Delivering death to every doorstep.
The Box Assassin is a 2020 independent animated short film created by DreamWorks Animation staff member Jeremy Schaefer as a thesis film. It is currently available on YouTube
. As of 2024, Schaefer has launched a Kickstarter to develop the concept as a full series with Olan Rogers attached to executive produce.
The short film tells of a skilled veteran assassin with the uncanny ability to hide in boxes of any size - mailboxes, tool boxes, pizza boxes, and any other box where a normal man should not fit. Each entry in the series will cover the viewpoint of a hapless individual who encountered the assassin on the job.
Previews: Kickstarter Video (Including Teaser Trailer)
The Box Assassin includes examples of the following:
- All There in the Script: The name of the pizza boy (Craig) is only revealed in the credits.
- Batter Up!: Two of the Mooks the Box Assassin fights are armed with wooden baseball bats.
- Deadly Delivery: The original short is a parody of this as the assassin hides in a pizza box that he has delivered to some dangerous men.
- Death Montage: The short opens with a short montage showing off the Box Assassin's abilities as he dispatches a series of (offscreen) targets.
- First-Person Dying Perspective: The last scene in the Death Montage is presented in first-person, showing an unseen character opening a matchbox, only for the Box Assassin to shoot directly at the camera.
- Guns Akimbo: The Box Assassin wields dual pistols.
- Gory Discretion Shot: The screen cuts to black before Jax is killed by the Box Assassin.
- Hammerspace Hideaway: The titular assassin's claim to fame is his ability to fit effortlessly into small boxes.
- Offscreen Teleportation: When Jax coerces the pizza guy into driving him away from the assassin, the pair soon find the assassin has somehow appeared in the car's glove box. The assassin also disappears offscreen after giving the pizza guy a tip.
- Oh, Crap!: Once the Assassin materializes inside the glovebox of Craig's car, Jax barely has enough time to look shocked before getting shot dead.
- Pet the Dog: After luring him into danger and shooting a man in his car, the Assassin tips the delivery guy a large stack of cash for his troubles.
- Semantic Superpower: The Box Assassin can appear in anything that can be considered or named a "box" — toolboxes, boomboxes, pizza boxes, and the like. At the climax of the film, it's also revealed that he can appear in the glove compartment of a car — also known as a glovebox.
- Shout-Out: The Box Assassin wields twin chromed, silenced, semi-automatic pistols, very similar to Agent 47's iconic Silverballers.
- Sinister Switchblade: One is wielded by Jax, who uses it to threaten Craig into driving him away from the Box Assassin's ambush.
- Tattooed Crook: Jax, the Box Assassin's target in the original short film, has a tattoo of a skull across the back of his head, and several more around his neck.
- Unreliable Voiceover: The pizza delivery guy narrating the original short claims he kept his cool when the assassin emerged from his pizza box and started taking out goons. In truth, the guy panicked and ran for his car.
- Unwitting Pawn: Craig, who the Box Assassin seemingly hired to deliver a pizza to his target's hideout at the docks, thus providing a means for him to get there undetected.
