Battlefield 2042 is teasing a short film that will show off game locations

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Exodus is coming on August 12

Battlefield 2042
(Image credit: EA)

A Battlefield 2042 short film titled "Exodus" is coming next week, and it looks like it will serve as an introduction to the game's near-future setting.

The short film - not a trailer, but a short film, which is an important distinction - will debut on August 12 at 8 am PDT / 11 am EDT / 4 pm BST. A teaser for the presentation shows a ship entering a massive storm, what appear to be a pair of semi-futuristic vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft flying through the storm with their searchlights on, and finally a soldier on the ground dashing between derelict cars on a wrecked street.

A voice narrates "The world wants to forget we exist. We will force them to see," over the footage, and we can see in the corner of the screen (near the start of the trailer) that this appears to be a message intercepted by the US Naval Signal Corps ship Ravenrock on October 20, 2042, and attributed to target "Oz." A follow-up message reveals that the short film will depict "the locations of Battlefield 2042" from the perspective of a journalist embedded within an unspecified military force.

There's no indication of the speaker's name or who the belligerents are in this particular military operation in the trailer itself. However, what we know from the background details EA previously revealed indicates that the speaker is likely a "No-Pat," or a refugee from one of the many states that collapsed as a result of climate change and economic turmoil in this near-future world.

Many No-Pat soldiers become mercenaries for the world's remaining governments, which is a handy explanation for why Battlefield 2042's unique Specialist characters - who replace the more archetypical class options from previous Battlefield games - will be found fighting on both sides of any given conflict. Battlefield 2042 won't feature a single-player campaign, so external lore drops like this may be the most common way for EA and DICE to give us insight into the world beyond each multiplayer match.

In any case, even if it's just half as wild as that first trailer with the wingsuit dude in a tornado, Exodus should be well worth a watch.

Speaking of the wingsuit, you'll need to play one specific specialist to be able to use it.

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.