No, not SHODAN or GLaDOS. I mean the other sort. The magic formulae of raw computer nonsense that runs under the cover of your favourite game and makes enemies flank you, or friendly NPCs toss a health kit just in time. Good AI is not an unbeatable genius. It is smartly stupid. It is both surprisingly clever and capable of wonderful carelessness. It can remind us of ourselves. Quick-witted on a good day, an absolute dunderhead on a bad one. Here's a list of the 7 best AI in PC games.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead for the ending of the original "Cowboy Bebop."
Shinichirō Watanabe's "Cowboy Bebop" offers an experience like no other — it is a genre hybrid exploration of the lives of four bounty hunters who cannot help but carry the unbearable weight of the past. As a result, the present, which is ever-fluctuating and volatile, becomes almost devoid of meaning, especially for our green-haired protagonist, Spike Spiegel.
While "Cowboy Bebop" has been about many things — adventures in space, camaraderie, and facing your inner demons — the anime is primarily centered on Spike's tussle with the past, and how it bogs him down to the point of blasé nihilism. "Whatever happens, happens," Spike says at one point, though this attitude toward life does not stem from apathy, but instead from unhealed trauma.
In the final episode of "Cowboy Bebop," "The Real Folk Blues (Part 2)," Spike has an epic confrontation with his former partner and nemesis, Vicious. The entirety of Spike's arc leads up to this inevitable moment, this mad dance between two people who want one another dead to achieve their own idea of retribution. Vicious dies in the end, but the episode ends with Spike walking out of the church grievously wounded, dropping to the ground while uttering, "Bang!" The screen cuts to black, as white doves flutter in the air.
Did Watanabe always plan this kind of resolution for Spike, and how did his team react to this? Here's a breakdown of how Watanabe conceived the ending, how it was received, and what the scene means for Spike Spiegel.
The fifth session or episode of "Cowboy Bebop" season 1, "Ballad of Fallen Angels," is an unforgettable one. The episode marks the introduction of Vicious, and from the get-go, the viewers understand that this man exudes a ruthlessness unmatched by anyone else in the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate. Faye, who often finds herself in dangerous situations, is visibly spooked when Vicious kidnaps her, which further points to how unhinged he is as a person.
In an interview with the Daily Texan, Watanabe explained how Spike's fate had been written in stone even before the episodes were conceived, and how "Ballad of Fallen Angels" foreshadowed the ending of the anime:
"Actually all of the episodes that contain Vicious that come out in 'Cowboy Bebop' are directly related to the ending. Even before I made the first episode, I already had the ending in mind. Even though I had the ending in mind by myself, I was opposed by my staff. They were upset because they were saying that we wouldn't be able to make a continuation. So I told them I'd think about it a little more, but ultimately I decided to go with my original idea."
Watanabe's team understandably pushed back against the ending, as the death of the protagonist would mean the end of the series. "Cowboy Bebop" without Spike would be akin to "Tokyo Ghoul" without Kaneki — Spike is the soul of the show, as his outlook toward life encapsulates the philosophy of the show, directly contributing to the laid-back vibe.
To understand why Spike's fate was inevitable, it is important to delve into his past. The reasons behind Spike's and Vicious' rivalry in the anime have not been explicitly spelled out the same way it has been in the Netflix live-action series, which is exactly why it is so compelling. In "Ballad of Fallen Angels," we know Spike is running away from something in the past, has a possible connection with the Syndicate, and the return of Vicious compels him to confront parts of himself he had left behind or buried deep within.
Everything obviously leads back to Julia, who Spike was in love with while being a part of the Syndicate, and his rivalry with Vicious stems from this aspect of his life. After Julia's apparent death, Spike moves through his existence like a ghost — present, but not really present, simulating a life with extremely real stakes and risks, while never taking anything to heart, or seriously, for that matter. After learning Julia might be still alive, something inside Spike is jolted back into place, almost like being resuscitated from a near-death experience and finally being able to live.
Watanabe understands that Spike's motivation, in the end, is one thing and one thing only: to avenge Julia, and the only way to do this is to kill Vicious. "I have a debt to pay," he tells Jet earlier on, as killing Vicious is something he must do, at the cost of even losing his own life. Every moment in his life has led to the final fight in the church, where Vicious wields a katana, and he, a gun, and the two wound each other brutally and relentlessly until the other drops dead. Reality is a meaningless construct without Julia's love, and only vengeance can lead him back to who he truly is.
In the same interview with the DT, Watanabe stated he's unsure whether Spike was dead or alive, which further adds to the open-ended nature of the ending:
"I've never officially said that he's died. At this point, I can tell you that I'm not sure if he's alive or dead. I think probably rather than being yelled at for killing Spike, I think ... people are more upset that I might make a continuation."
Although Watanabe refused to offer a set answer about Spike's death, there are certain cues and thematic parallels to look out for during the scene. The white doves are similar to the ones that fly upwards when Spike watches Julia die in his arms, which further heightens his existential ennui, snapping all desires to lead a full, meaningful life. Spike's death is undoubtedly upsetting for "Cowboy Bebop" fans, but his fate was always tied to Julia's, and that of Vicious, bringing things full circle from a narrative standpoint.
Hence, it is a gut-wrenching ending, for sure, but it is one that sums up what Spike stood for all along. A broken-hearted, green-haired bounty hunter, with the zest for life robbed from him, existing in a limbo state until he had to do what needed to be done. We are always going to have to carry that weight — the one that comes with killing our darlings.
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The post Even the Team Behind Cowboy Bebop Pushed Back On Its Ending appeared first on /Film.
When Bill Skarsgård was asked what his father put in the water of his household to produce a family of talented actors, he jokingly answered, "Just a lot of alcohol." It's a fair question given the level of acting talent contained in the Stockholm family. Family patriarch Stellan Skarsgård has well over 100 IMDb credits to his name and is arguably at the peak of his career after starring in 2021's sci-fi epic "Dune." But along with this impressive resume, Skarsgård is also the father of eight children, four of them being actors. The oldest sibling, Alexander, and the fourth son, Bill, have both become A-list stars helming blockbuster hits of their own. The second sibling, Gustaf, starred in the History Channel series "Vikings" and Season 2 of HBO's "Westworld," while the fifth son, Valter, is making a name for himself in Sweden, where his more famous family members got their start before breaking into Hollywood.
While the senior Skarsgård's credits run the gamut of film genres, including singing and dancing in 2008's "Mamma Mia," he particularly likes to choose shocking roles that explore the darker edges of humanity. In an interview promoting his controversial film "The Painted Bird," Skarsgård noted, "I like material that approaches dangerous borders." His sons, Alexander and Bill, are following in his footsteps, making a name for themselves with surprising roles in the horror genre. The following is a roundup of 17 times the Skarsgård family gave everyone nightmares.
The movie about super-intelligent sharks sounds so ridiculous on paper that it shouldn't work. But thanks to director Renny Harlin's steady hand and a slew of fantastic character actors, the film sits in the upper echelons of the uber-niche shark horror subgenre. Stellan Skarsgård plays Jim Whitlock, a scientist in a floating lab in the middle of the ocean searching for a cure for Alzheimer's disease by genetically altering the brains of three great white sharks. Unfortunately, he and fellow researcher Dr. Susan McAlester have inadvertently created incredibly smart killing machines. The sharks sabotage an important experiment and eventually flood the facility hoping to escape into the deep blue sea where they will reign as super predators. The film is a fantastic example of '90s horror, right down to a final credits rap by LL Cool J, transcending its sillier elements by completely committing to the premise.
Skarsgård's on-screen demise is disturbing and provides the catalyst for the film's second act. While conducting an experiment, Whitlock moves a little too close to what he believes is a sleeping shark only for it to awaken and bite off his arm. Adding insult to injury, the sharks attack the helicopter attempting to airlift him to a hospital and hurl his body, still strapped to a gurney, into the lab's protective glass. Skarsgård named this as his favorite on-screen death, and it's difficult to disagree.
Reports indicate that Stellan Skarsgård is an extremely supportive dad, but he plays an entirely different kind of father figure in "The Glass House," a psychological thriller about godparents from hell. Ruby is a teenager when she and her younger brother Rhett go to live with Terry Glass and his wife Erin after their parents are killed in a car accident. Though the house is luxurious, Terry has an unsettling demeanor, and his interactions with Ruby range from inappropriate to downright scary.
The film itself is a masterclass in gaslighting and emotional manipulation as Terry subtly shames Ruby for feeling uncomfortable around him and causes her to blame herself for her parents' death. Skarsgård's cold Scandinavian demeanor provides an element of unnerving ambiguity leaving the audience unsure where Terry's motives lie. This coldness is brought to shocking life in a creepy scene early on in the film. Having been deeply traumatized by videos of graphic car crashes in her driver's ed class, Ruby is clearly shaken at dinner. Terry responds by taking her on an erratic drive through the dark neighborhood. Once the car has spun off the road, he leans over as if to kiss her. When she warns him away, he gently reaches over her shoulder and notes that she doesn't have her seat belt on. Though "The Glass House" is largely a boilerplate psychological thriller, Skarsgård manages to create a disturbing and memorable villain.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
Under ordinary circumstances, stepping into one of the most famous roles in all of horror cinema would be a dream come true for any actor. But trouble plagued the production of the prequel to William Friedkin's "The Exorcist" creating a sort of nightmare scenario of its own. Stellan Skarsgård plays the iconic Father Lankester Merrin years before he would stand under that famous Georgetown streetlight in preparation for battle against the demon Pazuzu. Signing on to play a younger version of Swedish actor Max von Sydow, Skarsgård approached his character's arc less as a horror story and more as a drama about a man struggling with his faith.
After viewing director Paul Schrader's finished film, studio executives decided it wasn't scary enough and decided to reshoot the entire thing with a few significant differences. Shelving the original, they began work on a new version, recycling many of the same sets, costumes, and plots. Director Renny Harlin stepped in to make a more ostensibly horrific film out of the valuable IP, but "Exorcist: The Beginning" was poorly received by audiences. Hoping to recoup some of its investment, studios then released the finished copy of the first directorial effort, "Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist," directly to DVD. Though the original version fared marginally better among viewers, the parallel films stand now as an example of studio interference rather than effective horror movies.
The oldest son of the Skarsgård clan never intended to go into acting. After working as a child actor in Sweden, Alexander Skarsgård initially felt uncomfortable in the public eye and walked away from the profession at 13. He spent the next decade exploring other options, even enlisting in the Swedish armed forces before auditioning for "Zoolander" on a whim. His breakout role arrived seven years later as Eric Northman on the hit HBO series "True Blood." The brooding vampire is Sheriff of Area 5 and owner of Fangtasia, a vampire bar where Bon Temps waitress Sookie Stackhouse goes on a first date with civil war era vampire Bill Compton. The role is extreme in almost every sense of the word, and the primetime vampire soap opera quickly became known for its graphic depictions of sex and violence.
Eric is such a compelling character because we're never sure exactly where his intentions lie. This is largely due to Skarsgård's constant exploration of the vampire's inner complexity. Falling somewhere between villain and anti-hero, Eric shows emotional vulnerability as the show progresses, but it's difficult to ever fully trust him. What's not in question is his involvement in some of the show's most shocking moments, from bursting into flames while sunbathing naked in the snow, to exacting a brutal revenge 2,000 years in the making.
It takes a lot to stand out in a film as thematically dark as David Fincher's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," but Stellan Skarsgård manages to do just that with a five-minute monologue in the film's final act. Skarsgård plays Martin Vanger, the brother of a missing girl whom disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist and researcher Lisbeth Salander have been tasked with finding. The Swedish actor was drawn to the project out of a desire to work with Fincher and signed on before reading Stieg Larsson's posthumous best-selling novel from which the film is adapted.
While conducting their investigation on his family's estate, Mikael and Lisbeth discover that while Martin may not be responsible for his sister's death, he is a sociopathic serial killer who learned the trade at his father's knee. He explains himself while calmly sipping a drink from the couch of his elaborate kill room while Mikael is dangling from a neck harness and shackles in front of a camera poised to record his gruesome demise. The wall is lined with industrial cleaning supplies and power tools, ominous signs of the atrocities that have taken place here. But perhaps most chilling is his icy delivery of this terrifying line: "We're not that different, you and I. We both have urges, satisfying mine requires more towels."
Alexander Skarsgård booked one of his first major film roles as Charlie in Rod Lurie's remake of the 1971 revenge film "Straw Dogs." Sam Peckinpah's original is a shocking examination of masculinity and a commentary on cinematic violence, themes Lurie attempts to expand upon in his updated version. Lurie's film changes the location to the American rural south and depicts Charlie as a former high school football star now managing a construction crew in his hometown. His ex-girlfriend Amy, now an actress, returns to town with her screenwriter husband, David. Enraged by their happiness, Charlie brutally assaults her. The film concludes with David and Amy finding justice in shocking acts of violence.
Though it would be easy to dismiss Charlie as a sadistic rapist, Skarsgård makes the character even more terrifying by attempting to empathize with him: "I wanted him to be more three-dimensional and understand who he was 10 years ago, the dreams and ambition—what he has lost." He described the relationship as a love triangle between Charlie, Amy, and David. While that's not exactly how the camera views this reunion, it is likely how a wounded narcissist like Charlie would see Amy's return. This empathy is effective not because it excuses Charlie for any of his horrific actions but because it presents him as a real monster people may actually encounter rather than a cut and dry villain with shallow motives.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
Not to be outdone by his older brother, Bill Skarsgård also made a name for himself playing a vampire. Skarsgård booked his first major role in the U.S. as Roman, the only son of the wealthy Godfrey family who looms over the small town of Hemlock Grove. Part human and part Upir, a form of Ukrainian vampire, Roman has a volatile and occasionally Oedipal relationship with his mother Olivia. Adapted from the novel by Brian McGreevy, the show also takes inspiration from Twin Peaks. Season 1 sees Roman befriend a Romani werewolf named Peter in order to solve a series of brutal murders throughout the small town. The two become close friends over the course of the series, sensing that the other will uniquely understand their supernatural ancestry.
Though Roman Godfrey and Eric Northman have numerous differences, the two vampires do share a common complexity and it's difficult to pin either down as a hero or a villain. Roman frequently gives in to his carnal desires and bloodlust, providing some of the show's bloodier moments, a high bar considering the involvement of gore aficionado Eli Roth. "Hemlock Grove" debuted in the early days of Netflix streaming, and though it never reached the popularity of "True Blood," the role set the younger Skarsgård on the path of high-profile horror roles for which he would come to be known.
Known for his handsome features, Alexander Skarsgård plays a much less glamorous character in the 2015 film "Hidden." Roy lives with his wife and young daughter in a bomb shelter hiding from mysterious creatures known as Breathers. After 301 days of isolation, the family discovers that a rat has gotten into their food supply, inviting questions about the integrity of their hiding place. The search for this rat leads to a chain of events that forces them to leave their shelter, setting up a devastating battle for survival and a horrific revelation. Skarsgård's Roy is scruffy and emaciated, having lived in darkness for nearly a year subsisting only on rations of canned food. This dressed-down role allows the talented actor to explore his more sensitive side; his relationship with his daughter is the emotional core of the film.
Though "Hidden" didn't make much of an impact and still remains largely unknown, its ripple effects throughout pop culture have been seismic. The film was written and directed by Matt and Ross Duffer, now known as the Duffer Brothers and the creators of the Netflix phenomenon "Stranger Things." Thematic connections to the 1980s sci-fi horror series abound featuring malevolent government agencies and monsters both human and otherworldly. The black-veined creature design in "Hidden" is similar to Billy's transformation in Season 3, and Roy can be seen as a sort of prototype for Jim Hopper, a father who will do anything to protect his family.
Playing an entirely different kind of monster, Alexander Skarsgård stars alongside Nicole Kidman as Perry and Celeste Wright in HBO's "Big Little Lies." The ostensibly happy couple live a life of luxury and passion in their beachside house with their twin boys Josh and Max. But the glamorous lifestyle hides a dark and frequently violent relationship, and Perry's secret life is a catalyst for another of the show's more shocking elements. Like his character in "Straw Dogs," it's Skarsgård's ability to humanize Perry that makes him all the more terrifying. "On the surface, he's an alpha — but deep down, he's insecure and spends his life waiting for the moment when she [Celeste] leaves him," the actor explained to IndieWire.
Kidman and Skarsgård worked hard to create the kind of trust that would allow them to film such a complicated relationship, often improvising many of the couple's violent fights. Both actors won Emmys for their authentic depiction of an abusive relationship, and Kidman reportedly received many emails from people responding to the show with a new understanding of the complexities involved in loving someone who hurts you. The role catapulted Skarsgård to a new level of fame and added depth to his growing resume.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
The announcement of a new adaptation of Stephen King's epic novel, "It," was met with a great deal of excitement. But Constant Readers also expressed a heavy amount of skepticism about who would fill the floppy shoes of Tim Curry, whose iconic performance as Pennywise the Dancing Clown elevated the 1990 miniseries adaptation into a cultural phenomenon. After a tumultuous pre-production, director Andy Muschietti cast Bill Skarsgård as the titular clown, reinterpreting the character with a more classical look and leaning into his shapeshifting abilities. The adaptation was a huge success, and the first of the two-part series remains the highest-grossing horror movie of all time. Though the sequel, "It Chapter Two," did not overtake its predecessor, the film was still massively successful and currently ranks at number four on the same list.
Though Muschietti employs CGI in many of the movie's special effects, most of Pennywise's devilish look is all Skarsgård. The Swedish actor reportedly spent weeks developing his Pennywise voice and unnerved co-star Bill Hader with the ability to move his eyes independently. The iconic smile is based on a childhood ability to point his lower lip, learned from older brother Gustaf. Though the original novel is known for ushering in a wave of coulrophobia, Muschietti's new adaptation ironically coincided with a real-life clown panic throughout the U.S.
In another all-too-human monster, Bill Skarsgård plays Mark in the ultra-violent horror film "Assassination Nation." Lily is a high school senior having an affair with a much older man named Nick while maintaining a stormy relationship with her high school boyfriend, Mark. A massive data leak exposes the secrets of half the town and publicizes the trove of anonymous nudes she's been sending Nick, putting her life in danger. The shocking film is an unflinching examination of social media culture, toxic masculinity, and female rage listing a slew of trigger warnings in its opening moments.
Though Skarsgård does not play the film's central villain, his role is arguably more haunting as an example of the dangerous results of growing up in a toxic alpha-male culture. Mark is an insecure young man who takes his frustrations out on his girlfriend, in one scene berating Lily for her revealing attire. One of the film's most upsetting scenes involves Mark soothing his bruised ego after finding out about her infidelity. Having recognized Lily's body in the nudes she sent to Nick, he and several friends ambush her in the school locker room, holding her down and searching her body for an identifying birthmark that will reveal her to be the source of the photos.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.
In 2018, Bill Skarsgård returned to the world of Stephen King in the highly anticipated "Castle Rock." From executive producer J.J. Abrams, the anthology series is an IP playground of sorts set in King's iconic town with many characters from his canon interacting with original characters in new storylines. Skarsgård plays the mysterious Kid, a mostly silent prisoner found deep within the walls of Shawshank State Prison. Skarsgård's Kid is an original character, but his name is perhaps a nod to a controversial character in the extended cut of King's epic novel, "The Stand." Though we never find out exactly where he comes from or what he's doing in his solitary cell, the Kid seems to possess the ability to inspire dark desires and instincts in anyone who goes near him.
Having just wrapped filming on the adaptation of King's masterpiece "It," Skarsgård was understandably hesitant to commit to another role related to the prolific author. He was reportedly won over by the material itself and enjoyed the ability to create a new character whose storyline was not already known to audiences. In fact, after two seasons, we're still not sure who The Kid is and what his presence in Castle Rock means for King's Macroverse.
Airing 33 years after the real-life disaster it portrays, HBO's "Chernobyl" became a massive hit and earned wide praise for its authenticity and attention to detail. Craig Mazan's five-part series is the story of the 1986 explosion of reactor four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Russia. Stellan Skarsgård stars as Boris Shcherbina, the soviet bureaucrat charged with managing the aftermath of the disaster. Skarsgård won high praise for the role, taking home a Golden Globe for best supporting actor in a television series. When speaking of his character's arc, the Swedish actor noted, "It's interesting to play a character who is representative of a faulty system, and has spent his life defending it, and then has to look back at his life and admit that he's been wrong."
Though "Chernobyl" is more drama than horror, the story's verisimilitude often makes for horrific viewing. In addition to the gruesome makeup effects used to depict the horrors of radiation poisoning, Skarsgård is involved in one of the show's most unnerving moments when Shcherbina commands a pilot to fly directly over the open and burning reactor only to be averted by his partner Valery Legasov's desperate pleas. The scene gains new significance as the two men later watch from a nearby rooftop as another helicopter attempts the same flight and disintegrates in midair due to the massive amount of radiation. Based on horrifying true events, "Chernobyl" grows more harrowing with each rewatch.
In a bit of a departure for the Swedish actor, Bill Skarsgård plays Willard, a father in the rural south in Antonio Campos' sprawling southern gothic "The Devil All the Time." The multi-generation story begins as Willard returns from service in the South Pacific and starts a family, only to find that his demons have followed him home. He teaches his young son, Arvin, a deadly combination of religion, violence, and sacrifice that serves as the catalyst for much of the story's broad reach. Willard's scenes are some of the film's most frightening, and his depiction of a father struggling with PTSD won praise from critics amidst mixed reactions to the movie in general. Though the Netflix film features an impressive cast, many critics felt it was simply overstuffed with characters and plot.
Skarsgård was initially intimidated by the role, wary of his ability to shed his nordic demeanor to embody the father from 1950s era West Virginia. Though the film is arguably more of a drama than horror, Skarsgård embraced the more terrifying elements of the story, calling it an exploration of "what desperate people do in order to try to save themselves and their loved ones." On set, the Stephen King veteran reportedly leaned on his horror roots by revealing to Michael Banks Repeta, the young actor playing his son, that he is in fact the actor who portrayed Pennywise in "It," bringing the boy to tears during an emotional scene.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.
Bill Skarsgård is not the only family member to play an iconic villain from Stephen King's connected universe. Older brother Alexander Skarsgård entered the master of horror's world by portraying the equally evil Randal Flagg, the central villain in King's "The Stand" and a handful of other stories. The 1,152-page novel is the sprawling story of an America ravaged by a plague that wipes out 99% of the world's population. The survivors find themselves drawn into an epic battle between good and evil that may decide the future of humanity. Ironically "The Stand" wrapped production in March of 2020, just days before most of the world went into lockdown as a result of COVID-19. The nine-part miniseries debuted in December 2022, a fitting and poignant cap to a year turned upside down by a deadly disease.
A devil of sorts, Flagg is a suave and often charming villain, able to talk his victims into following him with the promise of power. But he can be vicious as well as the unfortunate Bobby Terry discovers after failing to follow his boss' instructions. Flagg emerges from a Las Vegas elevator covered in Bobby's blood and clutching what appears to be the doomed man's heart in his fist. When asked who would win in a fight between Bill's Pennywise or Alexander's Flagg, the actor was a bit biased in saying he thinks Flagg would win, given his devilish powers.
Not to be outdone by his children, Stellan Skarsgård also plays a villain in a blockbuster adaptation of an epic series of novels. "Dune," adapted from Frank Herbert's classic novel, features Skarsgård as the sinister Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. The ambitious film debuted in 2021 to generally positive reviews and a slew of Academy Award nominations including Best Picture. The film features an all-star cast including Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, and Rebecca Ferguson bringing the beloved source material to life. Skarsgård is terrifying as the sinister Baron, who murders Duke Leto Atreides and abandons his heir, Paul, and concubine Lady Jessica to be devoured by the cruel deserts of Arrakis.
Transforming into the 600-pound villain took nearly seven hours in the makeup chair, but underneath the numerous prosthetics and built-in cooling system is the trademark gravelly voice and cold demeanor that has proved so terrifying in Skarsgård's other films. Especially chilling is the scene from which he emerges from a vat of black goo, inspired by Marlon Brando's iconic Kurtz from "Apocalypse Now." Skarsgård intentionally resisted humanizing the larger-than-life villain, wisely choosing to use his limited screen time to "scare the s***" out of audiences.
Alexander Skarsgård's film "The Northman" is a passion project stemming from his time as another Northman, Sheriff Eric in HBO's "True Blood." Skarsgård became fascinated with Viking lore while filming Eric's origin story and began sketching out plans to bring Nordic mythology to the big screen. Based on the Viking myth that inspired "Hamlet," "The Northman" is the story of Amleth, a Viking prince cast out of his ancestral lands who spends the rest of his life dedicated to revenge against the man who murdered his father and kidnapped his mother. "The Northman" afforded Skarsgård the opportunity to reunite with Nicole Kidman who plays his mother Queen Gudrún. The two again share a tumultuous relationship in some of the film's most intense scenes.
Skarsgård sought out director Robert Eggers after his debut film, "The Witch," impressed the Swedish actor not only with the meticulous director's attention to physical detail, but in his ability to invite audiences into the psychology of his films' time periods. This authenticity is not just relegated to the film's sets; Skarsgård underwent an enormous physical transformation to embody the muscular warrior. Though we sympathize with Amleth, the laws of ethics have little place in the violent world of Norse mythology. Skarsgård intentionally resisted glorifying this violent heritage, depicting a savage raid in which Amleth and his fellow Vikings lay waste to a peaceful town in order to claim the spoils of battle.
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The post 17 Times The Skarsgårds Gave Us Nightmares appeared first on /Film.
So, you want to play retro video games? Excellent. Whether you’re exploring old favorites or digging for new treasures, there’s a huge library of titles out there waiting for you. Some retro enthusiasts (like your dear author) will fall down the rabbit hole of era-appropriate hardware— original consoles, game paks,…
This post contains spoilers for "The Boys" season 3, as well as "The Boys" comic series, "Breaking Bad" and "Game of Thrones."
The most impressive part of "The Boys" is the way it's developed the character of Homelander (Antony Starr), the all-powerful, indestructible superhero who captains (or co-captains) the Seven. The concept of an evil Superman may not be super fresh territory, but rarely have we seen the character type handled with such consistent competence. For three seasons now, the protagonists of "The Boys" have been fighting against an evil villain who could technically rip them all to shreds at any moment if he desired.
But as of halfway through season 3, the boys are all still alive. And even though Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott) have openly defied Homelander, they both still live to tell the tale. Considering the sheer scale of the power imbalance on display here, this all feels like a miracle. "The Boys" has somehow managed to milk the tension around Homelander for this long without yet running out of steam. But realistically, how many more episodes until they run out?
The show's most recent episode features Homelander kicking Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito) out of power and replacing the man with Ashley (Colby Minifie), a character Homelander's successfully intimidated into doing everything he tells her to do, no matter what. Season 3 has also seen Homelander embrace his angrier, unapologetic side in public, only to find out that a significant percentage of America actually likes this side of him. With him calling Starlight's bluff of releasing the video that would destroy his reputation, as well as his casual murder of Supersonic, it's clear that we're approaching a crossroads.
When asked how many seasons of "The Boys" he plans to write, showrunner Eric Kripke said, "The rough idea in my head is five seasons total." Take that with a grain of salt though, because he also noted that his original plan for his previous show "Supernatural" was five seasons as well, and the show went on for fifteen years. The idea that he has a general five-season plan at the moment is promising though, because it indicates they've really thought through how to maintain narrative tension throughout the whole show, with some sort of conclusive finale in mind.
But does that plan include keeping Homelander as the Big Bad for five seasons straight? The longer he's around, the more it stretches credulity that he hasn't hunted down and killed the Boys, Queen Maeve, or Starlight. They've been foreshadowing Homelander snapping and going on a mass homicidal rampage for a while now, and if that doesn't happen soon it's going to feel like the show is dragging things out. You can only have him be so close to snapping for so long before viewers get frustrated.
On the other hand, because he's both so powerful and so unhinged, the character finally snapping could very well break the show. So much of "The Boys" is focused on satirizing our current world with all its corporate overreach and media manipulation; how could the show continue for much longer if Homelander decides to burn all that down? And if he's killed before he can burn the world down, how does the show deal with no longer having a proper Big Bad character?
Considering how vital Homelander has been to the show's narrative so far, it almost seems impossible that "The Boys" could continue without him. At least, not any longer than an episode or two at most, let alone entire seasons. And yet, so much of season 3 so far seems dedicated to setting up compelling storylines that could sustain the show even after his death. You've got Victoria Neuman's storyline, the long-term question mark that is Homelander's powerful son Ryan, as well as the introduction of the temporary compound V that could give the normal characters superhuman powers. The complications that'll come with someone like Butcher (Karl Urban) becoming a supe is something that could give us more than enough material to last a few more seasons, with or without Homelander.
It's possible "The Boys" might take a cue from "Breaking Bad," a show that killed off its Big Bad character at the end of its fourth season. Rather than run out of steam as some fans feared, "Breaking Bad" followed up with sixteen of the most intense and exciting episodes of the show's run. The key was that they didn't try to replace Gus with an even more powerful and dangerous drug lord. Instead of having the audience worry about outside threats to Walt and Walt's family, they mostly dedicated their final season to Walt's family imploding from the inside. Likewise, the endgame of "The Boys" without Homelander may be more interesting if it was focused on the divisions between Butcher, M.M., Frenchie, Hughie, and Kimiko, not some new threat from an even more powerful supe.
There are already a ton of differences between the show and the source material, to the point where it's clear that how the comics' end is not going to happen in the TV show. That said, it does provide some clues as to what direction the show might take.
In the comics, Homelander is killed relatively close to the end of the series' run when it's revealed that Black Noir is a clone of Homelander, created by Vought as a failsafe in case Homelander went off the rails. Black Noir kills Homelander and then Butcher kills Black Noir. The rest of the series' run centers around Butcher being incapable of letting go of his hatred of superheroes. The guy he's been after this whole time is dead, but he still can't stop. The series ends with Butcher having to be put down by Hughie of all people.
Although the show's obviously not going to go in this exact direction — for one thing, we now know for a fact that the show's Black Noir is not a Homelander clone — it's easy to picture the show expanding on the comics' final storyline. It's already been foreshadowed that Butcher's thirst for vengeance (as well as his newfound powers) is going to lead him down an increasingly dark place, just as it's been established that M.M. has lost his trust in and respect for Mallory. There are a lot of organic ways for this group to fracture in the absence of a clear goal, and a lot of exciting TV to make out of it.
Perhaps one of the wisest decisions made by the "Game of Thrones" showrunners (or more accurately, George R. R. Martin) was to kill off Joffrey early in the fourth season. The sadistic, bratty child-king was a brilliantly realized villain, but I don't think readers or viewers could've stomached the character for much longer. The show later smartly decided to kill off Ramsay Bolton (Joffrey's replacement as the show's most punchable character) in season 6. After all, how much longer could we have watched those characters gleefully torture those around them before it became too much? Likewise, how long can we watch Homelander gleefully torment everyone with no real repercussions before it starts to feel like we're watching misery porn?
Perhaps more importantly, killing him off would give "The Boys" a chance to broaden our understanding of what the show's about. Is this a story just about trying to take down Evil Superman, or does its premise still hold up without him? Can the show's big cast of varied, compelling characters stay fresh and exciting in a post-Homelander show? I'd argue it can.
In the end, of course, "The Boys" doesn't have to do anything. There are probably ways to organically delay Homelander's downfall; maybe he flirts around with a redemption arc, or there's some bigger threat introduced that turns him into a reluctant temporary ally for the boys. When it comes to the question of what to do with this character, there are clear advantages and disadvantages to every option. But whichever direction they choose to go, we can probably trust that the writers will handle it as well as they can. They haven't let fans down yet, after all.
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The post How Long Can The Boys Keep Homelander Around? appeared first on /Film.
The development of 3D technology has been both a benefit and a hindrance to the film industry. Like any other piece of technology, 3D is a tool, and when used properly can create an immersive and rewarding cinematic experience for audiences. However, 3D has also become a crutch that some films have leaned on to justify their existence. The use of 3D has a longer history within cinema than some film fans may realize. The first 3D screenings were held in select specialty theaters over 100 years ago. Initially, 3D films began to take off at the box office in the 1950s, thanks to the popularity of 3D comic books and magazines. Many classic adventure, science fiction, fantasy, and horror films used 3D as a major selling point.
James Cameron's science-fiction epic "Avatar" changed the public's perception of 3D, becoming a sensational event unlike anything else in cinematic history. Despite the surge in the popularity of 3D following "Avatar's" success, box office revenue for 3D films has declined over the past decade. Here are some of the best and worst 3D moments in science fiction movie history.
Long before Universal Pictures attempted to launch the "Dark Universe" crossover franchise, the studio created many influential horror films based on beloved genre characters. "Frankenstein," "The Mummy," "The Bride of Frankenstein," and "Dracula" are just a few of the classics that Universal created during this golden era. The "Universal Monsters" films were events, with shocking visual effects and jump scares frightening audiences. One of the later films in this cycle, "The Creature From The Black Lagoon," used a new technique to draw in fans: 3D.
Produced on a shoestring budget of less than $500,000, "The Creature From The Black Lagoon" was shot in black-and-white 3D using polarized light technology. Unfortunately, the "3D experience" had begun to fade during the middle of the decade, and many audiences did not get the chance to see the film in its intended format. "The Creature From The Black Lagoon" has all the hallmarks of an early 3D film: the story is simple, the titular creature's design is iconic, and the scares are effectively utilized. However, "The Creature From The Black Lagoon" also used 3D to immerse the viewers in a tragic love story. The audience is forced to empathize with the aquatic monster as he falls in love with a human woman, and seeing him swim around in his natural habitat is even more heartbreaking in 3D.
Using 3D to convert older films is a flawed practice. These films weren't originally shot using 3D cameras, which require different considerations. Lucasfilm announced in 2011 that they would be re-releasing the first six "Star Wars" films on the big screen in 3D. This was shortly after the release of "Star Wars: The Complete Saga" on Blu-Ray, which included additional edits and changes to the film. Lucasfilm planned to let audiences experience the journey of Anakin Skywalker in chronological order, so "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace" was the first to hit theaters. Unfortunately, the 3D effects only exposed the same flaws the film had back in 1999.
"The Phantom Menace" uses so much computer-generated imagery that the film looks flat and lifeless. Unfortunately, many of these CGI effects (which were groundbreaking in 1999) had aged poorly by 2012. Releasing the film in 3D made it look even more dull and fake. Who wanted to see Jar Jar Binks mope around during the Battle of Naboo in an extra dimension? Audiences were not enthused about the conversion, and the re-release of "The Phantom Menace" only performed moderately at the box office. It was such a letdown that subsequent plans to release "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith" in theaters in fall 2013 were canceled.
Movie fans have never had a reason to doubt James Cameron at his word considering the filmmaker has managed to reinvent the film industry almost every time he releases a new flick. In 1997, Cameron set the all-time box office record for the highest-grossing film with his historical romantic epic "Titanic." A technical and emotional marvel, "Titanic" earned 11 Academy Award wins, including best director. Over two decades later, Cameron did it again with 2009's "Avatar," which had the most ambitious use of 3D in sci-fi history at the time. Cameron took full advantage of the immersive technology; creating an entirely new world of the lush jungle planet Pandora. A majority of the film's action sequences and emotional beats rely on the audience's investment in completely digital characters. This could have easily been disastrous if it was improperly handled, at worst feeling like an extended video game cutscene.
However, Cameron used 3D to make the story more engaging, with the extra layer of detail allowing the viewer to learn more about Pandora. It makes it more exciting when Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) chooses to defy his military commanders and fight for the preservation of Pandora. It is impressive that after over a decade, "Avatar" still holds up, and fans are anxious to see what Cameron has in store with the sequel "Avatar: The Way of Water," which is finally headed to theaters later this year.
"Green Lantern" is arguably one of the most disappointing comic book films of all time. DC fans had been eagerly anticipating an adaptation of the beloved character, and it seemed like 2011's "Green Lantern" had a perfect team assembled. Ryan Reynolds was perfectly cast as the flying ace Hal Jordan, and fans had reason to believe that "Casino Royale" and "The Mask of Zorro" director Martin Campbell could deliver on the science fiction action spectacle that they hoped for. Unfortunately, "Green Lantern" was a convoluted, misguided mess from the beginning. Reynolds himself has been outspoken about his distaste for the project.
Among the many issues with "Green Lantern" was the decision to convert the film to 3D in the post-production stage. Since "Green Lantern" was not originally conceived with 3D in mind, there are many sequences that look obtuse with the added dimension. The 3D details only called attention to the film's uninspired visual design. There were also many scenes added during reshoots, giving the visual effects team even less time to make the 3D transition feel fluid. One of the biggest issues with "Green Lantern" is that the sequences in space and the scenes on Earth feel like they are taking place in two wildly different movies, both tonally and visually, and the use of 3D only called attention to this glaring problem. The galactic scenes are cartoony and overtly goofy, and the Earthbound moments feel painfully slow and generic.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has released many films in 3D, and has generally done a good job with its handling of 3D effects. However, there was a sameness of style that had crept into the MCU by the end of Phase Two. Marvel films began to look, sound, and feel the same. While the term "comic book movie fatigue" has been overused, Marvel needed to prove that they could create something that was truly distinct.
"Doctor Strange" was one of the boldest visual achievements in the MCU. It took full advantage of the gags and jump scares that could only work in 3D. Here the 3D made sense within the context of the story, as "Doctor Strange" took the MCU in a more mystical direction than it had ever gone before. Between Steven Strange's (Benedict Cumberbatch) first taste of magic to the head-spinning final battle, there were more than enough reasons to pay the extra price for a 3D ticket.
Did you think that Robby the Robot in 1956's "Forbidden Planet" was the first silly robot in science fiction movie history? "Robot Monster" got their first. The less said about this cheap black-and-white sci-fi action movie, the better. "Robot Monster" was produced on a small budget of $16,000, and the only redeeming thing about it is the relatively brief running time.
"Robot Monster" is one of the worst examples of 3D being used as a gimmick. The "death ray" that the villainous "Ro-Man" (a gorilla body with a diving bell-like helmet) uses is embarrassing, even by the standards of low-budget 1950s sci-fi movies. Ro-Man uses his death ray to attack a group of humans, who are granted special powers. This 3D effect only calls attention to how poor the costume is. "Robot Monster" isn't even enjoyable as an unintentional comedy. Sci-fi B-movies have a special place in the hearts of many genre fans, and at their best can at least deliver some creative visual moments and fun characters. "Robot Monster" is nothing but an uninspired attempt to cash in on the short-lived 3D craze of the 1950s.
The "Star Trek" franchise became the phenomenon that it is today because of the care that the creative team put into every production. There's a reason why so many people around the world identify themselves as "Trekkies." An incredible amount of detail is put into the world-building that makes Starfleet feel realistic, and "Star Trek Beyond" showed off the amazing work by the visual effects team and makeup department in the full glory of 3D.
If they were watching the film in 3D, "Star Trek" fans could notice the many different aliens, ships, and props that populated the backgrounds. The awe-inspiring power of 3D to instigate audience applause is put on display during a climactic battle sequence set to the Beastie Boys song "Sabotage," a callback to 2009's "Star Trek" where a younger Kirk listens to the song. Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Bones (Karl Urban) amusingly cite the Beastie Boys record as "classical music." Kirk blasts "Sabotage" on a radio wave that overwhelms the villain Krall (Idris Elba) and his forces when they are attempting to destroy the Federation. The 3D helps show how each of the members of the crew contributed to the mission.
Sadly, director Roland Emmerich couldn't capture the same light-hearted tone of his 1996 sensation "Independence Day" with its sequel, as the context of disaster movies had radically changed after 20 years. In the 1990s, it was fun to see national monuments destroyed in epic explosions. In a post-9/11 world, the devastation of the world's population feels like an all-too-real reminder of modern terrorism. Emmerich seemed completely ignorant of how disturbing it would be to watch people run for their lives in 3D.
The film's alien antagonists unleash a massive weapon. They begin to drill down into the Earth's core in the North Atlantic Ocean. The tidal waves and debris affect the entire globe. Amidst chaos and devastation, the comical side character Julius Levinson (Judd Hirsch) tries to sail away from the attack. It's a very strange choice to insert a gag in the middle of such a violent sequence, and the 3D effects make the moment stick out like a sore thumb.
"Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse" was an immersive superhero movie experience, unlike anything that audiences had ever seen before. The eye-popping visual style brought the panels of a comic book to life. The film is so packed with Easter Eggs and minor details that even the biggest Spidey fan on the planet could not possibly notice them all after just one viewing. Fans probably needed to see the film in 3D so they could pay attention to what was going on in the background.
However, the 3D in "Spider-Verse" didn't just help highlight the different references, but also made the emotional undercurrent of the story more impactful. "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" is a story of acceptance in which Miles Morales (Shamaeik Moore) has to accept the responsibility of becoming a web-slinger, even though he is terrified. The film opened up the doors for more representation in comic book cinema, proving that not everyone who dons the Spider-Man mask has to look like Peter Parker. During the climax of the film, Miles jumps off of a tall building and swings across the city for the first time. The 3D allows the audience to process the same excitement, fear, and anticipation that Miles does as he pulls glass off of the side of a building when he jumps; earlier in the film, Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) had told him that his hands will "stick" when he is scared.
There haven't been many films in recent history that have had quite as troubled a production as 2016's "Suicide Squad." The third installment in the DCEU was initially conceived as a dark, gritty crime thriller. However, the positive reception to a more lighthearted trailer inspired Warner Bros. to do extensive reshoots in order to add more jokes. This resulted in an awkward mishmash of tones. The story was cut down and simplified, which made it very disorienting to watch, and the 3D effects' insertion within what was already chaotic editing made the film unwatchable.
Instead of fully fleshing out the characters of Task Force X, "Suicide Squad" introduces them through a montage. Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) dully lists out the attributes of Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), and Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). When characters' titles and backstories pop out at the viewer in 3D, it feels like a lazy excuse for actually building empathy for the characters.
Sometimes 3D can call attention to films that have aged poorly like "The Phantom Menace," but it can also highlight why some classics have held up. In 2013, Universal Pictures re-released Steven Spielberg's original "Jurassic Park" to celebrate the film's 20th anniversary. Fortunately, the Steven Spielberg classic is one of the rare blockbuster films that hasn't aged a day since its initial release.
One of the most glaring errors with the "Jurassic Park" sequels is that they don't capture the same sense of awe and wonder that the first film does. There is a simple beauty in seeing dinosaurs on the big screen for the first time, and the moment where Alan Grant (Sam Neill) observes a Brachiosaurus in its natural habitat was jaw-dropping in 1993 because of how groundbreaking the CGI was. Audiences got to feel the same way when they saw the scene in 3D.
After the success of "Star Wars," the film industry was desperate to produce another science fiction adventure film that could capture the same tone. This led to the production of many cheap "Star Wars" knock-offs intended to cash in on the sci-fi craze. Among all of the "Star Wars" wannabes, 1983's "Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone" is one of the worst. The production was reportedly rushed in order to take advantage of an uptick in 3D's popularity following the release of 1981 western "Comin' At Ya!"
The lack of passion behind the film is evident from its beat-for-beat replication of the "Star Wars" plot. During the final battle, Wolff (Peter Strauss), Niki (Molly Ringwald), and Washington (Ernie Hudson) flee the fortress of the villain Overdog McNabb (Michael Ironside) before it explodes. The detonation is virtually identical to the implosion of the "Death Star." The 3D made the obvious disparity in quality even more apparent.
Not every "Star Wars" 3D knockoff is worth dismissing entirely. While it can't compare to the original trilogy, 1983's "Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn" is an amusingly ridiculous combination of fantasy, science fiction, action, and western genres. It draws inspiration from the outer space action of "Star Wars" and the mythology of "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Look, if you're going to rip off "Star Wars," you might as well rip off another Lucasfilm production at the same time. If you're going to steal, at least steal from the best, and do it in 3D while you are at it!
Michael Preston's over-the-top performance as the villainous space outlaw Jared-Syn has to be witnessed to be believed. Preston chews the scenery with his eccentric cruelty, showing the actor completely understood the assignment. Syn possesses powerful magic crystals that drain the life out of his victims. In one of the most amusingly silly moments, Syn desperately tries to unleash the crystal's power during the final battle with the heroic space ranger Dogen (Jeffrey Byron). The recreation of the Ark of the Covenant moment in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" at least has fun with the way the magical crystal glows in 3D.
If there's any filmmaker who should stay far away from 3D, it's Michael Bay. His "Transformers" films are among the most cynical blockbusters of the 21st century, and 2014's "Transformers: Age of Extinction" brought the franchise to a new low. The use of 3D only called attention to the laziness of the production. There are unfinished visual effects, glaring continuity errors, and no sense of story structure. Unlike 2011's "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," which actually had some fun with the 3D destruction of Chicago, "Age of Extinction" is just depressing to watch.
The much-hyped reveal of the "Dinobots" was one of the most disappointing moments in "Age of Extinction." Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) delivers yet another inspirational speech when he leads the Dinobots into battle against Megatron and the Decepticons. While Bay tries to use 3D to make this moment feel exciting, it falls completely flat.
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The post The Best And Worst 3D Moments In Sci-Fi Movie History appeared first on /Film.
Before we get started, there’s one last detail I need to cover. I’m going to be re-using names from the previous games. I’m only doing this for the ease of reading. I’m not actually suggesting that every single character in my story would be a repurposed character from the earlier games.
The problem we have is that this series is fairly light on details. We don’t have faces, voices, costumes, musical cues, and character designs to make all of these people memorable. I’m going to be dumping a lot of names on you, and it’s going to be easy to get confused.
I’m hoping that by borrowing existing names, you’ll be able to attach these new characters to equivalents in other games. When I mention a guy named Sam Carter in my story, I’m hoping you’ll remember the retired military hardass with a heart of gold that mentors JC Denton in the original game.
If we were actually going to make this into a game, then we would need to give everyone unique names.[1]
Anyway, let’s hit New Game and play…
In his video, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is FINE, And Here’s Why, Hbomberguy gives the game a hard time for a long intro. There’s a pre-rendered cinematic, and then a passive walk-and-talk, then an elevator ride, then a conversation with your boss, then another elevator ride, then the brief tutorial, then a long intro movie where the main character becomes augmented, then a time-cut to months later, then a brief bit where you run around the office and talk to people, then you meet your pilot, then you ride a helicopter and converse with your boss, and THEN you’re dropped off at the first mission and begin the game proper. I just checked someone’s playthrough online, and it looks like it takes about 12 minutes to get to the first gameplay, and 25 minutes to get to the first gameplay that isn’t a hand-holding tutorial.
Looking back, it’s shocking that the game got away with such a protracted introduction. I’m certainly not going to count on getting away with that a second time. There’s no way to even dream of matching the original in terms of depth and scope with modern production values, but I think we can do better than 12 minutes! The original game’s intro was about two minutes, so I’m going to give myself about that much space to work with.
INT-MANAGEMENT BOARDROOM-DAY
We’re in an opulent, dark, and poorly-lit room. Various figures are gathered around the table. They’re backlit with a pale orange light, so we can’t see anyone’s faces just yet. The player won’t know their names, and the subtitles will just identify them as Man #1, Man #2, and so on. But for the purposes of this bit of the script I’m going to give their names and descriptions up front.
South African industrialist Samkelo Mensah: I’ve just received news that the American President has chosen not to invade the peninsula.
Russian intelligence leader Leonid Sidorov: (Hollywood Russian accent.) This is outrage. We have military projects that have stalled. There can be no spoils if there is no war.
Brazilian Environmentalist / Politician Camila Ferreira: His term is almost up. The next president will be more cooperative.
American media mogul Ted Walters: Actually, it’s really looking like Ellis is going to win a second term.
Sidorov: (Slams down his drink.) Nyet! We cannot wait another six years!
Ted Walters: (Mumbling.) It’s only four in America, Len.
Sidorov: (Overlapping, ignoring him.) Something must be done!
Camila Ferreira: Morgan Everett said that-
Chinese apparatchik Maggie Chow: (Interrupting.) Morgan Everett is out. We’ve waited long enough. A plan is already in place. Ellis will be gone by the end of the week.
(Ominous music.)
FADE OUT.
We get a title card telling us we’re at the White House. The year is 2044.[2]
We begin with Troy Denton. I’d suggest making the protagonist player-selectable gender like Commander Shepard because that’s more fun. Everyone in the story can just call the player character “Agent” or “Denton”. But in this write-up I’m going to assume male for ease of naming and pronoun-ing. The old games had protagonists named JC and Adam as a kind of New Testament / Old Testament motif. We could continue the sloppy Biblical references by naming our hero Moses or Mary or something. But I don’t think the Bible stuff ever really worked or said anything interesting.[3] The series has kind of built a brand around half-assed references to Greek myths, so let’s stick to that and drop the Biblical stuff.
It’s election season, so it must be autumn. Most of the missions will take place at night because that’s cooler and more cyberpunky,[4] but the sun is up for the tutorial missions. It’s morning when the game starts.
Troy is a secret service agent in a near-future world. He’s been in the Secret Service for three years, and he’s spent all of that time guarding the president’s children. He’s just been promoted and today is his first day of protecting the president directly.
Sam Carter is the White House head of security. He meets with Troy, checks his augs, congratulates the young agent on the early promotion, and assures the kid that he’s going to do just fine. This guy is clearly a mentor / father figure to our hero. Carter reminds Troy that the election season is in full swing and everyone is a bit on edge.
They end with this exchange:
Troy: “Uncle President”
Carter: (Shakes his head.) I know the people like him, but that’s just childish.
Troy: If you can believe it, even his kids call him that when he’s not around.
Carter: You’re kidding.
Troy: I’m not.
Carter: Well make sure you don’t say it in front of him.
Troy: Obviously.
Carter: You nervous?
Troy: (Player-selectable response that suggests nervousness, confidence, or flippancy.)
Carter: (Chucks him on the shoulder.) Okay kid. Good luck in there.
Troy enters the oval office where President Ellis is having a meeting with his Chief of Staff. The room is… well, you’ve probably seen the oval office before. Round. Couches. Big logo in the middle of the floor. Nice desk. Flags around.
Chief of Staff: …I’m just saying that it makes you look weak, and a campaign is a bad time to look weak.
President Ellis: I understand that, Bob. But I’m not going to start a war so I can look tough.
CoS: Well maybe we could just send a few-
President Ellis: (Seeing Denton come in, and perhaps eager for an excuse to to change the subject.) Ah. Agent Denton. I was told you’d be joining my detail. Ronald and Eleanor talk about you a lot. I can’t promise that guarding me will be as exciting as guarding my kids, but we’ll try to keep you on your toes.
Troy: (Nervous.) Thank you uncl- uh… Mister President.
CoS: (Disgusted.) If you can’t follow the basics of presidential decorum then maybe you should stick to guarding children.
President Ellis: (Waving his hand dismissively at the Chief.) It’s fine, Bob. It’s fine. (To Denton, lowkey aside.) It’s certainly not the worst thing people call me these days.
Denton takes his place by the door and the president returns to his meeting.
In the next few lines of dialog, we learn that he was a dark horse third-party candidate. He was elected in a crazy upset and now his first term has been aces. Employment, the economy, crime… Everything is headed in the right direction.[5]
We’re going to get through this entire stealth-friendly game without ever forcing the player into a trap or using a cutscene to eject them from stealth. I think the player will forgive me for this moment.
Once the above exposition has been chucked in the player’s direction, an alarm goes off. Agent Carter runs in. It seems a white house tour group has left the intended path and is heading this direction. We have to assume they’re hostile.
Carter opens up a secret panel on one wall and drags the shocked and bewildered president into the newly-revealed passage. As they exit, Carter orders Troy to cover their escape. It turns out the tour group was made entirely of enemy agents / soldiers / terrorists / whoever and the group is headed this way. So Troy is going to fight a bunch of mooks dressed as civilians.[6] Carter orders Troy to kill the attackers, but the player is also given the tools to knock them out if they prefer.[7]
Troy discovers a few dead secret service agents, so we can tell these attackers mean business. We push through a couple of rooms of light combat to get the really basic tutorials out of the way. For gameplay purposes, the mooks have all sportingly decided to wear the same orange T-shirt, or some variation of that color of orange.
So we stop the invaders. Then Alex Jocobson calls us on the radio. She’s our tech specialist for the game, and she’s going to walk us through the rest of the tutorial level.
Apparently the remaining invaders are routed. They’ve escaped into the sooper-secret labyrinth of steam tunnels beneath the White House, which of course are a real thing that exists in this world. She sends you down to deal with them.
Now we get the full gameplay tutorial. We can murder our way through the mooks, guns blazing. Or we can stealth our way through and knock them all out. Or we can crawl through some environmental hazards to reach the generator room and cut the power. This will trap the invaders in the tunnels,[8] in the dark, so that the army can collect them later.
I realize that the original game began with a huge open level with countless available routes, so it probably seems a little disappointing to start with something so straightforward. But game space is expensive, and I’d rather spend that money later once the player has some cool weapons and augmentations unlocked. Also, in story terms you’re supposed to be facing off against a small group of radicals. If we made this a big sprawling multi-path affair, then we’d need an implausibly enormous army of invaders to fill up that gamespace. I really don’t want our hero to rack up a triple digit body count before we even get the story off the ground. So instead of starting with something vast, we start with something short and sweet. So let’s get these tutorials out of the way, and then we can open things up.
This section ends with Troy confronting the leader Leo Gold, who is sitting on a bomb the size of a volkswagon. If Troy were to attack, then Leo would set off the bomb, which would level this wing of the White House.
The bomb was supposed to be a failsafe: If the direct assault failed, they were supposed to set off the bomb. But now that the moment of truth has come, Gold doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to push the button. He’s not quite willing to become a martyr and he’s looking for an alternative. There’s an exit door nearby, and he very clearly wants to make a break for it.
The player is given a choice:
1) Stall for time by talking. You can get him talking and he’ll straight up tell you his name. Troy accuses him of belonging to a rival political party. Gold laughs. He considers himself above all your trifling political squabbles. He’s here to put the world back on track. He admits that offing the president isn’t nice, but it will avert something worse. As proof of him being not-evil, he points out that they staged this attack today, when they knew the president’s family would be traveling. Gold doesn’t want to put the kids in danger. He claims the election was rigged[9] and the current president shouldn’t even be in power. The conversation ends. The player must then choose one of the next 2 options.
2) Back off and let him leave while you disable the bomb.
3) Attempt to attack him. You draw your weapon, but Troy is unable to pull the trigger. He grunts and strains and the room goes dark like he’s passing out. The first-person view dips down and we can see the pistol fall from Troy’s hand. When he looks up again, Gold is gone.
We cut to the post-attack debriefing. Troy gets berated if he didn’t get any information. If Troy tried to attack Gold, then he’ll claim his augments stopped him from pulling the trigger. Carter doesn’t believe this for a second.
Carter tells him, “It’s impossible for your implants to do something like that, kid. The hardware in your body represents millions of dollars of defense spending. It’s state of the art military technology, not a cheap cell phone. It can’t ‘glitch out’. If you didn’t have the guts to pull the trigger, just say so. It’ll look bad on your record, but lying will only make things worse.”
Here we need some sort of interlude / time cut. We need to give the player something to do to create a time break between the attack and the next scene. Maybe the player needs to do a little investigation to figure out how the attackers got weapons on the premises, or maybe there’s a hacked / haywire security system that needs to be brought under control.
This is one of those bits of the game that I’d wait until later to design. Or better yet, leave it to the gameplay designers and level designers to come up with this. It’s possible for a writer to impose too much control on the game. I don’t know what sorts of awesome ideas the other people might bring to the table. I don’t want to script a “run around and talk to everyone” sequence if the gameplay designer has a really slick mechanical challenge we could be using instead.
Also, it’s good to leave this bit until late in development because it’s sort of optional. If we start missing deadlines and we’re in danger of blowing past the ship date, sections like this one can be dropped. The time cut will feel a little jarring and it’ll make the story feel rushed, but leaving this out won’t leave behind giant continuity gaps and hanging plot threads. If you build the game in order, then running out of time means you need to butcher the ending. In my design, I’ve earmarked a couple of low-priority missions to act as our developmental crumple zones.
I realize that in a real project, the scheduling and setting of priorities would be handled by the project manager and not by the writer. But this is the sort of thing that would keep me up at night if I worked on a real AAA project. I’d worry that I poured all this time into creating this coherent world, building up these themes, setting up all of these payoffs, and then in the end we didn’t get to close the deal on any of that stuff because we ran out of time.
So I’m going to leave this bit open. If there are any tutorials we haven’t covered yet, they can go here. If the gameplay designer has some cool new mechanics for this game, we can build this section around that. For now let’s just assume that the player walks to a nearby location, does this secondary thing, and then returns to Troy’s office in the afternoon for the next bit…
Our tech / hack buddy Alex is here and she fills us in on what happened after Leo Gold escaped. She uses the PARASIGHT deep learning surveillance network[10] to track mobile phone signatures. Only one unidentified phone signal departed the White House grounds immediately following the incident. She’s tracked that phone to Miami.
We also give the player the option to discuss their augmentation malfunction with Alex. Carter dismissed it as Troy not having the guts to pull the trigger on Leo Gold, but Alex thinks it’s a weird and unlucky glitch. Maybe being so close to the generators caused some sort of malfunction? Alex sort of shrugs and promises to let you know if she figures anything out.
Leo is holding still for the moment. He seems to be laying low along the coast. We’re hoping he’ll lead us back to his boss. We don’t want to send in the army, just in case that leads to him getting Jack Ruby’d.
Hey Troy! Since you’re the only one who’s seen his face, you’re being taken off of the presidential detail and being reassigned to field work. Get down to Miami and very quietly see who Gold was working for before the conspirators begin cleaning up their mess.
Also, you’re now cleared for new augmentations. Protocol forbids agents on the presidential detail from using new experimental tech, but since you’re no longer on guard duty you’re free to start messing with the exotic gadgets that have been rolling out over the last couple of years. Here’s an upgrade module / nanite canister / sim card / floppy disk / magic pill / whatever to unlock your first upgrade. We’ll get you more later, but keep your eyes open. The bad guys might have some of this stuff too.
I’m trying to keep this focused on the writing, so I’m not going to design the gameplay systems and augmentation upgrades. (Feel free to do that in the comments if you like.) However, let me just put in a vote for bringing back the mutually exclusive upgrade choices of the original. Like, maybe your legs can jump high / kick open wooden doors, OR they can move fast & silent, but not both. Maybe your arms can shock guys unconscious OR they can project a bullet-stopping shield, but not both. And so on. Gives the game some replay value, so the player has a reason to come back and try the road not taken.
Also, I REALLY hope we don’t have auto-regen health. See Hbomb’s video for why free health regen breaks the careful balance between combat, stealth, and hacking.
Denton catches a ride on an agency heli-drone: These helicopters are usually unmanned. They patrol the city and are designed to deal with “airspace threats”. They have a small compartment in the back that can transport one or two people as needed. Alex explains that we usually just use them for putting snipers on rooftops, but they’re also a good tool if you need to quietly deploy a single agent somewhere. It doesn’t seem to have any windows.
Troy: This thing has a cockpit doesn’t it? Why can’t I sit up there?
Alex: Would you hand me a gun if I didn’t know how to use one?
Troy: Of course not.
Alex: Do you know how to fly one of these?
Troy: (Realizing he just lost.) Fine. I’ll get in the back. It’s just really tight back here.
Alex: (Playful.) You’ll be fine. You’ve got more room than business class. You don’t even have luggage.
To be continued…
"This was no tourist visit to the Capitol," Rep. Bennie Johnson (D–MNS) said as he introduced the Jan. 6 hearings last night with footage of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. And he warned that the video is intense. "The select committee obtained it as part of our investigation. — Read the rest
I remember the conversation like it was yesterday. "So let me get this straight," I asked my dad, "your skin can grow back after you cut it, but your arm can't?"
"Nope, never," he said. "But they can give one that's kind of like a robot arm." — Read the rest
Security researchers with BlackBerry and Intezer have shared details on a new Linux malware that “parasitically” infects all running processes on a target machine.
Work sucks, I know. If it’s not physically demanding, it’s mentally exhausting. Even if you have the easiest, comfiest job position, I can say for certain you’re not being paid enough to do it. And with wage stagnation, an ever-expanding wealth divide, and an apathetic world, it’s only getting worse. Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a game that takes this to one of its most extreme endpoints and makes it so incredibly satisfying.
At the beginning of Hardspace, you get a small glimpse of the future world. Earth is barely habitable while politicians and corporate entities partner together to make sure the worker (you) doesn’t get any say in making it any better. Escaping from this, you sign on as a shipbreaker, a futuristic working class salvager that takes apart old ships from an isolated dry dock orbiting Earth. On the upside, you get to escape from the choking planet and sign on with one of the biggest companies in the world. On the downside, the transportation and insurance you’re forced to take on put you into almost endless debt. Thank God the work is safe and easy then.
It’s not. It is dangerous and increasingly complex as you start picking apart larger and larger vessels. But it’s also so much fun. Shipbreaking is the backbone of this game. Each ship arrives whole, looking authentically dystopian in design, and unlike other games that revolve around destruction, these vessels don’t look blocky or obviously breakable. Instead, you have your trusty cutter to break everything down so it can be pushed into the create bin for recycling. Joints can be dissolved to take a ship apart by its bones, but sometimes the cutting has been more improvised as you pull out components that have been fused together.
As you progress into increasingly complex ships, you’ll find more challenges and dangers as you strip an old ship of its assets, demanding more attention and care as you go to work. This can include anything from electrical components to fusion reactors that you probably shouldn’t hit with lasers. Starting with a whole ship and taking it apart piece by piece is so much more satisfying than real work where you cannot tell the difference between the start of your shift and the end, except for the hours of your life lost. The controls can be a little tricky to get to grips with, especially if you’re not used to games where you’ll be moving in three directions. Still, soon enough, you’ll be precisely gliding across your dock and organising the severed ships into a regular floating disassembly line. You get other tools, too, although none of this is particularly automated. The tethers, which seem impossible to wield at first, become a lifeline as you begin taking apart massive vessels and heavy equipment.
The company also introduces more obstacles to your shift as well. The early ships can be carefully, patiently taken apart piece by piece, but once qualified, you’ll have to pay for your own air and fuel at the company store, “encouraging” you to work smarter and faster. Alternatively, you can just work wilder and more dangerously. The company store is just far enough away that you have to monitor your vitals yourself, as the journey there and back costs a little bit of air. Everything is designed to cost you just a little, make the company a little more undefeatable, and force you to knuckle under just a little bit more.
Which makes the narrative of Hardspace: Shipbreaker even better. Starting as a lowly recruit, you rise through the ranks step by step, never once getting close to the executive level, but you getting their attention and ire. This is a game about late-stage capitalism, corporate and politician oblivion, and unions, and it’s told very well.
Although it is quite a long game, the variety of ships and configurations make it feel like a pleasant, distracting grind rather than a nasty one. If you’re after a game to recover from the burnout and exhaustion of daily life in the 21st century, Hardspace offers a game that lets you lose yourself in satisfying, procedurally generated puzzles that are the ships that appear in your dock each and every ship. Whether you just want to listen to some ambient country music that calls into mind Firefly and other less problematic science fiction frontier stories, rip apart unique and detailed ships, or want to feel what it’s like to fight a massive company, win or lose, Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a fantastic game worthy of the fifteen hours or so it takes to complete.
Reviewed on PC (code provided by the publisher).
The post Hardspace: Shipbreaker Review – It’s a Hardspace life for us by Rosh Kelly appeared first on Wccftech.
The story is finally starting to take shape. A little less than two months out from the release of Jordan Peele's third feature film, "Nope," we now have a final trailer that has put together the pieces for us — which leads me to believe there is a lot still left to be discovered when the film actually releases.
The final trailer for the film has arrived, and the three-minute sneak peek gives us a lot of insight into the world of the film. In this trailer, one big illumination — and the biggest takeaway from this bout of new footage — sets the scene for the forthcoming film: lead characters James and Jill Haywood (played respectively by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) are going out of their way to spot and track unidentified flying objects and, they hope, aliens.
The trailer frames the actual premise of the film and starts really showcasing the story; there's no more mystery here, at least within this footage, but that's not a bad thing. Since we started getting promotional material for this film, everything has been shrouded in secrecy. It's been a great tactic to drum up suspense and intrigue — I mean, we're still talking about footage from this film with a sharp and observant eye, so the initial set-up of mystery has done its job. But now, it's exciting to see the curtain being lifted on some of the film's major concepts that we all were only guessing about up until this point.
This is Peele's third feature horror film, and the first two have kept fans foaming at the mouth for his next entry into the genre. He debuted on the scene fresh off of a successful comedy career alongside Keegan-Michael Key, with whom he starred on the sketch comedy show "Key and Peele" with. His first feature was the now-legendary "Get Out" in 2017, which spawned frank discussions about race and race-based stories within the horror genre, while also being a wholly original and terrifying movie.
Next, he gave the horror world his 2019 feature "Us," which followed an unassuming family who is faced with their violent replicas on a quiet night during a beach town vacation. The film got a similar reception to "Get Out" and was praised critically and by moviegoers at large. Because of that one-two punch of films, horror fans have been eagerly awaiting Peele's next turn, and it seems like "Nope" is going to deliver on both concept and scares.
Peele directed "Nope" from his own script. Alongside Kaluuya and Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, and Barbie Ferreira round out the cast. "Nope" is set to arrive in theatres on July 22, 2022.
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The post Nope Trailer: Jordan Peele's Latest Horror is Almost Here appeared first on /Film.
Ryker Webb, age 3, spent Friday through Sunday lost and alone in a part of rural Montana where mountain lions and bears roam. On the night he vanished, the temperatures dropped into the 40s and severe thunderstorms raged. Fortunately, Webb found an old shed near a cabin about 2.5 miles from his home and weathered the weekend there. — Read the rest
(Welcome to Pop Culture Psych Profile, where we speak with very real experts about what drives the very fictional heroes and villains in our favorite movies and TV shows. In this edition: Pete "Maverick" Mitchell from "Top Gun: Maverick." This article contains major spoilers for the film.)
Just as it was decades ago, the day has once again been saved by a rogue Navy pilot named Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. We'll refer to him solely by his call sign going forward. A lot of what happened is classified, but we managed to get access to a crystal-clear video debriefing (a shockingly well-edited one!) which pulled back the curtain on this controversial figure. Maverick has been working as a test pilot in the years since his initial success. He was recently called in to help train Top Gun pilots for a mission that could easily have gotten them all killed. He did get them out safely, but major risks were taken.
Maverick hasn't advanced much in rank over the years, and is still dealing with authority issues. In reviewing this classified information, we learned that his father, Duke Mitchell, died during a battle on the USS Oriskany. Reports given to the family at the time said he was at fault for his mission's failure, but CDR Mike "Viper" Metcalf revealed to Maverick that his father died as part of a heroic act that saved the rest of the mission's pilots. I've called upon psychologist Dr. J. Scott Jordan (also known by a call sign, Zombie Scotty), who also served in the U.S. Army, to break down the inner workings of Maverick.
Maverick currently holds the rank of Captain in the U.S. Navy, serving as a test pilot and occasional instructor. He was expected to rise to the level of Admiral, just as his colleague and Top Gun classmate Tom "Iceman" Kazansky did. Instead, he chose to stay at a lower rank so he could continue to fly. Maverick has issues with authority, and routinely defies his superiors.
The choice to continue to fly indicates a risk-taking focus, which is reflected in Maverick's history. Even the death of his RIO LTJG Nick "Goose" Bradshaw in an accident didn't stop him from taking risks (though it delayed the behavior a bit). Maverick also has unaddressed grief for both his father and his friend, and a sense of parental responsibility for his friend's son, call sign "Rooster," who was part of his most recent mission.
Dr. Jordan says Maverick qualifies as an extrovert, which isn't inherently a bad quality, but can be an issue in a structured environment like the military. It has, however, calmed a bit over the years. Dr. Jordan explains, "He's never an introvert, but we do see him being more contemplative about his life and experiencing guilt that still hasn't gone away from Goose's death, and then from not allowing Goose's son to go into the Naval academy for four years. We see a more reflective Maverick later in life, but he's still an extrovert."
Should he have been put in charge of young pilots on a difficult mission? Let's take a look.
Maverick routinely baited those in authority as a young pilot, quipping where he shouldn't have, showboating in his jet, and disobeying orders. He pursued leisure activities without looking at the consequences. Dr. Jordan points out that years after the incident with his RIO, he doesn't join in these activities with the younger pilots. "He didn't join the guys playing pool. He didn't join the guys singing, whereas [earlier in his career], that was him. What one might like to say is he's an extrovert. He's an age appropriate extrovert."
So we're looking at growth here. This behavior is also noteworthy for what it reveals about a personality type Maverick does not have, according to Dr. Jordan. "It means that he's not a total narcissist. A total narcissist would make sure that they had to be the center of attention. They would have found a way to be at the piano singing, even though it may not have seemed age appropriate."
Unresolved grief, not just for Goose, but for his parents, is a big factor in Maverick's behaviors.
Maverick was traumatized after the death of his RIO, and Dr. Jordan explains that he is not only suffering because he was part of the death of someone, but because he knew the family. It does lead Maverick to promise Rooster's mother, another longtime friend, that he won't allow her son to be promoted. "Their possible lives as a family are dead. They're gone because of the things he did," Dr. Jordan says, explaining that grief doesn't have a treatment that makes it disappear. "That's how grief works. It doesn't go away. You learn to live with it. It doesn't really come back into his moment-to-moment thinking until he runs into Goose's son. Then all of a sudden, all of these things [are brought back up]."
"You learn to live with [grief] and you don't live with it by overthinking it," Dr. Jordan says. "You live with it by living a different life, and then incorporating that into this new life because one of the disservices our culture tends to do in these situations is just get over it. That's not how we work."
Adding to that is his father being gone and Maverick not knowing why. Dr. Jordan cites a study in neuroscience that says in simple terms, when an infant hears or looks at you, their brain tells their motor systems to repeat the action. It's automatic. Later on, that shuts down, and the brain inhibits you from mimicking (other than when you're drunk). It's how a child begins to break away from their parents. Maverick didn't have anyone to break away from in terms of a father figure, so he did a lot of these behaviors on his own, leading to his thrill-seeking actions.
The lack of a parental figure can actually create someone who is a risk-taker. "Being raised without someone that you work up against, who you can finally individuate from, if you don't have that, then there's a lack of individuation that can continue," Dr. Jordan explains. "I can see these people putting themselves in all kinds of situations where they have to prove themselves."
Also, keeping the cause of his father's death a secret made it something to rebel against. Dr. Jordan compares it to the experience of adoption: Telling a child early means it's just a part of their lives. "I think in a situation like Maverick's, if people are saying 'I don't want to tell. I don't want to tell,' then the person that's told knows it's traumatic or difficult for the person telling them and therefore, by default, labels it as difficult or traumatic. If you're hiding it, then it's never going to be anything but difficult for you when you tell them later. That difficulty is something they're going to experience in you. 'This is difficult. This is a big deal.'"
Maverick is part of the military, and that can often mean suppressing your typical behaviors during basic training. Dr. Jordan tells us as a military man himself, this doesn't mean completely breaking down your personality, but doing it when you have to so that you can protect and serve. He says, "What happens in military training is the stakes are the highest possible stakes, and that is the lives of others. What the military really is after is your identity in that context being more and more about other people instead of yourself. That looks like you are breaking down individualism, yet at the same time, when people go home to their families ... they can be themselves, but in the military, because the stakes are so high, you have to be able to move quickly."
The idea is to minimize damage, and to be part of a team. He continues, "Your people are trained to be part of a team, yet they're also trained to understand leadership."
He concludes that Maverick is an extrovert bordering on narcissism, but not completely. He "does things that emphasize his individual identity more than the group identity until Goose gets killed ... later he tries to get a group of expert pilots who were like him to do what he wouldn't do when he was their age."
That diagnosis, however, is tempered by the fact that Maverick has grown as a person, finally dealing with, and more importantly, accepting his grief in the aftermath of the mission.
However, Dr. Jordan concludes, "He takes risks that put people's lives at stake for real ... I'd never want to be that commander who's got to ground him ... as a manager, if I've got someone who's putting the work environment at risk, regardless of their talent, I have to make an assessment. Are we better off without them, given the negative impact they're having on anyone else?"
It's clear that Maverick's actions saved many lives, but it would behoove us to keep an eye on his behavior in the future.
"Top Gun: Maverick" is in theaters now.
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The post A Real Psychologist Profiles Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell from Top Gun: Maverick appeared first on /Film.
Federal agents are now allowed to physically assault you with impunity if you live within 100 miles of a coast or border in the United States, thanks to yesterday's Supreme Court ruling.
From Government Executive:
— Read the restIn Egbert v. Boule, the conservative majority on the court ruled an individual business owner did not have cause to bring an action seeking damages against a federal agent accused of physically assaulting him.
If saving people and hunting things is still the family business, then there's no reason that Sam and Dean Winchester wouldn't make perfect additions to the superhero-killing squad over on "The Boys." Homelander may not suck blood, but his milk addiction is much more bone-chilling. Plus, he definitely has a body count to rival the toughest demons on "Supernatural." That seems like more than enough to inspire the wrath of a Winchester! This is all just wishful thinking, though — just because "The Boys" showrunner Eric Kripke, is also the creator of The CW's "Supernatural," doesn't mean he can summon his old stars at will and give them starring roles in his subversive superhero series... JK, of course, he can! He already has!
The third season of "The Boys" features none other than Dean Winchester himself, Jensen Ackles. But instead of playing an unlikely hero in flannel, Ackles is suiting up as Solider Boy, a dark twist on Captain America who has arrived to take on Homelander, but mostly to take revenge on the heroes who wronged him. The vicious and politically incorrect "hero" is a real heel turn for Ackles, who spent 15 years saving people from monsters on the CW. With Ackles having made his big debut on "The Boys" during last week's three-episode premiere, it was only a matter of time before people started asking the obvious question: is there another Winchester cameo around the corner?
Ackles and Padalecki shared the screen for an incredibly long stretch of 15 seasons, but fans are still anxious to see them reunite. Sure, there was a little little bit of drama (*cough* that was proclaimed via Twitter for the whole world to see *cough*) after the whole "Supernatural" prequel debacle, but that's ancient history now! Once an onscreen brother, always an onscreen brother! Ackles is game for a reunion but knows that Padalecki hasn't slowed down since their days in the Impala. When asked about a possible Padalecki appearance, he told Variety,
"As I think we all know, Jared's pretty busy starring in his own show, producing a spinoff of that show. He's certainly got his hands full."
The growing franchise Ackles refers to is Padalecki's "Walker: Texas Ranger" reboot, which is currently thriving over on The CW, with a third season on the way and a spinoff in the works: "Walker: Independence." As an executive producer on both series, Padalecki is reasonably busy, but that's no reason not to make time for killing supes. So what did Kripke have to say on the matter? "I would love a Jared cameo!"
The Padalecki cameo is looking like a real possibility! But only is the ranger can clear his schedule. Kripke told Variety,
"He's always welcome on the show. Up to now, the guy is on a network show that has however many episodes — like, a lot more than eight. So he's working all year and now he's producing his spinoff and he's got a whole empire going on over there. He's been a busy man. And it's been hard to even figure out any time that he's free. But if he was free and found himself currently unemployed, I would put him on 'The Boys' in a heartbeat."
I think I speak for us all when I advise Padalecki to fake a cough Karen Smith-style so he can use up those sick days to hang out with The Boys! Why, you ask? Because the people of the world want what the CW failed to provide: Sam Winchester cursing! And although there's a very alarming possibility that the depraved minds behind "The Boys" might have Ackles and Padalecki share a scene so disturbing that viewers will never see the Winchester brothers the same ever again ... it would still be pretty fun to see Padalecki take a dip in the supe pool. Take a moment to consider just how long those two spent over on The CW. In all its 15 years, "Supernatural" got pretty creative about finding ways to alter Sam and Dean's storylines, personalities, and even the souls inhabiting their bodies, but even with occasional variety to keep things interesting, the actors were still playing the same characters for over a decade. Any opportunity to see them try something new is well worth the time. Doing that while also reuniting them? It's too good to turn down. And as long as folks from the CW are looking for a place at Vought, why not check in with their old pal, Misha Collins? It never hurts to have an angel on standby.
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The post The Door is Open For a The Boys Cameo From Your Other Favorite Supernatural Star appeared first on /Film.
One of the more striking visual aspects of Peter Jackson's 2001 fantasy film "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" was capturing the vastly different heights of the characters. Several of the central players in "Rings" are hobbits, who tend to stand at about 3'6", and their adventures put them into the company of human characters who stand in the 5'5" to 6'0" range. The wizard Gandalf, according to the Tolkien Gateway, is reported to be 5'6". Ian McKellan, who played Gandalf in the six "Rings" films, is 5'11". In order to achieve the illusion of height disparity, Jackson used a good deal of visual trickery — including forced perspective, body doubles, and some digital machinations — to make it look like hobbits were indeed as small as they were.
In the early "Rings" films, the completed effect was mildly uncanny. Not quite convincing, but weirdly fascinating to look at regardless. The height effects were later perfected, and looked almost wholly convincing (perhaps thanks to Jackson's fondness for high framerates), in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" in 2012.
When a human and a hobbit stood together, notably in shots where one of the two character's fasces was obfuscated, body doubles were hired. As such, multiple actors and stand-ins played each of the film's main characters.
In a 2021 oral history with the Independent, McKellan revealed that working with mismatched scale was something he wasn't able to ever adapt to 100%. In order to assure that he was looking at the place where his effects-shrunken co-star was to eventually be, McKellan had to avert his eyes from the actor's actual face. Part of the time, a very tall stand-in was brought in.
"I never really got over having to work with scale. I'd be standing on a box or Elijah [Wood] would be on his knees. If we had a two-shot I couldn't look into his eyes and vice versa. I had to look at his midriff and he'd be looking at the tip of my pointy hat. The scale doubles were a large part of it too. They found a very large policeman called Tall Paul to double me."
Tall Paul is actually Paul Randall, a 7'1" New Zealand actor who, apart from the "Lord of the Rings" movies, also appeared — in motion capture — in "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets," and in a bit part on the 2013 Kiwi horror anthology series "Freaky." In the first three "Rings" films, he served as a stand-in for multiple characters, including Aragorn (the Viggo Mortensen character), Legolas (the Orlando Bloom character), and Boromir (the dead character). It wasn't until the three "The Hobbit" movies that Randall would play Gandalf exclusively.
Actor Dominic Monaghan, who plays the hobbit Merry Brandybuck, recalled working with Randall as well, often kneeling in front of him. The actual conversations and face-to-face interactions were handled by McKellan. Also from the Independent, Monaghan recalls:
"Tall Paul was often our Gandalf. He was like seven foot and we'd be on our knees. Ian would still be on set, unless it was just a walking shot. It was never just a day with the double, Ian was always there and we were always with Ian."
Randall became a beloved part of the crew, and, perhaps because of his extensive interaction with the director and all the players, was hired by Sean Astin (who played the hobbit Samwise) to appear in an amusing six-minute short film that he wrote, directed, and produced in 2003. In "The Long and Short of It," the late Andrew Lesnie — the Academy Award-winning cinematographer for the "Rings" movies — plays a workman who attempts to paste a paper car advertisement to a wall. A short woman (Praphaphorn "Fon" Chansantor, also a stand-in on "Rings") stops to help paste down the bottom of the poster. A tall man (Randall, his face visible) approaches to help paste down the top. They get the job done and leave together on a bus. The bus driver is played by Peter Jackson. There is no dialogue and the soundtrack is the "Che Gelida Manina" aria from Puccini's opera "La Bohème." It's a very sweet, quaint little short, and one of the only times you'll be able to see Randall's face on screen.
"The Long and Short of It" can be seen on Mubi.
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The post Ian McKellen Wasn't The Only Person Playing Gandalf In The Lord Of The Rings appeared first on /Film.
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" will hit Prime Video on September 2, 2022. Today we not only have a new image (and some close up shots) giving us a look at the loveliness of the elves on Instagram, but the title of the first episode has been revealed by Empire Magazine. Not only that, but we have a little more information about the series from showrunner John D. Payne from the Empire article.
Payne explains that Tolkien's history of Middle-earth (and I will never get used to not capitalizing the "e" in that) spans for nine thousand years. There is the First Age where the elves battled with the Dark Lord Morgoth, and that apparently lasted for centuries. The Peter Jackson "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy as well as "The Hobbit" trilogy are set in The Third Age. What we're looking at in the new series is "The Second Age," which Payne says, "contains some of the greatest stories from Tolkien's mythos ... It's the story fans have always wanted to see fleshed out, but until now has only really been told in whispers."
Those rings that caused so much trouble -- you know, the ones that the One Ring could control -- we're going to see how they were created, and how that ultimately caused the dramatic battles in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. We'll also see how Sauron came to power and how Númenor fell. There are 19 rings, and listen, if someone is just giving you a shiny thing and you're not about to get married, there's probably a diabolical reason. That's what I'm taking from this.
We recently got a look at the first image of a pivotal character Celebrimbor, played by Charles Edwards, the elf who was manipulated into helping Sauron (then known as Annatar) to create the 19 rings. Do not feel bad if your "LOTR" lore knowledge doesn't contain this stuff. I had to look it up as well. I love the books and the movies, but there is 9,000 years of history here, and no one is going to be able to hold that in a brain already stuffed with Marvel, Star Wars, DC, and so many other franchises.
The new images could be the elf Galadriel -- played by Cate Blanchett in the film trilogy, and by Morfydd Clark in the series -- being crowned. The pic comes to us from J.A. Bayona, who directed the first two episodes. You can see the full image in all its glory below.
It's really lovely. Those costumes ... I'm a sucker for a fantasy drama series, and considering how much was spent on these episodes, I'm glad to see they're not skimping on fabric. Make sure to scroll through the three pics because there are two closer shots. I'm assuming it's from the one very short clip of the scene under some golden trees in the trailer, which you can see below.
The name of the first episode is "Shadow of the Past," which is sort of generic, but makes total sense. I mean, we're traveling way into the past with this series, so this episode is almost definitely going to set up a lot of what we're going to see. There are reportedly already five seasons mapped out for the series, which is some major commitment.
The series is created by showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. The cast includes Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Charles Edwards, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, Daniel Weyman, and Sara Zwangobani.
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on September 2, 2022. Interestingly, September 2, 1973 is the date of J.R.R. Tolkien's death.
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Cate Blanchett and Peter Jackson helped make Galadriel a household name with the director's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, in which Blanchett played the royal elf as an ethereal and almost god-like being. In those films, she is one of the oldest living beings in Middle Earth, a powerful and ancient demi-god who helps the Fellowship and Frodo (Elijah Wood) with their monumental task of destroying the most powerful of all of the Rings of Power, the One Ring.
In the new Prime Video series "Lord of the Rings: the Rings of Power," however, Galadriel is centuries, possibly even millenia younger, and she's not exactly the maternal figure fans of Jackson's films might recognize.
Galadriel's story begins in "The Silmarillion," written by "Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien as a mythological, formative text for the worlds he created. Galadriel has been around since before the sun existed, as her hair is described as being made from one of the trees of Valinor, a source of holy light from the pre-sun era. She's royalty among the elves, descended from multiple royal lines and eventually a princess after her father becomes the High King of the Blessed Realm of Valinor, which is sort of like Elven Heaven. She's not only a major figure in the Age of Man and the events of "The Lord of the Rings," but she's a central piece of Middle Earth's history.
In an interview with Empire Magazine (via Apple News), Welsh actor Morfydd Clark, who fans might recognize from the horror flick "Saint Maud," explained that she's playing a very different kind of Galadriel than the one we've seen before:
"It was like being on a school trip! I got to do swimming, riding, climbing... Galadriel is legendary. Cate Blanchett as Galadriel was legendary. Tolkien himself is legendary! [This version of Galadriel] still has a lot to learn. I had to find that balance between someone who has got an element of the eternal but hasn't yet seen it all. Don't expect the same character that you meet later on."
I, for one, cannot wait to see a rough-and-tumble Galadriel who helped shape the fate of Middle Earth, the "Silmarillion" badass who's been around longer than any of the other elves in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. She's a vital character not only for the series, but for femme fantasy fans everywhere.
Galadriel herself bears one of the titular Rings of Power, one of the three rings forged for the Elves. Her ring is Nenya, the Ring of Water, made by Celebrimbor in the Second Age. As the forging of the rings will be a part of the series, we will get to see Galadriel without such otherworldly power, and she will have to grow into the wise woman we know she eventually becomes. She once dwelled among the Valar, who are the true demigods that control Middle-earth, in the magical land of Valinor.
At the end of "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King," Frodo himself travels to the "Undying Lands" of Valinor, knowing he can never come back. But once upon a time Valinor was a place anyone with permission could go to and leave at will, sort of a "Lord of the Rings" version of the Isle of Avalon from Arthurian legend.
It will be exciting for old and new fans alike to see another side of this brilliant character brought to life when "The Rings of Power" hits Prime Video on September 2, 2022.
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