The show features accounts of individuals and groups caught in dangerous scenarios, presented both through interviews and dramatic reenactments. The main focus is how the survivors survived and the decisions they made that kept them alive.
Businessman and entrepreneur Dewey Gaedcke decides to check out the spectacular Kilauea Volcano, driving down a secluded local road, before hiking through the dark to a viewing spot. But in the dead of night, becomes disorientated - in the heart of a 330,000-acre national park, covered with deep craters, steaming volcanic vents and crusty lava fields. Dewey is faced with a five day battle to live in this arid, lunar landscape.
School teachers and old friends, Ben Gowans, Jason Cox and Clay Craig embark on a 'guy's trip' to the remote wilderness of Utah. Ben has talked his friends into canyoneering through some of the states most beautiful slot canyons. But after taking a wrong turn the friends quickly find that they are in way over their heads. With no way out, Ben decides to climb 60ft up and out of the canyon. As he's nearing the top disaster strikes - the rock he's holding onto snaps and he freefalls back down the canyon. Severely injured and unable to move Ben's life rests in the hands of his friends.
In 2006, ex-Navy diver Rob Hewitt embarks on a short recreational fishing dive off the Kapiti Coast near Wellington, New Zealand. A fun day turns into a living nightmare when he gets caught in a vicious rip current and gets dragged out to sea. Coming face to face with a huge shark and suffering dehydration and exposure Rob is driven to the limit of human endurance.
In the summer of 2010 Texan Gary Nall and his friend Dave Akers take a trip in Dave's Cessna to the Knick Glacier deep in the Alaskan wilderness. Out of the blue they hit a pocket of turbulence and crash land into the mountainside. Seriously injured and stuck in the middle of bear country the two friends face a fight to survive.
Ken gets lost alone on a trip to Mayan ruins.
A helicopter rescue crew fight for their lives.
