Meet the Pyro

Meet the Pyro
Video Info
Released:	June 27th, 2012
Run time:	2:32

Video

Pre-Release

In March 2010, Robin Walker revealed in an interview with the KritzKast Podcast that Meet the Pyro will let people see the world through the Pyro's eyes^[1].

In a blog post^[2] telling about upcoming events in the game, the TF2 team confirmed Meet the Pyro would be released sometime in 2012, and also released a shot of the video.

In an interview on Gametrailers.com's "Bonus Round" during March 2012, Erik Wolpaw announced that Valve had recently finished the production of Meet the Pyro and that it would be released "soon", along with something else^[3].

A short clip of Meet the Pyro was teased in Valve's video "Perpetual Testing Initiative", showing the part of the video teased in the first released picture^[4].

On the Team Fortress website, this was posted on June 22, 2012 by the Pyro: "Mmmmph mmmmph, mmmmm mmmmmp mmmmmph. Mmmmmph mpm! Mmmmmph mph mm! Hm mmmmmph, hmmmmph mm mmmmmph mmmmmph!". This was later translated as Morse code into "Monday", which was the day Pyromania started^[5].

Video transcript

Transcript
The term "Pyro" below refers to the protagonist, the RED Pyro. ["Meet the Pyro" text appears, then is burned away to reveal the feet of the Pyro, Fire Axe in hand, walking over a pair of glasses towards the camera and knocking a few empty bullet cartridges aside. Dreams of Cruelty begins playing.] [Cut to a small room. The RED Heavy is seen almost completely in silhouette.] Heavy: "I fear no man. But that... thing... it scares me." [Cut to a view behind the Pyro's right shoulder. A BLU Engineer shuts a door before a BLU Scout can join him inside. The Scout pulls desperately on the handle, looking over to the Pyro, who looks at him menacingly. Cut again to the interview room. This time it is the RED Scout in silhouette.] Scout: "No, I... I ain't, I ain't talking about that freak. All right?" [Worried, he tries to detach the lavalier microphone from his shirt. He sits upright in his chair, in near panic.] Scout: "He's not here, is she?" [Scout continues to tug as he stands and walks toward the camera, knocking it over.] Scout: "How do I get this f*ing thing off?!" [Cut to BLU Demoman inside a room looking around worried. Pyro, with a Flame Thrower ready, kicks down the door into the BLU team's room and the Demoman darts away to hide. Fade back to the interview room, this time with the RED Spy.] Spy*: "One shudders to imagine what inhuman thoughts lie behind that mask..." [Cut to Pyro firing the Flame Thrower, then to a wider shot, showing an entire wooden town in flames.] Spy: "... What dreams of chronic and sustained cruelty?" [Cut to a front view of the Pyro, zooming rapidly into the blackness of one of the mask's eyepieces. There is the sound of the Pyro's breathing and a single white spot which zooms forward and splits into a binocular view while a distorted baby laughter can be heard. When the spots focus, it shows a psychedelic dreamscape.] [As Do You Believe In Magic? begins playing, the view from the Pyro's eyes shows colourful hills, lollipops, floating cats and quaint villages. The Pyro's flame thrower appears in hand as an unusually-shaped brass instrument, spraying a rainbow-coloured mist over ground, causing colourful flowers to spring from the surrounding lawn. The Pyro laughs. Within this dreamscape, BLU characters appear as chubby little cherubs and sound like babies.] [As a BLU Heavy appears and bounces on the ground, the Pyro grabs a giant lollipop and cheers. The two converge seemingly happily. While the Pyro in the dreamscape shoves the lollipop in the Heavy's mouth, the scene cuts to the battle as the Pyro hits the Heavy with the Fire Axe.] [A BLU Scout appears, flying around and finally resting on the Pyro's instrument. The Pyro imagines blowing bubbles in his face, but shoots the Scout point blank with the Scorch Shot in the real battle, knocking him back.] [In the dreamscape, a BLU Medic appears out of a box, and the Pyro closes the box on him. In reality, Pyro traps the BLU Medic in a shed by barring the door with the fire axe.] Medic: "No!" [Pyro bathes the shed and the Medic in flames, who can be heard screaming. While in the dreamscape, the Pyro continues to shoot streams of rainbow mist. As the Pyro passes, the Balloonicorn appears, and the BLU Engineer and Spy ride it. The BLU cherubs salute and celebrate the Pyro, and a BLU cherub Demoman waves at the camera from close up. Cut back to reality.] Demoman: I'M BURNING!* [It is revealed that all of the BLU Team are being burned and killed. A BLU Soldier is hit by a piece of the destroyed sentry of a BLU Engineer, who is shown flying off into the distance. A BLU Scout flees and screams while a BLU Sniper crashes out of a second-story window to the ground. He crawls over to the ankle of a nearby person. The sound of a Dispenser and then a teleporter being destroyed in the distance is heard.] Engineer: Dispenser down! [The BLU Sniper looks up, desperate.] Sniper: "Help!" [The ankle belongs to the Pyro, who looks down and shoots the flame thrower. The Sniper can be heard screaming as the view zooms in on the Pyro's mask, flames reflecting off the eyepieces as the Pyro tilts their head.] [Ending title card appears and accompanying music plays] [Cut back to the dreamscape, where the Pyro happily walks away into the sunset. The view zooms out and passes through the burnt, gaping hole in the stomach of a BLU Soldier. The view transitions back to reality as the Soldier clutches his smouldering innards for a moment and then falls over with a stifled groan. The Pyro continues to walk away into the sunset, whistling to Do You Believe In Magic? as the town begins to collapse from the inferno, the streets littered with charred BLU corpses. Fade to black.]

Notes

The title card displays 'COPYRIGHT LOLOLOL' on the bottom right corner, a recurring joke throughout the "Meet the Team" videos.
To coincide with the release of the last Meet the Team video, Valve released a public beta of the Source Filmmaker, the tool used to produce all the movies.
This video was uploaded twice to the official Team Fortress 2 channel. The second version can only be accessed via Adult Swim's website.
- In the version posted to Adult Swim, the RED Spy's cigarette is unlit, and the video doesn't introduce the Source Filmmaker at the end.
The music heard during the Pyro's massacre of the BLU team was added as a main menu track, titled "Dreams of Cruelty".
During the scene where Pyro is walking down a dirt pathway near the beginning of the film, various debris are scattered around such as Medic's glasses, Shotgun shells, Sniper Rifle bullets, and Demoman's Bottle.
According to the closed captions on the official video, the RED Scout says, "He's not here, is she?" following Valve's long-running joke of not revealing the Pyro's gender. Nevertheless, the comic Ring of Fired confirms that the Pyro is a man.^[6]
The song played when viewing the world through the Pyro's eyes is titled Do You Believe in Magic, by The Lovin' Spoonful. As the Pyro is walking away from the burning town, the Pyro can be heard whistling a slower version of the song.
Multiple items such as Rainblower, Scorch Shot, Lollichop, Infernal Orchestrina, Burning Bongos, and Balloonicorn, are all demonstrated or shown in the film, and were all released during the Pyromania Update.
The manner in which the Pyro initially picks up the Lollichop and fires the Scorch Shot is referenced in-game, via their taunts.
The Demoman is wearing his previous "dynamite stick" class emblem. However, the baby Demoman has the current Stickybomb emblem.
Near the end of the video, there is the sound of a destruction of a building, and one can faintly hear an Engineer yelling "Dispenser Down!".
At the end of the film, as the Soldier clutches his (lack of) chest, the Rainblower can be seen peeking out on the left, into the real world.
At the film's ending, while the Soldier's helmet is rolling, an Axtinguisher is shown next to a cut-off Sniper hand.
While the Pyro is walking away from the ruins of the BLU Base, one can see their Fire Axe inside of a Heavy's head, when it was used to lock the Medic in a room.
On the title screen, the inside of the matchbook cover has an image of a Balloonicorn.

Trivia

Tiny Tim's Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight was also considered for the Pyroland sequence background music. ^[7]
The Balloonicorn appeared on the cover of A Smissmas Story as an ornament, six months before Meet the Pyro was released.
When the Pyro is first seen inside Pyroland, a small cloud in the shape of the Venus symbol (which is a female sign) can be seen on the top right corner. However, the symbol is blue, which is usually a color associated with males.
The Soldier's chest at 2:09 resembles his Voodoo-Cursed Soul.