Boot Camp
HOST: Drill Instructors Dave Francisco, Leo McSweeney, Tony Rosenbaum, and Annette Taylor
OBJECT: Survive a month of marine boot camp instruction, successfully complete missions, survive eliminations, win the Gauntlet, and $500,000.
The sixteen players are subjected to marine Boot Camp, and must basically do as they're told for a month. That's really about it. They live the whole gamut of boot camp, from long training runs in full combat gear, to five minute meal times and sixty-second showers.
The Mission
Every few days, a mission is played. The team must elect one of the recruits to be the leader. The leader is taken away from the group, and debriefed on the particulars of the mission. Missions are based on military events:
retrieving a vial of poison antidote from a building a mile away,
repairing a Humvee and negotiating an obstacle course
rescuing a POW, rigging an explosive and blowing up a watchtower,
moving a 450-pound Zodiac boat through an obstacle course,
crossing through a field of planks and stumps without touching the ground;
traversing a laser labyrinth within a specific time.
If the team completes the mission within the time frame, the captain cannot be voted out of the game, and the team wins a reward. Rewards range from an extra hour of sleep, a feast of favorite foods, an hour in a hot tub, or a night at a four-star hotel. Failing the mission subjects the group to various punishments (losing sleep time, having their barracks 'rearranged,' harsh physical training, and the like). Additionally, the captain is not exempt.
Voting
The players vote for the one person they want out of the game. The votes are tallied by the DI's, and the one with the most votes gets the boot. As a bit of revenge, the ousted player may remove any other player (unless the Captain is exempt) from the game for any reason.
The Gauntlet
Modeled after the Marine Corps' "The Crucible," the two remaining recruits must endure a series of events in succession, each one being worth a set of dog tags from a fallen teammate. After the events, the six recruits who were eliminated via the revenge oust pledge their dog tags to the recruit they want to win. Out of the 13 tags, whichever recruit wins 7 or more wins $500,000; the runner-up gets $100,000.
Events in the gauntlet were named after the fallen recruits:
Lauder's Last Stand: The two finalists each stand on a set of footprint depressions on a raised box. Whoever steps off first loses. The air temperature was 39 degrees, and the contestants were wearing no extra clothes, along with their 30 pound combat packs.
Coddington's Crossing: A two mile obstacle course, in which the finalists must run through sand, crawl under barbed wire, go through a mud pit, run through tires, climb a rope over a wall, and kayak across a lake. The course is run twice, once after the first event to establish a time, and the next on the second day; whoever beats their first time by the most wins the event.
Haar's Heartbreak: Each recruit must cover 1.5 miles in the fastest time possible, the person who beats their original time by the most seconds wins. The finalists are not told of the finish for this event until the final reveal.
Park's Peak: A three-part event with two stages. The two recruits begin by running up a three story tower. Then, they must rappel down a rope, passing by a quote. Upon reaching the bottom, they must write the quote exactly as it appears: spelling, punctuation and all. Get it right to stop the clock; miss and the recruit has to go back and do it again until the quote is perfect. Three quotes are played, and the lower cumulative time wins.
Moretti's Memory: Each finalist competes separately, and is shown a series of slides. They are given 15 seconds to study the slide, then 10 more seconds to answer a question about what was on the slide. Whoever got more right out of 18 questions would win the event, but the winner would not be revealed until the very end.
Meyer's March: Going in separate directions, the recruits must march 10 miles in the fastest time, while carrying a bag with 20% of the finalist's body weight. That recruit wins.
Jackson's Hold: Each recruit holds a set of dogtags through a ring and over red gelatin. Whoever lets the tags fall and get dirty loses.
The final event is the second running of the obstacle course.
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