'Rescue Cam' Features Harrowing Rescues — but Is the Footage Real?

One of the latest shows on A&E, Rescue Cam, promises to take viewers behind the scenes and shed light on the heroic work carried out by rescue squads. 

Rescue Cam features footage depicting human and animal rescues. The show relies on clips predominantly shot by amateurs — which makes it feel all the more real. But so, just how accurate exactly is the depiction the show provides? Here's what you should know. 

Rescue Cam is produced by Big Fish Entertainment, the full-service production company that's responsible for Live Rescue as well. Needless to add, they had no intention to lower the stakes, and they promptly delivered a show that's just as chillingly realistic and accurate-seeming as their older project.

While Live Rescue is made with the help of a professional camera crew, Rescue Cam goes a few more steps further. The show features footage shot with cell phones, body cams, dash cams, and security cameras — which is bound to make viewers feel almost as though they were there when the accidents and rescues took place. 

The shooting methods remain uncontested, but there is one aspect of the show that might be subject to slightly stricter creative control. Because Rescue Cam predominantly relies on found footage, it's somewhat more likely that the researchers, editors, and others involved in the making of the show have some say in what goes into each episode. 

With Live Rescue, one factor that played a role in the decision-making process was whether the patient whom the footage depicts gave their permission to the camera crew to film them.

Although A&E repeatedly ensured viewers that only the footage depicting patients who gave their permission to be filmed made their way into the show, there may have been exceptions.

The creators of Rescue Cam are slightly less likely to face obstacles of a similar kind, as the show predominantly relies on footage shot by rescue squad members and the members of the public. 

The grainy footage and the purpose-driven, somewhat haphazard framing only proves that the short clips that do make it into the show weren't necessarily shot by professionals — but by rescue squads and everyday people who wanted to capture the most complex and scariest missions they carried out so far. 

Rescue Cam is set to depict adrenaline-drenched scenes, including one that sees a young person getting rescued by two firefighters. Unable to climb down the ladder connecting the upper story with the ground floor while carrying the young person's body, the firefighter chooses to throw him or her to the other firefighter. Another clip sees an untrained person climb inside a sinking car — another life-threatening task.

Hosted by the unparalleled Matt Iseman, Rescue Cam promises to take viewers to sights they would never get the chance to witness otherwise, capturing the most petrifying rescues out there. 

Rescue Cam premieres on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020, at 10 p.m. ET on A&E.