Unravelling the plot of Rat Movie 2
The storyline of Rat Movie 2 is truly a challenge to understand. It breaks the fourth wall multiple times, and by the end it's brought into question if the story even happened at all. In reality, it's a complex and confusing Nested Story. Let's take it apart here to theorize what really happened:
- So, we open with the rats crashing Michael's birthday party.
- The screen pauses, we zoom out. The film agent is pitching the birthday scene to the rats for an upcoming movie. Then the Giant Rat gets teleported to the Dog Capital.
- During the action sequence in the Dog Capital, there is an abrupt cut and the Giant Rat is suddenly brushing his teeth in a bathroom.
- The screen pauses again, zooming out to reveal Dick Richards and Button-Up Barry watching the rat's bathroom scene on their television. Both understand that what they have been watching is a movie, meaning everything up until this point was recorded. However, Dick believes that the movie is based on a true story. In the sewer, Dick proceeds to break the fourth wall multiple times, directly addressing the director Jerma and Lampshade Hanging that the sewer scene is padding out runtime. Then things proceed normally until the final battle.
- The climax abruptly cuts to the Giant Rat back in the bathroom again, as he flushes the Noah's Ark Toothbrush down the toilet. However, this time miniature versions of Dick Richards, Gerrard, and Sergeant Scritchy-Scratch can be seen on the bathroom floor.
From this gathered information, we can begin to piece together a cohesive narrative. Michael's birthday party is clearly part of a movie pitch. However, as soon as the Giant Rat hits the button on the teleporter drone, mystical harp noises indicative of a Dream Sequence play - this implies that the Giant Rat being transported to the Dog Capital was entirely in his imagination. In fact, he daydreamed the entire thing while he was on his way to brush his teeth after the meeting, as we can see he is back in the bathroom in his house when he flushes the toothbrush down the toilet.
Of course, this part itself is part of a larger movie which Dick and Barry are watching. However, it appears as though this larger movie is a non-fictional autobiography of sorts for the rats - the Giant Rat's daydreaming was included in the film for some action. Think about the title - "Rat Movie 2: The Movie" - it was implied right in the title that this film contains another film inside it. Dick realized that the Giant Rat flushed the toothbrush down the toilet outside the Dog Capital dream sequence, and took Barry to go search for it. However, he evidently got mixed up, as he also believed that the toothbrush truly was the Noah's Ark Toothbrush even though it was only in the Giant Rat's dream sequence. That's why Barry is so reluctant to follow him.
However, Dick and Barry's reaction to the movie was also part of the Giant Rat's imagination! This time, the real Giant Rat's imagination, not the recorded one featured in the paused movie. From here on, the encounter between the thieves, the Giant Rat, Gerrard, and the Cat Police is all a fabrication - another daydream from the Giant Rat. He put together this story in his head while in the bathroom (something that Jerma claims to do himself), using memories of Dick, Barry, Gerrard, and the Cat Police from the first Rat Movie, almost like self-fan-fiction. In fact, if the bathroom floor is anything to go by, the Giant Rat went and got his action figures to act it out.
So the hierarchy of events goes thusly:
- The rats' autobiographical film
- The rats meeting with the film agent for the pitch (part of the film)
- Movie pitch of Michael's birthday party (part of the film)
- The Giant Rat daydreams of the Dog Capital and Noah's Ark Toothbrush (part of the film)
- The Giant Rat brushes his teeth with a toothbrush, flushes it (part of the film)
- The rats meeting with the film agent for the pitch (part of the film)
- The Giant Rat daydreaming in the bathroom with his action figures
- The thieves watching the rat's movie, meeting the Cat Police, etc. (part of the Giant Rat's imagination)
The only things about Rat Movie 2 that "really happened" are the fact that the rats now have a movie of their own in-universe, and that the Giant Rat flushed a toothbrush down a toilet while playing with action figures. All other information is daydreaming or part of an in-universe film. It's all a what-if scenario made by the Giant Rat, wondering if people would believe his Dog Capital dream sequence featured in his film and what would happen if they tried finding the non-existent Noah's Ark Toothbrush.
In conclusion, Rat Movie 2: The Movie is a stunning feat of artistry by Jeremy Elbertson, and rivals complex narratives such as Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty with its mind-bending fourth wall-breaking.
