Web Video / Escape from Tarkov: The Raid

"IN 2015, TERRAGROUP INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION DEPLOYED ITS PRODUCTION FACILITIES IN THE NEW FREE ECONOMIC ZONE IN THE NORVINSK REGION."
"WHEN TERRAGROUP LABORATORIES IN TARKOV WERE INSPECTED, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE AUTHORITIES WERE FORCIBLY CONFRONTED BY THE PRIVATE MILITARY COMAPANY USEC."
"THE ARMED CONFLICT IN THE NORVINSK REGION BECAME PROTRACTED. THE TERRITORIES WERE BLOCKADED BY THE RUSSIAN ARMY AND THE POPULATION EVACUATED."
"UN PEACEKEEPING HALTED THE ACTIVE PHASE OF THE CONFLICT. HOWEVER, PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES CONTINUED THEIR LOCAL WAR ON TERRIROTIES CONTROLLED BY LOCAL GANGS."
"A PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANY, BEAR, WAS ESTABLISHED BY THE RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES TO CARRY OUT THEIR OPERATIONAL OBJECTIVES.""

-Opening narration

The Raid, directed by Anton Rosenburg is a live-action five-part episodic web series based on Escape from Tarkov which itself is set in the same universe of Battlestate Games' Russia 2028, which also includes the prequel Contract Wars. It is later complied into a single hour-long video in 2021 as seen here.

The series follows a Russian private military contractor named Skif, who is attached to a team of fellow BEAR (Battle Encounter Assault Recon) contractors to infiltrate the city of Tarkov, located in the troubled region of Norvinsk. Sent to pick up the trail of the team whom he was originally supposed to go in first with but was mysteriously left behind, they encounter constant dangers such as roaming Scavs and USEC (United SECurity) teams that relentlessly hunt them down for the duration of their mission.

As the casualties mount up and the missing BEARs are nowhere to be found, Skif must question his loyalties and figure out an escape from the war-torn city before he too becomes lost to the darkness of Tarkov.

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This web video provides examples of:

• All for Nothing:
  • The mission to find Burov's original team leaves several of Skif's men dead, only for them to find helmet cam footage of the original team being killed at the hands of USEC, with the target secure case probably out of reach.
  • All of Skif's and Mike's efforts to secure their exit pass out of Tarkov goes in smoke when the combined forces of Ogrwyzok's Scavs and Black Division attack the seaport base before they reach the exfil gate.
• Anyone Can Die: The team of kickass BEAR operators who win the initial gunfight start dropping like flies when they assault the factory, leaving Skif as the Sole Survivor. Neither he nor Mike escape Tarkov alive in the end.
• Assassin Outclassin': Sensing an obvious trap, both Mike and Skif pre-emptively eliminate the Scav sniper overseeing the deal at the radio tower and then proceed to wipe out the rest of Boris' guards.
• Bilingual Dialogue: Skif speaks to Mike in either Russian or sometimes broken English, with the USEC seemingly understanding most, if not all of it. On the other hand, Mike speaks only in English, with Skif understanding seemingly all of it.
• BFG: A mounted Kord heavy machinegun is presented as a major obstacle to Skif and Mike.
  Mike: "You see that heavy machinegun? It can destroy helicopters! I'm outta here!"
• Blatant Lies: The ending news segment reveals that the Russian government issued an official statement regarding the events at the seaport is "under control", despite the fact that it is most likely overrun with Scavs and the scores of dead Russian troops left behind.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: Skif discovers from the GoPro footage he finds that USEC contractors massacred the Terragroup researchers they were ostensibly protecting on orders from the company. This same event is what convinces Mike to expose Terragroup and eventually team up with Skif.
• Book Ends: The series starts and ends with a Russian news broadcast on the events happening in Tarkov.
• Catapult Nightmare: Skif has a nightmare where Mike betrays him by stabbing the former in his sleep. He quickly wakes up, then sighs in relief when he sees Mike still asleep and feeling the lack of puncture wounds on himself.
• Combat Breakdown: The BEAR assault on the USEC hideout starts with guns blazing and grenade clearing, but by the end it's just two guys left brawling it out with fisticuffs on the broken shower tiles.
• Concealment Equals Cover: Averted. A Black Division PMC squad finds out the hard way when they try to take cover from a DsHK heavy machinegun behind an abandoned car, only to be reduced to a pile of chunky salsa when the rounds punch straight through.
• Continuity Nod: Several from BSG's Russia 2028 universe.
  • Many equipment seen in the series is consistent with existing or planned weapons in EFT. In one fight scene, the Greber Downrange Hatchet is prominently used by Skif.
  • The layout of the factory in the USEC hideout battle resembles the Factory map in EFT.
  • At the factory residential block, Skif's team encounters a Marked Room filled with cultist writings. They comment on it mentioning that this isn't the first time they've encountered such a sight.
  • Secure containers make a plot-relevant appearance and eventually one becomes the MacGuffin for the series.
  • The BEARs make their way across the Pokihlim factory district, which is a location so far unseen but mentioned in-game by several traders.
  • The Russian seaport base is the same one that can be seen at the outskirts of the Shoreline map in EFT.
  • Ogrwyzok, the trader from the official novel, Predator: Escape from Tarkov makes a live-action appearance in The Raid.
  • The mysterious Black Division PMC makes a return from Contract Wars working for an unknown benefactor.
• Contrived Coincidence: It just so happens that Skif manages to retrieve the specific USEC helmetcam containing footage of his former team being massacred from random loot. Even more so that the USEC group that the BEARs encounter at the hideout happens to be the same one that destroyed Borov's team.
• Coup de Grâce: Both BEAR and USEC troopers do not take chances and put a bullet in every corpse or fresh kill they find. Skif eventually meets his end this way after Black Division is done taking the secure container from him.
• Death from Above: The Russian seaport base is relentlessly bombarded by 120mm mortars during the final battle, which gives Scavs and Black Division an opening to infiltrate the base.
• Destination Defenestration: At the end of the factory hideout battle, Mike tackles and throws Skif out the 2nd floor window and onto an abandoned playground.
• Downer Ending: Both Skif and Mike die in the assault on the seaport base; the secure container they worked so hard to extract with ends up taken by Black Division troopers ensuring the secrets of Terra Group are lost forever. Skif's girlfriend and unborn child will never see their father, nor will they ever know how or why he died.
• Dwindling Party: Skif's group takes losses for every major engagement in Tarkov. By the attack on the USEC factory hideout, he is the Sole Survivor of both this group and the previous one he was originally in.
• Enemy Mine: BEAR trooper Skif ends up teaming with the USEC, Mike due to the bigger threat of encroaching Scavs.
• From Bad to Worse: Skif gets ejected from the second floor of the USEC hideout right as a squad of approaching Scavs investigating the earlier battle rounds the corner.
• Gratuitous English: Mike's dialogue is a little... weird. While all the sentences have correct grammar and pronunciations, word choices are odd and most likely a byproduct of a Russian scriptwriter translating it directly to English without knowledge of American slangs.
  Mike: "You were a shitty opponent."
• I Will Wait for You: As it turns out, Skif's girlfriend was willing to give him a chance to come back, as she is pregnant with his child.
• Let's You and Him Fight: When Black Division attacks the Russian Army garrison at the harbor, they mostly stay out of sight while sending in a horde of scavs as cannon fodder. Apart from their snipers eliminating the searchlights and HMGs on the watch towers, as well as the mortar barrage, they only directly engage the defenders briefly, while the scavs soak most of the bullets.
• Ludicrous Gibs: A squad of Black Division PMCs are reduced to flying chunks of meat when they take a long burst of 12.7x108mm rounds fired from a mounted Kord heavy machine gun. While seemingly overly graphic, it is in fact, absolutely Truth in Television.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Black Division PMCs are seen dressed in all-black uniforms and gear, including intimidating skull balaclavas.
• MacGuffin: A Terra Group secure container containing company secrets shows up midway, revealed to be the main objective USEC were supposed to extract while BEAR was to intercept.
• My Girl Back Home: Skif is shown to be parting on bad terms with his girlfriend before his deployment to Tarkov. He then volunteers for the first group's INFIL thinking that he has nothing left to lose. This changes when he sees his girlfriend's reconciliatory video message on his commander's phone and the stunning revelation that she is pregnant with his child.
• Playing Possum: Skif plays dead after Voron sacrifices himself by tossing a grenade at their attackers in the USEC hideout battle. Two USEC troopers come to investigate the dead, and each receive a pistol shot to their domes from Skif.
• Reliably Unreliable Guns: Lots of rapid firing in the muddy, grimy environs of Tarkov results in lots of malfunctions. A BEAR operator has to frantically clear a stoppage in his sidearm while under heavy fire in the first encounter with USECs, and that's just the beginning^note  It is worth mentioning that the sidearm in question was a Russian Yarygin Pistol (a a military-issue version of which is present in the game) earlier versions of which had noticeable reliability issues. Not even AK-pattern weapons are immune. During the final assault, a Russian Army machine gunner radios that he's being charged by scavs and his PKM is cycling poorly^note  With any automatic or semiautomatic weapon, accumulated fouling from prolonged firing, dirt/mud/dust from the surrounding environment, or built-up ice in extreme cold can cause increased friction on the bolt, causing it to cycle slower than normal. Any shooter familiar with the weapon will notice this, as the slower operation will feel different. A weapon that is slowing down or "cycling rough" is becoming too dirty to function and will soon have problems, and he needs help immediately.
• Revenge Before Reason: Against the better judgement of Voron, Skif and most of the squad decides to go after the USECs who massacred his team leader's squad, despite having failed their original objectives and taking the opportunity to simply cut their losses and make for the extract.
• Shouting Shooter: The entire Scav horde that charges the Russian seaport base.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the factory hideout, a USEC trooper asks who the previous owner of a looted rifle was: a apparently Captain Price, who's dead, baby.
  • One of the USEC operators is named Trombley.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: A shootout in a multi-story apartment block in which both sides wear the same camouflage pattern, use similar gear, and are trained in similar tactics gets really messy, really fast. Team members can barely hear eachother shouting over the noise of gunfire, confusion sets in quickly, and friendly fire from separated teammates quickly becomes a problem.
• Trigger-Happy: The Russian Army at the seaport base are all too eager to open fire on any person who approaches the checkpoint without a valid pass, as Skif finds out the first time when his password turns out to be invalid.
  Skif: [As a Russian soldier aims an HMG at him] "I'm getting really sick of that guy!"
• Wham Line: The final line of Skif's girlfriend's video message.
  Girlfriend: *glances below* - "We'll..... be waiting for you. Because very soon, we'll become a real family."
• Zerg Rush: A horde of Scavs suicidally rush the Russian seaport base after Black Division PMCs detonate explosives and breach a significant length of the defensive wall. Despite mounting losses, they eventually manage to overwhelm the Russian defenders by sheer audacity and numbers.

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