we make style affordable, you make it yours! jcpenney. tonight on "nightline," breaking news. america's gold-plated credit rating downgraded for the first time in history. fed up with the debt fiasco, standard & poor's takes the country down a peg. the white house rages, but what will it mean for your nest egg? faking it. cops cracking down on knockoff luxury goods where you'd least expect them. we'll take you along on a sting operation and uncover a vast criminal underworld. >> it's beyond what anybody can even comprehend. damned dirty apes. it's the next evolution in special effects. we give you a sneak preview in the latest film in this classic franchise. it's not your grandfather's

"planet of the apes." good evening. i'm terry moran. we begin tonight with breaking news and a developing story about the economy and another dark omen. the credit rating agency standard & poor's downgraded the u.s. credit rating for the first time in history, knocking the country down a peg from aaa to aa plus. s&p said the downgrade was the result of the government taking too little action so far to address the nation's long-term debt problem. the white house quickly objected to this downgrade. but the real effect might not be felt until starting sunday, when the stock markets open in asia. all this, however, could ultimately drive up interest rates and unemployment and drive down gdp.

as the national economy teeters and this credit rating fiasco has now added to it, a parallel black market is running strong in this country. police are struggling to stop merchants from peddling counterfeit luxury goods. not only on sketchy street corners but in high-end shopping malls. ryan owens brings us this report from california. >> reporter: these cops aren't on the hunt for drugs or a murderer. at this luxury mall in the o.c., orange county, california, police are raiding a shop near nordstrom and macy's. the contraband these cops are after? counterfeit clothes. >> just relax. we have a search warrant. >> oh, really? >> reporter: santa ana police officers arrest the store manager. he's accused of selling phony prada, dolce and a huge stash of true religion jeans. he pleaded not guilty. while police put their suspect in the car outside, the brains

behind the bust is counting the merchandise inside. so there's'sot a real pair of true religion in this store that you've seen? >> so far not that i've seen. so this is a great hit. >> reporter: he's kris buckner. not a cop, but a p pvate investigator. the middleman between the police and the brands themselves. >> we're sort of like the counterfeit cops. so anything the cops do to investigate regular crimes we're really doing here at our company for those brand owners that we represent. >> looks like it could be real. i just need to take a better look at it. >> reporter: buckner shared some of his secrets on how to tell a fake. >> if this were authentic, it would say "true religion" on the inside. and there's nothing on these. one of the other things we do may sound a little funny but we do the smell test on jeans. these guys throw them in plastic bags before they're even dry, throw them on a container and take them to the u.s. so quite often you'll smell them and they'll kind of have a mildewy smell to them.

>> reporter: long before these cases end up at a police station, they are done here at investigate consultants. acting on tips buckner's agents go undercover to gather evidence. how many different disguises do you have? >> oh, multiple. i mean, i change my clothes. i change my wigs. sunglasses, accessories. this watch has a camera inside the face of it. this is a key chain that also does have an undercover camera in it. >> reporter: james bond would be jealous. here's video of an undercover purchase. what investigators believe is a pair of counterfeit headphones. monster beats by dr. dre. the real ones retail for almost $300. here the subject shows the goods, and money is handed over. >> there's a darker side than what the public even knows. it's huge. it's beyond what anybody can even comprehend. >> reporter: buckner says counterfeiters do a lot more than rip off high-end designers. he says their money funds gangs, organized crime, even terrorist

organizations. >> so you're saying here i am, a guy just trying to get a good-looking pair of jeans or some cool sunglasses anani have no idea where that money ends up? >> you have no idea. >> reporter: there is an attitude that this is a victimless crime. do you run into that attitude with law enforcement? >> we don't want law enforcement to look at us or the brand owners and say you're wasting our time on a really tiny case or it's not a good case, so our job is to bring them something they really will evaluate. and i can tell you that the majority of case that's we do all get prosecuted. >> reporter: the warehouse in the back of their office proves that. >> you have everything from luxury goods to tennis shoes. you name it, it's in here. >> reporter: a mountain of confiscated goods, boxed up and stored as evidence for trial. police are the first to say they couldn't do it without buckner. >> what kris does for us is pretty much 50% of our tips and investigations. >> reporter: it's not just the investigative work. >> we'll peel off here. and continue forward. >> reporter: he also goes on the

raids. we tagged along for this one with the lapd. kris waits a few blocks away to get that call. >> come here. [ speaking spanish ] >> perfect. awesome. >> reporter: this time officers arrest this woman for selling goods out of a makeshift store in an area of downtown los angeles known as the city's counterfeit capital. her shop may not look like much, but police say she is part of a crew making more than a half million dollars a year. >> if you calculate it, it's about $2,000 a day. >> reporter: their evidence? allegedly in her o handwriting. >> we got the subject we were looking for, recovered counterfeit merchandise, nobody got hurt. so huge success. >> reporter: but success is tough to measure when the problem is this massive. and buckner doesn't have to look far for a reminder of that. the port of los angeles is the largest in the country. a major entry point for illel goods. most of them from china. 14,000 containers come through here every day.

that's a shipment every seven seconds. officials are trying to keep up and say illegal seizures increased 40% last year. >> with the volume of freight that we get here in los angeles, i believe that the smuggler is pretty sure that if they send 20 containers that a few of them are going to go through. >> reporter: but kris buckner is sure trying. last year alone, he took about a quarter of a billion dollars' worth of counterfeit goods off the street. >> the public just doesn't really understand the true effects of counterfeit goods. and until they stop buying, this problem's going to continue to get bigger and bigger. >> reporter: i'm ryan owens for "nightline" in orange county, california. >> counterfeit goods, one burgeoning business. thanks to ryan owens for that. and next, behind the scenes of the latest "planet of the apes" reboot. no charleston heston, but more computer-generated graphics than you can shake your stinking paws at. another good thing about geico is, they've got, like, real live people working there 24/7.

so like say you need to report a aim, alright. a real person will be there to help you. then you can use geico.com to view photos of the damage, track your claim, print an estimate. you want an english muffin? they literally hand you a toasted muffin with butter and jam. (sigh) whaa. tasty. that's, that's a complete dramatization of course, but you get my point. vo: geico 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

how you doing? my name is steve. my family's lived in this neighbrhood for ears. recently, things got so tight we had to go to our local food bank for help. are missed opportunities. that's why we created the blue ribbon attendance challenge to help keep kids at their desks... while our innovative products, like new lysol x-tra

large dual action wipes and lysol no touch hand soap, continue to encourage healthy habits in schools. to get your school involved, visit lysol.com/schools. buy any two lysol products, and get lysol wipes for free. terry moran. well, "rise of planet of the apes" hits theaters today. it's a prequel to the 1968 classic "planet of the apes" starring charlton heston. the actors playing apes in that movie each wore several pounds of great makeup. the new film employs a cutting edge technology in which a human actor's movements, even facial expressions, are captured by computer and then rendered into a realistic on-screen chimp. david wright went behind the scenes of the new movie to file this report. >> reporter: it's a concept that seems as old as charles darwin. let along charlton heston.

>> get your stinking paws off me you, damn dirty ape. >> reporter: evolution as entertainment and social commentary. >> take your stinking hands off me, you damn dirty human. >> reporter: it's made "planet of the apes" one of the longest-running most profitable franchise ever. >> get your paws off me, you dirty ape. >> reporter: a pop culture icon "the simpsons" once parodied with a musical. ♪ dr. zaus the latest installment marks an evolution in moviemaking and movie acting. gone are the hours of makeup and process at the timics roddy mcdowell had to endure. andy serkis, star of "rise of planet of the apes," wore no makeup at all on set. instead he wore what's called a performance capture suit. >> you have markers on your face

which pick up very subtly your facial expressions. they track your eye movements. you can perform very subtly full camera as if you were -- as we are talking now. >> reporter: it's like you're a puppeteer. >> exactly that. it's like being inside a video game. >> reporter: like the matrix. >> yeah, literally, you're connecting with an avatar on screen. >> reporter: serkis has been called the charlie chaplin of performance capture, master of a new craft of digital acting. he was gollum in "lord of the rings." >> yes, precious. >> my agent's call was, they are doing "lord of the rings" down in new zealand, they're looking for a digital character's voice. i'm like, there must be a dozen decent roles in that movie. can't you get me up for something proper? >> reporter: little did he know how much his career and the industry was about to change. >> when we first were working with andy serkis on gollum, we did exactly what the old disney animators did. it's called rotoscoping where we

would frame by frame articulate our characters to match his performance. when we did "king kong" we figured out a way to capture his facial performance using a similar technique. >> reporter: so, when it came to "planet of the apes?" >> now it's just andy acting. it's just the pure performance. we can concentrate on exactly what his face is doing and what his body is doing, and then afterwards we turn that into esar. >> reporter: and is it simply a matter of clicking a mouse? >> click a mouse and wait about a year. >> reporter: for fox studios, it meant making this movie was possible. >> this was a great script that we had for a number of years at the studio that we loved from the first minute we read it but didn't have to worry about it because we knew it couldn't be made. >> reporter: how are you going to get the actor? >> you couldn't. unless you know some very talented apes out there that we maybe have an audition, that you can do it. >> reporter: in fact, a big leap forward in this movie has to do with acting. through the magic of movie

making, real actors and animated characters have appeared together on screen since t t earliest days of walt disney, on down to "mary poppins" and "roger rabbit." all the way through to "avatar." with this film, the technology is finally at a point where the digital characters and the live action actors are physically together on the set for all the big scenes. >> if we're doing our job right, we're essentially acting like a makeup artist would. we're adding pixels on top of his performance. but everything that you see on the screen is being driven by the choices he's making as an actor. >> reporter: the film is set in the present day, before the apes have evolved. making it harder for any makeup person to fudge. the absence of all that makeup means the acting is more natural. i don't know if you're willing to do this, but can you show me?

performance capture didn't just make it possible for a talented actor to play an ape. andy serkis played seas frr infancy all the way to adulthood. >> you know, he goes from this innocent all the way to che guevara, you know. >> reporter: the evolution of special effects has brought things to a place where acting is important again. >> you know, it really is a lot of fear about what actors are going to be replaced by computers. >> reporter: exactly. >> and it's the complete opposite. it's here is a tool which enables you to play anything. >> reporter: yet if the movie works as it should you won't even know he's human. he's a movie actor who's not a movie star. it seems to me that you're probably the biggest star who's also anonymous. nobody knows your face. do you have trouble getting into the v.i.p. room? >> yeah, all the time. they're kind of always asking for i.d. and i'm like, look, i'm in this. >> reporter: is he ever. i'm david wright for "nightline"

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and finally tonight, a new take on a primitive practice. it's called noodling. but it looks a whole lot like fish wrestling. no hooks, no lines, no rods. just your bare hands. from oklahoma, our matt gutman matched wills with a giant set of catfish gills. >> reporter: nothing summons your inner caveman quite like this. noodling. a decidedly wimpy name for what is arguably the world's toughest, scariest sport. >> whoo. >> this is the most primitive style of fishing that you will ever do. >> man on fish, hand to hand. >> reporter: that's why it's hillbilly hand fishing.

>> hillbilly hand fishing. >> reporter: animal planet has even dedicated an entire show to this sport, pairing ill-prepared city slickers -- >> he's got my toes. >> reporter: -- with these hillbilly handlers. but they all share a single goal -- to catch big catfish barehanded. and the bait? your hands and feet. >> you're celebrities. >> we're just fishermen. >> you know what? we've been performing out here for 20-some years. this is our audience. can you imagine -- there's not another care in the world. we don't even know these cameras are here. >> reporter: skipper bivens and trent jackson have been doing this since they were kids. and they invited "nightline" to noodle on the red river, home to deadly cottonmouths and giant catfish. all in water so murky, so soupy, you have to rely on a single sense. touch. >> come on in, nice and easy. come in hands first. oh, here he is, big one coming to you right there. >> oh, jesus. >> easy. don't leave out. get hold of him, cowboy. get a hold of him.

>> he's slippery. >> coming right back. there he is again. >> reporter: seconds later -- >> bring it out. bring ititut. >> i got it. >> hang on to him. hang on to him. >> i got it. >> you got him? >> yeah. >> set him down easy right there. >> reporter: after a parting kiss -- >> there's your catfish right there, bud. >> that wasn't bad. i think there's more in there. >> you think there are more down there? >> i think there will be more in there. there you go. >> this is the way they caught fish millions of years ago. >> the comanche indians were here in this country doing the exact same thing, getting out of the heat, having nunt water, and they were feeding t tir families. and that's exactly what this hillbilly hand fishing is all about. >> reporter: but i hit a missing streak. >> you got him? hang on to him. >> i don't have him. >> all right. >> reporter: skipper and jackson use one of their favorite

psychological tools to get folks like me back in the game. humiliation. >> i thought you had him. >> did you just smack me in the face with a fish? >> reporter: okay. let's see that one again in slow motion. >> that hurt. >> reporter: and then with adrenaline and shame coursing through me -- >> there he goes right here. >> reporter: -- i heave myself at slimy redemption. >> whoo-hoo! >> yeah! >> something primal in me just went ooh. >> that was a hell of a catch. >> first time i ever seen a man reach down and hold him up by the tail. >> reporter: for "nightline" i'm matt gutman, noodling on the red river, oklahoma. >> good catch, man. good catch. >> and gutman got his fish. "hillbilly hand fishing" premieres sunday on animal planet. thank you for watching "nightline."