Natalie Portman Takes on the Escalante Desert (Full Episode) | Running Wild with Bear Grylls

seasonal running wild we're taking it upper level [Music] I'm teaching my celebrity guests essential survival skills this is really some Lord of the Ring right now we're doing it hit it the devil have to master you can get within those Striking Distance of me without being spotted I'll let you off go skydiving then they need to prove her all the way all the way that they can live up to the challenge that is your life take the hand off it's gone great it's not gonna be easy ah [Music] get me out of this box and failure is not an option that's it push as far forward as you can this is running wild the challenge [Music] foreign so I'm very cautious tracker definitely a kind of a grandma when it comes to driving I don't like to take risks got to keep everyone safe usually have some kids in the car you know who knows where in Utah somewhere in Utah somewhere beautiful I feel like we've been shut inside for so long and I'm just ready to be in nature and get my wild back so I am gonna spend two days in the wilderness with their girls I think I'm ready I hope I'm ready there's like no more roads though I assume this is where I stop all right this is Natalie Portman Star Wars Black Swan Oscar winner a mega star acting Powerhouse with a massive career and she's also the new Mighty Thor enough said okay here we go it's me Bear Grylls Adventure survivalists be known to eat a few gross things in my day but I've been a fan of Natalie's for years and I can't wait to bring her into the wild oh well hi keep going it's gonna get crazy we've got four you're about an apartment nice entrance man that was wild you almost landed on the car here come and climb up here let's have a look see where we're going get a proper light of the light love here okay so we are heading that way okay and all of this is then canyonland which is wise country I'm so excited our extraction point is 12 miles due east atop a massive Sandstone Mountain this desert is blazing hot and the terrain is brutal along the journey I'll be teaching Natalie several survival skills she'll need to descend into a narrow Slot Canyon and cross a deep ravine at Camp I'll teach Natalie another survival strategy and on day two you'll need to master all of these skills to lead us up a massive ascent and signal for our extraction ready yeah come on let's have a little look in the car see if there's anything we can grab out of this before we go Okay so oh look at this all right what's happening there you go Thor that's got you written all over it it's a lot heavier than the reaction is that right yeah we'll take these pitons we're banging those into the rocks and we'll climb with those okay let's stick that in your backpack in the back of the Jeep we found a hammer oh and these things I think you said they're called pitons I feel like that's for Footsteps in the cliffs and I have no practical skills so this is going to be interesting okay into canyonland nice that way oh yeah it's gonna be a hard work day for sure and also we're definitely going to show Natalie a few skills along the way that she eventually is going to have to use but she's got a big smile on her face she looks as we say in the UK as strong as a butcher's dog it's strong 's a little like he's a basically fed bones all day and they're just like solid muscle not only am I learning survival skills I'm also learning British slang Bears Vibe is very friendly apart from calling me a dog within the first five minutes of meeting me but like I think it can only get better from here right it looks so beautiful so what Drew you to come on this adventure with me um spend a little too much Suburban mom life and you're like ready to get a little yeah back to Back To Nature excuse me the way I did a defect but good for you yeah so much Wonder to be found in nature and I feel like it gives me a rush in a way that nothing else does yeah good for you but also you're you're an adventure Spirit you've done a lot of traveling on your own yes yes where did you go Morocco and guatemal and all that stuff like all my 20s I basically was traveling by myself going out into the desert and go to those countries on your own in your 20s it's definitely quite ballsy yeah I feel like sometimes I don't really know the danger until later I'm like maybe that was not a good idea but when I was in it I was just like this is awesome it's Fearless Heart come on let's go left here actually let's take us back out the canyon but also you're a vegan yes I actually look at you guys this is a perfect tree for you then Juniper that's what you make make gin yeah uh you know the Native Americans make tea out of this yeah let's collect some of these we can make tea with these so you can just boil them up okay also if you know this stuff ephedra now this is proper good Native American stuff this was a a stimulant so they'd boil this up oh wow drink it and be a real pick-me-up you know a big pick-me-up all right you know so take some of that and then go in the side pack so we've got chicken we've got psychotic drugs who needs food that bit won't make the show okay Natalie just steady on this but it's a little steeper okay okay it looks like a bit of an edge ahead here oh boy push yourself it's a long way down and we've got to drop into this one oh man let's throw a rock down here give it a throw just let it roll off and see how long it takes foreign whoa okay it's gonna be a rope for this and we need somewhere to tie it off to this is a perfect spot for our first mountaineering skill peacock placement baby take your pitas and you can use sound to locate a secure point for your anchor by tapping the Rock You can tell which part is hollow and most likely to break and you can tell which part is solid and most secure that's where you want to place your Pita the thing is you often can't be a hundred percent sure that you've got the perfect Pita placement until you're hanging with all your weight off the edge I hope Natalie is watching closely because this skill is going to be vital tomorrow Hammer all right so I mean this stuff is horrible really because it's all sandstone so if you hit there that sounds like pretty solid okay hit here it has that sort of hollow sound to it you know so this is good you've got a crack there let's do one here okay give that a bang you're the mighty Phil there you go there you go do another one here that's good I think maybe I should go first on this and then I can tell you what's down there and we're all good to go we just put the pecans I think that's what they're called into the Rock didn't look like super sturdy so hand now never comes off that okay you lean back put your weight on it when you let that slide through your hand gently yeah but hand now never comes off that that is your life even if you slip and wipe your face you never take the hand off take the hand off it's gone great I feel confident with bear that he'll teach me correctly but he definitely does it very quickly so once I've gone though here Natalie I'm gone you're on your own okay okay what are the two key things don't let go of the this yeah and stay back there you go yeah nice white stance so from here I can start to see the edge exactly it's a long way down okay here we go I am little concern about the pitons holding because um because put them in is he talking to me she does pretty narrow but it's good is it time for me to go okay when you're ready okay how you doing okay oh boy okay yeah oh boy how you doing okay okay um is it okay if my feet come off the wall yeah that's fine you're now just free hanging and just lower yourself as before okay wow well done looking good how you doing I'm just taking a moment to take it in this is amazing wow beautiful that's it looking great look at you good job B itch semester hi hello if you look back up wow that's insane yeah I mean it's just the most extravagantly beautiful landscape you could ever imagine feel so lucky to get to like a place like this that you would never ever get to see okay we're gonna keep moving okay so it gets a little tricky here Natalie there you go oh yeah we got water you gonna drink it well we should definitely collect it yeah yeah it's dirty it's stagnant so it's going to be full of all sorts of bad stuff we'll filter it we'll boil it later and then we'll drink it great this water is really full of loads of kind of you know dead flies and dirt and everything oh I got some Sledge that's all right stick it right in so we can filter it and boil it and then that's going to replenish our water source we could use a sock but then again you kind of need your socks Underpants so much water through Underpants yeah the water's clean after it goes through your underbands well what part of the Underpants to filter it through oh boy oh boy when you're in the wild almost every piece of clothing serves a purpose units and privacy I will avert my gaze maybe with one exception your underwear that's where the term going commando originally comes from I mean it's not going to be perfectly clean that's an understatement Commandos often forgo Underpants in hot environments since my underwear is a luxury it's a perfect candidate to use for water filtration okay here we go here she comes I got it I reckon enough okay so you pull into there this is gross well it's less gross than that but that's a not like a high threshold to start from degrees isn't it okay look at that perfect is it yeah that'll be fine okay so all we've got to do then is boil that out underpan filtered water kill any remaining bacteria you could mark it that bud [Music] where are we I don't know really where we are but we eventually need to follow around and this is opening up now which is good yep okay so let's see that Ridge line wow that's where we're eventually heading cool first we'll take a little stop here we go come and have a seat okay mighty soul amazingly part of that Marvel kind of family are you excited about that oh yeah I pinched myself but every day I was like this is really really cool aren't you going to be taking over us or was that what I'm the Mighty Thor yeah but that is amazing and is it fun for you to see a woman in that role yeah I mean I loved that they had it as like a Thor you know their Thor is like a concept not necessarily a singular person and I'm excited to like make a movie that my my son likes yeah so he's really into it was he excited oh my God he's he's like can you just keep doing Marvel movies so who who's his hero he loves Doctor Strange a lot and of course and Thor of course yeah you have strong and fit in this are you in training at the moment yeah it's super super physical for Thor so how is it how is it different to like Black Swan training well ballet is so like formal and you know rigid and also as an art so there's you know the training they talk to you about like certain moves like expressing your sadness with your fingertips you know like it there's this is the opposite of kind of Thor like yeah there's also a lot more like flexibility in the Thor stuff you can run and you can you know swim and you can do weight training and you can like mix it all up it's not quite so like specific well Kellen it's pretty cool so it's a privilege to Adventure with the Mighty Thor oh thank you privilege to Adventure with you man okay Natalie let's do a saddle up and we're going to follow this round here okay hold on it's getting a little steeper here let's just stick a short rope on this awesome okay across yeah all right so you got a bit of a drop on the right so we just mindful of that oh boy yeah and that's a 50-foot drop that's why we're careful along here going yep so these lines I put this in here and they go all the way across the other side and that is where we're going how are we we're going to do something that's called a rope transfer okay it's a great Mountain Rescue survival skill awesome uh which is basically a mix of you you kind of repel down the first line okay and then you pull the other line and then you transfer your kind of weight into that and then you pull yourself up that one okay a rope transfer is an advanced rope technique that I've never attempted with a guest before in this case we're first gonna descend 70 feet down the rope and then whilst hanging in mid-air we're gonna complete a rope transfer this involves disconnecting from one set of ropes and reconnecting to a secondary set this switches us from a vertical descent to a horizontal pull across the ravine attention because this technique is going to come in handy tomorrow I'll talk you through it we'll be fine okay let's get this set up here I'm not really sure what's going on but we're like in that the Gorge situation and we're gonna use ropes to get to the other side so we're going to go down nice way side by side do it together okay well we don't want to drop too far because then we're going to pull the other rope in and transfer complicated gonna be it's one of those things all right it's much easier just going to do it isn't it learn by doing yeah come on going backwards final check check check check happy okay so look we're doing this we're holding it with this hand letting it run through put your weight on it and then pull that handle wait why am I not okay here we go it gets a bit more vertical here oh boy okay so we're gonna keep going down here we go okay about there perfect perfect this is where we're going to do the Rope transfer okay so now we grab this rope and you grab your rope so this one goes to the other side wow okay so once you've got it pulled now clip onto the second system there hold on that's it and we're pulling and pushing so we're pulling as far as you can oh my God one two three hold on slide it's right one two three oh boy slide slide are you ready yeah one two three slide oh boy okay so now we come back to this one and then we're gently releasing just a little bit down do you go down okay come a little bit lower down to about here I think then we get our feet on here there you go okay so then from here yeah we're gonna walk our way up here we're going sliding job well done good job Matthew thanks for helping me you know you did it we just repelled then we pulled our way up to the other side that was definitely a test like I didn't think that it would be possible the color of this Earth is like so beautiful so really now we're looking for somewhere to make Camp so for camp we want to be somewhere up somewhere elevated a little bit priority then is to really make fire and also try and find something more to eat you know got a few juniper berries in a bit of ephedra but really we need something more than that so on the lookout you know even around here nice soft deep sand to sleep on firewood look we've got loads of dead stuff there yes and uh hello we've got a prickly pears over here look use that for the fire pretty pair is going to be the vegan dinner this one is great yeah and what we'll do we'll put that straight on the fire because these spikes are brutal but also there's tiny little hairs as well that really mess with you nice so we'll put it on the fire burn those off slice it into like slithers so cool and then we've got look they're all the dead wood little grubs maggots look and what are you gonna do with it right these are these should go with the prickly pear okay oh you're gonna make me eat maggots and like undie undi water is a mega vegan no really absolutely not do you often find grubs in dead wood but actually they're great protein great energy I'm now thinking hold on we can use the Slither of the prickly pear cook it up fill it full of maggots you've got like Nature's Taco Ali Ali okay well let's cook that up yeah try and make it look powerful you could even cook these you know then they're fine too I'm gonna get a load I love that cooked makes it more palatable yeah okay go on okay we've got lots of dry kindly Tinder as well so far I've taught Natalie two key survival skills on our journey and I'm about to teach her a third and final skill how to light a signal fire tomorrow when we get to the top of this mountain we're heading to we're going to light a signal fire well actually you're gonna light a signify but it's going to be under two minutes so we don't miss our pickup okay okay so this is how you're gonna light it striking spot like that mm-hmm there we go a little faster that's okay the thing is about Emergency Signal fires if you're lost in the desert you know might only get one chance of a plane flying over you and that plane might only take two minutes to fly over try this try keeping that hand still and pull that one so if you haven't used one of these Strikers before it's harder than it looks you get a bit more Mighty thought strength it takes a lot of strength to get enough pressure and speed to generate enough Sparks to Start the Fire come on Mighty Thor strain come on man there you go there you go there you go great job we've got five that's so cool cool well done Natalie that was a good lighting of a fire but signal fire that we need smoke and there's not a lot of smoke from this but if we put some green on it so all of this is green put this this is now going to create smoke okay so tomorrow our signal fire you got to be ready you've got to be prepared all right our extraction depends on it so apparently we're gonna hear a rescue helicopter and I'm gonna have to make a fire in like two minutes that has smoke that will attract the attention and let them know how to rescue us I'll be practicing all night you're gonna nail it foreign okay that's good okay so look we're gonna stick the old pricky pair on that Natalie Portman and I are in the Escalante desert sitting down to a pleasant dinner a roasted Prickly Pear and maggots complemented by hot water filtered through my Underpants burn these hairs off maggots are good I think I think we'll keep them wriggling I don't mind let's also get this underpan water boiling okay that's good so what was your kind of upbringing like pretty like Suburban where in New York like suburbs of New York not very outdoorsy at all yeah I'm bringing but I went to like dance school and a lot of the kids like auditioned for stuff and did kind of like Broadway or commercials or something how were your parents were they trying to they were very focused on in school so like they were like you can do it as long as school's okay so I would just be like school school school and like get my work done my school work done right away so that I could go to the audition or did you go to a lot of auditions I I did at the beginning but my first movie I did when I was 11. oh wow which is the professional why are you 11 I forget you were that young I know it's pretty crazy now that my kid is 10. yeah like turning 11 I'm like whoa that's really young and and did that change your life well not really easy to go and film it and go back oh yeah it totally changed my life I mean I went back to school after and yeah how was that it was it was hard coming back like I uh I actually switched schools after that year because I got bullied quite a bit when I came back it's a tough age and also it's a really vulnerable age isn't it and then you suddenly do something out of the ordinary like that and yeah I suppose people just get jealous really don't they I don't know who knows maybe I was being a jerk like I feel like you never know yeah but being bullied is really not fun yeah it sucks but it's also the way the best way to learn how not to do it to other people is like to understand what it feels like yeah you know well so how old were you with Star Wars I was 16 when I made the first one yeah but that's amazing to 16 to walk into that yeah huge kind of franchise it was really like daunting entering something that has like so much like cultural relevance and yeah fans I think the surprising thing was that the movies when they came out were like killed like everyone hated them they were like you ruined the Star Wars series and all this and it was kind of awful feeling yeah and then now 20 years later is like now people are like those are the good ones you know we love those well you created something special yeah yeah so your two children are what what values do you try and instill in them just to like follow what they're passionate about and also of course like to be kind but I'm lucky I don't really have to say that to them they are kind they just like came out that way yeah you're obviously a lovely man you can see it's just that's number one for you they are people that I love to love to spend time with strong women like Mighty Phil and great role models I hope so I've had a really lovely chat around the fire I think you know her journey and her story is amazing positivity runs through everything she does and she's you know kind of humbly attacks these things and there's a power to that as a power to that and the wild you know because life and the work of be Dan it's all funny games for a few hours but once you get into these things it you know having a positive spirit is king or queen should we try the prickly pear sure okay so skewer this there you go which has hot but some juggle in your hands well that shrunk down the hairs are off it get some of those maggots okay this is called Nature's Taco this could be my one well it's um probably the worst meal they've ever been presented with in Europe I brought my hot sauce just remember prickly pear cooking but here's to you well done cheers um it's okay tastes like fire hmm and mine's got a little bit of peanut butter peanut butter yeah so also this we've got some of the Juniper and ephedra in it oh nowhere I'm gonna take the first sip [Music] too much and you'll go psychotic really France man yeah there you go Juniper tea I can't taste anything but maybe it's because everything tastes like fire yeah well I did learn early on in this world of wilderness living if you burn stuff enough it basically all tastes okay it's been a day I drank undie water watched bear eat worms which was super gnarly a cactus which was very delicious I mean maybe not very delicious that's an overstatement edible and now we're like in this beautiful place and getting ready to go to sleep this is not as easy oh there we go what are you practicing the Flint Maybe I'll try to set the camp on fire you got it you got it whoa [Music] okay get warm we'll get moving all right so Natty I'm actually gonna go ahead just because I got some ropes to set up as well it takes a little bit of time okay you can finish up here get warm get packed get ready I'm going to leave you a radio channel one correct your headache just straight down this Canyon Once you turn the corner you'll see it it's like a massive big rock feature you can't miss it all right if you do a quick radio check hi since we're working awesome this is going to be physical for us going to be a big climb I'm actually going to go on a loan for this first bit just because I'm going to need to set up some ropes for that yesterday I taught Natalie three key survival skills okay give that a bang had a place of Pito that's good okay grab this road how to transfer rope systems hold on that's it try keeping that hand still and pull that one and how to light a signal fire in under two minutes this is now going to create smoke today Natalie is gonna have to master all three of these skills before we're extracted by helicopter so apparently I'm gonna have to start a fire in two minutes today I'm a little nervous about because it took me quite a while yesterday but I was practicing at night which hopefully will give me a leg up today good I think oh man I think I found it yeah pretty clear this one is on Natalie she she's gonna have to climb this massive rock face on her own until she reaches me what do I do now just walking out for this it gets deeper maybe zigzag a little bit and uh I have about three course of the way up I'll meet you there okay [Music] so I've gotten to the place where he told me to come looks like a vertical wall so yeah we'll see I mean I'm sure if he's asking me to do it I can do it right okay oh boy oh my God yeah well done oh my God ah I just looked down all right okay guys oh boy well done all right wow so there you go a couple minutes final sit down get our breath back wow it's pretty cool isn't it so beautiful sometimes it's good to get a little bit of time a little bit of perspective and space isn't it yeah absolutely have you got things you big burning Ambitions and goals you still really want to do all about trying to like lower my ambitions meditation why because to be happier because I think if you um I don't know if you're very busy and you do have kids and family and work and friends at a certain point it's like oh my God this you know you need to let it go a little bit yeah and that's why I really I look at your life and I the thing that actually shines out for me most is that you're a lovely mum ah thank you but I mean it's it's true and it's awesome to my kids when they're uh well I know you're looking for what the stuff they want join the join the gym that's the Journey of Heritage but you know that's a real stuff isn't it yeah absolutely Okay so we've got to get to the top okay and then we'll get that fire going and get smoke and get spotted all right you ready ready let's get to the top we'll get rid of this our extraction point is at the top of this 1 000 foot Desert Peak at its most vertical it's a sheer 80 degrees I'm going to ask Natalie to put her Newfound skills to the test to get us up and off the top of this towering Mountain okay Natalie this is what I've set up this morning so this last bit we're going to be on one line each okay we're going to use that same Juma that we use on that rope transfer remember in The Gorge we're going to use that on these one each side by side okay the robes I've got only about 60 foot each so we're definitely gonna have to use two so we're gonna have to transfer ropes in the middle kind of like we did yesterday but this time Natalie is all on you let's get these out and get yours out this is very high very steep looks like some I don't know upper body strength which I don't have a ton of just get used to the process of pushing sliding it along so up with your feet turning out and then just sliding it along so the key is using your legs your lips your legs are taking the weight off the Rope does that make sense yeah so as you stand out the weight comes off the rope and you can slide it up good job we're doing it and we're doing it huh right that's it and slide there you go okay good it's hard it's hard you know it's getting steeper to replace ourselves take our time all right oh boy good job okay so at this point we're going to transfer onto this rope okay okay we're gonna bang a pita into that bed all right okay so if you grab the hammer out of my bag learn it and a pizza okay give that a bang yeah it sounds good nice and solid a little more straight in okay that's it and that's going to be our safety as we transfer ropes all right like that well done nothing that is a new safe on there yeah let me say from this new robe so next bit it gets a bit more vertical here but let's keep sliding in and you got it you got it okay here we go okay oh boy here we go all right slide slide good job oh boy there you go oh my God I'm just like dead you got it we got it you can ready yeah oh my God foreign last little bit great job Rachel all right great Joel smash that is really real good for Natty I've done a lot of these in my life and they never get any easier she doesn't know how we're getting out of here but what I will say is I can now hear it where is it I hear it so that means we have about two minutes before it passes over the top of us you ready yep okay let's get the fire going thank you got it yep there we go that's nice and dry good job they're on a minute 15. come on man we just go through about 50 seconds oh boy [Music] oh it's so close still nothing yeah two minutes is up you've got fire can you get some of your green stuff on it there you go it's gonna make the smoke good job three o'clock watch that again so way out of here okay hold here we're gonna hook him down oh my God what are you doing the past two days has been amazing I've learned so much about like making a fire and repelling and scaling a mountain hanging off a helicopter and getting to spend the time with bear in this beautiful beautiful place it's been so cold so I feel super super lucky right now Natalie it loves pushing the boundaries she loves tackling the difficult stuff but she's also got a kind of gentle and a humble spirit and above all she's just a lovely mum Natalie stepping out of her comfort zone learning and Performing real technical skills on the Fly and smashing this challenge is all pretty inspiring it's no surprise they call her The Mighty Thor [Music] thank you

Channel: National Geographic

Views: 300,712

Keywords: national geographic, nat geo, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, culture, documentary, perpetual planet nat geo, photography, full episode, Natalie Portman Takes on the Escalante Desert, Running Wild with Bear Grylls, Oscar Winner Natalie Portman, Escalante Desert, Natalie Portman, Desert, Bear Grylls Full Episodes, Bear Grylls Episodes, Bear Grylls, national geographic documentary, national geographic channel, survival instincts, challenge, adventure

Id: KUnTD46d6DM

Length: 44min 29sec (2669 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 03 2023