Will Smith Had a Near-Death Experience While Diving Under the Ice at the North Pole | Tonight Show

Looking good Thanks for being on the show it's a big show for us because we're following the NBA game I'm now an NBC and I know that you are a big basketball fan. Yes. I've used to love it But but when my knees were younger No, I found a photo of you that I wanted to ask you about playing. Oh, no this is a Jaleel white going past you and Reggie Miller Wow What would you what do you remember what is that that's what the MTV is that's the Yeah, that is. I mean, I thought Reggie had him Reggie Miller like he should have been able to stop thing. Yeah, like Urkel like yeah, exactly Yeah, yeah. Yeah, cuz I was defending somebody else. Of course you are. Yeah I want to talk about your show pulled the pole by the way Trending number one right now It's a travel show it takes Will Smith around the world South Pole North Pole, it's frightening Yeah, it was it was negative 37 at the at the South Pole Yeah, and it's funny cuz it cuz it stops feeling cold. It feels like fire It's like if it feels like the opposite of cold cuz all the way around. Yeah Yeah, and it was like like I had Explorer beard. That was the one thing I really wanted like where you know, you see the Explorers. Yeah, where they have like the ice Hanging out their nose Yeah, so I had that so I was very I was very happy to have that was your goal I was that was my whole goal for the whole show. We could have ended right there Here this is you're climbing up this ice wall. Yeah. Yeah. Here's your guide. Yes Your guide is climbing up the ice wall that looks dry when he went first. Yeah first Here's a picture of you climbing the ice wall. Yeah behind him. Yes. Yeah, so I can't Well, I can't see warm a storm came in So he climbed up first and the way we do the show is I don't know What we're doing before we go because I want the audience to see me genuine react Genuine reaction to what we're doing. So I go and I know we're doing the South Pole, but I don't know exactly what we're doing So he goes up first Lowers the cables down So I'm going up and I had never done the ice climbing and a storm came in while I was climbing This is the craziest stuff and the craziest footage. Yeah. What do you do there? Do you go? Hey, let's do this tomorrow. Yeah No, it was like I was there I was like where the hell is my stunt man Yo National Geographic don't know the movie star rules When did you start doing all this daredevil stuff because I know that you you've dove to the deepest Yeah parts of the ocean you've climbed it. You're on the tallest building in Dubai and stuff. Yeah, you know it was You know, I really I blame Denzel actually you do. Thank you. It's a long story It's a long story, but probably like 15 years ago. I went to go to talk to Denzel You know, so we go to his house and you know Paulette and Jada go off and Denzel had worked all day Right, so he comes in he sits down and I could tell Pauletta made him talk to me, you know So he sits down and he says he says Everybody's 40s are funky. Yeah, I call it the funky 40s, you know, you've built this life up for yourself and everything and You know some parts of it don't work for you anymore But then you get to the epic 50s And you get to your 50s and you just say effort Thank you Just say effort and he said and you decide you're just gonna be yourself before you and you're gonna do what you Want to do and take what the world gives me? Yeah, and then Then we were you thinking of Denzel when you're Saying Now but you know, it was really, you know I wanted to I wanted to go out and I wanted to venture like I was at the point in my life Where I was kind of like beyond my material pursuits Yeah, you're not like achieved my dreams and stuff and I like I knew there was like another thing I was looking for and I knew it would be Inside of like my deepest fears. So I wanted to do some of the things I was most terrified The ice thing is the most scariest thing. Yeah. Yeah, this is that I say no Let me tell you what the one was. Oh, yeah, that's yeah that right there No, this scared me because so we would we went scuba diving at the North Pole, right? So we did a dive Under the ice Under the ice so you go under and you go under the ice and the ice can be up to like 10 feet thick So we're under we went out about 40 yards away and you have a tether on that goes back to 40 yards 40 yards away So it's like an upside down ice mountain range, right? So we went under and I start hearing abort dive abort dive abort This is real abort dive and I'm like, oh no, right so I went to ascend and hit ice So I'm under the ice. This is but like everyone's big And I was like, oh no will calm down calm down I had to grab so you have a tether on you have to grab your tether and pull yourself back to the hole, right? I grabbed and accidentally pulled my mask off Oxygen so you got oxygen and I was like and I put my mask back on my face and I was like Oh, no, and I was like will calm down and I was like if I get out of here I'm gonna only do black stuff from here American behavior So I'm laying there and I'm calm down and then I feel myself just start floating like somebody had grabbed my tether up top and started pulling and When I realized I was good I just relaxed and I looked around and when I tell you Like the Sun is coming through the ice and all of that and it went from like terror So like the most spiritual beautiful thing and I was just like whoever up there don't let go of my tether In the Amazon you see all sorts of bugs and Snakes and you don't like snakes. I don't like not like bugs and and like that was the rough one I was we were so we went to the the Amazon jungle and I was we weren't doing real expeditions So I was with real scientists and I was like tagging along on real expeditions And we went down in there. We milked a tarantula Did you know I didn't even know you could do that So you get the tarantula And you put Like trying to get the I mean I had never milked a tarantula Tarantula looked like he had never got milked before So we did that and then we went we went on a hunt for an anaconda so we were with the we were with the natives and like They they don't they didn't have no clothes on right like their whole name and address was hanging out And they they so we're going you know down the river and They see the anaconda and jump out of the boat into the water and swim for the anaconda Yeah, so it was for conservation. So what they do is they can They they had a sense that there was some kind of illegal dumping going on and the scales of the anaconda They hold what's ever in the water so they would take a scale from the anaconda and test it to be able to use it in court to Yeah, it was really well, and I don't know why they needed me. But you know, no it made this So you're not afraid of snakes anymore. No, I mean, I'm not been with an anaconda Yeah, but I mean like if I say I don't know brought out a boa constrictor. Would you be cool with it? I Live in reality We always got a snake. Oh, what if I brought out a boa constrictor? Could you have it? Can you hold it for 30 seconds without freaking out? I mean, I just don't know why you would do that Because you're our first guest and you're a good friend of the show you have a boa constrictor Let's bring out that snake. Come on. Let's see what's up Hey, how you guys done? How you doing? Oh My god. All right. Well, don't freak Don't Wow, no Start the timer start the timer go 30 seconds on the clock. Go. All right, well Moving yo, no, it's moving It's moving guys. Don't clap too loud. All right. No, well, how's it feeling? He's not looking at you, but his tongue He's really strong like you could I've never had like it's all muscle Really like feel this did I could feel this? Yeah. No, it's moving. It's constricting. You're right. Hold it It's happening. It don't like my shirt While Will's like this I want to show everyone a clip here's Will Smith in pole to pole take a look at this The team is hoping that like I would find my own species But I'm pretty sure that's not gonna happen Cuz I'm not really gonna look yeah, it's nothing here. Oh There's a spider You don't see that. Oh It's a family of them. Damn, that's like 10 Like somewhere around 10 spiders is where I leave