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 Odyssey is 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!

The Odyssey is in theaters now.

EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PREVIEW: Dark Matter Season 2 Fan Screening, Special Giveaway Comes to San Diego Comic-Con

It’s been over two years since Dark Matter fans were left in superposition, that quantum state of Schrödinger’s cat who is both alive and dead inside the box, except the limbo state for viewers was the fate of Jason Dessen and his family. Were they safe at the end of season one, or were they in more danger than ever before?

Although Dark Matter’s return is still a month away, answers will be forthcoming for attendees of San Diego Comic-Con 2026 this year. Apple TV and Den of Geek will be hosting an exclusive fan screening of the first episode of Dark Matter season two on Friday, July 24 at 10 p.m. PST in Convention Center Room 6DE, so at least the immediate aftermath of the season one finale will be revealed.

Based on the novel of the same name, Dark Matter follows physics professor Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) after he’s kidnapped by an alternate version of himself and thrust into a labyrinth of parallel realities. As Jason searches for a way back to his wife Daniela (Jennifer Connelly), and son Charlie (Oakes Fegley), he discovers other lives he might have lived and learns more about the giant quantum box that makes the journey possible.

Dark Matter creator and executive producer Blake Crouch will be joined by Edgerton, who also is an executive producer on the show. Also on the panel will be Dayo Okeniyi, who plays quantum project investor Leighton Vance, as well as writer and executive producer Jacquelyn Ben-Zekry and executive producer Matt Tolmach. Those who attend the screening and panel will receive an exclusive limited edition Dark Matter poster to take home with them. Den of Geek host Sam Stone will MC the intro.

As we learned in our exclusive interview for the SDCC edition of the Den of Geek magazine, Dark Matter will move from themes of regret and reunion in the first season to survival and fulfillment in season two.

“I think season one in some ways is a very idealistic story,” Crouch says. “This man who’s in love with his life but has some dissatisfaction is thrust through this wild sci-fi journey where he learns that the things that bugged him about his life are actually what make it special. But now what? How do you keep your family when all of the idealistic trappings fall away, and you have nothing, and you’re stuck trying to find a world that’s safe enough to settle in?”

Edgerton agrees that season two has a deeper morality to explore. “Season two has this feeling of what happens next when you release technology,” he says. “It’s like a gun: a gun could sit on a table and not hurt anyone for a hundred years, but what hand holds the gun? Season two is watching different hands hold the gun and what they do with it. How does it influence ego? How does it become a tool to help the world? How does it become destructive? How does it become a selfish, personal tool?”

If you’re attending the convention this summer, be sure to stop by Convention Center Room 6DE at 10:00 p.m. on Friday, July 24 for this exclusive screening of the Dark Matter season two premiere. And read our full interview with the panelists in the SDCC edition of the Den of Geek magazine, available for free to all convention attendees.

Dark Matter season two premieres on Friday, August 28 on Apple TV.

The Odyssey: Lupita Nyong’o is a Master of Dual Roles

This article contains spoilers for The Odyssey.

The Odyssey just opened on Thursday night, but that’s already enough time to completely disregard the dumbest criticism heading into the film. Some observers had complained about director Christopher Nolan’s decision to cast Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, the woman whose coupling with the prince Paris “launched a thousand ships,” in Christopher Marlowe’s words, and started the Trojan War.

Obviously, these were always bad faith takes, more about the fact that Christopher Nolan would cast a Black woman as a character they assumed was white (despite the fact that actual scholars show that such distinctions were irrelevant to the Greeks). Moreover, these criticisms completely ignore the fact that, in addition to being a cosmopolitan polyglot, Nyong’o is also an Academy Award-winning actress and an international model. Perhaps most importantly of all, the role actually calls for two performances, as Nyong’o plays both Helen and her sister Clytemnestra. And if there’s one thing that Nyong’o does well, it’s play two identical characters, especially if they’re scary.

Twice as Important

We meet Nyong’o’s character midway through The Odyssey, when Odysseus’ son Telemachus (Tom Holland) visits the Spartan king Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), who fought with Odysseus (Matt Damon) in the Trojan War. Telemachus hopes that Menelaus knows where his father has been, but instead learns more about Odysseus’ brilliant tactic of constructing the Trojan Horse. At the same time, Telamachus meets Menelaus’ wife Helen, who glares at her husband through her scarred face, belying her servile position.

The information proves just as useful to viewers as it does to Telemachus. Through Menelaus, we learn the full legend of the Horse, and of the soldiers’ esteem for Odysseyus. But through Helen, we learn about how others suffer because of soldiers’ decisions. The Greek king Agamemnon (Benny Safdie) sacrificed Iphigenia, the daughter he had with Helen’s sister Clytemnestra, to the goddess Artemis. Clytemnestra greeted Agamemnon and celebrated his return from the Trojan War. But then she murdered her husband in revenge, and was eventually killed by she and Agamemnon’s son, Orestes.

In Homer’s text, Agemmonon reveals his fate to Odysseyus from the afterlife, a plot point repeated in Nolan’s film. Further, the film tells the viewer about the sacrifice of Iphigenia relatively early, and there too foregrounds Agamemnon’s perspective. These two decisions prioritize Agamemnon, framing his decision to sacrifice his daughter as something necessary, if not noble, to win the war. Agamemnon emphasizes his own suffering when telling Odysseus about Clytemnestra’s revenge, which sets up the hero’s decision to disguise himself when he returns to Ithaca.

However, the decision to place Helen’s telling of Clytemnestra’s story in the middle prevents us from fully sympathizing with Agamemnon, and sets up the themes that Nolan will develop in the movie’s final hour. For that, he needed an actor capable of playing two women, equal in beauty and ferociousness. For that, he needed Lupita Nyong’o.

Twice as Terrifying

At the end of the first act of Jordan Peele’s Us, the wild-eyed Red spins a yarn to her captors, the Thomas family. She tells about a little girl who came with her parents to a seaside carnival, only to get lost in a house of horrors. There she met her double, who locked her in the tunnels under the carnival and escaped to the world. The double went on to have a perfect life, complete with a loving husband and two perfect kids. Trapped in the labyrinth, the girl experienced only pain and suffering, forced to live with brutal, imperfect grotesques of the double’s family.

So powerful is Red’s story that it forces the audience to forget the inconsistent logistics of Us‘ world and overwhelms viewers with its thematic resonance and emotional power. Red, the lost girl, and Adelaide, the double who took her place, are both played by Nyong’o, who fully embodies the latter’s terror at losing what she loves and the former’s anger at a life stolen from her. Through her performance, we understand the point that Jordan Peele wants to make about the inability of class distinctions to separate people and the impossibility of looking away from the suffering of the lower classes.

That weighty material comes through in the way Nyong’o plays Red and Adelaide during the aforementioned confrontation. As Red, Nyong’o squeezes her words through a shattered windpipe, as if the simple of act speaking took great labor. As Adelaide, Nyong’o remains wary and tense—scared about what might happen to her family, for certain, but also more aware about who Red and these doppelgängers are than her family realizes.

With the way she twists her body to play Red and the way she holds her head to play Adelaide, Nyong’o communicates to the audience both the profound connection and stark differences between these two women. She conveys entire themes with just the slightest gestures. Which makes her the ideal person for Nolan’s take on Homer’s epic.

Twice As Powerful

Like most Nolan stories, The Odyssey is about a man who feels immense guilt over the way his actions have separated from his family. But it’s also about the cost of seeking power, a theme present in the director’s work since Inception and The Dark Knight, and most pronounced in Oppenheimer. While he explicitly lays out those themes when Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, recounts to his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) about his violation of Zeus’s law and murder of Athena’s priestess (Zendaya), he sets it up with the story of Helen and Clytemnestra.

The rage of Clytemnestra appears in flashback. It’s only through other people’s stories that we see her pushing against soldiers to rescue Iphigenia, and later attacking Agamemnon. Her rage and her anguish exist in the past, mitigated by other people’s narratives, turned into a character in their stories.

But that’s not the case with Helen. When Helen turns toward Telemachus to glare at him past Menelaus, her gaze burning all the brighter because of the scars around her eyes, her anger is present and real and cannot be dismissed by her husband’s tales of glory to his young, adoring guest. In that stare, Odysseus isn’t just some brilliant adventurer. He’s a brute.

Helen only gets a few minutes of screen time, and most of that is spent standing quietly as the trophy for Menelaus she is. For that reason, she needed to make her words and her rage count, because she wasn’t just speaking for herself—she was speaking for her sister and, by extension, all the casualties of war. Thus, Nolan needed an actor who wasn’t just beautiful and talented and could carry herself like a queen. He needed a first-class actor who excels in dual roles, which is exactly what he got with Lupita Nyong’o.

The Odyssey is now playing in theaters worldwide.

15 Actors Who Showed That Age Really is Just a Number

There comes a point when most actors begin choosing smaller roles or slowing down altogether. Others go in the opposite direction. Some return to major franchises, some take on physically demanding action movies, and others deliver career-best dramatic performances well into their 70s, 80s, or even 90s. These performances proved that talent, experience, and screen presence don’t disappear with age.

Here are 15 actors who showed that age really is just a number.

Ian McKellen – Mr. Holmes

Playing Sherlock Holmes at 93 required McKellen to carry nearly every scene, shifting between different stages of the detective’s life while delivering one of the strongest performances of his later career.

Tom Cruise – Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning / Final Reckoning

Well into his 60s, Cruise continued performing many of his own stunts, including motorcycle jumps, cliff dives, and complex action sequences.

Sylvester Stallone – Tulsa King

Stallone successfully transitioned into television while still leading action scenes in his late 70s.

Liam Neeson – In the Land of Saints and Sinners

Even in his 70s, Neeson continued leading action thrillers with physically demanding roles.

Sigourney Weaver – Avatar: The Way of Water

Weaver took on performance-capture work and portrayed a teenage character despite being in her 70s, an unusual challenge that required both physical and technical preparation.

Jeff Bridges – The Old Man

After cancer treatment, Bridges returned to star in an action-heavy television series featuring demanding fight choreography.

Patrick Stewart – Star Trek: Picard

Returning to Jean-Luc Picard decades later allowed Stewart to explore a much older version of the character while carrying an entire series.

Jamie Lee Curtis – Everything Everywhere All at Once

Curtis embraced one of the strangest roles of her career in her 60s, balancing physical comedy with wildly different versions of the same character.

Annette Bening – Nyad (2023)

At 65, Bening trained extensively to portray long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, taking on one of the most physically demanding performances of her career.

Angela Bassett – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Bassett delivered one of the most acclaimed performances of her career after turning 60, earning an Oscar nomination for Queen Ramonda.

Jackie Chan – Ride On

Even after decades of injuries, Chan continued performing action scenes while reflecting on his own career through the character.

Willem Dafoe – Poor Things

Dafoe transformed himself under heavy prosthetics for one of the most unusual performances of his career in his late 60s.

Kathy Bates – Matlock

More than thirty years after Misery, Bates returned to lead another major series, proving she could still command every scene.

Pierce Brosnan – Black Bag

Brosnan has continued taking leading roles well into his 70s, moving easily between thrillers, dramas, and action films.

Ralph Fiennes – Conclave

Even after decades of acclaimed performances, Fiennes continued taking emotionally demanding leading roles that relied almost entirely on dialogue and subtle expression rather than spectacle.

Silo Season 3’s Best and Worst Twists Are Canceling Each Other Out

This article contains Silo season 3 spoilers.

Silo season 2 ended with a major shift in narrative. No longer would we be entirely focused on the trials taking place inside the show’s dingy, post-apocalyptic underground silos; we were also granted the chance to go back in time and finally find out how and why pockets of survivors got stuck in them. It was a twist not only faithful to Hugh Howey’s Silo book series, but also a much-needed jolt of energy for the Apple TV show, which had slowed its pace considerably in its second season to focus on character building.

Season 2’s dual perspective of the events taking place in Silos 17 and 18 was replaced by a new dual perspective: the aftermath of Juliette’s return to Silo 18 in the present and Daniel and Helen’s investigation into the plan to retaliate against Iran’s dirty bomb attack on Washington, D.C., in the past. In the latter’s flashbacks, we were out in the “real world” where our new characters, a conflicted congressman and a determined journalist, could move freely for the first time, darting around from pubs to government buildings and parks as an exciting political conspiracy unfolded.

Silo felt renewed and energized. It was also a relief to be fully outside for once because that’s all we want for our survivors in the present, isn’t it? A return to the freedom of the world, liberated from the threats of the insidious Legacy AI and the spiral staircase that leads some poor souls down to the dreaded mines, should they make a serious enough mistake. But as exciting as it’s been to see Daniel and Helen form an allegiance and begin digging into the chain of events that will lead to siloed existence, that remarkable and invigorating twist has arguably been undermined by the one unfolding in the present day, and as Silo season 3 flits between those two stories, the excitement of the past is being canceled out by the infuriating present-day scenes of Juliette’s amnesia plotline.

Juliette’s forced memory suppression at the hands of a Legacy-pilled Camille Sims is not a part of Howey’s Silo books. In the source material, Juliette instead triumphantly returns to Silo 18, becomes mayor, and sets about bringing reform to the silo. She does not forget her time outside; that particular twist is a major deviation from the books, introduced by the show’s writers… and it is absolutely exasperating.

When a main character in any show has memory loss, intrigue is typically at a minimum. The audience suddenly knows much more than the character and has to twiddle their thumbs, waiting for them to catch up with the story. In Silo’s third season, Juliette revisits people and places she should recognize but doesn’t, asks redundant questions, and chases answers that the show has already given us. Her slow progress is enormously frustrating. In the first three episodes of season 3, Juliette still hasn’t caught up, and despite the looming threat of a deadly “safeguard” if she and Lukas Kyle begin telling people what they know, Juliette’s scenes feel like a holding pattern as the show spins its wheels and delays key events.

Season 3 currently has a real problem: half of the show is treading water, while the other half makes you lean forward in your seat and try to pay attention again before being drawn back into yet another scene where Juliette tells a character she simply can’t remember why they matter. It’s a different problem from the one season 2 had, but it’s a problem nonetheless.

Although some people enjoyed the second season’s slower storytelling, others found it a struggle to get through, especially toward the end of the season, when the writers spent a large handful of episodes finally getting Juliette back to Silo 18 to save its denizens from mass death. In contrast, season 3 is giving many of its viewers a constant sense of whiplash. One minute, Daniel and Helen are on the case, tracking down evidence and exposing another piece of the Silo puzzle; the next, the temptation sets in to scroll on their phone while Juliette says “I don’t know you” to someone else who would simply love to get the plot back on track.

To be sure, it’s clear that Doctor Victor Crnkovich, performing his controversial tests on memory suppression and recall in the past, is how Legacy and IT end up messing with memories in the present. These two plot points may indeed converge in a different, surprising way later in the season. After all, a vital, underlying part of Silo’s narrative is that those in charge of the silos can (and do) use forced amnesia to control individual identities and those of its societies, preventing rebellion and free thought. However, that doesn’t make Juliette’s memory loss scenes any less frustrating.

It does feel like there was a missed opportunity to choose a different narrative path for the show’s main character so that this season could truly improve on the one that preceded it. Unfortunately, in order to make the third season feel satisfying as a whole, there needs to be a whole lot of momentum in the present-day story, and fast.

New episodes of Silo season 3 premiere Fridays on Apple TV.

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey vs. Homer’s Epic Poem: What Are the Differences?

This article contains major The Odyssey spoilers.

In more than a few ways, The Odyssey feels like a film Christopher Nolan has been working up to his entire career. At least three of his most popular movies are the story of a husband or father trying to reclaim their idea of home after leaving for long stretches in order to do great, terrible things. And what is Batman but a guy unable to find a domestic peace, whether in Gotham or far from it, after his family was stolen?

So Homer’s epic poem Odyssey (or Odýsseia in the original Ancient Greek) proves not only foundational for Western literature writ large, but also the very intimate muses that drive Nolan. What might surprise viewers who never read a translation of Odyssey—or only have dim memories of the cyclops and Sirens from early school days—is that right down to Homer’s original structure, the story intrinsically lends itself to Nolan’s instincts.

Like many of the director’s films, the epic poem from the 8th century BCE is a nonlinear tale that begins near the end, with Odysseus long absent from his throne on Ithaca and his beloved wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway on the screen). Meanwhile the Greek king has for years lived lost in a kind of delirium on a remote island with the sea nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron in the new movie). Odysseus (Matt Damon) is then forced to relive his memories—although the circumstances of why changes radically in adaptation—and revisits his past in order to return home, much the same way that Leonardo DiCaprio’s Cobb confronts what happened in his own life during Inception.

In retrospect, it probably shouldn’t have surprised us so much that Homer and Nolan fit each other. Even so, changes were made, characters omitted, and paradigm-shifting subplots added. So what are the major differences between Homer and Nolan’s tale of one man’s voyage after the Trojan War? Well…

The Islands Not Visited

It would be impossible to list every minor shift made by Nolan in the adaptation process, not least of which includes far more modernized dialogue, but there is also a danger of taking a too sweeping overview. From a gods’ eye vantage, The Odyssey (2026) is remarkably faithful to the basic plot credited to Homer. Still, there remain acute changes with profound ripples.

In terms of the overall structure, nearly every island Odysseus visits in the poem appears onscreen, as do most of the key threats: the cyclops named Polyphemus, the alluring Sirens who draw men to their deaths, the sea monsters Charybdis and Scylla—the whirlpool and multi-headed beastie that devours six of Odysseus’ crew—and even a detour to the edge of the world and mouth of Hades.

Yet there are a few exceptions that even Nolan couldn’t squeeze into his swiftly edited three-hour epic. The most notable is the Phaeacians from the island of Scheria. In Homer’s text, it is on their shores, and not Ithaca, that Odysseus washes up after abandoning Calypso to travel by raft. This actually occurs near the start of the narrative since a beaten but apparently quite sexy Odysseus charms the Phaeacian princess Nausicaa, who takes him home to her parents. They wine and dine Odysseus and after hearing a poet romanticize the fall of Troy, he weepingly reveals his identity and then tells the story of his misadventures at sea. This is how the reader/listener learns of most of the misfortunes, from giants to a sun god’s cattle.

It is clear why Nolan cut this: it would be yet one more stop on an already long journey. Furthermore, this one seems to exist so Odysseus has a great banqueting hall to recount his story of monsters and gods before. In Nolan’s film, Odysseus is instead forced to painfully remember these details to Calypso as a kind of detox from the Lotus flower. Nonetheless, its inclusion in the poem is key to the larger theme about guests’ rights. The Phaeacians treat Odysseus with hospitality and are the ones to eventually sail the forlorn Greek back to his homeland with treasure to boot—an act that angers Poseidon so greatly that their island is cursed for helping Ithaca’s rightful ruler.

Similarly missing is Odysseus’ crew having a run in with the Lotus flower at the start of their travels. Its omission is perhaps to spare a certain redundancy with Odysseus’ own later addiction to the plant, but before even the cyclops, Homer briefly acknowledges the crew arrived on Djerba where they met the famous Lotus-eaters, who drift through eternity with empty heads while eating a flower as sweet as honey. At the time, Odysseus does not partake and admonishes his crew for doing so and forgetting their home. Just as he must later reprimand them when Aeolus, King of Aeolia, gifts Odysseus’ fleet a bag containing such strong winds that it would carry them all the way to Ithaca, defying the gods’ wills. Alas, his crew opens the bag when Ithaca is within sight and they’re blown wildly off course.

In the same vein, the exploits of Telemachus, Odysseus’ son played by Tom Holland, are condensed with the young man simply meeting Menelaus and Helen in Sparta in the new movie. In Homer, he first meets with the far wiser King Nestor in Pylos, who advised Agamemnon during the Trojan War and was second only to Odysseus in wits, before traveling on to Sparta (which, for the record, is landlocked and not on the water).

What’s in a God or Monster?

The perhaps biggest visceral change, then, is not the overall plot or scope, but how Nolan interprets ancient mythology for a modern audience. In other words, how his film tellingly begins with the words “In a time of apparent magic.”

There is indeed just enough wiggle room to suggest plausible deniability for much of the magic and “supernatural” elements we see in the film. While there is a cyclops and all the rest, we only learn of this from Odysseus as he is trying to mend his shattered mind with Calypso. An interpretation could be made that he is an unreliable narrator. We certainly can confirm that the version of Athena, goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare, is a manifestation of Odysseus’ own guilt. As revealed at the end of the movie, the goddess, whom only Odysseus can see walk by his side, is a projection of a young Trojan woman played by Zendaya. She is also the woman Odysseus witnesses being murdered by his countrymen on the night Troy fell, and right at the moment a statue of Athena is desecrated.

Personally, I reject this Rashomon-like interpretation. Every time justice is threatened or meted out in the “present” of the story, an approving rumble of thunder bellows from Zeus’ sky. It is the same thunder on a cloudless day that causes Calypso to accept she needs to stop feeding Odysseus the Lotus, meaning she only lets him go because Papa Zeus commanded it.

With that said, the gods are very real in Homer’s Odyssey and frequent supporting characters. Right down to being able to survive fighting the 108 suitors almost single-handedly (though in the original, Odysseus’ son and loyal swineherd slave also helps out), Odysseus is blessed with Athena’s company and aid. Athena is also visible to mobs who want Odysseus dead at various points, as well as to Penelope and Telemachus at times (though she takes different forms as disguise). The raging Poseidon and the largely apathetic Zeus appear frequently in the text.

Furthermore, the fantasy elements that Odysseus recounts in both versions of the tale are far grander and/or weirder in Ancient Greek. Not only can the cyclops speak like the movie, but he has jaunty conversations (at least in his view) with Odysseus. His name is Polyphemus and he likes to ask the Greeks he eats over his roaring fire, including when he asks Odysseus his name. Odysseus, ever the trickster, says, “I am called Noman.” So when Polyphemus is blinded, his cycloptic neighbors living further up in the hills of that island come to his blocked cave dwelling to answer his screams. “Polyphemus, who has hurt you?” they ask. He shrieks, “No-man has hurt me!” So they shrug and leave.

Ain’t that Odysseus a stinker? (His real mistake is then boasting after his escape to the blinded giant that he is actually Odysseus! Son of Laertes!! King of Ithaca!!! Oh, dear.)

Calypso lives in far grander luxury as a divine sea nymph, as does Circe. In fact, one of the years Odysseus loses is because he spends 12 months making love to a far more comely Circe in her palace after she turns his men back to humans. Frankly, I prefer the folk horror nightmare version played by Samantha Morton…

The Women of Troy and Greece

The change of Circe from seductive, if dangerous, goddess to brooding witch belies one of the larger and most intriguing thematic shifts in Nolan’s vision of the tale: an emphasis on the tragedy of women living in Ancient Greece (or really any location and time in history). Homer’s Odyssey is relatively progressive for its era when compared to the all-male and hero-worshiping The Iliad (leading to theories they were written by different poets or based on different oral traditions), with the plight of Penelope front and center throughout Odyssey.

Even so, Penelope is glorified purely on her ability of being a true and faithful wife despite the temptation of her many suitors, just as Circe’s magic seems tied to her divine allure. By contrast, Nolan’s Circe is a woman who has clearly been wronged by soldiers and warmongers, insisting her magic doesn’t turn men to pigs but rather reveals their true nature. Others become deer or lions, but the men who sacked Troy transform to swine, and Odysseus doesn’t seem to dispute the point when she calls them murderers and rapists. This ties into Odysseus’ greater shame when he recalls the death of “Athena” before his eyes in a sacking that ancient Greeks like the poet we call Homer glorified as a conquest of many women taken into bondage and as prizes.

This is most amplified by the depiction of Helen in the film. Despite what Wolfgang Petersen movies tell you, Helen did not escape the fall of Troy and was instead taken back by her estranged Greek husband Menelaus. Other ancient storytellers acknowledged the tragedy of this, with Helen being one of the many doomed titular characters in Euripides’ The Trojan Women, written some 400 years after Homer. But in Homer’s Odyssey, Helen is a dutiful wife to Menelaus who refers to the war as a fight by Greeks “on account of my most shameless self,” and furthermore tells Telemachus she felt great gladness when Troy was sacked because she yearned for home after the “wrong that Aphrodite had done me in taking me over there, away from my country, my [daughter], and my lawful wedded husband, who is indeed by no means deficient either in person or understanding.”

Helen is, in other words, happy to again be Helen of Sparta and an apparent victim of the gods’ meddling in mortal affairs, condemned to love a Trojan prince only because of a spell cast by the goddess of love. In Nolan’s movie… not so much. Helen is obviously a captive in a hateful marriage with a spiteful husband who intentionally beat half her face to ruin. She also begs Telemachus’ forgiveness for all the horror that was wrought in her name.

Speaking of Agamemnon, as in all versions of the Trojan War—except bizarrely the 2004 movie—the great king of the Mycenaeans is among the first to return home… where he is promptly murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. In Homer, it is Aegisthus who does the final deed, but only with Clytemnestra’s approval and aid. Yet the way Homer and almost every ancient Greek text writes about the event sounds much more similar to Jon Bernthal’s Menelaus than the horror most modern readers/viewers have toward a Greek king who sacrifices his daughter for favorable winds. In the ancient mind, it’s an act of justice when their son Orestes killed his mother, as well as Aegisthus, in revenge for the death of a father.

Homer was not alone in this opinion. Sophocles’ Electra play positions the titular character and daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra as a tragic but dutiful daughter who also rightly slaughters her mother—the fact that her “dear” father sacrificed her sister to the gods never even really enters the equation. In the ancient view, Clytemnestra is “the slut of a murderess” (as per the Samuel Butler translation of Odyssey). Conversely, in Nolan’s movie, it is the fact that Agamemnon murdered his own daughter which horrifies Odysseus and Penelope into accepting that he must go to Troy. Both are disturbed by the lengths this man will go to conquer the rival city-state. They also implicitly value women more than Agamemnon or his brother Menelaus. They certainly have a happier marriage.

The Legacy of the Trojan War and Odysseus

It is on the point of Odysseus’ values that we mark the greatest differences between text and screen. While in all tellings, Odysseus is the cleverest and most cunning of the Greeks, it is how he lives with that burden of greatness that strikes a far more poignant tone in the movie. The literary Odysseus is heartbroken and pained by his inability to get home, often lamenting his lot as a victim of the gods. But there is little in the way of introspection about his past deeds beyond mistakenly revealing his name to the cycloptic son of Poseidon. Whereas the core tragedy of Odysseus in Nolan’s movie is the bitter shame he feels over unleashing the beastliness of men onto Troy, particularly the dead city’s women and children.

Odysseus hides himself in disguise from Penelope and Telemachus when he finally returns home not to test Penelope as the ghost of Agamemnon suggests (and which his literary counterpart intends), but because he also wants to make sure he is not too much changed to be unworthy or unrecognizable to the wife he abandoned. It is only by her side he admits that by engineering his greatest trick, the wooden horse, he unleashed a new world of carnage and horror.

It doesn’t take much squinting to recognize the film as a companion piece to Oppenheimer, or even a sequel. Both star great men who are lionized for their brilliance and ability to win grueling wars, but the consequences of that victory are devastating and worldending. That is literally so in the case of Oppenheimer, even if no one has pushed “the red button” since 1945, but in this new Odyssey, the Trojan Horse and subsequent sacking of a civilization shamed the Greeks, making them crueler and more savage than when they left their homes 10 years prior. It is rather awkwardly posited by Odysseus to Penelope that the horse alone turbocharged the fall of their Mycenaean world.

The latter is based on real matters of antiquity, but not Homer. At the end of the Bronze Age, there was indeed a mysterious group called “people from the sea” by the only civilization to successfully resist them: the New Kingdom Egyptians. The Ancient Egyptian chroniclers didn’t know where they came from, although some were likely Greek, many more might have been from the Levant (modern day Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan), or perhaps Etruscans (Italy) fleeing famine.

What we do know is they sacked and slaughtered numerous Mediterranean ports and towns, including felling the Hittite Empire, who counted among its vassals the city-state of Troy. Ergo, Nolan is blending the real collapse of the Bronze Age into his story, suggesting the Greeks who came home from, or were inspired by, the Trojan War and the murder of that civilization were the “Sea Peoples” who wiped out neighbors, including fellow Greeks, casting civilization back centuries to a world of intellectual darkness and ignominy.

One need not strain to see the implications for our own decay of institutional virtue and civic empathy for our fellow man. Perhaps there’s a lesson in Odysseus’ guilt?

A Bloody Homecoming and Final Exit

The Ithaca side of Nolan’s Odyssey also mirrors Homer in many ways, albeit with cosmetic changes in the margins. Odysseus’ beloved dog Argos, who only appears right before his death after 20 years of waiting for his master on the page, becomes a genuine supporting character appearing throughout the narrative as the much abused punching bag of the suitors. (In both versions, Odysseus finds Argos wasting away on a dung heap.) We similarly have more flashbacks introducing Odysseus’ history with other characters he meets on his return, including most fatefully Antinous (Robert Pattinson’s snide ringleader of suitors).

Antinous is also the worst in the original text, however other than the suitor admitting to seeing Odysseus hunting once as a boy, he has no backstory with the Greek hero. In Nolan’s film, we learn that not only is Antinous a coward, but he literally bought his way out of a proverbial draft lottery by getting his shepherd’s son to take his place in sailing off to Troy. (To my knowledge Elliot Page’s character Sinon does not appear in mythology until Virgil’s The Aeneid 700 years after Homer, where he is the Greeks’ other great liar who knows very well that Greeks are in the horse but manipulates the Trojans.) One of the most satisfying elements of the film is Odysseus returning to Antinous his shame, which feels like it might have pointed meaning for real-life tough-guy strongmen who avoided drafts and civic duty in their youth…

Also shifted in the finale is the addition of Odysseus saving Telemachus from a trap laid by suitors near the strait of Ithaca. In the poem, it is at sea and Athena does the saving, but in the film we get a pretty satisfying if obligatory fight scene. Shortly afterward in the poem, Odysseus straight up admits he is father to the boy. Telemachus does not figure it out on his own, nor does Penelope who speaks with her husband in disguise as a beggar but fails to clearly recognize him, as she does in the film. (There is some scholarly debate on that last bit, but Penelope seems so shocked by the news of the suitors’ death when a servant wakes her from her sleep on the page that I don’t believe she knew.)

Furthermore, the literary Penelope decides to test Odysseus to make sure he is not a god in disguise after all the bloodletting, proving perhaps why she is a perfect match for this man. Her test amounts to her asking him to move their bed into the hall, which he says cannot be done since he carved it with his own hands from an olive tree that grew from the base of what is now their house. It’s honestly a cute bit of domesticity… but it only comes after horrible violence.

Much like the film, the climax is a total bloodbath that begins after every suitor fails to string Odysseus’ bow and fire an arrow through 12 metal axes, albeit on the page Antinous is the first to die instead of the last. Additionally, Telemachus and the loyal slave Eumaeus (John Leguizamo), as well as another servant, help fight and slaughter every single last suitor. They even take it further and hang by the neck each slave girl who lay with one of the suitors, killing 12 in all in the most agonizing and humiliating method Odysseus could conceive. In Nolan’s film, only one enslaved woman, Mia Goth as a nameless servant, is presumably killed in the melee, although we never see it.

What is strikingly different is the aftermath. In the poem, murdering these suitors becomes a mild concern: Odysseus should face judgment from his neighbors and subjects since many of the lads were Ithaca’s sons and brothers. So after reconciling with his father Laertes—who is also cut from the film in favor of only Penelope and Telemachus—all three generations of the island’s royal men proudly stand against their subjects, debating who shall be manlier in facing the mob. Luckily, Athena intervenes at Zeus’ behest, forcing all sides to make peace.

Even so, Odysseus confides to Penelope that after their reunion, he must soon leave again, as Tieresias foretold, and sail west until he finds a land so far from the sea, the people know not even how to mix salt in their food! There he must make a sacrifice to Poseidon to receive full clemency from the gods and the vouchsafe to live peacefully into old age by Penelope’s side on Ithaca.

In Nolan’s movie, Penelope joins Odysseus on his final journey west with the knowledge they will never return. This is because the father violated Zeus’ law by murdering the suitors, and many times more by conceiving of the Trojan Horse. It is thus his penance that, like Moses from a different mythology, he will never get to enjoy the promised land of home. Instead he and Penelope will live in exile and their son will assume his rightful place as king and heir. Meanwhile Greece will fall into the historical dark age we know came shortly after this story is set. It combines the history of the Bronze Age collapse with Nolan’s sympathy and judgment of great men who do terrible things.

Still, unlike the literary Odysseus, one senses he’ll never leave his wife again. And as far as Nolan movies are concerned, that is the happiest of endings. Maybe they’ll even end up drinking wine by the Arno River in Italy.

The Odyssey is in theaters now.

15 Actors You Didn’t Realize Had Entirely Different Careers

Most actors spend years trying to build a career in Hollywood. A few got there by taking a very different route. Some had already become doctors, decorated soldiers, scientists, or professional athletes before anyone knew their names from movies, while others left acting behind to succeed somewhere completely different. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine these careers belonging to the same people.

Here are 15 actors you didn’t realize had entirely different careers.

Ken Jeong – Physician

Before making audiences laugh in The Hangover and Community, Jeong worked as a licensed physician specializing in internal medicine. He continued practicing medicine even after his acting career began to take off.

Hedy Lamarr – Inventor

Away from movie sets, Lamarr co-developed a frequency-hopping communication system during World War II. The technology later influenced Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.

Danny Trejo – Drug counselor

After overcoming addiction and serving time in prison, Trejo worked as a substance abuse counselor. He landed his first acting job while helping someone on a film set.

Mayim Bialik – Neuroscientist

After starring in Blossom, Bialik earned a PhD in neuroscience before returning to television years later in The Big Bang Theory.

Gene Hackman – Novelist

Hackman retired from acting in the early 2000s and focused on writing historical fiction, publishing several novels during his retirement.

Lisa Kudrow – Medical researcher

Before Friends made her a household name, Kudrow worked with her father on research studying headaches and migraines.

Steve Buscemi – Firefighter

Buscemi served as a New York firefighter before becoming an actor. Following the September 11 attacks, he quietly returned to help fellow firefighters at Ground Zero.

Glenda Jackson – Politician

Jackson stepped away from acting for more than two decades to serve as a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom before eventually returning to the screen.

Jason Lee – Professional skateboarder

Long before appearing in Mallrats and My Name Is Earl, Lee was one of the most respected professional skateboarders in the United States.

James Doohan – Soldier

Before playing Scotty in Star Trek, Doohan served in the Canadian Army during World War II and fought on D-Day, where he was seriously wounded.

Shirley Temple – Diplomat

After leaving acting behind, Temple represented the United States as ambassador to Ghana and later to Czechoslovakia.

Audie Murphy – War hero

Murphy became one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War II before building a successful acting career in Western films.

Peter Weller – Art historian

Known for RoboCop, Weller later earned a doctorate in Italian Renaissance art history and has taught university courses on the subject.

Dolph Lundgren – Chemical engineer

Before starring in Rocky IV, Lundgren studied chemical engineering, earned a master’s degree, and received a Fulbright scholarship to MIT.

Christopher Lee – Military intelligence officer

Before becoming famous in Dracula, The Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars, Lee served in the Royal Air Force during World War II and later worked in intelligence.

15 Movies Where the Action is Clearly More Important Than the Plot

Think about the last action movie you really enjoyed. Chances are you remember the car chase, the fight, or the impossible stunt long before you remember the plot. That’s hardly unusual. Plenty of action movies are designed that way, putting all their energy into spectacular set pieces while keeping the story as simple as possible.

Here are 15 movies where the action is clearly more important than the plot.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

The story could be summed up in a couple of sentences, but that’s never been the point. George Miller fills nearly every minute with practical stunts, vehicle chases, and explosive action that barely gives the audience time to catch its breath.

Crank (2006)

Jason Statham spends the entire movie racing across Los Angeles because his character can’t stop moving. The ridiculous premise exists mainly to connect one outrageous action sequence to the next.

Hardcore Henry (2015)

Filmed almost entirely from a first-person perspective, the movie plays like a nonstop video game. The plot stays intentionally thin while the camera throws viewers into one fight after another.

The Raid (2011)

The premise is straightforward: a SWAT team has to fight its way through a building full of criminals. Everything else revolves around brutal martial arts choreography that turned the film into a modern action classic.

The Raid 2 (2014)

Instead of slowing down after the first film, the sequel delivers even bigger fights, longer chases, and more elaborate set pieces. The story mostly exists to move the characters toward the next unforgettable showdown.

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

By the fourth movie, the rules of the assassin underworld matter far less than watching Keanu Reeves battle his way through increasingly creative action scenes. Every sequence tries to top the last one.

Commando (1985)

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s one-man rescue mission wastes very little time on character development. The movie quickly embraces explosions, impossible body counts, and one-liners that have become action movie history.

Face/Off (1997)

The face-swapping premise is completely absurd, but it gives John Woo an excuse to stage slow-motion shootouts, elaborate chases, and over-the-top action that audiences still remember decades later.

Con Air (1997)

A plane full of dangerous criminals is exactly the kind of setup that allows for maximum chaos. The movie rarely pauses before throwing another explosion, fistfight, or impossible escape into the mix.

Fast Five (2011)

This was the moment the Fast & Furious series stopped pretending to be about street racing. The massive vault chase through Rio became the film’s defining image, overshadowing almost everything else

The Expendables (2010)

The plot mainly serves as an excuse to gather some of the biggest action stars of all time in the same movie. Watching them exchange punches, gunfire, and explosions is the real attraction.

Extraction (2020)

Chris Hemsworth’s mission is easy enough to follow, but the movie is remembered for its extended “one-take” action sequence, which became its biggest talking point almost immediately after release.

Bullet Train (2022)

Several assassins end up on the same train, but the constantly escalating fights and inventive choreography steal the spotlight. The increasingly chaotic action matters far more than untangling every twist.

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

The original First Blood explored the lasting effects of war, but the sequel shifted almost entirely toward large-scale combat. Explosions, helicopter battles, and impossible rescues became the movie’s real focus.

Shoot ‘Em Up (2007)

The movie openly embraces its own absurdity from the opening scene. Clive Owen dispatches enemies in increasingly ridiculous ways, making it clear that creative action—not realism—is the entire point.

15 Actors Who Got the Job Done in Their Youth, and Their Old Age

There comes a point when many actors stop landing leading roles, leaving the spotlight to a younger generation. Others never seem to reach that point. Some became stars before turning 30 and were still carrying major films or television series decades later. Looking at their careers side by side, it’s remarkable how many different eras of Hollywood they managed to dominate.

Here are 15 actors who got the job done in both their youth and their old age.

Harrison Ford

Ford became an international star with Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark before returning decades later to lead Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and the hit series 1923.

Jodie Foster

She earned acclaim as a teenager in Taxi Driver before returning later in life with award-worthy performances in films like Nyad and the fourth season of True Detective.

Jeff Bridges

Bridges was already an Oscar nominee in his early 20s with The Last Picture Show. More recently, he led The Old Man after overcoming cancer treatment.

Michael Keaton

After becoming one of the defining stars of the late ’80s with Beetlejuice and Batman, Keaton experienced a remarkable comeback through Birdman, Spotlight, Dopesick, and Knox Goes Away.

Jamie Lee Curtis

Curtis became one of horror’s biggest names with Halloween before earning her first Academy Award decades later for Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Sylvester Stallone

Rocky and Rambo made Stallone one of the biggest stars of the 1970s and ’80s. More recently, he successfully reinvented himself by leading Tulsa King.

Patrick Stewart

After becoming famous as Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Stewart returned to the role decades later while also continuing to lead major stage and screen productions.

Angela Bassett

Bassett broke through portraying Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It before delivering another career-defining performance as Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Tom Cruise

Risky Business and Top Gun established Cruise as a leading man in his 20s. More than forty years later, he was still headlining the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Kathy Bates

After winning an Oscar for Misery, Bates continued taking major roles before returning to lead television once again in Matlock.

Ian McKellen

McKellen had already built an acclaimed stage career before becoming a global movie star through The Lord of the Rings. Even into his 80s, he continued taking leading film and theater roles.

Morgan Freeman

He reached mainstream success later than many of his peers with Driving Miss Daisy and Glory, then continued leading films well into his 80s.

Helen Mirren

Mirren was already a respected actress in the 1970s before winning an Oscar for The Queen and continuing to headline everything from prestige dramas to blockbuster franchises.

Anthony Hopkins

Hopkins became a legend with The Silence of the Lambs before winning a second Academy Award at age 83 for The Father.

Demi Moore

Moore dominated Hollywood in the late ’80s and early ’90s with Ghost, A Few Good Men, and Disclosure. Decades later, she reminded audiences of her dramatic range with her acclaimed leading role in The Substance.

15 Movie Characters Everyone Thought Were the Villains… Until They Grew Up

Watching a movie as a kid and watching it again years later can completely change who you root for. Characters who once seemed mean, overly strict, or determined to ruin the hero’s fun suddenly make a lot more sense when you see the story from an adult perspective. Sometimes they were simply doing their jobs. Other times, they were reacting exactly as most people probably would in the same situation. They weren’t always perfect, but they also weren’t nearly as villainous as they first appeared.

Here are 15 movie characters many viewers eventually realized weren’t the real villains after all.

Johnny Lawrence (The Karate Kid)

As kids, most viewers naturally rooted for Daniel LaRusso. Watching The Karate Kid years later, plenty of fans began questioning whether Johnny was really the biggest problem or just another teenager caught up in the rivalry.

Sharpay Evans (High School Musical)

Sharpay spends years preparing for the school musical, only to watch two complete newcomers walk in and immediately compete for the lead roles. Looking back, her frustration feels a lot more understandable.

Miranda Priestly (The Devil Wears Prada)

She demands professionalism, expects people to take their jobs seriously, and refuses to lower her standards. As adults, many viewers realized she was often asking for competence more than perfection.

Severus Snape (Harry Potter)

For most of the series, Snape comes across as cold, unfair, and determined to make Harry’s life miserable. Looking back after finishing the story, many viewers realized there was far more behind his actions than simple cruelty.

Summer Finn (500 Days of Summer)

For years, plenty of viewers blamed Summer for Tom’s heartbreak. Watching the movie again as an adult, it’s much easier to see that she was honest about what she wanted from the very beginning. The real problem was Tom expecting her to become someone she never claimed to be.

Principal Rooney (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)

Ferris skips school constantly, lies to everyone around him, and somehow we’re supposed to think the principal is the bad guy for trying to stop him.

Squidward Tentacles (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie)

As kids, Squidward just seemed grumpy. As adults, dealing with SpongeBob’s nonstop chaos every single day suddenly sounds exhausting.

Anton Ego (Ratatouille)

Ego isn’t trying to tear Gusteau’s restaurant down out of spite. He’s a food critic whose job is to be honest, and when he experiences something truly extraordinary, he’s the first to admit it.

Walter Peck (Ghostbusters)

Peck questions an unregulated business storing dangerous supernatural equipment in the middle of New York. Looking at the situation as an adult, his concerns don’t seem nearly as unreasonable.

Tom (Tom and Jerry: The Movie)

Tom spends his days trying to catch a mouse that’s constantly wrecking the house and making his life miserable. As adults, many viewers find themselves sympathizing with the cat instead.

Miranda Hillard (Mrs. Doubtfire)

As kids, Miranda often came across as the “mean” parent. Looking back, it’s much easier to understand why she was frustrated with Daniel’s constant irresponsibility.

M (Casino Royale)

James Bond constantly ignores orders, causes expensive damage, and takes enormous risks. Watching the movie as an adult, it’s much easier to understand why M is always frustrated with him.

Ken (Bee Movie)

As kids, Ken comes across as an obnoxious boyfriend. Looking back, his girlfriend really is spending all her time with a talking bee who’s clearly trying to win her over. His reactions suddenly seem a lot less ridiculous.

Sid Phillips (Toy Story)

Sid looks like the neighborhood bully, but from his perspective, he’s just a kid taking toys apart to see how they work. Since he has no idea the toys are actually alive, his behavior suddenly seems a lot less sinister than it did growing up.

Magneto (X-Men)

As kids, Magneto seemed like a straightforward supervillain bent on destroying humanity. Watching the X-Men movies as an adult, it’s easier to understand that his worldview comes from a lifetime of persecution. His methods are extreme, but his fears don’t come out of nowhere.

15 Actors Only Your Boomer Uncle Could Name

Ask someone who grew up watching movies before the 1990s to name their favorite actors, and chances are you’ll hear at least a few of the names on this list. These were the stars whose faces appeared on movie posters, magazine covers, and television screens for decades. They weren’t just famous for one blockbuster. Many built careers that lasted thirty or forty years and became symbols of an entire era of Hollywood. While film fans still recognize them today, plenty of younger viewers would probably struggle to name more than a handful.

Here are 15 actors only your boomer uncle could name.

Paul Newman

Few actors represented classic Hollywood quite like Paul Newman. Whether he was starring in Cool Hand Luke, The Sting, or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, he became one of the most recognizable leading men of his generation.

Robert Redford

Redford built an extraordinary career that ranged from westerns to political thrillers. His effortless screen presence made him one of Hollywood’s biggest stars throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Gregory Peck

Best known for playing Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, Gregory Peck became the kind of actor audiences instantly trusted whenever he appeared on screen.

Burt Reynolds

With hits like Smokey and the Bandit and Deliverance, Burt Reynolds spent years as one of the biggest box office stars in America. His trademark mustache became almost as famous as he was.

Steve McQueen

Nicknamed the “King of Cool”, McQueen became an icon thanks to movies like Bullitt and The Great Escape. Few actors made effortless confidence look so natural.

Gene Hackman

Gene Hackman quietly assembled one of Hollywood’s greatest careers, moving seamlessly between action, drama, thrillers, and comedies without ever chasing the spotlight.

Jack Lemmon

Whether he was making audiences laugh or breaking their hearts, Jack Lemmon had a rare ability to make every performance feel completely genuine.

James Cagney

Cagney’s fast-talking gangsters helped shape crime movies for decades. His energy and charisma made him one of classic Hollywood’s most unforgettable stars.

Rock Hudson

For years, Rock Hudson was the face of romantic Hollywood leading men. His easy charm made him one of the biggest movie stars of the 1950s and 1960s.

Charlton Heston

Epic productions like Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments turned Charlton Heston into one of the defining stars of large-scale Hollywood spectacles.

Doris Day

Doris Day balanced successful careers in both music and film, becoming one of the most beloved entertainers of her era thanks to her warmth and natural charisma.

Humphrey Bogart

Whether he was playing detectives, antiheroes, or reluctant romantics, Humphrey Bogart became one of Hollywood’s defining stars. Classics like Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon helped cement his legendary status.

Cary Grant

Cary Grant’s charm, wit, and impeccable comic timing made him the blueprint for the classic Hollywood leading man. His films remain favorites for movie lovers today.

Bette Davis

Known for her fearless performances and unmistakable voice, Bette Davis became one of the greatest actresses ever to work in Hollywood.

Kirk Douglas

Kirk Douglas starred in countless classics, but Spartacus remains the role most audiences still associate with him. His powerful screen presence defined an entire era of filmmaking.

15 TV Shows People Gave Up on After Just One Episode

First episodes have one job: convince people to come back for episode two. Sometimes that happens within minutes. Other times, viewers are already reaching for the remote before the opening story has even found its footing. Whether it was awkward writing, disappointing reboots, strange creative choices, or simply failing to live up to impossible expectations, plenty of TV shows lost part of their audience almost immediately.

That doesn’t necessarily mean everyone hated them, but these are the TV shows people gave up on after just one episode.

That ’90s Show (2023-2024)

Fans of That ’70s Show hoped for a nostalgic return to Point Place, but many felt the sequel struggled to recapture the original cast’s chemistry from the very first episode.

And Just Like That… (2021-2025)

Even longtime Sex and the City fans admitted they found the revival surprisingly difficult to get into, with many deciding almost immediately that it wasn’t for them.

Last Man Standing (2011-2021)

Some viewers felt the sitcom leaned too heavily on Tim Allen’s persona, making the first episode feel more like a showcase for its star than an ensemble comedy.

Riverdale (2017-2023)

What started as a familiar Archie adaptation quickly turned into something much stranger, and plenty of viewers decided one episode was enough.

The Idol (2023)

Despite all the attention surrounding its release, many viewers walked away after the premiere, saying the controversy surrounding the show ended up being more interesting than the series itself.

The Office Australia (2024)

Remaking one of television’s most beloved comedies was always going to be a challenge. For many fans, the Australian version failed to make a strong first impression.

Suits LA (2025)

Many fans hoping for more of the original Suits felt the spinoff lacked the chemistry and sharp dialogue that made the first series so popular.

13 Reasons Why (2017-2020)

While the series became a major hit, some viewers felt the tone and dialogue didn’t work for them from the very beginning and never returned after the pilot.

The Good Doctor (2017-2024)

While the medical drama found a loyal audience, others struggled with its presentation of Shaun Murphy and decided not to continue beyond the premiere.

Iron Fist (2017-2018)

Marvel fans had high expectations, but repetitive flashbacks and a slow first episode convinced many viewers to move on before the season really got going.

Under the Dome (2013-2015)

Readers of Stephen King’s novel often felt the television adaptation missed what made the source material so compelling almost from the very beginning.

How I Met Your Father (2022-2023)

Following such a beloved sitcom was always going to be difficult, and many fans never made it past the pilot.

Yellowstone (2018-2024)

Despite becoming one of television’s biggest hits, some viewers felt the first episode never clicked with them and chose not to continue.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)

The enormous expectations surrounding the series meant every creative decision faced intense scrutiny, and plenty of viewers admitted they checked out after the premiere.

Elle (2026)

As a Legally Blonde prequel, Elle immediately divided fans who questioned whether the franchise needed another chapter. For some viewers, the series failed to justify its existence from the very first episode.

Movies That Would End in 15 Minutes If Anyone Had Common Sense

Even though it can be frustrating, we don’t actually want the characters in our favourite films to have common sense. We want them to make mistakes, face adversity due to said mistakes, and come out at the end of the movie as improved or at least changed people. A movie devoid of conflict ends up as a boring short film.

However, there are certain stories that require such leaps of logic, it’s surprising how quickly they would end if anyone thought about their actions for more than a second. The movies we’ve chosen today survive because their characters make choices most viewers would never consider.

Speak No Evil

The entire nightmare begins because the protagonists repeatedly ignore instincts telling them something is wrong. Several opportunities to leave safely present themselves long before the situation becomes truly dangerous.

Barbarian

Tess makes several understandable choices early on, but many viewers agree the story would end quickly if everyone simply avoided investigating the increasingly disturbing spaces hidden beneath the rental property.

The Cabin in the Woods

The film deliberately plays with horror clichés, including characters making terrible decisions. Without outside manipulation influencing events, most of the group’s choices would seem absurdly reckless.

Paranormal Activity

After repeated evidence that something supernatural is happening, Micah continually ignores sensible advice. His determination to provoke the entity actively worsens the situation at nearly every turn.

The Blair Witch Project

Getting lost is understandable. Continuing to wander deeper into unfamiliar woods while ignoring mounting evidence that something is seriously wrong proves considerably less sensible.

Prometheus

Ridley Scott’s science-fiction prequel became infamous for highly trained scientists making baffling decisions. Touching unknown organisms and removing protective equipment on an alien world remain particularly criticized choices.

Jurassic World

The central disaster begins because corporate executives prioritize spectacle and profit over basic safety precautions. Common-sense risk management would have prevented most of the film’s chaos.

Orphan

The warning signs surrounding Esther accumulate remarkably quickly. A more cautious investigation into her background early on would dramatically shorten the story and spare everyone considerable trouble.

The Ring

The cursed videotape only works because people continue watching it. The plot becomes much harder to sustain if viewers simply stop engaging with obviously dangerous supernatural media.

Alien: Covenant

Like Prometheus, the film features experienced professionals making questionable decisions around unfamiliar extraterrestrial life. Several major disasters stem directly from avoidable mistakes and ignored precautions.

Jeepers Creepers

The siblings initially escape danger, only to return and investigate further. That single decision transforms a strange encounter into a life-threatening confrontation with the Creeper.

Eden Lake

The protagonists repeatedly underestimate how dangerous their situation has become. Earlier intervention from authorities or a faster decision to leave the area could have changed everything.

The Strangers

The film’s terrifying premise works partly because the protagonists remain trapped. Many viewers have spent years debating alternative choices that might have improved their odds of survival.

When a Stranger Calls

The babysitter receives increasingly alarming phone calls before learning the caller is inside the house. Contacting authorities at the earliest signs of danger would have altered the evening considerably.

Pet Sematary

Virtually every tragedy in the story stems from ignoring repeated warnings about the burial ground’s effects. If Louis Creed had listened to the advice he was given, the plot would barely exist.

15 Movie Weddings We Would Definitely Object To

Getting married isn’t a thematic party, it is a celebration of commitment between two people that, allegedly, love each other very much. Yet in movie history we have plenty of examples, even if fictional, that makes us wonder if the couple was made for each other. At the very least, they could’ve gotten to know each other a bit more.

In a surprising number of films, the wedding actually goes ahead despite warning signs visible from miles away. Looking back, these ceremonies often feel less like celebrations and more like disasters waiting to happen. If anyone had asked for our opinion before the vows were exchanged, we’d have had plenty of reasons to stand up and object.

Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 1

Bella and Edward genuinely love each other, but their wedding comes after a relationship defined by stalking, secrecy, and life-threatening supernatural dangers. The honeymoon alone nearly kills Bella before an even greater crisis follows.

Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele, Fifty Shades Freed

Christian and Ana’s wedding is lavish, but it follows years of controlling behavior, surveillance, and unhealthy power dynamics. Even after marrying, Christian struggles with possessiveness that repeatedly creates tension in their relationship.

Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, Gone with the Wind

Scarlett marries Rhett while still emotionally fixated on Ashley Wilkes. Their marriage becomes a cycle of jealousy, resentment, and misunderstandings, proving that attraction alone wasn’t enough to build a healthy partnership.

Ariel and Prince Eric, The Little Mermaid

Ariel and Eric’s wedding concludes a beloved Disney classic, but they spend remarkably little time actually knowing each other. Most of their relationship develops under magical circumstances and extraordinary pressure.

Maria and Captain von Trapp, The Sound of Music

The romance ultimately succeeds, but an outside observer might reasonably question a relationship that developed between a former governess and her employer during an emotionally turbulent period for the family.

Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Will and Elizabeth literally get married during a sword fight in the middle of a massive supernatural battle. The timing alone suggests perhaps waiting for a slightly less chaotic moment.

Prince Akeem and Imani, Coming to America

The arranged marriage at the beginning of the film is presented as perfectly acceptable by those around Akeem. He objects because his future bride has been raised to agree with everything he says.

Satine and the Duke, Moulin Rouge!

The Duke expects to marry Satine largely as a transaction tied to his financial support. The arrangement is built on control and ownership rather than affection, making objections easy to justify.

Fiona and Prince Charming, Shrek 2

Although much of the wedding occurs offscreen or is implied, the plan relies on deception, manipulation, and magical impersonation. Fiona is effectively being pushed toward marrying the wrong person entirely.

Amy and Gil Weatherly, Gone Girl

The wedding itself isn’t the issue. The problem is that neither partner truly understands the other. As the story reveals, their relationship is built on carefully constructed versions of themselves.

Rachel and Heck, Imagine Me & You

Rachel goes through with her wedding despite quickly realizing she has deep feelings for someone else. The marriage begins under circumstances that practically guarantee future complications.

Lucy Whitmore and Henry Roth, 50 First Dates

Henry and Lucy’s relationship is undeniably sweet, but marrying someone who loses all new memories every time she sleeps raises enormous practical concerns. Every day begins with Lucy having to relearn her marriage, her family, and major life decisions through a videotape, making this one of cinema’s most unusual foundations for a lifelong commitment.

Charlotte and the Prince, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

The entire premise revolves around marrying quickly to satisfy constitutional requirements. Any wedding motivated primarily by legal deadlines rather than compatibility deserves a second look.

Sophie Sheridan and Sky Rymand, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

While the sequel confirms their eventual marriage, the original film’s hesitation was understandable. Sophie spent more time investigating her parentage than thinking about whether she was actually ready to wed.

15 Great Shows That You Still Only Need to Watch Once

When you really enjoy a show, you might think that a rewatch is inevitable. However, it can happen that some series are so intense, emotionally exhausting, disturbing, or dependent on mystery that they lose much of their impact once you already know what’s coming.

This makes them ideal for discussion and plot analysis, with most viewers feeling little need to immediately revisit it. They are about how you felt when watching it, how it spoke to you, or what conclusions could you draw. Here are some examples of such shows.

Ozark

Ozark earned acclaim for its tense storytelling, strong performances, and increasingly dangerous criminal schemes. However, much of the suspense comes from wondering how the Byrde family will escape disaster, making repeat viewings less compelling for many fans.

Breaking Bad

Watching Walter White’s transformation from chemistry teacher to criminal mastermind is unforgettable. Once you know every major turn and outcome, however, much of the show’s tension and unpredictability naturally disappears.

Chernobyl

HBO’s Chernobyl is widely regarded as one of television’s greatest miniseries. Its subject matter is so grim and emotionally draining, though, that many viewers consider one viewing more than enough.

The Night Of

This acclaimed crime drama thrives on uncertainty and escalating anxiety. Once the mystery and legal proceedings are resolved, the show’s greatest source of suspense is difficult to replicate.

Sharp Objects

Amy Adams delivers an outstanding performance in this dark psychological mystery. The disturbing atmosphere and devastating revelations make it memorable, but not necessarily a series many people rush to revisit.

Mare of Easttown

The appeal of Mare of Easttown largely revolves around solving its central mystery while following a deeply personal character journey. Once the answers are known, much of the intrigue inevitably changes.

The Queen’s Gambit

Beth Harmon’s rise through the chess world is compelling television. Yet because the series tells such a complete and self-contained story, many viewers feel satisfied after a single watch.

Your Honor

Bryan Cranston’s legal thriller places its protagonist in an increasingly impossible situation. Much of the drama depends on uncertainty about the consequences of each decision, making the first viewing the most effective.

The Undoing

This HBO mystery became a cultural phenomenon thanks to constant speculation about its central crime. Once the truth is revealed, the series loses much of the weekly detective work that fueled discussion.

When They See Us

Ava DuVernay’s powerful dramatization of the Central Park Five case is essential viewing. Its emotional weight and depiction of injustice are so intense that many viewers struggle to watch it again.

Dopesick

Chronicling the opioid crisis, Dopesick combines excellent performances with devastating real-world subject matter. The quality is undeniable, but the experience can be emotionally exhausting.

The Haunting of Hill House

Mike Flanagan’s horror series contains impressive hidden details for attentive viewers. Nevertheless, its strongest moments rely on emotional reveals and surprises that hit hardest the first time through.

Baby Reindeer

Richard Gadd’s deeply personal series earned widespread praise for its honesty and performances. The uncomfortable and emotionally raw nature of the story makes it a difficult show to revisit.

The Jinx

This true-crime documentary builds toward one of the most shocking moments in documentary television. Once viewers know how the story concludes, the experience becomes fundamentally different.

Band of Brothers

Often cited among the greatest miniseries ever made, Band of Brothers remains remarkable television. Yet its emotional intensity, wartime losses, and demanding length mean many fans reserve it for a single viewing.

The 14 Historical Events That Geeks Love the Most

History has no shortage of fascinating moments, but some events seem to capture people’s attention more than others. Whether it’s a famous battle, a world-changing discovery, or a turning point that reshaped entire nations, these stories continue to inspire documentaries, books, podcasts, and endless online debates. For history enthusiasts, they’re the moments that invite you to dig a little deeper, compare different perspectives, and wonder how things might have turned out if just one decision had gone differently.

Here are 15 historical events that geeks, history buffs, and curious readers never seem to get tired of exploring.

D-Day (1944)

The Normandy landings remain one of the most studied military operations ever carried out. Historians still examine everything from the planning behind the invasion to the decisions that helped change the course of World War II.

The Battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943)

Few battles have been analyzed as closely as Stalingrad. Its brutal urban combat, enormous casualties, and strategic importance made it a defining moment on the Eastern Front.

The Dunkirk Evacuation (1940)

Operation Dynamo became one of World War II’s most remarkable rescue efforts, with hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers evacuated across the English Channel under constant threat.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)

For millions of people, the collapse of the Berlin Wall became the defining image of the Cold War’s final chapter. It remains one of the most recognizable symbols of political change in modern history.

The Apollo 11 Moon Landing (1969)

The first Moon landing is still a favorite topic for space enthusiasts, who continue exploring the mission’s technology, planning, and historic achievements more than 50 years later.

The Titanic Disaster (1912)

More than a century after the ship sank, new expeditions, documentaries, and research continue uncovering details about one of history’s most famous maritime disasters.

The Assassination of Julius Caesar (44 BC)

Caesar’s assassination reshaped Roman politics and inspired countless books, plays, and historical debates about the end of the Roman Republic.

The French Revolution (1789)

The revolution transformed France while also spreading ideas about liberty, citizenship, and democracy that influenced countries around the world.

The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

For thirteen tense days, the United States and the Soviet Union stood on the brink of nuclear war. Every decision made during the crisis is still studied as an example of high-stakes diplomacy.

The Signing of the Magna Carta (1215)

Although its original purpose was limited, the Magna Carta gradually became one of history’s most influential legal documents and a lasting symbol of constitutional rights.

The Black Death (1346-1353)

Beyond its devastating death toll, the Black Death reshaped medieval society by changing labor systems, economies, and everyday life across Europe.

The Wright Brothers’ First Flight (1903)

The flight itself lasted only seconds, but it marked the beginning of powered aviation and opened the door to modern air travel.

The Chernobyl Disaster (1986)

The explosion at the nuclear power plant reshaped conversations about nuclear energy and remains one of history’s most studied industrial disasters.

The Fall of Constantinople (1453)

The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople ended the Byzantine Empire and reshaped trade routes, politics, and the balance of power between Europe and Asia.

The Batman II Delay Can Be Worth It If We Get A Masterpiece

Like the people of Gotham City, superhero movie fans look up to the skies searching for some sign that Batman is coming, some sign that the Dark Knight hasn’t forgotten us. It’s been four years since The Batman hit screens, bringing Matt Reeves‘ emo noir take on the Caped Crusader, starring Robert Pattinson as a brooding young Bruce Wayne in his second year in the costume. Despite getting updates and occasional production shots, and even announced release dates of October 2, 2026, and October 1, 2027, the movie seemed far away.

Now, things seem even worse. Warner Bros. has announced that the release date has been pushed back again, with The Batman: Part II now scheduled for February 18, 2028. There’s no denying that it sucks, and fans are right to be frustrated with having to wait longer. But it may be that Reeves just needs more time to cook, and great sequels have come to movie fans who wait.

In this age of legacy sequels and IP-mining, the idea of a long gap between installments isn’t completely shocking. Even if we don’t count examples such as the David Gordon Green Halloween or the Netflix Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which presented themselves as the one true sequel to the original entry and ignored all others, you still have Tron: Legacy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Creed. These movies pick up from previous entries, but often with an entirely new creative team and, often, new casts.

Other times, a different creator will step into a franchise with a more straightforward sequel, but the time elapsed, and new perspective creates something unique. Director Richard Franklin and writer Tom Holland (the Fright Night guy, not Spider-Man) had huge shoes to fill when they picked up from Alfred Hitchcock to make 1983’s Psycho II decades after 1960’s Psycho. But the time gap allowed Norman Bates to be a sympathetic figure. Only seven years elapsed between Alien and Aliens, but that was enough for that movie’s time jump to feel believable and for audiences to sit with Ripley’s trauma. Even better, the time gap allowed James Cameron to pitch an action movie approach that differed from Ridley Scott’s haunted house story.

Yet, there are more interesting examples, in which a creator finally realized a project that has been in the back of their mind for ages. The two greatest examples may be Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Mad Max: Fury Road. Seven years passed between The Terminator and Terminator 2, and the extra time not only gave Cameron the capital to demand a bigger effects budget, but also to rethink its central character, tasking Arnold Schwarzenegger with playing a hero instead of a ruthless killing machine. Likewise, the decades between Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road allowed George Miller to make the movie he wanted and to add more thematic depth to a story about a former cop in the wasteland.

With these examples in mind, it’s easy to see why Reeves and his co-writer Mattson Tomlin would want to take their time. The Batman saw Pattinson’s Dark Knight learn hard truths about his parents and rethink his approach to costumed crime fighting. The death of Carmine Falcone threw the underworld into chaos, and changes in both Gotham’s political structure and police department mean that the world around Batman has evolved.

In order to do those character beats justice, in order to tell a story just as grand and satisfying, Reeves might need to follow his muse, and that takes time. If the delays mean that The Batman: Part II is a masterpiece, then all will be forgiven. And if The Batman: Part II stinks, well… you know what happens when Gothamites get mad…

The Batman: Part II arrives in theaters on February 18, 2028… for now.

15 Facts from the Troubled History of Hollywood

In the early days of Hollywood, movie studios controlled almost every part of an actor’s career. They decided which roles performers accepted, how they looked in public, and sometimes even what they could say in interviews. That level of control was only one chapter in an industry shaped by censorship battles, political investigations, labor disputes, and legal fights that changed filmmaking forever.

Here are 15 facts from the troubled history of Hollywood.

The Hollywood Blacklist

During the late 1940s and 1950s, hundreds of writers, directors, and actors found themselves unable to work after being accused of communist sympathies. Many were never formally charged with a crime, yet their careers were effectively put on hold for years.

The Hays Code changed what audiences could see

For more than three decades, Hollywood followed strict censorship rules that limited everything from romance and violence to crime and even the way married couples could be shown on screen.

Olivia de Havilland challenged the studio system

In 1943, Olivia de Havilland successfully sued Warner Bros., helping actors escape restrictive long-term contracts that had given studios enormous control over their careers.

The Paramount Decree broke up Hollywood’s biggest monopoly

A landmark 1948 court ruling forced major studios to sell their theater chains, changing the way movies were distributed across the United States.

Judy Garland paid the price of becoming a child star

While working under MGM, Garland was reportedly given pills to help control her weight and energy levels, highlighting the intense pressure young performers often faced during Hollywood’s Golden Age.

United Artists was created to give filmmakers more control

Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith founded United Artists in 1919 because they wanted greater creative and financial independence from the major studios.

Sound movies changed Hollywood almost overnight

When talking pictures replaced silent films, many actors struggled to adapt because of their voices, accents, or performance style. Some of the biggest stars of the silent era quickly disappeared from the spotlight.

Movie ratings replaced strict censorship

In 1968, Hollywood abandoned the Hays Code and introduced the MPAA ratings system instead. Filmmakers gained much more creative freedom while audiences received clearer guidance about movie content.

The 2007 writers’ strike brought productions to a halt

Television series and movie projects across Hollywood were delayed for months as writers fought for better compensation in the early days of streaming and digital distribution.

The 2023 Hollywood strikes focused on streaming and AI

Writers and actors walked picket lines together while negotiating higher streaming residuals, better working conditions, and protections against the growing use of artificial intelligence.

Hattie McDaniel made history but still faced segregation

After becoming the first Black performer to win an Academy Award in 1940, McDaniel was required to sit at a separate table because the ceremony took place in a segregated hotel.

Charlie Chaplin became a political target

During the Red Scare, Chaplin was accused of having communist sympathies. Although he was never convicted of a crime, the controversy contributed to his decision to settle in Europe.

The Fatty Arbuckle scandal transformed Hollywood’s public image

Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was acquitted after being accused in one of Hollywood’s earliest major scandals, but the case permanently damaged his career and pushed studios to exercise tighter control over their stars’ public reputations.

Studios once controlled nearly every part of an actor’s career

For decades, major studios decided which films performers made, how they dressed, what interviews they gave, and even how they appeared in public, leaving many actors with little control over their own image.

The Oscars weren’t televised until 1953

For more than two decades, the Academy Awards had no television audience. Once the ceremony entered American living rooms, it quickly became one of Hollywood’s biggest annual events.

15 Times a Movie Never Even Got Released

Not every movie that reaches production ends up on the big screen. Some get canceled after cameras start rolling, while others make it surprisingly far before running out of money, losing key cast members, or falling apart behind the scenes. In a few cases, entire films were completed only to be locked away in studio vaults, where audiences never had the chance to see them. Over the years, these unfinished and unreleased projects have become almost as fascinating as the movies that actually made it to theaters.

Here are 15 films that, for one reason or another, never got the release they were supposed to.

The Day the Clown Cried (1972)

Jerry Lewis completed filming this Holocaust drama, but the movie never received an official release. Lewis himself remained unhappy with the finished film, turning it into one of Hollywood’s most famous lost projects.

Batgirl (2022)

The superhero movie finished filming and entered post-production before Warner Bros. Discovery unexpectedly shelved it. Despite a reported budget of around $90 million, the film has never been released.

Fantastic Four (1994)

Roger Corman’s low-budget Fantastic Four adaptation was fully filmed but never intended for a wide release. Bootleg copies eventually gave fans a chance to see the movie years later.

Superman Lives (1998)

Tim Burton’s Superman reboot never reached principal photography, but years of development produced costume tests, concept art, and even Nicolas Cage’s now-famous Superman suit.

Napoleon (Stanley Kubrick)

Stanley Kubrick spent years researching Napoleon’s life, scouting locations, and preparing thousands of historical reference cards before the project was canceled because of its enormous budget. The unfinished epic later inspired the book Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made.

Dark Blood (1993)

Production stopped after River Phoenix died before completing his scenes. The unfinished movie sat on the shelf for years before a reconstructed version was assembled using narration.

Kaleidoscope (1967)

Alfred Hitchcock wanted this thriller to be far more graphic and experimental than his previous work, but Universal rejected the idea before production could move forward.

The Other Side of the Wind (2018)

Orson Welles spent years shooting what would become his final film, but legal and financial complications kept it unfinished during his lifetime. It wasn’t completed until decades later.

Big Bug Man

The animated comedy featured voices from Brendan Fraser and even Marlon Brando, who recorded one of his final performances. Despite being completed, the movie has never received a proper release.

Empires of the Deep

Years of rewrites, multiple directors, and an enormous budget turned this fantasy epic into one of cinema’s strangest production stories. It quietly disappeared without ever reaching theaters.

Hippie Hippie Shake

Cillian Murphy and Sienna Miller finished filming this adaptation of the famous memoir, but repeated delays led Working Title to cancel its release altogether.

100 Years (2015)

John Malkovich and director Robert Rodriguez completed this unusual project, but almost nobody alive today will get to see it. The film was deliberately locked away with instructions that it won’t be released until the year 2115, turning it into one of cinema’s most unusual publicity experiments.

Crusade (1994)

Director Paul Verhoeven was preparing an epic medieval adventure starring Arnold Schwarzenegger when the studio pulled the plug over its soaring budget. Sets had already been designed, costumes were in development, and pre-production was well underway before the project was abandoned.

Foodfight! (original version)

Before the movie that eventually reached home video, the original production reportedly suffered the loss of much of its animation work after a mysterious server theft. Years of rebuilding completely changed the finished project.

Rust (original production)

Filming came to an immediate halt after the fatal on-set shooting involving cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The production eventually resumed under very different circumstances, but the original version of the film was never completed as planned.

15 Board Games Even Your Grandmother Would Love Playing

Not every board game needs complicated rules or a three-hour tutorial before anyone can start playing. The ones people keep coming back to are usually much simpler than that. They’ve survived changing trends because they’re easy to share, easy to teach, and just competitive enough to get everyone invested. Some have been around for centuries, while others became household staples much more recently. No matter when they first appeared, these games have something in common: they’re just as enjoyable with grandparents around the table as they are with kids.

Here are 15 classics that rarely disappoint.

Scrabble

Every Scrabble game seems to include one moment where someone questions a word and another person insists it’s in the dictionary. Half the entertainment comes before the score is even counted.

Monopoly

Few board games have inspired more family rivalries. Everyone starts out making friendly deals, then suddenly nobody wants to give up Park Place.

Chess

There’s a reason chess clubs exist all over the world. Even after hundreds of years, people are still discovering new openings, strategies, and ways to surprise an opponent.

Checkers

Most people learn checkers as children, then spend years forgetting how tricky it can actually be. It rewards patience far more than flashy moves.

Dominos

Across much of the world, dominos are as much about conversation as competition. It’s the kind of game that naturally brings people together.

Backgammon

A few lucky rolls can help, but they won’t save a bad strategy. That’s what has kept players coming back to backgammon for generations.

Yahtzee

It doesn’t ask for much: five dice and a little luck. Somehow that’s enough to keep everyone watching the final roll.

Rummikub

Every turn changes the board. Just when it looks like someone has the perfect hand, another player rearranges everything.

Trivial Pursuit

This is the game where random knowledge finally becomes useful. History, movies, geography, sports… every category gives someone a chance to shine.

Ludo

Nobody stays comfortable for long. A single roll can send the leader back to the beginning, which keeps every player interested until the last move.

The Game of Life

Some players finish with dream careers. Others end up with unexpected detours they never saw coming. That’s part of the charm.

Guess Who?

The funniest questions usually aren’t the smartest ones. Somehow a tiny pair of glasses or an unusual hairstyle can decide the whole game.

Connect Four

The rules fit on a single sentence, but spotting the winning move before anyone else is another matter entirely.

Snakes and Ladders

Some games reward careful planning. This one happily reminds everyone that luck sometimes has other ideas.

Parcheesi

Parcheesi has been bringing families together for generations with a simple mix of luck and strategy. Every game can change in an instant, which makes even the closest matches impossible to predict.

15 TV Shows With the Most Repetitive Plots

Some TV shows become comfort watches because you always know what you’re going to get. The same conflicts, familiar character dynamics, and predictable endings can be part of the appeal. Other times, though, a series leans so heavily on one formula that every episode starts to feel almost interchangeable. That doesn’t necessarily make these shows bad. In fact, several were huge hits that ran for years. Still, once you notice the pattern, it’s hard to stop seeing it.

These are 15 TV shows with the most repetitive plots.

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969-1970)

The gang arrives somewhere mysterious, investigates a “monster,” and eventually unmasks an ordinary person with a not-so-supernatural motive. It worked dozens of times.

House (2004-2012)

Every episode starts with a mysterious illness, several wrong diagnoses, one near-death experience, and a breakthrough just in time to save the patient.

Gilligan’s Island (1964-1967)

The castaways come up with a plan to escape the island, something inevitably goes wrong, and they’re right back where they started by the end.

The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019)

Many episodes revolve around Sheldon creating a problem with his rigid personality before eventually learning a small lesson… until the cycle starts again.

Tom and Jerry (1940-1967)

Tom comes up with a new plan to catch Jerry, the plan backfires spectacularly, and Jerry walks away victorious.

The A-Team (1983-1987)

Someone hires the team, they build homemade weapons from random materials, defeat the bad guys, and disappear before the authorities arrive.

Pokémon (1997- )

Ash meets new Pokémon, Team Rocket tries to steal Pikachu, gets blasted into the sky, and everyone moves on to the next adventure.

The Simpsons (1989- )

Homer creates a new problem, the family scrambles to fix it, and Springfield somehow returns to normal before the next episode.

Phineas and Ferb (2007-2015)

The brothers build an incredible invention, Candace tries to expose them, and everything disappears before their mom gets home.

Columbo (1971-2003)

Viewers know who committed the crime from the beginning. The fun comes from watching Columbo slowly trap the killer using seemingly harmless questions.

Three’s Company (1977-1984)

A simple misunderstanding snowballs into complete chaos before everyone realizes it could have been avoided with one honest conversation.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-1996)

Will gets himself into trouble, Uncle Phil steps in with some tough love, and everything wraps up with a heartfelt lesson.

Power Rangers (1993- )

A monster appears, the Rangers struggle at first, they summon the Megazord, and the villain is defeated before the credits roll.

Friends (1994-2004)

Many episodes boil down to misunderstandings, dating mishaps, and relationship drama before the group inevitably reunites at Central Perk.

Blue’s Clues (1996-2006)

Every episode follows the same simple formula: find the clues, solve the puzzle, and discover Blue’s message at the end.

The 15 Perfect TV Shows for 2000s Teenagers

There was something special about growing up with TV in the 2000s. You couldn’t binge an entire season over the weekend or skip straight to the ending. If you missed an episode, you either waited for a rerun or hoped one of your friends would tell you what happened. That made every new episode feel like an event, especially when everyone at school was watching the same shows. Whether you were following the drama in Tree Hill, spending afternoons in Stars Hollow, or wondering what chaos would hit Newport Beach next, these series became a huge part of growing up for an entire generation.

Here are 15 TV shows for 2000s teenagers.

Gilmore Girls (2000-2007)

Few shows captured the comfort of small-town life quite like Gilmore Girls. Between the rapid-fire dialogue, mother-daughter bond, and unforgettable Stars Hollow charm, it became essential viewing for an entire generation.

The O.C. (2003-2007)

Ryan, Seth, Summer, and Marissa helped define 2000s teen drama. It mixed romance, family conflict, and one of television’s most memorable soundtracks.

One Tree Hill (2003-2012)

Basketball may have brought the characters together, but friendships, relationships, and family drama kept viewers invested for nearly a decade.

Veronica Mars (2004-2007)

High school detective stories don’t usually work this well. Veronica’s sharp wit and weekly mysteries made the series stand out from other teen dramas.

Friday Night Lights (2006-2011)

Football may have been the backdrop, but the show’s emotional storytelling made it resonate far beyond sports fans.

Gossip Girl (2007-2012)

The glamorous lives of Manhattan’s elite became irresistible television, filled with betrayals, romance, and unforgettable fashion.

Smallville (2001-2011)

Before Superman wore the cape, he was just another teenager trying to survive high school while hiding extraordinary abilities.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)

Although it began in the late ’90s, its final seasons helped shape early-2000s teen television with humor, horror, and surprisingly emotional storytelling.

Dawson’s Creek (1998-2003)

Its final seasons aired in the early 2000s, making it one of the defining coming-of-age dramas for many teenagers at the start of the decade.

Lizzie McGuire (2001-2004)

Hilary Duff became one of Disney Channel’s biggest stars thanks to a series that perfectly captured the awkwardness of middle school.

Malcolm in the Middle (2000-2006)

It wasn’t a typical teen drama, but Malcolm’s chaotic family life made it one of the funniest and most relatable shows of the era.

Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000)

Despite lasting only one season, the series became a cult classic thanks to its honest portrayal of teenage life.

Everwood (2002-2006)

A heartfelt family drama that quietly became one of The WB’s most beloved series, balancing romance with genuinely emotional storytelling.

Greek (2007-2011)

College life replaced high school, but the friendships, romance, and constant chaos felt just as relatable to late-2000s audiences.

Skins (2007-2013)

The British series offered a much rawer take on adolescence than most American teen dramas, becoming a cultural phenomenon in the process.

The 15 Best Movies to Watch When You’re Getting Over a Breakup

Getting over a breakup doesn’t look the same for everyone. Some people want a movie that lets them cry for two hours, while others would rather laugh, get distracted, or watch someone else put their life back together. That’s probably why there isn’t one perfect breakup movie. The best choice depends on what you need that day. Whether it’s a story about moving on, finding confidence again, or simply remembering that life keeps going, certain films have a way of making the process feel a little less lonely.

Here are 15 movies to watch when you’re getting over a breakup.

Legally Blonde (2001)

Elle Woods starts the movie trying to win back her ex, only to discover she’s far better off chasing her own goals. Few breakup movies feel this empowering.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

It’s messy, awkward, and painfully funny in all the ways breakups usually are. Watching Peter slowly rebuild his confidence is half the fun.

Someone Great (2019)

Rather than focusing on getting back together, the film celebrates friendship, new beginnings, and learning when it’s time to let go.

Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)

Sometimes the best way to recover is to completely change your surroundings. Diane Lane’s journey proves that unexpected chapters can begin after heartbreak.

The First Wives Club (1996)

Revenge isn’t really the point. Watching three women rediscover themselves and their confidence is what makes the movie so satisfying.

500 Days of Summer (2009)

Its nonlinear story captures how memories can distort a relationship long after it’s over, making it one of the most relatable breakup films ever made.

Eat Pray Love (2010)

Whether or not you relate to every step of Elizabeth Gilbert’s journey, the movie is ultimately about rebuilding a life on your own terms.

Into the Wild (2007)

Sometimes the best way to move forward is to completely change your surroundings. Christopher McCandless’ journey isn’t about a breakup, but about leaving an old life behind in search of something more meaningful. That sense of starting over is exactly why the film resonates with so many people at turning points in their lives.

Bridesmaids (2011)

Romance isn’t the focus here. Instead, it’s a reminder that friendships can be just as important when everything else feels like it’s falling apart.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Its dysfunctional family may not solve every problem, but the movie offers a comforting reminder that life rarely goes according to plan.

The Holiday (2006)

A change of scenery, unexpected friendships, and the possibility of starting over make this one an easy comfort watch.

High Fidelity (2000)

John Cusack’s character spends most of the movie looking back on past relationships, forcing himself to confront his own mistakes instead of blaming everyone else.

Wild (2014)

The breakup is only one part of Cheryl’s story, but watching her slowly rebuild herself through an impossible journey feels genuinely inspiring.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Andy’s relationship isn’t the movie’s main focus, but watching her choose her own future over someone else’s expectations makes the ending surprisingly satisfying.

Begin Again (2013)

Sometimes moving forward starts with finding a new creative outlet instead of another relationship. This gentle, optimistic story ends on exactly the right note.

15 Movies We Can’t Watch Because They’re Too Good

Some movies are easy to revisit no matter how many times you’ve seen them. Others demand so much emotionally that even thinking about pressing play again feels like a challenge. It’s not because they aren’t great. In many cases, they’re among the best films ever made. They simply hit so hard that one viewing is enough for a while. Whether it’s heartbreak, grief, fear, or pure emotional exhaustion, these are the movies people often describe as masterpieces they struggle to watch again.

Here are 15 movies we can’t watch because they’re too good.

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Few movies capture addiction with such relentless honesty. Its unforgettable final act leaves many viewers emotionally drained, making it a masterpiece that plenty of people never feel the need to revisit.

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

Casey Affleck delivers one of the most heartbreaking performances of his career in a film that explores grief with remarkable restraint. It’s extraordinary, but far from an easy rewatch.

The Green Mile (1999)

Its warmth, unforgettable performances, and deeply emotional ending have made it a modern classic. They’re also the reason so many viewers hesitate before watching it again.

Schindler’s List (1993)

Steven Spielberg’s Holocaust drama is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. Its emotional weight is so overwhelming that many people feel one viewing is enough.

The Whale (2022)

Brendan Fraser’s Oscar-winning performance is impossible to ignore. Watching Charlie’s struggle unfold is deeply moving, but it’s also an emotionally exhausting experience.

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Often called one of the greatest animated films ever made, it tells a heartbreaking wartime story that lingers long after the credits roll. Beautiful, unforgettable, and incredibly difficult to revisit.

12 Years a Slave (2013)

The film never looks away from the brutality of slavery, and that’s exactly what makes it so powerful. Its honesty is also what makes repeat viewings emotionally challenging.

The Father (2020)

Anthony Hopkins places viewers inside the confusion of dementia in a way few films ever have. The result is brilliant, heartbreaking, and surprisingly difficult to experience twice.

Room (2015)

Despite its hopeful ending, the emotional journey is intense from beginning to end. Brie Larson’s performance makes every moment feel painfully real.

Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Björk’s unforgettable performance carries a story that becomes more heartbreaking with every scene. By the time it reaches its conclusion, many viewers are left emotionally exhausted.

Aftersun (2022)

Its biggest emotional moments arrive quietly rather than dramatically. Long after the movie ends, many viewers find themselves thinking about it in ways they never expected.

Marriage Story (2019)

Watching two people who still care about each other slowly fall apart feels painfully authentic. It’s an incredible film, but one that hits especially hard for anyone who’s experienced a difficult breakup.

Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (2009)

Almost everyone knows where the story is headed, yet that somehow makes it even more emotional. It’s the kind of movie people recommend with a warning to keep tissues nearby.

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

What begins as an inspiring underdog story gradually becomes something far more heartbreaking. The emotional shift catches many first-time viewers off guard and makes returning to it surprisingly difficult.

The Iron Claw (2023)

Based on the heartbreaking true story of the Von Erich family, The Iron Claw delivers one emotional blow after another without ever feeling manipulative. Its outstanding performances make the tragedy feel deeply personal.