Swatted

As part of the shorts program Gamepads, Plokta presents:

Picture this: you’re midway through an online shooter, when suddenly a real-life SWAT team bursts through the door – armed to the teeth and ready to unleash real bullets. You’ve been swatted.

Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis’ short documentary tracks this contemporary prank, where gamers use fake 911 calls to trigger real-life raids on other players. Through hypnotic animations, YouTube footage of these raids both in- and off-game, and firsthand accounts of their traumatic effects, Swatted probes the motives and detachment behind this extreme form of trolling. Ultimately, it asks, what happens when irony and antagonism spill offscreen – when players become played for real.