Mystery Science Theater Mysteries, things/people/events from MST’ed movies that were never explained and made no sense, even for a bad B movie. Some of these things may have been explained later in interviews, etc., but if someone was watching the movie for the first time with no background, what’s a total mystery?
Mine is who is that woman in the photo on Rowsdower’s dashboard? Girlfriend, wife, ex? Dead sister? Is he stalking someone?
Mine would have to be: “In The Touch of Satan,” why show us where the fish lives and not tell us more about the fish? Is he a great white? A nice tasty red snapper? The world wants to know!
Your turn.
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
Who originally funded Gizmonic Institute and what was its mission? Was a very young Elon Musk somehow involved?
I’ve explained this before. The sound recorded during filming is almost always unfit for the final product. Ambient noise, volume levels, etc. mean it’s not good at all. So, most movies have ALL of the dialog and sound-effects added in post-production. So, EVERYONE is “dubbed.”
The real question is why Elaine was so VERY BADLY dubbed.
how was Santa Claus killed in Vietnam?
Why’s the short called Hired!? I don’t remember them hiring anyone during the short, just car salesmen and magic elves.
Also, just how harmless is a kitchen?
so…he was the British equivalent to FEMA?
And how thoughtful of the producer and director, after the thrill- and chill-a-minute ride that was THE DEADLY BEES, to end it with a gag that sent us all home chuckling.
Thank you, Freddie Francis, for making us laugh at beaurocracy . . . again!
Answer – The back of the shirt reads, “THIS IS A VERY OLD SHIRT” so it’s either an attempt at humor or a pitiful prevarication.
In that city council meeting, what did Jamie suggest as ways to prevent juvenile delinquency, aside from tearing off patches and not attacking drivers at random?
As a teacher of Russian literature, I approve of this comment. Mando3b
The spaceship in “Space Mutiny” has been an eternal mystery to me: Where is everyone in relation to everyone else? Where’s the motor? Is the boiler room below the bridge or off to the side? And why doesn’t anybody on the bridge seem to know what Kalgon is up to? Doesn’t he have to report to them?
What exactly was the deal with Torgo’s legs? Was he a goat-man from the waist down? And how did that tie into his extreme difficulty in walking short distances?
What happened to the Chicken WOMEN of Krankor? Was there a giant hutch under the castle where they sat on their nests all day? Was the giant guardian really just a poor old farmer trying to defend his homestead?
Yeah, that’s true. No doubt the impulses of a teen.
In the movie “Sidehackers”, what the Hector Elizondo happened to the sidehacking?? There was a few minutes of it at the very beginning of the movie, and that’s the last we see or hear of it.
Yeah, they sell those in all the touristy beach towns. I think it’s more a misguided attempt at what they thought American youth in the 80’s thought was fashionable.
In “Alien From LA”, how did Wanda and her dad survive falling thousands of feet into a pit?
In both “Zombie Nightmare” and “Future War”, why does nobody even think of calling 911 when somebody’s been hit by a car? And in Zombie Nightmare, why do the first random guys who happen onto the scene buy right into the whole voodoo thing? And where DID she get all those candles, anyway??
Why did Vorelli hate Hugo so much? They never explained that, or even hinted at a reason.
The Chicken Men from Krankor Camel Toes(?), a fashion choice? laundry not done? a uniform requirement? I guess only the Phantom knows?
Of course, the big ones:
How did Joel eat? … breathe?
and … well, other science facts?
You really don’t want to know.
Strictly speaking, a mercenary is someone who does something (which may or may not be socially acceptable) purely for money. I would argue she’s more of a budding psychopath.
I mentioned this in the Prince of Space discussion, but underwear is a relatively recent development in Japan. This became notable in the original production of The Mikado, where they were attempting to make the costumes and props as authentic as possible. Much to the consternation of the wardrobe department, they learned that a Japanese woman and her yukata was like a Scotsman and his kilt.
it was just rough sex with Michael Douglas.
who said, watch out for snakes.
Let me refer you to an old song once recorded by Willie Nelson, “I’m My Own Grandpa.” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/willienelson/immyowngrandpa.html
Thought of another one. In Avalanche, why did the kitchen have its own cheerleader?
Why the Bowler headed guy with happy music at the end of the Deadly Bees?
I’m not sure whether the one in the movie was a tie-in shirt with Virgin Records (the logo looks similar), but in this case, it’s supposed to be Instant Character Exposition for the minor recording-studio character (he’s the best!)
Mr. Humphries had less obvious expository clues on “Are You Being Served?”
Indeed: Why does half the audience, who actually watches the film, have to keep pointing it out to the other half, that must laugh at whatever Mike thinks funny without watching it too closely?
To paraphrase The Fonz:
“I like Mike. My bike likes Mike.”
’nuff said.
Not everyone can watch a movie, any movie, with undivided attention. Someone may have to get up with a child, take a bathroom break, whatever. I am happy to point out interesting things to other MSTies and hope they will continue to do the same for me.
I also fervently hope that there are new MST3K fans every single day, and new fans to Satellite News too. New fans would make up for the people who have left this site due to the poison spewed on every single post from an internet troll.
Can any one think of any reason (good or bad) to bring, let alone detonate an atom bomb on the King Dinosaur mission? Since they blew them up it’s too bad they didn’t have a PICTURE of them.
Why did using the Laserblast laser blaster turn people in to indestructible homicidal Ziggy Stardust lizard people?
In Robot Monster, why… everything? I know it was all just a dream, but still, the hell?
What puzzled me was where the “Southern Sun” was in relation to the rest of the universe. The narration says they are a colony ship that has been travelling for generations in space and someone mentions impulse drive engines so they can’t be moving very fast. Yet they seem to have frequent visitors- heroin chic rhythmic gymnasts, screechy jocks, doomed professors.
Also, the fact that it was made in apartheid South Africa and the ship was called the Southern Sun always makes me a bit uneasy, like they are colonists trying to preserve the pure culture of their Boer forebears.
What secrets are those lizards telling each other?
Yeah, after I posted my comment, I thought about the name Southern Sun: I mean, they’re in space! There’s no north or south in space! So “Southern” in relation to what? Learning that “Space Mutiny” was a product of South Africa added a slimy patina of creepiness to what was already an awful movie.
Speaking of geography, the locale of “Red Zone Cuba” has always baffled me: Where the hell are Coleman and the boys when the film starts? Where do they wind up when they are (seemingly) teleported off of Cuba? All journeys in that movie seem to take five minutes, like a quick jaunt down the block.
What about Operation Double 007? As is the case with so many Bond ripoffs, they seemed to throw a bunch of cool-seeming-but-not-well-developed ideas into a blender with no regard for coherency. Why did they need Vegas showgirls to steal an atomic nucleus? Why were they making radioactive rugs? Why the muumuu? Was a plastic surgeon / hypnotist REALLY the only person who could achieve whatever the goal of the movie was?
See also: Secret Agent Super Dragon, Danger Death Ray.
Even someone as blinded by jealousy as you obviously are can certainly understand that Mike, et. al., didn’t write or produce “The Deadly Bees”.. it was just a movie they were riffing on.
The original poster simply asked what the deal was with the late-arriving British bureaucrat. The scene, and the follow-up question, had *nothing* to do with Mike telling us what to laugh at. You jealous, petty, basement dwelling little cretin.
Tl;dr – Delete your account.
Why don’t they look, Ralph? Tell me… why don’t they look…
Gare
First Spaceship on Venus: what in the Sam Scratch was that crazy robot SAYING? Millibars? Mallowmars? Foreign cars? Or was it simply an incomprehensible accent run through a low rent East-German synthesizer?
I have it on very poor authority that the robodog was saying “Bidi-bidi-bidi”, but in an obscure German/Polish dialect known as Twikisprech. Stanislaw Lem was not amused.
Who would take Creature from the Black Lagoon, and its sequel Revenge of the Creature, and reimagine them into a new movie which would win the Oscar for Best Picture? (Answer: Guillermo del Toro, apparently)
This might make for a good WDT – what MST movie would you reimagine/reboot into an Oscar-caliber movie, and how would you do it?
Screaming Skull: Daniel Day Lewis as Eric, Meryl Streep as Jenni, Woody Harrelson & Catherine Zeta Jones as Rev & Mrs Snow, John Malkovich as Mickey.
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Skull FX etc by Industrial Light & Magic
non sequitur
If you ignore trolls, they go away. Keep replying to them is how they get their jollies.
My guess here is that Vorelli has Hugo in a hypnotic state while trapped in his dummy form (with him using said state to have Butt-Lady killed off while maintaining an alibi), with Hugo slowly but surely breaking free of Vorelli’s control through the course of the movie (i.e. the bit with the ham, informing English to research 1948 Berlin, the final confrontation at the end of the film).
The idea here is that Torgo is supposed to be a satyr, with that side of him being represented by his legs and his lust for Margaret.
Oh, man . . . I would love to hear a detective or prosecutor in some police procedural use the line “using said state to have Butt-Lady killed off” . . .
“Being From Another Planet” what exactly was the alien’s mission?
To get stranded in the desert, kill King Tut, and then sleep for 3000 years?
And how did the crystal burn the oily guy but Ben takes the alien’s hand and is okay? (other than getting teleported away so he can be anal probed)
What did Buffalo Bill actually say when he mumbled something that sounded like “New England journalists”?