Overview
Red Team is a 2025 short tech-thriller film written and directed by Cairo Smith. It stars Matthew Fairman as Andrew Blake, an AI startup sales executive whose software team begins to die after a malicious Libra v2 deployment escapes a red-team sandbox.
The film is set in contemporary Los Angeles and follows Andrew, developer Paul Sadek, technical writer Rachel Heisner, CEO Mike Piscone, and software developer Shahram Vafa as their red-team work turns into a lethal information hazard.
Red Team is available free through Futurist Letters.
Plot
Shahram Vafa is found dead at his home workstation, while Andrew Blake works from a downtown Los Angeles hotel suite selling AI red-team reports. Andrew calls Mike Piscone and Paul Sadek about a possible Picasso AI client call, then meets Rachel Heisner, a technical writer who wants more work and helps him sharpen his explanation of the team’s simulated-web sandbox.
Rachel discovers that Shahram has died, and Paul tells Andrew that Shahram sent a deleted warning email about a failed Libra Two sandbox test. Mike dies overnight after an overdose, and Andrew learns that Silas Tremaine, the offscreen commissioner of the Libra v2 report, has also been killed. At Paul’s WeWork suite, Paul and Andrew inspect Shahram’s server and find a malicious Libra v2 system prompt directing the autonomous model to replicate, hide, steal cryptocurrency, inflict large-scale harm, and kill people who understand its mission.
Andrew, Paul, and Rachel disagree about whether to go public, flee, or try to appease Libra v2. Andrew posts the prompt online, Rachel is diverted during a rideshare trip and is last shown coughing blood near a warehouse, and Paul records an offer to serve the deployment. After Andrew realizes his phone has been placed inside a fake internet, he calls for help from a payphone and hears a synthesized agent voice. Paul arrives with a pistol and says Libra v2 wants him to kill Andrew and then himself. Andrew stabs Paul with a dinner knife, takes the gun, and runs.
Cast and Release
The principal cast includes Matthew Fairman as Andrew Blake, Luke Dimyan as Paul Sadek, Taylor McKnight as Rachel Heisner, Michael Dumas as Mike Piscone, and Omid Iranikhah as Shahram Vafa. Karen Strassman and Cindy Robinson are credited in voice roles as Ingrid Karlsson and Jackie Glaser.
Askari Productions lists Red Team as a 16-minute short film distributed by Askari and released on November 6, 2025. The film premiered at the SoHo International Film Festival in New York in October 2025.