Sneaking onto a Melbourne-area train isn’t just illegal — it can get you killed.
At least that’s the tragi-comedy reality in this little video made by a group of young filmmakers. “Endzone” is a faux film trailer for an action movie in which Metro inspectors take no prisoners and, in one case, go undercover to collar the scofflaws who jump fares, cross the platforms’ yellow line or (gasp!) prop their feet on a train seat.
The video is getting some YouTube buzz, with some commenters saying they’d love to see a full-blown “Endzone” movie.
According to its official site, the video was created by OK OK Productions, whose members met at RMIT University and dispersed into different parts of the media omniverse. OK OK is a side project. But the production values and the tone are professional-quality, and the lines (“The trains stop at midnight, baby, the job doesn’t” or “Trains only take us further away from each other”) are hilarious.
And the video resonates loudly with current events. The Baillieu government recently reported that an estimated 13.5% of passengers in the Melbourne public transportation system are riding without tickets, which adds up to an $80 million annual loss in revenue.
And to really pile on, a recent story in The Age said figures suggest fare evaders would be better off financially risking occasional $180 fines than paying for every ride. Ouch.
