H-Minus 14 - The Pod People

Los Nuevos Extraterrestres aka The Pod People is a 1983 Spanish science fiction film originally intended as a low-budget horror movie about an evil alien. However, after the success of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), the producers demanded script changes, making the alien into a lovable character, and adding a kid who befriends it. Director Juan Piquer Simón was not satisfied with the final result. The film was largely forgotten until 1991, when it was lampooned by everyone's favorite movie-mocking television show: Mystery Science Theater 3000.

The film starts with three poachers preparing to enter the woods in search of game. One of the hunters sees something in the sky that he thinks is a meteor and goes to investigate. He finds a stash of large eggs in a red glowing cave and begins smashing them. An unseen entity finds and kills the poacher, but not before he smashes all but one of the eggs. the mystery creature begins to take revenge, first on the hunters and then on members of a rock band that is camping in the mountains for the weekend.

Tommy (Óscar Martín), a boy who lives in a secluded house with his mother Molly (Concha Cuetos) and uncle Bill (Manuel Pereiro), also finds the cave and the remaining intact egg and brings it home, where it shortly hatches and grows rapidly until by the next day it is as large as Tommy. Tommy nicknames him "Trumpy", presumably due to the alien's short, elephant-like trunk, and they become playmates. As the dangerous mother alien continues looking for her child, the rock band seeks out Tommy's house for medical care after one of their group, Laura (a female "friend" and apparent groupie of the lead singer Rick), is struck from ambush by the alien mother and falls off of a short cliff.

The film features the fictional pop band's performance of "Burning Rubber Tires", which was lampooned on MST3K for its unintelligible lyrics, specifically the chorus, "hear the engines roll now", which was interpreted by the MST3K cast as "hideous control now", "idiot control now" and other variations. The lead singer's after-song gesture of making the A-OK sign, smiling, and saying, "It stinks" became a recurring in-joke on MST3K.

The Pod People - MST3K version: