Race Against Time

Part 1

Speed is well ahead in the first stage of the Sahara Race. As he zooms on in the desert, he almost hits an old, weary man, clearly on his last legs. As Speed stops and begins to double back, a small red plane, #R 3513 K, drops low to buzz the old man. Speed extends the Mach Five's rotary saws, and as the plane drops low, he cuts off the tail causing the plane to crash. As the plane begins to burn, Speed rushes over to the old man, Dr. Digger O. Bone. Dr. Bone says he came to this country to see his daughter, Calcia, and has bad luck misfortune ever since. As they're talking, we see someone point a gun at Dr. Bone. As the gunman walks from the plane, the plane explodes leveling the gunman before he can fire a shot.

Dr. Bone says that he has studied the great Egyptian ruins for many years. With his help, his daughter, Calcia, was able to come the country last spring with his assistant, Splint Femur. He shows Speed a black and white photo that Calcia sent him showing herself and Femur, who has a patch over his left eye. She said that they had found the tomb of Cleopatra. With his dying words, he begs Speed to find out what became of his daughter and Femur. He writes the letters ``S T F T'' in the sand before dying. By now the rest of the racers have caught up and speed by. Speed watches but knows he has to help Dr. Bone.

Speed and Trixie go to the library that night to find the meaning of the letters Dr. Bone scrawled in the sand. While flipping through a book, Trixie hums the theme song to Speed Racer! Then, in one of her brilliant flashes of insight, she discovers the meaning of the letters: S is for the ruins of Sacaira (sp?) on a bank of the Nile. T is for the ruins of Tema La Mal (sp?), and the other T is for King Tutenkamen (sp?). The F seems to be conveniently ignored. Speed congratulates Trixie on figuring it out. They don't know they're being listened in on by someone. When that someone hears that that they've figured it out, he and another man leave in a jeep. Speed surprises Trixie by saying he must begin investigating right then.

She reminds him that he'll miss the second stage of the Sahara Race, but he says he must help Dr. Bone. Spritle and Chim-Chim are listening in from another room and want to go -- we can expect them to stow away, as usual! Trixie, of course, wants to accompany Speed as well.

As they're driving through the desert, a sniper clips a scope onto his rifle and points it at the Mach Five. Trixie happens to get chilly at that moment. No sooner does Speed close the bullet-proof cockpit cover than the sniper's bullets begin bouncing off it. The sniper radios that he failed and that the Mach Five is headed towards the imperial mausoleums.

Speed and Trixie then come upon a huge ruin that, according to Speed, is not on any map. They go inside, though they suspect they're being watched. Inspecting the design, Speed says it's not from an older dynasty because it shows the influence of the Patrameus (sp?) Dynasty and could even be Cleopatra's tomb. On the ground, they notice a pendant, which Speed says Calcia was wearing in the photo Dr. Bone showed him. Trixie screams when she spots a huge cobra. When they also hear someone coming, they decide it's a good time to run.

Before getting far, we see a pistol and a rifle pointed at them. A guy dressed in ancient Egyptian garb fires at Speed and misses. During the ensuing struggle, the rifleman fires, but the bullet glances off Speed's crash helmet. Speed is able to retrieve the pistol and shoots. Now unarmed, the rifleman grabs a power drill and starts drilling a column causing a massive collapse of that part of the ruins. Trixie is ok, but Speed's foot is stuck under a column -- as the cobra starts slithering towards him.

Speed pulls his foot loose and begins fighting the man-sized cobra. Trixie picks up the pistol but has trouble aiming since Speed and the snake are constantly moving. Finally, she gets off a shot, killing the snake. They look up only to find themselves surrounded by many men in the same ancient Egyptian dress as the first pistolman. Speed and Trixie are taken to Calcia. For some reason, she thinks she's Cleopatra, and wants Speed and Trixie locked up for entering the building without her permission.

In their dungeon cell, Splint Femur tells them that they're in his trap. He says that Calcia was hit on the ol' bean by a falling rock and now thinks she's Cleopatra. He keeps the scam going so that the slaves will help him dig up the rest of the treasure.

Later, ``Cleopatra'' has Femur bring out Speed. He's told that he is sentenced to fight the greatest swordsman in the country, Ta-conkin. If he wins, he will be set free. If not, well, you can guess. Speed and Ta-conkin are on a rock platform. In the area below, lions are set loose. As the contest proceeds, we see why Ta-conkin wins so often; he has a trick sword. A button makes his sword lengthen by a good bit. Speed says, ``Hey, my sword doesn't work that way.'' Eventually, Speed is knocked off the platform and is surrounded by lions, literally with his back against the wall. From above, Ta-conkin swings his sword down at Speed, who claps his hands over the flat blade and is inadvertently lifted to safety by Ta-conkin. Speed knocks him down and wins the contest.

At this unexpected turn of events, Femur whispers to Calcia that there should be one more test. Atop a pyramid 100 miles away is a statue of Isis. Speed has two hours to bring it back or else Trixie will be burned to death. When ``Cleopatra,'' against Femur's will, lets Speed use his steel chariot (the Mach Five, of course), Femur says he'll make sure Speed can't make good use of it.

As Speed races through the desert towards the pyramid, a few jeeps with mounted machine guns begin chasing him. He uses the Mach Five's saws to slice up a few, but a bullet still manages to flattens one of the Mach Five's tires.

When the bad guys catch up, they see Speed's helmet and driving gloves in the sand and, laughing, assume Speed has met his match. But Speed is hiding behind a dune and flattens them before they know what's happened. He uses one of their tires to replace his and is on his way. They radio to headquarters that they failed.

Back at the mausoleum, Femur has a fire lit saying that with only one hour to go, there's no way Speed will make it. Trixie is hoisted high above it, not in danger for the moment.

Reaching the pyramid, Speed attaches rope to the homing robot and has it plant itself into the side. Speed begins climbing, but the bad guys show up in a plane and begin shooting at him with a machine gun.

Thinking as quickly as ever, Speed throws the robot into the prop of the plane. The rope tangles and stops the propeller causing the plane to crash. Speed gets the status of Isis. Unsure if he can get back in time, Speed ties the status to the homing robot and sends it ahead.

By now, Femur is worried enough that he wants Trixie lowered into the flames immediately, telling the crowd that she is an example to anyone considering disobeying. But the robot drops off the statue just in time. While Femur is arguing that since Speed himself is not there, he didn't pass the test, Speed pulls up out front. He fights off some guards, avoids a few spears and runs into Cleopatra's hall. Though ``Cleopatra'' agrees Speed didn't quite pass the test, it was close enough that she spares them so long as they work as slaves digging up the treasure.

As Speed and Trixie are digging -- Speed still wearing his racing gloves but in torn robes -- an elephant walks to the site. It's Calcia being fanned by none other than Spritle and Chim-Chim. Calcia is telling Femur to begin digging near a ceremonial place built by her father, Patrameus the thirteenth.

That night, Spritle and Chim-Chim use an elephant to lift a heavy iron grate from the roof, giving Speed and Trixie their freedom. Spritle says the Mach Five is in a warehouse and so runs to Femur's bedroom to steal the key. In his room, though, Spritle and Chim-Chim see a plate of fruit and can't resist. This wakes Femur but not before they run off with the key. Meanwhile, Trixie has gone to Calcia's bedroom and talks about her father, Dr. Bone. ``Bone'' rings a bell, but doesn't quite bring back her memory. Elsewhere, Speed, Spritle and Chim-Chim open the warehouse and hop in the Mach Five wondering where Trixie and Calcia are. Just as the two girls hop in the Mach Five, Speed tries to start it, but there's no gas!

Femur has beat them to it after all and laughs telling Calcia that she was almost kidnapped by them. He decides to punish Speed by filling the tank of the Mach Five with gas and pushing it into the Nile with Speed in it. Luckily, they didn't check out the Mach Five's steering wheel! Speeds hands are tied, so as the Mach Five goes careening around mountain roads, Speed steers with his teeth. Femur is following above in a helicopter. When he sees the Mach Five plunge into the Nile, he laughs, certain that Speed has had it this time.

Underwater with the cockpit cover closed, Speed unscrews the knob from the stickshift and uses the bared threads to cut through the ropes around his wrists.

In the slave dungeon cell, Spritle makes faces at a guard. When the guard stops to see what's going on, Chim-Chim grabs his machine gun. They force the guard to open the cell and free them. But Femur is ready again and there are his men ready to shoot them all as punishment. But the shots we hear next come from the police! Speed has returned with a full contingent of them. But Femur still won't be outdone. A huge rock statue comes to life and begins crushing trucks and pushing down the ruins.

Trixie runs to get Calcia while Speed has the homing robot again fly up with a rope. It attaches itself high up on the statue (exactly Luke Skywalker did on the ATAT...) and climbs up to an eye. Inside, it's a modern control room with men controlling the robot statue. Speed grabs a machine gun, shoots up everyone and everything in site, disabling the robot, which crashes down to the earth. Femur escapes and tries to take off in a plane with all the treasure.

In the Mach Five, Speed pursues the plane during takeoff and manages to leap onto the landing gear. When it retracts, he is brought inside with it. As Femur sits down at the controls, his copilot points a gun at him. It's Calcia with her memory intact. Femur makes the plane bank, and she drops the gun. He picks it up and points it at her, but Speed shoots his way in then. He and Femur fight until Speed manages to throw him against the door, knocking him unconscious. With the plane out of control, Speed and Calcia bail out, safely parachuting into the river. Femur sees his last, though, as the plane crashes. Still in the water, Speed gives Calcia her pendant he found in the mausoleum.