Each of the pairs of pictures at the bottom of the puzzle clues a movie franchise, sorted alphabetically by title (as they appear in the film titles, ignoring leading articles). Some pairs clue the franchise title, while others may clue elements of the plot or characters. The franchises, in the order depicted, are:
The flavortext refers to “series” and notes that the Pi Day Town residents “only know their neighbors on a surface level.” In addition, the title of the puzzle consists of the last three letters of “before” and the first three of “after.” Each of the fractions in the first three and last three rows of the table is sandwiched by two trigrams that are the end of a “before” item and the beginning of an “after” item; specifically, these are the end and beginning of the subtitles occurring before and after a particular film in the series.
For example, the “(4/7)” in the upper left represents The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which occurs between New Moon (ending in OON) and Breaking Dawn, Part 1 (starting with BRE). ECLIPSE has seven letters, and the fourth of these is I, so the fraction can be replaced by the letter I. The 36 letters generated this way are as shown:
OON (4/7) BRE | ECLIPSE | I | Twilight | New Moon | Breaking Dawn Part 1 |
ISE (3/6) MID | SUNSET | N | Before | Sunrise | Midnight |
ACH (13/14) MIS | CITY UNDER SIEGE | G | Police Academy | Assignment Miami Beach | Mission Moscow |
NGE (9/13) DRE | DREAM WARRIORS | R | Nightmare on Elm Street, A | Freddys Revenge | Dream Master |
LNO (8/10) GLO | 4TH AWAKENS | E | Sharknado | Oh Hell No | Global Swarming |
IOR (7/17) FUR | BEYOND THUNDERDOME | T | Mad Max | Road Warrior | Fury Road |
IES (4/20) PRO | BEYOND THE GATES OF HELL | O | Wishmaster | Evil Never Dies | Prophecy Fulfilled |
UEL (8/11) ROA | CHIPWRECKED | C | Alvin and the Chipmunks | Squeakquel | Road Chip |
AMP (3/9) BET | NAKED MILE | K | American Pie | Band Camp | Beta House |
LEN (6/13) AGE | DARK OF THE MOON | F | Transformers | Revenge of the Fallen | Age of Extinction |
DAY (14/17) SAL | RISE OF THE MACHINES | I | Terminator | Judgment Day | Salvation |
VES (1/8) JAS | NEW BLOOD | N | Friday the 13th | Jason Lives | Jason Takes Manhattan |
ELS (5/9) WIC | SALVATION | A | Crow, The | City of Angels | Wicked Prayer |
CKS (9/16) LEG | BACK TO PERFECTION | R | Tremors | Aftershocks | Legend Begins |
URS (11/16) COL | CONTINENTAL DRIFT | L | Ice Age | Dawn of the Dinosaurs | Collision Course |
ARM (7/9) ONV | AT THE FAIR | A | Ma and Pa Kettle | Back on the Farm | On Vacation |
ASS (9/16) APO | DAYS OF FUTURE PAST | T | X-Men | First Class | Apocalypse |
OUT (1/14) FAI | WINNER TAKES ALL | W | Substitute, The | Schools Out | Failure Is Not an Option |
ION (13/15) AWA | RISE OF THE LYCANS | A | Underworld | Evolution | Awakening |
BAR (5/7) UTO | MOROCCO | C | Road to | Zanzibar | Utopia |
ING (7/14) BAT | SORCERERS CURSE | E | Dragonheart | New Beginning | Battle for the Heartfire |
REY (3/6) FRE | DARKER | R | Fifty Shades | Of Grey | Freed |
EST (5/9) FIE | GATHERING | E | Children of the Corn | Urban Harvest | Fields of Terror |
AMS (6/8) ALL | GAME OVER | V | Spy Kids | Island of Lost Dreams | All the Time in the World |
ISE (7/14) NER | NEXT GENERATION | N | Revenge of the Nerds | Nerds in Paradise | Nerds in Love |
DER (6/8) TRA | INVASION | I | Starship Troopers | Marauder | Traitor of Mars |
PSE (2/10) AFT | EXTINCTION | X | Resident Evil | Apocalypse | Afterlife |
OLD (11/15) FIR | CHASING THE DREAM | D | Cutting Edge, The | Going for the Gold | Fire and Ice |
RLD (4/11) JUD | REVELATIONS | E | Hellraiser | Hellworld | Judgment |
ERY (9/15) GOL | SPY WHO SHAGGED ME | A | Austin Powers | International Man of Mystery | Goldmember |
ITY (8/9) ULT | SUPREMACY | C | Bourne, The | Identity | Ultimatum |
NCE (2/6) REF | VOYEUR | O | Mirror Mirror | Raven Dance | Reflection |
OCK (10/15) BIG | STONE OF COLD FIRE | L | Land Before Time, The | Secret of Saurus Rock | Big Freeze |
PUP (14/18) SPI | SEVENTH INNING FETCH | F | Air Bud | World Pup | Spikes Back |
LES (5/7) LON | DOG DAYS | A | Diary of a Wimpy Kid | Rodrick Rules | Long Haul |
ACK (6/9) HIG | KNUCKLE UP | L | 3 Ninjas | Kick Back | High Noon at Mega Mountain |
Once these 36 letters are filled in, there are now six more pairs of trigrams surrounding fractions, reading down each column. No clues are given for these franchises, but they are intentionally six of the most successful film franchises of all time, which will hopefully have seemed conspicuously absent from the initial set:
ING (5/9) RET | TWO TOWERS | O | Lord of the Rings | Fellowship of the Ring | Return of the King |
OCK (8/10) FIN | VOYAGE HOME | O | Star Trek | Search for Spock | Final Frontier |
ARL (5/13) ATW | DEAD MANS CHEST | M | Pirates of the Caribbean | Curse of the Black Pearl | At World’s End |
ACE (6/17) REV | ATTACK OF THE CLONES | K | Star Wars | Phantom Menace | Revenge of the Sith |
NIX (12/15) DEA | HALF BLOOD PRINCE | I | Harry Potter | Order of the Phoenix | Deathly Hallows Part 1 |
COL (6/11) FAL | ROGUE NATION | N | Mission Impossible | Ghost Protocol | Fallout |
The resulting letters, OOM KIN, form one more pair of trigrams from one more unclued franchise: the Indiana Jones film series, in which the phrase appearing between TEMPLE OF DOOM and KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL is LAST CRUSADE, the answer to this puzzle.