Relic Hunter (TV Series) Midnight Flight (2001) User Reviews

The scepter

[unbrokenmetal · 7/10 · 7 May 2014]

400 A.D., a scepter is put in a vault under the ground, protected by traps. 1600 years later, Sydney and Nigel meet someone who holds the crystal key to the vault. But as soon as they find the relic, they lose it again, and the hunt is on. The center point of their search becomes the Turkish embassy...

After the ruthless, violent killers in some previous episodes, especially 'Run Sydney Run' and 'French Connection', it was good to see a diplomatic gentleman as opponent this time, a polite character who does not wave a gun around all the time. A smooth, enjoyable episode with one rather bizarre scene, though, when the room service lady casually unties a thief Nigel left in the hotel room, does she find people in situations like this every day, I wonder?

First rate episode of the Relic Hunter

[fabian5 · 9/10 · 9 June 2010]

The Midnight Flight was a first rate episode of the Relic Hunter miniseries. I would say it was one of the best episodes of the entire miniseries. Sydney's old "friend" from the Louvre, Frederick, persuades her and Nigel to help locate Gunther the Brave's ruby encrusted sceptre.

Sydney and Nigel retrieve this object only after saving Frederick from being killed by a massive arrow and avoiding other ancient traps in a cavern where it lay hidden. They then naively turn over the item to their friend in the belief that he will pass it over to the Louvre only to find themselves accused by the French authorities of tomb robbery because Frederick was fired from the Louvre for stealing art objects only a week ago. Now, determined to save their reputations, they capture Frederick, learn that he has sold the priceless relic for $5 million dollars to a high Turkish embassy official named Habasi and discover that they must retrieve the relic at all costs--before Habasi takes a 'midnight flight' back to Turkey in a diplomatically protected pouch which cannot be searched by the authorities since Habasi enjoys full diplomatic immunity. It was nice to see Sydney and Habasi playfully tango with one another at a Turkish embassy party after Sydney was invited by Habasi to attend this function just prior to Habasi's trip home and great to see her snoop around the dark corners of Habasi's office--only to be stopped dead in her tracks by his hand activated electronic security safe. Sydney, hence, cannot take the sceptre on her own initiative.

So, Sydney carefully devises a trap where she calls Nigel at a hotel room--where Frederick is being tied up--and pretends to retrieve the object and Nigel plays along and openly congratulates her within earshot of Frederick. She sure fooled me! Nigel then proceeds to call room service and hides from view while the hotel maid frees Frederick who promptly rushes to the Turkish embassy to warn Habasi that he has heared that the sceptre has been seized by Sydney--when it fact it was still safely locked in Habasi's security safe. Habasi quickly checks his treasure and when he opens the safe and takes out the sceptre, Sydney briefly talks to him from his back and then engages in a short but furious struggle with Habasi before getting the artifact back. Habasi himself is temporarily knocked to the ground in a semi-conscious state. By the time he is able to active the embassy alarm system, Sydney manages to pass the relic to Sydney and barely escapes the embassy grounds in time while the French police arrive on cue to arrest Frederick and protect the duo; thus Nigel and Sydney's reputations are intact.

I liked the final scene: when Habasi cheekily approaches Sydney from behind in a hotel foyer and asks what happened to the 5 million dollars he gave to Frederick. Sydney says she 'heard' it was donated to a new museum wing to house Gunther's ruby encrusted sceptre. It took a lot of guts on her part to tell this diplomatically protected official that all his money was gone forever.