#1A: The Gauntlet - Opening Gambit

Season: 1

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

MacGyver is in a Middle Eastern town to retrieve a map that shows the locations of some "heavy handed troublemakers."  After he obtains the map, he is spotted and his pursuers give chase.  He uses the map in numerous creative ways before escaping in a hot air balloon over the barren desert.  

Memorable Quote:

It just goes to show you, a good map will always get you where you wanna go.  ~MacGyver

Highlight:

Running on the sand to God's music.

Lowlight:
That it had to end.

Best MacGyverism:

It's very clever the way that he lays the map under the locked door, jiggles the keyhole so that the key on the other side falls onto the map, and then pulls the map back underneath the door.  I also like how he didn't think of this originally and opted instead to climb out the window, but after being spotted he went back to the locked door and found a way through the second time around. "Great thing about a map: it can get you in and out of places a lot of different ways."

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:  

• It's been a long, long road, but we've finally made it.  Only 609 days ago, we set off on this journey beginning at the sad and pathetic Mountain of Youth.  Along the way we've laughed, we've cried, and we've grown.  Now the peak of a different mountain is in sight, the pinnacle of the series.  Let's keep climbing!
• We start with some shots of townspeople, camels, and chickens milling around the village. It's a really impressive and elaborate set they made.   
• As MacGyver is making his way along the rooftops to the map room, he tells us a story about Mrs. Fryfogel, his Minnesota cub scout den mother, and how she taught him not to drop crumbs on the trail (just as he kicks up some rocks that fall onto a villager and his camel below).  Always fun when early series MacGyver gets into storytelling mode. 
• Aha, the first sight of the map and the first tease of my favorite all-time theme from the series. More on this in a little bit.

• Just as in my review of the episode portion of The Gauntlet, I won't mention every single time that there is an iconic shot that appears in the opening credits given that there are so many of them.  This gambit as a whole is as classic as it gets.  
• It feels to me like the timing is off when MacGyver is spotted climbing the rope since the next shot of him is standing on the ledge.
• Next we get to the moment mentioned in the MacGyverism where he uses the map (practical use #1) to retrieve the key.  And my God, the music and excitement levels are already off the charts. 
• Map use #2 - as a pea shooter to hit the woman hanging clothes with a pea.  This provides a distraction and allows MacGyver to steal a pullover and blend in a little better. 
• Map use #3 - hiding a metal pole in the map and using it to hit the soldier in the chest. Before that, we're treated to this memorable and outstanding conversation: 
• "Halt!  That is far enough."  ~Soldier
• MacGyver hops down off the top of the wall. 
• "The map."  ~Soldier
• "You know I'd like to, but I really need it myself."  ~MacGyver
• "You amuse me."  ~Soldier
• MacGyver hits the soldier and then loudly drops the pole to the ground. 
• "Sorry, but I really do need it."  ~MacGyver
• And now we've reached the peak: MacGyver running through the desert with map in hand as soldiers give chase to the sound of heavenly music.  It's easily the greatest moment in series history.  And television history.  I'd throw human history in there too but I don't want to exaggerate.
• If you ask me what comes to mind when I think of MacGyver, this is my first thought. There's something about the visual of him running across the barren, homogeneous desert landscape that perfectly symbolizes and epitomizes the character and the series.  Off on an adventure in a foreign land, running for his life, but always one step ahead thanks to his mental ingenuity. Even in this empty arena and armed with nothing but a map, he finds a way to be creative and use the map once more as a sliding pad (map use #4).  Amazing.
• And now that brings us to the music.  There's actually a mistake in the credits when it says the music was written by Randy Edelman.  In reality it was created by God himself.  It may be the most wonderful sound these ears have ever heard - it's certainly right up there as one of the greatest ever pieces of music from any era. 
• In fact, this scene is not even close to the #1 moment in human history without the music.  In the episode Friends, they flash back to this scene only without the music. Here's what I wrote at the time as the lowlight of the episode, and it even included a small clue as to where this episode ranked:
• Speaking of The Gauntlet, they replay the desert/hot air balloon scene without the original music. That's a crime, and whoever made that decision should have at least been fired, maybe even arrested.  There's a lot I could say about this scene, but this isn't the appropriate time.  We'll get to it later. Much later.  
• In my Top 23 Check-In, I alluded to episode #1 as "Proof that God exists (because there's no way man created this)" and I was specifically referring to this moment here. It's comforting to know that we're not alone on this giant sphere careening through space.
• Now far be it from me to question the greatest moment in the planet's history that was created by God, but there are a few things that I wonder about:
• The map is obviously very important, but from my vantage point it just looks like a bunch of big red dots in cities across the U.S.  I'm not sure how this lack of specificity would be helpful to anyone.  I can imagine MacGyver's superiors looking at the map when he returns home -- "Great work, MacGyver!  Now we know the bad guys are in Seattle and Pittsburgh!"  And a close look at the map reveals dots in northern Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana among other places.  This shadowy organization has infiltrated the remotest areas of the heartland!  Even the northernmost point on Alaska is not immune from their reach!  
• If I was in the Middle East on a secret mission, a hot air balloon would not be my first choice for an escape vehicle.  If this country or any of its nearby allies had any kind of air force or even one solitary plane, it wouldn't end well for MacGyver or the balloon.
• It seems odd that the soldier could hit the balloon once and only once with a bullet.  I'd think either they would be able to hit the balloon not at all or else they'd hit it with a thousand bullets.
• I'm not sure how MacGyver would be able to hang on to the balloon, hold the map in place, and tape it unless he grew a third hand (this is use #5 of the map, by the way).
• OK, I'm done.  At this point I might as well jaunt over to Vatican City and see how I can critique the Sistine Chapel.
• Actually I'm not done!  I just noticed one more goof for the first time ever (that's what happens when you watch something 10 times in a row because you love it).  Check out the camera that appears in the shot of MacGyver running.  Now I'm done.  

• Love the faces of the soldiers when they turn their heads to see MacGyver's balloon.  
• Finally we get to the end where MacGyver has duct taped the map on to the balloon and over the bullet hole.  He hops back into the basket and looks down at his pursuers with a wry smile and delivers the fantastic line mentioned in the memorable quote section.  We then see a distance shot of the balloon with the map on it, and God's incredible theme comes to a brilliant and glorious end with a breathtaking drum finale that leads right into the opening credits. Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum!!!  (There are thirteen Bums -- I counted).  A tour de force, the extent of which has never before been seen on television nor will ever be seen since.

• I reached out to Executive Producer and friend of the blog Stephen Downing to see if he had any memories about the greatest moment in intergalactic history, and he said:
• The gambits were shot in the first year as I recall, and this one was shot in two locations. The village was on the backlot at Paramount and the desert sequence was shot at the Dunes on location at Morro Bay. We shot the desert scenes for this sequence at the same time we shot the sequence where MacGyver escaped by hooking the horse to the helicopter. So the interesting part of the two sequences is they were both shot at the same location. When Mac flew off across the desert in the balloon, had the camera been turned around you would have seen the Pacific Ocean. My best memory of this sequence was in the writers room. It all started by posing the challenge, "how many ways can one use a map."
• When Mr. Downing talked to us previously, he said that the Thief of Budapest horse scene was shot at Pismo Beach.  Both Pismo and Morro Bay are in the same general area north of L.A. (and about a half hour apart from each other) and they both have dunes, so I can see how they could be mixed up.  Based on pictures from the internet I'd say that Pismo looks like the more likely spot (the Oceano Dunes in particular), but it doesn't really matter.  It was interesting to hear that the two opening gambits were filmed at the same time and place, and fun to hear about the task of finding different ways to use the map.  They certainly met that challenge! 
• And it does look a little to me like the ocean in the background when we first see the wide shot (the leftmost side has what looks a bit like waves) but I'm not 100% sure.
• And here's a link to my conversation with the writer of this gambit, Judy Burns.

Final Analysis:
Not too much else to say that hasn't just been said.  The greatest moment from the greatest episode from the greatest television show ever. So where do we go from here?  First I will do a re-rank of the episodes now that I've seen them all again.  Then, I will watch and review the two movies to see where they fit -- I'm looking forward to this since I don't remember them at all.

And with that, 136 episodes (or 139 depending on how you count) are in the books.  We made it! All it took was a good map!