Bionic Showdown
episode number: reunion movie #2 of 3 (1989)
viewing setting: home DVD, 8/27/12
episode synopsis: Steve, Jaime, Oscar, and a new bionic person must work together to prevent terrorism at the World Unity Games.
impressions: This was the second in a series of TV movies made a decade after the original shows ended. It had some good plot points and false leads, and actually tricked me. Oscar shows serious angst about his career taking over his life for the last thirty years, and quits OSI, and gets hammered. We also have a new bionic person: Kate (Sandra Bullock) although her bionics aren't mechanical, but instead some kind of way to supercharge the body (which makes no real sense.) She and the bad bionic person are stronger and faster than Steve or Jaime. The villains here are from both sides of the Cold War, and they simply don't want it to end because it's all they know. Spoiler: at the end of this one, Steve and Jaime finally decide to get married.
notable guest stars: A young Sandra Bullock, in one of her earliest roles, is the recipient of the new bionics. Jeff Yagher is Oscar's nephew, an athlete and comedian with a mullet, and a crush on Sandra Bullock's character. Robert Lansing is an asshole general who opposes Oscar at every turn. Geraint Wyn Davies is a helpful OSI agent. Lee Majors' real-life son Lee Majors II is a likeable OSI agent.
significant bionic antics: Steve jumps over a wall with Jaime, leaps through a window, spots a bomb, and then crushes the bomb. Jaime hears armed guards approaching, jumps over a wall with Steve, picks up hidden Morse code over the phone, kicks down a door, crushes a pistol, and rips out a door lock. Kate does various training, fights off some bad guys, runs really fast to deal with an overly flirty runner dork, curls heavy barbells, uses some kind of special vision to scan a crowd, sprints around, spots bad guys in the crowd, hurls a ball to knock someone down, engages in a super-bionic chase and then a fight, rips off a metal hatch to use as a shield, and flips the bionic bad guy off the roof.
back to the main review page