005, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court sentenced him to death with a two-year reprieve,
09:09later expected to be commuted to 15 years.
09:13Evil Otto.
09:13On the 3rd of April, 1982, 18-year-old Peter Burkowski walked into Friar Tuck's game room
09:21in Calumet City, Illinois, for an evening of arcade games.
09:26He sat down at Berserk, the maze shooter where a smiling, unkillable enemy named Evil Otto hunts you down.
09:33He played about 15 minutes and put his initials on the machine's top 10 list, twice, according to several retellings.
09:39Then he stepped away, walked a few steps to a second cabinet, dropped in a quarter, and collapsed.
09:45He was pronounced dead around 9 p.m.
09:48There was no violence, no malfunction.
09:51The autopsy found scar tissue in his heart at least two weeks old.
09:55Deputy Coroner Mark Allen said it was possible the stress of the games triggered the attack in his weakened heart.
10:01The arcade's owner, Tom Blankley, put it more bluntly,
10:05saying Burkowski's heart had a time bomb in it that just happened to go off there.
10:09It was one of the earliest widely reported arcade game-related deaths.
10:13The cigarette break.
10:15Alexandra Tobias was a 22-year-old mother in Jacksonville, Florida,
10:19at home on the 19th of January 2010,
10:22playing Farmville on Facebook when her three-month-old son, Dylan Lee Edmondson, started crying.
10:28The crying interrupted her game.
10:30She told investigators she got angry and shook him.
10:34Then she stepped away, smoked a cigarette to calm down, and came back.
10:38He was still crying, so she shook him a second time, and she said he may have hit his head.
10:44Dylan was rushed to the hospital with severe head injuries and died the next day.
10:50Tobias pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
10:52On the 1st of February 2011, Circuit Judge Adrienne Soud sentenced her to 50 years in prison,
10:59the maximum end of the guideline range.
11:02By some estimates, she won't be released until around 2060, in her 70s.
11:07The two vases.
11:08In March 2014, a 17-year-old boy in Barangay-Badasan Hills, Quezon City, in the Philippines,
11:16was playing Dota at a neighborhood internet cafe.
11:19He was an out-of-school youth from a broken home,
11:22raised by the grandmother who came to fetch him around 6 p.m., interrupting his game.
11:28She scolded him the whole walk home, then scolded him again inside the house.
11:32He told police he could not take any more nagging.
11:35He said he blacked out.
11:38He beat his 68-year-old grandmother and smashed two crystal vases over her head.
11:43She was found bloodied in the living room with wounds to her head, neck, and chest,
11:48and defensive wounds on her arms.
11:50She died of blunt force trauma.
11:52Afterward, he washed away blood and hid a blood-stained vase in a dustbin in the yard.
11:58Around 10 p.m., he went to his aunt and told her what he'd done.
12:02Because he was a minor, he was turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
12:07The Cracked Skull
12:09Tyrone Spellman, an American man from Philadelphia, also known as Anwar Salahuddin,
12:15spent long hours each day on his Xbox.
12:18In 2006, he was playing Ghost Recon when his 17-month-old daughter,
12:23Alea Terman, toppled the console.
12:26That interruption set off his rage.
12:28Prosecutors said he struck her repeatedly and may have hurled her across the room.
12:33He cracked her skull several times.
12:35Then, he tried to make it look like she had simply fallen and hit her head.
12:40Prosecutors said the child died from a beating that cracked her skull several times,
12:45and jurors rejected the account that she had simply fallen.
12:48At the time, reporting said he faced roughly 23 to 47 years in prison for killing a toddler over a
12:56toppled game.
12:57The wrong address.
12:58On the 28th of December 2017, 28-year-old Andrew Finch stepped onto the porch of his home
13:05at 1033 West McCormick Street in Wichita, Kansas, to see why police were outside.
13:11He had no idea.
13:12It started over a $1, $2, $50 wager on a Call of Duty World War II match
13:22between gamers Casey Viner, 18, and Shane Gaskill, 19.
13:28Viner threatened to have Gaskill swatted.
13:31Gaskill dared him and supplied a Wichita address,
13:34but it was an old one he no longer lived at.
13:38Finch's family live there now.
13:40Viner recruited a known swatter, Tyler Barris, 25,
13:44who called police claiming a man had shot his father and taken hostages.
13:48Officers surrounded the house.
13:50When Finch stepped out and moved, an officer fired one shot.
13:54Finch, unarmed, died.
13:56Barris pleaded guilty to 51 federal charges and, in March 2019,
14:02was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
14:05Viner was sentenced to 15 months, Gaskill to 18 months.
14:10Officer Justin Rapp was cleared of wrongdoing.
14:13A terrible coincidence.
14:15Kayla Campos was 21, from Albuquerque, New Mexico,
14:20driving with her boyfriend on the night of the 18th of October, 2019,
14:24playing Pokemon Go, a game built around walking and exploring ordinary public spaces.
14:30Near Bianchetti Park, they drove straight into an armed robbery in progress.
14:36Prosecutors said Isaiah Garcia was robbing three teenagers at gunpoint.
14:40As Campos and her boyfriend tried to leave,
14:42Garcia chased their car and opened fire with an assault rifle.
14:46She was shot in the back of the neck while trying to drive away.
14:49She lost control and crashed into a nearby home,
14:52was taken to the hospital, and died.
14:55Garcia was convicted and received life plus 13 years for the murder of Kayla Campos
15:01to run consecutively to another life sentence for a separate murder.
15:06Almost done.
15:08Lee Seung-si-op was a 28-year-old industrial boiler repairman in Daegu, South Korea,
15:13who walked into a nearby internet cafe on the 3rd of August, 2005, to play StarCraft.
15:21Gaming had already cost him plenty by then.
15:23He'd been showing up late for work until he lost the job,
15:27and about six weeks earlier, he'd broken up with his girlfriend, a gamer herself.
15:32He settled in and stayed for almost 50 hours,
15:35leaving the screen only to use the toilet and grab short naps on a makeshift bed.
15:40Across three days, he ate and drank almost nothing.
15:43When he failed to come home,
15:45his mother asked his former colleagues to track him down,
15:48and they found him still at the cafe.
15:50He told them he'd finish the game and head home.
15:54Minutes later, he collapsed.
15:55A witness, Kim Jin-yu, said he simply fell off his chair with his eyes closed,
16:01and everyone could tell right away it was serious.
16:04He was rushed to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead.
16:08Police put the cause down to heart failure stemming from exhaustion and dehydration.
16:14After roughly 50 straight hours with barely any food, water, or sleep.
16:19The Gray Portal
16:20In Brazil, in 2014, 16-year-old Gabriel Cavalcante Carneiro Leão
16:26was an avid player of Ingress,
16:29Niantic's augmented reality game that sends players out on foot to real-world landmarks it calls portals.
16:35He loved going out to play it,
16:37and his mother warned him several times to be careful out on the streets.
16:41He kept going anyway.
16:43On one of those outings, he was moving to capture a gray portal for his faction,
16:48his attention on the phone.
16:49Reaching for that gray portal,
16:51he stepped into traffic and was struck by a bus.
16:54He was killed.
16:56At the time, Ingress carried no warning to stay aware of your surroundings
17:00or to avoid playing near traffic.
17:02He was among the earliest players anywhere to die,
17:05walking into the real world the game had pulled him into.
17:13The YouTube Book Stunt
17:16Okay, so for our first story,
17:18we're diving headfirst into the deep end of the YouTube gene pool.
17:21Meet Pedro Ruiz III,
17:23a 22-year-old from Minnesota with a YouTube channel,
17:26a pregnant girlfriend named Mona Lisa Perez,
17:29and an idea so monumentally stupid,
17:31it's almost a work of art.
17:34His plan?
17:35To go viral by having his girlfriend shoot him in the chest
17:38with a .50 caliber desert eagle
17:41while he held a hardcover encyclopedia in front of him.
17:44He was convinced the book would stop the bullet.
17:47Now, to be fair, he did a test run.
17:50He shot a different book,
17:51and the bullet didn't go through.
17:52So, in his mind, the science was settled.
17:56On June 26, 2017,
17:59with their three-year-old daughter watching,
18:01they set up the cameras.
18:02Mona Lisa stood just one foot away from Pedro,
18:05aimed the desert eagle,
18:06one of the most powerful handguns in the world,
18:09at the encyclopedia he was holding to his chest,
18:11and pulled the trigger.
18:13The .50 caliber bullet tore through the encyclopedia
18:16like it was tissue paper
18:17and slammed into Pedro's chest.
18:20He died instantly.
18:21His heart and lungs were obliterated.
18:24The video they hoped would make them famous
18:26did go viral,
18:27but not in the way they planned.
18:29Mona Lisa, seven months pregnant,
18:31was charged with second-degree manslaughter
18:33and sentenced to 180 days in jail.
18:36She gave birth to their second child
18:38while awaiting sentencing.
18:39So what's the takeaway here?
18:41Pedro died for YouTube views,
18:43leaving behind two kids
18:44and a girlfriend who has to live with pulling the trigger.
18:47It just goes to show that chasing viral fame
18:50can lead you down some incredibly dark
18:52and permanent paths.
18:53A hardcover encyclopedia is not body armor.
18:57Who knew?
18:58Ugh.
19:00The waterfall of bad decisions.
19:02Next up, we have the High on Life Squad.
19:05This was a YouTube channel
19:07with over half a million subscribers
19:09run by a group of friends
19:10who traveled the world doing extreme stunts.
19:12You know the type.
19:13Their whole brand was about
19:15living life to the fullest,
19:16which, in their case,
19:18meant being incredibly reckless for views.
19:20These guys, Riker Gamble and Alexei Liak,
19:23both 30,
19:24had already gotten themselves banned
19:26from Yellowstone National Park
19:27for five years
19:29for walking on fragile thermal features.
19:32They even posted the video online.
19:35So you'd think they might have learned a lesson
19:37about respecting nature
19:38and, you know, not dying.
19:40You would be wrong.
19:41On July 3rd, 2018,
19:44Riker, Alexei, and Alexei's girlfriend,
19:47Megan Scraper,
19:48decided to climb to the top of Shannon Falls
19:50in British Columbia.
19:52This isn't some little cascade in a park.
19:54It's one of the tallest waterfalls in the province,
19:57dropping 335 feet.
20:00They got to the top,
20:01where a series of pools feed the main waterfall,
20:04and started walking along the slippery,
20:06moss-covered edge,
20:07filming content.
20:09Megan slipped and fell into the fast-moving current.
20:12The two guys, in a panic,
20:14jumped in to savor.
20:15The current was too strong.
20:17It swept all three of them over the edge,
20:19and they plunged approximately 100 feet
20:22down the waterfall,
20:23smashing into the rocks below.
20:25When emergency crews arrived,
20:27it was a recovery,
20:29not a rescue.
20:30The physical trauma was immense.
20:32Multiple blunt force injuries,
20:34shattered skulls,
20:36broken bones all over.
20:38They either died instantly on impact,
20:40or shortly after.
20:42The channel was flooded with tributes,
20:44but also a ton of criticism
20:46from people pointing out the obvious.
20:48They had a history of being reckless for the camera,
20:50and this time,
20:52it caught up to all three of them.
20:54A 100-foot drop onto solid rock,
20:57all for a few seconds of footage.
20:59Just,
21:00wow.
21:02The monsoon photo shoot.
21:04Alright, let's head over to India
21:05for our next story.
21:07On July 16, 2024,
21:10a 27-year-old Instagram influencer
21:12named Anvi Kamdar,
21:14who had a quarter of a million followers,
21:16decided it was a brilliant idea
21:18to go to Kumbay Waterfall near Mumbai.
21:21During monsoon season.
21:23For those who don't know,
21:25monsoon season turns everything
21:27into a slippery, raging torrent of death.
21:30The waterfall itself is 300 feet tall,
21:33and it's notoriously dangerous
21:35when it's raining.
21:37Anvi and her seven friends arrived,
21:39and she immediately got to work
21:40filming Instagram reels
21:41at the very edge of the falls.
21:43She was trying to get the perfect shot,
21:46the one that would make
21:46all her followers jealous.
21:49To get a better angle,
21:50she started stepping backward,
21:52her eyes on her phone screen,
21:53not on her feet.
21:54You can see where this is going.
21:56She slipped on the wet, mossy rocks
21:59and tumbled right into
22:00the 300-foot-deep gorge.
22:02She actually survived the initial fall,
22:05but she was critically injured
22:06with multiple fractures,
22:08severe head trauma,
22:09and internal bleeding.
22:11Her friends, horrified,
22:13called for help.
22:14A massive rescue operation
22:16with over 50 people was launched,
22:18but because of the insane weather
22:20and treacherous terrain,
22:21it took them six hours
22:23to rappel down and reach her.
22:24They found her alive,
22:26but just barely.
22:28She was airlifted to a hospital,
22:30but died from her injuries
22:31shortly after arriving.
22:33She spent six hours broken
22:35and bleeding in a gorge,
22:37all because she stepped backward
22:38for an Instagram reel without looking.
22:41The authorities have since
22:42restricted access to the waterfall
22:44during monsoon season,
22:45which seems like something
22:46they should have done
22:47before someone had to die for it.
22:51The Alpine Cliffhanger
22:53For our fourth story,
22:55we're off to the Italian Alps,
22:56a place of stunning beauty
22:58and, as it turns out,
23:00spectacular stupidity.
23:02Meet Albert Derland,
23:04a 22-year-old YouTuber
23:05from Denmark.
23:06He was a comedian,
23:08a musician,
23:09and had over 235,000 followers.
23:13On July 28, 2021,
23:16he was filming a video
23:17on Mount Sisseda
23:18in Val Gardena.
23:20Now, this mountain
23:21is the real deal.
23:23We're talking
23:23breathtaking views,
23:25dramatic peaks,
23:26and sheer,
23:27unforgiving cliffs
23:28that drop straight down.
23:30Albert was walking
23:32along a narrow path,
23:33right near the edge
23:34of one of these cliffs,
23:35filming himself
23:36for his next YouTube masterpiece.
23:39He was trying to capture
23:41the epic scenery,
23:42probably for a cool montage
23:43or something.
23:44He lost his footing.
23:46One wrong step
23:47on that narrow path
23:49and he was gone.
23:51Albert fell 656 feet,
23:54that's 200 meters,
23:56straight down the mountainside.
23:58It wasn't a tumble.
23:59It was a straight-up,
24:01Looney Tunes-style plummet.
24:03He hit rocks on the way down
24:05and the impact
24:06and the impact
24:06was catastrophic.
24:08Emergency services
24:09were called
24:09and a rescue helicopter
24:11was dispatched.
24:12But when they found him
24:13at the base of the cliff,
24:15there was nothing
24:15they could do.
24:16The physical trauma
24:18was massive.
24:19His body was severely damaged.
24:21He was pronounced dead
24:23at the scene.
24:24His mother later confirmed
24:25the news to the Danish media
24:27and his final video
24:28was, of course,
24:29never posted.
24:31He was 22 years old.
24:32All it took
24:33was one moment
24:34of inattention,
24:36one step too close
24:37to the edge
24:38while trying to get
24:38the perfect shot.
24:40A 656-foot drop
24:42is no joke.
24:44It's a permanent end
24:45to a promising career,
24:47all for a video
24:48that no one will ever see.
24:51The 10,000-calorie mission.
24:53And now for a story
24:55that proves
24:55that the path to hell
24:57is paved with,
24:58well, in this case,
25:00junk food.
25:01Meet Dmitry Nujansin,
25:03a 30-year-old fitness trainer
25:05and influencer from Russia.
25:07A fitness trainer.
25:08Remember that.
25:09In November of 2024,
25:11Dmitry decided to create
25:13some truly groundbreaking content.
25:15He embarked on
25:16an extreme weight gain challenge.
25:18His master plan
25:20was to eat 10,000 calories
25:22every single day,
25:23pack on a ton of weight,
25:25and then dramatically
25:26lose it all
25:26to promote
25:27his own weight loss program.
25:29You can't make this stuff up.
25:31So, for weeks,
25:33this supposed fitness expert
25:34gorged himself on cakes,
25:36fast food,
25:37and sugary drinks.
25:38He was documenting
25:39the whole thing
25:40on social media,
25:41posting photos and videos
25:43of his epic meals.
25:44And it worked.
25:45He gained 13 kilograms,
25:47or about 28 pounds,
25:49in just one month.
25:51His followers watched
25:52in real time
25:53as he ballooned,
25:54transforming from
25:55a fitness trainer
25:56into a cautionary tale.
25:58One night,
25:59after another glorious day
26:00of stuffing his face
26:01for his followers,
26:03Dmitry went to sleep.
26:04And he never woke up.
26:06He died in his sleep
26:07from heart failure.
26:08The preliminary autopsy
26:10confirmed it.
26:11His heart just gave out.
26:12The massive,
26:13sudden weight gain
26:14and the constant strain
26:16of processing
26:1610,000 calories a day
26:18was too much
26:19for his system.
26:20His heart,
26:21the very engine
26:22he was supposed
26:23to be an expert on,
26:24just couldn't handle
26:25the abuse.
26:27The irony is so thick
26:29you could probably
26:30deep fry it.
26:31He was 30 years old.
26:33His social media page
26:34is still up,
26:35a bizarre,
26:36digital monument
26:37to one of the dumbest
26:38ideas I've ever covered.
26:39The Selfie Queen's
26:42Last Shot
26:43For our next story,
26:45we're heading to Hong Kong
26:46to meet Sophia Chung,
26:48a 32-year-old
26:49Instagram influencer
26:50who was all about
26:51that adventure life.
26:53Her feed was
26:54a curated collection
26:55of her posing
26:56in beautiful
26:57and often dangerous
26:58locations.
27:00Cliff edges,
27:01waterfalls,
27:02high ledges,
27:03you name it,
27:04she was there,
27:05smiling for the camera.
27:07On July 10,
27:082021,
27:10she and her friends
27:11went hiking
27:12at Ha Pak Lai Park,
27:14a scenic spot
27:15with a popular waterfall.
27:17Naturally,
27:18Sophia saw the waterfall
27:19and thought,
27:20selfie time!
27:21She climbed onto the rocks
27:23near the edge of the falls,
27:24trying to frame
27:25the perfect shot.
27:27She held her phone up,
27:28probably checking her angles,
27:30making sure the lighting
27:31was just right.
27:32Her friends watched
27:34as she positioned herself
27:35for what would become
27:36her final photo.
27:38She lost her balance
27:39on the slippery rocks
27:40and fell.
27:41It wasn't a huge drop,
27:43only about 16 feet
27:44or 5 meters,
27:46but it was enough.
27:47She hit the rocks
27:48on the way down
27:49and landed
27:50in the water below.
27:52The impact to her head
27:53was severe,
27:54and she was knocked
27:55unconscious immediately.
27:57Her friends scrambled
27:58to get to her
27:59and called for help.
28:01Rescuers arrived,
28:02pulled her from the water,
28:03and performed CPR.
28:05They rushed her
28:06to the hospital,
28:07but it was too late.
28:09She was pronounced dead.
28:11The cause of death
28:12was a combination
28:13of the severe head trauma
28:15and drowning.
28:16The tragic part?
28:17She was the third person
28:19to die taking a selfie
28:21at that exact same location.
28:24A 16-foot fall,
28:26a slip on a wet rock,
28:28and it was all over.
28:30For a selfie.
28:32The Cement Head Challenge.
28:34Okay, for this last one,
28:35we're not talking
28:36about a death,
28:37but a near-death experience
28:38so monumentally idiotic
28:40it deserves a spot
28:42on this list.
28:43Enter Jay Swingler,
28:46one half of the UK
28:47YouTube channel TGF Bro.
28:49These guys are famous
28:50for their reckless
28:51and often dangerous pranks.
28:54On December 7, 2017,
28:56Jay decided to take things
28:58to a whole new level
28:59of stupid.
29:00His plan?
29:01To put his head
29:02in a microwave
29:02and fill it with polyfilla,
29:04which is a type of cement.
29:07They protected his head
29:08with a plastic bag
29:09and gave him a breathing tube.
29:11Then, they mixed
29:12seven bags of the cement
29:14and poured it
29:15into the microwave,
29:16completely encasing his head.
29:18The problem is,
29:19the cement expanded
29:21as it dried,
29:21and it crushed
29:22the breathing tube.
29:24Suddenly,
29:25Jay couldn't breathe.
29:26His friends tried
29:27for an hour and a half
29:28to free him,
29:29but the cement
29:30was rock solid.
29:31Panic set in.
29:32They had to call
29:33the fire brigade.
29:35The emergency services
29:36showed up,
29:37and they were not amused.
29:38The commander
29:39of the fire crew
29:40later said,
29:41As funny as this sounds,
29:42this young man
29:43could quite easily
29:44have suffocated
29:45or been seriously injured.
29:47It took the firefighters
29:48another hour
29:49of carefully using
29:50power tools
29:51to chisel the microwave
29:52and the cement
29:53away from his head.
29:54They had to be
29:55incredibly precise
29:56to avoid hitting him
29:57with their equipment.
29:58In the end,
29:59they got him out.
30:00He was shaken,
30:01but alive.
30:02The West Midlands Fire Service
30:04later tweeted,
30:05We're seriously unimpressed.
30:07Five of our firefighters
30:09were tied up
30:09for an hour this afternoon,
30:11freeing a YouTube prankster
30:12whose head had been
30:13cemented
30:14inside a microwave oven.
30:16The stunt cost the fire service
30:18over 650 pounds
30:20to respond to.
30:22Jay later apologized,
30:23but the video,
30:24of course,
30:25went viral.
30:26It's a perfect example
30:28of how the quest for clicks
30:29can lead to situations
30:30that are not just dumb,
30:31but a dangerous waste of time
30:34and resources
30:34for everyone involved.
30:36He literally cemented
30:38his own head
30:38in a microwave
30:39for a laugh.
30:41Just let that sink in.
30:48Janaka Baznayake.
30:50There are some world records
30:51that are, you know,
30:53impressive.
30:54The fastest mile,
30:55the heaviest weight lifted,
30:57and then there are the records
30:58that just make you ask,
31:00why?
31:02This is one of those.
31:04Meet 24-year-old
31:06Janaka Baznayake
31:07from Sri Lanka.
31:09In 2012,
31:10Janaka decided
31:11he wanted to break
31:12the world record
31:13for being buried alive.
31:16Yeah, you heard that right.
31:18He wanted to be
31:19voluntarily buried
31:20in a pit
31:2110 feet deep
31:22for as long as possible.
31:24On the morning of the attempt,
31:26at around 9.30 a.m.,
31:28Janaka climbed
31:29into a narrow wooden box.
31:31His family and friends
31:33helped lower him
31:34into the pit.
31:35They covered the box
31:36with wooden planks,
31:37and then
31:37they started shoveling.
31:39They piled the earth
31:41back into the hole,
31:42sealing him
31:42in complete darkness
31:4410 feet underground.
31:46Now, let's just think about that for a second.
31:49The weight of the earth pressing down.
31:52The sound of the dirt hitting the wood above you getting fainter and fainter.
31:56The absolute,
31:58total blackness.
32:00It's the stuff of nightmares.
32:03It's the stuff of nightmares.
32:03Inside that box,
32:04the air would have gotten warm
32:06and stale
32:06almost immediately.
32:08The first few minutes
32:09would have been just,
32:10uh,
32:11panic.
32:12A desperate,
32:13primal need
32:14for fresh air.
32:15Janaka would have started
32:16with shallow,
32:17rapid breaths,
32:18his heart pounding
32:19in his chest.
32:20But soon,
32:21every breath
32:22would become a struggle.
32:24The oxygen level drops
32:25and the carbon dioxide level rises.
32:28That's when the real horror begins.
32:30A burning sensation in the lungs.
32:32A crushing headache.
32:34Your ears start to ring.
32:36Your fingers and lips turn blue.
32:38You get confused.
32:39You start to hallucinate.
32:41In his final moments,
32:43Janaka would have been clawing
32:44at the wooden box,
32:45his nails splitting,
32:47his fingers bleeding
32:48in a desperate,
32:49futile attempt to escape.
32:51Every gasp for air
32:52would feel like a knife
32:53in his chest.
32:55At around 4 p.m.,
32:56after about 6 1⁄2 hours,
32:58his family dug him up.
33:00They pulled the box
33:01out of the ground
33:02and opened it.
33:04Janaka was unconscious.
33:05They rushed him
33:06to the hospital,
33:07but it was too late.
33:08He was pronounced dead.
33:10The official cause of death
33:12wasn't just one thing.
33:13It was a combination
33:14of suffocation,
33:16carbon dioxide poisoning,
33:17and the immense pressure
33:19on his chest and lungs
33:20from the weight of the earth.
33:22Bro.
33:23He wanted a world record,
33:24but instead,
33:25he got one of the most
33:26terrifying deaths imaginable.
33:31Vladimir Ledesinski.
33:33Finland.
33:34A beautiful country,
33:36known for its lakes,
33:38its forests,
33:39and its saunas.
33:41They take their saunas
33:42very, very seriously.
33:45So seriously, in fact,
33:47that they used to host
33:48the World Sauna Championship.
33:50Yes, I'm serious.
33:52The rules were simple.
33:54A group of people
33:55sit in a sauna
33:56heated to 230 degrees Fahrenheit.
33:59Every 30 seconds,
34:01half a liter of water
34:02is poured onto the stove.
34:04The last person to walk out
34:06on their own two feet
34:07is the winner.
34:08In 2010,
34:10the final came down
34:11to two men,
34:12the reigning five-time champion,
34:14a Finn named Timo Kaukanen,
34:17and a Russian amateur wrestler,
34:1960-year-old Vladimir Ledesinski.
34:22Both men were experienced.
34:24They knew what they were doing.
34:25Or so they thought.
34:27For six minutes,
34:29they sat in that scorching heat
34:30as steam and scalding water
34:33filled the air.
34:34The temperature just kept rising.
34:37Outside,
34:38spectators watched
34:39through the glass door.
34:40They could see the two men,
34:42sweating profusely,
34:44their skin turning
34:44a deep, angry red.
34:46And then,
34:48um,
34:48something went wrong.
34:50Both men started to convulse.
34:53The judges realized
34:54this wasn't part of the competition.
34:56They rushed to the door
34:58and dragged the two men out.
35:00What they saw was horrific.
35:03Their skin was covered
35:04in massive,
35:05weeping blisters.
35:07In some places,
35:08it was literally
35:09sloughing off their bodies.
35:11The inside of the sauna
35:13was spattered
35:13with blood and fluid.
35:15Vladimir was dead.
35:17Timo Kalkinen
35:19was in critical condition,
35:20but he survived,
35:21though with severe burns
35:23and kidney failure.
35:24The autopsy on Vladimir
35:26revealed he had died
35:27from third-degree burns.
35:29But it also revealed
35:30something else.
35:32He had used
35:33strong painkillers
35:34and a numbing anesthetic ointment
35:36all over his body
35:37before the final.
35:38He couldn't feel
35:40the damage being done.
35:41He couldn't feel
35:42his own body cooking.
35:44His skin was literally melting.
35:46His internal organs
35:47were failing
35:48from the extreme heat,
35:49but the painkillers
35:51masked the agony.
35:52He sat there,
35:54stoically,
35:55while his body
35:55was destroyed
35:56from the inside out.
35:58The competition
35:59was immediately canceled
36:00and has never been held again.
36:02And for good reason.
36:06Guy Garman
36:08Some people are just
36:09built different.
36:10They see a mountain,
36:12they have to climb it.
36:13They see a record,
36:14they have to break it.
36:16And then,
36:17there's Guy Garman,
36:18a successful ear,
36:20nose, and throat doctor
36:20from the U.S. Virgin Islands.
36:22But his patients
36:23knew him by another name,
36:25Doc Deep.
36:26And he took that name seriously.
36:29In just a few years,
36:31he went from
36:31a casual scuba diver
36:33to an extreme technical diver,
36:35obsessed with going deeper
36:37than anyone else.
36:38In August 2015,
36:41he set his sights
36:42on the ultimate prize,
36:44a world record dive
36:45to 1,200 feet.
36:48For context,
36:49that's like diving
36:50the full height
36:51of the Empire State Building,
36:53underwater,
36:54in total darkness.
36:56Now,
36:57the previous record holder
36:58was a highly experienced
37:00professional diver.
37:01Guy was not.
37:03He had fewer than
37:05600 total dives,
37:07and only about 35 of those
37:08were below 500 feet.
37:10He was,
37:12by all accounts,
37:13rushing.
37:14He was warned
37:15by other divers
37:16that he was moving too fast,
37:17that he was skipping
37:18crucial steps
37:19in his training.
37:20But he wouldn't listen.
37:22Nope.
37:22On August 15th,
37:24he began his descent.
37:26The plan was to meet
37:27a series of support divers
37:29at different depths
37:30on his way back up.
37:31But he never made it
37:32to the first rendezvous.
37:34He just disappeared
37:36into the abyss.
37:37His body was recovered
37:39three days later.
37:41So what happened down there,
37:42in the crushing dark?
37:44It's a cocktail of horrors.
37:46At that depth,
37:48you can get something called
37:49high-pressure neurological syndrome,
37:51or HPNS.
37:53Your hands start to tremble
37:55uncontrollably.
37:56You get muscle spasms,
37:58tunnel vision,
37:59and a crippling cognitive fog.
38:01You can't think straight.
38:03You can't even trust
38:04your own hands
38:05to work the equipment.
38:07Then there's the pain.
38:08A deep, grinding pain
38:11in your joints,
38:12especially your knees
38:13and shoulders,
38:14as the immense pressure
38:15literally compresses
38:17your cartilage.
38:18It feels like your bones
38:19are being crushed
38:20in a vice.
38:21And all the while,
38:23the nitrogen in the air
38:24you're breathing
38:24becomes a powerful narcotic.
38:26You feel drunk,
38:28disoriented,
38:29making fatal mistakes
38:30without even realizing it.
38:32The official cause of death
38:34was drowning.
38:35But he didn't just drown.
38:37He was lost
38:38in a neurological storm,
38:40crippled by pain,
38:41and hopelessly intoxicated
38:43by the very air
38:44he was breathing.
38:45He was an amateur
38:47who tried to conquer the deep.
38:48And the deep,
38:50it doesn't suffer fools.
38:54Sylindra Nath Roy
38:56And now for something
38:58completely different.
38:59Meet Sylindra Nath Roy,
39:01a 49-year-old police driver
39:03from India.
39:05Sylindra wasn't a diver
39:06or a mountaineer.
39:07His claim to fame was...
39:09his hair.
39:11No, seriously.
39:12He was a Guinness World Record
39:14holder for traveling
39:15the farthest on a zip line,
39:17attached only by his long,
39:20luscious ponytail.
39:21In 2013,
39:23he decided to break
39:24his own record.
39:26The stage was set
39:27at the Coronation Bridge
39:28in West Bengal
39:29over the Tista River.
39:31A 600-foot steel cable
39:33was stretched across the river,
39:35about 65 feet above the water.
39:37A crowd of hundreds
39:39gathered to watch.
39:40Sylindra attached his ponytail
39:42to a pulley on the cable,
39:43and with a cheer from the crowd,
39:45he was off.
39:47For a while,
39:48everything went perfectly.
39:49He was gliding across the river,
39:52his body dangling beneath him,
39:53suspended only by his hair.
39:56And then,
39:57about halfway across,
39:58he just...
40:00stopped.
40:01His hair had gotten tangled
40:03in the pulley mechanism.
40:05He was stuck,
40:06dangling helplessly,
40:0865 feet above the river.
40:10At first,
40:12the crowd cheered,
40:13thinking it was part of the show.
40:14But then,
40:15the minutes started to tick by.
40:18Sylindra was trying to free himself,
40:20shouting for help,
40:21his arms flailing.
40:22You could see the panic set in.
40:25Imagine the pain.
40:26The entire weight of your body
40:28pulling on your scalp.
40:30A searing,
40:31burning pain,
40:32like a thousand needles
40:33being driven into your skull.
40:35His arms would have gotten tired,
40:37his muscles screaming in protest.
40:40He hung there
40:41for about 45 minutes,
40:43struggling,
40:43while the crowd below
40:44watched in horrified silence.
40:47Eventually,
40:48he went limp.
40:50Rescuers finally managed
40:51to get him down,
40:52but it was too late.
40:53He had suffered
40:54a massive heart attack.
40:56The extreme stress and pain
40:58had literally
40:59broken his heart.
41:00His wife had begged him
41:03not to do it.
41:04She told him
41:04it was too dangerous,
41:05that this should be
41:06his last stunt.
41:08He promised her it would be.
41:10He was right.
41:14Diana Paris
41:16Skydivers are a different breed.
41:18They call themselves
41:19swoopers
41:20and canopy pilots.
41:22They talk about
41:23boogies and tracking.
41:24It's a whole subculture
41:25built around the thrill
41:26of falling.
41:27But sometimes,
41:29that thrill comes
41:30at a terrible price.
41:32Meet Diana Paris,
41:33a 46-year-old skydiver
41:35from Berlin, Germany.
41:37In April 2014,
41:39she was in Arizona,
41:40taking part
41:41in a massive event.
41:43222 skydivers
41:44were attempting
41:45to set a new world record
41:46for the largest
41:47freefall formation.
41:49Imagine that.
41:51222 people
41:52jumping out of
41:53multiple planes
41:53at 18,000 feet,
41:55trying to link up
41:56in a giant,
41:57intricate pattern,
41:58all while hurtling
41:59towards the Earth
42:00at over 120 miles per hour.
42:02For about 70 seconds,
42:04it's a beautifully
42:05choreographed chaos.
42:06And then,
42:07it's time to break away
42:08and pull the ripcord.
42:10For 221 of those jumpers,
42:13it went exactly as planned.
42:15But for Diana,
42:16it didn't.
42:18Her main parachute
42:19malfunctioned.
42:20We don't know
42:21exactly what went wrong.
42:22Maybe it was a line twist.
42:24Maybe the slider
42:25didn't come down properly.
42:26But the result
42:27was the same.
42:28A tangled,
42:29useless piece of nylon
42:30instead of a
42:31life-saving canopy.
42:33Every skydiver's
42:34worst nightmare.
42:35She did what
42:36she was trained to do.
42:37She cut away
42:38the main parachute
42:39and pulled the handle
42:40for her reserve.
42:41But she was already
42:42too low.
42:43The reserve parachute
42:44needs time and altitude
42:46to open fully.
42:47Diana didn't have either.
42:49Eyewitnesses on the ground
42:50saw a flash of white
42:52as the reserve
42:52started to deploy.
42:53But it was too late.
42:55It was just a streamer.
42:57A half-inflated canopy
42:58that did nothing
42:59to slow her down.
43:00She hit the ground
43:01at terminal velocity.
43:02The impact was...
43:04instantaneous.
43:07Paramedics were on the scene
43:08in moments,
43:08but there was nothing
43:09they could do.
43:10She was pronounced
43:11dead at the scene.
43:13One tiny, fatal error,
43:15a few seconds of bad luck,
43:17and a day that started
43:18with the promise
43:19of a world record
43:20ended in tragedy.
43:23Jeremy Morris
43:24and Jeff Fink
43:27The early 2010s,
43:29the era of obstacle course racing,
43:31the Tough Mudder,
43:33the Spartan Race,
43:34and the Warrior Dash.
43:36These events
43:37were everywhere.
43:38Thousands of people
43:39paying good money
43:40to run through mud,
43:41climb over walls,
43:42and crawl under barbed wire.
43:44It was all about
43:45pushing your limits, right?
43:46Well, in July 2011,
43:49near Kansas City,
43:50those limits were pushed
43:52way too far.
43:54It was the weekend
43:55of the Warrior Dash.
43:5615,000 people
43:58had signed up.
43:59But there was a problem.
44:01A big one.
44:02A brutal,
44:03record-breaking heat wave
44:05had settled over the area.
44:06The heat index
44:07was soaring
44:08to 111 degrees Fahrenheit.
44:11The organizers,
44:13Red Frog Events,
44:14decided to go ahead
44:15with the race anyway.
44:16What could possibly go wrong?
44:19Meet 28-year-old Jeremy Morris,
44:21a fit, experienced
44:22runner and diver.
44:24He was out on the course,
44:26pushing through the mud
44:26and the heat
44:27when he collapsed.
44:28He was rushed
44:29to the hospital.
44:30His core body temperature
44:32was 111 degrees Fahrenheit.
44:36Let that sink in.
44:37Normal is 98.6.
44:40At 104,
44:41you're in serious trouble.
44:43At 111,
44:45your body is literally
44:46cooking itself
44:47from the inside out.
44:49His organs started
44:51to shut down.
44:52His brain swelled.
44:53His circulatory system
44:55collapsed.
44:55He died a few days later
44:57from complications
44:58of severe heat stroke.
44:59And he wasn't
45:00the only one.
45:01Another participant,
45:0353-year-old Jeff Fink,
45:05also collapsed
45:06during the race
45:06and died a few days later
45:07from the same cause.
45:09The families were furious.
45:11They argued that the race
45:12should have been canceled,
45:14that there wasn't enough
45:14water or medical support
45:16for a race
45:17in such extreme conditions.
45:19It's a classic case
45:20of corporate greed
45:21over common sense,
45:22the drive to make a profit
45:24even when it puts
45:25people's lives at risk.
45:26Jeremy and Jeff
45:27weren't elite athletes
45:28who died pushing
45:29the boundaries
45:30of human performance.
45:31They were just regular guys
45:33who signed up
45:34for a fun weekend challenge
45:35and paid the ultimate price
45:37for someone else's
45:38bad decision.
45:42Colombian Gravity Bikers
45:44There are extreme sports
45:46and then there's just
45:47a death wish.
45:49This next one
45:50falls squarely
45:51in the second category.
45:52It's called
45:53gravity biking
45:54and it's popular
45:55in the mountainous regions
45:56of Colombia.
45:57The bikes are
46:00Frankenstein creations.
46:02Stripped down frames,
46:04no brakes,
46:05no gears.
46:05The riders lie flat
46:07on their stomachs,
46:07head first,
46:08to be as aerodynamic
46:09as possible.
46:10And then they just
46:12let go.
46:13They fly down steep,
46:15winding mountain roads
46:16at insane speeds,
46:18often weaving in
46:19and out of traffic.
46:20On March 16, 2024,
46:23on a dangerous stretch
46:24of road between
46:25Popayan and El Tambo,
46:27a group of four young people
46:28were doing just that.
46:30They were filming themselves,
46:32laughing, shouting,
46:33pushing their luck.
46:34One of them,
46:36a young woman named Tatiana,
46:38was on her first run.
46:40They came into a sharp corner,
46:42going way too fast.
46:44One of the riders
46:45lost control.
46:46He veered into the oncoming lane
46:48and slammed head-on
46:49into a dump truck.
46:50The impact was catastrophic.
46:53He and another rider,
46:54Duber,
46:55were killed instantly.
46:56Tatiana and the fourth rider
46:58were critically injured.
47:00The scene was chaos.
47:02The truck driver was in shock.
47:04The local community
47:05was furious,
47:06not at the kids,
47:07but at the truck driver.
47:08They surrounded his truck,
47:10threatening him with knives.
47:11The police had to escort him away
47:13for his own safety.
47:14It's a twisted,
47:16tragic situation.
47:17The kids made a reckless choice,
47:19but the anger of the community
47:21was directed at the man
47:22who was just
47:23driving to work.
47:25And the most heartbreaking part?
47:27One of the survivors
47:28had been caught by the police
47:29doing the exact same thing before.
47:32They had confiscated his bike,
47:34but he just got another one.
47:36It's an addiction to adrenaline,
47:38a feeling of invincibility
47:39that so many young people have.
47:42A feeling that,
47:44for two of them,
47:45ended in a bloody wreck
47:46on a Colombian mountain road.
47:48Thanks so much
47:49for rocking with the channel for real.
47:50Hit that subscribe
47:51and turn on the bell
47:52so you don't miss a single one.
47:54And got a topic
47:55you want me to dig into next?
47:57Drop it in the comments.