When conventional tactics fail, governments have been known to test the boundaries of reality; in the darkest days of World War II, Britain turns to an astrologer who claims he can alter the course of war using the power of the stars; in the jungles of Vietnam, U.S. forces turn to dowsing rods and ancient mystical practices to locate enemies hidden underground.

Step inside hidden areas where history was steered in secret, from Churchill's wartime bunker, complete with a direct line to FDR concealed inside his private bathroom, to a Soviet weapons base in the desert exposed only by a daring U-2 spy mission.

In the razor's-edge theater of global brinkmanship, the world has come closer to annihilation than most ever knew. A NATO war game once spooked the Soviets toward a potential nuclear strike, while a daring Cold War project produced a drone-bomber hybrid capable of carrying 16 nuclear weapons. From experimental war machines to the Presidential "Doomsday Plane" built to command America through apocalypse, these are the plans that reveal how near we've stood to the unthinkable.

Sometimes when governments can't negotiate their way to victory, they steal it; when the KGB sets its sights on a NATO missile, they enlist a smooth-talking German playboy armed with only a wheelbarrow, a carpet and a postage stamp; an Israeli covert operation hijacks 200 tons of uranium on the high seas to fuel a secret nuclear arsenal, while during WWII, the Allies deploy a female agent to steal top-secret naval codes, solely with seductive charm.

David Duchovny exposes a clandestine nuclear blast set off deep below Mississippi soil, and secret experiments conducted on citizens in the New York subway system.

Some missions are so risky, they're denied before they even begin. From a covert Mossad operation to abduct a Nazi war criminal in Argentina-identified through the smallest detail, the shape of his ears-to a chilling CIA plot that used a jazz tour as cover for an assassination attempt in the Congo; to one resistance fighter volunteering to be captured and sent to Auschwitz to reveal the horrors within-these operations are proof that the most dangerous missions are often the most unthinkable.

A French Resistance operative hides explosives in baguettes to cripple a Nazi factory, an American soldier parachutes behind enemy lines to destroy critical supply routes, and Ukrainian forces deploy AI-guided drones to strike a Russian bomber fleet.

Behind official policy often stands unofficial actors. Discover the audacious operations of Red Cell.

A stranded American pilot in Vietnam is rescued through a code built around familiar golf courses, while Navajo Code Talkers transmit messages that help turn the tide in the Pacific during WWII.

They say better the devil you know, but what happens when you have to hold hands with him? When governments strike dark deals with cults, mobs, and even sworn enemies, frosty relationships and mounting tensions are tested head on. From the CIA's attempt to enlist the Chicago Mob to assassinate Castro, to the only World War II battle where U.S. troops fought alongside the German Army, to Vladimir Putin's recruitment of a convicted murderer as his personal assassin, which sacrifices are worth the bigger picture?

The dangerous, emotional and arduous toll of stealth ops has never been felt more deeply than by those who adopted completely separate personas to integrate themselves into a shadowy underworld. From "The Pond", an intelligence operation so secret the CIA was kept in the dark, to a luxury Red Sea diving resort covertly operated by Mossad agents, to the British security services' daring rescue of a double agent in Moscow. These undercover smokescreens were all driven by daring agents in service of executing a greater purpose.

What lies beneath? David Duchovny takes us into the top-secret government bases and the clandestine operations they were built to conceal. Discover a deadly poison lab operated by the Soviet Union's infamous "Doctor Death," a vast nuclear missile site buried beneath the Greenland ice sheet, and the U.S. government's doomsday bunker concealed inside a hollowed-out mountain.

Forget the moon or the stars – every government has even bigger designs in the race to dominate the furthest corners of the sky. Uncover a plane crash in North Carolina that almost triggered nuclear Armageddon, the story of a UFO attack on a U.S. missile base that was suppressed for decades, and a daring Israeli heist to steal a cutting-edge fighter jet – right from under their enemies’ noses.

While wars may be won by men, they're fought with weapons and every country wanted to leave nothing to chance. Teetering between the apocalyptic and absurd, declassified records will unveil the top secret weapons programs that attempted to bring down the world. Uncovering the Soviet atomic test that shook the Earth with a force 1,500 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, the CIA's creation of a gun that fired a shellfish harvested toxin and the Allies' bizarre secret plan to end World War II by feminizing Hitler.