#we were just matrix movie dodging bullets there | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

b-e-h-o-l-d-e-r · 3 years

Text

Ghost in the Shell (2017) review

I came into this movie with an open mind. Despite every fibre of my fanboy teenage ghost rejecting this alien reincarnation. I even set aside the whitewashing criticisms to just see if the movie can achieve something significant in spite of it.

Within roughly 5 minutes, this movie assured me I was going to be treated like a lobotomised baby. I shit you not, within seconds of a beautifully rendered manufacture sequence we watch two introduced characters in a room blatantly tell us what "ghost in the shell" means in the most uninspired way imaginable.

I wish I could tell you that this was just me getting off on the wrong foot but throughout, the movie is so uncertain in how to portray the themes, symbolisms and spiritual/ religious references that make up the brain in GitS' cyberpunk action body. The script just glitches between lame exposition by talking heads and still reflection in its precise composition but the two hardly work together.

It's like the film can't find its centre and as a result is neither a compelling action sci-fi or a meditative exploration of its philosophies. If this were Aaronofsky/ Gilliam or Bay/ Snyder perhaps (for better or worse) at least this movie would have a distinct direction to go in but instead it sits in the middle and suffers at both.

Hell, I'm sure many fans would be happy if this just took the Dredd approach. If they just accepted that the fans know the backstory and the non fans don't need it and made this simply about the Section 9 anti cyber crimes team doing their job, kicking ass n taking names, it would at least have a better chance of success amongst its primary demographic.

Instead Hollywood thinks big and wants to initiate a new franchise, origin story and all, n crams so much bullshit to try and get new audiences into it that Section 9 itself gets pushed way back in the corner. Audiences spend more time getting to know the Majors mum/s than they do with any her team.

They ditch the cerebral plot of the '95 anime whereby Major Motoko Kusanagi working within Section 9 are tracking a hacker who turns out not only to be an AI secretly created by the government to assassinate political targets but has become sentient, claims asylum and ends up merging consciousness with Major Kusanagi by the end.

Here we get Major Motoko Kusanagi of Section 9, pissed that many innocent people were murdered in experiments to create her and super shitty that her entire identity was a lie and she's actually a bratty anti establishment punk.

After all is said and done, what we get is Robocop-Lite (and thats the reboot mind you). All the nuance, intrigue and head scratching ideology that we got in the shorter length '95 anime is reduced here to identity theft and yet another unremarkable corporate business villain to cover it up. We've seen this shit SO often. I'm beginning to think Hollywood just doesn't know how to do it any other way. They weren't all bad mind you, Robocop, Total Recall, The Matrix, these are all great films but GitS in its initial reception really broke the mould and here to see it put back in the cage of "been here, done that" is so incredibly disappointing.

As far as anime/manga Hollywood adaptations are concerned, the bar is INCREDIBLY low. I'd argue the only good one amongst them is Edge of Tomorrow/ Live Die Repeat. Aside from that, every otaku since the 90's is used to being made fun of in the result of America trying to morph them into something that works amongst their style of cinema. Japan has made some great adaptations partly because they don't feel the need to repackage the story.

This GitS remake tries desperately to be on the fans side by copying much of the '95 movies look (with varying degrees of success, some scenes are very accurate in their reproduction but the hair in this film is more reminiscent of X-men (2000) and seems cosplay-ish at times).

There are few scenes lifted from the original but most get twisted to accommodate the new storyline, at which point I ask why bother? Half measures don't tend to turn many heads and whilst paying homage by really making the effort to be exact duplications in some ways is applaudable, you're giving yourself less room to do your version of it. At least then, whether the film turns out to be shit or not, I'll respect that you tried to do your own thing.

ok, casting. this argument has already been done to death and I've just about run outta energy already on the whole Scarlett Johanson thing but a few things that never seem to come up: first of all, acting wise, I gotta say it's all much of a fucking muchness isn't it? Kusanagi does not outwardly express much so its mostly a headgame for an actress with the chance to throw in some subtleties in the voice acting.

I don't really like Scarlet Johansson's performances but that its preposterous for anyone to come to the conclusion that her resume would land her this gig is a bit of a stretch. Do people realise how rare it is to find an A-list celebrity that has an extensive list of both highly demanding physical action blockbusters and subtle minimalist detail performances? Of course they are going to cast her. Before anyone throws ME personally into somehow being against ethnic minorities in blockbuster films (which would be absurd for anyone who knows me) '95 GitS director Mamoru Oshii also gave his stamp of approval.

They really tried with the marketing to dodge the bullet by just not bringing it up but it's really not dealt with well in the film and leads to some pretty fucking awkward moments for a racial debate charged audience to watch.

I would have preferred the role to go to a Japanese actress but remember, this is Hollywood and if a studio is gonna push bringing THIS film out, you bet your bottom dollar that they're going with someone that is a household name in America.

The only internationally known Japanese name out there right now is Rinko Kikuchi (who to date has 2 American films out there, both not big successes). I love most of her films and there ARE a few other Japanese actresses I would love to see in the role but Hollywood studios are not gonna bank on the success of Japanese films. Hell, the fact that they put Takeshi Kitano in bit part in this movie is as far as they are willing go to get in on that market. Few seem to point at his casting as some kind of justification and I laugh quite hard. Seriously, you're gonna give this guy (who's acted AND directed in over 20 brilliant films) a few minutes of screen time and applaud that as some kind of cultural milestone?

Which brings me to the big casting shame that NO ONE is fucking talking about because they're so caught up with the Johansson shit. Aside from Kusanagi, there are 6 Japanese members of the Section 9 taskforce. How many are Japanese? Kitano, yes. Who else? Saito. Did you remember him? He's the guy that snipes the helicopter at the very end of the film. You see his face for like 10 seconds. Pretty big step in casting mulitculturally, right? Don't get me wrong, the cast IS incredibly multicultural. We got actors from all over the world pretending to be Japanese:

A Danish guy as Batou A Chinese guy as Togusa An Australian as Ishikawa A Zimbabwean as Borma

Why keep the names?! Just call them whatever, it doesn't matter. You don't give them anything important to do anyway. Have a mulit-ethnic team but when they're all speaking clearly in their national accents and supposed to be portraying Japanese characters, THAT'S what should really piss people off because THESE roles could have gone out to Japanese people and it would not have even been a risk for the studio.

Ultimately, the one real positive thing I have to say is a great job for the WETA production team on some fantastic animatronics and moulds...that's pretty much it. Shame it couldn't be in a better film.

- dug out from the depths of https://letterboxd.com/Do_oM/

#ghostintheshell #gits #moviereview #movies #anime adaptation #hollywood

1 note · View note

lokisgame · 5 years

Text

Some Things Never Change

A/N for @kiwiphroot who suggested a Matrix/X-Files crossover

It was his first time in Zion, and the first thing that struck him, were the people, there were so many of them. All races, all ages, some with sockets in their heads and arms, some without. He followed Trinity through levels filled with life, with all its' scents and debris and usual everyday stuff. They went through living quarters, with lines of laundry hanging everywhere. They passed something like a market, where street vendors, for lack of a better word, sold food and hand made goods. Countless units were turned into workshops, manufacturing everything, from crafted spoons and pots to shoemakers and tailors, making and mending shoes and clothes. Everywhere, clients haggled for better deals, exchanging whatever they had for whatever they needed. "Man, some things never change." He murmured to himself, but she caught it. "Keep up." Trinity smiled and took his hand, pulling him through the crowd.

Three levels up, the elevator doors opened to a wide walkway, and he followed Trinity dutifully, though looking around curiously. He noticed mothers with kids waiting in chairs along the wall, the elderly and the injured, while men and women in almost white robes, walked among them, sorting them depending on the urgency and severity of their illnesses. It looked just like an emergency room, only more ragged. "We fixed you as well as we could when we found you, but every new freed citizen, must undergo full physical and psychological checkup." She looked over her shoulder and gave him a smile, or rather the corners of her eyes crinkled lightly, which for Trinity, amounted to the same thing. "Don't worry, it won't take long." "You have a med school down here too?" Trinity huffed out a small laugh and paused in front of unremarkable doors, knocking lightly. A female voice called for them to come in. "I'm telling you, Scully, it was real!" "Mulder, internet isn't good for you."

"Doctor?" "Hello Trinity." A small, red-haired woman got up from behind a desk, and the man she was talking to turned around, swivelling in his chair. "Zion's finest! Have't seen you around here in ages!" He cheered. "Which is a good thing." The woman finished for him. Neo looked at the bantering couple, trying to get his jaw off the floor. "We have a new crew member." Trinity said then turned to him, "Neo, this is Doctor Scully and Doctor Mulder." "I," he began, trying not to stare at the faces he watched on tv for what felt like forever. "Here it comes," the man, who looked like Mulder said, folding his arms over his chest, "c'mon, say it." "You were characters! On tv!" "We have a fan." Mulder chuckled. "We get that a lot." The one who looked just like Scully, if her hair was allowed to grow and her freckles to show, took Neo by the elbow, leading him to a nearby cot. "Sit down, let me look at you." "And breath, you're not crazy." Mulder said, turning a monitor to himself and began typing. It seemed to be wirelessly connected to a scanner that Scully ran over Neo's arms. Tip of the device touched each socket, and a new readout popped up on the screen. "Connections look okay." He said and Scully nodded. "Turn around and take off your shirt." Scully said, picking up a different instrument, one that looked more like a soldering iron. "This will feel a little tingly." "How does that work?" Neo asked, feeling a tickle skipping up his spine. "You guys were inside, weren't you?" "We were. Mainline?" Scully asked and Mulder whistled. "Wow, 99.9%." "Check again." "I did." Scully glanced over her shoulder to the screen, which Mulder turned for her to see, then they both looked at Trinity. She gave them a little nod. "What?" Neo asked. "Neuron network responsible for the input-output loop is very dense." "Think of it as having more bandwidth than anyone else." "What does that mean in here?" "It means, theoretically," Scully explained, "when logged in, you can process more data and do it faster, than others, giving you quicker reflexes and making your perception sharper. Possibly, even let you reprogram the matrix in close enough range." "It's a little fuzzy, how it happens, but it seems the machines wrote the code so that we can interact with it on a subconscious, instinctive level." Mulder said, typing, "You take a mug in your hand, start a subroutine with a list of actions, reach out, hand doesn't go through the mug, close hand, it's hot, it burns you, you drop the mug, it falls, run coin toss, it brakes or not." As Mulder spoke, Scully kept prodding at his back, lifting his arms, checking reach and movability of joints. Her hands were steady and warm, and soon she was done. "You can get dressed now." She patted Neo's shoulder and turned to her partner. "Look out, Mulder, someone might think you love the machines." "I'd call it knowing your enemy." Mulder chuckled and rolled his chair closer, taking her place. "So what are you saying, my brain is some kind of a super computer?" Neo asked, pulling the sweater over his head. "In sheep's clothing." Mulder replied, gently taking his face in his hands, tiling it back. "Open up." Neo opened his mouth, closed, followed the finger, squinted at the light, and listened. "With your potential capabilities, and awareness of the program, you could try and shape it, in real time, disrupting the pre-programmed cause-effect loops. Slow down or dodge bullets, walk through walls, even fly." "You're shitting me." "Why would I." "If I can do it, why no one else has tried it." "Oh, they tried it." Scully said, a little sad. "And failed, squeeze my fingers," Mulder said, holding his hands out, Neo squeezed. "Responses normal. She's the medical examiner too." Neo noticed the sockets, just like his own, on both of them. "So you guys were inside too." "Yeah." Mulder bumped the side of his hand just below his knee and Neo's leg kicked, "reflexes normal." "And you were actors? It was all just a tv show." "I wish," Mulder chuckled without humour, "I'd give myself a happy ending." "We were working for the FBI." Scully said. "Doctor and a psychologist, turned feds, investing the paranormal," Mulder recited in a tone of a b-movie trailer voice-over, "I'd show you my badge, but I left it in the pod." Neo laughed. "One day we found an artefact, and it had to be a virus of some kind, because it started to mess with the code around me, making me hear peoples' thoughts, that kind of thing. It put me in a hospital, almost catatonic from sensory overload. Then Trin found Scully." "And we pulled each other out." Scully finished for him, leaning against the desk. On a wall behind her, Neo noticed a drawing, just as the one he remembered, a UFO hovering above the tree line, bold letters at the bottom declaring 'I want to believe' Old habits die hard, he thought. "And you guys never knew it was a TV show." "It was to you, for us it was life." Scully said, as Mulder pushed away, back at her side. "Maybe the machines lacked the imagination to create something as abstract as entertainment, to fill humans' need for escape, and took our story to fed it to the masses. One thing they couldn't fake though." "They could never tear us apart." He said, kissing her knuckles. There was a small knock on the door, Mulder asked who was it and a small head peeked inside. "Daddy?" "C'mere Will, we're done." A little boy came in and quickly scrambled into his lap. No sockets, a real child, born outside. "Can we go play now?" The boy asked. "In a second, honey." Scully said, fondly ruffling his light brown mane. "So, everything looks okay, though your muscle mass could use some work. If you find time, I'd recommend physical training, a real one." "It'll keep you sane, and in touch with your physical body." Mulder added. "We lost quite a few, who couldn't handle the transition, so take this one seriously." "Thanks." Neo chuckled, looking from Mulder to Scully. "What?" "I find it hard not to call you guys Agents." "I don't think anyone in here would appreciate that title, and it's not like we were really a part of the system, since we broke free." Scully petted Mulder's head as well, and her smile was an order of magnitude warmer than he remembered. Trinity nodded in thanks and reached for the door, Neo got up to follow. Mulder got up with him, keeping his son in his arms. "Remember Neo," he said softly, "in there, you're as strong as your beliefs. We believe in you." They left the little family behind, and headed back to their living quarters. In the elevator, Neo took Trinity's hand, fingers twining with hers, her words echoing in his head. "The Matrix can not tell you who you are."

#some things never change #I had so much fun writing this #x files fanfic #msr fanfic #sweet nothings #crossover #the marix

30 notes · View notes

nightcoremoon · 4 years

Text

man FUCK the matrix

so you're telling me that the AI liquiefy the dead humans to feed the living humans

ok so I get that. really I do. the plan makes sense. the psychology and the mechanics and the science and the thermodynamics and the chemistry, I can totally suspend my disbelief. it's plausible.

but HOW pray tell THE FUCK

is that sustainable???

how many calories do you need to Iive at the very least. let's say we need 500 calories a day at the bare minimum to survive. okay.

you liquefy a dead human, that's x amount of calories right there. so please tell me how the UNHOLY GODDAMN FUCK are there gonna be enough dead humans to make up for the number of alive humans? there's nowhere near even a MILLION calories in a single human body, but even if there was that'd be 2,000 days, like 6 years. one dead body feeds you for 6 years. if we need 100 calories a day, that's 30 years.

so if the human body gives 1,000,000 calories and we subsist on 100 calories per day and we go by Logan's law then YEAH SURE I GUESS.

but like

THATS FUCKING STUPID

eventually they're gonna run out of humans.

oH bUt tHe miNd nEeDs LeSs cALoRiEs tHaN tHe bOdY- fuck you thats technobabble and that's ludicrous. it would fall apart eventually. stupid goddamn robots. UTTER LOAD OF BULLSHIT.

no perfect ai would let itself be dependent on a limited resource. even when humans blotted out the sun the robots were like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ fuck it let's just eat human batteries.

"oh but the robots would have found another resource eventually" THHHBBBPTPTPT

I get that its rule of cool but it's just silly. it's the ultimate 90s movie. it doesn't have to be grounded in reality, it's about keanu reeves doing kung fu and dodging bullets and wearing leather jackets and sunglasses and doing kick flips while dual wielding desert eagles. ITS JUST COOL OKAY.

so it doesn't have to be the most realistic thing in the world. Star Wars makes no sense. Star Trek makes no sense. Battlestar Galactica makes no sense. it doesn't have to. it can be fun for fun's sake. and that's okay. I still love the movie.

1 note · View note

everyusernameistakenwhatisthis · 6 years

Text

The Evolution Of VFX In Movies

Starting with the 60s, VFX or visual effects started to make their way into films, a famous example is the skeleton battle in “Jason And The Argonauts,” Ray Harryhausen did this all in stop motion and managed to edit them to interact with the real actor, although this hasn’t aged particularly well this was groundbreaking in the VFX industry for its time.

The 70s were a rather good time for VFX when advancements started to be made because in the early 70s VFX was hit with the industry’s recession but with star wars VFX made a staggering return. The amount of effects in this film was outstanding and this film even spawned a special effects house, Industrial Light And Magic. The film “The Exorcist” incorporated effects such as Matte Paintings and the infamous 360 degrees head turn, with the evolution in gruesome and big scale effects the 70s were a rather good time for VFX.

The 80s had great advancements in VFX especially with advancements in stop motion animation and the 80s introduced the first ever CGI scene in a film which was groundbreaking at the time and the 80s also had the first ever 3D animated short film with the title “The Adventures Of Andre and Wally B,” The 80s also introduced with using many small models to act as large models of objects which was a pretty large advancement in the VFX industry.

The 90s were just continuing on from the 80s and continued to improve with CG technology and they made advances in movies such as “Jurassic Park” which created large scale scenes with a lot of CG which was groundbreaking and still holds up well today. The 90s also introduced and utilized the first motion capture technology in the film “Total Recall” in a short X-Ray sequence. Easily the biggest advancement in VFX in the 90s was the first full length feature film created entirely in CG; this being “Toy Story.” This spawned the success of Pixar and let many other movies be more adventurous with the CG that they would use. For example “The Matrix” was extremely innovative with the VFX and CG it used, for example the bullet dodging scene which utilized many different effects and CG to achieve and it payed off because it is now one of the most recognizable scenes in media.

The 2000s just continued to increase in the clarity and quality of VFX and CG, a famous example is “The Lord Of The Rings,” this made a huge advancement in motion capture technology, this film managed to use motion capture technology to put an actor’s face and features onto a fully CG creature and this was a huge advancement in VFX. This influenced more movies to perfect this technique, other films used facial motion capture to help enhance the actor’s performance even further and to help capture realistic character movements.

In present day we are just making more advances in VFX and CG technology and creating even more ways to create realistic movements with facial and body capture technology.

https://www.pluralsight.com/blog/film-games/evolution-vfx-movies-60s-till-now

4 notes · View notes

what2watch2night · 6 years

Text

SUMMER MOVIE LIST (Movie & Music) : The Sound of the New Millennium or How Electronic and New Music Genres Changed the Way We "Listen" to Movies...

Following the reading of a recent article on Noisey (link) about how THE BEACH and its electronic-music-infused soundtrack turned 18, one will realize that “techno/rave” music changed the way movies were scored or “musically supervised” and became an integral part of films playing almost as a new form of musical. Of course it all started back then with BLADE RUNNER or the original TRON but it bloomed in the late 90's early 00s with glorious soundtracks from BLADE or MATRIX; everybody knows “that song from that memorable scenes"!

Around the same period, we also saw a great hybrid of electro/metal genre (new wave Goth/Heavy-Metal was also trending in soundtrack with Marilyn Manson or Rammstein) and films like XXX, RESIDENT EVIL and even the MATRIX trilogy used this unique blend to maximize on the “dark future / strange doom” feeling associated with the new millennium.

It is interesting to also note that with this growing apprehension of the apocalypse came a "fashion" trend blending nothing and everything at a time where cultural appropriation was not a big deal! (It felt somehow "innocent" in term of cultural insensitivity; it was almost was perceived as acknowledging or "honoring" the booming multiculturalism as opposed to the sense of "exoticism" associated with exhibiting oriental outfit in the 70's...) From "ethnic-pun" with neon cornrows, glittery bindies (or any Indian jewel) and African inspired makeup to the "woke angel of death" that turn goth into samurai; it was a jolly time where everything was permitted and nonsensical because... We were all suppose to die in some planet/sun/star/universe explosion due to the Y2K bug! (Let's remember that it wasn't just because of the movie but MTV music videos stars helped this from Janet Jackson to Gwen Stephany up untill Shakira - mixing native Indian feather with rocker leather pants - and reaching a peak with Madonna 'Frozen era'... What a time to be alive it must have been! )

Anyway, in this spirit of nostalgia let's explore how these new music trend and particularly electronic music with its cool fresh sounds helped in shaping a new movie genre and created a specific (almost cliched!) cinematic atmosphere for the age.

What are some of these films past and present, that thanks to artists/composers from Pete Tongue to Trent Raznor, that made their marks on viewers and became canons of this “genre”!?

THE OG

BLADE RUNNER

THE BEACH

*song /fact/name dropping: Supervised by the superstar-dj-of-the-moment Pete Tong featuring that song from Moby and... Alex Garland wrote this! ( Also The Swinton was in this but some of us were babies at the time and did not know any better!)

TRAINSPOTTING

*song /fact/name dropping:That song by Underworld inescapable in club/festivals/dance at the time and the memory associated with it of memorable toilet scene (#2 after the JURASSIC PARK toilet scene of course!)

youtube

MATRIX

*song/fact/name dropping: There is of course this one that is notorious for illustration feelings of extreme doubt, confusion or unexpected...Wile movie (or dodging bullet in slow-mo!)

BLADE

*song /fact/name dropping: No matter if you’ve seen the movie or not everyone knows that ‘Blood Rave’ song! If does not sound like the “epitomy of a doomsday rave” where everyone wear latex/vinyl-outfit neon contact lens, slick or spiky or symmetrical hairdo and all pretend they’re vampire ready to bite you neck!

youtube

If you don’t know now you know!

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM

*song /fact/name dropping: The song that meant something ominous was about to happen!

THE ONES THAT CAN THANK THE DJ

HANNA

*song /fact/name dropping: This movie might have not live up to the hype but The Chemical Brothers signed this very good soundtrack!

TRON LEGACY

*song /fact/name dropping: Daft Punk what else is there!?

EDEN

*song /fact/name dropping: Guess this is about the Daft Punk so...

BERLIN'S CALLING *song /fact/name dropping: The one and only Pete Tong

THE ONE THAT WENT DARK XXX

QUEEN OF THE DAMNED

*song /fact/name dropping: This one might be “very metal” but it was riding the wave even featuring a goth rave! Synth, electronic deep sound and song by the most popular metal band at the time and it did not even had one song by the late Aaliyah...

RESIDENT EVIL

STRANGE DAYS

*song /fact/name dropping: For those who did not know the famous line from the song "Right here! Right now!" come from here!

THE NEW WAVE

DRIVE

*song /fact/name dropping: We will never know if it was because of the movie or the soundtrack or the Gos/Refn mix... #mystery

SPRING BREAKER

PALO ALTO

*song /fact/name dropping: More “hipster” than the usual but kinda fit the profile

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

*song /fact/name dropping: The films that put Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on the map as your “go-to-guys” for edgy soundtrack!

UNDERTHE SKIN

*song /fact/name dropping: Scored by Mica Levi possibly the best music composer of her generation (Her work on JACKIE is pure Masterpiece!)

SICARIO

Died-too-soon Icelandic composer Johann Johanson gave us the most scary song ever or sound echoing this era of film inspiring ”feelings of dread”

youtube

ENTER THE VOID

BLADE RUNNER

THE BAD BATCH

120 BPM

*song /fact/name dropping: The whole film was a goddamn Masterpiece but Arnaud Robotini managed to gave us an equally captivating or tense at time, and sad or jovial at others. Not since REQUIEM FOR A DREAM was a movie soundtrack so perfectly adequate and canonical of this electronic-infused genre. If this is your “cuppa” listen to it all, but the exceptionally perfect remix and use of ‘Smaltown Boy’ by Bronski beat deserved a special kind of recognition...

youtube

ANIHILATION

*song /fact/name dropping:It would not be an .Alex Garland without a trippy score! By the same duo who brought you EX MACHINA; Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow from Portishead

youtube

#movie #film #cinephile #soundtrack #film soundtrack #movie soundtrack #movie and music #music and movies #music #music on screen #cinema

4 notes · View notes

angelearnshaw · 7 years

Text

WONDER WOMAN: MORE THAN WONDERFUL

Ever since the first trailer came out, I could not stop waiting for this movie. Finally, on June 1st, it arrived in cinemas.

And even without a night of sleep, I pulled my closest friends to the theater to go see it. What I found? A movie that did not disappoint. Most people always disagree with me when I say I am a DC fan. Seriously? Why do they always have to compare to Marvel? Can’t we all just appreciate the superhero movies equally?

With that being said, let’s take a look at everything I loved about Wonder Woman.

*Warning: Spoilers ahead. *

1. LITTLE DIANA

Bless this beautiful, beautiful child. She did a great job of playing a young Diana. I think the audience gave a collective, “Awww” when she appeared. With her doing cute little kicks and punches, it just added to the overall cuteness. But then she gives you this smirk and you know that the Princess of the Amazons is also a stubborn, sassy little girl who knows what she wants and goes after it.

2. EPIC FIGHT SCENES

The trailer alone showed some great potential in the fight department, but actually seeing everything on the big screen gives you this whole new feeling! It’s the “holy-shit- I- can’t- breathe” feeling. The kind where you stare with eyes wide open because you’re afraid that if you blink, you’re gonna miss something cool. The first few minutes of the movie, with the amazon warriors fighting off Germans on the shores of Themyscira (thank you, Steve) was amazing! We also see Queen Hippolyta and Antiope in action. (side note: my fave part would have to be her jumping onto a make shift shield that Steve grabbed and killing a sniper, taking down the whole top of the church doing so).

Bruce got nothing on that lasso.

3. Steve Trevor

I love Chris Pine. I have loved him ever since he came out in “Princess Diaries 2” and “Just My Luck”, when I was still a teenager in high school. And then he went and became Captain Kirk in Star Trek, and my fangirl heart could not help but love him more. Now, he has proven again how great he is by playing the charming, fearless, and disobedient Captain Steve Trevor.

I’m so glad he chose to do this over Green Lantern! He was great when they were using the Lasso of Truth on him, but the funniest part for me was when Diana dropped by while he was taking a bath.

Diana: Are you a prime example of the average man? (or something like that)

Steve: No, I’m above average.

4. Gal Gadot

Unlike most people, I had nothing against Gal (or her allegedly small boobs *insert snort*) when she was first cast as Wonder Woman. Honestly, I was more concerned with how the story would go, but damn. She proved everyone wrong. She played the role perfectly. Perfectly. I am not joking. I cannot imagine anyone else who would’ve done a spectacular job as her. (And take note, she was pregnant whilst shooting this).

She could be fierce, emotional, humorous. She lighted up the screen, man. Figuratively and literally. And yes, she rocked that costume! Ugh that costume! At first, I was skeptical. After all, I am a big fun of the comics, and I sometimes hate it when they change these iconic things about characters (e.g. Barry Allen not being blonde in the TV series or the movie). But I came to love it. It showed more of her Amazonian roots than her iconic outfit in the animated series before.

5. No Man’s Land

This was the best scene/ segment of the movie for me. I had goosebumps watching her climb up to No Man’s Land. Add that to the fact that Steve tells her the soldiers have been there for nearly a year and haven’t gain an inch, yet she just strolls up there like is a fcking field of lilies and is dodging bullets better than The Matrix. My heart. My fangirl heart.

Everything about it was so right. You have these bleak, grey landscape and yet Wonder Woman is wearing such vibrant colors. Then there are these slow- motion sequence where she’s blocking the bullets like some sort of freaking Jedi. And her shield seems to like glow while she’s getting hit with a machine gun and and and she’s dodging those bombs like they’re nothing. Nothingggggg. Then everyone else follows her and charges at the enemies. And I’m just sitting there like:

Up to now, my feels are still overwhelming. The story was great, the cast was great AND THE DIRECTOR, PATTY JENKINS. YOU ARE A BLESSING FROM GOD. I cannot wait for the Justice League movie. DC got this right, and hopefully, they keep getting it right.

1K notes · View notes

narcisbolgor-blog · 6 years

Text

20+ People That Were Surprised At How Nice These Celebrities Were In Real Life

Many people agree that it's an awful feeling to meet a celebrity you look up to and realize they are a horrible person. We've all read about (some of us even met) celebrities who are rude to everyone and full of themselves, despite trying to look nice on the media.

Fortunately, it seems that the vast majority of celebrities are really nice people and treats those who surround them with respect. Don't believe us? Scroll below to read a list of stories compiled by Bored Panda about the nicest and friendliest celebrity encounters.

"I was jogging at the San Francisco Marina back in 1988 I think it was and I saw Robin Williams sitting in the side of his van just chillin'. I said, "How you doin' Mr. Williams?" He said, "I'm doing great, you running from the cops?" I laughed and stopped to chat with him for about 5 minutes. He was absolutely delightful. Such a fond memory. I wept when I...

"Jim Carrey gave me a ride to the gas station after my car ran out of gas in Bel Aire. I told him I was a huge fan of Ace Ventura and I could mimic his laugh from the movie. Then we both had our heads out the window cackling away. He bought my gas and drove me back to my car. One of the greatest moments in my life."

"Keanu Reeves. I remember seeing him while walking through New York a long time ago when I was a young, probably very annoying pre-teen. I yelled out, "Yo, Neo!" And then I obnoxiously mimicked the bullet dodge motion from The Matrix. He looked back at me, laughed, and mirrored the same move in acknowledgement. It's such a great memory because I feel like anyone would have been justified in getting annoyed...

Tom Hanks at Best Buy. He was in line in front of me with a cart full, all by himself. I was only buying a bottle of water because they didn’t have what I was looking for. I just blurted out” Forest Gump is my favorite movie” like a creep, and he turned around, and said “that was my favorite movie to make! I’m glad you love it.” He then chatted with me while about movies as we stood in line. When it was his turn to check out while they were ringing up his stuff he said “oh let me get that water for you” and paid for my water. He kept talking to me and then we walked out and he said “nice talking to you! You’re a very nice young lady and always remember... life is like a box of chocolates.. you never know what your gonna get” in his Forest Gump voice. IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER.

"My sister was waiting tables in NYC, and ended up serving Patrick Stewart. She didn't want to bother him, so she just did her job, but at the end of the night she told him how much she had enjoyed seeing him in a production of Hamlet that year (2008), and that she hoped he was planning to do more theater in the US. My sister was prepared to leave it at that, but apparently, he was so thrilled at someone who wanted to talk about his theater work (as opposed to Star Trek), that he ended up talking to my sister for a while about his experiences on stage. Just a really nice guy who loves acting."

"When I was younger, my grandmother and I ran into Robin Williams eating alone in a Whole Foods. We approached him and introduced ourselves and he immediately cleared a space for us to sit and chat with him. I was pretty young at the time, so he spent most of the time trying to make me laugh by doing voices. I may have been too young to truly appreciate it at the time, but looking back I can easily say it's one of the greatest moments of my life and Robin has always had a special spot in my heart because of it."

"Bruce Willis told me that I have "some pretty cool spiderman skills" I was in walmart and there was somethng that i needed on the top shelf and near the back. at the time i was only 5foot (im a bit taller now). and so I scaled up the shelf and over to the side to get the food item that i needed. When i got down i noticed this guy...

"Paul and Linda McCartney once came into a restaurant I was hostess at. I greeted him and his wife, led them to their reserved table, said my lines and left. When they were leaving he leaned towards me and thanked me for treating him like a normal person. He knew I knew who he was because Linda had said that she loved my necklace. It was a yellow submarine from the...

"Steve Zahn lives in my city and frequents the gas station I work at. One day he helped a man push his truck onto our lot and then gave the guy a twenty for gas. He talks to everyone like he's known them forever, drives a big pick-up truck, and he's always smiling. Another story about him- one day while driving home my mom stopped to help an old man who had fallen out of his wheelchair at the end of his driveway. She's tiny and was struggling. Steve pulls up, hops out of his truck, helps her, they high-five, and he gets back in his truck and leaves. I like to think Steve Zahn is just cruising around all day looking for people to help."

#10

"Hayden Christensen. he came up to my bar. Nice guy really. I acted like I didn't know who he was, and when I gave him his beer I said "May the Force be with you, Ani." and he smiled and said "And also with you". Then he left a huge tip. :) Made my year."

"Met Bryan Cranston once at the bellagio whilst on holiday in Vegas.... I was a bit fanboyish and blurted..."omg its Heisenberg!"... almost immediately his facial expression went angry... and he walked straight up to me and actually muttered "How dare you call me out like that...if people knew who I was, I wouldn't be in this business... next time you call me out like that be ready for a barrel"... then he smiled and starting laughing and we ended up talking for about 10mins or so about BB.... gave me an autograph.. i was so happy... asked him if he wanted to join a few of us for a drink but he politely declined as he was waiting for his mrs and daughter... cool guy!"

#12

"Renee Zellweger - I served her once when I was honestly having a really shitty day. She had 3 kids in tow, dressed in yoga pants and a tshirt.. nothing about her screamed celebrity and I was focused on other stuff. I messed up twice on her order and she honestly couldn't have been nicer about it "Oh no problem, just bring it when you can, etc etc" Still went out of her way to make small talk.. I only found out who she was when I went to run her credit card and it said "R K Zellweger". Kids all thanked me after the meal and she gave me a hug on the way out and an amazing tip for subpar service. It was a total dream"

#13

"I went to a signing by Tim Burton. The line for him was out the building and around the corner. Everyone was being told that Tim wasn't going to be able to see everyone. I was lucky, I was near the front. We were also told that we could only get an autograph and picture then had to move on. Tim was amazingly nice, and constantly had to be reminded not to shake people's hands and talk with them because he had limited time. He also ended up being late for a private showing of one of his movies (I can't remember which one). He was late because he made sure he saw every single person in line. He was just overall a kind and humble man and very sweet. He even looked over my aspiring animator friend's portfolio and gave her his email, asking her to send him her progress as she improved. A truly great guy."

#14

My grandma met Adam Sandler in an elevator in Mexico. She didnâ€™t speak English but Adam was kind enough to try and speak Spanish with her. She was delighted, she loves his movies.

#15

"In 2002 I won a radio contest to see John Mayer play in NYC. Since Im an artist, I made a painting of him in the hopes I might get him to sign it. After the small show, people line up to take pics with him. When I get up to him, he is genuinely nice and immediately starts signing it when his manager comes over and says "No autographs,...

#16

"I met Marilyn Manson (emo 16-year-old me's hero) and he let me pet his cat while I freaked out about getting to meet him. He's nowhere near as scary in person as his persona or stage character. He's actually very sweet and somewhat shy. He really didn't know how to handle a young girl absolutely bawling tears of joy just from his presence, haha. He also picked up my sister...

#17

"Bill Murray and his son came into an inuit art gallery (Eskimo on Madison). The owner and I were the only ones there. Then a UPS delivery person came in and freaked out about seeing Bill Murray on her birthday. Murray had his son pick up her feet and he picked her up under her shoulders and they rocked her back and forth while Murray crooned "happy birthday... to yooooou." After...

#18

"Drunk Ron Perlman gave me a hug and took a picture with me outside of an In N Out in LA. He shuffled past me, and I turned to him and said "Hey, are you Ron Perlman? I loved City of Lost Children!" and he replied "...what? Ron Perlman? Yeah, I'm Ron Perlman...Yeahhhh, I AM Ron Perlman!" and we exchanged the aforementioned hug. Nice guy!"

#19

"Margot Robbie. I work at a restaurant in NYC, first time I served here I treated her like a normal person, didn't acknowledge that she was famous or anything like that although she is probably my number one crush of all time. I was really nervous to even talk to her to be quiet honest. Her and her boyfriend were EXTREMELY personable we talked about the rangers for a bit and kind of chit chatted. She paid the bill, left a very generous tip and told me I created an outstanding dining experience and asked if they could talk to my manager. One of the biggest compliment boosts of my life. They come back and I wait on them often, I would nearly consider us friends now as we are on a first name basis."

#20

"Barack Obama. Back when he was a huge underdog in the 2008 election, he came to my city for a town hall meeting. Showed genuine interest in people's concerns and shook hands with everyone he could. Class act."

"Stephen Colbert. I asked him if he could take a picture, and he took my camera and snapped a photo of a tree. I got my photo with him only after he offered to take a picture of just me. Incredibly funny guy!"

#22

"Mark Hamill. This was at Celebration (a Star Wars convention) and my boyfriend paid for his autograph, but he called me "sssssmokin". I got hit on by Luke Skywalker. Sniffles I'll never forget you. Seriously, though, he is just lovely."

#23

Met Adam Sandler once in a restaurant in NYC. We were out to dinner for a friend's bachelor party, a group of about a dozen guys. Adam stopped by our table and said congrats to the groom-to-be and asked some genuine questions about where we were all from and what we do. He then took a few moments to tell us that he had seen us earlier having fun and laughing together and about how important that is in life, being with friends and laughing and enjoying our time together. Kinda sounds cheesy now but in the moment it was very sincere and meant a lot to us. Overall it was maybe a 5-10 minute interaction but something none of us will ever forget

#24

"Warning: David Bowie Story. Years ago I was working backstage at a theatre in NYC. We were hosting a ballet company that was doing their annual holiday time money grab. This particular year it was a production of the Nutcracker aimed at children. Word travelled quickly that David Bowie was in the audience with his wife and kids. The organizer of the ballet passed them a message through the ushers that asked them to stay after to meet the dancers and take pictures. When the time came to collect David Bowie from the audience and usher him backstage, I was somehow nominated and as a huge Bowie fan, I was star-struck and panicked. I quickly devised a plan wherein I would greet Freaking David Freaking Bowie and walk him quickly to the backstage entrance, say "right through here, sir", and duck into a nearby restroom. Getting to the stage from that particular door was a bit of a labyrinth (ha) but the thought of trying to keep it together while walking them the all the way to the stage was just too much. All goes according to plan until I go to enter the restroom. David Bowie pivots and says "Oh, is that the restroom?" Whatever happened next was a total blur, but the next thing I know I am alone in a small restroom (two urinals and a stall) with David Bowie. Me and Bowie. Pissing in tandem. You know how sometimes your brain throws out the most bizarre thoughts in the the most awkward situations in order to make you laugh? All I could think of was "I wonder if he's spinning his testicles like those metal balls in Labyrinth..." I remained frozen, eyes forward, unflinching, dick in hand as David Bowie flushed, washed his hands and exited. That was my uncomfortable brush with greatness. RIP, Bowie. We love you."

#25

"Natalie Portman. I was working with ABC as part of the interview team years ago (before The Phantom Menace even came out). I was talking with her for a while when she casually mentions that she is going to be in the new Star Wars film. Being 17 and huge nerd, at first I just thought she was fucking with me. But then she said, "Yeah, I guess I'm Luke and Leia's mom."...

#26

"Vanilla Ice. He was doing one of those '90s Nostalgia' college campus tours in the UK back in 2005/6 and being a genuine fan of his, I went along to the show in Glasgow. The show itself was great, he played a lot of his harder and heavier material that I'm a fan of but 99% of the crowd just wanted to hear Ice Ice Baby. When he eventually played it at the end, it was the updated, modernised version of it...the crowd didn't seem that taken by it. After the show he was signing stuff. Mostly just flyers or people's bodies etc. I gave him my copy of his Hard To Swallow CD which caused him to double take. I told him I'm a big fan of his rap-metal material and he reacted with genuine happiness. He told the bouncer to let me and my girlfriend into his VIP spot and told us we could drink what we wanted while he finished signing stuff. He joined us some time later and I spent the night partying away with him and hearing lots of stories, some funny, some pretty messed up about the record industry. Then we went to a nearby Casino where he proceeded to happily drop hundreds onto the roulette table. An experience I'll never forget, he was very humble and we genuinely enjoyed each other's company. The guy knows the world views him as a parody, and he made peace with it. He released the rap-metal albums knowing they weren't going to go far, but done it for himself and regrets nothing."

#27

"Years ago, when Richard Gere was dating Cindy Crawford, my wife was doing some shitty grunt work many aspiring models did at the time, handing out some flyers on the streets of Chicago. The wind whips up, blows all the the flyers out of her hands, as she's struggling to pick them all up, this dude (Richard Gere) runs over to help her out. When they get them all off...

#28

"Tony Curran at Dragoncon two years ago. He played Vincent Van Gogh in the Doctor Who episode Vincent and the Doctor, which deals with mental health, unsurprisingly. It's a well-written, emotional episode, and when he asked what I wanted to talk about I just started crying. I told him that was my favorite episode of Doctor Who and he asked if it was difficult, sometimes. He was the absolute sweetest person ever. He actually reached up and brushed tears off my face, and hugged me, and I can't repeat enough how nice he is. (Sidenote- he was there again last year. He remembered me, not because of the crying, but because he liked my costume and I was wearing the same one.)"

#29

"I met Tony Hawk while I was working at Congress and some lobby was bringing him in to do meet and greets with congressional staffers. It was kind of a weird experience. I don't think that this will surprise everyone, but he was basically a teenager in a 40 year-old's body. We asked him if the meet and greets were the only thing he was doing that day and he said he had actually just come from a middle school, where he did some kind of speaking event for the students. He said it was funny because a student asked him how much money he made and his response was basically, "I don't know, dude, I have people that handle that." It was very odd because it made him seem very out of touch with reality, but in the most innocent way--like a teenager who recognizes they need money to pay for stuff, but not the actual value of any money they acquire."

#30

"I met Christopher Eccleston in morrisons around the time of the doctor who revival, he told me that the tardis was parked in the car park but I couldn't tell anyone cause he was on a secret mission. He gave me a Â£2 coin too. He was very nice. I was like 8 years old by the way."

"George Takai is a genuinely nice guy. My wife and I were at Planet Comicon in Kansas city last year when he was there, and his line was empty. We were getting his signature for my brother-in-law who is a big Trekkie. We were expecting the standard shuffle through and signature experience, but he stood up, shook both our hands, and then just talked with us for what seemed like 10-15 minutes, but was probably only about 2. We talked about his musical and when it was coming to the Midwest, and about his daughter's first job in Iowa, but how she missed the California weather. He was the highlight of the convention for us."

#32

"Steve Martin - This was 12ish years ago. I used to work at the Ride for Atlantis at Caesars Palace Forum Shops. I was doing the ride portion and you are required to give a speech and get people ready to ride the 3D motion ride. Well my girlfriend (now wife) was in the section before me and called me on the phone we had and whispered "oh my god, I just gave Steve Martin the pre-show speech!" and she hung up. The doors open and people started filing in and lo and behold there was Steve Martin with his entourage. He smiled at me, said hi and shook my hand and sat in the back. I went up, gave my speech and during my speech people would usually talk while they buckled in and he was hushing people around him and held his attention to me for the entire thing. At the end of the ride, i took his 3D goggles i issued to everyone and he said thanks again to me again and gave me a handshake. They all left and all I could think about was how damn polite he was. The thank you's and hand shakes felt genuine. You can tell when people are just saying thank you to say thank you or what not and it felt like he actually gave a damn. My wife and I still bring it up to this day. Steve Martin, if you are out there. You rock man. Seriously."

#33

HERE ; This post was curated & posted using : RealSpecific

=> *********************************************** Source Here: 20+ People That Were Surprised At How Nice These Celebrities Were In Real Life ************************************ =>

20+ People That Were Surprised At How Nice These Celebrities Were In Real Life was originally posted by Viral News - Feed

#Viral News - Feed

0 notes

angelofberlin2000 · 7 years

Photo

Keanu Reeves opens up about a lifetime of playing iconic badasses, why he must eat steak before a big fight scene, and how he's managed to stay fit into his 50s

The always-guarded actor talks about his life, his past hits, his latest project ('John Wick: Chapter 2'), and how he's still ready to kick lots of ass.

by David Katz

February 10, 2017 3.32pm

Do you like action movies?” asks Keanu Reeves, unable to contain his excitement, as he leads me on a tour of 87Eleven Action Design, a cavernous gym, production company, and choreography studio located in an industrial park near LAX that is arguably the white-hot center of modern movie fighting. “It’s like a training school, a dojo for stunts,” he says, clearly pumped to be back at what was his “second home” while he prepped for the cult action movie John Wick (2014) and the next installment, John Wick: Chapter 2, in theaters now.

Reeves’ youthful enthusiasm is a little surprising, and not because the guy is officially 52 years old. (In his mod black jacket emblazoned with “Arch”—the motorcycle company he co-founded—he doesn’t look anywhere near that age.) And it isn’t because I expected Reeves to be a jerk, either. The truth is, I had no idea what to expect, because Keanu Reeves—a star for more than a quarter century, a guy whose films have amassed nearly $2 billion at the box office—has achieved something miraculous in today’s celebrity-obsessed world: He’s preserved some mystery about himself.

“I’m not looking for a red carpet to walk, and I’m not trying to have a celebrity footprint,” he says when I mention that it’s rare to see his name flashing across TMZ, and it’s even rarer for him to sit for an extended interview like this one. And while so many actors in Hollywood are focused on building their online “brands,” Reeves seems totally fine with letting the world of social media entirely pass him by. “I can see the appeal—it’s just not to my taste,” he says.

Before I meet him, I know a few basic facts: He’s unmarried, with no kids. (“I’m an unsuccessful representation of the species,” he jokes.) Also, I know that much of my impression of Reeves is formed by his work, notably his tendency to play stoic heroes—like the Zen-like savior, Neo, in the record-shattering The Matrix trilogy—so I half expect to encounter a quiet, impenetrable monk.

Instead, Reeves is more like a high-energy action-movie fanboy, rattling off some of the films that 87Eleven co-founders—veteran stuntmen David Leitch and Chad Staheleski—have choreographed: The Bourne Legacy, Fight Club, and, of course, The Matrix, on which Staheleski served as Reeves’ stunt double. Fifteen years after that movie’s smash success, he knew those guys aspired to direct, and Reeves brought them a project he was developing about a retired assassin who goes on a bloody revenge spree after a group of thugs off his dog.

Reeves would star, and they would direct.

“Just good clean fun,” he says of the movie, with its super-stylized violence, insane body count, and wry tone. (“It is funny,” Reeves admits. “But not ha-ha funny.”) It was an odds-defying hit: Made on a small, $20 million budget, it grossed $86 million worldwide, cementing Reeves’ status, once again, as one of Hollywood’s most appealing and bankable action heroes.

In 2017, it’s easy to forget that Reeves is an unlikely badass. He first hit it big in comedy, in 1989, with the ridiculous Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, about two bodacious, underachieving California teenagers traveling through time in a phone booth. Not only was Bill & Ted Reeves’ first (but hardly last) surprise hit, earning a sequel, but nearly 30 years later people still talk about a reunion—an effort Reeves supports. “It would be absolutely fantastic and ridiculous to play those roles again,” he says. “Bill and Ted in their 50s?! Excellent. Bodacious!” (Yes, a writer is currently working on a script.)

For his sudden transformation into ass-kicking leading man, however, Reeves credits director Kathryn Bigelow, now known for war movies The Hurt Locker (2008) and Zero Dark Thirty (2013), but then starting out with Point Break, in 1991. Bigelow cast a 26-year-old Reeves as an FBI agent embedded with a band of bank-robbing surfers led by Patrick Swayze. It was another ridiculous premise, another huge hit for Reeves. “It was pulpy, it had a real energy,” says Reeves (who hasn’t seen 2015’s failed remake). “I’ve met people over the years who said, ‘I started skydiving because of that movie,’ or ‘I started surfing because of that movie.’”

“Before a fight sequence. I still eat a steak. It started on ‘The Matrix’. It’s totally psychological.”

Reeves jumped from a plane once during production to get a taste of what it’s like, but he says that his co-star, Swayze, really caught the bug. “I think he had 30 jumps while we were filming,” he says. “The insurance company was, like, no. Eventually, he got a cease-and-desist from the production company.”

Whether it was because of the surfing, the long hair, or the laid-back delivery, Point Break stereotyped Reeves as the ultimate SoCal underdog—an image only bolstered by the blockbuster Los Angeles freeway thriller, Speed (1994)—which still persists today.

The irony is that Reeves isn’t a native Californian, or even an American. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, to a British mother and Chinese-Hawaiian father (his name means “cool breeze” in Hawaiian) and spent his formative years in Toronto with his costume designer mom and her eclectic group of friends, including singer Alice Cooper. Reeves still identifies as Canadian, even if he’s lived in L.A. since he was 20 years old.

“Those were my formative years, from like, 7 years old on,” he says. He explains his attachment to his home country as “like the imprimatur of youth, that early sapling that grows into a tree.”

As he leads me up the stairs to 87Eleven’s annex, we get a bird’s-eye view of the place. Most of the floor space is taken up by a huge blue mat overhung by cables used for “wire work,” the suspended choreography that allows actors to dodge bullets midair and pull off impossibly high roundhouses. Today it’s being used by a stunt team from Logan, Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine film, and Reeves looks on with jealousy. “I always want to work out here,” he says, “just come in and get some more training.”

For Wick, that meant he had to learn an entirely new discipline: judo. “I had a little experience in movie fighting,” he says, with typical (and sincere) modesty. “But I’d never done judo.”

He says the form is tricky to fake onscreen because, unlike throwing punches, “you really gotta throw someone.”

Reeves adopted a former MMA fighter named Eric Brown as his sensei. “At the beginning, I didn’t even know where to put my feet,” he says. “So it was a lot of me learning the basics.”

By the time he flew to New York and Rome to shoot John Wick: Chapter 2, which expands the mythology behind Wick’s order of assassins and reunites Reeves with The Matrix co-star Laurence Fishburne, he was a bona fide judo expert. “Keanu is the most persistent, non-giving-up guy you’ll ever meet,” says Stahelski. “He doesn’t want to act out the part. He wants to be the part.”

Reeves loves pushing himself during his action sequences, though he rejects the word “stunt” for anything he does himself. “There’s an incredible stuntman who doubles John Wick,” he says. “They hit him with a car. He’s standing there, and they hit him—that’s a stunt. Me? I’ll shoot some guns, flip some people—and that’s action. So, yeah, I do as much action as I possibly can, because I love it—and I love the opportunity to bring the audience along.

Which is one of the reasons why Reeves never enjoys stepping aside for the sake of his safety. “I hate that, it’s always a drag,” he says. “I want to be able to do everything. Since The Matrix, I’ve used this term, ‘superperfect.’ As in, ‘Can we get it superperfect?’” On a huge-budget studio movie that can afford infinite takes, that means doing it until it’s right. On a leaner film like Wick, where fights that could have been allotted five days might get two, it means no room for error. “But that’s part of what makes [a great action film] a pressure cooker,” he says. “It’s the intensity of just trying to do the best you can in the circumstances that you have.”

Looking back, he credits Point Break for making him think about his body more. “It was life-changing for me,” he says. “It introduced me to fitness and training.” He began working with Denise Snyder, who has remained his main fitness guru for more than 25 years, and has overseen his body throughout his career.

“He can get huge,” says Snyder. “That worked for Speed. But usually I don’t think for him massiveness works. On John Wick, it’s about his presence, and it can’t come from size. It’s got to come from structure. It’s really about pulling his shoulders back.”

Reeves says that meant not having “huge traps.” “I wanted to have that back,” he says, “to look like if I grabbed you, you were in my world now.”

Reeves isn’t slowing down his exercise regimen these days, though he admits that the biggest difference between playing an action hero at 52 versus 25 is the wear and tear on the knees. “I can’t do stairs as fast,” he says. “But if you say ‘action,’ I’ll go.” His recovery is a little slower, but his endurance is solid. His training diet is still simple. “Low sodium, low fat, and the night before a big fight sequence, I still eat a steak. It started on The Matrix. I was like, ‘Gotta go eat a steak, Carrie-Anne [Moss, his co-star].’ It’s totally psychological.” He prefers a nice New York cut, with a little fat on it.

With Wick behind him, Reeves says he has some “civilian living” ahead of him before he chooses his next project. During these periods, he takes it easy. “Steak. Red wine. A nice single malt with a big ice cube. Ride a motorcycle.”

Reeves plans to keep the great action movies coming. “You just gotta find the right one,” he says. “You can’t just do it to do it. Unless you need the dough, which is a good enough reason.”

Of course, Reeves, who allegedly took in millions for his work on The Matrix movies alone, doesn’t need the dough. “Well, I do,” he insists, declining to elaborate too much. “It’s a long story that I don’t want to share with you.” Though later he offers a clue: “When you’re friends with someone, you want to help them, you sign something that turns into something else, and that comes back to haunt you.” Still, he says, money is a bad way to make career choices, and his résumé bears that out. (See: 1991’s My Own Private Idaho, 1993’s Little Buddha, and 2012’s Side by Side, a documentary he produced about Hollywood’s conversion from traditional film to digital.) He’s also the guy who started a motorcycle company five years ago.

In fact, Reeves actually showed up today on one of his bikes, a gorgeous Arch KRGT-1, what he calls a “performance cruiser.”

Arch is more than a vanity project, he says. He’s involved in every facet of the company, from design and testing to administration. The project fits perfectly into what Reeves sees as the guiding philosophy of his life: “You’re gonna die—make stuff.”

http://www.mensfitness.com/life/entertainment/keanu-reeves-opens-about-lifetime-playing-iconic-badasses-why-he-must-eat-steak

#keanu reeves #men's fitness

63 notes · View notes

no2da · 7 years

Text

dream diary, my guys have fun

i was in a friends home, it was at night and i think i was supposed to cat sit? no one was at home (to my knowledge) but im talking to someone? probably myself?? the apartment was so huge and some of the rooms looked like the original walls had been removed and new ones been built to change the layout completely and i was asking the person who i was talking to where the bathroom was cause i couldnt find it and then i looked into the parents bedroom and theres just a doorway arch without door and a stair leading down and the steps are laid out with tiles and at the bottom i can see a bathroom and im just thinking, oh wow i thought this was a flat, also. lol they have no bathroom door you can hear everyone shit from the beds. and i wanted to go down there and i thought, must suck for the parents to have everyone go through their bedroom to go use the toilet. and when was downstairs i realized the bathroom wasnt a bathroom but just a narrow hallway and there were some doors leading into rooms and one rooms door was slightly open and light was coming out and i was like, shit!!!! and i run upstairs and when im in the bedroom again i whisper really angrily ‘why didnt you tell me theres still someone here ???!! ‘ and then i go down again cause i wanna know who is there and i peak through the gap between the door and its some kid watching tv and she turns around and looks me straight in the eye and i fucking run away that was so scary. i run into one of the other rooms and barricade the door and sit there and im having the image in my head of me cutting the throat of that kid with a sickle and hearing, that would solve the problem, and then im like, no!! and see myself cutting my own throat with the sickle and im like, THAT would solve my problem you sick fuck, and then i can see whats happening out the door and theres the kid standing with a sickle about to ram it into the wood and then im outside again but she didnt notice me and i grab her arm and softly say, no, and then im in another room and theres someone with me and also a cat and the other person is doing embroidery and im playing with the cat with their yarn and i try to roll the thread back and the other person says they dont want it anymore cause the cat had it in its mouth.

i woke up for a bit cause the dorm next to mine is getting renovated and they made some noise but i fell asleep again

all the characters from naruto where having like a banquet for borutos anime debut, and they werent animation but real life people, like sasuke was some middle aged dude wearing the shittiest wig and tenten a rly tall black girl, also tenten was the owner of the venue where the party was hold. this was in the late evening it was dark already. then everyone noticed that boruto wasnt even there so they started a search for him. this lead out of the city. there were like only two locations (it was around sunset now), one was a still picture of a highway crossing and the other was a highway along a huge field of wheat. boruto was in that field for idk what reason, there was also a black kid with bleached hair and a rifle sneaking around in there. the search troupe werent aware of them and were looking on the other side of the highway. then there was a small explosion followed by a gun shot in the field. at one end we now could see a couple police guys swat gear ?? and a drone was flying over the field. could see boruto dodging the shot from the swat guys but couldnt dodge the drone. the kid with a rifle was standing a couple meters away not being fast enough for any real reaction. then choji and his mom and dad were there, jumping in and like, matrix like blowing the fucking bullets away, ,,. then everyone was like lets go back home we saved boruto blah and some guy was like, anyone know this kid (with the rifle) but no one knew him but they took him back to the city with them, and on the way back there was the still picture of the crossing again and someone commented, hey, the sun hasnt moved one bit but our search lasted hours? also didnt we start the search at night why is it still sunset?

idk who made this comment but naruto tried to dismiss it and then we were back at tentens restaurant and someone (I Cant remember) was leading shikamarus child in there (still like a toddler) cause they thought the father was in there, but tenten told them he wasnt there but they were like, oh well lets still let him wait for him here and brought him to their usual table and josuke and okuyasu (whatefuck are you guys doing here) were sitting at the table and okuyasu gave tenten a compliment on her new suit. when the person who brought the child was gone tenten went into the kitchen and talked to one of the waitresses about how weird that was and she was really worried about something called an ACADEMIA and suspecting something to happen, then the kitchen door opened and some huge ass slimey meat blob came through and it had a mouth and when it opened it we could see its tongue and its tongue had a mouth again (haha) and shikamarus kid was like, slowly coming out of that second mouth and it was crying and the thing was starting to talk and it said it was an ACADEMIA (my guy thats the name of this fucking alien thing what the fuck ,mind the capital letters) and how it needs to kill all life forms that arent ACADEMIAs and then the waitress started screaming and took one of those huge metal trays for baking and just starts beating the alien with it and it was just like fucking putty but the thing about those aliens was that they could regenerate if left alone, so tenten and the waitress shoved the thing under a pantry so it wouldnt have the space to become big again and they also folded the edges of the, flat putty thing over, so it coudlnt grow limbs?? (it didnts even have limbs in the first place waht) and after that was done tenten realized that shikamarus kid was gone now too, killed along w the alien and she had a come up with something now

and while this happened in the kitchen >>I<< (but, i wasnt watching the whole thing from >my< perspective i was still watching it all like in a movie and suddenly i am an actor in it) showed up at the restaurant and just started, grocery shopping there?? i bought a weird moldy lemon (only because a waitress convinced me to buy it and i cant say no), a lemon the size of a melon, a pack of tiny muffins and one huge muffin, and chocolate covered biscuits, white chocolate and some weird ass red one. and i stole the shopping cart i just took it home with me, and i lived in some weird ass run down shit house with a netto right next to it and i fucking go grocery shopping in a restaurant instead, i bring the fucking shopping cart with me into the kitchen and a family is there while i unpack the groceries, and im. like. posing for one of their family members. i dont know these people and they dont know im not really the person they think i am but im not even in disguise. so i put the muffins on the counter and say i bought the huge one for (i forgot the name) and the white chocolate biscuits for (i forgot the name too), they were the two daughters. muffin was the younger one and biscuits the older one, but then older one comes up to the counter and takes the muffin and looks at me really knowingly and says thanks in a rly weird way and im just, shit. i fucked up they know now im not the real thing. and i just try to play it cool take the lemons and go back to my room.

and my room is . the set for a historical play about suffragettes im writing and and all the actors and technicians etc are there and deedee is there too and shes asking me to give her a role in the play and i want her to play one of the suffragettes (note: the costumes for the suffragettes were mainly made out of belts, weird) and of course the character deedee plays must be a lesbian too but my director says she can only have a crush on another woman whos already married to a man, no requited romance cause i already wrote another gay couple in the script and there cant be two according to him and that pissed me off so i want to take it out on his favorite male character. he was supposed to have a party hosted at his house and i change the scene so the party is somewhere else. i put down the lemons on my bed and climb on it to take down the wall carpet, which was like, essential for the guys party scene, idk why my bed was in the scene. the carpet was super gross like tons of dust and lady bugs and there were even. tiny plants sprouting from it and i verbally let my anger out on the guy and he gave me a vacuum cleaner so i could clean and while i try to suck in some lady bugs and in that moment the bag is apparently full and so fucking full that the shit comes out at the tube and the end piece and there are tons of bugs and i just let it drop cause it scares me and the older sister who exposed me tells me to change the bag and takes my lemons and i just wanna cry cause the fucking bugs are on my bed and i dont wanna open that thing and she took my lemons!!! but im strong and go get a new bag and open the vacuum and cleaner and for some reason i have a pair of scissors now and cut open the old full bag (WHY WOULD I DO THIS) and theres bugs crawling everywhere, silver fish and lady bugs and im just sitting in this pile of shit, good morning

#sweet dreams

1 note · View note

factofacts · 3 years

Text

Are we living in a computer simulation? Is Matrix real?

Are we living in a computer simulation?

A question raised by high-profile physicists and philosophers- Are we living in a computer simulation? Are we real or virtual? This turned out to be a question of debate, so that is the reality? Since the Enlightenment period, whether we are living in a simulated universe became a hot topic of debate and there is no specific answer to it.

The theory of simulation hypothesis came from the University of Oxford philosopher in the year 2003 when Nick Bostrum suggested that members of an advanced civilization with an unbelievable computing power might decide to run simulations of their ancestors.

What are the other reasons to think that we are virtual? Yes, there are some. For example, the more we try to learn about the universe, the more it feels to be based on mathematical law. Of course, this may not be the fact but a function of the nature of the universe in which we are living.

A cosmologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) says- If I were a character in a computer game, I would also discover eventually that the rules seemed completely rigid and mathematical.

Put the odds at 50-50 that our entire existence is a program on someone else’s hard drive- Moderator Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the museum’s Hayden Planetarium. According to him, the likelihood may be very high.

He also took note of the gap between the intelligence of humans and chimpanzee and found that humans and chimpanzees share 98% of DNA.

Somewhere out there, could be someone who has a higher intelligence level. He said, if this is the case, then we all are the creation of someone else’s entity for their entertainment.

James Gates, a theoretical physicist at the University of Maryland says- he found this a very strange thing in the research.

Room for skepticism

With this reasoning, not everyone on the panel agreed. This can simply be the fad of the moment if you are finding some IT solutions for your problems.

Kind of like if you’re a hammer, every problem looks like a nail- said, Tyson.

So are we like Neo? Are we living in a Matrix-like simulation of reality created by highly advanced human beings?

This raises another question, is matrix real?

an Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrum argued that more likely than not, everyone on Earth today is living in a simulation.

What this movie centers around is the philosophical concept that our reality may not be real. The protagonist of the film finds out that his world is a vast simulation run by hyper-intelligent artificial intelligence. A large number of scientists and philosophers started to discuss the validity of the claim of this movie.

According to some philosophers, the idea that we are living in a simulation is something that can be believed. To some moviegoers, Neo’s gravity-defying, and bullet-dodging concepts in the movie The Matrix may seem perennial.

Nick Bostrom said he hadn’t seen The Matrix before publishing the paper, in his first draft of the paper, he suggested that a highly advanced super-computer with a mass on the order of a planet- would be capable of running a simulation on a humanity-size scale. This computer would be capable of doing 10(42) calculations per second, and it could simulate the entire history of humankind which will include all our thoughts, emotions, feelings, as well as memories by using less than one-millionth of its processing power for just one second.

Somewhere around 15 years later, Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX echoed Bostrum’s ideas. He said at a 2016 Recode conference that he thinks “The odds that we’re in base reality is one in billions.”

Today, Bostrum is still wondering and keeps on talking about the fraught relationship between computers and humans. At a TED conference, he said that humanity could destroy itself with the technology of its own creation.

He also suggested that mass surveillance using AI is the way to save us from ourselves.

Rizwan Virk, a computer scientist and the author of the new book “The Simulation Hypothesis,” told Vox- There’s a very good chance we are, in fact, living in a simulation.

Rizwan Virk calls it “The Great Simulation” and he imagines this as a video game of life.

Virk told Vox- You can think of it like a high resolution or high-fidelity video game in which we are all characters.

He agreed on the fact that, of course, that nobody can be completely confident that we are living in a simulation, but he also added that there are plenty of pieces of evidence that point in that direction.

Bostrum’s theory was tested by some researchers After Bostrum’s paper came out, various academics have tried to test the idea that humanity is living in a simulation.

In 2017, a study in the journal Science Advances argued that one type of limited simulation couldn’t work due to hardware issues.

More importantly, the authors who did the study also suggested that classical computers don’t have enough memory to store the information and to simulate certain scenarios in our lives.

By studying cosmic rays, a group of physicists also gave an attempt to address these questions. the subatomic particles in it and physicists simulate space, using coordinates on a grid.

So, some colleagues with nuclear physicist Silas Beane pointed out in a 2014 paper that probably the mass simulation we may be living in would make use of that same coordinate system. As per their logic, if certain particles such as high-energy cosmic rays, always exhibit a maximum energy level (that is believed they do) then the constraints on their behavior may be due to the simulation’s underlying grid.

The authors mentioned in the paper that there always remains the possibility for the simulated to discover the simulators.

But, it is a mere fact that we may never know the reality! Many scientists came to the conclusion that we will never be able to figure out whether we are living in a simulation.

A physicist and philosopher at Dartmouth College, Marcelo Gleiser told New Scientist that attempting to figure out Bostrum’s question according to our knowledge in the present as well as the capabilities in terms of technology is very hopeless.

The reason being, if we were really living in a simulation, scientists would not be having any clue about the laws of physics in the “real world” outside. In addition to this, they may also not know what types of computations would be possible outside the bounds of our simulation, said, Gleiser.

In terms of computing power or the laws of physics, everything that we think we know about what is possible could only be another aspect of the simulation.

Real-life or simulation, are we even alive? Or we are living in memories? Let’s raise another point.

Of course, we are living in a technologically advanced world, but there are endless questions that remain questions at the moment. Are they miracles? If yes, then what are miracles? And who is the one behind it doing this? If this is nature, then who created nature? Ultimately, where did all this started? There is a lot to mull over.

So, what do you think? Are we alive or living in memories?

At some point or another, we can find ourselves falling down from “X” height and we find ourselves dead, and the next moment, our eyes open and Good Morning! You’re still alive! When you are conscious and still able to feel and live through moments, is this on the right track here, or we should get back to the point that we’re all living in a memory.

If we are living in a memory, so are we dead? How can someone be dead if still experiencing? Are we a ghost reliving memories?

If we are not alive and living in memories, then we must have been alive at some point in time experiencing all these things that we are living in our memories at the moment.

Assuming that we have been alive at some point, and living in memories, then what about the sequence? Are we living in our memories in the same sequence that we lived when we were alive?

Who is that alive or dead person?

What questions do strike in your mind?

Do you have any answers to these questions?

Let us know in the comments and we will have a great discussion about it.

0 notes

angrycollectordaze-me-blog · 5 years

Text

Essay代写：Cyberpunk culture

下面为大家整理一篇优秀的essay代写范文- Cyberpunk culture，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了赛博朋克文化。赛博朋克作为一种反乌托邦文化，是近几十年来最为流行的一种科幻类型。赛博朋克在世界观的构造、文化内涵、视觉设定上，都前所未有超脱于其他科幻类型以外，将人类带入了一种全新的宇宙观、世界观。

As a dystopian culture, cyberpunk is the most popular sci-fi genre in recent decades. In terms of the construction, cultural connotation and visual setting of the world outlook, it is unprecedented beyond other science fiction types, bringing human beings into a new world outlook and outlook.

In post-industrial era, the 20th century, mankind has entered a lost of mechanical civilization and society and reflect on the new stage, in parallel, is the transcendence of digital vision technology development, the technological leap for the human society already deep, such as identity, environmental woes, such problems as the conflict between science and ethics has brought the possibility of an expression, beyond the emotion based on postmodernism, by Philip k. dick as the main representative, is based on the literature of science fiction writer, based on the present scientific and technological achievements as the cornerstone of the original cyberpunk culture on the transcendental imagination, Steampunk has replaced the mainstream status in the science fiction world and become the most popular science fiction image theme at present. The symbiotic visual culture system has also become the most popular trend.

The famous religious scholar Pyle tead DE chadin pointed out in his book "the miracle of man" that "the development from primitive life to human is a gradual evolutionary process, and human will develop to a highest end in the future and become some kind of god-like man. There is no direct evidence that the creative connotation of cyberpunk comes from this, but its spiritual core happens to coincide. When technology breaks through the cognitive ceiling, some of those in possession of the highest technological achievements gain god-like rights, such as eternal life and transforming the bodies and minds of others. Like the future version of the ancient Greek mythology, god and man look exactly the same, but live in the sky, master the fate of human beings on the earth, occasionally return to the earth to interact with human beings. Movies like blade runner, alita: battle angel, and TV series carbon are all based on this world architecture.

In such a world view, the question of the meaning of life becomes an important issue. Camus wrote at the beginning of the myth of Sisyphus: "there is only one serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. To judge whether life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question of philosophy." Cyberpunk culture can be said to be based on the ultimate meaning of whether intelligent bodies should exist or not. Sisyphus because we have sinned against the gods, accept repeatedly throughout the course of pushing on the fate of the mountain, the ancient mythology and seemed to be the prediction of the future, or a bionic, physical or mental, under the burden of "god" give appointed or struggle, carry or relief, in cyberpunk "movie," god "is the irresistible force of science and technology and grasp the power of interest group or groups. "Contradiction" is at the core of all appearances. Camus said, "the first activity of the mind is to distinguish between true and false. But thought, when it reflects on itself, first discovers a contradiction." This core is embodied in blade runner 2049, which shows the mystery and debate about whether the main character "dirk" is a bionic man. In the matrix, the real world and the virtual world interweave and exist, and the definition of "real" becomes a big issue beyond the real existence itself. According to Russell in religion and science, "ethics is an attempt to make the collective desire of a group exert an influence on an individual, and the skill of the propagandist lies in the creation of feelings he believes in in others." This is also the center of confusion and resistance of the protagonists in cyberpunk culture. The visual system of cyberpunk is built on this spiritual theme.

From the original cyberpunk semantically speaking, cyberpunk for new vocabulary of cybernetics and punk, and before the old science fiction type steampunk photograph echo, "steam" or "cyber", is the science fiction world technical support structure, keep the punk cyberpunk "basic vocabulary, and steampunk, resistance and introspection is the science fiction world of emotional tone. Bruce Sterling described cyberpunk in this way: "treat people like rats, and all measures against rats can be applied equally to people. Closing your eyes and refusing to think doesn't make this horrible picture go away." Some of the best-known films and television productions include blade runner, ghost in the shell, the matrix, terminator 2, and alita: battle angel.

The director before the screening, blade runner 2049 whalen Newark in the face of the film what is the ultimate expression of this question, replied: "it is a beautiful sadness", it's understandable for all of the original cyberpunk colour fundamental key of film and television works, the tone is not only show the script content, also resort to the visual image itself. The theme of cyberpunk often revolves around the illusion of science and technology foundation such as artificial intelligence, super enterprise and large computer network, while the creators often base on the break of an old order. The dislocation of human relations and the loss of emotion are the inevitable result of the infinite power of science and technology. In blade runner, the boundless gray concrete forest, the tone of the sand all over the sky, without without repeating this kind of emotion lost. If the aesthetic construction of steampunk still retains some lace as if it were a twilight of human emotion, cyberpunk has completely abandoned the past. Man, as a creature, is thrown into a metal petri dish with no seams to be seen, and the decoration is omitted. "man" simply walks from one gray box to another. The polluted city of blade runner 2049, shrouded in a yellow haze, corresponds to the futuristic city full of 3D holographic advertisements. The black, white and gray tone of matrix is the same as the apocalyptic confusion of "people" in it.

Notable thing is that, in the vision of the future imagination, several important works are an important part of the film into the Oriental elements, such as the giant billboards in blade runner 2049 Japanese women, oiled paper umbrella in the hands of a pedestrian, "hacker empire" in the famous Chinese kung fu dodge bullets, "cloud" clone leaders in Asian faces, the ghost in the shell, imitate the geomorphic features of Hong Kong city setting. This may be due to the emphasis on multiculturalism of cyberpunk. On another level, it may be due to the mystery and gentleness of the east, or it may be the cold and hard neutralizer of future technology against the nature. Or is the imagination of eastern mysticism an antidote to humanity's inability to find its way through science and human relations? Or, the mixing of various cultural elements just coincides with the expression of surviving in the narrow slit in cyberpunk works and getting lost in the emotional experience.

As the most important science fiction style in "network science fiction", cyberpunk, with its strong philosophical reflection, unique visual tone and transcendent directing style, has become an important art genre leading the visual and humanistic trend of thought. Many phenomena and problems in aesthetics, sociology and philosophy are worth digging in different fields. From the perspective of visual research, cyberpunk continues steampunk's endless imagination of the future scientific world, breaks its visual limitations and brings it into a broader and mysterious field, providing unlimited possibilities for future visual creativity. At the same time, it also brings more questions, what is the marginal of science and technology, after breaking the traditional order from the inside out, whether people are still their natural appearance? This is a question of visual design and perhaps the ultimate philosophical question.

想要了解更多英国留学资讯或者需要英国代写，请关注51Due英国论文代写平台，51Due是一家专业的论文代写机构，专业辅导海外留学生的英文论文写作，主要业务有essay代写、paper代写、assignment代写。在这里，51Due致力于为留学生朋友提供高效优质的留学教育辅导服务，为广大留学生提升写作水平，帮助他们达成学业目标。如果您有essay代写需求，可以咨询我们的客服QQ：800020041。

51Due网站原创范文除特殊说明外一切图文著作权归51Due所有；未经51Due官方授权谢绝任何用途转载或刊发于媒体。如发生侵犯著作权现象，51Due保留一切法律追诉权。

0 notes

looking-from-the-outside-in · 6 years

Text

Unrestricted Sons

Sons Of Issachar

252. Unrestricted Sons

Mike Parsons

with Jeremy Westcott –

No limits

Jesus, the Truth, the second Adam, desires to remove the limits placed on us by the first Adam, to restore us and conform us to our original eternal blueprint, and to release us into the glorious freedom of our sonship. Every one of us, without exception. No-one is left out, because Jesus reconciled the whole world to Himself on the cross. The Father has made it possible for every person who has ever lived and who ever will live to come into relationship with Him if they will embrace Jesus and enter in through that door.

He desires to restore all things. That includes our capacity to engage bandwidths of electromagnetic energy and abilities which were lost at the fall, the flood and Babel. Those were times in Man’s history where He had to intervene to limit the damage we were about to do to creation by operating outside of relationship with Him. When we come back into relationship, it opens the way for Him to restore those abilities for us to use as sons and co-heirs in the kingdom.

Untethered

Jesus came to bring abundant, overflowing life. Those whom the Son sets free will be free indeed. While we remain tethered to the physical realm and under its rule and bondage, we contribute to creation’s groan rather than being able to respond to it, because we, too, are longing to be set free. In Jesus we can get to know the Truth by experience, and He makes us free to engage with creation as the sons and heirs we truly are.

So, freedom from sickness, disease and pain: can you see that reality? Freedom from rejection, fear, insecurity, addiction, poverty and every bondage and limitation: can you see those realities? If we can focus on those realities as we see them in Jesus, it will change our thinking and free us from the restrictions our minds have imposed upon us. If we can see them as truth then they can manifest in our lives. We can be set free from the chains of time and space and the dimensional restrictions of our flawed belief systems and mindsets; free to fly, untethered and unrestricted.

Earthbound

There can be many realities – and we are all living the reality we can see – but there is only One Truth. A word of warning: the truth, once perceived, may not always be to our taste. We may find the truth unpalatable and hard to swallow because of our DIY mindsets.

The truth may not always be convenient or pleasant because it will not allow us to stay the same. It may require sacrifice and discipline but it will always bring us into freedom. Because it can be hard, sometimes we encounter truth but do not follow through. We turn from the truth and return to less challenging pseudo-realities, fearing the hardships and responsibilities that freedom brings, losing sight of the higher purpose we have in God’s kingdom.

I remember once, I was ministering with another person and we saw someone’s leg grow – not just a millimetre or two, but about 8 centimetres (3 inches). The next day, the person who had been with me came to me and asked “did that really happen?” They had allowed unbelief to come in and rob them of what they had actually seen with their own eyes because it did not fit in with their mindset.

We must live beyond the veil. If we cannot perceive (or if we choose to ignore) the eternal realm of which we are citizens, then we will remain confined and tethered to this earthly, DIY version of reality; remain earthbound, restricted, living in a carefully constructed illusion that reduces us to the status of mere mortals, unable to change our circumstances and situations or fulfil our eternal destiny:

…in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Cor 2:4).

Let’s be willing to ask, are we blinded by the world’s DIY system? Whose reality are we living in?

Jesus did things by the power of His consciousness which we do not think we can do. He controlled reality through His choices. Much supernatural truth has been put ‘off limits’ to us by religious spirits operating within the old order religious systems, labelling it ‘New Age’. All truth is from God because Jesus is The Truth but some things have been veiled in deception. Just because some folk within the New Age movement may have glimpsed a reality which Christians have rejected, and just because they have their own worldviews, mindsets and filters in place which cause them to see and present a distorted version of the truth, that does not mean that the truth is not there to be revealed when viewed through the lens of Jesus. We must recover that truth.

Take the red pill

‘The Matrix’ is one of my favourite movies, a modern parable which reveals that the truth can free our minds. If you have not seen it, I recommend it! Keanu Reeves is Neo (whose name means ‘New’ and is also an anagram of ‘One’). With the help of Laurence Fishburne’s character, Morpheus, he becomes aware that the reality he is living in is a lie and seeks to expose and overthrow it.

Here are a few quotes from Morpheus:

“Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know, you can’t explain. But you feel it. You felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. Like a splinter in your mind – driving you mad.”

“I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”

“Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. The question is, are you willing to look?”

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

“What is real? How do you define ‘real’? If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.”

“Don’t think you are, know you are.”

Neo: “What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?”

Morpheus: “No, Neo. I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.”

“The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.”

Neo: “What truth?”

Morpheus: “That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.”

“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save… You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.”

“I didn’t say it would be easy, Neo. I just said it would be the truth.”

‘Meeting Morpheus‘ scene from The Matrix.

See for yourself

This rabbit-hole goes deep. “Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls.” I can give you testimony of my experience, but you really have to see this for yourself. Choosing relationship with the Father through Jesus is like taking the red pill: once you have seen and experienced Him for real, there is no going back. Around the world, I see many people encountering the real God and beginning to grasp that He really is Love. Many of us are only now beginning to realise just how good He actually is.

When Neo goes to visit the Oracle (hoping to find out if he is ‘the One’), there is a sign on the wall, ‘Nosce te ipsum’ (‘Know yourself’). It is only when we see God as He really is that we can know who we really are.

Some recent articles from Freedom ARC

251. God’s Original Design and Purpose

250. Pillars In My Mind

249. The Veil is Taken Away

247. Limitless Grace and Mercy

239. The Things They Now Believe

233. Wider, Deeper, Longer, Higher

Older related posts

215. Revealing the Sons of God

190. By Personal Encounter and Experience

95. Manifestation of the Sons of God

Image attribution: the black and green ‘matrix’ image used as a background for the title meme is by Pixabay contributor Tobias_ET. Used under Creative Commons CC0.

Intensive – October 30th to November 1st 2018

Expanding Our Reality: Deconstruction and Restoring Consciousness

Join us in Barnstaple, UK, for our final intensive of 2018 with Mike Parsons.

Limited places available via Eventbrite.

0 notes

one-of-us-blog · 6 years

Text

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Today Drew is forced to watch and recap 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies, the eighteenth James Bond adventure. Breaking news! A media mogul has set his sights on expanding his news empire, but sources indicate there’s some seriously unethical journalism going down! You’ll never believe what happens next! Can Bond stop the presses in time to save China? Wait a second, what the hell does China have to do with any of this?

Keep reading to find out…

Eli, you’ve done it again! Twice! Both of your latest recaps were fantastic, and I completely agreed with your thoughts on both of them. “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot (Less) Like Christmas” is very forgettable, and you were very generous with your rating. You’re the personification of Christmas generosity! But on a more serious note, “Camp Town Races Aren’t Nearly as Much Fun as They Used to Be” (this show has got to cut it out with these long titles) was the episode I was least excited for you to watch, because I really just hate most of it. Like you said, they make Blanche be awful so she can learn a lesson, but it still sucks to see her act that way. I can’t help but think of “Mixed Blessings” from the original series, which had Dorothy act like a racist in sacrifice of the plot despite that completely going against her character. Episodes like this suck, and I’m glad it’s behind you. There are still a few bumps in the road ahead of you, but I can’t wait to read your next couple of recaps! God bless us, everyone but Oliver!

Buttocks tight!

Screenplay by Bruce Feirstein, Nicholas Meyer & Daniel Petrie Jr., film directed by Roger Spottiswoode

We start off very specifically in A Terrorist Arms Bazaar on the Russian Border, which MI6 is spying on. M has her boys identify the terrorists in attendance and they do good work, but then she’s informed by Admiral Dickhead that this is now a military matter and they’re going to bomb the bazaar to hell and back. M protests, stating that she still has a man on the ground (I wonder which one?) but the admiral tells her says she’d better hurry up and get him out of there because these bombs ain’t stoppin’. The man on the ground tells them it’d be a bad idea to blow this popsicle stand, because one of the jets up for sale at the bazaar is equipped with nuclear torpedoes and hitting those sorts of things with a missile is usually a bad idea. M tells the admiral to call off the bombing, but his boys say the missile is already out of range and can’t be recalled. M is used to cleaning up the messes of men in power, so she takes charge and tells Bond (he’s the man on the ground, in case you hadn’t guessed it) to get out of there. Bond can’t just leave these nukes lying around, though, so he stirs up some trouble at the bazaar, steals the jet and flies it out of Dodge before the whole place gets blown up by that pesky missile. Aside from some trouble from the terrorist copilot sitting behind him trying to strangle him and another terrorist trying to shoot him down in a jet of his own, it’s a pretty smooth getaway! Bond takes care of his last few problems by ejecting his copilot into the other jet and we head into our opening credit sequence.

Woah, I must have just jacked into the Matrix, because these opening credits are futuristic as hell! Streams of numbers, x-rays and lasers abound! Sheryl Crow belts out “Tomorrow Never Dies” while computer chip ladies wiggle around and CGI bullets fly out of computer screens hanging all over the place. Did this movie come out in 1997 or 2097, amiright?

After that trip to the future we cut to the H.M.S. Devonshire which is tooting around the South China Sea. We cut back right as things hit up, because the Devonshire is targeted by Chinese jets. The jet pilots say the Devonshire is in Chinese water and they’re gonna get some trouble if they don’t leave, but the Devonshire’s captain insists they’re in international waters and don’t have to listen to nobody. But, uh-oh, a sudden cutaway to the Carver Media Group Network in Hamburg lets us know that somebody’s messing with the Devonshire’s GPS, making them think they’re in international waters when we’re they’re all up in China’s business. We then cut to a sub, where a handily expositional crew lets us know that they’re going to send a stealthy little drill to donk up the Devonshire the next time the Chinese jets get close. The crew goes so far as to let us know the intention here is to make the British think the Chinese sank the ship, which is very helpful to me, a dumbass. The plan goes off just like these supporting characters just told us it would, and the captain of the Devonshire radios HQ to let them know they were sank by the Chinese before abandoning ship. These Carver goons aren’t done, though, as they blow up one of the Chinese jets with British missiles. I got no expositional warning that this was going to happen, so you can imagine how flabbergasted I was by this development. The Carver goons retrieve some missiles from the sunken Devonshire, and they gun down all but 17 survivors.

In Hamburg, Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) himself is typing up his headline for this international incident in real time. So, wait, all of these people have been killed so that Carver can get a scoop on a story? Holy smokes, this might be the dastardliest villain we’ve come across since that guy who was just really good at shooting people. Carver has Skype calls with various people, literally saying out loud that the Carver Media Group is causing chaos all over the world. I’ll say one thing for this movie, having every single detail spelled out to me like this sure is handy. Carver releases buggy software, blackmails the President and causes all sorts of trouble like the little devil he is. He has a little powwow with his buddy Henry Gupta (Ricky Jay) and his henchman Richard Stamper (Götz Otto) and they all agree that everything is going just swimmingly. Carver lets his minions know that the South China Sea incident will be the premier headline for their satellite news network. Carver is going to dominate the news cycle, and, hot damn, just like that, we’ve got our villain’s plot spelled out for us! Man, I’m not gonna have to think for a second while watching this movie!

Meanwhile, Bond is fucking a French professor when he’s called by Moneypenny, who tells him everybody’s in a tizzy over this South China Sea incident. We get a hilarious Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell bit from Moneypenny and M, and then M and Admirable Dickhead get into a shouting match over the missing Devonshire. The admirable is rock-hard to start retaliating, but M wants to know what the hell’s going on before fleets start getting deployed. I guess she missed the first 20 minutes of the movie, because everything’s crystal clear for me, baby! MI6 discovers that Carver’s rag is already blabbing about the incident, and now the admiral’s not the only one hot for retaliation. M is given 48 hours to find out what happened and then China’s going to get a calling card from the British Navy.

M isn’t a dumbass so she thinks it’s a little suspicious that Carver got a headline about the incident out literally right after it happened. We’re told Carver’s got Szechuan beef with the Chinese because they’re the only country who won’t broadcast his media network. Say no more, M, we already know he’s the bad guy! Bond is being sent to Hamburg to attend an event at the CMGN HQ, and M gives us another tasty little morsel of exposition by letting us know that Bond used to date Carver’s wife, Paris (Teri Hatcher). M and Moneypenny are still polishing their comedy routine, and we get a great bit about Bond pumping Paris for information. Bond arrives in Germany, where Q, who’s just a regular man about town these days, gives him a new car with all the usual Q Branch bells and whistles. He also gives him a fancy new cellphone that has a taser, a fingerprint scanner and a remote control for the car.

Bond arrives at the apparent rave going on at the CMGN and is introduced as a banker to Carver. Carver is distracted by the arrival of Wai Lin (the incomparable Michelle Yeoh) from the New China News Agency. Lin wasn’t invited, but she admits to sneaking in so she could meet Carver. Carver is delighted by this, and Bond goes off to meet up with Paris. She gives him a good slap, and we find out that Bond dipped out on Paris and she still holds a grudge. This exposition train just don’t quit! Paris informs Bond she won’t be helping him investigate Carver, but when Carver slinks over she doesn’t blow his cover. Bond can’t play it cool for a second and immediately starts letting Carver know he’s suspicious of him, and Carver lets Stamper know he wants the supposed banker taken care of.

Stamper takes Bond away while Carver makes a big speech about the South China See incident. Carver’s goons beat up Bond in a back room, but he gets the better of them. Bond decides to be an asshole and cuts the power to Carver’s broadcast just for the fun of it. He’s gone before Stamper can get to him, and Carver throws a real hissy on stage. Carver’s pissed when other news networks gloat about his big broadcast getting cut off, and he wants Paris to tell him why Bond acted a fool like that. She tries to keep up the act that she barely knows him, but he sends her to Bond’s hotel room to pump intel out of him. Watch out, M and Moneypenny, I’m snatchin’ up your routine!

At Bond’s hotel, Paris plays him like a fiddle and gets into his pants without having to break a sweat. Carver has Gupta look into Bond’s alias and they figure out he’s a spy. Gupta also caught a snippet of dialogue revealing Paris knew Bond wasn’t a banker, so Carver wants both of them killed. Oh, also, turns out I was an idiot to assume Paris was playing Bond. She’s actually just still in love with him and tells him all about Carver’s secret lab. Bond sneaks into the lab and finds the encoder Carver used to control the satellite that misled the Devonshire. Before he makes it out of the lab he runs into Wai Lin, who’s doing a bit of snooping of her own. Lin trips an alarm and Bond has to deal with a bunch of goons while she uses some Q-esque devices of her own to zip around. Bond makes it out, but then gets a call from Carver. Carver knows Bond has the encoder and that he banged his wife, so Bond heads to the hotel to get Paris out of there. Stamper is monitoring the hotel, and as soon as Bond is out of his car he calls for some more goons to get the encoder.

Bond finds Paris dead in the hotel room, and a CMGN anchor on TV is already broadcasting a story about her body being found alongside the body of an unidentified man. Uh-oh, now Bond knows how the dude from Early Edition felt! Carver’s assassin, Dr. Kaufman (Vincent Schiavelli with a bad German accent), decides to have a little chat with Bond instead of just shooting him, and reveals that the news story is a tape that’s going to be broadcast in an hour. Carver’s goons try to beat their way into Bond’s car while Kaufman keeps talking instead of just taking the damn shot. The goons radio Kaufman and tell him to get Bond to unlock the car, and Bond tricks him into tasering (thanks for letting me know tazing isn’t a word, Google) himself before executing him with his own gun to avenge Paris or whatever.

Stamper spots Bond sneaking out of the hotel, and Bond uses the remote control to steer the car away from the goons. He hops on board and remote controls himself away. He retrieves the encoder from the glove compartment and bails before driving the car off a ledge, causing enough of a distraction for him to sneak away. We cut to an air base in the South China Sea, where Bond meets up with, my god, Jack Wade himself. If I’m forced to see Joe Don Baker in one more movie, I don’t know what I’ll do. Bond finds out that the encoder was tampered with to mislead the Devonshire and figures out where the ship sank. He skydives down into the sea where the Devonshire went down, and I shudder as watching Bond scuba dive through the wreckage of the ship gives me vivid flashbacks to Thunderball. In the wreckage Bond once again runs into Wai Lin, and the two have to make a quick exit before the Devonshire slips off its perch and falls deeper into the sea. On the surface Lin signals for her buddies on a boat to pick them up, but her friend gets a harpoon through the chest and it turns out Stamper is here for some reason. Bond and Lin are captured and handcuffed together on a helicopter that takes them to yet another of Carver’s building. Lin recognizes a Chinese general leaving as they arrive, but then they’re brought before Carver as he’s typing up an obituary for the two of them. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten a dose of exposition, but luckily Carver’s there to inform us that Lin is a Chinese spy. Thank goodness, if I’d had to figure that out on my own this recap might have taken me months to get through.

Carver asks Stamper to torture Bond and Lin a bit while he goes off to meet with one General Chang, but Bond and Lin make a dream team and they easily escape despite still being handcuffed together. If there’s one thing this series loves more than exposition it’s a chase scene, so we get a nice scene of Bond and Lin on a motorcycle being chased by Carver’s goons. They eventually escape and manage to get out of their handcuffs, but then Lin gives Bond the slip by handcuffing him to a post. She works alone, by gummit! Bond catches up to her just in time to see her ambushed by another squad of goons, but she hands each of them their asses with a bow on top. This is a James Bond movie, though, so of course Bond has to arrive at the last minute to save her from being shot by the one goon she hadn’t gotten to yet. Bond deduces that General Chang is working with Carver and wants Lin dead.

Bond and Lin deduce that Carver is going to use the missile he stole off the Devonshire against the Chinese, and they decide to radio their respective governments and let them know about Carver’s schemes. Lin is amazing at her job and figures out that Carver’s stealth ship from the first scene is hidden in Ha Long Bay. Lin and Bond head that way while joking about how Britain is a corrupt western power and communism sucks, because everybody in this movie’s got jokes. They find the stealth ship as it’s heading out at nightfall and plant some bombs on it. Inside the ship, Carver once again explains his plan to pit the British and Chinese forces against each other and starts firing off missiles. Carver spots Lin and sends Stamper to collect her, knowing Bond must be nearby. Bond tricks Stamper into thinking he’s dead by throwing the body of a henchman offboard, and Carver calls for Lin to be brought to the bridge so he can gloat to her about his wicked machinations and do a racist parody of martial arts moves.

Back in jolly old London Town M finally got Bond’s message and lets everybody to know about Carver’s schemes. Carver really drives home his plot by laying out step by step how General Chang is calling a meeting of Chinese government officials, only he’s not going to be there and the meeting will have an unexpected guest in the form of that pesky missile from the Devonshire. We been knew, y’all! Once the government officials are taken out Change will seize power while the British and Chinese fleets destroy each other. What is Carver actually getting out of this? Why, exclusive broadcast rights in China for the next hundred years, of course.

Now, I know at this moment you’re probably asking yourself, “你在跟我开玩笑吗？”, but I promise you, Carver really is doing all of this so he’ll be allowed to broadcast his dumb news network in China for the next one hundred (100!) years. Will Carver be alive in one hundred years? I’m famously not a scientist, but all available evidence points to a solid no. Will anybody give a shit about printed or televised news once the internet takes off in about five years? Some dweebs will still get The New York Times delivered to their houses so they have something to feel smug about, but, I mean, c’mon. Nobody’s going to care about CMGN once news is only a few keystrokes away, and if they’re anything like me they’ll be constantly up to date on all the important world happenings thanks to the reputable and reliable reporting found at Infowars.com (my only trusted news source). Carver’s plan is as shortsighted as it is dumb, which is to say, approximately, ‘as hell’. Now that I’m done roasting this Steve Jobs lookin’ nerd, let’s get back to the show.

Bond holds Gupta hostage and lets Carver know he’s still alive. He proposes to trade Gupta for Lin. Carver doesn’t actually care about Gupta, though, so Carver just shoots him to take away Bond’s bargaining chip. Bond had a backup plan, though, and he sets off a grenade with a Chinese spy watch he stole from Lin’s headquarters earlier. Rude, but effective. The explosion allows a British ship to detect Carver’s stealth ship, and Lin and Bond are able to get away. The British try to shoot Carver’s ship out of the water, but he’s still intent on firing that missile. Lin gums up the ship’s work, making it a sitting duck for the Brits to blow up while Bond tries to blow up Stamper with a rocket launcher that was inside the ship for no reason. It still takes the Brits a few tries despite Carver’s ship not moving anymore, but they finally land a hit and Carver’s goons prepare to abandon ship.

Stamper thinks Bond was killed in the British attack, so Carver sends him off to the engine room to deal with Lin. Bond sneaks over to disarm the Devonshire missile, but Carver gets the drop on him and we get one last bit of sweet, sweet exposition as Carver describes how the missile can’t be disarmed and the Brits are destroying all the evidence of his involvement in all this. He’s going to get what he wants and still get off Scott free! Only, of course he’s not, because Bond turns on the drill that killed the Devonshire and feeds Carver to it. Bond gets to work stopping the missile, but Stamper threatens to kill the now-captured Lin if he doesn’t back off. Lin tosses Bond a handy gadget that will stop the missile from launching (but not exploding) and Stamper drops her into the water to drown while he and Bond tussle. Bond traps Stamper next to the missile and dives down to save Lin as the missile explodes inside the ship, killing Stamper.

M is informed that Carver’s dead but that Bond’s not, and M tells Moneypenny to spin the story to make it seemed like Carver killed himself. M’s just chock full of humor today! A rescue ship looks for Bond and Lin, but they choose to make out instead of being rescued.

The End

~~~~~

Hoo buddy, my sources are telling me this was a bit of a stinker! Maybe it’s just that this is the follow up to the spectacular GoldenEye, but there was a lot going on here that just didn’t work for me. As much as I appreciate having the movie’s plot spoon-fed to me, I think it might have been a good idea to show rather than tell at least once over the course of two hours. There was just so much exposition in this one! And I’m absolutely flabbergasted by how lame Carver’s plot was. We’ve had some stretches in logic from villains in the past, but usually they at least want to get rich or take over the world in something. Carver just cared about being able to broadcast in China! I’m sorry, but a memorable villain this scheme does not make. Michelle Yeoh can’t help but be fantastic in everything she’s ever done so of course I loved her as Lin, and while there were still a few moments where Bond got to save her I still think she held her own much more than most Bond Girls are allowed to. It felt like we were getting a crash course on fridging with the whole Paris thing, but honestly she was so inconsequential to the plot that I’d pretty much forgotten her until I happened to catch her name a second ago while I was proofreading this very recap. As corny and out of place as it was, I actually loved M and Moneypenny constantly trading quips and jokes, and while I can’t say for sure I think this M is getting a lot more screen time than any of her predecessors (which you won’t catch me complaining about). This movie was cheesy and the plot was incredibly silly, but there were still some fun fights (i.e. the ones where Michelle Yeoh got to beat up a bunch of dudes) and as much as I was rolling my eyes I still came away from this film feeling like I’d had a good time.

Overall, I’m giving Tomorrow Never Dies QQQ on the Five Q Scale.

News flash, we’ve got some more wonderful recaps for you to enjoy coming soon! First Eli will be back to cover “Rose and Fern” and “Runaways”, the next two episodes of The Golden Palace (can’t WAIT to read Eli’s thoughts on both of those for [very different reasons]), and then before you can blink I’ll be back to cover the next James Bond movie, The World is Not Enough.

Until then, as always, thank you for reading, thank you for contemplating ethics in game journalism and thank you for being One of Us!

#one of us #007 #james bond

0 notes

itsworn · 7 years

Text

Behind The Wheel With Legendary Stunt Driver Debbie Evans

Bullitt, The French Connection, The Blues Brothers, and the Fast and Furious franchise–– who hasn’t walked out of a theater and wondered what it would be like to be a stunt driver in one of those blockbuster films? Debbie Evans does just that. She is the professional stunt driver chosen to wheel a Jaguar F-Type for the Castrol Edge Titanium Trials, part of the Fast & Furious 8 YouTube video promotion. As one of the top stunt drivers in the business, we got Debbie’s take on movie cars, her career, and working with the top talent in Hollywood.

In the Beginning

Ridiculed as a kid for her love of motorcycles, playing sports, and being a tomboy, Debbie listened to her heart and didn’t let the naysayers stop her. In 1977 at the age of 18, she decided to explore a non-traditional career path, and has been performing stunt work ever since.

The love of bikes and fast cars runs deep in the her family. Debbie’s father, David Evans, got her on a motorcycle at the tender age of 6 and she’s been riding ever since. She met her husband, Lane Evans, at a motorcycle race, and today, stunt driving is a family affair. Their 23-year-old son, Daniel Evans-Leavitt is also a stunt driver.

Instead of enrolling in her second year of junior college, Debbie discovered that her self-determination and motorcycle skills were the keys to opening doors––doors that would eventually have her inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, and a recipient of the 2004 Taurus World Stunt Awards’ Best Overall Stunt by a Stunt Woman for her amazing work in The Matrix Reloaded. She had previously won Taurus awards for her work in the first The Fast and the Furious movie. Remember the stunt scene featuring the black Honda Civic that drives under a moving semi-truck? That was Debbie.

Looking like an alien from outer space, stunt woman, Debbie Evans wore a mixed reality headset during the filming of Fast and the Furious 9. This technology blends computer- generated images with live action to create one of the most intense driving experiences imaginable.

Mixed Reality for a Wild Ride

Helicopters, submarines, and a Jaguar on ice? It sounds like another day at the office for Debbie. Wearing a mixed reality headset, she could see computer generated (CG) obstacles the Jaguar F-Type SVR her movie character is dodging and racing. Explosions, bullets, and bombs … “It was like being inside a video game” she exclaimed. Debbie praised the Jaguar’s amazing speed and handling. She even hinted that the Jaguar would certainly be one of her picks for her dream garage alongside a Dodge Viper, and a Ferrari 458 Italia.

Technology, Computer Generated Imagery, and the Role of Stunts

With CG becoming such a big part of blockbuster films, such as the Fast and Furious franchises, Debbie made an interesting point about how CG technology can help or hurt a film. Like driving a motorcycle on one wheel, or a car on two, finding the balance of real and surreal is the answer. Some films, lend themselves to CG, while other movies, like the Fast and Furious franchise try to keep it real. Too much CG and you lose connection with the characters, people, and humanity. For example, faking the wrecking ball scene from Fate of the Furious would have lost the intended tension and drama. Debbie told us the wrecking ball was real, and that timing is everything! Parachuting cars out of the back of a cargo plane? That crazy stunt was real, too. “The stunt drivers were not in the vehicles at the time,” Debbie says, with a touch of relief in her voice as she praised the Red Bull skydiving team who helped film the sequence.

The Castrol video was shot on the barren, wild, and icy landscape of the Canadian Yukon. Debbie said she loved making the F-Type Jaguar’s supercharged 5.0L V8 sing harmoniously at wide-open throttle.

“My Foot May Be Little, But It’s Made of Lead”

The Fast and Furious movies have really changed the way people look at stunts and stunt drivers, and being brave, bold and fast are no longer enough to satisfy audiences. As female action roles have become more commonplace, opportunities for female stunt professionals have also opened on television, in the movies, and in advertising. Typically, men do the stunt work for male characters, and women the stunt work for female characters, though Debbie doubled for Lee Majors in The Fall Guy television series. In a featured episode, Majors’ character rode a motorcycle on its rear wheel through a pair of western saloon doors, and well, let’s just say it wasn’t the Six Million Dollar Man on the bike.

When asked about the skills someone should have if they are thinking about breaking into stunt work, Debbie commented on how much vehicles have changed since the late 1970s, with ABS, traction control, AWD, FWD, RWD, numerous safety enhancements, and other computerized systems. Added skills like gymnastics or martial arts training are desirable, plus the ability to drive a bike or car on dirt is key. The ability to feel the surface underneath you—with your hands, feet, and seat, knowing where your front and rear wheels are at all times, and being able to analyze and visualize a stunt in your head before you attempt it is the secret to a great stunt.

Even when you walk, mark, and rehearse a stunt, things can ––and do–– go wrong. For example, there was a time Debbie narrowly avoided a head-on collision while filming Matrix Reloaded.

Action film directors always seem to find a way to throw you a curve ball to add excitement. It may be hard to see out the back window of a Lamborghini Countach, like the one Debbie drove at over 150 mph while filming Cannonball Run II. “When Hal Needham asks you to go as fast as you can, you deliver—just don’t outrun the camera truck or helicopter shooting the scene. When the second unit director asks what that incredible sound is as you push the Lambo down the road and around curves and ramps, you know you’ve nailed it.”

Even Herbie the Love Bug got in on the action in the motion picture of the same name, popping wheelies and drag racing––not a problem with a little lead in the back and Debbie behind the wheel in Herbie Fully Loaded. What about driving down Main Street on Herbie’s rear wheels? Simple enough if you use lamp posts and palm trees as markers …something to keep in mind when driving on days with poor visibility. Thanks for the tip, Debbie!

How would you like to be picked up from school with your mom wearing this? Debbie loves to drive fast on both four, and two wheels.

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

Imagine walking on to the set and having your choice of a McLaren, Lamborghini Countach, Ferrari Enzo, Jaguar F-Type SVR, or a Ducati to drive. We’re probably all guilty of having posters of one or more of those vehicles hanging on our wall. After almost 40 years in the business, Debbie is still a bit in awe of what she gets paid to do. You can hear it in her voice when she talks about her job. “All these beautiful cars, and I get to drive them,” she said. “And not just drive them like the precious objects they are, but all out, in chase scenes, pushing the limits and truly living the dream.”

So, what’s next for Debbie? We hear Fast and Furious 9 is in the works already.

For more information about Debbie and her incredible talents, visit her website.

The post Behind The Wheel With Legendary Stunt Driver Debbie Evans appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network http://www.hotrod.com/articles/behind-wheel-legendary-stunt-driver-debbie-evans/ via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Hot Rod Network

0 notes