Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny Season 2, Episode 17: Spy Gadgets

Escaping Armageddon

In the razor's-edge theater of global brinkmanship, the world has come closer to annihilation than most ever knew. A NATO war game once spooked the Soviets toward a potential nuclear strike, while a daring Cold War project produced a drone-bomber hybrid capable of carrying 16 nuclear weapons. From experimental war machines to the Presidential "Doomsday Plane" built to command America through apocalypse, these are the plans that reveal how near we've stood to the unthinkable.

43 min

Top Secret Sites

Step inside hidden areas where history was steered in secret, from Churchill's wartime bunker, complete with a direct line to FDR concealed inside his private bathroom, to a Soviet weapons base in the desert exposed only by a daring U-2 spy mission.

43 min

Buried Secrets

David Duchovny exposes a clandestine nuclear blast set off deep below Mississippi soil, and secret experiments conducted on citizens in the New York subway system.

43 min

Black Ops

A French Resistance operative hides explosives in baguettes to cripple a Nazi factory, an American soldier parachutes behind enemy lines to destroy critical supply routes, and Ukrainian forces deploy AI-guided drones to strike a Russian bomber fleet.

43 min

Bizarre Weapons

From a British scheme to launch airborne balloons against Nazi Germany, to American bats fitted with incendiary devices, to a covert effort to manipulate monsoon rains in Vietnam.

43 min

Cracking The Code

A stranded American pilot in Vietnam is rescued through a code built around familiar golf courses, while Navajo Code Talkers transmit messages that help turn the tide in the Pacific during WWII.

42 min

Secret Units

Behind official policy often stands unofficial actors. Discover the audacious operations of Red Cell.

43 min

Extraordinary Experiments

Follow the secretive flights of Project Argus, that sent nuclear warheads into space to test whether radiation could cripple Soviet weapons, while Operation LAC covertly released chemical agents over American communities to simulate biological warfare.

42 min

Smoke and Mirrors

David Duchovny takes us into the long-spun elaborate tales governments have employed to blanket their boldest missions, showing us how the illusion works – or until it doesn't.

42 min

Extreme Extractions

Some rescues read like Hollywood - except they were real. In Operation Halyard, villagers and resistance fighters built an airstrip by hand to spirit stranded airmen out of Nazi territory, while Operation Mount Hope saw American forces steal a Soviet helicopter from the African desert under cover of darkness. Decades earlier, the SAS hijacked a train in occupied Italy to liberate 200 prisoners - an extraordinary feat that proved extraction can be as daring as any assault.

42 min

Masters of Deception

To outmaneuver the enemy, you have to sell the illusion. An FBI agent goes so deep undercover he's the best man at a Mafia wedding, while the Stasi deploys a covert network of charmers across borders to win trust and steal secrets. And in Egypt, a German-born Jewish spy poses as a high-flying, champagne-soaked ex-Nazi to infiltrate its missile program for Israel. Different missions, one rule: if they believe you, you're already inside.

42 min

Rogue Missions

Some missions are so risky, they're denied before they even begin. From a covert Mossad operation to abduct a Nazi war criminal in Argentina-identified through the smallest detail, the shape of his ears-to a chilling CIA plot that used a jazz tour as cover for an assassination attempt in the Congo; to one resistance fighter volunteering to be captured and sent to Auschwitz to reveal the horrors within-these operations are proof that the most dangerous missions are often the most unthinkable.

42 min

Covert Heists

42 min

Cat & Mouse

42 min

Dark Deals

42 min

Hidden Bases

42 min

Top Secret Tech

42 min

High Strangeness

42 min

Ingenious Disguises

42 min