A Heist with Markiplier

A Heist with Markiplier is a 2019 interactive film written and directed by Mark Edward Fischbach, better known by his online pseudonym Markiplier. The film premiered for free[1] on YouTube Premium on October 30, 2019. The film stars Fischbach, Rosanna Pansino, Matthew Patrick, and Chance Morris, with Fischbach on a heist with his assistant (the audience's lens) that goes wrong. If a part of the film is continuous, two end cards will direct viewers to different endings, of which there are 31.

A Heist with Markiplier
Directed byMark Edward Fischbach
Produced byJeff Guerrero
Written byMark Edward Fischbach
Starring
CinematographyPhilip Roy
Edited by
  • Kody Gibson
  • Dan Hirons
Production
company
Distributed byYouTube Premium
Release date
  • October 30, 2019 (2019-10-30)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Markiplier and his assistant breaks into a museum to steal an ancient box located at a vault. A chain of escapades leads them to obtaining the two keys required to enter the vault. Mark grabs the box, triggering an alarm. Mark gives two escape options: going down a sewer, or bombing the vault and escape from the door.

Via the sewer, they stumble upon a branch leading to two tunnels: a dark or a light one. Meanwhile, while using the bomb, both escape to an storage room as the bomb explodes, but are caught by the guards. They then escape outside, and Mark plans to head back to their base. They are presented with options of a helicopter and a car.

At the dark tunnel, Mark suggests splitting up to cover more ground. In an agreed scenario, Mark is eaten by a creature living in the dark tunnel who starves on humans. Where splitting is not done, they arrive at a cult base with a tunnel. If they don't split, Mark dies and his assistant escapes. Otherwise, the assistant hallucinates a person saying that Mark is a liar, and that he has hidden codes of truth. He returns to the start, confused whether to enter the museum or not. Traveling to the light tunnel will also end in awry, with Mark being stricken by a beacon after a laser in the box is activated, and the assistant being eaten by a shark while escaping.

In the scenario of choosing the car, Mark tells him that the car broke down amid a ride. He offers options of walking or fix the car. Where they decide to walk, a set of zombies chase them. Unbeknownst to Mark, his assistant has been bitten by one of the zombies. If he tells the truth, Mark tells him to go away, and the assistant lives with the zombies forever after. Otherwise, it is revealed that the world is ending. At a science lab, a scientist explains that something involved in the current event has caused time and space to warp, and multiple timelines of possible scenarios in life to embed together weirdly. She has prepared a set of tools, including weapons, to track down the anomaly, so that time can be reset back to normal. She reveals that the assistant is the anomaly. If he escapes, the lab is destroyed. Otherwise, she shoots him, and is sent to a portal with a flowchart of all the 31 possible endings in the film. He returns to the start. Meanwhile at Fort Brannagan, the only zombie-proof area, they are being inspected for bites. If the assistant tells the truth about his bite, he is shot. If no, then they were given a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (PB&J) or a tuna fish sandwich. If the 2,000-year-old PB&J is eaten, it will unite humans and zombies. If the 17 AD tuna is eaten, it will create a cure to the novel virus zombiesm.

Where they decide to fix the car, a force separates them. The assistant reaches a cave, where a man named Illinois, resembling Indiana Jones, hands him a cursed monkey statue and asks him to place it at a pedestal. If he refuses to place it, the monkey statue attacks him. If he places it, he becomes a monkey and is transported to a monkey heaven.

Alternately, they choose to ride the helicopter, but are caught and sent to Happy Trails Penitentiary. In one of the resulting endings, the box contains a fairy that grants wishes. In another ending, the assistant is revealed to be Mark after Mark is shot dead by a federal marshal. A third ending slightly reverses the characters' location and switches some names. In the fourth ending, the assistant enter a tunnel with the end light taking shape of an alien. In the fifth ending, Mark and his assistant escapes Happy Trails and go on their separate ways; the box is given to his assistant. He opens the box with the Universal Skeleton Key, which can unlock any lock types. The other two endings reveal the two joining with the other inmates, living normally.

Cast

Production

In late 2018, Fischbach wanted to tackle more ambitious projects on his Youtube channel, so he wrote the script for A Heist With Markiplier, which had 31 endings.[2][3] He partnered up with Rooster Teeth to film it. The production was funded by YouTube Premium, who also distributed the film.[4] After the success of Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, YouTube wanted their own interactive-video-project.[5]

Production started in Austin, Texas. Filming lasted about a month, from May 2019 to June 2019.[6]

A Date with Markiplier

In 2017, Fischbach wanted to create a special YouTube video for Valentine's Day, so he decided to make an interactive video where the viewer could go on a date with him, and make choices on said date. This short had ten endings, and amassed a collective 90 million views.[2] This experience inspired Fischbach to create A Heist with Markiplier. The ending line of the "The End" ending in A Heist with Markiplier is, "How about that date?," suggesting that the events of A Heist with Markiplier take place before the events of A Date with Markiplier.

Reception

Critical response

A Heist with Markiplier was received very well by critics. In a review for the Clark Chronicle, Griselda Eychaner said, "That’s what sets this series apart from everything else on YouTube: it’s made for the viewer. The story is what you decide it should be. And it will go in a completely nonsensical direction no matter what you choose, so you can pretty much do what you want without fear of consequences."[7]

Controversy

On November 6, 2019, a week after the film was released, Fischbach screened an interactive livestream on YouTube of the movie. Paid subscribers to his channel could navigate the choices of the movie with special emotes of a red paddle and a green paddle. The stream was supposed to be an interactive experience, but YouTube ended up banning hundreds of accounts watching the stream that "spammed" the emotes.[8] It wasn't until nearly an hour and a half into the stream that the moderators noticed the problem.[9]

Many YouTube users, and Fischbach himself,[10] were upset about the situation. Fischbach explained that accounts weren't just getting banned; subscriptions were disappearing, content was being deleted, and it wasn't just YouTube accounts being deleted. Entire Google accounts were being terminated, and many users who filed appeals to get their accounts back had them denied.[9] Eventually the accounts were reinstated,[11] but the damage was done.

Eventually, on November 11, 2019, Fischbach released a statement saying that he spoke with YouTube about the issue, and it was being worked on.[12]

Sequel

After the success of A Heist with Markiplier, Fischbach teased the idea of a sequel in a December 2019 interview. He said, "If I do it again, and I might, I would wanna do it in an even better way than I did this time. And I have no idea what that means, and I have no idea how to say that, but, you know, if I did it again I would wanna surpass what I've already made."[13]

In November 2020, after the channel Unus Annus was deleted, he confirmed in the video "Unus Annus - Post Mortem" that A Heist with Markiplier 2 was in full production.[14]

References
  1. "YouTube's first interactive special stars Markiplier and has 31 possible endings | The Star". thestar.com.my. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
  2. "How To Make A 'Heist': Markiplier's Interactive Special Is A Whole New Kind Of Content For YouTube". tubefilter.com. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  3. "A Heist with Markiplier". coggle.it. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  4. Kastrenakes, Jacob (2019-10-23). "YouTube's first interactive original is a heist show starring gaming personality Markiplier". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  5. Spangler, Todd (2019-10-23). "YouTube's First Interactive Special Stars Markiplier and Has 31 Possible Endings". Variety. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  6. Hsu, Tiffany (2019-08-08). "Markiplier's Work Diary: 'I Find a Game and I Play It. Not Much to It.' (Published 2019)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  7. Eychaner, Griselda. "'A Heist With Markiplier' breaks expectations, steals hearts". Clark Chronicle. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
  8. Tenbarge, Kat. "A top YouTuber is publicly sparring with the platform after he says 'hundreds' of his fans unfairly lost access to their Google accounts". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
  9. "Markiplier stream shows how out-of-touch YouTube is - The Tartan". thetartan.org. Retrieved 2020-10-07.
  10. "YouTube has a huge problem..." 2019-11-08.
  11. "Markiplier fans unbanned from Google accounts following YouTube emote controversy". Android Police. 2019-11-11. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
  12. "YouTube's Big Problem --- UPDATE". 2019-11-11.
  13. Markiplier Reacts to 'Heist' Success and Teases Season 2, retrieved 2020-10-07
  14. "Unus Annus - Post Mortem".
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