Search

A Subscriber, a 60-Foot Circle, and 100 Days: How Shawn Held Out for $500,000

MrBeast ミスタービースト · ▶ 17:09 · 11 min read
Englishespañol日本語한국어português繁體中文
Open on YouTube ↗
Overview

MrBeast (Jimmy) laid a giant red circle in an empty field and made a subscriber named Shawn an offer: stay inside it for 100 days and win $500,000. Shawn had to stay put while the conditions changed around him. The first half of the video tests whether he can simply endure. In the second half, Jimmy deliberately makes things harder with bribes, noise, isolation, and finally by tearing the house apart. Shawn's position is the same throughout. Food and survival will be hard, but loneliness is the thing most likely to make him leave, and walking out early is something he would "regret forever."

11 min read
0:02

Setting Up the Circle

At the start there is nothing inside the circle. Chris drops in a house by crane, and Chris says they have had "zero training" and asks which pedal is the gas. The house lands roughly. Shawn later notes that because of the landing his shower doesn't drain, and he sarcastically thanks Chris for "100 days of dealing with this." The house holds all of Shawn's food, clothes, and supplies. Jimmy warns that this is everything he gets. If he eats it all in, say, the first 50 days, he's done.

The food totals 300,000 calories for 100 days. Shawn says it looked like much more until he started condensing it. His plan has three parts: organize the food, sort out clothing, and find a way to keep his mind entertained. Jimmy explains that more than a dozen cameras watch him around the clock, so any step onto the red line will be seen. Asked what the hardest part will be, Shawn says he fears a "solo failure," losing to himself rather than being outplayed, and "being in my own head."

Before the counter starts, Jimmy lets Shawn's family say goodbye. Shawn promises they'll be there when he walks out with half a million dollars.

2:01

Building a Routine

Shawn starts fortifying his space early. He realizes he has to watch where he walks, since "that red line is death," so he lays wood around the inside of the circle as a secondary boundary. He also tries to plant vegetables on a cloudy day. Later he replants the garden away from the red line.

Rationing is strict. When Jimmy visits and spots a dropped Cheerio, he scolds Shawn for wasting food. By day 10 Jimmy is surprised by how quickly Shawn has built a routine. Jimmy arrives in costume, explaining he had just given away a chocolate factory. At first he can't find Shawn on the cameras and fears he ran off, but Shawn was only in the bathroom. Shawn is weighing himself every seven days and says he plans to finish "ripped and $500,000 richer." Jimmy leaves saying he'll see Shawn in a month. Shawn thinks it's a joke but suspects it isn't.

Shawn talks about the money. He wants to put his farm entirely on solar power, making it "like a giant Tesla," which he calls the dream for his homestead. He also wants a long vacation.

3:22

Weather and Visitors

A tornado watch tests his resolve. Asked whether he'll leave the circle for the severe weather, Shawn says he's from Oklahoma. He lets a tarp blow away, deciding it isn't worth half a million dollars. Inside, water leaks from the ceiling. The toilet won't flush, which he guesses is because rainwater has filled the outside tank.

On day 16 Jimmy brings the boys. One teases that Shawn has already lasted longer than Jimmy went without eating in an earlier video, and they call Jimmy "bald." The visitors climb to the steep second floor, and the ladder is taken away. They stay trapped until they apologize. The next day Shawn reports that the boys left a mess and his yard is covered in glass. Jimmy worries the challenge is getting to him, and Shawn asks whether anyone would come into their own house and mess with things.

5:22

The 25% Carnival and the Weight of Being Alone

At the quarter mark, Jimmy brings a carnival so Shawn can enjoy the day. The crew installed a Ferris wheel in two hours. Chandler rides it, scared of heights, while Shawn plays carnival games inside the circle with mixed results.

Asked on day 25 whether he'll make it, Shawn says he can't see why not, but calls the competition a huge sacrifice. He only gets so many summers with his kids before they leave home. Sorting his clothes, he found notes from his youngest daughter. He has four kids and a wife, and he says this is the most alone he has been in 18 years. Rationing and survival will be rough, he says, but if anything makes him leave, "it's gonna be the loneliness."

Rationing in Practice

Jimmy notes that the 300,000-calorie limit pushed Shawn into "interesting choices." One meal is leftovers boiled for safety, which Shawn admits may be his first bad one. Others call it disgusting and "very cabbagey."

Other moments come from living under constant observation. Shawn says that because a camera hangs above his bed, he won't sleep naked during the challenge, to spare Jimmy. One morning a voice tells him there's a spider in his bed, and he flips the bed over. A clip shows him saying "I'm leaving the circle. This is my last day," but he does not leave. He remarks that he's been there so long that living in a circle in a MrBeast video feels normal.

6:36

Father's Day and the Penny

Day 39 falls on Father's Day. Shawn says he kept waking up thinking he was home and that he misses his family. Jimmy brings the family as a surprise. Jimmy says the family didn't consult him and just brought a present, and he wasn't going to tell a little girl she couldn't give her dad a gift. He also lets them spend 24 hours with Shawn. It has been nearly a month since Shawn saw them. Shawn finds his drawings kept on the fridge, and Jimmy gives the family privacy until the next day. Shawn thanks Jimmy and calls it "the best."

Afterward Ryan arrives carrying a penny, having traveled across America to deliver it to Jimmy. Shawn's kids had told him about it. Ryan hands the penny to Shawn "for entertainment." Ryan is also told to keep quiet about a surprise planned for day 50.

Day 50: Turning Down $100,000

On day 50 Jimmy brings YouTube friends and puts $100,000 in cash in front of Shawn, his to keep if he leaves now. Shawn refuses, reasoning he can "just chill here and get another 400." Asked about $150,000, he says he'd only start thinking about it somewhere above $400,000. The others call that crazy. Since Shawn said no, Jimmy brings in a marching band he has paid to play all night.

Jimmy says the first 50 days were about seeing whether Shawn could make it. The second half would have "some pretty crazy stuff planned."

9:04

Fireworks, Then a Month of Silence

On July 4th, day 54, the crew sets off fireworks. Jimmy admits he bought random fireworks without knowing how intense they were. The show gets close enough to the house that someone calls "cease fire," and Shawn later says there were several times he came too close to the edge of the circle. When Shawn admits he's a little terrified of what Jimmy will do next, Jimmy asks if he'd rather be left alone for a month. Shawn says that would be even worse, and Jimmy leaves anyway, telling him "you did this." Shawn notes that a month is almost all the remaining days.

Alone, Shawn digs a moat inside the circle as a buffer against stepping on the line. He also notices food becoming a problem. He eats canned mixed vegetables and canned turkey cold, and some meat smells. By the end of the month he says he has run out of things to do in the 60-foot circle. He has dug the moat, made a garden, built a fire pit that's too hot to use, put up a fence around the back, and made a hammock. Now he's "just here existing" and mostly sleeps.

Jimmy returns after 30 days. He jokes about checking whether Shawn is alive, then admits he watched the cameras every day. Shawn says he's shaking with excitement at seeing people. Jimmy says he had no idea a month without visits would affect Shawn so much. Shawn has lost 22 pounds. He shows off a "storm window" where he sits to watch storms roll in and listen to the lightning. Jimmy says he's proud, then warns that the last 10 days will be crazy. Shawn had thought the 30 days alone were his hard challenge and now finds that "concerning."

11:47

Cutting the House in Half

Jimmy asks how best to cut a cake in half ("with a knife") and then how to cut a house in half. Shawn assumes it's a bluff until he sees machinery outside. The operator says they learned to drive it five minutes earlier. Half the house is cut off and removed, and Jimmy tells Shawn it will only get harder. Jimmy also says they may burn the house down in a couple of days, promising to give notice first.

Shawn calls it a rough day. With nine days left, he says he no longer even wants to hear how long he's been there. He concedes "well played, Jimmy" but says he's staying.

13:04

Heat, Speakers, and Clowns

The heat builds, and Shawn says his room is hotter than outside. With the temperature around 100 degrees, Jimmy offers a quarter of a million dollars to leave and frames it as giving him a way out. Shawn says he'd "rather die than give up on this challenge at this point."

The pressure continues. The boys are given permission to "go full idiot mode" on the upper floor, and someone comments that nothing hurts more than emotional damage. Speakers are set up around the circle. Shawn says the worst part is that the noise stops now and then and then kicks back on. He considers knocking the speakers flat and filling them with water. He also says that if he never eats processed food again, he might be okay.

Next, about 11 clowns surround the house in silence. Jimmy offers each $1,000 to stay all night, and Shawn counters with $2,000 each to leave. The next day clowns are still outside, which Shawn calls "a little extra security."

The Last Day: Wrecking Ball and Excavator

With less than 24 hours left, Jimmy says they'll destroy the house with a wrecking ball "to make it harder." Chris tears out part of the house, and an excavator takes off the roof. Shawn points out that rain is forecast for tomorrow, and Jimmy answers "good." Jimmy declares the destruction finished and says he'll see Shawn in 19 hours. Shawn says he's going to make half a million dollars tomorrow.

15:31

Day 100

On the final day Shawn points to the countdown timer and says emotions are hitting him hard. He reflects that money is the thing we trade our lives for. He has given up a third of a year for half a million dollars, and he tells viewers to make sure they're trading their lives for things that are worth it. When Jimmy asks him to wait in a room while the surprise is set up, Shawn agrees and says he isn't risking anything now. He can hear the background noise of about 100 people outside.

The crowd counts down from 10. Jimmy announces it has officially been 100 days and tells Shawn to step on the red line. Shawn asks if he's sure, then steps out and says, "This is over." His family runs to him, and Jimmy hands him a check for half a million dollars. Shawn calls it an amazing 100 days but says he's glad it's over.

Article published · Updated