Seven Days Adrift: MrBeast and Four Friends Try to Survive on an Open-Ocean Raft
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In this challenge video, Jimmy (MrBeast) and four friends, Chris, Tareq, Nolan and Lazar (LazarBeam), are left on a wooden raft at sea while their support boat sails away. They have to stay aboard for seven days. The raft was stocked by survival specialists with wood, rope, food, water and other supplies, but nothing comes pre-built. The group has to construct its own shelter, toilet and fire setup. Jimmy calls the raft "countless miles from the nearest civilization." Over the week, the video follows how a challenge he describes as starting out "fun" turned into "a literal nightmare" very quickly, and how the group gradually learned what it took to get through it.
Day One: A Race Against the Light and the Weather
As the boat disappears from view, Jimmy sets the first priority: shade. On a bare slab of wood for a week, he explains, they will get sunburned without cover. The sky also looks like a storm is coming, and Jimmy admits they "picked the worst day to start." A covering structure would solve both problems at once. He calls it "two birds, one stone." Their first attempt is a teepee-style frame built from the supplied lumber, put up in a hurry because they are losing daylight. Someone hurts a finger in the process.
During the build, a seabird lands on the raft. The group is thrilled and names it Bryan, and joking about whether to eat it is quickly shut down. Bryan watches while they work on the shelter for the rest of the day. Tareq is the exception, as Jimmy notes: he spent the whole day flying a drone for footage, and Jimmy says he isn't even mad about it.
Jimmy then shows the provisions. One crate holds the food for all five men for seven days, and two barrels hold their entire water supply. The first taste is not encouraging. The water is "very hot," and one person finds dirt in their cup. A crate labeled "sleep" turns out to contain bedding that is already wet. The response is simply that "things do get wet on a boat."
Night One: Heat, Motion and No Sleep
The first night sets the tone for much of the week. The makeshift cover is described as "all the coverage we have." It is hot, the raft sways constantly, and one of the friends says they feel like they're going to throw up. They are also packed in with "a bunch of sweaty people," which prompts a joke about how bad the smell will be by day seven. Everyone agrees sleep was nearly impossible, mostly because of the waves. By morning, Bryan the bird has flown off.
Day Two: Rain, Arguments and Building From Scratch
The goal for day two is a permanent, weatherproof shelter. Jimmy says he had the specialists load enough wood to "build a nice house," though when asked how they're supposed to build it, he admits he isn't quite sure. All he knows is that he was told there was enough material.
Rain starts almost as soon as they begin. People scramble to protect bedding and pillows, and tempers flare. Nolan gets yelled at for not following instructions, someone shouts that they want to hit Nolan, and the group is reminded there are still more than six days left. The question of where to go to the bathroom also comes up. Everything on the raft has to be built, Jimmy explains, including "the pooper," the shelter and the fire.
When the rain stops, they tear down the teepee to build something better. Seasickness slows everyone down. Chris needs a break, another member says they are too sick to keep lifting, and there are complaints that two people are lying down while others do the work. After a while, the group has finished exactly one wall, a result they announce with some irony. The narration acknowledges that, seasick or not, finishing would take everyone pitching in.
The work is interrupted by a whale sighting, which the group finds amazing. There is also a running joke about building the ladder only after the structure needed it. Jimmy says here that he "severely" regrets making this a seven-day challenge instead of a 50-hour one like their other videos, because the constant rocking is so miserable. By sunset the camp is organized. Jimmy's bed is still broken, but he says he is tired enough to sleep anyway and calls it possibly the most tired he has ever been.
Day Three: Routine, Rationing and a Failed Fishing Trip
On day three the structure is still standing, which Jimmy counts as a win, though its creaking at night gave him nightmares. The group has settled into a rhythm: urinating in a designated corner, eating breakfast, and drinking warm barrel water.
Water becomes a concern. About 36 hours in, they are nearly halfway through one barrel. Someone works out that at this rate they will run out on day six. That makes Jimmy curious about the large school of fish visible under the raft, so they try to catch dinner. After hours of effort they catch nothing. They joke that fishing is harder than YouTube makes it look and call out for Bryan to help.
Tired, dehydrated and hungry, they have to dip into their rations. Using the supplied wood and pans, they light a fire. The method is narrated as splitting a big stick into very small sticks, then medium ones, and adding the large pieces last. They cook canned chili, which one of the friends says they improved with tomatoes and kidney beans. It is their first hot meal in days, and they eat it slowly because it uses up a good portion of their food. Afterward, one member says they feel much better and that the first two days were the worst. They half-joke that they are slowly losing their minds and that this is what makes it bearable. Other worries remain: one person still hasn't been able to use the bathroom, and the rocking is still keeping people awake.
Day Four: Damage, Tension and Contaminated Water
Nobody sleeps on the third night. By morning the back of the fort has come off, and the shelter needs repairs. Tensions are high. Nolan has broken his bed and is described as "in his feels," and Jimmy says jokingly that Nolan would probably have quit the channel if Jimmy had been the one to break it. Thunder raises fears of more rain.
Then the ladle falls into the drinking water. Since no one has showered in four days, reaching in to grab it technically contaminated that water. The video jumps ahead to show the result: because of this, a third of the water supply could no longer be considered safe to drink.
Jimmy comments on the format here. For whatever reason, he says, the more he suffers, the more viewers watch. He points to being buried alive and spending time in solitary confinement as some of the channel's most popular videos, and tells the audience he hopes they're happy that he's suffering again. On a lighter note, Lazar finally manages to use the bathroom after four days, and the group plays a celebratory song.
The Storm: The Worst Night of the Challenge
Dark clouds roll in that afternoon, and someone predicts a downpour that night. The narration says the biggest storm of the whole challenge was heading their way. When they see it coming, they try to prepare. Tareq reinforces his side of the fort, Chris works on the roof, and Jimmy ends up filming. The wind makes building hard, and at one point they run out of nails. When Jimmy is told to start helping, he replies that he was paying for the raft.
The storm gets far worse after dark. The shelter leaks everywhere and is described as "the opposite of waterproof." Water soaks beds and belongings, and one person has a hole open up directly over their bed. Someone asks whether the situation is still safe. Another complains that they could have filmed this in a studio, but instead they have to be "the real channel that doesn't fake things." Someone pleads with Jimmy to end the video. Jimmy answers that he tried to talk all of them out of it and they all said yes. Several of them call it the worst experience of their lives.
Desperate, they stand their beds up as walls to block the rain. They describe being at "rock bottom," freezing cold and nauseous, with no usable beds, and one says they aren't sure the group can last the full seven days. According to the narration, it rained nonstop for about 20 hours, and they spent the whole night standing, soaked and exhausted.
Day Five: Recovery and a Real Waterproof Shelter
The morning after, the raft is "in shambles." Beds are laid out to dry, the fire pit is drenched, and they say they couldn't light a fire even if they wanted to, so there will be no dinner. The food also got soaked, and only part of it is still safe to eat. Members of the group say this was harder than their Antarctica and desert videos. One reflects that they had stability, food and dry beds before and took it for granted.
Convinced they can't survive another night like that, they rebuild the shelter to be waterproof. They rip off and reposition material, secure covering with rope and zip ties, and prop it up to make more room inside. Someone puts up a large clothesline so towels and wet gear can dry overnight. The work wears everyone out. One person lists being sunburned, tired and dehydrated, and they sleep through most of the day.
When they wake up, Bryan is back. The group is overjoyed, but the bird soon leaves again, prompting the joke that while they hadn't given up on Bryan, Bryan had given up on them. With two days left, they sum up the situation: food is running out, the water is contaminated, and they feel "borderline dying." Around them, hundreds of fish are visible under the raft, and the poop bucket stinks.
Day Six: From Freezing to Scorching
Looking back on the storm, one member says they nearly had a mental breakdown. They were shivering and wet the whole time, couldn't sleep, and call it one of the worst nights of their life. Jimmy says again that making the challenge seven days was "a horrible decision." By his account, adding five extra days to the end of a 50-hour challenge makes it the hardest they have ever done.
The rebuilt shelter works, though. It sprinkled briefly around 4 a.m., and one person slept through it without noticing and says it was the best sleep they've ever had. Another reports getting a full night's sleep.
The new problem is heat. Two nights after shivering in the cold, they are now "scorching hot." For most of the day the deck is too hot to walk on. Some of the group go swimming, and one is stung by a jellyfish and ends up with welts and red lines on their leg. Others stay aboard and cool off with fans.
The Final Night and Rescue
As the sun goes down, the group is optimistic, with under 24 hours left. One member calls this the hardest challenge video they've ever been part of, and says it made them appreciate things people take for granted: showers, food and a working toilet. There is joking about Jimmy breaking a chair and maybe having eaten all the food, and some teasing about the last night of sleeping crammed together.
After a good night's sleep, Bryan comes back on the final morning, joined by what the group calls his family. They take it as a goodbye. One of them says Bryan kept them safe on the night they had the least shelter, while Nolan suggests he might just be "a pea brain bird."
Jimmy says they spent more than 150 hours on the raft. He calls it the hardest thing he has ever done, but says the group still had some good times. One friend jokes that their best memory will be leaving, and another agrees. The support boat finally appears on the horizon, and they shout and signal to it while complaining about how slowly it's approaching. The challenge ends with them climbing off the raft.
We are now stranded on a raft in the middle of the ocean, and there goes our boat. We are now stranded for seven days.
How much longer? Seven days. Frick.
This raft is literally countless miles from the nearest civilization. And whether we like it or not, my four friends and I are stuck on this raft. And it's not going to be easy.
This is brutal. It won't stop raining! We're all at rock bottom now. This challenge went from fun to a literal nightmare. Very fast.
Bro, look how far away the boat is. I can't even see it anymore.
Step one. We're going to get sunburned if we don't get shade. And I had survival specialists equip this raft with tons of wood, rope and everything else we would need to build ourselves a shelter.
Boys, we need to get started. We are running out of light! I got this. My finger! Now, we set these up like a teepee.
We picked the worst day to start. As you can tell by the clouds, it's literally about to storm.
First thing we want to do is set up some structure to cover us. Also, since we're on this slab of wood for the next seven days, we need a place to hide from the sun so we don't get sunburned. So two birds, one stone.
Speaking of birds, while we were building, this happened. A bird! It's coming right at us! Oh, my God! It's a bird! Yes!
This is crazy. We should name him. What's his name? Bryan. Bryan. Bryan. Bryan.
What if you went and got some fish? I know, he's looking at me. He understands.
Jimmy, just say the word. Put the knife away. Okay. I'll put the knife away. And the hatchet. Bryan, that was a joke.
Forget the bird. We got to build a shelter. We're making friends.
While Bryan watched, we worked on our first shelter for the rest of the day. Except for my friend Tareq, who spent the entire day getting cool drone shots. And I'm not even mad about it.
Inside this crate is the food for all five of us for the next seven days. Oh, my God. And in these two barrels is our entire water supply for all five of us.
How does it taste? Very hot. We're screwed. There was dirt in my cup.
It's getting dark, and that crate has the word "sleep" on it. Hopefully, the survival guides gave us something soft. Why are they wet? Things do get wet on a boat.
I'm ready for bed. I wanna go to sleep. This is night one, and Bryan is just yawning.
This is miserable. This is all the coverage we have. I didn't realize what I was signing up for. It's hot. This thing will not stop swaying, and I feel like I'm going to puke. And I'm surrounded by a bunch of sweaty people. Aye, sweaty men. If you guys smell this bad on day one, what are you going to smell like on day seven? Oh, gosh.
Our first night of sleep was really rough. Sleeping is impossible. These waves are just making me miserable. And to make matters worse, our best friend Bryan ended up leaving us that morning. Bryan! Bryan! Bryan!
But regardless, today's objective is to build ourselves a permanent weatherproof shelter. How do we turn that into a livable structure? There's definitely something here.
Luckily, I had them throw a bunch of wood on the raft so we could build a nice house. How we build the house? I'm not quite sure, but they said this is enough to build a house. But ironically, right as we got started...
It's raining! Don't throw it! Jimmy, get my shark pillow! This is miserable! This is bad. Oh, Jesus Christ.
You're not doing the right thing, Nolan. Listen with your ears! Why do you yell so much? Because you don't listen! I wanna hit Nolan! It's just rain. Shut up!
At least we don't have to shower. Yeah. This is so bad. And we still have over six days left.
Where do we go poop? Oh, we have to build the pooper. What? We have to build everything that's here. We have to build the toilet. Build our shelter, the fire, everything.
The moment the rain finished, the boys and I needed to build all of our survival essentials. Starting with the shelter. Tearing it down in the name of something better.
Five-minute break for Chris. I also need a break. I'm seasick. I'm out of it. You got to pick this up. I can't. I can't pick it up anymore.
I feel like you're doing all the work, but we got two other goofs just laying down. I'm miserable. We built one wall. Yeah, we built one wall. All together. All of us.
Regardless of being seasick, it was going to take all of us if we wanted to finish this. Now, you guys bring it forward. There we go. Let's go! How many YouTubers does it take to build a little structure?
Wait, is that a whale? Think that's a whale? That's insane. Oh, my God. It's unreal. There are actually whales. This experience just keeps getting better.
Shelter, water, not being near Nolan. I'm never going to take that for granted again.
Probably would have been really useful to build the ladder first. We got a ladder I literally just built just four minutes ago.
After hours of building, we were finally getting somewhere.
I severely regret making this a seven-day challenge instead of a 50-hour challenge, like all our other videos. We keep rocking back and forth. It's freakin' miserable. I'm going to puke.
And finally, just as the sun was going down... Camp is now organized. Yeah!
Night two, my bed is still broken, but I'm going to get some sleep tonight because I'm that tired.
I'm gonna head to bed. Did I wake you? Yeah. Just go back to bed, I'm just vlogging. I accidentally woke Lazar up, I feel bad now. This might be the most tired I've ever been in my entire life.
It's now day three. And somehow our building didn't fall over. I'll take that as a dub. The noises that the structure made while I was sleeping last night filled me with nightmares.
It's day three and we've really started to get into a rhythm. Our morning routine consisted of peeing in the corner. Bro, who vlogs in the pee corner? I'm not moving.
Eating our breakfast. Surviving on Feastables. It's all you need? And drinking hot barrel water. So dehydrated, I need this.
We're about 36 hours in and we're almost halfway
We're about 36 hours in and we're almost halfway through a barrel of water. Is that slow or fast? We're going to run out on day six.
Running low on water and food gave me an idea. I'm kind of curious to see what's under the boat people do. There's so many fish below us!
So we decided to try and catch some dinner, but we weren't very good at it. Why does it take so long? I just want something to put in my stomach. Bryan! Bryan, help us catch fish! Bryan!
Turns out fishing is a lot harder than YouTube. After hours, we caught absolutely nothing. Why can't we catch anything? Oh, I give up.
We were tired, dehydrated and hungry, which forced us to dig into our rations. Let's have ourselves a feast. Yeah! Call it a Feastables. Aye!
In our supplies, we had wood to build a fire and pans to cook with. You take big stick and make really little sticks and then make medium sticks. Then use the big sticks at the end.
Look at them beans, baby! I'm so excited. This looks awesome. These are really good. Can you tell we've been at sea for three days? Literally. When have I ever been this excited over canned chili?
Hey, I put some love into this one. It's not just canned chili anymore. It's got tomatoes, kidney beans. You don't have to keep talking. I'm already drooling.
This was our first hot meal in days, but it was also a good chunk of our rations, so we made sure to enjoy it.
I feel a lot better. I think the first two days were definitely the most miserable. I think we're slowly losing our minds and it's actually becoming bearable. I still haven't gone to the bathroom. That's my biggest concern.
I'm struggling to sleep. This raft is just rocking like crazy. Definitely I'm kind of miserable. Hopefully tomorrow is better.
None of us managed to get any sleep. We lost the back of our fort last night. The house needs some repairs.
Tensions are pretty high on the raft this morning. Nolan's a little upset. He broke his bed. Oh, my God. Nolan is struggling. He's just in his feels right now. It'll be okay. He probably would've quit the channel if I did that.
This is easily the worst. Oh, there's thunder. I swear. If it starts raining again… Oh, I can't take that.
And to make matters worse, we accidentally dropped our ladle in the drinking water. And since we haven't showered in four days, grabbing it technically contaminated the drinking water. I'm never drinking out of that again. Fast forward to when we run out of water.
Because of the contamination, a third of our water was no longer safe to drink.
Whatever reason, the more I suffer, the more you guys watch. Some of our most popular videos are when I buried myself alive, spent time in solitary confinement. So I hope you're happy. I'm suffering again.
It's not easy surviving on a raft, but after four long days, Lazar's finally pooping. Can you play a celebratory song? LazarBeam is pooping. Is pooping.
See how all those clouds over there are dark? Yeah. Yeah. They're going to pour down on us tonight. Tonight's going to suck.
We didn't know it yet, but the biggest storm of the entire challenge was headed right towards us. And when we saw it approaching, we tried to prepare as much as possible.
Can't wait for another storm just to destroy all this again. Tareq's fixing his side of the fort. Chris is fixing the roof, and I'm now the cameraman for some reason. There's a storm a-brewing.
And while they're preparing the shelter for the storm, I'm going to tell you about Shopify because it might literally storm until the end of the challenge. This is going to be a bit rocky.
Shopify is a platform that makes it easy for anyone to start a business. They literally support millions of small businesses all around the world, from selling wood to nails, to crates to... Crocs, they support businesses that sell it on Shopify.
Assuming we're going to have absolutely zero tops covering this structure, I am worried about it.
100% of what I sell online, from merch to Feastables, I do with Shopify.
It's actually getting pretty rocky out here. The wind is getting crazy! We're out of nails! It's really hard to work around the wind, guys. Stop yelling and do things!
Shopify even has a new AI tool called Sidekick, making running your entire business easier. Just like surviving on this raft can be hard, so can entrepreneurship. And that's why they do everything in their power to make it as easy as possible.
This is my worst nightmare. I'm so miserable!
Go to Shopify.com/MrBeast to give it a try right now. Thank you, Shopify. Let's go prep for the storm.
I'm soaking wet! Maybe you can start helping us, Jimmy. I was paying for the raft!
The storm was really starting to pick up, but that night, it got so much worse.
This really puts the helter in the shelter, right? Oh no, you! Are you kidding me? It's leaking! Oh, no... This shelter is the opposite of waterproof.
This is brutal. What do we do? We have three more... The next three days, by the way. No! There's water everywhere. It's useless. This does nothing.
This is the most insane night yet. We are struggling right now. Is this safe anymore?
We could've just filmed this in a studio, but no, we have to be the real channel that doesn't fake things. We're gonna die!
We're getting just destroyed. I'm getting hit. There's a hole that is completely opened up over my bed. I can't do this. I can't do this. You can end this video, Jimmy. Jimmy, please.
I tried to talk all you guys out of it. You all said yes! This is the worst experience I've ever had in my entire life. I hate every part of this. I'm just miserable right now.
The storm was reaching a new peak with every passing hour. We were desperate, so we tried using our beds as literal walls to protect us from the rain.
We're all at rock bottom now. It's been raining for a few hours. It's freezing cold. We don't have beds. I'm getting nauseous. I don't know if we're going to make it these full seven days at this point.
It rained nonstop for around 20 hours straight, and after standing the whole night completely soaked and exhausted, we had to push ourselves to dry off our supplies and rebuild camp.
Our raft is just in shambles. Look at our beds, we're drying them off. This is harder than Antarctica. This is harder than the desert video. I'm just ready to be home. I hate this raft. I never want to see it again.
Our entire fire pit is completely drenched. We couldn't start a fire if we wanted to tonight. No dinner.
And to make matters worse, all of our food was completely soaked, meaning only a portion of it was still safe to eat.
We had stability, we had food, we had dry beds, and we took it for granted. We can't take another night like that. We need to waterproof the shelter.
We just ripped that off to tie it here, and then we'll leave it there. But this time we have this. Last night we were shivering cold and wanted to die. So would you rather be warm and dry or cold and wet?
Put a zip tie here. Nolan. Tie a rope to that, zip tie there. We can use that to push us up so we get even more room.
I'm thinking, why don't I make a really big clothesline and hang up all our wet stuff? Maybe we'll have dry towels by tomorrow.
I want to die. I'm sunburned, tired, dehydrated, and did I say tired?
After fixing camp, we were so exhausted that we spent most of the day sleeping. But at least when we woke up, we were reunited with a familiar friend.
Bryan! Bryan! Bryan! Bryan! Bryan! Bryan, come back!
After being stuck in a raft for five days with these guys, this really is a nightmare.
I'll admit it, I missed Bryan. He's moved on. You may not have given up on Bryan, but Bryan gave up on you. Bryan's given up on us.
We have two days left. We're running out of food. Our water is contaminated, and we're all borderline dying. I'm going crazy. These last two days will be interesting. What could go wrong now?
I can literally see 500 fish down there. That is crazy.
Oh, my gosh. This poop bucket stinks.
I almost had a mental breakdown last night. I was shivering wet the entire time. Could not sleep. It was one of the worst nights of my life.
Last night, shivering in the torrential rain in the middle of the deep, dark ocean. We got through it. Now, the end of this challenge could not come soon enough. Making the challenge 7 days was a horrible decision. This is so much harder.
The new reinforced, waterproof fortress actually worked.
Lannan said it rained last night, did it? At 4 a.m., sprinkled a little. Here's the beauty. I didn't even know. That was the best sleep I've ever gotten. I actually got a full night's sleep last night. I can barely even open my eyeballs.
I would say this is the hardest challenge we've ever done. Adding the extra five days on the end of a 50-hour challenge definitely makes it harder. The fact that we're just drifting at sea on this hunk of wood, that's pretty impressive.
And while it seemed like the rain was over, we found ourselves encountering a new obstacle.
We've gone from shivering cold like two nights ago to being scorching hot, unbelievably hot. I'm about to jump in the water because I'm getting too hot. We're going to go swimming. I hope Nolan can swim.
And while they cooled off in their own way, we got creative with ours.
Oh, yes. It's fans. Cold air. I feel amazing. Air!
A jellyfish bit me! Why does the ocean hate us? I knew it was a great idea not to go swimming.
Are you okay? Oh, my leg!
I found the sweet spot. Yeah. Oh, no. Yeah, I got little welts and some red lines.
For the majority of the day, it was so hot we literally couldn't walk on the deck.
Yeah, I'm hot. I don't want to be alive. I'm hot. It's very hot.
But as the sun went down, we were optimistic about reaching the finish line.
We have less than 24 hours left in the challenge. This has genuinely been the hardest challenge video I've ever been a part of.
Honestly, this whole experience has made me appreciate all the things we take for granted in life. Like your shower, your food. I miss food. A working toilet. I never want to poop in a bucket again.
I say we celebrate making it this far with a Feastables bar. Yes, available in every Walmart, Target, 7-Eleven, Albertsons in America. It's 2023. If you're still buying Hershey's, it's kind of lame. Hershey's for the boomers.
Oh, Jimmy, how did you break the chair? What is happening? Jimmy, I'm starting to think you ate all the food. I guess I'll just continue the time-lapse with a broken chair.
This is our final night sleeping together, everybody. Oh, I'm so glad to sleep alone. I'm gonna miss sleeping by your side. 100%. I would not rather sleep next to any other man. And with that, I'm going to bed.
After an amazing night's sleep, we were visited by a familiar face. Bryan brought his family to say goodbye to us on the last day.
Thank you, Bryan. That meant a lot. It's almost like we were family to Bryan. We were. He kept us safe during the night we had the least shelter.
Maybe he's just a pea-brain bird. Shut up. Nolan. Off the raft. I wish. That was emotional.
Everything's going full circle. We had so many crazy memories in this raft. Yeah, and I think my best memory is going to be leaving. Same.
We spent over 150 hours on this floating piece of wood. And even though it was easily the hardest thing I've ever done, the boys and I still had some good times.
Where's this boat? Where's the boat? The boat!
Then finally, the end was literally in sight.
The boat, it's coming! Alert the ship of our location. Signaling the boat! Boat! Boat! Boat! Why is it moving so abnormally slow? Oh, my God! I'm getting off this raft.
The first 10,000 people to go to the Shop app will get a free box of Feastables. Click the link in the description to download the Shop app right now.
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