Sci-Fi Short Film: "One Small Step" | DUST

A father struggles to right a wrong committed several years before. If he fails his family dies.
"One Small Step" by Zachary Purcell
Connect with the Filmmakers:
/ purcell.zachary
"One Small Step" Credits:
Written & Directed by Zachary Purcell
Cinematography by David Wells
Produced by Jennell Lewis, Nicki Prian and Zachary Purcell
Musical Score by Nick Shadel and Aaron Benson
Production and Post Sound by Rich Hamilton
Set and Production Design by Joscelyne Ponder
B Camera Operators, Tony Stolfa and Greg Fulks
Edited by Tyler Mager and Zachary Purcell
1st AC, Brent Klein
Makeup and Special Effects by Brooke O Wilson
Frozen Man, John Barajas
Frozen Woman, Michelle Smith
Frozen Wife, Dawn Dillard
Frozen Daughter, D'Lee Dillard
BTS Photos by Paola Longoria
PA, Diego Longoria
Military Consultant Ryan Lynch
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DUST presents thought-provoking science fiction content, exploring the future of humanity through the lens of science and technology. From timeless classics to cutting-edge movies, series, short films, and podcasts, DUST acquires, produces and distributes all content types.
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[@zach.smith2000]

Hey all, I'm the writer/director for One Small Step. Looking forward to responding to comments, questions and critiques!

[@sharkylpd4]

Well done!!

[@infotoons212]

That was fantastic! (And I don't use praise like that lightly.)

[@forgeteverythingyouknow5413]

Do you want an honest visceral opinion? Waste of time to watch, no explanations whatsoever, nothing to even care about. Hi, weird stuff happened, but we can't be bothered to give you any hints at a reason. WASTE OF TIME man... waste of time.

[@momoney00can]

Will there be a prequel or sequel to this ? To love to see what lead up to this and aftermath

[@dalebecause2467]

What's the overriding storyline???

[@RussRusso]

Had no idea whatsoever as to what was happening in the film or why, but Holt Boggs really should be leading his own television series, the man is overdue for it, just a better actor than half of the fluffy mofos on tv right now!

[@brucehall9473]

It was about a corporat nevermind

[@zethraelofteldrassil3149]

Absolutely no idea what this film was about ... even watched it 3 times

[@jenesisjones6706]

None of these true diamonds of "short stories" should ever be made into a movie! The art of a short story is the pinnacle of imagination, a story that leaves you breathless, heartpunding, or crying, or laughing, or shellshocked and, briefly, numbed. THIS brilliant "short story" is such a one. KUdos to you Zachary, and thank you.

[@stevenscott2136]

I'd say it varies drastically. Some DUST vids are perfect little self-contained "Twilight Zone" episodes, complete as they are. Others are clearly trailers for something much bigger, but a good trailer doesn't always mean a good movie, and a bad trailer doesn't always mean a bad movie - much depends on whoever writes the missing pieces. Then we have some which are clearly lacking, and the question becomes whether they're lacking due to limited time and budget, or because the film-maker just isn't very good (yet). I suspect a community discussion over which is which would eat up a LOT of electrons!

[@gotjuice7160]

The old man and his team develop a machine that can dialate and stop time. The private company he works for has fired all prev team members that worked on the project when it failed. The old man re-enlists and they finally succeeded not in time travel but time dialation. After 3 years of refining the process on base the company decides to eliminate all former team members to tie up any loose ends of anyone with project knowledge. So the company has the old man and a shooter stop time and eliminate the ex team members. The dialation effect causes a time rift of 15-20 minutes where no further ‘pauses or re-entries can happen. Hence why the wife of the murdered man had to die. To allow enough time passage for another dialation to take place. When the old man realizes he is the last ‘loose end’ as his contract is up, he begins to understand his family is now at risk and goes to his former home to record a video to allow them time to escape.

[@azdweller63]

Thank you!!

[@ronin47-ThorstenFrank]

Are you from the team making the short, or did you come up with this through watching the video. If the latter you understood a lot of the stuff the same way I did.

[@gotjuice7160]

@@ronin47-ThorstenFrank I got this and a little more just from watching the video. Like they reason they shot the older lady. They can’t encroach on already dilated fine. So they killed her so she couldn’t dial 911 and gives the cleanup crew a window to dialate time, get in and clean up the extra dish, cake eaten, vomit etc.

[@infotoons212]

I thought the same as you about the time-dilation and the reason for killing the old woman but the older man isn't supposed to be there. You can tell this by the way he looks at the "Target". Thomas the Field Agent has a side hustle smuggling people lockdown on the base to see their loved ones. The older man has paid off Thomas to tag along on this trip because the man being assassinated, James D Michaelson happens to live in Austin TX a few blocks away from the older man's wife. He's told the field agent that he's going to bring a letter because he knows that there are no video cameras allowed. But he also knows his wife won't believe a crazy story written in a letter. She has to see a video camera appear in front of her out of nowhere, with a video of him on it sitting beside her recording his message to ensure she'll take it seriously and act right away.

[@moneyguy2008]

Were the old man and old lady that were killed ex team members or were they family of ex team members?

[@ProfessorJayTee]

I generally like the "Dust" programs. But this is the first one I've watched I feel deserving of a longer format to tell its story. An excellent foundation for a movie, or more.

[@donm5354]

Very good - like many have said it begs for a backstory and details about this mission. Solid core for more episodes or a longer feature film.

[@agentbey]

Agreed!

[@sirritakelly]

This should be a movie, it very interesting

[@s2art720]

Oh comon man, I NEED MORE OF THIS STORY! Please. So well done!

[@drewwellington9337]

Amazing! Please give my respect to Nick and Aaron, sound was amazing, and you got some really tough scifi stuff right, like the radio and the firearm, give Rich props for that. Casting was also excellent, whoever played the main character was a great choice. Looking forward to seeing this get picked up for a full length movie.

[@montanateri6889]

Wow. Acting top notch, that guy blew my mind. He was the personification of abject terror the whole time. Story was mind boggling. If the main guy had left in the beginning when the 'thing' happened at the lab, and he had, 'choosen' his family instead of staying, he would have gone home then and within days, all of them would have been murdered. To be able to freeze time is total absolute power. The people at the top would never let others live who could tell.

[@gavin8tor]

Is it bad that I get so engrossed in these films that I forget to hit that "like" button 🤪

[@moneyguy2008]

No, you can do whatever you want. You're a free, sovereign being.

[@dtfa66]

by far the best Dust that I can ever remember. Make this into a movie or a series!

[@rudevalve]

Certified Gold!!!!!

[@the3cl3ctic]

.. and the acting was good too!

[@comcastjohn]

Most excellent!

[@MrTaxiRob]

A lot of these shorts don't give us enough of the story to really draw us in, this one totally does. No time wasted on panoramic visuals, it's tight and concise as it should be. I want more, and I don't even like time travel plots.

[@darkbulb367]

Ambiguity can be useful, even effective at times. This isn't one of those times. The drama, story, saga aren't good enough to carry a non existent plot. When the viewer is too busy trying to figure out the damn situation at all everything else falls off the back of the cooktop. Has alot of potential. I'd really like to see a recut. Nothing wrong with a rebuild.

[@zach.smith2000]

Yeah, after filming it we did consider re-filming one of the scenes and trying to include more backstory, but ultimately we decided the backstory was just too complicated for a 12 minute short. If we could do it again a few key dynamics would need to be simplified to really make things click. BUT i have been surprised that several people in the comments have been super close to providing a full synopsis just off the few clues the film does give.

[@WarlordMoA]

absolutely brilliant, a short that can actually be a movie for the summer period

[@brucehall9473]

Wow!! Brilliant!! How could you encompass that much in 11 minutes??!! Ty again Dust RULES!!!!

[@_mysilentblue2227]

Yes yes yes! Great stuff.

[@PrimitiveInTheExtreme]

Very interesting, very good job everyone.

[@durasaxon5131]

This was so freaking real. Technology is beyond what people think. This video was extraordinary. Kudos to all involved! + Durasaxon +✝️

[@freshlesh3019754]

Great short loved the premise. Really solid mystery box and use of story telling on a limited budget. Would love to see this as a Black mirror episode. It gave me 90s era Outer Limit vibes (in the best way).

[@Scratchingforcash]

Great film!! And for people who are putting ignorant comments on here let’s start with YOUR free films so we can critique them. Oh wait, you don’t have any……..go away ignorant people

[@tk000]

Very well done overall. And I have to have more of this....especially since I have no idea wtf is going on. Yes, I'm aware this is a short and expect, and typically enjoy, the open-endedness and bits of plot left to the viewer's imagination; but without the underlying backstory, this just barely misses the mark for me. (And all of you who presume to know what exactly is going on here are fooling yourselves.)

[@2DGraphicDesign]

That is the nature of short stories.

[@the3cl3ctic]

VERY GOOD! Throw some SCP in the mix and expand it to a full feature!

[@Flash1857]

Good, needs a movie

[@infotoons212]

Excellent!

[@raziel3726]

Amazing Story!!👍👍

[@jamesdriscoll_tmp1515]

I love it! They stop time for a short while and have some time to act inside the pause. Or are they ahead in time and the present has to catch up? Anyway, lots of time for mischief.

[@davidflanagan2992]

These guys are great actors no doubt.

[@matthewdenckla6567]

Really thought-provoking and wonderfully careful in concept! MORE PLEASE!

[@robertdemers7898]

Greetings from Panama city Florida,,,Bay county in the Florida panhandle.. great job and hope to see more of your work

[@greenthumb8266]

Incredible!!!! Wow!!! I’m so invested in the characters!!!

[@WinkWonkWonkWonkWonk]

Perfect.

[@sugarbabylove1000]

Awesome. So they invented this thing that freezes time, but they were killing all the families connected to the scientists in order to keep it secret? That's what I took it to be, but other posters make me doubt myself lol. Enjoyed it anyway.

[@Vix2066]

Ahhh spoiler alert much😩😩😩

[@moneyguy2008]

@@Vix2066 Solution: Just watch the video before reading the comments!

[@sugarbabylove1000]

@@Vix2066 sorry luv. It's just there were comments from other folk saying they didn't understand it so I just put my viewpoint. I thought folk read the comments after viewing ....

[@MrAgmoore]

@@Vix2066 You have to travel back in time to before you read the comments.

[@Kayaz48]

I just absolutely love these little movies that explain nothing, give you no context and then in the latest TikTok fashion just end.

[@yvessergetshefu4462]

Outstanding marvelous excellent just WoW 😮 😯 🤩

[@Yaegosh]

Excellent. I lov3d it

[@chelseaqueen3142]

Would love to see this as a feature film!! Awesome and kept me intrigued.

[@Ogpurplepnda73]

Totally didn’t understand the plot

[@GTrainRx7]

The last Dust film I watched was TERRIBLE, I am glad this one turned out great! Just the right amount of info to keep the tension going, picked a good actor. Grats!

[@Twin_solo_az]

I’d just like to reiterate what many others have said. This was excellent and I want more.

[@HugoGB]

Me encantan los cortos de Dust, pero me resulta tremendamente tedioso tener que configurar los subtítulos con cada video; si hubiera una forma de setearlos en una configuración predeterminada y quedaran así para todos los videos, entraría más seguido al canal, pero pensar en lo trabajoso que es me frena y elijo algo más amigable.

[@connorjohnson4402]

you can press "c" ut turns on subtitles

[@tubomanic]

Amazing! Loved it.

[@jamessr79]

Great story hope a full length movie is made.

[@surajsinghchauhan4766]

Yooo🔥🔥

[@rishmastering]

Excellent hardcore scifi!

[@jr412924]

Give us the 1-1/2 version now that we're engrossed. Great job.

[@volt101x]

Had no idea what was going on but it kept me wanting more lol

[@einienj3281]

I need more! Really interesting story, Thank You ♥️

[@herds22]

I watched it twice in a row. Probably watch it again later.

[@martinwyke]

The clocks were wrong. What is to stop them sending an assassin back before he tips off his wife.

[@zach.smith2000]

The time freezing hasn't stopped yet, it's until after he finished recording and his watch beeps that the time freeze is just about to stop. Then hopefully she'll have watched the video and fled before the company can asses what's going on.

[@mauibill7233]

There's a certain brutality in this that the world has seen enough of. No thank you.

[@williamstrachan7714]

Would love to see a prequel or some more background story!

[@joseywales7930]

This seriously has me wanting more! Very well made all around. Thanks for sharing.

[@Liz-M]

How intriguing, thank you! 👍

[@xman007007]

Looks like a time loop block for certain amount of time

[@jkyoft78]

Well done, very nice. Great acting, he really put his all into it. I like how the story unfolded, how the film presented the story line, bit-by-bit. Great audio, good pace. This was artistic, fresh and creative, in my opinion. Great take away emotion...I'm a fan of self-sacrifice and time travel, so this hit on two of my faves.

[@wafikiri_]

What storyline? None whatsoever showed up.

[@jasonhenderson3678]

Great story idea. Lots of angles to play. All around a good production.

[@helirobk9]

That was really good! I would love to see a full feature film of it.

[@stephenbyron748]

absolutely superb

[@ARWest-bp4yb]

That was amazing, definitely want to know more about what's going on! 👍👍

[@cliffroebuck2277]

Damn, I love time travel films, but would prefer longer. But still great anyway. Thanks! Nice twist with the time travel of you only get one long second to be there. Kinda like the blue guys in the box cars.

[@DaveSuperDaveLyon]

I enjoyed that. Thank you.

[@lexfauser3009]

Wow, super cool, exciting and intense from all aspects!!! This needs to get a whole movie about to explain the whole story of what this is all about, what is all happend and why exactly that is all happend!

[@steveennever9905]

Jesus, that was good.

[@stephenwade8093]

A powerful video

[@kurkspetterson3557]

this is the present world. Great Job!

[@WakkasLove]

I would watch an entire movie or series of this. It was excellent

[@BeautifulEarthJa]

More!!!!!!!!

[@spartandodge6034]

This is another great episode/film/story I enjoyed immensely from DUST. I actually enjoy the guessing and I may watch them again a couple times. I watched LEAP already twice so far. Good as ever the second time around. For myself , the second time was better in some ways. I had a more developed identification with the characters the second time. If a story is told well, even the subject is secondary to the fixation of the ride. The writing gives me courage to write. I will be digesting these for some time.

[@batterbury4477]

Terrific production! The actors just deliver such great performances - the barely holding-it-together scientist is so hard to watch because the fear just radiates off him. And the cocky in-charge psychopath soldier says ' I feel weird' and now a race is on to get to the 'POD'. Really lovely production values, lighting, editing - can't say enough about the wild ride the storyline manages to create - every scene ramping up the energy. Thank you for believing your audience is smart enough to fill in the blanks and invest in this great mystery - Please do more!

[@biguprochester]

Holy shit this one is top notch.

[@pf4773]

Really good movie! You did something that most short film makers don't, and that is to create a movie with a satisfying ending. Great tension and building of suspense!

[@coldawson8486]

Perhaps going to another planet The mission failed in some way All that where involved had to be eliminated There are a few dust I don't get But will keep watching this one for a better understanding

[@smiffersmaffer]

that wast crazy content

[@shadow2010shadow2010]

very good needs to be expanded into a film or series

[@johnsonchew4635]

❤️👍👍👍👍👍

[@noster245]

Used to hate this kinda stuff. Too much left to imagine but anymore it's still better than 99% of the 💩 that comes out now.

[@mspurrple2184]

Interesting...I'd watch a longer version of this, based on this short.

[@dennishill290]

Pass the cake............

[@zach.smith2000]

ha, good one

[@zach.smith2000]

My sister actually made the cake for this film and after filming we all chowed down, it was delicious. I should include large chocolate cakes in all my films going forward.

[@sparsrus]

never mind Zach, Got Juice explained it nicely. but still very cool short.

[@jerogiman]

Good acting.

[@mikes4135]

Assassin clock stoppers.

[@stevesmith3556]

Love the interesting twist on time travel. Done right, this would make a great movie. Can't wait to see it!

[@markaubuchon6265]

Great acting.

[@jahempress26]

wow✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️

[@SquarePegDivergent]

wow this is really good - i watched it twice in a row & very much tried to figure it out - i need more, tho! LOL

[@samwalter17]

Really excellent acting by both actors. I have no idea what was going on and still really enjoyed it! Awesome!

[@edwardfletcher7790]

This was very, very, good, much more like a TV pilot than any short film I've seen. Fascinating concept 👍

[@xw591]

Can you explain please

[@JUMOWAx]

so is this like in the movie adjustment bureau?

[@amandachallis5649]

Incredibly Well Done! Kept me on edge the whole time! Thanks for sharing! Wishing everyone the best!

[@next-level]

Well directed but too less background . makes curious but too much guesses

[@tanrose8645]

Well done🌹👏👏 Blessings to ALL~🪄💫✨💖 ☮️🕊️ PLEASE Stay 'safe', everyone❣️ Blessed be ✨💫🌟🌛🌹🌜

[@greyareaRK1]

So well done. I love the structure - picking up clues and filling in the story as the action progresses.

[@Failte630]

Good actors but I haven't a clue what it's about unless Stella Elkheinzy is correct?

[@abgzulkifli]

My money is the future, you cant never reach the future

[@7Steels]

Well done...a very interesting twist on time travel/time displacement. It could definitely be made into a series.