Fridge / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Fridge Brilliance

• It's subtle, but the way each of the Turtles explains what they are to April says something about their personalities:
  Leonardo: Well, miss...we're ninjas.
  Raphael: We're mutants.
  Donatello: Technically we're turtles
  Michelangelo: Oh, and we're teenagers, but we can still have "adult conversations"
  • Leo says they are ninjas, showing his dedication to his training.
  • Raph says they're mutants, indicating his surly outlook and how he focuses on what makes him an outsider.
  • Scientific-minded Donnie points out what they are in a literal sense.
  • Youthful and energetic Mikey says they're teenagers while still trying to appear more "grown up" than he really is.
• It may not be obvious at first, but Eric Sacks's name is meant to sound like an Anglicization of Oroku Saki (Though Oroku is supposed to be the family name, not Saki).
• Splinter getting his ass kicked by Shredder. He taught himself ninjitsu via a book, and never had any combat experience. He was able to land a few blows on Shredder, and that is partly due to the fact that he fought with his rat abilities, and Shredder is apparently used to human opponents.
• Splinter's use of his tail. Unlike other versions of the character, he uses it extensively. Why? Because unlike other versions of the character, he wasn't taught by humans, and therefore doesn't try to fight like a human.
• Mikey farting in the narrow drain. They're already on a diet of pizza, and Mikey is the one with a taste for cheese.
• The turtles could have found out April's name by looking at her phone, but there might be another reason: April is a reporter, and they could have seen her while monitoring the news for Foot clan activity.
• The apparently random beatboxing moment in the elevator. Bear in mind they're heading out to battle, possibly to the death. Beating out music on the battlefield is Older Than Feudalism - drums of war anyone?
• Mikey's comment on holding back a Cowabunga for years is a subtle nod to the fact the character has not said the line in media for several years.
• The turtles recover awfully quickly from having large amounts of their blood drained, and never seem to crash from what was indicated as potentially fatal levels of adrenaline. Then again, they also have a substance known for regenerative properties in their bloodstream which may have mitigated the effects.
• With the mutagen working to constantly rebuild their bodies, and the massively larger size of the turtles, pizza starts to make more sense as a signature food, carb-loading their bodies to fuel them up.
• With the release of the trailer for the sequel, in retrospect this film resembles the original Mirage comic. The Turtles have rougher, more animalistic models of the turtles; the enemies are realistic rather than cartoonish ninjas (although even in the Mirage comic they didn't use guns); and the Shredder is a relatively unimportant Starter Villain who isn't even unmasked and dies at the end of the issue. With Out of The Shadows adopting a look more reminiscent of the original cartoon, the films almost seem like a meta-retrospective of the franchise.
• A minor thing, but the color pattern evident on Donnie's glasses? It's Tortoise Shell
• Dr. O'Neill dying while destroying the lab might have been intentional. If he had lived, he would have known about the mutagen and would have been hunted down by the Foot Clan, putting his daughter and possible offscreen family at risk.
• The training regimen Splinter puts his sons through is called the Hashi. "Hashi" is Japanese for "bridge", which in context refers to building and strengthening muscles for balance and endurance. Since these Turtles have super strength that outclasses their ninja abilities, it's an apt exercise for them.
• The turtles are punished with exercises that highlights their weaknesses.
  • Leo has trouble with balance, so he is balancing himself along with eggs.
  • Mikey can't seem to sit still, so he is forced to maintain one position or else he'll fall.
  • Raph has trouble doing delicate things so he basically knits while maintaining his balance.
  • And Donny has issues with focus so he has to keep that ping-pong ball moving all while maintaining his balance on a platform.
• Turtles are incredibly strong animals, since they are born with shells on their back. Thus, the Turtles are seen to be superhumanly strong in the film.
  • Rats are strong creatures too, and in fact they are unstoppable and very intelligent creatures. Splinter is utterly unleashed in his fight scenes.

Fridge Logic

• The bad guys' master plan contains lots of it. Shredder will release a deadly poison gas into Manhattan, killing thousands. Then Sacks will play the savior, unveiling an antidote for the poison, which will supposedly prompt the US government to write him a blank check to manufacture it. This plan assumes that nobody will be suspicious that: a) Sacks was able to create a antidote for a previously unknown poison within days, b) the poison was released from the top of Sacks Industries company headquarters, and c) the Sacks Industries logo is on the poison container.
  • Not to mention after Shredder activates the countdown timer (which is located 20 feet from the container for some reason) to release the poison and the turtles show up to deactivate it, he continues to fight them even as the timer ticks down toward zero. Had he succeeded in holding them off, the poison would have killed him.
    • This all hinges on the poison being very fast-acting, of course. If the poison takes weeks to work, and since Sacks intends to let a significant portion of the city die, it could realistically be months before he needs to introduce his cure, notwithstanding that the mutagen is a cure-all to begin with and he could easily claim to have been working on it for decades. If we assume it would be weeks before the first cases begin to show, there may be no way to track the poison back to the top of Sacks Industries and no reason to go looking for it.
    • The poison is fast acting at least if applied directly, as with the mook in Sacks' lab. The Shredder, however, is wearing Power Armor and may have an internal air supply or some other form of nuclear, biological, chemical protection.