The Rat Patrol (1966–1968): Season 1, Episode 9 - The Blow Sky High Raid - full transcript

[ Engines Idling ]

[ Metal Rattling ]

[ Engine Stops ]

Sergeant Troy? I'm
Lieutenant Winters.

You're an hour late,
Lieutenant. You had me worried.

You know our mission's
running on a time schedule.

I have no control over the
heat or the terrain, Sergeant,

and if I blew up on the way here,
it would do your mission no good.

No good at all. Will you gentlemen
unload these explosives, please?

[ Whistling ] Ah, very gently.

No unnecessary jarring moves.



Compared to this, nitroglycerine
is as tame as a firecracker.

You can call me old-fashioned,
Lieutenant, but I prefer dynamite.

For steel and concrete?
To blow up this radar station?

To combine demolition and incendiary
and still be of a reasonable size?

[ Chuckles ]

Ah, just pretend you're walking
on eggs and there'll be no problem.

Oh. Ah, careful not
to trip. [ Chuckles ]

Thanks for the advice,
Lieutenant. You're welcome.

I worked for 36 hours
to create this bomb.

Blend of plastic, thermite,
touch of oil for lubrication.

Light as a feather, and as you
see, the size of a tennis ball.

[ Clicks Tongue ] But I must confess,
it's highly volatile, quite unpredictable.

[ Sighs ] Lieutenant, you
know we have to move fast.

I admire dedication, Sergeant, but
let me give you a brief look at reality.



Will you gentlemen move your
jeeps behind that hill, please?

Very gently though. Slowly.

So you wanna move fast, do you?

[ Gunshot ]

Poor insurance risk, I'd say.

So how do we control
this stuff, stay alive?

It's a secret the lieutenant
took with him, isn't it?

Looks like one of Dietrich's
units. [ Engine Revving ]

Sounds like his buddy's
on his way home.

[ Motorcycle Departs ] Where
do you think you're going?

I can catch him, Sarge. And
one bump and you join Winters.

[ Sighs ] When Dietrich
gets word of this,

he'll know there's only one route
we can take through these mountains.

He'll be right on us. Then
we must move quickly.

We have to destroy that radar station
before our bombers take off for target.

Or they get chopped down. Then
we'll have to chance it. Maybe not.

I once went on a fossil
hunt in these mountains,

and I remember being told a story of
a race of people destroyed by a flood.

There might still exist a dry riverbed
that cuts through the mountains.

Dietrich certainly
wouldn't know that route.

What are the odds in
us finding that riverbed?

What are the odds if we
don't find it, loaded with these...

and Dietrich coming
at us like a skyrocket?

You better be right.

[ Troy ] Let's shake it.

But very, very gently.

Sarge, I hate to
mess up a storm,

but when we get to where we're
going, how we gonna set this stuff off?

[ Clicks Tongue ] Like the man
said, all you have to do is trip and fall.

[ Man Narrating ] While the Rat
Patrol was forced to move slowly,

the clock was running fast.

Allied bombers were readying
for a mission that wouldn't wait.

At stake, either a full
division of Rommel's

armor that lay exposed
on the Bizerte docks...

or the Allied
bombers themselves,

whose course past the key radar
complex meant their own destruction...

if the radar station
was left standing.

Advised by his motorcycle scout
that the Rat Patrol was in the area...

and had received a shipment of high
explosives, Dietrich made the assumption...

that they were headed for the
German radar station at Fa'id...

The sole German
installation within 200 miles.

But Dietrich's own
scouting made it clear...

that the Rat Patrol
had not taken...

the only route through the mountains
that led to the radar complex.

They have gone with the
wind, my friend. No, no, effendi.

You must understand. My country is
a hiding place for countless secrets.

Speak plainly. There are tales of an
ancient road through the mountains.

My people have reported no
signs of any such mountain trails.

There was an old storyteller
in the village of Al Mina Zafir.

As a child, I listened to him spin many
songs of the people of those ancient times.

I have not been there since,
but he should remember.

Bring him here.

Any of this is true and we find the Rat
Patrol, you shall be very well rewarded.

You understand?

Now you may leave.

[ Speaking Foreign Language ]

You enjoying the drive, Tully?

Now what gets into a
guy's mind to make him

dream up explosives
his whole life, Sarge?

Imagine making 'em
look like tennis balls.

I guess tennis isn't
your game, Sarge.

[ Donkey Brays ]

[ Man ] The old one is dead.

This is Selhim, his
great-granddaughter.

He passed every
word down to her.

Selhim, this is
Hauptmann Dietrich.

Hauptmann Dietrich? Selhim.

You are a very handsome man.

You're a very beautiful
woman, very beautiful.

We shall talk.

Yes, we shall talk.

We come seeking the
mystery of an ancient river...

that is said to once have
existed in these mountains.

[ Selhim ] One time,
here were my people,

and here are the mountains,

and here, one time, was a river.

I'm lost.

[ Narrator ] In two hours, the Allied
bombers would be clearly visible...

on the scope of the
German radar complex...

that would take pleasure in
arranging for the bombers' destruction.

I'm lost.

You're lost! What do
you mean you're lost?

Exactly that. The riverbed
should be here, but it isn't.

- This isn't a fossil hunt,
Moffitt.
- Don't you think I know that?

- I'm also involved in this.
- Well, I'm not thinkin'
about you or me or them.

I'm thinkin' of those bombers
getting through undetected.

I'm thinkin' of them smashing Rommel's
new division before they get off the docks.

I must have gone wrong
somewhere. I could

probably find out where,
if we had more time.

All right. We made a mistake.

You unload your jeep.

You travel light and you travel fast,
and you find that riverbed, Moffitt.

I'll be driving right
behind you. Hitch.

[ Moffitt ] No
mistake this time.

Cuts right through the
mountains, just like the story said.

And here, I brought
you something.

A few thousand years old,
give or take a day or two.

[ Troy ] What's the matter?

Tank tracks.

Looks like Dietrich's
also been on fossil hunts.

Will you wipe that
look off your face?

This place has been around for a few
thousand years, give or take a day or two.

I expect Dietrich's already at
that radar station, sitting very pretty.

Yeah, he sure is sittin' pretty.

That is pretty neat, if
I must say so myself.

Got their radar control
center underground.

[ Narrator ] The Allied
bombers' high altitude...

makes their detection from the
ground impossible with the naked eye,

but easy for the sweeping
eyes of the German radar station,

which will pick them
up in 15 minutes.

[ Speaking German ]

- You come like a Greek
bearing gifts, Sergeant.
- You can call it that.

Did you come to destroy
the radar station? Hmm?

You're a brave but
foolish man, Sergeant.

I wouldn't play with that.

You're my insurance
policy for staying alive.

Your men won't risk on shooting
you when we walk outta here.

Sergeant, all I have to do
is give my men a signal...

or pull this trigger here.

Either way.

Now, you wanna pull
that trigger, you pull it.

You have 18 seconds.

[ Chuckles ]

Dietrich.

You have 12 seconds.

Let me move my men out of here.

All right. Do it fast.

[ German ]

Where are they? Right
underneath their noses.

[ Gunfire Continues ]

I will see you, Sergeant.

[ Explosion ]

[ Pettigrew ] Too bad Winters
couldn't have seen the fireworks.

Should have been
the Fourth of July.

I don't think I'll need
this anymore, professor.

Sarge?

Why'd you let Dietrich go?

[ Roars ]