01x02 - Episode 2

[bunniefuu]

[rain and distant sirens]

-It was a Sunday afternoon
and I was caught

in weekend traffic and
my Blackberry vibrated.

I did what you're
not meant to do,

and I looked.

And it said, "Santiago,


I jolted.
They found these guys.



{\an8}And they're half a mile
underground.

{\an8}[chanting in Spanish]

{\an8}I called the
assignment desk in New York.

{\an8}They said, "You're not going.

It's too expensive,
they're not interested."

And I did something that
reporters sometimes do.

I just said this is,
this is, this is stupid.

This is nuts.

We cannot let this
slip through our fingers.

We gotta go.

You have 33 men living in hell,

divided by a half
mile of collapsed mine from

the people they loved.

[overlapping Spanish chatter]

And there's this
existential puzzle,

how are you going
to get them out?

[♪ theme music playing]

[overlapping Spanish chatter]

-Over here, President

[Sebastian] This
came out today

from the heart of the mountain

from the
deepest part of this mine

and it's the message
from our miners

that tell us they are alive

[Maria] Yes, they're alive,
they're alive, they're alive

Madness

I was serving lunch

and had a chicken
leg in my hand, shouting

Anyway

it was so emotional

-The happiness of knowing that
these 33 people were alive,

I cannot describe it.

We considered any
outcome that could happen.

Maybe the only scenario that we
never ever waited is to find a

piece of paper that says,
"We are all alive."

But we still have
to get them out.

And we didn't know what
condition they were in.

{\an8}[Albert] The miners,
just like astronauts,

were physically removed
from the rest of the world.

When you're pressed up
against others who are

in the same situation,

it doesn't take long
for the individual to collapse,

physically, and emotionally.

There could be a lot
of violence, chaos.

There were serious
concerns about that happening.

[Laurence] We really
needed to see what was

going on underground.

We went with the
President Pinera to the site

where the machine was.

And we sent a camera


{\an8}[♪ suspenseful music playing]

{\an8}[Carlos] It was a little
light and it was spinning all
over the place

It was like, it would go around

We were there,
and others over there

"Hey, can you see me?"

-We were happy,
we jumped, we applauded

{\an8}It was an immense joy to me

{\an8}[Laurence] When we saw
those eyes, we were nervous.

I just wanted to
talk to the guy,

I mean, I wanted
to talk to anybody,

to know how they were.

How we could help them.

But we couldn't hear anything
because the microphone embedded

in the camera didn't work.

We had to try to
communicate with them...

...as soon as possible.

They were suffering.

And you don't know how
much they were suffering.

[reporter] In Chile,
rescuers have found 33 miners

who have been caught
underground by

a collapsed tunnel.

The trapped men attached a
note to a probe which had broken

through into the
emergency refuge where

they are sheltering...

[report fades out]

[Pedro] As soon as
I heard the news

I didn't think twice

I took my car, a
couple of tools and set off

Critical communications
in underground mining,

is my specialty

For me it was magical.

My mission was to establish
dialogue with the miners

I brought all
materials from my house

Scraps of cable

chunks, cut-up sections,

I joined them
together with a lot of tape

very makeshift, very old-school

I tested it

I took it, put it
in my ear and hit it

I can hear it

Perfect

"Let's go Pedro,
you can do this"

WE ARE HERE!!!

[overlapping Spanish chatter]

Look Andre, this is
a historic moment

Down, down we go

Eventually the
crane operator says

"Pedro

we are 702 meters
below the surface"

The supply tube
has touched down"

[phone rings]

[Laurence] Hello?

Attention, mine

Hello. Attention, mine

Attention, mine

Can you hear me?

-Golborne says,

"Pedro, I can't hear them"

I said "Minister, wait"

[Laurence] Hello.

Hello. Attention, refuge

They heard me,
be quiet they're talking

Hello. Attention refuge,
can you hear me?

Yes, I can hear you

[cheering]

-You are speaking
to the Minister of Mining

Laurence Golborne.

We're all here, ready

[Pedro] "I hear them!"

He looked at me

"I hear them!"

-They're clapping
down there

-Pedro, put it on speaker

-Hello?

We're listening loud and clear

This is the Minister of Mining,
Laurence Golborne

I want to tell
you that the whole country

has been following you over
these 17 days

Be sure that yesterday all of
Chile celebrated in every plaza

and everywhere
across the country

[miners cheering]

[Mario] After 17 days,
we were hearing other voices

This is a miracle dude,
because we should be dead

[miners singing in Spanish]

[Jimmy] As weak as we were,
we still sang the national
anthem because

we were proud

[miners singing in Spanish]

[miners singing in Spanish]

[Laurence] I had no
idea how we are gonna do it.

How we are gonna get them out,
how we are gonna feed them,

how we are gonna take care of
them while they are down there.

We didn't know how
long it gonna take,

they were starving.

How do you help
somebody 700 meters,


through a hole of four inches?

I mean, how do you do that?

[overlapping Spanish chatter]

[Agular] It happened.
We found them.

{\an8}But we need to get
them out alive because they

{\an8}are alive now.

{\an8}We need to make sure that we
keep this process happening

in the best possible way.

Because you don't want
to lose someone, you know,

when you're trying
to rescue them.

[Segovia] To go
without food for so many days,

I wouldn't wish it on anyone

I think we were all scared
we were going to die in there

One of my mates was
a bit restless

He was lying down,
then would get up

We told him, "Hang in there, man

If you die, we're
going to eat you"

He started sleeping
with a stick like this

so if anyone came to eat him,
he could grab the stick

[Agular] One person
provided us with the idea

of a metallic tube that
we could put all the food,

bottles of water,
medicines inside there,

and they were sent down one
of the holes that we drilled.

[Aguilar] Two omeprazole

One paracetamol

And we're adding 33 glucoses

[Aguilar] If you send
too much food to someone

who is totally starving,

it can shock the
body in to heart failure,

breathing failure,
cardiac arrest.

So, we had to send them
small amounts of liquid food.

[Segovia] We thought it could
be a bit of chicken and fries

but they never sent us
fries or chicken

They sent us this
jellylike thing

We had to drink it

We drank it, but
it knocked us out

I think they were vitamins,
I don't know what it was

[Zamora] We
started handing them out

Those who were unwell we
took special care

of always looking after them

Jimmy was completely silent

He didn't speak

[Jimmy] My
colleagues helped me

get up from where I was lying

because I couldn't move my legs

and took me where
everyone was gathered

With the food

I felt my soul return to my body

[Aguilar] We also sent a
camera down to the miners

for them to film,
to see, you know,

what was happening there.

[Mario] "To record,
press the red button"

Hello, good afternoon

My name is Mario Sepulveda

and we're about to
show you the situation we're in

I don't know if you can see it,
we've got a humidity problem

We all have very
wet feet, very wet

That's the biggest
problem we've got at the moment

[Sougarret] They were
obviously affected

At first, it was
a very big shock

When we started to look
more closely at each of them

we realized some were
physically and mentally weaker

-Hello to my family,
my children, wife,
mother and brother

Thank you for everything

-You should film the guys
in the parts where they have

those things

You should film that.

[Mario] We're going
to show you some examples of

people's health conditions

I have a colleague here with
this type of thing on their body

[Jimmy] There
was so much humidity

we started getting fungus

It felt like an
itch all over the body

like our skin
was starting to peel off

[Gomez] Mario Gómez here

Hello Lila, I love you

and my family too

[Mario] It's OK, Gómez

[Romangnoli]
When you are starved,

your immune
response plummets down.

It could be a death sentence,
even the smallest infection.

And they had
respiration problems.

The chances were that not all
of them will get out alive.

[Mario] Even
after we were found

we were still in trouble

That was something we
never got out of our heads,

we always had a problem

We've been keeping an eye
on the movement of this rock

We're going to show you
the fracture this rock has

We've got a crack
here of 4 to 5mm

We needed to get out quickly

because otherwise something
was going to collapse

either the earth or us

[reporter] Over the past few
days, Camp Hope has been flooded

with journalists from
all over the world

[Kofman] You can see
a cameraman sh**ting me

as I'm sh**ting him.

I was the
first foreign reporter there.

But within a couple of days,
the entire world was transfixed.

{\an8}Adding to the tension,
an earthquake 4.5 in magnitude

{\an8}struck very close to
here this morning.

{\an8}We didn't feel it but
machines did record it.

{\an8}It's a reminder that this cannot
be considered a successful

rescue until those
trapped men are brought to

the surface alive.

[Agular] We knew that the
mountain would still be moving.

And that could create
massive rockfalls in the mine.

These men's life
were at risk every day.

To be able to get
the miners out,

our plan was to drill a new
straight hole that was wide

enough to fit a
person in a capsule,

and bring this
person up to the surface.

How quick can we do that?

Is it doable?

All the drilling can create
more seismic activity that could

worsen this situation.

That anxiety was pushing
us all the time.

[honking and cheering]

When you think about
the mining culture,

we are a,
a sort of big family.

Mining companies in
the surrounding area,

I mean, everybody
just wanted to help.

-A key piece of machinery,

part of the machine that will
be used to drill a hole down

to the shelter 700 meters
in the ground where

the miners are,

is now being moved into place.

All eyes will be on
the speed of that drill,

because if the
drill can go faster,

it will mean hours or days
less for those miners still

in the bowels of the earth.

[Laurence] That machine,
it was the first that arrived

at the site.

It's precise.

But it's slow.

We had no other choice.

So, it was a conservative plan.

But we were quite sure
that we'll reach the miners.

It could take four months,
or more, but it will do it.

But how this isolation will
affect the mind of those men is

something that
you cannot predict.

I don't think that a normal
person could live 50 or 70 days

in those conditions
without losing their mind.

So, we had to help them
cope with that situation.

[Kofman] Government officials
say they do want to let family

{\an8}members talk to their loved
ones trapped in that hill,

{\an8}but first they want to tell
the miners that rescue will

{\an8}not be imminent.

{\an8}They're struggling though
with just how to do that,

{\an8}and exactly when to do that.

[Laurence] It was
unknown territory for us.

We thought that NASA
could have some knowledge that

could be helpful for us.

So, we called them.

[Albert] I have spent the
last 40 years or so working with

astronauts, preparing them
for confined environments,

extreme circumstances.

{\an8}When thinking about the miners,
we would talk about giving hope,

{\an8}but we didn't want to hold back.

The miners need to understand
that this is a marathon,

so they could be prepared
mentally and emotionally.

-We decided that
they have to face the reality.

So, we told them how
long it gonna take.

-How long? Three to four
months? Waiting to get out

No, we didn't like it,
to be honest.

It didn't sit well with us

[Ariel] Right away
they hit us hard with this news

We still had a long way to go

I had a baby girl on the way

I promised I
would be at the birth

I was very upset that I wasn't
able to keep that promise

For me, it was a sad

and painful moment

[Jimmy] I had
an anxiety attack

and I started to get a
tightness in my chest

I felt sad

because

we thought after finding us,
we would be out within a month

And that feeling of suffocation
was never-ending

So it was like we lost all hope
of reuniting with our families

[♪ suspenseful music playing]

[Albert] It was a very real
possibility that they would not

be able to
extract them quick enough.

The conditions would be
practically impossible to

survive for months.

That uncertainty
constantly eats at them.

The miners needed
hope, motivation,

a reason to wake up.

So, the families
started to write to them.

It's very important that people
be connected to one another,

it's a reminder
that you're not alone.

And if you're not alone,
there's hope.

[Jimmy] The first letter
I received was from my dad

[Juan] We were always connected
by our passion for soccer

and to our team,
Universidad de Chile

Jimmy's first question to me
was, "Dad, how did the U do?"

I would lie to him, to keep him
calm. I would tell him they won

They won, they won and they won

I'd write many things
that I'd never told him

I wasn't a very
affectionate father

I didn't dedicate
much time to them

I was also strict

The first time I told my
son I loved him

was in the first
letter I sent him

In every letter I sent him

I always told him I loved him,
that I truly loved him

And he told me the same thing

[Jimmy] It was like he
started showing me affection

when I was buried

Like he realized then
that he loved me

My mum and brother
would tell him to go home

but he wouldn't leave

That's when I kind of started to
take it in

and realize that my dad
was trying to take care of me

Knowing he was outside
gave me more strength

[Zamora] Every letter
we received was a bridge

that kept me connected

I wrote to my son

explaining what I
was going through

And that he was my
strength and hope everyday

-What's your name?

-Arturo

-How old are you?

-Four

-Where is your dad?

-Down in the mine

-Why are you here?

-Because I'm
waiting for him

[Sougarret] The families
were desperately waiting but

when we started the second
phase, it was a lot slower than

the first boreholes because

we had to drill a
brand new hole

that had to be much wider

Therefore it would advance


and we had to get to 2300 feet

So, we had to have patience

I was very open to
hearing different options

[Igor] The company I was
working for sold drilling tools

for the mine rescue.

So, I was sent there by my boss.

I noticed they were
using the Strata 950.

To see that drill rig, uh,

I just couldn't believe
it because it was very slow.

I had an idea.

Instead of drilling a new hole,
to use the previously drilled

hole as a guide.

Follow the path to the
miners, and make it wider.

It seemed obvious to
me that, at that point,

nobody had presented it,
because it was impossible to,

to be done with the drill rig
that they had at that point.

And I presented this option
to the top guys in charge.

{\an8}I still was quite young,

{\an8}so I thought that André was
gonna just turn me over

and all, by like uh,
"Who's this kid?"

And, "Get him out of here."

[Sougarret] I paid close
attention to him and it made
sense to me

But we didn't know
about this technology

So we said

"OK, then what I need is for you

to formally send me a quote,

who's going to do it,
and so on"

He knew a company in
the USA that supplied

this kind of equipment

They were
called Center Rock

[Igor] Center Rock
is very well-known for making

this hole opener system,
so I, I knew that,

of course, they
were the guys that uh,

that needed to be a part
of this rescue.

We need those guys in,
in San José.

-I just remember
looking out my window,

as we're traveling
out through this desert,

and seeing nothing.

No trees, no birds,
no animals, no grass,

it just, to me, I imagined
myself being on the moon.

All of a sudden, you know,

you see a mine in the
distance but before that

is almost a small town
of media and,

and other folks that
we're driving into.

[honking and cheering]

We were there because
our technology allows us

to drill much
faster than everyone else.

But this hole was
twisting and turning,

and our technology was
capable of going around these

short bends and corners.

As soon as we arrived,
you could feel the tension.

We knew the urgency and
the fact that we needed to

get things moving, and get
that hole drilled very quickly.

But, there's a lot of things
here that we knew that weren't

done in the past.

When you look at the depth,
the rock hardness,

uh, the angle of the hole,

there was tremendous obstacles
that we had to overcome,

compared to
other drilling operations.

It was unchartered
territory for us.

[machine whirring]

[Igor] The first
drill rig on the job site

ended up being plan A.

We became Plan B.

We developed this
race mythology,

Plan A they were the tortoise,
it was very slow,

and, uh, Plan B, us,
we were the rabbit.

It was a battle.

But just in a couple days we
were already making better

progress than Plan A.

[Sougarret] With plan A,
we had problems with

the drill pipe,
which got stuck

[Igor] Plan A was
going very, very slow.

But it also had a lot
of malfunctions that

make it even slower.

That drill rig is going
to take, I don't know,

probably the best
part of a year.

I think everybody in plan B,

we kind of knew that
we were the only option

to get the miners out.

[machines whirring]

[Brandon] The noise
was just deafening.

The noise was
there all the time.

And the dust,

just your, your
throat felt raw, constantly.

But, you know, you
start feeling down or,

you know, your back's
k*lling you or you're,

you're, you're
coughing your lungs out

or something's hurting,

and alls you needed
to do was look down.

That's all you needed.

You knew there was 33 hearts
beating below your feet

that needed you to be
doing what you were doing.

And that just took it all away.

[Pedro] At first,
communication with the families

was maintained through letters

After that, fiber-optic
connection was established

giving us the first live images
from the interior of the mine

We organised video calls,

so the miners could be
with their families

-Is everything OK?

-Yes, we're all OK

And you, now all the women are
saying that you look

more handsome and younger

-Is that right?

-Yes

[Albert] There
was a psychologist in Chile,

at the mine site, and
that was Alberto Iturra.

He lived in the area and he
understood the mining community,

and so he was the principle
contact with the miners.

[Alberto] Who's next?

-Omar Reygades

-Only positive messages

-You have to ask yourself

"How much are they
ready to process?"

"What information
do you want to have today?"

You can't just throw
all the information in

the world at someone

If they're not ready
to hear that information

-I'm so nervous.

Oh there he is!

[Alberto] So, we
kept the calls shorter

-Two minutes
is 120 seconds

Right?

If one minute is 60 seconds,
then two minutes is 120 seconds

[Scarlette] The time we used
to speak with my father by the

video was a really happy moment.

-Dad! Dad! Dad!

[Scarlette] But it
was always too short.

Uh, I didn't like it, because I
think we had the right to speak

to them to give him
energy to continue.

-We tried to
control the information,

{\an8}and also the problems that
families could transmit to them.

To do this we had to try to know
what was said to the miners.

Not only videos,
also in letters.

We read them and if
they were not appropriate,

we didn't wanted to send
them down into the mine.

-I've sent you six letters
and you've not responded
to any of them

[Alex] No,
because I don't get them

-How many is
he yet to receive?

-He's missing the one
from his uncle, his grandmother

my niece, my sister

He hasn't received
theirs or mine

-Victor Zamora,
if he takes a seat

[Zamora] When I discovered
letters were being intercepted

I had to put a stop and say

"No, this can't continue"

[Alberto] Sit on the chair
or I won't send you any food

[Zamora] Just leave it.

I'm upset because
you're doing stupid stuff

-Arturo wants to see you!

[Zamora] Babe,
don't send letters,

if it's going to be like
this we'll cause chaos

[Alberto] Hey, Mario

Victor.

You're now speaking to me

I know you want cigarettes
but we're looking into it

-No, he's saying that
he's not getting the letters

[Alberto] We'll
check with the office

[Zamora] They thought we
were psychologically unwell

I don't know how they
took it on the surface

But no, "that's not how it is,
there are rules"

I'm not interested in the rules

You have to tell me
things that happen outside

You have to tell me the truth

To change the system,
I said, "I won't talk"

[Romangnoli] The miners
were feeling infantilized

by everyone.

[Alberto]
You are sane people.

You aren't crazy

At least not too crazy

-They were giving instructions
to them as if they were kids.

If you treat them
like grown up men,

they will behave
like grown up men.

If you treat them like children,
they will behave like children.

[Zamora] I said

"I'll give you two bags of
gold if you can

send the
psychologist to prison"

I wanted him to be arrested,
to leave the mine for good

[Alberto] I became the
central focus of frustration

The guy who
doesn't allow cigarettes

and doesn't allow
communication like I want

It was intentional

If they're unloading things
on the psychologist, on me

That's wonderful because it
means that all that bad energy

isn't directed at each other

[Holland] An experience
like that pushes you

to the limits of your endurance.

The initial information that
we provided to the Chileans was

that there'll be a set maximum
amount of time that a family and

a miner could speak.

But we realized how
those conversations go,

and the content, and the tone,

it's something that you
don't wanna control.

If you should try to
control somebody's tone,

whenever the family
speaks with someone like that,

it becomes a false message,
it becomes a false interaction.

What you want, is you want an
emotional connection between the

families and the individuals,

and to get that
you need emotion.

You don't need a
practiced script.

[Alberto] When things get messy,
that's the moment to start
learning

or find new ways of doing things

[speaking in Spanish]

[Alberto] We gave them
a 10 minute window to speak

to whoever they wanted

[speaking in Spanish]

-t was like being at
home eating lunch with him

The same, thank God

-There was a turn point,

and things started to get
much better with the miners.

[Kofman] They tried
very hard to make the men

as comfortable as possible,

and to help them pass time.

-This is what they're using.

You can buy it on the internet,
like we did,

for a few hundred bucks.

And this is how they're watching
their beloved soccer games.

[Kofman] They were
able to put wiring down

for television signals,

so they were able
to watch football, uh,

soccer, which is a
religion in a place like Chile.

[Albert] We wanted them
to all have more structure

in their day.

Humans are like ants,
and termites,

one termite won't do anything,
two termites will begin building

tunnels and bridges, and
humans are the same way,

they like organization,
they're drawn to organization.

There's a comforting
aspect of general organization.

[Mario] This
is our post office

for the letters
that come from above

and for the letters we send up

And here we have a complete
organisation and record of

everything we receive

We are super happy

We've got water

The food is being eaten
according to the programme

they made above ground

Our library

We've shaved,
we have new clothes

We are way more comfortable now

[Holland] In the space world,
we have mission shirts,

so we wanted them to all
have their mission shirt.

Just to bring them, not
only together as a group,

but also to give
them a higher purpose.

That they were like
the astronauts and they

had a mission.

[miners calling out]

[Mario] We started
being workers again, employees

There were 33 people
here fighting for survival

[Ariel] I'm Ariel Ticona

I wanted to send a message to
my parents, my brother

and especially to my family,
my sons Jean and Steven

and to my wife who's
at home as she's pregnant

There is very little time left
before our new daughter arrives

Just be calm

-Patience

I love you

[Ariel] I'm a man
of my word and I felt

really bad for not
keeping my promise

to be at the birth
of my daughter

They told me

they were going
to send me a video of the birth

So I could enjoy
it in some way

and pretend I was there

I was alone when I
watched the video

I must admit,

that day I got very emotional

"Hope" seemed like
a great name to me

-There's our friend Ticona

who just had a baby,
the famous Ticona

[machines whirring]

[Brandon] We were
achieving some pretty healthy

penetration rate,
so it was going very good.

I remember going in to
the tent and laying down,

and I don't know if it
was two minutes or an hour,

all of a sudden
someone's rushing in to my tent,

"We have a problem."

[Igor] I was there in front of
the drill rig and um, suddenly,

torque went up like crazy,

this dust, coming
out of the hole.

And that could
only mean one thing,

that we had a major
breakdown on the hammer itself.

I felt heartbroken.

I really felt heartbroken.

[Brandon] We're anxiously
awaiting for that last piece of

drill pipe to come out of the
hole with our hammer on it.

And as soon as it
clears the casing,

I see that the entire
bottom of the bit is missing.

Just completely gone.

[Igor] This is
probably the worst scenario,

because the way
that it was broken,

it was just the very tip that
goes inside of the pilot hole,

and when that breaks,

usually it's not
loose in the hole.

Usually, it's pretty tight.

You cannot drill through steel.

If we didn't fish that
big chunk of steel out,

we were gonna be cancelled.

And Plan A was too
slow and kept failing.

So, cancelling Plan B
was probably uh,

dooming the, the miners.

[♪ suspenseful music playing]