Top 10 Shocking Documentaries

As a visual medium, documentaries frequently succeed in portraying the unimaginable far better then any book alone could do. Beaming everything from the consequences of child abuse to the horrors of nuclear warfare into the homes of millions, the following infamous documentaries shock the viewer and challenge perceptions. Please note: Almost all the videos featured contain graphic and disturbing content, relevant to the topic at hand. Warning: some of these documentaries contain disturbing footage.

10

High on Crack Street

1995

Following the struggle of three crack addicts, ‘High on Crack Street’ digs deep into the complex daily lives of individuals striving to obtain their next fix. From prostitution to pregnancies to STDs, we see the true dark side of drugs they don’t show you in school. There is something quite shocking about just how badly crack ruins lives. Unfortunately there is no happy ending to this story—six months after filming Boo Boo was still hooked on a $200 a day habit, Dicky was imprisoned and, sadly, Brenda died. A remarkable film about a horrific plague, ‘High on Crack Street’ is unwavering in it’s portrayal of crack addiction.

9

Aokigahara / Suicide Forest

2012

Lying at the base of Mount Fuji, Aokigahara Forest has a rather unsettling reputation as a suicide hotspot . This documentary follows a geologist as he performs a walk through of the forest, looking for both those who have, and may soon, succumb to depression. Spotting an abandoned car in the parking lot on the way in, passing signs dissuading suicide, and taking an ill trodden path into the bewildering forest, it isn’t long before we’re shown our first images of forsaken souls—all of whom hang from Aokigahara’s thick ligatures. From this point onwards, it only gets worse. I encourage all with a strong heart to watch this bleak, but brief, portrayal of the utter desperation in full.

8

The Iceman Tapes

1992

Vicious, ruthless, remorseless, brutal, fearless, violent, disturbed and callous are just some of the words which can be used to describe serial contract killer Richard “The Iceman” Kuklinski. ‘The Iceman Tapes’ attempts to take the viewer into the broken mind of a cold-blooded paranoid psycho-sociopath through a series of interviews conducted by psychiatrist Michael Baden. From his upbringing to his reasons, watching Kuklinski describe his atrocities in detail with little to no emotion is a truly unsettling, yet compelling, experience. In his own words: “I am what you call . . . a person’s nightmare.”

7

Nuit et Brouillard

1955

Drawing the viewer in with an almost poetic charm, few films portray the intricacies of the Holocaust better then this 1955 French film, Nuit et Brouillard, or—to give it its English title—Night and Fog. Featuring the camps at Auschwitz and Majdanek, we are taken on an uncompromising, and unforgiving, journey through the encampments history, and the fate of its occupants. From construction to destruction, Nuit et Brouillard etches horrific images onto the minds of its viewers which will seldom leave their memory.

6

Atomic Wounds

2006

For all the propaganda and scaremongering that occurred during the Cold War, it is difficult for us to imagine the human effects of nuclear weapons—besides the massive loss of life, of course. We tend to imagine nukes as pulverizing all whom stand in it’s way, but a nuclear weapon doesn’t simply destroy, it poisons, it burns, it corrupts. Those unlucky enough not to be obliterated are left to suffer a horrific and painful death—often over months, years or even decades, rather then minutes or seconds. ‘Atomic Wounds’ takes us on an up close and personal trip to the victims of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, documenting the terrifying effects of atomic warfare on those who were not struck down in the initial cataclysm. It is difficult to watch this film without asking “how could we ever do this to our fellow man?” We often forget that the victims of Nagasaki and Hiroshima we’re living and breathing humans, just like you and I. We see a statistic. This film ensures that we remember that there is only misery under those numbers.
5

Conspiracy of Silence

Apologies for the poor quality on the above video, ‘Conspiracy of Silence’ has never been released, and numerous parties have been attempting to prevent this documentary, espousing the perversion and abuse of power that occurs at the highest levels in society. A representation of how influence and wealth can be used for personal gain and the suppression of criminal acts, ‘Conspiracy of Silence’ takes us into the world we all know that exists, and yet hopes it does not.

4

The Killing of America

1982

A warning up front, ‘The Killing of America’ consistently provides the viewer with very real, and very graphic footage of criminal activity. From riots to outright murder, this documentary is far from shy of presenting the truth as is, with no sugar coating. “What truth?” you ask? Well, the fact that the United States was the most violent first world nation on earth. ‘The Killing of America’ attempts to understand why this was the case, and although it may seem outdated one should remember that the US is still one of the most violent first world nations on earth—despite the fact that violent crime has fallen considerably each year since it’s peak in the early 1990s. This documentary thus gives us an uncompromising look at america’s dark past—and perhaps also provides us with one piece of the puzzle that bugs us today.

3

Interview with a Cannibal

2012

What drives a man to kill and cannibalize an innocent woman? Well, why not ask such a man… in his own living room? ‘Interview with a Cannibal’ does just that, with the infamous case of Issei Sagawa—propelled to fame through his crimes, he was deemed insane by the courts and thus released without charge. A fascinating insight into the life of a man lost in his own fantasies, this documentary challenges perceptions about what humans are truly capable of—as well as allowing us to understand the path one must take to reside where he now sits.

2

Bulgaria’s Abandoned Children

2007

Words simply cannot explain what is expressed in this BBC documentary. Put simply, Bulgaria has a serious problem with child abandonment, particularly of the disabled—and, worse yet, the government is apparently unable to care for them sufficiently. Recording numerous children over a nine month period, we are offered a unique insight into the appalling inner workings of a Bulgarian orphanage. With many of the children’s poor lives consisting mainly of sitting in a room rocking back and fourth amongst themselves, these children have little hope for the future: no education, no therapy… no help. The plight of an otherwise intelligent young lady known as Didi starkly highlights the failing of the Bulgarian system: she is classified as ‘untreatable’ and thrown amongst the disabled, despite being quite the opposite—a maddening position if you ask me, and her behavior soon reflects this fact as she eventually succumbs to rocking and self harm to burn away her days.

One may be happy to know that after being broadcast in the United Kingdom there was a public outcry which brought servitude for most of the children featured: the majority of which are now recovering in more suitable care. Didi attended a special boarding school and excelled in her classes. She now enjoys a relatively normal life, frequently visiting museums and art galleries. Besides from this, other EU nations have also put pressure on the Bulgarian government to reform the system and help these outcasts. The first part of a follow up documentary can be viewed here.

1

Child of Rage

1992

Child of Rage documents the horrific effects of sexual abuse upon a young child named Beth. Consisting primarily of short clips of Beth being interviewed by a clinical psychiatrist, we learn—from both Beth herself, and the additional research done by the TV crew—that she was sexually violated and neglected at a young age by her birth father. This has resulted in the emersion of reactive attachment disorder—a psychiatric condition which, in this case, can in many ways be compared to sociopathy, although their causes are radically different. Beth simply does not feel empathy, and she lacks the ability to connect with others—a product of her mind’s attempts to shut out and detach herself from her past abuse.

Within this film this young girl admits to engaging in highly sadistic, cruel, and often sexual acts upon her brother and animals, as well as just generally displaying a blatant disregard for the rights of others, as well as social norms—which includes the right to life. There is a certain poignancy in hearing a young child’s wishes to murder her parents, as well as her attempts to kill her brother. Demonstrating how abuse can turn innocent young individuals into brutal, remorseless killers, Child of Rage ultimately expresses hope that, if caught at a young enough age, reactive attachment disorder can be treated with rigorous therapy, and the damage reversed—thus bringing a conscience back to a child who would otherwise go through life without one. Beth’s final interview, where she breaks down in remorse for her past self, is truly a tear-jerker.

10 Terrible Events Behind Your Favorite Movies

It takes a whole heck of a lot of work to make a feature film. Hundreds of people are pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into films that could take years of labor before they get to see the light of day. With so many people working around the clock, it is easy to see why bad things can happen during production. But sometimes things can go from bad to downright terrible.

10Christian Bale Nearly Kills Himself For The Machinist

Christian Bale can best be described as the real-life Nutty Professor. But instead of putting on a fat suit and pretending to be everybody in a film, Christian Bale opts for the more subtle approach of just going on insane diets to help him lose and gain weight like it’s nobody’s business. And I don’t mean something like dropping 20 pounds so you can look more like an action hero either. Christian Bale supposedly holds the record for the most weight lost for a role in the history of cinema, a whopping 30 kilograms (65 lbs). He said he wanted to lose more, but medical professionals warned him that he would likely die if he attempted it.

Just how much did he weigh when filming started? A whole 50 kilograms (110 lbs). He achieved this weight by dining on a single can of tuna and an apple every single day leading up to the beginning of the film’s production. The stress of starving himself was so great that he actually took up smoking to help curb his appetite and calm himself down. If you’re ever doing something that requires you to smoke to keep sane, you probably shouldn’t be doing it. The effects of his weight loss were extremely apparent throughout filming as Christian Bale found himself incapable of running long distances for more than a minute or two at a time simply because his body had eaten away at his muscles. Just as impressive, however, is the fact that he regained all his original weight plus some extra in the span of a few months to prepare for the movie Batman Begins.

9One Scene Took A Year In The Shining

Stanley Kubrick might be remembered as one of the greatest directors in the history of film making, but that title didn’t come to him very easily. Famous for being so meticulous in his set designs that more than one of his films has sparked conspiracy theories, the most famous being that he helped faked the Moon landing and then hid evidence of it in the movie The Shining. On top of this, he was also absolutely cruel to people working with him on his different movies. Another popular piece of trivia that comes from The Shiningis the fact that every page with the phrase “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” was hand written on a typewriter by an actual person.

But that isn’t even the beginning of Kubrick’s madness and attention to detail. It was very common for Kubrick to reshoot the same scene dozens of times until he felt he had the perfect shot for the film. The scene where the character Hallorann explains what the shining actually is took a world record148 takes, but that is nothing compared to the famous blood elevator scene. While it only took three takes, it actually took nine days to set the elevator up each time they needed to do a reshoot. The scene took up less than 30 seconds of run time, but ended up taking a full year’s worth of editing before Kubrick had something he wanted to add into the movie.

8People Earn Less Than Dogs In The Wizard of Oz

If you haven’t seen the version of The Wizard of Oz that was released in 1939, then you’re either under the age of six or currently living in a very foreign country. Practically everyone in the United States will end up viewing this movie at least once in their lifetime, and the reason is obvious: The film is a bona fide classic. But just because the movie has been the subject of nearly 80 years of praise doesn’t mean that everyone involved got their fair share from the movie’s success.

I am, of course, talking about the little people who played the Munchkins of the Lollipop Guild in the movie. While the rumors that one of the Munchkins hung himself on camera and ended up appearing in one of the film’s scenes isjust a rumor, it is easy to see why such a rumor might have been started when you hear that the actors playing the Munchkins were paid a mere $50 a week for their work. Sure that isn’t anything to scoff at in terms of 1930′s money, but then you hear that the dog that played Toto received $125 per week. They weren’t even earning half of what a dog earned, despite the fact that they were humans with actual lines in the movie.

7Film Fitzcarraldo Was More Difficult Than Real Life

Fitzcarraldo is the story of a clearly insane man who longed to build an opera house out in the jungle. He planned on paying for his dream by having his 300-ton boat hauled over a 40-degree slope so he could reach a vast network of untouched reserves of rubber. Now here’s where things get crazy. The movie is based on the true story of a man named Carlos Fitzcarrald who actually did haul his boat over a 40-degree hilltop to reach said rubber reserves. But instead of hauling a 300-ton boat all in one piece, the person the story is based on only hauled a 32-ton boat, and that was only after the boat was taken apart so it could be rebuilt on the other side.

While moving a 32-ton boat in pieces through the Amazon rainforest can be considered nearly impossible at best, Herzog was determined to move his 300-ton vessel for real, simply because it looked more dramatic. And that’s exactly what he did. Other than the added help of a bulldozer for support behind the boat itself, nearly everything was done by hired natives and contractors. As if trying to push a boat that big wasn’t dangerous enough, they also faced attacks from natives, animals, and just whatever else nature could throw at them. Limbs were lost, people “might” have died, and a boat was successfully moved over a hilltop. And it only took four years of hard work and a blatant disregard for anything resembling a world based in reality.

6Sacrilege In Old Boy

Many religions have dietary restrictions. Some of them have days where you can’t eat for certain periods of time while there are others that simply forbid you from eating or drinking very specific things. Then there is Buddhism. While eating meat is frowned upon in certain areas that practice Buddhism, you aren’t actually going against Buddhism by doing it. That is, unless you’re eating something that was killed specifically for you. Purposefully ending another animal’s life just so you can eat it is a no-no in Buddhism. The reason I’m bringing this up is because Choi Min-sik is a Buddhist.

And he ate a live octopus to film a scene in the movie Old Boy. Not one octopus mind you: He ate four whole living octopi before the director got the shot that he wanted. While it was against his religion to do so, Choi Min-sik understood that the scene was extremely important for his character and willingly ate the invertebrates. He did, of course, pray for forgiveness after each take, and the octopi were given a special thank-you message after the movie was released to make up for the act of killing them.

5People Almost Died In Lord Of The Rings

When you work on a series of films such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the better part of a half decade, you can’t really be surprised when something goes wrong every once in a while. No matter how safe and careful you are, you’re always just buying yourself a little extra time until the next accident happens, and there sure were a lot of accidents on set. Most of the time they were nothing serious, but we aren’t interested in what happens most of the time. During the scene where Aragorn is floating down a river unconscious, the actor Viggo Mortensen was pulled into a rapid and flung past where all of the safety technicians were. The current forced him into a stone wall and held him underwater out of sight for several seconds until he luckily slipped out of the current pushing him.

While drowning would be a pretty awful way to go, Viggo Mortensen almost one-upped himself with a knife to the face. During a battle with an orc, there was supposed to be a scene where an actual blade was thrown into a tree. When it came time to throw the blade, the orc’s throw was off center and the knife went flying straight for Viggo’s face. Viggo deflected the blade with his sword just before it struck him, narrowly avoiding disaster once again (and accidentally revealing himself as the physical manifestation of Aragorn).

4Oompa Loompas In Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was filmed in Germany nearly 25 years after the fall of the Nazis, but that doesn’t mean that the crew working on the movie didn’t have to deal with the effects that Hitler left behind, because one of the many groups Hitler had a problem with those he deemed to have birth defects, which included people with dwarfism.

As you probably noticed, Willy Wonka employed quite a few little people in his factory. This caused a problem with the casting director, because back in the ’60s and ’70s, it was virtually impossible to find any adult little people in Germany, let alone one that had acting or singing lessons. To find the people they needed for their movie, they were forced to look all over Europe just to get a handful of actors, not all of which had any theatrical training. If you watch closely during the movie, you can see some of them aren’t even singing. This is because quite a few of them couldn’t even speak English (let alone remember their lines) when they were hired onto the movie.

3Everybody Got Cancer For STALKER

The movie STALKER is probably the weirdest one on this list. A foreign scifi-ish movie based on the book A Roadside Picnic (in which nothing happens while at the same time, everything happens). It can be hard to follow the first time through and requires more than one viewing to fully understand. I’m only explaining all this because it is most likely the least-watched film on this list—a real shame seeing as at least three people died just to get it out to you. Everything in the movie STALKER was filmed on location at or near a chemical dumping site. In the movie, the area was titled “The Zone” and was considered an area where no human was meant to tread. In real life, it was a highly toxic area where no human was meant to tread.

The effects of the radiation and poisoning of the land were extremely apparent throughout filming. During a scene where the Stalker lies in a small stream, you can see iridescent colors streaking the water. This wasn’t planned for the film: The colors in the water were caused by chemicals being dumped in by a nearby factory. Even more shocking was a scene where snow began to fall in what was clearly a summer location. Again, these were insanely hazardous chemicals falling out of the sky and anyone (especially women) who came into contact with them became violently ill. Multiple people on set developed cancer and at least three died as a result. To make matters even worse, most of the original film was destroyed in an accident, forcing everyone to go back to the toxic location and film again, further infecting themselves with whatever horrors the Zone had to offer.

2Bigfoot Gets AIDS In Harry And The Hendersons

Through the 1970s up until his death in 1991, Kevin Peter Hall was pretty much every monster you ever saw in a movie or TV show thanks to his 218 centimeter stature (7’2″), but he was most famous for playing the Predator inthe movies of the same name. While working on the television show Harry and the Hendersons as Harry the Bigfoot, Kevin Peter Hall was involved in a serious car accident and had to be rushed to the hospital for a blood transfusion. Unfortunately, the blood he received was tainted with HIV and he contracted AIDS as a result. Very shortly after his diagnoses, he developed pneumonia and died from complications stemming from AIDS.

1The Twilight Zone Claims A Man And Two Children

The Twilight Zone is one of the most classic television shows ever produced in America. The stories are so well-known that people could tell you the twists that happen in most episodes despite having never even seeing a single episode of the hit show. This isn’t because they were predictable, but because they left such lasting impressions on people over the decades that they just kept cropping up as homages in different shows and movies. The legacy of Rod Serling will certainly live on for many decades to come, but there will always be a black mark on its record after the events that claimed the lives of three people on the set of the 1980s movie remake simply titledThe Twilight Zone.

Early one morning, Vic Morrow and two young Vietnamese children were filming a war scene where Vic had to carry the two children through waist-deep water while being chased by a helicopter. Vic Morrow had joked shortly before filming that he should have gotten a stunt double since the scene looked dangerous and difficult, but he decided to do it himself anyway. Shortly after the director yelled “Action,” a problem arose with pyrotechnics coming too close to the helicopter. The helicopter pilot was unable to correct for his adjustments, and his aircraft came crashing down on Vic Morrow and the two children. Vic and one of the children were decapitated by the helicopter’s blades while the second child was crushed underneath the water.

Five people, including director John Landis, were charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter. They were all found not guilty and served no jail time. There were arguments saying that the children should have never been in the water and that multiple child safety and labor laws had been broken by having them film such a dangerous scene so early in the morning, but it was determined to be irrelevant in the overall court rulings.

10 Amazing Amputees Who Triumphed Over Their Disability

At one time, amputees were quite rare—before the advent of modern medicine, losing a limb was often a death sentence. The process of ligating blood vessels was not pioneered until 1529, and the tourniquet did not come along until 1674. If a person lost a limb, they typically bled to death within minutes, and if they survived that trauma, infection often finished the job. As the years wore on, processes improved so that whole legions of dismembered Civil War soldiers managed to limp home.

Today, the ordeal of losing a body part is certainly traumatic, but the options for amputees have grown truly mind-boggling, with a near future that includes robot arms and legs hardwired directly into our brains.

10Philippe Croizon

In 1994, French steelworker Philippie Croizon was working on a metal ladder when he suffered a horrifying electric shock. Despite their best efforts, doctors were forced to amputate all his limbs. While recovering in his hospital bed, he saw a show on television about a woman swimming across the the English Channel. The program lifted him out of the depression he’d suffered since the incident, and he soon began training in earnest. In September of 2010, Philippe plunged into the Channel off the coast of Kent, England. In under 14 hours, he swam 33.8 kilometers (21 mi), arriving at Cap Gris Nez, France, and becoming the first quadruple amputee ever to swim the English Channel.

In the years since, he has completed similar swimming challenges around the world. Croizon made headlines again in August 2013, when thieves made off with his high-tech, $30,000 wheelchair. After he made a public plea, the chair was returned by a man who claimed he’d merely taken it for “safekeeping.”

9Oscar Pistorious

The story of Oscar Pistorious was one of the most inspiring in sports, though it took a dark and bizarre turn. Pistorious was born in 1986 with a condition called fibular hemimelia, a congenital absence of the fibula (one of the lower leg bones). At 11 months old, his legs were amputated between the knee and the foot so that he would be able to walk. An accomplished athlete throughout his youth, Oscar took up running while recovering from a rugby injury.

He would go on to earn the nickname “Blade Runner,” using a curved carbon fiber prosthetic called the Flex Foot Cheetah. In his short career, he earned dozens of medals, including six golds at the Paralympic Games. In 2012, he became the first ever amputee runner to compete in the Olympics when he ran in the London games.

Less than a year later, it would all come crashing down. On February 14, 2013, gunshots rang out at Pistorious’s home in Pretoria, South Africa. When the smoke cleared, Reeva Steenkamp, Oscar’s gorgeous model girlfriend, lay dead on the bathroom floor. Pistorious told police that he’d thought Reeva was in bed and the person he shot behind the closed bathroom door was an intruder. The subsequent investigation was fraught with complications. A trial date was finally set for March 2014. Pistorious was not dubbed a flight risk, and he returned to training in the summer of 2013, looking noticeably gaunt.

8Greg Gadson

Between 1985 and 1989, Greg Gadson played football for the US Military Academy at West Point. He would go on to a nearly two-decade-long career in the army, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. On the night of May 7, 2007, while traveling in Baghdad, Iraq, he lost his legs to a roadside bomb. When Gadson’s old West Point teammate Mike Sullivan heard what had happened, he went to visit the injured serviceman at Walter Reed Medical Center. Sullivan was an assistant coach for the New York Giants. When Sullivan asked if there was anything he could do for his friend, Gadson said he’d like to take his family to a Giants game.

During the next season, Sullivan obliged. 2007 had started on a sour note for the Giants—they were 0–2 when Gadson was invited to attend a game. But Sullivan asked Greg to address the team the night before the game, and he delivered a rousing sermon on the importance of teamwork and opportunity,firing up the team.

The Giants would go on to win six straight games. On January 20, Gadson was on the sidelines, serving as honorary co-captain when the Giants played the Green Bay Packers for the NFC Championship. They won, then went on to defeat the heavily favored New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. For his contribution, Gadson was given his very own ring.

In 2012, Gadson, who had since learned to walk on bionic prosthetics, had his first acting role, appearing in the action film Battleship.

7Jerry Garcia

Playing the guitar is an incredibly complex venture even with all 10 digits intact, but Grateful Dead lead singer Jerry Garcia managed to become one of the most legendary players in history with a mere nine. While on vacation as a small boy, he was holding a chunk of wood to be split by his older brother, Tiff. The ax missed its mark and about two-thirds of Jerry’s right middle finger was lost. The amputation was no doubt traumatic at the time, but it certainly didn’t keep him down for long. He was rated the 46th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone, and was known for borrowing from a vast number of styles. As an adult, he was fond of giving stunted middle-finger salutes to audiences.

6Kyle Maynard

Kyle Maynard was born with small stumps for arms and legs, a condition called congenital amputation. His disability seems not to have hampered him in the least—in high school he was a phenomenal athlete, participating in both football and wrestling. In 2009, he would go on to compete in a mixed martial arts event in Alabama. His opponent, Brian Fry, was able to evade Maynard’s takedowns, but Kyle went the distance, losing 27–30 on the judges’ decision.

These alone would be enviable accomplishments, but Kyle wasn’t even close to done. In 2012, he spearheaded Mission Kilimanjaro, climbing Africa’s tallest mountain as a way of raising awareness for disabled veterans. Using bike tires secured around his limbs with tape, he crawled all the way to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania on all fours, the first quadruple amputee to complete the audacious stunt.

5Tammy Duckworth

One of the many grim realities of war is the horrifying injuries of combatants. The recent conflict in the Middle East is no different. Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have sent hundreds of soldiers back home missing limbs. Tammy Duckworth was one such soldier. A member of the Army National Guard, she was co-piloting a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in 2004 when it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. In the fiery aftermath, her legs were destroyed and she almost lost her right arm. She became the first female double amputee of the Iraq War and faced a grueling recovery.

After her military career, she became involved in politics, working to further the cause of disabled soldiers with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. She was fitted with prosthetic legs and learned to walk. In 2013, she became thefirst disabled woman ever to be elected into the US House of Representatives, serving Illinois’s 8th District.

4Hugh Herr

As a teenager, Hugh Herr was one of the foremost mountain climbers in the world. While scaling New Hampshire’s Mount Washington in 1982, he and a friend were caught in a freak blizzard. The rescue was a disaster—both men suffered frostbite, and one of the volunteers died in an avalanche. Herr’s legs had to be amputated below the knees, and it seemed as though his climbing days were over.

But just a few months later, Herr had completed his rehabilitation, and using prosthetic legs he’d developed himself, he was back to climbing mountainsides, as good as or better than before. He went on to earn a master’s in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD in biophysics from Harvard. He is currently a professor, and much of his research is dedicated to robotic limb replacements. Indescribing his own legs, he says, “I’m titanium, carbon, silicon, a bunch of nuts and bolts. My limbs that I wear have 12 computers, five sensors, and muscle-like actuator systems that enable me to move throughout my day.”

3Cameron Clapp

Young Cameron Clapp lost his legs and right arm as a result of teenage recklessness. At 15, he was wandering drunk near railroad tracks in Arroyo Grande, California, when he apparently collapsed. The next train that came along took both legs above the knees and his right arm near the shoulder. He was not initially expected to survive—indeed, first responders were traumatized by the condition he was in when they found him on the tracks. Doctors told the boy he might only hope to walk a few steps in his lifetime, on special occasions like graduation.

Cameron went on to prove them wrong. From the moment he was introduced to prosthetics, he never returned to his wheelchair. He has become an accomplished athlete who can run, walk, swim, and even play golf. In addition, Clapp has acted on several television shows and in the movieStop-Loss.

His greatest accomplishment, however, has been in helping others cope with amputations. Clapp is active in the Amputee Coalition of America and has worked with many disabled veterans returning home from war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2Aimee Mullins

Born with the same congenital affliction as Oscar Pistorious, Aimee Mullins has accomplished more in her short life than most of us could ever aspire to. Despite having no lower legs, she became the first amputee to compete on an NCAA track team while attending Georgetown University and set Paralympic world running records before retiring from competition. In 1999, she began fashion modeling, working for Alexander McQueen, Kenneth Cole, and others. People magazine rated her among their 50 most beautiful people. But Mullins is more than just a pretty face. She is also an actress, who appeared in 2006’s World Trade Center, with several projects due out in 2014.

Aimee is a tireless advocate for those with disabilities and is a noted public speaker. She is well-known for her appearances at TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) medical conferences, where she shares her experiences and cutting-edge ideas in healthcare.

1Jeff Bauman

After the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, three people were left dead and 264 wounded, some of them missing limbs. One of the most enduring, gruesome images of this tragedy was that of Jeff Bauman, a young man who had both legs blown off in one of the blasts. He had been waiting at the finish line for his girlfriend, who was participating in the race. Despite the personal horror that he had suffered, Bauman was able to provide important eyewitness testimony to the FBI, leading to the subsequent death of suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the capture of his brother, Dzhokhar. Like many of those injured in the bombing, Bauman has appeared on television to share inspiring messages. Determined to resume a normal life, he has already begun walking on prosthetics. In September 2013, it was announced that Bauman would publish a memoir of his experiences in the wake of the bombing, titled Stronger.