The Great Escapists (2021) s01e06 Episode Script
Lift Off
[suspenseful music]
[in Spanish] Have you seen
the satellite photo the boss gave me?
Let's have a look
Why would the narco gangs even go here?
It's no use to them.
I'm telling you,
this is going to be a waste of a day.
Hey, what's that?
Probably trash and driftwood.
Okay, it's the next beach.
What is that?
[suspenseful music]
[Tory] Well what do we do now,
call for help?
[Richard] Yeah, yeah.
Or, sit here and die.
Way to go, Mr. Make A Trap Guy.
[Richard] Do you have
those bird feeders in the States
with holes in so the birds
can peck the peanuts out?
Have you seen
the size of the vultures here?
They're just going to peck us out.
- Eat us out the bags.
- This is exactly how I wanted to go.
Stuck next to you,
eaten by buzzards.
Vultures.
How do you know so much about birds?
[Richard] I'm interested in birds, I was
reading about them in my book on birds.
Go on, Belleci, explain.
We were up there
for a long time.
Completely trapped.
Honestly, I thought we were both goners.
The truth is,
we built our traps too well.
[light music]
[Tory grunting]
You gotta help us, or we're going to die!
If you apologise for spilling my gin.
All right, all right,
I'm sorry I spilt your gin.
- You don't sound sorry.
- Richard,
please forgive me.
I apologise for spilling your gin.
- Happy?
- Yeah.
- Help me now?
- Yeah.
What do you want to do?
I'm thinking if we can swing together
we might be able to grab each other,
climb out or something.
You need to move away from your
own centre of gravity and build momentum.
[Tory] Just like a kid on a swing.
[Richard] Except we're two grown men
in a bag.
[Tory] It's simple physics. Here we go.
Now I've got it.
[Richard] My foot's stuck.
Here, grab my hand.
That's it.
- That's it, that's it!
- There's nothing I can do.
- I'm coming round, I'm coming round.
- Almost there
[grunting]
- I got it!
- There it is!
[Richard] Now what?
I'm going to swing you into the post.
Here we go.
[Richard grunting]
- I'm just going round and round, Tory.
- Okay
I got you.
- Ready?
- Yeah.
Yes!
[Richard] Hold on, I've had an idea.
- Why did you let go of the post?
- Because I've got what I need.
A piece of rope?
We're surrounded in rope.
Yeah, nylon rope.
Nylon has a weakness,
it's not good at temperature,
so I'm going to give it some friction.
Very clever.
Yeah, as the nylon heats up
with the friction,
it becomes weak and it snaps.
- [Richard laughing]
- You're smarter than you look.
[Richard] Another one.
- Like a cable saw.
- Yeah.
Just gotta get that heat into it.
You're doing it.
- It's going well.
- Keep going,
it's a matter of life and death.
You can feel the heat in it.
I reckon I might be able to get
through there.
Yeah! You're free!
[shouts of joy]
You did it!
- Solid ground, that is so good!
- I knew you could do it, Richard.
Wait, where are you going? Hey
Richard
Get back here, Richard!
Please
I wasn't going to leave you!
I thought you were gonna leave me
out here!
You had me for a second.
I've gotta cut you out of there
without hurting you.
Yeah, don't chop my legs off.
I won't chop your legs off!
Woohoo! I think that's good.
Stupid trap.
[Tory] Ah, that's nice.
Oh, it's nice to be free.
God, I'm starving.
[birds chirping]
[Richard] Wait a minute, it's a me.
What's a "me"?
A me bird.
A Hammond's flycatcher.
That is a bird that migrates
from Central America to Canada.
He's been blown off course.
Which is why it's landed here.
But that bird can't survive
more than 100 miles off course.
[Richard] There were
only four books on that island.
Three were my autobiographies.
Excellent reads.
And the other was a book
about birds I found on the boat.
Less interesting, obviously,
but that's where I read
about the Hammond's flycatcher.
I remembered its name
because I'm Richard Hammond.
So what are you saying,
that we're close to the mainland?
For that to be here, there must be land
about 100 miles or less from here.
Shut up!
You think we're probably
within 100 miles from the mainland?
Must be for that to have gotten here.
That's incredible that you would know
that ridiculous piece of information.
This is like such good news.
And here's another thing,
we've tried rafts, we sank all our boats,
we've lost the steam engine,
why don't we do what he did?
- Travel by air?
- You need some more water.
We're going to get off
the island by air.
[intriguing music]
You thought you could fly
off the island, like a bird?
[whistling]
[laughing]
[Tory] I was stuck on an island
with Hammond.
I was ready to try anything.
And until we saw that bird,
an air escape would have been insane,
but now we knew the distance
we were working with.
That changed everything.
[soft music]
[Tory] Well, a plane is definitely
out of the question.
We haven't got enough stuff to make one
and we'd need
a heck of a lot of precision.
Plus the only engines we've got
are really high revs,
we'd need a stepper gearbox
and we can't make one of those.
What about a helicopter?
You know how to fly one.
I know how to fly one
not how to build one.
They're too complicated,
too many moving parts,
too much precision required,
and we'd probably die if we did.
I tell you what we could build
A gyrocopter!
Gyrocopter?
Have you ever built one of those?
No.
- Have you ever flown one of those?
- No.
But the principles are fairly simple.
They're not actually
that complicated a device.
How hard could it be?
Is that what you're thinking?
It is doable,
we'd need a lot of aluminium.
[Tory] Well, I found some "aloominum."
We don't need "aloominum",
we need aluminium. Aluminium.
- "Aloominum" doesn't exist.
- I'll look for "aloominum."
You've never heard of a gyrocopter?
You know, like a really basic helicopter,
spins its blades by pushing them
through the wind?
Well, that's what we were making.
Not at first.
First, we made a model
to check the theory.
[intriguing music]
- It's going to work.
- Yeah, just like flying a kite.
- The wind is right.
- Yeah, the wind is perfect.
[Richard] So, recap.
Okay.
Unlike a helicopter, the main rotor
isn't driven on a gyrocopter.
Instead, it just has like a fan here
that drives it forward.
The wind turns this, but because
of this profile, it's generating lift.
It's like a wing moving forwards
through the air.
- Like an airplane wing.
- Exactly.
That's going round in a circle instead
of forwards, it's still moving in air.
The fact that we don't have
a very strong motor,
this is the perfect vehicle if it works.
So you need to hold it above your head,
I reckon about 35 degrees.
- Give me a little tension on the rope
- A little tension
[Tory] Let's see if
we can make this work.
Tell me when you're ready.
I'm totally ready.
[Tory] Ready here we go rotating.
All we need is a big gust now.
[both] Oh
[Richard] Oh yeah!
When you're ready,
I'm going to take
a few steps with it
Yeah, yeah, yeah
[Richard] Oh shi
And then you die.
[seagull crying]
That's like my first landing.
[Tory] The Wright brothers
didn't get it off the ground in one go.
[Richard] It's flight.
Just proving principles here.
[action music]
I think that's too steep an angle.
At that point,
you want the disc horizontal,
because the lift is going that way.
It's going to have to be horizontal
Just need a bit more wind coming in,
try and get it level
[Tory] This is it. I feel lift.
- I can feel tension in that string!
- Yeah!
[Tory] Wow!
- Wow!
- Woohoo!
Brief, but it flew!
- [Tory] It kinda worked!
- Yeah, we got lift.
The landing is the tricky part.
The landing we've got to work on.
It's the right way up,
I've seen it done worse.
Richard, this seems like
a suicide mission.
[Richard] It'll work, it's gonna work.
Theory proven.
[soft music]
All right, this is it,
the last of the hand railing.
Cool, I reckon we'll have enough
Just.
Are we kidding ourselves,
making a gyrocopter?
I feel like maybe
we've been on this island too long.
- No, it can be done.
- Do you remember how the raft went?
Yeah, it went really badly.
Really, really badly.
This, though, flight, is the answer.
You think the motor from
the go kart is gonna be strong enough?
Yeah!
Okay.
It's gonna be all
about power to weight ratio.
We haven't got a lot of power
from that engine,
but it's a very light machine.
You realise this isn't strong enough
to carry both our weight,
and I'm guessing you're going
to be the one that flies it off
because you have a pilot's license.
That makes sense.
[light music]
So, we're gonna fly off this island.
I know that sounds nuts but apparently
Richard thinks he can build a gyrocopter.
The only issue
is there's only room
for one person, so
If I never return
and you guys find this video,
just let it be known that Richard never
returned back to the island to rescue me.
[soft music]
Do you wanna lift it? Let's just see
how heavy this thing's getting.
- Not bad.
- That's not bad at all.
That is light and strong
There's a few bits missing,
we need a rotor.
The rotors are like
the most important bit,
you know that.
Yeah, it's critical.
[intriguing music]
[light music]
Right, this is going to be
Well, it's a wing, isn't it?
You've gotta think of it that way
because it generates lift from its shape.
We're going to have to make
sure that the corrugation is pounded out.
It will affect its efficiency
to how well shaped it is,
but it's not that it won't work.
What do you think?
That look like an airplane wing?
Yep, aerofoil.
Low pressure on top,
high pressure underneath,
it will generate lift
when it moves through the air.
As long as we just run this
along the metal
and just pound it to that shape.
It's going to take a long time.
[light music]
[sighing]
This is a fairytale.
You told us already
your gasoline had run out.
Don't lie to us, "Señor" Belleci.
Hold on. Yes, we were out of gas.
But we made hooch,
and there's ethanol in hooch.
Ethanol can run engines in theory.
If you guys don't believe me,
check Richard's phone,
he filmed the whole thing
for his stupid island show.
This is an opportunity,
let's make the most of it, come on.
Right, hold on
- You need help? I went to film school.
- I know you went to film school.
Yeah.
[Tory] 321.
Hello and welcome
to Hammondland TV.
Like and share.
Today we're gonna learn
how to make ethanol on a deserted
You're moving the camera about!
- This is Tory
- Hi.
- who's my friend.
- I'm going to be helping Richard today.
All right, just
You need three things:
fruit, water and lots of time.
Don't know what you can do for time.
Mash the fruit up,
then the fourth thing that you need
but I'm not allowed to tell you
that you need
because Tory says you'll get bored
- Shall we put it in the water?
- Is the audience bored?
We then seal this can up and leave it
with those naturally occurring yeasts
- [Tory snoring]
- And the yeasts will then
eat and feast
on what's coming out of the fruit,
and it will produce carbon dioxide
and ethanol.
Here's one we prepared earlier.
- Now you're getting the hang of it!
- Don't patronise me.
This is the key bit of this process.
Water boils at 100 degrees,
ethanol boils at 78 degrees,
so we want to raise the temperature
to somewhere between those two.
Ethanol will then travel
as a vapour through this pipe
and if we follow it along, it spirals
around this log, that's called a worm.
The idea is we pour
cooling water on this hose
and it will condense the ethanol out
more quickly.
- [Tory] Oh, hold that.
- I can't, it's really heavy!
[Richard] Come on, nobody wants to spend
their life watching water poured on a
It ends up in this pan down here.
Desert island made ethanol.
And this is the moment
you've all been waiting for.
Fire!
Get in close.
I'm not getting close,
I'll blow my head off!
[Tory whispering] Ethanol!
It works.
Say something.
It's on fire!
Say, like: "Subscribe to my channel."
- Subscribe to my channel.
- Yeah!
- Like and share.
- Hammondland!
Hammondland TV. It's got fire in it.
[soft music]
Hold it up, will you?
Let's have a look.
How did you decide on this length?
Did you just guess?
- The truth?
- Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean there probably is
an incredibly complex
aerodynamic equation to be done,
but what I've done is go for
the proportions you'd expect to see
on a rotary equipped
aircraft and it's about that.
[Tory] Maybe you're right.
If you think about it,
a longer wing means
more wing so that means more lift.
That's the length of the wing
plus the core,
that's that bit.
- We also have to think about weight.
- Yeah.
If things get too heavy,
we're never going to get off the ground.
And also just sheer inertia.
You've gotta get the thing moving.
It's only the wind moving this
so if you go too long, it won't turn.
- Yeah.
- So, I've guessed.
We're just gonna have to test it.
Can I suggest
we don't fit the engine to it first?
- There's a lower likelihood of death.
- We could drag it?
Exactly.
Pull it behind in the little car, then
we'll see if this generates enough lift
to get it off the ground.
- You up for this?
- Yeah.
- If this works
- I know!
- 100 miles, that's no joke.
Over the ocean, you by yourself.
- Me and the birds.
- What could possibly go wrong?
- You scared at all?
- No.
Yeah.
And then we reached
the moment of truth.
It was time for a test run.
Had we built a flying machine,
or just another way
to hurt Richard Hammond?
[soft music]
It's a very good idea to push it
and save fuel, I get that,
but this is quite hard work.
- Yeah but you know how long
it took to make this ethanol.
I don't want to waste any of it.
I get that.
All right, let's hope this works.
Well, the science is good,
an internal combustion engine
that runs on gas should run on ethanol.
It will. It might.
[Tory] OK.
- Just one bottle.
- Well, just for this test.
Ready?
Come on!
[engine revving]
- Ha ha! It works!
- Oh oh!
That is good news.
Great, save it.
- Okay.
- Right.
- Oh wow.
- OK, we've got fuel, so
If we can get enough speed,
the wing starts spinning
just because the wind turns it,
and then it becomes what we
in the helicoptering world call,
a disc.
- Your helicopter would have the engine.
But the engine
would be driving the blades.
That's where the lift comes from.
In the case of this,
you're going to pull it along.
That's where
I use this control and pull back.
That takes the whole disc,
all of that, back like that,
so the wind's rushing through it,
spins it up,
then as I level it out it should
- Give us lift.
- Yeah.
Remember, all of the lift
is generated by wind turning this,
so you are my engine.
- So I'm gonna have to floor it.
- Yeah.
Shall we have a safety word.
If you're not feeling safe about this?
Yeah, if I go
[screaming]
stop.
[Tory] Okay.
[Richard] Right. Now if
you start it spinning,
'cause that'll
make it easy to get it going.
OK
- Come on, we're gonna do it.
- Good luck.
This is exciting,
we are the Wright Brothers,
only better looking!
[suspenseful music]
Standing by.
Are you ready?
[Richard] I'm good!
All right, here we go!
[action music]
[Richard] This is good.
It's turning, the wing is turning,
It's getting faster!
[Tory] Yeah, you're looking good!
You need to go faster, it's turning!
This is as fast as I can go!
- It's going light!
- Come on, Richard!
- It's going light!
- Come on!
I can feel it starting to lift.
It's gonna lift
It's lifting!
Woohoo!
- Wait a minute, I'm going up!
- Oh my God, it's working!
Yes!
The rotor is generating lift,
it is working!
It's working!
It makes lift! It flies!
It flies!
It's not easy to fly but it flies.
Look out, crabs!
Wait a minute
[laughing]
It is like losing a fight with
a drunk horse, but it's gonna work.
[laughing]
Yes! Yes!
[Tory] It worked.
You got up in the air!
Did you see me?
- You were flying!
- I was flying.
- It felt amazing.
- I can't believe it.
I thought this was the most
insane idea you ever came up with
And yet
Right, so, thinking about it,
that motor in that go kart
has already got it airborne
because that's where the drive was coming
from, so we know it's up to it.
It's got enough power.
So, we gotta build the prop
and fit that motor
to our gyrocopter.
This is our ticket off the island!
This is a ticket out of here,
and it's not just a ticket,
it's a really cool, stylish one.
- Yes!
- I will sell a lot of books
Say goodbye to this island!
There's a way to leave here in style!
Wait, what did you say?
- Sell a book?
- People want to know,
because you know, we did a really
cool thing to get off the island,
we didn't just build
I'm going to go start working
on the motor.
Yeah Can you give me
a tow back to the workshop?
Why don't you fly back?
[Richard] As the chief test pilot,
I was satisfied the rotor worked,
so then we transplanted
the go kart engine
onto the gyrocopter so we were
ready for self-propelled flight
Aren't you impressed with any of this?
[Richard] You try building
a gyrocopter on a desert island!
- Are you sure about this?
- I'm positive.
It should be quite a benign thing to fly,
the propeller will push me along,
when it gets this disc spinning up,
there's my lift, I've got my joystick
that controls the angle of the disc.
Remember, you're the one
that's piloting this thing.
Yeah, I know.
- That's what makes me nervous.
- I'm just gonna test it,
I'm gonna have a little fly around,
get a feel for it
Did you go to the bathroom?
Yes, I did.
Gas? Check.
Helmet? Check.
Seatbelt? Check.
Massive balls?
Two checks.
There it is.
- Godspeed.
- Thank you.
Hopefully we'll see you
on the ground in one piece.
Okay, Stand back
whilst I take to the sky.
- I'll see ya on the ground.
- Yeah!
- In one piece!
- Yeah!
- You can do this, Richard!
- Yeah!
You can do this!
I'm not sure I can do this.
Okay, let's try.
[engine revving]
Woohoo! Oh yeah!
Going to be flying
[epic music]
Oh my word!
It works, it totally works!
[Tory shouting]
It works!
It works!
[Richard] This is brilliant!
It's like a helicopter but not.
Wow, it can turn.
[Tory] Wow, he is really good at that.
[Richard] You have to try this!
Incoming!
[Tory shouting]
Be careful! Go higher, higher!
Duck!
Yeah!
Godspeed, Richard!
[Richard] This really could be
our ticket to freedom.
Don't forget to come back for me!
[engine stopping]
Fuel, that doesn't sound good
[dramatic music]
I'm gonna land, I'm gonna land!
[screaming] Tory!
Mind out!
[Richard screaming]
It works! You did it!
[Richard] Wait a minute,
I've gotta sort stuff out!
You did it! You did it!
I totally flew, it totally worked.
[Tory] Oh my God!
[laughing]
- It worked!
- That was extraordinary!
- And you didn't crash!
- Did you see me?
It's like nothing else I've ever done.
It's the coolest thing
I've ever, ever done!
I thought you were going
to leave me here!
Mate, I'd never do that.
You just took off
and I couldn't see you anymore.
I can't believe it worked.
- We're getting off this island!
- Just one issue.
What?
What's the issue? It worked.
- It works.
- Yeah.
This thing drinks fuel.
It's drunk everything we put in it,
all the ethanol we made.
- Are we empty?
- Yeah.
There is no way
this machine could ever carry on board
enough fuel to cover 100 miles.
It would have to carry
gallon after gallon of it,
it would be too heavy to take off.
What if we lightened it, or what if
you didn't fly it like a bat out of hell?
Maybe you just went a little
slower to conserve fuel?
No, because bear in mind,
that motor is only driving the propeller
so it's as efficient as it's gonna be.
It's back to the drawing board.
OK, on the plus side,
we get another engineering challenge to
think about, you know how you love that,
and we have the best toy.
I mean if
we're stuck on here another year,
I am gonna be so good
at flying one of these by the end of it.
Just little flights.
So frankly, I'm gonna go to bed,
sleep off my excitement and I'm gonna
have another go at this tomorrow
once I've made a bit more ethanol.
'Cause it rocks.
I was so hopeful.
Did you hear how low
I was able to bring the engine,
there were really tight turns,
because then you're spinning up the disc.
If you think it's dropping
through the air like that
so even more air is going
through the disc.
It's generating more lift
and then when I come out of the turn
[sad music]
The thing you need to know about
Tory is he doesn't know when to quit.
[light music]
What ya doing?
[Tory] I had an idea.
There was a story a long time ago
about a guy who took weather balloons,
filled them with helium,
attached them to a lawn chair
and actually flew.
Got up to maybe like 15,000 feet.
- That was a myth.
- No, it was confirmed.
Maybe that's how we get off this island.
Maybe we try to do the same thing.
So we need a load of balloons.
Remember when we found these containers,
and we found all these?
I see but they'd have to be very strong.
They're designed not to burst,
that's their job.
Good point, but hang on,
where we gonna get helium from?
Helium is out of the question,
but we can make hydrogen.
It's lighter than helium, all we have
to do is split water molecules.
- Oh, I'll go sharpen the chisel.
- Ha ha!
Here, take these.
We've got some work to do.
[light music]
Now remember when
I made the welder out of the batteries?
Now we're going to use them
to make hydrogen.
So water is H2O.
[Tory] There's 2 hydrogen,
and 1 oxygen.
So we've just got to split
the H from the O.
All we need to do is shock them out.
Is it going to work?
Don't know, the science is right.
OK, leads
If you need me to do anything, just say.
Can you go get me some water?
Where would I find any water?
I don't know, where would we find water?
[light music]
So you just go ahead
and fill this up.
So that is H2O.
Salt water's very conductive, isn't it?
We need electrolytes in the water,
that's for sure.
Those are the rods?
Yeah, as I bring
the two welding rods together,
I'll create an arc, that will start
splitting the water molecules
and that will create our hydrogen.
We're trapping it into this hose.
If we see bubbles,
that's hydrogen,
and that's what we're
going to use to fill our balloons.
But you're splitting water molecules,
not atoms.
No, not atoms,
that would be very bad.
If you're splitting atoms,
I want to stand further back.
We'd kill ourselves.
OK, you ready?
- Not really.
- Here we go.
- [Richard stuttering]
- Whatever you do,
don't look at the arc.
I know how you like shiny things,
but don't, you'll go blind.
- I want to see what's going on.
- Don't look at that.
Look at that.
Why did you put
the thing that I have to look at
right next to the thing
that I'll go blind if I look at?
That's a good point.
- Ready?
- Not really.
[Tory] Here we go.
Bang! [laughing]
[suspenseful music]
This is very Frankenstein's monster
- I looked at the light.
- Don't look at the light!
Stay away from the light!
- [Richard] Yes, there are bubbles!
- Is it working?
[Richard] Oh my word, it lives, it lives!
- [Tory] It's alive!
- You, my friend,
are making hydrogen.
[Tory] It's working!
That is really clever stuff
going on in there.
You wanna get a balloon
and fill it up, let's see if it floats?
Yeah, I'm excited, I need one of these.
- I have a balloon.
- Fill it up.
That's good.
- Is it filling?
- You're filling my balloon.
That is hydrogen, in there.
All right
[Tory] Let's see if it floats.
I've never been any good
at balloon knots.
I never did children's parties.
[gas hissing]
Don't let the hydrogen out.
You need help?
Oh.
It's burst.
Long term,
that could be a disaster.
All right, let's try it again.
I can't keep this going forever.
Oh, you're always in a rush.
Hold on
I seem to remember they used to use
hydrogen in balloons quite a lot,
but now they don't do it so much.
Why would that be?
Hello!
[Tory] Yeah!
[Richard] Now, the balloon knot.
- [Tory] Do you need a hand with that?
- No you'll make it worse.
- All right!
- Oh yeah!
Let's pretend this is the actual event.
By rights this should float.
Okay
- Oh yes!
- Oh
- Up and away to freedom!
- This is so good.
We're going to need more
than one of those.
We're going to need thousands.
So we're going to have
to industrialise our hydrogen production.
If we're going to lift both our weights,
we're going to need a lot of balloons.
And I mean a lot.
We'll have
to do some experimentation.
[soft music]
[Richard] Not to blow our own trumpets,
but, erm, we created hydrogen.
And then we created a lot more.
Tory zapping water, me filling
every balloon we could lay our hand on.
Which was how many?
Ah, Tory did the math bit.
[intriguing music]
[Tory mumbling]
All right then Stephen Hawking,
what are you doing?
I'm glad you're here,
I've done the math, and it turns out
each of our balloons will lift
7.5g of weight.
Your weight is about 75kg,
my weight is about 85kg.
Now we're going to use
the frame from our gyrocopter,
it's aluminium, it's light.
That is going to give us about 235kg.
- That's us plus the frame?
- Yes.
That gives us a whopping
31,333 balloons.
That's a lot of balloons.
If we start going too high,
we can pop some of the balloons
and that will bring us back down
closer to the ground,
but I think before we go for the flight,
we should send Clarkson up
just to make sure it's safe.
Yeah, he'll do that.
[light music]
We're getting off the island
using hydrogen,
so hopefully I never have to make
another one of these messages again.
Now I know I've said this
many times before,
but this time,
we are going to escape.
But if we don't escape
I hope you find this message,
and whatever's left of my dead body.
[soft music]
Hey, what did you do to the gyrocopter?
I have been brilliant.
I've stripped it of everything
we don't need so this is the bare bones,
and this is the lightest thing
we can make
because we've made it out of aluminium.
- Aloo Whatever.
So I've stripped it of everything we
don't need and I've added
Yes, we needed
some means of deciding our direction.
So this chain, if you help me put it on,
that drives this fan,
which in turn,
can be steered by the rear passenger.
- That's great!
- So if you point that west,
we will go east to our salvation.
Hopefully this will be strong enough
to overcome the winds.
Yeah, it will.
don't forget it's not generating
any lift, that's purely directional.
All it's giving us is control.
- This a bucket seat?
- Yes.
A bucket seat.
These are the lightest seats
I could make,
because anything we add to this
means more balloons.
[Tory] We should probably
make seatbelts for these.
If it crashes from the sky,
you think being strapped to it will help?
No I just want to make sure
I stay strapped to it.
- I think we should try it.
- Okay.
Yeah
[Richard] Oh!
I pedal like this, driving the fan,
and then you can steer it.
- Hey, Richard?
- What?
- That's an issue, isn't it?
- It's a huge issue.
Look it's all for lightness!
Just try how light this thing is.
- Shall we lift it?
- Yeah. See if we can.
Come on, that's not bad, is it?
That's actually pretty light.
What was our target, 75kg?
I don't think it's that.
"Well done, Richard,
for building the airframe."
- Yeah!
- I am pretty proud.
It definitely looks like something.
The freedom machine.
Like something out of "Mary Poppins."
You know that movie, huh?
Yeah, they guy who couldn't talk English.
[soft music]
See, I think you'll agree
that is pretty light!
Yeah, but I mean
We don't really need these wheels.
We're not landing anymore,
it's not actually a gyrocopter.
- But we are landing.
- Yeah but that's just extra weight.
[Richard] I suppose we won't be doing
a runway. OK, take them off.
[Tory] We need this to be
as light as possible.
- Let's get some balloons.
- OK, a lot of them.
[soft music]
Captain's log
It doesn't really matter what number
it is because this is the last one.
This is it. I didn't think
this day would ever actually come.
We're leaving,
so it's bye-bye Hammondland,
bye-bye beautiful treehouse,
bye-bye Monster the chicken,
bye-bye my own kingdom.
[Tory] All right,
let's see if she'll lift
[Richard] Clarkson, this is a brave
thing you're doing for us, buddy.
[Tory] This could be freedom for us.
[Richard] Yes, this could be it.
He is secure.
You can feel it's at that point where
it just wants to leave the ground.
- [Tory] We'll take off the ballasts
- And see if it goes.
[Tory] Whoa, we have lift!
- Do we have lift?
- Yes!
It's lifting!
[Richard] Yes, there is lift,
I can feel it! That is lift!
We're getting off this island!
[both] Oh
[Richard] Do you want to put another
sandbag on? I've got a sandbag here.
[Tory] We need one more over here.
There.
I'm kind of sad we're leaving now,
just a little.
[Richard] It's quite an exciting way
of leaving, isn't it?
[suspenseful music]
[in Spanish] Okay, it's the next beach.
What is that?
[Richard] Hindenburg!
That's why people don't use
hydrogen anymore.
Yeah, it is very flammable
but that's our only option.
But don't balloons make
a lot of static electricity?
- [action music]
- [sirens]
[in Spanish] All units backup.
This is Charlie Oscar Kilo.
And that's when your guys
showed up.
I was so happy to see them!
[Richard] The sight of other humans
coming to save us!
I didn't know what to say!
[Tory] Then we realized
they were pretty annoyed.
The explosion seemed to put them on edge.
[Richard] I mean,
who did they think they were arresting,
the world's scruffiest drug barons?
[light music]
Do you even realise why you're here?
Why we've asked all these questions?
[stressful music]
What, you don't think
we're drug overlords?
[detective] We've scoured the island.
He cannot be found.
Where is the third castaway?
What have you done with him?
What have we done with who?
There was only ever
Tory and me on the island.
This doesn't make any sense.
If there was no one else
on the island,
how does a sail disappear
then appear again
in a completely
different place, hm?
Ah
Okay, okay, you got me
Bang to rights
It was me.
I did it.
He did what?
It was a joke
Look, we'd just been shipwrecked,
I wasn't going back out on that water,
especially in a "Belleci boat,"
so I hid it.
I didn't think
he'd freak out about it.
You mean you knew
there was no-one else on the island
but you still built the man-traps?
Yeah.
Again, it was a bit of fun,
and we did catch a chicken!
[Monster cackling]
- And two turkeys.
- It's a bit rude!
Can I go, now?
No.
Tell me about the man you call Clarkson.
He did everything with you guys.
Clarkson?
Yeah, I suppose he did, bless him.
He survived the shipwreck with us
Ah, look at you, old, leathery,
peeling and out of shape.
And he was at the race!
[Tory] Come on, screw-tank!
Ow! Ow!
That wooden car was brilliant!
Oh yeah, he tested the hammocks.
[Tory screaming]
He was our figurehead
on the steam boat
Tory, I'm sinking!
That was a pretty epic build.
The 4th of July party,
that was Clarkson's idea.
[Tory screaming]
I'm gonna die!
[Tory] When we went to war
he was my ally.
You've taken Clarkson?
He saw me fly the gyrocopter.
[laughing]
Incoming!
I can't believe
we got that thing airborne!
[Richard] It's a brave thing
you're doing for us, buddy.
And he was testing
the balloon airship when it blew up.
[detective] Exactly.
In your own words.
you blew up Clarkson!
Yep!
So you admit it.
You admit to murdering the third
castaway called Clarkson?
- What?
- Why?
Did you lose patience with him?
No more than usual.
- Were you tired of his ideas?
- It's not like that!
But you blew him up!
We knocked the stuffing out of him, yeah.
You disgust me.
Why are you so cross? So we blew up
a sack and a football with a face on it.
You what?
A football face?
Clarkson is just a dummy?
He certainly is!
Well, in this case, he literally is. Was.
[knocking]
You people are lunatics.
[door closing]
[in Spanish] They found nothing.
Give it here.
The whole thing is true?
[in English] So, "Señor" Hammond
The lab results confirm your story.
There was no DNA
found in the explosion,
only some pieces of old football
So
It appears we have no grounds
upon which to hold you and you
are free to go.
But remember this, Mr. Hammond
we will be watching you
Well, it's been lovely to chat.
Good to prove there was
no wrongdoing of any sort.
Where's good
to get a drink around here?
Thank you, thank you so much.
Thank you.
[upbeat music]
Mate!
How could you?
Yeah, I got carried away.
- I need a drink.
- Yeah. You need a drink.
We need a vacation.
[in Spanish] Have you seen
the satellite photo the boss gave me?
Let's have a look
Why would the narco gangs even go here?
It's no use to them.
I'm telling you,
this is going to be a waste of a day.
Hey, what's that?
Probably trash and driftwood.
Okay, it's the next beach.
What is that?
[suspenseful music]
[Tory] Well what do we do now,
call for help?
[Richard] Yeah, yeah.
Or, sit here and die.
Way to go, Mr. Make A Trap Guy.
[Richard] Do you have
those bird feeders in the States
with holes in so the birds
can peck the peanuts out?
Have you seen
the size of the vultures here?
They're just going to peck us out.
- Eat us out the bags.
- This is exactly how I wanted to go.
Stuck next to you,
eaten by buzzards.
Vultures.
How do you know so much about birds?
[Richard] I'm interested in birds, I was
reading about them in my book on birds.
Go on, Belleci, explain.
We were up there
for a long time.
Completely trapped.
Honestly, I thought we were both goners.
The truth is,
we built our traps too well.
[light music]
[Tory grunting]
You gotta help us, or we're going to die!
If you apologise for spilling my gin.
All right, all right,
I'm sorry I spilt your gin.
- You don't sound sorry.
- Richard,
please forgive me.
I apologise for spilling your gin.
- Happy?
- Yeah.
- Help me now?
- Yeah.
What do you want to do?
I'm thinking if we can swing together
we might be able to grab each other,
climb out or something.
You need to move away from your
own centre of gravity and build momentum.
[Tory] Just like a kid on a swing.
[Richard] Except we're two grown men
in a bag.
[Tory] It's simple physics. Here we go.
Now I've got it.
[Richard] My foot's stuck.
Here, grab my hand.
That's it.
- That's it, that's it!
- There's nothing I can do.
- I'm coming round, I'm coming round.
- Almost there
[grunting]
- I got it!
- There it is!
[Richard] Now what?
I'm going to swing you into the post.
Here we go.
[Richard grunting]
- I'm just going round and round, Tory.
- Okay
I got you.
- Ready?
- Yeah.
Yes!
[Richard] Hold on, I've had an idea.
- Why did you let go of the post?
- Because I've got what I need.
A piece of rope?
We're surrounded in rope.
Yeah, nylon rope.
Nylon has a weakness,
it's not good at temperature,
so I'm going to give it some friction.
Very clever.
Yeah, as the nylon heats up
with the friction,
it becomes weak and it snaps.
- [Richard laughing]
- You're smarter than you look.
[Richard] Another one.
- Like a cable saw.
- Yeah.
Just gotta get that heat into it.
You're doing it.
- It's going well.
- Keep going,
it's a matter of life and death.
You can feel the heat in it.
I reckon I might be able to get
through there.
Yeah! You're free!
[shouts of joy]
You did it!
- Solid ground, that is so good!
- I knew you could do it, Richard.
Wait, where are you going? Hey
Richard
Get back here, Richard!
Please
I wasn't going to leave you!
I thought you were gonna leave me
out here!
You had me for a second.
I've gotta cut you out of there
without hurting you.
Yeah, don't chop my legs off.
I won't chop your legs off!
Woohoo! I think that's good.
Stupid trap.
[Tory] Ah, that's nice.
Oh, it's nice to be free.
God, I'm starving.
[birds chirping]
[Richard] Wait a minute, it's a me.
What's a "me"?
A me bird.
A Hammond's flycatcher.
That is a bird that migrates
from Central America to Canada.
He's been blown off course.
Which is why it's landed here.
But that bird can't survive
more than 100 miles off course.
[Richard] There were
only four books on that island.
Three were my autobiographies.
Excellent reads.
And the other was a book
about birds I found on the boat.
Less interesting, obviously,
but that's where I read
about the Hammond's flycatcher.
I remembered its name
because I'm Richard Hammond.
So what are you saying,
that we're close to the mainland?
For that to be here, there must be land
about 100 miles or less from here.
Shut up!
You think we're probably
within 100 miles from the mainland?
Must be for that to have gotten here.
That's incredible that you would know
that ridiculous piece of information.
This is like such good news.
And here's another thing,
we've tried rafts, we sank all our boats,
we've lost the steam engine,
why don't we do what he did?
- Travel by air?
- You need some more water.
We're going to get off
the island by air.
[intriguing music]
You thought you could fly
off the island, like a bird?
[whistling]
[laughing]
[Tory] I was stuck on an island
with Hammond.
I was ready to try anything.
And until we saw that bird,
an air escape would have been insane,
but now we knew the distance
we were working with.
That changed everything.
[soft music]
[Tory] Well, a plane is definitely
out of the question.
We haven't got enough stuff to make one
and we'd need
a heck of a lot of precision.
Plus the only engines we've got
are really high revs,
we'd need a stepper gearbox
and we can't make one of those.
What about a helicopter?
You know how to fly one.
I know how to fly one
not how to build one.
They're too complicated,
too many moving parts,
too much precision required,
and we'd probably die if we did.
I tell you what we could build
A gyrocopter!
Gyrocopter?
Have you ever built one of those?
No.
- Have you ever flown one of those?
- No.
But the principles are fairly simple.
They're not actually
that complicated a device.
How hard could it be?
Is that what you're thinking?
It is doable,
we'd need a lot of aluminium.
[Tory] Well, I found some "aloominum."
We don't need "aloominum",
we need aluminium. Aluminium.
- "Aloominum" doesn't exist.
- I'll look for "aloominum."
You've never heard of a gyrocopter?
You know, like a really basic helicopter,
spins its blades by pushing them
through the wind?
Well, that's what we were making.
Not at first.
First, we made a model
to check the theory.
[intriguing music]
- It's going to work.
- Yeah, just like flying a kite.
- The wind is right.
- Yeah, the wind is perfect.
[Richard] So, recap.
Okay.
Unlike a helicopter, the main rotor
isn't driven on a gyrocopter.
Instead, it just has like a fan here
that drives it forward.
The wind turns this, but because
of this profile, it's generating lift.
It's like a wing moving forwards
through the air.
- Like an airplane wing.
- Exactly.
That's going round in a circle instead
of forwards, it's still moving in air.
The fact that we don't have
a very strong motor,
this is the perfect vehicle if it works.
So you need to hold it above your head,
I reckon about 35 degrees.
- Give me a little tension on the rope
- A little tension
[Tory] Let's see if
we can make this work.
Tell me when you're ready.
I'm totally ready.
[Tory] Ready here we go rotating.
All we need is a big gust now.
[both] Oh
[Richard] Oh yeah!
When you're ready,
I'm going to take
a few steps with it
Yeah, yeah, yeah
[Richard] Oh shi
And then you die.
[seagull crying]
That's like my first landing.
[Tory] The Wright brothers
didn't get it off the ground in one go.
[Richard] It's flight.
Just proving principles here.
[action music]
I think that's too steep an angle.
At that point,
you want the disc horizontal,
because the lift is going that way.
It's going to have to be horizontal
Just need a bit more wind coming in,
try and get it level
[Tory] This is it. I feel lift.
- I can feel tension in that string!
- Yeah!
[Tory] Wow!
- Wow!
- Woohoo!
Brief, but it flew!
- [Tory] It kinda worked!
- Yeah, we got lift.
The landing is the tricky part.
The landing we've got to work on.
It's the right way up,
I've seen it done worse.
Richard, this seems like
a suicide mission.
[Richard] It'll work, it's gonna work.
Theory proven.
[soft music]
All right, this is it,
the last of the hand railing.
Cool, I reckon we'll have enough
Just.
Are we kidding ourselves,
making a gyrocopter?
I feel like maybe
we've been on this island too long.
- No, it can be done.
- Do you remember how the raft went?
Yeah, it went really badly.
Really, really badly.
This, though, flight, is the answer.
You think the motor from
the go kart is gonna be strong enough?
Yeah!
Okay.
It's gonna be all
about power to weight ratio.
We haven't got a lot of power
from that engine,
but it's a very light machine.
You realise this isn't strong enough
to carry both our weight,
and I'm guessing you're going
to be the one that flies it off
because you have a pilot's license.
That makes sense.
[light music]
So, we're gonna fly off this island.
I know that sounds nuts but apparently
Richard thinks he can build a gyrocopter.
The only issue
is there's only room
for one person, so
If I never return
and you guys find this video,
just let it be known that Richard never
returned back to the island to rescue me.
[soft music]
Do you wanna lift it? Let's just see
how heavy this thing's getting.
- Not bad.
- That's not bad at all.
That is light and strong
There's a few bits missing,
we need a rotor.
The rotors are like
the most important bit,
you know that.
Yeah, it's critical.
[intriguing music]
[light music]
Right, this is going to be
Well, it's a wing, isn't it?
You've gotta think of it that way
because it generates lift from its shape.
We're going to have to make
sure that the corrugation is pounded out.
It will affect its efficiency
to how well shaped it is,
but it's not that it won't work.
What do you think?
That look like an airplane wing?
Yep, aerofoil.
Low pressure on top,
high pressure underneath,
it will generate lift
when it moves through the air.
As long as we just run this
along the metal
and just pound it to that shape.
It's going to take a long time.
[light music]
[sighing]
This is a fairytale.
You told us already
your gasoline had run out.
Don't lie to us, "Señor" Belleci.
Hold on. Yes, we were out of gas.
But we made hooch,
and there's ethanol in hooch.
Ethanol can run engines in theory.
If you guys don't believe me,
check Richard's phone,
he filmed the whole thing
for his stupid island show.
This is an opportunity,
let's make the most of it, come on.
Right, hold on
- You need help? I went to film school.
- I know you went to film school.
Yeah.
[Tory] 321.
Hello and welcome
to Hammondland TV.
Like and share.
Today we're gonna learn
how to make ethanol on a deserted
You're moving the camera about!
- This is Tory
- Hi.
- who's my friend.
- I'm going to be helping Richard today.
All right, just
You need three things:
fruit, water and lots of time.
Don't know what you can do for time.
Mash the fruit up,
then the fourth thing that you need
but I'm not allowed to tell you
that you need
because Tory says you'll get bored
- Shall we put it in the water?
- Is the audience bored?
We then seal this can up and leave it
with those naturally occurring yeasts
- [Tory snoring]
- And the yeasts will then
eat and feast
on what's coming out of the fruit,
and it will produce carbon dioxide
and ethanol.
Here's one we prepared earlier.
- Now you're getting the hang of it!
- Don't patronise me.
This is the key bit of this process.
Water boils at 100 degrees,
ethanol boils at 78 degrees,
so we want to raise the temperature
to somewhere between those two.
Ethanol will then travel
as a vapour through this pipe
and if we follow it along, it spirals
around this log, that's called a worm.
The idea is we pour
cooling water on this hose
and it will condense the ethanol out
more quickly.
- [Tory] Oh, hold that.
- I can't, it's really heavy!
[Richard] Come on, nobody wants to spend
their life watching water poured on a
It ends up in this pan down here.
Desert island made ethanol.
And this is the moment
you've all been waiting for.
Fire!
Get in close.
I'm not getting close,
I'll blow my head off!
[Tory whispering] Ethanol!
It works.
Say something.
It's on fire!
Say, like: "Subscribe to my channel."
- Subscribe to my channel.
- Yeah!
- Like and share.
- Hammondland!
Hammondland TV. It's got fire in it.
[soft music]
Hold it up, will you?
Let's have a look.
How did you decide on this length?
Did you just guess?
- The truth?
- Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean there probably is
an incredibly complex
aerodynamic equation to be done,
but what I've done is go for
the proportions you'd expect to see
on a rotary equipped
aircraft and it's about that.
[Tory] Maybe you're right.
If you think about it,
a longer wing means
more wing so that means more lift.
That's the length of the wing
plus the core,
that's that bit.
- We also have to think about weight.
- Yeah.
If things get too heavy,
we're never going to get off the ground.
And also just sheer inertia.
You've gotta get the thing moving.
It's only the wind moving this
so if you go too long, it won't turn.
- Yeah.
- So, I've guessed.
We're just gonna have to test it.
Can I suggest
we don't fit the engine to it first?
- There's a lower likelihood of death.
- We could drag it?
Exactly.
Pull it behind in the little car, then
we'll see if this generates enough lift
to get it off the ground.
- You up for this?
- Yeah.
- If this works
- I know!
- 100 miles, that's no joke.
Over the ocean, you by yourself.
- Me and the birds.
- What could possibly go wrong?
- You scared at all?
- No.
Yeah.
And then we reached
the moment of truth.
It was time for a test run.
Had we built a flying machine,
or just another way
to hurt Richard Hammond?
[soft music]
It's a very good idea to push it
and save fuel, I get that,
but this is quite hard work.
- Yeah but you know how long
it took to make this ethanol.
I don't want to waste any of it.
I get that.
All right, let's hope this works.
Well, the science is good,
an internal combustion engine
that runs on gas should run on ethanol.
It will. It might.
[Tory] OK.
- Just one bottle.
- Well, just for this test.
Ready?
Come on!
[engine revving]
- Ha ha! It works!
- Oh oh!
That is good news.
Great, save it.
- Okay.
- Right.
- Oh wow.
- OK, we've got fuel, so
If we can get enough speed,
the wing starts spinning
just because the wind turns it,
and then it becomes what we
in the helicoptering world call,
a disc.
- Your helicopter would have the engine.
But the engine
would be driving the blades.
That's where the lift comes from.
In the case of this,
you're going to pull it along.
That's where
I use this control and pull back.
That takes the whole disc,
all of that, back like that,
so the wind's rushing through it,
spins it up,
then as I level it out it should
- Give us lift.
- Yeah.
Remember, all of the lift
is generated by wind turning this,
so you are my engine.
- So I'm gonna have to floor it.
- Yeah.
Shall we have a safety word.
If you're not feeling safe about this?
Yeah, if I go
[screaming]
stop.
[Tory] Okay.
[Richard] Right. Now if
you start it spinning,
'cause that'll
make it easy to get it going.
OK
- Come on, we're gonna do it.
- Good luck.
This is exciting,
we are the Wright Brothers,
only better looking!
[suspenseful music]
Standing by.
Are you ready?
[Richard] I'm good!
All right, here we go!
[action music]
[Richard] This is good.
It's turning, the wing is turning,
It's getting faster!
[Tory] Yeah, you're looking good!
You need to go faster, it's turning!
This is as fast as I can go!
- It's going light!
- Come on, Richard!
- It's going light!
- Come on!
I can feel it starting to lift.
It's gonna lift
It's lifting!
Woohoo!
- Wait a minute, I'm going up!
- Oh my God, it's working!
Yes!
The rotor is generating lift,
it is working!
It's working!
It makes lift! It flies!
It flies!
It's not easy to fly but it flies.
Look out, crabs!
Wait a minute
[laughing]
It is like losing a fight with
a drunk horse, but it's gonna work.
[laughing]
Yes! Yes!
[Tory] It worked.
You got up in the air!
Did you see me?
- You were flying!
- I was flying.
- It felt amazing.
- I can't believe it.
I thought this was the most
insane idea you ever came up with
And yet
Right, so, thinking about it,
that motor in that go kart
has already got it airborne
because that's where the drive was coming
from, so we know it's up to it.
It's got enough power.
So, we gotta build the prop
and fit that motor
to our gyrocopter.
This is our ticket off the island!
This is a ticket out of here,
and it's not just a ticket,
it's a really cool, stylish one.
- Yes!
- I will sell a lot of books
Say goodbye to this island!
There's a way to leave here in style!
Wait, what did you say?
- Sell a book?
- People want to know,
because you know, we did a really
cool thing to get off the island,
we didn't just build
I'm going to go start working
on the motor.
Yeah Can you give me
a tow back to the workshop?
Why don't you fly back?
[Richard] As the chief test pilot,
I was satisfied the rotor worked,
so then we transplanted
the go kart engine
onto the gyrocopter so we were
ready for self-propelled flight
Aren't you impressed with any of this?
[Richard] You try building
a gyrocopter on a desert island!
- Are you sure about this?
- I'm positive.
It should be quite a benign thing to fly,
the propeller will push me along,
when it gets this disc spinning up,
there's my lift, I've got my joystick
that controls the angle of the disc.
Remember, you're the one
that's piloting this thing.
Yeah, I know.
- That's what makes me nervous.
- I'm just gonna test it,
I'm gonna have a little fly around,
get a feel for it
Did you go to the bathroom?
Yes, I did.
Gas? Check.
Helmet? Check.
Seatbelt? Check.
Massive balls?
Two checks.
There it is.
- Godspeed.
- Thank you.
Hopefully we'll see you
on the ground in one piece.
Okay, Stand back
whilst I take to the sky.
- I'll see ya on the ground.
- Yeah!
- In one piece!
- Yeah!
- You can do this, Richard!
- Yeah!
You can do this!
I'm not sure I can do this.
Okay, let's try.
[engine revving]
Woohoo! Oh yeah!
Going to be flying
[epic music]
Oh my word!
It works, it totally works!
[Tory shouting]
It works!
It works!
[Richard] This is brilliant!
It's like a helicopter but not.
Wow, it can turn.
[Tory] Wow, he is really good at that.
[Richard] You have to try this!
Incoming!
[Tory shouting]
Be careful! Go higher, higher!
Duck!
Yeah!
Godspeed, Richard!
[Richard] This really could be
our ticket to freedom.
Don't forget to come back for me!
[engine stopping]
Fuel, that doesn't sound good
[dramatic music]
I'm gonna land, I'm gonna land!
[screaming] Tory!
Mind out!
[Richard screaming]
It works! You did it!
[Richard] Wait a minute,
I've gotta sort stuff out!
You did it! You did it!
I totally flew, it totally worked.
[Tory] Oh my God!
[laughing]
- It worked!
- That was extraordinary!
- And you didn't crash!
- Did you see me?
It's like nothing else I've ever done.
It's the coolest thing
I've ever, ever done!
I thought you were going
to leave me here!
Mate, I'd never do that.
You just took off
and I couldn't see you anymore.
I can't believe it worked.
- We're getting off this island!
- Just one issue.
What?
What's the issue? It worked.
- It works.
- Yeah.
This thing drinks fuel.
It's drunk everything we put in it,
all the ethanol we made.
- Are we empty?
- Yeah.
There is no way
this machine could ever carry on board
enough fuel to cover 100 miles.
It would have to carry
gallon after gallon of it,
it would be too heavy to take off.
What if we lightened it, or what if
you didn't fly it like a bat out of hell?
Maybe you just went a little
slower to conserve fuel?
No, because bear in mind,
that motor is only driving the propeller
so it's as efficient as it's gonna be.
It's back to the drawing board.
OK, on the plus side,
we get another engineering challenge to
think about, you know how you love that,
and we have the best toy.
I mean if
we're stuck on here another year,
I am gonna be so good
at flying one of these by the end of it.
Just little flights.
So frankly, I'm gonna go to bed,
sleep off my excitement and I'm gonna
have another go at this tomorrow
once I've made a bit more ethanol.
'Cause it rocks.
I was so hopeful.
Did you hear how low
I was able to bring the engine,
there were really tight turns,
because then you're spinning up the disc.
If you think it's dropping
through the air like that
so even more air is going
through the disc.
It's generating more lift
and then when I come out of the turn
[sad music]
The thing you need to know about
Tory is he doesn't know when to quit.
[light music]
What ya doing?
[Tory] I had an idea.
There was a story a long time ago
about a guy who took weather balloons,
filled them with helium,
attached them to a lawn chair
and actually flew.
Got up to maybe like 15,000 feet.
- That was a myth.
- No, it was confirmed.
Maybe that's how we get off this island.
Maybe we try to do the same thing.
So we need a load of balloons.
Remember when we found these containers,
and we found all these?
I see but they'd have to be very strong.
They're designed not to burst,
that's their job.
Good point, but hang on,
where we gonna get helium from?
Helium is out of the question,
but we can make hydrogen.
It's lighter than helium, all we have
to do is split water molecules.
- Oh, I'll go sharpen the chisel.
- Ha ha!
Here, take these.
We've got some work to do.
[light music]
Now remember when
I made the welder out of the batteries?
Now we're going to use them
to make hydrogen.
So water is H2O.
[Tory] There's 2 hydrogen,
and 1 oxygen.
So we've just got to split
the H from the O.
All we need to do is shock them out.
Is it going to work?
Don't know, the science is right.
OK, leads
If you need me to do anything, just say.
Can you go get me some water?
Where would I find any water?
I don't know, where would we find water?
[light music]
So you just go ahead
and fill this up.
So that is H2O.
Salt water's very conductive, isn't it?
We need electrolytes in the water,
that's for sure.
Those are the rods?
Yeah, as I bring
the two welding rods together,
I'll create an arc, that will start
splitting the water molecules
and that will create our hydrogen.
We're trapping it into this hose.
If we see bubbles,
that's hydrogen,
and that's what we're
going to use to fill our balloons.
But you're splitting water molecules,
not atoms.
No, not atoms,
that would be very bad.
If you're splitting atoms,
I want to stand further back.
We'd kill ourselves.
OK, you ready?
- Not really.
- Here we go.
- [Richard stuttering]
- Whatever you do,
don't look at the arc.
I know how you like shiny things,
but don't, you'll go blind.
- I want to see what's going on.
- Don't look at that.
Look at that.
Why did you put
the thing that I have to look at
right next to the thing
that I'll go blind if I look at?
That's a good point.
- Ready?
- Not really.
[Tory] Here we go.
Bang! [laughing]
[suspenseful music]
This is very Frankenstein's monster
- I looked at the light.
- Don't look at the light!
Stay away from the light!
- [Richard] Yes, there are bubbles!
- Is it working?
[Richard] Oh my word, it lives, it lives!
- [Tory] It's alive!
- You, my friend,
are making hydrogen.
[Tory] It's working!
That is really clever stuff
going on in there.
You wanna get a balloon
and fill it up, let's see if it floats?
Yeah, I'm excited, I need one of these.
- I have a balloon.
- Fill it up.
That's good.
- Is it filling?
- You're filling my balloon.
That is hydrogen, in there.
All right
[Tory] Let's see if it floats.
I've never been any good
at balloon knots.
I never did children's parties.
[gas hissing]
Don't let the hydrogen out.
You need help?
Oh.
It's burst.
Long term,
that could be a disaster.
All right, let's try it again.
I can't keep this going forever.
Oh, you're always in a rush.
Hold on
I seem to remember they used to use
hydrogen in balloons quite a lot,
but now they don't do it so much.
Why would that be?
Hello!
[Tory] Yeah!
[Richard] Now, the balloon knot.
- [Tory] Do you need a hand with that?
- No you'll make it worse.
- All right!
- Oh yeah!
Let's pretend this is the actual event.
By rights this should float.
Okay
- Oh yes!
- Oh
- Up and away to freedom!
- This is so good.
We're going to need more
than one of those.
We're going to need thousands.
So we're going to have
to industrialise our hydrogen production.
If we're going to lift both our weights,
we're going to need a lot of balloons.
And I mean a lot.
We'll have
to do some experimentation.
[soft music]
[Richard] Not to blow our own trumpets,
but, erm, we created hydrogen.
And then we created a lot more.
Tory zapping water, me filling
every balloon we could lay our hand on.
Which was how many?
Ah, Tory did the math bit.
[intriguing music]
[Tory mumbling]
All right then Stephen Hawking,
what are you doing?
I'm glad you're here,
I've done the math, and it turns out
each of our balloons will lift
7.5g of weight.
Your weight is about 75kg,
my weight is about 85kg.
Now we're going to use
the frame from our gyrocopter,
it's aluminium, it's light.
That is going to give us about 235kg.
- That's us plus the frame?
- Yes.
That gives us a whopping
31,333 balloons.
That's a lot of balloons.
If we start going too high,
we can pop some of the balloons
and that will bring us back down
closer to the ground,
but I think before we go for the flight,
we should send Clarkson up
just to make sure it's safe.
Yeah, he'll do that.
[light music]
We're getting off the island
using hydrogen,
so hopefully I never have to make
another one of these messages again.
Now I know I've said this
many times before,
but this time,
we are going to escape.
But if we don't escape
I hope you find this message,
and whatever's left of my dead body.
[soft music]
Hey, what did you do to the gyrocopter?
I have been brilliant.
I've stripped it of everything
we don't need so this is the bare bones,
and this is the lightest thing
we can make
because we've made it out of aluminium.
- Aloo Whatever.
So I've stripped it of everything we
don't need and I've added
Yes, we needed
some means of deciding our direction.
So this chain, if you help me put it on,
that drives this fan,
which in turn,
can be steered by the rear passenger.
- That's great!
- So if you point that west,
we will go east to our salvation.
Hopefully this will be strong enough
to overcome the winds.
Yeah, it will.
don't forget it's not generating
any lift, that's purely directional.
All it's giving us is control.
- This a bucket seat?
- Yes.
A bucket seat.
These are the lightest seats
I could make,
because anything we add to this
means more balloons.
[Tory] We should probably
make seatbelts for these.
If it crashes from the sky,
you think being strapped to it will help?
No I just want to make sure
I stay strapped to it.
- I think we should try it.
- Okay.
Yeah
[Richard] Oh!
I pedal like this, driving the fan,
and then you can steer it.
- Hey, Richard?
- What?
- That's an issue, isn't it?
- It's a huge issue.
Look it's all for lightness!
Just try how light this thing is.
- Shall we lift it?
- Yeah. See if we can.
Come on, that's not bad, is it?
That's actually pretty light.
What was our target, 75kg?
I don't think it's that.
"Well done, Richard,
for building the airframe."
- Yeah!
- I am pretty proud.
It definitely looks like something.
The freedom machine.
Like something out of "Mary Poppins."
You know that movie, huh?
Yeah, they guy who couldn't talk English.
[soft music]
See, I think you'll agree
that is pretty light!
Yeah, but I mean
We don't really need these wheels.
We're not landing anymore,
it's not actually a gyrocopter.
- But we are landing.
- Yeah but that's just extra weight.
[Richard] I suppose we won't be doing
a runway. OK, take them off.
[Tory] We need this to be
as light as possible.
- Let's get some balloons.
- OK, a lot of them.
[soft music]
Captain's log
It doesn't really matter what number
it is because this is the last one.
This is it. I didn't think
this day would ever actually come.
We're leaving,
so it's bye-bye Hammondland,
bye-bye beautiful treehouse,
bye-bye Monster the chicken,
bye-bye my own kingdom.
[Tory] All right,
let's see if she'll lift
[Richard] Clarkson, this is a brave
thing you're doing for us, buddy.
[Tory] This could be freedom for us.
[Richard] Yes, this could be it.
He is secure.
You can feel it's at that point where
it just wants to leave the ground.
- [Tory] We'll take off the ballasts
- And see if it goes.
[Tory] Whoa, we have lift!
- Do we have lift?
- Yes!
It's lifting!
[Richard] Yes, there is lift,
I can feel it! That is lift!
We're getting off this island!
[both] Oh
[Richard] Do you want to put another
sandbag on? I've got a sandbag here.
[Tory] We need one more over here.
There.
I'm kind of sad we're leaving now,
just a little.
[Richard] It's quite an exciting way
of leaving, isn't it?
[suspenseful music]
[in Spanish] Okay, it's the next beach.
What is that?
[Richard] Hindenburg!
That's why people don't use
hydrogen anymore.
Yeah, it is very flammable
but that's our only option.
But don't balloons make
a lot of static electricity?
- [action music]
- [sirens]
[in Spanish] All units backup.
This is Charlie Oscar Kilo.
And that's when your guys
showed up.
I was so happy to see them!
[Richard] The sight of other humans
coming to save us!
I didn't know what to say!
[Tory] Then we realized
they were pretty annoyed.
The explosion seemed to put them on edge.
[Richard] I mean,
who did they think they were arresting,
the world's scruffiest drug barons?
[light music]
Do you even realise why you're here?
Why we've asked all these questions?
[stressful music]
What, you don't think
we're drug overlords?
[detective] We've scoured the island.
He cannot be found.
Where is the third castaway?
What have you done with him?
What have we done with who?
There was only ever
Tory and me on the island.
This doesn't make any sense.
If there was no one else
on the island,
how does a sail disappear
then appear again
in a completely
different place, hm?
Ah
Okay, okay, you got me
Bang to rights
It was me.
I did it.
He did what?
It was a joke
Look, we'd just been shipwrecked,
I wasn't going back out on that water,
especially in a "Belleci boat,"
so I hid it.
I didn't think
he'd freak out about it.
You mean you knew
there was no-one else on the island
but you still built the man-traps?
Yeah.
Again, it was a bit of fun,
and we did catch a chicken!
[Monster cackling]
- And two turkeys.
- It's a bit rude!
Can I go, now?
No.
Tell me about the man you call Clarkson.
He did everything with you guys.
Clarkson?
Yeah, I suppose he did, bless him.
He survived the shipwreck with us
Ah, look at you, old, leathery,
peeling and out of shape.
And he was at the race!
[Tory] Come on, screw-tank!
Ow! Ow!
That wooden car was brilliant!
Oh yeah, he tested the hammocks.
[Tory screaming]
He was our figurehead
on the steam boat
Tory, I'm sinking!
That was a pretty epic build.
The 4th of July party,
that was Clarkson's idea.
[Tory screaming]
I'm gonna die!
[Tory] When we went to war
he was my ally.
You've taken Clarkson?
He saw me fly the gyrocopter.
[laughing]
Incoming!
I can't believe
we got that thing airborne!
[Richard] It's a brave thing
you're doing for us, buddy.
And he was testing
the balloon airship when it blew up.
[detective] Exactly.
In your own words.
you blew up Clarkson!
Yep!
So you admit it.
You admit to murdering the third
castaway called Clarkson?
- What?
- Why?
Did you lose patience with him?
No more than usual.
- Were you tired of his ideas?
- It's not like that!
But you blew him up!
We knocked the stuffing out of him, yeah.
You disgust me.
Why are you so cross? So we blew up
a sack and a football with a face on it.
You what?
A football face?
Clarkson is just a dummy?
He certainly is!
Well, in this case, he literally is. Was.
[knocking]
You people are lunatics.
[door closing]
[in Spanish] They found nothing.
Give it here.
The whole thing is true?
[in English] So, "Señor" Hammond
The lab results confirm your story.
There was no DNA
found in the explosion,
only some pieces of old football
So
It appears we have no grounds
upon which to hold you and you
are free to go.
But remember this, Mr. Hammond
we will be watching you
Well, it's been lovely to chat.
Good to prove there was
no wrongdoing of any sort.
Where's good
to get a drink around here?
Thank you, thank you so much.
Thank you.
[upbeat music]
Mate!
How could you?
Yeah, I got carried away.
- I need a drink.
- Yeah. You need a drink.
We need a vacation.