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It's been 10 long years since Christian Bale last suited up as Batman in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" trilogy. In the time since, the actor has gone on to work with several acclaimed directors such as David O. Russell, Ridley Scott, Adam McKay, Terrence Malick, Scott Cooper, and James Mangold, heavily suggesting that his predominant interest moving forward remains accepting compelling roles with some of the most prestigious and biggest name-brand filmmakers. Even with Taika Waititi involved, few comic book fans ever expected the actor to jump back into the comic book movie "genre" with something like "Thor: Love and Thunder," but Marvel Studios came calling and Bale clearly didn't hesitate to pick up the phone.

But what if Nolan came calling for one more round in the Batsuit? Fans have long envisioned the potential of a "Dark Knight Returns"-inspired story set in Nolan's specific vision of Gotham City, with an older Bale returning to put on the suit one more time in a story based on one of the comics' most seminal stories. Yes, that's always been incredibly unrealistic, as Nolan has shown precisely zero indications that he'd ever be willing to return for a fourth "The Dark Knight" movie. In a recent interview with Screen Rant, Bale splashed some more cold water on that hypothetical.

"No. No one's ever mentioned it to me. No one's brought it up. [...] Occasionally people say to me, 'Oh, I hear you were approached and offered all this.' And I'm like, 'That's news to me. No one's ever said that.'"

But if someone did ever bring that up to Bale? Well, he'd apparently have to make one exception.

'If He Wished To Tell That Story With Me, I'd Be In'

Everything old is new again, folks. The biggest blockbuster in the world just reunited the old school trio of "Jurassic Park" stars for some reason. (I think it was locust-related?) Chris Evans was almost brought back for a cameo in "Moon Knight." And fellow Batman actors Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck are set to return to their famous roles in "The Flash." In light of all that, what's stopping Christian Bale from doing the same after playing Bruce Wayne to such acclaim throughout Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" trilogy? Well, the actor himself provided the answer to that: Christopher Nolan.

More to the point, only the filmmaker himself could ever convince Bale that the story -- so definitively brought to its conclusion, which is refreshing in this age of endless shared universes -- somehow justified that he reprise his role and put on the cape and cowl once more for a fourth film. In the same interview with Screen Rant, Bale had this to say:

"I had a pact with Chris Nolan. We said, 'Hey, look. Let's make three films, if we're lucky enough to get to do that. And then let's walk away. Let's not linger too long.' In my mind, it would be something if Chris Nolan ever said to himself, 'You know what, I've got another story to tell.' And if he wished to tell that story with me, I'd be in."

Well, we're not holding our breath for this scenario to come true (although stranger things have happened), but did we expect any other answer? Who knows if Bale will ever star in another superhero movie again, but savor his appearance in "Thor: Love and Thunder" when it releases on July 8, 2022.

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The post Christian Bale Would Return to the Role of Batman on One Condition appeared first on /Film.

Since the debut of "South Park" 25 years ago, the mother of the series' greatest villain, Eric Cartman, has existed without any real arc that didn't come at the expense of her own humanity. Liane Cartman is notably one of the only single parents in the town of South Park, Colorado, consistently doting on her sociopathic, bigoted child, and bending to his any and every desire. In the early seasons, Liane Cartman was portrayed as (and mocked) for being extremely sexually active, having appeared in "Crack Whore Magazine" and pornographic German scheisse films. The season 1 finale was titled "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut," where the entire story centers on trying to figure out who Cartman's biological father is, but it's difficult to determine because it's implied she slept with every eligible male in town and the entire Denver Broncos football team.

The season 2 episode "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut" revealed she was intersex, making her Eric's mother and father. This belief was held for years, until the 14th season, when it was shown the Liane Cartman is a cisgender woman and the lie was part of a scheme to protect the Denver Broncos. Cartman's real father was former player Jack Tenorman, who Cartman had previously arranged to be killed, made into chili, and fed to his son Scott. Throughout it all, Liane has been shown to be a pushover, constantly controlled by her child regardless of his atrocious schemes. Cartman treats Liane like absolute garbage, verbally assaults her, manipulates her, and she's always just taken the abuse as if she deserved it.

Until now.

The Truth Of Liane Cartman

When Liane Cartman was first created, she was apparently named after the ex-fiance of show creator Trey Parker, who had apparently cheated on him in their personal relationship. This is why the earlier seasons show Liane Cartman in such a demeaning manner. As the years have gone on, Liane's more maternal side has been shown, which is apparently inspired by Parker's own mother. Liane and Eric Cartman have had a sordid relationship to say the least, and this isn't to say she hasn't tried to combat his horrific personality. 

In the season 10 episode "Tsst," Liane finally admits that Cartman is out of control and seeks the help of reality TV nannies, but the only person who actually makes any impact is Cesar Millan, "The Dog Whisperer." Unfortunately, after it seems like Cartman has changed for good, Liane immediately bends to his wants and desires when she realizes Cesar doesn't actually want to be her friend, he was just doing a job by training her child.

Due to her negative reputation in the community, and the fact her son is consistently the most hated person in the town, Liane Cartman doesn't have a lot of friends. She has developed a codependent relationship with her son, and she lets him get away with everything (including literal murder) because she's clearly terrified of being alone. Cartman is all she has, and she's willing to endure his endless barrage of mistreatment if it means someone, anyone in her life, loves her. But after 25 years of his crap, she's done. Everyone has their limit, and Liane has finally found hers.

The Real Estate Episode

In "The Streaming Wars," the latest "South Park" movie for Paramount+, Liane has hit her breaking point. In the current season, Liane Cartman decided to pursue a career in the real estate business. For the first time in years, she's finally found a job that brings her joy, financial stability, and a sense of independence. Cartman hates that his mom has something to take her attention away from him, so he decides to break the real estate market. He founds his own company and makes flashy videos of the properties he's trying to sell, and Liane eventually quits her job because Eric wants her to. Unfortunately, this means they can no longer afford their home, and are forced to move into a hot dog shaped hot dog stand.

This is the start of Liane's acceptance that her coddling of Eric has gone too far. Eric whines and cries about living in the hot dog stand, and he demands that Liane get their home back, refusing to understand that the only reason they're in this mess is because he begged for her to quit her job. At the start of "The Streaming Wars," Eric sings a "Somewhere That's Green"-inspired song about wanting to leave the hot dog, and rather than bend over backward for him, Liane snaps at him, screaming about how she doesn't want to live there either. But it's all they could afford after Eric pushed her out of her career. Of course, Eric continues to make the situation about himself and completely disregards his mother's feelings, demanding that she get breast implants so she can attract a rich husband and become a trophy wife.

The Implant Situation

Liane establishes early on that she has no intention of getting breast implants, expressing that she's happy with her body. Even if she wanted them, they have no way to afford the surgery. Cartman then lies to his friends Stan, Kyle, Butters, Kenny, and Tolkien, who have developed their own money-making "streaming service," in the hopes they'll share their profits with him because "his mom has breast cancer and needs surgery." When the boys rally together and raise the funds, Eric blindfolds Liane and surprises her with a trip to the plastic surgeon. Liane puts her foot down and says she's not getting the implants, so Cartman threatens to get them himself, convinced that Liane will then buckle and do as he asks.

"I've given in to you too many times Eric," she says. "It stops now."

Cartman continues calling his mother's bluff, going so far as to actually get the implants himself. When Liane shows up to visit him after his surgery, he's shocked to discover she didn't actually stop the procedure, and instead let Eric go through with it. He now has the largest possible size breasts surgically implanted into his body. For the first time in 25 years, the most underutilized and one-note, major character on the show is getting a legitimate story arc. She's breaking the codependent cycle she's developed with her atrocious son, and she's finally taking control of her own life.

Liane Shows South Park Is Still Evolving

Given the knowledge that Liane Cartman is based on a real person in Trey Parker's life, he and Matt Stone sort of wrote themselves into a corner with her character. Back in 1997 and throughout the aughts, it was commonplace for unsavory female characters to be written as "sluts and whores," and no one was really going to check them on it. That's not the case anymore. They already started weaning out her hypersexuality, as we've evolved to a place culturally where this blatant objectification and slut-shaming is understood as being disrespectful. But Liane's growth is proof that "South Park" is capable of growing and maybe even maturing.

Eric Cartman is more than overdue to be held accountable for his numerous crimes against humanity, and the absolute sweetest and most poetic justice would be if he finally got his comeuppance at the hands of his mother, who created and enabled this big-boned, absolute terrorist. Of course, because it is still "South Park" at the end of the day, that justice is served on a platter of saline implants the size of his head. We know after the finale of the "Post Covid" film, Cartman is in store for a grim future unless he can get it together. Now that Liane isn't going to let him push her around anymore, this might be the start of his inevitable (and deserving) downfall. 

Good for you, Liane. We're all proud of you.

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The post South Park Finally Gave Liane Cartman A Win and We're All Here For It appeared first on /Film.

The femme fatale is one of the most classic (and best) tropes in cinema. Although they existed in movies made before 1940, the character type was solidified during the noir boom of that decade. Birthed out of the pulpy detective novels of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and James M. Cain, the femme fatale was beautiful, duplicitous, dangerous, and would frequently cause the downfall of some poor dope who became entangled in her web. 

The fatale could be fatal in the deadly sense, of course, but also would frequently be the protagonist's fatal flaw, sometimes unwittingly; obsession is certainly a huge factor in the trope. The stereotype could often be portrayed in more nuanced ways than what was on the glacial surface, with layers of vulnerability and tragedy underneath. After a fallow period in the '50s to the '70s, the '80s and '90s brought the femme fatale back with a vengeance. Directors such as Adrian Lyne, Paul Verhoeven, and Brian De Palma ushered in the age of the erotic thriller, which undoubtedly feature some of the best femme fatales.

The defining characteristic of the femme fatale is that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants (usually money and freedom), and will use everything in her power (usually sex) to manipulate others into achieving her ends. While she will sometimes get her own hands bloody, it's far better to find someone else to do the dirty work. Here are the best femme fatales in movie history.

Phyllis Dietrichson - Double Indemnity

Femme fatales generally fall into two categories as far as looks go. You'll see those with black hair and black outfits (what you would typically expect from the black widow type), or the icy blond who wears white (see: "Body Heat" and "Basic Instinct"). Perhaps the prototype of the latter category is Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson. Director Billy Wilder and co-screenwriter Raymond Chandler adapting James M. Cain's novel make a good case for the best film noir of all time. Stanwyck was coming off of the screwball rom-coms "The Lady Eve" and "Ball of Fire" (both released in 1941) before delivering one of the best femme fatale performances in history. 

Fred MacMurray plays the patsy, pretty much defining this character type, who becomes embroiled in Phyllis' devious scheme to kill her husband for the insurance money. Stanwyck makes an all-time-great entrance, completely upending Walter Neff's life from the get-go. One of the biggest pleasures of watching a femme fatale is knowing that the male protagonist is doomed the moment he meets her; there is no escape from her clutches. Stanwyck also brings her customary wry humor to the role, meeting Neff in a grocery store wearing conspicuous sunglasses, and Wilder makes great use of the huge height difference between them. All femme fatales since have been in the shadow of Phyllis Dietrichson.

Ellen Berent Harland - Leave Her To Heaven

In terms of the brunette leading ladies of the '40s, the two most beautiful were probably Ava Gardner and Gene Tierney, and both effectively weaponized their beauty as femme fatales. Having starred in "Laura" the year before, Tierney returned to the psychological thriller with "Leave Her to Heaven," an unusual noir for several reasons, not least that it's in technicolor. Tierney's Ellen is also a rare femme fatale in that her motivations are not financial. Instead, it is obsession and possessiveness that she transfers from her father to her husband. She is pathologically jealous of anyone who competes for his attention; she must consume him whole.

In this, "Leave Her to Heaven" is at the Gothic melodrama end of the noir spectrum, but Ellen's magnificent fashion and her cold-blooded, ruthless side place her firmly in the fatale camp. Ellen has what would be considered traditional male qualities in that time period: ambition, drive, competitiveness, making the first move with the person she desires and even being the one to propose. She is also disgusted when she falls pregnant; she wants no part of the traditional nuclear family and doesn't want to share her man with anyone, including her own child. Ellen is another murderous femme fatale that also earns our sympathy because she refuses to conform to the pressures and expectations of women at the time, making for a fantastic character.

Veda Pierce - Mildred Pierce

The two youngest femme fatales on this list — the teenage Veda and Kathryn in "Cruel Intentions" — are arguably the evilest. Veda is an unusual femme fatale, as her prime victim isn't a man, but her own mother. Poor Mildred (Joan Crawford) sacrifices her own happiness and centers her life around aiding her daughter's ruthless ambitions, which is to social climb her way to a lavish lifestyle. All the men in the movie, including Bert, Monte, and Wally, are of varying degrees of being useless and selfish, but none are as wicked as Veda.

Veda lies about being pregnant, blackmails, brings shame to her family by becoming a scantily-clad entertainer, and even has an affair with her mother's husband. She uses the fact that her mother will do anything for her to her advantage, including coercing her mother into covering up a murder and pinning it on Wally. Even when Veda is eventually caught, Mildred still tries to apologize to her, and is rebuffed; the ultimate tragic ending for Mildred. "Mildred Pierce" is unusual in that the protagonist, who becomes the patsy of the femme fatale, is a woman. While it's largely a domestic melodrama, the framing device (Mildred is interrogated by the police, with the story told in flashbacks) and the murder plot, especially the way it's shot with the dramatic use of light and shadows, places it firmly within the noir genre.

Kitty Collins - The Killers

Many of the best noirs are adaptations of equally brilliant books, and 1946's "The Killers" is no exception. The movie is based on a story by Ernest Hemingway, and was one of the few adaptations that he didn't despise. An important element of a great femme fatale is a great name, and Kitty Collins could be a Bond girl name — it's that good. Like all the best noirs, the minute the protagonist (Burt Lancaster, in his first film role, playing The Swede) meets the femme fatale, he is doomed. He will do anything for her, including going to prison for a crime he didn't commit.

Ava Gardner has an iconic look as Kitty that was used in some of the hottest publicity stills of all time: a black sleeveless dress with a swathe of fabric that crosses her neck like a hangman's noose. Kitty is the ultimate self-centered femme fatale, who only cares about saving her own skin, and doesn't mind who gets sacrificed along the way. The Swede is the tragic hero; he can see the whole path laid before him, he knows who Kitty is, but is powerless to stop the inevitable events from unfolding. He resignedly accepts his own death, while Kitty desperately refuses to accept that her goose is cooked in the movie's perfect closing minutes. Gardner's beauty, combined with a fantastically-written character, makes for one of the best femme fatales in cinema.

Cora Smith - The Postman Always Rings Twice

A femme fatale needs to make a great entrance, often one that seals the fate of the protagonist. Once Lana Turner emerges through a doorway dressed from head-to-toe in white, in an outfit that shows plenty of leg, it's curtains for poor John Garfield. She continues to wear white throughout the film (apart from a couple of rare uses of black at key moments), which is a veneer of purity that belies her rotten core. Like many femme fatales, Turner's Cora is trapped in a life she doesn't want and desperate for a way out. She entices Garfield's Frank into a classic "kill the husband" murder plot, but the story goes through many unpredictable twists and turns. 

The pallor of inevitability hangs over the couple and no matter what they do, things keep going awry, sealing their fate. Turner is great at communicating barely-concealed panic behind an icy exterior. One of the highlights is the interrogation and confession scene, with the two lawyers rising up as the best characters in the movie. Turner became so iconic that she's even referenced in 1997's "LA Confidential" when Ed Exley utters the immortal line, "A hooker cut to look like Lana Turner is still a hooker." Along with Ava Gardner, Turner's Cora helped define the look of the femme fatale and her white outfits would become the blueprint when the character trope returned in the '80s and '90s.

Kathie - Out Of The Past

While Jane Greer isn't as well-known as some of the other stars who played iconic femme fatales during their 1940s heyday, her beauty still makes her a memorable one. Plus, it helps that she was in one of the all-time great noirs. Robert Mitchum plays the perfect protagonist, who has tried to escape a life of crime, but it comes knocking at his door. "Out of the Past" contains the homespun girl Mitchum is trying to build a new life with, contrasted with Greer's beautifully dangerous Kathie. It's funny that the name Mitchum chooses in his new small-town life is Jeff Bailey, as he has a lot in common with George Bailey of "It's a Wonderful Life."

Kathie runs through the entire femme fatale playbook: seduction, blackmail, murder, double-crossing, and framing her patsy. Jeff tries to escape her clutches but keeps getting drawn back to her. Greer's performance is so good that despite all of the despicable acts that Kathie commits, we can never be completely sure that she doesn't love Jeff or genuinely care about him. "Out of the Past" has a wonderful framing device and another all-time-great ending, employing an unusual noir character — the deaf-mute Kid. This noir embodies the post-war concerns of a glamorous criminal life posing a threat to small-town America. But it isn't money that is the pull for Jeff, it's Kathie, embodied by a magnetic Jane Greer.

Jane Palmer - Too Late For Tears

A bag full of cash mysteriously lands in the car of Jane and her husband, and Jane spends the rest of the movie doing anything to hold onto it. The simplest noir plots are often the best, and "Too Late for Tears" has a classic one. Lizabeth Scott's Jane is bored of her small, humdrum life and is desperate for more, so when the cash lands in her lap, she wastes no time in buying furs and other luxuries. Her husband is much more suspicious and cautious about where the money has come from, so he has to go. 

The man who is the source of the money, Danny (Dan Duryea), quickly tracks them down and Jane just as quickly enters into cahoots with him. Scott's husky voice is perfect for a femme fatale who spends an entire movie lying and manipulating. Her poor sister-in-law Kathy becomes suspicious about where her brother is, and Jane must keep her various stories straight — with the police, with Danny, and with Don Blake, a mysterious stranger who also comes looking for her husband. Like all the best noirs, "Too Late for Tears" has a stupendously melodramatic ending, with Jane getting her just desserts in spectacular fashion. Noirs where the femme fatale is the main character are few and far between, and this is a great example of one.

Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton - Vertigo

A list of femme fatales wouldn't be complete without Alfred Hitchcock, and his twisted version of the trope. Hitchcock's blonds were frequently cold and calculating, but also subject to the foibles of the male characters. Maybe Hitchcock's most psychologically complex film is 1958's "Vertigo," in which James Stewart's Scottie becomes obsessed first with the mysterious Madeleine, then with Judy (both played by Kim Novak), who he models in her image. While Judy has some classic traits of the femme fatale (deception and duplicity for monetary gain), she is also a tragic figure, wracked by guilt. Whether she's good or evil is greatly complicated by Scottie's actions, as he doesn't view Judy as a human being, but as a cipher for the ghosts of Madeleine and her ancestor Carlotta. Possession from essentially being haunted and also by Scottie's ownership is at the center of "Vertigo."

As with all Hitchcock tales, there's nothing simple about Novak's femme fatale, but she's perhaps the ultimate expression of the trope. Scottie molds Judy, dying her hair and putting her in the right suits, into the perfectly constructed Hitchcock blond. She doesn't exist unless she is being perceived by Scottie, by Hitchcock, and by the audience. "Vertigo" is a reminder that the femme fatale is one of the most cinematic tropes as she is made to be immortalized and worshipped on the silver screen.

Pussy Galore - Goldfinger

Across 25 James Bond films, there were many memorable femme fatales (not least of which was Xenia Onatopp of 1995's "GoldenEye") who usually double-crossed Bond. A frequent plot point is also that a woman working for, or in a relationship with the villain, would end up falling for James and aiding him in bringing down the baddy. That is the case in one of the most classic and best of all Bond films: 1964's "Goldfinger," featuring the undisputed best Bond girl name, Pussy Galore.

Honor Blackman had a lot to live up to playing a character with that name, but she rose to the challenge. In Ian Fleming's novel, Galore is a lesbian and she leads a criminal organization of cat burglars; this becomes Pussy Galore's Flying Circus in the movie. Galore starts off working for Goldfinger and uses a judo attack on Bond, but later Bond seduces her and turns her against Goldfinger. Galore is not the only femme fatale with a redemption arc, but it is an evolution from the more fatalistic, downbeat noirs of the '40s that usually ended up with the protagonist dead or in jail and the femme fatale often having the same fate. The trope almost disappeared in the cinema of the '50s to the '70s, but the Bond girl is one area that kept the femme fatale alive.

Mrs. Grayle - Farewell, My Lovely

After appearing in some of the best noirs of the 1940s and 1950s, Robert Mitchum returned to the genre decades later by playing the famous noir detective, Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, in 1975's "Farewell, My Lovely" and in 1978's "The Big Sleep." Thank goodness that neo-noirs exist, because some women were born to play femme fatales, and Charlotte Rampling is absolutely one of them. When Marlowe visits the Grayle mansion in the course of his missing-person investigation to find a woman named Velma, he meets Judge Grayle (played by crime novelist Jim Thompson) and his much younger, beautiful wife, who immediately sets about flirting the pants off him. 

While she initially appears to be a fairly incidental side character, it is gradually revealed that Mrs. Grayle is pulling the strings behind the whole operation and is actually the woman that Marlowe has been seeking. She has been killing off anyone who suspects her true identity. Rampling appears in two main ensembles — a red dress with a green jade necklace in her initial meeting with Marlowe, then a beautiful white silk dress with pearls during the big reveal scene (accessorized with a revolver, of course). Her brunette hair and piercing eyes make for a dangerously beautiful femme fatale. These two '70s Marlowe movies are an interesting variation on the noir before the genre was fully embraced once more in the '80s.

Matty Walker - Body Heat

A direct descendent of both Barbara Stanwyck's Phyllis Dietrichson and Lana Turner's Cora Smith (including being clad in white silk for most of the movie), Kathleen Turner's Matty Walker is easily one of the best femme fatales of all time. "Body Heat" helped usher in the erotic thriller boom of the '80s and early '90s. Her initial meeting with the patsy Ned (William Hurt) is full of flirty banter, with remarks like, "You're not too smart, are you? I like that in a man." The heat of the title has different meanings in this movie. It's set during a Florida heat wave, everyone is constantly sweating, and then the steamy sex scenes only increase the temperature. 

The conniving Matty dupes Ned into killing her husband, then does a disappearing act for almost half of the movie. She's such "big-time, major league trouble" that she leaves Ned to clear up the mess she's got him into. While '40s noirs usually had to show the femme fatale getting her comeuppance, the '80s were free to show her getting away with murder. Kathleen Turner would of course go on to play the misunderstood Jessica Rabbit in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (who looks like a femme fatale, but has a heart of gold), proving that one of her greatest assets is her husky voice. Turner is an all-time great screen siren and Matty Walker is a character for the ages.

Rachael - Blade Runner

Before Jessica Rabbit, there was Rachael, who is "not bad, just made that way." In maybe the best neo-noir of all time, Sean Young's Rachael is given the ultimate 1940s femme fatale look: black hair, almost-black eyes, red lips, white fur coat and shrouded in cigarette smoke. Like many Bond girls, she works for the villain (in this case, the evil Tyrell Corporation), and she is a replicant. Therefore, she is supposed to be the enemy and target of the protagonist, the hard-boiled Detective Deckard.

However, Rachael is revealed to be the ultimate victim, who has had no control over her life since "birth." She is Tyrell's experiment, a replicant who believes she's human and who has had false memories implanted in her brain. Not that she needs redeeming, but she also saves Deckard's life and he cannot help but be drawn to something he's spent his life despising. Young's performance is extraordinary, a preternatural blank slate on the surface, but one who elicits huge sympathy from the audience as one of the most tragic film characters in science fiction. 2017's "Blade Runner 2049" only deepens her sad story, as she dies giving birth to Deckard's child, something not thought possible in replicants. Many femme fatales are revealed to be more vulnerable once you break through their glossy exteriors, but none more so than Rachael.

Miriam - The Hunger

Catherine Deneuve plays the stunningly beautiful Miriam, a rich New Yorker, and has the classic femme fatale look: black or white suits, red lips, black hats, sunglasses, and gloves, all enveloped in curls of cigarette smoke. But there is more to this woman than just the usual seduction for money — she is a vampire. Miriam turns people into long-lasting companions, and they, including John (David Bowie), usually willingly comply, believing they will achieve eternal youth. There's a twist, though, in that they will eventually rapidly age and deteriorate, but be unable to die.

Sarah (Susan Sarandon) becomes ensnared in Miriam's web, and like many of the best neo-noirs, an obsessive but dangerous attraction between two women is really at the heart of this film. Vampire movies are obviously the best genre for featuring all-consuming love because it can last centuries. Vampires are both blessed and cursed with immortality, and Miriam's eventual downfall comes when she meets the same fate as John. It is very easy to understand why anyone (even those with their own sexual potencies, such as Bowie and Sarandon) would become undone when faced with a woman such as Deneuve's Miriam. She renders mere mortals helpless before her, and they would sacrifice anything to be with her. Tony Scott's "The Hunger" is a brilliant erotic thriller, with a vampiric twist centered around three of the sexiest central stars of all time.

Catharine - Black Widow

The first time we see Theresa Russell's titular black widow, she couldn't fulfill expectations anymore with a black fur coat, and huge sunglasses set against a bob of blond hair. As the film progresses, she gradually looks and becomes more human. Catharine adopts many identities throughout the movie, making herself "appealing" to different types of men, who all have only one thing in common: wealth. But the most interesting relationship in Bob Rafelson's "Black Widow" isn't with any of the men that Catharine weds-then-sheds. It's with Debra Winger's Alex, who starts to have a "Killing Eve" type of obsession over the woman she's hunting, determined to prove that a series of mysterious deaths in different states are connected. Alex ends up befriending Catharine in Hawaii (both of them going by different names, of course), and they even share the same man for a while. 

Catharine remains enigmatic throughout the film. We're never clear why she continues killing when she has more money than she could possibly need. While she seems bored with men and views them as obstacles to be overcome, it's clear that Alex excites her and presents a challenge. Manipulating Alex is the only time Catharine is engaged and motivated; she wants to win this particular game of cat-and-mouse. "Black Widow" is a rare example of a femme fatale with a woman as a foil, and therefore should be more widely seen.

Alex Forrest - Fatal Attraction

Glenn Close's Alex is a descendent of Gene Tierney's Ellen in "Leave Her to Heaven," in that her motives are an obsessive need to wholly possess the man of her desires, rather than attain money, power, or freedom. Unfortunately, the phrase "bunny boiler" has now become synonymous with any woman acting in a way that a man might find distasteful, and it's not the most progressive depiction of someone who clearly has mental health issues. "Fatal Attraction" is very much of its time, and along with "Basic Instinct" helped define the era. They were both hugely successful, with each grossing over $300 million worldwide. "Fatal Attraction" was the second highest-grossing film of 1987, something that is hard to imagine happening today. 

Glenn Close delivers an extraordinary performance as Alex, and it makes a great contrast to the femme fatale she played the following year as the Marquise de Merteuil in "Dangerous Liaisons." Michael Douglas is also perfectly cast as Alex's "victim" Dan, and Anne Archer is just as important as his wife, Beth. "Fatal Attraction" has gone on to have a cultural impact beyond the film itself and taken on a life of its own. It's a great '80s psychological thriller, with a cathartic ending that preserves the American nuclear family. It is fun to watch a femme fatale with no motivation beyond an all-consuming love, as it makes a change from all the money-grabbers.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

Selina Kyle - Batman Returns

Michelle Pfeiffer and Tim Burton's take on Catwoman has rightly become iconic, not least because of the look of the character, and her apartment. While Catwoman's catsuit and whip are famous, it's Pfeiffer's looks while in Selina Kyle mode that leave even more of a lasting impression. Her wild blond curls and dark eye makeup make her look suitably unhinged (but wildly sexy), once she has had a hit on the head that frees her from being a mousy spinster secretary. But nothing compares to her entrance at the party near the end of "Batman Returns," as a full-blown femme fatale. She's absolutely show-stopping with curls swept up but tumbling down her face, a bold red lip, and a sparkly backless little black dress. 

In addition to looking perfect, Pfeiffer's performance rides the gamut from confidently flirting with Bruce Wayne, or staring vengeful daggers at her boss, Max (Christopher Walken), and plotting his demise, even to tearful desperation. She is scared and confused about the fact that her own mind has become a stranger to her. Her ending in which she says, "Bruce, I'd love to live with you in your castle forever ... I just couldn't live with myself," is actually pretty heartbreaking, given that this is a comic book villain. Pfeiffer's Catwoman is a legendary movie villain in the flavor of femme fatale, with some of the most striking looks of all time.

Catherine Tramell - Basic Instinct

With its San Francisco setting, emphasis on voyeurism, and its femme fatale with swept-back blond hair and dark eyebrows, there is no doubting the influence of "Vertigo" on Paul Verhoeven's most successful erotic thriller. Sharon Stone's Catherine is a crime novelist, who commands such power in "Basic Instinct" it's as if she's writing the very script we're watching unfold. Catherine presents a threat on many fronts, not least her command of her sexuality and the fact that she doesn't need a man to be fulfilled.

Michael Douglas' booze-soaked cop is a classic noir protagonist, with the '80s element of cocaine added into the mix. He is pushed and pulled around by three femme fatales, including Catherine's lover Roxy (Leilani Seralle) and former lover Beth (Jeanne Tripplehorn), whose identities blur and merge at times. Elements of "Basic Instinct" have become as iconic as "Fatal Attraction," with the ice pick being as well-known as the boiled bunny. It's impossible to overstate the importance of Stone's look, surely influenced by Katherine Turner's look in "Body Heat" over a decade before. Verhoeven took the ingredients of noir, including light filtered through blinds and rain-soaked windows, and has enormous fun splashing around in the tropes. Stone's Catherine is an all-time great femme fatale who has become the stuff of legend, deservedly so.

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Suzanne Stone - To Die For

Loosely based on the true story of Pamela Smart, Nicole Kidman's Suzanne is an ambitious and ruthless femme fatale, who kills to achieve her 15 minutes of fame. After all, "You're not anybody in America unless you're on TV." With "The Real World" premiering in 1992, "To Die For" captured a moment in time when reality television was on the rise, and also when such events as the O.J. Simpson trial were must-see television. Matt Dillon plays the victim, Suzanne's husband Larry, and Joaquin Phoenix plays the teenage patsy who Suzanne seduces in order to get him to commit murder. Illeana Douglas delivers a delectable performance which she relishes in the small role of Larry's sister, Janice. 

Kidman has furrowed a brilliant career peeling off the façade of the American dream in roles such as "The Stepford Wives" and "Stoker." Suzanne is one of her best-ever performances, as Suzanne herself is delivering a performance throughout the film. Each decade has provided its own brilliant twists on the femme fatale that gives them motivations that make sense for the time they are depicting. In the '40s, it was often about escaping a husband, but in the '80s and beyond, they're often ambitious career women (e.g. Sigourney Weaver in "Working Girl"). Kidman's Suzanne is a deliciously devilish example of the femme fatale as a professional woman who will do anything to climb the corporate ladder.

Kathryn Merteuil - Cruel Intentions

It should come as no surprise that one of the best femme fatales comes from an 18th-century French novel when it's one as rich as "Les Liaisons Dangereuses," and already had such a brilliant film adaptation in1988's "Dangerous Liaisons." While '90s movies like "Clueless" and "Ten Things I Hate About You" tend to be hailed as the best modern-day literary adaptations, "Cruel Intentions" can be overlooked; it's just as good, if not better. The Marquise de Merteuil becomes Sarah Michelle Gellar's Kathryn, and it's hard to overstate how shocking this performance was from Buffy Summers, even transforming into a brunette. Transporting the setting to an elite Manhattan prep school is a genius idea, and Kathryn is truly Machiavellian, manipulating everyone around her including ingenues Annette (Reese Witherspoon) and Cecile (Selma Blair), and most especially, her step-brother Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe).

Witnessing Kathryn's downfall is undoubtedly one of the great pleasures here and it leads to an iconic finale set to The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony." She has lied, blackmailed, and destroyed lives, all just as a distraction from being bored and while maintaining the veil of hypocrisy throughout, exemplified by her cocaine-filled crucifix. Her comeuppance is at the hands of Annette, Cecile, and Sebastian (from beyond the grave) and could not be any sweeter. A brilliant performance from Gellar as one of the evilest femme fatales ever.

Rita - Mulholland Drive

Like "Black Widow," David Lynch's masterpiece pits two women as enemies, lovers, and more, rather than having the traditional male protagonist/patsy. The naive blond Betty (Naomi Watts) arrives in Tinseltown with stars in her eyes, only to collide with Laura Harring's beautiful, dark-haired Rita. Her identity (borrowed from Rita Hayworth) and motivations are opaque. Does she really have amnesia? Betty projects a lot onto the seemingly blank slate that is Rita, and she becomes the person that Betty wants to be, as well as love. 

The final quarter of "Mulholland Drive" brings things into sharper relief, while also muddying the waters further. It is only really when Harring plays Camilla that she fulfills the femme fatale archetype, as she seems to enjoy making Diane (Watts again) squirm. The fact that Harring is clearly styled, with her black hair and red clothing, to be the femme fatale (in contrast to the innocent blond Betty) is interesting in itself, as for most of the film, she is anything but. Attempting to clearly define anything that happens in a Lynch project is a futile exercise, but he clearly relished using noir conventions as his playground. A film about the duplicity of Hollywood, the blurring of identities, and the dangers of pursuing dreams and fantasies — or is it? It doesn't really matter, just let its stunning imagery wash over you.

Laure - Femme Fatale

Brian De Palma is one of the great neo-noir directors, with "Dressed to Kill" and "Body Double" as examples. In the 2000s, he revisited the genre with "Femme Fatale" and "The Black Dahlia." It's impossible to have a list of the best femme fatales and not include this homage to the archetype. The opening sequence, set at the Cannes Film Festival, is phenomenal and pulls off a very Bond-like diamond heist, but with Rebecca Romjin seducing a female victim. A common feature of the femme fatale is assuming multiple identities, and Romjin is no exception here. It probably didn't help its critical or box office reception that it has several similarities to Lynch's "Mulholland Drive," released just the year before, including the "was it all a dream?" final act. 

Like many erotic thrillers, "Femme Fatale" has had a critical reappraisal and is now considered a cult classic. Roger Ebert, as usual, was on the right side of history at the time of release. A film called "Femme Fatale" of course pays tribute to those that have gone before, such as Romjin's Laure watching "Double Indemnity" and the fact that she is very much an Alfred Hitchcock icy blond. Antonio Banderas makes a fantastic patsy, and the various twists and turns take the audience on a wild ride. De Palma is one of the best to ever do it, and this is a fantastic example of the genre.

Nina Romina - Nightcrawler

While Rene Russo's TV station news director Nina is up against an arguably even more evil character (Lou Bloom), Nina is also self-serving and morally corrupt. In "Nightcrawler," (directed by Russo's husband, Dan Gilroy) power, status, and who's in possession of the upper hand frequently shifts between Lou and Nina. Initially, Lou is desperate to impress her with his footage of car accidents and crimes. Nina emphasizes that more graphic content is better, and if it's in affluent white neighborhoods, it's even more valuable.

Once Lou's footage is in-demand, he uses this as leverage to get Nina to sleep with him. Nina does ultimately use sex to get what she wants — the ultimate femme fatale power move. As Lou's footage becomes increasingly ethically dicey, and he commits crimes in order to capture it, Nina's admiration of him only grows. She has no qualms about withholding evidence from the police, manipulating her audience by cutting the footage, and withholding certain facts that aren't ratings-friendly. Nina is a very modern femme fatale, dealing in the TV news version of clickbait, a valuable commodity nowadays. Just as the fatales of 1940s noirs were in pursuit of money and power, Nina wants to be at the top of her professional game and doesn't care who gets hurt in the process. "Nightcrawler" is one of the best L.A. neo-noirs, and Russo's Nina demonstrates how the fatale trope has evolved over time.

Read this next: The 20 Greatest James Bond Villains Ever

The post The 22 Greatest Femme Fatales In Movie History appeared first on /Film.

"RRR" is electrifying cinema. The film runs over three hours long and can barely contain the amount of extravagant, invigorating, and beautiful moments that make you remember why you love the medium of film in the first place. Director S.S. Rajamouli's ability to wow an audience within the context of a big-budget action film dwarfs just about everything being produced by the Hollywood machine. Even just the way he frames his two leading men, Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr. (henceforth to be referred to as Jr NTR), gives them an iconographic status even the biggest movie stars are rarely afforded. So many images have been imprinted on my brain that I will never forget.

In celebration of this fantastic film that is doing so much to help expose so much of the world to the wonders of Indian, and especially Telugu-language, cinema, let's look at some of the best parts of "RRR." Instead of doing a boring ranking that counts down those moments by how great they are, let's take a bit of a swerve in how we look at them. "RRR" is filled with so many instances of the extreme, where what is happening on screen could never happen in real life. So, let's count down the film's best moments by how unbelievable they are, meaning that you literally cannot believe what is happening on the screen. Much of what happens in "RRR" would firmly classify as unbelievable and parsing the differences may be a little silly. But, hey ... "RRR" is a fun time, so why not have some fun when talking about it?

Oh, and there will be spoilers.

Raju Helps Bheem Meet The Girl He Likes

One of the most delightful moments of "RRR" is also one of its most believable. Ram Charan's Raju sees that Jr NTR's Bheem has a debilitating crush on Jenny (Olivia Morris), the kind British woman who lives in the Governor's estate. Bheem has absolutely no game, unwilling to even approach this woman. Raju, being the cool bro he is, decides to help his friend out. But this is "RRR." He cannot just tell Bheem to go up and talk to Jenny. Something elaborate has to happen. So, Raju grabs a handful of nails and screws and decides to flatten the tires of Jenny's car, which forces the two potential love birds to have a meet-cute.

In a movie filled with extremes, this is the smallest of its most major moments. The scene is designed for maximum charm, humor, and loveliness, and Jr NTR's comic chops of totally not understanding what Raju is doing at the moment really works. If a guy purposefully popped the tires of a woman's car in real life, it would be truly upsetting, but in the vibe of this movie, it's the only way this could have happened.

Load, Aim, Shoot

After the film's "InteRRRval," we are treated to a lengthy flashback about Raju's childhood. We learn about his father (Ajay Devgn) and how he abandoned the British forces and began a revolutionary army of his own. We learn how Raju was a natural with a rifle in his hands. Most importantly, we learn that he is not, in fact, working for the British out of loyalty but as a long con operation to provide anyone willing to fight back against the imperialists with a weapon, a lesson he learned from his father.

The moment that needs spotlighting acts as the emotional highpoint of the flashback sequence. Their camp has been sieged by British soldiers, Raju's brother and mother have been killed, and his father does not have much time left in this world. They devise a plan where Raju's father will appear to be giving himself up to the British forces, but in reality, he will be using himself as a bomb, wrapping himself in dynamite and having the young Raju shoot him to cause the explosion.

While it is an enormously extreme moment dramatically, in terms of believability, it makes all the sense in the world. Yes, it is a bit farfetched that a young boy could be such a crack shot with a rifle, but the revolutionary mindset here rings utterly true.

A Last Second Cameo

S.S. Rajamouli had a cameo for himself in "Bāhubali: The Beginning," the first entry in his two-part epic, as a seller of spirits that Prabhas' titular character procures as an elaborate distraction. It would make sense for him to show up in his next film as well, but you get to the point where the credits are rolling without ever seeing him. And then, during the anthemic final musical number "Etthara Jenda," the silver-haired Rajamouli pops into frame as two confetti cannons blast behind him. He does not even cameo as a character. He is just himself showing up in the celebratory closing moments of his film.

Look, it's just an absolute boss move to do this. He made this gigantic film that was the most expensive production in Indian film history. Why should he not get to join in on the musical number to cap off his achievement?

Sending A Bullet Back To England

One of the most satisfying and rousing moments of "RRR" also happens to be one of its most predictable. The film has built to this epic battle between the Indian freedom fighters and the evil British colonialists, and the only proper satisfying conclusion to that struggle would be Bheem and Raju teaming up to put the nail in the coffin of the sneering Governor (Ray Stevenson). They do this by reciting back to him his belief that a bullet should not be wasted on the life of an Indian because they aren't worth it. Instead, a bullet must be reserved to take the life of an Englishman, which Bheem and Raju are more than happy to carry out.

The most unbelievable part of this moment is just that this same Englishman has been circling their lives so much that even Raju's long-dead father has heard this disgusting bullet speech. He is the figurehead for the entire British crown, when in reality there were a plethora of folks just like him. If he is the Governor, it does make sense that he would be in this area, but there is still quite a bit of coincidence that has to occur to bring them to this moment. However coincidental, it is still incredibly cathartic.

Sita Protects (And Then Meets) Bheem

We have to chalk another piece of the film up to pure coincidence. After Bheem has rescued the little girl Malli (Twinkle Sharma) that has been his mission, the two have been maneuvering from town to town to avoid the British authorities. They find themselves in an inn in last town in the region to be checked. In that same inn, we see Sita (Alia Bhatt in her Telugu language debut), the woman set to marry Raju. When the inn gets raided by a group of soldiers, Sita recognizes that there are people in here who really do not want to be found, so she has the brilliant idea to say that there is a smallpox infestation among the people. This is before she has even spoken a word to Bheem and knows that he is Raju's best friend (despite some misunderstood betrayal).

It is an incredibly selfless act that Sita performs here, even getting kicked in the stomach by one of the officials. Seeing people do things just out of the good of their heart is a rarity, and in the world we live in today, it almost comes across as pure fantasy. Pair that with the fated meeting between the two loves of Raju's life, and you have something that is fairly unbelievable.

A Surprise Second Whip

This moment makes me want to ask so many questions. For context, Bheem has been arrested by Raju and is now being publicly whipped. The goal of the Governor and his wife (Alison Doody) is to have Bheem fall to his knees in subjugation to the British crown. However, no matter how hard Raju whips Bheem, he will not kneel. Then ... Alison Doody pulls out this whip that is covered in spikes and throws it down to Raju.

I understand that there's another whip available to increase the pain of this torture. What I do not understand is why she has it. Does she just carry this whip around? Why isn't it already down on the block where the actual whipping is taking place? Her revealing this whip just exists to do two things: make the British look even more sadistic and amp up the stakes of the scene between these two men. On those two fronts, it completely works. The moment is completely convoluted, but in the heightened space that is "RRR," you just have to accept it.

The Governor Wrecks Raju's Car

What makes this moment stand out is not what happens but how it happens. On the drive to Bheem's hanging, the Governor discovers that Raju is planning to break Bheem out and escape. He has rigged a tree to fall down and crush the Governor's car, but the Governor notices this just in the nick of time. The tree falls onto the hood of the car, propelling him into the air. While in mid-air, the Governor grabs his rifle, aims, and shoots Raju's car. From just one shot, that car takes to the air, flipping several times over its side like it was on a ramp, and sends Raju and Malli flying, with Raju getting non-fatally impaled by a jutting tree stump.

While the car flipping could be the most exaggerated moment of the sequence, I want to focus on the Governor. Ray Stevenson's character essentially floats in the air for this moment to work as effectively as it does. All of the fanciful, slow-motion enhanced images of power have been exclusively reserved for Raju and Bheem. This is the one time the Governor gets in on the action, and it perfectly demonstrates what a formidable force he, and by proxy, the British imperialists, can be. With one blow, he can destroy everything they have worked for. The whipping scene is obviously more emotionally wrenching, but this moment is the one where you almost feel the most helpless, which is a wonderful dramatic choice by Rajamouli.

Lachu Snatches A Lunging Snake

I don't know about you, but I don't like snakes. As far as I can get away from them, the better. I certainly would not be trying to lure an incredibly deadly snake towards me with a stick hoping to catch it with my hands tied around my back. Well, that is exactly what Bheem's compatriot Lachu (Rahul Ramakrishna) does in order to poison Raju, who is violently interrogating him about Bheem's whereabouts. But the man gets it done, leaving Raju to die, as there is no antidote.

Of course, Bheem figures out a way to keep his friend alive, because he is the best at everything. Why should he not be the only person to know how to counteract deadly venom?

Underground Sonar

Who doesn't love a good prison break? After Sita reveals Raju's true intentions, Bheem realizes he must go back and rescue his friend from prison before they execute him. Raju has been locked in an underground cell, and Bheem is unaware of which prison he's in. They obviously cannot make noise and yell for one another otherwise they will be found out. So, Bheem decides to use almost a form of sonar in order to find Raju. He starts to bang on the ground, and Raju senses this banging as his friend trying to find him. So, he bangs back. Bheem then uses the banging as an echolocation mechanism to find Raju.

I have absolutely no idea if this would actually work. My guess is that the ground is so thick that it would absorb the vibrations made by a fist rather easily to where they couldn't radiate out for dozens of yards, let alone let you be able to tell which direction they are coming from. However, you are on such an emotional high at the prospect of these friends reuniting for the same cause that you simply go along with what is pretty much nonsense.

Raju Transforms Into Rama

While here in the United States "RRR" has been met with nothing short of adulation, the same cannot be said in India. Yes, it has received plenty of praise there as well, but it is not without its controversies. The film has a propagandistic nationalist streak to it that could be seen as leaning into the right-wing rise happening in India. It takes these two real-life revolutionary figures and tells a completely fictional story about them, which irks some people. Then, there is Raju's third act transformation, where he essentially dons the look of the Hindu deity Rama.

Using religious iconography, particularly when you are equating people with specific religious figures, is always going to rile people up. In the case of "RRR," it does it far more explicitly than just about any movie I have ever seen. Like, the scene in "Man of Steel" where Superman's face is framed alongside a stained glass painting of Jesus is downright subtle compared to this. Raju being a real person complicates the matter even further.

S.S. Rajamouli is interested in building his own mythology. He is not making a biopic of these men. He is making a fantasy action epic about brotherhood between two gods among men. In my opinion, utilizing this religious iconography comes with the territory for the story Rajamouli wants to tell. It is an incredibly bold way to go about doing it, but the tone of the picture warrants boldness. Everything else is bold. Why shouldn't this be too?

Bheem And Raju Become Best Friends

Male friendships — genuine, emotionally honest male friendships — are all too rare on screen. When one does occur, especially in a Hollywood film, there has to be some kind of joke to cut the love out from underneath it. Masculinity is so fragile that seeing that you care for and love another man cannot be tolerated. Audiences could not possibly handle a male bond. That would only cause utter pandemonium and the collapse of society, right? Just look at the trailer for "Thor: Love and Thunder" where Chris Pratt's Star-Lord jokingly undercuts a potential bond between him and Chris Hemsworth's Thor.

"RRR" throws all of that in the trash, having Raju and Bheem become the best friends that have ever existed in the history of man. The montage, set to the song "Dosti," takes what you think of as a bonding montage and ramps it up to new heights. They climb a human pyramid, have races with Raju on horseback and Bheem on a motorcycle, and even try sneakily stealing a farmer's goat for some reason. Of course, there is also the moment where Bheem does squats while Raju sits on his shoulders, a moment that seems a little silly in the moment and ends up having massive implications for what happens later (which we will get to).

This montage takes two men who just learned each other's names before it started and makes them closer than two people have ever been, without a speck of irony to any of it. Rajamouli simply lets these men platonically fall in love with another, and their bond is so powerful it can take down anything in their path.

Bheem Sings, Inspires, And Does Not Kneel

We touched on this scene earlier with the surprise whip, but the scene in which Bheem sings the rallying, aptly titled anthem "Komuram Bheemudo" as he is being publicly whipped is one of the film's high points. Jr NTR and Ram Charan are operating at such high levels here, having to convey all the incredibly complex emotional dynamics at play in this act of betrayal. Kaala Bhairava provides the singing voice for Bheem in this scene, and his voice combined with Jr NTR intense yet vulnerable face do make you believe that this song could inspire an entire community to riot against this unjust oppression.

In concept, this scene is not totally unbelievable, if you take it the way it initially comes off. It uses the musical convention of having a song act as a nondiegetic emotional high point. But ... then you learn the song was actually diegetic. Bheem sang this song as he was being violently whipped. This was not symbolic. It was literal, making it an impressive feat of both improvisatory songwriting and vocal control under duress. Bhemm really can do it all.

A Dance Battle Against Imperialism

"Naatu Naatu" has already become a phenomenon and for good reason. These two men, through the power of song and (most importantly) dance, battle with a legion of stiff upper lip Brits to show that Indian culture even more exciting than the British one deemed superior by their own pomposity. Jr NTR and Ram Charan perform this number with unyielding energy and execute incredibly complex dance moves with perfect synchronicity with one another. Even with all the wild action scenes "RRR" provides, it is difficult to not choose "Naatu Naatu" as the best scene of the film.

Like the whipping scene, what makes this moment so unique is that the dancing all takes place within the world of the film. Their dancing is so impressive and challenging that it causes every British person at this party to fall to the ground with leg pain, except our two heroes. They take down the imperialists, and Jenny becomes even further smitten with Bheem, thanks to a beautiful dance sacrifice of brotherhood from Raju. Everything about it just rules.

Bheem Outruns And Captures A Tiger

"RRR" features two of the craziest character introductions in the history of cinema. Deciding which one is more unbelievable was a real coin toss. We will start off with Bheem's, where he outruns and then successfully captures a tiger in a forest outside of Delhi. Both of the character introductions showcase three important things about these characters: their strength, resilience, and ingenuity. In Bheem's case, he is able to use his brute strength to withstand the power and sharpness of tiger claws while wrangling it within a net using just his arms and core.

Tigers can run upwards of 40 miles per hour and weigh hundreds of pounds. A human does not stand a chance, particularly when the tiger has been provoked. You need a challenge like that to show just how much of a badass Bheem is. The way S.S. Rajamouli's camera adores Jr NTR's body, especially in his opening shot that vertically rotates 180 degrees, perfectly captures this man's godliness and somehow lets you believe that something like this is at all possible. This comes after we have seen the introduction of Raju, and you need something this extreme to show how this will be a clash between an unstoppable force and an immovable object.

Raju Takes On Hundreds By Himself

So, how could you possibly introduce a character that would outdo someone capturing a tiger? Well, instead of having a one-on-one battle, you have one man going against hundreds. This is how we are introduced to Ram Charan's Raju. A police precinct is being besieged by hundreds upon hundreds of (rightfully) furious protestors. One of them throws a rock at the building and breaks a framed photo of the office in charge, and is ordered to be arrested out of this massive crowd. Raju decides to take on the challenge, leaping into the air over the tall fence surrounding the building, and he proceeds to beat the ever-loving s**t out of everyone who comes into his path.

Raju emerges as if he were a cyborg devised by Cyberdine Systems. It does not matter that swarms of people try bringing him to the ground. His goal is to capture that rock thrower, and nothing is going to stand in his way. He will climb up a tower, fall down a giant rock, and bash every person's face in to do so. And he does.

We are also introduced to Raju's glorious mustache, which sadly does not spend a ton of time on his face throughout the film without an accompanying beard, but it makes for a hell of a first impression.

An Explosive First Meeting

After meeting these characters in such grandiose ways, their eventual meeting not only needs to match the extremity of those scenes but surpass it. Well, they do it. An oil tanker on a train explodes on a bridge over where a little boy is fishing. Raju stands atop the bridge. Bheem stands on the dock along the river. They lock eyes and, without using words, know exactly how the two of them can save the boy in the fiery waters below. It involves a motorcycle, a horse, a rope, and a flag. Naturally. The scene is so exhilarating that their arm clasp that ends the sequence gives way to form the long-delayed title card 40 minutes into the movie.

While it is of course an outrageously ludicrous scene, it tells us so much about these two men and their desire for justice and to save people. We may think Raju is some heartless puppet of the British Empire, but in reality, he is just as much a freedom fighter as Bheem. This massive sequence is also what propels these two men to go from complete strangers to soulmates. In an instant of seeing each other from dozens of yards away, they sense a kindred spirit with whom they do not need words to communicate. That's how made for each other they are. It is bravura filmmaking.

Battle Between Friends

Their coming together needs to be explosive, but their coming apart and betrayal needed to reach even greater heights. Leading into the intermission, Bheem reveals to Raju that he unknowingly is the man Raju has been on the hunt for the entire first half of the film. At the Governor's estate, the two have the fight to end all fights. They fly through the air. Single punches send the other flying twenty-five feet backwards. Raju harnesses the aura of fire and Bheem water to symbolize elemental forces colliding with one another.

Dramatically, a sequence like this was bound to happen. The second they become best friends you know there will be a falling out of some kind. It happens in every movie about a romance, which this ostensibly is. For a maximalist picture like "RRR," Rajamouli constructs the apex of what that scene could possibly be. So many things happen that could never occur in real life, but we are operating at such a heightened place that the superhero-esque battle feels utterly natural. It is the scene that is supposed to leave you speechless as you putter about for ten minutes in anticipation of the "InteRRRval" ending, and the only way to do that is to ramp things up farther than you could imagine.

Bheem Finds New Uses For A Motorcycle

Along with the fire and water motifs given to Raju and Bheem, respectively, each man receives a signature form of transportation. Raju often finds himself on horseback, whereas Bheem favors motorcycles. In the film's final battle, Bheem takes his connection to the bikes to a whole new level. His power has reached such a height that he can stop a motorcycle and flip it into the air with a stomp of his foot. Even more impressively, he can pick up the motorcycle over his head and swing around like a weapon fighting off soldiers. He even throws the bike at people trying to attack him.

We are nearing the end of the movie here, and everything has gone into complete fantasy land at this point. Bheem and Raju have reunited and are making their last stand against the evil Governor and his many cronies. Together, they have reached the ultimate power and can perform amazing feats of strength without so much as breaking a sweat. It is the point in the movie where everyone in the audience is hooting, hollering, cheering, screaming, and pumping their fists into the air. Bheem has earned the right to swing a motorcycle around like it's made of styrofoam.

The Wild Animal Raid

"RRR" has two moments where something happens that you did not realize was set up in a previous scene. We previously talked about Bheem's introduction where he captures a tiger. In a movie like this, that moment could only exist simply to show Bheem's power. So many crazy things happen after that you nearly forget that Bheem has captured a tiger. You never even stop to think why he is capturing an animal in the first place.

As it turns out, he has not just captured this one tiger. Oh, no. He has captured an entire cavalry of wild animals, including wolves, leopards, and more, to be used as an invading force upon the Governor's estate in order to rescue Malli from their clutches. The scene where a tarp is ripped off of the back of a truck revealing all the animals lunging out to kill and maim so many party guests is a guaranteed cheer moment. For one, the image is just absolutely incredible. Second, every single person in the audience realizes at the exact same time that they all had completely missed that this could have been part of the plan. That collective rush of energy can only be surpassed by one other thing (which we will get to in a second).

What makes this scene even better is that you quickly realize that none of these animals have been trained in any way. They will gladly attack anything in their path, including Bheem, and it takes things like Bheem throwing a leopard at a British soldier to divert their attention. It's a beautifully bonkers moment.

The Piggy Back Ride Was A Chekhov's Gun?!

In the aforementioned friendship montage, we get a shot of Bheem doing squats with Raju on his shoulders. Each one has a big smile on their face. We take this moment as a sign of their great affection for another, juxtaposed with many other moments doing the exact same thing. Little did we know, S.S. Rajamouli had planted a seed that would lead directly to the most fist-pumping moment of "RRR."

After Bheem has broken Raju out of his prison cell, Raju's physical state leaves him unable to run, let alone walk. Calling back to their piggyback days, Bheem puts him on his shoulders, and the two become a double-bodied super-soldier. The sharpshooting Raju can handle rifles in each hand, blowing soldiers away, and the brute strength of Bheem can knock anyone coming towards them out with a single strike, while he also reloads Raju's guns. They climb a tower, leap into the air, and do a flip. The only way they could become greater than they already were individually was to become one man. Coming together as one is how to take down those who oppress you. That is the mission statement of "RRR," and it delivers it in the most absurd and badass way you could possibly fathom.

Read this next: Actors Who Died In 2021

The post The 20 Best Moments in RRR, Ranked By How Much We Can't Believe What We Saw appeared first on /Film.

T-Mobile has just officially launched its new ad platform, known as T-Mobile Advertising Solutions. That innocuous name hides a rather sketchy business model -- it aggregates your mobile application usage and sells it to advertisers. Android Police reports: The specifics of the program will sound familiar to anyone who has followed the ebb and flow of browser tracking. T-Mobile uses network-level tools to track the apps that people use on their phones, and it then anonymizes and aggregates that data to lump you into various "personas," or "cohorts" as other platforms would call it. For example, if you regularly use Expensify and airline apps on your phone, T-Mobile could identify you as a business traveler for advertising purposes. This program has been in testing for the past year as "T-Mobile Marketing Solutions," according to The Verge, but it is now live with its new name. There is some good news (but less of it for Android fans). T-Mobile does not currently collect app data on iOS users, fearing it could run afoul of Apple's privacy rules. But we Android users are fair game, apparently. However, you can opt-out of T-Mobile's program using its official "Magenta Marketing Platform Choices" app. Alternatively, the Digital Advertising Alliance offers an app that lets you opt-out of numerous trackers, including T-Mobile Advertising Solutions, which is listed under its old name of T-Mobile Marketing Solutions.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Coming about last week was a Fedora 37 change proposal to improve the profiling and debugging of Fedora packages but with possible performance costs. That suggested change is about adding "-fno-omit-frame-pointer" to the default CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS when building packages so the frame pointer is always available for improving the debugging/profiling of the stock Fedora packages. Unfortunately, it can come with significant performance costs as these benchmarks show.

What are the best Roblox games? Games aren't just better than ever for kids; the means of creating them are, too. The best example of that is Roblox: a massively multiplayer online game creation platform. Its user-generated creations allow you to weather the threat of a natural disaster, try your hand as a pizza maker, or take a break with a fishing adventure full of exploration and discovery.

From sims and RPGs to tower defense and grand adventure titles, we've highlighted the best Roblox games to enjoy with over 100 million other pals in online games. Think of it like Minecraft and LittleBigPlanet smooshed together to create one of the best free PC games available. Below, you can find the best Roblox games and more about this exciting platform.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best Roblox games, Roblox promo codes, Roblox music codes

Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K!

Keanu Reeves, who giddily laughed it up about NFTs while promoting the last film in the Maxtrix series, is now advising a 'Non-Fungible Labs' project wherein they introduce artists to NFTs.

The Verge:

It seems like Keanu Reeves may have had a change of heart around NFTs.

— Read the rest

Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie seems to have enough on her plate in the upcoming "Thor: Love and Thunder," now that she is the ruler of New Asgard. While Valkyrie takes her job as ruler seriously and a part of her genuinely enjoys that role, it is evidenced from the trailers that the bureaucratic aspect of the job is a tad tedious for her. But there's one highlight of being King: she gets to hang out with Natalie Portman's The Mighty Thor. 

Thompson spoke about her role in a recent press conference for "Love and Thunder," highlighting how it's great to have a sisterly dynamic with Natalie Portman's The Mighty Thor, especially as Valkyrie begins to get bored with her political duties:

"We talked about the idea of someone that has a job they really love, but they're also kind of disgruntled. She, you know, was a professional soldier for thousands of years and now finds herself kind of stuck in bureaucracy. So she's really missing being on the battlefield as missing her sisters. And so it's been very fun to get to have that again, with Natalie in particular as Mighty Thor."

Jane Foster's presence allows Valkyrie to form a fun, endearing sisterhood with the character, and the duo will obviously march into battle together at some point in the film. What fun!

Bureaucracy Is Boring

As a refresher, Valkyrie was one of the few survivors of Thanos' snap and was instrumental in leading the Asgardian survivors to safety. Eventually, in "Avengers: Endgame," she helped relocate the Asgardian population to Tønsberg, Norway (as the city was destroyed in "Thor: Ragnarok"). Before Thor (Chris Hemsworth) joined the Guardians of the Galaxy and went on adventures with the gang, he appointed Valkyrie the new ruler of the Asgardians.

Valkyrie is more than capable of handling the responsibilities that come with being king, but she is not the typical ruler. She seems more casual about the royalty aspect of the role in the trailers for the film, and I'm guessing she is widely loved and revered by the Asgardians. While the arrival of fresh threats to the city might prompt her to charge straight into battle, she still has to make executive decisions when it comes to the wellbeing of her citizens. 

However, Valkyrie's core role in Asgard was to defend the king during battle or in the event of a major threat, as she was essentially a shield-maiden accustomed to constant engagement in combat. While she can still fill the dual roles of king and protector, Valkyrie is understandably bogged down by the more grounded aspects of her role as ruler, boring court meetings and all. That is until Jane Foster walks in.

An Epic Duo, If I May Say So

Jane's return in "Love and Thunder" is a surprising one. It's been eight years since Thor had last seen her, and he is in a considerable bit of shock when she pops up as the Mighty Thor (she can even wield Mjolnir!). Valkyrie might or might not be aware of the details of Thor and Jane's past, but the two seem to be hitting it off immediately, as seen in the "cornucopia" scene at Olympus (possibly) in the film's trailer.

This is an interesting dynamic, considering what happens in the comics. In 2019's "War of the Realms," Jane gives up her title as the Mighty Thor and becomes one of the Valkyries. While director Taika Waititi might not be opting for this route at all, there is a possibility that Jane might eventually become a Valkyrie, and join Thompson's Valkyrie in many battles as and when New Asgard is threatened. Plus, we also see them together in courtroom settings, so it is possible that Jane is offering a helping hand when it comes to navigating the sociopolitical aspects of Valkyrie's role. Or maybe they just like each other's company.

It would be great to see Jane and Valkyrie engage with one another and fight side-to-side, especially if they will be going up against Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), a serious threat to, well, all gods.

"Thor: Love and Thunder" hits theaters on July 8, 2022.

Read this next: Every Pre-MCU Marvel Movie Ranked

The post Valkyrie Finds a New Sister in Battle With Natalie Portman's Mighty Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder appeared first on /Film.

Following the launch of Apple's new 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 chip, it has been discovered that the $1,299 base model with 256GB of storage has significantly slower SSD read/write speeds compared to the equivalent previous-generation model. From a report: YouTube channels such as Max Tech and Created Tech tested the 256GB model with Blackmagic's Disk Speed Test app and found that the SSD's read and write speeds are both around 1,450 MB/s, which is around 50% slower reading and around 30% slower writing compared to the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 chip and 256GB of storage. Disk Speed Test app numbers shared by Vadim Yuryev of Max Tech: 13-inch MacBook Pro (M1/256GB) Read Speed: 2,900 13-inch MacBook Pro (M2/256GB) Read Speed: 1,446 13-inch MacBook Pro (M1/256GB) Write Speed: 2,215 13-inch MacBook Pro (M2/256GB) Write Speed: 1,463 Yuryev disassembled the new 13-inch MacBook Pro and discovered that the 256GB model is equipped with only a single NAND flash storage chip, whereas the previous model has two NAND chips that are likely 128GB each. This difference likely explains why the new model has a slower SSD, as multiple NAND chips allows for faster speeds in parallel.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Cyberpunk 2077 was heavily criticised following its 2020 launch for containing numerous bugs and glitches. But a new leak from a supposed whistleblower suggests that developer CD Projekt Red may not be entirely to blame, as it was misled by third-party quality assurance company Quantic Labs.

RELATED LINKS: Cyberpunk 2077 review, Cyberpunk 2077 lore & universe, Buy Cyberpunk 2077

Blackmore1014, Iddqd_Idkfa_Idclip, Doomsmile, Bifurcator and Vsonnier have released a brand new version of Brutal Doom: Black Edition. Brutal Doom: Black Edition is described as a dark, serious, realistic and “meaningful” vision of the original Brutal Doom. Black Edition combines large battles and speed of classic Doom with the dark and atmospheric aesthetic of Doom 3. … Continue reading Brutal Doom: Black Edition brings Doom 3’s art style to classic Doom →

The post Brutal Doom: Black Edition brings Doom 3’s art style to classic Doom appeared first on DSOGaming.

There was a time not so long ago when it seemed like Natalie Portman was done with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although Portman's character, Jane Foster, popped up in "Avengers: Endgame" in 2019, it was only in existing footage of her that had gone unused from the production of "Thor: The Dark World." That movie was originally supposed to be helmed by Patty Jenkins, who would have been the MCU's first female director, but she left over creative differences (and went on to direct "Wonder Woman"). This reportedly upset Portman, who had championed Jenkins herself.

We really hadn't seen Portman in new footage as Jane since 2013 when "The Dark World" dropped. All that changes with the new fourquel "Thor: Love and Thunder," which sees Jane inheriting the mantle of The Mighty Thor.

/Film's Hoai-Tran Bui recently attended a press conference for "Love and Thunder" where Portman discussed what it was like for her to step back into the role and show moviegoers a new, more muscular Jane. The actress said:

"It was such an incredible way to explore a female superhero that could be quite vulnerable and weak and find strength in that and be more like a human I could relate to, personally. And then also I think it just gave me renewed respect for what Chris has been doing for over a decade, [what] Tessa's been doing, because I see how much work goes into it that I don't think I was aware of when I was in the first one. I didn't see everything that went on behind the scenes. And when I got insight into all of the choreography and the training and everything, I was like 'Wow, this is a triple job of what I was doing back then.'"

'She's New At It. And Also Keeps Reverting To Human Form'

Portman also discussed how Chris Hemsworth's Thor and her own character, Jane — whose new title as The Mighty Thor helps distinguish her from him — are different in "Love and Thunder." She said:

"[Thor and The Mighty Thor are] completely different. I think [Thor is] obviously very assured and experienced in being a superhero and she's just trying to figure it out. She's new at it. And also keeps reverting to human form. So there's a kind of danger always that like it might be her last moment getting to experience that."

We've come a long way from the days when it seemed like Portman's character would be relegated to an unceremonious, offscreen breakup between the events of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and "Thor: Ragnarok." It's not clear yet why Jane "keeps reverting to human form" or how exactly she got her hands on Thor's hammer in the first place, but she's obviously worthy enough to lift it and be imbued with the god of thunder's powers.

You can see more of Portman as Jane Foster and find out how exactly she became The Mighty Thor when "Thor: Love and Thunder" lands in theaters on July 8, 2022.

Read this next: Every Pre-MCU Marvel Movie Ranked

The post Natalie Portman Relished Playing the 'Danger' of Jane Foster's Thor: Love and Thunder Arc appeared first on /Film.

The US House of Representatives has passed a new cybersecurity bill named the “Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Training Act.”

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A gold miner in the Klondike, Yukon found this incredibly well-preserved frozen woolly mammoth born sometime during the last Ice Age. The miner was digging into the permafrost in the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin Traditional Territories and uncovered the little beastie, complete with skin and hair. — Read the rest

The emphasis in his title is fairly undisputed at this point

It's fair to say that The Lord of the Rings (and by extension, The Legendarium, a catch-all term that covers J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth works) is a huge part of my life. I'm writing this now listening to the soundtrack of the Peter Jackson trilogy, after having come back from a four-player session of The Lord of the Rings LCG co-op card game. Oh, and I went to a Tolkien-related academic conference this past weekend: Mythmoot 2022.

It was there that I caught up with Dr. Corey Olsen, The Tolkien Professor (more on that peculiar emphasis in a moment) to talk about his involvement with the Return to Moria game, as well as some thoughts on the upcoming Gollum project.

For hardcore Tolkien fans, Dr. Olsen needs no introduction. But I'm going to do one anyway! Dr. Olsen has a PhD in medieval literature, and has risen the ranks as one of the most preeminent modern Tolkien scholars worldwide. This came to a head in 2012, when he founded Signum University, an online graduate school focusing on literature and philology. He also has done consultation work for myriad Tolkien-related projects (including video games), and hosts a comprehensive podcast that not only covers Tolkien, but academia in general. So about that name. At multiple academic conferences I've attended online and in-person, the anecdote of disputing Olsen's title of The Tolkien Professor is commonplace. But the story always ends the same: they check Dr. Olsen's credentials, and submit that the moniker is legit. We even got another one of those tales from esteemed professor Michael Drout at this year's Mythmoot; jokingly pointing out that he called his spouse into the room to listen to a rant, incredulous that anyone would call themselves The Tolkien Professor.

As you can imagine, sitting down to talk to Dr. Olsen is a treat, and even after an extensive interview session, I felt like I could have talked to him for hours. One of the first things I brought up: his involvement in the Return to Moria game, coming out in 2023 on PC. As Dr. Olsen puts it: "It was a fairly serendipitous connection. The game director listens to my podcast, so he emailed me one day with a random question related to the game. I got to talking with him, and I had done some game consulting before, so I was expressing enthusiasm...saying I had done this stuff before and it was really fun, and he was like 'wait, really?' So he invited me in, and although I didn't start at the beginning of the project, basically my role has been to...they produce the story and we discuss it."

Dr. Olsen continued on, explaining how the project excited him because much of it covered "all of the dwarf stuff that Tolkien didn't write." Then Dr. Olsen dropped a bombshell: "As far as I know, this is the first adaptation that takes place during the Fourth Age." What?! Ever since I talked with the LOTRO team I'm on the lookout for the phrase "Middle-earth Enterprises." I'll spare you the legal rabbit hole of complexity this journey took me on, but suffice to say this essentially boils down to the rights to use content from the core book series. A lot of past stories, particularly ones from the First or Second Ages of the Legendarium (the core book series takes place in The Third Age), would need approval from the Tolkien Estate. Generally speaking, The Fourth Age is untouched, outside of some elements of textual ruins from Tolkien himself.

So I asked, "How is Return to Moria covering The Fourth Age?" But it dawned on me as soon as Dr. Olsen started explaining it. The secret sauce to unlocking the full potential of practically every Tolkien-related project: the appendices. For the uninitiated, the appendices are a portion of Return of the King that fill in a ton of detail on other happenings in Middle-earth. Some of it deals with what's happening concurrently in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. A lot of it deals with past events. But in any case, it can help creators legally fill in the gaps or provide lots of info and content to glom onto.

Dr. Olsen gets specific in terms of what Moria is able to touch on: "So the fragments that were there, we know what Gimli was up to. Gimli goes on to become the lord of the Glittering Caves...and we know that the dwarves of Erebor helped repair the gates of Minith Tirith with mithril and steel. So that's a little bit to work with. The appendices do tell us some things. And honestly for this kind of a story, it helps to provide the frame in that way. It is implied...when Gandalf reads the Book of Mazarbul [editor's note: this was the book Gandalf flips through in the Fellowship of the Ring film in Moria], he says 'it was valiant but foolish, the time had not yet come [to retake Moria].' Well that's a fun hook [laughs]. So by that token, the time will come!"

Dr. Olsen relishes the opportunity to tell these types of open-ended stories:

"It's fun to dramatize the stories that Tolkien depicted. But it's even more fun to develop the stories that Tolkien hinted at but never wrote. The Amazon Prime series is leaning into this...The War of the Rohirrim [editor's note: did you know there was a Lord of the Rings anime film coming in 2024? Wild roads ahead], for that we get an outline of the story of Helm Hammerhand in the appendices. For me, one of the most interesting stories...and we only get fragments of this, is Fram slaying Scatha the worm...and that's of course where Merry's horn comes from, that he's gifted."

It reminded me of how sometimes, creators and fandom can take an individual kernel of a story, like the Jabberwocky in Alice in Wonderland, and form an entire mythos around that. Dr. Olsen and I went back and forth a bit about the general nature of visual mediums, and how they can be especially difficult to do "correctly" with the weight of Middle-earth behind it. Sometimes, things are so detailed that they have a clear framework in mind, and in other instances, they're barely explained. Dr. Olsen subsequently dug into this topic:

"Its really hard, I mean Tolkien talked about that. He was thinking primarily of stage plays, before high effects movies were even possible. But he talked about, how you read a story, how you have your own mental picture. Not just how Frodo looked like, but imagine the description of what they ate at the Prancing Pony...you know the cheese, the butter, the bread. What did that look like? How much bread and butter are we talking about? It's very likely different for everyone...how it pops in your head. But the people doing the adaptation have to get a loaf of bread...and now that is the bread in the scene. So I do think adaptations like the card game, like the tabletop role-playing game, it leaves the reader's imagination much more free, unlike when you're watching something, or playing a video game."

That said, there is another side of that coin, Dr. Olsen posits:

"A lot of people have a very simplified idea of what it means to link an adaptation to the text. By simplified I mean...if you're saying something that Tolkien didn't say, or telling a story that Tolkien didn't tell, it's not an adaptation...well it is. It's possible to tell a story not related at all to Tolkien...but that's not what people do. In terms of my experience, so with Return to Moria, what does Moria look like 50 years after the Balrog was defeated. So when you're inventing stories to tell those gaps, it's how those stories are related to the text...what Tolkien themes you're working with, and in some cases how you're paralleling the story in some way. So there are ways I know that the Amazon Prime team has been working with in their show, and ways that the Moria team is doing that...that is still a really interesting form of adaptation. It's a really fun exercise."

I know exactly what he's talking about. A lot of adaptations, while telling their own stories, do stay true to the spirit of Tolkien. Some (Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War come to mind) do not, but give their own spin on the universe in turn. As far as the Gollum game goes, Dr. Olsen expressed confidence in that team's direction as well:

"Here's the thing that fascinated me most about what I saw about the Gollum game. You're literally playing a murderer...he killed and ate babies...[Sam was right! I interject]...it's the first ever, to my knowledge, least-combat-intensive Tolkien video game I've ever seen. Despite the fact that you're again, playing a murderer, there's less violence. This is not an RPG where you start off as a low-level character and get weapons or powers.. So he's tough, he's resilient, he's agile.. But my question to the developers was 'do your skills change much?' And they said 'actually no.'

So there are ways in which you can change, but you're Gollum, and his skill set is known. There is some combat, but if a patrol of orcs discovers you, you're just hosed, because they're bigger and stronger and you're not. You can use stealth, but you can't just go out and take them. I haven't played the entire thing, but what I saw of the concept was really fascinating."

It was here in our conversation that Dr. Olsen ultimately wished for a world where we can "go beyond action games." He clarifies that he doesn't mean "there shouldn't be any action" in a Tolkien-related game. Sometimes, he loves playing LOTRO and taking out an orc camp of 30 orcs. But the reason he's looking forward to Gollum quite a bit is to see how they can pull that fantasy off, and potentially eliminate the glorification of combat and war that many other Tolkien projects depict (including the mind-bogglingly R-rated uncut third Hobbit film). To that end, I asked Dr. Olsen if he's spotted anything egregious when it comes to how past adaptations have handled some Tolkien works (I threw anthropomorphic Shelob out there, as well as Celebrimbor manifesting in the form of a giant anime explosion), and he had a lot to say:

"Well [long pause]...so dating back to the Peter Jackson films, which of course set the tone for so much afterwards. There are some ways in which the Jackson films are delightfully true to the works in many ways. But there are a few in which they're very very far. Not even plots and characters, but deeper thematically. The single biggest thing I always point to is the de-mythification of the story. It's not that I don't understand it. I'm not even arguing against it, I see how it worked in the film. In Tolkien's world, our point of view is the hobbits. They're our frame of reference for the entire story. You know how the story always goes out of its way to provide a frame of reference...we even split up Merry and Pippin, so everywhere, Mordor Gondor...there's a hobbit.

We even see The Ride of the Rohirrim through Merry's eyes. There's very little in which we have no hobbits at all. We don't look at Aragorn, Gimli or Legolas shoulder to shoulder. We picture ourselves with the hobbits being rescued by them. The camera angle as it were, is three feet off the ground. Which means that big people are Capital B big. We look up at Aragorn. We don't relate to him...we're not meant to relate to him in the same way. Faramir, an even more dramatic example. They're not perfect...we look up at Boromir [it's here that I interject, and we subsequently agree that book Faramir is perfect]...we're caught up in the adulation of the hobbits. So when I say the de-mythification I mean the stories are myths, and have the weight of that. You can connect with Aragorn, but not like that. The Jackson films changed that reference. The most obvious one is uncertain Aragorn. It works in the film in ways. To me that approach is the most egregious change...foundational change. That you take it from essentially...it's not an epic anymore."

We talked a bit about Shadow of Mordor, a common example of one of the most contentious ways to address Tolkien's work. Dr. Olsen continues his thesis on how adaptations can exercise a degree of freedom, to a point:

"I wouldn't automatically dismiss a shapeshifting Shelob. In theory. The question is now what do you do with that. What are you getting at. And this is why, and I don't like to make statements about Shadows of Mordor, but from everything I've seen and they've talked about...the premise of, Sauron has done wrong to me and I want to take vengeance on Sauron but getting a ring of power to dominate my enemies, as a premise, I literally cannot...In my mind that's like a laboratory construction of the most alien-to-Tolkien-concept I could possibly imagine. To me that's what matters. What are the themes that you're getting at, that's where you really hit bedrock of if it's true to Tolkien or not."

I was able to sit in on several talks at Mythmoot this year that touched on these topics: and all of these new adaptations will have to take on that gargantuan responsibility, too. It feels like there's been an explosion of projects lately, perhaps best typified by the Amazon show. So why are there so many adaptations on the horizon? Dr. Olsen lends his thoughts, spurred by my question of whether or not there's a future where the Tolkien Estate opens the floodgates to First and Second Age stories wholesale: "I do believe that the impetus behind this new wave is basically from the estate. I mean they did open up things already to an extent...we can see that in the Gollum game, the Amazon show, the Rohirrim project. If the storyline of the Moria game succeeds...I hope we can accomplish the ability to capture the mythic elements of Tolkien."

Hopefully we see that magic distilled in video game form as soon as this year with Gollum, and in 2023 with Moria. Until then, I have plenty to ponder as a result of Dr. Olsen's interview, and the many talented presentations at Mythmoot 2022.

The post We talked to THE Tolkien Professor about the Gollum and Moria Lord of the Rings games appeared first on Destructoid.

Snakes often get a bad rap and sometimes with good reason—there are plenty of venomous snakes that are dangerous to pets and people in North America, including diamondback rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, and copperheads. In spite of their reputation, though, there are many species of snakes that aren’t dangerous at all,…

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In the mid-'90s, John Travolta saw a resurgence in his movie career after a yearslong dry spell. The revival was ignited by the "Grease" actor's outstanding performance in Quentin Tarantino's cult classic "Pulp Fiction," which earned Travolta an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a leading role. He followed up the performance with another classic showing in 1995's gangster comedy "Get Shorty," where he plays Chili Palmer, a Miami loan shark trying to muscle his way into the movie industry.

In an interview with The Guardian, "Get Shorty" director Barry Sonnenfeld revealed that the film had to overcome hurdles from the very start. First, the project was turned down by every studio Sonnenfeld pitched it to for two reasons. One, the movie is based on a book by novelist Elmore Leonard, and past films based on Leonard's work had bombed at the box office. Two, Hollywood wasn't thrilled to pull back the curtain and make an "inside Hollywood" film.

The project was eventually picked up by MGM Studios, but casting became another hurdle. Sonnenfeld originally wanted Danny DeVito to play the lead role of Chili Palmer. That didn't work out, and DeVito was recast as Martin Weir, the A-list actor pursued by Chili Palmer to star in his new movie. But when Sonnenfeld turned his sights to Travolta to take over the lead role, he was turned down not once, but twice.

John Travolta Had Developed A Bad Habit For Turning Down Big Roles

Apparently when John Travolta turned down the lead role in "Get Shorty," it wasn't the first time he turned down a big part. In fact, Travolta said it was a bad habit he had developed that led to his professional dry spell. He told Rolling Stone in 1995:

"Imagine you finish 'Blow Out' and the studio wants you to do 'An Officer and a Gentleman,' and you say, 'No, I'm going to become a pilot,' and they say they'll wait. Well, that happened all the time. Big movies were offered to me, and I said no. You can't blame others for your saying no to things."

Travolta was the first choice to play the titular character in 1994's "Forrest Gump," which he infamously turned down. He chose to play Vincent Vega in "Pulp Fiction" instead. Yes, "Pulp Fiction" resuscitated Travolta's career, but he regretted turning down "Forrest Gump." That regret may stem from how Travolta lost the Oscar for Best Actor to Tom Hanks, the actor who was ultimately cast as the beloved titular character.

This Is Not The Movie You Pass On

It appeared that John Travolta had made another regrettable mistake by turning down the lead role in Barry Sonnenfeld's "Get Shorty." According to Sonnenfeld's account in The Guardian, Quentin Tarantino had dated a "Get Shorty" producer. He got word that Travolta wasn't interested in the movie and called him up and said, "This is not the movie you pass on," and after Travolta expressed that he didn't understand the script, the "Pulp Fiction" director responded with, "Trust me and do it."

Travolta backed up Sonnenfeld's account in his 1995 Rolling Stone interview. Not only did he credit Tarantino for saving him from turning down another big movie role, he also credited the director for reviving his career beyond casting him as Vincent Vega. "And because he knew my bad habit, Quentin told me, 'Get Shorty' is not the thing you say no to.' That was the cue that finally started me saying yes to things," Travolta said.

Read this next: Horror Roles That Changed Actors Forever

The post It Took A Call From Quentin Tarantino For John Travolta To Join Get Shorty appeared first on /Film.

"Stranger Things" is the biggest show on TV right now, and in the grand tradition of small-screen spectacle storytelling, it's probably about due to kill some characters off. Past seasons' home stretches have given bloody and dramatic send-offs to Matthew Modine's Dr. Brenner (although he didn't stay dead), Dacre Montgomery's Billy, Sean Astin's Bob, and David Harbour's Hopper (although, again, he's actually alive).

With only two episodes left of the season, viewers are entering full Death Watch 2022 mode and nobody seems to be safe. Though star Millie Bobby Brown recently joked that the show's creators, Matt and Ross Duffer, are "sensitive Sallies who don't want to kill anybody off," there seem to be at least a few deaths on the horizon. Brown's co-star Noah Schnapp recently went on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," where he promised that there will be "some deaths coming" in the season's final episodes.

So who's most likely to kick the bucket by the end of the Netflix show's penultimate season? Let's investigate, starting with the most likely candidates.

Dr. Brenner

At the top of this season's potential hit list is Dr. Ian Brenner, a man who has already lived the full character life cycle of a great villain and then, for some reason, came back again. His appearance in season 4 is one of the less logical plot points of the series, as he somehow quickly convinces Eleven (Brown) that he's been on her side all along despite the heaps of evidence we've seen to the contrary.

At best, season 4 Dr. Brenner seems like an excuse to get the always-great Matthew Modine back on the show. At worst, he seems like a crutch used to move Eleven's story along so she can finally understand the origins of Vecna and the Upside Down. Now that he's served his purpose, it would make sense for him to die for real. It's also pretty likely, given that teasers include a shot of Eleven standing outside what appears to be the exploded surface of the underground lab.

Jonathan

In terms of characters who aren't doing much this season, Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) is up there. It's actually been kind of fun to see him transform into an aimless stoner after his family's move to California, but his plot arc is less of an arc at this point and more of a flatline.

Combine this with the fact that his love triangle with Nancy seems to have no easy solution (I mean, they could just talk and part ways as friends, but people in '80s adventure movies don't do that), and Jonathan is starting to look like Vecna-bait. If the monster who feeds on secrets and insecurities ends up going after Will (Schnapp), the core character who seems to be hiding his sexuality, Jonathan would no doubt risk his life to protect his younger brother.

Jason

Hawkins High School's star athlete has turned out to be one of the season's stealth villains, as he's spearheaded the witch hunt against Eddie in the wake of his girlfriend Chrissy's (Grace Van Dien) death. Jason Carver (Mason Dye) has turned out to be a world-class tool, as well as an effective stand-in for the kind of flawed rhetoric that still stokes the flames of moral panics and conspiracies to this day.

Though the last two episodes of the season are being kept largely under wraps, Dye's co-star Caleb McLaughlin, who plays Lucas, hinted to MTV News that the two actors have a particularly intense scene coming up in the season finale. Not to get too deep into the clues we've been presented here, but characters tend to die in "Stranger Things" finales. If we have to see Vecna crumple one more helpless teen, it would at least be nice if it was the one who's a big jerk.

Steve

Before we get into this, it's worth stating for the record that I do not want Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) to die. Nobody wants Steve Harrington to die. When we do broach the topic, conversations about the potential death of Steve Harrington have been unfolding in hushed tones these past weeks, as if the Duffer Brothers will somehow hear us and kill off our favorite hot, charismatic hero if we're too loud.

And yet, there seems to be a more than zero percent chance that Steve could die. The character has always been a fan favorite (and has always been thrown into near-death situations), but this season more than any other has been giving him hero moment after hero moment as if to set him up as a perfectly coiffed fallen saint if he does bite the bullet. He also got bitten by a freaky Upside Down bat earlier this season, meaning he's currently in poor health and not out of peril yet. As much as I hate to speak this into the world, it would be in line with the direction the season's heading in if Steve got one last grand romantic moment with Nancy before bowing out for good.

Eddie

The best of the season's new characters, edgelord Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) has weaseled his way into our hearts after just a handful of episodes. On the surface, he's a rocker burnout who's in it for the shock value, more concerned with striking fear into the hearts of freshmen with his melodramatic Dungeons & Dragons speeches than with ever actually graduating Hawkins High School. But scratch that surface and you'll find an awkwardly endearing guy who coos words of love to his electric guitar and is sweet on the head cheerleader.

The only problem with Eddie is that the "Stranger Things" writers wrote his whole season 4 arc before they knew how much we'd love him. His status as a breakout star does nothing to protect him from this season's endgame, which trailers have shown includes him playing a badass solo on that guitar from the depths of the Upside Down. Hopefully, he makes it out in one piece for an encore performance, but if the Duffers wanted to kill off a character we're rooting for while keeping all the original core cast members alive, Eddie would be their guy.

Victor Creel

There's a good chance the scene we saw in episode 4 of the new season of "Stranger Things" is the only Victor Creel (Robert Englund) content we'll get. After all, he told his story, he gouged his eyes out, and horror fans got the chance to applaud at an appearance from "A Nightmare on Elm Street" alum Englund.

But if Victor does come back, it'll likely be in some sort of face-off with Vecna. After all, the mid-season finale revealed that the monster is actually Creel's long-lost son, who was secretly responsible for the disturbing events Creel assumed were a haunting decades earlier. This means Vecna killed Creel's wife and daughter, and Creel is still in Pennhurst Mental Hospital totally unaware of the truth. There's no real reason to think Creel couldn't survive his encounter with Vecna, but I can't exactly picture the horror figure rehabilitated and happy in the season's epilogue, either.

Murray

While much of "Stranger Things" follows familiar story beats from '80s genre classics, this season's Russia plot has been off-the-wall and utterly unpredictable. So far, conspiracy theorist Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman) has survived a plane crash, impersonated a peanut butter-loving Russian smuggler, and helped Joyce (Winona Ryder) reunite with Hopper.

There aren't a ton of signs pointing to Murray's demise in the tail end of the season, but one particular frame of the Volume 2 promo gives me pause. In it, we see the eccentric hero inside a building, with the reflection of a red-orange explosion (or the open gate?) in the frame of his glasses. Murray's mouth is wide as if in a scream, but it seems less like an exclamation of fear and more like a bracing-oneself-to-go-for-it holler. Maybe he'll charge forward and attempt to save Joyce or Hopper from something? It's entirely possible that I'm reading way too much into this, but Murray does seem fairly expendable if blockbuster rules dictate that someone has to go.

Dr. Owens

Like Dr. Brenner, Dr. Sam Owens (Paul Reiser) is a character most fans didn't expect to see much of this season. The former Department of Energy employee turned director of Hawkins Lab has mostly been a good guy throughout the seasons, and was last seen in season 3 helping the Byers family move to California.

Dr. Owens plays a major part in the new season, telling El there's a coming war between Earth and the Upside Down and trying to protect her whereabouts when government officials come looking for her. "Stranger Things" loves to show us nice dudes dying in laboratories (see also: Bob), so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for Dr. Owens to meet his fate soon. On the other hand, it seems like he has more info to share with Eleven, so he could be instrumental to the series' season 5 endgame.

Hopper

Former police chief Jim Hopper has been absolutely put through the ringer this season, to the point that killing him off now would just be cruel. Still, his character has gone through a sort of internal metamorphosis that makes him more capable than ever of being the hero Joyce and Eleven need right now. If the show is going to have a sacrificial character this season, it could well be a newly revitalized Hopper.

On the other hand, Hopper's fake-out death ended season 3, so it's kind of a played-out plot point. As of now, he's still in Russia with Joyce and Murray, and the volume 2 promo shows him uncovering some sort of stasis chambers with what look like Upside Down monsters in them. His death is possible, but it's more likely he'll return to Hawkins armed with a new outlook and a bunch of new information that could help the group as they face off against Vecna -- or whatever comes next.

Will

Poor Will Byers has been treading water all season (or, more accurately, for several seasons now). The seemingly closeted teen has been along for the ride with the California group's adventures this season, but he's also mostly been relegated to background status. We know that he painted something that seems to be a gift for Mike (Finn Wolfhard), and that his previously vague sexuality seems to have given way to a full-blown angsty crush on his bestie.

Theories surrounding "Stranger Things" season 4's finale have been swirling around since the first batch of episodes dropped, and the one that seems to fit most neatly into the tale the season's been spinning involves Vecna coming for Will. The monster preys on secrets, and Will seemingly has a big one, so it only makes sense that everything he's been trying to hide will be brought into the light by Vecna. But will his family save him? Will Mike? As the self-appointed president of the Will Byers Defense Squad, God I hope so, but I do worry that the painting is just begging to be opened posthumously by a group of teary-eyed teens.

Max

This is another death that is included here for posterity's sake, but that I'm writing about with both fingers crossed in fervent hope that it doesn't come true. Max (Sadie Sink) already had a major close call this season, and her run-in with Vecna formed the basis of one of the best scenes the series has ever done. The monster exposed her innermost thoughts, pointing out that in her darkest moments, Max wants to die. But she was saved through the power of friendship, good memories, and Kate Bush's epic classic "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)."

Max's showdown with Vecna felt like a turning point for the character, so it wouldn't make sense to have her meet an early demise after she just regained the will to live. Still, the promo for Volume 2 does include a shot of her pulling at the boarded up windows of a decrepit building, an image that eerily echoes Chrissy's last moments of life. Still, Chrissy had no clue who Vecna was, whereas Max has already beat him once before. Hopefully, if she does get caught in his clutches again, it'll be part of a fakeout that lets her KO him once and for all.

Read this next: 12 Shows Like Stranger Things You Definitely Need To Stream

The post Which Characters Are Most Likely to Die in Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2? appeared first on /Film.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has a bit of a weird relationship with romance. Phase One was filled with love interests for our heroes to try and sweep off their feet, including some played by Academy Award winners! But as the MCU grew larger, more elaborate, and hugely successful, it kind of just forgot about these love interests and ignored these romances in favor of very, very chaste and bombastic hero stories.

But "Thor: Love and Thunder" is hellbent on fulfilling the promise of its title, with a romance to end all MCU romances now that Thor is being reunited with his old flame Jane. Except the biggest romance in the film is not between Thor and Jane, former lovers who got distant and broke up off-screen now turned gods of thunder. No, this is a Taika Waititi movie, after all, so the best romance is the classic tale of a boy and his hammer.

A Jealous Axe And A Resurfacing Hammer

/Film got to attend the press conference for "Thor: Love and Thunder," and star Chris Hemsworth teased the emotional core of the film being all about the god of thunder and his two weapons of choice. As Hemsworth explains it, not only does Jane the ex-girlfriend turn up in the movie, also dressed up as Thor, but she is wielding Mjolnir.

"And all of a sudden the weapon that he held so dear and for so many years now belongs to someone else. And then he has Stormbreaker who starts to sense a little, just little jealousy there."

Now, Thor being emotionally immature and being jealous not just of Jane's powers, but of her using his hammer makes complete sense. Korg called it, after all, when he said "sounds like you had a pretty special and intimate relationship with this hammer and that losing it was almost comparable to loving a loved one" back in "Thor: Ragnarok." But what is this about Stormbreaker, the non-sentient axe, having feelings?

Well, according to Waititi, don't expect to see Stormbreaker talk, but maybe react emotionally to what is happening around it.

"You gotta remember Stormbreaker is made of Groot's arm, well the handle is. And so Groot was like a teenager when he did that. So we felt like Stormbreaker was a young weapon who had only just been born about five or six years ago. So it had to feel a little bit like an adolescent, like it was going through changes and having mood swings."

Are there any other sentient weapons in the MCU that we've met already? Is Ant-Man's suit alive? What about Hawkeye's bow? Does it have feelings too? It was also made out of a tree, probably.

Fine out the answers when "Thor: Love and Thunder" hits theaters on July 8, 2022. 

Read this next: The 19 Greatest Movie Couples Of All Time Ranked

The post The Best Romance in Love and Thunder Isn't Between Thor and Jane appeared first on /Film.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published the final version of its guidance on securing macOS endpoints and assessing their security.

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Nvidia DLAA (Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing) is more of a niche prospect than its upscaler cousin DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), though it shares the same ultimate goal of making your PC games look sharper. Like DLSS, DLAA uses a dash of AI brainpower to stitch together frames with more detail than conventional anti-aliasing techniques like TAA and MSAA – only with DLAA, there’s no upscaling involved. That means no performance gains, but for those with sufficiently powerful Nvidia RTX GPUs, potentially superior image quality at all resolutions. Even better than DLSS, mayhaps.

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Imagine if you woke up to a world full of zombies? Sure, the probability of humans rising from their graves as unsightly, hungry-flesh-eating corpses is pretty much nil, but it doesn’t hurt to imagine. After all, anything is possible in a world where the discovery of a colony of bats in a remote part of Asia can lead to a devastating global pandemic like Covid-19.

With the exception of your bathroom, you probably have multiple appliances, devices, lighting, and electronics is most rooms in your home—all of which need to be plugged in. Plus, there are things like vacuums, fans, and other items that may not get their own dedicated outlet, but need one on occasion.

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You probably don’t think of most mods having live seasons, but for the ambitious Project Diablo 2 mod it’s a core part of their pitch. The mod for the original 2000 Diablo II launched its first season back in November 2020. It was designed to provide a new lease of life to the action-RPG game as though it was still actively being supported - and it’s certainly a nice way to pass the time until the Diablo 4 release date.

Project Diablo 2’s core mission statement is “to maintain the Lord of Destruction experience and provide consistent ladder resets while improving on the game as if development never ceased.” The mod features a wealth of item rebalances, new endgame content, useful quality of life improvements, and increased potential build diversity.

Seasons in Project Diablo 2 typically run for about four months, although it’s been slightly longer than that since the release of season four, Enlightenment. Some of the big changes and highlights for season five include a new trade site, quick casts, buff timers, improved monster targeting, a DPS meter, shared stashes across your characters, and a new “casual friendly” farming boss called uber ancients that provides an alternative to the usual AoE-focused farming methods.

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