Power/Rangers
Power/Rangers, or Power Rangers: Unauthorized, is an American superhero fan short film based on the Power Rangers franchise, and was directed and co-written by Joseph Kahn, produced by Adi Shankar and Jil Hardin, and co-written by James Van Der Beek and Dutch Southern. The short film featured an ensemble cast starring Katee Sackhoff, Van Der Beek, Russ Bain, Will Yun Lee, and Gichi Gamba. It was released on YouTube and Vimeo on February 23, 2015. Plot After the Machine Empire defeats the Power Rangers and destroys the Megazord in battle, Earth's governments negotiate a truce with the Machine Empire and the Power Rangers are disbanded. Years later, Rocky DeSantos, the second Red Ranger has defected to the Machine Empire, critical of Zordon's use of the Power Rangers as child soldiers, and now sports a prosthetic leg. While interrogating a restrained Kimberly Hart, the former Pink Ranger, about the location of Tommy Oliver, the former Green Ranger, he details the fates of the other Rangers in flashback: Jason Lee Scott, Rocky's Red Ranger predecessor, was gunned down eight hours after marrying Kimberly, when Farkas Bulkmeier and Eugene Skullovitch seemingly revealed their location to a police force (later dying of a meth overdose and drowning, respectively). Zack Taylor, the former Black Ranger, was an insatiable action junkie and "Hip Hop Kido" workout instructor who became a Machine Empire enforcer (seen taking down the North Korean Kim and his goons personally) before being murdered by an unknown assassin. Billy Cranston, the former Blue Ranger, became an openly-gay trillionaire who ended up buying Lockheed Martin and was found dead of an apparent suicide. Rejecting Rocky's claim that Tommy is hunting down the Rangers, Kimberly tells Rocky that she has not seen him since the funeral of Trini Kwan, the former Yellow Ranger, who died during the treaty negotiations. Rocky acknowledges that he already knew that; she is really being held as bait to lure out Tommy. Tommy arrives and kills the guards, entering into single combat against Rocky in a sword duel. When Rocky gains the upper hand, Kimberly shoots and kills him, but Tommy demands to know who she is, revealing that the real Kimberly died during the final battle years earlier. The fake Kimberly's façade crumbles to reveal Rita Repulsa, who killed all the others: she distracted Jason during the shootout and executed Zack and Billy with gunshots. Rita attempts to lure Tommy into her plan of world domination (noting that she created him) but he denies her, attacking her as the film ends. Several of the plot points make references to real-life incidents in the original Power Rangers actors' lives: David Yost, who played Billy, came out as gay after the series ended and was bullied by the original show's producers because of it, which caused him to leave the show and contemplate suicide. Thuy Trang, who played Trini, died in an automobile accident in 2001; Jason David Frank, who played Tommy, was unable to attend Trang's funeral (as he was