Entertainment
 

Soultaker

From MST3K

1001 - Soultaker
Air Date April 11, 1999
MST3K Director Kevin Murphy
Movie Director Michael Rissi
Year 1990
Cast Joe Estevez
Vivian Schilling
Gregg Thomsen
Robert Z'Dar
Preceded by 913 - Quest of the Delta Knights
Followed by 1002 - Girl in Gold Boots

Contents

The Movie

Synopsis

When four teenagers seemingly die in a car wreck, a mysterious man dressed in black is sent to retrieve their souls. However, he comes to find that their souls are disembodied. As they flee from "The Man," he begins picking them off one-by-one and becomes infatuated with one of the teenagers, who is the spitting image of his lover in a past life. The two remaining teens must attempt to reunite their souls with their hospitalized bodies, before their parents decide to pull the plug.
Joel returns to the SOL

Information

  • Vivian Schilling who appears as Natalie in the film, wrote some of the story.
  • The P.A. announcements in the opening scene are taken from Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime album.
  • Won a Saturn Award in 1992 for Best Genre Video Release.

The Episode

TV's Frank Returns!

Host Segments

  • Prologue: The bots are confused about why their "wet T-shirt contest" is so dull; commercial sign malfunctions.
  • Segment One: The malfunctions on the SOL get worse; Pearl doesn't care.
  • Segment Two: With Gypsy malfunctioning, Mike tries to take command, with the expected results.
  • Segment Three: Everything goes wrong on the SOL, but nobody in Castle Forrester can help because a soultaker has appeared--and it's TV'S FRANK! Meanwhile, a mysterious ship saves the SOL from crashing.
  • Segment Four: The mysterious visitor who saved the SOL appears on the bridge--and it's JOEL! He fills in the bots on what he's been up to, and he and Mike share a tender moment.
  • Segment Five: Joel completes repairs on the SOL, says hi to Frank, and departs with some uplifting words to Mike & the Bots; in Castle Forrester, Bobo and Frank hit it off.
  • Stinger: Mom ogles her daughter.[1]

Quotes and References

  • "Welcome... to the Satellite of Love!"

Mike is imitating Richard Attenborough's delivery of a similar line he said as John Hammond in Jurassic Park.

  • "The death of Helmut Kohl!"

Helmut Kohl was the chancellor of Germany (originally West Germany) from 1982 to 1998.

  • Tom Servo's "Souuuuultaker!" during the opening credits is a reference to the opening announcement of the show Soul Train.
  • "Where's David Byrne's head?"

Crow's referencing the Talking Heads music video of "Burning Down the House".

  • "David Byrne was right. Heaven is a place WHERE NOTHING EVER HAPPENS!"

Mike's frustrated cry is a reference to Talking Heads song "Heaven".

  • "Hey, Jim McMahon!"

Jim McMahon played for the Chicago Bears during the 1980s.

  • "Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry..."

Quoted from "Surrey with the Fringe on Top", a song from the musical Oklahoma!.

  • "They are, in fact, traveling down the road, and they are, in fact, flirting with disaster!"

A reference to the Molly Hatchet song "Flirtin' with Disaster".

  • "Hey, it's Hamilton Jordan!"

Hamilton Jordan was the White House Chief of Staff during the Carter administration, and was accused of cocaine use in a minor scandal.

  • "Now I'll never win that set of steak knives"

A reference to the second place award in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. First place was a Corvette, third place was being fired.

  • "Frank Booth-cam!"

Frank Booth was the name of Dennis Hopper's character in Blue Velvet.

  • "Why, it's Harvey! Hi, Harvey!"

A reference to the 1950 movie Harvey, in which Jimmy Stewart plays a man with a six-foot-tall rabbit named Harvey for an imaginary friend.

  • Mother (in a tiny voice)

Signature line of Daffy Duck when confronting immediate catastrophe

  • "Ennio Morricone!"

Ennio Morricone is a prolific film composer best known for his spaghetti Western scores.

  • "Zack is dead!" "That's what I said!"

A reference to "Freddie's Dead", a song by Curtis Mayfield from the Superfly soundtrack.

  • "...the band Man or Astro-man?..."

Man or Astro-man? is a surf-rock band that recorded a cover of the MST3K Love Theme, which Joel Hodgson joined them on stage to sing at a mid-1990s concert.

  • Tom Servo's advising Mike to not compare himself to Joel is a reference to the heated internet flame wars that occurred between fans, back when Mike replaced Joel as host. The debates often got vicious and ugly, though they have since faded within the community.
  • "Prudential signs!"

Crow is commenting on the resemblance of the heart monitor's pattern to the logo of the Prudential insurance company.

  • "Wheeling Captain Pike down the hall!"

A reference to the Star Trek episode "The Menagerie", in which Christopher Pike, the former captain of the Enterprise, was shown confined to a futuristic wheelchair.

  • "The Other Side of the Mountain...of Crap!"

The Other Side of the Mountain was a 1975 film about paralyzed skier Jill Kinmont.

  • "Unfortunately, it's Christine!"

Christine is a Stephen King novel about a possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury.

References

  1. ↑ Satellite News
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