The Time When Ben Nearly got Jack Eaten by a Crocodile

Another story from the road with Ben and Jack Wylson. Fortunately, they lived to tell the tale. This time, Ben tells the story.

With the sun sinking fast on the Yucatan Peninsular, just up the road from Tulum, a pristine silver Cadillac cruises towards us across an ancient rickety wooden bridge. It’s the place where salt water meets fresh - red on one side, azure, on the other. The air is thick with humidity and the binaural chirruping of cicadas is syncopated by the odd exotic bird call. Jack glances to the tree line to note a flourish of colourful wings with a subtly raised brow.

“Pelican?” wonders Nick, the Black Tomato producer, standing alongside, with me directing and Jack on-cam, all watching the brand new SUV cruise towards us over the bridge. A drone buzzes overhead adding to the cacophony, the operator hiding in a bush on the far side.

“One - more - shot” mutters Jack, pulling a grimace, his face crumpling up in an extraordinary way as he strains for perfection. A drop of sweat drips. He hopes for focus, his tongue firmly out to one side.

“That’s it” says Jack, exuding confidence and reassurance.

I mutter back “masterful”.

A long pause. Jack checks play-back. I hear a satisfied exhalation.

Without wanting to lose any of the nice light, it’s b-roll time and Jack hops around filming this and that, mainly birds. I look over the side of the bridge and see a nice angle from a little beach.

I say, “Jack, hop down there and grab a shot or two”

Scrambling down, Jack discovers a sign “DANGER CROCODILES”. On it is an image of croc jaws in the middle of a red warning triangle.

“No thanks”

“Come on, there are no crocodiles here. Don’t be such a wimp. Hop in and get some shots from down there” I point to the shallows. “..be better if you could wade in a little.

“I’ll be eaten”

“No you won’t”

It was about then that there was an eerie silence and all but the drone whirring away became still. To the horror of the bystanders, a four metre long mammoth crocodilian surfaced in a belch of bubbles just a few metres from Jack, who had already ditched the camera and was scrambling frantically away.

I say, “Shame. That would have made a nice shot”

“I’d’ve been dead if I’d listened to you”

“No you wouldn’t, nobody’s ever been hurt by a croc around here”

It’s only in the car on the way back to the hotel that the team discovers there have been over 50 attacks in the region, 7 fatal.

“Lucky you didn’t go in bro” I say.

The croc in question

--

We realised years later that you can actually see the croc in a drone shot in the final edit. Good luck spotting it. This was made back in 2016 for the global Black Tomato x Cadillac project ‘What Drives You Forward’. You can watch the Mexico episode here.