[SFM] The Freeman Show 

“How’s it going to end?” Perfectly encapsulates the half life franchise, we’re all waiting on that 3rd installment

We always ask "where is Gordon?" But we forget to ask "how is Gordon?"

The Release of HL:A seems to have awoken this interpretation of Freeman's character, of a man who's seen more than he should've. Where Freeman was originally envisioned to be a vessel for the player, he has become a standalone entity, one that people feel this immense sadness and empathy for. He's been through a lot. And imagining what Freeman is thinking when he witnesses Black Mesa's destruction, the subjugation of humanity, or getting unwillingly abducted by a space god-- hypothesizing the psychological effects this could have on a man of rationalization like a theoretical physicist is horrific, yet fascinating. Poor Gordon.

Community’s thoughts on Gordon freeman before hl Alyx: Silent psychopath Community after half life Alyx: A broken man sent into an unwinable battle looking for any source of hope.

Both Truman and Gordon have their lives planned out by something or someone moving the strings behind the scenes, so it fits. The million dollar question is; while Truman managed to escape it, how will Gordon attain his freedom?

I'm convinced Gordon's endeavors, the xen, and the combine forces are all at play just so GMan can get something good to watch.

This hits way too hard. You can just feel all the emotion Gordon has gone through, and you *really* feel it.

I like this interpretation of Gordon. A man who can barely go on, but knows, for the good of humanity (and Black Mesa, or the Vorts, or Alyx...) he *has* to. So he keeps going, hoping that in the end, he will get a frankly overdue rest. It makes Half-Life that much more melancholic.

To Gordon, he just went to work one day and never stopped. I doubt he even felt the passage of time while kept in stasis by the G Man, to him it just been a few straight days of sheer unimaginable hell.

I could imagine Gordon having that type of personality before the black mesa incident, it suits him since everybody in sector c knows him quite well. 😊

I see a lot of comments about how we’ve gone from “haha funny FPS man doesn’t talk” to empathy for a fictional character who’s seen, done, caused, and witnessed more death, destruction and chaos than anyone ever should in a hundred lifetimes. One thing that stands out to me is the sheer carnage that constantly plagues Gordon, whether caused by him, done to him, or when he simply happens to be there. “We owe a great deal to Dr. Freeman, even if trouble does seem to follow in his wake.” -Dr. Isaac Kleiner That line, along with events from the series, shows me that the events that constantly beleaguer Gordon are both unintentional on his part, and also completely out of his hands. He’s simply a piece in a greater game of interdimensional chess, one where his role wasn’t one he chooses, but one that is assigned to him by the ones playing. His life went from being late to work one day to inadvertently causing untold death and destruction by an action he didn’t directly take, but was simply carelessness from the other scientists combined with the worst possible time for the resonance cascade to occur, and while it was completely out of his control, he’s indirectly responsible for the Xen invasion and all events afterwards. Even in Black Mesa, his colleagues are killed in horrible ways all around him through events that are seemingly his fault, but he has no control over. For instance, the elevator that crashes near the start of HL1. He had no way of preventing it from falling, but it happened as soon as he arrived. He’s cursed with the fate of watching everyone else suffer while somehow eluding death himself. “The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.” -The Gman Gordan commits his fair share of violence, but (aside from some… questionable… possible player choices in HL1) he’s never the aggressor. He doesn’t go out of his way to cause trouble, but he can’t escape it. It’s all around him, and it permeates every element of his environment. To me, if there is ever a true finale to Half Life, the only way it can end is with Gordon’s death or permanent disappearance. Everywhere he goes, discord follows, and the only way that can truly come to an end is with the removal of Freeman. He simply can no longer exist in a world that still finds resolution. It was never his fault, and he never asked for the burden he faces, but it’s placed upon him nonetheless, and something has to give before the series can truly find an end.

2000s: Gordon doesn't talk because he's a lone wolf badass that lets his guns do the talking 2020s: Gordon doesn't talk because he has PTSD

A crossover that actually contextualizes the source material. *Engineer voice* Good work!

The combine reaching his hand out in fear at Gordon before he kills him is really special because it’s from his perspective, we forget combine soldiers are just modified humans, Gordon looks regretful too because he doesn’t want to be violent, Gordon just wants the fighting to stop

Memes aside this is genuanly heart breaking. It makes me feel bad for Gordon. That it was a normal day at work, then a Resonance Cascade happened and then his life was ruined. He had to kill innocent soldiers that didn't know what their task was. He had to kill Vortigaunts that were forced by the hand of the Nihalinth. And he even had to kill combine who were also forced into a task. All the people and creatures Gordon killed had no other choice. And now, wherever Gordon is now, he has to live with that. Forever.

For Gordon, everything from the beginning of Half Life 1 through to the end of Half Life 2 episode 2 happened in less than a week. At the start of that week he was just a random scientist doing his job, and by its end he had carved his bloody way through aliens and the military before being catapulted 20 years into the future to see how the domino effect he set off led to the invasion of Earth and the deaths of billions. Yet despite everything that's happened to him and everything he's done, he still fights on.

I don’t think people realize how GENIUS this video is. Perfectly recreated iconic shots from the Truman show. The shot with the G man as Truman’s lost dad. Brilliant.

This shot 0:28 . This single shot of G-man strangely humanizes the character for me. Such a look on his face could either read curiousness, or perplexation. He could be watching the scene that played previously with Alyx and Gordon, observing the human nature of the two. Or he could just be thinking on something his benefactors have shared with him, and is trying to figure out how to make his next move. I don't know why this one stands out so much for me. I guess I've never seen such character out of G-man outside of his strange behavior or mischievous grin.

Absolutely LOVE the concept that Gordon was a Truman-esque loveable dork before the resonance cascade. The sort of enthusiastic guy who'd volunteer to test out an HEV suit in an exciting new experiment.

For some reason, I never thought about the mental aspects of Gordon's adventures, and this animation captures a whole lot of them. Maybe the ending where Gordon ends up on a beach unable to help the resistance, after all the time he has been involved in the events after the catastrophe, it could be somewhat of a relief for him

This is a masterpiece, an animation that perfectly demonstrates the events before and after the cascade resonance. You can see how depressed he is, trying to accept the new world and live on, but no matter how hard he tries g man returns him to stasis.

0:06 dude that animation of Gordon doing that Jim Carrey chuckle was 10/10.

0:25 that hugging between Freeman and Alyx seems so human. Like what else can you do when life barges in and takes everything away from you?

Poor Gordon. He was an ordinary scientist who survived so many events. He needs support.

As microscopic as the possibility is, I hope Gordon’s Journey can end with peace for him as a person, as minuscule as it is for said person who’s been through a neverending nightmare

It just reminds me that Gordon isn't a messiah, nor a god in human skin, nor a saviour. He's just a man. A man with a crowbar and an HEV suit. He doesn't deserve any of what he goes through but he still moves on without saying a word.

I think this is one of my favorite videos of yours.

0:28 I like to think that after some time of watching the G Man respects Freeman, as he is possibly the first of his pawns to fight the hardest and survive the longest. Regardless of whether Freeman rebels or not, this intergalactic buisnessman may be impressed if not guilty.

Gordon has went through hell and back with the only thing keeping him from breaking down being the morphine and shock he's in, if he sits down for one second I guarantee you he'd start crying Shephard is probably still in a state of shocked disbelief, he was only 21 in the events of Opposing Force, now he's the only marine left. or he's dead from eating a contaminated chocolate bar. Whatever floats your boat. Barney had to sit by and watch the world go to shit, seeing the horrors of what the civil protection would do, he himself having to partake in them as hinted by his "Beating quota." Eli lost his wife, his friends, his leg and almost his infant daughter. Seeing Gordon must've felt like a dream as up until that point it'd be fair to assume Gordon had died. Breen, although the antagonist, was still trying to help, he coordinated the surrender so the combine wouldn't kill everyone on earth, his "You need me!" line was in desperation as he knew that if the rebellion entirely failed the combine would execute everyone on earth. Grigori helped Gordon through the hell of zombies who may have been his friends and church-goers before the shelling, ultimately though it is to be assumed he dies after Episode 1. The civil protection, desperate and hungry attempt to halt Gordon and the resistance from getting on the train in Episode 1 as a last ditch effort to get out the city, we do not see any Civil Protection after Episode 1 so most likely all Civil Protection forces had died or are now in the outlands with the resistance. We dont even know what is happening in other cities, another person like Gordon may be going through the same things and we wouldnt know. And all this because some dude in a suit wanted to nudge things a little.

The look on his face when Eli gets killed is really well done. The whole thing is actually.

I adore this video. Poor Gordon, swept into the future, everything so suddenly changed. I imagine if Gordon was given just a single day to... relax, to not do anything- he would probably just cry or sit stunned, as all the information of what happened with the 7 Hour War, the Xen, the Combine- all of it catching up to him. He is so alone. But hopefully, with the rest of the Resistance and humans, he won't be alone anymore.

The clip of him holding the crystal is so good. It’s as if something was holding him back from triggering the event that would change his world forever.

"I am The Creator...of a videogame that gives hope and joy and inspiration to millions."

i would pay money for a grim dark, psychological, emotional, gut wrenchingly miserable story of gordon freeman and his adventures

I like that as time has gone past, the horror/tragedy aspect of the Half-Life universe and the impact the events had on everyone in it has come back around to the forefront. Come to think of it, _has_ Gordon been able to get any downtime to process anything?

On a totally unrelated note, for a couple of years we got some great movies that dealt with "simulated realities" and I always felt like The Truman Show got overlooked by The Matrix due to the action sequences. I feel like Truman felt the most believable, because as people, we like a good coming of age story, even if its one person's entire staged existence.

The G-man bit at 0:28 really makes that last scene in HL1 seem more intense This is so well made

In Gordon’s eyes, he’s been through about 72 hours of the most unimaginable hell. He probably has barely had time to process everything that’s going on around him. Everyone else has had decades to come to terms with it. But this poor main character hasn’t gotten a single break. It may have only been days, but in those hours he’s seen more death and destruction than any one man should see in a billion lifetimes.

Something about how the combine seems to be scared, holding out his hand to stop Gordan from shooting, shows so much emotion. Amazing stuff.

Dude your visuals and camerawork never fails to impress!

0:02 lmfao I thought it was the dude who said "Good morning" in a baby voice, made me laugh

I like how people are depicting Gordon as a separate character now, I've never seen him as the game wanted me to, me. And I never really enjoyed the idea of him being a silent protagonist that represents the player.

As terrible and cruel as it may be, Gordon CANNOT be allowed even a moment to reflect because if he does, everything he has seen, done, and lived through will catch up to him at once and while he is strong, he is only human. He would shut down. He would lose his mind and break down

I’m so glad Gordon turned from just a player character into a character in itself. I suppose us stepping in Alyx’s shoes for once helped us realize how Gordon was just unfortunate enough to witness the Black Mesa incident and being a literal puppet to a mysterious man in a suit (which now became Alyx). It’s like Valve is setting us up for Half-Life 3 saying: “Hey, this is what happened. You know what to do next.”

"Now I've seen everything......"

The locker scene with a single shotgun shell was extremely powerful.

There are times when I'm playing hl2 when I just stop and realize just how alone Gordon is throughout most of it. This video just put that way more into perspective

Gordon Freeman is a character that gains depth simply from existing

I know it's been said before so many times, but Freeman has suffered so much chaos in such a short amount of time due to his stasis and longer-than-expected teleportation

And while all of this is happening, a “dangerous mute lunatic” just woke up in an underground facility leaving her with an eerie feeling of loneliness while an unknown robotic voice watches her.

we always ask where's half life 3? but nobody asks _hows_ half life 3

Once again I'm reminded that Gordon went through so much in just a week.

Gordon Feelsman has quickly become my favorite Half-Life meme.

man, the shot of opening the locker that only contains a single shotgun shell is pretty heavy

"There was a time they cared nothing... their only experience of humanity was a crow bar coming at them down a steel corridor."..

Ok but whenever they decide give Gordon a moment of his own (even with voice acting God forbid) I really hope we get this. The only way we've been able to see a glimpse of Gordon's personality is through his choices in the games, and we have yet to see the toll this kind of situation would take on him.

The saddest part is that it's implied that G-Man could remove the Combine from the Earth with a snap of his fingers. That, if he so desired, G-Man and his employers could easily have stopped all the death and destruction the Combine brought upon Earth. But they didn't, because that's not entertaining. Gordon really did become nothing more than an actor in Half-Life. G-Man intervened on a few occasions to help because your main lead dying at the very start of the show would make it uninteresting. Gordon became an absolute nobody to Humanity's Messiah in a matter of hours, not because of his own choice or because that's how the dice just rolled. But because G-Man and his employers manipulated events to turn Gordon into the Messiah. His character role was decided in advance by G-Man. The ending of Half-Life Alyx is Gordon beginning to realize he's just an actor and everything he's been involved in is just one big show for the entertainment of G-Man and his employers. G-Man can manipulate not only space, but time as well. So why couldn't he simply force Gordon to be more obedient, somehow? Simple, he could. But Gordon's storyline was becoming old and he needed a new main character. Alyx. In return for her compliance, he changed time to save her father from death. The question truly becomes, will G-Man's employers allow Gordon to challenge G-Man? That would make for a very interesting show, much more interesting than a bunch of mortals going around shooting other mortals who just happen to have telekinesis. Perhaps if Gordon puts on a good enough show, G-Man's employers will be willing to write in a happy ending for Humanity and Gordon. But that just makes this all the more tragic. Between Half-Life 1 and 2, nothing changed for Gordon. He was still just a theoretical physicist who was fighting for his life with basically zero combat training or experience. Yeah, in Half-Life 2 he had the combat experience from Black Mesa, but at that point, even Alyx had seen more combat than he had. Freeman was 27 during the events of HL1. HL2 is roughly twenty years in the future. That would wreak havoc on the mind of anyone knowing they just spent almost the entirety of their current adult life once over in stasis. And what of Freeman's family? His mother? Father? Sister? Brother? All of them are likely dead, their bodies never found. Assuming his parents survived up to the 7 Hour War. And then how did they feel when the only information they got out of Black Mesa is: "Your son is missing, we have no idea where he is. He is probably dead, it's unlikely we'll ever find his body." Freeman got screwed purely because some Eldritch gods wanted a television show.

I am convinced gorden used to talk but now he has nothing to say

"Good Morning" from a little Alyx is /sniff/ so touching and cute 🥲😍

Okay but can we just take a moment to appreciate the imagery of Gordon opening a locker to find a single shotgun shell? A place where you're supposed to store personal items to keep them safe, instead replaced with a tiny amount of ammo that could extend whoever found its life by a fraction. I dunno why that hit me as hard as it did

I just realized that the baby at the start is Alyx and her parents I maybe wrong but still the fact that he just had a normal morning and went through two different types of hell in a span of under a week is brutal

He's the culmination of Lovecraft protagonists. The modern man, learned in a dangerous field, now facing the consequences of man's hubris in the face of much higher powers. It all was supposed become simple.

I think the mysticism of Half-Life and how it shaped us all growing up hit us harder than most in the medium. Not a Marvel movie, not a comic, not a single thing hits my heart harder than watching this video knowing I've been waiting for Gordon's ending for 16 years.

This is the most influential half life edit I think I’ve ever seen before in my life , this shows a new side of freeman that players probably don’t ever think about , usually freeman is thinking what the player is in that moment but the fact is, that freeman is probably scarred from what he’s done

Me: *gets ready for work at the research lab* The multidimensional alien empire waiting to destroy the planet:

Gordon blinked and missed 20 years of his life, his friends life's, and when he came back he was thrown back in time several times and the last time he was, he got to see one of his old work friends die in front of his eyes And he probably has to live with the false guilt that he started the Combine invasion Edit: I was an idiot and thought that the episodes was gman rewinding time

The fact that Half Life 1 and 2, took place in 1 week in Gordon perspective

The bit where all of his things in the locker were replaced by a shell broke my heart.

Brother.....this animation did not just give me goosebumps.....but it made me feel different and somewhat pleased in a strange sense to watch this over and over and think about Gordon in a way that i cant really explain.......this needs to be like a movie or so dude. this was good and very intriguing ! God bless you.

0:20 Love that little scene of Gordon and the Charger. It doesn’t matter what horrors or G-man shenanigans he’ll have to face on the road ahead; that is totally *his* car. Would love to see him stick with it in future installments.

Wouldn't ever think that slowed F song can be so depressing

"Oh. In case I don't see, good afternoon good evening and good night." That line hits different

I always come back to this one every now and then. Truly my favorite animation of yours

I remember seeing the wips for this in the SFM discord and Jesus fucking Christ. I love this. The idea of Gordon being a hurt individual who saw too much is one of my favorites, and actually I love portraying him as such. this is now going on my favorite animations folder.

'how's it going to end?' hits way harder than expected

"In case I don't see you-" - Dr Gordon Freeman a few hours prior to disappearing for twenty years.

Source 2 has given us one big thing that separates the way old source feels, facial expression. Source 2 has given us not just higher quality but way more expression. And you can see that just in the design of Freeman's face, it's unhappy. He's unhappy. But what choice does he have?

There's something about the context of the half life series and seeing Gordon flip over that post-it note that says "how is it going to end?" That I find spine chilling. There's an entire story in that little piece of paper that we never get to see.

Interesting and full of deep thinking. I'd would pay for and watch a full movie.

"the world is ending and i feel... nothing" There is an image of Gordon Freeman we all have in our heads, nobody has the exact same image however as part of it is still a reflection of ourselves, he never truly stopped being a self insert for the player, we simply changed out perspectives, maybe our outlook on life was changed through recent events, after all "every generation must know it's own suffering" or maybe we have simply "grown up" For me he is simply a broken man that is pushed further and further even though he has been through way too much already, a sad and tragic yet somewhat heroic figure that didn't want all this yet pushes on because it's the only path towards true freedom as even death would no longer be enough to free him

I need a movie of this

When I played half life 2 I would get tired of being in the same area and just wanted to see someone (like ravenholm). I cant imagine gordon freeman himself what he thinks

Turns out civil protection was just trying to stop him from leaving the set

I feel like what sucks the most for gordon is that as soon as he thinks he "won" in the first game, he's immediately grabbed by gman and thrusted into the future, where is looked up to and is just completely expected to save the world yet again. 'Lotta pressure on one man.

God a side-by-side comparison shows just how spot-on this is to the original audio/footage. The animation, the expressions, hell, everything is down to a tee on similarity, I love these kinds of videos that show how much dedication go into replicating it so much.

The idea of the Vance family being Gordon's neighbors before the earth's invasion feels like a gunshot in the heart... 😭

Can't stop comparing both edits frame to frame, it's so amazing how you got the references to the finest details.

0:08 That part was so well animated, and very accurate to Jim Carrey's movements!

That shot from Gordon opening his locker to start the day to looking for ammunition really hits me.

It's a wonderfully fitting comparison to make between Gordan Freeman and Truman Burbank. Both characters are so refreshing, even though they've both been in and on our screens since 1998. Both Gordan and Truman are empty characters to themselves, Gordon is just a scientist to himself, but a saviour to the whole world, and Truman is unknowingly praised by a large percentage of the entire planet. They're both trapped, alone, in worlds, not of their creation, but of their design, Truman has The Director and all the "characters" on his show, and Gordan has The G-man and The Combine. the only thing I can think of that's different about these two characters is that Truman got to walk through a door to freedom, to a new life, to whole life. I just hope that after 24 long and painful years, the "One Free Man" can reach that same peace. But until then, Gordan Freeman will be living Half a Life. I friggin' loved this edit, gave me goosebumps

Yet again great animation

I love the irony of his name

20ish years of ptsd inducing events condensed down to one week

I cried so much

I hope a half life movie comes out where instead of being a cheesy action movie or “gritty”, it shows the main character slowly desensitize and get depressed from everything

This makes me imagine gordon being able to talk before the destruction of humanity, but after the incident at black mesa, he turned completely mute because of the horrifying stuff he went through

I wanna point out how you made this video real quick, cause no one mentioned it. You showed all the major events in the story without giving any of it away, just subtle visuals. So that way people who have played understand it fully, and people who haven’t experienced Half Life for themselves aren’t spoiled. Bravo.

Keep coming back to this video, its just so wonderfully done. It makes me hope for a half life movie so bad.

People be like ‘life is so hard for Gordon’. Nobody thinks about how hard it must be carrying the entire half-life story when the main protagonist is either unwilling or unable to talk. G-man’s got the real struggle.

The first half-life game is Gordon just trying to survive and get out alive, unwillingly killing soldiers so he doesn't die, half-life 2 he's put into a situation where he starts a rebellion uprising he probably didn't want to start and before you know it, he's follow the same routine he did at black Mesa shoot and kill, with no moment of peace, because now he's the biggest target for his foes, for the soldiers he was hated, and the combine he is hated, both unwillingly having to do such... Gordon probably wants to go home, but in half life 2 he probably realizes that his home is long gone, his family probably dead and any hope for his old life is dead, as he now is just a killing machine sent by some higher dimensional being... Gordon is in a perpetual state of panic and combat, unable to free himself for his task he will carry out until it eventually kills him or old age makes him unfit. But would it matter at that point? Gordon has been robbed of his life only to be some employee for some employers he will never meet, playing a part in some plan he never wanted to be part of but unwillingly was. Edit: This Video does bring up one good point, how is it going to end?