Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996, produced by Best Brains, Inc., distributed by Gramercy Pictures) is a theatrical adaptation of the cult television hit Mystery Science Theater 3000. The date of the movie's production, between seasons 6 and 7 of MST3K, explains the absence of both TV's Frank (Frank Conniff), who left the series in the finale of Season 6, and Pearl The movie opens with mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu) explaining the premise of the film (and associated TV series). This is a break from the TV series, where the opening theme ("Love Theme from Mystery Science Theater 3000") typically explains the premise in lyrical form. A love theme was recorded for the film by Dave Alvin, formerly of The Blasters, but ended up being cut. A portion of this theme survives in the official screensaver for the film.
Following Dr. Forrester's intro, we are introduced to our heroes, Mike Nelson (Michael J. Nelson), Crow T. Robot (Beaulieu), and Tom Servo (Kevin Murphy), along with Gypsy (Jim Mallon). Cambot and Magic Voice play no role in the movie.
After brief introductions, Mike, Tom and Gypsy are startled to find Crow deep in the lower sections of the Satellite of Love, pounding at the hull with various digging instruments. He has convinced himself that he can tunnel back to Earth, he tells them. A hull breach soon follows (Checking his digging calculations, a confused Crow discovers that he already knew this was inevitable: "Look at that, "Breach Hull, All Die." Even had it underlined!"), which Tom Servo remedies in an unexpected way.
They return to the Bridge, as Dr. Forrester announces that he is about to make them watch the 1955 classic Rex Reason sci-fi thriller This Island Earth in an attempt to break their wills. In the process of doing so, Mike and the Bots mock (or "riff") the movie mercilessly.
About 20 minutes into This Island Earth, the film breaks, allowing Mike and the bots to return to the bridge while Dr. Forrester fixes the projector in Deep 13. On the way back to the bridge, Mike is taunted by Crow and Tom into steering the satellite himself...and promptly crashes into and destroys the Hubble Space Telescope. Mike tries to let it go back into space by using the ship's manipulator arms, but only manages to destroy it further. (If you look above the button Mike uses to summon the manipulator arms, it says "MANOS" in larger letters as well as using a quick snippet of a theme from the film "Manos" The Hands of Fate, another movie that was riffed on the show, considered to be the worst movie ever made and the best episode of the show.)
Later in the film, Servo mentions that he owns an interocitor like the one in This Island Earth. Mike and the bots swiftly sneak out of the theater, thinking that they can use Servo's interocitor to contact someone who can help them get back to Earth. They venture into Servo's bedroom to discover the interocitor beneath a pile of Servo's stuff, but the Metalunan they contact (who is credited as Benkitnorf) isn't much help.
After the movie, their wills completely unbroken, Mike and the bots unwind with a little "Metaluna mixer" (a This Island Earth-themed party), much to the aggravation of Dr. Forrester before he attempts to use his own interocitor to ruin it, only to end up beaming himself into Benkitnorf's bathroom. Mike and the bots celebrate the fact that Dr. Forrester is out of their hair...then realize that now they'll likely never get back to Earth ("Hey, wait a minute...").
The end credits are then riffed by Mike and the bots themselves.
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