Movie: (1979) At a remote facility, clones are being bred to serve as a source of replacement organs for the wealthy and powerful.
First shown: 6/7/97
Opening: Mike has a mustache and the bots like it — sort of
Intro: Three runaway space children awaken the campers
Host segment 1: The campers are forced to play games with the kids
Host segment 2: M&tB help Pearl out by putting on a public TV show
Host segment 3: Pearl, Bobo and Observer have “that” talk with the kids
End: Crow has a nosejob, and Tom has written a poem for the kids
Stinger: “Sure!”
(268 votes, average: 4.55 out of 5)
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• This is a (comparatively) thought-provoking idea for a movie, even if it is hamfistedly written, acted and directed. Still, it’s in color, it’s in focus, and its budget was (compared to most other MSTed movies) pretty big, so it’s pretty easy to look at, which helps make it a very watchable episode. The riffing starts slowly, but builds, and by the time of the campfire love scene, they are really clicking. The segments —- featuring a new, brief, story arc with the temperamental and omnipotent space children —- are fun. Not sensational, but there are definitely some laughs there.
• Paul’s take on the episode is here.
• Rhino included this episode in its The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 12.
• References.
• In 2005, when DreamWorks released “The Island,” also about a colony that breeds clones to harvest organs for the elite, the makers of “clonus” filed suit, claiming copyright infringement. DreamWorks settled out of court.
• As you enjoy Peter Graves’ performance, remember that he HATED MST3K.
• Just to make a fool of me, the guys completely disregard what I’ve said in the past about them usually showing restraint when a popular TV actor shows up. The presence of Dick Sergeant prompts quite a large number (this time I counted about 10) of “Bewitched” jokes and references. There are plenty of “Biography” references as well.
• I enjoyed Mike’s use of the famous Belloq taunt from “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” I’ve used it myself a time or two since this episode aired. It does have a certain insouciance.
• Daleism: Shot of man’s hand on podium. Servo: “Hey it’s…oh, I thought it was Dale.”
• For those of you playing along at home, this movie was shot a year after Keenan Wynn did “Laserblast,” so pretty much the same Keenan-ey era.
• Speaking of Keenan, I always feel sorry for the Nobels. This complete stranger shows up on their doorstep and they pretty much do the right thing right down the line, and they get blown up as a reward. Sheesh.
• Nice use of Dorf-style camera trickery during the segments. It works especially well on Paul, for some reason. Mike and Bridget are the other two children, of course.
• As Dr. F learned when he asked M&tB for help with his bed and breakfast, NEVER ask M&tB for help! Pearl learns this in segment 2.
• They would actually do a movie called “The Space Children” next season, but I don’t think they are really making a direct reference to that movie here.
• There’s a residual Adam Duritz riff.
• Best host segment line: “Tanta Bobo has to go see Uncle Reconstructive Urologist.”
• Mary Jo is hilarious in the “facts of life” segment.
• Then-current reference: Tom’s cry of “50 free hours of AOL???” Which was an offer Americans were getting at every turn.
• Cast and crew roundup: special effects guy Steve Karkus also worked on “The Touch of Satan” as did makeup guy Joe Blasco (he also did special effects for “Track of the Moon Beast.”)
In front of the camera, Peter Graves, of course, was in “It Conquered the World,” “Beginning of the End,” “SST: Death Flight” and was a narrator for “Attack of the the Eye Creatures. Keenan Wynn, as noted, was also in “Laserblast.” Lurene Tuttle was also in “Untamed Youth.” Greg Brickman did some stunts in “Hangar 18.”
• CreditsWatch: Beginning with this episode, Jim gets an “executive producer” credit that continues through the end of season 10. Kevin gets the first of several “produced and directed by” credits this season. This is the last week Brad Keeley gets an “audio mix” credit. And this is the last week John Sims gets a “SFX/foley” credit (but he’ll be back).
• Fave riff: “She really WAS on top of old smokey, wasn’t she?” Honorable mention: “Just making sure he hates this…”
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Maybe the ending’s “surprise” was supposed to be the sudden “call-back” to George…except that he died in like the first quarter of the movie and affected NOTHING.
If the speaker at the end had turned out to be the person LENA was cloned from, that MIGHT’ve had more meaning…except she didn’t really do anything in the movie either.
If any other clone had played a major role in the film, then having THAT clone’s “original” be revealed as the mastermind could’ve been meaningful:
“So the guy who fought Clonus was the clone of the guy who STARTED it in the first place. He (or rather Clonus, his creation/extension of himself) killed his clone but not before his clone had set into action the destruction of his creation/extension of himself (Clonus…if it had in fact been destroyed). He destroyed himself…and then he destroyed himself AGAIN. Deep, huh?”
I believe this is the first Sci-Fi era ep I saw all the way through (though not my first ever ep or anything).
The first part, at the clone farm, or clone community college, or clone industrial park, or whatever it is, is pretty dang good. Having survived the seventies, I have particular fondness for, get all of, the jokes aimed at that era. The campfire stuff and anything having to do with the no-nosed girl are great.
But the most hilarious scene is when our silly clone boy visits “Dad” and meets the guy he was cloned from or whatever. They get a lot of lovely milelage from clone boy’s wimpiness.
Still, it’s a bit slow it, um, parts, and parts of the ep, like the Graves/Biography stuff, leaves me cold. I’d say this a PARTly great and PARTly so so ep. A mixed bag of PARTS.
Eh…yikes.
And no I don’t this film is any better than your average msted movie. The budget doesn’t help. It’s just really bad.
B+
and who could forget Keenan Wynn as the voice of the Winter Warlock in “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town”? (won’t be long before it’s time to watch that again)
It seems I always have to mention something in the movie that bugged me. So here goes… I haven’t seen this one in awhile – not one of my faves. But, isn’t there a scene where the older “daddy clone” of our young hero is talking about how evil the whole cloning thing is, and being very ethical and stuff. And in just a few minutes he is completely turned around in his thinking, and decides that well maybe it’s not so bad afterall. I seem to remember getting whiplash from that particular moral 180.
Iggy Pop’s Brother Steve Pop, #37, thanks for mentioning the whole matter of control clones vs. the rest which have been “altered” mentally. I admit I heard the guard mention two “controls” who had met, but guess I assumed that that was the term for clones in general. Why? I obviously just didn’t pay enough attention to the details of the movie, and your explanation helps clarify something that definitely didn’t make sense. (Boy, the things I learn on this site…)
i’m with the minority on this one – one of my least favorite episodes & in my view one of the worst movies they did! after reading several favorable references to it on this site, i watched again about a month ago. i had forgotten how much i did like the space children bit – especially “agua” & the sex talk. but still found the movie to be awful to the point that i have trouble remembering many riffs.
as sampo has often noted, one person’s favorite is anothers least liked!
#24 – they threw out Koyaanisqatsi references left and right. There’s a project for someone with some time on their hands.
I dig the Mario jokes. If I remember correctly, they hum a little Mario music while the mustachioed doctor is working at one point in the film.
#29, let me point out AGAIN, that the tape Richard finds is 3/4″ BETA. It’s WAY too big to be a VHS tape, man. Sorry to correct.
Another one of my faves. The scene where Keenan & Wife bicker and explode is easily one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. I also love Servo going “Oww!” every time someone shoots a gun. “He’s taking a lot of hits.”, says Crow.
Oh, yeah, the “old smokey” scene … apparently that shot got framed like that because it had been a long night of filming, they were running out of time (and budget), the actor playing the girlfriend was being difficult, and, well, sometimes you just can’t re-set the whole scene yet again and have to accept the best take you got even though it’s got an embarrassing thing in it.
The Director’s Commentary on the un-MiSTed DVD release a couple years ago has a lot of sympathy-generating revelations like that.
Ah, fair enough… :) Of course, the fact that the tape is bigger than a VHS makes it even more obvious that he can’t possibly have it hidden in his pocket…
While the movie riffs and host segments are priceless, the movie itself is soul-crushingly depressing for me so I hardly, if ever, watch it.
Of course, being a fan of running gags, I do love the groin fire and Dr. Super Mario Bros. jokes.
I’ll hop on the bandwagon to call the kid’s show the funniest host segment in this episode, and quite possibly the funniest in the whole season. Much like the Captain Mike Janeway segment in Laserblast, it’s ROFL worthy.
Dick Sargeant and the Bewitched riffs overkill?
How bout them beating the living crap out of Peter Graves and Biography!
Swear every scene with him had a Biography riff, strange little to no Mission: Impossible! riffs.
-cs™
another of my favs from season 8….what dreary tv movie that only watchable with mike and the bots……it’s been awhile I need to dig this out and watch it again :grin:
Not a big favorite of mine. Through all the comparisons to the movie “The Island,” I’m always surprised no one compares “Parts” to the movie “Coma.” If you haven’t seen “Coma” — and I remember it as a pretty decent flick, though I was a kid when I saw it, so forget that recommendation, come to think of it — “Coma” has a LOT in common with “Clonus.”
From comments above, about the Brazilian singer Xuxa (on whose childrens’ show the AGUA sketch is apparently based), I decided to go online and find out about this Xuxa person.
Wow. :???:
The second-best selling singer in Brazilian HISTORY, the #1 single in Brazilian HISTORY, the #1 Children’s TV show and Kids’ record in WORLD HISTORY.
Now go on Youtube and watch a little. Find a performance of her WORLD WIDE HIT (I forget the title, find it online).
I don’t want to sound all culturally insensitive or anything. But what a bunch of crap. :wink:
I appreciated this episode a lot because…. well, I am a clone. I was raised in a facility much like the one depicted in the movie– the accuracy of some of the scenes was stunning, to say the least. One thing was different, though: Where I was they didn’t bag the clones. No, they encased them in large, clear Lucite “tombs” after they were fast-frozen. I remember the party for Jack when he finally went to America. We did have cake, ice cream, played some games, wrestled (I lost to Jack, which I must admit I did on purpose– it was HIS day, after all). I bumped into him about eight years ago. He was playing major league baseball as a third-baseman. I am not at liberty to say anything more, out of respect to Jack.
One day, though, I found out what was going on, what they were doing to my fellow Clonies (that was what I found out we were actually called by the doctors and scientists, Clonie), and I had to escape. My girlfriend, Jenny, didn’t want me to go but I told her I had to, I had to find my Clone-Daddy, I just had to connect to him. She wanted to come with me but I told her she should stay behind and I would come back for her. I miss Jenny so much.
I have been seeking my clone-daddy for a long time, and had nearly given up. After watching this episode, though, it gave me new hope and inspiration. I am sad to say that I haven’t found my clone-daddy yet but I am ever vigilant. One day I will find my clone-daddy.
Clone-daddy? Are you out there?
Clone-daddy
Part of my life
Each cell within me
Came from you
We are connected
In this world, Clone-Daddy
You are me and I am you
We are we and us and me and you
Clone-Daddy, do you know I exist?
Do you dream of meeting me
Like I dream of meeting you?
Reach out to me, Clone-Daddy
Please find your Clone-Boy
Or let me know where you are
And I will be by your side
Clone-Daddy? I love you.
I like to watch this episode after my nightly glass of cottage cheese. :oops:
I’ve professed my respect for Clonus already, but I can’t remember if I shared my foundational reason for it. When I first recorded this episode, my taped died halfway through, right at the point that Richard declared he was going to sneak in to “America” to find out what was going on. Although I hated to admit it, I was really annoyed because I really wanted to find out what happened! Would Richard discover that he was a clone? Would the secret get exposed and all the senators have to answer for it all? I guess what I’m getting at is that, despite the low budget and clunky dialogue, the movie apparently managed to instill enough suspense and interest to make me really want to know how it turned out. And that indicates at least some nugget of successful filmmaking lies at the core of this B-grade movie.
I finally saw the end when I successfully recorded the whole episode a couple of years later, and was mildly disappointed with the rest of the film. The tension fizzles out after the first half. But still, I give Clonus some credit, and after the whole “The Island” fiasco, and seeing the interview with the director on the Rhino DVD, I have a certain fondness for the film.
As for my favorite character, they’re all pretty dumb and annoying in their own way. But I’m going to pick Senator Knight, mainly because his characterization is so believable. While Richard Knight and his son are blandly moralistic, and the Clonus staff are thoroughly “2D-evil,” I totally buy Graves as the scumbag senator. Thoroughly self-absorbed and without a trace of compassion, the way the senator justifies his obviously selfish desires paints a pretty accurate picture of how most of our leaders probably think about themselves, with total assurance of their own in importance compared to the rest of us plebes. Sorry to be so cynical. Anyway, I think Graves pulls it off convincingly.
I’ll admit I wasn’t a big fan of the omnipotent children storyline, although Pearl’s reactions to them are pretty amusing. Mary Jo always puts in such a great performance.
#66 Do you mean “Ilariê”? It’s supposed to say some satanic stuff if you play it backwards, or so I heard :wink:
Check it out, pure 80’s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJX314oNSfQ
Don’t blame me, though. I’ve always liked Angélica best.
This episode was a highlight for me-as a gamer-due to the many Super Mario jokes due to the guy who looked like Mario (even though he was balding and wore glasses). There was even a guy who was a dead ringer for Luigi in the scene where they iced the clone known as George.
Here’s a list of the Mario jokes in this episode:
1: Mike: Professor Daren and Dr. Super Mario Brother.
2: Servo: (sings the Mario theme)
3: Servo: Ah…go eat a mushroom, Mario!
4: Crow: (as Dr. Mario as they prepare to kill George) Dr. Luigi will be assisting me here.
5: Mike: (As Dr. Mario in the elevator) I think Yoshi parked up on seven.
6: As the doctors argue about the escaped clone, Servo and Mike have a duet of the underground theme from Super Mario Bros. This song was also hummed by Mike in the scene where George was put in a body bag and frozen.
“You know – ANY ending would make me happier than I’ve ever been.”
I liked this episode. I fast-forwarded the host segments – except Crow’s nose job. I really just don’t like Pearl, Brain Guy and Bobo.
The boom mike made quite a few appearances in this flick. Oopsie.
They did kind of overdo the Biography gags. They should’ve sprinkled in some Mission:Impossible and Airplane! gags to keep it fresh. :roll:
A few good lines:
“So, they took the blood out of his right arm and put it into his LEFT arm.” – Mike
“Now, let’s put out our flaming crotches and we’ll find your nose.” – Mike
“Now I get it – I don’t understand a THING!” – Mike
“This is probably the most interest ANYONE’S shown in Milwaukee.” – Mike
“Convenient that he happened into the Department of Backstory.” – Servo
“Even though I’ve never seen one of these things, I’m completely terrified!” – Crow
“Do you realize how much I HATE YOU!” – Crow
“I can’t hear what they’re saying, and quite frankly, I don’t care.” – Crow
“Door to door Biography – I’d like to tell you about the fascinating life of Charles Grodin.” – Servo
“Some coffee for your thugs?” – Crow
“Huge lamps of the ’70’s – tonight on Biography.” – Mike
“Mistakes were made, brothers were killed.” – Crow
“Never store combustibles near your old people.” – Crow
“Uh – later, a guy is somewhere in the dark doing – something…” – Mike
“Often, James Arness’ mother would remark to friends that she loved her son, Peter Graves, so very, very much, while she hated James Arness and cursed the day her womb had been blighted with such a creature. James Arness – ugly and stupid – tonight on Biography.” – Servo
(Okay, I know I said they overdid the Biography jokes, but those ones WERE pretty funny). :wink:
TODAY!!
When the main character is escaping from the cloning facility, Mike says “He’s running through fields of wheat.” What is this a reference to? Even though I have no idea what they are talking about, I crack up every time…
First episode I saw. As I’ve watched it more since it came to DVD, it has become one of my favs. But still, too much BIOGRAPHY!
I was stunned when this movie got a very sympathetic review in the New York Times when it was released on DVD a few years back. They didn’t even mention that it had been on MST3K!
Say, anyone who saw The Island–was Clonus better?
Good episode. One of the best from Volume 12. THE ISLAND was okay, but too much action. It wasn’t as scary as PARTS.
CROW: “And the food…”
Well…even though the host segments are hilarious, this is an episode that I actively avoid. The movie’s just so dour and depressing…and you gotta admit…NOT MUCH HAPPENS! It’s mostly just “talky” with a lot of people engaging in arguments about morality, and it seems to just go on and on…yet another ninety minute movie that seems five hours long. I tend to imagine that this is how a movie would have turned out if Robert Lippert had been still been making films in the 70’s.
“Fields of WHEAT.” That’s a Woody Allen reference, correct?
#73: Woody Allen, “Love and Death.”
Bob Honcho #4 & 58:
Although Sony made both the 3/4″ U-matic and the 1/2″ Betamax, they have nothing else to do with each other. (There’s no such thing as a 3/4″ Beta.)
“This is our ool, notice there’s no P in it!”-Crow.
Say, what’s the name of the Star Trek episode from whence the omnipotent space children hail?
There’s something I always liked about how the children dominate this ep, and the arc for the next two is everyone else waiting around as Pearl gets rid of them. A nice way of fulfilling SciFi channel’s mandate without really restricting themselves, and nicely contrasting how the Rome arc from 816 to 820 would have the most rigid sense of continuity with their series of sting-music-enhanced cliffhangers.
The movies for the second half of season 8 yielded much better results than the John Agar film festival promised by Pearl, although that was just as classic a last line as the previous experiment’s, “Brain Guy, send ’em the movie…AGAIN!”
I’ll speak up in favor of the overabundance of Biography jokes.
My sister and I couldn’t get enough of it when we first watched this episode. We’d randomly say it to each other for days afterwards. Even now, one of us will occasionally sneak in a “on biography” in out best Peter Graves. :razz:
#15 That face!!!! That was hands down, the scariest moment in a mistie; That disturbed me more than anything I’ve seen in a long time. That was Exorcist scary for me – yikes. She had a yummy bod though.
I must admit i really do like this movie… and am less impressed than usual by the repetitiveness of the jokes Mike and the Bots do here.
Maybe it’s the interview with the director or just the 70’s-ishness i grew up with but i have sympathies for a (probably) strong script that was undercut in execution. The concepts play out okay, and things like the ‘controls’ or clone-Richard’s friend being the clone of the boss of Clonus made sense after a few viewings (us MSTies have probably watched it more than anyone else). My suggestion would be to have the movie play out completely from the clone POV; if you didn’t get the parts at the beginning with the Senator it would look like an M Night Shyamalan film, with the clones completely confused by the outside world.
By the way, am i wrong or is there nudity here with the models in the clone-bags at the beginning? And is that the only MST3K nudity?
The Bolern @ 82. There are 2 references really :
The omnipotent children with the funny hand gestures come from ‘And the Children Shall Lead’.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the_Children_Shall_Lead
The unseen omnipotent parents with an unruly omnipotent child come from ‘The Squire of Gothos’.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Squire_of_Gothos
The Bolern @ 82. There are 2 references really :
The omnipotent children with the funny hand gestures come from ‘And the Children Shall Lead’.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the_Children_Shall_Lead
The unseen omnipotent parents with an unruly omnipotent child come from ‘The Squire of Gothos’.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Squire_of_Gothos
personal aside of dubious interest to others.
( first, I love both Mike and Joel so no sh*t ok ? )
This is one of the few episodes, if not the only episode, where I found myself thinking how well the other host would have done. I almost NEVER think about Mike hosting Joel episodes or vice versa.
but Clonus.. for some reason that I can’t put into words, I think Joel and Clonus would have been a particulalry good fit. Not necessarily better than Mike, but both different and good. Maybe it’s the seventies… the authoritarianism…
Maybe it’s the birthmark, which looks like a deformed nipple, taking me back to Manos and “nipples, many shapes many size, some on my back”.
#73
“When the main character is escaping from the cloning facility, Mike says “He’s running through fields of wheat.” What is this a reference to?”
=================================
Could it have also been an allusion to North By Northwst?
#73, et al. I thought the reference to “wheat” (which they make in some other eps as well), was from the Woody Allen flick, “Murder in Manhattan”. He is stuck in an elevator with Diane Keaton and is getting muy claustrophobic and hyperventilating. He is imagining being a stallion running through “fields of wheat”. I could be so wrong, haven’t seen that movie in awhile. Pretty sure it is from some Woody flick, though.
Double post, sorry. Have we done a thread yet about obscure (to you) references, and how you eventually learned what it meant? Not counting Sampo explaining it. I have a couple funny ones. Ok, they are funny to me. All right, just to me.
This is one of those episodes that I don’t watch that often, but when I do, I say to myself, why don’t I watch this more often!
The movie itself is just BAD, I don’t care what anyone says. Our insipid ignoramus of a hero, his noseless girlfriend, the ridiculous clone “lifestyle,” the breathless yet totally lame conspiracy of it all — it’s all ripe MST fodder.
The ‘space children’ arc was perhaps my least favorite of the Season 8 host storylines, but this movie did yield 2 great bits — the Anglo vs. Latino childrens’ shows (perfect parodies of both!) and Crow’s nose job, which never fails to crack me up.
Petite @ 87. Your remarks relative to host switching I think would make for a very interesting thread.
Heads up Sampo!
#80, Oops, my mistake! I kinda forgot that so many people called the format ‘3/4″ BETA’ when that’s really not correct. Maybe Wikipedia has a picture of the inside of the tape. That will solve the problem!
but Clonus.. for some reason that I can’t put into words, I think Joel and Clonus would have been a particulalry good fit. Not necessarily better than Mike, but both different and good. Maybe it’s the seventies… the authoritarianism…
I think you’re on to something. parts reminded me a little of Stranded in Space, one of the better Joel-era MST3K movies. The cheesy ’70s look, the generic portrayal of a cliched dystopian society, the excessive earnestness are in both. Oh, and in both the hero gets temporary help from an old guy with old-fashioned values who’s doomed to die before accomplishing anything useful.
@73&89 et al–I was thinking Woody Allen’s Love and Death, where he starts staring off into the distance and muttering about fields of wheat.
Another classic episode! 4 stars. Something about cheezy 70’s films really seems to click for the writers.
Fairly entertaining movie (though the ‘Clonus’ premise is obsolete now, since we’ve learned to grow entire organs using stem-cells) + yet another appearance from Peter Graves (and more & more riffs on ‘Biography’).
On Mike’s moustache:
Tom: “you’ve given me the confidence that i need, I’m gonna go get a spiral cut ham and staple it to my top lip”
“Delicious hot-dog water”
Too many to list, but the riffs on the girl’s nose-job are well deserved … Crow’s nose-job at the end is really really funny & interesting how much the different beak makes him look like an infant.
The kids TV show segment is pure gold, Mike’s Xuxa impression and silver costume is hilarious and a little disturbing!
The “facts of life” segment is funny as well, great job on the pan across the various perspectives offered by Pearl, Observer and Bobo.
Kevin’s delivery is especially hilarious when he’s saying “a really good mate’s gonna be able to out-run you for a bit, just grab a leg and hang on tight! You’re gonna get kicked, that’s just part of it …”
I don’t know if the Space Children are drawn from any particular Star Trek episode. When Pearl finally gets them back to Mum and Dad the dialogue is straight out of “The Squire of Gothos”, but nothing else matches. Maybe they’re from some Next-Generation pap?
#85 bad wolf: “By the way, am i wrong or is there nudity here with the models in the clone-bags at the beginning? And is that the only MST3K nudity?”
There was definitely frozen-clone nudity in the uncut film, so maybe a stray nipple or two made it into the background of the MST cut. I’ve never noticed any, myself.
I think it would have been a lot funnier if Richard had been running around with one of those gigantic white Videodiscs under his turtleneck.