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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Dead Space: Downfall

The nightmare returns...
Dead Space 2 is out. Experience the terror of the animated tale "Downfall."

[Source: Wikipedia] The film revolves around the mining ship Ishimura as it arrives in the vicinity of an alien world. The crew of the Ishimura discover an object, which is referred to as the "Marker". It is brought aboard by order of Captain Mathius and Dr. Kyne. A week passes and a rash of violent attacks between the miners and other crew begin to rise in numbers. Hostilities begin to break out as members of the religious group, the "Unitologists", beg for a glimpse of the Marker, a key icon in their belief.
 
Meanwhile, on the planet, two miners check an outpost that has gone silent while the Ishimura brings up a chunk of the planet to mine. The men discover something amiss and one goes in search of his girlfriend, while his partner vanishes during a blackout. In the girlfriend's room, the man watches in shock as his beloved commits suicide. As the man flees the facility, he is unaware of an alien presence attaching itself to his deceased lover.

Onboard the Ishimura, Alissa Vincent, head of security, demands that Mathius allow an investigation of the recent outbreak of violence. But Mathius remains firm in the belief that nothing is amiss. The vessel piloted by the surviving miner crashes into the hangar just as he cuts communication and is killed by his mutated girlfriend. Vincent and her team are dispatched to contain the situation but discover nothing aboard the small ship, then depart to find out what caused the crash. Kyne suggest they call for help, but Mathius says that Aegis VII is a restricted area and they are not supposed to be there.

Down in the sickbay, a man awakes to discover alien creatures mutating the various corpses in the morgue, only to be killed. The situation turns grim all through the ship as the chaos and body count rise, as Mathius demands order. Kyne says that the Marker is responsible, but Mathius is in denial because he would have to put the Marker back and face court martial if the government knew they were in the restricted system. A confrontation between Mathius and Kyne leads to Mathius being accidentally killed by Kyne, who then flees. Vincent and her team arrive at the morgue where a Necromorph kills a teammate before being dispatched.

Things become chaotic as Vincent and her team struggle to make their way back to safety, but are confronted by a horde of Necromorphs. When it looks like conventional weapons are useless, an engineer named Samuel Irons arrives on the scene with a mining tool and cuts down the creatures. A member of the team named Hanson goes insane and murders fellow teammate Shen, after which Hanson and Vincent have a brief fight ending with Hanson being shot in the head by Ramirez. Returning to the deck, Vincent, Irons, and remaining member Ramirez discover that Kyne is planning to crash the ship into the planet below.

On their way to confront Kyne, Vincent and the others discover survivors being attacked by Necromorphs and go to save them. Using himself as bait, Irons buys time for Vincent and Ramirez to extract the scared crew members before being killed and turned into a Necromorph himself. The survivors are overwhelmed by more Necromorphs and Ramirez sacrifices himself to give Vincent a head start for the control room where Kyne is hiding. Vincent confronts Kyne who claims what he has done was necessary and steals her weapon as she tries to save the ship.

Vincent finds herself surrounded by numerous Necromorphs. She then discovers that the creatures cannot come into close proximity with the artifact, but Vincent doesn't care and breaks down. Spurred on by a brief vision of Ramirez, Vincent leaves a video log that details the entire events up until now. She downloads the video log she made into the distress beacon and opens the airlock and activates the distress beacon on a downed shuttle just a few feet from the marker. The distress beacon then fires outwards into space and along with it, several of the Necromorphs and herself.

As the film draws to a close, Vincent's body drifts into the darkness as the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" plays. The story ends just as the Kellion arrives and prepares to dock on the Ishimura, the beginning of Dead Space.

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