Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
File:Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back DVD.jpg
Directed by	Kevin Smith
Written by	Kevin Smith
Produced by	Scott Mosier
Starring	Jason Mewes Kevin Smith
Distributed by	Dimension Films
Release dates	August 22, 2001
Running time	104 min.
Language	English
Budget	$22,000,000

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) is a film written and directed by Kevin Smith, the fifth to be set in his View Askewniverse, a growing collection of characters and settings that developed out of his cult favorite Clerks. While centered around the two title characters, portrayed by Jason Mewes and Smith himself, the film features a variety of celebrity cameos, such as Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Joey Lauren Adams, Jeff Anderson, Scott Mosier, Brian O'Halloran, Will Ferrell, Jon Stewart, Shannon Elizabeth, Ali Larter, and Eliza Dushku.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is a prime example of the phenomenon of "fanservice" - while maintaining its own plot, the movie has nearly constant in-jokes referencing Smith's previous four films. It also pays tribute to other prominent cult classics, most notably the Star Wars trilogy. The title and logo for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, in particular, are direct references to the second Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back (Although both were the fifth film in their six film series, that is if Empire Strikes Back is put in order with the new trilogy).

Smith originally intended this to be the last film to utilize his View Askewniverse, or feature Jay and Silent Bob. Five years later, he changed his mind and decided to close out the series with Clerks II, resurrecting Jay and Silent Bob in supporting roles.

The film made $30,085,147 in the domestic market, and an additional $3,703,014 overseas, for a total of $33,788,161 gross in theaters.

Plot

Template:Spoiler Jay (Jason Mewes) and Bob (Kevin Smith) find out that Bluntman and Chronic, the comic book based on their likenesses, has been adapted into a film in production by Miramax Films. Upon learning of the movie, as well as the negative reaction the movie has received so far, the two set out on a quest to Hollywood, to prevent the movie from being made and tainting their "good name", or at the very least "get [their] motherfucking movie check" from the royalties due them.

On the way, they befriend an animal liberation group called S.A.A.C. (Students Against Animal Cruelty), consisting of four women and one man they picked up for the cause. It is revealed that the organization is a front; the man (Seann William Scott) is a patsy, intended as a diversion by freeing an orangutan from an animal testing laboratory while the girls rob a diamond depository nearby. Jay cons the man into embarrassing himself in order to get closer to Justice (Shannon Elizabeth), the most compassionate of the women and the one with whom he finds himself smitten.

Jay and Bob now must stand in as the patsies; a wildlife field marshal, named Marshall Willenholly (Will Ferrell) (Smith admits that the name is derived from the three main characters in the TV show Land of the Lost.) properly blinded to the diamond heist chases them as they (along with the orangutan) make their way to Hollywood.

Cast

Actor	Role
Jason Mewes	Jay
Kevin Smith	Silent Bob
Shannon Elizabeth	Justice
Will Ferrell	Federal Wildlife Marshal Willenholly
Eliza Dushku	Sissy
Ali Larter	Chrissy
Jennifer Schwalbach Smith	Missy
Ben Affleck	Holden McNeil / Himself
Matt Damon	Himself
Chris Rock	Chaka Luther King
Jason Lee	Brodie Bruce / Banky Edwards

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to this film features the 2001 Afroman hit, "Because I Got High", whose music video was directed by Kevin Smith and featured the characters Jay and Silent Bob.

Trivia

• The toddler Silent Bob was played by Kevin Smith's daughter, Harley Quinn Smith
• The "Got Nails?" poster in front of the quickstop is also shown in many of Kevin Smiths other movies such as Clerks, or even Dogma when Silent Bob throws the angels out of the Train.

• The movie is often shown on Comedy Central's popular Saturday midnight movie block "Secret Stash", completely uncut and unedited. Kevin Smith's comic book store is coincidently named Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash

• Matt Damon and Ben Affleck star in a fictional sequel to their 1997 breakout feature Good Will Hunting (entitled "Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season"). Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier were the executive producers of Good Will Hunting, which Smith helped Damon and Affleck get to the head of Miramax Films. Good Will Hunting director Gus Van Sant has a cameo as the director of its sequel.

• In the movie, Daredevil can be seen rolling out of the way as Jay and Bob make their escape following the "Good Will Hunting 2:Hunting Season" scene, and right before they fly by a giant poster advertising a fictional movie starring Ben Affleck ("Moonraper," a parody of the James Bond film Moonraker). Ben Affleck would later play Daredevil in the movie based on the character, with director Kevin Smith in a minor part.

• The comic book store owned by Brodie Bruce (Jason Lee) is a parody of Smith's own store, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, located in Red Bank, New Jersey. All scenes within the fictional store were filmed at the actual New Jersey location, and the "Brodie's Secret Stash" sign currently adorns the walls of the shop today.

• Characters saying "This sounds like a bad movie" before looking suspiciously at the camera (a technique used three times in Strike Back) was used previously in the ZAZ spoof film Top Secret!.

• While in Hollywood, Jay and Silent Bob stumble onto the set of a fictional fourth installment in the Scream series (featuring Mallrats star Shannen Doherty as the female victim). Jay and Silent Bob had a cameo (on a Hollywood movie set lot, no less) in Scream 3; Scream director Wes Craven has a cameo as the director of the movie. Craven had started the friendly homage to Smith's work in the first Scream film, where VHS copies and posters of Clerks. could be seen in the background of several scenes.

• Jay and Silent Bob stealing a red bicycle to escape capture on the movie lot is a nod to Pee-wee's Big Adventure.

• The police officer arresting Jay and Silent Bob at the Quick Stop is played by Ernie O'Donnell, who played "Rick Derris" in Clerks. and a hockey fan in Chasing Amy.

• Vincent Pereira and Brian Lynch, two filmmakers who produce independent films under Smith's View Askew label, appear as customers towards the beginning of the film: Pereira in the Quick Stop and Lynch in the comic shop.

• John Willyung, who appeared in Chasing Amy as "Cohee London" and in a deleted scene from Clerks. appears as a customer outside the Quick Stop (during its 1970s years).

• Dan Etheridge, who first appeared in Dogma and voiced "Plug" (Leonardo Leonardo's assistant in Clerks: The Animated Series), appears as a police officer. Another officer is played by Robert "Ratface" Holtzman, a longtime Smith collaborator who also appeared as a police officer in Dogma.

• Marvel Comics' head Joe Quesada appears as a pizza delivery man.

• At a screening in Austin, Richard Linklater told Smith that Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was his greatest achievement.

• In a nod to the first live action Scooby-Doo film, (which had yet to be released when Strike Back premiered) Jay and Silent Bob spend time with the characters. "Daphne" is played by Carmen Lee (who had appeared in a poster in Mallrats and a cameo in Chasing Amy) and was then the wife of Jason Lee. The CGI-enhanced "Scooby" is voiced by Mark Hamill, who appears later in the film as himself portraying "Cock-knocker" in the Bluntman and Chronic movie. "Freddy" is played by Marc Blucas, who played Sarah Michelle Gellar's love interest on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show, which also featured J&SBSB star Eliza Dushku. In the Scooby-Doo movie, Freddy is played by Gellar's real-life husband, Freddie Prinze Jr., while Gellar plays Daphne. As for the other characters of the crew, "Shaggy" is played by Matthew James and "Velma", by Jane Silvia.

• Jason Lee plays two roles in the movie --- his character in Mallrats, Brodie Bruce; and Banky Edwards, his character from Chasing Amy. Ben Affleck plays both himself and "Holden McNeil", his character from Chasing Amy. Additionally, the voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie when a Hollywood security guard (Diedrich Bader) is reporting Jay and Silent Bob's capture belongs to Affleck.

• The diner where Jay and Silent Bob take their stolen orangutan is named the "Arena Diner"; after the classic Star Trek episode that was filmed in the same location.

• This is the fourth movie in which Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill appear together, the first since Return of the Jedi. Neither had any idea that the other was in the movie until they saw the final cut.

• Before filming the latest Bluntman and Chronic scene, "Chaka Luther King" (Chris Rock) says "Let's roll with the new." "Roll With the New" is a title of one of Rock's comedy albums.

• In the end credits Silent Bob looks at his watch and Kevin Smith drops character and looks like himself.

• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was originally slated to be released on August 10, 2001. Once it was announced that American Pie 2 would be released on this same date, Smith pushed the movie's release back to August 24, fearing competition from the popular franchise. American Pie 2 went on to win the Number 1 slot at the box office over the weekend following the premiere of Strike Back, which itself opened in 3rd place (Rush Hour 2 was in second place).

• The Bloodhound Gang song "Jackass" was originally supposed to be included in American Pie 2, but Smith seized the rights when Pie producers passed.

• Actors Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Shannon Elizabeth, and Eli Marenthal appear in both American Pie 2 and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back; Scott himself also appeared in Ivan Reitman's Evolution, also a summer 2001 release.

• Silent Bob has three speaking parts in the entire movie.

View Askew references

As mentioned previously, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back makes numerous references, both obvious and subtle, to Smith's four previous films (Clerks., Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma), the abruptly cancelled Clerks: The Animated Series, and the Chasing Dogma comic book series. The following is a listing of such references.

Clerks. (1994)

• Clerks. characters Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran), Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson), and Willam Black (Scott Mosier) make appearances, as do both Clerks. filming locations: the RST Video Store and Quick Stop convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey. Smith filmed the scenes involving these characters last, feeling it was an appropriate way to end the series: by closing the filming with the locations and characters responsible for creating the franchise.

• 37, a number first popularized in Clerks. (the number of men on whom Dante's girlfriend Veronica had performed oral sex), makes several appearances in the film: the jewel thieves celebrate their 37th victory, Justice's (Shannon Elizabeth) prison jumpsuit number is "3737," and the scene in the Bluntman and Chronic movie filmed is Scene 37.

• At the Quick Stop, a customer asks Dante, "Are you even supposed to be here today?" to which Dante replies, "Don't get me started." This is a reference to the character's repeated line "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" from Clerks., which Dante will go on to say in its entirety during Jay's dream sequence later on in Strike Back.

• When looking at the Bluntman and Chronic marquee at the movie theater, Scott Mosier's "Willam Black" character remarks, "That's beautiful, man," a repeated line of his in Clerks.

• Jay wears a t-shirt featuring "Olaf" (John Henry Westhead) singing "Beserker", a repeated scene in Clerks. Additionally, he wears an overshirt with "Quick Stop Groceries" on its front pocket.

• The Quick Stop's shutter's are closed and has a sign made out of a sheet saying "I assure you we are open," just like in Clerks.

Clerks: The Animated Series (2000)

• In a deleted scene, Randal tells Dante, "If you were that funny, ABC would have never canceled us," a reference to ABC's abrupt cancellation of the series. The line is featured in early previews of the movie.

• Another deleted scene features "the kid in the helmet," who was also seen in episode 5 of the series and mentioned in its third episode; neither made it to air.

• When Justice asks Jay and Silent Bob to steal an orangutan from a laboratory for her, Jay responds, "Sure, we steal monkeys all the time!". In episode 3 of the animated series, Jay and Silent Bob steal a monkey so they can teach it how to smoke.

• The disclaimer preceding the series' 2nd episode mentions that the producers endorse no celebrities, "except for Ben Affleck, pre-'Reindeer Games'". On the set of "Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season", Matt Damon reminds Affleck that he starred in Reindeer Games.

• When exiting the theater showing the Bluntman and Chronic movie at the end, Hooper X refers to it being "one big gay joke," saying it was comparable to "watching Batman and Robin again." In the 4th episode of the series (the first episode broadcast), Randal demands that Joel Schumacher refund him his money, stating, "Man, Batman and Robin was so gay!". In the last episode of the series (which never aired), Jay and Silent Bob take over drawing the cartoon and make it one big gay joke.

• When Jay tells the two kids in the beginning that Dante and Randal got married in Episode 2 of Clerks: The Animated Series, Dante mentions that they were going to become priests, but accidently get married.

Mallrats (1995)

• In addition to the reappearance of Jason Lee's Mallrats character Brodie Bruce, popular View Askew characters Walt "the Fanboy" Grover (Walt Flanagan) and Steve-Dave (Bryan Johnson) are seen exiting the theater showing Bluntman and Chronic at the end of the film. These characters made their first appearance in Mallrats and went on to appear in Dogma, two episodes of Clerks: The Animated Series, a deleted scene from Chasing Amy, and several comic books based on the franchise. After Steve-Dave complains about the movie, Walt utters his perennial line, "Tell 'em Steve-Dave!" Steve-Dave responds by telling Walt to stop saying that.

• As he did in Mallrats, Brodie Bruce references Burt Reynolds (with the term "Reynolds-style") and offers a chocolate covered pretzel to Jay and Silent Bob after shoving his hand up his ass (the "stink palm" move).

• A magazine cover detailing Brodie's short-lived stint as guest host of The Tonight Show (including a still from the Mallrats scene that narrated this outcome in the epilogue) is seen on the wall of his comic book shop, with the headline "BRODIE BOLTS", indicating that Brodie voultarily left show business for the comic shop.

• The same retractable grappling hook used by Silent Bob to escape the security guards in Mallrats is again used by him and Jay to reach the roof of the research laboratory. The scene in Strike Back was edited to be almost identical to the scene in Mallrats.

• Jay and Silent Bob spend most of the movie with an orangutan named Suzanne. This ape appeared at the end of Mallrats with Jay and Silent Bob and was worked into several comic book stories, some of which provide the plot of Strike Back.

• Jay's line "snootchie bootchies" (which is repeated in Strikes Back when he assumes the "Bluntman" character) was first spoken in Mallrats.

• Renee Humphrey's character Trisha Jones makes an appearance at the end of Strike Back. Her character's sister, Chasing Amy's Alyssa Jones, remarks that the Bluntman and Chronic movie was "better than Mallrats".

• Silent Bob uses "the Force" to obtain a weapon on the Bluntman and Chronic set, just as he thought he did at the end of Mallrats to retrieve a videotape.

• Jay shouts "Flee Fat ass, Flee!!" as they run away from Willenholly. This is a reference to one of Jay's Mallrats lines, "Fly Fat ass, Fly!"

• While in the diner with the monkey about to get caught Jay says You Make The Blueprints most likely a reference to the blueprints Against Lafours

Chasing Amy (1997)

• In addition to the reappearance of characters Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee), Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams) and Hooper X (Dwight Ewell) make appearances in the final scenes of the movie.

• The Bluntman and Chronic comic book characters made their first appearance in Chasing Amy (again as the brainchild of characters Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards).

• Alyssa Jones mentions that the comic book that Holden McNeil created about their relationship, "Chasing Amy", would "never work as a movie".

• As in Chasing Amy, Banky Edwards' stance as a homosexual is insinuated within his reappearance in Strike Back's final scene.

• The apartment building in which Holden lives has the word "Potzer's" on the side, a reference to characters referring to one another as "Potzer" throughout Chasing Amy.

• When Silent Bob gestures in an effort to tell Jay that Susanne the orangutan has been kidnapped, Jay becomes increasingly frustrated with his partner's refusal to speak, remarking "You can always tell that stupid Amy story all the time..." In Chasing Amy, Silent Bob compared Holden's relationship issues with his own in a long-winded story involving an "Amy."

• When Holden answers the door to see Jay and Silent Bob waiting for him, he remarks "Look at these morose motherfuckers right here; smells like someone shit in their cereal, bungggg!", the same line Jay greeted Holden with in Chasing Amy.

• The music created by Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner for the opening scene of Chasing Amy is re-used when introducing Holden McNeil. Since a soundtrack for Chasing Amy was never released, the music is included in its entirety on the Strike Back soundtrack.

• The Bluntman and Chronic character "Cock-knocker" was a term that originated in Chasing Amy, when Banky calls an unruly comic convention attendee by the term.

• When Banky Edwards introduces himself as Bluntman and Chronic's inker", Chaka Luther King (Chris Rock) refers to him as a tracer, much to the former character's chagrin. This references an opening scene in Chasing Amy, in which Banky attempts to start a fight after being called a "tracer".

• The Quick Stop appears to sell Nails brand cigarettes. The fictional tobacco brand first appeared in Chasing Amy, seen on Holden's and Alyssa's Zippo-type lighters.

Dogma (1999)

• Jay mentions that Miramax only made classy movies like The Piano and The Crying Game. In Dogma, when God didn't speak, he said, "What is this, The Piano?"

• Jay mentions that the songs of Morris Day and The Time were written by "God herself." In Dogma, God appears as a woman.

• Alanis Morissette reprises her role as God after the closing credits of Strike Back, closing a giant book festooned with the View Askew logo.

• In this movie Jay and Silent Bob have trouble taking the bus, stating "didn't we used to take that shit to school for free?" In Dogma, they state that they "caught a bus" to get to that film's location. As was also the case in Dogma, the bus they attempt to board is of the fictional Derris variety (whose name is a reference to Ernie O'Donnell's Rick Derris character from Clerks.).

• When the nun picks Jay and Silent Bob up hitchhiking, a Buddy Christ statue can be seen on her dashboard, a reference to the Catholic Church's newest depiction of Jesus Christ in Dogma. Furthermore, the Buddy Christ is facing the road, a reference to an old George Carlin comedy sketch. This dashboard icon is available for purchase at Smith's Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash stores in Red Bank, New Jersey and Westwood, California.

• Jay and Silent Bob eat at a Mooby's restaurant; they, along with Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) and Rufus (Chris Rock) ate at a Mooby's restaurant in Dogma, the film that introduced the fictitious franchise. The restaurant would go on to become the setting for Clerks II in 2006. An actor playing a live-action version of Mooby is seen later on in the film in Hollywood.

• In Dogma, Jay mentions that, in John Hughes' 1980s movies, "Judd Nelson was harsh." Nelson makes a cameo in this film as a sheriff who takes a shot at Silent Bob's backside.

• On the set of "Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season", Matt Damon mentions that Ben Affleck talked him into doing Dogma.

Chasing Dogma comic book series

• Much of the film stems from plots in the comic series, including the exploits with Susanne the monkey and the parodies of The Fugitive and Planet of the Apes.

• Jay's line "The whole fucking world's against us, I swear to God" (spoken during this film's Fugitive parody) originated in the comics and was spoken again in Dogma.

• The Snoogans ski cap that Jay dons (both in this film and in Dogma) originated in the comics; the term was sewn onto his blank ski cap from Mallrats by a high school student.

See also

• View Askewniverse
• fanservice
• Jay and Silent Bob
• Farce

External links

• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back at IMDb
• Boxoffice information
• Movie Poop Shoot website
• Movie Locations Guide.com - Maps and directions to Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Filming Locations
• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back at Curlie