Jonny's Golden Quest

Jonny's Golden Quest is the first television film based upon the Jonny Quest series. It premiered on April 4, 1993 on USA Network.

Premise
With the help of Intelligence One, the Quest Team investigates occurrences of mutated animals and plant life in Peru.

Act 1
In an Intelligence One Record Facility, Jonny sneaks onto a computer and appears to steal files on his father and Race Bannon. Jonny escapes through city streets, as Race chases him with a laser gun. Race finally corners and shoots Jonny in the chest. Jonny is unhurt, and beeping sound indicates that it's a game. They high-five, and Jonny bets he'll get away next time. Dr. Quest checks Race's vitals. Hadji says he'll be in the chase next time and begins to levitate to show his skill, but Race grabs his ankle, saying it'll take more than "magic tricks to beat an I-1 agent". Jonny's mother Rachel contacts him through his watch, informing them that Benton has a message from Intelligence One "coded Geronimo", meaning it's top priority from Washington.

Back at the Quest Headquarters in Mexico, the Quest Team takes the call from I-1 commander Burns. The mission will require a biologist, and Dr. Rachel Quest has already agreed to go with them; it will be her first mission with the team. Burns patches them to I-1 headquarters in Peru, where they are briefed of strange mutations in their rain forest. Race goes to prepare the Questor 1 for takeoff.

Questor 1 lands in the rain forest of Peru. Their civilian contact meets them, and it's Race's ex-wife Jade Kenyan-Bannon. They tell the team that they were briefly married twelve years earlier when Jade was a freelance operative for I-1. They set up camp, and Jade starts to tell Race something, but they're interrupted.

Rachel and Jonny go looking at the flora in the rain forest. Jonny is happy that she's finally joined them on a mission because he and his dad don't communicate well. They talk about Race and Jade, and Rachel says that one day Jonny will be in love too, but Jonny doesn't think so. River dolphins come up to them, and Rachel uses a communicator, and the dolphins give them a ride back to camp.

Meanwhile, Race is diving in the river and is attacked by a two-headed alligator. Hadji and Dr. Quest restrain the alligator, and they take samples and release it. Jonny, Hadji, and Race have a race back to camp. Benton and Rachel talk and Benton expresses that he's also having trouble communicating with Jonny. Vehicles emerge from the river and kidnap Rachel and Benton. Jonny, Hadji, and Race chase after them. Race successfully hits one with tracking bug, so they won't lose them.

Act 2
In a facility hidden in a volcano, Dr. Quest and Rachel are held prisoner by Dr. Zin, who is ill and using a breath tank. Zin is making "replicants", creatures to serve him, and one disintegrates. Dr. Zin then uses the technology to create another version of himself. Race and the boys break into the headquarters. As they are escaping, Zin grabs Rachel and flies off. In the ensuring chase, Dr. Quest has a gun on Zin, but he doesn't shoot from risk of hitting Rachel. Rachel dies in an explosion. Jonny angrily asks his father why he didn't shoot, blaming him for letting her die.

Act 3
Back at the Quest headquarters in Mexico, Hadji tries to talk to Jonny, who is still angry. Meanwhile, Dr. Quest is working, and reports that all of Dr. Zin's replicants and clones have disintegrated, and the region is back to normal. The artificial intelligence 3-DAC reports an urgent call from the White House, which Dr. Quest accepts. The President of United States appears on the video call, asking why Dr. Quest is quitting I-1, and has accepted a professorship at Cambridge University.

Dr. Quest goes to check on Jonny, who's with the dolphins his mother was keeping. Since they need to be leaving, Dr. Quest says it's time to set them free, and he begins to open the tank leading to the ocean. Jonny stops him, challenging him about what his mother would have wanted, and about his inaction leading to his mother's death. Race comments that "they're at it again", and Hadji intervenes, bringing a second hoverboard, and he and Jonny go into town. Dr. Quest wonders to Race if he should have taken the shot, but Race assures him that no one could have.

Jonny and Hadji get to town during the Dia de los Muertos, the day of the dead. They find a girl in a fight with two boys, and Jonny and Hadji help her get away from the boys chasing her. They lose the boys, but when the police get close, and the girl runs off leaving behind the mask she was running with. The police apprehend Jonny, and pull paper from the mask revealing it's actually gold.

Act 4
Race and Dr. Quest have arrived at the police station where Jonny and Hadji are locked up. Race explains that the police thinks the mask is part of a smuggling operation. They had contacted I-1 to help expedite Jonny and Hadji's release, and Agent Menendez asks for Dr. Quest to return the favor by looking into the case. Dr. Quest refuses, and Jonny gets upset. Race and Hadji think that it would be good for them if they took the case.

Back at Quest Headquarters, Race and Hadji make a show of incorrect deductions about the mask to get Dr. Quest to take an interest. Dr. Quest begins analyzing the mask. The analysis shows that the mask is pure gold, which is a scientific impossibility, and Dr. Quest realizes that someone has successfully found a way to create synthetic gold. Outside, a replicant shoots at the satellite; inside the televisions go haywire, while the replicant gets through security. Race goes to check the circuits, and he's locked in the vacuum chamber by the replicant. Dr. Quest succeeds in getting some of the security cameras back up, and the team sees Race suffocating.

Act 5
As the Quest team tries to get Race out, the replicant grabs the golden mask. Race gets himself out of the vacuum chamber in a prototype jet. The Quest team find the place a mess, but Bandit comes out with the golden mask and a device from the replicant. They see the replicant escape on the security camera, and realize some may have survived. As Dr. Quest looks at the device, Dr. Zin comes through, trying to reach his replicant to see if it got the mask. Jonny grabs the device and demands to know if his mother is also alive, but Zin tells him that Jonny's mother and Zin's clone both died. The team realizes that Zin is involves with whoever is making the synthetic gold, and Jonny wants to track them down because it was get closer to catching Zin. Dr. Quest still doesn't want to get involved, since he's more interested in keeping his family safe. Outside, Agent Menendez arrives with the girl Jonny and Hadji met in town.

The girl, named Jessie, tells them that her father went into hiding when he started making gold, and she doesn't know where he is. She won't tell them who she was supposed to deliver the mask to unless she can come along with them. I-1 has an interest in finding him because the creation of synthetic gold would impact the global economy. Dr. Quest agrees to get involved and look after Jessie.

The Quest team heads to Japan to find the person Jessie was supposed to deliver the mask to. Zin and his replicant watch them leave. Jade is with him.

The Quest team land in Tokyo, Japan. Jonny asks Race how to know if a girl likes him. The team goes looking for the man, and just as they find the place, there's an explosion. Dr. Quest and Race run inside. The three kids outside see replicants drag a man into a van, and they go after them. Jonny cuts across the ice and gets on top of the van, and replicant reaches up to grab him.

Act 6
Race catches up to the van. The captured man is shot. It turns out that Jade is driving the van and Dr. Zin is in the passenger seat, and he shoots at them, but Race and Jonny jump out the back. The others catch up to them, and Jessie says it was brave, but Dr. Quest calls it fool-hardy. Jonny shrugs his father off and wants to go with Race to pursue the situation, but Race goes on alone. Instead of going back with his father, Jonny takes off, and Jessie goes after him.

They race over the ice. She asks about what's going on with him and his dad, but he doesn't want to answer. She throws a snowball at him, and they have fun and laugh. Dr. Quest and Hadji get some snacks at a nearby vendor, and they leave Jonny and Jessie to have fun.

That night at the hotel, Dr. Quest works with 3-DAC, and they're unable to find out anything about Jessie's father Dr. Devlin. Bandit, who doesn't like 3-DAC, bits its cord and causes some performance problems. Race returns after losing Jade and Dr. Zin, and Dr. Quest is concerned that Jonny is treating Race more like a father than him. 3-DAC brings up alchemy and Leonardo da Vinci. This allows them to find information on Dr. Vincent Devlin, Ph.D., who was an art history major, computers expert, and minored in metalurgy at the Universita de Roma. Race recalls a theft of Leonardo da Vinci papers, which they think may be connected.

The Quest team moves on to Paris, France, where Zin is still monitoring them with his replicants and Jade. He tells them if Race gets in the way again to kill him; Jade protests but is held back by one Zin's replicants.

While getting ready to go to the museum, Jonny fusses with his hair. He asks Hadji what he thinks of Jessie, and Hadji teases him by telling Race. Jonny asks Race to use some of his cologne, and the guys laugh. Meanwhile in her own room, Jessie asks Bandit if he thinks Jonny will ever ask her out. A replicant enters Jonny and Hadji's hotel room and attacks them.

Act 7
Jessie swings from her balcony down onto the boys' balcony to help. Hadji untangles himself and the three of them bind up the replicant before Race arrives. As Race begins to question it, it disintegrates. The team leaves to meet Dr. Quest at the museum.

At the museum, they speak with a guard about the stolen Leonardo da Vinci papers. They use a Synapse Imager to unlock and project his memories of the night of the robbery, so the team sees Dr. Devlin break into the museum and steal the papers. In looking at the projection of the papers, Dr. Quest thinks it's a formula for creating gold, but it would require too much energy to accomplish. But nuclear energy might be allow it to work. They decide to look into thefts of Uranium-235.

Later at the hotel, Jonny uses the Synapse Imager, recalling a time as a child when he walked the great wall of China with his mother. Jessie comes in and sees the projected memory. Jonny offers to let her try to remember her dad, but she doesn't want to. Jonny keeps going through his memories, and Jessie asks if the next one is from Peru where she died; he asks how she knew that, and she says she must have heard it from his father. His memory jumps to the explosion at the volcano where his mother died, and he says that when the time comes, he'll finish the job that his father couldn't, and he angrily walks off. Alone, Jessie picks up the Synapse Imager, and starts to cry because she misses her mother.

On the Questor 1, 3-DAC reports on Uranium thefts, including one from the Universita de Roma where Dr. Devlin graduated. Meanwhile, Race and Jonny and practicing martial arts, specifically Race's flying dragon kick, which Jonny is eager to get better at and perfect. Unfortunately, despite the apparent long length of time, Jonny has been studying karate, indicated by his somewhat outgrown uniform, brown belt, as well as two nasty falls to the mat, it becomes clear that the move is well beyond his current ability. According to Race, it will "take months even years to perfect". Dissatisfied with this, Jonny askes race about when he can start carrying a gun because it and or a black belt "gets the job done." Race corrects him, saying him carrying a gun allows Dr. Quest to get things done, because Dr. Quest is the one people count on. He suggests Jonny talk to his father. Dr. Quest comes in and asks Race to change course to Rome. Dr. Quest tries to talk to Jonny, who runs off to help Race.

At the Universita de Roma, they speak to a professor about the theft who also says that Dr. Devlin haas been around doing research for a book. The team is attacked as they're leaving, and they catch three of them chasing them. They go to the Intelligence One Headquarters in Rome for questioning and learn that the men weren't hired by Zin, but by Devlin. He's also been paying them to keep quiet about power fluctuations around the city, and Dr. Quest thinks Devlin has been tapping into the city's power for his work. Meanwhile, Jonny uses the training room to practice shooting, but he isn't very good. As he practices, he sees Zin's face in the targets. Before leaving, Jonny takes the I-1's training gun.

Act 8
The team gets dinner at the Ortelli Camottí as they plan how to track Devlin. Jonny gets an idea based on a science project he did to pinpoint where Devlin is doing his work. They take three scooters around the city. They convene on the strongest location of Devlin's electromagnetic field, but there's nothing there.

They realize it must be underground, so they head under the city. They find a room full of gold and Devlin working. Devlin fires on them and says he's never seen Jessie before. Zin crashes through into the room with his replicants and Jade. Jessie runs to Jade, calling her "mother", and they embrace. Devlin asks Zin for mercy and hands him the formula, and Zin kills him. Zin blames Dr. Quest for his interference in Peru which allowed Devlin to steal the work, and so he used Dr. Quest to find Devlin for him. Jessie was working with the Quests because Zin had kidnapped her mother, and Zin could follow them with a tracking device on Jessie. Zin reveals that the process for creating gold isn't about money, but because the gold is the key to preventing the degeneration process in the clones, and now he can clone himself forever. Zin's health is still failing and he uses his oxygen tank. Race questions living forever in his current state, and Zin indicates that living as someone like Race would be "worth living for", and he uses his robot to grab Race.

Act 9
Zin says that he'll "integrate [Race's] perfect genetic structure into [his] clones." Zin leaves with Race, and the rest of the team is marched at gunpoint deep into the catacombs. Hadji uses his power to raise the dead and attack their replicant captor, and they get away. Dr. Quest takes Jessie's watch to use Zin's tracking device to reverse-track Zin. Jade explains that she wasn't working for Zin when she first called them to Peru, and she tells Jessie that her father is Race, which Jessie did not know because she was told that her father was dead. Jessie is angry at her mother for keeping the secret.

The Quest head to a desalinization plant where Zin is hiding. Dr Quest wants to wait for backup, however, jonny as impatient and lacking in caution as ever, charges in with Jessie following close behind him, Dr Quest takes off after them. They get into the plant and find Zin and Race. Jonny puts on the weapon he stole from I-1, intent on killing Zin. Jonny frees Race. Zin grabs Dr. Quest and holds him at gun point, and Jonny aims his weapon at Zin, in a moment that parallels the past event in Peru when Zin held Rachel and Dr. Quest had his gun on him. Dr. Quest tells Jonny to shoot, but Jonny doesn't take the shot. Jonny uses his communication device to get the dolphins to knock Zin, freeing his father. Zin starts to get away, but is trapped as his plans to destroy the structure catch him in falling debris. The team escapes, and Jonny escapes with the help of the dolphins. The plant explodes with Zin still trapped inside. Jonny and Dr. Quest hug, and Jonny apologizes because he didn't understand before why his father didn't take the shot.

Back at Quest Headquarters in Mexico, 3-DAC is reinitiating all house functions, and they pull the sheets off the covered furniture. Bandit still doesn't like 3-DAC, but 3-DAC has gotten him a present: a new doggy bed. Race is leaving with Jade and Jessie for a family vacation, but he'll be back. Jessie and Jonny say goodbye, and she gives him a kiss on the cheek. Jonny, Hadji, and Dr. Quest wave goodbye.

Out in the ocean, a cylinder surfaces -- it contains a clone of Zin that survived the destruction of the plant.

Characters
Main characters:
 * Team Quest
 * Jonny Quest
 * Hadji
 * Dr. Benton Quest
 * Race Bannon
 * Dr. Rachel Quest
 * Jessie
 * Bandit

Supporting characters:
 * Jade Kenyan-Bannon

Villains:
 * Dr. Zin
 * Replicants
 * Snipe
 * Dr. Vincent Devlon

Other characters:
 * Commander Burns
 * 3-DAC
 * President of the United States
 * Agent Menendez
 * Museum guard
 * Leonardo da Vinci
 * Chef
 * Dr. Zin clone

Locations

 * Mexico
 * Intelligence 1 Record Facility
 * Quest Headquarters
 * Town
 * Police department
 * United States
 * Washington, D.C.
 * The White House
 * Peru
 * Intelligence 1 Headquarters
 * Rain forest
 * Dr. Zin's headquarters
 * Europe
 * Iraq
 * Cambridge University
 * Tokyo, Japan
 * Tokyo Airport
 * Hotel
 * Paris, France
 * Eiffel Tower
 * Hotel
 * Museum
 * China
 * Great Wall of China
 * Rome, Italy
 * Universita di Roma
 * St. Peter Square
 * Intelligence 1 Headquarters
 * Ortelli Camottí

Objects

 * Mona Lisa
 * Synapse Imager

Vehicles

 * Questor 1

Notes/trivia

 * Several changes to the continuity have been made that don't fit and make little sense (most of which were later dropped in The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest):
 * Jonny's mom is now on the team, as if it's a prequel, only Race and Hadji are also on the team. Race was only with the team because of Mrs. Quest's death, which was talked about in the first episode of the original series, The Mystery of the Lizard Men.
 * Jade is now Caucasian with long red hair. She has also been married to Race and bore their child which he had no knowledge of.
 * Jessie is based on the scrapped idea of having the almost identical Jessie Bradshaw from the 80's series episode Deadly Junket, as a recurring character (that episode's plot is recycled, albeit with a twist, for this movie). Having Jade and Race as a team is also another idea scrapped from the aforementioned series.
 * Jonny and Hadji didn't know who Jade was.
 * Zin has been turned into a withered and diseased old man, with liver spots.
 * The fact that the original Zin dies in this, only for his clone to survive at the end, would suggest that the Zin in Jonny Quest Versus the Cyber Insects is the same surviving clone, but this isn't elaborated on. The Quest team don't even question his survival, perhaps because they're used to it.
 * Although this film has been ignored in regards to Jade being Jessie's mother, Rachel's name resurfaced in the Real Adventures episode The Edge of Yesterday, as the name for a time travel computer program for Quest World. Although this was purely coincidental and a name that came from the suggestion of Real Adventures writer Lance Falk, who didn't consider Golden Quest to be canon because of its unfaithfulness to the source material.

Goofs

 * During the marital arts training sceen on Questor 1, Jonny gets into his fighting stance at the very front of the mat, right next to the the only stringer support, for the hull of the aircraft in the gym. He falls on the mats at the back of the gym, on his first attempt at the flying dragon kick. On his second attempt, he goes down on the mats at the front of the gym, as indicated by the stringer support, located at the front of the gym which is back in the shot as falls. Despite this, after he is helped up from the mat by Race and the two walk close to each other toward the very front of the gym, the next shot shows them far apart and coming from the back of the gym, the stringer support now far ahead of them. This could also be the result of USA cutting a a few scenes out, which they were known for in there broad casts of shows, to get more commercial breaks into them.

Home media

 * 🇺🇸 Jonny's Golden Quest DVD released on April 11, 2011 by Warner Archive Collection.