0:00 The most famous photograph of "Tank Man" from Tiananmen Square isn't actually the only one.0:07 That’s right.0:08 At least three different photographers captured that same moment on June 5th, 1989, all from slightly different angles.0:17 Wow.0:17 That feels like a perfect extension of what we talked about in our last episode, "Behind the Shutter"—how one single event can create multiple, legendary images.0:29 But this one...0:30 this one is different.0:32 It is.0:33 Because this wasn't even during the main protest.0:36 This was the day after the bloody crackdown.0:40 The streets were supposed to be under military control.0:44 And then, just after noon, this one guy, holding what looks like two shopping bags, just… walks into the middle of Chang'an Avenue.0:54 So what were the photographers seeing?0:57 Where were they?0:58 They were all guests at the Beijing Hotel, which had a perfect, if terrifying, vantage point.1:05 You have Jeff Widener for the Associated Press, Stuart Franklin for The Observer, and Charlie Cole for Newsweek.1:14 They're all on different balconies, using long telephoto lenses, knowing that security forces are raiding rooms and confiscating film.1:24 So just taking the picture was a huge risk.1:28 A massive risk.1:29 In fact, Charlie Cole, after taking his shot, knew the Public Security Bureau was coming for him.1:36 He took the roll of film, went into his bathroom, and hid it inside the toilet's water tank.1:43 No way.1:44 Yes.1:44 They came, they searched his room, found his cameras, took out the unused film, but they never found the one that mattered.1:54 That photograph almost didn't survive the afternoon.1:58 Okay, so let's talk about the man himself.2:01 The person we only know as Tank Man.2:04 What did he actually do?2:05 Well, that's the human drama the still image can't fully show.2:10 He stands there, and the lead tank—a Type 59—stops.2:14 It tries to maneuver around him to the right.2:18 He sidesteps to block it.2:20 He's mirroring the tank's movements.2:22 Exactly.2:23 It’s this unbelievably tense, silent dance.2:26 The tank lurches left; he shuffles left.2:29 This happens three, four times.2:32 A single, unarmed person is bringing a column of military armor to a complete standstill.2:39 You can feel the split-second decisions happening for both the man and, uh, whoever was driving that tank.2:47 The driver could have just kept going.2:50 Could have.2:50 But didn't.2:51 And that hesitation is part of the story.2:54 But then, it gets even more surreal.2:57 What happens?2:58 The man gets impatient.3:00 He waves his bag at the tank, and then he starts to climb up onto it.3:05 He CLIMBS on the tank?3:07 I have seen that photo a thousand times, and I never knew that.3:12 Yeah, most people don't!3:14 He scrambles up onto the hull, right in front of the turret, and he appears to be talking to someone inside.3:22 A crewman even pops his head out briefly.3:25 We have no idea what they said.3:28 It’s this...3:28 impossible moment of communication.3:31 And then what?3:32 How does it end?3:33 He climbs back down.3:35 The tank engine is shut off.3:37 And for a moment, everything is just still.3:40 Then you see two men in blue shirts run out from the side of the road.3:46 They grab him, they gesture… it’s not violent, it’s more like they’re rushing him to safety.3:53 They pull him back into the crowd, and he disappears.3:57 And that's the last anyone ever saw of him.4:00 That's it.4:01 He vanishes from history.4:03 His name, his motive, his fate—all a complete blank.4:07 So the photograph becomes this monument to an unknown soldier of peace.4:12 It becomes one of the most powerful symbols of defiance in the 20th century.4:18 It’s everywhere.4:20 It defines how the world remembers Tiananmen.4:23 But, you know, the final irony is that in the one country where it happened, the image doesn't exist.4:31 It’s completely censored in China.4:33 Utterly.4:34 Scrubbed from the internet, erased from history books.4:38 The Chinese government has buried the past so deeply.4:42 And I think that's what gives the photo its enduring power.4:47 It’s a story about a man who stopped a tank, but it's also about an image that stops us, even now, and forces us to ask a question that an entire government is desperate to prevent us from asking: what happened to him?
