The Foot: Man Vs. Wild--Extreme Desert

The desert is always an interesting place for Bear Grylls to go. The man does anything for water and food in the desert. He once used the stomach of a camel as shelter. He took on a hive of bees for honey which led to the infamous swollen face after a bee sting. Fun times for Bear in the desert.

The latest episode of Man Vs. Wild finds Bear in the Mojave desert in the United States. The episode is the sequel to the episode when Bear and his crew created different survival situations for him such as the avalanche, icy water and the infamous glissade incident that nearly killed him. In the desert, Bear endures a sandstorm, a flash food, angers a rattlesnake and plays with scorpions in the darkness. Bear doesn't experience any near deaths. As always, here are the highlights:

-The opening of the episode is one of the best in the series. For the first time in his life, Bear prepares to skydive from 30,000 feet. The air temperature is -45 degrees at that altitude. His eyes could freeze immediately without goggles. Nitrogen bubbles could knock him unconscious twenty minutes after the jump without proper oxygen intake before skydive. The show missed a golden opportunity to reenact the dramatic, intense skydive scene from Point Break. If one man would jump from a plane without a parachute like Johnny Utah, he would be Bear Grylls. In the interest of safety, Bear doesn't follow in Utah's footsteps. Bear jumps and absolutely loves the feeling of falling so fast through the sky. He is euphoric as am I because THAT is how a Man Vs. Wild episode should open. Also, he jumped into -45 degree temperatures and landed in the desert heat.



-The first challenge is a man made sand storm. As always, Bear wants to demonstrate proper survival methods to take. My first thought when I saw the large cloud of sand move closer and closer to Bear was, "I would run the other direction." On cue, Bear tells the audience that running is a bad idea because sandstorms can be miles long. The storm will inevitably cover a person. The smart thing to do is wait. Find shelter even if the shelter is small. Bear uses a broken car door. The difference between the wind underneath the car compared to the wide open is 50mph. Bear instructs to cover your mouth with a shirt because the easiest way to die in a sand storm is through suffocation. After the sand storm ends, Bear plainly tells the camera that he hates sand as he spits sand from his mouth and rubs sand from his clothes, hair and forehead.

-The second challenge is a flash food. I'll admit to being surprised by the two big challenges happening in the first twenty minutes of the show. The second half of show suffers because of the front-loading of awesome challenges. Anywho, the crew has three tanks of water. Together, 90,000 tons of water are going to come at Bear and his tent. Only Bear would sit in a tent with 90,000 tons of water targeting him. He explains that LESS water can move an entire SUV. Bear must be aware of rocks as well. The water is soon dumped but the water doesn't hit Bear directly because he set up camp AWAY from where the bulk of the water would go. His tent gets taken out though. The flash food looked FUN rather than scary, sort of like a water ride at Dorney Park. Bear loved skydiving and sort of enjoyed the flash food. This is like an episode when Les Stroud was on a desert island, eating fruit, fish and having a fantastic time.

Also, before the water was released, Bear said he felt happy, then added 'as happy as one can before 90,000 tons of water hit them.' One of the great sentences from Bear Grylls.

-Bear wore special snake boots to track the speed of rattle snake biting the foot of a human. The rattle snake can bite in .5 second which gives a person no chance to defend since the body takes 4 seconds to react and a second or two to process the danger.



-Bear played with two scorpions in the desert. By play, I mean he wore protective gloves and poked at their stinger. If you saw any previous desert episodes or an episode of Survivorman in the desert, you know scorpions are dangerous but the greatest source of food in the desert. The two guys always ate scorpions. Les cooked them and Bear ate them raw.

-The final challenge's signifcance was lost on me. It involved a difficult climb. I think Bear wanted to show off his expert climbing skills. Also, he said he feared heights. This is the same guy who climbed Everest twice and just jumped out of a plane that was flying at 30,000 feet in the beginning of the episode.

Another solid Man Vs. Wild. Next week is the season finale.

The week two NFL picks should be up in a bit.

SCREENPLAY OF THE DAY

Community--"Pilot"--Written by Dan Harmon http://www.zen134237.zen.co.uk/Community/Community_1x01_-_Pilot.pdf

It's only 34 pages. I estimate the read time to be around 20-22 minutes. Half-hour comedy scripts are different from hour long drama scripts as well as feature length screenplays. Dan Harmon's an awesome writer and Community's great. Go ahead and read it.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK