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TF2 started with nine mercenaries, each with his own distinct personality. Because they live inside a frantic multiplayer shooter, though, the only facets of those personalities people got to see were the screaming, shooting, and being-on-fire parts. Enter the Meet the Team shorts, showcasing the mercs in their off-hours—arguing with their parents, barking orders at their head collections, or just strumming a guitar by the campfire. Also we made a movie about a sandwich.
The TF2 Team

This page is for the official Valve-made Team Fortress 2 machinima. If you are looking for fan-made machinima, head over to the FanficRecs.Team Fortress 2 Machinima page.

All spoilers relating Meet the Team videos will be unmarked!

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    All Meet the Team Machinima 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_team.jpg
Meet them all.
Tropes that apply to all of the shorts.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Meet the Spy is the first video to focus on the BLU team (for the majority of its runtime, anyway), even if they are mostly talking about the RED Spy.
  • Black Comedy: Moreso than the game itself.
  • Butt-Monkey: The BLU team is always horribly abused by the RED team in these videos. Also, the BLU Heavy is pretty much always the most obvious target. The RED Heavy, on the other hand, kills everything. This is a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation as well, as in the actual game, BLU is just as capable of winning.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: In their class videos, characters are much more competent and capable of feats they're not normally capable of, occasionally directly contradicting the way things work in-game.
  • Easter Egg: Not quite a Freeze-Frame Bonus, but worth pointing out: The title cards contain the phrase "COPYRIGHT LOLOLOL".
    • Except for Meet the Sandvich, which has "COPYRIGHT OMNOMNOM"
  • Early-Bird Cameo:
    • In "Meet the Spy", before the Spy kills the Sniper, you can see a crate marked "Razorback", as well as jars of shelved Jarate and the Huntsman. These didn't debut until after Meet the Spy was leaked, although Jarate made its debut after the video's official release.
      • The practice of Valve including teasers for yet-to-be released items dates back to "Meet the Sniper", which included a brief glimpse of the Pyro holding a new gun, which was later added to the game as the flare gun - briefly enough to be considered a Freeze-Frame Bonus.
    • Jarate also makes an appearance in the title card and the time lapse sequence of "Meet the Sniper".
    • The Mac update video features Engineer holding the Frontier Justice, a month before the Engineer Update.
    • Also from "Meet the Spy", the BLU Scout (actually the RED Spy) is seen holding the Sandman in the beginning of the video, foreshadowing that the Spy would soon be able to emulate the unlockable weapons of the player he is disguised as. The BLU Sniper can be seen wearing the Trophy Belt before the hat was released.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: In addition to all characters being portrayed as incredibly over-powered in the "Meet the Team" videos, there are several times when they directly contradict established in-game abilities.
    • Meet the Scout: The Scout completely does not let any hits reach him until he grapples with the Heavy, despite running straight into practically EVERYTHING. While each individual obstacle is feasible on its own, collectively it's nigh impossible on MANY levels (notably outrunning the Sentry Gun's bullets). And don't mention the Bonk! Atomic Punch, because that didn't debut until the following year.
    • Meet the Engineer: The Engineer has many sentries up; in-game, he can only build one at a time. However, one valid tactic to defend an area in the game is to have multiple engineers build multiple turrets in an area and have one engineer babysit them, so it's possible this could be what's happening.
    • Meet the Demoman: At one point, the Demoman lays a trap with sixteen sticky bombs, as opposed to the eight he can use in-game (however, at one point in development, Demos actually could use sixteen stickies). He also tricks a Sentry into tracking his bombs instead of him (impossible in-game), and bounces a grenade behind him that explodes upon hitting a Pyro (although possible early in the beta, since launch grenades explode on enemy contact only if they haven't touched anything else.)
    • Meet the Sniper: one of the Sniper's shots kills a Heavy and continues on to injure the Demoman standing behind him. While true to life, this was patched out very early in the game's update cycle and was only reintroduced later as a perk of the Machina sniper rifle. (and before you ask, no, he's not using that rifle in the video)
    • Meet the Spy: littered with lots of egregious examples. Contradictions seen in this video include the RED Spy touching the briefcase while disguised as the BLU Scout (in a real CTF match, this would force the Spy to drop his disguise and pick up the briefcasenote ) and the BLU Soldier shooting the BLU Spy (again, impossible, as friendly fire is not part of the vanilla game and, in fact, shooting teammates is an excellent way to check if they are enemy spies). There's also him sliding a sapper under a sentry, which results in the sentry's immediate destruction, again not actually possible in-game. The Sentry also does not target him when he's running towards it, even though achieving the same effect in-game needs him to be in a disguise. He also attacks a BLU Medic after disguising, where in-game this would turn his disguise back off again.
    • Meet the Medic: this video shows the first use of the Medic's prototype medigun, the Quick-Fix, and how he uses it to Ãœber the Heavy. However, the Quick-Fix in the game cannot actually Ãœber (this was actually explained away: this specific Ãœber was so powerful it burned out that function of the prototype). Secondly, although the ÃœberCharged Heavy changes his appearance as Ãœbered players do in-game, the Medic does not, despite also changing his appearance when Ãœbered in-game (also justified; only Heavy has the Ãœbercharge battery in his heart at this point). Finally, when struck by rockets, rather than exploding and causing knockback like in real play, they simply bounce off the Ãœbered Heavy. (justified to an extent; Quick-Fix's Ãœber grants knockback immunity, but the rockets in-game don't bounce off of Ãœbercharged players.)
    • Meet the Pyro was probably even worse than any of the forementioned in this regard, as the title character torched and destroyed AN ENTIRE MAP.
  • Karma Houdini: The main star of each video will massacre the entire BLU team & walk off without anything resembling repercussions (mostly because they either hide in some place where they'd be impossible to kill or go on a rampage before the BLU team can even get ready to retaliate).
  • Running Gag:
    • The "COPYRIGHT LOLOLOL" in each of the team's title cards ("COPYRIGHT NOM NOM NOM" for Meet the Sandvich).
    • In every "Meet the Team" video, the BLU Soldier has been killed. That's taken to its logical extreme in Meet the Medic. The entire BLU team is Soldiers.
  • Russian Guy Suffers Most: The BLU Heavy is tied for the "suffers most" slot.
  • Sequel Escalation: Each new video is more hilariously violent than the last.
    • Starting from "Meet the Sandvich", the videos have broken away from their original interview-and-gameplay-footage structure, and the subsequent entries have actually had their own individual plots.
  • While Rome Burns: A few have examples:
    • In "Meet the Engineer", he's casually strumming his guitar and drinking beer while his turrets do his fighting for him.
    • During "Meet the Sandvich", the Heavy just stands atop a hill, watching the battle play out and happily munching his Sandvich.
    • The first half of "Meet the Medic" is like this. While most of the team is getting utterly owned, the Medic and the Heavy are back in the clinic cracking jokes and making comically bad medical decisions.
    • Done very weirdly in the "Meet the Pyro" video. The Pyro seems in a constant state of this, as explained in the video's own entry
  • The Worf Effect:
    • The BLU Heavy has been seen getting headshotted, backstabbed, destroyed by a missile (twice), knocked out for a Sandvich, exploded by stickies, killed by a level 1 sentry, and an axe to the head.
    • Also the BLU Soldier, who has been killed by the same group of sentries as the Heavy, gibbed by the same stickies as the Heavy, headshotted by the same Sniper as the Heavy, backstabbed by the same Spy as the Heavy, hit by a train, by being on the receiving end of the RED Heavy's ÃœberCharge, and gaining a hole in his abdomen. Oh, and the Sandvich broke his spine.
    • The BLU Spy as well, being shoveled by the Soldier, detonated by the Demoman's stickies, backstabbed by the Sniper, headshotted by his own comrades, and being preserved as a head in a refrigerator by the Medic.
    • Let's just say that in general, RED pulls this off on BLU.

    Meet the Heavy 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_heavy.jpg

The Heavy Weapons Guy is interviewed about his minigun.


  • Badass Boast: "Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe...maybe. I've yet to meet one that can outsmart bullet."
  • Description Porn: Heavy introducing "Sasha".
    • Artistic License – Economics: Uses custom-tooled cartridges instead of mass-produced ones, despite the evidently large volume of productionnote .
  • Canon Welding: Turns out the person recording this interview is the Director seen in the "Meet the Director" comic, something not revealed until 2011.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Being the first Meet The Team video, there are a few early oddities:
    • It initially didn't have a "Meet the Heavy" title card, although there are versions of the trailer with it.
    • The Heavy is shown with his old Skull-and-Crossbones emblem on his sleeves, instead of the fist he has in-game. Most Meet the Team videos are consistent with the classes' final designs, although "Meet the Demoman" does have the titular class wear blank emblems.
    • The group picture at the end features the beta versions of the classes, as seen in Trailer 1. This is also fixed in revisions of the trailer with the title card.
    • The line "Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe... Maybe. I've yet to meet one that can outsmart bullet." suggests Heavy is a straight example of Dumb Muscle. Later supplementary materials reveal he's actually a Genius Bruiser, he just doesn't have the best grasp on English.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: the Heavy claims his gun fires 10,000 rounds per minute, when it actually fires "only" 2,400 rounds per minute.
    • The in-game achievement for firing $100,000 worth of bullets in a single life uses the $200/cartridge figure and equates 1 cartridge with 1 ammo (the minigun reduces the ammo count by 1 ten times a second, and fires 4 shots 10 times a second). By this math, it would actually cost $24,000 to fire for 12 seconds. Forcing convoluted stats like this upon the world is probably why the Heavy is seen laughing uproariously in the next shot.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: The final scene takes place on Dustbowl.
  • I Call It "Vera": "Oh my God, who touched Sasha? Alright... WHO TOUCHED MY GUN?!?"
  • Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Exaggerated if his claim about how much the ammunition cost was true, and given how much he uses the thing in the game, that might bring his expenses close to the National Debt.
  • Sequel Escalation: The first: a simple character animation test consisting of an interview in one place with gameplay footage at the end.

    Meet the Soldier 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_soldier.jpg

The Soldier fights the BLU team and makes his best attempt at an inspiring speech.


  • Cutscene Power to the Max:
    • The Soldier's rockets One-Hit Kill a Demoman, Heavy and Pyro into Ludicrous Gibs.
    • The Soldier runs straight into a Level 2 sentry, and emerges completely unscathed.
    • RED Team completely bypasses the building housing Granary's second BLU point to reach the final point; in-game one cannot go around the building and must go through it.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: This short uses the Soldier believing Sun Tzu was behind Noah's Ark and the namesake of zoos, things he is indeed not responsible for in real life, as proof he's an idiot. They wouldn't feel too out of place with the extremely wacky Alternate History the TF2 universe would eventually gain.
  • Evil Laugh: He gives a sinister little giggle as he reminiscences about applying his trench shovel to a Spy's face.
  • Feghoot: The entire monologue in which Sun Tzu is confused with Noah is a setup for a pun about a gathering of animals being called a Tzu (zoo).
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on Granary.
  • Funny Background Event: When the Soldier hits the Spy with his shovel, a poster in the background reads, "No Smoking".
  • Historical Character Confusion: Soldier attributes the story of Noah's ark to Sun Tzu instead. Given the setting's Alternate Historynote  and Soldier's loose grasp on reality, it might or might not be a misattribution.
    Soldier: Then he [Sun Tzu] used his fight money to buy two of every animal on Earth, and then he herded them onto a boat, and then he beat the crap out of every single one!
  • Jitter Cam: Big time in the action shots, probably to make it look like a war movie.
  • Memetic Badass: The Soldier seems set to make Sun Tzu as one, who, according to him: invented fighting, was a prizefighter, used his fight money to put two of every animal on a boat like Noah, "and then he beat the crap out of every single one!" invoked
  • Offhand Backhand: Inflicts one of these with his trench shovel to a BLU spy that thought he was easy backstabbing prey.
  • Sequel Escalation: The second: a vignette showing a pacing soldier giving a fantastic speech to a row of decapitated heads between clips of heated gameplay footage.
  • The Stinger: "Unless it's a farm!"
  • Stock Femur Bone: The Medic's neckbone.
  • Trick Dialogue: The Soldier is actually drilling the severed heads of the people he's just killed.

    Meet the Engineer 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_engineer.jpg

The Engineer babysits a sentry nest and explains his job.


  • Badass Boast: "[How] do I stop some big mean motherhubbard from tearing me a structurally superfluous new behind? The answer..is a gun! And if that don't work, use more gun! [...] Like this tripod-mounted heavy caliber little ol' number designed by me...built by me...and you'd best hope, not pointed at you."
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: The whole video is one long example of this, as the Engineer calmly explains to the viewer who he is and what he does while strumming his guitar and drinking a beer, all while bullets are flying all around him. In this case, the trope serves to demonstrate his well-placed trust in his sentries to keep him safe from harm.
  • Brick Joke: The guitar eventually made its in-game debut as Frontier Justice's special taunt. With perfect timing and lots of luck, you can use it to crack heads.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: The Engineer exhibits Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness which he does not show in any of his in-game lines, which tend to lean more towards Sophisticated as Hell. More importantly, he has four sentries up at once (though he could just be babysitting for his fellow Engineers).
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on a modified version of Hydro.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation/Never Trust a Trailer: The Engineer makes at least four sentries around him to protect him. In the actual game (except for a very brief, but glorious, period between updates), he can only build one sentry at a time.
    • Though it is very common to see multiple Engineers all building their sentry nests right next to each other and leaving one Engie to babysit.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: "How am I gonna stop some big, mean mother-hubbard from tearing me a structurally superfluous new behind?"
  • More Dakka: "The answer? Use a gun. And if that don't work? Use more gun."
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Four sentries, 215+ kills, and a truckful of intelligence briefcases and Scout corpses.
  • Sequel Escalation: The third: an interview with the Engineer in a spot on a map, featuring an active sentrygun and external action.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Unlike his in-game personality of being a mad Texan who's good at building and throwing one-liners on occasion, here he's quiet, calm, reserved, and generally more threatening in a Tranquil Fury sense. It's at complete odds with his depiction in-game—however, his personality in the webcomics helps mitigate the difference, showing him as a generally friendly, if low key fellow who can occasionally be as silly as the rest of the cast—but God help you if you manage to piss him off.
    Engineer: [after his employer tried to manhandle him] I appreciate that you're my employer, and an old man besides...but if you don't take your goddamn hands off me I will break you in half.
  • Stealth Pun: The campfire. Explanation 
    • When the camera zooms out, you can see that the Engineer's "campfire" is a burning BLU Sniper's corpse.

    Meet the Demoman 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_demo.jpg

The Demoman explains what makes him a demolitions expert- and demonstrates his skills on the BLU team.


  • Badass Boast: "SO...t'all ya fine dandies, so proud, so cocksure, prancin' a-boot with yer heads full of eyeballs! Come and get me, I say! I'll be waitin' on ya, with a whiff of the ol' brimstone! I'm a grim bloody fable...with an unhappy, bloody end!"
  • Bond One-Liner: "Oh, they're gon' ta have ta glue you back together...IN HELL!"
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: The Demoman kills opponents with near-impossible ricocheted grenades, uses grenades to draw the fire of an engineer's sentry, and sets a trap with about a dozen stickybombs (normally, the maximum is eight).
    • Only the first was possible when the video was released (still months before the game actually came out), but subsequent updates have brought this trope into play retroactively. There's a disclaimer about this at the end of the video:
      Disclaimer: All information regarding Demoman grenade behavior was obtained from Australians believed to be reliable at the time. It is submitted subject to the possibility of errors, omissions, or nerfing without notice.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on Gravel Pit.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: RED team seems to be attacking in this video (they jump out from the corridor-type entryways to the points, attacking point A) and BLU is defending (Level 3 sentries near the point are common on defense), contrary to the actual game where RED defends and BLU attacks. Also, the Demoman plants 16 sticky bombs at once around a door frame, in the actual game a Demoman can only plant 8 sticky bombs at a time with his default Stickybomb Launcher. Planting more would result in some bombs exploding until there are only 8 left.
  • No OSHA Compliance: With equal parts Reckless Bomb Usage. A lit cigarette can be seen sitting on a crate of grenades on the left side of his desk. He drunkenly knocks a loose grenade off his desk which lights up and makes a "live" beep noise as it falls to the floor. And of course chugging down a bottle of whiskey as he's working on his explosives.
    • Amusingly he's doing all of this while describing to the viewers just how much precision it takes for him to do his job, and the horrible consequences otherwise.
  • Oh, Crap!:
  • Outrun the Fireball: The Demoman does this at the beginning.
  • Sequel Escalation: The fourth: an interview with a seated, drinking Demoman in three parts, punctuated by highlighted examples of Demoman weapon use.
  • Sound-Effect Bleep: "They got more f[3-second-long bleep] than they've got the likes of me."
    • This is used in one of the blog's contests asking people to send in what they think was bleeped out. At the end of the contest, the winner of the "most accurate to the original script" category was something roughly like "They've got more fuckin' monsters in the Loch Ness than they got the likes of me."
    • Censored for Comedy: The censored line, as it turns out, isn't very vulgar: "They've got more fecking sea monsters in the great Lochett Ness than they got the likes of me."
  • Suddenly Shouting:
    Demoman: "What makes me a good demoman?" If I were a bad demoman, I wouldn't be sittin' here discussing it with ye now would I?!
  • Super Window Jump: While outrunning the fireball.

    Meet the Scout 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_scout.jpg

The Scout boasts about his combat prowess, but has difficulty defeating a Heavy.


  • Badass Boast: "Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines and brother — I hurt people!"
  • Big Guy Rodeo: The Scout, with the help of his bat, does this to the Heavy.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Especially while he was fighting the Heavy.
  • Camera Abuse: The Scout pokes the camera lens during his "grass grows" monologue, leaving a smudge. It remains there throughout the rest of the video.
  • *Click* Hello: An interesting non-firearm example—when the Heavy is about to chow down on his Sandvich, the Scout pokes him in the head with his baseball bat, giving the Heavy a "Yo, what's up?" as he turns to see who disturbed him.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: When Heavy is eating his Sandvich, he is also holding a shotgun. In-game, if you equip the sandvich, it replaces the shotgun.
    • For some reason, the Scout is able to resist being snapped in half by the Heavy at one point.
  • Dramatic Gun Cock: At the start, the RED Scout cocks his scattergun (lever-action shotgun) before he runs out the door.
  • Defictionalization: In-Universe: the Heavy's Sandvich was eventually added to the game as an equippable item.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: First appearance of The Sandvich.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Takes place on both Well (the intro) and Granary (the fight with the Heavy).
  • Flexing Those Non-Biceps: "Oh man, that's beautiful!"
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: The Scout provides his own "Boink!" and "Bonk!" sound effects as he hits the Heavy with his bat.
  • Sequel Escalation: The fifth: an interview, after a long introduction with complicated camera movement, rapidly cutting back and forth between the scout's free-roaming grandstanding and his action-packed direct struggle with the Heavy.
  • Sound-Effect Bleep: "If you were from, where I was from, you'd be f(beep)ing dead!"
  • You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: "Kind of a big deal."

    Meet the Sniper 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_sniper.jpg

The Sniper explains the difference between a professional assassin and a crazed gunman, while doing his job as the former.


  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: The Sniper's Kukri manages to stab a Spy from the back completely through his body. You must wonder how it gets through all of the bones and organs in the way, or how he's stabbing so effectively with an inward-curved blade.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Lampshaded, as the Sniper says this while flicking a Civilian bobblehead in his camper van.
  • Bowdlerization: In the original version of Meet the Sniper, Sniper says that the guys who got a lot of feelings are the "blokes who bludgeon their wife to death with a golf trophy". In Spain, Domestic Abuse is a very spiky thing, so for the Spanish dubbed version this line was changed for a line that basically means "blokes that kill their neighbour with a pellet shotgun".
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: While the Sniper is taking aim at one of his marks, he remarks this to the cameraman:
    Sniper: I think his mate saw me.
    [bullet hits railing, Sniper and camera duck]
    Sniper: [sounding only slightly more urgent] Yes, yes, he did.
  • Consummate Professional: Sniper considers himself this.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: In one scene, Sniper snipes a Heavy in the head, which strikes the bottle the Demoman was drinking out of behind him, causing him to accidentally get the neck of the bottle into his (only good) eye, runs into a wall and force the bottle in deeper, pulls out his grenade launcher to fire blindly out of panic, falls off a ledge behind him to fall into Exploding Barrels, which explode as his grenades fall underneath the ledge with him. You can see the Sniper recoil back, and sound just a tinge sorry for him.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max:
    • The Sniper impales a Spy on his Kukri, which is impossible to do.
    • The Demoman falls onto a cluster of Exploding Barrels; while there are explosive barrels in the game, the ones depicted in the short are not ones that can explode in-game by the player.
    • Sniper climbing a ladder is not possible in-game, let-alone in a place that's out of bounds.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: A Pyro can be seen holding the Flare Gun in the video before it had been added into the game.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The Sniper says that blokes that bludgeon their wives to death with a golf trophy have feelings. "Professionals have standards".
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus:
    • Most of the video takes place in a custom-built version of Gold Rush, with all the props used coming from the map, and simply being moved to appropriate places:
      • The balcony scene of Demo being headshot is partially based near the payload track of the first section. The tell is there's a massive fence enclosing this route.
      • Sniper climbing the watchtower is right outside the first round spawn for Blu, and is one of the few places in the short that isn't modified.
      • Sniper "being polite" to the dead Spy takes place on one the decks by the final point, which really isn't too obvious, and is one of a few locations that really does require a freeze frame to identify.
    • The aforementioned Flare Gun.
    • Taking the timelapse scene frame-by-frame, you can see Sniper biting his lip and crossing his legs in one or two frames.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The Spy. From behind.
  • Insistent Terminology: Says he's an assassin, not a crazed gunman. The difference being one is a job, the other is mental sickness.
  • Jitter Cam: Used when the Sniper and the cameraman duck out of the way of incoming fire.
    Sniper: [Looking through the scope] I think his mate saw me.
    [Bullet hits the rail next to him]
    Sniper: Yes! Yes, he did!
  • One-Hit Polykill: A shot from the Sniper goes through the Heavy's head and into the Demoman's bottle he was drinking from behind him. The Demoman doesn't directly die from that, but he does soon enough.
  • Sequel Escalation: The sixth: a journey across multiple specially-constructed set pieces with a licensed theme song for background music.
  • Time-Passes Montage: During which he fills up a number of Jarate jars.
  • Worthy Opponent: He salutes a dead Spy he has slain.

    Meet the Sandvich 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_sandvich.jpg

The Heavy eats a Sandvich.


  • Amusing Injuries: From the cut lines — "Gimme back my legbone! OW! Don't hit me with it!"
  • Call-Back: The final shot is copied directly from "Meet the Heavy", with only the Heavy's animation replaced. It worked because the original never actually showed his shots hitting their targets.
  • *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": The BLU Soldier's spine is broken by the Heavy, while he was at first mocking the Heavy for not getting it right.
  • Dissonant Serenity: At the end, the Heavy calmly and happily enjoys his Sandvich amidst all the carnage going on around him.
  • Gory Battle Discretion Shot: The second half of the scene.
  • Oh, Crap!: After failing to talk the Heavy down, Scout only has enough time to blurt out "Oh my God!" before the beat down started.
  • Sequel Escalation: The seventh: a beatdown over a food item whose perspective is entirely inside a refrigerator, finishing with gameplay footage.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: The BLU Soldier groans, "Oh, Hell..." after the RED Heavy eats his sandvich.

    Meet the Spy 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_spy.jpg

The BLU team deals with the possibility that the RED Spy might be amongst them, in disguise.


  • Ahem: The BLU Spy clears his throat upon making his entrance, bringing his teammates' attention to him — and to the backstabbed BLU Sniper corpse he's carrying over his shoulder.
  • Angrish: Scout is at a complete loss for words when shown photographic evidence of his mother sleeping with the RED Spy, only letting out a few pained noises.
  • Badass Boast: Scout is unconcerned with the RED Spy in the base, boasting how he's killed plenty of "dime-a-dozen backstabbing scumbags" like the BLU Spy. After hurting himself with the knife, BLU Spy shoots back.
    Spy: If you managed to kill them, I assure you they were not like me.
  • Bang, Bang, BANG: The Soldier fires his shotgun, yet the blast sounds more like the Spy's revolver.
  • Behind the Black: The BLU Spy keeps talking as the Soldier, off-screen but in front of him, pulls out a shotgun and aims it right at the BLU Spy’s head.
  • Blood Upgrade: The Sniper seems to start reacting like this after getting his cheek cut. It doesn't do him any good.
  • Boom, Headshot!: The RED Spy splatters the BLU Engineer's brain all over the door with a single revolver bullet.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: The Soldier should have stopped to wonder why the Scout was trying to pry open the door instead of putting in the code.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Eventualities the BLU base monitor system is prepared to report:
    • Found Dracula
    • Lost Dracula
    • Is A Man
    • Is A Woman
    • Is A Robot
    • Needs A Ride
    • Needs Roommate
    • Has Evil Twin
    • Sleeping On Toilet
    • Owns Base
    • Leaked Video (originally read "Lost Memory," but was changed due to this video being leaked. The difference between the two versions can also be noted by the voice on the alarm saying "Intruder Alert" twice in the leaked version, but only once in the official version.)
    • Is Fired
    • On Fire
    • On Break
    • In Surgery
    • Drowned
    • Smothered
    • Vaporized
    • Defenestrated
    • Hungry
    • Smells
    • Is Drunk
    • Depressed
    • Backstabbed
    • Stole A Car
    • About To Explode
      • Exploding
      • Exploded
  • Cutscene Power to the Max/Gameplay and Story Segregation/Never Trust a Trailer:
    • The RED Spy slides a sapper under a sentry gun; in gameplay, the sapper must be physically attached to the sentry, and requires the player to literally walk up to the sentry and directly apply the sapper.
    • The RED Spy touches the intelligence briefcase (without taking it) without losing his disguise. Although this could be justified by the fact that he didn't actually pick up the briefcase.
    • There's also the scene where he disguises as the Medic, which works entirely differently from how it does in game. In particular, the fact that he incapacitates him with a single karate chop to the side of the neck, which, though feasible in Real Life thanks to the arteries running up the side of the neck to the brain, is not possible in-game.
      • He also wasn't wearing the Medic's glasses, despite having duplicated the rest of his wardrobe.
    • The BLU intel room has a locked door with a keypad—all in-game doors open automatically or when an objective is completed, and, since this take place at the 2Fort map, there isn’t a door there anyway in the game. The room's interior is also slightly modified, as is every other part of the base shown.
    • The Soldier pops a friendly Spy's head with a single shotgun blast. While friendly fire with reduced damage is possible in-game with the server-side variable set, the shotgun doesn't do special damage for headshots and can never kill in 1 hit, and even if it could, heads don't gib that way in the game.
      • The shotgun in question also sounds like the Spy's revolver when the Soldier fires it.
  • A Day in the Limelight: The BLU Team gets substantial screentime for once, shame it ends in all of them getting curb-stomped by the RED Spy.
  • Defensive "What?": The Soldier after blasting the Spy.
  • Defictionalization: In-Universe. A slightly altered version of the Alarm-O-Tron 5000 board was incorporated into the map Double Cross.
  • Devious Daggers: Both Spies get to show off how dexterous they are with their butterfly knives.
  • Everyone Is a Suspect: As discussed by the BLU Spy. He probably shouldn't have mentioned that even he was a suspect, as he gets his head blasted off by the Soldier two seconds later.
  • Eyes Are Unbreakable: Instead of properly exploding, the Spy's eye pops off.
  • Fake Shemp: The Engineer, the Sniper and the Medic use sound clips lifted straight from their in-game dialogue lines rather than new voice-acted scripts.
    • Same goes for the Scout during the first twenty seconds or so.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • The Spy's true identity is subtly hinted at:
      • The BLU Scout doesn't know the door code—you know, the one that is so simple that even the Soldier has no issue remembering it, and is attempting to open the door to the intelligence room by force.
      • He has an evil grin on his face for a split second when the door does open.
      • When the BLU Spy walks in with the Sniper's corpse over his shoulder, the Scout checks to see if the knife is still in its back.
      • The presence of a Scout—a high-speed, low HP offensive class—so close to the friendly intelligence room makes no practical sense due to his low health pool making him unfit for a defensive role even when compared to Soldier, a fellow offensive class.
      • While playing with the knife, the Scout "accidentally" manages to cut himself—with the dull side of the knife.
      • When the BLU Spy reveals his folder full of pictures of the RED Spy and Scout's mother having sex, the Scout almost says "where'd he get these" before catching himself. He also says "no offence" to the Spy, something that the infamously brash and rude Scout would never dare to say, especially not towards a Spy.
    • Similarly, it's hinted that the BLU Spy already knows who the fake is, but sabotaged himself and trying to build up to a Dramatic Unmask, which only served to agitate the already questionably-sane and infamously trigger-happy Soldier:
      • After the Scout drops the butterfly knife and makes his "no offence" comment, the BLU Spy hands the knife back to him with a small flourish, as if he's subtly showing off to his competitor.
      • While at first the pictures seem to just be a source of humour in an otherwise tense and dramatic short, it becomes clear that they're a display of power from the BLU Spy to his RED counterpart, who is rightly angry that someone tailed him and caught him in what he thought was a private moment with his lover.
    • In a bit of Five-Second Foreshadowing, as the Soldier and the Heavy are pondering over the body of the dead BLU Spy, the Scout glances around to make sure he isn't seen before unfolding the butterfly knife and advancing on them with a sinister posture. This is just before he drops his disguise and attacks the two.
    • Also, the Alarm-O-Tron 5000 board gives a hint about who the RED Spy is disguised as. Three consecutive alerts read "BLU Scout', "Has Evil Twin", and "RED Spy".
    • For the Mann Vs. Machine update a few years later, you have "Is a Robot" and "Has Evil Twin", alluding to Gray Mann, the misplaced third Mann Brother who kills his family, and sets to finding the remaining Australium in the world with an army of robots that look like the Teufort Nine.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • From Bad to Worse: The BLU Spy invokes this trope when talking to the BLU Scout:
    Spy: So listen up, boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing that happens to you today.
  • Funny Background Event: The possible messages on the Alarm-O-Tron 5000 alert system. Blink and you'll miss it, or just see above.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: In normal gameplay, the Soldier's move would actually be smart. Teammates are Friendly Fireproof, so shooting the BLU Spy would be a standard spy check. The other two classes are impractical for a Spy to disguise as (Scout is faster than Spy, while Heavy is slower), so the Spy would be the natural first choice.
  • The Guards Must Be Crazy: In-game, a Scout is easily the worst class for a Spy to disguise as (the Spy can't match the Scout's speed), yet the BLU team STILL couldn't figure out who the RED Spy was. He also tries to open a password-locked door by force... though the others have trouble remembering the password too.
  • Head-Tiltingly Kinky: The Heavy and the Soldier, in reaction to the pictures produced by the BLU Spy.
  • In the Back: The RED Spy kills the BLU Sniper this way with a knife.
  • Ironic Echo: While not repeated word for word, it's still close enough to count.
    Spy:...then we still have a problem.
    Soldier: And a knife!
    Scout: [sarcastic] Ooh, big problem!
    Later:
    Heavy: So, we still got problem.
    Soldier: Big problem. [problem asserts itself]
  • Killed Mid-Sentence: The BLU Spy.
  • Little "No": The Medic mutters something to this effect when he sees the RED Spy disguise himself as the Medic in seconds.note 
  • Menacing Hand Shot: As the BLU Soldier and Heavy examine the Spy's body, the Scout starts walking toward them from behind. The POV switches to behind the Scout as he pulls out a knife, then switches to in front of him as he unfolds the knife, staying framed around his right hand.
  • Mistaken for Spies: The BLU Spy is mistaken for a double-agent.
  • Mook Horror Show/Perspective Flip: Told from the perspective of the BLU team, as the BLU Spy warns the others about how dangerous the RED Spy is, who is shown dispatching several BLU members.
    • It's fairly ingenious as the other videos (except "Meet the Sandvich") have the RED members talk about themselves, which would be out of character for a Spy; telling it from the other perspective maintains the mysterious nature of the RED Spy.
  • Neck Snap: The RED Spy kills the BLU Medic with a karate chop to the neck.
  • The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Made even funnier by the fact that although the "1" button on the BLU intel room keypad is dirty and worn out, implying that it has been used very often, the Soldier enters the first three digits, then has to stop and think to remember the last one and then grins when the door opens, like he's proud of himself for getting the code right.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: As is per character, the RED Spy does a good job feigning ignorance as the Scout. He even fakes that he cuts himself with the knife when playing with it.
  • Parrot Exposition: The Soldier.
    Administrator: Intruder Alert! RED Spy in the base!
    Soldier: A RED Spy is in the base?
    Administrator: Protect the briefcase!
    Soldier: We need to protect the briefcase!
  • Pet the Dog: The RED Spy appears to have a genuine fondness for the BLU Scout's mother, judging from the way he collects and smiles at a tame photo of them holding hands amidst the racier examples on display.
  • Pistol-Whipping: The BLU Sniper hears the RED Spy and tries to jab him with the butt of his rifle. It doesn't work.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: As the BLU Soldier and Heavy realize the BLU Spy was not, in fact, the RED spy in disguise, they ask who's ready to go find the Spy. RED Spy's response: "Right behind you." And then a knife in the back.
  • A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma: Valve's written description of The Spy begins, "He is a puzzle, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in riddles, lovingly sprinkled with intrigue, express mailed to Mystery, Alaska..."
  • Scars are Forever: The Sniper has had a scar across his face in-game ever since the Spy cut him in this video.
  • Sequel Escalation: The eighth: a tale of intrigue with direct character interaction cutting back and forth between the Spy's action-packed narrative and the exploits and nuanced interactions of the characters in the intel room. Plus, an all-"new" character model for the Scout's mom.
  • Sound-Effect Bleep:
    Spy: And now he's here to f[beep] us!
  • Spies Are Despicable: So the BLU Scout says. Ironically, he's actually the RED Spy in disguise.
    BLU Scout: [to BLU Spy] I've killed plenty of spies. Bunch of dime-a-dozen backstabbing scumbags. Like you! No offense.
  • Spot the Imposter: The basic plot of the video is finding the disguised Spy.
  • Unsafe Haven: The intel is behind a locked door, but the password is 1111, which is obvious from the "1" being the only button that's seen use, and the Heavy was able to shoulder-barge the door, destroying it.
  • Wham Shot: The BLU Scout suddenly manipulating the butterfly knife with expert precision, whereas before he nearly cut his hand open on it, letting the viewers know that that's not actually a Scout...
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: Soldier's decision to shoot the BLU Spy would be the logical course of action, if he was in the game proper,note  and not in a Meet The Team video.
  • Your Head Asplode: Shotgun shell to the face from close range; splat.
  • Your Mom: Done oh so very right by the BLU Spy by actually backing it up with his dossier on the Scout's mom, showing photos of her sleeping with the RED Spy. Most likely the best use of the line ever.
    Scout: What are you, president of his fan club?
    Spy: No... that would be your mother!

    Meet the Medic 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_medic.jpg

The Medic operates on Heavy in order to make him the first test subject for ÃœberCharge.


  • Brick Joke: Early in the video, the Medic scolds Archimedes for playing in the intestines of the Heavy. At the end of the video:
    Scout: Oh man, you would not believe... how much this hurts!
    * Cooing noise from within the Scout's chest*
    Medic: ...Archimedes?
  • Butt-Monkey: The RED Scout is especially abused this time around.
  • Call-Back: The army of enemy Soldiers harkens back to the second original trailer, in which a BLU sentry mowed down an army of RED Soldiers.
  • Camera Abuse: Subverted, it looks like the Scout smashes into the camera itself before it's revealed that he just crashed into the RED base's window.
  • Chekhov's Gag: Set up with the Heavy, but the punchline is the Scout.
    Archimedes: *Coo*
  • Comedic Sociopathy: This series is already all about this trope, but this video plays suffering for comedy moreso than previous ones.
  • Continuity Nod: The magazine the Pyro is reading in the last scene is the Jarate Comic from the Sniper vs. Spy Update.
  • Curse Cut Short: Along with Sound-Effect Bleep.
    RED Scout: (knocked down by a blast, he sees another volley of rockets flying at him) Whoa, who the fu—*KABOOM*AAAAAAAAHHHHH— *crash* ...Medic.
  • Cutscene Incompetence: The Medic's ÃœberCharge in the video does not make him invincible as well. Justified in that he most likely hasn't given himself a heart implant yet. On the other side of the battlefield, none of the Soldiers are firing at said vulnerable Medic.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max:
    • Mostly averted, but the Medic is keeping a severed head alive indefinitely, and a RED Demoman is on the battlefield in a wheelchair. The Medigun also seems to have a low setting, as he's keeping the Heavy alive, conscious, and mostly out of pain without his heart and with his chest cut open, but without healing him.
    • The Soldiers' rockets also curve in mid-air to hit the Scout during the opening sequence.
    • The Heavy's ÃœberCharge also seems to be making him immune to the rockets' knockback—in fact, the rockets don't even detonate, they just bounce off him as if they were airblasted. This actually makes sense when one notes that the Medic is using the Quick-Fix instead of the vanilla Medigun. The Quick-Fix's ÃœberCharge does, in fact, render the patient immune to knockback. It doesn't make the patient invulnerable, but the description of the Quick-Fix notes that this is because the invulnerability function of the Quick-Fix shorted out after that first test, forcing the Medic to focus on one benefit or the other.
  • Dark Reprise: The first part of the soundtrack, which plays when the RED Scout is fleeing from a barrage of rockets, is a slowed down version of "Faster than a Speeding Bullet".
  • Development Gag: Apparently, the disembodied Spy head is a remnant from an earlier version of the short.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In the waiting room, the Engineer is strumming "A Little Heart to Heart".
  • Dissonant Serenity: While the Medic's anecdote about losing his medical license (see below) is a little bit disturbing, it's still kind of jarring to hear him and Heavy laughing and chatting casually while a battle rages outside and the Medic is currently performing surgery on the Heavy while the latter is awake.
  • Disturbed Doves: The Medic has a fair flock of doves, apparently as pets. When he leaves his operating room and takes the field with the Heavy, a bunch of them fly out of the garage to mark his entrance. They also fly by when he and the Heavy are standing atop a pile of Soldiers.
  • Doctor's Disgraceful Demotion: While Heavy is on Medic's operating table, Medic is telling him a funny story about a patient who woke up with his skeleton missing, and finishes it with, "...anyway, zat's how I lost my medical license!" causing Heavy to stop laughing and look worried.
  • Evil Laugh: The Medic. Hoo boy, the Medic. He's enjoying himself when he really shouldn't be.
  • Fourth Wall Psych: Right before the title card the BLU rockets appear to send the Scout smashing into the camera only for it to turn out to just be a window.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: It's hard to tell what map this takes place in, but according to Valve, it's a modified version of Badwater Basin.
    • It takes a bit of time to see that the entire contents of the refrigerator are a Sandvich, three hearts ("Mega Baboon", "Loch Ness Hamster", and one label too small to read), three bottles of Red Shed beer, the BLU Spy's head, a battery for the head, and an ashtray. From the placement of the Spy's head, it's implied that Meet the Sandvich was done in the same fridge from his point of view, but the Sandvich is on the wrong shelf.
    • Miss Pauling is watching the med-bay through an observation window. She has a clipboard in one hand.
  • Funny Background Event: In the final scene, all of RED team is sitting in the Medic's waiting room, waiting for their own ÃœberCharge implants. The Pyro is reading a magazine (with "The Insult That Made a 'Jarate Master' Out of Sniper" on the back cover) while playing with a lighter, the Sniper is sleeping, the Demoman is drinking, the Spy is looking at his ticket, the Engineer is playing the song that accompanied the Medic during the surgery scene on his guitar, and the Soldier is standing at attention, eschewing the chairs.
    • During the start of the last battle scene, you can also see the Pyro near the cliff, running away from the mass of Soldiers in the funny 'humiliation' run cycle.
    • Check out the background at the start of the surgery scene. The x-rays in the light box show the Heavy has had a bomb lodged inside him. The extracted bomb is in the bucket underneath the x-rays. The Medic's Overdose can be seen by the bucket.
    • When the Heavy's heart explodes, the monitor in the background flatlines. When the Medic gets a new heart out, the monitor resumes its earlier display.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration: The Medic is using his Quick-Fix medigun to keep the Heavy alive and conscious during the operation despite a missing heart and generally futzed-with innards, and then uses it to put his chest cavity back together (and presumably attach the new heart to his arteries).
  • Glass Smack and Slide: After the RED Scout is sent flying into the RED base window by the BLU Soldier's rockets, he slides down the glass in the background accompanied by the customary noise as the camera pans over to the Medic and Heavy's surgery.
  • Glove Snap: The Medic does one while putting on his gloves during his Lock-and-Load Montage/Suit Up of Destiny.
  • Healing Factor: "Oh, don't be such a baby. Ribs grow back! [aside] No zey don't."
  • Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Since it's his class video, the Medic gets played for this even moreso than usual in the course of regular gameplay, but he definitely buries the needle deep into the 'sociopath' side.
  • I Cannot Self-Terminate
    • At one point, the BLU Spy's disembodied head is seen stuffed in the back of a refrigerator. He's on screen just long enough to deadpan "kill me" before the Medic shushes him with an irritated "later!"
    • In the storyboards for the unused version, BLU Spy's head is not nearly so deadpan, frantically begging the RED Medic to Mercy Kill him. It's phrased very similarly to the Stargate: The Ark of Truth example in Film, and most likely a Shout-Out:
      BLU Spy: KILL ME! KILL MEEEE!
      Red Medic: [attempting to headshot the BLU Spy with his own revolver] I'm...trying...but...you're...invinc...able!
  • I Have No Idea What I'm Doing: The field test of the first ÃœberCharge.
    Heavy: Doctor! Are you sure this will work?
    Medic: Ha-ha! I HAVE NO IDEA!!!
  • Impossible Thief: The Medic casually jokes about an incident where he, or possibly a colleague, stole a patient's entire skeleton.
  • Instant Bandages: The Scout and Demoman have somehow acquired bandages on the battlefield, and the Demoman is rolling around in a wheelchair before being healed by the Medic.
  • Last Note Nightmare: Inverted; the score "A Little Heart to Heart" remains in minor and chromatic sequences through most of the song, but then at the last note, turns into a major chord.
  • Laugh with Me!: Heavy's belly laughs were completely genuine until he learned that the anecdote was actually about the Medic, shortly after which this trope comes into play full swing.
  • Lock-and-Load Montage: More like a 'get dressed to kill' montage with the Medic putting on his gloves, labcoat, and backpack.
  • Mad Doctor: It has never been clearer. ÃœberCharges are apparently the result of the Medic slapping some sort of insane device on a large, strong heart and replacing it in the subject's chest before using the Medigun on him. He ends up blowing up the Heavy's original heart (passing it off as "progress") and outfitting him with a "Mega-Baboon" heart. Not to mention the severed Spy head, and his anecdote about removing some poor schmuck's skeleton during an operation.
  • Magically Regenerating Clothing: The medigun, when turned up to full power, not only allows the Heavy to quickly recover from 'surgery', but also repairs the bullet holes and massive rip in his jacket.
  • Meatgrinder Surgery: Heavy's surgery, to an extent. For one thing, it involves Medic forcefully shoving the new heart into Heavy's chest cavity when it doesn't quite fit... only to actually break off one of Heavy's ribs.
    Medic: Oh, don't be such a baby, ribs grow back! (aside, to his doves) No, they don't.
    • The fact that Heavy's original heart was IN THE MEDIC'S HANDS for well over a minute, then BLEW UP, then was replaced by a new one... from a "Mega-Baboon".
    • Heavy was awake the whole time. Medic doesn't seem to see any problem with this; presumably he likes chatting with his patients.
      Heavy: Should I be awake for this?
      Medic: Well, no. But as long as you are, could you hold your rib cage open a bit?
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: Although we only see its heart, there's the apparent "Loch Ness Hamster."
  • Noodle Incident: How the Medic lost his medical license—the only details we get is that it involved a patient waking up to find out that his entire skeleton had been purloined, the doctor involved (presumably the Medic himself, but never confirmed) was never seen again, and that the entire incident resulted in the aforementioned loss of the Medic's accreditation. A visual example is the Heavy's X-ray, which reveals he somehow got a nuclear warhead (radioactive symbol is there) lodged in his chest cavity somehow without it exploding.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: Heavy goes through open heart surgery (if you could call it "surgery"), only to have his entire chest cavity healed over in seconds by the Medigun.
  • Oracular Head: The BLU Spy in the fridge.
  • Out of the Inferno: The Heavy gets to indulge in one during his first ÃœberCharge, as the rockets of a dozen Soldiers fail to stop him.
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner:
    Heavy: What happens now?
    Medic: Now? [chuckle] Let's go practice medicine.
  • Russian Humor: The Medic's anecdote at the beginning seems right up Heavy's alley, considering his love of bloody anecdotes. They laugh together at this hilarious story. Then Medic reveals it wasn't a joke, but a true story about himself, and Heavy stops laughing abruptly, looking worried. This is probably less to do with the fact that the story is real and more to do with the fact that the doctor in question is Medic. The same Medic who was currently performing heart surgery on Heavy as he shared the story of how he lost his medical license.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The RED Pyro, apparently unharmed (unlike the RED Scout and Demoman, who are clearly injured), is seen humorously running away from the mass of oncoming BLU Soldiers, where the RED Engineer and Sniper are seen trying to hold a defensive position. Probably justified, though—no Medic or Ubercharge (yet), and that's an uncomfortably large number of Soldiers.
  • Self-Destructive Charge: The BLU Soldiers.
  • Sequel Escalation: The ninth: A partly creepy, partly comedic, entirely awesome Origin Story for the game's ÃœberCharge mechanic. It's also the first to show more than one of a single class on one team in the same shot (a Soldier class rush).
  • Smoke Shield: during the ÃœberCharge.
  • Stealth Pun: The deadpan Spy.
  • Strapped to an Operating Table: Averted. The table has straps (which is worrying), but they're not in use - it looks like Heavy really did volunteer.
  • Suit Up of Destiny: The Medic. He does a badass walk right after..
  • The Stinger: Two. After the title card, there's a scene of the RED team in the Medic's waiting room. After that is the announcement of Team Fortress 2 becoming free to play.
    Demoman: FREEDOM!
  • Twinkle Smile: The Scout gets one after the Medic heals him and replaces a knocked-out tooth.
  • Two-Faced Aside:
    Medic: [to the Heavy] Oh, don't be such a baby. Ribs grow back! [to his doves] No, zey don't!
  • Ãœbermensch: In a bit of a Genius Bonus (cryptically answered, in the usual way, by Valve), Medic draws a lot of parallels to Zarathustra in the video. Both mention doves and aim to transcend humanity, but in the original version of the video, he states he doesn't want to be a God, but instead, create them.
    Medic: I could do in seconds what would take other doctors months! I could take men to the peak of health — and beyond! I could make gods!
  • Waistcoat of Style: The Medic sports one while operating on the Heavy.
  • Zerg Rush: The army of BLU Soldiers.

    Meet the Pyro 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_pyro.jpg

The Pyro's enemies and teammates see them as an inhuman monster. The Pyro sees things... differently.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: The BLU team. Those poor bastards.
  • Amazing Technicolor World: Pyroland
  • Ambiguous Gender: In the closed captions, the Scout says, "He's not here, is she?", sticking with Valve's running joke about not revealing the Pyro's gender. Sadly Scout's voice actor Nathan Vetterlein didn't go through with it.
  • Animals Not to Scale: Pyroland features dogs, cats, and hamsters that are very large and also unusually chubby, and float in the sky.
  • Battle Amongst the Flames: It's pretty one-sided, though.
  • Call-Back: There's another severed Sniper arm among the debris and fire at the end of the video, just like what happened in Meet the Engineer.
  • Camera Abuse: The RED Scout knocks over the camera in a panicked attempt to escape his interview. Later, blood gets on the camera when the Pyro attacks the Heavy with his axe.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Turns out that the Pyro is just as Affably Insane as the rest of the cast.
  • Continuity Nod: Perhaps an accident, but taking in mind what the Pyro sees it's quite appropriate the (RED) Scout is especially afraid of the Pyro given rainbows make him cry (at least according to the Spy).
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: All of the BLU team. We know how the Medic met his end, and the final scene shows the charred, skeletal remains of the Engineer and Scout, part of the Heavy with an axe in his head, Demoman's corpse (although it's kind of hard to see) and the Soldier with the hole in his chest. The Sniper's arm is shown chopped off by the Axtinguisher, and he was torched earlier.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: The RED Pyro causes a lot of environmental damage, and it uses the fire axe to bar a set of double doors, locking the BLU Medic on the other side before torching the whole building.
  • Dead-Hand Shot: The dismembered arm of the BLU Sniper.
  • Death Is Dramatic: The BLU Sniper jumps out or is blasted out of a second story window, crawls and grabs onto the Pyro's foot while calling for help, and is incinerated.
  • Defictionalization: In-Universe - the Balloonicorn that the BLU Engineer and BLU Spy ride in Pyrovision is offered in the real life Valve store.
    • And, to everyone's surprise, the Pyro's fantasy world itself has been incorporated into the game in the form of "pyrovision", which reskins most of the official maps into a very rough but painstakingly implemented imitation for anyone who has a pyroland-related item equipped.
  • Description Cut: The RED Spy muses about what his psychotic teammate could be thinking...
    Spy: One shudders to imagine what inhuman thoughts lie behind that mask. What dreams of chronic and sustained cruelty?
    [cut to the Pyro's point-of-view: a fantasy landscape of colorful hills and the BLU team as cooing winged cherubs]
  • Dissonant Serenity: The Pyro imagines itself giving lollipops, bubbles, and happiness to its enemies. At the end, we see the Pyro to be walking and swaying happily in its dreamland. Zoom out through the Soldier's torso, and we see the Pyro is actually walking away with his flamethrower, with the town burning around him.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Before making an appearance in the video, the Pyro's Scorch Shot was featured in a blog post a few days earlier, as an example of how a weapon is made.
  • Even Evil Has Standards/You Monster!: The Pyro's own teammates call it a monster.
  • Fake Shemp: The BLU team, in the same way as Meet the Spy previously. Also the RED Pyro, which is odd because VA Dennis Bateman was on-board to voice some lines for the Spy.
  • Fear Is the Appropriate Response: Heavy boasts that he fears no man, but has no problem with admitting to being scared by the Pyro.
  • Firing One-Handed: The Pyro does this with the Scorch Shot at a BLU Scout.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus:
    • The Demoman in the real world is wearing the old stick-of-dynamite emblem instead of one with a stickybomb. The Cherub Demoman in Pryoland, on the other hand, has the new emblem.
    • On the end-of-video view of the classes portrait, before the complete zoom out from the Pyro, the Engineer (whom is placed next to they Pyro in the official art) has a rather worried facial expression as opposed to the usual smile in the other Meet the Team videos.
    • One of the floating puppies seen at 1:06 is wearing Alyx Vance's necklace. (it's easier to notice if you are watching in fullscreen and HD)
    • Not exactly from the video itself, but a short clip of Meet the Pyro appears on the screen of one of the employees' computers in the "Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative" video.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: The BLU Scout isn't immediately ignited after being pelted by the Scorch Shot's flare, though he is knocked back.
  • Giant Food: In the Pyro's view, the BLU Heavy appears from behind a giant bitten-into sandwich. There are enormous lollipops everywhere, one of which the Pyro uses on the Heavy.
  • Giggling Villain: The Pyro giggles before driving an axe into the enemy Heavy's head.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: The camera turns to the Pyro's face when it torches the enemy Sniper, though the fire is visible from the mask's reflective lenses.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The BLU Soldier gets impaled by a piece of an exploding sentry.
  • Implacable Man: The BLU team members spend most of the film hiding or fleeing, but the Pyro doesn't leave the town until everyone is dead.
  • Kill It with Fire: Pretty much the entire BLU team (excepting their Pyro), but the BLU Engineer, Sniper, Medic, Scout, and presumably the Demoman are killed this way specifically on-screen (Demo can even be heard yelling "I'm burning!").
  • Knockback: The BLU Scout gets some courtesy of the Pyro's Scorch Shot.
  • Man on Fire: Expected of "Meet the Pyro". The BLU Sniper and Demoman are shown to have been set alight, and neither survive.
  • Match Cut: Used when transitioning between Pyroland and reality. One particular example happens near the end: at the end of the Pyroland sequence, a baby BLU Demoman appears in the bottom right corner, waving at the viewer. Cut to reality, where the BLU Demoman is seen in the same position and pose, only now he is raising his hand for help in fear.
  • Menacing Stroll: How the Pyro is moving around in reality - it's skipping happily in Pyroland.
  • Mood Whiplash: One minute, everyone is running in fear from the Pyro and his insane amounts of fire. Cut to its view, and everything turns into a Sugar Bowl environment. The rest of the video alternates between these two moods constantly.
  • Mook Horror Show: The parts not in Pyrovision take this even further than previous examples. The Pyro doesn't even have an apparent mission objective it's working toward, he's just hunting down and killing guys on the other team, most of which are running away.
    • Although, ingame, that's also called "Arena mode".
  • No Man of Woman Born: Not a prophecy, but the RED Heavy boasts that he is afraid of no man. He believes the Pyro isn't human, calling him a "thing".
  • No Range Like Point-Blank Range: The Pyro hits a BLU Scout with such a shot from the Scorch Shot. This is the Scorch Shot's kill-taunt, only effective at point-blank.
  • Not-So-Innocent Whistle: In the last shot, we can hear the Pyro whistling to the tune of "Do You Believe In Magic" (the music that's playing in its head), while strolling away from the carnage.
  • One-Man Army: No one fights alongside the Pyro, and it alone kills everyone on the BLU team, and the short ends with the Pyro leaving the place a burning wreck - appropriate since many strategies for playing as the Pyro involve working alone.
  • One-Man Band: In the Pyro's vision, it's wearing a bunch of bongos in place of grenades and has a toy orchestra on his back. Its flamethrower appears as a whimsical set of horns.
  • Quizzical Tilt: As the Pyro murders the Sniper, likely a Shout-Out to when Mike Myers does the same.
  • Scare Chord: The same drawn-out chord plays whenever the film briefly switches from Pyrovision to reality.
  • Sequel Escalation: The tenth: a closer look at the most enigmatic member of the team and what we see through his eyes. It's the last thing anybody would expect.
  • Shown Their Work: Pyro kicks a door down using the technique a firefighter would use.
  • Skip of Innocence: In the Pyro's visions, it's skipping while handing out lollipops and spraying magic. It also skips slowly when leaving the town.
  • Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: Balanced as usual.
  • Sound-Effect Bleep: "He's not here, is she?note  How do I get this [microphone bump]-ing thing off?"
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: If you've listened to "Do You Believe in Magic" before, you'll never hear it the same way again after this...
  • Stealth Pun:
    • From the Pyro's perspective, the entire team really is babies.
    • Pyro is known for never taking off its gas mask. Of course it sees everything through a filter.
    • The Pyro traps the Medic in a box. It just made a health kit.
  • The Stinger: Done in a similar way to the last video. The first stinger is a scene with the Pyro in its dreamland, walking away from the camera. After the scene fades out, there is an announcement about the release of Source Filmmaker, the tool used by Valve to create the "Meet the Team" videos.
  • Stock Scream/Screams Like a Little Girl: The Sniper when the Pyro ignites him.
  • Sugar Bowl: Pyroland.
  • Super Window Jump: The BLU Sniper leaves a burning building via a second story window.
  • Torso with a View: The BLU Soldier. The Pyro walks away while the view zooms out of Pyrovision and into reality, passing through the hole in the Soldier.
  • The Dreaded: The Pyro. Forget the enemy team, its own team is afraid of it.
  • Through the Eyes of Madness: The Pyro is 100% out of touch with reality, and we see this for the first time.
  • Unexpectedly Dark Episode: The entire video is really surprisingly disturbing - the Pyro's remorseless and brutal rampage is easily the most gruesome and frightening sequence in the entire history of the game and witnessing it Through the Eyes of Madness somehow makes it worse. The Heavy's corpse, partially charred and with an ax stuck in his head, as well as the charred Engineer and Scout skeletons visible at the end of the video are surprisingly grim.
  • Unflinching Walk: In the end, the Pyro is slowly walking away from the town while whistling. It glances left to see a chunk of building nearly collapse on it, and keeps walking and whistling.
  • Unicorn: The one in the Pyro's perspective looks like an inflatable toy and takes the BLU Spy and Engineer for a ride. It's also seen on a matchbook in the title card.
  • The Unreveal: The fans were hoping that this video would answer some questions about the Pyro. Not only did it answer none of them (unless you count "how crazy is the Pyro?" of which the answer is a resounding very), it raised even more.
  • Vader Breath: The Pyro's breath is heard filtered through its mask, adding to the Menacing Stroll.

    Mann vs. Machine 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_machines.jpg

The Release trailer for Mann Vs. Machine.


  • Back-to-Back Badasses: The teams as seen in the trailer. Six mercenaries, armed with only two shotguns, a syringe gun, a baseball bat, a rocket launcher, a grenade launcher, and a bottle manage to destroy a tank of robots.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: The trailer ends with the six mercs going up against an entire army of Mecha-Mooks. Subverted when they effortlessly crush the bots. Double Subverted when the Giant Soldier shows up.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: In the trailer, six mercenaries armed with one weapon each are able to defeat hundreds of robots.
  • Dramatic Gun Cock: Twice in the trailer; the Engineer does this with two shotguns at once, and the Demoman does it again... to the same shotgun.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: In the trailer, the Soldier has a Canteen with him, which was introduced the next day. He also has a cigar in his mouth, which was later released as an in-game item.
  • Enemy Mine: The former RED and BLU Mercenaries team up to take on an army of look-a-like robots.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: On the table in the BLU Soldier and Demoman's game is a photo of the BLU Scout's mother from Meet the Spy.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation/Never Trust a Trailer: In the update, the BLU team and RED team join forces to fight Gray Mann's robot army. In-game, only the RED team is selectable on the class screen, probably for ease of identification, as the robots are considered BLU.
  • If I Wanted You Dead...: In the trailer, some of the RED team surprise a BLU Soldier and Demoman playing cards. Instead of shooting them, the RED Heavy tosses a shotgun to the BLU Demoman.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!": When the Giant Soldier shows up in The Stinger.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Most, if not all, of the characters we see have been shown in previous videos to be loud and/or gleefully happy at the prospect of combat. This time, everyone is dead serious and, in some cases, visibly nervous.
  • Walking in Rhythm: In the trailer, everyone walks in time with the background music.
  • The War Sequence: The entire trailer is this.

    Mann vs. Machine: The Sound of Medicine 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_medicine.jpg

The Promotional Trailer for the "Tale of Two Cities" update.


  • Call-Back:
    • Once again, Medic stops a barrage of rockets from multiple soldiers in a Big Damn Heroes moment.
    • Heavy's decapitated head has the same expression (and is the same model) as the one the Soldier was lecturing in his "Meet The Soldier" video.
  • Groin Attack: When the Robo-Soldiers charge the newly revived team, Heavy, Scout, Sniper, and Pyro shield their faces with their arms, but Soldier nervously places his hands over a slightly lower area...
  • Scope Snipe: The Huntsman robots kill the human Sniper this way.

    Expiration Date 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_bread_monster_expiration_date.jpg

The RED Team discovers they may be filled with tumors from using their own teleporters, and thus conclude they have three days to live.


  • Admiring the Abomination: Medic's in full-on Nightmare Fetishist mode here. He, Soldier, and Pyro all seem enamored with the little bread monster (although from what we know about how Pyro sees the world, he probably thinks it's a puppy).
    'Medic': [excitedly shaking the jar it's been contained in] Ooh, it hates me so much!
    [Soldier grins and pokes the jar, the monster snaps at him]
    • There's also this little gem, after Scout asks Medic what's wrong with the bread:
      Medic: [cheerfully breaks the loaf apart, exposing large, green masses inside] Tumors!
  • Applied Mathematics: The Medic uses this to work out how long it will be until they die.
    Medic: We all use the teleporter let's say six times a day. Times four years. Minus we're not bread. Hmm.
  • Anthropomorphic Food: Putting bread through the teleporter a few times creates a small bread monster. Putting it through lots of times, creates a huge one that the mercs end up fighting.
  • Ascended Meme: When Medic says "We have three days to live!" the camera pans back over to Soldier...who apparently can't count to three. There's also a lambda symbol written on Engie and Medic's chalkboard. Sound familiar?
    • The Red Bread van's hood ornament reads Sword.
  • Attack of the Killer Whatever: It turns out that teleporting bread enough times will cause it to form into a little vicious monster. Soldier teleports so much bread over three days that the bread becomes an enormous tentacled beast.
  • Almighty Janitor: Miss Pauling, who takes care of the cleanup at all of the Mercs' battle scenes so that none of them go to prison. She only gets one day off per year.
  • Batman Gambit: Spy manipulates Scout shamelessly through the entire training sequence, in the end telling him that he's failed and is out of time as a way to get him to take the initiative. As Scout retorts that he never needed Spy's help and is going to put on a date anyway, Spy can be seen trying not to smile because Scout is taking the bait hook, line, and sinker.
  • Big Damn Movie: Well, so far it's the closest thing TF2 has to one.
  • Bread of Survival: Inverted — Engineer and Medic use bread to perform experiments on the teleporter, finding what appears to be tumors inside them, which gets them to believe the entire team will die in 3 days. Further experiments though, and they conclude that it only happens to bread and that it isn't tumors but some self-aware beauty mark that makes the bread hostile. When they inform the team that they will be fine as long as bread isn't put through the teleporter anymore, Soldier reveals he did nothing but teleport bread for three days, resulting in a giant bread monster that the team has to fight.
  • Breathless Non Sequitur: Miss Pauling at the end when Scout offers to help her with her work:
    Miss Pauling: Let's see, tomorrow I'm... belt-sanding the fingerprints off of filed corpses.
    Scout: Ah, no!
    Miss Pauling: Oh! You can help me yank the molars out of a box of heads.
    Scout: Ah, no! No to that.
    Miss Pauling: Well, Friday I have to kill someone who pressed a briefcase alarm button, and... Oh you’re already going to be at that one... note 
  • Call-Back:
    • Scout is shown to be handy at using improvised weapons as clubs, as was shown in the Smissmas Comic.
    • When Medic ubers the Heavy, it works the same as in the "Meet The Medic" video (Heavy becomes invincible, but Medic remains the same).
    • As Spy is teaching Scout how to dance, Scout's earlier attempts at dancing make a lot more sense when you consider all the Tom Jones memorabilia he'd been collecting. Doubles as a Shout-Out.
    • The code for the numberpad on the team's van is the same as in the Meet the Spy, as only the 1 shows signs of being used.
    • When Medic breaks open the tumor-riddled bread, Scout's reaction is the exact same as his reaction in "Meet the Spy" when Soldier shoots Spy.
  • Cargo Ship: Invoked. "...me having sexual congress with the Eiffel Tower... Eiffel Tower having sexual congress with me... "
  • Chekhov's Skill: During Scout's date training montage, Spy teaches him to tango, using a mannequin as a stand-in dance partner. Later on, after Scout and Pauling agree to take cover inside the bread monster's mouth, Scout saves Pauling from a tentacle attack by dipping and twirling her in the same way he did with the mannequin.
  • The Cloud Cuckoolander Was Right: Turns out that the teleporter side-effects do just mean they can't teleport bread anymore.
  • Comically Missing the Point: After the mercs find out that teleporting bread gives it tumors:
    Engineer: Y'all know what this means, right?
    Soldier: [distressed, slamming Scout into a table] ARG! WE CANNOT TELEPORT BREAD ANYMORE!
    • Subverted as it turns out Soldier was right about it meaning exactly that.
  • Comic Role Play: Spy insists that Scout begin his seduction training by practicing on Spy.
  • Continuity Nod: A Freeze-Frame Bonus version: As Spy prepares the mic to make Scout repeat to the whole team that Spy is better than him, Pyro can be seen reading the magazine from "Meet The Medic".
  • Contrived Coincidence:
    • The Mercs have been using the teleporter for six years, and find out they have tumors three days before those tumors will kill them.
    • It takes three days for The Medic to discover that only bread gets tumors, and for anyone to notice the bread monster soldier is creating.
    • The day the Mercs will ostensibly die is Ms. Pauling's one day off.
  • Demoted to Extra: Heavy and Demoman get only a few lines and brief appearances throughout the short, while Pyro and Sniper get barely any presence in the whole short.
  • Double-Meaning Title: A triple example, even:
    • RED has just acquired the Lecture Valley bread company. Bread plays a major role in the short. Bread inevitably goes bad past its expiration date.
    • The RED mercs are coping with their inevitable demise.
    • Scout's dying wish is to go on a date with Miss Pauling.
  • Do You Want to Copulate?: Scout explains that, while he doesn't know how to woo classy girls, he's an expert on another kind of girl, which is proudly shown in a flashback.
    [at the counter of a fast food restaurant]
    Scout: We both got buckets of chicken. You wanna do it?
    Girl: Eh, okay.
  • Dumbass Has a Point: When the Soldier reveals he has been teleporting bread, he matter-of-factly recalls that the Engineer told him he could. He's not wrong — three days prior, the Engineer assured the Soldier that "[he could] teleport as much bread as [he likes]." Nobody contests his assertion; they instead wonder how much bread he teleported and where he'd been sending it. And the Soldier teleported a ton.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: The short contains several cosmetic item sets (for Scout, Demoman, and Engineer) and some taunts (the Deep Fried Desire and Oblooterated taunts, specifically) that were released in the update patch.
  • Eat Me: Zigzagged. Scout and Ms. Pauling do this at the climax, but for the opposite reason.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: Scout and Ms. Pauling, trapped between a horrible bread monster and a bomb about to go off, notice Archimedes completely unharmed inside the former after being Swallowed Whole by it earlier. They leap inside it just as the bomb goes off, protecting them from the blast.
  • Exact Words:
    • In Spy's quarters, Scout convinces Spy to help him woo Ms. Pauling by admitting that the Spy is better than him, but not before prefacing the statement by saying that it never leaves the room. An impressed Spy agrees to help... but only on the condition that Scout repeats his admission over the room's intercom. Spy's clearly milking Scout's humility for all it's worth, but he's still keeping true to Scout's terms—just literally, rather than figuratively. The statement never leaves the room; Spy just allows everyone else to hear the conversation therein.
    • Soldier takes Engineer's comment that he can teleport bread as an instruction that he should teleport bread, and responds, rather matter-of-factly, that Engie told him to do it when asked why.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: An extended one that starts when Engineer says that they'll be fine "As long as nobody teleports any more bread."
    Soldier: Question.
    Engineer: What is your question, Soldier?
    Soldier: I teleported bread.
    Engineer: What!?
    Soldier: [pointing at Engineer] You told me to.
    Engineer: How. Much.
    Soldier: I have done nothing but teleport bread for three days.
    Medic: Vhere? [grabs Soldier by the collar] Vhere have you been sending it?!
    [building shakes]
  • Eye Scream: Played for Laughs. During Scout's training sequence, the Spy knocks a fork out of Scout's hand into Demoman's eyepatch.
  • Face Death with Dignity: When told they have three days to live, none of the Mercs panic or bemoan their fate. The instead opt to spend their last hours relaxing and pursuing their hobbies.
  • Feedback Rule: Scout privately turns to Spy for help earning the heart of Ms. Pauling. However, since Scout made fun of Spy earlier, Spy responds by activating the intercom and blowing into it to create the feedback squeal that alerts everyone else, making it clear that Scout will have to really swallow his pride for Spy's help.
  • Feed It a Bomb: Attempted, then inverted. Ms. Pauling gets the idea to shove a Payload bomb into the bread monster's mouth, but it knocks the cart over, leaving her and Scout trapped with a soon-to-detonate bomb. Then she sees Archimedes safe inside its mouth, so she and Scout jump in so the bread monster will protect them from the blast.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Hidden Depths:
    • Spy, despite his mocking and gloating, spends his last hours helping Scout. This mirrors the comics.
    • Scout's "girls vs. ladies" speech is short, but surprisingly eloquent.
    • Demoman plays piano and the Sniper plays saxophone.
  • I Ate WHAT?!: Heavy pausing at eating his sandvich when he sees the bread full of tumors. In the background of the next scene, he can be seen inspecting it briefly before continuing to eat it anyway.
  • Last Day to Live: The entire concept of the short is that the mercs will die in three days. The mercs mistakenly think they have terminal cancer as a side effect of using Engie's teleporters, so Spy attempts (unsuccessfully) to create a "Bucket List" that will allow each merc to have his dying wish. Only Scout takes him up on it.
  • Mundane Utility: Demoman uses the teleporter to make beer runs.
  • Mythology Gag and Call-Forward: Likely unintentional, but the Spy tells his team "see you all in hell." The Scream Fortress 2013 event takes place later in the timeline, wherein both teams actually travel to Hell.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Soldier spends three days teleporting the bread, which ends up creating a massive bread monster.
    Soldier: You told me to!
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Medic, as detailed under Admiring the Abomination above. Miss Pauling is showing shades of this, given how she declares the fight against the bread monster to be "fun" and asks if they can do it again.
  • Oh, Crap!: Medic freaks out slightly when he hears that Soldier spent three days doing nothing but teleport bread... which they just learned creates bread monsters.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
    Engineer: How. Much.
  • Precision F-Strike: When Scout tries to talk to Spy in his smoking room:
    Spy: Oh, Scout. Please. Go [bleep] yourself.
  • Properly Paranoid: Subverted. When Spy is coaching Scout on how to go on a date at 7 PM, Scout starts rattling off an impressive list of preparations involving scoping out the restaurant at 7 AM, killing and replacing the cook if necessary. Spy then tells him no, and that everything he just said is insane.
  • Rhetorical Request Blunder: When shown the tumorous bread, Soldier concludes this means they can't teleport any more bread and flies into a rage. Engineer tells him he can "teleport as much bread as you like" to calm him down. Soldier then spends the entire three days teleporting so much bread that it creates a giant monster.
  • Rousing Speech: Spy gives one when he presents his bucket list idea to the rest of the team. Unfortunately, he's the only one to take the idea seriously.
  • Say It: After Scout ruins Spy's plan to help everyone achieve a dying wish, he still approaches Spy to ask for his help in getting a date with Ms. Pauling. Scout is able to convince Spy to help him by admitting Spy is better than him (after making Spy promise that his admission never leaves the room), but Spy makes him fulfill one more condition. He then activates a mic connected to the hideout intercom.
    Spy: [gesturing to the mic] Say that again.
  • Self-Deprecation: The Soldier has a hard time counting to 3, a nod to Valve's tendency to make only one sequel to their games and never make a third entry.
  • Sequel Escalation: A very long short film (at 15 minutes long, it comes close to every previous short combined) with a self-contained plot, containing both drama and comedy as well as master-quality animation. It also marks the official film debut of a character only seen in supplemental comics, complete with new voice actress and model.
  • Ship Tease: For Scout/Miss Pauling.
  • Shout-Out: In addition to the Tom Jones reference above, two of the cosmetic items released alongside the video were references to television shows:
  • Suddenly Voiced: Miss Pauling is finally given an official character model, and we finally hear her voice. She's played by Ashly Burch.
  • Teleportation Sickness: The teleporters turn out to cause tumors. But it only happens with bread.
  • Too Dumb to Fool: When the medic and engineer reveal that the teleporters, teleporters that the whole team has been using for ages, have been filling their bread with tumors, and ask if they realize what that means, Soldier flips out and yells "WE CAN'T TELEPORT BREAD ANYMORE!". While initially he seems to be Comically Missing the Point, in reality, yes, that was all it meant, and the Soldier was the only one so dumb that the logical fallacy everyone else jumped to never even occurred to him; they had never even bothered to check if the teleporter gave tumors to anything but bread. And in the end it turns out that no, it doesn't.
  • Too Dumb to Live:
    • The Soldier, doing nothing but teleporting bread for three days, somehow not even realizing he's creating a monster for all that time, and then cheerfully calling out what he's done when the bread monster is throwing him around the room.
    • Also, the Scout uses an emergency security alarm simply to get Miss Pauling's attention (causing her to show up with a helmet and shotgun, thinking an enemy is trying to steal an important briefcase) in full view of a security camera that the Administrator has access to, no less. (It's implied at the end that she's instructed to kill him on Friday for doing so.)
  • Training Montage: Scout goes through one, coached by Spy, to work on his dating skills. Spy thinks he's a failure at the end.
  • Visible Odor: Several of the sketches Scout places into Spy's bucket depict Spy emanating stink lines. In the picture of Spy getting hit by a car, Scout claims that the reason the car hit him was because he smells. At least one unshown image in particular reportedly portrays the Eiffel Tower emitting an odor as well.
  • Wasn't That Fun?: After being Swallowed Whole by the bread monster, Miss Pauling wants to fight the thing again. (Scout, not so much.)
  • Wham Line:
    Soldier: I teleported bread.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: It turns out that all those years of using teleporters have given the team tumors, as exemplified in bread, which will kill the team in three days. Except not. They're not only completely fine, but the "tumors" are actually a mutation-based life form that only works on bread and other wheat foods, bringing it to life as a murderous creature.
    • Though Scout's days remained numbered for at least a week after he set off the briefcase alarm to get Ms. Pauling's attention. The Administrator promptly sends an order to have Scout killed at the end of the short.

    Jungle Inferno 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mtt_jungle.jpg

The Team decide to go looking for...something...and run into CEO of Mann Co.; Saxton Hale.


  • Bullying a Dragon: The very point of mercenary park was to allow people to provoke the indigenous Wild Yeti. Also Saxton Hale does this to the escaped yeti.
  • Batman Gambit: Mercenary Park was created as a way of entertaining people by killing and/ or attacking them. Safe to say it didn't really work.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: The Thermal Thruster jetpack-weapon for Pyro premiered a day early during the end of the Short.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: Upon being told that there are no more yetis for his yeti-fighting park, Saxton Hale bemoans that without yetis it's just a fighting park and "Where I am going to find a bunch a lunatics willing to come all this way just to fight..." He sees the Mercs. "...fight each other."
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: Saxton Hale uses Scout as a club in the beginning of his fight with the Yeti. When that doesn't work, he just uses the poor Scout as a springboard for his YETI PUNCH!
  • Letting the Air out of the Band: Triumphant music swells as Saxton Hale declares, "Welcome to YETI PA-!" Then his phone rings and the music stumbles to a stop as he takes the call.
  • Ludicrous Gibs: Saxton Hale punches the yeti so hard it explodes.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Spy vanishes near the beginning. He doesn't show up until the action stops.
  • Shout-Out: Among criticisms to his plan for Yeti Park was "Nature finds a way" and "That was the whole money mine!"
  • Suddenly Voiced: Saxton Hale is voiced by JB Blanc in the short.

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The Spy

The Spy is a suave ladies man and master of espionage armed with various neat gadgets.

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4.25 (12 votes)

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