Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends

Do you like the BBC?

I'm from the BBC. I wanna know what the enemy has to say.

'I was on the world's tiniest plane,

'high above northwest America.

'Peaceful as they look, these hills of Idaho and Montana

'are home to a strange subculture of right-wing patriots.

'A subculture I planned to infiltrate.

'Armed only with a cardboard tube,

'I was stepping into the war zone.'

Whoo-hoo!

Whoo-hoooo!

Look out! 'That's me riding shotgun

'with ex-racing driver and commodities broker, Steve Quail.'

Goes underwater? It goes ON the water.

How deep can it go? How deep can it go? Yeah.

It doesn't matter how deep the water is. It floats. No!

'Like thousands of other Americans, Steve gave up his old life

'to become a full-time patriot activist, dedicated to defending the US constitution.'

"The most turbulent period in Earth's history."

Right. "All hell... will break loose."

# It's the end of the world as we know it

# It's the end of the world as we know it... #

'Despite this, I felt safe being here at SafeTrek,

'Steve's specialised store for the survival-minded.'

It's like Harrods - everything's under one roof. 'So many disasters, so little time.

'But for patriots, once source of fear towers over the rest -

'a global cabal of bankers and politicians called...' The New World Order.

What we're talking about is evil, secret...

Right? Right. Stop me when this gets wrong.

..plan... to control the world.

How about "enslave"? That's a better word.

The New World Order is just the Old World Order

packaged cutely by the powerbrokers of the world.

Their motto is "Order out of chaos."

So, the situation is... Wait, wait... The

New World Order has a motto? It has a motto.

Like a little club...? A BIG club. That is their motto. Order out of chaos? Yes.

Do they have a badge? A badge?

Do they have a uniform? Yeah. It's black, with "United Nations Police Force" on it.

The UN will be the control vehicle for world control.

They've engineered - now hear this word - engineered

crisises that they provide the solution for,

like the old Third Reich solution... To eliminate people? Yes. How many?

Four-fifths of the world's...

That's four of these five people here? Yep.

How can they administer genocide when they can't pass a thing saying

that it's International Year of the Child? They don't see it as killing off.

They see it as the Earth must have the population

diminished by... Put it in secret language? Right.

The only people that are gonna be exempt from this are the people that have prepared.

People are preparing for the introduction of the

New World Order, and in America... So that's you.

You're preparing, aren't you? Yes. The rest of us are toast. Yes.

So, where are we going now? We're going out to our shelter.

Biological nuclear and chemical warfare shelters...

They're about $35,000 plus shipping. No way! Yeah.

What would cause you to come here? Escalating international conflict.

When that happens, you'll be here? People who have shelters will enter into them.

This is a showroom of a shelter. Do you have your

own? Yeah. Will you tell me where? No. Please.

Why not? Because there are a lot of people

who are going to be looking for people who are prepared.

How do you prevent them from finding you? Well... You're underground, I guess. Yes.

Would you defend this against UN troops? I have no love for UN troops.

That's what we're talking about when we talk about

war. You could shoot people who'd come after you?

Let me say this, if someone's trying to take your life,

is it morally wrong to defend yourself?

Crikey! That's got a...! That's powerful!

I'm trembling.

'I was getting in my last shots on the SafeTrek gun range before moving on.'

That's it. How did I do?

Very well. 'But I was no match for patriots like Shirley.'

She doesn't have to if she's worried about it. She's not.

Shirley's got amazing accuracy!

'Steve didn't seem dangerous. Well, not that dangerous. A successful

businessman - almost mainstream!

'So I was heading off the beaten path into the wilds of Idaho

'to see the legendary Colonel Bo Gritz.

'A one-time Green Beret

'and presidential candidate, he's now stomping the patriot trail.

'He, too, was no friend of the New World Order.

'In 1994, he announced plans for a kind of mountain-top commune,

'where fellow patriots could be safe from the federal government,

'the UN and from Armageddon. He named it Almost Heaven.

'Dawn found me winding up towards its Almost Pearly Gates.'

What's goin' on? How are you doing?

We're from the BBC. You're too early. It's tomorrow. No, today!

You can come in, but I'm doin' my radio programme.

Take your shoes off!

Bo Gritz with you on Talk America Radio...

..And we do more than just talk!

..I guarantee him, he'll get his damn money!

..Would ANYONE wanna conduct anal sex?

..Like lawyers belong on the bottom of the ocean...

Let me just say, General... Colonel Gritz,

excuse me! It's a pleasure for you...for ME...

'I admit I WAS a bit intimidated at first.

'After all, he was the model for Rambo and had killed 400 people!'

You founded a patriot covenant community here in rural Idaho, correct? Correct.

I went to every state, and everywhere I went, I saw people afraid, paranoid.

Paranoid about the government, natural phenomenon,

about military targeting, nuclear power plants...

So I went to FEMA.

That's the Federal... Emergency Management Agency. They have a great database

of catastrophic events.

I took a marker... For example, Florida... Hurricanes, right?

You come up by Georgia, same thing. And South Carolina...

Washington DC, major targeting area. Iraqi missiles.

The next thing is the tornado belt. Kansas, Oklahoma... You're doing a

twister on that. That's what it is.

You have this giant floodbelt.

The winter storms from Maine make this area uninhabitable. Then the blizzard zone...

Blizzards. What's wrong with North Dakota?

NORAD! Target for missiles. Sure.

Nuclear waste right here. Oh, no!

California, you've got earthquakes.

In Los Angeles, you have the riots. Riots! Yeah. In Portland, you have Mount Hood...

All of these are volcanic. Lava.

New Mexico, we didn't have the soil. Too cold.

Texas is under the storm problem. It doesn't leave that much.

We ended up with a tiny spot up here, that actually...

We are right here.

So, how would you rate this place? Well, this

place is the safest place in all of America.

Having said that, when you picked the land here,

did you think it would be easy to defend...?

Our community is spread over about ten miles.

It would take an army to control us. They're not going to do it for any reason.

I was just looking for the safest place, where

people wouldn't have weird things happening to them.

'Was there a spot on Almost Heaven waiting for ME?'

Where are we headed now? To Almost Heaven Too.

'With a bit of cash down, I, too, could have land, a house,

'even a pet, in the safest place in all America.'

You move from London, you come out here, put yourself up in a log cabin right there.

'It WAS a tempting offer. But what about this constitutional convenant?'

We don't ask anyone what their faith is, what their IQ is,

all you do is say, "I will stand in the defence

of my neighbours in their constitutional rights."

If it ever comes to the paranoia that people see now,

or a government says, "You have to have a mark on your head," I will say NO.

You will say no to what, exactly? To this mark on your forehead.

Has anyone asked you if you want to have a chip put in you?

No! And if they do, I will refuse, but what we're saying is...

if they think they're gonna do it like they would

scan a loaf of bread, then, for me, that's no.

Is Almost Heaven a militia community? No. Absolutely not.

We don't have any cache of guns, there's no bunker.

These three families may have a plan for attack...

Families here? Three families right here...

out of probably 60 or 70 up here...

that think there's someday gonna be a war

against the government, and they were looking forward to attacking.

I asked them, "Who are you gonna kill?" We got

one federal employee, that's the postmaster!

Can we talk to them? You could try. What do you

think might happen? I think... Who ARE they?

I think that they would come out with a gun and tell you to get off their property.

'I needed no further encouragement.

'Directions in hand, I made my way to a guy named Mike Cain.

'And so, cruising through the safest place in all America,

'I was heading straight towards the most dangerous people there.'

What do you want? We're doing a story on Almost Heaven, what life's like here.

How do you do? You ain't in Almost Heaven. No? No. Where am I?

From the temperature, Almost Hell! Yeah!

I was a bit nervous about coming up here. I heard you fellas were scary. Really?

Why do people think that? I dunno. Why did YOU think we were?

Bo Gritz said you were a bit scary.

The Colonel? Yes. He did? Yeah. I guess the other reason would be the news media.

You know, the conventional view of people who

live on covenant community places like this,

that they're extreme. Do you get that impression from the media?

I get the impression from the media, they think we're scary too.

Really? Yeah.

I don't know what's so scary...

Are you scary? No. I'm not scary.

Only if you come up here to do harm to me and my family.

Then I'd be as scary as you'd be if someone

came to do harm to YOU and your family. Yeah.

Feel free to dragoon me into some hard labour if there's anything...

We aim for total self-sufficiency. We need all skills. Really?

Do you need TV presenters at all?

LAUGHTER

I don't know if we'll need that. It'd probably

be good for us if we had it. Wanna join us? Yeah!

'In the end, far from shooting me, Mike invited me to dinner!'

Here we go!

'I was on my way into the heart of Almost Heaven.'

This is the place. This is the old homestead. Freedom Central. It's unfinished.

'Mike, a former building contractor in Nevada, moved here less than two years ago.'

Is there anything in the way of a guided tour?

Guided...? Yeah. Well, it's a kinda typical house.

But come on... A gun rack, that's not...

Maybe not where YOU'RE from. Not in Britain.

How do you live like that? Well...

For an American to live without a gun is like you

guys trying to live without tea. Really? Yeah.

Daughter's room. I dunno if your viewers really wanna see that!

Looks like the Feds were in here!