Metro Live Action Short

"The missiles are launched. This is the end. May the God help us."

- Radio transmission

Overview
The short is a four and a half minute video performed in Russian and filmed in Kiev, Ukraine. It shows the final moments before the Great War of 2013.

An elderly man listens to the radio broadcast warning about the missile launch. He rushes outside, urging people to seek cover in the subway. Eventually the Civil Defence "ATOM" signal can be heard and the chaos on the streets ensues. Not everyone is lucky enough to get to the shelter in time, though.

As their time runs out, the station commander orders to lock the doors and fires a warning shot in the air. After a change of heart, however, a child is taken by the commander from his mother. The airlocks are sealed and the movie flash forwards twenty years, showing an armed man walking up the escalators to the surface and ends with a panorama of the ruined city.

Trivia

 * The lullaby heard in the trailer is a cue hinting that the man at the end of the film is a grown up child saved by commander.
 * Although the backstory of the child partially resembles that of Artyom, the "Behind the Scenes" narrator implies that it is not the same character.
 * Narrator: "... The Ranger costume is based on the Artyom character ... Towards the end of the film we needed to tie in the idea that perhaps this ranger was also the baby ..."
 * The film depicts the Civil Defence policy, according to which any and all civilians have exactly six minutes after the siren is sounded, after which the access to the shelter is sealed regardless of the number of people outside. Weapons are to be used on civilians if they attempt to prevent that from happening.


 * Overall the short itself stays relatively accurate to the book series. Conventional war has been raging for an unspecified amount of time by that point, thus the military on the streets and the general rag-tag look of citizens are a concequence of a resulting crisis.
 * The actor who played the station commander is the real life father of the baby given to him in the film.

Timeline
A countdown made its appearance on the 14th of May at a website named "Enter the Metro", hinting at a live action short film. While very little information would surface on the film until its release on the 24th of May, several promotional materials appeared in the weeks beforehand. On the 16th, 18th, 22nd, and 23 May several preview screencaps were posted on the official Facebook page and on the 21st a teaser trailer was uploaded on the official YouTube channel.