Expiration Date

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Expiration Date
Expiration Date title.png
Video Info
Released: June 17, 2014
Run time: 14:58

Expiration Date is a movie that was released on the 17th of June 2014 to promote the Love and War Update.

Video description

Engineer and Medic make an unsettling new discovery while experimenting with the teleporter. Meanwhile, Scout stops insulting Spy long enough to ask him an embarrassing favor; the Administrator's clerical assistant/cleaner/murder expert Miss Pauling races to bury some incriminating bodies; and Soldier makes a new metal friend.

Movie

Video transcript

Plot summary

As the Heavy, Scout, and Soldier return from a mission to capture a briefcase, Miss Pauling video calls them to ask how the mission went. She is slightly irritated that they left witnesses that she has to take care of for them. After arriving back at the base, Scout tries to ask her out, but he is unable to think of anything to say to her.

At the base, they hear bad news from Engineer and Medic: teleporting bread results in large green tumors inside, leading them to conclude that the mercenaries have the tumors as well, and will all die. The Medic estimates that each team member has about three days left to live. Engineer provides each team member with a wristwatch that will count down to the time of the mercenaries' demises.

In face of this news, Spy decides to collect a bucket list in a literal bucket. Spy delegated the task of collecting wishes to Scout, who has filled it with drawings of the Spy being hit by a car and having a romantic relationship with the Eiffel Tower. Spy remarks that his time has been wasted, and angrily bids the team farewell, after giving the Soldier the bucket. The Soldier then takes his bucket and picks up a loaf of bread dropped by the Medic.

Afterwards, Scout comes to Spy's smoking room to apologize and seek his help. He confides that he did have a real wish for the bucket list: a date with Miss Pauling. Scout admits to Spy that while he himself is good with girls (a scene with the Tramp Girl appears), he is vastly outclassed by Spy when it comes to ladies. Scout then admits Spy is better than him, and Spy demands that broadcast around the base as payment for his services.

Spy agrees to coach Scout in how to behave around a lady. While Scout shows some progress, Spy ultimately declares Scout a failure. When Scout retaliates towards Spy's attitude, Scout decides to do things his own way, which appears to have surprised and impressed the Spy.

With two hours left on his death watch, Scout decides to take things into his own hands. He calls Miss Pauling to the base by pressing the alarm button for the briefcase being stolen. She hurriedly arrives on the scene, but is infuriated upon learning that the briefcase is actually secure. While trying to talk to Pauling, the Soldier, Spy and Demoman spectate from another room. Spy is surprised that Scout is doing surprisingly well.

Meanwhile, through experimentation, Medic and Engineer have come to the conclusion that the growths in the bread are, in fact, not tumors at all, but a self-aware birthmark that can only thrive in pure wheat. This means none of the mercenaries have tumors, and thus are not going to die. They enter the room that Soldier, Spy and Demoman are in and inform them that they are fine as long as no more bread is teleported. To their horror, though, it seems that Soldier's last wish has been to do nothing but teleport bread for the past three days.

Upset at Scout for wasting her “one day off a year”, Miss Pauling begins to leave. As Scout attempts to get her to stay, he opens a door, only to be confronted by a giant Bread Monster. A fight breaks out, with the other mercenaries rushing to their aid. One of the Medic's pet doves ends up eaten by the monster.

During the fight, Miss Pauling attempts to blow up the Bread Monster by using a Payload cart, strapping the Scout's death watch to it to serve as a timer. As Scout attempts to help her, she and Scout end up trapped on the wrong side of the blast doors as the bomb is about to blow up. The two notice that the dove that the Bread Monster ate is flying harmlessly out of the mouth of the monster. They wordlessly agree to jump into the mouth of the Bread Monster, which they proceed to do in the nick of time. The Payload cart subsequently blows up, killing the Bread Monster.

Stunned by the blast, Miss Pauling and Scout painfully but quickly recover inside the bread monster. Once she recovers, Miss Pauling admits that the experience was fun. Scout tells her about the death prognosis just as the two are helped out of the remains of the gigantic Bread Monster by the rest of the team. The Medic informs them that only bread mutates, and that they will all be fine (after the Soldier mistakenly states that they will live forever), while the Pyro starts playfully chasing down the remaining small Bread Monster.

The story ends with Scout trying to get another date, but Miss Pauling having to decline due to already having spent her one day of vacation this year. She does, however, offer to have Scout to come along at work, though he declines each task Pauling lists until she comes to the task of killing the one who pulled the briefcase alarm, which she says that Scout will already be at.

Notes

  • Ashly Burch, the voice of Miss Pauling, also helped write some of the short.[1]
  • This is the first Valve-made TF2 short to feature Miss Pauling, and the second to feature characters apart from the RED and BLU team (the first being the Second Annual Saxxy Awards trailer.)
  • Nolan North voices the Engineer's new lines, as the original voice actor, Grant Goodeve, was unavailable.[2]
    • However, some of the Engineer's lines are extracted sound files from Grant Goodeve. An example being "Y'all ready?" (9:00) and "Awww. Hell." (9:14)
  • The team responsible for the 2013 Best Overall Saxxy award-winning short, Lil' Guardian Pyro, helped animate a small section of Expiration Date. [3] [4]
  • This is the final Team Fortress video to feature Rick May before his death in 2020.
  • Some of the witness corpses that Miss Pauling gathers are that of a Spy, a Soldier, and a Medic without a jacket.
  • Nathan Vetterlein said he worked very closely with Ashly Burch during the short's creation.[citation needed].
  • At 4:16, the Scout line, "Classic Scout", was improvised by voice actor Nathan Vetterlein as detailed in his Twitch Stream.[citation needed]
  • While the entire film was planned a year in advance, actual production of the short took about six months.[5]
  • During the climax, Miss Pauling is holding a derringer that hasn't made an appearance in any other TF2 media to date. It uses the same firing sound as the Revolver.
  • References to the general culture and the Team Fortress universe are made in the movie:
    • The title card displays "COPYRIGHT LOLOLOL" on the bottom right corner, a recurring joke throughout the "Meet the Team" videos. The cards in the bucket also read "LOL."
    • The location of the RED Base is in an edited version of the map Hydro.
    • The RED Bread van's hood ornament reads 'Sword'. This is a reference to the "Sword Van" comic from KC Green's "Custom Comix".[6]
    • At 0:40, the sound of Miss Pauling's pistol is identical to the sound of the Cleaner's Carbine, the Pistol also appears to be a Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol with a silencer attached.
    • At 1:21, when Miss Pauling goes off camera, the firing sound of the Revolver can be heard. Miss Pauling is shown using the Revolver in the comics, and later in the video she wields a derringer with an identical firing sound.
    • At 0:53, the keypad on the door to the back of the van is clearly shown, and has a worn out "1" key, in reference to Meet the Spy where the Intelligence room keypad has an identical worn key. Apparently the RED team's passcodes are the same as the BLU team.
    • At 1:57, when Medic breaks the loaf of bread to reveal tumors, Scout recoils in disgust, holding his hands up as if to defend himself and hunching over to the left. This is identical to Scout's recoil in Meet the Spy at 2:24.
    • At 2:43, when Demo comes back through the teleporter with the beer, he does the same animation as the Oblooterated taunt the demo does in game. The taunt was added in game a day after this video was released.
    • At 3:26, there is a pinball machine depicted by a Payload Cart with the words "Payload Pinball", a reference to the Payload Game Mode.
    • At 3:51, the drawing of the Spy being hit by a car is a very similar drawing to one found in the Source Filmmaker Beta files.
    • At 5:55, a painting of a bowl of fruit with a knife in the apple is seen behind the Spy. This painting is a parody of Still Life with Fruit, a painting by Caravaggio.
    • At 6:04, a painting can be seen behind the Spy of him riding a horse. This painting is a parody of Napoleon Crossing the Alps, a painting by Jacques-Louis David originally featuring Napoleon Bonaparte.
    • At 6:22, the Pyro appears to be reading "MAN MAN", a comic which features the RED Spy and Scout on the cover and has The Insult That Made a "Jarate Master" Out of Sniper on the back cover, last seen in Meet the Medic.
    • At 6:25, the Soldier is carrying several loaves of bread.
    • At 7:28, when learning to dance, the Scout first performs the dance move from Tom Jones' song "It's Not Unusual".
      • This was later added to the game as the Carlton taunt in 2016.
    • At 9:47, Hydro's Introduction video can be seen playing on the smaller monitors.
    • During the dancing scene, a recorder is visible that looks like the Red-Tape Recorder.
    • Miss Pauling tells Scout that she gets one day off a year. This is first hinted at in the Wizardcon secret page from the Spectral Halloween Special update.
    • When the Soldier tells the Engineer he has a question, he does not actually ask a question. Instead he makes a statement. This is probably a reference to the Soldier's low intelligence.
    • At 10:36, angered at Soldier's teleportation of bread, Medic smashes the Specimen #384 jar, freeing the juvenile Bread monster seen playing with Pyro at 14:42.
    • As Scout and Pauling run towards the Bread Monster, they perform a short dance routine. The dance scene is interpreted within the action/fight scene.
  • Matthew Russell, a former animator at Valve, released an animation demo reel that features scenes from Expiration Date.[7] A few of these scenes are different compared to the final product:
    • When the Soldier slams Scout on the table and strangles him, Scout chokes out "Not... my fault." before the Engineer interrupts them. The camera angle is also slightly higher up than in the final video.
    • Miss Pauling has a different appearance, wearing a purple T-Shirt and having a slightly different face.
    • Miss Pauling's arrival at the RED Base is at daytime, and her scooter has a different, red-colored model.
    • A scene not present in the final video has Miss Pauling be seated at a candle-lit dinner table by the Heavy, who also takes off her helmet.


  • Some mistakes and inconsistencies are present in the short film:
    • The BLU Soldier is missing from the roof of the van during the opening scene, and only appears once the van approaches the base. This could be an Easter Egg and may not be an error.
    • At 1:35, the Medic's left hand clips with his backpack.
      • In all subsequent shots, the Medic's backpack is missing.
    • At 2:34, the tool rack behind the Ciggy Stop is missing. It reappears at 2:45.
    • At 2:45, when the Demoman returns from the Teleporter exit he can be seen levitating above the actual Teleporter.
    • At 3:02, the animation when Scout smiles and looks at Soldier is recycled seconds later at 3:05.
      • The Scout is wearing his backpack during this scene, but it's absent in all other scenes.
    • At 3:11, and several times during the scene, the Pyro's grenades appear sideways.
      • During this scene, the Heavy appears to wearing his watch, but with no strap.
      • In subsequent shots, the Heavy's death watch seems to be missing, until 3:42.
    • At 4:16, the Sniper's watch floats in front of his waist instead of being strapped to his left wrist. This is most likely a mistake in model posing.
    • At 5:01, Spy's model does not sync with the censored word (F***)
    • At 6:05, Spy's microphone is not visible but later appears before he pushes the button at 6:15.
    • At 6:08 when Spy is pouring a drink, the liquid flowing out of the bottle is black but becomes a translucent amber color as it fills the glass.
      • This is likely a modeling error, where there is no texture for the flowing liquid and appears black because of the lighting.
    • At 6:23, a lighter is floating under the comic the Pyro is holding, presumably originally intended to be in his hand, to try and light the comic on fire with. This is a reference to "Meet The Medic", in which the Pyro is also attempting to light a comic he's reading.
    • At 8:17, the Spy produces a beverage from behind his back in his left hand, even though his left hand can be seen holding nothing behind his back at 8:06.
    • At 10:22, just as the Engineer comes to rest his arms on the shoulder's of the Soldier and the Medic, the Engineer's right arm clips through Medic's backpack.
    • At 11:14, we see the right side of Ms. Pauling's glasses slant down. Yet in the next shot at 11:17, the left side of her glasses is slanted.
    • At 11:29 when the Medic ÜberCharges the Heavy, it does not affect the Medic.
    • At 11:30, Pyro is seen on by the left side of the monster, but at 11:36 he is seen running past the bomb and Ms. Pauling.
    • At 11:31, Scout's right arm clips through Soldier's torso.
    • At 11:48, Engineer is seen upgrading his level one sentry to a level 2 far away from the monster, but at 12:31 he is seen hitting a level one sentry right next to the monster, and then at 12:42 he is seen next to a level 3 sentry where his level 2 was.
    • At 11:55, the Scout's weapon clips through the side of the bread monster after he hits it.
    • At 11:59, the Sniper Rifle uses the same firing sound as the AWPer Hand instead of its default firing sound.
    • At 12:03-12:37, the Heavy's default Minigun firing sound changes to the Tomislav's firing sound instead. Then changes back to its default firing sound at 12:38.
    • At 12:16, Miss Pauling's model does not sync the last word of her sentence ("press").
    • At 12:23, the Direct Hit can be heard firing, but Soldier was not carrying any weapon when seen at 12:25.
    • At 12:41, the Heavy can be seen falling back from the monster, right next to Ms. Pauling. But in 12:43, he is rapidly firing his Minigun next to the Engineer (which is the direction Ms. Pauling is shouting at).
    • At 12:43, the Engineer's Sentry Gun is clicking as if trying to fire without ammo, but the barrels are not spinning.

References

  1. Anthony Burch,   "Ash helped write the latest TF2 short and she voices Miss Pauling.".      Published   June 17, 2014.      Retrieved   June 17, 2014.
  2. Nolan North,   "all of 'em".      Published   June 17, 2014.      Retrieved   June 17, 2014.
  3. Working on a Part of the short
  4. LGP Mocap session at Valve
  5. Harry101UK, who attended Valve for winning the 2013 Saxxies
  6. KC Green's Custom Comix
  7. Matthew Russell Animation Demo Reel