“ | Meet Your Maker.[1] | ” |
Dead Space: Downfall is the animated horror prequel to Dead Space, taking place during the events of Dead Space: Extraction and the Dead Space comic leading all the way up to the beginning of the first game. It was developed by Film Roman and was released on October 28, 2008 for Blu-ray and DVD. It shows the events leading up to the beginning of the Dead Space game and how the Necromorph infection spread to the USG Ishimura from the mining colony on Aegis VII.
Plot Description[]
“ | For the crew of the USG Ishimura, this is how the horror begins: On a deep space mining mission to a remote planet, an ancient religious relic - thought to be proof of the existence of God - is unearthed and brought aboard. It is worshipped by some, scorned by others. But when the unholy artifact unleashes a long-dormant alien race, its glimpse of Heaven transforms the ship into a living Hell. The chaos is immediate. The carnage is uncontrollable. And an onslaught unlike anything ever witnessed by mankind has now been set free to rip this world apart. Prepare yourself for the disturbing opening chapters of the new EA game that takes adult animation to graphic new levels of bloodshed and terror. This is DEAD SPACE: DOWNFALL.[1] | ” |
Plot Summary[]
A screen crackles to life as an exhausted Alissa Vincent gets in the chair in front of the recording device, explaining the fall of the Ishimura due to an infestation of parasitic alien-organisms brought about by an artifact discovered on the surface of Aegis VII and tells the recipient of the message that the Ishimura and the artifact must be destroyed. The message ends.
Going back in time, three patrolling inspectors in RIGs move to inspect unusual seismic activity on the planet surface. One of them notes chemical weathering on the walls and another takes note of what appears to be a claw mark. They discover an object referred to as a "Marker" on the planet's surface; the artifact is later brought aboard the Ishimura by orders of Captain Mathius. 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 religion.
When the Ishimura brings up a chunk of the planet for mining purposes, the colony's power goes out and two miners, Colin Barrow and Glenn, set down after a fly-over and begin to investigate a seemingly deserted part of the colony. Shortly after landing their shuttle, the men discover that something is amiss and Colin goes out in search of his wife, Jennifer, while Glenn eerily vanishes during a quick blackout. In his wife Jennifer's room, Colin finds symbols of the Marker written all over the walls and watches in shock as Jennifer cuts into her throat with a Rock Saw shortly after muttering how "they want our bodies". As Colin flees the facility with the body of his dead wife, he is unaware of an alien presence flying into the closing shuttle door and attaching itself to his deceased wife.
On board the Ishimura, Alissa Vincent, head of the security on the ship, demands that Captain Mathius allows an investigation of the recent outbreak of violence, but Mathius remains firm in the belief that nothing is amiss. Suddenly the vessel piloted by Colin Barrow crashes into the hangar just as he cuts communication and is killed by his mutated wife. Vincent and her team are dispatched to contain the situation but discover no bodies on board the shuttle, though they do take note of the copious amounts of blood, then depart to find out what caused the crash.
Down in the sickbay, a man awakes to discover alien creatures mutating the various corpses in the morgue, only to be gruesomely dispatched moments later. The situation turns grim all through the ship as the chaos and body count steadily rises, creating havoc as Mathius demands order. A confrontation between Mathius and Dr. Terrence Kyne over what to do with the Marker leads to the former being accidentally killed by a sedative needle driven into his eye by Kyne, who then flees in terror. Vincent and her team arrive at the morgue where a recently mutated corpse 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 mutated crew members. When it looks like conventional weapons are useless, a man named Samuel Irons arrives on the scene with a mining tool and easily cuts down the creatures. Unfortunately, a member of the team named Hanson goes insane from the chaos and kills his teammate Shen, after which Hanson and Vincent have a brief fight ending with Hanson being shot through the head by Ramirez. Returning to the deck, Vincent, Irons, and remaining teammate Ramirez discover that Dr. Kyne has overridden the ship's gravitational controls and is planning to crash the ship into the planet below.
Along the way to confronting 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 as they extract the scared crew members before being killed and turned into a Necromorph. As Vincent and Ramirez reach the control room where Kyne is hiding, Ramirez admits that he is starting to feel the Marker's influence on his mind and sacrifices himself for Vincent's safety and to give her a head start as a horde of Necromorphs approaches. Vincent enters the room and confronts Dr. Kyne, who claims he has done what was necessary to destroy the Marker and the infection and steals her weapon as she tries to save the ship.
All seems lost and Vincent finds herself surrounded by numerous Necromorphs as she makes her way to the Marker's chamber. She then takes cover next to the artifact and discovers that it is keeping the creatures from approaching it. The hopeless Vincent passes out and awakes to see a vision of Ramirez telling her to, "Finish the job; save the ship." Vincent then records a video log that both details the entire ordeal up until now and warns that the Ishimura and the Marker must be destroyed, and uploads the log to a distress beacon nearby on a downed shuttle. In a final act of heroism, Vincent charges through the Necromorph crowd and activates the distress beacon as the airlock opens, which sucks out the beacon and the Necromorphs. Vincent tries to hold on a bit more but gets sucked away as well.
As the film draws to a close, Vincent's corpse floats into the darkness of space as the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star plays.
The story ends just as the USG Kellion arrives in response to the distress call and prepares to dock on the Ishimura, marking the beginning of Dead Space.
Cast and Characters[]
- Nika Futterman as Alissa Vincent
- Keith Szarabajka as Terrence Kyne
- Jim Cummings as Benjamin Mathius, Farum
- Kelly Hu as Shen
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Samuel Irons, Pendleton, Miner
- Phil Morris as Hanson, Glenn
- Bruce Boxleitner as Colin Barrow
- Jim Piddock as Chic
- Grey DeLisle as Donna Fawkes, Heather, Female officer, Ishimura Computer voice
- Lia Sargent as Jennifer Barrow
- Jeff Bennett as Dobbs, Hans Leggio, Jackson
- Hal Sparks as Ramirez
- Maurice Lamarche as D. White, Bavaro
- Bob Neill as Carthusian
- Walla/ADR:
- Off The Walla
- Lia Sargent
- David Allen Kramer
- Kirk Baily
- Shelly O' Neill
Trivia[]
- The Marker as shown in the movie appears to be much larger than depicted in the games. Furthermore, only a few of the glyphs on the Marker's surface glow red in the movie, whereas in the game, the glowing glyphs cover the Marker almost entirely.
- Both this film and the Dead Space prequel comic begin with a transmission log from their respective main characters.
- On the inside of the DVD cover there is a scene index and a picture of a large Necromorph called the Graverobber that has deceased human bodies fused into it including Ramirez, Samuel Irons and the woman who was killed by a Slasher in the shower room in Downfall. Although it was cut at the last minute from the film, it can be watched as a deleted scene in the special features index on the feature film.
- The movie boxart pays homage to Dead Space's boxart.
- Keith Szarabajka (voicing Dr. Terrence Kyne) is the only voice actor from the game that reprised his role in the movie, though the voice of Captain Mathius is remarkably similar to that in the game.
- There are only 6 types of Necromorphs that make an appearance in the movie: Pregnants, Slashers, Infectors, Swarmers, Lurkers and the Corruption. The Hive Mind is also alluded to when the miners note that something appears to be moving in the planet's core and when the Ishimura bridge staff report interference coming from the planet.
- The only weapon from Dead Space to appear in the movie is the Divet pistol. The Plasma Saw serves as a stand-in for both the Ripper and Plasma Cutter. The Rock Saw from the movie later appeared in Dead Space: Extraction.
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