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The Golden Triangle
Season 1, Episode 2
The Golden Triangle
Airdate 6th October 1985
Written by Dennis Foley
Directed by Paul Stanley
Episode Guide
Previous
Pilot
Next
Thief Of Budapest

The Golden Triangle is the 2nd episode of Season 1 in the original version of MacGyver.

Synopsis[]

While retrieving a poison-filled canister from a crash site in Burma, Angus MacGyver is forced to take on a powerful drug lord when he is mistaken for a narcotics agent.

Summary[]

Opening Gambit[]

In a junkyard, MacGyver interrupts a purchase of the launch codes to NORAD's nuclear missiles by toppling over a stack of car tires. Eluding the men, MacGyvers uses an electro-magnetic crane to lift the briefcase containing the codes out of their reach. MacGyver exits the crane and grabs the briefcase, dodging gunfire.

MacGyver hides in the driver's seat of a wrecked car. He exits the vehicle, only to be blindsided. When he comes to, his wrists are tied and he is lying in the back seat of another car in the junkyard. Three men wave over a forklift, which scoops up the car and deposits it in the car crusher. MacGyver rips off the back seat of the car and escapes to the trunk. At just the right moment, MacGyver uses the crushing pressure and a crowbar to pop open the trunk and escape, without the men seeing.

MacGyver frees himself and uses the forklift to intercept the car containing the documents as it attempts to leave the junkyard. He pins the car in mid-air against a large pole and uses a pay phone to call his superiors to come "pick them up".

Act One[]

Angus MacGyver is sunbathing on an empty, pristine beach. Air Force General Hawkins approaches him with a mission in Burma. A cargo plane has crashed in the jungle, containing a canister holding a toxic poison capable of killing 1000 acres of plant life, animals and people. MacGyver's orders are to recover the canister or destroy it if necessary.

Once MacGyver is on the ground in Burma, he has only 24 hours to locate and recover the canister before the chopper to take him out of Burma arrives. MacGyver comes across slave laborers marching from the poppy fields, with their captors keeping watch, armed with machetes. An old man named Prasert stumbles and falls on the side of the path, and is nearly beaten before being helped up by his family.

A young boy named Chan wearing an Air Force baseball hat antagonizes a soldier in charge named Truang, and is chased into the jungle. MacGyver pulls the child behind a tree, keeping him out of sight from Truang. After asking Chan where he found the hat, MacGyver is led to the crash site. Searching the wreckage, MacGyver finds that the canister is gone, and as he exits the shell of the plane, he is captured by Truang and his men.

Suspended by his hands and feet from a large pole, MacGyver is carried into the nearby village. MacGyver is interrogated on the suspicion that he is a narcotics agent. General Narai arrives in a helicopter. He inquires about the poppy harvest, as well as the downed airplanes. Soldiers pull back a tarp, revealing a large weapons cache and other items, including a life vest, emergency life raft, coil of rope, three sticks of dynamite, and the canister (labelled "Controlled Materials SFT-42 - Danger"). Narai is pleased, and plans to convert his helicopter into a highly armed vehicle.

Narai addresses the village, threatening them that if the crop is not harvested in five days, they will suffer. Narai then instructs the soldiers to tie up MacGyver in the sun and elements at the head of the trail to the fields, with no food or water, as a means of inspiring the workers to complete their work.

Act Two[]

Lin and Chan approach MacGyver from the edge of the clearing and Chan keeps watch while Lin soothes MacGyver and his wounds with a damp cloth. They flee as a soldier approaches.

Back in the village, the villagers work as hard as they can to prepare the harvest. The boy steals MacGyver's Swiss Army Knife from the guard house and brings it to him. Another soldier is sent to relieve MacGyver's guard from duty, but walks into a trap, noticing the Swiss Army Knife on the ground, but not the unconscious soldier strapped to a tree with a belt, or MacGyver's simulated bondage. As the soldier approaches him, MacGyver gives him a solid chop in the back, and escapes into the jungle.

MacGyver returns to the village. Using his Swiss Army Knife, he cuts the rope holding the village's pig pen closed and shoos the pigs out, causing them to run amok. As the villagers and soldiers scramble to recapture them, MacGyver slips unnoticed under the tarp and finds the canister. MacGyver constructs a device using the life vest, emergency emergency raft, emergency flare, airplane tire, and a series of wires. Pulling the cord to the life vest as he exits the tarp, MacGyver has rigged everything so that as the life vest inflates, it triggers the inflation of the life raft by pulling on the attached wires between the two objects. In a similar fashion, as the life raft inflates, it pulls the cord on a flare wedged under the airplane tire, lighting it and blowing up the tire.

The soldiers watch the tarp rapidly inflate as the tire blows up. MacGyver uses a bamboo pole to vault from behind and dropkick a soldier standing near a military jeep. He steals the jeep and launches it forward, jumping out and using another flare to ignite the jeep as it rolls to a stop. MacGyver takes off, and is aided by a young man named Ming, who disables a soldier while MacGyver drives another truck around the center of the village and crashes into a building. Truang escapes into the jungle.

Act Three[]

MacGyver and the villagers discuss what to do when Narai arrives for the crop. Some of the villagers want to fight back, and ask MacGyver to instruct them how to use the rifles left behind. MacGyver declines, and leaves to meet his helicopter. The young boy follows MacGyver to the landing site, and finds that MacGyver stays behind while the helicopter leaves with the toxin. When MacGyver returns, all of the villagers except for Anek agree to let MacGyver help them fend off Narai and his men. With his help, they devise a series of defenses.

A lookout flashes a predetermined signal from a tree with a small mirror, and the villagers prepare for the attack.

Act Four[]

Narai's soldiers approach the village in military jeeps. Perched atop a high hill, MacGyver tells Truang and his men that the villagers intend on defending themselves. They fire at the hilltop, and MacGyver dives for cover.

Ming throws a rock at one of the jeeps, getting them to chase him off of the road, toward a tree. As the jeep passes underneath the tree, Chan and another child drop snakes into the men's laps. As they panic, villagers rush the jeep from all sides and take them captive. MacGyver and Chan jump in the jeep, and drive away.

Elsewhere in the jungle, Truang and his men approach what seems to be the leafy covering of a large ditch. They change course and fall into the real ditch. MacGyver drives up alongside the ditch and taunts Truang.

Truang and his men approach a large tree branch placed in the middle of the road. As the soldiers move the log, strings attached to it are pulled taut, causing assault rifles to fire at the tires of the jeeps. All but the tires of the lead jeep deflate. The men move the log and continue on their way. MacGyver signals Ming, who releases a massive log suspended in the air, which flies at Truang and his men in the surviving jeep, making them dive for cover.

Truang and his men reach the village on foot. As they approach the center of the village, Chan uses the accelerator of a jeep to push a mixture of fire ash and rice alcohol out of holes bored into buried bamboo poles. The resulting smoke disables Truang and his men, and the villagers easily overtake them, wearing masks to protect their faces. Ming single-handedly takes Truang down, winning respect and admiration from the other villagers.

Narai's helicopter flies over the village, shooting wildly. MacGyver takes cover underneath a truck. MacGyver heads back to the tarp and finds more wire. He secures one end of the wire to a crank wheel attached to the truck. When Narai approaches, MacGyver makes a running leap to grab onto the landing skid and attach the other end of the wire to it. MacGyver jumps down from the helicopter and winds the crank, forcing the helicopter to land. MacGyver and Narai engage in hand to hand combat. When MacGyver knocks him down, Narai leaps back up and pulls out a long knife, but trips over the end of the landing and impales himself in the chest. Having freed the villagers, MacGyver and several others stand together.

Memorable Quotes[]

  • When MacGyver jumps after finding a snake in his jeep:

Chan: "Are you afraid of snakes, MacGyver?"

MacGyver: "Nope, I just don't like being around them!"

MacGyverisms[]

A complete list of problems solved by MacGyver is also available.
  • While tied up in the back seat of a car about to be crushed, MacGyver rips off the back seat of the car and escapes to the trunk. At just the right moment, MacGyver uses the crushing pressure and a crowbar to pop open the trunk and escape.
  • Using his Swiss Army Knife, he cuts the rope holding the village's pig pen closed. He then jumps in the pen and shoos the pigs out, causing them to run amok all over the village. As the villagers and soldiers scramble to recapture them, MacGyver slips unnoticed under the tarp and finds the canister. While under the tarp, MacGyver constructs a device using the life vest, emergency raft, emergency flare, airplane tire, and a series of wires. Pulling the cord to the life vest as he exits the tarp, MacGyver has rigged everything so that as the life vest inflates, it triggers the inflation of the life raft by pulling on the attached wires between the two objects. In a similar fashion, as the life raft inflates, it pulls the cord on a flare wedged under the airplane tire, lighting it and blowing up the tire.
  • To disable an enemy jeep passing underneath a tree, two children drop bags full of snakes into the men's' laps, and as they panic, villagers rush the jeep from all sides and take them captive.
  • Truang and his men approach what seems to be the leafy covering of a large ditch. Without checking it, they change course and immediately fall into the real ditch.
  • Truang and his men approach another roadblock, a large tree branch placed in the middle of the road. As the soldiers move the log, strings attached to it are pulled taut, causing at least six assault rifles to begin firing, aimed at the tires of the line of jeeps on the road. All but the tires of the lead jeep deflate, and the men run for cover.
  • Chan uses the accelerator of a jeep to push a mixture of fire ash and rice alcohol out of holes bored into buried bamboo poles. The resulting smoke disables Truang and his men.
  • MacGyver secures one end of a wire to a crank wheel attached to a truck parked in the center of the village. When Narai approaches in his helicopter, MacGyver springs into action, making a running leap to grab onto the landing skid while attaching the other end of the wire to it. MacGyver jumps down from the helicopter and begins to wind the crank, forcing the helicopter to land.

Notes and Trivia[]

  • Most of the crewmembers in this and other future episodes did not work on the Pilot episode.

Bloopers[]

  • In the scene where MacGyver sends a flaming jeep in the direction of the soldiers, a cable can clearly be seen attached to the back right tire.

Cast[]

Main CastOthers
Joan Chen as Lin
George Lee Cheung as General Narai
Clyde Kusatsu as Anek
Keye Luke as Prasert
Benjamin Lum as Truang
Bryan Price as Chan
James Saito as Ming
Angus Duncan as The General
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