It’s not too much longer until we get to see the latest take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when the sumptuous looking Mutant Mayhem hits theaters in a few weeks. But that didn’t stop the filmmakers behind it from coming to San Diego with some shiny new footage anyway.
Donnie, Raph, Mikey, and Leo traded the sewers of New York City for Hall H of San Diego Comic-Con today to star in a new clip from the upcoming film. Actors Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon, the actual teens behind the Turtles, weren’t in attendance due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, but you can hear them in action as the heroes in a half-shell below—when they’re caught red (green?) handed by Master Splinter (Jackie Chan) after spending the night out in the surface world.
The clip released to the public is just a tiny fragment of the roughly 20 minutes of the film that was screened to audiences in Hall H. The footage began with the first clip already debuted online—the Turtles gearing up to go shopping for their dad. In the store, they use their ninja stealth to divert the cameras and sneak around, grabbing everything they need. As they head home, we hear about a wave of crime that’s taking the city and the police have no leads except the bad guy’s name: Super Fly.
Leonardo, ever the leader, wants to go home but the rest of the Turtles want to stay out. It’s only been an hour. Last week they watched the Knicks, then it was Adele and now, Donatello finds an outdoor movie screening in Brooklyn. Leo bends to the peer pressure—and soon enough, hiding on a rooftop, the Turtles watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (the actual movie) as well as the humans watching it. They reminisce if this is what high school is like, and say that maybe one day, people will love them like they love Ferris Bueller. Saddened by their state of affairs, they leave, looking back at the movie and all the people enjoying it.
Back in the sewer, they sneak into their home hoping to not wake up Splinter—only to find that he’s been waiting for them. This is the clip that was just released, that you can see above. After it concludes, we learn that Splinter hates humans and as punishment for the turtles watching the movie, he tells them the story of why. It’s basically the origin story: Splinter as an ordinary rat, was in a sewer, feeling angry at the world, and then saw some green ooze with four turtles in it. They were the first things he’d ever met that didn’t hate him, so he decided to take care of them. Plus, the ooze got on him and mutated him into human size. We see a montage of Splinter raising the turtles. Washing them, feeding them, listening to music, but eventually the turtles want to see the outside world. So Splinter brings them to Times Square. Very quickly he’s treated as a monster, yelled at, things are thrown at him, and he realizes he and his turtles can interact with humans. He wants them to feel safe, so he begins teaching them martial arts—moves he himself learns through scavenged, old VHS tapes.
Scenes of the turtles learning all these techniques are intercut with live-action martial arts movies, set to the “Push it to the Limit,” but back in the present, Splinter has grounded his sons for a whole month. That night, the turtles are all on their phones before bed, and Mikey asks his brothers: if they got out, what would they do with their lives? Donnie says he’d just be normal. Go to high school, get a girlfriend, and maybe go to prom. The boys make fun of him but also agree. They just want to be normal. While the Turtles are grounded, we see a scene of an ice cream truck that steals a radio active device for the mysterious Superfly. The device is owned by a company called TCRI, who vow to put trackers on everything so they can catch the criminal. Fast forward and finally out again, the Turtles are on a rooftop, goofing off by filming slow motion videos on their phones. Raph throws a ninja star at a watermelon balanced on Mikey’s head, misses, and it falls to the street… and right into the helmet of April O’Neil (The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri).
She starts screaming at them from the street as someone steals her scooter from behind her while she’s distracted. Leo warns his brothers that they should help her since its their fault, but the other turtles don’t agree—it doesn’t matter. Leo however clearly has a crush on April, and says “I have to get the scooter back to beautiful and charming human woman” before running off. Giving chase, he and the rest of the Turtles track the scooter to a small garage that is packed with bad guys. They realize, despite their training, they’ve never been in a fight before. The nerves kick in, they mess up a bit, but finally, the fight begins. It’s a fun sequence where each turtle uses all of their best abilities to win the day. At one point, Mikey hits a car and turns its radio on—and of course Vanilla Ice starts playing “Go, Ninja! Go, Ninja, go!” blaring as the boys fight.
Once the bad guys are defeated, the Turtles celebrate the victory, which is when April arrives. They hide but she sees them lurking in the shadows and thinks the fact they’re hiding from her is very “sus.” They come out from the shadows, and she thinks they’re crimefighters in uniforms. She comments there are probably other cooler animals that they could have picked before turtles, as she starts to admire their costumes, only to realize they aren’t costumes, and promptly freaks out. “What are you?” she asks. Mikey says, “Can we explain over pizza?” April says, “How do you feel about pepperoni?” and they can’t believe they have their first friend.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem hits theatres September 7.
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