- "Birdie's bus sat on Lake Street, right on the northern edge of Garfield Park. As expected, the spot was inundated with pigeons. The birds seemed to have a natural attraction to Birdie, who also kept cages of various types of Aves inside the bus."
- ―Description of Birdie's bus in Hitman: Damnation'
Birdie's Bus (also known as the "dilapidated school bus") is a transport vehicle that appears in both Hitman: Damnation and Hitman: Absolution.
Damnation
In Damnation, the bus appears and is described by 47 to be "dilapidated" and sat the western edge of Chicago's city limits in a terribly ran neighborhood. The bus usually sat in Lake Street near the edge of Garfield Park. 47 also describes how the bus has numerous bird cages in its interior with various pigeons and Aves inside. Other than this, it is shown that inside random cages and under specific seats are various knives, poisons and fiber wires. Outside sits few lawn chairs for both Birdie and Fei Zhu.
Absolution
Mission Appearances
The King of Chinatown
In "Hitman: Absolution" the bus is first seen after the hit on the King, most of its description fits however with much newer details. On the sides of the bus are custom painted black pigeons and above the bus seems to be a home-made bedroom for Birdie all made out of wood. Outside sits Fei Zhu in a lawn chair, guarding the bus. Inside are numerous pigeons all squeaking.
Hunter & Hunted
In "Hunter and Hunted" the bus appears for a second time again with Birdie sitting in the back, on the phone with 47 discussing about Blake Dexter, Dom Osmond and Victoria. The bus makes another appearance in "Chinese New Year" with 47 approaching the bus finding it had been ransacked by Edward Wade and his goons. After 47 interrogates the Crazy Bum, he "borrows" Birdie's Bus and hastily drives to the Rosewood Orphanage. In actuality, Birdie was spared by Wade and watches as 47 steals his bus, turning around telling Wade where Victoria is being held.
Rosewood
In "Rosewood" the Bus makes its fourth and final appearance, parking on a sidewalk across the street. 47 gets off the seat and finds an open clothing rack with alternate disguises previously used by Birdie. In it he finds a Priest outfit and decides to use it while infiltrating the orphanage. The bus is never seen or mentioned again after this mission.
Behind the Scenes
In 2008-09, during early development of the "Homeless Hitman" storyline, when Birdie originally went by the name "Babble", Babbe's means of transportation was an armored black van with his own weapons cache & tinted rear windows. This was ultimately reworked & changed into a school bus before becoming a modified dilapidated school bus in the final games' storyline.
In early concept art, the bus was hidden behind a "Goody" department store near Chinatown, with various lights shining off its side. Surrounding said bus were garbage and filth with an early iteration of Birdie sitting on a lawn chair. The bus also had an early makeshift bedroom as well however was much smaller compared to the final game. The bus strongly shared it's appearance/mentions in Damnation compared to the final games' version. In the documentary film Hitman: Burning Hope, it is revealed that Birdie's Bus was originally going to be an orange rusted school bus with it being based off the concept art. This was obviously changed with the bus being heavily modified. The rusted orange school bus does still appear in the final game, rather in the background cinematic for the mission "Hunter and Hunted".
Trivia
- The bus is never seen during normal gameplay, only game-cinematic cutscenes. This works the same with the ICA Mobile Command Center.
- Despite there being a tiny home above the rear of the bus, the interior of said home is never disclosed to the player.
- When 47 "borrows" Birdie's bus and starts to drive off, when turning right he drives over a sidewalk and clips through a wooden pylon. This is very clearly an animation bug that was not fixed for unknown reasons.
- After the bus is abandoned by 47 in Rosewood, it's never made clear if Birdie acquired the bus back.
Gallery
Pre-Release
Retail
References
- Wayne Yan's Absolution Birdie Bus Artstation.