Murder Drones

Murder Drones
Genre	Comedy horror Science fiction Post-apocalyptic Dystopia
Created by	Liam Vickers
Written by	Liam Vickers
Directed by	Liam Vickers
Voices of	Elsie Lovelock Michael Kovach Nola Klop
Ending theme	Uzi the Drone Killer (episodes 1, 2, and 5) The Knife Dance (episode 3) Solver Uzi (episode 4) Eternal Dream (episode 6) Uzi in Space (silent) (episode 7)
Composer	AJ DiSpirito
Country of origin	Australia United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	7
Production
Executive producers	Kevin Lerdwichagul Luke Lerdwichagul
Producer	Kevin Lerdwichagul
Editor	Luke Lerdwichagul
Running time	17-25 minutes 26 minutes (pilot)
Production company	Glitch Productions
Budget	Upwards of $300,000
Original release
Network	YouTube
Release	October 29, 2021 (2021-10-29) – present

Murder Drones is a horror comedy independent-animated web series created by American animator Liam Vickers and produced by Glitch Productions.

The pilot episode premiered on the YouTube channel GLITCH on October 29, 2021. It was picked up for a full 8-episode season, beginning on November 18, 2022. As of March 2024, the pilot episode had received 40 million views. The series has been praised by viewers for its animation, voice acting, music, action scenes, world-building, and its blend of horror and comedy elements. Additionally, the series was nominated for a Webby Award in the category of Best Animated Video.

Synopsis

The series takes place in 3071 on Copper-9, an exoplanet owned by the megacorporation JCJenson. Worker Drones, autonomous robots designed to serve humans, inhabit the planet and mine it for natural resources. Eventually, the planet suffers a catastrophic core collapse brought on by the corporation's employees, wiping out all biological life on the planet (except for dogs who are immortal), including humans. As a result, the planet becomes a frozen wasteland, and only the Worker Drones remain. One day, three violent killing machines known as Disassembly Drones—nicknamed "Murder Drones"—invade Copper-9 to exterminate the remaining Worker Drones. The Worker Drones live in constant fear of the Murder Drones and hide behind a series of three doors in an attempt to protect themselves.

The protagonist of the series is Uzi Doorman, a teenage Worker Drone who dreams of escaping Copper-9. In the process, she forms an unlikely partnership with two of the Murder Drones: N, a male drone with a friendly and curious disposition toward Worker Drones; and V, a sadist who is purposely elusive about her history with N, after he rebels against them, Uzi and N kill J and take V for hostage. After "trucing" with V, the three work to uncover the truth about their origins and their purpose in the planet's harsh environment. Along their journey, they encounter several important individuals, Doll, a Russian-speaking Worker Drone with a vendetta against V; Tessa, a human employee of JCJenson; and Cyn, a drone who serves as the host of an evil reality-altering entity called the AbsoluteSolver. Both Uzi and Doll (along with their mothers that being experimented) are hosts of the AbsoluteSolver.

Cast

Main

• Elsie Lovelock as Uzi Doorman
• Michael Kovach as Serial Designation "N"
• Nola Klop as Serial Designation "V"

Recurring

• Allanah Fitzgerald as Cyn / AbsoluteSolver
• Shara Kirby as Serial Designation "J"
• Sean Chiplock as Thad
• David J. Dixon as Khan Doorman
• Emma Breezy as Doll
• Katie Hood (episode 1) and Caitlin Dizon (episode 2 onward) as Lizzy
• Daisy Rose as Tessa
• Liam Vickers as Teacher

Production

Liam Vickers had previously achieved attention for his 2D animated series CliffSide and Internecion Cube, both unfinished. Liam Vickers first pitched Murder Drones to Glitch Productions with some early concept art and story.

Murder Drones is animated on Autodesk Maya, with post-production being done on Unreal Engine. Including the pilot, the first season will last 8 episodes. It pushes into darker territory while making it more photorealistic than previous shows on Glitch. This series (alongside Meta Runner) also marks to many fans a departure from the Machinima style often associated with Glitch, as its co-founder Luke Lerdwichagul is well-known for his Super Mario parodies on the channel SMG4.

On August 6, 2021, Liam released the full version of "Disassembly Required", the song that plays in the teaser. The video description reveals the character seen in the teaser to be "V", one of the titular Murder Drones. By the time the series was announced, it had been worked on for one year until February 18, 2022, when Glitch Productions announced that the full series was in development now at the studio and will be released later in 2023. Glitch Productions confirmed the release date for the seventh episode to be on March 29, 2024, in a video they posted to their YouTube channel.

Episodes

Every episode is written and directed by show creator Liam Vickers.

No.	Title	Storyboard by	Original air date
1	"Pilot"	Liam Vickers	October 29, 2021 (2021-10-29)
The human population of the planet Copper 9 is wiped out by a planetary core collapse, leaving behind their robotic workforce, the Worker Drones. The workers are massacred by a team of Disassembly Drones from Earth, ostensibly sent by the interstellar corporation JCJenson in response to the workers' newfound independence, erecting a spire from their victims' remains while the survivors retreat into a fortified bunker. The worker Uzi rebelliously enters the spire to salvage parts for a railgun, intending to mount an offensive against the Disassembly Drones. She uses her weapon against Disassembly Drone "N", who regenerates with short-term amnesia and bonds with Uzi, mistaking her for a new recruit. Uzi flees when N's teammates J and V arrive, with J restoring N's memory. N infiltrates the bunker and attacks Uzi, who is shut out by her father, Khan, to protect the other survivors. After J betrays N for sympathizing with the Worker Drones, he and Uzi unite against the Disassembly Drones, destroying J and capturing V. Heartbroken by Khan's betrayal, Uzi "banishes" herself with N and V, and declares vengeance against the humans of Earth.
2	"Heartbeat"	Liam Vickers, Matthew Peckham, and Jarrad Rumble	November 18, 2022 (2022-11-18)
J's biomechanical heart emerges from her remains and produces an eldritch worm monster, which kills several Worker Drones. Uzi and N are informed of the incident by Uzi's classmate Thad while trying to repair the Disassembly Drones' space pod. Returning to the bunker to investigate, they learn about a supposed "reboot" program called the AbsoluteSolver, symbolized by an insignia that has begun appearing in place of Uzi's eye; Uzi concludes that J is using the Solver to repair herself with the drones' assimilated matter. They are soon attacked by the worm-like Solver, which proclaims J and the other drones to be its "puppets", and unnerves Uzi with disturbing, lifelike holograms, including one of itself killing Khan. N rescues Uzi as her damaged railgun explodes, causing the Solver to vanish. Uzi is frightened by the Disassembly Drones' connection to the Solver and shuns N, who dejectedly leaves as Uzi returns to Khan. Meanwhile, Uzi's classmate Doll telekinetically crushes a robotic cockroach while glancing at a photograph of V, with the Solver symbol appearing over Doll's eye.
3	"The Promening"	Liam Vickers, Robin French, and Cameron Qayoom-Taylor	February 17, 2023 (2023-02-17)
Uzi is approached by Doll and her friend Lizzy to receive a makeover for the upcoming school prom. However, Uzi escapes upon discovering that Doll is targeting her in a recent string of disappearances at school, and that Lizzy is conspiring to let V into the school. Meanwhile, N refuses to participate in V's plan to slaughter the promgoers for their own sustenance, leading V to go alone. Uzi and N reconcile upon meeting outside, and head to the prom to stop V. Against the trio's expectations, V is crowned prom queen as part of a trap devised by Doll, who seeks to kill her for murdering her parents. Uzi and N rescue V, overcoming Doll's reality-bending Solver powers before Doll is shot by V. Doll later regenerates and attacks the group again, but flees when Uzi manifests her own Solver powers against her. Meanwhile, the human JCJenson technician Tessa and a living J arrive on Copper 9 to perform "maintenance work".
4	"Cabin Fever"	Matthew Peckham and Cameron Qayoom-Taylor	April 7, 2023 (2023-04-07)
Uzi travels to the abandoned Camp 98.7 to investigate a set of collars with significance to her deceased mother, Nori. Uzi's class is forced to come along as part of a field trip, with N and V acting as supervisors. Uzi eventually finds the "keybug", a golden robot cockroach designed to activate an elevator in the Cabin Fever Labs. When she returns to the campsite, a startled classmate fires at Uzi with an arrow, which her Solver powers turn into a living organic mass. Uzi flees into one of the cabins, where she grows fleshy wings and a tail similar to the Disassembly Drones'; against V's wishes, N searches for Uzi and finds an instructional videocassette titled "Zombie Drones". Overcome with a craving for the drones' oil, Uzi kills several of her classmates and battles a hostile V before N intervenes, calming Uzi and returning her to normal. Uzi, N, and V leave with the other survivors, bringing the keybug and videocassette with them.
5	"Home"	Liam Vickers and Neda Lay	June 9, 2023 (2023-06-09)
N relives his repressed memories as a Worker Drone servant at Tessa's mansion alongside V, J, and a malfunctioning "zombie" drone named Cyn. After ignoring several cryptic messages instructing him to enter the mansion's basement, N establishes contact with Uzi, who has hacked into the comatose N and V's memories to keep them from being erased by Cyn, the Absolute Solver's host and the Disassembly Drones' administrator. With Tessa and J's help, Uzi and N evade a monstrously mutated V and unlock the basement, where they discover Cyn's responsibility for turning N and the other servants into Disassembly Drones. Uzi's hacking is interrupted when Doll intrudes to take the keybug, which Uzi begrudgingly gives her to save N and V. While the past Cyn takes control of the other drones and massacres the humans in the mansion, the present Cyn attempts use V to lobotomize N in Uzi's absence, but N returns V to her senses before Uzi overrides Cyn's administration. Sometime later, Doll brings the keybug to Tessa and J at the frozen Camp 98.7 lake, where Uzi, N, and V find them.
6	"Dead End"	Neda Lay	August 18, 2023 (2023-08-18)
Tessa and J ally with Uzi's group, revealing Cyn as the one who sent the Disassembly Drones to Copper 9. Doll immediately takes the keybug back and enters the nearby Cabin Fever Labs alone, leading the group to give chase while J stays behind to guard Tessa's ship. The group is quickly captured by Alice and Beau, two cannibalistic Worker Drone lab subjects who have used the facility's Velociraptor-like Sentinels to kill the other subjects and intruding Disassembly Drones. During their escape, Tessa privately reveals to N that Cyn's actions have already destroyed Earth, and urges him to save the universe over Uzi, who risks being possessed by Cyn the more she uses her Solver powers. After the Sentinels kill Alice and Beau, Doll traps the group in the elevator hallway with more Sentinels and descends further down, damaging the elevator in the process. When the others are cornered inside the elevator, V remains outside and severs its cables to save them while the Sentinels surround her.
7	"Mass Destruction"	Neda Lay and AD Taeza	March 29, 2024 (2024-03-29)
Uzi, N, and Tessa are separated underground when Uzi's Solver triggers a cave-in. N encounters still living Nori, who has been reduced to a biomechanical heart, and owns a crucifix-shaped USB drive containing a patch designed to "exorcise" the Solver from its hosts. Uzi finds a cathedral used for exorcisms by JCJenson scientists, and learns from security footage that Nori unwittingly caused Copper 9's core collapse while fighting against Cyn's possession. Doll confronts Tessa, seeking the patch to cure herself, but is mortally wounded by Cyn and warns Uzi of the danger before Tessa attempts to kill Uzi. N decapitates Tessa and attempts to use the patch on Uzi, but Cyn takes full control of her and destroys the USB. In an ensuing battle with Cyn, N provokes Uzi into bickering with Nori by confessing that he and Uzi "hang out", returning her to normal. However, "Tessa" reveals herself to be Cyn's drone body wearing the real Tessa's skin, and drags Uzi and N with her into a hole leading to the planet's core. Uzi sacrifices herself to save N, falling into the hole alone; she later awakens in outer space and sees the planet's exposed core.

Reception

Lauren Rouse of Gizmodo Australia praised the character designs and visuals. In 2023, the series earned a nomination for a Webby Award in the category of Best Animated Video.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
2023	Webby Award	Animation (Series & Channels) Video	Murder Drones	Nominated

See also

• Glitch Productions
• List of web series
• Web series

External links

• Official website