MacGyver movie in the works

[Christopher]

^What a bizarre comparison. I can hardly imagine two more diametrically opposite action heroes. Jack Bauer is a killer, a torturer, an ultraconservative wet dream, a case of machismo run amuck. MacGyver was as liberal as an action hero can possibly get -- pro-science, anti-violence, socially and environmentally activist, man enough to admit his vulnerabilities (like showing pain when he punched someone).

 

[Trekker4747]

^What a bizarre comparison. I can hardly imagine two more diametrically opposite action heroes. Jack Bauer is a killer, a torturer, an ultraconservative wet dream, a case of machismo run amuck. MacGyver was as liberal as an action hero can possibly get -- pro-science, anti-violence, socially and environmentally activist, man enough to admit his vulnerabilities (like showing pain when he punched someone).

Well, I'd say they both stand as examples as their idealogical extremes as being the "best man for the job."

For example, in MacGyver's first episode, and many episodes after it, it seems MacGyver is a highly sought-after and called upon expert when it comes to solving problems or gather information. In the pilot episode he's picked up at his... personal... observatory/home (!) by a helicopter for the specific purpose to use his skills and talents to rescue the trapped people inside an underground laboratory/military research base and to find and contain a possible chemical spill.

This, to me, is pretty similar to how Jack Bauer is treated in many of the seasons (specifically Season 2) where he's called upon as being the only man for the job that needs to be done (killing terrorists and stopping their evil plots.)

Sure, MacGyver uses science, ingenuity and knowledge and Jack Bauer uses a gun and a Blackberry but both represent being the "best at what they do" and are called upon when the situation is at its most dire.

Knowing their opposing extremes is why I came up with the "got hit in the head" thing in my scenario to explain away Mac's sudden shift from being a gun-hating science boy to being a gun-loving badass who likes to spit out mild obscenities.

Further, they both have vauge (ok very vauge) physical similarities.

 

[Broccoli]

^ It was also an amusing joke.

 

[sojourner]

Burn Notice makes me really miss that aspect of MacGyver.

^ Yes and IMHO Michael Weston is a bit McGyver-esque in some ways, albeit a bit more violent.

Burn Notice rocks, because it's gritty reality.

^LOL If you think Burn Notice is reality, I have a bridge to sell you.

 

[Lindley]

It would be pure awesomeness to have a Jack Bauer/MacGyver team-up.

 

[Borgminister]

It would be pure awesomeness to have a Jack Bauer/MacGyver team-up.

The ultimate Odd Couple.

 

[BenRoethig]

This could work if they have Sam be the main character (he would be about the same age mac was during the show) with RDM doing a cameo or having a smaller part with Mac having taken over for Pete.

 

[Christopher]

They already tried a Young MacGyver pilot (which totally ignored the Sam character from the original series finale), featuring a hitherto-unrevealed son of MacGyver and a much more military, terrorist-fighting Phoenix Foundation. I think it's on YouTube. I didn't care for the military side, but I rather liked the son-of-MacGyver character, who had the same decency and regard for life as the original as well as the same ingenuity. That much, at least, was getting it right.

But "Son of MacGyver" isn't going to work for a feature film relaunch.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^What a bizarre comparison. I can hardly imagine two more diametrically opposite action heroes. Jack Bauer is a killer, a torturer, an ultraconservative wet dream, a case of machismo run amuck. MacGyver was as liberal as an action hero can possibly get -- pro-science, anti-violence, socially and environmentally activist, man enough to admit his vulnerabilities (like showing pain when he punched someone).

Perhaps Mac followed the liberal-when-young-to-right-winger-when-old trajectory, predictably ploughed by Christopher Htchens, Martin Amis, David Mamet, Jon Voight, Charlton Heston, Ronald Reagan et al.

 

[Broccoli]

They already tried a Young MacGyver pilot (which totally ignored the Sam character from the original series finale), featuring a hitherto-unrevealed son of MacGyver and a much more military, terrorist-fighting Phoenix Foundation. I think it's on YouTube. I didn't care for the military side, but I rather liked the son-of-MacGyver character, who had the same decency and regard for life as the original as well as the same ingenuity. That much, at least, was getting it right.

But "Son of MacGyver" isn't going to work for a feature film relaunch.

Young MacGyver featured Mac's nephew, not his son.

 

[Christopher]

^Ah, okay. I remember now.

Except... did MacGyver have any siblings? It doesn't seem likely. His father died when he was ten, and he lost his mother nine years later. To all indications, he was their only child. Unless he had some long-lost older half-sibling that came out of the woodwork sometime after the series ended.

EDIT: Okay, reading his Wikipedia entry, I see that when Grandpa Harry died, Mac said he had no more living relatives. So yeah, a nephew would be just as much a retcon as his long-lost son "Sam."