Detective Jenny: The Movie (Johnsonverse)

Detective Jenny: The Movie is a 1997 American action-adventure hybrid film written by Tammy Jo Johnson, produced by Johnson and Timothy Hill, and directed by Craig Johnson, and the first film in the Detective Jenny franchise. It stars the voices of Mary Kay Bergman, Alanna Ubach, Hynden Walch, Cree Summer, Kristen Schaal, Melissa Fahn, Shane Rimmer, Patti Yasutake, Ben Stein, and Mako Iwamatsu, and follows Team Jenny being sent to the moon to thwart Black Scorpion's latest plot.
Production on the film began in 1994, shortly after the first episode of the television series first aired. It premiered at the San Jose Theatre on November 10, 1997 and received a widespread release five days later, receiving widespread acclaim for its story, acting, and visual effects. Thirteen sequels have been released in the years since, with a fourteenth set for release in 2023.
== Plot ==
The movie begins in 1995 at Cape Canaveral, where Space Shuttle Discovery, on mission STS-70, is launching a top-secret spy satellite that will be able to find every single installation possessed by Black Scorpion, so top-secret, that a detachment of Team Jenny aboard the Neptune's Trident with a radar dish is sent to filter out anyone trying to listen in on communications between the shuttle and Houston; Ronnie does so below decks, while up on deck, Jenny and Makayla watch the launch and make sure no civilian watercraft violate the range. Lift-off goes alright, until one of the engines on Discovery suddenly goes out, and Ronnie hears the callout "Discovery: Abort RTLS at two plus three". She rushes up to inform Jenny and Makayla, who noticed an abnormal puff of smoke coming off the shuttle that appeared well before Max-Q, and when they hear Ronnie say "RTLS", both go pale, realizing that the shuttle is about to execute a "Return to Launch Site" abort, the one abort mode they never thought they would see. Big Bertha is flying nearby, and Jenny puts Kristen on standby to assist in case Discovery loses any more engines. Fortunately, the orbiter makes it back to the Shuttle Landing Facility safely.
As Louise and Terry debate the usefulness of the shuttle vs. Apollo, NASA finds that the engine failure was caused by an explosive device apparently meant to destroy the shuttle, but was too small. It turns out Black Scorpion planted the bomb to ensure their installations remained hidden, and Onizuka decides Earth is no longer safe for their headquarters.
Two years later, Black Scorpion announces they have built a base on the Moon, and have also built a large laser with which they will use to destroy major Western population centers unless the United States grants Japan independence. They also sabotage the Space Shuttle again (this time Atlantis) by disabling the Orbital Maneuvering System, leaving the crew stranded at Spacelab. The UN drafts up a plan to both rescue the astronauts and destroy the moonbase, involving two Apollo missions: Apollo J1 will launch a Block III spacecraft on a Saturn IC to Spacelab to repair the Shuttle, with the crew consisting of Terry as commander, Kristen as pilot, and Ronnie as flight engineer. Apollo J2, meanwhile, will launch a Block IV spacecraft on a Saturn V to the Moon with a lunar module, with the crew consisting of Jenny as commander, Makayla as lunar module pilot, and Louise as command module pilot. Apollo J1 launches first, and docks to Spacelab a day late after Ronnie's vomit got into the control panel, necessitating ad-hoc repairs by cannibalizing the orbital module. Apollo J2 launches the next day, and arrives in lunar orbit three days later. Jenny and Makayla land near the valley, and are met by Black Scorpion soldiers, resulting in a firefight using lasers.
Aboard Spacelab, the crew of Apollo J1 repairs Atlantis, and allows half the crew to take their Apollo spacecraft back to Earth while the rest wait for another craft to be sent up, as the repairs to Atlantis were such that only Kristen could land it, pilot Scott Horowitz (voiced by himself) not being trained for this kind of mission. An intense reentry sees a large hole develop in the crew cabin due to a second bomb planted by Black Scorpion, sucking Ronnie out. Terry unbuckles herself and jumps out over Kristen's objections, and she successfully catches Ronnie and deploys her parachute for a splashdown landing in Disneyland's Rivers of America and impromptu recovery by the Mark Twain Riverboat, while Kristen lands Atlantis at Edwards AFB.
Back on the Moon, Jenny and Makayla make it to the valley after fighting for every inch of ground, and find the massive base. Entering at an airlock, they take advantage of the low gravity to pull of numerous dodges they otherwise couldn't on Earth, eventually reaching the command center, coming face-to-face with Onizuka for the first time. Onizuka reveals he no longer desires Japanese independence, as seeing the Earth rise every day for the past two years has made him realize how small man really is. He then shares his vision for a peaceful world, one Jenny and Makayla seem open to, until he mentions the only way he can accomplish it is via world domination. A physical fight ensues that sees the two captured and forced to witness Onizuka fire the laser on Washington, but because Onizuka didn't check to see exactly which side of the Earth was facing the moon, it instead fires on Volgograd, Russia, leaving nothing but a smoldering ruin in its place. Breaking free from their cell with absolutely no effort, as they had allowed themselves to be captured and, being anti-Russian in general, knew where the laser would hit, Jenny and Makayla plant explosives at various key points around the base, returning to the airlock they entered at, putting their suits on, and, using the jetpack built into Makayla's suit, quickly return to their lunar module. Black Scorpion, though, chases them with their own jetpack-wearing soldiers, as well as a rover carrying a smaller version of the laser that just destroyed Volgograd. They lift off just in time as the laser destroys the descent stage, and they detonate the explosives on their way up, watching as the base goes up in flames. Upon returning to Louise, they see that Onizuka escaped the base before it exploded using an ex-Soviet LK lander, and he vows revenge as Apollo J2 returns to Earth in victory.
Upon splashing down in the South Pacific, the team reunites at the house in Hills Beach, exchanging stories and readjusting to Earth's gravity. They see a news report on television stating that the other four crew from Atlantis safely returned home aboard the Russian Buran shuttle Groza, with NASA paying top dollar as a show of goodwill after Volgograd's destruction. The rest of the team knows Jenny and Makayla intentionally let Volgograd be destroyed, but decides to keep it amongst themselves. The film ends with Onizuka docking his LK to a space station owned by Black Scorpion and returning to Earth via a stolen Soyuz, where he relays his vision to his subordinates.
== Voice cast ==
* Mary Kay Bergman as Jenny G. Denver
* Alanna Ubach as Makayla Gómez
* Hynden Walch as Terry Clampett-Jones
* Cree Summer as Kristen Smith
* Kristen Schaal as Louise Savage
* Melissa Fahn as Ronnie Hinton
* Shane Rimmer as Joe Quill
*Patti Yasutake as Dr. Michele Yamashita
* Ben Stein as Dennis Leonard
* Mako Iwamatsu as Onizuka
*Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Kuromiya Itō
*Scott Horowitz as himself
*Tara Strong as a news anchor
* Gregg Berger as a soldier
== Production ==
=== Themes ===
One of the film's themes is a critique of the Space Shuttle program, namely its purpose and questionable safety. The opening sequence showing Discovery being assembled and rolled out shows at least three Apollo flights (two Saturn ICs and a Saturn V) launching before the shuttle does, and during the RTLS abort, Jenny and Makayla are shocked that they had lived to see it happen, having to explain to Ronnie just how such an "unnatural act of physics" would work. Quite tellingly, the ground-to-air loop heard during the launch was actual audio from an RTLS training exercise NASA carried out in 1986 following the Challenger disaster. Supplemental material for the movie (including a mock investigation report video detailing the opening accident) also states that Discovery's launch encountered multiple delays, including a redundant set launch sequencer (RSLS) abort. Said material also names the mission as STS-70, which Discovery actually flew in 1995, though the actual STS-70 launched a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS), not a super-advanced spy satellite, and was a routine flight; footage of the launch was also taken directly from STS-70.
The later emergency with Atlantis also displayed how difficult an on-orbit emergency with the Space Shuttle would be, though the problem shown in the movie was mitigated by the fact the orbiter was docked to a space station, a luxury Columbia did not have on STS-107 in 2003. Namely, the movie showed how hard it would be to get the crew back to Earth on an Apollo capsule, which typically only has three seats (and Apollo J1's command module is specifically stated in the film to not have jumpseats due to how hastily the stack was assembled). The hazards of an emergency landing with the orbiter were also shown.
Two years after the film was released, an actual launch abort occurred on STS-93, when Columbia suffered a severe hydrogen leak that necessitated an East Coast Abort Landing (ECAL) at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, the only time such an abort was carried out, and one of two launch aborts in the Shuttle program, the other being an Abort to Orbit (ATO) on STS-51F with Challenger.
=== Filming ===
For the scenes in space, Johnson decided to actually send the team into space, something that had never been done before. The scenes of the launches, as well as Atlantis landing at Edwards and the command and lunar modules undocking and redocking in lunar orbit, were all real footage shot by Johnson (the launch and landing scenes) and NASA (the docking and undocking scenes). The elaborate model of Black Scorpion's moon base was the same model used for Armstrong City in the ride film on Space Shuttle America at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, IL, which Johnson had produced. Most notably, the scenes on the lunar surface outside of the base were shot on the moon itself, which won the movie a Guinness World Record. These scenes were shot over the course of three Apollo missions to Armstrong Base, explaining why Jenny and Makayla's heights fluctuate during those scenes; one scene where Jenny and Makayla lift the visors on their helmets involved astronauts wearing green masks so Toei could later overlay traditionally-animated faces.
The rest of the major scenes, including the RTLS abort, the launch from the moon, and all exterior scenes at Spacelab, were shot using models. Terry and Ronnie's splashdown in the Rivers of America at Disneyland involved the park being closed between October 4-7, 1996, and the splashdown itself involved the use of professional skydivers wearing Launch and Entry Suits; these same stuntmen were also filmed being helped onto the Mark Twain Riverboat by uncredited Disneyland Cast Members who were later digitally removed and replaced by animated caricatures in the series' artstyle.
== Release ==
== Reception ==
===Critical reception===
===Box office===
The film made a modest showing at the box office, but was largely overshadowed by Johnson's other major film that year, EarthBound.
== Home video ==
The film was released on VHS, DVD, and LaserDisc in March 1998. It was re-released again on DVD in 2005; it was also released on Blu-ray and HD-DVD as a launch title.
Category:Johnsonverse