Netflix’s brand new documentary series Toughest Forces On Earth might just be the streaming giant’s most dangerous show yet – with all three hosts left bloodied and battered after an intense year of filming.
The exhilarating eight-part series follows former Special Operations soldiers; US Army Ranger Cameron Fath, British Special Forces operator Dean Stott, and US Navy Seal Ryan Bate, as they go deep inside the most elite military units on the planet in countries including Mexico and Austria.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, the trio shed light on just how brutal the process was, revealing they suffered a busted bicep, an extreme shoulder dislocation, and countless food poisonings, culminating in two surgeries.
But despite putting their bodies through hell and back in order to showcase the intensity of learning how forces operate in extreme environments, former soldier Cameron, 28, admitted they would ‘rather die than quit’ any of the unique challenges they were subjected to.
In the show’s third episode, the group travel to the north of Sweden to learn how the Parachute Rangers unit train at their world best arctic SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, escape) school.
US Army Ranger Cameron Fath, British Special Forces operator Dean Stott, and US Navy Seal Ryan Bate host Netflix’s new docu-series, Toughest Forces On Earth
Former soldier Cameron, 28, admitted the trio would ‘rather die than quit’ the training exercises
It’s not long before the sub-zero temperature takes its toll though, and Cameron is forced to sit out of the final task on medical grounds due to concerns he might be developing hypothermia – having already been subjected to surviving emersion in a cold ice hole.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Cameron revealed he had been fighting a horrible sickness before the threat of hypothermia.
‘I ended up getting one of the worst sicknesses I’ve ever had in my life on day one of filming,’ he said.
‘When Ryan and I were practicing our cross-country skiing, part of my practice was sprinting back and forth to the loo. I got food poisoning, and it wrecked me.
‘I was dry heaving during meetings, having to step outside and literally just throwing up.
‘Then the next day, I woke up with pinkeye in both my eyes and the worst flu, right up into filming for two weeks.’
Cameron explained that he had contracted a viral infection which lasted for over a week.
‘I was probably at my worst point when I did the ice hole,’ he said. ‘After that, I remember we rode snowmobiles to the frozen lake, and I was thinking to myself, “I’m like about to pass out.”
Cameron (left) struggled with the brutal subzero temperatures in the arctic, and after contracting a viral infection also risked hypothermia
Speaking to DailyMail.com, he revealed not long after landing in Sweden he contracted ‘the worst flu’ which saw him plagued with pink eye and nausea
‘I still did the ice hole because I’ve always wanted to do something like that, but that sent my body over the edge.’
Halfway through the episode, Cameron is told that he is no longer allowed to participate in the training practices because of his health and is ordered to spend 24 hours recovering.
‘At that point, I’d become more of a liability,’ he said. ‘I had to just put ego aside, because I was not going to be helping anybody by putting myself in that situation.’
But what the Netflix series didn’t show, was that Cameron’s illness worsened so significantly that he had to be quarantined.
‘I was in a hotel room by myself for five days,’ he said. ‘Then after that, I was probably sick for an additional week and a half.’
He wasn’t alone in his suffering though, as Ryan, 44, was also struck with the same illness after filming in Sweden had wrapped.
He said: ‘I went to the doctors because I had a temperature of 106 Fahrenheit. I was sick for about two and a half weeks right when I got back so I got exactly what he had, which was a miserable sickness.’
To add insult to injury, both hosts said they contracted food poisoning in almost every country they visited.
Ryan (right) also was taken down by a horrible viral infection, before later tearing his bicep
While Dean (left) was able to evade food poisoning, he suffered two gruesome dislocations
Turning his attention to his most painful injury from the series, Ryan revealed that he tore his bicep while the group were with the Navy Seals in the Philippines.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘I tore my bicep completely while playing basketball which sucks. It happened during the first week we were in the Philippines.
‘I didn’t know it was torn until I got back home, I thought it was just a strain.
‘I went and had a surgery maybe a couple days after I got back. I had completely torn my bicep and had to have it reattached to my tendons again.’
Dean, 47, however, arguably suffered the worst injury – having had his shoulder ripped out while dangling from a helicopter in Malaysia.
The trio had been training with the Gerak Khas, the elite Malaysian Special Forces unit who boast some of the hardest training in the world.
‘In Malaysia when I was doing the firing, I was hanging from a helicopter when it took off and ripped my shoulder out of the socket,’ Dean said. ‘I’m still waiting on surgery now from that.’
Dean’s shoulder was ‘ripped’ out of its socket while he was hanging from a helicopter
Toughest Forces On Earth is now streaming all eight episodes on Netflix
Recalling the horrific incident, cohost Ryan added: ‘The rope looked like something you would order on Etsy. It was like a rope tied inside of another rope.
‘You’re supposed to have nine or ten feet of separation between each one, but they were clumped in the bottom.’
Reflecting on the events, Dean said: ‘I couldn’t do anything because my arm was trapped and I had a GoPro in the other arm.
‘I just had to wait until we landed, which was fine.’
He also injured his hand while training with the Jagdkommando, the elite special operations unit of the Austrian Armed Forces.
‘I did my thumb in the killing house in Austria which was fine because it went back in,’ he disclosed.
Discussing the brutality, Dean added: ‘In the Special Forces, the majority of deaths and injuries happen during training anyway.
‘You can’t do adrenaline fuelled exercises like that without any injuries along the way.’
Although all three hosts were tested to the max, quitting the training exercises never crossed their minds.
‘You adapt a certain mindset where you would rather die than quit,’ Cameron admitted.
‘I remember when I was about to go through Ranger Assessment and Selection, the captain said, “If you quit you’re a quitter for the rest of your life. There’s no going back if you quit and you’re gonna know that you couldn’t do it.”
‘It’s almost worse than death because it sticks with you.’
