The ultimate showdown between the ultimate survivalists. Both men are parachute dropped within the same area of a remote mountain range where they must navigate their own way through the harsh wilderness of mountains, rivers, forests and dangerous wildlife to be the first back to base. The trek will take them at least 3 days and put their survival skills to the ultimate test as they will have to live off the land and take care of any problems they encounter on their own.

They both have their standard outdoor jackets and clothing, their knife (Mac's SAK and Bear's Gerber "Gator"), and a rucksack containing a flint stone, small pot for boiling water and what ever else they find along the way.


Who wins the battle for survival?

Cast your vote and tell us what you think.

Since I don't know the other guy, I'd say Mac.

Vs-matches always end up in a draw because fans want their character to win, so everyone would be happy.

Bear Grills? Oh please..

He's been known to fake elements of his survival tours. Supposedly slept in the jungle or the cold or whatever, but stayed in a comfy hotel.

Give me Ray Mears any day. He's not aiming for the extreme effects Grills is, so comes out as less spectacular, but he has all the survival skills needed.

I doubt if Mac would like gung ho Grills, who's looking for kicks and effects and finds it in extreme survival. I think Mac would prefer modest Mears, who is tracing historic trails and following in the footsteps of old explorers. In doing so he uses all kinds of survival skills – often learning them from tribes that still live in those areas.

Sorry, the name is Grylls.

I think you may have mis-understood what this thread is about.

It's a survival contest between the two.. who would win?

Oh but I do understand.
I'm just saying I don't like Bear Grylls and why.
Is that not allowed? Are you that strict, Rock?

And if you must know, I think it is a bit strange to let a fictitious character compete with a real person. But if I go along with that, for me Mac's the winner.
He doesn't do survival for the sake of survival, he plays fair and Grylls doesn't.

Well, considering the fact that Mac is EXTREMELY lucky, I'd say Mac wins. I mean, the items he needs are always where he needs them to be, even if there's no logical reason for them to be there (a tennis racket in a nuclear reactor?)

Also, things tend to work out for Mac, even when they would never work for a regular person. Using a chocolate bar to stop an acid leak? Wouldn't work for anyone in the real world (unless they had several tons of chocolate), but it works for Mac. Opening any lock with a swiss army knife? Again, it doesn't work in the real world, but it works for Mac. Having a dog nearby who apparently understands not only English, but also the laws of physics and your crazy plan? Doesn't happen to real people, but it happens to Mac (with Frog, in "The Coltons.")

So, yeah, considering all that, I'd say Mac beats any real-world person at, well, pretty much anything.

That's ok. It just sounded like you thought the topic was a "which one do you like more" type thing.

So I was making sure we're all on the same page.

Well as Miasma pointed out, MacGyver always has exactly what he needs where and when he needs it, so I think the two probably cancel each other out.


I've been watching a lot of Man vs. Wild lately and Bear does quite a lot of stuff that almost looks like it's come straight out of a MacGyver episode, which is what started me thinking about doing this poll. There's quite a few times when I've thought, this guys like a real life MacGyver.

So anyway I'm still deciding who would win. I'm kinda leaning towards Bear simply because he's doing it all the time so would be more practiced..




oh... don't forget to vote in the poll at the top

Could make an interesting fanfiction...
I still think Mac would win though. I mean, MacGyver did make pressure washer jet packs.

I voted for Bear Grylls!
He seems to be very good at this sort of thing and I feel that he deserves at least one vote.

I think that Grylls would win because there's a good chance that MacGyver would come across someone that needed help, and that would of course slow him down. Not that Bear Grylls wouldn't stop and lend a helping hand. It's just that MacGyver has a habit of getting involved in troubling situations. Like in Ghost ship when he was out in the woods mapping.

This depends a bit on how you define victory...

Bear Grylls is likely to be more focussed and less likely to have something unexpected happen to him. He just pushes on to the rendezvous point, only stopping when absolutely necessary to hunt/sleep/eat/whatever. He's on a mission here! If you define victory as getting there first, Bear would win (as disloyal as it sounds to say so on this forum!).

MacGyver, on the other hand, sets off at a fair rate and initially looks like the safe bet. But then he encounters someone in the woods who really needs his help, or stumbles across a bunch of locals doing something environmentally despicable, or Pete calls to tell him that a next level villain has been spotted in the area... Either way, the survival race gets put on hold while Mac thinks up a way to deal with the situation, something goes wrong and he gets shot (I'm halfway through season 6, forgive me), he has a fight, rescues the victim or captures the villain and THEN makes his way to the rendezvous point. He arrives some time after Bear Grylls, bloodied but ultimately victorious.

I had begun a post to this thread, but I was called away part way through and my response did not show since it logged me out.

Anyway, I am on the same line of thinking as you Rocket. I admit I voted for Bear primarily because it was a race. But also because Mac is generally Very prepared for his woods excursions and might be at a bit of a disadvantage with his trusty every day SAK. I'll bet he carries an additional one in his backpack when properly prepared. Also, Mac's tendency to get distracted (not by just people in distress, but also a mystery), would ultimately slow him down too.

Either way they would both make it out alive, though Mac might not "win" the race.

Mac grew up in Minnesota and learned about the outdoors from his grandfather. Bear is an ex-SAS soldier whose training is extreme to say the least. Mac probably learned a thing or two in the jungles of Vietnam. Bear approaches situations as a trained soldier. Mac evaluates on the spot. Mac is in environments that all of us could be in the backwoods for example. Bear is in locales that most of us will never see, the rainforest or the Artic. I would say Mac because we usually find him in more realistic locales then Bear.

Hmm.. interesting... but I'm not sure how the points you make actually work as an argument against Bear winning because we've also seen him in a lot of common areas such as woods, snow fields, places where a lot of people do have easy access to so that would indicate that he can survive in any location whereas we've only really ever seen MacGyver in the woods.

Don't think I've ever seen MacGyver eating warms or bugs either.

True, I think if this is a race that Bear would win.
And I somehow don't think we'd ever see Mac drink his own pee...