("Rhapsody in Blue")
- [Daniel] Chapter one: he adored Las Vegas—
a city that looked as beautiful as him.
No, no, no, no, that's too narcissistic.
Let me start this over.
To him, Las Vegas was a city full of
color, energy and opportunity.
A complete contrast from where he came from.
This is the story of how Daniel Pohl escaped
the clutches of the Iron Curtain
on a zip line and won his freedom.
Yeah, this sounds much better.
(zip line whirring)
- [Narrator Two] Hold on, let's pause for a second.
To understand this story, we need to go back.
(film reel stuttering)
Like way back, like back to the '80s.
The place is Czechoslovakia, the ruling party—Communist.
Our character is Daniel Pohl,
a young man who was politically outspoken.
- People that knew me really well, they told me,
"Hey listen, all I can tell you is,
“you really want to tone it down on your political speech
“because you may end up in prison."
And so that's when I starting plotting escape.
- [Narrator] While planning his exit strategy,
Daniel met another radical thinker,
a physicist named Robert Ospald.
- Robert was pretty well gifted when it came to physics.
He was imprisoned for political reasons,
so I knew that this guy is crazy enough
to be my partner in crime to get out with.
We tried to come up with all kinds of crazy ideas, like
building our own rocket and flying over the Iron Curtain.
Digging tunnels, none of it seemed viable for many reasons.
Then one day, I see Robert glancing at a power line
and something told me: “You should be worried.” (laughing)
He says, "We're gonna zip line into Austria."
I said, "No, dude, you're clinically insane."
And he says, "And that's why we're gonna get out."
- [Narrator] So the two got to work,
and over the next several months
they built—and tested—their own pulleys.
- The plan was to infiltrate the border zone,
climb up the tower, set up the pulleys,
zip line over the Iron Curtain,
climb down from the next tower into no mans land,
and then make it into Austria.
- (Robert) Woo hoo.
- The reason why this was so insanely dangerous,
because we could have gotten shot at the border.
Could have gotten electrocuted.
Could have gotten torn apart by border dogs.
And then you have 380,000 volts
coursing underneath your feet.
Yeah, this mission was, to put it
mildly, extremely dangerous.
It was almost like a “Mission Impossible.”
- [Narrator] But that didn't stop these two.
With their pulley's made, and their plan in place,
they headed out and climbed the tower.
- Robert went first, and when he
took off, my heart just sunk.
And I was like, yeah, there is
no turning back, I am doing this.
I just decided to go for it, I went for it.
When I was zip lining, it was like a mixture of
emotions you never experienced before.
You are way up high, you have a lot of
electricity around you, it was crazy.
But, despite all the close calls, we made it.
- [Narrator] Daniel and Robert became local celebrities,
appearing in news outlets all over Europe.
Daniel even donated his pulley to the
Checkpoint Charlie museum in Berlin.
The pulley still hangs there today.
Robert remained in Austria, but Daniel,
his sights were on America.
So he moved to the one place that
could match his personality—Vegas.
So I wrote a book, I got married, drive a cab in Vegas.
I don't think I would drive a cab anywhere else,
but in Vegas, it's fun.
Very international city, very dynamic—it's awesome.
I wanted to be free at all costs.
Yes, I wanted to piss off the communists.
I wanted to show them that it doesn't matter
what Iron Curtain, what wall they're gonna build,
how many border patrol guards they're gonna place
on the border, I'm still getting through.
They can not defeat the human spirit
that wants its freedom.
That was awesome.
(upbeat jazz music)
(bell dinging)