“You Only Move Twice” – The Corporate Agenda
from decipheringthesimpsons.com

Corporations are trying to rule the world. Companies like Microsoft, Disney, and 
Starbucks have extended their reach beyond the United States and into the global 
market. However, international expansion requires an effective workforce, and the 
leaders of major corporations understand this. In order to get the most from their 
employees, companies provide them with a higher standard of living and 
perpetuate the idea that anyone’s dreams can come true. Companies give the 
employees a taste of the good life and then encourage them to reach for the 
American dream, an ideal that is sculpted by these same companies. But the 
dream is always just out of reach, much like the carrot that dangles just in front of 
the donkey, motivating it to move forward while pulling the plow behind.  

Globex is one of these global corporations, albeit a fictional one. The Globex 
headquarters vaguely resembles that of Microsoft, from the setting that appears to 
be located in the Pacific Northwest (though the town of Cypress Creek is 
technically “upstate” from Springfield), to the atmosphere that combines high-tech 
with the beauty of the surrounding nature. Globex headquarters not only lacks 
internal walls, but also gives the appearance that there are no external walls as 
well because they are made entirely out of glass. And the town exhibits a sort of 
perfectionist view of nature, from Marge’s automatic garden to the address of their 
new home, 15201 Maple Systems road, both examples of merging technology and 
nature.

But Cypress Creek is an entirely insulated town, like Celebration, the town created 
by the Disney corporation in 1994. Celebration was designed to be a perfect town 
for the employees of Disney and their families, much like Cypress Creek, which 
has its own promotional video entitled, “A Tale Of One City.” This is obviously a 
reference to the Dickens classic, A Tale Of Two Cities, in which the French 
peasants overthrow the aristocracy through violence in response to the 
aristocracy’s use of violence against the peasants.  This reference foreshadows the 
ending of the episode, when Globex overthrows the American government through 
violence, but what violence was done to the Globex corporation at the hands of the 
American government?

The answer to this question may lie in the similarities between Globex and 
Mircrosoft.  “You Only Move Twice” was written before the spring of 1996, when 
the episode was originally scheduled to appear (it was later moved to air at the 
start of the fall 1996 season). In 1994 and 1995, Microsoft was working to settle 
the antitrust cases that the government was stacking up against it, but Microsoft’s 
problems with the government were far from over. Even though this episode aired 
well before Netscape joined the fight against Microsoft, which led to the 1998 trial, 
the investigations into Microsoft’s business practices began in 1990 and were quite 
public. The government’s intervention into Mircrosoft’s corporate practices could be 
perceived as violence against the Microsoft Corporation, a big business bent on 
world domination.

And businesses are getting bigger. Take Starbucks, which has exponentially grown 
over the years from a Seattle-based organization to one which has a location on 
nearly every corner. In “A Tale of One City,” Cypress Creek has become infested 
with coffee houses, wiping out all other businesses.  Similarly, Starbucks has 
managed to eliminate its competition through a ubiquitous presence, and as a 
result, customers have come to rely upon the company to provide them with their 
addictive product.

Disney is known for its sneaky tactics as well, especially those used to keep its 
employees close.  All Disney employees have contracts that are extremely binding 
and prevent them from defecting to the competition. At the same time, this 
tyrannical attitude is hidden because the external representation of Disney is that 
of a company that creates family entertainment. They own ABC (among other 
media outlets), create movies, and have entertainment parks around the world. 
Entertainment comes at a price, however, and Lisa notes that one redwood 
tree “creates enough sawdust to cover one day’s worth of vomit at Disneyland.” 
For all of the seemingly innocent fun, there is a downside.

The face of corporate America must be a pleasant one in order to fool the workers 
into backing it, and there is no more pleasant face of a corporation than Hank 
Scorpio. Scorpio is ostensibly the ultimate boss in the way he deals with his 
employees in a non-dictatorial way. He pays them well, treats them well, listens to 
them, looks out for them, and doesn’t elevate himself above them. His voice is 
played by Albert Brooks, who has appeared on the show many times before, as 
Brad Goodman, Cowboy Bob, and Jacques. Incidentally, Albert Brooks’ real is 
name is Albert Einstein, which is the kind of trivia that can be used to stump even 
the most die-hard Simpsons fans.

Anyway, Scorpio is a lovable character who seems almost too good to be true, 
until the end of the second act when it’s revealed that he is too good to be true. 
When Homer goes to ask Scorpio where he can find some business hammocks, 
Scorpio interrupts the conversation to speak to the UN. Scorpio demands the gold, 
and then blows up the 59th Street Bridge to show that if he doesn’t get it, he will 
use the Doomsday Device, which is from the Stanley Kubrick movie, Dr. 
Strangelove, Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb. The 
Doomsday Device is capable of making the entire world uninhabitable through 
nuclear weapons, and it is a perfect bargaining chip when engaging in international 
blackmail. This blackmail ends the second act, and in the third act, Scorpio reveals 
himself as a parody of a James Bond villain through several references to James 
Bond films.

The title of the episode, “You Only Move Twice” refers to both the Simpson family’s 
earlier move to Capitol City, and to the James Bond movie, You Only Live Twice. 
The climactic scenes of both this movie and this episode take place in a cavernous 
room with a large gun, where enemy troops drop in through the ceiling.

In Goldfinger, James Bond (Sean Connery) is strapped to a table with a laser 
beam aimed to cut him in half. Bond asks Goldfinger, “Do you expect me to talk?” 
and Goldfinger relplies, “No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die.” In this episode, a 
Sean Connery look alike named Mr. Bont finds himself in an identical situation and 
asks Scorpio, “Do you expect me to talk?” and Scorpio replies, “I don’t expect 
anything from you except to die and be a very cheap funeral. You’re gonna die 
now.” Both Mr. Bond and Mr. Bont escape, though Mr. Bont is killed shortly after 
with some help from Homer. Also, the end song from Goldfinger resembles the 
Scorpio song that plays over the end credits.

Also, the movie Dr. No includes a flamethrower, much like the one Scorpio uses, 
and in Goldeneye, Xenia Onnatop attacks men by squeezing them between her 
legs, much like the female in Scorpio’s lair who attacks the General Norman 
Schwarzkopf look-alike in a similar manner.

All of these references to James Bond films appear in the third act of the episode 
to establish Scorpio as the stereotypical evil villain, even though the first two acts 
set him up to be the perfect boss. This is a commentary on the seemingly 
generous companies that offer health care, dental plans, 401Ks, stocks, vacation, 
and impressive cafeteria food in order to hide their true misguided intentions.

Earlier in the episode, there are a few details that foreshadow Scorpio’s evil plans, 
the most obvious of which is his name, which resembles that of a Bond villain. 
Also, there is Scorpio’s quick and fleeting mention of Mike Milken, the infamous 
junk bond trader who built an empire, was brought up on dozens of criminal 
charges by District Attorney Rudolph Guliani, pleaded guilty to five securities 
violations, paid hundreds of millions in fines, and spent two years in jail. Finally, at 
the beginning of the episode, there is a subtle reference to the Bond split sentence 
gag, where someone talks about Bond being the best agent around and says “his 
name is…” and then the scene cuts to James Bond introducing himself as “Bond, 
James Bond.” This gag is parodied in all three Austin Powers movies, and in this 
episode of The Simpsons the woman in the limousine talks about Homer being the 
second most senior person at the power plant and adds, “his name is…” Then the 
scene cuts to Homer, who calls out, “Marge!” (thereby ruining the gag).

Foreshadowing aside, Scorpio manages to seize control of the East Coast in the 
end (unlike in a Bond film), and “Project Arcturus” is a success. Arcturus is the 
primary star in the “bear hunter” constellation, which resembles a hunter in the 
midst of the surrounding bear constellations. This can be construed as how the 
goal of the project was to keep the big-bear governments in check. Corporations 
are the bear hunters of the modern age.

But “Project Arcturus” wouldn’t have been a success without the help of Homer, 
who embodies the average American worker – his dreams reach far beyond 
anything he can hope to achieve in his own life. Homer is known for having a fickle 
taste in lifelong dreams – in earlier episodes he has lifelong dreams to eat the 
world’s biggest hoagie and to run onto the field during a baseball game. But this 
episode self-consciously undercuts the running gag when Marge asks, “What 
lifelong dream?” in a tone that suggests both that Homer has had many lifelong 
dreams and that the dream isn’t a lifelong one. When Homer suggests that he 
wants to own the Dallas Cowboys, his family laughs at him, but when he tells this 
dream to Scorpio, Scorpio encourages Homer. This is what corporations do – they 
suggest to their workers that they can achieve their dreams if they work harder, 
no matter how unrealistic these dreams may be.

When Homer buys the hat once owned by Tom Landry, the famed head coach of 
the Dallas Cowboys, he takes one step closer to his dream. The hat inspires him to 
work even harder, pushing his team to bring the reactor online by the deadline, 
and when the team complains that they’re tired, Homer comes up with the idea of 
getting them hammocks so that they can rest. For once in his career, Homer is 
actually trying to succeed at work, rather avoiding work altogether. And for once 
in his career, Homer succeeds in being productive – he accomplishes the task of 
bringing the reactor online in time so that Globex can seize control of the East 
Coast.

In the end, Homer is rewarded for his hard work with the Denver Broncos. He is 
one step closer to his dream, and yet, he hasn’t quite achieved it. The corporation 
won, but the common man lost. And yet, the common worker is often loyal to his 
or her company to the point of being blind to its evils. When Scorpio first 
blackmails the U.N., Homer is in the background, idly scratching his butt. And while 
the military raids the ray-gun room, Homer walks through without noticing the 
fighting around him. When Scorpio explains that he’s having some problems with 
the government, Homer sympathizes with Scorpio and refers to the government 
as, “those jerks, always walking over the small businessman.”  Homer then goes 
further in helping out Scorpio against the government by idly kicking a grenade 
out of the way. All the while, he is blind to the tyranny of the company he works 
for.

Still, Homer is reasonably placated by the Globex corporation while living in 
Cypress Creek. His family, however, is not. This is because Homer’s dream is 
based on a monetary goal, while the rest of the family’s dreams are ideological. 
The Simpson family experiences a higher standard of living, but, as the “Tale of 
One City” warns, “your dreams may not reflect the dreams of the Globex 
corporation and its subsidiaries.”

In the beginning of the second act, the family drives to their new home through 
the wooded roads, and the camera angles of the scenery are very similar to those 
in The Firm, when Tom Cruise’s character moves into his new home. In both 
cases, it seems too good to be true, and in both cases, it is. The Simpson family 
car pulls into their new driveway the same way that it pulled into their old 
driveway every week, but it’s not the same.

Bart identifies himself as the bad-boy, and in Springfield he is free to misbehave in 
class, but in Cypress Creek he is pulled out of class for his lack of knowledge and 
placed into a remedial class with a group of misfits. Bart is entirely unhappy here 
because he’s no longer able to cause trouble. Everything he does is acceptable – 
even when the class is playing musical chairs (with extra chairs) and he remains 
standing, he still wins the game. Because he cannot be a loser, Bart loses his 
identity.

At first, Lisa is enthusiastic about moving to Cypress Creek. She is the only family 
member who seems interested in the video, “A Tale Of One City,” most likely 
because of the literature reference, something that Springfield would have never 
come up with. Also, she says, “Did you notice how the people weren’t shoving or 
knocking each other down?” Of course, Bart immediately knocks her down, but it’s 
interesting to note that this comment alludes to the peaceful appearance of the 
corporate agenda on the surface. By the end of the episode, we learn that the 
town of Cypress Creek came together in order to help the Globex corporation to 
knock down the entire east coast.  The government has similarly knocked down 
businesses in the past, but now businesses have grown bigger than the 
government, and in nature, it’s survival of the fittest. We see this theme yet again 
in this episode when the owl swoops down and grabs the “northern reticulated 
chipmunk,” which incidentally isn’t a real type of chipmunk. Also in this scene, Lisa 
changes her mind about Cypress Creek after she learns that she’s allergic to its 
foliage. She’s surrounded by beauty but cannot appreciate it, and this troubles her 
deeply because of her love of nature.

Marge takes pride in her position as the homemaker, but her new home strips her 
of this responsibility. The vacuum patrols on its own, the oven cleans itself, the 
garden waters itself, and the swing-a-ma-jig keeps Maggie occupied. There is 
nothing else left for Marge to do, and so she starts drinking in a scene reminiscent 
of The Stepford Wives, where the perfect town is anything but perfect.

Finally, there is Maggie, who is content with her pacifier. She doesn’t desire any 
technology, only a pacifier, and when she is placed into the swing-a-ma-jig 
contraption, she doesn’t like it. She reaches unsuccessfully for the off button and is 
enslaved by the technological swing that is designed to artificially pacify her. 

A higher standard of living doesn’t ensure happiness, and often it can create 
unhappiness because there is more to life than having money and living in a 
completely sterilized town.

It’s notable that in this episode there was one person who was content all along 
with what they have: Smithers. The episode begins with Smithers leaving his 
apartment, which looks a bit like Henry Higgins’ house in My Fair Lady. Smithers 
strolls down the street and sings, “I work for Monty Burns, M-M-M-M-M-Monty 
Burns” to the tune of, “Hooray For Hollywood.” The Globex corporation approaches 
him, but he isn’t impressed by the limousine or the politically correct consideration 
of his “life partner” because he is perfectly happy working for Mr. Burns. He 
appreciates what he has. Smithers could be depressed because his love for Mr. 
Burns isn’t reciprocal, but he isn’t. Smithers lives every day in the company of the 
love of his life, which makes him the gayest man in town.