MacGyver Wiki
Advertisement
Hellfire
Season 1, Episode 8
Hellfire
Airdate 27th November 1985
Written by Douglas Brooks West
Directed by Richard Colla
Episode Guide
Previous
Last Stand
Next
The Prodigal

Hellfire is the 8th episode of Season 1 in the original version of MacGyver.

Synopsis[]

Angus MacGyver and his friends strike oil, but an accident on site causes an oil well fire threatening to destroy all they own. Can MacGyver use his smarts to put it out before his friends lose everything?

Act One[]

A helicopter brings in MacGyver to an oil field where his friend Laura is waiting for him. Laura greets MacGyver as he steps out of the chopper and says this well will make them rich.

Out on the rig Bill and Pete are drilling when a gas pocket comes up with a large column of water there is oil down there maybe too much oil. Bill greets MacGyver and says this well will make him rich. Bill introduces Pete to MacGyver and they tell him how the drilling is coming along. Pete heads back to the rig to clean things up before shutting it down for the day.

Inside their cabin Bill and Pete go over the charts while MacGyver and Laura talk about old times. Laura gives them coffee and shortly before they can turn on the lights the fuses blow and Laura takes MacGyver with her to fix it.

At the fuse box MacGyver removes the fuse and Laura tells him they have no spares because they have to ration their supplies. To fix this it is time for a MacGyverism. MacGyver sticks a gum wrapper between the two blades closing the circuit restoring power for now.

MacGyver talks to Laura what happened after Bill got hurt and Laura says after Bill got out of the burn unit he was a changed man went from blowing up wells to drilling them. Laura says this well is all they got and Bill has bet their savings on it to pay for their expenses. Laura says if things don't work out Bill will go back to capping wells and she does not want to lose him.

Bill and Pete go over the charts there is oil down there they may have hit the jackpot or they might have hit disaster.

While they go out to celebrate the wind blows around their lights causing one of them break sending sparks and ignites the gas. They have a blowout and Mac and Bill will need to find some way to contain it before the rig blows up. On the way out Pete gets hurt when a drill pipe land him. Mac and Bill manage to get Pete out of the way, but now the rig is on fire and the blowout destroys everything that they own.

Act Two[]

Back inside their cabin MacGyver sets Pete leg and splints it but now they need to come up with a plan to cap the well. Bill says they can not afford the equipment and he knows about oil firefighting so it is too risky. On top of that they lost their nitro charges recently and their lease expires in a few days so they can not call anyone in to help them cap it.

MacGyver comes up with a plan to raid an abandoned strip mine hopefully they have some nitro over there they can use to put this out. Laura shoots this idea down and tells Bill she does not want to lose him again because the last rig fire almost killed him. MacGyver says if Bill helps him he does not have to go into the blaze. Laura agrees and MacGyver and Bill get in an old truck Laura was working on earlier and heads to the Ten Strike Mine to look for nitro.

Bill and MacGyver drive out to the mine but the nitro is in a rickety shack and the floor is about to give way. They install boards and head to the nitro crates but the nitro has dried out making it worthless. MacGyver uses his Swiss Army Knife to open one crate and slits one of the sticks and harvest the nitro. Carefully they exit the shack to avoid the nitro going off. Mac scrapes the nitro off the end of the blade and tosses it the nitro is now unstable which makes shipping it nearly impossible. They need to find some way to get the sticks out of the shack, melt them down, and put them into a container and get it back to the rig without blow themselves up.

Back at the rig Laura helps Pete with his leg and has made him a crutch. Back at the mine MacGyver and Bill go over their plan to get the sticks out of that shack. Bill tells Mac that the reason get left oil firefighting was Laura and he has no regrets. Back at the rig Pete realizes Bills job and how dangerous it is. Back at the mine Bill and Mac go over their plan on how they will get the nitro into the well to put it out Bill says he want this fire to be his last one. Back at the rig Laura tells Pete rig fires scare her and she does not want to lose Bill. Back at the mine Mac and Bill go inside the shack and as the name implies this is going to be a suicide run with that much nitro in the back.

Back at the rig Laura and Pete set up the fire hoses and the monitors so they can cool the rig so MacGyver and Bill can get close to plant the charge and blow up the rig to cap it.

Back inside the shack MacGyver and Bill start moving crates when the wind blows against the shack and some of the crates start to fall off the shelf. Bill manages to nudge them back into place. Below him the floor gives way and MacGyver manages to get three cases out. When Mac returns he swaps with Bill who takes out the fourth case. MacGyver holds up the shelf and as the last board gives way he makes it out in time as what is left of the shack and four crates of nitro blows up behind them.

Act Three[]

MacGyver and Bill manage to get clear as the shack comes down behind them blowing up the last four cases of nitro. Bill tells MacGyver what he did was crazy MacGyver certifiable. Now that they have the nitro outside they need to get it back into the truck and back to the rig without blowing themselves up because what happened to that shack was too close for comfort even with them transporting four cases of unstable nitro.

For this MacGyverism Mac builds a springboard and places the cases on top and backfills the truck bed with sand so not even a bump can cause the nitro to explode. With the nitro secure they drive back to the rig. Mac and Bill drive all night slowly for the last 50 miles so the nitro does not exploded as they take it back to the rig.

At the rig Laura and Pete prepare for them and spray the rig with water to lower the heat so Bill and MacGyver can plant the charge. Laura explains to Pete that they need the water so the charge does not explode prematurely and also to give MacGyver and Bill enough time to get it into the wellbore so the charge goes off exactly where they want it to cap the well.

Back on the road MacGyver and Bill talk about the last fire Bill went to. Bill tells MacGyver that is not his happiest memory and Laura was shook up about it. As they head over bumps boulders in the road aim to undo our little MacGyverism and blow up the truck. MacGyver adjust the wheels to get past the boulders until they get to a stream now this is going to be tricky. As they clear the stream the truck dies making getting the nitro to the fire nearly impossible. MacGyver opens the hood the linkage spring to the carburetor is gone so to fix this MacGyver use a simple MacGyverism as a fix he takes a ballpoint apart and uses the spring inside it to fix the valve and give them enough power to get home. Just as they are descending the hill one of the cases leaks and the truck loses its brakes. Laura comes out to meet them and MacGyver manages to drive the truck into the water to bring them to a stop and preventing anymore cases from exploding. Laura grabs her heart almost in shock that Bill and MacGyver made it back safe.

Act Four[]

Now it is time to knock out the blaze MacGyver and Bill unload the nitro and place it by an old jeep and Bill says if they had a dozer and an athey wagon it would be a lot simpler but they don't have one so they will have to do it the old fashion way place the charge at the end of a pole and MacGyver walks it over to the well. MacGyver immediately shoots down this idea the well is too hot and he will fry if he does that and the blowout is spreading the flame making it too hot for him to get close.

For our final MacGyverism MacGyver comes up with his plan. He will will use the refrigerator door as a shield since it contains tin which will reflect the heat. To get the charge close MacGyver will use the jeep and they will place the jeep on top of the drill pipes. To contain the charge Laura will drain the nitro out of the sticks and seal it inside of a thermos.

Before they could get the charge into the fire Bill has cold feet and says he lost his crew during the last fire and does not want MacGyver to go in and decides to go in himself. Laura tells Bill to remember the promise he made to her not to go into the blaze again and risk his life. Bill tells her he is not going to allow MacGyver to go in. MacGyver tells Bill it is his choice and he is going in and his plan will work. Bill and MacGyver fight each other and Laura tries to break up the fight. In the end Laura agrees and both Bill and MacGyver will go in.

Laura sprays down the jeep and Bill and MacGyver as they push the jeep towards the flames. With the jeep close enough they hook the charge to a steel cable and lower it down the wellbore. At this point the heat is getting too hot for work and Pete increases the pressure. Halfway out the cable gets hung up but MacGyver frees it and gets clear before it gets too hot. With the snag clear they manage to get the charge down the hole and get clear in time as the charge explodes snuffing the fire and capping the well.

With the fire out Laura and Bill make plans to rebuild this time they will do it safer and stake their claim because they know there is oil down there they just need to get it out. MacGyver agrees in the end to take some time off and help them rebuild and tap the well so Laura and Bill can get paid. With one last break they get to work rebuilding their rig.

MacGyverisms[]

A complete list of problems solved by MacGyver is also available.

  • MacGyver repairs a blown fuse using the aluminum wrapper of a stick of chewing gum to bridge the blown fuse.
  • To carry several boxes of explosives leaking nitroglycerin across rocky terrain, MacGyver places the crates on a surface suspended by wagon springs and sand, both of which absorb shock from the terrain and any drops.
  • MacGyver uses the spring from a ballpoint pen as a replacement for a throttle linkage spring in a truck's engine. While this would very temporarily work to replace a broken linkage spring, a broken linkage spring would not cause the truck to stall out as shown in the episode. Rather, without the spring the throttle would stay open, causing the truck to accelerate uncontrollably.
  • To put out an oil rig fire, MacGyver sets off a nitroglycerin explosion in order to consume enough oxygen to put out the fire. N.B. nitroglycerin gives off oxygen when it detonates.
  • To get the explosives into the fire, MacGyver creates a makeshift train from a burnt-out jeep running along pipes as tracks.
  • MacGyver uses an old refrigerator as a heat shield.

Bloopers[]

  • When MacGyver replaces the spring this would be a temporary fix out a truck would never stall if the throttle valve on the carburetor were open it would cause the truck to lurch uncontrollably.
  • When MacGyver escapes the exploding shack he would not have gotten away in time if there were four cases of nitro inside about to explode.
  • When the truck loses its brakes driving into the water would have stopped the truck but it would also detonate the nitro if those springs and the sand were not there.

Trivia[]

  • Nina Visitor who plays Laura is best known for her role on Deep Space Nine as Kira Nerys.
  • The title Hellfire, hellfighting, and rig blasting all come from oil firefighting where they use sticks of nitro or C4 to cap wells.
  • The Macgyverism where MacGyver loads the nitro into the back of the truck and places it on a board with springs on the bottom and fills the truck with sand would be used in Transporter The Series where Frank Martin also had to move unstable nitro back to a mine to free trapped workers.
  • The movie Hellfighters explains the dangerous and emotional work oil firefighters have to go through to cap wells.
  • The worst oil fire was Desert Storm in 1991 where it took ten months to cap 700 wells after Saddam sent his Imperial Guard into an oil field in Kuwait with satchel charges and blew them up. Many of the methods shown in this episode were used to cap the wells.

Cast[]

Main CastOthers
Cooper Huckabee as Bill Farren
Nana Visitor as Laura Farren
Rudy Ramos as Pete Torgut
Advertisement