The Big Break In

“The Big Break-In”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 Cartoon) episode
Title screen
Season Code:	03
Episode:	46
Original airdate	November 27, 1989
Written by	David Wise
Supervising Producer	Fred Wolf
Producers:	Walt Kubiak
Supervising Director	Bill Wolf
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "The Big Rip-Off" "The Big Blow Out"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 Season September 25, 1989 - Feburary 9, 1990 List of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes

Episodes: "Beneath These Streets" "Turtles on Trial" "Attack of the 50-Foot Irma" "The Maltese Hamster" "Sky Turtles" "The Old Switcheroo" "Burne's Blues" "The Fifth Turtle" "Enter the Rat King" "Turtles at the Earth's Core" "April Fool" "Attack of Big MACC" "The Ninja Sword of Nowhere" "20,000 Leaks Under the City" "Take Me to Your Leader" "Four Musketurtles" "Turtles, Turtles Everywhere" "Cowabunga Shredhead" "Invasion of the Turtle Snatchers" "Camera Bugged" "Green With Jealousy" "Return of the Fly" "Casey Jones - Outlaw Hero" "Mutagen Monster" "Corporate Raiders from Dimension X" "Pizza by the Shred" "Super Bebop & Mighty Rocksteady" "Beware the Lotus" "Blast from the Past" "Leatherhead: Terror of the Swamp" "Michelangelo's Birthday" "Usagi Yojimbo" "Case of the Hot Kimono" "Usagi Come Home" "The Making of Metalhead" "Leatherhead Meets the Rat King" "The Turtle Terminator" "The Great Boldini" "The Missing Map" "The Gang's All Here" "The Grybyx" "Mister Ogg Goes to Town" "Shredderville" "Bye, Bye, Fly" "The Big Rip-Off" "The Big Break In" "The Big Blow Out" 1987 Season – 1988 Season – 1989 Season – 1990 Season - 1991 Season – 1992 Season – 1992-1993 Vacation in Europe sideseason – 1993 Season – 1994 Season – 1995 Season – 1996 Season

The Big Break In is a season 3 episode of the 1987-1996 series. It is the second episode of the "Big Trilogy".

Appearing in The Big Break In

Major characters

• Leonardo (Cam Clarke)
• Donatello (Barry Gordon)
• Michelangelo  (Townsend Coleman)
• Raphael (Rob Paulsen)
• Splinter (Peter Renaday)
• April O'Neil (Renae Jacobs)
• Burne Thompson (Pat Fraley)
• Shredder (James Avery)
• Krang (Pat Fraley)
• Bebop (Barry Gordon)
• Rocksteady (Cam Clarke)

Minor characters

• Traag (Peter Renaday)
• Army Colonel (Rob Paulsen)
• Fort McIntosh recording (Renae Jacobs)

Species

• Human
• Mutant rat
• Mutant rhinoceros
• Mutant turtle
• Mutant warthog
• Rock soldier

Objects and vehicles

• Channel 6 newsvan
• Minimizer
• Technodrome
• Technorover
• Turtle Seeking Cycle
• Turtlecom

Locations

• Channel 6
• City sewer system
• Earth's crust
• Technodrome
• Technodrome's manufacturing plant
• Technodrome's Relay Room
• Turtle Lair

Plot

Splinter is teaching the Turtles about the tea ceremony when the ground suddenly shakes. The Turtles conclude that it's the Technodrome, since it's a quake from the center of the Earth that is coming closer.

On the Technodrome, Shredder exults about having full power now, and Krang decides to use the dimensional portal to bring Dimension X's technology onto Earth. He contacts General Traag, and demands "Minimizer", a chevron-shaped device that flies up to the surface and starts shrinking military installations.

Minimizer firing energy bursts at April O'Neil.

The Turtles follow the sound of the moving Technodrome, intending to get inside and shut it down. After nearly being run over, they successfully sneak into a labelled entrance, and split up: Donatello and Michelangelo are heading for the relay room, while Raphael and Leonardo are going to the engine room.

April O'Neil is trying to cover the incoming Technodrome when Burne Thompson redirects her over to Fort Macintosh, since something odd is happening with all these military bases. She witnesses the fort being shrunken, and follows the Minimizer to its next destination.

Krang and Shredder learn that the Turtles are on board, creating some nasty obstacles for them: Foot Soldier missiles, Rocksteady and Bebop, and a potentially gruesome manufacturing plant. When Donatello and Michelangelo find the relay room, Krang trades in his robot's regular arms for a pair of spiked maces and goes after the Turtles.

April crashes her van when trying to avoid the Minimizer, and witnesses the Technodrome arising from the Earth. Unfortunately, the door is stuck shut, and all of the Turtles are being assaulted by their enemies. Michelangelo successfully flips Krang's body, allowing Donatello to rewire it and cause it to malfunction. Raphael and Leonardo manage to dispose of the Foot Soldiers, and the Turtles reunite on the outside of the Technodrome.

Meanwhile, April manages to tumble out of the news van.

The Turtles fly off of the Technodrome on an eyeball missile, and manage to land on the Minimizer. Donatello rewires it, and manages to turn its effect on the Technodrome, shrinking it down to the size of a cat. It zips away and falls into the massive hole that it had just made.

Unfortunately, Krang is easily able to undo the effects of the Minimizer's rays, and the still-powered Technodrome grows back to its normal size.

Donatello whips up a ray-gun that will undo the effects of the Minimizer, even as the other Turtles flip the van over so they can drive home.

See also

• The Big Break In/Gallery
• The Big Break In/Transcript

Quotes

• Raphael: We're never gonna find anything in this oversized...hot dog stand!
• Leonardo: We'll just have to look behind every door until we discover the engine room. (He goes up to a door, opens it and is greeted by an eyeball missile, he then slams the door shut before the missile blasts straight through it he then goes up to another door) They can't have missiles behind every door! (suddenly a katana blade cuts through the door)
• Raphael: That's true Leonardo. Some of them have...(a platoon of Foot Soldiers bust through the door)
• Raphael & Leonardo: "FOOT SOLDIERS!!!!"

• Leonardo: We're beneath the sewers now in the Earth's crust!
• Michelangelo: Whoa I wish you wouldn't mention crusts, It makes me think of pizzas!
• (the Turtles are then interrupted by a loud crashing sound)
• Donatello: Did you hear that? We're getting closer!
• Raphael: Well if it really is the Technodrome what are we gonna do, tell 'em to stop?!
• Leonardo: We'll have to get inside somehow and shut it down, before it reaches the surface of the Earth!
• Raphael: (to camera) Still think you'd like to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?

Notes and errors

• Due to a layering error Donatello can be seen hitting the hole in the Technodrome's relay room instead of falling into it when Krang uses his ball arm attachments to throw him and Michelangelo to the ground.
• At the beginning, when the Turtles are drinking tea, they don't have their weapons, but in one shot, Raphael is seen with his sais on his belt.
• When Raphael said he can't move while he and the other Turtles were trapped in the path of the moving Technodrome, his mouth didn't move. In fact, his entire face and body freezes.
• Raphael's sais are missing from his belt when Krang watches him and Leonardo on the view screen.
• When April's newsvan crashes onto it's roof, the "6" logo on it is reversed.
• When the Technodrome was first seen in the process of shrinking, the blue part of it's eyeball is coloured grey.
• Just before the Turtles climb onto the eyeball missile, Raphael speaks in Leonardo's voice.
• First time since "Shredder & Splintered" that Krang uses his android body's special weapon arms.
• Raphael broke the 4th wall by saying "still think you'd like to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?"
• April broke the 4th wall by saying "Don't you just hate it when that happens?"

Home media releases

VHS

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Big Rip Off
• The Biggest Ever Saturday Morning Picture Show

DVD

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Volume 6
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 3
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Classic Series Collection