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One of the funnier running gags on "The Boys" is how drama-free Black Noir has been compared to the other supes in the Seven. Back in season 1, Homelander (Antony Starr) calls a meeting where he expresses disappointment with how sloppy the rest of the Seven has been lately, with one exception: "Not you, Noir. You've been great." It's a nice little wholesome moment in the middle of an otherwise tense, game-changing scene.

As Homelander's relationships with the other supes had plenty of ups and downs over the show — mostly downs — he and Black Noir have stayed good friends the whole time. That is, until Soldier Boy (Jenson Ackles) shows back up and Noir runs off out of panic. For the first time since Homelander's known him, Black Noir has failed to be there when he needed him. The otherwise unflappable Homelander is shaken to his core when he gets the news. 

Their friendship hits a new low in the season 3 finale, when Homelander's heartbroken to learn Noir knew from the beginning that Soldier Boy was his father, and never mentioned it. Homelander murders Noir, punching through his chest and ripping out his heart, but he isn't happy to do it. Soon afterward we see him scolding the rest of the remaining Seven, saying that Noir was worth more than the Deep (Chase Crawford) and A-Train (Jessie Usher) combined. Even after murdering Noir, he still shows more respect towards the guy than he ever has towards the rest of the Seven. It raises the interesting question: why?

The In-Universe Backstory

The backstory behind their relationship was fleshed out in the animated series "The Boys Presents: Diabolical." In the eleven-minute episode "One Plus One Equals Two," we see young Homelander going on his first mission as part of the Seven. The mission's a hostage situation in a chemical plant, and Homelander's already on edge going into it because he knows Black Noir is overseeing him. At first, Homelander dislikes Noir because at that point Noir was far more popular than him, and he believes that Noir's out to get him. 

But when Homelander messes up and accidentally blows up the whole chemical plant, Noir doesn't turn him in. Instead, Noir takes control over the situation and helps cover up Homelander's mistakes. So even though his first-ever rescue mission ended up with him killing all the hostages involved, Homelander still came out of it a hero in the public eye, thanks to Noir. 

This provides part of the explanation for their surprisingly wholesome relationship in the original series. Noir was there for Homelander when he needed him, and has never gotten in the way as Homelander's risen up to become the most important member of the Seven. But as we've seen in the past three seasons of the main show, it doesn't take much for Homelander's relationship with other people to fall apart. He seemed to respect Stillwell quite a bit in season 1, but that didn't save her life either. And of course, Noir's years of good standing didn't save him the moment Homelander found out he knew about Soldier Boy the whole time. So, in the many years between the "Diabolical" episode and the season 3 finale, how did their relationship remain so drama-free for so long?

The Real Reason

The bigger reason why Homelander loves Black Noir so much is that Noir, as we learn in the season's penultimate episode, is somebody with a child-like mind. Suffering severe brain damage after being beaten nearly to death by Soldier Boy in the eighties, Noir can no longer speak, and he seems to have a crew of imaginary cartoon character friends following him along wherever he goes. 

When examining why Homelander likes him so much, it's worth looking back at "The Sopranos," and how Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) eventually concluded that Tony (James Gandolfini) was a psychopath who couldn't be redeemed. Over the series, Tony showed love towards animals and small children, and Melfi is told from one of her psychologist peers (and later confirms herself) that psychopaths often hide behind compassion towards animals and children to make themselves seem like good people. 

But the reason Tony only ever seems to show pure love for animals and small children is because they don't have any power over him. Animals and babies can be an inconvenience sometimes, sure, but they can't do or say anything that will challenge your worldview in any meaningful way. It's in that penultimate episode, where we learn that beneath Noir's mysterious persona is a childlike person who sees the world through a bunch of cartoon characters, that Homelander's love for him makes total sense. He likes Noir because Noir literally can't talk back to him even if he wanted to, because Noir seems to unconditionally support him regardless of what Homelander does. 

Can Homelander Really Care For Anyone?

The moment Noir's revealed to have known the truth about Soldier Boy is the moment Homelander realizes Noir's an autonomous person. For the first time since the "Diabolical" episode, Homelander realizes that Noir isn't just a thoughtless minion who unquestionably goes along with everything he says. Now all of a sudden, Noir is a person with thoughts and feelings that don't perfectly align with his own, and that's the moment Homelander kills him. 

Homelander may have said he cared about Noir, but as we've seen proven time and time again throughout the show, Homelander isn't actually capable of having real love and respect towards another person. Even his love for his son Ryan is more about loving himself than anything else; when he tells Ryan he's not a monster for accidentally killing his mom, Homelander's saying this because wants to believe that he himself isn't really a monster either. 

In the end, Homelander only cared about the idea of Black Noir. As we've seen with Stillwell and as we'll probably see again with Ryan, Homelander's kindness runs out the instant you contradict his fragile self-image. We don't know where "The Boys" is going with season 4, but this week's finale likely won't be the last time Homelander mentions how much he cared for Noir. It's important to remember that his care was always surface level at best. 

Read this next: The 15 Most Anticipated Comic Book Movies And Shows Of 2022, Ranked

The post Why Homelander Cared More About Black Noir Than The Other Supes On The Boys appeared first on /Film.

Debian 11.4 is out as the fourth stable release update to "Bullseye" of this popular community-based Linux distribution...

From the world of proprietary software comes this report by Popular Science. "Despite the increasing number of more economical options (read also: free) on the market, many people still prefer Microsoft Office over the alternatives available..." "The only setback? A license can be expensive, especially if you're the one shouldering the fees instead of your company. If you wish to have access to the suite for personal use, you either have to pay recurring fees for a subscription or cough up hundreds in one go for an annual license." Sounds pretty rough. But through Thursday they're at least getting a temporary price drop: If none of these options appeal to you, maybe this Microsoft Office Home and Business: Lifetime License deal can. For our Deals Day sale, you can grab it on sale for only $39.99 — no coupon needed. This bundle is designed for families, students, and small businesses who want unlimited access to MS Office apps and email without breaking the bank. The license package includes programs you already likely use on the regular, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneNote. Upon purchase, you get access to your software license keys and download links instantly. You also get free updates for life across all programs, along with free customer service that offers the best support in case any of the apps run into trouble. The best part? You only have to pay once and you're set for life. The Microsoft Office Home and Business: Lifetime License normally goes for $349, but from today until July 14, you can get it for only $39.99 thanks to the special Deals Day event. Click here for Mac and here for Windows.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In 1995, a strange carved bone was found in a cave in Slovenia among other Neanderthal bones and stone tools. This object, taken from the femur bone of a cave bear cub, had 4 holes drilled in a line and a sharpened V-shape on one end. — Read the rest

If you haven't seen the season 3 finale of "The Boys," read no further, because we're about to delve into some major spoilers for the fate of one character.

"The Boys" season 3 finale marked the end of the line for one member of the Seven, the decidedly unheroic superhero group sponsored by Vought International. The death of Black Noir, the silent but deadly Batman analog in this dark parody of the Justice League, is one that will have ramifications for the show going forward. For one thing, it seems increasingly likely that the narrative of "The Boys" will continue to depart from the Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson comic book series on which it is based since Black Noir's fate in that series was very different and he played an integral role in the final destiny of team leader Homelander as well.

Black Noir's death will also have ramifications for Nathan Mitchell, the actor behind the character's mask. Like David Prowse, the man who played Darth Vader, Mitchell never got to show his face this season even when Black Noir was unmasked. Instead, "The Boys" season 3 brought in another actor, Fritzy-Klevans Destine, to play the talking, unmasked version of Black Noir in flashbacks, where we saw the character as a member of an earlier super-team, Payback, led by Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles).

Showrunner Eric Kripke told Entertainment Weekly that this will enable "The Boys" to bring back Mitchell as "a different character who wears the Black Noir suit" in season 4. He said:

"It's definitely not the last we've seen of Black Noir as a hero. It's just that the guy who was inside [the Noir suit] in season 3, he's gone. But we have Nathan playing a really interesting and hilarious character who wears the suit next season."

R.I.P. Black Noir I

In superhero comics, there's a long tradition of characters assuming the mantle of a previous hero or villain, even keeping the same name with added Roman numerals to distinguish them from their predecessors. Hopefully, when we meet the eventual Black Noir II, he'll be able to talk so that Mitchell's character isn't left mute like Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) and actually gets the chance to say some lines next season.

Until then, viewers of "The Boys" are left to mourn the tragicomic end of Black Noir I, a character they were just getting to know. Season 3 showed how Noir was left brain-damaged by Soldier Boy, only to wind up having his guts ripped out by Homelander (Anthony Starr), who felt betrayed that Noir had not told him he was Soldier Boy's son. Along the way, we got a glimpse inside Noir's mind and saw how it was populated by cartoon critters.

"Young Noir grew up going to this like pizza chain called Buster Beavers," Kripke told EW. "It's like a Chucky Cheese." That and the existing precedent of the animated spin-off "The Boys Presents: Diabolical" were the basis for Noir's cartoon friends.

The last thing Black Noir I sees as the light goes out of his eyes is a buck-toothed cartoon beaver, shedding a tear and stuttering while telling him he will soon be in the sweet embrace of Christ the Lord. "We are so proud of you," he says, and fans looking back on Noir's absurd yet strangely poignant arc in "The Boys" might feel the same way.

Read this next: The 15 Most Anticipated Comic Book Movies And Shows Of 2022, Ranked

The post The Actor Behind One Of The Seven Will Play a 'Whole New Character' in The Boys Season 4 appeared first on /Film.

Tony Stark only lives in our memories now — in Earth-616, that is. Since the multiverse was broken open in "Loki," and messed with by Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," we can assume Stark exists in some of the others. That includes the universe of Earth-838.

As you probably know, in "Doctor Strange," America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) has the ability to travel between universes, and she takes Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) with her. When he's discovered in Earth-838, Strange is taken into custody and walked by Ultron bots in handcuffs to speak with the Illuminati (RIP). According to an interview "Doctor Strange" producer Richie Palmer did with Empire's "Spoiler Special" podcast (via The Direct), Tony Stark had a big influence on this version of Earth. Palmer said:

"... This is a world where Ultron seemed to work the way Tony Stark intended him to work in 'Age of Ultron.' 'A suit of armor around the world,' Tony was trying to get the Avengers to retire in 'Age of Ultron.' So imagine this is a Wanda that, around that time ... This is a world where Tony cracked Ultron, and it worked, and he went, 'Hey, whoever wants to retire and go home, can.' And then the Illuminati came to rise behind the scenes, pulling the strings, but, I think it's just a little bit of a better world for whatever reason, and Wanda was able to go and have the life that she deserved."

'A Suit Of Armor Around The World'

It makes you think about how things might have been different for other Avengers if Tony's creation had worked in Earth-616. Palmer also pointed out that Wanda from Earth-616 had "the most chaotic life out of all the Wandas in the Multiverse," and said this was one reason she was searching for a better version with her kids in it. It's pretty heartbreaking.

What he put forward about Earth-838's successful Ultron experiment is interesting, because, while they at least look orderly, I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be with a bunch of robots that look like that as law enforcement. Ultron in Earth-616 had a very different philosophy about existence and how the world should work than most humans might. Although we don't know how the AI think, I'm going to guess they're pretty hard to reason with, just as the Illuminati they protected were. 

You know, I had wondered if someone else came up with Ultron in this universe, like their version of Professor Hulk or something, but Palmer says, "This is a world where Tony cracked Ultron." I wonder what happened to him to keep him out of the Illuminati chamber. Maybe he and Pepper had their daughter and he retired, or maybe the extra chair was for him and he was sick that day. Writer Michael Waldron called the question of who the empty chair was for "an unanswerable question" in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Maybe we'll visit that universe again and find out.

"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is currently streaming on Disney+.

Read this next: Every Pre-MCU Marvel Movie Ranked

The post Tony Stark Had a Major Impact on Earth-838, According to Doctor Strange 2 Producer appeared first on /Film.

NumeralJoker's Star Wars supercuts are just fantastic. I find them a better way to experience the story and am shocked with how quickly they are produced after the OG media hits the streets. I am always amazed at how folks come up with better de-aging and other techs than Disney, too, soon after the OG media hits the streets. — Read the rest

This post contains spoilers for "The Boys" season 3.

The power dynamics of the Prime Video series "The Boys" got a major shake-up in season 3, as Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) revealed that his chest-beam could remove a supe's powers, and Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) helped give Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and his Boys a type of temporary Compound V that can give them short-term superpowers. Giving some characters powers and taking them away from others certainly levels the playing field, but it also allows for some compelling character arcs surrounding how power affects us all. 

Early in season 3, Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) loses her powers because of Soldier Boy, but later decides that she wants them back, even though she had longed for a "normal" life for a long time. On the other side of things, Hughie (Jack Quaid) gets a taste of what it was like to be a supe through the Temp V, and he wants to keep that feeling going. They both want superpowers, but for very different reasons, and their motivations are a major part of why things end up going the way they do.

The Showrunner Weighs In

On Twitter, a fan asked showrunner Eric Kripke why Starlight was comfortable giving Compound V to Kimiko while she discouraged her boyfriend Hughie's use of the temporary version, and Kripke had a pretty great response:

"Thanks for asking! Because Hughie's craving was selfish, to make himself feel macho & save a woman who doesn't want saving. Kimiko's is a selfless sacrifice that's a burden to her, to protect a man who welcomes the protection. Big difference."

The big difference between Kimiko's and Hughie's desire for superpowers is that Hughie's need comes from a place of ego, while Kimiko's comes from a place of love. Throughout the season, we see scenes where Hughie needs his girlfriend to do things for him. She's there to take care of things that would fall to Hughie in a "traditional" relationship, like opening jars of peanut butter or protecting him from danger. As much as Hughie tries to appreciate their unique situation, it's clear that he also feels a bit emasculated. The Temp V gives him superpowers and makes him feel more equal to Starlight, and like he can protect her for once. It's kind of sweet in a deeply misguided way, which tends to be Hughie's whole M.O. But he doesn't want the powers entirely out of a need to "protect" Starlight, because she can clearly do that herself.

A Matter Of Who Needs Protecting

Meanwhile, Kimiko realized that as much as she loves not having superpowers and being able to hug Frenchie (Tomer Kapon) without feeling like she might break him, she needs to be a supe to keep him safe. After their horrible encounter with Nina (Katia Winter), Kimiko saw just how dangerous the world is without her powers. She was unable to help the person she loved most, and in order to stop that from ever happening again, she took Compound V to regain her powers. It was an act of love, not ego, and one that Frenchie appreciates even if he wishes it weren't necessary. 

In the end, Kimiko ends up permanently powered once more and Hughie stops taking the Temp V and goes back to being human. "The Boys" may not always play nice, but its characters usually get what they deserve. 

Season 3 of "The Boys" is streaming on Prime Video. 

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The post Here's the Big Difference Between Hughie and Kimiko Wanting Their Powers in The Boys Season 3 appeared first on /Film.

Here are some highly rated movies to try, plus a list of new additions to the streamer, like Vengeance and Shotgun Wedding.

This post contains spoilers for the final episode of "The Boys" season 3.

Of all the characters in "The Boys," Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) is probably the most improved from her comic book counterpart. Comic book Maeve was a one-dimensional parody of Wonder Woman who had a minor turn towards the good side before being unceremoniously murdered by Homelander. The TV show, meanwhile, made it clear early on that their Maeve would be a lot more sympathetic and a lot more interesting. When she finally rebels against Homelander (Antony Starr) at the end of season 2, her plan actually works. Sure, Homelander calls her bluff later next season, but she still manages to save Butcher's (Karl Urban) life and escape that situation unscathed.

The biggest problem with TV Maeve so far is that she often feels like she doesn't get enough focus. Throughout season 3, Maeve has gone entire episodes without appearing. Even before she gets kidnapped by Homelander, there are still plenty of scenes and storylines involving the Seven where Maeve is just not there for whatever reason. This was particularly noticeable in "Barbary Coast," when Homelander tells Annie (Erin Moriarty) he no longer cares if the plane footage is released to the world. After this scene, you'd think Annie's first reaction would be to talk to Maeve about it, but if she does, we never get to see it. Before the season 3 finale gave us a ton of quality Maeve content, it felt like the show was forgetting about her. 

Maeve's Lack Of Screen-Time

One potential explanation for Queen Maeve's lack of scenes this season is the actress Dominique McElligott being less available than her other co-stars. It's been rumored, though not confirmed, that Covid-related travel restrictions may have made it harder for the Irish actress to be on set (largely located in Toronto) for the same amount of time as her co-stars from other countries. If true, this certainly explains why the character's felt so absent. But it also makes it more impressive how successfully the show's taken advantage of her limited screen-time. Maeve may not show up often, but every scene she's been in has felt absolutely vital. 

Perhaps the bigger reason for her lack of focus is that Maeve's character arc has mostly concluded with the season 2 finale. When she blackmails Homelander, she's finally shaken herself out of the apathetic worldview that seemed to define her in the beginning of the show. When she stands her ground against him, she's successfully overcome her fear and has learned to be a legitimate hero, especially since she's now using the blackmail not just to protect herself and her on-and-off-again girlfriend Elena; she's also protecting Butcher and the rest of the Boys, despite not even knowing them well. 

The Maeve we get in season 3 is no longer going through any kind of major internal struggle. Season 3 Maeve knows what needs to be done and is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish it. This lack of internal conflict may have led to less screen-time for the character, but it also led to one of the most Maeve-heavy episodes of the whole show: this week's "The Instant Hot-White Wild."

About That Finale...

When it comes to Maeve, this week's episode almost seems to be apologizing for the previous seven. After spending the last two episodes locked up, Maeve finally breaks out, joins the Boys, then teams up with Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) and Butcher in an attempt to take down Homelander once and for all. Much like in the comics, Maeve doesn't win her fight with Homelander. But unlike the comics, Maeve still makes it out in one piece. Homelander might've destroyed one of her eyes, but she still gets some genuine hits in whereas comic Maeve gets immediately slaughtered.

However, things take a turn for the worse when Soldier Boy begins to let out another sonic blast that would probably destroy the whole building. Everyone else panics, but Maeve takes action and tackles Soldier Boy out the window. The explosion is huge, but no civilians appear to be harmed and all our other heroes make it out okay. 

For a moment there, it seems like Maeve has been killed off. It would've been disappointing, but it also would've been an improvement on the source material. There, Maeve tries to strike Homelander with a sword but the sword snaps in half. Then Homelander easily rips Maeve's head off and throws it out the window. So instead of having Maeve decapitated and thrown off a building against her will, it seemed like the show had Maeve willingly make the jump in a heroic sacrifice. It would've been yet another example of how the show gives its female characters far more agency, even if it still follows the same basic plot beats. 

The Infamous 'Bury Your Gays' Trope

But "The Boys" didn't go down this route, and part of that's due to another change they made when adapting the character to the small screen: Maeve is now bisexual. Or, as Vought International would put it: Maeve is a lesbian. 

When Homelander outed her in season 2, "The Boys" took this as an opportunity to critique both rainbow capitalism and bi erasure. Vought took full advantage of her sexuality to brand themselves as an inclusive company, all while changing her into a lesbian because that was deemed more popular with the American public than her being bi. It creates a very funny, well-observed gag throughout season 2 where corporate PR people refer to her as a "proud lesbian" and Maeve is simply too exhausted with life to even bother correcting them.

This storytelling choice also served as one of the biggest indicators that Maeve wouldn't be killed off like she was in the comics: not only is she already far more sympathetic than her comic counterpart, but now it would also be fulfilling the clichéd and regressive bury your gays trope. The trope became particularly infamous back in 2016 when a string of popular shows each killed off a prominent queer character (usually a woman) within a weirdly short time span. Queer characters will often die to teach the audience that homophobia is wrong, or they'll die because the show wanted to raise the stakes and the queer character was deemed most expendable. Or as what was almost the case in this episode, the queer character will nobly sacrifice themself for the benefit of the other (largely straight) characters.

Avoiding The Trope

Although a show isn't inherently homophobic if they kill off a queer character, it's easy to see how the popularity of this trope reinforces a lot of negative ideas. It can also feel absolutely draining for queer viewers, many of whom have learned to expect little in terms of representation in mainstream media and are still constantly left disappointed. With that in mind, Maeve dying heroically by sacrificing herself for the sake of a bunch of straight main characters might've worked for a lot of the audience, but it would've been a somewhat cheap fulfilment of this trope, made even worse by the fact that Maeve was barely in the season prior to this episode. 

A few minutes pass after the explosion before it becomes clear that Maeve hasn't actually died. The first sign is when the news reporter on the TV reports on her death, obliviously praising her as a "proud lesbian" one last time. The tone of the news report leans into the narrative of the noble minority sacrificing themself for the greater good, in a way that's far too blatant to not be "The Boys" making another satirical point. 

Sure enough, Maeve shows up once again. She's lost an eye and she's bruised up pretty badly, but she's alive. Not only that, but because everyone believes she's dead and she's no longer a supe, she's now able to live the rest of her life in peace with her girlfriend Elena. For perhaps the first time in "The Boys'" three seasons, Maeve seems happy. Not only did "The Boys" not bury its most prominent queer character, but they had her be the only one in the show with a conclusive, uplifting ending.

A Display Of The Show's Optimism

From its first episode, "The Boys" has been criticized for being aggressively cynical and obsessed with shock value, but I've never really considered that to be the case. Yes, this universe is incredibly heartless and there are tragedies all around, but that only makes the characters' occasional triumphs that much more exciting and impressive. (And honestly, the fact that Homelander still hasn't snapped and destroyed half of mankind seems absurdly optimistic by this point.)

Then again, maybe the show just seems hopeful because its source material is aggressively cynical. Every step of the way, the show has imbued more humanity into its main characters, making most of them far more sympathetic than their comic counterparts. You can see the show's optimism on display not just when Maeve's revealed to be alive and safe, but when we cut to Ashley (Colby Minifie) back at Vought. Ashley finds footage that reveals Maeve's still alive, and without saying anything she deletes it, then gives her assistant a look that clearly says "never mention this again." 

The show didn't have to include this scene  -- viewers wouldn't have complained if the show simply established that the Boys managed to avoid any cameras when rescuing Maeve -- but they included it anyway because they wanted to show that Ashley does in fact have a heart, that she does care about Maeve and wants her to be okay. A truly cynical show would never have given Maeve a happy ending, and they never would've given Ashley this little moment.

Letting Maeve Go

Unfortunately for fans of Maeve, this happy endings of hers will only really stick if she stays out of the show. If we see news of Dominique McElligott returning to her role in season 4, the implication will be that her quiet, peaceful life with Elena will be disrupted in some major way. 

Her apparent departure from the series is reminiscent of the discussion around Neve Campbell possibly not returning to her role as Sidney Prescott in the new "Scream" films. (And even when she did appear in the latest one, it was a relatively minor role removed from the action.) Most "Scream" fans would love for Sidney to be the main character again, but they also want Sidney to be happy, and those two wishes contradict each other. The last two films established that Sidney's finally made a stable, peaceful life for herself; do we really want to watch another ghostface killer take that away from her yet again? If we don't want to risk tarnishing her wonderful character arc in the original "Scream" trilogy, it might be best for the franchise to keep moving further on from the character.

Likewise, the best thing for Maeve's well-being is for the show to move on from her. For the many fans who connected hard with the character, it's disappointing to think she might not return for season 4, but as long as she's off-screen we'll be able to safely assume she's happy. She's finally gotten what she's wanted for the past three seasons; if the show's going to take that away from her in season 4, they better have a very good reason.

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The post Why The Boys Season 3 Chose That Direction for Queen Maeve appeared first on /Film.

The Satanic Panic seems to be having a comeback — everyone's getting in on the action, from Stranger Things to QAnon to Teal Swan. Given this, I thought it might be important to revisit one of the original purveyors of the Satanic Panic — Chick Tracts. — Read the rest

Romantic relationships can be tough. Romantic relationships that last for centuries are potentially much, much tougher. But on the FX vampire comedy series "What We Do in the Shadows," love is easy for two of its eternal paramours. Vampires Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Laszlo (Matt Berry) have ups and downs like any couple, but they're always fighting for the same team: their partnership. Whether they're working together to put on a vampire orgy, fighting against witches, or raising a baby Colin Robinson together, they do it with love and patience for one another. Many couples on TV are constantly at odds, creating comedic or dramatic tension, but Nadja and Laszlo are truly a terrific pair. They support one another, trust one another, and most of all, they treat each other as equals. 

At the end of season 3, Laszlo sent Nadja off to Europe to meet with the Vampiric Council on her own because he believed in her and knew she could do it on her own, with Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) there to help keep her safe. He respects her in a very real way, and she shows him the same respect in turn. Their marriage may be extremely unconventional, but it's something to appreciate. 

A Drama-Free Romance

In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes TV, Demetriou and Berry explained that their characters' relationship was really refreshing because of the lack of deep conflict between them. Demetriou compared them to other comedies, where bickering becomes fodder for jokes:

"[Nadja and Lazslo's relationship] is so fun to play because, Matt was saying earlier, you know, in comedies and sitcoms it's quite often that it's like, the two main couple are sort of arguing a lot and getting on each other's nerves. But it's so fun to play two people that no matter what they've done they're just like, "Oh!," you know, so horny for each other the whole time."

Both vampires have had their extramarital indiscretions, though at this point it's probably safe to say they're in a polyamorous/open marriage, and who could blame them? Eternity is a very long time to only bone down with one other person, after all. Despite their dalliances, however, the two always have one another's backs, and often put their partner's happiness as the priority. In season 1, Nadja learned that the reason her cursed boyfriend of many centuries, Gregor, kept dying was because Laszlo kept killing every reincarnation. He didn't kill these human lovers out of jealousy, however, like another character in a lesser series might. Instead, he was killing them because every time Gregor showed up, he made Nadja cry, and Laszlo couldn't bear to see her sad. 

Eternally Into Each Other

Berry mirrored Demetriou's thoughts, saying:

"It's the same as what [Natasia] has said, I mean it's very, very rare in comedy to see a couple not be annoyed by one another, you know, and be on the edge of kind of breaking up. That seems to be what we're kind of used to with comedy couples. So it's a real kind of breath of fresh air when you have two characters that it doesn't - you know like Tasia's said - doesn't matter where they've been or what they've just done, who they've done it to, they can't wait to get back in the sack. And I just think that's kind of cool, and it's different, and it's almost something really new, you know?"

He's not wrong — many comedies rely on conflict between romantic partners in order to write jokes about their dysfunction. The entire point of the AMC dramedy series "Kevin Can F**k Himself" is pointing out just how toxic sitcom marriages tend to be. Nadja and Laszlo truly have something special: a romance based on a lot of love, a whole lotta lust, and deep mutual respect. That is, as the kids say, #relationshipgoals. 

Season 4 of "What We Do in the Shadows" premieres on July 12, 2022 on FX and the next day streaming on FX on Hulu.

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The post How What We Do In The Shadows Dodged Comedy's Most Tired Romance Trope appeared first on /Film.

In the wake of the passing of Hollywood legend James Caan, journalists and archivists have been pulling out all the stops to help educate and remind the world of what a treasured personality Caan was on and off-screen. Caan was a rough and tumble kind of guy who wasn't afraid to speak his mind, even if what he said could be misconstrued as being harsh or extreme. For what it's worth, I love the outpouring of weird stories about James Caan. The ol' kid had moxie, I'll tell ya what. At 82 years old, James Caan enjoyed a prolific career playing a variety of wildly different characters, but if you had asked him which performance was his favorite, he'd correctly tell you it was Michael Mann's "Thief."

Caan is unfreakingbelievably good in "Thief," a neo-noir heist movie where he played a jewel thief trying to pull off one last big score. Caan loved the script and wanted to play the character so badly, he was able to throw his Hollywood star power around to get it made. Saying that Caan threw himself into the role would be putting it lightly, as he completely gave himself over into a method acting preparation that was simultaneously beneficial and detrimental to his real life. Method acting used to be the way of the world back in the day, and there weren't nearly as many conversations being had about the way the practice can totally screw up your life. But Caan was a pro, and as such, did what professionals at the time were going to do.

Caan Could Have Been A Real Thief If He Wanted

Insisting on knowing the complete ins and outs of the character he was playing, Caan took it upon himself to learn all of the practical skills required of a quality jewel thief. He learned how to properly handle a gun by attending a school run by someone who trained mercenaries, learned how to drill through a safe, and hung around real thieves to understand the vibe. He took inspiration by emulating jewel thief John Santucci, who ended up in the movie as the crooked cop named Urizzi. Mann wisely filled the tertiary roles in "Thief" with actual thieves and ex-cops, which gave the film an even more authentic feel. "All these guys grew up in the same neighborhood and they all knew each other," Mann said, "and they're usually chasing each other." According to Caan, the set was split "like the Dodgers and the Yankees."

Unfortunately, getting into the mind of a criminal had serious impacts on his real life. ''The way I work, I like to be emotionally available, but this guy is available to nothing," Caan said, adding: 

"Pretty soon I would find myself getting angry, my personal problems — with my son, with my ex-wife, whatever — would be magnified, because this guy was in existential pain for such a long time." 

Caan described himself as "a lunatic" for three months, citing constant migraines, a 20-pound weight loss, and for a time, couldn't even watch the film he would eventually declare his favorite. "My eyes were like two pieces of glass, they scared me," Caan said. "I said, 'That guy's a killer.'"

His preparation may have been unconventional, but it certainly allowed "Thief" to shine like the masterpiece it is.

Read this next: The 14 Best Noir Movies Ranked

The post How James Caan's Prep For Thief Changed His Life For Better and Worse appeared first on /Film.

Come August, you'll no longer need a Facebook account in order to use the Meta Quest family of VR headsets. Instead, you'll be able to sign up for a new Meta account and then a Meta Horizon profile, with Facebook and Instagram accounts optional bolt-ons.

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The show’s fourth season is blessedly more compelling, and comprehensible, than its third—and signals a subtle shift in its genre.

/sfall/sfall_4.3.6.7z

In Taika Waititi's "Thor: Love and Thunder," Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) wields the mighty hammer known as Mjölnir, proving herself worthy, of noble heart, and establishing her legacy as the Mighty Thor. (Call her "Lady Thor" and earn a swift kick to the shins). We haven't seen Jane since "Thor: The Dark World" nearly a decade ago, and she only appeared in "Avengers: Endgame" in stock footage. It was thought that Portman wasn't going to return to the MCU, but as the trailer proved, she's got at least one more adventure left in her. 

Since her last visit to Asgard, Portman has been appearing in smaller mood- and character-driven films like "Vox Lux" and "Annihilation." Taking up the hammer in "Love and Thunder" meant she needed to undergo serious training in order to meet all the role's physical demands. Actors frequently transform themselves into chiseled slabs of muscle that would make even Michaelangelo blush, but what happens when an actor needs to simply look taller than they actually are?

At 5'3, Natalie Portman is the personification of the Shakespeare line, "Though she be but little she is fierce." In a recent profile in Variety, Portman and her fellow "Thor: Love and Thunder" castmates talked a bit about what it was like to see her transform into the mighty hero. "Natalie's the kind of person who would call another female castmate and have transparency around what she's making so that she can help someone also advocate for herself," said Tessa Thompson, who plays Valkyrie. "That's like real-world superhero s*** that I have seen Natalie do time and time again."

Embracing Her New Size

Portman has a reputation for playing small and petite characters, but has loved seeing the world react to her muscular new shape. "To have this reaction and be seen as big, you realize, 'Oh, this must be so different, to walk through the world like this,'" Portman said. "When you're small — and also, I think, because I started as a kid — a lot of times I feel young or little or, like, a pat-on-the-head kind of person. And I present myself that way, too, because of that." As the Mighty Thor, however, Portman is able to experience what it's like to be larger than life. Jane's Mighty Thor is billed as standing six feet tall, which meant Waititi and the crew had to find ways to cheat Portman's height.

"We'd rehearse the scene, they'd see the path, and then they'd build a path that was like one foot off the ground or whatever, and I would just walk on that," Portman said. Thompson laughed at the sentiment, recalling that her platform was called a "deck" on set, but due to the cast's variety of accents, sometimes "deck" would sound like a similar four-letter word. "Because we're all children," Thompson joked. Portman's height deck became one of the biggest running jokes during production, with Portman noting that her co-stars would have to modify their blocking to account for the platform: "They'd all have to navigate my deck!"

"Thor: Love and Thunder" is now in theaters.

Read this next: Every Pre-MCU Marvel Movie Ranked

The post Getting Natalie Portman Up To Thor's Size Took Some Serious Creativity appeared first on /Film.

Five months after announcing plans to disable Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros by default in the Office productivity suite, Microsoft appears to have rolled back its plans. "Based on feedback received, a rollback has started," Microsoft employee Angela Robertson said in a July 6 comment. "An update about the rollback is in progress. I apologize for any inconvenience of the rollback

Some carmakers are leaving AM radios out of their new cars. They say it's because of audio quality, but it isn't that simple. James Gilboy writes via The Drive. From the report: BMW and Volvo told me it was due to audio quality problems rooted in electromagnetic interference, of which EVs' drivetrains produce a significant amount. Cars' engines and other complex electronics have always made EM interference, but low-wattage static is relatively easy to shield against. It's not as simple with EVs that may pull hundreds of watts from their batteries, generating far more interference, reducing audio quality to a level both BMW and Volvo told me they consider insufficient. But it's hard to take them at their word when EVs are built with AM radios and in no small numbers. Detroit's Three -- Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis -- have produced or currently make EVs that include AM radio, even on flagship models. That goes for the Ford F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E, GM EVs from the Cadillac Lyriq to the Chevy Bolt EUV and GMC Hummer EV, and even Stellantis's almost-forgotten Fiat 500e. Clearly, some carmakers don't think EM interference is a problem, and some EV owners agree. One user of an EV forum user said that AM radio "works fine" in their 500e and older Chevy Bolt. We contacted all three of Detroit's giants for why they continue to include AM radios when some European makes have phased them out, but the answer establishes itself across those very same lines. AM radio has fallen out of favor in Europe, with Radio Info reporting in 2015 that stations were shutting down en masse from France to the Netherlands and Russia. The frequency has largely been superseded by the DAB format, which is a more advanced form of radio broadcasting with better audio quality and choice of stations. AM radio stations and their listeners are all but gone in Europe, so European carmakers may not need to include technology that many of its customers can't use. In the U.S., on the other hand, radio remains a must for car buyers, with 89 percent of responders in a 2021 survey stating radio should be standard in new cars. That makes radio even more important to U.S. car buyers than USB ports, which only 84 percent said were necessary. AM audiences were in rapid decline as of a 2017 report by Inside Radio, but not to enough a degree for American carmakers to leave AM radios out of their products. It's not hard to figure out why AM's holding on here, either: AM signals travel further than FM broadcasts do and are cheaper to transmit, allowing them to cater to audiences in sparsely populated areas. Audio quality can't compare, but that's secondary to having anything to listen to at all in some parts of the continental United States.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

How games depict America, for better and for worse

It was fun to sit on my rooftop and watch the fireworks over the Los Angeles cityscape for the Fourth of July this year, but I gotta be honest — it didn’t feel like there was much to celebrate this year. Regardless of the depressing state of our country, the holiday got me thinking about Americana in video games and how they depict our country, for better and for worse.

Aside from Japan, the United States is the world’s leader in video game production, so it makes perfect sense that developers would borrow themes, imagery, and iconography from their country of origin. Sometimes it’s to pay homage to where they came from, other times it’s with the express purpose of critiquing the systems and ideals that run our nation, and sometimes it’s a mixture of both.

Small Town Life

[caption id="attachment_291280" align="alignnone" width="1400"] _{Life is Strange: True Colors}[/caption]

Having grown up in one myself, games that take on the American small-town setting will always hold a special place in my heart. One of the series that portrays the classic “small down with a dark secret” trope well is Life is Strange — and it does an excellent job of capturing on a smaller scale that America has a lot of dark secrets hiding under the surface, many of which have come to light over the past few years. For so long our country pushed this narrative of being an ideal, almost utopian place (at least for some), but the whole thing was built on a broken system to begin with.

Night in the Woods nails this theme as well. Most of the game has the player making friends, hanging out around town, and dealing with the fallout of poor decisions that are really manifestations of trauma. However, there’s a cult running around murdering people because they think they’re doing their part to keep the town running. Sounds a little familiar, right?

The American Dream is Dead

[caption id="attachment_265358" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Kentucky Route Zero}[/caption]

Another classic tale of Americana in video games is big corporations decimating middle America — a phenomenon so common, it’s the subject matter of multiple games, including Kentucky Route Zero, NORCO, Night in the Woods, and Life is Strange: True Colors. Coercion, cover-ups, and buyouts are the name of the game, and in a country that’s run by some corporations in a trench coat, it’s a fitting narrative, to say the least.

What I love about games like Kentucky Route Zero and NORCO as well is that they’re so specific to the regions in which they are set — Kentucky and New Orleans, respectively. The games' settings use iconic American imagery like gas stations, highways, and factories to great effect. The creators are from these areas and also did a great deal of research, so you can really feel both the love and the heartbreak that emanates from these titles as you play them. They may take place in very different parts of the country, but the story of a giant corporation coming in and killing off not only industry, but actual citizens, is disturbing in how true to real life it is.

[caption id="attachment_314922" align="alignnone" width="1876"] _NORCO[/caption]

I also can’t mention Kentucky Route Zero without bringing up one of its interludes: The Entertainment. This sequence portrays a fictional play in the game’s world, which depicts a mundane and somewhat depressing sequence of events in a bar that has seen better days. The whole thing feels so evocative of American playwrights of the twentieth century, like Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. Kentucky Route Zero’s dialogue is formatted like a script throughout the entire game as well, further evoking a theatrical framework throughout the rest of the episodes.

For God and Country

Of course, we can’t have a conversation about America and not mention religion, because our country has pretty much become synonymous with evangelicalism. No other game showcases our country’s obsession with religion, American exceptionalism, and racism better than BioShock Infinite. It doubles down on Americana in a video game like I've never seen before, and what it lacks in nuance, it makes up for in style. While it’s still a dated game, and its social commentary could have been greatly improved even in its time, Infinite doesn’t shy away from the uglier parts of our history, which is more than many games do.

Then there’s a game like Far Cry 5, which I still haven’t played, but it’s certainly on my list considering my fascination with Americana. All I know is that it takes place in Montana and the main antagonistic force is some kind of militaristic doomsday cult. I remember when the game came out in 2018 that its story felt like an exaggeration of the way many in our country practice religion, but these days, it’s feeling a little bit too on the nose.

[caption id="attachment_324071" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{BioShock Infinite}[/caption]

Tangential to America’s obsession with religion is our obsession with the military. There have been dozens and dozens of games that feature the United States armed forces in some capacity, but the series that encapsulates this the best is definitely Call of Duty. They have been some of the most popular games out there since the series started back in 2003, depicting wars from World War II all the way up to the present, and some might argue, glorifying them to a certain extent. Don’t get me wrong, I myself have played and enjoyed Call of Duty games, but we can’t separate the games from real life when the military is straight-up using these games to try and recruit players into their ranks.

Man Versus Nature

One of the most American story types ever created is the western, which of course we see in the Red Dead Redemption series. These games are an extension of America’s deep-seated love of cowboys and outlaws, which rose to prominence thanks to the westerns that were made popular in the twentieth century by actors like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.

Of course, plenty of the games we have now put a new spin on the western genre — The Last of Us is one that immediately comes to mind. Having a deadly infection going around definitely makes for a hostile environment, and Joel is something of a lone wolf you might say (at least until Ellie breaks through his shell a little). I find it pretty interesting that our updated version of a western has you walk away with the idea that opening yourself up to the idea of love in a harsh world maybe isn’t such a bad thing after all.

[caption id="attachment_105941" align="alignnone" width="620"] _{The Last of Us}[/caption]

In conclusion

The games I mentioned here are some of my favorites, or at least the ones that stood out to me, but there’s a myriad of other titles out there that reflect American culture in various ways. There are tons of other games out there that touch on topics I haven’t mentioned, especially when it comes to the stories of marginalized people, and I know I’d love to see more of those stories highlighted in the future, especially because most of those come from the indie space.

The history of American media reflecting the country’s culture is a long, difficult, but also beautiful one, and it’s exciting to see Americana in video games becoming part of the canon in that regard as well. As games continue to tell innovative and compelling narratives, I look forward to seeing how a new generation of developers uses the medium to express their relationship to Americana moving forward.

---

Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post A storied history: Americana in video games appeared first on Destructoid.

(Superhero Bits is a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)

In this edition of Superhero Bits:

• The "Smallville" podcast is coming.

• Kevin Feige had a warning for Sony's "Spider-Man" spin-offs.

• "Black Adam" is coming to San Diego Comic-Con.

• "Thor: Love and Thunder" star Tessa Thompson does "Hot Ones."

• All that and more!

Gorr The God Butcher Marvel 101 Video

With "Thor: Love and Thunder" finally rolling out in theaters around the country tonight, there may be no better time to get acquainted with the movie's villain, Gorr the God Butcher. The villain debuted in writer Jason Aaron and artist Esad Ribic's highly-acclaimed run in Marvel Comics and is being played by Christian Bale in the film. This video offers a nice primer on the character for those who perhaps haven't had the chance to read the source material.

An Ultraman And Marvel Crossover Event Is Happening Next Year

Marvel Comics has been publishing "Ultraman" titles for a little bit now, but in 2023, for the very first time, the character will cross over with Marvel's greatest heroes for a miniseries event. The above artwork offers but a taste of what's to come in the currently untitled miniseries, but rest assured, this is happening. What we know for sure is that the crossover will take place within the current continuity of the "Ultraman" comics. Beyond that, much remains mysterious -- though it certainly has epic potential.

The Mighty Thor Arrives In Marvel Puzzle Quest

Not surprisingly, Marvel is doing a good job of injecting "Thor: Love and Thunder" into its various multimedia channels. Case in point: The Mighty Thor has arrived in the very popular mobile game "Marvel Puzzle Quest." With Natalie Portman returning as Jane Foster in the film and taking up the mantle as our new Thor, this move makes every bit of sense. But it also adds a little bit of fun to the game for those who have already been enjoying it, or perhaps just enough reason to entice new players to give it a try. You can download the game by clicking here.

Celebrate The Return Of Milestone Comics With This New Video

Milestone Comics was groundbreaking in the '90s and, among many other things, introduced the world to "Static Shock." DC is bringing the imprint back in a big way, and in the above video, comic book legend Denys Cowan offers up a little history lesson in stylish fashion. This offers a primer to the characters of this universe and gives fans an introduction that will allow them to check out the new Milestone books as they arrive. Plus, we have a "Static Shock" movie and an animated Milestone movie on the way, so there's never been a better time to get acquainted.

Jai Courtney Would Like To Do A Captain Boomerang Solo Project

"Peacemaker" became a very successful spin-off on HBO Max thanks to "The Suicide Squad." So, what about a Captain Boomerang spin-off? Well, even though he's dead (sorry, spoilers), Jai Courtney is very much game for something along those lines. Speaking with Comicbook.com recently, the actor said the following:

"The sort of TV streaming realm right now is really exciting and I think exploring something like that, you know, longer format and giving it a little more space would be really cool ... I kind of have some ideas around that, you know, which I think would work for a character like Boomerang because he's so much fun. I think it'd be really cool to get into some backstory stuff and the nature of how he falls in the DC world, you know? I doubt wherever, you know, particularly now, I doubt there's any plans for a standalone film, but yeah, man. I mean, that'd be cool. He's one of those roles that I would love to just kind of be able to do again and again. It's like so much fun and probably a little too easy for me in a way. But I think there's tremendous potential for enjoyment with something like that and we could really push the kind of boundaries of what's possible. So, listen, just waiting on the call from Warner Brothers. I mean, if they want me to throw that jacket on again, I'll be more than happy to oblige."

Your move, Warner Bros.

Tessa Thompson Gets Burned On Hot Ones

Tessa Thompson has been part of the MCU since she made her debut as Valkyrie in 2017's "Thor: Ragnarok." Now, she's set to return in "Love and Thunder" and is currently in the middle of a massive promotional tour. As part of that, she popped by "Hot Ones" to take part if the wings of death interview with host Sean Evans. As anyone might imagine, despite definitely feeling the burn, Thompson handles the whole thing like a champ while delivering a great interview. Check it out in its entirety above.

Kevin Feige Had A Warning For Sony About Its Spider-Man Spin-Off Films

Sony has had mixed experience thus far with its "Spider-Man" spin-off movies. "Venom" was a huge hit despite terrible reviews, whereas "Morbius" was both lambasted by critics and served as a commercial disappointment. Now, in a new report from The Ankler, it's revealed that Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige actually had some advice for Sony when it came to this endeavor. Specifically, he warned them not to get too carried away.

"Marvel's Kevin Feige does weigh in and offer notes on Sony's Marvel movies that don't feature Spider-Man. One insider credits Feige for guiding Sony's approach and warning the studio not to get too ahead of itself in terms of building some larger universe in the vein of the Avengers movies."

Whether or not Sony actually listens remains to be seen, but we do have "Kraven the Hunter" and "Madame Web" set to arrive next year, so they haven't pumped the brakes too hard.

Talk Ville, The Official Smallville Rewatch Podcast, Is Coming Soon

"Smallville" fans, rejoice! It has been confirmed that an official podcast tied to the DC series, titled "Talk Ville," is coming our way very soon, with a little promo above announcing the show. What's more, both Michael Rosenbaum and Tom Welling, who played Lex Luthor and Clark Kent on the series, respectively, will be participating to go over every single episode of the show from start to finish. Rewatch podcasts like this have become quite popular, with "Office Ladies" and the "Always Sunny Podcast" ranking as just a couple of examples. Now, Superman fans have a long journey to look forward to as well. "Talk Ville" premieres July 13 and will be available on all major podcast platforms.

The Rock Announces That DC Is Bringing Black Adam To SDCC

Heads up, DC fans! Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has confirmed that Warner Bros. is indeed bringing "Black Adam" to San Diego Comic-Con this year with a panel that will take place in the famed Hall H, the biggest of the big venues for such events at the annual pop culture behemoth. One expects that fans in attendance will get to see some footage, and if we're lucky, those not on hand will get a new trailer or something of the like online shortly after the panel ends (or even during). Either way, yours truly will be on the ground at SDCC to help bring you all the goods firsthand, so stay tuned. In the meantime, you can check out The Rock's announcement above.

A Thor: Love And Thunder Skin Is Now Available In Marvel's Avengers

Lastly, those who are still playing "Marvel's Avengers" are also going to be treated to a little bit of "Thor: Love and Thunder" content. For one, we already had the Mighty Thor make her debut in the game. Now, as we can see from the above tweet, a new character skin is available in the game's shop that will allow you to suit up as the new cosmic version of the God of Thunder from director Taika Waititi's latest. Those interested can pick up the skin in the game's in-store item shop.

Read this next: Every Pre-MCU Marvel Movie Ranked

The post Superhero Bits: Black Adam Is Coming To SDCC, The Smallville Podcast & More appeared first on /Film.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission has received more than 90,000 comments from Starlink users urging the agency to side with SpaceX in a spectrum battle against Dish Network. The comments were all submitted since last week when SpaceX asked Starlink customers to weigh in on an FCC proceeding that seeks public input on the "feasibility of allowing mobile services in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band while protecting incumbents from harmful interference." Dish wants to use the 12 GHz band for mobile service and says that sharing the spectrum wouldn't significantly degrade satellite broadband. SpaceX says the plan would cause "harmful interference [to Starlink users] more than 77 percent of the time and total outage of service 74 percent of the time, rendering Starlink unusable for most Americans." The satellite downlink band used by Starlink extends from 10.7 GHz to 12.7 GHz. SpaceX says it uses most of that but not the 10.7-10.95 GHz portion because it's adjacent to radio astronomy systems. The Starlink email was sent to users on June 28. There were a little more than 200 comments in the 18-month-old proceeding's docket at that time, mostly from satellite or telecom companies and lobbyist or advocacy groups. Since then, the comments appear to come almost entirely from people submitting SpaceX's pre-written message, in some cases unaltered and in others with the commenter's opinions or personal experiences using Starlink added in. Many Starlink users told the FCC they live in rural parts of the US and have no other viable broadband options. It's possible a single person can file multiple comments under different names, but it's clear that the SpaceX plea resulted in an outpouring of support from people who use Starlink. The pace of commenting hasn't slowed down in recent days. PCMag reported on Tuesday that the "SpaceX petition protesting Dish Network has resulted in 70,000 Starlink users bombarding the FCC with messages urging the US regulator to protect the satellite Internet system." There are now more than 95,700 comments in the docket. The official comment period on the 12 GHz question came and went last year, but the agency hasn't ruled on the proceeding yet. Starlink users can send comments to the FCC via this webpage set up by SpaceX.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Zoe Schiffer digs into Netflix's internal cultural shift away from open feedback #

Try watching 55 space movies in a row and not feeling a little short of breath. It's not the most hopeful genre, as filmmakers grapple with the existential dread inspired by the endless vacuum of the cosmos. It's almost as if, when screenwriters turn their imaginations to the heavens, they're overwhelmed by all that nothing staring back.

At least that's how space thrillers tend to go; typically, there aren't many survivors. Fantasy space operas like "Star Wars" are more chipper, and space films based on Cold War adventures can be downright optimistic. Given that the subgenre is usually just retelling the facts of history, at least that feels like a hopeful foundation.

Space can kill a hero in many ways. There are asteroids, aliens, sub-zero temperatures, a lack of oxygen, and nowhere good to eat. But, for the most part, what happens in space movies is that, despite a myriad of practical dangers, humans turn on one another and make an already strenuous situation far, far worse. If you think of Earth as one big spaceship, then it makes sense that, as humans reach for the stars, we pack all our heaviest baggage for the trip.

Ad Astra

Brad Pitt just photographs better than other humans, especially when he's tormented and hurtling through space. In "Ad Astra," Pitt plays a perfectly emotionless astronaut who's sent to a remote base off Neptune sometime in the near future to investigate a mysterious power surge that threatens humanity. It turns out that his father is the head scientist, but the old man has gone all Colonel Kurtz on the crew in this "Heart of Darkness"-like odyssey. Pitt is all stoicism and gloom in this gorgeous space drama, which critics enjoyed more than audiences. If you like the pacing and gravitas of "2001: A Space Odyssey," this movie is your speed.

• Starring: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga

• Director: James Gray

• Year: 2019

• Runtime: 124 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

Apollo 13

No space movie has better captured the tin-can-in-orbit hardships of mid-20th century moon missions. Tom Hanks leads this tale about astronauts who get their chance to follow in Neil Armstrong's footsteps just as the public has developed a serious been-there-done-that attitude towards space exploration. That all changes, though, when a small explosion makes a moon landing impossible and a return trip to Earth improbable. As the NASA ground crew in Houston scrambles to MacGyver a solution with only the supplies available on board the craft, this charismatic crew of American astronauts is put to the ultimate test.

• Starring: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon

• Director: Ron Howard

• Year: 1995

• Runtime: 140 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Aliens

"Aliens" is a triumph. Just ask Quentin Tarantino, who recalls seeing the film the day it opened at a Los Angeles theater, where director James Cameron was personally on hand to make sure the screening went smoothly. Tarantino was just a video store clerk in 1986, but he was also a notable local cinephile. As such, he had sky-high expectations for Cameron's sequel to Ridley Scott's masterpiece. They were met, and then some. "We were expecting so much and it's giving us more!" he recalled. "This is as good an experience for an action movie as you can ever have in a theater." 

In "Aliens," Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) returns to face the Xenomorphs again in a rescue mission that goes awry. Cameron's script and suspenseful set-pieces make for a creature feature sequel that rivals the original for sheer space movie terror.

• Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn

• Director: James Cameron

• Year: 1986

• Runtime: 137 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 97%

Alien

Sigourney Weaver really is the archetype of the badass female protagonist. She's not the only member of the Nostromo's crew with smarts and guts, but she is the ultimate survivor. What director Ridley Scott accomplished in "Alien" is immortal; a deep space industrial crew accidentally brings aboard the perfect extraterrestrial killing machine, and movie history is made. It's not that Weaver's Ripley is fearless. We sympathize with her terror as the monster stalks her, but we really marvel at her ability to keep moving and keep fighting. If the terrible CGI often found in space movies has made you sick of the genre, revisit the real sets and practical effects of this timeless sci-fi horror masterpiece.

• Starring: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt

• Director: Ridley Scott

• Year: 1979

• Runtime: 116 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Armageddon

Depending on your tastes, "Armageddon" is either a blockbuster spectacular or one of the more vacuous efforts from cinema's most superficial action director, Michael Bay. I tend to side with critics who were bored by the melodramatic TV-ad sheen, but hey, the rest of my high school voted it "movie of the year." 

Now that I've outed myself as a time traveler, let me say this movie about deflecting an extinction-level asteroid has a similar nostalgic glow as other so-bad-they're-awesome '90s disaster movies ("Twister," "Dante's Peak," etc.). "Armageddon" radiates the escapist charm of an American era when things were so good that Hollywood was forced to imagine that Earth's most pressing problems were giant rocks hurtling through space.

• Starring: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler

• Director: Michael Bay

• Year: 1998

• Runtime: 116 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 38%

Aniara

The passengers of the massive Mars-bound Aniara expected a three-week pleasure cruise. When their ship is struck with space junk, however, it becomes rudderless, and the only hope to get back on course is to run across a celestial body and use it as a gravity slingshot. As the passengers and crew realize there are no suitable spheres in their path, they begin to fear that this ark may end up just like the crumbling planet they left behind. As the years drag on, "Aniara" proposes that hopelessness might be as deadly as the void of infinite space.

• Starring: Emelie Garbers, Arvin Kananian, Bianca Cruzeiro

• Director: Hugo Lilja, Pella Kagerman

• Year: 2018

• Runtime: 106 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

Arrival

"Arrival" is admittedly sparing when it comes to space scenes, but that's where the slightly elephantine aliens come from in this thoughtful and gripping sci-fi thriller. Besides, dealing with these extraterrestrials requires a full-on weightless space-walk in quarantine gear. 

"Arrival" argues that we humans might not be able to handle a collision with a well-intentioned and peaceful space-faring civilization. Amy Adams shimmers as a linguist brought on board by some government spooks to traverse the language barrier between the two species. "Arrival" is a puzzle-based procedural, but if this professorial protagonist gets lost in translation, the dangers of jumping to conclusions could be fatal for us all.

• Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker

• Director: Denis Villeneuve

• Year: 2016

• Runtime: 116 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Avatar

"Avatar" haters like to point out the story of the Na'vi tribe's plight to save their sacred tree from greedy industrialists is basically space "Pocahontas." Visually, it has aged too, like any film with this many effects. Back in 2009, though, I dragged every earthling I knew to see "Avatar" in a theater, hypnotized by these blue aliens. I felt like an overwhelmed Joe Biden in this viral clip trying to sum it up: "This new program ... You watch this science fiction thing unfold in front of you." Exactly! 

James Cameron's enormous custom 3D cameras created an immersive experience that unfortunately looks like a video game when viewed on 2D monitors. "Avatar" is pure visual wizardly, but only when you see it in the appropriate venue.

• Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver

• Director: James Cameron

• Year: 2009

• Runtime: 162 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

Avengers: Endgame

A few years back, Martin Scorsese infamously scorched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, declaring that it is "not cinema." That's because nothing unexpected really happens. Immortal, sexless superheroes smash each other over and over in an infinite multiverse that has consequences. Spider-Man is incinerated by a cosmic snap of the fingers in one movie, and his next solo film is one of his biggest hits. 

But "Avengers: Infinity War" has a spectacular vision of the cosmos as Thanos assembles the ultimate bejeweled MacGuffin — one Nintendo power-glove to rule them all! Josh Brolin elucidating this villain's logic of doom as he wipes out all consciousness transcends ordinary Marvel fare. His musings are staged in epically rendered CG environments, and he seems almost depressed by his own nihilistic reasoning.

• Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo

• Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

• Year: 2018

• Runtime: 149 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

Contact

The famous astronomer Carl Sagan is the greatest science communicator who ever lived. Neil deGrasse Tyson did yeoman's work following in his footsteps — he even remade Sagan's famous TV series, "Cosmos" — but it's not possible to replace the OG celebrity scientist and his ponderous yet dulcet tones. Sagan also put his passion for thought experiments into "Contact," a novel about an encounter with advanced aliens that was adapted for the screen by Robert Zemeckis. 

When a young astronomer (Jodie Foster) finds a strange signal in the sky, it's actually a code containing instructions on how to assemble a mysterious machine. "Contact" wonders if humanity could handle an extraterrestrial awakening, but ultimately embodies Sagan's optimism about the human project.

• Starring: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods

• Director: Robert Zemeckis

• Year: 1997

• Runtime: 150 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%

Don't Look Up

"Don't Look Up" is ostensibly another "Deep Impact," a film about a big bad rock on a collision course with Earth. In reality, it's a global warming parable starring notable climate activist Leonardo DiCaprio. When DiCaprio's wonky astrophysicist tries to explain the Earth-shattering news, his dire prophecy is greeted as another piece of infotainment by two manic morning news buffoons. 

"Don't Look Up" has its politics, but spares neither side. MAGA stand-ins devolve into a conspiracy cult, while a seemingly left-leaning American president (Meryl Streep) cares only about her cratering poll numbers. Jonah Hill is also priceless as a patronizing chief of staff who you'll want to throttle with his own lanyard.

• Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep

• Director: Adam McKay

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 138 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 55%

Dune

Seeing "Dune" in 2021 was like reading an official press release claiming that Denis Villeneuve had supplanted Christopher Nolan as Earth's best big-budget filmmaker with a knack for magisterial sci-fi. Look, David Lynch was never the right choice to adapt Frank Herbert's brilliant and expansive 1965 novel. The failure of that first attempt partially explains why George Lucas has been so deified, perhaps without deserving it; Lucas has named checked "Flash Gordon" as an inspiration for "Star Wars," but has avoided crediting the novel from which he clearly cribbed the whole evil space empire versus psychic savior premise. As such, Villeneuve's task was to remake "Dune" for a post-"Star Wars" world. Through visual innovation and his genius for portentous storytelling, he pulled it off.

• Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac

• Director: Denis Villeneuve

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 156 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

Event Horizon

If you like space horror, "Event Horizon" is one intense trip to Hell. Ignore the god-awful critic's score. This movie isn't metaphysically any dumber than "The Shining." Here, Laurence Fishburne plays an astronaut tasked with investigating the incredibly Gothic Event Horizon, a mysterious spacecraft that has re-emerged from a black hole. He taps the craft's eccentric creator (Sam Neil) to help explore this eerie ghost ship, and a sinister story soon emerges: Something sentient has come back from the beyond, and its malevolence unleashes a stylish flurry of terrors. The phrase "event horizon" refers to the point of no return that surrounds a black hole. Maybe evil is like that, too.

• Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan

• Director: Paul W. S. Anderson

• Year: 1997

• Runtime: 96 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 29%

The Fifth Element

The ad campaign for "The Fifth Element" suggested that it would be a serious space opera, so it was disappointing when this goofy blockbuster premiered in 1997. Bruce Willis is great, though, as an NYC cab driver who gets an odd fare: a superhuman savior of the universe (Milla Jovovich). She's the elemental key to keeping at bay a dark force that's a lot like the Nothing from "The NeverEnding Story." Gary Oldman is at his scenery-chewing best as the corrupted industrialist Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, who works in service of the darkness. At the time, "The Fifth Element" was the most expensive movie in European history, and the 4K version really brings out the crisp cinematography.

• Starring: Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm

• Director: Luc Besson

• Year: 1997

• Runtime: 126 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%

First Man

If Hollywood had been as quick to make this biopic as Neil Armstrong was to the actual moon, it might be considered the greatest space movie ever made. In "First Man," Ryan Gosling plays Armstrong as the ultimate strong, silent type. He's a fearless, laconic test pilot tapped by NASA for its maiden voyage to the moon. Damian Chazelle's stirring tribute to one of the greatest-ever Americans explores the astronaut's grief over the loss of his young daughter and his coping mechanism: the most daring adventure in history. Chazelle's camera mimics the look of real film and caps the picture with stunning IMAX vistas at the climactic moment. This is an astounding achievement fully worthy of the history it commemorates.

• Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke

• Director: Damien Chazelle

• Year: 2018

• Runtime: 141 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

Forbidden Planet

"Forbidden Planet" was made only 13 years before NASA landed on the moon, but the film predicts this feat will take place in the "final decade of the 21st century." Soon after, "hyperdrive" will allow the colonization of deep space. It's interesting to see how wrong sci-fi was on that first count — and likely the second, given that physicists are pretty sure that light moves at the universal speed limit. 

Still, this is a great-looking color movie for 1956, shot in Cinescope. "Forbidden Planet" is basically like an episode of "Star Trek" with more romance and a less memorable cast, following an American crew as it investigates the mystery of a scientist and his beautiful daughter, long since missing on a far-flung alien colony.

• Starring: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen

• Director: Fred M. Wilcox

• Year: 1956

• Runtime: 98 minutes

• Rating: G

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Galaxy Quest

There have been a number of attempts to make satirical versions of "Star Trek." Seth MacFarlane's "The Orville" comes to mind, as does the Steve Carrell vehicle "Space Force." Nothing, though, has been as successful as this loving yet sardonic homage to the compelling, campy goof of Gene Roddenberry's original late 1960s sci-fi space series. 

"Galaxy Quest" works by getting meta. The washed-up cast of a "Star Trek"-like show gets picked up by actual aliens who think their long-canceled series is a historical document, and that only this intrepid crew of TV actors can save them. It's a hilarious premise executed with a lot of affection for sci-fi fandom. 

• Starring: Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman

• Director: Dean Parisot

• Year: 1999

• Runtime: 102 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Gattaca

What was once a far-fetched sci-fi premise just keeps growing in plausibility. When "Gattaca" was released in 1997, Dolly the sheep had been cloned just one year earlier, so bio-hacking hijinks were at the top of everyone's mind. With later innovations like CRISPR, a genetically segregated human society like the world of this stylish art-deco thriller is suddenly feasible. 

In "Gattaca," Ethan Hawke plays an aspiring astronaut who borrows the genetic identity of an elite (Jude Law) to reach the stars. Before he can launch, however, an inconvenient murder brings extra scrutiny and means that he must face must down his biologically superior brother. "Gattaca" is a classic of the individual-versus-dystopian-oppression genre as it vividly imagines the cost of a world where DNA is destiny.

• Starring: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law

• Director: Andrew Niccol

• Year: 1997

• Runtime: 112 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 81%

Gravity

"Gravity" is like a 90-minute free-fall turned into a movie. Director Alfonso Cuarón and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, both of whom won Oscars for the film, use long takes and cleverly hidden cuts to make this film feel like it was filmed in very few shots, ramping up the anxiety surrounding its central orbital mishap. Sandra Bullock plays an engineer sent to fix the Hubble Space Telescope when space junk slams into her craft. A chain reaction turns her ship into a deadly debris field as she and a fellow space-ace (George Clooney) orbit the Earth at unimaginable speeds. "Gravity" is the most imaginative and exciting lesson on Newtonian physics ever even attempted, and will have you kissing the ground as the credits roll.

• Starring: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris

• Director: Alfonso Cuarón

• Year: 2013

• Runtime: 91 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Guardians Of The Galaxy

The Guardians of the Galaxy are a close-knit team both on camera and off of it. After fans launched a campaign to boot Chris Pratt from the MCU, making assumptions about the actor's religious beliefs — which the star himself has never explicitly shared — director James Gunn jumped to his defense. Gunn, of course, was briefly fired from the franchise himself over some old, off-color tweets, and the "Guardians" cast similarly rallied behind him in the aftermath. 

That's somewhat ironic, as Gunn's irreverence is what has made him the most reliably ribald director in Marvel's stable — and DC's, too ("The Suicide Squad" and "Peacemaker" also stem from the auteur's twisted mind). Still, that sense of found family translates to the final production. "Guardians of the Galaxy" is full of '70s flair, including a great vintage soundtrack. The lighter tone helps ease the visuals' inherent silliness, and totally works for this colorful crew of space-faring heroes. This is a Disney product that grown kids can enjoy, too.

• Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista

• Director: James Gunn

• Year: 2014

• Runtime: 121 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

Hard To Be A God

"Hard to Be a God" is the best movie on this list you probably haven't seen. It's kind of a cross between the alternate medieval universe of "Game of Thrones" and a familiar concept from "Star Trek." On a distant planet, the city of Arkanar is a highly authoritarian society that persecutes intellectuals. Earth scientists are dispatched to study the situation and rescue the elites. This is an extremely long film, it's in black and white, and it will be subtitled if your Russian is rusty. Oh, also, despite the premise, there are zero shots that actually take place in space. Still, "Hard to Be a God" is a stark and unsettling film worthy of galaxy-brain contemplation.

• Starring: Leonid Yarmolnik, Valentin Golubenko, Yuriy Tsurilo

• Director: Aleksei German

• Year: 2013

• Runtime: 177 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

High Life

"High Life" seems like a space thriller, but it's French — very French — so it's arty and ponderous, but does not deign to be beautiful. The sets and cinematography are ugly, but so is the situation trapping our space-faring friends. Robert Pattinson plays a convicted killer in a dystopian future who is sentenced to be a part of a human experiment in space. The con-air crew turns on each other as their situation comes to light, but not to thrill the audience. This is a film about the human need for choice and autonomy, even in the face of annihilation. Claire Denis' strange and often grotesque film will make more sense if you watch it with that in mind.

• Starring: Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, André Benjamin

• Director: Claire Denis

• Year: 2018

• Runtime: 110 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

Ikarie XB-1

"Ikarie XB-1" is the most important space movie you haven't seen, and that's too bad, because it predates all the genre's definitive works, including the "Star Trek" franchise and Stanley Kubrick's immortal "2001: A Space Odyssey." This 1963 space thriller was critically acclaimed, but it's in black and white and entirely in Czech, and so it never got the global audience it deserved. 

In 2163, the titular spaceship sets out at light speed to explore a strange planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. The large crew soon confronts all the familiar perils of space travel, but that's because "Ikarie XB-1" is part sci-fi, part film noir, and one of the most influential movies in the genre.

• Starring: Zdenek Stepanek, Frantisek Smolík, Dana Medrická

• Director: Jindřich Polák

• Year: 1963

• Runtime: 86 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Interstellar

The critical consensus around "Interstellar" seems to be that Christopher Nolan took a slightly clunky kitchen-sink approach to his otherwise stunning space movie. More charitably, it's the closest modern swing at the ambition of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey." In the film, Matthew McConaughey plays a family man on a dying Earth who is picked to pilot a last-ditch mission to find a backup planet. The physics of space travel give Nolan the opportunity to further flesh out his favorite theme: time. 

It's true that "Interstellar" has an unfortunate monologue by Anne Hathaway in which she just straight-up explains one of the film's major themes, but otherwise, this is a masterful work. Nolan's poetic yet epic filmmaking style perfectly collides with the mind-bending paradoxes of space-time.

• Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain

• Director: Christopher Nolan

• Year: 2014

• Runtime: 169 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

Independence Day

"Independence Day" might have been the greatest popcorn blockbuster of the '90s, but if you ask zennial movie fans about it, they've heard of it, but assume it's moldy cheese and have taken a hard pass. The thing is, they're not totally wrong. This effect-driven spectacular about a devastating alien invasion that levels Earth's major cities has all the problems of a decades-old movie that's heavily reliant on vintage computers for many of its most famous images. The survival story, though, still works, as a pilot (Will Smith) and a scientist (Jeff Goldblum) team up to take down the invading force. From Smith brazenly cold-cocking an alien to the president of the United States (Bill Pullman) joining the fight in an F-14, this is still effective feel-good movie-making.

• Starring: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum

• Director: Roland Emmerich

• Year: 1996

• Runtime: 145 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 67%

The Martian

If "The Martian" feels more thoughtful and methodical than any previous stranded-in-space movie, that's because it absolutely is. Andy Weir's sci-fi novel started out as a self-published PDF that was available for free, and then sold for just $1 on Amazon. As its reputation grew, so did the plot. Weir is mostly interested in well-researched and scientifically plausible ideas about surviving in space, and Ridley Scott brought that vision to the big screen with fidelity. If Elon Musk's Mars mission ever actually takes off and the harshness of space begins to encroach on human lives, we can only hope an astronaut like Mark Watney is around to "science the s*** out of this."

• Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig

• Director: Ridley Scott

• Year: 2015

• Runtime: 132 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Moon

In "Moon," Sam Rockwell plays Sam Bell, a corporate astronaut who's working a three-year gig on a highly-automated moon base that mines Earth's main energy source. For some reason, this crucial job is also a solo mission, but just as Sam's time away from his wife and new child nears an end, he begins to suffer hallucinations and crashes his lunar rover. When Sam wakes up in the infirmary and travels back to the crash site, he discovers what appears to be himself, still in the rover. No further spoilers are appropriate. Suffice it to say that "Moon" deploys the space-thriller genre's cabin fever paranoia with creative tension, but soon dives into a grander mystery as Sam becomes the solar system's most far-flung detective.

• Starring: Sam Rockwell, Dominique McElligott, Kaya Scodelario

• Director: Duncan Jones

• Year: 2009

• Runtime: 97 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

Mr. Nobody

In "Mr. Nobody," Jared Leto plays the last living mortal. He's extremely old and suffering from amnesia as he bounces through time, waking up in his own body at different points in his life, unclear how he got there or even who exactly he is. This is an incredibly ambitious effort from auteur Jaco Van Dormael that's interested in both pop-physics-inspired philosophy and the non-linear storytelling fad that was popular in 2009. To that end, the film is cut like a disorienting montage and doesn't make complete sense, but maybe that's how space-time works without human memory to piece it all together.

• Starring: Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger

• Director: Jaco Van Dormael

• Year: 2009

• Runtime: 141 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%

On The Silver Globe

"On the Silver Globe" is a spectacular and incredibly trippy other-world epic. This 1988 film was over a decade in the making, but was never actually finished because of interference from the Polish government. Despite the difficulty, after a beautiful 2016 restoration it looks like something "The Revenant" cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki would have shot in 2020. The plot is set in the far future, and follows a group of astronauts who flee a dystopian Earth and form a colony on a far-flung planet. A strange cult arises as this new society awaits its next messiah.

• Starring: Andrzej Seweryn, Jerzy Trela, Iwona Bielska

• Director: Andrzej Zulawsky

• Year: 1988

• Runtime: 157 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Outland

If you grew up on '80s and '90s movies, you're forgiven for thinking that exposure to outer space makes your face explode. "Outland" also hails from an era when permanent commercial space mining must have felt inevitable, as it borrows the dingy set designs from "Alien" to stage an action-oriented thriller. Sean Connery plays a security marshal on a Martian mining colony who discovers that a drug is circulating that increases productivity, but that also causes horrifying accidents. The company wants him to look the other way and his family wants him home, but he's decided to make a stand. This isn't a metaphorically deep space movie, but "Outland" is a good reminder that model miniatures and meticulous sets make the best sci-fi movie settings.

• Starring: Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, Frances Sternhagen

• Director: Peter Hyams

• Year: 1981

• Runtime: 109 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 56%

Oxygen

Normally, I would avoid movies where the hero is trapped in a tiny box, like Ryan Reynolds was for 95 tedious minutes in 2010's "Buried." "Oxygen" has the same premise, but this French film is given just enough breathing room to work as "Liz" (Mélanie Laurent) wakes in a cryogenic chamber with no memory of who she is or how she got there. The difference here is that Liz has a deadpan AI-powered touchscreen to help her solve the mystery before she runs out of air. The film's placement on this list gives away a great twist, but that doesn't ruin it. "Oxygen" has moments that will test your patience, but also a breathless climax that's worth the wait.

• Starring: Mélanie Laurent, Mathieu Amalric, Malik Zidi

• Director: Alexandre Aje

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 101 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

Pitch Black

"Pitch Black" is what sold studios on Vin Diesel, and I'd argue that this critically underrated and intensely suspenseful sci-fi gem remains the brawny action star's best film — apologies to fans of those car movies. Here, Diesel plays Riddick, a muscle-bound badass on a prison transport ship who's heading off to do some hard time. He has surgically-enhanced eyes that make him look super cool, but that also let him see in the dark. That comes in very handy when the ship crashes on a mysterious planet full of screeching, winged monsters that only come out at night.

• Starring: Radha Mitchell, Vin Diesel, Cole Hauser

• Director: David Twohy

• Year: 2000

• Runtime: 108 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 59%

Planet Of The Apes

"You damn dirty apes!" It's easy to laugh at Charlton Heston and this retro sci-fi film about an astronaut gone from Earth for thousands of years, only to crash on a planet inhabited by actors in plastic ape costumes. In fact, you might need a similar time travel method to understand how awesome this movie was in 1968; "Mad Men" provided one in season 6, when Don Draper takes his son Bobby to see this movie. The credits roll, and their minds are blown. Don asks a wide-eyed Bobby if he wants to see the film again, right then and there, and the normally distant duo lock in for back-to-back screenings.

• Starring: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter

• Director: Franklin J. Schaffner

• Year: 1968

• Runtime: 112 minutes

• Rating: G

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

Prometheus

Director Ridley Scott has admitted that he missed the mark with "Prometheus," echoing some of the audiences' and critics' sentiments about this 2012 prequel to his 1979 sci-fi masterpiece, "Alien." It feels like it's time for some backlash to the backlash, though, because "Prometheus" is also full of big ideas, great visuals, and even better performances, like Michael Fassbender's turn as one of the franchise's notoriously untrustworthy white-blooded androids. "Prometheus" doesn't just want to backfill details about those killer aliens, but about the human race, too. Maybe this creature feature bites off more than a monster movie can chew, but we ought to applaud Hollywood any time it goes big and tries to steal fire from the gods.

• Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron

• Director: Ridley Scott

• Year: 2012

• Runtime: 123 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 73%

Proxima

In "Proxima," the always-radiant French star Eva Green plays Sarah, an equally French astronaut picked at the last minute for a year-long practice mission aboard the International Space Station. She's also a single mom who must navigate difficulties related to both her irritated ex-husband and a misogynist American astronaut played with macho verve by Matt Dillon. As Sarah slowly wins over the boy's club, this space drama's feminist messaging is sometimes less than aerodynamic, maybe because the real heart of Alice Wincour's intimate and ultimately touching film is the gravity of motherhood.

• Starring: Eva Green, Matt Dillon, Zélie Boulant-Lemesle

• Director: Alice Winocour

• Year: 2019

• Runtime: 107 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

The Right Stuff

Based on the book by Tom Wolf, "The Right Stuff" is the incredible true story of the daredevils who became NASA's first astronauts. This three-plus-hour space film eventually gets into orbit, but the best section is the lengthy opening act, which follows a group of future astronauts working as test pilots at an air base in California. A quarter of these men were killed as they pushed the limits of physics. During an unfathomable stretch in 1952, seven pilots a month were lost as these fearless flyers broke first the barrier, and then the very grasp of Earth itself. "The Right Stuff" is a moving and exciting tribute to a kind of bravery you have to see to believe.

• Starring: Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris

• Director: Phillip Kaufman

• Year: 1983

• Runtime: 193 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Salyut 7

In 1985, the actual Russian space program lost contact with the very real Salyut 7 space station when it powered down and began to drift. The rescue mission that followed was daring, and would be the first time in history a "dead" station was revived. "Salyut 7," which tells that story, made a big splash in Russia in 2018, picking up several awards. It's a fantastic-looking adventure best seen in 3D, but it's a thrill in any dimension and a good reminder that American movies and American space sagas aren't the whole story – after all, it was a Russian astronaut who was the first human in space.

• Starring: Vladimir Vdovichenkov, Lyubov Aksyonova, Pavel Derevyanko

• Director: Klim Shipenko

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 118 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Silent Running

'70s sci-fi movies could be their own genre: the shaggy mullets, the mid-century sets, and the costumes that fluctuate between leisure-style jumpsuits and hippy-commune sacks of cloth. The best feature of this era, though, was the model miniatures, which remain way more convincing than CG spaceships. "Silent Running" doesn't have the realistic, motivated lighting of films made later in the decade like "Alien" or "Star Wars," but it does feature familiarly charming robots. 

Inside a model of a base sits a botanist played by Bruce Dern. Earth has become uninhabitable, and he's the only remaining environmentalist. When he's ordered to destroy his greenhouse ark, Dern and his robot besties become the last tree-huggers in the galaxy.

• Starring: Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin

• Director: Douglas Trumbull

• Year: 1972

• Runtime: 89 minutes

• Rating: G

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

Solaris

Steven Soderbergh's 2002 remake of "Solaris" is underrated and beautiful, but this 1972 original is such a visual feast that it didn't need a style upgrade. This is another great Russian space adventure held back in the U.S. only by the language barrier. The story follows Kris Kelvin, an aptly named psychologist who is tapped for an interstellar mission to the Solaris research station, from where mysterious reports have been emanating. Kris finds that the crew has gone insane and soon begins having visions himself as this Soviet-era film delves into a metaphysical mystery with lots of moody, existential philosophy. Like a Russian winter, "Solaris" is long-winded, but it's one of the truly essential space movie classics.

• Starring: Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet

• Director: Andrei Tarkovsky

• Year: 1972

• Runtime: 169 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

Space Cowboys

Let's hear it for the old guys. The sheer longevity of Clint Eastwood's career has led him into a heretofore unknown genre: the nonagenarian adventure. Well into his 90s, Eastwood was still making action-oriented movies starring himself; 2021's "Cry Macho" is hard to watch, as Eastwood shuffles around chasing a rooster in a plodding western. However, way back in the year 2000, a spry 70-year-old Eastwood played Frank Corvin, a former test pilot who missed his chance to go to space when early NASA replaced his team with chimps. When an aging satellite of his own design needs repairs, Corvin insists on getting the old band back together. These crotchety rocketeers are feeling no pain at zero Gs. 

• Starring: Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland

• Director: Clint Eastwood

• Year: 2000

• Runtime: 130 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

Starship Troopers

"Starship Troopers" comes off as campy and ridiculous if you don't connect it to the larger canon of Hollywood's most peculiar sci-fi-action auteur, Paul Verhoeven, who's infamous for blending social commentary with gross-out effects and cartoonish violence. This Casper Van Dien-led space drama about a war between humanity and giant sentient bugs oozes blood and guts, but sends up military life as much as the director's "RoboCop" skewers dystopian policing. In his blonde, granite-jawed glory, Van Dien is like a street artist's caricature of a Hollywood leading man, and everything in this filmmaker's world is a gag.

• Starring: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards

• Director: Paul Verhoeven

• Year: 1997

• Runtime: 129 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66%

Sputnik

During the early years of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was doing a lot of winning in space. Sputnik 1, the first satellite to orbit Earth, was a total coup. A nuclear-armed Russia was flying over U.S. soil and there wasn't anything NASA or the Pentagon could do about it. 

"Sputnik" has almost nothing to do with this bit of regional pride, other than being set in the later Cold War of 1983. In the film, two astronauts fall to Earth, but one has brought something back. There's a creature in the hero's body, and it only comes out at night. 

• Starring: Pyotr Fyodorov, Oksana Akinshina, Fedor Bondarchuk

• Director: Egor Abramenko

• Year: 2000

• Runtime: 107 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

Stowaway

Two thriller subgenres are famous for embroiling characters in brutal moral dilemmas: zombie movies and space movies. Here, Anna Kendrick leads a cast of three astronauts who are traveling to Mars when they discover the titular stowaway. As technical problems mount, you'd be forgiven for suspecting this surprise new crew member of sabotage. But "Stowaway" goes in a different direction: With oxygen running low, one person must be sacrificed. 

Netflix originals are largely bad, as the company all but acknowledged in 2022 as it rethought its largely low-budget content strategy. "Stowaway," though, is a great-looking and suspenseful gem. It may have been made on the cheap, but it'll have you fully onboard from start to finish. 

• Starring: Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Toni Collette

• Director: Joe Penna

• Year: 2021

• Runtime: 116 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Captain Kirk is a little like Superman in that he has to be distanced from his powers to get the plot going. Appropriately, when Chris Pine's Kirk violates the Prime Directive in "Star Trek: Into Darkness" and interferes with an alien society, he loses his command. Fear not, as a young Khan emerges (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Kirk is reinstated. 

Two scenes in this film really stand out. Kirk and Khan do a space jump between ships, and it's one of the best green screen stunts you'll see. The other is Spock's hand-to-hand showdown with the super-abled Khan, once again proving Vulcan supremacy. J.J. Abrams really lands what his likely last turn in the captain's chair of this franchise. 

• Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban

• Director: J.J. Abrams

• Year: 2013

• Runtime: 132 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Star Trek: The Wrath Of Khan

In 1982's "The Wrath of Khan," the original "Star Trek" cast is aging, and so William Shatner's Captain Kirk wrestles with his mortality. In truth, the USS Enterprise's crew is far more compelling as a team of elder statesmen than they were 16 years prior, when they debuted on NBC. In their second feature film, Kirk and his crew run into the genetically engineered superman commander Khan Noonien Singh. He's gotten his hands on a fancy Federation ship and is out for vengeance after being exiled years earlier. Every good "Star Trek" story comes down to Kirk's wit and bravado, which is tempered by his deep friendship with the ship's sage logician, Spock. This film is the lovable zenith of that dynamic.

• Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Ricardo Montalban

• Director: Nicholas Meyer

• Year: 1982

• Runtime: 113 minutes

• Rating: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

Star Trek

As mad as we all were at J.J. Abrams for wantonly wasting our time with years of red herrings that went nowhere on "Lost," the man has a Midas touch for retro sci-fi vibes, and his 2009 reboot of the "Star Trek" franchise is a stellar explosion of anamorphic lens flares and nostalgia. It's also arguably the best movie in the franchise. Chris Pine is the only actor of his generation who could've pulled off the cocksure moxie of a young Captain James T. Kirk. The plot includes some time travel gimmicks to revive Leonard Nimoy as Spock, but really this is a USS Enterprise origin story that serves die-hard Trekkies and newer recruits alike.

• Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy

• Director: J.J. Abrams

• Year: 2009

• Runtime: 126 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

The Original Star Wars Trilogy

George Lucas may have cribbed many of his ideas from "Dune," but he did such archetypical worldbuilding in his original "Star Wars" trilogy that, for true fans, these works are not even really films. They're more like quasi-religious texts, and every subsequent sequel and spinoff is judged upon its adherence to these three volumes of dogmas. Like any massive fantasy franchise, "Star Wars" is an information cult where the point of fandom is the collection and preservation of the canon. Thanks to a small but incredibly loud minority, the discourse surrounding these movies can easily turn toxic, but their ability to transcend cinema like this is a testament to the power of the universe that Lucas created.

• Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher

• Directors: George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Richard Marquand

• Years: 1977, 1980, 1984

• Runtimes: 121, 124, 132 minutes

• Ratings: PG

• Rotten Tomatoes Scores: 93%, 94%, 83%

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

King of the sci-fi reboot J.J. Abrams strikes again here with "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Abrams was the obvious choice to fix the franchise after George Lucas' dopey digital prequels. The ironic thing is those Lucas films had little of the look that made his original trilogy great. Abrams revived the use of real sets (when possible) and of course, leaned into his love of vintage widescreen lenses. "Star Wars" regained a cool just by looking like itself again. Add some ok new characters and the sheen of updated CG blending seamlessly with practical FX and this long moribund franchise once again conquered the galaxy.

* Starring: Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega

* Director: J.J. Abrams

* Year: 2015

* Runtime: 136 minutes

* Rating: PG-13

* Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

The most noxious "Star Wars" fanboys hated this movie, so you know it must have some redeeming qualities. Rian Johnson dared to add just a little style to the Skywalker saga and instantly became public enemy number one as the unelected keepers of the Jedi flame self-immolated in a panic over that scene of Princess Leia floating in space. In the aftermath, Johnson's own "Star Wars" trilogy was (perhaps not coincidentally) indefinitely delayed by Lucasfilm. However, if the quality of the moviemaking matters more to you than the law of canon, this is the best of the modern Star Wars spin-offs, sequels, or prequels. The image of a monkish Luke being absolutely blasted by Imperial Walkers and then brushing dust off his shoulder outshines all supposed blasphemies.

• Starring: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver

• Director: Rian Johnson

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 152 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Sunshine

"Sunshine" is really the only good space movie focused on the unfathomable raw power of our solar system's star. Acclaimed "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle has made better films, but he brings his signature kinetic energy to this extremely thermal story about a crew that's sent to revive a dying sun and save Earth from turning into a lifeless ball of ice. As a series of calamities pile up, the film starts to feel like an argument for letting robots handle crucial space missions. Human error gives way to paranoia and moral dilemmas as the crew members weigh their lives against the future of humanity. It's familiar territory, but "Sunshine" has something more sinister in store, too.

• Starring: Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne

• Director: Danny Boyle

• Year: 2007

• Runtime: 107 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

Thor: Ragnarok

It makes sense when human cartoons like Will Ferrell or Jim Carrey are the funniest actors in Hollywood. It's more surprising when a guy who can plausibly portray an actual god is this hilarious. The MCU's playfully fake-looking effects and colorful palette really work for this fish-out-of-water hero saga. Here, we find the God of Thunder taken prisoner and forced into gladiatorial combat against an amnesiac Hulk. Chris Hemsworth is every bit the specimen of earlier muscle-bound stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he also has a range that turns every Marvel movie into a nail screaming for a little of Thor's hammer. 

• Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett

• Director: Taika Waititi

• Year: 2017

• Runtime: 130 minutes

• Rating: PG-13

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Total Recall

Do yourself a favor and binge all of Paul Verhoeven's movies. "Total Recall" is definitely the sci-fi auteur's best film — he brings his usual love of gross-out gags to this thrilling Mars mystery adventure. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays an ordinary construction worker who discovers a secret identity as an off-world super-spy. His amnesia-driven investigation takes him to the heart of a conspiracy to control Mars, and gives Arnold a great chance to rack up a body count and deliver some of the best one-liners of his career. "Total Recall" received a remake starring Colin Farrell in 2012, which was both bad and also totally superfluous; the original is still totally radical.

• Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone

• Director: Paul Verhoeven

• Year: 1990

• Runtime: 113 minutes

• Rating: R

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 82%

A Trip To The Moon

"A Trip to the Moon" is all of 14 minutes long, and is available for free — the copyright for this 1902 experiment in silent cinema expired long ago. Don't let either of those things take away from its importance. Director Georges Méliès was one of the first true filmmakers, and he created this moon-landing adventure story using the skills he picked up as a stage illusionist. Méliès was the great innovator of early special effects, and noticed that cutting film is a great way to make things disappear like magic. The general story is summed up in the title, but in Méliès' day the moon was often imagined as an alien world with oceans and native tribes of its own. The entire space film genre started here.

• Starring: Jeanne d'Alcy, Georges Méliès, Victor André

• Director: Georges Méliès

• Year: 1902

• Runtime: 14 minutes

• Rating: NR

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

2001: A Space Odyssey

"2001" is the best sci-fi film ever made, unless you don't like arty ruminations with ambiguous conclusions. Stanley Kubrick is just as methodical with Newtonian physics in this visual spectacular as he is with the classic story that pits man (a team of astronauts investigating an alien object in space) against machine (a malevolent AI named HAL that turns on its human masters). Kubrick actually explained this film's famously enigmatic ending in lost footage that was unearthed in 2018. It's more literal than you'd expect, but if you just accept that alien minds are behind that strange obelisk, the trippy conclusion makes much more sense.

• Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester

• Director: Stanley Kubrick

• Year: 1968

• Runtime: 139 minutes

• Rating: G

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

Wall-E

"Wall-E" has grown so vastly in reputation that it now sits alongside "Snow White" and "Beauty and the Beast" as one of the most beloved Disney animations ever created. Wall-E the robot even has some of Snow's innocence. In the 29th century, Earth has become one hideous landfill. As a result, an Amazon-like corporation has taken the whole human race to space to enjoy lives of weightless sloth. Back on Earth, only one robot remains. Wall-E scavenges for parts to extend his life, and has been alone so long that he's become sentient. When he falls in love with a probe named EVE, he follows her back to the human mothership, where hopefully the power of their bond will save the world.

• Starring: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin

• Director: Andrew Stanton

• Year: 2008

• Runtime: 97 minutes

• Rating: G

• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

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

The post The 55 Best Space Movies Ever appeared first on /Film.

In a move that will undoubtedly draw severe criticism, movies from Studio Canal that customers have purchased on the PlayStation Store will be completely removed next month. From a report: The legal notice is published on PlayStation's German and Austrian websites where it reads (translated): "As of August 31, 2022, due to our evolving licensing agreements with content providers, you will no longer be able to view your previously purchased Studio Canal content and it will be removed from your video library. We greatly appreciate your continued support." In other words, customers will lose access to movies such as Apocalypse Now, Django, John Wick, La La Land, Saw and The Hunger Games that they purchased on the PlayStation Store. Not rented, but purchased.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

If there's one thing that poses a threat to all technology users, it's malware. This harmful software can be incredibly dangerous and damaging and now comes in various forms. But how has malware become so widespread? What key tactics and tools do cybercriminals use to infect devices?

This post contains major spoilers for the season finale of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" has been an eventful ride from start to finish, but the series is closing out its inaugural season with a major bang. Its tenth episode, "A Quality of Mercy," drove home the overarching theme of fate and predestiny that's always loomed over the series, especially when it comes to Captain Christopher Pike.

Pike has known all about a particularly devastating aspect of his future for some time now. Years after the events of "Strange New Worlds," Pike is exposed to critical doses of delta radiation after a vessel inspection gone wrong. Pike manages to save the lives of a few Starfleet cadets, but the radiation leaves him severely injured, unable to speak or walk for the rest of his life.

A lot of fans — and even some characters in "Strange New Worlds" — have wondered whether Pike could somehow change his fate. "Quality of Mercy" does answer that question, and it does so by calling back to one of the most famous "Trek" episodes of all time.

Back To The Future

The "Strange New Worlds" finale is pretty much a retelling of the original series episode "Balance of Terror." It shows exactly what would happen if Pike was still captaining the Enterprise during a fateful encounter with a Romulan warship, in lieu of his successor, James T. Kirk. This new reality manifests when Pike feels compelled to warn a future Starfleet cadet, Maat Al-Salah, about the accident that will claim his life. This prompts an appearance from an older version of Pike, one from an alternate future.

Older-Pike is sent by the Klingon Timekeepers to stop Prime-Pike from making a huge mistake, one that might save a few lives (including his own), but lead to millions of deaths down the line. With the help of a Klingon time crystal, Pike is catapulted seven years into the future to live out his own version of "Balance of Terror." It's clear he's been sent forward to a crucial moment for the Enterprise, one where his decision-making skills could change the course of history, possibly for the worse.

The original series episode begins harmlessly enough, with Kirk performing a wedding ceremony between two enterprise crew members, Angela Martine and Robert Tomlinson. The Enterprise is also en route to Outpost 4, one of the eight patrol outposts that monitor the Neutral Zone between Federation Space and Romulan Territory. Notably, Pike is actually in the midst of retrofitting these outposts at the very beginning of "Quality of Mercy." The Enterprise soon receives a distress call from Outpost 4, which sends the ship into red alert ... and takes Pike off the hook from officiating the same wedding ceremony.

Trading Places

After Martine and Tomlinson's ceremony is interrupted in "Balance of Terror," Kirk returns to the bridge and briefed by Lt. Uhura: "Outpost 4 reported under attack, sir. Then message terminates." He speaks briefly with Spock, who sits in the captain's chair, and checks in with Sulu and Stiles at the helm. After speaking with Scotty, Kirk circles back to Uhura, who confirms that Outpost 4 has yet to identify who exactly attacked them. Stiles has already made up his mind about the attackers' identity — he's got generations' worth of beef with the Romulans, seeing as several members of his family fought and died in the conflict with the Romulans a century prior.

Only some of this carries over to Pike's alternate reality. Spock and Uhura are still members of the bridge crew (Uhura is even wearing the same outfit, green hoops and all), but Stiles and Sulu have yet to replace Lts. Ortegas and Mitchell. In this reality, Ortegas is the helmsman who's decidedly anti-Romulan, though we never really find out why. Fittingly though, all the blocking and camera work from "Balance of Terror" carries over to "Quality of Mercy." Pike mirrors all of Kirk's body language from the moment he enters the bridge — making the episode's homage to "Balance of Terror" abundantly clear.

The Pointy-Eared Elephant In The Room

"Quality of Mercy" continues to lift from "Balance of Terror" once the Enterprise makes contact with Outpost 4. In the original series, Kirk speaks with Outpost Commander Hansen, and eventually gets his first glimpse of the Romulan Warbird. Pike speaks with the same commander in his own timeline, now Hansen Al-Salah — Maat's father. Knowing that the two met briefly before Pike was sent forward in time puts a personal spin on the Commander's fate, especially since it mirrors the events of "Balance of Terror" to a T. Hansen's role remains largely unchanged in "Quality of Mercy," from his description of the situation ("Outposts 2, 3 and 8 are gone ... Unknown weapon ... completely destroyed") to his description of the attack ("Some form of high energy plasma ... Fantastic power!"). It all aligns perfectly with his appearance in "Balance of Terror."

The parallels continue once the Romulan ship decloaks to finish off Outpost 4. From the attack itself to the Enterprise crew's respective reactions — and even Spock's observations after the fact — it's all beat for beat what happens in "Balance of Terror" ... just with updated visual effects and a different captain at the helm.

After the attack on Outpost 4, the Enterprise meets up with the Farragut, captained by James T. Kirk in this timeline, while Spock and Uhura retrieve a transmission from the enemy ship. This allows the crew to get a look at the Romulans for the first time ever, and it's another opportunity for an overt homage to the original series. The Romulan Theme from "Balance of Terror" plays as Pike and co. watch the transmission from the bridge of the Romulan ship. Everyone is understandably shocked by the Romulans' uncanny likeness to Vulcans. All eyes now are on Ethan Peck's Spock, who coolly arches an eyebrow just as Leonard Nimoy did in "Balance of Terror."

Pike's Quality Of Mercy

From here, events start to divert pretty drastically from the original timeline. Though the bridge crew holds a meeting to decide whether or not to engage with the Romulans (and even use the comet Icarus 4 to disable the ship's cloaking) just like in "Balance of Terror," everything is different with Pike around. The captain unfortunately lacks the out-of-the-box thinking needed to go toe-to-toe with the Romulans. He would rather open a dialogue with the intruders than attack them outright. That's not always a bad thing, obviously, but it's not the best approach to this particular crisis.

Pike's hesitation essentially gives the Romulans the opportunity to destroy that Farragut, and even disable the weapons system on the Enterprise with their short-range plasma weapon. While Kirk didn't hesitate to fire on the Warbird in "Balance of Terror," and managed to get the Enterprise out of range of a potentially-critical plasma blast, Pike failed to do either, setting off a chain reaction that completely alters the fate of the Enterprise crew.

Offensive capabilities are limited for the Enterprise after the Romulan attack, but Pike is able to buy some time to reestablish the ship's weapons system. He does so by making contact with the Romulan ship (something Kirk never considered in either timeline) and establishing a temporary ceasefire.

The Romulan Commander

It's worth nothing that the Romulan commander actually agrees with Pike's desire to end hostilities between their two cultures. His weariness was evident in "Balance of Terror" as well, but he was still persuaded to attack the Enterprise in accordance with Romulan customs. In "A Quality of Mercy," however, the Romulan commander is more concerned with getting back to Romulus alive, not finishing off the Enterprise. This doesn't exactly gel with his subcommander, though.

Back on the Enterprise, Kirk suggests that the Romulans could just as easily call for backup instead of honoring the ceasefire. Sadly, his instincts are right on the money. Though the Romulan commander is actually open to negotiations, his subcommander Decius brings the Romulan fleet to the edge of the Neutral Zone. This cheeky act of mutiny brings Pike face-to-face with the Romulan Praetor, who moves to destroy the Warbird and everyone aboard for compromising their stealth mission.

Not unlike Kirk in "Balance of Terror," Pike offers to beam the Romulan commander and his crew onto the Enterprise — but the commander responds just as he does in the original series: "It is not our way ... We are creatures of duty, you and I. Just one more duty to perform."

The Spock Of It All

With the Warbird out of the way, the Romulans attack the Enterprise, which turns out to be disastrous in every way imaginable. The Enterprise takes a few critical hits from the Romulan fleet, resulting in several casualties. Ensign Martine — one of the officers scheduled to get married that day — is killed in the blast. This mirrors the death of her fiancee, Lieutenant Tomlinson, in "Balance of Terror."

Perhaps the most devastating result of the Romulan attack — apart from the war that follows, obviously — is what happens to Spock. Since Spock was tasked with repairing the phaser array during the ceasefire, he was in the weapons control room when the Enterprise took a direct hit. Nurse Chapel relays his injuries to Pike, which include cerebral trauma, spinal fractures, and major radiation burns. It's all an echo of the fate that Pike managed to escape in the current timeline, but the consequences here are much more dire.

According to Future-Pike, Spock is one of the only people who can secure lasting peace with the Romulan Empire. Without him, the war between the Romulans and the Federation will likely drag on without an end in sight, destroying millions of lives. It's wild that such a harrowing, widespread conflict boils down to one Enterprise captain, but it really gives even more meaning to Pike's eventual sacrifice. It also adds a touching layer to Pike's relationship with Spock, and the latter's unbreakable loyalty to Pike in the original series.

All episodes of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" season 1 are streaming on Paramount+.

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

The post Every Way Strange New Worlds References One of the Most Famous Star Trek Episodes Ever appeared first on /Film.

Researchers have disclosed what they say could be an attempt to kick-off a new large-scale cryptocurrency mining campaign targeting the NPM JavaScript package repository. The malicious activity, attributed to a software supply chain threat actor dubbed CuteBoi, involves an array of 1,283 rogue modules that were published in an automated fashion from over 1,000 different user accounts. "This was

With the ease of discovering one's ancestry and familial relations with services like 23andMe and Ancestry.com, more and more people are learning strange pieces of trivia about their extended family. Sometimes, if you're like Ben Affleck, you find out that your family definitely owned slaves. — Read the rest

Japan is also fighting inflation and one aquarium's penguins and otters are suffering its consequences as the zookeepers switch out their fish to one that is 30% cheaper.

VICE World News:

At Hakone-en Aquarium in the Kanagawa prefecture south of Tokyo, zookeepers are buying their animals cheaper food to cut costs.

— Read the rest