futurama time travel

Futurama: Every Time Travel Story Ranked From Worst To Best

Futurama wasn't always just set in the future.

It’s easy to see from little more than the reaction to Futurama’s upcoming revival that the show has earned itself an army of fans, loyal still even after all these years. The show made a name for itself in the world of animation and is still to this day one of the most beloved in the entire genre.

Not only can it boast a whole universe worth of lovable characters, genuine emotional gut punches, and stories few other shows could even fathom, it is one of the smartest TV series around. Thanks to a writers' room full of nerds, Futurama leans heavily on its science-fiction aspect and with great success.

Thanks to being set in the 31st century, Futurama had license to go where no show had gone before, and there were numerous occasions that Fry, Bender, Leela, and the rest of the crew found themselves dealing with time travel.

This came in a variety of different ways, and of course some were far better than others. It’s a dangerous topic to base a story around, and while Futurama often hit the nail on the head, there were other times it left a bit too much to be desired.

9. All The Presidents' Heads

There can be no denying that the quality of Futurama drastically dipped once it moved to Comedy Central. While most of the episodes on this list are strong, All the Presidents' Heads is much closer to the other end of the spectrum.

Inexplicably, the writers just seemed to forget that career chips were a thing in the show's later seasons, allowing Fry to get a night job at the Head Museum to cover the costs of the coffee he needed to stay awake at his night job.

A flimsy pretext at best for the crew to go back in time by licking the heads of several US Presidents, to protect the Farnsworth name that the Professor randomly now seemed to care so much about. This may have at least been a different and unique method of time travel, but it was also by far the stupidest.

The episode centered around a classic story of the ripple effect time traveling can have, how something seemingly so small as Fry moving a candle can result in the USA never winning its independence. Another consequence was that we had to listen to the truly awful English accents of the usually stellar Futurama cast.

This standard nerd combines the looks of Shaggy with the brains of Scooby, has an unhealthy obsession with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and is a firm believer that Alter Bridge are the greatest band in the world.

Screen Rant

Futurama season 11 solves a timeline problem introduced 13 years ago.

Futurama season 11 has fixed one of the show's biggest time travel problems, but in the process it opens up another major timeline plot hole.

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Futurama season 11, episode 6!

• Futurama season 11 fixes a major time travel problem from season 6 by introducing a solution to Professor Farnsworth's unique time machine.
• The show brings back classic elements and characters like Robot Santa Claus and finally resolves the biggest flaw of the time machine.
• Although the forward time machine is fixed, the episode introduces a new problem regarding the timeline inconsistency from "The Late Philip J. Fry" episode.

Futurama season 11 just brought back a major storyline from season 6, finally fixing one of the show's biggest time travel problems. Although Futurama has dabbled in time travel before, one story in particular from season 6 saw the Planet Express crew wrestling with a major problem involving their ability to traverse the timeline. Although this issue wasn't solved back in season 6, Futurama season 11 finally introduced a solution to Professor Farnsworth's unique time machine.

Futurama is finally back, with Hulu bringing back Matt Groening's beloved sci-fi series for an eleventh season over a decade after the show first went off the air. Although plenty of season 11 episodes have brought back classic Futurama elements so far, Futurama season 11, episode 6, "I Know What You Did Next Xmas" takes this to a whole other level. The episode not only brings back Robot Santa Claus for another nefarious Xmas plot, but it also brings back Professor Farnsworth's time machine, finally bringing about a solution to its biggest flaw.

Futurama Season 11 Fixes The Forwards Time Machine

Futurama season 11, episode 6 sees the Planet Express crew once again use Farnsworth's forwards time machine, but Farnsworth makes one adjustment that completely changes the device's usability. Futurama season 6, episode 7, "The Late Philip J. Fry" sees Fry, Bender, and Professor Farnsworth hop in a time machine that can only go forward. They decide to go forward until a backward time machine is invented, but the trio is never able to find one. Instead, they go past the heat death of the universe and witness the life cycle of the cosmos repeating, landing in a new iteration of the year 3010.

Related: Futurama Cast Guide: Who Voices The Planet Express Crew Across All 11 Seasons

Although not having a backward time machine is the main conflict in "The Late Philip J. Fry," Futurama season 11 finally fixes this problem. At the beginning of the episode, Farnsworth reintroduces the time machine and explains that he has installed a manual transmission with a reverse gear, allowing him to travel back in time to the year 2801. Because of this change, the Planet Express crew finally has a time machine that properly functions, fixing the big season 6 timeline struggle.

Farnsworth Creates An All-New “The Late Philip J. Fry” Problem

Although Futurama season 11 fixes the forward time machine, the episode also introduces an all-new problem with "The Late Philip J. Fry." In the episode, Fry, Bender, and Farnsworth only go forward in time far enough to find a backward time machine, although they are unsuccessful. However, since Farnsworth invented one in the year 3023, the trio should have only had to travel forward 13 years in order to get the new time machine, negating the entire story of the episode.

Related: 10 Ridiculous Fry Mysteries That Must Be Solved In The Rest Of Futurama Season 11

Futurama 's time travel mechanics have always been a little loose, meaning that there are some explanations for this. It's possible that Farnsworth inventing the backward time machine changed the timeline, with it possibly removing parts of "The Late Philip J. Fry" from canon. It could also be that Farnsworth simply assumed that it would take longer for a backward time machine to be invented, explaining why he skipped 3023. Although Futurama may never address this plot hole, it is one of the biggest effects of season 11's time travel storyline.

New episodes of Futurama release Mondays on Hulu.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Late Philip J. Fry

• Episode aired Jul 29, 2010

Fry agrees to travel one minute into the future in Farnsworth's new time machine right before a big date with Leela, but they wind up going far into the future with no way to go back in time... Read all Fry agrees to travel one minute into the future in Farnsworth's new time machine right before a big date with Leela, but they wind up going far into the future with no way to go back in time. Fry agrees to travel one minute into the future in Farnsworth's new time machine right before a big date with Leela, but they wind up going far into the future with no way to go back in time.

• Peter Avanzino
• Matt Groening
• David X. Cohen
• Katey Sagal
• John DiMaggio
• 13 User reviews
• 1 Critic review

• Philip J. Fry

• Turanga Leela

• Hermes Conrad

• Year 10,000 Man

• Cubert Farnsworth
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia The plot for this story is based on a 1950 short story by Poul Anderson , "Flight to Forever," where time travelers can only move forward, unable to find a time where movement backwards is possible. They eventually witness the rebirth of the universe and Earth before returning to what is their own time.
• Goofs Since the time travelers saw everything relative to the geographical position of the Planet Express office, there's no way the Professor could have shot Hitler. It was implied the professor got out of the ship the first time and travelled to Hitler. The second time around he fired from the ship which is why he missed.

Bender : Man, the future's a total craphole, and whoever lives here is a crap-faced sack of crap!

[to people at the camp next to them]

Bender : No offense, fellas.

Year 10,000 Man : Don't sweat it, man.

• Connections Edited into Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow (2017)

User reviews 13

• yasmar-02224
• Apr 8, 2022
• July 29, 2010 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• The Curiosity Company
• 20th Century Fox Television
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 22 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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" The Late Philip J. Fry " is the ninety-fifth episode of Futurama , the seventh of the sixth production season  and the seventh of the seventh broadcast season . It aired on 29 July , 2010 , on Comedy Central . After the Professor invents a forward time machine , he, Fry and Bender accidentally go into the year 10,000 . To return, they must keep going further into the future until an era when a backwards time machine has been built.

The episode won the 2011 Emmy Award for " Outstanding Animated Program ". [1]

• 1.1 Act I: "Time?! I can't go back there!"
• 1.2 Act II: "Did you even see that mountain of skulls?"
• 1.3 Act III: "I made it, Leela. Sorry I'm a billion years late."
• 2 Time travel
• 3 Production
• 4 Reception
• 5.2 Allusions
• 5.3 Continuity
• 5.6 Alien Language Sightings
• 5.7.1 Characters
• 5.7.2 Places
• 6 Episode Credits
• 7 References

Act I: "Time?! I can't go back there!"

Fry is unable to sleep when Bender brings a female robot to their apartment and they spend all night loudly having sex (as well as intentionally keeping Fry awake). As a result, Fry oversleeps and shows up late for work at Planet Express the next morning. The Professor chides Fry for his chronic lateness, saying that he expects Fry to show up for work on time, just like all the other employees; when Fry points out that Leela hasn't arrived yet, he is told that Leela came in on time, but left because a man was taking her out to lunch for her birthday . Fry realizes that he was supposed to take Leela to lunch, and is now late for that as well. Fry arrives at Elzar's restaurant to meet Leela, but Leela has already finished her meal (and Fry's); she, like the Professor, is fed up with Fry's inability to be on time for anything.

Upon returning to Planet Express headquarters, Fry offers to make his earlier blunder up to Leela by taking her out to the ritzy, subterranean Cavern on the Green restaurant that night. Leela is skeptical, particularly when Bender announces that Hedonism Bot is getting married to a house in the suburbs and will be throwing a huge bachelor party that same evening, but Fry says that he "can throw up on a stripper any time", and promises that he will not stand Leela up again. Fry purchases a record-your-own-message birthday card for Leela and prepares to leave so he can meet her precisely on time, but is stopped by the Professor, who tells Fry that since he was late for work that morning, he must help the Professor test his latest invention: a time machine . The Professor says that the machine was designed to only travel forward in time so as to avoid altering history or doing "something disgusting", like sleeping with one's own grandmother. [3ACV19]

Fry, Bender, and the Professor enter the machine. Fry begins recording an apology for being late again on Leela's birthday card, while the Professor intends to test the machine by sending it one minute forward in time. However, the Professor trips and falls down while clutching the activation lever, sending the machine hurtling out of control; in the process, Fry loses Leela's birthday card out the window. The Professor gets back to his feet and shuts down the machine, but the occupants find that the interior of the Professor's laboratory has been replaced by a ruined city. The date on the machine's display reads: 3 December, 10,000 AD.

Act II: "Did you even see that mountain of skulls?"

Fry is stunned at being thrown so far forward in time, saying that he can't be late for his date with Leela; however, the Professor reminds Fry that Leela, as well as everyone else they have ever known, has been dead for thousands of years. The trio explore their ruined world, but are unimpressed with the post-apocalyptic setting. After talking to a group of cavemen , the Professor realizes that while they cannot travel backward in time, they can travel forward to a point where someone else has invented a backward-traveling time machine, and use that to return home. They make a series of progressively larger jumps through time while attempting to find a sufficiently advanced civilization, and while they encounter a number of strange sights, they have no luck in finding a way home.

Back in 3010, Leela endures another lonely birthday dinner. When she returns to Planet Express, she inquires as to Fry's whereabouts, and is told by Cubert that he, Bender, and the Professor are probably attending Hedonism Bot's bachelor party. Just then, a breaking news bulletin states that a nuclear-powered stripper robot underwent meltdown at the party, killing everyone except Hedonism Bot. Leela is overwhelmed with both anger and grief, believing that Fry died after standing her up again.

Bender, Fry, and the Professor arrive in the year Five Million AD ; a race of enlightened, purple-skinned humanoids live on Earth's surface, while Dumblocks - savage, primitive creatures - live below ground. The Professor asks whether these advanced people have invented a backwards-traveling time machine, and is told that they have not, although if they focus their mental efforts toward the problem, they should be able to perfect a solution within five years. The three promptly jump forward another five years, only to discover that in that time, the Dumblocks have risen up and slaughtered the entire surface population.

In 3030, Planet Express has become a larger, more successful company following the death of the Professor and Leela's subsequent takeover of the business. Leela is proud of her success, but admits to Hermes that she still misses "the old days" while looking at a photograph of herself and Fry. Leela notices that Cubert has grown up to possess a strong physical resemblance to Fry, and begins to flirt with him, much to his surprise.

The year Ten Million AD is a nightmare where machines are engaged in a violent, genocidal war against the remnants of mankind. Bender cheerfully observes that this "seems like a nice future", and suggests that they remain there, but the Professor and Fry quickly engage the next jump. They next arrive in Fifty Million AD , a paradise inhabited by beautiful and brilliant women who immediately recognize the group as time travelers and actually have a method of traveling back in time. Fry and the Professor are invited to a sensual "fertility banquet", but Bender, unhappy about being unable to stay in the future he liked, spitefully activates the time machine. This triggers a fight among the three, and they travel a large distance forward in time, finally arriving in One Billion AD .

Here, in the far future, Earth has been reduced to a scorched, barren wasteland, and all life is extinct. Fry wants to keep traveling forward, but the Professor says this would be futile, as Earth is now a dead world. Distraught, Fry wanders back to the remains of the Cavern on the Green , where he apologizes to Leela for being a billion years late for her birthday dinner. Glancing down at the ground, he is shocked to find a message written there, one that is apparently addressed to him.

Act III: "I made it, Leela. Sorry I'm a billion years late."

In 3050, Planet Express has become a massive corporation. An aged Leela and Cubert are divorced, and Cubert is now dating Amy , who has become a head on a robotic body. While discussing her regrets over marrying Cubert with Hermes (who is a head in a jar on a pogo stick), Leela is struck by her birthday card from 3010, which has finally emerged from the time stream. Leela opens the card to hear Fry's message, in which he explains he will be delayed by the Professor's time travel experiment, and tells her that he loves her, before the experiment visibly goes awry. Leela is crushed; she has spent the last 40 years being bitter and angry with Fry for something that wasn't even his fault. Dejected, she returns to the abandoned Cavern on the Green , and - drawing upon a lesson about stalagmite formation she learned from a waiter the last time she was in the restaurant - fires her laser pistol at the ceiling several times, causing droplets of water to fall to the floor. Satisfied, Leela nods her head and leaves.

By One Billion AD, these droplets of water have accumulated into a series of small stalagmites which spell out a brief message from Leela to the time-lost Fry, stating that while their time together was short, it was also the happiest of her life. Touched by the message, Fry returns to Bender and the Professor, saying that he has lived a good life, and proposes that they watch the end of the universe together. Turning the time machine to its maximum setting, they watch as the sun grows into a red giant, consuming the earth, and then fades into a white dwarf, followed by all of the other stars, eventually leaving nothing but darkness. This, to their astonishment, is followed by a tremendous explosion that the Professor recognizes as a second Big Bang; he realizes that time must be cyclical, resulting in the creation of a new universe that should be identical to the previous one.

The time machine rapidly accelerates through the formation of the Earth, the extinction of the dinosaurs, and subsequent events in world history (with the Professor pausing only briefly to assassinate Adolf Hitler with a laser cannon ). As they near their own time, they throttle the machine back, but accidentally skip forward to 10,000 AD a second time after the Professor falls down once more, forcing them to "go around again". The third trip happens without incident (although this time the Professor fails to kill Hitler and mistakenly shoots Eleanor Roosevelt ), and the time machine materializes in the Professor's lab a short time before it originally left. However, this universe appears to be displaced a few feet from the last one, as the machine appears in mid-air and crashes to the floor, killing this new universe's versions of Fry, Bender, and the Professor (and avoiding a time paradox ). Fry is able to make his date with Leela on time; she admits that she thought he would be late, but he replies that was "the old Fry... he's dead now". Fry and Leela share a romantic moment atop a bridge, while beneath it, Bender buries the bodies of the deceased duplicates.

Time travel

In this episode, Futurama deals with a different kind of time travel than episodes such as " Roswell that Ends Well " and Bender's Big Score . The crew travel forwards, and "only" forwards. This originally caused the emergence of multiple explanations amongst fans of the show for the question of how the PX crew actually got ‘’back’’ to their original time frame.

The two theories postulate either a cyclical timeline (Cyclical Time), or a cyclical deterministic universe (Cyclic Universe) in which the vacuum resulting from the decay of the last subatomic particles gives rise to a new quantum vacuum fluctuation that spawns an identical universe to the previous one via a second big bang.

Within the Cyclic Universe model, the “second” big bang is simply one of an infinite series, and the crew that travel through time are not the first to do so. They are part of an infinite chain, stretching throughout infinity. They do not ever return to their own time, merely to an identical copy, two universes “further down” the “chain” of linked big bang events and subsequent universal decay.

The major evidence to support this theory is a line from the Professor. When the big bang is observed by the timeship crew, he states that it “appears to be a ‘’second’’ big bang” and that the crew are in a ‘’new’’ universe that is identical to the old one.

This model doesn’t match up well with the time traveling exploits of the crew in previous episodes. In this model, when a universe ends an equal version is created in its place. It is not an alternative universe , but rather a recreation of the very same universe, in which all living things are recreated and everything that happened in the previous universe happens again (unless time travelers change it, of course). Or in short, any parallel/alternative universe must always contain a version of its own universe. This follows a highly deterministic model, where any event is effectively “set” and in theory any single “random” event could be predicted by looking at the interactions of all particles since the original event (the big bang) that set things in motion.

The Cyclical Time theory allows for random and nondeterministic fluctuations within events, and fits in with previously established methods of time travel.

This has been described as the "wheel of time", a concept in some religious and philosophical traditions. In this scenario, upon reaching the end of time the machine crossed a boundary back into the beginning of time and of the original Universe, like a wheel returning to the spoke where it began spinning. The Professor's statement that "it appears, this universe is exactly identical to the old one" could suggest that it only appears to be a new Universe. So when it arrived back at the Planet Express headquarters , the machine finished a cycle of time and stopped at the point when it left in the original Universe — although, in this case, the Professor stopped the machine early, ending up 10 feet (3 meters) above their next selves and crushing them.

The Cyclical Time theory is consistent with the established Futuramaverse, and has been explored in-depth by fans on the internet, however, the Cyclical Universe theory still has supporters. Unfortunately, the DVD commentaries do not address the issue, choosing to skip past it with the staff basically telling us that they don’t care to know all the ins-and-outs – they just had a story to tell.

In this model, there are two things to bear in mind. The first is that the timeship operates ‘’outside’’ of the timestream, and the second is that there is some flexibility with regard to events. For example, Farnsworth kills both Adolf Hitler and Eleanor Roosevelt in separate iterations of the universe. The timeline can be thought of as a TV broadcast, received with static. Small numbers of pixels differ from playthrough to playthrough in various locations. However, the overall picture received is the same. Whilst there are changes made to the timeline (which should not be possible in the deterministic Cyclical Universe scenario), these do not affect much more than the immediate temporal vicinity of the timeline, and cause no appreciable overall effect. For example, killing Hitler or Roosevelt will not alter the Planet Express building’s location or design. It will have no effect on the Planet Express crew, nearly 1000 years later because events will have proceeded according to a general pattern. This effect has been referred to as “temporal inertia”, ie: the tendency for events to proceed towards the outcome expected in a deterministic universe, with changes managing only to produce minute variations (the “static” in the TV picture, to continue the previous analogy).

It is important to remember therefore, that in the Cyclical Time model, the universe and the timeline appear only ‘’once’’, but do so over and over and over again. Time is joined at the beginning and the end, with events being deterministic only in a general sense, and not down to the particle level, due to the occurrence of time travel (in all its forms).

It should be noted that this framework also supports the creation of time paradoxes, whilst in a purely deterministic model, a paradox would cause severe problems with the nature of determinism and the flow of the timestream.

The Table read for this episode took place on 21 October 2009 with Maurice LaMarche commenting through his Facebook page that this episode is: "Hilarious, touching, meaningful, philosophical, even metaphysical. And did I mention, hilarious?" [2]

Another person present at the table read said that this episode is "the Emmy shot". [2] In a June, 2011 interview, David X. Cohen announced that they are submitting it for the Emmys. [3] It subsequently won that award.

In its original American broadcast, "The Late Philip J. Fry" was viewed by an estimated 2.046 million people, a rise of 100 000 since " Lethal Inspection ". [4] It also received a 1.3 household rating and a 2 share. In the 18-49 demographic it got a 1.0 rating and a 3 share up 1/10th of a point. [4]

Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club was enthusiastic about the episode, stating that the episode's jokes and humor were solid throughout. [5] He was pleased that the relationship between Leela and Fry was "finally" addressed, also feeling that up until this episode, "[t]he writing on Leela hasn't been as solid this season." [5] Praising the episode's full use of science fiction and the smart structure of the episode, concluding, "It feels like we're back in the sweet spot here, mixing high and low comedy with sharp ideas, and a surprisingly uncynical sincerity. Everything old is new again, I guess, and that's a very good thing." [5] Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a 7.5 citing it as another example of Futurama's "smart takes" on time travel. He felt that "it showed that there's still a lot of thought going into plotting out these time trips", although he also stated that the episode did not have enough laughs. [6] Merrill Bar of Film School Rejects praised the episode, describing it as "Every joke hits, every line was sweet, every emotion is true, every visual was eye popping, this episode is Futurama at its finest. If there is any complaint, it’s that it took this long for the show to regain this level of quality." [7] He concluded that, "This combined with last week’s episode has restored my full confidence in the production team." [7] Sean Gandert of Paste rated the episode a 9.4/10, and wrote: "'Late' was definitely the best episode of the season so far, and ranks with the best the show’s ever done. Nearly every episode of this season has been better than the last, and it looks like it’s finally reached the peaks it’s hit in the past. As of now, I think any doubt about the Futurama’s reboot should be pretty damn well silenced." [8]

Series creator Matt Groening considers this episode his favorite episode of the season. [9] On his Facebook account, Maurice LaMarche commented that he found this episode "[h]ilarious, touching, meaningful, philosophical, even metaphysical. And did I mention, hilarious?" [10] He also felt that the episode would be a contender for a 2010 Emmy Award . [10] In a June 2011 interview, David X. Cohen highlighted the episode as the best of the season according to both the fanbase and the writers. He said that "the episode appealed to both sci-fi fans and romance fans because it had a good emotional story behind it as well". [3]

On 14 July, 2011 , the episode was nominated for Outstanding Animated Program at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards [11] and on 10 September won the Emmy award, [1] making it only the second Futurama episode - the other being " Roswell that Ends Well " - to win an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program. The episode was named #4 on IGN's list of top 25 Futurama episodes .

Additional Info

• The story basis is a re-telling of the Poul Anderson novel Flight to Forever .
• This also identifies Leela's birth date.
• It also means that Leela and Fry scheduled dinner for some time after 10pm, which is considerably later than the normal dinner time in 21st century culture.
• This is probably the third time the exact date of the episode is given, the first being " Space Pilot 3000 " and the second being " Love's Labours Lost in Space ".
• When the time machine is accidentally started the first time, one can freeze frame and see Old Leela get hit by the card through the glass (pictured to the right).
• In the immediate following shot, however, the Twin Towers are still standing, and have been dwarfed by several other skyscrapers. This may sugest that in the succeding universe, 9/11 never occurred.
• The three books Bender throws in the fire for warmth are The History of the Human Race , Backwards Time Travel Made Easy (written in AL1 ), and a first-generation Amazon Kindle.
• Adolf Hitler said " Betrachten Sie meinen Schnurrbart! ", which translates to "Look at my moustache!".
• This could also be due to the influence of various changes that have been made to this cycle's history. This would support the CT rather than CU framework. Little changes are possible, but the general "shape" of events stays the same. Determinism would not allow for such, and the key would be the same as the previous cycle's.
• "The Late Philip J. Fry" is the seventh episode of broadcast season 7 and involves time travel. " All the Presidents' Heads " is the seventh episode of broadcast season 8 and also involves time travel.
• When asked to pick their favorite scene in the show, both Matt Groening and David X. Cohen picked a scene from this episode. [13]
• The fashion of the 3050's as well as the design of the time machine resemble steampunk.
• Zoidberg is alive in 3030 which means that he probably hasn't yet experienced the mating frenzy.
• The final Universe appears to have Cartoon Physics as the time machine is unaffected by gravity until the Professor stops talking.
• The knight riding an ostrich is a reference to the classic video game Joust .
• The scene with Fry seeing the human, ape, bird, cow and slug versions of the Statue of Liberty is a reference to Planet of the Apes , which ends with the main character seeing the fallen Statue of Liberty, and realising he is on Earth of the future.
• The song during the first time travel montage is based on " In the Year 2525 ".
• The year five million , with humanity split into two species, one primitive and one intelligent , is a reference to the future depicted in H.G. Wells ' The Time Machine . The earlier concept of 3 books that could restore human civilisation - those that Bender throws onto the fire - as well as the visual effect of watching time pass at an acclerated speed from a hand-operated time machine are allusions to the original Time Machine film adaptation .
• The year 10000000 , in which the remnants of humanity fight a post-apocalyptic war against the machines, is a reference to the Terminator film series, as well as the Matrix series. The setting resembles Los Angeles in 2029 in The Terminator .
• Watching the temporal end of the universe as a show act is reminiscent of Douglas Adams ' novel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (second part of the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy), where the end of the universe is used as a regular show act in said restaurant. Unlike this episode, however, the restaurant exists in its own time bubble, which is unaffected by the end of time and space.
• While watching the end of the universe, Fry also utters the phrase: "So long, Earth, thanks for the air and what-not". Considering the setting, this is a clear nod to the title of the novel So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (fourth part of the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy).
• When Leela finds Fry's card, she realizes she's wasted the years being angry about something that didn't happen as she thought, a nod to "The Upside of Anger" starring Joan Allen.
• When Farnsworth once again accidentally sends himself, Fry and Bender to the year 10,000, Bender says, "Hand over the keys, Magoo!" This is a reference to the cartoon character Mister Magoo, who was infamously old and nearsighted and got himself in all kinds of hilarious trouble because he didn't wear glasses.
• When the time travel paradoxes are taken care of, Bender shouts, "Yabba-dabba-do!" This is the catchphrase of Fred Flintstone.
• When Fry makes his date with Leela, he dresses in the same outfit as Carl Sagan when he hosted the "Cosmos" series.
• Cubert in the year 3050 resembles Biff Tannen from the Back to the Future series.
• The "Cavern on the Green" restaurant is a reference to the real Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York's Central Park .
• The Professor intends to test the time machine by going forward in time one minute as Einstein the dog does in Back to the Future .
• The traditional birthday song is now public domain.
• Curious Pussycat makes its fifth appearance.
• The Professor refers to the previous time travel episode " Roswell that Ends Well ", saying they won't do something disgusting like sleeping with one's own grandmother.
• Bender briefly refers to his time travelling in Bender's Big Score , saying "Time?! I can't go back there!"
• Despite the defrostee Fry met being correct about the nature of time, his plan was still flawed. He cryogenically froze himself, hypothesising that time cyclical nature would make it possible for him to meet Shakespeare. However the man would have been unable to meet Shakespeare through cryogenics, because the cryogenics lab wouldn't have survived the destruction of Earth like the time machine does. Also, the end of the universe would have occurred somewhere around 10^38 years after the destruction of the planet. Even if the cryogenic tube had miraculously survived Earth’s destruction, the metal in the chamber would have broken down long before the universe would start over. Further, even if the chamber had somehow endured to see the universe restart, the defrostee would need to wait another 13.7 billion years to reach Shakespeare’s time.
• " Space Pilot 3000 " - the destruction of New York City and the medieval reconstruction from when Fry was frozen.
• " Love's Labours Lost in Space " - the Professor showing a hologram of Vergon 6 .
• " Amazon Women in the Mood " - Amy , Leela, Zapp and Kif discussing their upcoming double date.
• " Future Stock " - Fry and That Guy waking the crew for a meeting.
• " A Taste of Freedom " - Fry and Zoidberg dancing the Freedom dance.
• The Beast with a Billion Backs - the Professor having been infested by Yivo , scaring Leela, Amy, Hermes and Wernstrom (who is coloured differently from the previous universe).
• The Professor states that they have one year to go immediately after this scene, implying that a year has passed over the course of the preceding four episodes.
• Once again, Bender plays the washboard, having previously played his body as a washboard in " Bendin' in the Wind ".
• The Professor already worked on a time machine as mentioned in " A Clone of My Own ", however it was unsuccessful and had set him back 15 years.
• Because the Professor disintegrated Hitler in the second universe, the second universe's Professor couldn't have put his brain into a shark as he claimed he had done in " A Clone of My Own ". Considering he was widely criticized for doing this, he might have wanted to kill Hitler solely to save face.
• The weapon the Professor used to shoot Hitler and later Eleanor Roosevelt was the same used by Zapp Brannigan against the holograms of the Holo-Shed .
• The Cavern On The Green was also seen briefly in " Time Keeps on Slippin' " during the panning across the park at the beginning of the episode.
• This marks the second time Hermes is seen as a head in a jar, the first being Bender's Big Score .

Elzar : Weren't you the loser who got stood up at my other restaurant? Leela : Shut up and bring me two dinners!

Fry : Hey, uh... What was the purpose of life, anyway? Professor Farnsworth : Who knows? Probably some hogwash about the human spirit. Bender : Mm-hm. Fry : Sounds about right.

Hedonismbot : Everywhere I looked there were piles of bodies... and then the explosion struck!

Professor Farnsworth : The stars are receding. Oh, the vast emptiness! [The Professor shakes his empty beer can.] Bender : Yeah, yeah, I can take a hint.

Fry : That was the old Fry. [Pause.] He's dead now.

• It is possible that the time machine not only follows the natural rotation of the Earth, but also stays in the same spot no matter where the Earth is.
• And the event went the same as in the "past" universe, so " Crimes of the Hot " would still go down moving the Earth.
• If this is an entirely new universe, the versions of Fry, Bender and the Professor that were crushed by the time machine are not technically paradoxes , but independently identical versions of the three. Therefore, we can assume that the duplicate time machine's continued existence does not pose a paradox either. This basically means that the trio killed their innocent counterparts in the new universe, who were not paradoxes and posed no threat to causality. This is, however, unsupported by the CT model.
• When Leela returns from The Cavern on the Green. Zoidberg's trousers are white for the first half of the scene.
• When we see the events of The Beast with a Billion Backs , Wernstrom is coloured incorrectly.
• When we see the events of " Attack of the Killer App ", there is no shrapnel flying around in contrast to the original episode. Also, the taco and the spaghetti are gone.
• The Time Machine was moving forward through time so quickly that it was impossible to make out anything outside of the window, as we can only vaguely see future Leela. The expanded versions could have been destroyed completely and only the original building was partially standing.
• This may have been intended, since when they finally come back, they are above the original Fry, Bender and Farnsworth.
• This may just mean that even if he hadn't fallen over, they'd have been late. Also, in the Duh Vinci Code , Fry and Hubert travelled for 2 months between Earth and the Vincians planet
• The slot that the handle slides through on the controller changes twice. From being longer and extending backwards where it should technically be backwards time travel to not having a slot available for going forward in time.
• Alternatively, he may have been immobilised, muted and buried alive. It's possible that he simply agreed with being buried alive, since in " Roswell that Ends Well " he said that he enjoyed the thousand years of being buried in the ground. Also, being flattened once could've weakend him, allowing him to be crushed.
• As explained in Bender's Big Score , the doom field increases whenever a time paradox duplicate is created, so the paradox Bender from this episode had a higher chance of dying from flattening than regular Bender.
• The reason for this could be that human evolution started all over again with the Dumblocks, who evolved into humans.
• It's possible that a few humans remained.
• Though it's fairly logical that only one group of humans evolved into the pink creatures and Dumblocks's, with a chronospecies morphologically more similar to Homo sapiens sapiens surviving and later taking back the Earth
• Humans could also have been brought back by The Last Encyclopod .
• He may have only used the teloportation bit at that one point.
• He probably never saw footage of the very first generation of dinosaurs. Also, the Brain Spawn might have wiped their memories of it.
• The Encyclopod may be responsible for this.
• Older Leela is knocked to the floor by a floating birthday card . Even with the many problems of old age, it is still impossible for a person to get knocked over by something that is that much smaller and lighter than them. If emerging from the time machine increased its kinetic energy, it would make more sense for the card to simply crumple when hitting Leela, due to the ratio of their mass as well as the material the card is made of. However, one can argument that the force of the card would still be a function of mass times acceleration.
• Since time progresses regardless of whether the universe ends, it can be assumed that every other episode will take place billions of years in the future.
• Given the inconsistency of time in general, and how difficult it would be to actually calculate it, it is more likely that the time machine observes the universe around it and decides on what time it is based on that. It would therefore make good sense for it to show BC when it came around.
• BC was probably added in hopes of adding backwards travel at a later date. Additionally, Farnsworth may have manually reset the clock on seeing the Big Bang. However, this could account for the inaccuracy of Farnsworth's countdown.
• Well, technically they do, there's just no way to re-calibrate it if it slipped out of alignment, as the reference point was gone.
• Nibbler could've erased it from his memory.
• It's probably easier to go around again then get out, deal with the ladies and then use their time machine.
• This is logical because there is no longer water falling on those, the holes she made could have altered the flow completely.
• However the tattoo paradox had simply appeared, for this to work the crew would have to able to wish a paradox into existence.
• It's possible Bender had a tape recording of a fiddle.
• It's possible the card cut that out of the video.
• When Fry, the Professor and Bender travel to the year 105105, Bender pulls the Professor into the time travelling machine to get away quickly, however, when he pulls him in he completely disappears.
• It could be possible that he was exaggerating.
• Another possibility is that even if life existed on other planets, they had no way of getting to them.
• Amy and Hermes could have lost their bodies due to disease or injury, thus having the need to keep their heads in jars.
• Possibly his body was stolen by Bender during Bender's Big Score .
• The DOOP may still exist.
• In the beginning of the episode, a pot of coffee is dumped on Fry. As we see in the window, the sun is near the horizon. When we see his clock, it turns out that it is 11:55 AM. At that time, the sun should be almost directly above, rather than near the horizon.
• When Fry enters the Cavern on the Green for the first time, he is standing by the words "Dear Fry,". Yet when Leela carves the message, she enters and exits from "Leela". Fry ia then shown to leave from "Leela" as well.

Alien Language Sightings

Time : 7:48 Location : Book thrown into the fire by Bender Language : AL1 Translation : Backwards Time Travel Made Easy

Appearances

• Adolf Hitler
• Atanarjuat and Fufu
• Debut : Crapface Fellows
• Debut : Dumblocks
• Debut : Eleanor Roosevelt (mentioned in speech only)
• Hedonismbot
• Debut : Intellectually and morally advanced creatures
• Kif (montage)
• Debut : Ladies of 50,000,000 AD
• Debut : Promiscuous Ladybot
• Professor Farnsworth
• That Guy (montage)
• Debut : Waiter on the Green
• Wernstrom (montage)
• Zapp (montage)
• Central Park

Episode Credits

• Lewis Morton
• Peter Avanzino
• Katey Sagal
• John DiMaggio
• Tress MacNeille
• Maurice LaMarche
• Phil LaMarr
• David Herman
• Matt Groening
• David X. Cohen
• Eric Horsted
• Lee Supercinski
• Claudia Katz
• ^ a b c "Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for 2011" . Emmy Awards . Retrieved on 11 September 2011.
• ^ a b "PatchChord_Adams" (22 October 2009). ""Hot Diggity Daffodil, Futurama's back!" (News thread) (No spoilers)" Page 2 . ( PEEL .) Retrieved on 22 October 2009.
• ^ a b "'The fans seemed to like the same ones that we did. We had an episode titled “The Late Philip J. Fry” which was a huge science-fiction epic and we are submitting it for the Emmys. In the episode, Fry is trying to make it on time to a birthday dinner date for Leela, but he’s sidetracked by Professor Farnsworth’s time machine, which only goes forward into the future, so he keeps having to go forward to the future until a backwards time machine is invented. The episode appealed to both sci-fi fans and romance fans because it had a good emotional story behind it as well." — Cohen, David X. Cohen, David X. (16 June 2024). Cohen Spills the Beans on Futurama's New Season . Retrieved on 16 June 2011. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "Cohen" defined multiple times with different content
• ^ a b Seidman, Robert (30 July 2010). "Thursday Cable: Jersey Shore on Top + Burn Notice, Futurama, Project Runway & More" . TVbythenumbers . Retrieved on 30 July 2010.
• ^ a b c Handlen, Zack (29 July 2010). ""The Late Philip J. Fry"" . The A.V. Club . Retrieved on 29 July 2010.
• ^ Canning, Robert (30 July 2010). Futurama: "The Late Philip J. Fry" Review . (IGN.) Retrieved on 30 July 2010.
• ^ a b Barr, Merrill (30 July 2010). "Review: Futurama — The Late Philip J. Fry" . Film School Rejects . Retrieved on 30 July 2010.
• ^ Gandert, Sean (30 July 2010). "Futurama Review: "The Late Philip J. Fry" (6.7)" . Paste . Retrieved on 30 July 2010.
• ^ Fitzpatrick, Kevin (24 July 2010). "Comic-Con 2010: Futurama Goes To The Future?" . UGO . Retrieved on 25 July 2010.
• ^ a b LaMarche, Maurice : "Nah. Turns out I'm all good, cold-wise. On to the Futurama table-reading, Bitterman!! And go through the park. You know how I love the park... [...]" LaMarche, Maurice : "We're table reading episode 7 today.[...]" Zaugh, Bob: "Best Futurama table read ever!! Its [ sic ] the Emmy shot!!" LaMarche, Maurice : "I think so, too! That script hit on all levels. Hilarious, touching, meaningful, philosophical, even metaphysical. And did I mention, hilarious?" LeMarche, Maurice (21 October 2009). Maurice LaMarche . (Facebook.) Retrieved on 29 July 2010.
• ^ 63rd Primetime Emmy® Awards (PDF). 14 July 2011. Retrieved on 14 July 2011.
• ^ Tobey, Matt (23 June 2010). "Countdown to Futurama: Time Travel" . Comedy Central Insider . Retrieved on 23 June 2010.
• ^ Nerdist (06 September 2013). Futurama Live! Pre-Show w/ Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Phil LaMarr and more! (7:00) . ( YouTube .) Retrieved on 10 September 2013.
• Pages with reference errors
• Episodes written by Lewis Morton
• Episodes directed by Peter Avanzino
• Nominated episodes or films
• Season 6 Episodes
• Articles in need of expansion
• A plots focusing on Bender
• A plots focusing on Fry
• A plots focusing on Professor Farnsworth
• B plots focusing on Leela
• Articles that reference Roswell that Ends Well
• Articles that reference Bender's Big Score

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Is This The Inspiration Behind Futurama's Forward-Only Time Machine?

"Futurama" is well known for its scientifically minded plots, as would surely be expected of a show written by doctors of math and computer science. Over its many seasons, the show has tackled concepts from body-swapping to parallel universes, often resulting in some of its best episodes . 

Season 7, Episode 7 ("The Late Philip J. Fry") introduces one of the most complex plot devices in "Futurama" history: a time machine that only goes forward. Professor Farnsworth (Billy West) tells Fry (also Billy West) that he invented it to prevent something disgusting from happening during backward time travel. Of course, this is a reference to the events of Season 4, Episode 1 ("Roswell that Ends Well") in which Fry inadvertently becomes his own grandfather. However, while attempting a one-minute forward test with Fry and Bender (John DiMaggio), Farnsworth overshoots and lands the trio in the year 10,000. 

To return to their own time, the three are forced to travel to a time when backward time travel has been invented. Paradoxically, this means that the trio must travel forward so they can go backward. The premise gives "Futurama" an excuse to indulge in several wacky scenarios, as the group's journey through time introduces far-future periods in which humanity is enslaved by giraffes, knights ride on ostriches, and where robots have taken over. Like the best of the show's episodes, however, it's also a remarkably complex concept. It is so complex, in fact, that it may have been inspired by one of history's greatest theoretical physicists.

Stephen Hawking's time travel theories may have inspired Futurama

As it turns out, the idea of a time machine that only goes forward had been theorized in real life by renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking before "Futurama" aired its own take on the idea. In a 2010 column for the  Daily Mail , the late genius theorized a model of time travel in which a train travels around the world moving as close to the speed of light as physics will allow, meaning it would circle the globe seven times per second. This, he proposed, would cause time on board the train to begin moving relative to the time outside it. If it kept pace for 100 years, it would arrive 150 years in the future. Critically, however, Hawking posited that only seven days would have passed inside the train. "In one week they'd have traveled 100 years into the future," Hawking wrote.

The key difference between Hawking's theory and the time machine in "The Late Philip J. Fry" is that the device in "Futurama" seems to stay put in the same location it began, whereas Hawking's theory requires continuous motion at near-light speeds. When Farnsworth, Fry, and Bender arrive in the year 10,000, the remnants of Planet Express are still visible. Assuming the show doesn't consider the continuous motion of Earth in orbit, that means they haven't moved in the three dimensions of space, only the fourth dimension of time. While "Futurama" can take a year per episode to create, it seems like quite the coincidence that this "Futurama" episode aired only three months after Hawking's article was published.

• Episodes in which Fry almost loses Leela
• 4-part episodes
• Fry's and Leela's relationship

Bender's Big Score

• View history

What's the secret of time travel doing on Fry's ass?

Bender's Big Score is the first of the rest of three straight-to-DVD movies based on the animated series Futurama , released on December 14, 2007. The movie is written by Ken Keeler and David X. Cohen . Established characters appearing include the Nibblonians , Zapp Brannigan , Morbo , Santa Claus Robot , Al Gore , the God Entity , Seymour Asses , and Barbados Slim . The plot also heavily involves several new characters: a trio of Nudist Alien Scammers , Head Museum technician Lars Fillmore , and a narwhal named Leelu .

• 3 DVD Extras/Special Features
• 5.1 Injury, Death, Dismemberment
• 5.2 Time-Travel
• 5.3 Fry and Leela
• 5.4 Hermes and Zoidberg
• 5.5 Nibbler
• 5.6 Doppelgängers
• 5.7 Hermes-isms
• 5.8 Character Arcs

An owl flies through a small hole into Planet Express Building , where Hermes gives out the staff roll call, but when they get to the Professor, he says that they're all fired. In 3005 , the executives of the Box Network , an allusion to the Fox Network , canceled Planet Express' contract: no one told the crew for two years. Now those executives have been fired for incompetence and ground into a fine, pink powder , so Planet Express is back "on the air". They throw a party to celebrate, during which Hermes is decapitated by a saber sword and his body crushed by the Planet Express Ship . His head is placed in a jar while his body is repaired. The man that performs the procedure, Lars Fillmore , takes an immediate liking to Leela , much to Fry's chagrin. Meanwhile, LaBarbara goes back to her former husband, Barbados Slim, claiming that Dwight needs a father, not two half fathers.

The Nude Beach Planet

During a delivery to a nude beach planet , Bender makes fun of Fry's "wiener" and Fry decides to leave to go deliver the package. When he finds the right person, he uses his penis as a pen to sign for the package. Leela finds a tattoo of Bender on Fry's ass, of which Fry was unaware. While on the beach, a trio of Nudist Alien Scammers use flimsy excuses to get the entire Planet Express crew to sign petitions and provide their e-mail addresses.

Upon returning to Earth , the entire crew receives hundreds of spam messages. The crew responds to the offers and Bender is infected with a virus . The scammers fool Professor Farnsworth into signing his business over to them and they show up to take over. Bender's virus compels him to obey the scammers without question. The scammers are drawn to the tattoo on Fry's buttocks, which is revealed to contain the code for a Paradox-Free Time Travel Machine . Bender reads this binary code, which summons a time sphere from the God Entity. Nibbler reveals his sentience, explaining that using the code even once could destroy the universe, but they ignore him. Nibbler calls in some Kitten Class Attack Ships to stop the scammers, only to be defeated by chairs.

Nudar uses the sphere to go back to last night, meeting his past self and they "ended up at my place, or shall I say, our place.", making out with his past self. Hubert states that he knows a paradox when he sees it and accidentally crushes "yesterday Nudar" with his Smell-O-Scope .

Kitten class attack ships

Because the time portal is only a one way trip and cannot bring anyone back to the present, the scammers have Bender use the code to steal valuable objects from Earth's past, waiting out the time in between in the limestone cave beneath Planet Express. They also have Bender replace the Professor's Spheroboom Doomsday Device , placing it with a rose with a tag that reads, "You've been scammed, Sweetheart". During this time, Hermes asks Bender to travel back in time and kill an earlier version of himself for a replacement body. However, Dr. Zoidberg unknowingly attaches Hermes's head the wrong way, making him facing backwards. The angry bureaucrat chases Zoidberg.

Meanwhile, the Professor and the Harlem Globetrotters analyzes the time-travel code. Though the Professor states that time travel is impossible, Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate figures out that paradox-free time travel is possible. The factor that corrects the paradoxes is the doom field, which, if raised exponentially, could destroy the fabric of causality, exactly what Nibbler was trying to tell them. Zoidberg and Hermes run in. The scientists are shocked about Hermes' duplicate body. The doom field results in all time-travel duplicates, including Hermes' new body, to be essentially doomed. Hermes doesn't care, as he will need the duplicate body only long enough to win back LaBarbara.

Once Bender has stolen everything of value from history, the scammers finally care if the universe gets destroyed. They decide to destroy the time-travel code by killing Fry and blanking Bender's memory. Fry uses the time code to escape to January 1, 2000 , the day he was frozen. Bender is sent back to kill him. Bender creates a duplicate of himself when he needs to use the bathroom, going back nineteen seconds. Then another Bender in a tuxedo appears, claiming to be from "way at the end", putting a rub-on time code on Fry's butt. The second duplicate catches Fry as he appears in the past and attempts to kill him, only to have his feelings for Fry and his inability to urinate to cause an overload. Fry shoves him in a Cryogenic tube before he can explode. Fry leaves and the original Bender fails to catch him. He tries to commit suicide only to learn that he was in a 20th-century phone booth. He begins to search for Fry, going through a list of names in the phone book. He skips past a hobo named Phillip Fry and Fry's former girlfriend Michelle , making out with her new boyfriend, Constantine . Bender spends the next twelve years hunting Fry and causes Al Gore to lose the 2000 election to George W. Bush. After ending up at Yancy Fry, Jr's. house and mistaking Philip J. Fry II for his friend, he is directed to the North Pole. While attempting to stow aboard a boat, Bender spots a bearded Philip J. Fry I and chases after him, temporarily sidetracked by Al Gore, who can't control his Hybrataxi. Eventually, Bender blows up Panucci's Pizza when Philip I walks inside, also turning Seymour to dolomite .

Once Bender returns to report his apparent success, the scammers wipe his memory of the code, fifty terabytes of porn and the virus. Suddenly, Fry shows up at his own funeral. He explains that in the past, he couldn't buy pizza from Panucci's with his futuristic money, so he went to Applied Cryogenics for free pizza, but it had turned cold. He went back an hour to eat the pizza when it was still warm. He then met his time paradox duplicate, who became disgusted with the main Philip I's casual abuse of the time code just to eat pizza and takes the suggestion not to use the code. As soon as his duplicate was gone, Philip I realized that his frozen self still had 20th century money. Unfortunately, he accidentally touches his own frozen butt and slips on a chair, which caused him to fall into the tube once again. Once his younger self got out of the tube, the 3007 Fry froze himself for 7.95 years. Bender tries to kill him again but the Professor stops him, informing him that when the time code duplicates a living thing, the copy is always doomed. Nibbler destroys the time travel tattoo to keep the scammers from abusing it further, as well as saving 40% of Fry's rectum. The scammers then burst into Fry and Bender's apartment, intent on vaporizing him, but as they check Fry's rear back at Planet Express, they confirm that the code is well and truly gone.

What happened to the Fry Bender murdered is also explained. Taking the main Philip I's suggestion not to use the time code, this Philip I instead decides to live above Punucci's. He lives his 21st century life: delivering pizzas, spending time with his family, using his seven leaf clover against Yancy Jr. in basketball and hanging out with his beloved dog Seymour. Eventually, he gets over Leela, deciding to find his own purpose in life. When he sees a poor narwhal named Leelu on television, he decides to be her caretaker, as he is the only one who can assist her in eating. When Leelu is released back into the wild, Philip I enlists Panucci's cousin Leroy to find Leelu and bring her back to New York . After two years and 108 narwhals later, setting them all free and eating nothing but sausage, they find her. Noticing that Leelu is interested in a male narwhal, Philip I decides to let her go.

Philip I and Leelu

Even during this depression, Leela and Lars decide to get married. Fry tries to stop the wedding by replacing a pen full of ink with a pen with no ink, but Lars had an extra. Meanwhile, Hermes was able to win back LaBarbara by zippering up her dress, which Barbados was unable to do. Leela accidentally hits Hermes with the empty pen, resulting in a chandelier slicing off his head and crushing his duplicate body. The Professor explains that he expected that, since all duplicates are doomed. Lars becomes agitated by this news and calls off the wedding. LaBarbara leaves Hermes again for Barbados, even though his original body is almost repaired.

Richard Nixon , President of Earth , is tricked into selling Earth to the scammers and everyone is forced to emigrate off the planet. The Planet Express crew moves to Neptune . After learning that Robot Santa was cheated out of his naughty list, Leela decides it's time to fight back and forces Santa to help them. Though they had enough ships to mount a rag tag attack, Nixon says that the scammers have a fleet of solid gold Death Stars defending Earth. However, Santa grants them access to his factory for weapons and calls in his holiday friends, Kwanzabot and the Chanuka Zombie . Zapp Brannigan arrives to take command, but before the fleet can link computers with the Nimbus , the Death Stars de-cloak and send it crashing to the ground: Leela then takes de facto command. Unfortunately, she can't coordinate so many ships, so Hermes offers his bureaucratic highly organised mind. He destroys all the Death Stars: this helps Hermes win back LaBarbara much to Slims annoyance. However, the scammers have one last trick, the Sphere-O-Boom doomsday device that Bender had stolen for them. The scammers demand their surrender, but Bender reveals that he stole it back after being released from their control. The crew fires the device at the scammers' ship, destroying it. On New Year's Day, 3008 , Bender explains that while sawing off the Professor's hand with a dull saw, he figured that he needed the doomsday device for himself. Once he was out of the scammer's control, he "pulled the old switchoroo". Nixon awards him The Dirty Doublecross in light of his actions.

Fry sees that Leela is still unhappy that Lars left her at the altar and tries to get them back together. However, just as Lars is about to tell Fry something important, the reunion is cut short by Nudar, who survived the doomsday device through use of a doomsday device-proof vest (musing that he wished he'd worn matching pants). Nudar claims that the time-travel code still exists and is on Lars. Lars refuses to say anything and tells Nudar to "go ahead and shoot", but then he takes Leela hostage. Lars then tricks him into approaching the cryo-tube with Bender on overload: once that Bender is released, the explosion kills them both. The explosion singes off some of Lars' clothing, revealing the time-travel tattoo. A flashback explains that Lars is actually Philip I's duplicate, having survived Bender's attack in 2012 , which burned off his hair and injured his larynx, deepening his voice. Upon realizing that he was Lars, the duplicate Philip I froze himself to return to the future and be with Leela, hitching a ride in Michelle's tube, arriving in 3002 and taking a job at the Head Museum . However, he realizes at the wedding that, as a duplicate, he was doomed, so he left Leela at the altar to spare her the pain of becoming a widow.

Bender and his time duplicates

During the funeral, Bubblegum and Nibbler state that nothing makes sense anymore, so someone will have to travel back and put the time tattoo on Fry in the first place: this job Bender did, by removing the tattoo from Lars and traveling into the past to place it on the Fry frozen in the Cryogenic tube. Upon returning, Bender reveals that he had convinced his time-travel duplicates in the cave to remain with him instead of emerging when they were logically supposed to. Then they all emerge together. Nibbler, horrified, shouts "Everyone out of the Universe!", before eating himself out of existence. Though Bender doesn't see the problem, the sheer number of time-paradox Benders spontaneously explode, causing a giant tear in the universe. and before the end credits song The Trinty is Going to War "Well, we're boned," says the normal, non-doomed, Bender. This tear in the universe leads into the next movie " The Beast With a Billion Backs ".

• Billy West as Fry , Professor Farnsworth , Dr. Zoidberg , Various
• Katey Sagal as Turanga Leela
• John DiMaggio as Bender , Barbados Slim , Robot Santa Claus , Various
• Phil LaMarr as Hermes , Various
• Lauren Tom as Amy , Various
• Tress MacNeille as Lauren Cahill , Various
• Maurice LaMarche as Schlump , Various
• David Herman as Nudar , Various
• Frank Welker as Nibbler , Fleb , Various
• Kath Soucie as Cubert
• Dawnn Lewis as LaBarbara
• Mark Hamill as Chanukah Zombie
• Coolio as Kwanzaabot
• Al Gore as Himself
• Tom Kenny as Yancy Fry
• Sarah Silverman as Michelle

DVD Extras/Special Features [ ]

• Commentary by Matt Groening, David X Cohen, Billy West, John DiMaggio, Phil LaMarr, Claudia Katz, Dwayne Carey-Hill and Ken Keeler
• Futurama Returns: A live comic book reading by the Futurama Cast
• Everybody Loves Hypnotoad: "Amazon Adventure" , A full length episode
• Deleted Storyboard Scenes
• A Terrifying Message from Al Gore, animated promo for An Inconvenient Truth, featuring Bender , Billy West and Al Gore
• Bite My Shiny Metal X, a Futurama Maths Lecture
• Script: First Draft
• New Character/Design Sketches
• Original 5-minute Comic-Con Promo
• Futurama: Beast With a Billion Backs, Trailer
• Easter Egg - Ken Keeler Sketch

Reaction [ ]

• The film got completely positive reviews and a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.com.
• The film got a Score of 8 out of 10 at ign.com
• The film got a score of 7.6 out of 10 at imdb.com
• The film got an A for everything except extras (a B) at ugo.com

Ongoing Themes [ ]

Injury, death, dismemberment [ ].

• A Box executive punches himself in the face.
• Nibbler swallows Fry before the movie starts, regurgitating him in the first scene.
• Hubert narrates the news that the Box executives who cancelled Planet Express' license have been fired, beaten badly, most of them beaten to death and ground into Torgo's Executive Powder.
• Amy crashes her party board off-screen.
• Hermes receives a flesh wound while limboing under a sword.
• Hermes is decapitated while standing under a sword.
• Hermes' decapitated body is crushed by the Planet Express ship.
• A delivery customer signs paperwork using Fry's "pen".
• Leela falls to the floor when Bender blocks her karate kick aimed at Nudar.
• Nibbler devours a hamster alive.
• Although there is a brief military battle between the Nibblonians and the scammers in Hubert's observatory, there are no casualties.
• Nudar from last night is crushed to death by Hubert's Smell-O-Scope.
• Bender hacks off Hubert's hand with a hacksaw.
• Bender goes back in time, decapitates some unspecified Hermes and brings back the body, sans head.
• Nibbler is kicked across the room by Zoidberg, who is fleeing from Hermes, who crashes into a wall and collapses.
• A mini-golf robot is dismembered by Leela's putt.
• Lars and Leela are crushed by a giant boulder, Wile E. Coyote-style.
• Fry, at altitude in a giant soap bubble, pops his bubble and falls to the ground, off-screen.
• Fleb throws the Gutenberg Bible at random and hits Fry in the head.
• Fry kicks one of the Benders into a cryo-tube and sets the timer to one million years.
• Bender steps on a beachgoer's head.
• Bender is thrown impossibly far from Al Gore's taxi and lands finally on his head.
• Bender's attempt to kill Fry results in the fast-fossilization of Seymour.
• Bender punches Fry in the stomach to ensure that Fry is not a zombie.
• The time-code tattoo is removed from Fry's butt, "as painlessly as possible", destroying some 60% of Fry's rectum.
• Bender kicks Tinny Tim's crutch twice, causing Tim to fall to the ground.
• Hypnotoad forces an off-screen TV announcer to kill himself.
• Countless earthlings are thrown from the Planet Express ship when it lands on Neptune.
• Leela slaps Santa in the face multiple times.
• A napalm explosion in Santa's toy factory sets a Neptunian on fire.
• Three Neptunians are blasted in the face by Hanukkah Zombie's dreidel.
• A Neptunian is blasted in the face by an exhaust pipe full of Torgo's powder.
• The scammers blast the DOOP ship Nimbus out of the sky, sending it hurtling to Earth.
• All of the scammers except Nudar are killed in the space battle.
• Nudar, Lars, and a doomed Bender are killed when the Bender self-destructs.
• Bender rips a large chunk of flesh from the deceased Lars' butt.
• Nibbler eats himself after the anomaly forms in the sky.

Time-Travel [ ]

• The time-spheres are sent by the God Entity whenever anyone recites the time-code. They are an interesting echo of the chronotons from Time Keeps On Slippin' , as the chronotons caused time to jump only forward , while the time-spheres can be used to go only backward in time.
• Nudar is the first to use the time sphere, going back to yesterday and seducing himself. The Nudar from last night is killed when Hubert's Smell-O-Scope falls on him. That is, the "original" Nudar, the one who used the time-sphere, is still alive.
• After Nudar, Bender uses the time-code uncounted times to go to the past, steal priceless artifacts and return them to his scammer masters. He suggests that he may have fatally harmed Leonardo da Vinci and it is shown that his flight from the Swedish authorities matches one of the apocalyptic scenes that was depicted while Philip I was in cryogenic stasis.
• Bender goes into the past and brings back a Hermes-body. Zoidberg attaches present-Hermes' head to the past-Hermes' body, but we know by now, from Nudar's experience, that this body from the past is doomed to destruction in order to correct for the time paradox.
• Fry, in the year 3007, escapes from Nudar by using the time-code to go back to Jan 1, 2000 at 12:30am. He fights with the self-destructing Bender, kicks him into a cryo-tube and goes to Panucci's Pizza, arriving at 1:00am. He then returns to the cryogenics lab and goes back in time one hour. He watches himself fighting Bender, argues with that self and falls back into the cryo-tube with the "native" Fry who is already inside and frozen.
• The Philip I who fights Bender while the first Philip I watches is the Philip I who becomes Lars. This Philip I goes to Panucci's Pizza one minute later than the non-doomed Philip I, at 1:01am. Rather than going back to the cryogenics lab for pizza, this Philip I goes on to begin his 21st century life by delivering pizzas, spending time with his family before pursuing, catching, and release a whale named Leelu. He returns to his apartment above Panucci's Pizza in 2012 and is injured by Bender's assassination attempt, losing his hair and damaging his larynx, before realizing at that moment that he's in fact Lars.
• "Lars" then heads for the Cryogenic Labs where, hitching a ride in his ex-girlfriend's tube, he returns to the future awakening in 3000. There, he works as a head in a jar feeder and waits for the fateful day to meet Leela.
• Bender, in the year 3007, goes back to Jan 1, 2000, at 12:28am, in order to assassinate Fry. There is no indication whatsoever how Bender knew to aim for that particular moment in time. It seems to have no significance to any part of the story. This same Bender goes back in time again, by 19 seconds, to ask the Bender at that time to stand guard for a restroom break.
• Bender from "way at the end" arrives while the other Bender is in the restroom. End-Bender chats briefly with the Bender keeping watch, tattoos "native" Fry's butt in the cryo-tube and then disappears silently, presumably to wait in the limestone cavern.
• Fry arrives at the cryogenics lab on Jan 1, 2000, at 12:30am, while Bender awaits him. This Bender goes into self-destruct sequence under the pressure of the conflict between his orders and his loyalty to Fry. Until nearly the end of the episode, A Bender is frozen in a cryo-tube after Fry kicks him into it.
• It is the original Bender, who after his trip to the restroom, spends the next 12 years tracking the (doomed) Philip I who becomes Lars.
• Non-doomed Fry appears during his own memorial service being held by his fellow crewmembers. He tells the tale of going back to 2000, going back again by one hour for warm pizza, chatting with his paradox time duplicate, falling into the cryo-tube and restarting the tube set for 7.95 years when the "native" Fry leaves it in 2999.
• At Lars' memorial service, Bender finally goes back in time once more to transfer the tattoo from Lars' butt to the butt of the Fry in the cryo-tube back in the year 2000. When this Bender returns to the present, he has convinced all of the Benders who have ever waited in the limestone cave to stay with him and come up into Planet Express all at once. This results in the rupture in space-time that sets the stage for " The Beast with a Billion Backs ".
• Since the time-code tattoo originally belonged to Lars (a time-duplicate body), it was doomed to be destroyed as well.
• The process of the tattoo being put on the original Philip I's body, Philip I being split into a new person (Lars) and then Lars' tattoo making it's way back to the original Philip I can be considered a Stable Time Loop. The events in the past are responsible for the events in the future and vice versa, in an infinite loop.
• It can also be considered a Bootstrap Paradox because the tattoo simply appears without having any explainable origin. Nobody designed the tattoo, it simply is and always has been, until it isn't.

Fry and Leela [ ]

Their holophonor-inspired feelings apparently forgotten, Fry and Leela have returned to their usual relationship mode: Fry with immature feelings for Leela and Leela wishing Fry were more mature. Fry's emotional repertoire grows just enough to include jealousy. Leela falls in love with and almost marries Lars, a clear indication that it truly is only Fry's immaturity that makes her dislike him, as maturity is the major difference between Philip I and Lars. Another indicator of Fry's maturity is the fact that he was willing to give up his chance to be with Leela forever in order to make her happy.

Back in the 21st century, the Philip I who becomes Lars reconnects with his family and his life, but pines for Leela, until he starts a long relationship with Leelu.

At Lars' memorial service, Leela seems to have a new appreciation for Philip I, but she doesn't articulate it and Fry moves on to a different woman in the following episode. It could have something to do with her wanting to wait until he was more mature like Lars.

Hermes and Zoidberg [ ]

Hermes and Zoidberg argue over the spam email that Zoidberg has received, but there is no particular animosity in the conversation.

Zoidberg attaches Hermes' head backwards on Hermes' duplicate body and Hermes is understandably upset about it.

Nibbler [ ]

Nibbler reveals himself to the crew for the third time. It's a surprise to everyone, of course, because Leela and Fry, the only witnesses to his true identity, have both lost their memories of it. This time, he's not careful at all: he charges into Hubert's observatory on a hamster and begins pontificating to the whole crew and the scammers about the dangers of using the time-code. After this, Nibbler is rather quiet for the remainder of the episode, finally devouring himself in order to escape from the universe and avoid its apparently imminent destruction when Bender brings up all the other Benders from the limestone cave. As the crew mention in a later episode, Nibbler does not erase anyone's memory at this moment, so they all know his "secret", but no one talks about it.

Doppelgängers [ ]

• When Bender steals the doomsday device from Hubert, he leaves Hubert a bag with a rose and a mocking note inside. Per Nudar's command, Bender puts the other bag (the one with the doomsday device) in the safe. When Hubert throws his rose-bag out of Zoidberg's office, Bender catches it in his torso. Later, when Bender has been freed from the scammers' obedience virus, Bender recovers the doomsday-bag and saves it in his torso while putting the rose-bag into the safe for Nudar to find later.
• During his hunt for Philip J. Fry I, Bender encounters a drunk in the gutter named Phillip Fry, the same drunk in a house, an aide to Al Gore named Philip Joshua Fry, and Philip I's nephew Philip II. He also nearly mistakes Michelle's new boyfriend, Constantine, for Fry.
• Yancy Jr. refers to Bender as "some kind of trash can".
• Santa doubles as a beat box.
• Leela's Wrist LoJack-a-mater is also a tissue dispenser.

Hermes-isms [ ]

"Sweet yeti of the Serengeti!"

Character Arcs [ ]

• Hubert correctly pronounces the word "warned" twice in a sentence.
• Sal's speech impediment seems to have stabilized for the time being but it seems that he is passing his disorder on to Leela, as she begins pluralizing words when she is around him.
• 1 Philip J. Fry
• 2 Turanga Leela
• 3 Bender Bending Rodríguez