- And I used to think that surviving Canadian
winters made you tough, but that's
nothing compared to these stories.
So, throughout history, there have been
countless tales of human perseverance
against all odds.
I mean, let's be honest, that's what half of
Hollywood movies are about.
But today we're not talking about fiction,
no, this is not Tom Hanks and a volleyball
on an island somewhere.
There have been some real life survivors
who have demonstrated the tenacity
that it takes to stay alive under some of
the worst conditions.
Some lost at sea, some have been
presumed dead or trapped in storms
known as death zones, and there was
even one woman who fell straight
out of the sky, so get ready, because I've
gathered a few of the most incredible
and unlikely daring survival stories
of all time, so without further ado,
here they are.
10 People Who Survived Against All Odds!
Number one is Juliane Koepcke.
Julian Koepcke is the sole survivor of
the 93 passengers and crew from Lansa flight 503
that crashed and left her stranded alone in
the Peruvian rainforest.
On December 24th, 1971, her plane was
struck by lightning and exploded in midair.
Koepcke, who was only 17 years old at the time,
fell thousands of meters still trapped in her seat.
The thick deep jungle canopy was the only
thing that cushioned her fall, which allowed
her to survive with only a broken collarbone,
a gash to her right arm, and her right eye
swollen shut.
Koepcke had no training or gear,
but instinct kicked in and she began to
follow a small stream that she had found.
She continued to follow through the
rainforest for nine days, avoiding run-ins with
anacondas, six meter long crocodiles,
and the orifice eating leeches that call
this rainforest home.
She finally found a canoe and a nearby
shelter, where she waited and, unbelievably,
was rescued by two loggers.
See, I wouldn't have been able to
survive that, not just because I don't even
know how to cook myself dinner,
let alone eat random things in the
Peruvian rainforest, but if I saw one single
tarantula, I'd just, closest cliff, me,
just (shouts).
That would've been it.
It would've just been over.
I'm not dealing with tarantulas.
Number two is John Colter.
John Colter was an American trapper and
guide who had traveled through the then
unknown regions of North America.
In 1808, 700 Blackfeet Indians killed Colter's
travel companion and then held council on
what to do with him.
They soon stripped him of all of his clothes
and all of his possessions, and then told
him to run, which made him clearly realize
that he was the object of a human hunt.
Colter, quick on his feet, managed to
run several kilometers, and even
evaded most of the group, but one
bloodthirsty native gained on him.
Turning and facing him, Colter killed
him with his own spear and took his blanket.
He then took to hiding in a beaver dam,
of all things, until he was able to escape
the area undetected.
For the next 11 days, he walked a total of
320 kilometers to Fort Raymond in
North Dakota, with only the blanket for
warmth and roots for food.
Okay, this is proof that the generations
before us were a lot tougher.
My biggest struggle is often where to
order in food from.
There's a lot of options!
Number three is Douglas Mawson.
Douglas Mawson was an Australian
scientist who, at the beginning of the
20th century, set out on a mission to
explore Antarctica.
But on December 14th, 1912, one of
Mawson's colleagues fell into a crevice,
dragging their sled, their supplies,
and most of their dogs down with him.
But the worst part about it is that
ahead of Mawson was a 500 kilometer journey.
In order to survive they actually had to
eat the one remaining dog, and his
other colleague died from exhaustion,
but Mawson pushed forward.
He suffered conjunctivitis and frostbite
so bad that his skin, hair, and the soles of
his feet began to fall off.
(Matt heaves)
On top of that, he himself then
fell into a crevice and was dangling
helplessly over an Arctic abyss.
Amazingly, he was ultimately able to
pull himself up, and finally, after 32 days,
reached his hut.
And it's lucky he got there when he did,
because the only boat out of Antarctica
departed shortly after Mawson arrived,
which, if he didn't make it on that boat,
would've made him wait another 10 months to
get back to civilization.
Oh, 10 months in the cold, that really sucks.
Welcome to Canada.
Number four is the Gremlin Special passengers.
On May 13th, 1945, a US Army Air Force C-47,
nicknamed the Gremlin Special, crashed into
a mountainside, in what is now known as
the Shangri-La Valley in New Guinea.
The plane was carrying 24 crew members
and passengers, but out of all of them,
only three survived.
Lieutenant John Malcolm, Corporal Margaret Hastings,
and Sergeant Kenneth Decker all had varying
degrees of injuries.
They soon found themselves in a sort of
modern Stone Age culture, untouched by
the outside world.
What's most disturbing is that the natives
that were around them were cannibals,
who enjoyed a free meal of the other
21 who had died.
Luckily for the survivors, the natives
did not turn on them.
Amazingly, on July 2nd, 1945, after having
spent 42 days in the jungle, worried about
their new native friends who might get
hungry again, the three survivors escaped to
an island via a rescue team.
Okay, now listen, you gotta remember,
if you're ever stranded on an island and
you're forced to eat someone to mix in
with the cannibals, go for the butt first,
there's a lot of meat on the butt.
Go for the butt.
Number five is Steven Callahan.
On the night of January 29th, 1982,
Steven Callahan set sail alone in
a small sailboat from the Canary Islands,
bound for the Caribbean.
However, on February 5th, the ship
sank in a storm, leaving Callahan adrift in
the Atlantic on a one and a half meter
inflatable rubber raft.
Naked, except for just a shirt,
with only three pounds of food,
a few pieces of gear, and eight pints of water,
Callahan drifted for an incredible 76 days.
After traveling across an amazing 3,000
kilometers of ocean, the man was so
dehydrated that he went mildly insane
and developed a split personality where
he would actually fight himself over
the rations of water.
No, Wilson, you don't get the water, I do!
But I want the water!
After an incredible two and a half months
lost at sea, he finally reached land in the Bahamas.
Developing a split personality doesn't really
sound that bad, I mean, you'd always
have a friend around, you'd have someone to
play video games with, and you'd never
actually ever have to give up the controller.
So, sounds like an ideal situation!
Kind of.
Number six is Ricky Megee.
On January 24th, 2006, Ricky Megee
was cruising down an isolated road in
the Australian Outback when his car
was hijacked by three Aboriginal men.
As if that wasn't bad enough, they drugged
him and dumped his body in the middle
of the desert.
Unaware and confused as to where he was,
he woke up to dingoes scratching at him
in his shallow grave.
Amazingly, Megee managed to make a camp
near a water dam by building a shelter
out of twigs and branches.
This is the place that he called home
for the next three months, surviving on
raw leeches, grasshoppers, frogs,
and cockroaches. (heaves)
Luckily, he was found just before death,
where he resembled basically a really
tanned walking skeleton.
You gotta be real desperate to eat grasshoppers,
raw leeches, frogs and cockroaches,
oh my God.
Unless you're into that type of thing
and you like the popping sound they make.
(Matthew hisses)
Number seven is Aron Ralston.
If this name is kinda familiar to you,
it's because you probably recognize it
from the film 127 Hours.
Aron Ralston was a climber who was forced to
amputate his right arm with a dull knife in
order to free himself from between a
362 kilogram boulder and a rock wall
back in 2003.
(Matt shouts)
After five full days he had no water,
no food, and he even had to drink his
own urine just to survive.
Unbelievably, after several days alone
and starving, he finally walked out of
the canyon near death, minus one arm.
Oh my God, it takes a lot to saw off
your own arm, you gotta be desperate,
I mean, I get a single paper cut and I'm like,
"Ahh! Papercut! Ahh! Hospital!" (screams)
Overacting 101. Yes yes, you're welcome.
Number eight is Beck Weathers.
Like so many others before him,
Beck Weathers aspired to conquer Mount Everest.
But timing wasn't exactly on his side,
as he ascended the mountain during the
deadliest season ever in the history of
Mount Everest.
The storm was so bad that his rescue
missions were abandoned twice,
and eventually Weathers was presumed dead.
He spent 18 hours in sub zero temperatures in
the death zone before miraculously regaining
his senses and staggering into a camp.
Suffering from severe frostbite,
corneal lacerations and hypothermia,
his face was so badly frostbitten that
it scarcely resembled that of even a human being.
But, unbelievably, he did survive.
I give all the respect and credit in
the world to this guy, but I can't help
but wonder what the reaction of
the people in the camp were that
saw him stumble in.
(Matthew moans)
Zombie!
Number nine is John McCain.
On October 26th, 1967, Lieutenant Commander
John McCain was shot down by
a missile over Vietnam.
While trying to eject from the aircraft,
he fractured both his arms and a leg
and almost drowned.
Then, North Vietnamese residents pulled him
ashore, where they crushed his shoulder
and bayoneted him.
(Matt shrieks)
As if that wasn't bad enough, he was then
transported to a prison where his captors
refused to treat his injuries and
proceeded to beat him.
Following his interrogation he was placed in
solitary confinement for two whole years,
where he would receive daily beatings.
In mid-1968 he was then offered release,
and where most people would say,
"Yes yes, let me out now," he actually
only said he would accept it if every man
taken before him was also released.
And on March 14th, 1973, after over
five years of torture and solitary confinement,
he was released.
And number 10 is Hugh Glass.
Hugh Glass was a mountain man on
a fur trapping expedition on August of 1823.
Unfortunately for Glass, he surprised
a mother grizzly bear with her two cubs
and sustained a broken leg, and a cut on
his back that exposed his ribs.
But unbelievably, he was actually able to
kill the bear, but was left badly mauled
and unconscious.
Those who were traveling with him were
certain that he would not survive his
injuries, so they buried him alive,
and more than 320 kilometers from civilization,
Glass set his own broken leg,
wrapped himself in bear, and started to
crawl to safety.
To prevent gangrene, Glass laid his wounded
back on a rotting log and let the maggots
eat his dead flesh.
Oh, this is getting gross!
He survived mostly on wild berries
and roots, and after six weeks of travel,
built himself a crude raft and began
floating downriver.
And after receiving directions from friendly natives,
he eventually made it to safety.
If this story sounds familiar, that's because
it's the story from the 2015 Leonardo DiCaprio
film The Revenant.
Wait, are all Hollywood movies based on
a true life story?
Does that include The Human Centipede?
And that's all for this video guys,
don't forget to subscribe to this channel
so that you can catch my next video,
and I will see you next time,
same bat-time, same bat-channel,
love yo faces, bye! (shouts)