Horizon Zero Dawn - The Bad News Hologram Cutscene

The Bad News Hologram Cutscene from the video game Horizon Zero Dawn.

"Welcome to Project: Zero Dawn. I'm General Herres, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs of the United States of America. I'm sure you've heard the rumors. That Zero Dawn is a top-secret superweapons program. The technological miracle that will save us from the Faro Plague – if Operation: Enduring Victory can hold off the robots long enough. The reason I'm sure you've heard the rumors is that I'm the one who spread them. And they are all lies. Zero Dawn is not a superweapons program, and it will not save us.

Nothing will save us, and here's why. By the time the Glitch was noticed, it was already too late. Nothing could stop the Faro Plague. Nothing can. Its robots will continue to replicate and devour the biosphere. Life on Earth will be destroyed, our planet reduced to a barren sphere. Global extinction is inevitable. Every possible countermeasure has been attempted. Weapons – even nuclear – only delay the inevitable. No matter how many we kill, the robots just keep exponentially making more.

If we had their deactivation codes, we could shut them all down. The entire swarm. But since their cryptographic protocols use polyphasic entangled waveforms, cracking a code set would take half a century. At best, we've got 16 months. Not exactly what you'd call a survival option. There are no survival options. The destruction of a biosphere is not the sort of apocalypse you can wait out in a fallout shelter or space station. There will be no Earth left to reclaim. Just a lifeless, toxic rock with several million Faro robots on it...hibernating, waiting for something to eat.

This is the horrible truth behind the lies of Operation: Enduring Victory – my lies – lies designed to inspire millions of innocents to sacrifice themselves in battle. Why? One reason: to buy time for you and the work you will do here. Zero Day – the day that life on Earth ceases to exist – is coming fast. It cannot be stopped. The hope of Zero Dawn is that something new might come after. But I will leave it to Elisabet Sobeck to shine that thin ray of light into the darkness. Herres out."

[Duterasemis]

I can just imagine this general handing off the charts to an intern and being like "okay I need you to dramatically animate all of this instead of spending what time we have left with your family"

[amk]

In less than 2 1/2 minutes he managed to explain the total gravity of the situation, his own shame, and the massive sacrifice that will be made to simply buy time for the intended spectator to build an ark that will outlast the apocalypse.

Great writing and acting.

[Darklarik]

One of the most depressing apocalypses in any work of Fiction. An inevitable end, claiming ALL life on earth, with no hope of survival. Its way past grim, its just dark and tragic. All the billions whos lives where snuffed over the greed of one man, desperately clinging to a hope of survival that wasnt ever going to happen, slowly hearing and watching that hope crumble and fade into nothing, until they decided to commit suicide. Its just horrifically depressing.

[abirbinhabib]

I got literal chills when i first saw this cutscene, afterwards the world felt emptier than it was

[JacketedSoftPoint]

The part that frightened me the most is when you get to the bunker in the Northeast section of the map, crawl through the breach in the initial parking lot and see all the tanks and deceased soldiers, then hearing the logs played back. All giddy and cracking jokes, then moments later torn to shreds. I can only imagine it was like a scene straight out of The Matrix Revolutions when the machines invaded Zion. Only it was a lot tighter and cramped. That shit would've been horrifying.

[hannahdavis]

Honestly, it wasn't a total lie. In the end, Enduring Victory bought the time needed for Project Zero Dawn.

[alexlyster]

Strangely enough, Project Zero Dawn is almost exactly the same (or parallel) general plan as the Forerunners plan to beat the flood in Halo. Excintion is inevitable, and so the plan is to lean into that to shut the threat down (The Halo rings/just frankly dying) before reseeding life into the universe/planet at a later time, with knowledge and technology left behind to guide humanity and help it avoid the mistakes and sins of their predecessors, that sadly goes wrong leaving humanity to start over fresh.

[CrniWuk]

What I enjoyed the most in the game was looking for those small bits and peaces of information about the people and world which exsisted before the Plague. It really created a sort of debth and wonder to the adventure. It made it really exciting to visit some of the places in the world to see what it looked like in the past. That was for me the strength of the game.

[Deeplycloseted]

That music these cutscenes....so effective. This would make a great movie or series.

[tairrendaly]

Ive seen alot of post apocalypse games, but none where humanity falls COMEPLETELY. This is so damn well written, I cant wait for Horizon 2. 😳😳🤣😎

[RevanSurik]

I'll never forget how haunting it was, to play that part for the first time. I'd spent the whole game trying to piece together what information Aloy had uncovered, figuring out what could've happened in the past that there was no memory of the Old Ones' world, but I'd never expected to learn that not only the machines had won the war, but the ENTIRE PLANET had been killed...

[samuelfawell]

This is why I loved this game, the whole point of Zero Dawn… we lost, we completely lost but we came back.

[thecollectivegamer]

This is by far the most beautiful post apocalyptic gsme ive ever seen and played!

[thundageon]

This game is so artistically well made that I cant wait for the sequel. JUST ONE MONTH BABY

[fethdor]

I love how the robots can exponentially reproduce but I can't even get a PS5. Great game though.

[silverblade]

This really is one of the best and most original post-apocalypse stories in recent memory.

[happyguardsman]

Thats why you always install an off-switch

[JunkPhuJP]

I remember when the truth was finally revealed, how the plague started, Elizabeth’s plan, what Zero Dawn actually meant, and what happened to Apollo, I was left stunned…

[spatorade]

Faro Robots:
We will consume and destroy all life on earth.

Elisabet Sobeck:
The fuck you will.

[mattdavis]

Such a great game, with an incredible story. There aren't many games that can pull you into it's world like this game can.