Get ready for the season premiere of Breaking Magic on Sunday, November 11 at 10/9c on the Discovery Channel, as four magicians from around the world create magic tricks using science. In this episode, Wayne Houchin visits a mechanic’s shop in Brooklyn to demonstrate a very special new product: intelligent oil, which is able to move on command. Ben Hanlin goes to the streets of Warsaw to try out a new lie detector test. He convinces the spectators that the smart liquid detects subtle changes in your sweat and pheromones, and when it detects a lie, it reacts and changes color. Billy Kidd outsmarts a group of martial arts masters by challenging them to pick up as many grains of rice as possible with a sword. The masters manage to pick up three or four grains. They are gob smacked when Billy beats them all using a special trick! James Galea performs an extremely dangerous trick near London's River Thames, which could see him losing something vital: his hand! He padlocks his hand onto a piece of glass, below a see-through chute, and throws the key for the padlock in a bowl full of similar looking keys. James then has a minute to find the correct key and free his hand, before a cannonball is released down the chute and crushes his hand. After a minute: James has yet to find the correct key. The cannonball is released. Frantically, James has to find a way of slowing the fall or he’ll lose his hand.
James Galea convinces a group of onlookers into thinking that they can crush a fuel tanker using telekinesis. As the crowd concentrates on the tanker, it dramatically implodes with a massive bang. Ben Hanlin and Billy Kidd team up in a London bar for a hidden camera hit in which Ben’s jacket is stained with wine, catches fire, and is put out with a fire extinguisher before emerging totally unscathed. Wayne Houchin is in East London performing a death-defying stunt in front of a nervous crowd. He’s about to bungee jump off a 160-ft crane, the equivalent of a 16-story building. However, Wayne has severed the bungee rope and is attempting to hold it together by interweaving the pages of two books. The crowd isn’t convinced. Wayne jumps, and amazingly, the two books hold his weight. The crowd is astounded.
Wayne Houchin amazes New Yorkers with his Midas touch by turning a seemingly ordinary silver bracelet into a gold bracelet. Billy Kidd is in London, impressing passersby with her ability to read their minds. She asks the punter to write down an animal, a capital city, or their mother’s name. Amazingly, Billy is then able to write down the exact answer the punter was thinking of, leaving everyone completely baffled. In London, Ben Hanlin turns a seemingly normal cup of water into a handheld snow machine. James Galea puts his life on the line when he’s attached to the end of a rope dangling off a 50-foot scaffold tower – and puts his trust in a member of the public when the other end of the rope is released – will magic or science manage to save him and stop him from splatting on the ground?
Ben performs a secret agent trick; Billy shifts gravity in Warsaw; Wayne makes a newspaper spontaneously combust; James uses superpowers to knock over a wall.
Wayne astounds New Yorkers at a famous deli; Ben and a 13 year old memory master play guess the date; Billy serves up coffee magic; Wayne becomes a human lightning rod.
Billy suspends water; Ben makes a ship in a bottle disappear.
Wayne baffles an audience with his mind-reading skills; Ben tests his new invention, the Bicep Booster.
Wayne impresses skaters with his explosive telekinesis; Billy tests out her own psychic abilities.
Wayne and James reveal the design and preparation of its most dangerous scenes. Billy and Ben make use of the chemical to become magical waiters.
Billy Kidd, Nate Staniforth, Ben Hanlin and Wayne Houchin use science to perform jaw-dropping illusions. Billy demonstrates her sword skills by slicing a basketball in two and Nate uses the same blade in a terrifying stunt that puts his life on the line
Ben Hanlin helps Wayne Houchin to emulate master magician Harry Houdini in a dangerous underwater escape
Ben Hanlin goes head to head in a strength test with an American football team, and Billy Kidd performs a high-flying stunt at Battersea Power Station
Billy Kidd demonstrates a selection of mind-bending tricks in Warsaw, Poland, and Ben Hanlin gets involved in a bungee jump with a terrifying twist
Ben has a hot stunt that he enlists Wayne's help to complete.
Nate and Wayne perform the three-card-monte trick on a huge scale.
The audience are taken on a tour of an abandoned mental institution.
A fairground is taken over for the night by the magicians.
Billy and Wayne explore an abandoned waterworks and the properties of the water that they find there.
Ben and Wayne explore an old car war science facility.
Billy and Wayne test if mind control is possible using groups of friends.
Billy Kidd shows how to slice a basketball in half with a sword whilst Nate Staniforth looks back at when he had to lie underneath a blade as it came toward him.
A look back at two of the most dangerous tricks from the series.
