"G'day, mates! Thunder's the name, building's the game! And it's time to blow this taco stand!"
—Johnny Thunder
Scene 24: Johnny Thunder Blows This Taco Stand is a Fan Fic by PeabodySam following the adventures of Johnny Thunder during the events of The LEGO Movie.
After being arrested by Lord Business's Robot SWAT Team at Cloud Cuckoo Land, Johnny Thunder breaks free with the help of Chief and plans to rescue the rest of his fellow Master Builders from Octan Tower. However, when he stumbles upon Lord Business's plan to launch a rocket full of Micro Managers, Johnny Thunder must hurry to LEGO Island to stop that rocket from launching!
This tongue-in-cheek script for a supposed Deleted Scene from the original film is written as a loving homage and tribute to fan-favorite LEGO Themes from the late nineties and the Turn of the Millennium including LEGO Adventurers, Rock Raiders, LEGO Alpha Team, and LEGO Island. Much of its humor derives from its self-awareness and it never takes itself seriously as it overdoses on references, over-the-top product placement, and notes from the screenwriter about the studio crew.
Scene 24 was originally written for BZPower's Caveat Scriptor comedies contest
and ultimately won first place in voting after a close tiebreaker poll. Scene 24 can be read here, with a mirror on Rock Raiders United here.
Scene 24 contains examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: Playing off the Adaptational Villainy of Octan Corporation in The LEGO Movie, here long-time Octan employee Nubby Stevens goes from your friendly philosophical mechanic to President Business's most-trusted lackey on LEGO Island.
- Affably Evil: President Business and Evil Ogel are both cheery and friendly for villains bent upon dominating the world.
- And the Adventure Continues: Scene 24 ends with Johnny Thunder flying off in the Information Center, continuing his adventure to stop Lord Business and save his fellow Master Builders.
- And the Fandom Rejoiced: The screenwriter notes that this is the only reason why classic LEGO characters such as Benny are appearing in The LEGO Movie, and so Chief appears to invoke this reaction by exploiting fan nostalgia.
- Awesome Aussie: Johnny Thunder, so much so that he cites being Australian in his Badass Boast.
- Bad Liar: Johnny Thunder's not good at coming up with false identities on the spot, and the best he can manage is "Johnson Thundoo" after a ton of hesitation. According to
Word of God, this is because he finds it difficult to pretend that he is anyone other than Johnny Thunder. Fortunately for him, President Business and Evil Ogel fall for his Paper Thin Identity anyways. - Badass Boast:Johnny Thunder: "The name's Johnny Thunder. Australian. Master Builder. And the minifigure who's gonna burn Octan Corporation to the ground!"
- Behind the Black: Played for Laughs. Johnny Thunder and Chief were looking right at Octan Headquarters the whole time they were talking at the beginning, but neither of them notices the building until it is shown on-screen.
- Blatant Lies: The giant brick-built taco bearing a sign warning you not to rebuild it into something that will help you defeat the bad guys is subtle foreshadowing.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Chief mentions that the Infomaniac didn't get a cameo in The LEGO Movie because, by the time he arrived at the set, the scene was already filmed.
- Deleted Scene: According to Director Steven Spielbrick's note at the top of the script, Scene 24 was cut from The LEGO Movie because of running time, and definitely not because Spielbrick is a cheapskate who refused to pay the cast and crew to film this scene.
- Department of Redundancy Department:Johnny Thunder: "I've got a gut feelin' that those bots will stop us from stoppin' that rocket if we don't stop them from stoppin' us from stoppin' that rocket!"
- Destination Defenestration: Ogel recommends that President Business does this to his minions when they have failed him.
- Didn't Think This Through: As an act of rebellion against Lord Business, the Infomaniac attempts to tear the instructions out of the Constructopedia... forgetting that this causes buildings on LEGO Island to disappear entirely.
- Faux Affably Evil: Nubby Stevens, who keeps his friendly demeanor from LEGO Island but now rambles about crushing life beneath his heel and ruling the universe.
- Faux Symbolism: Johnny Thunder's entrance is accompanied by a Holy Backlight and Ominous Latin Chanting for no other reason than to confuse literary critics.
- Fun with Acronyms: The Organization of Great Evil Laughter, or O.G.E.L. Guess which villain named the organization?
- Gilligan Cut: Right after Johnny Thunder mentions finding a map, it cuts to a map of the LEGO world.
- Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: Johnny Thunder frequently pauses and hesitates while trying to come up with a false identity.
- Holy Backlight: Johnny Thunder receives one as he makes his dramatic entrance. Chief doesn't get one because he's not as awesome as Johnny Thunder.
- Lampshade Hanging: The script calls attention to most tropes, even mentioning some of them by name.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: During Johnny Thunder's dramatic entrance.
- Order Versus Chaos: Discussed. Because President Business is on the side of "order", one of the few villains that President Business was able to recruit was Evil Ogel, whose evil motives involve ruling everyone with an iron fist (or a plastic hook). This becomes a key plot point; the Infomaniac suspects that the Brickster was also recruited by President Business, but Nubby Stevens points out that the Brickster is on the side of "chaos" and the two villains would never work together as a result.
- Mr. Exposition: Chief serves as one, spewing exposition about the Infomaniac for the convenience of Johnny Thunder and the reader.
- Noodle Incident: President Business mentions an incident involving noodles, and that's all we hear about it.
- Parody Product Placement: As a Running Gag, whenever a LEGO set is mentioned or appears, text flashes at the bottom of the screen advertising that set. Ultimately subverted when the Information Center from LEGO Island appears and the text begins to advertise that set... only to realize that it was never released as a set.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Invoked. While disguised as "Johnson Thundoo", Johnny Thunder claims to be a law-abiding rebel to prevent President Business from growing too suspicious.
- Pun-Based Title: The phrase "let's blow this taco stand" is an idiom meaning "let's get out of here". In Scene 24, Johnny Thunder literally blows a giant taco on a stand.
- Reference Overdosed: Take a look at Shout-Out down below. For such a short script, it sure packs a ton of references in there.
- Running Gag:
- Notes from the screenwriter reminding the director to make sure that Hank doesn't electrocute himself every time he operates the lighting equipment.
- Parody Product Placement flashing at the bottom of the screen.
- Chief randomly shouting "a landslide has occurred!" as a result of his PTSD.
- Script Fic: Written in the format of a movie script, complete with notes about lighting and camera angles.
- Shout-Out:
- In addition to Johnny Thunder and other characters from The LEGO Movie, this script features Chief, Evil Ogel, and various characters from LEGO Island.
- The names of various crewmembers, such as the screenwriter Frank, the gaffer Hank, the best boy Eddie, and the cameraman Nero, are all from the LEGO Studios Backlot game.
- The title itself, "Scene 24", references a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- Evil Ogel also mentions something about a plan involving "a giant plastic badger".
- Johnny Thunder finds a blue police box that's a lot bigger on the inside.
- Johnny Thunder's motorcyclist disguise matches his scrapped redesign from LEGO Universe.
- President Business had an incident involving noodles.
- Every unit President Business sends to sink Benny's spaceship ends up spontaneously combusting and falling through the floor, referencing the Blacktron's role in Legos in Space.
- Evil Ogel's advice regarding Destination Defenestration references his habit of doing this to his Ogel Drones in various LEGO Play-by-Post Games, including Alpha Team: Mission Deep Freeze RPG and Dino Attack RPG.
- Johnny Thunder's poor attempt at coming up with a false identity while in disguise:
Johnny Thunder: "Err, yes. Hello. My name is John... son... uh... Thun... doo... yeah. And I'm here to clean your block."- The Master Builders have been a thorn in President Business's side long enough... and Johnny Thunder is the thorn who's about to take him down.
- Johnny Thunder refers to Zack the LEGO Maniac, the star of the LEGO commercials from the late 80s and early 90s. Here, he is also a Composite Character with the LEGO Maniac of the late 90s, who shows up in LEGO Mania comics and says, "GOTTA BUILD LIKE CRAZY!"
- Contrary to popular belief, according to Nubby Stevens, the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything is not 42.
- Johnny Thunder's Badass Boast is a reference to one of many such boasts uttered by Saxton Hale.
- The script ends with the following line:
And now, for something completely different: the boring adventures of Emmet. - Stuff Blowing Up:
- The explosive escape catapult. The explosions serve no real purpose, but it makes for great trailer footage.
- When the screenwriter gets writer's block, he just tells the director to blow the whole film's budget on a cool action sequence with tons of explosions.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial:
- Scene 24 was definitely not cut because Director Steven Spielbrick is a cheapskate who refused to pay the cast and crew to film it.
- The triumphant march playing just before Johnny Thunder enters the scene is most certainly not a cheap knock-off of "Raiders March". And the music playing when Johnny Thunder and the Infomaniac pilot the flying Information Center across LEGO Island is most definitely not a cheap rip-off of "Ride of the Valkyries".
- Please do not rebuild the giant taco into something that can help you defeat the bad guys.
- Ogel reveals that the rocket launching from LEGO Island is actually filled with Evil Orbs, not Micro Managers, and he is planning to use it to usurp Lord Business and Take Over the World himself. After remembering that President Business is in the room with him, he quickly attempts a Verbal Backspace with a "Just Joking" Justification and denies that any of it was true.
- Third-Person Person: Johnny Thunder, who tends to refer to himself as "the Thunder".
- Title Drop: Before making his escape from Octan Headquarters, Johnny Thunder declares that it's time to "blow this taco stand" and then does just that, both figuratively and literally.
- Underwear of Power: Discussed. Johnny Thunder cannot remember Superman's name, but he does remember that Superman wears his underwear on the outside.
