Face Your Biggest Fear To Win $800,000

Summary

A YouTube prankster puts his friend Mack through a series of terrifying challenges involving spiders, heights, and being buried alive to try to scare him, as Mack previously claimed he cannot be scared. If Mack completes all the challenges, he wins $800,000 after having lost that amount in a previous video. However, the final cookie challenge triggers Mack's fear of failure, causing him to lose the money yet again. Ultimately, his friend is unable to scare Mack with external fears, but preys upon Mack's inner fears and insecurities around failure to break him.

Takeaways

• 😱 Mack has to face his biggest fears to try and win $800,000
• 😰 Mack survives being trapped with 1,000 spiders
• 😨 Mack freefalls 200 feet attached to nothing
• 😰 Mack's car sinks to the bottom of a 45 foot deep lake and he tries to retrieve money bags from inside
• ⚰️ Mack gets buried alive for 24 hours
• 😱 Mack pulls something unknown out of a metal box
• 😰 Mack gets a second chance after previously losing $800,000
• 😓 Mack only has 34 minutes 54 seconds to complete the final cookie challenge
• 💔 Mack fails the final challenge again and loses $700,000
• 🤯 The only thing that scared Mack was his fear of failure

Q & A

What is the main goal of the video challenges Mack has to complete?

The main goal is for Mack to face his fears in order to try to win back the $800,000 prize money he previously lost.

What happens if Mack breaks a cookie during the final challenge?

If Mack breaks a cookie during the final challenge, he loses the $700,000 he had won from the previous challenges.

Why does the narrator offer Mack $300,000 before the final challenge?

The narrator offers Mack $300,000 before the final challenge to give him the option to quit while still winning some money, rather than risk losing it all if he fails the challenge again.

What is Mack's main fear that leads to his failure in the final challenge?

Mack's main fear is his fear of failure itself, related to failing the cookie challenge again after having lost money on it previously.

How much time does Mack have to complete the final cookie challenge?

Mack has the same amount of time he took last time - 34 minutes and 54 seconds.

Why does Mack think he needs to rush through the early cookie stages?

Mack rushes through the early cookie stages because he knows the umbrella cookie, which he failed on last time, will take a long time.

What causes Mack to ultimately fail the final challenge again?

Mack fails because he rushes unnecessarily on an early stage and breaks the cookie, rather than taking his time.

How much money has Mack now lost total from failing these challenges twice?

With this second failure, Mack has now lost a total of $1.5 million.

Why does the narrator bury Mack alive during one of the challenges?

The narrator buries Mack alive to recreate one of the scariest challenges that the narrator himself previously had to endure.

What is the Shopify promotion for in the middle of the video?

The Shopify promotion highlights how the narrator was able to start his own business using Shopify, enabling him to afford producing videos like this.

Outlines

00:00

😱 Facing Mack's First Fear of Spiders

Mack enters a box filled with 1,000 spiders as his first fear challenge. He must survive 10 minutes inside to move on and win money. Mack acts tough at first but admits it was more difficult than expected.

05:03

😰 Attempting Mack's Fear of Heights

For Mack's second fear, he stands on a plank over a 200-foot drop, attached to nothing. He must unclip himself and freefall, trusting something will break his fall. Mack hesitates but ultimately completes the challenge.

10:03

💀 Mack Gets Buried Alive

Mack is buried alive in a coffin for 24 hours for his third fear. He tries sleeping to pass time but struggles with boredom and claustrophobia. After 36 hours, Mack decides to ring the bell and end the challenge.

15:04

😫 Facing Mack's Fear of Failure

The final fear challenge recreates the cookie cutout task Mack previously failed, costing him $800k. He is given the choice to take $300k and quit or risk $700k to try again. Mack attempts it but accidentally breaks the cookie, losing everything.

20:04

😞 Mack Loses $1.5 Million Total

After multiple intense fear challenges, Mack fails the final cookie cutout task again, bringing his total losses to $1.5 million. His fear of failure ultimately got the best of him.

Keywords

💡Fear

"Fear" is a central theme of the video, as the host puts his friend Mack through multiple scary situations to try to get him to admit he feels fear. Examples from the script include making Mack be trapped with spiders, stand on the edge of a plank 200 feet up with no harness, sink in a car in a lake, be buried alive, etc.

💡$800,000 prize

The "$800,000 prize" refers to the large cash prize that Mack already lost once before in a previous challenge video. He is given a second chance in this video to try to win the prize back by facing his fears in 6 challenges. It is the main reward that motivates Mack to put himself through the scary situations.

💡Challenges

"Challenges" refers to the different scary scenarios that Mack must face in order to progress closer to winning the $800,000 prize. Examples include surviving in a box with 1,000 spiders, freefalling 200 feet, sinking in a car in a lake and trying to retrieve money bags, being buried alive for 24 hours, etc.

💡Facing fears

"Facing fears" is the overarching concept of Mack having to confront scary situations that tap into some of his worst fears, like heights, confinement, dangerous animals, etc. The host tries to get Mack to admit he feels scared while completing these challenges.

💡Admitting fear

A key part of each challenge is the host trying to get Mack to "admit he feels fear" or scared. But Mack is stubborn about not wanting to admit he ever feels fear, even as he takes on seemingly terrifying situations.

💡Second chance

Mack is given a "second chance" to compete for the $800K prize after he already lost it once before. This makes the situations even scarier since he knows what it feels like to lose it all, and has added pressure to succeed this time.

💡Quitting/taking deals

In several challenges, the host tempts Mack to "quit" the challenge early by offering him money. This tests how scared Mack really is feeling and whether he's willing to lose his chance at the bigger $800K prize.

💡Claustrophobia

As Mack gets trapped in tight enclosed spaces during challenges, he starts to show signs of "claustrophobia" or fear of confinement/restricted spaces. This makes the buried alive and sinking car challenges extra difficult for him.

💡Recreating past failure

In the final challenge, the host "recreates" the exact challenge Mack previously failed at and lost all the money on before. Facing a challenge that caused past failure adds extra fear and pressure for Mack.

💡Overcoming fear of failure

When Mack loses the final challenge again, it shows his biggest fear is "failure itself" rather than the other situational fears. Overcoming fear of failure to win the prize is the ultimate message.

Highlights

Mack has to face his biggest fears to try to win back $800,000 he previously lost

The first challenge is surviving 10 minutes trapped in a box with 1,000 spiders

The second challenge is freefalling 200 feet attached to nothing

The third challenge is driving a car filled with prize money into a lake and trying to retrieve the bags before it sinks

The fourth challenge is being buried alive for 24 hours

The fifth challenge recreates the previous challenge Mack lost, cutting shapes out of cookies without breaking them

Mack passes the spider challenge despite it being more intense than he expected

Mack freefalls 200 feet to overcome his fear of heights

Mack retrieves 6 of the 8 money bags from the sinking car before it gets too deep

Mack gets buried alive and has to guess when 24 hours is up to escape

Mack decides to ring the bell and end the buried alive challenge, risking that 24 hours have passed

It's revealed Mack was buried for 36 hours, passing the fourth challenge

For his final fear, Mack decides to risk $300,000 he's won to compete in the cookie challenge again

Despite taking his time, Mack breaks the umbrella cookie again with 30 minutes left

In the end, Mack fails the final challenge and loses $700,000

Transcripts

My friend Mac is about to experience the scariest moment of his life.

I'm just going to let you know I'm not afraid of anything.

- We'll see. - You cannot scare me.

Seal him up.

You have to survive 10 minutes with a thousand spiders to move on.

Release the spiders.

Start the timer.

The reason we're doing this is because

Mack said no matter how hard I tried, I can't scare him.

Would you say you're scared now?

Getting there a little bit.

- A little bit? - Yeah.

And this is only one of many fears Mack will face in this video.

Oh, good.

And if he can successfully face all of the fears, he will win $800,000.

I'm not going to lie,

this was way more gnarly than I thought it would be.

Three, two, one.

Lift it up. Lift it up.

Oh yeah.

Congratulations on passing the first challenge.

Let's go.

But Mack has to finish all of these fears

if he wants to win the $800,000 prize.

Mack, I know you're blindfolded, but trust me.

Just walk up this ramp.

Raise us up.

Why are you taking a knee?

What is...?

Stand up. Stand up. You're fine. You're fine.

No, no, no, no.

All right, Jimmy.

Okay, you can hold on to it.

That's cute.

Oh my God!

Okay.

Mack, take off your blindfold.

Welcome to challenge number two.

The next fear is the fear of heights.

You're going to stand on the end of that plank,

unclip this so you'll be connected to nothing.

Nah, dude.

Press that button and then freefall 200 feet,

and without knowing how, trust, I'll catch you.

No! No!

You're shaking.

Yeah, of course I'm shaking.

I'm going to fall off of this without a harness on.

- Yeah. - I can't even see the ground.

Be very careful.

Mack, I'm just going to tell you,

even though you can't see the ground, you are very, very high.

Oh, my God, Mack.

All you have to do is unclip it and press that button.

Oh my...

I want you to look at me in the eyes right now

and tell me that I'm going to fall and something's going to catch me.

Something will break your fall.

I promise.

Oh my...

You're literally attached to nothing.

Oh, my God.

- The clip is gone. - Oh, my God.

You don't have to do it.

If you want to,

you can tap out and just admit that you are wrong and

you do get scared.

No way.

God, dude.

I would have to say you look pretty scared.

Oh, my God.

Five, four,

three, two...

one.

Godspeed.

Godspeed.

Zero.

Let's go!

I can't believe you did it.

He's a psycho.

And if you're wondering who my psychotic friend Mack is

he's actually a contestant from a previous challenge video.

And sadly, he ended up losing $800,000.

But now he is on challenge three of six

to attempt to win that money back.

Here we are.

- Yeah. - The next challenge.

What'd you get? A $5 car and put $800,000 inside of it?

As you can see, this car is pointed towards a lake.

I'm guessing you're going to want me to drive the car into the lake?

No. That would be dangerous.

As you can see, there's no gas pedal.

Obviously, you can't drive it in the lake.

Yeah, I'm so stupid.

Why would I think that I can drive it into the lake?

- Yeah. Yeah. - Stupid. Yeah.

Which is why we're going to drop him in the lake.

Bring in the crane!

Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy.

It is getting real now. Okay.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

All right, Mack, listen up and listen good.

Once we drop you at this lake, the car will quickly begin to sink.

And in the back seat is

the 800 grand you've been competing for divvied up into eight duffel bags.

However many bags you can save from this sinking car determines

how much money you'll continue competing for in this video.

And whatever you leave behind is gone forever.

Oh my gosh, dude.

I will never tell you that I'm scared,

but I'm about as close as you can be right now to that feeling.

I can tell.

Before we drop your car, I'm going to give you a one offer.

If you quit right now and admit I scared you,

I'll give you $100,000.

And we call it even.

Yeah.

All right.

He's not going to take it.

- There's not a gosh darn chance. - I knew that was going...

Hey, Nolan, take that. I knew he was going to do this.

I lost it all last time.

It's not happening again.

Three!

Two!

One!

Oh, my God.

Drop him!

Hey Mack! You've got about 20 seconds to break out of that car

before it sinks under the water.

Mack, the car is going under.

Hurry up.

Oh, God.

That car is gone.

That sunk so fast.

Oh, my God. He's out. He's alive.

Hey Mack!

Nolan, go grab that bag from him.

Somebody grab this.

The scariest part about this challenge is every second

the car sinks deeper into the water, making it harder to get to

and harder to see.

So if Mack wants to keep all of the prize money.

He really needs to be moving as fast as possible.

But as you can see, that's not going to be easy.

Nolan, come here. Take it.

Mack continued saving bag.

Oh my God.

After bag, after bag.

Mack, you're crazy.

But on top of the fact that the car is sinking deeper and deeper.

What Mack hasn't realized yet is that the last two bags of money

are actually seatbelted into the back seat of the car.

Dude, Mack could be in an action movie, honestly.

Well, he was like a borderline Olympic swimmer earlier in his life,

which is why I did this fear.

Yeah, but it's like 40 feet down and the water is freezing cold.

How can you hold your breath out?

He got another bag.

Well, you got $700,000 on the boat.

Just stop now. Just stop now.

Just leave it on the bottom of lake.

- We can do the next. - No.

All right. He doesn't care.

At this point,

the car was literally at the bottom of this 45 foot deep lake,

making it almost impossible for Mack to retrieve the last $100,000.

Yeah you know, I really cannot.

It's black down there. There's nothing.

Are you officially calling it?

I can't see the car, Jimmy. It's gone, yes.

The boat's tilting.

You are very athletic.

Do you like this video better or the other video better?

Dude, this video is like 10 times as intense.

I know.

And even though this looks very crazy, there's actually seven

safety divers on standby to make sure Mack didn't die.

Your prize is now 700 grand,

but from here on out, it's all or nothing.

Mack has to face the three remaining fears

to walk out of this with his 700 grand.

- This one might be the hardest one. - Okay

Is it grosser than spiders?

Just come on in.

Inside this room is a metal box.

In order to progress,

you'll need to reach inside the box and pull out what's inside.

And before you put your hand in the box,

we're going to need you to sign this.

It just basically says that

you can't sue me if anything in there hurts you.

Just sign right there.

All right, we got it signed.

What is it, like an animal or something?

There are things in this box.

Just step up here.

You put your hand in one of these holes.

Okay.

And there's a thing in here you need to pull out.

Dude, that is freaky as... Okay.

I'm just going to make sure it's moving.

- Stop. - Okay, go for it.

Clearly it has not touched him yet.

No matter what, once you grab onto it, you have to pull it out.

What you grabbed

is our brand new Feastable bars.

We got all new branding and a better tasting formula.

- Let's try it together. - I am not going to go soft on you.

I'm going to tell you honestly what I think.

Okay, that's pretty good.

The new formula is milkier, creamier.

We have our all new crunch flavor, the milk chocolate flavor,

almond flavor, my personal favorite, and peanut butter.

These new and improved Feastables bars are rolling out now.

Give us a couple of days to get them on the shelves

of your local Walmart, Target, 7-Eleven.

And I cannot wait to see what you think of them.

All right, Mack, you ready for the next fear?

Jimmy, I've been in this exact same room,

and I've had a bunch of money on the line before.

Yeah.

I'll tell you what.

If you give me 500 grand right now, I'll walk.

Do you guys hear this man?

- Jimmy. - Who asked for $500,000?

- 400 grand? - No.

Hear me out.

If you said 200, maybe 250, I would have considered it.

- How about 350? - No.

All right, let's go.

Next challenge.

I knew he'd break.

All right, I might've lied.

That one wasn't actually that hard.

But this next one is actually based on one of the scariest things

I've ever done.

There's no way.

How about quickly he pieced it together?

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. There's actually no way.

- Come on. - There is actually no way, Jimmy.

Is it that obvious what it is?

What gave it away? The tombstone with your name?

Oh, Jesus.

For the next challenge, we are going to bury you alive for 24 hours.

No way, dude.

And you can get out whatever you want,

but you don't know what time it is.

And if you leave before the 24 hour mark, you'll lose everything.

That's a good fear.

Yes.

For once, I'm on the other side.

Yeah bro!

Oh, my gosh.

It might get a little cold.

Nolan, don't mess it up, please.

I'll try not to.

This is from my nightmares, man.

It feels wrong being on the other side, but also fun.

What the...

Oh, this is so freaky.

The funny thing is that the timer hasn't even started yet

because you aren't fully buried.

It feels wrong saying this, but can you bury me faster?

As you wish, Mack!

Bring in the extra hand.

Stop it, stop it, stop, stop, stop, stop.

Let's officially start the timer.

Looks like 24 hours just started

and I'm already freaked,

so this ain't going to be good.

Mack, see that rope above your head? Can you pull it for me real quick?

- Is this a trick? - No.

Next time you pull that bell, we will dig you up.

And if it does not say above 24 hours, you lose everything.

I will burn your house down.

And also the $700,000.

Yeah, I was like everything?

Everything. Sweet dreams Macketh!

All right, don't throw the walkie talkie.

Was it that predictable?

I already know they threw it, and I'm not even up there.

There's so much more fun to be on this side of it.

And to make sure Mack doesn't die in his own grave.

He's going to be wearing this wristband

that directly tells us his heart rate and vitals.

And no, it does not give him any way of knowing what time it is.

Basically, I need to figure out how to keep track of the time.

Here's my strategy.

I could try to stay awake for 2 hours, sleep

for 10 hours, and then I would be halfway done with the challenge

and I could just do that twice and that would be good.

With Mack's plan now in place,

his first step was to pass the time for the next 2 hours.

Well, it's no Feastable bar,

but I guess that makes hunger stop.

But it was pretty obvious he was quickly getting bored.

Dude, you got to be honest, there’s not much going on inside this room.

That's the whole point.

And Mack being bored this early

is a pretty telltale sign that he may not be too good at this

because already

within 45 minutes, Mack's idea of time was horrendously off.

I think it's been about 2 hours.

I'm going to try to get about

10 hours of sleep, which should put me at the halfway mark.

Even though the pro to sleeping is that it'll help Mack past time faster.

First night sleeping in the coffin.

The con is it's very difficult for him to keep track

of how long he's been buried, especially when he's not even able

to stay asleep for more than 30 minutes at a time.

I have no idea what time it is right now.

I'm a little creeped out.

Hopefully for the love of God it's been over 12 hours.

I think that's where we're at.

And because

when I did the challenge, I was constantly woken up by my friends...

Jimmy Jam.

I thought I'd give Mack the same joyful experience.

Wake up, Mack. Are you okay?

Dude, you look like you just got hit by a truck.

Kind of feels like I did just get hit by a truck.

If I was to legitimately guess how many hours in I am,

I think it's like...

The longer Mack stayed in the coffin,

the less he seemed to know what time it was.

It might be hour 16.

And because we like to build a lot of suspense on this channel

for the remainder of this fear,

you're not going to know how long he's been in there either.

And even though Mack wanted to ensure

that he was going to be there long enough,

it was clear that claustrophobia was getting to him.

Being in this coffin is scary.

Like...

That...

And the longer I'm in here, the worse I feel.

It's a crazy feeling.

But eventually, when we saw Mack begin to grab that rope,

we knew

he was thinking about ringing that bell.

That's the face of somebody that's about to ring this bell soon.

There's no way it's been under 24 hours.

God, I'm nervous.

I've been in one of these videos before.

And I lost everything.

And the only reason I even am back here at all

and got a second chance is actually because of you guys.

Me screwing up that second chance all comes down to

if I know for a fact it's been 24 hours.

I really hope I'm not making a mistake right now.

Mack.

Buddy, pal, how you doing?

Jimmy, I'm pretty nervous.

I don't want to accidentally reveal the time, so no comment.

Jimmy, I don't know how you do this for seven days, dude.

I do not feel well in here.

Yeah.

Have you got to the point where you start

to lose blood flow in your legs

and you feel like your back is going to fall out of your body?

Jimmy, I'm thinking about pulling this thing.

No comment.

Jimmy, I'll give you 50 bucks back if you tell me what time it is.

No comment.

All right, I got a comment for you.

Just get a shovel ready, all right?

Three.

Oh, my gosh, he's about to do it.

Two...

This is it.

One.

Stop the timer.

And now that Mack has made his decision.

There was just one last thing I had to do.

Do you mind if I tell them about Shopify while we unbury you?

You have got to be kidding.

Shopify is a platform that helps entrepreneurs

get started down the path they want.

Sometimes starting a business can be scary,

like getting covered in spiders or being buried alive.

I can tell you, you do not want to be buried alive.

But Shopify is here to help.

If I hadn't started my own business, I wouldn't have been able

to go to all the crazy places like Antarctica

and make videos like these for you guys.

And just like billions of other people have done with Shopify.

You can get started today on your business right now.

Mack, you want to know how long you were in there?

I have a feeling you're not going to tell me until you dig me up.

You are correct.

And one of the perks of owning my own business is

I can do fun things like send one of my friends to the Superbowl.

Mack, Karl and Nolan each have their very own football for sale,

and whoever's football sells the most.

I'm going to give you tickets to the Super Bowl

and I'm going to bury the other one alive.

All that matters is that you download the Shop app

and vote from one of them by buying either Nolan's or Karl's football.

And now that I can afford this video, let's see if Mack loses $700,000.

- Hi! - Hi!

Hey, Jimmy.

There you go!

Welcome to the outside world.

Now that you are out of the coffin, let's see if you were in there

for 24 hours.

If the number I reveal is lower than 24 hours, then you lose $700,000.

I feel like I'm going to throw up.

Three...

Two...

One...

36 hours!

That is what I am talking about.

He scares me.

Congratulations, Mack.

This means that you are now just one challenge away

from winning all this money.

Let's go.

You should probably go shower first.

Yeah, I smell not great.

So far in this video, Mack has shown me

It is very difficult to scare him,

but the final challenge of this video may just be Mack's worst fear ever.

And that's because the final challenge of this video

is a 1 to 1 recreation of the challenge he failed on last time.

The last challenge.

Hold this in front of your face. Don't look.

- Hey, I'm not looking. - Don't look.

- I'm not looking. - All right, keep your eyes closed.

Don't open them.

Don't open your eyes.

Keep walking. Don't open them.

Don't open them.

All right, open them.

No, no, no. I'm not doing that again.

Come over here.

No! Jimmy, I do not want to do this again.

Stand here where the cameras can see you.

- No! - Okay.

The last challenge is the fear of failure.

We recreated the set where he lost $800,000 in this video

And like last time, the rules are extremely simple.

There are four stages.

Each has its own cookie with a shape on it.

You have to cut out all the shapes without breaking a cookie.

And if you do break a cookie, you lose $700,000.

And for you specifically,

it will have been the second time it's happened.

This is from my nightmares, man.

I do not want to be here again.

Well, good. Because I have an offer for you.

You can quit right now

and walk away with this 300 grand or risk it for the biscuit.

And if you finish this final challenge, win $700,000.

This is actually like a very, very big decision.

Yeah, because that's not quite enough, is it? It's less than half.

But if you lose again, that is $1.5 million lost on this set.

Are you sure?

He's hitting it.

Mac, I know this is hard,

but you're going to have to make a decision here.

Do you want to go home with $300,000

or do you want to risk it all for this final challenge?

All right, fine. I'm doing it.

All right. To be honest, I'm glad. I want you to win this whole thing.

If you look at this iPad right here,

this is exactly how long it took Mack to get through all four stages

last time he did the challenge, 34 minutes and 54 seconds.

So that's exactly how long I'm going to give you again.

Starting now.

Don't break the cookie while opening.

There you go.

Even though he's going quick right now,

might not be in his best interest

because if he accidentally snaps a cookie, he loses.

34 minutes.

You did it that quick?

Scan, scan, scan, scan.

It's green.

This is a much different deal than last time.

So I'm going to take my sweet time cutting the circle out.

Let's go.

He is flying through this.

Why is it so much harder to open?

Probably because you're like freaking out.

You want me to try?

Open it.

Okay. Hold my iPad.

Okay. It's very hard to open.

What are you guys doing?

I don't want to be responsible for that.

Be careful.

Theoretically, Mack's strategy makes sense.

Getting through the easier shapes fast

to save all the time for umbrella, which he lost $800,000 off.

You literally still have 32 minutes left.

Yeah. Well, I'm going to need all 32 of those for umbrella.

That is borderline impossible.

- Move out. - I'm moving.

Open it.

Allow me.

Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap. Let's go.

Mack, stop breaking my set.

Bro, you guys got to make these easier to open.

There's just no need to rush. You're literally using no time.

I mean, you might need to go slower on this one because it's a lot trickier.

This one is pretty hard, not even close umbrella.

Trying to get to the race before I start racing.

God, this is so hard.

Oh my gosh.

Well, I don't need that anymore.

Maybe it didn't break all the way through?

Okay.

He still had 29 minutes left.

He did the first two in 4 minutes

I don't know why I did this.

Oh, my God.

I did that twice?

Here.

Give me your hand.

No. Jimmy, please. I don't want to leave yet.

No, Jimmy.

Nah, dude. I don't even know how to feel right now.

Right here. Come on.

I have, like, so much time.

Yeah. I'm still just not sure why you were going so fast.

The umbrella, I just know that umbrella takes forever.

Yeah.

Okay.

Mack told me in this video that there was nothing

that I could do to scare him.

And after putting him through spiders, a sinking car,

and more, I really did start to believe him.

Godspeed.

The only thing that ended up getting to Mack...

was the fear of his own failure.

Godspeed.