The Big Time

The Big Time is the 5th episode in the series.

Plot
Matt and Jay infiltrate a high school to film Operation Avalanche, a film about a pedophile ring operating out of a school. Not having the proper paperwork, they are quickly thrown out, but Matt decides he has enough footage to finish the movie. Jay bemoans his being fed up with Matt relying on deception to see their plans through, but Matt calms him by promising to make him the star of the film. Up late editing, Matt decides it would be too challenging to edit Jay into a star role and cuts it. Finishing the film, Matt wakes Jay up and claims the finished film got into the Sundance Film Festival.

In Park City, Colorado, Matt runs to the nearest screening and convinces the staff that Operation Avalanche is supposed to be playing instead. As the film plays, Jay realizes Matt has cut his part down and has gotten the film into the festival under false pretenses, and the two argue loudly until they are thrown out. Trying to find Jay, Matt is distracted by an interviewer impressed with his tactics. The story of Matt tricking the festival becomes a sensation, and he is allowed to enter Operation Avalanche legitimately. Jay overhears Matt denouncing him an interview and wanders the streets, depressed and dejected.

After one of his screenings, Matt is approached by Kevin Smith, who gives him advice about reconciling with Jay based on his own best friend, Jason "Jay" Mewes. They are interrupted by a passerby who gives Matt alcohol for the first time. He quickly becomes enraptured, and Jay finds him passed out in the street. When Matt's phone gets a call from the Sundance organizers telling him his screening is about to start and he needs to introduce the film, Jay pretends he is Matt and takes his place on stage. Matt awakens and hurries to the screening, forcing Jay off stage. About to say he made the film by himself, Matt locks eyes with Kevin Smith and has a change of heart, inviting Jay back on stage to do the introduction with him.

Waiting outside the theater for people's reactions, the two realize people are walking out early, finding the film confusing and overdone. They argue about whose fault the movie's reception is, but give up and decide to return to Toronto.

Appearances

 * Jay McCarrol
 * Matt Johnson
 * Kevin Smith (as himself)

Notes & trivia

 * Matt Johnson (the person, not the character) was also at Sundance, showing his film Operation Avalanche. What a coincidence that Matt Johnson (the character, not the person) made a film with the same name, right?
 * A full five-minute version of Operation Avalanche (NTBTS Cut) is available on YouTube.
 * Interviews for Matt's real movie Operation Avalanche intentionally worked in lines that could later be clipped and recontextualized for the episode.
 * Kevin Smith was in on the joke, as he was a big part in distribution for Matt's movie The Dirties.
 * Matt and Jay's Operation Avalanche is thematically similar to The Dirties, a mockumentary about students filming their own movie about a school shooting.
 * The opening sequence is a parody of the HBO show Entourage.