This is your classic
"mysterious fog is actually a portal to another dimension" story.
We've set today's Prank Encounter at the fictional Produce Depot Warehouse,
a facility that distributes fruits and vegetables all around the world.
And it just so happens
to be right next door to a very large chemical conglomerate,
whose track record of safe practices
have been less than stellar in recent weeks.
So much so, that the surrounding businesses have been very vocal about it,
including Produce Depot,
who've noticed that their more recent crops have had some serious issues
ever since the chemical company started releasing a strange mist into the air.
So today, these two people are about to get down and dirty
as they peel back the layers of this mystery.
First meet Locke.
He'll be working in quality control at Produce Depot
along with Jay and Beck, who are being played by our actors.
Locke will be helping sort the good fruits and vegetables
from the strangely mutated fruits and vegetables.
Meanwhile, just next door,
Mercedes will be working with another actor named June,
the head of public relations for the chemical company.
They'll be doing community outreach,
letting people know that everything they do is perfectly safe,
including this weird mist.
Now, Locke and Mercedes don't know each other.
They also don't know that everyone they're about to meet are actors.
They have no idea that their experience battling this time-altering mist
will all be captured on hidden camera.
Everyone ready?
Let's do this.
So, Locke, it is.
-Yes. -Right?
-You're helping me out today. -Okay.
I'm Beck.
-Beck? -Beck. Mm-hm.
-Uh… -We're glad to have you.
-Thanks for coming. -Absolutely.
All right, super simple, all he's gotta do is sort the good fruit from the bad fruit.
We've got a couple of different batches of fruits and vegetables,
and what we're doing is we're going through
and sorting through the good fruit versus the bad fruit.
-Okay. -I'm gonna put you over here,
and you're gonna use this notepad.
And so essentially, what's going to happen is,
I need you to help me make a good assessment
before we push these out to market.
'Cause we have a significant amount of not so great fruit today.
So we really need to take inventory on those.
Show me Mercedes.
[whirring]
[woman] We might be touring the facility,
so just to protect you and our products
-from any allergens. -Right. Okay.
[both chuckle]
Now that we're done with protocol, welcome to TCT!
-TCT. Okay. -I'm June.
-June. Okay. -I'm happy to see you and have you today.
-What was your name again? -Mercedes.
-Mercedes? -Yes. Like the car. [laughs]
[laughs] Vroom, vroom?
No, yeah, literally "Vroom, vroom." I hear it all.
-[June] Do you? -[Mercedes] Hear it all.
[Gaten chuckles] Okay. Let's get her up to speed on what TCT does.
So TCT, we manufacture lots of different products.
-Oh, okay. -So we have contracts with the military.
-Oh, okay. -We also do household products as well.
-Okay. Perfect. -So, things like frying pans…
-Right. -…you know, microwaves.
-All across the board. -Can be a microwave for the space station.
-That's crazy! -Yeah!
-The algorithm YouTube uses, we help with. -Really?
Yep.
-So y'all do a lot. Yeah. Y'all do a lot. -We do.
-I'm gonna have a lot of questions. -TCT is everywhere.
[whirring]
What do you think about this one? I think this might be pretty good for us.
If it's… Is it soft?
-It is, but it's just right. -It looks good to me.
-Just right? -Looks good.
[Beck] Okay. We'll take it.
[Gaten] All right, Beck. Let's start showing Locke the bad fruit.
Wow.
Look at this.
[Locke] Is that tomato bad?
[Beck] Ugh!
Oh, my gosh.
Look at this.
-Jay! -[Jay] Yeah.
[Beck] What is this?
[Jay] Looks like somethin's comin' out of it.
-This is disgusting. Look at the potatoes. -Where'd these come from?
Yeah, these are California, but everything was good when it got here.
-It's literally these last couple days. -[Beck] Oh, my God.
What is in this orange?
What is this green stuff?
-Look at this. -[Jay] I mean, what the hell is this?
Yeah, I mean, we're not talkin' about whether you eat that.
It's like, have you ever seen that before? I've never seen anything like that.
And we're losin' money.
[Gaten] Let's jump back to Mercedes.
So we've been doing a thing called a steam release…
-Okay. -…which we released a couple days ago.
-Okay. -It's just what's being emitted
from our plants, essentially.
I mean, it's pretty much… It's natural. Like, it's…
-Right. -…very safe.
Okay.
[Beck] Jay, it's not lookin' so good over here.
I've-- I've never seen it go down this bad.
[Beck] Yeah.
-Yeah. There's that-- there's that plant. -[Beck] I know.
-It's terrible. -They're puttin' off that fog.
Let me ask you, Locke, are you… You've been around this area a-- a lot.
-Drivin' down 75. -[Locke] Sure.
You ever see all the steam sometimes when you're driving?
Yeah.
So we are gonna be doing another steam release
tomorrow at about noon, so we're just gonna be friendly neighbors.
We're basically just gonna call the nu… our neighbors here, on the list,
and we're gonna just tell them,
"We're gonna be doing a steam release tomorrow."
"Do you have any questions or concerns?"
-A friendly heads-up. -They just need to be notified?
Notified, exactly.
-Okay. -But we are available to meet in person
-if anyone requests that we come over. -Okay.
[Gaten] All right. Let's get ready to cue the potato effect.
Oh, wow.
That two bad ones, or just one? Two?
[sucking]
What the fuck's that?
[sucking continues]
[Beck] You wouldn't put that on the shelf, would you?
All right, uh, Jay, let's-- let's show him the rash now.
Let's show him your gills.
[laughing]
Beck, did somethin' bite me?
-Look at this. -[Beck gasps]
Oh…
What is that?
It almost looks like gills. Ooh.
-Locke, can you see that on his neck? -Yeah.
-You ever seen that? -They itch.
I don't know what it is.
-I won't touch it. -A headache…
-Jay, normally, I would help you out, but… -No. Whatever.
-We can call the medic. -Yeah, all right.
-We'll call the medic once people-- -It was a spider. I'm fine.
[Gaten] All right. Cut back to Mercedes.
Time to get her talking to Jay in the warehouse.
Let's make that call.
-What's the first name on that list? -Uh…
We are calling Jay Holmberg.
Okay.
[phone rings]
-[Locke] That's not an orange? -[Beck] No.
[Locke] How's that orange that bad?
-Hey, it's Jay. -[Beck] I know.
Hey, Jay, this is Mercedes with TCT.
No, we were kinda talkin' about you a little while ago.
We're callin' to give you a friendly heads-up
that we're havin' another steam release.
[Jay] Um…
Yeah, something's wrong.
It was bad two days ago.
I'm kinda pulling my hair out over here.
I wanted to ask some people some questions.
I just don't know who to ask, so…
It's completely natural, yeah. It's just a steam release.
I'd like to relate it to when steam releases from your body.
Yeah, something's not right with my fruit.
And I'd-- I'd really like it if you guys came by.
-What time works for you? -Yeah, we're here.
We're-- we're just trying to, you know, go across the damages.
I… [sighs]
-We can head over there right now. -Yeah, absolutely. That'd be really great.
-All right, sounds good. -Thanks. I appreciate it.
-Yeah, no problem. -Thank you.
-Check it out. The chemical company… -[Beck] Yeah.
…they just called.
And they're gonna come down and-- and talk to us in a little bit.
-What was the main thing he said? -Uh, that something's on the produce.
What, does he think our-- our steam has anything to do--
Yeah, he just wants to know if it does. I guess, our personal opinion on it.
Anything weird. There's too much weird goin' on.
-If they come, we wanna show everything. -[Beck] Yeah.
Did you even have explanation of, "Hey, like, here's the deal"?
His concern is, is it affecting his fruit that's on the floor,
ready to go out.
-Okay. -Should we Google that?
Write "oozing green liquid."
-For the orange and the tomato. -Okay.
-[Mercedes] It's a five-minute walk? -We can walk over now.
-Any questions for me? -You have a pen?
Uh-- No.
All right, guys, Mercedes on the way.
All right, it's almost collision time.
But first, I wanna get those mangoes movin'.
[giggling]
[Beck yelps]
Okay.
One of those mangoes moved.
Jay?
[Gaten] Mercedes and June are exiting the plant. They'll be here any minute.
[Beck] I feel like I'm goin' crazy right now, but…
[Jay] Yeah. We all feel a bit… Are you--
[Beck] Fruit moving. Mangoes moving.
[whirring]
[Mercedes] What was his name again?
-No, I think it was Jay. -Hi. You're looking for Jay?
-Uh, did I speak with you on the phone? -Yeah.
-Mercedes, TCT. What's the problem? -These are them.
-Your produce… -Them?
I'm afraid so.
I'd love to show you.
-Show us. -We're having big problems with produce.
-Let me get some face gear on with you. -Okay. For sure.
All right, Mercedes has arrived.
Time for them to collide.
-[Jay] Mercedes. Locke. -[Mercedes] Hi. How are you?
So I've been here probably 15, 20 minutes now, maybe.
Um, we're going through the fruit,
-picking out good ones, bad ones. -Right.
[Locke] I haven't done all the bananas, but--
-I can see what you're-- -We haven't seen a single good banana.
-Not one. -[Locke] I mean, like…
When you pick 'em up by the stem, they just fall off.
When your steam rolled into this bay a few days ago,
this is when we noticed it, and we're just wondering
if there's some sort of connection somewhere.
-Right. Because-- -[Beck] We're beginning to think there is.
We've never had this issue. And this is a lot of money.
-Here. -Oh, yeah.
This is not good for business at all.
-I understand. -[Beck] Yeah.
I don't think it's anything to do with our steam,
-but I'm gonna call my boss. -Yeah. Sure.
Um, so I guess we'll research and try to see what correlation there is.
I'm gonna document everything bad, basically.
[man on phone] I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? What-- what happened?
This is our first experience of this fruit lookin' like this.
Listen up. I just talked to my boss.
I explained the situation,
and so he wants to take care of whatever you are owed.
-It doesn't matter the price. -I don't know who to talk to for that.
-We have to talk to Jay about that. -[Beck] Sounds good.
-[Jay] How are we lookin'? -[Mercedes] Hey, Jay.
We're gonna go ahead and reimburse you for all the damaged produce.
-You need a list of what's owed. -Yeah.
-Absolutely. -That make sense?
-And then we'll take care of it. -Oh! Bonanza!
-I mean, you're saving me. -Oh, no--
-I sure do appreciate this. -Yeah, no. For sure. You're welcome.
Deeply. Can we just do this right now? Can I have you all come back to my office,
bring all of the-- the information that you've been gathering,
-and we all put it down on paper? -Fantastic. We'd like this to go away.
Let's take 'em to the office.
[Jay] Come on back.
So you don't have the inventory list of everything that was damaged?
I know what you're asking. I don't know how many apples were in the container.
-I don't know how many oranges. -[Mercedes] Right.
Locke, a lot.
[laughs]
-[June] We'll do this. -Yeah.
-So you have an inventory list. -Yeah.
Write down all of the fruits and the vegetables, all of your losses.
-[Jay] All right. -Then, on that sheet,
write all the notes that you wrote,
and after that, I'll talk to my boss,
we'll come up with a number, and then we will write you a check today.
-Today? -Today.
-Oh, man.
-Today! [laughs] -Come here. Really?
So this is what we're gonna do.
It's hard to look at a box of apples, right?
-What I need you to do is-- -[siren blares]
[Beck] Whose plant is that?
-Is that ours? -That's not ours.
That's ours.
-[Beck] It's yours? -[June] Yeah.
Look at the monitor. What is that?
[siren continues blaring]
[Mercedes] You see this, June?
-Hey, we're not supposed to release today. -[Mercedes] Is that what that is?
Beck, go. Go on, go find out.
Close the door. Close it tight.
[siren blaring]
[Jay] Close it up. Lock it down.
[Beck] Come on. Push this down.
This is what happened to the fruit. This is exactly what I'm talking about.
[grunts]
It's not coming down. It's not coming down.
Come on, guys.
It won't seal. It will not shut.
[Jay] Get out of there. Go to the break room.
Come on, guys. Follow me. Follow me. Come on.
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
-[Jay on radio] Okay. Get out. -[Beck] Let's go.
[siren blaring]
I'm telling you, man.
I have not been feeling good. Nobody has.
This fog, this steam, I got hit by it the other day.
Look at it.
[Mercedes] That's the kinda questions and concerns I need.
What the hell is going on, man?
-I got this. I have headaches. -I'm told everything is safe.
We have other headaches.
We had people not showin' up to work. This isn't normal, man.
Okay, so I want everyone to stay away from this fog.
Oh, absolutely. If that's on his neck, and they're having headaches… 100%.
I'm gonna be honest with you. We're not sure what, uh…
I'm not saying "we"… TCT as a whole know exactly what they're dealing with.
I am not knowledgeable on it.
I'm the claims specialist. But I'm going to do due diligence,
do my research, see if there's any type of correlation.
-Right. -We wouldn't have just released toxins
or any type of fog that we knew would hurt,
so, honestly, coming from us, we thought it was completely safe and natural.
-[Jay] Right. -Let us do our research.
Let us make sure and dot our T's and I's and…
-Right. -Yeah, something's goin' on.
[Beck] Ooh!
[groans]
-[moans] -[Locke] It's comin' in right now.
[Beck moaning]
She's screaming. They're itching. She's crying.
We need to go outside--
We-- we cannot go outside with that fog.
-This is not okay. -[Jay] Who knows? Keep the door closed.
All right. I'm goin' in for the reveal, guys.
[Beck wailing]
The fog's comin' in here.
Okay, listen, guys. I don't know if we'll make it out.
I have to tell you something. My company…
we made a big mistake.
-That's not mist. -What?
It's a vapor…
-[hissing] -[siren blaring]
…from another dimension.
We opened something that we weren't supposed to open.
There's things that are happening, and we can't stop it.
That thing on Jay's neck, that's just the beginning.
We can't let that mist, that vapor, touch us.
[hissing]
Oh, my God!
-[snarling] -[wails]
Y'all, these people are dyin'.
[screaming and growling]
-Call 911. Call 911. -[June] Okay.
-[banging] -[June screams]
[Jay] Holy fuck!
-[June] Holy shit! -Call 911.
You have your phone?
No, it's in there. They told me to take it out.
-[Jay] Get out! Get out! -Oh, my God. Get back.
Go through the vent! Go through the vent!
-[snarling] -No! No!
Y'all, they got a guy and they're dragging him! We gotta get the fuck out!
We have to open the doors! We have to go!
-[Jay] Move it! Get out! -They're fucking… Guys!
-I fuckin' see him. -We gotta go!
-We gotta go! Call 911! -[June] We cannot go out there.
Call 911!
-[screams] What the fu-- -[Jay] Help!
-[snarling] -Help! Help! Help!
Help! Help!
[growling and hissing]
-Help! Help! -[screaming]
-[growling] -[Mercedes screams]
What the fuck is that?
We got to go!
[Jay] No! No!
We're on a episode of fuckin' Stranger Things.
[yells]
You're on my prank show!
Whew…
Are you in on this shit? Oh, my God!
-Were you in on it? Oh, wow! -I'm so sorry.
-What the fuck? -[June laughs]
Mercedes, Locke, you're on my prank show.
-Oh. Cool. -Thank you! Oh, my God!
-I thought you were lyin' to me. -[Gaten laughing]
-Welcome to Prank Encounters. -I am so glad that everyone
and this produce is safe.
Oh, everyone's fine. Everyone's good. Have you two ever met before today?
-We've never met. -No.
No. You're the only two that were not in on this.
Everyone here is in on the prank.
Oh, my gosh.
What did you think when you saw the condition of the fruit?
I was like, "What's goin' on? What's goin' on here?"
Who was trying to save me from the mutant? Someone was pulling on my--
-It was me! -It was you!
-I was thinking of her and him. -I kinda saw you. "Somebody's helpin' me."
I've never been so relieved to see you in my life.
[laughing]
We couldn't have done this awesome prank without you guys.
Everybody back at home.
-Thank you. -[all cheering]
There you go from us…
Whoo!