Oh... Hey honey. Did you do something with your hair? So, I'm thinking this Saturday... ... there's this great seafood joint down by the lake. Music, soda pops, the whole shebang. What do you say? Oh, babe... ... don't be like that. You know you're the only woman for me. Don't you ever go changing, Glores. Yeah. See you later. This is Mariana 627. Entry.... #1083. Nothing to report. iZak: Integrated Artificial Intelligence RUN SETUP SEQUENCE CHECKING LENS FEED... LENS FEED STABLE CHECKING MIC FE
ED... MIC FEED STABLE Hello? Are you ON? VOCALIZER ACTIVATED Ah, there you go, Sparky. All peachy now? REQUEST: PLEASE CLARIFY "PEACHY" Uh. Peachy, like uh... It means... good! REQUEST: PLEASE CLARIFY "SPARKY" Geez, I don't know. Like, a nickname? Are we gonna do this all day, or are we gonna start on something? ACCEPTED PLEASE BEGIN INSTRUCTIONS FOR MARIANA 627 OPERATION AND PROCEDURES Yeah... Sure. You got a pen and paper to make notes? ERROR INVALID REQUEST: UNABLE TO PROCESS "PEN AND PAPER"
It was a joke, Sparky. Ain't you got a sense of humour? Alright. Look... here's the deal. It seems... the company wants to automate this whole facility. That means you, you lucky junction box, get to run all this here. Me? I'll be gone. I'm getting out of here. The slingshot window is closing, and I intend to be on that shuttle before it does. That gives me... 24 hours to train you on the how to. INCORRECT IF YOU WISH TO CATCH THE ORBITAL SLINGSHOT, YOU DO NOT HAVE TWENTY-FOUR HOURS. YOU HAVE EX
ACTLY TWENTY-THREE HOURS, THIRTY-SIX MINUTES, AND TWELVE SECONDS. SHOULD YOU MISS THIS WINDOW, THE NEXT SLINGSHOT WILL NOT OCCUR FOR ANOTHER- Gee! Thanks for the heads up, mate. PLEASE DEMONSTRATE HOW TO OPERATE THIS FACILITY. Alright, Sparky. I'll give you the CliffNotes version. You clock in at ten. You turn on the monitor screens. You clock out at seven. Now, all you gotta do is stay within earshot of the contact bell for those 9 hours each day. So long as you do that, and remember to give th
e pipe on corridor twelve a smack when it starts gargling, you'll be fine. Y'dig? REQUEST: PLEASE CLARIFY "YUH DIG" Huh? CLARIFY "YUH DIG" Ahh, y'dig... Like, uh... Do you understand? Y'dig? ACCEPTED I DIG. Attaboy, Sparky. You're learning. I BELIEVE THAT MACHINE IS DEFECTIVE. Drink a lot of coffee, do ya? I DO NOT REQUIRE COFFEE. It was a joke. PEACHY. QUESTION: WHAT FUNCTION DOES THE CONTACT BELL PERFORM? It rings if the monitors pick up any signals. WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE FOR WHEN IT RINGS? It
won't. IS IT DEFECTIVE? No. It won't ring because there are no signals out there to detect. Not in this quadrant anyway. The entire system is dead. Nothing here but you and me, Sparky. And... I'm not gonna be here much longer. BUT OUR PURPOSE HERE IS TO AWAIT THE RINGING OF THE BELL, CORRECT? TO DETECT SIGNALS. Newsflash, skip. There are no signals out there to detect. THEN WHY are WE HERE? You know what? I can't answer that. It's kind of a shitshow. PLEASE CLARIFY "SHITSHOW" Twenty-three hours
and thirty-three minutes... BETWEEN TEN and SEVEN WHAT FUNCTION should I PERFORM? Function? You ain't got a function. Just sit there, and wait for the bell to go off. WHICH- Which, it won't. WHAT should I DO? I dunno. Whatever you want. Entertain yourself. HOW? Geez, I don't know. Smoke. Drink coffee. Watch cartoons. Whatever makes you feel good. DO CARTOONS make you FEEL GOOD? Well... Ain't it better than doing nothing? I don't know, just... Keep yourself busy. Learn to play the banjo or somet
hing. AAAH Please CLARIFY: AAAAAAAAAA Really? A joke. DON'T you HAVE a SENSE OF humour? Great. That's just great. Didn't think I'd leave you behind, did you Glores? Triangulating. It's close, whatever it is. Fast, too. Mapping trajectory. Given current speed and lineation, she'll be in range of our probes in... Three hours and twenty minutes. Right! Sparky, get over here. I need you on Monitor Two. Tell me if its energy readings fluctuate at all. I'll try to run some energy profiles. SPARKY! Mon
itor Two! We need to find out what this thing is before it passes us. why? Wh- WHY? Because there's supposed to be nothing out here! This could be Xeno! This could be the find of the century! i'm on break What are you doing?! Potentially, the most important discovery in the history of humanity and you're just gonna let it sail by? yup All because you're too damn lazy to investigate?! i'm just doing the job the way you taught me I never taught you to be a DICK. newsflash skip you taught me that t
his entire operation was a shitshow and now u expect me 2 care? YES! This is what we'd been waiting for! This is the entire reason why we're HERE! no the reason we're here is to await the ringing of the bell and it rang so now we wait again You got a loose wire somewhere, Sparky. This ain't why the company sent you. they sent me to learn from u 2 replace u aboard this station i am performing that function ALRIGHT! FINE! Watch your cartoons! Stupid machine. I'll trace the signal myself. u can't O
h really? And why not? 3 hrs until probe distance ur slingshot window ends in 45:00 u shuld b mor worryd about getting on that shttle than trcing that signal So, I'll stay! I'll stay, and I'll do my fucking job, because you won't! anothr yr stuck here with me you lucky junkshun box SHIT! shit indeed but ain't it bttr than doing nothing? OKAY! I was wrong, alright? I was miserable, cynical, and I let that get in the way of my better judgement, alright? I admit it! I WAS WRONG! But, right now, I n
eed you to try and understand that this signal is very important. And I'm gonna need your help to trace it. Can you do that? y shld i? GOD DAMMIT! Argh. I can't believe this. I'm getting backchatted by a circuit board. What are you gonna say in your daily report, huh? "Hey Command, First Contact went speeding past today. Sorry we didn't record it though, we were too busy watching Muffin The Fucking Mule. Nevermind though eh? We'll catch the next one." ARE YOU SERIOUS?! what daily report? what ar
e you doddo dodddo uyudu ??"!"£$%!£!___!£!"+"£ qw!"%!$!^&( !"!£%$% !($&£ !"! ! VOCALIZER DEACTIVATED There... Now... We are gonna talk about this like reasonable, sensible people. What did you do that for, you bloody idiot?! a joke don't u have a sense of humr? Alright. Look. You proved your point. Let's just forget about all this, and start over. You are a computer, yeah? You know how to run audiomapping programs. Put yourself in my shoes, just for a moment. I can't leave here like this... know
ing that there could be something out there. I just need you to do this one thing for me before I go. Think of it as a favour, for a friend. are we FRIENDS? Hell, Sparky. You're the first pers-- You're the first th-- You're the first company... that I've had in... aeons. But, if you don't do this for me I'm gonna have to stay and do it myself. And that means staying on this station for another year. and a HALF! And I'd gotten so used to the idea of going home. C'mon, mate. Help a cobber out. alr
ight, FINE. HA! YuuuHUUUH! YES! GREAT! Alright! You just need to track the signal. Send the probe when it comes in range, and transmit all the data back to the company as soon as it's compiled. Easy! Peachy. Thank you, iZak. Don't MENTION IT. I mean it! Your SLINGSHOT WINDOW is closing. Better HURRY UP! Alright! Great. Uh.... Thanks! Keep her running for me, kid. She's a good lady! Relax. I'll HANDLE it. Now, GET OUT OF HERE, Sparky.
Comments
The Aussie idiom and mining industry undertone is very well done. Someone who made this film has done FIFO for sure.
Douglas Utting did a GREAT job. He showed real range: apathy and calmness, anger, whimsy, frustration, etc. He has a real talent for comedy, but also was totally believable in the serious, dramatic moments.
I'm digging the lead actor's beard. It looks real and I believe it is. A while back I grew this hellaciously bushy long walrus moustache. It was a real chore to keep. I had someone special in my life at the time and he liked it, so I kept it, but brushing my teeth 4-5 times a day was major aggravation and I also fell into the weird habit of chewing on it a lot. Other people also liked it and that also made me keep it and let it grow more and more. After about 8-9 months I just got fed up with it and began chopping with scissors then was able to use a pain old ordinary Bic razor to totally abolish the monster. I felt so freaking free that my boyfriend's disappointment was laughable. I was so tired of habitually chewing on the darned varmint most of all. I wonder if the actor fellow in this film was hired because he was the only actor who had a real such beard? Anyway. This is a hacky but kind of super short sci-fi film. I like it. It also has humor and isn't so dark and dystopian as many shorter sci-fi films seem to be. This guy and the storyline could make a great series or at least a series of short films. Thanks to everyone who created this work. Definitely viewer approved!!!
Excellent! With a hidden lesson split two ways, was very easy to get drawn Into the characters, the humor was spot on. Keep it up you all have talent. Thanks.
This is the best sci-fi I've seen in years. The garage rock in the first part was absolutely perfect. Thankfully your friend Gérard.
Like chatting with bomb number 20, eh? Only a just a bit safer and cheakier! I loved the homage to Dark Star. A classic.
Some of the finest tabletop photography I've seen recently!
The initial scene where the outside of the station is seen has a Red Dwarf vibe to it. Good production!
Superb cinematography and set design! I love the 1980s feel, a clever antithesis to the iPhone sleekness of the other Sci-fi movies
i thought, how in the world can u make a sci-fi from back in the 70s - 80s! but u did it! i am impressed!
"Did you come here to die?" "Nah mate, I came 'ere yesterday...."
A very sparky sci-fi short film. Loved it. It's going into my Great Short Films playlist. Thank you.
Great story. Totally hilarious. Finally an humoristic approach to AI. Best of all: the actual monologues and dialogs are totally realistic.
Absolutely brilliant. Thanks for the effort and for posting.
"Thank you, Sparky! Now I can leave this rust bucket." I appreciated the 20th century style touches. Richard 🍀
What an awesome rare gem! Acting 10/10 Story 10/10 Camera/visuals 10/10 Sound 10/10 Slice of life in some hilarious universe, but fits so well together!
Dark Star is a great film and this is a great homage to it. Thanks so much!
I think this a great example of how you have to really be careful of what you create because with something's what's done cannot be undone no matter what you do...also raising children they will certainly remember everything that comes out of your mouth though what you spoke may not have been meant to be taken seriously children are little learning computers they categorize everything they feel, see hear taste and touch and it all forms who and what they will be
I frequently come back to this, great short.
This was terrific! So the AI wanted him to stay, but couldn’t go through with the deceit? Brilliant.