Doc Savage III: Stuck, Glitched, and Talking to a Wall

What happens when you trap a legacy, an identity crisis, and a faulty voice assistant in a high-rise elevator that technically shouldn’t exist? You get Doc Savage III and the Hidden Elevator, a pulp-inspired, lo-fi sci-fi short film created as part of the AI Tampa 24 Hour Challenge in the Spring of 2012.

In this retro-futurist satire, Clark Savage III (played by Gavin Davie) is stuck—physically and existentially. Locked inside an elevator that’s been scrubbed from the building’s schematics, he faces off with WATCH, a malfunctioning AI voice assistant (voiced with passive-aggressive flair by Jim Reiman). Unfortunately for Clark, WATCH refuses to acknowledge the elevator’s existence. Even worse, no one’s coming to help.

As the hours tick by, Clark is left alone with nothing but his thoughts and an extremely unhelpful AI to grapple with the shadow of his father, the legendary Doc Savage. Buried under a crumbling empire of secrets and surveillance tech, Clark must confront his own impostor syndrome and decide whether he’s the man he was supposed to become…or just a glitch in the system.

Doc Savage the Third is equal parts hero deconstruction, sci-fi chamber drama, and dry comedy. It’s what happens when you blend pulp fiction aesthetics with modern anxieties and then make the whole thing in just 24 hours.

Cast:

Gavin Davie as Clark Savage III
Jim Reiman as the voice of WATCH
Justin Padilla as Doc Savage

Crew:

Written, Directed & Edited by Robb Fladry
Produced by Justin Padilla
Director of Photography: Jim Reiman
Visual FX: Simeon Liebman
Original Music: Triangle Conspiracy