Dead Hand
Entry updated 3 January 2022. Tagged: TV.
Russian CGI animated web series (2013-2016). Directed by Dima Fedotov. Written by Sergey and Dima Fedotov. Two episodes. Colour.
The first episode, the three-minute Fortress, announces that it is "10 years from beginning of last war" (see World War Three). A plane resembling a futuristic descendant of a Superfortress Heavy Bomber is in flight: its Computer, unable to engage with the pilot (we see a skull through the faceplate of his armoured suit), goes to autopilot and performs the bombing raid on a bleak, ruined City. Though clearly empty of human life (see Holocaust), we see some grass is growing in the cracks.
A second episode, the seven-minute Last Day of War, opens with "20 Years since the last war broke out". Air Force Base 14's Control System is still trying to organize bombing raids; however, the equipment is in disrepair and there is only one working plane, which fails mid-flight. The Computer ejects the skeleton of the pilot in an escape capsule before the plane crashes into the sea. The Control System announces: "All Combat Units Lost. The War is Over". Meanwhile trees grow, whilst storks perch and court on the ruins of civilization.
This is an enjoyable work whose brevity means the familiarity of the tropes and ironies – Technology going through the motions and nature returning amidst the ruins of humanity (see Clichés; Ecology; Ruined Earth) do not rankle, enabling the viewer to enjoy the animation. [SP]
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