Series Summary

The timelines break down events as they happen, but I wanted a space where I could post a single coherent summary of everything that happens in this series, in a way that makes it easier to read as a narrative instead of a collection of details. SPOILERS. This isn't a synopsis to Introduce you to the series, it's a summarization that encapsulates the plot from the beginning to the end.

This page is still under construction!

Alex Kralie has been working on a script for a movie he calls Marble Hornets since he was in high school, which is about a man who has left his hometown to attend college, returning home and feeling alienated and isolated from the friends he'd left behind and the life he should be living. In 2006, Alex begins work on filming this movie as a student project, and starts to film auditions and behind the scenes material. Through the audition tape, we can see that his project hasn't gotten a lot of attention, and his friend Brian is the only one who shows up for the auditions. Brian and Alex cajole Brian's friend Tim into auditioning as well.

As filming begins, the project seems to start out running smoothly. Although Alex's script isn't particularly good, people seem to be having a decent enough time working on it with him. He mentions in his production blog that he's made alterations to the script in order to give first time actors like Tim a smoother experience, because he wants them to have fun. He also recruits Tim to continue filming Behind the Scenes material, several of which feature Alex talking with other characters (such as Jay, Tim, and Brian) about his vision for the film. However, as the project continues, it starts to run into some problems. Alex's previous enthusiasm for his film seems to be waning, and he's becoming increasingly difficult to work with due to his shortened temper and aggressive behavior.

At some point during the filming, Alex has acquired a stalker: a tall, faceless creature in a black suit that is following him at all hours of the day, leaving dead animals on his yard, and breaking into his house. Alex has started filming himself 24/7 in an attempt to keep track of these incidents and try to understand what's happening. He becomes more paranoid, spends hours obsessively drawing and writing on sheets of paper that he leaves in piles around his house and plasters to his walls, and only seems to be getting angrier and angrier at his circumstances.

Eventully, this culminates in Alex beginning to systematically cull the cast and crew of the Marble Hornets Project. He sees his supernatural stalker - who he titles The Operator - as a sickness, a disease that can be spread by close contact with others, and feels the need to stop the infection before it can spread any further. He attacks his lead actress, Sarah. Brings Tim out to a location Tim had shown him for a potential film setting at an earlier date, and attacks him - although Alex loses him in the surrounding woods at some point in the night. Brian drives out to the same location, and Alex attacks him. He takes his camera-man, Seth, out to a different abandon building to attack him there. Alex goes home and resolves to burn all the tapes that contain the evidence he's collected so far.

As Alex packs up his house, however, the script supervisor, Jay Merrick, drops by and interrupts him. After finding out that the project has been cancelled, Jay doesn't want to see all of Alex's work put to waste, and asks if he can take the tapes instead. Alex gives in to Jay's insistence, but demands that Jay burn the tapes himself and never mention them again. Alex seems to immediately regret this decision, and chases Jay back out of his house and attacks him, strangling him and leaving him unconscious in the woods.

In 2009, however, Jay begins posting on YouTube. He's been rewatching the tapes after finding them in his apartment, has noticed several of the oddities in the events and footage, and is resolving to post an archive of it all onto the Marble Hornets YT channel. He encounters footage of The Operator, notes the deterioration of Alex's attitude and mental health, and footage that he is present in, but has no memory of. As he uploads these videos, a different channel - totheark - begins to upload its own videos in response to several of Jay's. Posting cryptic messages, warnings, and their own footage from the set of Marble Hornets.