M.A.S.K. S1E23

Vanishing Point

A pile of tan sand and boulders covers a large pit in the desert.

A ten-ton cargo plane disappears on a runway the day before a new jet is due to be unveiled to the Army, and Matt Trakker, a principal investor in the project, goes looking. In a town that has suddenly come back to life, a shopkeeper shows him a cheque from a company that does not exist, and the computer says the handwriting is Miles Mayhem's. Scott and T-Bob go after V.E.N.O.M.'s trucks on their own and get into trouble. M.A.S.K. tracks the jet, which Matt can see in front of him while the radar says otherwise, and works out that V.E.N.O.M. is sending false radar signals to hide a fake airport inside an underground hangar in the desert.

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A ten-ton cargo plane disappears on a runway, and the only witness is a radar screen that was lying. Vanishing Point has little interest in masks and a lot in investigation, and its first idea is its best: every clue in it is a lie told to an instrument. A cheque is signed with altered handwriting, a radar screen reports a jet where there is none, and an airport turns out to be a trick that can vanish.

The episode is really about that, and it announces it at the midpoint through the mouth of Bruce Sato. Matt is in Thunderhawk with the jet plainly visible in front of him, the radar reads the same jet heading the other way, and the voice reading it insists there is nothing in his vicinity. Bruce quotes the proverb about the wolf that circles back and leaves two sets of tracks to confuse its pursuers. Dusty, who has not understood a word, says that must be a different channel. The explanation arrives a beat later, and it is a Satoism doing real work, because the proverb is the clue.

The detective work before that is tidy and has a good sense of how a real investigation is dull. Matt, Scott and T-Bob drive into McKenna Flats, a town whose factory closed and which ought to be a ghost town and is busier than ever, and a shopkeeper shows him a cheque from a firm called Calgips that is building a plant nearby, uses its own trucks and men, and cannot say where it is based. T-Bob is sent to photograph it, the computer finds no such company in its data bank, and the handwriting analysis names Miles Mayhem. A company with no address that pays by cheque is more convincing than a flashing villain.

The voices are at ease with the premise. Matt jokes about gremlins in the cockpits and gets a flat "hardly" from Dutch, and the late rescue is paid for with a joke about a trip to the beauty shop.

The standout is the sequence in the air. Matt switches Thunderhawk to jet mode and chases the Hermes jet, the radar contradicts him, and the scene turns on whether he trusts his eyes or the screen. It is the moment where the episode makes the audience feel the gap between a pilot and his instruments, and it does it with a single exchange.

The weakness is the physical half of the trick. Matt works out the false radar in one exchange, and the dialogue explains how the controllers are fooled, but how a jet lands at an airport that is not there is left to the picture. A V.E.N.O.M. voice orders the field activated, and then the jet disappears. Scott and T-Bob also take a detour that ends under a stack of logs, which gives the closing safety tip its setup but holds the main plot still.

Where much of M.A.S.K. is about whose gadget is bigger, this one is a story about verification, and it is better for it. Venom wins nothing the team cannot see through once it stops trusting the screen.

The M.A.S.K. wiki lists the closing safety tip as T-Bob trying to carry more wooden logs than he can handle and tripping, with Scott noting that you should never carry more than you can handle.
The wiki records two Satoisms in this episode: "The haystack is a large place to search for the needle" and "Even the wolf circles back, leaving two sets of tracks, to confuse its pursuers."
According to the wiki, the episode's location is Nevada, and the cast list includes Dutch McKenna, voiced by Doug Stone, who also voices Matt Trakker, Dusty Hayes and Bruce Sato.
The M.A.S.K. wiki's voice cast list credits Sharon Noble with Gloria Baker, Vanessa Warfield, the M.A.S.K. Computer, a little girl and a mother, and Graeme McKenna with T-Bob and a character named Ross.
The wiki's page for Shark, Gloria Baker's vehicle in this episode, lists unofficial toys from Ramen Toy: Great White in 2023, with a Portia White figure and a Power Helmet, and a dark redeco called Shark in 2025.
The wiki's page for Manta says the toy only arrived in 1987, in the racing themed third wave, and notes that Manta kept appearing in the second season of the cartoon when most first-series toys stopped being featured.

Matt Trakker

Bruce Sato

Dusty Hayes

Gloria Baker

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

A white-haired man in a dark jacket stands by a screen in a control room.

The underside of a white cargo plane shows large tire housings.

Two pilots in white helmets and red jackets grip their controls in the cockpit.

A radar screen shows blips as a person in a headset watches.

A white-haired man in a dark suit stands in front of a building.

A white-haired man in glasses stands near a doorway as a man in a pink shirt walks out.

A white-haired man with a mustache and tinted glasses looks ahead.

Matt Trakker sits at a control console in a blue suit, pointing at the screens.

Matt Trakker speaks with a serious look in front of a control wall.

Matt Trakker winks with a sly smile.

Matt Trakker rests his chin on his hand and looks sideways.

Matt Trakker drives while Scott Trakker smiles and T-Bob sits between them.

Scott Trakker glances back next to T-Bob.

Matt Trakker smiles at the wheel with Scott Trakker and T-Bob beside him.

Matt Trakker smiles slyly as he drives, a rock butte outside the window.

Matt Trakker walks along a palm-lined street.

A red sports car with a lightning bolt is parked on a city street.

Scott Trakker climbs out of the open red car.

Scott Trakker points at something while T-Bob waits beside the red car.

Matt Trakker stands in the foreground while Scott Trakker and T-Bob wait by the car in the distance.

Scott Trakker leans over T-Bob as a woman and a small girl stand by a carousel horse.

A little girl climbs onto T-Bob as Scott Trakker and a woman watch.

Scott Trakker bends toward T-Bob, who carries a girl, on a sunny street.

A little girl rides T-Bob down the street as Scott Trakker and a woman watch.

Matt Trakker talks to a gray-haired shopkeeper in a bakery.

A shopkeeper in a striped cap and orange shirt smiles behind a counter.

Matt Trakker taps T-Bob's head and glances aside.

Matt Trakker stands in a shop doorway with shelves of cans behind him.

A shopkeeper stands behind his counter while Scott Trakker leans at the right.

A framed document with handwriting sits on a screen.

Scott Trakker looks worried as T-Bob peeks in from the edge.

A pink wireframe display shows a tractor truck and two smaller vehicles.

Three men in suits sit in a row and laugh.

The three seated men slump back as the blond one clutches his collar.

A man in a purple apron looks at a paper bag on a diner counter.

A computer display shows outlines of a woman, her head and a red mask.

Two men in blue jumpsuits and a woman in the middle shake their fists in front of trees.

A building at the foot of a cliff has a garage door and a gas pump.

A town of shops and a red-roofed building is seen from above.

A dark green aircraft sits parked on a runway seen on a screen.

Several M.A.S.K. members stand at the open door of a red truck while a woman faces them.

Matt Trakker stands with a dark-haired agent, Scott Trakker and T-Bob.

Matt Trakker looks down with a faint smile as a dark-haired man and a woman stand behind him.

Scott Trakker closes his eyes beside T-Bob in a shaded alley.

Scott Trakker looks ahead with T-Bob beside him in an alley.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob stand by a warehouse wall.

A maroon truck with a cargo box drives down a dirt road past a warehouse.

Four masked agents peek out from behind a wooden board.

A large wooden crate hangs from a forklift as a man drives behind it.

T-Bob and Scott Trakker ride a yellow forklift.

T-Bob drives the yellow forklift out of a warehouse.

T-Bob steers the forklift past a blue roll-up door.

Matt Trakker stands with two masked agents behind him by a warehouse.

A masked agent with orange goggles looks aside beside a wooden wall.

A man in a camouflage jacket lies sprawled in dust beside a big tank.

Scott Trakker hugs T-Bob beside the yellow forklift.

Long wooden beams topple through the air.

Wooden beams fall across the front of a white warehouse.

Scott Trakker shields T-Bob under the forklift as wooden beams pile around them.

Scott Trakker is held by a masked agent while other agents stand around.

A masked agent in a red vest and blue visor stands with his hands on his hips.

An orange truck and Rhino drive toward the camera on a desert road.

A masked agent in a blue visor grips a steering wheel in an open red vehicle.

Matt Trakker sits in a car in his red helmet with a seat belt.

Orange flames blast from the back of a red car.

A red car flies through the sky with its gull-wing doors raised.

A masked agent in goggles appears on a radar screen.

A masked driver in orange and goggles sits behind the wheel.

Matt Trakker drives in his red helmet as a yellow-masked agent watches from the side.

An agent in orange goggles and a mask leans in as a gold-masked agent looks on.

Miles Mayhem sneers with a heavy brow in his blue uniform.

Miles Mayhem stands in his blue uniform in a control room.

An airport control tower stands near a modern terminal building.

The control cabin of an airport tower is seen from below.

A technician in a headset and a white-haired man face a monitor in a dark control room.

Two uniformed officers and a gray-haired man in a brown vest gather in a cabin.

A white-haired man in tinted glasses looks down thoughtfully.

A man in a pink shirt and headset talks in front of a map screen.

A blue sentry robot with a red eye stands in the desert.

Miles Mayhem stands with two other V.E.N.O.M. agents on an airfield.

A masked man in green fatigues reaches toward a wall inside a hangar.

A pilot in a white helmet pulls a door open while a blue-uniformed figure stands inside.

A pilot in a white helmet and another man kneel over a man lying in green clothes.

A tapered stone-colored pillar stands in the desert.

Miles Mayhem clenches his fist in his blue uniform in front of a gray wall.

Rhino and a red jeep sit side by side in the desert.

A red jeep with a mounted gun races toward a white car on the sand.

Rhino, a red jeep and a white car stand near a plume of black smoke.

A targeting screen shows a white car in the desert with black smoke behind it.

A white car runs on a dirt road seen from above past a masked agent.

A white sports car speeds through a long metal corridor.

Three pilots stand behind steel bars in a cell.

A masked driver in an orange helmet and goggles grips a wheel.

A boulder rolls down a steep slope toward a small dark car.

Matt Trakker looks ahead in his helmet as a red laser line crosses the windshield.

A blue and orange jet with burning fuselage lies on its side in the desert.

A gold-masked agent stands before an open vehicle bay.

Miles Mayhem sits strapped into a cockpit in his blue uniform.

Miles Mayhem reaches toward the viewer from his cockpit.

A red car with a lightning bolt skids inside a hangar.

A gold-masked agent and a masked agent in red walk in a hangar.

A woman touches her cheek while a gold-masked agent and masked agents stand near her.

An agent in orange goggles and a red-masked agent stand in a corridor.

Matt Trakker pulls on his red and gray helmet.

Matt Trakker laughs while holding a helmet between two masked agents.

Matt Trakker stands with two men in the hangar.

Scott Trakker reaches out toward T-Bob, who raises a camera arm.

T-Bob rolls away from Scott Trakker in front of a warehouse door.

T-Bob rolls away fast on one wheel as Scott Trakker walks.

Rhino sits on a street with a smoke trail across its roof.

Scott Trakker holds a bundle of wooden logs and looks to the side.

T-Bob dodges a spray of wooden stakes.

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