Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Rick and Morty season 5, episode 5, "Amortycan Grickfitti."
Rick and Morty season 5, episode 5 was titled "Amortycan Grickfitti," in reference to the 1973 film American Graffiti. This proved fitting as the episode dealt with the same themes of teenage angst as the movie, with a similar emphasis on Americana and muscle cars. Of course this being Rick and Morty, a science-fiction element was introduced into the story, pushing it in directions far beyond those explored in a typical teen melodrama.
Loosely based on his experiences as a teenage gearhead growing up in California in the early 1960s, American Graffiti was the second feature-length film George Lucas directed and it remains the only feature-length film he's directed that wasn't a work of science fiction. The 1973 film primarily focuses on two friends, Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfuss) and Steve Bolander (Ron Howard), who have just graduated from high school and are trying to enjoy one last night cruising the drag in their small town before they go off to college. The evening becomes complicated by Curt's pursuit of a mysterious blonde woman in a T-bird and Steve's efforts to figure out where he stands with the girlfriend he's leaving behind. Considered one of the best coming-of-age movies ever made, American Graffiti was a surprise hit upon release and went on to be nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.
"Amortycan Grickfitti" touches on the same themes as American Graffiti, being largely devoted to Summer and Morty's worries about being unpopular at school. The action of the episode centers around Morty's inviting a seemingly cool student named Bruce Chutback, who just transferred to their high school, to hang out at their house while their parents are out for the evening. This leads to Summer and Morty stealing Rick's flying saucer in an attempt to impress Bruce, who is seemingly disinterested in everything in their house except for the "spaceship made of garbage."
This leads to further shenanigans in space, with the three teens joy-riding through a black hole and Summer gleefully murdering the inhabitants of a planet whose people resemble sentient mailboxes with a baseball bat, in imitation of a classic American teen prank. Unsurprisingly, things take a dark turn when the AI on Rick's ship (who was initially resistant to letting anyone besides Rick drive her) takes control and decides to have her own wild night out, knowing she can now blame whatever happens on Summer and Morty. More murder ensues, with the ship killing a being who resembled Galactus, Devourer of Worlds from Marvel Comics.
"Amortycan Grickfitti" goes on to reference American Graffiti again later in the episode, when Rick's ship asks the teens to help her in losing her virginity by romancing a Changeformer; one of several robots that change into cars, clearly parodying Transformers. This mirrors a subplot of American Graffiti, where a nerdy classmate of Curt and Steve, Terry "Toad" Fields (Charles Martin Smith), borrowed Steve's car to impress a girl with a reputation for being experienced, only to have to spend the rest of the night trying to recover the car after it was stolen. Rick and Morty goes a step further, with the ironic sci-fi twist of the car stealing itself and pretending to be something that it isn't to impress a transforming robot.
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