Young men and women from all over the world were now sitting in front of their computers, doing nothing but staring at the webpage.
They were waiting for something—something that could make their adrenaline soar.
Yes, that thing was the trailer for Winston!
The trailer condenses the essence of the feature film, with every second packed with excitement. People often have the illusion that the trailer is even more thrilling than the full movie itself.
Ronin was also sitting in front of his computer at this moment. He wanted to enjoy the Winston trailer together with fans around the world and take a look at the netizens' comments.
There were still 60 seconds until noon.
This countdown tugged at the heartbeats of tens of millions of fans worldwide. Everyone hoped that in 60 seconds, they would see a trailer even more exciting than Soldier: 76.
In terms of pure excitement, Winston would definitely surpass Soldier: 76, but its depth and connotation fell a bit short. Soldier: 76 explored themes of war, peace, and humanity. Even as a heroism-focused film, it conveyed correct values and life philosophies to its audience.
If Ronin had to label Soldier: 76 with one word, it would be "belief." The entire film conveyed a sense of belief.
Speaking of belief, confidence is indispensable. It was with this unshakeable belief in victory and the determination never to give up that Soldier: 76 could storm the criminals' lair, accomplish an impossible mission, and ultimately bring peace to the world.
Even the military had deemed it impossible, yet Soldier: 76 succeeded through his outstanding personal ability. This was the power of belief!
As the famous line from Soldier: 76 went: "I am an army of one!"
As for Winston, the film mainly explored the conflict between human civilization and technological evolution. When gorillas are genetically modified and granted human-level intelligence, what would they do?
There was no doubt that if gorillas possessed immense brute strength and were given human wisdom, their animal instincts would be infinitely amplified. They would certainly break free from human control and seek to dominate the planet!
The consequences of technological evolution could make the world better—or bring disaster upon it. Winston depicted the latter scenario.
Winston was a genetically modified gorilla with high intelligence. What set him apart from other gorillas was that he was naturally clever, with an IQ equivalent to that of a five- or six-year-old child.
After genetic modification, he became even more intelligent and wiser than most humans. Because of this, he was not dominated by primitive wild instincts and retained the ability to think rationally. Under the guidance of Dr. Harold Winston, he transformed from a mere experimental subject into the doctor's experimental assistant.
When the other gorillas could no longer suppress their beastly nature and launched a rebellion, Winston stood up. He resolutely protected the human scientists on the "Horizon" lunar colony and was willing to fight against his own kind!
As the final second of the countdown ticked down, the official website of Overwatch Films was instantly overwhelmed. Even Ronin couldn't get in at first. After finally squeezing through, the page wouldn't load completely. He could guarantee that his home equipment and internet speed were top-tier.
If even he was experiencing this, one could imagine how foreign movie fans felt. They had waited so long, only for the webpage to crash?
There were probably countless voices cursing Overwatch right now—things like "This trash company should just shut down already!", "You can't even build a decent official website and you still want to make movies?", "Ronin must have spent all the money he earned on prostitutes and didn't invest anything in technology!" Plenty of such garbage comments.
It was the programmers' fault!
Their high-concurrency handling was too poor! If he were at the company, he really wanted to teach those so-called technicians how to properly manage high concurrency.
A world-renowned film company couldn't even maintain a proper official website. If word got out, people would laugh at them.
The official website was the company's face; its collapse was equivalent to losing all dignity.
Furious, Ronin immediately called Lucy.
When Lucy saw the incoming call from Ronin at the company, she was surprised for a moment. She hadn't expected the CEO to call her proactively—it was really rare.
As soon as she picked up, an angry voice came from the other end:
"Hey, Lucy, hurry up and tell those good-for-nothings in the technical department to fix it! The official website has crashed!"
Lucy was stunned by the yelling. She froze for a few seconds before replying, "Okay, no problem."
After hanging up, Lucy let out a sigh of relief. She had been genuinely scared—it was rare to see the boss get angry.
Once she calmed down, she smiled. It seemed the boss wasn't completely oblivious to company affairs. Even the issue she hadn't had time to notice, the boss had spotted before her.
She then relayed Ronin's exact words to the technical department. In truth, the technical team was already doing everything they could to repair the site.
When the programmers heard the boss's original message, they wanted to bury their heads in their monitors. Their hands flew across the keyboards, leaving faint afterimages. If they got fired, it would be game over.
They felt helpless too. Their high-concurrency optimizations had already been done quite well, but too many people were flooding the official website at the exact same time—far more than anyone had anticipated.
They knew there would be a lot of traffic, but the actual situation still exceeded everyone's expectations.
Are you all so idle? Sitting in front of your computers doing nothing but waiting for the trailer? Can't you just check it later?
The programmers were too exhausted to complain and could only focus on restoring the website as quickly as possible.
Ronin refreshed the page again, and this time it loaded smoothly—the content appeared instantly.
He checked the time: 12:03.
The official website had been repaired in just three minutes—quite efficient. Ronin calmed down. He really needed to yell at them more often in the future; otherwise, they would treat him, the CEO, like a mere decoration.
The scrolling banner at the top of the official website was now fixed on an image of a gorilla in armor.
At first glance, Winston looked savage, but upon closer inspection, he was wearing a pair of black-framed glasses, giving him a gentle and refined appearance. The stark contrast between savagery and refinement created a huge visual gap that made people even more intrigued.
The text "Winston Trailer" was eye-catching, and the image of Winston was highly appealing—it made people want to click and watch immediately.
He clicked on it and watched the trailer no fewer than ten times, yet he still didn't tire of it. Moreover, at this very moment, at least millions of people around the world were watching it alongside him. The feeling was completely different—he felt both proud and moved.
Two and a half minutes later, major forums erupted in heated discussions. The most popular one among movie lovers was Douban.
Ninety percent of the titles on Douban's homepage contained the words "Winston trailer," showing just how explosive its popularity was.
Ronin clicked on a post by a user at the "Doudi" level. Accounts on the Douban forums were ranked in levels, and the only way to level up was by posting movie reviews or sharing opinions on upcoming films to earn likes. The more likes, the faster the upgrade.
The account levels, from lowest to highest, were: Douzhe, Doushi, Doudoushi, Douling, Douwang, Douhuang, Douzong, Douzun, Dousheng, and Doudi!
Posts by Doudi users were generally very substantive, and their comments tended to be fair—neither mindless praise nor mindless criticism—which aligned with the views of most people.
As a result, some film companies would invite Doudi users to write reviews for their movies. This depended on the individual's personality. If they weren't short on money, they might stick to their principles; if they needed cash, they might write paid reviews or disguised advertisements—essentially soft promotions.
For this particular post, Ronin felt reassured that Overwatch Films would never stoop to such low-level tactics.