It’s a day like any other for Bernie (John Gemberling, whose voice credits include Bob’s Burgers, Big Mouth, and Central Park): toiling at his office job, visiting his stoner besties, mooning over his mega-crush. But as it turns out, this is not any other day: this is the day the robots rebel.
And though the robots are deadly, they’re also dorky shit-talkers who take all their personality cues from video games. Can Bernie survive, impress his dream girl, and maybe save the world while he’s at it? Watch the very fun Uprising! and see.
“Gaming super-nerd Bernie Meckler is having the worst day of his life,” reads the official description for Uprising! on sci-fi YouTube channel Dust. “He’s just failed to woo his secret love, his roomies have begun their online tourney without him, and — oh yeah — the robot apocalypse has just begun. Now Bernie must survive hordes of murderous Hellbots, packs of driverless Priuses, and his numerous physical inadequacies — to hopefully save the world.”
There’s an underlying message here about how kindness is the best survival skill of all (hell yeah, garbage-can robot buddy!), but also at least one gorily smashed-up human head (amid all the robot-centric special effects, which are quite good), a damsel who most definitely can save herself, and the immortal line “Robot fucking apocalypse!” So it’s a mix of tones, all of them rather entertaining, in this short from writer-director Ben Hansford.
While you’re here, why not check out Gizmodo Australia’s guide to what’s streaming this month on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Stan, Binge and more. We’ve also got one for all the good movies coming out in 2023 if that’s more your thing.