Uncovering a Cinematic Classic (S2) _ Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo

When it comes to heavy metal, music's got nothing on these amazing discoveries. Old storage units usually hide junk, but one lucky buyer opened the door to something straight from the silver screen. In 1989, a contractor from Long Island drops $100 on an abandoned storage unit, one of those forgotten spaces no one's paid rent on for years. He has no clue what's inside, of course, but figures it might be a fun gamble. He steps inside and sees a giant lump covered in blankets. And when he pulls off the blankets, underneath is a white sports car. But the roof is caved in, and it has no wheels. It looks like a Lotus sports car, but there are some strange modifications. There are fins jutting from the sides, and the whole design is angular and futuristic. It's beat up and can't be driven on the road in this condition, but he sees potential and decides to fix it up. He loads the odd-looking car onto a flatbed truck and hits the road. And as he's driving, the CB keeps crackling. And truck drivers keep asking him the same question. Hey, is that the James Bond car from The Spy Who Loved Me? It sounds crazy, but could this mystery car really be the one that made movie history? The contractor has never seen the movie, so when he gets home, he and his wife rent the VHS. As they watch the film, James Bond races away from the bad guys in a white Lotus. The car drives to the edge of the pier, and then it transforms. Fins pop out, the wheels are gone, and now it's going under the water like a submarine. This sub is the spitting image of the car that he recovered from the storage shed. If his car is the car, it's not just rare, it's priceless. So he contacts Bond author Ian Fleming's foundation for confirmation. The foundation's mission is to preserve the works and memorabilia of Fleming's career, including his most famous creation, James Bond. The president of the foundation, Doug Rodenius, tells the contractor that eight white Lotus cars were made for The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977. Some were built for driving, others were just stunt cars, but only one was made to go underwater. Known as Wet Nelly on set, it was special built with no gears. It couldn't even drive in reverse. Its only purpose was to go underwater, film the shot, and resurface. After filming wrapped in the Bahamas, the Lotus was shipped to Long Island, placed in a storage shed, and pre-paid for 10 years. There's no real record of who put the car in the storage unit, but the rent wasn't paid and the producers who probably rented the unit forgot all about it. Once the car's identity is confirmed, the contractor restores Wet Nelly from the ground up, turning the dusty relic back into the legend it once was. Over the next several years, the contractor takes Wet Nelly around to car shows and exhibitions, but in 2013, he finally decides to put the car up for auction. Well that $100 investment really paid off because ultimately that car sold at auction for a million dollars to an anonymous buyer. Later it's revealed that that buyer was Elon Musk. Some old treasures sit right under our noses. Others are buried deeper, waiting for the right moment to resurface. Like this next steel giant. It's the fall of 1944, and Estonia is finally being freed from the crossfire of World War II. Germans are now in retreat as the country goes back into Soviet hands. In a quiet lakeside village, a young boy walks along the shore. He's there to fish, something that he does all the time. This time, however, there's something different. He notices bubbles rising, slow and steady, just offshore. And then he notices something even stranger. Deep grooves cut into the tundra, leading into the lake. And as the days go by, the bubbles don't stop. Now for some reason or another, the boy decides to never tell anybody about the bubbles or the tracks. But he never forgets about them. Then 50 years later, a casual conversation brings this mystery back to the surface. In the early 2000s, the boy, who by this time is an old man, is swapping stories with Igor Shedunov, a historian who heads a local war history club called Otzing. When the man recalls the tale of the lake, the strange bubbles, the mysterious tracks, Igor is 100% locked into this story. And then Igor decides to investigate. Igor gathers a team of divers. They head into the water with ropes and their own intuition. No sonar, no radar. They sweep the lake bed and initially find nothing in the silt. But then they detect the presence of something big and metallic buried deep in the lake. They don't know what it is, but they're certain it shouldn't be there. The object is buried under about seven feet of water and nine more feet of peat and silt. But nonetheless, they recognize that this is no ordinary wreck. They begin a recovery effort. They bring in winches, cables, and bulldozers. And then, slowly, carefully, they start to raise it. Finally, when it breaks the surface, they're astonished with what they find. A full-size military tank caked in mud. They conclude that this tank is a Soviet T-34, a well-preserved T-34. The treads are still there. Ammo is still inside of the gun. It's a remarkable find, but also a mystery. Why was a perfectly preserved tank left here? It turns out, during World War II, Nazi Germany made extensive use of captured foreign equipment, like the Soviet T-34 tank. They were called bauterpanzer, or a captured tank. Because the Soviet T-34 was such an excellent armored fighting vehicle, the Germans, by God, made use of them when they captured them. But during the retreat in September of 1944, the Germans couldn't bring this tank with them. And so, rather than leaving it behind to allow the Soviets to recapture and return the vehicle to service, the decision was made to push it into the lake, where nobody can use it again. The Germans may have tried to bury it, but now Igor is determined to bring it back to life. A restoration crew cleans up the tank, and they also decide to put the key into the ignition and see if this machine will actually fire up. Despite decades of being underwater, when they turn the key, it roars back to life, which shows that the legacy of World War II, even though it seems like a long time ago, is still with us today.