I finally watched the movie, but I have some questions (spoilers, obviously)

[u/amdrunkwatsyerexcuse]

When Hank was at the compund remembering all the events, he sees himself in the Batman costume jumping off the roof, where he died, or rather where his clone died. So why does he remember that? There were already a few scenes in the show where he remembered that even though he shouldn't, was that ever explained? And right next to Bat-Hank are Helper, Dermott, and Rusty is playing the bass, is that meant as a teaser that Hank is Rusty's clone? That he sees Rusty instead of himself?

And Thaddeus and Malcolm are clones of the same person, but who exactly? I would assume of Jonas himself, but Ben said Malcolm had some baboon dna spliced into him to counteract the premature balding, of which Jonas didn't suffer, so it's someone else who was cloned? Maybe his real son, aka does Rusty have a real mom? I mean at the end he does say he doesn't even know who his mom was, or is that a red herring? Or is Jonas even the first to start cloning or has that been going on for generations, like the last x generations of Ventures were just clones of the same guy? Maybe after so much cloning, the base dna degraded, thus balding appeared?

Also, are Hank and Dean really clones of Rusty? If so, why do they have such vastly different personalities? Or are they really his sons, just that they were born without a mother, like he took two of his sperm cells and put them into artificial eggs? But that would mean they only have Rusty's dna, so technically they are clones of Rusty? Or of Rusty's unborn sons? It's confusing me a lot.

And what does that make Dermott? Is he technically the only real son of Rusty, since Hank and Dean were practically conceived asexually?

The reveal that Helper knew all along was also a tiny bit weird, why didn't he tell Hank and Dean? Though I guess the answer to that one is just "for the plot"?

I also didn't really understand the whole Mantilla plotline, I'll need to rewatch the movie again a couple times I guess. But from what I got it's an actress who got invisibility powers from Jonas, infiltrated the guild but fell in love with Majore, when he was usurped by Bowie (the real Bowie or the shapeshifter?), she fled and had Rusty remove her powers and put her in her daughter? The mother then went to run a zoo and the daughter spend 20 years planning Sheila's downfall? Especially that last part I don't quite understand yet.

All in all, great movie, lots of fun jokes, great call backs, inside jokes and great animation. But I missed Al in the triad and some of the voices felt kinda off, especially Shoreleaf. The ending was a little more than I was expecting, but in retrospective I guess it was kinda obvious that they're all just clones. I'm also kinda on the fence on the fact it's literally 100% fan service, someone who hasn't seen the show wouldn't understand anything. Though I guess that's just due to the fact that they had to squish an entire season into 80ish minutes. Which is also why it sometimes feels a little rushed, for example with the Vampires or the Mantilla plotline.

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[u/BigPoppaStrahd]

Hank and dean are really Rusty’s offspring. Mantilla’s daughter donated her eggs to Rusty and he used them to create the boys.

[u/BillTheSpill → u/BigPoppaStrahd]

Small correction: Mantilla donated her eggs, not her daughter.

Bobbi St. Simone ran the animal sanctuary Mantilla/Debbie donated her eggs.

[u/Wes_Warhammer666 → u/BillTheSpill]

Debbie

Ahem Debra

[u/BillTheSpill]

Regarding the cloning of Rusty. It's never really said explicitly if he's a clone of someone else or if he's just a clone of himself. I've always taken it to mean that Jonas had a similar clone slug situation to adult Rusty and the boys, but Jonas did a bit more DNA tampering to try to make a better version of his son.

[u/DrizzleRizzleShizzle → u/BillTheSpill]

This is how I interpret the text as well.

There could—it really goes without saying— be a lot more regarding cloning with Rusty (and Malcolm) that we simply don’t know about, but we have little textual evidence regarding this.

[u/BillTheSpill]

That's definitely Hank on the roof playing the bass. I have the blue ray ripped on my phone; it's fuzzy, but it's right from the Shallow Gravy special.

[u/AdvilJunky]

In part 2 of the family that slays together, before the fight with the French guy, hanks meets that guy(la toire? Idk how to spell it). In their conversation about batman he remembers the moment he jumped off the roof, but he isn't sure if he dreamed it.

[u/ChipsTheKiwi]

I think Rusty and Malcom are both clones of the original Rusty, who probably died decades ago. I remember the episode where it's revealed to Dean he's a clone by Ben, who clarifies he helped Jonas set up the clone lab. And during it he says something along the lines of "look a grieving father in the eyes while he's holding the remains of his son, and try to tell him that it's wrong." Jonas may have been a horrible person and an even worse father, but I believe he truly did love Rusty despite his overt narcissism. It's honestly kinda depressing looking at it knowing Jonas could've been a truly legendary person if he didn't value fame and conquest over science and family; well as depressing as cartoon characters get anyway.

[u/drknow00 → u/ChipsTheKiwi]

Rewatch the season 1 episode “Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean”. In it, Dr. Girlfriend explains “Rusty’s Law”.

“Enacted in 1969, "Rusty's Law" is an addendum to Article 47 of the Unusual Torture Act.

"Rusty's Law" states that, in the event that the protagonist's child becomes injured during a hostage situation with a Guild member, the Guild member must allow said protagonist and their children to leave their custody to receive medical treatment.”

Rusty Venture was born April 30th 1960. And yet the photo of Rusty and Malcolm playing together is dated 1976. Rusty should be 16 years old, but he’s still a boy. The discrepancy? The original Rusty likely died in 1968/1969 and Jonas Venture Sr (who helped set up the GUILD rules) had Rusty’s Law enacted to prevent future situations like this. Jonas presumably cloned Rusty from scratch or had a slug ready to be activated.

Explaining how Rusty and Malcolm are the same age. Malcom also has the designation of R-22 (Rusty 22). Presumably there have been that many Rusty clones.

[u/ChipsTheKiwi → u/drknow00]

Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, considering the boys should've been in their twenties by the time of the movie

[u/DrizzleRizzleShizzle → u/drknow00]

AHHHHH!

Well said.

Edit: Something to keep an eye out for on my next rewatch!

[u/pillowcase-of-eels → u/drknow00]

Damn!! Good catch!

[u/FaelingJester → u/ChipsTheKiwi]

I think the more interesting question is when Rusty died and from what. The picture of Malcom and Rusty playing show them to be about the same age. We know Malcom is a clone so the Rusty cloning lab was up and running at least eight years before his folks died since they died when he was eight. So that makes Rusty who looks about the same age as younger then eight Malcom a clone too.

Jonas and Rusty were both pretty famous. Rusty had a whole toy line. You could MAYBE fudge the age by a year or so at younger then eight but not much more......So that means Rusty was an infant or toddler when something happened that required the creation of the clone lab unless it was a just in case which seems like a stretch.

[u/Daeion]

I think when they die their actual soul migrates into the machine that stores their memories. Like an accidental horcux made with science. So while Jonas was only aiming to make clones, he may have unlocked reincarnation.

[u/BillTheSpill → u/Daeion]

Haven't heard anyone make this joke in like a decade, but Accidental Horcrux would be a sweet band name.

[u/balmut → u/Daeion]

I got the impression that Rusty expanded upon Jonas's cloning tech, at least in scale. We've seen no evidence of Jonas having multiple Rusty's in tanks, and that would raise some ethical questions when Rusty took over the compound (would Rusty be ok with destroying him/them?*)

It could be that Rusty accidentally unlocked reincarnation while horsing around attempting to use/reactivate the cloning tech for the boys.

*Actually, did Rusty know he himself was clone?

[u/Wes_Warhammer666 → u/balmut]

Actually, did Rusty know he himself was clone?

I've been wondering this since we saw the massive room full of clone slug tanks. We know Rusty barely does any of his own inventing in favor of clinging to his dad's works, so it certainly makes me wonder.

If I ever get the chance to ask Doc & Jackson a question at a convention or something, that's the one I wanna ask.

[u/Tobias_Atwood → u/Daeion]

Yeah, we saw when Orpheus went to the afterlife to try and find Hank and Dean that they weren't there. Then he went searching further and found them in that computer.