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The Hostage

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The Hostage
A frame from the short film
A frame from the short film
Basic Information
  Release date December 31, 2016
  Runtime 5m 18s
  Series PWN shorts
Cast and Crew
  Directed by: Nick Geoghegan
  Written by: Nick Geoghegan
Ford Fairon
  Edited by: Nick Geoghegan
  Starring: Ford Fairon
Kyle Smith
Chris Smith
Mikey Davis
Nick Geoghegan
Links
[ Video on YouTube]

The Hostage is an action short uploaded to the PaulWesNick channel on December 31, 2016. The video was filmed over a three day period, from December 31, 2014 to January 2, 2015. Directed by Nick Geoghegan, it stars Ford Fairon, Kyle Smith, Chris Smith, Mikey Davis, and Nick. Intended to be an introduction video for Ford's new gaming series, "That Gaming Segment", the video was never posted until 2016. Had it been posted as scheduled in January of 2015, it would have been Ford's first and only appearance outside of a PWN video. It is also Mikey's debut video.

Description[edit | edit source]

Plot[edit | edit source]

Ford examines the two guards.

An opening text crawl describes the mission objective as the rescue of a twenty-four year old Talia Dawsen, who is being held hostage in her own home by Russian drug lord Vladimir Ruski. Ruski must be killed.

We see two guards, who stand and make small chat while Agent Ford is revealed to be watching them from a nearby bush. One of the guards is killed, and while the other crouches down to help, he too is shot in the chest. Agent Ford runs over, and checks the bodies, preparing for a break-in. Meanwhile, inside, Vladimir Ruski attempts to interrogate Talia about her stealing drugs from his company. He makes little progress, as she refuses to speak.

Vladimir berates Talia.

Outside, Agent Michael has reached the roof, and is helping Ford make his way across the yard. Suddenly, a Russian guard corners Michael, and just as it seems he has no way out, Ford appears on the roof and kills the guard. The two agents make their way inside, killing guards as they attempt to find the hostage. A guard suddenly appears and shoots Michael. After disposing of the man, Ford drops down to help Michael. The young agent dies. Furious, Ford continues through the house. He spots two guards conversing, and throws a grenade their way.

The explosion alerts Vladimir to the chaos outside, and he sends one of his men to go check the noise. He approaches the hostage, and as he sheds his jacket, it is revealed that the drug lord has only one arm. He takes a knife, and is about to kill her, when Talia lashes her leg out and kicks him over. Suddenly, Ford appears, and shoves Ruski into a table. He has no bullets left in his gun, and throws it aside. He unties Talia, and she reveals her face, which Ford finds hideous. He throws up.

Ford and Michael enter the home.

Ruski leaps back up, and attacks Ford. He charges at the agent, and falls into a heap of junk, letting go of the knife. The knife goes flying through the air. Ford quickly shoves Ruski to the ground, grabs the knife, and cuts the drug lord's hand off. Believing the mission to be accomplished, Ford is about to leave, when a soldier runs in and shoots him in the face, killing him.

Cast and Crew

The main cast is as follows:

  • Ford Fairon as Agent Ford - The mission leader, a charismatic specialist who infiltrates the home to retrieve the hostage.
  • Mikey Davis as Agent Michael - The weapon's specialist, and Ford's sidekick. He is killed during the rescue.
  • Kyle Smith as Vladimir Ruski - A one-armed Russian drug lord and crime boss, who has some sort of conflict with Talia.
  • Chris Smith as Talia Dawsen - A young woman with very, very large breasts, who has shady connections to the mob. She is held hostage in her own home.

Furthermore, a number of unnamed henchmen appear throughout the video. Ford is the only actor who plays a single role in the video. The names given here are not official in any sense:

  • Chris plays the most roles, with six additional appearances: the Anaconda soldier, a barefoot thug with an assault rifle, the Russian man on roof, a hooded figure examining wine, the rifleman who shoots Michael, and the man in a bandana who is killed in the explosion.
  • Mikey plays three additional roles: the gas-masked soldier in the opening, the man with a shotgun in the garage, and the soldier who kills Ford at the end.
  • Nick also plays three roles: A card-playing Russian in the garage, the guard in the stairwell, and the helmeted guard killed in the explosion.
  • Kyle plays two additional roles: A guard in goggles with a shotgun and an unarmed Russian soldier.

In total, the five actors play a total of eighteen roles, with four actors filling seventeen of them. This fact is referenced in Mr. Salami Reviews A Hot Lead, during the discussion of old PWN projects.

Nick was the director of the short, and he and Ford co-wrote the script. Mikey and Kyle acted as set decorators, while Chris was the self-appointed continuity director. Mikey supplied the props and costumes. Nick edited the video on Final Cut Pro X.

Music Used[edit | edit source]

Production[edit | edit source]

Alternate Ending[edit | edit source]

The video, as uploaded on YouTube, ends with twenty-three seconds of a dark screen. The original ending featured a hard cut to reveal that the whole video had been Ford playing a video game. Upon dying, he unleases a string of censored curses, before cutting to Nick and Kyle, who wish the viewers a happy new year, and tell them to stay tuned for the (now canceled) gaming series featuring Ford, That Gaming Segment. Credits would ensue. The footage for that ending is now lost, but a version of the video with the credits and TGS logo does exist, at 5m 44s.

After the series was canceled and Ford left the channel, Nick elected to upload the video without the original ending or the New Year wishes. He added the black screen at the end intending Ford's death to come as a surprise for those paying attention to the progress bar and timecode.

Video Game Connections[edit | edit source]

Many of the jokes intended while the video was still a gaming segment trailer are lost without the original ending. In particular, Nick explained the recurring actors, while a necessity due to the small cast, could be interpreted as a joke about reusing character models. Similarly, the large breasts on Chris's character were a reference to video games over emphasizing the female anatomy.

Trivia[edit | edit source]

  • The video was supposed to be Ford’s first appearance on the channel, however, thanks to the delayed release, it ended up being his last video on the channel. Likewise, it was filmed before he has formally taken Paul’s place on PWN.
  • The break-in at Johnny B. Oy’s home in A Hot Lead is very similar to the break-in in The Hostage. Both were filmed at Mikey’s house, feature Kyle Smith playing accented drug dealers, and Chris plays one of Kyle’s thugs in both videos. Many of the same weapons used in The Hostage appear in the climactic scene of A Hot Lead, where Chris again plays a woman.
  • Wesley Davies passionately dislikes the video, and objected to its being posted. It is unknown if his opinion has changed since then.

References to and from other videos[edit | edit source]

  • Chris uses the famous Anaconda line, the first line of the video. This was the third usage of the line, though both this video and The Sequence were delayed. By the time the video went up, the line had been used in Press Triangle to Wake Up
  • Kyle says the line "You got a little fight in you, I like that", to which Ford responds, "Then you're gonna love me". This is a reference to The Dark Knight. Likewise, the name Talia Dawsen comes from Talia Al Ghul and Rachel Dawes, both characters from Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy.
  • In The First Annual PWNER Awards, The Hostage recieved multiple nominations. The video was nominated for "Best PWN Short", Ford and Kyle were both nominated for "Best PWN Performance" (Ford's character was referred to as The Hero), and Chris was nominated for "Funniest PWN Performance"

See Also[edit | edit source]