Motor Bike Flip/Prison Escape

Motor Bike Flip
The Myth: In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, there is a scene in which Indy shoves a stick through the spokes of a motorcycle driven by a Nazi.  The Nazi’s bike flips in midair, and Indy and his father escape.  Is such a stunt really possible?

The Experts: Adam and Jamie

Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Adam: Good day for a motorcycle accident!
Jamie: I think so!
Adam: Let’s make a few!

The Action/Results:
First, the guys got a bike from 1981.  They pointed out that, while the bikes in the movie looked like vintage bikes from the 1940’s, they really were bikes from 1981 that were just made to look older.  Then they needed to know how fast a person could throw a piece of wood.  Jamie threw his piece at 30 miles per hour, so they needed to make a device that would consistently throw the wood at that speed.  They recycled the pigeon catcher device to toss the pole, and then, after slowing it down a little, they had the speed that they needed.

Next they put the wheel from the motorcycle on a frame, so that they could poke the spokes of the wheel with the wood.  They noticed that the spokes were ruined once they got the piece of wood to go through, so they switched to a steel plated hub so that they could do repeated tests on the bike.  Then Adam built a rig that could be towed behind a truck.  The bike, with Buster on it, was balanced in the middle of the rig, and when one of the guys pushed a button, the bike was freewheeling behind the truck.  At the same time, the device fired the pole at the wheel.

They took the rig out to the Alameda runways, and both Jamie and Adam got to take the bike for a spin, to make sure that it was working properly. Then they started the experiment.  The first time they did this, the bike just fell over.  That was the test run, at 20 miles per hour.  At 40 miles per hour, the bike fell over again, and the pole was shattered.  They replaced the wooden pole with a steel one, and started again.  At 40 miles per hour the bike was released, the pole went through the wheel, and the bike crashed again.  As Jamie explained, “If you bring the wheel to a dead stop, like you will if you put a stick between the spokes. It’s gonna skid.  You’re gonna lose control – it’ll slip out form under the bike and it’s all over.  It will not get airborne like it did in the movie.”  

But then, of course, the guys had to explain how the stunt was done in the movie.  They welded a large steel pipe, called a mortar, to the bike, and packed it with black powder.  Then Adam and Jamie got a motorcycle with a sidecar, like Indy and his dad had in the movie, and they started 100 feet behind the bike.  The film crew was filming with a long lens, and even though Jamie and Adam were 100 feet in front of the bike when it blew up, it looked like they were right next to it, due to some movie magic.  Myth BUSTED!

Prison Break
The Myth:
You can escape from prison using bed sheets, toilet paper, or even hair.

The Experts: Jack Tucker and Mike Norton from the SWAT team, who manned the safety ropes to keep Kari, Tory, and Grant safe as they went down the side of the building.

Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Tory: (as he is getting ready to climb down his rope) Toilet paper rope escape – probably the stupidest idea ever!

Grant: (yelling up to Tory) It’s not that stupid – you’ve had stupider ideas!

The Action/Results:
Grant had the easiest build on this one – he just got some sheets from the Alameda County prison, and rolled them up and tied them together.

Kari had 50 ponytails of long, black hair, and she braided them all together, and then braided the braids together, for greater strength.

Tory took single-ply toilet paper, twisted it into threads, twisted those threads into cords, and then twisted those cords into a rope.  As Rob Lee pointed out in the narration, that is how real ropes were made in the past.  

Then it was time for the test.  They went to the Alameda City Courthouse and Jail, and one at a time, they put their ropes to the test.

Grant went first, and his rope held very well.  His only problem was rope burns on his hands from the sheets, and exhaustion from the task.  Kari went next, and her rope also held.  She wore gloves to protect her hands, and slid down the rope, but it did work.  Tory’s rope was tested last, and he did slip once, but his rope also held, at least until he was down on the ground.  Afterwards, as he was swinging on it, it did break.  Therefore, the team decided that Grant’s bedsheet rope was CONFIRMED, Tory’s toilet paper rope was PLAUSIBLE, and Kari’s hair rope was also PLAUSIBLE, if you could get enough hair to do it.