when the worker first shows up at the farm he says they brought the construction equipment out so they could get an early start the next morning. Yet when the foreman shows up he says he will have to call the police if they are still there the day AFTER tomorrow but then later when he yells at the foreman he said his only buisness was to drop the gear off for tomorrow but later in the same conversation he tells them to show up for work the day after tomorrow. and mac was at the farm at least one day without the construction crew working on his jeep. wonder if that was a writers screwup or the actor screwed it up.

you can also tell this is not macs jeep as when they tow it in to the farm there is no control panel on the jeep. no radio no speedometer and the like. the guy steering the jeep is wrapped around the steering coloum because the seat is right up on the wheel. this is obviously just a jeep shell and probably a old army style jeep.

plot hole-when they lower jacob into the well since he is right there doesnt common sense state that they would try to have jacoub thread a rope around christy with caribeniers and just pull her up through through the well like the did with jacob? Or at least try to have him tie one off to keep her from slipping further down the well?

Christie's arms were pinned against her, so Jacob couldn't just thread the rope around her in any way that was even remotely safe.

Not sure but it might be a nit pick. In one scene we see Christie in the well and her face is clear of dirt, and the next time we see her her face is covered in dust, almost like its been plastered on her face.

Theatrics aside, does anybody have a theory/thoughts on why 'squeaky-clean' MacGyver unfastens his seatbelt and thrusts/propels himself out of the moving vehicle as it's going over the guard rail? A big safety no-no, especially in this day and age.

I do realize that this episode aired in the middle of the enforcement of the seat belt laws in North America and that there was huge resistance against them, at first. Definitely a statement being made here though I think, but not necessarily the ethically correct one.

Factoid: seat belt laws were first enforced in Pennsylvania on November 23, 1987 and this episode aired on November 28th, 1988.

Because his jeep had no roof and therefore more dangerous to stay in that jump out of. Look at the way the jeep landed, that roll bar was next to useless. He would have been a lot worse off had he stayed buckled in than what he was by jumping out.

.... that's highly debatable. The stats say that more people die from being thrown clear than when staying buckled up within the vehicle. It's the head you worry most about. You certainly never propel yourself like a rocket out of a fast moving vehicle. F=MxA. Given the cheap roll bar on those models, I would have stayed buckled in and lay as flat as possible across the passenger seat while covering my head with my arms.

How do you lay over the seats when you have a seat belt holding you in an upright position?

I'm not sure if those jeeps have retracting or set belts but even with retracting belts they would have locked into position with all the swerving going on.

I have an even better question for you though. How does having a blown tire stop your breaks from working? I've been in cars with blown tires and neither control nor breaks have ever been lost as a result.

I've also seen plenty of cars on the side of the road with blown tires, none of them crashed either.

Come on! It's MacGyver were talking about here. Undo the belt, loop it through the wheel, lean over and hold on for dear life! For gawd sakes protect your noggin at all costs!

Exactly - it's MacGyver... where's that thread talking about how many times he's had a head injury and how it's always on the same side?

MacGyver's not know for protecting his head.

I always figured it was a last minute decision to jump. He probably didnt know how steep the edge was and he was possibly trying to dive out before the jeep went over the edge. that way he landed on the road and not down below

Split second decisions aren't always well thought out...

That's all well and good but let's not forget here that the Jeep tipped over since it was laying upside down on the rocks after it went over on the cliff. If Mac stayed in the car, he'd probably be dead due to a broken neck. So I kinda agree with what Walter says.

Maybe he should've worn a helmet. It's dangerous driving a car.

I think I would've jumped too.

I agree with Kiwi as well, but I think the brakes and the crashing was added for effect. Gotta pull of some stunt right.

But if we are nitpicking. The car in Humanity also blew a tire, it didn't seem too big of a problem than, Mac obviously learned. Unless crashing was out of the question with an armed soldier sitting behind you. His gun might go off by accident.

It makes you wonder as well, why didn't the car slow down by itself? If Mac was braking (though they failed), I'm sure he got his foot of the gaspedal anyway. I think we're up to guessing how hard he was driving. Any ideas on that?

... au contraire. It's well known that one of the most common ways to incur a cervical spine injury - is to dive head first into a shallow( 1.5 m or less) pool of water. Ask any swimmer. Mac, however, dived head first out of an accelerating vehicle, over & down an embankment and into a pool of rocks ... sans a drop of water.

In all honesty, I don't really believe the writers were technically critical about the stunt that Mac did. It looked good and they went with it.

I find overanalyses is emphasized more nowadays than they did back then. Back then they just went with it.

Nowadays, we question it. Bottom line, that frame is there for the driver's protection should the vehicle roll over. It has other uses. Most of the time we don't see Mac putting on a seatbelt. This was in line with the patriotic heroes of the 80's who just jumped into their car and sped off. Mac never sped but you get my point.

Heroes were heroes so they never required to live by our rules. It was established that they were the good guys. So even if they did something questionable. It was okay because it was them.

The wrecked jeep was Jeep CJ-7 and as somebody mentioned in the old post that there is no dashboard visible as Macs original jeep had, CJ-7 speedometer and other meters are located in center of dashboard behind stick shift.

Traveller noticed earlier the different between jump from the jeep in INTRO and Episode. Heres comparision:

Attached Image

Mac going: 'Wooow'.

the 2nd picture looks like hes doing air karate