| “ | "In regards to today's movie, I'm just going to say...rock climbing." | ” |
| - Dr. Clayton Forrester |
The Movie
Synopsis
Lost Continent
In this adventure-fantasy, an American test missile crashes upon a remote island in the Pacific and an Air Force pilot, some scientists, and an unfunny comic relief airplane mechanic are assigned to find it. On this island is a mountain. After lots and lots of rock climbing, they get to the top and suddenly discover that it is populated by myriad extinct animals, including meat-eating herbivorous dinosaurs. [1]
Information
- Some of this film is comprised of clips from Rocketship X-M and The Terror of Tiny Town.
- The DVD release (Set XVIII) of this episode was made from the best master available. There's a title card shown beforehand explaining this. It does not interfere with the episode, but there are some flickers and artifacts here and there. The artifacts are mostly in the opening host segments.
The Episode
Host Segments
Mobile Treadmill
Prologue: Joel gives the Bots a locker room pep talk before the movie.
Invention Exchange (Segment One): The Mads introduce "Rock Climbing", Frank demonstrates a mobile treadmill, and Joel doesn't have time to show his invention. He refuses to go into the theater and gets a shock to the shammies.
Segment Two: Joel and the Bots tell jokes before Hugh Beaumont drops by for a visit, where he reveals he's actually one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Segment Three: The SOL crew does a sketch, "The Explorers" (a Quinn Martin production), in which Joel plays a condescending explorer. The Bots refuse to support the White Male Reality.
Hugh Beaumont (played by Michael J. Nelson) stops by
Segment Four: Joel and the Bots spot a Cool Thing. They encourage the viewers to send in suggestions as to what the Cool Thing really is.
Closing (Segment Five): The SOL crew analyzes the movie, and come to the conclusion that Robert L. Lippert really liked padding, Tom Servo presents casting facts, and Crow gets a bit off base about the director. Joel reads a letter, and the Mads assert that they won, although they probably didn't.
Stinger: A cranky explorer by the fire with the party's doc.
Information
Guest Stars
- Hugh Beaumont: Michael J. Nelson
Trivia
- In the prologue, Joel mentions the experiments before this episode as Wild Rebels and Rocket Attack U.S.A. The first is correct; however the episode shown before Wild Rebels was actually Ring of Terror.
- Joel finally gets to demonstrate his invention in the next episode.
- The Cool Thing is not revealed until next season's Fugitive Alien.
- During the opening credits, Joel and the Bots joke about the similarity between the names of producer Sigmund Neufeld and director Sam Newfield. The two men were in fact brothers - Newfield had changed his name when he became a director.[1]
- The SOL crew immediately identify the reused footage from Rocketship X-M at the start for the rocket launch; but they don't appear to remember that they likewise saw the footage of the dinosaurs prior in Robot Monster. This movie was the source of the footage for that movie.
Callbacks
- “We’re on our way!” (Rocketship X-M)
- “Charbroiled hamburger sandwich and french fried potatoes!” (Jungle Goddess)
- “Thees will seemplify everything!” (The Phantom Creeps)
- "Over here is the set of The Mad Monster..."
- “Chili peppers, they burn my gut.” (The Side Hackers)
- “That square bugs me! He really bugs me!” (Wild Rebels)
- Jungle Goddess had a similar "tropical rain forest" setting with a racist depiction of natives, and this becomes a running gag.
Obscure References
- "Hey we landed on a witch! Maybe the film will be in color from this point." -Crow after the plane crash lands.
Crow makes a reference to the beginning of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. The film begins in sepia tone, however after Dorothy's farmhouse is carried away by the tornado and falls on top of the Wicked Witch of the East, the film is in color (an extremely rare occurrence for the time the film was made).
- Maybe there was hand soap in the hydraulic fluid
A remarkably obscure reference to one of many thoroughly implausible plot twists in the TV-star studded KTMA season disaster flick SST-Death Flight
- "Joel, why are we watching this dull mountain climbing sequence?" "Well, because it's there."
A reference to a quote attributed to explorer George Mallory, his answer to the question "Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?": "Because it's there."
- "A brontosaurus in Africa?" "Shhh!" -Crow and Joel.
Crow and Joel quote a recurring joke from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, replacing the word tiger with brontosaurus.
- They're looking for the Batcave.
A reference to the film's lead Cesar Romero appearing in the much-beloved (more or less) Batman television show of the 1960s as The Joker, whose portrayal of the iconic villain bore a mustache due to Romero's refusal to shave his off and thus had the white makeup applied over it.
Video Release
MST3K DVD Cover
Commercially released on DVD by Shout Factory in July 2010 as part of The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection: Volume 18, a 4-DVD set with Jack Frost, Crash of Moons, and The Beast of Yucca Flats.
References
- ↑ Sensesofcinema.com Fast Worker: The Films of Sam Newfield
| preceded by: Season 1 | MST3K Season 2 | followed by: Season 3 | ||||||
| 1990 - 1991 | ||||||||
| 201 | Rocketship X-M | 1990-09-22 | 206 | Ring of Terror | 1990-11-03 | 211 | First Spaceship on Venus | 1990-12-29 |
| 202 | The Side Hackers | 1990-09-29 | 207 | Wild Rebels | 1990-11-17 | 212 | Godzilla vs. Megalon | 1991-01-19 |
| 203 | Jungle Goddess | 1990-10-06 | 208 | Lost Continent | 1990-11-24 | 213 | Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster | 1991-02-02 |
| 204 | Catalina Caper | 1990-10-13 | 209 | The Hellcats | 1990-12-08 | |||
| 205 | Rocket Attack U.S.A. | 1990-10-27 | 210 | King Dinosaur | 1990-12-22 | |||