Synopsis:

Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man has fought for the greater good as the one and only bionic man.....UNTIL NOW! Colonel Austin learns that he is not the only person that Oscar Goldman and Dr. Rudy Wells performed their bionic miracle on. Steve meets Barney Hiller, a former race car driver who after a near fatal accident was given the same operation as Steve, but with some new improvements and upgrades making him stronger and faster. When Barney decides he is too powerful to be under anyone's command, it'll take more than strength and speed to stop him. It'll take the one thing Steve has more of than Barney.....his humanity.

Intentions:

From the moment I saw the Seven Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Criminal episodes, I knew that I wanted to make this into a movie special. What we saw in the first Captain America movie with Chris Evans is how Steve Rogers' humanity is what set him apart from the others to receive the super soldier serum. That theme is played up in this SMDM movie and it's Oscar who relays it to Steve at the end when he made his realization. I found that in my edits and BionicBob's we see different ways that Steve Austin grows into his own as a part cyborg man, but this particular story sees Oscar having the growth by the end when he realizes it's the kind of man that Steve is that makes him "better". For a 70's TV show, this is cinematic stuff and I couldn't wait to get working on this one. Something that may get lost in translation is the opening action sequence. This has 2 purposes. The first is to give an exciting opening in the vain of a Bond cold open where the opening action isn't necessarily part of the story. The second is that while Steve learns the prisoner he was sent to rescue was killed, the still makes sure to rescue the prisoner he is jailed with.

Change List:

I wanted to make Barney a sympathetic character. He's not a bad guy at heart, he's just given power that he can't fully handle and he knows it. This isn't a story of good vs. evil. It's a story of what makes someone a hero, the tools they have to fight or the humanity to know when to fight and when to help. Cuts and Additions: -All commercial break hard cuts are gone -Insert climactic rescue sequence from the end of the first Six Million Dollar Man movie. It doesn't add anything to the story, but it gives us a cool opening action scene a la many Bond films. Many small edits and additions were made to this sequence. Also a lot of sound effects were added to accompany new music. Also added a "bionic eye" overlay and sound. -Insert the bionic sound as Barney defeats Steve in the arm wrestling match. This gives us the audience (as if we didn't already know) the indication that Barney is bionic. -Following Barney's first mission with Steve, they meet with Dr. Wells afterwards. After their exchange and Barney hints at challenging Steve, I inserted the test/training montage from the season 3 episode The Bionic Criminal. -After the training scene, we jump to Barney at the racetrack. Here, I have inserted footage from the Steve McQueen film Le Mans to show Barney having flashbacks to his accident. This is what is mentally causing him to spin out during the run. -When Barney attempts to do another run around the course, this time he flashes back to his surgery that made him bionic. Footage was lifted from the SMDM pilot film and parts of the Bionic Criminal episode. -After Barney hurts the man who owns the racecar and runs off, the immediate next scene goes back to the Seven Million Dollar Man episode where Steve is telling Oscar that Barney is out of control. I also added an establishing shot to better show the transition from scene to scene and episode to episode. -Everything else is pretty straight forward. I inserted an establishing shot of the compound they were in for the climax to help connect the end of the final fight to Barney's surgery to have his bionics turned off -Insert a credit that lists all of the music used in the edit -POST CREDITS SCENE added to give Barney a happy send off.

Other Sources:

Clips from Le Mans (1971) to help create a flashback to show Barney's origins and the accident that led to his bionic operation.

Special Thanks:

My pal, BionicBob!