Super Mario Bros. (film)
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Super Mario Bros. is a movie loosely based on the Super Mario Bros. series of video games. While the film draws inspiration from the series, it follows a completely different continuity based in an entirely different world from its inspiration. Similarly, the characters are based on their archetypal roles from the games rather than their specific natures and actions.
The film cost an estimated $42 million to create due to its high profile cast and special effects, yet its gross revenue was only $20,915,465.
Plot Synopsis
Banishment of the Dinosaurs
The film begins at the future site of Brooklyn, sixty-five million years ago (from 1993). In an animated segment, viewers see that dinosaurs, such as a brachiosaurus and triceratops, dominated Earth due to their large size. Long before humans existed, small mammals, such as one resembling a skunk, coexisted with the dinosaurs and life was good. However, when a giant meteorite crashed into Earth, many dinosaurs were destroyed and the remaining banished to the parallel dimension created by the meteor's impact. There, the evolution of the dinosaurs continued and they became, according to the narration, "intelligent, vicious, aggressive beings" just like humans. The narration begs the question, "What if they found a way back?"
Twenty years before present day (1973 using 1993 as the present), a young woman hurriedly runs down an unidentified Brooklyn street to the steps of the St. Theresa's cathedral, carrying a bundle covered in a red blanket. There, she places her bundle down, revealing an egg-shaped protective case. Placing a blue rock shard into an opening on the case, she lovingly strokes the case, pounds on the door repeatedly, and flees. A nun opened the door, saw the case, and took it into the cathedral with her. The young lady continues to run down the Brooklyn streets, narrowly dodging honking drivers. She then climbed down into an open manhole. Back at the church, the nuns observe the case as it opens, revealing a large egg.
The young lady continues to run down a long sewer tunnel, frequently looking back. As she backs into another tunnel, she runs into a tall, sinister man, who asks her where the rock is. She jumps away from him and exclaims, "Koopa!" As the tunnel begins to collapse around the young woman, Koopa blocks the exit, leaving her to be crushed as she screams. Back at the Cathedral, the egg hatched to reveal an evidently human baby girl.
Present Day
In present day (1993), Mario Mario and Luigi Mario were at their home and business, Mario Brothers Plumbing Services. Luigi lay on the couch, eating snacks and watching a television program, Our Miraculous World, in which the host introduced the concept of other dimensions, alternate worlds separated by time and space which somehow remained continuous with Earth's dimension. As the show continued, Mario picked up the phone and began speaking with the River Front Café regarding a broken dishwasher. As the brothers prepared to leave for the job, he and Luigi discussed the television show. Luigi was enthusiastic while Mario gruffly proclaimed that the only miracle he knew of was that they were still eating while they were going broke. Mario then complained that Luigi was spending money on the New York Post, a newspaper Mario believed to be full of fiction. Luigi protested that it had the article on the missing Brooklyn girls, but Mario cited an article about a scientist who turned his brain into cheese. Luigi confidently responded that, "Anything is possible, Mario, you just gotta believe!" Belittlingly, Mario retorted that he did believe: he believed their rent was three months overdue.
Having pulled away from their business in their van, Mario instructed Luigi to turn left. Luigi began turning right into an ally to his brother's protests, claiming his instincts told him that route would be faster as he plowed through garbage bags on the curb. Continuing the argument, he claimed that sea turtles travel thousands of miles on instinct, but Mario protested that they did not navigate New York traffic as they pulled into the café parking lot. Luigi stopped his gloating at the sight of a Scapelli Construction plumbing van: the brothers had lost another job to their rivals.
Meanwhile, a newscaster discussed the closing of one of New York's largest construction projects, located near the Brooklyn Bridge, as New York University students continued to excavate dinosaur bones in the area. Head construction contractor Anthony Scapelli arrived in a black limousine, waving to the construction workers protesting the dig as he emerged. Noticing his arrival, a blonde, female student named Daisy approached him and insisted that they will continue as long as their quarterly lasted. Unshaken, Scapelli threatened Daisy, reminding her of the young women who had gone missing all over town. With a face of disbelief, Daisy left, declaring her intention to contact the university.
Elsewhere, an oddly dressed man, Spike looks disbelievingly at a pair of hot dogs in his hand and gets into his car, where another oddly dressed man, Iggy is sitting in the passenger seat. Spike handed one of the hot dogs to Iggy, telling him it was dog meat as they throw the hot dog buns out the window. Noticing Daisy, they declare that she matches the description given to them by Koopa, and prepare to kidnap her. Mario and Luigi drove down the street, their van stalling. The older brother scolded Luigi for not checking the radiator, but Luigi insisted that everything was fine: the van had been making those noises all week. Pulling over and opening the hood, steam flowed into the brothers' faces. Mario instructed Luigi to check their messages for work while he fixed the engine. Daisy continued to walk down the street, oblivious to the approaching Spike and Iggy. Just as Spike was about to move in, several men carrying a pane of glass walked between him and Daisy and he hit his face against the glass. Defeated, the pair returned to their car.
As Luigi dialed the nearby pay phone, Mario passed, telling him that he was going into their nearby deli for some water. Daisy approached the pay phone, pacing anxiously and oblivious that Luigi was staring at her. Alf Brodsky from Alf Brodsky's Department Stores called panicking: he had a huge plumbing problem, but Luigi was not paying attention. Instead, he wordlessly handed off the phone to Daisy, who thanked him. Mario emerged from the deli with a bottle of Evian water in hand, yelling back inside that everyone had tap water. Passing Luigi, he asked him if they had any work, but Luigi said no, still watching Daisy as she fumbled in her pockets for change. Noticing, Luigi gave her a quarter, and she thanked him again, smiling. Daisy made her call to the university, but the organization refused to add more security to the site. At Mario's side, Luigi commented that Daisy was beautiful. Mario encouraged Luigi to go talk to her, but he protested. As she looked up, she noticed the Spike, who hastily pulled a copy of the Daily News over his face, pretending to read. The front page read, "Missing Misses Still a Mystery." Daisy walked over to the van and thanked Luigi for his kindness. As the latter began an awkward conversation including an offer to give her a ride, Mario stepped in, ending the conversation and repeating Luigi's offer for a ride. With a glance at Spike, Daisy agreed. When they arrived at the site, Mario politely offered his hand to help Daisy out of the van. Daisy, obviously amused, took his hand and stepped down as Luigi scrambled over to them. As Daisy prepared to leave, Luigi, at the mumbled advice of Mario, awkwardly asked her out for dinner that night. Smiling, Daisy accepted. As the brothers left, Mario asked Luigi what he would do without him, to which Luigi grumbles about not having the chance to find out and questiones why Mario had told Daisy about Luigi's thumb-sucking habit.
Iggy and Spike
That night, Mario, Luigi, Daisy, and Mario's girlfriend, Daniella went to an Italian restaurant together. Daisy and Daniella discussed the dig: Scapelli's digging team had found iridium, meaning that a meteorite had struck at that location. Findings suggested that the meteorite could have been the same one that destroyed the dinosaurs. The conversation shifted to the meteorite shard Daisy wore around her neck. She revealed that she never took it off for sentimental reasons: having been abandoned as a child and left at St. Thereas's on Fulton Street, the rock was her only remembrance from when she was found. Excitedly, Luigi revealed that he did not know who his parents were either; Mario had brought him up. Daisy and Luigi looked into each other's eyes before Daisy awkwardly looked back down at her food. After Daniella suggested that she and Mario take the van back after dinner to the other couple could continue their date, Luigi asked Daisy if he could walk her home, to which she agreed. Proudly, Mario smiled at his brother.
As Mario and Daniella left the restaurant and climbed into Mario and Luigi's van, Iggy and Spike noticed the latter, believing her to be the girl they were looking for in disguise. They pulled out of their parking space, rear-ending the car in front of them, and followed after the van. Meanwhile, Luigi and Daisy conversed as they walked home. Luigi apologized in advance for anything weird that he might say, but Daisy protested that her life, working in a "bone pit" and spending her nights reading about long extinct species was weird. She would understand if Luigi wanted to call their relationship off. However, Luigi responded that he was about to say the same, but that Daisy should feel free to call him to talk about anything. Daisy was stunned that Luigi took interest in her work, and suggested that she show him around the dig site.
At Daniella's apartment building, Mario bid her goodnight and left. As he drove away, Iggy and Spike attacked, kidnapping her as she screamed out for her boyfriend. Luigi and Daisy playfully raced to the dig site. As they climbed down, she commented that they had no security at night should Scapelli try anything; it had been his construction site until his team discovered the fossils. Luigi and Daisy arrived at the main dig site, where Daisy claimed to feel comfortable and at home. The site resembled the cave that collapsed at the beginning of the film. Various dinosaur fossils lined the floor, one of which, as Daisy pointed out, had opposable thumbs and looked to her as a monster trying to be human, a beautiful image. Luigi responded that she was beautiful, and the two moved in to kiss. However, they were interrupted by two of Scapelli's men fleeing the scene; they had broken a nearby set of pipes in an effort to flood the site. Luigi and Daisy ran back to Mario's apartment, got Mario, and returned to the site to fix the pipes. As they did so, Iggy and Spike entered the site, discussing how they had kidnapped the wrong girl for the fifth time. If they kidnapped one more wrong girl, "he" would do something worse than killing them. Then, Iggy began sniffing and claimed that he sensed the girl they were looking for. The pair knocked out Mario and Luigi with their flashlights and kidnapped Daisy.
When the brothers came to, they followed the sound of Daisy's voice, with Mario's knowledge of pipe echoes guiding them through the cave. They finally came to ledge over a very steep drop, across which Daisy's voice seemed to come though the solid rock wall. The water had created an underground waterfall and river. As they stood there, Daisy's face appeared through the rock, and Luigi tried to jump for her, but Mario held him back. Daisy leaned herself though the rock and Luigi made a grab for her, accidentally breaking her necklace as Iggy and Spike pulled her back. With her necklace in his hand, Luigi looked back at the rock, Mario commenting that it was impossible. Claiming to have a feeling about it, Luigi kissed Mario's forehead and jumped across the waterfall though the solid rock. Trying to touch the rock wall, Mario slipped and fell through, transported to a psychedelic landscape where he continued to fall until he disintegrated, traveled through a solid rock wall in another cave and reassembled.
Dinohattan
Running around a giant meteorite whose edges glowed blue, Luigi and Mario chased after Daisy and her kidnappers, who claimed to be taking her back to where she belonged. As the brothers left the cage through a metallic door, they entered a crowded, noisy, fungus-covered street in Dinohattan. Pushing through the crowds, they stop dead in their tracks and look around, taking in their strange surroundings. Suddenly, they see Iggy, Spike, and Daisy on the street below. The kidnappers pull a man out of a taxi and get into it as Daisy screamed out to Luigi and Mario. None of the city's inhabitants give the kidnapping a second thought. A police officer came over to the brothers, demanding that they stop loitering. Mario demanded that he do something about the kidnapping, but the officer refused, pushing the brothers back into the crowd. They moved down the street and leaned on a guardrail, Luigi frantically calling out to Daisy. Under the stress, the guardrail gave way and the brothers fell into a pile of fungus on the street below. As they pulled fungus off of themselves, they observed two tiny, raptor-like lizards feeding on the fungus nearby. In horror, they jump up and look around, observing the oddly dressed people around them. A woman pushing her egg along in a stroller fought off a man who obsessed over it, calling the egg her baby. Huddled behind a building support, Mario and Luigi determine that they are not in Brooklyn anymore. No one takes action when man riding a bicycle crashes into a guardrail and flips onto the street below and a hidden, monstrous Goomba growls at the brothers from the shadows.
In Koopa's tower as Koopa and his lover, Lena, discuss how pathetic and disgusting their world is. Koopa notes the situation is worsening by the day, while in the other world the mammals have plenty of resources ripe for the taking: food, clean air, and water. Koopa dips his hands in a hot, gray mud-like substance and pulls them out, now coated, complaining about the germs and fungus that fill their world, which they were "exiled" to when the meteorite hit sixty-five millions years ago. Boasting, he claims that the mammals may roam free in the other dimension now, but not for much longer. Lena agrees, saying that their freedom will end when he get's "[his] rock." Koopa adds that he also needs the princess. Obviously distressed by the mention of a princess, Lena rattles her head as if it was the tail of a rattlesnake. With ecstatic pleasures, Koopa claims that with the rock and Princess Daisy, he will finally be able to merge their world with that of the mammals and destroy them. As Koopa sat down at his desk, Iggy and Spike entered, greeting him as their cousin and reporting that the princess had been captured and was being defungused. Excited, Koopa handed them each a tissue and inquired about the rock, without which the meteor was dormant and the dimensions could not be merged. Iggy and Spike admit that the plumbers took it, referring to Mario and Luigi. Instantly, Koopa put a two thousand gold Koopa coin reward out for the capture of any plumbers.
Back outside, Mario and Luigi walk past a food vendor selling blackened lizards in a hot dog bun. Mario comments that if they eat in this place, they will need to be very hungry. Luigi inquires their location with a passing woman, who pushes them out of her path and calling them "egg suckers." A woman, billed in the credits as old lady, kindly asks if they are new in town, saying that the neighborhood is very dangerous to be in without a weapon. When Luigi admitted that they were unarmed, the old lady pulled out an spark shooting weapon and demanded Koopa coins. Noticing Daisy's meteorite shard necklace around Luigi's neck, she pulled it off as tall, heavyset woman, Big Bertha, approached behind her. Seeing the necklace, Bertha grabbed the old lady by her feet and threw her down to the street below. The lady landed in the back of an open roofed car and shocked the driver with her weapon, causing a major traffic accident. Now in possession of the necklace, Bertha refused to give back the meteorite shard and used a pair of stompers, rocket powered boots, to traverse to the other side of the street, looking back at the brothers. Distraught, they leaned against a wall. Toad noticed their dismay and told them to cheer up, because it could be worse, and proceeded to play an anti-Koopa song on his guitar. Hearing the song, two police officers drove up and arrested him. When Mario protested the arrest, one of the officers noticed his plumbing belt and arrested him and Luigi for being plumbers under Koopa's orders. Though Luigi protested that he was just apprenticing and not yet a plumber, the officers roughly forced them into the backseat of their vehicle along with Toad.
Meanwhile, two Goombas dragged Daisy to a prison room in Koopa's tower, shoving her through the door with a growl. Daniella and four other young women are also inside. She and Daisy share a joyful reunion, the latter explaining that Koopa was looking for a princess, but she guessed none of them "fit the bill." Back in the police car, Toad ascertained that the brothers were not from Dinohattan. They explained they were from Brooklyn as the officers pulled into the police station, making a hard left turn that nearly flipped the vehicle open and driving full speed towards a wall, dodging other police employees who did not find it unusual. A cord caught onto the back wheels of the vehicle, stopping it just in time to a jerking halt. The brothers were dragged into the office by the police, thrust in front of a teller window, shortly pulled back, and then thrust in front of the head of the police force. With a female police officer flirtatiously holding the heel of her shoe on his shoulder, he asked for the brothers' names. He was initially confused by the repetitive nature of their full names, asking how many "Marios" there were between them, to which Luigi answered three (one for Mario's first name and two for their last name). The police head then called for an officer, Mike, to take them to be defungused. Mike left them in the care of two men in rubber suits with gas masks, part of the Fungus Unit, to Mario's protests. In response, Mike pointed his weapon at Mario's behind and shocked him with a jolt of electricity. The men in the suits then pulled the brothers' pants forward and sprayed a cold gas down their pants and sent them to another part of the room, where they dumped a blue liquid on them. Mike moved them past a desk where Toad was being questioned into another room, where the officers hung up the brothers by their handcuffs. Suddenly, the officers pointed what appeared to be guns at the brothers, complete with aiming sight lasers. Panicked, the brothers tried to escape as the officers used the devices to take their pictures.
The prison resembled a chicken coop, with prisoners stacked on and around one another in different cages. Toad was placed above Mario and Luigi, who shared a cell. Playing on his harmonica, Toad sung about the brothers being from another dimension. Curious about what he meant, Luigi inquired if Toad meant that their worlds had crossed over. The musician corroborated Luigi's inquiry and added that, according to history, the impact of a meteorite had divided one universe into two, parallel dimensions. Additionally, Toad believed, the fungus infesting the city was their old king, de-evolved, and out for revenge. The head of the police called for the Mario Bros. to be brought before their lawyer, and the brothers were given back their plumbing equipment. The lawyer strongly resembled Koopa, but was much different in nature. Although he initially denied Mario's handshake, after sitting down he shook hands with both brothers and then wiped his hand with a tissue. He claimed to be Larry Lazard of Lazard Lazard Conda Dactyl, and that he came because he could not stand to see people in pain. Mario insisted that they needed to talk to Koopa, but Lazard protested that the man was an "evil, egg sucking son of a snake," and proceeded to ask where the meteorite piece was. The brothers looked at one another and then asked Lazard was talking about. The lawyer stood up, slowly walked over to Luigi, and proceeded to press on Luigi's eyes violently, yelling that they did know what he was talking about. Mario jumped at Lazard, but was stopped by the police officer. Lazard released Luigi as the officer sprayed the defungusing gas on Lazard's hands, asserting that no one attacked "President Koopa." The brothers were shocked to learn Lazard's true identity, but Koopa simply asked whether he had lied about being an evil, egg sucking son of a snake, and had them sent to the devo chamber.
De-Evolution
In the chamber, Toad was strapped into a chair on a track. He insulted the chamber and Koopa's ruling ability. Unfazed, Koopa ordered that Sgt. Simon, the machine's operator, to de-evolve him. Simon turned a dial on the machine to cretaceous and activated the machine, sending Toad backward toward a device hanging from the ceiling. The chair rose towards the ceiling so that his head went inside the device. Toad's head transformed into that of a Goomba as Koopa explained evolution versus de-evolution: while evolution was an upward process in which organisms changed from primeval slime to single celled organisms to intelligent life, de-evolution was the opposite, causing someone even as rebellious as Toad into a loyal child of the royal family due to the shrinking of his brain. Toad was now a Goomba. Angered, Luigi attempted to attack Koopa, but Mario held him back, saying "not yet!" and asking Koopa what he had evolved from. Koopa responded that his ancestor was the Tyrannosaurus rex, and then threatened to de-evolve the brothers should they not tell him where the meteorite piece was. Turning to Toad, Koopa introduced him to the other Goombas, one of whom placed Toad's harmonica around the happy inductee's neck. Then, with a glance at one another, the brothers attacked, shoving Koopa into the de-evolution chair, which locked him into place, and taking out Koopa's men. Luigi set the machine to the Jurassic period and the pair pushed the chair towards the de-evolution device and ran as the machine began. However, it stopped after a second, and for a moment Koopa's eye turned into that of a Tyrannosaurus rex as he declared that he would kill Mario.
Pursued by the Goombas, Mario and Luigi fled. As they hid behind a support, Luigi noticed that the fungus appeared to be offering them a Bob-omb, but Luigi did not know what device was. Mario pulled Luigi away as the Goombas approached, and the brothers jumped onto a pair of moving pulleys attached to the ceiling. Though the Goombas shot fireballs at them from their weapons, the brothers managed to escape into the garage where the police cars were kept. With Mario driving and Luigi successfully operating the computer as a result of his video game playing, the pair drove away with two other police cars in pursuit. With the help of the computer's map, Luigi claimed that Mario was going the wrong way, but the latter refused to listen. Mario's driving caused a two car pileup and he eventually crashed into another car in a head-on collision. However, their car simply popped up, landing on top of the other car. As the driver of the car continued to go in the opposite direction, the other police cars whizzed passed. Eventually, Mario and Luigi's vehicle slipped off of the other car and the two proceed to drive in their original direction. Two police cars drove up along either side of the brothers and the officers begin to shoot fireballs at them. Mario slammed the breaks, causing the officers to fire at each other, causing a massive collision and explosion. Laughing victoriously, the brothers proceeded into a tunnel leading to the Koopahari Desert. Luigi's computer warned him that the tunnel was unfinished. As the car left the city's power grid, it powered down and the brothers hurtled towards the end of the tunnel, collecting sticky fungus on the car as they went. Eventually, they emerged in a subterranean cave and headed downward, but the collected fungus acted as a rope, saving them from their fall. As they exited the car and jumped down to the cavern floor, Mario and Luigi argued over whether it was the fungus or Mario's driving which had saved them.
Back at his tower, Koopa and Lena were enjoying a mud bath together when Iggy and Spike hurried into the room. Apologizing for interrupting, they reported on the location of the plumbers. Koopa rhetorically asked why they were not in the desert preparing to head them off, Iggy and Spike each made excuses at the expense of the other. Commanding that they wait outside, Koopa told Lena to have the princess cleaned and then brought to him. Suddenly, the tyrant exclaimed that he loved mud because it was both clean and dirty at the same time. With a startled, angry look, Lena left. Storming down a hallway with a Goomba guard, Lena burst into the prison cell where the women from Brooklyn were being held. With a defeated tone, she identified Daisy as, "Princess Daisy," prompting confused looks from the other women. Daisy, however, rose hesitantly, keeping eye contact with Lena. The latter solemnly noted that Daisy had her mother's eyes and requested that she come with her. Stunned by Lena's comment, Daisy looked back at Daniella before leaving the room.
Meanwhile, Iggy said his goodbyes to a nervous Spike, who was locked into the de-evolution machine's chair. On Koopa's signal, Simon flipped a switch from "de-evolve" to evolve and turned a dial from "now" to "advanced," setting the machine into motion. As the chair moved backwards, Iggy commented to Koopa that he had always thought Spike would make a good Goomba. Both Iggy and Spike were surprised when Spike returned in human form, however with increased intelligence, including an expanded vocabulary. Two nearby workers pulled Spike out of the chair and forced in a protesting Iggy. As the machine went into motion once more, Koopa answered Iggy's protests, saying that he made them smarter they might not screw up. The workers helped Iggy out of the chair as the two commented positively on their change. Though Koopa ordered his cousins to retrieve the plumbers and the meteorite shard from the desert, they protested that it would be better if they stayed and formulated their own plan as part of the inner circle. Angered, Koopa threatened to personally kill them should they return without their targets.
Koopa's Plan
Per Koopa's instructions, Daisy prepared to meet him, cleaning herself up and putting on a purple dress that Lena claimed used to belong to Daisy's mother. At Daisy's requests, Lena revealed that, to some, Daisy's mother was an inspiration. When Koopa took over, it was she who stole the meteorite piece, taking both it and Daisy to the original dimension before dying. Lena neglected to mention that it was by Koopa's hand the woman was dead, as seen at the beginning of the film. When asked about Daisy's father, Lena claimed that, depending on what one meant by "living," he was still alive, but declined to reveal any more. Finally, the henchwoman revealed that Koopa believed Daisy was the only one who could merge the two dimensions, and that she had come to far to "let it all slip away."
Meanwhile, Mario and Luigi wandered about the desert, lost. They argued amongst themselves as to who was to blame for their situation. At his tower, Koopa discussed the Goomba's de-evolution gun training with the police chief. The former noted that he would enjoy seeing the humans de-evolved into monkeys after the dimensions merged. Irritated, Lena interrupted their conversation in a mocking tone, reporting that she had brought the princess. As Daisy waited nervously in a room lit with candles and a fire, Yoshi, a tiny dinosaur resembling a Velociraptor walked about the room, chained up by its neck. Curiously and benevolently he observed Daisy, who was initially frightened, then fascinated. Koopa confirmed that Yoshi was a dinosaur, and commented that he was a pet of the royal family. However, at the sound of Koopa's voice Yoshi became agitated. Though Daisy's greeting was cold and sarcastic, Koopa remained cool, introducing himself as ruler of the dimension: a planet with one city surrounded by "endless" desert. Ignoring Daisy's demands about the whereabouts of her father, Koopa began flirting overtly, in the process confirming that Daisy had descended from the dinosaurs. Scared, Daisy ran from Koopa and into Toad, who Koopa instructed take her away. Aggravated, Koopa kicked Yoshi, calling him a throwback.
The Marios Fight Back
Back in the desert, Iggy and Spike located Mario and Luigi, driving off in a six-wheeled vehicle towards them. Bumbling, the two accidentally drive off a cliff, attracting the attention of the Mario Bros. Quickly, the brothers tie up Iggy and Spike, demanding information, lest they leave them in the desert to be food for local dinosaurs, who are already taking an interest in them. Koopa's cousins reveal that Daisy's necklace was a meteorite shard which had broken off from a meteorite sixty-five million years ago. Should the shard be reunited with the meteorite, the two dimensions will merge, allowing Koopa to dominate both of them. Additionally, they reveal that the gateway between the two dimensions had previously been sealed until Scapelli's recent construction had reopened it. Luigi offered a trade: the meteorite shard in exchange for Daisy. Iggy and Spike agreed and, based off of Luigi's description of Big Bertha, recognized her as the bouncer at the Boom Boom Bar.
Meanwhile, Daisy looked out at Dinohattan from the top floor in Koopa's tower. She noticed that Yoshi, who had also been moved to the top floor, was chewing at his chains. Comforting him, she noted that they were both prisoners of Koopa. Mario, Luigi, Iggy, and Spike conspired together to highjack a sludge gulper, the city's garbage trucks, drive it into the city, reclaim the rock, and then find Daisy in the tower. As Mario and Luigi move in to take out the garbage men, Luigi notices that he lost his plumbing tools. Together, they defeat the men with a plunger and a wrench, leaving them unconscious. Mario and Luigi don gas masks worn by the garbage men to leave the garbage dump.
In order to blend in at the Boom Boom Bar, Spike gives Mario and Luigi brightly colored suits belonging to his ex-wife to wear. The four enter the bar, where couples are dancing to Love is the Drug as the valets accidentally crash two cars together in an effort to part them on level below, as seen through the steel-grated floors of the bar. Mario checks his plumbing tools in with the hat check girl, who notices a wanted sign for Mario and Luigi, with a two thousand Koopon reward and reports them by phone. At the bar, Iggy and Spike drink to the downfall of Koopa. Finally, Mario and Luigi notice Big Bertha, who is wearing the meteorite shard around her neck. Attempting to flirt, Mario approaches her, but is answered with a punch. Mario tried again, asking Bertha to hit him again. This time, Bertha roughly pulled him close and suggestively promised to hit him all he liked it he danced with her. As the music changes to I Would Stop the World they begin to slow dance. Mario played off his attempts to slip off the shard as though her were flirting further; Bertha enjoyed it. Finally, he was successful and slipped away in the crowd before Bertha realized what had happened.
When Mario found Luigi, the music changed to Walk the Dinosaur and the two embraced, but their celebrations where cut short by the arrival of Lena and several Goombas. As the enemies approached, Mario and Luigi split up, throwing the meteorite shard between them. However, Mario missed the second throw and Lena caught the rock with her foot. Smiling victoriously, she drank a drink with a live worm inside, who protested as she swallowed it whole. Mario and Luigi's escape was blocked by Bertha who suddenly turned and punched out the hat check girl and ushered the plumbers into the hat check room, holding the door closed as two Goombas attempted to ram it open. Instructing them to use pairs of stompers to escape the bar, Bertha pulled Mario in for a kiss. As the plumbers blast upwards, breaking the glass ceiling windows and emerging on the roof, Bertha looks after them adoringly. On the roof, Luigi notices that the fungus appears to be offering them another Bob-omb, which he took. Surrounded by Goombas and police, the brothers jumped down into a passing sludge gulper headed towards Koopa's tower. Mario complains that it will be impossible for them to enter the tower, but Luigi insists that nothing is impossible, only improbable.
Back in the tower, Koopa enters a room where a slimy tower of fungus extends from the ceiling over a throne. The fungus pulls in its "head" as Koopa approaches. Boastfully, Koopa declares that the fungus has let itself go. He continues that the fungus had once wanted to be everywhere, and now he was. Declaring that he did not care what the fungus did to this dimension, he recommended that the fungus pull itself together. Outside, Mario and Luigi arrived at a garbage dump at the foot of Koopa's tower. Entering, they observe the badly organized heating pipes that serve the tower. Under Mario's instruction, Luigi begins blocking off all of the valves. When Luigi initially burns himself, Mario hands him a tool and claims that he was given those tools by his Papa who was given them by Mario's Grandpapa. Mario's plan is to lower the temperature as a distraction while they make their way to the top of the tower. However, they trip the alarm, forcing them to leave quickly. As they flea for the elevator, Mario stops at a locker, opens it, and pulls out two new sets of clothes based off of Mario and Luigi's traditional overalls and caps from the video games. As the two celebrate in the elevator, the door opens and two Goombas enter. They manage to hide behind the oblivious Goombas, and as the elevator continues upwards, more and more Goombas enter, all unaware of the Marios.
Meanwhile, Lena, secretly in possession of the meteorite piece, has returned to the tower with Iggy and Spike as her prisoners. She reports to Koopa that they were preaching his overthrow at the Boom Boom Bar. Koopa orders them killed and walks off, followed by Lena. In an attempt to convince him to work together with her, Lena tells Koopa that she wants him, and then nervously clarifies when Koopa believes she is referring to intimacy. Aggravated that Koopa will not listen, Lena accuses him of only caring about Princess Daisy, to which he responds that he cares about the survival of their species. Defiantly, Lena privately decides to work on her own rather than with Koopa.
Back in the elevator, Luigi gets an idea from the elevator music: gently rocking each of the Goombas individually, he begins making the Goombas dance, distracting them. At the top of the tower, Toad brings Daisy a plate of meat. Raising an eyebrow, she protests that she is a vegetarian. Disappointed, Toad looks away, but cheers up when Daisy asks him for a plate of steamed vegetables instead. Suddenly, Lena enters the room, scaring Toad and putting Yoshi at alert. She orders Toad out and shuts the door behind her, sinisterly smiling at Daisy. Daisy begins the conversation by affirming that Lena does not want her there, but is cut off as Lena recounts that the room they were in used to be her office until she "got promoted" because Koopa needed her close by. Suddenly, as Daisy asked Lena to help her get out of the tower, Lena grabbed hold of Daisy and put a knife up to her neck. As she prepared to kill Daisy, she asserted that everyone deserved what they earned, and she had earned this. Yoshi used his long tongue to pull Lena over onto her back and in then pulled her in towards his mouth as Daisy made her getaway into the hall. With Yoshi biting her foot, Lena stabbed the dinosaur in the side of his neck and ran out of the room.
With all of the Goombas dancing and distracted, Mario and Luigi made their getaway through a door in the ceiling of the elevator. When the elevator next stopped, a Goomba commander saw the Goombas dancing with one another and ordered them out. Out in the hall, Daisy ran into Toad, carrying a plate of steamed vegetables, and then continued to run until she encountered two more Goombas escorting the struggling Iggy and Spike. Daisy turned around to see that Toad had followed her with the plate of vegetables and slowly circled around him. One of the escorts fired a blast of flame, setting Toad on fire. In the commotion Iggy and Spike escaped, stopping when they noticed Daisy returning to Toad with a fire extinguisher. The two were surprised when she put out Toad's flames, saving him. As the three ran from the Goombas, Iggy and Spike claimed that they were her most loyal supporters, having been with her father since his demise. In response to Daisy's question about her father, they took her to devo 4, the chamber in which the fungal mass was kept. The two claimed that the fungus was her father, Koopa's first victim of de-evolution. Noting Daisy's reaction, the two leave her alone with her father.
Discussing how Luigi knew that the Goombas would love dancing, Mario and Luigi came upon a deep shaft covered in fungus. Acting on a feeling, Luigi attempted to jump across despite Mario's protests. Luigi appeared to be flying, and encouraged Mario to jump also. However, at that moment Luigi realized that he was not flying: he was simply caught on a hook. He tried to stop Mario, but was too late. As Mario fell, the fungus formed itself into a trampoline, launching Mario back upwards. On Mario's second assent, Luigi caught him by the arms.
Daisy attempted to speak with her father, hoping that he could still hear her. Yoshi, having freed himself, entered the room, the knife still in his neck. Approaching him, Daisy removed the knife. Using his head, Yoshi indicated that Daisy should use the nearby computer terminal, the Koopa Hotline. Accessing the security cameras, the princess found Mario and Luigi, currently in the process of swinging themselves across the gap, and alerted them of her position via loudspeaker. However, unbeknown to her, Koopa was watching her through his terminal. The brothers entered a large ventilation shaft; Luigi commented on the severe cold and noticed that the fungus was producing a mushroom before their eyes. While Luigi believed it was trying to communicate, Mario ignored the fungus and pressed on. As hey made their way to devo 4, the police chief contacted Koopa to alert him that, per instructions, the troops were in place to de-evolve the mammals, an order that Lena had given, apparently relaying it from Koopa. Realizing Lena possessed the meteorite piece, he demanded her arrest. In devo 4, Daisy introduced Mario and Luigi to her father. Luigi offered a polite greeting and thanks, explaining to Mario that he had been helping them all along. When Daisy revealed that Daniella was still prisoner in the Goomba barracks, Mario quickly dashed away to save her, undetected. However, Luigi and Daisy ran straight into Koopa and an entourage of Goombas and were immediately captured.
Koopa Mobilizes
Meanwhile, Koopa ordered preparations for the invasion of Earth, mobilizing the military. The police chief lead an ambush on Lena, obtaining the meteorite shard. In the tower, Mario located the Goomba barracks from the complaining Brooklyn girls within. Walking pensively about the room, Daniella located Mario as the other women discussed how sluggish the Goombas were in the cold because they were reptiles. Silently communicating with Mario, Daniella walked over to one of the women, Angelica, and secretly revealed Mario's location. Not realizing the need for secrecy, Angelica cried out to Mario, alerting the Goomba guard of his presence. Avoiding the Goomba's fire, Mario knocked him out onto the floor. Under Mario's command, the five women carried a mattress over to a large ventilation duct as Mario worked to secure the door and open the duct. On the way, Angelica punched the Goomba in the head.
The police chief presented the meteorite shard to Koopa, who ordered Lena's release and began rallying the Goombas. At the barracks, several Goombas broke through the door. Realizing that the women had escaped with Mario by riding on a mattress down the frozen pipe, they too rode down on a mattress pursuing them. Seeing a set of low hanging icicles, Mario and the women ducked down their heads to avoid them. One of the Goombas, however, crashed into the icicles and fell off the back of the mattress. Kissing his wrench goodbye, he placed it into a hole in the floor as they went by. When the Goombas hit the wrench, they flipped over. However, the two remaining Goombas continued to give chase, one of them riding the other down. As Koopa, with Daisy and Luigi his prisoners, talked outside into downtown Dinohattan, Mario and the girls hurtled out of the vent and into the street, causing commotion below. A man riding a bicycle crashed into a food stand and people dived out of the way as the mattress shot towards them, finally crashing into the pair of Goombas holding Luigi and Daisy backward into an outdoor store display. Freed, they quickly came to Mario and Daniella's side.
Their celebrations were cut short when Koopa approached with a fire blowing gun, declaring that he had won and Earth's humans would soon be de-evolved into monkeys. Several announcements came through Koopa's communicator, distracting him so that Luigi could grab a Bullet Bill from the broken shop display and hand it off to Mario. Inserting it into a stomper, Mario fired the shoe at Koopa, knocking him into a vat located over the street. Koopa quickly recovered and fired a blast of flame at Mario and Luigi. Luckily for the brothers, the gun ceased to work temporarily, allowing Mario time to give his tools to Luigi so that he and Daisy could remove their handcuffs and allowing Luigi to give his belt to Mario. As Koopa's gun began working again, Mario used some nearby fungus as a rope, swinging over to the vat and grabbing onto the bottom. Koopa fired downward, attempting to hit Mario, but was unsuccessful. As Lena observed the situation from below, Mario crawled up behind Koopa and punched him in the back of the head. Because Koopa was holding onto the meteorite shard with his mouth, he spat it out. Lena dived for it, tripping over a handrail and falling onto an electrically charged piece of metal and getting electrocuted. Noticing, Mario pulled out one of his shoelaces and taunted Koopa, tricking the dictator into thinking his shoelace was the string to which the rock was attached. Disheveled, but in possession of the shard, Lena pulled herself up. Koopa continued his attempts to hit Mario, allowing Lena to escape down a catwalk with the meteorite shard in tow. Luigi, Daisy, and the Brooklyn girls gave chase. As Mario dropped down to the street below to escape Koopa, Lena and those pursuing her ran to the site of the meteorite, nearby the gateway between the dimensions. Despite Daisy's protests, Lena attempted to reinsert the shard into the meteor.
Merging the Dimensions
Koopa and Mario's fight continued on the catwalk. Looking into Luigi's belt, Mario pulled out Luigi's Bob-omb, prompting mass panic on the surrounding streets and walkways. Realizing his power, Mario turned the Bob-omb's key, winding it up, and placed it onto the ground, where it proceeded to walk towards a panicking Koopa. However, it fell through a crack in the ground into the foundations of the street. Unaware of its continued progress, Mario gave up on the Bob-omb and the two enemies approached each other menacingly. Back at the meteor site, Luigi and Daisy ushered Daniella and the other women back through the gateway, instructing them to warn Brooklyn about the impending invasion. Lena finally managed to push the shard back into the meteorite, but her flesh was burned away by the ensuing force. Daisy then realized what Koopa had meant: only she could withstand the force of the meteor, and thus only she could insert or remove the shard. Despite Luigi's protests, she set about removing the shard, but was unable. Back on the street, Koopa realized the dimensions were merging and thus Mario did not have the meteorite shard. Daisy and Luigi worked together to pull out the shard using an assortment of Mario's tools.
In Brooklyn, Daniella and the other women warned those at the dig site about the coming invasion. To their shock, the World Trade Center began merging with Koopa's tower before their eyes. Scapelli, in disbelief, believed the merging of the dimensions to be a publicity stunt. Mario, Koopa, and his legion of Goombas appeared next as Koopa attempted unsuccessfully to hit Mario with his fire gun, which was broken again. Casting it aside, Koopa took a de-evolution gun from one of the Goombas and fired it at Mario, who dodged. The blast instead hit Scapelli, who de-evolved into a monkey. Though Mario and Scapelli's men are shocked, the crowd laughs at the humorous spectacle of Scapelli as a monkey. As Koopa turned to de-evolve Mario, the plumber pulled out Luigi's mushroom and used it to block the ray of the de-evolution gun. The mushroom became larger and larger, eventually deflecting the ray and knocking Koopa over. Meanwhile, Luigi and Daisy managed to remove the shard from the meteor, causing the two dimensions to separate once more.
The Bob-omb walked out into a street, where a driver narrowly avoided running it over. Up on the catwalk, Toad gave Luigi and Daisy each a de-evolution gun. Koopa ordered his Goombas to de-evolve Mario, but Toad distracted them with his harmonica. They began dancing as in the elevator. As Luigi and Daisy passed, Big Bertha threw Luigi a pair of stompers. Frustrated by his Goombas, Koopa punched the closest Goomba in the face, causing them all to fall over backwards like dominoes. As the Bob-omb continued its trek, Koopa turned his attention to Luigi, who was coming over by using the stompers. Koopa fired at him using his fire gun, but missed, allowing Luigi to land next to his brother and hand off a de-evolution gun. As the Bob-omb walked below Koopa, the brothers began de-evolving him into a fierce, dinosaur-like form. When the Bob-omb exploded, Koopa shot back upwards and landed in a vat above the street. Mario, Luigi, and the city's inhabitants watched the vat in silence. Suddenly, Koopa, de-evolved into a Tyrannosaurus rex, emerged with a roar. After initially panicking, the brothers aimed the guns and fired, devolving the tyrant into another dinosaur, a lizard, a slug, and finally primordial ooze. Immediately, all of Dinohattan cheered at the defeat of their dictator.
Victory
Stepping onto Luigi's stompers, the brothers wave and flash a victory sign to the crowd as they jump over to Daisy, who embraces them. Dancing breaks out in the streets, and even the Goombas dance with one another. In devo 4, the king evolves back into his old form. Coughing, he commented to himself about his gratefulness to Mario and Luigi. At the meteor site, Mario observes that the gateway has closed. Using the meteorite shard to reflect a beam of light from the meteor onto the wall, Daisy reopens the gate. She declines Luigi's invitation to come back to Earth, saying she needs to help Dinohattan and develop a relationship with her father. Protesting, Luigi admits his love, which Daisy returns. Still, she maintains that she cannot yet return. Trying to help, Mario explains that she cannot leave until she knows who she is, and that if Luigi loved her, he would understand. However, Luigi did not need his brother's advice and gave Daisy a passionate kiss good-bye. Mario commented that if he had any sense he would mind his own business. Yoshi, arriving at the site, waved good-bye, and the brothers waved back to him and Daisy. Daisy activated the gateway and Mario stepped through. However, Luigi remained until Mario put his head back through the wall, told his brother "it's over," and gently pulled him back through to Earth. As Daisy watched after them, Toad approached and grunted.
Three weeks later, Daniella came over to the brothers' apartment and prepared a meal with Mario. Luigi remained at the television, intently watching Our Miraculous World. However, he jumped up excitedly and called Mario over, claiming that they were on the show, whose host recounted how they had saved the missing Brooklyn girls and the parallel dimension from a ruthless dictator. Indeed, the host would even call them the "Super Mario Bros." Daniella and the brothers celebrated as a knock came on the door. Daisy burst in, wearing torn military clothes and with a fire gun in hand, requesting the brothers' help and saying they will never believe what happened. As the brothers strapped on their tool belts, Mario retorts to Luigi that he would believe it – he believed.
The film's logo flashes and the credits roll. At the end of the credits, two Japanese businessmen comment to two individuals that they have a proposal: a video game. As the camera pans to reveal the oddly dressed Iggy and Spike, the two argue over whether the game should be called, Iggy's World or The Indomitable Spike. Looking at each other, they agree on The Super Koopa Cousins.
Cast
- Bob Hoskins — Mario
- John Leguizamo — Luigi
- Dennis Hopper — King Koopa
- Samantha Mathis — Princess Daisy
- Fisher Stevens — Iggy
- Richard Edson — Spike
- Fiona Shaw — Lena
- Dana Kaminksi — Daniella
- Mojo Nixon — Toad
- Francesca Roberts — Big Bertha
- Gianni Russo — Anthony Scapelli
- Lance Henriksen — King Toadstool
The special effects were coordinated by Paul J. Lombardi, who Shigeru Miyamoto later named Falco Lombardi after in thanks. (watch movie via: this link)
Quotes
For a full list of quotes, see here.
Critical Reception
The movie is generally considered poor. In a Nintendo Power article about New Super Mario Bros., a timeline of Mario's history could be seen at the bottom of the page. The Super Mario Bros. movie was mentioned, only with the words, "Yes, it happened. Let us speak no more of it."[1] Other critics have complained that the movie doesn't accurately represent the Mario series and throws the whole continuity off, leaving a "horrible mess."[2] The actor of Mario, Bob Hoskins, called the film the worst thing he ever did,[3] while Luigi's portrayer, John Leguizamo, states that he practically could not bear working on the film.[4]
Shigeru Miyamoto actually liked the movie, mentioning that his only real dislike of it was that he found it to be too true to the games, in stark contrast to most other comments.[5]
