Six recruits, joined by two returning candidates, begin the next phase of NZSAS basic training. Over nine months, they face intense physical and mental challenges while mastering weapons, medical skills, hand-to-hand combat, and navigation. Those who can't keep up are cut. Training continues with infiltration techniques across land, sea, and air, including cliff descents, rough-ocean navigation, and low-altitude parachute jumps. At Waiouru Military Camp they focus on teamwork, tackling the ‘Great Escape’ exercise — a five-day test of survival and evasion, in extreme conditions.