Western Animation / The Simpsons Movie

The greatest family adventure of all time.

"I can't believe we're paying to see something we get on TV for free. If you ask me, everyone in this theater is a giant sucker! Especially YOU!"

— Homer Simpson, in all his lampshade-hanging/fourth-wall-breaking glory.

The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 theatrical film adaptation of, well, The Simpsons. Production was famously stuck in Development Hell for most of the series' run, with the film having been commissioned around 2001 and movie plans going back as far as the episode "Kamp Krusty" in 1992.

The movie is directed by series veteran David Silverman (co-director of Monsters, Inc.) and was released in theaters in North America on July 27, 2007, the summer between seasons 18 and 19.

When Lisa's efforts to clean up Lake Springfield are ruined by Homer's reckless idiocy, the entire town becomes entangled in the plot of the power-hungry Environmental Protection Agency director Russ Cargill who is hell-bent on saving the world from pollution, even if it means blowing up Springfield.

The film is currently the highest-grossing traditionally animated non-Disney film of all time^note Though now that the film is technically owned by The Walt Disney Company, this distinction goes to The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. as well as the highest-grossing adult animated film of all time (and the highest-grossing animated film not rated PG or G, for specificity).

---

This film provides examples of:

Tropes A-M

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The vehicles and many of the backgrounds are noticeably cel-shaded, unlike in the main series. Ironically, the scene of Homer driving a CGI wrecking ball was used in one trailer, which announced itself as "The Simpsons Movie: IN 2D!"
• Absent Animal Companion: Plopper, aka "Spider-Pig," singlehandedly causes the entire plot of the film to occur by becoming the object of Homer's devoted love and serving as the tipping point for an environmental crisis in Springfield. About halfway through the film he falls into a sinkhole and is never seen or mentioned again. (According to a deleted scene, however, he survived the incident, something the series proper would later confirm.)
• Acronyms Are Easy as Aybeecee: During Grandpa Abe's divinely inspired rant in church, he shouts "Ee-pa! Ee-pa!" Later, when the Environmental Protection Agency seals Springfield underneath a giant glass dome, Marge sees the letters "EPA" on their helicopters and realizes that's what Abe was prophesying.
• Affably Evil: Fat Tony. He and his thugs are about to dump a Carpet-Rolled Corpse in Lake Springfield, only for Chief Wiggum to intervene and say that dumping is now prohibited. Fat Tony calmly responds that he will dump his "yard trimmings" in a car compactor instead, and leaves.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: A kid in a commercial asks Tom Hanks to tousle his hair. Magic sparkles appear as he does.
• Amusing Injuries:
  • When Homer is on the roof, he hurts himself with the hammer several times and then gets hurt several times throughout the movie.
  • Happens to Cargill twice. He throws his binoculars at an EPA official for telling him the Simpsons have escaped from the dome, but they hit Cargill in the face when they bounce off the dome's glass surface. Then again at the end when Maggie drops a boulder on his head, knocking him out.
• And This Is for...: When Milhouse, under the pretense of believing in global warming, tries to flirt with Lisa, Nelson readies himself to punch him and tells him to say global warming is a myth. After Milhouse does as commanded, Nelson punches him and says it's for selling out his beliefs.
• Animation Bump: Downplayed. There's more prominent shading, a broader color palette and frequent use of CGI, but the animation is otherwise about on-par with a contemporaneous HD episode of the show. This was also the first animated feature to use Toon Boom, which streamlined production and allowed for multiple scenes to be fully animated before getting cut, a practice that would continue to be used on the show proper.
• Artistic License – Geography:
  • In-Universe. Evergreen Terrace is suddenly devoid of neighborhoods behind the Simpsons' house, which only really helps the family escape from the angry mob when they use the secret tunnel in Maggie's sandbox.
  • Several locations within Springfield change around, such as Moe's Tavern suddenly being much closer to the church.
  • Played for Laughs when Homer insists they stay in Alaska and never go back to America, completely forgetting that Alaska is a U.S. state. Then again, this is Homer we're talking about.
  • Also played for laughs when Ned reveals that Springfield is bordered by Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky. While Ohio and Kentucky do in reality border each other, none of the other states are anywhere near each other, not to mention how incoherent it is for a single city to be bordered by four states.
• Artistic License – Gun Safety: Possibly the ne plus ultra: Chief Wiggum eating donuts stuck on the barrel of his gun. Then accidentally discharging his gun, putting a hole in the brim of his police hat. His reaction? "Whoa, that was close!" and continuing to eat.
• Artistic License – Law: You don't get the dividend handed out by the Alaskan Permanent Fund when you move to Alaska right away, you have to be a resident for at least 52 weeks. And also, you must not have a criminal record which the Simpsons certainly do have for Homer's involvement in Lake Springfield's contamination.
• Artistic License – Politics: The President is Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger. Only people either born in the United States or born abroad to US citizen parents—and Schwarzenegger is neither—are allowed to serve as President.^note The Constitution can in theory be amended to permit a naturalized citizen to become president, and at the time of the movie such an amendment had been proposed by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch. As Schwarzenegger was Governor of California at the time and a popular Republican figure, the proposed amendment was informally being called the “Arnold Amendment.”
• As Himself: Tom Hanks and Green Day voice fictional versions of themselves.
• Aspect Ratio Switch: Opening in 1.85:1, when the title appears, Professor Frink pushes the frame aside, converting the rest of the film to 2.35:1.
• Assurance Backfire:
  Bart: This is the worst day of my life!
  Homer: The worst day of your life so far.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption:
  Ned Flanders: Let's thank the Lord for this bountiful...
  (a naked Bart splats onto the window of Krusty Burger)
  Ned Flanders: ...PENIS!?
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!:
  • Homer's apology to Bart: "Of course, I care about you. What father wouldn't care about... [sees Spiderpig in the corner of his eye] A PIG WEARING A HAT!"
  • When Marge is lecturing Homer on being environmentally friendly, Homer is distracted by a mental image of a toy monkey playing the cymbals. The monkey notices that Homer is distracted and sternly points to Marge.
  • Marge also gets in on the act. "The most important thing, Lisa, is that he listens to you, and nothing means more than for a man to—how did these pig tracks get on the ceiling?"
  • This tendency in Homer is Played for Drama as the movie continues: Marge asks him what he was "thinking" when he broke the new law and dumped his silo of pig droppings, which he was supposed to be disposing of safely at her request, into the lake. By his own admission, he has nothing to say for himself as he has no idea what, if anything, was going on in his mind at the time. In fact, Lenny had called him up to tell him the local Lard Lad was giving away free donuts, which caused him to completely forget what he was supposed to be doing and think only of dispensing the load as quickly as possible.
• Badass Family: The Simpsons get their moments. Homer knocking out a soldier in one punch and climbing up the side of a dome with just glue is fairly badass. As is motorcycling up the dome to stop the nuke.
• Bad Boss: Russ Cargill gets a moment of this after the Simpsons escape from the dome. When an EPA official tells Cargill the Simpsons have escaped, Cargill angrily throws his binoculars at him. Instant karma strikes when the binoculars bounce back off the dome and hit Cargill in the face.
• Battered Bouquet: When the Simpson's house is besieged by an Angry Mob, Lisa sees her crush Collin in the crowd holding a bouquet for her. It gets burned when Carl offers to light his "torch" for him.
• Bears Are Bad News: A polar bear attempts to eat Homer in Alaska.
• Behind the Black: When Marge questions how the pig tracks got on the ceiling, the camera pans out a bit to show Homer doing the "Spider-Pig" routine in the same room, which Marge should have seen and heard considering she's been cleaning in there for a few minutes at least.
• Berserk Button: For Mr. Burns, trying to appeal to his good side. Apu learned this the hard way. Even Smithers seems to know that this is a bad idea.
• Big Bad: Russ Cargill is the main antagonist.
• Big Brother Is Watching: Russ Cargill uses the NSA to track down the Simpsons. Marge herself gives away the location of the family (minus Homer) on a train. This serves as an Accidental Truth that the Simpsons Movie was right about the NSA listening to Americans' conversations without consent through email, text, and phone calls in 2007 this movie merely intended it to be a joke but in 2013 Edward Snowden proved this is reality.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • An unconscious Homer is lying on the riverbank after washing ashore, and a polar bear is about to drag him away when the Medicine Woman appears and drives it away with arm gestures and grunting.
  • Maggie saves Homer from being shot at point-blank range by Cargill by dropping a boulder on his head.
• The Big Damn Kiss:
  • As they ride away on the motorcycle at the end, Homer and Marge have one.
  • Homer and Marge on their wedding video, which is a tragic moment as most of it has been taped over, and Marge has just left Homer. Ouch.
• Big Damn Movie: The show had some episodes with high stakes before, and sometimes those high stakes also were the result of Homer's belligerent stupidity, but here, after the town is quarantined, the family has to save it from being leveled by a nuke.
• Big Eater: Homer is constantly eating throughout the movie. He's even eating a donut (or at least grabbing one) in all of the movie's posters and its DVD cover.
  • Takes the family out for waffles after church.
  • Goes to Krusty Burger to eat a bacon cheeseburger (which Krusty the Clown states will clog your arteries). Plus he stole some of Flanders' fries to go with that.
  • Proceeds to eat a fish he just electrocuted in the lake despite the painful shocks.
  • Hurries over to Lard Lad's to get free donuts (which is what "caused" him to go dump the silo filled with his and his pig's excrement in the lake).
  • Pauses to eat a shrimp while running away from the angry mob.
  • Munches on a hot dog, then after Bart shoots it off, nonchalantly pulls out a back-up hot dog.
  • In a deleted scene, Homer was given a hitchhiking lift to Springfield by a sausage truck delivery driver. And the driver was stupid enough to let him ride in the cargo box instead of the front passenger seat. When Homer got off, the driver couldn't find one sausage left in his box.
• Big "NO!": The DVD contains a deleted scene where Homer takes a ride on a sausage truck. After he leaves, the driver checks his cargo. Anyone who knows Homer probably expected the driver's reaction.
• Big "YES!": Bart does one when Homer manages to successfully ride the motorcycle around the cage.
• Bilingual Bonus; There's a scene that shows for roughly two seconds with a bunch of signs in different languages. For example, the Korean sign says "Learn to speak English with a Texan accent", while the Russian sign says: "Learn to speak English or, get out".
• Binocular Shot: Parodied, when we see the POV of someone looking through binoculars and ZOOMING IN, complete with blurring and refocusing, before cutting to reveal Homer's just looking through his hands. And rotating them to activate the zoom effect.
• Black Comedy:
  • Lisa punching Bart as he mocks her when saying goodbye to Collin.
  • Also when the carnival barker realizes his two wives will abuse him for giving away the truck.
  • When the dome is being lowered, a guy is torn between escaping to freedom or staying in Springfield with his family. He ends up crushed by the dome's edge.
• Blatant Lies: When Homer exclaims the angry mob is after the whole family, Carl yells from outside they just want Homer. What follows is not the mob going after just Homer.
• Boob-Based Gag: While the Inuit Shaman's breasts aren't that different from someone of that size and weight, it drifts into this Trope's territory when a vision of her uses her boobs to point the direction for Homer.
• Bookends: In two flavors:
  • The beginning depicts the Simpsons watching an Itchy and Scratchy movie in a theater. During the credits, they're still in the theater, having just watched the same movie you did.
  • One of the first scenes after the intro shows Bart and Homer reshingling the roof, with Homer accidentally hitting himself in the eye with the hammer when attempting to hammer a nail. After the plot of the film is resolved and everything is mostly back to normal, the two of them go back to the roof and start fixing it again - but this time, Bart hands Homer some safety goggles so he can avoid the same mistake that happened last time.
• Bowdlerise: "In the name of American squeamishness," the TV version of this movie that aired on FOX, the cable channel FX (but not the spin-off channel FXX during the "Every Simpsons Ever" marathon), and the Canadian channel Global have edited the following scenes from this movie:
  • Bart's naked skateboard ride through town: On FOX and Global, the sequence is shortened so we don't see Bart riding through the hedge with his genitals covered, then uncovered when he skates past the open section nor do we see Bart crash into the restaurant at which Ned Flanders and his sons are eating and say "Bountiful...PENIS!" as they're praying. On FX, the sequence was shown, only the open space where Bart's genitals are shown is covered with a Censor Box that reads, "EUROPEAN VERSION ONLY."
  • Homer getting stuck in the sinkhole: On FOX and Global, the part where Homer flips off the townspeople as he's sinking has the middle/ring fingers removed, making it look as if Homer is shaking his fists in anger (or some weak form of defeat).
  • The bomb: Marge's line, "Somebody throw the goddamn bomb!" was changed on FOX and Global to "Somebody throw the bomb!" with a scene splice. FX altered the line to "Just throw the damn bomb!" (the "God" part was muted out).
  • Otto smoking marijuana through a bong near the end of the movie was cut on FOX and Global.
  • Homer's line, "That could be anyone's pig crap silo!" after watching the news report about the dumped silo had the word "crap" removed.
  • FOX (for reasons unknown) shortened Homer and Marge's conversation about how Homer mistook 4:00 pm for 7:00 pm (which is when Access Hollywood comes on).
    • When the movie aired on FX in June of 2012, the "bountiful penis" part was left in (but the nudity was still covered with the "European Version Only" bar), and Homer's middle fingers weren't digitally removed during the sequence where Homer is stuck in the sinkhole, Marge's line "Someone throw the Goddamn bomb!" wasn't altered, the line about Access Hollywood being on at 4 pm and 7 pm was left in, and Otto smoking a bong was left uncut.
  • On Network Ten airings of the movie in Australia, three parts were edited:
    • Bart skating naked throughout the town had his penis covered with a censor bar (just a regular one, not the "EUROPEAN VERSION ONLY" one they have in America) when he skates through the hedge with the space at crotch level. The "Bountiful...PENIS?!" part was left in.
    • The bomb-defusing robot taking Chief Wiggum's gun and blasting himself in the head was rather clumsily replaced with a close-up of the robot trying to cut the wire while some of the scene of the robot taking Wiggum's gun was left in, as well as the scene of a distraught Wiggum commenting that the robot did talk about killing itself, but he'd never thought he'd do it.
    • The brief shot of Otto smoking a bong when Homer does his motorcycle trick was cut (similar to how it was cut in America).
• Brandishment Bluff: "Stand back, I've got a chainsaw!" It doesn't work for very long.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Homer's attempt to manufacture an epiphany: "Bananas are an excellent source of potassium! Americans will never embrace soccer? More than two shakes and it's playing with yourself?"
• Brick Joke:
  • Soon after the dome is put on the town, Marge knits something reading "Dome Sweet Dome." Later in Alaska, she makes a similar one reading "Nome Sweet Nome."
  • Early in the film, Homer jabs a hammer into his eye while nailing shingles onto the roof. In the end, he's about to do the same thing until Bart gives him a pair of safety goggles - and then, after he successfully drives the nail in, he finds he's nailed a shingle to his crotch.
• Bully Hunter: Martin, believing that Springfield is doomed, decides to spend the last moments of his life brutally beating up his bullies.
• Bumbling Dad: Deconstructed. Homer, as usual, is a comically incompetent man. His stupidity in this film, however, leads to him and his family becoming pariahs and his city nearly being destroyed. His character arc culminates in him finally assuming responsibility for his moronic actions and growing to become Springfield's hero.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • During the opening of the film, Green Day plays an environmental concert on a floating barge in Lake Springfield (it's also been established that this was a free show). Three-and-a-half hours into the set, they try to talk about the environment. The crowd immediately turns on them, pelting them with garbage and shouting derisive things about them. The crowd doesn't change its mind when Green Day points out that they weren't talking about the environment in general but how the lake is so highly polluted as to be more corrosive than hydrochloric acid, and the barge/stage is beginning to break down and sink. Green Day goes down with the ship (parodying the sinking of the Titanic, with Mike Dirnt saying, "It Has Been an Honor" and the three members of the band pulling out violins and playing Nearer My God To Thee as they sink to their deaths)
  • Homer is at his most heroic, and he also suffers from the most painful and humiliating injuries imaginable, even in his epiphany.
• Call-Back:
  • Numerous cameos by supporting and lesser-known characters of the show, especially in crowd scenes.
  • When Bart skateboards in the nude, he swings around a pole in a shot replicated from the theme song sequence on the show.
  • President Schwarzenegger is modeled after and has the voice of, Rainier Wolfcastle — a character from the show created to parody Schwarzenegger.
  • Bart says Homer's "big fat ass could shield us all." Homer's butt did once shield them from toxic gas in "King-Size Homer."
  • The police shooting into the sandbox, which then turns into something of a black hole, is reminiscent of Chief Wiggum doing the same with the alternate dimension in "Treehouse of Horror VI."
  • Some of Russ Cargill's lines evoke Hank Scorpio ("You Only Move Twice"). Both characters are voiced by Albert Brooks, who improvised heavily in each role, and are insane men in authority positions (Word of God reveals that Hank Scorpio was supposed to be the villain in the movie, but it was changed to Russ Cargill since Hank Scorpio's last appearance was over a decade ago).
  • Homer's epiphany begins with a Couch Gag.
  • Stampy, Bart's former pet elephant, seen in "Bart Gets An Elephant" and "Large Marge" rams into the dome and falls unconscious, but manages to make a small crack, which a camera picks up.
  • Moe, in a Running Gag from the series, thinks Marge's name is "Midge."
  • In the climax, the crashed ambulance from the end of "Bart the Daredevil" is seen near Springfield Gorge, still smashed against the tree. Then the actual jump with Bart and Homer, where they jump the gap and fall short of the other side, references the same event happening in that episode.
  • When entering the church at the start of the movie, Homer says, "Praise Jebus!" Homer had previously used the name "Jebus" a few times in the episode "Missionary: Impossible".
  • When Homer and Marge's wedding is shown on the tape the song "Close to You" begins to play, following Homer as he flees outside. "The Way We Was" used this same song when they first met in high school.
  • In the original teaser trailer, the narrator calls Homer "the Greatest Hero in American History". Lionel Hutz called Homer this in the episode "New Kid on the Block".
  • The gay steel mill workers from "Homer's Phobia" are seen trying to break the dome with a jackhammer.
  • The scene with Homer and the wrecking ball is similar to the part in the episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts" where the Simpson house is going to get demolished and Homer jumps on a wrecking ball to cushion its impact and save his home.
  • Homer discovering that Marge taped a farewell message is similar to what happened in "Half-Decent Proposal", but with the roles reversed.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Bart, as usual, does this with Homer, though he calls him Dad just as often.
• Captain Obvious: Marge wonders at the meaning of Grampa's cryptic prophecies.
  Marge: "A thousand eyes". What could that be?
  Grampa: Hmmm...I'm pretty sure a thousand...is a number.
• Car Chase Shoot-Out: During the beginning of the film, Bart is challenged to skateboard across town, naked. He quickly gets tailed by a police car for obvious reasons yet refuses to stop, prompting the passenger officer to lean out his window and shoot out one of the wheels of Bart's skateboard, causing it to go flying forward and making Bart hit the Krusty Burger window.
• Car Fu: When Homer is driving to the lake with his silo, Hans Moleman tries blocking his path. It doesn't deter Homer at all.
• Carpet-Rolled Corpse: Fat Tony and his thugs arrive at Lake Springfield with a rolled-up carpet. Police Chief Wiggum deters them, stating that no further waste dumping will occur at the lake. The corpse's legs are sticking out of the carpet roll.
• Casting Gag: In most foreign dubs, President Arnold Schwarzenegger is dubbed by whoever regularly dubs him in their respective languages, like Blas García in Latin America, Tesshō Genda in Japan, Daniel Beretta in France, etc.
• Celebrity Casualty: Green Day sink and drown into Lake Springfield's toxic waters.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: Chekhov's Dome. Yes, the dome. People repeatedly tried to break it throughout the film, and in the climax, Homer and Bart ride up the side of it to get the bomb out through the hole in the top. The explosion is also just what's needed to crack the dome and free Springfield.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The lake. The Green Day concert takes place there and the pollution dissolves their barge. Lisa later coerces the town into cleaning up the lake, and it's where Homer dumps the silo when he decides to try and get to Lard Lad's for free donuts, kickstarting the rest of the plot off.
  • The sinkhole in the backyard. Homer has to fix it as part of his chores after church, and Maggie briefly escapes from the dome using it, as Marge points out. Maggie then gets the other Simpsons to escape from the dome through the sinkhole.
  • Marge and Homer's wedding video. Marge rushes to rescue it from the house before the family tries and escape from the mob. She later tapes her farewell message to Homer over it when she, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie abandon him in Alaska.
  • Motorbikes. Homer has to use one to win the truck to get the Simpsons to Alaska and manages to succeed on his final attempt thanks to Lisa's advice. He and Bart later use a motorbike to ride up the side of the dome and throw the bomb out to save Springfield from being nuked.
  • Bart uses his slingshot first to shoot a stone at Homer's hot dog before the wanted poster scene (to prove to Marge he is sober), and again in the climax to save himself and Homer from falling to their deaths in Springfield Gorge.
  • The crumpled "P" (from the Springfield Sign). Bart and Homer bounce off it after destroying the dome and end up going over the Springfield Gorge.
• Chekhov's Skill: Chekhov's Motorcycle Stunt. Initially, Homer can't perform a motorcycle stunt for crap, until Lisa gives him advice that allows him to ace it and win a truck that the family uses to get to Alaska. Much later, Homer puts these skills to even better use to ride around the dome's surface, allowing Bart to throw the bomb through the hole at the top.
• City Shout Outs: Inverted. Russ Cargill is attempting to explain that Springfield has become the most polluted town on record, causing the government to encase the whole area in a giant dome. He's interrupted by a guy in the crowd yelling "Whoo, Springfield!"
• Clothing Damage:
  • All of the Springfieldians suffer this after months inside the dome.
  • Russ Cargill gets this in his final scene, as his left jacket sleeve is torn at the shoulder.
• Comedic Work, Serious Scene: This is mostly a farce about Homer's stupid, impulsive decisions pushing Springfield to the brink of ecological ruin... up until the family learns that because of Homer's stupidity, the US government plans to bomb Springfield off of the map, while the Simpsons hide out in Alaska. Appalled by Homer's selfishness and unwillingness to take responsibility for his actions, Marge takes Bart, Lisa, and Maggie and abandons him, leaving behind a gut-wrenching videotaped message in which she confesses that she doesn't know why she keeps putting up with his behavior.
  Marge: Lately, what's keeping us together is my ability to overlook everything you do. And I overlook these things because... well, that's the thing, I... I just don't know how to finish that sentence anymore.
• Collective Death Glare:
  • While the townspeople are silently praying in church, the Simpson family arrives late, with everyone hearing Homer ranting about having to be there. Of course, they're all met with daggers once they enter.
    Homer: Why can't I worship the Lord in my own way, like praying like hell on my deathbed?
    Marge: Homer, they can hear you inside!
    Homer: Relax, those pious morons are too busy talking to their phony-baloney God.
    (Homer loudly slams the door open before even finishing his sentence and notices everyone angrily staring at him)
    Homer: (walking down the aisle) How you doing? Peace be with you. Praise Jebus.
  • A little later, after fleeing from Springfield, the rest of the family give angry glares to Homer because it was his fault that the town got sealed under a dome and all their friends now want to kill them.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • The Simpsons stop for waffles after leaving the church. Homer leaves Abe, who is tangled in a carpet, in the car, who tries to get Homer's attention over it. Homer replies "Oh, right.", lowers the window a bit, and leaves.
  • The town meeting is more concerned about the scissor lift not working than the environmental problem.
  • When Homer has to figure out a way to get on top of the giant dome, he comes across a jetpack, but his sight is drawn towards a more convoluted "climbing the dome with superglue" plan.
  • After Marge takes the time in a hectic situation to go retrieve their wedding video from their home, Homer just responds with "We have a wedding video?"
• Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: In the climactic confrontation, when Russ Cargill threatens to kill Homer, Maggie drops a rock on him from above.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: While not the head of a corporation during the events of the movie, Russ Cargill used to run a Fortune 500 company. He still owns the company that made the dome.
• Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: As Homer and Marge have sex in their new home in Alaska, the woodland creatures are horrified and the stag is seen covering his fawn's eyes with his hoof.
• Crawl:
  Watch Are You Smarter than a Celebrity?"—Wednesdays on FOX. That's right, we even advertise shows during movies now.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Lisa knew there was a good chance the townsfolk wouldn't listen to her presentation on Lake Springfield's pollution, so she spiked all of their drinks with water from the lake before the meeting started. This gets their attention.
  • Homer's 'flee to Alaska' plan was something he cooked up in the event one of his Zany Schemes got him and his family run out of town.
• Creative Closing Credits: Several short sketches take place during the ending credits.
• Cutaway Gag:
  • When Flanders asks Bart if Homer ever takes him fishing, the boy reminisces about the time his father used a bug zapper attached to a car battery to electrocute every fish in a lake.
  • Cargill tells Springfield that they've found a way to permanently take them off the map. The scene then cuts to a man driving on a highway, with Springfield suddenly vanishing on his G.P.S.
• Criminal Doppelgänger: Inverted. Bart draws over a wanted poster so that it looks like a different family... who happen to be real people and get caught instead of the Simpsons.
• Darker and Edgier: This film has a noticeably more mature and darker tone than the show. Homer’s stupidity gets the town of Springfield sealed off from the world and the citizens then try to kill/chase him and his family away, leading the Simpsons to become wanted fugitives due to their escape. The Big Bad comes extremely close to committing genocide by destroying Springfield with a bomb, and other serious moments (like Marge abandoning Homer by recording a farewell message over their wedding video) are played completely straight.
• Darkest Hour: Homer's return to Springfield: the town is about to be destroyed by a bomb, he has inadvertently sabotaged any means for the townspeople to escape, and he is completely alienated by his family.
• Dark Is Evil: Taken literally when Homer dumps the Pig Crap silo into the lake, which immediately turns pitch-black and creates an ominous-looking skull and crossbones which then shouts "EEEVILLL!".
• Dark Reprise: A creepier version of "Spider Pig" plays in the background when Homer is having his hallucination/nightmare. It also plays during the credits.
• Deadly Euphemism: With shades of Implied Death Threat. When the word is out that Homer's pig crap silo is the reason for the town's imprisonment, Kent's final words before everything goes to hell for the Simpsons is this.
  Kent Brockman: "Just a reminder, this station does not endorse vigilante justice. Unless it gets results. Which it will."
• Death by Cameo: All members of Green Day die during the film's opening.
• Death Glare: Maggie scares off Mr. Teeny with one, as well as with her bottle after breaking it.
• Deconstruction:
  • In the movie, Homer's normally idiotic, selfish behaviour creates some real problems with his family for the first time in years. Bart begins to despise his father because of Homer's lack of care and hilarious abuse for him (which results in him trying to find a father figure in Ned). Marge eventually leaves him for being a selfish, apathetic dick, while taking the children with her.
  • The issue of pollution. While normally Springfield seems perfectly fine, here it becomes so deadly the United States are willing to lock away and later destroy Springfield to prevent it from poisoning the planet. It could be considered a Mythology Gag, due to the Simpsons' long-running gag about the Nuclear Power Plant (remember the three-eyed fish?).
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • The barker didn't expect Homer to win his truck, which is why he gave him an extra attempt to try and win it, expecting him to fail again because he liked seeing Homer hurt himself.
  • When told by Lenny that Lard Lad is giving away free donuts due to having failed a health inspection, Homer immediately moves to dump his pig's excrement stuffed into a silo all in a lake then get the donuts rather than go get donuts first and then come back to properly disposing of it. Stopping by at the lake to get rid of the silo only made Homer even later for the free donuts.
    Marge: (to Homer) I need to know what was going through your mind when you didn't listen to me and dumped that silo in the lake!
  • During the angry mob scene, Homer tries to scare them off by making chainsaw noises, but since they punched holes in the Simpson's door, they can see that he's faking it.
  • Marge decides to head back to Springfield along with her children to save the town; however, she didn't think about how they're going to save the town and she failed to keep a low profile and she had to talk about Springfield in public, the people who are listening turn out to be secret agents and this lead to Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie getting captured.
• Digging to China: Referenced in Chief Wiggum's comment upon seeing the Simpson house getting destroyed by the sinkhole.
  Wiggum: Well, they're China's problem now.
• Digital Piracy Is Evil: Parodied with Bart's chalkboard gag in the opening, which reads "I will not illegally download this movie".
• Disney Creatures of the Farce: The sex scene in the movie is an obvious send-up of classic Snow White and Sleeping Beauty moments.
• Disproportionate Retribution: When Bart is skateboarding naked, Lou decides to stop him by shooting at him. Miraculously, he manages to hit the skateboard's wheels, but Bart is still sent flying into a wall as a result of the cop's reckless action.
• Disrupting the Theater: At the start of the movie, Homer gets angry about having to see the The Itchy & Scratchy Show movie in theaters before standing up and calling everyone in the theater a "giant sucker" for paying to see something they get on TV for free, pointing at the screen and saying "Especially you!".
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • Literally. After Homer has his epiphany, he mercilessly whips the dogs pulling his sled, even when they're resting, and when they stop at the end of the day, they furiously maul him and leave him to make his way back to Springfield.
  • At the beginning of the movie, Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney all give Martin a wedgie by tying him to the Springfield Elementary flag pole and raising him high. When it looks like Springfield is about to be blown up, Martin Prince angrily walks up to Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney and, fed up with them constantly bullying him, knocks them all out with a plank of wood, then does it again when they come round moments later.
• Domed Hometown: In an attempt to stop the pollution in Springfield from spreading, the EPA puts a dome on it.
• Dope Slap: The trees to Homer in his vision, each time he suggests an inane epiphany.
• Dream Tells You to Wake Up: A mild case. Marge says to Homer "I know it's easy for your mind to wander..." while Homer is distracted, thinking of a dancing monkey. She adds "...but I want you to concentrate on me": the monkey stops his dance, and looks at Homer with disdain, and points to Marge. Pay attention to what she says!
• Dreaming the Truth: Homer has a prophetic dream that tells him how to solve his problem.
• Driven to Suicide: The bomb-defusing robot that tries to disable the nuke finds itself unable to endure the pressure, so it grabs Wiggum's gun and shoots itself in the head.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Bart does this in the motel room scene with a bottle of whiskey, merely saying "I'm troubled" when Marge questions him about it, before ordering him to stop.
• Drunk with Power: Russ Cargill gets increasingly more unstable as his authority rises through the film. This is lampshaded when he commands the soldiers to form a line in a ridiculously specific order, causing one of them to declare he has gone mad with power.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Double-subverted. Homer refuses to help Springfield after the townspeople tried to kill him and the rest of the family, but he does seem to forgive them after he manages to save Springfield from being decimated.
  • Also works the other way. The Springfieldians forgive Homer for almost indirectly killing them all, but then he did just save all their lives. By that same token, the town is willing to accept Marge and the children back without trying to kill them as they did during the mob scene after the EPA drops them off under the dome. Whether this is because the town genuinely just wanted Homer and the town's usual mob mentality took hold, or their eventual decline into insanity and acceptance of their new lives made them more forgiving is never elaborated on.
• Easter Egg: The crashed ambulance from "Bart the Daredevil" is still at the Springfield Gorge, visible when Homer and Bart throw the bomb out of the dome.
• Epic Fail:
  • Homer's attempt at using a wrecking ball to rescue the family from the EPA van. The wrecking ball makes the smallest contact with the side of the truck, swings back towards Homer, and smashes him repeatedly between things until the chain snaps.
  • Cletus once played a game of Tic-Tac-Toe with a chicken. The chicken won.
  • Homer thwarts the town's escape attempt by sliding down the rope they're escaping on, and when he sadly kicks the bomb over, it cuts the remaining countdown time in half.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Homer's epiphany, where he realizes to save himself, he has to save Springfield.
• "Everybody Helps Out" Denouement: The movie ends with everyone repairing the damage caused by the destruction of the dome and the events leading up to it. This continues in the title sequence of the first episode after the movie, "He Loves to Fly and He D'ohs".
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Bart is reluctant to skate naked because he doesn't want girls to see his "doodle".
  • While Bart pulls pranks regularly, even he finds Homer using a bug-zapper to catch fish to be overkill.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Homer's pig-waste silo, which he marked "PIG CRAP."
• Explosive Decompression: Scratchy's eye blows up like a balloon when his visor cracks in the opening moon landing scene.
• Expy: Russ Cargill was originally supposed to be Hank Scorpio, but the producers made him a new character instead, as his actions in the film were deemed too villainous for him to still be likable.
• Expy Coexistence: Implied. After all the years of Schwarzenegger Expy Rainier Wolfcastle taking Schwarzenegger's place, Schwarzenegger now shows up in the Simpsons verse properly, meaning that both Schwarzenegger and Wolfcastle have been living in the same world all along.
• Face Palm: Maggie slaps her forehead in frustration after her family repeatedly fails to understand that they can escape the enraged Springfield citizens through her sinkhole.
• Fan Disservice: Bart's naked scene isn't much... until he rides past a fence with a hole in it, showing a (rather long) shot of his penis and testicles. Keep in mind that he's 10 years old.
• Fiction 500: The never-mentioned company to which Russ Cargill belonged, and still belongs, before being appointed head of the EPA. From what we've seen of its resources so far, they have enough funds to produce a dome to permanently seal in a giant metropolis like Springfield, set up extremely hi-tech security cameras all around said metropolis, and produce a bomb powerful enough that, when detonated, can leave a crater the size of the Grand Canyon.
• Food Porn: Flanders' signature cup of hot cocoa looks so delicious, not just because of the Overly Long Gag of him making it. First he sprays some whipped cream on top of the cocoa, then sticks a wafer in the cream, grates some fudge for sprinkles, sprays a little more whipped cream on the wafer, then puts a marshmallow on top and fires it with a blowtorch. After Bart takes a sip, he simply says, "Oh my God!"
• Flipping the Bird: As one of the rare examples of a four-fingered character that can do this, Homer flips off the Angry Mob with both hands as he escapes down a sinkhole. Then he gets stuck and has to use his fingers to dig himself out.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Abe warns the Simpsons and Springfield about the upcoming crisis and who is going to cause it.
  • When Cargill first presents the five options to Schwarzenegger on what to do about Springfield, Schwarzenegger picks number three without reading them first, saying "I was elected to lead, not to read." Cargill later uses this to his advantage the second time when he tricks him into selecting the option of blowing up Springfield.
  • Maggie briefly manages to escape from the dome using the sinkhole, which Marge witnesses while knitting, only for Maggie to then reappear in the backyard. Maggie manages to get the others to escape from the mob through the sinkhole.
  • It's stated in the ending credits that Springfield's anthem was plagiarized from the French one. One of the plots for Season 26 episode "Walking Big & Tall" is about Lisa writing an anthem for Springfield after learning the town uses a plagiarized one.
• Forgot Flanders Could Do That: Ned Flanders himself had this happen, as Bart becomes annoyed with Homer's Jerkass ways, and begins viewing Flanders as a better father figure who's very caring, if still quirky.
• Format-Specific Joke: The opening mocks viewers for going to the cinema to watch cartoons when they could watch them for free on television at home. Also, as in the TV show, for the opening title a choir sings "The Simpsons...", but this time Professor Frink adds "movie...on the big screen!". For the DVD release, Frink introduces the DVD menu in the same way, except that he says "small screen", but he still says "big screen" in the movie itself.
• Four Is Death: Russ Cargill presents a series of folders to the president, each of which is numbered and contains a possible course of action to deal with the Springfield crisis. The option to blow-up Springfield is Option No. 4.
• From Bad to Worse: Homer, after getting chewed out for thwarting the attempt to escape from the dome, sadly kicks the bomb over. It causes the bomb to cut its remaining countdown time in half.
• Funny Background Event: Homer can be seen climbing the dome as everyone is trying to flee it.
• Geographic Flexibility: Evergreen Terrace is at the very edge of Springfield (to make it more convenient for the family to escape from the mob going after them through Maggie's sandbox passage), and Moe's Bar (which usually doesn't have that sign) is suddenly next to the church. The hill Mr. Burns' mansion is on is at a much higher altitude as well.
• Get Out!: Krusty yells "Get out of here!" at Homer when he kicks the bomb and it halves the remaining countdown time.
• Girlfriend in Canada: Played with and inverted.
  Lisa: Oh wait, I didn't tell you the best part: he loves the environment. Ooh wait, I still didn't tell you the best part: he's got an Irish brogue! No no, wait wait, I still didn't tell you the best part: he's not imaginary!
• Girls Like Musicians: The intellectual Lisa is enraptured by Colin's musical skills. The sadness of their separation is punctuated by him writing a song for her.
• Glass Smack and Slide:
  • When Bart is skateboarding through town naked, he ends up smacking into the window of a Krusty Burger as customers Ned, Rod, and Todd Flanders look on horrified.
  • After the dome gets stuck over Springfield, there is a scene where a group of birds splat against the dome and slide down it, into the waiting mouths of hungry cats below.
  • Happens again, this time against the inside of the dome, when Barney snaps and tries to escape after the last supply of coffee is destroyed.
• Goggles Do Nothing: At the end of the movie, Homer continues to re-shingle the roof, but Bart hands him a pair of goggles so he doesn't hammer himself in the eye like he did earlier. This protects his eyes but doesn't stop him from nailing the shingles into his leg and falling off the roof.
• "Good Luck" Gesture: Homer hopes that Ned Flanders confesses to being gay. He intensely crosses his fingers.
  Ned Flanders: The Good Lord is telling me to confess to something...
  Homer Simpson: [his fingers crossed] Gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay...
  Ned Flanders: ...an immodest sense of pride in our community!
• Good Parents: Ned Flanders is portrayed as this, as his Fundamentalist and Helicopter Parents tendencies are downplayed.
• Gonk: The pig is designed to be as cartoony as possible for the sake of comedy.
• Green Aesop:
  • A downplayed example since there is a green message, the villain of the movie happens to work for the E.P.A. and is perfectly happy to kill everyone in Springfield in the name of protecting the environment. Oh, and in case you forgot this is The Simpsons, so both sides are mocked.
  • Parodied at the beginning - one Green Aesop kills Green Day.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: Parodied. When the mob breaks into the Simpsons' house, Maggie scares off Mister Teeny (the chimp) with a broken baby bottle.
• Groin Attack:
  • When the crowd is booing Green Day for trying to preach the environment, Moe throws a rock that passes through one of the drums and is implied to have hit the drummer in the crotch.
  • And again with Homer's epiphany, when a tree kicks him in the crotch for his attempted masturbation epiphany.
• Guilt by Association Gag: Marge and the kids end up targeted both by the town during their riot and the EPA over Homer's actions. Though when put back under the dome, they're immediately accepted back into the fold with no one trying to attack them.
• Hanging Around: The townspeople try to hang the Simpsons after finding out that it was Homer's fault the town got encased in a giant dome.
• Heroes Gone Fishing: The family going to get waffles after church, and Homer's chores, which include fixing the sinkhole and putting new shingles on the roof.
  • The Flanders' eating at Krusty Burger, as well as Bart and Homer, after Bart is dared to skate there naked.
  • Homer and Bart fish in a flashback (Homer cheats by using a bug zapper), then Bart does the same with Ned, and later the two hiking.
  • Homer going off to get free donuts at Lard Lad's after dumping the silo in the lake. Before that happens, Lenny and Chief Wiggum, among others, are seen doing the same.
  • Marge knits in the backyard while Homer is watching TV, as Maggie briefly uses the sinkhole to escape from the dome and then re-enter it.
  • At the end, Lisa and Colin go off to get some ice cream.
• Heroic Team Revolt: When Homer refuses to help Springfield, the rest of the family goes back without him.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Unsurprisingly, Homer becomes one after it was discovered he was the one who re-polluted the lake with the silo. So much so that it brought a huge angry mob to the house and almost got him and the rest of the family killed. He even becomes one to the rest of the Simpsons when he refuses to save Springfield, and soon after, a Heroic Team Revolt follows, leaving Homer on his own.
• Higher Understanding Through Drugs: Homer has a "vision quest" when he was given some kind of (apparently spicy) herbal tea by an Inuit woman and did throat-singing with her. He ends up getting ripped apart by trees until he figures out that he's been selfish.
• Hillbilly Incest: When asked to guess how local hillbilly Cletus could do a fake removing-his-finger trick, Russ Cargill sarcastically responds, "Four generations of inbreeding?"
• Hot Drink Cure: This movie features the "hypothermia" variation— Homer is rescued from some very cold water and offered a boiling-hot bowl of liquid by an Inuit woman. This makes him scream and breathe fire, but he then asks for more.
• Housepet Pig: Homer adopts a pig that was being used for a Krusty Burger commercial, naming him first Spider-Pig, then Hairy Plopper. He unwittingly disposed the pig's waste in Springfield Lake, causing he and his family to skip town.
• Hypocritical Humor: The whole town decides to lynch Homer for the dome situation, which was caused by Homer dumping pig crap (plus his own) into his lake, even though they were all treating the lake as a huge literal toilet themselves dumping even the most ridiculous things such as garbage, beer bottles, and Barney.
• Identical Stranger: Bart face-doodles on a "wanted" poster of the Simpson family - only for a family to appear which looks identical to the Simpsons except that they also have the doodles Bart added. Of course, they get arrested while the Simpsons walk free.
• Idiot Ball: The barker has a moment of this when he gives Homer an extra try to win the truck because he likes seeing Homer hurt himself. Guess what happens. Homer wins the truck. Now the barker has to expect a bit of anger from his wives (conjoined twins).
• Imagine Spot: Homer has one of him dancing around a field holding Plopper while "Happy Together" plays, before deciding to adopt him.
• Impersonating an Officer: Homer tries to pose as a General in front of a soldier who is guarding the glass dome. The trick doesn't fly.
• Impossibly-Compact Folding: At one point, Homer folds up a billboard-sized poster of Alaska down to the size of a business card and places it in his pocket.
• Improvised Weapon:
  • Maggie uses two: her bottle to fend off Mr. Teeny and a boulder to knock out Cargill.
  • Cargill throws his binoculars at an EPA official as a Bad Boss moment.
  • The barker's Siamese twin wives imply this with rolling pins for him losing the truck to the Simpsons.
  • As Homer is preparing to save the town, Martin uses a two-by-four to beat up Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney.
• In a World…: From this movie narrator:
  Narrator: In a time when computer animation brings us worlds of unsurpassed beauty, one film dares to be ugly.
• Indestructibility Montage: Once the townspeople snap after being trapped in the dome for a long time, they form a mob and try to break it open. Their efforts prove futile, including jackhammers, a Battering Ram, Drederic Tatum punching away at it, and even Stampy, Bart's former pet elephant. Stampy makes a barely perceptible crack, at least, convincing Cargill to get even more draconian.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Bart gets drunk on whiskey after the Simpsons flee the mob and runs away from Marge when she tries to take the bottle away from him.
• Innocent Bigot: When Mayor Quimby declares a "Code Black" state of emergency, Lenny calls black the worst color there is, then tells Carl "no offense". Carl says he hears it all the time.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Homer and Marge are watching the news when Spider-Pig's silo is fished out of Springfield Lake. Homer shrugs it off, saying "That could be anybody's pig crap silo," but immediately the silo rotates to reveal that "Property of Homer Simpson" is written on the back.
• Internal Retcon: Springfield is removed from GPSes by the government, and Tom Hanks' advertisement for the "second Grand Canyon" states that nothing ever existed east of Shelbyville or south of Capitol City.
• Ironic Echo: Inverted. Homer attempts to convince Marge and his family to come with him to Alaska by telling Marge that "In every marriage, you get one chance to say, 'I need you to do this with me.'" Later, when the family finds out that Springfield is about to be destroyed by the government, Marge uses the same words to try to convince a reluctant Homer to come with them, but Homer pretends he had never heard of it, saying it was "the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
• Irony: When Russ Cargill presents the ideas, he expects the President to carefully read them before making a choice, but President Schwarzenegger randomly picks one of them and says he was elected to lead, not to read. Later, when Cargill presents five other ideas, he does want the President to pick a specific one and has to talk him out of reading.
• It's All About Me: As usual, Homer has bits of this, a specific bit being when he grumpily tells the Medicine Woman that his family cares more about other people than they do about him. He gets better thanks to his epiphany and realizes other people are just as important as him.
• I Will Show You X!: "I'll teach you to laugh at something funny!"
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Bart, while drunk on whiskey, asks in the motel room how they are supposed to get to Alaska with no money.
  • Homer refuses to help save Springfield (at first) because of how the townspeople tried to kill the family after they found out about Homer dumping the silo in the lake. Even if it doesn’t justify Homer turning his back on everyone, the townspeople did try to kill the rest of his family, who had nothing to do with what he did.
  • In a meta sense, Bart ended up being right that Lisa would never see Colin again, as he hasn't appeared in future episodes.
• Jerkass Realization: Homer's epiphany sequence has him realize how selfish he was throughout the film and gives him the resolve to journey back to Springfield to reunite with his family and save the city.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Homer starts in more of his Mike Scully-era persona. However, this time, his jerkish behavior winds up causing his family to abandon him in Alaska, making him the target of the town, and turning him into a federal criminal. Once he finds out that Marge and the family are leaving him, Homer quickly realizes that his family kept him going, and he tries his hardest to repent.
  • Bart. While he does come across as an asshole a lot (like when he mocks Lisa about the likelihood of not seeing Colin again), he's still a good guy deep down and wants Homer to be a good father to him, which is why he turns to Ned as a potential replacement father figure. When Homer lets him hold the bomb when rescuing the town, Bart gladly accepts and apologizes to Homer for wishing Homer wasn't his father.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Double-subverted with Russ Cargill. The only reason he was ever trying to blow up Springfield was to prevent the pollution from spreading, but he went out of his way to try and nuke the townspeople as well, tricked the president into approving of this plan, didn't even attempt to find another solution, and is Drunk with Power.
• Juggling Loaded Guns: Provides the page image, Chief Wiggum can't carry enough donuts, so he stacks them on the barrel of his gun, and eats them straight off it. The gun goes off while he's between bites, blowing a hole through his hat. He says "Whoa, that was close!" and continues eating.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: CARGILL. There was no need for him to nuke Springfield after sealing it in the dome.
• Karmic Shunning: After Homer refuses to help save Springfield from its impending destruction, Marge finally gives up on their marriage, taking the kids to help their friends and abandoning Homer in Alaska.
• The Key Is Behind the Lock: After Springfield is enclosed in the dome:
  Professor Frink: People, I have an important announcement to make. I have created an acid-firing super-drill that will cut through anything. It's right there... just outside of the dome.
• Kid Has a Point: Maggie comes up with the idea to use the sinkhole in the sandbox to escape from the dome. She only gets the others to realize her plan by jumping into it, and then she appears outside the dome. Marge, Bart, and Lisa then jump, but when Homer tries to use the sinkhole too, he gets stuck in it. He manages to get out, but not before some of the crowd claws at his head.
• Knight of Cerebus: Outside of a few comedic moments, Russ Cargill is easily the most serious and darkest villain in the entire franchise,^note Or at least he was until the introduction of Kostas Becker in the season 33 non-canon two-parter "A Serious Flanders" as he's come closer to destroying Springfield than even Sideshow Bob ever did.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The DVD Commentary notes that the Bambi-like forest creatures in Marge and Homer's love scene still have that distinct Simpsons overbite.
• Light Is Good: Homer's usual white shirt, as he is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, as even though he's the one most responsible for dooming Springfield, he's also the one responsible for saving it.
• Line-of-Sight Alias: In an attempt to get the dome removed and free Springfield, Homer wears a hotel doorman's outfit and approaches a soldier, claiming to be General Marriott Suites.
• Literal Metaphor: Homer ends up stuck on a wrecking ball, between a giant rock and a building improbably called "A Hard Place".
• Little Miss Badass: When the mob breaks into the Simpsons' house, Maggie scares off Mister Teeny (the chimp) with a broken bottle and a glare. Near the end of the movie, she drops a rock on the head of Russ Cargill, knocking him out, just when he's about to shoot Homer.
• Logo Joke: Ralph Wiggum appears in the 0 of the Fox logo and sings along with the fanfare, disappearing back into the 0 afterward.
• Maybe Ever After: The Lisa/Colin subplot is wrapped up by them going to get some ice cream.
• Medicinal Cuisine: Homer falls ill from being washed up ashore in Alaska and gets nursed back to health by an engorged Inuit woman who makes him drink a spicy liquid concoction. Homer sips some, screams from his mouth and tongue being on fire and then he asks for more.
• MegaCorp: The EPA... ironically.
• The Millstone: Homer is this to his family and the entire town.
• Misplaced Retribution: The citizens of Springfield decide to murder the entire Simpson family when Homer was the only one to dump the pig silo in the lake. Subverted when Marge and the kids get forced back into the Dome by the EPA, as Moe greets them without any violent intent, and the rest of the town similarly doesn't hold anything against them until Homer comes back.
• Moment Killer: Lisa has a romantic moment with Colin (Window Love variant), during which Bart immediately mocks, "Lisa's got a boyfriend, that she'll never see again." Cue Lisa punching him out.
• Mood Whiplash: This movie likes to switch up very fast between slapstick, regular Simpsons humor, drama, and black comedy.
• Mouth Cam: Homer eating a hamburger is shown from inside his mouth.
• Mustache Vandalism: Bart mustaches a "Wanted!" Poster of Homer - now it looks just like Guy Incognito, who gets beaten and arrested.
• Must Make Amends: Homer after his epiphany, realizing that without his friends and family, he has no purpose in life, and has to save Springfield to save himself.
• Mutagenic Goo: A squirrel was mutated in Lake Springfield after Homer dumped an overflowing silo filled with pig excrement into the lake, causing it to become highly toxic. When chased into the lake by a raccoon, the squirrel emerges as a multi-eyed squirrel mutant.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After getting an epiphany about how much his selfishness has put his family and the entire town in danger and that he cost everyone their chance to escape from the dome while speeding up their doom by accident, Homer does this.
  Homer: (realizes that he cost the townspeople's chance to escape the dome) But I..... oh..... OHHHHH..... I CAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT!! (kicks the bomb, setting the timer from 8:23 to 4:11, much to his shock)
  Krusty: (angrily) GET OUTTA HERE!!!

Tropes N-Z

• Negative Continuity: Other than a few brief cameos by Plopper/Spider-Pig and the Inuit Boob Lady and the season 19 premiere after the movie's release having modified opening titles, and a still wrecked Springfield, the movie's impact has rarely been brought up on the show, though in the "The Fool Monty", Mr. Burns attempts to put a giant dome over the town; however, everyone complains that It's Been Done and he decides not to do it.
• Never My Fault: This is the reason why this movie has a plot in the first place. Due to Homer's reckless actions almost causing Springfield to perish, he attempts to run away from his problems and refuses to own up to his mistakes. Only when his family abandons him and he gets an epiphany does he decide to stop being selfish, take responsibility for his actions, and set things right.
• Never Trust a Trailer: As well as a few Missing Trailer Scenes, some bits of it were openly misleading.
  • The second theatrical trailer implied that President Schwarzenegger launched a full-scale nuclear war. These were the scenes where Schwarzenegger authorizes a lock-down of Springfield, and Itchy launching the nation's missiles against Scratchy on the moon, spliced together. The other theatrical trailer paired the shot of the missiles being launched with the huge circular shadow of the dome appearing over Springfield (a Shout-Out to Independence Day), implying it was to counter an Alien Invasion.
  • The narrator also states that "the fate of the world hangs in the balance". While certainly a Big Damn Movie, the "world" isn't really at stake, only a single town, and the movie is a lot more gag-based and emotional than the trailers imply.
  • Two of the movie's official trailers have a Fake-Out Opening featuring a dancing CGI bunny before the logo suddenly descends and crushes him. The narrator claims the movie will buck the trend by being traditionally animated in an age where computer animation had become standard for feature films. This is somewhat undermined by the film's abundant use of CGI (which is Cel Shaded, but still noticeable).
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Homer near-immediately subverts Lisa's clean-up efforts, and gets the town a nice, big lockdown dome around it. Near the end, he tries to break into the dome and foils the town's attempt to escape before they're nuked. He quickly makes up for that though with his motorcycle stunt.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Cargill attempting to blow up Springfield caused Homer to redeem himself in the eyes of the town by using Bart's help to throw the bomb out of the dome, and the resulting explosion against the glass was just what was needed to break the dome and free the town.
• No Animals Were Harmed: Lampshaded.
  • Lisa wouldn't leave the theatre until she saw this message. Strangely enough, the text itself is played completely straight.
  • On the DVD Commentary, Matt Groening reassures the listeners that all of the animals getting hurt in this movie are animated animals.
• No Endor Holocaust: The dome around the city is destroyed, and the only person to die is Dr. Nick. Even then, he gets better.
• Non Sequitur, *Thud*: Homer has a rambling, delirious argument with himself before he collapses in the snow.
• Noodle Incident: Russ Cargill mentions going mad without power in a tone that heavily implies he's either done exactly that before or witnessed someone else do so.
  EPA Agent: Sir, I'm afraid you've gone mad with power.
  Russ Cargill: Of course I have. You ever try going mad without power? It's boring. No one listens to you.
• Not Worth Killing: Upon Homer accidentally ruining the townspeople's chance to escape the dome and setting the bomb's time in half (from 8:23 minutes to 4:11 minutes), the townspeople became more angrier at Homer. Though it would appear the townspeople would finally take their chance to kill Homer after their failed attempt on the Simpson house, they instead throw rocks at Homer to make him run away from their presence, knowing now that killing him won't do any good as they are all gonna die with him because of his mistakes.
  Krusty: (enraged at Homer for costing the townspeople's chance to escape and speeding up their doom) GET OUTTA HERE!!!
• Off the Chart: Lisa's graph illustrating the lake's pollution is like this.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Itchy has one in the prologue when he sees Scratchy still on the moon and holds up a sign that reads "I'm telling".
  • Homer when the pig crap silo severely re-pollutes the lake after he dumps it. Then he has another one when the silo is found.
  • Marge is in the gas station scene when she sees the Wanted poster with the family on it behind the clerk. Luckily Bart doctors it before the clerk can see it.
  • Marge has one when she sees the advert for the "new Grand Canyon", located where Springfield is.
  • Marge has another one when the Simpsons (without Homer) arrive by train in Seattle, and sees Russ Cargill on the platform. They duck out of sight and Marge wonders aloud if he saw them. Immediately after that, they get captured, and Cargill pops up in the window and says that yes, he did see them.
  • Homer as he realizes he's about to be hit by his wrecking ball.
  • Most of the townspeople have one when the bomb is first lowered into the dome. They then get another one when the same bomb that Homer just threw through the hole at the top of the dome comes back down and shakes around the hole like it's going to fall through seconds before detonation.
  • Homer and Bart have one after the bomb explodes and it starts to crack the dome while they're still riding down the side of it. Also when they see they're heading for Springfield Gorge moments later.
• Ominous Crack: The glass dome cracks after the explosion and Homer has to outrun it on his motorbike.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Joe Quimby's name is synonymous with incompetent mayors and is overall a complete sleazeball who could hardly care about the town he governs. So it says something about Lake Springfield's pollution that he sided with Lisa on the issue (while everyone else refused to hear her out) and declared it an official state of emergency to get the Springfieldians to clean the lake and stop dumping in it. Even if the preventive measures he installed and approved were half-assed, considering that all of Springfield understood there was to be no dumping in the lake - Homer did so and used his car to get through the walls out of greed and stupidity - top-tier security wouldn't have been necessary.
• Ordered Apology: Marge asks Homer to give one to the entire townspeople angrily holding torches and wanting revenge on Homer for the glass dome situation. Homer does try to give one while hanging from one of the nooses, but they refuse to listen (someone even throws a buzzsaw at him to shut up).
• Orbital Kiss: The camera spins around Homer and Marge when they kiss in the final scene of the movie.
• Our Presidents Are Different: President Schwarzenegger is the President Buffoon kind: "I was elected to lead, not to read." However, Schwarzenegger did end up having second thoughts and was reluctant to pick an option randomly and even said he should read over the options. Not that it mattered anyway, since Russ Cargill tricked him into picking at random (kind of) again.
• Outlandish Device Setting: The Itchy and Scratchy cartoon at the beginning of the movie involves the duo going to the moon, only for Itchy to leave Scratchy for dead and returns to Earth and becomes president. When it's revealed that Scratchy is still alive and threatens to expose the truth, Itchy's solution is to fire dozens of nuclear missiles at him. The modes for launching said missiles include "First Strike", "Retaliation", and "Accidental Launch", with Itchy choosing the third one.
• The Paragon: Ned Flanders, as he works to be the type of father Bart couldn't expect out of Homer. He also tries saving the Simpsons from the angry mob.
• Pet the Dog: In spite of his reputation as a womanizing Corrupt Politician, Mayor Quimby is the only adult (besides Marge) who not only understands Lisa's point about the pollution in Lake Springfield, but also takes it seriously as he angrily demands the townspeople to clean up the lake and forbids any more dumping there. He even got his men to install concrete barriers around the lake (along with signs prohibiting anyone dumping there) so that it will remain clean and healthy.
  Mayor Quimby: This is SERIOUS, people! No more dumping in the lake!! I hereby declare a state of emergency: code black!
• Pictorial Letter Substitution: The title logo has the "O" in "Movie" replaced either with a donut or with a ring-shaped stain where a donut used to be (with the donut itself being eaten by Homer).
• Police Are Useless: Wiggum comes across Fat Tony dragging a corpse in a bag towards the lake, and tells him that dumping trash there is forbidden. Not wanting to get any further trouble, the mobster agrees by saying he will just put his "yard trimmings" in a car compactor, which the cop foolishly accepts as a better idea.
• Pop the Tires: Lou shoots a wheel off Bart's skateboard to stop him from riding around naked, which is either an incredibly good shot or an incredibly lucky one.
• Post-Climax Confrontation: Just as Springfield has been saved and everything seems to be fine again, Russ Cargill comes out of nowhere with a shotgun and attempts to kill Homer and Bart, but Maggie luckily knocks Russ out with a large boulder.
• Post-Support Regret: Even after Homer’s stupidity and unwillingness to listen to her warnings gets their hometown put under a dome and their family chased out of town by an angry mob and turned into criminals on the run, Marge still tries to support Homer’s ideas and defend him from their children’s ire on the defense that he’s trying. But it’s too much when Homer refuses to go back and save their town from being blown up due to the mess he made, avoiding taking responsibility. She leaves him a video message saying she’s leaving him for good and taking the kids with her to save Springfield, which she tapes over their wedding video to show him and herself that this is the end.
  Marge: (on the recording) Lately, what's keeping us together is my ability to overlook everything you do. And I overlook these things because...
  Homer: Because...?
  Marge: Well, that's the thing. I-I just don't know how to finish that sentence anymore.
• Precision F-Strike: The single most profane line in the movie, spoken by the one character in the show with the least profane vocabulary...
  Marge: SOMEBODY THROW THE GODDAMN BOMB!
• Quarantine with Extreme Prejudice: When Springfield officially becomes the most polluted city in America (thanks to Homer) the EPA puts a giant dome over it for the sake of quarantine, and when the Simpsons manage to escape the dome, Cargill immediately escalates to having guards patrolling the perimeter with orders to shoot to kill anybody who breaches it, as well as the plan to nuke Springfield literally off the map.
• Reckless Gun Usage: Chief Wiggum has donuts stacked on the barrel of his gun and almost shoots himself while eating.
• Ridiculously Potent Explosive: The bomb that Cargill plans to blow up Springfield with is small enough to be contained inside a normal briefcase. However, it has a gigantic explosion size more appropriate to have come from a large thermonuclear warhead.
• Ruder and Cruder: The Simpsons Movie featured content that the show couldn't get away with showing on TV, such as showing Bart's penis and having Homer give the finger to an angry mob.
• Rule of Cool: Homer and Bart saving the town by driving a motorcycle across the dome's walls.
• Rule of Funny: In a complete defilement of Simpsons canon lore, the Springfield Church and Moe's Tavern are suddenly right next to each other, for the sake of the joke when the occupants of each switch locations in panic upon first sighting the dome. Also, the sign above Moe's Tavern says "Moe's Bar" (it usually just says "Moe's") to make the joke clear to viewers who aren't fans of the show, and the Church usually has a much more substantial lawn, even in other scenes in the film itself.
• Rule of Sean Connery: Invoked. "Hello, I'm Tom Hanks. The U.S. Government has lost its credibility, so it's borrowing some of mine!"
• Scary Stinging Swarm: Homer puts a hornets' nest inside Ned's mailbox.
• Scenery Censor: Subverted when Bart rides naked on his skateboard, and for a solid 10 seconds, at least five parts of the scenery conveniently cover Bart's genitals. That is until Bart passes behind a shrub with a gap to conveniently ONLY show Bart's genitals while the rest of his body is shrouded.
• Self-Deprecation: The two "bunny trailers" lampshade the movie's comparatively ugly designs to the then-recent crop of slick, gorgeous computer-animated films.
• Sequel Snark: When the family is watching the credits at the end, Maggie's first word (that they've heard, at least) is "Sequel?"^note No, wait! That's exactly what they'll be expecting us to do!.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: We don't see Homer and Marge eventually get busy after being assisted by the woodland critters... only the poor critters' faces as they're Forced to Watch.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Russ Cargill and President Schwarzenegger are always seen dressed in suits. The only scene where Cargill isn't is after the Simpsons escape from the dome, where he is dressed in a blue EPA uniform.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Beloved meme and waste producer and Unwitting Instigator of Doom Plopper is caught up in the destruction of the Simpsons' house halfway through the movie and is therefore not with the family when they flee the dome. The story becomes steadily grimmer from there.
• Shout-Out:
  • Green Day play "Nearer, My God, to Thee" as their barge goes under in a reference to Titanic (1997).
  • President Arnold Schwarzenegger says "I miss Danny DeVito"'.
  • The town of Springfield goes berserk and tries to break out the dome when they find that they are out of coffee.
  • The giant shard that impales Dr. Nick is identical to the shard of glass that kills Carl in Ghost (1990).
  • Bart scribbling on his family's "Wanted" poster and causing a family of doppelgangers who look like the vandalized portrait to be arrested is a gag taken from the Leslie Nielsen film Wrongfully Accused.
  • Homer tells Marge that Spider-Pig is now Hairy Plopper. (The final Harry Potter book and the fifth movie were released the same year as this feature.)
  • The shot of the shadow of the dome appearing over Springfield is a visual homage to Independence Day.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Springfield opts to kill Bart, Lisa, and Maggie because of the actions of their father.
• Skewed Priorities: Marge trying to get the wedding video VHS tape in the House Fire-infested home while forcing her family to wait in the car as they're being pursued by an angry mob. While it can be Justified that she couldn't part with something important to her before leaving for good, taking the extra time to wash a plate under these conditions is less so.
• Sled Dogs Through the Snow: When Homer tried to return to Springfield from Alaska, he used sled dogs to get home while whipping them. The dogs attacked him when resting and left him on his own.
• Soccer-Hating Americans: Discussed — Homer's second stab at an epiphany with the Inuit shaman amounts to "Americans will never embrace soccer."
• Sore Loser: After Homer manages to save the town from being blown up, Cargill appears and says he's going to cope with his defeat by killing Homer with a shotgun. Luckily, before he can, Maggie drops a boulder on his head, knocking him out.
• Spanner in the Works: In the defense of Springfield's feeble attempt at preventing someone from contaminating the lake again by placing concrete barriers and signs surrounding its perimeter, they did test it for it to be foolproof by using one of the dumbest fools in town (Cletus Spuckler). The problem is, then, that Homer is not just "a fool" but a hardcore Jerkass. He single-handedly dooms the whole town.
• Starting a New Life: After the entire Simpson family is run out of Springfield, they go to Alaska to start anew.
• State Sec: The Environmental Protection Agency, of all things, is elevated to State Sec level of power thanks to a very-dimwitted president signing an executive order without reading it. The EPA director uses this power to seal Springfield away from the outside world, use military force to hunt down the escaped Simpsons family, and then finally blow the whole city up.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  • Russ Cargill says he's isolating Springfield for purely environmental reasons and it has nothing to do with the fact that he owns the company that made the dome.
  • Colin's father is Irish, cares about the environment, and is definitely not Bono.
  • In the commercial for the new Grand Canyon set to destroy Springfield after Russ blows it up, Tom Hanks claims it's "nowhere near where anything is or ever was".
• Take My Hand!: Towards the end, Homer grabs Bart's hand when the latter is about to fall off the motorbike.
• Take That!:
  • Bart, wearing a bra like Mickey Mouse ears. Doubles as Hypocritical Humor, since The Simpsons are technically mascots of FOX, and their show has had several Biting-the-Hand Humor jokes about FOX being an evil corporation.
    Bart: I'm the mascot of an evil corporation!
  • Many toward the US Government and the EPA, notably when the government apparently surveillances everything and when Tom Hanks states that the US government has so little credibility that they have to borrow from him.
  • There's a Take That! toward oil drilling companies destroying Alaska's beauty when the family reaches the Alaskan border.
  • Russ Cargill's plan is a Take That! towards environmentalists who take their ideology too far and value "saving the planet" over human life.
  • In The Stinger, the Squeaky Voiced Teen is sweeping away gum at the theatre. It's implied that he's the film's assistant manager, and this is where four years of film school lead him.
  • The DVD Commentary confirms that the Grand Theft Walrus sequence was a Take That! toward the Penguin craze started by March of the Penguins and Happy Feet, which Surf's Up was indulging in around the same time.
  • The first trailer takes a comical jab at 3D animation by stating "In a time where computer animation brings us worlds of unsurpassed beauty, one film dares to be ugly." Unfortunately, the cute bunny involved in the trailer didn't make it.
• Take That, Audience!: Right at the beginning, Homer lampshades his movie when he calls everyone in the theater a "giant sucker" for paying to see something they get on TV for free. "Especially you!"
• Taking You with Me: At the end of the movie, Cargill is washed up with his dome and bomb plans failed, knowing that soon, word will spread about his actions now that the Springfieldians are free. He confronts Homer with a shotgun as a last-ditch effort for revenge, only to be stopped by Maggie.
• Talking to Themself: While Braving the Blizzard, Homer becomes delirious and starts having an argument with himself.
• Taped-Over Turmoil: Homer has refused to return to save Springfield from being blown up, so Marge leaves with the kids while he's away. He returns to find a video of Marge explaining why she left. "And to prove to myself that it's really over, I've taped this message over our wedding video." The message is followed by Marge and Homer's first dance at their reception, which leads to Homer having a Heel Realization.
• Tap on the Head: At the end of the film, Cargill is knocked out by Maggie dropping a boulder on his head.
• Temporary Platform: Homer rides his motorbike on patches of falling glass debris from the collapsing dome.
• Tempting Fate:
  • The barker's Idiot Ball moment. He likes seeing Homer hurt himself so, obviously not expecting him to fare any better, he gives him another try to win the truck. One guess as to what happens.
  • After the dome is destroyed, Chief Wiggum remarks that it's a miracle no one was hurt. Cue a large shard dropping with a thud and impaling Dr. Nick.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Hans Moleman gets run over by Homer's car.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Done with a literal sandwich. During the Krusty Burger scene, Krusty takes a bite out of the pork sandwich he is advertising, The Clogger, before spitting it out at the end of the take and throwing the rest away. Partly justified because of a Running Gag on the show and also because Krusty is Jewish, so he can't eat pork.
• This Is No Time for Knitting: When they are in the treehouse surrounded by the angry mob, and they don't know how to get out, Maggie keeps pointing to the sandbox, but Marge assumes she wants to play in the sand and tells her "Not now!" and "We'll play later!". When Maggie finally jumps, Marge realizes that she wanted them to jump into the sinkhole beneath the sandbox so that they'll reappear on the other side of the dome, where the mob can't see them.
• Time Bomb: Near the film's end, Cargill deploys a suitcase-sized multi-megaton time bomb to destroy Springfield and kill all its inhabitants.
• To Be Continued: Parodied. At the beginning of the third act, Homer finds out his family has abandoned him to go back to Springfield and, in his grief, passes out in the snow. The screen then fades to black and "To Be Continued" appears... only for the following frame to display the word "immediately", thus resuming the narrative.
• Token Romance: Colin makes his debut as Lisa's love interest, but the plot would not have been significantly different had he been omitted.
• Took a Level in Badass: Martin Prince, one of the geekiest characters in the show, beats up his bullies near the film's end, even stating how good it feels to exact revenge on them.
• Torches and Pitchforks: The citizens of Springfield go after Homer after he got them trapped inside the giant glass dome.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The trailers spoil that Springfield is going to get nuked if the Simpsons don't stop the EPA.
• Trailer Spoof:
  • An early trailer pretended to be for Superman Returns, but it was just Homer wearing a Superman shirt.
    Homer: I forgot what I was supposed to say!
  • A trailer used the Spider-Man font before revealing... Spider-Pig.
  • One trailer spoofed the first teaser for The Da Vinci Code, with Homer's face in place of the Mona Lisa.
  • One trailer mocks computer animation by having the film's logo crush a CGI bunny while the narrator declares that The Simpsons dares to be ugly.
• Truth in Television: An accidental one. The movie (which came out in 2007) depicted the NSA as listening to everybody's conversations (phones, texts, simply talking in public spaces) and that the US Government doesn't promise privacy for people. However, this was merely a joke and the movie wasn't sincere about the spying conspiracy. It wasn't until 2013 when Edward Snowden leaked out information that this was true.
• Unexpected Kindness: Bart spends some time bonding with Ned Flanders. They go fishing, and when Bart accidentally loses Flanders' rod, he expects to be strangled much like Homer would do to him. He's thrown for a loop when Flanders instead just pats his back and doesn't get angry.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Springfield gets domed all because Homer decides to adopt a pig and dumping its waste into the lake. Of course, other entities are to blame, such as Krusty for attempting to have the pig killed (which drove Homer to take the pig home), and Lenny for directly calling Homer about the donut store giving away donuts for free just as he was about to dispose of the pig crap properly. However, this is undermined on the fact that Homer chose to dump the pig crap into the lake at his own volition, as he willingly ran over the signs prohibiting anyone from dumping into the lake; even Krusty and Lenny are among the members of the mob who want to kill Homer for what he did.
• Vagueness Is Coming: How the main conflict is set up. Abe has a prophecy in the church that gets dismissed by everybody, but Marge takes it seriously and tries working on it to work out what it means.
• Vanity Plate: Gracie Films appears at the end of the film as a homage to the television series; this is the first and only time to date the plate has appeared in a feature film produced by the company. (An updated theatrical logo would later appear in the 2012 theatrical short Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare", and on the 2016 film The Edge of Seventeen.)
• Villain Has a Point: Russ Cargill is an example of a Well-Intentioned Extremist as he is correct about pollution levels being problematic for Springfield. This doesn't excuse his actions, however.
• Villainous Breakdown: Lampshaded by Russ Cargill:
  Russ Cargill: [Aiming a shotgun at Homer] There's a couple of things they don't teach you at Harvard Business School. One is how to cope with defeat. The other is how to handle a shotgun. I'm going to do both, right now.
• Visual Pun: The wrecking ball sequence has one where Homer on a wrecking ball is hit by many things, such as a rock and a building marked A Hard Place.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Russ Cargill starts like this. Sure, sealing Springfield and its citizens in a dome was pretty over the top, but he did it to keep the town's pollution from spreading, which is somewhat reasonable. This doesn't last though, as he quickly goes off the deep end into considerably more power-hungry and sinister territory, becoming a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Wham Line:
  • When we learn of what Option 4 is when the citizens try to break the dome, "OPTION 4 - BLOW UP SPRINGFIELD"
  • When Homer is watching the tape Marge left behind:
    Marge: Lately, what's keeping us together is my ability to overlook everything you do. And I overlook these things because- (stops)
    Homer: Because?
    Marge: Well, that's the thing. I just don't know how to finish that sentence anymore. So I'm leaving with the kids to help Springfield, and we're never coming back. And to prove to myself that this is the end... I taped this over our wedding video. Goodbye, Homie.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: As soon as the family is chased out of town, Spider-Pig is forgotten about.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Homer is on the receiving end of this by his family.
  • When the Simpsons take refuge at a motel after escaping the dome, a livid Marge calls Homer out for making them wanted fugitives and for polluting Lake Springfield after she specifically gave him a warning.
  • Marge, along with Bart and Lisa, gets upset with Homer for leaving Springfield to get destroyed by Russ Cargill.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?:
  • It borders Kentucky, Maine, Nevada, and Ohio. For those unfamiliar with American geography, they're the blue states◊. Also, it's east of Shelbyville and south of Capital City, and not in Alaska. As usual, it still doesn't help.
  • According to the credits, the film was filmed on location in Springfield, ______.
  • If the contest before the movie's release is to be believed, Vermont.
  • Springfield also features a Hollywood-esque sign and a dry river bed that looks suspiciously like Down L.A. Drain.
• Wily Walrus: In one scene, Homer is seen playing an arcade game called Grand Theft Walrus, an obvious parody of Grand Theft Auto. In the game, an anthropomorphic walrus shoots a happy, dancing penguin to death.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Played for Laughs.
  Russ Cargill: I want roving death squads around the clock! I want 10,000 tough guys, and I want 10,000 soft guys to make the tough guys look tougher, and this is how I want them arranged; tough, tough, soft, tough, soft, soft, tough, tough, soft, soft, tough, soft.
  EPA Official: Sir, I'm afraid you've gone mad with power.
  Russ Cargill: Of course I have. You ever tried going mad without power? It's boring. No one listens to you.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Even though it was only Homer who dumped the silo in the lake that caused the city to be sealed under a dome, the townspeople also try to kill Marge and the kids as well for no apparent reason other than they're related to the guy responsible, despite moments before saying they wouldn't and just wanted him. This hostility is dropped when the family, sans Homer, is dragged back to the town by the EPA.
  • Then there's Russ's final plot to blow up Springfield, which would have included all of the children.
• Writing Lines: In a variant of the usual opening gag from the show, Bart writes "I will not illegally download this movie" over and over on the blackboard.
• You Monster!: Lisa says this to Homer after learning that it was he who caused the ecological disaster that got Springfield placed under a dome.
• You Would Do the Same for Me: Ned starts to say this about Homer, and Bart just gives him a look.
  Ned: Point taken. Now hustle your bustles!

---

Shhhhh!

---