Make a parachute for a wooden spoon

Task stats

Points

15

Disquals

0

• Inês goes to her car and retrieves a few balloons she has left over from her daughter’s recent birthday party. The rest of Inês' footage is dedicated to her congratulating herself for being clever enough to use the balloons – Inês' footage is played with two other contestants who immediately thought to use balloons. To add to the drama, Inês hums the theme from Chariots of Fire while the balloon descends. Inês' spoon falls in 8 seconds, and she comes second.
• Jessica decides to use helium balloons. To make her parachute more dramatic, Jessica draws flames on the wooden spoon to indicate that it’s on fire. She also attaches a (fake) bloody knife to the balloons, as well as a few sparklers. This adds a significant amount of weight to her spoon (which will make its descent very quick), but Jessica does not seem to take that into consideration. In the build up to the drop, Jessica hums the Imperial March from Star Wars to add a bit more drama. Jessica’s parachute gets stuck in the grabber the crew uses to drop the balloon; she (jokingly) insists that it counts as part of her descent time. Jessica’s spoon falls in 3 seconds, and she comes fourth.
• Gilmário decides to use helium balloons. Gilmário adds just enough weight to the spoon – using the task and deflated balloons – that his spoon descends slowly. To add drama, Gilmário’s spoon descends in complete silence, as Gilmário poses in concentration, as if he is moving the spoon with the power of his mind. Gilmário’s spoon falls in 18 seconds, and he wins the task.
• Toy decides to use helium balloons. Unfortunately, while tying balloons to the spoon, he accidentally lets go, and the balloons – with the spoon – float up into the corner of the ceiling. Toy throws darts at the balloons to try to pop them, but he misses. Toy runs out of time trying to retrieve the spoon, and he comes last.
• Manuel is the only contestant who does not use helium balloons. Instead, he tapes several pieces of paper together, fastening string at each of the corners. He explains that he’s imitating the parachute that NASA built to help the Mars rover land on the planet. He realises while making his parachute that it likely won’t work, as he’s made the parachute too big for the distance it’s being dropped, but he continues on anyway. Sure enough, the spoon drops immediately upon release – though in the studio, Manuel tries to justify his failure by saying that nothing is more dramatic than a failed parachute. Manuel’s spoon falls in 4 seconds, and he comes third.