Murder Drones (Pilot) is the pilot episode of Murder Drones by Glitch Productions, and premiered on YouTube on October 29, 2021.
Synopsis[]
Uzi Doorman gives exposition about the Worker Drones, the elimination of biological life on Copper 9, and the arrival of the Disassembly Drones by orders of JCJenson, their parent company. In the present day (not too long after the Disassembly Drones arrive), Uzi presents her slideshow and her railgun, much to the horror of her peers and the apathy of her Teacher, who points out that the homework was a word problem on buying watermelons and that her repressed emotional baggage was only worth 2 points on the rubric. The railgun ends up malfunctioning, causing an explosion.
Later, Uzi is in the sick bay after the accidental explosion, where she talks to Thad about her plan to sneak to the Spire of corpses to find the last part of her railgun, for it to function. Thad questions if it is necessary, seeing as Uzi's father, Khan Doorman, built doors specifically so they didn't need to do that "scary sounding emotionally repressed stuff". Uzi seems to get angry at Thad, then leaves, clarifying she is not angry, just "generally hormonal". At 3 AM, she gears up and steals the master door key from her dad's office. Uzi tries to sneak out but is met by him, who asks where she is going. Uzi, who wants to find an item for her railgun outside the outpost, lies about it by saying she wants to examine Door 1 as help for a school project. She says she wants to "join the WDF and hide behind doors like cowards". Khan takes her sarcasm seriously and gives her his wrench, a sentimental item to him. She is let out, after which Khan exclaims, "They grow up so fast..."
After she sneaks out to the Corpse Spire, Uzi finds the component she needs but is attacked by Serial Designation N, who impales her hand with his nanite syringe and throws her against a wall. Uzi successfully ends up shooting N's head off with the railgun, but his head reassembles. In desperation, Uzi smacks N's head with a severed robot arm. N boots up blind and amnesiac, then responds, "Did you just slap me with that arm?" to which Uzi, who did not know Murder Drones could communicate, bluntly stated, "Holy crap, it talks."
Due to his optical sensors being temporarily knocked out, N assumes that Uzi is a new member of his squad and that there are more of his kind out hunting. Uzi then tries to leave, but she clutches her hand as a result of N's earlier attack on her. N then tells her that they can use their saliva to neutralize the nanites. Uzi heads to the Landing Pod and puts her hand in N's mouth to stop the infection. They agree to never talk about this. N, still not suspecting Uzi of being a Worker Drone, briefly talks about the Disassembly Drones' functions and Serial Designation V (his crush) and Serial Designation J (his boss), his other teammates. Uzi then realizes that the Landing Pod is a spacecraft that could get the Worker Drones off the planet. She then questions him about what JCJenson would do to them once the Worker Drones were all killed. J and V then return from their hunt.
V notices Uzi and remarks about using her as practice as balloon animal shapes but stops when J finds N appearing to be offline and knocks him back to his senses. N then realizes that Uzi is a Worker Drone and that she had attacked him with a railgun, spotting her tracks in the snow. He then exclaims that he left a dangerous weapon lying around as an excuse to throw his teammates off, who are not convinced.
As Uzi flees from the Corpse House, N pursues her back to the WDF hideout where he pries open the blast doors before they can fully shut and breaks the control system. He then proceeds to slaughter the four Worker Drones while pursuing Uzi. Uzi then runs into her father, who's horrified by the destroyed doors and the Murder Drone. N flies right in front of him, causing Uzi to tell him to move aside so she could amend her problem. While N admits that he appreciates spending time with her, he can't let her use the weapon on V. Khan fails to move, allowing N to impale Uzi with his wing. Uzi pleads with her father to grab the gun and shoot N, but he simply closes the doors on her. The act surprises N that he looks at Uzi with sadness before V and J arrive, upon which he tosses her aside to prevent them from killing her.
Impressed that N had finally done something useful for once, V flies off to slaughter the Worker Drones. Before J could fly off, N questions J about the Worker Drones and that they could get them off the planet, but J impales him in the chest with an infectious virus, slyly stating that it was what she wanted to hear. She sarcastically apologizes for having to put him down before flying off. With the two Disassembly Drones gone, Uzi comes out of hiding and scolds N as she tries to pursue them. Realizing that she can't get after them, she reluctantly removes the virus from N.
At the evacuation spot, Thad attempts to rally the WDF to fight the Murder Drones, but nobody helps. V impales Thad and is about to kill him but stops when Uzi and N arrive. N complains to J about being treated harshly but also points it out as constructive criticism. V throws Thad to the side before Uzi decides to fight J, leaving N with V, much to his disappointment.
Uzi throws the JCJenson pen at J and hits one of her headlights, causing her to stumble. J fires a machine gun at Uzi before commending the quality of JCJenson products. Uzi uses the distraction to dropkick the pen into her eye, causing her to fire a powerful laser which both Uzi and N narrowly dodge. V aims her missile launcher at N, who likewise tries to retaliate, only to have hearts steam out of his launcher. V's missile lands next to him before exploding. J then launches an EMP blast to disable Uzi, while N clashes with V. Seeing Uzi in danger, he apologizes to V and licks her blades, causing her to become disgusted. He uses the distraction to slam her into the ground. J commends Uzi for providing some sort of resistance, but as she goes through a monologue, Uzi stabs her leg with her stinger, causing her to stumble and fall. She then points her railgun and threatens to shoot if she says another buzz line, which she does and ends up being seemingly annihilated by the railgun.
N subdues V with her tail as the Worker Drones come out of hiding and thank Uzi and N for their resistance. Khan then shamefully emerges from the crowd, much to Uzi's anger. She throws his wrench at his feet, then tells him off leaving her for dead. She almost cries before slapping herself to restore her "edge levels". She then decides to "save him the trouble" and banish herself from the colony. She leaves with N and V.
Near the end, Uzi is seen sitting on a broken car staring at the sunrise. N stands inside a random building because sunlight would kill him, calling out to her about how he hopes she's "having important character growth or something". Uzi says she's just thinking about killing all humans and starts laughing maniacally as her eyes flicker yellow, and for a split second the Absolute Solver symbol appears. The episode ends as the camera zooms out to show the planet of Copper 9, along with three more pods flying towards it.
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
- Uzi Doorman (voiced by Elsie Lovelock)
- Serial Designation N (voiced by Michael Kovach)
Antagonists[]
- Serial Designation V (voiced by Nola Klop)
- Serial Designation J (voiced by Shara Kirby)
Supporting Characters[]
- Thad (voiced by Sean Chiplock)
- Khan Doorman (voiced by David J. Dixon)
Minor Characters[]
- Lizzy (voiced by Katie Hood)
- Makarov (voiced by Cameron Gavinski)
- Teacher (voiced by Liam Vickers)
- Riley (voiced by Liam Vickers)
- Todd (voiced by Jasmine Yang)
- Braxton (voiced by Kevin Lerdwichagul)
- Grant (voiced by Luke Lerdwichagul)
- Doll (voiced by Emma Breezy)
Deaths[]
Total On-Screen Deaths: 20
- 6 Unnamed Worker Drones from 1:25-1:44
- N at 9:24 (regenerated at 9:46)
- Grant (and his 6 family members) at 11:46
- Todd at 15:45
- Makarov at 15:55
- Unnamed Male Worker Drone at 15:59
- Braxton at 16:06
- Riley at 21:23
- J at 24:33
Total Off-Screen Deaths: 1
- Nori Doorman at 6:26 (Mentioned)
Total: 21
Title in different languages[]
Language | Localized title | Literal translation |
---|---|---|
Filipino | "Ang Simula" | The Beginning |
French | "PILOT" | |
German | "Dunkle Engel" | Dark Angels |
Hungarian | "PILOT" | |
Japanese | "パイロット" | Pilot |
Mandarin (China) | '先行片' | Pilot |
Brazilian Portuguese | "PILOTO" | PILOT |
Russian | "Пилот" | Pilot |
Spanish | "PILOTO" | PILOT |
Thai | "บทนำ" | Introduction |
Turkish | "PİLOT" | PILOT |
Ukrainian | "Пілот" | Pilot |
Credits[]
- Created by
- Liam Vickers
- Executive Producers
- Kevin Lerdwichagul
- Luke Lerdwichagul
- Art Director
- Liam Vickers
- Producer
- Kevin Lerdwichagul
- Writer
- Liam Vickers
- Voices
- Uzi - Elsie Lovelock
- N - Michael Kovach
- V - Nola Klop
- J - Shara Kirby
- Thad - Sean Chiplock
- Khan - David J. Dixon
- Lizzy - Katie Hood
- Makarov - Cameron Gavinski
- Teacher & Riley - Liam Vickers
- Todd - Jasmine Yang
- Braxton - Kevin Lerdwichagul
- Grant - Luke Lerdwichagul
- Additional Voices - Hayley Nelson, Jack Hackett
- Script Editor
- Jasmine Yang
- Concept Artist
- Liam Vickers
- Voice Acting Director
- Liam Vickers
- Storyboard Artist
- Liam Vickers
- Storyboard Animatic
- Liam Vickers
- Greybox Artist
- Liam Vickers
- Layout Artist
- Matthew Peckham
- Jarrad Rumble
- Look Development
- Max Rudland
- Project Manager
- Jarrad Rumble
- 2D Artist
- Liam Vickers
- 3D Character Artists
- Max Rudland
- Alicia Howard
- Texturing & Surfacing Artists
- Max Rudland
- Alicia Howard
- Selina May
- Environmental Artists
- Alicia Howard
- Selina May
- Max Rudland
- 3D Asset & Prop Artists
- Max Rudland
- Alicia Howard
- Selina May
- Rigging Designers
- Marc Humphreys
- Matthew Peckham
- Riggers
- Marc Humphreys
- Bryan Pan
- Character Cloth & Hair Simulation
- Bryan Pan
- Maya Technical Advisor
- Matthew Peckham
- Maya Technical Artist
- Marc Humphreys
- Animators
- Woei Ping Mak
- Rafael Capricho
- Mikaylah Haddon
- Motion Capture Artist
- Matthew Peckham
- Graphic Design & UI Artist
- Joel Bobbin
- Post Director
- Joel Bobbin
- Post Coordinator
- Elle Nguyen
- Post Production Hands
- Elle Nguyen
- Joel Bobbin
- Aythan Maconachie
- Bryan Pan
- UE4 Scene Comp & 3D Camera
- Elle Nguyen
- Bryan Pan
- UE4 Technical Artist
- Aythan Maconachie
- Particle FX Artists
- Joel Bobbin
- Aythan Maconachie
- Lighting Artist
- Selina May
- Shader Artist
- Max Rudland
- Music by
- AJ DiSpirito
- Physics Simulation & Rigid Body Destruction
- Joel Bobbin
- Aythan Maconachie
- Fluid Simulation
- Joel Bobbin
- Rendering
- Elle Nguyen
- Joel Bobbin
- Compositing & VFX
- Liam Vickers
- Joel Bobbin
- Sound Design
- Epic Mountain
- Sound Mix & Mastering
- Epic Mountain
- Marketing & Distribution
- Kevin Lerdwichagul
- Luke Lerdwichagul
- Jasmine Yang
- Sharon Mani
- Special Thanks
- James Bailey
- Paul "MediExcalibur2012" Stylianou
- The SMG4 community
- Epic Games
Trivia[]
- In N's point of view seconds before Uzi shot him with her railgun, his system scanned Uzi and detected that she had plot armor activated.
- As of August 23rd 2024, it has over 50M views, making it the most-viewed episode and formerly the most-viewed video on the GLITCH channel until it was overtaken by the pilot of The Amazing Digital Circus.
- Most of the plot threads in this episode were dropped due to the direction of Murder Drones changing in the one-year gap between this episode and episode 2, Heartbeat.