Techno-Soviet
17-05-2009, 23:29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetarian
Reading that article brought me on a short Google search to get this. After going through the whole four hour, I realized how depressing the ending is:
While dodging detection from killer machines, the junker enters a building with a dome on the roof to search for usable supplies. Inside the dome, he meets Yumemi, who offers to show him a special commemorative projection especially reserved for the 2,500,000th customer, although he is in fact the 2,497,290th customer. Despite his aggravation with her, he agrees to attend her show. However, the projector device, "Miss Jena", has broken down and is in need of repair. Curiously, he tries to repair it himself, and in the process, understands that the planetarium is not a military building but an amusement attraction. It turns out that his arrival is of sheer coincidence, as the place runs on an old power generator somewhere in the city still giving minimal power, which is only enough to recharge Yumemi to operate for exactly one week every year. After Miss Jena is repaired enough to function mechanically, Yumemi plugs herself in to start the show, and presents an amazing projection of the starry sky, something missing from the outside world because of the polluted skies. Unfortunately, the power finally goes out in the midst of the show, but Yumemi proceeds through the rest of the event with no visuals at the request of the protagonist.
Both of them eventually leave the planetarium, as Yumemi insists on escorting her customer back to his vehicle outside the city walls. It is during this time that he devises a plan to quietly transport Yumemi out of the city when her battery completely runs out, and later find a way to re-activate her and obtain a portable projector so that they can travel to various refugee encampments together and show the remaining humans her presentation. When they reach the city walls, he spots a machine he calls a fiddler crab due to its design guarding the entrance in which he came from, and he tells Yumemi to stay put while he leaves to destroy it. Armed with only a grenade launcher, he tries to take down the machine with his remaining high explosive squash head rounds covertly, but a dud blows his cover and he is forced to face the machine front on, and thus is completely outmatched by it, breaking his right leg while evading its gunfire. Programmed with the directive to protect human life before performing all other orders, Yumemi ignores the earlier request to stand still and approaches the machine to try and electronically command it to retreat. Before the protagonist can capitalize on the distraction and finish the machine off, Yumemi is literally blown in half by its machine guns, destroying her main battery.
Irreparably damaged from the attack and being further destroyed by the toxic rain shorting her now exposed internals, she attempts one last time to send a distress call to the no longer existent support center. She spends her emergency battery life replaying her pre-war memories to him using a tiny hologram projector on her ear. She visually recollects the day she was activated, cheerful experiences with past customers, and the day the entire city was evacuated as war broke out, with the other planetarium workers unwillingly leaving her behind. When the video fades, she reveals that she had known that the planetarium would never have more customers during the thirty years she was alone, despite her apparent infinite optimism up to this point. She prays to the stars and wishes to serve humans forevermore in heaven as she "dies" in front of him. To comfort her, he lies and makes up a story that he was specifically sent by her human coworkers to pull her from the city and take her to her new place of work, indirectly referring to his own earlier plans to rescue her. In her final moment, she ejects the memory card from her artificial brain for his safekeeping. Touched and completely shaken by the loss of the beautiful world she left in his mind, he throws away his gun and puts the memory card in his coat, before wandering off with a broken leg as the fallen war machine's automated backup close in on the scene.
Seriously, that is one of the saddest stories ever. It's only further emphasized by the ironically cheerful music as Yumemi dies. This is the first time I've cried at the end of a game/movie/novel since I saw the ending of Gladiator. :(
Reading that article brought me on a short Google search to get this. After going through the whole four hour, I realized how depressing the ending is:
While dodging detection from killer machines, the junker enters a building with a dome on the roof to search for usable supplies. Inside the dome, he meets Yumemi, who offers to show him a special commemorative projection especially reserved for the 2,500,000th customer, although he is in fact the 2,497,290th customer. Despite his aggravation with her, he agrees to attend her show. However, the projector device, "Miss Jena", has broken down and is in need of repair. Curiously, he tries to repair it himself, and in the process, understands that the planetarium is not a military building but an amusement attraction. It turns out that his arrival is of sheer coincidence, as the place runs on an old power generator somewhere in the city still giving minimal power, which is only enough to recharge Yumemi to operate for exactly one week every year. After Miss Jena is repaired enough to function mechanically, Yumemi plugs herself in to start the show, and presents an amazing projection of the starry sky, something missing from the outside world because of the polluted skies. Unfortunately, the power finally goes out in the midst of the show, but Yumemi proceeds through the rest of the event with no visuals at the request of the protagonist.
Both of them eventually leave the planetarium, as Yumemi insists on escorting her customer back to his vehicle outside the city walls. It is during this time that he devises a plan to quietly transport Yumemi out of the city when her battery completely runs out, and later find a way to re-activate her and obtain a portable projector so that they can travel to various refugee encampments together and show the remaining humans her presentation. When they reach the city walls, he spots a machine he calls a fiddler crab due to its design guarding the entrance in which he came from, and he tells Yumemi to stay put while he leaves to destroy it. Armed with only a grenade launcher, he tries to take down the machine with his remaining high explosive squash head rounds covertly, but a dud blows his cover and he is forced to face the machine front on, and thus is completely outmatched by it, breaking his right leg while evading its gunfire. Programmed with the directive to protect human life before performing all other orders, Yumemi ignores the earlier request to stand still and approaches the machine to try and electronically command it to retreat. Before the protagonist can capitalize on the distraction and finish the machine off, Yumemi is literally blown in half by its machine guns, destroying her main battery.
Irreparably damaged from the attack and being further destroyed by the toxic rain shorting her now exposed internals, she attempts one last time to send a distress call to the no longer existent support center. She spends her emergency battery life replaying her pre-war memories to him using a tiny hologram projector on her ear. She visually recollects the day she was activated, cheerful experiences with past customers, and the day the entire city was evacuated as war broke out, with the other planetarium workers unwillingly leaving her behind. When the video fades, she reveals that she had known that the planetarium would never have more customers during the thirty years she was alone, despite her apparent infinite optimism up to this point. She prays to the stars and wishes to serve humans forevermore in heaven as she "dies" in front of him. To comfort her, he lies and makes up a story that he was specifically sent by her human coworkers to pull her from the city and take her to her new place of work, indirectly referring to his own earlier plans to rescue her. In her final moment, she ejects the memory card from her artificial brain for his safekeeping. Touched and completely shaken by the loss of the beautiful world she left in his mind, he throws away his gun and puts the memory card in his coat, before wandering off with a broken leg as the fallen war machine's automated backup close in on the scene.
Seriously, that is one of the saddest stories ever. It's only further emphasized by the ironically cheerful music as Yumemi dies. This is the first time I've cried at the end of a game/movie/novel since I saw the ending of Gladiator. :(