Mystery Science Theater 3000: THE FINAL SACRIFICE
January 17, 2018 10:45 PM - Season 9, Episode 10 - Subscribe
"A lost city... A cult of unholy warriors... And a boy's quest for the secret of his father's death." Teenaged orphan Troy is on a quest across Canada to find out what happened to his father. In a pair of improbable coincidences, he meets a reformed, former member of the cult responsible for his death and his old partner, before finally confronting its leader. That reformed cult member goes by the name of Zap Rowsdower.... Fans generally regard this as one of the best of the Sci-Fi Channel era episodes. Both the riffing and the host segments are first-rate. This episode gives us the Canada Song and a Satellite-wide outbreak of Hockey Hair. YouTube (1h32m) Premiered July 25, 1998. 16 episodes left. Extra: The Rowsdower Song, from a post I made some time back. Have some more Rowsdowers.
Episode 910 THE FINAL SACRIFICE
Satellite News - Mighty Jack's Episode Review (he rates it among the "Best in Show") - War of the Colossal Fan Guide (site writer Skenderberg also likes it very much) - TVTropes
Here's Mary Jo Pehl's recollections of the movie in its entry in the online supplement to the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide:
Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt
Rotten Tomatoes (Critics N/A, Viewers 24%) - Wikipedia - TVTropes
IMDB (1990, 2.4 stars)
"Fleeing from the cult that murdered his father, a teen is aided in his quest to find the lost city of the fabled Ziox by a secretive drifter."
Directed and written by Tjardus Greidanus. Starring Christian Malcom, Shane Marceau and Bruce J. Mitchell as the Rowsdower.
Notes:
The lost city plot of the movie, of course, conflicts with widely-accepted notions that the Native Americans were the first settlers of the Americas. The theory of pre-Native American settlers appears to be one of those discredited ideas that, despite being held by very few people with any kind of credentials, persists in some circles. Useful, though, if you're making a nonsensical adventure movie that somehow posits an ancient civilization existing in Canada. At least it's a better justification than Eegah! gave for having a super-long-lived caveman living in California, which amounted to a single bible verse.
Episode 910 THE FINAL SACRIFICE
Satellite News - Mighty Jack's Episode Review (he rates it among the "Best in Show") - War of the Colossal Fan Guide (site writer Skenderberg also likes it very much) - TVTropes
Here's Mary Jo Pehl's recollections of the movie in its entry in the online supplement to the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide:
You know what? You lose me straight away when your movie's protagonist is named 'Zap Rowsdower'. The second I hear him identified as 'Zap Rowsdower' I am squeezing past you and climbing over your legs and muttering "excuse me" and I am getting the hell out of the movie. Only this time I couldn't because I was at work and I'm hourly and I had used up all my vacation and sick time. How about Plink Holmgren? Or Pow Flowhauer?Movie
Just between you and me and the wall, I think a major error was made in their film archetype-ology. Zap was clearly supposed to be the intermediary guy; the hard-drinking, tough-but-lovable, car-won't-start sidekick to the hero.
However, we were short one hero, and its not till the end of the movie that you realize that Troy and Zap's journey isn't to bring Troy to the hero (to whom Zap should be the sidekick), but in fact, Zap is the hero. Excuse me... sorry... can I just squeeze by you... watch your pop...
Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt
Rotten Tomatoes (Critics N/A, Viewers 24%) - Wikipedia - TVTropes
IMDB (1990, 2.4 stars)
"Fleeing from the cult that murdered his father, a teen is aided in his quest to find the lost city of the fabled Ziox by a secretive drifter."
Directed and written by Tjardus Greidanus. Starring Christian Malcom, Shane Marceau and Bruce J. Mitchell as the Rowsdower.
Notes:
The lost city plot of the movie, of course, conflicts with widely-accepted notions that the Native Americans were the first settlers of the Americas. The theory of pre-Native American settlers appears to be one of those discredited ideas that, despite being held by very few people with any kind of credentials, persists in some circles. Useful, though, if you're making a nonsensical adventure movie that somehow posits an ancient civilization existing in Canada. At least it's a better justification than Eegah! gave for having a super-long-lived caveman living in California, which amounted to a single bible verse.
Do you know how fast you were going, Rowsdower?
posted by AndrewInDC at 5:36 AM on January 18, 2018
posted by AndrewInDC at 5:36 AM on January 18, 2018
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I'm gonna HOWG-tie that VARmint
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 5:47 AM on January 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 5:47 AM on January 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
"Rowsdower...is that a stupid name, or....?"
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 6:05 AM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 6:05 AM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
Is there beer on the sun?
posted by Chrysostom at 6:56 AM on January 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Chrysostom at 6:56 AM on January 18, 2018 [2 favorites]
Watch The Final Sacrifice, and another Joel episode, this week with MST Club! Our shows start at 7 PM Eastern time (4 PM Pacific) and this week will take place tonight (Thursday) in our cytube room, at https://cytu.be/r/Metafilter_MST3KClub.
This week's schedule (times Eastern US):
7 PM: 312 GAMERA VS. GUIRON
9 PM: 910 THE FINAL SACRIFICE
posted by JHarris at 8:04 AM on January 18, 2018
This week's schedule (times Eastern US):
7 PM: 312 GAMERA VS. GUIRON
9 PM: 910 THE FINAL SACRIFICE
posted by JHarris at 8:04 AM on January 18, 2018
Gamera vs Guiron is the Cornjob episode, if you have forgotten.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:45 AM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Chrysostom at 8:45 AM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
It's also got the bicycle song (not "The Bike Song," which is from Hellcats I think) , and I think it's the one where Gamera's "dancing go-go." It's the one with the alien women that kidnap kids to their planet to eat their brains. Guiron himself is a hoot, his head is a huge blade that he uses to chop himself up some Gyos steaks.
I picked this one out because I think it holds up the best of the five(!) Gamera movies MST did. It's the one where the series really embraced the kiddie audience, complete with Gamera theme song and cartoonish adult characters like Officer "Cornjob" Concha, which makes for fine riffing.
posted by JHarris at 9:16 AM on January 18, 2018
I picked this one out because I think it holds up the best of the five(!) Gamera movies MST did. It's the one where the series really embraced the kiddie audience, complete with Gamera theme song and cartoonish adult characters like Officer "Cornjob" Concha, which makes for fine riffing.
posted by JHarris at 9:16 AM on January 18, 2018
Dear Agent Scully,
Did not appreciate your lawyer's tone...
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:10 AM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
Did not appreciate your lawyer's tone...
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:10 AM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
And we will all be singing "The rodneylives Song":
rodneylives! rodneylives!
rodneylives is really neat!
MetaFilter's other white meat!
We all thank you, rodneylives!
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:48 PM on January 18, 2018
rodneylives! rodneylives!
rodneylives is really neat!
MetaFilter's other white meat!
We all thank you, rodneylives!
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:48 PM on January 18, 2018
I am starting to consider possibly extending MST Club beyond the end of the classic run. There is, of course, Season 12 and possibly beyond to watch, but it'll probably be some time before those are ready.
The biggest problem with rewatching is that we'll have already watched every episode, so they'll all have writeups here on Fanfare. The trouble with moving on to the show's progeny (Film Crew, Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic) is that those don't have the same culture of episode sharing, and are not generally available on online video sites.
That takes a situation where we primarily watch on Youtube and find alternate, tape-shared copies streamed from club member webspace as a stop gap, and reverses it, makes the video sites the exception rather than the rule, and that's a lot more expensive since we insist on legal copies. We can go back to rabb.it, probably, for Season 12, at least.
At the very least I think it'd be good to take a break at the end of Season 10 (it's not that far off!), both to rest a bit and to think about where to go from there.
posted by JHarris at 3:02 AM on January 19, 2018
The biggest problem with rewatching is that we'll have already watched every episode, so they'll all have writeups here on Fanfare. The trouble with moving on to the show's progeny (Film Crew, Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic) is that those don't have the same culture of episode sharing, and are not generally available on online video sites.
That takes a situation where we primarily watch on Youtube and find alternate, tape-shared copies streamed from club member webspace as a stop gap, and reverses it, makes the video sites the exception rather than the rule, and that's a lot more expensive since we insist on legal copies. We can go back to rabb.it, probably, for Season 12, at least.
At the very least I think it'd be good to take a break at the end of Season 10 (it's not that far off!), both to rest a bit and to think about where to go from there.
posted by JHarris at 3:02 AM on January 19, 2018
To quote Penn Gillette: Attention all MiSTies! Here's that thread on the Blue that I promised about The Master (aka Master Ninja)
The biggest problem with rewatching is that we'll have already watched every episode, so they'll all have writeups here on Fanfare.
Well, I can think of a couple of counters to this: one, we Trek FF folks have been noticing, thanks to Recent Activity, occasional participation in old FF threads, though in our case it doesn't seem to provoke actual new *discussion*. So, like, no reason the old MST FF threads can't be linked to, dug out from the back of the shelf, and dusted off.
And secondly, doing a second go-round with MST Club might enable certain individuals (such as myself) to participate if our schedules change enough to no longer prevent it.
It is too bad, though, that some of the more MST-ish Rifftrax features aren't more readily available.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 11:18 AM on January 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
The biggest problem with rewatching is that we'll have already watched every episode, so they'll all have writeups here on Fanfare.
Well, I can think of a couple of counters to this: one, we Trek FF folks have been noticing, thanks to Recent Activity, occasional participation in old FF threads, though in our case it doesn't seem to provoke actual new *discussion*. So, like, no reason the old MST FF threads can't be linked to, dug out from the back of the shelf, and dusted off.
And secondly, doing a second go-round with MST Club might enable certain individuals (such as myself) to participate if our schedules change enough to no longer prevent it.
It is too bad, though, that some of the more MST-ish Rifftrax features aren't more readily available.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 11:18 AM on January 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
Rifftrax' Attack from Space is a great follow up to Prince of Space and Neptune Men. But, not easily available...
posted by wittgenstein at 1:22 AM on January 21, 2018
posted by wittgenstein at 1:22 AM on January 21, 2018
You guys, I was watching this tonight with a group of friends and we found out that Bruce J. Mitchell, our dear Rowsdower, passed away on April 28th, and I’m kind of devastated. Please pour out a beer for him, preferably on the sun.
posted by ilana at 7:12 PM on May 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by ilana at 7:12 PM on May 26, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by wittgenstein at 3:39 AM on January 18, 2018 [1 favorite]