Mighty Max - Episode 2 - The Brain Suckers Cometh

THE BRAIN SUCKERS COMETH

A space ship creeps across our screens, first in silhouette, then revealed as it emerges into the light in front of Mars. Within we glimpse two aliens dressed in what look like some sort of battle armour. One of them quickly touches keys on a console, and a pair of 'rays' blast out and destroys a satellite.

Episode Captures (Click to enlarge)

As the smoke from the destroyed satellite clears, we find ourselves in a Max's science class where he himself has just caused something to blow up. The class nerd, Ernie (how annoying is he?!) tells Max (or as he insists on calling him - "Maxxy Waxxy") that he should have been paying more attention, and his constant boasting causes Max to back off until he finds himself in a cupboard. Ernie keeps telling Max that all he wants is to be his partner, but Max is not interested, and upsets Ernie by telling him that he is an annoying nerd. A black-haired girl approaches Max, and we meet Bea for the first time. Bea is a fellow student and one of Max's closest friends. Bea tells Max that she thinks he has hurt Ernie's feelings, and Max confides in her that he just can't stand him.

Suddenly a paper airplane glides nearby and Max reaches out and grabs it; it turns out to be a note from Virgil. Though we never see how Bea finds out about Max's new role as the Chosen One, it is obvious that she already knows all about it, as she asks what it says and does not seem surprised in the least when Max tells her who it is from. Max hurries out of the classroom and just manages to escape the clutches of a teacher when he jumps into a portal in locker number 207.

Max finds himself in a field and tells himself that he does not think he is in Kansas anymore, whereupon Virgil announces that in fact he still is. Max looks up to find his two friends awaiting him, and in this scene we see just how big Norman is compared to Max. Virgil tells Max that an alien spaceship has just passed Mars, and will be in the Earth's atmosphere in 3 hours, whereupon the fate of mankind will be in Max's hands. Max suggests that perhaps the Army, Air Force, or even Arnold Schwarzenegger may be better suited to fighting them, but reluctantly agrees that perhaps he is the best person for the job after all.

The trio find themselves onboard the alien spaceship, which Max finds very "cool", realising that all the comic books he had ever read were right about them. This awe soon turns to dread when he realises that the aliens are in fact brain suckers, and that his own brain was soon to be on the menu. A fall causes the three of them to end up on a conveyer belt which drops them into a large vat of pink liquid, in which there are brains floating all about them. Virgil, who cannot swim, says that he had swallowed some of the water, and maybe even a brain too. They climb out of the vat and after further exploration they find a locker containing various sized alien space suits. The next scene shows the three of them wearing the suits.

As they walk further into the ship they emerge in the nerve centre and find an alien sitting at a computer console, where they learn of the aliens intentions toward the earth. Norman does the honours of knocking the alien unconscious and Max grabs a computer disk that appears to have the aliens plans and flight path to earth on it. He steals the disk but is quickly discovered, and the alarm is raised. Running away they find themselves surrounded by aliens and Norman and Virgil are taken captive. Max turns to help but is told by Virgil to get away with the disk. Max find his way to a shuttle craft and manages to escape from the ship and head back toward earth.

When Max arrives back on earth he realises, with perhaps more horror than what he faced with the aliens, that he was going to have to ask Ernie for help. At first it seems as if Ernie will not help Maxxy Waxxy, but Max finally persuades him that if he did help he could be transformed from nerd to hero, an idea that appeals to Ernie very much, after all he obvious looks up to and admires Maxxy Waxxy, and to be like him is just what he wants. As the two leave Ernie's house they are chased by an alien that had gone unnoticed by Max, but because the alien did not look both ways when it ran across the road, it ended up being hit by a very large, and fast moving truck.

Max and Ernie finally arrive back onboard the mother ship, but the pair start arguing when Ernie becomes fascinated by his new surroundings. The next thing we see are the two of them reunited with Norman and Virgil, in a refrigerated prison. Above them are rows of chilled brains! They are soon shackled to another conveyer belt along which we see a huge steel claw, obviously designed to extract the brains from them all. They are only saved by Ernie as he pulls upon an electrical cable, shorting the power supply to the belt.

After escaping from the belt they manage to find the flight deck of the mother ship, load up the disk, upon which Ernie had used his computer nerd skills to disrupt the entire plans of the aliens, like a virus. After a brief battle with the aliens a portal opens up and the four are transported safely back to earth, just before the ship explodes. They end up in what appears to be a jungle, obviously relieved that they have survived. This all goes to Ernie's head and he rushes off toward a group of tribesmen who are dancing around a fire, shouting how he is now a hero. What he does not realise is that the tribesmen are cannibals, and Ernie suddenly finds himself sitting in a large cooking pot. Max closes his eyes in despair and announces to Virgil and Norman that they had better go and rescue him.