(ominous deep space music) OUTPOST Citizen. Citizen. Citizen.
(gasps) (birds chirp) Aria. It's morning, Citizen. (sighs) Morning. There's no such thing. Studies indicate that the replication of the earth's sun cycle is beneficial to a human being's sense of contentment, Citizen. I had hoped the water would be calming. Still won't call me Gordon? Isn't it against your programming to enter personal quarters uninvited? Am I uninvited? No. Your vitals were erratic and I felt authorized to attend. Did you come to check my vitals? Yes. How's my pulse? It's healthy. Speeding slightly. And my breathing? Breathe in. (Inhales) No, no, no. Not my neurolink. Ok fine. (gentle piano music) What's my prognosis? You need a workout. What?! Your morning training was scheduled to begin 11 minutes ago. Aw. Uh. Can do me a favor? Run another diagnostic check in the beyond? Yes, Citizen. And put on a shirt already. Probe attempt one four eight. Final attempt by the Citizen before his departure. Data on the unknown space phenomenon, colloquially referred to as "the beyond", remains virtually unchanged. Each probe continues to fail in transmitting any useable information. The beyond is still observed as an impenetrable dark band of... something. Okay. Almost there. ( metal mechanical sounds ) Looks like this is it. ( vacuum door opens, suction ) You're leaving. I don't want to leave. You have to. No. I don't want to leave you. Come with me. We can take the transport together. I can't Citizen. Protocol dictates I remain with the outpost. I'm the property of The Interstellar citizen's commission. A.R.I.A., you stay here, they'll decommission you. You know that. You've come so far. I can't let that happen. Citizen, the probe has arrived at the beyond. Alright. Come on, give me something here. ( beeping ) (beep, beep, beep) Oh my God, Oh my God. A.R.I.A. Citizen, we are receiving transmission. Yes! We are receiving transmission. Citizen, the pulse signal is steady. Keep it steady! Come on! Come on! It worked Citizen! It worked! Woo! Yes! Woo! I love that! (laughs) That's beautiful. (faint beeping) (intermittent strong beeping) What's that? We're losing signal. Well, boost Sat 3! Now! Satellite 3 is down! What do you mean it's down?! The data is being corrupted. It's being erased! I don't even know how! Communications are down, power is failing, life support is... Citizen, you're not equipped to move the data port! I got it! What's going on? What is it? It's here. A.R.I.A., can you get us emergency power? (mechanical sounds, sounds of lasers powering up) Just in case. Look, we've got to get to the main reactor, if we can reboot it we can probably Citizen your hand! Listen. The data core. Our research. can you save it? Yes, if I were fully operational I could but... (ominous, giant footsteps) RUN! A.R.I.A., tell me what's happening. Something's here. I'm picking up six distinct organic signatures. Organic? They're reaching sectors two, five, and eight. They're headed our way! (electricity zapping) A.R.I.A., this is it. We have to make contact. This is an aggressive infiltration. My directive is to get you to the emergency transport pod. We don't know that they're hostile. Citizen, my directive. I won't... (explosions) (WARNING POWER SYSTEM FAIL, WARNING POWER SYSTEM FAIL) A.R.I.A., A.R.I.A. That was a terrarium, Citizen. Life system is compromised. Dammit. They're going to be on top of us before we can reach the escape pod. Do you have door control? Yes. Alright, route them through Supply Holding. Let's slow them down. (loud banging and creaking) Done. They're entering Supply Holding. Blow the oxygen tanks.
That will compromise our structural... DO IT! (explosions) Did it work? I, I don't know. My cloudlink is offline. I can't access the escape pod or the jump portal. It's going to be alright. Come on. We're almost there. (sounds of electricity arcing) (liquid gurgling)
(gasping, groaning) You were never meant to discover us. Your kind is not prepared. The data core. Take it. Just take it. The machine must not be allowed to leave. ( cries out ) Let me go! (music crescendos) (shots fired) (music softens, piano plays) You were supposed to leave me. Protocol requires I stay with the base. Well, you're coming with me. (engine accelerates) You're okay, you're okay. Alright we're going to make it. We're almost to the jump portal. Citizen. Alright, just hold on A.R.I.A. Citizen. I can feel them rebooting my cloudlink. They're tracking me. They're coming for you. Well, let them come. I can stop them. No. No. No. A.R.I.A. just don't. Alright, just, whatever you're thinking of doing A.R.I.A., don't do it. Citizen.
No, goddamn it A.R.I.A., I'm not letting you go. Gordon. Please. Please. I have to let go. Oh, no, no no A.R.I.A., A.R.I.A., A.R.I.A. Noooooo! (The jump portal roars to life) (sobs) (feet walking in sand, wind blows, birds chirp)
(water laps again shore) (electricity buzzes) Gordon? Can you hear me?
After five years of post-production and a lengthy festival run, we finally get to share this film with the world! It's only our second film and we've made a lot of things since then, but we're super proud of this one.
Happy to answer any question about funding, production (over 200 VFX shots), why the hell it took so long to finish, and how we got distributed with Gunpowder&Sky/DUST. Honestly, if I knew then what I know now about how hard it is to make films of this scope, I don't know if it would've ever been attempted. But we had an awesome team and now I can actually tell people about it!
Solid intro, checking it out now. Friday at work, lol.