Final Cut is the fourth scene in Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number and the final scene of Act One: Exposition. This is the second and final scene in which Martin Brown is a playable character. It is undated, but takes place at some point before December 9th.
Intro (Interview)[]
A flash of static opens the scene. The player takes control of Martin Brown, who is being interviewed by Ellen the TV show host. She questions him about Midnight Animal and his sudden change of theme in the movies he stars in (The Calm, Blue Ocean, Land of Trees), which surprised a lot of people and got him a reputation as a sell-out. Martin proceeds to explain that for a long time he wanted to "Kill kids. Strangle them. Beat people's heads in." He then gets nervous, asking the host not to "Look at him like that", stands up, and gets a hammer out of his suit. Martin asks around if this is another "dream", which causes the host's eyes to twitch uncontrollably and her nose to bleed.
Martin then yells "Okay, pause!". One member of the audience stands up, puts on a Richard mask, and the scene takes the dark tone that accompanies his apparitions: the host is now dead on the floor, bugs fly in the air, Martin Brown is wearing the Pig mask that previously laid on a table. Richard asks Martin if he should wake up, and tells him that the movie's "pretty big twist" won't please anyone. He continues with the questions, asking whether Martin is ready to "get out before it's too late", and notices he really does "enjoy hurting other people". Martin immediately answers that it's just a film, to which Richard remarks that that's "One way to look at it".
Dialogue[]
Static, then pan over an applauding crowd. Ellen is reading from a teleprompter. A pig mask is displayed on the coffee table. Martin is nervously gesticulating and rubbing his armrest]
Ellen: I'd like to welcome our next guest on the show. Famous from critically acclaimed movies such as: 'Blue Ocean', 'The Calm', and 'Land of Trees'! Here's Martin Brown! Hi Martin, how are you?
Martin Brown: I'm good.
Ellen: Now your latest film is a bit of a step in a new direction for you. A lot of people are surprised by this, some are even calling you a sell-out. ... What is your response to that?
Martin Brown: A sell-out, huh? How do you mean?
Ellen: Well, some are saying that 'Midnight Animal' is just another 'slasher-flick'.
Martin Brown: That's not how I see it... I have wanted to do this for a long time. Kill kids. Strangle them. Beat people's heads in. Rip their eyes out. ... Just listen to them scream, see them die in agony. I finally get to do that now. ...
Ellen: Okay...
[Director sound effect, music becomes Videodrome, Martin is visibly angered and stands up, removing a Hammer from his suit which shines in the light]
Martin: Don't look at me like that.
Ellen: [nervously glancing back and forth] What?
Martin: I see, this is a dream, right?
Ellen: [eyes twitching in wildly different directions exposing blood vessels, nose bleeding] What do you mean?
Martin: This, all of this... it's just a dream, right?
Ellen: [nervously glancing back and forth] I'm not sure I follow...
Martin: Okay, pause!
[A man in Jacket's clothes in the front row of the audience stands up and dons a Richard mask; a flash removes the audience and TV studio crew, smashes the DJ's vinyls, generally decays the buidling and replaces the pig mask with a decapitated Ellen's head. Martin Brown wears the mask and has blood soaked hands. The lights are out and a bug filter comes over the screen. Martin is in a white-lit spotlight circle and Richard is in a yellow-lighting circle.]
Richard: [the 'mask' blinking and talking, revealing teeth in the beak] You think this is a dream? Well then, maybe it's time to wake up?
Pig Butcher: [green eyes completely fill the eye holes, the nostrils of the 'mask' visibly breathe] Who are you?
Richard: Who I am? I'm not the one being interviewed here, am I? I think I should be the one asking the questions...
Pig Butcher: ...
Richard: This 'movie' you're making... you know how it ends?
Pig Butcher: ...
Richard: I believe there's a pretty big twist at the end. I doubt you'll like it. In fact, I don't think anyone will. ... Maybe you ought to get out before it's too late?
Pig Butcher: I don't think so.
Richard: You really enjoy hurting other people, don't you?
Pig Butcher: It's just a film. ...
Richard: 'Just a film', huh? That's one way to look at it...
[Static]
Intro (Apartment)[]
Another burst of static ends the nightmare and brings the player back to Martin's "house" on the set of Midnight Animal. It looks a lot like Jacket's apartment, and Martin sleeps on a stripped mattress laid on the floor. Rachael Ward is shackled to the bathtub (there's evidence of her being fed TV dinners), but manages to break out and run away. After a while, Martin is woken up by bangs on the door, and hears the pink phone ringing. He dons his pig mask and picks up the phone, which tells him to go along with the cops since they'll lead him to the girl. Martin opens the door to a police barricade similar to the one in Homicide, and faces the visibly intimidated cops without a word.
Apartment Details:
- The Butcher's room has a large amount of ripped up newspapers by the door.
- The TV has a VHS player instead of Jacket's NES.
- The living room has dumbells and barbell plates (but no bar or bench) on the floor.
- There's a cut newspaper and a pair of scissors on the coffee table.
- There's a pizza box on the couch.
- A script for Midnight Animal is on the kitchen table:
- The girl screams as the Pig Butcher enters the interrogation room. The Police next to her falls of his chair hitting his head. She tries to get away, but the Pig Butcher catches hold of her arm. He forces her down to the ground. She screams as he...
- The phone is surreally pink and constantly ringing. Picking it up has it deliver the following dialogue:
- Looks like the police is here. The girl must have told on you. You better go along obediently, they'll take you to her... That's what you want, isn't it? ... *CLICK* ...
Dialogue[]
[Four police officers stand outside the door, three with drawn 9mms. As the Pig Butcher opens it, the one who knocked backs away and draws his 9mm.]
Terrified Sweating Policeman: H-Hold it right there, sir!
Pig Mask: ...
Terrified Policeman: We are here to arrest you. Y-you need to come with us. We'll take you down to the station. ... D-do you understand what I'm saying..?
Pig Mask: ...
[Slow fade to black]
Scene Intro (Station)[]
A policeman is interrogating Martin Brown in the police station's basement cell, predicting he'll "fry" for what he's done, and telling him the girl is giving a full statement upstairs, He calls Martin "fucked... completely fucked... in the head". The pink phone followed Martin, and is ringing during the whole interview. Martin only ever speaks to tell the cop to pick up the phone, but the interrogator assures him he's hallucinating it. Discouraged, the cop turns his back on Martin and goes to talk to his colleague on the other side of the door. Martin gets back his mask, puts it on and picks up the phone, which tells him to kill the unsuspecting cop, suggesting that "he wants you to kill him". Martin proceeds to break the guard's neck and kick the door open, knocking down the other guard and killing him too, just before grabbing the guard's baton and brutally making his way through the police station's higher levels.
Dialogue[]
[The Interrogator is playing with the pig mask on a filthy table covered in crumbs and coffee rings. The dark pink Pig Phone rests on a table, now with a bright green phone cord. It is constantly ringing. Martin is unmasked and double-handcuffed to his chair's armrests. A security camera is mounted on the wall watching the scene.]
Interrogator: We know what you've been up to... and you're gonna fry for it. The girl's upstairs giving us her full statement right now. Soon they'll be on their way down here for you. Until then you're stuck with me. ...
Martin: [hair messed up, staring down] ...
Interrogator: I'd like to ask why you did what you did, but... you don't even know yourself, do you? Look at you... you're fucked... completely fucked... in the head... aren't you? ... Why else would anyone be killing kids in a pig's mask, huh?
Martin: [looking up, staring blankly through his eyelids] It's... ... the phone. ... You should answer it. ...
Interrogator: I'll say it again... there is no phone. I don't see no phone, and I don't hear no phone. Okay? It's just a figment of your imagination. You hear me? You're insane. A maniac. And soon enough, you will pay for your crimes...
Martin: The telephone... ... you're not gonna answer? ...
Interrogator: *SIGH* ... There's just no point talking to you, is there?
[Interrogator sets pig mask face down, turns to the door and knocks, summoning the door guard to open the eye hatch. The Interrogator begins gesticulating conversationally. Martin Brown effortlessly breaks his cuffs and launches the chair backwards, answering the Pig Phone.]
Pig Phone: You know what needs to be done. ... He's not even looking... It's like he wants you to kill him. *CLICK* ...
Level[]
Normal:
The player is armed with a baton and crosses the lobby of the police station into a large room with four smaller inner rooms and several double-police-officer patrols around the outer ring. There's meandering gunmen in the four inner rooms and a stationary gunman through the wall from the screen transition. At the end of the screen is a break room and a classroom, each with gunmen.
The second screen starts a dialogue from the SWAT Chief warning Rachael not to leave the room for any reason. The player begins near a waiting room with 2 melee enemies and one stationary gunman looking out window. Several enemies from an office and adjacent hallway can be spooked into this starting hallway. Moving on there's three melee enemies and a meandering gunman in the security monitor room. This area is where the SWAT Chief will most likely be encountered. The bathroom provides good cover from which to kill patrolling gunmen at the end of the top hall. There's a gunman and an Inspector inside the forensics lab, and a couple enemies patrolling the large bottom hall. Killing all enemies gives a prompt to get the keys, and retrieving the keys from the SWAT Chief's corpse yields a prompt to "GET HER" and allows the player to enter the interrogation room.
Getting an A+ ranking in this level can be very difficult, so you should make sure that you get a high combo on the first screen. Using a baton or a pistol is the most effective way of achieving a high combo. When you enter the small break rooms, try to avoid knocking the policemen over, as it is slower to kill them that way and may break your combo. However, if you do knock them down (or any police officer in general), avoid using the baton, as its execution speed is much slower than the defaults. It is recommended that you bring a baton to the 2nd screen. When you get to the 2nd screen, try to avoid killing the SWAT Chief for as long as possible, as the only way to kill them is with an extremely long execution that will certainly kill your combo. Instead, you should kill the 3 cops in the first big room on the top hall and the police officer in the security room, then back track and go down the hallway leading south. Once you get to the first room in that hall way, make sure that you hide behind the door to avoid getting shot, kill the two police officers, and then use the gun from one of the police officers to kill the 2 policemen in the hallway. If the SWAT Chief is catching up to you, make sure you shoot him to knock him down. After killing everyone else in the building and finishing off the SWAT Chief, you can finish the level and hopefully you got big enough combos to get an A+.
Hard:
The outer ring double-officer patrols now feature Inspectors, making backtracking through the lobby necessary if the patrolling gunmen spawn with 9mm pistols rather than shotguns. Both patrols should be taken out completely asap. Enemies from the four inner rooms can be easily spooked and manipulated with fire arms, and the rooms have windows that limit mobility but make it easier to draw fire without wasting ammo. It's preferable to take a 9mm with as much ammo as possible to the second screen, as it assists in spooking. Aside from being inverted and the addition of a window near the screen entrance, the second screen is actually extremely similar to normal and shouldn't pose a serious challenge.
Dialogue[]
[Martin enters the final section of the police station. The camera pans to show The Swat Chief locking the interrogation room which houses a police officer, an inspector, and Rachael Ward]
SWAT Chief: Stay in here and you'll be safe! I'm gonna go see what's going on. Don't open the door until I get back! No matter what!
[SWAT Chief begins Roll Dodging around the map counter clockwise with twin Magnums drawn, regularly corner checking. When defeated his head and spine is completely ripped out by Martin.]
Outro[]
After Martin clears out the station including the comically rolling SWAT Chief dual wielding revolvers (who cheesily gets his head and spine ripped completely out), he retrieves the SWAT Chief's keys and arrives at the room where Rachael is being held. Upon unlocking the door and entering, Rachael grabs a police gun and shoots Martin in the shoulder, knocking him down. She screams she isn't his "fucking girlfriend" before shooting him several more times in the torso. Finally, she empties a round into his head. The director and his film crew appear while Martin lays on the floor. The police officers are shown at a lunch buffet getting their food (two have removed their hats to reveal the same haircuts used on Pardo and Evan; some are gossiping using the same animations seen on police officers in First Trial's intro and the Blood Money outro's Miami Mutilator crime scene). Rouven Blankenfeld is ecstatic that there's no need for another take. Rachael tells Martin to get up, but he's actually dead, having been shot with live rounds.
Dialogue[]
[Martin retrieves the keys from the SWAT Chief's corpse and is prompted to GET HER. He unlocks and enters the interrogation room. The police officer by Rachael Ward leaning back on his chair rocking falls over hitting his head against the wall. The Inspector interviewing Ward immediately surrenders to the Pig Butcher. Rachael stands and uses the knocked out officer's 9mm to shoot Martin in the left shoulder, knocking him over. She walks over to him, visibly angry and crying.]
The Girl: I'm not your fucking girlfriend!
[Rachael empties five rounds into Martin's torso. She lowers the gun and pauses. Raising the gun again she shoots him a final time through the head. The player is given Press R to Restart, which resets the scene as a film stage with police officers in line for a buffet. The Director sound effect plays and Videodrome starts. Rouven Blankenfeld appears.]
Rouven: Cut! No need for a retake! That was perfect!
[Rouven walks on set]
Rouven: Good job, guys... spectacular performances. Only got a few more shots to shoot before we can move on to editing. Why don't you go grab something to eat while we put up the new set pieces. Just make sure you're back in thirty minutes, OK? Time is money...
Rachael: You heard him, Martin! Time to get up! ... Martin? ...
[Dust by MOON plays as the camera pans up and screen fades to black]
Trivia[]
- This level marks Richard's first appearance in Hotline Miami 2. His next appearance -- to The Henchman in No Mercy -- is similarly placed immediately before an act finale, as is his appearance to the Fans in the Death Wish intro. His music similarly returns for the intro to the fourth act finale Casualties, but generally his appearances in later acts are scatter-shot.
- According to the script in the apartment, the girl is to be pinned and apparently raped or murdered in the interrogation room. It is apparently a faked script to get a more genuine reaction from Martin. It's also possible his death is a publicity stunt orchestrated by Rouven and Rachael. Alternatively it's just an early version of the script that attracted Martin to the project.
Manny Pardo and Evan at the buffet after "shooting."
- Manny Pardo and Evan are apparently playing police officers in the movie. They are also the two player-controlled characters of the next level, First Trial, which begins with Evan catching Pardo "in the middle of something." This could re-contextualize Final Cut as Pardo's fantasy.
- The cover art is based on the cover for the 1989 horror movie Shocker, written and directed by Wes Craven.
- Final Cut is one of three scenes in Wrong Number not given a date, the others being Execution and Caught.
- The "MPD" police station in Final Cut is markedly different than the one in Caught, featuring a large amount of break rooms and vending machines and a paltry amount of space dedicated to forensics. It's possible the high amount of vending machines is to remind audiences to get refreshments.
- If player skips the intro cutscene's dialogue (RMB by default) with the conversation between Martin and Ellen, the audience will still be present even when Richard makes his appearance.
- After snapping the Interrogator's neck, if you let the other guard kill you with his baton, when you restart, the cutscene will play again, but Decade Dance will be playing instead of Videodrome and the Aubrey mask won't be visible on the table.
- The level's name "Final Cut" is likely a reference to the film industry term of "Final Cut Privilege", which refers to the right of a director to decide how a film is ultimately released for public viewing. It is also likely one of the final scenes of "Midnight Animal", as well as the final scene Martin Brown ever films due to his accidental death at the conclusion.
- The events in Final Cut depict a fictionalization of events from the original Hotline Miami, combining the premises of the levels Decadence and Assault.
- The music track used in this level, "Decade Dance" is a further allusion to this, and likely a reference to how the original events were twisted by 1991 for the movie.
- It's possible to have a bug in hard mode where you can open the final door without keys, causing the game to crash shortly after. Being killed at the same time by the SWAT Chief may be related to that.
Music[]
- "Hollywood Heights" by Mitch Murder plays in the intro with Martin and Ellen.
- "Richard" by Life Companions plays during the hallucination sequence with Richard.
- In the Beta, "Richard" by Dennaton Games would play during the Hallucination before it was replaced.
- "Richard" by Life Companions plays during the hallucination sequence with Richard.
- "Chamber of Reflections" by Sjellos plays while in The Pig Butcher's home, during the Girl's escape.
- "WouJuno" by Trizzle used to play in the Pig Butcher's home before it was replaced by Chamber of Reflections.
- "Videodrome" by Dennaton Games plays while in the interrogation room and for the scene after Martin gets shot to death.
- "Decade Dance" by Jasper Byrne plays during the level.
Gallery[]
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