"Could you be more Pacific?"
Film watched: Atlantic Rim (2013)
The Segments:
Prologue- Gizmonic Institute is on fire! And it's not because of a malfunctioning invention (this time), but an unknown intruder who escapes in a spaceship.
Segment 1
- One movie in and already The Gauntlet is wearing Jonah out. For the Invention Exchange, he presents the Air-Dancer Organ, while Max introduces Supposi-Stories.
Segment 2
- Kinga demands another breakout hit song like last season's "Every Country Has a Monster". Jonah tries his best.
Segment 3
- Jonah and the Bots turn a military award ceremony into a frat party.
Segment 4
- Jonah pours one out for all who died in this film. One bottle of wine may not be enough.
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of Atlantic Rim provides examples of:
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: From the first host segment:Jonah: Buying a car is so stressful. It brings out the worst in people. Greed, distrust, fear...
Tom: Lust.
Crow: What? - Call-Back:
- "Go Packers!" "WOOO PACKERS!"
- "It stinks!"
- Right before the first movie sign they're singing a Patrick Swayze Christmas.
- The Cameo: Justin Roiland (of Rick and Morty fame) is the intercom announcer at Gizmonic Institute during the intruder's attack.
- Celebrity Resemblance:
- With a side of Celebrity Paradox: "Joel Hodgson?"
- The guy on the beach who looks like Smash Mouth's lead singer Steve Harwell.Jonah: SomeBODY once—
- Christmas Episode: Apparently? For some reason they're singing Patrick Swayze Christmas in the Invention Exchange.
- Continuity Nod: Jonah and the Bots show off the Air-Dancer Organ with a rousing performance of "A Patrick Swayze Christmas".
- Cuteness Proximity: Crow mistakes the stock footage stealth jet for something else:Crow: Awww, what's that baby bat doing out in the daytime? You should be sleepin', baby bat!
- Designated Hero: Discussed In-Universe. Red's and Tracy's first scene involves them getting drunk at a Mardi Gras parade (while in uniform) and beating up stoners in an alley. Jonah and the bots point out that Red started the confrontation and never let him live it down. They spend the rest of the experiment mocking Red's boorish behavior and wondering why the movie expects us to root for him.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: In-Universe, Jonah and the bots note that The Lancer Jim is much more noble and heroic than Red, the movie's alleged hero, and wonder why the movie couldn't be about Jim instead.Tom: You know, I was really thinking Jimmy would be the one to save the day, what with him being a thoughtful person who devotes his life to charity and cares about the feelings of his female co-worker... and he's not a walking Long Island Iced Tea like Red.
- Foreshadowing: Someone breaks into Gizmonic Institute and leaves a huge mess as they leave. It's the long-absent Dr. Erhardt stealing Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank's ashes. The Word Salad Lyrics of "Get In Your Mech" (which "stinks" [flashes OK sign]) further foreshadow Dr. F.'s last request that his ashes be scattered in space to the lilting strains of "Idiot Control Now". This gets paid off two episodes latter in The Day Time Ended as part of an arc which then continues to the end of the season.
- History Repeats: At the end, as Red, Tracy, and Jim leave to celebrate their victory over the kaiju, Jonah and the bots quip that Red's just going to party too hard and get thrown in the brig again. Then another kaiju will attack, so Red will be released to fight it and save the day, and then he'll go celebrate and party too hard, and so on, and so on.
- Hypocritical Humor: The guys talk of how the monster is just scared and misunderstood and should be given a chance to be welcomed to America. Right then, the creature smashes off the top of the Statue of Liberty and the guys start screaming "Kill it, kill the monster, USA! USA!"
- Innocent Innuendo: Or really, probably not, given that it's The Asylum.Red: This thing's all over my ass, man! It's gonna tear me up!
Crow: Excuse me? - Jump Cut: The Reaction Shot of the mech surfacing near a beach starts on one couple (including the aforementioned Steve Harwell-looking guy), then snaps to another almost identical shot so abruptly it looks like they shapeshifted.
- Libation for the Dead: Turned into an Overly Long Gag, as the bots list out all the civilians killed by the movie's kaiju battles, and insist Jonah pour out some wine for each and every one of them. This turns out to be another showcase for Joel's magic props, as more than the bottle could possibly hold just keeps coming out.
- The Mockbuster: Not only the film currently being riffed, but Discussed as they talk about the following film, Lords Of The Deep. Kinga claims it's a ripoff of The Abyss, but Max clarified that it's actually a ripoff of DeepStar Six, which was a ripoff of Leviathan (1989), which was the official ripoff of The Abyss.note
- No Party Like a Donner Party: Tom Servo suggests this as an explanation for Geise's missing right eye.Tom (As Geise): I'm starting to regret feeding you my eye to keep you (Admiral Hadley) alive in the desert that one time! REALLY regretting it!
- Protagonist-Centered Morality:'Tom Servo: Jonah, I don't understand who to root for. Those officers bumped into him.
Jonah: Uh, true, but they're the heroes of this movie so they're always right. - Running Gag: "Buh-BOOOOM!" is occasionally referenced over the rest of the season.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Many jokes are made about the Admiral being one, especially his love of “the horn” and "bull butter".
- Shout-Out:
- One to a MST3K
Spiritual Successor RiffTrax Running Gag, when they have Admiral Hadley say "Line?". - "Go go, Dour Rangers!"
- "Starting Neon Genesis Evangelion process — preparing to inject robot with my puberty, sir!"
- "Anybody else reading anything?"Crow: Uh, Lincoln in the Bardo?
Jonah: [as the admiral] Cash on Cash by Johnny Cash.
Tom: [as Margaret] Danielle Steel.
Crow: [as the lieutenant] I'm into podcasts... - "The entire world's about to learn about Project Armada." "Featuring Herman Menderchuk!"
- "Transmorphers!" "Less than meets the eye!"
- When the monster explodes in space: "BEAST WARS!"
- "Guard! Turn! Parry! Thrust!"
- As Red is flying off into space with the monster: "Stop. Don't. Come back."
- As Red raises his arms and shouts a victory cry at the end: "O'Doyle rules!"
- One to a MST3K
- Tough Act to Follow: In-Universe example. Kinga forces the crew to do another big musical number after last season's "Every Country has a Monster" was so popular, despite being told it just happened to catch on like that and you can't just manufacture another one. Put on the spot, they end up improvising completely random nonsense lyrics to the music; while they're getting into it by the end of the number, Kinga and Max are wholly unimpressed.
- Two-Timer Date: The frat party skit ends with Jonah, Servo, and Crow realizing that Gypsy scheduled dates with all three of them at the same time.
- Unusual Euphemism: The guys have a field day with "bull butter" after Admiral Hadley uses the phrase in place of a stronger bull-related expletive.
- Verbal Tic: During the frat party skit, Jonah and the bots work dumb "bro" puns into all their lines.
- Word Salad Lyrics: "Get In Your Mech" in its entirety:Jonah: Life is a circus and we're living at the clown tip!
