Kevin Smith's Jay & Silent Bob Reboot pays off a gag that was set up 26 years ago in the director's first movie, Clerks. Jay & Silent Bob Reboot is a cameo-heavy love letter to one of the first cinematic universes to grace our screens; Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse (named for his production company, View Askew). From Clerks, Smith retained characters like Jay (Jason Mewes) & Silent Bob (Smith), and his New Jersey setting to tell more stories true to his own life. Mallrats and Chasing Amy were next, before moving onto zanier fare like Dogma and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back.
After a short stint experimenting with body horror in movies like Tusk, Smith returned to the View Askewniverse to offer a parody on Hollywood's obsession with reboots: Jay & Silent Bob Reboot. Itself a retread of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, the movie follows the titular characters as they undertake a road trip to Hollywood. Along the way, Jay discovers he has a teenage daughter, Milly, played by Smith's real-life daughter, Harley Quinn Smith. Jay & Silent Bob Reboot also pays homage to many of the past films in Smith's oeuvre, including characters such as Loki (Matt Damon) from Dogma and Holden McNeill (Ben Affleck) from Chasing Amy. There's even a special callback to Clerks.
After the credits have rolled on Jay & Silent Bob Reboot, fans are treated to one final scene. The film switches back to Jay, Silent Bob, and Milly hanging around outside the Quick Stop (a location fans were recently promised a return to in Clerks 3). Dante attempts to once again unlock the padlock to the shutters on the storefront, but again finds gum in the locks. He gives a quiet, frustrated exclamation of "f*ck..." as Jay turns to Milly and says;
"Oh, you see that guy over there? For twenty five years we've been coming here every night and putting gum in the locks."
Clerks was based on Kevin Smith's own retail experiences, and he even shot the film at the very grocery store he worked at - the Quick Stop Grocery Store in Red Bank, New Jersey. Due to only being able to film in the store overnight, the young Smith concocted an in-film reason for the shutters being down. An unknown vandal had apparently placed gum in the locks, leading to main clerk Dante (Brian O'Halloran) draping an iconic tarp over the shutters, the message 'I ASSURE YOU, WE'RE OPEN' scrawled over it in shoe polish.
This reference in Jay & Silent Bob Reboot is a brilliant callback that lands well. As long-time fans of Kevin Smith will know, the gum in the locks of the Quick Stop shutters have been haunting Dante for well over two decades, and now thanks to Jay & Silent Bob Reboot we finally know the true culprits: Jay and Silent Bob themselves. The absurdity of their dedication to putting gum in the locks is the icing on the cake of Smith's latest entry into his self-made franchise.
Jay & Silent Bob have come a long way between Clerks and Jay & Silent Bob Reboot - even going as far as spawning a video game - so it's nice that the film wrapped up with a great gag regarding their origins.