Some man vs. nature conflicts go back to the very beginning. Russia vs. bears. Amazonia vs. caimans. India vs. cobras.
And of course, Australia vs. the Emu.
What, had you not heard about “The Great Emu War”? Well buckle up, folks. As it turns out, The Emu War was a “nuisance wildlife management” operation undertaken by the Australian military in 1932, which was designed to vastly reduce the population of problematic Emu in Western Australia. The large, flightless birds had been breeding out of control, devastating farmland in the Campion region of the country, which left only one recourse: Sending soldiers armed with machine guns into the bush in order to kill as many Emu as they possibly could. The rest of the country, apparently finding the situation humorous, dubbed the conflict “The Great Emu War,” and the rest is history. Ultimately, the military incursion did little to curb the overall Emu population, meaning that the birds ultimately could be said to have won the contest.
Now, however, it seems that the Great Emu War is getting the dramatization it so clearly deserves. Australian comedy writer-producers Hot Dad Productions are working on a film titled The Emu War, and its first trailer is … well, it’s really something that you have to see for yourself. Suffice to say, if these are the quality of soldiers defending humanity from the dreaded Emu, we’re all in a whole lot of trouble.
Additional information about the project is scant—is this a trailer for a short film? Can this concept possibly fill a feature-length run time? The trailer promises its project is “coming soon,” so hopefully we’ll have an answer in the near future. In the meantime, enjoy the Australian accents and surprising amount of bloodletting below.