MST3K
Register
Advertisement

Send them a movie. Something hurtful. Something lancing....searing....excruciating....something English.
- Pearl Forrester


Sorry I killed you, Mike.
- Crow T. Robot


The Movie[]

Main article: The Projected Man (film)

Synopsis[]

Projectedman

The Projected Man

A scientist is injured during an experiment and develops a "touch of death". He seeks revenge on those he believes to have wronged him.

The Episode[]

Host Segments[]

The Projected Man

“Stop with the whispery hissing! You sound like a Brian Eno record!”

Opening: The Satellite of Love has exited the wormhole, and is back orbiting the Earth, present day. Mike shows off his latest Shatner impersonation. Tom can't handle (what he thinks is) another parallel Earth.

Segment 1: Pearl, Bobo, and Brain Guy arrive at Castle Forrester. Pearl shows off her new organ-playing skills (cheered on by the SOL crew) and declares the place, "so freakin' cool"!

Segment 2: Crow and Tom have invented a "projecting machine" which they use to "project" Mike’s most precious possessions, including his class ring, his St. Blaise medal from his grandma to protect his throat and love letters from Denise that she wrote right before she died. Mike suspects that the device actually destroying his possessions and tricks the Bots into "projecting" Tom's autographed photo of Shirley Jones.

Segment 3: Mike is on the phone with Lembach. He tries to convince Lembach to stay a little longer. He bribes him with pie and a trip to Shenanigans. Lembach is staying!

Meanwhile, in Castle Forrester, Pearl learns more about her family history. Apparently odd experiments run in the family.

Segment 4: Crow’s experiments in "projectedness-itivity" have given him the Touch of Death, and he accidentally kills Mike, forcing the bots to drag Mike into the theater. Luckily, Crow resuscitates him by shaking his hand.

Segment 5: It's Grant Day! Tom and Crow compete for funding from Mike’s new foundation, Michael J Nelson: The Foundation. Tom asks for $50, but can't remember if he got distilled water or not and the project is denied. Crow wins the $50 for his project: "to buy two new leaf blowers and a hat".

In Castle Forrester, Pearl has (after a gentle reminder by Brain Guy and Bobo) rediscovered her mission: taking over the world.

Stinger: Lembach is staying! And there is much rejoicing!

MST3K cast[]

Regular cast

Guest cast

Trivia[]

  • First appearance of Castle Forrester, as well as the new uniforms for Pearl, Bobo, and Observer.
  • On the debut airing of this episode, the audio of Mike & the Bots in the theater was overly echo-y. This was a technical error due to changes in the show's audio mixing capabilities. It would be fixed when the episode re-aired several months later.
  • Unusual Credits: Bobo continuously falls down the stairs throughout the end credits.

Callbacks[]

  • "Mitchell."
  • "And bring me some ham." (Devil Doll)
  • "You're an ugly, stupid little doctor." (Devil Doll)
  • "You ugly little dummy." (Devil Doll)

Obscure References[]

  • "Fabergé presents!"
  • "The Incredible, Edible Earth!"
A Fabergé egg is a jewelled egg created by the House of Fabergé, in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire. Of the 69 known Fabergé eggs, 57 have survived to the present day. Secondly, "The Incredible, Edible Egg" is the long-running marketing slogan for the American Egg Board.
  • "Is this The Rite of Spring? Should we be rioting right now?"
The opening percussion in the movie's soundtrack is similar to that of Igor Stravinsky's ballet and orchestral concert work The Rite of Spring. When first performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on May 29, 1913, the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a sensation, and a myth now persists that there was a "riot" despite the lack of any evidence and witness statements that there was no violence. [1]
  • "Like Cris Collinsworth?"
  • "And without a receiver." "So, not like Cris Collinsworth."
Cris Collinsworth is a sports broadcaster and former NFL player who was the wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals during the 1980s.
  • "What's the principle you employ?" "Mr. Weatherbee, as usual."
A play on words (principle, principal) presumably referring to Mr. Weatherbee, the principal of Riverdale High School in the Archie Comics universe.
  • "Are we not blokes?"
A reference to Devo's debut album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, which is itself a reference to The Island of Doctor Moreau, wherein "Are we not men?" is a rhetorical question used to reinforce the Law of the Beast Folk. For example, the first law recited is, "Not to go on all-fours; that is the Law. Are we not men?"
  • "Is she breastfeeding him all of a sudden? What is she, Tori Amos?"
Tori Amos is a singer-songwriter whose popularity peaked in the 1990s. The liner notes of her album Boys for Pele include a photo of Amos breastfeeding a piglet.
  • "Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage."
Lyric from the 1995 song "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" by The Smashing Pumpkins.
  • "'Scuse me while I disappear!"
This is the penultimate lyric from the jazz standard song "Angel Eyes" by Matt Dennis and Earl Brent (not to be confused with the song of the same name that is sung in the film Daddy-O).
  • "I want some amontillado!"
A reference to the short story "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe, in which a character lures an enemy to their death by promising to share some valuable amontillado wine with them, then sealing them alive behind a brick wall in a wine cellar.
  • "Gloria?" "G L O are I A"
Lyric from the chorus of "Gloria", a rock song written by singer-songwriter Van Morrison, and originally recorded by Morrison's band Them in 1964.
  • "Gloria?" "in excelsis Deo"
Often abbreviated to "Gloria in Excelsis" or simply "Gloria", "Gloria in excelsis Deo" (Latin for "Glory to God in the highest") is a Christian hymn known also as the Greater Doxology and the Angelic Hymn/Hymn of the Angels. Additionally, it is one of the one of the church cantatas written by the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
  • "Gloria?" "I hear they got your number"
"Gloria, I think they got your number" is a line from "Gloria", singer Laura Branigan's hit 1982 song.
  • "Smell the glove!"
The fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap is shown in the movie This Is Spinal Tap releasing an album titled Smell the Glove.
MST3K_901_Promo

MST3K 901 Promo

  • "The English Harvey Dent."
Harvey Dent is the real name of the Batman villain Two-Face, who is horribly mutilated on one side of his body like the Projected Man.
  • "High Plains Matron!"
High Plains Drifter is a 1973 Western film starring Clint Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who metes out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town.
  • "Oh, Warriors, come out and PLAY-AY!!!"
This is a line from the 1979 action thriller film The Warriors.
  • "Big man, pig man! Ha, ha, charade you are!"
This lyric comes from the song "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" from the 1977 Pink Floyd album Animals.  The song is referred to several times during the scenes at Battersea Power Station, probably inspired by the fact that the cover of Animals features a photo of the power station (with a pig floating between its spires).


Memorable Quotes[]

[Pearl complains to Brain Guy about the mysterious whispering in the castle.]
Observer: Well, it's not me, Pearl! I'm sensing the presence of several disembodied souls… [increasingly melodramatically] wandering these dark halls in search of surcease, an end to their endless night… a howl of quiet desperation… towards an indifferent universe. Nepenthe! Nepenthe!
Pearl: You are so gay.
Observer: I could be wrong.
[Steiner turns on the projecting machine, making numerous high-pitched sci-fi noises]
Man: What's he doing?
Crow: Oh, he's just doing his patented incredibly-annoying sound effect routine!
[Dr. Hill narrowly avoids colliding with a car outside a laboratory]
Dr. Hill: You better watch where you're going!
Dr. Mitchell: Pretty you may be!
[A security guard approaches the woman's car and murmurs something]
Crow [as Guard]: Uh, he said "Pretty you may be!", ma'am. I'm not sure what he meant!
. . .
[Dr. Hill drives away]
Servo: Uh... driving she may be!
[Dr. Hill is parking her car]
Crow: Ah parking! What a great way to establish character and create tension!
[The car's engine makes odd noises]
Mike: An exhaust system she may need!
[British scientists Steiner and Mitchell are about to project Dr. Hill's dematerialized watch. All three are dressed in white lab coats and wearing space-age protective goggles.]
Prof. Steiner: Laser Preheat!
Dr. Mitchell: Laser Pre-Heat… in!
Crow [as Prof. Steiner]: Grease and flour cake pans!
Prof. Steiner: Laser Emission Relay.
Dr. Mitchell: Laser Emission Relay… on!
Servo [as Prof. Steiner]: Bottom falling out of… plot! Movie… sucks!
Mike: Are we not blokes?
Prof. Steiner: Relay One.
Dr. Mitchell: Relay One… in!
Servo [as Prof. Steiner]: Really dumb scene… end!
[Virtually identical re-creation of projection scene.]
Crow: Yes! It's the same thing you've seen before! Only it's... happening again!
[A thief goes looking for his accomplice Gloria.]
Thief: Gloria?
Mike [as Thief]: G-L-O-R-I-A?
Thief: Gloria!
Servo [as Thief]: In excelsis Deo!
Thief: Gloria!
Crow [as Thief]: I hear they got your number.
[Police are investigating Latham's murder.]
Inspector Davis: Can I get on?
Servo: [as Dr. Mitchel] Well, he's dead, but knock yourself out.
[The movie ends with Paul destroying the laboratory, and eventually himself with the projection laser]
Crow: Well, this is kind of an ambiguous ending. Is this film horrible or did it merely suck?
Servo: Yeah! Now that I have seen it, do I want to kick a dog or a cat?
Crow: Do I want the director just killed or should he be tortured first?
Mike: Crow!
. . .
[The last shot of the movie shows the screen covered in flames.]
Crow: Ah, so the movie and all the actors in it roast in Hell!!
[Mike and the 'bots cheer loudly]

Video releases[]

Theprojected man

MST3K DVD Cover

References[]

  1. Tamara Levitz, “Racism at The Rite” in The Rite of Spring at 100 (Indiana University Press, 2013)
Advertisement