Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie Information

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie is a 1996 American comedy film and a film adaptation of the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000, produced and set between seasons 6 and 7 of the show. It was distributed by Gramercy Pictures and produced by Best Brains and Universal Studios.

The filmmakers dub a new comic narrative over the 1955 science fiction film This Island Earth, editing out approximately twenty minutes of the original film.

Plot

For the plot of the film-within-the-film, see This Island Earth

The film opens with mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester, working from an underground laboratory, explaining the premise of the film (and associated TV series). Mike Nelson and the robots Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, along with Gypsy, are aboard the Satellite of Love high in Earth's orbit, when Forrester forces them to watch the film This Island Earth to break their wills; as per the television show, Mike, Crow, and Tom riff the film as it airs.

The film-riffing scenes are book-ended and interspersed with short sketches. Prior to the film, Crow attempts to dig through the ship's hull to return to Earth. After the filmstrip breaks and Forrester reloads it, Crow and Tom dare Mike to drive the Satellite himself, but ends up crashing into the Hubble Space Telescope; Mike then tries to repair the Hubble using the Satellite's manipulator arms, MANOS, but instead further damages the unit before Gypsy takes over. Some time into the film, Tom reveals that he has an interocitor like that used in This Island Earth. The gang tries to use Tom's device to return to Earth, but instead contact a Metalunan (the alien race from the film) who is unable to help them to figure out how to use it correctly but does accidentally repeatedly zap Tom's head with a laser beam. The contact is broken by Forrester, who also has an interocitor, and he zaps the group to encourage them back to the theater.

After the film, Mike, Crow, and Tom are far from broken, celebrating in various Metaluna ways. Forrester, furious at his failure, attempts to use his own interocitor to harm Mike and the others, but only succeeds in transporting himself into the shower of the Metalunan previously seen. Mike and the robots briefly celebrate Forrester's disappearance before they realize they no longer have a way back to Earth without him. Upon this realization, the crew goes back to the theater to riff on the film's ending credits.

Cast

Michael J. Nelson as Mike Nelson
Trace Beaulieu as Crow T. Robot / Dr. Clayton Forrester
Kevin Murphy as Tom Servo
Jim Mallon as Gypsy
John Brady as Benkitnorf

Production

A film deal with Paramount Pictures fell through when the studio wanted to explore the characters' back stories instead of heckling on movies. Universal Studios still picked the rights up after studio executives attended the show's "ConventioCon ExpoFest-O-Rama" in 1994, where the cast performed a live riff on This Island Earth, an Universal production. The film was shot away from the Best Brains corporate headquarters and studio in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, at Energy Park Studios in St. Paul.

Deleted scenes

At the beginning of the film, it was originally planned to have a new version of the "MST3K Love Theme" by Dave Alvin, but the song was reduced to an instrumental version over the end credits.
To trim the film's duration, Gramercy ordered one of the host segments to be cut. In this scene, Mike and the bots hide out in the ship's storm shelter to avoid a meteor shower. The barrage of meteors threatens to damage the ship's oxygen supply, and Crow, Servo, and Gypsy rush to save Mike's life.
The ending was also changed - originally, the film's final moments depicted Mike and the bots exacting revenge on Forrester by hooking up Servo's interocitor to the video feed from the Hexfield Viewscreen and sending a Metalunan mutant (played by MST3K prop man and toolmaster Jef Maynard) to strangle the mad scientist. At the end, Crow goes back to the basement to plan another escape attempt, this time armed with the chainsaw that he found in Servo's room earlier in the film.
The new theme song, cut scene, and alternate ending were shown at the "Mystery Science Theater 3000 ConventioCon ExpoFest-O-Rama 2: Electric Bugaloo" in 1996, but were not included on home media releases until the Shout! Factory Collector's Edition.

Release

Box office

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie was released on April 19, 1996 in only 26 cinemas. Still, in its opening weekend, the film grossed $206,328, a $7,935 per theater average. It went on to gross $1,007,306.

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 80% rating, based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's consensus states: "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie may be thin and uneven, but it's hilarious in enough of the right spots to do the show's big-screen transition justice."

Home media

The film was released on VHS by MCA/Universal Home Video to rental outlets on October 1, 1996. The film was released for retail sales on April 8, 1997 on both VHS and Laserdisc formats. MST3K: The Movie was released on DVD in 1998 by Image Entertainment, as a discount title with an MSRP of $14.99.

Universal re-released the DVD on May 6, 2008 through their Rogue Pictures subsidiary. The film is in anamorphic widescreen, and includes an upgraded Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, with English subtitles, a first for an MST3K DVD, and an alternate French language that is noticeably different from the original English one as many of the pop culture references that the show was famous for did not translate well overseas and had to be replaced.

It was announced on June 7, 2013 that Shout! Factory would be releasing The Movie on a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack Collector's Edition. This release included, for the first time, the deleted scenes from the film.

TV airings

Besides being released on VHS, Laserdisc, and DVD, in recent years, the film has also been shown on the Starz and HBO television channels in the USA, and the film has been aired frequently in Europe on the Sky Movies channels.