Ever wonder how many times macgyver escaped being captured by crossing a border? I think this concept was used many times in macgyver. Do you think this would work in real life in some countries. The episodes I remember where a border saved macs hide were....

the one with the gypsy girl at the end mac and the crew drive across the border and get out of the cars to celebrate right there is front of the people who were chasing him

the one with chris as the photo journalist named chris, at the end they roll down a hill in a barrel only to swim the rest of the way to mexico. once on the other side they celebrate with a picture.

can anyone else name any other episodes where a border saves mac.

The beginning of 'The Enemy Within' and the end of 'Every Time She Smiles'.

Oh, and 'For Love or Money', too.


Were they realistic...? I don't know. I don't specialize in 'Reality'!

And 'GX-1'... *loves homemade hot air balloon!*

'To Be A Man' to a lesser extent... I'm not sure that they were really safe once they crossed the border... but since they had dealt with the truck-full of baddies and made friends with Sgt. Friendly, the didn't seem to have any worries sashaying to the border of Pakistan.

I guess running for the border is just the technical way of speaking. They can't hurt him once in another country. Besides if it turns into an international incident it might damage both countries. However nowadays?

Also Everytime She Smiles they crossed from Bulgaria to Greece.

I remember watching a high speed car chase on tv where the crook ran and crossed the border thinking he would be fine. the police that were chasing him must has told the border patrol that he was involved in a high speed pursuit for the past 20 miles and the border patrol arrested him and eventually turned him over to the police.

The border-crossing plot device is mostly from the first season, when Mac’s character was doing a lot of missions as a secret agent in the Cold War. Crossing a border between the Soviet sphere of influence and NATO didn’t just mean changing legal jurisdictions; it could mean the difference between being able to claim status as a political refugee and being shot on sight as a spy.

To take just one border as an example: from 1962 to 1989, crossing from East Berlin to West Berlin, approximately 5,000 escape attempts and 239 deaths according to this website.

It's a very different world now, of course, at least in Europe.

It's still working today for the millions of illegal Mexicans in the US.

You would think these days boarders are more heavily protected, but weather they actually are or not.. who knows.. how easy is it to cross into Canada from the US?

Are there areas which aren't patrolled? Like wilderness, lakes etc?

I won't bother asking about the Mexican boarder

it's probably quite hard for countries which are either land locked or have 2 or 3 bordering neighbors to patrol every bit of the boarder.

Rocky,

When you look at the borders between the US and Canada and the US and Mexico, the sheer length of these borders make it impossible to patrol/control every inch of the border.

I know from personal experience that there are very remote rugged areas on the US northern border that are not patrolled at all. Of course it takes a 4 wheel drive vehicle and some backcountry survival skills. The US border with Canada is not as heavily patrolled as the US border with Mexico.

Of course, the number of people sneaking across the northern border is much lower than the number of people sneaking across the southern border. This is a simple fact and is not meant as a political statement. The immigration issue has been a highly politicized and polarized issue in this country for months. The immigration issue has been such a big problem that the southern border states are building fences in an attempt to control crossings.

The northen border is controlled in a large part by weather. Remote rugged conditions that get a lot of snow, usually don't need to be heavily patrolled. Major highways and bigger cities do have official border checks.

MacGyver used border crossings as a safe haven. Depending on who met him on the other side, he may find himself safe or in bigger trouble then he was trying to escape from.

Exactly.

This would be probably be true for most countries I would think.

I wouldn't recommend fleeing in the E.G.

Does the opening gambit to Theif of Budapest count? I'm assuming that horse landed in another country.

Funeral in Berlin, To Be A Man, Prisoner of Conscience, Every Time She Smiles, Pilot - Opening Gambit, Thief of Budapest, The Gauntlet, and its opening gambit - The Map, The Road Not taken, Opening Gambit for Trumbo's World - Whitewater, Soft Touch (the beginning), Bushmaster, For Love or Money (the middle), Jack of Lies, Lost Love (the middle), The Odd Triple (sort of), On A Wing and A Prayer, Humanity (? - not sure), Honest Abe. There may be more - but that's all I could think of for the moment...

The Enemy Within in Season 1 where Mac saves himself and Craig Bannister when they cross the German border when Mac substitutes power steering fluid for brake fluid to get liquid on the brakes.

That's what the bombs and mines were for. Not to keep people from entering, but to keep people from leaving.

The actual border between Eastern and Western Germany was not only a thin line but 500 meters wide. All bushes and vegetation was totally removed in there so they had clear sight for shooting. Plus 5 kilometers before that it already was blocked, you wouldn't have even come till there without permission.

People lived in this zone but visitors needed passes.

So fleeing from Eastern Germany wasn't as easy as it sounds. Some swam through the river in Berlin, some built a tunnel from Eastern to Western Berlin, some flew by ship over the Baltic sea or built themselves a hot air baloon, and one engine driver flew with the whole train attached... He just didn't stop at the last station before the border. I think some also built small planes.

And some left at the official way with permission.


There is something I always wondered about: The episode where Mac made thte jet-ski out of the coffin this shall be Eastern Berlin, right? And the river between East and West. But later in the episode Pete says to Mac he had heard that he had trouble getting out of Budapest.

I think this might only be in the dubbed German version?

yes. Must be. In Deathlock on my DVD Pete says "You had some problems getting out of East Berlin"