Welcome to Cyborg Academy. We'll begin with Merciless Grunt Victimization 101…

(6:55) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. When backtracking once, I found a Grunt in an amusing position which he'd reached after diving clear of my speeding Warthog. I kept a save, thinking to maybe have fun with him sometime. And now at last, he stars in his own movie! Although, he probably wishes he didn't. Watch out for a lot of fancy shooting and tagging!

Released February 17th 2019, gameplay recorded February 11th-16th 2019.

00:02 In this introductory clip I act as if I'm only just discovering the precariously positioned Grunt, but that was just for the sake of the movie. I knew he was there. As a first way of killing him, I shunt him off the bridge with a pistol shot, then instantly tag him; so it's actually the blast which gets him, not the fall. I also snipe the falling body, though the hit isn't easily seen (I had to check the footage to be sure).

00:47 When I bail from the Banshee, the covies instantly relax because I'm cloaked (I cloaked outside in the two-Wraith area, then quickly flew here). Bunch of dopes eh? I then enjoy shunting the Grunt off with a close-range plasma ball, before tagging the Jackal.

01:12 There were lots of nice perches to take mischievous advantage of, and here's a first example. It's also the first of 8 'long-range' clips. From a low pipe on the far side, I launch the Grunt with a tag then score two sniper hits as he flies. My throwing aim was judged by lining up my elevation with some faint marking on the distant wall, which you can't make out in the movie.

This is actually the last clip recorded, out of those in the movie. I had a different version of it in place for a long time, but just at the end I did some more takes to try for an improvement. My original had featured a slightly clumsy pipe landing, and the Grunt had been rather static. In this clip the Grunt is more active and you get to see two cute hops.

01:41 This 'double drop' idea came to me relatively late, and when I tried it out, I knew I'd have to include it. Good comedy. From the opposite rim I shunt the Grunt off with a plasma ball, then step back to fall with him, getting a nice view before sniping him.

01:53 Once again I'm cloaked. Hopping up onto the rim next to him, I fire a shot past his ears, causing him to jump off the bridge in shock. I then tag him as he falls, and you can hear him cry "Not again!"

02:03 Another high perch; this time I'm in a big hole in the wall. A sniper shot gives the Grunt a shock but he stays on the rim. After he relaxes though, my next one shocks him off and I snipe him as he falls.

02:21 I have to admit, half the reason I've got this clip in the movie is because I like the comedy of the Jackal diving to avoid the falling Banshee, after I've bailed from it at height. As for the Grunt kill, I shunt him off the edge with a plasma pip, then jump after him and kill him with a plasma ball. Just before I die, I also score a sniper hit though it's hard to see.

02:43 As I move out from cover, the Grunt gets a shock but soon takes aim with his plasma pistol. Doesn't get time to shoot though. After tagging him, I shunt him off the bridge with a pistol shot. He falls a bit but then the blast sends him up, making a great target for my rocket launcher. Good comedy I thought.

02:55 I've got a juxtaposed pair of double tag clips now, and this first is from a deep hole in the wall on the far left of the cavern. Bizarre as it may seem (for someone so familiar with the game), this hole is actually new to me. When I noticed it, I was like "Huh? There's a hole here? I can't believe it!" I'm familiar with the two other holes and have used them for mischief before, but apparently this one escaped my notice all these years. That's unless I did notice it long ago but then forgot about it. But I don't think that's the case, because the hole is strikingly and impressively deep; not easily forgotten. In my defence, it is in a very dark place.

03:12 For the second double tag clip I'm down on the low pipe already used in the 1:12 clip. That old clip only used one plasma, but this time the Grunt goes considerably higher thanks to the extra tag.

03:30 In the first of two hog assaults, I shunt the Grunt off the bridge with a plasma ball, then jump after him to drive in a clip of needles. Actually one needle misses. But anyway, I get him with a needle explosion, which was the goal. As an incidental bonus, the Jackal got splattered off the bridge.

03:46 This is one of my earliest clips. I wondered if standing on top of the Grunt would keep me safe from harm, but it turns out he can shoot up pretty well. A good comedy clip, in view of the spitting ending.

04:09 From the high pipe on the far right, I shock the Grunt off with a sniper shot (which I knew in advance would have that effect), and snipe him as he falls.

04:25 The Grunt gets a 3-stage boost from first a rocket, then a tag, then his detonated loose plasma. Then I pull off a long-range rocket hit (I was like "Wow, I actually got him!"), and snipe him for good measure.

04:46 This second hog assault follows a similar pattern to the first except this time I finish him with a crisp whack in mid-air. Actually the whack also matches the beat of the music. I forget whether I had that in mind as I approached him. Talking of which, note how a cyborg falls faster than a Grunt. Curious.

05:01 How'd you like my double rocket trick? I wasn't sure if it would work, but I tried it out and soon got a success. I subsequently got many more, and chose my favourite example.

05:18 You've got to admit, the tank did the job. Trouble is, it did more than the job!

05:35 A long-range plasma ball shunts the Grunt off the bridge, and I snipe him as he falls. The plasma shot also woke up a sleeping Grunt, but he's no trouble of course. I get him with a close-range sniper shot.

05:53 While playing around with launching the Grunt, I got this amusing episode. He dives clear of my first plasma throw, then when he dives to avoid the second, he gets a bad bounce in the middle of the bridge where the deck is slightly raised with an angled edge. That sends him skimming over the opposite rim. As he falls, I get sight of him just in time to shoot him dead.

06:06 Here's my double rocket trick again, but this time executed from the high pipe on the near right. I also score two mid-air sniping hits, and get a panicking Grunt for good measure. For my second rocket I was aiming approximately at the base of the distant Shade. That conveniently just happened to be the right direction for the rocket to stand a good chance of intercepting the Grunt near the top of his arc.

06:30 After carefully blasting his buddies away, I give the Grunt one last trip off the bridge, courtesy of a whack, and then rocket him in mid-air.

Closing remarks I got this situation back in 2014 when working on getting a crazy-firing Grunt on the tower. In some of the set-up work I whizzed past troops in the cavern, and that's when the Grunt dived and ended up on the bridge rim.

When I started seeing what I could make of this situation on February 11th, I thought I'd just get a few entertaining clips for future use in 'freakiness and fun' movies. But I kept thinking of more things to do with the Grunt, and realised I was getting enough material for a whole movie, so I switched to that new goal. I decided to make a change though. The original save didn't have any music playing, but I thought the movie would be better with some music. So I triggered the spiral path Marines to get some, and then went back to the Grunt to start recording afresh.

There were also two manned Shades in the cavern, but they hardly ever fired on me while I was doing stuff in the vicinity of the Grunt. I don't think the gunners were very observant!

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