"MythBusters" taught us a lot about how the world works – but how much do you know about how the show worked? From the personal lives of the crew to the production stories you never knew about, this behind-the-scenes breakdown has all the info you'll ever need.
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00:00Mythbusters taught us a lot about how the world works.
00:03But how much do you know about how the show worked?
00:06From the personal lives of the crew to the production stories you never knew about, this
00:10behind-the-scenes breakdown has all the info you'll ever need.
00:13Jamie Heinemann was always the quieter, more reserved half of the Mythbusters team, while
00:18Adam Savage was arguably the more charismatic of the two.
00:21But although Jamie might have appeared pretty low-key on the show, there's been a lot more
00:25going on for him off-camera.
00:28Surprise!
00:29Heinemann was once an unruly, underage hooligan.
00:32Faced with the prospect of reform school, a 14-year-old Heinemann ran away from home
00:36and set off on a six-month hitchhiking adventure.
00:38When I left home, I had $1.49 in my pocket.
00:41It was just enough for me to get a slice of pizza.
00:44According to the Christian Science Monitor, the fun ended in California when he got tossed
00:48into a juvenile detention center, where his parents later picked him up.
00:52It was great.
00:53I had a great time.
00:54Just before graduating high school, Heinemann's dad convinced him to buy an actual pet shop.
00:59Don't touch that!
01:00You're buying what then you're buying!
01:03According to Keith Zimmerman's Mythbusters tell-all, Jamie bought the shop and sold rodents,
01:07birds, and animal food.
01:09Little boys love snakes.
01:11Through the business, he obtained several pet snakes, as well as a lion cub, which he
01:15raised on his parents' apple farm.
01:17But Heinemann eventually sold the pet shop so he could go to college.
01:21So what skills do you need to become a Mythbuster?
01:23Well, if you're Heinemann, a degree in Russian language and literature.
01:27According to Indiana University, Heinemann has, quote, "...exploded any myth that studying
01:32the humanities will not lead to an exciting and successful career."
01:35That may be true, but why Russian?
01:38I must break you.
01:40Jamie just needed to pick a language for his bachelor's degree, and he liked the sound
01:44of it.
01:45After college, Heinemann moved to the Caribbean, where he bought a boat, became a divemaster,
01:50and opened a charter business, according to Mental Floss.
01:53Heinemann also met his wife, who was a diving instructor in the Virgin Islands, while running
01:57the charter business.
01:58But as Zimmerman wrote, after 3,000 dives and two hurricanes, Jamie finally got sick
02:03of scrubbing the bottom of his boat and decided to sail it to New York.
02:06This one's busted.
02:07It's gotta be.
02:08All right, let's go get some fish and chips.
02:10Sounds good.
02:11Mythbusters is a show about two guys living in the Bay Area who build stuff together and
02:16bicker like an old married couple.
02:18So it's not too surprising that some viewers got the wrong idea about their relationship.
02:22Shall we put some of this chaos to work?
02:25Sounds tasty.
02:26Even Discovery Channel made some assumptions.
02:28Adam Savage told The Sneeze.
02:30Among themselves, the network wondered if they could do a show with a couple of homosexuals
02:33from San Francisco.
02:35Fans even wondered about it, too.
02:37Heinemann told The Age,
02:38"...we got a lot of gay fan mail when the show first started, something to do with being
02:42in San Francisco and being a big, burly guy with a big mustache.
02:46But we're both happily married.
02:48To women."
02:49Adam.
02:50We happy?
02:51Yeah.
02:52We happy.
02:53Heinemann is best known for Mythbusters, and like it or not, Mythbusters will probably
02:58remain his legacy.
02:59Am I emotional about the end of the show?
03:01Well, yeah, I suppose I am a little bit.
03:05I've done some amazing things over all those years.
03:08But he's a man of many interests.
03:10According to Gadgetopia, Heinemann's M5 Industries even built a soda can chucking machine that
03:15was featured in a 7-Up commercial.
03:17To make it more convenient for people to enjoy the refreshing taste of 7-Up, I made vending
03:21machines that find you.
03:25Jamie told The Star,
03:26"...they asked me if I could invent a vending machine that would spit cans out on demand.
03:30I told them, for the right price, I could invent a vending machine that would send cans
03:34into orbit."
03:35Hey, cool.
03:40Out of all the members of the Mythbusters build team, Grant Imahara was arguably the
03:44most capable at building stuff.
03:46Plus, the man has loads of connections to major motion pictures and tons of experience
03:50crafting combat robots.
03:52In 2010, Grant Imahara promised to build a part of television history, and then he followed
03:57through on that promise.
03:59It all began, as such things often do, on Twitter.
04:02According to Entertainment Weekly, Imahara had noticed that Craig Ferguson, the former
04:06host of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, had taken to calling his Twitter followers
04:10his, quote, robot skeleton army.
04:13One thing quickly led to another.
04:15As Imahara told The Star advertiser,
04:17"...so at some point, they put two and two together and said, you should have a robot
04:23skeleton sidekick."
04:25Imahara would prove to be just the man to build it, but there was a catch.
04:29The talk show host had to drive Imahara's Twitter followers over the magic line of 100,000.
04:35Ferguson quickly rose to the challenge.
04:37According to Popular Mechanics, Imahara found his part of the deal considerably more difficult
04:41to deliver.
04:42He tinkered with the robot while shooting Mythbusters, which meant precious little time
04:46for sleep and a huge rush to get everything done in time.
04:50Popular Mechanics reports that Imahara soon found himself in something of a bind, with
04:54only one week before the deadline, he still needed to write the software that would make
04:58Jeff move and build Ferguson's control box.
05:02Despite his struggles with the project, Imahara managed to deliver on his promise, big time.
05:08"...that's called Craig."
05:11The end result was Jeff Peterson, a snarky, remote-controlled skeleton.
05:15The creation became so popular it even has its own Wikipedia entry, and, ironically,
05:21that entry is significantly longer than Imahara's.
05:23"...it's our first day together, so you know we're kind of working out the kinks, right
05:28Jeff?"
05:29"...boy, not!"
05:30Ferguson absolutely loved Jeff Peterson, and shortly after Ferguson left the Late Late
05:35Show in 2014, Imahara took to Twitter to give fans a much-needed update on everyone's
05:40favorite robot skeleton sidekick.
05:42For everyone who's asked me what happened to Jeff, I can report that he is safely with
05:46Craig in his personal office.
05:49And no wonder.
05:50"...hop, hop, hop, you're that man, Craig!"
05:55If you're in the business of building robots, you probably have to brace yourself for constant
05:59jokes along the lines of,
06:01"...your creation is going to kill you."
06:03Well, Grant Imahara might not find those jokes particularly funny.
06:07He was, in fact, almost killed by his own robot.
06:10Several times, actually.
06:12According to Make magazine, the robot in question was appropriately named the Spider.
06:17It was a huge, 625-pound walking machine that Imahara built to be strong enough to carry
06:22a man.
06:23The Spider didn't exactly come alive and try to kill its creator.
06:26It didn't need to.
06:28Imahara unintentionally created optimal conditions for a full-fledged sci-fi nightmare.
06:33The robot was a particularly challenging and complex one to design and develop, and
06:37Imahara made the mistake of testing the Spider late at night, and all alone.
06:42Here's how that played out.
06:48"...f**k.
06:49Woo!"
06:50And apparently, that's not the only time the robot could have seriously hurt or even killed
06:56Imahara.
06:57As he told Make magazine,
06:59Working late at night by myself, there were a few too-close calls when the robot almost
07:03crushed me.
07:04Pro tip, don't do what I did.
07:06Never work alone around heavy or otherwise dangerous equipment.
07:10According to his profile at the USC Alumni Association, Grant Imahara spent nine years
07:15working at Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects company founded in 1975 by
07:20George Lucas.
07:22And during that time, he got to work on some truly fantastic franchises.
07:26We'll get to Imahara's wide-ranging work on the Star Wars prequels in a hot minute,
07:30but first, you should know that he also built models for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix
07:35Revolutions.
07:36According to Mouser, he also got to work behind the scenes on films as varied as The Lost
07:41World, Jurassic Park, Terminator 3, Rise of the Machines, and AI Artificial Intelligence
07:46to name just a few.
07:48As the saying goes, it's all about the friends you make along the way.
07:51During the time with Industrial Light and Magic, Imahara got to know two other ambitious
07:55model-makers, Tori Bellacci and Adam Savage.
07:59Grant Imahara isn't the only myth-buster to work on the Star Wars franchise.
08:03As Tested reports, both Adam Savage and Tori Bellacci have built models for the movies.
08:09But Imahara's contributions are truly impressive.
08:12According to Mouser, Imahara is the guy who brought R2-D2 up to date for Star Wars Episode
08:17I, The Phantom Menace, and Star Wars Episode II, Attack of the Clones.
08:21From speed controls to radio gear, he replaced R2-D2's inner workings with modern technology.
08:27The most visible change?
08:29Imahara designed a new system for the droid's light displays.
08:32He removed the old rotating color wheel lit with halogen light and replaced it with a
08:36custom LED rig that, strangely enough, wasn't specifically designed for R2-D2.
08:42It was actually created out of a gadget from the main engines of the Protector, the spaceship,
08:47in Galaxy Quest.
08:48We don't really know which one.
08:50What's more, Mouser reports that Imahara was one of three official R2-D2 operators in the
08:56United States.
08:57Sounds like quite the responsibility, right?
08:59Well, as he told Nerd Alert,
09:00"...driving R2 is fairly simple.
09:04There's one joystick.
09:05The right thumb controls the body."
09:09Wondering about the left thumb?
09:11Imahara goes on to reveal,
09:12"...the left thumb controls the little hollow eye, so you don't have to do that very often."
09:18Pretty impressive credentials, no?
09:20"...it's on your resume."
09:22"...it's on my resume."
09:24And that's not all.
09:25According to Wired, Imahara spent a decade as something of an official backup C-3PO,
09:30wearing the golden suit for assorted appearances, including a memorable Oprah segment.
09:34"...I'm here with some of the most popular Star Wars characters.
09:38C-3PO!"
09:41Grant Imahara is one of the many minds behind the iconic Energizer bunny.
09:46In 2011, AL.com reported that the Energizer company fell out with the original designers
09:51of the mascot and needed to find someone to build new bunnies.
09:55Imahara turned out to be just the man for the job.
09:58Mouser reports that Imahara personally built the circuit that enables the bunnies' famous
10:02ear movements and beating arms.
10:04He also installed and programmed all the electronics for the bunnies during his tenure with the
10:09project.
10:10Imahara has shared some deep, dark secrets about the sprightly battery mascot.
10:14Despite appearing rather small in the commercials, the bunny is actually about two feet tall,
10:19and it's filled to the brim with electronics.
10:21It actually takes a whopping 44 AA batteries to get them working.
10:26And yes, Imahara assures us they're all Energizer batteries, so you can sleep easy tonight.
10:31It apparently took a team of three people just to keep the arms operating like they're
10:35supposed to.
10:36Imahara's crew built three bunnies, named Earl, Floyd, and Garth.
10:39They must have cost the company a pretty penny, as Imahara told AL.com,
10:43I can't tell you how much they cost, but if you know what a Ferrari Testarossa costs,
10:48each bunny costs that much.
10:50And believe us when we tell you, that's the final word on the subject.
11:01The name Tomlinson Holman might not mean much to you unless you're an audio buff, but for
11:05Grant Imahara, it means the world.
11:08According to the USC Alumni Association, Imahara was struggling with his engineering studies,
11:12to say the least.
11:14As he told Twittech Podcast Network,
11:16I'm falling asleep in my classes, I don't have focus, this sucks.
11:21A counselor reportedly told Imahara to meet with Holman, who was a professor of cinematic
11:25arts and also the man who developed the revolutionary THX sound system.
11:30You know the one.
11:31Imahara was instantly starstruck and offered his services as Holman's unpaid personal assistant.
11:37Holman accepted, and Imahara spent an extremely eye-opening year working under him.
11:42Holman's innovations at THX helped renew Imahara's passion for engineering by teaching him creative
11:47ways to apply his talents.
11:49Then, Holman scored the young man an internship at the company, which turned into a full-time
11:53job after Imahara finished his studies.
11:56And finally, after three years with THX, Imahara got an even more alluring job with another
12:01well-known Lucasfilm company, Industrial Light & Magic.
12:05The rest, as they say, is history.
12:08Because of MythBusters' widespread love and popularity, a lot of people probably think
12:12they know all the secrets behind this explosively entertaining show.
12:15That would be a myth, though.
12:17Before appearing in MythBusters, Carrie Byron was a student of film and culture at San Francisco
12:21State University, and she ultimately wanted to join the special effects industry.
12:26That interest eventually led her to M5, the FX company founded by fellow MythBuster Jamie
12:31Heineman.
12:32She was actually an unpaid intern for a while, and that opportunity eventually blossomed
12:35into a job offer to join MythBusters.
12:38"...everybody loves an intern.
12:39They work hard, they're trying to prove themselves, and they are cheap or free."
12:43But she never lost her artistic streak.
12:46If anything, she learned to marry the more explosive elements of the show into her own
12:49artistic expression.
12:51One very clear example of this is her explosive paintings.
12:54To create these works, she lights gunpowder on fire, and then scrapes burnt clay away
12:58from the page to make a series of haunting images.
13:01She likens the process to, quote, "...controlled chaos."
13:05Exploding pants?
13:06Killer whirlpools?
13:07"...have you ever really looked at the sky?"
13:10With so many experiments over the years, you have to wonder if there are any myths the
13:14group regrets having busted.
13:16Adam Savage apparently wishes he'd ixnayed one segment, not because the experiment was
13:20particularly dangerous or difficult to film, but because it involved magic.
13:25At least, that's how Savage sees it.
13:27The experiment itself involved determining whether or not keeping a shaving razor beneath
13:31a makeshift pyramid would actually keep it sharper due to so-called pyramid power.
13:36Savage regrets filming the segment because he believes it was ultimately impossible to
13:39apply the scientific method to that particular experiment.
13:43He believes that they were tasked with, quote, "...trying to prove a negative, since there
13:46was no real way to measure success or failure."
13:49MythBusters was all about science, which means it never let something like corporate sponsorship
13:54get in the way of truth, right?
13:56Alas, it sounds like even MythBusters wasn't immune to advertiser pressure.
14:00They reportedly decided to ax an entire episode about RFID, that handy technology that lets
14:06you wave your credit card in front of a card reader so you don't have to swipe it.
14:09You've no doubt heard that RFID isn't necessarily secure.
14:13Well MythBusters got wind of that, too, and planned an entire episode about the hackability
14:17of the technology.
14:19But according to the Register, lawyers for major credit card companies intervened, and
14:23the episode never saw the light of day.
14:25In 2008, Adam Savage opened up about the situation at a Hackers on Planet Earth conference.
14:30They absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode
14:37talking about how hackable this stuff was.
14:39He claimed Discovery, quote, "...backed down because they relied so heavily upon advertising
14:43revenue."
14:44That sounds like the honest truth, but something must have happened behind the scenes.
14:48Savage later backtracked and changed his tune, saying,
14:51The decision was made by our production company, and had nothing to do with Discovery.
14:55Whatever you say, Adam.
14:57MythBusters was billed as a family show, so there were certain things the program simply
15:01wasn't allowed to do.
15:02For example, they couldn't even show a simulation of a particular body part while testing the
15:06legendary peeing-on-the-third-rail myth, even though they were clearly using a synthetic
15:11tube.
15:12Oh, and in case you're wondering how that experiment worked out?
15:15One.
15:16Hey!
15:17Hey!
15:20Anyway, according to TV Tropes, censors forbade MythBusters from airing an entire episode
15:25about farting.
15:26Knock yourself out.
15:28Undeterred, the team tried a segment on farting later on, but this time they followed all
15:32sorts of oddball rules, like only using the word flatus instead of fart, supposedly to
15:38make the whole thing sound more scientific.
15:40To work around all the bodily functions they couldn't show on screen, the MythBusters team
15:44built a fart machine.
15:46I am planning to build a machine that can also eject a flatus.
15:51That's what all this equipment is.
15:53The result was really funny and actually rather vulgar, even though they were basically using
15:57a whoopee cushion.
15:59MythBusters was a geeky show.
16:00You can gloss over that fact as much as you like, but pretty much every cast member was
16:04unabashedly geeky.
16:06And if you watched the show, you were pretty geeky, too.
16:09And what's the holy grail of geekdom?
16:10I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!
16:14Star Wars, obviously.
16:16As you can imagine, it's not particularly easy to work something like Star Wars into
16:19your myth-busting franchise.
16:21After all, Star Wars is a closely guarded property, and there are hoops to be jumped
16:24through before you can start busting lightsaber and stormtrooper myths.
16:28Adam Savage told The Hollywood Reporter he was surprised how open Lucasfilm turned out
16:32to be with their permissions.
16:33The team wasn't allowed to animate lightsaber effects, but other than that, they were pretty
16:37much given free reign.
16:39There was one important provision.
16:41Savage joked that MythBusters couldn't depict stormtroopers shaking their moneymakers.
16:45He told The Hollywood Reporter,
16:46"...I don't think they wanted us to twerk with a stormtrooper, or something like that."
16:50Makes sense.
16:51The Lucasfilm people probably didn't want another Christmas special on their hands.
16:55Please, please, I have enough aggravation.
16:58Oh, I didn't like any of this.
16:59The MythBusters had some very public mishaps, but people might not entirely realize just
17:04how common it was for the cast to injure themselves in the line of duty.
17:08According to CNET, MythBuster accidents ran the gamut from explosions to an injury by
17:12goat.
17:13In fact, Adam Savage once said the show was, quote, "...four minutes of science and ten
17:17minutes of me hurting myself."
17:19"...he holds his breath, tugs on the door, pushes his whole weight against it, but nothing
17:25happens."
17:26In one infamous experiment, the team wanted to find out if an explosion could actually
17:30knock the socks off a mannequin.
17:32The explosion wound up shattering the windows of a nearby home.
17:35Ironically, the blast quite literally knocked a woman off her couch, sort of like knocking
17:39the socks off a mannequin, but not really.
17:42Co-host Tori Bellecci's on-set accidents included getting kicked in the crotch by a goat, and
17:46spectacularly wiping out while trying to jump over a red wagon on a bicycle.
17:51I'm okay.
17:58Savage was the recipient of one of the show's more serious injuries.
18:01He once broke his hand on a blast chamber.
18:03Surprisingly, most of the injuries on the show were fairly minor, just stitches and
18:07broken fingers.
18:08Not bad for a show with a premise that's firmly grounded in blowing stuff up.
18:12Hopefully the safety experts were well-compensated.
18:15No one deserved that paycheck more.
18:17MythBusters is real science, not mad science.
18:20It's not like they ever received orders to build a death ray or something, except that
18:24time President Obama quite literally gave them orders to build a death ray.
18:28"...MythBusters is about is testing out various hypotheses, and I think that we've got a big
18:32one that hasn't been thoroughly tested."
18:34"...Which one is that?"
18:35"...Well, it is Archimedes' solar ray."
18:38In a 2011 lecture, Savage said he'd never met anyone with as much charisma as Obama.
18:43"...Then Obama walks in and immediately releases all the tension.
18:47I've never seen anything like it.
18:48He walked in, he introduced himself to us, he shook hands with the crew."
18:52The former president goes on to gently admonish Savage and Jamie Hyndman for failing to thoroughly
18:56test the solar ray back in 2006, when they first attempted to create it.
19:01The likely mythical device dates all the way back to the second century, and it was designed
19:05to ignite the sails of enemy ships with highly-focused mirrors.
19:08The team recruited 500 people with mirrors to retry the experiment.
19:12Once again, they failed to prove the concept.
19:15According to Gizmodo, the president's appearance on MythBusters was actually part of a White
19:18House initiative to get kids more interested in science.
19:21And let's face it, a death ray is the perfect gateway drug to the world of physics and beyond.
19:27You probably know Tory Bellucci from MythBusters, but the popular show isn't the only feather
19:32in his cap.
19:33He was cooking up awesome stuff long before he became a familiar face, and he's kept super
19:37busy ever since leaving the myth-busting biz.
19:41It's a career path that certainly befits a man who's famous for blowing things up.
19:45Tory Bellucci worked in special effects for quite a long time before becoming a TV star.
19:50In fact, he contributed to the god-king of all geek franchises, Star Wars.
19:56Bellucci's online portfolio is chock-full of photos featuring him painstakingly building
20:01models of the massive Federation battleship and one of the podracers for Star Wars Episode
20:071, The Phantom Menace.
20:08And he worked closely with one of his future MythBusters cohorts at Industrial Light & Magic,
20:13the special effects company founded by George Lucas in 1975.
20:17In the past, Bellucci's former colleague Adam Savage has talked about their work together
20:22on a particularly difficult set piece, Tipoca City from Star Wars Episode 2, Attack of the
20:28Clones.
20:29That's where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jango Fett fought each other, in case you haven't checked
20:34out the film recently.
20:35Savage even posted a photograph to his website Tested, which features them both dutifully
20:40building a Tipoca City model, although he reveals the image isn't quite what it appears
20:45to be, writing that,
20:46"...the photo of Tory and me is actually one we call a model shop reach.
20:52These models are completely done, yet it looks like Tory and I are still model-making with
20:57tools.
20:58In reality, we were asked by the ILM photographer to come back over to the set and make it look
21:03briefly like we were working on the models."
21:06That's show business for you.
21:08It's hard to imagine a show with a more absurd premise than MythBusters, which revolved around
21:13quite literally exploding myths and urban legends.
21:17Well, leave it to Tory Bellucci to find a way to top it.
21:21Boo-yah!
21:22MythBusters' Tory Bellucci hosts the ultimate heavy metal showdown.
21:28According to Wired, the myth-busting rascal found himself hosting a show called Flying
21:32Anvils in 2011.
21:34The entire premise involved contestants shooting anvils flying into the sky using controlled
21:40black powder explosions.
21:43Believe it or not, this wasn't a concept hatched by some caffeinated TV executive.
21:48Bellucci was a celebrity host for the National Anvil Shooting Championship, an actual sport
21:54that Bellucci says dates back 200 years.
21:57There's a lot of rules, but there's only one that matters.
22:00Make sure you're not in the wrong place when the anvil lands!"
22:03If you think blasting 100-pound anvils 200 feet into the air sounds dangerous, Bellucci
22:09would certainly agree with you.
22:10But in his interview with Wired, he says of the contestants,
22:13"...these people are the salt of the earth.
22:16They're very normal people.
22:17At first, I thought they might be super weird, but they're just so down-to-earth, just typical
22:22Americans.
22:23A lot of them were blacksmiths to begin with, and that's how they got into it.
22:27They take it so seriously."
22:30In 2014, Tory Bellucci indulged in one of the oddest wrinkles in his professional career.
22:36According to The Verge, he took part in the famed Gumball 3000, a highly exclusive and
22:42elaborate 3,000-mile street rally, and he did it with Canadian DJ Deadmau5, of all people.
22:49Bellucci and Deadmau5 drove a Ferrari, a custom Ferrari 458 Italia, with a paint job
22:56named after the Neon Cat meme, and it came complete with speakers that blared its maddening
23:01theme song.
23:02In fact, Bellucci and Deadmau5 say they spent the race listening to that song on repeat.
23:07"...of all the memes on the internet, why this one?"
23:10"...well, it's a bit dated, because actually a friend of mine kind of invented it."
23:15All of this might seem like a strange celebrity stunt to you.
23:18After all, this was the same year Deadmau5 had a new album out, and Bellucci and the
23:22rest of the Build team lost their Mythbusters jobs.
23:26But Deadmau5 and Bellucci clearly enjoyed their time on the road.
23:29They did suffer the occasional setback, however.
23:32At one point, the French police banned Deadmau5 from driving in the country, so Bellucci had
23:37to take the wheel until they reached Spain.
23:40Nevertheless, they did rather well on the week-long supercar race.
23:45In fact, when they reached the goal in Ibiza, they were awarded the biggest award, the Spirit
23:49of Gumball Prize, which is given to the team that was the most positive, had the best time,
23:55and partied the hardest.
23:57We've told you that Tory Bellucci worked for years as a special effects guy, but we need
24:01to emphasize just how sought after he was in the field.
24:05Judging by his bio and work portfolio, Bellucci was one of the best in his biz, thanks in
24:10no small part to his nearly decade-long stint at Industrial Light & Magic.
24:15In fact, he's worked behind the scenes on some of the most beloved franchises out there.
24:20Apart from his aforementioned work on Star Wars, he's built models for several movies
24:24in the Matrix trilogy, specifically The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
24:30In fact, here he is working on a control tower in Zion, the last human city on Earth.
24:35As a model builder, his resume also includes Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines, Starship
24:41Troopers, and Galaxy Quest, as well as work on Van Helsing and the 2003 version of Peter
24:47Pan.
24:48But he's worked in plenty of other corners of Hollywood as well.
24:51For instance, he was a set designer for 2002's Scooby-Doo movie and worked on props for Bicentennial
24:58Man.
24:59And all this work was before we got to know him through his MythBusters gig.
25:03He's got the impressive work ethic
25:06These days, Bellucci is best known as a TV personality.
25:09But he's also dabbled on the other side of the camera, and we're not just talking about
25:13his special effects, either.
25:15It turns out Bellucci also wrote and directed a short sci-fi movie while studying at San
25:20Francisco State University's film school.
25:23The film is called Sandtrooper, and it's a post-apocalyptic adventure that he made as
25:28his senior thesis.
25:29He's so proud of the film, it's even included in the biography on his website, which mentions
25:34that,
25:35"...Sandtrooper played at the Slamdance Film Festival and also aired on SyFy Channel."
25:40The short, which credits him with his full name, Salvatore Bellucci, takes place in a
25:45post-apocalyptic desert where a lone soldier tries to infiltrate a mysterious facility.
25:51We have to admit that the special effects, while rudimentary, are pretty darn neat.
25:56We won't spoil anything here, but if you ever find yourself in a Mad Max-inspired wasteland,
26:01it's probably best to avoid petting mysterious mice.
26:11Oh wait, we kinda did spoil that, huh?
26:15Since leaving the show, Tori Bellucci has somewhat struggled to replicate the success
26:19of MythBusters.
26:20His first post-MythBusters show was Thrill Factor, where he and Cary Byron took their
26:25scientific approach to amusement park rides.
26:29Sadly, the show only received a single season in 2015, but at least it fared better than
26:35their proposed science-themed prank show, Frankenstein.
26:38Oh my God!
26:39Oh my God!
26:40Alright, alright, alright!
26:41Radio, radio, radio!
26:45Alas, Frankenstein was never picked up, although Byron is reportedly still holding out hope.
26:51Like Rabbit Project, the Build team's most recent effort wasn't too lucky, either.
26:57In 2017, Bellucci confirmed on Reddit that Netflix had chosen against renewing the show
27:01for a second season, leading one fan to comment,
27:04"...tell Netflix I hate them, please and thank you."
27:08Another ill-fated show was Pumpkin Chunkin', a pumpkin-destruction-themed science channel
27:13Thanksgiving special that Bellucci co-hosted for several years.
27:17According to CNN, the show is incredibly popular, even topping ratings monsters like
27:22The Apprentice.
27:23But thanks to the obvious safety risks involved in shooting large pumpkins 4,000 feet into
27:28the air, the production was plagued by several injuries.
27:32Due to a lawsuit by a volunteer who got injured in an ATV accident, the event was canceled
27:37in both 2014 and 2015.
27:40And just as they were gearing up to return in 2016, a producer almost died when an air
27:44cannon exploded.
27:46Early fans of the event were disappointed with this development.
27:49"...as far as I'm, you know, they should be able to continue going on with it, you know,
27:53just to let people know, hey, accidents do happen."
27:57According to Entertainment Weekly, Tory Bellucci and Grant Imahara ended up in the middle of
28:01Los Angeles' LAX airport when a gunman terrifyingly opened fire inside Terminal 3 in 2013.
28:09Their trip to Science Channel's annual Pumpkin Chunkin' competition in Delaware soon turned
28:14into a full-on panic, as they ended up riding the thick of things.
28:18Bellucci told Entertainment Weekly,
28:20"...it was like my worst nightmare.
28:22You hear about these situations on the news, but to actually see it, to see people running,
28:27leaving stuff behind, crawling over each other, crying, you always wonder how you'll respond."
28:33Bellucci was reportedly at a gate that was dangerously close to the shooter, and everyone
28:37was running his way when the first shot rang out.
28:40What's more, there seemed to be nowhere to go, as he told CNN,
28:43"...we were kind of trapped at the end of the terminal.
28:46Now, I never saw the shooter, but we heard the shot."
28:50Eventually, someone opened the doors and let them out on the tarmac.
28:55Bellucci and Imahara's live tweets were some of the first reports of the incident to emerge
29:00from the scene, with Bellucci writing,
29:02"...shooters in LAX.
29:04That was f----- terrifying."
29:07Religion doesn't seem to go hand-in-hand with all the mad scientist antics on MythBusters,
29:13but Tory Bellucci is reportedly a man of faith.
29:16According to the Monterey County Herald, he's a devout Christian, and that makes him something
29:20of an outlier among his fellow former MythBusters.
29:23According to Skeptical Inquirer, Adam Savage thinks of himself as an atheist, freethinker,
29:29humanist, and yes, a skeptic.
29:31Meanwhile, in a 2014 Reddit Ask Me Anything, Jamie Heinemann plainly stated that he doesn't
29:37think too highly of religion, writing that,
29:39"...atheism or agnosticism or whatever movement doesn't affect me at all.
29:43I don't believe in anything.
29:45There are only probabilities, and the probability of a deity or some s---- is pretty f----- low.
29:51I am HO."
29:52Even Bellucci's close pal Cary Byron has said,
29:55"...I am an atheist, but I don't begrudge anyone for whatever belief systems they hold."
30:01Tory Bellucci comes across as a pretty great guy on TV, and in real life, he seems to dial
30:06that kindness up to 11.
30:08The Monterey County Herald reports that Bellucci decided to take a trip abroad when MythBusters
30:13took a brief hiatus in 2010.
30:15But instead of indulging in a luxurious holiday, he flew to Haiti to do some important volunteer
30:21work.
30:22Joining forces with the nonprofit organization Life Giving Force, Bellucci visited orphanages
30:27in the country in the aftermath of a catastrophic 7.0 earthquake on January 12, 2010.
30:34He helped local communities gain access to clean, safe water by building water cleaning
30:39systems.
30:40"...little guys like this are getting clean water so they're not getting sick anymore."
30:44Bellucci was impressed by how the orphanages aimed to educate the kids, as he told the
30:48Monterey County Herald.
30:50One of the pastors said,
30:51"...if we can educate 5,000 to 6,000 kids over the years, these kids are going to grow
30:56up and you're going to have a whole generation of leaders."
30:59And that's what he was saying they need in order to change Haiti.
31:03He blows up things for kicks.
31:05He helps people in need.
31:07He's basically the perfect human, and that's no myth.
31:10The one accessory he always has with him and the reason for it?
31:13The explicit message he shared on social media?
31:16The surprising Hollywood job he booked?
31:18Here is what many don't know about MythBusters co-host Jamie Heinemann.
31:23You may only know Jamie Heinemann as the grumbly half of the MythBusters duo.
31:27There's a lot of stuff about him that doesn't fit his TV persona, but he's done some things
31:31that are very in line with the meticulous, analytical personality we all came to know
31:35through 13 years of MythBusters.
31:38Heinemann's special effects work wasn't so much his destiny as it was a conclusion he
31:42came to after many long hours in a library.
31:44He told StarWars.com,
31:46"...I figured I should think carefully about it and research my options.
31:49I made lists of interests and priorities, spent a lot of time in the library reading
31:53about anything that seemed like a possibility, and decided special effects was the way to
31:58go."
31:59While Jamie Heinemann sometimes finds motivation in libraries, he wants the world to know that
32:04he also finds inspiration via exercise equipment, which is at least marginally more interesting
32:09than a library for an inventor.
32:10He told Udacity Talks that he believes the mind and the body really aren't so separate,
32:15so when he's trying to solve a design problem, he exercises.
32:18He revealed,
32:19"...The first thing I do is I get on a treadmill, because I find that that mind-body connection
32:24is really important."
32:25Heinemann says science backs up the practice, too.
32:28Increased oxygen levels and changes in body chemistry can help stimulate the mind, which
32:32can lead to ideas and problem-solving.
32:34How about treadmills that give you ideas without making you exercise?
32:38That would be a million-dollar invention.
32:40He's not quitting.
32:42Nope.
32:43Jamie Heinemann is almost never seen without his signature beret, which makes him look
32:47sort of like a French mime.
32:49It left fans everywhere desperate to know the story behind the ubiquitous hat.
32:52The MythBusters host told The Age,
32:54My hair was falling out, so I got in the habit of wearing a hat.
32:58And I didn't like baseball caps, so I got a beret.
33:00But the beret wasn't so much to cover up the hair loss as it was to cover up the shine
33:04of his scalp.
33:05He added,
33:06If my hair was going to fall out, I figured I might as well shave it.
33:09But if I shave it, I look like a cue ball.
33:11Heinemann figured he should balance out the shiny dome, even though it's always under
33:14the beret, with some facial hair.
33:16Hence, the handlebar mustache that completed the signature look that he maintained through
33:20pretty much every season of MythBusters and beyond.
33:24Lots of people have great gadget ideas, but most of us lack the technical skills necessary
33:28to bring our visions to life.
33:30According to Popular Mechanics, Jamie Heinemann invented and built the prototype of a remotely
33:35operated firefighting tank.
33:37The tank can carry 1,000 gallons of water and 100 gallons of flame-retardant foam.
33:42It's covered with flame-resistant fabric, the same material firefighting suits are lined
33:47with, and has high-powered water guns that shoot wherever the operator is looking.
33:51It also self-cools by spraying a mixture of glycerin and water over its internal components,
33:56so it can survive driving right into a fire.
33:59The machine is apparently based on a non-armored M548 military cargo carrier, which you can
34:04get from your local Army surplus store.
34:07Heinemann delivered the prototype to his financier in 2018, and with any luck, we'll see it start
34:12showing up to take on wildfires within the next few years.
34:16Jamie Heinemann and his former co-host Adam Savage are big in Europe.
34:20Both have honorary doctorates from a university in the Netherlands, and Jamie Heinemann is
34:24revered in Finland, with the Lutte University of Finland naming a lab after him, the J.
34:28Heinemann Center.
34:30According to the Helsinki Times, the lab is like the MythBusters workshop.
34:34It exists so students can use it to build and test their creative ideas.
34:38The lab's name wasn't just a nod to Heinemann from his fans on the other side of the world.
34:43Heinemann also has an honorary doctorate from the university, and in 2021, the university
34:48made him a professor of practice, which is a non-tenured faculty position with a specific
34:53professional background.
34:54It's not just an honorary title, as Heinemann gives lectures and helps students with their
34:58projects.
34:59Shortly after accepting the position, Heinemann noted that he wasn't going to be setting any
35:03goals for his collaboration with the university, as the travel can be tough.
35:08All you have to do is watch MythBusters to know that Jamie Heinemann has hands-on, practical
35:13experience at blowing things up.
35:15But as it turns out, all those years behind the detonator attracted the attention of some
35:19actual industry leaders, including the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators.
35:25The association is a non-profit that provides training to police, military, and others who
35:30have to detect and defuse bombs as a job function.
35:33The association and the MythBusters go way back, too.
35:36The show had to consult pros for safety reasons whenever they were planning to make something
35:40go boom.
35:41It also helped to have some experts on hand so they didn't look completely unhinged.
35:45I think we got what we came for.
35:48Local bomb squads participated in around 20 MythBusters episodes.
35:52In return, Heinemann and Savage were invited to speak at the 2008 International Training
35:56Conference banquet, where they were both given plaques naming the two hosts honorary lifelong
36:01members of the association.
36:03Jamie Heinemann doesn't really seem to crave the spotlight, but he does love to do things
36:08that make a difference.
36:09Besides working on better PPE and a firefighting tank, he also worked with the military.
36:14But instead of making better weapons, Heinemann tested better ways to protect soldiers.
36:18According to Discovery News, the Office of Naval Research enlisted his help in 2011 to
36:23develop armor for military vehicles.
36:26The armor had to be lightweight enough that it wouldn't affect the vehicle's performance,
36:30but still capable of stopping shrapnel and protecting the vehicle's occupants from a
36:34blast.
36:35The military high-ups actually called Heinemann instead of the International Association of
36:39Bomb Technicians and Investigators for the job.
36:42It wasn't the first time Heinemann worked with the military.
36:44He also designed a robotic medical dummy for the Army to use while training new medics.
36:49The idea was to prepare medics for the real world of the battlefield.
36:53Some people are terrified of spiders.
36:55Others make entire movies about them starring live spider actors.
36:59The 1990 film Arachnophobia, for example, was made by the latter.
37:03The former probably never saw the flick.
37:06Unfortunately, there's really only so much you can do with live spiders on the set of
37:09a movie, as filming spiders usually involves just turning them loose and hoping they'll
37:14eventually scamper in the direction you need them to.
37:17For some scenes, you're going to need fake spiders.
37:19In the time before CGI, those fake spiders had to be animatronic.
37:23So where does one get an animatronic spider?
37:26Cue Jamie Heinemann.
37:28According to the Art Direction Handbook for Film, Heinemann was hired after he showed
37:31producers a magnetic spider he designed to crawl across a metal pan.
37:35The magnetic spider didn't get the role, but Heinemann got the job.
37:39This was before the inception of Mythbusters, when Heinemann was working in special effects
37:44and hadn't even made a name for himself yet.
37:46According to Den of Geek, the spider of Heinemann's that appeared in the movie was used as a sort
37:51of stunt spider and got all the close-ups.
37:54If you were a Mythbusters fan, you got to know the Mythbusters workshop intimately over
37:59the years.
38:00But unless you were a rabid fan who paid a whole lot of attention to small details, you
38:03might have also assumed it was a set.
38:06After all, isn't everything on television shot on a set?
38:08The Mythbusters workshop is actually a real place, the M5 Industries Lab.
38:13Jamie Heinemann owns it and always has.
38:15According to Popular Mechanics, the South San Francisco workshop no longer has cameras
38:20in every corner, but some of the Mythbusters' inventions are still there.
38:24Heinemann still works there, only he's no longer surrounded by the Mythbusters crew.
38:28He sometimes even gives tours to the local kids.
38:32BattleBots seems like exactly the right side hustle for Jamie Heinemann.
38:35And let's face it, pretty much anyone working on Mythbusters, the host spent a lot of time
38:39destroying the things he created.
38:41And that's exactly what BattleBots was.
38:43Part Mad Max, part Roman gladiators.
38:46Designers built robots, and then the robots tore each other apart for an audience.
38:50And the best part was that no one got hurt.
38:53According to Bishop Wisecarver Corporation, back in 1995, Heinemann built a BattleBots
38:58robot out of a lawnmower engine and a wok.
39:01He welded blades onto the outside of the wok and put the whole thing on a spinning
39:05steel ring.
39:06The robot, dubbed Blendo, spun at 80 miles per hour and won the few battles it was permitted
39:11to enter in just a couple of seconds, ending a fight that quickly maybe doesn't make a
39:15competition show enjoyable.
39:17Another issue with Blendo is that it was an insurance company's nightmare.
39:20Showrunners quickly decided that Blendo was a liability, and it was banned from competition
39:25for being too dangerous.
39:27Just because you can speak Russian doesn't necessarily mean you're Vladimir Putin's buddy.
39:32After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, the rest of the world
39:37wasn't happy with Russia or its president's decision, least of all Jamie Heinemann.
39:41On March 4, 2022, Ukraine's Twitter account shared a video of Jamie Heinemann with the
39:47message,
39:48"'Jamie Heinemann has something to say,' and he asked us to share it with all of you."
39:52In the video, Heinemann appears wearing his signature beret, and in Russian says,
39:56"'I have to tell you something.
39:57Russian warship, go f— yourself.'"
39:59Then he switches to English, and implores Russian soldiers to leave Ukraine.
40:03It looks like Heinemann's knowledge of cursed words and the Russian language has its perks.