CAYOM YEAR 3 - PART I - MOVIE SUBMISSION

[YM!]

Bullets and Lyrics

 

Studio: Infinite Studios

Cube Vision

Release Date: 11/27/Y3

Genre: Musical/Romance/Drama

Director: Damien Chazelle

Producers: Ice Cube and Damien Chazelle

Writers: Damien Chazelle, Andrea Berloff, and Jonathan Herman

Score: Justin Hurwitz

Music by: Kendrick Lamar, Lin Manuel Miranda, and Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, a brief rude gesture, violence and language

Budget: $50M

Theater Count: 3,762

Format: 2D

Runtime: 131 minutes 

Cast:

Shamiek Moore as Tyrone Phillips

Zendaya as Megan Harris

Zac Efron as Keith 

Ice Cube as Jaylin Phillips

Kendrick Lamar as Cassius Harris

Taraji P Henson as Tanya Phillips

Kanye West as Shay Jackson

Lil Yachty as Dwayne Fitzgerald 

Travis Scott as Donovan

Forest Whitaker as Mr. Leto

Drake as Big Donald

Hugh Jackman as James 

 

 

Spoiler

We open in the streets of Compton. The neighborhood is in shambles but at the same time majestic.

 

Infinite Studios Proudly Presents

 

It is a peculiarly quiet night. Some kids go inside after playing basketball. The only thing making noises are a bunch of dogs howling. We see a big warehouse owned by the Crips. The leader of the Crips tell his fellow members to move the drugs and money they got downstairs.

 

A Cube Vision Production

 

We then see a small group of Bloods break into a warehouse, armed to the teeth. The Bloods flood into the warehouse, in their A game. Some of the Crips notice them and have their weapons as well. It’s a stand-off for a good minute but Jaylin Phillips, the leader of the Bloods, fires a single bullet at one of the Crips.

 

A Damien Chazelle Film

 

The Bloods follow Jaylin and begin to shoot at the Crips and a violent shoot out erupts. We see a limp body of what we presume is the leader of the Crips (Travis Scott).

 

Bullets and Lyrics

 

The opening credits with the names of the cast and crew show up left and right as the shoot out continues. We then see Jaylin Phillips, and his gang steal briefcases stuffed cash and bags filled with drugs. Jaylin tells Shay Jackson, his partner and second in command, to keep on shooting and his son Tyrone will arrive soon with the getaway car. The shootout however proceeds longer than anticipated and Jaylin ducks and covers finding a safe spot calling Tyrone. 

 

We then cut to a school and see Tyrone at a slam poetry meet in front of an audience. His poem quickly escalates into a hard hitting rap about his life in the streets (Gunshots), whipping the crowd up in delight and a frenzy. As soon as it’s over, the auditorium roars with applause. Tyrone takes a bow and goes backstage and gets congratulated by his teacher and organizer of slam poetry, Mr. Leto as well as his classmates. Tyrone gets a call from his father asking where he is and that he needs him. Tyrone apologizes to his poetry crew explaining a family incident happened and leave in his car. Tyrone speeds off the warehouse just in time, and gets all the Bloods out safely. Jaylin berates Tyrone asking where the hell he was. Tyrone lies and says he was smoking. After getting back to the safe house, full of Bloods. Jaylin drops the money and drugs on the table and everyone celebrates. Jaylin pulls Tyrone aside to talk to help privately. Jaylin gives Tyrone some money for himself saying he’ll be home later tonight, wanting him to focus more on this telling him one day he wants him to be his next in command. Tyrone, frustrated drives around the city and stops at a burger joint near the suburbs, though with the feelings of eyes on him and jots down lyrics on a yellow notebook as he munched on fries. On his way, he is stopped by a racist cop, who gives him a “random” search but finds nothing and let’s him go. Tyrone drives back home, singing/rapping a song on his way about his conflictions to his passion and not wanting to be a gangster despite what others see him as, there is a small subtext in the song about racism against him, eventually stopping at a cliff that shows the entire district that Compton is a part off (Out There). Tyrone gets home only to be yelled out by his worried mother, Tanya who expected him home earlier as it’s midnight. Tyrone goes to bed

 

 

The next day, Tyrone is about to head to school being greeted off by both of his parents. The day is the typical day for Tyrone which is an average for him but he meets a new student from Milwaukee, Megan. The two form an unlikely kind of friendship. Megan also joins the school’s choir while there, and uses her great voice to her advantage. Meanwhile, the Crips mourn the loss of their leader, Donovan but is replaced by Cassius Harris, another gang member from another part of California being an old friend of Dwanye Fitzgerald, Donovan’s second in command. Cassius gives a roaring speech about revenge against the Crips but his meeting is interrupted by his daughter Megan who asks him to borrow the car as she is going out with friends, and Cassius tells her to be safe.

 

The next day, Tyrone sees an ad on TV for a singing contest for original songs in Los Angeles where the winners of the contest get a chance for a distribution deal with a big music producer, Big Donald along with a million dollars. The ad also says only a certain amount of entrees get in and are evaluated on their performances. Seeing this as an opportunity to escape, Tyrone wants to join but Jaylin forbids it not wanting his son to be caught up with fantasies saying he needs him tonight. Tyrone immediately ignores his advice and joins anyway, meeting many competitors including Megan to his surprise.  The two wish each other good luck only to be pushed aside by Keith Evans, a pompous rich boy who immediately looks down on the two making slightly race tinged comments asking if they’re going to rap. Tyrone fires back asking he’s going to do a country song. Keith ignores him, sarcastically wishing both of the two good luck. Keith sings a rock and roll/pop tune about pride and how powerful it is (Lionheart) getting love from the judges move him on to the next round. Keith bows gracefully and walks backstage, to flip off Megan and Tyrone backstage.

 

Tyrone raps an extended version of Gunshots but the judges although they love the rap, noticed his poor performance skills and decides not to go with him. Tyrone keeps his head up and doesn’t let that get him down. Megan apologizes for him not getting selected but Tyrone tells her he’s fine and that she should be too. Megan sings Beat of My Drum (a Zendaya song btw). The judges although disapprove of her singing a non original song were captivated by her voice, letting her in but warn her that she won’t be lucky next time.  Tyrone impressed congratulates her, and offers the two collaboration on it by becoming her songwriter and split the profits 50/50. Megan agrees to this and the two get to work on their performance.

 

During school in study hall, the Tyrone writes the songs and Megan practicing her singing, however although Megan’s voice is great, Tyrone notices something lacking. Tyrone points out that her singing needs a bit more passion. Tyrone asks to meet Megan tonight at his slam poetry meeting to show what he means. The two meet at the poetry meeting and Mr. Leto warmly greets both of them. As his classmates finish their poems and Tyrone included, Megan gets what Tyrone was talking about. The meeting ends early though due to a classmate becoming ill. Tyrone takes Megan to the cliff where he goes to think. Meanwhile, Cassius and the Crips attack the Bloods warehouse and another shoot out breaks loose. Jaylin tried to call Tyrone to help him smuggles some of their good but gets no response. Tyrone and Megan continue their writing plans on the cliff getting into a deep conversation after Tyrone suggest the song should have something that is meaningful to her, explaining Out There. Tyrone talks about the most personal one to him, the song, Gunshots was also an ode to his best friend who he lost due to gun violence. Megan reveals to Tyrone she lost her mother in a violent shoot out. Tyrone consoles her for a bit and the two begin writing the song together as the two slowly fall for each other. Jaylin manages to smuggle the product back into hiding thanks to some of the Bloods but the Crips outmatch him. Thankfully Shay injure a decent number of them however they run out of bullets. The two are forced to make a retreat but Cassius orders his men to stop shooting and fights Jaylin himself. The two get into a bloody fight and Cassius pulls out a gun and shoot Jaylin in his leg, leaving while he bleeds out. Shay grabs Jaylin and rushes him to the hospital. Megan and Tyrone lean towards each other for a kiss when Tyrone gets a call, taking it, Shay reveals his dad got shot. Horrified, Tyrone prematurely cancels their meeting promising to pick up later due to family issues. Megan understands and Tyrone drops her off home and drives off as fast as he can to the hospital.

 

We then cut to Cassius and his men celebrating over the action back at his house. The house is both lavash and yet at the same time empty. Cassius, Dwanye and the rest of the Bloods start rapping about their lives (Legacy). Megan comes home halfway into the rap and Cassius immediately asks why she’s out so late. Megan explains about her practice for the competition she’s in. Cassius, supportive of his daughter is happy for her. Cassius gives her a hug goodnight. We then cut to Jaylin in the hospital. The hospital itself is extremely bleak, Tanya waits outside clearly worried about Jaylin and Tyrone. Tyrone finally rushes into the hospital asking to see his father. Tanya asks where was he, as she texted him five times. Tyrone says he got caught in some traffic. Tyrone sees Jaylin battered and bruised. Jaylin asks the doctor if he could have a private talk with his son. Tyrone decides to come clean and tell the whole truth.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2018 by YourMother the Edgelord

[YM!]

@Xillix - Welcome To The Jungle is replaced by My Peoples - Animation/Comedy/Romance - 3,875 theaters in 3D - Directed by Nathan Greno

[Xillix]

Gamera

Release Date: August 7th, Y3 (Limited IMAX 3D Pre-Release) / August 9th, Y3 (Wide)

Studio: Gold Crescent Pictures

Genre: Monster/Action/Sci-Fi

Director: Brad Peyton

Theater Count: 15 (Limited) / 3,765 (Wide)

Premium Formats: 3D, IMAX 3D & Dolby Cinema

Shooting Format: Digital 8K (Red Weapon Monstro VV) (In native 3D)

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 2K 3D DCP, 2K IMAX Digital 3D DCP, 4K DCP, 4K Dolby Vision DCP, 4K IMAX with Laser 3D DCP

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos, IMAX 12-Channel (IMAX with Laser DCPs only)

Production Budget: $105 million

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for action violence, peril, destruction, and language

Running Time: 96 minutes

Major Cast: Sam Worthington (Dr. Hughes), Carla Gugino (Keri), Brian Tee (Dr. Aoyagi), Cooper J. Friedman (Kenny), Zooey Deschanel (Amanda)

 

Plot Summary:

A loose remake of the 1965 Japanese film Daikaiju Gamera (“Giant Monster Gamera”)

 

Spoiler

 

A team of scientists, including Dr. Hughes (Sam Worthington) and Dr. Aoyagi (Brian Tee), as well as a photojournalist, Keri (Carla Gugino), are documenting the melting of ice caps in the Artcic Circle as a result of climate change. Their base camp is near an Inuit village in northern Canada. Interviewing the natives, they find many of them have reported what seems like abnormal seismic activity in the area. When they go to investigate, they find a valley where temperatures are over ten degrees warmer than in the village – and rising quickly. A blast of flame erupts out from under the ice, leading Dr. Hughes to at first assume they’ve found a previously undocumented volcano.

 

They return to the village, where the locals are in a state of panic. A village elder tells them the legend of Gamera, a great fire beast who roamed the tundra centuries ago. Some tribes worshipped him as a god, while others feared him as a powerful demon. There was a war between the tribes, which angered Gamera so badly that he began to indiscriminately rampage through the villages of both sides. In the end, he was trapped beneath the ice when the tribes united against him and buried him with an avalanche. The elder insists Gamera has reawakened and is making his escape, but naturally, the scientists do not believe him.

 

Just after sunset, however, Gamera breaks free of his icy prison. The creature is an enormous, 300-foot tall… bipedal turtle, of some sort, with tusks protruding upward from its lower jaw. The shattering of ice and the creature’s booming roar are heard for miles, and the already-panicked villagers begin to flee, gathering their belongings and children and running away into the barren, icy wilderness. Gamera rounds a mountainside and the research team is shocked to find he actually exists. They leap into their Jeep and drive off as fast as they can, Gamera approaching the village and breathing out jets of flame, incinerating it. Keri records video and photos to document the incredible sight.

 

They are startled by the sound of fighter jets racing into the area. The Canadian Air Force has sent a few planes to examine the goings-on. They attack Gamera ineffectively, his leathery skin and thick shell protecting him from all their weapons. He swats a plane out of the sky, and it crashes right next to the speeding Jeep, erupting into a fireball. He downs another with his fire-breath, and the rest retreat. As they depart, the researchers observe Gamera leaning down and inhaling the flames from the wrecked fighters, seeming to feed on the fire.

 

Despite Keri’s footage and photos, the team’s claims of a giant turtle monster are understandably laughed off. The Canadian military claims that a satellite fell out of orbit and crashed in the area, that it lost no jets or pilots, and that the video is a hoax created with computer effects. Dr. Hughes is placed on leave from his position, while Keri and Aoyagi are outright fired from their jobs. There seems to be no further sign of Gamera, at least for about a week…

 

In a small fishing town on the coast of Alaska, things are suddenly not going very well. The water in the bay is unusually warm and high, and the fish seem scarce. Suddenly the tide surges in all at once, flooding the docks, crashing many boats together and sinking them. As the townspeople look on perplexed, Gamera emerges from the water by the clifftop lighthouse. Playing in the lighthouse is local, inexplicably short-shorts-wearing boy Kenny (Cooper J. Friedman), whose widowed mother Amanda (Zooey Deschanel) is in charge of maintaining it. Gamera smashes the lighthouse, but as Kenny falls from it, the monster catches him and places him carefully back on the ground. Amanda runs out shrieking, pulling Kenny away to safety. Gamera seems to exchange a look with the young boy, but is suddenly distracted by the sounds of gunfire, with some absolutely brilliant local men now shooting their rifles at the enormous beast.

 

Amanda rushes Kenny back into their small cottage next to the ruined lighthouse, sending him down to hide in the cellar. Before she joins him, she takes one last look back out the window at the town itself, which Gamera is now razing. He crushes buildings and breathes out his fire-breath, setting the largely-wooden houses ablaze. The inferno spreads rapidly, and Gamera begins to feed on the spreading flames. In a matter of minutes, the little town is totally destroyed. Once he’s “eaten” all the fire, Gamera retreats back into the ocean.

 

The Canadian and American governments are no longer able to cover up Gamera’s existence. Dr. Hughes, Dr. Aoyagi, and Keri are called in by the US military to consult on how to deal with the creature because of their previous encounter with it, though they insist they have no idea since they were pretty much just running away the whole time. Dr. Aoyagi decides to return to the general area where Gamera had been buried along with Teri so they can try to find out more about him from the natives. Meanwhile, Dr. Hughes is put in charge of a team working to track Gamera by monitoring changes in ocean currents and temperatures. They determine he is heading south, and continue to track him over several days’ time.

 

In the Canadian wilderness, Teri and Dr. Aoyagi find a villager descended from a shaman who led his tribe in worship of Gamera. Though he admits much knowledge of the creature has been lost to the ages, with the legends surviving only through oral tradition, he claims that his tribe and many others revered Gamera as not only a fire god, but a protector of children. In fact, some accounts claim all of the shrines to Gamera were maintained exclusively by children. Teri connects this to the widely-reported fact that Gamera had saved a young boy’s life in Alaska before destroying his town. The villager says his family has long believed the reason Gamera originally went on his rampage was because the war between the tribes had caused the deaths of many children on both sides. He also adds a final wrinkle to the legend – it seems, in some tellings, Gamera was supposed to be able to fly.

 

Back at their taskforce headquarters, Dr. Hughes and his team are puzzled when they lose track of Gamera. The anomalies he’d been causing in the ocean seem to have disappeared. Fighter jets are sent to scout the area around the monster’s last known whereabouts. Sure enough, they are shocked to find Gamera flying through the sky like a UFO, limbs and head retracted into his shell, jets of flame shooting out of the holes and propelling him through the air as he spins rapidly like a frisbee. Some of the jets crash right into him, exploding on contact, but the unit manages to report their finding back, and most of the planes manage to make a safe retreat.

 

With the information from the planes, Dr. Hughes and his team are able to determine that Gamera is headed straight for Seattle – and will arrive within hours, far too soon to evacuate. The military and National Guard are deployed to the city, scrambling to set up defense perimeters and get the people into shelters. It just so happens that Amanda and Kenny are actually staying with relatives in Seattle since they had nowhere else to go after their hometown was destroyed. In the chaos, the two are separated. Amanda is forced into a shelter without her son. Kenny, lost, confused, and frightened, winds up hiding in an evacuated school building.

 

Gamera lands in Seattle and quickly begins laying waste to the city despite the military’s best efforts to stop him. Long scenes of destruction ensue, including Gamera walking right through the Duwamish Railroad Bridge and toppling the Space Needle. Along the way, he damages the shelter Amanda is staying in, tearing off one of the walls. She runs out of the shelter into the city to search for her son. She has several close calls with collapsing buildings, raging fires, and the like, and also has to avoid the military patrols who would doubtless take her into custody for her protection.

 

Dr. Aoyagi and Keri have been flown back to HQ, but don’t really have any idea how to use the information they’ve learned to stop Gamera. They know – or at least have a theory about – why he started his rampage, but given that he’s had hundreds of years to calm down and hasn’t, they don’t think it really matters. There’s no way to trap him with an avalanche in Seattle. The only plan they can come up with is to try and get Gamera to Mount Rainier National Park, where they can try to recreate the Inuit avalanche strategy. However, they have no idea how to actually lure him there short of setting a 60-mile trail of wildfires, which is obviously less than ideal. Still, in desperation, the military decides to run with the plan and begins setting up.

 

Luckily, the need to torch so much of the state is averted at the last second. In the midst of his rampage, Gamera approaches the school where Kenny is hiding. He runs up onto the roof and tries to convince Gamera to stop. At first Gamera seems to ignore him, though the monster doesn’t actually attack the school building itself. Amanda, thankfully nearby, hears Kenny screaming to the monster and follows his voice up to the roof of the school. When the monster sees Amanda so bravely trying to save her child, and hears Kenny’s continued pleas, it seems to soothe his “god of children” aspect. Suddenly, Gamera stops his assault on the city and wades into the harbor, disappearing beneath the water.

 

Dr. Hughes and his team continue to track Gamera, who seems to have settled down and is no longer threatening inhabited coastal areas. They monitor him as he gradually makes his way back to the icy Canadian north. Dr. Aoyagi and Teri begin giving interviews on the media circuit about Gamera, trying to reinforce the need for calm and the foolishness of trying to kill him, as some government officials and pundits are calling for. Whether or not Gamera is a god, they say, he is immensely powerful, unlike anything else known in the world, and his power must be respected. The best course of action is to observe, prepare, and try not to piss him off. Amanda and Kenny move back into their cottage by the ruined lighthouse to aid in the rebuilding efforts for their town.

 

 

[YM!]

Since Kim Possible is finished, I’d like to claim IMAX.

[Electric]

Title: Homestar Runner's Cruddy Debut Movie

Director: Matt and Mike Chapman [The Brothers Chaps]

Genre: Animated Comedy/Satire

Release Date: January 4

Major Cast: Matt Chapman (Homestar Runner, Strong Bad, Strong Sad, Strong Mad, The Cheat, The King of Town, Bubs, Coach Z, Homsar) Missy Palmer (Marzipan) Mike Chapman (Pom-Pom, Poor Impressions of Other Characters) They Might Be Giants (Themselves), Mark Lemke (Himself)

Theater Count: 1,591

MPAA Rating: PG [Mild language, crude humor, cartoon violence]

Runtime: 87 minutes/1:27

Production Budget: $10 million

Plot Summary:

The movie begins with Strong Bad mumbling to himself on the couch, half-asleep. "Ohh... Uniracers."

 

"Wake up, Strong Bad! It's time to start the movie!" whines his baby brother, Strong Sad.

 

"I don't wanna go to film school," Strong Bad replies, still lazing about on the couch.

 

"But you said you'd start it at noon! And it's noon!"

 

Strong Sad hands his brother a script. "Homestar Runner's Cruddy Debut Movie", it reads. 

 

"CRUD?" shouts Strong Bad. "I was pretty sure, the last time I saw this, it was crap."

 

"The marketing people, the censors. They decided it had to be toned down for families."

 

"What a load of crap... crud." 

 

The official movie begins now, after this short introduction. Homestar Runner is sitting in at a desk, looking at a bottle of strange-looking liquid, with "DNA EVIDENCE" written on it in poor handwriting. "I have this... DAN evidence. Bubs is supposed to pick it up, but he's not here yet." There is a loud knock on the door. "Come on in!" Homestar says.

 

It's Strong Bad, wearing a very poorly-designed "BUBS" mask with blue crayon scrawled over a piece of paper in an attempt to convince people he is Bubs. Homestar is somehow convinced of that this is Bubs, and hands the DNA evidence to him without questioning anything.

 

We cut to Strong Bad, Strong Mad, and The Cheat. "That was too easy!" Strong Bad cackles, as The Cheat replies with his trademarks squeak language, and Strong Mad shouts out "DOUG THE DINO!!!!"

 

Strong Bad groans; Strong Mad has been obsessing over his poorly-drawn creation, Doug the Dino. All of the sudden, as the three of them are walking across the field toward Strong Badia, Homsar and Senor Cardgage both mysteriously appear.

"Seventh Paul," mumbles Senor Cardgage.

 

"Jake's got a third elbow!" shouts Homsar.

 

This startles Strong Bad, and he drops the DNA Evidence. There's a strange reaction with the grass. Not some chemical reaction, but a portal opens up to another dimension. The five of them are sucked into this portal, and are placed in a strange room, full of various Homestar Runner characters and spinoffs. There's the old-timey (1936) characters, the 20x6 variety, and then Teen Girl Squad/4 Gregs, and the Cheat Commandos.

 

There are snippets of conversation we hear from all four of these groups. The theme is, they are confused about what happened. We hear Sci Fi and D&D Greg arguing about whether this was caused by a Level 20 Wizard or an advanced alien race.

 

But all these familiar faces disappear, and they see the rest of the gang interacting with two new strange groups.

Coach Z and Bubs are chatting with Mark Lemke [the namesake of Homestar Runner], while the King of Town anxiously looks for a source of food. Strong Sad and Marzipan are playing some strange indie rock with They Might Be Giants, with Pom-Pom recording some shots for his latest indie movie. Homestar looks just as he did when he was watching over the DNA evidence back at the office.

 

"What is going on here?" Homestar inquiries.

 

"I don't think that was DNA evidence you had there, Homestar," suggests Strong Sad.

 

"Then what was it?"

 

"I know!" admits Coach Z. "It's a mix... of all the drinks at the concession stand, and my special terlet worter!"

 

"Your what?" everyone asks him.

 

"TERLET WORTER!"

 

Bubs, who has the most experience deciphering Coach Z's accent, quickly realizes what he's talking about. "Ew!"

 

The Cheat lets out a few Cheat noises, and Pom-Pom makes some bubble sounds. Everyone laughs as though something hilarious was just said.

 

"Nothing's completed without... throwing bricks!" Strong Bad tries to throw a brick at Homestar, who easily ducks out of the way. It hits Strong Sad instead. Strong Bad lets out his trademark evil laugh; he was hoping to hit Homestar, but hitting his stupid baby brother is a good result as well.

 

With They Might Be Giants playing their instruments, the cast bursts into a song "Late Decemberween Presents". Snow begins to fall in the background on cue.

 

I forgot to get you a present

For Decemberween

Not even a homemade ornament

Or a gift card to a store you've never seen

 

I kind of hope this song makes up for it

But, I don't really care

So let's raise a cup of hot jones

To belated holiday cheer!

 

The credits roll here. Strong Bad pops out near the end of the credits. "WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE?! THERE'S NO SECRET ENDING! AND CLEAN UP BEFORE YOU GO!"

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 13, 2018 by Electric
spacing issyous

[YM!]

Conductive 

Studio: Endless Entertainment 

FlyingCapes

Plan B Entertainment 

Release Date: 9/6/Y3

Genre: Superhero/Sci-Fi/Drama

Director: Sam Raimi

Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, intense action sequences and some language

Budget: $105M

Theater Count: 4,010

Format: 2D, 3D, and IMAX 

Runtime: 130 minutes 

Cast:

Brad Pitt as John Watson/Surge

Viola Davis as Susan Phillips

Sung Kang as Max Blither/Zero 

Logan Lerman as David Wolfe/X’toka

Tyrese Gibson as Scar

Bob Odenkirk as Tyler Cooke

Paul Rudd as “Hound”

Spoiler

Benedict Wong as Charles Blither/Bio-Freeze

Ludi Lin as young Max Blither

 

Spoiler

The movie opens with a news segment on the hero, Surge, a superhero with lightning based powers and flight. The news report explains a bit of the mythos behind Surge, explaining his powers, his backstory, and how the loss of his alien father inspire acts him to make the world a better place. Surge addresses the interviewer, telling her how “He’ll always be their to help the ones who can’t be helped especially those in Princestine City.” Then we cut to Surge in a fight with his arch nemesis Bio-Freeze, an supervillain with the power to harness ice, indirectly caused a massive explosion that destroyed half of the city, killing numerous people creating a massive public backlash. Ashamed for his actions, John gave up his Surge persona and vowed not to use his powers.

 

20 years later, we see an older Surge, but in disguise as his alter ego, John Watson working at TechCorp, a big corporation as an executive, his workers and boss, the CEO, Tyler Cooke congratulates him on how he landed their pitch for their new invention,  Echo, the most powerful speaker and that next week he wants him to meet with Max Blither, a multimillionaire who is considered investing in the speakers and possibly buy out the company. John walks home from work with a briefcase in hand. The man stops to get some coffee from a nearby coffee store. However, he is stopped by seeing a woman getting mugged. Stepping in, he chases the mugger down a alley, he manages to beat the mugger without using his powers, giving the woman back her purse. The woman tries to thank him but he walks away. 

 

John returns home to see his eccentric roommate, the surgeon Susan cooking dinner. Susan dryly and sarcastically asks if he has returned to fighting crime. John refuses but admits he stopped a mugger. Susan tries to assure him what happened wasn’t his fault, but John ignores the comment. After eating, John asks Susan if she can help with a few cuts, specifically a long slice across his chest, he got in the fight. The next day, John wakes up to the news of a mysterious golden meteorite crashing nearby a local farm. Susan convinces John to investigate the crash, which he does reluctantly later that night. A young humanoid alien with a cat like tail, emerges from the crator. The alien grabbing a piece of corn, eats it, gaining the ability to speak English. The alien reveals his name as X’toka explains his origins, and his ship crash landed here. X’toka also says that his kind is in grave danger, and how he needs to be trained as a superhero so he can defend the galaxy. John asks why him, he’s not a hero, X’toka however senses unearthly power running through him guessing he might some experience. John seeing some of himself in him lets him stay with him. 

 

After the two leave, a man in a black and white checkered suit with a bright blue mask walks by and scans the meteorite. Breaking off a chunk of it, he places it in a briefcase and walks away. Driving down back to the city, he approaches a gang of thieves in the city, the Barricudas. Their leader, Scar, approaches the man. The man introduces himself as Zero, offering them the chunk of the meteorite, and convinces them of how valuable it is. Scar, tells him how stupid he was going in unarmed against a man who doesn’t listen to anyone but he’ll take the meteorite though. Zero kicks the briefcase away and grabs Scar’s hand to freeze, causing Scar to reluctantly join his cause.

 

The next morning, John awakes to sound of the TV blaring. X’toka reveals he’s been studying Earth culture all night and has an interest in particularly the show “That 70’s Show”. John is annoyed being waken up early while Susan finds X’toka’s antics amusing revealing he helped make breakfast (a delicious platter of breakfast food.) John starts the training after breakfast starting with getting X’toka a secret identity and a costume much to X’toka’s confusion. John says most of the people on Earth are dumb enough to believe with a simple disguise (glasses, different hairstyles, how they act), they won’t expect a thing on who you truly are and that a custome also hides the truth and is nice style wise, showing him his old suit which impresses X’toka. X’toka takes the name, David Wolfe mainly because it sounds cool and on the condition he keeps his regular name as his superhero name. In their personas, the two stop at a custome shop to get him a costume, David chooses a custome (a neon green cat like suit). John takes David to the discrete, abandoned farm where he trained in, asking him to show him what he’s got. It is revealed X’toka has superhuman like reflexes, enhanced speed along with the ability to fly. John teaches him basic hand to hand combat for fighting and being sparring partner, after much fights, X’toka finally beats John. 

 

Afterwards, the two head back to Princestine City, the two see a robbery at TechCorp. X’toka puts on his suit ready for battle, while John grabs his Surge suit as well, to see Scar and his henchmen, holding people hostage, only this time carrying strange weapons. John fought the burglars while X’toka escorts the bystanders out of the building and manage to defeat them, however Scar throws a grenade creating a huge amount of sound, managing to weaken and hurt X’toka, showing his weakness to intense sound, while they get away as the building starts to come apart. Out of time and options, John is forced to use his powers to save X’toka, grabs the discarded and damaged weapon, and escape. On the drive back home, John is saddened having used his powers but X’toka reassures him he was doing the right thing. On the drive back John reveals to X’toka why about why he stopped being a hero after the explosion he caused but X’toka reassures him it wasn’t his fault and he was doing the right thing. The two gain a mentor/student bond.

 

The two head back home to see Susan cleaning watching the news, greeting both of them happily, joking how John didn’t tell he was fighting crime again. The news program praises the efforts of the duo although with much skepticism. The next day, John decides the two of them need to find out what’s going on and where the technology the criminals they used came from, vowing to give up his powers afterwards. John also tells Susan about the weapon. Susan decides to help John on his quest by helping the two find a friend of hers, an engineer. 

 

The trio go to the engineer’s house and find a old woman, and ask where Hound is. The old woman reveals herself as the mother of the detective telling him to come outside. Susan jokes about him still living with his mother but the two happily embrace, they head to the basement to reveal a huge computer room. Despite John’s hesitation, Susan reveals John and David/X’toka are superheroes. X’toka shows him the discarded weapon, Hound reveals that this was some of the technology from TechCorp, specifically the Echo. John deduces at first, that his boss is behind the attack, however X’toka says it doesn’t make much sense as Tyler doesn’t have a real motive even if he wanted to move in the weapons industry. John then pulls a list of potential buyers, but one name is familiar to John which is Tyler Cooke. X’toka and John deduce the Tyler is involved in the break-in in some capacity. Hound offers to fix the machine but John declines letting him have it. Hound also gifts X’toka sound absorbing headphones to combat the sonic attacks. Suddenly a loud blast is heard outside, the two heroes suit up and prepare for battle. 

 

Scar and his men manage to track John and his gang, fighting them one more time. Although they have the upper hand, Zero comes in and fights John, who to John’s surprise has ice powers, almost gaining the upper hand but John swiftly defeats him. Scar and his men get into cars and try to flee while Zero flies away. John and X’toka fly after Zero while Susan and Hound chase Scar through the city a high speed car chase. Zero topples a building, to distract the two. John and X’toka manage to save the people inside and stop the building from falling apart. The crowd of people gathers outside of the building praising John and X’toka for their heroism, happy to have heroes back. Unfortunately the villains manage to get away. 

 

Back at TechCorp, Tyler preparing for a speech to his board. Zero appears out of nowhere and tells Tyler he’s taking over. Tyler refuses, but Zero kills him. The trio then head back home but John remember he had an important meeting today. After dropping Susan and X’toka off, John quickly heads to work, only to see Tyler missing. Max appears from behind him and greets John much to his confusion as his new boss revealing that he bought the corporation. John asks what happened to Tyler, and Max says he went on vacation. After a long conversation, John notices something off about Max, but Max invites him for dinner tonight. John accepts albeit reluctantly until he notices a scar on Max’s face, the same scar that Bio-Freeze had, and the same mannerisms, deducing that Bio-Freeze has returned under a new name, Zero and is Max Blither in disguise. John rushes back home, and telling X'toka and Susan, that he suspects Max is not only the one who supplied the weapons and stole the Echoes, but that he may be Bio-Freeze/Zero as well. Susan and X’toka make a plan to investigate while John is at dinner with Max. 

 

Not wanting Susan to go in unarmed, John makes a pit stop at Hound’s mother’s house, to retrieve Hound’s own upgraded version of the gun. The trio reaches Max’s mansion in Susan’s van, and X’toka and Susan sneak in the back while John has dinner with Max. During the dinner, the two enter an awkward conversation about their fathers, John comments about how his father was a monster (which literally speaking is true), Max reveals he and his father were very close and that he died. John asks how and Max responds in the Surge explosion. Handcuffs made out of strong rubber like material appear out of John’s chair, revealing it was a trap. X’toka and Susan are ambushed by Scar and his men and fight them off. Max reveals he knows that John is Surge and that his father was Bio-Freeze.

 

Flashbacks reveal Surge shot a powerful bolt of lightning at both Bio-Freeze and his doomsday machine, causing a massive explosion, killing many. While Surge flies off in disgust, guilt and sorrow, Bio-Freeze was critically injured. A young Max Blither goes to tend to his father dying in his arms. Young Max sobs intensely in sorrow. Max inherited his father’s inheritance, millions of stolen dollars and technology, along with his ice powers, showing Max’s rise to power. 

 

Max also reveals that he isn’t Bio-Freeze but he is someone else, his Zero costume appears out of thin air on his body. Max then reveals that he saw him and X’toka out in the fields upon their first meeting and he hired the toughest criminals in town to lure him out of hiding, so he can kill him. Max says there’s another part of his plan but he doesn’t want to monologue so he could escape. But before he can finish, John leaps out the trap and fights Max. After a long grueling fight, Surge gets the upper hand and is about to finish Max but decides not to out of guilt. Max using this to his advantage, stabs him with an icicle sword, and uses his ice powers to freeze him to death but X’toka and Susan burst in to stop him. However, Max creates a blast of powerful sonic energy, injuring all three but almost gravely hurting X’toka, and rallies his men and leave saying he will get what he wants eventually one way or another.

 

The trio rush back home to help heal X’toka. Furious at falling for the trap and X’toka almost dying, John blames himself. The next day, X’toka makes a great recovery, but John refuses to go, saying he’s caused enough trouble already. X’toka tries to convince John otherwise but John refuses to listen telling him he doesn’t need John to be a hero. X’toka leaves reluctantly, saying he doesn’t need Surge, but he needs his friend. Max confronts his henchmen, Scar says they did their part and want their prize. Max agrees but kills Scar but not his henchmen claiming he still he a use for them. X’toka and Susan manage to track Max to TechCorp and confront him but to their surprise he’s alone. Max reveals it’s a trap and uses all the Echoes in the room to create enough sound to hurt X’toka despite his headphones and knocks out both Susan and X’toka. 

 

John at house watches TV glumly, flicking through channels, finally landing on an episode of “That 70’s Show” and has an epiphany on his actions, and decides not to let his past control him and goes to look for his friends. John, goes to Hound and tells him about his dilemma, Hound offers to help but they are interrupted by an ad for the newest Echo finally going on sale to the public, with the first 200 customers inside TechCorp get a free Echo, ending with Max jokingly warning an explosive event. John realizes that Max plans on using the Echo as a coverup to blow up the building using the Echoes. Hound points out in order for that to work high amounts of electrical power would be required to create said bomb. John suspects Max might want him to come there, as an attempt to frame and kill him.

 

John suits up along with Hound using the technology he has at his lair to help including a stronger pair of headphones for X’toka. Hound gets the customers to leave by warning them that they are getting faulty Echoes by pretending to be a pissed executive. John sneaks into the building, fighting hordes of henchmen, and head to the observatory to see Max standing their in an upgraded armored Zero suit complete with sound blasters and jet packs. X’toka and Susan are chained together from the top of the building as well. Max says if John doesn’t do what he say, he’ll drop his friends. John refuses and Max drops the two. John flies down as fast as he can and saves the two just in time before they hit the ground. Max activates his sonic bomb, however while it countdowns, John and X’toka take on Max while Susan and Hound attempt to disarm the machine. Although, Max gains the upper hand, using John’s electrical abilities and X’toka reflexes the two tag team Max and manage to disarm his Zero suit while Susan and Hound manage to disarm the bomb. However John becomes fatigued and falls but using his speed, X’toka saves John. Max is placed in jail for his acts, and the four become a crime fighting team. The film ends with John and X’toka having a conversation about X’toka eventually having to go back into space, X’toka believes he still has training to do first, John hugs him and says he’ll make a fine hero.

 

Edited April 16, 2018 by YourMother the Edgelord

[YM!]

@Xillix give TFA a small release (20 theaters) August 23, and then goes wide August 30th.

 

Also add Conductive - Superhero/Sci-Fi/Drama - 4,025 theaters - in 3D - September 6th - Directed by Sam Raimi

Edited March 15, 2018 by YourMother the Edgelord

[Xillix]

15 hours ago, YourMother the Edgelord said:

@Xillix give TFA a small release (20 theaters) August 23, and then goes wide August 30th.

 

Also add Conductive - Superhero/Sci-Fi/Drama - 4,025 theaters - in 3D - September 6th - Directed by Sam Raimi

Okay on the first one.

 

Can't do the second til it's finished.

[YM!]

On 3/14/2018 at 8:38 PM, YourMother the Edgelord said:

Conductive - Superhero/Sci-Fi/Drama - 4,025 theaters - in 3D and IMAX - September 6th - Directed by Sam Raimi

Now completed @Xillix

Edited March 17, 2018 by YourMother the Edgelord

[cookie]

Second Wind: Stormy Seas

 

Studio: Fine Films Inc.

Genre: Adventure/Comedy

Director: Peter Billingsley

Producer: Eod Nohj

Budget: $45m

Release Date: June 21st

Theater Count: 3,335

Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)

Cast: Ed Helms, Drew Barrymore, Joe Manganiello, Rhys Darby

Previous Film's Gross (OW/DOM/WW): $19,313,431 / $64,557,020 / $100,915,277

 

Plot: 

 

The movie is set almost immediately after the ending to Second Wind where Owen (Helms) has made amends with Brad (Manganiello) who Owen fended with in the last film to Owen's wife Lisa (Barrymore)'s agitation. The three are now stuck out in the middle of the ocean with their escape raft while they await rescue, but as time passes that rescue is looking less and less likely. They manage to survive thanks to Brad using his physical abilities to dive into the ocean and catch fish for them to eat, Lisa setting up a system to distill the sea water into drinking water and Owen navigating the raft by deciphering the night sky. One day the raft comes across a large whale which rams the side of the raft by accident causing considerable damage. This throws a wrench into their means of survival and the relationships between the three begin to deteriorate again. Brad goes all Captain Ahab hijacking the raft to after the whale while Lisa and Owen's relationship woes begin to resurface. Brad is convinced the whale has a big white spot on the side and begins to pursue any whale who even remotely looks like it. Lisa tries to get Brad to pull himself together but finds she's receiving little help from Owen and the two begin to fight between each other distracting from Brad growing increasingly vengeful. It escalates to the point where Brad picks a fight with a gang of orcas who retaliate causing considerable damage to the raft, essentially breaking it in two and separating Owen from Lisa and Brad. The last Lisa and Brad see of Owen is him drafting away on a frail piece of the raft but they can't get to him while the orcas keep pursuing them.

Some time later Lisa is sulking over the loss of Owen, blaming Brad but more than that herself. Owen drifts across the vast sea almost starving to death before he's miraculously saved by an eccentric globetrotter named Darryl. Owen tells Darryl his wife and friend are still out there and they should search for them. Soon after a large whale passes Darryl's boat which Owen recognizes as the whale that Brad was chasing after, and he suggests to Brad that they should pursue it. Later after sundown Owen and Darryl miraculously manage to locate Brad and Lisa while a storm draws in and the whale reappears. Owen lights up a flare so Lisa could see it but Brad is too occupied to get his vengeance on the whale that he leaps after it with a wooden stake in hand. Owen and Darryl manage to save Lisa but now they have to save Brad as the whale fends him off and he's trapped in the rough seas while the orcas from before show up to turn Brad into their next dinner. Owen, Sue and Darryl manage to scare most the orcas off by blowing the horns on Darryl's boat but one orca attempts to attack Brad but in his pent-up rage Brad wrestles with it before it wrestles free and bails as the storm intensifies. Brad is saved by the others and he comes to the realization that his quest for vengeance maybe isn't worth it when it puts people's lives on the line. The group still have to navigate through the intense storm which almost brings them under especially as a massive wave appears and throws everyone off, but quick thinking from Darryl saves all of them. As the storm recedes leaving behind a beautiful sunrise in the still ocean, Owen and Lisa make amends and Brad apologizes to everyone once more. Darryl asks where they want him to take them and Owen jokingly says the Bahamas as they continue to drift into the sunset as the movie ends.
 

Edited March 17, 2018 by cookie

[Xillix]

Indigenous

Release Date: October 11th, Y3 (Limited Cinerama release) / October 18th, Y3 (Wide release)

Studio: Gold Crescent Pictures

Genre: Period/Fantasy/Action

Director: Sam Mendes

Theater Count: 22 (Limited) / 3,823 (Wide)

Premium Format: Cinerama

Shooting Format: Cinerama 3-strip 35mm

Aspect Ratio: Curved and panoramic, about 2.59:1

Release Image Formats: 2K Smilebox DCP, 4K Smilebox DCP, 3-strip 35mm Cinerama

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos

Production Budget: $110 million

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, language, and suggestive content

Running Time: 131 minutes

Major Cast: Daniel Craig (Captain Jones), Benedict Cumberbatch (First Mate Andrews), BD Wong (Chief Ajikkar), Peter Sudarso (Tongbin), Michelle Yeoh (High Priestess Lushwa)

 

Plot Summary:

 

Note - the indigenous characters in the film speak an invented language. Their important dialogue is subtitled.

Spoiler

 

Set sometime in the 16th Century, the film concerns a British expedition into the seas of southeast Asia. The ship Majesty and her crew, led by Captain Jones (Daniel Craig) and First Mate Andrews (Benedict Cumberbatch), become lost in a typhoon and wind up passing an uncharted island. The crew decide to head ashore to get their bearings and hunt to replenish their dwindling food supply. At first the island appears to be uninhabited. However, as they make their way deeper into the jungle, they realize they are being followed and watched by a group of native warriors led by a young man, Tongbin (Peter Sudarso). The two groups confront one another in a tense standoff, which is eventually quelled by the arrival of the native tribe's leader, Chief Ajikkar (BD Wong).
 

The two groups obviously have an enormous language barrier, but ultimately tensions dissipate for a bit and the natives agree to let the explorers visit one of their villages to eat and rest. For a while things are fine - until Captain Jones takes a fancy to Tongbin's older sister and attempts to rape her. Tongbin interrupts the assault and fights back, beating the Captain severely, trying to kill him. Andrews and some of the other Majesty crew members intervene. After a brief brawl, the natives eject the Englishmen from their village. However, they soon return with muskets from their ship and begin to slaughter the villagers, killing Chief Ajikkar in the process. The natives fight back and are quite capable with melee weapons and martial arts, but are ultimately overwhelmed. The surviving population flee the village and the Brits ransack it.

 

The displaced villagers venture deeper into the jungle, arriving at a temple carved into a mountainside. Lushwa (Michelle Yeoh), the High Priestess of the temple, welcomes them inside. They beg her to summon the tribe's god of war, who is so terrible and destructive he does not have a name so that he isn't accidentally invoked. Lushwa refuses, saying it would bring devastation not just to the invaders but to the entire island. Tongbin, though, refuses to take no for an answer. He steals the god's idol from the temple and spills his own blood upon it, summoning the deity of destruction as Lushwa screams out in protest.
 

The explorers are having a party of sorts in the occupied village, feasting on the natives' food, stealing valuable-looking items from their homes and such. They're startled by loud stomping and roaring from inside the jungle. Suddenly the war god emerges, toppling trees with each step. It's a sort of golem, made of shimmering, jagged crystals with a fire-like energy burning inside. The invaders' weapons are useless against the deity, which proceeds to destroy the village around them, crushing a few of the crew underfoot. The Englishmen race back to their ship, but the raging god summons massive spikes of crystal from the seabed, which impale the vessel and sink it. The god slaughters most of the crew, but First Mate Andrews manages to sneak off back into the jungle.

 

He is found by Lushwa and a group of temple guards, who capture him and plan to use him as a sacrifice to appease the war god and re-seal him. Along the way back through the jungle to the temple, they are pursued by the crystalline menace, mowing down the foliage and destroying small settlements on the path. Just as it seems they have been trapped and will be killed by the god, Tongbin and his group of warrior friends arrive and save them. Tongbin chews out his friends for saving Andrews and not just rescuing Lushwa, but the priestess points out they must complete a ceremony at the temple with Andrews to appease the god. Reluctantly, Tongbin agrees to wait for his revenge.

 

The group safely make it back to the temple, and Lushwa and her assistants tie Andrews to a sacrificial altar and adorn him with ceremonial dress. All the while Andrews rants and raves about how the British Navy will come looking for them and destroy and subjugate their “primitive, demon-worshipping rock.” While no one present can understand English, his unpleasant demeanor does little to endear him to anyone. Lushwa retrieves a sacred dagger made of the same crystal as the war god, and begins an incantation…
 

Just then, though, the god begins to smash through the temple walls, tearing away at the mountainside. In the panic, Andrews manages to break free from his bonds and scramble off of the altar. Lushwa instructs all those present to re-capture him as quickly as possible, but Tongbin has had enough. He snatches the dagger from her hands, races up to Andrews, and plunges it into his heart. This, of course, fails to sate the destructive god. The temple is torn apart as Lushwa prays desperately, to no avail. The entire structure eventually collapses, burying everyone within.

 

The film ends with a fleet of British ships arriving on the shores of the island, only for the god to emerge and begin smashing the vessels and massacring the men.

 

 

[YM!]

Things Fall Apart

Studio: Infinite Studios  

Release Date: 8/30/Y3, 8/23/Y3 in select theaters

Genre: Drama

Director: Ryan Coogler

Rating: R

Budget: $30M

Theater Count: 20 on 8/23, 3,021 on 8/30

Format: 2D 

Runtime: 120 minutes 

Cast:

Winston Duke as Okonkwo

The rest are unkwowns

Spoiler

Okonkwo is famous in the surrounding villages for being a wrestling champion, defeating a wrestler nicknamed "the cat" (because he never lands on his back). He is strong, hard-working, and strives to show no weakness. Okonkwo wants to dispel his father Unoka’s tainted legacy of unpaid debts, a neglected wife and children, and cowardice at the sight of blood. Okonkwo works to build his wealth entirely on his own, as Unoka died a shameful death and left many unpaid debts. He is also obsessed with his masculinity, and any slight compromise on this is swiftly destroyed. As a result, he often beats his wives and children, and is unkind to his neighbors. However, his drive to escape the legacy of his father leads him to be wealthy, courageous, and powerful among the people of his village. He is a leader of his village, and he has attained a position in his society for which he has striven all his life.

 

Okonkwo is selected by the elders to be the guardian of Ikemefuna, a boy taken by the village as a peace settlement between Umuofia and another village after Ikemefuna's father killed an Umuofian woman. The boy lives with Okonkwo's family and Okonkwo grows fond of him, although Okonkwo doesn't show his fondness so as to not appear weak. Nwoye and Ikemefuna become best friends and learns to be more manly despite missing how he lived before especially the stories from his mother. Okonkwo also starts growing more found of Nwoye due to his new change in attitude and mellows slightly. The boy looks up to Okonkwo and considers him a second father. The Oracle of Umuofia eventually pronounces that the boy must be killed. Ezeudu, the oldest man in the village, warns Okonkwo that he should have nothing to do with the murder because it would be like killing his own child - but to avoid seeming weak and feminine to the other men of the village, Okonkwo disregards the warning from the old man, striking the killing blow himself even as Ikemefuna begs his "father" for protection. For many days after killing Ikemefuna, Okonkwo feels guilty and saddened.

 

Shortly after Ikemefuna's death, things begin to go wrong for Okonkwo. Nwoye, becomes disillusioned and dropped his traditions along with abandoning his religion. His sickly daughter Ezinma falls unexpectedly ill and it is feared she may die; during a gun salute at Ezeudu's funeral, Okonkwo's gun accidentally explodes and kills Ezeudu's son. He and his family are sent into exile to Mbanta, for seven years to appease the gods he has offended. However, Nwoye and Ezinma are allowed to stay as both are on the cusp of adulthood. During his time in Mbanta, Okonkwo becomes even more diluted in his ideals on what it means to be a man becoming even more hostile and violent.

 

While Okonkwo is away in Mbanta, he learns that white men are living in Umuofia with the intent of introducing their religion, Christianity. Nwoye becomes one their latest converts, feeling a wholeness from Christianity, and gains some favoritism among the colonizers. As the number of converts increases, the foothold of the white people grows and a new government is introduced. However a large amount of the village refuses to change. The village is forced to respond with either appeasement or resistance to the imposition of the white people's nascent society after is killed in an attempt to start a rebellion. Returning from exile, Okonkwo finds his village changed by the presence of the white men and Nwoye. Angry, Okwonkwo fights Nwoye almost killing him and disavows him as his son. After a convert commits a heinous act by unmasking an elder as he embodies an ancestral spirit of the clan, the village retaliates by destroying a local Christian church. 

 

In return, the leader of the white government takes them prisoner and holds them for a ransom of two hundred cowries for a short while, further humiliating and insulting the native leaders, doing things such as shaving their heads and whipping them. As a result, the people of Umuofia finally gather for what could be a great uprising. Okonkwo, a warrior by nature and adamant about following Umuofian custom and tradition, despises any form of cowardice and advocates war against the white men. When messengers of the white government try to stop the meeting, Okonkwo beheads one of them. Because the crowd allows the other messengers to escape, and does not fight with Okonkwo he realizes with despair that the people of Umuofia are not going to fight to protect themselves — his society's response to such a conflict, which for so long had been predictable and dictated by tradition, is changing.

 

When the local leader of the white government comes to Okonkwo's house to take him to court, he finds that Okonkwo has hanged himself to avoid being tried in a colonial court. Among his own people, Okonkwo's actions have tarnished his reputation and status, as it is strictly against the teachings of the Igbo to commit suicide

 

 

Edited March 18, 2018 by YourMother the Edgelord

[Xillix]

Cataclysmic

Release Date: April 19th, Y3

Studio: Gold Crescent Pictures

Genre: Disaster/Period/Drama

Director: Francis Lawrence

Cinematographer: Jo Willems

Theater Count: 4,029

Premium Formats: 3D, IMAX & IMAX 3D

Shooting Format: 6.5K Digital (Arri Alexa 65 with IMAX branding) (In native 3D) / IMAX 15/65 film (Select scenes) (Post-converted to 3D)

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 / 1.90:1 (IMAX Digital, IMAX with Laser on some screens), 1.44:1 (Select scenes in IMAX with Laser and IMAX 15/70 film)

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 2K 3D DCP, 4K DCP, 2K IMAX Digital 3D DCP, 4K IMAX with Laser 3D DCP, IMAX 2D 15/70 film prints

Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos, IMAX 12-Channel (IMAX with Laser DCPs only)

Production Budget: $175 million

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for peril, violence, language, and scenes of destruction

Running Time: 142 minutes

Major Cast: Jennifer Lawrence (Emily Sanderson), Ben Affleck (Dr. Martin Pope), Michelle Pfeiffer (Angela Sanderson), Michael Copon (Benjie Andrada), Reggie Lee (Dr. Melchor Guinto), Shannyn Sossamon (Dr. Holly Ocampo)

 

Plot Summary:

Based on true events.

 

Spoiler

 

The date: July 16th, 1990. The time: 4:26 PM. The place: Baguio, a resort city in the mountains of the northern Philippines, over 5,000 feet above sea level. Being winter in the southern hemisphere, this is the off-season for the tourist destination. Even still, the city is bustling. In one of its many hotels, the Hotel Nevada, the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, is hosting a seminar. Among the many in attendance is American volcanologist Dr. Martin Pope (Ben Affleck), who has been studying the island nation's many volcanoes in cooperation with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, or PHIVOLCS.

 

In the middle of the seminar, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes. The Hotel Nevada collapses around the occupants as the ground shakes violently. Dozens of people within the conference room where the seminar is being held are crushed under falling debris. Dr. Pope manages to escape the disintegrating hotel, only to emerge into an apocalyptic scene in the city. Another hotel, the Hyatt Terraces, collapses completely. Several other buildings are falling apart, dropping concrete and steel into the streets. Landslides race over Kennon Road, the main route in and out of the city, burying occupied cars. The runway of the local airport cracks and fractures, making it unusable for planes. Pipes split open underground, spurting water out through the shattered pavement. Dr. Pope becomes lost in a crowd of panicked locals and tourists, desperately running for cover as the metropolis unravels around him.

 

Onscreen title cards inform us of the facts. By the time it is over, 28 buildings throughout the city have collapsed completely. All means of transport into and out of the city save for helicopter are completely cut off for 48 hours. In the Hyatt Terraces alone, 80 people have been killed. 27 people at the USAID seminar have died in the Hotel Nevada. Across Luzon, the Philippines' largest island, the death toll is 1,621.

 

It is only a warning.

 

 

The Hyatt Terraces hotel in Baguio before the quake...

 

..and after the quake.

 

CATACLYSMIC

 

TWO WEEKS LATER

50 miles southwest of Baguio, the indigenous Aeta people of the Zambales Mountains notice what appears to be steam coming from a fairly inconspicuous mountain, Mt. Pinatubo. Though it is the largest mountain in the immediate area, it is only slightly larger than those that surround it and mostly obscure it from view. It is heavily-eroded and completely covered by the forest, cloaked in live, vibrant green trees. The Aeta are perplexed. As far as they know, this has never happened here before.

 

Word of the steam spreads through the area, and Dr. Pope, the terrors of Baguio still fresh in his mind, decides to accompany a small team of scientists to examine the mountain in case the quake has triggered some sort of volcanic activity. Mt. Pinatubo is not known to be an active volcano, and its eruptive history, if any, is unknown. When Dr. Pope and the team, which also includes his friend Dr. Melchor Guinto (Reggie Lee) from PHIVOLCS, arrive to examine it, they find small rockslides but no steam or smoke. Though they confirm it is in fact a volcano, it appears dormant. They find no signs of pre-eruptive activity. The attention of PHIVOLCS turns to the many known active volcanoes on Luzon.

 

MARCH, 1991

Back in America, a young woman named Emily Sanderson (Jennifer Lawrence), who has lived at home in a small New England town her entire life, is ready to start the next chapter of her personal story. Though she'd gone into a job as a waitress out of high school, she'd decided when she was 23 to return to school to seek a better life. Now she is a recent graduate from Boston's Emerson College with a degree in journalism. Her goal is to travel the world photographing and reporting on the cultures of indigenous people.

 

After nearly a year of searching, she has found work with a small magazine and is leaving home to travel, on her own dime, to Australia in order to do a report on the Aborigines. Her single mother Angela (Michelle Pfeiffer) is the slightly overbearing type, but her concerns are legitimate - Emily's never been so far from home, she's taken out personal loans on top of her student loans to finance the trip and has no guarantee she'll be able to keep up with payments, and photojournalism is a notoriously competitive and often dangerous career. She's a good photographer, and very driven. But the "rag" she's working for, Angela believes, won't be around for long. She'd prefer she tried to get a job for her hometown newspaper.

 

Emily, though, has made her mind up and bought her plane ticket. She assures her mother that she's studied Aborigine culture, she has local contacts, a place to stay, and she knows which animals in the area are dangerous ("all of them," her mother points out). She expects to be gone for about a month. Though her mother is still concerned, and more than a bit clingy, she sees her off at the airport, begging her not to do anything stupid. "No wars, no wildfires, no terrorist attacks, none of that." Emily assures her it's a simple, safe job and departs with a warm hug.

 

Emily arrives in the Aboriginal village she'll be profiling on March 13th. At first, the job goes well. She's fascinated by the land and the people and gets some great shots. Communication with her employers is slow and sporadic, but cordial. She's convinced she's done the right thing for her life and her career.

 

On March 15th, the Aeta villagers living on the northwestern side of Mt. Pinatubo experience a succession of earthquakes. The area is known to be seismically active, and the quakes are small. At first, the researchers at PHIVOLCS are not terribly concerned. As they continue to monitor the situation over the next two weeks, however, the quakes not only continue but become more intense. Dr. Guinto becomes convinced that Mt. Pinatubo is active after all. Dr. Pope assists him with a proposal to install additional monitoring equipment on the volcano. Before they get the chance to formally present it, the mountain roars to life.

 

APRIL

On April 2nd, a series of small eruptions of steam and rock occur from a fissure near the summit of Mt. Pinatubo. PHIVOLCS quickly takes action, sending a team including Dr. Pope, Dr. Guinto, and Dr. Holly Ocampo (Shannyn Sossamon) - an American-born volcanologist of Philippine descent who speaks several of the native languages used by the Aeta and serves as both a scientist and a translator. Through their testing, the team discovers the mountain had been the site of enormous eruptions as recently as 500 years ago, and that the surrounding plains were in fact formed by volcanic runoff from these eruptions. Despite the fact that it is overgrown and largely unknown to the local residents, this means the mountain is still very much a major threat. As Dr. Pope notes, historical records show Mt. Vesuvius had been similarly overgrown just before the infamous eruption that destroyed Pompeii in the year 79 CE.

 

The team visit the native villages on the mountain and impress upon them the danger posed by the volcano's activity. Many of the villages further up the mountain have already been abandoned by the frightened residents. Those who remain on the mountain are told to prepare to evacuate to other villages further from the summit.

 

On April 8th, just before her assignment is to end, Emily receives word that the magazine she was working for has in fact gone out of business. She also receives a partial payment for her unfinished work in Australia. Emily, though, is a proud woman, unwilling to accept failure, and an avid reader of international news. After she leaves the Aboriginal village, she learns of Mt. Pinatubo's awakening. It seems, to her, the perfect story - a previously-unknown active volcano suddenly springing to life in an area heavily inhabited by native peoples.

 

Rashly, she decides to purchase an airplane ticket to the Philippines - cheaper than flying back to America anyway - and use the leftover money and supplies from her cancelled job to document the plight of the people living near the mountain. She assures herself that, even working freelance, the story is interesting enough to sell to a respectable publication. She calls her mother from the airport in Sydney and lies to her, claiming the magazine is so happy with her early work in Australia that they're sending her to the Philippines to document a tribe there. She does not mention the volcano. Her mother begs her to come home, but Emily convinces her that this is an opportunity she can't miss, sure to get her foot in the door of the industry and help pay off her loans.

 

Later that day, after the initial shock of the rushed, sudden phone call has worn off, Angela realizes that her daughter hadn't said where exactly in the Philippines she was headed. With no way to contact Emily, she tries to call the office of the magazine she worked for. The line is disconnected.

 

Emily arrives at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila on April 10th. She arranges to travel to and stay in the area around Mt. Pinatubo with Benjie Andrada (Michael Copon), who runs a frankly rather sketchy independent "adventure tour" business and is familiar with the area. While Benjie is vaguely aware that Pinatubo has been found to be active, he is unaware of its destructive potential and doesn't believe it poses a major threat because his family has been hiking there for generations without incident. Emily is willing to exploit his naivete and downplays the possible danger as well.

 

Emily and Benjie arrive in a village about eight miles from the summit of Mt. Pinatubo on April 12th. Benjie knows an Aeta man there, Manifacio, who is an old family friend and speaks decent English. In fact, Benjie explains, Manifacio had once saved his life when he was a child and fell into a sinkhole. They learn from Manifacio that this village is overflowing with people because many of the villages closer to the mountain's peak have been evacuated due to the eruptions. An official evacuation of the area within 10 kilometers (about 6.2 miles) of the summit had been ordered on April 10. The eruptions are still fairly small, however. When Manifacio informs them that multiple evacuation zones have been set up in case the activity increases, Emily decides this will be her story. She will move with the Aeta as they are pushed away from their homes fleeing the volcano. She hopes this will also keep her and Benjie safe.

 

For the rest of April, though the activity continues to build gradually, no further official evacuations are ordered. Dr. Pope and his team remain on the mountain to monitor it, and Emily and Benjie stay with Manifacio in the village - even as many other scared natives flee to more distant villages. Manifacio declares he will not leave his home until he is ordered to, and Emily and Benjie decide to remain with him.

 

MAY

During the month of May, the PHIVOLCS researchers become increasingly alarmed by the intensifying activity on the mountain. From their monitoring setup in Angeles City, the home of the American Clark Air Base and 16 miles from Pinatubo's summit, Dr. Pope's team realizes the levels of sulfur dioxide being released from the mountain are increasing steadily, suggesting there is a large column of magma rising from beneath the volcano. On May 20th, Dr. Pope and Dr. Ocampo visit the village where Manifacio, Emily, and Benjie are staying. They implore the remaining villagers to leave, but when questioned by Emily, admit there is no official evacuation order. PHIVOLCS wants to wait until it is absolutely certain that danger is imminent before forcing anyone out, as an official evacuation that proves not to be immediately necessary might lessen the credibility of later, more dire warnings.

 

Dr. Pope tries to level with Emily, saying she should not be there and that he has a "gut feeling" something terrible will happen soon. Emily refuses to budge without an official government order, saying it's important for the story get out. Dr. Pope challenges her altruistic posturing, suggesting she is simply looking to advance her career, and while she outwardly denies it, it's clear he's touched a nerve. He tells her that most of the people in the village are leaving despite their families having lived on the mountain for centuries. If the worst happens, he says, they will be with their families in their homeland. He asks how it would feel for her to die alone in a strange place thousands of miles from her family. Emily becomes angry and tells him off, saying it's none of his business. The village becomes something of a ghost town after the visit, with only Emily, Benjie, Manifacio, and a handful of other natives remaining.

 

Meanwhile, Angela is absolutely panicked about Emily. She's only heard the barest details about some sort of volcanic activity in the Philippines, but it's her nature to worry - especially since she doesn't know exactly where in the country Emily was headed, and has no way of contacting her. She begins calling humanitarian aid organizations who work with indigenous people in the country, asking around to see whether her daughter has contacted any of them. Of course, she has not. Angela's become something of a recluse, missing social appointments with her friends. Her neighbors have become concerned for her. Though she was previously a mostly non-practicing Catholic, she begins attending church regularly, praying for her daughter's safety.

 

On May 29th, Dr. Pope and the rest of the research team realize the sulfur dioxide emissions have dropped drastically. Far from being a good sign, this likely means the magma has become trapped in the volcano and is building up pressure, suggesting a major explosive eruption is imminent. Dr. Ocampo returns to the village, this time with Dr. Guinto, to again implore the last remaining residents to leave. Dr. Ocampo is much more civil in her conversation with Emily than Dr. Pope had been, but Emily still refuses to leave without Benjie and Manifacio. Thankfully, Dr. Guinto convinces Manifacio of the danger, and all three finally agree to evacuate despite the fact there is still no official order. 

 

Emily, Benjie, Manifacio, and the other remaining villagers evacuate to a smaller village roughly thirteen miles from the summit of Mt. Pinatubo. By now many of the Aeta people have gone all the way to the greater Manila metropolitan area, with huge numbers of them staying in a makeshift evacuee camp in the Amoranto Velodrome, a stadium in Quezon City. Manifacio proudly declares he is unwilling to leave the land of his ancestors and flee to a city, no matter what happens. He suggests this is as far as he will go from his home. Benjie tries to reason with him, but he remains steadfast in his conviction, seeing it as a point of honor.

 

JUNE

On June 3rd, the magma begins erupting from Pinatubo in small amounts. The village in which Emily is staying begins to empty out, much as the previous one had. Benjie is becoming concerned, but feels committed to staying with Manifacio. Emily has decided to refocus her story on him specifically and his refusal to leave his homeland in the face of impending disaster, and is also uninterested in leaving.

 

On June 7th, Pinatubo experiences its first major blast, shooting ash over four miles into the air. PHIVOLCS immediately issues an alert about the strong likelihood of a significant eruption within two weeks, triggering an official evacuation of all areas within 20 kilometers (about 12.4 miles) of the summit. This area, by now, is largely deserted anyway. Again, members of Dr. Pope's team head to nearby villages to warn any occupants to leave. Dr. Pope himself ends up visiting the village where Manifacio is staying, which is just outside the new mandatory evacuation area. He is pleased to see that Emily and Benjie are no longer with Manifacio. What he doesn't realize - and what Manifacio never reveals during his argument with Dr. Pope - is that the pair have simply made their way, ironically, to Angeles City in order to contact their families before returning to the village.

 

In the city, Emily places a call to her mother. Angela's immense relief at hearing from her daughter quickly turns to rage. An international shouting match ensues, Angela accusing Emily of having abandoned her, pointing out that she quickly discovered the lie about her employment with the magazine and has been a wreck ever since. Emily tries to turn it around on her, saying she'd known this was her choice of career for years and should have been prepared for this sort of thing. The only reason she'd lied, she insists, was to spare her mother from worrying too much. Angela counters that it was a selfish, senseless move - Emily knew that, if she'd told her mother she wanted to go to the Philippines of her own volition with no job, Angela would've done everything she could to convince her not to, and that she may have relented. She wasn't trying to spare her feelings, Angela says, just trying to avoid facing the fact that she was making a reckless decision.

 

Things only get worse when Emily confirms to her mother that she is there to cover the volcanic activity. Emily says she's complying with all evacuation orders, and in fact was already out of the current zone of evacuation over a week early. That doesn't soothe Angela's nerves at all. She demands her daughter return home, but Emily refuses. Angela asks where she is calling from, and when Emily says Angeles City, her mother declares she will come there and get her herself. Emily tells her not to, and Angela turns her emotions around on her - if it's too dangerous for her mother, why is she there? Emily, fed up, curtly assures her mother that she will be careful and that she loves her, but that she should stay at home. Then she hangs up, silent tears running down her face. She refuses to discuss the situation with Benjie as the two head back to the village.

 

Angela has no intention of staying home. After praying for guidance, she decides she must travel to the Philippines to retrieve her daughter, hoping she will be able to talk some sense into her face-to-face. She wrongly assumes Emily is actually staying in Angeles City, and even when calling the city's hotels to ask if she's staying in any of them produces no results, takes it on faith that she will find her somehow. Over the next several days, with help from her friends and members of her church, she raises enough money for three plane tickets - one to the Philippines, and two back to America. On the night of the 11th, she books her flight into the country, departing from Boston's Logan International Airport on June 14th for arrival on the 15th.

 

On the morning of June 12th, Mt. Pinatubo enters the next, more violent stage of its eruptive activity. Ash and rock is hurled 15 miles into the air, the explosions generating lighting within the ash column and small pyroclastic flows that reach up to two and a half miles from the summit. Emily becomes frightened and enraptured, having never seen anything like it. She spends the day getting as close to the edge of the evacuation zone as she can, snapping pictures all the while. Benjie and Manifacio remain in the village. Just as the sun is setting, Benjie prepares to leave to find her, but Emily finally returns, her fear seeming to have subsided. She's now exhilarated by the experience, and wonderfully proud of her photographs. She has no concept of the tragedy to come.

 

The June 12th eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, a mere firecracker compared to what was to come.

 

That night, at 8:00 PM local time, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center issues an alert about the formation and rapid development of a tropical cyclone just to the east of the Philippines. In the Aeta village, Emily, Benjie, and Manifacio are completely unaware of it. In Angeles City, Dr. Pope watches its movement with great anxiety.

 

A bit before 7:00 AM the next morning, June 13th, Emily and her companions are awoken by a series of earthquakes which lasts two hours. The small wooden building they're staying in begins to break apart, but Manifacio still refuses to leave, trying desperately to repair it and prop it up. Emily snaps away at the struggling man, while Benjie rushes out into the open in case the building collapses. In Angeles City, Dr. Pope and his team begin packing up their equipment to move, expecting the next evacuation order will need to be issued soon. Dr. Pope himself heads out to warn the villages closest to the city.

 

The volcanologists are proven right when, at 8:41 AM, the biggest eruption yet blasts out of the volcano, prompting the official evacuation order for all areas within 25 miles of the summit. That includes not just the last of the Aeta villages, but Angeles City itself. Dr. Pope arrives to where Emily, Manifacio and Benjie are soon after the eruption - which lasts for a continuous five minutes - begins. He's shocked to find Emily and Benjie still there with Manifacio. He tells them they all need to get out right now, and that the final explosion could happen at any point - and will be, in his words, "cataclysmic." Manifacio still refuses to leave the land of his people, even when told he will certainly die if he does not evacuate. Benjie feels conflicted about heading to safety or staying with the man who'd saved his life, but Manifacio tells him to leave.

 

Ultimately, Benjie and Emily get a ride out of the village with Dr. Pope, leaving Manifacio behind after a tearful goodbye between him and Benjie. When he learns they have nowhere to stay nearby, Dr. Pope suggests they make their way to the evacuee camp in Quezon City. They both agree. Dr. Pope drops them off outside the PHIVOLCS monitoring station. Dr. Pope returns to his team's workspace, where Dr. Guinto informs him that the tropical cyclone nearby has been upgraded to a typhoon, known as Typhoon Yunya, and is likely to make landfall on the island within the next two days. The team is relocating to Quezon themselves as part of the evacuation.

 

As Benjie searches for someone to take him to Quezon City, Emily informs him that she won't be going with him. Despite the official evacuation order, she's noticed much of the local population is not actually leaving. She claims she's far enough away from the volcano already, citing the fact that there have already been several pyroclastic flows which haven't gone any further than the river valleys at the base of Pinatubo. She says the story is here, not in Quezon, and if she wants to make all of this worth it then she needs to be where the story is.

 

By now Benjie knows how stubborn and headstrong she is, so he does not try to convince her to come with him. He simply asks what her mother would think. Emily replies that she'll be mad for a while, but insists - sounding distinctly as if she's trying to convince herself more than him - that it will all be worth it. The two say their goodbyes as Emily heads toward Clark Air Base to photograph the emergency evacuation of the American troops. Throughout the day, seismic activity continues, the quakes becoming more and more severe. Emily finds an unlocked apartment that's been hastily evacuated and spends the night inside.

 

When Benjie arrives at the stadium being used as an evacuee camp in Quezon City that night, he's shocked to see just how many people are inside. Dozens of thousands of people have already been evacuated, and the stadium is the largest single shelter for housing the displaced Aeta people. In the huge crowd, he comes across one of the people from Manifacio's village. In his native tongue, he asks Benjie where Manifacio is. Though he does not speak the language, Benjie hears his friend's name and knows what is being asked. Unable to bring himself to answer, he pretends not to understand.

 

Back in the apartment she has claimed for herself, Emily has trouble getting to sleep because of the increasingly violent earthquakes. The building seems solidly-constructed, and several apartments are still occupied by locals who've refused to evacuate. Still, as she lies in the unmade bed, the world around her trembling, she begins to cry. She wipes away her tears and distracts herself by taking an inventory of her remaining supply of unexposed film.

 

The next day, June 14th, the earthquakes which have been building in intensity over the previous 24 hours culminate in an eruption at 1:09 PM Philippine time. It is somewhat smaller than the previous eruption. Emily and some of the locals who have remained behind express hope that the worst is over. They are also happy to note that the ash is primarily falling to the southwest, on the other side of the mountain. In Quezon City, Dr. Pope and his team are happy to learn that Typhoon Yunya is weakening as it approaches shore. Still, they are far less optimistic about the situation with the volcano. They know that the amount of pressure built up beneath the mountain hasn't even come close to being released.

 

It is late morning in Boston. As Angela boards her flight, the captain informs the passengers that because of the continuing eruptions of Mt. Pinatubo, their planned route has been slightly modified to fly further west of the island on the final approach to Manila. This is only expected to result in a slight delay. As she takes her seat, she grabs a crucifix she's brought with her and says a prayer for her daughter.

 

JUNE 15

A weakened Typhoon Yunya makes landfall in the Philippines at 8:00 AM local time. Though the winds have reduced significantly from their 120mph peak the previous day, that is not what Dr. Pope and his team are worried about as they monitor the situation from Quezon City. The rotating winds of the storm will spread any ash and volcanic material ejected by Mt. Pinatubo all over the surrounding area, instead of concentrating it in a single direction. That's especially dangerous because the ash will mix with the heavy, flooding rains produced by the typhoon.

 

Emily is out and about in partially-evacuated Angeles City, braving the storm and the rumbles from the mountain. She is wandering far from her appropriated apartment when, at 1:42 PM, the mountain's final fury is unleashed. The ground shakes violently as an explosion with a force ten times greater than that of Mt. Saint Helens' blasts out of the mountain. Enormous pyroclastic flows race down the mountain, scouring the land, burning away and destroying every tree, farm, and village within a ten mile radius. The full enormity of the eruption is concealed by the angry storm clouds.

 

The main eruption of Mount Pinatubo, in the middle of Typhoon Yunya.

 

Lahars, boiling-hot mudslides of water, ash, and volcanic minerals, are fed by the pyroclastic flows and the torrential rains, surging down the mountainside far beyond the range of the ground-level explosion itself. One of the steaming rivers races toward the village where Manifacio is staying at nearly 20mph. By the time he sees it coming, it is much too late to escape. He and the entire village are overcome by the deadly deluge, broken apart, swept away, and buried under tons of mud and ash.

 

In Quezon City, Dr. Pope and his team watch in awe as their monitoring instruments go offline, destroyed by the explosion. As the plume of ash gradually spreads out to cover an area of 48,000 square miles, the sky goes dark while the ash mixes with the stormclouds. Early afternoon seems to become midnight across the entire island of Luzon. The rain is tainted by the volcanic material in the air, the tempest coating Emily and anyone else unfortunate enough to be outdoors in a thick, dark, noxious sludge. Emily seeks shelter inside an apparently-abandoned house, only to find that a local family of five, two parents and three young children, is already hiding inside. Though they speak no English, they allow her to stay with them as the black rain continues to fall, the eruption continuing for what seems an eternity.

 

Angela is asleep onboard her flight. She's been flying for nearly 17 hours. It's now about 4:30 AM back in New England, twelve hours later here just to the west of the Philippines. She is awoken by a sudden panic among the passengers as they notice sparks dancing across the outside of the airplane. In the cockpit, the crew are putting on their oxygen masks as sulfuric gas seeps in. Already-poor visibility is reduced to nothing as fragmented minerals scratch the windshield glass, rendering it partially opaque. Their change in course has not been sufficient to avoid the absolutely colossal cloud of volcanic material.

 

The engines spark, smoke, and overheat as the tiny shards of igneous rock are sucked inside, scraping against the inner workings and melting into viscous goo that clogs the jets. One of the four engines fails. Then two. Then three. The flight attendants struggle to calm down the passengers, most of whom have absolutely no idea what's going on. The airplane seems to be streaking through the very bowels of hell. The pilot radios in to air traffic control and receives emergency clearance to descend, dropping below the spreading cloud. The windshield is so damaged that it is still nearly impossible to see anything. He must now land the plane by navigating with his instruments.

 

Back on the island, Emily and the Filipino family are cowering in the abandoned house, the roar of the mountain still deafening. Emily walks over to a window to try and look out, but the black sludge running down the glass makes it impossible to see through. In any case, the sky is so dark there is hardly anything to see. Suddenly, the entire city shakes violently as the summit of the mountain caves in on itself, reducing the height of Pinatubo's peak by over 800 feet. The window shatters, the glass lacerating Emily's face and the howling typhoon winds blowing in the thick, heavy sludge. The building's wooden frame creaks and splinters, threatening to break apart and bury the occupants inside. 

 

Emily and the parents rush to gather the children and escape. The two older children are easily found, but the third has wandered off. Emily spots her, a young girl no older than three, down a dark hallway. She calls out to her parents and then runs over to grab her. However, the shaking finally begins to tear the house apart, and part of the building collapses, blocking off the hallway and separating Emily and the little girl from the rest of the family. 

 

On the stricken airplane, Angela is clutching her crucifix tightly, bowing her head in prayer. The panic has subsided a bit among the passengers now that the plane is out of the ash plume, but the mood is still tense - especially in the cockpit. The crew is trying to restart the three failed engines, but cannot, their inner workings too gummed up with the molten rock. They're unsure if they can reach the nearest airport on just one engine, which is also impaired and not working at full strength. The crew is instructed to prepare the passengers for the possibility of an emergency landing at sea.

 

In Angeles City, the shaking calms somewhat for a moment, the mountain's collapse coming to an end. The eruption, however, continues unhindered. In the relative calm, Emily is able to clear some of the rubble, creating a small opening in the wall of debris blocking the hallway. It is too big for her to fit through, but just large enough for the little girl. With a great deal of coaxing from both Emily and her family, the girl is persuaded to travel through the unstable passage.

 

Emily hands the girl her camera and film to give to her parents, trying as hard as she can to communicate to them and their daughter the importance of getting the images out for the world to see. And for her mother to see, she tearfully adds, knowing she is not really being understood. The girl makes it to her family, and they all leave, thanking Emily profusely. It seems they're trying to tell her they will send help, but Emily isn't sure. She is left alone in the pitch dark, ruined house, trapped, now sobbing, crying out softly for her mother.

 

On Angela's airplane, the pilot tries one last time to restart the failed engines. To his astonishment, they work. The disabled jets had cooled enough for the material to re-solidify along the walls of the engines, clearing the combustion chambers. The captain announces the restoration of engine power to the passengers, who cheer and clap and sigh in relief. Angela quietly thanks God for what she sees as a miracle, and prays that he will keep Emily safe as well.

 

Back in the ruined house, Emily has stopped crying. She's slumped against a wall, the house moaning and shifting from the shaking of the ground, the blowing of the winds, and the weight of the thick volcanic mud being rained from the sky. By now the eruption has been continuing nonstop for almost four hours. The roof begins to cave in, overwhelmed by the sheer mass of sludge that has piled up on top of the building. Emily closes her eyes and apologizes aloud to her mother as if she were there. Then she is crushed under the collapsing structure.

 

Hours later, Angela is finally able to disembark her plane, which has landed at Kalibo International Airport on the island of Boracay, south of Luzon. It is just after 7:00 PM local time, and Pinatubo is still erupting. She is shocked by the enormity of the disaster as she learns of what is happening, to the point of disbelief. She frantically searches for some way to get to Angeles City, but is informed that there is no available transportation to Luzon because of the typhoon and eruption. Furthermore, as a well-meaning English-speaking stranger informs her, Angeles City was within the volcanic evacuation zone. He suggests she check in and around Quezon City when she is able to reach Luzon.

 

At about 10:30 PM, after an eruption lasting a continuous nine hours, the mountain finally calms. Though official figures will take a long time to be produced, Dr. Pope is certain that this eruption was the largest in decades. He and his team gather to watch news reports on the destruction, reassuring each other that they've done everything they possibly could.

 

The remains of Clark Air Base in Angeles City following the eruption. Aircraft hangars and other buildings collapsed under the weight of the wet ash.

 

After several days, Angela finally makes it to Quezon City in search of her daughter. She visits the Amoranto Velodrome, wandering among the thousands of homeless evacuees in search of Emily, calling her name with increasing desperation. Benjie hears her and recognizes the name. The task falls to him to inform her that, as far as he knows, her daughter never left Angeles City. Angela begins to break down, but Benjie tries to reassure her that she could still be alive. Already rescue crews have saved countless people who remained behind; only 60,000 of the city's population of roughly 237,000 actually evacuated. But Angela remains despondent. She insists tearfully that she can "feel" her daughter is gone.

 

As Angela leaves the stadium, she passes some people watching a report about the eruption on a portable television. She can't help but glance over at the screen. The news is showing photographs of the earlier eruptions, found with a family of survivors rescued from Angeles City. Neither Angela, nor anyone else but the grateful family who never got her name, will ever know they were taken by Emily.

 

Before the end credits, several facts about the eruption and its aftermath are relayed to the audience via real photographs and onscreen title cards. The June 15th, 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo was the largest volcanic eruption since the 1912 explosion of Novarupta in Alaska. It ejected more particulate matter into the atmosphere than any eruption since the legendary 1883 Krakatoa catacylsm. As a direct result of this, worldwide temperatures dropped an average of nearly one full degree Fahrenheit for the next two years. More than 8,000 homes were completely destroyed, and a further 73,000 damaged. The cost of damage to public infrastructure was estimated at $98 million. At least 16 commercial aircraft were damaged by flying into the ash plume from the eruption. An estimated 2.1 million people were directly affected. The civilization of the Aeta people was almost completely destroyed. The majority of Aetas became homeless and were forced to move to small government resettlement camps.

 

Despite this, the death toll was just 847, most of whom were crushed when buildings collapsed under the weight of the wet ash. The early warning and swift, organized response of PHIVOLCS is credited with averting what could have been the single worst volcanic disaster in history, saving tens of thousands of lives. 

 

Mt. Pinatubo remains active, and today, half a million people live within 25 miles of the summit. Following reconstruction efforts, the population of Angeles City has increased to 150,000.

 

 

Edited April 7, 2018 by Xillix

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From Earth to Infinity - An Odyssey Through Space

 

Studio: Red Crane Features

Director: Tori Meyers

Producers: Aaron Teflon, Ridley Scott, Mark Huffam

Genre: Documentary/Space

Rating: G

Release Date: January 25th

Format: 2D, 3D, IMAX 3D

Running Time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)

Theater Count: 1,518 (including 300 IMAX theaters)

Composer: Clint Mansell

Budget: $10 million

Narrator: Amy Adams

 

Plot:

 

 

 

"From Earth to Infinity" is divided up into five main segments, each running roughly fifteen minutes. An introduction set on Earth runs about ten minutes. The documentary follows man's current exploration of the solar system and beyond and through live images combined with photo realistic CGI gives viewers a close glimpse of where man has gone and where we're heading next.

EARTH

The introduction segment follows the ongoing construction of the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the Hubble Telescope that's set to launch in 2019. Viewers are given exclusive glimpses into construction and testing including short interviews with scientists from the various space agencies working on the project.

MARS

In the documentary's first major segment, the film transports viewers to Mars recreated with photo realistic CGI and follows the journey of the Curiosity rover, along with providing stunning vistas of our neighboring planet.

CLUSTER

In the second segment, the film moves to the asteroid cluster between Mars and Jupiter and introduces viewers to the various objects hiding within, including the dwarf planet Ceres.

EUROPA/TITAN

The film moves beyond the asteroid belt, giving glimpses of Jupiter and Saturn before delving into their respective moons, focusing on Europa, a moon off of Jupiter theorized to hold an ocean beneath its surface and thus could be a potential venue for extraterrestrial life, and Titan, the only object past the asteroid belt a man-made object has successfully landed on. The photographs taken from the Cassini-Huygens probe in 2005 are brought to life with CGI.

KUIPER

The film retells the historic encounter between the New Horizons probe and Pluto, as well as introducing viewers to lesser-known objects in the Kuiper belt, including the dwarf planets Eris, Haumea, Makemake and more.

BEYOND

In the closing segment, the film moves beyond the Kuiper belt and details the Voyager probes' attempts to escape the solar system, and speculate on what could be discovered as they and New Horzons begin to drift into interstellar space. The film closes out saying man should never cease to pursue the answers of how our universe works, for it may provide the answers to our future.
 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2018 by cookie

[cookie]

Rollercoasters

 

Studio: Cookie Pictures (in collaboration with Scott Free Productions)

Genre: Thriller

Director: Luke Scott

Producers: Sebastian Peters, Ridley Scott, Michael Schaefer, Mark Huffam

Composer: Bear McCreary

Rating: R

Running Time: 114 minutes (1 hour, 54 minutes)

Budget: $75 million

Release Date: December 13th

Theater Count: 3,505

Previous Film's Gross (OW/DOM/WW): $24,104,883 / $75,436,876 / $135,409,494

Cast: Edward Norton (David Calder), Naomie Harris (Jacinda Birch), Ed Harris, Bobby Cannavale, Jake Johnson, Remaining Cast TBA

 

Plot:

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Edited March 22, 2018 by cookie

[cookie]

@Xillix I wrote in the post that Metroid would be out on the 14th.

[Xillix]

4 minutes ago, cookie said:

@Xillix I wrote in the post that Metroid would be out on the 14th.

Samus/Ridley romance confirmed

[cookie]

3 minutes ago, Xillix said:

Samus/Ridley romance confirmed

You joke but the Metroid lore connects the two more than one'd think.

[YM!]

@Xillix My Peoples (animation/comedy/romance) is moving to 2/8/Y3 along with an IMAX release.

Edited March 27, 2018 by YourMother the Edgelord

[Xillix]

Doom

Release Date: September 13th, Y3

Studio: Red Crescent Pictures

Genre: Action/Sci-Fi

Directors: Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor

Theater Count: 3,866

Premium Formats: 3D & IMAX 2D/3D (Split showtimes)

Shooting Format: 8K Digital (Red Weapon Monstro VV) (Post-converted to 3D)

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 / 1.90:1 (Select scenes, IMAX version)

Release Image Formats: 2K DCP, 2K 3D DCP, 2K IMAX Digital 2D & 3D DCP, 4K IMAX with Laser 2D & 3D DCP (Upscaled from 2K master)
Release Audio Formats: 5.1, 7.1, Auro 11.1, Dolby Atmos, IMAX 12-channel (IMAX with Laser DCPs only)
Production Budget: $80 million

MPAA Rating: R for extreme action violence, gore, language, and suggestive content

Running Time: 96 minutes

Major Cast: Jason Statham (Colonel Jack Brimm), Jean-Claude Van Damme (General Hugo Hammer), Nicolas Cage (Lance Harrison), Kristanna Loken (Dr. Hillary Bayer), Bruce Campbell (Professor Sirius Ashe), Jaden Smith (Daniel Parker), Olivia Munn (Erin Holder)

 

Plot Summary:

Loosely based on the video game franchise of the same name.

Spoiler

 

It's an unspecified year sometime in the future. In cooperation with the United Aerospace Corporation, the US government has colonized the surface of Mars. The original plan was to find a suitable energy source, mine for resources, perform scientific experiments, and use all of this progress to establish a series of residential space-cities on Mars to help address Earth's overpopulation. Things seemed to go well at first, with UAC's scientists able to power the science base's operations by tapping into what they claimed was a sort of geothermal energy. The mines were producing useful minerals, and the desolate planet also proved a great R&D space for new military weapons, to the extent that the US Army opened a special barracks connected to UAC's facilities. However, a global economic crisis on Earth squandered the original plans.

 

The movie opens as the American government has been forced to sell off the rights to the entire Martian settlement to UAC in order to keep itself afloat. The plans for full-scale colonization have been abandoned and all US military personnel are being sent back to Earth via space shuttle. UAC intends to take over weapons development operations in order to sell their new inventions to any governments that can afford them. Most of the army forces have left already, with only one more shuttle set to depart. Onboard is Colonel Jack Brimm (Jason Statham), waiting for the last of the pre-takeoff checks to be completed.

 

As the time of departure rapidly approaches, Brimm becomes worried that his superior officer, General Hugo Hammer, is not on board. Failure to evacuate all military personnel from the planet in time constitutes a breach of contract with UAC, for which the American government will pay heavily. Brimm rushes back into the facility to find him. He asks around, but nobody seems willing to talk to him - until he comes across Daniel Parker (Jaden Smith), the teenage son of one of the base's IT workers and a known troublemaker. Daniel informs Brimm that General Hammer has broken into the office of Lance Harrison, the top UAC executive on Mars, and the two are now having a screaming match.

 

Sure enough, as Brimm approaches the office, he can hear the two men shouting. Just as he arrives, General Hammer (Jean-Claude Van Damme) loses his temper and puts Mr. Harrison (Nicolas Cage) into a headlock. Brimm has to pull the two men apart as both continue shouting incoherently, Hammer threatening to write him up for insubordination and Harrison threatening to have Hammer court-martialed. Brimm apologizes on the general's behalf and rushes him back to the shuttle dock, but Hammer is obviously still furious, saying UAC is up to something far worse than they could've imagined.

 

Just then, Daniel Parker's father runs into the shuttle dock begging to be taken back to Earth, clutching a computer disk. He's followed by an armored UAC security guard, who mercilessly guns him down and destroys the disk. Brimm and Hammer yell and go to retaliate, but the guard reminds them that this planet is no longer under their jurisdiction. Besides, he's armed, and they aren't. 

 

An explosion rocks the entire base, breaching the airlock connecting the shuttle to the dock. As the craft and dock begin to explosively decompress, Brimm and Hammer race to the airtight door leading into the main facility just in time, knocking the murderous guard down along the way. From inside the base they watch as the shuttle and dock collapse completely, the passengers and dock workers suffocating and freezing to death from exposure to the nighttime Martian atmosphere. Looking out a window, they see the explosion occurred at the geothermal power plant. The large tower used for converting energy has fallen over, crushing much of the the plant itself. Just as Hammer asks how the hell the lights are still on, they go dark. The facility is left operating on emergency backup generators, leaving it dimly-lit and only semi-functional.

 

Hammer storms off back toward Mr. Harrison's office to confront him, instructing Colonel Brimm to head toward the geothermal plant to see if there are any survivors who need rescue. Along the way, Brimm once again encounters Daniel Parker, who seems relatively calm but asks where his father is. Brimm has to fill him in on the bad news. Daniel takes the news surprisingly well, though. He explains his father had warned him this might happen, and also explains that he has a copy of the disk his father had made. He doesn't know what's on it; his father had insisted upon keeping it that way for his own safety. But he's sure that it's something that makes UAC look really, really bad.

 

Brimm tries to take the disk from Daniel, but the teen doesn't trust him with it. Instead of grabbing it by force, the colonel concedes and lets Daniel keep a hold of it as long as he returns to his quarters and waits for him there while he goes to examine the power plant. Daniel complies.

 

As Colonel Brimm approaches the ruins of the power plant, he comes across several fleeing employees, many of whom are on fire, missing body parts, or both. None of them are coherent enough to explain what has happened. Rounding the final bend of the corridor, he is met by a swarm of imps - small, savage, black-and-orange creatures tearing apart and slaughtering the survivors of the explosion. One jumps at him and he manages to kick it away, but, being unarmed, he soon has no option but to turn and flee. As he runs, though, he passes the fallen body of a dead UAC guard, clutching a pistol. He decides to turn back, diving through the swarm of imps to grab the gun.

 

He's injured by the horrible little creatures, but manages to get the weapon and begins expertly executing them with headshot after headshot. There are just too many, though, and they soon corner him... until they're blasted away in large groups by an offscreen assailant with a laser-particle shotgun! Assuming it's General Hammer, Brimm turns to thank him, only to instead find it to be Dr. Hillary Bayer (Kristanna Loken), a UAC scientist still in her labcoat and protective goggles. She'd been in charge of regulating the plant's energy output but had noticed it was becoming unstable for days, and came running when things finally, in her words, "went tits-up."

 

Brimm asks where she got the gun, and she explains that she borrowed it from a friend. They go to visit this "friend," who turns out to be one of UAC's top weapons designers, Erin Holder (Olivia Munn). Brimm is again surprised - he's seen Erin around the base, and knew there was a "Chief Engineer Holder," but had assumed it was Erin's husband. Offended, Erin playfully threatens to shoot his dick off before relenting, explaining she doesn't believe in violence. Brimm demands to be armed with a better weapon, now assuming there's some sort of alien invasion afoot. She supplies him with what she calls a "heavy assault rifle," a huge machine gun with a secondary semi-auto scoped mode.

 

Colonel Brimm decides he needs to reunite with General Hammer to have any hope of fighting off what he assumes are aliens. He asks Dr. Bayer to accompany him, but she decides to stay and guard the armory and Erin. The base is being quickly overrun with monstrous beings, not only the imps but also larger, more muscular creatures (known in the games as Hell Knights). Brimm has to fight his way through the corridors, blasting away wave after wave of demons. Along the way he sees that Daniel's quarters have been broken into. He arrives just in time to save Daniel from a Hell Knight by shoving the gun barrel down its throat and letting loose. Daniel decides to stick with Brimm, and also hands over the disk. Brimm gives David the pistol he'd lifted off the dead guard in exchange.

 

The two battle their way to the office and find that General Hammer has fortified it and is torturing Mr. Harrison for information inside. It takes Hammer a full minute to remove some of his fortifications and let them in, leaving the pair to defend themselves in the tight corridor as the army of monsters approach. Thankfully, Daniel is a pretty good shot - a fact he attributes to his frequent playing of first-person shooter games, which he says are "basically murder trainers." 

 

Once they've been let into the office and re-barricaded it, Hammer explains to them that Mr. Harrison clearly knows what is going on but refuses to cooperate. Daniel suggests that the disk might hold the answers, but the office computer doesn't run on emergency power. He manages to hotwire it into functioning, though, with some tricks he learned from his father. Mr. Harrison goes absolutely berserk, slipping free of his bonds and snatching the disk from Brimm, swallowing it whole. Hammer shoots him point-blank in the head, killing him. As the two army men discuss how to cut him open to retrieve the disc, Daniel simply pulls another copy out of his pocket. He didn't REALLY trust Brimm enough to give him the only one, so while Brimm was off at the power plant he'd made a backup.

 

The data on the disk is full of seemingly nonsensical jargon, but seems to imply a supernatural element to UAC's discoveries and experiments. In particular, the energy source is never referred to officially as geothermal, but as "Argent Energy." Whatever it is, the documents reveal upper level UAC management is - without the knowledge of most employees - planning to use the super-weapons they create with it to return to Earth and take over the planet for themselves. In the documents, they also find the name of a man on the station who is apparently instrumental in the research but is becoming uncooperative - one Sirius Ashe, professor of mythology and religion. They look up the location of his office, only to find it is right across the hall from Erin's armory. Colonel Brimm is furious about having to backtrack through the entire level.

 

"Level?" Daniel asks. "This isn't REALLY a game, you know."

 

"Not like that," Brimm clarifies. "Level 2A. It's on the same damn floor."

Hammer, Daniel, and Brimm break out of the office and make a mad dash toward Professor Ashe's. Hammer doesn't have a proper weapon, and instead uses a sharp, jagged shard of glass from a broken window to slash and stab at the demon's. He does pretty well for himself all things considered, at one point stabbing an imp in the rear so it bleeds to death out of its asshole. Ultimately, though, he is caught off-guard and gets his head ripped off by a Hell Knight. Brimm and Daniel have no choice but to leave him behind to be devoured.

As they reach the final corridor, they find Dr. Bayer - now in a more sensible combat outfit - single-handedly defending the armory from the evil onslaught as a terrified Erin screams her head off inside. Daniel, Dr. Bayer, and Daniel manage to slaughter all the nearby monsters in a rapid-fire montage of blazing action and spurting gore set to a thrash metal instrumental. They use up all their ammo and enter the armory to get more.

 

Daniel is left with Erin to guard the front door of the armory. Meanwhile, Dr. Bayer and Colonel Brimm go deeper in to re-arm themselves. Having been jealous of Brimm's weapon in the previous firefight, Dr. Bayer finds herself a heavy assault rifle - only to be immediately one-upped when Brimm finds a huge, one-of-a-kind plasma cannon labeled "BFG 9000." The two return to where they left Daniel and Erin as Brimm wonders aloud what BFG stands for. 

"Whoa," exclaims Daniel as he gets his first glimpse of it. "That's a big fucking gun!"

Erin then explains that, yes, that actually is what it stands for.

 

The group cross the hall and break into Professor Ashe's office. Inside, frantically poring over reams of research, they find Professor Ashe (Bruce Campbell) himself. They demand to know what's going on and Ashe, feeling guilty but obviously also fascinated. explains that Argent Energy isn't geothermal at all. Rather, it's concentrated infernal power straight from Hell. The mining operations, he reveals, didn't just discover minerals, but ruins suggesting an ancient Martian civilization which had broken through the barrier into the afterlife and let Hell loose, wiping them out. The portal had been inactive for centuries until UAC uncovered it with their dig, and the discovery is what put Ashe on the payroll. UAC had covered it up and found a way to contain and harness the evil energy it released - but the system, evidently, had failed.

 

Daniel takes Professor Ashe at his word, and Erin mostly just seems grossed out that the energy she used to power the BFG was "basically hell farts or something." Dr. Bayer and Colonel Brimm, though, are skeptical. "You mean to tell me I'm up here, on Mars, fighting ghosts?" Brimm asks. "That sounds like an awful movie. No one would see it."

 

"No, no. Don't be silly," Professor Ashe insists. "These are DEMONS. Totally different."

 

Professor Ashe shares his research, and, based on the engravings found in the mines, he believes that the only way to close the portal is to actually go through it, into hell, and kill the demon commanding the invasion forces. He admits, though, that this is just a theory - and Erin astutely observes that it clearly didn't work for the Martians. Still, with no other options, Dr. Bayer and Daniel agree to the plan. Ashe decides to join them, and out of a desk drawer, he grabs a bunch of necklaces with different religious symbols on them - a crucifix, a star of David, a Muslim star and crescent, a small Buddha carving, et cetera. As he puts them all on, the others shoot him odd looks.

"What?" He asks. "We know they're from hell, but we don't know which big boss in the sky sent 'em there. I'm covering my bases." Then he produces a double-barreled rifle from behind his desk. "This helps too."

Erin, still not believing in violence (but really just being terrified), refuses to go with them and decides instead to stay behind. Professor Ashe suggests she look over his notes to see if he can find anything helpful. If she needs to defend herself and is still averse to using her own weapons, he offers her something a bit "simpler" - an old, gas-powered chainsaw from his closet. He says it's gotten him out of plenty tough scrapes. Erin questions Daniel's participation, asking if it's really okay to take a kid into hell. He just shrugs and says he figures he'll wind up there eventually anyway.

 

Ashe leads Dr. Bayer, Daniel, and Colonel Brimm down into the mines, the quartet blasting away the occasional demon as they go. They head down through the mine, into the ruins. At the site of the largest Martian carvings, they encounter several large, red, muscular, cloven-hoofed demons which Ashe refers to as "Barons of Hell." It's a hard battle, the demons seemingly immune to all weapons except for the BFG. As Ashe blasts away at them ineffectually, he laments that he should have taken his chainsaw instead.

 

We cut back to Erin in Professor Ashe's office, which is being invaded by imps. She's revved up the chainsaw and is cutting through the small demons like weeds. As their blood and entrails splatter all over her, she becomes so shocked and disgusted that she passes out. The imps swarm her and begin to rip her apart, feasting on her innards.

 

Back in the ruins, the others manage to distract the Barons long enough for Brimm to kill them all with plasma blasts from the BFG. Ashe leads the group down to the portal. The containment device has blown apart completely, creating a chasm between them and the portal. The demons, it seems, are getting into the base through some other, more passable route. Dr. Bayer suggests doubling back and finding the alternate route, but Brimm has had enough of that. He makes a running leap, jumping over the chasm, blasting away at the demons on the opposite ledge to clear a landing zone. The other three follow suit, and we are treated to ultra-slow-motion shots of them in midair, shouting, legs flailing, unleashing torrents of ammunition upon the gathered hordes. Some of these shots are shown from their POVs, emulating playing an FPS with a "bullet time" effect active.

 

All four successfully make the leap, though Ashe, being older, doesn't stick the landing and has to grab onto the ledge and be pulled up by the others. After they mow down the last of the demons guarding the portal, orchestral music swells.

"I've never been good at these big motivational speeches," Colonel Brimm says. "It's probably why I never made General." The others look on as the music crescendos, ready to be inspired.

"So fuck it," he says, the music abruptly stopping. "Let's go to hell and fuck shit up."

 

The four charge through the portal and emerge into hell, depicted as a realm of mountainous, volcanic islands floating in a sea of lava. The island they arrive on contains a massive throne of stone carved out of the side of a mountain. Sitting upon it is an enormous, horned demon, similar in appearance to a Baron, but at least thirty feet tall and with a robotic arm, attached to which is a rocket launcher. Ashe theorizes aloud that the demons have been watching them through the portal, learning to build human technology. Daniel, though, suggests they probably just stole a bunch of shit from the base and bolted it onto his arm. Ashe concedes that's probably more plausible.

 

Hordes of demons are swarming out of the caves in the mountainside, and the evil troops encircle our heroes. They all fight valiantly, felling many smaller demons, but one by one they are overcome and slaughtered, with Daniel being the first victim, his puny pistol of little use against so many enemies. He is pulled into the swarm and torn apart. One of Daniel's arms flies back towards our heroes, and Professor Ashe catches it. He runs out of rounds for his shotgun and begins using it and Daniel's severed arm as melee weapons, but is quickly disemboweled.

 

Dr. Bayer and Colonel Brimm are doing well enough that the cyber-demon becomes impatient, though. It launches a rocket at them, with no regard for the lives of its own troops. Brimm actually slides between a Hell Knight's legs and dodges the attack, but Bayer is caught in the explosion and blown apart into a cloud of blood mist alongside several demons. Infuriated, Brimm screams and goes on an epic rampage, not only blowing away demons with the BFG but weaving, ducking and dodging in such a way that the cyber-demon's missile attacks end up decimating the ranks of demonic soldiers. Finally, it's down to Brimm and the beast, mano-a-mano, one on one. The cyber-demon is down to one missile. It rises from its throne, trying to crush Brimm underfoot, but he's still too agile. Carefully, Brimm takes aim and fires his BFG at the last rocket, sticking partially out of the launcher on the demon's arm.

 

The shot connects, and the rocket detonates inside the launcher. The entire cybernetic arm explodes, showering Brimm in demon blood. The cyber-demon stumbles around, roaring in pain, before finally falling into the sea of lava and sinking in, melting away to nothing. However, its death closes the portal back to Mars behind Brimm. Brimm lets out an agonized shriek, falling to his knees. The screen goes black.

 

Just as it seems the credits are about to roll, an orange glow illuminates the screen. We're in a secret UAC lab on Earth, two years later, as a helpful caption informs us. UAC scientists have constructed an artificial portal to hell. As they attempt to connect the suppression device to generate Argent energy, a blast of energy emerges from the portal and blows up the suppressor. As the scientists panic, out of the portal steps Colonel Brimm. He's much worse for the wear - bloodied, scarred, bruised and burnt. He's carrying a weapon not of human origin. The head scientist rushes into the test chamber to confront him, asking what happened to him.

 

"Too much," Brimm replies simply. Then he raises the weapon and blows the other man's head clear off.

 

Smash to black and roll credits.

 

 

Edited March 30, 2018 by Xillix