Work Text:
About the Video
- Cast: Dan Stevens as John Rider; Maika Monroe as younger Helen Rider; Charity Wakefield as older Helen Rider
- Song: An Evening I Will Not Forget / Furthest Thing by Dermot Kennedy (2018)
- Film Footage: The Riot Club (2014); The Guest (2014); Kill Switch (2017); It Follows (2014); Amelie (2001); and Alex Rider TV series (2020)
Backstory:
I made this fan video after combing through different pairings in the AR ’verse (catalogued by the Ship Week team in these “Popular Ships” and “Rare Pairs” Tumblr posts. Thank you Rirren and Pongs!!). Originally, I planned to write John and Helen’s origin story at Oxford. It got to the point where I invented two OC sisters for Helen named Pippa - short for Penelope - and Paris, because how could I miss an opportunity to create a trio of sisters named after Trojan War characters? 😆
Luckily, the fandom was saved from my experiments in Greek tragedy because of Dermot Kennedy’s song “An Evening I Will Not Forget / Furthest Thing”. This is Dermot’s mix of his ballad “An Evening I Will Not Forget” with Drake’s rap song “Furthest Thing.”
The longing and pain in the song captured Helen and John’s tragic relationship for me: they sacrificed so much for Queen and Country, and were on the cusp of starting a new life with baby Alex...but they never got that chance and Alex was orphaned in the process. 🥺 Also, what was it like for Helen, away from her husband day-to-day, and knowing that keeping secrets from her was part of his job?
From there, I figured a fanvid would be a fun creative outlet instead of a fic, especially because of this ingenious Tumblr fancast of John and his “Hunter” persona. I was excited to use footage from the same film, The Guest, because I thought the lyrics of “Furthest Thing” complemented Scorpia!John really well ( Plottin’ on the low / Schemin’ on the low ).
I am sharing this on “Secrets” day for AR Ship Week because secrets are rife in Helen and John’s relationship. Also, it's the last day /procrastination life
Tools
I used Lightworks, a free software, to do the cutting and splicing. (For Lightworks tutorials, Chipper Video on Youtube is a LIFESAVER.) I also used MP3Cut.net to shorten the song because it’s originally 6 minutes 30 seconds long o-o All done on my PC laptop.
Video Commentary
Underneath my coat won't you tap my shoulder, hold my hand
Nights with nothing but dark in there
You can be my armor then
- The video kicks off with scenes from Helen and John’s burgeoning romance. We see far shots of them hanging out on a rooftop at Oxford, then kissing in the darkness. The scene then jumps forward in time, showing Helen and John in their home, embracing during one of the few times they get to see each other between John’s undercover stints.
Island smiles and cardigans
The nights that we've been drinking in
- Going back in time, Helen and John are on a roadtrip together. I originally headcanoned John and Helen meeting each other because Helen needed a ride to a weekend students’ retreat in the countryside, but their car breaks down on the way in a storm and they have to find impromptu shelter. Helen makes an impression on John with her very practical survivalist skills, and John is rugged and charismatic and kind of full of himself 😏 (Yes, alllll the slow burn. Even in canon, I believe they meet at Oxford but only get together after Helen becomes a nurse and John returns from military service.)
- Anyway, this is not that roadtrip, but they are in the flower of their relationship and enjoying each other’s company on the road.
We're here to help you kill all of this hurt that you've been harboring
Confessions should be better planned
Alone, that night, I'm surely damned
Run away, I'll understand it
- Back to the future again, Helen is emotional and upset thinking about how much danger John is in. There is a flashback to the past when John and Helen confess their feelings to each other.
What's important is this evening I will not forget
Purple, blue, orange, red
These colors of feeling, give me love, I'll put my heart in it
And I think about it all the time
The lights went out, you were fine
You kinda struggle not to shine
And I wonder if I can let her down
- More happy memories of their time on the road including a flash of the rooftops at Oxford. The scene ends with Helen asking John to quit his dangerous assignment with Scorpia, right before he is very dramatically recalled by MI6 back to undercover work.
- There is one pretty choppy cut in the middle here. It is the collateral damage of trimming a 6.5 minute song down to 2 minutes XD In return you get a glimpse of the Oxford eating hall and Helen in a classroom!
Somewhere between psychotic and iconic
Somewhere between I want it and I got it
Somewhere between I'm sober and I'm lifted
Somewhere between a mistress and commitment
- It’s time for...Hunter supremacy!
- John is very, very good at his job as Hunter. He is completely ruthless. You see Hunter working here, interspersed with glimpses of John, looking much more vulnerable when he is home with Helen.
- I think that’s grenadine Hunter is drinking 🧐
But I stay down, girl I always stay down, get down, never lay down
Promise to break everybody off before I break down
Everyone just wait now, so much on my plate now
- Hunter is undercover as a killer-for-hire, and you get a glimpse of his emotions and moral conflict after he eliminates one of his targets here. You might feel like nothing was the same
- Vices - all part of Hunter’s cover! (Slight deviation from canon wherein his drink of choice is grenadine and whiskey, not beer.)
- There was plenty of footage to make this R but I decided to go with PG-13 XD Drake and I were very pleased that The Guest has scenes of Dan Stevens both drinking and smoking…
- A quick flash to Helen and John on the Oxford rooftop during “perfect”.
- The scene from Russian Roulette: John runs up the steps of Sacre-Coeur to meet Helen while she is pregnant.
- Then we cut to the far future and their legacy, Alex, walking down the hall at Brooklands 🥰
And I still been drinkin' on the low, mobbin' on the low
F*****' on the low, smokin' on the low
I still been plottin' on the low, schemin' on the low
And I wonder if I can let her down
It’s for real, it's for real