Good evening.
Tonight, I can report to the American people
and to the world that the United States has conducted
an operation that killed Osama bin Laden,
the leader of Al-Qaeda…
I've been really trying to take the human mind
really seriously.
The lives of everyone who flies on a plane may depend on it.
…dismantle and defeat his network…
The nation's new princess could look back with such…
But I've become increasingly concerned
about doing so much unproven testing on pilots.
So, I thought it might be wise to run some of my riskier experiments
on animals first.
After all, we did evolve from them.
Let's go.
Several months ago, I met a couple who had recently cloned their dog.
The original dog's name was Achilles,
and his clones are named Apollo, Zeus, and Theseus.
Hi, lovelies.
Like, just look at that and, like,
look at them, and you're like, "Oh, yeah, that's the same dog."
Apparently, this is an actual science thing
that can be done.
Never kissed a clone before.
Achilles was our child. He was it.
He was our everything. And so when he passed,
- I just said, "Let's do this." - Right away, "Let's clone Achilles."
Yeah. And we were blessed with three of him.
Three of the same dog.
But I discovered that dog owners
who pay upwards of 50,000 dollars
for the procedure of cloning a dead pet
are often unsatisfied with the results.
No, no, no.
My impression initially was
that there were no similarities, in personality
between Achilles and these young guys.
They all look just like him.
There's just some things they can't control in a lab.
Which makes sense.
The DNA, or the "nature," might be the same,
but the original dog
had a completely different upbringing than the clones.
The "nurture" was very different.
Present day, Monique and Bogdan are raising their three clones
in the quiet and spacious town of Lone Tree, Colorado.
But when Achilles was growing up,
the couple lived in a cramped apartment
in the bustling tech mecca of San Jose,
where Bogdan worked for Intel and Monique mostly stayed home.
So, at the time, I was just a pet mom,
just taking care of Achilles and my cats. They were, like,
my world. They were everything.
Back then, we could not have afforded to clone him.
- Or clone anything… - Clone anything.
…actually, back then. Yeah, not at all.
Sorry. I'm just saying.
So, yeah, this is all…
- What was that? - That was just…
- Rubbing her? - Yeah.
Now, I'm gone from like 8:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.
Like, serious vampire hours.
She now works as a DJ, and Bogdan works from home.
Life is different for them now.
Look. Look at all the hair on Bogdan there.
- Yes. - Is that… what is that,
- a dartboard? - Yeah.
You have darts still?
- No, I don't have that anymore. - No, we don't.
So, you were playing darts?
Recreationally.
And this was the perfect opportunity to experiment with a theory I had.
If you could have the clone of a dog
live the exact life that the original dog had…
Welcome to our stage.
Oh, my gosh, that's exactly the chair I had.
- It is. - It's the same remote.
Same remote.
…experiencing the exact same upbringing,
would the personality of the new dog match as well?
So, this is the set of their apartment
from back then.
All right, guys, I want to introduce you.
- The… These are the actors… - Hi.
- …that will be portraying you. - Hello.
Come on in.
Bogdan always gets up at exactly 7:30.
Achilles and I would go for really long walks
'cause it was just quite pleasant.
I prepared coffee.
One, two scoops. You know how it goes.
We had talked about having children a long time ago,
but he wasn't ready
because he was so new at the company.
And his ball would be right here with the kibble.
It was like, "Okay, he's not ready."
Okay. So, I mean, either I fight it…
What… I mean, what do I do?
The clone we selected to experiment on, Zeus,
was still an impressionable puppy.
So, with actors working round-the-clock shifts,
the hope was that with enough time
living the life Achilles did at his age,
Zeus would basically become the same dog.
For Zeus's experience, setting this all in LA was helpful
because unlike the mountainous Colorado,
the altitude here was nearly an exact match
to Achilles's original home in San Jose.
Achilles!
The only difference would be the smell of the city,
which was easy to match
by regularly collecting San Jose air using a compressor
and transporting it 350 miles via truck to LA.
That way, on Zeus's daily walks,
he'd smell the same thing Achilles did back in 2011.
And with period-appropriate cars and actors portraying tech moguls,
it was your average San Jose morning but in LA.
I'm so sad about Steve Jobs.
- He was a legend, huh? - Yeah, I know.
I had to miss the funeral, 'cause I overslept.
That's right, your IPO was at midnight. How'd it go?
I had planned to have Monique check in every week
to see if Zeus was becoming more like Achilles.
Her method of doing this was to have a fake diabetic attack
because she said that Achilles had a unique reaction
when she had a real one.
He barked and he barked and he licked at me
and he tried to wake me up.
Come here. Call Daddy.
But no matter how many times she pretended to die…
Zeus didn't seem to care at all.
You're not paying attention to Mommy.
And when I tried to have the actors do the same thing
during the simulation, he cared even less.
We were several weeks in with no results,
and I was starting to lose hope in this experiment.
Theoretically, if everything was identical,
this should work.
- Maybe I was missing something. - All right, good night.
That's when I started to notice tension brewing
in the fake relationships.
I told you not to leave your cups like this.
- I… Yes. - Which I assumed was based
on what the actors had observed from the real couple.
You need my help?
No, it's okay. I got it.
Just enjoy the movie.
It seemed like certain subject matters
were charged for Monique and Bogdan when Achilles was young.
Back then, I was ready to have kids, but he wasn't ready to do that.
So, I was like, "I'm getting a dog."
I just knew that I needed to step back until he was ready,
'cause I wasn't gonna just have a baby by myself.
Well, I have to admit, I was…
absolutely just devoted to work.
And knowing how sensitive dogs are to emotions,
I encouraged the actors to lean into their instincts
to better capture the atmosphere in the house.
Is this gonna be a regular thing?
You coming home this late?
- Don't start, Monique. I'm tired. - You're tired?
I'm lonely.
We're working on a new microprocessor.
It's a big project.
I would tell you something, but you wouldn't even understand.
- I want a baby. - This again?
You need to get a job.
You have no structure. Your brain is going crazy.
I'm a human being.
I don't want to fight.
Me neither.
It's hard to know what, if any of this,
had an effect on Achilles's development.
Come.
But it seemed like Zeus was registering something.
No, wait. We're out of condoms.
Oh, my God.
I don't have time for this anyway. Me and the guys from Intel
have tickets to see The Hangover Part II tonight.
Whatever.
Hey. Not too much water.
And then, three days later, I witnessed something fascinating.
Monique had mentioned
that because Achilles had lived with two cats,
he would end up mimicking their behavior.
He learned by doing pretty much everything that they did.
And like, he would just run along the top of the couch
like the cats would.
Which was something Zeus would watch our actor cats do,
but had never done himself.
- But then, this happened. - What if I did something with music?
I've always loved it.
- You don't play instruments. - I know, I know, but like a DJ.
Come see, come see.
Okay, so I would start with this song…
I didn't think it meant much, but then when I showed Monique,
- she got sort of emotional. - Oh, my goodness.
This is almost like watching Achilles at home.
Thank you.
- Yes, this is amazing. - Thank you.
- You okay? - Yeah, I'm good.
If something scientific was actually happening here,
it could be important. Because I had a theory
about how all this could be applied to the pilot's mind.
I've been banned from Tinder, Hinge, Bumble…
Ever since I spent time with Jeff,
I've been thinking more about airline captains
and how they might be contributing
to communication issues in the cockpit.
I think part of the reason why I was banned
was 'cause I… In my bio, I had "No T-girls."
- No what? - T-girls? Like transsexuals?
- In your what? - Because… In my bio.
Like, I've been fooled
multiple times by girls that were born men.
It was hard to say if what I had experienced with Jeff
was typical of airline captains.
But in most of these crashes where communication was a factor,
the captain had created an atmosphere
where the first officer's opinion was unwelcome.
Why are you holding power levers?
I am pilot flying, idiot. I should be holding.
But there was one captain I knew of that seemed different.
US Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency landing
this afternoon in the Hudson River…
In 2009, US Airways Captain Sully Sullenberger
safely landed a plane in New York's Hudson River,
saving all 150 people on board
after it was struck by a flock of birds.
Birds.
- Shit. - Yeah.
But something else happened in that cockpit before impact
that is less talked about,
but perhaps more relevant to my interests.
We've got both of them rolling back.
- My aircraft. - Your aircraft.
Captain Sully asked his first officer
if he had any ideas on how to solve the problem.
- Got any ideas? - Caution, terrain.
- Actually, not. - Terrain.
Here, the first officer didn't need
- to overrule the captain… - Pull up.
…because Sully invited feedback at a critical moment.
If other captains could have the instincts of Sully…
- Right there is good. - …his personality,
it's possible
the entire aviation issue I've been obsessed with
would vanish overnight.
Going up.
In Sully's memoir, he writes,
"I've come to realize my journey to the Hudson River
didn't begin at LaGuardia Airport."
"It began decades before, in my childhood home."
"My entire life led me safely to that river."
What made him the captain he was wasn't his pilot training.
It was living his entire life.
Look, what you're about to witness is going to seem weird.
Which is why I'm putting myself through it
before I invite any real pilots to participate.
But if a personality transfer can work on a dog,
then maybe, just maybe…
it could work on a human being.
Living someone's entire life…
from baby until present day.
If even just the tiniest bit of Sully could become a part of me,
it would all be worth it.
Sully was born in 1951 in the small town of Denison, Texas.
Chesley! There's my baby boy.
His mother, Pauline, was a first grade teacher.
They had an extremely strong bond
and some of his earliest memories were with her.
"'Charlotte?' he said softly."
"'Yes, Wilbur?' 'I don't want to die.'"
"'Of course you don't,' said Charlotte."
Experiencing the genesis of this bond was essential,
as her influence on Sully
factored into so much of the man he would become.
She would be his very first passenger when he started flying,
and they built a foundation of mutual trust
that sustained a lifetime.
A little boo-boo.
It was difficult at first to inhabit the mind of a baby.
I know so much more than babies do,
and it can be hard to forget all that stuff.
So, I tried not to think about the fact
that I was a 41-year-old man,
and just did my best to be present in the moment.
I was playing the long game here, and I just had to trust the process.
After all, this did work on a dog.
Fuck.
I obviously couldn't live Sully's entire life in real time,
so I focused on the areas
he considered formative in his memoir.
Sully writes…
I wasn't always the perfect older brother.
When I was five and Mary was three,
I once took her out to play in the gravel on Hanna Drive.
Some of the stones were smaller than a pea,
and I thought it'd be fun to feed these tiny stones to my sister.
You should know better than that, Chesley.
You're her protector. She needs you.
You need to take care of people in life, not hurt them.
What happened out here?
Chesley put rocks in his sister's mouth.
What the hell is wrong with you, son?
- Why don't you just talk to him? - I don't know what to say.
My father and I were affectionate,
and we were close in our own somewhat stiff way.
Here.
Play with this instead.
We never shared a lot of personal feelings.
We kept a lot to ourselves.
Sweet baby.
When Sully was 16, he learned how to fly.
He paid for the lessons with a job working as a janitor at his church,
where his high school crush Carole sang in the choir.
She was quiet, similar to me in that way.
And so it was often difficult keeping conversations going with her.
Hi, Sully.
Hi, Carole.
I like your dress.
Thank you.
You been to the movies lately?
I don't like movies much.
Sully writes that he took a flight with Carole
that turned out to be a pivotal moment in his development.
Here's your seatbelt.
Safety first.
So, it was critical I experienced the exact same feelings he did.
Picture me, 17 years old, with this pretty girl next to me,
her leg touching mine for two hours, my arm rubbing against her arm.
I could smell her perfume, or maybe it was her shampoo.
Look.
Once in a while she'd lean over me, her hair brushing against my arm.
It was a new experience for me,
realizing that flying could be such a sensual experience.
The way Sully writes about this flight,
it was clear he was aroused.
But he says this experience taught him
an essential skill for a pilot,
how to compartmentalize.
He had to balance his sexual desires with the safety of the flight.
The problem was I was too uncomfortable
to actually get aroused
with a professional actress right beside me.
After all, this wasn't a performance for you, the viewer.
It was an experience for me.
Okay. I think you should leave now for that thing we talked about.
So, at a key moment in the flight, I had the actress exit the plane
and swapped her with a robot version of Carole.
Then, I had my crew mount all the cameras on tripods
and exit the warehouse completely
to avoid any legal issues that may stem
from what I was about to do.
I'm not gonna show you everything,
but I basically just masturbated in the plane while trying to fly it.
The challenge of focusing on a task
when your body is indulging in its most primal urges
was really tough.
But I eventually got there,
and just like I assumed Sully had done,
I was able to ignore my erection in order to fly.
Stand up straight! Suck your gut in!
Push your chest out! Get those shoulders back and down!
You think you've done a good job polishing your shoes?
- Sir, yes, sir. - Both shoes?
- Sir, the right and the layuft, sir. - The layuft?
Looks like we got ourselves a Southern boy here.
Dirks! What is your thumb doing in your pocket?
I noticed that accomplished people on TV, especially newscasters,
enunciated perfectly and seemed to have no real accents.
British Field Marshal Lord Montgomery said,
"I am very distressed. I want to be left alone now."
"I waunt to be layft alone now."
"I want to be leyft alone now."
I tried to sound more like them
and less like some of the people in my town
who had thick Texas accents.
"Left."
But the more of Sully's life I experienced,
the more I wondered why he included some of these moments in his book,
and why certain things would be left out.
There was a near complete omission of his first marriage,
and for some reason, he jumped straight to the second one.
- I, Lorrie… - Take you, Chesley…
- To be my husband…
But I had no choice but to stick to what he wrote,
because this was the only guide I had to what his life was actually like.
…and of the Holy Spirit.
It would be so nice if they gave you your schedule months in advance.
Can you imagine? We could plan a vacation.
At times, I felt trapped in scenarios that seemed deliberately incomplete.
Any time with you is fun.
Lorrie, if something's not a problem,
why do we need to talk about it so much?
Right.
I'm just sharing my thoughts with you.
It seemed as though he was trying to present himself as someone
with challenges that were relatable, but never more than he could handle.
Just remember, life isn't a checklist.
I'm just trying to be efficient.
But I kept going.
And as I lived through heavier moments in his life,
I felt something happening within me.
When did you want to do the memorial?
There are some things I wanna say about Dad.
I had a chance to say everything I needed to say to him
when he was alive.
We don't need a memorial.
As Sully, I wanted to talk about my feelings.
But everything I knew was telling me I couldn't.
In his writings, Sully was careful to stop short
of implying his emotions ever got the best of him.
He suggests he's never cried,
even in the most emotional moments of his life.
He keeps using phrases like
"I found ways to cope" without getting into specifics.
The words "cope" and "deal with" actually show up
over 15 times in his book without referring to a method of how.
And I had a suspicion as to why.
One of the nights when the pilots were at my bar,
a captain shared with me
that when a pilot talks about their feelings,
they need to be very careful.
Pilots are genuinely intimidated
to talk to anybody, healthcare professional,
in any way that it could get to the FAA about,
"Hey, I've been feeling this,"
or especially like mental health stuff.
Like, "I've been struggling with this." Because historically,
if you put something on a medical application
or if you talk to a doctor or the FAA finds out about things,
they can just revoke your medical certificate.
And as soon as your medical certificate
is revoked, you are grounded.
Could this be why Sully
was always talking around his feelings?
He didn't want to publish anything
that could get him in trouble with the FAA.
He was forced to portray himself as a man
who could magically cope with everything.
And I found myself starting to read his writings
as a code of sorts.
So, to get closer to the truth, I began inventing situations
that he probably experienced but never actually claimed to.
Hey. Thanks, Doc. I feel so much better.
See you next week.
Sir?
I have an opening right now if you'd like to try a session out.
I'm all right.
What would a guy like Sully do to cope?
Here we go.
Yeah.
Come on, man. My man, on it, my man.
Hey, Sully. Forget airplanes.
You want something that's gonna help you really fly?
I can't do that.
And I'm gonna have to report you guys
for violating FAR 91.17 Alcohol and Drug regulations.
So, now you're gonna rat us out? What about the pilot's code?
My only code is safety.
Fuck you, Sully.
Well, more for me.
But I kept thinking about something Sully wrote.
After his father's death,
he started referencing bands and songs he liked
for the first time.
I think of my father when I hear Sheryl Crow sing
- "Soak Up the Sun." - It was an odd connection to make
since Sully's dad died well before that song was even released.
But I noticed a pattern forming.
Sully never referenced popular music once in his book
until 2002,
when he was 51 years old, and coincidentally…
just months after the iPod was released.
It fits a thousand songs?
I don't even think I can name five songs.
Well, maybe it's time to increase your dosage.
There's no medicine more powerful than music.
A lot of people into music these days, huh?
Yeah, it's everything, man.
All right, what the heck. I'll take one.
After his father's death,
the word "iPod" began showing up constantly in his book.
With unlimited access to music,
it felt to me that for the first time,
he had a way to understand his feelings through lyrics.
I'm gonna soak up the sun…
My dad lived a line from that Sheryl Crow song.
"It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got."
But the one band he mentions more than any other is Evanescence.
And living as him, I could understand why.
How can you see into my eyes…
The lyrics to their hit song, "Bring Me to Life,"
was described by the songwriter as a cry for help.
It was about no longer hiding your true self,
- as imperfect as it may be. - I've become so numb
Wake me up
- Wake me up inside - I can't wake up
- Wake me up inside - Save me
Call my name And save me from the dark
- Wake me up - Bid my blood to run
- I can't wake up - Before I come undone
Save me
From the nothing I've become
- Birds. - Shit.
Is it possible that Evanescence taught Sully
that it's okay not to be perfect and ask for help
just in time for his fateful flight?
Cactus 1539. Hit birds.
We lost thrust in both engines. We're turning back towards LaGuardia.
When you listen to the cockpit audio from Sully's crash,
there's one long stretch of silence I find particularly interesting.
Okay, which runway would you like at Teterboro?
We're gonna be in the Hudson.
At 28 seconds past 3:29 p.m.,
Sully announces the decision
to attempt a landing in the Hudson River.
Okay, let's get the flaps out. Put the flaps out.
Flaps out?
But when the co-pilot tries to confirm the direction
to put the flaps out, Sully doesn't respond.
The co-pilot proceeds
- to put out the flaps anyways… - Terrain.
…which create drag
- to slow down the plane. - Pull up.
This is the beginning
of a 23-second stretch of silence where Sully doesn't say a word.
You also got Newark Airport…
Even though air traffic control and his co-pilot
are both trying to talk to him.
- Hundred and seventy knots. - Too low, terrain…
- No power on either one. - Without cockpit video,
we can't be sure what Sully was doing during those mysterious 23 seconds
before he asked his first officer for help.
Got any ideas?
- Caution, terrain. - Actually, not.
- Terrain, terrain… - But after the crash,
Sully's iPod was discovered submerged in the flooded cockpit,
which he confirms in his book.
Okay, which runway would you like at Teterboro?
We're gonna be in the Hudson.
It might be nothing, or just a hunch I have
from living as him for so long…
- Okay, flaps out, put the flaps out. - Flaps out?
But the chorus to Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life"
just happens to be exactly 23 seconds long.
- Pull… - Wake me up
- Wake me up inside - I can't wake up
- Wake me up inside - Too low…
Save me
Two hundred and fifty feet in the air.
Call my name And save me from the dark
- Wake me up - Bid my blood to run
Got no power on either one.
- Too low… - Before I come undone
Save me
Save me from the nothing I've become…
Caution, terrain. Caution, terrain.
- Caution, terrain. Caution, terrain. - Got any ideas?
Caution, terrain.
- Actually, not. - Terrain, terrain.
Pull up…
Nice landing, Cap.
Hey. When they ask us about what happened,
maybe don't mention…
Pilot's code.
- Pilot's code. - Clear!
- Blood pressure? - 122 over 78.
We all want pilots to be perfect,
but maybe in some instances,
we actually want them to know that they're not.
It doesn't mean you're a failure
just because you can't get a dog to react to a diabetic attack
after four straight months of trying.
It's okay to admit that you can't do everything.
Maybe every captain needs to find their own Evanescence,
whatever form that takes.
When the FAA eliminates so many options,
there's no easy path.
Out of any group of real people we've reached out to
to be on one of my shows,
to my surprise, we had the highest response rate
from professional pilots.
- It is a lonely life on the road. - And more often than not,
they were less interested in talking about aviation
and more about themselves.
I spent a lot of time this year trying to like…
figure out why I was so stressed all the time.
Yeah, she was… I've been doing a lot of reading,
the typical narcissist mother type of thing…
I've kind of always known
there was something wrong with me, even as a kid.
The divorce was really tough, and I lost everything.
Was I too hard-headed?
Was I trying too hard to be the drill sergeant?
I've gotten really good at compartmentalizing.
- And, you know… - After the interviews ended,
many kept following up and wanted to talk again.
You're like my therapist now.
Even just talking about this stuff, it's like… it's nice, you know?
I'm not sure what it means, but it's interesting.