With Christopher Nolan‘s latest dominating the box office, cinema lovers aren’t just excited to learn what the director has planned next. They’re also excited about the second epic we have this year, another massive movie helmed by a filmmaker whose name evokes big ticket sales: Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune: Part Three. It’s not hard to see the similarities, as both films feature mythic heroes on strange adventures, and they even share cast members in Zendaya and Robert Pattinson.
However, fans of the books know that the connections between Dune and The Odyssey go deeper than one might expect. The secret is right there in the name of Frank Herbert‘s lead character, Paul Atreides. The surname “Atreides” means “Son of Atreus,” referring to the Greek hero Atreus, father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. However, nothing is quite as it seems in either Greek mythology or the world of Dune, meaning the connections are far more complicated than just lineage.
The Founding and Fall of the House of Atreus
Fittingly enough for a story that leaves us longing for more, we have to begin with Tantalus, son of Zeus and Pluto. Tantalus established his family’s penchant for infanticide by killing his son Pelops, in order to test the gods. Most of the gods passed that test, except for the agricultural goddess Demeter, who actually ate some of the meal that Tantalus made out of Pelops. Infuriated, Demeter sentenced Tantalus to the underworld, where grapes and water remained forever out of reach, giving us the word “tantalizing.”
His father punished, the gods resurrected Pelops, who later married Hippodamia by sabotaging her father’s chariot race, a decision that results in his line being cursed… which might account for the family killing that happens in the next generation. Pelops and Hippodamia give birth to Atreus and Thyestes, who kill their half-brother Chrysippus, and then get banished. Later, Atreus learns that his wife is having an affair with Thyestes, and also they’re fighting for the throne. So he channels his granddad and kills Thyestes’ sons and cooks them in a meal he serves to his brother, and then also engaged in incest, which eventually gets him killed. But not before he gives birth to two sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus.
At this point, people who saw The Odyssey know about those guys, as Jon Bernthal stepped into the role of Menelaus, and Telemachus (Tom Holland) let Menelaus tell him something about Agamemnon (Benny Safdie), who sacrificed his daughter for good winds and got killed by his wife Clytemnestra (Lupita Nyong’o) because these Atreides boys never learn.
So what does that have to do with Paul of Dune?
Paul’s Cyborg Great Granddad
The first Dune novel takes place 20,000 years in the future, and while much has changed, humanity’s love of myths has not. The stories have mutated over time, mixing together, but religion and myth still have power, which is why Paul’s surname resonates with people of the empire. But, as we saw in the first Villeneuve movie, Paul and his father Duke Leto think more often about the former’s grandfather, a celebrated bullfighter. Thus, readers could be forgiven for dismissing the name Atreides as a meaningless word grandfathered into their language.
However, the third novel Children of Dune revealed that the name had meaning. While consulting her Ancestral Memories, the Bene Gesserit ability to “speak” with previous members of one’s bloodline, Paul’s sister Alia briefly encounters a person the text identifies as Agamemnon. However, Alia gets overpowered by the memory of her maternal grandfather Baron Harkonnen, and the Mycenaean king is never heard from again.
How, you might wonder, could someone like Harkonnen overpower such a mighty warrior? The answer might be that, despite what the characters say about Paul’s lineage, he is not in fact descended from the hero of myth. Instead, Paul’s true ancestor may be a different Agamemnon, a guy born Andrew Skorous, and here’s where things get really weird.
Frank Herbert only wrote six Dune novels before his death in 1986. Later, his son Brian took over, writing a number of prequels with Kevin J. Anderson. Although not nearly as good as his father’s work, Brian’s novels make up for their lack of quality with a quantity of lore, fleshing out the centuries leading up to the moment that Duke Leto takes stewardship of Arrakis.
In 2001’s Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, Herbert and Anderson introduce General Agamemnon, the Cymek Titan and father of Vorian Atreides, a leader of the Butlerian Jihad that saw the destruction of all thinking machines (or, as we’d call them, Artificial Intelligence). Vorian’s rebellion shocked the world because of his father’s status as a Cymek Titan. Cymeks are this world’s word for cyborgs, specifically humans who sought to augment themselves by placing their brains inside robotic bodies, allowing them to live forever.
Before becoming a Cymek, Agamemnon was born Andrew Skorous in the year 1300 BG (the first Dune book takes place in 10191 AG, to give you an idea of the timeline). As an adult, Skorous leads a revolt against the Old Empire, the rotting government that existed long after humanity discovered faster-than-light space travel. Calling themselves the Twenty Titans, Skorous and his allies inaugurated a new golden age for humanity. However, they succumbed to a lust for power, which led them to become Cymeks and rule for centuries, growing increasingly brutal. During this period, Skorous took the name Agamemnon and declared his people House Atreides, in an attempt to establish himself as an eternal leader with roots deep in humanity’s past.
Thus, the Agamemnon who speaks to Alia may not have been the man who waged war against Troy so long ago. It may have been a man who forfeited his humanity in search of power, and made myths around himself to justify it.
Mistakes of the Past and Future
Of course, The Odyssey isn’t really a prequel to Dune. Herbert invokes Homer’s poem as part of the detritus of humanity’s past, just one more lesson that people failed to learn about the cost of pursuing power. Yet, it’s not hard to see thematic similarities between the two stories, especially Christopher Nolan’s take on the myth.
Nolan changes The Odyssey‘s final act into a meditation on the cost of war, as Odysseus’ great victory via the Trojan Horse comes only because he sacrificed his values and his humanity. In this telling, he stays far from home not just because he’s been trapped by Calypso, but because he no longer feels worthy of his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus.
Ultimately, Dune warns against charismatic leaders, arguing that they always give into a lust for power. In doing so, they’ll sacrifice their humanity, whether that involves becoming a brain in a robotic tin can or launching a jihad in the name of progress. What better person to link the two stories than Agamemnon, the angry king who killed even his own daughter to expand his control?
The Odyssey is now playing in theaters worldwide.
Avengers: Doomsday Trailer Hints at a Dark Ant-Man Storyline
This post contains potential spoilers for Avengers: Doomsday.
As Kang the Conquerer knows well, one overlooks Ant-Man at their own peril. Still, viewers would be forgiven for not paying much attention to Scott Lang in the first trailer for Avengers: Doomsday. The first full look at the upcoming event film is jam-packed with heroes across the multiverse, including two sets of Avengers, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, to say nothing of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Victor Von Doom in all his power.
Yet, anyone who slows down and spends time with the trailer will notice a quick shot of Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, hugging his daughter Cassie a.k.a. Stature, played by Kathryn Newton. Obviously, with such high stakes, people are going to hug their loved ones—we see Johnny Storm embrace his sister Sue in another shot. And Cassie has been a motivating factor for Scott since the first Ant-Man movie in 2015. However, for comic book readers, seeing Scott share a tender moment with Cassie in a Doctor Doom story raises some alarms.
Cassie Lang has been a part of Scott’s life ever since he’s been Ant-Man. She made her first appearance as a young girl in 1979’s Marvel Premiere #47, by David Michelinie and John Byrne, the issue that saw Lang first don the Ant-Man moniker. In addition to his criminal background, Lang’s status as a father helped distinguish him from his predecessor Hank Pym, an oft-disturbed genius.
For most of her history, Cassie served little purpose beyond being Scott’s lil’ moppet at home. That changed in 2005, with the release of Young Avengers #6 by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung. In that issue, founding member Iron Lad, who was actually a younger version of Kang the Conquerer who formed the team to repel an attack by his older self, leaves to return to his timeline. With a gap in the lineup, Cassie reveals that she has access to her father’s tech, and begins her tenure as the giant girl Stature.
That tenure ended with the 2010 miniseries Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, by Heinberg and Cheung. That story finds the Avengers being paternalistic to other heroes again (see also: Avengers vs X-Men two years later) and putting Wiccan under supervision. Turns out, that’s bad timing, as Wiccan and the Young Avengers discover his mother Scarlet Witch with her memory gone and engaged to be married to Doctor Doom. Further complicating things is the fact that Scarlet Witch lost her memory as a direct result of her going mad a few years earlier, a madness that claimed the life of many Avengers, including Scott Lang.
The multilayered conflict had its own share of casualties, most notably Cassie herself. While the adventure brings Scott back to life, he shrinks down to attack Doom alongside his teammates, and seemingly dies again in the process. Infuriated by the prospect of losing her father again, Stature attacks Doom, and her anger and youth leave her vulnerable to the Latverian monarch. His patience spent and his power increased, Doom strikes back, killing Cassie.
By our timeline, Cassie only stays dead for four years. When a moral shift causes many of Marvel‘s supervillains to become good, Doom seeks to atone for his wrongs by resurrecting Cassie, and she’s been with us ever since.
However, the Cassie of the MCU has no such guarantees. It appears that Doomsday and its follow-up Avengers: Secret Wars will follow the model of Infinity War and Endgame. Scott’s relationship with Cassie drove the first part of Endgame, providing the event movie with some much-needed emotional stakes. While it would certainly dark for Doom, a villain who the casual viewer doesn’t know well yet, to just kill a character we’ve watched grow up on screen, it would also prove to the viewer that he’s a threat worth taking seriously.
It is, after all, Doomsday. We expect nothing less than devastation.
Avengers: Doomsday comes to theaters on December 18, 2026.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day – Exclusive Inside Look at Tom Holland’s Passion Project
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Almost five full years ago, Spider-Man: No Way Home ended on a triumphant note when Peter Parker swung over Rockefeller Center in a homemade suit. Certainly No Way Home gave Spidey lots to savor in that moment. He’d just defeated the Sinister Six in all but name, cured his arch-nemesis the Green Goblin and got to rub shoulders with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield on their own meta victory laps. Oh, plus, it was also the highest-grossing Spidey flick ever.
Yet for all its success, No Way Home also saw Peter lose both his beloved Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) and his identity as magic wiped the memory of Peter from everyone on Earth, including his best friends MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon). To star Tom Holland, those darker points left No Way Home feeling unresolved and the story unfinished. In his core, Holland felt the character still needed a Brand New Day.
“I always felt like Peter got over Aunt May’s death too easily,” Holland tells us. “The loss of Aunt May should be devastating. It should take up the entire third act of the movie. But we were trying to make something fun and exciting, so he meets these two other Spider-Men, the most iconic Spider-Men. We couldn’t have Tobey and Andrew having the time of their lives while my character’s crying all the time. It wouldn’t have worked.”
For that reason, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, is not just a new beginning; it’s an expansion on the lingering traumas of a Peter we’ve watched grow across six movies. In between dealing with baddies like Scorpion (Michael Mando) and Tombstone (Marvin Jones III), teaming the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), reuniting with MJ and Ned, and dealing with a mysterious newcomer played by Sadie Sink, Peter has to work on himself.
As Holland puts it, “Brand New Day deals with some of those things we had to gloss over in No Way Home.” In short, Peter Parker is finally finding the time to grow up.
Caught in a Dark Web
Peter Parker didn’t just lose his friends and his aunt in No Way Home. He also lost his childhood in a film that ended with MJ and Ned’s graduation. Peter got a GED. Now five years later, Brand New Day finds the trio at the end of their college careers, ready to enter adulthood. And as far as Peter’s concerned, it’s not going well.
“The first half of this movie is a really good example of someone handling his problems poorly,” Holland says. Zendaya agrees, describing Peter to us as “more vulnerable and intense than we’ve seen before. We’ve never seen him have to face all these challenges alone.”
So desperate is the situation that the kid from Queens turns to an unlikely ally: Frank Castle, a.k.a. the Punisher. For actor Bernthal, his gritty Punisher fits in the world of Spider-Man not because Castle has become lighter, but because Peter has gotten heavier.
“We’re dealing with a dark version of Spider-Man, where he’s closing himself off and trying to figure out who he is,” Bernthal observes. That situation means the Punisher treats Spider-Man differently from most superheroes. “Frank doesn’t buy into all this stuff. He’s a level guy and he gets frustrated with all this superhero stuff. But there’s a sense of mutual respect with Spider-Man. Frank knows that Spider-Man can do things that he can’t. Spider-Man’s embracing darkness in his life, and, as someone who’s been down that road, Frank doesn’t love that for anybody. It cracks open Frank’s heart. He’s begging Spider-Man not to go to the places he goes.”
The bond between Punisher and Spider-Man isn’t the only surprising personal shift in Brand New Day, as the pessimistic MJ has done her own maturing in the intervening years.
“In this moment, she’s juxtaposed against Peter’s situation,” Zendaya explains. “It’s a transformative point in a young person’s life where you finish college or start a new job and realize, ‘I am an adult now.’ You have to start making adult decisions and being responsible for them in a way that feels different. MJ’s trying to figure out who she is while retaining her relentless pursuit of the truth. She has these core values, and that’s where she and Peter connect. In his optimistic way, Peter’s always trying to stay true to who he is, and MJ’s trying to do the same.”
Such an emphasis on growth might be why director Cretton doesn’t completely accept Bernthal’s assessment. “Brand New Day has a more mature Spider-Man, but I don’t like the word ‘darker,’” he counters. “Spider-Man isn’t Batman.”
In the filmmaker’s mind, Peter is experiencing the same daunting big choices most young adults face. “When I graduated from college, I had a communications degree and no job prospects. I struggled through my 20s, sharing an apartment with three to eight guys, all of us looking for work. The reality of the world hit me in the face. In that stage, I learned what it really feels like to lose someone, to go through sadness and darker times, and I learned what was important in life for the first time. That’s the stage that Peter Parker happens to be going through. Does that make the movie darker? Maybe in moments, but it’s more a reflection of where Peter’s at.”
Jay Maidment / Sony Pictures
The World Outside Your Window
It’s not just Peter and MJ’s lives that are changing. Holland and Zendaya have come a long way in their careers and experiences since Spider-Man: Homecoming released almost a decade ago, to say nothing of the five-year gap between No Way Home and Brand New Day.
Holland explains, “One of the reasons we took a big break between No Way Home and Brand New Day was to allow the characters to grow up off-screen. Audiences who love the original franchise will see a different version of these characters from the outset. These movies have nods to my own personal life. After what I’ve been through as a young man, it felt right for the character to leave high school.”
Zendaya puts a finer point on it, suggesting her previous MCU movies with Holland represent “the college experience that we never got to have.”
Even Bernthal, a more established actor several decades senior to his co-stars, sees parallels between his life and that of the Punisher.
“I would never have been able to play Frank if I weren’t a father and a husband,” he acknowledges. “You can’t play him until you love people so much more than you love yourself, and you’d happily give your life for them. Then you can try to understand what it would be like if they were taken from you.”
As Bernthal’s description makes clear, Punisher comes from a drearier place than Spidey. That’s especially true of the MCU version of Frank Castle, last seen in the first season of Daredevil: Born Again and in the recent special The Punisher: One Last Kill, both decidedly R-level projects. Yet Bernthal believes that his friendship with Holland helped find a place for Frank in a PG-13 Spider-Man movie. “Frank and Spider-Man have a big brother/little brother relationship, reminiscent of my friendship with Tom,” Bernthal reveals. “It’s really a testament to Tom and Destin for making that work.”
Cretton knew to look for those real-world relationships while making a big superhero movie because he was doing the same thing, examining Peter’s loneliness through the connections in his own life.
“I think the human brain has a tendency to spin bigger problems from the issues in front of you,” he muses. “So exploring that tendency in the context of Peter Parker is therapeutic. I watch him go through this journey that reminds me of my personal experiences.”
More accurately, Cretton understands the devastating effects of Peter’s isolation because the director has lived his entire life in a community. “I grew up in a family with six kids, living in a small house in Haiku, Maui,” he says. “A two-bedroom house with a loft and one shared bathroom. My whole existence was communal. I shared a room with someone until I was 26. Even through college, because I was an indie filmmaker who had to save money, I shared a bunk bed with another person.”
The emphasis on community drives everything from his independent films Short Term 12 and Just Mercy to his Marvel projects Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Wonder Man. Communal thinking also helps Cretton accept the scrutiny he’s under as a person telling the story of the most popular superhero in the world.
“There’s nothing like working with Marvel,” he says with a smile. “There’s nothing like the response you get from the fans, the good and the bad. They look at every frame and look for every little decision we made. It’s fun to have that type of participation in the movie we’re making. It really does feel like you’re participating in a big conversation. To me, that’s what cinema is all about.”
Yet for that conversation to continue in a satisfying way, Spider-Man movies need to have something to say, and that was the challenge coming out of the definitive ending posed by Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Jay Maidment / Sony Pictures
A New Way Home
Beyond its nostalgia plays, No Way Home worked because it finished the arc running through the previous MCU Spider-Man trilogy, all of which were directed by Jon Watts. From his first appearance in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, Holland established his Web-Head as something different from what we’ve seen before, with a hip young aunt and a billionaire benefactor.
No Way Home stripped all of that away from Peter, essentially turning him into a new character with endless storytelling options—so many, in fact, that Holland and company weren’t sure where they wanted to go next.
Holland divulges, “We asked ourselves why we should make another one. The third was so fantastic in its nostalgia and its success that it felt like the perfect sign-off for Spider-Man as we knew him. It wasn’t enough to say that these movies do great business. We needed a reason to tell a story beyond the business of making another Spider-Man movie. So there were lots of conversations between [Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group CEO] Tom Rothman, [Marvel Studios President] Kevin Feige, and [producer] Amy Pascal. Once we figured out the movie’s message, everything started falling into place. Suddenly, it felt like we had a movie that was worthy of fans’ time, something fulfilling and satisfying.”
Holland’s description of the process brings to mind Spider-Man himself, swinging with ease past every obstacle. But the reality is that wallcrawler movies are exceptionally hard to make, if only because they involve both Sony Pictures, which has held film adaptation rights to the character since 1999, and Marvel Studios. Add to the mix actors such as Holland and Bernthal, who feel a sense of ownership over their characters, to say nothing of the legions of fans who have been following these heroes for decades, and the potential for conflict only grows.
Yet everyone making Brand New Day felt that the additional voices only made for stronger conversations and, in the end, a better movie.
“I found this group of people to be entirely egoless,” observes Bernthal. Even though he demurs when the issue of ownership comes up—“Frank belongs to the comic book fans, members of the military, and first responders,” he insists—Bernthal allows he’s invested in the Punisher, and that mattered to those making Brand New Day. “They were open to my ideas. Destin appreciated that I’ve been with Frank for a long time and knows how much I care about the character and the fanbase.”
Zendaya remained similarly cognizant of the fans, even though her character differs from the Mary Jane Watson of the comics.
“I want to pay homage to the character that people know,” she admits before disclosing, “I even tried to find a way to make her hair a little reddish” to match Mary Jane’s flaming locks. But she, too, prioritized good storytelling. “Ultimately, it was important that I didn’t neglect the character we’ve built over the years. She has this quirkiness and pessimism that complements Peter’s quirkiness and optimism. They brought these things out of each other, and it seems that their personalities have swapped because of the absence of the other person.”
“It was a lot of fun!” Cretton adds. “I worried that making the movie would be a disaster, with all these giant opinions battling each other and me right in the middle of it. Thank goodness that wasn’t how it went. It’s not as complicated as you’d think. I want each actor to own their character. Because then they can teach me about that character.”
Foregrounding collaboration allowed the team to navigate the expectations of a huge superhero movie, filled with beloved characters. Moreover, it enacted the communal spirit at the heart of Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Jay Maidment / Sony Pictures
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day is about the power of human connection,” states Holland. “It’s about love and the power of friendship, the power of community. And it’s about the importance of asking for help when you need it.”
The movie couldn’t explore that theme without bringing back the two people Peter needs most, even if they don’t know who he is anymore and have spent the last five years living their own lives.
“It was a challenge, but both Destin and I were adamant that these movies don’t exist without Zendaya and Jacob,” Holland contends. “We wanted to make the audience miss MJ and Ned while still making their presence known. You still get all the fun of their presence, and there are some fun moments where Peter’s interacting with them, even though they don’t know who he is.”
“Honestly, we felt bad for Tom,” laughs Zendaya. “Jacob and I are just having a good time, minding our business. And Tom, bless him, is standing off in a corner alone, staring at us from afar! It was like an acting exercise, to play as if you’ve never met this person before. We had to imagine this life that Ned and MJ had without Peter’s presence.”
As befitting his character, Frank, Bernthal takes a more serious approach to the film’s central theme. He explains, “The movie shows what happens when you build a wall around your heart. Essentially being human means that light will shine through the chinks in your armor, and we’ll see that Peter and Frank, like all human beings, need companionship. They need friendship and love.”
Bernthal finds that theme not just in the movie, but also in the process of making it with Tom Holland. “I’ve known Tom since he was 17 years old. I’m so proud of him, and I love working with him.”
Zendaya goes further, stating that her reason for returning for a fourth movie as MJ can be summed up in two words: “Tom Holland.” Even after laughing off her confession and insisting that she returned because she found the character compelling, she cites his enthusiasm as a driving force. “It was really important to Tom that we didn’t just make another Spider-Man movie for the sake of making another movie.”
“Tom Holland has mastered the art of acting behind a mask,” Cretton says. “It’s a bit of Buster Keaton, a bit of Charlie Chaplin, a bit of Kabuki theater. I never worried about working with an actor who kept his face hidden, because Tom expressed it all with his body.”
Yet Holland himself shrugs off the praise to point out, “Spider-Man is one of the most beloved characters. It has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the fact that he’s just a young kid going through all the things we go through.”
So if Spider-Man’s loved by so many, and Spider-Man is the central draw, why does Brand New Day also have Hulk and Punisher and legions of villains, to say nothing of the various other characters who will pop up along the way? Will Brand New Day make Spider-Man a supporting character in a Spider-Man movie?
Cretton laughs off the question. “Oh, you’re going to get so much Spider-Man,” he insists. “Every one of these characters exists because they serve Peter Parker’s journey.”
Holland concurs, urging, “Watch the movie, and you’ll see. Spider-Man fans won’t be disappointed.”
Sony Pictures
Swinging Through the Suffering
In the pages of Marvel Comics, Spider-Man accidentally killed his girlfriend Gwen Stacy and saw countless allies die; he’s had his best friends turn into supervillains, was replaced by clones and arch-enemies, and was forced to choose between his aunt and his wife that one time. With all that in mind, the MCU Peter, with his friendship with Tony Stark and his acceptance by the Avengers, has lived a pretty charmed life.
But Holland would disagree. “There’s no shortage of trauma in Peter Parker’s life,” Holland observes. “He’s lost his mentor, his aunt. We don’t know what happened to his uncle in my universe, but we know he’s not in the picture. He’s lost the love of his life and his best friend.”
Such is the case for every incarnation of Spider-Man, not just the one in the MCU. Across the comics, cartoons, movies, and video games that make up the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man loses the people he loves again and again. Thus Brand New Day starts in a familiar place for poor Peter Parker. But for most fans, that’s where the hope of Spider-Man shines through.
“I connect with so much about Peter Parker,” Cretton says. “His eagerness to be a good person, his fumbling through it, but there’s so much joy in Spider-Man at the same time. It’s a lot of fun being a Spider-Man fan.”
Zendaya finds that joy and chaos in perhaps her character’s most iconic moment from the franchise when the otherwise unflappable MJ loses her cool while swinging across the city with Spidey. “Jon Watts came up with the idea MJ should be afraid of heights,” she remembers. “So we figured out how to realistically wrap yourself around someone swinging around a building. You’d just grab onto them with all your limbs. We’ve all wondered what it would be like to do that.”
The fantasy of spinning webs and swinging through the city is, of course, one of Spider-Man’s central appeals. But for Holland, it comes down to Peter’s perseverance.
“The suffering grounds Peter. It reminds you that he’s human,” Holland states. “I always thought that Peter Parker was special because of Spider-Man. Making this movie, I realized that Spider-Man is special because of Peter Parker. The grief that he experiences resonates with people.”
So even though Spider-Man: Brand New Day brings Peter lower than he’s ever been before, the depths only make the heroic moments more inspiring and the joyful moments more ecstatic. Swinging through the suffering is what Spider-Man, and growing up, is all about.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens on Friday, July 31.
The Thunderbolts Easter Egg You May Have Missed in the Avengers: Doomsday Trailer
The first full trailer for Avengers: Doomsday has been released this week, and it has plenty to show us. Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom easily thwarts an attack from Thor, Gambit battles Shang-Chi, Yelena Belova is unmasked as Mystique at one point before Yelena fights “Yelena,” Steve Rogers is back (with his beard!), Loki does some pondering, and there’s more besides. But in all the excitement, one quiet, key moment has the Fantastic Four, Thor, Ant-Man, and Sam Wilson standing around in the new Avengers watchtower with the Thunderbolts, all looking very serious.
At the end of the reformed gang’s underrated MCU movie last year, a post-credits scene saw them discussing a feud they were having with Wilson, who was apparently suing them for copyright infringement for using the Avengers name. They then detected the arrival of the Fantastic Four’s spacecraft coming in hot.
In that very post-credits scene, they were wearing exactly the same outfits as they are in the Doomsday trailer, including Red Guardian (David Harbour) in his hilarious copyright-dodging “Avengerzzz, with a ‘Z’!” head-to-toe “baby seal butt” suit and Bob Reynolds (Lewis Pullman) in his rather casual dressing gown and sandals.
This meeting of the minds in Doomsday then pulls the current MCU timeline a little tighter, suggesting these characters come together hours or even minutes after the events of Thunderbolts’ post-credits scene. Either way, very little time has passed—which makes total sense, because the Russo brothers filmed it on the set of Doomsday a month before Thunderbolts was even released.
When (or in what universe) some of the other scenes in the trailer are taking place will likely remain a mystery for a while, but one of the biggest questions we have about this specific Thunderbolts moment is how and why the Fantastic Four happened to run into Thor on their way to the Avengers’ world. Hey, since the Guardians of the Galaxy simply happened upon him floating in space wreckage during Avengers: Endgame, it feels like a chance meeting with the God of Thunder could happen to anyone at any moment!
Despite Thor’s mysterious team-up with Marvel’s first family, he’s the only OG Avenger in that room and seems to immediately be taking on the role of their de facto leader. With Thor leading them into battle, surely no one can stop them. That is, except Doom…
Avengers: Doomsday will be released on December 18.
Avengers: Doomsday Trailer Breakdown – Doctor Doom, X-Men, Captain America Returns
The end of the world is nigh for the Marvel Universe—not just the mainline world of Earth-616, but all possible realities within it. Now it will take all of the Earths’ Mightiest Heroes to stop Doomsday.
The first trailer for the long-awaited Avengers: Doomsday is finally here, giving us not only our first chance to hear Robert Downey Jr.’s accented voice as villain Doctor Doom, but also a vision of a franchise world in crisis, as only Thor still remains from the primary lineup who stopped Thanos seven years ago in Avengers: Endgame. But that doesn’t mean the Marvel Universe lacks heroes, so let’s breakdown the trailer to see who can answer the call.
Doctor Doom’s Accent
Of course, the biggest draw to the Doomsday trailer is our first taste of Robert Downey Jr.’s as Victor Von Doom. Downey’s casting as the greatest villain in comic book history has long been the biggest head-scratcher in this entire project and as much as directors Joe and Anthony Russo insist that there’s a very good reason indeed for bringing back the guy who started the MCU as Tony Stark, most of us have been skeptical. Here, we hear him warn about “something” coming, something that will force them to make “an unthinkable decision,” intoning in a vaguely Eastern European accent that stands for his home country, the fictional nation of Latveria.
These opening lines suggest that the heroes face a threat other than Doom himself. Yet, later we see Thor attacking Doom, who casually deflects any attempt to go for the head by reflecting Stormbreaker with just a couple of fingers. Anyone who knows Doctor Doom stories from the comics can easily decipher what’s going on here. Clearly, Doom will rally the heroes behind him to deal with the reality-destroying Incursions that have been teased in the MCU since Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Yet, as soon as an advantage presents itself, Doom will make his move to take power, forcing the Avengers to assemble against him.
Avengers Disassembled
About that assembling… As we’ve known since Thunderbolts*, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes aren’t as mighty as they used to be. Not only did they lose Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow—leaving Thor and Hulk as the sole heavy hitters and also Hawkeye is there (subscribe to the Den of Geek comics newsletter for more uncharitable thoughts about Clint Barton!)—but the team is currently split into two. Bucky leads the New Avengers, consisting of fellow Thunderbolts such as Red Guardian and White Widow, while Sam Wilson takes the role of Captain America to lead a ragtag group of heroes, which includes, uh… just Ant-Man?
With no disrespect to Scott Lang, who did kick Kang the Conqueror out of Phase Six, that’s not enough to deal with Doctor Doom. Fortunately, there are a host of non-Avengers on hand, including Shuri as Black Panther, along with fellow Wakandan M’Baku, and her arch-enemy Namor, as well as the Fantastic Four, who have made their way into the mainline 616. If that’s not enough, the X-Men are also around—but whose side are they on?
Avengers vs. X-Men
Outside of Spider-Man, the X-Men have long been the most popular Marvel property. Yet, even after Disney bought 20th Century Fox and acquired adaptation rights to the Fantastic Four and to X-Men, the MCU has been slow to integrate mutants into their universe. Judging by the trailer, Avengers: Doomsday plans to make up for lost time, as many of the scenes take place inside of Xavier’s School for Gifted Children, complete with an aged Professor X sitting alongside his archenemy and the love of his life Magneto, once again played by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. They’ve brought with them other actors from the Fox X-Men series, including James Marsden as Cyclops, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, and Channing Tatum as Gambit.
However, where those actors famously chose black leather over yellow spandex in the original films, they’re now outfitted in costumes from the Jim Lee era of the comics, the same looks they have in X-Men: The Animated Series. Even more importantly, the X-Men seem to be fighting against the Avengers, as we see Gambit go toe-to-toe with Shang-Chi and Mystique shape shift into Florence Pugh to fight White Widow (I guess Scarlett Johansson‘s still too mad about residuals for Mystique to become Black Widow). Is this the usual prerequisite fight that heroes need to have before joining forces? Or are the Avengers and X-Men forced to fight to save their realities?
What Is the Fantastic Four Up To?
Did we mention that the Fantastic Four are here? Because they are, but they’re very much in the background of the trailer. We’ve long known that Marvel’s first family would leave their universe of a retro-futuristic 1960s and join the 616, and we saw in the previous teasers that Ben Grimm, the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing, would spend some time with the Wakandans. But outside of some shots of them standing around with the Avengers and Johnny sharing a hug with his sister Sue, the FF don’t get much to do.
And that’s a huge problem because this movie is called Doomsday and is all about Doctor Doom. In the comics, Doom’s primary motivation for anything is his burning hatred for Reed Richards. Doom’s mask, his return to Latveria, his mastery of magic, all stem from the fact that Richards understood a math equation better than him back when they were in college together. To see Pedro Pascal’s Reed just standing around while Doom fights Thor has us very worried that Doomsday will forget this key element of the character.
The Miracle of Cap’s Return
If Reed doesn’t really matter to Doomsday, then Thor nails it when he says the Marvel heroes will need a miracle. Fortunately, he gets that miracle when Steve Rogers makes his prophesied return. Thor responds as any right-thinking person would when faced with bearded Cap, extending his hammer for Rogers to grasp. More than a call-back to the crowd-pleasing moment from Avengers: Endgame, when Rogers takes Thor’s hammer firmly in his hand, he dispels some of the theories surrounding Cap’s return.
The first teaser for Avengers: Doomsday told us not that Captain America would return, but that Steve Rogers would return. Together with the multiversal shenanigans baked into Doomsday, including the Leader’s warning of heroes from other realities in the post-credit scene of Captain America: Brave New World, some had wondered if we would get an evil Cap fighting alongside Doom. However, as Avengers: Age of Ultron taught us long ago, anyone who wields Mjolner is worthy of our trust, meaning that Thor can fully give himself over to his comrade again.
Cameos No More!
Perhaps the most important part of the Doomsday trailer are the things we don’t see. With the exception of folks like Kelsey Grammer’s Beast or Lewis Pullman’s Sentry, everyone promised to appear in merchandising leaks and press events shows up. But as a multiversal story set to reboot the MCU as we know it, Doomsday seemed poised to include a ton of cameos and surprises, none of which show up in the trailer. Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and the Netflix heroes seem destined to once again miss out on Avengers action. No Spider-Man shows up—not Tom Holland, not Tobey Maguire, not Andrew Garfield, not even Nicholas Hammond. We don’t see Nicolas Cage or Gabriel Luna as Ghost Rider, Michael Chiklis as the Thing, and neither Dolph Lundgren nor Jon Bernthal nor Thomas Jane appear as Punisher.
Most notably of all, we don’t see Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool or Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. But we do see Loki holding his TVA card, which deserves attention. Deadpool & Wolverine already did a deep dive into the history of Marvel adaptations, even convincing Wesley Snipes to once again share the screen as Blade with Reynolds. The TVA played a central role in that story, and while no one other than Wunmi Mosaku’s Hunter B-15 crossed over from Loki to that movie, a connection did exist. Will Loki be the connective tissue to bring back these favorites for one last appearance? Or will he be too busy as the God of Stories to bother with such petty fan service?
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters on December 18, 2026.
15 People Share Their Perfect 10/10 Movies, No Notes
Everyone has at least one movie they wouldn’t change, even years after first watching it. It isn’t always the biggest box office hit or the most critically acclaimed film. Sometimes everything simply clicks, with the right cast, memorable dialogue, strong pacing, and scenes that never seem to lose their impact. Ask enough movie fans to name a personal 10 out of 10, and certain titles come up again and again, even alongside a few unexpected picks. Whether they’re action classics, heartfelt dramas, or unforgettable adventures, these films have earned a reputation for feeling complete from beginning to end.
Here are 15 movies that many viewers consider perfect, no notes.
James Cameron took everything that worked in The Terminator and expanded it on a much bigger scale. Between groundbreaking visual effects, memorable action sequences, and an emotional ending, it’s widely considered one of the rare sequels that surpasses the original.
John Carpenter’s sci-fi horror classic has only grown in popularity over the years. Its practical effects still impress today, while the growing paranoia between the characters keeps the tension high until the very last scene.
Almost the entire movie takes place inside a single jury room, yet it never loses momentum. Strong performances and sharp dialogue turn a simple premise into one of cinema’s greatest courtroom dramas.
Ridley Scott blended science fiction and horror into something that still feels unsettling decades later. The slow build, unforgettable creature design, and claustrophobic setting helped create one of the genre’s defining films.
What could have been another holiday adaptation became a family favorite thanks to its humor, music, and surprisingly faithful retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic story. Michael Caine’s completely serious performance only makes it work even better.
The Matrix changed action movies almost overnight with its visual style and innovative effects. Even beyond the famous bullet-time sequences, its mix of philosophy, science fiction, and martial arts still stands out.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Peter Jackson’s first trip to Middle-earth introduced audiences to one of cinema’s most ambitious fantasy worlds. The performances, locations, and practical craftsmanship continue to make it feel timeless.
Few movies balance comedy, adventure, and science fiction as effortlessly as Back to the Future. Every scene pushes the story forward, making it one of the most tightly constructed blockbusters ever made.
Steven Spielberg’s dinosaurs still inspire awe more than thirty years later. The combination of practical effects and early CGI helped create moments that continue to impress new generations of viewers.
Frank Darabont’s prison drama became one of the most beloved films ever made through its emotional storytelling and unforgettable performances. Its message of hope continues to resonate with audiences around the world.
Bruce Willis transformed the action hero by playing someone who looked vulnerable instead of invincible. The movie’s clever pacing and memorable villains have kept it near the top of the genre for decades.
Hayao Miyazaki created a magical world filled with unforgettable characters and breathtaking animation. The film’s imagination and emotional depth helped make it one of Studio Ghibli’s defining achievements.
Indiana Jones made an unforgettable first impression in a movie packed with practical stunts, clever action scenes, and nonstop adventure. More than forty years later, it still sets the standard for treasure-hunting blockbusters.
Adventure, comedy, fantasy, and romance all come together in a film that has earned devoted fans across multiple generations. Its endlessly quotable dialogue is just as memorable as its story.
Ridley Scott revived the historical epic with spectacular battles, striking visuals, and a powerful performance from Russell Crowe. The film remains one of the most celebrated Best Picture winners of the 21st century.
15 Times an Actor’s Movie Came Out After They Passed Away
Finishing a movie doesn’t always mean audiences will see it right away. Release dates get pushed back, post-production can take months, and sometimes unexpected circumstances change everything. Every so often, that means an actor passes away before the finished film ever reaches theaters. Watching those performances can feel a little different, especially when viewers know they’re seeing the final work of someone whose career meant a great deal to them. Some of those movies became emotional farewells almost by accident, while others were completed with help from directors, editors, or even the actor’s own family.
Here are 15 times an actor’s movie came out after they passed away.
Heath Ledger, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Ledger died before filming was complete, leading Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell to step in for portions of the role. The movie was released about a year after his death.
Completed shortly before Boseman’s death, the film introduced audiences to one of the most celebrated performances of his career and earned him a posthumous Academy Award nomination.
Alan Rickman, Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)
Rickman had already recorded Absolem’s voice before his death in early 2016. The sequel reached theaters a few months later, becoming his final film performance.
Only a few weeks separated Yelchin’s death from the movie’s premiere. The finished film was dedicated to his memory, making his final appearance as Pavel Chekov even more emotional for longtime fans.
Despite battling stomach cancer during production, Juliá completed the film because he wanted his children to enjoy it. Street Fighter became his final movie after its release later that year.
The crime drama arrived a little more than a year after Gandolfini’s death. His understated performance reminded audiences why he remained one of television and film’s most respected actors.
Liotta completed his scenes months before his passing in 2022. When the movie premiered the following year, audiences were seeing one of his last performances.
Disney dedicated the television premiere to Boyce after his unexpected death only weeks earlier, giving fans one final chance to see him in the role of Carlos.
Production stopped after Walker’s death before eventually resuming with the help of visual effects and his brothers. The movie’s farewell scene remains one of the franchise’s most emotional moments.
Lee died during production after a tragic on-set accident. The remaining scenes were completed using body doubles and early visual effects, allowing the movie to be released the following year and eventually become a cult classic.
Murphy completed filming shortly before her death in 2009, but the thriller didn’t reach audiences until nearly five years later. It ultimately became her final leading role, giving fans one last chance to see her on screen.
Reed died before Gladiator was finished, leaving director Ridley Scott with several scenes still incomplete. The production used body doubles and early digital effects to finish his performance, allowing audiences to see him in what became one of the biggest films of 2000.
15 Times the Car Was More Famous Than the Movie Itself
Not every movie leaves audiences talking about the lead actor or the ending. Sometimes it’s the car that steals the conversation. A great movie vehicle doesn’t need any dialogue to become unforgettable. Give it the right design, a memorable entrance, and one spectacular chase, and it can end up representing the entire film. That’s happened more than once throughout movie history, with certain cars becoming collectibles, inspiring replicas, and showing up at conventions years after their movies premiered. Some fans can even identify them in a split second without remembering much about the story they came from.
Here are 15 times the car was more famous than the movie itself.
The DeLorean struggled to find buyers in real life, but that changed the moment it became a time machine. Today, the stainless-steel sports car is so closely tied to the movie that it’s difficult to picture one without thinking of the other.
The original Batmobile looked unlike anything else on television at the time. Its oversized fins, gadgets, and unmistakable silhouette helped turn it into one of pop culture’s most recognizable fictional vehicles.
An old Cadillac ambulance isn’t the obvious choice for a movie icon, but the Ecto-1 proved otherwise. Its unique design became just as important to the franchise’s identity as the proton packs.
Max’s black Pursuit Special barely needs an introduction. The weathered muscle car became one of the defining images of the entire franchise and is still copied by fans decades later.
James Bond has driven countless luxury cars, yet the DB5 is still the one most people picture first. Hidden gadgets certainly helped, but its timeless design is what secured its legendary status.
Small, quick, and surprisingly agile, the Mini Cooper turned one of cinema’s greatest chase sequences into an unforgettable showcase. The movie gave the little British car a place in film history.
The black-and-gold Trans Am quickly became an automotive icon after the film’s release. Its popularity reached well beyond the movie, turning it into one of the most sought-after muscle cars of its era.
The classic Ford isn’t simply parked in the background. It represents the values and memories Clint Eastwood’s character refuses to let go of, giving the car a much larger role than most movie vehicles ever receive.
The battered police cruiser survives crashes that would destroy almost any other vehicle. By the time the credits roll, the Bluesmobile feels like another member of the cast.
Before revealing himself as Bumblebee, the yellow Camaro had already captured plenty of attention. Chevrolet benefited from the movie almost as much as the Autobots did.
Steve McQueen’s famous chase through San Francisco remains one of the greatest driving scenes ever filmed. The Mustang became inseparable from that sequence and has been admired by car enthusiasts ever since.
Dodge Charger R/T, The Fast and the Furious (2001)
Dominic Toretto’s Charger became one of the franchise’s defining symbols almost immediately. Even after countless sequels, it’s still the vehicle most closely associated with the series.
Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
The Ferrari appears only briefly, but it ends up playing a central role in one of the movie’s most memorable moments. That was enough to make it unforgettable.
Unlike most movie cars, Herbie wasn’t just transportation. The cheerful Volkswagen Beetle had its own personality, making audiences care about the car as much as any human character.
The white Challenger spends almost the entire movie racing across the American West. Its sleek appearance and relentless pace helped transform it into one of the most admired muscle cars ever featured on screen.
Christopher Nolan Is Right About Horror Movies and That’s Exactly Why He Should Make One
This article contains The Odyssey spoilers
The Odyssey is really impressive. The sheer scale of Christopher Nolan’s epic new movie is wowing audiences worldwide right now, but unfortunately—and inevitably—people will eventually start asking him how he will top it with his next film.
The answer to that question from any notable filmmaker tends to be the same: they’re not thinking about what’s next, they’ve only just brought this project to fruition, and it took a really long time. That’s understandable, yet we would argue that when Nolan is finally ready to make another film, he shouldn’t necessarily try to top the massive effort of The Odyssey and feel trapped by the expectations of escalation. Why go bigger when the real challenge could be going deeper into a genre he’s been circling for decades instead: horror.
Nolan recently told Empire that he’s always wanted to do a horror movie, but that so far he’s “never clicked with a particular idea or concept that worked” for him. He has, however, proven that he’s capable of creating some incredibly disturbing stuff. Leonard’s terrifying loss of identity and grip on reality in Memento made that film work beyond a traditional mystery. The Prestige hid elements of body horror inside its period drama. Scarecrow’s Batman Begins trips were arguably the highlight of that movie. Mal Cobb appears as a slasher killer-esque jump scare again and again in Inception. Then there’s The Odyssey, where Circe transforms Odysseus’ men into pigs during one unforgettable sequence. People can’t stop talking about how gross and unsettling Circe’s section of the film is, anchored by a stunning performance from Samantha Morton.
Still, Nolan already seems aware of how challenging it would be for him to fully embrace horror. “Of all genres, it is the most visceral,” he explained. “Where the direct response to the audience is the most important. That is to say, you’re trying to make people literally feel something in their bones about what’s going on on-screen.” He also added that he now sees a lot of horror movies with his kids and seems impressed by how risky they are. “You’ll see things in the first half an hour, 45 minutes of any horror film that you’d never see in another genre. Risks that are taken. Dangerous approaches to things and all the rest. Admittedly, a lot of movies can’t sustain that to the end. But in the horror genre, that kind of innovation is not just respected—it’s really demanded.”
He’s right to say it, and that’s why we hope he does finally find that elusive idea or concept to work with in the future. Though he believes there are “very few really great horror movies,” Nolan has already refined many filmmaking strengths that horror depends on, so they give him a much better chance of making one. Imagine his skills with time manipulation in Inception and Tenet applied to dread; the anxiety of Dunkirk being much more intimate; his ambitious logic grounded in the rules of the genre, making the unknowable that much more frightening.
Not only does Nolan have the skills to pay the horror bills, but the genre itself has freed itself from the unfair dismissal it was still subject to a couple of decades ago. Prestige horror has paved the way for critically and commercially successful movies, with Hereditary, The Witch, Get Out, and The Substance now discussed as major works of contemporary cinema rather than just cheap scares for genre lovers or the popcorn crowd.
Studios like A24 and Neon have also supported horror filmmakers who want to make visually distinctive and ambitious projects, and those vital concepts and ideas that Nolan refers to are consequently on the rise as low-budget fare like Backrooms and Obsession dominate both the cultural conversation and the box office. Nolan wouldn’t be “lowering” himself into horror; he’d be joining one of the most artistically challenging filmmaking spaces possible right now. He’d also be in the historically prestigious company of Stanley Kubrick, Jonathan Demme, and William Friedkin.
Now that he’s admitted he’s keen to make a horror movie, and he’s mastered spectacle, puzzles, historical drama, and mysteries, we’d love to find out if Nolan can add to the classics of this particular genre. He’s right that horror movies take risks and dangerous approaches that you just can’t find elsewhere. Making a great one could be his next big challenge.
15 Behind-the-Scenes Images from Your Favorite Classic Westerns
Watching a classic western, it’s easy to forget there were dozens of people standing just outside the frame. Directors were giving instructions, cameras were being repositioned, and actors were often laughing together moments before filming some of the genre’s most memorable scenes. Behind-the-scenes photos capture all of that, showing a side of these movies audiences were never meant to see.
Here are 15 behind-the-scenes images from your favorite classic westerns.
One of the most famous behind-the-scenes photos shows Sergio Leone giving directions to Clint Eastwood between takes. It’s a reminder that one of cinema’s greatest westerns was built through careful planning rather than improvisation.
Paul Newman and Robert Redford frequently joked around while cameras weren’t rolling, and several candid set photos perfectly capture their off-screen chemistry.
Production photos from High Noon offer a rare look at the cast and crew between takes, when the tension of the story gave way to a much more relaxed atmosphere. Moments like these remind viewers just how much work happened off camera before every iconic scene.
John Wayne and director Howard Hawks often reviewed scenes together between takes, reflecting the close collaboration behind one of Wayne’s defining westerns.
Photos from Monument Valley reveal just how much of the film depended on real locations instead of studio sets, with John Ford directing against one of America’s most recognizable landscapes.
It’s easy to focus on John Wayne, but there’s just as much happening around him. Cameras, lighting equipment, and crew members fill the frame, turning this production photo into a reminder that even the biggest western stars depended on a much larger team behind the scenes.
Sam Peckinpah can be seen carefully setting up the film’s famous slow-motion action sequences, which would go on to influence generations of filmmakers.
Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, and the rest of the cast appear remarkably relaxed between takes, making for some of the most entertaining candid western photos.
Photos of Clint Eastwood working closely with cast and crew offer a glimpse into his early years as both actor and director.
15 Times Nobody Was Ready for How Good the Movie Really Was
Some movies practically sell themselves. Others arrive with trailers that look forgettable, strange marketing campaigns, or premises that make people assume they’ll be mediocre at best. Sometimes it’s a sequel nobody asked for. Other times it’s a movie based on a toy, a theme park ride, or an old TV show that seems destined to disappoint. Then audiences actually sit down to watch it, and everything changes. Word of mouth takes over, critics are forced to rethink their expectations, and a movie nobody believed in suddenly becomes one of the year’s biggest surprises.
Here are 15 times nobody was ready for how good the movie really was.
A reboot of an old TV series starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill didn’t sound particularly promising. Instead, it became one of the funniest comedies of the decade.
The marketing never quite explained what the movie actually was, leading many people to overlook it. Those who gave it a chance found one of the smartest sci-fi action films in years.
A movie based on toy bricks sounded like an obvious cash grab. Instead, it turned into a genuinely funny, creative, and surprisingly emotional animated adventure.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
A blockbuster based on a Disney theme park ride sounded like a terrible idea. Johnny Depp and a surprisingly entertaining adventure proved everyone wrong.
Video game and fantasy adaptations don’t always inspire confidence. This one surprised audiences with sharp comedy, likable characters, and genuine heart.
A buddy detective comedy released with little fanfare ended up becoming a cult favorite thanks to the chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe.
Many expected another generic action movie built around Brad Pitt. Instead, it delivered stylish action, memorable characters, and plenty of unexpected laughs.
A new Zorro movie didn’t exactly sound like a guaranteed hit. Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones ended up delivering one of the most entertaining adventure films of the decade.
15 Movie Facts That Are More Unfortunate Than Fun
Movie trivia is usually supposed to make you appreciate a film even more. Every now and then, though, you stumble across a behind-the-scenes fact that just makes the whole experience a little sadder. Some actors never got the careers they deserved after a breakout role. Others went through miserable productions, saw years of work go to waste, or watched a movie become famous for all the wrong reasons. These are the movie facts that are much more unfortunate than fun.
Here are 15 movie facts that are more unfortunate than fun.
Alan Rickman later admitted he almost turned the movie down because he didn’t understand the script. It ended up becoming one of the most beloved comedies of his career.
Disney reportedly gave the film a much smaller marketing push than many expected, and its disappointing box office performance helped derail plans for sequels despite its later cult following.
John Carpenter’s horror classic bombed when it first came out and was heavily criticized by reviewers. It only gained its legendary reputation years later.
Despite glowing reviews and a passionate fanbase, the movie underperformed at the box office, ending any hopes of turning the comics into a film series.
Disney invested heavily in the film, only to watch it become one of the studio’s biggest disappointments before the Disney Renaissance completely changed its fortunes.
Today it’s considered one of the best science fiction films of the century. At the time, however, it struggled financially and found much of its audience years later.
It wasn’t an instant hit when it reached theaters. Its enormous popularity came later through home video, where it slowly became one of the most quoted movies ever made.
15 People Share the 6/10 Movie They Still Watch All the Time
Every movie fan has at least one film they’re willing to defend even while admitting it isn’t exactly great. Maybe the dialogue is cheesy, the CGI hasn’t aged well, or the critics were right about half the complaints. None of that seems to matter once you hit play. These are the movies people throw on when they’re bored, flipping through channels, or just looking for something familiar. They’re far from perfect, but somehow they’re always worth another watch.
Here are the 6/10 movies people still watch all the time.
It’s exactly the kind of over-the-top action movie people love putting on in the background. Fast cars, Nicolas Cage, and a simple premise make it an easy rewatch despite its flaws.
The dialogue can be ridiculous and the science makes absolutely no sense, yet it’s almost impossible not to get sucked into another viewing once the disasters begin.
Even fans admit it’s incredibly dumb, but that’s part of the appeal. If you grew up quoting it with your friends, chances are you still laugh at the same jokes today.
Even people who make fun of Armageddon usually end up watching the whole thing. Michael Bay’s explosions and surprisingly emotional ending keep pulling audiences back.
It never reaches the highs of the first movie, but Brendan Fraser’s charm and nonstop adventure make it an easy sequel to revisit.
Marvel Had the Chance to Do Something So Funny with Avengers: Doomsday at SDCC 2026
Update: DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN! The following article, which features the premise that it would be both funny and creatively satisfying if Marvel continued to hide the Avengers: Doomsday trailer through San Diego Comic-Con, was published at 9 a.m. ET on July 20. The Avengers: Doomsday trailer was officially released at 9:01 a.m. ET on July 20. We’re not saying “you’re welcome,” but…
*****
If last year’s five-and-a-half-hour Avengers: Doomsdaycast announcement livestream didn’t give it away, Marvel was heading for an aloof—and elusive—marketing run with its new superhero team-up movie. The stream in question notched up almost six million views as chairs printed with actors’ names were placed alongside each other, and while it was an impressive roster, it ended with Robert Downey Jr. showing up to view the long line of chairs, eyeballing the camera and making a “shushing” motion as he placed a finger to his lips.
Arguably, that “shush” was the start of what would become a marketing campaign so weirdly secretive that many fans would begin asking themselves, “What the hell is even going on with this movie?” From a countdown clock to a string of give-basically-nothing-away trailers that the Russo Brothers claimed were actually “clues,” to June’s exciting Avengers: Doomsday tease that ended up being …a pop-up coffee shop, very little has actually been confirmed or revealed about the plot of this year’s blockbuster or Downey Jr’s new role as Doctor Doom as the movie gears up for its December release, and I’m here to say: Good. Keep it up.
This week, fans are once again getting their hopes up for a first proper Doomsday trailer to come out of Marvel’s (only potentially triumphant) return to Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. In the past, head honcho Kevin Feige has made some big reveals there for Marvel Studios, bringing out Tom Hiddleston in full Loki costume and even announcing plans for entire phases of the MCU, but now that Marvel has kept up its cryptic Doomsday campaign for so long, it’s even funnier to cross the line from amusing to absurd through sheer commitment and reveal very little or nothing at all.
It could actually become the marketing equivalent of the henchman screaming as the slow, steady pace of a steamroller heads toward him in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, or the puking scene in Team America: World Police. String this out as long as possible, please, because I’m finding it more hilarious the longer it goes on. While I know it infuriates others, such as my good friend, fellow Den of Geek writer and podcast co-host, Joe George, I simply love a gag that doesn’t know when to stop.
More than just being incredibly funny to me, Doomsday’s lack of build-up has given something back to Marvel that it desperately needed: the wonder of the unknown. Laying out exhaustive phases full of MCU movies and TV shows has not only drained the creative well but also made many of Marvel’s projects feel like mere stepping stones. As soon as one finished, there was a post-credits scene teasing the next thing, and fans became aware that X couldn’t die because they were in Y project, or that Z’s plot didn’t matter because they had already told us Thing Would Happen. For the first time in a long time, we don’t really know what will happen next. Yes, we know there’ll be another Avengers movie, and that other films are in development, but the longer the Doomsday secrecy goes on, the less we can predict about what Marvel has up its sleeve.
It may not feel like it right now, but Marvel is trying to go back to basics here. It needs to make people feel excited about the MCU again, and some of that excitement will naturally lie in the unknown. “We were both talking about this concept that we are back to phase zero,” Doomsday co-director Joe Russo told SXSW London last month. “This is starting over from scratch.” Maybe it’s time to believe him and embrace this weird new era, rather than expect the MCU to somehow continue at the level of hype that led to Avengers: Endgame. This “phase zero” might be cryptic, but it’s also embracing a pretty funny edging approach that Marvel has never really attempted before.
Of course, part of me still hopes that everyone who wants a big Avengers: Doomsday trailer out of Marvel’s SDCC appearance gets what they so desperately crave. That this incredible footage finally lands and properly ignites the hype train for the film. In fact, Marvel has already begun teasing it via its Fantastic Four social media accounts. But since Marvel has yet another chance to do the unexpected at SDCC, I would no longer be surprised if it takes it. Casting rumors for the studio’s X-Men reboot have gone into overdrive this month, and a full cast reveal for that movie would certainly be something else to witness instead.
If you do get a revealing Doomsday trailer this week [Editor’s Note: Lol], I hope you’re happy with it. If you don’t? Well, I hope you’ll spare a moment to imagine me having a good old chuckle about it.
15 Public Figures Who Left the Spotlight Behind
Some celebrities seem to disappear overnight. One day they’re everywhere, showing up on magazine covers, late-night talk shows, and every red carpet imaginable. Then, almost without anyone noticing, they stop showing up altogether. In some cases, that was exactly the plan.
Whether they chose family, privacy, or a completely different career, these public figures stepped away from the spotlight while everyone else kept looking for them.
Despite selling millions of records, Enya has always preferred a quiet life away from fame. She rarely gives interviews, almost never tours, and has spent years avoiding the celebrity lifestyle.
After years as one of Hollywood’s biggest actresses, Swank slowed down her career to focus on family, including caring for her father during his illness.
Once one of Hollywood’s most sought-after writers and directors, Whedon’s public profile changed dramatically after multiple workplace misconduct allegations. Since then, he’s largely stayed out of the spotlight.
Fabio seemed to be everywhere throughout the 1980s and 1990s, appearing on magazine covers, TV shows, and commercials. These days, public appearances have become much less common.
Unlike many of his Brat Pack peers, Emilio Estevez stepped away from mainstream Hollywood. He still directs and occasionally acts, but mostly avoids the celebrity circuit.
Coulter spent years dominating political talk shows and bestseller lists. Compared to the 1990s and 2000s, though, she has kept a much lower public profile.
One of the biggest teen stars of the 1990s, Jonathan Taylor Thomas gradually stepped away from acting and has largely stayed out of public view ever since.
Although Burnham occasionally releases projects, he has spoken openly about stepping back from performing live and spends long stretches away from the spotlight.
Apple has never chased fame the way many musicians do. Long gaps between albums and very few public appearances have made each comeback feel like a surprise.
After years of starring in major Hollywood films, Gordon-Levitt shifted much of his attention toward directing, producing, and developing creative projects outside the traditional studio system.
Moranis famously walked away from acting after the death of his wife to raise his children, turning down roles for years despite remaining beloved by fans.
Diaz stepped away from acting for nearly a decade, saying she wanted to focus on her personal life. She only recently began taking on a few projects again.
Bridget Fonda was one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actresses throughout the 1990s before quietly walking away from acting. Unlike many retired stars, she has shown little interest in returning to the spotlight.
15 People Share the Celebrities Who Have No Real Competition
Ask ten people who the greatest basketball player of all time is, and you’ll probably get a few different answers. Ask who the greatest pole vaulter is, or the greatest swimmer, and the debate gets a lot shorter. Every so often, someone becomes so dominant that comparisons almost stop making sense. Instead of chasing their rivals, they end up chasing their own records, their own achievements, or simply trying to outdo what they accomplished the year before.
These are the celebrities who have no real competition.
For years, Beyoncé has been the artist other performers get compared to. Between her live shows, chart success, and influence on pop music, plenty of fans feel she’s been setting the standard for an entire generation.
Gretzky’s records are so far ahead of everyone else’s that hockey fans often joke the only person who could compete with Wayne Gretzky was Wayne Gretzky.
Most film composers would be thrilled to receive one Oscar nomination. John Williams has received so many that he occasionally ended up competing against himself in the same category.
Duplantis has broken the pole vault world record so many times that people almost expect it now. More often than not, the biggest obstacle is clearing the height he set himself a few months earlier.
If you’ve watched a nature documentary, there’s a good chance you’ve heard David Attenborough’s voice. After decades behind the microphone, it’s hard to imagine anyone else filling that role.
In the 1500-meter freestyle, Ledecky hasn’t just won races. She’s filled the record books with her own name, leaving everyone else chasing times she already set.
Nobody else has managed to build an entire career around parody songs quite like Weird Al. Decades later, he’s still the first name people think of when the genre comes up.
For more than a decade, Carlsen was the player every chess tournament revolved around. Winning against him felt like an upset because losing was something he simply didn’t do very often.
Biles has spent years doing skills so difficult that gymnastics had to come up with new ways to score them. At her best, everyone else was competing for second.
The Grammy for Best Polka Album became almost synonymous with Jimmy Sturr. He won it so many times that, after the category was retired, plenty of people joked he’d taken it with him.
At the height of his career, betting on Tiger Woods often felt safer than picking the rest of the field. He wasn’t just winning tournaments. He was making the world’s best golfers look ordinary.
Secretariat
More than 50 years later, Secretariat’s Belmont Stakes record is still standing. His Triple Crown run was so dominant that it’s still used as the standard every great racehorse gets measured against.
Every major sprint seemed to end the same way for years: Bolt pulling away from everyone else. Even today, his world records are still the numbers every new generation is trying to chase.
Most musicians spend a lifetime mastering one style. Yo-Yo Ma did that, then started exploring music from around the world, introducing millions of people to sounds they might never have discovered otherwise.
20 People Share the Most Addictive Video Game They’ve Ever Played
What does it mean to be truly hooked by a video game? It isn’t just that it’s the only thing you think about, it means that you want to play it at every hour of every day, going to sleep far later than your body allows on a weekday. What hooks each person, however, depends entirely on the individual.
This is why users of Reddit started sharing their experiences on the site, saying how different games affected them in different ways. Strategy, PvP, RPGs, you name it, there is a fan that lost countless hours having fun in that game and genre.
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World of Warcraft
Blizzard’s MMORPG became famous for consuming entire weekends. Between leveling characters, chasing rare gear, exploring new expansions, and participating in raids, World of Warcraft created a progression loop that kept millions of players subscribed for years.
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Civilization
The phrase “one more turn” became synonymous with Sid Meier’s strategy franchise for a reason. Building an empire from ancient history to the future makes it remarkably easy to lose track of time.
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RuneScape
Whether training skills, completing quests, or grinding for valuable items, RuneScape built its reputation on long-term progression. Many players spent years steadily increasing stats and chasing ever more ambitious goals.
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Diablo II
The hunt for better loot is the heart of Diablo II. Randomized item drops, character builds, and endlessly replayable difficulty levels kept players running dungeons long after finishing the story.
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Age of Empires II
The classic real-time strategy game combines quick matches with tremendous strategic depth. Learning civilizations, mastering build orders, and competing online has kept players invested for decades.
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Factorio
Few games are better at creating a cycle of constant optimization. Every automated factory reveals new inefficiencies to solve, turning simple production chains into sprawling industrial mega-projects.
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EverQuest
One of the defining MMORPGs of the late 1990s, EverQuest rewarded persistence with powerful gear and hard-earned levels. Its social structure and demanding progression kept many players deeply invested.
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Stardew Valley
What begins as a relaxing farming game quickly becomes an obsession. Between expanding a farm, building relationships, fishing, mining, and completing community goals, there is always another task waiting.
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Balatro
This poker-inspired roguelike thrives on constant experimentation. Discovering powerful card combinations and chasing increasingly absurd scores makes it incredibly difficult to stop after a single run.
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Players often start with a simple quest and end up spending hours exploring caves, joining factions, crafting equipment, or wandering the wilderness. Few open-world games encourage distraction quite like Skyrim.
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RimWorld
Every colony creates its own unpredictable story. Managing resources, responding to disasters, and dealing with eccentric colonists makes it easy to spend entire evenings guiding a settlement through chaos.
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Tetris
The gameplay is simple enough to learn in minutes yet compelling enough to play forever. The constant pursuit of higher scores and perfect placements has kept players hooked for decades.
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StarCraft
Blizzard’s science-fiction strategy classic rewards mastery at every level. Fast-paced matches, precise mechanics, and competitive play created an experience many players found difficult to walk away from.
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League of Legends
The combination of ranked competition, constant updates, and hundreds of champions helped make League of Legends one of the most-played games in the world. One match often turns into several.
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The Sims 4
Building homes, creating families, and guiding virtual lives gives players nearly endless objectives. Many sessions begin with a small renovation and end hours later with an entirely new household.
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Counter-Strike
Its simple premise hides extraordinary depth. The drive to improve aim, learn maps, and climb competitive rankings has kept players returning to Counter-Strike for more than two decades.
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Dota 2
Valve’s multiplayer phenomenon offers immense strategic complexity. With over a hundred heroes and countless team compositions, players can spend thousands of hours learning and still discover new approaches.
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Baldur’s Gate 3
Larian Studios packed its role-playing epic with meaningful choices, hidden content, and replay value. Many players finish one campaign only to immediately start another with a different character.
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Cities: Skylines II
The city-building sequel encourages constant tinkering. Expanding infrastructure, solving traffic problems, and refining layouts can transform a quick check-in into an unexpectedly long session.
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Path of Exile
Grinding Gear Games built an action RPG around deep character customization and endless loot hunting. New leagues, massive skill trees, and constant progression make it easy to keep playing.
15 TV Shows That Peaked in Their First Season and Went Downhill After That
The first season of a show has a lot of work to do for the future of the series, since it needs to establish the premise, recurring characters and overarching plots in a satisfying manner. When done right, it can hook audiences for decades who want to know more about the characters, or how the story ends.
One thing the first season can get away with, however, is answering all questions. That is the responsibility of future seasons, and the better the set up was, the higher the pressure on the payoff. These are the shows that had less than stellar seasons following a near masterpiece of a first one.
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Stranger Things
The first season balanced nostalgia, mystery, horror, and character drama almost perfectly. Later seasons became bigger and more ambitious, but many viewers feel the intimate small-town atmosphere of the debut was never matched.
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Heroes
NBC’s first season was a phenomenon, introducing a large cast of interconnected superpowered characters. Subsequent seasons struggled with inconsistent storytelling, production issues, and plots that never captured the same excitement.
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Westworld
The original season’s mystery-driven structure and philosophical questions captivated audiences. Once the central puzzle was solved, later seasons became increasingly divisive and failed to generate the same level of enthusiasm.
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Prison Break
The first season’s central premise, escaping from Fox River State Penitentiary, was tightly focused and suspenseful. Once the escape happened, the show struggled to find an equally compelling direction.
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True Detective
Although later seasons have their supporters, the first season starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson remains the benchmark. Its atmosphere, performances, and mystery proved difficult to surpass.
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The Walking Dead
Many fans consider the six-episode debut season one of the strongest runs in the franchise. As the series expanded, pacing issues and repetitive storylines became frequent complaints.
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Bloodline
The first season built tension masterfully around the Rayburn family’s secrets. Later seasons suffered from narrative complications and the challenge of following up the fallout from the initial mystery.
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Big Little Lies
Originally conceived as a miniseries, the first season told a complete story and won widespread acclaim. The second season featured strong performances but lacked the same narrative urgency.
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Under the Dome
The first season generated interest through its intriguing premise and Stephen King connection. As the show continued, increasingly convoluted storylines caused many viewers to lose interest.
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Sleepy Hollow
The debut season blended supernatural horror, historical mythology, and procedural storytelling effectively. Later years struggled to maintain that balance and saw declining audience enthusiasm.
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Scream Queens
Ryan Murphy’s horror-comedy found its strongest footing in the first season’s murder mystery. The second season changed settings and never generated the same cultural buzz.
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The Terror
The first season’s adaptation of the Franklin Expedition was widely praised for its atmosphere and storytelling. The anthology’s second season received a much more mixed response from critics and audiences.
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Wayward Pines
The opening season delivered a compelling mystery and satisfying reveals. Once the town’s secrets were exposed, the show found it difficult to maintain the same momentum.
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Russian Doll
Its first season offered a clever and emotionally resonant time-loop story with a strong sense of closure. The second season took bigger narrative swings that divided viewers.
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The Following
Kevin Bacon’s thriller began with a tense cat-and-mouse dynamic between an FBI agent and a serial killer. Later seasons expanded the mythology but never matched the impact of the original run.
The Odyssey Box Office Marks New Peak for Nolan, New Low for Social Media Malcontents
As it turns out, audiences love a Christopher Nolan movie that leans into the epic imagery of heroes and monsters, and all with grand emotional stakes. Who would have guessed otherwise?
Apparently quite a few folks, as you might have noticed if you spent any significant time on social media and video sharing apps like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and especially X, the latter of which is owned by the richest man in the world. Indeed, in one week alone last May, Elon Musk posted 60 times about his vocal misgivings for the then upcoming Nolan adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey. Even so, this apprehension clearly hasn’t trickled down to regular moviegoers.
This past weekend’s release of The Odysseygrossed an estimated $124.5 million across three days—plus Thursday night previews—well above what prognosticators last week were suggesting would open around $105 million. Furthermore, it is the highest domestic start of the year for a live-action movie, falling only behind Toy Story 5($159.7 million) and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie($131.7 million). It’s also something of a coup for Nolan, marking the highest domestic opening of his career that is neither a sequel or a Batman movie. (His biggest openings remain The Dark Knightand The Dark Knight Rises with $158.4 million and $160.9 million, respectively.) And it is also his biggest global release, period, hitting $264.1 million across the weekend.
Domestically these might not be Batman numbers, but the fact The Odyssey is outpacing what became leggy and beloved hits like Inception, Interstellar, and Oppenheimer, the latter of which benefitted greatly from being one-half of the “Barbenheimer”phenomenon in 2023, and Odyssey is doing that while still being a sprawling three-hour and R-rated epic, is a testament to Nolan’s popularity. In a summer when traditional franchise films appear to be faltering, the box office is still growing and healthy because, in part, of audience excitement for ambitious filmmakers who can turn their name recognition into something of a brand. Odyssey’s “A” CinemaScore also suggests we might be headed toward another leggy run, similar to Oppenheimer dropping only 43.4 percent in its second weekend after receiving an “A” CinemaScore.
The implications of Odyssey’s success are tantalizing in a few ways. The first is of course being a welcome reminder that social media noise is often more a tempest in a teacup than the zeitgeist-defining battleground the culture warriors imagine. Plenty of social media malcontents have made a penny off manipulating YouTube, X, TikTok, and other algorithms by feeding negative content and amplifying racially-tinged toxicity over the casting of Black actors in Odyssey, as well as trans actor Elliot Page in the role of a Greek soldier, and yet for all the rage-filled engagement it generates on the internet, the online vitriol likely has no more to do with general audience attitudes than similar campaigns targeting flops in genres that audiences may have become exhausted by.
In other words, the only thing online echo chambers seething over Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o being cast as Helen of Troy achieved appears to be the further feeding of ad revenues for certain social media personalities.
Beyond the culture war nonsense, The Odyssey’s success is not surprising but it’s still illuminating. As we wrote last week, the box office has seen four or five disappointments from massively marketed franchise (or intended to be franchise) films. Several were new installments in storied brands with decades-long cinematic history, others were new live-action remakes in a franchise that saw its last installment gross more than $1 billion not even two years ago.
Despite these underperformances, the general sentiment around Hollywood, and definitely among theater owners, is that this has so far been a solid year at the movies. That’s because box office on the whole is up from this time last year, as is attendance. It just appears to be what audiences are more keen to see is shifting. There remains plenty of room for the big splashy blockbuster epic. But unlike Moana, Masters of the Universe, or Supergirl, the selling point of Odyssey isn’t the intellectual property (although the fact most audiences around the world should have heard of Homer’s 2,800-year-old epic at some point in their lives certainly helps); it’s that the audience trusts in the filmmaker and the way he and Universal Pictures were able to leverage that in the marketing campaign.
As with Ryan Coogler’s unapologetically film-nerdy marketing push to explain the appeal of IMAX 70mm projection last year during Sinners’ rollout, or Phil Lord and Chris Miller doing something similar for Project Hail Marythis spring, the fact Nolan is the first filmmaker in history to shoot an entire narrative film with 65mm IMAX cameras became one of The Odyssey’s biggest assets. Granted, Nolan was the original pioneer of using IMAX photography in Hollywood productions, beginning with The Dark Knight almost 20 years ago, but at that time it was more of a novelty adored by cinephiles and Nolan’s most ardent fans. Eighteen years later, it’s one of the biggest selling points, one that might matter more than shared universe interconnectivity.
The film’s success also suggests movie stars continue to be an added value, if not the greatest selling point, considering The Odyssey’s cast, like Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies, is absolutely stacked with familiar and recognizable faces. From the top of the call sheet performers like Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Holland, all the way down to the supporting ensemble including Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo, Mia Goth, and Robert Pattinson among its ranks, The Odyssey seemed to benefit from the kind of retro all-star cast trick that ironically was a mainstay of the type of 1950s sword and sandal epics Nolan seemed to be partially channeling here.
It is not a small irony that one of the biggest hits of the year is relying on larger format presentations and starry ensemble casts like the Hollywood of 70 years ago. But when coupled with the success this summer of original, young-skewing horror movies like Obsession and Backrooms, as well as the return of adult-leaning sci-fi movies like Hail Mary and even the middle-aged-skewing comedy of Devil Wears Prada 2, it does create a glimpse into the future of what might be working.
And when it comes to selling tickets, winning the online grifters and malcontents seems fairly irrelevant. Still.
15 Famous Movie Scenes Everyone Remembers Wrong
There are movie scenes and lines so iconic, we all keep quoting and referencing them whenever we get the chance. The thing is, human memory is not an infallible thing, so we might share the quote in the wrong way, which can go viral in seconds with today’s internet.
As such, there are plenty of examples of scenes that a lot of people remember in one way, and in reality went in a completely different direction. Even people that haven’t seen the films continue the spread of misinformation. Here are some of the most well-known examples so you can set the record straight.
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“Luke, I Am Your Father” Never Happens
One of the most famous movie quotes ever is also one of the most misquoted. In The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader actually says, “No, I am your father,” not the version endlessly repeated in popular culture.
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The Wicked Witch Never Says “Fly, My Pretties!”
Many people remember the Wicked Witch of the West commanding, “Fly, my pretties, fly!” In The Wizard of Oz, she actually says, “Fly, fly, fly!” before adding, “Fly, my pretties, fly!”
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Humphrey Bogart Never Says “Play It Again, Sam”
Despite becoming the title of a famous Woody Allen film, the line never appears in Casablanca. The closest dialogue is Ilsa asking Sam to play “As Time Goes By.”
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Dirty Harry Doesn’t Ask If You Feel Lucky
People often shorten the speech to “Do you feel lucky, punk?” In reality, Harry Callahan’s famous monologue is longer and more elaborate than the version commonly quoted.
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Snow White Never Says “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall”
Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs actually uses the line “Magic mirror on the wall.” The more famous version largely comes from later retellings and adaptations.
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The Graduate’s Ending Isn’t Happy
Many remember Benjamin and Elaine escaping together as a triumphant romantic ending. What they often forget is the lingering shot of both characters looking increasingly uncertain and uncomfortable.
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The Shower Scene Doesn’t Show the Stabbing
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is remembered as an extremely graphic murder sequence. In reality, careful editing and quick cuts create the illusion of violence without showing the knife entering flesh.
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Scarface’s Final Stand Is More Chaotic Than Heroic
Pop culture often portrays Tony Montana’s final battle as a triumphant last stand. The actual scene is frantic, desperate, and ends with Tony being completely overwhelmed.
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The Monster Isn’t Called Frankenstein
Countless people refer to Boris Karloff’s creature as Frankenstein. In Mary Shelley’s story and the classic films, Frankenstein is the scientist, while the creature remains unnamed.
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The Silence of the Lambs Barely Features Hannibal Lecter
Many viewers remember Hannibal Lecter as constantly present throughout the film. Anthony Hopkins actually appears for only about sixteen minutes, despite dominating discussions of the movie.
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The Titanic Door Debate Misses the Real Issue
The famous argument isn’t whether Jack could physically fit on the floating debris. The film itself suggests the problem is that the makeshift raft cannot support both their weight.
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The Karate Kid Wasn’t About Illegal Kicks
A popular internet theory claims Daniel’s winning kick was illegal. The tournament rules shown in the film allow kicks to the face, making the victory legitimate within the movie’s logic.
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The Chestburster Scene Wasn’t Completely Secret
A common story claims the Alien cast knew absolutely nothing about the chestburster sequence. While they were unaware of specific effects and details, they knew an alien would emerge.
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Indiana Jones Didn’t Always Hate Snakes
People often remember Indiana Jones as universally terrified of snakes from the beginning. The films establish that his fear comes from a specific childhood incident rather than a lifelong phobia.
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Rocky Doesn’t Win the Fight
Because Rocky became such a classic underdog story, many people assume Rocky Balboa wins the final match. The emotional victory matters more than the scorecard, because Apollo Creed wins the decision.
House of the Dragon Season 3: Who Is Prince Joffrey?
This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon season 3 episode 5.
“Your Grace, glad news! [Ed Note: See, I wasn’t lying about the ‘glad news’ part]” a nameless servant informs the dragonqueen. “Young Prince Joffrey has returned this hour from The Vale. I’m told he’s asked for you.”
Rhaenyra’s reaction to this statement is inscrutable. It seems as though both one million and precisely zero emotions cross her face all at once. Ultimately she responds with a curt “I will come to him when I’m able. I’m sure he’s tired.” Later on, after another day filled with the weight of governance, Rhaenyra finally does visit this Prince Joffrey, only to find the little child fast asleep in his bed, watched over by yet another nameless attendant.
“He tried to stay awake for you, Your Grace,” the woman says. This time Rhaenyra says nothing, just gazes at the snoozing boy meaningfully and walks out of the room.
So who is this Prince Joffrey? He’s one of Rhaenyra’s five sons, of course – sent to the Vale for safety while the Dance of the Dragons rages across the continent. Most of you reading this probably recalled that fact but still wanted to make sure, hence the “house of the dragon who is prince joffrey” googling.
And there’s no shame in that! There are many, many, many named characters in these series, some of whom have similar names (or in Joffrey’s case an identical name to another prince from Game of Thrones). Even if you remembered who Joffrey is, you might need some help recalling where he’s been and why Rhaenyra seems so unsteady about his return. Let us help out with that.
Prince Joffrey Velaryon (played by Oscar Eskinazi) is Queen Rhaenyra Tagaryen’s third of five children (all of them sons) and the last child she “had” with her first husband Laenor Velaryon. We put “had” in quotation marks because it’s common knowledge across the realm that none of Laenor’s three children – Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey – with Rhaenyra are actually his biological offspring.
Before he was “killed” (but in actuality fled to Essos) Laenor infamously preferred the romantic company of men. In fact, Prince Joffrey is named after Laenor’s first love Ser Joffrey Lonmouth, who was cruelly beaten to death by Criston Cole over a petty slight at Laenor and Rhaenyra’s wedding. In actuality, Jace, Luke, and Joff were all sired by Rhaenyra’s lover Ser Harwin Strong (He’s dead now too. Basically everyone is dead or soon-to-be-dead in this show).
Shortly after the death of Joffrey’s elder brother Luke and a brazen attempt on his mother’s life on Dragonstone, Rhaenyra decided to send him to stay with her mom’s side of the family in the Vale of Arryn for safe-keeping. Now that her eldest son Jacaerys is also dead, that appears to have been a shrewd decision as Joffrey is suddenly heir to the Iron Throne, ahead of his half-brothers Aegon and Viserys (both children Rhaenyra had with her uncle/husband Daemon) in the line of succession. With King’s Landing firmly-ish in her grasp, Rhaenyra sent Daemon off to the Vale to retrieve Joffrey and bring him back to the capital. Daemon returned well ahead of Joffrey because, though the little prince is bonded with his equally little dragon Tyraxes, the pair are probably too young for a solo flight to King’s Landing and had to hitch a ride on a boat or carriage.
Getting Joffrey from Dragonstone to the Vale and then to King’s Landing cannot have possibly been an easy logistical endeavor, especially during a time of war. So why then does Rhaenyra seem not particularly eager to talk to her son and heir? The answer to that is fairly simple: she’s terrified for him.
While Rhaenyra obviously loves Joffrey, he’s also a living reminder of how miserably she’s failed her other sons. Joffrey should not be her heir. He should not even be the heir to her heir. But the deaths of both Jace and Luke have not only shattered Rhaenyra’s heart, they’ve transformed what could have been a peaceful, playful childhood for Joffrey into a crucible of impossible expectations and danger.
It’s no wonder that Rhaenyra wants to let the little guy sleep. That may be the last truly restful night he has for awhile.
New episodes of House of the Dragon season 3 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max, culminating with the finale on August 9.
House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 Review: The Stranger Offers Us Rest
This review for House of the Dragon season 3 episode 5 contains spoilers.
What does Criston Cole want?
That’s the question that Westerosi nobles and House of the Dragonviewers alike have pondered ever since the Dornish marcher knight arrived on the scene by unhorsing the great Daemon Targaryen at a King’s Landing tourney.
At first it seemed as though Ser Criston (Fabien Frankel) wanted the usual things that one would expect a member of a lowly vassal house to want: fame, respect, glory – you know, the full Ser Duncan the Tall package. Then, immediately upon achieving some semblance of prestige through his elevation to King Viserys I’s Kingsguard, Criston was prepared to throw it all away for love, begging a young Princess Rhaenyra to renounce her royal birthright and run away with him to Essos for a lifetime of kisses and pomegranates. When Rhaenyra turned down this generous offer, Criston fucked her best friend, killed her fiancé’s lover, and crowned her half-brother king.
Now we’re roughly a year into the civil war that Criston’s actions helped spurn and are no closer to the answer of what drives him. Or at least we weren’t until House of the Dragon season 3 episode 5. It turns out that Ser Criston Cole wants a lot of things – honor, fame, love, power, autonomy – but above all else, Ser Criston Cole wants to die.
Welcome to Game of Thrones, everyone! We like to have fun here.
The fifth episode of House of the Dragon‘s third season isn’t especially bleak as far as this franchise goes. There are no “Red Wedding” or “Blood and Cheese” level atrocities and the body count of named characters isn’t even unusually high for the Seven Kingdoms (in fact, we actually gain two bodies here with the returns of Ser Tyland Lannister and Prince Joffrey Velaryon). But by focusing on arcs like Criston’s doomed insurgency in the Riverlands, Prince Aemond’s internment in a spooky haunted castle, and a banquet for the dead, this hour goes further in articulating the bleak nature of life at war than the show’s previous depictions of war itself.
At the center of it all, of course, is the man history will come to know as “The Kingmaker.” While Criston initially seemed excited at the prospect of deploying guerrilla tactics to slow down Lord Oscar Tully and Roddy the Ruin’s massive armies, it quickly becomes apparent that guerrilla warfare can go both ways. Criston, Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox), and their increasingly disheveled soldiers are left stranded between rivers, their dams destroyed and their warhorses fallen to Medieval landmines. Gwayne, accustomed to a life of luxury and privilege running up the Hightower to see the dawning sun with his brother in Oldtown, wonders what Criston has up his sleeve now. Surely, there is one weird trick this Kingmaker… this Great Man of History, has cooked up to overcome the reality that Roddy and Oscar have 200 men for every one of theirs.
Criston has no such answer but to die. And he’s not particularly bummed about it. As he tells Gwayne, dying beats the hell out of serving. “You have offered me service to your House and I’m grateful. But I’ve been a servant all my life. To Green or to Black. I have defined myself by oaths, through unyielding devotion. The high born have made much of me while it pleased them to do so. But I will not let them diminish me now. I will not return, spurned, rejected. I am the realm’s greatest warrior and I will die as such. Clear-eyed, unbent, glorious in battle. And not in their service… finally.”
As a member of a noble house, Criston is not “low born” per se. But the stewards of House Cole are closer in experience to the “smallfolk” of Westeros than the Hightowers. He understands better than most that the real currency of Westeros – more so than money, secrets, or dragons – is service. It wasn’t just witnessing the biblical destruction wrought by dragons that turned Ser Criston the Kingmaker into Ser Criston the Emo; he was always more concerned with the human beings riding those dragons. A dragon can merely swallow you whole and put your whole city to flame. A human being can compel you to kneel… to serve.
There’s a reason why the Faceless Men of Braavos utter “valar doeharis (all men must serve)” in response to “valar morghulis (all men must die).” Those are the only two possible states of existence for a man in this world. If you’re not servin’, you’re dyin’, and many indeed prefer the latter. The Faceless Men serve (there’s that word again) “The Many-Faced God,” an amalgamation of every god of death from every culture across Westeros and Essos. Criston himself invokes one of those deathly gods in the episode’s haunting final line “The Stranger offers us rest.”
Moreso than the Father, the Mother, the Crone, or any other face of the Seven, the Stranger has always offered the most respite for poor wretches like Criston. Over in Harrenhal, Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) even pays tribute to those the Stranger has whisked away when some schmucks arrive to kill her, enticed by Queen Rhaenyra’s sizable bounty on Prince Aemond’s head.
“Seems you’ve not learned your history of this place – of the laborers who built it, who died here in chains, in service to Harren the Cruel,” she says. (He’s more commonly known as “Harren the Black” but point taken.)
Alys understands the principles of valar doeharis and valar morghulis as well as anyone and her magical mastery over the bones of Harrenhal has made her quite the formidable figure. It’s no wonder that an injured and ailing Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) is helpless in her presence, having found yet another mommy to latch onto. One might say he’s even ready to serve.
If only Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) could see Aemond now. Sure, Aegon has every reason to hate his younger brother since he, you know, tried to kill him at Rook’s Rest. But phrasing like “poor darling Aemond and his scabby little eye” betrays that his animus all still boils down to petty childhood grievances. Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), ever cast as the servant to more powerful men, finally reads the Brat King the riot act, describing him as a terrible king and an even worse man. Later on when Larys and Aegon stumble upon a disfigured but very much alive Ser Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall), Aegon seems properly chastened by the dressing down, or at least he becomes more useful as he swiftly and silently kills an urchin who discovers his secret crown.
House of the Dragon is making little attempt to hide where it’s going with Aegon and Larys’ journey on the road. “The king secretly spends time among his subjects and learns to better empathize with their plight” is a common enough fantasy trope that its also forms the dramatic backbone of the show’s sister series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Though it’s all a bit obvious, it works. And intended or not, the storyline also operates as a Team Green mea culpa from a show accused of (at times not unfairly) “favoring” one side of this war over the other.
While Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) was always the Realm’s Delight and Aegon its annoying pain in the ass, the two characters’ arcs make clear that they’re on diverging upwards and downwards moral trajectories, seemingly destined to meet somewhere in the middle. In the episode’s best non-Criston scene, Rhaenyra and Daemon (Matt Smith) meet in the sept where the former is praying to the Seven, or more accurately: berating the gods for their inability to get the High Septon and smallfolk in line despite so graciously hoisting her up onto the Iron Throne. The pair’s extended conversation in High Valyrian is some of the best fictional foreign language acting this franchise has produced yet and goes a long way towards establishing Rhaenyra’s deteriorating mental state and paranoia.
That’s not to say some paranoia isn’t warranted. As if it weren’t bad enough that Lord Ormund (James Norton) is now printing his own King Daeron coinage, someone in the capital is killing gold cloaks. What starts as the odd homicide here or there progresses into a gruesome tableau of dead cops with their eyes gouged out and “A FEAST FOR TRAITORS” message scrawled in blood on a wall of the Red Keep. Less theatrical but no less traitorous are the actions of Alicent (Olivia Cooke), who tries to spirit Helaena (Phia Saban) away from their confinement upon finding out she’s pregnant. Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) puts a stop to that, receives a half-earnest “IOU,” and then just…lets it happen again?
As is the case with many episodes in House of the Dragon season 3, this hour is filled with interesting ideas executed imperfectly. The heart is there in Philippa Goslett’s script but the eye doesn’t always follow through in Nina Lopez-Corrado’s direction. Even the largely successful Criston plotline doesn’t feel quite as visually striking as it should. Criston and Gwayne’s host is believably battered and broken from its time in the woods but it has not gone through the appropriately Dante-level hell that a production with more time, money, and creativity might have achieved. “The Stranger offers us rest” hits hard because how could it not? But it could have hit harder.
Still, it’s hard to complain too much about an episode this thematically on point. Even the quieter, seemingly more disposable scenes like Ormund and Daeron playing cyvasse feel indispensable in light of Criston’s plight. Not only does Ormund continue to justify social media’s Dennis Reynolds comparisons of him by melting down after losing a board game to a child, his subsequent lesson to Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) about what really kept Dorne independent is surprisingly insightful, even if accidentally so.
Ormund may think that the parable of Meria Martell a.k.a. the Yellow Toad of Dorne is all about one woman’s cunning military mind being able to outwit and outlast the might of Aegon the Conqueror, his sisters, and their dragons. But it wasn’t merely Meria’s aptitude for strategy that kept Dorne unbowed, unbent, and unbroken; it was her stubborn insistence on being unbowed, unbent, and unbroken in the first place that so stymied House Targaryen.
It’s amazing what someone can accomplish when they politely say “not today” to the god of death. The Stranger’s offer of rest to Ser Criston is just that: an offer. The fact that he’s so eager to accept it says more about him than the supposed inevitability of his situation. Yeah, going out in blaze of glory bright enough for the singers to remember would be nice. But so too would be simply rebuilding the stupid dam and retiring to Oldtown.
New episodes of House of the Dragon season 3 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max, culminating with the finale on August 9.
The Odyssey Is Christopher Nolan’s Warning for the Imminent Collapse of Our World
This article contains spoilers for The Odyssey.
This weekend’s The Odysseyis remarkably faithful to a story that likely dates back more than three millennia. Writer-director Christopher Nolan makes plenty of nips and tucks to the material due to the necessity of modern filmmaking—not to mention the built-in three-hour time limit imposed by 70mm IMAX projection platters—but most of what Homer eventually wrote down from an oral tradition in the 8th century BCE is here. The cyclops, the Sirens, old blind Tiresias, and more.
What’s changed is how Nolan, ever the rationalist, interprets the material and reflects it back in his own image. Like so many of the filmmaker’s previous protagonists, and perhaps most hauntingly J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Odysseus played by Matt Damon is another great man who feels greater shame due to how his celebrated genius was used to kill thousands in a now dead city. And the horrors of that deed must be reconciled with the man, including as a husband and father, before he earns the right to go home.
That is in keeping with many channels that course through Nolan’s work like the River Styx. Yet the most striking change in Nolan’s Odyssey isn’t that he made it another film about a flawed hero who misses his wife; it’s that he uses a story that predates Christ by centuries to discuss what is going on in our modern 21st century world right now—and how like the Mycenaean and Achaean Greeks in The Odyssey, our civilization is dangerously close to going over a self-engineered cliff.
As we’ve detailed elsewhere, Nolan’s biggest addition to Homer’s text is the inclusion of the Sea People(s) as a vaguely ominous off-screen threat. They are whispered about by Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and Telemachus (Tom Holland), and are a foreboding menace when one stranger along the Aegean asks Odysseus’ right-hand man Eurylochus (Himesh Patel) if they’re “the people from the sea.”
These “people” are not in Homer, but they are in actual Greek and Near East history; a mysterious collection of cultures and tribes who, depending on who you ask, either hastened or downright caused the Bronze Age collapse by sacking city states all along the Mediterranean, from the Hittites in modern-day Turkey to the Mycenaean Greeks. Only Egypt was able to resist and defeat the “people from the sea” (which is also why we know they exist and have that ominous name). Their mystery was written down in Egyptian temples and records. Conversely, all recorded history of the Hittites simply stops. Meanwhile Greek civilization (of a kind) survived, but it was still an apocalyptic occurrence for those who remained, with conditions regressing to a more rustic, primitive culture without written word or history. It was the Greek Dark Ages and it lasted more than 300 years.
Nolan takes this catastrophic historical mystery and bends it to his purposes by tying it directly to xenia, an ancient Greek concept that roughly translates to “guest-friendship” or “ritualized friendship.” In Nolan’s Odyssey, they call it simply “Zeus’ law,” and it is the idea of recognizing shared humanity and kinship in strangers from distant shores. Furthermore, it demands a political and moral imperative to treat guests with honor, respect, and kindness. It is the ancestor of the Christian faith’s “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” or the more modernized “Golden Rule.”
In the time of Homer and antiquity, it might have been partly implemented because there was a fear that the stranger you bully or belittle could be a god in disguise, or Odysseus himself returned (a concept that also trickles down into parables about good Samaritans), but it was also an ethical and even pragmatic gesture. Politically, is i not better to build bridges with foreign lands than it is walls or siege towers?
Xenia is a crucial element of Homer’s original epic poem, but Nolan is the first adapter to my knowledge who recognizes the hypocrisy of Odysseus surviving due to the comity and hospitality of good hosts like the Phaeacians, but only after he broke Zeus’ law by offering a gift of peace to the Trojans and then using it to enslave, rape, and murder them in their beds.
The way The Odyssey frames this is, like Oppenheimer ushering in the Atomic Age beneath the mushroom clouds of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Odysseus has given permission to his fellow Greeks to dismiss Zeus’ law, one of their most sacred rites of civility and fellowship. That includes his fellow Trojan War veterans who are “mistaken” for Sea People while burning a village or later threatening to execute Circe (Samantha Morton) as a witch after she revealed these men’s true animalistic nature. But it’s even more transparent in younger men who never saw the great towers of Troy and were instead raised on stories of their fiery collapse.
Zeus’ law would have it that strangers like Odysseus in a beggar’s disguise should be treated with empathy and humanity, but the entitled suitors who did not fight in Troy, yet seek to enjoy its spoils by marrying the wife Odysseus left behind, would rather beat and deride the beggar than give him a scrap of food they never paid for. Robert Pattinson’s Antinous is a particularly special piece of work: sniveling, capricious, vain, and a diva who almost chokes with glee on the venom in his throat while spitting, “Filthy beg-GAR!” at Odysseus in disguise.
Nolan and Pattinson seem to have a field day developing the most disgusting collection of vices that increasingly become virtues in a post-Trojan War Greece—and one cannot help but see echoes in similar foibles that have turned into political assets in the 21st century.
In Homer’s Odyssey, Antinous is also a selfish and self-aggrandizing snob, but he has no real backstory with Odysseus. In Nolan’s film, we learn Antinous was essentially drafted to fight in the Trojan War but bought his way out by getting his poor shepherd’s son Sinon (Elliot Page) to go in his place. This is not in Homer, and Sinon did not appear in Trojan War stories until centuries after Odyssey. Yet one need not squint to recognize parallels with modern-day leaders and self-styled strongmen who also avoided drafts in their youth by relying on their wealth and connections.
Such men do not fight in wars but are quick and eager to seek other people’s sons to commit violence on their behalf, all while indulging in luxury paid for by others, and perhaps leering at another man’s wife. Pattinson’s Antinous is a deliciously boorish caricature of modern leaders who hide behind their banquet tables and pillars while demanding subordinates go die in their name. And when his own time comes in Nolan’s film, it is with Nolan’s added line that Odysseus seeks to “give you back your shame.”
Like Antinous in Nolan’s Greece, such preening thuggery is ascendant today. Values that were once considered sacred or institutionalized have been marginalized or undermined by the sycophants and opportunists always holding court at their feasts. Even Elon Musk, the wealthiest and most prominent critic of Nolan’s Odyssey, has derided the movie by amplifying social media posts that claim it will “destroy Western civilization,” even as the trillionaire born with a silver spoon in his mouth has lamented in the press that “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”
One of the 3,000-year-old cornerstones of xenia, and the foundations of Western civilization, including Homer’s Odyssey, is now viewed as a “fundamental weakness” by the richest man in the world and his fellow travelers who claim to be protecting the West. Others might say they are perverting it like Antinous in Odysseus’ once great house. They certainly recoil at sharing their scraps, just as Musk was giddy about feeding USAID “into the wood chipper” during his brief stint in government, an action that according to a Boston University epidemiologist has already caused the death of roughly 600,000 people. Most of them children.
Earlier in The Odyssey film, Penelope and young Telemachus share a conversation about the people from the sea and the future of their Mycenaean culture. Telemachus scoffs that anyone could destroy their world. Just look at their great house! Yet the building isn’t what makes a civilization great, his mother counters, it’s the people inside of it, their values, their morals, that give it meaning.
By breaking Zeus’ law with the Trojans and murdering women like the young Trojan girl (Zendaya) who becomes the very image of Athena in Odysseus’ mind, Odysseus won a war but gave permission to his society to drift from their decency. He helped create a world where jackals like Antinous rise to power and high halls, and empathy for foreigners, elderly dogs, and even a lowly beggar is treated with disdain and hostility.
In Nolan’s mind, it created the “Sea People” and was the death of a civilization 3,200 years ago. And it can do it again.
The Odyssey: Who Were the Sea People and Why Are They So Scary?
This article contains major The Odyssey spoilers.
One of the most chilling antagonists and nightmares offered in Christopher Nolan’s The Odysseyis neither sirens nor the cyclops, the hospitality of Circe or the dreaded gates Hades. Instead it’s a whisper, a rumor spread across the wind, from Odysseus’ dear and distant Ithaca to the great halls of Sparta. It is vague and ominous tales of “the Sea People.” These apparent strangers emerging from parts unknown along the Aegean and Ionian Seas are spoken about in the movie as an existential threat greater than old King Priam of Troy could ever hope to muster.
Yet come the movie’s end, the weary and grayed Odysseus played by Matt Damon offers a more ominous theory about who the Sea People are and why they will mark the ruin of the Ancient Mycenaean civilization we witness throughout the story. It’s a curious and somewhat surprising innovation since, unlike nearly everything else in Nolan’s Odyssey, the Sea People of the film appear nowhere in Homer.
While Nolan’s film is a surprisingly dense retelling of nearly every misadventure Odysseus has on his way home to Penelope (Anne Hathaway), the Sea People are from real history, as opposed to pure myth. And to this day, many historians and classists debate whether they caused or were symptoms of the catastrophic events that brought about the collapse of the Bronze Age and ushered centuries of darkness into Greece. They certainly spelled doom for several of the ancient Mycenaeans’ greatest neighbors, which ironically, has roots in the Trojan War as well…
The Real Sea Peoples and the Ruin of the World
During the Bronze Age in which The Odyssey is set, the city-state of Ugarit was one of the greatest coastal powers along the eastern Mediterranean. Located in what is modern day Syria, it was neighbors to the Hittites and Egyptians during the New Kingdom’s height, and was a respected port by the Ancient Greeks during their alleged Age of Heroes.
They were also the first to fall.
“The enemy ships are already here,” the last King of Ugarit desperately fretted in a message intended for his counterpart in what is modern day Cyprus. “They have set fire to my towns and done very great damage in my countryside.” The message was never delivered. Instead it was discovered by modern archaeologists still in the rubble of the kiln in which it was being fired onto a clay tablet. But by that point, it was already too late. The king’s city—which was left undefended when he sent armies to help another ally being invaded by people from the sea—was sacked and torn asunder, its history left in ruins. Ugarit was never rebuilt.
This is one of many accounts that historians and archaeologists have relied on to piece together the mystery of the Sea Peoples, a term which was adapted by 19th century French Egyptologists to describe all the ominous accounts in Egyptian texts about various naval forces and invaders that sought to conspire against the armies of the pharaohs during the 19th and 20th dynasties. Ugarit would hardly be the only city to fall to this threat either.
As written in Toby Wilkinson’s lively popular history, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, “All along the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean, cities were being sacked and torched, harbors burned and looted, entire nations laid low. While coastal communities had been harried by pirates for decades, this new onslaught was of an entirely different order of magnitude. Most frightening of all, it had come out of the blue, the sighting of enemy ships on the western horizon being the first warning of an impending attack… As Egypt watched from afar, great cities and civilizations were reduced to rubble, and the cultural achievements of centuries went up in smoke.”
Indeed, the death of Ugarit was foreboding enough, but one of Egypt and the Mycenaean Greeks’ greatest rivals, and occasional ally, the Hittites, were brought also to ruin by invaders from the sea, with the Hittite ruler’s final urgent diplomatic messages likewise writing of fighting a sea-borne enemy. Hattusa, the seat of power for the Hittite Empire, was completely decimated and the grain storehouses emptied bare. Afterward all written historical records of the Hittites simply stop.
To be clear, there is scholarly debate to this day whether the Sea Peoples actually caused the catastrophic ruin of the Bronze Age or whether they were a symptom of it. The Hittites, for one, were suffering heavily from droughts before invasion, and being cut off from neighbors who were also sacked by the mysterious ships from the western Mediterranean meant entire economies reliant on trade might have collapsed before any city was put to the torch. And if the Sea People were themselves likely fleeing drought or famine, they might have just been a symptom of a larger ecological collapse.
Be that as it may, there is strong archaeological evidence, and written records in Egypt, which suggest invaders from the sea exacerbated or instigated widespread destruction, including in the Mycenaean city-states glorified by Homer. By the 12th century BCE, the Mycenaeans had a written language and network of kingdoms that could supplant the Minoan civilization on Crete and rival the Hittites to the Near East, including, possibly, the city we now call Troy. Yet like those neighbors, they too suffered invasion, economic ruin, and finally a collapse so catastrophic that the Greeks would enter a three-century period of illiteracy and regression that scholars now call (or fight against calling) “the Greek Dark Ages.”
Interestingly, a major reason we have a decent idea about this catastrophic ruin is because of the one empire these invaders could not bring low. As proudly boasted upon on the walls of Mediate Habu, a mortuary temple for Ramses III on the West Bank of the Nile outside of Luxor, as well as on the walls of ancient Thebes’ Karnak complex, various people “from the sea” attempted to invade Egypt on several occasions, including along the Nile Delta in the 12th century BCE. The Egyptians, however, lured the invaders’ apparently greater and more advanced naval force into the narrow mouth of the Delta, and obliterated these ships with archers, and capsized them with grappling hooks, leading to mass drownings. The survivors were enslaved.
Where Did They Come From?
The term Sea Peoples, emphasis on the plurality, is again a modern creation by 19th century Egyptologists who were using it as a catch-all for various tribes and invaders, some mysterious and some known, during the 12th and even 13th centuries BCE. In actual Egyptian texts, they were referred to as “of/from the sea,” and they included among their ranks the Peleset, a possible forerunner to the Philistines who settled in biblical Canaan. There were also the Sheridan, who probably hailed from Sardinia and parts of Greece, not to mention possible Aegean Greeks referred to as the Denyen. There is also evidence to believe some of these seafaring nomads hailed from the Anatolian peninsula in what is modern day Turkey, and others from the Etruscan civilization in Bronze Age Italy.
The truth is that the exact origin, or origins, of who the lone surviving Egyptian civilization passes down to us as “people of the sea” remains a great mystery. However, we do know that the entire Mediterranean underwent nearly a century of on/off drought and famines in the 12th century BCE. Thus an emerging popular theory is that many of the Sea Peoples were simply distant cultures—possibly the Etruscans or maybe further from western Europe—who sailed east in search of fertile and richer lands, taking food and wealth by force. Wilkinson writes they brought with them women, children, and ox-drawn carts, suggesting a mass migration. This in turn might have exacerbated the shaky economies of cultures like the Greek Mycenaeans, whose reliance on trade was already stressed by the droughts of the period.
Intriguingly, this idea is given some credence since a 2019 genetic study of skeletons from the Philistine city of Ashkelon proved there was common European DNA along the Levant (modern day Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan). This suggests there was some degree of exodus out of southern Europe near or during the Bronze Age collapse.
Who They Are in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey
The above is an overview of why the so-called Sea Peoples were so ominous in history, but their inclusion in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey seems to represent something else. Throughout the film, there are suggestions that like in Homer’s source material text, the right of guests as well as hosts is under threat in the times following the Trojan War. The cyclops is a cruel host to the Greeks he finds hiding inside his cave, but the suitors who would seek to marry Penelope and steal the home of Odysseus and his son Telemachus (Tom Holland) also take advantage of the Ithaca’s formal recognition of guests’ rights (or “Zeus’ law” in the film).
As the movie progresses, what we are witnessing is no less than a collapse of civic values and respect for Zeus’ law, as well as Greeks for their fellow man. At the beginning of the story, Telemachus scoffs at his mother for suggesting their house or civilization could ever come to ruin. Look at their great home! But it is in that exact house Odysseus must stain with the blood of usurpers and pretenders who drink his family’s wine, eat their meat, and yet would not dare share it with a starving beggar when Odysseus arrives in disguise.
Odysseus ultimately surmises to Penelope that all these stories about raiders from the sea are not mysterious foreign invaders: it is the ruined and scarred survivors of the Trojan War returning home, devoid of their civility and humanity. Worse, it is a new generation inspired by the utter depravity Odysseus showed the Trojans by offering a gift of peace as a pretext for mass rape and slaughter.
We are the Sea People, the movie all but states.
This rather cutely ties into the debate of the Sea People’s origins, including some scholarship that believes some of the tribes the Egyptians named were of Greek origin. Furthermore, while the existence of a historical city of Troy is agreed upon, some have speculated the actual city-state, a vassal of the Hittites, was destroyed by the Sea Peoples. But that’s all Greek in Nolan’s movie!
It all gets thematically to Nolan’s greater point: the collapse of civilization comes from within, and from the corruption and erosion of literal civility. One need not squint too hard and see parallels to today in Robert Pattinson Antinous, a rich man’s son who buys his way out of military service and prances and pretends to be a great warrior while trying to steal another man’s wife. He is the epitome of civic values gone to rot.
Still, as someone who actually stood in Temple of Ramses III in Karnak, I cannot help but be bemused about Odysseus and Penelope fleeing the collapsing opulence of Mycenaean Greece by sailing into the west. If they want to escape the rot and ruin of the Sea People’s invasion, they’d best head southeast to the Nile!
