Difference between revisions of "The Inhuman Torch"

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[[Bender]] becomes a famous firefighter, but [[the crew]] suspects him of arson.
[[Bender]] becomes a famous firefighter, but [[the crew]] suspects him of arson.


== Plot ==
== Story ==
=== Act I: "Bite my shiny metal axe!" ===
=== Act I: "Bite my shiny metal axe!" ===
At a helium mining facility on the sun, Zapp Brannigan causes a cave-in that traps 15 miners inside the sun itself. Fry, Leela, and Bender venture to save the miners. When Bender attempts to abandon Fry and Leela and return to the ship, he inadvertently saves one of the miners. Prompted by Morbo, who is covering the breaking story on location, Bender goes on to rescue all of the remaining victims. He is hailed as the hero of the day, while Fry and Leela are recognized as his minor accomplices. A fire breaks out at their award ceremony, but as Mayor Poopenmayer explains, the fire department was sold to pay for Bender's medal. Fry, Leela, and Bender put out the fire, although Bender is very showy about it and once again receives most of the credit. Poopenmayer decrees that the Planet Express crew are now the city's fire department.
At a helium mining facility on the sun, Zapp Brannigan causes a cave-in that traps 15 miners inside the sun itself. Fry, Leela, and Bender venture to save the miners. When Bender attempts to abandon Fry and Leela and return to the ship, he inadvertently saves one of the miners. Prompted by Morbo, who is covering the breaking story on location, Bender goes on to rescue all of the remaining victims. He is hailed as the hero of the day, while Fry and Leela are recognized as his minor accomplices. A fire breaks out at their award ceremony, but as Mayor Poopenmeyer explains, the fire department was sold to pay for Bender's medal. Fry, Leela, and Bender put out the fire, although Bender is very showy about it and once again receives most of the credit. Poopenmeyer decrees that the Planet Express crew are now the city's fire department.


=== Act II: "I've saved the entire world! And no one will ever know." ===
=== Act II: "I've saved the entire world! And no one will ever know." ===

Revision as of 21:05, 26 May 2014

Season 7 episode
Broadcast season 10 episode
The Inhuman Torch
The Inhuman Torch infobox.png
Bender attempting to put out Flamo.
No.132
Production number7ACV18
Written byDan Vebber
Directed byFrank Marino
Title captionAS SEEN AT THE 1939 WORLD'S FAIR
First air date10 July 2013
Broadcast numberS10E05
Title referenceSee here
Additional
Commentary
(Transcript)
Transcript

Pictures

Season 7
  1. The Bots and the Bees
  2. A Farewell to Arms
  3. Decision 3012
  4. The Thief of Baghead
  5. Zapp Dingbat
  6. The Butterjunk Effect
  7. The Six Million Dollar Mon
  8. Fun on a Bun
  9. Free Will Hunting
  10. Near-Death Wish
  11. 31st Century Fox
  12. Viva Mars Vegas
  13. Naturama
  14. Forty Percent Leadbelly
  15. 2-D Blacktop
  16. T.: The Terrestrial
  17. Fry and Leela's Big Fling
  18. The Inhuman Torch
  19. Saturday Morning Fun Pit
  20. Calculon 2.0
  21. Assie Come Home
  22. Leela and the Genestalk
  23. Game of Tones
  24. Murder on the Planet Express
  25. Stench and Stenchibility
  26. Meanwhile
← Season 6Season 8 →

"The Inhuman Torch" is the one hundred and thirty-second episode of Futurama, the eighteenth of the seventh production season and the fifth of the tenth broadcast season. It aired on 10 July 2013, on Comedy Central. Bender becomes a famous firefighter, but the crew suspects him of arson.

Story

Act I: "Bite my shiny metal axe!"

At a helium mining facility on the sun, Zapp Brannigan causes a cave-in that traps 15 miners inside the sun itself. Fry, Leela, and Bender venture to save the miners. When Bender attempts to abandon Fry and Leela and return to the ship, he inadvertently saves one of the miners. Prompted by Morbo, who is covering the breaking story on location, Bender goes on to rescue all of the remaining victims. He is hailed as the hero of the day, while Fry and Leela are recognized as his minor accomplices. A fire breaks out at their award ceremony, but as Mayor Poopenmeyer explains, the fire department was sold to pay for Bender's medal. Fry, Leela, and Bender put out the fire, although Bender is very showy about it and once again receives most of the credit. Poopenmeyer decrees that the Planet Express crew are now the city's fire department.

Act II: "I've saved the entire world! And no one will ever know."

After some time as successful firefighters, the other crew members notice that Bender was present just before every one of the fires they extinguished. They ask themselves whether Bender might be setting these fires deliberately in order to inspire continued hero-worship. Their suspicions are confirmed when, while on the videophone with Bender, they see a fire break out in the shop just behind him. When he returns to headquarters, they confront him and kick him off the team.

As Bender cleans out his locker, a strange, blue flame erupts from his shoulder. He tries to extinguish it, but the flame moves around as though deliberately dodging his attempts. Finally, the flame takes on the look of a shadowy face and begins to speak to Bender. It says that it is a "being of pure solar energy," a member of a race that inhabits the Sun's photosphere. It explains that billions of years ago, it was imprisoned for treason, but that Bender has unwittingly transported it to Earth. When it announces its plans to ignite the earth and rule over it, Bender realizes that this creature is the source of the fires for which he has been blamed. When Bender accidentally leads it to the sub-basement and the lava pit, it realizes that it can go to Earth's core and transform the earth into a miniature sun. To prevent this, Bender captures the creature within his compartment of mystery and flees to an ice floe in the Arctic Ocean, where there is nothing flammable. He announces to the creature, which he begins to refer to as "Flamo", that they will be here for the next billion years.

Act III: "You are now the greatest hero in Earth's history."

At home, Fry accepts a package that contains Bender's hero metal, badly damaged in the fire at the Vampire Bank where Bender had kept it. Fry realizes that Bender never would have set a fire that would risk harm to this prize, and flies to the Arctic to retrieve and apologize to Bender. But when Bender explains that "it was a psychotic flame creature from the sun who set those fires," Fry decides that he must have been wrong about Bender after all. Fry angrily returns to headquarters alone.

Unbeknownst to Fry and Bender, Flamo has escaped from Bender and attached itself to Fry's pants. At headquarters, it leaves Fry and ignites the Planet Express building itself. The crew are unable to extinguish the fire, as Flamo eludes their hoses. Just as they express relief that no one is left in the doomed building, Fry appears, hanging from the balcony and in need of rescue. Bender had discovered the loss of his captive earlier, and had left the Arctic just in time to arrive at this moment. He arrives such that only Fry knows of his presence, and quietly pulls him to relative safety. Fry refuses to be rescued, but Bender forces the issue. Fleeing with Fry in hand, Bender falls through the weakening floor, ending up in the sub-basement near the lava pit. Fry scolds Bender sharply and walks out on him, just as Flamo arrives and dives into the lava pit. Fry returns to scold Bender further, but Bender dives into the lava to capture Flamo. Before Fry can leave, a strange light draws him back into the room. Two large flame creatures appear, announcing that they are the "mystic aldermen of the sun." They await Bender's return, thank him for his heroism in capturing their escapee, explain that he is "now the greatest hero in Earth's history," and depart with a bound Flamo.

Fry finally understands the truth, and promises to vouch for Bender to the rest of the crew, but Bender explains that it cannot be. They wouldn't believe Fry either. And in fact, if Fry were to tell them that Bender is even present, they'll blame Bender for the fire. The only solution is for Fry to claim that he himself accidentally started the fire while Bender was thousands of miles away.

Production

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On 17 January 2012, Futurama writer Eric Rogers revealed that the episode was being written.[1] On 7 February, an image of the episode's production script cover was posted to Twitter, revealing the episode's title.[2] On 11 December, executive producer David X. Cohen revealed the episode's plot in an interview with Crave Online.[3]

On 5 February 2013, Vulture.com released a preview clip for the tenth broadcast season,[4] which contained footage from the episode.

Image Gallery

Additional Info

Trivia

  • The helium abundance outside the core of the sun is not very different from that of interstellar gas, so helium mining in the sun is probably not practicable.
  • Even if the force field of the helium mine could block out the searing plasma, the photons emitted would surely have fried the miners.
  • The photosphere of the sun, from which Flamo claims to be from, is in fact one of its coolest parts. Thermonuclear fusion occurs in the core of the sun, at temperatures reaching 106 K; in comparison, the photosphere is merely 6000 K, hardly hot enough for any nuclear burning to happen. Photons produced deep inside the sun diffuse slowly outward until they reach the photosphere; here, the density is low enough for the photons to escape outward directly. When we look at the disk of the sun, it is these photons that are reaching our eyes.
  • Fry asks if they picked a new pope. A new pope was elected exactly 17 weeks before this episode aired.
  • After Bender saves Hattie, a journalist can be seen holding a camera just like his.

Allusions

Click here to see cultural mentions made in this episode.

Goofs

  • Bender's voice should not be affected by the helium in the doom chamber as he doesn't have vocal cords.
    • The sound of his mechanical voice would travel faster through helium, making it sound higher.
  • In the scene where Bender walks in after coming back from the meat market, Amy's suspenders are switching from on to off between 2 frames.
  • Fry's bed is incorrectly layered (time: 17:08).
  • One of Leela's breasts is off-model in one frame.

Continuity

The cover of the episode's production script.[2]

Quotes

    Helium miner #1: Mine collapse! Mine collapse!
    Zapp Brannigan: So? Mine collapse too.

    Mayor Poopenmeyer: These boys must have hero in their bones, and you, ma'am, must have heroine in your veins.

    Professor Farnsworth: We can't have an arsonist in our midst. We can have four idiots and a fat guy, but no arsonists!

    Fry: Someone save me! I made a rope from my clothes, but then this fire started.

Alien-language Sightings

    Time: 10:00
    Location: Meat-market window
    Language: AL1
    Translation: RACK OF HUMAN

    Time: 10:20
    Location: Meat-market sign
    Language: AL1
    Translation: K

Appearances

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(In alphabetic order)

Characters

Places

Miscellaneous

References

  1. ^ Eric Rogers (17 January 2012). Kitchelfilms. (Twitter.) Retrieved on 22 January 2012.
  2. ^ a b cocoa j (07 February 2012). cocoalikesthis. (Twitter.) Retrieved on 08 February 2012.
  3. ^ Fred Topel (11 December 2012). David X Cohen on ‘Futurama’ Season 7 And Beyond!. (CraveOnline.) Retrieved on 22 December 2012.
  4. ^ Jesse David Fox (05 February 2013). Watch a Preview of Futurama’s Seventh Season. (Vulture.com.) Retrieved on 17 August 2013.
  5. ^ Countdown to Futurama: Solar Helium Mine. (Comedy Central's Tumblr page.) 14 May 2013. Retrieved on 03 July 2013.
  6. ^ a b c Countdown to Futurama: Fireman Bender, Professor Fire Chief & Fire Dalmatian Nibbler. (Comedy Central's Tumblr page.) 15 May 2013. Retrieved on 03 July 2013.
  7. ^ Countdown to Futurama: Gold Fry, Bender and Leela. (Comedy Central's Tumblr page.) 16 May 2013. Retrieved on 03 July 2013.
  8. ^ Countdown to Futurama: Bender Saves Fry. (Comedy Central's Tumblr page.) 17 May 2013. Retrieved on 03 July 2013.
  9. ^ Comedy Central. Retrieved on 02 July 2013.