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When we think of a horror franchise, the first image that comes to mind is likely a slasher film. But the 2000s brought a horror franchise with an even more relentless villain than all of the heavy hitters like Freddy, Jason, Chucky, and Leatherface combined. Directed by James Wong and based on an original story idea from Jeffrey Reddick, "Final Destination" ushered in the horror scene of the new millennium by pitting teenagers against the greatest enemy imaginable -- death itself. Wong, Reddick, and Glen Morgan worked together to write a story about Alex Browning, Clear Rivers, Carter Horton, Valerie Lewton, and the rest of the survivors of Volée Airlines Flight 180, who barely escape death following a premonition seen by Browning just before their plane takes flight. Their classmates and the rest of the passengers on Flight 180 explode in a fireball, but this new lease on life for those that got off the plane is quickly revealed to be a curse.

Despite a carousel rotation of characters and no identifiable villain to market, "Final Destination" was a massive success that spawned a franchise of five films, with a sixth on the way. As a whole, "Final Destination" is one of the best quality horror franchises in existence, with only one entry viewed as a misfire, and the rest boasting massive fan followings. "Final Destination" became a horror phenomenon, with headlines of freak accidents frequently associated as being "Final Destinationed." The series changed what type of stories could prove profitable for horror franchises, and made it so no one on the planet would ever drive behind a logging truck on a highway ever again. 

And yet, had "Final Destination" gone with their original ending, the franchise might not have ever happened.

The Theatrical Ending

After the survivors of flight 180 attempt to mourn the loss of their classmates, process their survivor's guilt, and move on with their lives, they are forced to face death in the form of Rube Goldberg-style freak accidents, getting picked off in increasingly violent ways, one-by-one. The survivors realize that death is coming for them in the order in which they would have died had they stayed on flight 180, which allows Alex, Clear, and Carter the opportunity to figure out a way to save themselves.

Carter unfortunately loses his girlfriend Terry after she is killed by a speeding bus, and decides that he would rather take matters into his own hands than wait around for death to take him out. Just as he is about to be run over by a train, Alex intervenes, saving Carter's life, with death then taking out their friend Billy in his place. Armed with this newfound knowledge, Alex races over to Clear's house, knowing that he can save her if he intervenes in whatever death has in store for her. He finds her trapped inside her car, surrounded by loose electrical cables, and a lit gasoline leak. Alex uses all of his might to hold on to the electrical cable, giving her a chance to escape, and saving her life before the car explodes.

The movie then jumps ahead six months to show Alex, Clear, and Carter having dinner in Paris to celebrate their survival. Alex reveals that he doesn't believe Death actually skipped him, when suddenly a bus crash ricochets a parking sign toward a neon sign above the restaurant that comes crashing down. Carter saves Alex at the last moment, by pushing him out of the way, but the sign swings back on a pendulum directly into Carter, killing him, and thereby reigniting Death's plan.

The Original Ending

The final ending created for the theatrical release was a way to appease the test screening audiences who wanted Alex to stay alive, as well as open up the film to sequel possibilities with Death having not been defeated. In reality, "Final Destination" looks a lot, lot different. Clear Rivers and Alex Browning originally had a romantic relationship, but this was scrapped completely from the final product, leaving us audiences with a ball of will-they, won't-they romantic tension. With their love in bloom, "Final Destination" featured a moment of intimacy between the two, resulting in Clear becoming pregnant. In the original cut of the film, Alex does not survive holding the electrical wires, instead sacrificing himself to save Clear and their unborn baby. The ending included Clear and Carter visiting the memorial site of the lives lost on flight 180 and the freak accidents that followed, including Alex, as Clear holds her son, who shares his father's name.

Despite the tragedy of Alex's sacrifice, "Final Destination" originally ended on a positive note. The film's central premise is that Death comes for us all, appearing as a malicious force, but is in fact an inevitability of existence. In a film brimming with turmoil, "Final Destination" ends with the acknowledgement that life is something worth living. Death cannot be avoided, and it's best that we live our lives to the fullest, rather than cower in fear. How we die is nowhere near as important as how we live. Alex will live on because his child exists to carry on that legacy. The theme of "new life beats death" is explored in "Final Destination 2," but the message is far heavier when applied to beloved characters like Alex Browning and Clear Rivers.

Read this next: The 15 Best Final Girls In Horror Movies Ranked

The post Final Destination Originally Had a Very Different Ending appeared first on /Film.

When Sony's expanded PlayStation Plus service starts rolling out next month, it will fold in PlayStation Now, which offers access to hundreds of games from older console generations. Now, it seems the company is getting even more serious about game preservation.

According to Twitter and LinkedIn posts spotted by Video Games Chronicle, Sony has hired at least one engineer (Garrett Fredley, a former build engineer for mobile developer Kabam) to work on a new preservation team. "Today is my first day as a Senior Build Engineer at @PlayStation, working as one of their initial hires for the newly created Preservation team! Game Preservation was my first career passion, so I'm ecstatic that I get to go back to those roots," Fredley wrote. "Let's go and ensure our industry's history isn't forgotten!"

It's not entirely clear what the preservation team will be working on or what Sony's goals are for it. Engadget has contacted Sony Interactive Entertainment for clarification.

Sony hasn't always done an bang-up job of preserving games. Many PS1 games worked on PS2 and the original PS3 models could run many PS1 and PS2 games, but you were unable to play discs from older generations on PS4. The PS5, however, supports all but a few PS4 titles.

The company shut down the digital PSP storefront last summer, though it backtracked on a plan to close the PS3 and Vita stores after a significant backlash. There's no guarantee that every PS3 and PSP exclusive will be added to the new PS Plus service, which won't include Vita titles, so some games will be lost to the sands of time.

In a 2017 interview, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan talked about seeing Gran Turismo titles on PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 at an event, and said something that has dogged him ever since: "The PS1 and the PS2 games, they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?" Ryan clarified last year that he was trying to make a point about how good the more modern entries in the series look and that he didn't intend to be disrespectful to the history of PlayStation. Still, many took his initial comment to mean that Sony didn't care about older games.

It's good to see Sony putting more emphasis on game preservation. Non-profits and fan-led projects have led the charge on that front. PC gamers, of course, have access to titles dating back several decades (for instance, I've been dipping in and out of Half-Life recently). 

Microsoft understands that folks still want to be able to play old games on modern platforms and has put more emphasis on backward compatibility in recent years. Xbox Series X/S can run games from as far back as the original Xbox.

Like Sony, however, Nintendo hasn't exactly been great at game preservation. It will shut down the 3DS and Wii U stores next year, and likely won't port every game from those consoles to Nintendo Switch. Many of those games will be inaccessible to future generations of players.

Update 2:05PM ET: Noting that PS1 games ran on PS2.

We're not in Egypt anymore! "Asylum," the fifth episode of "Moon Knight," has dropped on Disney+, and Marc and Steven (Oscar Isaac and Oscar Isaac) are making friends with a talking hippo, trying to balance their scales, and still striving to stop Harrow from freeing Ammit and killing millions.

The two go through a lot here, and it's also the most gut-wrenching episode we've seen to date (and one that may be a shock to those expecting a superhero romp). Read on for a spoiler-full recap of what went down in the fifth episode of Marvel's "Moon Knight," including those revelations about Marc/Steven's past.

Your Mind Is Violently Vacillating Between Sense And Nonsense

We start out "Asylum" with a series of quick scenes: a cave overlaid with the sound of a boy screaming "help!"; a woman staring deadpan at the camera screaming, "This is all your fault!"; a shot of the talking hippo, Marc, and Steven screaming at each other; and a final scene of a bloodied Marc screaming in Dr. Harrow's office.

Besides being a great way to start the episode — the cascading screams are really effective on-screen — it also foreshadows much of what we learn by the end of it. An amazing scene from director Mohammad Diab and writer Becky Kirsch.

But back to the rest of "Asylum." Marc and Dr. Harrow (Ethan Hawke) are once again going at it, with Harrow trying to convince Marc he is a patient at Chicago's Putnam Mental Institution. According to Dr. Harrow, everything Marc has experienced this season — being an avatar for Khonshu, meeting a talking hippo, etc. — is a reality he has fabricated to escape the hardship he has faced in "real" life.

Marc seems to be swayed by Harrow's case but then tries to go after him once more. The orderlies inject him in the neck with a needle bigger than a turkey baster, and he finds himself back with Steven and the hippo.

You're Actually Quite Dead

Steven recognizes the talking hippo as Tawaret, the Egyptian goddess of mothers and children. She informs Marc and Steven that they're quite dead from Harrow shooting them in last week's episode and that she's there to guide them through the Duat, the Egyptian underworld.

Why does the Duat look like a mental institution? Because that's what Steven/Marc's mind converted it to since its original form cannot be comprehended by humans. Marc is beginning to believe Dr. Harrow again and thinks this is all a construct of his mentally ill mind. He even says he'll open the door and see Crawley (!) and other patients on the other side. When he opens the door, however, we find ourselves on a ship traveling over the desert sands toward the Field of Reeds, the Egyptian's version of heaven.

Tawaret (who is delightful comic relief in this emotionally rough episode) politely pulls Marc and Steven's hearts out of their chests to weigh them against the feather of truth. If the scales don't balance, then they won't get to the Field of Reeds.

In a not-shocking turn of events, their hearts don't balance. Tawaret says this is because they weren't full, which seems to mean that there were parts of themselves that they weren't facing. The Egyptian goddess urges them to go back inside the ship/asylum and face the truth of themselves so the scales balance before they reach the Field of Reeds. If the scales don't balance, then the two will be taken by the undead in the sandsea and remain there, forever frozen.

Time To Face The Truth

Marc suggests to Steven that they kill Tawaret and take over the ship rather than go back inside. Steven thinks that is a terrible idea, and the two end up back in the asylum where they see past memories through hallway doors. They both end up in a cafeteria with a bunch of dead bodies sitting at the tables. These are the people that Marc has killed on behalf of Khonshu.

Steven is shocked at the number and Marc admits that when he faced off against them, he kept wishing he'd fail and they would kill him instead. That confession seems to help the scales balance somewhat, but then Steven sees a young boy and chases him, much to Marc's distress.

Steven ends up back in their childhood memories, where we see young Marc with his parents and younger brother, RoRo. My heart sank when Steven says he didn't know he had a brother, because it became clear at that moment that this little brother was going to die tragically. It turns out I was right, because the next scene has young Marc and RoRo going into a cave that floods in the rain. We then fall into a memory of RoRo's funeral, where Marc's mom blames him for his brother's death.

In a series of heartbreaking birthday memories, we see Marc's mom treating Marc horribly, constantly berating him and beating him, and blaming him for RoRo's death. Marc keeps trying to keep Steven from seeing these moments and pushes them into a memory from the desert.

Looks Like We See Marc's Moon Knight Origin Story After All

This desert memory is full of dead bodies, including Layla's father. It's here where Marc mentions a mercenary assignment gone bad, when his leader, Bushman, ordered everyone from the dig site killed.

We then see Marc, half-dead, dragging himself to the altar of Khonshu. There, Khonshu offers Marc his life in exchange for becoming the god's fist of vengeance on Earth. Steven rightly points out that Khonshu was manipulating Marc right from the start while Marc counters that maybe Khonshu was just letting him be what he always was: a killer.

Poor Marc. He knows his mind is broken and he blames himself for his brother's death, so much so that he won't even let Steven see the final memory even if doing so would make their scales balance and enable them to go back to the land of living via Osiris' gate to stop Harrow and Ammit.

After a chat with Dr. Harrow, however, he finally lets Steven see the memory he wanted to hide — he's a young boy in his bedroom, and he creates Steven Grant, a character based on a movie not unlike "Indiana Jones."

Steven is understandably upset; he's just realized his entire reality, including himself, is a lie. Marc tries to comfort him and said he got to live a life thinking that his mom loved him, didn't beat him, and that she was still alive.

Balancing Scales Is Tricky

Steven is shocked to find out his mum is dead and finds himself back in the asylum with Dr. Harrow. He finally comes to accept his mum's death, and we visit a memory from two months ago — their mother's funeral. Marc is outside drunk, unable to go inside and sit shiva. He understandably is an emotional wreck, and Steven takes over. It's this moment where Marc and Steven's lives start bleeding into one another.

Steven, knowing everything now, tells Marc it's not his fault that RoRo died. It's an emotional moment, and one that Marc and Steven think will finally balance their scales. Back on the boat, however, they find out that their scales still aren't balanced. Tawaret tells them that they can't go through Osiris' gate unless they are, and the undead from the sandsea come up to claim them. Marc and Steven fight them, and Steven really ups his fighting skills this time around.

It's not enough, however, and Steven falls into the sandsea! He scrambles to get back to Marc on the ship, but becomes frozen. Poor Steven! The act, however, appears to have balanced their scales? (I'm not sure how that does so, exactly, but let's go with it.) With the scales balanced, Marc finds himself at the end of the episode in the Field of Reeds, all alone.

We have one episode of "Moon Knight" left, and that episode has a lot of ground it needs to cover. We can't leave Steven frozen in the sandsea (at least I really hope not!), and then there's the whole Armageddon thing that Harrow and Ammit are getting underway on Earth. The series really took a turn in "Asylum," but it works well, and it makes the entire series something more than you might have thought it was after the first three episodes. I can't wait to see how the finale (hopefully) wraps everything up.

Before I Say, 'Laters Gators!'

• I have mixed feelings about using "laters gators" in my headline here, since we now know that's what Marc's mom said to him before RoRo was killed. So awful.
• Marc calls Crawley by his name this ep. Does this mean he knows the gold statue guy in another capacity? Maybe he's secretly keeping an eye on Steven for Marc?
• There's a nice "Black Panther" callout here to the Ancestral Plane afterlife. 
• Bushman — one of the major villains from the Moon Knight comics — also gets a callout this episode as the mercenary responsible for killing Layla's father (and many other people).
• "The little haircut, the 'stache there, very Ned Flanders." Sick burn of Dr. Harrow, Steven.
• That third personality has yet to reveal itself .... perhaps we'll see him in the finale.

The final "Moon Knight" episode drops next Wednesday on Disney+.

Read this next: 20 Underrated Rom Coms You Need To Watch

The post Moon Knight Takes a Gut Wrenching, Emotional Turn in Latest Episode, 'Asylum' appeared first on /Film.

Techland has just released Update 1.3.0 for Dying Light 2: Stay Human. This new patch adds a New Game+ Mode, brings a number of co-op updates, and packs some gameplay tweaks and fixes. Going into more details, New Game+ features modified game parameters in order to encourage a second playthrough by the implementation of a … Continue reading Dying Light 2 Update 1.3.0 released, full patch notes revealed →

The post Dying Light 2 Update 1.3.0 released, full patch notes revealed appeared first on DSOGaming.

Elon Musk and Twitter’s board had carried out extensive negotiations over the past weekend to hash out a material definitive agreement that would see Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) merging with X Holdings I, a holding company of the CEO of Tesla. However, with the document’s proverbial ink barely getting the opportunity to dry out, the agreement might already be in jeopardy as a result of a seemingly well-meaning tweet from Musk.

To wit, Musk recently touted the Trump-linked social media platform TRUTH Social for featuring at the apex position on the Apple Store’s Top Charts ranking, beating the likes of Twitter and TikTok.

Truth Social is currently beating Twitter & TikTok on the Apple Store pic.twitter.com/RxawVUAYKH

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 27, 2022

Musk then posted another tweet on this subject:

Truth Social (terrible name) exists because Twitter censored free speech

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 27, 2022

This tweet, however, might be in contradiction with the public announcements clause in the Twitter sale agreement, which prevents Musk from “disparaging” Twitter or its representatives (Form 8-K, page 51):

“Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Equity Investor shall be permitted to issue Tweets about the Merger or the transactions contemplated hereby so long as such Tweets do not disparage the Company or any of its Representatives.”

I think Elon already breached the $TWTR merger agreement lol https://t.co/E4S1tJLyMD pic.twitter.com/FzR9cN8U3p

— Julian Klymochko.eth (@JulianKlymochko) April 27, 2022

Of course, some might argue that the pertinent tweet merely pointed out TRUTH Social’s supposed ascendancy over Twitter without resorting to any disparaging comments. However, others might interpret this comparison in a negative light, especially when there was no critical need behind that tweet.

Meanwhile, as we had noted in a dedicated post recently, the Twitter sale agreement heralds red days ahead for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), especially as Musk is required to cough up around $21 billion from his own resources, with the residual financing for the $43 billion takeover expected to materialize in the form of loans. As we had noted at that time, with no other liquid assets that approach the quantum of funding required, Musk will only be able to cough up $21 billion by liquidating a part of his sizable Tesla stake. This phenomenon is already starting to materialize, with Tesla shares recording a loss of over 12 percent yesterday.

Bear in mind that Musk had liquidated over 13.5 million Tesla shares in late 2021 to pay over $11 billion in tax liabilities. That liquidation, which had netted Musk over $14.1 billion, severely impacted Tesla’s share price, with the stock registering a loss of over 26 percent between early November and late December 2021. Given this analog, we believe Tesla shares will be impacted much more severely this time around in light of the higher quantum of Tesla stock liquidation needed to plug the $21 billion financing deficit for Musk’s Twitter takeover bid, coupled with a much more debilitating macroeconomic environment.

As far as TRUTH Social is concerned, the SPAC Digital World Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ:DWAC) shares had rallied yesterday when Trump indicated that he would not abandon his own platform to move to Twitter. As a refresher, the SPAC is slated to take the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) public. TMTG’s TRUTH Social app is geared primarily toward conservative-leaning Trump supporters.

The post Has Elon Musk Already Breached the Terms of the Twitter Sale Agreement by Touting Trump’s TRUTH Social Platform? by Rohail Saleem appeared first on Wccftech.

After Dell's new Compression Attached Memory Module (CAMM) leaked out last week, several tech sites led many to believe that the company was taking a path to "lock out users upgrades." However, according to PCWorld citing both the person who designed and patented the CAMM standard, as well as the product manager of the first Dell Precision laptop to feature it, "the intent of the new memory module standard is to head-off looming bandwidth ceilings in the current SO-DIMM designs." They claim that CAMM could increase performance, improve reliability, aid user upgrades, and eventually lower costs too. From the report: Most of the internet hot takes last week, however, reacted to CAMM being proprietary, which is typically viewed as a method to lock people into buying upgrades only from one company. Dell officials, however, insist that's not the case at all. "One of the tenants of the PC industry is standards," said Dell's Tom Schnell, the Senior Distinguished Engineer who designed much of it. "We believe in that; we put standards into our products. We're not keeping it to ourselves, we hope it becomes the next industry standard." Schnell said that Dell isn't making the modules and has worked with memory companies as well as Intel on this. In the future, a person with a CAMM-equipped laptop will be able to buy RAM from any third party and install it in the laptop. Yes, initially, Dell will likely be the only place to get CAMM upgrades, but that should change as the standard scales up and is adopted by other PC makers. The new memory modules are also built using commodity DRAMs just like conventional SO-DIMMs. In fact, Dell points out, it's not even "proprietary" on its own laptops. The first Precision workstations that come with CAMM will also eventually be offered with conventional SO-DIMMs using an interposer. Mano Gialusis, product manager for Precision workstations, said the interposer option goes into the same CAMM mount, too. With CAMM now a reality, Dell's next step is to get it in front of JEDEC, the memory standards organization, to make it available to others, he said. Why not create a standard from scratch? Schnell said its far easier to get a standard minted once it's proven to work rather than trying to simply create something anew every time. The report goes on to say that Dell does hold patents on the CAMM design "and there will be royalties," but "no standard can go forward through JEDEC unless the licensing is not anti-competitive, is reasonably priced, and cannot discriminate against a company."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It's not only important to have great hardware, it's also equally as important to have good quality drivers to run that hardware on your machine. Without good stable drivers, the hardware isn't worth running if it's not stable and performant.

That's where the GeForce Game Ready Drivers come in. They are released on the day of some of the popular games to ensure you get the best gaming performance at that time. But did you know there's a lot that goes through in making sure these drivers are stable?

NVIDIA's video below gives a great run down on how they work with the developers on creating day one game drivers as well as working with Microsoft to ensure each driver released is WHQL certified. They've been at this a while releasing over 150 drivers with 20 releases last year alone.

With that, we have new NVIDIA Game Ready Drivers today headlined by support for Dune: Spice Wars. There are other fixes and improvements as well to make your NVIDIA card run its best.

Check out the video below to get a lot more insight on the whole Game Ready Driver process from NVIDIA.

Seattle startup Read just released its first study on the effectiveness of video conference calls after measuring more than 3 million virtual meeting minutes since launching in September. Overall, one in five calls had a below average meeting score, and 31% of meetings start late. GeekWire reports: Seattle startup Read just released its first study after measuring more than 3 million virtual meeting minutes since launching in September, when it announced its $10 million seed round. The company's software measures engagement and sentiment of participants on video meetings. For meetings with seven or more people, some of the findings include: - 50% of participants arrive late - 40% have below average or poor engagement - 22% of participants don't say a single word - 11% don't have video or audio on "The scale and impact of bad meetings is a massive drain on resources and morale," said David Shim, CEO of Read. Shim said with workers going remote amid the pandemic, people erred on the side of inviting more participants, and the default response of those invited was to accept. This is what introduced "Zoom Fatigue," he said. That's part of what Read is trying to address with its products.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

You may have, a time or 67 in your life, hard boiled an egg. And you may have, during those moments, spewed a continuous stream of curse words under your breath while doing so. Because peeling eggs, unless you enjoy this activity, is usually a messy time-suck filled with many small failures.

Read more...

NVIDIA announces the availability of new version 512.59 WHQL-certified Windows drivers for GeForce graphics cards. Relevant to the story above, these are game ready for Early Access to Dune: Spice...

One thing that makes "Superman & Lois" a worthy new chapter in Superman's story is that it draws strength from unexpected places. It throws out the gritty, brooding version of the character we've grown accustomed to in recent years and redesigns the Man of Steel by taking a more humane approach. It depicts Clark Kent and Lois Lane — the fictional journalist from the comics and his partner — living their most domestic lives yet, in Smallville. After facing supervillains and monsters for years, The CW's interpretation of the DC superhero lives a comparatively relaxed life and helps raise his kids. It's refreshing to watch a superhero we've spent years watching make sacrifices and fight the bad guys, now trying to be a parent and putting his family first instead.

"Superman & Lois" was released on The CW in February 2021 and received impressive reviews. Fans were excited to see Tyler Hoechlin's portrayal of Superman following his brief "Supergirl" cameo, and critics enjoyed watching the character in a new light. For anyone watching, it's evident that the showrunners wanted to illustrate Superman's strengths as a hero and how being one doesn't necessarily make you the father of the year. This version of Superman gives Clark Kent equal importance, allowing him to be flawed in all the ways that make us human. But he's also reverently hopeful, which is the idea behind the show.

A Beacon Of Hope In A Polarizing World

In an interview with Den of Geek, the show's star Tyler Hoechlin went over how essential it was for Superman to stand for what is right without vilifying anyone. The superhero has always been compassionate towards those around him and wants to do right by people. He can communicate what's right and honorable without negativity, which is a quality worthy of praise. 

"It's such a polarized world that we're living in. Superman's ability to stand for what's right without having to, for lack of a better word, demonize, is something I really appreciate about him. For me, that's really that idea of compassion and empathy towards everyone. I think his hope is that everyone finds the right path."

Discussing the world of Superman always brings everyone back to a four-letter word — hope.

S Is For...

The character's costume features an "S" embellished on his chest, the Kryptonian symbol of hope. The superhero has always stood by his incorruptible ideals, with or without the symbol, proving that there is always something worth striving towards, no matter how bad things get. They're all attributes the show wanted to highlight — "Superman & Lois" writer and executive producer, Todd Helbing, wanted to bring a hopeful story to viewers after the bleakness caused by the pandemic. He tried to infuse the series with optimism to show fans that if a superhero could struggle and continue to do his best, we could do the same.

"Superman has always been hopeful ... considering everything that we've gone through this year, hope is infused in there and it should be. But it has to feel real, and it has to come out of hopefulness for real struggles that anybody watching this can relate to. If Superman can struggle and he still remains hopeful, and if Lois can struggle and she remains hopeful, then I think maybe we can, too."

While Superman is an essential part of the show, The CW also makes sure Lois Lane (​​Elizabeth Tulloch) has a voice. She uses a different power from her husband to make the world a better place, and they both make consistent efforts to balance their careers with their responsibility as parents to teenagers. These characters have represented what it means to be hopeful since being introduced in 1938, and they're not stopping anytime soon. This power couple is here to stay!

Read this next: Superman Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

The post The Idea Behind Superman & Lois Came Down To Just One Word appeared first on /Film.

As mandates peel off on planes, trains and buses, here's what to know about how much protection you get if you're the only one wearing a mask.

You can check for these product codes and labels.

"Moon Knight" is the story of a man (Oscar Isaac) suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder. One of his personalities, Steven Grant, is that of a meek but intelligent man who works in the gift shop of a museum. The other, Marc Spector, is a total badass who spends his nights fighting on the side of an ancient Egyptian God, imbued with his powers and a protective suit

The premiere episode of the Marvel Studios series on Disney+ tosses audiences right into the chaotic life of Grant, who fades in and out of his dueling identities during fights and car chases. The second episode is a lot more chill, slowing things down to focus on exposition and dialogue between the opposing personalities. The quick shift from non-stop action to backstory and conversations could bore audiences if not done correctly, but Marvel hired just the right guys for the job.

The directing team of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have experience making clashing personalities interesting. Before they got the Marvel gig (directing the second and fourth episodes of "Moon Knight"), the duo first teamed up to create a super low-budget horror movie called "Resolution" (pictured above) that is driven by opposing characters, banter, and ancient evil. 

Micro Budgeting Horror

"Resolution" begins with Michael (Peter Cilella) receiving a video of the dangerous shenanigans of his Meth-addicted best friend, Chris (Vinny Curran). Believing Chris sent the video as a cry for help, Michael goes to the Native American reservation where his friend is squatting and offers to take him to rehab. When Chris refuses, Michael handcuffs him and forces him into sobriety. As his bestie detoxes in an abandoned house, Michael roams the reservation, finding mysterious video and audio recordings of past and future events. Michael and Chris soon realize an ancient force is manipulating their lives to satisfy its hunger for a story.

In an interview with Outtake, Benson, who also wrote the script, discussed working around a tight budget:

"Aaron and I couldn't get a movie made in the traditional way, with financing and stuff. We were just two kids trying to make our first movie. And so the script was written so that we could make it with the amount of money in our checking accounts. ... That guided ... the process."

They had $20,000 to make the movie, which is chump change in filmmaking, but the duo combined their creativity and produced a horror movie that is deep, interesting, and, most importantly, scary. Because of their limited budget, the majority of the film takes place in a hollowed-out shell of a house littered with random junk, childlike drawings of spooky creatures, and a crusty mattress. Not the scariest of environments, but it communicates a sense of isolation and emptiness that will pay off later when weird things begin to happen. 

The filmmakers couldn't afford to rely on special effects or spooky creature costumes to create suspense and uneasiness, so that responsibility rests on the characters and their interactions with each other. First, the pair talk about Chris' addiction and depression, and later the focus turns to the inexplicable videotapes that Michael finds scattered around the woods. The discussions between the two cover a range of emotions throughout the movie, and they also offer a glimpse into the battle of personalities Benson and Moorhead later created in "Moon knight."

'A Story With An Ending'

A horror movie that never shows a monster and gives the audience one jump scare sounds doomed to fail, but Benson and Moorhead use opposing characters and dialogue to keep us engaged.

At the beginning of the film, the two friends are at odds with one another. Michael wants Chris to get sober and Chris wants to be free so he can get high, so the dueling agendas result in a lot of friction. Similar to "Moon Knight," both characters have their own dueling ideas about responsibility and morality, but they will have to learn to work together to survive.

Their conversations shift from humorous to heartbreaking as they spend a weird week together in remote woods full of human and supernatural threats. The struggle between the two friends and the mysterious threat lurking in the woods creates the tension, suspense, and anxiety we all hope for in a good horror film. 

Following in the footsteps of other horror films like, "Scream" and "Cabin in the Woods," Benson and Moorhead's "Resolution" also acts as a critique of the horror genre itself and audiences' insatiable craving for it. Michael and Chris are at the mercy of an unseen creature who is only satisfied by a story with an ending it approves of, which could also describe the viewer of any film. This reading of the movie led to one critic classifying the movie as a "twisty meta-horror," even though Benson claims he "didn't know what meta meant when [they] made the movie."

Regardless of your personal classification or reading of the film, it's a damn good movie and an impressive achievement on a barely-there budget.

Without CGI, fancy camera tricks, or a visible monster, Benson and Moorhead made a meta-horror film exploring friendship, addiction, time loops, supernatural evils, and the horror genre itself. It's easy to see why these two got the "Moon Knight" gig, and why they were the perfect team to make the banter between Steven Grant and Marc Spector almost as entertaining as fights and car chases. Hopefully they bring something equally as compelling to the second season of "Loki."

Read this next: The 31 Scariest Movie Scenes Ever

The post Moon Knight Directors Benson and Moorhead Made a Meta Horror Gem You Should Check Out appeared first on /Film.

Sony is gearing up to roll out the revamped PlayStation Plus in the coming weeks. Ahead of the new tiers being introduced, the company is reportedly placing more demands on certain developers. According to Game Developer, it's asking studios working on games with a price point of at least $34 to create timed trials that last at least two hours.

The report suggests that Sony informed studios of the directive through its developer portal and without advance warning. They can reportedly release their timed trial (which will need to be available for at least a year) up to three months after their game hits the PlayStation Store. The policy is said not to apply to previously released games, titles that will be sold for less than $34 or PlayStation VR2 games.

The highest tier of the overhauled subscription service, PS Plus Premium, will include access to time-limited game trials. Sony started testing such trials on PS5 in October. It granted players access to Death Stranding: Directors Cut for six hours and Sackboy: A Big Adventure for five hours at no extra cost.

While many folks appreciate game demos and being able to try out a title before paying for it, this move will require studios to dedicated precious time and resources to create the timed trials. That'll surely put more strain on smaller developers. 

It's not clear why Sony decided on a $34 threshold for this policy, but there's a case to be made that developers selling games at a higher price point are more likely to be larger studios with more resources. Engadget has contacted Sony Interactive Entertainment for comment.

Sony will be aware it has to make sure PS Plus Premium delivers good value to users. That tier will cost $18 per month, $50 per quarter or $120 per year (the lowest tier is the same as the current version of PS Plus and won't have a price increase).

The new PS Plus service is different from Xbox Game Pass in that none of the tiers will offer first-party games on their release day. Offering trials of many new and recent games on top of a library of several hundred games from every generation of PlayStation may make up for that, at least to some extent.

Hollywood has a long history of remaking European movies, with mixed results. For every "Vanilla Sky" or "The Talented Mr. Ripley", there is a "City of Angels" or (pass the barf bag) "Blame it on Rio." At first glance, Chris Marker's remarkable experimental contemplation of time and memory, "La Jetee," doesn't look like the kind of thing that would translate into a box office hit starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt, yet it was the inspiration for Terry Gilliam's "12 Monkeys."

Clocking in at just 28 minutes, the film is a sequence of enigmatic black-and-white still images, broken up towards the end by a fleeting few frames of motion where a woman awakes with a haunting look on her face. I first tracked it down shortly after "12 Monkeys" hit the cinemas and didn't really understand what I was looking at; I was thinking, "Why am I sitting here watching a slide show?" 

It was only on later viewings that I appreciated it for the masterpiece it is. Unlike a conventional motion picture, the hypnotic rhythm of the editing and immersive sound design creates a sandbox for your senses, with each stark photo inviting your imagination to fill in the gaps. Survivors in post-WWIII Paris are sending test subjects into the past and future in the desperate hope of rescuing the present. Our unknown protagonist, anchored to his pre-war life by a disturbing memory, travels back in time looking for clues and falls in love. At the end of the film, we discover that he witnessed his own death when he was a child.

That's about as good a hook as they come, and with his feature adaptation "12 Monkeys," Gilliam was also armed with final cut, an excellent screenplay, and a top-notch cast. Yet 10 years after the director clashed with Universal over "Brazil," the film widely regarded as his masterpiece, the studio was once again spooked by the finished product.

So What Happens In 12 Monkeys Again?

The year is 2035, and the survivors of a deadly virus that wiped out most of mankind eke out a grim subterranean existence. Scientists are using clunky old tech to send "volunteers" back to the past to investigate the source of the virus, in the hope of changing the course of history and saving billions of lives. Their prime suspect for the pandemic is a shadowy group known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys.

One volunteer is James Cole (Willis), a prisoner troubled by childhood memories of witnessing a man shot dead at an airport. He is sent back to 1996, the year of the outbreak, to search for clues. Unfortunately, their time machine is a bit wonky and he overshoots, landing in 1990 instead. He's arrested and thrown into a mental institute, awaiting evaluation by Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe). While on the ward, he also meets Jeffrey Goines (Pitt), a disturbed young man with wild anti-consumerist theories.

Yanked back to 2035, Cole is told that Goines had connections with the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. Were this small group of radicals really responsible for the apocalyptic plague? Cole is sent back to the correct year this time, and kidnaps Dr. Railly to help him find out.

"12 Monkeys" is one of Gilliam's strongest films coming off the back of my favorite of his, "The Fisher King." While the latter was supposedly the director's nice little personal project to get over the disaster of "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," "12 Monkeys" was Gilliam working on a big commercial package with A-list stars. It's fascinating to see the similarities between the two films, both pre-occupied with trauma, mental illness, and a distorted view of reality. Gilliam emphasizes the uncertainty and paranoia with dutch angles, grotesque fish-eye lenses, and looming faces shot from low angles. While "The Fisher King" is warm and heartfelt, "12 Monkeys" is murky, dense, and makes you work for its rewards. Gilliam may have only been a gun-for-hire, but he plasters his unique style all over it.

Studio Trouble And The Hamster Factor

During the "12 Monkeys" shoot, young filmmakers Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe were invited to make a behind-the-scenes documentary, resulting in the feature-length project "The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys." In an early scene, Gilliam half-jokingly says they are there as witnesses in case anything goes wrong again, and they followed the production right up to the end.

Gilliam sounds very cynical during the film and is openly contemptuous of the studio system. It is perhaps understandable after his troubles with Universal on "Brazil," the studio dumping "Munchausen" thanks to its ballooning budget and perceived lack of appeal to a mass market, and a string of unrealized projects in the early '90s. Before he signed on for "12 Monkeys," Gilliam's adaptations of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" and "A Tale of Two Cities" both fell through due to financing and casting issues. Talking about "12 Monkeys," Gilliam said (via "The Hamster Factor"):

There's a side of me that's just permanently sick to my stomach, feeling I'm being dragged into the abyss of success... on the other hand, there's a side of me that thinks, maybe I'm getting away with murder within the system, maybe I am making a European art movie within the Hollywood system... maybe, I don't know. Maybe I'll just be caught.

The title of the documentary refers to Gilliam's habit of getting hung up on tiny details that others might consider insignificant. For example, there's a shot of Willis, sitting naked in a lab drawing blood with a syringe. Easily overlooked in the foreground is a hamster in a wheel, although Gilliam wasn't happy with the shot until the hamster got busy and started doing a little exercise on cue.

Despite Gilliam's eccentricities and trying to make a complicated time-travel movie on a relatively tight budget of $29 million (by comparison from 1995, "Outbreak" cost $50 million, "Waterworld" a whopping $175 million), filming "12 Monkeys" went quite smoothly. Then the film went out to test audiences, and Gilliam must have feared another "Battle of Brazil."

The Battle For Brazil

With "Brazil," Gilliam created a twisted and darkly funny comic dystopia every bit as frightening and depressingly timeless as George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four." It is an astonishing vision of a wheezing country staggering along on labyrinthine bureaucracy and heavy industry, with a browbeaten populace exasperated to the point of apathy by a bumbling yet venal government. Every facet of life is wrapped in exhausting amounts of red tape, while the state keeps a close eye on its citizens through its sinister Ministry of Information. The state's invasive control of the country is visually represented by the ugly ductwork that snakes through people's homes and every public space, and dissenters are routinely charged for their own interrogation.

The first hour of "Brazil" is one of my favorite things ever put on film. The way Gilliam and his production team realize this dystopia is truly visionary, and its incredible retro-futuristic design prefigures the on-the-blink tech seen in "12 Monkeys." The final act is the least interesting part of the film, devolving into a headache-inducing cavalcade of chases, shooting, car chases, and explosions. Thankfully, it is rescued by a magnificently bleak ending that horrified studio executives at Universal, who was in charge of distribution the film in the US. Gilliam describes their first reaction at a screening (via Criterion):

"At the end of the film I came in for the last ten minutes, and I went up to the projection booth and I was looking down, and I saw as the lights came up the back of those necks, and I knew we were in big trouble. I mean, every muscle was knotted, every tendon, ligament, was just... GYAARRRGHH! There was hatred written all over the back of those heads."

The people at Universal hated the ending and wanted to change it to something a bit more cheerful (via Believer). Gilliam refused, but Sid Sheinberg, the Universal Chairman, insisted that the film was re-cut to include a "happy" ending, resulting in the horrible "Love Conquers All" cut.

Gilliam went to war for his vision. He took out an ad in Variety challenging Sheiberg to release his version and held secret screenings for Los Angeles film critics. They voted it their pick for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay of the year.

Thanks to his determination and refusal to bow to the studio's power, Gilliam won the "Battle of Brazil" and the Universal finally released his cut of the movie.

Gilliam's A-List Cast Saves His Vision

As "12 Monkeys" neared completion, studio execs started worrying about whether it would be too much hard work for a mainstream audience. For test screenings, they picked an appropriate crowd, showing the film near the Georgetown campus in Washington D.C. to attract a young, smart, attentive student audience.

While they reacted positively during the screenings, it was a different story when filling out their test cards afterwards. Many said the film took too long to get them engaged, was too confusing, and that it wasn't clear enough what happened at the end. Fearing another studio edit, Gilliam was lucky enough to have his big stars on his side (via The Ringer):

"I always plan for the big battle at the end... as long as Brad, Madeleine, and Bruce were all together with me, they couldn't touch us. That's the way I approach almost every film: who's going to be in the foxhole with me at the end? And they stuck together with me, and the studio couldn't do anything about it."

Aside for a few minor changes, Gilliam got his cut of "12 Monkeys" to the screen without any unsavory battles. It was a good thing, too. While some people might argue a case for "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," many believe "12 Monkeys" to be the director's last great film, not to mention a turning point for the careers of two of its marquee names. Bruce Willis, moving into more challenging roles after his early John McClane days, really showed what he could do as an actor in a quiet, nuanced performance. And whether you love or hate Brad Pitt's performance (I'm somewhere towards the latter), his Oscar-nominated antics were another step towards becoming a major Hollywood star.

"12 Monkeys" and its recent TV show took on a new, chilling relevance with the outbreak of Covid-19. It's such a weird experience watching the film again after the past two years of lockdowns and restrictions, when it now plays less like a dark sci-fi thriller and more like a cautionary tale.

Read this next: 20 Movies About Time Travel Ranked Worst To Best

The post How Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys Vision Was Saved By the Film's Cast appeared first on /Film.

It's been eight years since horror maestro David Cronenberg sat in the director's chair with "Maps to the Stars," but now, the Canadian king of creeps is back with "Crimes of the Future." The film also marks Cronenberg's first directorial effort from an original screenplay since 1999's "eXistenZ." "Crimes of the Future" comes from NEON and Serendipity Point Films, with producer Robert Lantos saying, "To work with David Cronenberg is to embark on a journey exploring terrain where no one has gone before." He continued, "Each of our collaborations has been an exhilarating adventure and David's unwavering vision is what real cinema is all about." Last year, star Viggo Mortensen hinted that "Crimes of the Future" would be a return to form for Cronenberg, leading many to believe that the auteur of body horror was back in business. 

Also starring Léa Seydoux, and Kristen Stewart, exclusive footage of "Crimes of the Future" screened at CinemaCon in Las Vegas and we've got a description of the new footage right here. 

Crimes Of The Future Footage

Cronenberg himself took the stage at Caesar's Palace and joked that it seemed like an appropriate place to "launch our attack on the world" with the film, which a Neon representative called Cronenberg's "highly anticipated return to the horror genre" and an evolution of the director's work that includes "key references" to his previous films. Cronenberg shared that he wrote the screenplay for "Crimes of the Future" more than 20 years ago, and that he originally wrote it for Toronto as he saw it in that time. The film was shot in Athens, since even Cronenberg doesn't have access to time-travel, and he dropped a new trailer that gives more clues about the kind of visceral horrors we can expect.

The new trailer features moody lighting and a woman with a rainbow circle on her stomach, standing next to a futuristic operating table. We already know that "Crimes of the Future" is about body modification as a form of art, and Viggo Mortensen sums it up by saying "I don't like what's happening with the body, in particular what's happening with my body, which is why I keep cutting it up." Cronenberg has always been fascinated with body horror and how we try to control our lives through changing our forms, so "Crimes of the Future" sounds like it will be right in line with films like "Videodrome" and "eXistenZ."

The new trailer shows Kristen Stewart's character, an investigator from the National Organ Registry, examining a human body, then immediately shows Lea Seydoux's character, who is Mortensen's character's partner, cutting open someone's stomach and placing her mouth against the cut, highlighting the very real differences between their characters and the opposing forces in Cronenberg's bizarre vision of the future. Where does the line between art, performance, and medicine begin and end? It looks like "Crimes of the Future" might also make a killer companion piece to Brandon Cronenberg's "Antiviral," which sees a future where celebrity meat and viruses are grown in labs for sale to the general public, and manufactured illnesses become a commodity. Those Cronenbergs sure love their body horror, huh?

Check out the film's official synopsis below.

The film takes a deep dive into the not-so-distant future where humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings. This evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, altering their biological makeup. While some embrace the limitless potential of transhumanism, others attempt to police it. Saul Tenser is a beloved performance artist who has embraced "Accelerated Evolution Syndrome," sprouting new and unexpected organs in his body. Along with his partner Caprice, Tenser has turned the removal of these organs into a spectacle for his loyal followers to marvel at in real time theatre. But with both the government and a strange subculture taking note, Tenser is forced to consider what would be his most shocking performance of all.

"Crimes of the Future" is currently scheduled for release on June 3, 2022.

Read this next: The Horror Movies We Can't Wait To See In 2022

The post Crimes of the Future Footage Reaction: David Cronenberg Returns to Body Horror [CinemaCon 2022] appeared first on /Film.

Microsoft has discovered several vulnerabilities, collectively referred to as Nimbuspwn, that could allow an attacker to elevate privileges to root on many Linux desktop endpoints. The vulnerabilities can be chained together to gain root privileges on Linux systems, allowing attackers to deploy payloads, like a root backdoor, and perform other malicious actions via arbitrary root code execution. Moreover, the Nimbuspwn vulnerabilities could potentially be leveraged as a vector for root access by more sophisticated threats, such as malware or ransomware, to achieve greater impact on vulnerable devices.

We discovered the vulnerabilities by listening to messages on the System Bus while performing code reviews and dynamic analysis on services that run as root, noticing an odd pattern in a systemd unit called networkd-dispatcher. Reviewing the code flow for networkd-dispatcher revealed multiple security concerns, including directory traversal, symlink race, and time-of-check-time-of-use race condition issues, which could be leveraged to elevate privileges and deploy malware or carry out other malicious activities. We shared these vulnerabilities with the relevant maintainers through Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD) via Microsoft Security Vulnerability Research (MSVR). Fixes for these vulnerabilities, now identified as CVE-2022-29799 and CVE-2022-29800, have been successfully deployed by the maintainer of the networkd-dispatcher, Clayton Craft. We wish to thank Clayton for his professionalism and collaboration in resolving those issues. Users of networkd-dispatcher are encouraged to update their instances.

As organizational environments continue to rely on a diverse range of devices and systems, they require comprehensive solutions that provide cross-platform protection and a holistic view of their security posture to mitigate threats, such as Nimbuspwn. The growing number of vulnerabilities on Linux environments emphasize the need for strong monitoring of the platform’s operating system and its components. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint enables organizations to gain this necessary visibility and detect such threats on Linux devices, allowing organizations to detect, manage, respond, and remediate vulnerabilities and threats across different platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, and Android.

In this blog post, we will share some information about the affected components and examine the vulnerabilities we uncovered. Detailing how our cross-domain visibility helps us uncover new and unknown threats to continually improve security, we are also sharing details from our research with the larger security community to underscore the importance of securing platforms and devices.

Background – D-Bus

D-Bus (short for “Desktop-Bus”) is an inter-process communication channel (IPC) mechanism developed by the freedesktop.org project. D-Bus is a software-bus and allows processes on the same endpoint to communicate by transmitting messages and responding to them. D-Bus supports two main ways of communicating:

1. Methods – used for request-response communications.
2. Signals – used for publish/subscribe communications.

An example of D-Bus usage would be receiving a video chat by a popular video conferencing app–once a video is established, the video conferencing app could send a D-bus signal publishing that a call has started. Apps listening to that message could respond appropriately–for example, mute their audio.

There are many D-Bus components shipped by default on popular Linux desktop environments. Since those components run at different privileges and respond to messages, D-Bus components are an attractive target for attackers. Indeed, there have been interesting vulnerabilities in the past related to buggy D-Bus services, including USBCreator Elevation of Privilege, Blueman Elevation of Privilege by command injection, and other similar scenarios.

D-Bus exposes a global System Bus and a per-session Session Bus. From an attacker’s perspective, the System Bus is more attractive since it will commonly have services that run as root listening to it.

D-Bus name ownership

When connecting to the D-Bus, components are assigned with a unique identifier, which mitigates against attacks abusing PID-recycling. The unique identifier starts with a colon and has numbers in it separated by dots, such as “:1.337”. Components can use the D-Bus API to own identifiable names such as “org.freedesktop.Avahi” or “com.ubuntu.SystemService”. For D-Bus to allow such ownership, the requesting process context must be allowed under the D-Bus configuration files. Those configuration files are well documented and maintained under /usr/local/share/dbus-1/system.conf and /usr/local/share/dbus-1/session.conf (on some systems under /usr/local/dbus-1 directly). Specifically, the default system.conf does not allow ownership unless specified otherwise in other included configuration files (commonly under /etc/dbus-1/system.d).

Additionally, if the name requested already exists–the request will not be granted until the owning process releases the name.

Vulnerability hunting

Our team has started enumerating services that run as root and listen to messages on the System Bus, performing both code reviews and dynamic analysis. We have reported two information leak issues as a result:

1. Directory Info Disclosure in Blueman
2. Directory Info Disclosure in PackageKit (CVE-2022-0987)

While these are interesting, their severity is low – an attacker can list files under directories that require high permissions to list files under. Then we started noticing interesting patterns in a systemd unit called networkd-dispatcher. The goal of networkd-dispatcher is to dispatch network status changes and optionally perform different scripts based on the new status. Interestingly, it runs on boot as root:

Code flow for networkd-dispatcher

Upon examination of the networkd-dispatcher source code, we noticed an interesting flow:

1. The register function registers a new signal receiver for the service “org.freedesktop.network1” on the System Bus, for the signal name ”PropertiesChanged”.
2. The ”_receive_signal“ signal handler will perform some basic checks on the object type being sent, concludes the changed network interface based on the object path being sent, and then concludes its new states–“OperationalState” and “AdministrativeState”–each fetched from the data. For any of those states–if they aren’t empty–the “handle_state” method will get invoked.
3. The “handle_state” method simply invokes “_handle_one_state“ for each of those two states.
4. “_handle_one_state” validates the state isn’t empty and checks if it’s different than the previous state. If it is, it will update the new state and invoke the “_run_hooks_for_state” method, which is responsible of discovering and running the scripts for the new state.
5. “_run_hooks_for_state” implements the following logic:
   • Discovers the script list by invoking the “get_script_list” method (which gets the new state as a string). This method simply calls “scripts_in_path” which is intended to return all the files under “/etc/networkd-dispatcher/<state>.d” that are owned by the root user and the root group, and are executable.
   • Sorts the script list.
   • Runs each script with subprocess.Popen while supplying custom environment variables.

Step 5 has multiple security issues:

1. Directory traversal (CVE-2022-29799): none of the functions in the flow sanitize the OperationalState or the AdministrativeState. Since the states are used to build the script path, it is possible that a state would contain directory traversal patterns (e.g. “../../”) to escape from the “/etc/networkd-dispatcher” base directory.
2. Symlink race: both the script discovery and subprocess.Popen follow symbolic links.
3. Time-of-check-time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition (CVE-2022-29800): there is a certain time between the scripts being discovered and them being run. An attacker can abuse this vulnerability to replace scripts that networkd-dispatcher believes to be owned by root to ones that are not.

Exploitation

Let us assume an adversary has a malicious D-Bus component that can send an arbitrary signal. An attacker can therefore do the following:

1. Prepare a directory ”/tmp/nimbuspwn” and plant a symlink ”/tmp/nimbuspwn/poc.d“ to point to “/sbin”. The “/sbin” directory was chosen specifically because it has many executables owned by root that do not block if run without additional arguments. This will abuse the symlink race issue we mentioned earlier.
2. For every executable filename under “/sbin” owned by root, plant the same filename under “/tmp/nimbuspwn”. For example, if “/sbin/vgs” is executable and owned by root, plant an executable file “/tmp/nimbuspwn/vgs” with the desired payload. This will help the attacker win the race condition imposed by the TOCTOU vulnerability.
3. Send a signal with the OperationalState “../../../tmp/nimbuspwn/poc”. This abuses the directory traversal vulnerability and escapes the script directory.
4. The networkd-dispatcher signal handler kicks in and builds the script list from the directory “/etc/networkd-dispatcher/../../../tmp/nimbuspwn/poc.d”, which is really the symlink (“/tmp/nimbuspwn/poc.d”), which points to “/sbin”. Therefore, it creates a list composed of many executables owned by root.
5. Quickly change the symlink “/tmp/nimbuspwn/poc.d” to point to “/tmp/nimbuspwn”. This abuses the TOCTOU race condition vulnerability–the script path changes without networkd-dispatcher being aware.
6. The dispatcher starts running files that were initially under “/sbin” but in truth under the “/tmp/nimbuspwn” directory. Since the dispatcher “believes” those files are owned by root, it executes them blindly with subprocess.Popen as root. Therefore, our attacker has successfully exploited the vulnerability.

Note that to win the TOCTOU race condition with high probability, we plant many files that can potentially run. Our experiments show three attempts were enough to win the TOCTOU race condition.

Since we do not wish to run the exploit every time we want to run as root, the payload that we ended up implementing leaves a root backdoor as such:

1. Copies /bin/sh to /tmp/sh.
2. Turns the new /tmp/sh it into a Set-UID (SUID) binary.
3. Run /tmp/sh -p. The “-p” flag is necessary since modern shells drop privileges by design.

Owning the bus name

The astute reader will notice that the entire exploit elevates privileges assuming our exploit code can own the “org.freedesktop.network1” bus name. While this sounds non-trivial, we have found several environments where this happens. Specifically:

1. On many environments (e.g. Linux Mint) the service systemd-networkd that normally owns the “org.freedesktop.network1” bus name does not start at boot by default.
2. Using advanced hunting in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint we were able to spot several processes running as the systemd-network user (which is permitted to own the bus name we require) running arbitrary code from world-writable locations. These include several scenarios on specific environments that allow running arbitrary code as systemd-network, such as running a script from a world-writable directory. We attribute some of those scenarios to customer misconfigurations.

The query we used can also be run by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint customers:

DeviceProcessEvents
| where Timestamp > ago(5d)
    and AccountName == "systemd-network"
    and isnotempty(InitiatingProcessAccountName)
    and isnotempty(FileName)
| project DeviceId, FileName, FolderPath, ProcessCommandLine

We were therefore able to exploit these scenarios and implement our own exploit:

While capable of running any arbitrary script as root, our exploit copies /bin/sh to the /tmp directory, sets /tmp/sh as a Set-UID (SUID) executable, and then invokes “/tmp/sh -p”. Note that the “-p” flag is necessary to force the shell to not drop privileges.

Hardening device security and detection strategy

Despite the evolving threat landscape regularly delivering new threats, techniques, and attack capabilities, adversaries continue to focus on identifying and taking advantage of unpatched vulnerabilities and misconfigurations as a vector to access systems, networks, and sensitive information for malicious purposes. This constant bombardment of attacks spanning a wide range of platforms, devices, and other domains emphasizes the need for a comprehensive and proactive vulnerability management approach that can further identify and mitigate even previously unknown exploits and issues.

Microsoft’s threat and vulnerability management capabilities help organizations monitor their overall security posture, providing real-time insights into risk with continuous vulnerability discovery, contextualized intelligent prioritization, and seamless one-click flaw remediation. Leveraging our research into the Nimbuspwn vulnerabilities to improve solutions, our threat and vulnerability management already covers CVE-2022-29799 and CVE-2022-29800 and indicates such vulnerable devices in the threat and vulnerability module in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

To address the specific vulnerabilities at play, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint’s endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities detect the directory traversal attack required to leverage Nimbuspwn. Additionally, the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint detection team has a generic detection for suspicious Set-UID process invocations, which detected our exploit without prior knowledge.

Defending against the evolving threat landscape requires the ability to protect and secure users’ computing experiences, be it a Windows or non-Windows device. Microsoft continuously enriches our protection technologies through robust research that protects users and organizations across all the major platforms every single day. This case displayed how the ability to coordinate such research via expert, cross-industry collaboration is vital to effectively mitigate issues, regardless of the vulnerable device or platform in use. By sharing our research and other forms of threat intelligence, we can continue to collaborate with the larger security community and strive to build better protection for all.

Jonathan Bar Or

Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team

The post Microsoft finds new elevation of privilege Linux vulnerability, Nimbuspwn appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

The latest GeForce Game Ready Driver (512.19 WHQL) has been released and with it, we see optimized experiences for games such as Dune: Spice Wars. That's not all, however, as NVIDIA themselves also took the time to explain the process behind the delivery of the Game Ready Drivers.

Let's start with what the driver has to offer. Dune: Spice Wars, the game based on Frank Herbert’s Dune novel, is the game that's going to receive the benefits of the latest Game Ready driver for an optimal experience. Other optimizations that are going to come with the driver for other games are the following:

• Chernobylite - Ray Tracing Upgrade
• JX3 Online - DLSS Upgrade
• Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodhunt - Early Access Support

In addition to these optimizations, eight games will become eligible for Optimal Playing Settings:

• Death Stranding: Director's Cut
• Elex II
• Ghostwire: Tokyo
• GRID Legends
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
• Martha Is Dead
• The Planet Crafter
• Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

The NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready Driver is also going to bring support for newly validated G-SYNC compatible displays. The displays that are now supported by this driver are the following:

• ASUS ROG XG259CM
• Galaxy VI-01
• Samsung G95NA

The driver also brings the introduction of NVIDIA Reflex Stats. This feature allows gamers to measure part of the system latency pipeline called PC Latency. With PC Latency gamers can optimize game settings and monitor performance over time simply by turning on the GeForce Experience overlay and selecting the latency view.

It's worth noting that to be able to have access to Reflex Stats games need to have been updated to Reflex SDK 1.6. The following games have already been updated to Reflex SDK 1.6 and support Reflex Stats:

• Bright Memory Infinite
• Fortnite
• Rust
• Valorant

It is not necessary to have a Reflex Analyzer display to get this latency metric.

Moving onto the Game Ready Driver explanation, NVIDIA has explained the process behind the delivery of the drivers. As some of you might know, the Game Ready Driver program started in May 2014 as a method to provide the best gaming experience possible. This program creates a synergy with game developers, establishing a regular cadence of exchanging pre-release game builds and drivers.

The Game Ready Driver testing process involves over 1,000 different tests across a wide variety of launched and upcoming titles. This amounts to over 1.8 million hours of testing in 2021 alone. This is all done so players have the best experiences with games from Day 0. Game Ready status is achieved through the work of hundreds of expert engineers, thousands of test PCs, a focus on excellence, extensive investment, and close cooperation with developers.

Users can take a look at the process itself in a video that shows a deep dive on it made by NVIDIA which you can watch below:

As an additional tidbit, NVIDIA has also announced a partnership with MiHoYo to deliver some rewards for Genshin Impact players. To celebrate the game's latest update, GeForce players will be gifted a complimentary bundle that contains 20,000 Mora, four Mystic Enhancement Ores that will provide a combined total of 40,000 EXP to level up weapons, and two Hero’s Wit that provides 40,000 EXP for leveling up your character.

The NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 512.59 WHQL Driver is currently available for players through NVIDIA GeForce Experience.

The post GeForce Game Ready 512.19 Driver Optimizes Dune: Spice Wars, JX3, and More; NVIDIA Explains GRD Delivery Process by Ule Lopez appeared first on Wccftech.

It’s about time PlayStation put games preservation at the forefront As the games industry continues to get older, and suddenly...

The post PlayStation is starting a new games preservation department appeared first on Destructoid.

As the final stretch of "Ozark" looms on the horizon, the mountainous, lake-set region in which the series is set has never felt more dangerous. The money-laundering Byrde family, led by steel-hearted Wendy (Laura Linney) and no-nonsense Marty (Jason Bateman), has now spent four seasons at the distinctive waterside home they fled to in the series' pilot episode. It's a house that's at once domineering and vulnerable, shot rarely as a place of comfort but often as a site of danger.

Series showrunner Chris Mundy recently spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the Byrde home setting, explaining that all those expansive glass windows aren't meant as a metaphor for danger so much as a reminder of the importance of the series' setting. "It does make you feel the water so that you feel that you're in that location," Mundy says, before explaining that Rachel's (Jordana Spiro) Blue Cat hotel and restaurant and the Langmore family trailers serve the same purpose. It's true: while "Ozark" doesn't often revel in the beauty of its Osage Beach setting (it's actually mostly shot in Georgia), each of these locations offers a clear and purposeful peek at the open water.

It's All About The Water

Although Mundy shies away from confirming any metaphorical purpose for the show's setting, the Byrde house is undoubtedly a rich source of drama. Its cold blue lighting and somewhat closed floor plan make it feel less like a family home and more like a series of holding cells for each of the anxious, angry, amoral family members that live there. The window panes, numerous and unadorned by shades, show that the Byrdes' secrets can't stay hidden, but they also offer plenty of opportunities for characters to look moodily at their own reflections as they get more and more blood on their hands.

"That house just gave and gave and gave to us," Mundy tells THR of the split-level home, which is actually in Flowery Branch, Georgia. "It was the best location. As many times as we shot there, every director managed to find another way to shoot it because of those windows and its weird angles." It's true that even in the series' final episodes, filmmakers still seem to be finding new ways to make the house look new and alien to viewers.

The Ozark house may seem like just a small part of a big production, but it's actually a noticeable piece of authenticity amidst a rapidly changing filmmaking landscape. Examples of real-life sets in Hollywood productions are growing vanishingly small with the rise of cost-cutting soundstages, VR sets, and immersive digital technology like The Volume.

In contrast, "Ozark" has filmed at the 2,513-square-foot home since 2016. Mundy tells Architectural Digest that when it came to picking the house, it really was all about those water shots: 

"With those windows, you get to see the water no matter which direction you point the camera. We could have built an interior on a soundstage, but we wanted that water." 

The fact that "Ozark" filmed in a real house on a real lake adds a depth and believability to the grim series, putting viewers squarely in front of those ominous watery depths again and again. The Byrdes can't seem to escape the Ozarks, and neither can we.

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

The post How Finding The Right House For The Byrdes Helped Ozark Feel Real appeared first on /Film.

When "Ticket To Paradise" finally opens in theaters this October, it will reunite Hollywood royalty. George Clooney and Julia Roberts will share the screen once more and in a romantic comedy, no less. As though that's not applause-worthy in its own right, the upcoming film also marks Roberts' grand return to the romantic comedy, as the leading lady we all know her to be. It's hard to believe that she's gone this long without reprising her girl-next-door persona or flashing her winning smile at an unsuspecting love interest, but it's been 20 years since Julia Roberts last took the lead of a rom-com. Talk about a shocking truth bomb! But Julia Roberts is a rom-com icon, so what's with the extended break?

Why America's Sweetheart Is Back

Back in 1990, a wealthy businessman and a stripper with a heart of gold fell in love — the rest is history. Julia Roberts leapt into superstardom with the runaway success of "Pretty Woman" and has since been crowned one of the reigning queens of the genre for taking the lead in romantic followups like "My Best Friend's Wedding" and "Notting Hill," where she steals the show with great hair and even better speeches. Her success in the genre branched off into a career that includes worldwide acclaim, an Academy Award, and so many more acclaimed performances. But surprisingly, you'd have to rewind back to 2001 for the last traditional Roberts-led romcom. Sure, she's filled roles here and there that make use of her rom-com past — like minor parts in the Garry Marshall ensemble pieces, "Valentine's Day" and "Mother's Day." She's even found onscreen love in romantic dramas like  "Eat Pray Love" and "Erin Brockovich." But all of these are a far cry from the Julia Roberts who once flashed her tear-filled eyes at Hugh Grant to deliver the "just a girl" speech. 

So what's kept her away for so long? No need for speculation. The significance of "Ticket To Paradise" isn't lost on Roberts, who has already offered an explanation for her rom-com absence. Speaking to the New York Times, Roberts said:

"People sometimes misconstrue the amount of time that's gone by that I haven't done a romantic comedy as my not wanting to do one. If I had read something that I thought was that 'Notting Hill' level of writing or 'My Best Friend's Wedding' level of madcap fun, I would do it. They didn't exist until this movie that I just did that Ol Parker wrote and directed."

In her own words, Julia Roberts stayed out of the rom-com game simply because, "There wasn't a single good script." Otherwise, she has lots of love for the genre and told the NY Times, "If I'd thought something was good enough, I would have done it." 

Parker's "Ticket To Paradise" is set to star the A-lister as one-half of a divorced couple that travels to Bali to stop their daughter's hasty wedding plans. Desperate to make sure she doesn't make the same mistake they made 25 years ago, the duo team up, and no doubt, lots of chaotic/romantic antics ensue. Coming from the writer/director behind "Imagine Me & You" and "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again," and with a script so good it apparently prompted Julia Robert's return to an entire genre, this is a promising proposition. But will it be the first great romcom in two decades? I wouldn't go that far.

The Romantic Comedy Isn't Dead — It's Just Had A Makeover!

If swooning over romance is a hobby of yours, then Julia Roberts' assessment of the genre won't surprise you. She isn't the first to hint that the rom-com is dead — in fact, she was pretty nice about it! Most just openly declare the entire genre full-on deceased and past the point of saving. Back in Julia Roberts' heyday of romantic comedies, this genre had it all! Movie stars flocked to lead their own tale of love, studios were thrilled to back a genre that saw steady returns and audiences were eating up the familiar yet captivating recipe. Believe me, you already have this memorized: the story kicks off with a meet-cute, the romance slowly builds, there's a miscommunication/falling out and then a grand gesture saves the day, capping the movie off with a happily ever after. Every now and then we'd get a swerve — like a "My Best Friend's Wedding" to poke fun at the cliches — but for the most part, the blueprint was consistent and successful. Romantic comedies were so popular, that cracking $100 million in sales wasn't unheard of. And we all know what happens when something works — it gets run into the ground.

Tropes and cliches galore, when this genre hits, it's like magic. But with the blueprint established, along came the cheap imitations that lacked the earnest beauty of their predecessors. A scenario can only be copied so many times before the charm gets lost in the process and the wit well starts to run dry. The golden age of the 1990's and early 2000's led into the lackluster 2010's and suddenly the "Death of the Rom-Com" became common knowledge. But just because it's harder to find romantic comedies that harken back to the greats (and do it well) doesn't mean the genre as a whole has ceased to excel. It's just taking on different forms.

So here's a common argument for the rom-com being dead: "There are no romantic comedies that are up to par with the greats of the golden age! When will someone recapture the endless charm of Heath Ledger in '10 things I Hate About You' and deliver a teen story that's hilarious and subversive? Where are the slow-burn romances with the poignance and chemistry of Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal?" 

Just for the record, all of this is nonsense. The great romcoms of today look completely different from the ones we remember, but that's part of what makes them so good. There are certainly romcoms that take the more traditional approach. Just this year, we got Jennifer Lopez (a great big movie star) in "Marry Me," a movie easily mistaken as a relic of the 2000s. But (forgive me, J.Lo) that movie is serviceable at best. In its attempt to recapture that long-gone magic, it's utterly okay. For greatness, you have to look elsewhere. 

Where To Get Your Rom-Com Fix

When we talk about great romantic comedies of the past few years, we look in all sorts of different places. More frequently today, it's TV series, streaming services, and indie movies. With mid-budget comedies on the decline, rom-coms aren't showing up where they once did. Indies have been laying on the charm with gems like "The Big Sick" and "Obvious Child," while TV has been putting an entirely new spin on the genre. "Starstruck" is like "Notting Hill" for a new generation, following a slow-burn romance between a normal person and a famous actor. Hulu's "High Fidelity" went far beyond just gender-bending the 2000s film of the same name and used it to explore Black girl angst and millennial heartbreak through Zoe Kravitz. The newly released "Heartstopper" is quite possibly the loveliest show of the year and a dream come true for anyone craving queer love stories. It also points to another place where recent rom-coms have thrived: high school.

For a while, it seemed that Netflix had cornered the market on the entire genre, and it's partially because the streamer dove headfirst into the YA boom, targeting younger audiences with high school hallways, kissing booths, and love letters galore. "To All The Boys I've Loved Before" was a gift that kept on giving, with two sequels and renewed interest in young love stories. Netflix has also turned elsewhere for love stories, going all out when it comes to K-Dramas that include popular titles like "Crash Landing on You," "Love Alarm," and "Business Proposal." Perhaps because they don't have to please 90s major studio standards with the "mass appeal" of a straight white couple falling in love, these stories can reach farther. They've become more diverse, more experimental, and more off-kilter. 

The traditional romcoms haven't completely disappeared, of course. It isn't that long ago that "Set It Up" swept in, with its quippy, lighthearted charm and all the trappings of a 2000s workplace comedy. Plus, it offered delightful commentary on the millennial experience. This year's "The Lost City" is a bit of a by-the-numbers adventure rom-com, but with a lot more self-awareness, actively commenting on and defending its genre. And "I Want You Back" is a familiar tale of two heartbroken souls concocting a ridiculous scheme but instead falling in love with one another. 

Broaden Your Horizons!

If you care to look for them, there's a rom-com to suit basically every need. Did you want a workplace comedy but with a little more raunch? Try "Love and Leashes," a South Korean comedy about two co-workers who spend their downtime on BDSM. Need a whirlwind romance? Try "Catastrophe," a depraved look at grown-up romance. HBO's "Love Life" tells entire life stories through tales of failed romance. "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" is a musical masterpiece that starts as a commentary on rom-com tropes and evolves into absolute brilliance. "Our Flag Means Death" is 50% rom-com, 50% workplace comedy and 100% about pirate adventures.

Broaden your horizons, because this genre certainly has! The rom-com isn't dead, it just goes back to high school sometimes. Or wears a pirate hat. Or sings. Or it's a lot raunchier than you remember. It's refreshing! These stories look different, and it's for the better — it keeps Hollywood from getting trapped in the cycle of recreations because there's room to experiment, poke fun at the tropes, and dig into the archetypes. All the while, romantic comedies remain dreamy, swoon-worthy, cliche, and dazzling, and isn't that all that matters?

Read this next: 20 Underrated Rom Coms You Need To Watch

The post Julia Roberts' Rom-Com Hiatus And The State Of The Genre appeared first on /Film.

If you’re of a certain vintage (i.e., old), you know that buying lightbulbs used to be a relatively simple process: You noted the wattage that you needed and you bought more of the same. A 40-watt bulb produced dimmer light than a 100-watt bulb. Easy! Sure, there were always more exotic bulbs out there—halogen bulbs…

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As a (relatively) inexpensive and versatile protein, ground beef is a staple in many meat-eating American households. In fact, you might have some in your refrigerator or freezer right now. If that’s the case, you’re going to want to check the label: More than 120,000 pounds of ground beef is currently being recalled…

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Unravel the truth of a strange, fantasy world in this sinister turn-based title.
Genre: RPG
Discount: 10% off until 3rd May 2022, 1 PM UTC

The car chase sequence carries an almost sacred significance across the action film genre. A jaw-dropping game of vehicular cat-and-mouse can do wonders for any movie. Just ask "Fast & Furious," which has built an entire cinematic universe around its characters using cars the way the MCU's superheroes use their powers. Right now the one burned into many people's minds comes from director Matt Reeves' "The Batman" and the terrifyingly spectacular chase between Robert Pattinson's caped-crusader and Colin Farrell's Penguin.

But any self-respecting film that attempts a car chase understands the adrenaline-fueling spectacle such scenes can bring. Although it doesn't always matter who is behind the wheel, be it a spy, detective, getaway driver, or a post-apocalyptic wasteland wanderer, it is important to the integrity of the chase that audiences can see the driver. This can be a problem when an actor with no stunt driving experience needs to be the one steering the car. But that wasn't the case for "Gone in 60 Seconds" when actor Nicolas Cage played a retired car thief pulled back into the game when his brother bungles a job for a merciless crime boss.

Cage Ended Up Being A Natural Stunt Driver

The plot of "Gone in 60 Seconds" might appear simple on paper, but the devil is in the details. The film follows Nicolas Cage's Randall "Memphis" Raines and his crew as they attempt the monumental and seemingly impossible task of stealing 50 cars in one night. But for all the grand theft autos that occur in the film, it all comes down to the final chase over the heavily foreshadowed theft of Raines' white-whale: a '60s Shelby GT500 lovingly named "Eleanor." During a WIRED segment Cage said:

"I did do my own stunts in that. I did go to a high-performance driving school, and I was working with Johnny Martin on that. And we were doing the 360s and the donuts and the whole kit and caboodle."

There's a reason "Gone in 60 Seconds" won in the category for Best Driving at the Taurus World Stunt Awards in 2001. Of course, Cage took the opportunity to learn from the best, and clearly, it paid off. Here's a refresher if you don't remember the full Eleanor pursuit scenes, which clock just under five minutes when only counting shots of the driving. High-octane is really the only way to describe it, and even when it gets a little ridiculous — like when the high-pressure tank is flailing around smashing cop cars or Raines takes that wild jump on the Gerald Desmond Bridge — the scene is grounded in the fact that we see Cage driving the whole time. This in itself was a crucial and strict priority for director Dominic Sena.

Audiences Needed To Believe Cage Was Really Driving

Behind-the-scenes interviews reveal the extent of not just Cage's commitment, but that of the entire cast and crew in making the chases believable. For Dominic Sena that meant making sure his actors, which included Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, and Delroy Lindo, got similarly intensive training as Cage. Sena believed there's nothing more damaging to a chase than an audience not believing the actor is actually driving:

"That really pulls you out of the movie, when you can't see the star of the movie driving the damn car. And I just knew that Nic was a car buff. I thought that was a plus, because I suspected he could really drive a car. ... Sure enough he got behind the wheel of that car and scared the s*** out of everybody. That's him doing all these 180s and 360s and driving down the riverbed. He does most of his own stunts so it just makes all the difference in the world, to see him behind the wheel, see the buildings going by and see cars swerving behind him as opposed to the sort of green screen thing."

What makes Cage and anyone else driving a stunt vehicle that much more impressive is how much rigging the cars have. The Shelby GT is covered in cameras to the point that it looks like one of the heavily modified autos in "Mad Max: Fury Road." Even with all the training, as stunt coordinator Chuck Picerni Jr. explains in the video, "it takes some of the danger out of play," but obviously not all of it, which Sena recalls elicited both anger and nervousness from studio executives and lawyers when they found out Cage was doing most of his stunts, though the only real filming losses were a couple of BMWs worth $60,000 a piece. As for Cage and the rest of the cast-turned-stunt drivers, "Gone in 60 Seconds" is all the better for the literal extra miles they went learning how to put the pedal to the metal for the film.

Read this next: The Best Movies Of 2021

The post Nicolas Cage Really Got Behind The Wheel For Gone In 60 Seconds appeared first on /Film.

"The Sopranos" is widely considered to be the tipping point that kicked off TV's golden age. David Chase's HBO drama about a mob boss who struggles with his mental health premiered in January of 1999 and went on to revolutionize small-screen programming. Following in the footsteps of "Oz" and "Sex and the City," the hour-long drama ushered in a new era of Sunday Night television still thriving today. Often named the greatest show of all time, "The Sopranos" was unique for presenting complex characters and storylines not beholden to traditional network schedules and content standards. It was violent and vulgar, with many characters eradicating the line between hero and villain. At times funny, horrific, thrilling, and even heartbreaking, the story of Tony Soprano and his family never felt anything less than real.

The strength of "The Sopranos" lies in its depth of characterization, thanks in no small part to its full roster of accomplished actors. Though Tony is the unquestionable centerpiece, each episode is nearly bursting with the fascinating people who live in his periphery. Its casting was almost too perfect, to the degree that some of the show's most memorable stars struggled to escape the mafia shadow once the show wrapped in 2007. But given the stellar acting chops of the entire ensemble, many more went on to land outstanding roles. Let's catch up with some of our favorite wiseguys and girls to see how they fared after that notorious cut to black.

James Gandolfini – Enough Said

Tony Soprano is not only the main character, but the heart of the show. Husband to Carmela and father to Meadow and Anthony Jr. (A.J.), the de facto head of the DiMeo crime family wins our hearts in the first episode with his fondness for the ducks behind his house and his all-too-relatable battle with panic attacks and depression. Though he would test those sympathies throughout the show's six-season run with his violent tendencies and womanizing, he is one of the most complex and beloved characters in the history of television.

It's difficult to overestimate just how large a shadow the Sopranos patriarch holds over the television landscape. With James Gandolfini's legendary performance anchoring one of the greatest shows of all time, the threat of typecasting in future roles loomed large. Nicole Holofcener's "Enough Said" wisely doesn't try to contradict this persona, presenting a character in a similar phase of life. Albert is a divorced father of a college-bound daughter also trying to figure out the next phase of his life. It's easy to see Tony in Albert, but his softer lifestyle -- not to mention Gandolfini's chemistry with another beloved TV icon, Julia Louis-Dreyfus -- helps us see a kinder side of the alternately loving and menacing man. The pairing of two actors from the Armando Iannucci comedy universe (him from "In the Loop" and her from "Veep") is a treat as well. Released four months after Gandolfini's death, this sweet film showcases his softer side, and remains a fitting way to say goodbye.

Lorraine Bracco – Rizzoli & Isles

Already known for her Oscar-nominated performance as Karen Hill in Martin Scorsese's seminal "Goodfellas," Bracco was the perfect fit for the role of Tony's long-time therapist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi. Once again playing the voice of reason to an erratic mobster, Dr. Melfi provides emotional support and a sounding board for the anxious criminal. Though the relationship threatens her code of professional ethics and occasionally her life, she continues to treat Tony through all six seasons of the show's run. Dr. Melfi finally ends her association with Tony in the penultimate episode, having decided she will be unable to help him and has perhaps even played a hand in his criminality by allowing him to justify his illegal actions. Bracco earned multiple Emmy nods for her performance, often nominated alongside her co-stars.

Though Bracco appears in nearly every episode of "The Sopranos," her role as a psychiatrist demands she maintain a professional demeanor with Tony. Consequently, her story almost always revolves around withholding her personal life from the main action of the show. Bracco found new freedom in the TNT drama "Rizzoli & Isles" playing the overprotective mother of Detective Jane Rizzoli. Bracco's Angela is allowed to be far less reserved, writing a crime blog detailing her daughter's cases, an admission for which Dr. Melfi would be whacked many times over. Given how restrictive her "Sopranos" role often feels, it's a refreshing change to see Bracco play a more relaxed and messy character.

Edie Falco – Nurse Jackie

In the wrong hands, the role of a mob boss' wife could easily drift into superficial territory, but Edie Falco managed to add life to a tired stereotype. Already a series regular on "Oz," the HBO alum effortlessly slipped into the expensive shoes of Carmela Soprano, drawing us into a complex inner world. Her struggles to overlook Tony's constant infidelity while negotiating her own romantic interests and often contentious relationships with her children are completely relatable. But it's Falco's deft handling of Carmela's enjoyment of the extravagant lifestyle afforded to her by Tony's crimes, juxtaposed with the strict morality of her Catholic faith, that really makes the character sing. However, despite Falco's best efforts, most of Carmela's story is dominated by her relationships with Tony, Meadow, and A.J.

Falco found a role all her own just two years later on another premium cable drama, this time as the headliner. Arguably the most successful post-"Sopranos'' cast member, Falco stepped into an unrivaled spotlight with "Nurse Jackie." A drug-addicted Emergency Room nurse who trades sex for prescriptions, Jackie Peyton is a dream role for any actress and offered Falco the opportunity to throw herself into an entirely different kind of character. Her fierce performance garnered the actress five Primetime Emmy nominations and one win.

Michael Imperioli – Californication

As the boss' troubled nephew, Christopher Moltisanti has perhaps the most varied arc of anyone in Tony's inner circle. The would-be actor quickly rises through the family's ranks, but along the way endures the death of his best friend, the revelation that his fiancée is working with the FBI, disappointing reviews for his passion project "Cleaver," and alternating battles with addiction and sobriety. He finally dies at the hands of his uncle after a drunken crash leaves him gravely injured late in the show's final season.

After wrapping his last scene as Christopher, Imperioli landed several high profile roles, including Spike Lee's remake of the Korean film "Oldboy" and a major role in Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones." But his turn on the seventh and final season of Showtime's "Californication" felt like inspired casting. Rick Rath could be an alternate version of Christopher and a bittersweet moment of wish fulfillment. Though not completely satisfied with the TV show he's producing, Rath has made it in the film and TV industry, a feat Christopher always dreamed of but was never able to accomplish. Ostensibly older and wiser, Rath is in a much better place than his "Sopranos" alter-ego and it's tempting to pretend he's the version of Christopher who finally got his life together. Watching Rath give Hank, a character battling his own demons, a chance to redeem himself feels like coming full circle.

Steven Van Zandt – Lilyhammer

Originally known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's legendary E Street Band, Van Zandt's first foray into acting was "The Sopranos." But the talented musician quickly grew into the role of Tony's level-headed consiglieri, Silvio Dante. While certainly no angel, Silvio won hearts with his unflinching loyalty even when asked to carry out devastating orders. Though he's responsible for some of the show's most heartbreaking hits, he is a stabilizing force in Tony's life. Given Silvio's battle with anxiety upon stepping in as acting boss, his Netflix show "Lilyhammer," about a mobster sent to Norway in witness protection, feels like the perfect continuation of Silvio's story.

Van Zandt was involved in nearly every level of production on "Lilyhammer," earning producing and writing credits as well as directing an episode and contributing to the series' score. Premiering in the early days of television streaming, the Netflix drama's success in Norway arguably contributed to new innovations in the medium. Van Zandt's time in "Lilyhammer" also allowed him a brief reunion with another "Boss," as Springsteen made a cameo appearance as a ruthless hitman. In addition to involvement in shows that revolutionized television in two different eras, Van Zandt was also inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 with his original boss' band.

Tony Sirico – The Bensonhurst Spelling Bee

Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri is one of Tony's most loyal henchmen. In fact, Sirico insisted his character never become a rat before accepting the role (per Deadline). He is fiercely loyal both to his boss and the gangster lifestyle, though his actions on Tony's behest often leave him with intense guilt over the lives he's taken. Paulie is frequently at odds with Christopher, becoming a conduit for an audience frequently fed up with the young hot head's antics. Considering his paranoid tendencies, Paulie's appointment as the new boss in the final season left many wondering how he would manage filling the shoes of his long-time boss.

It's difficult to see Tony Sirico as anything but a Made Man, especially considering his real-life mob association in the '70s. Sirico made a name for himself playing gangsters in a number of roles both before and after his time on "The Sopranos," most notably with a smaller role in "Goodfellas." Given this long history, it seems fitting that his best role since we last saw him sitting outside the café would be a return to form. The "Funny or Die" short "The Bensonhurst Spelling Bee" lovingly pokes fun at Paulie's impulsiveness and loose grasp of how to spell his favorite Italian foods. Starring alongside Lorraine Bracco, the sketch provides a sort of return to normalcy after the abrupt ending of "The Sopranos" and allows us to believe a little piece of the New Jersey we fell in love with is still alive and well.

Michael Rispoli – Friends And Romans

Originally considered for the role of Tony, Michael Rispoli was cast as Jackie Aprile, the DiMeo family's much loved boss who dies from cancer in the show's fourth episode. He's succeeded in name by Junior, setting up a series-long power struggle and much of the foundation for Tony's worsening mental health. Aprile is the show's emotional catalyst and the boss that Tony will always compare himself to. A childhood friend and a legacy in the DiMeo world, Aprile's shadow looms large over the Soprano family who often find themselves entangled with many of the departed boss' surviving relatives.

The meta-comedy "Friends and Romans" feels like wish fulfillment and an exploration of the role that might have been. Tired of being typecast as a mobster, Nick DeMaio decides to mount a local production of "Julius Caesar'' so that he and his friends can finally play parts with actual dialogue. Rispoli's character definitely leaving "The Sopranos" early on had to have stung, especially considering the show's unparalleled success. Having co-written the script, "Friends with Romans" allowed the veteran actor to this time maintain the spotlight. His character's last name, DeMaio, is too similar to the name of the crime family he might have run to be a coincidence, and the film occasionally feels like a way to reconcile his disappointment at having lost the coveted role of Tony to Gandolfini.

Jaime-Lynn Sigler – Entourage

Sigler starred on "The Sopranos" as Tony's eldest daughter, Meadow Soprano. While occasionally spoiled and immature, viewers watched Meadow grow from a smart but rebellious teenager to a headstrong young woman with a bright future ahead of her. Though she's seen her share of heartbreak, losing her fiancé Jacki Aprile Jr. just after finding out he'd been unfaithful, Meadow seems to have made her peace with her father's lifestyle and ends the series preparing for law school. Relatively unknown before the show's premiere, this was Sigler's first major role and, hailing from Long Island, her authentic performance often feels like an alternate version of the young actress herself.

Aside from her role as the mob's first daughter, Sigler is best known for playing herself on another HBO series, "Entourage." Meeting and falling for Turtle after an X-rated encounter on an airplane, Sigler began dating her onscreen love interest Jerry Ferrara during filming (via CNN). It's a welcome change, considering Sigler had a very public marriage and divorce to her manager while filming "The Sopranos," briefly changing her name to Jaime-Lynn DiScala. Having essentially watched the young actress grow up on screen, many audiences will always see Meadow as a surrogate daughter of sorts. Though Sigler's character eventually left the show and she and Ferrara ultimately called it quits as well, it was nice to see her in a happy relationship.

Aida Turturro – What We Do In The Shadows

Tony's free-spirited older sister, Janice Soprano Baccalieri has always been a bit of a wild card. Returning in the second season to care for her mother Livia, she reestablishes an often tense and complicated relationship with her younger brother. Janice is manipulative and lazy, constantly a thorn in Tony's side even when stepping in to deal with their stressful mother. However, Turturro plays the flighty character with a touching vulnerability, demonstrating how the often-infuriating woman constantly manages to work her way back into her brother's heart while simultaneously driving him crazy.

Turturro has had no shortage of high-profile guest appearances after wrapping her final scene as the boss' sister, but her turn as Gail on "What We Do in the Shadows" is a career highlight. As a werewolf turned vampire love interest for Nandor the Relentless, the role offered the veteran actress the chance to have some silly fun. Viewers may have failed to recognize Turturro due to her dramatic weight loss, but Janice's trademark flakiness and lovingly obnoxious persona are present in Gail in a welcome and hilarious return to form. The hit FX show is known as a playground for character actors like Mark Hammill, Nick Kroll, and Tilda Swinton, allowing them the freedom to indulge their comedic chops. Though Gail is last seen remaining hesitant to commit to Nandor, hopefully Turturro will return with the full moon in future seasons.

Steve Schirripa – Blue Bloods

The kind-hearted teddy bear of the family, Bobby enters Tony's orbit on the opposing side as a member of Junior's crew. But he manages to work his way into the inner circle, eventually marrying Tony's sister Janice in later seasons. Grieving the loss of his first wife Karen, Bobby gained audience sympathies as well as many ladies in the Sopranos circle who essentially fall over themselves to cook and care for the new widower and his two children. Though Schirripa is similar in build to Gandolfini and many cast members, he wore a fat suit to fill out Bobby's large build. But frequent jokes about the character's obesity were off-putting and left a sour taste in many viewers' mouths.

Schirripa went on to find several recurring roles on other network shows, most notably "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" and the long-running CBS drama "Blue Bloods." Though many "Sopranos" alums have made appearances on the NYC cop drama, Schirripa has had the most enduring legacy as Detective Anthony Abetemarco and surrogate older brother to Assistant District Attorney Erin Reagan. At the tender age of 13, Anthony discovered he is the son of a mobster, an intriguing mirror to his "Sopranos" character. Unlike Bobby, Anthony dedicates his life to law enforcement rather than follow in his father's criminal footsteps.

Drea De Matteo – Sons Of Anarchy

Arguably the most tragic character in the show's six-season run, Adriana La Cerva suffers more than her share of heartbreak. The niece of legendary boss Jackie Aprile, she has a long and frequently abusive relationship with Christopher. Constantly dealing with her fiancé's erratic behavior and struggles with addiction, De Matteo adds emotional complexity to what could easily have remained a clichéd trophy girlfriend role. Adriana's admission of her possible infertility due to a botched abortion is particularly heartbreaking, but it's her death at the hands of Silvio that provides one of the show's most devastating moments.

De Matteo plays another character with destructive taste in men in FX's Shakespearean biker saga "Sons of Anarchy." As Jax's first wife Wendy, who overdoses on heroine while pregnant with their son Abel, she provides the emotional catalyst for the show's central relationship. In another complex role, De Matteo deftly navigates shifting motives and loyalties as Wendy struggles to remain sober and become a stable mother for her young son. It's an interesting reversal considering how much of Adriana's storyline was dominated by Christopher's demons. Like "The Sopranos," Kurt Sutter's series is dark and violent, featuring many upsetting deaths. Allowing Wendy to be one of the only characters in Jax's life to survive unscathed feels like poetic justice given Adriana's heartbreaking fate.

Joe Pantoliano – Bad Boys For Life

The obnoxious and erratic Ralph Cifaretto was an intriguing Season 3 addition to "The Sopranos'' gangster lineup. Played by charismatic actor Joe Pantoliano, "Ralphie" returns from an extended stay in Miami and quickly establishes himself as a prolific earner with a dangerous temper. He proves especially loathsome when causing the death of Tony's prized horse Pie-O-My and murdering his pregnant girlfriend Tracee outside the Bada Bing. Finally pushing Tony too far, Ralph suffers a particularly embarrassing death and dismemberment. But Pantoliano's commitment to the abhorrent character was commendable, earning him broad acclaim and a Primetime Emmy. 

After his abrupt exit, Pantoliano continued to work steadily, having long ago embraced his status as a character actor. He appeared in an uncredited role in the Netflix series "Sense8" as well as starring in the more subdued film "From the Vine." But 2018 saw the beloved actor reprise one of his most popular roles as the perpetually stressed Captain Howard in "Bad Boys for Life." Though they are usually at professional odds, Howard is magnetic in his ability to quickly shift between affection for Mike and Marcus and fury at their careless destruction. His tragic death in the third film is a poignant moment in an action-packed franchise, and offered fans more closure than his shocking "Sopranos" demise.

Kathrine Narducci – Euphoria

A childhood friend of Carmela, Charmaine Bucco is one of the few "Sopranos" characters to avoid being pulled into the DiMeo web of corruption. She is the wife of chef Artie Bucco and spends her days co-managing their family restaurant Vesuvio's, a popular venue among Tony's crew. Charmaine constantly warns Artie to keep the mobster at arm's length and Narducci is largely relegated to the role of disapproving nag. The couple have a tumultuous relationship exacerbated by Artie's increasing involvement in Tony's affairs. But Charmaine takes minor solace in antagonizing Carmela with casual allusions to her own high school romance with Tony.

Narducci stars in one of the most explosive flashback sequences on HBO's mega hit "Euphoria" as a younger version of Fezco's drug-dealing grandma, Marie O'Neill. She kicks off Season 2 with a literal bang by barging into a strip club and shooting an unnamed lothario in both thighs while he's receiving oral sex. Taking Fez in as her own, she's responsible for the lovable drug dealer's criminal education and gives Ashtray his somewhat shocking nickname when he can't stop eating her cigarettes. Narducci is a powerhouse in this brief sequence, mesmerizing audiences in a flashback lasting less than nine minutes. After years of watching Charmaine endure her husband's increasing corruption, it's refreshing to finally see Narducci play a character who takes matters into her own hands, even if it's only for one episode.

Steve Buscemi – Boardwalk Empire

Another dynamic addition to the cast, Tony Blundetto, is released from a long stretch in prison in the fifth season. "Tony B" is the cousin and childhood playmate of both Tony Soprano (known as "Tony S" when the two are together) and Christopher, but their close relationship quickly curdles over an ill-advised hit that ignites a war with Johnny Sack's rival crew. While an intriguing character in his own right, Tony B offers a glimpse into his cousin's criminal origins and perhaps another source of his anxiety. As it turns out, Tony B was sent to prison having been busted for a hijacking Tony S was supposed to be a part of. Paranoid and guilt-ridden, Tony S is convinced his cousin carries justified resentment, making his decision to give him up to his rival all the more difficult.

Already an accomplished character actor and director, Buscemi landed the leading role of Enoch "Nucky" Thompson on HBO's Prohibition-era drama "Boardwalk Empire." He may not have been executive producer Martin Scorsese's first choice to play this analogue for real-life Atlantic City boss Enoch L. Johnson, but Buscemi now regards his time in the complicated protagonist's finely tailored suits as one of the highlights of his career. Playing Nucky offered Buscemi a chance to showcase his range by balancing the sympathetic and the abhorrent -- an easy task for an actor who specializes in finding the heart within the most despicable characters.

Cara Buono – Stranger Things

Buono's sixth-season arc as Kelli Lombardo Moltisanti largely revolves around the actions of her husband, the recently promoted Christopher. Accidentally becoming pregnant, the two decide to marry in Las Vegas, though its clear Christopher's heart will always belong to Adriana. He quickly has an affair and relapses on heroin, alcohol, and impulsive violence, testing the already fragile relationship. Though Kelli gives birth to a daughter named Caitlin, the marriage is short-lived. The new mother soon becomes a widow after Christopher's death at the hands of Tony and his own intoxication.

Six years after a memorable performance on "Mad Men" as Don Draper's Season 4 love interest Faye Miller, Buono landed a dream role on the Netflix juggernaut "Stranger Things." Though she has marginally better marital luck as Karen Wheeler, she's still saddled with a stinker of a husband. However, the Duffer Brothers give the talented actress much more to do as Mike and Nancy's overbearing but often oblivious mother. Bored to tears with her dull husband Ted, Buono is also afforded the opportunity to showcase her comedic chops and nearly steals every scene in which she appears. Her Season 3 arc is especially delightful as she dolls herself up for a trip to the community pool and contemplates having an affair with dreamy lifeguard Billy Hargrove.

Annabella Sciorra – Before I Go

Anabella Sciorra made the most of a Season 3 guest role as Gloria Trillo. After a chance meeting at Dr. Melfi's office, Tony has a brief but tumultuous affair with the chaotic car saleswoman. Likely suffering from borderline personality disorder, Gloria quickly reveals her darker side and Tony suspects she is attempting to manipulate him into killing her. This erratic behavior is all too familiar to Tony, reminding him of his mother Livia, and he definitively ends the affair. Though the troubled relationship quickly flames out, Sciorra's captivating performance garnered the actress a Primetime Emmy nomination.

Despite a promising career in the '90s, Sciorra had difficulty finding work after she was assaulted by convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein. Sciorra was a key witness in his trial and a pivotal force in the #MeToo movement. Given this distressing history, her role in the indie dramedy "Before I Go" is especially poignant. Sciorra plays Samantha, a New York woman reflecting on a music career that might have been. Though she did not write the script, the story feels a bit autobiographical considering how Weinstein allegedly sought to sabotage her career. Sciorra's performance will hopefully lead to similar roles in the future.

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).

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The post The Best Roles The Sopranos Cast Has Landed Since the Show Ended appeared first on /Film.

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