Race Against Danger

Race Against Danger is the fourth episode of the second season of The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, and the thirtieth overall.

Premise
Race and Jonny must cross an obstacle course that Race once knew well, but which someone has altered dramatically in the years since.

Teaser
South Sea Island. Agents Hill and Clark arrive and begin running through the jungle training course when they're attacked by vines and trees firing at them. Hill falls into a camouflaged pit to his death. A voice over the intercom advises Clark to keep moving. Clark is attacked and killed by vines. The voice from the intercom muses that they didn't make it far and he hopes that "Mr. Race Bannon will provide more amusement."

The Quest Team heads to the South Sea Island training grounds. At a demonstration, Race tells Jonny, Hadji, and Dr. Quest about the obstacle course, and that the United States government uses it "to train all types of military and intelligence personnel." Jonny asks if Race ever ran it, and Agent Phil Corvin tells them that Race still "holds the all-time speed record" for completing the course. They have a moment complimenting Race on his skills and help with the Quest Team, and Race gets a little embarrassed.

Corvin radios Sanderson, asking to "activate sequence alpha". A "desert mode" cloaking mask is activated, using a holographic camouflage to disguise a fleet of armed forces vehicles to look like sand dunes. The demonstration continues, showing various terrains to disguise the vehicles. Corvin begins showing the team around. Dr. Quest's theoretical "quantum optical research" was used to create the technological. Corvin says that the research "allowed your American scientists to develop the cloaking masks," and Race asks, "Don't you mean 'our American scientists?'" Corvin laughs, saying, "No, not really." He pulls a gun, covers his mouth and sprays the team with gas. Corvin drops the holographic disguise, revealing that he's Lucius Kreed. The entire Quest Team collapses into unconsciousness.

Act 1
Race and Jonny wake up on the beach of the island, handcuffed to each other and shackled down. Race tells Jonny how he knows Lucius Kreed: Race met him twelve years ago on his first field assignment. On an Intelligence One mission in Greenland, Race and his partner/mentor Greg Temple snuck into a castle stop Kreed, who was a major arms dealer. Race and his partner interrupted a business deal in which Kreed was selling an experimental nerve gas to Dr. Zin. In the ensuing conflict, a fire started and the nerve gas was released. Temple and Kreed were caught in the fire, and Race was ordered to leave. An explosion apparently killed Kreed and Temple.

Kreed appears before Jonny and Race as a holographic projection, saying he supposes they were both lucky to get out of that alive. He tells them that he's taken over the island and "eliminated its troublesome personal" to gain the cloaking technology. But to sell it at a worthy price, he needs a compelling demonstration. He shows them the video of Clark and Hill dying, saying they "barely lasted a minute" which is "hardly enough time for a proper demonstration". So he's using Hadji and Dr. Quest as leverage to force Race to go through the obstacle course, with Jonny handcuffed to him as his handicap.

Race and Jonny are unshackled and they begin the obstacle course.

Act 2
As Race and Jonny begin the course, Jonny falls through a camouflaged pit, but Race saves him by bracing and holding the handcuffs. Before being pulled up, Jonny is able to unscrew two of the spikes for them to use as weapons. As they continue, they're attacked by vines. Jonny disables them by striking the tree disguising the panel that was controlling them. They're pursued by flame-throwers and disable the camouflaged circuitry for the whole area, revealing the devices attacking them as they run through a tunnel.

From his control center, Kreed begins taking direct control to attack them.

In their cell, Dr. Quest and Hadji consider their options, and they find a way to get Bandit out to potentially help them.

Out of the tunnel, the camouflage circuitry is still working, disguised to look like a desert. They climb up a tower where the only way forward is a rope tied across the way. They use their handcuffs to slide down quickly, so they won't be slow-moving targets, and make it to the other side.

Kreed is frustrated that Jonny is actually helping Race get through the course.

At the prison cell, Hadji asks "Mr. Goon" to please return their dog. The man is confused how Bandit got out, and Hadji taunts him, saying that Dr. Quest is gone too. The man pulls up the cameras and doesn't see them in the cell, so he opens the cell to investigate. Dr. Quest, Hadji, and Bandit attack him and take him down.

Dr. Quest grabs his security card and they begin looking around. They find a control room and see a live video of Jonny and Race running the course. They can't shut down the program, but Dr. Quest has an idea.

On the course, Jonny and Race are able to sever their handcuffs, so they're no longer tethered together. They come across Phil Corvin who appears to be in distress. Jonny holds Race back because it's a trap, and Corvin laughs as mechanical vines burst out to attack them.

Race and Jonny next run into Dr. Quest and Hadji, who tell them that they've gotten away. As Race and Jonny stand there talking, mechanical shackles rise up and cuff their ankles. Dr. Quest and Hadji are revealed to be more holograms. Kreed taunts Race over the intercom, calling him Racer, before firing on him and Jonny, apparently killing them.

In his control room, Kreed ends the video feed and gets up to "deal with Quest and the other brat." As he steps out, he's struck back by Race. It turns out that the Race and Jonny who were apparently killed were holograms controlled by Dr. Quest. Race also realizes something else, because only one guy ever called him Racer. He takes a control from Kreed and destroys it. The hologram around Kreed disappears, revealing that he's actually Race's old partner and mentor Greg Temple.

When Kreed was killed twelve years earlier, Temple took his identity. Race thinks the nerve gas warped Temple's mind. Template starts a destruction sequence and escapes.

The Quest Team gets on the Dragonfly and escapes the island.

Back on the island, Temple pauses the detonation sequence as he watches the Dragonfly fly away. But one of the Kreed holograms appears and fires on Temple, killing him. Temple drops the control, and the detonation sequence resumes.

As the Dragonfly flies away, the island explodes behind them.

Back at the Quest Compound in Maine, Dr. Quest is reading with Bandit on his lap, and Jonny and Hadji are lying in front of the fire. Race joins them, informing them that he's "filed a full report with Intelligence One." Race is sympathetic toward Temple, and Dr. Quest reassures him, saying that the effects of the nerve gas are well-documented. They're all just happy Race made it out. Race thanks Jonny for helping. He also invites Jonny to call him "Racer" sometimes, like Temple used to. Jonny says, "You got it... Roger."

Characters
Main characters:
 * Jonny Quest
 * Hadji Singh
 * Dr. Benton Quest
 * Race Bannon

Supporting characters:
 * None

Villains:
 * Lucius Kreed
 * Greg Temple
 * Temple impersonating Kreed
 * Temple impersonating Kreed impersonating Corvin
 * Dr. Zin
 * Guard

Other characters:
 * Hill
 * Clark
 * Bandit
 * Phil Corvin
 * Sanderson

Locations

 * United States
 * Maine
 * Quest Compound
 * South Sea island
 * Greenland

Vehicles

 * Dragonfly

Notes/trivia

 * The original title was supposed to be Race Against Death, a phrase on play on words to Race's name, but The Powers That Be ended up censoring it.
 * Corvin (see "goofs" below for more) comes from the original series. This episode gives him the first name of Phil.
 * It is established that Corvin directly gave Race the bodyguard assignment to the Quests.
 * In the flashback of Race, he has his old hairstyle from the original series.
 * Dr. Zin makes his first appearance in Real Adventures, with a cameo. It is revealed that he used to have hair.
 * Jessie is absent.
 * An early draft had Jade tied together with Jessie, but her reintroduction was moved to Diamonds and Jade.

Goofs

 * Corvin is mistakenly called "Corbin", which writer and original series fan Lance Falk admits to.
 * It isn't revealed what happened to Corvin, but he's presumably alive, according to Falk.
 * Jonny seems surprised to learn that "Race" is a nickname and Race's real name is Roger, but Jonny knew this previously; it was stated in the season 1 episode "In the Wake of Mary Celeste".

Home media

 * 🇺🇸 The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest: The Complete Second Season DVD set released on November 10, 2015 by Warner Archive Collection.