- 7 hours ago
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00That was an excerpt from astronaut Steve Austin's famous transmission to Earth during his historic walk on the moon several years ago.
00:24It was the voice of a courageous explorer, a man dedicated to the pursuit of man's knowledge and the expansion of his life.
00:30And it was for those very reasons that Steve Austin was piloting the experimental aircraft that exploded so devastatingly on the Nevada Salt Flats today, leaving Colonel Steve Austin a broken shell of a man so badly injured his doctors say he won't be alive in the morning.
00:44Let us all say a silent prayer for Colonel Austin tonight, a true American hero, a man history will never forget.
00:51You know, there's a very strong chance Austin won't be alive in the morning, Oscar.
00:55It's your job to make those other doctors liars, Rudy.
00:58We're in a top security government medical center, where high-ranking Oscar Goldman and top scientist Rudy Wells have been listening to one of the many broadcasts devoted to Steve Austin's tragedy.
01:08Is your team all set to go?
01:10They're scrubbing now. The plastics are already in the operating room, along with the microcircuitry and the other hardware.
01:15Oscar, we've had the technology to do this for some time now. Every scientific variable has been computed and taken into account, except for one thing.
01:26The human factor.
01:27Right. We still don't know the extent of the psychological effects this operation will have on a human being, assuming the patient even survives.
01:34But if he does, Rudy, we'll be witnessing one of the scientific achievements of the century, the birth of the world's first bionic man.
01:42For 14 hours, Rudy Wells and his team of highly trained specialists painstakingly labor over the battered and broken body of Colonel Steve Austin,
01:50implementing scientific principles and technological procedures never before tested on a human being.
01:55And overseeing each and every phase of the incredibly intricate operation is a vigilant Oscar Goldblum, silently spectating from the observation.
02:05It is not until seven days later that Steve Austin opens his eyes to groggily wonder where he is,
02:10without the slightest inkling that one of the eyes he just opened is not his own.
02:15Ah. Am I dreaming, or is everyone in heaven as beautiful as you?
02:21You're not dreaming, and you're not in heaven, Colonel, but thanks for the compliment.
02:25Now, take your medication. There you are.
02:28Thank you, nurse. Could you leave us alone now?
02:32Who are you?
02:33My name's Oscar Goldblum, and this is Dr. Rudy Wells. He headed the surgical team that worked on you.
02:39Colonel Austin?
02:40I don't know how you guys managed it, but thanks for pulling me through. I was sure I was a goner on the way down.
02:45How do you feel?
02:46A little dragged out and groggy, but otherwise, great. Like I've never been better.
02:50That's exactly right, Colonel Austin. You never have been better. You're better now than you ever were before.
02:56What's that supposed to mean?
02:58In saving your life, Colonel Austin, we had to make some adjustments in your physical makeup.
03:03Adjustments?
03:05Improvements would be a better word. You're now faster, stronger, more durable than you ever were.
03:09Take a look at your right hand.
03:11It's my hand. So what?
03:13Move the fingers.
03:13I... I don't get it. I see the fingers moving, but it doesn't feel like I'm moving them.
03:21You are and you're not. The nerve impulses from your brain are being relayed via microcircuitry and mini-transistors.
03:28Wait a minute. It's not just my fingers. My whole arm feels this way. Just what did you guys do to me?
03:34We saved your life the only way possible. A way that only became possible this year, thanks to recent breakthroughs in technology.
03:41What sort of technology?
03:43Bionics, Colonel Austin. We have used advanced scientific techniques to duplicate what your own flesh and blood used to do.
03:50Used to do?
03:51Your injuries were extremely grave, Colonel. You lost your right arm and both your legs, along with your left eye.
03:56You mean this arm I've got now?
03:59It's bionic, as are your legs and your eye.
04:01We don't expect you to adjust to this all at once. After all...
04:05I don't want any part of any of it. You should have let me die in that plane. I'm getting out of here.
04:09No, Austin. You must stay in your bed.
04:11Out of my way.
04:12You mustn't. Your bionic legs aren't ready yet.
04:14But like an enraged wild animal, Steve Austin leaps from his bed, his bionic arm knocking Oscar and Rudy aside like they were no more than ragdolls.
04:21Don't be a fool, Austin.
04:24Rudy!
04:25As Oscar Goldman rushes to a stunned Rudy's side, a bionic wild man begins to charge through the hospital corridor.
04:31It's Colonel Austin.
04:34He must be stopped. Where are the orderlies?
04:36There they are.
04:40It's not your smooth bionic guns. It's too much fun.
04:42This will stop him.
04:43Mr. Goldman, you've got the triumphalizer gun.
04:45Rudy said compressed air charge will put him to sleep in seconds.
04:49The bionic man feels the drugged air blast against his neck, whirls angrily to face his attacker and then...
04:55I didn't think we'd ever stop him. You dosed him just in time, Mr. Goldman.
04:59If you ask me, all the government's got so far for their six million is an uncontrollable wild man.
05:05It is another 24 hours before Steve Austin opens his eyes again to see Oscar Goldman again standing at his bedside.
05:11How do you feel?
05:13After yesterday, how come I'm not strapped to my bed?
05:15You've lost control of yourself, that's all. It was understandable under the circumstances.
05:19Besides, I don't think we could find a strap your bionic arm couldn't break through.
05:23I know. I'm stronger, faster, better, right?
05:25But you left out one thing. I'm not a man anymore. I'm afraid.
05:30I'm not going to debate the issue with you, Colonel.
05:32There's someone on the floor who's been begging to meet you.
05:34He's a general son, and he's been paralyzed from the waist down.
05:37I'm afraid not even bionics can repair the damage to his spinal cord.
05:41At that moment, the door opens and a 10-year-old boy, strapped to a wheelchair, rolls himself in.
05:46It's all right, Bobby. Come in.
05:48Bobby, this is Steve Austin.
05:50Colonel, this is little Bobby Phillips.
05:52Steve Austin? Oh, wow. You don't know what a thrill it is to meet you.
05:57I'll leave you two alone now.
06:01I've been your biggest fan, Colonel Austin, ever since that day I watched you walk on the moon on TV.
06:06Boy, that was some crash you were in last week.
06:09But Mr. Goldman says you'll be okay.
06:11That's what he tells me.
06:13Anyway, I was in an accident, too, but I wasn't as lucky as you.
06:16Still, if one of us had to end up stuck in a wheelchair, I'm glad it was me.
06:20I'm just a little kid. I'm not nearly as important as an astronaut.
06:24You really believe that, don't you?
06:26Well, I've got to be going now. I'll be back later to get your autograph, if that's okay.
06:31The crippled youngster wheels himself out, leaving an ashamed Steve Austin alone with his thoughts and his self-pidding.
06:38The next morning, as Oscar and Rudy walk along the corridor of the hospital's top-secret bionic wing...
06:43So, the kid did get to see him yesterday.
06:46Yes, but we still don't know what effect, if any, the...
06:49That sound. What is it?
06:51It seems to be coming from the therapy room.
06:54It sounds like a treadmill.
06:56And as they fling open the door to the well-encrypted therapeutic gym...
06:59It's Austin.
07:04I see.
07:05And look at the speedometer.
07:06He's running over 60 miles per hour and still accelerating.
07:09Incredible.
07:10The bionic legs are functioning perfectly.
07:12Rudy, I think Colonel Austin just may have decided being biomic might be worth a try after all.
07:17And several days later, a pleased Oscar Goldman records an impressive progress report into his personal diary.
07:23And it turned out that the session with a little boy snapped Austin out of his self-pity and back to his senses.
07:29We immediately began running tests on him.
07:31And found to our amazement his bionic strength was powerful enough to lift entire cars.
07:36His bionic legs were mighty enough to enable him to jump a full 30 feet in the air.
07:40His bionic eye was telescopic enough to read the lettering on a postage stamp from 100 yards away.
07:45Everyone on the project agrees.
07:47Our six million dollar man was worth every penny he cost.
07:50But I can't help wondering what Steve Austin would say if he ever found out that Bobby Phillips could walk as well as any other boy.
07:57Because he was an actor, I heard, to play on Steve Austin's sympathy and common sense.
08:01It was a dirty trick, I admit.
08:03But sometimes in a crisis...
08:05End of tape for now.
08:06Signing off.
08:08Come in.
08:11Come in, Steve.
08:12You should be very proud of yourself.
08:13Your test performances have far exceeded our expectations.
08:16That's just what I wanted to talk about, Oscar.
08:18Oh?
08:19I wasn't an astronaut and a test pilot for nothing.
08:22I've been around long enough to know the government doesn't invest six million dollars into a man without expecting something in return.
08:28I can't fault your logic, Colonel.
08:30I didn't think you would.
08:32I owe you a few, don't I?
08:33Let's just say there'll be occasional jobs we'd like you to do for us.
08:36In fact, I could brief you on your first assignment right now.
08:39What do you say, pal?
08:40Steve Austin reporting for duty.
08:42Pal?
08:43Pal?
08:43Pal?
08:43Pal?
08:43Pal?
08:43Pal?
08:43Pal?
08:44Pal?
08:44Pal?
08:44Pal?
08:44Pal?
08:45Pal?
08:45Pal?
08:45Pal?
08:46Pal?
08:47Pal?
08:47Pal?
08:47Pal?
08:48Pal?
08:48Pal?
08:48Pal?
08:48Pal?
08:50Pal?
08:52Pal?
08:52Pal?
08:54Pal?
08:54Pal?
08:55Pal?
08:55Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:56Pal?
08:57Pal?
08:58Pal?
08:58Pal?
08:58Pal?
08:58Pal?
09:00Pal?
09:00Pal?
09:00Pal?
09:00Pal?
09:00Pal?
Be the first to comment