You can read our spoiler free review of Nope here.

Jordan Peele’s Nope is, without a doubt, his most clever and complex work to date. It may be cunningly disguised as a summer monster movie, but it is also layered with so much metaphor, symbolism, and allusion that it will leave you with more questions and theories than you can shake a stick at. In a good way. Nope isn’t complicated like Tenet or difficult like Tree of Life. It isn’t arty or inaccessible.

By the time you’re done with these 135 minutes, you would have encountered a series of fascinating characters, a bloodthirsty show business chimp, multicolored inflatable skydancers, and a strange flying saucer that seems descended from Invaders from Mars and The Day the Earth Stood Still. The A-plot of the movie, which pretty much involves a group of disparate people who come together in order to kill a monster, resolves itself rather neatly. So much so that you won’t leave this movie going, “What the hell just happened?” You will, however, be curious as to everything else that this movie is.

We attended an early preview screening of Nope and found ourselves staring in stunned silence as the credits rolled. We were in awe at Jordan Peele’s ambition. Much like Get Out and Us, this movie too left us somewhat anxious and a little uneasy. We weren’t confused, but our minds were working overtime in trying to figure out what this movie is.

That was the big question we had.

What is Nope?

Once again. There be plenty of spoilers after this point.

Nope Is… Just Another Monster Movie

You could just not overthink it. Because Nope is, fundamentally, a monster movie. The quintessential American summer movie, complete with a Spielbergian holy terror that OJ and his motley crew are trying to kill. (See: Alien, Tremors, The Thing, Jaws, etc.)

You can walk out of this movie and be completely satisfied in having watched a tense and suspenseful thriller. The monster in this movie isn’t a metaphor for capitalism, or global warming, or racism, or grief, or political and social change. It’s just an alien creature that is alive, and territorial, and wants to eat them.

There may be plenty of themes to dissect in this movie, but Nope is also just a big, beautiful, spectacle that is visceral and a little scary, that is thrilling and a lot of fun.

Nope Is… a Western

Jordan Peele loves to layer his movies with history and popular culture. He is a fan of genre. He uses it, abuses it, and breaks it. And Nope is no different. This is a UFO movie, that’s set on a Black owned Hollywood horse ranch, that just happens to be neighbors with a California Gold Rush theme park that’s run by an Asian American.

Alien spaceships in these sorts of movies are usually sucking up cows on farms, and having them suck up horses instead is a clever subversion of an old trope. Both locations, Haywood Hollywood Horses and Jupiter’s Claim, is also a reference to the Hollywood lie of what the Wild West was all about. (You wouldn’t know it from reading books and watching movies, but back in the 19th century, an estimated one in four cowboys were Black.)

What is Nope if not a movie that is centered around a modern Black cowboy and his sister? He may wear a hoodie instead of a hat and carry a camera instead of a six-shooter, but his ultimate goal, much like the cowboys before him, is still about claiming his rightful place in history.

Nope Is… a Movie About Black Erasure

Did you know that the very first assembly of photographs to create a motion picture was a two-second clip of a Black man on a horse?

Emerald Haywood

At the beginning of the movie, Emerald is trying to explain to a sound stage full of jaded Hollywooders that her and OJ’s great-great (great) grandfather was, in fact, the very first movie star.

“The Horse in Motion,” a series of sequential images captured and set in motion by the English photographer Eadweard Muybridge is widely considered to be a foundational moment in the development of movies. While Muybridge’s name has been committed to history, the identity of the man riding the horse is lost to history. It is known that many jockeys during the late 1800s were Black, and Jordan Peele uses this fact to build out his story about the fictional family narrative in his movie. The Haywoods aren’t a real family. But what they are is symbolic of all the Black pioneers that have been lost to history.

Hollywood may be thriving, but the Haywoods are not. They lost out when The Scorpion King decided to replace their horses with camels. They’ve been pushed aside once more since the death of their father. All of this contributes to their obsession with capturing the alien on tape as a way to reclaim all that was taken from them. They’re looking for that “Oprah Shot” that will cement their place in Hollywood and history.

Nope Is… a Rebuke of Our Obsession With Virality

OJ and Emerlald’s plan to capture the UFO on camera also hints at our obsession with monetizing viral moments. They want to be the first to get the creature on film. They want to own it.

Peele is incredibly cunning in how he addresses this. On the one hand, OJ and Emerald are using society’s current preoccupation as a way to fight back against Black erasure. Which is in stark contrast to the click-hungry TMZ “journalist” who shows up later in the movie. That guy is clearly only in it for fame and glory. No matter the cost. (As highlighted by the fact that the first thing he asks OJ while lying broken on the ground is whether he’s going to take a picture.)

There are two sides to how we use the Internet and Peele rewards one and punishes the other. Our noble heroes win the end, successfully capturing a perfect image of the alien creature (while also nodding towards Eadweard Muybridge by using an analog carnival camera). The TMZ journalist, on the other hand, dies a horrible death. If that isn’t a potent message for all you kids, we don’t know what is.

Nope Is… a Commentary on Our Fixation With Fame

The characters in Nope aren’t concerned with survival. The alien in this movie isn’t hunting them like the Predator. They aren’t really concerned with finding out “the truth” either. This isn’t a Fox Mulder situation where Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer are trying to solve a mystery. This isn’t a movie about revenge (R.I.P. Ghost). This is about Oprah. This is about beating out TMZ. This is about fame and fortune. Sure the fortune is to ensure the survival of their business, and the fame is about taking back what is rightfully theirs, but it is a powerful motivating factor and drives their quest in trying to get that perfect “Oprah Shot.”

Even for Steven Yuen’s Jupe, what should have been a horrific, scarring, and traumatic childhood experience, ends up being twisted by him. He milks it for all the fame and money it’s worth. Jupe looks back at that day on Gordy’s Home almost as a fond memory. He’s built a shrine to it, cashing in on the Internet’s hunger for tragedy and infamy. When asked about what happened, he keeps the memory at arm’s length, and tells the story of an SNL skit that was based on the event rather than talking about it directly. He talks about how Chris Kattan is “killing it” in the skit, referring to Gordy’s actual killings which he witnessed as a child.

Nope Is… a Meditation on Surveillance Culture

We are being surveilled by an alien species I call the Viewers.

Ricky “Jupe” Park

The idea of surveillance runs through every aspect of Nope. The all powerful and merciless alien in the sky that appears to be watching their every move from inside that cloud is very much a metaphor for the policing of the Black community in America. Don’t look up. Don’t make eye contact. Or you might end up dead. All of these tropes are used to highlight how Black people have been dehumanized through a system of power and control.

But then Peele makes OJ and Emerald fight back. They install cameras on their ranch, effectively turning the tables on the threat in the sky by becoming watchers themselves. They are asserting their power. And by setting out to capture an image of their predator – as if often done with cellphone footage of police brutality – they are taking control of the narrative and ensuring that their story will be believed.

Nope Is… a Movie About the Power of Movies

Yes, there is a giant alien in the sky that is hellbent on devouring everything in its path. And yet, everyone in this movie spends an inordinate amount of time (and money) trying to figure out how to capture it on film. Jordan Peele has said in interviews that he wrote Nope as a response to when everyone was “a little bit worried about the future of cinema.” So it makes sense that the movie wouldn’t just pay homage to its cinematic lineage but also pay tribute to it.

Movies have power. Not just to entertain us but also to shape our view of the world. All the characters in Nope are well aware of this and it feeds their desire to exploit the medium. They know that the only way to prove that a UFO exists is to capture it on film. Take a photo. Make a video. Or it didn’t happen. What’s more, Jordan Peele doubles down on this notion by having the “shootout” during the climax of his Western use video cameras instead of guns.

But what is Jordan Peele trying to say here? Is it that guns are never the answer? Is it that Hollywood’s ability to harness cinematic heroes is the last and best hope for humanity? Is he putting too much faith in filmmakers? Or is he satirizing how self-important all of it has become?

Nope Is… Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Nope owes a lot to three cinematic tentpoles. The first being Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Nope too deals with the idea of mankind’s first encounter with aliens from another world, and much Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece, the true appearance of the creature itself is kept hidden from the audience until the very end. Close Encounters too centers around a man with an obsession that he cannot adequately explain. And also like that movie, Nope is less concerned with actual aliens than it is with the way we as human beings react to it. (Which is also why we haven’t referred to either movie as being science fiction.)

Jordan Peele acknowledges his homage with a cute little callback to Close Encounters. In that movie, Richard Dreyfuss’ Roy is in his truck when a curious spacecraft hovers above him. He leans out to see what is happening, gets scalded, and is left shuddering in shock. The same thing happens to OJ. Only here, he opens the door, glances upward, and then proceeds to shut the door, simply uttering a single word: “Nope!”

Nope Is… Jurassic Park

Which is also to say that Nope is a movie about the dangers of unfettered capitalism. Both theme park owner Jupe and cinematographer Antlers are happy to create deathly spectacles in order to entertain the masses. But if movies like Jurassic Park have taught us anything, it is that the desire for believability and to create terrifying and titillating spectacles for the masses, can only end in disaster. (Also see: King Kong.)

Jurassic Park is the second cinematic tentpole that Jordan Peele pays tribute to. He blurs the line between craftsmanship and commerce, between art and capitalism, leading both of them to some pretty violent ends.

Nope Is… A Denunciation of Our Exploitation of Wild Animals for Entertainment

Which brings us rather nicely to another one of the movies biggest themes. Whether it’s Gordy the chimp, or Lucky the horse, Jordan Peele drives home the message that wild animals cannot be tamed and should be treated with respect. We have no idea how they will react at any given time. We’ve seen numerous examples – both in film and in real life – of even seemingly tame animals get triggered and go berserk.

We see this trope play out across the movie. At the beginning of the film, we see Lucky get spooked by his own reflection and kick backwards toward another set worker. Later in the movie the characters make reference to an incident in 2003 when a Mantacore tiger viciously attacked Roy Horn of Siegfried and Roy.

The biggest example of this is of course the tragedy that took place on the set of Gordy’s Home in which  a trained chimp named Gordy unexpectedly snaps and violently mauls several of his human co-stars. This too was seemingly lifted from the real life story of Travis the Chimpanzee.

Back in 1995, a chimpanzee was taken from his mother and sold to a Connecticut couple. Sandra and Jerome Herold named him Travis and raised him as they would a child. Travis would wear clothes, drink wine, eat at the dinner table, and even sleep in their bed. But then in 2009, after 14 years of domesticity, Travis was supposedly triggered by a red Elmo doll and viciously attacked one of the Herold’s friends. The victim, Charla Nash, was left blinded and severely injured. Police responding to the scene shot the animal. Later than year, Charla would appear on Oprah wearing a veiled hat where she argued that wild and potentially dangerous animals should be treated accordingly.

Nope Is… Jaws

The third and final cinematic tentpole that Nope celebrates is Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. The cinematic beats are almost identical. From the opening “attack” on OJ’s father, to the fake out at the stables, to the hiring of their very own Quint in Antlers, to the markers they use to lure in the monster, to Emerald’s final “shot” against the alien, Jordan Peele liberally borrows from Steven Spielberg’s creature feature in order to frame his own.

Nope isn’t a movie about a UFO in the same way Jaws isn’t a movie about a shark.

Nope Is… All of These Things and More

Here’s the thing. Nope is one of those movies that can mean exactly what you think it does, or anything you want it to. It is the kind of movie that is open to interpretation, demands dissection, and forces conversation.

Want to talk about the movie? You can WhatsApp us on our special Nope Hotline, on +60125245208, to talk about the movie and ask us whatever questions you might have.

Nope is now showing in Malaysian cinemas. Do yourself a favour and watch it on the biggest screen possible.

The post Nope Explained appeared first on Goggler.

When the first issue of The Sandman went on sale in November 1988, it was unlike anything else in the DC lineup. While Neil Gaiman had originally conceived the book as a revamp of the 1970s superhero by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, his editor, Karen Berger, asked him to rework it into something completely new. “Keep the name. The rest is up to you,” she said.

With that in mind, Gaiman came up with an eight issue outline that slowly carved a clear trajectory away from the DC Comics superheroes and into a bold new mythological world. In it, he introduced us to a different kind of Sandman. Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, wasn’t inspired by the classic comic book but by the mythical character from folklore instead. Over the course of seven years and 75 issues, Gaiman and a host of incredible artists – Chris Bachalo, Kelly Jones, Colleen Doran, Mike Allred, Jill Thompson, Michael Zulli, Charles Vess, among others – would collaborate to build out this world, telling stories of fantasy and horror, populating it with characters from religion and folklore, and using all of it to create a compelling new mythology all on its own.

The Sandman would win eighteen Eisner Awards and become the first and only comic to ever win a World Fantasy Award. Norman Mailer would call it “a comic book for intellectuals.” By the time the series came to an end in 1996, it hadn’t just become the flagship title of DC’s expanding Vertigo imprint, but was also outselling Superman.

What Is The Sandman About?

The comic opens in 1916, with our titular character – The Sandman, Morpheus, Dream, Kai’ckul, Oneiros, Lord Shaper (he goes by many names) – captured and imprisoned by a group of black magic occultists. They were looking to control Death (Morpheus’ older sister) but ended up trapping the anthropomorphic embodiment of dreams instead. Afraid of what Morpheus might do to them if they free him, the occultists, lead by their Lord Magus Roderick Burgess, keep him locked up for 72 years.

Morpheus would spend most of the 20th century in captivity. His imprisonment would have devastating consequences on both the world of the living and the dreaming. Some individuals became trapped in their dreams, while others suffered even worse fates. His domain fell into disarray and his subjects, finding themselves without a master, were suddenly left to their own devices. Some good. Some bad. Some utterly disastrous.

The first seven issues of The Sandman chronicle Morpheus’ escape from captivity and his struggle to regain control of the world of The Dreaming and the powers he once possessed. He takes revenge on those responsible and then sets out to rebuild his broken and neglected domain. Once all of that setup is done, the rest of the series then becomes this extensive meditation on the power of dreams and nightmares, and their impact and influence on who we are as human beings. The story of Morpheus eventually becoming but a framing device for a much larger philosophical inquiry into the nature of stories.

Did You Say That Death Was Dream’s Older Sister?

Oh yes. There is that. Morpheus, or Dream, has six siblings. They are called the Endless, immortal beings who are unique manifestations of a crucial aspect of life itself. They are older than the Gods and will exist until the last living thing dies. To quote Death: “When the last living thing dies, my job will be finished. I’ll put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave.”

We won’t list down all of the Endless because some of them have story arcs and identities that are best left unspoiled.

Like Morpheus, each of the Endless rules over their own domain. They can traverse every realm. They each interact with mortals in different ways. Death is a cheerful, gothy young woman. Destiny is a cloaked figure who carries a book that contains the record of every single thing that has and will ever happen. And Desire is an androgynous, scheming, and somewhat sinister individual who enjoys toying with others for sport.

Given their nature as anthropomorphic representations, the Endless also tend to change appearance depending on who is looking at them. Morpheus, for the most part, looks like a paler, gaunter cross between David Bowie and Neil Gaiman, but he has also been a Black man, a giant cat, and even a Martian god.

All of That Sounds Really Interesting, but What Is The Sandman Really About?

The overarching story of The Sandman isn’t something that is clear until the very end of the series. Yes, there is an endgame that ties everything in the series together (even the most mundane and seemingly inane plot points), but to reveal what that is would be to spoil the entire experience.

It’s also important to note that The Sandman isn’t just a singular story, but many, many stories. This is a story about stories. It is about every story ever told. From the oral histories handed down from generation to generation, to the religious parables that guide our morality, to the tall tales that we tell our children to entertain them. It is a powerful reiteration that great stories exist, and should exist simply for the sake of it.

Every arc across the 75 core issues of The Sandman is about action and consequence. About the choices we make in our lives. About making sense of the stories we tell ourselves in order to continue living with those decisions.

So don’t concern yourself too much with what The Sandman is all about. Enjoy the journey. It is as important as the final destination.

Do I Need to Read the Comics Before Watching This Series?

First, a little bit of background. Season 1 of Netflix’s adaptation, 10 episodes in all, covers the first 16 issues of The Sandman comic, beginning with “Preludes and Nocturnes” and finishing at the end of “The Doll’s House” story arc. The series promises to be a faithful adaptation which means that you shouldn’t have to read a single page of the comic to enjoy or understand what’s going on.

That said, there is no way that we’re telling you not to read these comics. Like Watchmen, and The Dark Knight Returns, The Sandman is seminal. It is joyous. It is everything that great literature should be. It’ll inspire you and move you. It’ll reshape the way you look at the world.

We have no doubt that reading the comics will give you a richer experience of the series. There is a new trade paperback edition of The Sandman that collects all of the issues adapted in Season 1 of the show, and it will give you the best overview of what the series is all about. It is also a good initial investment if you’re still on the fence and just want to dip your toes into the warm and welcoming waters of this universe.

We will also tell you that the first few issues of the comic are far from perfect. Gaiman is still finding his voice and the art doesn’t quite come into its own until Mike Dringenberg takes over pencilling duties in Issue #5. The sixth issue, “24 Hours,” will end up being one of the best horror stories you will have ever read. And the eighth, “The Sound of Her Wings,” will change your life.

So, What You’re Saying Is That This Thing Is Really Good!

Yes. That is precisely what we’re saying. If it wasn’t clear by now, we think that The Sandman is one of the best comic books ever published. And if the Netflix TV series can capture even a fraction of its magic and genius, then we’re in for a real treat.

All 10 episodes of The Sandman drop on Netflix on Friday, August 5.

The post The Sandman: Everything You Need to Know Before Watching It on Netflix appeared first on Goggler.

The latest update, as announced by our local exhibitors, is that the movie has been “postponed indefinitely.” (Also to be read as “never seeing the light of day.”)

So why then is Thor: Love and Thunder stuck in limbo? There are two possible reasons, one being more likely than the other. Yes, this is purely speculation on our part, but it is completely informed by our experience and understanding of how the industry and the LPF operates.

We should say here that what follows will contain minor spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder. They aren’t story related, but they are spoilers nonetheless.

First of all, it is important to note that the movie isn’t officially banned in Malaysia. (A ban actually requires a parliamentary gazette and can’t just be issued willy-nilly.) Instead, it is likely collateral damage due to a standoff between our censorship board (LPF) and Disney. LPF wants certain cuts to be made before approving the movie for release in cinemas, and Disney has said no. It’s what happened with Lightyear. It almost happened with Beauty and the Beast back in 2017. And it is mostly likely the reason for the “postponement” of Thor: Love and Thunder.

What’s more, because the movie isn’t officially banned, there is still a chance we can watch it (legally) when it drops on Disney Plus Hotstar.

So what is it that our LPF wants cut?

Could It Be Because of Gorr?

The major plot point of the movie (which you would have already seen in trailers) involves Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher who, as his name suggests, is hellbent on ridding the universe of “Gods.” At the very beginning of the movie, he vows that “all Gods will die” and begins his killing spree.

Now, that can seem offensive to a country that is, at least superficially, religious. But given that the Gods that Gorr is referring to are mostly “mythological” – i.e. in no way related to Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, or any of the other mainstream religions practiced in Malaysia – we don’t think that this has anything to do with it.

Is it Because of Chris Hemsworth’s Bare Buttocks?

Also unlikely. While the scene isn’t pixelated in the movie, the shot lasts for about as long as it does in the trailer. There really isn’t anything more to that moment. It is also unlikely that Disney would have a problem blurring out nudity if they had to. God knows they’ve done it themselves on Disney Plus. (The scene was also censored in India.)

What About the Gay Stuff?

This is most likely the reason why we’ll not be seeing Thor: Love and Thunder in Malaysian cinemas.

Now, unlike what happens in Lightyear, there isn’t any physical expression of homosexual love in this movie. There are no same sex kisses. There’s nothing like that. There are, however, two major scenes with some dialogue around characters who just happen to be gay/bisexual.

The first takes place towards the end of the second act. There is a moment in which a tipsy Valkyrie, confesses to Korg – the happy-go-lucky rock monster – that she stopped believing there was still love for her after her girlfriend, another Valkyrie, the love of her life, died in battle. (This wasn’t actually shown in Thor: Ragnarok, but was seemingly retconned in after Tessa Thompson and Kevin Feige confirmed that the character was bisexual.) There is then the implication that Korg is gay when he talks about how his species is born, which involves two males, holding hands over a molten pool for a month, resulting in the birth of a new Kronan.

The second scene is at the end of the movie when, in his voice over, Korg says: “Speaking of futures, I was forging one of my own, now that our bodies grown back, with a dude I met called Dwayne.” (Heh. Get it?)

From what we understand, our LPF takes a hard stand against any kind of LGBTQ content. Explicit or otherwise. And these two scenes would have definitely had their gaydar going.

But even that isn’t a rule that they apply across the board. Take, for example, Michelle Yeoh’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. The entire premise of that movie was built around the fractured relationship between a mother and her gay daughter. None of those conversations were cut. That movie was rated 18 and played in local cinemas for three months. Then again, maybe it’s just a rule that applies to movies that appeal to kids? Maybe like so many ultraconservative Republicans, our LPF too is concerned with a gay agenda that’s trying to convert children by subverting their minds through cartoons and comic book heroes.

That said, even Disney isn’t consistent in their stand. Back in 2017, they refused to back down from that completely innocuous “gay moment” in Beauty and the Beast, but had no problem with local censors cutting out the same sex kiss in last year’s Eternals. Disney’s recent stance, that it doesn’t remove gay content to appease censors in the territories where it distributes its theatrical films, is likely due to the fallout from their response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, where their employees have been pressuring them to take a harder stand against those who seek to limit speech regarding LGBTQ issues.

Do We Just Wait for a Digital Release?

We don’t know.

Given that content on the Internet isn’t subject to the approval of our censorship board, there is a chance that we could still see Thor: Love and Thunder (and Lightyear) when it eventually drops on streaming. But whether or not that happens ultimately lies with a different set of decision makers, namely the corporate overlords over at Disney Plus Hotstar. How much are they willing to push the envelope? Would they be willing to deal with the conservative fallout from putting the movie up on the local service?

Thor: Love and Thunder will be the first MCU movie to not be screened in Malaysian cinemas.

The post Why Thor: Love and Thunder Isn’t Coming to Malaysian Cinemas appeared first on Goggler.

So, once again, SPOILERS. You have been sufficiently warned.

You know what, we’re going to stick an image here just so you don’t accidentally see anything either.

You know what, here’s an ad to break things up even further.

Okay. Now we’re ready to rock and roll.

There are two (that’s right, two!) extra scenes after everything is done and dusted in Thor: Love and Thunder. The first is a mid-credits tag and the second is a shorter one right at the very end.

The Mid-Credits Tag

Zeus is not dead! No, that lightning bolt merely incapacitated him briefly by leaving a massive hole in his chest. (Besides, we figured it would be too much of a stretch for Thor to have killed the chief of all Greek deities.)

The scene begins with Russell Crow’s Zeus, his harem of women nursing him back to health, monologging to someone off screen about how the Gods get no respect. Zeus then issues a challenge for this individual to take down The Mighty Thor. The camera then pans over to reveal that it is his son, Hercules, played by none other than Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein!

First appearing in 1965 in Journey into Mystery Annual #1, Hercules was introduced as a rival to The Mighty Thor. (There was a Golden Age version who appeared in 1945’s Young Allies #16, but the character that we’re following in the current Marvel continuity was the one introduced in 1965.) Starting off as a frequent guest star in the Thor comic (they obviously become allies), Hercules is a staple in the Marvel Universe, with a long and storied history. He’s been an Avenger. He’s dated Black Widow. He joined Captain America in Civil War. He’s fought alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy.

With the introduction of Hercules it appears that Kevin Feige seems to be digging deep into the greater pantheon of Marvel’s back catalogue in order to round out the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There have been no announcements with regards to how Hercules will feature in upcoming movies or TV shows, but just we’re giddy at the thought of a team-up with Kit Harrington’s Black Knight.

Note: This is the second Ted Lasso regular to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first being Christo “Fútbol’ Is Life” Fernández who showed up in the Spider-Man: No Way Home post-credit tag as the bartender who may or may not have been infected by a leftover bit of the Venom symbiote.

The Post-Credits Tag

This second tag feels like more of a cute aside.

Given that Jane Foster’s The Mighty Thor died heroically in battle, it should naturally follow that she would end up in the Asgardian afterlife of Valhalla. The scene opens with Natalie Portman’s Jane standing at the gates to the afterlife, where she is welcomed by none other than Idris Elba himself who, as Heimdall, also met a noble end in battle at the hands of Thanos (see: Avengers: Infinity War).

In the comics, Jane Foster’s time in Valhalla was somewhat short lived as she was eventually revived by both Odin and Thor. (No one really ever stays dead in comics!) After coming back to life, she no longer had Mjolnir’s power to transform her, and so she focused her attention on getting chemotherapy instead.

We call this a cute aside because Valhalla in the MCU feels like the place that all the actors who want out get relegated to. (Idris Elba hasn’t always been keen on his role as Heimdall. And it seems like Natalie Portman could only be convinced to come back this one time.)

In all seriousness, however, this tag was probably conceived as a sort of sweet farewell epilogue to both Natalie Portman and Idris Elba and their time in the MCU. (Jane was barely mentioned in Thor: Ragnarok and her “appearance” in Avengers: Endgame was just Natalie Portman doing some voice over work. Heimdall’s death in Avengers: Infinity War was also Incredibly underwhelming and far less than what the character deserved.)

Note: Jane Foster is only one of a handful of mortals who were deemed worthy of entering Valhalla despite not believing in the Asgardian religion. The others include Frank Castle (The Punisher) and Flash Thompson (Agent Venom, Agent Anti-Venom).

Will Thor Return?

As always, the last thing we see on screen, in true James Bond fashion, are the words “Thor Will Return.”

We don’t know when. We don’t know where. No further Thor movies have yet been announced. Neither has there been any news about Hemsworth cameoing the character in future MCU movies. (In an interview with Deadline, Hemsworth has said that he loves playing the character and will continue to do so until “someone says get off the stage.”)

That said, this movie clearly sets up the idea that there can be plenty of other incarnations of Thor (Jane Foster, all of those Asgardian kids at the end of the movie, etc.) and paves the way for many different stories to be told in the future. With or without Hemsworth.

You can read our review of Thor: Love and Thunder here. Or listen to us talk about the movie on The Goggler Podcast.

Thor: Love and Thunder is currently set to be released in Malaysian cinemas on Thursday, July 21.

The post Thor: Love and Thunder Post-Credits Scenes Explained appeared first on Goggler.

But just who is the girl under the mask?

1. So, Who Is the New Kid on the Block?

Meet the witty and vivacious Kamala Khan, your average 16-year-old Pakistani-American superhero from Jersey City. And just like you and me, she loves gaming, writing Avengers fan fiction, and practicing her daily devotions to Captain Marvel. No prizes for guessing the rationale behind her superhero name. 

Kamala also became the first ever Muslim character to headline a Marvel series in 2014, with praise for its authentic outlook on culture, values, familial obligations, and dual-identity crisis. Kamala’s struggle to find balance between being a superhero, surviving high school, and not disappointing her family, are largely what makes her character so compelling.

2. How Does Kamala Become Ms. Marvel?

Now, Kamala’s origin story isn’t far off from Captain Marvel’s. Before she had her geek-turned-superhero break, she faced all the woes of a typical teenager: strict parental control, unrequited high-school love, and growing rebellious nature. Not to mention also having to deflect tone-deaf and racist remarks from nasty classmates. Fed up with feeling so different, Kamala sneaks out one night for a party, but finds herself in a sticky situation. Caught up in a swirl of Terrigen Mist (a mutagenic gas that taps into latent Inhuman abilities), Kamala makes a wish to become a superhero like Captain Marvel. And whaddya know? She does become a superhero!

If only it were that easy for all of us, huh?

Terrigen Mist, however, hasn’t quite been explored in-depth in the MCU – besides appearing in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Inhumans, and a brief mention in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness. So it’s very likely that the show may not address it, or take a different route entirely for her origin story.

3. What Can She Do?

Although modelled after Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel’s powers and abilities are quite different. Kamala is a polymorph, possessing shape-shifting abilities that allow her to alter or elongate her limbs and change her appearance. Think Reed Richards from Fantastic Four or Elastigirl from The Incredibles. She also has superhuman healing abilities when shifting back into true form. 

This is where the Ms. Marvel series will probably take a deviation. Based on the trailer, Kamala seems to sport cosmic powers that emanate through her bracelets, rather than having them be triggered by a mutagenic gas. The change in her powers was an intentional decision by Marvel, probably to avoid the connection to the Inhumans mythos (we don’t exactly blame them for that), or even keep her abilities separate from Reed Richards’ (who is now canon in the MCU). Kevin Feige also stated in an article with Empire that the show was not a direct translation of the comics, and that her change in powers are specific to the MCU.

4. When There’s Good, There’s Always the Bad

Kamala has taken on her fair share of villains despite her short tenure as a hero, including battling Hydra and the mad scientist, The Inventor. The series, however, may feature a more low-profile foe for Kamala. 

Now if you caught a glimpse of her hunky beau, Kamran, in the trailer, you should probably pay attention because he’s got a few skeletons in his closet. In the comics, Kamran was also exposed to Terrigen Mist like Kamala, activating bioluminescent powers that allowed him to shift biokinetic energy onto objects. Bonding over their mutual inhuman abilities and romantic feelings for one another, Kamala is blissfully unaware of Kamran’s duplicity. That is until Kamran kidnaps Kamala and hands her over to the leader of an Inhuman terrorist organization called Lineage. While it’s unclear whether Lineage will appear, Kamran certainly seems up to no good. 

Potential in the MCU – Where Does Ms. Marvel Fit in the Puzzle?

Outside of her television debut, Ms. Marvel is also set to appear alongside her role model, Captain Marvel, in the upcoming 2023 film, The Marvels (yes, there are way too many “Marvels” in that sentence). This makes Kamala a pivotal character in Phase 4 of the MCU, possibly hinting at a future position with the Avengers.

The reality isn’t that far off as Kamala was invited by Iron Man himself to join the Avengers in the comics. She also had close friendships with Spider-Man and Nova, and was mentored by Carol Danvers while in the Avengers. While still a relatively new hero, Ms. Marvel has found herself in league with the big guns, working alongside them during Civil War II and stopping Hydra from taking over the city. So it’ll be no surprise to see Ms. Marvel standing alongside her icons in the near future.

Catch the first episode of Ms. Marvel on June 8th, streaming only on Disney Plus Hotstar. 

The post Here’s a Little Primer for Ms. Marvel Ahead of Her Series Debut appeared first on Goggler.

But who is the Crescent Crusader really? If you’re Moon Knight newbie, we’ve got you covered. Here’s a comprehensive explainer of just about everything you need to know about this newcomer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

1. Who or What Is a Moon Knight?

Moon Knight first debuted in 1975 in the pages of Werewolf by Night #32 as a mysterious costumed figure tasked with taking down the Werewolf. Subsequently, he appeared as a guest star in various other comics, before finally getting his own solo run in 1980.

As far as origin stories go, Moon Knight’s is definitely unique. The Jewish-born Marc Spector had searched his whole life for his true calling. Taking on many jobs, he first served in the Marines, then the CIA, before finally becoming a mercenary for hire. Not long into his career as a high-profile assassin, he meets the radical terrorist, Raul Bushman, in Egypt, and they team up to raid an archaeological site. Things turn south when Bushman attempts to kill two archaeologists, and mortally wounds Marc who tries to stop him. Left for the dead, Marc stumbles upon an Egyptian tomb from which he is revived by the god Khonshu. Khonshu only has one request in exchange for saving his life: to deliver vengeance in his name. Marc agrees and assumes the identity of the Moon Knight.

2. But Who Is He? Marc or Steven?

If you’ve seen the trailer for the series, you’ll know that Moon Knight doesn’t just have one identity, but possibly even two. Oscar Isaac’s character sports a unrecognizable British accent, and calls himself Steven. That is until an ominous phone conversation reveals that he’s also someone named Marc. So which is he? Is he Steven Grant, the mild-mannered gift-shop employee? Or Marc Spector, the mercenary with a troubled past? Who’s really under the cowl? 

Both of them actually. Marc Spector/Steven Grant struggles with dissociative identity disorder, meaning that various identities control his behaviour at different times. While he’s primarily Marc Spector in the comics, he also goes by cab driver Jake Lockley, a millionaire-version of Steven Grant, or a consultant called Mr. Knight. Over the years, he’s also assumed the personalities of Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Captain America too!

As for his Disney Plus outing, Oscar Isaac will apparently be using varied accents to keep the identities separate from each other, with British (?) for Steven and American for Marc. But it sure gets complicated when you throw a super-powered identity into the mix!

3. What Can Moon Knight Do? What Powers Does He Have?

There are tons of cool toys in Moon Knight’s arsenal, his most infamous being the crescent darts that sit on the sides of his belt. They are mostly used for long-range throws but also for close-quarter combat. Think batarangs, but white and crescent-shaped. In addition to being a skilled marksman and an expert in hand-to-hand combat, he also possesses heightened senses and abilities. This includes enhanced strength during nights with full moons, prophetic visions and dreams, and the ability to drain another person’s life energy through physical contact. Oh wait, he also gets resurrected a bunch of times. Immortality is just a tiny perk of being the vessel of an all-powerful god.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows though. Marc’s mental disorder is a heavy weight to bear, and it is questionable if the state of his mental health is a result of past trauma or the consequence of being Khonshu’s avatar.

4. So, Is He a Hero Or….?

Moon Knight’s dark past and personal trauma doesn’t really make him a textbook good guy. Working as a mercenary meant he wasn’t afraid to get his hands bloody if the situation called for it; or if there was big money on the table. But since becoming the purveyor of vengeance, where does he fit on the spectrum? Good guy or bad guy? Hero or villain? It’s hard to tell.

While initially making his comic book debut as a vigilante for hire, his villainous past was retconned and he was eventually recast as more of a heroic figure. Which isn’t to say he’s not willing to inflict brutality and ruthlessness, going as far as carving crescents onto his victims’ foreheads, or ripping off the face of his mortal enemy, Bushman, in Moon Knight #2.

But it’s a lot more complicated than that. His vicious nature and vigilante streak isn’t entirely his own doing. Marc’s difficult relationship with Khonshu has led him to walk the tightrope between good and bad, with Marc leaning towards heroism, and Khonshu wanting to enact vengeance on enemies. He’s a living weapon, a vessel, a conduit – in a lot of ways, being Moon Knight is the only thing that gives him purpose, while also seemingly drains the humanity within.

5. Who Is the Big Bad?

And of course, we need a Big Bad to stir the pot. Moon Knight has faced off against a number of foes since debuting in 1975. Some of them include the terrorist Raul Bushman, the corrupt politician posing as Black Spectre, the Egyptian deity Seth, and his brother Randall as Shadow Knight. Even Khonshu stands as an impediment to Marc, pushing him through innumerable mental undertakings.

In this Disney Plus series, however, it appears that Moon Knight’s main rival would be Dr. Arthur Harrow, played by none other than Ethan Hawke! In the comics, Dr. Arthur Harrow was a scientist specialising in the field of pain theory. After being selected as a Nobel Prize candidate, a fellow doctor grew suspicious of Harrow’s work and his lack of research done on animals. Turns out, Harrow was secretly experimenting on people instead. Yikes! Through visions from Khonshu, Moon Knight was able to locate Dr. Harrow and put an end to his activities.

We’re not sure what approach Marvel is taking for this series, but at first glance, it seems like they may be giving us a version of Harrow that is less deranged scientist and more cult hero. In fact, Hawke stated that he based his Moon Knight character on American cult leader, David Koresh, during an interview with Seth Meyers. 

6. Wait, Is There Another Big Bad?

There might not just be one, but two villains in the series! The second being Midnight Man, played by Gaspard Ulliel (one of his last roles before his tragic and untimely death earlier this year). Not to be confused with Moon Knight’s sidekick, Midnight, the Midnight Man/Anton Mogart was a highly-trained burglar who stole famous artwork, jewels, and other valuables.

In Moon Knight #3, Midnight Man falls into a river after an entanglement with Moon Knight. Carried by the current into a drainage viaduct, the wastes of the sewer melt his face, leaving him hideously deformed. And so begins the long-standing feud between Moon Knight and Midnight Man. One thing’s for sure, Midnight Man’s origin sure does have a lot in common with a certain green-haired clown we know.

7. So Where Does He Fit In the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Will he be an Avenger? Or a lone wolf? We won’t know for sure until after the series begins airing. Moon Knight is typically known to avoid most of the hero community, reluctantly teaming up under the influence of Khonshu, or to rid enemies in the way. 

He has, however, had brief stints with the Avengers in the comics, working with the West Coast Avengers, and later the Secret Avengers. Some familiar names in these teams include Scarlet Witch, Vision, Hawkeye (both Clint Barton and Kate Bishop). Moon Knight has also appeared as a guest star alongside The Defenders, the Thing, and even our favourite web-slinger in several issues. So it’s definitely not out of the question to see him in a future MCU team line-up.

8. Which Storylines We’d Like to See?

With the series premiere right around the corner, let’s discuss which storylines we’d like to see adapted. Without question we’d definitely like to see how it all began: from the mercenary-turned-hero storyline to his first meeting with the moon god, Khonshu, in Egypt. 

Based on the trailer, it looks like the white suit-donning Mr. Knight will also be making an appearance, which is lifted from the 2014 run of Moon Knight, Mister Knight. That arc would also add a different dimension to the frayed relationship between Marc and Khonshu. Another possible route could be with Marc battling his many personalities and trying to stay true to his heroic ideals, as seen in 2006’s The Bottom arc, which shows off a far darker, grittier take on Moon Knight. 

We might not see Marc team up with the Avengers sometime soon, but we’d sure love to see the Avengers: Age of Khonshu arc adapted on the big screen. In an attempt to stop Mephisto, Khonshu decides to overpower Moon Knight, causing him to wreak havoc across the world. From seizing hold of Mjolnir from Thor, facing off against Black Panther, or claiming the Iron Fist from Danny Rand, it sounds just about crazy and chaotic enough to work.

RECOMMENDED READING

Finally, here’s some reading material to get started on before Moon Knight premieres at the end of the month.

• First appearance in Werewolf by Night #32-33 – “The Stalker Called Moon Knight” 
• First solo run in Moon Knight Vol. 1. (1980-1984)
• Moon Knight #1-30 (2006 – 2009)
• West Coast Avengers Vol, 2.  #21-41
• Heroic Age: Moon Knight, Vol. 7. (2011 – 2012)

Catch Marvel’s Moon Knight when it premieres on Wednesday, March 30 on Disney Plus Hotstar. The series stars Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke, Gaspard Ulliel, F. Murray Abraham, and May Calamawy.

The post Moon Knight: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To Marvel’s Dark Horse appeared first on Goggler.

NOTE: If you haven’t yet seen Eternals, get out of here!

Go on!

Git!

Come back once you’ve seen it!

Seriously, final warning, there are going to be spoilers and suppositions for Eternals and Marvel’s upcoming slate from here on.

What Happens in the First Eternals Mid-Credits Scene?

In the first mid-credits scene, Thena (Angelina Jolie), Druig (Barry Keoghan, and Makkari(Lauren Ridloff) are aboard their ship, the Doma, puzzling over the lack of communication from their fellow Eternals back on Earth. Suddenly they “feel something” before a pair of intruders appear on the ship. 

Seeing as the pair who appear aren’t quite as easily recognizable as Thanos was at the end of the first Avengers movie, they introduce themselves as Starfox (Harry Styles) and Pip the Troll (voiced by Patton Oslwalt).

Starfox quickly introduces himself as the brother of Thanos, informs the assembled Eternals that he knows where their colleagues are, that they are in a great deal of trouble, and that they’ll need his help to rescue them. Oh, and he has one of those communication orbs that Ajak and Sersei used throughout the movie to contact the Celestial Arishem.

So What Was All That About?

Well, in the comics, the Eternals background is a little different to that in the MCU. In the movie, the Celestial Arishem tells Sersei (Gemma Chan) that the Eternals are advanced machines that were created to serve its will, wiping their memories over time.

Starfox, also known as Eros due to his romantic adventures, is indeed the brother of Thanos. How could that be you might ask? Harry Styles ain’t purple, and he sure as hell doesn’t have Thanos’ distinctive chin.

The Eternals are actually a genetic offshoot of humanity. They were elevated by the Celestials when they visited earth millions of years ago and gave them their super powers. This was also when they created the Deviants.

The Eternals of the comic were also left to watch over the planet and fight the Deviants, but after many conflicts over thousands of years, they splintered, with some spreading to Uranus and Titan forming colonies there.

Titan?

While the Titan visited by Thanos, and some of The Avengers, at the end of Avengers: Infinity War bears little resemblance to the moon of Saturn, we’re sure that the MCU will explain this away somehow. Maybe planets like Titan are like towns called Springfield. They’re everywhere.

As for why Starfox doesn’t share the purple skin colour and… ahem… distinctive chin of his brother? Well, Thanos was born with Deviant Syndrome which is a thing that can happen to Eternals apparently.

So does this make Thanos an Eternal? If so, why didn’t any Celestials stop this purge of half the life in the galaxy?

My guess is that Starfox is probably lying to self-aggrandise himself and this will turn out to be a bit of a white lie on his behalf.

Who Is Starfox/Eros?

Starfox as a character has been around since the 1970’s. He was created by Jim Starlin who also created Thanos, Gamora, Drax, and Pip the Troll.

During that time he has been a member of The Avengers and had a brief fling with She-Hulk Jennifer Walters (who’s getting her own series with Tatiana Maslany in 2022). He has the usual Eternal powers of great strength and agility, along with the added bonus of flight. He can also influence the emotions of those around them, something we expect may be coming into play with his self-aggrandizing entrance. In fact, She-Hulk once wondered if he had manipulated her emotions during their relationship.

Who Is Pip the Troll?

Pip is another Jin Starlin creation and another member of the more cosmic side of the Marvel Universe. He’s a Space Troll from the planet Laxidazia, as opposed to a “fantasy troll from under a bridge,” or Thor, or something. In the comics, Pip was involved in the Infinity Gauntlet storyline and was even entrusted with taking care of the Space Gem (aka the Space Stone/Tesseract) after Thanos had been vanquished. Why is he paired up with Starfox? Probably because his ability to teleport might come in handy for whatever adventure Marvel has in store next for the Eternals.

But What Does It All Mean?

Apart from Marvel needing to promote a fresh cast of characters from their deep roster into the limelight to replace the stars who’s contracts are up or want to be free to do other work, Starfox and Pip’s appearance might hint at the direction of the cosmic side of Phase 4 of the MCU. We already know that Adam Warlock is due to appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Warlock is yet another Jim Starlin creation, and he and Pip met during the Infinity Gauntlet saga. Could Marvel be building towards another Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame level event with these characters slotting into the roles they missed out on in the MCU?

Perhaps.

Going up against a Celestial would require a a collection of many money making heroes working together, although Peter Quill managed to pull it off all by himself in GOTG Vol. 2.

We have no idea how this could tie into the post credits scene from Shang-Chi though.

What Happens in the Second Eternals Post-credits Scene?

The second post-credits sting sees Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman dithering over a box.

Okay, there’s a little more to it than that. While non-Marvel fans may have been left nonplussed by this, Marvel-stans will know that the box contained THE EBONY BLADE. The inside lid of the box lid was etched with the words, “Death is my reward,” and the sword within seemed to be reaching out as Dane’s hand neared it. Before he could touch it, however, a mysterious voice interjects, asking him if he’s “sure he wants to do that?”

What?

Dane and the magical Ebony Blade are another set of characters from the comics and another indicator of Marvel’s blending of the sci-fi and fantasy sides of it’s universe. Dane is the latest in a long line of Black Knights to wield The Ebony Blade (which was created by Merlin – yes, THAT Merlin – and Sir Percival of King Arthur’s court). The Blade’s power protects its user, deflects magic, and can cut though any object. Unfortunately, the blade is also cursed and over time will corrupt its wielder, turning them into a bloodthirsty villain (hence the words: “Death is my reward”). The more impure your heart, the more powerful the blade becomes.

Dane seems to be aware of this as he struggles with taking up the blade, even to save his love Sersei.

Who Stopped Dane? UPDATED!

As for the identity of the owner of the voice who stopped Dane from picking up the sword? We here at Goggler are stumped. Some of us thought it might be Nick Fury, but that didn’t quite stick for me.

So thanks to Michael Cheang of The Star for suggesting two other candidates that proved to be a much better fit: Jeffrey Wright’s Watcher from Marvel’s What If…?, or Benedict Cumberbatch’s Dr. Strange.

For our money, Dr. Strange seems the safest bet. Defending the Earth from a bloodthirsty nutter with a magic sword would seem to fit his job description.

UPDATE: It looks like we were all wrong as it’s been confirmed that the person talking to Dane was none other than the Daywalker himself Mahershala Ali’s Blade! With details scarce on the Blade movie so far (like the Fantastic Four) we had been a little skeptical about Blade eventual reappearance in the MCU but hopefully we’ll be seeing more of him soon!

What Does This Mean for Phase 4?

We’re only three movies into Phase 4 of the MCU. With another nine movies and multiple TV shows to come, it’s too early to guess where Marvel plans to take their cinematic universe.

Will we see Dane in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? Will everyone team up in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? How does Kang fit into all of this? Are the Skrulls behind everything, or will Secret Invasion be about something else?

Only time will tell. No matter what happens though, we’re pretty sure Mephisto won’t be turning up any time soon.(Please.)

Marvel’s Eternals is now showing in cinemas.

The post Eternals: The Two Post-Credits Scenes Explained appeared first on Goggler.

In this explainer, we will attempt to answer as many of your pressing questions about Dune as we can.

We’ve also included a glossary of important Dune terms at the end for your reference.

The Story So Far…

Before we get into it, here’s a quick synopsis on what the movie is all about.

The story of Dune takes place more that twenty thousand years in the future and is set in a feudal society where noble families rule planets in an imperium that’s presided over by a Byzantine emperor. The book begins when Duke Leto Atreides is forced to move his family from their home on the idyllic planet of Caladan to the desert planet Arrakis. The titular Dune.

The Duke is the new ruler of Arrakis. Installed by imperial decree, he is taking over from the evil Harkonnens who ruled despotically over the planet for eight long decades. Once on Arrakis, House Atreides take over the mining of the spice melange, a mysterious substance that prolongs human life, enhances cognitive abilities, and makes interstellar travel possible. The fact that spice can only be found on Arrakis makes it the most valuable planet in the universe.

We soon learn, however, that this sudden elevation of the Duke is nothing more than an elaborate scheme by the paranoid Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, who is secretly in cahoots with members of the House Harkonnen, to destroy House Atreides. 

Soon after they arrive on Arrakis, however, they are betrayed by one of their own, leaving Leto dead, and his wife, Jessica, and son, Paul, on the run.

What follows is nothing short of epic. Action and adventure. Conspiracy and murder. All of which drive a story about religious fanaticism, environmental brinkmanship, and messianic salvation.

How Does Denis Villeneuve End Dune: Part 1?

After the annihilation of House Atreides at the hands of the Harkonnens and the Emperor’s Sardaukar soldiers, Paul and Jessica are presumed to have perished in a violent sandstorm when their ornithopter crashes in the Arrakis desert. The both of them survive (after Paul uses his Force powers the weirding way to perform a controlled crash) and set out to find Stilgar (Javier Bardem) and Sietch Tabr, the same community of Fremen that Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa) previously befriended.

After a brief encounter with a massive sandworm, Paul and Jessica find themselves in the presence of the Fremen. It isn’t the most pleasant of encounters as Stilgar, and in particular Jamis, aren’t too pleased with the idea of outsiders on their land and in their Sietches. They don’t quite buy that Paul is the chosen one and while Stilgar sees some value in preserving his life, he deems Jessica as being of no use to his tribe.

Things turn violent. Paul disarms Jamis and Jessica overwhelms Stilgar, who calls for a truce when he realizes that she is a Bene Gesserit “witch,” and agrees to take them back to their Sietch. Sensing weakness in Stilgar’s decision, and taking advantage of the fact that Jessica bested him in battle, Jamis makes a leadership play and invokes the Amtal Rule (which literally means “tested to destruction”) and the Tahaddi Challenge.

What is the Tahaddi Challenge? A fight to the death of course!

Paul volunteers to fight Jamis as Jessica’s champion and the both of them engage in mortal combat! (Say it with me!) Before that, however, Paul once again has a series of baffling visions in which he witnesses the outcome the fight, and is told that he must die for the Kwisatz Haderach (“one who can be many places at once”) to rise.

It’s all metaphorical of course. Paul had never killed anyone before this, but for the Kwisatz Haderach to ascend, Paul’s moral conscience had to die. By killing Jamis, Paul effectively sheds his identity as Duke of Caladan and takes his first steps towards becoming the leader that the universe (and the Bene Gesserit) want him to be.

With that one kill, Paul, and by extension Jessica, are accepted into the Fremen. As they journey back to Stilgar’s Sietch, Paul and Jessica witness “desert power” as they see a Fremen riding a sandworm across the dunes. It’s then that Chani turns to Paul and smiles, reassuring him that “this is only the beginning.”

Of his journey and ours.

Now bring on Part 2.

What About Paul’s Other Visions?

Besides his visions of Chani and the bloody fight with Jamis, Paul also sees himself becoming a warmongering messiah for the Fremen, leading them in a merciless jihad against the Empire – even attacking his former homeworld of Caladan.

In the novel, Paul is plagued by the fear that such a fate is predetermined and thus inescapable. We see some of that weight reflected in Timothée Chalamet’s performance, but given where the movie ends, it looks like Paul’s conflicted relationship with being “the one” is something Villeneuve will likely explore in the next movie.

How Faithful is Denis Villeneuve to the Book?

Very! Villeneuve is faithful but not slavishly so. As we said in our review of Dune, this movie feels more like a collaboration than it does an adaptation. He keeps key moments and some recognizable lines from the novel, while still bringing his own cinematic take to the text.

Villeneuve also deepens these characters by giving them some real emotional beats together. In just a few brief scenes, we learn so much about Paul and his relationships with Leto, Gurney, Duncan, Yueh, and Thufir. It’s brilliant writing that channels and builds on what’s in the novel.

(While the movie doesn’t feature Gurney Halleck playing his baliset, we don’t hold it against Villeneuve as the movie is already two hours and thirty-five minutes long.)

How Much of the Novel Is Covered in Dune: Part 1?

While Brian Herbert and Denis Villeneuve claim that his movie covers the first half of the book, we would say that two-thirds is a more accurate estimate. If we were to go by the latest Ace paperback edition of the novel, Dune: Part 1 covers the first 407 of the book’s 617 pages.

While the last third of the novel is pretty dense, it’ll be interesting to see if Villeneuve brings in elements from Frank Herbert’s follow up novels, namely Dune Messiah,

What’s Next For Dune?

While we wait for Dune: Part 2 to be greenlit (the more times you go see it in cinemas, the more likely it is that this will happen), we can at least rest assured in the knowledge that Warner Bros. and HBO Max have plans to expand the universe beyond the movies.

In 2019, they announced a straight-to-series order for Dune: The Sisterhood, a female-focused prequel to the novel, with Denis Villeneuve developing and Diane Ademu-John (The Haunting of Bly Manor) taking on the role of showrunner. Colour us intrigued!

Postscript

Dune has been a long time coming. Based on a book that’s over five decades old, that’s already been adapted into a movie, a television mini-series, numerous video games, even more comic books, Denis Villeneuve has set out to accomplish what none of those things have been able to and put forward a definitive cinematic version of Frank Herbert’s magnum opus. (He succeeds!)

Despite winning both Nebula and Hugo awards (science fiction’s two most prestigious awards), having sold millions of copies around the world, and considered by many to be the greatest novel in sci-fi canon, Dune doesn’t have the same kind of cultural cachet as The Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, or Star Wars. Phrases like “the spice must flow” and “fear is the mind-killer” aren’t quite as pervasive in popular culture as “thou shalt not pass” or “may the Force be with you.”

This movie might just change that. By crafting slow burn cinema that’s both accessible and exciting at every turn, that’s artistic without sacrificing mass appeal, Villeneuve may be responsible for finally giving Dune its due. And while I don’t think we’ll see children wearing stillsuits for Halloween, we do believe that his movie will no doubt bring yet another generation to this hugely important work.

A Dune Glossary

Bene Gesserit – A secretive and powerful matriarchal order whose members possess extraordinary physical and mental powers. Or Jedi Space Witches!

Butlerian Jihad – It’s not explicitly mentioned in the movie, but if you were wondering why there aren’t any robots or computers, it’s because 10,000 years before the events of Dune, mankind engaged in a conflict that resulted in the total destruction of virtually all forms of “computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots.”

Cone of Silence – (Which the Reverend Mother invokes during her conversation with Baron Harkonnen.) A sound-deadening “field of a distorter that limits the carrying power of the voice or any other vibrator by damping the vibrations with an image-vibration 180 degrees out of phase.”

Coriolis storm – (Which Paul and Jessica’s Orhithopter fly into in the third act of the movie.) Sandstorms on Arrakis in which “winds across the open flatlands are amplified by the planet’s own revolutionary motion to reach speeds up to 700 kilometres per hour.”

Crysknife – A weapon made from the tooth of a sandworm from Arrakis.

Fremen – The “native” inhabitants of Arrakis.

Gom Jabbar – A “poison needle tipped with meta-cyanide used by Bene Gesserit Proctors in their death-alternative test of human awareness.”

Harvester – A “large spice mining machine… with a buglike body on independent tracks.”

Holtzman Shield – A defensive shield that takes the form of a protective energy field that surrounds the person who wears it. It prevents projectile weapons from penetrating it and only permits objects that move below a pre-set velocity.

Hunter-Seeker – (As deployed in the assassination attempt on Paul when he arrives on Arrakis.) “Ravening sliver of suspensor-buoyed metal guided as a weapon by a nearby control console; common assassination device.” Floating in mid-air, it kills by entering the body and following nerve pathways to vital organs.

Judge of the Change – “An official appointed by the Landsraad High Council and the Emperor to monitor a change of fief, a kanly negotiation, or formal battle in a War of Assassins. The Judge’s arbitral authority may be challenged only before the High Council with the Emperor present.”

Kwisatz Haderach – “The Shortening of the Way,” or “The one who can be two places simultaneously.” It is a Bene Gesserit label applied to “the unknown for which they sought a genetic solution: a male Bene Gesserit whose organic mental powers would bridge space and time.”

Landsraad – The Assembly of all nobles in the Imperium.

Lisan al-Gaib – The Fremen term for an off-world prophet, or “The Voice from the Outer World.”

Mahdi – According to the Fremen: the messianic legend, or “The One Who Will Lead Us to Paradise.” It is a title applied to Paul Atreides by the Fremen when they determine that he is their messiah.

Melange – Known colloquially as “the spice,” it is a highly-addictive drug essential to space travel, extended life, and therefore to the survival of the universe.

Mentats – (Thufir Hawat and Piter De Vries) Individuals trained as “human computers,” their minds have been developed to staggering heights of cognitive and analytical ability. Which is why they’re so good at all that math.

Muad’Dib – Is actually the name of “the kangaroo mouse of Arrakis, a creature associated in the Fremen earth-spirit mythology with a design visible on the planet’s second moon. This creature is admired by Fremen for its ability to survive in the open desert.” In Dune, Paul Atreides takes “Muad’Dib” as his Fremen name, which takes on greater significance when he is perceived as a messiah.

Ornithopter (or ‘Thopter) – An “aircraft capable of sustained wing-beat flight in the manner of birds” and one of the primary modes of transportation on Arrakis. For more on this, be sure to check out our ode to ornithopters here.

Sandworm – A giant sand-dwelling creatures native to Arrakis. Called Shai-Hulud by the Fremen and worshipped as deities.

Sardaukar – The name given to the ferocious “soldier-fanatics” of the Padishah Emperor.

Sayyadina – (What Stilgar calls Jessica after their confrontation.) Among the Fremen, the Sayyadina (“Friend of God” in Chakobsa) is a priestess who has not yet passed within to become a Reverend Mother.

Sietch – Cave warren inhabited by a Fremen tribal community.

Stillsuit – A “body-enclosing garment” of Fremen design which performs the “functions of heat dissipation and filtering bodily wastes,” as well as retaining and reclaiming moisture.

Thumper  – A “short stake with a spring-driven clapper at one end,” placed in the sand to call sandworms, who are attracted to vibration and sound.

Truthsayer – A Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother “qualified to enter truthtrance and detect insincerity or falsehood.”

Usul – A Fremen word, meaning “the strength at the base of the pillar.” This is the secret “sietch name” (known only to his tribe) given to Paul Atreides upon his joining the Fremen.

Voice – Training that allows the Bene Gesserit “to control others merely by selected tone shadings of the voice.”

Dune is now showing in Malaysian cinemas.

The post Dune Ending Explained appeared first on Goggler.

If you already know the background to the world of Evangelion click here to jump to the ending of Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time.

What (is) Neon Genesis Evangelion?

Before we can get into Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time, we need to go back to previous versions for some much needed background.

Neon Genesis Evangelion is an anime TV series created by Hideaki Anno that ran for one, 26 episode season, from 1995 to 1996. In it, schoolboy Shinji Ikari was inducted into NERV, an agency set up to fight giant kaiju-like beings called Angels. Along with other pilots, including the mysterious Rei Ayanami and the brash Asuka Langley Soryu, Shinji was forced to fight the angels using a giant humanoid fighting machines called Evangelions or EVAs. So far so anime right?

Not quite.

These giant “robots” (yeah I know, not robots) had TEETH, and that was just the beginning of the surpirses.

More than almost any other giant mecha/robot show NGE showed the experience of piloting an Eva and just being part of NERV, to be a tremendously traumatic experience. The pilots could feel the injuries visited upon their EVAs and Shinji was put through the wringer multiple times, both inside and outside of his EVA, dubbed Unit-01. He was forced to deal with the stress of recurring Angel attacks, as well as the almost complete indifference of his father, head of NERV Gendo Ikari. Oh, and he also had to handle the stress knowing that if he or the other pilots failed to defeat the regular angel attacks, it would trigger the end of all humankind, and no one ever really told him what the hell was going on.

God Is in His Heaven and All’s Right With the World

As the series progressed, it was revealed that NERV was an agent of SEELE, a shadowy cabal dedicated to bringing about the “Human Instrumentality Project.” All the events of the series had apparently being described in what SEELE called the “Dead Sea Scrolls,” which SEELE planned on following to the letter in order to bring about instrumentality. Shinji and the EVAs were key to that project (more on this later). Also important were AT fields, which the EVAs and Angels used to protect themselves, but were also revealed to be the barriers that separate human hearts/souls from each other.

After an ending that dismayed many fans at the time, but which looks a hell of a lot lot more impressive now, Anno returned with a different take on the ending in the movie The End of Evangelion (which was also a part of a summary of the series in Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth).

Since then, Anno has returned once more to the series with the “rebuild,” or New Theatrical Edition, versions of the series. Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone and Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance retell some of the major events of the TV series, in a condensed manner, while Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo and Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time, depart wildly from the original storyline, while staying true to the subjects and themes Anno has been using throughout the series.

Okay, But What’s Evangelion (Really) About?

The background to SEELE’s plans (it isn’t really all that clear in the TV series) is that godlike beings called the First Ancestral Race originally seeded the galaxy with life, with humans and Angels being the results of two of those “seeds.”

Each seed consists of a “being,” and comes with a “moon” and a spear to control the seed.

Humans are the progeny of a seed called Lilith and the Black Moon, which is a “Fruit of Knowledge” type seed. Angels are crated from Adam which is a “Fruit of Life” seed. Life created with the fruit of knowledge, like humans, are relatively weak, comparatively speaking, and can use reason and knowledge to affect the world around them. Life created by the “Fruit Of Life” are immensely powerful creatures, like Angels.

Two seeds are not supposed to affect the same planet, and no being is supposed to hold the power of both the Fruit of Life and the Fruit of Knowledge, as that would put them on the same footing as the First Ancestral Race, aka become “godlike.”

In the history of Eva, Adam landed on Earth with its White Moon, with Lilith crash landing later. Lilith’s Black Moon become the geofront that is NERV HQ. Lillith’s accompanying spear was lost in the crash. Adam’s spear then forced him into hibernation as Lilith birthed the Lilin, aka man. This was known as “1st Impact.”

15 years before the series starts, Adam was awoken at the South Pole triggering “2nd Impact,” devastating much of the world and turning the seas a lifeless red. As the series begins, the Angels, the children of Adam, start attacking NERV HQ seeking to reunite with Adam and restart life on Earth from Adam’s White Moon, wiping out humanity.

SEELE’s plan was to follow the prophecies in the Dead Sea Scrolls, whereby humanity would defeat the Angels and trigger instrumentality. Humanity’s AT fields would be broken down and it would become one. One heart, one mind, no barriers.

Got It. But What Is Evangelion Really, Really (All) About?

All of this is just window dressing… the most complicated, nigh impenetrable, window dressing of all time, for Anno to tell a tale about his depression. A message that was apparently lost on many fans, throughout the various versions of the story. Some fans even expressed their displeasure with the series’ original ending by sending hate mail to Anno and graffitiing Studio Gainax’s offices (some of which was seen in The End of Evangelion).

So What’s (Going on With) The Rebuild Series?

As mentioned above, the “rebuild” series of films retell the story once more, with yet another ending that ties into those that went before it. Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone and Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance mostly retell the events of the TV series. With Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo things get really wild. After Rei and her Unit-00 are consumed by the Tenth Angel in the climax of the second movie, Shinji and Unit-01 go berserk. In this state, Eva and pilot become like Angels and overcome the restrictions placed on the Evas by their creators. As they start to transcend to a god-like power, another “child bound by fate” Kawaru, hits Unit-01 with a spear of Longinus, shutting it down. And then, everyone thought it would be a good idea to put Shinji in a cross in space for the next 14 years.

Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo reintroduces Shinji to a world where the “near 3rd impact” wiped out millions of people. A world where Mistato, Ritsuko, Asuka, and Mari fight what’s left of NERV through the group WILLE. NERV, at this point, seems to consist only of Shinji’s father Gendo, a version of Rei, and Gendo’s assistant/mentor Fuyutsuki, along with an army of mass produced EVAs without pilots. WILLE takes Unit-01 and uses it as the power source for their futuristic ship WUNDER.

Enough Background! Explain the Ending of Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time!

In Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo Shinji was forced (once again) to kill Kawaru, the only person who Shinji thinks actually likes him, and who also happens to be the 13th Angel. Shinji ends back on the WILLE ship WUNDER again (which is powered by his Unit-01, which is made from Lilith, and not Adam, like the other EVAs). Oh, and in case I haven’t mentioned it, Unit-01 also contains the soul of Shinji’s mother Yui.

As with the previous versions of the show, Gendo Ikari once again hijacks the human instrumentality project for his own ends. (It can be hard to discern exactly what those ends are, apart from reuniting with Yui, as Gendo constantly responds to everything that happens as “proceeding according to the Dead Sea Scrolls”.)

While SEELLE had planned instrumentality to unify all human life as one, Gendo hijacks this to… well it’s kind of assumed the end result will be mostly the same for everyone, but in addition to that, he’ll gain godlike power which will allow him to realize his wish to be reunited with his wife Yui. Gendo, who took Yui’s surname when they got married, is the ultimate “wife guy.”

This time around, in Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time, Gendo uses Nebuchadnezzar’s Key, which hasn’t really cropped up before, to renounce his humanity and become partially godlike. (In previous versions of the show, he used the embryonic form of Adam to similar effect). Gendo somehow synthesizes two new spears from Lilith’s Black Moon, using the WUNDER and her sister ships, the ERLÖSUNG, ERBSÜNDE, and GEBET. “All of this is proceeding as foretold in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” etc. etc. etc.

Opening the Doors of Guf

Using Eva Unit-13 and Shinij’s Unit-01, retrieved from the WUNDER, Gendo uses the two spears as part of a rite which open the “doors of Guf” to the Anti-universe. There, at the Golgotha object, Gendo plans to start human instrumentality and also grant his “wish” to be reunited with Yui.

This should also result in most of humankind being reduced to LCL (think orange Tang) and bound together as one spirit, but leaving the physical forms behind. This time, instead of just reverting to LCL with the AT fields down, as in the End Of Evangelion, it seems that all humans souls not protected by an Anti-L barrier, like Village 13, will be converted into “cores” for Evas, but still somehow this will still lead to humanity merging with “one heart, one mind, no barriers.”

After all he’s seen at NERV, at Village 13 where he met his old classmates Tōji Suzuhara, class rep Hikari Horaki, and Kensuke, and aboard the WUNDER, Shinji shakes off his funk and heads after Gendo via Mari’s Unit-08, and his now synch rate of infinity, he takes over Unit-01 from “a” Rei. 

With Unit-01 and Unit-13 in the anti-universe, Shinji first tries to fight Gendo in his memories before Gendo proves to him that fighting is not the key here. Shinji grabs one of the twin spears of Longinus, transforming it to Cassius, the spear of Hope. They fight to a standstill through movie sets resembling the locations from the series.

With only WILLE’s anti-L fields preventing those surviving humans on Earth from becoming “corized,” Shinji and Gendo finally get to have the heart-to-heart talk that everyone’s been waiting for. Thank goodness for Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time!

Imaginary Spaces

In the imaginary space of the Golgotha point, Gendo merges the two spears and inserts them into the “Evangelion Imaginary,” beginning the process of instrumentality. With no spears remaining, the process cannot be stopped. Or can it?

Despite his god-like status, Gendo still raises an AT field when approached by Shinji, and realizes that he’s afraid of his son. Despite everything, he’s still the scared loner he was when he met Yui.

As Shinji finally gets through to Gendo, and he sees Shinji accept the death of Misato, Gendo realizes that his quest to be reunited with Yui, bringing parts of her soul back in Rei and starting instrumentality, was a fool’s errand. Here, at the end of all things, Gendo finally realizes that Yui lives on Shinji, and he should have spent his time with him.

With Gendo’s resolve shattered, Shinji takes Gendo’s place at the center of instrumentality, after a brief interlude with Kawaru. In the meantime, Misato and Ritsuko use the WUNDER to create a new spear from the structure of the ship itself, Gaius, which Mari delivers to Shinji.

Birth-ny Spears

With the spear Gaius in his possession, Shinji now stands at the heart of instrumentality and can use it to rewrite the world as he sees fit. This time, he won’t embrace instrumentality (as in the TV series), revert the world to the way it was, or roll back parts of instrumentality for those who want it (as in the End of Evangelion). Instead, he uses the spear to create a new world without Evas. As he prepares to sacrifice himself with the spear to achieve his wish, it’s stopped from hitting him by his mother, Yui.

With Shinji out of the Eva, Mari sacrifices what’s left of the Eva series to make the wish happen in one blinding flash as all the souls of humanity are released from a Lilith/Rei lookalike.

Shinji awaits on a beach when Mari and Unit-08 appear. As Unit-08 disappears, Shinji finds himself up on a train platform at the Ube-Shinkawa Station. Anno’s home town in our world. Shinji has crated a world without Evas and Seeds of Life. Where there is no possibility for Evas to arise, or more Impacts to occur. As Rei, Kawaru, Asuka, and the rest of the cast of kids are seen on the opposite platform, Shinji leaves with Mari.

But What Does It (Actually) Mean?

Anno has been clear over the years that Evangelion is really about his depression and how he dealt with it, that it’s about:

A broken man who could do nothing for four years. A man who ran away for four years, one who was simply not dead. Then one thought. “You can’t run away,” came to me, and I restarted this production.

Hideaki Anno

He never provides easy answers however.

“Evangelion is like a puzzle. Any person can see it and give his/her own answer. In other words, we’re offering viewers to think by themselves, so that each person can imagine his/her own world. We will never offer the answers, even in the theatrical version. As for many Evangelion viewers, they may expect us to provide the ‘all-about Eva’ manuals, but there is no such thing. Don’t expect to get answers by someone. Don’t expect to be catered to all the time. We all have to find our own answers.”

Hideaki Anno

To understand the ending of the movie series it’s important to understand the endings that have come before. While the ending to the TV series was met with some frustration, watching it again now, after the End of Evangelion and the rebuild series, it seems to make a lot more sense.

The Hero’s Journey

Eva was always about Shinji’s/Anno’s journey. The instrumentality project, merging all of humanity’s hearts, minds, and souls would appear to be a solution to his depression, but also reveals itself to be a nightmare. By the end of the TV series, Shinji has had terrible things happen to him and those around him. Both when he tried his best to do something good and when he ran away. The only option he saw open to him was to do nothing. Be nobody. Give in to his depression.

Through instrumentality he wishes for a world made up only of himself, but soon realizes his mistake. In a world without others, there is no Shinji/Anno. You can only “visualize your own shape, by observing the shape of others.” “It’s other people that let me be myself.” With the additional realization that through others, “different versions of me might exist,” it would seem that Anno is hinting that when he was depressed, just acknowledging the possibility that this feeling *might* not last forever, opened the doors to hope.

With the End of Evangelion, much of the realization is the same, only the result was different. While Shinji was congratulated by the people in his life end of the TV series, in the End of Evangelion, after a lot more on screen action as SEELE tried to reclaim NERV before instrumentality, and Asuka fights the Eva production units, Shinji chooses to leave the conjoined hearts and minds of humanity and retake physical form. An option that has been left open to everyone in Instrumentality who wants it. However the world they would return to seems very, very bleak.

Hope and Depair

As pointed out in the excellent Neon Genesis Evangelion – Hope & Despair video by Beyond Ghibli, these endings can be seen to represent both those emotions. Anno’s hope that people would understand the ending to the TV series, and his despair that many did not. Considering that video was made before the release of the final movie, it is amazing that it’s titled “Hope & Despair,” the two spears in the climax of the movie.

With Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time, the previous endings could be seen as the extremes at either ends of a spectrum. The hope of the TV series ending, and the despair of End of Evangelion, are perhaps too extreme positions to aim for.

Reality is somewhere in the middle, helped along by imagination.

Shinji still learns that he needs other people to be himself, but rather than choosing between the opposites of the the brash Asuka or sullen Rei, he ends up with Mari, a character created for the movie series, in a train station, in our world. All we can do is try and hope for the best.

Is This (Really) the End of Evangelion?

Finally Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time is Anno’s farewell to the world of Eva. As can be seen in Hideaki Anno: The Final Challenge of Evangelion, the documentary on the making of the 4th film (also available on Amazon Prime Video), Anno considers this his goodbye to the world of Eva. Scenes with Rei and Asuka echo (and show) scenes from the End Of Evangelion. The motion control volume in the movie echoes the one used to capture the movements of the characters for the anime. As Shinji closes up shop, bids farewell to Kawaru, Rei,and Asuka, Anno puts away his toys, one last time. He seems to be at a place where no matter the reception to the film, he’s finished with the series. Leaving everyone hopefully at a better place than they started.

Somewhere between hope and despair.

Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time, and all the other Neon Genesis movies, are available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.

The post Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time (Ending) Explained appeared first on Goggler.

This movie opens with the FBI closing in on their suspect, a bedraggled (but still beautiful) Jason Momoa who, for some reason, is standing on the roof of the PNC Park stadium on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As the authorities close in, a cornered Momoa decides to jump off the roof into the icy waters of the Allegheny River below. We’re then presented with a title card that simply says “Years Earlier.”

Those first two minutes of Sweet Girl tells us absolutely nothing, relying instead on whatever affection we may have for Jason Momoa as a heroic everyman to make us care about what’s going on. There is no value to that prologue except to create a false sense of suspense. It is boring and it is lazy.

But What Is Sweet Girl About?

The flashback to those earlier years then sets up our primary conflict. This is when we’re properly introduced to Jason Momoa’s Ray, an ordinary blue-collar American (the kind who can take on trained assassins whenever he needs to), and his daughter Rachel (Isabela Merced, Dora and the Lost City of Gold). The both of them are tending to their wife and mother, Amanda, who is suffering from a rare form of cancer. Their doctor promises that help is on the way in the form of a miraculous experimental drug, but those hopes are short lived, as the pharmaceutical company suddenly, and without warning, pulls it off the market. Amanda dies, Ray rages, and so begins his vendetta against the evil corporation that denied his wife potentially life saving medication.

(There is an incomprehensibly idiotic moment when Ray threatens to kill the CEO of a pharmaceutical company on national television with absolutely no consequence whatsoever.)

Six months later, Ray takes a meeting with a journalist who promises to help him bring down the people responsible for his wife’s death. The meeting ends badly when a hitman savagely kills the journalist in broad daylight. Ray engages the killer in a brutal brawl, suffering a stab wound in the process.

Now, I get that this is supposed to be a revenge thriller, but those opening flashbacks are completely misleading in presenting this movie as something a lot more sensitive and insightful. When Ray has that clandestine meeting with the journalist looking to blow this conspiracy wide open, I was expecting something a little more meditative on Big Pharma, government corruption, and the plight of the common man. (You know, in between all of the kicking, and punching, and shooting.) Can you think of anything more relevant at a time when all of us, across the globe, are reliant on vaccines that are produced by a handful of mega-corporations?

What we get instead is a pretty generic thriller, one that shamelessly cribs its various set pieces from The Fugitive, Heat, the Terminator movies, and almost every other big Hollywood actioner you can think of – only without any of the style or finesse.

The time shifts are unnecessary. The numerous side quests they go on are there only to pad an already bloated runtime. And the entire plot of the movie is loosely connected by a string of violent confrontations that father and daughter encounter as they run from both the FBI and a ruthless hitman.

Throughout the movie, Ray is the prototypical grieving husband on a relentless quest for justice. He is the wronged and helpless hero looking to triumph against a broken system and the corrupt individuals who profit from it. Until, of course, he isn’t.

Which brings us to the movie’s absurd third act twist.

It Was Ra(y)chel All Along!

It turns out that Ray was actually dead, that the stab wound he suffered early in the movie was fatal, and what we’ve been seeing all along was Rachel’s revenge quest. The big third act reveal is that Ray who we’ve been following for most of this movie was nothing more than a figment of Rachel’s fractured personality, a consequence of the trauma of having lost both her parents in such a tragic and unjust manner.

Sure, there’s a moment early in the film (after a third title card that reads “24 Months Later”) which telegraphs Rachel’s unchecked rage, and there’s even Ray’s clunky narration where he rhetorically asks: “Parents and their children – where do we stop and they begin?”, but none of it comes close to justifying that sudden about turn. In fact, all it does is leave you with more questions.

Why is Jason Momoa’s Ray narrating the movie? Was it simply to trick the audience until that ridiculous reveal? How credible is it really that the diminutive Rachel is able to take on hired professional killers, personal bodyguards, and smarmy CEOs? Is 24 months of training at your local gym enough to make you dispose of trained assassins as if you’ve been doing it all your life? Yes, we know that Jason Momoa is hot shit, but wouldn’t this have been a better movie if it had just been about Isabela Merced’s Rachel the whole time? I mean, it’s called Sweet Girl for fuck’s sake.

Screenwriters Gregg Hurwitz and Philip Eisner seem so thrilled by their twist that they completely sideline all of the elements that could have made Sweet Girl stand out. There isn’t a shred of nuance here. Evil corporate bigwigs are just that. They spout nefarious, mustache twirling one liners, but are otherwise completely inert. The hitman feels lifted directly from No Country for Old Men. And the eventual reveal of a politician being the big bad is so predictable that it’ll have you throwing your hands up in frustration.

Jason Momoa is Hollywood gold. He is gorgeous, and charming, and someone you want to root for. But even he can’t save this uninspired clunker. The biggest travesty, however, is how much of a disservice Sweet Girl does to its title character. This should have been Isabela Merced’s movie. Hiding Rachel behind her delusions completely undermines the impact of trying to give her some agency later in the film. The twist does her a dirty when it should have made her the hero.

Sweet Girl is dumb. Don’t go wasting your life.

Sweet Girl is now streaming on Netflix.

The post Sweet Girl: (That Idiotic Twist) Ending Explained appeared first on Goggler.