Camp CrunchLabs (2026) s01e01 Episode Script

[Mark] This is a series
of physical challenges
that, honestly,
don't look super challenging,
except for the fact
they all have to be performed…
While wearing a suit
made entirely of Velcro.
Welcome to Camp CrunchLabs.
I'm Mark Rober,
here to tell you to brace yourself
for your least boring summer ever.
If you happen to be a first-timer,
then grab your sunscreen and buckle in,
'cause here's a little taste
of what you're in for.
[theme music playing]
[all yelling]
Hey ♪
[vocalizing]
[music continues]
Hey ♪
[music ends]
But this summer's
unlike any other year in camp,
because if you haven't noticed
from those clips,
we're not in my usual backyard.
In fact, we're not even on planet Earth,
because this is Space Camp CrunchLabs.
I figured if we could build SAT GUS
and send a stinking satellite to space
to take everyone's picture for free,
why couldn't we also just send
my entire backyard,
including the squirrels?
And since we're doing
eight weeks of camp this year,
I figured why not visit a new planet
each week,
while our special guests
explore the solar system with us,
using my hand-built junkyard rocket ship.
Now I'll dig into exactly where we are
in a second.
But first, if you're new
to Camp CrunchLabs, here's how it works.
This is the first of eight videos that
we've released right here on Netflix.
We'll have guests and mega experiments
all done right here with me,
and then we'll also have
the at-home Super Challenges,
which are all done by you.
They're your chance to show me
and everyone else
your creativity and engineering skills.
And for me, seeing all your submissions
rolling throughout the summer
is even better than sleeping in
for two months with no homework.
And I watch every one of these.
It's truly my favorite part of the job.
And every qualifying Super Challenge
submitted has a completely equal chance
to win the ultimate CrunchLab experience,
known as the Platinum Ticket.
- [yelling excitedly]
- [woman] CrunchLabs!
[Mark] This means you'll come
right out here to CrunchLabs,
where you'll hang out with me
and the whole CrunchLabs team.
You'll get to go down
the fireman's piston.
- I'm scared.
- [laughter]
[Mark] And we'll do
a bunch of fun experiments.
We'll eat way too much pizza.
And, of course, we'll go all out
in an epic CrunchLabs Nerf battle.
[screaming]
[Mark] So here are the challenges.
First up is a Rube Goldberg machine.
Now, a Rube Goldberg machine
is basically a chain reaction you build,
usually to accomplish a simple task,
like turning on a light
or feeding the dog.
But the twist is, this summer,
some part of the chain reaction
has to include water.
[gasps]
So that could be a bottle of water that
tips the scale to trigger something else,
or maybe part of the machine launches
something into the bathtub or pool.
Next up is a slow-mo video,
but this time it has to include
one of the most important tools
in an engineer's tool belt, googly eyes.
Now, for the record,
they don't have to be official googly eyes
with, like, a lens.
You can just cut out two white circles
with smaller black ones.
That'll get the job done.
And just so you get a sense,
here's some previous epic slow-mo videos
that were submitted in past summer camps.
They're just, of course,
missing the googly eyes.
And for the final option
is a reverse video.
But this year, it's got to include food.
So the challenge is to create something
that looks cool in reverse
and incorporates food in some way.
Now, you can do one of these challenges,
or you can do all of them.
Just make sure after you film it,
you submit them
any time before August 8th
to campcrunchlabs.com.
And I can't wait to see
what you come up with.
Okay. Well, welcome to our first planet.
Now, of course,
we're not actually on a planet
because the actual planet is right there.
We are on an asteroid
that's orbiting that planet.
Most of the time this summer,
we will be on a moon
that's orbiting the planet,
but this planet has no moon.
And although
it actually looks like our moon,
it's definitely a planet.
Can you guess which one it is?
That adorable little planet is Mercury.
It's the one that's closest to the sun,
and it's the smallest of all the planets.
It's sort of the toddler
of the solar system
because it's also the fastest.
In fact, if you lived on Mercury,
your birthday,
instead of coming every 365 days,
comes every 88 days.
That's like a birthday
less than every three months.
That means four times the presents,
four times the cake.
Now, as you know, Mercury is the planet
that orbits closest to the sun,
so it's super hot.
It's like 800 degrees Fahrenheit.
That's twice as hot as your oven gets.
But did you know
there's actually ice on Mercury?
Sounds bonkers, right?
There's parts of Mercury
that are negative 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
They just happen to be in a crater
that just never sees direct sunlight.
And so if you have no atmosphere
to kind of regulate that temperature,
things are either super, super hot
or super cold.
And if that blows your mind,
stick around because all summer long,
we're gonna be visiting different planets,
and you might just learn a bunch of stuff
you never heard of even in school.
And that's just part of the package here
at Space Camp CrunchLabs.
It's just what you get.
All right, well, let's find out
who our first ever
Space Camp CrunchLabs guest is
with a trusty finger snap.
Now, to be fair,
I've never tried this in outer space,
so here we go.
What--
- Pierson! Wha--
- This isn't my shower.
I am so sorry.
Am I in space in a bathrobe?
I don't know if it's
a space calibration thing. I got you.
- Okay. [sighs]
- [snaps fingers]
This is so much better.
- Apologies for the timing. How are you?
- That's okay.
I'm good. Now that I'm in space, I'm good.
- Have you been to space before?
- This is my first time.
It's much warmer here
than I thought it would be.
This is the benefit of orbiting Mercury,
the closest planet to the sun.
- Heat is not a problem.
- Mm-mm.
Speaking of heat,
let's head over to the picnic table,
see what kind of experiments
we'll be dealing with today.
[both] All right.
Did we just do the same thing in space?
That was a bit creepy.
- [both laugh]
- It's a… It's a Mercury thing, I guess.
So, Pierson, even in space,
we have camp guests.
- Campers?
- [Pierson] Oh!
[Mark] Hey! It's my nephews!
How many times have I told you
not to stow away on my rocket?
Where are we?
Welcome to space.
- I can breathe?
- Yeah, you can breathe.
This is Davis.
This is Beckham.
You boys have been here
the past two summers.
[laughing]
- Oh my God!
- [screaming]
[all laughing]
Now, who's won those?
I can't remember. My memory…
[grunting]
- [whistle blows]
- We have a winner!
Uncles rule!
[all laugh]
We'll give you last year,
but the year before was a little iffy.
Who's your favorite uncle?
- Say it!
- [laughing]
Say my name!
It's gotten too easy,
so this year I brought Pierson.
It's going to be 2v2.
- You guys know what this is?
- Chess. I dabble.
I saw a video of the astronauts on the
International Space Station playing chess.
The question, obviously,
is how do you stick to the board?
You guys have any guesses?
How might they do it?
- Magnets.
- Magnets.
[Mark] Magnets was my first thought, too.
The problem with magnets is
there's a lot of specialized equipment.
If it gets near expensive equipment,
it could ruin it.
Glue.
- Okay, glue. But…
- [all laugh]
- Uh, what else?
- Velcro.
- [Pierson] Oh. Oh.
- Oh, you mean this kind of Velcro?
- Oh my God!
- Wow, Davis.
The beauty of Velcro is
you can play it in zero gravity.
- Ooh!
- Just like that.
Now, of course, Velcro was invented
by Mother Nature a real long time ago.
Have you ever had, like,
your dog goes running,
- and it comes back with burr in its furs?
- Yeah.
Or if you go hiking,
and there's stuff stuck on your socks.
- Foxtails.
- Mm-hmm.
[Mark] That's exactly
what's going on with Velcro.
We just copied it
and made it in the factory.
But it's very strong.
In fact, it's so strong.
- [clattering]
- Oh!
- [laughs]
- [Mark] Bring it down!
We're gonna do a strength test here.
So we've got a little fish scale here.
We've got two pieces of Velcro.
We're gonna stick them together.
So in order to test
how much weight it can support,
we're gonna add these balls in.
Wanna do the honors?
- How many do you think it can hold?
- All of them.
- All of them?
- I don't think Velcro's that strong.
You've been talking it up, though.
[Mark] But this is a lot of golf balls.
There's a second bucket of balls
underneath the table.
Okay, well, now you're cheating!
Now you're cheating!
[upbeat music playing]
Oh, it's weighing down.
- I don't even think it moved at all.
- I didn't even hear anything.
[clattering]
- Okay.
- Light work.
[Mark] That's seven pounds.
Okay, do, like, a little.
That's 12 pounds.
- It's still holding!
- [laughs]
[Mark] Um, we do have rocks.
- Screwdriver.
- [Pierson chuckles]
A bucket.
Putting in the chess pieces here.
Platinum Ticket.
Eighteen pounds.
Okay, this is going to have to do it.
- Oh my God!
- [Pierson] Still?
[Beckham] Holy cow.
- Wow!
- What the heck, Velcro?
Forty pounds of force.
We're literally out of things
to put in there.
There's no way.
- Oh.
- If the Diamond Play Button doesn't do it…
- You just carry that around with you?
- Okay.
- There's no way.
- Holy…
- What the heck, Velcro?
- Holy crap.
[Beckham] Oh my gosh.
So I'm just gonna pull down on it.
And then let's see
at what point it breaks.
- [Davis] Oh my gosh.
- Ugh!
- [thuds]
- Oh my… [chuckles]
Mark, are you okay?
I am okay.
- Sixty-one pounds.
- [Pierson] Wow.
- You get the point.
- Wow.
Velcro is very strong.
I have one final demo.
Beckham, take that.
This is a Velcro goalie glove.
- That's a Velcro soccer ball.
- [Pierson] Ooh.
[all laughing]
Okay, throw it harder.
- [Pierson] Oh my…
- Okay, not in my face!
[all laughing]
- I was just checking your reaction time.
- [Mark] Right, right.
[Pierson] Oh! The reaction time.
[laughing] This feels very powerful.
Okay, now you can be goalie.
My goal is to try and score
on hitting the house.
Okay, here we go.
[exhales deeply]
[chuckles]
[anticipatory music playing]
[music stops abruptly]
- [Pierson] Oh!
- [Mark] Ooh!
- [laughs]
- [Pierson] Oh my…
[slow-motion laughter]
- Goal!
- [Mark] Dang it!
We're already out of glass panes,
and it's only episode one.
[Pierson] Oh my gosh.
Well, now that we've demonstrated how
strong both Velcro and Uncle Mark are,
do you guys have any guesses
at what we're doing today?
Velcro weightlifting competition?
Why don't you just turn around
and we'll snap you in?
- Three, two, one.
- [snaps fingers]
- Okay.
- [Pierson] What?
[Mark] So as you might've guessed,
this is gonna be some kind of competition.
But to ensure
that it's perfectly fair and impartial,
I am bringing in a judge
who just happens to be on my payroll.
- Hey.
- Oh.
[Mark] Science Bob Pflugfelder!
- Hi, guys.
- Hey!
Welcome to the Velcrolympics.
[all] Yeah!
[Science Bob] The Velcrolympics
is a four-event challenge.
For event number one, two of you
are gonna be inside of this circle,
and two of you are gonna be up top
in the mezzanine.
Up top, you have a bucket full
of Velcro balls.
Sixty seconds.
Throw the ball, and try to get
as many as they can on their team member.
The one with the most balls on their suit
is the winner.
- Too easy, right?
- [Mark] Too easy.
You guys have old arms. I don't know--
- Old arms?
- [all laugh]
[Science Bob] All right.
The game begins in three, two, one.
- [whistle blows]
- Go! [grunts]
- Come on! [grunts] Whoa!
- [Mark] Use your hands.
Are you blocking?
[thrilling music playing]
- Ain't no way!
- [laughing]
[both laughing]
Hey, catch a real ball!
Aim it! Use your body!
[Pierson grunts]
[grunts, exclaims]
My hat!
Too high, Mark. You gotta go lower.
- [Pierson grunts]
- Pierson!
[laughing]
Hey, get away from her.
- Yes!
- [Pierson laughing]
- You're not--
- [laughing]
Oh my God!
Oh, I'm stuck to him.
[music continues]
- My hand is stuck.
- [Beckham] Aim it! Come on!
- Yes!
- Yes!
- [Science Bob] Ten, nine, eight…
- [music warps]
- [suspenseful music playing]
- [slowed] …seven…
- Yes!
- [in normal voice] …six, five…
- No! No!
- …four, three, two…
[slowed] …one!
[whistle blows]
- Oh my gosh! It's close.
- It's so close.
She has more on her body,
but Davis got the arms.
It's time for the official count.
We have one, two, three, four…
- [tape forwarding]
- And turn.
- Eighteen.
- [chuckling]
15, 16, 17, and 18. It's a tie.
- Oh!
- It's a tie!
- Oh my…
- That's actually incredible.
- I almost got whiplash for a tie?
- [boys laughing]
We're gonna give you 60 seconds
on the clock,
and all you have to do is get
as many balls off of you as possible.
Oh.
You cannot use your mouth.
- [both] Aw.
- [laughing]
- We were both gonna do that.
- Yeah.
- On your mark. Get set.
- Okay.
[whistle blows]
[warping music plays]
- [Pierson laughing]
- [Mark] You got this.
- She's got it. [chuckling]
- Come on, Davis.
Yes! That's one!
Yes! Yes!
Come on, Davis.
[Mark] Oh, this is a slaughter.
- Here we go!
- [Pierson laughing]
- Come on, Davis.
- [Mark] Let's go! Yes!
This is so much harder than it looks.
You… You got this. Yes!
- I gotta punch them off.
- [Davis] Oh, come on.
[Mark] Yes!
Fifteen seconds.
- She's got it!
- Where are they?
- They're on your back!
- Where's the ball?
- Right here.
- Nine, eight, seven…
- …six, five, four…
- On the side. On the side. Yes!
[Science Bob] …three, two, one.
- [whistle blows]
- Yes!
- [Science Bob] And time is up!
- [Mark] Yes!
- Aah! Yes!
- [Davis] Where are they?
They're on your hat.
Wait. Really?
- Yeah.
- [laughing]
Uncles rule!
- I can be an uncle for today.
- Yeah.
- Uncles rule!
- Uncles rule! Yeah! [laughs]
All right, welcome to event three
of the Velcrolympics.
I don't have a name
for this particular event.
What about the Bobstacle Course?
You're just trying
to get on the ref's good side.
- Sold.
- What?
That's tantamount to bribery.
All right. Now, the rules are simple.
One teammate will grab
one of these three orbs,
and then travel through various obstacles,
including a Velcro fence,
a Velcro minefield,
and some angry multi-pod Velcro aliens.
They pass the orb to their teammate,
who must now throw the orb
into one of the three awaiting pods.
Once the third ball goes into
this orb pod, we'll stop the clock.
You have to beat their time.
- One more question.
- Yes.
What is behind Davis's back?
[all laughing]
He was armed and dangerous.
- On your mark. Get set.
- For the uncles!
- Go!
- [whistle blows]
Uncles rule!
Okay. This is actually too…
- [Velcro rips]
- Uh-oh. Uh-oh.
- Uh-oh.
- Uh-oh.
You got it. Yeah, yeah.
Okay. I'm just going for it.
- [screaming]
- [Pierson] Come on!
- [screaming]
- [Pierson] Oh God.
- [Davis chuckling]
- [Mark] Yes! Yes!
This should be easy.
- [yelling]
- [Pierson] Yes!
- Yeah!
- Oh no!
- All right.
- All right, he's gotten through…
…the space grabbers.
- Yeah!
- Yeah! Oh! [laughs]
I forgot I can't jump up and down.
- Okay.
- [Pierson] Yes!
- Okay.
- [Pierson] Come on, we got it. We got it.
We got… We got it! We got it!
- Oh!
- [Pierson] Oh!
- [Mark] Oh no!
- [Pierson laughing] Oh no!
- [Mark grunting]
- Just throw me the ball.
[Mark] Worse than the glue trap.
- [Davis] No, it's not.
- I got it.
Right here. Yes.
Okay. [grunting]
- No!
- [Davis laughing]
- [screaming]
- Gotta throw it again.
[screaming]
This is so far!
Time is ticking.
[Mark] I got it.
[thrilling music playing]
- Oh, hey! No way!
- That's chill.
- Throw this one.
- [Science Bob] One more.
- And we stop the clock.
- [grunts]
- [Pierson] No!
- No!
- Oh my gosh.
- Imagine.
Throw it, throw it!
Oh God! Don't throw it!
[laughing] I fell.
- And… Oh!
- [yelling]
- [grunts]
- Oh, that's golden.
- [screams] No!
- Yep.
- Oh, that's it.
- Nice one.
[both] Yay!
- [Pierson exclaiming]
- [Mark] We did it!
- Oh no!
- Oh! Oh God! I'm stuck.
- Oh, it's a bad idea.
- [Pierson] Oh no!
- I think we got--
- Oh no!
- Just pull.
- I'm trying to pull… [laughs]
- [Davis] Need a hand?
- Oh! Ah!
The time to beat is three minutes
and fourteen seconds,
which just happens to be pie.
- On purpose.
- That was on purpose.
Here we go. Three, two, one.
Come on, Davis. Come on.
Don't touch the Velcro.
[Beckham] Davis.
- Oh. Oh no.
- Uh-oh. He's stuck.
It's a learning curve.
Oh! Oh!
- Oh no!
- He's breaking the Bobstacle Course.
- Wait, what is he doing? What…
- [Pierson] Wait, what is…
- Hang on!
- [Science Bob] Very interesting.
- [both] No!
- [Davis laughing]
You can't make shoes!
- Bob!
- They have not broken any rules.
- [Mark] What?!
- Yeah!
That's fun.
- [Mark] You'll never do it in two minutes.
- Come on.
[Pierson] Come on, run the clock, baby.
- [Science Bob] And…
- [Mark] Oh, the bounce? No way.
Yeah!
We got the second ball on the first try.
[grunts]
- [all laugh]
- Yes!
[thrilling music playing]
You'll never do it.
Oh, big miss. How embarrassing!
[Science Bob] They are breaking my clock…
- You're not gonna do it.
- You have one minute.
- There's only one left.
- [Mark] Can you believe it?
- [Pierson] Can he do it?
- [Mark] Can he win?
Yeah!
- We have a winner.
- Oh!
- First shot!
- [whistle blows]
[laughing]
- Take that! Take--
- Yeah, take--
- [grunting, laughing]
- Oh no.
All right, guys, after three events,
the Velcrolympics is officially tied.
- [groaning]
- Wow.
And that brings us to our last event.
Behind me is a nice soft wall.
However, that wall
is entirely made out of
the opposite kind of Velcro
that you're wearing.
[suspicious music plays]
Oh.
Just to show you
how this is going to look,
I've got Phat Gus,
who is a certified stunt squirrel.
There's a trampoline here,
you will go off the trampoline…
Pew! Hit the wall…
[cheering]
…stick to the wall,
and I will mark your height.
Mark, Pierson, you guys are up first.
Come on over.
[Pierson] Three, two, one!
[Mark] Yeah!
[all laugh]
And we're gonna put you right there.
- [Mark] Yes, Pierson!
- Come on!
[Mark] So could Davis top that?
Wow.
[Mark] And he could.
All right, here we go.
So I had to show him how it was done.
[Mark, Pierson screaming] Yeah!
Uncles rule!
And there was no way
a nephew could top that.
- All right, there he goes.
- The shortest one here.
Don't play it if it intimidates you.
Who's your favorite uncle?
Say it! Say my name!
- [laughing]
- Say it!
We're gonna let you go.
- [grunts]
- Right. There he goes.
[young Beckham screaming]
[screaming]
[Mark] Uncles rule!
[screeching]
[dramatic music building]
[anticipatory music playing]
[music stops abruptly]
- [music resumes]
- [screaming]
- Beckham!
- No!
[Mark] Well, one of them finally beat me.
And in all honesty, I couldn't be prouder…
[speaking indistinctly, laughing]
…of my teammates
for helping me get revenge.
For the first time
in Camp CrunchLabs's history,
the win goes to the nephews.
[nephews] Yeah! Let's go!
It was my teammate, to be honest.
The first year, I mean,
I liked your attitude, but--
- Nephews rule!
- Okay.
You know what?
That's too much. You know…
Yeah, let's go!
Nephews rule!
- Do they? Do they?
- We're number one!
Nephews rule!
Uncle Mark?
Anyone?
Sorry, Gus.
[sighing] Ah.
All right. Quick reminder of this year's
at-home summer Super Challenges.
These, of course,
are those engineering challenges
that you record yourself doing
to win an all-expense-paid trip
to come out here
to visit me and my team at CrunchLabs
for an afternoon of epic fun and science.
You've got a Rube Goldberg machine
like these,
but this year
it needs to somehow include some water.
And then there's the epic slow-mo shot,
but, of course, gotta have googly eyes.
And then finally, a reverse video,
where you play a video backwards
that somehow incorporates food.
So this is your chance to show me
how creative you are.
You can get help filming
or film yourself
completing one of
these challenges.
Work with your parents.
Visit campcrunchlabs.com
to get that uploaded.
All right. Well, that's it.
I've got to take this dang suit off
and pack up this bad boy
and head off to next week's planet.
And you've got to start working
on your at-home Super Challenge
so I can show off my favorite ones
right here at Space Camp CrunchLabs.
[sighs] Here we go.
This is not gonna be easy.
[grunting]
[chair squeaking]
[closing theme music playing]
[music ends]