 This article belongs to the Classic Continuity
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If All Else Fails is the eighth episode of the second season of Ben 10: Alien Force, and the thirty-fourth episode overall.
Synopsis[]
A hibernating Highbreed officer awakens and triggers a device designed to destroy the planet. Now Ben must figure out a way to stop him.[CN 1]
Plot[]
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An earthquake awakens a Highbreed officer, who had been kept in stasis in a bunker, to be awakened if the Highbreed lost the war. Following his orders, he begins to activate a fail-safe weapon with the intention of destroying Earth.
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All the people inside the chrysalis, activating the failsafe
Max is preparing dinner for Ben, Gwen, and Kevin when he begins acting strange, collapsing and then talking to himself. Ben and Gwen are very concerned and wish to take him to a hospital, but Max insists he is fine. However, shortly afterwards, purple plant tendrils begin growing out of Max, which are revealed to be mind-controlling seedlings implanted into humans previously imprisoned by the Highbreed. Now fully under Highbreed control, Max takes the Rustbucket and arrives at the seedling collection point, along with five others. Having sufficient biomass, the Highbreed commences the failsafe activation and the mind-controlled people become crystallized.
Ben, Gwen, and Kevin awaken to find Max gone, along with the Rustbucket. Gwen uses her powers to track him down and reaches the failsafe location. There they see Max trapped with all the people, as well as the Highbreed. They try to reason with the Highbreed, informing him the war is now over, but the Highbreed refuses to listen. A giant Failsafe emerges from the ground, which contains the mind-controlled people that it uses for biomass and as various parts of its internal anatomy, such as antibodies and even its brain, which is revealed to be Max.
The Highbreed officer refuses to believe Ben's claims of peace and won't divulge how to stop the creature. While Gwen and Kevin try to slow it down, Ben enlists the aid of Reinrassig III to get the Highbreed officer to cooperate. It is revealed the creature is a failsafe for the Highbreed if they died and lost their war. It is primed to find Twin Mesa Nuclear Plant, charge itself with energy and explode, with the resulting fall out being enough to destroy all life on Earth in minutes. Unable to stop the monster from the outside, Ben, Gwen and Kevin sneak inside the monster to destroy it within. They manage to save the humans used as its brain and the Highbreed officer sacrifices himself to dispose of the creature safely.
Noteworthy Events[]
Major Events[]
- The Bunker Highbreed awakens on Earth and activate the Failsafe.
- Several dozen humans who were previously imprisoned by the Highbreed and implanted with techno-organic seeds designed for post-hypnotic suggestions are turned into seedlings for the Failsafe, including Max.
Character Debuts[]
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
- Ben Tennyson (flashback and present)
- Gwen Tennyson (flashback and present)
- Kevin Levin (flashback and present)
Supporting Characters[]
- Max Tennyson (flashback and present)
- Reinrassig III (flashback and present)
Antagonists[]
- Bunker Highbreed (first appearance; death)
- Failsafe (first appearance; death)
- Mini-Failsafes (first appearance)
- DNAliens (flashback)
Other Characters[]
Aliens Used[]
- Spidermonkey
- Humungousaur (selected alien was Way Big)
- Jetray (x2; cameos)
- Diamondhead
- Swampfire
Quotes[]
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Naming and Translations[]
| Language | Name | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| French | À Court D'idées | Run Out Of Ideas |
| Hungarian | Ha Más Nem Marad | If Nothing is Left |
| Italian | salvagente | Failsafe |
| Polish | Gdy Wszystko Inne Zawiedzie | When All Else Fails |
| Portuguese (Br) | Último Recurso | Last Resource |
| Romanian | În Cel Mai Rău Caz | In The Worst Case |
| Spanish (HA) | Si Todo lo Demás Falla | If All Else Fails |
| Spanish (Spain) | Si Falla Todo Lo Demás | If All Else Fails |
Cast[]
| Voice Actor | Role(s) |
|---|---|
| Yuri Lowenthal | Ben Tennyson Soldier #1 |
| Ashley Johnson | Gwen Tennyson |
| Greg Cipes | Kevin Levin |
| Dee Bradley Baker | Jetray Humungousaur Spidermonkey Swampfire Diamondhead Seedling 2 |
| Paul Eiding | Max Tennyson Bunker Highbreed Soldier #2 |
| Richard McGonagle | Reinrassig III Colonel |
Continuity[]
- The events of War of the Worlds: Part 2 are referenced.
Allusions[]
- "If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error" is a quote by John Kenneth Galbraith.
- A rabbit appears at the beginning, with a color scheme similar to the character of the same name from Disney's Winnie the Pooh.
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Errors[]
- After Max recovers from his collapse, Kevin states that Max dumped his food, but he was earlier seen throwing it away himself.
- The Failsafe's height changes throughout the episode.
- When Kevin wakes up, Gwen is missing.
- When Ben wakes up, he doesn't have the "10" on his jacket.
- After Seedling 2 reports in, Seedling 3 (via Max) reports to the Bunker Highbreed that five Seedlings are present. However, when Max had shown up, four other Seedlings were already present and Seedling 2 did not show up until after Seedling 3 did, meaning that there were six Seedlings and not five.
- Spidermonkey's hologram is drawn incorrectly and is smaller than usual.
- When Spidermonkey runs up to Gwen, his tail is shorter.
- When Gwen says, "A Highbreed?", her mouth moves right before her voice is heard.
- When Ben transforms into Humungousaur, he is already at maximum height and has his Stegosauride features.
- In one shot, the windows of Kevin's car are closed despite being open previously.
- Before Humungousaur reverts to Ben, he seems to be much bigger than usual.
- When Kevin ejects from the car, his legs are cut off for a split second.
- The closed captions on the Ben 10 Alien Force: Volume 8 DVD misspell Reinrassig III's name as "Reinrassic III".
- Before Ben turns into Jetray for the second time, his hologram faces away from him.
- When Ben selects Diamondhead, his hologram is colored.
- In one shot, Gwen's eyes are light green.
- When the Bunker Highbreed flies into the Failsafe, after Reinrassig and the soldiers are shown, the Bunker Highbreed is with them.
- Before his death, the Bunker Highbreed has Reinrassig's design.
- When the Failsafe, is about to fall down and the Bunker Highbreed tells Ben's team to gather all the people and get out, only Ben's team get out and they don't gather all the people.
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Trivia[]
- The story Max finishes when the team saves him is about Devin Levin, Kevin's father. However, his surname is not mentioned. He would later be revealed to be Kevin's father in Vendetta.
- In a script outline dated November 10, 2008:
- Max tells one of his football stories from his youth instead of a story about him and Devin.[outline 1]
- Max grills hot dogs instead of squid patties.[outline 1]
- Max suffers more side effects from being activated as a seedling, with his sentences wandering, his limbs spasming, stopping in mid-sentence and his eyes glazing over.[outline 2]
- Ben uses Chromastone (referred to by his working name, Shard) during his encounter with the Bunker Highbreed instead of Spidermonkey.[outline 3]
- The Failsafe is called the Hybrid.[outline 3]
- Kevin is not mutated.[outline 4]
- Chromastone transforms into Humungousaur intentionally, and without reverting to human in between.[outline 5]
- Jetray is referred to by his working name, Bluestreak.[outline 6]
- Ben uses Chromastone to fight the Mini-Failsafes (called Mini-Hybrids) instead of Diamondhead.[outline 7]
- The Bunker Highbreed survives as he does not offer to act as the brain of the Failsafe.[outline 8]
- In the third draft of the script dated November 26, 2008, the team's fight against the Mini-Failsafes has quick cuts.[script 1]
- In both the script outline and third draft of the script:
- Ben, Gwen, Kevin and Max camp at a trailer park instead of the forest.[outline 1][script 2]
- The Failsafe is activated in the desert instead of the forest.[outline 3][script 3]
- The team leaves the Failsafe with the other seedlings instead of just Max.[outline 9][script 4]
- The Failsafe is shown rotting.[outline 8][script 5]
References[]
Production Material[]
Scripts[]
Script Outlines[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 File:IAEF Script Outline-01.png
- ↑ File:IAEF Script Outline-02.png
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 File:IAEF Script Outline-04.png
- ↑ File:IAEF Script Outline-05.png
- ↑ File:IAEF Script Outline-06.png
- ↑ File:IAEF Script Outline-07.png
- ↑ File:IAEF Script Outline-09.png
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 File:IAEF Script Outline-12.png
- ↑ File:IAEF Script Outline-11.png
