Line #17 WebVideo/SCPOverlord


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/9d001986_ee9b_47ee_8ede_a07b17b781bc.jpeg]]
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3	''SCP: Overlord'' is a 2020 short film directed by Stephen Hancock and written by Evan Murr, set within the ''Website/SCPFoundation'' universe. It is currently available to watch on [[https://youtu.be/EOxarwd3eTs YouTube]].
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5	When the kidnapping victims of a religious cult are seen suspended in the air above Massachusetts, a squad of soldiers from a clandestine organization are dispatched to secure the site, contain the anomaly, and protect normalcy. Little do they know of what horrors they are about to face.
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7	The film is unrelated to ''Film/Overlord2018'' and ''VideoGame/{{Overlord}}''.
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10	!!The film provides examples of:
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12	* TheAnticipator: As the team move onto the cult's property, they find the Missing Persons posters of the kidnapped victims stapled to trees on their infiltration route.
13	* BottomlessPits: The team find holes with no visible bottom in the woods. [[spoiler:They are the exit points of the tentacles of a giant InvisibleMonster beneath the earth.]]
14	* BrickJoke: When Reyes is trying to guess the code to the basement door, Besson suggests he try 1234. Later, that turns out to be the actual code.
15	* CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker: The preaching of the cult leader can be heard as the MTF team move in to investigate the farm. The recording continues even after they've shot Pender, much to their annoyance.
16	* CultDefector: Lewis, apparently Father Pender's most trusted follower, realised the bas relief they uncovered did not offer the salvation Pender was preaching after seeing what it did to the other cult members. While Pender was busy elsewhere, he locked himself in the strong room containing the bas relief and [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled killed himself]], so no-one else would be exposed to it.
17	* DesignatedPointMan: Kolinski becomes this after finding the anomalous camera.
18	* DoomsdayCult: The New Transcendentalists, a New Age cult lead by Ethan Pender. However they didn't start out as a doomsday cult; the team note that the cult's ideology has completely flipped from their original goals, apparently [[ArtifactOfDoom after they dug up the bas relief]].
19	* DoorHandleScare: Followed by the door opening seemingly by itself[[spoiler:, until the [[TrueSight camera shows the monstrous humanoid that opened it after the door opens.]]]]
20	* DugTooDeep: Lewis comments that the bas relief they found was buried long ago.
21	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Besson is driven to this by whatever he sees while using the camera in the basement.]]
22	* EldritchAbomination: Implied with the 'overlord' that Pender's cult worship.
23	-->'''Pender:''' Light, darkness, up and down... are all irrelevant concepts to our [[TitleDrop overlord]].
24	* FreezeFrameBonus:
25	** Instead of a flag, Jansen has a patch on his helmet that says: "The violence has escalated".
26	** A plate carrier has a patch that says: "Cowabunga it is".
27	* GasMaskMooks: A rare good-guy version. The squad wear face-concealing gas masks, so are distinguishable by their clothes and helmet decorations, as they're only removed in the opening mission briefing. Non-lethal chemicals are deployed at one point, so it's not just for show.
28	* GoneMadFromTheRevelation: We never see what exactly it is [[spoiler:that Besson saw through the camera in the basement, but whatever it is is so bad that Besson starts convulsing before shooting himself in the head.]]
29	* LastWords:
30	** "1-2 and 1-4: Hold your positions. Over." [[spoiler:Lambert, prior to having his throat slit by one of the invisible cultists.]]
31	** "This is all fucking gibberish to me, man." [[spoiler:Besson shortly before he shoots himself upon encountering [[NothingIsScarier whatever it is he sees]].]]
32	* TheLeader: Lambert. He gives the orders to the rest of the squad. [[spoiler:The position [[YouAreInCommandNow transfers to Reyes]] after Lambert's unexpected death.]]
33	* LovecraftCountry: The mission is set on a foggy day in rural Massachusetts, raiding an esoteric cult whose abductees are now suspended in the air.
34	* TheMenInBlack: The Foundation briefer notes that amnestic treatments have been given to anyone who's found out about the anomaly. Then we get to see what the MIB's SWATTeam is like.
35	* MissionBriefing: The film opens with the team being briefed before the raid on the Pender commune.
36	* MultinationalTeam: The squad known as MTF Epsilon-6 ("Village Idiots") consists of individuals from several places, identifiable by the flags on their helmets. They including Poland (Kolinski), England (Lambert), Italy (Cicero), France (Besson), and New Mexico (Reyes). Jansen doesn't have a flag on his helmet, but his accent sounds American.
37	* NightVisionGoggles: Including four-lens versions to avert NoPeripheralVision.
38	* NoodleIncident: The Providence op mentioned by Cicero, which apparently also featured bas relief and a weird cult.
39	* NumberTwo: Reyes. He takes command of the squad [[spoiler:after Lambert is killed]].
40	* PluckyComicRelief: Cicero. Downplayed, but he cracks the most jokes and has the most comedic moments of the group.
41	* TheQuietOne: Reyes. Downplayed, but he does talk the least.
42	* SeeTheInvisible: Kolinski finds a video camera in a drawer that enables him to see invisible symbols on the walls. [[spoiler:It's also the only way to see whatever it is the cultists have turned into.]]
43	* ShownTheirWork:
44	** As many former soldiers on [=YouTube=] have confirmed, the military tactics used by the characters are all realistic given the situation.
45	** Kolinski, the Polish soldier, has "Not Yet Lost" carved into his rifle. One of Poland's mottos (and the title of its national anthem) is "Poland is Not Yet Lost".
46	* TheSquad: The protagonists of the film, MTF Epsilon-6 ("Village Idiots"), are one of the Foundation's many Mobile Task Force units, small teams of operatives trained to enter anomalous areas to reconnoiter and or to employ force where necessary to advance the Foundation's goals of containing anomalous activity.
47	* SuicideByCop: Pender reaches for a gun even through he's hooded himself and so has no hope of hitting anyone with it. It's commented that this action doesn't make much sense given that a cult leader would want to be arrested so he could continue preaching his ideology in prison.
48	* TruthInTelevision: Damn near everything military related is either completely realistic or at least plausible given the circumstances.
49	** As mentioned in ShownTheirWork, most or all of the military tactics featured are accurate.
50	** Kolinski using a digital camera to take a picture of the burning symbol. This is something special ops units do in real life, because unlike phones, digital cameras can't be hacked.
51	** The suppressed rifles actually sound like real suppressed rifles, averting HollywoodSilencer.
52	* VideoWills: Both Pender and Lewis leave recorded messages for after their death.
53	* WhamShot:
54	** The first shot of the people hovering above the trees, making it clear that they're dealing with something supernatural.
55	** The very last shot before the credits[[spoiler:, which shows that the floating people are being ''held up by invisible tentacles of some kind''.]]
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Context WebVideo / SCPOverlord