The Dark Portal (cinematic)

The Dark Portal is the cinematic intro for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

Cinematic

Transcript

A dust storm sweeps across the Blasted Lands. The blue glow of the Dark Portal can barely be seen in the distance. Illidan Stormrage narrates.

Imprisoned for 10,000 years. Banished from my own homeland. And now you dare enter MY realm. You are not prepared.

Much closer now, the Dark Portal reactivates, fading from blue to green.

[Blizzard Entertainment Presents]

Various scenes occur in sequence: A draenei paladin, Vindicator Maraad, flips through a libram and blesses himself. A blood elf priestess caresses a mana wyrm, then drains the mana from it. An orc warrior cuts down a pair of naga. A troll rides a raptor. Maraad fights some fel orcs. The orc warrior is slain by arrows, then resurrected by the blood elf priestess. A human mage casts [Polymorph] on a tauren. A Forsaken warlock is surrounded by murlocs and kills them with [Hellfire]. The priestess casts [Holy Nova].

Illidan is shown kneeling on a ruined battlefield, contemplating the Skull of Gul'dan. He drops the skull and leaps into the air, brandishing the Twin Blades of Azzinoth and concluding his narration:

YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!

Music

The song "The Dark Portal" was featured as the fourth track on World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Soundtrack, and was composed by Neal Acree.

Credits

Directed by Jeff Chamberlain^[1]
Animation Surpervisor: James McCoy^[1]
Animated by Ronny Kim^[1]
Cinematic concept artists: Brian Huang, Bernie Kang

Notes and trivia

This cinematic was unofficially remastered on December 6, 2019, by Upscale, using Machine Learning AI.
The orc warrior, human mage, tauren and undead warlock previously appeared in the World of Warcraft cinematic intro.
The orc warrior wields [Ashkandi, Greatsword of the Brotherhood], and the undead warlock wields the [Headmaster's Charge].
The Burning Crusade Behind-the-Scenes DVD has content about how different parts of the cinematic were created.
WowCraft's episode 25 is a parody of this trailer.