M.A.S.K. S1E11

The Magma Mole

The giant mole machine bursts through a hillside in a spray of dirt.

On a sightseeing trip in Japan with Scott and T-Bob, Matt and Bruce are caught in a sudden flood of seawater in a gorge where the sea has not been for millions of years. Matt retrieves traces of endurium, a rare element recently stolen, and the team is called in. Miles Mayhem emerges from a tunnel in the Magma Mole, a giant drilling machine, and demands that Japan meet his terms within twelve hours or he will make Mount Fuji erupt over Tokyo. M.A.S.K. tracks the machine with modified seismographs, and Matt chases it as it heads for the volcano on automatic, following it deep underground while Buddie tries to reach him with Penetrator.

Where's Mayhem think he's going, China?

Has the ocean ever come back here? Someone asks the tour guide early on, looking at wave marks on a cave wall, and the answer is no, not for millions of years. A few moments later the gorge fills with seawater. It is a neat bit of set-up and payoff, and it points at what the episode is about: a machine this large cannot hide, and the plot is made of the traces it leaves behind.

Those traces are the spine, and The Magma Mole follows them one at a time. The flood is salty, so it came from the sea. Matt goes into the tunnel for something flowing just inside it and comes back with a trace of endurium, and after that the team reads the ground rather than the villain. Bruce's proverb, that a whale cannot swim without moving the water, is the thesis in a sentence, and it is explained for Scott and T-Bob right away: the Mole cannot cut through rock without sending out a seismic wave, so Bruce has been modifying the Japanese seismographs to listen for it. This is detective work done with equipment, and it is more satisfying than a computer simply announcing a location.

The writing is at its best in that stretch and weaker when it has to get Mayhem to the volcano. The twelve-hour ultimatum to the Prime Minister is the standard V.E.N.O.M. demand, and Mayhem's scramble to hurry along the power cells his machine needs gives the middle a nice sense of a villain working against his own schedule. The team is caught in a flooding tunnel and has to find a way out with the Antimatter Ray and Spectrum's sonar, which keeps the machine at the edge of the action for a long stretch. Mayhem even calls his Viper mask by the wrong name at one point, as the fan wiki notes.

The voices carry the heat well: Alex's anxious warning that Matt must stop before he is too deep, and Matt's reply that it is already hot, lend the descent real tension, and the Mole's sheer size is the first thing anyone says about it.

That descent is the standout. The Mole is running on automatic toward Mount Fuji, and Matt goes after it to stop it, finds that the whole machine is made of endurium alloy and so cannot be broken, and rides it more than a mile and a half down. Bruce supplies the answer, that the wind may do what the hammer cannot, and Matt turns on Spectrum's ultrasonic vibration. Then Penetrator is connected to Firecracker's generator for extra power, with a warning that it has to stop at exactly the right coordinates or materialize in solid rock. It is a rescue with real rules, and the rules are explained before anyone breaks them.

The real weakness is that the solution is Spectrum again. Here it both locates a cave by sonar and stops the Mole, so Spectrum is starting to look like a universal remedy. Another team member's mask gets a moment, in Penetrator, but the episode leans on Matt's. Gloria is so relieved to find him alive that she tosses her Aura mask into the air, and the fan wiki notes it is missing from the wide shot that follows, which is also the most human moment in the episode.

The Magma Mole is one of the stronger early episodes: a big idea, a clever way of tracking it, and a rescue with rules!

The M.A.S.K. wiki describes endurium as an extremely rare element, all known quantities of which were stolen by Sly Rax of V.E.N.O.M. and used to build the Magma Mole.
The M.A.S.K. wiki lists a continuity error: Miles Mayhem calls his Viper mask 'Sniper' when he uses it, and the mask still responds.
The M.A.S.K. wiki records that the mask Gloria Baker throws into the air at the end, Aura, is not visible in the wide shot that follows.
The M.A.S.K. wiki points out that Matt Trakker and Bruce Sato are already in Japan when Matt calls in the team, yet both can be spotted at Boulder Hill during the mask energizing scene before the rest of the team joins them.
The M.A.S.K. wiki notes that the closing safety tip, checking how deep the water is before diving in, repeats the lesson used earlier in Highway to Terror.
The M.A.S.K. wiki lists Vanessa Warfield as the pilot of Switchblade on this mission and Gloria Baker as Thunderhawk's co-pilot.
The M.A.S.K. wiki lists Gloria Baker's day job, shown in the agent call-up, as instructing an elderly man how to drive, and records that his hat vanishes and returns between shots.
The M.A.S.K. wiki's Magma Mole entry links to a 2014 Agents of M.A.S.K. post, '7 Vehicles in the M.A.S.K. animated series that we wish were toys', which suggests the machine never reached the toy line.
In a May 2008 interview posted on matt-trakker.com, S. S. Wilson says a hand-made 'NO VOLCANOES' poster hung behind story editor Terrence McDonnell's desk because so many writers pitched volcano stories; the interview does not mention this episode.

Matt Trakker

Bruce Sato

Alex Sector

Brad Turner

Hondo MacLean

Buddie Hawks

Gloria Baker

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

Scott and T-Bob lean on a wooden railing among tourists.

Matt and Bruce stand at the railing among the tourists.

Scott and T-Bob lean on the railing and look down at the gorge.

Three arched openings are cut into a pale cliff face.

Scott and T-Bob walk across a wooden bridge behind a woman and a photographer.

A striped rock slope with a bush runs across the frame.

Scott looks off to the side while a woman in a maroon suit talks beside him.

Blue water laps at the foot of a wooded cliff.

Matt, Bruce, Scott and T-Bob gather with tourists on the bridge.

Matt grips Scott's arm as the boy reaches toward the rock wall.

Floodwater surges against the cliff as two tourists cling to the rock behind a tree.

Matt swims through the churning flood with a grim face.

T-Bob floats on the flood while Scott watches from the left edge.

A red octopus rises from the water beside a broken wooden beam.

Matt and Bruce wear diving gear beside Scott and T-Bob.

Scott looks worried beside T-Bob against a blue background.

Matt swims down in scuba gear and reaches toward another diver.

Matt and Bruce crouch on an underwater rock slope in scuba gear.

Matt and Bruce climb the underwater rock past a tree trunk.

A diver swims toward a tall wall of cascading water.

T-Bob clings to the rail of a white cabin cruiser as a man watches from the roof.

Scott and T-Bob lean over the side of the boat toward a diver in the water.

Scott sits cross-legged in a Japanese room and points a stick at T-Bob.

Matt types at a computer while Bruce kneels beside him.

Matt grins at the screen as Scott and Bruce watch beside him.

A pink wireframe of a truck and its trailer unit shows on a monitor.

Alex Sector sweeps the floor of a cage room as a gorilla sits nearby.

A rock band plays on a lit stage with a drummer and two guitarists.

Brad Turner checks his wristwatch while holding a guitar.

A green wireframe portrait of a man shows on a monitor.

A crowd in a classroom cheers with arms raised.

A wireframe of a car and its open-winged jet form shows on a monitor.

An elderly man in a bow tie grips the wheel of a car and stares ahead.

A gas station with two pumps sits against a rock cliff.

A ceiling rack holds a ring of masks on mechanical arms.

Masked agents stand on a snowy path before a tunnel with vehicles parked in front.

A bearded masked agent holds a black device as four others stand beside him.

Star-bright lights glow deep in a circular tunnel shaft.

A motorcycle and a dark van drive out of a cave mouth in the snow.

Masked agents line up on a snowy ridge among pine trees.

Masked agents crouch behind a snowdrift as a red beam streaks past.

A yellow motorcycle, a white truck and a red sports car race out of a tunnel.

Masked agents sit in a red vehicle beside a truck cab.

A red and white car speeds beside a truck in a tunnel as headlights flare.

A white curved panel sweeps past the mouth of a dark tunnel.

Speed streaks blur past with a bright flash at left.

A red sports car with a lightning bolt speeds along with a masked driver inside.

Thunderhawk races ahead with its gull-wing doors raised and exhaust flaring.

Two bright white glows light up a dark tunnel.

Two masked agents sit in a cab, one in a red mask with goggles.

Giant drill bits smash through a pile of rubble.

Switchblade hovers in helicopter mode against the clouds.

Switchblade flies in jet mode above the clouds.

Rhino braces as a giant drill grinds into its front.

Three masked agents crouch beside a vehicle and aim their weapons.

A masked agent in a green vest runs toward the truck as a drill cuts into it.

A masked figure in pink light clenches purple fists as sparks crackle.

Drill bits grind into a green rock wall.

Two masked agents stand side by side in a rocky tunnel.

Water bursts through a crack in the rock in white spray.

Two masked agents stand shoulder to shoulder, one in white and one in yellow.

A pile of rounded boulders fills the frame.

A masked driver in white and red gear sits at the wheel of a pink vehicle.

An orange-suited agent stands beside a pink vehicle as another leans on its door.

Masked agents stand in a green rock tunnel as another turns away in the foreground.

Three masked agents stand together in a tunnel, one in a blue hood with a beard.

A masked driver and an orange agent ride in the pink vehicle.

A purple truck charges out of a tunnel mouth in a snowy forest.

Masked agents stand outside a vehicle door beside the snowy cliff.

Miles Mayhem scowls on a video monitor.

Miles Mayhem speaks on the video monitor.

Scott and T-Bob watch seismograph needles draw jagged lines on a chart.

Scott frowns with a finger to his lips beside T-Bob.

Alex Sector and a man with a clipboard face a blond man in a yellow shirt.

Bruce looks down intently as four people stand in a doorway behind him.

Bruce stares wide-eyed while a man in a pink shirt strides in behind him.

A red dot glows on an orange grid map on a monitor.

A masked figure in a yellow suit and backpack looks at a city skyline.

A rocky ridge overlooks a wide green plain with distant mountains.

Miles Mayhem watches a group of people on a barren plain from his control cabin.

A man in a green jacket and a helmeted guard stand before a wall of white canisters.

A man in a blue hood takes a white canister from the wall while another man looks on.

Cliff Dagger clutches a canister as rock fragments burst past him.

Miles Mayhem watches from the cabin as the cargo door lifts.

A masked driver in a blue helmet sits in a pink cockpit as a pink beam streaks past.

A red and white truck with roof lights climbs a rocky slope toward the viewer.

The black mole machine slides down a slope trailing an orange glow.

Twin drill bits tear into a rock wall in a cloud of dust.

A red vehicle with jets blazing speeds into a narrow rock crevice.

A masked agent in a blue helmet turns toward a lit screen in a dark cavity.

A masked agent in white and red leaps through the air against a red wall.

A figure in a blue uniform points from a rubble pile beneath a dark hull.

A yellow helicopter-style vehicle flies through clouds as red beams streak past.

A masked pilot in a blue helmet holds a hand to his head in a pink cockpit.

Dark cracks streak down a blue mountainside beyond a pink hood.

Two masked agents look toward a distant yellow helicopter beside a red car.

Masked agents crowd into a vehicle behind a yellow-masked driver.

Electric sparks crackle around a masked figure in pink smoke.

A yellow-masked driver grips the wheel as three agents crowd behind him.

A yellow-masked driver gestures toward the windshield as agents wait outside.

A yellow-masked driver sits at the wheel with a hose across his chest.

Two masked agents in yellow-green and orange get out of the vehicle.

Masked agents walk toward a glowing blue truck in a rocky canyon.

A glowing blue truck sits before a large red machine wrapped in lightning.

Lightning crackles across a large machine in a molten cavern.

Four masked agents stand beside the vehicle under a blue sky.

Masked agents stand together as the agent in the green vest steps forward.

Masked agents huddle beside a red pickup truck on a sandy beach.

Scott points down the driveway as T-Bob stands beside him.

Scott rides T-Bob like a scooter in front of the house.

T-Bob watches from a boat while two swimmers relax on the cliff rocks.

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