A place for those who "Trust the Fungus"

Thinking back to the movie, one of my favorite parts leading up to, during, and after the movie came out were the Thwomp Stompers. If you're going to come up with a way for Mario and Luigi to jump high that isn't just "because they can," this has to be one of the coolest, in my opinion.

Marketing for the movie would seem to agree: movie posters, action figures, it seems those boots were everywhere. One of the commercials even begins with a close-up on the boots. They are what made the Bros. real "Jumpmen."

And yet, at some point in the movie, it seems they ditch them off-camera for reasons undisclosed. Without warning, they're back to their original footwear until Big Bertha gives Luigi some super Stompers to help save Mario. Luigi wears these until they go home, but Mario is still without.

Is this ever explained? In the novelization, in some version of the script, in a coloring book, on the back of a trading card, anywhere? Did the directors just wake up one day and decide they didn't like the boots?

Or maybe one did, one didn't, and that's why we got a mix at the end...

I'm legitimately curious. To me, it was like Batman ditching his utility belt off-camera, or the Ninja Turtles ditching their... weapons...

Okay, so ignore that last one. Particularly if you saw the second movie.

Anyway, just curious on this one. Is there anything resembling an answer?

I believe they leave them in the elevator when they climb up and out from the Goombas. I wanna say you can even barely make out the boots sitting there. Maybe they were too heavy to get themselves up there, and maybe the movie reason, they needed to be in a situation where they were powerless later, and also so Bertha could come back and help.

A bit of a movie mess I know!

Maybe they were too heavy to walk in?

Not likely. they seemed light enough to throw when Bertha tossed them to Luigi at the end of the film.

^True, but Bertha could lift an old lady above her head with no trouble at all. So that's a bad comparison.

The thing is, Luigi caught them and didn't have any trouble holding them--so your initial assumption is probably correct.

I don't know if there's necessarily an in-universe explanation for the absence of the boots, though there are plenty of production explanations that are equally valid. They are:

1.) The directors/writers just thought it would work. They didn't care if it was a continuity error since it suited the purposes of the story. Like Spielberg writing the T. rex pen into a 50-foot drop within the same scene in Jurassic Park, they did what they wanted to do.

2.) Various scripts indicate that certain scenes may have been unfilmed or chunks of footage cut out, which could explain the loss of the boots and the resulting continuity error.

3.) It's a simple continuity error. It just never occurred to anyone that Mario and Luigi already had boots in an earlier scene.

Redstar wrote:3.) It's a simple continuity error. It just never occurred to anyone that Mario and Luigi already had boots.

Had discarded them, you mean, if you're referring to the Bertha part.

I forget when I first noticed that they had ditched the boots; I couldn't imagine them doing it, so I thought Luigi got a second pair at the end. That is, a pair in addition to what he was wearing. Then I realized it on some subsequent viewing...

LBD_Nytetrayn wrote:

Redstar wrote:3.) It's a simple continuity error. It just never occurred to anyone that Mario and Luigi already had boots in an earlier scene.

Had discarded them, you mean, if you're referring to the Bertha part.

They only "discarded" them if you go by the idea of there being a scene where they intentionally got rid of them.

why not create this sequence:

Mario and Luigi keep the stompers, but when Luigi is catured by the goombas loses the stompers so he can't escape. Later, Mario fights Koopa using his stompers but in a determianted moment the batteries ("bullet bill" cartriges) are dead so it comes the face-to-face confrontation.

Luigi arrives and recieves the air stompers from Big Bertha, and the rest is already know for everybody