The Pirate King Tells a Very Personal Story Through an Unlikely Community

The Pirate King is very close to its director’s heart. Josh Plasse’s uncle, Captain Todd Willis, was the inspiration for the new movie, which follows Marine veteran Todd Gillis (Rob Riggle) struggling with PTSD and addiction after serving in Afghanistan. Hitting rock bottom, Gillis suddenly finds an unlikely community in a group of pirate reenactors.

It’s Plasse’s first feature film, but he says tackling such personal material elevated his work ethic, despite its tricky balance of comedy and drama. “It has a difficult tone to capture,” he tells Den of Geek at SXSW. “Because you need to have the levity of the pirate reenactment, but also the grounded truth of what these veterans are going through. I had to spend a lot of time really preparing how we would do that, what that throughline would be, and how we would capture it. I knew I couldn’t let this story down because it was so true to my uncle, true to myself, and true to my hometown that I would be embarrassed. It just made me work harder.”

Part of his preparation involved Mission 22, a non-profit that teaches veterans and their families how to recover, reconnect, and rebuild following their service. Through Mission 22, he did a “ruck run” for Stop Soldier Suicide, where he ran 22 miles wearing a 22-pound rucksack. “At the time, 22 veterans were dying by suicide every day in this country, which is a staggering statistic. 121 people die by suicide every day in the United States. So that’s almost a sixth of them who are veterans, and that’s an overwhelmingly unacceptable number.”

But after talking to veterans and their families, Plasse discovered that many of them didn’t want to discuss their post-service struggles. “[They] don’t really want to talk about it, because there’s a stigma there. They think that the more you talk about this issue, the more it’s propagated, whereas the others say, ‘Hey, it’s okay to be vulnerable. It’s okay to have real conversations and talk about things that are hard, because we have to end this issue.’ So it was something I felt was a heavy, hard task, because I didn’t want to alienate some people, but I knew it needed to be spoken about.”

Plasse interviewed over 100 veterans to determine the best way to explore these themes, and The Pirate King, with its story of a veteran finding an unlikely new community, emerged as the path forward. Riggle’s casting as the central character of Gillis also reflects Plasse’s determination to honor the story. The Modern Family actor and comedian first joined the Marines in 1990 and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel before retiring in 2013. He says this background made his portrayal of Gillis all the more important.

“I wanted to do the material justice, and also my fellow veterans,” Riggle says. “Everybody brought such unique, specific storytelling to it that it made every day an awesome experience to watch, learn, and grow. The veteran part of it is very personal.”

Although the pirate performance community is huge in the U.S., Riggle says the story is open to anyone who is going through a difficult time.

“When people are hurting, they tend to isolate,” Riggle explains. “They don’t want to share that hurt. They don’t want to share, be vulnerable, or talk about it. They just isolate. And as they isolate, it gets worse and worse and worse, and that’s where people run into trouble, whether it’s suicidal thoughts, whether it’s drugs and alcohol, whatever it is, it’s not good to isolate. Whether you’re a veteran or not, if you’re hurting in any way, shape or form, don’t isolate. There’s always somebody you can reach out to. Always.”

The Pirate King premiered March 16 at the 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival.

15 Photos Telling the Story of the Career of Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren has built one of the most versatile and enduring careers in film, moving effortlessly between prestige dramas, historical epics, action franchises, and comedies. From her early work in British cinema to major Hollywood productions, she’s consistently brought authority and nuance to every role.

What makes her filmography stand out is both its longevity as well as its range, with performances that span decades without losing relevance. Looking at her career through individual stills shows how she evolved as an actress while remaining unmistakably herself, adapting to changing eras without ever fading from the spotlight.

Age of Consent (1969)

One of Mirren’s earliest film roles, Age of Consent introduced her to international audiences. Playing a young muse opposite James Mason, she delivered a natural, confident performance that hinted at the commanding screen presence she would later refine.

O Lucky Man! (1973)

In this satirical film by Lindsay Anderson, Mirren appears in a smaller but memorable role. The film’s unconventional structure and tone gave her early exposure to more experimental storytelling styles.

The Long Good Friday (1980)

In this British crime classic, Helen Mirren plays Victoria, the composed and intelligent partner to Bob Hoskins’ volatile gangster. Though understated, her performance is crucial, projecting quiet authority and control that balances the film’s escalating tension.

Excalibur (1981)

Mirren’s portrayal of Morgana le Fay stands out as one of her early defining roles. She brought intensity and mystique to the Arthurian sorceress, helping establish her ability to command darker, more complex characters.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)

In Peter Greenaway’s visually bold drama, Mirren plays the abused wife at the center of a disturbing narrative. Her restrained yet powerful performance anchors the film’s extreme tone and imagery.

The Madness of King George (1994)

Mirren plays Queen Charlotte opposite Nigel Hawthorne, delivering a measured performance that balances dignity with emotional weight. The role highlighted her strength in period dramas and ensemble casts.

Gosford Park (2001)

Robert Altman’s ensemble mystery features Mirren as a sharp, observant housekeeper. Even among a large cast, her performance stands out for its subtle authority and understated control.

Calendar Girls (2003)

This British comedy-drama gave Mirren a lighter, more playful role. As part of a group of women creating a charity calendar, she balanced humor and sincerity, contributing to the film’s broad appeal.

The Queen (2006)

Perhaps her most iconic role, Mirren’s portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II earned her an Academy Award. Her performance captured both the public and private sides of the monarch during a moment of national crisis.

State of Play (2009)

In this political thriller, Mirren plays a tough newspaper editor. Her commanding presence adds urgency and credibility, showing her ability to dominate modern, dialogue-driven roles.

Red (2010)

Mirren surprised audiences with a turn as a lethal retired assassin. Blending elegance with action, she proved she could thrive in genre films while maintaining her distinctive screen presence.

Hitchcock (2012)

Portraying Alma Reville, Mirren brings warmth and intelligence to the role of Alfred Hitchcock’s wife. Her performance highlights the character’s influence behind the scenes of a legendary filmmaker’s work.

The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)

Mirren plays a proud French restaurant owner in this culinary drama. Her performance balances sharpness and eventual warmth, anchoring the film’s themes of culture and rivalry.

The Fate of the Furious (2017)

Joining the Fast & Furious franchise, Mirren embraces a brief but memorable role. Her inclusion added an unexpected touch of prestige to the long-running action series.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

In a late-career genre role, Mirren plays the villain Hespera. Even within a superhero setting, she brings gravitas and authority, showing her continued adaptability in modern blockbuster cinema.

The Top 10 Franchises With the Worst Fandoms

Calling any fandom the “worst” is always a risky move, mostly because every community has average fans who just enjoy the thing and go home. That said, the internet has a way of amplifying the loudest voices, and some fandoms have built a reputation over the years for being a little more… intense than others.

With their endless arguments, review-bombing campaigns, and taking fictional debates a bit too personally, these groups tend to show up in the same conversations again and again. This article leans into that reputation, ranking them from mildly chaotic to full-on exhausting.

Five Nights at Freddy’s

The Five Nights at Freddy’s fandom mostly lives in a constant state of theory-building, which sounds harmless until you see how seriously some people take it. Lore debates can spiral into full-blown arguments over what is, at its core, a series about haunted animatronics. Add a younger fanbase into the mix, and you get a community that can be loud, obsessive, and occasionally hostile when someone “misinterprets” the timeline. Still, compared to others covered here, it’s more chaotic than outright toxic, with most of the drama staying contained within fan circles.

Steven Universe

A show built around empathy somehow ended up with a fandom known for the opposite at times. Online discussions around Steven Universe have included harassment toward artists and fans, especially over character portrayals or ‘ships.’ The irony hasn’t gone unnoticed, and it’s often brought up in broader fandom discourse. That said, much of the community is genuinely positive, which keeps it from ranking higher. When things go wrong, though, they tend to go very wrong, turning disagreements into personal attacks faster than expected.

Undertale

Undertale’s core message is about kindness, which makes its fandom reputation, not unlike Steven Universe’s, especially ironic. At its peak, players who didn’t follow the “right” path or accidentally spoiled parts of the game sometimes faced backlash. The community also became known for aggressively promoting the game across unrelated spaces. While things have calmed down over time, the reputation stuck. These days, it’s less intense, but the memory of how overwhelming the fandom could be still pops up in online discussions.

Doctor Who

Decades of history mean decades of opinions, and Doctor Who fans have plenty of them. Debates over regenerations, writing quality, and casting choices can get surprisingly heated, especially when the show shifts tone. Every new Doctor seems to restart the same arguments all over again. It’s not always hostile, but it is persistent, and the constant cycle of backlash and defense has become part of the fandom experience. At its best, it’s passionate. At its worst, it’s exhausting.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

The MCU fandom is massive, which means even a small percentage of negativity becomes very noticeable. Online, it’s often associated with tribal debates, review-bombing accusations, and defensive reactions to criticism. Discussions can quickly turn into arguments about box office numbers or “objective quality.” Most fans are just along for the ride, but the louder corners of the fandom have built a reputation for treating every movie like a battleground.

Rick and Morty

For a while, Rick and Morty fans were known for acting like the show required a high IQ to understand, which didn’t exactly help its reputation. The infamous Szechuan sauce incident only cemented that image. While things have mellowed out, the fandom is still often cited as an example of how not to behave in public over a TV show. The combination of smugness and chaos keeps it firmly in the middle of this list.

Genshin Impact

Genshin Impact’s global reach means its fandom is everywhere, and so is the drama. From coordinated review-bombing campaigns to constant debates over characters and rewards, the community has a reputation for reacting loudly and quickly. Social media doesn’t help, where minor issues can escalate into major controversies overnight. It’s not constant, but when it happens, it’s hard to ignore, giving the fandom a consistently chaotic presence online.

The Last of Us

The reaction to The Last of Us Part II pushed this fandom into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Backlash included review-bombing and harassment directed at developers and actors, which became widely reported. The debates themselves were intense, but it was the personal nature of some responses that stood out. It’s a clear example of how quickly strong emotional investment can turn into something far less constructive.

League of Legends

If there’s one fandom that consistently shows up in “most toxic” discussions, it’s League of Legends. The reputation comes less from social media drama and more from the game itself, where reports of verbal abuse, trolling, and rage-quitting have been common for years. Even developer efforts to curb behavior haven’t fully shaken that image. What makes it stand out is how normalized the negativity can feel, to the point where new players often hear warnings before even starting. It’s not that everyone is toxic, but the frequency and visibility of those interactions have made League the go-to example whenever this topic comes up.

Star Wars

Few fandoms are as iconic, or as divided, as Star Wars. Every trilogy, show, and casting choice seems to spark new waves of debate. Unfortunately, that has sometimes included harassment directed at actors and creators. The sheer size of the fanbase amplifies everything, turning disagreements into ongoing cultural conversations. At its best, it’s passionate and dedicated. At its worst, it’s the blueprint for nearly every “toxic fandom” discussion online.

15 ‘Surprising’ Casting Decisions That Proved Everybody Wrong

Casting decisions aren’t always controversial, and even the safest picks can lead to troubled productions. But audiences love to judge books by their covers, and in most of these performer’s careers, it’s their portfolio judging their acting ability.

But all of them proved their critics wrong, showing their acting chops and how much they deserved their paycheck. It goes to show that, even if an actor is known for a specific genre, the crew cast them in their role for a reason. Comedy actors can turn in great drama roles, no matter who says otherwise.

Robert Pattinson, The Batman

When Pattinson was cast as Batman, many associated him with Twilight and doubted his fit. His darker, more introspective take on the character ended up being widely praised, silencing much of the early skepticism.

Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems

Sandler’s reputation for broad comedies led to skepticism about his casting in a tense drama. His performance received significant critical praise, with many highlighting it as one of the strongest of his career.

Michael Keaton, Batman

Known primarily for comedies, Keaton’s casting caused massive backlash, including thousands of complaint letters. His performance ultimately became one of the most beloved portrayals of Batman.

Daniel Craig, Casino Royale

Craig faced criticism for not fitting the traditional Bond image. His grounded and physical take revitalized the franchise, proving early concerns unfounded.

Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man

At the time, Downey’s troubled past made him a risky choice. His performance became the foundation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, turning skepticism into one of Hollywood’s biggest success stories.

Chris Evans, Captain America: The First Avenger

Previously known for lighter or comedic roles, Evans wasn’t an obvious fit for Captain America. His earnest and grounded portrayal became central to the MCU’s success.

Mark Ruffalo, The Avengers

Replacing Edward Norton as Hulk sparked doubts among fans. Ruffalo’s version quickly became the definitive portrayal, balancing vulnerability and strength effectively.

Keira Knightley, Pride & Prejudice

Critics initially questioned her suitability for Elizabeth Bennet, citing her image and casting expectations. Her performance earned an Academy Award nomination, proving the skepticism misplaced.

Jim Carrey, The Truman Show

Known primarily for broad comedy, Carrey’s shift to a restrained dramatic role raised doubts. His performance was widely praised, proving he could handle more grounded material and expanding his career significantly.

Chris Hemsworth, Thor

At the time of casting, Hemsworth was relatively unknown, leading to doubts about his ability to lead a major franchise. His charisma and presence made him one of the MCU’s standout stars.

Tom Cruise, Interview with the Vampire

Author Anne Rice publicly criticized Cruise’s casting as Lestat. After seeing the performance, she reversed her opinion, praising his portrayal and acknowledging it captured the character effectively.

Hugh Jackman, X-Men

Initially cast after another actor dropped out, Jackman was relatively unknown. His portrayal of Wolverine became definitive, despite early doubts about his suitability.

Steve Carell, Foxcatcher

Best known for comedy, Carell’s casting as John du Pont surprised many. His unsettling, subdued performance earned critical acclaim and demonstrated a dramatic range that audiences hadn’t previously seen.

Ben Affleck, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Affleck’s casting drew significant backlash due to his previous roles. His older, more worn-down Batman received a more positive reception than expected.

Robin Williams, One Hour Photo

Williams was strongly associated with comedic roles, making his casting as a disturbing, lonely photo technician unexpected. His performance was widely praised for its restraint and intensity.

15 Times a Movie Made a Mistake But Nobody Cared

Making movies is hard business, and making good movies even more so. That’s why, when movies have mistakes, we are willing to overlook them in favor of a good story, no matter how fun they are to point out. Besides, these are errors that are incredibly difficult to catch on a first-time watch, unless you’re looking for them.

Of course, we point them out not because these movies need to be scolded, but rather the opposite: we celebrate movies, mistakes and all, since that’s what shows that they were made by real people. It was their passion that brought these stories to theatres, and we appreciate them for it.

Jurassic Park

During the T. rex attack, the paddock fence is shown as broken in one shot but intact in another shortly after. The inconsistency is noticeable on rewatch, but the scene’s tension and effects easily overshadow the continuity slip.

Aliens

When Ripley fires the flamethrower in the finale, the weapon’s fuel tank appears and disappears between cuts. The fast-paced editing masks the mistake, and most viewers remain focused on the confrontation with the Queen.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

During the mine cart chase, Indy’s shirt goes from soaked to dry between shots. The continuity error is easy to catch on repeat viewings, but the sequence’s speed and chaos make it largely irrelevant.

The Maltese Falcon

A boom microphone shadow briefly appears on a wall during an interior scene. It’s a classic early filmmaking slip that modern viewers might catch, though it doesn’t impact the film’s atmosphere.

Clueless

During a driving scene, the rear-view mirror disappears and reappears between shots. The continuity error is minor but noticeable, though it’s overshadowed by the film’s dialogue and pacing.

Blade Runner

When Deckard pours a drink, the liquid level in his glass changes between shots. The small continuity error is easy to miss, especially given the film’s strong visual atmosphere.

The Terminator

During the truck explosion, the windshield damage appears differently in consecutive shots. The inconsistency is noticeable on rewatch, but the action sequence’s pace makes it easy to ignore.

Braveheart

In a battle scene, a modern car can briefly be seen in the background. The anachronism is obvious once spotted, but the scale of the battle keeps viewers engaged.

The Matrix

In the doorknob reflection scene, the camera and crew are briefly visible. The reflective surface gives away the production setup, though it doesn’t detract from the film’s impact.

Pulp Fiction

Bullet holes are already visible in the wall before the gun is fired during the apartment scene. The continuity mistake is widely known but rarely affects how viewers experience the moment.

Spider-Man

In the famous upside-down kiss scene, Mary Jane’s wet hair changes position between shots. The continuity slip is subtle, and the moment’s impact keeps audiences from focusing on the mistake.

Titanic

As Rose prepares to jump, the sky behind her shows stars that don’t match the real 1912 night sky. The inaccuracy was later acknowledged and corrected in subsequent versions of the film.

Star Wars

In the Death Star escape sequence, a stormtrooper hits his head on a low doorway. The mistake was left in the film and has since become one of its most famous and beloved goofs.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

When Hermione punches Draco, his head position changes between shots, making the hit look inconsistent. The continuity slip is subtle but noticeable.

Back to the Future Part II

During the hoverboard chase, Marty’s hoverboard changes size between shots. The inconsistency is minor but visible once you know to look for it.

15 of the Most Satisfying ‘Seinfeld’ Plotlines of All Time

There’s something about Seinfeld that just sticks with you, especially the way its stories unfold. The show could take the smallest, most ridiculous idea and somehow stretch it into a perfectly timed payoff. As a fan, you start to recognize how everything connects, how one tiny decision snowballs into total chaos by the end.

It’s not just about the jokes, it’s about watching these characters dig themselves deeper and deeper into problems they usually created themselves. Some plotlines stand out more than others, either for how clever they are or just how perfectly everything falls apart in the end. Here are our most satisfying picks.

The Raincoats (Morty and Kramer’s Raincoat Scheme)

In The Raincoats, Kramer partners with Jerry’s father to sell vintage raincoats while multiple storylines collide, including George’s lies and Jerry’s awkward date. The episode’s layered plots converge in classic Seinfeld fashion, making the payoff especially satisfying.

George’s Yankees Job Arc

George’s time working for the New York Yankees turns incompetence into an ongoing storyline. His ability to fail upward, avoid responsibility, and somehow keep his job creates a long-running arc that consistently pays off with escalating absurdity.

Kramer’s Coffee Table Book (The Library)

Kramer’s idea for a coffee table book about coffee tables becomes reality, complete with built-in legs. The concept is so ridiculous yet fully realized that its payoff feels earned, especially as it ties into Kramer’s unpredictable entrepreneurial streak.

George and Susan’s Engagement Arc

George’s engagement to Susan evolves into one of the show’s darkest running jokes. His constant attempts to sabotage the relationship, culminating in a shocking resolution, create a long arc that delivers one of Seinfeld’s most memorable payoffs.

The Boyfriend (JFK Parody)

In “The Boyfriend,” Kramer and Newman recreate the John F. Kennedy assassination “magic bullet” theory. The absurd parody builds to a perfectly executed visual gag that stands out as one of the show’s most satisfying comedic payoffs.

Kramer’s Gambling Trouble

Kramer’s impulsive gambling habits appear in multiple episodes, often leading to chaotic consequences. His ability to stumble into risky situations and come out relatively unscathed adds to the humor, especially when his confidence never wavers.

Art Vandelay (Running Gag)

George’s invented alter ego, Art Vandelay, starts as a simple lie but becomes a recurring joke across the series. The payoff comes from how often the name resurfaces, turning a throwaway excuse into a fully realized comedic thread.

The Gum (George’s “Insanity” Spiral)

In The Gum, George’s attempts to appear sane only make him look increasingly unhinged. The escalating misunderstandings build perfectly, making the final payoff especially satisfying as everything spirals out of control.

The Sniffing Accountant

In The Sniffing Accountant, suspicion over whether an accountant is using drugs leads to increasingly absurd behavior from the main characters. The tension builds around something trivial, making the resolution land even better.

The Fusilli Jerry

Kramer creates a pasta sculpture of Jerry, leading to one of the show’s most bizarre yet memorable payoffs. The storyline escalates through misunderstandings and physical comedy, culminating in a payoff that’s both ridiculous and perfectly timed.

The Strike (Festivus and The Human Fund)

In The Strike, George invents a fake charity while Festivus is introduced, complete with traditions like airing grievances and feats of strength. Multiple plots collide, making it one of the show’s most satisfying and iconic episodes.

The Pez Dispenser

In The Pez Dispenser, a simple prank disrupts a piano recital and spirals into a larger conflict. The way a tiny action causes major consequences makes the payoff especially effective.

The Bizarro Jerry

In The Bizarro Jerry, Elaine encounters a group that mirrors Jerry and his friends but behaves in the opposite way. The concept builds toward a satisfying payoff as the contrast becomes increasingly exaggerated.

The Junk Mail (Kramer vs. The Postal System)

In The Junk Mail, Kramer declares war on junk mail and tries to remove himself from mailing lists entirely. The storyline escalates into a full-blown protest, making its payoff both absurd and fitting.

George and The Susan Ross Foundation (The Foundation)

After Susan’s death, George is forced to work for her foundation, trapping him in a situation he desperately wants to escape. The irony of benefiting from tragedy while being unable to enjoy it makes the storyline especially satisfying.

The Russo Brothers Just Revealed a Major Change to Spider-Man’s Backstory

The Spider-Man of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has always been a bit different from his counterparts across the Spider-Verse. The Peter Parker played by Tom Holland had a younger, hipper Aunt May, a rich benefactor in Tony Stark, and, most notably, no clear relationship to a late, lamented Uncle Ben. Fans have always assumed that some movie would eventually fill in the backstory, but there’s been lots of spectacular speculation in the meantime.

Well, speculate no more, true believers, because we now know what happened to Uncle Ben. No, you didn’t miss an early screening or even a new trailer for the upcoming film Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Instead, Ben Parker’s fate was revealed by Joe Russo, at a special 10th anniversary screening of the movie that brought Spider-Man into the MCU, Captain America: Civil War.

When asked directly if Peter Parker’s failure to act is responsible for Uncle Ben’s death, Joe Russo (via CBR) had a clear and simple answer: “No.”

Even though neither Russo explains exactly how Ben died, the fact that it isn’t Peter’s fault is a major change. In every version of Spider-Man’s origin since his first appearance in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15, Uncle Ben has died the same way: killed by a burglar, the same burglar who Peter refused to stop because it wasn’t his problem. From that first appearance onward, Uncle Ben’s death taught Peter a valuable lesson, summed up in the phrase, “With great power, with great responsibility.”

For Joe Russo, however, the lesson never played quite right. “Spider-Man was one of my favorite characters growing up,” he told CBR. “What I related to was this idea of a kid with incredible responsibility. I think you could manifest that responsibility through accidental death, and feeling the pressure, and the sense of loss in your life in a way that would keep the spirit that we wanted.

“If Peter blamed himself for his Uncle Ben’s death, I think he becomes a very different character,” he continued. “That would have been a different interpretation of the character, a more intense interpretation of the character.”

It’s hard to disagree with that last observation. For better or worse, the MCU Peter Parker has been a different person than either iteration played by Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield, as highlighted by Spider-Man: No Way Home. Those Peters were defined by tragedy, and did their superheroics with a black cloud over them, sometimes to the detriment of the story.

Clearly, the MCU wanted a brighter, quippier version of Spider-Man. Reverted back to teenage and played by the affable Holland, this Peter spent most of Homecoming worried about the big dance than he did his culpability in the death of a father figure. Yet, over the past several movies, Peter has grown more conflicted, losing both of his Uncle Ben surrogates with the deaths of Tony and Aunt May.

With Brand New Day promising a different chapter in Peter’s life, will we finally see the full story behind Ben’s death? Or does the fact that Russo decided to share this fact off-screen, in a Q&A, suggest that Ben plays no important role in his nephew’s life? More importantly, as long as Peter believes that his great power leads to great responsibility, does it matter that much if he learned the lesson from his aunt or his uncle?

Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, 2026.

Why Mortal Kombat II Is Deliberately Bringing ‘90s Game Graphics to Life

Director Simon McQuoid is sitting in a blue void when we catch up with him during a weekend in LA. He prefers it that way. Which makes sense when one realizes the cerulean-tinged vortex around us more or less recreates the Blue Portal battle arena, one of the surprise secrets in the OG Mortal Kombat II video game from way back when it was ported to the Sega Genesis in 1994.

“One of the things we wanted to do with our tournaments and arena is to take the arenas from the very early games, like ‘the Pit,’ where Sonja and Sindel fight, or the Blue Portal, and bring them up onto a massive cinematic scale,” McQuoid says.

The Pit of which the filmmaker speaks, and for that matter his Sonja (Jessica McNamee) and Sindel (Ana Thu Nguyen), are intentionally designed to echo the old ways of Mortal Kombat games, specifically when they were associated with ominous arcade cabinets and video game cartridges that were verboten in many a concerned parent’s household (including my own). The taboo nature made the menacing six-foot spikes of the Pit arena more tantalizing to many a millennial and Gen-Xer’s mind—including, it would seem, McQuoid and the makers of Mortal Kombat II the movie.

“Taking something that’s an eight-bit, 16-bit concrete bunker from the Pit and scaling it up to be real, with sort of rusty spikes,” McQuoid continues, “once you get back the priority of the characters and their stories, you can put them into these spaces that are visually really exciting. I think it means a lot to the fans.”

Making it more like the O.G. games has been a mission statement in particular for Mortal Kombat II, a film which McQuoid previously told Den of Geek magazine he’s aimed to make “feel like a full feature [version] of the first film’s opening scene.”

This mission statement leads to things like our blue portal rendezvous. Says McQuoid, “If you look at the original version of the Blue Portal—it was this swirl—and I thought, ‘How do we make this the most beautiful?’ I wanted it to have this grace and scale, and beauty to it.”

That beauty also makes a nice contrast when someone might land atop a buzzsaw with a penchant for disembowelment. Such are the risks of grace and beauty in Mortal Kombat…

Mortal Kombat II opens in theaters on Friday, May 8.

Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 Promises to Adapt One of the Best Stories from the Comics

This article contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again season 2 episode 8.

In the final episode of Daredevil: Born Again season 2, Matt Murdock recovers his faith. Where the first season saw Matt struggling to remember his calling as the vigilante Daredevil, the second season tested his belief in the legal system, as Wilson Fisk used his position as mayor to institute martial law. Yet, in the last episode, Matt resumes his work as a lawyer to help remove Fisk from power—at a cost. His own activities as a vigilante are revealed, and Matt goes to prison with everyone knowing that he’s Daredevil.

That’s terrible news for Matt Murdock, and great news for viewers. Because as we wait for season 3 of Born Again to come to Disney+ next year, we can catch up on the comic book storyline that inspired Matt’s prison arc, The Devil in Cell-Block D, by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark.

Published across Daredevil #82-94 and in Daredevil annual #1 (2006), The Devil in Cell-Block D addresses the central questions around the Man Without Fear: How can a blind man be the dashing superhero Daredevil, and how can a lawyer be a vigilante? Matt’s sentence revolves around those questions, as does his defense. The fact that the prosecution cannot prove that he’s not blind raises enough reasonable doubt to stall the trial, but also to keep him separated from the rest of the prisoners. At least at first, other forces want to use this turn of events to make Matt’s life worse, especially his fellow prisoner Wilson Fisk, who was double-crossed by the FBI after giving them evidence to convict Murdock.

The storyline delivers some of the best moments in Daredevil’s storied history. Taking over from Brian Michael Bendis, who ended his run with Daredevil #81, Brubaker sheers off the wittiness of his predecessor’s dialogue and chooses instead cold, pulpy hardboiled narration. He’s matched by Lark’s moody visuals, which veer toward realism and away from exaggerated cartoons, but still find plenty of space for great action sequences.

Those qualities are on display in an early scene, in which the Spider-Man villain Hammerhead buys off a guard to get Matt alone with a bunch of other thugs. In contrast to his heavy use of shadow, Lark keeps the fight scenes clean, showing not just the onslaught of hoods, but more importantly the way that Matt can handle them all, even when not in his Daredevil guise. By fighting back, Matt shows the bad guys that he won’t hold back on them, even if he’s trying to convince the guards and the general public that he’s just a blind lawyer who’s been ludicrously accused of vigilantism.

As we’ve seen throughout the two seasons of Born Again, the tension between Matt’s civilian and superhero lives makes for interesting drama. As with Born Again, Cell-Block D pushes him further by killing off his best friend, Foggy. Even though the death will eventually be revealed to be a fake out designed to put him in witness protection, Foggy seems to be killed by an inmate after coming to consult with Matt.

Foggy’s death is just the first of the misfortunes that befall Matt. Soon, others come to flock to him in prison as other inmates, including Bullseye, Fisk, and the Punisher. All of whom arrive to either finish off Matt or, in the case of Frank Castle, prove that he’s become dark and hopeless. And Matt’s afraid that he may be right.

As this brief overview indicates, The Devil in Cell-Block D allows Born Again to return to some of its favorite themes, including the internal moral battle within Matt Murdock and the way his enemies use the law to do their dirty work. However, Born Again will not be able to adapt everything from the storyline simply because the show lacks one of the comic’s main characters. A B-plot inCell-Block D follows Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich, who works to find the truth about Murdock and, in the process, get him out of harm’s way. Urich died at Fisk’s hand in season one of the Netflix Daredevil series, and while Born Again has replaced him with his niece BB, it’s hard to see her stepping into the role of a grizzled journalist fighting against the system.

Still, part of the fun of an adaption comes from the way the story changes to fit in a new medium. With that in mind, season three of Born Again likely won’t be a one-to-one lift from the comics. Which is just one more reason for fans to revisit The Devil in Cell-Block D while we wait for Daredevil: Born Again to make its way back to our television sets.

Daredevil: Born Again seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Disney+.

The Boys: What Really Went Down with Clara Vought?

Homelander has always been the biggest villain in The Boys, but season 2 also introduced a woman named Clara Vought (Aya Cash) who rivalled even the Seven’s antagonistic leader. A terrifying white supremacist who seemed to have already gotten away with murder for decades, Clara Vought was eventually revealed to have been there from the very beginning of Vought’s nefarious dealings.

But although the show has dished out some of her insidious history, there is still much we don’t know about the Supe who was once Liberty, then became Stormfront, but who began life as Klara Risinger. However, thanks to an upcoming prequel show that will put Clara front and center again alongside Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) she’ll be back on our screens in no time.

Let’s look at what we know (and don’t know) about the life of Clara Vought.

Clara Vought’s History

Born in Berlin in 1919, Klara Risinger was documented to be socializing with the National Socialist German Workers Party during the 1930s. During that time, she met and married Frederick Vought, the inventor of Compound V and an established member of the Nazi Party, where he was considered a respected geneticist. At one point, he was appointed chief physician of the Dachau concentration camp by Hitler himself, where he would have access to a range of human test subjects.

Klara became the original Vought superhero after taking a successful first dose of Compound V. She gained powers such as electrokinesis and superhuman strength. But she would not remain in Germany for too long. In 1944, she and her husband were brought to America during an Operation Paperclip WWII effort to bring German scientists into U.S. employ.

Klara’s husband would go on to become the founder of the company Vought-American, which later became Vought International, and Klara changed her name to Adele Vought (after her overbearing mother) possibly to avoid anti-German sentiment.

Liberty and Stormfront

During the 1950s, Clara (her name gets Anglicized) started operating as a Supe under the moniker Liberty, and met Soldier Boy, who had successfully adapted to a dose of V1, along with Private Angel, Bombsight, and Torpedo. She and Soldier Boy founded the annual superhero orgy Herogasm together, and apparently began a decades-long romance.

Clara was operating as Liberty up until the late 1970s, when she was linked to racially motivated murders. But between 1979 and 2020, her whereabouts and activities were unknown. She did not seem to be around when Vought sold Soldier Boy out to the Russians in 1984. Around 2020, Clara reemerged from the shadows, adopted the moniker Stormfront, and pretended to be a social media-savvy Supe from Portland, answering to Vought International CEO Stan Edgar as a new member of the Seven.

During the second season of The Boys, we saw her romance Homelander and try to spur him on to insidious greatness. She revealed her white supremacist agenda and that she and her husband once had a daughter called Chloe, who apparently never took Compound V because she aged and died like everyone else, while Clara barely aged a day.

The Boys, along with Queen Maeve, tried to kill Stormfront when they discovered what she’d been up to. Yet, it was Ryan who took her out of the picture as he tried to prevent harm to his mother, Becca. Using his heat vision, he severely burned her and turned three of her four limbs into stumps. Clara tried to maintain her relationship with Homelander following this brutal encounter with Ryan, but she eventually lost faith in him. She took her own life by biting off her tongue.

But after Soldier Boy entered the picture, he questioned Clara’s fate. He didn’t think she would ever kill herself and asked Homelander point-blank if he saw her body. It seemed like The Boys was teasing the possibility that Clara might still be alive somehow.

Vought Rising and the Missing Puzzle Pieces

There are still plenty of missing pieces in Clara’s history. Not much is known about her life during WWII, nor about what happened after she and Frederick moved to America. The building blocks of Vought-American are also mysterious. How involved was she in shaping the company that would become Vought International? And what was her relationship with Frederick really like as his public image turned him into an American icon?

We also know that Clara and Soldier Boy were heavily linked during that time, but their relationship hasn’t yet been explored on screen. That’s all set to change with The Boys‘ upcoming prequel series, Vought Rising, which takes place in the 1950s and has been described as “L.A. Confidential with superheroes” by The Boys creator Eric Kripke. It will explore Soldier Boy’s early Supe activity alongside Clara, but was Soldier Boy’s true relationship with Clara as important as he claims, or is he an unreliable narrator of their time together?

We also don’t know the extent of Clara’s influence over those early superhero exploits. She proved to be such a diabolical antagonist in The Boys, but we could get to witness some truly uncontrolled villainy from Clara Vought in Vought Rising during a time when depraved superhero shenanigans were still in their infancy.

Daredevil: Kingpin’s Best Grudge Matches from the Comics

It’s easy to underestimate Wilson Fisk. He is, after all, a large man, with a body shape often associated with laziness and poor health. Moreover, despite his “Kingpin of Crime” title, Fisk often relies on underlings to do his dirty work, letting Typhoid Mary, Sandman, and James Wesley enforce his will so he can keep his hands clean.

But as Daredevil: Born Again‘s second season proves, anyone who underestimates the Kingpin’s physical prowess does so at their own peril. The Kingpin can hand out a beating, and was happy to do so to Daredevil and others who crossed his path. That quality isn’t unique to Vincent D’Onofrio‘s interpretation of the character. It comes right from Marvel Comics, which features several instances of the Kingpin punishing people with his fists alone.

Vs. Spider-Man (The Amazing Spider-Man #51, 1967)

Wilson Fisk wastes no time proving his physical might, beating up some gangland figures during his first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #50, written by Stan Lee and penciled by John Romita. But it was his second appearance in the very next issue that truly cemented Fisk’s reputation as a powerhouse fighter. That’s when he watches Spidey web up some of his goons and declares, “Stay back! I’ll handle him myself.”

Of course, Spidey’s enhanced reflexes and spider-sense make him the faster man. But when an overconfident Peter lets himself get too close, Fisk delivers a wallop of a punch right into Spidey’s midsection. The dazed wall-crawler can’t get away, giving Fisk time to grab him by the leg and slam him into a wall. Even though his final victory comes with the help of knockout gas, Fisk proves that he can go toe-to-toe with any superperson.

Vs. Captain America (Captain America #147, 1972)

Like Spider-Man, Steve Rogers has super-strength, making him more than a match for any non-super-powered human. And yet, when he and the Falcon discovered that Wilson Fisk had taken control of Hydra in Captain America #147, written by Gary Friedrich and penciled by Sal Buscema, Cap found himself barely hanging on in a fight against the Kingpin.

Buscema is at the height of his powers illustrating the battle between the two titans, cramming the combatants into tight panels to emphasize the brutality of their brawl. Cap leaps out of the way of a rampaging Fisk, who obliterates the wall in front of him. Before Steve can even center himself, Fisk hurls him across the room and grabs a pole to finish the job. Despite a well-placed kick, Cap can’t get away from Kingpin, who begins to squeeze the life out of the Sentinel of Liberty… until Falcon distracts Fisk with his bird Red Wing, allowing Steve to get away.

Vs. Daredevil, Round One (Daredevil #171, 1981)

These days, most people know Kingpin as the arch-enemy of Daredevil. It’s a well-earned designation, as Fisk has done more to ruin Matt Murdock than any other superhero. Yet, the two didn’t cross paths until more than a decade after Kingpin’s debut, finally meeting in Frank Miller‘s Daredevil #171. For the first two-thirds of the issue, Matt’s undercover as “Shades” (apparently he’s a man without creativity), a thug looking to join Kingpin’s crew. But when Fisk threatens to catch Shades rummaging around secret files, Matt switches to his familiar diabolical duds and the fight is on.

At first, it looks like Daredevil will easily outclass his opponent. The first page and a half of the fight consists of nothing but Daredevil getting in his blows and then leaping away before Fisk can land a counter-attack. But when Wilson does finally deliver a punch, it’s all over for DD. Unlike most of the entries on this list, Fisk wins the bout, and only delegates the job of killing Daredevil because he must quickly pay a ransom and free his beloved wife Vanessa. Fisk’s underlings don’t do the job right and Matt gets away, leading to many, many more fights between Daredevil and the Kingpin.

Vs. the Red Skull (Captain America #378, 1990)

Midway through his legendary decade-long run on Captain America, writer Mark Gruenwald had super soldier Steve Rogers join the war on drugs. The “Streets of Poison” arc does contain some of the reactionary politics that you might expect, but it also includes some incredible moments, such as Cap getting doused with cocaine, pretending to be the Punisher, and pummeling Daredevil. But one of the most memorable moments comes when Wilson Fisk and the Red Skull fight it out. After stripping down to their underwear, of course.

Penciler Ron Lim has a blast staging the fight scene, making Red Skull every bit the sniveling weasel that he is while portraying Fisk as a human brick wall. As in most of his grudge matches, Fisk has trouble keeping pace with his adversary. And even though his punches threaten to level the Skull, he never lands them clean enough to knock the Nazi out. Out of ideas, Fisk plays the one card he has left, flopping on top of Red Skull and refusing to move until the fascist yields.

Vs. Black Panther (Black Panther #528, 2012)

For as much as they must inevitably return to the status quo, superhero comics do shake things up from time to time. Case in point: the period in which Wilson Fisk became the head of the ninja clan the Hand, while T’Challa left the mantle of the Black Panther to Shuri and became the protector of Hell’s Kitchen, which was left unattended after Daredevil became possessed by the Beast. So when Kingpin sends his ninjas to conquer Wakanda, Black Panther, along with pals Falcon and Luke Cage, travels to the Hand’s home base of Shadowland to deal with Fisk himself.

Black Panther #528, written by David Liss and illustrated by Michael Avon Oeming, sees the two finally face off, and much to T’Challa’s dismay. Fisk’s time with the Hand has allowed him to address his greatest deficiency, finally giving him speed as impressive as his strength. These abilities combined, Fisk makes short work of Black Panther, who only escapes the Kingpin’s clutches by sneaking a Kimoyo bead onto his enemy. The bead pumped Fisk with enough electricity to stop the onslaught and allow Black Panther to get away, this time.

Vs. Punisher (Punisher MAX #21, 2012)

If there’s anyone who Fisk hates more than Daredevil, it’s Frank Castle. Daredevil’s Catholic guilt and belief in the law lets Fisk keep up the pretense that he’s a civilized member of society. The utterly broken Castle has no such illusions, and will use every dirty tactic available to him to take down the Kingpin. Mainline Marvel comics can only hint at the cruel depths to which the combatants will sink, but the Mature Readers Max line allows creators to depict the battle in all its stomach-churning glory.

Such is the case with Jason Aaron‘s run on Punisher MAX, a 22-part alternate reality series. Working with penciler Steve Dillon, Aaron draws a comparison between Castle and Kingpin, portraying them both as sociopaths who view even their families as means to an end. The two wage comically nasty war against one another for nearly two years, finally coming together for a final showdown at Frank’s former suburban home. The bout is marked by lots of absurd violence, as when Frank uses a dead man’s head to hit Fisk in the crotch. But there’s a real sadness to the final moment, when the Punisher finishes the job, while a vengeful Vanessa, who hates her ex-husband for allowing their son to die, watches on.

15 Movies Everyone Pretends to Understand, But Probably Don’t

Not every movie is a complex statement on the nature of being human, or the flow of time, or mortality; some are simple blockbuster fun. But for those films that do try to capture the complex nuances of said topics, understanding them is certainly a complicated task. One not everyone succeeds at.

Tackling concepts like time travel, dream logic, and looping narratives, these films need to be watched several times before their themes come across. While audiences praise and appear to understand them, most only ever watched them once, making proper comprehension impossible. These are films you should watch again in case you missed key details.

Tenet

Directed by Christopher Nolan, Tenet revolves around time inversion and layered espionage. Its dense exposition and unconventional structure left many viewers struggling to follow the mechanics, even as they appreciated its ambition and large-scale execution.

Primer

This low-budget time travel film is known for its extremely technical dialogue and nonlinear storytelling. Its complex overlapping timelines require careful analysis, making it one of the most frequently cited examples of a film that demands multiple viewings to understand.

Inception

Inception explores layered dream worlds with shifting rules and realities. While its core concept is explained, the film’s ending and internal logic have fueled ongoing debates, leaving many viewers uncertain about how much they truly grasp.

Mulholland Drive

Directed by David Lynch, this film presents a fragmented narrative filled with symbolism and dreamlike sequences. Its ambiguous structure resists straightforward interpretation, encouraging viewers to piece together meaning from disconnected elements.

Donnie Darko

Blending psychological drama with science fiction, Donnie Darko introduces concepts like tangent universes and time loops. Its narrative leaves many details unexplained, leading to multiple interpretations and ongoing discussion.

2001: A Space Odyssey

This film is known for its minimal dialogue and abstract storytelling, especially in its final act. Its themes of evolution, technology, and existence are conveyed visually, often leaving audiences to interpret its meaning independently.

Eraserhead

Another work by David Lynch, Eraserhead presents surreal imagery and unsettling symbolism. Its lack of clear narrative structure makes it difficult to interpret in conventional terms.

The Tree of Life

Directed by Terrence Malick, this film blends a family story with cosmic imagery. Its nonlinear approach and philosophical themes can make it challenging to follow in a traditional sense.

Synecdoche, New York

Written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, the film explores identity and art through increasingly layered realities. Its structure becomes more abstract over time, making it difficult to fully interpret.

Stalker

Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, Stalker uses slow pacing and philosophical dialogue to explore desire and belief. Its ambiguous “Zone” leaves much open to interpretation.

Under the Skin

Starring Scarlett Johansson, this film uses minimal dialogue and abstract storytelling. Its lack of explanation and unconventional narrative structure make it difficult to interpret clearly.

Enemy

Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Enemy explores identity and duality. Its symbolism and ambiguous ending leave many viewers uncertain about its meaning.

The Fountain

This film interweaves multiple timelines and themes of mortality and rebirth. Its shifting narrative and symbolic imagery can be difficult to follow without deeper analysis.

Annihilation

Blending science fiction with psychological themes, Annihilation presents an environment that alters reality. Its abstract ending and symbolism invite interpretation but rarely offer clear answers.

Holy Motors

This film follows a character shifting between roles without clear explanation. Its episodic structure and lack of narrative cohesion make it one of the more puzzling modern films.

15 Actors Who Always Play the Same Character, But We Don’t Care

There are actors who hate being typecasted, since they want to test themselves and the range of their acting, portraying a different type of character in every film. Other actors prefer to master their own personality, always acting the same way but bringing perfection to their craft, and a whole lot of charisma.

These performers don’t ‘act bad,’ they just happen to have a particular way to act. As such, their name and background turns them into ticket sellers; you don’t need to know anything about a movie featuring them to know if you’ll like it. If you enjoy one of their films, you’ll love them all.

Jack Black

Jack Black often plays loud, enthusiastic, slightly chaotic characters with a big heart. Whether in comedies or voice roles, his high-energy delivery and comedic timing remain consistent, making his performances feel familiar in a way audiences continue to enjoy.

Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Reynolds frequently portrays sarcastic, fast-talking characters with self-aware humor. From action films to comedies, his signature wit and delivery style rarely change, yet remain a major part of his appeal.

Dwayne Johnson

Dwayne Johnson often plays confident, physically imposing characters with a sense of humor. His roles tend to emphasize strength, charisma, and leadership, creating a reliable screen presence across different genres.

Jason Statham

Jason Statham is known for playing tough, no-nonsense action characters. His calm demeanor, physicality, and straightforward delivery have become defining traits, making his performances feel consistent across films.

Kevin Hart

Kevin Hart typically plays high-strung, fast-talking characters who react dramatically to situations. His comedic style relies heavily on energy and delivery, which remains largely consistent from role to role.

Adam Sandler

Adam Sandler often portrays immature or unconventional characters who gradually reveal emotional depth. While his roles vary slightly, his comedic tone and persona remain familiar to audiences.

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman frequently plays wise, calm, and authoritative figures. His distinctive voice and composed presence make him a natural fit for mentor or narrator roles across a wide range of films.

Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson is known for intense, assertive characters with a commanding presence. His delivery style and strong personality often carry across roles, making his performances instantly recognizable.

Owen Wilson

Owen Wilson typically plays laid-back, slightly awkward characters with a relaxed charm. His conversational delivery and comedic timing create a consistent on-screen persona.

Seth Rogen

Seth Rogen often portrays easygoing, humorous characters with a distinctive laugh and delivery. His roles frequently reflect a similar personality, contributing to his recognizable comedic style.

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise frequently plays driven, highly capable characters who take control in high-stakes situations. His intense commitment and physical performance style remain consistent across many of his roles.

Michelle Rodriguez

Michelle Rodriguez is often cast as tough, no-nonsense characters with strong survival instincts. Her roles consistently emphasize resilience and intensity, creating a recognizable presence across action films.

Michael Cera

Michael Cera frequently plays socially awkward, soft-spoken characters. His understated delivery and nervous energy have become defining traits, making his performances feel consistent across projects.

Danny Trejo

Danny Trejo is widely known for playing hardened, intimidating characters. His distinctive look and presence make him a natural fit for similar roles, often leaning into that established persona.

Christopher Walken

Christopher Walken’s unique speech pattern and mannerisms define his performances. Even when playing different roles, his delivery style creates a consistent and instantly recognizable on-screen presence.

The 15 Weirdest Attempts at Sci-Fi the ’70s Had to Offer

Technology advances faster than we could ever wrap our heads around, particularly in recent times. But even back in the day, imaginations ran wild picturing what the future, cosmos, or possible realities could look like, bringing those pictures to life in film.

The 70s in particular were a time of experimentation, where the medium of movies and cinematography was being put to the test. We all know and love Star Wars, but many other projects tried to catch that lighting in a bottle. These are the other marvelous sci-fi projects of that era.

Zardoz

This bizarre dystopian sci-fi film stars Sean Connery in a red loincloth, serving a giant floating stone head. Its mix of philosophy, surreal imagery, and confusing world-building has made it one of the strangest genre entries of the decade.

The Man Who Fell to Earth

Starring David Bowie as an alien, the film leans heavily into abstract storytelling and disjointed imagery. Its fragmented narrative and detached tone make it feel more like an art experiment than traditional science fiction.

Phase IV

Focused on highly intelligent ants threatening humanity, this film takes a minimalistic and almost clinical approach. Its slow pacing and unconventional ending give it a strange, unsettling edge compared to typical creature features.

Fantastic Planet

This animated sci-fi film features surreal visuals and an allegorical story about giant blue aliens dominating humans. Its dreamlike animation and unsettling tone make it one of the most distinctive and unusual sci-fi films of the era.

Silent Running

A lone botanist tends to Earth’s last forests in space, assisted by small robots. The film blends environmental themes with quiet, introspective storytelling, creating a tone that feels unusually somber and contemplative for sci-fi.

Dark Star

Directed by John Carpenter, this low-budget sci-fi comedy features bored astronauts and a talking bomb. Its absurd humor and unconventional pacing make it feel unlike most space-themed films.

A Boy and His Dog

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the story follows a young man and his telepathic dog. Its dark humor and controversial themes make it a deeply unusual and often uncomfortable viewing experience.

Logan’s Run

While more mainstream, its concept of enforced death at age 30 and domed utopia gives it a strange edge. The mix of futuristic aesthetics and rigid societal rules creates a distinctive, sometimes surreal tone.

THX 1138

Directed by George Lucas, this dystopian film strips away emotion and individuality. Its stark visuals and minimal dialogue make it feel cold, abstract, and unusually experimental.

The Andromeda Strain

This film takes a procedural approach to a deadly alien microorganism. Its heavy focus on scientific detail and sterile environments gives it a detached, almost documentary-like feel uncommon in sci-fi thrillers.

Quintet

Set in a frozen future society obsessed with a deadly board game, this film blends science fiction with bleak existential themes. Its slow pace and unusual premise make it one of the more obscure and strange entries of the decade.

Solaris

Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, this film explores memory and identity through a mysterious planet. Its slow, philosophical approach sets it apart from more action-oriented sci-fi.

The Visitor

This film mixes sci-fi, horror, and religious themes in a confusing narrative involving a supernatural child. Its unpredictable tone and unusual plot twists have made it a cult curiosity.

Damnation Alley

Featuring a heavily armored vehicle crossing a devastated Earth, the film combines post-apocalyptic elements with strange environmental hazards. Its tone shifts and visual choices give it an oddly uneven feel.

The Lathe of Heaven

Though technically released in 1980, it reflects late ’70s sci-fi sensibilities. Based on Ursula K. Le Guin’s work, it explores reality-altering dreams, creating a concept-driven story that feels both cerebral and unsettling.

15 Unsettling Facts That Might Make You See a Movie Differently

Knowing less is, often, better for everyone involved, especially in the movie making business. This is not only to preserve the magic of filmmaking, or to maintain an appropriate level of immersion, but to distract ourselves to the harsh reality of making entertainment: a lot of people suffer to bring these images to our screens.

We’re not just talking about discomfort, but real world tragedies and terrible accidents that have become legends told on sets. Once you know these stories, you won’t be able to see their movies the same way, burdened with the knowledge of what truly happened behind closed doors.

The Omen

The production became associated with a series of strange incidents, including accidents involving crew members. These events fueled long-standing claims that the film was surrounded by bad luck.

Twilight Zone: The Movie

A tragic on-set accident involving a helicopter led to the deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two child actors. The incident had lasting impacts on film safety regulations.

The Passion of the Christ

Actor Jim Caviezel endured multiple injuries during filming, including being struck by lightning. The physical toll added to the film’s already intense and graphic depiction.

Nosferatu

The film was an unauthorized adaptation of Dracula, leading to a court order to destroy all copies. Its survival despite legal attempts to erase it adds an eerie historical dimension to its legacy.

Mad Max: Fury Road

The harsh desert conditions and demanding stunt work led to real tension between cast members, particularly Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. That friction subtly informs the film’s intense on-screen dynamics.

The Silence of the Lambs

Anthony Hopkins based aspects of Hannibal Lecter’s calm demeanor on real-life criminals. His controlled delivery makes the character more unsettling than a more overtly aggressive portrayal would have.

Saving Private Ryan

The opening D-Day sequence used practical effects and intense sound design to recreate combat. Many veterans reportedly found the scene difficult to watch due to its realism, underscoring its unsettling authenticity.

The Wizard of Oz

The original Tin Man actor, Buddy Ebsen, suffered a severe reaction to the aluminum makeup and was hospitalized. The role had to be recast, highlighting the risks behind the film’s production.

Jurassic Park

During the T. rex attack scene, the animatronic malfunctioned in the rain, behaving unpredictably. Cast members’ reactions were heightened by the genuine instability of the massive prop.

Freaks

The film used performers with real physical conditions, which was unusual for the time. Its portrayal blurred the line between exploitation and empathy, contributing to its unsettling reputation.

The Godfather

The cat held by Marlon Brando in the opening scene was reportedly a stray found on set. Its unpredictable behavior added to the scene’s tension, making it feel less controlled and more natural.

The Crow

Actor Brandon Lee was killed in an on-set accident involving a prop gun that malfunctioned. The film was completed using stand-ins and effects, giving the final product an unsettling real-world tragedy behind its release.

Rosemary’s Baby

Director Roman Polanski later experienced the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, shortly after the film’s release. The real-life tragedy has since cast a darker shadow over the movie’s themes.

The Abyss

Filming underwater scenes proved extremely stressful for the cast, particularly Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, who reportedly broke down during production. The demanding conditions contributed to the film’s intense atmosphere.

Se7en

The grim tone was reinforced by shooting in harsh, uncomfortable conditions. Director David Fincher insisted on maintaining a bleak atmosphere throughout production, which shaped the film’s oppressive and unsettling feel.

15 Funny Movie Mistakes You Won’t Unsee Once You Notice Them

Making movies is a taxing business, where hundreds of eyes are looking through filmed footage, making sure that everything went as expected. Even then, mistakes are bound to happen, since all of those people are just human. If you look at something for too long, believe it or not, you’ll end up seeing less and less details.

These mistakes don’t detract from the craft, and in some cases, they are impossible to catch without knowing. But once you do, they become something endearing to look at, like a peek behind the veil. They make us enjoy movies far more, reminding us of the human factor behind the lens.

Gladiator

During a battle scene, a chariot flips over and briefly reveals a visible gas canister underneath. The modern prop accidentally left in frame became one of the most widely shared movie mistakes.

Braveheart

In one of the battle scenes, a crew member wearing modern clothing and a baseball cap is visible among the fighters. The anachronism stands out once noticed.

Star Wars

A stormtrooper famously bumps his head on a doorway while entering a control room. The moment was left in the final cut and has since become an iconic and humorous mistake.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

During a Shire scene, a passing car can briefly be seen in the background. The modern intrusion contrasts sharply with the film’s fantasy setting.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

In one shot, a crew member wearing a cowboy hat and sunglasses is visible behind the actors. The modern attire makes the mistake especially noticeable.

Jurassic Park

During the T. rex attack, a crew member’s hand can briefly be seen holding the animatronic’s tail to stabilize it. The moment is quick but obvious once spotted.

Titanic

At one point, Jack refers to going ice fishing on Lake Wissota, which didn’t exist until years after the Titanic sank. The historical inaccuracy is easy to miss but widely noted.

Back to the Future

In a mall parking lot scene, Marty drives into a location called Twin Pines Mall. Later, after altering the past, it becomes Lone Pine Mall, though some shots inconsistently retain earlier signage.

The Matrix

In a reflective shot of a doorknob, the camera and crew can be briefly seen. The reflection effect makes the mistake visible despite the film’s otherwise polished visuals.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

During a dueling scene, a cameraman can be spotted briefly behind the child actors. The fast-paced action makes it easy to miss on a first viewing.

Teen Wolf

In the final basketball scene, an extra in the background appears to expose themselves accidentally. The moment became infamous and is still discussed as a strange on-screen oversight.

North by Northwest

In the famous cafeteria scene, a child in the background visibly covers his ears before the gunshot happens. The premature reaction makes the moment unintentionally funny once you spot it.

The Wizard of Oz

In several scenes, the Tin Man’s silver makeup visibly changes between shots, especially around his face and neck. The shifting tone and coverage make the continuity error noticeable once you start paying attention.

The Godfather

During the restaurant scene where Michael retrieves the hidden gun, the toilet he uses has a visible high-mounted tank with a pull chain, a design that was already outdated for that setting and time period. The anachronism stands out once noticed.

Pulp Fiction

In the apartment scene, bullet holes are already visible in the wall before any shots are fired. The continuity error becomes obvious once you know to look for it.

How Could Homelander Be Killed on The Boys?

This article contains spoilers for The Boys season 5 episode 6.

It feels like there are only two ways The Boys could end with its final season: either Homelander lives, or he dies.

In the sixth episode of season 5, everyone’s favorite superhero psychopath finally injected himself with a dose of V1, thanks to his biological father, Soldier Boy, and his old WWII-era teammate, Bombsight. This should now render him immune to the Supe virus that Frenchie has managed to recreate, as it has Soldier Boy.

Homelander was already pretty hard to kill, but now he’ll never really age and can go about his reign of terror forever. Or can he? Homelander might seem immortal at this stage, but there’s still at least one way to get rid of him.

We Know What Works

Butcher and the gang have burned through a lengthy list of plans to take out Vought and Homelander. The trouble is, he’s pretty clever and avoids traps easily. Butcher’s first attempt to kill him by strapping explosives to his chest in season 1 was laughable. Homelander easily thwarted the plan, even rescuing Butcher and taking him to see Becca and Ryan, rubbing his face in how little he knew about what had happened behind the scenes.

But when Soldier Boy came into the mix during season 3, there was suddenly a real option on the table. People have been trying to kill Soldier Boy for a long time, but he’s basically indestructible. The experiments that the Russians performed on him also gave him the ability to generate and release radioactive energy blasts from his chest. Not only can he completely incinerate people with those blasts, but he can also neutralize the powers of other Supes.

Butcher soon realized that Soldier Boy might be his only hope in the fight against Homelander. If he could just get Soldier Boy on his side, he could convince him to use one of those blasts against his son, rendering him powerless and easy to kill.

Unfortunately, this didn’t go the way Butcher planned when Ryan’s presence threw a spanner in the works at the end of season 3, but Soldier Boy is still around, and so are his powers.

Soldier Boy Is Still the Key to Killing Homelander

It’s clear that Soldier Boy still has the necessary might to neutralize Homelander, even with the V1 in his system. He managed to use his chest blast against Bombsight swiftly at the end of episode 6, removing his V1 immortality and his powers. When Homelander approached them, all Bombsight could do was run away and hope for the best.

But as we’ve seen throughout the season, Soldier Boy has been warming up to his son. He ruined Mister Marathon and Malchemical’s plan to kill him, massacring everyone in the vicinity. Then, when he had the chance to destroy the V1 and stop Homelander from ruling over America as its new god, he realized that old flame Clara Vought, a.k.a. Stormfront, would want Homelander to have it, and that’s all that mattered to him in the moment.

Still, Butcher has been very keenly watching old videotapes of the Russian experiments on Soldier Boy back at The Boys’ HQ and appears to be concocting a secret plan. Could he still find a way to turn Soldier Boy against his son, or is he more interested in exactly how those powers work?

Butcher might have one more trick up his sleeve after all.

New episodes of The Boys season 5 premiere Wednesdays on Prime Video, culminating with a finale on May 20.

The Boys Season 5 Episode 6 Review: Everything Ends

This review contains spoilers for The Boys season 5 episode 6.

If you’ve been following my reviews of The Boys’ final season, you’ll know that I haven’t really been enjoying it. After a fairly strong start, the ensuing episodes have felt more like The Boys fan fiction rather than the real thing. Treading water, running around in circles, so much unnatural dialogue—for Kimiko especially—and way too many characters on the chessboard to stitch into the story without a bunch of scenes feeling filler-y or straight up annoying. The show felt like it had run out of steam, so I was pleased to find this sixth episode pretty damn delightful!

In episode 6, The Legend (Paul Reiser) returns to help The Boys find the elusive Bombsight (Mason Dye) who finally shows up when his aging sweetheart Golden Geisha is kidnapped from her Vought retirement home and threatened by Butcher and co. Bombsight indeed has the V1 everyone’s been looking for. He’s been saving it for Geisha, trying to convince her they should live together forever, but she doesn’t find immortality particularly appealing, so when Soldier Boy convinces him to hand the V1 over in exchange for sapping his powers away and giving him the gift of mortality, along with a precious, limited amount of time with his lover, Bombsight agrees. Soldier Boy then hands over the dose to Homelander and he injects it immediately.

That’s the bones of the episode. Still, there’s a bunch of meaningful stuff weaving in and out of the story to make it feel impactful. There’s one particularly frustrating thread, which I’ll get to later, but this installment has enough unexpectedly sweet moments to sell the resolution of the V1 plot.

I was honestly relieved to see Karen Fukuhara have some screentime here where she isn’t just expected to spew jarring, sweary nonsense. When Kimiko shyly admits she doesn’t want to kill elderly people at the retirement home, Butcher surprises us by refraining from doing so—one of his only true kindnesses in this season. Kimiko also finds her burgeoning relationship with Frenchie mirrored in the turmoil between Geisha and Bombsight. Kimiko doesn’t really want to live forever either. Frenchie must accept that. Of course it hurts to know that everything ends, but even Homelander gets a taste of what likely awaits him thanks to some brutal home truths from The Legend in this episode. “I’m not scared of you,” he says. “I feel for you. You’re a fucking whack job, but that’s talent.” Reiser delivers the dialogue with his typical gravitas. The fact that Homelander lets him go unharmed speaks to this, as does the seed of doubt buried deep in his twisted mind. It’s a nice touch.

Annie and Hughie also share some quality moments as they work on a plan to kill Homelander using the virus. Annie’s pity when seeing Firecracker’s fate rings true because we feel the same way. Firecracker was fucking deplorable, but we were upset when she sold her soul and Homelander killed her anyway. The series decided not to dehumanize the character. That shows a level of thought and depth that has been lacking a bit this season. Without having the characters constantly say it out loud, it reminds us that we cannot stray too far into the dark; there is simply no light there.

On a different note, when Annie and Hughie first stop to look at the clouds and forget about the horrors that await them, it doesn’t seem frustrating or a waste of time; it’s just nice. It feels like these two have been arguing about the same shit forever. It’s good to remind ourselves of why they’re together in the first place.

I’ve felt nothing for any of these characters this season until now, apart from Firecracker. I used to care about them so much. The show’s just been too interested in being wacky, soapy, or shocking to create these kinds of moments for the audience lately, and that’s one of the key ways that it’s failed, at least from my perspective. Hey, that’s the only one I’ve got right now. I’m seeing this episode before it’s released and y’all haven’t come to the comments to tell me how wrong I am yet (jk I don’t read the comments).

We’re pretty much done with the sweeter moments here, but I do need to talk about The Deep. His strand of the plot is so savage and stupid that it can’t go unmentioned this week. Having previously filmed a PSA singing the praises of a Vought petroleum pipeline that Noir vengefully punctures as payback for Bourke’s murder, the resulting “fish holocaust” sends The Deep right over the edge and creates yet another moment of absolute gold where Chace Crawford scrambles across a beach to rucisitate an oil-poisoned fish called Jeremy. It plays out like a true betrayal of the one thing The Deep genuinely still cares about, and it’s just fantastic. I maintain that any of Crawford’s scenes with marine life in The Boys should be hung in a museum.

So. Now it’s time to talk about Soldier Boy and Bombsight. In the back of our minds, we may be aware that Bombsight is at least partially written into this plot so that we can get a taste of what lies ahead in Soldier Boy’s prequel series, Vought Rising. Still, the episode is fairly effective at combining that approach with the mothership story. Dye and Jensen Ackles wrestle with the material, but ultimately convince us that Bombsight and Soldier Boy’s history carries enough weight that we’d be interested in seeing how they got to this moment.

After Ashley confirms that Soldier Boy is warming up to his biological son, we also see him and Homelander fight over their romantic connection to Clara Vought. Soldier Boy takes some time to process his anger, but decides that Homelander should get the V1 anyway, as it’s what she would have wanted for him. That definitely feels true. Clara was obsessed with pushing him as far as he could go, but we also learn that she once felt the same way about Soldier Boy.

There is some connective tissue missing here that Vought Rising will probably attempt to fill, but because we’ve only got Soldier Boy’s wildly fluctuating feelings and the persistent fan theory that Clara is actually Homelander’s real mother to go on at the moment, it does feel frustrating when Soldier Boy flip-flops over to Homelander’s side again. It’s just another “because fuck them, that’s why” from Soldier Boy.

Equally frustrating is Sister Sage’s “intelligent” plan to manipulate them all, which goes poorly. It is truly hard to buy her superpower being anything other than useless or an outright disaster at this point. Good luck having her on your side, Butcher!

Will the gang find another way to take down Homelander? With two episodes left, I sure hope so.

New episodes of The Boys season 5 premiere Wednesdays on Prime Video.

Daredevil: Born Again S2 Finale Sets Up the Return of Two Netflix Characters

This article contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again season 2.

By the end of Daredevil: Born Again‘s second season, things look rough for Matt Murdock, who has his identity revealed to the public and is sentenced to prison. But things are slightly better for Jessica Jones and for fans of the Netflix shows, as the last episode sees the return of Mike Colter as Luke Cage.

Even if they don’t realize it, Matt Murdock’s very bad day is very good news for fans of the Netflix shows. Both the reveal of Daredevil’s secret identity and Matt’s prison sentence come directly from the comics. And both of those stories involve characters who we met in the Netflix shows: Danny Rand a.k.a. Iron Fist, played on Netflix by Finn Jones, and Kilgrave a.k.a. the Purple Man, played by David Tennant.

The Daring Danny Rand

The story about Matt Murdock going to prison after the public learned about his Daredevil identity culminated in the storyline “The Devil in Cell-Block D,” in Daredevil #82 through #87 (2005–2006), written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Michael Lark. However, the plot begins earlier than that, going back to the original “Born Again” storyline from 1986, in which a drug-addicted Karen Page sells the secret of Matt’s identity to Wilson Fisk. For a variety of reasons, Fisk kept the information to himself, using it to strategically torture Daredevil, but never wanting to share it with anyone else.

That changed during Brian Michael Bendis‘ run, which began in 2001 and ended with “The Murdock Papers” in Daredevil #81, right before handing the reins to Brubaker. During that time, the Kingpin struck a bargain with the FBI, trading incontrovertible proof of Daredevil’s identity in exchange for special favors. At the end of Daredevil #81, Murdock is found guilty of criminal activity as Daredevil and sentenced to prison, as happens in the show.

Of course, things don’t go well for Matt, who is locked in jail with not only people he prosecuted as a lawyer, but also with people he captured as Daredevil. And his only help comes in the form of Frank Castle, who can’t resist the opportunity to once again remind Red how half-measures never work.

Further complicating things is the fact that Daredevil is still stalking around Hell’s Kitchen while Matt’s doing time. Finally, when Matt gets out, he puts on his own red suit to find out what’s going on. He meets the imposter on a rooftop and attacks, easily outmatching the fake until the other Daredevil throws a punch, his hand glowing yellow.

Yes, the imposter Daredevil is Danny Rand, who tried to help out his ol’ pal by acting as the Man Without Fear, to prove that Matt couldn’t be ol’ Hornhead. Danny being Danny, of course, screwed it all up, making more of a mess for Matt to solve.

But for fans of the Iron Fist television show on Netflix, the plot point gives Marvel the perfect excuse to bring Finn Jones back into the fold. Even if season 2 of Born Again overcorrected the lack of Daredevil in costume from season one, it’s unlikely that the third season will go without its central hero. And while it would fit Bullseye’s current arc to see him take up the mantle, and while Elektra is also Daredevil in current comic book continuity—and many would also like to see Élodie Yung reprise the role—a Finn Jones return makes the most sense (especially if you saw those behind the scenes photos floating around the internet).

The Purple Man’s Legacy

Thus far, no set leaks have given us reason to hope for the other character who could return to Hell’s Kitchen, Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man. However, Born Again season 2 does pave the way for Tennant’s return, if they’re loosely following the comics.

Dumb as Danny is, his ploy did manage to raise some doubt in the public mind, as did Matt’s defense of himself. Over the next several years, Matt’s superhero identity was something of an open secret. Matt would deny it to anyone who asked him, and he would sometimes use various forms of subterfuge to throw people off the scent, but he never pulled a Peter Parker and made a deal with the devil to wipe everyone’s memory.

Instead, the devil did it for him. Well, the devil’s kids. Well, the Purple Man’s kids. Before I explain further, I do need to provide a quick trigger warning, as this story takes the Purple Man’s abilities to their logical extreme. As seen in the Jessica Jones show and in the original Alias comics that introduced her, Killgrave will use his mind-control powers to take advantage of women. In 2014’s Daredevil #8, by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee, we learn that Killgrave has sired a host of children, all of whom have similar powers.

When the Purple Children learned about one another, they banded together to take revenge against their father. However, Killgrave defeated his offspring and held them captive, hoping to seep away their power and enhance his own. Fortunately, Daredevil came to the rescue, and the Purple Children were so grateful that they did him a favor: they used their abilities to make everyone forget that he is Matt Murdock.

Matt had to do some work to remind people who he is, but the Purple Children reversal is more or less the current status quo in Marvel Comics. In fact, that plot point led to Wilson Fisk outlawing vigilantes when he became mayor, which served as the inspiration for Born Again‘s second season.

Obviously, the Purple Children story would need some alteration for Born Again‘s third season, and not just because the concept is more unpleasant than Disney would like. Killgrave died at the end of Jessica Jones season one, and while some hallucinations allowed Tennant to appear in season two, we’d need the real guy to help wipe everyone’s memory.

Still, writers have found some clever ways to integrate comic book plot points into past seasons of Daredevil: Born Again. And if it means more David Tennant, then it will definitely be worth it. More Iron Fist is okay, too.

All of Daredevil: Born Again is now streaming on Disney+.

How Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Finale Leads Into Spider-Man: Brand New Day

This article contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again season 2.

Even though they’ve only met in the MCU once, and even then only in civilian guises in No Way Home, Spider-Man and Daredevil are usually linked in the Marvel canon. Both are street-level heroes in New York City, both have tragic childhood stories, and both suffer from overwhelming and unending guilt. But where Peter Parker usually faces trouble with non-stop banter, Matt Murdock forever wrestles with the dark night of the soul.

So if Peter’s going to have a brand new day in the MCU, then Matt must first have a very dark day. Which is exactly what happened in season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again. Yes, Matt managed to survive Mayor Wilson Fisk’s onslaught and the Anti-Vigilante Task Force he unleashed on NYC. But he’s in a bad place, with his identity revealed to the world and now serving a prison sentence for his activities. And with Daredevil off the board, New York City’s going to need Spider-Man more than ever.

Mayor Fisk No More

The biggest change in the MCU status quo is the removal of Wilson Fisk as mayor. Throughout season 2, Fisk used the sympathy garnered by the attempt on his life by the assassin Bullseye to put his anti-vigilante legislation into place. Because the AVTF targeted vulnerable people, and because Fisk controlled media outlets such as The BB Report, average New Yorkers supported him.

However, by the end of the season, the AVTF had gone too far, leading to widespread fear and violence. The courtroom drama nature of the finale to Born Again season 2 reasserted the rule of law, proving that demagogues like Fisk cannot be allowed to use the government as their personal weapon. Moreover, the season ends with Fisk out as mayor and his campaign director Sheila Rivera in his place. We saw Zabryna Guevara as Mayor Rivera briefly in the trailer for Brand New Day, suggesting that this new leader is ready to embrace the vigilantes that her predecessor vilified.

NYC Loves Vigilantes?

Will Mayor Rivera be alone in her newfound support for the costumed set? Thus far, the MCU movies have been reluctant to let Spider-Man stay in his friendly neighborhood, and while Spider-Man: Homecoming has some delightful bits with him interacting with New Yorkers, it’s not entirely clear how the city feels about him, especially after J. J. Jameson disseminated footage of him killing Mysterio in Far From Home.

Born Again‘s second season began with New Yorkers happy to let the AVTF do its dirty work, as long as it made them feel safe. But as Powell and his thugs increased their grip, more and more regular citizens joined the rebellion, participating in mass protests outside the governor’s office. So Brand New Day may send the pendulum in the other direction, with citizens ready to embrace Spider-Man, especially if he’s dealing with Boomerang, Tarantula, Scorpion, and Tombstone—all foes who will appear in Spider-Man’s next movie.

Big Brother is Watching

The citizens might be ready to support Spidey, but what about the government? Fisk got to do what he did because he had the support of the U.S. government, as expressed through CIA operative Mr. .Charles (Matthew Lillard). As we saw in the season 2 premiere, Charles literally has a direct line to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, and was working in NYC on her behest. Born Again ends with Charles taking Bullseye away to replace Luke Cage as his new enforcer, but that doesn’t mean the federal government has no more interest in the Big Apple’s superhero community.

In particular, the Department of Damage Control has its eye on New York. We know that Tramell Tillman will play a member of Damage Control, the Homeland Security-style organization that has been an issue for Spidey since Homecoming. Further, rumors suggest that Damage Control will be hunting Sadie Sink’s character, who is likely to be Jean Grey of the X-Men. Given that Val just had Mr. Charles in New York dealing with Fisk and Daredevil, she’ll probably keep her eyes trained on the city, especially if mutants are about to appear.

The Punisher’s Pains

Between the end of Born Again season 2 and Spider-Man: Brand New Day comes The Punisher: One Last Kill, a Marvel Special Presentation focusing on Frank Castle. Jon Bernthal showed up as Castle in season 1 of Born Again, and he’ll be back again in Brand New Day, presumably defending Sink’s character from Damage Control. But he cannot help but be affected by his time with Daredevil.

Castle helped Daredevil fight off a horde of AVTF officers in the finale of Born Again‘s first season, and he repeatedly chided Matt Murdock for his half-measures. Certainly, he feels vindicated by the mess those half-measures made, and he’s likely to bring them up when dealing with Spider-Man, Hulk, and the other super-people he has to deal with in Brand New Day.

Dealt a Bad Hand

One of the more surprising parts of the Brand New Day trailer showed Spider-Man fighting off a host of crimson-clad ninjas. Longtime Marvel Comics readers will know these as members of the Hand Clan, a group of death-obsessed assassins who usually make trouble for Daredevil and Wolverine, but rarely bother Spider-Man. So why have they suddenly become Peter Parker’s problem?

The answer is simple: Wolverine isn’t present in the MCU yet (Deadpool & Wolverine doesn’t count) and Daredevil’s locked up in cell block D. Technically, the Hand haven’t appeared before in the MCU, but they were a major part of the Daredevil Netflix show and The Defenders. While the canonicity of those series is still in question, we can probably guess that Matt’s actions in those shows have kept the Hand out of the city. But now that he’s in prison, it falls upon Spidey to deal with those pesky ninjas.

Will the Devil Have His Due?

Perhaps the biggest thing people want to see in Brand New Day is an actual team-up between Spider-Man and Daredevil. That desire has only been stoked by the fact that Punisher and the Hand will be in the movie. And while Charlie Cox has been adamant that he won’t appear in the film, people have lied before about showing up in Spider-Man movies.

Yet, it’s hard to see how, exactly, Daredevil will be around in Brand New Day. He is, again, in prison. And while we don’t want him to stay there forever, it would be really disappointing if Matt gets out long enough for a quick cameo and then goes back to jail. So unless Peter decides to check in on his former lawyer during visiting hours, then Born Again season 2 makes it impossible for Daredevil to be in Brand New Day.

All of Daredevil: Born Again is now on Disney+. Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters on July 31, 2026.

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 8 Review – The Southern Cross

This article contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again season 2.

It had to end this way. Even more than the three seasons of the Netflix show, Daredevil: Born Again has been devoted to the idea that Daredevil and the Kingpin are inextricably linked, to the point that they play as co-leads. But as much as their showdown seems predetermined, showrunner Dario Scardapane pulls a neat trick in the finale. The two meet one last time, not as Daredevil and Kingpin, but as Matt Murdock, esquire, and Mayor Wilson Fisk, combatants in a court of law.

Ending on courtroom drama instead of supheroics comes with significant risks for Born Again, if only because it forces us to once again recall the show’s tortured first season. Before Scardapane came aboard, the original showrunners imagined Born Again as more of a legal and political thriller, one that significantly downplayed the costumed adventures. A lot of the blame for any shortcomings in the finished product was directed at those showrunners, who shot a lot of footage in offices and courts that Scardapane couldn’t just throw away.

Thus far, much of Born Again has felt like Scardapane running away from those intentions to make a superhero show. Matt has spent little of the previous eight episodes out of costume, and although Fisk remains the mayor, he’s grown increasingly unhinged, first participating in a charity boxing match and then duking it out with Daredevil. Additionally, Dex has completely metamorphosed from the troubled FBI agent he was in season three of the Netflix show to become a proper supervillain, complete with a mask and the moniker Bullseye.

Yet, in the finale, Fisk is just a witness on the stand, Bullseye gets whisked away to go on black ops missions with Mr. Charles, and Daredevil limits his superpowers to a demonstration in front of the judge. Jessica Jones goes back home to Danielle, where she gets to reunite with the heretofore missing Luke Cage. So does the finale, “The Southern Cross,” directed by Iain B. MacDonald and written by Scardapane & Jesse Wigutow, deliver a satisfying end?

Yes, but only if you understand Born Again as the story of Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk trying, and failing, to go straight.

We saw in the penultimate episode Matt Murdock emerge from hiding to take his place as co-councillor with Kirsten McDuffie, defending Karen Page’s against charges that she’s a vigilante. Fisk observed those proceedings from his office, but now he’s ready to face his enemy in the open.

The tension of the episode comes from the way Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio play off of each other. By this point, the two actors have not only honed their characters and established a rapport with one another, but they feel a certain ownership over the show. During the Born Again press tour, they’ve both been vocal about their concerns with the previous showrunners and have claimed that they drove Disney to change the direction of the series.

Thus, it falls on the two actors to make the climax of “The Southern Cross” worthwhile as a piece of superhero television, and they mostly succeed. D’Onofrio’s “baby in a big man’s body” approach means that Fisk initially seems bored by Murdock’s questions, even though he thinks he holds sway over his opponent. He allows a spark of excitement to enter Fisk’s eyes when it becomes clear that Murdock may implicate himself in his interrogation. When Fisk tells Murdock that he’s willing “to go down that road” with him, D’Onofrio plays the character as if he’s finally shaking off the pretense of mayor, and getting to be his true self, the Kingpin, once again, and he loves it.

Cox imbues Matt with the same energy. Matt Murdock has always been a guy so mired in guilt that he cannot make a good, smart decision. His interrogation of Fisk offers him the greatest chance to indulge that tendency. He gets to make himself a martyr by revealing to everyone that he’s Daredevil, utterly destroying his life and endangering the lives of his friends, and he gets to feel like he’s doing the right thing because he takes down Fisk with him. Cox’s charming grin turns dangerous in these moments, his blood rising as he and Fisk egg each other on.

Even if you you’ve read the Brian Michael Bendis and Ed Brubaker comics that reveal Matt’s identity and send him to jail, it’s still thrilling to see the two actors try to outdo each other. Moreover, the resolution feels like a fitting end to Born Again‘s first two seasons. By the time the two men get taken away, there’s no doubt that Kingpin and Daredevil, Matt Murdock and Fisk, are mirror images, equally driven, powerful, and self-destructive.

It will be interesting to see if the climax gives Scardapane a reason to step away from Fisk as the big bad and explore some other parts of Daredevil’s rogues gallery. Season 3 is already primed to be a full Defenders reunion, which might mean the return of the Hand (especially since they’re in Spider-Man: Brand New Day), and Heather Glenn is the new Muse now, apparently (no offense to Margarita Levieva, who did what was asked of her, but Heather has been misjudged from the start, and her becoming a serial killer won’t help things).

If season 3 can move on from the Fisk/Murdock pairing, then season 2 will be remembered as a fine conclusion to a superhero epic. But if it sticks with the same dynamic for another season, then Daredevil: Born Again runs the risk of diluting its greatest strength.

Daredevil: Born Again season 2 is now streaming on Disney+.

The Mandalorian and Grogu Brings ‘90s Movie Style to Star Wars at Extended Footage Preview

There have been Star Wars movies made since the 1990s. There was even a Star Wars movie released (barely) in the ’90s, the decade of Clinton and dot.com, beanie babies and Swingers. However, 1999’s The Phantom Menace, like every Star Wars movie produced by George Lucas (or those who would seek to imitate his aesthetic) tended to reach toward a more classical cinematic style and vocabulary. The original Star Wars evoked the vistas of John Ford and the compositions of Akira Kurosawa, while the Prequel Trilogy maintained that mid-20th century influence, even while going all-in on CGI and digital photography by the time Attack of the Clones rolled around.

Hence the mild jolt in the opening moments of Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, which just had sneak peek screenings around the country at select IMAX venues for fans. During these beginnings, it’s clear a filmmaker who came up in the Gen-X era, and indeed both wrote and starred in Swingers, is pulling from a different vernacular. Instead of the iconic Star Wars crawl, complete with triumphant John Williams music that echoed the 1940s serials of Lucas’ youth, viewers on the night of May the Fourth were treated to a title card that sums up a historical moment of upheaval and trouble after the fall of the Empire in Return of the Jedi (1983). It’s a trick made popular in historical dramas of a different era like Gladiator (2000) and Braveheart (1995), as well as a sneaky way to get viewers who might not have watched all three seasons of The Mandalorian on Disney+ up to speed.

It also signals a vibe shift in the first 26 minutes of footage screened, which is our most extensive look yet at the first Star Wars movie in seven years, exceeding even the 17 minutes that were shown at CinemaCon last month in Las Vegas.

The most spectacular element of the IMAX footage we screened includes a snowbound fight between AT-ATs and a smaller refined AT-ST that the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and his stuffed animal-sized sidekick commandeer. In the severe vertical expanse of IMAX, this sequence genuinely gives a sense of scale and vertico as Din Djarin stares up at his frigid, mechanical beast. The sequence is also fun for a slightly more casual Star Wars fan like myself, who enjoys the world but has always wondered what happened to those spiffy Snowtrooper uniforms after the cape-bedecked baddies left Hoth in Empire Strikes Back? It appears, they are just shuffled off to the next frozen rock, perpetually getting the short end of the Imperial stick.

Yet while evoking Empire—arguably the best Star Wars movie—the tone of Mandalorian and Grogu is more lighthearted and anachronistic. The sequence, in fact, begins between a meeting of Imperial leftovers who scheme ineptly about restoring the Empire to its once and future glory. In this context, the Mandalorian is not quite the gunslinger or the Western bounty hunter. He is, rather, the ultimate action movie fantasy; the unstoppable hero who enters the narrative like a myth; an urban legend; a boogeyman for bad hombres.

In a sequence that I’m convinced draws on the opening of Léon: The Professional (1994) and likely Desperado (1995)—the latter of which is also directed by Star Wars/Mando veteran Robert Rodriguez—the Mandalorian appears like an unstoppable wraith to completely decimate the last dregs of the Empire.

It’s a table-setter sequence which reveals a blunter approach to that galaxy far, far away. As the Mandalorian’s Razor Crest drifts into a friendly Republic port, it’s bathed in a perfect sunset, more reminiscent of Top Gun and its many ‘90s imitators, not least of which includes every Michael Bay movie. Meanwhile the legacy of Blade Runner is felt when Mando and Grogu are sent into the film’s real inciting incident by Sigourney Weaver: they must discover what happened to the kidnapped Rotta the Hutt, the descendant of evil Jabba—but who at least physically does not take after the gangster.

Resembling less shiny, clean Coruscant in the Prequel Trilogy and more the soiled rancor of Los Angeles in Blade Runner—and therefore many of its own ‘90s descendants like Dark City and The Crow—the city Mando lands in wallows in nu-noir chic squalor. It also features an easter egg only the parents (or grandparents) will appreciate: Martin Scorsese as the voice of an alien who absolutely, positively does not want to be a rat. The reluctant snitch is of course par for any movie playing with crime cinema seasonings, but to have the Martin Scorsese, maestro of some of the greatest crime films of all time, including Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), and The Departed (2006), voice a CG alien who doesn’t want to go the way of Billy Costigan, or for that matter Henry Hill, is a nice touch.

It also presages the longest look anyone has had yet of Rotta the Hutt in the ring. As we learn, he’s less coerced Gladiator than golden god rock star in his element. We see the surprisingly buff slug slime his way through one opponent after another. And the best thing you can say about the footage? By the time it’s over, I forgot that we weren’t getting the whole movie and wanted to see what happened next when Mando and wee little Baby Yoda entered the ring to ask for the space slug’s autograph.

The Mandalorian and Grogu opens only in theaters on May 22.

Evil Dead Burn Trailer Features a Major Twist on the Usual Formula

Evil Dead Burn is going to swallow Sam Raimi‘s soul. Okay, okay, that’s going too far. But the latest trailer for the next entry in the horror franchise features both the audacious camera movements that have been the director’s calling card since he made The Evil Dead in 1981, but it also inserts something new for the series: a plot.

The trailer has lots of nastiness, as someone with a car seat headrest in their face chases a couple into a family home. But it also sets up some character stakes, with the loss of a family member driving a person to read from the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, the Book of the Dead, on purpose. Intentionally. Not by accident.

That’s a pretty huge change from previous Evil Dead movies. From the first two films and Army of Darkness, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, to the 2013 remake and 2023’s Evil Dead Rise, reading from the Necronomicon draws the attention of Deadites that possess the living.

However, no one in those movies does it on purpose, at least not to raise the dead. In the first two Evil Deads and Evil Dead Rise, the reading comes via recordings. In Army of Darkness and the 2013 remake, characters intentionally read from the book, but the former because it will allow him to time travel back to the present and the latter because the guy is a curious dummy.

Directed by Sébastien Vaniček, who co-wrote the script with Florent Bernard, Evil Dead Burn raises the emotional stakes of the story by giving someone reason to read the Book of the Dead. Souheila Yacoub plays Alice, a recent widow who retreats to her in-law’s home to share in the grieving. Somehow, she discovers the Necronomicon in a garbage bag, which apparently belonged to the husband’s grandfather. Even though the shot in the trailer shows a bloodied Hunter Doohan (Muse from Daredevil: Born Again) saying that his grandfather believed the book would summon the devil, it’s clear that Alice sees it as a way to possibly reunite with her beloved husband.

That’s a little more plot and character than we usually get in an Evil Dead movie. Sure, Evil Dead II gives Ash time to lament the death of his girlfriend, the 2013 movie has a drug addiction plot to explain why the protagonists have gone to a secluded cabin, and there’s some sibling tension in Evil Dead Rise. But character dynamics rarely drive the plots, which are mostly about Deadites doing terrible things.

To be clear, the Evil Dead Burn trailer has a lot of terrible stuff being done by Deadites. Lots of nastiness occurs in the clip, including a good object lesson for anyone who needs to teach young children how to properly load a dishwasher.

If they can maintain the level of intense brutality we expect while delivering well-rounded character, then Vaniček and Bernard could add an interesting new chapter to the story that Raimi started.

Evil Dead Burn arrives on July 10, 2026.

Tony Promises a Messy Anthony Bourdain Biopic From Blackberry Director

As the booming success of Michael reminds us, biopics might be the most rigid and uncomplicated of film genres. Portray the subject as a morally-upright genius, hit a couple of big points from Wikipedia, and include lots of stuff that people love to reward the audience for their very good taste. Throw it all on screen and watch the box office numbers grow.

Some of that shows up in the first trailer for Tony, the A24 biopic about chef and author Anthony Bourdain. We get glimpses of his struggles as a writer, failing to get a Fellowship and then taking a job in a kitchen only out of financial desperation. He talks to a pretty girl (Emilia Jones), gets hazed by the kitchen staff (including The White Lotus‘ Leo Woodall and comedian Stavros Halkias), and studies under an exacting but brilliant mentor (Antonio Banderas). And, of course, the trailer has snippets of him doing what made him famous, finding the perfect phrase to describe the experience of eating.

And yet, there’s something different about the tone of Tony, highlighted by the way the trailer highlights the artifice of the story. When Bourdain, played by The Holdovers breakout Dominic Sessa, identifies the proceedings as a “coming of age” story, or when Jones asks if he’s a good guy or a bad guy, one gets the sense that Tony‘s doing something messier and more aware than the standard biopic.

That suspicion only intensifies when you realize that Tony comes from director Matt Johnson. Johnson’s acclaimed comedy Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is still making the rounds in theaters around North America but he also directed the 2023 biopic BlackBerry.

Like Air, Tetris, and Flamin’ Hot that same year, BlackBerry is a corporate biopic, the story of a product more than a person: in this case, the titular personal assistant device. But where most corporate biopics treat executives as true geniuses who deliver heroic boardroom pitches, BlackBerry treats its central characters as either screw-ups who don’t know how to realize their ideas or, in the case of Glenn Howerton’s sociopathic take on investor Jim Balsillie, insanely ineffective alpha males.

In other words, Johnson’s idiosyncratic and unpretentious approach to biopics makes him the perfect person to document the life of Anthony Bourdain, a man who famously had little patience for pretense. Bourdain became a household name not just because he took viewers of his shows to secret places in the world and shared their cuisine. Rather, he mattered because he managed to describe the specifics of the food in a way that felt universal, using meals as a way to draw attention to the people who made it.

Obviously, Tony won’t be the story of the iconoclast with the close-cropped silver hair who we all knew. But to show us how he got there, Tony cannot follow the standard biopic trail, and Johnson is exactly the type of person to help blaze a new path.

Tony arrives in theaters in August 2026.