"Threat Level Midnight" is the seventeenth episode of the seventh season of the American television comedy "The Office" and the 143rd episode overall. Written by B.J. Novak and directed by Tucker Gates, the episode aired on NBC on February 17, 2011. It was viewed by 6.41 million people.
Synopsis
Scarn is sitting at his desk, pretending to type while a worker tries to shoot him, but he fires back, killing the worker. There is a cut-back to reality where Michael explains that he has spent 10 years on the making of this movie.
Erin tells everyone that Michael has completed his movie and will let everyone watch it if interested. By this time, Jim and Pam are telling the camera that the movie is a great lost film and stars each employee from years' past. There was an original test of the movie, but everyone laughed because they thought it was a comedy, which Michael was easily offended by.
"It's like a home movie, if Michael Scott did your home movie," Pam and Jim tell the camera. While Agent Michael Scarn (played by Michael) is lying hungover in his bed, the camera pans through newspaper clippings of Scarn's rise and then downfall to the loss of his career. Scarn's robot butler, Samuel L. Chang (played by Dwight) comes to his attendance and tells Scarn that the President (Darryl) wants to see him. A cut back to the office where Dwight says that he believes Michael wanted him to be an advanced android, almost indistinguishable from a real human, to which Michael contradicts to saying that Dwight doesn't play a robot.
While in the Oval Office (the conference room), The President warns Scarn that there has been a bomb placed under the NHL all-star game stadium and needs him to destroy it because it's his retirement plan. A coin toss, best of seven, will decide of Scarn chooses to go or to stay. After Scarn wins the best of seven, a scene showing everyone is excited and pleased with his movie, and he is smiling. While the concession stand workers are all tied up and hostages to Goldenface (Jim), he explains how he didn't like the dialogue or character and only took the role to impress Pam (Hostage #1). Darryl says that he only took the role so his daughter could see a black man as president, which has become a moot point with the election of Barack Obama.
While Scarn is driving, the narrator (Stanley) is telling everyone how Scarn didn't know a hockey stick from a Slim Jim. So he went to Cherokee Jack (Creed) to find out how to beat Goldenface. At a Pre-National Allstar Game tryout between Skater #1 (Oscar), Scarn, and a masked man, the announcer (Ryan) is explaining how they only can take one entry each year. The masked man then reveals himself to be Goldenface, and he and Scarn have a shoot-out, but only as a distraction to Scarn losing the speed-skating race. Scar then proceeds to the locker room where he chokes Oscar with the American flag, where in reality, Oscar is bored at the scene.
While at Scarn Manor, Samuel L. Chang receives an e-mail given to Scarn to have him meet Jasmine Windsong (Jan) at the Funky Cat, the hippest jazz club in town. A cut to Jan saying that Michael finishing his movie is "great", and then she can't get into her car. There, Jasmine sings "The hostages are under the stadium" backwards, giving Scarn clues to where the hostages were. Just then, Goldenface's henchman (Troy L. Undercook) kills Jasmine with a blow dart. When Goldenface gets word of Scarn coming his way, he shoots Hostage #3's (Toby) head and it explodes. It proceeds to explode six different times, with a scene of Michael explaining that it was the most expensive shot of the movie, but it was "intregral" [sic] to the plot line.
During the movie, Scarn and Chang bust through the gates and try to kill Goldenface. Goldenface hands Scarn the puck, says he won't kill anyone if he just forgives him for murdering his wife, Catherine Zeta-Scarne, to which Scarn sees flashbacks in the puck. Scarn declines, and him (along with Chang) are shot. After waking up in the hospital to the sight of his nurse's (Helene Beesly) breasts, she explains that she wants to make sure everything is "working properly." As they engage in sex, the heart monitor goes off, and Pam is clearly disgusted at the scene.
In the next scene, Scarn walks into the local pub, feeling down because he let everyone down. He then is proceeds to talk to the local bartender, Billy, (Andy) who says he is upset because his TV isn't working, and explains that there is a table of women that like to have fun. At the table, Babe #1 (Karen) asks Scarn if they want to "bang", to which it cuts to a scene of the camera crew finding Karen, and she is asking why they singled out her line. To cheer Scarn up, Billy asks a kid to turn on the jukebox to "The Scarn." While all the local drinkers (warehouse workers), Billy, the boy, and the babes all dance to the song, Jim is continually laughing. By the end of the song, the local drunk (Packer) explains that if "doing the Scarn is gay, then I'm (he's) the biggest queer on earth", to which Jim couldn't hold in his laughter.
Michael, not wanting to repeat last time's viewing, turned off the movie, saying it wasn't good enough. But everyone is saying how much they love it and should enter it in festivals (or carnivals- Kevin), and Michael reconsiders turning it back on. He asks Holly if she liked it, but she is obviously not impressed, to which Michael leaves. Back in the office, Michael heads to the Annex where he explains that if he has no movie, then he has nothing, that nothing is real to him. Holly says that she's real, but Michael tells her that she is a pain in the ass (though apologizes) and heads back to watch the movie with the others.
In the movie, Scarn heads back to the White House, where he learns that the President is allies with Goldenface and they try to kill him, revealing that the President was only interested in blowing up the stadium for the insurance money. Outside, Michael is explaining how bad his movie really is to Holly, and she continues to watch it with him. While during the allstar game, Chang explains how Cherokee Jack was killed. Scarn tries to take the puck and win the NHL Allstar game, and Michael is explaining that it was a real Scranton High School game which they had to forfeit due to interference.
Michael Scott as Michael Scarn
Scarn eventually wins the trophy and heads back to his manor where he is feeding himself and Chang (feeding him oil, to which he remembers that Dwight was a robot) and gets a call from the President asking him to do another mission, to which he replies "I'm in." After the film, everyone is questioning Scarn's judgement because the President was evil. Dwight says that Scarn was trying to chase down the predator by joining him, but Michael says that Scarn was being stupid. Stanley then narrates and asks the viewers how he knew so much about Michael Scarn, revealing that Scarn was sitting in a chair with Stanley's voice dubbed over him saying because he IS Michael Scarn. At the end of the film, the credits roll, showing snapshots of the characters while Andy is singing "Threat Level: Midnight."
Cultural references
- Scarn, when recovering from gunshot wounds in the hospital, asks for more Tylenol, a mild pain reliever.
- Michael says he's a huge Woody Allen fan, but has only seen Antz. Woody Allen mostly writes and directs romantic comedies and dramas, but Antz is a computer animated comedy adventure film, where Allen simply provided the voice for one of the characters.
- Michael thought that A Bug's Life was much better than Antz.
- When Scarn enters the bar, everyone says "Hi!" in unison. This is a reference from Cheers.
- Michael mocks Holly's review of his movie, saying that it's not like Oceans Eleven, and he cares how it turns out.
- The fast paced string music towards the beginning of the film is taken from the soundtrack from The Bourne Trilogy films.
- The name Goldenface could possibly be a reference to the villain of the James Bond movie, Goldfinger.
Amusing Details
- The worker who delivers Michael Scarn a package in the Cold Open does not appear to be from the Office like most of the other characters in the movie do.
- Scarn's house has Carol Stills' sign infront of it.
- The car that Scarn drives is very obviously not moving.
- Tony Gardner appears to be playing the piano at the Funky Cat. This is odd, as Tony only worked at Dunder Mifflin Scranton for less than a day.
- The man who sold Ryan drugs while he worked at Corporate also appears in the Funky Cat.
- Helene appears in the movie, even though the rest of the footage seems to have been shot years earlier than when Michael was dating her.
- Michael Scarn's wishes to have been able to start a family with his wife mirror Michael's longing for a family in real life.
- One of the people doing "The Scarn" appears to be an employee of Vance Refrigeration.
- Dwight's character slowly becomes more robotic as the movie progresses.
- Golden Face seems to have obtained the insurance money from destroying the statium before it is actually destroyed, because the puck flies towards him as he counts the money.
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