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The escape of Leander Booth (William Richert), a biochemist convicted of espionage, leads MacBride on a twisted trail involving commandos, spies, laser guns, nuclear radiation, orchids, snow globes -- and a pie-baking grandmother (Frances Day).
The first scene opens where Winston is trying to mend the roof and the children are playing in the garden when he gets a call to attend the prison due to a prisoner - Leander Booth - escaping after 17 years. When arriving at the jail he inspects all of the prisoners belongings and discovers a taped message which is hidden in the base of an orchid which apparently is his hobby inviting him to follow in his footsteps.
After looking closely at the homestead of the prisoners grandma he approaches and\par smells the lovely home cooking of what she is busy baking. He knocks at the door and when she makes a fuss of him and sits him down she pushes a plate of her lovely cake in front of him which he finishes and is very considerate of her and is very attentive to her remarks at the same time noticing that she has done rather a lot of baking! She says she know nothing about her grandson who has done nothing wrong and as she brought him up herself - she should know. Winston drives away and avoids hitting a deer on the road and crashes his car setting the airbag to go off and smother him (quite a funny scene).
Winston was not the only one taking a good look at the house and a group of mercenaries set up a vigil there after first knocking out his backup team. He cannot contact them due to his car radio being smashed, and cellular phone so runs back to Grammy Booths where Leander and she are being shot at by the mercenaries who have been tangled up in her washing line (with a lot more sheets than a little old lady really needs!!) He gets involved in the scuffle by throwing himself at the one who is taking them hostage and lands himself in the mud - face down!!
Winston pays a visit to a local bar where he meets a man named Eddie who an expert on the guns that had been used and gains some information from him. On returning\par to the office he finds that Leander Booth does not exist as a prisoner at all and he is approached by a woman spy Kianja who wants to find Leander as she says he has\par something to sell her. Apparently he was on an highly secret goverment mission\par connected with some deadly virus and when he decided it was too dangerous and\par would not finish it - that was the reason he was jailed without a trial. Winston asked\par to take him to the laboratory which has been closed these last 17 years so that he\par could have a look and see for himself. Unknown to them both Leander has already\par been there and opened up the place himself and when they come across him the woman pulls a gun on them both and Leander sets of a time switch on a countdown system - you should see the expression on Winston face - it is a picture and please can we argue this outside? NOW! Once again he makes a run for it with the Kianja as Leander closes himself inside. As he reaches the perimeter of the laboratory he flings himself over a load of empty barrels and lands once again in the mud - face down!!
He returns to Grammy\rquote s house to find Leander in the hot house tending his orchids when they are shot at again. . He tells Winston that what he has discovered was too much for anyone to get their hands on and to promise not to let it go. On tracking the gun men Winston hides in the trees and one of the gun men who turns out to be Eddie knows he is hiding there shouts WINSTON! so many times that it is quite funny when Winston drops down from the tree shouting "Whaaaaaaaat!!!!!"
When he gets back to Grammy's house Kianja is there also and Grammy has them both at gunpoint and confesses that she has been selling false information to different groups and obtaining money from them and doesn't really know what it is that Leander has got. When a sudden noise comes from the door Grammy shoots and the bullet hits Leander in the gut as he was approaching the front door.Back in the house Winston looks at her prized possessions of little snow orchids in glass domes that Leander has made for her when it suddenly hits him that this is the secret he was hiding here all the time - on turning the globe to the light of dawn it hits a part on the stamen of the orchid and a beam it bursts into a fragment of brilliant lights revealing a DNA revolving around in the air. When the woman realises what it is she, she remarks that it was here all the time and then she shouts to Winston do it but it is too late - he knocks it off the end of the table and it smashes tosmithereens on the floor - he kept his promise to Leander - no one got the secret formula!!
Back at home he decides to finish off the repair to the roof - when the new roofing material - rolls off................
An excellent Review by Audrey!! Thanks for sharing!!!