The Hotline is an Object of Power from the 2019 Remedy Entertainment video game Control that also features in Poets of the Fall's music video for My Dark Disquiet. The object itself is a 1960s-era red Bakelite telephone, resembling the single-purpose hotline telephones of the Cold War era. It lacks a rotary dial and instead has a single black knob. Its paint coating is partially chipped along its edges.
In Control
When bound to the Director of the Bureau, they become able to "communicate" with entities from the Astral Plane, namely The Board, as well as entities from other planes of existence. The Hotline rings like a conventional telephone when such an event occurs.
Only the Director can safely answer or pick up the Hotline. If used by anyone other than the Director, the Object of Power will cause lethal harm to them. The Hotline is one of only two Objects of Power restricted to the Director with lethal consequences for disobeyers, the other being the Service Weapon, both of these Objects providing an innate connection between The Board and the Director.
Director Faden establishes throughout the game's events that it only allows communication with entities in other planes of existance and the dead. She is later contacted through the hotline by Alan Wake during the events of AWE, explained by his being trapped in The Dark Place.
In the My Dark Disquiet MV
A scarred character with a blank left eye played by Marko Saaresto sits relaxed on a couch in the dark and nonchalantly decides to pick up the receiver of the Hotline - sat on a small table next to the couch. This appears to set the events of the MV in motion. Throughout, he can be seen singing into the receiver. At the end of the MV, he shouts "shut up!" into it and then slams it down onto the base, in time with cutting the sound of the music.
Trivia
- The Hotline works despite having no visible means of being connected to a power supply, which is similar to the lightbulb on the Ghostlight album artwork.