#a proto-hijacking with a side of rolls

[lanadel-heyyy]

My heart leaps, then sinks like a stone. I feel Louella’s crushed skull leaking hot blood into my hand. See her vacant eyes. She was good and dead in a way that defied return. So who is this girl in the doorway?

She sure looks like Louella. Same size, same height…she checks every box.

But this isn’t Louella. In the same way you instinctively know the waxed pears on the table lack juice, this girl lacks Louella’s essence.

“Who are you?” I ask her…

“My name is Louella McCoy. I’m from District Twelve.”

“You’re not,” I tell her, then address Snow. “She’s not. Anyone can see it.”

…

Plutarch hustles into the room with a glass of milk and a plate of rolls. He pulls up short at the sight of Louella. “Is that—?”

“Louella McCoy,” says Snow. “Ah, my bread.”

Sunrise on the Reaping, Chapter 10

[t-tex-edwards]

TWANGSVILLE REVISITED: T. TEX EDWARDS FAMILY TREE?

https://twangsvillerevisited.blogspot.com/2021/12/t-tex-edwards-family-tree.html

THE NERVEBREAKERS

T. Tex Edwards is an unsung pioneer of cowpunk and honky tonk murder ballads who started out in the '70s with the punk band the Nervebreakers. Thom "Tex" Edwards' whiskey-soaked vocals already had a slight country twang to them back in 1978 even as the band performed their goofy anthems while supporting the Sex Pistols in Dallas. Drawing influence from the Flamin' Groovies and the Cramps rather than the more political end of the punk spectrum, the Nervebreakers were equally at home lampooning "You're The One That I Want" from Grease as they were playing it straight (relatively) with the Kinks' "I'm Not Like Everybody Else." Their original material was rousing and funny, and "My Girlfriend Is A Rock" was even a minor hit in San Francisco. The band never released a full-length record in their lifetime, even though they had an almost legendary local reputation. A live performance of them backing Roky Erickson at the Dallas Palladium in 1979 was released in 1992, and a posthumous CD recorded in 1980, We Want Everything!, was finally released by Get Hip in 2000.

01 - [1978] Politics 7" (2021 Remaster)

A deluxe remastered reissue of 1978 original Wild Child Records single by badass Texas punk rock band the Nervebreakers! Like all Texas punk of the era, this is no letdown, including two smash hits on this 4-song EP. 01 - Politics 02 - My Life Is Ruined 03 - I Can't Help You 04 - My Girlfriend Is A Rock 320k 34.4 Mb DOWNLOAD LINK

02 - [1980] We Want Everything! (2000 Reissue)

Hailing from Dallas, TX, the Nervebreakers first got together in 1973 but didn’t take off until the mid-’70s punk movement started to affect most larger urban areas of the US. The Nervebreakers quickly rose to the top of the pack in Dallas releasing three singles which are now hard to find. This CD was recorded in 1980 and was to have been their debut LP. 01 - The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly 02 - My Girlfriend Is A Rock 03 - Girls Girls Girls Girls Girls 04 - I Confess 05 - I Don't Believe In Anything 06 - I've Got A Problem 07 - How Can You Tell 08 - Strange Movies 09 - Let's Fall Apart 10 - What's Left Of Me 11 - The Race Is On 12 - Stand Up 320k 77.5 Mb DOWNLOAD LINK

03 - [1981] Girls Girls Girls Girls 7" (2011 Reissue)

On 19 November 1980 the Nervebreakers won the "Agora's Battle Of The Bands" in Dallas TX. Their prize was free recording time at Pantego Sound Studios in Arlington, TX where these two songs were recorded. The single was originally released in 1981 on Wild Child Records, but by then the band had already parted company. Great single by Dallas 70's Punk-rock band! A-side is a catchy original track and is backed with a cool cover of a Rolling Stones classic marked with the Nervebreakers snotty style. 01 - Girls Girls Girls Girls 02 - I'd Much Rather Be With The Boys 320k 13.9 Mb DOWNLOAD LINK

04 - [2000] Hijack The Radio! (2017 Reissue)

An anthology of mid to late '70s studio recordings, some of which ended up on the Nervebreakers' late-70s 7″ vinyl releases on Wild Child Records, some on the 1979 Texas punk LP compilation Are We Too Late For The Trend? (ESR Records), some on a volume of Italian label Rave Up Records series of American Lost Punk Rock Nuggets, and others that have up-to-now never been publicly released. Includes the original (and best) hit recording of “My Girlfriend Is A Rock���, the title anthem “Hijack The Radio!”, and punk classics like ”Why Am I So Flipped?”, “I Wanna Kill You”, and “I Love Your Neurosis”. Also included are proto-punk psych-y gems like “My Life Is Ruined” and “Beyond The Borderline”. The CD release has four additional CD-only bonus cuts including an early (different from the We Want Everything LP) take on the Troggs' great “Strange Movies”, an original 1977 demo version of “Hijack The Radio”, and from 1975, a moody slice of Syd Barrett-like proto-punk-psych called “See Me Thru”. 01 - Hijack The Radio! 02 - My Girlfriend Is A Rock 03 - Why Am I So Flipped? 04 - My Life Is Ruined 05 - I Love Your Neurosis 06 - Everything Right 07 - Missa Moses 08 - So Sorry 09 - I Wanna Kill You 10 - It's Too Late 11 - Beyond The Borderline 12 - Part Of My Love 13 - See Me Thru 14 - Strange Movies 15 - Hijack The Radio! ('77 Demo)

320k 132.1 Mb DOWNLOAD LINK

05 - [2014] I Wanna Kill You 7"

This brilliant single features an original 1977 alternate track from The Nervebreakers' LP Hijack The Radio! while the B-side premieres "They Were Doin' The Pogo" a  newer recording. 01 - I Wanna Kill You 02 - They Were Doin' The Pogo Track 01 recorded early 1977 at Highgrove House, Dallas, TX. Track 02 recorded 2008 at Ash Creek Estates Recording, Dallas, TX. 320k 14.5 Mb DOWNLOAD LINK

ROKY ERICKSON & THE NERVEBREAKERS

Despite possessing great talents and a voice that can squeeze emotion from a stone if necessary, Roky Erickson's life and music career have been a mess; he was one of many casualties of the psychedelic '60s. So it's always a joy when another Erickson tape is discovered and the quality is superior. Erickson is in fine form for this 1979 Dallas gig with the Nervebreakers. The musicians are tight and focused as they run through classics such as "Starry Eyes," "Cold Night For Alligators," "You're Gonna Miss Me," and "Two-Headed Dog." The sound quality is sharp and far less challenging than the bootleg quality of Live at the Ritz 1987. Most exciting is the material. The obvious favorites are here, but so are "The Wind And More," "Mine Mine Mind," "Bermuda," and "White Faces," tunes he recorded with The Aliens. They're done with high spirits and some inspired guitar playing.

[1992] Live Dallas 1979

01 - The Wind And More 02 - Starry Eyes 03 - Mine Mine Mind 04 - Bermuda 05 - Cold Night For Alligators 06 - The Interpreter 07 - You're Gonna Miss Me 08 - I Walked With A Zombie 09 - Bo Diddley's A Headhunter 10 - Two-Headed Dog 11 - Bloody Hammer 12 - White Faces 320k 120.4 Mb DOWNLOAD LINK

T. TEX EDWARDS & OUT ON PAROLE

Edwards' first post-Nervebreakers outfit, Tex & The Saddle Tramps, left scarce but vital documentation, such as the churlish rocker "Move It!" that later would appear on The Loafin' Hyenas record and be covered by LeRoi Brothers. Still most of the T. Tex legend from the early to mid-'80s remains only in the recollections of those fortunate enough to catch him performing his offbeat brand of incorrigible country live. His growling redneck delivery is at times unhinged, but it's instantly recognizable, highly addictive, and consistently manages to hit the narrow margin between parody and reverence, often accomplishing both. He formed Out On Parole in Austin in 1984, and The Loafin' Hyenas in Hollywood in 1986, but it took until 1989 before things finally started moving forward. His first solo album -- as Tex Edwards & Out on Parole -- was a stroke of demented genius that caused a stir when cult label Sympathy for the Record Industry released it yet proved more an inspiration than the chart-topper it should have been. Pardon Me, I've Got Someone to Kill was a collection of "psycho-country" covers done with a relatively straight face and high musical pedigree -- LeRoi Brothers/Fabulous Thunderbirds alumni Mike Buck was the driving force behind the album. It's not only Johnny Cash who wrote dark country and western songs of adultery and murder; Pardon Me collects obscure, nutty gems from the likes of Johnny Paycheck (the title song), Porter Wagoner ("Rubber Room"), and Lee Hazlewood ("Girl on Death Row"), not to mention the twisted genius of Leon Payne's "Psycho." The same ground would be covered in the following decade, sometimes with song selections oddly similar to Pardon Me, but rarely with the same gravelly brilliance.

[1989] Pardon Me, I've Got Someone To Kill (2002 Reissue)

01 - I'm A-Gonna Kill You 02 - L.S.D. Made A Wreck Out Of Me 03 - (Pardon Me) I've Got Someone To Kill 04 - The Girl On Death Row 05 - Psycho 06 - You Ain't Never Gonna Live To Love Saturday Night Again 07 - Smitty 08 - The Cold Hard Facts Of Life 09 - Dolores 10 - Beatin' On The Bars 11 - Strangler In The Night 12 - The Rubber Room 13 - Country Hix's 14 - Last Will And Testament (Of A Drinking Man) 320k 90.6 Mb DOWNLOAD LINK

THE LOAFIN' HYENAS

The 1991 release of The Loafin' Hyenas' only LP was mostly ignored despite strong original material and another killer band. Songs like "Can't Find The Doorknob" and "Scratchin' Fleas" utilized Tex's distinctive vocals perfectly, and the drunken abandon of the band was captured, bottled, and released only in France and Japan. Further recordings followed under various guises and numerous small labels. T. Tex And The Big "D" Ramblers, DisGraceland, and T. Tex And The Sickoids were a few that made it to record, and one-off projects like 1999's 18-song Texicated Tape were mostly circulated among the faithful.

[1991] The Loafin' Hyenas

01 - Can't Find The Doorknob 02 - Boot In The Toilet 03 - Bonehusker Stomp 04 - Goin' South 05 - Scatter 06 - Way Of The World 07 - Scratchin' Fleas 08 - Move It 09 - Klawhammer Krunch 10 - Forbidden See 11 - Diablo_Devil 12 - If Looks Could Kill 13 - Things Must Change 14 - What Goes On 320k 117.6 Mb DOWNLOAD LINK

T. TEX EDWARDS & THE SWINGIN' KORNFLAKE KILLERS

After a long silence, the full-length Up Against the Floor was released in 1996. The Swingin' Kornflake Killers backed a slightly toned-down Edwards on a selection of offbeat covers (David Bowie's "Black Country Rock" and Conway Twitty's "Lonely Blue Boy") as well as equally memorable originals like the instant standard "Ain't No Bars In Heaven." A while later the Nervebreakers announced they were regrouping after their "slight" 27-year hiatus. T. Tex remains a pioneering, under-appreciated, and often neglected chronicler of the offbeat and eccentric traditions of country rock & roll.

[1996] Up Against The Floor (2007 Reissue)

01 - Overture: Dirtweed 02 - Ain't No Bars In Heaven 03 - Funnel Of Love 04 - One Helluva Weekend 05 - The Living & The Dead 06 - Lonely Blue Boy 07 - Iff'n I Ain't Dead 08 - How Far Down Can I Go 09 - Gonna Love My Baby Now 10 - Whiskey Trip 11 - Cat's Back 12 - Black Country Rock 13 - It's Over (Last Date) 14 - Killer Breakdown 15 - Baby (Crazy Date) 320k 133.0 Mb DOWNLOAD LINK

AND FINALLY

T. Tex Edwards - [2012] Intexicated!

T. Tex Edwards "remains a pioneering, under-appreciated, and often neglected chronicler of the offbeat and eccentric traditions of country rock 'n' roll," notes All Music Guide. Intexicated! remedies any neglect of this wild and wooly Texas musical treasure with 19 collected odds, sods, unreleased recordings, demos, outtakes and offbeat gems from throughout his distinctively different musical career spent kicking up some seriously cool and twisted dust from the roots rocking underground. Featuring work under his own name as well as such T. Tex outfits as The Loafin' Hyenas, Tex & The Saddle Tramps and The Swingin' Cornflake Killers are such top T. Tex moments as renditions of Psycho and Lee Harvey, his classic Move It (also recorded by The LeRoi Brothers), takes on Dave Davies' Kinks hit Death Of A Clown and Baby's Got A Gun by The Only Ones, and to wrap it all up, a demo of a commercial Tex cut for the Chili's restaurant chain. It's an intexicating collection from an artist of uncommonly cool off-kilter brilliance. 01 - The Big D Ramblers - Intexicated! Part 1 02 - Purple Stickpin - Baby's Got A Gun 03 - Lithium X-mas - Love Power 04 - Out On Parole - L.S.D. 05 - Tex & The Saddletramps - Move It 06 - The Loafin' Hyenas - If Looks Could Kill 07 - The Swingin' Cornflake Killers - Cravin' 08 - Hickoids - Lee Harvey 09 - The Big D Ramblers - It's Gravity 10 - Tex & The Saddletramps - Have You Ever Spent The Night In Jail? 11 - Tex & The Saddletramps - Thirteen Women 12 - Out On Parole - Crazy Date 13 - Mechanical Bull - Blood On The Saddle 14 - Out On Parole - Psycho '84 15 - The Loafin' Hyenas - Goin' Down South 16 - Lithium X-mas - Nobody Likes Me 17 - The Toe Tags - Death Of A Clown 18 - The Big D Ramblers - Intexicated! Part 2 19 - Tex & Breakfastime - Chili's Demo 320k 139.8 Mb DOWNLOAD LINK

[phantasmeels]

Mega Man Headcanons/Fanon, Game Ideas, and Inter-Series Connection Hypotheses (MAJOR SPOILERS)

Just some of my own ideas on details of how various series conclude and connect with others, since some have yet to wrap up. (Again, warning for MAJOR SPOILERS for those who haven’t yet played the Mega Man games.)

Mega Man Classic:

Dr. Light has, in secret, began working on the his X project. Dr. Wily’s spying robots find out about this, and in competitive retaliation, Dr. Wily begins working on his own project to suprass Light and destroy Mega Man once and for all. With a plan prepared and satisfaction with his work on his project thus far, he starts another situation, and Rock resumes his role as Mega Man to stop Dr. Wily once more. Seeing this as an opportunity to defeat and destroy Rock, Bass intervenes to challenge Rock. Rock loses and is nearly destroyed, but before Bass takes a final shot, Wily intervenes, capturing them both. Contact with Rock from Dr. Light and Roll is lost, and Wily unleashes extra robot masters to wreak havoc again. With Rock still lost, Roll becomes determined to, this time, take the helm as the new Mega Man. Going by the title Mega Woman, Roll sets off to stop Wily and save her brother. Taking on a red and light red armor complementing the blue and light blue color pattern of her brother’s armor, and using a copy ability in the same manner, she sets off to first stop the new robot masters. Proto Man/Blues joins forces with Roll, and the two of them go forth on the mission.

In Wily’s fortress, the two are met with two fearsome foes: Mega Man and Bass, hijacked by Wily to fight against the intruders. Roll and Proto Man have no choice but to engage them in battle. However, thanks to the foresight of Dr. Light, they have a way to stop them without destroying them; Light had considered if Wily would surely attempt to reprogram Rock and Bass as he had done with the original robot masters, and so sent with Roll a way to counter Wily’s intervention and restore them to their original personalities and programming. With the heroes successfully doing this, Wily retreats, ready to test a brand-new robot against the now four enemies in his fortress, a new creation which he is certain can take all four of them out for good. Bass, angered at Wily once more and satisfied that, finally, he was able to best Mega Man, was easy to convince to help the group take Wily down. The four press on to the heart of Wily’s fortress. When they finally corner the mad scientist, however, they are met not with a fight against Wily himself, but with a mysterious, bare but menacing robot waiting for their arrival. Zero, Wily’s successor to Bass as an overhaul and enhancement of the original (with adjustments from referencing Proto Man’s design and data) stands before them, ready to take on the four of them at once. Despite their best efforts, the four are defeated by this monstrous new robot. Before Zero finishes them off, Wily enters the chamber in vehicle, praising his new creation and ordering it to finish the job. However, Zero, being erratically programmed and very ill-behaved, instead turns his focus on his creator, chasing him off in a pursuit of attack. Bass, in his rage, follows Wily and Zero in his own pursuit, vowing to take revenge on them both. In the end, he is destroyed by Zero, and Wily takes advantage of the clash to re-capture Zero, to shut him down and attempt to fix him properly.

Meanwhile, before the remaining three heroes can pursue, they are met with a relentless flood of enemies, the strongest of Wily’s defenses they’ve ever seen. Weakened as they are from the near-death experience with Zero, they begin to retreat, though it looks unlikely that they will make it. Hence, Proto Man, knowing he is at the end of his limited lifespan as is, sacrifices himself, allowing Rock and Roll to escape while he holds off Wily’s countermeasures with everything he can muster. This is where Proto Man meets his end.

By the time Rock and Roll are able to make it back, it is apparent Rock isn’t going to make it much longer without fast intervention and good luck. Dr. Light does everything he can, but in the end is only able to retrieve the damaged I.C. (Integrated CIrcuit) chip of Rock, containing his fracturing personality, memories and data collections of weaponry, other people and other robots. Not only does Rock require a new body, but the only hopeful way to restore him to functionality involves a formatting, in which Rock would lose his memories and personality. Dr. Light, though distressed by the turn of events, takes the opportunity to finish his most grand creation, and seeks not only to repair and format Rock’s I.C. chip, but to further integrate it into a new cybernetic “DNA soul” which would embody the personality of his new creation. He designates the DNA soul with name of “X” and programs it into the new, more advanced body. With this, Mega Man X is created, a reborn Mega Man Rock with a pure and clean beginning and, with the enhanced and notably more advanced programming provided by Dr. Light, an unknown number of possibilities for the future. However, he must be sealed away in a capsule for at least 30 years for his behavioral reliability and perception of justice to be tested. Dr. Light lives out the rest of his life with Roll as his daughter, though in time, she is either labelled as expired, eventually malfunctions, or simply shuts down for good once her creator passes away.

Concerning Dr. Wily and Zero: Eventually, seeing only one option to make Zero properly function for the purpose of destroying Light’s creations, Wily seals Zero in a capsule, only to re-open when a patch program, based on the Roboenza virus and its cure, is in its final stages of repairing Zero’s erratic and irregular programming. Before the end of his life, Wily would adjust this patch to become a virus based on himself, which would begin to spread when Zero finally awakens, and would cause robots to behave erratically and violently. In this way, Wily’s legacy would be preserved as his personality would spread into certain Mavericks a century later (such as Serges and the X-hunters whose personalities are constructed for the purpose of ensuring X’s destruction). The near-full cast of the Classic series is eventually passed, though the deceased Rock is reborn as an entirely new robot, X, whom the eventual Reploids of a century later would be based on.

Between the X and Zero series:

Little bit of fan speculation: Reploid bodies develop to become even more human-like. When the original Zero’s body was stolen by Dr. Weil to create Omega, his new copy body was created by this new standard. Similarly, when X disappeared to keep society safe from the corrupted mother elf and Ciel constructed Copy X, this Copy was made with this new lifelike design standard. The Four Guardians also took on this design standard. Hence why the reploids in general look vastly more sleek and humanlike in the Zero series than in the X series.

Mega Man ZX 3 idea:

Master Thomas has begun his operations to “reset the world”, and desite the successful stopping of Master Albert, Maverick attacks continue. Vent/Aile go searching through the remains of Ouroborus for Model Z, accompanied by a few guardians. Finding its signal suddenly appearing, they pursue the signal. They find that Master Thomas has already sent two other Mega Men after Model Z, who was currently in a state of stasis from having used so much power at the end of ZX Advent. It turns out that the surviving Prometheus (and Pandora?) had laid a trap for the Mega Men and sought to have them battle to a weakened state before striking to finish them. The Mega Men manage to retreat and escape with the taken Model Z, but Vent/Aile survive, and convince the attackers to stop, claiming that they can help them defeat the other Mega Men and end the Biometal struggles for good. Prometheus scoffs, but he does stop his attack, claiming that they could be useful to him and leaves. Vent/Aile manage to track the movements of the other Mega Men through the remains of a maverick destroyed in the earlier struggle. With Model Z in his grasp, Master Thomas operates to create more biometals from Model Z to serve his purposes. By the time Vent/Aile find him in his current lab, he had finished his purposes and vanishes, leaving Model Z behind for the portagoists’ taking. 

In time, the protagonists (including Ashe/Grey who appear later) encounter not just the other four Mega Men from ZX Advent, but two enemies chosen by master Thomas to be new Mega Men/Mega Women in this final conflict of the trilogy. They wield Model V (extracted from Model Z) and Model O (stolen from the Guardian base by the other two Mega Men while Vent/Aile were away), taking a form more resembling the larger form of Omega in MMZ3. Some way through the game, information on the past reploid Colonel (and some combat-ready form of Iris?) is extracted from Model Z by the Guardians, and Model C (and maybe I) is created either for the player to use or is given to a different Mega Man. In time, Prometheus and Pandora might even fully side with the protagonists against Master Thomas, and Master Mikhail might be rescued to help in the fight. More pseudoroids are created to be hunted down by the Hunters and Guardians, and Master Thomas’s Mega Men are defeated before he is finally taken down. However, all the enemies were intended to simply slow the protagonists down, while he worked on his program intended to “reset the world”. Master Thomas is defeated, but not before his program is complete, unknown to the protagonists. 

Speculation: Transitioning to the beginning of the Legends series: 

Some time passes in universe, and plans to create a superior Utopia, Elysium, begin to be brought to fruition. This would be protected by the Old System mentioned in Legends lore. Master Thomas’s program eventually (somehow) brings about a cleansing ‘reset’ of the world in form of a major, permanent flood, resulting in massive population losses. Some of Earth’s inhabitants manage to flee to Elysium in order to survive, while other survivors are stranded and forced to rebuild on the islands. The Old System is soon shut down to be replaced by the more effective Master System, which eventually, for an unknown reason, brings about the next evolution for the humanoids and reploids living on Earth (now called ‘Terra’): The Carbons, a near-perfect unison of human and reploid into a cyborg type of life form seen in the Legends games. 

(Disclaimer: I’ve yet to play the Legends games and we still don’t have a conclusion to the Classic, X, ZX or Legends series to confirm any of this, so this group of headcanons and ideas are simply my ideas and subject to argumentation and subsequent releases of new games. And again, these are just my ideas that are probably far from canon, so fellow fans stay chill and don’t attack me pls. I’m personally very hopeful that, with the release of Mega Man 11, Capcom might just fill in those gaps in time with more games. A fanboy can hope. Meanwhile, I may well update these headcanons as more games are hopefully released and I play through the Legends games.

Also side speculation: Master Albert in ZX Advent based Model A’s physical design and combat style on the Reploid Axl, having either accessed a database of some kind or accessed Axl’s DNA soul floating around somewhere in cyberspace. The similarities are just too similar to just be a creator’s homage to an earlier character, IMHO.)

[ethanalter]

10 Classic '80s and '90s Movies That Influence 'Spider-Man: Homecoming'

Tom Holland and Jacob Batalon in Spider-Man: Homecoming (Photo: Sony Pictures)

Warning: This post contains spoilers for key scenes and plot points of Spider-Man: Homecoming.

If you’re a Marvel Comics fan, Spider-Man: Homecoming is a veritable gold mine of Easter eggs from the wall-crawler’s 55-year-and-counting career of catching thieves just like flies. At the same time, it’s equally rich with homages to popular teen movies from the ’80s and ’90s. Even before the film went into production, Marvel Studios chief, Kevin Feige, made a point of describing it as a “John Hughes movie,” directly name-checking the writer and director responsible for so many of that era’s high school classics.

In separate interviews with Yahoo Movies, star Tom Holland explained that director Jon Watts gave the young cast a must-watch list of classic movies to watch before shooting began, while Homecoming  co-writer John Francis Daley elaborated on the Spidey-Hughes connection. “What John Hughes was best at was finding the funny in the relatable… and to keep Peter as a truly normal, grounded, relatable person I think is really set him apart from all the other versions of Spider-Man that people have seen.” Homecoming‘s cinematic influences do extend beyond Hughes, though. Here’s a list of 10 teen favorites that are overtly, or subtly, referenced by Spider-Man and his amazing friends.

Matthew Broderick in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ (Photo: Everett Collection)

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) This one is kind of a gimme; while in hot pursuit of the Vulture’s henchmen, poor Peter Parker (Tom Holland) has to forego his usual web-slinging action due to the fact that he’s in that dreaded low-rise territory known as suburbia. Crashing through backyard after backyard, he passes a pool party where Matthew Broderick’s own climactic backyard chase from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is playing out on a TV screen. “Great movie,” Peter calls out as he continues on to the next yard. (Wonder if he considers Ferris Bueller to be as ancient a film as The Empire Strikes Back?) “That scene is a perfect example of our challenge to take Spider-Man out of a world where he’s comfortable,” director Watts told Yahoo Movies. “If you put him in the suburbs where there’s nothing tall to swing from, what does he do? It was a great opportunity to put him in an awkward situation.”

Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy in ‘The Breakfast Club’ (Photo: Universal/courtesy Everett Collection)

The Breakfast Club (1985) At a press conference in June, Zendaya revealed that Ally Sheedy’s proto-Goth girl, Allison Reynolds, is a direct ancestor of her Homecoming character, Michelle “M.J.” Jones. And the two do have a lot in common, including a quiet manner that masks a caustic wit, as well as a flair for epic side-eye and eye-rolls. In fact, Michelle is glimpsed sitting in detention alongside Peter — the Anthony Michael Hall of her school — in one memorable Homecoming scene, despite the fact that she’s not even supposed to be there. Speaking with the press, Zendaya made it clear that she hopes modern teens take away the same lesson from Michelle that their parents learned from Allison, namely that: “It’s OK to be weird. If you make things awkward and uncomfortable, that’s cool. I love that Michelle’s outspoken and says what everyone’s thinking, but she just doesn’t care.”

William Zabka and Ralph Macchio in ‘The Karate Kid’ (Photo: Mary Evans/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection)

The Karate Kid (1984) He may not pledge allegiance to Cobra Kai, but Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori) is totally the Johnny Lawrence to Peter’s Daniel LaRusso. Whether calling him “Penis Parker” (itself an indirect shout-out to another ’80s classic, E.T.) or engaging in some decidedly unsportsmanlike trash talk during Academic Decathlon training sessions, Flash is always eager to humiliate his rival on the most public stage possible. But Peter, like LaRusso before him, scores the final knockout, hijacking Flash’s car and leaving him by the side of the road with his homecoming date. Revolori, who previously played the hero of Wes Anderson’s acclaimed 2014 film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, has said that he enjoyed breaking bad in Homecoming, especially since the movie doesn’t make an issue about his race. “The fact that there’s not a single line of exposition to explain why I look the way I look. I’m just in the movie. It’s not about being a certain race, and I think that’s the kind of diversity we need in Hollywood right now.”

Can’t Hardly Wait (1998) If only Peter had re-watched this nostalgic ’90s favorite before heading over to Liz Allan’s shindig, he would have realized that a high school house party is the absolute worst place to try and impress the girl you’ve been crushing on for years. Sure enough, his plan to swing in and make a big splash as Spider-Man is thwarted by an unplanned side mission involving the Shocker. Can’t Hardly Wait‘s Preston (Ethan Embry) is similarly unable to persuade his dream girl, Amanda (Jennifer Love Hewitt), of his affection due to a series of increasingly crazy circumstances. According to Daley, an early version of the storyline involved Peter hosting the party instead of Liz, but is similarly prevented from joining the festivities in costume. “All the cool kids from school burst into his bedroom while he’s gone and just start going through all his s—t, like all the toys he still kept.” Adds Daley’s co-writer, Jonathan Goldstein: “That’s very Hughes-ian, like the characters Anthony Michael Hall used to play. The kid who’s too old to still be doing this stuff.”

Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock, Ilan Mitchell-Smith in ‘Weird Science’ (Photo: Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)

Weird Science (1985) We should probably be glad that geek buddies Peter and Ned (Jacob Batalon) are only applying their serious science and tech skills to making web fluid and hacking Tony Stark-designed super-suits. Otherwise, they might go and do something really weird…like building a cyber-girlfriend who steps out of the computer and into reality. Here’s another fun connection between Weird Science and Homecoming: Robert Downey Jr. is a big ol’ spoilsport in both. Back in ’85, he dropped a red Icee on dorks Gary and Wyatt, and 32 years later, he drops a bomb on Peter by taking away the teen’s Spider-Man suit after his Staten Island Ferry mishap.

Jon Cryer and Molly Ringwald in ‘Pretty in Pink’ (Photo: Paramount / Courtesy: Everett Collection)

Pretty in Pink (1986) High school law eschews the designated dork from taking the pretty girl to the big school dance. But Hughes went and upset the natural order of things by having Duckie (Jon Cryer) swoop in and rescue his best friend and longtime crush object, Andie (Molly Ringwald) from being stood up at the prom by status-conscious Blane (Andrew McCarthy). Truthfully, it was a bridge too far for audiences at the time, who demanded that the ending be reshot with the pretty girls and the popular guy walking off into a happily ever after. For a brief moment, though, Duckie got to be the hero who gets the girl, a geek dream that Peter gets to live out when he asks the significantly more popular Liz to the homecoming dance and she says yes. For better or for worse, he ultimately loses the girl to her villainous dad rather than a petty prepster.

Michael J. Fox in ‘Back to the Future’ (Photo: Universal/courtesy Everett Collection)

Back to the Future (1985) No sooner has he gotten to Hill Valley High’s “Enchantment Under the Sea” dance than Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) has to ditch his date — and future Mom — Lorraine (Lea Thompson) in order to take care of some pressing time travel business. Peter isn’t able to bust a move at his school’s homecoming soiree either, regretfully abandoning Liz on the dance floor in order to thwart her Vulture father’s plot to raid Tony Stark’s airborne storage locker. At least Marty gets to invent rock and roll during his time brief time at the Hill Valley dance; Peter has to bail before he can show off how he can out-Rihanna Rihanna.

Jennifer Connelly and Frank Whaley skate the night away in Career Opportunities (Photo: Universal Pictures)

Career Opportunities (1991) Peter Parker isn’t the only nerd lucky enough to spend a night locked in a facility with Jennifer Connelly. This John Hughes-scripted comedy traps awkward outcast Jim (Frank Whaley) and knockout Josie (Connelly) in a Target store after closing time, where they have to contend with their wildly different backgrounds, as well as a pair of bungling burglars. Midway through Homecoming, Spider-Man’s attempt to foil a Vulture robbery lands him in deep storage inside the U.S. Department of Damage Control, with only his “suit lady,” a.k.a. his in-suit A.I. K.A.R.E.N. (voiced by the Beautiful Mind Oscar winner), for company. We’ll leave it to you to decide whether Target for the Damage Control storage locker has better toys.

Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) Not a teen movie, you say? Perhaps that’s true, but Tim Burton’s feature filmmaking debut is nevertheless an ’80s classic for young kids and teenagers alike. Besides, it can’t be accidental that Spider-Man’s first big victory in Homecoming involves stopping a bicycle thief. And he doesn’t even have to leave Queens to do it! Poor Pee-wee Herman has to travel all the way to Texas to recover his beloved two-wheeled ride. Here’s an eye-popping face-off we want to see in the Homecoming sequel: Spider-Man vs. Large Marge.

 Watch: Tom Holland Wants His Peter Parker to Be This Generation’s Marty McFly:

Get more Spider-Man scoop from Yahoo Movies:

Your Ultimate Guide to the Spider-Man: Homecoming Easter Eggs

Decoding the End Credits of Spider-Man: Homecoming

Revisiting the James Cameron Spider-Man Movie That Never Was