Plot
 I can't believe you guys are pitching this to me and I can't believe I'm the one saying no.
 |
| — Abed |
In the study room, the Save Greendale committee are watching Ben Chang being interviewed on an entertainment talk show. He discusses his recent rise to fame due to a local commercial that went viral online. This was due to his colorful phrasing of his line "Ham girl!" which became an internet meme. He was pursuing roles in Hollywood now and hadn't been at school for three weeks. Later at The Vatican, the committee toasts to Changs success unsure of how to feel about his absence. Frankie is inspired when Abed mentions he has some footage of Chang from an unfinished film project. She proposes they use it to create a movie capitalizing on Chang's new popularity and earn the school some quick cash.
Everyone is excited about the project except Abed. Over at his apartment, he screens the footage to the committee and points out how the three minutes he has is unusable. Despite his objections, Frankie brings her Hollywood producer friend Maury to meet with everyone. He confirms they can make a tidy profit if they incoporate the existing Chang footage into a new film. Abed is skeptical but the committee belives it's possible and everyone volunteers to help him out with the project. He reluctantly agrees to do it but wants assurances it will be a quality movie and that he has final cut of the film. The others accept his demands but ask that he complete the movie over the weekend even if it's bad.
The next day, filming begins on "Chief Starr and Raiders of the Galaxy". Jeff, Britta and Annie play the leads while Dean Pelton is used as a stand in for Chang. Abed finds that he is unable to shoot more takes and his directions are ignored by the cast and crew. Jeff tells Abed he needs to lower his standards significantly as his perfectionism could cause them not to make the deadline. Abed takes his advice during the following scene choosing to ignore an obvious mistake and moving on to the next shoot. As filming continues, the quick pace of the production causes some on the spot improvising to occur. This includes Annie having her character pull a laser bomb from her cleavage and Elroy's CGI character "Glip Glop" revealing himself to be a traitor.
After filming completes, Maury stops by the study room to see an early cut of the film on Abed's laptop. He loves the movie and his only critique is that they trim down the film as they need it to be under 91 minutes. The committee unanimously agrees that Jeff's characters death scene can easily be edited out to fill that requirement. Jeff is unwilling to let that happen and runs away with the laptop much to everyone's shock. Abed tracks him to a storage room filled with frisbees that collapsed the cafeteria roof months ago. Inside Jeff is trying to learn how to video edit from an online tutorial. Abed surprises Jeff who retaliates by strangling him. Jeff manages to regain his senses and let's go as Abed questions his sanity.
In response Jeff blurts out his fear of being the last one to leave Greendale. He is astonished that despite the tight restrictions placed on him, Abed delivered a halfway decent film. The only superfluous thing in the movie was his death scene, the one part Jeff was most exited about. He sees a parallel between it's removal and him being left behind as those closest to him end up moving on. Abed comforts Jeff by telling him that the movie shoot taught him an important lesson about how unpredictable life is. Despite meticulous planning things could still fall apart at any moment without warning. However, sometimes there are unexpected developments like Annie pulling a bomb from her cleavage that remind you of how great life can be.
Jeff considers Abed's words and asks that he go ahead and remove his characters death scene. That night, the completed film is screened in the cafeteria for everyone at school. The movie is a hit with the audience who loudly applaud an additional scene which featured Jeff and Chang's characters in hell. Unfortunately, Murray receives word from his distributor the movie deal is off since they are filing Chapter 11. At the same time Annie reads a news alert that Chang's stardom is starting to fade due to a scandal he was involved in. Over in Hollywood, Chang is recording lines for his part in a Steven Speilberg film when he insults the director. He is promptly shown the door and replaced by another actor.
End tag
The Save Greendale Committee is having a meeting when Chang returns to the study room quietly and takes his seat by the table. They continue the discussion concerning the problems of Greendale's cosmetology department, but the atmosphere is awkward now. Abed offers a movie quote that he alters to suit the cosmetology department's situation, which gets a laugh from the group. Britta thinks Abed quoted a Pink Floyd lyric, prompting everyone to declare "Britta's the worst", which Chang shouts the loudest in his trademark style. The atmosphere normalizes, Chang having assumed his old role within the group.
Recurring themes
Continuity
- Returning students: Magnitude makes his only appearance in Season Six. Leonard and Garrett Lambert also return.
- Previously: In the Season Five episode "Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality, Buzz Hickey helped Abed write the dialogue for his cop film. The character name of "Police Justice" was retained.
- Replay: In Abed's cop script, co-written by Buzz Hickey, Chang says the line "I'm gonna punch you in the heart". This was previously said by Buzz himself in the Season Five episode "Advanced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons".
- Familiar faces:
- Brooke Burns interviews Chang in the clip that the study group watch on Abed's computer.
- Steve Guttenberg appears as Frankie's friend Maury.
- Actor Randall Park ("The Interview") replaces Chang as the voice of a character in a Steven Speilberg film. While Park has never appeared on Community before he was in a series of promotional online videos made for the show back in 2009 called "The 5 As". He played the character known as Brody Leitz who was the student body president.
- Mad skills : Frankie plays the steel drums once again in the cantina scene. She last played them in the previous episode "Advanced Safety Features".
- Googly Eyes: Jeff and Annie improvise saying "I love you" to each other in the trash compactor scene, despite the fact that their characters are father and daughter.
- This must be the place: The Teachers' lounge makes its first appearance this season. The Cafeteria and Group Study Room F also appear.
- School supplies: The frisbees from the episode "Ladders" appear in this episode.
- School uniform: The carrot costume from "Ladders" is seen again, this time worn by Magnitude.
Running gags
- Annie's boobs: In the film Annie improvises that her character pulls a "laser grenade" from her cleavage to destroy the enemy.
- Nice outfit: Jeff, Britta, Annie, Magnitude, Elroy and Leonard all don ridiculous costumes for the movie.
Pop culture references
- IMDb: Abed believes his unfinished cop movie would have been his big, normal mainstream success that he needs before he's allowed to make weirder, more cultish movies. According to him, this is exactly what "American Graffiti" was for George Lucas, "The Elephant Man" was for David Lynch and a segment of "Four Rooms" was for Robert Rodriguez.
- Name that tune: Abed's movie uses a brief snippet of Strauss's "The Blue Danube" as its music, referencing Stanley Kubrick's use of the same piece in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- Shout out:
- Vin Diesel is mentioned by Murray as a celebrity whose college roommate used old footage of him to make a movie called "Happy Pants".
- Jeff references Chris Pratt's transformation from the rotund Andy of NBC's Parks and Recreation to the thinner and muscular Peter Quill of Guardians of the Galaxy, thinking it was achieved through CGI.
- Use your allusion:
- The Cantina and garbage compactor scenes from "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" are borrowed for Abed's film. Leonard, playing Space Dracula, also refers to The Force.
- Low-budget science fiction movies and series, such as Plan 9 from Outer Space and Classic Doctor Who with their poor effects and tinfoil monsters provide the general look for Abed's movie.
- The utilization of Chang's leftover footage from a completely unrelated project seems to refer to the production of "Plan 9 from Outer Space". After actor Bela Lugosi passed away, the director of Plan 9, Ed Wood, edited some unfinished and unrelated footage he had shot with Lugosi into his film.
- Abed yells "Bazinga!" when he emerges from a pile of frisbees. This is the catchphrase of the character "Sheldon" from the CBS sitcom "The Big Bang Theory". Community aired on NBC opposite the popular program for four years before its move to Yahoo Screen. The scene references one in which Sheldon repeatedly popped up out of a ball pit and shouted his catch phrase.
- Abed alludes to a line from "A Few Good Men": "Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns." Britta mistakes this to be a Pink Floyd lyric.
- The quasi-incestuous relationships between the lead characters in the movie are another reference to the "Star Wars" franchise, specifically the relationship between Luke and Leia.
- The title of the film, "Chief Starr and the Raiders of the Galaxy", is another reference to Chris Pratt. "Chief Starr" refers Pratt's role as "Star-Lord" in Guardians of the Galaxy, which is also referenced in the last words of the title. "Raiders" is a reference to "Raiders of the Lost Ark"; Pratt has been rumored to be starring in a rebooted version of that franchise.
Meta references
- Background check: Community's current home is namechecked by a poster advertising a new class in the background of the big laser fight scene. It reads: "Yahoo!! Horsemanship Mounting".
- Résumé:
- The CGI charcter Glip Glop, who is portrayed by Garrett in Chief Starr and the Raiders of the Galaxy, is a reference to creater Dan Harmon's cartoon series Rick and Morty. The term Glip Glop is used as a derogatory term for a race of aliens known as Traflorkians.
- The director of the Play-Doh movie that Chang is auditioning for is voiced by Community director Rob Schrab, who was announced to direct The Lego Movie Sequel in February 2015.
Gallery
| Season Six Episodes | ||
|---|---|---|
|
1. "Ladders" |
8. "Intro to Recycled Cinema" |
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| Season One • Season Two • Season Three • Season Four • Season Five • Season Six | ||
