The story starts with Luigi drowning his sorrows in spaghetti at Toad's bar, depressed after losing his brother Mario in Zanzibar to the gun of Lasagna Ocelot (AKA Garfield). Luigi soon discovers a shocking truth, however—the Blue Shell Incident was a coverup, and Mario has been alive the whole time! Not only that, he's the mastermind behind the events and is out to kill his brother. Luigi must find a way to survive long enough to take Mario out... and figure out if he can trust that strange gun-wielding duck.
The completed 26-minute film can be seen here
, and its IMDb page here.
See also Rat Movie: Mystery of the Mayan Treasure created by Jerma985, to which The Blue Shell Incident is a Spiritual Successor.
THESE ARE TROPES, LUIGI!
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Duck's feather gives Luigi a power-up strong enough to fight a souped-up, giant Mario at the end of the movie.
- Accidental Murder:
- When Duck saves Luigi and shoots at Mario, he ducks and the bullet inexplicably ricochets across the room, hitting the bartending Toad and making his head explode. Nobody talks about it or mentions it after that.
- While chasing Mario, Luigi and Duck accidentally push a bystanding CDI Link by slowly walking into him. He proceeds to smash the back of his head against glass before dropping to the ground, dead. Like Toad, the characters don't seem to even notice.
- Action Survivor: Since he doesn't have weapons, Luigi tends to survive deadly encounters by running away rather than fighting back.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Mario tries to kill Luigi because Mario lost a kart race because of him. He was also jealous of Luigi's dominant memes. Notably, the video takes some of Mario's trademarks and makes them Played for Horror. For example, when Mario eats a mushroom and grows enormous, he shouts some of his catchphrases ("It's-a me, Super Mario! Yahoo!") in a horrifyingly deep voice.
- "Lasagna Ocelot" is Mario's minion except that he's actually working for another villain.
- Scatman John is revealed to be a henchman that Mario hired as a body double. The Stinger reveals he was the Greater-Scope Villain of operation Blue Shell Kill.
- Affectionate Parody: Of many, many things, but most prominently amateur Mario parody animations of the early internet, cheesy action films, and Metal Gear Solid.
- Ambiguous Innocence: While Luigi is presented as the good guy of the film, Lasagna Ocelot offhandedly mentions that he pissed in Mario's Cheerios once. Of course, the audience doesn't know if he is correct or not, or egging Mario on as a part of his plan.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Mario and Garfield's secret weapon is Metal Gear McQueen, a Metal Gear version of Lightning McQueen that comes equipped with lasers. When that fails, Mario makes himself grow into a giant using a mushroom.
- Audience Participation: Many of the jokes and lines of dialogue were suggested by the chat as the movie was being made.
- Badass Cape: Luigi uses Duck's feather to give him a Cape, which provides a power boost strong enough to beat Super Mario.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: In contrast to going after Mario because of Duck Hunt, Duck helps Luigi because he fed him breadcrumbs as a duckling.
- Big Bad: Mario is the main villain and causes the whole plot, with Garfield as his henchman.
- Bittersweet Ending: Mario is killed, Metal Gear McQueen is stopped, and Luigi is safe from his evil brother once and for all. However, Duck made a heroic sacrifice, several people are dead, and Luigi is now left alone to ride back home. On top of that, Lasagna Ocelot is still alive, and so is Scatman John, who's revealed to be his real boss, plotting something ominous.
- Book Ends: The movie starts with Luigi sitting down at a bar and ordering a Spaghetti On The Rocks, mourning the death of his brother. The movie ends with Luigi going to the same bar and ordering Spaghetti On The Rocks, mourning the death of his "real" bro, Duck.
- Butt-Monkey: Toads seem to exist mainly to die, and CDI-Link's death is completely ignored by the characters and he's backed over several times after already dying.
- Cain and Abel: Mario is the murderous Cain to Luigi's Abel.
- Cats Are Mean: Garfield, the famous comic strip cat, is an assassin who serves the Big Bad, Mario.
- Complexity Addiction: It's not clear what Mario faking his death was supposed to accomplish, since just having Garfield shoot Luigi in the first place would have accomplished his goal
- Dead Hat Shot: After Duck dies one of his feathers floats down in front of Luigi.
- Death by Cameo: Several characters cameo only to instantly die, like the M&Ms, Santa Claus, Sans, and Piglet.
- Death Is Dramatic: Mario's supposed death includes dramatic slow-motion, Luigi shedding a single tear, and screaming Mario's name.
- Disappointed by the Motive: Luigi is confused and disappointed by Mario's reason on why he's hunting him down: Getting hit by a blue shell in a Mario Kart tournament. In the end, it's revealed Mario was jealous of Luigi all along and that the Blue Shell Incident was just the last straw.
- Disproportionate Retribution: So just why does Mario want to kill Luigi? Because one year prior, Luigi threw a blue shell at Mario during a race, causing him to crash just inches from the finish line. Also, Mario was jealous of Luigi even before the incident, but this isn't revealed until the final battle.
- A Dog Named "Dog": The duck's name is...Duck.
- The Dragon: Garfield is an assassin who serves Mario. He outlives his boss in the end and turns out to actually serve under Scatman John instead.
- Dramatic Stutter: Luigi dramatically stutters when saying "D-D-D-D-DIE?"
- Drowning My Sorrows: Luigi orders a spaghetti on the rocks from Toad, miserable over losing Mario. At the end of the movie, he does this again after losing Duck.
- Easter Egg: In the commentary, Joel revealed that the Brickster was hidden in the bushes in the second kart race scene, done in a way he was completely invisible.
- Evil Laugh: When Mario grows enormous in the climax, he does an evil laugh that sounds especially menacing since his voice has now deepened.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Mario's voice gets significantly deeper when he grows to giant size in the climax.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: At the end of the film it's revealed that "Spaghetti on The Rocks" is literally just spaghetti with ice cubes.
- Expy: Duck's voice is an impression of Duke Nukem.
- Faking the Dead:
- Mario fakes his death in the flashback, despite not knowing Lasagna Ocelot would miss.
- Scatman John fakes being killed by Mario.
- Follow That Car: Luigi gets in Donkey Kong's taxi to chase down Mario.
- Fourth-Wall Observer: In his speech about memes, Mario acknowledges the fact that he and Luigi are in a video and being puppeteered by Joel for the chat's amusement.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: After an unseen crowd cheers Toad's death in the second diner, Mario turns the gun directly at the camera and simply says "Shut the fuck up."
- Funny Background Event: Wario's trailer has a sign up front titled "Warios Crack Shack". After he gets flattened by Metal Gear Mcqueen, the sign is seen in the background now titled "Wario's Former Crack shack". Soon after Pingu is seen taking over, and now the sign now says "Pingus Crack Shack".
- The Ghost:
- In a riff on Liquid Snake's Big Boss rant, "the old man," an oblique reference to the memetic Grand Dad, is mentioned but never seen.
- The Stinger reveals the existence of a third missing Mario Brother, who is none other than Sponge.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The real Scatman John was behind everything all along, as revealed in The Stinger.
- Green-Eyed Monster: During the final battle, Mario reveals to Luigi that he was always jealous of his brother, stating Luigi had all of the old man's dominant memes.
- Hating on Monday: The day Garfield attempted to assassinate Luigi was on a Monday. Garfield misses Luigi and shoots Mario instead, causing Garfield to complain that today just had to be a Monday.
- The Hero: Luigi is the protagonist, trying to avoid being assassinated by Mario while also trying to stop Mario from killing other people.
- Hired Guns: Lasagna Ocelot is implied to be this, his only objective being killing Luigi for Mario. He doesn't even know WHY Mario wants to kill Luigi until after Blue Shell Kill fails.
- Hurricane of Puns: Luigi, Mario, and Wario volley pasta-themed puns early on, and many other lines are punny in some way.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Duck sees through Mario's disguises and is an excellent shooter, making him come off as much more competent than Luigi.
- I Am Not Weasel: Mario simply can't figure out what species of bird Duck is, calling him a weird chicken, terrible turkey, and a pesky pigeon.
- I Fell for Hours: Garfield's helicopter apparently took two whole days to fall out of the sky after it was blown up by a stray Toad.
- Instant Death Bullet: Averted with Mario and subverted with Scatman John. They both seemingly die when Garfield and Mario respectively shoot them, but the former had already established that he faked his death and the latter is revealed to be alive in The Stinger.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: Strangely inverted. While the audience understands most of Duck's dialogue, the characters in-universe don't. The audience hears him speaking English, but on occasion, he instead speaks in mindless quacks, this being the other characters' point of view. That said, Luigi at least figures out that Duck is his ally early on when he helps him fend off Mario.
- Kick the Dog:
- During the car chase, Mario runs over several people and feels absolutely no shame. Even backing up to doubletap CDI-Link for no reason, and eating a piece of a giant, sentient M&M he ran over.
Mario: Street food, my favorite!- Santa is killed as a result of Garfield's helicopter crashing, and Garfield can't be bothered to care.
- Metal Gear McQueen fries Piglet with a laser for no apparent reason.
- Left It In: There are many obvious mistakes left in the final film, laughing during takes, inconsistent objects, floating eyelids, etc. Joel left them in intentionally as the crappiness gives the movie its charm.
- Made of Explodium: Anything can explode if the conditions are right, from Toad's head to helicopters to teardrops.
- Made of Iron:
- Mario survives crashing into the restaurant and bouncing around, then getting hit by his kart and crashing again. Even Duck blowing up Metal Gear McQueen isn't enough to take Mario down.
- Lasagna Ocelot/Garfield is completely uninjured after falling from the sky and crashing his already burning helicopter in the middle of the city. He also survives the destruction of Metal Gear McQueen.
- Make My Monster Grow: In the climax, Mario eats a mushroom and grows enormous. This also makes his voice deeper.
- The Man Behind the Man: Scatman John. He's Lasagna Ocelot's real employer, and the true mastermind behind operation Blue Shell Kill. He pretended to be Mario's underling, and allowed Mario to betray him to fake his own death. His final goals seem to involve the third missing Mario Brother and "The old man" (aka Grand Dad).
- Meaningful Background Event: It's very easy to miss, but Duck is seen floating in a pond during the first Zanzibar sequence.
- Multi-Animator Project: A reanimation collab of The Blue Shell Incident hosted by Naxo Laguerto was posted on YouTube on May 28th (it was originally meant to release on November 15th but the project was subject to multiple delays) to celebrate the 2-year anniversary of Joel’s animation.
- No Indoor Voice: Mario shouts about 95% of his lines, and Wario shouts 100% of his.
- Noodle Incident: In Zanzibar, Mario regaled Luigi with a story that ends with a Warp Pipe being in Bowser's butt all along.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Mario is able to elude Luigi with the clever disguise of a hand with glasses on it, claiming to be Handio. Luigi is fooled, but not for long.
- Potty Emergency: Mario really has to use the bathroom before the car chase scene, and uses Scatman John as a decoy while he goes.
- The Reveal: Mario is really... Scatman John! And then it turns out Mario was just using John as a decoy, and then kills him.
- Recurring Extra: Wario has no bearing or relevance on the plot at all, only appearing in scenes to bring some Toilet Humor. His last scene has him screaming outside his crack shack and being squashed by Metal Gear McQueen.
- Recursive Fanfiction: A fan made a video speculating on how the original murder-mystery plot would have gone, with Joel's approval, while another video by the same creator is a prequel to The Blue Shell Incident.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Mario momentarily gains red eyes of rage after Lasagna Ocelot tells him that Luigi pissed in his cheerios.
- Remake Cameo: In the Reloaded version, Joel makes a cameo as himself when he returns to voice Reloaded-specific lines and accidentally messes them up.
- Running Gag:
- Characters, especially Toad, randomly being smashed by a falling Segway is a common sight.
- The Mario Bros making pasta and stereotypically Italian food puns, shown perfectly after the first Zanzibar Island flashback, with Mario and Luigi insulting each other with said puns.
- Say My Name: After his "death," Luigi shouts Mario's name so loud it's audible from space.
- Secret Weapon: Mario and Garfield's secret weapon is Metal Gear McQueen, a Metal Gear version of Lightning McQueen.
- Sequel Hook: During the stinger, it's shown that Scatman John was actually the bad guy all along, and it's heavily implied that he actually may be planning more than just this...
- Short-Lived Aerial Escape: Garfield attempts to escape in a helicopter after apparently killing Mario, but it's blown up almost instantly.
- Shout-Out:
- Mario says "Well, all I gotta say, Luigi, you go to Hell before you die!" before Garfield's failed attempt to assassinate Luigi, paraphrasing the closing sentence to Captain Lou Albano's anti-drug PSA.
- Luigi's reaction to Duck's death is a shot-for-shot recreation of how Joseph reacted to Caesar's death in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency.
- The Stinger: After the credits, it's revealed Lasagna Ocelot is alive and well, and is heard talking to the real Scatman John. He also says that the operation Blue Shell Kill was indeed a success, meaning that all the events of the film were planned from the start, and Mario was always the real target.
- Suddenly Shouting: Inverted when Mario tells Garfield to summon "METAL. GEAR. ...McQueen."
- Taking You with Me: At the end of the movie Mario is killed by Duck impaling him with a shovel, but Duck's revival is temporary and he dissipates after saying goodbye to Luigi.
- Toilet Humor:
- Wario is the main source of fart jokes and other grossout humor.
- Lampshaded at one point. Luigi jumps into a sewer, followed by a toilet flushing sound. Joel simply says, in his real voice:Joel: Fart joke.
- Took a Level in Badass: After spending much of the movie running and hiding and not having a clue what's going on, Luigi fights Mario one-on-one and wins.
- Translation Convention: We hear most of Duck's dialogue in English, but plot-critical information is heard from Mario and Luigi's perspective—quacks they can't understand.
- Unexplained Recovery: It's never explained exactly how Mario fakes his death in Zanzibar Island, as the bullet was meant for Luigi and not him. The only thing we get is Mario claiming the blood was all Chef Boyardee. Similarly, Scatman John is revealed to be alive in The Stinger, despite emitting a pool of blood after Mario shoots him.
- World of Ham: Nearly every character is hilariously overacted, from Mario's No Indoor Voice, to Luigi's Say My Name, Duck's baritone Duke Nukem voice, and more.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The overall plot is a reference to Metal Gear Solid, with hints of Sons of Liberty thrown in (namely the whole "meme" debate and the Big Shell Incident).
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After returning from the bathroom at the restaurant, Mario tells Scatman John that he's been using him, and offs him with a pistol. It doesn't take.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Duck uses a Power Star to temporarily survive blowing himself up, allowing him to take out Mario, but after it wears off he explodes.
- Your Size May Vary: Metal Gear McQueen goes from being skyscraper-sized to half as tall as the buildings.
