MacGyver (Reimagined)

MacGyver is an operative of a clandestine organization who uses his extraordinary talent for unconventional problem solving and extensive knowledge of chemistry, physics, and machinery to save lives.

Angus Dean MacGyver was born and raised in Mission City, Minnesota. His father and grandmother died in automobile accident when he was eleven years old, leaving him to be raised by his grandfather, Harry Jackson, who taught him the value of fair play. As a youth, MacGyver, or "Mac," as his friends call him, was blessed with a gifted IQ and a photographic memory as he excelled in mechanical aptitude and inventive prowess.

After Mac graduated from high school, he enlisted in the United States Army. He decided to become an explosive ordnance disposal technician. After completing basic combat training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, Mac went on to explosive ordnance disposal advanced individual training at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama and Naval School Explosive Ordnance Disposal at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. He was then assigned as an explosive ordnance disposal technician to the 55th Ordnance Company at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. Mac was later assigned to the 21st Ordnance Company at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. He eventually rose to the position of a Weapons of Mass Destruction Response Team Leader.

Mac left the U.S. Army after eight years of service and enrolled in the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He double majored in applied physics and chemistry and minored in environmental science and engineering. Soon after graduating from Caltech with both a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, Mac obtained employment with the Phoenix Foundation as a WMD and unexploded ordnance consultant for humanitarian field operations in war zones.

The Phoenix Foundation is a think tank and government contractor which often cooperates with U.S. government agencies, particularly the police or intelligence. Often described as a "corporate white knight", it also does a great deal of work on its own; environmental surveys and clean-up operations, anti-drug initiatives, social programs, etc. One of the organization's main aims is the expansion and furthering of new technologies within the United States, such as computer applications and systems, applied biosciences, and other socially responsible uses of technology.

In addition to its public work, the Phoenix Foundation also has a secret division called the Department of External Services, or "DXS" for short, that is contracted by the U.S. government to provide "special activities" outside of the United States. These activities can range from intelligence gathering and surveillance through to covert operations.

A little over a year after joining the Phoenix Foundation, Mac was contacted by the director of the Department of External Services, Peter Thornton, and offered a position as a field agent in DXS. Thornton was impressed with Mac's service record and proven ingenuity during his consulting work in dangerous locations. Mac accepted the offer and has since become DXS's most successfull field agent on high-risk missions around the globe.

He is a master of on-the-spot improvisation. Using his vast scientific knowledge and unique ability to see items as individual components, Mac can use ordinary household objects to get himself and others out of trouble. All he carries with him is a Swiss Army knife and, occasionally, a roll of duct tape. Under the aegis of the Department of External Services, Angus MacGyver takes on the responsibility of saving the world, armed to the teeth with resourcefulness and little more than bubble gum and a paper clip.