2 S

2_S
Production	Privateer 2: The Darkening
Type	Main Plot
Series	Introduction
Disc	CD1
Run Time	6m41s
Previous	CREDIT_S
Next	SINN_S

2_S is a live action cutscene from Privateer 2: The Darkening. It is part of the introductory series of cutscenes. It follows CREDIT_S and is followed by SINN_S. It shows the assassination attempt on Lev Arris at Crius Hospital.

• Download: 2_S.mp4

Transcript

FREVEL: Ser Arris, if you can hear me, blink. Excellent. I think our patient's coming around, Douglas. You've been in an accident, Ser. Your ship crashed while landing here on Crius. Luckily you were in a cryopod at the time so your injuries weren't extensive.

ARRIS: Accident? How?

FREVEL: We'll deal with that later. Our first job is to get you back on your feet. You need to stay with us for some rehab, it's plenty of time.

ARRIS: Yeah, but I don't remember... anything. What ship? What's happening?

FREVEL: The Canera, Ser Arris. We know that's your name from your cryopod. It may take a while for your memory to return. In the mean time, just relax. Everything's going to be fine.

--

COMPUTER: Exercise...

FREVEL: And how's Ser Arris this morning?

ARRIS: He's okay.

COMPUTER: Gyro session commencing.

ARRIS: I just wish he would tell me who he was.

FREVEL: We'll get your memory back eventually.

ARRIS: Do you talk to all your patients as though they were children, Dr. Frevel, or is it just me?

FREVEL: I'm sorry. We find that usually people in your condition appreciate a gentle approach.

ARRIS: Yeah, well I'm not usual people.

FREVEL: No, I don't believe you are. We wouldn't normally divulge this information to patients but we did a record search on you and it wasn't good.

ARRIS: Make my day. I'm a mass-murderer.

FREVEL: I wouldn't joke about that if I were you. You could be almost anything. Prior to two weeks ago, you don't exist. Either someone's erased your records or else there was an accident in your home planet's data net.

ARRIS: My home planet. Geez, where is home? Where's my family? Do I have a family? Am I married? Do I have children? Who the hell am I, Doctor Frevel?

FREVE: It'll come, Lev. This is all quite normal with trauma sustained in cryo.

COMPUTER: Gyro ending.

ARRIS: Just how long was I in that icebox for?

FREVEL: We're still working on that. But you could afford to stay in one for as long as you liked.

ARRIS: Meaning?

FREVEL: Meaning one thing that did come down from your data check, your account. Only registered about a week ago. You have an exceptionally attractive credit rating, Ser Arris.

Arris: Nice.

COMPUTER: Gyro session commencing, please stand clear.

ARRIS: If only it wasn't overdrawn in the memory bank.

--

NURSE: Can I help you, Sers?

ASSASSIN #1: We're looking for Ser Lev Arris.

NURSE: He's in physio at the moment. Can I ask who wants him?

ASSASSSIN #1: New Crius Examiner. We're here to interview him about the Canera crash.

NURSE: His consultant would have to clear it first.

ASSASSIN #2: Clear this, Mister Nurse.

NURSE: Argh!

ASSASSIN #1: You know something? I think I could really get to enjoy this journalism thing.

--

FREVEL: Cryo-associated memory loss may take months to resolve itself. But when it does some patients are a little disappointed. The reality of someone's past often fails to match up to what they'd imagined it might be.

ARRIS: Right now I'd settle for disappointment.

FREVEL: You may have to. In time your memory is likely to recover completely.

ARRIS: But how do I know that? How will I ever be sure there's not one more nasty little memory just waiting to jump me?

COMPUTER: Gyro session.ending.

--

ASSASSIN #3: I like hospitals. So clean. So sterile.

ASSASSIN #4: Getting all hot and bothered, huh?

ASSASSIN #3: I never get hot. Nor bothered.

RECEPTIONIST: Yes, Serras?

ASSASSIN #3: We're here to visit a man. I mean, a friend who is a man. Ser Lev Arris.

RECEPTIONIST: 5A, Serras. First line walk on your left. Follow the... huh.

--

FREVEL: Try and take it easy for the time being. If you overstress yourself it could only prolong the problem.

AUTOPILOT: Rear door locked. Autopilot activate. Course two, go, go.

Characters

Speaking

• Lev Arris
• Female Space Communications (v.o.)
• Canera Captain
• Raj ("Canera Helmsman")
• Canera Communications Officer

Non-Speaking

• Canera Crewman #1
• Canera Crewman #2

Ships

• CR3A Ilia MK II (Canera)
• KN01 Drakkar (2)

25th Anniversary

On May 20, 2020, Privateer 2: The Darkening director Steve Hilliker released The Darkening 25th Anniversary Restoration which featured footage restored from Betacam tapes. The footage has been edited down into a cinema cut but where available it is of much higher quality than the game's files. 1_S is cut down and appears slightly later as a flashback in the 25th Anniversary Restoration cut.

• Download: ANNIVERSARY_Hilliker_Cut.mp4

Betacam

A pair of Betacam SP tapes recovered from Digital Anvil have provided high quality versions of much of Privateer 2: The Darkening's Main Plot. These cuts are not final and digital effects are missing.

• Download: 1_S-Priv2-betacam-roughcut.mp4

Behind the Screens Footage

This video was included as a RealMovie clip with the January 1996 issue of EQ Magazine. It features an interview with David McCallum and footage of 1_S being filmed.

• Download: david_mccallum.avi

Images

Marketing

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  Frame Render

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  Frame Render

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  Drakkar cinematic model

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  David McCallum as Canera Captain (web site)

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  David McCallum as Canera Captain (press kit)

Behind the Screens

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  Canera render by Michael Cottam

Press

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  PC Zone supplement

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  PC Zone supplement

Storyboards

A collection of Privateer 2 Storyboards has been provided by Joe Garrity of the Origin Museum. They cover the Main Plot cutscenes.

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Script

A Diane Duane's The Darkening Script Draft 7 used during the game's shooting has been provided by Erin Roberts.

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MAIN GAME SEQUENCE : Prologue

BLACK SCREEN

SC.1 EA / ORIGIN TITLES BURN IN AND DOWN (COMPUTER

GENERATED: NO VIDEO)

EXT. CRIUS FROM NEAR SPACE, WIDE -- DARK SIDE (NO FADE: CUT
TO SHOT FROM BLACK SCREEN)

Only a thin crescent of sunlight shows at the edge of the
planet surface, except for faint spatters of light from
cities on the nightside. CAMERA PUSHES IN and slowly PANS
left to show the planet and its primary in the far distance,
"setting" over Crius's limb. As we watch, the sun continues
setting. PAN CONTINUES and STOPS as a large orbital space
station, an intricate and glittering construct, comes INTO
SHOT and hangs half in, half out of it on the left. A soft
SFX: BABBLE OF VOICES AND COMPUTER SIGNALS, the sound of
several communications channels being run together, starts to
be heard, increasing in volume. This station is Crius
OffPlanet Control, a sort of ‘air traffic control” for the
planet at large. (All planets will have this sort of
control, in charge of landing clearances.)

COMMS CHANNELS (V.O.)

(various voices, male/female)

...Crius OPC confirms that, RS one oh

three one, good day... / ...no slot for

you yet, Atriarch, estimated vacancy

four minutes three, zero... / ...vector

toward primary, three three oblique

two five, good day... / Ludau,

you are cleared in on Passadi approach, five zero

one four; separation waived... / Ack-

knowledged, Daniev, your transmission

confirms your comms malfunction, shift

to eight eight three four... (etc., ad 1ib)

SFX: LOW RUMBLE off to the left side. A huge transport
starship coasts INTO SHOT, from “over our shoulder”, between
us and the space station, heading for the planet. As the ship
passes, the last flicker of setting sun vanishes behind
the planet, leaving the ship in near-darkness -- defined only
by "earthglow" from the planet, and its own silhouette,
ornamented with running lights. This is Canera.

CANERA COMMS (V.O.)

(female voice)

Crius OPC, this is PM one oh four

six Canera, on plan, expecting Herab

injection marker one one five.

SCREAM, the second of them performing a victory roll as it
goes.

CUT TO:

BLACK SCREEN