Plastic Apocalypse: Hedge Base (Film)

Plastic Apocalypse: Hedge Base (Originally titled 'Army Men - Plastic Apocalypse'), also just known as "The Original", was the first installment in the Plastic Apocalypse series, created by Michael Akkerman. It was uploaded onto YouTube on November 30, 2011, and currently has 17,807,492 views.

## Background

Michael Akkerman grew up playing with plastic toy army men and G.I. Joes. He was also an avid gamer, and was heavily into war video games such as Medal of Honor and Call of Duty. He was also a big fan of the Army Men games by 3DO. His first Army Men game was Army Men 3D (1998) for the PlayStation. Out of every Army Men installment, Army Men 3D remained his favorite, and he still loves to play it. Plastic Army Men fascinated Michael. He loved the fact at how simple they were, and how epically large a battle could be. He had many collections of army men growing up, always following the formula of Green, Tan, Blue, and Grey all fighting each other.

Michael made many short films with his G.I. Joes, and had been experimenting with stop motion since he was 12. Around 2004, at the age of 14, Michael made a few experimental stop motion films with his army men. One included two tanks and an armored car facing off, and another consisted of Greens attacking a Tan base (with bunkers reminiscent to those from Saving Private Ryan). He attempted to create an entire short film about an Army Men battle, shot outdoors, but school and other things always got in the way. The first script he wrote out for it was titled 'Green Plastic', which many of its ideas ended up in the first PA. During high school, he decided to make a film for his two brothers about the history of many of the characters they created as kids. It was called 'Snider', a 2-hour long fake biopic about the character Duke Snider, an iconic counterculture movie star from the 1960's, chronicling his rise to fame. The film was made with G.I. Joes and Barbie Dolls.

Once graduating high school, Michael dug up his Army Men and decided to make the film again. This time, he discarded the 'Green Plastic' script and relied on his mind to improvise the scenes as they played out while filming. Most of his ideas were inspired by Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, and The Pacific. He had a general idea on what he wanted to do, and built the entire set on the side of his house. He planted tiny foxholes and wire fences, and constructed little pillboxes out of balsa wood. The entire trench system was dug by wetting the sand and digging out the trenches with a ruler. The "blockhouse" was simply a cardboard box with slit apertures cut out.

The entire film was shot over the summer of 2011 on the side of Michael's house at the time, 3468 Dove PL, in Boise, Idaho. He spent up to 8 hours filming outside while laying in the dirt. His friend, Jesse Garrard, helped him film a couple times. During filming, Michael was badly sunburnt, and the color of the army men became diluted from the sun. Like the Sergeant, the Captain was supposed to encounter a Tan pillbox at one point, but Michael accidently stepped on it. By the time shooting was complete, it had taken two months.

Michael edited the film using Ulead Studio, given to him by his dad. He uploaded the images from his digital camera onto the computer, and set each frame to .3 seconds. This took very long to do. Once edited, he persuaded some of his friends to contribute to the voice acting. Michael voiced the Captain and various soldiers. Jesse Garrard voiced the Sergeant, Alex Moyer voiced various soldiers, and Sean Magnusson (whose recording equipment they were using) voiced the soldier who lost his hand. A soundbit from HBO's The Pacific of PFC Lew "Chuckler" Juergens shouting "Fucking yellow monkeys!" was used at one point. The sound effects were acquired from various downloading sources, and then ripped from movies like Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Saving Private Ryan, and Flags of Our Fathers to capture gritty war sounds. The final step was the visual effects, which proved to be quite difficult. Michael's dad gave him the Action Essentials package and showed him the basics of Adobe After Effects, since he had no experience with it prior. Originally, Michael wanted to modify the effects to 10 frames per second, to match the footage, but this proved to be too hard.

The first viewers of the complete Army Men - Plastic Apocalypse were Michael's brothers and his dad, right before he uploaded it to youtube.

## Plot

In the film - Green soldiers approach an area which they believe to be "Tan territory." The Green platoon is led by "The Captain" and "The Sergeant". They have 3 tanks with them, and 3 "30 pounder" cannons.

Once destroying the barbed wire fence, the Greens come under MG fire, but one of the cannons quickly takes it out. The Captain decides to break the platoon in half, and flank around both sides of the base. The Sergeant takes his men along with the tanks and heads for the left flank. They encounter another Tan checkpoint, with foxholes and a pillbox. The Greens use their tanks as cover as they attack the position. Once getting close enough, the tanks plow through the fence, followed by a Tan bazooka soldier hitting the leading tank with a rocket. The Green tank quickly recovers and blows up the Tan pillbox.

Meanwhile, The Captain encounters a Tan guard tower, but is easily destroyed by a cannon. The artillery men become anxious, and head forward against the Captain's order. A Tan tank emerges from the jungle and destroys the cannon. Bazookas fire back but deflect. Another cannon comes forth and easily destroys the Tan tank. The Captain tells his men to keep their calm and move forward.

The Sergeant holds his advance to asses the situation. A group of Tan prisoners are executed by the Greens. An eager Green soldier runs out in the open, causing a Tan sniper to blow his hand off. The Greens take cover. The Sergeant scouts out what's ahead, and sees the sniping tower erected atop a large barricade wall topped with barbed wire. He orders the tanks to take it out, which they do rather easily. Tan soldiers then set up firing positions on the barricade wall, and open fire on the Greens. One tank advances, and blows up the Tans' position. The Sergeant orders his engineers to plant explosives on the barricade wall. While placing the demolitions, a Tan "flak gun" crew moved into position on the barricade and shot the engineers to pieces. The flak gun is taken out by a bazooka, and the Sergeant charges to the barricade to prime the explosives himself. While doing so, a Tan "Heavy" tank rolls over the barricade, forcing the Sergeant and his men to retreat to their original position. The Tan heavy tank opens fire with its MG, taking out several Green soldiers, and blows up two of the Green tanks. The Sergeant decides to shoot the planted explosives, which erupts the entire barricade wall, and flings the Tan super tank on its top.

After exiting the jungle, the Captain is ambushed by Tans hiding underground. The Greens take them out in close combat, but lose one of their cannons. The Captain spots a hill which he says would be a perfect firing position for the cannons, despite having one left. The Greens continue their advance.

The Sergeant finally reaches the heart of the base, a huge trench system with a large bunker house. The Greens begin their attack, while the Captain attacks from the rear. The Sergeant orders his men into the trenches, and they start taking out the Tans at close range. The Captain's men keep up the pressure while he assists in maneuvering the cannon to the top of the hill. Once in position, a Tan bazooka soldier spots their position, and blows up the cannon. The Captain rolls down the hill and has been knocked into a shell shocked daze. He crawls forward, witnesses his men fighting back, and finally decides to end the battle. He snaps out of his daze, picks up an MG, and begins relentlessly firing upon the Tans. The Sergeant spots the Captain advancing, and orders his men to move up. The Captain then picks up a bazooka and kills a squad of advancing Tans in the trench. He reunited with the Sergeant, and the two decided to clear out the blockhouse. They flanked around, where they took out a few retreating Tans, and tossed grenades inside. After detonation, the Captain and the Sergeant opened fire into the blockhouse. Afterwards, they ordered their remaining men to clear it out, in which gun shots, screaming, and beating can be heard. A few Tans emerge, which the Greens proudly hold prisoner. The Captain does not agree with taking them prisoner, stating
"We're Green, son. We don't take prisoners." and guns all of them down.

The final scene is the Captain and the Sergeant recalling their experience in taking out the base, and although it was excessive, it was necessary.

## Legacy

Originally meant to be a one shot idea, overwhelming praise and fandom from the video urged Michael Akkerman to peruse the Plastic Apocalypse series and make more. The film was originally intended to be simplistic and lack any character names or places. Many of the surroundings seen in the film (such the smoke barbecue, the fence, backyard, and kiddy pool) were intended to be seen to show that these were plastic army men having a war.

Once Michael decided that this was going to extend into a whole series, he needed to create names for the characters and create the world in which it took place in. "The Captain" became Captain Macabre (the definition of 'Macabre' is: intense violence), and "The Sergeant" became Sergeant Stalwart ("Stalwart" is an old fashion word for a loyal supporter). The area in which the battle took place was Hedge Base of Myrtle Sector in Greentoria. Other characters, in later Plastic Apocalypse films, such as Sergeant Moss, were later said to have been in the battle.

## Cast

* Michael Akkerman as The Captain (Captain Macabre), The Corporal, and Various Characters.
* Jesse Garrard as The Sergeant (Sergeant Stalwart)
* Sean Magnusson as The Soldier who lost his Hand
* Alex Moyer as Artillery Men and Various Characters.