We know in the beginning MacGyver went on classified missions for the government and then later was a DXS agent, which basically means he worked for government intelligence, which leads to the question...

Would MacGyver have been "licensed to kill"? - as in official sanction to use deadly force when and if needed to complete his objectives.

What do you think?

If he was lisenced to kill, he probably didn't like the idea very much. After all, he wouldn't ever kill or even hurt anybody unless it was a complete last resort, especially in the later episodes when social issues were more common.

Licensed or not, it was something he never liked doing. Maybe he did have one or maybe he didn't. I don't think he did. A lot of his assignments were to pick things up and keep bad guys at distance. Some of his escape routes or ways included a certain amount of danger and risk. Creating an explosion for a diversion is one thing. But if one poor sod is near the thing that is about to explode, he could get killed because of it. Blown away in pieces or being consumed by the fireball and become toast.

Licensed, I don't think so, considering his past with dad's gun. Or maybe he was but never used it. Aren't all government agents supposed to be licensed?

OK, he could've killed Larson.
We discussed his fight in Log Jam with the Yakuza. Why did Mac wait so long before jumping off the conveyor belt causing the Yakuza to fall? Was that killing somebody or not.
Come to think of it, you think Mac was able to kill Zito after what he did to Murphy, Pete and dr. Skinner?
What if those ropes couldn't hold Zito when Mac knocked him down the clocktower? Zito would've been cut in half.

Overall actually I don't think Mac was licensed but there are cases you might think he could've been.

just to clarify....

"License to Kill" is a term which means a government agent is allowed to use deadly force if they need to; it doesn't mean they have to or are contracted to killers, it just means they can if they have no other way out of a situation.

If we think about it there have been times where MacGyver has been involved in situations where people would have been badly injured or killed through explosions etc caused by his actions while on government sanctioned missions, so it does make sense to me that he must have had government approval to do so.

That's a very good point. I mean, every human is entitled to "defend themselves" which doesn't require a license to kill. It would however shift the burden of proof back to him to prove it was self defense, which is just really messy compared to being given a green light to create bodies while on a mission. International law has to be interesting, too. Does a US citizen still have US rights overseas? I doubt that's how it works, so that's an interesting point.

Only while in an embassy, otherwise the other country's laws apply. While in another country the only rights you have are the same as it's citizens, maybe less depending on their law. Different rules apply for diplomats (or so they say on tv ), but it's never indicated that Mac falls into that category.

I think Mac just had special tv star immunity.

Government agents, military etc must all fall under diplomatic immunity when they are on operations outside of their own country. Because they are working on behalf of their own government, which is where diplomatic immunity stems from. I guess in some cases, such as black ops and other covert work there would be denyability and we know MacGyver has been involved in some of that "get in, get out, if you get caught your on your own." type stuff.

I would think that the Phoenix Foundation would also have that immunity while doing government work and missions. And I always got the idea that Pete and MacGyver kept their security rankings even after they joined the foundation.

Wikipedia has quite a good description of what the essence of the License to kill idea is about.

So if we go along that line, if your doing what your government has told you to do, you have their ok and presumably their protection...i.e. Diplomatic protection.

I would be quite interested to learn how this works in the real world. As in how CIA agents, military black ops etc get away with some of the things they have done over the years. I assume that some of them must have been caught out at times or involved in situations which become public..


*In 2007 the Central Intelligence Agency declassified secret records detailing illegal domestic surveillance, assassination plots, kidnapping, infiltration and other "black" operations undertaken by the CIA from the 1950s to the early 1970s.
Ref: The Guardian, June 22, 2007

I dunno, you'd have to ask someone who directly deals in that field to get a real idea I think. But I've always thought of a diplomat as being someone involved in politics between counties, like an ambassador, a senator, president, etc., not a person who conducts actual operations on foreign ground like Mac did. I could be wrong though, I'm only assuming.

As far the "diplomatic immunity" you see portrayed in crime shows like CSI and Law&Order, I find it really hard to believe people can go around murdering, raping and committing crimes without being held accountable. I think at the very least they would be arrested, deported, and tried in their own country. It's probably exaggerated for benefit of the story, it wouldn't be very dramatic if they just arrested a creep and sent him home.

Maybe someday when/if they make a MacGyver movie some of these questions surrounding DXS and Phoenix will be addressed in novels or other media. God knows they have A LOT to draw on! I can't understand why they never cashed in on the show like Star Trek and others have done, it just dosn't make sense. Why would you sit on a popular brand, an icon, and do nothing with it for nearly 20 years? But that's for another thread.

I think that's actually what does happen.

The very term Diplomatic immunity means your accountable to the laws of your own country instead of the country your in.

A good example of how this works for agents is the secret service protection details. They are always armed and ready to shot to kill regardless of which country they are in. AND they are allowed to do so because they fall under diplomatic immunity and therefore work under US law anywhere in the world.

SO I would assume that same understanding could well be used for other government agents.

That's exactly what Pete Thornton explains in Fire and Ice. "The man is accountable to the laws of his own country" "the worse we can do is have him deported back to his own country/"

Here's a list of real cases of Diplomatic immunity being abused in this way. Quite an interesting read.

When Mac was a DXS agent he probably had a authorization to use deadly force if necessary. Most of Mac's assignments fell into the covert category which could be interpreted as an agent with no official cover. If caught or captured the U.S. government would deny any official status or authorization for Macgyver's actions, he would have no immunity and would be subject to a foreign nations laws. Mac was a specialist the government called in to handle sensitive situations any official status might jeopardize the mission. In cases where the U.S. government had no diplomatic relations or embassy an agent had to operate with no official cover and risk being prosecuted for espionage. MacGyver preferred the low key approach and he had a healthy mistrust of any official oversight or interference. Mac preferred non violent solutions to resolve conflict over deadly force. Mac would only kill if he had to.

I think with the DXS he probably had diplomatic immunity. Phoenix? Maybe? He may have, but a private organization like that? I'm not sure how those worked. If the government funded something, and he was involved, probaby had diplomatic immunity as well. But, I'm not familiar with such things.

If he were a real person, he probably got in more trouble then we saw. For instance, Rush to Judgement, he broke jury sequester and got in trouble with the judge. Even though the judge was grateful and it saved an innocent man's life, he had to stand trail on contempt charges. He probably got off easy, but knows how much trouble he got into. Most likely Pete had to bail him out (as he claims in The Survivors). lol

As my sister would say: Good going MacGyver. XD