Airdate: 10 November 1985 Writer: Stephen Kandel Director: Donald Petrie Opening Gambit Writer: Stephen Kandel Opening Gambit Director: Lee H. Katzin
Guest Cast: David Ackroyd as Trumbo, Peter Jurasik as Dr. Charles Alden.
Opening Gambit: White Water MacGyver must rescue a captured scientist from her Basque captors.
Main episode: Deep in the Amazon jungle, MacGyver teams up with a local plantation owner to battle an invading horde of killer ants. (Includes clips from "The Naked Jungle," a 1954 George Pal movie).
Favorites
Season: season 1
Episode:Jack in the Box (...possibly!)
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
Vote totals from 8 Oct 2006 Poor [ 0 ] [0.00%] Average [ 4 ] [20.00%] OK [ 5 ] [25.00%] Good [ 6 ] [30.00%] Excellent [ 5 ] [25.00%] Total Votes: 20
Archived comments
QUOTE (MacGyver Gal Sep 27 2004 @ 12:31 PM)
Didn't like it...the ants freaked me out
QUOTE (sonyab Sep 27 2004 @ 02:03 PM)
I really liked this episode the only creepy thing was the ants! Ants were all over charley! I can't believe Charley wanted to get very close to the ants to take pictures of them. stupid move! When Mac burned the ants you can tell the fire was fake.. come on.. The ants were strong buggers. They didn't die by fire and they floated on leaves to go across the water.. ants have high IQ rofl. The ants were all over MacGyver ack! The ants finally died by drowning.. MUAHAHHAA DIE ANTS DIE! Trumbo tells mac that he will regrow everything and he can come back in a year and see what trumbo has done but MacGyver never went to visit trumbo in a year.. That's to bad. It would have been nice to see all that Trumbo grown..
QUOTE (rockatteer Sep 27 2004 @ 02:10 PM)
QUOTE
QUOTE I can't believe Charley wanted to get very close to the ants to take pictures of them
I can't figure that out either? His camera had a zoom on it. why did he need to get closer to them?
QUOTE (Macsrose Sep 29 2004 @ 09:12 PM)
ewww! too many ants! This was one of my least fav's...
QUOTE (MacGyverGod Sep 30 2004 @ 01:08 AM)
Come to think of it, it indeed seemed like an old film.
QUOTE (shippmp Sep 30 2004 @ 02:56 AM)
No question in my mind, this was the worst episode of the series
QUOTE (phoenix Sep 30 2004 @ 10:14 AM)
they used scenes from c. heston's "naked jungle" from 1954. this is one of paramount's worst cost saving edits ever put on television.
QUOTE (Macsrose Sep 30 2004 @ 08:01 PM)
I was wondering about that Phoenix, I had saw that movie and thought those were some of the same scenes...Thanks!
QUOTE (MacGirl May 31 2005 @ 06:07 PM)
Yeah, this wasn't one of my faves. The story line was pretty good, but technically it was badly done.
QUOTE (Amy Jun 1 2005 @ 06:09 AM)
Yeah--one of my least favorites. Every time I watch it when Mac's in the suit he made, I think, What? the ants can't climb under the coats hem or under the neck guard on his helmet? LOL--wondered about the movie thing!
QUOTE (smcstrav Jun 1 2005 @ 01:56 PM)
I just rewatched it on my new season1 dvd set. Yuck - I remember that I was creeped out by the ants the first time I saw it too. I also think it was one of my least favourites.
QUOTE (sonyab Jun 1 2005 @ 03:24 PM)
I voted excellent
QUOTE (lemmy357 Jun 2 2005 @ 07:38 AM)
I voted excellent too. I agree technically this one is poorly done. But it has been a favorite of mine since I first saw it.
QUOTE (Dave Jan 8 2006 @ 07:38 AM)
I agree it was not one of the best episodes, I think having two of the central characters of the episode die along with not expanding enough on the backstory of Trombo made it especially bad. Also I don't find the drowning thing plausible because only a few had to survive(back at the village for example) to regrow the colony. However it gets points from me for being 'different' and fairly interesting.
QUOTE (penny Jan 9 2006 @ 07:38 AM)
YUCKO! Had a really hard time getting past the ants. (And Mac's trucker hat.)
QUOTE (Lothithil Jan 11 2006 @ 07:55 AM)
That's Mac's dirty ol' Calgary Flames hat! It always makes me smile when I see him wearing it during this ep...
Ice Hockey in the Amazon! *chuckles* Skate fast!
QUOTE (MACGYVERISMYDAD Jan 11 2006 @ 08:26 AM)
ok ep. i never understood either why he got so close to the ants. i guess he wanted to get up close and personal with them. hehe. i think a good idea for an ep would be to have mac come back and visit trumbo and see what he did or didnt do. or maybe the ants came back again and ate trumbo?? i think it would be a funny ep if thats what happened. mac comes back and see a skeleton laying outside of trumbo and he hears the whining of the ants and he just gets in his boat and leaves. that would atleast be a good opener for another ep!!
QUOTE (Sjaop Jan 11 2006 @ 10:47 PM)
I have to agree with rockatteer. The plotline is okay, but the shots are too lousy.
Indeed you can recognize the blue screen shots way too easily and the shots of the ants are fake too. Probably edited in from a show of the Geographic channel (if it existed already back then, but you catch my drift I guess....)
I voted okay, because I simply love MacGyver even though this one was shot terribly.
QUOTE (MacNymph Jan 12 2006 @ 07:29 AM)
QUOTE
QUOTE (Sjaop --at-- Jan 11 2006, 10:47 PM) the shots of the ants are fake too. Probably edited in from a show of the Geographic channel (if it existed already back then)
Oh, that probably would have been a vast improvement. They took those shots from a 1954 movie called "The Naked Jungle".
I don't have a problem with ants. Until they show the close ups of their pinchers.
QUOTE (Lee Nole-Isil Jan 28 2006 @ 02:10 AM)
i didn't like this one very much, my family and I were sitting there laughing half the time at the ants 'screaming' and stuff. They sounded like martians.
QUOTE (MacsChick Jan 28 2006 @ 05:28 PM)
I didn't think this episode was that bad. Sure, the editing isn't that great, and they had to use phony-looking shots of ants, but this is a TV budget we're talking about, after all, and the first season--they probably couldn't invest a lot in the effects at that point. The ants crawling on MacGyver looked real, and I liked how he blew the dam and almost got washed away--he's so brave! I liked his hat! What's wrong with it? Also, you have to love him anytime he's on a horse! The stunt people said he's excellent on horseback! Did anyone else notice that Trumbo was the same dude that played the exec/bad guy in The Negotiator?
Favorites
Season: season 2
Episode:Humanity
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
Just voted average. Never was one of my favorites. I already wrote that i wasn't convinced that the suit Mac made was ant proof and also...I agree with Rock...I wasn't convinced by drowning the ants, either. The scene where the dam blows and Mac gets washed away was pretty good...but I don't think the water would've drowned the ants so much as washed them away to start over somewhere else. Don't army ants do this thing where they cluster into ball for safety or whatever? The water came fast, but there were enough of them that many of them could have done that pretty quickly before they would have drowned, maybe. I'll shut up now...I'm no emtymologist!
"It's amazing what one can do when one doesn't know what one can't do." Garfield the Cat
"Another day, a whole 'nother set of fresh possibilities. I'm a sucker for mornings." MacGyver
Favorites
Season: season 1
Episode:Jack in the Box (...possibly!)
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
I don’t know why but this episode was a bit boring for me. I didn’t think much of Macs friend and for someone so interested in wildlife it is really odd he went and stood next to a swarm of dangerous ants. I wasn’t really interested by the Trumbo character either. I didn’t really buy that blowing that little dam would have caused a flood that would have caused an impact of such a huge number of ants. I vote average. This is one of season one that I don’t watch as much as the others.
Posts: 374
Joined: 5 Nov 2005
Gender: Female
Country: USA
SAK owned: Climber
Favorites
Season: season 3
Episode:Faith, Hope & Charity
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
Interesting story, but because of budget constraints, they used scenes from that movie with Charlton Heston in the jungle with the ants (again, the title escapes me, but it made in the 1950's).Actually... I think it was called "Empire of the Ants" (just thought of it!) Whenever they do that, I just cheapens the whole look of the show - the film was about 20-some years older and you could see where it was spliced in. They did it in GX-1 - using US fighter planes pretending to be Russian MIG's - segments from some other film. Anyway... I did like the story idea here - Mac has - or had - some interesting friends - many of whom he met while on assignment all over the world, and there were some genuinely good Mac-isms. Fixing the pump, making the ant-proof suite, the flamethrower. It was also nice to see David Ackroyd although he comes back in season 3 as a baddie.
It's a credit to the writers that the show got better as it went on, as season 1 was kinda shaky. The very tired southern California sets got so over-used. But, the first season of any new show is really exploring until the characters find their "voices", so for Mac, season 1 was very different than the others. I'm glad I kept watching...
I voted good.
That which has been established will endure even with time and at a distance.
I can't tell you anything about what happens after the cameras go off, mostly because I'm usually unconscious by then.
Posts: 314
Joined: 8 Apr 2007
Gender: Male
Country: United States
SAK owned: Super Tinker
Favorites
Season: season 2
Episode:Easy Target
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: Loft
It's based on a story I've read in one of my older Literature textbooks.
'Tis unwise to wake the Tygr.
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." - Psalms 23:4
Posts: 0
Joined: --
Gender: Female
Country: Sweden
SAK owned:
Favorites
Season: season 3
Episode:Halloween Knights
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
I voted "good". I agree that the story is not that very believable, and yes, those scenes with Mac and his friend on that boat in the river looks VERY fake. But I do enjoy the episode anyway I think it is exiting and a little scary too...
Posts: 10
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Gender: Female
Country: USA
SAK owned:
Favorites
Season: season 7
Episode:Pilot
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Black leather
House: House boat
I did enjoy the episode on the ninvasion of the ants. I like to wait for how MacGyver finds a way out of a problem. That's what makes his series so fascinating. Janet Marie
Posts: 7,214
Joined: 2 Dec 2005
Gender: Female
Country: USA
SAK owned: Camper&Swissbit
Favorites
Season: season 5
Episode:Serenity
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
Things I loved about this episode:
Mac's fondness for eccentric Charlie and his sadness when he died.
Seeing Mac bravely set himself in the path of this devestating natural diaster in hopes that he can somehow help avert it.
Watching him take apart the waterpump and fix it, and the fact that he did it for no other reason than because he could and nobody else would and it was a Good Thing To Do.
Catching the few seconds here and there of extra footage that was edited from my original DVDs (Whoot!!)
Mac on horseback... something that did not occur often enough during the various seasons of this show!
Thinks I didn't like:
Poor Louis. They really didn't have to kill him (the directors) They could have given him a few nasty ant-bites and sent him running back to the house. We knew the ants could kill humans because of what happened to Charlie, so that was just mean.
Also, they never show MacGyver taking the scary-looking signpost which we see in his Venice Beach apartment living room later (The Prodigal). Perhaps Trumbo didn't give it to him until his return visit, or maybe he grabbed it as they were leaving as a souvenir
Everyone, sometimes, needs a camel.
Old troubleshooters never die... They just wait til the last moment and then rescue themselves!
Favorites
Season: season 1
Episode:
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: Observatory
Hmmm- I can't believe that I somehow missed commenting on this one. Well, I'll go ahead now and say that "Trumbo's World" gets an excellent rating from me! This is a classic MacGyver episode. This is the one that my brothers and I always remember- mainly for the guy that got eaten alive by ants!!! Yeah, it's pretty freaky, but for a young boy- it definitely leaves an impact of being a bit freaky and cool at the same time. I mean, I'm disgusted to see the guy get eaten alive, of course- but I think there's a primal instinct for males at least that is fascinated by this kind of thing- not necessarily in a morbid way. But that's just me.
Anyway- the opening gambit is also classic- you can't forget that. MacGyver helps the botanist escape and they do the rappelling down the mountainside scene that's used in the opening credits. And there's some incredible music throughout the episode. And it was really cool to see MacGyver drown the ants and beat them in the end. It's very much a man vs. nature episode (like "Hellfire") and it makes for an exciting episode. I like it a lot!
I thought this was a particularly bad episode. More for technical reasons, than story line.
It starts with a really bad blue screen shot of Mac and Charlie going up the river in the boat. Everything from then on seems so fake and artificial. Lighting setups are wrong; picture quality is bad (this may be to make the cut between new scenes and the movie scenes not so noticeable?) Scene backgrounds look very artificial.
All in all it looks like the episode was shot in a badly setup sound stage on a very old 45mm movie camera.
And the drowning the ant's thing didn't convince me either!
Favorites
Season: season 5
Episode:Bitter Harvest
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
QUOTE (Rockatteer @ 11 August 2007 - 06:28 PM)
I thought this was a particularly bad episode. More for technical reasons, than story line.
MacGyver didn't have the best technical quality in general. I quickly accepted that when I started to rewatch the show and I don't let bad visuals distract me from a wonderful story.
For 'Trumbo's World' is a wonderful story. Trumbo is a complex man who chose to fulfill his dream to the bitter end. I might not agree with his motivations or practises, but I admire someone who has the courage of their convictions.
On a sillier note, Mac is adorable in his 'suit of armour.'
This ep definitely makes my top fifteen and probably my top ten.
Mac
"John Sheppard (writer) sent Richard Dean Anderson to Atlantis on MacGyver and Richard Dean Anderson sent John Sheppard (character) to Atlantis on Stargate. My fandoms are getting to be confusing."
I voted excellent. Except for the fact the ants ( or any kind of insect ) creeps me out, BIG TIME . I get this creepy, crawly , scratchy feeling on my skin. I just HATE that. EEEeeeehh ! But aside from that, I liked the episode.
I like that his friend drew a very nice picture of him.
And he goes out proving his heroism, time and time again. As he did in this episode, daring himself to go and detonate the bomb that would set the dam open and kill ALL the ants at the same time, really fast. Since they over-came the first time they released the water to the ants. The ants just adapted to that and crossed over using the leaves as boats. But when MacGyver and Trumbo ( actually it was just MacGyver , right ? ) opened the dam fast and allowed the water to flow. And I got scared at that point, as it looked like the water over-came MacGyver. I was actually scared for his life . I thought he had drowned in that sudden rush of the MUDDY water. But thankfully, he made it. He did NOT drown. . And the ants were destroyed .
Favorites
Season: season 5
Episode:Bitter Harvest
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
QUOTE (Kate Mackay @ 16 August 2007 - 10:16 AM)
And he goes out proving his heroism, time and time again.
Yes! Just like in my favourite ep, Bitter Harvest, Mac risks his life to save a stranger. Yes, by the time he had to blow the damn he was also saving his own life, but he could have left way before that.
What's with his hero complex?!
Mac
"John Sheppard (writer) sent Richard Dean Anderson to Atlantis on MacGyver and Richard Dean Anderson sent John Sheppard (character) to Atlantis on Stargate. My fandoms are getting to be confusing."
I thought this was a particularly bad episode. More for technical reasons, than story line.
It starts with a really bad blue screen shot of Mac and Charlie going up the river in the boat. Everything from then on seems so fake and artificial. Lighting setups are wrong; picture quality is bad (this may be to make the cut between new scenes and the movie scenes not so noticeable?) Scene backgrounds look very artificial.
All in all it looks like the episode was shot in a badly setup sound stage on a very old 45mm movie camera.
And the drowning the ant's thing didn't convince me either!
Posts: 7,214
Joined: 2 Dec 2005
Gender: Female
Country: USA
SAK owned: Camper&Swissbit
Favorites
Season: season 5
Episode:Serenity
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
It makes me laugh to read how many people voted down because they didn't like the ants... would it have been better if Mac had blown up a dam to drown an invading force of cute and fuzzy bunnies?
Strange paradigm.
Everyone, sometimes, needs a camel.
Old troubleshooters never die... They just wait til the last moment and then rescue themselves!
Favorites
Season: season 5
Episode:Bitter Harvest
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
QUOTE (Lothithil @ 16 August 2007 - 01:48 PM)
It makes me laugh to read how many people voted down because they didn't like the ants... would it have been better if Mac had blown up a dam to drown an invading force of cute and fuzzy bunnies?
"John Sheppard (writer) sent Richard Dean Anderson to Atlantis on MacGyver and Richard Dean Anderson sent John Sheppard (character) to Atlantis on Stargate. My fandoms are getting to be confusing."
Posts: 374
Joined: 5 Nov 2005
Gender: Female
Country: USA
SAK owned: Climber
Favorites
Season: season 3
Episode:Faith, Hope & Charity
Vehicle: Jeep
Jacket: Brown bomber
House: House boat
Insects... Most folks don't like 'um - they're creepy and crawly - they don't have a good rep... so it's OK to vilify them. Think how many SciFi shows/movies have insects as the "Alien Menace". (almost as many as reptiles.) Ants have a very highly ordered social structure. Each one knows exactly what it's job is - and they really try to do their thing in a sort of robotic fashion - so they seem very scary - ready to take over the world - especially "en masse".
Like Mac said: "... I don't know how good ants are at swimmin', but I'd be willing to bet that a good fire'd get their attention..."
And there are so many insects to choose from... You can make the same movie over and over... just change to a different one... Useful critters to have around in that respect...
That which has been established will endure even with time and at a distance.
I can't tell you anything about what happens after the cameras go off, mostly because I'm usually unconscious by then.
Posts: 1,960
Joined: 3 Mar 2006
Gender: Female
Country: USA
SAK owned: Super Tinker
Favorites
Season: season 3
Episode: Widowmaker
Vehicle: Nomad
Jacket: Leather Biker
House: House boat
QUOTE (Rockatteer @ 11 August 2007 - 06:28 PM)
And the drowning the ant's thing didn't convince me either!
I voted (I think) average, but just for scene quality and the usage of stock footage. The actors entirely carried the show, IMO...
After a few episodes I realized the film quality wasn't going to be up to par, the budget probably a bit tight, not having proven themselves yet.
And Loth was right; it was totally unneccesary to kill off Luiz.
I wish I could have seen the cut footage, though.
My problem with the ants was not the ants themselves, but the fact that water really doesn't kill them. (25+ years living in the land of the red biting fire ants... Ouch!) Fire, on the other hand...
I need to watch it again (now that I'm unpacked) with a critical eye. I didn't notice half of what you'all see.
"My Jeep went over a cliff, I died... and went to Thanksgiving?"
Having read that most dislike ants and the poor quality of some of the scenes, and so on and so forth, here is a line I picked from this marabunta episode (excuse me if it is not word-by-word accurate):
"You got one (ant), Trumbo. Trouble is a couple of billion of its relatives are coming to the funeral."
2 User(s) are reading this topic (2 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users)