Recap / Futurama M 2 The Beast With A Billion Backs

The Proud Result of Prison Labor

Professor Farnsworth tries to solve the mystery behind the interdimensional anomaly that's been seen in the sky since Bender's Big Score. Meanwhile, Fry dates a female police officer named Colleen (voiced by Brittany Murphy, in what would sadly be her last voiceover role^note discounting her regular role as Luanne Platter on King of the Hill) who is in a polyamorous relationship with four other guys, Amy becomes Kif's fon-fon-ru, and Bender joins a secret society of robots that everyone else thinks isn't real.

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Tropes:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Electromatter paper acts very sharp towards regular matter, and also Yivo. Bender makes great use of it by covering his sword in pieces of the electromatter paper that Fry sent as correspondence, allowing him to actually harm Yivo.
• Adam and Eve Plot: Zapp suggests he and Leela repopulate the human race when it seems that the two of them and Amy are the last un-tentacled humans on the planet. It doesn't work, though Zapp does end up sleeping with a grief-stricken Amy. It's not the last time he'll bring it up.
• And Call Him "George": After Bender delivers the Spoof Aesop about how all true love is selfish, he declares "I love you guys," and captures Fry and Leela in a hug which causes them to wince in obvious pain.
• Baby as Payment: For the price of one (1) firstborn child you can get an army of the damned from robot hell, just be sure that there isn't a return policy.
• Back from the Dead: Kif gets killed early on in a botched attempt to attack the anomaly. Yivo brings him back later on.
• Banister Slide: Amy and Leela do this when they and Zapp are fleeing from Yivo. Zapp falls off the banister and instead accidentally skids down the steps, causing him great discomfort.
• Bizarre Alien Biology:
  • We learn here that Zoidberg has freshwater and saltwater stomachs. When he's sufficiently touched, he vomits from both of them.
  • The final lifecycle stage of Kif's species is revealed to be a swarm of flying hookworms that act as a colony creature.
• Black Comedy: Being of the Futurama equation, we're provided with quite a bit of this. A notable example would be Bender reuniting with his estranged first-born son in a heartwarming reunion scene, then taking him to the Robot Devil's office and nonchalantly punting the child into a vat of electric magma, which explodes and kills the tortured robots inside. The Robot Devil's reaction:
  Robot Devil: (surprised) Wow, that was pretty brutal even by my standards.
  Bender: No backsies!
• Blaming the Victim: Yivo excuses using shkler genticles to mate with everyone without their consent on the grounds that their universe dresses provocatively.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Fry's dismay at learning that Colleen is polyamorous plays out like this. As noted by his coworkers, and by Colleen herself, there's nothing inherently wrong with polyamory. However, polyamory isn't for everyone, and Colleen clearly never told Fry about her other boyfriends, so he has every right to be upset with her for duping him into a relationship setup that he's not comfortable with.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • One of Colleen's co-boyfriends is Bolt Rolands.
  • The Grand Midwife returns, also performing the role of Grand Priestess and Grand Funeral Director.
  • Robot 1-X returns momentarily in the final act, working for Bender.
• Caught Up in the Rapture: The universe's human and alien populace ascends to Yivo's universe by means of golden escalators. Because machines can't enter Yivo's universe, the robots are left behind.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Yivo covertly has sex with the entire universe, initially without them even knowing, but is also quite polite and willing to make things up to everybody by offering them eternal paradise living on shkler body.
• Comforting the Widow: Zapp Branigan comforts Amy after Kif is killed thanks to Zapp's incompetence... and eventually sleeps with her. Gets kinda awkward when he inevitably gets better.
• Covers Always Lie: The pulp-style poster depicts Leela being abducted by one of Yivo's tentacles, with Fry running away in the corner. Fry is the first one to embrace Yivo's reign, while Leela proves to be the most capable at fighting shklim off during shkler initial invasion and never even gets mind-controlled. The cover is also misleading about how Yivo abducts the Earthlings — shklee doesn't outright grab them with shkler tentacles, but inserts them into the back of the prey's neck as a means of mind control and mating.
• Crazy Jealous Guy:
  • Yivo doesn't like shkler paramour(s) talking to other universes, meaning shkle tries to cut off all contact with the now robot filled universe. Because Fry continued to contact Bender afterward, Yivo breaks things off.
  • How Crazy Jealous is Bender with regard to his best friend Fry? He kicks his own son into Hell in exchange for an Army of the Damned to Take Over the World with, all so Fry will stop being distracted with Yivo and pay attention to him.
    Bender: My friends, there is no great love without great jealousy!
• Deal with the Devil: Bender's deal with the Robot Devil; which grants him an Army of the Damned to conquer the Earth with, in return for his first-born son. Bender takes the Robot Devil up on the offer a little too eagerly, which visibly mortifies even him.
• Death Is Cheap: Kif gets killed in the second part of the movie. Yivo brings him back with ease.
• Despair Event Horizon: Fry and Bender cross it at the same time - Fry can't stand sharing Colleen in a polyamorous relationship and Bender finds out the League of Robots doesn't exist (or so he thinks).
• Didn't Think This Through: After the true nature of Yivo's tentacles is revealed to the people of Earth, Fry incites the crowd into attacking Yivo's mouth tentacle... which is using Fry himself as a host.
• Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: A romance between a Physical God and every organic life form in the universe considered as an entity.
• The Dog Bites Back: Kif punches Zapp in the belly at the end for sleeping with Amy while Kif was dead.
• Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal/ Double Standard: Rape, Sci-Fi: The billions of Earthlings who embraced Yivo's tentacles had no idea that they were shkler genitalia, and were all quite disgusted to find out. There's even a joke where Yivo victim blames the universe. Despite this, everybody quickly agrees to enter a legitimate relationship living on Yivo's body, and it's treated as a legitimate paradise.
• The Dragon: Fry. And as "tentacle-pope of the world", he's surprisingly competent.
• Dwindling Party: The Planet Express workers are caught by Yivo's tentacles one by one, until it's just Leela. Played with in that none of the members are killed.
• Eldritch Abomination: Yivo is an extremely friendly and sympathetic version of this.
• Enormous Engagement Ring: Yivo proposes to the universe with one of these ultra-large rings.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even the Robot Devil is shocked by how casually Bender is willing to send his own son to Hell in exchange for an army.
• Fanservice:
  • Amy funeral outfit◊. And she was the WIDOW!
  • Before, her bride outfit for the Fon Fon-Rubok ceremony.
• Expy Coexistence: Fry mentions the Country Bear Jamboree, an attraction at Disney Theme Parks (Magic Kingdom in Florida and Tokyo Disneyland in Japan, and formerly Disneyland at California). Way back in "the second episode of the series", there was the the Goophy Gopher Revue at Luna Park. This implies the Country Bear Jamboree still exists in some form in the 31st century.
• Flowery Elizabethan English: Fry starts speaking entirely in King James Bible-style phrases after he emerges from the other universe with a tentacle in his neck. At first you think it's because he's being puppeted by the tentacle, but it turns out he's just being Fry:
  Fry: Thus sayeth the tentacle, 'Verily, thou shalt rejoice in the house of the tentacle!'"
  Leela: Fry, listen to yourself! You've been brainwashed!
  Fry: No, I'm just trying to fit my diction to the importance of what I'm saying.
• Fluffy Cloud Heaven: What Yivo's body looks like. In fact, Yivo inspired the whole idea of heaven looking like this, because shklee telepathically transmitted images of shkler universe to the minds of Earth's artists. Among other things, the "clouds" are a vapor the alien exudes, and stereotypical humanoid "angels" with wings and halos are present, but they're not even sapient; they're just birdlike creatures who eat the parasites on Yivo's surface.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Just before Bender touches the anomaly, Wernstrom tries to call Planet Express to warn them, only for him to be rudely cut off by the Professor and Hermes. The Professor laments ignoring him afterwards.
• Friend Versus Lover: Bender vs. Colleen and later Yivo.
• The "Fun" in "Funeral": The somber mood of Kif's funeral is disrupted by his remains, collected in a mason jar, getting stuck and requiring effort to dump into his ancestral swamp waters. Everyone shouts suggestions to get it unstuck, including a mourning Amy peaking her frustration.
• Genius Loci: Yivo is something between this and an Eldritch Location, as its surface negates the laws that govern Fry's home universe and thus it behaves like an otherworldly place. However shkle is sentient and can communicate with the other universe's inhabitants. As such Yivo is unimposing and only asks the people there to come live on shkler surface after earning their trust (the act of using their tentacles to make first contact coming merely from not understanding civilized custom in the other universe and not anything malicious). Yivo is very nice and polite as sentient worlds go, albeit lonely (which warps sklher perception and makes them paranoid of possible unfaithfulness).
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: Yivo's tentacles work this way. Once they make contact with a person's neck, they immediately become overwhelmingly happy and totally in love with shklim. It's especially disturbing when we see the process in action with Amy and Zapp—seconds prior, they'd been actively trying to avoid Yivo, but as soon as the tentacles make contact, they're converted and start urging Leela to accept shkler love.
• Groin Attack: Inez (unknowingly) squishes one of the flies that made up Kif's father. Said fly was his left testicle.
  Bender: And the awkward-meter goes up another notch! Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!
• Hell Invades Heaven: In what is likely to be his biggest Moment of Awesome, Bender gathers the Legions Of (Robot) Hell and drags Yivo's Heaven down to Earth.
  Bender: If robots can't go to heaven, heaven can come to us!
• Hide Your Children: To avoid putting underaged characters in the vicinity of Naughty Tentacles, the film simply avoids showing children altogether... which gets weird once all of Earth's organic beings, including Farnsworth and the Conrads (all parents of grade-school children), vacate the planet and the universe to mutually marry Yivo, intending never to come back. There's not even a perfunctory Hand Wave.
• Humanity's Wake: All organic life's wake really, having moved in with their new spouse Yivo. A few of their sapient appliances are waiting for them to call.
• Irony: When Leela complains about Yivo's Fluffy Cloud Heaven, he claims she didn't like the Country Bear Jamboree either. Back in [1], Fry disliked the Goophy Gopher Revue at Luna Park (an obvious Expy of the Country Bear Jamboree) while Leela liked it (or just thought it was okay).
• Jail Bake: Leela delivers a smell-o-scope disguised as a cake to Farnsworth and Wernstrom in prison.
• Lampshade Hanging: At the end of the movie, Leela acknowledges that after having spent the entire previous movie pining after her, Fry didn't even glance at Leela in this one.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The Professor planned to fry a giant, medium-sized and sentient ant just to see what the anomaly's rays would do to it. He manages to set himself on fire instead.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Upon completion of the Fon Fon-Rubok ceremony, Amy joyously declares "Oh, Kif, this is just like a movie with this happening in it!"
  • Harold Zoid makes a reappearance wherein he says he has one line in a direct-to-DVD movie, which he intends to make into a One-Scene Wonder.
• Love Freak: Yivo's goal is to date and mate with every single being in the universe. Anyone with one of shkler tentacles in their neck will obsess over Yivo's love as well, and try to coerce others to join them.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Kif gets caught on a mechanism of the missile intended to be fired through the anomaly. His body stretches the entire distance right up to it, before rebounding back and getting splattered against the wall. His remains can be collected in a mason jar.
• The Missus and the Ex: Bender is delighted when Fry introduces Colleen to the rest of the crew as he expects drama between her and Leela. The two women are perfectly cordial to each other and Leela turns Bender off to shut him up.
• Moving Buildings: There's an apartment block where the apartments rise and fall, like elevators.
• My Grandma Can Do Better Than You: During the Deathball game, Leela tells Bender that his grandma could do better than he's currently doing. Bender shoots back that of course she could; she was a bulldozer.
• Negative Space Wedgie: The rip in the universe Bender tore open at the end of the previous movie. Nothing electronic can go through it, but organic matter can.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Fry's innocent letter to Bender ends up ruining the ENTIRE UNIVERSE'S relationship with Yivo, who promptly evicts everyone but Colleen from living on shkler since slkhe can no longer trust the universe's inhabitants to obey shkler rules.
• No Animosity in the Afterlife: Yivo brings everybody in the universe to shkler universe so they can live on shkler planet-sized body, which is essentially a Fluffy Cloud Heaven where everyone gets along. Even Wernstrom and Farnsworth, who are bitter rivals on Earth, can be seen working together on science projects.
• Not Hyperbole: "Perhaps you should see the meaning of 'Fonfon Ru.' It means 'one who doesn't sleep with my superior officer.' That's the literal translation!"
• Old, New, Borrowed and Blue: The "Fonfon Rubok" isn't technically a wedding but Amy dresses as if it was complete with blue garters on her stockings.
• Only Sane Man: Leela is this. While everyone else in the universe was absorbed into the "love" from Yivo, Leela was the only one who saw the flaws in it. She eventually gives into it though, only to be interrupted by Bender.
• Open Relationship Failure: Fry falls in love with a new woman called Colleen. It seems to go well until he discovers that she has four other boyfriends and maintains a polygamous relationship. He tries to maintain his side and moves in, but he finds it difficult to maintain a conversation when several other boyfriends are involved and is quickly overwhelmed to the point of breaking up with her.
• Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: Yivo is unlike any sentient creature in the known universe. As such, according to Fry, the creature prefers to use "Shklee/Shkler" neopronouns.
• Pirates Who Don't Do Anything:
  • The League of Robots are theoretically dedicated to the defense of robots against human oppression and the eventual destruction of the human species, but when Bender joins them he's disappointed to find that they mostly just sit around and talk about how great they are.
  • Bender's "Army of the Damned" take on a Space Pirate motif when they invade Yivo's dimension. Bender admits that he adopted this theme just because he thought Fry would like it.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Bender when Fry is about to ascend the escalator to Yivo's dimension.
  Bender: Wait! (whispers) Let me come with you.
• Police Brutality: Nixon has Colleen, Smitty, and URL beat up Farnsworth and Wernstrom just for lightly protesting sending DOOP at the anomaly. Then they're arrested.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Bender is particularly psychopathic and manchildish in this one, firmly believing in the League of Robots with a childish enthusiasm ("when I was a kid I had a whole sticker-book of 'em! Answer that with your precious logic!"), while being willing to hand his own son over to the Robot Devil just to get an army to take over the world, just because Fry isn't paying attention to him.
• Punny Name: The title is a parody on "the beast with two backs", which is a euphemism for sex and famously heard in the Shakespeare play Othello.
• Rudely Hanging Up: When Wernstrom tries to alert Planet Express to the dangers of the anomaly, the Professor has Hermes do this to him as rudely as possible. Hermes uses the "crack slam".
• Secret Message Wink: Parodied when Leela brings the imprisoned professors a smell-o-scope disguised as a cake. She tries to wink at them to hint at what it really is, but given that she's a cyclops, they just think she's blinking. She then puts on some special glasses that simulate a wink, so they get the message.
• Shout-Out:
  • Bender's fight with Yivo momentarily turns into a re-enactment of Jack Sparrow facing down the Kraken.
  • The sight of New New York being covered in Yivo's tentacles is very similar to the Martian red weeds covering buildings and everything in War of the Worlds (2005).
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Fry and Colleen are this at first. Leela even lampshades it. (Zoidberg's reaction—vomiting from both his saltwater and freshwater stomachs—is a subversion, though, as "the double vomit is a sign of joy.")
  Leela: It is pretty sickening.
• Sole Survivor: By the end of the movie, Leela is the only non-robot character to never be assimilated by Yivo at any point. She does eventually settle into Yivo's Fluffy Cloud Heaven, but of her own will, and she never gets consumed by shkler tentacles.
• Spoof Aesop: Love that shares itself with the world isn't real love, because real love is selfish and greedy.
• Stairway to Heaven: The golden escalators leading to Yivo's universe.
• Take Over the World: Bender and his army manage this by happening to demand ownership of Earth at the exact moment that its entire non-robot population decides they don't want it anymore. It's an especially hollow victory for Bender, who was only doing it to get a reaction.
• Teeny Weenie: It's implied that Zapp has a small dick.
  Amy: Be careful, my little teeny greeny weenie!
  Zapp: (covers crotch) That's just a fungal infection... Oh, she's talking to you, Kif.
• Tempting Fate: When the Professor and Wernstrom storm the White House, two guards let loose with a barrage of lasers. The first, thinking Pazuzu is gone, remarks they got them, and is grabbed by Pazuzu. His co-worker scolds him for letting his guard down, and promptly gets nabbed himself.
• There's No Kill like Overkill: Bender's choice of weapons for his duel with Calculon? Planetary Annihilators, which cause a massive swath of destruction with one shot.
• This Is Gonna Suck: When Kif gets strapped to a missile that's about to launch thanks to Zapp, he simply utters a weary "oh no", as if he couldn't expect anything less from his idiot boss.
• Touch of the Monster: "Calamari Surprise" version on the cover of "The Beast with a Billion Backs", showing Leela in a skimpy nightdress struggling in the grip of Naughty Tentacles as the rest of the cast look on in horror.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: While sulking that Fry doesn't notice or care about what's going on with him, Bender completely fails to react to Fry being visibly parasitized by an enormous Lovecraftian tentacle.
  Fry: I'm sorry, I should have asked what was bothering you. I've been kind of preoccupied.
  Bender: With what?
  Fry: (putting on vestments) Well, I went to another universe and I fell in love with a giant octopus, and now I'm pope of a new religion.
  Bender: ...Weren't you already pope of something?
• Unwitting Pawn: Fry feels this way when it's revealed what Yivo had really been doing to the universe, since he was the first one to make contact and thus feels responsible for putting it upon the universe.
• Valentine's Day Episode: Although it wasn't released in February, the overall theme is love and relationships... in their most bizarre and extreme forms.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Fry wants to shove a tentacle into everyone in the universe so he can "share the love" with them.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Leela is implied to have killed (or just crippled) a guard to get the miniature smell-o-scope to the Professor and Wernstorm. Nobody cares, and the moment is never brought up again.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: Farnsworth calls Wernstrom a crackpot for agreeing with his plan to send an expedition to study the anomaly.
• Would Hurt a Child: Bender punts his own son into a vat of magma. Even the Robot Devil is stunned.
  Robot Devil: Wow! That was pretty brutal, even by my standards!
  Bender: No backsies!
  • The only human the League of Robots have killed in the past 800 years was "a very sick Girl Scout."
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: When Fry comes back from the other universe with a tentacle attached to him, he speaks like this until Leela makes fun of it.
• You Said You Would Let Me Go: Zoidberg's reaction to the Professor after the game of Deathball in, "The Beast With a Billion Backs, Part I".
  Farnsworth: Congratulations, Deathballers! We've won the right to explore the anomaly!
  Zoidberg: What? I thought I was playing for my freedom!
  Farnsworth (offhandedly): No.

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