let it shine on you this is "nightline." >> tonight we're going deep inside the secret tunnel where billions of dollars worth of drugs are smuggled into america from mexico every year. how do they get from there to here? hidden in main sight. this dangerous journey is not for the claustrophobic. plus america's sweetheart strikes again. how julia roberts nabbed a starring role meant for a man in her new movie "secret in their eyes." this pretty woman going back to her roots with our michael strahan. and a terrifying fall, all 1,600 feet of it captured in heart-stopping footage. and why this professional skier was back on the slopes just two days after defying death. >> i'm okay!

>> but first the "nightline 5." think your heartburn pill works fast? take the zantac it challenge. zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. nexium can take 24 hours. when heartburn strikes take zantac for faster relief than nexium or your money back. find the perfect gift for everyone at the jcpenney make your list sale. get an extra 20% off with your jcpenney credit card and coupon. get door buster deals on women's boots, sweaters for him and her, jcpenney, where giving it's the holidays. and of course, everyone wants to get online at once. to watch things. buy things. but slow internet makes it hard. that's why it's time to get fios. it has the fastest internet and wifi available. with speeds from 50 to 500 megs. and right now, you'll get 50 meg fios internet, tv and phone for 79.99 a month online for your first year. and with a 2 year agreement, we'll give you all the premium movie channels for a year. plus, 400 dollars back. so go online or call now.

get out of the past. get fios. (man) yes. i'm sitting in wine. it's a 2011 pinot noir from the noir region. thank you, remy. (remy) you're welcome, sir. (man) of course we all know the rejuvenating effects of pinot therapy are quite well-documented. what's that, remy? (remy) it-it's a speck of cork, si- (man) i know what it is. (vo) a new york gentleman spends $28,000 a week on wine to sit in. (man) i'm so sorry you had to see this. (vo) you'd make a way better rich person. (man) i'll be in the pool. (vo) lotto. making more new yorkers rich than any other game. good evening. tonight we are going on a journey deep underground at the u.s./mexico border into the tangle of tunnels used to traffic not only drugs but

high-level drug kingpins themselves. nearly 200 of these tunnels have been discovered and abc's matt gutman takes us for an up-chose look. >> reporter: in that beige garage is a multimillion-dollar hole in the ground. and we're about to stuff ourselves into it. my god, is it dark and chaus tro phone nick here. this is terrifying. we are the only news team ever to go down that hole. >> that's a spike my head nearly went through. >> reporter: crab-walking our way down a former drug smuggling tunnel between the u.s. and mexico, one of the ways that tens of billions of dollars of drugs are trafficked into the u.s. every year. u.s. and mexican authorities have found and destroyed over 180 tunnels along this border. the question they say isn't whether there are more tunnels, but how many and where. much of what what's funneled

mexico's sin cineloa cartel. the leader busted out of prison earlier this year but having his come raids tunnel right into his prison cell. a tunnel fitted out with a motorcycle on a rail. notorious not only for his narrow escapes and prison breaks but for the elaborate cross-border tunnels his cartel has engineered. some like this tunnel discoverered near san diego, thousands of feet long. the job of finding them goes to the human moles, the customs and border protection tunnel team. >> you guys took the training? >> reporter: tasked with the sometimes deadly job of sniffing out the tunnels honeycombing the 2,000 mile long border with mexico. >> what's crazy is that there's a tunnel right here and then there's a tunnel 20 feet behind. three tunnels within the space of a year in 15 feet. >> correct. >> reporter: out of the 180-some tunnels found along the border 107 were discovered right here in the city of nogales.

dozens within a football field of where we're standing. >> concealing methods are creative. it's creativity. it's that simple. >> reporter: those engineers also use the massive drainage system between the two sides of the border. >> right here is the tunnelling attempt. they chipped this wall out and crawled through here with the bundles and followed the wall around the bend, through the double gates, then they came out in the pipe north of the north gate. >> reporter: detecting them is nearly impo upon. the one here in arizona, a retirement community carved neatly into the floor of a garage along this quiet street. >> looking at this house, would you ever think that there's a highly sophisticated tunnel right through there? >> you could drive by it a million times and not have any clue. >> reporter: topping off this ruse is this engineering gem. a trap door operated hydraulically from 1,000 feet away in mexico. it's perfectly camouflaged with the garage floor.

>> the rule is not to touch anything. because it's caving in behind you and there's no way back out. >> reporter: once inside, the air is in short supply. so they have to pump it in. and what little air there is feels syrupy. >> cockroaches? >> we have cockroaches too. >> reporter: it only has to be comfortable enough to do one thing, smuggle drugs fast. those sacks, that's got to weigh 50 to 100 pounds, eve one of those things. they haul them all the way back through? >> correct, they drag them all wait back. >> reporter: dirt goes out and drugs go in. >> if you do a 4,000-pound wad of marijuana that pays for the tunnel? >> pays for the tunnel easily. >> reporter: dug by hand by day laborers, working with simple tools, for almost no money. no one knows how many tunnel diggers have died down here are. when diggers survive they often thank the tunnel gods. >> wow, that's interesting. >> a lot of the tunnels they make something like thats in the tunnels. they vary. sometimes they're just stuck in the mud.

the tunnel there's some fear it could cave in. >> you can see the plywood creeling on here is all just rotted away. it caved in. right now just walk right here. walk gently through here. you don't want to touch the walls or anything. >> reporter: we see artifacts and what passes for entertainment. finally we reach the end. >> at the end we'd be under the fence. >> reporter: the tunnel had been filled in on the mexican side. we hoped to see it but we're told the mexican government was too busy to see us. >> you made a mistake and the attorney general's office couldn't give us permission outside of the house. no one from the institution could go with you form. >> reporter: turns out you're agents were in hot pursuit of el chapo and we'd have to fend for yourselves. that morning we got a call. >> they're willing to help us out. the officer of one of the prosecutors there is going to meet us. >> okay. >> reporter: our convoy rolls up

to a gated house. it's blocked. and someone scampers off to find a key which in this case turns out to be bolt cutters. inside the house is a mess. a labyrinth of sodden clothes and leftover food. >> still the hot sauce on the table, the tortillas as well. maybe what's most amazing about this tunnel is a family used to live in that house. there are children's toys and clothes. and yet in the backyard here, there was a massive piece of construction going on. that hole goes down about 25 feet. it's lined with concrete and cinderblocks. in order to dig that tunnel, 900 feet that inn that direction they had to remove hundreds of tons of dirt. yet the neighbors say they saw nothing and heard nothing. i asked the mexican officer with us who built it? >> the cartel?

el chapo? el chapo? >> reporter: he said he doesn't know. it was abandoned when they got there. >> right at the end of this street, just four blocks that way, is the u.s./mexico border. that right there is the border fence which means that that tunnel was dug right underneath the noses of body u.s. and mexican authorities. following the line of the tunnel above ground, supervisory border patrol agent tom pittman admits that's probably true. customs and border protection has robots they insert in the tunnels. this is one of those robots' view inside drainage pipe used to smuggle drugs. because of the tools and debris so often left in these tunnels the robots often snag and get stuck. they tell us there's no technological solution on the horizon either. what they know is that when they find a tunnel they know they have an exit point and there's only one way to find out its entry. >> so basically the technology that exists today is the same that existed 50 years ago when

>> one of us that can fit will go in there without anything on, just a pistol and flashlight. >> reporter: and hope he doesn't find someone else in there. for "nightline," i'm matt gutman in nago, mexico. and up next here, how julia roberts got the starring role in "secret in their eyes," a role originally meant for a man. also how she made our michael strahan blush. >> i like it! welcome to the most social car we've ever designed. the 2015 nissan murano. recipient of autopacific's best-in-class vehicle satisfaction award. now get great deals on the nissan murano. i tried depend last weekend. it really made the difference between a morning around the house

and getting a little exercise. only depend underwear has new confidence core technology for fast absorption and the smooth, comfortable fit of fit-flex protection. get a coupon at depend.com (vo) what's your dog food's first ingredient? corn? wheat? in new purina one true instinct grain free, real chicken is always #1. no corn, wheat or soy. support your active dog's whole body health with purina one. [cough, cough] mike? janet? cough if you can hear me. don't even think about it. i took mucinex dm for my phlegmy cough. yeah...but what about mike? he has that dry scratchy thing going on. guess what? it works on his cough too. cough! guess what? it works on his cough too. what? stop! don't pull me! spoiler alert! she doesn't make it! only mucinex dm relieves bothwet and dry coughs for 12 hours with two medicines in one pill. start the relief. ditch the misery. let's end this. the best of everything is even better during red lobster's ultimate seafood celebration

where new seafood combinations like the new grand seafood feast are stepped up, spiffed up, jazzed up... yeah, this stuffed lobster tail, handcrafted brown butter scampi, and jumbo hand-battered shrimp are that good. or try the new ultimate wood-grilled feast. that bourbon brown sugar glaze gets ya preeetty fired up. with new dishes like these, why wait to celebrate? but just like this time of year, this is too good to last. so hurry in. do you suffer from constipation or irregularity? trust dulcolax for dependable relief. try free at dulcolaxoffers.com dulcolax tablets are comfort coated for gentle, overnight relief. hurry! try free at dulcolaxoffers.com.

julia roberts has been churning out box office hits since the 1980ss, earning the title of "america's swee heart." the latest landing a role written for a man. abc's michael strahan spoke to julia roberts about her new movie and what makes her happy. >> i don't have the stomach to watch him walk away again. >> reporter: from america's sweetheart to a meertsd seeking revenge in the new thriller "secret in their eyes." >> i found martin. >> reporter: julia roberts plays an fbi agent investigating her own daughter's death.

>> it's carolyn. >> what? >> it's -- it's carolyn. it's your daughter. >> reporter: it was an intense role -- >> help me! >> reporter: roberts had spousal support on-set. danny moder, the film's cinematographer and her husband of 13 years. >> did it help to have him there whenever you got out of a heavy scene? >> it helped if a couple of ways. because first of all, i try to impress him so much that really, as much as i try to impress my director -- >> really? >> i think, is he? okay. >> are you trying to impress your husband? >> of course. he's my person. >> i love that. >> he's my person. in that regard i think i definitely tried to go more, find more, to kind of make him go, i did not expect her to do that. it became very meditative to go to work together or come home together and we've kind of gone through -- we come home, how was your day? well, we did this, this. none of that.

it was all about the kids. which was amazing. >> reporter: over her nearly three decade long career, roberts has played it all. from a law school student in "the pelican brief" to a maid of honor trying to steal the groom in "my best friend's wedding." >> i dreamt some psychopath was trying to break the two of you up. >> reporter: she won an oscar for playing a passionate activist "erin brockovich." >> not personal? that is my work! my sweat, my time away from my kids! if that's not personal i don't know what is! >> reporter: it was her role as a pretty woman that catapulted her career. >> oh! >> reporter: 25 years later, i met up with robert in the same place where she shot "pretty woman." the beverly wilshire holt. hotel. >> wow. >> do you have any feelings that come over you when you come into

this hotel? >> abject awkwardness. especially when i go into the elevator. because the elevators are exactly the same and have the little seats. >> color me happy there's a sofa in here for two! >> first time in an elevator. >> reporter: that's when i just walk in and kind of look around. everyone's looking at their feet. >> because you make them nervous? >> because we all feel uncomfortable. >> you don't make me feel uncomfortable. >> if we got in an elevator you'd be so uncomfortable right now. >> don't you ever, ever -- >> reporter: in "secret in their eyes" roberts played a role originally written for a man. >> when they say, we want you to play this part. they don't want you to play it as a man. i've had to play oprah so i'm curious. they made me play oprah as a woman. >> i do feel masculine, i'm a manly girl. it was one of those things they had taken the man from the

original and incorporated some issues, some situations from other characters, in the original, to put together to create the character that ultimately i do play. >> reporter: despite her superstardom roberts prefers to stay out of the spotlight and off social media. instead focusing her attention on her three children. as the father of four kids myself i was excited to ask her for parenting advice. >> my daughter said to me last year, talking about school, and she was having some frustration. and she said, mommy, you just don't know what it's like. the next morning i said to her, guess what i'm going to do today? i'm going to sit in the back of your classroom all day today and understand what it's like. >> wow. >> by the time the bell rang to go home, this is what i know. no child wants to get in the car and have their parent say, how was your day?

>> i just -- i just wanted it to be over. >> all i can say is, it was a quiet car ride home? >> and that's okay. that's okay. to not be talking in the car? is fine. >> i like that advice. >> reporter: roberts said she leads a normal life. cooking, helping her kids with homework, walking the dogs. she even let me in on one of her family traditions. >> there's something i hear you play at the dinner table, the family dinner game. >> the family dinner game. >> you ask questions around the table. can we play that? >> do you have questions? >> i have a few questions. >> what's your middle name? >> anthony. what is the first thing you look at when you see somebody? >> i guess -- you know, your eyes, your smile. probably your eyes. they're brown. they're twinkly. >> i'm blushing. i didn't think i blushed. >> they are brown and twinkly. >> brown and twinkly, okay, thank you. >> that's when you say, oh, so are yours. >> reporter: looks aside, i asked her about her key to happiness. >> you have the natural

chemistry of joy. what is the natural chemistry of joy? >> just -- a roll of the dice, i think. i feel like i was born of joy. and i know that you share that same feeling. that just happy is something that i feel i'm blessed with or there's also that sweet adage, it doesn't matter if you win or lose -- until you lose. >> oh. >> i'm just kidding, that's not -- >> i kind of liked it. i was mesmerized. oh, boy! oh, that was pretty good. >> thanes to michael strahan for that report. up next on "nightline," would you hit the slopes after surviving this? why and how this guy managed to walk away unscathed. (under loud music) this is the place. their beard salve is made from

you, my friend, recognize when a trend has reached critical mass. yes, when others focus on one thing, you see what's coming next. you see opportunity. that's what a type e does. and so it begins. with e trade's investing insights center, you can spot trends before they become trendy. e trade. opportunity is everywhere. yeah. that's the one right? we forgot dave! thank you. so, can the test drive be over now? maybe head back to the dealership? it's practically yours, but we still need your signature. the sign then drive event. zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first months payment on a new tiguan

there will be a moment, when all the wonder, excitement, and joy of christmas will be contained not on the stage, but in that little face, in the seat to your right. that can only happen... ...here. the radio city christmasspectacular presented by chase. you bring the family, we bring the joy. visit radiocitychristmas.com

star light star bright, the first star i see tonight i wish i may, i wish i might, have the wish i wish tonight wishes do come true. the lincoln wish list event is on. right now get exceptional offers on the entire lincoln family. for a limited time your choice of mkc, mkz gas or hybrid for $369 a month

a professional skier gets back on the proverbial horse just two days after a death-defying fall captured in a heart-stopping video. how did he pull it off? here's abc's t.j. holmes. >> reporter: look and listen closely. >> oh! >> reporter: that's professional skier ian macintosh plummeting 1,600 feet with the sounds of every painful bump and grunt recorded on his way down. >> oh! oh! >> it felt like an eternity. it really did.

to stop. >> reporter: macintosh was filming "paradise waits" when he mistakenly skis into a five-foot trench and wipes out. >> oh! oh! >> i had no idea that was coming. i knew at that point it was game over. i was going tort ride of my life. >> reporter: that's the very moment you hear him cry out. >> oh! no! >> it felt like i was getting hit by linebackers the whole way down the mountain. over and over and over again. >> reporter: while macintosh was falling he was thinking. he made the decision to deploy the avalanche air bag that was built into his backpack. >> pull that white handle for me right there. there's your life jacket. for when you're flying down the mountain. >> you're thinking all these things while in a death spiral. >> to do what i do for a living you don't panic when things get intense. >> reporter: after falling

nearly a minute, macintosh comes