Meet the Soldier

Meet the Soldier
Video Info
Released:	August 22, 2007
Run time:	1:27

"Meet the Soldier" Video Transcript

The word "Soldier" below refers to the protagonist, a RED Soldier.

[Cut to a BLU Pyro firing a blast of flame from his Flamethrower. He thrusts his weapon in the air and laughs triumphantly as a rocket heads towards him from off screen].

Pyro: [Rocket hits Pyro, who is gibbed.] "Ow!"

[Cut to BLU Demoman taking a drink, also getting blown up by a Crit rocket from off screen.]

[Cut to BLU Heavy performing the Showdown taunt.]

Heavy: "Pow!" [Explodes]

["Meet the Soldier" text appears.]

[Cut to the Soldier, drilling what appears to be a line of recruits.]

Soldier: "If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight! Sun Tzu said that, and I'd say he knows a little more about fighting than you do, pal, because he invented it, and then he perfected it so that no living man could best him in the ring of honor."

[The Art of War plays]

[Cut to the Soldier holding his Shovel and screaming.]

[The Soldier then charges the final capture point in Granary with his Shotgun and kills a Demoman, who fires at him but misses. He switches to his Rocket Launcher and a BLU Medic appears behind him, firing syringes.]

RED Demoman: "To the left!"

Soldier: "Maggots!"

[The Soldier turns to the left and fires a rocket at the Medic, gibbing him.]

RED Sniper: "Right up! Right up!"

RED Heavy: "Go, go, go!"

[The Soldier, Sniper and Heavy charge into battle together, as explosions occur all around them.]

[Cut back to the Soldier's drill. Music pauses.]

Soldier: "Then, he used his fight money...

[The Soldier unhooks two grenades from his belt, one in each hand.]

Soldier: ...to buy two of every animal on earth, and then he herded them onto a boat...

[The Soldier demonstrates by using the grenades, moving them in a walking motion.]

Soldier: ...and then he beat the crap out of every single one."

[The Soldier bangs the two grenades together repeatedly.]

[Cut back to battle scene. Music resumes.]

RED Scout: (Behind cover) "Sentry up there!"

[The Soldier runs up to the Sentry gun and rocket jumps onto a pipe, both destroying the Sentry and killing the Engineer in the process.]

[A BLU Heavy and Pyro are holding the final capture point. The Heavy is laughing gleefully. The Soldier jumps downward, firing a rocket that lands just before he does. The explosion kills both the Heavy and Pyro. A Spy uncloaks and attempts to backstab the Soldier, but the Soldier pulls out his Shovel, swiftly knocking out the Spy with it.]

[Freeze frame]

[Cut back to the Soldiers drill]

Soldier: [Laughs to himself] "And from that day forward any time a bunch of animals are together in one place it's called a 'zoo'!"

[Crickets chirp as the 'recruits' are revealed to be the Gibbed heads of BLU team members perched on a gate, all wearing BLU Soldier helmets. The Medic's head falls off the gate.]

[Team Fortress 2 ending flourish music plays.]

Soldier: [To the Medic's head] "Unless it's a farm!"

Notes

• Body Count: 9

• The dynamite cases the Pyro is standing on are branded "Gold Medal." Similar cases of dynamite can be seen in the Meet the Demoman movie.

• When the Heavy is gibbed near the beginning of the movie, an unusual gib falls in front of the camera. Rather than the normal Heavy head gib, it's the head that will later be shown on the fence (with tongue sticking out and a bone coming out of the neck).

• This video was the first to feature both intro text and the updated group picture at the end.

• When the "Meet the Soldier" title card appears, the copyright date is apparently "LOLOLOL". This trend continues in all of the "Meet the Class" videos with the title card (with the exception of Meet The Sandvich).

• Sun Tzu was an honorific title bestowed upon Sūn Wǔ (c. 544 BC – 496 BC), the author of The Art of War, an immensely influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy.(Wikipedia)

• The The Art of War track first played in this video, after which it was patched into the game as main menu music.

• In the battle sequence, a Sniper is shown charging into battle on the front lines. Rather unusual.

• The classes killed before the intro text were all killed while taunting.

• The Soldier removes and interacts with his grenades. They were only removed in-game during the Shotgun taunt and could not be used, just as with the Pyro. The Heavy is similarly unable to use the ammo belts on his chest to supply his Minigun or Natascha, as well as the Demoman being unable to use the inactive grenades on his model as ammo for his Grenade Launcher. As of the Soldier class update, he can now perform a suicide explosion with his grenades by taunting with the Equalizer, while the Shotgun's juggling taunt has become the Buff Banner taunt.

• Amusing Sign: A 'No Smoking' sign is visible in the background when the Soldier whacks the Spy with his Shovel.

• The line-up of heads shown at the end of the video in order of left to right is Engineer, Pyro, Heavy, Spy, Medic, Demoman, Sniper, Soldier (with the Scout being unaccounted for).

• The video briefly shows the Soldier's eyes. In-game, they are rarely seen in deathcam and even more rarely in gameplay (though some Hats, like the Cheater's Lament or Bill's Hat, completely negate this by removing his helmet and clearly show his eyes as a result).

• There's some text on the container the Soldier walks in front of. It appears to say 'Flesh Giblets'.

• When the camera zooms in on the Soldier screaming, a sign reading 'Driller' can be briefly seen, perhaps referring to the Soldier 'drilling' the heads.

• A Scout is shown with his headphone over his right ear, though it is normally worn on their left.

• There is an error in scenographic consistency: while the Soldier is approaching the CP area, the Sentry Gun guarding it is upgraded to Level 3, but in the following scene the Soldier destroys a Level 2 Sentry Gun.

• Judging from the color of the megaphone, BLU have already secured RED's final Control point.

• During the battle sequence, it is possible to spot a figure on the capture point firing rockets at the RED team (look closely on high definition, approximately 45 seconds into the clip). This appears to be a BLU Soldier, a rare case of having more than one of the titular class in a "Meet The Class" video.

• Although the Demoman, Medic, and Pyro are all killed by Crit rockets, these rockets have the red glow of normal rockets, with only the Crit rockets' accompanying electric sound effect.

• When the heads are seen, an eyeball is hanging from a crack in the fence.

• The cigarette in the Spy's head's mouth is also still smoking.

• The Spy has one of his teeth knocked out when the Soldier hits him with the Shovel. It is probably likely that this Spy went on to be decapitated, as the head resting on the fence is missing some teeth.

• This version of Granary appears to be different, as the RED team goes completely around the building that connects the 1st and 2nd control points into an area that is normally a dead end.

• The first Sentry Gun in the battle scene appears to be firing at the Soldier (bullet tracers can be seen) but does not seem to be facing him, while the second Sentry Gun is simply firing at the ground.

• For some odd reason, 2 Spies can be seen in the background advancing from the other side of the map, as well as a lone Dispenser being built.

• When the Soldier approaches the Engineer and his Sentry Gun, the Engineer can be heard saying "Dagnabbit." before being blown up by the Soldier's rocket jump.

• The Engineer says "Dagnabbit" in all versions of Meet the Soldier.

• The Sniper's dialogue is also untranslated in the French and German versions of Meet the Soldier.

• When shooting the rocket down onto the Control point the BLU Heavy and Pyro were on, the Heavy briefly looks up at the Soldier.

• During the 'charge' scene, (0:36-0:37) the Soldier 'magically' switches from his Shotgun to his Rocket Launcher. However, after he lands on the Control Point, (1:04) he drops the Rocket Launcher to retrieve his Shovel.

• The Meet the Soldier Video was released 22 August 2007. Current language versions include:
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Russian

• The German version of Meet the Soldier depicts the classes as being robots: bleeding oil instead of blood and gibbing into machine parts instead of body parts. Also the fallen Medic head at the end has a protruding spring instead of a protruding bone. This is to comply with Germany's strict videogame violence regulations, in the same way that Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 had green blood and no dismemberment. In the German version of TF2, these features replace the original gory gibs and blood.

• In at the end of the 'charge' sequence where the Soldier is being followed by the Heavy and Sniper to the control point, there appears to be a Heavy shooting at him with a Medic and Demoman right behind him. A Scout is also seen to the left of the Engineer and a Sniper is to the right of the Sentry Gun next to the boxes under the pipe. The RED Scout that says "Sentry up there" before the Soldier rocket jumps is seen with a RED Demoman on the left. Still Frame Once the Soldier is about to Rocket Jump over the Sentry Gun, however, he passes the bodies of the BLU Heavy and Medic on his right. The bodies of the BLU Scout, Demoman and Sniper are unaccounted for, though.

• When the Soldier was charging Center Point, the RED Demoman can be heard just before the Soldier gibs the BLU Medic. However later on when the Soldier, Heavy and Sniper approach the Point, the Demoman can easily be seen taking cover, along with the Scout. Perhaps he used a Teleporter?

• At the beginning of the video, the Soldier fires a critical rocket at the Demoman, while no critical effect is shown. Also, the Soldier kills a Heavy in one rocket, while in the real game, it takes more.

• At 0:58, to the left of the charging Soldier, we can briefly see the corpses of a BLU Heavy and Medic pair. You can also note the sounds of a Minigun which we later find out belongs to a BLU Heavy at the capture point. This is most likely another case of more than one of each class in a 'Meet the Team' since the corpse would have disappeared by then, had the Heavy respawned.