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Originally released for download via the website eve-files.com (no longer available), all three episodes have since been re-posted on YouTube:
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Originally released for download via the website eve-files.com (no longer available), all three episodes have since been re-posted on YouTube:[=YouTube=]:
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replacing broken download links with working youtube links
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All three episodes are readily available for download:
* [[http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies.wmv Clear Skies]]
* [[http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies2.wmv Clear Skies 2]]
* [[http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies3.wmv Clear Skies 3]]
* [[http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies.wmv Clear Skies]]
* [[http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies2.wmv Clear Skies 2]]
* [[http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies3.wmv Clear Skies 3]]
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*
*
*
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** The amount of power pumped into the engines for JR's Hot Dogging in 3? [[Film/BackToTheFuture 1.21 Gigawatts.]]
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** The amount of power pumped into the engines for JR's Hot Dogging in 3? [[Film/BackToTheFuture [[Franchise/BackToTheFuture 1.21 Gigawatts.]]
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* FunnyBackGroundEvent: In 2, several of the readouts have fairly amusing text. One of the various emergency colors aboard the Clear Skies is labeled "Imminent Judith Chalmers Encounter", while another reads "Time to start running". The readouts on the Titan are all fairly blunt, grim assesments: "Disaster", "Imminent doom", "Seriously leg it", "You are going to die", "Scary" and the like. 3 has a few, too: When Sol's boosting the drive output near the end, his screen shows a prompt warning him that rerouting the power will void the warranty, and the amount of power transferred is [[Film/BackToTheFuture 1.21 gigawatts]].
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* FunnyBackGroundEvent: In 2, several of the readouts have fairly amusing text. One of the various emergency colors aboard the Clear Skies is labeled "Imminent Judith Chalmers Encounter", while another reads "Time to start running". The readouts on the Titan are all fairly blunt, grim assesments: "Disaster", "Imminent doom", "Seriously leg it", "You are going to die", "Scary" and the like. 3 has a few, too: When Sol's boosting the drive output near the end, his screen shows a prompt warning him that rerouting the power will void the warranty, and the amount of power transferred is [[Film/BackToTheFuture [[Franchise/BackToTheFuture 1.21 gigawatts]].
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Tropes contained in ''Clear Skies'':
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** ChekhovsGag effectively becomes Chekhov's Gunsmithing, even, when Rourke's complaint about malfunctioning equipment to Sol first elicits a mention of PercussiveMaintenance from the latter … which is then just what it is that massages the device back into action when Rourke desperately needs it to comply with the plot.
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** ChekhovsGag effectively becomes Chekhov's Gunsmithing, even, Gunsmithing when Rourke's complaint about the PercussiveMaintenance first casually mentioned in a reaction to malfunctioning equipment to Sol first elicits a mention of PercussiveMaintenance from the latter … which is then just ends up being what it is that massages the very same device back into action later when Rourke desperately needs it to comply with the plot.
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* BattleCouple - [[spoiler:J.R. and Sasha in 3]]
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* BattleCouple - [[spoiler:J.R. and Sasha Sascha in 3]]
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* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: Sasha was definitely not happy about getting shot at when the crew broke her out of the prison facility. Cue bickering.
* ContinuityNod: Some small details in ''Clear Skies 2,'' like Sol's comment about the "big explodey thing" and Charlie's response. Jarrod Mason's plan is essentially to [[spoiler: copycat a major atrocity]] that happened in EVE canon.
* ContinuityNod: Some small details in ''Clear Skies 2,'' like Sol's comment about the "big explodey thing" and Charlie's response. Jarrod Mason's plan is essentially to [[spoiler: copycat a major atrocity]] that happened in EVE canon.
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* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: Sasha Sascha was definitely not happy about getting shot at when the crew broke her out of the prison facility. Cue bickering.
* ContinuityNod: Some small details in ''Clear Skies 2,'' like Sol's comment about the "big explodey thing" and Charlie's response.Jarrod Jared Mason's plan is essentially to [[spoiler: copycat a major atrocity]] that happened in EVE canon.
* ContinuityNod: Some small details in ''Clear Skies 2,'' like Sol's comment about the "big explodey thing" and Charlie's response.
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** In 2, Sasha is initially referred to by Rourke as "One unit of Damsel In Distress." A regularly occurring mission in ''VideoGame/EVEOnline,'' called "Damsel In Distress," involves the player rescuing exactly that.
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** In 2, Sasha Sascha is initially referred to by Rourke as "One unit of Damsel In Distress." A regularly occurring mission in ''VideoGame/EVEOnline,'' called "Damsel In Distress," involves the player rescuing exactly that.
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* EvilGloating: Jarrod Mason.
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* EvilGloating: Jarrod Jared Mason.
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* FencePainting: Charlies pulls off [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=PL4E712D875E5AC822&v=7Yq0rAWdHvo#t=771 a pretty awesome one]] on Sol in episode 3.
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* FencePainting: Charlies pulls off [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=PL4E712D875E5AC822&v=7Yq0rAWdHvo#t=771 com/watch?list=PL4E712D875E5AC822&v=7Yq0rAWdHvo&t=771 a pretty awesome one]] on Sol in episode 3.
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* {{Foreshadowing}}: "Short of sticking a doomsday device up its backside, I think the only way to kill one quick is to ram it with a station..." [[spoiler:At this point, we already know Jarrod intends to ram a station with a capital ship, but the "doomsday device" turns out to be ''Clear Skies'' herself with a warp core breach...and yes, she docks in the backside.]]
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* {{Foreshadowing}}: "Short of sticking a doomsday device up its backside, I think the only way to kill one quick is to ram it with a station..." [[spoiler:At this point, we already know Jarrod Jared intends to ram a station with a capital ship, but the "doomsday device" turns out to be ''Clear Skies'' herself with a warp core breach...and yes, she docks in the backside.]]
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** Subverted with [[spoiler:Sasha during episode 3 : no way Rourke is going to lose another friend!]]
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** Subverted with [[spoiler:Sasha [[spoiler:Sascha during episode 3 : no way Rourke is going to lose another friend!]]
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* InfoDump: A small one explaining why large capital ships use jump drives and cynosural fields instead of gates so the non-EVE players can understand why a cyno jammer would stop Jarrod Mason's plan dead in its tracks.
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* InfoDump: A small one explaining why large capital ships use jump drives and cynosural fields instead of gates so the non-EVE players can understand why a cyno jammer would stop Jarrod Jared Mason's plan dead in its tracks.
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* MadeOfIndestructium: The couch on the bridge of the ship. [[spoiler:The bridge was inside the Titan's thrusters when the warp core failure occurred, which means everything in the bridge would have been caught up in two fireballs, and yet, the couch remained in one piece, upholstery and all, and flew with such force to crack the glass window of Jarrod's escape craft, after which it was picked up by the Rourke and crew.]]
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* MadeOfIndestructium: The couch on the bridge of the ship. [[spoiler:The bridge was inside the Titan's thrusters when the warp core failure occurred, which means everything in the bridge would have been caught up in two fireballs, and yet, the couch remained in one piece, upholstery and all, and flew with such force to crack the glass window of Jarrod's Jared's escape craft, after which it was picked up by the Rourke and crew.]]
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** Jarrod gets two in the space of as many minutes in 2, hand-in-hand with a BigNo as his ship avoids being crushed by [[spoiler: a piece of Clear Skies hull]] only to crash into [[spoiler: Rourke's sofa]]
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** Jarrod Jared gets two in the space of as many minutes in 2, hand-in-hand with a BigNo as his ship avoids being crushed by [[spoiler: a piece of Clear Skies hull]] only to crash into [[spoiler: Rourke's sofa]]
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* PeaceConference: [[spoiler: What Jarrod Mason intends to attack in ''Clear Skies 2''.]]
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* PeaceConference: [[spoiler: What Jarrod Jared Mason intends to attack in ''Clear Skies 2''.]]
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* RedemptionQuest: In Clear Skies 2, [[spoiler: Rourke is persuaded to risk his life and prevent Jarrod from destroying a populated station by being reminded of his accidental destruction of a civilian tour bus while helping Haffa steal a prototype ship.]]
* SenselessSacrifice: Subverted: [[spoiler:Haffa sacrificed himself]] so that JR and company could get the cynosural jammer to the station in order to stop Jarrod Mason from jumping in a capital ship. [[spoiler:They were too late, but managed to stop Jarrod anyway.]]
* SenselessSacrifice: Subverted: [[spoiler:Haffa sacrificed himself]] so that JR and company could get the cynosural jammer to the station in order to stop Jarrod Mason from jumping in a capital ship. [[spoiler:They were too late, but managed to stop Jarrod anyway.]]
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* RedemptionQuest: In Clear Skies 2, [[spoiler: Rourke is persuaded to risk his life and prevent Jarrod Jared from destroying a populated station by being reminded of his accidental destruction of a civilian tour bus while helping Haffa steal a prototype ship.]]
* SenselessSacrifice: Subverted: [[spoiler:Haffa sacrificed himself]] so that JR and company could get the cynosural jammer to the station in order to stopJarrod Jared Mason from jumping in a capital ship. [[spoiler:They were too late, but managed to stop Jarrod Jared anyway.]]
* SenselessSacrifice: Subverted: [[spoiler:Haffa sacrificed himself]] so that JR and company could get the cynosural jammer to the station in order to stop
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** Rourke comments that the ''Clear Skies'' and the assembled Caldari fleet ''may just'' have enough firepower to bring down Jarrod Mason's mothership when their plan to stop it from jumping in fails. The way this trope usually goes, there would be a spoiler-tag here covering "Rourke is wrong and they can't stop it," but we actually don't get to find out either way. [[spoiler: [[FromBadToWorse Because it's a Titan]]]].
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** Rourke comments that the ''Clear Skies'' and the assembled Caldari fleet ''may just'' have enough firepower to bring down Jarrod Jared Mason's mothership when their plan to stop it from jumping in fails. The way this trope usually goes, there would be a spoiler-tag here covering "Rourke is wrong and they can't stop it," but we actually don't get to find out either way. [[spoiler: [[FromBadToWorse Because it's a Titan]]]].
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** Referenced in ''3''. Sasha asks if there are clouds on the horizon, and Rourke looks meaningfully at the hull designation.
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** Referenced in ''3''. Sasha Sascha asks if there are clouds on the horizon, and Rourke looks meaningfully at the hull designation.
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* WeMeetAgain: Jarrod Mason, gloating over his apparent victory and especially tickled that Rourke will be there to witness it.
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* WeMeetAgain: Jarrod Jared Mason, gloating over his apparent victory and especially tickled that Rourke will be there to witness it.
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* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: When Jarrod Mason jump his [[spoiler:titan]] into system at the climax of ''2'' we get a shot of his scientist assistant's corpse sprawled across the blood-spattered command chair.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: [[spoiler: After ''Clear Skies'' runs a huge blockage and succeeds, against the odds, in getting a cynosural jammer to the station in order to stop Jarrod Mason from jumping in a capital ship, the cynosural field required for the jump goes up ''before'' they can actually get the jammer set up and turned on.]]
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: [[spoiler: After ''Clear Skies'' runs a huge blockage and succeeds, against the odds, in getting a cynosural jammer to the station in order to stop Jarrod Mason from jumping in a capital ship, the cynosural field required for the jump goes up ''before'' they can actually get the jammer set up and turned on.]]
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* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: When Jarrod Jared Mason jump his [[spoiler:titan]] into system at the climax of ''2'' we get a shot of his scientist assistant's corpse sprawled across the blood-spattered command chair.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: [[spoiler: After ''Clear Skies'' runs a huge blockage and succeeds, against the odds, in getting a cynosural jammer to the station in order to stopJarrod Jared Mason from jumping in a capital ship, the cynosural field required for the jump goes up ''before'' they can actually get the jammer set up and turned on.]]
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: [[spoiler: After ''Clear Skies'' runs a huge blockage and succeeds, against the odds, in getting a cynosural jammer to the station in order to stop
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** ChekhovsGag effectively becomes Chekhov's Gunsmithing, even, when Rourke's complaint about malfunctioning equipment to Sol first elicits a mention of PercussiveMaintenance from the latter … which is then just what it is that massages the device back into action when Rourke desperately needs it to comply with the plot.
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* DidntThinkThisThrough: At the climax of ''2'' the Gallente commander defending the Teskanen gate from the rogue fleet clearly knows his mission- stop anyone getting through, especially ''Clear Skies''. But when [[spoiler:Haffa jumps in and takes out the tackler that's pinning down ''Clear Skies'', he orders his fleet to "Destroy that widow!" even though Haffa isn't as important as stopping ''Clear Skies'', keeping enough fire off ''Clear Skies'' to let them get through.]].
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* DidntThinkThisThrough: At the climax of ''2'' the Gallente commander defending the Teskanen gate from the rogue fleet clearly knows his mission- stop anyone getting through, especially ''Clear Skies''. But when [[spoiler:Haffa jumps in and takes out the tackler that's pinning down ''Clear Skies'', he orders his fleet to "Destroy that widow!" even though Haffa isn't as important as stopping ''Clear Skies'', keeping enough fire off ''Clear Skies'' to let them get through. Even worse, he doesn't even give the order until ''after'' Haffa has taken out the frigate tackling ''Clear Skies''.]].
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''Clear Skies'' is an ''VideoGame/EveOnline'' machinima fanfilm that uses footage from EVE itself for its exterior space scenes, much like ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' is filmed entirely in ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''. As the game had no interior areas at the time of filming, interior shots are done using the ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' engine. While ''Half-Life 2's'' character models are reused, all the 'sets' are newly designed to great effect, and windows looking out into space are accomplished by blue-screening EVE footage onto them.
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''Clear Skies'' is an ''VideoGame/EveOnline'' machinima fanfilm that uses footage from EVE itself for its exterior space scenes, much like ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' is filmed entirely in ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''. As the game had no interior areas at the time of filming, interior shots are done using the ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' engine. While ''Half-Life 2's'' character models are reused, all the 'sets' are newly designed to great effect, and windows looking out into space are accomplished by blue-screening EVE footage onto them.
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* CasualDangerDialog:
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* CasualDangerDialog:CasualDangerDialogue:
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[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CS2_Poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Not kidding about that 'half a ship' part.]]
->''"They even attached the top wingy-bit properly."'' --Charlie Fodder
''Clear Skies'' is an ''VideoGame/EveOnline'' machinima fanfilm that uses footage from EVE itself for its exterior space scenes, much like ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' is filmed entirely in ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''. As the game had no interior areas at the time of filming, interior shots are done using the ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' engine. While ''Half-Life 2's'' character models are reused, all the 'sets' are newly designed to great effect, and windows looking out into space are accomplished by blue-screening EVE footage onto them.
The plot follows John Rourke, Solomon Burke and Charlie Fodder. Together, they form the motley privateer crew of the [[InherentlyFunnyWords titular]] ''Clear Skies'', a Minmatar Tempest-class battleship out in the boonies of space. Currently, three "episodes" exist, but they take a bloody long time considering the amount of sheer effort the creator must endure to make one, so the series is filmed like an hour-long television show, complete with scene breaks where commercials would be.
''Clear Skies'' is notable for the quality it presents. The visuals are filmed with a professional level of direction, the music was well-selected and well-timed with the scenes, the voice-acting is top notch despite being entirely amateur, and the writing is far better than many actual television shows.
All three episodes are readily available for download:
* [[http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies.wmv Clear Skies]]
* [[http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies2.wmv Clear Skies 2]]
* [[http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies3.wmv Clear Skies 3]]
----
Tropes contained in ''Clear Skies'':
* AcePilot: In episode 3, John Rourke shows us why he's the captain.
* AdaptationDistillation: First, the titular battleship is flown and operated by ''three people'', a ship class that in lore would have even a skeleton crew complement of about 1,200 people; See PragmaticAdaptation below. Second, different weapon systems are shown either greatly overpowered or greatly underpowered to their game counterparts, obviously to achieve dramatic effect.
** Sol treats the idea of a microwarpdrive on a battleship as flirting with insanity[[note]]and his fears turn out to be justified[[/note]]; within the game of ''VideoGame/EveOnline'', however, battleship pilots (and higher-end NPC battleships) will routinely fit microwarpdrives.
** It doesn't ''actually'' cost money to charge the ship's capacitor, so the idea of 'running a loss' shifting quafe around in system would seem rather queer to Eve players.
* ArtEvolution: The visuals for ''3'' are a cut above the previous 2 parts, with the battle scenes being particularly jaw-dropping. A large part of this is due to improvements to ''EVE's'' graphics engine in the time between movies, but the character animation is also far smoother and more natural-looking- they're even able to convincingly portray a full-on brawl between 2 men.
* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: Averted in ''3''; while Hausmann is [[JustBetweenYouAndMe monologuing]], he repeatedly passes in front of his agent Ghost, who lowers his gun each time this happens rather than point it at him.
* BavarianFireDrill: In 2; justified in that the crew have a set of face-covering uniforms and an authorization code. Played straight in that Charlie babbles jargon at the mook and then promptly averted as [[spoiler: the authorization code comes back as several years out of date.]]
-->"Hey, it was a long mission! Suddenly I get this call off of James-"
-->"Jared."
-->"-Jared, 'come here, do a 111-D', blah, blah, you know what it's like; it's chaos out there- oh forget it, ''[[TimeForPlanB PLAN B!]]''"
* BattleCouple - [[spoiler:J.R. and Sasha in 3]]
* {{BFG}}: The Clear Skies has a six-gun broadside of Tech II 1400mm Artillery Cannons. They'd wreck anything, if the sensors weren't so easily jammed.
* BondVillainStupidity: In ''3'', [[spoiler:Ghost wastes time monologuing, which gives Charlie and Sol time to salvage a shell and use it to kill him.]]
* BuffySpeak: "They even attached the top wingy-bit properly."
* CallBack: "Two things I've learned lately: One, don't get jammed! And two, stationary ships don't react well to fourteen-hundreds."
** "Oh look, another Blackbird. Are they free with cereal or something?"
** "If only we had a microwarp drive!"
* CasualDangerDialog:
** Cor in the first episode does this; he tells Rourke to stay safe as he disengages from the fight. The scene cuts to a non-verbal LampshadeHanging of Rourke making a face while ExplosiveInstrumentation goes off behind him.
** "Might I suggest we retire to a safer part of the ship?" said Tarquin, calmly adjusting his tie as a bullet bounces off the wall.
** ''Episode Three''
-->'''Ensign''' "Sir! Engineering reports that the warp drive has gone offline!"
-->[[spoiler: '''Mallozzi''']] "Duly noted."
* ChekhovsArmy: The privateer fleet in Clear Skies 2
* ChekhovsGun: The [[spoiler: docking computer]] on the ''Clear Skies'', Rourke's sofa, and the pile of miscellaneous bits and pieces in the cargo hold.
* ChekhovsGunman: Cormark & Haffa
* ChekhovsSkill: Rourke is shown to have an Elite Certification as a High-Velocity Helmsman hanging on the wall of his station quarters.[[note]]At the time the story was created, these could also be awarded to EVE players who were patient and diligent enough to develop the proper skills; years later, the certificate system was removed from the game for being too confusing.[[/note]] [[spoiler:Later, in the battle of Messoya, he manages to kill ''two dreadnoughts with one battleship'' through the application of his high-speed maneuvering skills.[[note]]This cannot be achieved by EVE players, barring the application of insane hacking skills, massive bribes to the game developers, or potent hallucinogens.[[/note]]]]
* CodeEmergency: the second episode mentions that ''Clear Skies'' has fifteen emergency color codes. Four can be seen on screen (Red, Orange, Yellow, and Blue), and a fifth and sixth are mentioned (Magnolia and Fuschia). Charlie, naturally enough, is the man responsible.
* CoolStarship: Haffa's Widow and the Maelstrom.
** Not the ''Clear'' "looks like an explosion in a girder factory" ''Skies,'' though.
*** ''Clear Skies'' is made of this trope. [[spoiler:Especially after the Jovian upgrades.]]
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG3fWu8Y-Fo second teaser]] indicates that ''Clear Skies 3'' is going to add a whole lot more. [[spoiler: That's a ''Jovian battleship''!]]
** The Phantom Fleet of ''Episode Two'' has a lot of pirate faction ships (several Machariels and Nightmares, at least one Bhaalgorn) that are rarer and more expensive in ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'' than their standard variants.
** On the villainous side, there's Ghost's high-tech Proteus Strategic Cruiser.
%%* ColonyDrop: Though not on a planet, but it's definitely the same idea.
* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: Sasha was definitely not happy about getting shot at when the crew broke her out of the prison facility. Cue bickering.
* ContinuityNod: Some small details in ''Clear Skies 2,'' like Sol's comment about the "big explodey thing" and Charlie's response. Jarrod Mason's plan is essentially to [[spoiler: copycat a major atrocity]] that happened in EVE canon.
** "Another Blackbird. Are they free with cereal now or something?" (A Blackbird ship was used to jam our heroes in the first film)
** Mr. Smith's name: "Possibly I use it, because that is your name."
** In 2, Sasha is initially referred to by Rourke as "One unit of Damsel In Distress." A regularly occurring mission in ''VideoGame/EVEOnline,'' called "Damsel In Distress," involves the player rescuing exactly that.
** Smith describes a task for Rourke and crew in 2 as being "courier service...only about ten jumps through Empire space..." at which point, the crew as one demand "DOUBLE FEE."
** Upgrades carried out to ''Clear Skies'' in 2 are jokingly referred to by Charlie as "top secret duct tape." It's a widely held opinion in the EVE community that Minmatar ships are held together by duct tape and rust. ''Clear Skies'' catalogue of dodgy wiring, broken docking computer and so on are another nod to this.
** "Is now a good time to mention the light above my console?"
** ''Clear Skies 1'' was released shortly after an EVE expansion which saw a major graphics upgrade and new textures for most ship models. Rourke's line "They must've...cleaned the windows or something" refers to this.
* CurseCutShort: Toyed with in 3. Turns out Sol was calling Charlie a "Fu[[spoiler:ndamentally Flawed Individual.]]"
* DeadpanSnarker
-->'''John Rourke:''' The door's locked!
-->'''Mr. Smith:''' Yes, it would seem my captors thought of everything.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: At the climax of ''2'' the Gallente commander defending the Teskanen gate from the rogue fleet clearly knows his mission- stop anyone getting through, especially ''Clear Skies''. But when [[spoiler:Haffa jumps in and takes out the tackler that's pinning down ''Clear Skies'', he orders his fleet to "Destroy that widow!" even though Haffa isn't as important as stopping ''Clear Skies'', keeping enough fire off ''Clear Skies'' to let them get through.]].
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Plenty of EVE players might say this about the [[spoiler: [[http://www.eve-wiki.net/images/d/d0/04n.jpg Avatar-class Titan]], which goes ''well'' beyond just being vaguely phallic.]] Given their tendency to snark at things, it wouldn't have been out of place for the main characters to make a note of this, but, given the circumstances, it was understandably being treated as SeriousBusiness.
* DogPileOfDoom: The Sleeper drones to the Clear Skies, [[spoiler: until the EMP Smartbomb is deployed.]]
* DramaticDrop: In episode 3, [[spoiler:John drop his coffee mug when he discovers that Charlie was a Presidential Guard.]]
* EmbarrassingFirstName: [[spoiler: Tarquin]] Smith.
* EvilGloating: Jarrod Mason.
** The unnamed Raven Captain in ''Episode One.''
-->"That's not your concern, and it's certainly not the concern of a frozen corpse either. I don't care which particular unconcerned thing I leave in my wake. Now give me Smith."
-->"Shields are down, Rourke, shields are down. I bet you're not so smug now while your Matari bucket of bolts falls apart around you! [aside] Keep firing!"
** Ghost in ''Episode Three'':
--> "Oh, no, [[spoiler:half a Tempest]] is threatening me! [[SarcasmMode I'm deeply concerned]] - wait, [[OhCrap where the hell is my jamming field?]] [[VillainousBreakdown Rourke, what have you]] ''[[VillainousBreakdown done?]]''
* FamedInStory: Charlie mentions at the beginning of episode 3 that no one (hostile) will go near them because [[spoiler: they're famous for blowing up a Titan.]]
** Charlie himself, apparently, also falls at least partially under this trope [[spoiler:due to his past as a member of the Caldari Presidential Guard.]]
* FencePainting: Charlies pulls off [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=PL4E712D875E5AC822&v=7Yq0rAWdHvo#t=771 a pretty awesome one]] on Sol in episode 3.
* FirstNameBasis: Mr. Smith, using Rourke's first name instead of referring to him as Mr. Rourke or Captain Rourke, at the end of Episode 2.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: "Short of sticking a doomsday device up its backside, I think the only way to kill one quick is to ram it with a station..." [[spoiler:At this point, we already know Jarrod intends to ram a station with a capital ship, but the "doomsday device" turns out to be ''Clear Skies'' herself with a warp core breach...and yes, she docks in the backside.]]
* FunWithAcronyms: "This is Captain John Rourke of the ''Clear Skies'', broadcasting on Caldari emergency channel '''O'''scar '''M'''ike '''F'''oxtrot '''G'''olf."
* FunnyBackGroundEvent: In 2, several of the readouts have fairly amusing text. One of the various emergency colors aboard the Clear Skies is labeled "Imminent Judith Chalmers Encounter", while another reads "Time to start running". The readouts on the Titan are all fairly blunt, grim assesments: "Disaster", "Imminent doom", "Seriously leg it", "You are going to die", "Scary" and the like. 3 has a few, too: When Sol's boosting the drive output near the end, his screen shows a prompt warning him that rerouting the power will void the warranty, and the amount of power transferred is [[Film/BackToTheFuture 1.21 gigawatts]].
** And in Episode 1, when Haffa's raid on a mining op gets interrupted by JR's pre-recorded plea for help, his com screen lights up with "JR FFS".[[note]]"Oh, for f%#$'s sake..."[[/note]]
** Episode 2, as Rourke fires up the MWD and Clear Skies runs for the Teskanen gate, the damage readout behind Sol clearly shows the "top wingy bit" as the most damaged bit of the ship.
** Again in Episode 2: Mr. Smith pulls up a screen showing the faces and names of everyone in the station, who will die if Rourke and his crew don't help. Later in the scene, the screen can be seen in the background still going through people. Some of the names are fairly amusing, but none of them top "Lord Timelord".
** ''Episode Three''; several pieces of furniture have IFEAR stickers on them, made up to look exactly the IKEA logo.
* HereWeGoAgain: Episode 1 is about the trio making up the 30 million ISK for their ship's repairs. Episode 2 ends with Smith reminding them to insure their [[spoiler:new Maelstrom battleship.]] Guess how much it costs. [[OhCrap The looks on their faces when they're told says it all.]]
* HeroicBSOD: During episode 3, [[spoiler:after losing the Maelstrom and nearly getting himself and his crew killed, Rourke decides he has enough, and goes into a TenMinuteRetirement phase, where he just lies in his appartment and [[DrowningMySorrows spends his days drinking]].]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Haffa]]
** [[spoiler:Rourke almost makes one, but an offhand comment pulls the trigger on [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Gun]], and lets him survive the experience.]]
** [[spoiler:Commander Mallozzi]] in the third.
** Subverted with [[spoiler:Sasha during episode 3 : no way Rourke is going to lose another friend!]]
* HeyYouHaymaker: [[spoiler:Rourke]] gets one from [[spoiler:Ghost]].
* HonorBeforeReason: Rourke insists on bringing Smith to his destination even though the mercenaries trying to kill him have a decisive upper hand and ''will'' be waiting for them, ''after'' they've already pounded the armor off of ''Clear Skies.'' [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Sol and Charlie. Subverted in that [[spoiler:Rourke knows Haffa will win him the fight.]]
* IdiotBall: ''Episode One'' Blackbird pilot, who upon being engaged by an assault frigate which he should easily be able to jam whilst still jamming ''Clear Skies'', panics and fails to jam anybody.
* InfoDump: A small one explaining why large capital ships use jump drives and cynosural fields instead of gates so the non-EVE players can understand why a cyno jammer would stop Jarrod Mason's plan dead in its tracks.
* IveComeTooFar: How Ghost [[spoiler:keeps Hausmann from reconsidering]].
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: [[spoiler:When it becomes clear that he cannot win against the Caldari fleet, Hausman surrenders rather than get more of his people killed]].
** Another one occurs in 2, when [[spoiler: Commander Mallozzi realizes he won't be able to stop the Titan from hitting the station, and instead directs his fleet to cover the escape of the evacuees to prevent a(nother) massacre.]]
* LudicrousGibs: [[spoiler:Ghost]] takes a direct hit from a van-sized armour-piercing artillery shell. There's not much of [[spoiler: him]] left apart from a large smear of blood.
-->'''Burke:''' John? Are you okay? John?\\
'''Rourke:''' Yeah. [[BringMyBrownPants If a little damp.]]
* MacGuffin: The cynosural jammer, the [[spoiler:Jovian]] artifacts.
* MadeOfIndestructium: The couch on the bridge of the ship. [[spoiler:The bridge was inside the Titan's thrusters when the warp core failure occurred, which means everything in the bridge would have been caught up in two fireballs, and yet, the couch remained in one piece, upholstery and all, and flew with such force to crack the glass window of Jarrod's escape craft, after which it was picked up by the Rourke and crew.]]
* MeaningfulEcho: "''How'' much?"
** "It's got a proper name, you know!"
* MusicalSpoiler: When Flowers of the Forest starts playing during the [[spoiler:Magellan's attack run on the fleet]] in Episode 3, you just ''know'' it [[TearJerker won't end well]].
* MyGreatestFailure: Rourke frequently laments [[spoiler:the death of his friend Haffa]] during Episode 3.
* NoodleIncident: The first episode started with them making up the repair fees for their ship after their last mission (which was implied to be everything but destroyed).
* ObiWanMoment: [[spoiler: Commander Mallozzi in ''Episode Three''.]]
--> [[spoiler: '''Ensign''']] "But sir! With no warp drive how will we escape?"
--> [[spoiler: '''Mallozzi''']] "Our escape was always a luxury, Miss, and one that circumstances dictate we can no longer afford. I'm sorry. Today we learn what doing our duty really means."
* OhCrap: From Charlie; [[spoiler: "That's not a mothership, that's a '''Titan!'''"]] The look on his face is, to put it mildly, convincing. The joys of the Source engine.
** Ghost also gets one during the [[UnusualEuphemism Hot-Dog]] as well as earlier at "hot-drop o'clock!".
** Jarrod gets two in the space of as many minutes in 2, hand-in-hand with a BigNo as his ship avoids being crushed by [[spoiler: a piece of Clear Skies hull]] only to crash into [[spoiler: Rourke's sofa]]
%%* OhNoNotAgain: See Here We Go Again.
* PeaceConference: [[spoiler: What Jarrod Mason intends to attack in ''Clear Skies 2''.]]
* PragmaticAdaptation: Various bits of CanonDefilement are done for the sake of making a better movie:
** In ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'', a ship is piloted by a capsuleer, someone who resides within a [[PeopleJars specially-designed life-support pod]], [[WetwareCPU wired]] in such a way that the [[ManInTheMachine pod]] (and through the pod, [[SpaceShipGirl the ships they pilot]]) [[ManInTheMachine becomes the capsuleer's body]]. [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist They don't die permanently]], as they are cloned, and are transferred to the clone upon their death. As such, one person has absolute control of every aspect of the ship, they are not going to be able to wander the halls, and [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist death's not much of a risk]]. This can make for a very boring story. Now, while canon does indicate that [[http://www.eveonline.com/background/potw/default.asp?cid=20-04-09 ships have normal crews]], Rourke, Burke and Fodder are all actual players and, thus, capsuleers as far as canon is concerned. Since this leads to a less-exciting story overall, the series puts them in the role of crew members of an otherwise non-player battleship.
** Haffa's ''Widow'', a Black Ops battleship, jumps into systems in Clear Skies without the aid of any the cynosural fields it would require in-game. It also wouldn't have a chance in hell of taking out a tackling frigate with its missiles alone, their signal radius is far too small for battleship-sized weapons to get a decent lock on them. That's the reason battleships pack drones. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking It's also not nearly as rare as its made out to be.]]
** The first thing the [[spoiler:irregular coalition]] fleet does at the start of the battle in Clear Skies 2 is take out the Heavy Interdictor that dragged them out of warp 40km off the gate. With it down there's NOTHING stopping them from simply warping out again then warping back directly onto the gate and jumping through- except dramatic necessity.[[note]]Incidentally, if it had been a standard Interdictor rather than a Heavy this wouldn't have been an issue, as standard Interdictors don't generate a persistent field but instead launch Warp Disruption Probes that project the field even if the Interdictor is destroyed or moves off.[[/note]] A similar thing happens in Clear Skies 1 when the gate camp manages to prevent the crew from warping directly to the gate despite a lack of any form of interdiction whatsoever.
** Sleeper drones by no means "Pop easy enough". Next to hitting them with a massive Alpha damage weapon, the only way to kill them is to have a number of ships that can easily tank their fire, while focusing fire on one drone at a time. [[RuleOfCool But the visual of a Fleet Issue Tempest cutting a swath through a horde of Sleepers is still awesome to see.]]
* PunnyName: "Clear Skies" is a Tempest-class battleship. (Given the fact that the other two Tech 1 Minmatar battleship classes are named ''Typhoon'' and ''Maelstrom'', this was inevitable if they were going to use a Minmatar T1 BS and keep the name "Clear Skies".)
* RammingAlwaysWorks: Some context and lipservice is given to explain why the occurrence here works just fine.
%%* RedemptionEqualsDeath: "Now are we even?"
* RedemptionQuest: In Clear Skies 2, [[spoiler: Rourke is persuaded to risk his life and prevent Jarrod from destroying a populated station by being reminded of his accidental destruction of a civilian tour bus while helping Haffa steal a prototype ship.]]
* SenselessSacrifice: Subverted: [[spoiler:Haffa sacrificed himself]] so that JR and company could get the cynosural jammer to the station in order to stop Jarrod Mason from jumping in a capital ship. [[spoiler:They were too late, but managed to stop Jarrod anyway.]]
* SequelEscalation:
** ''Clear Skies'' featured a battle involving three battleships (one a specialized Black Ops), one cruiser, and two frigates (one a specialized assault ship).
** Thanks to the popularity of ''Clear Skies'', ''Clear Skies 2'' was able to gather dozens of "stunt pilot" participants, and "film" a fleet battle on EVE's test server with a significant number of expensive faction ships, including pirate battleships that would cost over a billion ISK apiece on the EVE main server's markets. [[spoiler: And a Titan that undoubtedly would have cost significantly more than both fleets at the gate battle put together.]]
** Following the success of the first two installments, CCP gave Chisholm access to their in-house cinematic engine, which allowed him to stage a capital-ship fleet battle with spectacular choreography that would be flat-out impossible to achieve within the game. (For example: if you're in a battleship being targeted by two blaster-armed dreadnoughts at close range, your options for survival do not include rolling your ship to one side to slip between their shots.)
%%* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Mr. Smith tends to lean towards this.
%%* SesquipedalianSmith: [[spoiler:Tarquin]] Smith.
* ShoutOut: Sol desperately offering an armed gunman "a jelly baby" in 2; much as [[Series/DoctorWho The Fourth Doctor]] might.
** The amount of power pumped into the engines for JR's Hot Dogging in 3? [[Film/BackToTheFuture 1.21 Gigawatts.]]
* SociopathicHero: Haffa, to the point where Sol describes him by saying "our backup is someone who scares me." When we first see him, he's about to hit a mining operation before John's distress call reaches him seconds before he decides which ship to shoot. [[spoiler: Turns out he's faking it and his conscience has been gnawing at him over the civilians who died when John helped him steal his Widow.]]
* TheStinger: [[spoiler: J.R. finds his couch.]]
* TechnoBabble: Averted when [[spoiler:Ghost]] interrupts an explanation.
--> '''Scientist''': When powered up in the current state, this artifact seems to emit interspatial frequencies, equivalent to that of a fully functional-
--> [[spoiler:'''Ghost''']]: Excuse me?
* TemptingFate:
** Rourke comments that the ''Clear Skies'' and the assembled Caldari fleet ''may just'' have enough firepower to bring down Jarrod Mason's mothership when their plan to stop it from jumping in fails. The way this trope usually goes, there would be a spoiler-tag here covering "Rourke is wrong and they can't stop it," but we actually don't get to find out either way. [[spoiler: [[FromBadToWorse Because it's a Titan]]]].
** This example from the battle of Messoya in Episode 3:
--> '''Charlie''' (in gunnery control): We've picked up two fighters on our tail! They're too fast to hit!
--> '''Sol''' (in engineering, in front of a shield status display reading 86%): We can tank them; just don't get us hit by anything big!
--> ''Exterior shot of the ship getting blasted sideways by a broadside from something big.''
--> ''Cut back to Sol, struggling to his feet, with alarms screaming and displays indicating [[CodeEmergency "CODE YELLOW: IT'S TIME TO START RUNNING"]] and shield status of [[OhCrap 4%]].''
--> '''Sol''' (angrily): WHAT DID I JUST SAY?!
** [[MexicanStandoff During]] Hausmann's monologue in Episode 3, Ghost responds to a quip of Charlie's with "You mess with me, you need a bigger gun than that, sunshine." [[spoiler: Ship-to-ship weaponry should tick that box, and messing [[LudicrousGibs it does]].]]
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Mallozzi's expression in Episode 3 as Rourke requests more time to [[spoiler: knock out the cynojammer in Messoya, requiring the sacrifice of the ''Magellan'' to buy that time.]]
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer for ''Clear Skies 3'' clearly shows [[spoiler: the crew back in the rebuilt Clear Skies instead of the new Maelstrom.]]
** It also shows a quick glimpse of the [[spoiler:Jovian battleship]] when there was no prior indication that the [[spoiler:Jovians]] had any presence in the series at all.
* TookALevelInBadass: The crew gets a [[spoiler: brand new, fully fitted Maelstrom battleship]] at the end, courtesy of Mr. Smith.
** [[spoiler:Even though it promptly gets blown up in ''Clear Skies 3'']].
* TitleDrop: At the end of ''Clear Skies'':
-->'''J.R.:''' No clouds on this horizon. We've got Clear Skies.
** Referenced in ''3''. Sasha asks if there are clouds on the horizon, and Rourke looks meaningfully at the hull designation.
* VillainBall: In ''3'', Ghost could have just actually paid for the power supply while [[spoiler:still impersonating Smith]] and neither Rourke nor Smith would have had any idea what was going on until it was much too late. Money certainly wasn't an issue. Instead, Ghost unintentionally [[NiceJobFixingItVillain made an incredibly dangerous enemy]] by [[spoiler:blowing up the gang's ship]].
* WeaponizedExhaust: In ''3'', the ''Clear Skies'' does this to [[spoiler:prevent Ghost escaping.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Hausmann, TheHeavy of chapter 3, just wants his home planet back. The prospect of heavy casualties in this pursuit gives him pause [[spoiler: and eventually makes him surrender]].
* WeMeetAgain: Jarrod Mason, gloating over his apparent victory and especially tickled that Rourke will be there to witness it.
* WhatAPieceOfJunk:
** Obviously the ''Clear Skies'' although this generally applies to most Minmatar ships by default.
** [[spoiler: Jared Mason's Titan]] is in a laughable state of falling apart, though the only parts the pilot cares about are in working order.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: When Jarrod Mason jump his [[spoiler:titan]] into system at the climax of ''2'' we get a shot of his scientist assistant's corpse sprawled across the blood-spattered command chair.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: [[spoiler: After ''Clear Skies'' runs a huge blockage and succeeds, against the odds, in getting a cynosural jammer to the station in order to stop Jarrod Mason from jumping in a capital ship, the cynosural field required for the jump goes up ''before'' they can actually get the jammer set up and turned on.]]
-->'''Charlie Fodder:''' [[spoiler: That jammer is no good with the cyno already up,]] we're too late! After ''all this,'' we're too late!
----
[[caption-width-right:250:Not kidding about that 'half a ship' part.]]
->''"They even attached the top wingy-bit properly."'' --Charlie Fodder
''Clear Skies'' is an ''VideoGame/EveOnline'' machinima fanfilm that uses footage from EVE itself for its exterior space scenes, much like ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' is filmed entirely in ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''. As the game had no interior areas at the time of filming, interior shots are done using the ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' engine. While ''Half-Life 2's'' character models are reused, all the 'sets' are newly designed to great effect, and windows looking out into space are accomplished by blue-screening EVE footage onto them.
The plot follows John Rourke, Solomon Burke and Charlie Fodder. Together, they form the motley privateer crew of the [[InherentlyFunnyWords titular]] ''Clear Skies'', a Minmatar Tempest-class battleship out in the boonies of space. Currently, three "episodes" exist, but they take a bloody long time considering the amount of sheer effort the creator must endure to make one, so the series is filmed like an hour-long television show, complete with scene breaks where commercials would be.
''Clear Skies'' is notable for the quality it presents. The visuals are filmed with a professional level of direction, the music was well-selected and well-timed with the scenes, the voice-acting is top notch despite being entirely amateur, and the writing is far better than many actual television shows.
All three episodes are readily available for download:
* [[http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies.wmv Clear Skies]]
* [[http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies2.wmv Clear Skies 2]]
* [[http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/JohnRourke/Clear_Skies3.wmv Clear Skies 3]]
----
Tropes contained in ''Clear Skies'':
* AcePilot: In episode 3, John Rourke shows us why he's the captain.
* AdaptationDistillation: First, the titular battleship is flown and operated by ''three people'', a ship class that in lore would have even a skeleton crew complement of about 1,200 people; See PragmaticAdaptation below. Second, different weapon systems are shown either greatly overpowered or greatly underpowered to their game counterparts, obviously to achieve dramatic effect.
** Sol treats the idea of a microwarpdrive on a battleship as flirting with insanity[[note]]and his fears turn out to be justified[[/note]]; within the game of ''VideoGame/EveOnline'', however, battleship pilots (and higher-end NPC battleships) will routinely fit microwarpdrives.
** It doesn't ''actually'' cost money to charge the ship's capacitor, so the idea of 'running a loss' shifting quafe around in system would seem rather queer to Eve players.
* ArtEvolution: The visuals for ''3'' are a cut above the previous 2 parts, with the battle scenes being particularly jaw-dropping. A large part of this is due to improvements to ''EVE's'' graphics engine in the time between movies, but the character animation is also far smoother and more natural-looking- they're even able to convincingly portray a full-on brawl between 2 men.
* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: Averted in ''3''; while Hausmann is [[JustBetweenYouAndMe monologuing]], he repeatedly passes in front of his agent Ghost, who lowers his gun each time this happens rather than point it at him.
* BavarianFireDrill: In 2; justified in that the crew have a set of face-covering uniforms and an authorization code. Played straight in that Charlie babbles jargon at the mook and then promptly averted as [[spoiler: the authorization code comes back as several years out of date.]]
-->"Hey, it was a long mission! Suddenly I get this call off of James-"
-->"Jared."
-->"-Jared, 'come here, do a 111-D', blah, blah, you know what it's like; it's chaos out there- oh forget it, ''[[TimeForPlanB PLAN B!]]''"
* BattleCouple - [[spoiler:J.R. and Sasha in 3]]
* {{BFG}}: The Clear Skies has a six-gun broadside of Tech II 1400mm Artillery Cannons. They'd wreck anything, if the sensors weren't so easily jammed.
* BondVillainStupidity: In ''3'', [[spoiler:Ghost wastes time monologuing, which gives Charlie and Sol time to salvage a shell and use it to kill him.]]
* BuffySpeak: "They even attached the top wingy-bit properly."
* CallBack: "Two things I've learned lately: One, don't get jammed! And two, stationary ships don't react well to fourteen-hundreds."
** "Oh look, another Blackbird. Are they free with cereal or something?"
** "If only we had a microwarp drive!"
* CasualDangerDialog:
** Cor in the first episode does this; he tells Rourke to stay safe as he disengages from the fight. The scene cuts to a non-verbal LampshadeHanging of Rourke making a face while ExplosiveInstrumentation goes off behind him.
** "Might I suggest we retire to a safer part of the ship?" said Tarquin, calmly adjusting his tie as a bullet bounces off the wall.
** ''Episode Three''
-->'''Ensign''' "Sir! Engineering reports that the warp drive has gone offline!"
-->[[spoiler: '''Mallozzi''']] "Duly noted."
* ChekhovsArmy: The privateer fleet in Clear Skies 2
* ChekhovsGun: The [[spoiler: docking computer]] on the ''Clear Skies'', Rourke's sofa, and the pile of miscellaneous bits and pieces in the cargo hold.
* ChekhovsGunman: Cormark & Haffa
* ChekhovsSkill: Rourke is shown to have an Elite Certification as a High-Velocity Helmsman hanging on the wall of his station quarters.[[note]]At the time the story was created, these could also be awarded to EVE players who were patient and diligent enough to develop the proper skills; years later, the certificate system was removed from the game for being too confusing.[[/note]] [[spoiler:Later, in the battle of Messoya, he manages to kill ''two dreadnoughts with one battleship'' through the application of his high-speed maneuvering skills.[[note]]This cannot be achieved by EVE players, barring the application of insane hacking skills, massive bribes to the game developers, or potent hallucinogens.[[/note]]]]
* CodeEmergency: the second episode mentions that ''Clear Skies'' has fifteen emergency color codes. Four can be seen on screen (Red, Orange, Yellow, and Blue), and a fifth and sixth are mentioned (Magnolia and Fuschia). Charlie, naturally enough, is the man responsible.
* CoolStarship: Haffa's Widow and the Maelstrom.
** Not the ''Clear'' "looks like an explosion in a girder factory" ''Skies,'' though.
*** ''Clear Skies'' is made of this trope. [[spoiler:Especially after the Jovian upgrades.]]
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG3fWu8Y-Fo second teaser]] indicates that ''Clear Skies 3'' is going to add a whole lot more. [[spoiler: That's a ''Jovian battleship''!]]
** The Phantom Fleet of ''Episode Two'' has a lot of pirate faction ships (several Machariels and Nightmares, at least one Bhaalgorn) that are rarer and more expensive in ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'' than their standard variants.
** On the villainous side, there's Ghost's high-tech Proteus Strategic Cruiser.
%%* ColonyDrop: Though not on a planet, but it's definitely the same idea.
* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: Sasha was definitely not happy about getting shot at when the crew broke her out of the prison facility. Cue bickering.
* ContinuityNod: Some small details in ''Clear Skies 2,'' like Sol's comment about the "big explodey thing" and Charlie's response. Jarrod Mason's plan is essentially to [[spoiler: copycat a major atrocity]] that happened in EVE canon.
** "Another Blackbird. Are they free with cereal now or something?" (A Blackbird ship was used to jam our heroes in the first film)
** Mr. Smith's name: "Possibly I use it, because that is your name."
** In 2, Sasha is initially referred to by Rourke as "One unit of Damsel In Distress." A regularly occurring mission in ''VideoGame/EVEOnline,'' called "Damsel In Distress," involves the player rescuing exactly that.
** Smith describes a task for Rourke and crew in 2 as being "courier service...only about ten jumps through Empire space..." at which point, the crew as one demand "DOUBLE FEE."
** Upgrades carried out to ''Clear Skies'' in 2 are jokingly referred to by Charlie as "top secret duct tape." It's a widely held opinion in the EVE community that Minmatar ships are held together by duct tape and rust. ''Clear Skies'' catalogue of dodgy wiring, broken docking computer and so on are another nod to this.
** "Is now a good time to mention the light above my console?"
** ''Clear Skies 1'' was released shortly after an EVE expansion which saw a major graphics upgrade and new textures for most ship models. Rourke's line "They must've...cleaned the windows or something" refers to this.
* CurseCutShort: Toyed with in 3. Turns out Sol was calling Charlie a "Fu[[spoiler:ndamentally Flawed Individual.]]"
* DeadpanSnarker
-->'''John Rourke:''' The door's locked!
-->'''Mr. Smith:''' Yes, it would seem my captors thought of everything.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: At the climax of ''2'' the Gallente commander defending the Teskanen gate from the rogue fleet clearly knows his mission- stop anyone getting through, especially ''Clear Skies''. But when [[spoiler:Haffa jumps in and takes out the tackler that's pinning down ''Clear Skies'', he orders his fleet to "Destroy that widow!" even though Haffa isn't as important as stopping ''Clear Skies'', keeping enough fire off ''Clear Skies'' to let them get through.]].
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Plenty of EVE players might say this about the [[spoiler: [[http://www.eve-wiki.net/images/d/d0/04n.jpg Avatar-class Titan]], which goes ''well'' beyond just being vaguely phallic.]] Given their tendency to snark at things, it wouldn't have been out of place for the main characters to make a note of this, but, given the circumstances, it was understandably being treated as SeriousBusiness.
* DogPileOfDoom: The Sleeper drones to the Clear Skies, [[spoiler: until the EMP Smartbomb is deployed.]]
* DramaticDrop: In episode 3, [[spoiler:John drop his coffee mug when he discovers that Charlie was a Presidential Guard.]]
* EmbarrassingFirstName: [[spoiler: Tarquin]] Smith.
* EvilGloating: Jarrod Mason.
** The unnamed Raven Captain in ''Episode One.''
-->"That's not your concern, and it's certainly not the concern of a frozen corpse either. I don't care which particular unconcerned thing I leave in my wake. Now give me Smith."
-->"Shields are down, Rourke, shields are down. I bet you're not so smug now while your Matari bucket of bolts falls apart around you! [aside] Keep firing!"
** Ghost in ''Episode Three'':
--> "Oh, no, [[spoiler:half a Tempest]] is threatening me! [[SarcasmMode I'm deeply concerned]] - wait, [[OhCrap where the hell is my jamming field?]] [[VillainousBreakdown Rourke, what have you]] ''[[VillainousBreakdown done?]]''
* FamedInStory: Charlie mentions at the beginning of episode 3 that no one (hostile) will go near them because [[spoiler: they're famous for blowing up a Titan.]]
** Charlie himself, apparently, also falls at least partially under this trope [[spoiler:due to his past as a member of the Caldari Presidential Guard.]]
* FencePainting: Charlies pulls off [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=PL4E712D875E5AC822&v=7Yq0rAWdHvo#t=771 a pretty awesome one]] on Sol in episode 3.
* FirstNameBasis: Mr. Smith, using Rourke's first name instead of referring to him as Mr. Rourke or Captain Rourke, at the end of Episode 2.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: "Short of sticking a doomsday device up its backside, I think the only way to kill one quick is to ram it with a station..." [[spoiler:At this point, we already know Jarrod intends to ram a station with a capital ship, but the "doomsday device" turns out to be ''Clear Skies'' herself with a warp core breach...and yes, she docks in the backside.]]
* FunWithAcronyms: "This is Captain John Rourke of the ''Clear Skies'', broadcasting on Caldari emergency channel '''O'''scar '''M'''ike '''F'''oxtrot '''G'''olf."
* FunnyBackGroundEvent: In 2, several of the readouts have fairly amusing text. One of the various emergency colors aboard the Clear Skies is labeled "Imminent Judith Chalmers Encounter", while another reads "Time to start running". The readouts on the Titan are all fairly blunt, grim assesments: "Disaster", "Imminent doom", "Seriously leg it", "You are going to die", "Scary" and the like. 3 has a few, too: When Sol's boosting the drive output near the end, his screen shows a prompt warning him that rerouting the power will void the warranty, and the amount of power transferred is [[Film/BackToTheFuture 1.21 gigawatts]].
** And in Episode 1, when Haffa's raid on a mining op gets interrupted by JR's pre-recorded plea for help, his com screen lights up with "JR FFS".[[note]]"Oh, for f%#$'s sake..."[[/note]]
** Episode 2, as Rourke fires up the MWD and Clear Skies runs for the Teskanen gate, the damage readout behind Sol clearly shows the "top wingy bit" as the most damaged bit of the ship.
** Again in Episode 2: Mr. Smith pulls up a screen showing the faces and names of everyone in the station, who will die if Rourke and his crew don't help. Later in the scene, the screen can be seen in the background still going through people. Some of the names are fairly amusing, but none of them top "Lord Timelord".
** ''Episode Three''; several pieces of furniture have IFEAR stickers on them, made up to look exactly the IKEA logo.
* HereWeGoAgain: Episode 1 is about the trio making up the 30 million ISK for their ship's repairs. Episode 2 ends with Smith reminding them to insure their [[spoiler:new Maelstrom battleship.]] Guess how much it costs. [[OhCrap The looks on their faces when they're told says it all.]]
* HeroicBSOD: During episode 3, [[spoiler:after losing the Maelstrom and nearly getting himself and his crew killed, Rourke decides he has enough, and goes into a TenMinuteRetirement phase, where he just lies in his appartment and [[DrowningMySorrows spends his days drinking]].]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Haffa]]
** [[spoiler:Rourke almost makes one, but an offhand comment pulls the trigger on [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Gun]], and lets him survive the experience.]]
** [[spoiler:Commander Mallozzi]] in the third.
** Subverted with [[spoiler:Sasha during episode 3 : no way Rourke is going to lose another friend!]]
* HeyYouHaymaker: [[spoiler:Rourke]] gets one from [[spoiler:Ghost]].
* HonorBeforeReason: Rourke insists on bringing Smith to his destination even though the mercenaries trying to kill him have a decisive upper hand and ''will'' be waiting for them, ''after'' they've already pounded the armor off of ''Clear Skies.'' [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Sol and Charlie. Subverted in that [[spoiler:Rourke knows Haffa will win him the fight.]]
* IdiotBall: ''Episode One'' Blackbird pilot, who upon being engaged by an assault frigate which he should easily be able to jam whilst still jamming ''Clear Skies'', panics and fails to jam anybody.
* InfoDump: A small one explaining why large capital ships use jump drives and cynosural fields instead of gates so the non-EVE players can understand why a cyno jammer would stop Jarrod Mason's plan dead in its tracks.
* IveComeTooFar: How Ghost [[spoiler:keeps Hausmann from reconsidering]].
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: [[spoiler:When it becomes clear that he cannot win against the Caldari fleet, Hausman surrenders rather than get more of his people killed]].
** Another one occurs in 2, when [[spoiler: Commander Mallozzi realizes he won't be able to stop the Titan from hitting the station, and instead directs his fleet to cover the escape of the evacuees to prevent a(nother) massacre.]]
* LudicrousGibs: [[spoiler:Ghost]] takes a direct hit from a van-sized armour-piercing artillery shell. There's not much of [[spoiler: him]] left apart from a large smear of blood.
-->'''Burke:''' John? Are you okay? John?\\
'''Rourke:''' Yeah. [[BringMyBrownPants If a little damp.]]
* MacGuffin: The cynosural jammer, the [[spoiler:Jovian]] artifacts.
* MadeOfIndestructium: The couch on the bridge of the ship. [[spoiler:The bridge was inside the Titan's thrusters when the warp core failure occurred, which means everything in the bridge would have been caught up in two fireballs, and yet, the couch remained in one piece, upholstery and all, and flew with such force to crack the glass window of Jarrod's escape craft, after which it was picked up by the Rourke and crew.]]
* MeaningfulEcho: "''How'' much?"
** "It's got a proper name, you know!"
* MusicalSpoiler: When Flowers of the Forest starts playing during the [[spoiler:Magellan's attack run on the fleet]] in Episode 3, you just ''know'' it [[TearJerker won't end well]].
* MyGreatestFailure: Rourke frequently laments [[spoiler:the death of his friend Haffa]] during Episode 3.
* NoodleIncident: The first episode started with them making up the repair fees for their ship after their last mission (which was implied to be everything but destroyed).
* ObiWanMoment: [[spoiler: Commander Mallozzi in ''Episode Three''.]]
--> [[spoiler: '''Ensign''']] "But sir! With no warp drive how will we escape?"
--> [[spoiler: '''Mallozzi''']] "Our escape was always a luxury, Miss, and one that circumstances dictate we can no longer afford. I'm sorry. Today we learn what doing our duty really means."
* OhCrap: From Charlie; [[spoiler: "That's not a mothership, that's a '''Titan!'''"]] The look on his face is, to put it mildly, convincing. The joys of the Source engine.
** Ghost also gets one during the [[UnusualEuphemism Hot-Dog]] as well as earlier at "hot-drop o'clock!".
** Jarrod gets two in the space of as many minutes in 2, hand-in-hand with a BigNo as his ship avoids being crushed by [[spoiler: a piece of Clear Skies hull]] only to crash into [[spoiler: Rourke's sofa]]
%%* OhNoNotAgain: See Here We Go Again.
* PeaceConference: [[spoiler: What Jarrod Mason intends to attack in ''Clear Skies 2''.]]
* PragmaticAdaptation: Various bits of CanonDefilement are done for the sake of making a better movie:
** In ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'', a ship is piloted by a capsuleer, someone who resides within a [[PeopleJars specially-designed life-support pod]], [[WetwareCPU wired]] in such a way that the [[ManInTheMachine pod]] (and through the pod, [[SpaceShipGirl the ships they pilot]]) [[ManInTheMachine becomes the capsuleer's body]]. [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist They don't die permanently]], as they are cloned, and are transferred to the clone upon their death. As such, one person has absolute control of every aspect of the ship, they are not going to be able to wander the halls, and [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist death's not much of a risk]]. This can make for a very boring story. Now, while canon does indicate that [[http://www.eveonline.com/background/potw/default.asp?cid=20-04-09 ships have normal crews]], Rourke, Burke and Fodder are all actual players and, thus, capsuleers as far as canon is concerned. Since this leads to a less-exciting story overall, the series puts them in the role of crew members of an otherwise non-player battleship.
** Haffa's ''Widow'', a Black Ops battleship, jumps into systems in Clear Skies without the aid of any the cynosural fields it would require in-game. It also wouldn't have a chance in hell of taking out a tackling frigate with its missiles alone, their signal radius is far too small for battleship-sized weapons to get a decent lock on them. That's the reason battleships pack drones. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking It's also not nearly as rare as its made out to be.]]
** The first thing the [[spoiler:irregular coalition]] fleet does at the start of the battle in Clear Skies 2 is take out the Heavy Interdictor that dragged them out of warp 40km off the gate. With it down there's NOTHING stopping them from simply warping out again then warping back directly onto the gate and jumping through- except dramatic necessity.[[note]]Incidentally, if it had been a standard Interdictor rather than a Heavy this wouldn't have been an issue, as standard Interdictors don't generate a persistent field but instead launch Warp Disruption Probes that project the field even if the Interdictor is destroyed or moves off.[[/note]] A similar thing happens in Clear Skies 1 when the gate camp manages to prevent the crew from warping directly to the gate despite a lack of any form of interdiction whatsoever.
** Sleeper drones by no means "Pop easy enough". Next to hitting them with a massive Alpha damage weapon, the only way to kill them is to have a number of ships that can easily tank their fire, while focusing fire on one drone at a time. [[RuleOfCool But the visual of a Fleet Issue Tempest cutting a swath through a horde of Sleepers is still awesome to see.]]
* PunnyName: "Clear Skies" is a Tempest-class battleship. (Given the fact that the other two Tech 1 Minmatar battleship classes are named ''Typhoon'' and ''Maelstrom'', this was inevitable if they were going to use a Minmatar T1 BS and keep the name "Clear Skies".)
* RammingAlwaysWorks: Some context and lipservice is given to explain why the occurrence here works just fine.
%%* RedemptionEqualsDeath: "Now are we even?"
* RedemptionQuest: In Clear Skies 2, [[spoiler: Rourke is persuaded to risk his life and prevent Jarrod from destroying a populated station by being reminded of his accidental destruction of a civilian tour bus while helping Haffa steal a prototype ship.]]
* SenselessSacrifice: Subverted: [[spoiler:Haffa sacrificed himself]] so that JR and company could get the cynosural jammer to the station in order to stop Jarrod Mason from jumping in a capital ship. [[spoiler:They were too late, but managed to stop Jarrod anyway.]]
* SequelEscalation:
** ''Clear Skies'' featured a battle involving three battleships (one a specialized Black Ops), one cruiser, and two frigates (one a specialized assault ship).
** Thanks to the popularity of ''Clear Skies'', ''Clear Skies 2'' was able to gather dozens of "stunt pilot" participants, and "film" a fleet battle on EVE's test server with a significant number of expensive faction ships, including pirate battleships that would cost over a billion ISK apiece on the EVE main server's markets. [[spoiler: And a Titan that undoubtedly would have cost significantly more than both fleets at the gate battle put together.]]
** Following the success of the first two installments, CCP gave Chisholm access to their in-house cinematic engine, which allowed him to stage a capital-ship fleet battle with spectacular choreography that would be flat-out impossible to achieve within the game. (For example: if you're in a battleship being targeted by two blaster-armed dreadnoughts at close range, your options for survival do not include rolling your ship to one side to slip between their shots.)
%%* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Mr. Smith tends to lean towards this.
%%* SesquipedalianSmith: [[spoiler:Tarquin]] Smith.
* ShoutOut: Sol desperately offering an armed gunman "a jelly baby" in 2; much as [[Series/DoctorWho The Fourth Doctor]] might.
** The amount of power pumped into the engines for JR's Hot Dogging in 3? [[Film/BackToTheFuture 1.21 Gigawatts.]]
* SociopathicHero: Haffa, to the point where Sol describes him by saying "our backup is someone who scares me." When we first see him, he's about to hit a mining operation before John's distress call reaches him seconds before he decides which ship to shoot. [[spoiler: Turns out he's faking it and his conscience has been gnawing at him over the civilians who died when John helped him steal his Widow.]]
* TheStinger: [[spoiler: J.R. finds his couch.]]
* TechnoBabble: Averted when [[spoiler:Ghost]] interrupts an explanation.
--> '''Scientist''': When powered up in the current state, this artifact seems to emit interspatial frequencies, equivalent to that of a fully functional-
--> [[spoiler:'''Ghost''']]: Excuse me?
* TemptingFate:
** Rourke comments that the ''Clear Skies'' and the assembled Caldari fleet ''may just'' have enough firepower to bring down Jarrod Mason's mothership when their plan to stop it from jumping in fails. The way this trope usually goes, there would be a spoiler-tag here covering "Rourke is wrong and they can't stop it," but we actually don't get to find out either way. [[spoiler: [[FromBadToWorse Because it's a Titan]]]].
** This example from the battle of Messoya in Episode 3:
--> '''Charlie''' (in gunnery control): We've picked up two fighters on our tail! They're too fast to hit!
--> '''Sol''' (in engineering, in front of a shield status display reading 86%): We can tank them; just don't get us hit by anything big!
--> ''Exterior shot of the ship getting blasted sideways by a broadside from something big.''
--> ''Cut back to Sol, struggling to his feet, with alarms screaming and displays indicating [[CodeEmergency "CODE YELLOW: IT'S TIME TO START RUNNING"]] and shield status of [[OhCrap 4%]].''
--> '''Sol''' (angrily): WHAT DID I JUST SAY?!
** [[MexicanStandoff During]] Hausmann's monologue in Episode 3, Ghost responds to a quip of Charlie's with "You mess with me, you need a bigger gun than that, sunshine." [[spoiler: Ship-to-ship weaponry should tick that box, and messing [[LudicrousGibs it does]].]]
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Mallozzi's expression in Episode 3 as Rourke requests more time to [[spoiler: knock out the cynojammer in Messoya, requiring the sacrifice of the ''Magellan'' to buy that time.]]
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer for ''Clear Skies 3'' clearly shows [[spoiler: the crew back in the rebuilt Clear Skies instead of the new Maelstrom.]]
** It also shows a quick glimpse of the [[spoiler:Jovian battleship]] when there was no prior indication that the [[spoiler:Jovians]] had any presence in the series at all.
* TookALevelInBadass: The crew gets a [[spoiler: brand new, fully fitted Maelstrom battleship]] at the end, courtesy of Mr. Smith.
** [[spoiler:Even though it promptly gets blown up in ''Clear Skies 3'']].
* TitleDrop: At the end of ''Clear Skies'':
-->'''J.R.:''' No clouds on this horizon. We've got Clear Skies.
** Referenced in ''3''. Sasha asks if there are clouds on the horizon, and Rourke looks meaningfully at the hull designation.
* VillainBall: In ''3'', Ghost could have just actually paid for the power supply while [[spoiler:still impersonating Smith]] and neither Rourke nor Smith would have had any idea what was going on until it was much too late. Money certainly wasn't an issue. Instead, Ghost unintentionally [[NiceJobFixingItVillain made an incredibly dangerous enemy]] by [[spoiler:blowing up the gang's ship]].
* WeaponizedExhaust: In ''3'', the ''Clear Skies'' does this to [[spoiler:prevent Ghost escaping.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Hausmann, TheHeavy of chapter 3, just wants his home planet back. The prospect of heavy casualties in this pursuit gives him pause [[spoiler: and eventually makes him surrender]].
* WeMeetAgain: Jarrod Mason, gloating over his apparent victory and especially tickled that Rourke will be there to witness it.
* WhatAPieceOfJunk:
** Obviously the ''Clear Skies'' although this generally applies to most Minmatar ships by default.
** [[spoiler: Jared Mason's Titan]] is in a laughable state of falling apart, though the only parts the pilot cares about are in working order.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: When Jarrod Mason jump his [[spoiler:titan]] into system at the climax of ''2'' we get a shot of his scientist assistant's corpse sprawled across the blood-spattered command chair.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: [[spoiler: After ''Clear Skies'' runs a huge blockage and succeeds, against the odds, in getting a cynosural jammer to the station in order to stop Jarrod Mason from jumping in a capital ship, the cynosural field required for the jump goes up ''before'' they can actually get the jammer set up and turned on.]]
-->'''Charlie Fodder:''' [[spoiler: That jammer is no good with the cyno already up,]] we're too late! After ''all this,'' we're too late!
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