Movie: (1968 TV series; 1987 compilation movie) A top secret organization, called Mighty Jack, makes use of a giant submarine, called Mighty Jack, to battle terrorist organization Q.
First shown: 9/21/91
Opening: Something horrible has happened on the SOL … face!
Invention exchange: The Mads show off the formal flipper; J&tB demonstrate ear-shaped earmuffs
Host segment 1: The bots show Joel their Mighty Jack pet food commercial
Host segment 2: The bots put Joel in the blinding light compartment
Host segment 3: Joel goes off the deep end while suggesting underwater movie ideas
End: J&tB sing “Slow the Plot Down!” and Frank’s quoting Melville, arr.
Stinger: He died as he lived … lovin’ his work.
(129 votes, average: 4.18 out of 5)
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• I’m going to put this in the “good-not great” column. The Brains are on such a roll at this point in the season that even a bolus like this movie can’t stop their momentum. There are a few slow/quiet patches in the riffing and segment 3 is a bit strange, but there’s a lot more to like in this episode than dislike.
• This episode appears on Shout Factory’s “Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Vol XXII.”
• For one of of only two times until he would leave the show, Joel is NOT wearing the standard maroon jumpsuit he’s been wearing since episode 212. Our jumpsuit list in Ward E calls it “pastel green,” dsman71 calls it “teal.” You make the call.
• The opening is a lot of fun. “I’m blind! That thing cut me!” cracks me up every time.
• Jerry the Mole person gets another mention.
• Then-hot phrase: “Hello, Federal!”
• At the beginning of the invention exchange, you may be wondering why there is Velcro on the bots’ heads. You soon find out.
• Tom’s little speech about winter sounds like it’s from something. Anybody recognize it?”
• Yikes, those awful pictures at the beginning of the movie. Bleah.
• Yes, Joel, the joke was a little racist, or at least languageist.
• Callbacks: Puma? (Ring of Terror) Also: “That’s pretty good!” (Sidehackers) “Glenn Corbett! (Stranded in Space) “Hikeeba!” (Women of the Prehistoric Planet) “You’re stuck here!” and “He tried to kill me…” (Fugitive Alien) and “It’s Gamera!”
• Segment 1 is just so conversational and laid-back, it’s a great example of their unique style of humor.
• Obscure riff (for me, at least): Riffing on the horn stuff in score, Servo rattles off the names of several horn players I recognized. But Teo Macero I had not heard of.
• Segment two is a real gem, one for the highlight reel. “You have GOT to be KIDDING me, Crow!”
• You can tell this episode was written only a few months after the end of the first Gulf War. It features a lot of buzzwords and phrases from that era, including “collateral damage” and “baby formula factory.”
• Vaguely dirty riff: “I was just daydreaming.” Also: Movie: “Full thrust!” Crow: “Really!?”
• Regional riff: There’s a reference to Tommy Bartlett, the Wisconsin impresario responsible for several attractions in the Wisconsin Dells. You pretty much have to have vacationed in the Midwest to get that one.
• Like “Time of the Apes” and “Fugitive Alien” before it, this is the first and last episodes of a TV series season, with a little connecting filler thrown in. Initially I, like Crow, could barely even remember anything that I had seen. The movie seemed to self-erase in my memory as I watched it. It took many viewings to get any sense of what the damn thing was about, or for any of it to stick in my memory.
• Joel follows right up on the “Earth vs Soup” bit from last week.
• Joel mentions Shake-a-Pudd’n. I loved Shake-a-Pudd’n. Or maybe I just loved the commercials. I forget.
• The “Slow the Plot Down” song is a classic. Note the way the camera rocks slightly as they sing. Makes me a little nauseous.
• There really isn’t a cast and crew roundup this time. There were a few people who were in other episodes but they were all mentioned already in previous episode guide installments.
• CreditsWatch: Mary Flaa completes her two-episode stint as hair and makeup person, and was never seen or heard from again. Trace and Frank are still guest “villians” (misspelled) and Dr. F’s last name is still spelled “Forrestor.”
• Fave riff: “Meanwhile, back on the Greasy Bastard…” Honorable mention: “Oh, my aching imperialist dogs!”
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Another banking turn. . .Flash! ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
This is a fun opening sketch by Joel and the Bots. I’ll tell you, Star Trek (which appears to be a major inspiration here) is a gift that just keeps on giving.
That is a very dapper looking TV’s Frank in the tuxedo. He looks like he could be a super-agent with a license to kill. But Clayton on the other hand… It is funny that he ended up wearing the lady’s flipper. Wouldn’t he normally torment Frank into that? Now they should have made the flipper detachable from the formal shoe. Then you’d really have something.
We have a Jerry the Moleman mention (but not an appearance) for the second straight week.
When we see Crow with the Velcro on his head for the invention exchange, I can’t help but think he looks like baseball great Carl Yastrzmeski whose birthday was this past Monday by the way.
I don’t remember much from the KTMA viewing of this episode, but already at the beginning I see the cut the scenes of the Might Jack crew manning the sub from the Comedy Central presentation. I guess there are many more cuts.
Missed Callback Riff: Very early on we see a Mighty Jack member tossing an apple up and down. I was screaming out to the TV: “Want some? I want answers!”
Mighty Jack dog food: If I understand correctly, it is Crow who is puppeteering the “Mighty Jack” during the commercial. That means we have a puppet controlling a puppet. There is something unholy about that.
Favorite Riffs:
“Nothing will help them.” “Why do you say that?” Joel: “Because it’s my line.”
A bound and gagged man is shown. Tom “Oh not that old gag.”
Joel “See you on the other side Flopsy.” Crow “No way, I’ve got eight more lives dickweed.”
first off, i would just like to add ‘bank turn.’
from what i do remeber from the movie, i am still not quite sure who was the more incompetent organization ‘Q’ or the titular ‘Mighty Jack.’ i guess since ‘MJ’ won they were the lesser of the two. the only bit of insight that i can glean from movies such as ‘time of the apes,’ ‘Fugitive Aliens 1&2’ and this one is that back in the 60’s and 70’s the Japaneses still had some issues to work through. and for the record, that’s the NINETEEN 60’s & 70’s.
Teo Marcero is also a saxophonist, but he’s more well known as a jazz producer for Columbia in the 1950s and 1960s, notably for many of Miles Davis most famous albums like Kind Of Blue and Bitches Brew, along with Dave Brubeck’s Time Out.
I wonder if that riff came from Kevin himself, given his musical bent….
All I remember about this episode is that one time I turned on Comedy Central during late night and there was a scene from this episode where the hero flipped after an odd jumpcut. Servo’s reaction was “I flipped for no reason!” That stuck with me ever since, even though the episode never has. I can’t remember anything about this episode except for a long, unfunny scene where the Joel and the guys make drug references while an actor smokes.
Time of the Apes was funny but this one refuses to be remembered. Riding with Death is still the best “movie” (that is actually two episodes edited together) they did.
“…I said dry toast.”
I don’t think I even noticed that line the first few times I saw this episode, but it’s an all-time favorite for the deadpan nonchalance.
Hey, trivia buffs! The 1968 TV series Mighty Jack ran for no less than thirteen one-hour episodes, so you almost have to applaud them for turning the whole mess into a feature-length show. It also aired at 8 p.m. during its original run–not actually aimed at the Romper Room set, contrary to what you might think.
Still, the damn thing plays out like what you’d get when a 12 year-old asks his alcoholic uncle to tell him a story, only the uncle’s coming off a massive bender and the only thing he can remember is watching Doctor No.
It barely makes sense, of course, but you can kinda chalk that up to the editing job (on the part of the Sandy Frank All-Stars and the Brains). Sort of. That still doesn’t excuse the breathtaking incompetence of the writing. Seasoned field ops try to combat toxic gas by waving their hankies at it. A spy passes himself off as an enemy German agent (successfully!) by saying “ja” into a telephone receiver. Half a dozen super-spies blow their cover simultaneously by staring goggle-eyed at the guy who just mentioned their highly publicized team name out loud. And the capper, the secret agent who actually falls for the ‘look over there’ routine.
And Joel and the Bots hit all the right notes, from calling out the cut-rate stripper to recasting ‘Mighty Jack’ as a canned dog food. (If memory serves, they were playing off of ‘Ken-L-Ration’ ads, which Joel would revisit in CT’s Legacy of Blood.) Even the fever dream of a sketch with Joel outlining his plan for Hollywood success by cannibalizing crappy cartoons is a good fit, somehow.
More nostalgic treat than bona fide classic, but still a ‘golden age’ episode that can hold its own.
My least favorite of the Sandy Frank episodes. Like the other TV series beat into vaguely movie-shape, this one’s incomprehensible, but in a rather boring way compared to the rest. The episode’s definitely got its moments (segment 2 and the part of the movie that inspired it are great), but everything starts to feel the same after awhile. The first Might Jack TV series ran for 13 episodes (that’s the one Sandy Frank used), and then was followed by the 26 episode Fight! Mighty Jack, which had monsters and aliens. Maybe material from the second series would have made for better MST3K fare, but it looks like Sandy Frank never got his hands on that.
The episode titles for the first series:
1. The Man Who Vanished in Paris
2. Take Back the K52
3. The Burning Rose
4. Long Live the Homeland!!
5. Females and Lipstick
6. Hot Ice
7. Don’t Look at the Moon!
8. The Bone-Chilling Aurora
9. A Guide to Hell
10. Orders for Destruction
11. Burning Gold
12. Terror in the Big City
13. Operation Mystery Ship
Episode 1, “The Man Who Vanished in Paris”, is clearly what we see at the start of the Sandy Frank version, but oddly all that “hot ice” stuff featured at the end is apparently from episode 6. Did the hot ice turn up again in the last episode, or is the climatic battle from the end of the SF version taken from episode 13 but not the plot? Or is the battle from episode 6 and it originally wasn’t supposed to be climatic at all? The episodes in the first series were an hour long, so you wouldn’t need more than two to put together what we see on MST3K.
On that note, I have to quibble with Sampo’s statement that Time of the Apes and Fugitive Alien were made from the first and last episode of a TV series season. Based on the episode titles for those series, and what other information I could find, the SF versions took footage from several different episodes of those series, not just the first and last. Unlike Mighty Jack, those shows only had half hour episodes, so you’d need more than two to make the SF versions.
Oh, boy, is this one ever a rough ride. This is an episode where the host segments are superior to the movie riffing. Not that the Brains didn’t give it a good, honest try, but this “movie” was so confusing and weird that, in my opinion, it was difficult to establish a good stream of riffing material. This is one of those rare episodes that I’ve tried watching several times over the years, hoping that I would find it improved as I grew older and my tastes matured, but sadly, that isn’t the case. Again, I don’t fault the Brains, they did their best, but this one just didn’t work for me. Two stars out of five.
Like all the other Sandy Frank stuff, it’s not a fave for me, although J&tb do their best to make the ep entertaining. I agree that the song is a classic. Dr F’s lady flipper was quite disturbing, especially since his leg was rather… never mind. Four stars.
Fave riff: “Wow, they’re using every toy in the box!”
Looking forward to this one on DVD, I still have not seen the very end of it with Frank in his ridiculous pirate getup as my only copy is a VHS that was timer-recorded improperly, snipping off the end.
I obviously have no idea what’s going on in it, but the episode title “Don’t Look At The Moon!” captivates me. That could have been a MST3K catchphrase, if anybrain had the idea it existed.
A quick Facebook search for Mary Flaa brought up a Minneapolis based Makeup Artist/Beauty Expert Named Mary K Flaa. Perhaps the same person? She has a web site will all sorts of showbiz references, though MST3K isn’t mentioned.
http://flaalessmakeup.com/index.html
Haven’t watched this one in a while, but isn’t this the episode where the stinger for this color film is in black & white?
AOL was hardly “new” when Windows 95 was released. It had been around for five or six years by that point.
I just saw this one for the first time. I heard a lot about Mighty Jack before, but I assumed it was like Teenage caveman, then it sounded more like a breakfast food or a doggie treat. Host segment 1 made a lot of sense to me. The movie didn’t. I kind of like the ethno-racism when you see all the characters with a drop of occidental blood turn out to be evil (Kind of like the movie ‘Hidalgo”). However, it makes for less suspense in a spy movie. And what was the point of the final attack on the ice base? I thought Q was going to blow it up itself to foil MJ; then MJ bombs it all to heck and they all high-five…huh?
It does make you appreciate that even the lame Bert i Goron films have a movie arc – an intro, a plot, a climax, and an ending. Its hard when there are several problems and resolutions to know where you are in the movie: are we about to end, or starting a new story? As confusing as it is, JnTB makes it fun, esp. with the bizarre segments. You wanna get some frozen yogurt?
Mighty Jack. “Made with real beef.”
“Note the way the camera rocks slightly as they sing.”
I love the creaking sound effect while this is going on, as if the SOL is made of wood.
The only thing I remembered about this episode from back in the day was host segment 2 and the part of the movie that inspired it. On a more recent viewing, the episode was OK but I will still only remember the segment 2 part. 3.5 stars for me.
Jedzz–oh, I know, but that was what the commercial was saying. AOL’s most infamous commercial — my friends still joke about it — was where the guy asks “Why do I want America Online? I already HAVE a computer!” Which is a little like saying “Why do I need gasoline? I already HAVE a car!”
It took me a while to develop a taste for this one, but I’ve got to admit…this is one of the most prominent examples of the crew making a “silk purse from a sow’s ear”. Even if you can’t make heads or tails out of the film, the riffing is pretty hilarious. And I especially love the second host segment, with Crow drifting in and out of his “cat” character…
Tom: “Aren’t you supposed to be my cat?”
Crow: “I admit it…I’m completely off script…”
@Matt Sandwich…I always thought it was a play on words for the dog food called “mighty dog” by purina. I’m confused. ( :dog: )
Good job, Jay. Flaa did Mallrats.
She was just filling in on these two MST3K episodes?
Atari: “Don’t move!” (opens fire)
Crow: “You moved!”
Guy: “How do we know Mr. Atari is still alive?”
Bad guy: “Just a moment.”
Crow: “Are you alive?”
This one suffers slightly from the ubject film which as has been attested to here is… less that satisfactory. But that not withstanding I have to go with 4.. for “Slow the Plot Down” ( one of my favorite songs ) and for having a 5 ( ? ) minute sequence with riffs on James Joyce, They Might Be Giants and Monty Python. I especially like Flopsy ( a reference to he the “Lemming of the BDA” sketch from the Flying Circus ).
in case you find yourself contemplating removing buttons and other components from your clothes in an attempt to make yourself a Mighty Jack one hitter like Atari did in the movie, please don’t. the law looks badly on partially dressed people on the public transit system. from one who know.
There’s something in this movie named “Q”, but not one ST:TNG reference? How about:
“You wanted to scare us Q? We’re scared.”
“Eaten any good books lately?”
I have a hard time staying awake during this ep, but when I do, I find lots to enjoy. Considering just how inconprehensible this “movie” is, the riffing is really sharp and very strong. They played up the Mighty Jack agents wearing the gloves & holding coffee cups (“Kyle MacLachlan!” “You know, it’s really good today”), and the German spy “loving his work” nicely.
The riffs about the actors resembling people – JFK, William Faulkner – were among my favorites.
“You, stunt left, you, slap meat, and you, write ‘The Sound and the Fury’!”
Oh, and Snowdog, @9, I too found Dr. F’s lady flippers disturbing, but only because his legs are so darn pretty; I’m jealous! (That may not be YOUR reason for being disturbed, though.)
Ugh. Mighty Jack. Like most others, memories of this episode are almost nonexistent. Seems like every time I would watch this one, I would fall asleep and not be able to remember anything about the movie or episode. This is probably my third time watching this episode (fourth time with this movie if we count the KTMA ep) and I enjoyed it more than before, but I still zonked out during the last 15-20 minutes. Couldn’t help it.
Before I watched this last night I was trying to remember MIGHTY JACK and I thought I did, but when I started it, it was a completely different movie. So I sat there thinking, “what Japanese spy movie was I thinking about?” when it hit me that I was having memories of Woody Allen’s WHAT’S UP, TIGER LILY? which is really really funny, something all MSTies should check out.
The Invention Exchange and Host Segments #1 and #2 are all fun stuff, Crow as the cat in #2 especially, but HS#3 is just plain odd. I don’t think space madness is anything to laugh at (especially when it is not funny).
RIFFS AND THINGS:
Joel: “I was just daydreaming, doctor.”
Servo: “Wieney launch.”
Servo: “Apocalypse Now? Apocalypse NOT!”
the camera pans lazily to a wall,
Joel: “The cameraman’s lost interest here…”
–**LOTS of drug humor in this one, I think I wrote them all down:
Joel: “Wwwooooohoooo, that’s good weed!”
“inhaling sounds” from Joel and The Bots as the doctor smokes.
Joel: “I am so high.”
Joel: “It’s a one-hitter, wooohooo!”
Crow: “Rolling papers. I’ll roll us a doob. You put on some Allman Brothers. The ‘Eat a Peach’ album.”
Joel “We’ve been smoking Lebanese Blonde and we’re flying right now. *cough*”
.
Maybe that is why no one can remember MIGHTY JACK? It gives you a contact high.
Maybe not..
I give MIGHTY JACK a mighty 3/5.
I wonder if Shout Factory can get the rights to the actual series of “Mighty Jack”, “Fugitive Alien” and “Time of the Apes” so we can find out just what exactly was going on. Or maybe they can include some kind of a plot cheat-sheet for this one in the upcoming release.
One of the last episodes I was exposed to. And I love it..
First we get Joel in the Teal jumpsuit for the crisis on the SOL..then we see Dr. F dressed up in stockings which turns Frank on apparentley and Joels mentions how weird they are getting..
I love the Joel’s ‘smoking weed” line and acts (or not) like he’s taking a few hits early on in the movie
This also has a riff that my wife even smiled at, a lady who looked like the President of the Phillipines up until 2009 Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino
And on that note
“oooh thats good weed”
Joels Hair
Joels Knees
Frank ” I want children”
No wonder I need therapy !!
Dsman–Thanks for mentioning Joel’s jumpsuit! I can’t believe I let that slide by!
I know why I can never remember anything about this movie after I watch Mighty Jack. Something about that movie encourages many trips to the beer fridge, not to mention a trip or two into the ‘secret compartment’ of my humidor. ;)
Ah, Mighty Jack…. probably the worst Sandy Frank movie ever shown on Mst3k! I have checked the orignial Mighty Jack TV series in its original Japanese TV version, and it seems alright. Wish there were english subtitles, though.
The riffing probably isn’t the best, but still pretty funny. “Inside I’m tan and handsome; outside I’m the Grinch who Stole Chistmas!”. The slow the plot down song is very memorable, and the opening segment is just…. wacky. What is that white stuff they use anyway, silly string? Oh…. and Sampo, I would have to agree with Dsman71. That jumpsuit is teal. ;)
Overall, nice episode and looking forward to seeing it released in December. :)
The silly, black and white Sci-Fi films make for rather boring episodes compared to the Japanese imports, particularly Mighty Jack. Perhaps it’s because the Japanese films are so poorly conceived that they make for the strongest episodes, which is why season three is probably the best season. If they could have filled up the rest of the season with Master Ninja type episodes it would have been flawless.
Slow the plot down? Give me more of that, oooh! Seriously, this is one of those terrible movies that worked great on the show. Host segments here were huge winners, really funny stuff. The Joel in the light box recreation of the dumbest scene maybe ever in any MSTed movie is terrific. The guy in the movie hunching over the briefcase is iconic of the weirdness of the film. Can’t wait for the Shout! DVD.
The last time I watched this movie, a couple years ago, I had the flu and was lying on the couch under a blanket. I think I may have fallen asleep at some point, but this probably would not account for my inability to follow the plot. I think this *film* has the flu. Maybe I caught the flu from Mighty Jack. This is distantly possible.
I join the ranks of those who remember very little of this film.
Bring on the DVD! I’ll get my shot first.
OK, a few things I noticed that haven’t been mentioned yet
If you look carefully during Segment 2, when Servo emerges from under the desk, you can clearly see the stick and Kevin’s hand. You can also see the top of his head throughout the segment
Also, when Joel is doing the site gag of pushing the book in, I swear to god I hear Servo curse. “That f’ing (?) is heavy”
AOL stands for All Outta Luck.
I’m watching the episode right now, and I just noticed: The music is credited to Isao Tomita! He’s not too big a name, but he has an interesting connection to western SF: A piece from one of his early albums, Snowflakes Are Dancing, was used in an episode of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy radio series.
Kouban@38: Having always been a huge fan of Tomita’s albums, I noticed his name right off, the first time I saw Mighty Jack. I still figure it’s probably the most noteworthy thing about the whole film.
No problem Sampo – I used to wonder why he stopped wearing the Teal and other colors, but I guess it was all in the theme song “another face in a red jumpsuit” but I noticed he went teal for that one segment…I think he wears it again in Teenagers from Outer Space
I always like the Teal jumpsuit and it fit really well in Season 2
I wonder if Joel still has them around
I don’t have a lot of info on the “Mighty Jack” series, other than the MJ logo became the logo for Tsuburaya Productions.
Cast notes: Masanari Nihei (Jerry) played Ito on the original “Ultraman” and still appears on various incarnations of the franchise. Hideyo Amamoto (MJ’s radio team leader) played the Red Bamboo ship captain in “Godzilla versus the Sea Monster”, as well as Cobra Man in “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?”, Dr. Who in “King Kong Escapes”, and the friendly toymaker in “Godzilla’s Revenge” (he hated playing good guys). Jerry Ito (Q agent Roberto Okamura) is best remembered as the villain in “Mothra”.
Oh, and bank turns. Lots of ’em.
I don’t sit very patiently every time I try to watch this. I’ve tried to have it on in the living room and just listen to it from my computer room, but even then I still ignore most of it.
I swear I recall that there was a scene where a guy says “Roberto!” and the gang in unison all yell “Clemente!”, but ever since I first saw it I have never found it since. I’m almost certain it was this episode. If anybody knows of this, and what the time into the episode is that it happens, please kindly post it.
I thank you in advance.
Reaper G@41: Glad I’m not the only one who spotted Cobra Man in this movie. Joel has cited “What’s Up, Tiger Lily? as one inspiration for the show, so it’s interesting he didn’t make a reference to it.
“They’re using every toy in the box!”
I could always follow this one pretty well through the rescue of Atari. But even after numerous viewings it’s hard to follow the rest except in the most general James Bond Villain vs. Super Crime Fighters theme. I was struck recently by how much more coherant the fugitive alien movies are.
Who the heck is this Perez/Paris guy and is he good or bad? Why is really durable ice more usefull than metal, wood, rock, plastic, or fiberglass? To quote the riffers, “So What!?” How do you take over the weorld with ice cubes that don’t melt? Has there ever been a dumber mcguffin in a superspy movie? Maybe the killer chewing gum in Super Dragon.
Was that one guy really going to abort the mission because the hostage wasn’t nice enough? Is that procedure? Was this movie edited by Billy Pilgrim, or a blind deaf mute?
Great episode.
Come on, where are the Mighty Jack lovers/defenders? (arf arf)
But seriously this one is ep where the Brains struggle to do what they seem to so effortlessly–turn trash to gold. The film is a confused mess and it must have hurt in the writing room.
Still, it has fun moments and it is not all my least favorite of season 3.
B-
I love this episode. It was the last episode of the entire series that I acquired. Sure, it’s a teflon to your brain episode, but I think it’s very funny, and one of my favorites from Season 3.
Host segment 3: eerily prophetic! I lot of those movies were made, even some of the joke ones!
A lot, not I lot, lol
The original Mighty Jack show had monsters, but as far as I’ve heard Tsuburaya would charge different amounts for different clips, so people talking and BANK TURN would cost less than awesome rubber suit monsters wrecking stuff.
If anybody’s interested I found some clips of the monsters on NicoVideo, sort of a Japanese youtube. I’ve got them backed up at
http://www.mediafire.com/?8iqvuk94l93qqqf and http://www.mediafire.com/?nvbhn7pqob1b1vg
This is not one my faves. The host segments and riffing are really good but this movie for me is hard to get through. I only pull this one out maybe every 3 to 4 years. I guess I too am hoping the “movie” will get better or at least make some scense.
I am looking forward to the SHOUT! release though. What does that say about me?
I’ll give this experiment 3 stars because of the great work from J&TBs and crew.
This wasn’t originally a favorite of mine, but it’s grown on me like a fungus. So now it’s not a top tier favorite of mine, but I’d put it right on the cusp of B+/A-. Note that’s the rating for the MST episode, not the movie iotself which get’s a low D- at best, and that only because of movies like Hobgoblins and Cannible Holocaust.