[Update] Watch The Drama Unfold As Local Hero Jumps Into East River To Rescue Dog

[Update Below] Every great story in history, whether it's the tale of Jesus's resurrection, the crash of the Titanic or The Lord Of The Rings, requires someone to document the exploits for the benefit of future generations. Like Luke, Kate Winslet and Bilbo Baggins before him, Brooklyn-based filmmaker Lorenzo Fonda was there to bear witness to an incredible act of history and heroism as a seemingly random dude dove into the waters of the East River to rescue a dog who had gotten pretty far out this weekend.

Fonda got to the popular Brooklyn Barge bar in Greenpoint around 4 p.m. on Saturday, when he noticed right away that people were "looking at something out on the river. I heard someone mentioning a dog swimming so looked out and saw the dog already far out in the middle of the river. I have no idea how it ended up in there, if it jumped on its own or if it fell, and I didn't think of asking."

"So I went to the front of the barge to get a better view and heard someone saying to this man something along the lines of, 'well you may have to jump in,'" Fonda continued. "He didn't seem agitated, and everyone was commenting on the situation so I thought it was just said as a joke."

[Dramatic Pause]

But it wasn't a joke.

"Soon after I saw the man coming out of nowhere with a floating vest (no idea where and how he found one so quickly) walking towards the river rocks," Fonda said, as the children from across the village gathered around the fire to better hear the tale. Fonda took six videos of the man striding up the pier and jumping into the water, but we'll just put two of them below:

The moment of impact:

Right around this point as I was watching each video and narrating the journey out loud in the office today, my coworkers started asking me whether I too would jump in the East River for a dog. I would not hesitate to do so for my own pup of course (especially because Teekay can't swim! He would be so mad if he ended up in the river!)—as for a stranger's dog, it would depend on whether the dog was in distress or not. If the dog was frantically yelping and unable to paddle, I would. But if the dog was just aimlessly doing laps around the water and didn't seem in distress, I might hold up for a bit for rescuers to arrive before infusing my body in the murky depths of the greenish, Doritos bag-infused water.

Fortunately, for our purposes (i.e. generating compelling content), this guy had no qualms whatsoever about doing so:

Look at how close the good boy is!

Onlookers were understandably sobbing at this point:

Helicopter support finally arrived at this point:

Swerve! He was not going to make it that easy:

I can feel it coming in the air tonight...oh lord...

HE DID IT!

OH GOD, THE DOG GOT FREAKED OUT BY THIS RANDOM DUDE AND MAY HAVE BITTEN HIM, DON'T BLAME THE DOG:

"I don't know whose dog it was, whether it belongs to the man who jumped or not," Fonda added. "He definitely had blood on himself while in the water, it could have been from the dog too but I suspect the dog bit him because it was disoriented and terrified (you can see him biting his hand at some point, or at least that's what I think it is)."

Thankfully, the man was able to tow the dog to the shore:

LOOK HOW EXHAUSTED THE DOG IS:

It remains unclear who the dog's owner was. "When the dog was handed to the cops everyone soon lost interest and went back to drinking and hanging out, and that's all I know about the situation," Fonda recalls.

Fonda ended his epic tale with its own epilogue, that thankfully was far shorter than the ones from The Return of The King:

UPDATE: Someone on Reddit wrote with the possible backstory as to how the dog ended up in this situation: they say that the dog walker was hit by a car, and the dog—whose name is Harper—bolted and ran into the river. "Harper is doing fine, just scuffed up paws from her run," the person wrote. "On the bright side, she now has to wear these ridiculous uggs."