Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996) on Netflix
Dr. Clayton Forrester, a mad scientist, forces Mike Nelson, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo to watch This Island Earth. Mike and the robots are aboard the Satellite of Love.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.1/1019,358 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes80%
Trailer
Plot summary
From a laboratory below ground, Dr. Clayton Forrester means to break the will of the test subject he keeps in orbit. Mike Nelson, Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo and Gypsy live aboard the Satellite of Love, and the scientist sends them This Island Earth to watch. They have no say over when it begins or stops, so Mike, Crow and Tom trade jokes about it while it runs. Between screenings, Crow works at the ship's hull hoping to get back to Earth, and when Crow and Tom dare Mike to take the helm he crashes into the Hubble Space Telescope. Tom has an interocitor of his own; the crew's attempt to use it puts them in touch with a Metalunan who cannot explain it and fires a laser at Tom's head.
Cast
- John Bradyas Benkitnorf
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- After Universal and Gramercy insisted on cuts and reshoots, Mallon said one of the more vocal executives behind them was Carr D'Angelo, so the crew made Crow a chainsaw prop with the name "Carr" on it as a jab at the executive.
- An early version of the script included a reference to The Beatles, but the writers were told it would cost $100,000 to clear the licensing rights to use the name, so pop-culture references had to be limited.
- Hodgson pitched the film idea to Paramount Pictures to tap its library, such as When Worlds Collide (1951), but the deal fell apart when the studio wanted to explore the characters' backstories instead of heckling on movies.
- The original ending had Mike and the bots hook Servo's interocitor to the Hexfield Viewscreen and send a Metalunan mutant, played by prop man Jef Maynard, to strangle Forrester; afterwards Crow returns to the basement with a chainsaw to plan another escape.
- An early pitch had the Mads attending a mad scientists convention in Las Vegas, ending with the Satellite of Love crashing into the convention until a kaiju saves it; the bigger sets it required contributed to Hodgson leaving the show around 1995.
- The crew tested an early script as a live show before about 1,300 fans at the Uptown Theater in Minneapolis during the 1994 "ConventioCon ExpoFest-O-Rama", and with Universal executives in the audience, Universal agreed to distribute the film through Gramercy Pictures.
- Marketing was run by Gramercy, but the company had sunk most of its funds into its other release, Barb Wire, so the film's release was more muted than the crew had expected.
- A new version of the "MST3K Love Theme" by Dave Alvin was planned for the film's opening, but the song was reduced to an instrumental version over the end credits.
