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TechTranscript
00:00 (crowd cheering)
00:02 No, okay, stop.
00:04 She's using nothing to pick those.
00:06 She's not using a lot of picks.
00:08 She's just pulling at them and then they come off.
00:10 Hey guys, I'm Matt Johnson
00:11 and I'm an escape artist for about 30 years now.
00:16 Today, you and I are gonna be looking at movie
00:17 and TV escapes and we're going to be judging
00:20 how real they actually are.
00:22 - Back in Phillips' car, why?
00:24 - They think we're idiots.
00:29 Picking a set of handcuffs escape is used all the time
00:33 by escape artists.
00:34 These are standard police regulation handcuffs here.
00:38 Probably double locking, it's when you put them on.
00:41 If you don't double lock it, the ratchet can still push in
00:44 and could cause a lot of pain.
00:45 That to me looks like a blade from a hacksaw or something.
00:49 You could use that to get out of handcuffs.
00:51 There are three ways to get out of handcuffs that I know of.
00:54 One is with a key.
00:55 You could actually get out of a pair of handcuffs
00:57 by fashioning a key with something like a paperclip.
01:01 And then a third way is what's called a shim,
01:04 which is a flat piece of steel, which he's using here.
01:08 He's putting it between the cuff and the ratchet,
01:11 he's sliding it in there.
01:13 And essentially where this goes in here,
01:15 you can see that little space where it goes in.
01:17 Well, if I lock that, those teeth are hidden
01:20 a little lever here that's got teeth on it,
01:22 which he sprung, right?
01:24 So when you push that in, that little lever goes,
01:27 click, click, click, click, like that.
01:29 But because the teeth are serrated one way,
01:31 now I can't pull it back out.
01:33 So if I put a flat piece of metal in that hole
01:36 and push it in and then just push the cuff in one time,
01:40 it'll then slide out because the flat piece of metal
01:43 is between the serrated teeth and the little ratchet.
01:46 He's in the back of a police car,
01:53 he's stressing out probably,
01:54 but what you have to do as an escape artist,
01:56 you have to lower your heart rate, calm your nerves,
01:58 and just focus on the job at hand.
02:01 I mean, he looks pretty calm.
02:02 So he's taking him 10 seconds or so to get out.
02:05 I mean, you can get out of handcuffs
02:07 a lot faster than that.
02:08 The record is a guy from Italy called Alexis Arts
02:13 in 0.9 seconds.
02:16 However, when you put in things like
02:18 they're behind your back,
02:20 so you've got to find where you're at.
02:21 Plus he's jammed up against the seat and seat belted in,
02:24 he hasn't got a lot of room, right?
02:26 So I would actually say 10 seconds in that situation
02:29 under duress is actually pretty fast.
02:31 I would actually give this a high nine or a 10.
02:34 - He's trying to keep these ropes loose.
02:35 We've got to get to Marcus before the patsies do.
02:38 - If Indy moved his left arm even a little bit more,
02:40 that thing would slide right off his shoulder.
02:42 I would have personally liked to have seen in this,
02:44 like when Houdini did the 100 foot rope tie challenge,
02:46 he'd be on a chair just like this,
02:48 but the rope would be wrapped around his neck
02:50 and under his arms and through his legs.
02:51 Rope escapes as a rule require a lot more pure strength
02:56 than say doing a handcuff escape, right?
02:59 Because a handcuff escape is really not using strength,
03:02 using dexterity.
03:04 You've got to manipulate your body to get out of a rope
03:06 or something like that.
03:08 - What am I looking for?
03:09 - My lucky charm.
03:10 Try and burn through the ropes.
03:13 - I don't know how you get in your hand
03:15 from here up to that rope.
03:17 I don't know how fast that fire
03:20 is going to burn through that rope.
03:21 I've done upside down straight jacket escapes
03:23 where I've had the rope on fire.
03:25 And you know, I'm 220 pounds hanging upside down.
03:28 There's a lot of weight on that rope.
03:30 It takes a while for that rope to burn through.
03:32 It depends what kind of rope it is as well.
03:34 If you go to like a hardware store and buy rope,
03:37 a lot of it is like a plastic.
03:40 The fibers are plastic.
03:41 If this was a plastic rope, then it might work.
03:45 It might go through, but obviously like a hemp rope
03:47 or a cotton rope or something, it's going to take,
03:50 especially a rope that thick.
03:51 I don't think you're going to burn through that very easily.
03:55 - I think I can get these ropes up.
03:56 - I'm out, Dad.
03:59 - That was the only part of this escape to me
04:00 that kind of looked legitimate
04:02 is his hands were tied with a rope.
04:03 If they were tied legitimately around,
04:06 cinched up to my hands,
04:08 it would take you some time to get out.
04:09 It's not physically impossible.
04:11 You've got to kind of deform your hand a little bit,
04:13 crush it down, get it closer together.
04:15 You know, you're going to get some rope burns from it.
04:18 If somebody is going to tie your wrists with a rope,
04:21 a good tip is, how could I demonstrate this?
04:24 Imagine this is a rope.
04:25 Imagine if that's put around my wrists like this, okay?
04:28 A good tip is as somebody is coming in to tie my wrist
04:31 is to just bring the pinky in like this
04:33 and grab an extra bit.
04:35 'Cause if this now goes round
04:37 and is locked on top of my hands,
04:39 if I just let that go,
04:41 I've got enough slack to get my hand out.
04:43 Look at the rope.
04:44 The rope's like this thick.
04:46 It is difficult to tie a thicker rope
04:49 as tight as it is a thin rope.
04:51 The chances of getting out of that kind of rope
04:54 are going to be a lot better
04:55 than getting out of a smaller rope
04:57 because it's around the thickest part of his leg here.
04:59 So if it's around the thickest part of your leg,
05:01 it can go over the thinnest part.
05:03 Not like if a rope's tied here around the thinnest part,
05:06 it can't go over the thickest part of your hand, right?
05:08 I actually might have to give it a one
05:10 because I really think they could have done
05:13 a lot more homework to make it look a lot more realistic.
05:16 If ever you're in a situation like this, right?
05:23 Heaven forbid.
05:25 You've got to assess the situation around you first.
05:28 So for example, here,
05:30 the immediate thought is to try and get that zip tie off.
05:34 But maybe the radiator's loose.
05:36 And maybe the paper that's up there
05:38 is held up by drawing pins
05:39 and he could pull one out and use that to cut the zip.
05:42 I think what I'd be looking for in this situation
05:44 is maybe something that I could put through,
05:47 that I could turn.
05:48 That's going to put a lot of pressure on the wrist,
05:50 but at some point, something has to give.
05:53 It is possible using a technique to get zip ties off.
06:00 This one is slightly different
06:01 because his hands aren't zip tied together,
06:04 he's zip tied to the radiator.
06:06 These aren't what law enforcement would use.
06:07 It's pretty small.
06:09 It sounds weird,
06:10 but the zip tie's got to be as tight as it can.
06:11 If you look at my chest and my body
06:14 and look at my arms,
06:15 they're wider than this zip tie, right?
06:19 So if I were to bring these hands down
06:22 against my chest here,
06:25 with force and with conviction,
06:28 and as I come to here,
06:30 I kind of push my shoulder blades at the back,
06:32 I push them together,
06:33 it'll just snap the zip tie.
06:36 So I personally would never get out of a zip tie like that,
06:38 but having said that, it is attached to the radiator,
06:41 so I don't know that force would work.
06:44 I'm maybe going to give it a six.
06:46 Picking a lock is not easy.
06:58 People ask me how I learned to pick locks.
06:59 This is a practice lock.
07:01 You can see it's clear.
07:02 So you can see the pins inside,
07:04 because essentially when a key goes in a lock,
07:06 it just moves all those little indentations in the key,
07:09 move the pins into the right, correct format,
07:12 and then it will open the lock, right?
07:13 So if I wanted to pick this lock,
07:16 you'd need a pick and you need a pry bar,
07:19 because a pry bar puts pressure on the lock as you pick it,
07:23 so that when you get the pins in the right place, it opens.
07:27 That is exactly what she's doing there.
07:28 Now, whether or not,
07:29 it looks like she's using a hairpin
07:32 or maybe two hairpins,
07:34 whether or not the hairpin would be strong enough
07:37 as a pry bar to put pressure on the lock,
07:39 essentially the technique she's using there
07:41 to open that lock is legitimate.
07:45 She's pulling it along the pins
07:49 to try and rake them into the right position,
07:51 and what happens is by putting that pressure on,
07:53 as soon as the pin goes into the right position, it holds,
07:56 and then you go in, you rake, another one holds,
07:58 and that's always moving until click, it goes.
08:01 I would actually give this a rating
08:03 of like eight out of 10.
08:04 The only reason I wouldn't give it a 10
08:05 is because I don't know if those tools would do that job,
08:10 but she's certainly using them in the right way
08:12 and the technique's right.
08:13 - When that timer hits zero,
08:16 a tank full of flesh-eating piranhas will fall from-
08:19 - They're putting leg cuffs on, chains, locks.
08:21 I mean, this is all pretty standard fare.
08:23 Those cuffs look strong,
08:25 the chains are good, strong chain padlocks.
08:32 First of all, if we stop that,
08:33 you notice she was standing on a platform
08:34 and then the platform released and she drops in.
08:37 I would never do it that way
08:38 because I'd be worried about cracking my head
08:41 or something like that.
08:42 So I use a tank that's 10 feet high,
08:45 about that height, but very narrow.
08:47 And so what I do is climb a ladder all chained up
08:50 and then kind of inch myself to the edge
08:52 and get down into the water on my elbows
08:55 so that when I do go under,
08:57 I've not got a chance of like hitting my head.
09:00 [crowd cheering]
09:02 Now, okay, stop.
09:05 She's using nothing to pick those.
09:07 She's not using, there's nothing.
09:08 I can't see anything.
09:09 She's not using a lock pick.
09:11 She's just pulling at them and then they come off.
09:13 Houdini, when he used to do the underwater escape,
09:19 they would stand by with a sledgehammer to break the glass.
09:21 When I was in New York,
09:22 getting ready to perform on Broadway
09:24 and I had an accident and I blacked out and I drowned,
09:27 it was quicker for them to shatter the tank
09:29 with a sledgehammer than it was to use a key.
09:31 What he's using there is like a bar.
09:33 I don't think that's gonna do the job
09:35 'cause that glass is gonna be really thick.
09:37 She does hold her breath there for about a minute, I think.
09:44 That's certainly not out of the way.
09:45 The average person can hold their breath,
09:48 you know, 30 seconds to a minute and a half, 90 seconds.
09:52 If I go in a swimming pool and I just relax and don't move,
09:56 I can hold my breath for about four and a half, five minutes
09:58 because my heart rate lowers and it's not burning oxygen
10:02 because I'm completely relaxed.
10:03 But if I go in a tank of water and chain a lot myself up
10:06 in front of a thousand people and they lock the lid,
10:09 you better believe my heart rate goes so high
10:12 and burns my oxygen in like 20 seconds.
10:16 The actual record for holding breath,
10:19 I believe is about 24 minutes.
10:21 An actual apnea hold without purging oxygen,
10:23 just, "Oh!" and holding for a man is about 11 minutes.
10:28 And for a lady, it's about eight minutes.
10:31 Look how much water is coming out of that little fish tank.
10:36 That's way too much water.
10:37 There's a dude up top there with a big hose
10:39 and a pump or something.
10:40 If you're in a venue doing an underwater escape,
10:42 one of the things they will always say to you is,
10:44 "Is the water gonna go over the top
10:46 "'cause it's gonna wreck the stage,
10:47 "it's gonna wreck the cameras, the cables."
10:49 You might have a bit of an overflow for dramatic effect,
10:52 but you would never, ever have that much water.
10:56 - Whoever thought of this is a sick sadist!
11:01 (audience cheering)
11:03 - This bit's cool because this is the classic,
11:05 they appear at the back of the audience
11:07 behind the judges, right?
11:08 Is this legitimate?
11:09 Absolutely.
11:10 Could it be done the way they've done it in the show?
11:12 I don't think so.
11:13 Maybe like a four, I guess,
11:16 on a premise of a performance.
11:20 Take me halfway around.
11:22 (dramatic music)
11:24 The coffin looks like a magic prop, right?
11:29 Nobody's gonna buy that there's absolutely nothing,
11:33 there's nothing wrong with this coffin.
11:34 It doesn't have any trap doors of any kind.
11:37 I mean, it looks like a magic prop,
11:39 which you would expect from this show.
11:41 - I will become my dead father's body
11:44 as I am lowered into his grave.
11:46 - Buried Alive is a classic plot in escapes.
11:49 You've got to get out of the coffin,
11:50 however means that happens,
11:52 but then you've still got to get through
11:53 five or six feet of dirt.
11:55 And you've got to escape before you get out of the coffin.
11:57 There was a magician, Joe Burrus from the US,
12:02 who did a Buried Alive escape and got out.
12:06 But then a few years later on Halloween,
12:08 he did another version of it and died.
12:10 Because what he did was he put five feet of dirt on top,
12:13 but then he put a foot or two feet of concrete.
12:16 They poured concrete.
12:17 Well, David Blaine's was different.
12:19 It was in a clear box with a clear glass,
12:23 I think, on top so people could see him.
12:25 So there wasn't any chance of something collapsing.
12:27 - Keep it together, Buster, and spin this back around.
12:29 - Oh my God!
12:31 - The card!
12:31 The card!
12:32 - This is why we have this wrap.
12:37 This is what all this beard and wax
12:39 and all these tattoos he's trying to dispel
12:42 is that myth that we're all kids' party magicians and hacks.
12:46 I mean, would you hire me for your kids' party?
12:47 I don't think so.
12:48 Buster is the perfect assistant for this.
12:52 Although I don't think the character means
12:54 for it to go wrong.
12:55 You very rarely see my assistants.
12:58 My assistants are in the wings,
13:00 making sure that I don't die.
13:01 So people that know CPR, people who've got extra keys
13:04 if something goes wrong, sledgehammers, medics,
13:07 things like that.
13:08 And we've had to use them.
13:09 I mean, for escape, you'd have to give it a one.
13:12 But for comedy value, you'd have to give it a 15
13:15 or a 20 out of 10.
13:17 [paper rustling]
13:19 - Can you confirm that the straps are tight?
13:21 - The way he's got the straight jacket on right now
13:24 is not a way that any escape artist
13:25 would ever wear a straight jacket.
13:27 That the arms have to be crossed
13:28 with each wrist under the elbow, right?
13:31 So that when it's tightened up on the back,
13:34 there is no way you can physically
13:35 get the arm over the elbow.
13:36 [paper rustling]
13:39 You know what?
13:43 I'm not saying escape artists don't maybe hike keys.
13:45 I know Houdini, people said he hiked keys and things around.
13:50 I would never put a key in my mouth.
13:53 Mainly because when I'm physically moving,
13:55 it would be very easy for me to swallow that key
13:57 and choke on the thing, whether it's an extra key
14:00 or if you're using a lock pick, an extra lock pick.
14:04 You've gotta have an out.
14:05 When I was on "Britain's Got Talent,"
14:06 I dropped a lock pick while I was trying to get out
14:08 of a head tank full of water.
14:10 And I had to use the bar to break the lock.
14:12 [lock clanking]
14:14 I cannot tell you how I plan to escape
14:17 other than by using magic.
14:19 You know, there's a lot of physicalness
14:21 to getting out of a straitjacket.
14:23 You've gotta thrash around.
14:24 You know, you get cuts, you get bruises.
14:27 It hurts.
14:28 I've burnt myself, I've bruised myself, I've cut myself.
14:31 That, writhing around on the ground is pretty much,
14:34 you know, how we do it.
14:36 Straitjacket escape is difficult.
14:38 Houdini used to do the straitjacket escape
14:40 in every city that he ever did a show at.
14:41 There are tips and tricks that we use
14:43 to try and make that job a little easier,
14:45 but people have dislocated limbs and broken limbs
14:48 and all kinds of things trying to do it.
14:50 - So, is it true that if you can't get out,
14:52 you don't want anyone to help you?
14:54 - I will get out.
14:55 Oh, yes, I will.
14:57 - Not accepting help if you get stuck
14:59 is not the way a professional escape artist does things.
15:02 I always have a team on standby,
15:05 and I've had to use them more than once.
15:06 I've drowned twice.
15:07 I'm giving him a two 'cause he's in the straitjacket
15:10 and he's put chains on, but I mean, you know,
15:12 he's not even wearing the straitjacket right.
15:14 - Maybe a magic word or two.
15:15 And then I'll be gone.
15:20 - One of the first tricks I ever got shown
15:22 when I was a kid was something like that,
15:24 where he's doing the ball thing, right?
15:26 So, he's going one, two, and like this, and it's gone.
15:31 Now, look how his hand is.
15:32 He's holding the ball, but it's classic misdirection,
15:35 because if I just go, if I go like this
15:38 and don't look up at it, when I put it in this hand,
15:41 you see me put it there.
15:42 But if my eyes are following the object,
15:45 that means your eyes are following the object.
15:47 Distraction for something like this, 100% important.
15:50 Gone.
15:51 That quick, without the guard feeling that,
15:58 I would say is nigh on impossible.
16:02 Maybe if you set off a firecracker, you know,
16:04 or a bomb, it might've worked,
16:06 but just dropping a ball and me going for it,
16:09 that switch, that quick, pretty much impossible.
16:12 Considering that these are real chains, real padlocks,
16:14 but if you look at the cuff on his right wrist there,
16:17 there's actually no padlock in this.
16:19 It's essentially a key that goes in turns,
16:22 and it's all built into the actual cuff.
16:25 So, these are an old style cuff.
16:27 So, the leg irons here are all built into the leg irons.
16:31 So, he's got to unlock the iron
16:33 and then put it around the other guy.
16:34 When he puts it around the other guy,
16:35 it will instantly lock when he squeezes it together.
16:38 So, actually it wouldn't take as much time
16:39 as I initially thought.
16:41 I still don't think he's got enough time.
16:43 I'm going to say maybe a five.
16:45 As long as he picked it here and opened it,
16:47 he could snap it around the other person.
16:49 I've done a lot of escapes where I'm hanging upside down.
16:57 I've never done escapes the right way up.
16:59 It looks like she's maybe tied by the wrists
17:02 with rope or handcuffs or something that's hooked up.
17:05 I couldn't lift up a bag of sugar.
17:08 Nevermind a six foot two, bald-headed, muscly guy.
17:12 I mean, listen, have you ever tried to get a key
17:26 in your front door lock when you come home
17:29 and it's nigh on impossible?
17:31 That kind of position to then even lift your legs
17:36 is really hard, unless you have really good core muscles.
17:39 So I have to use my hands against my legs
17:40 to kind of walk myself up there.
17:42 I'd maybe give this a five, I'm going to say.
17:46 My favorite escape in a movie or TV
17:50 would have to be something called the water cube trap,
17:53 which was actually in the "Saw" series of horror movies.
17:57 And essentially it was a little cube.
17:58 And when the guy woke up, his head was in this cube.
18:01 There was two pipes coming in
18:02 attached to water gallon cylinders.
18:05 And then the water started coming in
18:06 and filling up slowly, right?
18:08 And I had a very, very similar looking device,
18:11 which was a box attached to a metal straight jacket
18:13 hanging from chains.
18:15 And I was all padlocked and chained in.
18:18 And then they filled it with water and locked the box.
18:20 (silence)
18:22 (silence)
18:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]