Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Information

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is a 2001 American comedy film directed, written by, and starring Kevin Smith as Silent Bob, the fifth to be set in his View Askewniverse, a growing collection of characters and settings that developed out of his cult favorite Clerks. It focuses on the two eponymous characters, played respectively by Jason Mewes and Smith.

The film features a large number of cameo appearances by famous actors and directors. The title and logo for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back are direct references to The Empire Strikes Back.

Originally intended to be the last film set in the Askewniverse, or to feature Jay and Silent Bob, Strike Back features many characters from the previous Askew films, some in dual roles and reprising roles from the previous entries. The film was a minor commercial success, grossing $33.8 million worldwide from a $22 million budget, and received mixed reviews from critics.

Five years later and following the commercial failure of Jersey Girl, Smith reconsidered and decided to continue the series with Clerks II, resurrecting Jay and Silent Bob in supporting roles. Smith has additionally decided to make a second sequel to Clerks, titled Clerks III, and, as of 2016, is in development.

Plot

After getting a restraining order from Randal Graves (Clerks) for selling drugs outside the Quick Stop, Jay and Silent Bob find out from Brodie Bruce (Mallrats) that Bluntman and Chronic, the comic book based on their likenesses, has been adapted into a film in production by Miramax Films. In response, the two see Holden McNeil (Chasing Amy), the co-writer of Bluntman and Chronic for the royalties of the film. However, Holden tells Jay and Silent Bob that he sold his part of the creative and publishing rights of the comic over to his former friend Banky Edwards. Upon learning of the film, as well as the negative reaction it has received so far on the Internet, the two set out on a quest to Hollywood, to prevent the film from being made and tainting their image, or at the very least receive the money from the royalties owed to them.

On the way, they befriend an animal liberation group, consisting of four women: Justice, Sissy, Missy, and Chrissy; and one man, Brent, who they had picked up for the cause. It is revealed that the organization is a front; Brent is a patsy, intended as a diversion by freeing an animal from a testing laboratory while the girls rob a diamond depository nearby. Jay tricks Brent and throws him out of the van in order to get closer to Justice, with whom he is smitten. Justice, who becomes close to Jay and Silent Bob (particularly the former), reluctantly accepts the two as the new patsies.

While the girls are robbing the diamond depository they accidentally set off the alarm, prompting them to break the glass and steal the diamonds. While this is going on Jay and Silent Bob free the animals and take an orangutan named Suzanne with them. They escape outside to see the police arriving and the van exploding, which they believe has killed the girls.

Jay then takes the orangutan with him as a memorial to Justice. Quickly afterwards, Federal Wildlife Marshal Willenholly (whose name is taken from the three characters in the TV show Land of the Lost: Marshal, Will and Holly) shows up at the scene. Blinded to the diamond heist, he claims to have jurisdiction because of the large number of animals that escaped. He learns that all the animals have been recovered except for the orangutan. The officers then find and watch footage of a video Sissy recorded of Jay making remarks about "the clit", claiming to be "the Clit commander." The literature accompanying the tape says that "Clit" is an acronym for Coalition for the Liberation of Itinerant Tree-Dwellers. Willenholly blindly finds this as an act of terrorism and calls for police support to hunt down what he considered "the two most dangerous men on the planet."

When the officers later have the trio cornered inside a diner and threaten to open fire, Jay and Silent Bob dress the orangutan as a child and walk out, claiming that they want to get their "son" out of the danger zone. Willenholly, thinking about the political repercussions of arresting a gay couple, decides to let them leave, but he quickly realizes his mistake and resumes the chase. When they jump into a sewer system, only Willenholly himself follows them while the other police officers, led by the Sheriff, leave him, and he is soon tricked into jumping off of a dam.

Having escaped the law, Jay and Silent Bob once again return to their quest to reach Hollywood, only to have Suzanne taken by a Hollywood animal acting agency car. Now on a quest to get their ape back and to clear their names, the two once again embark to Hollywood.

On their arrival in Hollywood, the two find themselves in the background of an E! News newscast (ironically about their threat against Miramax on the Internet) that Justice is watching. While Justice takes the diamonds and goes to Hollywood to set things right, Marshal Willenholly learns of their mission to reach Hollywood and leaves to find them.

After a long chase with studio security and reclaiming Suzanne from a fictional Scream 4 in production, Jay and Silent Bob end up in Jason Biggs and James Van Der Beek's dressing room, where they quickly realize that these are the actors that will play the roles of Bluntman and Chronic. Suzanne beats both of them up effortlessly and Jay and Silent Bob assume the roles of their characters. Production staff throw them on stage with racist director Chaka Luther King, and they must engage in a duel with Mark Hamill playing a comic book supervillain called Cocknocker. Eventually Willenholly arrives to capture Jay and Silent Bob, but Justice arrives to save them. Justice admits that the CLIT organization was not real and that the two were used as a diversion while she, Missy, Sissy and Chrissy, were stealing jewels. As the rest of jewel thieves arrive, a climactic final battle ensues, after which Jay and Silent Bob get their royalties to the film from Banky, and Justice turns herself and her former team in to Willenholly in exchange for a shorter sentence and letting Jay and Silent Bob go.

The film ends with Jay and Silent Bob spending their royalty to locate everyone who expressed negative opinions on the internet about the movie and characters, ranging from kids to clergy, and traveling to their towns to beat them up. The scene then cuts to everyone leaving a movie theater, having just watched the Bluntman and Chronic movie and expressing negative reception: Hooper X calls the film a "one 90-minute-long gay joke." Jay and Silent Bob, with Justice and Willenholly, then go across the street to enjoy a performance from Morris Day and The Time.

After the credits, God closes the View Askewniverse book.

Cast

Release

Box office

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back opened at #3 at the U.S. box office, earning $11,018,543 in its first opening weekend. The film made $30,085,147 in the domestic market, and an additional $3,703,014 overseas, for a total gross of $33,788,161.

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews, with 53% positive reviews on film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

Soundtrack

Music from the Dimension Motion Picture: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the soundtrack to the film, was released on August 14, 2001 by Universal Records. Varse Sarabande released the original score by James L. Venable. It alternates film dialogue with songs of various genres that appear in the film. It features the 2001 Afroman hit, "Because I Got High", whose music video featured the characters Jay and Silent Bob.

Interlude: Cue Music – Jason Lee as Brodie Bruce – 0:03
"Jay's Rap 2001" – Jason Mewes as Jay – 0:32
"Kick Some Ass" – Stroke 9 – 4:05
Holden on Affleck – Ben Affleck as Holden McNeil – 0:28
"Tube of Wonderful" – Dave Pirner – 1:45
Cyber Savvy – Ben Affleck & Jason Mewes as Holden & Jay – 0:07
"Choked Up" – Minibar – 2:58
Doobie Snacks – Jason Mewes as Jay – 0:08
"Magic Carpet Ride" – Steppenwolf – 2:43
Jay & Justice – Shannon Elizabeth & Jason Mewes as Justice & Jay – 0:11
"Bad Medicine" – Bon Jovi – 3:55
Stealing Monkeys – – 0:08
"This Is Love" – PJ Harvey – 3:45
Advice From Above – – 0:23
"The Devil's Song" – Marcy Playground – 2:52
Idiots vs. The Internet – – 0:06
"Tougher Than Leather" – Run-D.M.C. – 4:23
Willenholly's Woe – Will Ferrell as Willenholly – 0:09
"Bullets" – Bob Schneider – 4:22
Touching a Brother's Heart – Jason Mewes & Tracy Morgan as Jay & drug dealer – 0:23
"Hiphopper" – Thomas Rusiak featuring Teddybears STHLM – 4:46
Two Thumbs Up – Chris Rock as Chaka Luther King – 0:07
"Jackass" – Bloodhound Gang – 2:26
A Smooth Pimp and A Man Servant – Jason Mewes as Jay – 0:16
"Jungle Love" – Morris Day and The Time – 3:03
NWP – Chris Rock as Chaka Luther King – 0:14
"Because I Got High" – Afroman – 3:18

MPAA rating and GLAAD controversy

In August 2001, three weeks prior to release, the film came under fire from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), for its "overwhelmingly homophobic tone", which included an abundance of gay jokes and characters excessively using the term "gay" to mean something derogatory. The scenes deemed particularly offensive included Jay's vehement refusal of giving oral sex to a male driver when hitchhiking, and Jay chastising Silent Bob for being willing to perform fellatio on him to get the security guard to let them go. Following an advance screening of the film, former GLAAD media director Scott Seomin asked Smith to make a $10,000 donation to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, as well as to include a reference to GLAAD's cause in the ending credits.

On the bonus DVD (176 minutes), Smith explains in the on-camera intros of the deleted scenes that several scenes had to be cut from the theatrical release, due to the film initially receiving an NC-17 rating from the MPAA. He also mentions in the audio commentary of the feature film that it took three submissions to the MPAA for the film to earn an R-rating.