After he almost died, Kevin Smith was sure of one thing: he had to bring back Jay and Silent Bob.

The Highlands-native filmmaker suffered a massive heart attack in February 2018. While he'd already been hoping to revive the characters of Jay and Silent Bob — lovable Jersey Shore drug dealers introduced in his 1994 debut "Clerks" — the shocking health scare, he said, changed everything.

"When I was on the (operating) table, I was told I had an 80 percent chance of dying and I was OK with that, relatively speaking," Smith told the Asbury Park Press. "I was like, ‘I had a great life, and you can’t be selfish and greedy. If this is the end, this is the end.’

"The only regret I had though was, ‘Man, if I die tonight, the last movie I made was (the 2016 horror comedy) ‘Yoga Hosers’ and that doesn’t say much about who I was. It certainly doesn’t say that he expected to die very soon, otherwise he wouldn’t have ended with this.’ "

Instead, Smith returns with the October release "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot." It's a continuation of the View Askew interconnected cinematic universe he launched with "Clerks" 25 years ago, then expanded with "Mallrats" (1995), "Chasing Amy" (1997), "Dogma" (1999), "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (2001) and "Clerks II" (2006).

This time around, Jay and Silent Bob journey to Hollywood to sabotage an attempted reboot of a film inspired by them set to be directed by none other than Kevin Smith. Along for the ride is Milly, the daughter Jay never knew he had, played by Smith's own 20-year-old daughter, Harley Quinn Smith.

It's a playfully self-referential premise but Smith, now 49, said he was determined to make a film that stood as a heartfelt document of who he was, how he lived and what he believed in.

It's little surprise that Smith, who has dropped more than 50 pounds and adopted a vegan lifestyle, has made his now notably-slimmer on-screen persona Silent Bob vegan as well.

"The idea is you watch this flick and you’re like, ‘Oh, well I know exactly who the director was. Boy, he’s in every frame of the movie, when he’s not Silent Bob he’s playing himself. It’s kind of gross. But clearly he was a big fan of himself and loved all of his friends and his interconnected movies and New Jersey,'" Smith said. "It’s a real testimony to who I was and I get to make the testimony. As opposed to somebody else giving me flowers after I’m gone, I gave myself flowers.”

Much of the film's emotion — including a few moments likely to cause tears — is rooted in the very real connection between Mewes, who is also a dad, and Harley Quinn Smith.

“Because he was standing opposite Harley, who he’s known since she came out of the womb for heaven’s sake, it was a different story," Smith said. "It wasn’t me, she got a better performance out of the guy because as she stands in front of him tearing up he just instantly reacts because he’s like, ‘That’s Harley and she’s sad.’ She got him to emote without even trying, so she was a secret weapon in that way inasmuch as I was like, ‘Wow, who knew that we were going to get Jason to squirt a few (tears)?’ ”

"Reboot" plays select cinemas Oct. 15 and 17 via Fathom Events before the "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Roadshow" tour of screenings and question-and-answer sessions launches Oct. 19 at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park.

"Reboot," which Smith described as "a nostalgia bomb of a movie," is surely his definitive statement on himself as an artist and a person, but it's also a love letter to those who have stuck by him all this time.

Amidst appearances by generations of friends, family and frequent colleagues, Mewes and father-and-daughter Smith have crafted a surprisingly tender family odyssey.

“Making people laugh with Jay and Silent Bob, that’s the standard, you have to do that going in, and I’m happy to do that," Smith said. "After a quarter of a century, Jason and I know how to mine laughs out of Jay and Silent Bob.

"But this time around, the exciting thing was mining emotions out of Jay and Silent Bob that weren’t just glee and giddiness. Like, (we were) going for what the kids call ‘the feels.’ "

"Jay and Silent Bob Reboot" plays select cinemas Tuesday, Oct. 15 and Thursday, Oct. 17 via Fathom Events. For a full list of participating theaters and to purchase tickets, visit FathomEvents.com/Reboot.

The "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot" Roadshow tour launches Saturday, Oct. 19 at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park. For tickets and a full list of tour dates, visit rebootroadshow.com.

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