Dead End is the sixth episode of Murder Drones by Glitch Productions and premiered on YouTube on August 18th, 2023.
Synopsis[]
The episode opens at Cabin Fever Labs, where Worker Drone 029 tries to both hide and retrieve a Worker Drone who has been 'boot-looped' (a state resembling paralysis) from Sentinels. Unfortunately, the velociraptor-like Sentinels tears the Drone apart, and another Sentinel closes in on her, boot-loops her with a flash of light, and eventually kills 029, ripping her to pieces.
Meanwhile, Uzi, N, and V meet up with Tessa and J. As Tessa explains why she and J landed on Copper 9, Doll steals the Keybug she had given them earlier and flees with it, prompting the group to give chase; however, Doll escapes by hopping into a hole leading to the Labs. Uzi, N, V, and Tessa venture inside the Labs while J stays behind to guard Tessa's ship. The foursome finds the entrance to the Labs, which is full of Disassembly Drones corpses. Tessa is suddenly dragged away by a rope when they find the route to the secret elevator. Uzi, N, and V follow her, finding a baby Worker Drone. N attempts to shoot the baby drone, but it escapes with its spider limbs. Suddenly, a female Worker Drone appears with the spider baby, just as an EMP knocks Uzi, N, and V out.
Uzi wakes up in a hospital room, where the female Worker Drone, named Alice, beheads 029's corpse. She reveals her scavenger nature, taking parts of Worker and Disassembly Drones for herself. She keeps the biomechanical cores of the latter inside an oven, which she claims 'slows them down,' apparently similar to paralysis. While she is talking, Alice mentions that 002 'left them to die', shocking Uzi. Meanwhile, in a room where N and Tessa are kept, Beau, the spider baby drone, performs surgery on N, who is incredibly unfazed about being cut open. Beau is called over by Alice for more 'sedatives' - which are just magnets to negate Uzi's Absolute Solver powers. Tessa seizes the chance to escape with N, and the two head to save Uzi and V. On the way, Tessa gives N a look at Earth, which, albeit off-screen, leaves him stunned. Finding out N and Tessa escaped, Alice releases a group of Sentinels that she locked in a room, intending for the dinosaur robots to kill the two.
N sees with his own eyes that Earth has been destroyed by the Solver. Tessa explains that Cyn was infected by the Solver and that the Solver spreads through multiple planetary systems; the humans of Copper 9 attempted to find out what was happening by establishing Cabin Fever Labs but instead spread the Solver even more through Worker Drones like Yeva and Nori. She also tells him that he must choose either the universe or Uzi, a choice which afflicts N since he doesn't want Uzi to be killed but cured. Just then, a Sentinel arrives and boot-loops N, but when it is about to kill him, Tessa attempts to intervene by having the Sentinel trust her. However, the Sentinel instead bites her arm. This causes the Sentinel to slam its head into a wall and kill itself, having violated its programming. More Sentinels start to close on Tessa while Alice gleefully watches from the cameras. She then notices everything in the room is floating and turns to find Uzi temporarily possessed by the Absolute Solver. Uzi then creates a black hole (surrounded by suspicious organic matter), destroying the door controls to Alice's safe room; Uzi falls unconscious shortly after.
The Sentinels notice the door to Alice's room is open and arrive just as Alice tries to close them. The Sentinels break in, killing Alice, and try to kill Uzi too, but are distracted by Beau charging up a laser beam. However, Beau uses it to free V at the cost of his own life. The Sentinels corner V, but a black hole suddenly consumes them. V then flees with Uzi. N wakes up from his boot-loop as V and Uzi reunite with him and Tessa, who is berated by V about the control she claims to have over the Sentinels. Tessa tells N she hasn't 'been quite honest with V yet.' Uzi wakes up and hugs N while V stares ominously at Tessa. Meanwhile, the Sentinel who had wounded Tessa's arm reboots as a red-eyed variant, now able to attack anything that moves.
The foursome flee and lead the Sentinels down into a long hallway where the secret elevator is. To their surprise, Doll lays in a boot-looped state, having been done in by Sentinels; as they walk, Uzi and N are both blushing and holding hands. Tessa easily retrieves the keybug from Doll's hands. Doll, however, had faked her boot-loop state (via a GIF) to lure the group into the hallway; she steals the keybug and by dropping a lift in the way to cut them off from chasing her, leaves them trapped with Sentinels. Tessa distracts the Sentinels from the group with her blood, calling, 'Oops! I hope I don't human everywhere!' but the red-eyed Sentinel arrives, now with a taste for human blood. Uzi tries to use her Solver powers to open a hole in the lift, but it ends up creating another uncontrollable black hole. The red-eyed Sentinel uses a dismembered Disassembly Drone's arm gun to shoot Tessa; V catches the bullet and proceeds to battle the Sentinel, using a pair of glasses to negate its flash attack. While V fights the Sentinel, N, seeing that Uzi is unable to stop the black hole from growing, severs her arm, stopping the hole. As V defeats the red-eyed Sentinel, Tessa, N, and Uzi enter the falling lift. However, another Sentinel bites and detaches the Keybug reader, causing the lift to re-ascend. V is slowly surrounded by more Sentinels, still unable to join the others.
V ultimately decides to cut elevator cables despite N's protests. She voices her trust in Uzi as the elevator car begins to drop. As Tessa, Uzi, and N are sent plummeting down the shaft, V stands tall, saluting her friends as the Sentinels close in, which leaves V to fight the rest of the Sentinels herself.
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
- Uzi Doorman (voiced by Elsie Lovelock)
- N (voiced by Michael Kovach)
- V (voiced by Nola Klop)
- Tessa Elliott (voiced by Daisy Rose)
Minor Characters[]
- J (voiced by Shara Kirby)
- Amda (voiced by Lizzie Freeman)
Antagonists[]
- Doll (voiced by Emma Breezy)
- Sentinels
- Cyn/Absolute Solver (possessing Uzi, voiced by Allanah Fitzgerald)
- Alice (voiced by Amber May)
- Beau
Deaths[]
Title in different languages[]
| Language | Localized title | Literal translation |
|---|---|---|
| Filipino | 'Hangganan' | Border |
| French | 'Impasse' | Dead End |
| German | 'Schutzengel' | Guardian Angel |
| Hungarian | 'Zsákutca' | Dead End |
| Japanese | 'デッドエンド' | Dead End |
| Mandarin (China) | '绝境' | Dead End |
| Brazilian Portuguese | 'Fim da Linha' | End of the Line |
| Russian | 'Тупик' | Dead End |
| Spanish | 'Sin Salida' | No Exit |
| Thai | 'ทางตัน' | Dead End |
| Turkish | 'Çıkmaz Sokak' | Dead End |
| Ukrainian | 'Глухий Кут' | Dead End |
Credits[]
- Created, Directed & Written by
- Liam Vickers
- Executive Producers
- Kevin Lerdwichagul
- Luke Lerdwichagul
- Producer
- Kevin Lerdwichagul
- Development Producer
- Jasmine Yang
- Consulting Producer
- Evan Baily
- Voices
- Uzi - Elsie Lovelock
- N - Michael Kovach
- V - Nola Klop
- Absolute Solver - Allanah Fitzgerald
- Tessa - Daisy Rose
- J - Shara Kirby
- Alice - Amber May
- Doll - Emma Breezy
- Amda - Lizzie Freeman
- Concept Artist
- Liam Vickers
- Voice Acting Director
- Jasmine Yang
- Lead Storyboard Artist
- Robin French
- Storyboard Artist
- Neda Lay
- Editorial
- Luke Lerdwichagul
- Layout Artists
- Jarrad Rumble
- Pepe Pelaez
- Look Development
- Max Rudland
- General Production Manager
- Oliver Ma
- Shot Production Manager
- Jarrad Rumble
- 2D Artists
- Liam Vickers
- Alicia Howard
- Lead 3D Artist
- Max Rudland
- 3D Character & Crowd Artists
- Max Rudland
- Alicia Howard
- Guillaume Coquel-Danchin
- 3D Asset & Prop Artists
- Alicia Howard
- Max Rudland
- Jonathan Corroto
- Guillaume Coquel-Danchin
- Texturing & Surfacing Artists
- Max Rudland
- Alicia Howard
- Guillaume Coquel-Danchin
- Jonathan Corroto
- Environment Artists
- Alicia Howard
- Max Rudland
- Lead Rigger
- Marc Humphreys
- Riggers
- Bryan Pan
- Evan Huang
- CFX Artists
- Bryan Pan
- Marc Humphreys
- Maya Technical Artist & Tools
- Marc Humphreys
- Lead Animator
- Kevin Temmer
- Animators
- Rafael Capricho
- Mikaylah Haddon
- Jacapo Poto
- Jarrad Rumble
- Joe Marshall
- Alex Hoyle
- UE5 & Houdini VFX Artist
- Stephen De Mata
- Motion Graphics & UI Artist
- Dean Musumeci
- Liam Vickers
- Post Production Lead
- Arman Haque
- Post Production Coordinator
- Abhignya Cavale
- Post Production Hand
- Abhignya Cavale
- UE5 Animation Composition
- Jarrad Rumble
- UE5 Technical Artist
- Max Rudland
- UE5 Engineer
- Aythan Maconachie
- UE5 Optimization
- Aythan Maconachie
- Lighting Artists
- Selina May
- Arman Haque
- Shader Artist
- Max Rudland
- DoF
- Selina May
- Set Dressing
- Alicia Howard
- Crowd Technical Artist
- Aythan Maconachie
- Physics Simulation & Rigid Body Destruction
- Stephen De Mata
- Fluid Simulation
- Stephen De Mata
- Rendering
- Abhignya Cavale
- Luke Lerdwichagul
- Compositing
- Dean Musumeci
- Arman Haque
- DitzyFlama
- Color Grading
- Liam Vickers
- IT Technician
- Aythan Maconachie
- Music by
- AJ DiSpirito
- "Eternal Dream"
- Written by AJ DiSpirito
- Vocals performed by Elsie Lovelock
- Choir
- Alexander Andriyan
- Krystal Kearns
- Sound Design
- Epic Mountain
- Sound Mix & Mastering
- Epic Mountain
- Distribution
- Kevin Lerdwichagul
- Luke Lerdwichagul
- Jasmine Yang
- Marketing Director
- Kevin Lerdwichagul
- Marketing Manager
- Suskia Phillips
- Marketing Creative Officers
- Zamir Parvez
- Luke Lerdwichagul
- Suskia Phillips
- Marketing Artists
- DitzyFlama
- Matt Gaglione
- Production & Admin Assistant
- Timothy McNee
- Special Thanks
- Epic Games
- The SMG4 Team
- Juniper Creates™
- The GLITCH & SMG4 community
Trivia[]
- This is the second episode to end on a cliffhanger after Home, since V (later confirmed to have survived in Absolute End) had made the sacrifice play while saving Uzi, N and Tessa.
- This is the first episode to not feature Khan Doorman and the second to not feature Lizzy, Thad or the Teacher.
- This is the first episode to depict blood rather than oil.
- This is the first and only time V addresses Uzi by name.
- This episode marks the first time that Lizzie Freeman is back in recent Glitch Productions as she had loosened up her schedule, the second being The Amazing Digital Circus.
- Despite being the main antagonist of the episode and appearing multiple times, Doll has no speaking role in this episode.
Errors[]
- After everyone is captured by Alice, there is a distortion on Uzi and V's screens caused by the magnets. However, when the scene changes to show N and Tessa, the distortion is not present on N and is no longer present when the scene goes back to Uzi and V.
- Although Tessa's arm is damaged after being bitten, the wound disappears at times.
- At 4:55 V's left hand appears on top of her claws, and without an animation.
- When Tessa says 'Don't date my robot, please.', the English subtitles incorrectly display, 'Don't take my robot, please.'
