Recap / Mystery Science Theater 3000 S10 E01: Soultaker

"The SOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUL-taker!"

Film watched: Soultaker

Servo: So your soul is subject to gravity? I have so many questions! Can souls get toe fungus? Can I still have butter if I'm a soul? Okay, can souls pit out their T-shirts? Does Retsyn work on souls? Help me!

The Segments:

Prologue

• The 'Bots are having a wet T-shirt contest, but they don't seem to understand how they work. They and Mike are caught in an awkward moment when Commercial Sign fails to start.

Segment 1

• Cambot is experiencing malfunctions, Gypsy is uncharacteristically mean, and a mysterious man is trying to contact the Satellite of Love. None of it matters to Pearl as she shuts them up with a movie.

Segment 2

• The SOL's malfunctions are getting worse, and now there's a spaceship outside holding it in a tractor beam. The 'Bots turn to Mike to "take charge".

Segment 3

• As the Satellite falls to pieces, Pearl and her crew get a surprise visitor... TV's Frank! Turns out he left Second-Banana Heaven (Pat Buttram had it out for him from day one!) and found a new gig as a Soultaker, which he demonstrates on Bobo.

Segment 4

• The pilot of the ship boards the SOL, and it's Joel Robinson! As Joel and the 'Bots share a happy reunion, he explains that Dr. Forrester set the Satellite of Love to self-destruct and is working on fixing the damage. Mike is just jealous that Joel now manages a Hot Fish Shop.

Segment 5

• Joel is done with repairs and everything's back to normal. Mike and the 'Bots ask if they can get a lift back to Earth with him, but Joel convinces them to tough it out and grow from the ordeals ahead. Meanwhile, Frank needs a soul to take back to his boss, and Bobo is happy to donate his.

The thrilling, high-stakes, host-meets-host Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of Soultaker has examples of:

• The Ace: Joel fixes everything that's wrong with the SOL in a few hours, among other great things... to poor Mike's evident chagrin.
• Actor Allusion: The riffers recognize Joe Estevez from Wahrwilf, but it only gets referenced in a few jokes. "Yetiglanchi!"
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: Why do Natalie's parents hate Zack so much? In the original cut, there's some dialogue indicating that Zack and Brad were drug dealers, and that Natalie's parents broke off their relationship after finding out. While Zack eventually went straight, Brad didn't (he both uses and sells cocaine in the extended Summerfest scene). Without this backstory, it seems like they have an irrational grudge against Zack, who seems to be a Nice Guy hardly worthy of scorn, even if he's "slightly lower middle" class.
• Artistic License – Geography: Of the human geography variety. The Hot Fish Shop was a real restaurant, but it was in Winona (several hours' drive downriver), not Osseo (an outer-ring suburb of Minneapolis, in Hennepin County). And it closed the week before the episode aired.
• Brain Bleach: When Z'Dar's crotch is thrust in Crow's face.
  Crow: Whoa, whoa, whoa! That took my soul, right there!
• Brief Accent Imitation: Mike makes fun of Estevez's slight slurring at one point:
  The Man: So that's your decision, then?
  Mike: So shat's your deshishion, shen?
• The Bus Came Back: Joel and Frank return for this episode. Sadly, Joel doesn't participate in the theater segments.
• Celebrity Resemblance: A woman in the film who's about to die looks like Art Garfunkel, according to Mike and the 'Bots.
  Tom: (singing) Like a bridge, over...
• Celestial Bureaucracy: Second-Banana Heaven and possibly the entire afterlife is this, according to Frank.
• Comically Missing the Point: The opening segment has the Bots holding a "wet t-shirt contest" by putting t-shirts in pans of water and comparing which is the most absorbent. They tell Mike they fail to see what the big deal is.
• Continuity Nod: TV's Frank brings up Second Banana Heaven, stating that the politics there caused him to leave to become a Soultaker.
• Downer Ending: The Bots' "alternate ending": Zach wrecks his Cool Car; Natalie eventually leaves him—telling him it's over through a fast food drive-thru speaker; and develops a drinking problem.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: In-Universe, Mike and the bots take a lot more interest in the nuns getting on the bus than in the protagonists or the movie in general.
• Evil Wears Black: Mike and the bots poke fun at the Soultaker's outfit by making a lot of Johnny Cash (aka The Man in Black) references.
  Mike: (as the Soultaker is walking down a hospital corridor) Because you're mine, I walk the intensive care unit.
• For the Evulz: Dr. Forrester rigged the Satellite of Love to malfunction and crash back to Earth after ten years for no real reason. Except, y'know, he's EVIL!
• Genre Blind: Servo on Dr. Forrester:
  Servo: I knew there was something wrong with that guy!
• Happily Ever After: The 'Bots are unhappy with the movie's ending, so they suggest that after the credits, Zack's life completely falls apart; Mike asks if that isn't a little extreme, and they sarcastically suggest that he'd prefer an ending that's so unrealistically saccharine it makes the average Disney movie look bleak.
  Mike: So, there’s no middle ground with you? It’s either straining grain alcohol through toast in back alleys or a happy little world of rodents in feety pajamas?
  Crow: Well yeah, Mike. Why's that so hard to understand?
• Hilarious in Hindsight: invoked Crow saying that he enjoys "spurning a clown" makes a lot of sense when, in various RiffTrax shorts, Bill Corbett really dislikes clowns.
• Leave the Camera Running: The first indication that there's something wrong with the satellite comes when the show refuses to cut to commercial, leaving Mike and the 'Bots awkwardly standing in front of the camera in silence.
• Les Yay: invoked
  Mike: Is there a name for Mom's little sickness?
  Servo: Yeah, Lilith Fair-ism.
• Mary Sue: In-Universe: Given that the lead actress wrote the film, there's a couple jokes about her describing her own character as beautifully as possible.
  Servo: (as Natalie) "INTERIOR: BEDROOM. Me, draped across the bed, tousled but tawny. I lay there, hand on my taut tummy— still pretty, in a worried kind of way. Zoom in closer to my prettiness. Closer."
• Missing the Good Stuff: Crow gets something in his eye and misses the heroine taking off her clothes. Mike and Tom intentionally invoke this by claiming that what happened was a lot hotter than what was actually depicted on-screen.
  Crow: Aw, hell, a robe?!
  Servo: I saw a lot! I saw everything!
  Crow: Shut up, Servo!
• Mundane Afterlife: According to the riffers, Heaven is the boiler room of a hospital.
• Mythology Gag: Mike's brief run down the theater corridor is hearkening alllll the way back to the KTMA days when Joel would do the same.
• Noodle Incident: Before becoming a Soultaker, Frank worked as an angel. Apparently, he got in trouble for appearing before people as Della Reese.
• No-Sell: Apparently, Soultakers are more powerful than Observers.
• "Not So Different" Remark: TV's Frank and Bobo.
  Pearl: (beaming) I knew these two would get along.^note Of course, Frank mocks Observer, Stage Whispering to Pearl, "Who's the Hostess Snow Ball?"
• Nuns Are Funny
• Off-the-Shelf FX: Frank's Soultaker ring is a green glow stick bracelet with the connector strategically hidden by the way he holds onto it (which is pretty much exactly what they did in the film, too).
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Gypsy, who is malfunctioning along with the rest of the ship. She repeatedly insults Mike until Joel fixes her.
• Overcrank: Since Natalie's undressing scene is in slow motion, Mike and the Bots joke that now she has to put her clothes on in slow motion once the villain appears.
• Running Gag: Rocking, as it relates to Zach's friend Brad.
  • Mike and the 'Bots get a lot of mileage out of Vivian Schilling's resemblance to Tonya Harding.
  • "I'm Ed Bradley..."
  • Summerfest.
  • Natalie's actress also being the writer of the movie.
• Serious Business: The Bots are quite offended at the line "Led Zeppelin was wrong."
  Servo: "Hey, shut up, man! Zep is never wrong!!"
• Series Continuity Error: Dr. Forrester rigged the SoL to slowly self-destruct after ten years, which happens now, despite the SoL being over 500 years old by the events of season 8.^note Then again, the SoL had traveled through time, space and black holes since season 8 but you should really just relax.
• Shout-Out:
  • A picture of Martin Van Buren appears during Joel's attempt to contact the SoL, as a sign of Cambot malfunctioning.
    Mike: Hey, what's goin' on?
    Servo: Why, it's Martin Van Buren, our nation's eighth president.
  • Joel mentions that he'd spent a couple years doing pyrotechnics for the band Man Or Astroman (which had done its own Shout-Out to MST3K by performing a rendition of the closing "Love Theme" for their 1994 album).
  • As Joe Estevez tries to convince Natalie to come with him, Crow asks, "Aren't you due on the set of Werewolf?"
  • As the SOL begins fully breaking down, Crow can be heard singing "Nearer My God to Thee", which was reportedly the last song played by the musicians on the Titanic before it sank.
  • A riff on the title involves Servo singing "It's the SOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUL-taker!"
  • Mike on the Mundane Afterlife:
    Mike: David Byrne is right. Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens!"
• Special Guest/The Bus Came Back: Joel Robinson and TV's Frank make guest appearances: TV's Frank is stuck with being a Soultaker, while Joel returns to fix various problems aboard the Satellite of Love.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Joel - once a humble janitor, now manager of his own Hot Fish Shop! In Osseo!
    • Made funnier if one knew that the Hot Fish Shop (in Winona, not Osseo) closed the weekend the episode aired.
  • Frank as well, who went from being Dr. Forrester's mook to a powerful Soultaker, strong enough to defeat the supposedly omnipotent Observer.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Gypsy, being hooked up to the malfunctioning satellite, rapidly develops something of an attitude problem.
  • Joel, of all people. Sure, he helped them fix the Satellite of Love, but his initial response when Mike and the Bots ask him for help getting back to earth? "I don't really want to." before coming up with a flimsy pep talk to convince them to remain aboard and watch bad movies.
  • Dr. Forrester manages to take a level posthumously when it's revealed he deliberately designed the satellite to self-destruct after 10 years.
• Trivially Obvious: Servo compares Soultaker to the works of Akira Kurosawa, saying that both are films.
• Voodoo Shark: The riffers lampshade that the whole soul explanation raises a lot of questions that the movie doesn't seem interested in answering.
• Waxing Lyrical: Triggered by the burnout soultaker who always wears shades.
  Mike: Hey by the way, do you wear your sunglasses at night so you can, so you can keep track of the visions in your dreams?
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Mike claims to have fixed the ship, and asks the question. "How about everything??"
• Who Writes This Crap?!: Inverted by Mike as Zach, to a confused Natalie: "Hey look, you wrote this crap."

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Peeping Mom peeps.

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Together on camera at last.