Prepare to be amazed as we dive into the most mind-blowing, jaw-dropping, and downright unbelievable magic tricks ever performed! From impossible escapes to death-defying stunts, these illusions will leave you questioning reality and wondering how on earth they pulled it off.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the wildest and most unbelievable
00:13illusions ever filmed.
00:27This illusion has been around for a long time.
00:29Although it was invented back in the 1800s, it was most famously performed by Harry Houdini.
00:34Typically, an assistant is tied up and locked in a box.
00:37The magician climbs on top and holds up a curtain.
00:39When the curtain is dropped, the assistant appears on top of the box, then opens it to
00:43reveal the magician tied up inside.
00:49Jonathan and Charlotte Pendragon's version was best known for how fast the switch occurs.
00:53Even if you can't figure out how Jonathan gets out the box and Charlotte gets in it,
00:57it seems impossible that they should be able to swap places so quickly.
01:14Magic shows on television often claim there are no camera tricks involved, but this illusion
01:18is a camera trick.
01:20That is, Daniels makes an entire TV camera disappear while it's filming.
01:33Daniels locks the huge, heavy piece of equipment into a wooden crate along with its operator.
01:37As a forklift spins the crate around, we have a continuous view of the camera's live feed.
01:42Daniels then takes out a starting gun and fires it into the air.
01:45At that moment, the live feed stops and the crate collapses, revealing nothing but the
01:49confused cameraman inside.
01:55With tricks that impressive, no wonder Paul Daniels' TV show ran for 15 seasons.
02:12One of Harry Blackstone Jr.'s most famous tricks starts off with an amusingly jovial
02:16tone and keeps it throughout.
02:18He begins silently, miming some funny gestures with a lightbulb.
02:21The first time he makes the object float, he appears to absentmindedly release the orb
02:25into the air, earning laughs from the crowd.
02:35His act escalates as he hands the bulb to the crowd to prove its authenticity, culminating
02:39with Blackstone sending his trinket flying across the room.
02:43Some have insisted that it's one of the greatest tricks ever done, even implying that
02:46it is miraculous.
02:48One thing's for sure, the unfolding of this trick sure had his audience mesmerised, and
02:51the whole thing invites cheerful rewatchability.
03:05This one admittedly looks more impressive when it's done as a close-up street magic
03:09trick.
03:10But David Berglas, one of Britain's most famous magicians, was known for doing it on
03:13stage in front of hundreds of people.
03:26As the two nurses take his pulse, he makes his heartbeat slow, and eventually stop altogether.
03:31Even weirder, the pulse stops in each arm independently.
03:34You might assume that the nurses are plants, but if you watch a street magician do the
03:38same trick with strangers, you can see their baffled faces as the pulse winds down and
03:43stops.
03:56From professional football player to magician, John Doerenbos did indeed play in the NFL
04:00for 14 seasons, where he was known for showing off magic tricks to his teammates.
04:05He appeared on America's Got Talent the year before he retired, and wowed the judges
04:09audience with his magic.
04:18This trick gets our vote for the best of his repertoire.
04:21Doerenbos invites guest judge Neo to pick a card, but he doesn't just guess the card
04:25correctly.
04:26He draws a deck of cards on a piece of paper, and somehow makes Neo's card rise out of
04:31the two-dimensional image.
04:39Judging from the look on Heidi Klum's face, the illusion is even more impressive in person.
04:57This is mentalism at its finest.
05:00In addition to being a magician, Brown is also a painter who creates caricatures of
05:04famous people.
05:05When one of his paintings is displayed in an art gallery, he takes the opportunity to
05:09perform an incredible psychological illusion in front of a group of people.
05:23After choosing a volunteer at random, Brown asks the man to think of a celebrity.
05:27He continues, prompting the man to cycle through different names in his mind, until
05:31Brown is confident he's settled on the right one.
05:34Then comes the big reveal.
05:46And of course, the man has guessed correctly.
05:48We can't even begin to guess how he has pulled this one off.
06:02Richard Ross starts this routine with a pocket watch.
06:05As he proceeds, more of the timepieces seem to appear out of nowhere.
06:08With such speed, you miss them even if you don't blink.
06:19Ross then enlarges his act, literally, by pulling out oversized watches from places
06:23that they seemingly could never fit.
06:25By the end, he's dangling half a dozen oversized fobs from his hands.
06:29Not only is the concept of this trick impressive, but Ross' execution is as smooth as a choreographed
06:34ballet.
06:35And when he combined all of that with his fierce stage presence, Ross had an unforgettable
06:39illusion that he would go on to recreate multiple times.
06:42And each performance was filled with applause from the crowd.
07:02Stephen Frayn took on the name Dynamo back in 2001, when he was just 18 years old.
07:07Since then, he's toured the world performing for sellout crowds.
07:10He even produced his own short TV series, in which he travelled to major cities to do
07:14street magic.
07:21For this episode in New York, he first chooses a young couple and magically causes their
07:25cell phones to call each other without even touching them.
07:28Then, incredibly, every cell phone in Times Square starts ringing at once.
07:42Even if the first two people were plants, surely the entire crowd can't be in on it.
07:46But perhaps most shocking is that all those people actually had their phones turned on.
07:55The crossbow, Hans and Helga Moretti.
08:02This one is less a magic trick and more just a really dangerous stunt.
08:07Hans Moretti was born Johanna's crew in Poland all the way back in 1928.
08:11He and his wife Helga were known for performing death-defying feats on stage, including playing
08:16Russian roulette with actual loaded guns.
08:19This act involving a crossbow seems just as crazy.
08:28Moretti does several different versions of this stunt, including one in which he shoots
08:31an apple off his wife's head, over his shoulder and blindfolded.
08:41And did we mention that he's spun in circles before shooting, so he's also dizzy?
08:46Helga certainly places an amazing amount of trust in her husband.
08:59There are dangerous magic tricks, and then there's this.
09:02Gallop's legs are chained together, his hands are handcuffed, and he's stuffed into
09:06a mailbag which is locked from the outside.
09:08He's confined in a giant metal cage and dropped out of an airplane, flying at only
09:1218,000 feet.
09:14He has just 60 seconds to escape the shackles, bag and cage and get to the parachute attached
09:18to the outside.
09:29Even if the locks and chains aren't real, there's no faking the fact that he's plummeting
09:33toward Earth at high speed.
09:35If he can't get out of the cage fast enough himself, it's unlikely that his assistants
09:39in time.
09:40I mean, our hearts are racing just thinking about it.
09:57One of the first magic tricks the world has ever seen, a cups and balls routine involves
10:00cups and disappearing balls.
10:02Paul Daniels, however, puts his own twist on the classic trick.
10:11With an act that could even put stand-up comedians to shame, the godfather of modern magic keeps
10:16his audience engaged with his unique brand of British banter, while the ball appears
10:20and disappears impossibly quickly in this version of Chop Cup.
10:35The trick usually ends up with the ball turning into a lemon, and we still can't figure
10:39out how.
10:40The former Magician of the Year sadly passed away in 2016, but his Chop Cup performance
10:44is still one of the best because of Daniels' showmanship.
10:54Sure, sword swallowing was popular back in the day, but to keep up with technological
11:01advances, Thomas Blackthorne decided to go more modern.
11:05Probably infinitely more dangerous than putting a sword in your mouth, Blackthorne takes it
11:08to the next level by slowly lowering a working jackhammer down his throat on live TV.
11:20He might look a little like The Undertaker, but this insane feat thankfully hasn't done
11:24him in.
11:25Yet.
11:26Well, what do you expect from the world record holder for lifting the heaviest object with
11:29his tongue?
11:30We still don't know if the jackhammer trick is even real, but for Blackthorne's sake,
11:34you have to hope not.
11:48This trick definitely isn't for the faint of heart.
11:50Chris Angel, the same magician who rips people's bodies in half and raises people from the
11:54dead, doesn't disappoint with this stunning act of self-mutilation.
11:58After swallowing a coin, Chris makes it flow down his arm until he uses a knife to cut
12:02his skin and take it out, blood and all, to show it to his disturbed audience.
12:13Maybe this trick works so well because it's so hard to watch without looking away.
12:17We know Chris walked on water like a modern messiah, but the coin trick is more imaginative,
12:21and the shock factor alone is enough to give it a spot on this list.
12:29Let's face it, when people think of the typical magician, they picture Lance Burton,
12:40or at least someone who looks just like him.
12:42And this entry is just what you imagine when you hear the word magic.
12:46No delays, no banter, just intense music and continuous sleights of hand.
12:57Burton performs a series of tricks involving live doves, playing cards, and fire.
13:02But don't worry, no animals were injured in the making of this illusion.
13:05You will most likely be baffled throughout most of the fast-paced tricks, but you'll
13:09be kept wondering, where the hell does he keep those birds?
13:12If you want to see a classic act that brings you back to the golden days of magic, then
13:16Lance Burton's dove performance is for you.
13:24Ah yes, David Blaine.
13:33An illusionist so unbelievable, people have accused him of calling on the forces of the
13:36underworld to perform magic.
13:38Setting loose live frogs from within his body seems to be the wrong way to deal with those
13:42accusations.
13:45Drake, Dave Chappelle and NBA player Stephen Curry get hysterical, but mostly disturbed
13:54when Blaine leans back and hocks up a living, moving frog into their champagne glasses.
13:59And he does this three times.
14:01The frogs even try to escape.
14:04Maybe Blaine does have some deal with the Dark Lord after all.
14:20So how did Jon get his Armstrong?
14:22By playing with his tiny plunger, of course.
14:25Penn and Teller loved every second of this performance, which first sees Armstrong lifting
14:29numerous cards at the same time with a plunger.
14:39It gets even crazier when the magician lifts up the exact number of cards called for, and
14:43even cuts the cards with the plunger on a precise card that's unknown to the magician,
14:48but which someone previously chose.
14:56Armstrong brings his unique brand of comedy to the act, keeping us entertained, and possibly
15:00distracted, throughout.
15:01But maybe it's not him who should get the credit.
15:04As he tells us, it's the plunger doing all the work.
15:15One of the most famous magicians of all time brings us this unfortunately named trick.
15:20Invented in 1911 in England, and having absolutely nothing to do with China, this act was one
15:24that Houdini routinely performed throughout the remainder of his career.
15:38Restrained by his legs, suspended from above, and then slowly dunked into a chamber of water
15:43seems torturous enough.
15:44But Houdini, known for his escape routines, would always come out unscathed.
15:49Houdini made it a mission to call out frauds at the time, so maybe this escape isn't
15:53an illusion at all, and he was actually in danger whenever he performed this trick.
15:57But that's just what we expect from one of the greatest escapologists and stuntmen
16:01to have ever lived.
16:12If you ever hear this magician say, let me just clear my throat, you should run far away.
16:16Well, unless you want to see a man's head suddenly drop down to his stomach area, where
16:20he catches it and then painfully places it back on his shoulders.
16:27It's even scarier when he decides to walk towards you with it in his hands, like on
16:33his Japanese show.
16:34We have no idea how he does this.
16:36His clothes stay at their regular height, but his neck is just gone.
16:39It's certainly one way to make an impression.
16:53Since he's one of the most successful magicians in history, and holder of eleven Guinness
16:56World Records, we don't know why David Copperfield would ever want to make himself invisible.
17:01After a lighting effects demonstration which shows lasers causing sparks on his clothes,
17:05he gets his two lovely assistants to cover his midsection as he somehow separates himself
17:09in two.
17:16Moments later, we see him separate himself in two again, except this time, his body isn't
17:20covered, and he's able to hold onto his legs and walk alongside his torso.
17:26We're pretty sure there's either a top half or bottom half that's invisible here,
17:33right?
17:34Copperfield making the entire Statue of Liberty disappear is remarkable, but in accordance
17:38with this list, this trick is crazier.
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18:07While the trick itself is old, Penn & Teller have been performing it since the 90s, introducing
18:12their own brand of humour to the act.
18:14Audience members sign their initials on bullets that are placed into separate guns.
18:18Penn & Teller then shoot at each other, coming up with the other's bullet in his mouth.
18:23And while it's easy to dismiss this as just an illusion, the trick has actually killed
18:31or wounded numerous artists over the decades.
18:34The elevated risk of danger, and the sheer badassery of catching a bullet in your mouth,
18:38is enough to give this trick our top spot.
18:47So which magic tricks blew your mind?
18:49Let us know in the comments below!