Nuking the fridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nuking the fridge or Nuked the fridge is a film-related neologism with a similar meaning to jumping the shark. It denotes an absurd plot point in film that challenges the viewer's suspension of disbelief. Saying that a movie series "nukes the fridge" is to say that it has fundamentally and permanently strayed from its original premise in an attempt by the writer or director to keep the story fresh, with a noticeable decline in quality.
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[edit] History
The term is an allusion to a scene early in the 2008 film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In the scene, the title character is hit by the blast of a nuclear weapon while hiding inside a lead-lined refrigerator in a desperate attempt at survival. The refrigerator is hurled a great distance through the sky and tumbles hard to the ground, while the structures surrounding it are completely obliterated. A relatively-uninjured Jones emerges to witness the mushroom cloud miles away. Some film critics and fans of the series found the absurdity of this event disappointing and reflective of the decreased quality of the series. They then coined the term "nuking the fridge."[1]
Media notice of the phrase includes articles in Newsweek Magazine, the Toronto Sun,[2] the New York Times,[3] a tongue in cheek reference in Entertainment Weekly,[4] and an on-the-air discussion between television anchor Staci Spanos of WJXT-TV and radio personality Mark Kaye of WAPE-FM.[5] and MSN's A-List Searches' Hot Topic of the Day on July 6, 2008. On Monday, July 7, 2008, CNBC ran a story entitled "Have Media Stocks Nuked the Fridge?" Nuke the fridge was also ranked fifth in Time Magazine's "Top Ten Buzzwords of 2008" [6] and nominated for "Word of the Year" by the American Dialect Society[7]. Yahoo movies also included the phrase in their most ridiculous movie moments of 2008.[8]
South Park mentioned the scene in the episode "The China Probrem", as it addressed disappointment in the movie, some five months after the film's release.[9]
[edit] Criticism of the phrase
Some criticize the use of the term in being equivalent to "jumping the shark," since it was coined only days after its namesake, whereas "jump the shark" was coined years later[10]
The ridicule expressed in the term "nuking the fridge" has also elicited defensive responses from at least one of the movie's stars, Shia LaBeouf, and from its screenwriter, David Koepp, months after the movie opened.[11]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Ball, Sarah (July 7-14, 2008). "‘Jump the Shark,’ Meet ‘Nuke the Fridge’". Newsweek.com. Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/143782. Retrieved on 2008-12-09.
- ^ Toronto Sun
- ^ Cohen, Noam (July 28, 2008). "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Absurdly Implausible Excess". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/28/business/media/28fridge.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-19.
- ^ Entertainment Weekly
- ^ Kaye, Mark; Spanos, Staci. Madonna and Guy Ritchie, house and bride for sale, and "Nuking the fridge!" Radio and television broadcast, 00:04:15. Jacksonville, Florida, USA: WAPE-FM 95.1 and WJXT-TV 4; 2008 Jun 30. Retrieved on 2009-02-23.
- ^ Time Magazine's Top 10 Buzzwords of 2008
- ^ Mediafly: Nuke the Fridge
- ^ [1]
- ^ Carl Cortez (2008-10-09). "South Park — Season Twelve — The China Probrem". iF Magazine. http://www.ifmagazine.com/review.asp?article=2809. Retrieved on 2008-10-09.
- ^ http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuinedFOREVER
- ^ Adler, Shawn. Shia LaBeouf defends 'nuking the fridge' and other fantastical 'Indy 4' moments. MTV Movie News [serial on the Internet];2008 Sep 16 [cited 2009 Feb 23].
