Halo 2’s Midnight Release Turns Into a Hostage Situation in a New Short Film

A new short film known as Midnight Drop will turn Halo 2’s highly anticipated midnight release into the worst night for a group of gamers.

The trailer for a short film titled Midnight Drop has been circulating online. The film, directed by Ricky Staffieri, follows a group of excited gamers as they document the most exciting night of their lives: the midnight launch of Halo 2 on November 9, 2004. However, what should be an electric night of suiting up as Master Chief and slaying the Covenant turns into a fight for their own lives. A pair of criminals show up and rob the store as it’s ringing up customers, eventually unraveling into a hostage situation.

This movie takes one of the biggest entertainment launches of the early 2000s and uses it as a catalyst for an exceptionally tense situation. As of right now, there’s no firm release date for when audiences will get to see it, but it will be shown at the Sound and Fury festival on August 17 in Los Angeles. The screening is free, and you can even RSVP here.

Hopefully, it’ll get released on YouTube, or be available to watch for cheap on a streaming service in the near future. Either way, it’s exciting to see a major moment in gaming culture now being used as the setting for some kind of historical fiction. The Halo franchise was a dominant force in the gaming industry back in the 2000s, but now, not so much. The series’ reputation has soured a lot since Bungie departed from the franchise in 2010, with new releases failing to secure the same staying power.

This new film is also only possible as a result of physical media (what a segue). If Halo 2 was a digital release, fans wouldn’t have the experience of lining up and getting excited about a game to influence the story of a short film. Unfortunately, there’s nothing exciting enough about a digital midnight launch to make a whole movie around it.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN’s news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.