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Mark Rober 15 Nov 2025 40 here now

How to Escape Alcatraz With Basic Engineering

Who knew spoons and an accordion was all you need to break out of Alcatraz. Learn to embrace failure while having tons of fun with CrunchLabs, now with 2 FREE boxes at: https://crunchlabs.com/Escape

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Comments (20)

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it's insane that he actually calculated when is the tide safe while being in prison
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The part of the conversation that most people leave out when the discussion about this escape comes up is the human resilience factor.

If someone is willing put in that much effort and detail into escaping. You can only imagine their will to survive and escape
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It’s crazy how they built an entire max security prison on an island and they still escaped but now your average penitentiary in South Dakota is basically inescapable
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@bonboza From YouTube ↗ 21 Feb 2026 350
that genuinely might be the coolest escape story ive ever heard
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Cleo: Mastermind
Mark: Dumber brother
Also Mark: Engineered Mars rovers
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@IFGchannel931 From YouTube ↗ 21 Dec 2025 1600
An interesting reminder that intelligence ≠ wisdom. Dude was pretty much a genius and filled with determination, but still made a series of bad choices in life and ended up in Alcatraz.
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@Paul-v4l6j From YouTube ↗ 21 Nov 2025 1600
24:40 you have to keep in mind that they were roughly 150 punds each so they would have weighted less then Cleo Johnny and you
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@OwenAcec From YouTube ↗ 21 Nov 2025 6200
Thank you mark! I was in alkatraz and you helped me escape! Edit: fixed typos because bc i meant i had escaped alkatraz
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@ASentientTV69 From YouTube ↗ 21 Nov 2025 12000
90% of their escape was soap lol
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the craziest thing about this to me is they actually had books telling them exactly what they needed to do to escape that prison, almost like they were put there as an experiment
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@Exachad From YouTube ↗ 21 Nov 2025 2400
I don't know why it's assumed that they didn't survive. They rest of the plan was so brilliant, there's no way they woulda died. They escaped during the perfect time window for favorable currents and I'm sure Frank would've made sure to make their raft as airtight and durable as he possibly could.

Not to mention that the Anglin brothers were actually skilled swimmers, with Wikipedia saying they used to swim a lot in the frigid waters of Lake Michigan while ice was still floating on the surface. The water temperature was estimated to be like 55F (12.2C), which is not that cold. You won't get hypothermia from that for at least a 90 minutes, which is more than enough time for the relatively fit guys, considering the 3 miles distance they had to travel. Even if the raft failed at some point, they would've survived.
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@ShadowKatz1 From YouTube ↗ 21 Nov 2025 5600
The accordion and soap were the stars of the escape.
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@johnnyharris From YouTube ↗ 21 Nov 2025 9600
This was one of the most insane things I’ve ever done. Thanks Mark for looping me into one of your crazy schemes. 
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@CleoAbram From YouTube ↗ 21 Nov 2025 14000
This was SO MUCH FUN. Also really glad you didn’t show us that shark before we got in the water…
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@epicboy330 From YouTube ↗ 21 Nov 2025 10000
The amount of art involved in the original escape is crazy lol
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@meredithc2755 From YouTube ↗ 21 Nov 2025 2400
The Anglin brothers were from the area of Georgia where we live. The legend is that they showed up to family events dressed as women. My doctor is related to them, and he says his mother, when she was young, saw them at their mother’s home. I think that they did survive.
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@supergod_mode From YouTube ↗ 21 Nov 2025 13000
Frank and his crew had what Mark’s team didn't have: a desperate hunger for freedom that makes men do the impossible.
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@LegendaryNUGS From YouTube ↗ 21 Nov 2025 4500
“there was literally only a 30 minute window they would have had to launch in for this to be possible…. And they in fact launched in that window” awesome.
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I kind of miss this place.
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@MarkRober From YouTube ↗ 21 Nov 2025 4600
Who knew spoons and an accordion was all you need to break out of Alcatraz. Learn to embrace failure while having tons of fun with CrunchLabs, now with 2 FREE boxes at: crunchlabs.com/Escape