Halt! Halt!
Can't go this way, sir.
I'm just trying to get to the garage over here.
Sorry, but I got a bigger problem right now.
You'll have to turn around.
Stop the spray today! Stop the spray today!
Growers and contractors in this valley
have robbed you once again...
...and are poisoning you and your families.
Why should we risk our health,
our lives, our children,
because of their apathy and greed?
Now--Now how can state and government agencies
allow the spraying of toxic chemicals
with known effects on human health?
With deadly effects on birds and fish and wildlife,
with the poisoning of our air, our soil, our water.
Now I believe...
I believe that future generations
will look back at the 20th century's use
of toxic pesticides
in--in food production as just total madness.
Farm workers must be informed about the dangers
we face every day.
Can you hear us? Can you hear us, Mr. Kasabian?
Our vineyards are clean.
We observe the pesticide laws.
The laws are weak.
Enforcement is in the hands of government agencies
run by the growers for the benefit of growers!
We've got to do something about Garcia.
- My father's tied my hands. - Garcia knows.
If you're so concerned about your workers,
explain the slavery in your fields.
The deplorable conditions.
The--The low wages, long hours.
Why don't you balance your speeches
with the truth, Mr. Garcia?
This man is using some personal tragedy
to incite unrest.
I'm a grower,
and I care about my workers. I care about all of you.
Your speeches are exaggerations and distortions.
Hey, explain to me
why workers who complained about being sent out into the fields
too soon after spraying were dismissed
after seeking medical help for nausea,
blurred vision, burns of the skin?
That happened in someone else's fields.
Not mine.
A contract would help us see to it
that no worker is hospitalized again
for exposure to toxic pesticides.
You're gonna end up hospitalized
if you don't keep your mouth shut.
He's a liar!
You shut your mouth!
You're under arrest! Now move!
Stay here!
Hey, hey!
Hey, man, this is illegal.
Whatever happened, uh, to the Constitution and freedom of speech?
Right, man!
- Hector Lopez. - Yeah?
- Lopez, Lopez. - Mr. Kasabian posted bail.
Posted bail?
Well, that's a joke.
I mean, you weren't supposed to be here in the first place.
Shut up, Silva.
Hey, I got an idea.
Maybe you should get a nametag that says "Kasabian chump."
And that way, you know, the police won't get you mixed up with us.
Hey, Alex!
Hector's not the problem here.
Hey, compadre.
You do what you have to do, okay?
Okay.
We made a good showing of ourselves.
The day is coming
when the grapes will no longer be washed
with the tears and blood of farm workers.
Nice speech.
You're starting to sound like a politician.
Uh, excuse me.
I'm sorry.
Aren't you guys on the same side?
You stay out of this. I mean, nobody asked you.
Hey, nobody asked him to fight for us, either.
Excuse my brother-in-law.
He's young.
Tony Garcia.
MacGyver.
I was kind of interested in what you were saying out there.
Yeah? I wish others were as interested.
You know, they conduct investigations after investigation,
and then they say they don't know what causes the health problems.
We live in an area
that's flooded with pesticides.
I-I-It's exactly what happened in McFarland.
What do you mean?
He means the cancer clusters among the children.
It's--It's happening here.
Just like in McFarland.
Three times the national average.
Well, you know,
I've read about the McFarland studies, and...
I know, I know, I know.
They say that cancer may include factors
such as our hard life, uh, poverty,
exposure to all kinds of things, including fertilizer
and bad plumbing.
Can you discount that?
Yes, I can.
See, in my opinion,
our children are exposed to pesticides when they play outdoors,
when they hug their mothers and fathers returning from the fields,
and I believe, despite government findings,
when they drink our water.
I've read a lot of those government studies.
They seem to be trying to get all the facts.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, see, but we don't need any more government studies,
or--or committees, or experts, right?
What we need
is recognition from the growers that addresses our concerns.
It's what we believe is happening to us.
See, that's what we need.
But this is what we get.
Okay, on your feet.
Let's get a move on here.
Time to go home, everybody.
Aw, so soon?
You know, you could hold us.
Keep talking, Silva, and I will.
Let's move it, people.
You're a liar and a troublemaker, Tony.
I know the growers in this valley.
The majority of them are good, law-abiding people,
especially Caspar Kasabian.
But he is the biggest one and once I have him,
I have the ones that do endanger my people.
That is totally unfair.
The farm inspectors do a good job out here.
There aren't enough of them.
We live in a real world, for God's sake.
The growers follow pesticide regulations.
Most of the growers aren't in their own fields doing the picking, aheriff.
We are.
Well, you listen up, mister.
The things you are saying are unproven and erroneous scare tactics.
And it better stop.
Now are we through, sheriff?
Yeah, I'm through with you.
Where are you staying?
Not really sure.
Are you staying?
Not really sure about that, either.
It all kind of depends on when I can get my car back on the road.
Yeah, figures.
That's his way of saying thanks.
What's he got to thank me for?
Caring.
I'll tell you what. It's too late to get your car fixed now.
Um, I'll call my nephew, tow it back to my place,
and fix it for you in the morning.
Tonight, you can stay with me and my family, huh?
What do you say?
I say muchas gracias.
You must be glad you came this way, huh, MacGyver?
Well, someday I'll learn to drive on the Interstates.
Actually, you've--you've come at a very interesting time.
I've just received some information that, if true,
could help change things around here.
What kind of information?
Well, at this point, I think it's best left unsaid.
Tell me, MacGyver, you got any kids?
No.
I have a 12-year-old. Natalie.
Wait till you meet her.
Oh, my God!
What are they doing?
Run, MacGyver, run!
You gotta go!
Tony.
You were sprayed.
And hit.
Workers found you in the field this morning.
You were hosed off, but you should still see a doctor.
I am Carmen Garcia.
My husband, Tony,
he was with you last night. He's missing.
We have searched all over.
What happened?
That description could fit any truck in the county, Mr. MacGyver.
Well, why don't you try starting with the Kasabians?
Sheriff, the front fender of the truck that hit us
has got to be dented.
Garcia's vehicle was found abandoned outside of town,
burned in a wreck.
I sure didn't see any bullet holes.
It was a shotgun.
What are you, some kind of weapons expert?
It was a shotgun.
Look, will you just tell us what you're doing to find Tony?
That's police business, Silva.
I'll conduct the investigation as I see fit.
- That's what I was afraid of. - Don't give me any of your mouth.
- Well, then why don't you... - Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Come on.
Sheriff,
Tony Garcia was chased,
and he was shot at and now he's missing.
You've got a description of the truck,
and, sheriff, I would think you'd want to find it.
Don't push me, Mr. MacGyver.
I'm trying to help.
Help?
Know what I think? I think you're an organizer.
You drove into this town just looking for trouble.
Well, you're not here 10 minutes and you're thrown in jail for fighting.
And now you're in here with the local hothead,
accusing one of the most upstanding citizens of this county
of murder.
Let me give you some advice.
Soon as your car is fixed, get out of town.
And just keep going.
When I'm ready to, sheriff.
Yeah, this is where I was hit.
And Tony ran up this way.
You okay?
I hope so.
You know, I heard a story about a worker in Texas
who was applying, uh,
Dinoseb with a backpack, uh, type sprayer.
You know, he wore regular clothes, not protective clothing.
Well, it leaked.
Next day, he collapsed in the fields.
Contractor gave him aspirin,
which makes the Dinoseb poisoning worse.
He died an hour later, with a temperature of 110 degrees.
Now Dinoseb is against the law.
Well, that makes me feel a lot better. Thanks.
It's not Tony's.
Must have belonged to one of the guys that jumped you.
Tony's blood?
I did hear two gunshots.
Look, I didn't know him very well.
But he sure seemed like a friend to me.
Yeah.
That's the way it was with him.
You know, this won't prove anything.
Yeah. I know.
I gotta go tell my sister.
We'll get them.
I swear to you, we'll get them.
At night,
Tony would confide in me.
He knew he was in danger.
They would only allow him to push so far
before they would try to stop him.
Um...
He told me he had some information
that might change things here in the valley.
Did he ever mention anything like that to you?
Only that he suspected Kasabian of illegal activity.
When Tony got proof, he would use it
to pressure them into
signing a contract to protect the workers.
Tony believed that would be the only way
that--that we could win this war.
You know, that we wouldn't have to wait for, uh,
for Sacramento or Washington
to, you know, to pass laws to protect us.
And now it's too late.
Mama, what's wrong?
No! No!
No!
How's Natalie?
She'll be okay.
One good thing about Natalie's handicap,
it makes her strong.
I...
worked in the fields into my seventh month of pregnancy.
They used to spray the fields at night,
and every day when we worked.
You noticed this smell.
I used to get sick often,
but I thought it was the pregnancy.
When Natalie was born, her leg was not formed properly.
And you think it was from the pesticides?
We're poor people, Mr. MacGyver.
Many things contribute to birth defects.
There's no proof, but...
But that's what Tony believed, right?
Yes.
That's when he quit work in the fields.
He vowed that no other child or parent
should have to suffer so much.
A fine dream.
But now it's dead.
Like Tony.
Carmen.
There is no reason in the world why Tony's work has to die, too.
Who's gonna follow in his footsteps?
Alex? You?
No one.
But we can all do our part.
But how?
Lopez,
if any of this bunch is rabble-rousing,
I want to know about it.
We can't stop them all from talking.
If they get the kind of agreements that they're after,
labor contractors like me will be out of business.
Just tell me who the agitators are.
I'll take care of it from there.
There's one right there.
Get outta here.
Troublemakers don't work for me.
I don't need to work for you to make trouble.
Get on up there.
Excuse me.
Is there any drinking water around?
Uh,
excuse me.
Is there a bathroom?
Really.
Yours?
Isn't yours.
Well, it was on the ground. I just put it back.
Now I remember you. From yesterday.
You're the gabacho that went in to help Tony Garcia.
Big help, huh?
You know, you're crazy coming out here.
No, I need the work.
Yeah, right. You're probably one of those organizers.
No, I'm not.
But I did want to see what Tony Garcia was fighting for.
Tony's my friend. We grew up together working in these fields.
He tried to get me to leave here to go with him.
But supporting my family comes first.
You know there's a good chance that Tony Garcia is dead.
Murdered.
I don't know anything about a murder.
You know where to find him?
No, and why should I? Now get off Kasabian's land!
How?
It's 20 miles to town.
Crawl, for all I care.
Oh.
Good morning.
Hi.
You missed mass, but Mama said to let you sleep.
Oh, that's a good choice.
Where's she?
She and Uncle Alex are still at the church.
Here are the things you asked for.
Sunglasses and nail polish remover.
Oh, that's great.
Polarized. Perfect.
Can you pop the lenses out of that?
Okay.
That's a microscope?
Actually, it's a spectroscope.
I can't make a microscope.
See anything?
Take a look.
Wow. Crystals.
Yeah, and they're melting.
What does that mean?
Well, I have to verify it.
But I think I know what your dad was onto.
Nick, I checked on that outsider I told you about.
Carlos got the report on his fingerprints from the sheriff's station.
And?
His name's MacGyver.
He works for The Phoenix Foundation.
Look, Hector, get the big truck
and meet us over at the warehouse.
MacGyver.
Is he the one who was with Tony Garcia?
Yeah.
And we've got ourselves a major problem.
So we'll just get rid of the evidence, and then MacGyver.
Let's go.
All right. Thanks, Pete. I'll be here.
It's Alex.
He's gone to the Kasabian farm.
What for?
Uh, we saw our friend, Juan, at church.
He owns the auto body shop.
Yesterday, he repaired a fender on Nick Kasabian's truck.
We better report that to the police.
Juan did.
That's why Alex is so angry.
He says the police have done nothing.
Well, how does Alex know what they've done?
He doesn't. I said the same thing, but Alex would not listen.
MacGyver,
I'm afraid he's going to do something foolish.
Um...
I ran a test on Kasabian's grapes.
I think he's spraying a growth enhancer called FIX.
I've-- I've heard of it.
Yeah. It's illegal on grapes.
All right, listen. There's a team from the Phoenix Foundation
coming here to run some tests.
You meet them. I'll find Alex.
Okay.
I need to talk to you.
Later, okay, Dad? I'm kind of busy.
Now.
I got a call from the sheriff.
Yeah? So what's he want?
Another contribution for his campaign fund?
He wants to talk to you.
I got nothing to say to that rent-a-cop.
All right. Then you tell me. How'd your truck get banged up?
You know, I really don't know.
Someone must have smashed into it when it was parked.
Yeah, Davis thinks that you may know something
about what happened to Tony Garcia.
Well, I don't.
Nick, contrary to what you think,
I don't own the police department.
They're gonna start investigating
Tony Garcia's disappearance all the way.
Sounds like you're worried about me, Dad.
Yes, I'm...
I'm worried about you.
I, uh,
went to the clinic last night, you know,
where the workers take their families for medical treatment?
I'm gonna start making concessions about spraying.
You crazy?
Are you gonna give in to a bunch of pickers?
What has happened to you?
Well, we didn't have
DDT scares 40 years ago.
We didn't have changing climates.
There was plenty of water. No acid rain.
And whether there's scientific evidence or not,
I never heard of cancer clusters among school children.
Dad, we have an entire crop coming
and we could lose it all.
Every damn grape.
Well, it wouldn't be the first time.
Do you want to watch this place go under?
You want to lose it all, forever?
Your whole life's work?
I don't understand.
Yeah, I know you don't.
And I take a lot of the responsibility for that.
Nick, where you going?
I have business to take care of.
Let it go! It's Sunday.
- I can't. - Why?
Because! We've been spraying FIX, Dad!
Since when?
Since we've been doubling our profits.
Why wasn't I told?
What's the difference?
The only thing that matters now is that I get it cleaned up.
Why wasn't I told?
Alex, no!
No!
Don't you try to stop me, man.
That tractor's sprayed its last poison!
Hey, hey! You blow up a spray tractor,
Kasabian gets a new spray tractor, you get two years at Soledad.
What good are you gonna do then?
Yeah, well, it's something, man, it's something.
Listen to me!
I tested one of his vines.
It looks like he's spraying 4-CPA.
- FIX? - Yes.
It's the information Tony was gonna use
to pressure Kasabian into signing a union contract.
Yeah, maybe.
If your test is good.
If you know FIX from fertilizer.
I mean, who are you, man?
I work for the Phoenix Foundation.
And they can help us expose this whole thing.
Even if you're right,
one sample's not enough.
The Kasabians have high-priced lawyers.
That'll say your tests are inconclusive,
that there's no proof it came from their fields.
Then I'll take another sample.
Right from the tractor. Pure FIX.
No one will be able to dispute its chemical origin or its makeup.
This is the way Tony wanted it.
Now, are you gonna help or not?
Huh?
You won't get anything from the tractor.
It's washed down after the spray.
They keep the chemicals up here.
Methomyl, Captan...
Both legal.
Maple syrup?
Is it FIX?
I wouldn't put it on my pancakes.
You know, killing us isn't going to do any good.
Authorities are gonna be all over this place.
Let 'em come.
Once we get rid of our supplies, they'll never place it here.
Let's fertilize Section C with them.
Like we did Garcia.
No, no.
Their deaths have to look completely accidental.
Let's go, boys.
This tank was drained yesterday.
But they haven't bled off the CO2 yet.
So the real question is,
how long can you hold your breath, MacGyver?
What's he talking about?
When you drain a tank you're left with two levels.
Oxygen and carbon dioxide. So hold your breath in there.
That's right. Oxygen on top.
But you'll be on the bottom.
Drowning in an empty tank. I'm very sorry.
But these kind of accidents happen.
Yeah, right, with our hands and feet tied.
Don't worry about that.
We'll take care of that after you're dead.
This ought to replace what spilled out the door.
That won't last long.
They're dead by now. Get inside and get the ropes.
Oh, no.
You okay, man?
Yeah, I'm fine. Let's get that sample, huh?
Let's not.
Good work, Lopez.
Shoot 'em.
Killing Tony was bad enough. Don't make it worse.
What are you saying?
What are you doing?
What's that?
This is yours, isn't it?
It came off your jacket, didn't it?
So what?
We found it in the field.
Where you killed Tony.
Tony's dead?
Yeah, he's dead.
And that button puts you there.
I never killed nobody.
You borrowed my jacket.
You wore it that night when you left the pool hall.
Shut your mouth, Lopez.
You killed Tony, man.
He went with you.
You left together.
Garcia was no good.
- He was a troublemaker. - He was my friend!
Lopez, no!
Hector.
Put the gun down.
Put it down.
It's over.
Thanks for, um,
staying for the services.
Tony dreamed of stopping the suffering in this valley.
Maybe now it will come to pass.
I hope so. I really do.
You.
Take care of your mom.
Bye.
...back to our music after the local news.
This is Juan Velasco
reporting live from the Kasabian vineyards
where government authorities supervised the destruction
of contaminated grapes.
Earlier today, a farm worker named Tony Garcia
was laid to rest in Our Lady of Guadalupe Cemetery.
In custody without bail for his murder
is Nicholas Kasabian, heir to the Kasabian vineyards.
Caspar Kasabian, the defendant's father
and president of the company,
has stopped using all Tox.1 pesticides,
and has volunteered Kasabian grapes
to be tested by an independent laboratory.
Kasabian volunteered this
as a gesture of openness,
and asked that other growers in the valley
follow his lead.
Only time will tell if they do.