[NARRATOR] They first appeared over a hundred years ago.
[NARRATOR] Giant, humanoid creatures with
[NARRATOR] a taste for our blood.
[NARRATOR] The brute strength of these aberrations trumped
[NARRATOR] an average person's many times over.
[NARRATOR] We were shoved to
[NARRATOR] the brink of extinction almost overnight.
[NARRATOR] The survivors erected Walls Maria, Rose, and Sina;
[NARRATOR] withdrawing behind them in frightened huddles for
[NARRATOR] what was to be a century of uneasy peace.
[NARRATOR] And then...
Caw!
"'Til then a man apart from God. O wretched was I.
And driven e'en as a plough by avarice."
[PREACHER] "Now, thou behold'st, am I here punished for it.
[PREACHER] Punished by the justice of God."
[PREACHER] "Where covetousness leads, thou sees't bourn.
[PREACHER] Upon the penance of these writhing souls,
[PREACHER] the Mountain holds no greater pain!"
[PREACHER] "As greed has drowned our love for every good,
[PREACHER] every right, so justice here doth chain."
[panting]
[screaming] Please! No!
[PREACHER] "Tethered, captive, are; merged with the clay.
[PREACHER] And thus to remain so long as it pleases The Lord:
[PREACHER] fraught, fixed, earthen in heart and limb."
"What else may heav'nly grace do for sins as ours?" Huh?
[PREACHER] "For we lifted not our eye to heights bequeathed,
[PREACHER] and like the plou--"
[heavy breathing]
[punch]
[HANNES] Damn it! Stop!
[EREN] You son of a bitch! We could've saved her!
We almost had her out! Why did you come? Why?
[HANNES] I told you to stop!
Eren!
[HANNES] Look...
[HANNES] There's nothing you could've done for her,
[HANNES] you understand? You're a kid; you're weak.
[HANNES] I'm worse. When push came to shove,
I was too frightened to hold my ground.
Your mother died because I'm a damn coward!
[HANNES] I'm sorry.
It's the same thing all over again.
[screaming]
Hurry up! Keep your eye on the Gate!
[HUGO] Drop everything, find the ferry nearest you
[HUGO] and climb aboard for all you're worth! Move it!
[HUGO] These things aren't gonna give you a head start!
[NARRATOR] So-called Outlier Districts like Shiganshina
[NARRATOR] jut out like thorns at vital spots along Wall Maria.
[NARRATOR] Their basic function is to streamline
[NARRATOR] troop dispersal and keep security costs down by
[NARRATOR] drawing Titans into specific areas.
[NARRATOR] The calculated design flaw in all
[NARRATOR] Outlier Districts is that they have only
[NARRATOR] a single gate through which its citizens
[NARRATOR] are able to retreat deeper inward
[NARRATOR] should the need arise.
No personal belongings! We need to make
as much room as possible!
Armin. You best have a seat.
I will. Just keeping an eye out for my friends.
There they are!
[ARMIN] Eren.
I wouldn't try to call out just now.
Give 'em their space. God only knows what they've just seen.
[panicking]
Stop dragging your feet! Snap out of it!
I need those canons loaded!
C'mon! They're headed right for us!
[screaming]
[panting]
[MALE CITIZEN] This isn't real. This is a nightmare.
[FEMALE CITIZEN] God help us. God help us. God help us.
[panic and shouting]
[MALE CITIZEN] Hey! What are you doing?
[MALE CITIZEN] What are the rest of us supposed to do?
[ELITE] I'm sorry, it's at full capacity!
[FEMALE CITIZEN] You can't do this! Please!
[FEMALE CITIZEN] At least let our children on board!
Look, there's nothing we can do! Push off, now!
[FEMALE CITIZEN] Don't leave us!
[MALE CITIZEN] There's still room!
[panic]
♪
What are you aiming at? Have you got rocks in your head?
Sir. With respect, they're old as sin and not designed
for accuracy to begin with!
[HUGO] You gonna give me attitude or you gonna reload?
[HUGO] Stop whining and do your job!
[ELITE] What's the point?
No. The Inner Gate.
I'm not getting left behind.
[ELITE] Retreat or die!
Hey!
[HANNES] Wait! Are you out of your mind? Don't shut it yet!
[HANNES] We've still got people out there! Give 'em a chance!
We can't let the Titans get through the Inner Gate.
If that happens, the handful of lives left out there'll be
the least of our problems! There aren't enough resources for
the whole human race to retreat behind
the next wall if they break through!
Listen to yourself! We're soldiers;
we don't get to decide who lives or dies!
What are you waiting for?
The Titans are closing the gap!
That does it, bring 'er down!
No!
Let go of me!
[gasp]
♪
[HUGO] What the hell?
[HUGO] Oh no.
Fire!
What?
Impossible!
We've gotta get the hell out of here!
Retreat! Retreat!
Shut the gate, now! We're being charged!
[HUGO] Go, go, go!
♪
[shaky breathing]
[HANNES] Oh, God.
[NARRATOR] Bad news travels fast.
[NARRATOR] Hours after Shiganshina fell,
[NARRATOR] every man, woman, and child within the Interior
[NARRATOR] knew the unthinkable had come to pass.
[NARRATOR] Terror spread like wildfire.
[LORD] What do you think we're meant to make of these reports
[LORD] of Shiganshina falling to the Titans?
Are they verified? That outcropping has held
for a century; it makes no sense.
Whether or not they're verified. The refugees are certainly
flooding in like plague rats.
There've been at least
five-hundred accounted for in the boats.
The question is how prepared are we if Shiganshina is in ruins?
Come now. Surely Wall Maria is enough on its own to
hold the Titans at bay, don't you think?
Damn it all. Any way it's sliced the situation is untenable.
Our hands are tied. I say we make appeals
to the Central Government for help.
[ELITE] Excuse me, my lords!
You'll really want to hear this!
Wall Maria's been broken through.
The Titans are-- They're in!
This is the end.
[COMMONER] That's it. We're all dead.
We're dead and standing at the gate of Hell.
[EREN] It's gone.
Our house. It's all gone. Forever.
[EREN] Forever.
[EREN] Why was I always such a brat?
[EREN] Why did I always fight her?
[EREN] I never said, "I love you."
[EREN] Now I'll never get to.
[EREN] Never!
There's nothing you could've done for her, you understand?
Because I'm a kid. Because I'm weak.
Because every last one of us is a damn coward!
[fighting tears]
[EREN] No. This is over.
What're you--?
[ARMIN] What's wrong? You see something?
[ARMIN] Eren.
I'm going to put a stop to this!
I'll kill them all.
Every last one.
Eren.
[NARRATOR] In terrified haste, The Central Government
[NARRATOR] declared the Outlier Districts a lost cause
[NARRATOR] and decreed all mankind retreat
[NARRATOR] behind Wall Rose. Estimates held that nearly
[NARRATOR] ten-thousand lives were lost
[NARRATOR] to the Titan offensive.
Eren. Carla. Mikasa. Please be alive!
[GRISHA] Eren! Stay with me, boy! Wake up!
[EREN] Stop it! Please, you're scaring me!
[EREN] I don't understand what you're trying to do!
[GRISHA] You don't have to! Just give me your arm!
[EREN] No! You're insane!
[EREN] Mom's death pushed you off the deep end!
[GRISHA] Shut up!
[EREN] Get off! Let me go!
Damn you, this is the only way!
[EREN] You're not making any sense!
[GRISHA] You cannot forget the key!
[GRISHA] Whatever you do, you must reach it!
[GRISHA] It's the way to the Truth!
[GRISHA] One day you'll understand!
[bells ringing]
Hey. It's okay. You were just dreaming.
Dad was-- It felt so real.
Nightmare. Shake it off.
Yeah.
[MIKASA] Come on.
They're handing out food rations near the warehouse.
[MIKASA] I think this used to be where they
[MIKASA] stored all the dry goods.
[MIKASA] Now it's where they corral the refugees.
[gasp]
[chattering]
[COMMONER] I don't think so, friend!
[ANOTHER COMMONER] Give me a break!
All I've had for two days is a moldy bit of crust!
Not exactly a dignified existence.
[ARMIN] Hey guys!
[EREN] Armin.
Glad I caught you. Here. Grandpa scrounged a little extra
by telling the powers-that-be he had kids.
That was nice of him.
Tch!
What's his deal?
Just ignore it. There's a shortage.
Poor man's probably hungry.
By the way, I'd make that last.
[ARMIN] They were already dealing with famine
[ARMIN] before we got here, so it's
[ARMIN] an ugly situation. That, and this far in
[ARMIN] there's a greater disparity between
[ARMIN] the haves and the have-nots.
Nothin' more gratifyin' than
seein' your rations go to animals.
Guess we gotta beef up the herd, though.
Eat up, the Titans like a little meat on their bones!
Eren, wait!
Oughta keep you in cages.
Shove you out to the frontlines as a buffer.
Oww! Damn it! You picked the wrong man, asshole!
Spineless cowards! All of you!
You don't-- You don't know what it's like!
Huh?
You seen one? You seen what they can do?
You little piece o'--
He's sorry! He didn't mean it; he's just hungry.
We all get that way; speak our minds out of turn sometimes?
Forgive him. I beg you.
Yeah, well. Keep in mind who's givin' up
their share so you can eat.
In case you hadn't noticed, we're all hungry.
[ELITE] Tell your buddy a little gratitude goes a long way.
Sure!
Bastard. I'm not about to show gratitude to a coward!
[EREN] I can't do this. I'm going back to Wall Maria.
[EREN] The Titans have to pay for what they've done to us.
Hey, now. You're not serious; that's your stomach talking.
No, it's not!
Wake up! The guys standing between us and them
are just a bunch of talk!
To hell with all of 'em! Here. I'm going back!
Yeah? What're you tying to do, starve?
When are you gonna get sick of their charity?
Too much is handed to us!
We have to stand on our own two feet!
To do what? Get killed by a Titan?
I know I used to think our future
was beyond the walls. But it's like you told that man.
I'd never seen what they could do to us!
So that's it? This is just the way life is?
Run away and take what we're given?
Look at us! What choice do we have here?
We can damn-well leave! If you wanna scrape by on
the charity of cowards, that's your thing,
but I'm not a parasite!
[ARMIN] Mikasa.
[MIKASA] Have you looked in the mirror lately?
[MIKASA] All of us are parasites.
[MIKASA] We couldn't run from certain death without help.
[MIKASA] Tell me differently.
[MIKASA] Don't take your shortcomings out on him.
[MIKASA] For god's sake, we can't even find food on our own.
[MIKASA] We're parasites. We're cowards.
[MIKASA] Titans are at the top of the food chain. Period.
Pride be damned; we do what we must to live.
Your mom didn't ask us to be brave.
Mikasa!
Eat it. She asked us to stay alive.
I'm not about to let her down.
[crying]
♪
[NARRATOR] A few days later, throngs of starved refugees
[NARRATOR] were put to plough in the wastelands
[NARRATOR] as a last-ditch effort to raise food.
[NARRATOR] But the cold, hard ground yielded nothing.
[NARRATOR] And the following year, 846, the remaining
[NARRATOR] refugees old enough to serve in the military
[NARRATOR] were tasked with reclaiming Wall Maria.
[NARRATOR] Of the 250,000 sent,
[NARRATOR] nearly twenty percent of the surviving population,
[NARRATOR] not even two hundred made it back.
[NARRATOR] While it did nothing to drive back the Titans,
[NARRATOR] their sacrifice did at least lessen the effects
[NARRATOR] of famine within the Interior.
[crying]
[EREN] We have to find a way to stop them.
[EREN] Our lives will never be our own until we do.
[EREN] This world will never feel like home.
That's it. Next year I'll be applying to join the Cadets.
To become strong enough to fight back.
I'm with you.
You don't have to--
I do.
[MIKASA] So do I.
Damn it! I'm not trying to drag you in.
Look, there's no point in following me to my death!
Yeah. And if I can help it, then it won't be your death.
All right. Together then.
[KEITH] Straighten those spines, piss-ants!
[KEITH] The 104th Cadet Corps Boot Camp starts now!
Allow me to introduce myself: I'm Commandant Keith Sadies;
And you will grow to hate me.
Training is gonna be a white-knuckle ride through Hell.
If I've done my job, you'll be waking up in a cold sweat
[KEITH] from memories of this place every night
[KEITH] for the rest of your miserable lives.
[KEITH] Right now, you're nothing. Livestock.
[KEITH] But over the next three, soul-crushing years,
[KEITH] you'll learn to take down your own Goliath.
[KEITH] Remember this moment when you come face to face
[KEIHT] with him, 'cause here's where you ask yourself:
[KEITH] Am I a fighter, or am I feed?
[KEITH] Am I gonna be ground up to pulpy human grist
'tween boulder-sized incisors.
[KEITH] Or am I gonna be the one to bite?
Oh, I'm a fighter, alright. And before I'm done with 'em,
the Titans will grow to hate me.
[NARRATOR] It isn't easy.
[NARRATOR] Hard truth: Passion's no guarantee you'll
[NARRATOR] stick the landing. Unless you can transmute it
[NARRATOR] into skill. When you're floored by fundamentals
[NARRATOR] all the heart in the world means nothing.