Richard Dean Anderson stars in the first-ever episode of MacGyver, where the title character has to rescue scientists from an underground laboratory and stop a dangerour acid leak.
Our first-ever look at MacGyver
The Plot (spoilers):
Somewhere in Central Asia, Present Day, MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) is seen climbing a steep rockface. His voiceover tells a boyhood story about riding Old Man McGinney's Golden Palomino, as the visual reveals a crashed American fighter plane on top of the mountain, surrounded by tents and foreign soldiers. Parts of MacGyver's voiceover story align with his mission, such as when recalls Old Man McGinney's dog Hector who guarded the Golden Palomino as he knocks out a solder and takes his coat and hat as a disguise. MacGyver takes a flare gun from the crashed plane and puts it in his bag. Then he notices the plane's pilot survived, and is in a hanging wood cage. MacGyver gives him his Swiss Army Knife to free himself and ask which tent has the missile. Inside the appropriate tent, MacGyver removes a panel from a large missile. Using some special tools he has in his bag, he removes a component from the missile, and the missile starts a 30 second countdown. MacGyver cuts a wire to no effect. MacGyver pulls a paper clip from his bag, unbends it and uses it to complete the circuit that was broken when he removed the component. (That's right, the first ever MacGyver-ism was using a paper clip to defuse a missile!) Back outside, MacGyver rigs an automatic rifle with tree branch, string and a lit matchbook, then goes to get the pilot. The rifle goes off, causing a distraction, and MacGyver and the pilot make their escape. Mac knocks out soldier with the butt of the soldier's own rifle, & takes rifle with him. MacGyver and the pilot reach the edge of the mountain. "God, I hate heights," says MacGyver. He uses the rifle briefly to lay down cover before handing it to the pilot. MacGyver pulls a parachute from his bag and puts it on. He pulls out the flare gun from his bag and smashes end of it with a rock to make a "rocket thruster." MacGyver grabs the pilot and fires the flare gun, throwing them off the cliff. The parachute opens and they glide to safety. The opening gambit ends almost 10 minutes into the episode.
MacGyver fires a gun!
In New Mexico, a limousine pulls into the Cendrex Corporation's Kiva Laboratory, which is disguised as a radio station in middle of nowhere. The limo's passenger is a British scientist, Dr. Sidney Marlowe (Olaf Pooley), who is visiting his colleague, Dr. Carl Stubens (Paul Stewart). Dr. Marlowe is met by Dr. Stubens' assistant, Dr. Barbara Spencer (Darlanne Fluegel), who says Dr. Stubens is waiting on the Third Level and takes Marlowe to him. Marlow and Stubens play a game of chess. Meanwhile there's a bomb counting down. Stubens makes a move and tells Marlow he's sorry. He looks at the clock and just as it his 11:00, the bomb goes off. Explosions go off throughout the Kiva Lab.
The Kiva Lab
MacGyver lives in the Griffith Observatory and has a "little brother" (an underprivileged child he hangs out with) named Reggie (Shavar Ross). A helicopter arrives, bringing MacGyver's state department contact: Ed Gantner (Michael Lerner). He explains the situation at the Kiva Lab. Stubens and Marlowe are important Nobel-nominated scientists. They are alive, but the odds of rescuing them are "not great." MacGyver asks Gantner to define "not great" on a scale of one to ten, and is told "minus three." MacGyver agrees.
MacGyver hears the mission
MacGyver and Gantner arrive at the Kiva Lab and meet with the director of the lab, Dr. Charlie Burke (Michael C. Gwynne). MacGyver asks if the explosion could have been caused by Dr. Stubens's research, but Burke doubts it as Stubens was researching magnetic fields in the ozone layer for "rainmaking." The explosions have caused a sulfuric acid leak. If the acid reaches the aquifer it will flow into the Rio Grande and poison New Mexico, Texas and Mexico. The acid can be neutralized by flooding the complex with sodium hydroxide, which Mac points out is used to clean the flesh off of skeletons. There is a little under 5 hours left before they have to neutralize the acid. MacGyver is introduced to Andy Colson (Dana Elcar) who explains how hard it will be to enter the lab's lower level. The elevator shaft is protected by 10,000 watt CO2 gas discharge lasers. MacGyver asks Colson for a cigarette, takes the whole pack and puts them in his bag. Colson says MacGyver will need more than he can fit in the bag to get into the lab. MacGyver replies, "The bag's not for what I take, Colson, it’s for what I find along the way."
Burke, MacGyver, Colson and Gantner
In a maintenance conduit connecting the elevator shaft, and wired with a 2-way radio, MacGyver uses the cigarettes to make smoke so he can see the laser, and then smashes his binoculars and uses a prism to reflect the laser back on its source, destroying it.
Smoke 'em if you got 'em!
On the way to the biolab, MacGyver finds the corridor collapsed but hears tapping on the other side. There is a wedged steel girder blocking his way, but if he could raise it a few inches, he might be able to move it. On the other end of the radio he hears Gantner take a sip of water, which gives him an idea. He fetches a fire hose, cuts off the nozzle and ties a knot in the end and stuffs it under girder. Then he turns on the water, raising the girder enough for MacGyver to move it. On the other side he finds a large group of survivors, including Barbara Spencer, who knows where Marlowe and Stubens were and insisted on going with MacGyver to show him.
Spencer
With 3 hours 27 minutes to go, MacGyver and Spencer have found that her route is blocked by fire, and they instead have to go through the "gas chamber." On the way, they come across a toppled vending machine with its chocolate candy bars strewn across the floor. He picks up a few, saying they might a well "store up on a little energy." Spencer is a little annoyed that MacGyver is thinking about candy at a time like this. As they walk along, with MacGyver eating a candy bar, Spencer is surprised that none of the airlocks have closed like they should have. Of course, at that moment they suddenly kick in. Mac and Spencer run and barely make it through to the "gas chamber," which they find filled with toxic gas. Meanwhile the tankers of sodium hydroxide have arrived, and will be ready to flood the lab in 55 minutes. On the surface, Colson and his team try to get the airlocks to reopen, but they can't, leaving MacGyver and Spencer trapped. With limited air, MacGyver decides to risk going through the gas lab to activate the vacuum pumps and clear the air. MacGyver tears his shirt in half for he and Spencer to cover their mouth and nose, which "might help a little." Spencer gives him a kiss. MacGyver gets to the pump panel. The pumps don't initially work, but MacGyver gets into the panel and "hot-wires" them, and continues on his way. Meanwhile on the surface, Burke tells Gantner that they aren't sure that the sodium hydroxide will be enough to stop the acid, so they are going to shoot an underground missile into the foundation to "fuse the substratum rock" above the aquifer to stop the acid. This will also destroy the lower levels of the Kiva lab. Gantner tries to warn MacGyver over the radio, but MacGyver accidently lost it in the gas lab. There is 31:30 before the missile launch.
MacGyver realized he lost the radio, but he and Spencer keep going in search of the acid leak, which they find. Spencer stands on MacGyver's shoulders to reach the leak and seals it using the chocolate bars, which are Lactose and Sucrose, C12-H22-O11, disaccharides, which react with the sulfuric acid to form a residue that seals the crack. On the surface, the clock on the wall is counting down from 18:31:30, but the characters say there's 9:30 to launch.
MacGyver and Spencer are almost to Marlowe and Stubens, but there's too much debris blocking the door. While Spencer tries to contact them on the intercom, MacGyver finds plastique residue on the debris. Now he knows it was a bomb. Spencer makes contact with Marlowe. Stubens sounds concerned that they are so close. MacGyver tells them to build a barricade because they are going to try to blast through the wall.
Spencer: "Don't tell me you know how to make a bomb out of a stick of chewing gum"
MacGyver: "Why, you got some?"
Spencer tells MacGyver they're in a metallurgy lab, and MacGyver realizes there should be sodium metal. He decides they only need a few grams but they need something water-soluble to put it is. Spencer has cold capsules. Meanwhile, 6 minutes to missile launch. The cold capsule of sodium in a glass jar of water with a stopper manages to blow a hole in the wall. MacGyver tells Spencer to wait outside while he goes in alone for Marlowe and Stubens. MacGyver gets in, and Stubens pulls a gun on him and Marlowe. Spencer then comes through the hole too, annoying Mac who just told her not to do that. Stubens revealed he set the bomb, hoping to kill himself and Marlowe, the only experts in their field, because their research had revealed a way to create a doomsday weapon that could destroy the ozone layer, killing everything on earth, and Stubens couldn't let that happen.
Stubens pulls a gun
With only 2 minutes to launch, Spencer charges Stubens and gets herself shot, but MacGyver gets the gun. Burke tells Colson to start flooding the lab with sodium hydroxide. MacGyver takes off to find the circuit breaker for the lights, and by turning on and off the lights in the entire Kiva lab in Morse code, sends a message. Fortunately one of the lab techs on the surface realizes it and takes down the message: "Acid Stopped. All Safe. Mac" and the launch is aborted with seconds to spare. Spencer's gunshot wound was apparently minor and as the medics wheel here out she has time for a goodbye kiss with MacGyver. MacGyver goes home to the observatory to play basketball with his "little brother." (MacGyver is wearing the same shirt he was before; the one he tore up in the lab.)
MacGyver plays basketball with his little brother
My Review:
I've always liked the MacGyver pilot episode. Both the opening gambit and the main episode have interesting stories and are well produced, with good casting and mostly-convincing special effects. As this is the pilot episode, there are some interesting aspects to this episode that didn't continue into the rest of the series. Most notably is the fact that MacGyver fires a gun in the opening gambit. The idea to have MacGyver refure to use guns as weapons apparently hadn't been developed yet. Michael Lerner, who playes Ed Gantner, is listed (but not shown) in the opening credits and may have been intended as a regular character. It's not clear if MacGyver's "little brother" was intended as a recurring character or not. MacGyver also carries a bag "for what he finds along the way" that isn't in the main series where MacGyver finds what he needs as he needs it. Dana Elcar, who would later become a series regular as Pete Thornton, plays unrelated character Andy Colson in the pilot. Elcar's Colson is different enough and Elcar is talented enough that he's easily acceptable in this episode as Colson, even knowing his future role.
Overall, this is an enjoyable episode that started MacGyver off on the right foot.
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