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Samurai films — also sometimes called sword fight films and referred to by the Japanese-language term "chanbara" — have been one of the pillars of Japan's film production for pretty much the entirety of its history. The image of the samurai has attracted the fascination of filmmakers working in the jidaigeki (period film) genre for decades: The ghost incarnate of a shared national past, at once refined nobleman and ruthless slayer, carrying with him bygone shadows of both honor and inequality, duty and despotism, glory and gore. That image yielded some of the most towering masterpieces in all of cinema.

Those masterpieces have been, incidentally, quite varied. After all, the samurai was never just one "thing" at one time for pre-Modern Japanese society. Their heyday spanned nearly 700 years and five different historical periods (via Japan Guide). The one thing chanbara films universally have in common is the central presence of the swashbucklers themselves, who have appeared in every cinematic disposition you could name, from stately drama to feverish horror to probing eroticism to whimsical comedy of manners. Even the genre's grand patron himself, Akira Kurosawa, didn't limit himself to just one kind of samurai movie. In other words, if you're someone with an interest in chanbara who's already gotten through the mandatory classics and popular favorites (including Kurosawa's), buckle up because the journey is just getting started. In chronological order, here are 16 underrated samurai movies you need to watch.

Serpent (1925)

One of the most charismatic and skilled swordsmen in chanbara history was silent cinema star Tsumasaburō Bandō, who in 1925 made history by founding his own studio, Bantsuma Productions. In addition to showcasing Bandō at the top of his form, the most celebrated and beloved Bantsuma film, Buntaro Futagawa's "Serpent," also stands out as a crucial time capsule.

Although it's a samurai film, the protagonist Heizaburo (Bandō) is a far cry from the stately noblemen of traditional samurai stories. Brash, lower-class by background, and repeatedly beaten down by a cruel aristocratic world, Heizaburo embodies the wronged little guy who had become increasingly prevalent in the Japanese political imagination during the period of liberalized "Taishō democracy." The same progressive attitude that brewed the film also brewed a backlash, and "Serpent" wrapped up just as right-wing conservatives were once again gaining ground in government. Futagawa and Bandō were ultimately forced to cut and reshoot several scenes (and rename the film from its originally intended title "Outlaw"), but all that fuss had the unintended consequence of drumming up public curiosity. When audiences flocked to theaters to see the final result, they were presented with something unmistakably subversive even in sheared-down form. "Serpent" became a sensation, with Bandō's underdog hero recentering the samurai's moral fiber — irrespective of social standing and militaristic glories — as the real source of his enduring popular appeal. It's a movie that leaves you gaping even today.

Humanity And Paper Balloons (1937)

In the years leading up to World War II, samurai cinema wasn't yet clearly delineated as the hot-blooded, action-and-adventure-heavy pop genre it would come to be known as in the West. Back then, many directors thought of samurai films primarily as a subset of period drama. For these directors samurai were a subject to be explored rather than defining a whole cinematic mode unto itself.

One of the great jidaigeki masterworks, Sadao Yamanaka's "Humanity and Paper Balloons," is nominally about an impoverished Edo-era ronin, his gambler neighbor, and the two men's efforts to make ends meet. Yet it's really about the brutal indifference towards the disenfranchised festering at the core of the Japanese temperament, and about the impossibility of escaping penury that held sway for centuries under the feudal system. It spotlights the ultimate meaninglessness and vanity of "glorious" institutions like the bushidō system. Most of all, it's a proto-genre vision with a radical matter-of-factness in portraying the samurai as a profession as liable to the winds of money and power as any other. While encompassing all those things, it is also about Japan in the 18th century as well as the increasingly militarized and nationalistic 1930s. It was Yamanaka's last film before he got drafted and died in Manchuria a year later at 28, but it stands as a document of his trailblazing genius.

The 47 Ronin (1941)

Kenji Mizoguchi is one of the greatest legends in all of worldwide cinema history, a man revered and respected enough to have influenced such wide-ranging auteurs as Victor Erice, Theo Angelopoulos, Orson Welles, and Jacques Rivette. That assessment doesn't even factor into his nearly deity-like status in Japan, but even he wasn't immune to the whims of the Japanese military government during World War II. In the 1940s, the famously left-leaning Mizoguchi was poached to direct nationalistic films in support of the ongoing pro-war propaganda campaign, and from that contradictory matrix came one of his most peculiar works: The two-part film "The 47 Ronin."

Although adapted from a historical episode rife with jingoistic potential, "The 47 Ronin" is not an out-and-out pro-war film. Assigned the famous story of the band of ronin who avenge the death of their master in 18th-century Japan, Mizoguchi steered away from the glorified violence and reactionary nostalgia the Japanese military expected him to emphasize. He instead set out to craft a sober, detailed, historically accurate epic drama grappling with the moral impasses presented by the 47 ronin's mission. With nearly the entire film consisting of dense conversation scenes, Mizoguchi made a cerebral dive into the story's traditional themes of honor and sacrifice, appeasing the government without falling in with its morale-boosting aims. It's a film that should be taken with many grains of salt, but visually and dramatically it's a crucial volume in the Mizoguchi oeuvre.

Bloody Spear At Mount Fuji (1955)

Samurai movies weren't always strictly and necessarily "samurai movies." In fact, many of the best films focused on the theme of samurai dutifully steered clear of being any one specific "thing," as masterfully exemplified by Tomu Uchida's "Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji."

Set in the Edo period like most chanbara, this 1955 film avails itself of a broad palette of genres and tones in order to do justice to its picaresque, largely episodic story. Our throughline is Sakawa Kojūrō (Eijirō Kataoka, credited as Teruo Shimada), a samurai with a drinking problem who is traveling the country towards Edo (as Tokyo was known at the time) alongside his two loyal servants named Genta (Daisuke Katō) and Genpachi (Chiezō Kataoka). On the way, the trio meets a series of unique characters going through various predicaments, from a young woman about to be sold into prostitution to an orphan boy with dreams of donning the samurai gusoku himself. Although the film's breezy tone and plentiful comedic imagination ensure that all the characters in the ensemble feel fresh and compelling, Uchida and the writers gradually organize the road-movie sprawl into a sharp exposé of Edo-era society and its many ills. One of the chief ills is samurai life itself, which is presented as a tragic cascade of elitism, destructive masculinity, and senseless violence. It's hilarious, it's delightful, it's gut-wrenching, and it's not to be missed.

Samurai Saga (1959)

Just as Akira Kurosawa's name is synonymous with the chanbara genre, so too is Toshiro Mifune's figure arguably its most indelible symbol. The legendary actor became known worldwide as 20th-century cinema's definitive swordsman, and any of his classic collaborations with Kurosawa readily demonstrate why. No one else had the poise, the agility, the tragic effervescence of Mifune, but if you're at all familiar with the man's oeuvre you know that his skillset as an actor reached far and wide. As "Samurai Saga" (also known as "Life of an Expert Swordsman") demonstrates, it included a flair for comedy, and even for romantic gallantry.

Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, best-known in the West for his more conventional Oscar-winning "Samurai" trilogy (also starring Mifune), "Samurai Saga" is maybe the last thing you'd expect to find in a chanbara context: A "Cyrano de Bergerac" reimagining. Mifune stars as the samurai Heihachiro Komaki, who fulfills the role of the Cyrano analog, complete with an oversized nose ... not that this succeeds in making him look much less appealing. The film follows the plot of the original Edmond Rostand play pretty closely, with all the elaborate farce and sweeping romance that made it legendary. Rendered in gorgeous Technicolor, it features such fellow icons as Yōko Tsukasa and Akira Takarada rounding out the cast, but the main attraction is Mifune at the top of his craft throwing himself into a role he was positively born to play.

Destiny's Son (1962)

Director Kenji Misumi is one of the most celebrated in the history of samurai cinema, thanks to two landmark achievements that would individually make any filmmaker legendary: Creating the "Lone Wolf and Cub" film series (directing four out of six installments), and helming the inaugural entry in the long-running "Zatoichi" franchise, 1962's "The Tale of Zatoichi." The same year that the latter film came out, Misumi also released "Destiny's Son," a lesser-known chanbara film that arguably stands as an even greater artistic achievement.

Although a mere 71 minutes long and minimalistic in narrative structure, "Destiny's Son" manages to pack in enough excitement, visual splendor, and thematic reflection for 10 movies. The plot, to the extent that it matters, follows the twists and turns that befall a swordsman (Raizo Ichikawa) as he sets out to learn the truth about his past and avenge the death of his mother (Shiho Fujimura), an assassin who was killed by her own executioner husband (Shigeru Amachi). As scribed by the avant-garde master Kaneto Shindo, "Destiny's Son" just barely falls within the bounds of conventional narrative cinema. It's a film in which Misumi puts his vision and sense of poetry as a stylist in service of a stark, elemental, altogether sublime experience, the greatness of which is easier to witness than to summarize.

Samurai Spy (1965)

A bulletproof premise — samurai and spies, whaddaya need, a road map? — is given a typically oblique treatment by the ever-unassailable Masahiro Shinoda in "Samurai Spy." It was made at the height of the Cold War, whose effects were felt on Japanese soil at the time in the country's increasingly controversial diplomatic and military ties with the U.S., as well as the changes in its relationship with the neighboring Korean Peninsula. "Samurai Spy" is one of those period films that are really just as concerned with the present as with the past. In fact, if what you want is a straightforward, swashbuckling good time, you might want to put this one on hold, as it is much closer to political noir territory than typical chanbara.

Set in the 17th century, "Samurai Spy" charts the web of lies and double-crossings that begin to unspool in Japan in the early years of the Tokugawa shogunate, as the ruling Tokugawa clan finds its hegemony threatened on all sides by rival groups. Although there are combat and fight scenes in the film, they are decidedly few and far between compared to the majority of samurai films. Instead of high-octane action, Shinoda angles for suspense and paranoia, tracking the furtive movements of samurai and ninjas as one would pieces on a massive chessboard. As is often the case with great noir, don't expect to keep track of everything, but the gamesmanship speaks for itself.

Kill! (1968)

It is often said that spaghetti western films — which, incidentally, owe a lot to chanbara cinema in their own right — are best enjoyed by viewers who have a certain familiarity with the history of "traditional" westerns being deconstructed and commented upon. The same is true of Kihachi Okamoto's "Kill!" Perhaps not beholden to a canon rigid and ruly enough to accommodate "spaghetti chanbara," it does strike a similarly rewarding balance between ribbing and reverence.

"Kill!" stars Tatsuya Nakadai and Etsushi Takahashi as, respectively, a man who's long grown weary of samurai life and another who longs to join it and bask in its social gains. Through a series of unlikely circumstances, they become embroiled in a bloody turf war between members of a local clan, ultimately joining a band of rebels as they face a siege ordered by their former superior. The film takes on a typically gruesome quality as the rebels fight tooth and nail for their survival, but what's not typical at all is its campy, humorous, quasi-parodic tone. Not only are the bushidō codes irreverently skewered and the eruptions of violence deliriously exaggerated, but the very characters in the ensemble work as plays on classic chanbara archetypes. It's a love letter to the genre that's sure to be great fun even for the uninitiated and to spark all kinds of recognition in samurai aficionados.

Hitokiri (1969)

There are so many brilliant filmmakers in Japanese cinema relatively unknown to Western audiences that you could make entire lists just for names belonging to each genre, including chanbara. The most unsung of chanbara directors may be Hideo Gosha. His most famous film internationally is 1964's "Three Outlaw Samurai," a staple of samurai movie marathons but there is much more to discover in Gosha's oeuvre.

Like all chanbara masters, Hideo Gosha understood that the most fascinating thing about samurai wasn't their swordsmanship or their cold-bloodedness, but the complex, ever-shifting role they played in the continuum of Japanese social and cultural history. He grappled directly with that role, as well as its many psychological repercussions, in the 1969 character study "Hitokiri," released as "Tenchu!" in the U.S. and listed as such on some databases. Here, the same Shintarō Katsu who became iconic as the stately Zatoichi plunges himself into the role of a man driven to moral rot by samurai duty. It's an interpretation of the infamous real-life elite assassin Okada Izō, who in this film shares the screen with his three fellow Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu (one of whom is played by Yukio Mishima, in a rare acting role). There may be no other film that confronts the inherent soul-eating horror of assassin life, with all the attending implications about Japan's institutional past, in such a fearless or clear-eyed way.

Demons (1971)

"Demons" — sometimes known in English as "Pandemonium" — is a film that understands two things: First, the potential for all-out, uncut, nightmare-inducing horror immanent in Shakespearean grand tragedy. Second, the all-consuming darkness of the soul that exists as a corollary to any lifestyle is fundamentally tied to violence. As such, this criminally under-discussed masterpiece from the great video artist and avant-garde filmmaker Toshio Matsumoto (best-known for his queer classic "Funeral Parade of Roses") is possibly the best example of a subgenre that should make the rounds more often: samurai horror.

"Demons" follows Gengobe Satsuma (Katsuo Nakamura), a disgraced ronin torn between two paths: Using the 100 ryō collected by his servant to buy his way into the famed party of the 47 ronin, thereby nominally restoring his honor, or using them to prevent Koman (Yasuko Sanjo) — a geisha he's desperately in love with — from being sold to another man. The decision he ultimately makes sends him down a path of revenge so vicious and mutually destructive it defies comprehension. Even summarizing the film's plot is nowhere near enough to get across its sheer intensity as a cinematic experience. An artist accustomed to bending the plasticity of the moving image to his will, Matsumoto cuts to the heart of Gengobe's blight not with literary devices but with aesthetics, rendering the entirety of the film — from its oppressively bleak lighting to its destabilizing editing to its hallucinatory gore — as an unbridled descent into hell.

Bohachi Bushido: Code Of The Forgotten Eight (1973)

To understand the history of any nation's film production, you have to understand its exploitation films. The same is very much true of Japan, which became famous among sleazes the world over in the second half of the 20th century as one of the leading hubs for, shall we say, uninhibited cinema. Japanese filmmakers proved particularly crucial to the international lexicon of exploitation cinema due to the way that they integrated ero guro (an artistic tradition emphasizing the harrowing and bizarre side of erotica) into their skin flicks. This style even gained its own unique name: pinku eiga or "pink films."

One of the most important auteurs of pink films was Teruo Ishii, whose work at Toei includes some of the most notorious amalgams of horror and horniness in all of world cinema. He didn't limit himself to horror, and indeed one of his major works consists of an effort to lewd up a whole other signature genre. The Japanese title of "Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight" gives it all away: "Poruno jidaigeki," literally meaning "Porno period film." The plot, in which a world-weary samurai is rescued from suicide by a clan of ronin turned amoral hustlers and begins to do their bidding in a sex trade war, is just the entry point into a typically over-the-top cauldron of action, sex, nudity, acrobatics, and dashing colors that doubles as genuinely well-done chanbara.

Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song Of Vengeance (1974)

Obviously, 1973's totemic "Lady Snowblood" would never belong on any list of "underrated" films, enjoying the status of one of the most unanimous masterworks in samurai film history. However, its oft-forgotten sequel released just a year later, which brought back both director Toshiya Fujita and star Meiko Kaji, does seem to slip through the cracks more often than it should.

Perhaps the reason "Love Song of Vengeance" doesn't get as much attention as its high-octane, Quentin Tarantino-aped predecessor is that it's comparatively short on flashy pop thrills. Working from an original story (as opposed to the manga series by Kazuo Koike and Kazuo Kamimura), director Toshiya Fujita pares down the first film's iconic geysers of blood and elaborate standoffs, which get mostly confined to the final 30 minutes. In their place, the movie offers suspense, sprawling plotting, and oodles of political intrigue, as well as even more overt and incendiary anti-imperialist undertones. This time around, our assassin heroine Yuki Kashima is arrested and sentenced to death, only for Japan's Meiji-era secret police to offer her a deal: She will be spared if she infiltrates and offers intel on a group of anarchist "enemies of the state." Naturally, it doesn't take long for Yuki's allegiances to be tested, nor for her to get caught up in the era's perilous cat-and-mouse games between cops and revolutionaries.

Samurai Fiction (1998)

If you want to get a glimpse of what chanbara looks like filtered through the grungy, meta-reflexive postmodern gaze of '90s indie cinema, look no further than "Samurai Fiction." It is the feature directorial debut from Hiroyuki Nakano, who earned his stripes as a music video director on MTV Japan for artists like Deee-Lite and Tomoyasu Hotei (the latter makes his acting debut in the film). The original plan was for "Samurai Fiction" to be the first entry in a series of films titled "SF," which would comprise multiple loosely-related genre exercises all sharing the same initials. Ultimately, only two "SF" features were released, with all the entries after 2001's "Stereo Future" being short films. That doesn't take away from the achievement of "Samurai Fiction," which showcases all the energy, imagination, and cultural shrewdness Nakano honed in his music video career.

In some ways, it is a precursor to Western genre pastiches like "Kill Bill," imbuing a classic chanbara story (a samurai-in-training journies to retrieve a stolen sword) with the sensibility of a studious fan looking back on the genre's history. Shot mostly in black-and-white, with color reserved for a few choice moments of visual aggression, the film contains multiple nods to samurai films past, all set to one of the most memorable soundtracks ever put to chanbara, a counterintuitive prog-rock symphony supplied by Hotei himself.

Taboo (1999)

When you've made a film as radical and searing as "In the Realm of the Senses," it's only natural for it to be the first thing people associate you with. Yet Japan's provocateur par excellence Nagisa Ōshima has many, many more achievements to his name. For one thing, he certainly didn't stop at making just heterosexual desire shocking and institution-torching, as his final film "Taboo" (also known by its original title "Gohatto") aptly demonstrates.

A film located within the ample and rich history of queer samurai fiction, "Taboo" offers a classic Ōshimian view of sex as a function of culture, society, and all the repressive mechanisms and self-delusions therein. It's very pointedly set in the final years of the Edo period when special police known as the Shinsengumi were tasked with protecting the increasingly disempowered officials of the Tokugawa shogunate. Many chanbara films throughout history have depicted the Shinsengumi in an honorable light, as a kind of final stronghold of traditional samurai values, but "Taboo" views them as something else entirely: desperately horny men. In the plot, the entry of the young and beautiful Kanō Sōzaburō (Ryuhei Matsuda) into the force's ranks triggers a shockwave of bottled-up desire in both his peers and his superiors, turning the training room into a battleground of sexual overtures. The film examines the fault lines and contradictions of bushidō masculinity like no other and in a way candid and sensually charged enough to remain startling to this day.

The Twilight Samurai (2002)

Leave it to Yoji Yamada ("The Yellow Handkerchief") to make a contemporary samurai film that harkens back to the genre's earlier, drama-focused days. An altogether beautiful film that's sure to win over chanbara devotees and skeptics alike, "The Twilight Samurai" tells one of the most soulful and human stories to have come out of jidaigeki cinema in the 21st century so far.

Hiroyuki Sanada stars as Seibei Iguchi, a low-ranking samurai who has just recently lost his wife to tuberculosis. He struggles to put food on the table for himself, his two young daughters, and his elderly mother on a meager grain warehouse worker's salary. The movie takes its time detailing the hardships faced by those at the low end of the feudal pecking order, even samurai. Then, when Seibei's childhood friend Tomoe Iinuma (Rie Miyazawa) comes back to town and reconnects with him, "The Twilight Samurai" becomes a melancholy-tinged romance in addition to a social drama. All in all, the film sensitively takes stock of a very particular dilemma brought on by the transformations in 19th-century Japanese society: When the feudal system is all but crashing down, when the institutions honored and protected by old codes of conduct are gradually ceasing to exist, when samurai life itself is no better than the daily grind of any underprivileged worker, what does an honorable life look like for someone like Seibei? Yamada's patient search for an answer provides a touching cap to decades of chanbara history.

Killing (2018)

As this list has hopefully made clear, the importance of samurai cinema in Japan is great enough to have inspired filmmakers of all persuasions to make their own contributions to the genre. This was once again demonstrated recently by "Killing," a 2018 chanbara film that played in competition at the 75th Venice Film Festival. "Killing" is a rare foray into jidaigeki by Shinya Tsukamoto, who became famous worldwide as the mastermind behind such twisted, queasy J-horror classics as "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" and "Kotoko."

Although it doesn't feature any overt horror elements, "Killing" is just as twisted and queasy in its own way as Tsukamoto's most famous films. The title sums up the film's main preoccupation: Just what does it mean, and what does it take, to kill? Such is the question faced by Tsuzuki (Sosuke Ikematsu), a young ronin who is suddenly yanked from his relatively quiet life as a farmer's assistant when his village gets caught up in the country's brewing civil war. A peaceful man who has never actually killed anyone, Tsuzuki tries as hard as he can to escape the encroaching maelstrom of senseless violence, but the bloody tide of history may just be too strong to resist. Shot in an unusual shaky-cam style, which imprints an extra layer of anxiety and panic onto Tsuzuki's heady existential conflict, "Killing" finds Tsukamoto working as screenwriter, director, editor, cinematographer, and co-star all in service of an indefatigably original take on the genre.

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The post 16 Underrated Samurai Movies You Need to Watch appeared first on /Film.

John McTiernan's career was cut short and he hasn't been properly celebrated. Starting with his 1987 classic "Predator" the hits just kept coming with "Die Hard," "The Hunt For Red October," and "The Thomas Crown Affair." McTiernan's signature is big, brawny, macho action movies with a human touch. His heroes, like the wise-cracking John McClane, are tough but relatable. Heck, he even made an oiled-up Arnold Schwarzenegger seem vulnerable. McTiernan's Hollywood adventure ended prematurely in 2013 when he went to prison for lying to the FBI. He was caught up in a dragnet involving crooked Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano and served almost a year in the slammer.

The Pellicano case was supposed to be an epic Hollywood scandal. Vanity Fair predicted it would "bring down some of the town's top names." In the end, McTiernan was the only notable collar. He'd first hired the PI in 1998 while going through a divorce. During a behind-the-scenes battle over his 2002 flop "Rollerball," he allegedly appointed Pellicano to wiretap a rival producer. It's not clear if any taps took place, but a strangely zealous prosecution and endless appeals bankrupted the director, his fourth wife Gail Sistrunk explained to Buzzfeed. This is why McTiernan hasn't made a movie since 2003. He has been plotting a comeback with a sci-fi film called "Tau Ceti Four," but even if that never materializes the director has left a remarkable movie canon. Here are all 11 John McTiernan movies ranked worst to best.

Rollerball (2002)

"Rollerball" was the movie that destroyed John McTiernan ... and that's not just because it's a remake of a silly 1970s movie and went on to be his worst-reviewed film and a massive bomb. It also led to the above-mentioned wiretap case that sent the director to jail and effectively ended his career. McTiernan's lawyer claimed the director was jet lagged, drunk, and under the influence of medication when he lied to the FBI. McTiernan's judgment was possibly suspect during this time, but misleading a federal agent wasn't his oddest move. More mystifying is why he would (allegedly) risk hiring a crooked private eye to tap the phones of "Rollerball" producer Charles Roven over mere creative differences.

Perhaps a wiser use of McTiernan's resources in 2000 would have been a trip to Blockbuster to rent the original dystopian rollerskating movie starring James Caan. Pop that baby in the DVD player and two hours later call up MGM and lie about why you can't be involved. That fib would have been First Amendment protected. Instead, McTiernan made this movie starring Chris Klein and L.L. Cool J. as two skaters in a popular and violent televised game show that's kind of like roller derby meets jai alai but with motorcycles and murder. This version removes the original's social critique as well as the football face masks to make terrible performances more visible. Perhaps next to the Black Dahlia, why exactly McTiernan bet it all on 'Rollerball" is Hollywood's most vexing mystery.

Medicine Man (1992)

After working with Sean Connery on the underwater thrills of "The Hunt For Red October" in 1990, the two circled back in 1992 for the jungle misadventure "Medicine Man." Connery is rocking another pretty convincing piece for his hairline but with an unfortunate ponytail extension. That's to express his backwoods bonafides as Dr. Robert Campbell, an eccentric scientist living in the Amazon who may have just discovered the cure for cancer.

That's when a pharmaceutical company sends Dr. Rae Crane (Lorraine Bracco) to see what exactly he's been doing. For some reason though, even though Dr. Bob has been alone in the bush for over half a decade, he's annoyed that a hot and smart single woman has shown up. When evil logging interests threaten Campbell's Eden of naturopathic cures, he teams up with this dreaded feminine incursion and a love story ensues. "Medicine Man" is a departure for McTiernan being more of an environmental drama/love story than an adventure film. The themes are all about as subtle as "Avatar" without the visual feast to make it worth your while. This movie could work were there more "Indiana Jones" action and less poorly written schmaltz, especially put in the mouth of Bracco's Bronx babe in the jungle. It's true that rainforests represent a possible panacea of undiscovered potions and that deforestation threatens this precious resource. Watching this movie will still have you rooting for the bulldozers.

Nomads (1986)

First films are a crucial training ground for young directors. "Joker" auteur Todd Phillips, for example, made a series of underground documentaries about unhinged characters long before he made his DC-universe masterpiece about mental illness. John McTiernan, on the other hand, came out of the gate with this relatively low-budget but legitimate Pierce Brosnan-led horror feature "Nomads" in 1986. The film even made it to theaters and got a BluRay redux in 2015.

There's some slight cult status for this horror-thriller, partly because the future James Bond plays the protagonist. He's a French anthropologist named Jean-Charles Pommier who has moved to Los Angeles with his wife. That's when some leather-clad 80s-style street punks start terrorizing his home and then build a strange shrine to a killer in his garage. Being a man of (social) science, Pommier starts studying the group and begins to suspect they are trickster spirits. Supernatural horror is not the genre that made McTiernan famous, though his breakout "Predator" the following year was plenty otherworldly. The smaller scale of "Nomads" with a then-lowly TV star at the center (Brosnan coming off of NBC's crime drama "Remington Steele") allowed McTiernan to experiment. At one point the director drops a baddie off of a rooftop with the exact same framing and slow motion he would use to kill Hans Gruber in "Die Hard" two years later. "Nomads" isn't good, but it is full of demons and other necessary evil.

Basic (2003)

To understand a bomb like "Basic" you have to get how big "Pulp Fiction" made John Travolta. The "Saturday Night Fever" star's career suffered after all those talking baby movies, and then Quentin Tarantino made him cool again in 1994. Suddenly he was playing angels, waking up with telekinetic tumors, and switching faces with Nicholas Cage. In 1998 Oprah proclaimed Travolta her "all-time favorite" in that everybody-gets-a-car voice as she gushed and blushed and jittered like a fangirl, dedicating an entire hour of her NBC talk show to promoting "Primary Colors" ... for which Travolta earned $20 million.

Basically, "Basic" (2003) is one of these post "Pulp Fiction" Travolta projects that rested on the actor's star power, and the hammy charisma of the overcooked characters he conjured in these lucrative years. It also features his "Pulp Fiction" wingman Samuel L. Jackson as a special forces commando who goes missing in action. That's when Travolta's slick-talking ace investigator is brought in to crack the case. This movie starts familiarly with a bunch of soldiers on a helicopter ride into the jungle, just like "Predator," but something is off. The scale is larger, and the intimacy of that excellent 80s scene is replaced with wide shots and big-budget cutting between tons of coverage as if this was a Tony Scott film. The "Basic" plot is just as convoluted as the editing and was almost unanimously court-martialed by critics. John McTiernan's final film is ruinously mired in the memes of the moment.

The 13th Warrior (1999)

The last few entries from John McTiernan generally represent a decline. Quentin Tarrantino, so fearful of this kind of history, has repeatedly pledged to quit making movies after his tenth film. "The 13th Warrior" is McTiernan's first late-stage project, and though he was only 48 in 1999 (Tarantino wants to be done around age 60) something had changed as the new millennium dawned in Hollywood. The 1980s and '90s were more similar than not when it came to the action genre. Audiences wanted competence and thrills, but suddenly expectations were elevated. The bar had been raised, largely by McTiernan himself, but also by James Cameron and others, and critics took a hard pass on this medieval movie. Worse for McTiernan, Disney spent a staggering $160 million on what turned out to be a historic bomb.

Based on Michael Crichton's "Eaters of the Dead" — which itself is based on Beowulf — the story follows banished tenth-century Muslim ambassador Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan (Antonio Banderas), who travels to Viking lands and becomes one of 13 riders to fight an ancient man-eating evil. It sounds completely awesome. Crichton's 1976 book is pretty awesome, and Roger Ebert claims the author personally even directed additional scenes when the test screenings flopped. It's just not clear what this movie is about beyond Vikings doing Viking stuff. If swords and epic quests are your thing, you'd be better served reheating "Braveheart" or "The Fellowship of The Ring."

Last Action Hero (1993)

Some say when culture becomes about culture, that's the death of culture. By 1993 Arnold Schwarzenegger had a decade of credits captivating 12-year-old boys, and this movie takes that concept literally. Danny (Austin O'Brien) is a tween Arnold obsessive. He practically lives at a rundown urban movie palace soon to be replaced by a sleek new Loews multiplex. The kindly old projectionist Nick (Robert Prosky) gives Danny a midnight preview screening of the new "Jack Slater" picture. Slater is an amalgamation of badass '80s cops but then, abracadabra, Danny gets trapped inside the movie's plot. This conceit was too much for Arnold's fanbase in 1993. "Last Action Hero" bombed and was blasted by critics. Arnold thought the issue was politics and gave this surprising read: 

"It was one of those things where President Clinton was elected and the press somehow made the whole thing semi-political where they thought, 'Okay, the '80s action guys are gone here's a perfect example,' and they wrote this narrative before anyone saw the movie ... The action hero era is over, Bill Clinton is in, the highbrow movies are the 'in' thing now, [and] I couldn't recuperate." 

More simply, "Last Action Hero" is a dopey and overly jokey kid's movie version of the Schwarzenegger oeuvre brimming with "Terminator 2" references but none of that charm. All the meta-movie mockery isn't actually funny and makes the stunts cartoonish, so the actual action movie is hard to care about.

Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995)

The third "Die Hard" title gets to the self-aware "die harder" joke of a series where Bruce Willis' ordinary New York cop John McClane saves the day once, but somehow just keeps tangling with terrorists. His whole thing is that he's not Arnold Schwarzenegger, he's a balding smoker with a dad bod and a drinking problem. Why won't he just die already!?

John McTiernan is rumored to have been set to pilot the airport takeover plot of "Die Hard 2" but made "The Hunt For Red October" instead. However, 20th Century Fox got McTiernan onboard for this third film in 1995. McClane has just been fired from the NYPD. He's now divorced and drinking too much but gets back in action when a terrorist called "Simon" (Jeremy Irons) detonates a bomb and demands McClane put on a sandwich board with a racial slur emblazoned and be dropped in Harlem. Enter McClane's buddy dynamic, with a new character played Samuel L. Jackson coming off of his star turn in "Pulp Fiction." He plays streetwise electrician Zeus who saves McClane from an angry mob and then helps him survive Simon too. Critics didn't love this third installment, but audiences did and it was a global smash for McTiernan. This movie is definitely one big string of explosions and normally that can get dull, but Jackson and Willis are so much fun together. If you saw this in a crowded theatre in 1995, yippee ki-yay!

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

John McTiernan has successfully subdued just about every action-adventure sub-genre. For "The Thomas Crown Affair" he pivots perfectly to make one of the best heist films ever in this thrilling and inventive remake of the 1968 original. For McTiernan's 1999 version the almost impossibly debonair Pierce Brosnan plays the titular playboy and art thief. As a sophisticated man of means, he steals priceless paintings to admire their beauty, but mostly to admire his own handiwork. Rene Russo plays a savvy insurance adjustor who gets close to Crown to unlock his chest of secrets and recover the works. In the process, she might just be drawn in by this man's seductive designs.

In 2020 a band of real art thieves broke into a museum in the dead of night and absconded with a priceless painting by Vincent Van Gough. They didn't use guns, but rather took advantage of the fact that the building was closed because of COVID restrictions. "They knew what they were doing, going straight for the famous master," the museum's director told The New York Times. It turns out that over two dozen works by the legendary Dutch impressionist have been lifted in the Netherlands in recent decades. The 2020 heist was conducted on the artist's 167th birthday. Crown is exactly this kind of clever and self-amusing crook. He takes things because life is as colorful as you make it, and this master always seems one step ahead. 

Die Hard (1988)

John McTiernan followed 1987's "Predator" with arguably the greatest action movie ever made in 1988. In two films in as many years, he made himself immortal. After production wrapped, Ronald Reagan made an office out of one of the "Die Hard" locations. There were still spent shell casings all over the floor, according to "Die Hard: An Oral History" (via Thrillest). An editor recalled, "We neglected to tell the FBI that this was going on. They thought it looked like a terrorist attack." That's what kind of movie this is as New York cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) visits his wife during a corporate Christmas party in a Los Angeles skyscraper. The reunion is interrupted when terrorists, led by the iconic Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), take over the building. Only McClane can stop them.

Creating a vulnerable action hero seems obvious today, but Hollywood in 1988 was all about Arnold Schwarzenegger's robot assassin in "Terminator" and the inhuman body count of Sylvester Stallone's super soldier "Rambo." Willis' far less muscled McClane and his bare feet full of broken glass felt like fresh takes. "Our basic task was to show what Bruce's character was about," McTiernan explained. "You had to let the audience in on it. He doesn't like himself. He is in pain, basically. You let the audience see all those things behind the smart-ass face. You let the audience see the hurt. Being a smart-ass turns into an act of courage instead of just being an asshole."

The Hunt For Red October (1990)

"The Hunt For Red October" is a fanciful Cold War action-thriller, but also easily one of the best submarine movies ever made. Sean Connery plays the dashing captain Marko Ramius. He's just set to sea helming a state-of-the-art Soviet nuclear submarine with a silent "caterpillar" propulsion system. He's not a politburo fanatic, though, but rather a lettered sophisticate who wants to defect. This triggers an international incident and only Tom Clancy's CIA savant Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) suspects the captain's true intentions. "The Hunt For Red October" hits all the submarine movie notes. There's even a scene where Ramius takes the vessel deeper and faster than the anxious crew thinks it can handle, an absolute genre staple. There's lots of underwater dog-fighting too as Ramius and an equally-savvy American captain (Scott Glenn) play torpedo games. Yet, this film's thrilling underwater atmospherics —buoyed by Clancy's tightly coiled plot— make it rise above the rest.

Ramius is a Russian name in the film but it rings a lot like the mythical founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. Republican Rome was foremost on the American founders' minds and Connery's captain has just this kind of classical education. He easily quotes the Bhagavad Gita line made famous by conflicted nuclear physicist Robert Oppenheimer, "Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds." Ramius isn't Russian by birth, and he's an Americophile by disposition. This thrilling 1990 film blends apocalyptic Cold War stakes with rousing post-Berlin Wall optimism.

Predator (1987)

"Predator" was only John McTiernan's second feature as a director and his first hit. His prior film "Nomads" made only $2.7 million and "Die Hard" wouldn't happen until the following year. It's a little surprising then that an unproven filmmaker got tapped for the insane task of shooting this thinly-premised monster movie in a sweltering jungle ... and that he didn't get fired when the production fell months behind schedule. Producers were on location in Mexico to see the myriad issues weren't McTiernan's fault. Admirably, he'd shot almost half the film before the monster costume even arrived, according to this oral history. When it did show up, it looked like a giant red ant. It was so bad that "Predator" was shut down for six months as a new creative team was hired to make the iconic alien we know today.

Jean-Claude Van Damme was also originally cast inside that Predator costume but was so determined to be a star that he derailed the shoot. He wouldn't stop throwing kicks and had to be scolded by producer Joel Silver, "Look, the Predator is not a kickboxer!" The "muscles from Brussels" also kept taking off his mask so his face would be on camera, and at one point threw an early version of the $20,000 costume in frustration and smashed it. Somehow out of this mess McTiernan rallied his rag-tag jungle rabble and assembled the most suspenseful and enduring monster movie ever shot in broad daylight. 

Read this next: The 12 Best Arnold Schwarzenegger Films, Ranked

The post All 11 John McTiernan Movies Ranked Worst To Best appeared first on /Film.

As the 1960s drew to a close, John Wayne's macho, man-of-few-words act was wearing thin. Though some of the movies were pretty good (namely "The Sons of Katie Elder" and "El Dorado"), they were tonally and aesthetically indistinguishable from his '50s work. And this was a problem because the Western was undergoing a metamorphosis via the Spaghetti antics of Sergio Leone's "Man with No Name" and the bloody revisionism of Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch." If Boomers were going to check out an oater, they weren't going to bother the outmoded, out-of-step-with-the-times Wayne.

The Duke exacerbated his situation in 1968 by making the jarringly jingoistic "The Green Berets," which sought to boost domestic morale for the Vietnam War. The best that can be said is that it was too outlandishly stupid to be taken seriously on any level, but it most certainly harmed Wayne's image. He was officially a relic: too old to be credible as a soldier, and too politically conservative to be anything more than a villain or a joke to the counterculture.

Now in his 60's, Wayne seemed stuck on a one-way stagecoach to irrelevance. Then "True Grit" happened.

Wayne Finally Acts His Age, And Has A Blast Doing It

The character of Reuben "Rooster" J. Cogburn was exactly what Wayne needed at this perilous juncture of his career. An ornery, weathered, hard-drinking U.S. Marshal, Cogburn provided the opportunity for Wayne to loosen up and play the wildcard for once. No one was more aware of how badly he needed this role than Wayne, which compelled him to tell Roger Ebert in 1968 that this was his best role in 20 years.

"'Well, what the hell has there been? I'm always the straight guy who heaves the pack up on his back and shouts, 'Follow me!' Everybody else in the picture gets to have funny little scenes, clever lines, but I'm the hero so I stand there.

Howard Hawks worked out a whole system based on that. He'd just stand me up as a target and run everybody at me. 'El Dorado,' that was just a remake of an earlier picture by Hawks, 'Rio Bravo.' And in both pictures you had Robert Mitchum or Dean Martin as the drunken sheriff, and you had the old deputy and the young kid, and where did that leave me?'"

Wayne is tremendously enjoyable in the role, while Marguerite Roberts' script captures the off-kilter spirit of Charles Portis' novel. Overnight, the stink of "The Green Berets" vanished. "True Grit" was a box-office smash, and Wayne took home his first Best Actor Oscar for his performance. The old curmudgeon was back on top, and, using the "True Grit" model of at long last playing his age, he intended to stay there.

The Duke Rides Out

The results were mixed, but, considering Wayne's unadventurous choices, better than they could've been. Following the been-there, done-that duo of "Chisum" and "Rio Lobo," Wayne took on the title role of "Big Jake," in which he hunts down the bandits who've kidnapped his grandson with the help of his two headstrong sons. It's relentlessly formulaic, but surprisingly violent for a Wayne Western. "The Cowboys," wherein the star teaches a group of young boys to drive cattle, winds up being a moving tribute on The Duke's legacy.

Wayne took two strangely half-hearted cracks at off-brand Dirty Harry cop movies with "McQ" and "Brannigan," but concluded his career on a beautifully understated note as an aging gunfighter in Don Siegel's "The Shootist." Wayne was never going to go the revisionist route of Peckinpah. He was a red-blooded patriot to a fault, and harbored a multitude of ignorant prejudices. But whatever you think of the man, the larger-than-life star who in large part defined American cinema throughout the middle of the 20th century went out on his own terms, and this is nothing if not fitting.

Read this next: The 20 Best Westerns Of All Time

The post True Grit Became The Blueprint For The Rest Of John Wayne's Career appeared first on /Film.

"Firefly," created by Joss Whedon -— the once-venerated-now-ousted genre TV guru behind "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and writer/director of two "Avengers" movies — was one of the more peculiar bits of cult phenomena of the early 2000s. The show only ran a single season, and its episodes were broadcast out of order, giving the small audience of interested viewers narrative whiplash. The premise was far too complicated to communicate in such a fashion, and despite some charming characters and fun actors, the show ultimately never stood firm in the eyes of the Nielsen ratings and toppled over in December of 2002. 

After its cancelation — thanks to massive DVD sales — the myth of "Firefly" only grew, and a huge cult audience began to form around it. Catchphrases from the show began to leak into the geek vernacular, and fans gave themselves a nickname: Browncoats. Board games were authored in its honor. Comics were written. "Firefly" became the poster child of quality TV shows that were canceled before their time. By 2005, interest had grown enough that Universal Pictures gave the green light to a "Firefly" feature film called "Serenity." The film, written and directed by Whedon, was intended to be a condensed version of what the second season of "Firefly" was meant to look at. "Serenity" underperformed. 

Little, however, has discouraged enthused Browncoats from talking about a return of "Firefly" ad infinitum. Every time the cast reunited at a Comic Con or for an EW retrospective photospread, the question will be asked if "Firefly" will return. In a 2015 interview with Esquire, two of the show's stars, Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk, were asked for the 100th time about a return. Fillion felt that "Serenity" closed the book on "Firefly." Tudyk thinks a reboot is still possible. 

Fillion's View

The premise of "Firefly" is difficult to sum up succinctly: In the 24th century, the galaxy just fought in a massive Civil War wherein the scrappy Rebels were overcome by the bureaucratic Alliance. Ex-rebel Mal Reynolds (Fillion) makes a living in the post-war world by smuggling contraband on board his scrappy spacecraft. His crew includes his co-captain, a priest, a tough guy, a horny engineer, a sex worker (sex work is highly respected in this world, although Mal regularly pooh-poohs it), and a snarky pilot named Wash (Tudyk). Additionally, Mal is hosting a shy doctor and his sister aboard after she was rescued from some kind of creepy government laboratory that was enhancing her psychic abilities. The show in general is a sci-fi version of the Old West with some high-tech conspiracy thrown in. 

After 14 episodes of a TV show and a feature film, Fillion feels that he and his fellow cast members said all they need to say. There may be more stories that could be mined from the premise, but they had their shot.

"I honestly don't think that there's going to be another Firefly iteration. I had an amazing time on 'Firefly.' It was the best job I'd ever had. It was a lot of firsts for me, and it was the most incredible collection of people I'd ever had the pleasure to work with. And when it was torn away from me so abruptly, I was quite literally broken-hearted. But I had a chance to go back in the biggest way possible with a major motion picture. We all did. So we were able to have a nice kind of final goodbye. We had closure, which is more than a lot of people with canceled shows can say."

Tudyk's View

Tudyk, meanwhile, seems to think more can be done with the "Firefly" premise. Ironic as his character was one of a handful that didn't live through the events of "Serenity" (and "Firefly is not the kind of sci-fi universe that has access to resurrection tech). Tudyk envisions a revisit wherein Mal is now the age Fillion is and has to be roped back into his former smuggling career. This is not so terrible an idea if one considers "Firefly" to be a western. Returning to a life of Old West gunplay is, after all, the premise of "Tombstone," of "Unforgiven," of multiple classics of the genre. An aged Mal, according to Tudyk, would be a great opening to more. He said: 

"I'm for a Firefly reboot, personally. But it's going to have to be in a while. It's going to take a little time. I like the idea of it in another 10 years or so. We can pick up with Captain Mal, living on a moon somewhere ... You showed me this idea, Nathan. Was it a fan fiction or something? Anyway, it picks up in another 10 years, so Mal's going to be a little bit older. And someone comes knocking on his door and says, 'You're needed.' Really, you just need the Captain. Then he can put the band back together. And you're going to need some young people, because at that point you're going to be old."

Fillion then joked that Tudyk could return as Wash's long-lost twin brother. 

With every passing day, it's less and less likely that "Firefly" will return, since its chances have been hurt all the more by mounting stories of Whedon's bad behavior. But, then, geekdom is persistent. However unlikely, a Disney+ reboot may still be in the cards. 

Read this next: Sci-Fi Box Office Bombs That Deserve A Second Chance

The post Alan Tudyk And Nathan Fillion Have Differing Thoughts On A Firefly Reboot appeared first on /Film.

Some people are extremely passionate about cars and won't think twice about keeping up with all kinds of meticulous maintenance routines on their vehicles. On the other hand, most people see their vehicle as a tool that takes them from point A to point B.

One basic rule of life is that everything is easy with the proper tools, and nearly impossible without them. A great example of how this works is the can opener: Although we’ve had the pull-tab design since 1962, you can still somehow find plenty of canned goods on the grocery shelves that lack this simple…

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Most of us don’t have $10,000 burning a hole in our pockets. Naturally, if you have this sum laying around, your first response should be to pay off any outstanding debt. It’s the most risk-free, straightforward use of your funds. It’s also a good idea to pad out your emergency “rainy day” fund.

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The company behind the bright green marijuana-themed trucks that crowd Manhattan's tourist districts is now paying the price for repeatedly breaking the law. They haven't been fined for selling anything illicit, but for being top contributors to one of the city's other infamous scourges: illegal parking. From a report: The New York City department of finance confirmed to the Guardian that Weed World Candies had paid $200,000 in parking fines to get back several vehicles that had been towed in June by the city's sheriff's office. But while Weed World is apparently getting on the right side of the law, its payments only equal a fraction of the $534.5m the city is owed in unpaid parking fines, according to the agency, as serial offenders skirt the rules in one of the world's most maddening places to get around. In Midtown Manhattan, where competition for parking is cutthroat in a grid of cramped and chaotic roadways, trucks habitually stop in bike lanes, forcing cyclists into busy traffic; cars double-park as drivers sprint into bodegas to buy their increasingly expensive bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches. Police often turn a blind eye, amid allegations that they illegally park their personal cars and harassed a cyclist who reported them.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has outlined the steps that critical infrastructure organizations should take to prepare for the migration to the new post-quantum cryptographic standard.

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Your vehicle's alternator is a wonderful piece of engineering that does a lot more than you might realize. For example, many people don't know that the alternator is the heavy lifter while the vehicle is running, and it also helps keep the battery charged.

A last will and testament ensures your belongings are bequeathed to your family and your last earthly wishes are fulfilled after your death. But getting your affairs in order in the social media age is a lot more complicated than it used to be. Instead of just our physical property and finances, we also have to plan…

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Eight years ago Graham (who used to be to blame for all of this) got hands-on with Dead Island 2, back when the game was being developed by Yager, the folks behind Spec Ops: The Line. Since then, development changed hands like a baton at the Olympic relay; Yager left a year later, to be replaced by Sumo Digital, only for Sumo Digital to leave and be replaced by Dambuster Studios. Usain Bolt hasn't expressed interest yet, but there's time.

So going into a 20-minute hands-on with the game in the year 2022, I was a bit apprehensive. What sort of Frankenstinian horror awaited me behind closed doors? But, far from a shambling mess, what I played was a zombie 'em up that seemed close to what Graham saw in 2014, only polished up to a surprising, bloody gloss.

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In 1979, Stephen King was in New York for an appearance on a late-night talk show. Greeted by fans outside the studio, one man, claiming to be the author's "Number One Fan," wanted a polaroid photo with his idol instead. King was in a hurry so he relented to the request and signed the picture. The name the man gave was Mark Chapman.

Later, King couldn't say for certain whether it was the same Mark Chapman who shot John Lennon just a few hours after getting his autograph, but the incident unnerved the author. He already had a somewhat ambivalent towards his more ardent fans (via Washington Post):

"You look in their eyes, and it's like looking into vacant houses. They don't know why they want autographs. They just want them. And then you realize, not only is this house vacant, but it's haunted."

The brush with a fan who may or may not have been the man who was hellbent on murdering a celebrity, any celebrity, gave him the germ of an idea for a novel. Published in 1987, "Misery" told the tale of Paul Sheldon, a bestselling author who falls into the hands of a deranged admirer after suffering a terrible car crash. As with "The Shining," the book had strongly autobiographical elements and fell into a claustrophobic sub-genre of King's fiction; a protagonist trapped in a confined location where they must confront their monsters, whether physical, supernatural, psychological, or some combination of the three.

When it came to the film adaptation, a role requiring the lead actor to lay prone and vulnerable in bed for much of the movie was an unusual remit, and several big names including Harrison Ford, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, and Robert Redford, all passed. The part eventually landed with an actor better known for tough guys and hotheads: James Caan. How would he play such a passive character?

James Caan Was Ready To Lie Down For His Art

During the '70s, James Caan became a bankable star after his explosive Oscar-nominated performance as Sonny Corleone in "The Godfather," but fell off the radar in the early '80s after his sister tragically passed away. He gradually returned to acting with a role in Coppola's "Gardens of Stone" and playing a detective with an extraterrestrial partner in "Alien Nation," but "Misery" was his big comeback, even if Caan himself was mystified by why he was picked (via LA Times):

"I sometimes wondered if this was a sadistic joke on Rob's part. You know, 'Let's get the most hyper guy in Hollywood to stay in bed for 15 weeks.' . . . I was doing something I'd never done. For me, this being a totally reactionary character is really much tougher."

It was shrewd casting. If you watch Caan in interviews, he's always charming but a little prickly, which was well suited to the character of a celebrity author who would probably be used to brushing off annoying or just plain weird fans. He was also completely believable as a man who had made good after a hardscrabble childhood yet retained something of the streets in his attitude, again suited to an actor like Caan who always took a little of the Bronx with him.

When Reiner talked about how he kept Caan in character, it seemed there was a tiny bit of sadism involved, even if it was for the benefit of the movie (via USA Today):

"Being stuck in that bed, which he is in the entire film, having him hemmed in, created more frustration and helped him play the part. [Caan] kept thinking I would give him some wisdom, but each time, I'd just say 'Jimmy, in this scene you're in bed.' And then I'd walk away."

Kathy Bates Was Caan's Perfect Match

"Misery" paired Caan with Kathy Bates, which was another very canny casting choice. She was a Tony-award nominated stage actor making a transition into movies, but for most viewers, she was a virtual unknown. This worked perfectly for the character. Who was this burly woman in sensible sweaters using folksy phrases like "cockadoodie" and "dirty birdy" when she got mad? And what the hell was she doing with that sledgehammer?

Reiner often shot her from low angles, representing Sheldon's point of view, making her loom over his bed as a believable physical threat to her captive. As scary as she is, William Goldman's terrific screenplay also gave Bates plenty to play with. We can see the many years of loneliness and hurt as she swings from despondent to simpering to psychotic rage, and in her calmer moments, we even get glimpses of who she might have been if she wasn't insane. The role made Bates an instant sensation and she won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her performance.

Reiner, who had mostly directed comedies before, does a great job of cranking up the suspense as Sheldon plots his escape, but "Misery" really works best as a two-hander between two terrific actors, and the director uses his ear for comedy to wring plenty of humor out of the situation.

The success of "Misery" relaunched Caan in a big way, and many of the most memorable roles in the second half of his career were comedic ones, with terrific turns in "Honeymoon in Vegas," "Bottle Rocket," and "Elf." So while he may have thought Reiner putting him to bed for 15 weeks was a little sadistic, it sure got him back on his feet again.

Read this next: All 59 Stephen King Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

The post James Caan Thought His Misery Casting Might Be A 'Sadistic Joke' appeared first on /Film.

The subject of NFTs and blockchain tech in games continues to be a hot topic, with many publishers continuing to explore the concept despite it largely being rejected by players. Thus far, it’s seemed like Microsoft was largely anti-NFT, with Xbox boss Phil Spencer calling the tech “exploitative” and Mojang banning blockchain from Minecraft.

That said, Spencer was asked about NFTs again during a recent Bloomberg interview, and it seems his stance may be softening, as he admits there could be some “interesting things” done with the tech.

"We made some comments in Minecraft about how we view NFTs in this space, because we saw people doing things that we thought were exploitative in our product – we said we don’t want that. I think sometimes it’s a hammer looking for a nail when these technologies come up. But the actual human use – or player use, in our case – of these technologies, I think there could be some interesting things."

That said, Spencer continues to be cautious about the “play-to-earn” mode and its potential for turning players into workers…

"Play-to-earn specifically is something I am cautious about. It creates a worker force out of players for certain players to monetize. To be fair for us, in the games industry, this has existed for years and years. There have been gold farmers--people who literally just spend their time doing some menial task in a game to accrue some currency that they can then sell to some other rich player for real money, so that person doesn't have to spend their time. But now you find games that are starting to build that into the economy of the game itself."

The reality is, as much as consumers resist, the idea of the metaverse and selling digital goods like NFTs is a bone tech and gaming companies aren’t going to give up easily, and if there eventually comes a tipping point where people actually start to embrace this stuff, you can bet Microsoft will be there to take advantage.

What do you think? Will NFTs and the like ever take off or is this concept a dead end?

The post Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Calls NFTs “Interesting,” is Cautious about the “Play-to-Earn” Model by Nathan Birch appeared first on Wccftech.

U.S wireless carrier T-Mobile will use Elon Musk-owned SpaceX's Starlink satellites to provide mobile users with network access in parts of the United States, the companies announced on Thursday, outlining plans to connect users' mobile phones directly to satellites in orbit. From a report: The new plans, which would exist alongside T-mobile's existing cellular services, would cut out the need for cell towers and offer service for sending texts and images where cell coverage does not currently exist, key for emergency situations in remote areas, Musk said at a flashy event on Thursday at his company's south Texas rocket facility. Starlink's satellites will use T-Mobile's mid-band spectrum to create a new network. Most phones used by the company's customers will be compatible with the new service, which will start with texting services in a beta phase beginning by the end of next year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nintendo is not involved in the development of the recently announced Switch emulator protection software by Denuvo.

Speaking with Kotaku, a Denuvo spokesperson confirmed that the Japanese publisher is not involved in developing the newly announced DRM, which should prevent games from being played on Switch emulators like Yuzu and Ryujinx. According to the spokesperson, there was a strong demand from a number of publishing partners:

"Because of NDAs, we are not allowed to disclose company names, but we can say this solution comes from strong demand from publishing partners"

One of the biggest concerns regarding this Switch emulator protection software is performance, as the Denuvo DRM is known to have an impact on it. According to the Denuvo spokesperson, the DRM will not impact in-game performance, as the protection is designed to not affect the gamer's experience. The software will also prevent the use of legally purchased games on PC, which is something many have been doing to enjoy them at higher resolution and better framerates and sometimes even with mods.

"Software publishers and Denuvo take great care to deliver the best gaming experience. The protection is designed not to affect the gamer’s experience, and it does not have any in-game performance impact. It is the same for this new solution when protection is only active in non-performance critical code parts."

"As you know, dumping your bought game for backup purposes is a long-standing argument from pirates that is simply used to justify piracy. The majority of players use emulators with ROMs from pirate sources and are not self-dumped. And if they dump it themselves, they will require a jailbroken console to do that."

It also seems like this new Switch DRM will not rely on online checks, as it has been designed to work fully offline:

"We are aware that the Nintendo Switch is a mobile console and therefore has limited online capabilities, so we designed our solution to be fully offline, no online checks required"

More information on the Denuvo Nintendo Switch emulator protection software can be found here.

The post Nintendo Is Not Involved in the Development of the Denuvo Switch Emulator Protection Software by Francesco De Meo appeared first on Wccftech.

Reply from Zyzzle, 26.08.2022, 11:13:

> Hello all!
> Just accidentaly I found that today was a new and quite ambicious DOS game
> released. It is called Gates of integrity and it has Windows version
> (436MB) and a little bit :-) smaller DOS version (2MB).
> Gates of integrity

Thanks very much for releasing your game. It is excellent! I had no problems running it on bare matal DOS on a "modern" system with huge amounts of memory. It works well without any crashes for me, for what that's worth. What I like most about your game is it's *direct* and oldschool. No fancy, interminable title screen which can't be bypassed, a very quick character creation, intuitive play, and a nice rogueish feel to the whole thing. A very fast load game feature, and in 3 seconds, you're back in action, even from the DOS prompt. Thank you for this leaness. It is so refreshing to have a fun, new, fast DOS RPG in 2022.

What are the differences between the bloated Windows version, and the *fast*, lean, mean DOS version (the only way to play!)? Are there any differences in the size of the maps or the game world?

NB: You seem to have cheats built in ala some kind of "wizard" mode. But so far, I've not figured out how to active it. A hint, perhaps on how to get the (-) key to bring up the cheat menu?

I donated $10 to you.

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Series: "Jackie Chan Adventures"

Where You Can Stream It: Amazon Prime Video

The Pitch: What if world-famous martial arts movie star Jackie Chan was actually an archaeologist on a quest to gather 12 mystical talismans around the world? Oh, and one more thing: A ruthless criminal organization is after them too. And one more thing: A clandestine government organization has hired Jackie to stop the talismans from falling into the wrong hands. And one more thing! Jackie has to drag around his spunky niece Jade and his cantankerous uncle, er, Uncle, on his adventures, leading to all kinds of wild hijinks.

Why It's Essential Viewing

Created by John Rogers, Duane Capizzi, and Jeff Kline, and executive produced by Jackie Chan, "Jackie Chan Adventures" is one of those "let's do it and be legends" types of shows that shouldn't work as well as it does. A Jackie Chan cartoon starring a likeness of the Hong Kong action star but having absolutely nothing to do with his actual life? Genius. Turning Jackie Chan into a blue sweater-wearing Indiana Jones-type might be the kind of pitch a coked-up '90s children's TV executive thought was the greatest idea ever, but man if it does not absolutely rule.

In typical Jackie Chan fashion, the hero of the series is a somewhat hapless archaeologist who stumbles into scary situations before he seems to remember that he has unrivaled martial arts skills, allowing him to save the day by the skin of his teeth. When he's not caught up in the latest daring adventure — taking him across the world investigating supernatural objects related to Chinese mythology and folklore — he's helping his uncle mind an antique shop in San Francisco, or trying to keep his rebellious niece in line, or warding off greedy treasure-hunting criminals who look like they stepped right out of " Yu-Gi-Oh!" (also sometimes ninjas, and maybe lizards). 

But despite the show taking a lot of shortcuts with its animation (the backgrounds are little more than vaguely drawn lines and splashes of color to distinguish the San Francisco buildings and streets), it's clear the creative team wanted to do justice by Chan's martial arts prowess. The fight animation is crisp and sleek and full of oomph, and every episode ended with a video of the real-life Chan showing off a kung fu move that his cartoon counterpart had used. There was care put into crafting and maintaining the image of Jackie Chan — the show managed to imitate the star's particular brand of slapstick and wide-eyed goofy expressions while still making him a dashing hero. But perhaps most surprising, and most progressive of all, was the choice to keep Chan's distinctive accent (voiced by another actor, but alas) — strong Chinese accents were uncommon in cartoon characters that weren't comedic sidekicks or nerdy stereotypes, and it's still astonishing to this day to see a character with a strong accent as the hero. In that way, "Jackie Chan Adventures" was more flattering to Chan than some of his live-action Hollywood productions, which often reduced him to a pale, bumbling imitation of the action hero he was in Hong Kong movies.

A Saturday Morning Staple

From its debut in 2000 as part of the Kids' WB Saturday morning cartoon lineup, "Jackie Chan Adventures" was one of my must-watch shows every weekend, and my first introduction to Jackie Chan. For a person who was a major part of my childhood TV life — and my early gaming life because, yes, I had the "Jackie Chan Adventures" video game — Jackie Chan was a figure whom I thought of for the longest time as actually a just a kickass archaeologist with a very limited wardrobe. But all the same, the series would serve as a perfect gateway to the real-life Jackie Chan, once my parents deemed his movies not too violent for me (for some reason, the first would be the badly dubbed "Drunken Master").

There isn't anything terribly original about "Jackie Chan Adventures." It's as if Indiana Jones were mashed together with "Dragon Ball Z" with a dash of "Carmen Sandiego." Throw in a feisty kid with a penchant for trouble (whom all the little girls would naturally idolize), and you've got the perfect show for the Saturday morning cartoon block.

And yet, there's a charm to the hapless fictional Jackie Chan (voiced by James Sie, doing a bang-up job imitating Chan's distinctive accent) who leaps, twirls, and parkours his way out of elaborate traps and crumbling temples. Uncle's trademark "And one more thing!" and frustrated "Aya!" catchphrases are an inextricable part of my childhood memories, especially of my elementary school years when I would annoyingly yell them around my house until my mom told me to stop. Even the threadbare animation has its charms — upon revisiting the series, I was surprised to see just how bad those backgrounds are — because it allowed your eyes to gravitate to the thing that mattered: Jackie himself.

Oh, and one more thing: the intro ruled so hard.

Read this next: Overlooked '80s Cartoon-Toy Franchises Ripe For Revival

The post The Daily Stream: Jackie Chan Adventures is the Greatest Celebrity Cartoon Series of Your Childhood appeared first on /Film.

In a world going through a rough time, it's nice to be able to tell you some lovely, if bittersweet news. The world lost Nichelle Nichols on July 30, 2022. Nichols, of course, played the role of Lieutenant Nyota Uhura on "Star Trek," breaking new ground for Black women in television. Lt. Uhura shared the first interracial kiss on a network TV series with Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner). When she wanted to leave the role to pursue another job, none other than Martin Luther King Jr. -- whose own family watched the show -- convinced her not to because of how powerful it was to see a Black woman on TV in a high ranking position during the height of the civil rights movement. 

Nichols' role inspired so many people, from Whoopi Goldberg to NASA astronaut Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to go to space. (Both went on to appear in "Star Trek" shows.) Now Nichelle Nichols and her life's work will be honored in a lovely way, courtesy of Celestis (via Gizmodo). 

Nichols' son Kyle Johnston has donated some of her ashes to be sent to space on the Celestis Memorial Spaceflight. This Celestis mission is one that will also honor "Star Trek" legends Gene Roddenberry, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, James "Scotty" Doohan, and VFX engineer Douglass Trumbull. If you would like to honor the legacy of Nichelle Nichols, you can join in as well. The Celestis website allows you to send pictures or music, or even a message. The messages will be digitized and sent into space with the flight in the "Celestis Mindfile." I just sent my own, and even being able to send my admiration for this amazing woman to space with her is humbling.

A Legend In This World And Beyond

After playing Uhura on "Star Trek," Nichols worked with NASA to promote diversity after watching the Apollo 11 launch. In 1977, Nichols was appointed to the Board of Directors for the National Space Institute. She even became a recruiter for NASA, helping to bring new and diverse voices and skills to the organization. As noted in the documentary about her life, "Woman in Motion," Nichols "went into this to become an actress. She ended up changing the world."

The flight with Nichols remains and the messages of tribute will launch later this year. If you scroll down on the site for the mission, you can read some of the messages from her co-stars and stars from other shows in the "Star Trek" franchise including William Shatner, George Takei, Walter Koenig, LeVar Burton, Adam Nimoy (son of the late Leonard Nimoy), J.J. Abrams, Kate Mulgrew, and Celia Rose Gooding, who plays Lt. Uhura on "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

It's a beautiful way to honor a woman who broke so many barriers and changed the face of NASA. 

The 2021 documentary "Woman in Motion" is currently streaming on Paramount+.

Read this next: Every Star Trek Show And Movie In Chronological Order

The post Star Trek Legend Nichelle Nichols to Receive a Fitting Final Resting Place appeared first on /Film.

This article contains spoilers for the season 3 premiere of "Star Trek: Lower Decks."

What a time to be alive as a "Star Trek" fan. Just when it seemed as if nothing could fill the gap left by the extraordinary first season of "Strange New Worlds" -- one of the most universally adored installments of the franchise in recent memory -- "Star Trek: Lower Decks" returns to make it all better. The animated series brings a much more lighthearted and irreverent tone to the exploration-heavy material, all while remaining quintessentially "Trek" -- a balancing act that's much tougher to pull off than it might seem on the surface.

With season 3 now upon us, all the deep-cut references, bawdy humor, and some of the most lovable characters in all of "Trek" canon (looking at you, Tendi and Rutherford!) are back and better than ever. All of this is present and accounted for in the season 3 premiere alone, titled "Grounded." The season-opening storyline picks up where the season 2 cliffhanger left off, with Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) arrested and under investigation for the attempted destruction of the Pakled home world (named, fittingly, Pakled Planet). With the USS Cerritos impounded in Earth-orbiting drydock, Ensigns Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), and D' Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) take the most reckless course of action to exonerate their captain of all charges, taking them to one notably unexpected place.

Longtime fans will need no refresher on the significance of Bozeman, Montana as the site of Earth's official first contact with Vulcans. What is surprising, however, is just how much this location has changed since the events of 1996's "Star Trek: First Contact."

Even In A Utopia, Nothing Is Sacred

After "Star Trek: First Contact" depicted the dramatic, stirring, and rather epic events of humanity's first contact with extraterrestrials -- ushering our species into a new age of interstellar travel and mutual prosperity with other beings in the vast universe -- leave it to "Lower Decks" to lovingly lampoon such self-serious storylines and bring such grandiosity down to its level. With our overlooked heroes on an abrupt shore leave and at odds over how exactly to proceed to save their captain, the answer to all their problems comes from Tendi, whose intentions were to do some sightseeing during their rare visit to Earth.

At the top of her list? The otherwise mundane locale of historic Bozeman, which has since been turned into the place to be for space nerds across the globe. In a dramatic departure from prior depictions, "Lower Decks" reinterprets the site of first contact hundreds of years later as a hilariously tacky and wildly exploited tourist destination complete with "reenactors," a magnificent statue built in pioneer Zefram Cochrane's (James Cromwall) honor (paying off what a time-traveling Geordi La Forge once told him about his future), and even a musical arrangement echoing the sweeping score of "First Contact."

While it's been established in canon that the site of Cochrane's launch of humanity's first warp-capable engine (an important prerequisite before any member of the Federation reveals itself to a new species) has been preserved as an historical monument to one of the human race's greatest collective achievements, it's safe to say that viewers didn't quite expect the full extent of what this "Lower Decks" premiere unleashed.

All The Old Familiar Places

Of the many, many Easter eggs and references that fans will no doubt notice during this portion of the "Lower Decks" season 3 premiere, chief among them has to be the return (in a voice role, at least) of James Cromwell as Cochrane -- although, this time, as a hologram spouting out theme park clichés like "Make a first contact ... with fun!" or piloting the "Ride the Phoenix" attraction. Meanwhile, his rundown bar (and jukebox!) that hosted the "Next Generation" characters during "Star Trek: First Contact" has been restored to all its former, ah, "glory," the Vulcan's distinctive spacecraft used to initiate first contact has been turned into a glorified playground, and, most importantly, Cochrane's legendary ship, the Phoenix, now functions as a theme park ride that brings adventurers into orbit ... which is exactly where our "Lower Decks" crew needs to go in order to reconvene with the Cerritos and hopefully find the evidence needed to save Captain Freeman.

As a frequent stand-in for audiences, it makes perfect sense that Tendi sets herself apart as the most wide-eyed and passionate fan of the world-famous locale, though even her crewmembers (okay, maybe not Mariner) seem awed by the opportunity to stand on such meaningful ground. Luckily, the notion of these new additions to "Trek" lore crossing paths with some of the most famous moments in the entire franchise remains just as much of a treat for them as it is for us.

"Star Trek: Lower Decks" is finally back, boldly going where no one has gone before ... and, sometimes, where others have gone.

Read this next: Every Star Trek Show And Movie In Chronological Order

The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 Reveals the Bizarre Future of a Key Trek Location appeared first on /Film.

The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based Linux live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The project's latest release, Tails 5.4, introduces an updated kernel with newer hardware support, along with some kernel-related security hardening. This release also disables forced....

The internet is a mess. Ignore the algorithm, and distill the web down to the things you actually care about.

This article contains spoilers for the "Star Trek: Lower Decks" season 3 premiere, "Grounded."

At the conclusion of the second season of "Star Trek: Lower Decks," called "First First Contact," Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) is placed under arrest for a war crime. Evidence has come forth that she, acting alone, planted a bomb in the core of the Pakled home world, and exploded a massive chunk of the entire planet into space. The show's third season opens with an episode called "Grounded," wherein Captain Freeman's daughter, Ensign Mariner (Tawny Newsome), goes on a quest to find evidence to the contrary. She, stranded on Earth, rounds up her closest compatriots, ensigns Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford (Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, Eugene Cordero) and attempt to find the means to break into the U.S.S. Cerritos while the ship remains in impound. 

In true "Lower Decks" fashion, however, the main characters find that they are not the heroes of the story. "Lower Decks" is very much about how the lowest-ranking officers on a Starfleet vessel are rarely granted the opportunity to be heroic. If they do get to be heroic, then they most certainly won't be recognized. Even in Starfleet, there are crappy, only fitfully satisfying jobs. 

Indeed, the day is saved off-screen by an elite squad of Starfleet black-ops types. Certain members of this squad, decked out in black and seen briefly carrying out a covert mission, will look familiar to Trekkies. 

Captain Morgan Bateson

The squad is led by no one less than Captain Morgan Bateson, a character played by Kelsey Grammar in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Cause and Effect" (March 23, 1992). In that episode, the Enterprise finds itself trapped in a time loop. At the beginning of the day, the ship sails along its merry way. At the end of the day, a second ship suddenly appears from a mysterious spatial rift, crashes into the Enterprise, and destroys them both. Then time resets and the day starts over. It is only a vague sense of déjà vu that has the Enterprise crew sensing that something is amiss. 

By the end of the episode, the Enterprise is able to break out of the time loop and avoid being crushed by the second ship. Upon escape, the Enterprise learns that they have been trapped in the loop for 17 days. The other ship in question is the U.S.S. Bozeman, captained by Morgan Bateson. In talking to Captain Bateson, the Enterprise finds that they have been trapped in the same time loop ... for over 90 years. That would certainly explain the dated design of the ship and the previous-generation uniforms they wear. 

Captain Bateson never has a scene where he reacts to the big news that he was essentially thrown forward in time 90 years without warning. No doubt, climatizing to life in a new century would prove to be quite an ordeal; imagine suddenly waking up in the year 2112. "Cause and Effect" takes place in 2369. "Grounded," in about 2382. Evidently, in that 13 years, Bateston not only learned to live in the future, but carved out a nice career as a black ops leader.

Tuvok

Namechecked in "Grounded" is no one less than Tuvok, the security officer of the U.S.S. Voyager. 

When audiences last saw Tuvok, he was being spared a horrible fate. In "Endgame" (May 23, 2001), the final episode of "Star Trek: Voyager," the ship does indeed make it home after decades of travel. However, Voyager's trip takes so long that Tuvok (Tim Russ) succumbs to a rare neurological condition that he was unable to get treated while lost in the Delta Quadrant. Had the Voyager made it back to Earth just a few years earlier, Tuvok could have sought treatment. Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) takes it upon herself to travel back in time to the "present" of "Voyager"  and give her younger self access to Borg technology that can carry the ship home sooner. The two Janeways bicker over the ethics of accepting help from your future self.

Ultimately, the present day Janeway accepts the help -- Janeway never passes up an opportunity to do the unethical thing! -- and makes it back to Earth. Tuvok, presumably, is able to seek help for his condition. 

As "Grounded" points out, not only is Tuvok alive and well, but still working in security, aiding Captain Bateson in covert infiltration missions. Since "Endgame" takes place only about four or five years prior to "Grounded," it stands to reason that Tuvok would simply have the same career path.

If I were Tuvok, however, I would probably wait a good decade before getting on another starship.

Read this next: Every Star Trek Show And Movie In Chronological Order

The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 Builds a New Dream Team Crew – Entirely Offscreen appeared first on /Film.

Since the launch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008, the audience has been introduced to a number of groups. Of course, there are heroic teams like the Avengers, the Defenders, and the Guardians of the Galaxy or villainous organizations like A.I.M., the Ten Rings, and HYDRA, but there are also a number of government agencies that largely operate in the background of the MCU. There's the Nova Corps, the World Security Council, and S.W.O.R.D., to name a few. Although, thanks to Agent Phil Coulson and the ABC drama "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division is probably the most well-known of them all. However, when the intelligence agency collapsed in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (at least, publicly), others stepped in to take over their jurisdiction.

One such organization is the United States Department of Damage Control. Created in partnership with Stark Industries, this agency was initially tasked with cleaning up after the Battle of New York from "The Avengers." However, after their first appearance in "Spider-Man: Homecoming," it would seem that their mission statement has changed over the years. And since it doesn't seem like they're going away any time soon, let's take a look at their humble beginnings in the pages of Marvel Comics, the way they were originally meant to be introduced in the MCU, and what they've been up to so far in the Sacred Timeline up to and including their role in the latest Marvel Studios series on Disney+, "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law."

The Origins Of Damage Control

Created in 1988 by writer Dwayne McDuffie and artist Ernie Colón for "Marvel Age Annual," Damage Control was pitched as "an ensemble cast situation comedy along the lines of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show,' 'Taxi,' 'WKRP in Cincinnati,' 'Cheers,' and the like but set firmly in the Marvel Universe." Like its MCU counterpart, this company was formed to deal with the clean-up, repair, and restoration of property following a super-powered incident. For example, they were contracted with rebuilding the Washington Monument "X-Factor" #74 in 1992. But instead of it being a solely Stark Industries endeavor in conjunction with the US government, Tony Stark teamed with Wilson Fisk in the comics to create this agency.

Over the course of the company's history, Damage Control has had to deal with a breakout at the superhuman prison known as The Raft, a rampaging gladiator Hulk fresh from a space coliseum, Doctor Doom, Galactus, and two superhero civil wars. But just like other workplace comedies, their various storylines have also included the team working through office drama, the implementation of uniforms, and plenty of turnover in managerial roles.

And since the story was pitched as a sitcom, it's pretty fitting that their most recent series will be written by someone known for their work in the medium. Adam F. Goldberg, the creator of "The Goldbergs" on ABC and the upcoming series "The Muppets Mayhem," is co-writing "Damage Control" with Hans Rodionoff and Charlotte Fullerton which features artwork from Will Robson and Jay Fosgitt. The five-issue miniseries, which will feature heroes such as Nightcrawler, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk, is scheduled to hit your local comic shop on August 24, 2022. However, there was a time when Damage Control was meant to debut on your local TV networks as well.

The Damage Control That Could Have Been

Before Marvel Studios took over the House of Ideas' television division, Marvel Television under Jeph Loeb started to explore the possibility of a sitcom set in the MCU long before "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law." While they got pretty far with "New Warriors" at Freeform, which would have starred Milana Vayntrub as the unbeatable Squirrel Girl, they were also developing a series featuring the wacky adventures of Damage Control. Back in 2015, former "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report," and "Modern Family" producer Ben Karlin was tapped to bring the overworked and underpaid clean up crew to life in a single-camera half-hour comedy for ABC. According to ABC President Paul Lee at the time, the show was meant to premiere the following year.

Meanwhile, DC and Warner Bros released "Powerless" from "A to Z" creator Ben Queen on NBC. It was similar to "Damage Control" in that it also featured non-super-powered individuals living and working in a super-powered world. However, the show starring Vanessa Hudgens, Danny Pudi, Ron Funches, and Alan Tudyk was axed with three episodes going unaired. Marvel likely (and wrongly) took that as a sign that the audience wasn't interested in superhero shows like this, so theirs never materialized. While it was never officially cancelled like the S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff following Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood's characters from the flagship show called "Most Wanted," "Damage Control" got lost in the shuffle when Marvel Television got folded into Marvel Studios and it was never heard from again. But the agency would eventually surface in the MCU in a different way.

The Actual MCU History Of Damage Control

Marvel Television be damned, Damage Control still made its way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe eventually. The organization's first appearance was in "Spider-Man: Homecoming." Following the Battle of New York in 2012, Anne Marie Hoag approached Adrian Toomes' Bestman Salvage and informed them that they were now in charge of the collection and salvage of alien materials left behind in the battle. We also learn later that they were the ones that cleaned up the destroyed Helicarriers and the Triskelion after the events of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." But thanks to Executive Order 396-B, Toomes' company lost its government contract and was forced to find more nefarious work. Later in the film, Peter Parker ends up trapped in a facility that belongs to the Department of Damage Control, but he eventually gets out and saves his classmates at the Washington Monument.

In "Spider-Man: No Way Home," it seems like the jurisdiction of the DODC has expanded a bit as they're the ones who detain Peter and his family for interrogation after it's revealed that he wears the mask as the friendly neighborhood web-slinger. They're also on the scene at Happy Hogan's condo thanks to a tip from J. Jonah Jameson when Spidey's efforts to help turn into a brawl with Electro, Sandman, the Lizard, and Green Goblin.

The Present And Future Of Damage Control

Now that they have government backing, it looks like Damage Control is stepping into the void left after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell to handle all kinds of super-powered activity. This is supported by the fact that they also pursue Ms. Marvel after Kamala Khan starts making waves in Jersey City by using her powers publicly. They even use equipment very similar to the E.D.I.T.H. drones that they confiscated from Spider-Man in order to catch her in the act. 

Most recently in the second episode of "She-Hulk," we see that Emil Blonsky aka the Abomination is being kept at a DODC facility. Considering that his initial run in with the Hulk was back in 2008 before Damage Control was its own entity, the agency has likely taken over the remaining S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities to make sure the possible threats inside are properly contained. At least, the ones that Nick Fury hasn't kept off the books and still uses for his own purposes that will probably be revealed in "Secret Invasion."

It's currently unclear when and where Damage Control will show up next in the MCU, but with each appearance, it seems like their power and jurisdiction are growing. Unfortunately, this is a far cry from their silly sitcom origins. And whether they end up as the new S.H.I.E.L.D., the new HYDRA, or just plain cops chasing enhanced individuals remains to be seen. No matter which way you slice it, it does seem to indicate that the organization isn't going anywhere any time soon. 

Read this next: The Most Brutal Moments In The MCU Ranked

The post The Story of Damage Control (So Far) in the MCU appeared first on /Film.

(This article contains spoilers for the first two episodes of "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law." Please proceed with caution.)

In the pilot episode of "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law," True Believers learned that Jennifer Walters got her Hulk powers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe during a car crash while on a road trip with her cousin, Bruce Banner. Both bloody after the wreck, his blood dripped onto Jen and into her bloodstream, mixing his gamma-irradiated blood with hers and triggering a transformation.

While this is more or less in line with her comic origin (aside from the blood transfusion happening accidentally on the show), one hugely important detail that sets the Disney+ series apart from the source material is the spaceship that causes the crash. A Sakaaran vessel descends from the sky directly in front of Bruce and Jen's car, blocking the road ahead and causing the cousins to overturn their car while swerving off the highway.

While this ship doesn't stick around to check on the damage they caused or trade insurance information, it does pop up again in episode two. When Jen calls Bruce to let him know that she's taking a job that involves her representing Emil Blonsky aka the Abomination, it's revealed that the Hulk is on the Sakarran craft in space en route to somewhere. Why have the Sakaarans sent for Banner? Where is he going with them? And what could this mean for the future of the Jade Giantess? We have an idea that may or may not include yet another member of the Hulk family making their MCU debut.

Son Of Hulk

A common theme for the MCU's Phase Four has been family. Black Widow propels her sister's life into the future instead of dwelling in the past. Shang-Chi learns to accept his family and their influences on his life. Through heartbreaking circumstances, Doctor Strange and Thor add new members to their families. And Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, and the nation of Wakanda lose some of the most important members of their families. So on the surface, "She-Hulk" maintains that theme in a much lower-stakes way by introducing the audience to Dr. Banner's cousin. However, with that spaceship coming into play, it's very possible that Hulk's son from his time on Sakaar could factor into this story as well.

Created in 2007 by Greg Pak and John Romita Jr as part of the acclaimed Marvel Comics storyline "World War Hulk,", Skaar is the offspring of the iteration of Hulk known as The Green Scar or The World Breaker and the Red King's bodyguard Caiera the Oldstrong. While their unborn child was thought to be among the casualties killed when the warp core from Hulk's shuttle had exploded (along with Caiera and millions of innocent people), Skaar's cocoon actually fell into the lake of fire and was carried to safety. Once hatched, he appeared as a preteen human child, but he matured rapidly and developed the appearance and intelligence of a young adult in about a year.

Eventually, after having a run-in with Galactus and gaining the Old Power of his mother and the Shadow People of Sakaar, Skaar is exiled from his home planet and makes his way to Earth to meet his father. Though he initially means to kill Hulk, Banner ends up taking his son under his wing and teaches him to be a hero.

Nephew Of She-Hulk

But why introduce the savage Skaar on a sitcom about She-Hulk? The answer is likely two-fold. First, the film rights to the Hulk are still complicated and the next Avengers movie is a ways off, so the House of Ideas doesn't have anywhere else to put a Hulk storyline. The second reason is for comedic purposes.

In "Thor: Ragnarok," Banner was stuck in Hulk form for two years and had very little recollection of what happened during that time once he came out of it. It's within reason that Hulk might have entertained some female fans in his fancy penthouse after his gladiator battles. But with the introduction of Hulk's progeny, maybe Jen has to argue in court whether Skaar is actually Banner's son legally. Does Bruce owe back pay for child support? And what does the legal system on Sakaar say about this? Jessica Gao and her writers' room could have a lot of fun exploring these possibilities. Although, my guess would be that the nine-episode first season ends with a cliffhanger where we see Bruce contacting Jen because he needs a lawyer for a hearing of some kind before picking this back up in season 2.

The Hulkin' Future

No matter how he's introduced, Skaar could also tie into the other big theme of Phase Four: Legacy. With the mantle of Captain America being passed on to Sam Wilson, the introduction of a new Hawkeye and Black Widow, Thor acting as a surrogate father, and armored heroes like Ironheart and War Machine on the horizon, the rest of the original line-up of Earth's Mightiest heroes are all thinking about the future. Skaar could do the same thing for Hulk and provide a nice side of sweet alongside the funny. And probably alongside the punching, since that's apparently how the Hulks show love. But as of now, we'll just have to wait and see how things play out on Marvel's latest Disney+ series.

Read this next: MCU Superpowers That Don't Quite Make Sense

The post Could She-Hulk Introduce Another Member of the Hulk Family? appeared first on /Film.

A replica Murder Castle that's a little too real

Supermassive Games lifted the lid on The Devil in Me, the season one finale of The Dark Pictures Anthology. It's another standalone cinematic horror adventure game with tough choices to make, and with an intriguing trap-laying serial killer setup, it's the most promising one yet. In a preview presentation, game director Tom Heaton broke it all down.

The game was largely inspired by H.H. Holmes and the World's Fair Hotel, better known as the Murder Castle. It's also drawing from cinema, including the Saw movies, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, Psycho, Halloween, and Friday the 13th — look out for "hat tips."

"We've tried to capture that sense of claustrophobia and quiet oppression, that sense of a malevolent building, of an unknown threat around every corner," according to Heaton.

[caption id="attachment_340305" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Kate, the show's host, is played by Jessie Buckley.}[/caption]

The story involves a TV production company, Lonnit Entertainment, and its series "Architects of Murder." The finale is going to be about H.H. Holmes, and with a lot riding on the episode, the team follows a tip about a mysterious collector's recently inherited estate, which is said to feature accurate reproductions of the Murder Castle's rooms.

Of course, this is a horror story — the film crew is asked to hand over their phones before entering the "hotel," and it's located (where else?) on a remote island. Here we go again.

The major players

The game's core cast is headlined by Jessie Buckley (I'm Thinking of Ending Things). There's presenter Kate Wilder, cameraman and ex-boyfriend Mark Nestor, chief grip Jamie Teirgan, documentary director Charlie Lonnit, and unfortunate new intern Erin Keenan. Stranded, they're up against a "murderous genius who considers killing to be a work of art."

One of the do-or-die choices presented in the preview video was straight-up "Kill Kate" or "Kill Erin," so Supermassive won't be letting us off easy. Heaton mentioned that the kills in The Devil in Me are among the "most gruesome, extravagant, and over-the-top that we've ever done." As they said, they were inspired by Saw and classic slasher flicks.

From the look of it, the game's intro sequence will star Holmes himself, following the "playable prologue" formula set by prior Dark Pictures games. That should be fun.

[caption id="attachment_340303" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Exploring a spa that's seen better days.}[/caption]

More gameplay improvements

On the gameplay front, Supermassive designed the hotel and characters so that there's a more involved sense of exploration, whether it's climbing, jumping, or pushing boxes around. Nothing we haven't seen before in other games, sure, but a notable refinement for the slow-burn cinematic Dark Pictures series, certainly. Best of all, characters can run.

Different folks also have different items, with a purposefully "simple" inventory to consider. Erin has a directional mic — perfect for hearing through walls — while Mark can snap photos to document crimes, Charlie can jimmy drawers with a business card, Jamie's got a multimeter, and Kate has a pencil, which can shade in paper to suss out clues like that one scene from The Big Lebowski. They can trade, break, or lose their tools.

With that in mind, the puzzles look to be more involved than prior Dark Pictures games, and I am already sweating a maze section. The Devil in Me is going to be a bigger game, too — it's clocked at seven hours. Man of Medan and Little Hope were one-sitting games for me at about four-ish hours, while House of Ashes took me two sessions to complete.

[caption id="attachment_340307" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Expect to see lots of mannequins in the Murder Castle.}[/caption]

I've enjoyed all of these flawed-but-fun games in their own ways, some much more than others, but The Devil in Me has the most intriguing Dark Pictures setup so far by a longshot. I am so down to be toyed with by a grisly mastermind in their paranoid, trap-filled hotel.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me releases on November 18, 2022, across PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Let's keep this train rolling.

The post The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me has my favorite premise yet appeared first on Destructoid.

In recent weeks, the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) and Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team detected Iran-based threat actor MERCURY leveraging exploitation of Log4j 2 vulnerabilities in SysAid applications against organizations all located in Israel. MSTIC assesses with high confidence that MERCURY’s observed activity was affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).

While MERCURY has used Log4j 2 exploits in the past, such as on vulnerable VMware apps, we have not seen this actor using SysAid apps as a vector for initial access until now. After gaining access, MERCURY establishes persistence, dumps credentials, and moves laterally within the targeted organization using both custom and well-known hacking tools, as well as built-in operating system tools for its hands-on-keyboard attack.

This blog details Microsoft’s analysis of observed MERCURY activity and related tools used in targeted attacks. This information is shared with our customers and industry partners to improve detection of these attacks, such as implementing detections against MERCURY’s tools in both Microsoft Defender Antivirus and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. As with any observed nation-state actor activity, Microsoft directly notifies customers that have been targeted or compromised, providing them with the information needed to secure their accounts.

MERCURY TTPs align with Iran-based nation-state actor

Microsoft assesses with moderate confidence that MERCURY exploited remote code execution vulnerabilities in Apache Log4j 2 (also referred to as “Log4Shell”) in vulnerable SysAid Server instances the targets were running. MERCURY has used Log4j 2 exploits in past campaigns as well. 

MSTIC assesses with high confidence that MERCURY is coordinating its operations in affiliation with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). According to the US Cyber Command, MuddyWater, a group we track as MERCURY, “is a subordinate element within the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security.”

The following are common MERCURY techniques and tooling:

• Adversary-in-the-mailbox phishing: MERCURY has a long history of spear-phishing its targets. Recently, there has been an uptick in the volume of these phishing attacks. The source of the phishing comes from compromised mailboxes and initiating previous email conversations with targets. MERCURY operators include links to or directly attach commercial remote access tools, such as ScreenConnect, in these initial phishing mails.
• Use of cloud file-sharing services: MERCURY utilizes commercially available file-sharing services as well as self-hosting resources for delivering payloads.
• Use of commercial remote access applications: The initial foothold on victims emerges via commercially available remote access applications. This allows MERCURY to gain elevated privileges and be able to transfer files, primarily PowerShell scripts, easily over to the victim’s environment.
• Tooling: MERCURY’s tools of choice tend to be Venom proxy tool, Ligolo reverse tunneling, and home-grown PowerShell programs.
• Targeting: MERCURY targets a variety of Middle Eastern-geolocated organizations. Mailbox victims correlate directly with organizations that do business with the Middle Eastern victims.

This latest activity sheds light on behavior MERCURY isn’t widely known for: scanning and exploiting a vulnerable application on a target’s device. They have been observed performing this activity in the past, but it is not very common. The exploits are derived from open source and sculpted to fit their needs. 

Observed actor activity

Initial access

On July 23 and 25, 2022, MERCURY was observed using exploits against vulnerable SysAid Server instances as its initial access vector. Based on observations from past campaigns and vulnerabilities found in target environments, Microsoft assess that the exploits used were most likely related to Log4j 2. The threat actor leveraged Log4j 2 exploits against VMware applications earlier in 2022 and likely looked for similarly vulnerable internet-facing apps. SysAid, which provides IT management tools, might have presented as an attractive target for its presence in the targeted country.

Exploiting SysAid successfully enables the threat actor to drop and leverage web shells to execute several commands, as listed below. Most commands are related to reconnaissance, with one encoded PowerShell that downloads the actor’s tool for lateral movement and persistence.

Executed commands:

• cmd.exe /C whoami
• cmd.exe /C powershell -exec bypass -w 1 -enc UwB….
• cmd.exe /C hostname
• cmd.exe /C ipconfig /all
• cmd.exe /C net user
• cmd.exe /C net localgroup administrators
• cmd.exe /C net user admin * /add
• cmd.exe /C net localgroup Administrators admin /add
• cmd.exe /C quser

Persistence

Once MERCURY has obtained access to the target organization, the threat actor establishes persistence using several methods, including:

• Dropping a web shell, providing effective and continued access to the compromised device.
• Adding a user and elevating their privileges to local administrator.
• Adding the leveraged tools in the startup folders and ASEP registry keys, ensuring their persistence upon device reboot.
• Stealing credentials.

The actor leverages the new local administrator user to connect through remote desktop protocol (RDP). During this session, the threat actor dumps credentials by leveraging the open-source application Mimikatz. We also observed MERCURY later performing additional credential dumping in SQL servers to steal other high privileged accounts, like service accounts.

Lateral movement

We observed MERCURY further using its foothold to compromise other devices within the target organizations by leveraging several methods, such as:

• Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to launch commands on devices within organizations.
• Remote services (leveraging RemCom tool) to run encoded PowerShell commands within organizations.

Most of the commands launched are meant to install tools on targets or perform reconnaissance to find domain administrator accounts.

Communication

Throughout the attack, the threat actor used different methods to communicate with their command-and-control (C2) server, including:

• Built-in operating system tools such as PowerShell
• Tunneling tool called vpnui.exe, a unique version of the open-source tool Ligolo
• Remote monitoring and management software called eHorus

Microsoft will continue to monitor MERCURY activity and implement protections for our customers. The current detections, advanced detections, and IOCs in place across our security products are detailed below. 

Recommended customer actions

The techniques used by the actor and described in the Observed actor activity section can be mitigated by adopting the security considerations provided below: 

• Check if you use SysAid in your network. If you do, apply security patches and update affected products and services as soon as possible. Refer to SysAid’s Important Update Regarding Apache Log4j for technical information about the vulnerabilities and mitigation recommendations.
• Refer to the detailed Guidance for preventing, detecting, and hunting for exploitation of the Log4j 2 vulnerability.
• Use the included indicators of compromise to investigate whether they exist in your environment and assess for potential intrusion. 
• Block in-bound traffic from IPs specified in the indicators of compromise table.  
• Review all authentication activity for remote access infrastructure, with a particular focus on accounts configured with single factor authentication, to confirm authenticity and investigate any anomalous activity. 
• Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) to mitigate potentially compromised credentials and ensure that MFA is enforced for all remote connectivity. Note: Microsoft strongly encourages all customers download and use password-less solutions like Microsoft Authenticator to secure accounts. 

Indicators of compromise (IOCs)

The below list provides IOCs observed during our investigation. We encourage our customers to investigate these indicators in their environments and implement detections and protections to identify past related activity and prevent future attacks against their systems.

Indicator	Type	Description
hxxp://sygateway[.]com	Domain	First seen: May 16, 2022
91[.]121[.]240[.]104	IP address	First seen: May 17, 2022
164[.]132[.]237[.]64	IP address	First seen: November 26, 2021
e81a8f8ad804c4d83869d7806a303ff04f31cce376c5df8aada2e9db2c1eeb98	SHA-256	mimikatz.exe
416e937fb467b7092b9f038c1f1ea5ca831dd19ed478cca444a656b5d9440bb4	SHA-256	vpnui.exe Ligolo
25325dc4b8dcf3711e628d08854e97c49cfb904c08f6129ed1d432c6bfff576b	SHA-256	VBScript
3c2fe308c0a563e06263bbacf793bbe9b2259d795fcc36b953793a7e499e7f71	SHA-256	Remcom
3137413d086b188cd25ad5c6906fbb396554f36b41d5cff5a2176c28dd29fb0a	SHA-256	Web shell
87f317bbba0f50d033543e6ebab31665a74c206780798cef277781dfdd4c3f2f	SHA-256	Web shell
e4ca146095414dbe44d9ba2d702fd30d27214af5a0378351109d5f91bb69cdb6	SHA-256	Web shell
d2e2a0033157ff02d3668ef5cc56cb68c5540b97a359818c67bd3e37691b38c6	SHA-256	Web shell
3ca1778cd4c215f0f3bcfdd91186da116495f2d9c30ec22078eb4061ae4b5b1b	SHA-256	Web shell
bbfee9ef90814bf41e499d9608647a29d7451183e7fe25f472c56db9133f7e40	SHA-256	Web shell
b8206d45050df5f886afefa25f384bd517d5869ca37e08eba3500cda03bddfef	SHA-256	Web shell

NOTE: These indicators should not be considered exhaustive for this observed activity.

Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence

Community members and customers can find summary information and all IOCs from this blog post in the linked Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence portal article.

Detections

Microsoft Defender Antivirus

Microsoft Defender Antivirus detects attempted exploitation and post-exploitation activity and payloads. Turn on cloud-delivered protection to cover rapidly evolving attacker tools and techniques. Cloud-based machine learning protections block most new and unknown threats. Refer to the list of detection names related to exploitation of Log4j 2 vulnerabilities. Detections for the IOCs listed above are listed below:

• Backdoor:PHP/Remoteshell.V
• HackTool:Win32/LSADump
• VirTool:Win32/RemoteExec

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint customers should monitor the alert “Mercury Actor activity detected” for possible presence of the indicators of compromise listed above.

Reducing the attack surface

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint customers can turn on the following attack surface reduction rule to block or audit some observed activity associated with this threat:

• Block executable files from running unless they meet a prevalence, age, or trusted list criterion.

Detecting Log4j 2 exploitation

Alerts that indicate threat activity related to the exploitation of the Log4j 2 exploitation should be immediately investigated and remediated. Refer to the list of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint alerts that can indicate exploitation and exploitation attempts.

Detecting post-exploitation activity

Alerts with the following titles may indicate post-exploitation threat activity related to MERCURY activity described in this blog and should be immediately investigated and remediated. These alerts are supported on both Windows and Linux platforms:

Any alert title related to web shell threats, for example:

• An active ‘Remoteshell’ backdoor was blocked

Any alert title that mentions PowerShell, for example:

• Suspicious process executed PowerShell command
• A malicious PowerShell Cmdlet was invoked on the machine
• Suspicious PowerShell command line
• Suspicious PowerShell download or encoded command execution
• Suspicious remote PowerShell execution

Any alert title related to suspicious remote activity, for example:

• Suspicious RDP session
• An active ‘RemoteExec’ malware was blocked
• Suspicious service registration

Any alert related to persistence, for example:

• Anomaly detected in ASEP registry
• User account created under suspicious circumstances

Any alert title that mentions credential dumping activity or tools, for example:

• Malicious credential theft tool execution detected
• Credential dumping activity observed
• Mimikatz credential theft tool
• ‘DumpLsass’ malware was blocked on a Microsoft SQL server

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management

Microsoft 365 Defender customers can use threat and vulnerability management to identify and remediate devices that are vulnerable to Log4j 2 exploitation. A more comprehensive guidance on this capability can be found on this blog: Guidance for preventing, detecting, and hunting for exploitation of the Log4j 2 vulnerability.

Advanced hunting queries

Microsoft Sentinel

Microsoft Sentinel customers can use the following queries to look for the related malicious activity in their environments.

Identify MERCURY IOCs

The query below identifies matches based on IOCs shared in this post for the MERCURY actor across a range of common Microsoft Sentinel data sets:

• https://github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel/blob/master/Detections/MultipleDataSources/Mercury_Log4j_August2022.yaml

Identify SysAid Server web shell creation

The query below looks for potential web shell creation by SysAid Server:

• https://github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel/blob/master/Detections/MultipleDataSources/PotentialMercury_Webshell.yaml

Identify MERCURY PowerShell commands

The query below identifies instances of PowerShell commands used by the threat actor in command line data:

• https://github.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel/blob/master/Detections/MultipleDataSources/powershell_mercury.yaml

 In addition to the above, Microsoft Sentinel users should also look for possible Log4j 2 vulnerabilities, the details of which were shared in a previous blog post.

Microsoft 365 Defender

To locate related activity, Microsoft 365 Defender customers can run the following advanced hunting queries:

Potential WebShell creation by SysAisServer instance

DeviceFileEvents
| where InitiatingProcessFileName in~ ("java.exe", "javaw.exe") 
| where InitiatingProcessCommandLine has "SysAidServer" 
| where FileName endswith ".jsp"

Abnormal process out of SysAidServer instance

DeviceProcessEvents
| where Timestamp > ago(7d) 
| where InitiatingProcessFileName in~ ("java.exe", "javaw.exe") 
| where InitiatingProcessCommandLine has "SysAidServer" 
| summarize makeset(ProcessCommandLine), min(Timestamp), max(Timestamp) by DeviceId

PowerShell commands used by MERCURY

DeviceProcessEvents
| where FileName =~ "powershell.exe" and ProcessCommandLine has_cs "-exec bypass -w 1 -enc" 
| where ProcessCommandLine contains_cs "UwB0AGEAcgB0AC0ASgBvAGIAIAAtAFMAYwByAGkAcAB0AEIAbABvAGMAawAgAHsAKABzAGEAcABzACAAKAAiAHAA" 
| summarize makeset(ProcessCommandLine), makeset(InitiatingProcessCommandLine, 10), makeset(DeviceId), min(Timestamp), max(Timestamp) by DeviceId

Vulnerable Log4j 2 devices

Use this query to identify vulnerabilities in installed software on devices, surface file-level findings from the disk, and provide the ability to correlate them with additional context in advanced hunting.

DeviceTvmSoftwareVulnerabilities 
| where CveId in ("CVE-2021-44228", "CVE-2021-45046")

DeviceTvmSoftwareEvidenceBeta
| mv-expand DiskPaths
| where DiskPaths contains "log4j"
| project DeviceId, SoftwareName, SoftwareVendor, SoftwareVersion, DiskPaths

The post MERCURY leveraging Log4j 2 vulnerabilities in unpatched systems to target Israeli organizations appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

Black Hat USA 2022 marked the twenty-fifth year that security researchers, security architects, and other security professionals have gathered to share the latest research, developments, and trends. Microsoft was among the companies participating in the conference, which was from August 6 to 11, 2022, in Las Vegas, Nevada. This year’s event was hybrid, with some attendees attending in-person and others joining online.

We were excited to join members of the Black Hat security community representing 111 countries.¹ Along with more than 17,000 in-person attendees—and more than 15,000 virtual attendees—we heard security insights and shared the latest in Microsoft Security solutions, including two new security solutions—Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence to track threat actor activity and Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management to discover unknown and unmanaged resources that are visible and accessible from the internet.

Booth excitement

What energizes us the most about conferences like Black Hat is the opportunity to meet people. During the conference, we welcomed hundreds of security professionals to our booth. There, we talked about cybersecurity threats, shared our perspective on the need for comprehensive security, listened to their stories of cybersecurity challenges, and gave them demonstrations of the latest innovations from Microsoft Security in the threat intelligence and protection space, including Microsoft Defender Experts for Hunting.

We’re passionate about security and it’s always a thrill to be among others who feel the same way. Our team in the booth was kept happily busy. Some attendees chatted in groups of two or more while others crowded around four demo stations—Microsoft Security Experts, threat protection, threat intelligence, and identity and access management—to see how Microsoft product solutions can help catch what others miss.

During our Diversity and Inclusion Hour on Wednesday, Black Hat attendees gathered in the Microsoft booth to socialize and talk about diversity, equality, and inclusion in the workplace. As a bonus, Microsoft enlisted a professional photographer to take headshots for anyone who attended and wanted to update their LinkedIn profiles.

Conference sessions

Microsoft Security team members stay up on the latest news, solutions, and strategies in the security world. We were thrilled when several of these security professionals received the opportunity to share their thought leadership insights with Black Hat attendees.

• “Advancing Investigations with Threat Intelligence”: Microsoft Incident Response Consultant MacKenzie Brown shared how Microsoft’s Detection and Response Team (DART) harnesses the power of threat intelligence while in the trenches helping customers challenged by cyberattacks. MacKenzie also walked through how DART responded to recent threats from the North Korean nation-state actor believed to be behind HolyGh0st and Lapus$. 163 attendees viewed the session virtually, which you can watch here.
• “AAD Joined Machines—The New Lateral Movement”: Microsoft Senior Security Researcher Mor Rubin talked about new research about a mechanism designed to allow authentication between Microsoft Azure Active Directory-joined machines. Mor also explored the foundation of the new network protocol, presented a way (and a tool) to perform pass-the-certificate attacks, and talked through an open-source solution that can help companies hunt for attacks.
• “CastGuard: Mitigating Type Confusion in C++”: Microsoft Software Security Engineer Joe Bialek discussed type confusion vulnerabilities, which have incredibly powerful primitives to exploit writers. Joe introduced a new mitigation called CastGuard that’s being deployed to a set of Windows components (with more in the works). With a tiny instruction sequence and the virtual function table pointer of an object, CastGuard helps prevent illegal static down-casts in C++ code.
• “Malware Classification With Machine Learning Enhanced by Windows Kernel Emulation”: Microsoft Security Software Engineer Dmitrijs Trizna presented a hybrid machine learning architecture that combines static and dynamic malware analysis methodologies. This architecture surpasses the capabilities of the modern AI classifiers and records a detection rate of 96.7 percent with a fixed false positive rate of 0.1 percent.

Conference social events

It wouldn’t be a conference without plenty of fun social events to get everyone chatting, networking, and celebrating the achievements of security professionals. At the Cybersecurity Women of the Year Awards (CSWY Awards) on August 9, 2022, attendees gathered at the Luxor, enjoyed a gourmet meal, and toasted to female cybersecurity and privacy leaders who are changing the world.

“The CSWY Awards recognize women protecting businesses, schools, and governments from cyber threats actors,” said Carmen Marsh, creator of the CSWY Awards. “We give security pros the opportunity to talk about what’s happening or not happening in cybersecurity and how to make it better. It’s wonderful to bring women from around the world to Las Vegas for this important event while creating inspiring role models for the new generation of cybersecurity professionals.”

As a Signature Sponsor, Microsoft was honored to recognize three barrier breakers serving as role models for future generations of cybersecurity professionals. Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Cloud and Microsoft 365 Security, Aanchal Gupta gave out the Cybersecurity Woman Privacy Woman Law Professional of the Year 2022 award, while Microsoft Senior Director of Security Narrative and Strategy, Shelli Strand awarded the Cybersecurity Woman Influencer of the Year 2022 award. Abhilasha Bhargav-Spantzel, Microsoft Partner Security Architect, gave out the Cybersecurity Woman Volunteer of the Year award.

After dinner and the awards ceremony, attendees networked and danced to a DJ spinning hits.

“Today, we have an incredible opportunity to attract a talented and impassioned generation of defenders and to change the deep gender disparity in our industry. I am so grateful to the Cybersecurity Woman of the Year program organizers for spotlighting the amazing work being done by those superheroes who are setting a powerful example for us all,” said Vasu Jakkal, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Security, Compliance, Identity, Management, and Privacy, “Microsoft is proud to take part in an event that is helping to cultivate inclusivity, inspire and facilitate mentorship, and celebrate the important field of cybersecurity.”

On August 10, 2022, Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) hosted Microsoft’s annual Researcher Celebration event at the Illuminarium in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event brought together some of Microsoft’s Most Valuable Researchers (MVRs), and many security leaders and professionals. Attendees met with the head of MSRC, Aanchal Gupta, MSRC leadership, and other key Microsoft attendees to thank the MVRs and researcher community for their contributions. Check out the list of MSRC 2022 Most Valuable Researchers!

Throughout the evening, more than 500 guests from more than 200 organizations across the information security community participated in space-themed activities and experiences while connecting and re-connecting in person for the first time in many years. Thanks to everyone that attended and helped make the event memorable.

More threat intelligence resources

We can’t wait for future opportunities to connect with everyone again in person. Until then, there are a few ways for you to stay connected and up to date on the latest from Microsoft in threat intelligence solutions:

• Join us on September 15, 2022, for the free digital event Stop Ransomware with Microsoft Security to hear key insights from Microsoft’s leadership, including a fireside conversation between Charlie Bell, Executive Vice President of Microsoft Security, and Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Security, Compliance, Identity, and Privacy Business.
• Explore details on Microsoft’s threat intelligence solution in our blog post about new solutions for threat intelligence and attack surface management.
• Check out the latest Cyber Signals report.
• If you attended Black Hat and interacted with Microsoft, please share your feedback with us. 

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

---

¹Black Hat USA 2022 Closes on a Record Breaking Event in Las Vegas & Online, AP News. August 19, 2022.

The post Microsoft Security highlights from Black Hat USA 2022 appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

With the pandemic likely making you more conscious of germs and maybe even viruses, are you wondering how you can clean your laptop keyboard? Even if you’re not that serious about cleanliness, maybe one specific keycap got stuck and isn’t working, or perhaps your keyboard is feeling sticky and full of oils and debris.

The good news is that cleaning your laptop keyboard is actually very easy. There are a couple of different ways you can tidy it up. We’ll cover basic methods involving a simple wipedown, to more sophisticated methods like removing keys. We have your back with this guide, but we do have a warning first. Please, always make sure you unplug your laptop from power and turn the device off before proceeding with any of these steps. You don’t want to risk damage to your laptop.

What you’ll need

Compressed air – A compressed air can will help blow away debris that might be lodged under the keys. It’s also safe for your laptop’s keyboard. You can find this online, or at an office supplies store.

A damp microfiber cloth – Microfiber is a soft type of cloth that is typically used in cleaning electronics. It can pick up dust and debris that could be in between your keys. Be sure to lightly dampen the cloth with water (not soak it) so it’ll be extra easy to pick up dust.

Isopropyl alcohol – This agent is great for disinfecting surfaces and killing germs. It can also remove the sticky feeling from a dirty keyboard. It’s also safer than water on electronics. Make sure it’s rated at 70%, which is safe for electronics at the surface level.

Cottom ball or cotton swabs – You can use these in combination with the alcohol to swab down spots on your keyboard. Make sure to not soak them through, and just lightly dip these materials in the liquid.

A smartphone camera – If you end up removing keys, the camera will be useful for taking a picture and knowing how to put them back.

Step 1: A simple clean

To begin the process of cleaning your laptop keyboard, we suggest a simpler clean. This involves unplugging the laptop from any power, turning it over, and shaking it. Here’s more on the process.

1. Turn your laptop off and make sure it’s disconnected from any power source
2. Hold the laptop in both your hands in the air and shake it around, this will dislodge bigger materials or debris that might be trapped inside your device’s keyboard.

Usually, shaking the laptop around with it turned on the side should help remove whatever is trapped in the keyboard. If that doesn’t work and you can still see things under the keycaps, or feel sticky keys, then you can move on to the next step.

Step 2: Use compressed air

This second step is one that addresses a dirty keyboard or stuck keys. In fact, Apple suggested this as a workaround for stuck keys on the butterfly keyboard on older MacBook models. You’ll be using compressed air which can blow debris or dust out of your keyboard’s keycaps.  Just be careful to not spray the can upside down.

1. Insert the straw into the compressed air can
2. Hold the compressed air can up close to your laptop keyboard, pull or press on the trigger to activate the can (depending on the model of the can), and point it towards the region under the keycaps on your keyboard.
3. In a swift motion, keep spraying and releasing the air, and make your way around the keyboard deck until you’ve covered all areas

Once you use the compressed air, any large pieces of debris and dust should be removed from your keyboard. You can now move to the next step and focus on cleaning the keycaps.

Step 3: Clean the keycaps and keyboard deck with a damp microfiber cloth

Another step in the cleaning process involves cleaning down the keyboard with a damp microfiber cloth. This will remove oils and residue, and smaller dust particles that the compressed air might have missed.

1. Lightly dampen the microfiber cloth with water. Do not soak the cloth, make sure the flow of water coming out of the faucet isn’t strong.
2. Take the cloth and lightly rub down your keyboard deck. Make sure the cloth is getting in between the keycaps, in addition to the keycaps themselves.
3. Repeat the process, and keep rubbing the keys. Then when finished, let your laptop dry.

Now that you’ve wiped down the keyboard deck, most of the dust and debris should be gone. But we still have a suggestion for even deeper cleaning.

Step 4: Use Isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs or cotton balls

In this step, you’ll be using some additional tools like isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs or cotton balls. This will truly remove germs and oils from your keyboard and also leave it feeling nice and clean.

1. Lightly dip the cotton swab or cotton ball in the alcohol solution. It should not be fully soaked, but just lightly wet.
2. Rub the swab or ball all around the keyboard deck, covering the sides of the keys, while also making sure that it’s covering all of the surfaces.
3. When done, let the keyboard dry a bit.

This should generally be the last step in cleaning. It should have cleaned the keyboard and the keycaps, but if your keyboard still isn’t clean, move on to the last step.

Step 5 (Optional:) Remove Keys to clean if your keyboard allows for it

This last step isn’t for everyone which is why we saved for last. It’s only for advanced users and in a worst-case scenario. Also, not all keyboard keycaps can be removed. So it’s best to check with your laptop maker first and search for the process online before going to this step.

1. Take a picture of your keyboard so you know where to put the keys back
2. Gently pry up on the keys using your fingernails or a flat tool to remove them.
3. Place the keycaps on a surface in the same order that you took them out.
4. Wipe down the surface of the keyboard deck using a microfiber cloth, or cotton swabs or cotton balls dipped in alcohol as we described above. This is the area with the rubber keycap domes exposed. Let the surface dry after wiping
5. When done, replace the keycaps, making sure that they snap into place.

Again, this is a very extreme step which we do not suggest you get to at all. Usually, following steps one through four should be enough.

Conclusion

Following all these steps should leave you with a clean and working keyboard. If all else fails, you can contact the maker of your laptop for support. Keyboard damage or failure isn’t typically covered under warranty, but they might be able to help guide you through a cleaning process just like we did.

The post How to clean your laptop keyboard appeared first on XDA.

From the outside looking in, it might be easy to mistake a show that gets as much publicity as "The Boys" as little more than an edgy, juvenile, and exceedingly violent outlet to revel in our worst inclinations. Those who've stuck with the superhero satire despite its (admittedly) low-brow source material have a very different perspective, praising the series for its surprisingly astute social commentary, the writers' unapologetic political stances, and, yes, the fact that in any given episode you might end up with an all-out musical number, a shockingly explicit sex scene, or a scene that ends up as scarring for the actors as it does for their characters.

But never underestimate the lengths fans will go in order to latch onto the smallest and most seemingly insignificant moments. For all the headline-grabbing moments "The Boys" has to offer, there's still plenty of room for quiet, humanizing moments in between all the action and thrills. Take Jack Quaid's Hughie Campbell, for instance. The typically mousy, put-upon twink (as summed up in Queen Maeve's accurate estimation) might have tried to overcompensate during this last season by accepting Vought's Compound V serum on multiple occasions to get a little taste of that power fantasy and protect his girlfriend Starlight (Erin Moriarty). But at his core, Hughie's still just a scrawny fella who struggles to open a jar of mustard.

One scene in season 3 featured a throwaway gag where he tried and failed to do exactly that, and by the actor's own admission, this led to some of the funniest fan interactions you'll ever hear.

'I Just Love That They're Able To Enjoy Being In On The Joke'

If there's any one rule of the internet (no, not that one!), it's the fact that online fans will turn even the most insignificant details of a given movie or show into the biggest meme possible. Jack Quaid found that out in a rather amusing way, as he explained to GQ Magazine in a profile. The show has garnered its fair share of clueless fans who simply don't understand what they're watching and identify with all the worst characters that no reasonable person ever should ... but that doesn't mean a subset of viewers can't exist, all of whom have their priorities exactly where they should be.

Quaid detailed how one scene in season 3 where his character struggles to open a jar of mustard eventually led to some of the most wholesome and tongue-in-cheek attempts from viewers to pass on a little helpful advice. Quaid said:

"'The Boys' fans are very sweet. A big thing with Hughie this season randomly is that he can't open this one jar of mustard. So they keep sending me all these Amazon pages for like how to order can openers and how to open jars. I just love that they're able to enjoy being in on the joke."

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Quaid, of course, knows firsthand what it's like to be a fervent fan online these days, having done his own research for his "Scream" role. Sometimes, in the midst of so much negativity on the internet, a little dose of fun-loving antics can go a long way.

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The post The Boys Fans Keep Sending Jack Quaid One Piece of Very Specific Advice appeared first on /Film.