Meet the Spy

Meet the Spy
Video Info
Released:	May 19, 2009
Run time:	3:20

Video Transcript

[Shot opens on ringing alarm bell; sirens and klaxons play in the background]

The Administrator: "Intruder Alert! A RED Spy is in the base!"

[Signs illuminate on a large Security Panel: "Intruder Alert', 'RED Spy' and 'In Base'; Pull out to reveal the BLU Soldier watching the board]

Soldier: "A RED Spy is in the base!?"

[Intruder Alert begins to play. The Soldier reaches from off-screen and pulls a Shotgun off a rack of weapons. Cut to the Soldier dashing down the stairs and through the 2fort sublevel while saying "Hut, Hut, Hut!" with every step he takes]

The Administrator: "Protect the briefcase!"

Soldier: "We need to protect the briefcase!"

[Camera pans to reveal the BLU Scout trying to open the code-locked 'Briefcase Room' door]

Scout: "Yo, a lil' help here!?"

[The Soldier pushes the Scout aside and begins to 'decode' the combination]

Soldier: "All right, all right, I got it. Stand back son. 1, 1, 1, umm... 1!"

Scout: Let's go, let's go-

[BLU Heavy comes around the corner, Sasha in-hand, charging towards the Scout and Soldier]

Heavy: "INCOMING!"

[Heavy shoulder-barges the door, splintering it. The three of them are sent tumbling and screaming into the Intelligence Room. The Scout reaches the desk to discover the briefcase is perfectly safe.]

Scout: [while screaming, he notices the briefcase] "AAAAAHHHH- Hey, it's still here!"

Heavy: AAAAalright then.

Spy: "Ahem."

[Camera zooms in to reveal the BLU Spy, with the BLU Sniper's corpse over one shoulder.]

Spy: "Gentlemen."

[Meet the Spy' Title Card]

[Cut back to the Spy, carrying the dead Sniper towards the desk.]

Spy: "I see the briefcase is safe."

Soldier: "Safe and sound, mm-hmm."

Scout: "Yeah, it is!"

Spy: "Tell me... did anyone happen to kill a RED Spy on the way here?"

[The other three BLUs shake their heads and shrug]

Spy: No? Then we still have a problem.

[He deposits the Sniper's body on the desk, revealing a bloody knife in his back.]

Soldier: "...and a knife."

[The Scout approaches and removes the knife.]

Scout: "Oooh, big problem. I've killed plenty of Spies; they're dime-a-dozen back-stabbing scum-bags - like you!"

[The Scout attempts to manipulate the knife like the Spy, only to cut himself on the finger and drop it.]

Scout: "Ow! No offense."

Spy: "If you managed to kill them, I assure you, they were not like me. [The Spy deftly retrieves the knife and flicks it shut, handing it back to the Scout.] And nothing... nothing like the man loose inside this building."

Scout: "What're you? President of his fan-club?"

Soldier & Heavy: (chuckling)

[The Spy turns to face the Scout.]

Spy: "No... that would be your mother!"

[The Spy reveals a folder and slaps it down on the table, revealing several compromising photographs of the RED Spy and the Scout's Mother.]

Scout: [stammers out of shock and disbelief]

Spy: Indeed, and now he's here to f**k us! So listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing that happens to you today."

[Right Behind You plays]

[The Soldier and Heavy examine the photographs. The Heavy leans over and shows the Soldier one photo in particular.]

Soldier: Oh!

[The Scout frantically retrieves the photos as the Spy lights and smokes a cigarillo in the foreground.]

Scout: "Gimme dat!"

Spy: "Zis Spy has already breached our defenses..."

[Fade to the RED Spy, creeping through the Hydro tunnels. He pauses at a corner, as the camera pulls back to reveal a BLU Level 3 Sentry gun. He slides a sapper across the floor, disarming and destroying the Sentry Gun immediately]

Engineer: "Sentry Down!"

[The BLU Engineer throws his Wrench down and frantically reaches for his Pistol, only to have the Spy shoot him in the head with the Revolver. The dead Engineer crashes through a door and the Spy steps over him and fires at a target off-screen.]

[Cut back to the BLU Intelligence Room. The BLU Spy leans over the dead Sniper, gesturing frantically.]

Spy: "You've seen what he's done to our colleagues!"

[Flash back to the BLU Sniper, now alive and sniping from a dusty attic. The RED Spy creeps up on him and steps on a creaking floorboard, alerting the Sniper who engages him with the Kukri. A struggle ensues, and the Sniper is ultimately backstabbed.]

[Cut back to BLU Intelligence Room]

Spy: "And worst of all, he could be any one of us..."

[Fade to the RED Spy fighting a BLU Medic, armed with a Bonesaw.]

Medic: "Raus, raus!"

[The Spy breaks the Medic's arm, disarming him. Close-up on the Spy's face as he disguises as the Medic, sans spectacles.]

Medic: (gasps)

[The Spy kills the Medic with a well-placed chop to the throat, knocking off his spectacles, which he catches and wears, completing his disguise.]

[Cut back to BLU Intel Room. The BLU Spy looks frantic.]

Spy: "He could be in this very room! He could be you! He could be me! He could even be-"

[The Spy is cut off as his head explodes violently. The camera switches to the Soldier, Shotgun in hand, with a confused Heavy, and a panicked Scout.]

Scout: "Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

Heavy: "Oh!"

Soldier: "What? It was obvious! [The Soldier pumps his Shotgun, discarding the spent shell.] He's the RED Spy! Watch, he'll turn red any second now..."

[The Soldier and Heavy approach the dead Spy, with The Soldier prodding the Spy's foot with his Shotgun.]

Soldier: "Any second now... See? Red! Oh, wait...that's blood."

[The Scout lingers behind, his expression sinister. He approaches the Soldier and Heavy, retrieving the knife he pocketed earlier, and flicking it open easily. As he approaches, he flickers and melts, revealing himself to be the RED Spy]

Heavy: "So, we still got problem..."

Soldier: "Big problem... alright, who's ready to go find this Spy?"

Spy: "Right behind you."

[Team Fortress 2 ending flourish music plays, with the stabbing of the Soldier and Heavy punctuating the beat of the tune.]

[Petite Chou-Fleur plays]

[Fade to the scattered photos of the Scout's Mother. The RED Spy retrieves one of them and smiles wistfully.]

Spy: "Ahh... ma petite chou-fleur."

[The RED Spy walks off with the BLU team's intel in tow.]

Leak

"Meet the Spy" was leaked on May 17, 2009 due to a YouTube bug which allowed iPhones to view videos marked as "Private". This inspired a series of posts on the official blog wherein Robin Walker went insane and fired all except one of Valve's employees. Valve also awarded themselves a "Corporate Achievement" called "Welcome to the internets", with the description "Fail to understand what Private means on YouTube". The icon was a TV with the word "FAIL" on it. In the officially released version, one of the alert panels reads "Leaked Video", as a reference to the leak. It originally read "Lost Memory".

Notes

File:SpyHeadAsplode.gif

The Spy's head seems to have an uncanny ability to explode on demand.

• Body count: 7 (and 1 sentry).

• The Meet the Spy video was officially released on May 19, 2009, during the fifth day of the Sniper vs. Spy Update. Currently, the video has been released in two language versions: English and Russian.

• The tracks Right Behind You, Petite Chou-Fleur and Intruder Alert were featured in this video, after which they were patched into the game's main menu soundtrack.

• The video contains many congruities to the very first TF2 trailer, which also took place in a modified 2Fort. The Spy poses with his revolver in the same area; the Soldier panics at the sound of a ringing alarm; the Medic poses in the same area he attacks the Spy; the opening frame of the Sniper in his scene is virtually identical to his still in the first trailer. This could be a small tribute to Valve's very first TF2 cinematic, or an allusion to how far the game has come since then.

• Meet the Spy is the longest Meet the Team video yet with a duration 3:20.

• This is the first video starring the characters from BLU, while all the others star the RED team characters.

• The alarm bell and signal board at the beginning is an "Alarm-O-Tron 5000". These alerts are displayed below. The alerts in bold display the specific warnings which were activated and lit during the video.

Emergency	On Cap	Intruder Alert	Is Fired	Blue Demoman	Depressed
All Clear	Red Scout	Exploding	On Fire	Blue Engineer	About to Explode
Vaporized	Team Update	New Mission	On Break	Blue Sniper	Is Drunk
In Surgery	Needs a Ride	Red Medic	Red Heavy	Red Pyro	Defenestrated
Smells	Red Sniper	Drowned	Behind You	Is a Man	Owns Base
Backstabbed	Stole a Car	Blue Spy	Found Dracula	Is a Woman	Blue Soldier
Again	Hit by Train	Red Engineer	Lost Briefcase	Red Demoman	Above You!
Is a Robot	Look Out	Sabotage	Needs Ammo	On Toilet	Electrocuted
Blue Scout	Has Evil Twin	Red Spy	Red Soldier	Pushing Cart	In Base
Red Spy	Blue Medic	Sleeping	Wounded	Needs Backup	Exploded
Hungry	Leaked Video	Blue Heavy	Blue Pyro	Smothered	Jarate
Has Briefcase	Outside Base	Needs Roommate	Mangled	Opened Briefcase	Lost Dracula

• Foreshadowing of the events in the short can be seen on the Alarm-O-Tron board, "Blue Scout" is situated next to "has evil twin" and above "Red Spy". They also seem to have included an explanation for the absence of a Pyro or Demoman, as "Blue Demoman" is situated next to "Depressed", "Is Fired", "On Fire", "About to explode", and (albeit not quite as close) "Is Drunk", while "Blue Pyro" is in close proximity to "Wounded", "Needs Backup", "Smothered", "Mangled", "Sleeping", and "Needs Roommate". Amusingly, "Blue Heavy" isn't far from "Hungry". Also of note, "Defenestrated," which means to be thrown out a window, is very near Blue Sniper.
• The Alarm-O-Tron 5000 board makes an appearance in the map Double Cross in a locked-off room in the RED and BLU Intelligence room, which can be seen through the window, although the Alarm-O-Tron 5000 board on this map has been slightly redesigned with some items on the board removed or replaced, and it seems the items 'Intelligence', 'Has Been' and 'Captured' are the only items on the board that can light up. The board can be seen here.
• "Red Spy" is mentioned twice on the signs.
• Under the "Red Pyro" alert panel, there are ones reading "is a man" and "is a woman". This is a reference to fan speculation regarding the Pyro's gender. For comedy's sake, a third panel reads "is a robot."

• Unlike other Meet The Team videos, Meet the Spy isn't set in an interview type setting, but instead displays the characters in a scenario. The characters never address the viewer in any way.

• The Spy's voice actor Dennis Bateman uses a deeper, more raspy voice for the RED Spy upon dropping his disguise, but uses the regular Spy voice for the BLU one.

• • The RED Spy also speaks with a harsher sounding voice than the BLU Spy in the Russian version of Meet the Spy.

• This video shows the RED Spy in a relationship, adding another example to the few instances where characters interact with people outside the main settings of the game.

• The Scout's mother has been the only official female model yet seen.

• The video also contains the most instances of the various classes actually interacting meaningfully with each other outside of Meet the Sandvich.

• Neither the Pyro, the Demoman nor the real Scout feature in the video, though any of them may have been the off-screen victim who was shot by the RED Spy.

• The Administrator takes place during the events of Meet the Spy. The Administrator is seen alerting the BLU base to the RED Spy from her control room. She is aware that the RED Spy was disguised as the BLU Scout, but disconnects the BLU plug before revealing this information, seemingly leaving the BLU team to their fates. The corpse of the real BLU Scout can be seen on a monitor in front of the Administrator. Another monitor also reveals the still-living BLU Engineer and his fully upgraded sentry, suggesting that the RED Spy killed both him and the unseen victim sometime between the Administrator's warning and the Soldier meeting the 'Scout' at the door to the briefcase room.
• Neither the RED nor the BLU Spy are shown using their invisibility cloak in the video.

• On the weapons rack, the Soldier's Shotgun is situated between a Sniper rifle and a Flamethrower, which could be possible reference to the update upcoming at the video's time, as the update was focused on Sniper and the Flamethrower is reference to Spy's natural enemy Pyro.

• All the sounds made by the Medic, the Engineer, the Sniper, and the Scout and Heavy just before entering the intelligence room are all in-game vocalizations and were not recorded for the video.

• The video takes place in a modified version of the 2Fort map, where most of the setting is inspired from BLU's intel room.
  • There are no stairs in the spiral ramp that leads to the basement and no locked door in the corridor that leads to the intel room; these were likely added for comedic effect.
  • There are normally two entrances to the 2Fort intelligence room; in the video there is only the locked entrance, which connects the side hallway (the one facing the large control room) to the main doorway (along the same wall as the inaccessible break room). The wall that normally contains the entrance from the side hallway is solid and mostly covered with an extra map.
  • Several items have been added to the Intelligence Room, including: a 'Ciggy Stop' Cigarette Vending machine, a decorative potted plant, files, folders, and cabinets. When the video was leaked, fans speculated that these features were to be added in the update. This was later confirmed to be false.

• The Scout is wielding the Sandman as the Soldier attempts to access the Intelligence Room, a possible first hint that Spies could now use unlockable weapons.

• The "1" button on the keypad has a finger mark on it, whereas no other buttons do, because it is the only numeral in the code.

• While the Heavy crashes into the Intel room he spins his minigun up while running (which isn't possible in the game), and also clocks the Soldier in the face with the barrel.

• At 0:39, the Heavy sets his Minigun down on the desk, and forgets it for the rest of the video. Given his murderously-emotional attachment to said weapon, this seems unusually careless.

• The Soldier's Shotgun appears and disappears randomly throughout the video. The Heavy's Minigun is also nowhere to be seen after he sets it down.

• When the Spy disguises, the effect is very different from the in-game one.

• On the corkboard next to the filing cabinets, a photo of Saxton Hale (CEO of Mann Co.) can be seen.

• At 0:53, in the scene where the BLU Scout is spinning the Knife, in the background on a filing cabinet, the Heavy's Football helmet can be seen.[1] This was the first instance the hat was shown to the public.

• The Scout's mother is shown in-game as an engraving on the Spy's Ambassador.

• The front of the file containing the photos of the Red Spy and the Scout's mother is labeled "Top Secret" and (Below that) "Scout's Mom".

• This video is the first time a class has been showed naked. Though the Spy still manages to keep his mask on.

• At 1:26, the BLU Spy took out a regular white cigarette from his Disguise kit, but at 1:32 you can see that his cigarette is now brown, as it is in-game for BLU Spies. This was fixed in the official release on Steam. However, at 2:18 the BLU Spy can clearly be seen holding a white cigarette again.

• On the map display, the word 'lolz' can be made out near one of the markers, which happens to be just above France, the Spy's country of origin. This was suppressed in the official release on Steam.

• At 1:40, the RED Spy approaches a Sentry Gun without setting off its sensors, and slides a Sapper towards it, while in-game the sapper must be attached from up-close.

• The RED Spy is seen using the sapper against the BLU Engineer's sentry gun, destroying it almost instantly while the sapper takes a much longer time to destroy a level 3 Sentry Gun in-game. Also instead of exploding into smithereens, the Sentry gun simply falls on its side.

• The RED Spy is able to shoot the BLU Engineer in the head. This may be a hint at the fact that the Ambassador was going to be released. However, it is just as likely, that as this Meet the Team video appears to use real world physics, that a bullet though the head would have been fatal, regardless of the weapon used.

• Amusing Sign(s): On the door at 1:44, it reads 'Keep Out: Authorized Personnel Beyond This Point'. On the other side however, it reads 'Keep This Door Closed At All Times' (right before the dead Engineer crashes through it.)

• There are several interesting things visible during the fight between the Sniper and the Spy:
  • One of the new hats is revealed: The Crocodile-Toothbelt Hat for the Sniper. Still Frame
  • The Sniper's Kukri is lying on top of a crate containing the Sniper's Razorback, which is marked "urgent" - if the Sniper had been wearing his razorback he would possibly have been safe. Still Frame This is also the first time when they reveal that the Razorback is a Mann Co. product.
  • Several jars of 'Jarate' can be seen sitting on a cabinet.
  • The Huntsman can be seen leaning against a wall. Still Frame

• It would seem that unlike the game, the backstab administered to the Sniper didn't kill him, as he is heard screaming as he falls out of the window. He would have likely died from the fall, as a Sniper's nest tends to be high to ensure good visibility.

• During the Medic Fight-Scene, the BLU Medic is not wearing the Medigun pack on his back. When the BLU Medic's spectacles fly up in the air the Spy's disguise does not have one either, but when the perspective changes and he puts on the spectacles the Medigun pack can be seen.

• The Spy attacks the Medic while in disguise. In-game, his disguise would automatically drop upon doing this.

• The Medic holds the Bonesaw in his left hand instead of his right. The way he holds the bonesaw is also reversed, with the back of it facing his opponent as opposed to the blade. The Engineer is also shown as left-handed in this video, as he scrambles for his pistol with his left hand. This might be explained as a move of desperation in both cases.

• The BLU Medic's Bonesaw can be seen lying on the ground after the RED Spy's fight with him.

• The Medic's gasp of disbelief is actually the 'drei' taken from his response rule Eins, zwei, drei... Ugh, I do not think we brought enough body bags.

• When the RED Spy knocks the BLU Medic's glasses into the air, a wooden crate from Half-Life 2 can be seen despite TF2 having a much different art style from it, though Source games often reuse elements.

• At 2:23, the Soldier shoots the head off of the BLU Spy. This is, arguably, the most violent scene depicted in a Meet the Team video to date. A freeze frame briefly shows two suspended eyeballs, skull fragments and the Spy's brain. Still Frame An interesting side note is that on the top skull fragment you can notice an imprint looking like the word "mask". This is actually a cranial suture, a type of joint seen only in the skull.

• The whole headshot sequence takes 0.6 seconds and 13 frames from start to finish, if you count the initial flash of light (from the Shotgun) to the time when most skull/brain debris have been blown away.

• This is the first time where a class is openly acknowledged on both teams in a Meet The Team video. Previous appearances, such as in Meet the Soldier, appear to be unintentional.

• The sound made by the Shotgun when the Soldier blows the BLU Spy's head off is actually that of the Revolver. Listen for the distinctive 'echo' effect at the end, not present in the Shotgun in-game, but present when the RED Spy fires his Revolver. Compare with the sound of the RED Soldier's Shotgun in Meet The Soldier.

• The Soldier claims that enemy Spies will reveal their "true colors" a few seconds upon death. In-game, this is instantaneous. This could however be attributed to the Soldier's apparent lack of intelligence rather than a continuity error.

• At the end of the video, the phrase the Spy mutters is French, and literally translates to: 'my little cauliflower'. In France this is a term of endearment, like 'my sweetheart' or 'my darling' in English.

• As with Meet the Demoman, Meet the Scout and the Spanish version of Meet the Sniper, a censor bleep is heard.

• Events foreshadowing the Scout as the RED Spy are:
  • The Scout not knowing the combination to the secured door. (He may have been foiled by its sheer simplicity.)
  • The fact that as the Scout is hurrying the Soldier by repeatedly yelling "Let's go" when the Soldier is trying to open the door, he seems to be grinning.
  • The Scout adopting a fighting stance when the Heavy charges at the locked door.
  • Since (at the time of the videos release) a Scout cannot double-jump with the Sandman wielded, the Spy carrying the Sandman may have helped to conceal his true identity since nobody would expect him to be able to double-jump with the Sandman.
  • The Scout checking for his knife on the Sniper's corpse before the BLU Spy sets the corpse on the table.
  • The Scout's lack of surprise at the Sniper being dead.
  • When the Scout accidentally closes the Spy's knife on his hand, his finger is caught between the blunt edge of the blade and the handle, and would not have been cut.
  • The Scout keeping the knife when it was handed back to him. He may have planned for this as part of his elaborate gambit.
  • Arguably every interaction between the Scout and the BLU Spy. The RED Spy let the Spy carry those interactions in order to hide himself better.
  • After the Soldier shoots the BLU Spy, the Scout very briefly smirks after coming out of his faked reaction.
  • On the wall in the beginning, the phrase "Blue Scout Has Evil Twin Red Spy" can be read(Horizontally to the left of Red Spy).
  • A momentary look of evil satisfaction on the fake Scout's face after the Soldier pushes him aside to open the door.
  • The Red Spy (as a Scout) shows much more surprise than his "colleagues" when the Soldier shoots the BLU Spy. This could be because he thought he was being shot at.
  • When the BLU Spy reveals the very compromising photos of the Red Spy and Blu Scout's mother, he seems more embarrassed than surprised.

• When the Spy is carrying the Sniper, the Sniper doesn't have his glasses on, but when he is set down, he does.

• This is the first time the Administrator has been heard in any Meet The Team video.

• The BLU Spy's death demonstrates that either the Meet The Team videos exist according to more "real-life" rules, or that friendly fire is enabled. If the latter, this is the first depiction of friendly fire by Valve.

• The Spy is able to disguise as a Medic and a Scout without using the disguise kit. This implies that the kit itself allows the Spy to disguise himself and it merely doubles as a cigarette case.

• When the Spy fights the Sniper, he uses two backhand slashes with the knife and finishes him off with a backstab. However in the game itself, he doesn't use such a style with his knife (save for the backstab).

• The Shotgun pump right after the Soldier shoots the Spy with it is different from in-game or any of the "Meet The" videos.

• Meet the Spy effectively confirms the Spy to be French. The Spy speaks in French as stereotypically French music plays. He is also seen walking hand-in-hand with the Scout's mother towards a moped, a highly popular vehicle in France. Speculation was unable to pinpoint his origins due to his obscure accent and use of several different European languages other than French. His use of other languages can easily be explained, as Secret Agents are typically versed in many languages.

• In the leaked video, the Administrator said "Intruder Alert" twice; in the officially released video, she only says it once (the clip having been cut during the closeup of the bell ringing).

• At the end the Spy is seen carrying the briefcase on a handle, though in-game the classes wear it on their backs.

File:Sniper cheek.png

• In his fight scene with the Sniper, the Spy inflicts a gash on the Sniper's cheek. This gash could be seen on the cheek of the RED Sniper in the steam news picture for the Sniper vs Spy Update [2] and the Jarate Update image [3], although it was not seen in the same picture as used in the Huntsman update [4]. The gash was later added to the Sniper in-game model itself.[5]

• When the Scout reaches up and touches the briefcase, the Heavy's minigun is not spinning even though the sound can be heard.

• It is possible that the raised room in which the Spy battles the Sniper is the one that is seen in Meet the Sniper. Both rooms have boards covering the windows, jarate jars and a decaffeinated coffee pot with a "#1 Sniper" mug.

• At the beginning, the disguised Scout touches the briefcase. In the game once a disguised Spy touches the briefcase the disguise is lost.

• The Scout has his earpiece's microphone raised during the video.

• During the ending 'zoom-out', the Spy's cigarette is facing up in the first two screens, but is facing downwards when the full team picture is revealed.

• In the Russian version, scenes with the non-principle characters are extremely muted: Engineer doesn't say anything when his sentry is sapped, and the Sniper and Medic can barely be heard during their respective fights.

• In the scene where the Sniper is aiming at a target through the window and turns to fight the Spy, a pause at 1:50 appears to reveal a 'samurai' like figure. However this was later found to be the silhouette of one of the standard tree models.

Other versions

Leaked	Russian

---