The crossover we all needed but time robbed us of. They’re very, very similar shows. Me and my brother love both and talk about this way too much. Here’s what we’ve come up with:
We like the idea of these two crews running into each other and then trying to outdo one another, think “The Two Live Crew Job”. That’s never gonna work though. They’re both so good that they would stalemate each other forever. At some point Nate and Hannibal just keep coming up with more and more elaborate and impossible plans until the rest of their crews just stop and sit around thinking “this is ridiculous”. Sophie and Face have go to them and convince them that it would be much better to work together.
Of course, when they do combine forces they are unstoppable. I don’t know who they’re taking down, but it’d have to massive. What’s really fun to think about though is each member with their counterpart, like so:
Hitter: B.A. Baracus and Eliot Spencer. There’s an episode of The A-Team where B.A. keeps trying to beat up this one guy while the others are off doing something else but he just won’t go down. This is what fighting Eliot Spencer is like. In the initial encounter when they’re rivals these two fight but can’t beat each other. After a while they agree to take a breather and sit down and start talking all casual about mundane stuff. When there’s a lull in the conversation Eliot asks “you ready to go again?” and B.A. is just like “yeah, I guess we should” and proceed to beat the living daylights out of each other (it’s not personal, just business)… Until Nate and Hannibal call a truce to which Eliot and B.A. get very annoyed and are like “you couldn’t have said that an hour ago?!”. They both sit through the first joint team meeting seething while icing various body parts. After the team-up they take on a small army, and each keeps score to see who can knock-out the most bad guys.
Hacker: Alec Hardison and Frankie Santana. So, the A-Team didn’t have a hacker, but Santana (go watch season 5 if you don’t remember him) is closest thing, and will fill that role for the purpose of this crossover. Unfortunately, this means we can’t really compare their skills, but I can say that they’d get along great, which is wonderful because Hardison needs a hacker friend.
Grifter: Faceman Peck and Sophie Devereaux. This has to be my favorite pairing. They figure out the other is a grifter in like 0.0004 seconds but keep playing the game anyway. And when they join forces… I have a clear image of Face in a white 3-piece suit with a black bowtie and Sophie in a beautiful white dress with gold jewelry walking into a fancy gala being like Sophie: “you take the women, I’ll take the men.” Face: “Let’s do it.” By the time they’re done every millionaire in the place has been picked clean. They’re having a lot of fun seeing who got the biggest haul “I got $20 million!” “I got a yacht!” “They’re naming a building after me!” Until Nate and Hannibal tell them to give it back and come on. There is much sighing, groaning, and rolling of eyes.
Wildcard: Parker and H.M. Murdock. Yeah, so Murdock is not a thief and Parker is not a pilot, but I think “wildcard” sums them up nicely. To be honest, I don’t have the imagination to figure out what these two would get up to. I know that Parker would 100% go along with whatever Murdock has going on whether it be one of his weird organizations or his French documentary (Parker: “you’re ruining the shot, Hardison!” Hardison: “what? Babe, the man doesn’t even have a camera!” Parker: “ugh, now we have to do it all over again!”). At some point Parker definitely repels off of Murdock’s helicopter.
Mastermind: Nate Ford and Hannibal Smith. They get on each other’s nerves at first, both very competitive but equally matched. Thank goodness for grifters who can talk some sense into them. Once they start to work together they actually find they enjoy it and are impressed by the other. This episode ends with Hannibal lighting a cigar and Nate pouring a drink, Hannibal delivers his famous line “I love it when a plan comes together”, then Hannibal gives Nate the cigar at the same time Nate slides the drink over to Hannibal. Fade to black.
Thing is, other combinations are fun, too.
Sophie and Hannibal would discuss acting and argue about whether theater or movies are better.
Hardison and B.A. would start talking about the cool things they’ve invented for their teams but then it just becomes a deep discussion about the love they have for their vans. B.A. is secretly inspired to name his van ala Lucille, he tells no one. Murdock somehow knows anyway.
Eliot and Face would talk pick-up lines and sports cars and the like.
Santana thinks Murdock is a lot of fun and Parker would be no different. He’d enjoy learning thieving and Parker loves to teach it.
This leaves Murdock and Nate… While these two have next to nothing in common there are few things more funny than a confused/annoyed Nate and Murdock is definitely the person to provoke such a response.
Seriously though, have you ever just watched The A-Team and saw a scene and was like “if you put Leverage characters here instead nothing would change”? If I had a time machine I would be wildly irresponsible and make this happen, which is probably why I don’t have one…
