The Last 60 Minutes Before Asteroid Impacts with Earth — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:0010 Minutes To Impact
2. 0:01“I warned you! I won't warn you again!” Michael  shouts through the small retractable slide that
3. 0:06serves as a peep hole on the shelter door.  Despite being several inches of solid steel,
4. 0:10the rhythmic pounding of a sledgehammer on  the other side can still be heard inside
5. 0:14the small shelter. Outside that door, a man  sweats profusely as he hammers away at the
6. 0:19locking mechanism to the shelter door.  “C'mon, there's more than enough room!”
7. 0:23“I told you weeks ago to prepare, I told you  there'd be no room with us here. I can't be
8. 0:27responsible for you and your family, I won't be  responsible!” Michael shouts again through the
9. 0:31peep hole, the man pounding outside the door  can't see Michael's hands clutching the old
10. 0:35thirty-ought-six. The barrel's large for a rifle,  but small enough to fit through the peep hole...
11. 0:40“I've got my family out here, public shelter's  all full up! Where we supposed to go?! Let us in!”
12. 0:45The rhythmic pounding continues, the hammer  pounding away at the locking mechanism keeping
13. 0:49the underground shelter protected from whatever  may happen outside in the next ten minutes.
14. 0:54“Robert. Get... away... from... this... door...
15. 0:58I won't warn you again...” The pounding  continues, the warning ignored.
16. 1:02Michael turns to look behind him, nodding at  Alexandra, his wife. “Cover Lily's eyes. Lily,
17. 1:07darling, cover your ears.” The eight year old girl  does as she's told, her eyes wide with panic as
18. 1:12her mother clutches her close and puts her hands  over her eyes. Michael then looks at his older
19. 1:16son, Luke, and simply nods. The asteroid still  hasn't hit yet, but the old world died hours ago
20. 1:22as panic set in when the general population  could no longer find appropriate shelter.
21. 1:26At sixteen years old, Luke was old enough  for what was coming next. He had to be.
22. 1:31Luke nods at his father.
23. 1:32Michael lifts the rifle to the peep hole and  sticks the edge of the barrel out the other side.
24. 1:36He doesn't have to aim, his target  is so close it's impossible to miss.
25. 1:40Bam!
26. 1:40The rifle thunders inside the small, cramped  shelter, amplifying the retort to a painful
27. 1:44degree. Luke gasps, face white with terror,  but he holds his tears in even as they threaten
28. 1:49to squeeze out of the corner of his eyes.  Outside the door the hammering has stopped.
29. 1:53Michael pulls the rifle back inside the shelter,  grim determination on his face. He spent years
30. 1:58in the service fighting in the deserts of both  Iraq and Afghanistan. This isn't his first kill,
31. 2:02but this one- it's just plain wrong. This was  his neighbor. Two months ago he was borrowing the
32. 2:07portable grill for a family camping trip. But that  was the old world, before news of the asteroid.
33. 2:12Outside the door there's a single, soft sob,
34. 2:15and Michael presses an eye back up against  the peep hole. Standing twenty feet down the
35. 2:19underground corridor his grandfather had dug  during the start of the Cold War is Carol.
36. 2:23“Carol... I'm... I'm so sorry. Carol, listen,
37. 2:26I begged him to stop. I- we just can't. We don't  have enough room and I've got two children.
38. 2:30You knew, you knew! For weeks you know  we wouldn't be able to fit you in!”
39. 2:34Carol stands in shock, tears streaming from her  eyes as she gazes down at the body of her husband.
40. 2:39“Carol. Carol! You have to go, darling. You have  to go and you have to find somewhere to shelter.
41. 2:44Find a home with a basement or a parking garage  somewhere or... Carol, you have to hurry! Please.”
42. 2:48She doesn't reply. Instead,  she slowly turns around and
43. 2:51walks back up the twenty feet of stairs  leading back up to the outside world.
44. 2:55Inside the shelter, Michael sighs and slumps back  on the wall behind him. The rifle nearly falls out
45. 3:00of his hands, but he pulls himself together.  This is not a time to be weak. If they were
46. 3:03going to survive what was coming next, if anyone  was going to survive, they'd have to be strong.
47. 3:08Michael joins his wife sitting  on the floor and kneels down,
48. 3:11gently pulling Lily's fingers out  of her ears. “Shhh, it's ok baby
49. 3:14that's it. You don't have to plug your  ears anymore. Everything's alright.”
50. 3:17“Daddy, I heard a gunshot.”
51. 3:18“I know, baby, I-”
52. 3:19“-dad was just warning off Mr. Trucker is all.”  Luke is quick to interject. His father nods his
53. 3:24approval at him. Then, he turns his attention to  the shelves of supplies and equipment behind him.
54. 3:28“Luke, go on and fetch that old radio, will you?”
55. 3:31Luke nods. The radio’s practically ancient at this  point, something his grandfather stashed away down
56. 3:35here in preparation for the end of the world. It  picks up both AM and FM, and runs off batteries-
57. 3:40which they have plenty of. With what the experts  on tv have predicted happening, it's likely that
58. 3:44radio will be the only means of communications  left very soon. Then again, with what the experts
59. 3:49on TV have predicted, Luke's not sure there'll  be anyone left to communicate with at all.
60. 3:53He shakes those thoughts away and cranks the  radio on, immediately picking up a station
61. 3:57still broadcasting. Whoever is on the other  end has obviously chosen not to seek shelter,
62. 4:01probably figuring there wasn't much  point in it. There's many like him,
63. 4:04millions of people crowd the streets  of every major city in the world
64. 4:07just... waiting for the end. Some of them  never bothered to try and seek shelter,
65. 4:11some- like Mr. Trucker and his wife- were  simply unlucky and couldn't find any.
66. 4:15“-is believed to be sheltering  underground somewhere under the
67. 4:17Rocky Mountains along with his cabinet  and most senior members of government.
68. 4:20The mountains are largely made of very tough  granite, and it's believed by some- well,
69. 4:24hoped- that it'll afford at least some protection  from the asteroid impact. It all depends of
70. 4:28course on exactly where the asteroid hits.  Predictions have swung back and forth since
71. 4:32discovery of Aester-2022, with some believing  it will strike directly on the coast of Spain,
72. 4:37and others sure it will strike a few dozen miles  off the coast into the ocean. In that event-”
73. 4:41Michael grabs the radio from his son and turns  the tuning knob. He knows precisely what'll
74. 4:45happen in either event as it's all the media  talked about for the last four weeks since the
75. 4:49discovery of Aester-2022. Regardless of where  the asteroid lands, humanity will go exticnt.
76. 4:54And yet, here he was, huddled with his family  in an old Cold War shelter his grandfather
77. 4:59dug with his own two hands. What else was he  supposed to do? He'd heard reports of families
78. 5:04taking the easy way out as soon as two weeks  ago but... he couldn't stomach the thought.
79. 5:08If there was a chance, he  was going to fight for it.
80. 5:10The knob finally lands on another station.
81. 5:12“-this very troubling time. Friends, I don't  know what happens next. I don't know if this
82. 5:17is judgment day for us all, the end of times, or  any form of the apocalypse. Whatever your faith,
83. 5:22all I hope is that you have lived a  good, happy life. And with one minute and
84. 5:25thirty eight seconds until impact, I leave you  with this: should any of us pull through this,
85. 5:29my hope is that we forget the things that  made our world evil- war, hate, prejudice-
86. 5:34and never forget what made our civilization great:  love, respect, and empathy. Amen, and goodbye.”
87. 5:40“...amen.” Michael whispers to himself  as the station goes off the air,
88. 5:44his eyes locked on the door.
89. 5:45He cranks the power knob and turns the radio off,
90. 5:48seating himself between his wife and his son.  Little Lily is still in her mother's arms. She's
91. 5:52been brave ever since the family packed into the  shelter an hour ago and hasn't even cried once.
92. 5:57Michael kisses her on the forehead and  then turns to kiss his son on the forehead.
93. 6:00He puts his arms around his family and  pulls his wife close for a quick kiss.
94. 6:04“Everyone, go ahead and close  your eyes. Open your mouth to
95. 6:07equalize the air pressure and plug your ears.”
96. 6:09IMPACT
97. 6:10A massive asteroid the size of Rhode Island  smashes into the upper layers of the atmosphere.
98. 6:14Its collision course with the earth puts it on  a very shallow angle, resulting in it starting
99. 6:18to penetrate our atmosphere somewhere off  the coast of Portugal over the Atlantic.
100. 6:22The asteroid physically compresses air in front  of it, creating a superheated shockwave that
101. 6:27rides just in front and below the asteroid.  Moving at over twenty thousand miles an hour,
102. 6:31it lights up the sky over Portugal and  very quickly crosses over into Spain.
103. 6:35The shockwave is so intense that as it flies  over Spanish cities, thousands of people who
104. 6:39couldn't find shelter or decided the impact  simply wasn't survivable, are all knocked
105. 6:43down to the ground by the force of the passing  asteroid. As the massive space rock nears Madrid,
106. 6:48the shockwave below it is so intense that people  are knocked down with enough force to kill them.
107. 6:52About thirty four seconds after first  making contact with the uppermost layers
108. 6:56of the atmosphere, the asteroid slams straight  into the foot of the Pyrenees mountains that
109. 7:00separate Spain from France. Predicting  the impact location of such a massive,
110. 7:04fast moving object was always difficult, and the  best estimates have been hundreds of miles off.
111. 7:09In the first nanosecond before impact, the  massive superheated air in front of the asteroid
112. 7:13immediately incinerates any plants, animals,  or humans within half a dozen miles.
113. 7:18The air is so compressed in front of  the gargantuan rock that it actually
114. 7:21smashes into the rocky terrain with enough  force to melt it to lava a few inches deep.
115. 7:26Then the rock itself actually strikes.
116. 7:28In an instant, the asteroid and half a  mile wide, three hundred feet deep area
117. 7:32of rock are vaporized. Then the shockwave and  heat, reaching temperatures as hot as the sun,
118. 7:37melt rock in the impact zone  down to a half-mile deep.
119. 7:40The shockwave propagates through the  ground faster than the speed of sound,
120. 7:44and completely tears apart any living  thing caught in its path for several miles.
121. 7:48The mighty Pyrenese mountains  themselves are shattered by the impact
122. 7:52as a crater a hundred miles across quickly forms,  splitting the mighty mountain range nearly in two.
123. 7:57The shockwaves continue racing out and hit  the first major population centers within a
124. 8:01minute of impact. Buildings, vehicles,  and people are absolutely annihilated
125. 8:05by the force of the shockwave, torn to  shreds and tossed about like rag dolls.
126. 8:09At about the same time, a massive plume of molten  rock shoots up into the sky from the center of the
127. 8:14crater. Trillions of tons of molten lava fire  up into the atmosphere and even beyond it. In
128. 8:18space around the earth rocks from the impact have  already been flung with enough force to eventually
129. 8:23leave earth's orbit. Some will end up catching  up with the earth again in a few thousands or
130. 8:27millions of years. Others will float forever in  the void between planets inside our solar system.
131. 8:32Still others will end up crash landing on  Venus and Mars, escapees from a dying earth.
132. 8:36The massive lava plume comes crashing back down  to earth, too hot to be chilled by its flight into
133. 8:41the sky, and washes over an area dozens of square  miles wide. Anything that might have somehow
134. 8:46survived the shockwave of impact will now be  bathed in fiery lava as it rains from the heavens.
135. 8:51The shockwave continues to propagate out  across Europe, leveling cities all the way
136. 8:55out to Portugal in the east and Paris in  the west. In the English Channel and the
137. 8:59Mediterranean sea massive tsunamis half a  mile high build up and speed out at several
138. 9:04hundred miles an hour. The water will reach  all the way to London itself in the north,
139. 9:08and destroy the entire southern mediterranean  coastline of Africa. It'll even reach all the
140. 9:12way to Turkey, where its seaside communities  will be flooded with waves three meters high.
141. 9:17Tens of trillions of tons of vaporized  rocks are picked up by hurricane force winds
142. 9:21created by the impact and spread  across the upper atmosphere.
143. 9:24This will turn the air poisonous across  all of Europe and northern Africa,
144. 9:28but trade winds will eventually bring the  poisonous atmosphere as far as the east coast
145. 9:32of the US and the Middle East. By then it'll  be more of a health hazard than a deadly threat
146. 9:36however- but for Europeans without breathing  apparatuses their next breath could be lethal.
147. 9:41Billions of tons of molten rocks hurled up into  space now start to make their way back down
148. 9:46again. This meteor rain of half-molten lava will  reach all the way to Asia and the United States,
149. 9:51starting massive fires across every continent  on Earth except for Australia. Millions will
150. 9:56die from this deadly rain as it smashes into  cities and towns as the deadliest form of hail
151. 10:01humanity has ever witnessed- the fires will  kill anyone who survives the crushing rain.
152. 10:0528 Minutes After Impact
153. 10:07It starts with a slow tremor, and then suddenly,  the shockwave of the impact hits the family
154. 10:11shelter with enough force to physically pick  up and throw the family around the room.
155. 10:15Lily screams as she's hurled out of  her mother's arms, but it's over in
156. 10:19an instant and nobody is seriously hurt.  Michael calms the family as best he can,
157. 10:22he's prepared them for this and  they all know what comes next.
158. 10:25The shockwave of the impact circles  the earth and hits them again.
159. 10:28The second time though it was much  milder, simply rattling the contents
160. 10:32of the shelf for a bit before passing on. It'll  circle the earth three or four more times,
161. 10:36losing exponentially more energy with each  pass but still detectable on seismometers.
162. 10:41The first rock falls with a thundering crash  somewhere above and about fifty feet south of
163. 10:45them. Michael does the calculations and figures  it must have hit somewhere around the back of the
164. 10:49house. The shelter is about thirty five feet from  the back porch, dug twenty feet into the ground.
165. 10:54He's pretty sure they're safe, but  as more impacts are heard and felt,
166. 10:57he becomes seriously concerned about  being buried alive. He has no idea,
167. 11:01but it's raining mountains over the American  east coast- the Pyrenees mountains specifically.
168. 11:06“Everybody hang on to each other!” He shouts as  he grabs on to Lily's hand and pulls her close,
169. 11:10then hugs in his wife and Luke.  The family clings to each other
170. 11:13as the deadly rain of ballistic rock  missiles washes over their community.
171. 11:176 Hours After Impact
172. 11:19It stopped raining rocks half hour ago, but  Michael wanted to be cautious. Now... well,
173. 11:24he supposes there is nothing to do but survey the  damage. He passes Lily off to his wife and nods at
174. 11:28Luke. Reflexively he reaches for his rifle and  shoulders it- he's not really sure why though.
175. 11:33Maybe in case there's other people desperate  enough to try and take his shelter away from
176. 11:36him and his family. However, after hours of it  raining rocks he doubts anybody caught out in the
177. 11:41open could have survived. Or anyone sheltering  in buildings without basements for that matter.
178. 11:45He opens the peep hole on the door and looks  out of it- thankfully the tunnel leading to
179. 11:49the outside hasn't collapsed. He was worried  about that, and had stuck two shovels inside
180. 11:54the shelter just in case. The door itself  takes significant effort to push open- made
181. 11:58worse by the fact that his dead neighbor's  body still lays where it fell six hours ago.
182. 12:02As the pair emerge from the shelter, Michael  closes his eyes. He almost doesn't want to look.
183. 12:06Seeing what remains will make it  all too real- the end of the world.
184. 12:10But he opens them as acrid smoke hits  his nostrils and makes his eyes water.
185. 12:14What he sees is nothing short of complete,  and utter devastation. A fiery, burning hell
186. 12:18has come to earth, his former suburban  neighborhood completely unrecognizable.
187. 12:22It had promised to be a bright, sunny summer day  as the family headed to the shelter at 8:30 am.
188. 12:28Few clouds in the sky, but not enough to compete  with the gloriously rising sun. Michael's mind
189. 12:32reels from the sight of it all- the sky above  now is black and gray from massive plumes of ash
190. 12:37rising up across the entire American east coast.  But the clouds are weird, they look like ripples
191. 12:42on a lake and are moving quickly across the sky  to the west. The upper atmosphere is in absolute
192. 12:47turmoil even hours after impact, and in a day ash  from burning cities in Europe will reach America.
193. 12:53Michael has no way of knowing  if he'd never see the sun again,
194. 12:55though many scientists had predicted as much.
195. 12:58The family home is nothing but ash. The  fires were so intense that they had burned
196. 13:01everything but the concrete foundation and  rock fireplace. The intensity of the flames
197. 13:06had thankfully made them short lived though,  and the area around the shelter opening is
198. 13:09relatively safe. All over the ground lay shards  of obsidian, globs of molten lava that had risen
199. 13:14high enough into the atmosphere to cool before  impacting the ground and bursting like bombs,
200. 13:19shredding anything- and anyone in the  vicinity with razor sharp obsidian shards.
201. 13:23In the distance where the city skyline  used to be visible all that Michael and
202. 13:26Luke can see are the skeletal remains of a few  large buildings jutting up into the skyline.
203. 13:31It’s difficult to see more than that due to  how thick the smoglike conditions have become.
204. 13:35Coughing and choking, the two quickly  decide to head back underground.
205. 13:38Michael whispers a silent thank you to his  long-dead grandfather for the foresight to
206. 13:42install an air filtration system in what was  supposed to be a nuclear war fallout shelter.
207. 13:471 Week After Impact
208. 13:49There are still batteries for the radio, but  Luke hasn't bothered to turn it on in days.
209. 13:53There would be no point, nobody was transmitting  anything anymore. For two days after impact they
210. 13:57could still pick up transmissions from  the west coast, which had been far less
211. 14:01pummeled by the initial impact. However, all  of North America is in flames now from the
212. 14:05massive wildfires which run completely unchecked  across the continent. The fires have run straight
213. 14:10through major cities, and the notoriously  dry west coast went up like a tinderbox.
214. 14:14Before the last radio station went down they had  relayed a transmission from somewhere in Europe,
215. 14:18possibly Germany. Incredibly, somebody  had survived the initial impact event,
216. 14:23but the news wasn't good. Hundreds of millions  killed in the impact alone, an estimated 1 billion
217. 14:28dead across Europe and Africa from tsunamis, the  shower of impact debris, and the global wildfires.
218. 14:34The air outside the shelter is still not safe to  breathe without a respirator. It’s choked with
219. 14:38ash and toxic vapors given off by the burning of  trillions of tons of various building materials
220. 14:43and other chemical products that make up our  cities. The shelter's air filtration system works
221. 14:47overtime, and Michael thanks his grandfather daily  for having the foresight to install it. Without a
222. 14:52doubt though, anyone not inside a shelter with a  similar system is dead by now. Michael's thoughts
223. 14:56sometimes turn to his neighbo rCarol... but he  chases those thoughts away as soon as they appear.
224. 15:01There's six months worth of food and water in the  shelter. It's cramped, uncomfortable, and a bit
225. 15:05claustrophobic, but the family has no choice. It's  simply not safe to go outside yet. So they wait.
226. 15:11Three Months After Impact
227. 15:12Michael takes in a gulp of air. It's not fresh  by any means, but not immediately toxic either.
228. 15:18At least it no longer smells of cooked flesh.  Whatever toxins still linger in the air, there's
229. 15:22nothing he can do about it as the shelter's  air filtration system broke down a week ago.
230. 15:26Staying in the shelter is no longer  feasible, and he calls down to the family.
231. 15:30“Luke, go ahead and bring your sister and mother  up.” They won't have to pass the remains of their
232. 15:33former neighbor, Michael had personally removed  those himself on one of his solo trips up top.
233. 15:38This is Lily's first time out of the shelter  and she coughs profusely as she breathes
234. 15:42in the slightly toxic atmosphere. Michael  frowns, but there's simply nothing he can
235. 15:46do for her. He'd like to go and find  some masks or respirators- anything,
236. 15:49but there doesn't seem to be anything left to  scavenge. The fires have claimed everything.
237. 15:53Maybe there’s something  deeper into the city though.
238. 15:55“Honey, stay here with Lily.  Maybe try... I don't know,
239. 15:58maybe we can make some kind of above ground  shelter?” Alexandra nods slowly then looks
240. 16:02around dejectedly. What kind of shelter can she  possibly make when there's just nothing left?
241. 16:07But she quickly recomposes herself,  this is no time for defeatist attitudes.
242. 16:11“Luke, you and I will head into the city,  maybe we'll find... I don't know, something.”
243. 16:14Luke nods slowly. Michael feels  the futility in his son's gaze,
244. 16:18but they have to at least try. Surely the  fires couldn't have consumed everything.
245. 16:22The hike into the city is more difficult  than expected. The two have to climb over
246. 16:26the molten slag heaps that are all that remains  of vehicles caught out in the open after impact.
247. 16:30Most of what's left is ash though, with  here and there a surviving support beam
248. 16:34sticking out of the remains  of homes and small buildings.
249. 16:37Visibility has improved, but not by much.  Michael can see a few miles ahead to where
250. 16:41he knows the downtown area of the city  starts, and the skeletal remains of the
251. 16:45tall buildings that used to rule its skyline  are now gone, collapsed in on themselves or
252. 16:49knocked over by the massive windstorms that  rocked the planet for days after impact.
253. 16:53Every mile that passes Michael  keeps hoping that he'll spot-
254. 16:56something. He's not sure what. Just anything.  Some sign that civilization has survived.
255. 17:01But each mile brings more disappointment.
256. 17:04He knows where the major shopping centers are by  memory, but nothing but ashes and ruins remain-
257. 17:08the fires have completely gutted even the  largest of the big box stores. Humanity has
258. 17:13never seen fires on this scale, only the dinosaurs  before them saw the horrors of a planet on fire.
259. 17:18After a few more miles Michael  stops, sighing dejectedly. “Hold on,
260. 17:22son. Let's just... let's just go back.  There's nothing out there. Nothing at all.”
261. 17:26Luke doesn't reply, he merely nods  in agreement. He's too tired to keep
262. 17:29going and much like the rest of the family,  doesn't even believe there's a point anymore.
263. 17:33That night the family has their first dinner  outside, but they can't even see the moon above
264. 17:37their heads due to the cloud cover. Dust and  debris has circled the world and will remain
265. 17:41aloft for years- maybe as much as a decade.  The loss of sunlight has already cooled the
266. 17:45world a few degrees, and the wind bites with extra  chill despite it being the middle of the summer.
267. 17:50The world won't descend into an ice age as  commonly feared, but it will fully counteract
268. 17:54the effects of global warming and drop global  temperatures by several degrees for years.
269. 17:58The family is quiet as they eat, each lost in  their own thoughts. They can't remain where
270. 18:03they are, but though none of them will admit  it, there really isn't any place to go either.
271. 18:07There are no 'safe zones' from an extinction level  event, and though they'll set out in the morning
272. 18:11for the west, heading towards the far mountains  and the national park at their foothills,
273. 18:15they have no idea that nothing but  matchsticks will be waiting for them.
274. 18:18The fires have killed over half of the  vegetation on the entire planet, and what
275. 18:22remained has been dying for months from lack of  sunlight and the effects of extreme acid rain.
276. 18:26Their only hope is to find pockets of  civilization that haven't been consumed by fire.
277. 18:31Maybe there they can find more canned goods to  survive off. But, eventually, those will run
278. 18:35out or go bad, and there's no knowing if either  will happen before sunlight hits the earth again
279. 18:39and plants and trees return or not. There's  various doomsday seed vaults around the globe,
280. 18:44and well planned long-term survival shelters where  a tiny population of humans have survived impact.
281. 18:49In all likelihood, humanity won't go extinct  as predicted. Will it ever be what it once
282. 18:53was though? That is doubtful. What's been  lost is incalculable, and even if humanity
283. 18:58rebuilds it'll have scores of lost knowledge to  rediscover. Once it tries to move to a second
284. 19:03industrial revolution it'll discover that all  of the easy gas and oil which fueled our modern
285. 19:07world has already been greedily sucked up by their  ancestors. Is there enough left for a civilization
286. 19:12to grow advanced enough to mass-produce  renewable energy technologies? Doubtful.
287. 19:17For Michael and his family though,  all that matters is tomorrow,
288. 19:20and each day looks a little bleaker than the last.
289. 19:22Now you need to watch “Can You Survive A  Nuclear Winter (And Other Nuclear Stories)”
290. 19:26Or, have a look at “What Would Happen  If Russia and the US Went to War”