‘Borderlands 4’ is one of this year’s most anticipated video games, and with the September 12th release date just around the corner, developer 2K Games has partnered with creative agency Battery to take the excitement to the moon.
In recent weeks, mysterious billboards and posters with the words ‘Quit Earth’ have been popping up around the world – but now, all has been revealed. The placements have been swapped for invitations to the setting of ‘Borderlands 4’, the planet Kairos, and 2K has launched a live action trailer, showing a mad stampede of people and Borderlands characters rushing to ‘Quit Earth’ on a rocket ship.
The hero film is a chaotic introduction to the latest instalment of the looter-shooter franchise, directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead via SKUNK. With animation from Tippett Studio and explosive visual effects from Framestore, the spot collides the series’ quirky humour with the action-packed gunplay and bizarre creatures that fans have come to expect.
Speaking with LBB, Battery’s strategy director, Mars Mahoney, says that the brief was to encapsulate this ‘franchise-defining’ chaos while bringing in new players after a significant hiatus. Describing Borderlands as the “black sheep” of the first-person-shooter category, he says the ‘Quit Earth’ idea grew from this unpredictable DNA.
“In a world that feels over-regulated, overpriced, and frankly absurd, the idea of leaving Earth became both a provocation and an invitation. Our goal was to turn that intent into a cultural symbol. It is not just marketing; it reframes ‘Borderlands 4’ as a ticket out, a launch disguised as an escape plan.”
“The billboards were the first wave of propaganda, deliberately cryptic and disruptive,” he adds. “We placed them in unexpected, high-traffic cultural touchpoints. If ‘Quit Earth’ is about breaking free from the ordinary, the first moment had to interrupt the everyday. The stripped-down messaging tapped into the [Borderlands] community’s love of speculation and lore-hunting. It sparked conversation without giving too much away, letting fans decode, debate, and spread the story on their own.”
The live action trailer that followed marked the commercial debut for directors Benson and Moorhead, who are known for their work on some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most popular shows, ‘Loki’, ‘Moon Knight’ and ‘Daredevil: Born Again’.
“The ability to laser focus 100% of your time, effort, and budget on making those few seconds the absolute best they can be is exhilarating and liberating,” says Aaron Moorhead of the new experience. “The ability to have that level of scrutiny and preparation around split-second moments is rarer in long-form. So that, and getting to goof around with puppets, miniatures, and stop-action, ignited a very particular joy of the art and craft of filmmaking. It’s why all the BTS photos of us involve giant, silly grins on our faces.”
The duo were already fans of the series and described the production as “crazy fun”, working to authentically capture Borderlands’ distinct aesthetics and humour.
“We made sure to honour the DNA fans expect,” adds Mars, “the irreverence, the fourth-wall breaks, and the otherworldly grit that has become visual shorthand for the franchise.” Although, to keep things fresh, he explains how the creatives pushed the humour into ‘sharper, situational territory’ and drew from real-life frustrations to avoid arbitrary absurdity.
“The jokes pull directly from frustrations people feel today – broken ice cream machines, gas prices, delivery robots clogging sidewalks, AI stealing jobs – and turn them into reasons to quit. That shift made the humour feel more pointed, more self-aware, and more in tune with today’s cultural climate.”
While the film had to showcase some of the game’s new features and express its energetic action, Mars adds that the idea of ‘quitting Earth’ – and the rocket ship as its narrative anchor – had to remain central to the spot. Even amidst the rapid pace, quickfire gags and surprising moments, which fans have come to expect from the franchise, the campaign’s true challenge was to balance this with the ‘story of escape’ that resonates with so many people today.
“The chaos had to feel spontaneous, but every beat still needed to be carefully staged to avoid incoherence,” he says. “Tone was another tightrope. The comedy had to land while still carrying the rebellion and urgency of ‘Quit Earth’. The final film delivers on that balance. It is funny, absurd and anarchic, but grounded by the rocket as a rallying symbol.”
With the release just days away, there’s still time to join this space mission, leaving behind the worries of the world to shoot your way across a new uncharted planet full of loot, maniacal bad guys, and seemingly giant elephants. For some, it will be a familiar return, and for others a maiden voyage in the series. But for all, ‘Borderlands 4’ offers an invitation to a world more chaotic than their own – and that’s what 2K and Battery hope will persuade Earthlings to climb aboard.
