01x03 - Dallas Jenkins

[bunniefuu]

[dramatic music playing]

I'm Bear Grylls,
and the outdoors and adventure

-has been my life.
-Let's go!

And a faith in Christ
is a light through it all.

My job has led me to take

some of the world's greatest icons
on adventures into the wild,

from presidents to Hollywood sensations.

The TV phenomenon The Chosen

is in many ways a story

of the greatest adventure of all time.

Let me tell you a story.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

[crowd cheering]

What better way to get to know the people
behind this Bible story

than bring them out here

into this great wilderness
for an expedition of their own.

Welcome to The Chosen in the Wild.

{\an8}[dramatic music playing]

I'm on my way to pick up Dallas Jenkins.

He's the creator
of the TV phenomenon The Chosen.

He's asked me to take him
on an adventure into the wild,

to push him to his limits.

So I've brought him
to the Adirondack Forest

for the ultimate test.

Welcome to Chosen in the Wild.

Dallas, you'd better be ready!

[dramatic music swells]

I'm Dallas Jenkins.
I'm a rugged indoorsman.

I am now out in the wild,

trying to figure out
what I did to get myself here.

[Bear] Dallas Jenkins is the creator,

cowriter, producer and director

of the global smash hit
TV series The Chosen.

All right, here we go. Let's go again.

Inspired to create the series
after a powerful experience with God,

The Chosen depicts
a raw and authentic Jesus

as he navigated the trials of human life.

Thank you for your patience.
You guys are awesome!

And Dallas is no stranger
to life's challenges himself.

[Dallas] I like to kind of know
what I'm getting into,

so even just like a little mouse
crawling across a path,

uh, that can be enough to bring me down.

Bear? [echoes]

Did you hear that?

Bear! [echoes]

I think I actually woke up real bears.

[dramatic music playing]

[Bear] From pole to pole,

I've been all over the planet
in search of adventure.

It's challenging to be away
from the comforts of home,

and in the wild, you never know
what's gonna happen next.

But what it has taught me
is how to let go.

Now I'm taking Dallas,
the man in control of The Chosen,

canyoneering on the Au Sable River

to discover if he can truly let go.

Bear gave me a backpack.
I haven't actually seen what's inside,

so I'm gonna check to see
what he has for me.

I'm hoping it's, um,
you know, creature comforts,

but I'm not optimistic.

Okay.

Well, there's a lot of this.

This is like a… magic trick.

Just a rope. Okay, great.

And a note.

"Hey, Dallas, jump on and meet me
at the end of the road."

It's like putting toothpaste
back in the tube.

[suspenseful music playing]

Oh, goodness. Here.

Okay, good. I was hoping
there wasn't, like, a… a body.

Oh, gosh, there's more.

This looks jump-on-able.

Oh, my goodness.

I guess…

I'm supposed to jump on.

[dramatic music playing]

Key.

-[ignition starts]
-[engine idling]

[engine revving]

I know how to turn it on!

Okay.

All right. Bear left me this quad bike.

End of the road. Here we go.

[dramatic music playing]

[engine revving]

[helicopter blades whirring]

-Hey, Dallas.
-Good to see you.

-Are you okay?
-I don't know yet. We'll see.

-You ready?
-Yeah. We'll see.

[dramatic music playing]

The adventure begins.

Oh, I'm ready.

So if I fall, you'll catch me, yeah?

-Yeah. I've got you.
-All right, good.

It's always pretty cool
under a chopper like this.

So beautiful.

-Are you okay with heights?
-Yeah.

I have a sign on the wall in my house

that says, "You can do hard things."

I wanted to raise my kids
to know they can do hard things.

So that's why I had to do this.

[triumphant music playing]

Okay, feet down.

[Dallas] Whoo! Okay.

Chopper outta here.

Well done.

Well, we're into it.

So from here,
we're going about, uh, three miles.

We've got a river journey.

A whole series of narrow ravines,
rivers, wider rivers.

We're gonna be kind of
crisscrossing those.

Doesn't sound very far,
but it's kind of tricky

getting across them sometimes,
but we'll figure it out.

-We'll work it out together.
-All right, yeah.

I like indoors, but… all right.

So is most of your life normally indoors?

I feel like, Bear,
we've cracked the code historically.

We know how to now temperature control.

-Yeah.
-Food control.

And you seem to be
not embracing that side.

You seem to be going out into the wild.
I'm not sure why.

But I'm gonna join you today.
I'll go on this with you.

I love it. Life begins
outside of our comfort zone.

-Yes.
-You know, we have to kick each other

out of it sometimes,
and the outdoors lights us up.

-You ready?
-Yeah. Let's go.

We're going this way.

[dramatic music playing]

{\an8}[Bear] Canyoneering
along the Au Sable River

{\an8}is a perfect place for Dallas
to discover life outdoors.

Everything about this landscape
is super-sized,

from the thumping white-water rivers

to the sheer drops either side of them.

My team have placed some ropes in advance
to speed up our journey,

{\an8}and this allows us
to super-size the challenges.

[Bear] These forests are amazing.
You've got bears, you've got coyotes.

We're heading definitely off the track,

so we'll take our time with this.

Where were you brought up?

I was born and raised in Illinois.

Yeah. What was that like?

My dad is an author,

and so, uh, I was raised in the suburbs.

What's funny is my mom,
she was raised on a farm.

So when I was in, uh, sixth grade,

every summer she'd send me to the farm
for three weeks with her parents.

And did you like those weeks
on the farm every summer?

-Uh, no. Not at all. [laughs]
-That's so funny.

-What were you into when you were a kid?
-[Dallas] Sports.

So I was obsessed. I was reading
the sports page when I was…

that's how I learned to read,
five, six years old.

So for me,
I was always obsessed with sports,

and I thought I wanted to be an athlete.

And then raised in a Christian home.

I went to a Christian school.

So kind of the Bible and sports
are my two obsessions.

That's amazing
you were brought up with a faith.

-You're so lucky.
-Yeah.

-What a gift.
-Yeah, it really was.

Your parents must've been remarkable.

I mean, I have been very blessed,
but what's funny is too,

I think sometimes when you're raised
in a foundation of faith,

it is easy also to take things
for granted.

And I think that I got
into my college years and older,

and I started to get comfortable.

As you know, comfortable is dangerous.

I think personally,
you can enjoy things more

when you've pushed yourself,

so as much as I joke around

about how this is uncomfortable for me
because it's outdoors,

I'm not a big outdoorsman, the part of it
that appeals to me is, I'm gonna…

I think I can be better
after doing something like this.

[dramatic music playing]

[Bear] This journey is gonna push Dallas

further from his comfort zone
than he's ever imagined.

Oh, my goodness.

-Just watch yourself here.
-Yeah.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Bear] Yeah, so we're gonna have a bunch
of these sort of rivers to cross.

This sort of water's super cold.
Your survival time,

you know, after five, six,
seven minutes, you're in trouble.

-Yeah.
-This is, like, almost freezing.

And then deceptively fast flowing,

and you get eddies
and whirlpools down this.

And the other thing is,
you don't know how deep that is.

But generally
all these things in the wild,

you only get it wrong once.

Err on the side of caution.

You might think, "Oh, it's fine."
You jump in, one foot of water,

twist an ankle, and then out here,
if you're on your own, you're dead.

-Yeah.
-It only takes a small injury.

So, we'll… we'll be cautious,

but at this point, we're just
gonna follow upstream for a bit.

Okay, great.

I'm getting the impression that we're not
gonna just walk alongside the river,

we're gonna probably go across it as well.

And, uh, unlike Jesus in my show,
I can't walk on water.

[suspenseful music playing]

Okay, so this is our first way
we're gonna get across this river.

All right.

[dramatic music playing]

Careful on the edge here, but you see
real thumping white-water down there.

And this is just a hemp line.

I've added this one because
I don't know how old that one is.

But this one's good.

[Bear] This is definitely gonna be
a, uh, little scary

if you've never done this before.

I think this sort of terrain,
you've always gotta be mindful of.

If you end up in this water out here,
you're in trouble.

It might be sunny, but it's cold.

And that water is only
just above freezing.

Might be fine for a few minutes,
then you're gonna lose

the feeling in your feet and hands,
then your brain goes,

and then you're in trouble.

So we do not want to come off this line,
do not want to end up in this water.

So this is gonna be all about
core strength.

-Okay.
-And take your time.

Okay, I'll go first on this
so you can see.

All right.

Okay, I'm gonna clip you in already,
so you are good to then go.

[dramatic music playing]

Just feel your way. [laughs]

The first bit's always the scary bit.

[sighs]

It gets a little wobbly here.

[exhales sharply]

All righty.

This is a lot less stable than it looks.

This is all about core strength,

not losing your equilibrium.

'Cause once you do, then all the weight
goes onto your arms.

And then once your arms fatigue,

you've got nothing to hold on
and balance with.

I could definitely feel the pump

on the biceps and arms with this.

I think he's gonna feel this.

The thing about this river
that I noticed just coming up,

looking over the edge is,
it's not a tame river.

This is one
you don't necessarily wanna fall into.

I think I weigh a bit more than he does,
so hopefully this rope

is as strong as it looks,
'cause I'm gonna put it to the test.

[suspenseful music playing]

Okay, we're good, Dallas. You got it.

All right.

Oh, here we go.

[suspenseful music playing]

Nice and easy.

Just focus.

All right then.

[chuckles]

This is the part where he said
it's a little wobbly.

That's an understatement.

[dramatic music playing]

[sighs]

Come on now.

Well done, Dallas.

Great job. Almost there.

[Dallas]
Testing the old shoulder strength.

[grunts]

-You getting the pump?
-[grunts]

-Whoo!
-Well done. Almost there. Keep going.

Well done.

-It's harder when you get closer, huh?
-Yeah, yeah.

[gasps]

There you go. I got you.

[Dallas sighs]

-Well done, well done.
-Whoo!

Whoo… [laughs]

Great job.

-About two thirds of the way in.
-Yeah. The first half is easy.

Like, like is that me shaking
or is that the…

Whoo!

-Whoo! All right.
-Well done. Good job.

-Feeling all right?
-Yeah, I'm good.

Well, I was figuring,

if I hold too long

and rest for a second,
it's still a strain the whole time.

-Yeah. And it's core, isn't it?
-I'm like, I gotta get to the…

I gotta get to the end! [chuckles]

-So, I'm good.
-Well done.

About two thirds of the way through,

my shoulders were starting to tell me,

"We're done.
So get to the end quickly, please."

So, uh, exhausting,

but it was also beautiful.

I'm like, well, I got that part done.

Now I'm gonna go through
the rest of the day with…

no shoulder strength anymore.

So I hope there's not
too many more shoulder-required things.

But other than that, I'm good.

[Bear] Real respect for Dallas,
'cause you can't kinda hide fatigue.

You know, he was tired at the end.
His arms were, like, bulging like Popeye!

So crossing that is
more intimidating than it looks.

And balance is something
that if you don't practice it,

when you need it,
it can be really hard to find.

[suspenseful music playing]

[birds chirping]

[Dallas] That works every muscle,
doesn't it?

-[Bear laughs] Yeah.
-My thighs are burnin'.

-I didn't know that.
-[Bear] Yeah.

Let's take two minutes, Dallas.
We're gonna have a quick rehydrate.

All righty.

[gentle music playing]

Yeah. It's actually
deceptively dehydrating out here.

I was gonna ask, do you find that

out in the heat, it's kind of obvious,
you feel thirsty.

Yeah.

Do you not feel
quite as thirsty when cold?

No, but you dehydrate much faster
'cause you're at elevation as well.

And when you work,
you're always breathing out

and you're doing lots of mini workouts,
and you're not drinking and you dehydrate,

and then it gets really hard to rehydrate.

But you're obviously somebody, though,

who loves challenge in your life,
whatever it is.

Where does that sort of spirit come from?

My dad, when he was raising me, said,
"We don't quit."

So Jenkinses don't quit.

I guess I always just had
that ingrained into me that,

if you're going to choose to do
something, commit to it.

And I always saw that from my dad.

My mom is super tough,
super strong, always working.

You live in the Midwest,
you get up in the morning, you work.

[laughs] So, uh, that's what we…
it was kind of ingrained into me.

-Yeah.
-So I kind of learned some of that.

So I don't mind doing hard things.

I just like to control
my environment too sometimes.

That's why
the wild's uncomfortable for me.

-'Cause I can't control it.
-Yeah, yeah.

It's kind of hard sometimes, letting go.
The wild is untamable.

-Yeah.
-I learned that long ago.

I gave up trying! [laughs]

People go, "Oh, you conquered Everest."
It's like, uh-uh.

-You survive it.
-You survived it, yeah.

What was your first job
when you left college then?

My dad had this book series
called Left Behind,

which sold tens of millions of copies,
and was super successful,

and someone wanted to make
a movie out of it.

So I went into work for this
small production company

and got a job
as a just low-level secretary,

just doing anything and everything.

After a few years, my dad and I
kind of went off on our own

and started our own
film production company.

We decided to make a movie.

Uh, relatively low budget,
but just kind of trial by fire.

Sometimes that's the best way, isn't it?

You seem someone
who's not scared, as well, of failure.

My first couple movies
were outside of Hollywood.

They were independently financed.

And I was hoping that
I would get discovered by an agent

or discovered by a big Hollywood studio.

And then I finally got it.
I finally got an opportunity to do a movie

that was financed
by a big Hollywood studio

and distributed to theaters all over,
and then it completely bombed.

Like, completely failed.

And I don't think I knew how scared
of failure I was until that happened.

And now, not only is my confidence shaken,

the people around me
no longer have confidence in me.

I lost…

[sighs] I lost everything.

Like, I truly, for the first time
in my life questioned

if I had actually heard
God's calling correctly.

And so I'm with my wife,
and we're just crying and confused.

And…

it was there in that moment

when God put it
on my wife's heart so strongly,

"Read the story,
The Feeding of the 5,000."

You know, the loaves and fish.

When we read that story, we realized that

Jesus wasn't surprised

by the hunger of the people.

He actually caused it.

He's the one
who'd been talking for three days.

He got them to that place
of hunger and desperation,

where the only thing
to satisfy it was a miracle.

And so we were like, okay,

just because you're at this desperate
place doesn't mean that God's not in it.

Sometimes he puts you there on purpose.

He takes you to that point.

God just put it on his heart
to share that with me,

and I just start weeping.

I mean… [sobs]

Even remembering that moment,
because I was so…

desperate for an answer,

and God was like,
"I don't need your success.

I just want you to-- to focus on me."

And in that moment, I changed.

I really dramatically, like,
I realized God was in it,

and… and I realized,

okay, if I give my five loaves
and two fish,

and they're as good and healthy
as they can be,

and I give them to God,

and he deems them worthy of acceptance,
the transaction's over.

I don't care what the criticism is,

and I don't care what the praise is.

I genuinely don't make anything anymore

to try to avoid criticism or gain praise.

And is that still a sort of a daily focus

and sometimes a daily battle for you?

So that's where my wife comes in
and keeps me pretty grounded.

I was gonna say,
how do you then stay grounded?

[Dallas] Uh, if she ever sees me
start to care about success

or fame or money or anything like that,

she will smack that back
in order pretty quickly.

I feel a deep responsibility
to not let myself get off course.

It is a heavy weight,
and I just wanna make sure that

I avoid thinking
it's only I who can carry that weight.

Yeah. Well, that's
the great danger, isn't it?

I think half the battle
is having that awareness.

The danger is when
you stop focusing on it,

stop worrying about it, thinking about it,
and then it creeps up on you.

Well, I hope in a few years

we do a show like this again,
and I'm still…

-I'll be going, "You're the same guy."
-I hope so.

-"Respect."
-If I'm not,

then you can toss me into the river.

Yeah! We'll cool you down
in the river! [laughs]

Exactly.

Okay, we'll keep going.

[gentle music playing]

We can hear the river again.
I think we're getting close.

[birds chirping]

Have you looked in the pack, by the way?
Do you know what you're carrying?

Uh, yes. There was just
a very, very long rope.

Okay, we're gonna need that.

-Okay.
-Let's get that out.

The next river is gonna be all about this.

So it's gonna be a little bit of training
en route just for five minutes.

Okay, well,
my rope skills are very limited.

Well, this is gonna be
the rough-and-ready lesson.

All right.

I want to give Dallas
a little bit of training

before we reach this next river.

You take that end, take it to that tree.

It's called a Tyrolean traverse.
It's physical, it's difficult.

And the danger is, you lose your balance,
you fall off, and you're under it.

Unless you know the technique
to get back on top, it's really hard.

Even when you do know
the technique, it's hard.

But a little bit of training goes
a long way later on on this journey.

Pull that tight.

Okay.

I've had our team put
one of these up across the river.

-Okay.
-But this time,

unlike that last river we did,

-there's no safety line above.
-Okay.

We're gonna be on our-- on our stomachs,
hauling ourselves across, so…

-Okay.
-The shoulder workout is gonna continue.

-But what I want you to practice is this:
-Glad I had a warm-up.

is how to get… how to get on it
and how to maintain your balance.

So the key is one leg up,
that's looped over the top,

and your chest is taking the weight.

And then this leg is your balance,

and you use your leg strength to push.

-Okay.
-And then leg up again, leg strength.

'Cause if you try and haul yourself
with just your arm, you'll fatigue.

-Yeah.
-Yeah?

Okay, so chest on.

One leg up.

Okay. So that right leg comes in tight,

-and you push with that leg.
-Okay.

And you're trying to use
all your leg strength,

not your arm strength, okay?

-Okay, yeah. I got it.
-And then try and do no arms.

Arms out to the side. Just use…
Find your balance,

-so all the weight's through your chest.
-Sure.

Great, okay. So that's the first thing.

-All right.
-And then off that.

Okay, so the next phase is, we're on here.

If you do roll and fall off,

or even worse, if you're like this,
if you're literally hanging,

first steps, your feet go up.

We're coming up.

We're getting the armpit over.

Once this is here,
this leg is your counterbalance.

And then you're back on top.

-Okay?
-Okay.

So remember, it's all in that leg.

So I'll help you through it.

[suspenseful music playing]

Chest on.

Leg up.

-Great.
-Okay, and then I fall.

Rolling.

-Okay.
-Okay.

And then try your leg off as well.

-Oh, both legs.
-Try both legs.

Keep your core tight.
Up with the legs. Here we go.

Leg up. Great.

Okay. This armpit over the top.

One arm and the other one.
Get this one over.

Okay, I'm up.

And now the next one.

Get this one over. That's it.
Okay, hold it there. Okay.

Now, this is your swing leg.
So it comes up high,

-and then it rolls.
-[groans]

It rolls, and you're on top.

-All right.
-Great.

-Okay. Whoo!
-Got it. Well done. That is not easy.

This is one of the toughest tests
that commandos do.

They're doing it
with kit and r*fle as well.

But this is a tough thing to learn,
so well done.

So that's the training done.

I did find out what the rope is for,

and I'm breathing heavy
just from the training.

That was working some muscles

and some skills
that I don't normally work or have.

So, uh, the fact
that I was able to finally figure it out,

but it was between two trees
with Bear standing right there was nice,

but the fact that
I might have to apply that by myself

with him not sitting next to me,
a little daunting.

[gentle music playing]

Oh, look. There's the line.
That's what we're using across the river.

All righty.

[dramatic music playing]

[Bear] So we've reached this point
getting across this river.

This is why I put Dallas through
a bit of that training.

It's called a Tyrolean traverse.

It's all about balance
and nerve and strength.

Just gotta try and keep your composure,
not look down,

even though you are kind of looking down,
but focus on what you're doing,

not the drop and the depth,
white water underneath you.

This is our line across the river.

Again, we do not want to be going in this.

So we're gonna stay dry.
We're gonna stay on this line.

Remember what I said:
if you fall off it, don't panic.

Just relax. Get your breath back.

And remember it's all about technique,
getting back on.

Get that armpit over,
keep your groin close to the rope,

and use that momentum.

[Dallas] I'm not afraid of heights,
but it is physically taxing.

When you're lifting weights,

and you get to that last rep,
and you're a little too tired,

you just lower the weight,
and you're done.

You get halfway across
the rope above a river

and you're too tired, you can't just
drop a weight and be done.

You're like, I have no choice
but to keep going.

No one's gonna be there
to lift me back up if I slip off.

I don't wanna fall in.

[Bear] Okay. So once we're on, we're on.

So remember your balance. Take your time.

[dramatic music playing]

[exhales sharply]

Makes it look so easy.

So remember, if you do go…

[dramatic music playing]

…one arm, armpit,

leg to the rope.

And then regain your balance.

And remember: leg strength there, not arm.

Yeah, no problem.

[dramatic music playing]

Okay.

So that's definitely a workout.

It's a core workout.

It's a leg workout.

It's an arm workout.

And it's that balance muscle
inside as well.

Trying to keep your composure.

Balance and endurance.

Not great at balance.

Mediocre at endurance.

All right, we do have insurance.

[suspenseful music playing]

Okay, Dallas, ready whenever you are.

[dramatic music playing]

-Over halfway. Great job.
-[grunts]

Shake it out. Just balance.
Let your arms hang.

You've got it.

[grunts]

[grunts]

Keep it coming. Keep your balance.

Use your leg power.

There you go.

Little bit more.

-[grunts]
-Get your feet onto that.

Well done. Keep coming.

Well done. [laughs]

Whoo!

-[exhales sharply]
-[Bear laughs]

-They're working hard.
-There's not much left. Not much left.

-[Bear laughs] It's hard, isn't it?
-Yeah.

Well done, you. Respect.

That's not easy.

[gentle music playing]

[Dallas] This is brutal.

That was a test,
and, uh, I barely made it.

The thing about that is,
you're halfway there

and you're like, I don't know how much
more strength I have to get through it.

I'm glad that I didn't have to do
the regain thing that he taught me,

because the physical exertion of just
holding your balance is so intense.

I'm like, if I would've lost it
and had to regain it,

I don't know
how much was left in the tank.

It's humbling,
because I don't know what I'm doing.

But I think that's a good place to be.
I think surrender and humility

always precede growth.

So I'm just trying to remind myself of
that when I'm 30 feet above jagged rocks.

[Bear] That is one of those things that,
when it's done well,

it looks easy. [laughs]

But it's hard, you know,
and things go wrong real quick on those.

Once you lose your balance,
you flip underneath,

really hard to get back on.

So I'm really proud of him.

Many people just wouldn't
be able to manage that.

It's a big part of this journey, though,
to cross this last river.

We've got one more bit
a bit further on to navigate,

but this was a tricky one.

[dramatic music playing]

[gentle music playing]

Oh, look. Mushroom.

Is that the kind of mushroom
that takes you to another dimension?

No, these are oyster mushrooms.

These are actually
one of the forest good guys.

-Okay.
-I mean, on the whole,

I always think, with mushrooms,
unless you really know your mushrooms,

stay away from them.

There's something like


of mushrooms just in the States.

And also the consequences
of getting it wrong.

Mushrooms can k*ll you.

There's one called Destroying Angels,
I think it's called.

It looks just like
an innocent button mushroom.

Eat that, it'll k*ll you in five hours.

But this is oyster mushroom.

And that's fine to eat. Yeah.

Oh, man, I don't like mushrooms
even in a restaurant.

-Ugh! Okay, well…
-Well, they make really good tea.

There are a lot
of super healing mushrooms.

You get, like, Cordyceps and Lion's Mane.
You heard of that stuff?

I've heard of lion's mane, yeah.

You have that in tea, and you wouldn't
even taste the mushroom.

Really good for concentration
and, you know, alertness and stuff.

But we'll take that.
We'll make some tea with it.

Oh, lovely.

Mushroom tea.

I have it every day in my life.
I have mushroom coffee.

[gentle music playing]

Okay, let's take two minutes, Dallas.

Quick hydrate.

Then we're gonna follow
this bit of the bank down.

At some point, I think we're gonna
need still to cross this final river,

but we'll figure that out in a sec.

It's funny. I figure that Amanda is
such a big part of your journey, you know?

It's like, it always seems to come back
to what a bedrock she is in it all.

Throughout
the whole course of this journey

that we've been on
for the last seven years,

my wife, Amanda, has just been

not only the rock of this experience,

but she's almost like the heart guide.

She's really tuned into God,

and after we'd just gone through
that big failure

and I left my job, and we're…

we're preparing for The Chosen,

my wife, she's, like, studying
the Book of Exodus.

-Yeah.
-And…

God kept showing her
all these stories of success,

like what happened to the Israelites
after they got to the promised land,

after 40 years of wandering in the desert.

You'd think they'd get to this point
where they've got milk and honey,

they've got the promised land
and they'd be so grateful

that everything would go well.

And they immediately got entitled again
and immediately had a big fall.

And Amanda felt like God was teaching us
the dangers of success.

-And that's amazing, really, isn't it?
-Yeah.

I think one of the hardest things
I see for The Chosen is,

you know,
you're dealing with the Almighty.

How do you make sure
you're kind of getting that right?

-How do you tackle that?
-Before we had made anything,

I went to Israel,

and I go to this synagogue,

this beautiful, humble place.

This is an actual synagogue
from the first century.

This is not a recreation.
And Jesus for sure taught here.

Nicodemus was here.

[laughs] I am standing where Jesus was.

I'm sitting there,
I'm just quiet, by myself.

And I started praying,

and it was one of the few times in my life
where I really felt God speak to me.

And I just remember this

just strong impression on my heart

of God saying, um,

"In a few years,

when people think of my followers,
when people think of my son,

this portrayal, this show,
is gonna be what comes to mind.

Like, what their visual representation
of my followers.

And I'm not gonna let you screw it up."

And so at that moment… [laughs]

In-- In one moment,
I felt this incredible weight,

but also this incredible relief.

Like, God, help me not screw it up.

Help me not get in the way

of an authentic portrayal
of you and your people.

Sometimes you feel like, you know what?

I might be more of a danger
to this project than anyone else.

Because as the leader,
if I start getting in the way of it,

and my ego gets in the way,

all of it can be taken away.

And my wife has been…

kind of that rock,
reminding me of that every day.

I think the success of the show
kind of is so big now

that it's actually easier
to be humble, 'cause I'm like,

"I'm definitely not this good.

I'm not good enough to accomplish
what this show has accomplished."

And I just pray I never lose that.

The show has done so much to bring people

an awareness of

as close as we can to the real Jesus,

not the Christmas,
sanitized religious versions,

but the real, regular human man
who gathered

regular, flawed, broken,

swearing, drinking, messy people to him.

-Yeah.
-Was that always really intentional,

or has that grown as it's gone on?

I think sometimes our religiosity
gets in the way of an authentic Jesus.

The thing that I've learned
more about him than anything else

in the last six, seven years
is that he is an intimate God.

And we know that Jesus is perfect
and can do miracles,

but he still laughed with his friends.

He got angry,

he got sad in the garden of Gethsemane.

He was scared.

He was desperate on the cross.

So that truth is what I'm just trying to…

I don't think I'm creating anything new.

I think I'm trying to pull away the things
that get in between us.

And sometimes in our prayers,
we think of this halo,

we think of even God the father
as this distant thing that we can't reach.

And that's the beauty.

He would say, "That's true.
You can't reach me, but I can reach you."

That's what the show's all about.
That's what I'm just trying to illustrate.

Like, I am a flawed man. I'm not God.
Jonathan is not Jesus.

The Chosen is not the Bible.
This is a TV show.

So watch it through that lens,

and hopefully it points you towards
"the thing" or "the one."

-Yeah.
-But this isn't "the thing."

I think that's
a really strong message, that.

-Shall we make some mushroom tea?
-Okay. I'm…

Well, I don't know how I feel. We'll see.

Okay, so let's fire up this.

We've got our mushrooms. Little cooker.

Put that in.

And then I've got a great snack for us.

This is, uh, pickled herrings.

-[laughs]
-What are you doing?

And once I break into this,

it will be one of the worst smells
you will ever humanly encounter.

-Oh, my goodness.
-Trust me.

But eating it is
not as bad as smelling it.

And let me get the mushroom tea
ready as well. Hold on.

[playful music playing]

-You ready for this?
-Nope.

[Dallas groans]

[Bear] Oh, gee…

[Dallas laughs] Oh, man!

Okay. Just have a smell of that.

-Oh, God.
-[Bear laughs]

-It actually…
-It goes into my brain.

It goes into your brain!

I mean I've had a lot
of bad foods in my life,

but this one,

it's kinda like indescribable.

The people who introduced me to this
were some Icelandic…

-Yeah, who decided, you know what?
-Some Icelandic fishermen.

They love it. They love it.
They literally pull this stuff out.

They pull this stuff out… [laughs]

and wolf… wolf it down!

-Okay, we ready?
-All right, let's just…

Here we go. One, two, three.

[playful music playing]

[Dallas groans]

-[retches]
-[Bear] Oh, wow.

-Oh, mother love. Whoo!
-[Dallas coughing]

[coughs]

Ah. For what we have just received,
we are very grateful.

We would appreciate receiving
something different.

[sputters]

Oh, wow.

I'm not sure I agree the eating
wasn't as bad as the smell.

-That was brutal.
-That was brutal!

At least tell me
that there's benefit to it.

Pickled herrings, rich in nutrients.
[laughs]

Oh, great. Good, well…

Vitamins, minerals, protein.

Okay.

Now you're probably not feeling
quite so bad about the mushroom tea.

No, the mushroom tea
is an oasis in the desert.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Bear] Unfortunately for Dallas,

the pickled herrings were not the last
challenge in store for him today.

We've got to cross this river
one final time.

[Bear] Here we go, Dallas.

Okay, so that's eventually
where we've gotta get.

-We've gotta cross this river.
-Oh, boy.

[dramatic music playing]

Our extraction is gonna be
just further on down that way.

Okay.

I wonder whether we try and just
jump this into that deeper pool.

Oh, my goodness.

And then swim down,
and then we're out and across.

We're jumpin'.

The danger with this sort of stuff
is jumping when you don't know the depth.

You've got clear water, you can see.
But this bit's deep.

And also we want to have
dry clothes as well to put on.

So I think we strip down,

we put everything into one pack,

really secure it, watertight.

And then I think we just jump together,

swim, get across.

We'll, you know, do some press-ups,
do some squats, quickly get warm.

Dry stuff on. Get moving.

Okay. That water, I don't think,
is 90 degrees.

No, this has come straight out
of the snowy mountains.

-So this is just above freezing.
-Okay.

[suspenseful music playing]

So this is the last push of the journey.

I've tried, really,
to avoid us getting wet all day.

But this bit, there's no way
you can get a line across this.

The river's way, way too wide.

This is like, in at the deep end.

We'll do it together.
Finish this journey strong.

All right.

Little apprehensive,
but that's why I'm out here.

Do hard things. So let's go for it.

All right. You ready?
So we're gonna go on three.

-Is it gonna be one, two, three, jump?
-[Dallas] One, two, three, jump.

Okay. You want to give the count?

[dramatic music playing]

[Dallas] One…

two…

three.

[dramatic music playing]

Jump! Whoo!

Ah!

[dramatic music playing]

Okay, Dallas.

Here we go. We're swimming.

It's definitely pretty biting, isn't it?

It is biting.

Okay, good coming out this way.

We've got a flat bit here.

Not sure if I still have a groin. [laughs]

Feels like it got swallowed up.

[Bear] Okay, here we go.

Okay, come on. Twenty. Here we go.

Get the blood pumping again!

Yeah, that was…
That was definitely bracing.

[Dallas] That first, uh,
arrival into the water was…

-[Bear laughs]
-…wasn't welcome.

[Bear] Okay.

Let's get dry. Get the dry stuff on.

[suspenseful music playing]

Okay, so we're eventually gonna
get picked up just down here.

How do you keep balance in your life
when you've got so much…

You know, you're a…
You're a dad, a husband,

a writer, creator, director, producer.

How do you keep balance in your life?

I feel like if I get to
the end of my life,

and I wasn't a good husband and father,

I can never get that back.

I can never make up for that.

And my dad poured that into me
as a kid just by example.

He got successful,

and he just always refused

to let time with us suffer.

-Mmm.
-And so he said no a lot.

There are lots of things that you'll be
asked to do that other people can do,

but no one else can be your kid's dad
or your wife's husband.

If success means giving up
some of this stuff like family time,

it's not… it's not worth it.

And do you have big goals
and dreams still in your life?

I don't have goals anymore,
uh, at least career-wise.

I want to get to heaven and hear God say,
"Well done, good and faithful servant."

And if that's what I hear, uh,

then that's-- that's success.

What a goal.
"Well done, good and faithful servant."

-Yeah, yeah.
-Come on.

-We're going this way.
-All right.

[triumphant music playing]

[Bear] Watch your step on this.

-Whoop! Yep.
-[Dallas] You all right?

[Bear] Okay, let's fire that.

There we go.

I feel very, very cool.

[triumphant music playing]

What I've learned on this journey
is that Dallas is a force of nature.

He is on a mission to show the world,

people all around our planet,
the real Jesus.

It's an incredible mission to have.

There's three things for me
that stand out about him:

Infectious energy,

his family is his rock,

and number three,
he's only just getting going.

[Dallas] I'm so grateful that I got
a chance to do this,

'cause I think there was a time in my life
when I wouldn't have wanted to even try.

I would say it exceeded my expectations
when it comes to

being pushed past your comfort zone
and also being willing to be vulnerable.

But I've gotten to that point in my life
where surrender is my operating principle.

And you really have to surrender
when you're out here,

especially when you're being forced
to eat pickled herring.

[triumphant music playing]

The Chosen in the Wild

with Dallas, done!