Draft:Emesis Blue

• Comment: The only source cited is a primary one. IMDB is not considered a reliable source as it is user-generated.-- Umakant Bhalerao (talk) 04:39, 4 June 2024 (UTC)
• Comment: Blanking draft, rewriting the thing from scratch Orchastrattor (talk) 23:24, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

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Emesis Blue is a 2023 computer animated independent psychological horror fan film based on the online shooter video game Team Fortress 2. The film was produced entirely in Source Filmmaker by the fan group Fortress Films and released for free on YouTube on February 20th 2023. Emesis Blue bases many of its assets directly on those of the original game, following the nine playable mercenary characters on a fictionalized depiction of the 2Fort multiplayer map, but maintains a mature, surreal tone with an original narrative. It received critical acclaim for its high production value and its length, a total of one hour and 48 minutes, which were said to be closer to those of a feature film than a typical Source Filmmaker production.

Drawing on the backstory originally presented in Team Fortress 2, the film is set on Halloween night, 1968, during the fictional Gravel Wars between mercenaries of Builders League United (BLU) and Reliable Excavation and Demolition (RED). The film follows an otherwise original plotline that includes diegetic references to game mechanics like respawning, rocket jumping, or the capture the flag gamemode, focusing on a non-canonical "respawn machine" supposedly used in-universe to revive the characters in gameplay.

Plot

The BLU Scout visits the Medic over the side-effects of the respawn machines. Scout complains of paranoia and nightmares in addition to the physical defects that got him fired from the team, and Medic confirms the machine has had disturbing failures before. The Scout returns home to his single mother, only for her to be murdered and dismembered by the RED Pyro and an unseen second assailant.

The Spy and Soldier investigate the disappearance of BLU chairman Jules Archibald, tailing the Heavy Weapons Guy as he hands off a briefcase. The Soldier kills the Heavy in an altercation, but a mysterious figure escapes with the briefcase in a hearse. The Medic wakes from an out-of-body experience with blood on his hands and receives an envelope of photographs of Scout's mother's murder, being directed by a bloody inscription to a RED base, where he narrowly avoids the Heavy while escaping to a torture chamber in the basement. He frees the Scout, who mistakes the Medic for his captor, and runs off only to be recaptured by two Engineers in the flag room. One of the Engineers manages to overpower and kill the Medic, only for the Medic to mysteriously resurrect and brutally kill both of them.

The Spy and Soldier find the Medic's bonesaw at the murder scene, tracing him to the base. They outwit and fatally wound the RED Sniper in the sewers, but Spy is captured after the two are separated by the Pyro. The Soldier experiences a temporal anomaly before freeing a wounded RED Demoman, who claims the base is no longer under RED's control as the two fight off a mutated Scout and a group of RED zombies. The Medic, now suffering a psychotic break, defeats a zombified version of himself and takes the briefcase up to meet Soldier and Demoman, where the trio are forced into an elevator further down to escape the Heavy. The Spy escapes and kills the Pyro, but has his face burnt off in the resulting gasoline fire.

All four mercenaries begin to lose their grasp on reality as they move deeper into the base. The Demoman meets a third Engineer who describes the Limbo-like eternity mercenaries experience between respawns. The Soldier and Medic find evidence of Archibald's initial experiments with respawning and the extreme toll it had on subjects. The Soldier then finds the Demoman frozen to death in a cloning lab before he and Medic defeat the resurrected Sniper and Pyro. The Spy finds Archibald confessing to war profiteering with the respawn machines over the phone and shoots him, then forcing the Medic and Soldier to play Russian roulette, killing the Medic. The Soldier narrowly avoids being killed by the Spy himself while pursued by the Heavy. The Soldier finally escapes the base as it burns down, and the Heavy is killed by falling debris.

At Archibald's funeral, attended by the rival CEOs Blutarch and Redmond Mann, the Spy gives a cover story of the Medic murdering Archibald and committing suicide, installing himself as Archibald's successor. A resurrected Medic suddenly rises from Archibald's coffin and shoots the Spy, battling his way out. The Soldier defects and hands Medic the briefcase, helping fight off the Mann brothers' bodyguards and killing Blutarch. The Medic escapes the police in an ambulance, running over Redmond in the chaos, only to die in a car crash outside the city. He meets Archibald, Scout, and one of the Engineers in purgatory as a mysterious figure is seen emerging out of a flaming respawn machine.

Cast

• "JazzyJoeyJr" as the Soldier
• David Love as Jules Archibald and Blutarch Mann
• Cameron Nichols as the Scout
• John Whinfield as background voices
• Anton Pelizzari as the Engineers and background voices
• Chad Payne as the Medic, Demoman, third Engineer, Redmond Mann, Spy, Sniper, and Heavy Weapons Guy

An honorable thanks was given to late voice actor Rick May, whose legacy voice acting in the original game was occasionally used for the Soldier's screams.

Production and style

Emesis Blue was developed over the course of four years in Source Filmmaker, led by Australian writer and director Chris Payne. The film combines 3D Source animation with strong, neo-noir lighting, focusing on authenticity to the original game's assets and acknowledging the technical limitations of the software. Sharp red-and-blue lights are used over othewise desaturated sets to emulate in-game team differentiation, while policemen and other background characters not readily available in the original assets are shaded out as silhouettes to distinguish them from the canonical cast of Team Fortress 2 models.

A second Team Fortress film by the creators is "all but confirmed" under development as of 2024, currently titled Murder Inc.

Reception

Emesis Blue has been lauded as the first mainstream feature film to have been produced with Source Filmmaker, and the first Source project of its kind since Darkest Days, a earlier hour-long musical fan-film based on Left 4 Dead 2. Praise was directed towards the film's tone, visuals, voice cast, and technical ambition, while its narrative was described as reliant on mystery, nonlinear storytelling, and fan theories. Some background details of the film's universe were noted as overly reliant on the audience's familiarity with the original game's story, but the experience was otherwise described as appealing to general horror fans as well.

Film journalist Kayvon Bumpus noted some remaining budgetary constraints placed on the film, but nonetheless considered Emesis Blue a potential "crowning achievement" for both machinima and Source Filmmaker, writing that "countless projects with more budget, staff, and polish have failed to impress like this animated indie gem does". Gaming critic Yahtzee Croshaw praised the film as an engaging noir narrative and an example of what he coined as post-punk, arguing its production and tone subverted mainstream filmmaking standards by instead relying on the punk art practices of earlier satirical works like Heavy is Dead.

See also

• M (1931)

External links

• EMESIS BLUE official upload on YouTube
• Emesis Blue on IMDb