The Best Defense: Mass Casualty – Strategies For Survival

Masonville, CO — The two scariest words in the English language are “what if?” There have been a dozen terror attacks in the United States in 2016; “what if” you or your family are trapped in the worst case you can imagine?

Award-winning producers of THE BEST DEFENSE, Michael Bane and Jeff Murray, decided to tackle that question head on in a compelling, and terrifying special premiering on OUTDOOR CHANNEL at 8:00 PM ET Wednesday, September 28, encoring November 2 (Time to be announced).

“‘What if’ is a simple question with a hellish answer,” said Bane. “Literally days before the San Bernardino attacks, Jeff and I began discussing an idea to create the most realistic terrorist attack simulation possible, then use the tools we’ve developed in THE BEST DEFENSE over multiple seasons to help people survive.”

The producers’ number one goal was to create a scenario so realistic that it was hard to turn away. Working from the basics of the Paris concert hall attacks, Bane and Murray reached out to both law enforcement and military counterterrorism experts and trainers who studied mass casualty events, THE BEST DEFENSE training team of Mike Seeklander and Michael Janich, paramedics specializing in first response and even renowned mental health experts to build the scenario and capture as much as possible the reality of being trapped in a mass casualty attack.

“We made the decision to use FX to make the scenario more realistic,” Bane said. “We were lucky enough to have the help of the Larimer County (CO) SWAT team and local paramedics. The Mass Casualty Event is certainly the most complex sim I’ve ever been involved with.”

A film team headed by award-winning documentarian Brandon Green shot the whole event in ultra-high resolution 4K. Green worked with the FX team to make every shot fired as realistic as possible.

“Essentially, this is the most ‘vetted’ scenario we could build. Every move, every action taken is based in reality and run through some of the most knowledgeable experts in the world,” Bane said. “Even the crowd reaction is based on cutting edge research from Dr. William Aprill… as each ‘extra’ arrived, that person was given a card explaining how he or she should react when the attack started. We were lucky enough to have Michael Janich’s highly trained cadre of martial arts experts to create an even more realistic sim. In fact, our main ‘terrorist’ served in the Israeli Defense Force as a sniper and Master Breacher, and is an expert in counterterrorism techniques.”

On-screen experts, in addition to the TBD Team of Seeklander and Janich, include Ken Hackathorn, considered one of the top firearms trainers in the world; Gabe Suarez, probably the most experienced trainer in studying and dissecting mass casualty events and teaching civilian response; Dr. Dan Olesnicky, SWAT team physician, a first responder in terrorist events and one of the leading trainers of tactical medicine; Dr. William Aprill of Aprill Risk Consulting, considered the national expert on criminal and terrorist mindset; former SEAL Jimmy Graham, who also served as Lead Instructor for elite Federal Government Protective details in high risk environments and presently heads up the Active Shooter Response Training Center in the Denver area.

“Our team is tremendously proud of this effort, and we thank OUTDOOR CHANNEL for putting this information in front of so many people,” Bane said. “Since we began planning for this special, there have been 12 terrorism events in the United States and literally one a day around the world. We believe this information is critical, and we hope our viewers never have to use it.”