Project Silent Sparrow is the name of a portal that was built by Krei Tech as part of Alistair Krei's attempt to create a new way of transportation on Akuma Island. Sometime later, Yokai rebuilt the portal as a weapon against Alistair.
Origin[]
The portal was constructed on the outskirts of San Fransokyo as a top-secret collaboration between Krei Tech and the government. There were two portals and as something went through one, it would come out of the other. The scientists had planned to send a human pilot inside a pod through and out it. Even when anomalies were showing in the scans, Krei still went through with it to show the general that it was safe. But after the pod went in the scientists lost contact with it and the second portal destroyed itself, while the other one became a vortex and began sucking everything in until it was forcibly shut down, dooming the pilot in the space between the portals.
History[]
Blueprints and reports for the project were salvaged by Yokai during his time in hiding. Hiro Hamada saw the project's symbol prior to his first encounter with Yokai and later saw the masked villain bring one of the three parts of the portal to San Fransokyo Bay. After Hiro upgraded himself, his friends and Baymax, the team headed to Akuma Island and discovered the remains of the facility as they were trying to find Yokai. The team watched footage from the control pit and saw Alistair Krei demonstrating the portal to the government.
The team's theory of Krei being the masked man grew as they "realized" the reason why Krei had started the fire that killed Tadashi Hamada and stolen Hiro's Microbots; so he could take his technology back. However, Yokai turns out to be Professor Robert Callaghan and he escapes with the end of the portal when Baymax had his healthcare chip re-inserted into him. After Hiro calms down and the team saw the rest of the footage, they realize why Callaghan wanted it: the pilot was his daughter, Abigail Callaghan and he blamed Krei for her "death" because he sent her into the portal despite knowing that it was unstable.
As Krei introduces his new Krei Tech Building, Callaghan uses the microbots to capture Krei, put together and to hold up the portal as it starts to suck the building into it. Hiro later gets the team to use the portal to their advantage as it sucks up the Microbots; an idea that came to him when he was nearly sucked into the portal himself. Callaghan is caught, but as the team tries to find cover from the portal's growing destruction, Baymax picks up Abigail's life reading within the portal, meaning that she is still alive. Hiro and Baymax go into the portal to save her and discover that the portal contains a void universe. After the two find Abigail and are about to bring her home, Baymax's suit is damaged and he uses his rocket fist (with his healthcare chip clutched in it) to send Hiro and Abigail back. The portal then explodes when the two get out safely through and Abigail is sent to the hospital. Meanwhile, a seemingly regretful Callaghan is arrested and taken away by the police.
Months later, a thief known as Sirque learned about the existence of the portal technology and sought to steal it from Krei, infiltrating the company thanks to her acrobatic skills and managing to steal the information from Krei's laptop without being caught, even with Krei himself in the room. Krei soon noticed all of his project files had been downloaded and called Big Hero 6 to investigate the thief and figure out what information she could've wanted.
After encountering Sirque at the San Fransokyo Trust bank and noticing she escaped with no trace, being miles away from their location within seconds, Megan Cruz noticed small marble magnets laying on the floor, which the team took back to their headquarters to examine. At the base, Big Hero 6 soon figured out that Sirque had copied the Silent Sparrow technology to create multiple small portals with the magnet fields, explaining the events of the original project to Megan and realizing that the villain had to be stopped or her portals would explode like the original one, as she didn't know the technology was unstable.
After locating Sirque, Hiro followed her around by jumping through her portals into random places and trying to warn her what would happen. Eventually, the portals became more dangerous to go through, so Sirque allowed Hiro to stabilize it while helping him so he wouldn't get sucked into it. Afterward, Sirque thanked Hiro but still escaped, claiming that she would perfect the technology before her "next appearance".
Back at home, Hiro watches footage of the portals which he recorded using a body camera while following Sirque. Baymax asks what he's looking for, and Hiro reveals he's looking for him, proceeding to show Baymax a picture of his old body still floating in the void.
Other Versions[]
In the Baymax manga, Dr. Callaghan is the inventor of the portal, with no involvement of Krei Tech like in the film.
Callaghan began working on the machine after the death of his wife Sarah, being told that she died at the hospital only a few minutes before he arrived. This motivated him under the belief that with teleportation technology, he would never lose time again. Funded by the military under the project title "Silent Sparrow", Callaghan ran successful tests with animals. Believing that the machine was ready for human testing, Callaghan wanted his daughter Abigail to be the first human to ever teleport, but it was then that the machine exploded and Abigail was lost inside the wormhole dimension.
Eventually, Callaghan started rebuilding the portal, firmly believing that it simply didn't receive enough energy but he could still save Abigail. He recruited SFIT student Tadashi Hamada, who was willing to help anyone in need. Both worked in secret at SFIT. One night, Callaghan wanted to turned the machine on despite Tadashi warning him it was still dangerous, and quickly left to SFIT at midnight to keep helping Callaghan. Hiro was upset at Tadashi for a fight they had earlier that day, but he overheard this and followed Tadashi to the school. Upon arriving, Hiro saw a masked man–not knowing it was Callaghan–turning the portal on, nearly sucking the boy in until Tadashi saved him. However, Tadashi is sucked in instead, but he asks Hiro not to hold a grudge against the masked man.
Hiro later learns his Microbots were stolen and the masked man rebuilt the portal, planning to use it in the middle of the city. Hiro then gears up along with Tadashi's friends and his robot Baymax to stop him, then unmasking him and finding out that it is Callaghan behind the mask. Hiro blames Callaghan for Tadashi's "death" and tries to beat him up, but Baymax stops him, allowing Callaghan to narrowly escape.
After reflecting on his actions and learning Callaghan just wanted to get his daughter back, Hiro decides to help, thinking that if Abigail still lived inside the portal then Tadashi could be alive as well. They meet with Callaghan again, who still thinks they're trying to stop him because the portal is siphoning the energy from the entire city. However, Hiro and Baymax shoot a powerful bolt of lightning at the portal, as Hiro also theorized the portal required much more energy than Callaghan believed. The plan works, and Hiro and Baymax dive into the portal to save Abigail, also they keeping their eyes out for Tadashi, although Baymax's scanner couldn't find him or any other sign of life in the dimension that they were in.
Abigail is saved and Baymax sacrifices himself to launch Hiro and Abigail out of the closing portal. Sometime later, Hiro finds Baymax's chip in his rocket fist's palm and rebuilds the robot. Eventually, Hiro rebuilds the portal one more time, with him and Baymax getting ready to go in and look for his missing brother–ending the story in a cliffhanger.
Trivia[]
- The portal's demonstration was set to open the film, with "Doctor" Robert Callaghan as its creator, but the directors replaced it with the Bot Fight scene. They thought that it would be better if the audience discovered both the portal and the incident with Hiro and the team.
- After the pilot went into the portal in the original layout of the scene, "something" was coming out of it.
- The Silent Sparrow alludes to the sparrow of Japanese folklore, where the sparrow is said to be a symbol of unexpected fortune and a reward for kindness. In the context of the film, the use of a sparrow for the portal's symbol foreshadows the unexpected return of Abigail from her imprisonment. Because Baymax sacrificed himself for Abigail's life, the reward comes in the form of Hiro discovering Baymax's chip and using it to rebuild Baymax.
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
| Big Hero 6 |
|---|
 Blue Prints of the portal mixed in with Yokai's over plan notes  A part of the portal  What is left of the second portal   Logo on a screen  Footage of the portal's demonstration  The second portal destroying itself   Silent Sparrow being held over the new Krei Tach building  A Microbot flying into the portal  The portal's Alternate Universe |