Film / Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max

Spoilers for all preceding Kamen Rider entries, including Kamen Rider OOO, will be left unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!

Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max is the third Movie War movie. Premiered in Japanese theatres on December 10, 2011. As with most Movie War films, it's divided into three primary parts: one focusing on last year's Kamen Rider, one on the current Rider, and a final part where they meet and join forces. However, this time the crossover is teased with an overarching plot told between the segments:

• Opening: Fight! Seven Legendary Riders: A brief intro segment where a mysterious meteor is seen falling to Earth and Foundation X attempts to collect it, battling all over the world with the Seven Legendary Riders: Riders 1 and 2, V3 and Riderman, X-Rider, Amazon, and Stronger.
• Kamen Rider OOO: Ankh's Resurrection, the Future Medals, and the Connecting Hope: An evil Kamen Rider named Poseidon emerges from a wormhole and begins attacking the Kougami Foundation. When things look their bleakest, Eiji Hino returns to save the day as Kamen Rider OOO — and, most surprisingly of all, Ankh is there alongside him. Eventually it's revealed that Poseidon is a Greeed-like entity possessing a Kamen Rider from 40 years in the future, who doesn't believe he can live up to the legacy of those who came before.
• Futo: The Conspiracy Advances: Dashing! Kamen Rider Joker: Shotaro Hidari intercepts a Foundation X motorcade in Futo, becoming Kamen Rider Joker to fight off their Mooks (because Philip is too distracted to become Double); unfortunately, he can't secure the cargo.
• Kamen Rider Fourze: Nadeshiko's Advent: In the middle of Amanogawa High's cultural festival, a beautiful girl named Nadeshiko Misaki drops out of the sky and is saved by Gentaro, who's instantly smitten with her. But while they spend time together and fall in love, the Rider Club investigates the alien substance SOLU and gets tangled up in Foundation X. Nadeshiko is abducted, and Eiji shows up to lend Gentaro a hand.
• Movie War Mega Max: Gather! Glorious Warriors: Eiji and Gentaro meet up with Shotaro and Philip, who fill them in about Foundation X and the Big Bad, rebellious former member Lem Kannagi. OOO and Fourze chase Kannagi while Double and the Seven Legendary Riders hold the line by squaring off against Foundation X's army, which includes copies of the Museum Dopants and the Greeed. The final showdown happens on Foundation X's space shuttle "Exodus", with Eiji and Gentaro using the powers they've gained from their new friends to face off against Kannagi, who uses Poseidon's Medals and SOLU to transform into the Super Galaxy King.

---

Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max provides examples of:

• 11th-Hour Ranger: Kamen Rider Aqua returns from the future to help the Riders against Foundation X's forces, and give Eiji the Super TaToBa medals.
• Action Girl:
  • When Poseidon ambushes Satonaka and Hina with an army of Waste Yummies, Satonaka is quick to pull out the Birth Buster gun and show off her martial arts skills.
  • Nadeshiko, full stop.
• All There in the Manual:
  • The names of Michal's Kamen Rider forms. The evil form that uses core medals is called Kamen Rider Poseidon, and the good form created from the water-powered belt is called Kamen Rider Aqua.
    • The name of Michal's jet ski is "Aqua Miraider".
  • The names of Kannagi's two assistants are Solaris and Katal.
    • Katal's Mutamid form is called Suddendath.
• Almost Kiss: Gentarō and Nadeshiko are about to kiss on the moon, but the helmets of their spacesuits get in the way. Nadeshiko takes hers of, but luckily, Gentarō realizes that there's something wrong about her before he can follow suit.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Nadeshiko being able to survive on the moon without her helmet on is how Gentarō learns that she's not a normal girl.
• Big Bad: Lem Kannagi of Foundation X.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: Lem Kannagi is the Big Bad for most of the story, but his only appearance in the OOO portion is at the end. Poseidon is the Big Bad of that portion of the movie instead.
• Big Damn Heroes: Date and Gotō show up on jet skis to help Eiji and Ankh in the fight against Poseidon, having used painkillers to briefly recover from hospitalization.
• Blood Knight: Poseidon's motive for traveling through time is to enjoy battles against the heroes and warriors of various eras.
• But Now I Must Go: At the end of the OOO portion, Future Ankh returns to the future through the same time portal that Michal went through.
• Call-Back:
  • It's implied that Foundation X backed the Kougami Foundation's research on Core Medals.
  • In the Director's Cut, there's a brief glimpse of the Kuwagata Core Medal floating around and glowing inside Michal's body before he snaps some Cell Medals in half and summons some Waste Yummies. In OOO, Uva, the Greeed whose consciousness is contained within this Core Medal, was the one who invented the means of creating Waste Yummies in the first place, with the scene implying that Poseidon's ability to do so was directly inherited from Uva.
  • Shotaro still uses the Lost Driver left to him by Philip after his "death" to become Kamen Rider Joker.
• The Cameo: Jun Kazu, the final boss of Kamen Rider Double, appears in archived footage from the reunion special, as do Katsumi Daidō and the members of NEVER, again through archived footage from The Movie.
• Co-Dragons: Solaris and Katal (Suddendath) to Kannagi.
• Continuity Nod: Tons given that this is a crossover (See below).
  • Both crossover cameos in Kamen Rider W Forever and Kamen Rider OOO Wonderful are referenced.
    • Not to mention that Shotaro references Eiji's exclamation that "Riders look out for each other" from Kamen Rider W Forever.
  • When Philip is giving exposition about Foundation X, he brings up NEVER, the main antagonists of the summer movie for Kamen Rider Double. This also includes archival footage from that movie, as well as footage from the reunion special, Kamen Rider Double Returns: Kamen Rider Eternal.
• Crossover: As the name of the movie suggests, it's a crossover between Kamen Rider Fourze and Kamen Rider OOO. However, Kamen Rider Double and Foundation X are featured as well, uniting the first three leading riders of the post-Decade Heisei era. In the wake of OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders, 2011 being the fortieth anniversary year of the series, the original seven Kamen Riders (Riders 1, 2, V3, Riderman, X, Amazon, and Stronger) play a major role as well, where they are now known as the Seven Legendary Riders.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Double vs four Zodiarts. They didn't stand a chance.
  Double: Now, count up your sins!
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Eiji Hino's actor, Shū Watanabe, once again sings for a few songs.
  • "Anything Goes!", the opening theme song of OOO, is given a "Special Edit ver." and played as a duet with him and the original vocalist.
  • "Shout Out", the theme song for the "ShaUTa" Combo, makes its debut in this movie, having never been used in OOO's broadcast run, and like all of the other Combo-specific theme songs, is sung by Shū Watanabe. In a subversion, the small portion of the song that plays in this movie does not include lyrics other than the Combo's name sung by Akira Kushida, the voice of the OOO Driver.
• Early-Bird Cameo: As each Movie War movie has featured the introduction of the upcoming Secondary Rider of the current show, Kamen Rider Meteor makes his first appearance at the end of the movie.
• The Echoer: Nadeshiko used to only be able to repeat actions/words being said to her by Gentaro and other people (when she's not being quiet altogether) because she's a SOLU (Seeds Of Life from the Universe), an alien liquid that is not naturally sentient and replication is just its reflex. Gentaro's love for Nadeshiko became a catalyst to have humanity ensue in her, becoming fully sentient and displaying a full range of human emotions and understanding, including non-echo responses.
• Enemy Within: Michal Minato's form as Poseidon. Poseidon eventually becomes an Enemy Without.
• Foreshadowing: Not for the movie but rather for Fourze himself. Everything about Nadeshiko is actually pointing viewers to hints about Kengo at the finale because they share many similarities.
• The Glasses Come Off: Lem Kannagi does this when he reveals his betrayal of Foundation X.
• A God Am I: Lem Kannagi once he becomes the Super Galaxy King.
• For Happiness: Shotaro is quick to voice how unimpressed he is with Gentaro - and just as quick to change his mind when he learns they have this exact same motive.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Shotaro and Gentaro, with Eiji and Philip looking on in (respectively) bafflement and amusement.
• Heroic BSoD: Gentaro seeing Nadeshiko die in front of him makes him incapable of fighting, so it's up to the Kamen Rider Club to pick up the slack until he can wipe his tears.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Super Galaxy King fired a blast of Cosmic Energy at OOO and Fourze, but Nadeshiko allowed Fourze to absorb it himself and defeat Kannagi.
• It's Okay to Cry: As Gentaro weeps over the death of Nadeshiko, he's consoled by his friends stating that until he's dried all of his tears, they'll fight in his battles for him (well except JK, he can only offer a handkerchief so Gentaro can dry his eyes).
• Kissing Discretion Shot: Gentarō and Nadeshiko's kiss after the defeat of Kannagi.
• Legacy Character: Similar to how the finale of Kamen Rider Double established that there can be multiple copies of the same Gaia Memory, four members of Foundation X are shown using Zodiarts Switches to transform into copies of previously defeated Zodiarts.
• Legion of Doom: Foundation X uses the research its agents gathered to build an army consisting of various Monsters of the Week as well as mooks from the three series Fourze, OOO, and W, alongside monsters of the Big Bad's own design, called "Mutamids". They're not actually the same monsters from their original series, but it's an excuse to reuse monster suits.
• Macguffin Super Person: Nadeshiko is actually a sentient slime called SOLU who is being hunted down by Foundation X.
• The Magic Comes Back: At the end of OOO, all of the Core Medals, with the exception of Ankh's personal Core Medal, were thought to have been lost to oblivion in the vortex that destroyed Dr. Maki and the Medal Vessel. In this movie, it's revealed that the Core Medals were sent into the future, where they ended up being absorbed by Michal Minato, turning his Poseidon identity into a Superpowered Evil Side. When Poseidon traveled into the past, the Core Medals were with him, allowing Ankh to retrieve them so Eiji may become OOO once again.
• Men Don't Cry: Gentaro (who is known for his Inelegant Blubbering and Manly Tears) claims that a man is only allowed to cry if he has lost his wallet or been dumped. Doesn't stop him from crying over seeing Nadeshiko die though.
• Mooks: Through their research into the Gaia Memories, O Medals, and Cosmic Energy, as well as their partnerships with the Museum and Gamou, Foundation X boasts a vast foot soldier army of Masquerade Dopants (with a white suited variant transformed from Foundation X members using Gaia Memories), Waste Yummies, and Dustards. Poseidon also creates his own Waste Yummy army in the OOO portion by channeling the power of Uva's Core Medals, while in the Fourze portion Virgo leads a force of Dustards against Fourze and Nadeshiko as a favor from Gamou to Foundation X.
• Mr. Exposition: When Eiji and Gentaro meet up with Shotaro and Philip, they briefly orient them on Foundation X's history.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Seven Legendary Riders are battling Foundation X in various countries. Back in the old days, when a Rider's predecessors would always appear in the final arc to help out, where did the guest star Riders say they were coming from? Fighting the evil organization's branches in other countries. This goes all the way back to the very first series, when Takeshi Hongo - his actor having recovered from the injury that necessitated Hayato Ichimonji's introduction - returned midseries. Fighting Shocker overseas is where he'd been. The only difference is this time we see the Seven Legendary Riders' overseas battles before they return to Japan to fight alongside the current heroes.
  • Michal's transformation into Aqua is reminiscent of Kamen Rider #1's previous transformation sequence, but with water and a jet ski instead of wind and a motorcycle.
  • In the Director's Cut, Gentaro does his own take on Kamen Rider Stronger's trademark introduction speech before his fight with the Dustards at Amanogawa High.
    • Similarly, the Director's Cut has a brief scene before the rest of the Kamen Rider Club gets on JK's case for bailing out on their presentation when he's pressing the mouth plate of his Kamen Rider X cosplay to his face while saying, "Set up," which was X's original transformation phrase.
  • V3 fighting the ClayDoll Dopant may refer to his backstory of losing his family, including his little sister, and the fact that the original ClayDoll Dopant's civilian identity, Wakana Sonozaki, was the younger sister of the Sonozaki family.
  • The Super Galaxy King is a reference to the Big Bad of Eight Riders vs. Galaxy King, The Movie for Skyrider, which had him team up with the same Legendary Seven Riders who appear in this movie. The Dragon to him, Suddendath, is a homage to Suddendas, who was The Dragon to the original Galaxy King.
  • Nadeshiko's given name, Yuriko, is a homage to Yuriko Misaki, Stronger's partner and Implied Love Interest. Nadeshiko herself is the Love Interest to Gentarō, who dresses up as Stronger in this movie. This reference also extends to the fact that they both die, though Nadeshiko comes Back from the Dead in the next Movie War.
  • The Rocket Super-1 Switch is a subtle reference to Kamen Rider Super-1, which also had an outer space motif like Fourze does.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Kannagi shows up at the end of OOO's segment and steals the Poseidon Medals...and only those Medals, even though Poseidon's defeat caused a shower of many other Core and Cell Medals. Because of this, Eiji can go after Foundation X at full power.
• One-Man Army: There are many scenes of a character fighting several Mooks alone, or with help from, at most, one other person who qualifies for this trope themselves. The best examples would be Stronger, who is the only one of the Legendary Seven Riders to fight alone in the beginning montage (as well as the only one fighting all three types of the Mooks they fought) and OOO and Fourze taking on the army of Mooks while their theme songs play.
• One-Winged Angel: Lem Kannagi's master plan is to achieve this, becoming the Super Galaxy King.
• Power Copying: SOLU is able to copy data from pretty much anything, including devices and people, and can even improve on whatever it copies. A SOLU sample copying the real Nadeshiko Misaki is how the Nadeshiko who Gentarō meets comes to existence. It's also the reason she can transform with her own Driver based on his, and the Rocket Super-1 Switch is made of SOLU replicating the Rocket Switch and upgrading on it.
• The Power of Love: Gentarō's love for Nadeshiko causes her to develop emotional capacity and human-level sapience beyond her initial Blank Slate personality as a blob of SOLU. In the final battle, Nadeshiko helps Gentarō by letting him absorb the Cosmic Energy that the Super Galaxy King was using against him and OOO.
• The Reveal: Nadeshiko was actually a substance from space called SOLU — Seeds of Life from the Universe — and took on the image of a human girl which is where she got her name from.
• Say My Name: Gentaro unleashes this in one of the most heart-wrenching scenes of the film:
  Gentaro: NADESHIKO!!!!
• Skyward Scream: After Gentaro screams Nadeshiko's name, he unleashes an agonizing version of this.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: Kannagi decides to betray Foundation X in the end.
• Sealed Good in a Can: The Seven Legendary Riders are sealed inside Fourze and OOO's transformation trinkets by Kannagi. 1, 2, V3, and Riderman are trapped within Astro Switches while X, Amazon, and Stronger trapped inside Core Medals. They are freed when Fourze and OOO perform a Limit Break and a Scanning Charge respectively.
• Shirtless Scene: Eiji after he was injured, and he talks with Miharu.
• Shout-Out:
  • The main plot is a big one to the Skyrider crossover film, 8 Riders VS Galaxy King. Both Galaxy King and Sudandath are updated versions of the movie-exclusive villains.
  • The dark helmeted Rider 2 is also a throwback to this movie.
• Skyward Scream: Gentaro unleashes this after Len Kannagi essentially kills Nadeshiko.
• Spanner in the Works: Gentaro ultimately derails Kannagi's plan by two actions: his first one is conveniently finding the suitcase with four suspicious Astro Switches and Core Medals that look distinctly like the Legendary Seven Riders. His second one was accepting Nadeshiko as she was, helping understand the bonds of friendship, as she gives him both a Super Rocket Switch and absorbs the Super Galaxy King's final attack and saves his life.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Gentarō doesn't take it very well when Kengo insists to him that he can't date Nadeshiko because she's basically a shapeshifting puddle of space slime. He changes his mind eventually...only for Nadeshiko to die in front of Gentaro.
• The Starscream: Lem Kannagi was the head of a Foundation X project to control the world's energy supplies, but he used those resources to instead attempt to conquer the galaxy.
• Super Mode: OOO's Super TaToBa Combo and Fourze's Rocket States.
  • Superpowered Evil Side: Poseidon was intended to be a Super Mode for Aqua, but became this when Poseidon's Core Medals developed sentience upon Michal's absorption of the Core Medals and Cell Medals of OOO, Dr. Maki, and the Medal Vessel.
• Theme Music Power-Up: All over the place.
  • The montage of the Legendary Seven Riders fighting evil around the world is accompanied by a badass Leitmotif that is an instrumental, orchestral rock remix of "Fight! Seven Riders", which was their theme song when they appeared in the Bat Family Crossover finale of Kamen Rider Stronger. It gets played again when they take on the Greeeds and Dopants.
  • Shotarō fighting Foundation X as Kamen Rider Joker uses his Leitmotif from Kamen Rider Double Forever.
  • Double taking on the Zodiarts has "W-B-X", the opening theme song of Kamen Rider Double.
  • When OOO and Fourze are battling the Masquerade Dopants, Waste Yummies, and Stardust Ninja Dustards together, their opening theme songs, "Anything Goes!"^note "Special Edit" version, being a duet between Maki Ōguro (the vocalist of the original version) and Shū Watanabe (Eiji's actor) and "Switch On!" respectively, play consecutively.
• This Cannot Be!: Lem Kannagi after his defeat.
• Time Stands Still: The Super Galaxy King is able to do this by taping into the power of Poseidon's time-displaced Core Medals from the future. OOO can counter this with the Super TaToBa Combo, whose Medals are also from the future.
• Took a Level in Badass: Since the end of his season, Eiji has become noticeably more skilled in combat as a civilian, without needing to transform. Ankh as well.
• Trash the Set: Being the finale to OOO, Cous Coussier is trashed following an attack by Yummies on Eiji and Ankh. Chiyoko tells them that it will open just the same as it always has the next day.
• The Unfought: Zig-Zagged. One of the Mutamits, Solaris, briefly demonstrates feline attributes during Foundation X's meeting with Gamō. Unlike Katal, she never assumes her full Mutamit transformation, instead opting for turning into the Unicorn Zodiarts to fight the heroes. She is fought, just not in her personal form.
• Wham Shot: When Gentaro notices something wrong by Nadeshiko removing her helmet in space, her face turns into some blue metallic slime.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Kengo's original attitude to Nadeshiko, viewing her as nothing more than a technological pseudo-organism that mimics human behaviour rather than a person with feelings. When The Power of Love from Gentarō causes her to develop the capacity for genuine emotion, Kengo changes his mind about it. Kannagi however...
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Ironically, despite being a water-themed Rider, Michal is hydrophobic. He manages to overcome it in the end.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Birth and Proto-Birth lose handily to Poseidon.
  • The Seven Legendary Riders are hit with this to show how dangerous Foundation X's threat is here in the movie.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: After going through a crisis on Nadeshiko's true identity, Gentaro decides it doesn't matter. He cares for Nadeshiko as a friend. Nadeshiko accepts it and is ready to make his handshake and then Kannagi reverts her to her true form, ultimately killing her and ''rubbing it in Gentaro's face.
• You Are Not Alone: While Gentaro is broken over Nadeshiko's death, his friends chime in and stating that he's not alone and he can cry and mourn as much as he needs to until it's time for him to fight back as they will hold the fort.