As an avalanche forecaster working in the Canadian Rockies, the second I started watching your video on the Dyatlov Pass incident, it just looked to me like an avalanche incident. Slab avalanches are what we are mostly worried about and are linked to the vast majority of the incidents in the mountains. I am not surprised by the incident for different reasons. First off, it doesn't take much of an avalanche to bury someone. Snow can feel like concrete on the run out zone. Second, if it happened at night during a clear blue sky, vapour would have moved upward and out of the snowpack thus weakening the snowpack even more. The speed at which the snowpack can change is extremely fast. Just that process could have triggered that avalanche. It could have also been triggered by the wind or an animal walking nearby (avalanches can be triggered from the bottom of a slope too). Lastly, despite those kids having experience, if they had traveled late and set up camp at night, they may not have seen clearly what was above them. Lastly, not to be judgemental, but in those years, accident in avalanche terrain were quite frequent since the '''snow science'' wasn't that developed nor the information easy to find. Lastly and unfortunately, Russian mountaineers have quite a high risk tolerance toward avalanche terrain and have sadly had a fair amount of incidents and near misses. Koodos to you for your explanations on slab avalanche process. Very well done considering this was likely a new concept for you.
As a Scot? Absolutely feasible. We have mountains that are not that far above sea level. But they will kill you. At times with slab avalanches. Not for no reason that mountaineering experts have for decades recommended 8,000m training here. Thanks, Joe, for logical insight.
I’d be very interested for somebody to go through historic weather data before the incident. If conditions existed for a reactive PWL to develop then I think it’s pretty much solved. We both know avalanche theory and what is seen in the field often may not match, so while the modeling exists to support this theory I’d like to know if it was even possible for a weak layer that they could impact had developed. Dyatlov pass is pretty centrally located so I wouldn’t be surprised if it had more of a continental snowpack. For all we know, they were walking out on a day where widespread, destructive avalanches were highly likely. or maybe they had 3 meters of snow on the ground with only surface problems to worry about.
@@slotcarpalace that is with a persistent weak layer. A slab avalanche requires two things, a strong overlying slab of snow, and a weak layer that it rests on. Persistent weak layers (PWL) are as they are called, persistent layers buried in the snow that is weak for various reasons. PWL are notorious for being triggered from hundreds of yards away, and often produce larger than expected avalanches. PWL generally only form in certain climates and with certain weather conditions. Long, cold periods without precipitation produce PWL. If there was consistent snowfall the year of the Dyatlov pass incident it is less likely that a PWL could have formed, or it could be buried deep enough that it would not be impacted.
one possible explanation for the radioactivity could possibly be the mantles of old style lanterns. they used to be radioactive...dont know if they still are.
I got a reputation with my friends as the person who will cut in to any Dyatlov discussion with just "avalanche" and then promptly leave. Your video gave me great conviction.
Unfortunatley i dont think it was an avalanche. Im pretty sure it was an ice sheet that collapsed on top of them. From what i saw its a fairly rare occurence where an ice sheet overhangs an area and becomes unseen with the snow around it. The sheet snapped and fell on top of the climbers which is why they cut their way out of the tents and why their tents werent buried very deep.
* KNIVES OUT * is the perfect answer to your question at the beginning. Big name cast comparatively speaking with some non traditional character portrayals from some of the cast. Great movie if you can get through it. 1st hour is really slow but the ending makes the rest worth it.
Sounds a little like how the TV show Columbo with Peter Falk worked - The audience would see how the murder of the week was done at the start of the episode and then follow how inspector Columbo worked it all out, often in a surprising way.
This is basically a definition of drama. If you, the audience know something that the protagonist doesn't, you see all the close calls and chances missed and eventually all may be revealed to the characters. You are pulling for them to either do or not do something because you know what the outcome might be from each decision. Drama has been used since story telling began. Oedipus Rex is a famous example that survived through the centuries.
Joe, regarding your question at the beginning: "Foucault's pendulum" by Umberto Eco (a book, not a movie) is about this very topic. It doesn't start with a random accident, but with a simple medieval items list. It's a beautiful demonstration on how you can build a conspiracy theory from anything. And the ending is mind blowing!
I mean you are not wrong - I’m Russian and I would never NEVER go hiking anytime past October in these northern regions. So really not surprised they froze to death. But also I was always fascinated by this story and hoped it was some kind of a evil forest spirit. A girl can dream lol
“A Cry in the Dark,” where they accused the mother of killing her baby when it really was a dingo? It was based upon the true story that everyone knew before it aired. A lot of other cheesy docu-dramas covered real life events that seemed sensational but turned out to be mundane. Occam’s razor.
I couldn't shake a topic out of my sleeve that might be worth making a video about. But I can say one thing: I have never been disappointed on your channel when it comes to topics, there are always (for me) interesting things to learn, even far from my usual experiences. I've been following your escapades here on UA-cam for many years now and I'm extremely satisfied. THANK YOU Joe 🖖
Joe, if you're interested, PLEASE look into the Hessdalen Phenomenon. There are so many witness accounts, so much gathered scientific data, photos, videos and it's still a mystery. It would be such a perfect fit for your channel and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. There is a bigger documentary coming in December this year about it.
You do you man. But I like to believe that my original NES that is sitting in a closet is secretly grateful to me that it still continues on in a climate controlled capsule awaiting its chance to be played and loved again one day… (I think I might be anthropomorphizing inanimate objects a little bit…)
The old Columbo detective show always show the perpetrator committing the crime at the start of each episode and then the audience gets to watch Columbo hound the suspect until he/she is finally proven or confesses their guilt.
I don't mind mundane answers to a mystery. It's fun to hear all the crazy theories, especially when some of the crazy can fit, and make you think. But it's also interesting when you see how they arrived at the mundane answer. I've seen a few videos in the last year that talk about the avalanche answer, and it's all interesting. I seem to recall that one of the models they made used the snow simulation software that Disney created for Frozen, THAT's neat.
Similar incident involved a girl named Maura Murray, missing in New England for years. Many wild theories, podcasts, etc on the net, even a book written on her disappearance. Occam's Razor: she wandered off after imbibing and froze to death. Sad case.😭
The fact that they worked with radioactive isotopes seems to cover this aspect. But I agree that radium paint could do it too. Plenty of deep mystery out there.
8:00 Some of them worked in Mayak Nuclear Facility, so no wonder there were some radioactive debris on their clothes. After all, it was the 1950s in the Soviet Union. Safety and security were not a priority at the time.
The movie "Knives Out" sort of plays out the way you describe at the top of the video. The main character dies of a heart attack at the beginning of the film. But it turns into a murder mystery because everyone WANTED him dead so it's a character study in how horrible people treat each other. The irony is that the characters end up committing crimes trying to cover up his death - believing that one or the other of them had killed him.
It's not a heart attack, unless heart attacks sever the carotid artery with a large ornamental knife. But yes, Knives Out is a pretty good example of this! The cause/manner of death looks like one thing when the body is found ... then a flashback shows something else happening ... and then the rest of the movie sets up yet another reversal.
I feel that the details of this story is the equivalent of finding a half dozen random puzzle pieces, all of which have an intriguing image on them, and thinking the pieces all fit together. Which is just our want to make them all fit.
Your question made me think of Babel and a little bit of Prisoners. Where the characters don't really understand how the random choices they're making are having larger effects. Not exactly the same as you're describing but reminded me of those.
The "everything was normal but people freaked out" sounds like something that *Rod Serling* would have done in *The Twilight Zone.* And I have a vague recollection that it's a theme that he did. But I can't think of a specific episode.
Hi Joe, the issue with the radioactivity might also be explained by the use of an incandescent gas mantle. They were made with Thorium, back in the days.
I was wondering if someone hadn't already commented about this. That kind of lantern would be very useful on a trip like that, and the mantle would also be pulverised and spread around really easily.
Just wanted to say i love this channel (and your main one). You do such a great job with your research and explanations, and I love the humor you add in! Found you a few years back and have been watching ever since!! Thanks Joe! Cheers friend.
Criminal Minds. They always show the killer of the week right at the beginning of the episode, and then we see the team in a battle of wits with the killer.
What I'd like to see is a recreation (or perhaps several recreations) of events during and after the avalanche to explain how people ended up where they were found. I think it would be fascinating to try to figure out what happened to them.
I think that they heard a small avalanche and got frightened, or maybe even had one impact/cover the tent. They Cut their way out of the tent in a panic and fled to the wood line, 1500 meters away, and started a small fire. One guy climbs a tree to try and see if the avalanche threat is past, falls out and busts up his ribs and head, though the snow provides enough cushion to prevent bruising, or he's already cold enough that his soft tissue can't bruise as that requires blood flow and pooling. With a small fire not providing enough protection from the cold some hikers try to make it back to the tent for gear and succumb to hypothermia on the exposed field. Personally I've gone out into the cold bundled up like you wouldn't believe and been toasty warm, until I rounded the corner of a building into a wind that froze me to the bone, sent me scrambling to get back inside in less than 30 seconds. They were likely suffering hypothermia before they left the tree line and the fire. At that point whoever was left scavenged what clothes they could from those that died near the fire and headed deeper into the trees. Those people were found in the creek in the nearby ravine. The missing bits of the people in the creek is easily explained by decomposition, or wildlife in the water, as they weren't found until two months later.
This was great! I really enjoyed your relaxed style. You should do more videos like this here your TMI channel. You always go that extra mile to explain what you cover, so buzz kill or not, I love your synopses. Love that shirt! Please don't retire it. Be well!
In the 1956 Robert Bresson film _A Man Escaped_ (in French, _Un condamné à mort s'est échappé_ ) the outcome of the story is plainly stated in the title. A film so well made it dares to eliminate any mistery regarding the protagonist fate. I guess mistery is essential for short stories (or short films) to work, but is optional for novels (or feature films). Indeed, it is possible to make a novel (as Joyce´s _Ulysses_ and Flaubert´s _Bouvard et Pécuchet_ ) or even a feature film like Jacques Tati _Playtime_ (1964), as Jerry Seinfeld would say, about nothing.
If you look at enough mysteries, you start seeing mundane things in your day and start doing a mental exposition on what the future investigators would make of your decisions.
Remember Occam’s Razor, in this case it was probably a Slab Avalanche, unless of course they find evidence to the contrary. All we can really go on is evidence, rather than conjecture imho. Great presentation Joe. Much respect from Western Australia 🇦🇺👍
Joe - Regarding the question (paraphrase), "Has there ever been a movie that started with someone dying of a mundane cause, but then the investigation goes off the rails?" not that I'm aware of. However, I can see it working either as a comedy or, if the conflicts between the investigators become heated or violent, as drama. I can even imagine a writer walking a fine line between the two, but that would be a difficult approach.
First movie that comes to mind is The Village by M. Night Shyamalan, but only upon rewatching it does the viewer get that perspective of knowing the mundane truth. Seems like something a well-executed horror movie could pull off. The right story told the right way could still tap that fear, even if the audience knows “the mundane truth.” How people react to stress and what fear does to our minds can be scary.
"Is it just me or is there really not that much of a mystery to it?" You are correct sir. Your last video left me satisficed that it was not aliens. The chord of mystery must go from the beginning to the end. The cycle of tension will rise and fall while riding that base mystery. This is Story.
This may have been mentioned already, but I'm surprised that there hasn't been more discussion of lantern mantles being the source of radioactivity. Thorium was used in lantern mantles all the way through the 1980s.
Eating out, go up from behind...we are just a dirty as you are Joe. The internet has polluted us all 😀 Loved the video here and on the main channel. 🍺🍺
I thought the radiation was because one of the hikers literally studied in a classroom that had radioactive materials? (I wanna say he studied nuclear physics but I am not certain) Also, Josh Gates did a solid 2 ep special about it on Expedition Unknown. This whole trip was part of a school hiking qualification that had really specific requirements. I thought he and his experts concluded avalanche, too, but like years ago? Good watch if you want an idea of the topography and the real struggles to get to the location.
My dad grew up in the 40s/50. He used to play with uranium in his science clients. And he had a chemistry.. in fact, on my kitchen table I have one of those play kits from that era that we couldn’t ship to online bidder (and we opted to keep it) because of some things that it contained. But I never looked at it myself, I should look at it…. My cats like to set up shop on top of the box (it’s wood) and that might be a bit of a bad idea.
@joe the story would be similar to Chicken Little, "the sky is falling!" We know from the beginning that an acorn fell on her head but she goes and stirs up the whole neighborhood trying to convince them that the world is coming to an end.
I'm an aspiring fiction writer. I had never thought about revealing information in that way. Maybe that's why I still have to prefix the description of myself with the word "aspiring". Sorry, I can't watch this video. I need to rethink several scenes in a book I'm writing. Okay, I have a few minutes. I'll finish the video. Seriously, though, I think I've intuitively known to be picky about how and when I reveal things in my stories but I had never really given it serious thought. Looking at my stories through the lens of the Hitchcock analogy, I do wonder if I can make them better by hiding or revealing to certain characters or the reader.
I can’t think of a movie that meets the parameters you set out, but structurally I think it would work well as a sort of family drama. If there is no mystery to the audience about the death then the source of conflict and interest has to come from somewhere else, and watching old, interpersonal wounds reopening and turning people against each other could be an interesting story.
There is nothing better than sitting in my vehicle eating lunch with the breeze blowing in my open windows and watching and listening to Joe Scott. This story is so fascinating to me. Part of me Wants this case to be paranormal In some way.. to think is not mysterious makes me sad.. if that makes sense..
The first thing that came to my mind with the radioactivity… I work in an auction house. Something we call Vaseline glass was really popular-it is a light green and has a glowy quality to it, and in black light it GLOWS. It’s also called uranium glass. For the up to 2% uranium (by weight) that was used in its making. Some in the 20th century piece actually used up to 25%. However it was also used in many, many different types of glass, and many did not have the obvious green glow. Things like fuses, capacitors, etc.. used uranium.. and honestly it. It could’ve easily been used in their torches (flashlights) and lanterns.. they could have easily been pulvervized from the weight of an avalanche.. after all it broke BONES on the people. It’s no small strength to shatter a healthy femur. It was also used in bead work, glass-ceramics, etc. some of the girls or the even the boys could have have some of the beadwork, but it could have easily been destroyed but buried underneath. Throw In the glow in the dark paint, and you have a TON of possibilities to explain low levels of radiation being picked up. Could something more sinister than a natural avalanche have happened to these folks? Yeah, absolutely, after all Soviet era Russia was doing a lot of weird stuff in that decade. But the most likely explication? It was just an unfortunate avalanche that they didn’t appropriately consider or appreciate as a possibility of happening to them when they set up camp.
The Netflix show on Elisa Lam very similar. All these stories come down to the obvious explanation being wrongly discounted due to some initial faulty evidence. With Elisa Lam it was "the tank lid was found shut" (it was in fact, found open). With Dyatlov it was "no signs of avalanche were found" as your vid shows. Same with Oak Island - first find was just natural logs, followed by everyone else digging down only to find the last digger's platforms/bracings.
For me with Elisa Lam it was never about the lid but the missing minute of time in the elevator video. And how she appeared to be hallucinating, when bipolar disorder so rarely causes that. Sure it's possible, but so is intoxication from unknown substances. The dismissal of that possibility being "no presence" in her 2-week-old decomposed body irritates the F out of me. I don't appreciate people jumping to conclusions in EITHER direction (toward mundane or mysterious).
Love this Joe. But this idea of knowing the end and watching the process whilst the characters in the story are not aware is called Dramatic Irony. One of the most ancient forms of story telling in theatre. A lot of Shakespeare works like this.
This reminds me of Loch Ness and Nessy. I bought into a great many of the arguments until I actually went there. Been back many, many times and quickly realised that the vast majority of explanations as to why the monster could live or visit there just don't make any type of sense when you look at the bigger picture. And as a lover of mysteries it made me sad, BUT, I'm also a big boy and realised a long time ago that sometimes the simplest answer, no matter how boring, is sometimes really does make the most sense.
Many old camping lanterns (including Coleman and other name brands) had thorium-based mantles which is, in my opinion, the most likely source of the slight radiation. They were camping, after all. These old lanterns are indeed slightly radioactive to this day.
This explanation really feels like case closed to me. The incident that I find more fascinating is the Korovina group incident, aka the Khamar-Daban incident from 1993. Maybe there have been recent revelations on this one as well, but last I knew, it was still just freaky.
IIRC one of the students was actually a lab assistant in a facility handling radioactive materials - so that might be an even bigger buzzkill. 1 thing that does nag me slightly is why they couldn't make it to the relative safety of the thick forest in time, or why they didn't take some time to try and salvage some clothes before bolting
People like there to be a mystery. Normal life is quite boring really. So to pep it up with a mystery now and again is good for the soul. Keep up the good work.
@1:52 Yes, this would absolutely work as a narrative for a book/movie/tv show. It would be more about social commentary on human behavior than what happened to the person in the well tho. And while I can't think of any particular example, no doubt stories have been presented this way numerous times.
May be tmi but my cat might be dying right now and having her be alive when I got home from work and having a new Joe video for us to watch and try to relax means more then I can articulate atm. Certainly notable
when I first heard about this incident, I smelled avalanche. plus, maybe the reason why they had little to no clothes on when they were found, is because they had little to no clothes on in the tent before the avalanche struck. why? maybe they were not expecting any danger, and maybe there was some hanky-panky going on. they were young kids after all.
I still find the Lemino explanation pretty compelling, that one of the people had a homemade wood stove that caused a small fire. They had to cut their way out of the tent, and froze to death. One way or another, it seems clear they ended up outside the tents and froze to death
I love this idea. One that really emphasizes how easy it is to make conspiracy theories out of nothing when you literally have no rules in terms of from where and when and how you pull your cherry picked "dots" from.
At the beginning you were explaining classical irony. The audience knows something which the characters do not. It's an upfront form of irony but it works. I think there is a book or movie where the title says 'The main character dies at the end.' which is similar, but we still wonder /how/ they die. So. Close? I enjoyed your latest video as a 'Tie it all up' from your previous one. Even if I had not seen the previous one, you explained enough of the mystery to keep it enjoyable for people who did not know how these people died, for instance. Good writing, well paced and organized. Thank you :)
The book is called "They both die at the end" and I recently read it. It certainly kept me at the edge of my seat reading it (and then gave me an existential crisis at the end)
I think narratively it would be difficult to pull off - other than perhaps as a (dark) comedy. I could see a series such as Fargo going for this type of plot structure. Also, the way the audience’s brain works, they’re probably going to think right of the bat ‘yeah but why was he near the well?’ or something. We’d be looking to complicatie it from the get go because we know we’re watching a 2 hour movie about it.
I thought the radioactivity was explained by lantern mantles. As I recall, the mantles of gas lanterns were treated with Thorium to improve light output. I think that's more likely than Radium paint.
There are lots of movies like that. We watch historical stories knowing the ending, yet the story is still engaging. The scenario you propose could work if the focus is on the relationships and processes, as opposed to proceeding like a mystery. The audience would need to be brought into the minds of the characters, to whom it is a mystery story. The ending would be satisfying only if the truth brings vindication and/or closure, and reinforces the life lesson that things aren't always as they seem. I imagine a heavy reliance on "flashbacks". Best wishes on your Dyatlov Pass movie writing.
I think Occam's Razor applies to this event. The simple answer is a avalanche. Probably a small one that was enough to cover the small tents. They maybe couldn't get to the zippers or ties on the tents so they cut their way out. Then took off running and couldn't see the tents anymore because everything was snow covered. Some of them maybe fell into a ravine and tumbled or tripped on rocks possibly landing on the rocks. They then succumbed to the weather. Animals found the frozen bodies and ate what they could get easily.
Hi Joe, I have lived in 'Waidring' (Tirol). I was a Ski-Instructor for some time. We used to work with the 'Tirol-Bergrettung' service. They would (every now and then) Trigger 'Low Gradient' (meaning low slope, or slope-percentile) avalanches by placing/dropping (from helicopters) explosives to trigger high-risk slopes. COULD it be that a 'BOOM' (or the winds that you speak of) triggered just that. A low gradient avalanche? Don't fight me, it was just a question.
There have been plenty of series' that spun up like that. The audience knows exactly what happened - and the rest of the story is watching the characters figure it out.
Voice from the peanut gallery: no, but my favorite movie idea is to have an incredibly low-stakes household mystery, and each family member is slowly putting the pieces together, tension rises to a fervor like a thriller, until at a big family dinner suddenly everyone realizes what's been going on and we look to the person keeping the secret and they go "So what I smoke?" Hard cut to black, title card. It'd be great. Add in some comedy. Boom, dramedy mystery.
As an avalanche forecaster working in the Canadian Rockies, the second I started watching your video on the Dyatlov Pass incident, it just looked to me like an avalanche incident. Slab avalanches are what we are mostly worried about and are linked to the vast majority of the incidents in the mountains. I am not surprised by the incident for different reasons. First off, it doesn't take much of an avalanche to bury someone. Snow can feel like concrete on the run out zone. Second, if it happened at night during a clear blue sky, vapour would have moved upward and out of the snowpack thus weakening the snowpack even more. The speed at which the snowpack can change is extremely fast. Just that process could have triggered that avalanche. It could have also been triggered by the wind or an animal walking nearby (avalanches can be triggered from the bottom of a slope too). Lastly, despite those kids having experience, if they had traveled late and set up camp at night, they may not have seen clearly what was above them. Lastly, not to be judgemental, but in those years, accident in avalanche terrain were quite frequent since the '''snow science'' wasn't that developed nor the information easy to find. Lastly and unfortunately, Russian mountaineers have quite a high risk tolerance toward avalanche terrain and have sadly had a fair amount of incidents and near misses. Koodos to you for your explanations on slab avalanche process. Very well done considering this was likely a new concept for you.
As a Scot? Absolutely feasible. We have mountains that are not that far above sea level. But they will kill you. At times with slab avalanches. Not for no reason that mountaineering experts have for decades recommended 8,000m training here. Thanks, Joe, for logical insight.
I’d be very interested for somebody to go through historic weather data before the incident. If conditions existed for a reactive PWL to develop then I think it’s pretty much solved. We both know avalanche theory and what is seen in the field often may not match, so while the modeling exists to support this theory I’d like to know if it was even possible for a weak layer that they could impact had developed. Dyatlov pass is pretty centrally located so I wouldn’t be surprised if it had more of a continental snowpack. For all we know, they were walking out on a day where widespread, destructive avalanches were highly likely. or maybe they had 3 meters of snow on the ground with only surface problems to worry about.
I have seen a slab avalanche suddenly let go about two hundred yards from where we were hiking.
Well, I appreciate that and it means a lot coming from an expert. But I’m just repeating what the researchers said. 🙂
@@slotcarpalace that is with a persistent weak layer. A slab avalanche requires two things, a strong overlying slab of snow, and a weak layer that it rests on. Persistent weak layers (PWL) are as they are called, persistent layers buried in the snow that is weak for various reasons.
PWL are notorious for being triggered from hundreds of yards away, and often produce larger than expected avalanches. PWL generally only form in certain climates and with certain weather conditions. Long, cold periods without precipitation produce PWL. If there was consistent snowfall the year of the Dyatlov pass incident it is less likely that a PWL could have formed, or it could be buried deep enough that it would not be impacted.
one possible explanation for the radioactivity could possibly be the mantles of old style lanterns. they used to be radioactive...dont know if they still are.
I got a reputation with my friends as the person who will cut in to any Dyatlov discussion with just "avalanche" and then promptly leave. Your video gave me great conviction.
You sound like just the worst person to discuss mysteries with…
I’m sure my video will convince them. 😂
Same. There's nothing mysterious about it.
Unfortunatley i dont think it was an avalanche. Im pretty sure it was an ice sheet that collapsed on top of them. From what i saw its a fairly rare occurence where an ice sheet overhangs an area and becomes unseen with the snow around it. The sheet snapped and fell on top of the climbers which is why they cut their way out of the tents and why their tents werent buried very deep.
* KNIVES OUT *
is the perfect answer to your question at the beginning. Big name cast comparatively speaking with some non traditional character portrayals from some of the cast. Great movie if you can get through it. 1st hour is really slow but the ending makes the rest worth it.
Sounds a little like how the TV show Columbo with Peter Falk worked - The audience would see how the murder of the week was done at the start of the episode and then follow how inspector Columbo worked it all out, often in a surprising way.
This is basically a definition of drama. If you, the audience know something that the protagonist doesn't, you see all the close calls and chances missed and eventually all may be revealed to the characters. You are pulling for them to either do or not do something because you know what the outcome might be from each decision. Drama has been used since story telling began. Oedipus Rex is a famous example that survived through the centuries.
"Just one more thing."
Was gonna say the same thing ..RIP Peter Falk.
Damn. I need to get back to my Columbo marathon...thanks for the reminder!
@@zunaidparker yeah we all need a fix of Columbo every now and then !
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story
Yep, when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
Joe, regarding your question at the beginning: "Foucault's pendulum" by Umberto Eco (a book, not a movie) is about this very topic. It doesn't start with a random accident, but with a simple medieval items list. It's a beautiful demonstration on how you can build a conspiracy theory from anything. And the ending is mind blowing!
His books are awesome
The Big Chill is as close as I can think of, but doesn't check all the boxes.
I mean you are not wrong - I’m Russian and I would never NEVER go hiking anytime past October in these northern regions. So really not surprised they froze to death. But also I was always fascinated by this story and hoped it was some kind of a evil forest spirit. A girl can dream lol
“A Cry in the Dark,” where they accused the mother of killing her baby when it really was a dingo? It was based upon the true story that everyone knew before it aired. A lot of other cheesy docu-dramas covered real life events that seemed sensational but turned out to be mundane. Occam’s razor.
YES! that was the movie, I was trying to remember the name of it!!
And now I hear Elaine from Seinfeld : Maybe the dingo ate your baaabyy. ^^
Ah yeah I remember that movie
In that situation I would argue that being eaten by a dingo is not the more common event Lol
The mantel on the lanterns (kero lamp) contained thorium as well.
I couldn't shake a topic out of my sleeve that might be worth making a video about.
But I can say one thing:
I have never been disappointed on your channel when it comes to topics, there are always (for me) interesting things to learn, even far from my usual experiences.
I've been following your escapades here on UA-cam for many years now and I'm extremely satisfied.
THANK YOU Joe 🖖
That’s super nice man, thank you. 🤗
I might argue that The Lovely Bones matches that description.
Joe, if you're interested, PLEASE look into the Hessdalen Phenomenon. There are so many witness accounts, so much gathered scientific data, photos, videos and it's still a mystery. It would be such a perfect fit for your channel and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. There is a bigger documentary coming in December this year about it.
I just looked that up and it totally feels like Joe Scott fodder. If you're reading, I second this idea.
I’ll take a look! Thanks!
Thirded!
@@joescott-tmi This looks very similar to the Marfa Lights... They could go together.
Retire the shirt?!?!? NAH SIR!! this shirt is now a cherished nostalgia. It deserves a place on the shelf behind you if nothing else.
Well, I’d replace it with a new one. 😄
You do you man. But I like to believe that my original NES that is sitting in a closet is secretly grateful to me that it still continues on in a climate controlled capsule awaiting its chance to be played and loved again one day… (I think I might be anthropomorphizing inanimate objects a little bit…)
The simple explanation is usually the correct one.
When Cosmo Kramer is arrested as the smog strangler
The old Columbo detective show always show the perpetrator committing the crime at the start of each episode and then the audience gets to watch Columbo hound the suspect until he/she is finally proven or confesses their guilt.
The question you start with reminds me of a very funny movie from the ‘80s called “ The Gods Must be Crazy.”
I don't mind mundane answers to a mystery. It's fun to hear all the crazy theories, especially when some of the crazy can fit, and make you think. But it's also interesting when you see how they arrived at the mundane answer. I've seen a few videos in the last year that talk about the avalanche answer, and it's all interesting. I seem to recall that one of the models they made used the snow simulation software that Disney created for Frozen, THAT's neat.
Similar incident involved a girl named Maura Murray, missing in New England for years. Many wild theories, podcasts, etc on the net, even a book written on her disappearance. Occam's Razor: she wandered off after imbibing and froze to death. Sad case.😭
I am *loving* this 'editorials' that you're making for the TMI, please keep them going!
I'd love to see a movie like what Joe mentions at the beginning. The whole premise being "what will they do and how much in the dark are they".
rekon thats right mate! people like drama! drama gets likes! Hate drama myself but rekon you nailed it! Love your work mate!
The fact that they worked with radioactive isotopes seems to cover this aspect.
But I agree that radium paint could do it too.
Plenty of deep mystery out there.
Love this type of video. Feels like just off the bud conversation in a shorter format than a podcast. Keep up the great work!
8:00 Some of them worked in Mayak Nuclear Facility, so no wonder there were some radioactive debris on their clothes. After all, it was the 1950s in the Soviet Union. Safety and security were not a priority at the time.
The movie "Knives Out" sort of plays out the way you describe at the top of the video. The main character dies of a heart attack at the beginning of the film. But it turns into a murder mystery because everyone WANTED him dead so it's a character study in how horrible people treat each other. The irony is that the characters end up committing crimes trying to cover up his death - believing that one or the other of them had killed him.
It's not a heart attack, unless heart attacks sever the carotid artery with a large ornamental knife.
But yes, Knives Out is a pretty good example of this! The cause/manner of death looks like one thing when the body is found ... then a flashback shows something else happening ... and then the rest of the movie sets up yet another reversal.
I feel that the details of this story is the equivalent of finding a half dozen random puzzle pieces, all of which have an intriguing image on them, and thinking the pieces all fit together. Which is just our want to make them all fit.
Your question made me think of Babel and a little bit of Prisoners. Where the characters don't really understand how the random choices they're making are having larger effects. Not exactly the same as you're describing but reminded me of those.
The "everything was normal but people freaked out" sounds like something that *Rod Serling* would have done in *The Twilight Zone.*
And I have a vague recollection that it's a theme that he did.
But I can't think of a specific episode.
One of my favorite TV shows, Columbo, started every episode by showing who did it. In fact people called it a how-dunnit not a who-dunnit.
I'd watch this movie, and I think it'd be a great way to illustrate how people can draw incorrect conclusions.
Hi Joe, the issue with the radioactivity might also be explained by the use of an incandescent gas mantle. They were made with Thorium, back in the days.
I was wondering if someone hadn't already commented about this. That kind of lantern would be very useful on a trip like that, and the mantle would also be pulverised and spread around really easily.
Just wanted to say i love this channel (and your main one). You do such a great job with your research and explanations, and I love the humor you add in! Found you a few years back and have been watching ever since!! Thanks Joe! Cheers friend.
Love your rambling, always fun to 'hang out' with you. :)
I've read somewhere that one or two of the guys worked with radiation. So... Who knows.
I’m so thankful for TMI. One can never get enough of Joe Scott!
Criminal Minds. They always show the killer of the week right at the beginning of the episode, and then we see the team in a battle of wits with the killer.
What I'd like to see is a recreation (or perhaps several recreations) of events during and after the avalanche to explain how people ended up where they were found. I think it would be fascinating to try to figure out what happened to them.
Expedition Unknown on Discovery did 2 episodes, went to the location, and did exactly this, illustrations, too.
I think that they heard a small avalanche and got frightened, or maybe even had one impact/cover the tent. They Cut their way out of the tent in a panic and fled to the wood line, 1500 meters away, and started a small fire. One guy climbs a tree to try and see if the avalanche threat is past, falls out and busts up his ribs and head, though the snow provides enough cushion to prevent bruising, or he's already cold enough that his soft tissue can't bruise as that requires blood flow and pooling. With a small fire not providing enough protection from the cold some hikers try to make it back to the tent for gear and succumb to hypothermia on the exposed field. Personally I've gone out into the cold bundled up like you wouldn't believe and been toasty warm, until I rounded the corner of a building into a wind that froze me to the bone, sent me scrambling to get back inside in less than 30 seconds. They were likely suffering hypothermia before they left the tree line and the fire. At that point whoever was left scavenged what clothes they could from those that died near the fire and headed deeper into the trees. Those people were found in the creek in the nearby ravine. The missing bits of the people in the creek is easily explained by decomposition, or wildlife in the water, as they weren't found until two months later.
This was great! I really enjoyed your relaxed style. You should do more videos like this here your TMI channel. You always go that extra mile to explain what you cover, so buzz kill or not, I love your synopses. Love that shirt! Please don't retire it. Be well!
I appreciate you using the “boom under the table/Hitchcock story”
In the 1956 Robert Bresson film _A Man Escaped_ (in French, _Un condamné à mort s'est échappé_ ) the outcome of the story is plainly stated in the title. A film so well made it dares to eliminate any mistery regarding the protagonist fate.
I guess mistery is essential for short stories (or short films) to work, but is optional for novels (or feature films). Indeed, it is possible to make a novel (as Joyce´s _Ulysses_ and Flaubert´s _Bouvard et Pécuchet_ ) or even a feature film like Jacques Tati _Playtime_ (1964), as Jerry Seinfeld would say, about nothing.
If you look at enough mysteries, you start seeing mundane things in your day and start doing a mental exposition on what the future investigators would make of your decisions.
Remember Occam’s Razor, in this case it was probably a Slab Avalanche, unless of course they find evidence to the contrary.
All we can really go on is evidence, rather than conjecture imho.
Great presentation Joe. Much respect from Western Australia 🇦🇺👍
Joe - Regarding the question (paraphrase), "Has there ever been a movie that started with someone dying of a mundane cause, but then the investigation goes off the rails?" not that I'm aware of. However, I can see it working either as a comedy or, if the conflicts between the investigators become heated or violent, as drama. I can even imagine a writer walking a fine line between the two, but that would be a difficult approach.
First movie that comes to mind is The Village by M. Night Shyamalan, but only upon rewatching it does the viewer get that perspective of knowing the mundane truth.
Seems like something a well-executed horror movie could pull off. The right story told the right way could still tap that fear, even if the audience knows “the mundane truth.” How people react to stress and what fear does to our minds can be scary.
The Dyatlov Pass reminds me of the Sodder children disappearance. It was most likely a fire in the case of the Sodder children disappearance.
Yeah thinking of covering that one.
@@joescott-tmi Pllleeeease don't.
That kind of movie you talked about early in the video sounds like multiple-award material if it's done well.
I definitely appreciate these followup vids..
"Is it just me or is there really not that much of a mystery to it?"
You are correct sir.
Your last video left me satisficed that it was not aliens.
The chord of mystery must go from the beginning to the end.
The cycle of tension will rise and fall while riding that base mystery.
This is Story.
This may have been mentioned already, but I'm surprised that there hasn't been more discussion of lantern mantles being the source of radioactivity. Thorium was used in lantern mantles all the way through the 1980s.
Eating out, go up from behind...we are just a dirty as you are Joe. The internet has polluted us all 😀
Loved the video here and on the main channel. 🍺🍺
I thought the radiation was because one of the hikers literally studied in a classroom that had radioactive materials? (I wanna say he studied nuclear physics but I am not certain) Also, Josh Gates did a solid 2 ep special about it on Expedition Unknown. This whole trip was part of a school hiking qualification that had really specific requirements. I thought he and his experts concluded avalanche, too, but like years ago? Good watch if you want an idea of the topography and the real struggles to get to the location.
My dad grew up in the 40s/50. He used to play with uranium in his science clients. And he had a chemistry.. in fact, on my kitchen table I have one of those play kits from that era that we couldn’t ship to online bidder (and we opted to keep it) because of some things that it contained. But I never looked at it myself, I should look at it…. My cats like to set up shop on top of the box (it’s wood) and that might be a bit of a bad idea.
As I said in the original video. The mantles used with some kinds of lanterns are radioactive.
@joe the story would be similar to Chicken Little, "the sky is falling!" We know from the beginning that an acorn fell on her head but she goes and stirs up the whole neighborhood trying to convince them that the world is coming to an end.
I'm an aspiring fiction writer. I had never thought about revealing information in that way. Maybe that's why I still have to prefix the description of myself with the word "aspiring". Sorry, I can't watch this video. I need to rethink several scenes in a book I'm writing.
Okay, I have a few minutes. I'll finish the video. Seriously, though, I think I've intuitively known to be picky about how and when I reveal things in my stories but I had never really given it serious thought. Looking at my stories through the lens of the Hitchcock analogy, I do wonder if I can make them better by hiding or revealing to certain characters or the reader.
I can’t think of a movie that meets the parameters you set out, but structurally I think it would work well as a sort of family drama. If there is no mystery to the audience about the death then the source of conflict and interest has to come from somewhere else, and watching old, interpersonal wounds reopening and turning people against each other could be an interesting story.
I feel like this description reminds me of Donnie Darko but only in the "just a random incident" thing.
There is nothing better than sitting in my vehicle eating lunch with the breeze blowing in my open windows and watching and listening to Joe Scott. This story is so fascinating to me. Part of me
Wants this case to be paranormal
In some way.. to think is not mysterious makes me sad.. if that makes sense..
Hey. Me too. Sitting in truck window open. Awesome lunch made lovingly by my wife and listening to Joe.
@@patrickbarry1822 very sweet..
I grew up loving paranormal stuff. Aliens, ghosts, cryptids, etc. I’ve become more skeptical over the years but it does feel like a loss.
The first thing that came to my mind with the radioactivity… I work in an auction house. Something we call Vaseline glass was really popular-it is a light green and has a glowy quality to it, and in black light it GLOWS. It’s also called uranium glass. For the up to 2% uranium (by weight) that was used in its making. Some in the 20th century piece actually used up to 25%. However it was also used in many, many different types of glass, and many did not have the obvious green glow. Things like fuses, capacitors, etc.. used uranium.. and honestly it. It could’ve easily been used in their torches (flashlights) and lanterns.. they could have easily been pulvervized from the weight of an avalanche.. after all it broke BONES on the people. It’s no small strength to shatter a healthy femur.
It was also used in bead work, glass-ceramics, etc. some of the girls or the even the boys could have have some of the beadwork, but it could have easily been destroyed but buried underneath.
Throw In the glow in the dark paint, and you have a TON of possibilities to explain low levels of radiation being picked up.
Could something more sinister than a natural avalanche have happened to these folks? Yeah, absolutely, after all Soviet era Russia was doing a lot of weird stuff in that decade. But the most likely explication? It was just an unfortunate avalanche that they didn’t appropriately consider or appreciate as a possibility of happening to them when they set up camp.
Tucker and Dale Vs Evil is the movie Joe is looking for
Yes!
The Netflix show on Elisa Lam very similar. All these stories come down to the obvious explanation being wrongly discounted due to some initial faulty evidence. With Elisa Lam it was "the tank lid was found shut" (it was in fact, found open). With Dyatlov it was "no signs of avalanche were found" as your vid shows. Same with Oak Island - first find was just natural logs, followed by everyone else digging down only to find the last digger's platforms/bracings.
For me with Elisa Lam it was never about the lid but the missing minute of time in the elevator video. And how she appeared to be hallucinating, when bipolar disorder so rarely causes that. Sure it's possible, but so is intoxication from unknown substances. The dismissal of that possibility being "no presence" in her 2-week-old decomposed body irritates the F out of me. I don't appreciate people jumping to conclusions in EITHER direction (toward mundane or mysterious).
Love this Joe. But this idea of knowing the end and watching the process whilst the characters in the story are not aware is called Dramatic Irony. One of the most ancient forms of story telling in theatre. A lot of Shakespeare works like this.
Will be published new books on dyatlov pass mysteries??
This reminds me of Loch Ness and Nessy. I bought into a great many of the arguments until I actually went there. Been back many, many times and quickly realised that the vast majority of explanations as to why the monster could live or visit there just don't make any type of sense when you look at the bigger picture. And as a lover of mysteries it made me sad, BUT, I'm also a big boy and realised a long time ago that sometimes the simplest answer, no matter how boring, is sometimes really does make the most sense.
Eaten out buttole?! NowTHIS is the content I was hoping for.
I've eaten a lot of buttholes and have yet to be accused of being an alien.
Many old camping lanterns (including Coleman and other name brands) had thorium-based mantles which is, in my opinion, the most likely source of the slight radiation. They were camping, after all. These old lanterns are indeed slightly radioactive to this day.
Yeah, I got a lot of that in the comments. Would have been good to include but I didn’t run across it. Missed opportunity.
@@joescott-tmi It's impossible to absolutely nail every reasonable possibility for every topic. You've done a great job here. Thank you for your work.
This explanation really feels like case closed to me. The incident that I find more fascinating is the Korovina group incident, aka the Khamar-Daban incident from 1993. Maybe there have been recent revelations on this one as well, but last I knew, it was still just freaky.
Is that the one where they all started bleeding and head banging and other creepiness?
@@staceyn2541 that's the one
IIRC one of the students was actually a lab assistant in a facility handling radioactive materials - so that might be an even bigger buzzkill. 1 thing that does nag me slightly is why they couldn't make it to the relative safety of the thick forest in time, or why they didn't take some time to try and salvage some clothes before bolting
Dude!
I would TOTALLY watch a movie like that. I can't even imagine how great that would be.
Can't believe you didn't mention the movie Devil's Pass in the main video or this one. And it's October! Perfect time to reference a spooky movie!
Never seen it!
@@joescott-tmi i wouldn't call it a GREAT film but it's a fun watch if you like supernatural thrillers based on real events.
People like there to be a mystery. Normal life is quite boring really. So to pep it up with a mystery now and again is good for the soul. Keep up the good work.
@1:52 Yes, this would absolutely work as a narrative for a book/movie/tv show. It would be more about social commentary on human behavior than what happened to the person in the well tho. And while I can't think of any particular example, no doubt stories have been presented this way numerous times.
I think that would be a great movie, and I think you should write the script.
Got an ad for skiing before this video which i think is very ironic
May be tmi but my cat might be dying right now and having her be alive when I got home from work and having a new Joe video for us to watch and try to relax means more then I can articulate atm. Certainly notable
A morbid comment on an tmi channel I think deserves a like from Good ol’ Joe
:(
She survived the stroke prolly cuz I told her Joe liked my comment
when I first heard about this incident, I smelled avalanche. plus, maybe the reason why they had little to no clothes on when they were found, is because they had little to no clothes on in the tent before the avalanche struck. why? maybe they were not expecting any danger, and maybe there was some hanky-panky going on. they were young kids after all.
I still find the Lemino explanation pretty compelling, that one of the people had a homemade wood stove that caused a small fire. They had to cut their way out of the tent, and froze to death.
One way or another, it seems clear they ended up outside the tents and froze to death
I love this idea. One that really emphasizes how easy it is to make conspiracy theories out of nothing when you literally have no rules in terms of from where and when and how you pull your cherry picked "dots" from.
At the beginning you were explaining classical irony. The audience knows something which the characters do not. It's an upfront form of irony but it works. I think there is a book or movie where the title says 'The main character dies at the end.' which is similar, but we still wonder /how/ they die. So. Close? I enjoyed your latest video as a 'Tie it all up' from your previous one. Even if I had not seen the previous one, you explained enough of the mystery to keep it enjoyable for people who did not know how these people died, for instance. Good writing, well paced and organized. Thank you :)
The book is called "They both die at the end" and I recently read it. It certainly kept me at the edge of my seat reading it (and then gave me an existential crisis at the end)
@@terezar880 sounds like my kinda book! Thank you, I couldn't remember what it was called
I think narratively it would be difficult to pull off - other than perhaps as a (dark) comedy. I could see a series such as Fargo going for this type of plot structure. Also, the way the audience’s brain works, they’re probably going to think right of the bat ‘yeah but why was he near the well?’ or something. We’d be looking to complicatie it from the get go because we know we’re watching a 2 hour movie about it.
Coleman style camping lanterns used to use mantles with Thorium in them because they were brighter. Thorium is radioactive.
this is literally joe Scott: Behind the Scenes, by the way, I am waiting for the Artemis III video and where is the dart video
I thought the radioactivity was explained by lantern mantles. As I recall, the mantles of gas lanterns were treated with Thorium to improve light output. I think that's more likely than Radium paint.
There are lots of movies like that. We watch historical stories knowing the ending, yet the story is still engaging. The scenario you propose could work if the focus is on the relationships and processes, as opposed to proceeding like a mystery. The audience would need to be brought into the minds of the characters, to whom it is a mystery story. The ending would be satisfying only if the truth brings vindication and/or closure, and reinforces the life lesson that things aren't always as they seem. I imagine a heavy reliance on "flashbacks". Best wishes on your Dyatlov Pass movie writing.
The Upside of Anger with Joan Allen had that stotyline about her missing husband, but without the reveal at the beginning.
Radiation : Maybe Thorium infused camping lantern mantles?
I think Occam's Razor applies to this event. The simple answer is a avalanche. Probably a small one that was enough to cover the small tents. They maybe couldn't get to the zippers or ties on the tents so they cut their way out. Then took off running and couldn't see the tents anymore because everything was snow covered. Some of them maybe fell into a ravine and tumbled or tripped on rocks possibly landing on the rocks. They then succumbed to the weather. Animals found the frozen bodies and ate what they could get easily.
For that story narrative, it reminds me of the second half of "talk to the hand" from the Jerry Springer musical
Hi Joe, I have lived in 'Waidring' (Tirol). I was a Ski-Instructor for some time. We used to work with the 'Tirol-Bergrettung' service.
They would (every now and then) Trigger 'Low Gradient' (meaning low slope, or slope-percentile) avalanches by placing/dropping (from helicopters) explosives to trigger high-risk slopes.
COULD it be that a 'BOOM' (or the winds that you speak of) triggered just that. A low gradient avalanche?
Don't fight me, it was just a question.
You just described every single Coen Brothers movie.
Thorium lamps are also a thing, and they’re slightly radioactive.
There have been plenty of series' that spun up like that. The audience knows exactly what happened - and the rest of the story is watching the characters figure it out.
Such as ....???
This whole mystery was a perfect example of Occam's razor.
Perhaps "Burn after reading"? Seems like the Cohen Brothers would love this kind of plot...movie
The mantles of camping lanters are radioactive too.
Voice from the peanut gallery: no, but my favorite movie idea is to have an incredibly low-stakes household mystery, and each family member is slowly putting the pieces together, tension rises to a fervor like a thriller, until at a big family dinner suddenly everyone realizes what's been going on and we look to the person keeping the secret and they go
"So what I smoke?" Hard cut to black, title card. It'd be great. Add in some comedy. Boom, dramedy mystery.
Memento starts with the answer and showing the way how he gets there. Really good movie! :)