No, OK, stop. She's using nothing to pick those.
She's not using a lockpick.
She's just pulling at them, and then they come off.
Hey, guys, I'm Matt Johnson,
and I'm an escape artist for about 30 years now.
Today, you and I are going to be looking at
movie and TV escapes,
and we're going to be judging how real they actually are.
Back in Phillips' car, why?
They think we're idiots.
Picking-a-set-of-handcuffs escape
is used all the time by escape artists.
These are standard police regulation handcuffs here,
probably double-locking.
So when you put them on, if you don't double-lock it,
the ratchet can still push in and could cause a lot of pain.
That to me looks like a blade from a hacksaw or something.
You could use that to get out of handcuffs.
There are three ways to get out of handcuffs that I know of.
One is with a key.
You could actually get out of a pair of handcuffs
by fashioning a key with something like a paper clip.
And then a third way is what's called a shim,
which is a flat piece of steel, which he's using here.
He's putting it between the cuff and the ratchet
and sliding it in there.
And essentially, where this goes in, here,
you can see that little space where it goes in.
Well, if I lock that,
those teeth are hid in a little lever here
that's got teeth on it, which is sprung, right?
So when you push that in, that little lever
goes click, click, click, click, like that.
But because the teeth are serrated one way,
now I can't pull it back out.
So if I put a flat piece of metal in that hole
and push it in and then just push the cuff in one time,
it'll then slide out because the flat piece of metal
is between the serrated teeth and the little ratchet.
He's in the back of a police car.
He's stressing out probably, but what you have to do
as an escape artist, you have to lower your heart rate,
calm your nerves, and just focus on the job at hand.
I mean, he looks pretty calm.
See, it's taken him 10 seconds or so to get out.
I mean, you can get out of handcuffs a lot faster than that.
The record is a guy from Italy
called Alexis Arts,
in 0.9 seconds.
However, when you're put in things like,
they're behind your back,
so you've got to find where you're at.
Plus he's jammed up against a seat and seat-belted in.
He hasn't got a lot of room, right?
So I would actually say 10 seconds in that situation,
under duress, is actually pretty fast.
I would actually give this a high 9 or a 10.
Let's try and get these ropes loose.
We've got to get to Marcus before the Nazis do.
If Indie moved his left arm even a little bit more,
that thing would slide right off his shoulder.
I would've personally liked to have seen in this,
like when Houdini did the 100-foot-rope tie challenge,
he'd be on a chair just like this,
but the rope would be wrapped around his neck
and under his arms and through his legs.
Rope escapes, as a rule,
require a lot more pure strength
than, say, doing a handcuff escape, right?
Because a handcuff escape is really not using strength.
It's using dexterity.
You've got to manipulate your body
to get out of a rope or something like that.
Henry: What am I looking for?
Indiana: My lucky charm.
Try and burn through the ropes.
I don't know how you're getting your hand
from here up to that rope.
I don't know how fast
that fire's going to burn through that rope.
I've done upside-down straitjacket escapes
where I've had the rope on fire,
and, you know, I'm 220 pounds, hanging upside down.
There's a lot of weight on that rope.
It takes a while for that rope to burn through.
It depends what kind of rope it is as well.
If you go to, like, a hardware store and buy rope,
a lot of it is a plastic. The fibers are plastic.
If this was a plastic rope, then it might work.
It might go through, but obviously a hemp rope
or a cotton rope or something,
it's going to take, especially a rope that thick,
I don't think you're going to burn through that very easily.
I think I can get these ropes off.
Come on.
That was the only part of this escape to me
that kind of looked legitimate,
is his hands were tied with a rope.
If they were tied legitimately around,
cinched up to my hands,
it would take you some time to get out.
It's not physically impossible.
You've got to kind of deform your hand a little bit,
crush it down, get it closer together, you know?
You're going to get some rope burns from it.
If somebody's going to tie your wrists with a rope,
a good tip is -- how can I demonstrate this?
Imagine this is a rope.
Imagine if that's put around my wrists like this, OK?
A good tip is, if somebody's coming in to tie my wrist,
is to just bring the pinky in like this
and grab an extra bit.
Because if this now goes around
and is locked on top of my hands, if I just let that go,
I've got enough slack to get my hand out.
Look at the rope.
The rope's, like, this thick.
It is difficult to tie a thicker rope
as tight as it is a thin rope.
The chances of getting out of that kind of rope
are going to be a lot better
than getting out of a smaller rope.
Because it's around the thickest part of his leg, here.
So if it's around the thickest part of your leg,
it can go over the thinnest part.
Not like if a rope's tied here, around the thinnest part,
it can't go over the thickest part of your hand, right?
I actually might have to give it a 1,
because I really think
they could have done a lot more homework
to make it look a lot more realistic.
If ever you're in a situation like this,
right, heaven forbid,
you've got to assess the situation around you first.
So, for example, here,
the immediate thought is to try and get that zip tie off,
but maybe the radiator's loose
and maybe the paper that's up there
is held up by drawing pins
and he could pull one out and use that to cut the zip.
I think what I'd be looking for in this situation is maybe
something that I could put through that I could turn.
That's going to put a lot of pressure on the wrist,
but at some point, something has to give.
It is possible, using a technique, to get zip ties off.
This one is slightly different
because his hands aren't zip-tied together.
He's zip-tied to the radiator.
These aren't what law enforcement would use.
It's pretty small. It sounds weird,
but the zip tie's got to be as tight as it can.
If you look at my chest and my body and look at my arms,
they're wider than this zip tie, right?
So if I were to bring these hands down
against my chest, here,
with force and with conviction, and as I come to here,
I kind of push my shoulder blades at the back,
I push them together.
It'll just snap the zip tie.
I personally would never get out of a zip tie like that,
but having said that, he is attached to the radiator,
so I don't know that force would work.
I'm maybe going to give it a 6.
Picking a lock is not easy.
People ask me how I learned to pick locks.
This is a practice lock.
You can see it's clear, so you can see the pins inside.
Because essentially, when a key goes in a lock,
it just moves, all those little indentations in the key
move the pins into the right, correct format,
and then it will open the lock, right?
So if I wanted to pick this lock,
so you'd need a pick and you'd need a pry bar,
because a pry bar puts pressure on the lock as you pick it,
so that when you get the pins in the right place, it opens.
That is exactly what she's doing there.
Now, it looks like she's using a hairpin
or maybe two hairpins.
Whether or not the hairpin would be strong enough
as a pry bar to put pressure on the lock,
essentially the technique she's using there
to open that lock is legitimate.
She's pulling it along the pins to try
and rake them into the right position.
And what happens is, by putting that pressure on,
as soon as a pin goes into the right position, it holds,
and then you go in, you rake, another one holds,
and that's always moving until, click, it goes.
I would actually give this a rating of, like, 8 out of 10.
The only reason I wouldn't give it a 10 is because
I don't know if those tools would do that job,
but she's certainly using them in the right way,
and the technique's right.
When that timer hits 0,
a tank full of flesh-eating piranhas will fall from ...
They're putting leg cuffs on, chains, locks.
I mean, this is all pretty standard fare.
Those cuffs look strong.
The chains are good, strong chain, padlocks.
[buzzer rings]
First of all, if we stop there,
you notice she was standing on a platform,
and then the platform released and she drops in.
I would never do it that way because I'd be worried
about cracking my head or something like that.
So, I use a tank that's 10 feet high,
about that height, but very narrow.
And so what I do is climb a ladder all chained up
and then kind of inch myself to the edge,
and get down into the water on my elbows
so that when I do go under,
I've not got a chance of hitting my head.
No, OK, stop.
She's using nothing to pick those.
There's nothing. I can't see anything.
She's not using a lockpick.
She's just pulling at them, and then they come off.
Houdini, when he used to do the underwater escape,
they would stand by with a sledgehammer to break the glass.
When I was in New York getting ready to perform on Broadway
and I had an accident and I blacked out and I drowned,
it was quicker for them to shatter the tank
with a sledgehammer than it was to use the keys.
What he's using there is, like, a bar.
I don't think that's going to do the job,
because that glass is going to be really thick.
She does hold her breath there for about a minute, I think.
That's certainly not out of the way.
The average person can hold their breath,
you know, 30 seconds to a minute and a half, 90 seconds.
If I go in a swimming pool and I just relax
and don't move, I can hold my breath
for about four and a half, five minutes,
because my heart rate lowers and it's not burning oxygen
because I'm completely relaxed.
But if I go in a tank of water
and chain and lock myself up in front of 1,000 people
and they lock the lid,
you better believe my heart rate goes so high
and burns my oxygen in, like, 20 seconds.
The actual record for holding breath,
I believe, is about 24 minutes.
An actual apnea hold, without purging oxygen,
just [inhales] and holding,
for a man is about 11 minutes.
For a lady, it's about eight minutes.
Look how much water is coming out of that little fish tank.
That's way too much water.
There's a dude up top there with a big hose
and a pump or something.
So, if you're in a venue doing an underwater escape,
one of the things they will always say to you is,
"Is the water going to go over the top?
Because it's going to wreck the stage.
It's going to wreck the cameras, the cables."
You might have a bit of an overflow for dramatic effect,
but you would never, ever have that much water.
[crowd screaming]
Whoever thought of this is a sick sadist!
[crowd cheers]
This bit's cool because this is the classic,
they appear at the back of the audience
behind the judges, right?
Is this legitimate? Absolutely.
Could it be done the way they've done it in the show?
I don't think so.
Maybe, like, a 4, I guess,
on a premise of a performance.
Take me halfway around.
The coffin looks like a magic prop, right?
Nobody's going to buy that there's absolutely nothing --
"There's nothing wrong with this coffin!
It doesn't have any trapdoors of any kind."
I mean, it looks like a magic prop,
which you would expect from this show.
I will become my dead father's body
as I am lowered into his grave.
Buried alive is a classic plot in escapes.
You've got to get out of the coffin,
however means that happens.
But then you've still got to get through
5 or 6 feet of dirt,
and you've got to escape before you get out of the coffin.
There was a magician, Joe Burrus, from the US,
who did a buried-alive escape and got out.
But then a few years later on Halloween,
he did another version of it and died.
Because what he did was he'd put 5 feet of dirt on top,
but then he put a foot or 2 feet of concrete,
poured concrete.
Well, David Blaine's was different.
He was in a clear box with clear glass,
I think, on top, so people could see him.
So there wasn't any chance of something collapsing.
Keep it together, Buster, and spin this back around.
Oh, my God, the card! The card!
This is why we have this rap.
This is what all this beard and wax
and all these tattoos is trying to dispel,
is that myth that we're all kids-party magicians and hacks.
I mean, would you hire me for your kid's party?
I don't think so.
Buster is the perfect assistant for this,
although I don't think the character means
for it to go wrong.
You very rarely see my assistants.
My assistants are in the wings,
making sure that I don't die.
So, people that know CPR.
People that have got extra keys if something goes wrong,
sledgehammers, medics, things like that.
And we've had to use them.
I mean, for escape, you'd have to give it a 1.
But for comedy value,
you'd have to give it a 15 or a 20 out of 10.
Can you confirm that the straps are tight?
The way he's got the straitjacket on right now
is not a way that any escape artist
would ever wear a straitjacket.
The arms have to be crossed
with each wrist under the elbow, right?
So that when it's tightened up on the back,
there is no way you can physically
get the arm over the elbow.
Do you know what? I'm not saying escape artists
don't maybe hide keys. I know Houdini,
people said he hid keys and things around.
I would never put a key in my mouth,
mainly because when I'm physically moving,
it would be very easy for me to swallow that key
and choke on the thing, whether it's an extra key
or, if you're using a lockpick, an extra lockpick.
You've got to have an out.
When I was on "Britain's Got Talent,"
I dropped a lockpick while I was trying
to get out of a head tank full of water,
and I had to use the bar to break the lock.
Michael: I cannot tell you how I plan to escape,
other than by using magic.
You know, there's a lot of physicalness
to getting out of a straitjacket.
You've got to thrash around.
You know, you get cuts, you get bruises.
It hurts.
I've burned myself. I've bruised myself. I've cut myself.
That writhing around on the ground is pretty much,
you know, how we do it.
Straitjacket escape is difficult.
Houdini used to do the straitjacket escape
in every city that he ever did a show at.
There are tips and tricks that we use
to try and make that job a little easier,
but people have dislocated limbs and broken limbs
and all kinds of things trying to do it.
So, is it true that if you can't get out,
you don't want anyone to help you?
I will get out.
Oh, yes, I will.
Not accepting help if you get stuck
is not the way a professional escape artist does things.
I always have a team on standby,
and I've had to use them more than once.
I've drowned twice.
I'm giving him a 2 because he's in the straitjacket
and he's put chains on, but I mean, you know,
he's not even wearing the straitjacket right.
Maybe a magic word or two,
and then I'll be gone.
One of the first tricks I ever got shown
when I was a kid was something like that,
where he's doing the ball thing, right?
So he's going one, two, and like this, and it's gone.
So now look how his hand is.
He's holding the ball, but it's classic misdirection,
because if I just go like this and don't look up at it,
when I put it in this hand, you see me put it there.
But if my eyes are following the object,
that means your eyes are following the object.
Distraction for something like this, 100% important.
Gone.
That quick, without the guard feeling that,
I would say is nigh on impossible.
Maybe if you set off a firecracker, you know, or a bomb,
it might have worked, but just dropping a ball,
and me going for it, that switch, that quick,
pretty much impossible,
considering that these are real chains, real padlocks.
But if you look at the cuff on his right wrist there,
there's actually no padlock in this.
It's essentially a key that goes in, turns,
and it's all built into the actual cuff.
So these are an old-style cuff.
So the leg irons here are all built into the leg iron.
So he's got to unlock the iron
and then put it around the other guy.
When he puts it around the other guy,
it will instantly lock when he squeezes it together.
So actually it wouldn't take as much time
as I initially thought.
I still don't think he's got enough time.
I'm going to say maybe a 5.
As long as he picked it here and opened it,
he could snap it around the other person.
Now, I've done a lot of escapes
where I'm hanging upside down.
I've never done escapes the right way up.
It looks like she's maybe tied by the wrists
with rope or handcuffs or something that's hooked up.
I couldn't lift up a bag of sugar,
never mind a 6-foot-2, bald-headed, muscly guy.
[laughing]
OK, I mean, listen, have you ever tried
to get a key in your front-door lock when you come home
and it's nigh on impossible?
That kind of position,
to then even lift your legs is really hard,
unless you have really good core muscles.
So, I have to use my hands against my legs
to kind of walk myself up there.
I'd maybe give this a 5, I'm going to say.
My favorite escape in a movie or TV
would have to be something called the water-cube trap,
which was actually in the "Saw" series of horror movies.
And essentially it was a little cube,
and when the guy woke up, his head was in this cube.
There was two pipes coming in
attached to water gallon cylinders,
and then the water started coming in
and filling up slowly, right?
And I had a very, very similar-looking device,
which was a box attached to a metal straitjacket
hanging from chains.
And I was all padlocked and chained in,
and then they filled it with water and locked the box.
Hey, thanks so much for watching, guys.
I'm Matt Johnson, and if you want to watch
other videos like this,
make sure you go ahead and click right here.