Fears can take a back seat when you have people to save — even if it's just a game show.

In Netflix's Zombieverse, Dex (Kim Jin-young) jumped into freezing cold water to rescue his teammates Lee Si-young and Patricia Yiombi.

The trio were stuck on a small raft in the sea, untethered from a boat, in the final quest in the reality show about a zombie apocalypse. Dex lowered himself into the water and pushed the raft to shore.

The 28-year-old former Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) soldier said in a video interview uploaded by Netflix K-Content on Aug 12: "When I was in the special forces, I did a lot of underwater training. We'd have to immerse ourselves in freezing water, so I have PTSD from cold water.

"I shower with hot water even in the summer."

Despite his trauma, Dex explained that jumping into the sea "was something I had to do".

"It was a situation where we were gradually pushed further away [from the shore] by the waves," he said.

Dex added that he went in without informing Si-young and Patricia first because he knew they'd refuse to let him enter the water, where the temperature was -13 degrees Celsius.

In the show, Patricia can be heard saying, "How is he so fearless?" to which Dex joked during the Netflix K-Content interview: "It seems like everyone has forgotten that I'm a former UDT member."

Zombieverse's producer Moon Sang-don shared about the feat in a separate interview: "I was filming and thinking, 'Isn't that dangerous?' But Dex was Dex.

"To be honest, we were prepared for the possibility of a cast member falling into the water and had a hot tub ready. When Dex got out of the water, we were planning to warm up his body with the tub, but he said he was fine. We were surprised."

In the Netflix interview, Dex admitted that he was actually "trembling like a leaf" after getting out of the water.

Zombies looked at Dex like, 'This wasn't in the script'

Dex jumping into the water to save Patricia and Si-young was the most-viewed clip involving himself from Zombieverse, but the second most-viewed video featured another scenario where he showed off his strength.

In it, 20-year-old idol Tsuki Fukotomi was on the ground in a factory warehouse, holding onto a rope on a pulley while zombies swarmed around her.

The contestants on the second floor realised someone heavier than Tsuki could hold onto the other end of the rope and descend so Tsuki would be pulled up — and Dex did just that.

"I actually didn't have much time to think, because the zombies were swarming," Dex explained in his Netflix K-Content video. "We didn't have the time to play scissors-paper-stone and decide who should go."

After Tsuki was rescued to safety and as the zombies focused on him instead, Dex then climbed back up the rope, something he had been trained in during his military stint.

"There was a zombie who grabbed my ankle," he said. " I could feel their desire to kill, I really felt like they were trying to pull me down.

"So I quickly lifted my feet, hooked them onto the rope, and climbed up."

The production team did not intend for a contestant to use themselves as a counterweight, nor did they expect someone to scale back up the rope.

Producer Park Jin-kyung said to the Korean press: "This wasn't planned during this quest. The top area was about eight metres high. The production team imagined a situation where someone stuck below would get dragged and drowned by zombies, leading to chaos.

"But Dex fearlessly grabbed the rope and descended. We watched him and thought, 'Dex is going to die. What should we do?' but he secured the rope and began to climb up.

"The zombie actors were trying to grab Dex as he climbed up, but because he got up successfully, they looked at him like, 'This wasn't in the script.' It was an unexpected moment."

In the Zombieverse episode, a zombie can even be seen breaking character to stare at Dex, mouth agape.

Though he told Dex, "I got a great shot, it's perfect," Park added that the unexpected scenario forced the production team to quickly adjust their plans.

Zombieverse is streaming on Netflix.

drimac@asiaone.com

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