Lightyear’s director explains the gross sandwiches of the future

Pixar’s epic science fiction adventure Lightyear is full of robot fights and rocket ships — and also really weird futuristic food. Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear consumes a prepared meal of colored-coordinated food pieces in an electronic TV tray. The activation system is akin to a modern military MRE. However, the best meals were in Lightyear These are some of the most bizarre sandwiches.

[Ed. note: This article contains some light spoilers for Lightyear.]

Image: Pixar/Disney

Buzz takes a break while searching for key components of the spaceship. He and his fellow comrades also stop at nearby vending machines to have snacks. When he unwraps the sandwich, however, Buzz is shocked to discover that instead of the typical bread-meat-bread configuration (or the puffy meat brick he was eating earlier in the movie), he’s looking at two slimy pieces of meat, with a piece of bread and some vegetables between them. Buzz expresses his surprise and his friends laugh at him for not understanding why he thought a sandwich should consist of two slices each of bread, with all the other ingredients between. When he asks about the gross residue the meat leaves on their fingers, they tell him that’s actually the best part of a sandwich. Evidently, they are right. LotsSince Buzz’s last interaction with humanity, much has happened.

Director Angus MacLane claims that the idea for sandwich schtick was born out of a conversation he shared with Angus MacLane. Lightyear writer Matt Aldrich that didn’t even really have much to do with the movie.

“He was describing the top five sandwiches,” recounts MacLane. “We were just talking about food. Each sandwich could be described by him. And then we were also trying to figure out how different is this world, a world that Buzz doesn’t recognize … Like what if there was like a total meat sandwich and we flipped it? That scene came together basically through that conversation.”

Buzz seems more distant from humans than the disgusting food. He continues to pursue the same futile mission that has dominated his entire life. However, as he persists in the quest for more, the world around him changes. It moves on without Buzz, leaving him stuck at a point in time.

Image: Pixar Animation Studios

“It’s meant to be a representation of how future generations see things differently,” says MacLane. “Very quickly, whatever you thought was cool is gone.”

The filmmakers wanted to show how out of place and time Buzz was. Food was always on their mind even before the decision to make slimy sandwiches. An earlier version of the film had more scenes of Buzz’s daily life, including him encountering strange new foods and the evolution of human cuisine past the point he’s familiar with, where every meal comes in an identical box labeled “Breakfast,” “Lunch,” or “Dinner.”

“At one point, we had a scene where Buzz goes grocery shopping,” producer Galyn Susman says. “He has his little pre-assigned meals, and he runs out of them. So he goes in, and he asks for dinner.”

“He’s never shopped before, and he’s like, I’m looking for dinner. And they’re like, Yeah, I don’t think we have that. Plobbles on Sale!” says MacLane, describing spiky space produce the filmmakers created for this movie. “He has to get a plobble. Then he brings it home. He cooks it, then he takes one bite. [we] just cut to the trash can, and he throws it away.” All of these scenes would show just how out of step Buzz is with the rest of society, but one scrapped scene made the metaphor incredibly literal.

“There was one point where he got a job destroying his legacy,” says MacLane. “He literally had to take all the ships he’d flown and squish them into small cubes. [His trainer says] It is a simple two-button operation. You press the button, then it takes over. Then, press the button.”

LightyearThis film is currently in cinemas.