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Welcome to Our Generation USA!
Below, You will Find the
Most Popular Movies for the Decade 2010-2019 ("2010s")
based on Box Office Receipts
Note, however, that if any movie is part of a franchise, wherein there can also be a prequel and sequel, you will find those movies under
"Popular Movie Franchises"
American Hustle (2013)
YouTube Video: Bathroom Scene
Pictured: From Left: Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale, and Jennifer Lawrence
YouTube Video: Bathroom Scene
Pictured: From Left: Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale, and Jennifer Lawrence
American Hustle is a 2013 American black comedy crime film directed by David O. Russell. It was written by Eric Warren Singer and Russell, inspired by the FBI ABSCAM operation of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
It stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams as two con artists who are forced by an FBI agent (Bradley Cooper) to set up an elaborate sting operation on corrupt politicians, including the mayor of Camden, New Jersey (Jeremy Renner). Jennifer Lawrence plays the unpredictable wife of Bale's character. Principal photography on the film began on March 8, 2013, in Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, and New York City.
American Hustle had its nationwide release in the United States on December 13, 2013. It opened to wide acclaim from critics, who praised its writing and ensemble cast.
The film received ten nominations at the 86th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor (Bale), Best Actress (Adams), Best Supporting Actor (Cooper), and Best Supporting Actress (Lawrence), but did not win in any category.
It received three BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Plot:
In 1978, con artists Irving Rosenfeld and Sydney Prosser have started a relationship, and are working together. Sydney has improved Rosenfeld's scams, posing as English aristocrat "Lady Edith Greensly". Irving loves Sydney, but is hesitant to leave his unstable and histrionic wife Rosalyn, fearing he will lose contact with his adopted son Danny.
Rosalyn has also threatened to report Irving to the police if he leaves her. FBI agent Richie DiMaso catches Irving and Sydney in a loan scam, but offers to release them if Irving can line up four additional arrests. Richie believes Sydney is English, but has proof that her claim of aristocracy is fraudulent. Sydney tells Irving she will manipulate Richie, distancing herself from Irving.
Irving has a friend pretending to be a wealthy Arab sheikh looking for potential investments in America. An associate of Irving's suggests the sheikh do business with Mayor Carmine Polito of Camden, New Jersey, who is campaigning to revitalize gambling in Atlantic City, but has struggled in fund-raising. Carmine seems to have a genuine desire to help the area's economy and his constituents.
Richie devises a plan to make Mayor Polito the target of a sting operation, despite the objections of Irving and of Richie's boss, Stoddard Thorsen. Sydney helps Richie manipulate an FBI secretary into making an unauthorized wire transfer of $2,000,000. When Stoddard's boss, Anthony Amado, hears of the operation, he praises Richie's initiative, pressuring Stoddard to continue.
Carmine leaves their meeting when Richie presses him to accept a cash bribe. Irving convinces Carmine the sheikh is legitimate, expressing his dislike of Richie, and the two become friends. Richie arranges for Carmine to meet the sheikh, and without consulting the others, has Mexican-American FBI agent Paco Hernandez play the sheikh, which displeases Irving.
Carmine brings the sheikh to a casino party, explaining that mobsters are there, and that it is a necessary part of doing business. Irving is surprised to hear that Mafia boss Victor Tellegio, right-hand man to Meyer Lansky, is present, and that he wants to meet the sheikh. Tellegio explains that the sheikh needs to become an American citizen, and that Carmine will need to expedite the process. Tellegio also requires a $10,000,000 wire transfer to prove the sheikh's legitimacy.
Richie confesses his strong attraction to Sydney, but becomes confused and aggressive when she drops her English accent and admits to being from Albuquerque. Rosalyn starts an affair with mobster Pete Musane, whom she met at the party. She mentions her belief that Irving is working with the IRS, causing Pete to threaten Irving, who promises to prove the sheikh's investment is real. Irving later confronts Rosalyn, who admits she told Pete and agrees to keep quiet, but wants a divorce.
With Carmine's help, Richie and Irving videotape members of Congress receiving bribes. Richie assaults Stoddard in a fight over the money, and later convinces Amado that he needs the $10,000,000 to get Tellegio, but gets only $2,000,000. A meeting is arranged at the offices of Tellegio's lawyer, Alfonse Simone, but Tellegio does not appear.
Irving visits Carmine and admits to the scam, but says he has a plan to help him. Carmine throws Irving out, and the loss of their friendship deeply upsets Irving. The federal agents inform Irving that their $2,000,000 are missing, and that they have received an anonymous offer to return the money in exchange for Irving and Sydney's immunity and a reduced sentence for Carmine.
It is revealed that the Alfonse Simone, with whom Richie had arranged the wire transfer, was a con man working with Irving and Sydney. Amado accepts the deal, and Stoddard removes Richie from the case, which ends his career. The Congressmen are prosecuted, and so is Carmine, who is sentenced to 18 months in prison. Irving and Sydney move in together and open a legitimate art gallery, while Rosalyn lives with Pete and shares custody of Danny with Irving.
Click on any of the following bluehyperlinks for more about the movie "American Hustle":
It stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams as two con artists who are forced by an FBI agent (Bradley Cooper) to set up an elaborate sting operation on corrupt politicians, including the mayor of Camden, New Jersey (Jeremy Renner). Jennifer Lawrence plays the unpredictable wife of Bale's character. Principal photography on the film began on March 8, 2013, in Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, and New York City.
American Hustle had its nationwide release in the United States on December 13, 2013. It opened to wide acclaim from critics, who praised its writing and ensemble cast.
The film received ten nominations at the 86th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor (Bale), Best Actress (Adams), Best Supporting Actor (Cooper), and Best Supporting Actress (Lawrence), but did not win in any category.
It received three BAFTA Awards, three Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Plot:
In 1978, con artists Irving Rosenfeld and Sydney Prosser have started a relationship, and are working together. Sydney has improved Rosenfeld's scams, posing as English aristocrat "Lady Edith Greensly". Irving loves Sydney, but is hesitant to leave his unstable and histrionic wife Rosalyn, fearing he will lose contact with his adopted son Danny.
Rosalyn has also threatened to report Irving to the police if he leaves her. FBI agent Richie DiMaso catches Irving and Sydney in a loan scam, but offers to release them if Irving can line up four additional arrests. Richie believes Sydney is English, but has proof that her claim of aristocracy is fraudulent. Sydney tells Irving she will manipulate Richie, distancing herself from Irving.
Irving has a friend pretending to be a wealthy Arab sheikh looking for potential investments in America. An associate of Irving's suggests the sheikh do business with Mayor Carmine Polito of Camden, New Jersey, who is campaigning to revitalize gambling in Atlantic City, but has struggled in fund-raising. Carmine seems to have a genuine desire to help the area's economy and his constituents.
Richie devises a plan to make Mayor Polito the target of a sting operation, despite the objections of Irving and of Richie's boss, Stoddard Thorsen. Sydney helps Richie manipulate an FBI secretary into making an unauthorized wire transfer of $2,000,000. When Stoddard's boss, Anthony Amado, hears of the operation, he praises Richie's initiative, pressuring Stoddard to continue.
Carmine leaves their meeting when Richie presses him to accept a cash bribe. Irving convinces Carmine the sheikh is legitimate, expressing his dislike of Richie, and the two become friends. Richie arranges for Carmine to meet the sheikh, and without consulting the others, has Mexican-American FBI agent Paco Hernandez play the sheikh, which displeases Irving.
Carmine brings the sheikh to a casino party, explaining that mobsters are there, and that it is a necessary part of doing business. Irving is surprised to hear that Mafia boss Victor Tellegio, right-hand man to Meyer Lansky, is present, and that he wants to meet the sheikh. Tellegio explains that the sheikh needs to become an American citizen, and that Carmine will need to expedite the process. Tellegio also requires a $10,000,000 wire transfer to prove the sheikh's legitimacy.
Richie confesses his strong attraction to Sydney, but becomes confused and aggressive when she drops her English accent and admits to being from Albuquerque. Rosalyn starts an affair with mobster Pete Musane, whom she met at the party. She mentions her belief that Irving is working with the IRS, causing Pete to threaten Irving, who promises to prove the sheikh's investment is real. Irving later confronts Rosalyn, who admits she told Pete and agrees to keep quiet, but wants a divorce.
With Carmine's help, Richie and Irving videotape members of Congress receiving bribes. Richie assaults Stoddard in a fight over the money, and later convinces Amado that he needs the $10,000,000 to get Tellegio, but gets only $2,000,000. A meeting is arranged at the offices of Tellegio's lawyer, Alfonse Simone, but Tellegio does not appear.
Irving visits Carmine and admits to the scam, but says he has a plan to help him. Carmine throws Irving out, and the loss of their friendship deeply upsets Irving. The federal agents inform Irving that their $2,000,000 are missing, and that they have received an anonymous offer to return the money in exchange for Irving and Sydney's immunity and a reduced sentence for Carmine.
It is revealed that the Alfonse Simone, with whom Richie had arranged the wire transfer, was a con man working with Irving and Sydney. Amado accepts the deal, and Stoddard removes Richie from the case, which ends his career. The Congressmen are prosecuted, and so is Carmine, who is sentenced to 18 months in prison. Irving and Sydney move in together and open a legitimate art gallery, while Rosalyn lives with Pete and shares custody of Danny with Irving.
Click on any of the following bluehyperlinks for more about the movie "American Hustle":
Frozen (2013)
YouTube Video FROZEN - Let It Go Sing-along | Official Disney HD
Pictured: Movie Poster
YouTube Video FROZEN - Let It Go Sing-along | Official Disney HD
Pictured: Movie Poster
Frozen is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures.
It is the 53rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Queen, the film tells the story of a fearless princess who sets off on an epic journey alongside a rugged iceman, his loyal pet reindeer, and a naïve snowman to find her estranged sister, whose icy powers have inadvertently trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.
Frozen underwent several story treatments for years before being commissioned in 2011, with a screenplay written by Jennifer Lee, and both Chris Buck and Lee serving as directors. It features the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad and Santino Fontana.
Christophe Beck, who had worked on Disney's award-winning short Paperman, was hired to compose the film's orchestral score, while husband-and-wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote the songs.
Frozen premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California, on November 19, 2013, and went into general theatrical release on November 27.
It was met with strongly positive reviews from critics and audiences, with some film critics considering Frozen to be the best Disney animated feature film since the studio's renaissance era.
The film was also a massive commercial success; it accumulated nearly $1.3 billion in worldwide box office revenue, $400 million of which was earned in the United States and Canada and $247 million of which was earned in Japan.
It ranks as the highest-grossing animated film of all time, the third highest-grossing original film of all time, the ninth highest-grossing film of all time, the highest-grossing film of 2013, and the third highest-grossing film in Japan.
With over 18 million home media sales in 2014, it became the best-selling film of the year in the United States. By January 2015, Frozen had become the all-time best-selling Blu-ray Disc in the United States.
Frozen won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go"), the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, five Annie Awards (including Best Animated Feature), two Grammy Awards for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media and Best Song Written for Visual Media ("Let It Go"), and two Critics' Choice Movie Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go").
An animated short sequel, Frozen Fever, premiered on March 13, 2015, with Disney's Cinderella. On March 12, 2015, a feature-length sequel was announced, with Buck and Lee returning as directors and Peter Del Vecho returning as producer. A release date has not been disclosed.
Plot:
Princess Elsa of Arendelle possesses magic powers that allow her to control and create ice and snow, often using it to play with her younger sister, Anna. After Elsa accidentally injures Anna with her magic, their parents, the King and Queen, take both siblings to a colony of trolls led by Grand Pabbie. He heals Anna, but alters her memories to remove traces of Elsa's magic, warning Elsa that she must learn to control her powers. He also states that fear will be Elsa's greatest enemy.
The King and Queen isolate both sisters within the castle. Elsa shuts Anna out, causing a rift between them. Unable to control it, Elsa can only suppress her power, causing her to become more insecure. When the sisters are teenagers, their parents die at sea during a storm.
When Elsa turns 21, she is to be crowned queen of Arendelle. She is terrified that the kingdom's citizens might find out about her powers and fear her. The castle gates open to the public and visiting dignitaries for the first time in years. Among them is the scheming Duke of Weselton and the dashing Prince Hans of the Southern Isles, the latter of whom Anna falls in love with at first sight.
Elsa's coronation happens without a hitch, but she still remains distant from Anna. When Hans proposes to Anna, Elsa objects, accidentally unleashing her powers before the court; the Duke brands her a monster. Elsa flees to the North Mountain, where she finally acknowledges her powers, building a palace of ice in which to live a hermit life. In the process however, her suppressed magic engulfs Arendelle in an eternal winter.
Anna ventures out to find Elsa and end the winter, leaving Hans in command. She gets lost, collecting supplies at Wandering Oaken's shop. She meets an ice harvester named Kristoff and his reindeer, Sven, convincing them to take her to the mountains. An attack by wolves leads to Kristoff's sleigh being destroyed. On foot, they meet Olaf, a cheerful snowman brought to life unknowingly by Elsa, who offers to lead them to her.
When Anna's horse returns to Arendelle, Hans sets out to find Anna and Elsa, accompanied by the Duke's minions, who have secret orders to kill Elsa.
Reaching the ice palace, Anna meets Elsa, but when she reveals what has become of Arendelle, Elsa becomes upset, saying that she cannot undo it, and accidentally freezes Anna's heart, poisoning her. She then makes a giant snow monster named Marshmallow, who chases Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf away. Realizing the effects of Elsa's spell on Anna, Kristoff takes her to the trolls, his adoptive family. Grand Pabbie reveals that Anna will freeze solid unless "an act of true love" reverses the spell.
Kristoff races Anna back home so Hans can give her true love's kiss. Hans and his men reach Elsa's palace, defeating Marshmallow and capturing Elsa. Anna is delivered to Hans but, rather than kissing her, Hans instead reveals that he has actually been plotting to seize the throne of Arendelle by eliminating both sisters.
Hans locks Anna in a room to die, and then manipulates the dignitaries into believing that Elsa killed her. He orders the queen's execution, only to discover she has escaped her detention cell.
Olaf frees Anna, and they venture into the blizzard outside to meet Kristoff, whom Olaf reveals is in love with her. Hans confronts Elsa outside, claiming that she killed Anna, causing Elsa to break down and abruptly stop the storm. Anna spots Hans about to kill Elsa; she leaps in the way and freezes solid, stopping Hans.
Devastated, Elsa hugs and mourns over her sister, who thaws out, her heroism constituting "an act of true love". Realizing that love is the key to controlling her magic, Elsa ends the winter and gives Olaf his own snow flurry to survive the warmer climate. Hans is arrested and exiled from the kingdom for his attempted assassination, while the Duke's trade links with Arendelle are cut off.
Anna gives Kristoff a new sleigh and the two kiss. Both sisters are reunited and Elsa promises never to lock the castle gates again.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Frozen:
It is the 53rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Queen, the film tells the story of a fearless princess who sets off on an epic journey alongside a rugged iceman, his loyal pet reindeer, and a naïve snowman to find her estranged sister, whose icy powers have inadvertently trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.
Frozen underwent several story treatments for years before being commissioned in 2011, with a screenplay written by Jennifer Lee, and both Chris Buck and Lee serving as directors. It features the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad and Santino Fontana.
Christophe Beck, who had worked on Disney's award-winning short Paperman, was hired to compose the film's orchestral score, while husband-and-wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote the songs.
Frozen premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California, on November 19, 2013, and went into general theatrical release on November 27.
It was met with strongly positive reviews from critics and audiences, with some film critics considering Frozen to be the best Disney animated feature film since the studio's renaissance era.
The film was also a massive commercial success; it accumulated nearly $1.3 billion in worldwide box office revenue, $400 million of which was earned in the United States and Canada and $247 million of which was earned in Japan.
It ranks as the highest-grossing animated film of all time, the third highest-grossing original film of all time, the ninth highest-grossing film of all time, the highest-grossing film of 2013, and the third highest-grossing film in Japan.
With over 18 million home media sales in 2014, it became the best-selling film of the year in the United States. By January 2015, Frozen had become the all-time best-selling Blu-ray Disc in the United States.
Frozen won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go"), the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, five Annie Awards (including Best Animated Feature), two Grammy Awards for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media and Best Song Written for Visual Media ("Let It Go"), and two Critics' Choice Movie Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go").
An animated short sequel, Frozen Fever, premiered on March 13, 2015, with Disney's Cinderella. On March 12, 2015, a feature-length sequel was announced, with Buck and Lee returning as directors and Peter Del Vecho returning as producer. A release date has not been disclosed.
Plot:
Princess Elsa of Arendelle possesses magic powers that allow her to control and create ice and snow, often using it to play with her younger sister, Anna. After Elsa accidentally injures Anna with her magic, their parents, the King and Queen, take both siblings to a colony of trolls led by Grand Pabbie. He heals Anna, but alters her memories to remove traces of Elsa's magic, warning Elsa that she must learn to control her powers. He also states that fear will be Elsa's greatest enemy.
The King and Queen isolate both sisters within the castle. Elsa shuts Anna out, causing a rift between them. Unable to control it, Elsa can only suppress her power, causing her to become more insecure. When the sisters are teenagers, their parents die at sea during a storm.
When Elsa turns 21, she is to be crowned queen of Arendelle. She is terrified that the kingdom's citizens might find out about her powers and fear her. The castle gates open to the public and visiting dignitaries for the first time in years. Among them is the scheming Duke of Weselton and the dashing Prince Hans of the Southern Isles, the latter of whom Anna falls in love with at first sight.
Elsa's coronation happens without a hitch, but she still remains distant from Anna. When Hans proposes to Anna, Elsa objects, accidentally unleashing her powers before the court; the Duke brands her a monster. Elsa flees to the North Mountain, where she finally acknowledges her powers, building a palace of ice in which to live a hermit life. In the process however, her suppressed magic engulfs Arendelle in an eternal winter.
Anna ventures out to find Elsa and end the winter, leaving Hans in command. She gets lost, collecting supplies at Wandering Oaken's shop. She meets an ice harvester named Kristoff and his reindeer, Sven, convincing them to take her to the mountains. An attack by wolves leads to Kristoff's sleigh being destroyed. On foot, they meet Olaf, a cheerful snowman brought to life unknowingly by Elsa, who offers to lead them to her.
When Anna's horse returns to Arendelle, Hans sets out to find Anna and Elsa, accompanied by the Duke's minions, who have secret orders to kill Elsa.
Reaching the ice palace, Anna meets Elsa, but when she reveals what has become of Arendelle, Elsa becomes upset, saying that she cannot undo it, and accidentally freezes Anna's heart, poisoning her. She then makes a giant snow monster named Marshmallow, who chases Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf away. Realizing the effects of Elsa's spell on Anna, Kristoff takes her to the trolls, his adoptive family. Grand Pabbie reveals that Anna will freeze solid unless "an act of true love" reverses the spell.
Kristoff races Anna back home so Hans can give her true love's kiss. Hans and his men reach Elsa's palace, defeating Marshmallow and capturing Elsa. Anna is delivered to Hans but, rather than kissing her, Hans instead reveals that he has actually been plotting to seize the throne of Arendelle by eliminating both sisters.
Hans locks Anna in a room to die, and then manipulates the dignitaries into believing that Elsa killed her. He orders the queen's execution, only to discover she has escaped her detention cell.
Olaf frees Anna, and they venture into the blizzard outside to meet Kristoff, whom Olaf reveals is in love with her. Hans confronts Elsa outside, claiming that she killed Anna, causing Elsa to break down and abruptly stop the storm. Anna spots Hans about to kill Elsa; she leaps in the way and freezes solid, stopping Hans.
Devastated, Elsa hugs and mourns over her sister, who thaws out, her heroism constituting "an act of true love". Realizing that love is the key to controlling her magic, Elsa ends the winter and gives Olaf his own snow flurry to survive the warmer climate. Hans is arrested and exiled from the kingdom for his attempted assassination, while the Duke's trade links with Arendelle are cut off.
Anna gives Kristoff a new sleigh and the two kiss. Both sisters are reunited and Elsa promises never to lock the castle gates again.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Frozen:
Argo is a 2012 American political thriller film directed by Ben Affleck. The film is adapted from U.S. Central Intelligence Agency operative Tony Mendez's book The Master of Disguise and Joshuah Bearman's 2007 Wired article "The Great Escape: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran."
The latter deals with the "Canadian Caper," in which Mendez led the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran, during the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis.
The film stars Affleck as Mendez with Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman in supporting roles, and was released in North America on October 12, 2012. The film was produced by Affleck, Grant Heslov and George Clooney. The story of this rescue was also told in the 1981 television movie Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper, directed by Lamont Johnson.
Upon release, Argo received widespread acclaim, with praise directed towards the acting (particularly Alan Arkin), Ben Affleck's direction, Terrio's screenplay, the editing, and Desplat's score. The film received seven nominations for the 85th Academy Awards and won three, for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing.
The film also earned five Golden Globe Award nominations, winning Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director, while being nominated for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Alan Arkin. It won Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards, with Arkin being nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.
It also won Best Film, Best Editing, and Best Director at the 66th British Academy Film Awards.
Despite this, however, Argo has also been criticized for some specific inaccuracies: in particular for minimizing the role of the Canadian embassy in the rescue, for falsely showing that the Americans were turned away by the British and New Zealand embassies, and for exaggerating the danger that the group faced during events preceding their escape from the country.
Plot:
On November 4, 1979, Iranian activists storm the United States embassy in Tehran in retaliation for President Jimmy Carter giving the Shah asylum in the U.S. during the Iranian Revolution. More than 50 of the embassy staff are taken as hostages, but six avoid capture and hide in the home of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor. With the escapees' situation kept secret, the U.S. State Department begins to explore options for extracting them from Iran. Tony Mendez, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency exfiltration specialist, is brought in for consultation.
He criticizes the proposals, but is at a loss when asked for an alternative. While on the phone with his son, he is inspired by watching Battle for the Planet of the Apes and begins plans for creating a cover story for the escapees: that they are Canadian filmmakers who happened to be in Iran scouting exotic locations for a similar science-fiction film.
Mendez contacts John Chambers, a Hollywood make-up artist who had previously crafted disguises for the CIA. Chambers puts Mendez in touch with film producer Lester Siegel. Together, they set up a phony film production company, publicize their plans, and successfully establish the pretense of developing Argo, a "science fantasy adventure" in the style of Star Wars, to lend credibility to the cover story.
Meanwhile, the escapees grow frantic inside the ambassador's residence. The revolutionaries reassemble embassy photographs shredded before the takeover and learn that some personnel have escaped.
Posing as a producer for Argo, Mendez enters Iran under the fake name Kevin Harkins and links up with the six escapees. He provides them with Canadian passports and fake identities to prepare them to get through security at the airport.
Although afraid to trust Mendez's scheme, they reluctantly go along with it, knowing that he is risking his own life too. A scouting visit to the bazaar to maintain their cover story takes a bad turn, but their Iranian culture contact gets them away from the hostile crowd.
Mendez is told that the operation has been cancelled to avoid conflicting with a planned military rescue of the hostages. He pushes ahead, forcing his boss Jack O'Donnell to hastily re-obtain authorization for the mission to get tickets on a Swissair flight.
Tension rises at the airport, where the escapees' flight reservations are confirmed at the last minute, and a guard's call to the supposed production company in Hollywood is answered at the last second. The group boards the plane, which takes off just as the Revolutionary Guards at the airport uncover the ruse and try to stop them.
To protect the hostages remaining in Tehran from retaliation, all U.S. involvement in the rescue is suppressed and full credit is given to the Canadian government and its ambassador (who left Iran with his wife under their own credentials as the operation was underway). The ambassador's Iranian housekeeper, who had known about the Americans and lied to the revolutionaries to protect them, escaped to Iraq.
Mendez is awarded the Intelligence Star, but due to the mission's classified nature, he would not be able to officially receive the medal until the details were publicized in 1997. All the hostages were freed on January 20, 1981. The film ends with Carter's speech about the crisis and the Canadian Caper.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Argo":
The latter deals with the "Canadian Caper," in which Mendez led the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran, during the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis.
The film stars Affleck as Mendez with Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman in supporting roles, and was released in North America on October 12, 2012. The film was produced by Affleck, Grant Heslov and George Clooney. The story of this rescue was also told in the 1981 television movie Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper, directed by Lamont Johnson.
Upon release, Argo received widespread acclaim, with praise directed towards the acting (particularly Alan Arkin), Ben Affleck's direction, Terrio's screenplay, the editing, and Desplat's score. The film received seven nominations for the 85th Academy Awards and won three, for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing.
The film also earned five Golden Globe Award nominations, winning Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director, while being nominated for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Alan Arkin. It won Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards, with Arkin being nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.
It also won Best Film, Best Editing, and Best Director at the 66th British Academy Film Awards.
Despite this, however, Argo has also been criticized for some specific inaccuracies: in particular for minimizing the role of the Canadian embassy in the rescue, for falsely showing that the Americans were turned away by the British and New Zealand embassies, and for exaggerating the danger that the group faced during events preceding their escape from the country.
Plot:
On November 4, 1979, Iranian activists storm the United States embassy in Tehran in retaliation for President Jimmy Carter giving the Shah asylum in the U.S. during the Iranian Revolution. More than 50 of the embassy staff are taken as hostages, but six avoid capture and hide in the home of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor. With the escapees' situation kept secret, the U.S. State Department begins to explore options for extracting them from Iran. Tony Mendez, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency exfiltration specialist, is brought in for consultation.
He criticizes the proposals, but is at a loss when asked for an alternative. While on the phone with his son, he is inspired by watching Battle for the Planet of the Apes and begins plans for creating a cover story for the escapees: that they are Canadian filmmakers who happened to be in Iran scouting exotic locations for a similar science-fiction film.
Mendez contacts John Chambers, a Hollywood make-up artist who had previously crafted disguises for the CIA. Chambers puts Mendez in touch with film producer Lester Siegel. Together, they set up a phony film production company, publicize their plans, and successfully establish the pretense of developing Argo, a "science fantasy adventure" in the style of Star Wars, to lend credibility to the cover story.
Meanwhile, the escapees grow frantic inside the ambassador's residence. The revolutionaries reassemble embassy photographs shredded before the takeover and learn that some personnel have escaped.
Posing as a producer for Argo, Mendez enters Iran under the fake name Kevin Harkins and links up with the six escapees. He provides them with Canadian passports and fake identities to prepare them to get through security at the airport.
Although afraid to trust Mendez's scheme, they reluctantly go along with it, knowing that he is risking his own life too. A scouting visit to the bazaar to maintain their cover story takes a bad turn, but their Iranian culture contact gets them away from the hostile crowd.
Mendez is told that the operation has been cancelled to avoid conflicting with a planned military rescue of the hostages. He pushes ahead, forcing his boss Jack O'Donnell to hastily re-obtain authorization for the mission to get tickets on a Swissair flight.
Tension rises at the airport, where the escapees' flight reservations are confirmed at the last minute, and a guard's call to the supposed production company in Hollywood is answered at the last second. The group boards the plane, which takes off just as the Revolutionary Guards at the airport uncover the ruse and try to stop them.
To protect the hostages remaining in Tehran from retaliation, all U.S. involvement in the rescue is suppressed and full credit is given to the Canadian government and its ambassador (who left Iran with his wife under their own credentials as the operation was underway). The ambassador's Iranian housekeeper, who had known about the Americans and lied to the revolutionaries to protect them, escaped to Iraq.
Mendez is awarded the Intelligence Star, but due to the mission's classified nature, he would not be able to officially receive the medal until the details were publicized in 1997. All the hostages were freed on January 20, 1981. The film ends with Carter's speech about the crisis and the Canadian Caper.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Argo":
- Cast
- Production
- Soundtrack
- Release and reception
- Historical inaccuracies
- See also:
- Official website
- Argo on IMDb
- Argo at Box Office Mojo
- Argo at Rotten Tomatoes
- Argo at Metacritic
- Radio interview with Ben Affleck regarding Argo, on NPR's Fresh Air (28 mins, 2013)
Lucy is a 2014 science fiction action film written and directed by Luc Besson and produced by his wife Virginie Besson-Silla for his company Europacorp. The film was shot in Taipei, Paris and New York City.
It stars Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Choi Min-sik and Amr Waked.
Johansson portrays the title character, a woman who gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream.
The film was released on July 25, 2014, and became a box office hit, grossing over $463 million, 11 times the budget of $40 million.
Plot:
Lucy is a 24-year-old American woman living and studying in Taipei, Taiwan. She is tricked into working as a drug mule by her new boyfriend whose employer Mr. Jang is a Korean mob boss and drug lord. Lucy delivers a briefcase to Mr. Jang containing a highly valuable synthetic drug called CPH4.
After seeing her boyfriend shot and killed, she is captured. A bag of the drug is forcibly sewn into her abdomen and that of three other drug mules who will also transport the drug for sale in Europe.
While Lucy is in captivity, one of her captors kicks her in the abdomen, breaking the bag and releasing a large quantity of the drug into her system. As a result, she begins acquiring increasingly enhanced physical and mental capabilities, such as telepathy, telekinesis, mental time travel, and the ability not to feel pain or other discomforts. She kills off her captors and escapes.
Lucy travels to the nearby Tri-Service General Hospital to get the bag of drugs removed from her abdomen. The bag is successfully removed and Lucy is told by the operating doctor that natural CPH4 is a volatile substance produced in minute quantities by pregnant women to provide fetuses the energy to develop.
Lucy is fortunate to have survived having such a large amount introduced into her body. Sensing her growing physical and mental abilities, Lucy returns to Mr. Jang's hotel, kills his bodyguards, assaults Mr. Jang, and telepathically extracts the locations of the three remaining drug mules from his brain.
At her shared apartment, Lucy begins researching her condition and contacts well-known scientist and doctor Professor Samuel Norman whose research may be the key to saving her.
After Lucy speaks with Professor Norman and provides proof of her developed abilities, she flies to Paris and contacts a local police captain, Pierre Del Rio, to help her find the remaining three packets of the drug.
During the plane ride, she starts to disintegrate as her cells destabilize from consuming a sip of champagne, which made her body inhospitable for cellular reproduction. Only by consuming more CPH4 is she able to prevent her total disintegration.
Her powers continue to grow, leaving her able to telepathically incapacitate armed police and members from the Korean drug gang. With the help of Del Rio, Lucy recovers the drug and hurries to meet Professor Norman. Alongside Professor Norman and his colleagues, she agrees to share everything she now knows after Professor Norman points out that the main point of life is to pass on knowledge, something for which she now possesses an infinite capacity.
Jang and the mob also want the drug and a gunfight ensues with the French police.
In the professor's lab, Lucy discusses the nature of time and life and how people's humanity distorts their perceptions. She tells the scientists that time is the only true measure of human life and of existence.
At her urging, she is intravenously injected with the contents of all three remaining bags of CPH4. Her body begins to metamorphose into a bizarre black substance which behaves like nanites, spreading over computers and other objects in the lab, as she transforms these into an unconventionally shaped, next-generation supercomputer that will contain all of her enhanced knowledge of the universe.
She then begins a space-time journey into the past, eventually reaching the oldest discovered ancestor of mankind, implied to be Lucy. She touches fingertips with her, then goes all the way to the beginning of time and witnesses the Big Bang.
Meanwhile, back in the lab, after an M136 AT4 anti-tank weapon destroys the door, Jang enters and points a gun at Lucy's head from behind. He shoots, but in the instant before the bullet strikes, Lucy reaches 100% of her cerebral capacity and disappears within the space-time continuum, where she explains that everything is connected and existence is only proven through time. Only her clothes and the black supercomputer are left behind.
Del Rio enters and fatally shoots Jang. Professor Norman takes a black, presumably highly advanced flash drive offered by the advanced supercomputer, after which the computer disintegrates. Del Rio asks Professor Norman where Lucy is, immediately after which Del Rio's cell phone sounds and he sees a text message: "I AM EVERYWHERE." With an overhead shot, Lucy's voice is heard stating "Life was given to us a billion years ago. Now you know what to do with it."
Cast:
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Lucy:
It stars Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Choi Min-sik and Amr Waked.
Johansson portrays the title character, a woman who gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream.
The film was released on July 25, 2014, and became a box office hit, grossing over $463 million, 11 times the budget of $40 million.
Plot:
Lucy is a 24-year-old American woman living and studying in Taipei, Taiwan. She is tricked into working as a drug mule by her new boyfriend whose employer Mr. Jang is a Korean mob boss and drug lord. Lucy delivers a briefcase to Mr. Jang containing a highly valuable synthetic drug called CPH4.
After seeing her boyfriend shot and killed, she is captured. A bag of the drug is forcibly sewn into her abdomen and that of three other drug mules who will also transport the drug for sale in Europe.
While Lucy is in captivity, one of her captors kicks her in the abdomen, breaking the bag and releasing a large quantity of the drug into her system. As a result, she begins acquiring increasingly enhanced physical and mental capabilities, such as telepathy, telekinesis, mental time travel, and the ability not to feel pain or other discomforts. She kills off her captors and escapes.
Lucy travels to the nearby Tri-Service General Hospital to get the bag of drugs removed from her abdomen. The bag is successfully removed and Lucy is told by the operating doctor that natural CPH4 is a volatile substance produced in minute quantities by pregnant women to provide fetuses the energy to develop.
Lucy is fortunate to have survived having such a large amount introduced into her body. Sensing her growing physical and mental abilities, Lucy returns to Mr. Jang's hotel, kills his bodyguards, assaults Mr. Jang, and telepathically extracts the locations of the three remaining drug mules from his brain.
At her shared apartment, Lucy begins researching her condition and contacts well-known scientist and doctor Professor Samuel Norman whose research may be the key to saving her.
After Lucy speaks with Professor Norman and provides proof of her developed abilities, she flies to Paris and contacts a local police captain, Pierre Del Rio, to help her find the remaining three packets of the drug.
During the plane ride, she starts to disintegrate as her cells destabilize from consuming a sip of champagne, which made her body inhospitable for cellular reproduction. Only by consuming more CPH4 is she able to prevent her total disintegration.
Her powers continue to grow, leaving her able to telepathically incapacitate armed police and members from the Korean drug gang. With the help of Del Rio, Lucy recovers the drug and hurries to meet Professor Norman. Alongside Professor Norman and his colleagues, she agrees to share everything she now knows after Professor Norman points out that the main point of life is to pass on knowledge, something for which she now possesses an infinite capacity.
Jang and the mob also want the drug and a gunfight ensues with the French police.
In the professor's lab, Lucy discusses the nature of time and life and how people's humanity distorts their perceptions. She tells the scientists that time is the only true measure of human life and of existence.
At her urging, she is intravenously injected with the contents of all three remaining bags of CPH4. Her body begins to metamorphose into a bizarre black substance which behaves like nanites, spreading over computers and other objects in the lab, as she transforms these into an unconventionally shaped, next-generation supercomputer that will contain all of her enhanced knowledge of the universe.
She then begins a space-time journey into the past, eventually reaching the oldest discovered ancestor of mankind, implied to be Lucy. She touches fingertips with her, then goes all the way to the beginning of time and witnesses the Big Bang.
Meanwhile, back in the lab, after an M136 AT4 anti-tank weapon destroys the door, Jang enters and points a gun at Lucy's head from behind. He shoots, but in the instant before the bullet strikes, Lucy reaches 100% of her cerebral capacity and disappears within the space-time continuum, where she explains that everything is connected and existence is only proven through time. Only her clothes and the black supercomputer are left behind.
Del Rio enters and fatally shoots Jang. Professor Norman takes a black, presumably highly advanced flash drive offered by the advanced supercomputer, after which the computer disintegrates. Del Rio asks Professor Norman where Lucy is, immediately after which Del Rio's cell phone sounds and he sees a text message: "I AM EVERYWHERE." With an overhead shot, Lucy's voice is heard stating "Life was given to us a billion years ago. Now you know what to do with it."
Cast:
- Scarlett Johansson as Lucy, an unwilling drug mule who is accidentally dosed with a drug that activates a myriad of pre-encoded genetic conscious capabilities.
- Morgan Freeman as Professor Samuel Norman.
- Choi Min-sik as Mr. Jang.
- Amr Waked as Pierre Del Rio.
- Julian Rhind-Tutt as the polite English 'baddie'
- Pilou Asbæk as Richard.
- Analeigh Tipton as Caroline.
- Nicolas Phongpheth as Jii.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about Lucy:
Captain Phillips is a 2013 American biographical survival thriller film directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi. The film is inspired by the true story of the 2009 Maersk Alabama hijacking, an incident during which merchant mariner Captain Richard Phillips was taken hostage by pirates in the Indian Ocean led by Abduwali Muse.
The screenplay by Billy Ray is based on the 2010 book A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty.
Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca served as producers on the project. It premiered at the 2013 New York Film Festival, and was theatrically released on October 11, 2013.
The film emerged as a box office success grossing over $218 million against a budget of $55 million. In 2014, Captain Phillips received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Abdi.
Plot:
Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) takes command of MV Maersk Alabama, an unarmed container ship from the Port of Salalah in Oman, with orders to sail through the Gulf of Aden to Mombasa, Kenya.
Wary of pirate activity off the coast of the Horn of Africa, he and First Officer Shane Murphy (Michael Chernus) order strict security precautions on the vessel and carry out practice drills.
During a drill, the vessel is chased by Somali pirates in two skiffs, and Phillips calls for help. Knowing that the pirates are listening to radio traffic, he pretends to call a warship, requesting immediate air support.
One skiff turns around in response, and the other – manned by four heavily armed pirates led by Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi) – loses engine power trying to steer through Maersk Alabama's wake.
The next day Muse's skiff, now fitted with two outboard engines, returns with the same four pirates aboard. Despite the best efforts of Phillips and his crew, the pirates secure their ladder to the Maersk Alabama.
As they board, Phillips tells the crew to hide in the engine room and allows himself to be captured. He offers Muse the $30,000 in the ship's safe, but Muse's orders are to ransom the ship and crew in exchange for millions of dollars of insurance money from the shipping company.
While they search the ship, Murphy sees that the youngest pirate Bilal (Barkhad Abdirahman) does not have sandals and tells the crew to line the engine room hallway with broken glass. Chief Engineer Mike Perry (David Warshofsky) cuts power to the ship, plunging the lower decks into darkness.
Bilal cuts his feet when they reach the engine room, and Muse continues to search alone. The crew members ambush Muse, holding him at knifepoint, and arrange to release him and the other pirates into a lifeboat. However, Muse's right-hand man Nour Najee (Faysal Ahmed) refuses to board the lifeboat with Muse unless Phillips goes with them. Once all are on the lifeboat, Najee attacks Phillips, forcing him into the vessel before launching the boat with all five of them on board.
As the lifeboat heads for Somalia, tensions flare between the pirates as they run low on the herb stimulant khat and lose contact with their mother ship. Najee becomes agitated and tries to convince the others to kill Phillips. They are later intercepted by the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Bainbridge. Bainbridge's captain Frank Castellano (Yul Vazquez) is ordered to prevent the pirates from reaching the Somali coast by any means necessary.
Even when additional ships arrive, Muse asserts that he has come too far and will not surrender.
The negotiators are unable to change his mind and a DEVGRU SEAL team parachutes in to intervene, while Phillips makes an unsuccessful attempt to escape from the lifeboat before being quickly recaptured and repeatedly beaten by Najee.
While three SEAL marksmen get into positions, Castellano and the SEALs continue to try to find a peaceful solution, eventually taking the lifeboat under tow. Muse agrees to board Bainbridge, where he is told that his clan elders have arrived to negotiate Phillips's ransom.
In the lifeboat, Phillips prepares a goodbye letter to his wife in case he is killed, while Najee decides to take full control. Najee spots Phillips writing the letter and beats him further. Phillips retaliates by wrestling Najee until Bilal subdues Phillips by striking him in the back with his AK-47, injuring him. Najee convinces Bilal and Elmi that Phillips must be killed.
The pirates tie up and blindfold Phillips, leaving him to say his final goodbyes. As the pirates prepare to shoot Phillips, Bainbridge's crew stops the tow, causing Bilal and Najee to lose balance. This gives the marksmen three clear shots and they simultaneously kill all three pirates. Muse is arrested and taken into custody for piracy. Phillips is rescued from the lifeboat and treated. Although in shock and disoriented, he thanks the rescue team for saving his life.
In the post credits it is revealed Richard Phillips soon returned to sea after his recovery while Abduwali Muse was sentenced to 33 years in jail for orchestrating the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, and the kidnap and attempted murder of Richard Phillips.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "Captain Phillips":
The screenplay by Billy Ray is based on the 2010 book A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea by Richard Phillips with Stephan Talty.
Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca served as producers on the project. It premiered at the 2013 New York Film Festival, and was theatrically released on October 11, 2013.
The film emerged as a box office success grossing over $218 million against a budget of $55 million. In 2014, Captain Phillips received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Abdi.
Plot:
Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) takes command of MV Maersk Alabama, an unarmed container ship from the Port of Salalah in Oman, with orders to sail through the Gulf of Aden to Mombasa, Kenya.
Wary of pirate activity off the coast of the Horn of Africa, he and First Officer Shane Murphy (Michael Chernus) order strict security precautions on the vessel and carry out practice drills.
During a drill, the vessel is chased by Somali pirates in two skiffs, and Phillips calls for help. Knowing that the pirates are listening to radio traffic, he pretends to call a warship, requesting immediate air support.
One skiff turns around in response, and the other – manned by four heavily armed pirates led by Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi) – loses engine power trying to steer through Maersk Alabama's wake.
The next day Muse's skiff, now fitted with two outboard engines, returns with the same four pirates aboard. Despite the best efforts of Phillips and his crew, the pirates secure their ladder to the Maersk Alabama.
As they board, Phillips tells the crew to hide in the engine room and allows himself to be captured. He offers Muse the $30,000 in the ship's safe, but Muse's orders are to ransom the ship and crew in exchange for millions of dollars of insurance money from the shipping company.
While they search the ship, Murphy sees that the youngest pirate Bilal (Barkhad Abdirahman) does not have sandals and tells the crew to line the engine room hallway with broken glass. Chief Engineer Mike Perry (David Warshofsky) cuts power to the ship, plunging the lower decks into darkness.
Bilal cuts his feet when they reach the engine room, and Muse continues to search alone. The crew members ambush Muse, holding him at knifepoint, and arrange to release him and the other pirates into a lifeboat. However, Muse's right-hand man Nour Najee (Faysal Ahmed) refuses to board the lifeboat with Muse unless Phillips goes with them. Once all are on the lifeboat, Najee attacks Phillips, forcing him into the vessel before launching the boat with all five of them on board.
As the lifeboat heads for Somalia, tensions flare between the pirates as they run low on the herb stimulant khat and lose contact with their mother ship. Najee becomes agitated and tries to convince the others to kill Phillips. They are later intercepted by the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Bainbridge. Bainbridge's captain Frank Castellano (Yul Vazquez) is ordered to prevent the pirates from reaching the Somali coast by any means necessary.
Even when additional ships arrive, Muse asserts that he has come too far and will not surrender.
The negotiators are unable to change his mind and a DEVGRU SEAL team parachutes in to intervene, while Phillips makes an unsuccessful attempt to escape from the lifeboat before being quickly recaptured and repeatedly beaten by Najee.
While three SEAL marksmen get into positions, Castellano and the SEALs continue to try to find a peaceful solution, eventually taking the lifeboat under tow. Muse agrees to board Bainbridge, where he is told that his clan elders have arrived to negotiate Phillips's ransom.
In the lifeboat, Phillips prepares a goodbye letter to his wife in case he is killed, while Najee decides to take full control. Najee spots Phillips writing the letter and beats him further. Phillips retaliates by wrestling Najee until Bilal subdues Phillips by striking him in the back with his AK-47, injuring him. Najee convinces Bilal and Elmi that Phillips must be killed.
The pirates tie up and blindfold Phillips, leaving him to say his final goodbyes. As the pirates prepare to shoot Phillips, Bainbridge's crew stops the tow, causing Bilal and Najee to lose balance. This gives the marksmen three clear shots and they simultaneously kill all three pirates. Muse is arrested and taken into custody for piracy. Phillips is rescued from the lifeboat and treated. Although in shock and disoriented, he thanks the rescue team for saving his life.
In the post credits it is revealed Richard Phillips soon returned to sea after his recovery while Abduwali Muse was sentenced to 33 years in jail for orchestrating the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, and the kidnap and attempted murder of Richard Phillips.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "Captain Phillips":
- Cast
- Production
- Release
- Accolades
- Historical accuracy
- See also:
- A Hijacking
- Pirates of the 20th Century
- Survival film, about the film genre, with a list of related films
- List of films featuring the United States Navy SEALs
- List of films featuring drones
- Official website
- Captain Phillips at Metacritic
- Captain Phillips at Box Office Mojo
- Captain Phillips at Rotten Tomatoes
- Captain Phillips on IMDb
Eat Pray Love is a 2010 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Julia Roberts as Elizabeth Gilbert, based on Gilbert's best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love.
Ryan Murphy co-wrote and directed the film, which opened in the United States on August 13, 2010.
Plot:
Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern woman is supposed to dream of having - a husband, a house, a successful career – yet like so many others, she found herself lost, confused, and searching for what she really wanted in life.
Newly divorced and at a crossroads, Gilbert steps out of her comfort zone, risking everything to change her life, embarking on a journey around the world that becomes a quest for self-discovery. In her travels, she discovers the true pleasure of nourishment by eating in Italy, the power of prayer in India, and, finally and unexpectedly, the inner peace and balance of true love in Indonesia.
Box Office Receipts = $204.6 Million.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Eat Pray Love":
Ryan Murphy co-wrote and directed the film, which opened in the United States on August 13, 2010.
Plot:
Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern woman is supposed to dream of having - a husband, a house, a successful career – yet like so many others, she found herself lost, confused, and searching for what she really wanted in life.
Newly divorced and at a crossroads, Gilbert steps out of her comfort zone, risking everything to change her life, embarking on a journey around the world that becomes a quest for self-discovery. In her travels, she discovers the true pleasure of nourishment by eating in Italy, the power of prayer in India, and, finally and unexpectedly, the inner peace and balance of true love in Indonesia.
Box Office Receipts = $204.6 Million.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Eat Pray Love":
- Cast
- Production
- Soundtrack
- Release
- Merchandising
- See also: Filmography of Julia Roberts
- Eat Pray Love on IMDb
- Eat Pray Love at Box Office Mojo
- Eat Pray Love at Rotten Tomatoes
- Eat Pray Love at Metacritic
- "Eat, Pray, Love" – Not exactly going by the book
Gravity is a 2013 British-American science fiction adventure film directed, produced, co-written and co-edited by Alfonso Cuarón. It stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts who are stranded in space after the mid-orbit destruction of their space shuttle, and their subsequent attempt to return to Earth.
Cuarón wrote the screenplay with his son Jonás and attempted to develop the film at Universal Pictures. The rights were sold to Warner Bros. Pictures, where the project eventually found traction. David Heyman, who previously worked with Cuarón on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), produced the film with him. Gravity was produced entirely in the United Kingdom, where British visual effects company Framestore spent more than three years creating most of the film's visual effects, which make up over 80 of its 91 minutes.
Gravity opened the 70th Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2013 and had its North American premiere three days later at the Telluride Film Festival.
Upon its release, Gravity was met with critical acclaim, and has been regarded as one of the best films of the 2010s. Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography, Steven Price's musical score, Cuarón's direction, Bullock's performance, Framestore's visual effects, and its use of 3D were all particularly praised by numerous critics. The film became the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2013 with a worldwide gross of over US$723 million against production budget of only $100 million.
At the 86th Academy Awards, Gravity received ten Academy Award nominations and won seven, including, Best Director (for Cuarón), Best Cinematography (for Lubezki), Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Original Score (for Price). The film was also awarded six BAFTA Awards, including Outstanding British Film and Best Director, the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, seven Critics' Choice Movie Awards and a Bradbury Award.
Plot:
Dr. Ryan Stone, a biomedical engineer from Lake Zurich, Illinois, is aboard the NASA Space Shuttle Explorer for her first space mission, STS-157. Veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski is commanding his final mission.
During a spacewalk to service the Hubble Space Telescope, Mission Control in Houston warns the team about a Russian missile strike on a defunct satellite, which has inadvertently caused a chain reaction forming a cloud of debris in space. Mission Control orders that the mission be aborted and the crew begin re-entry immediately because the debris is speeding towards the Shuttle. Communication with Mission Control is lost shortly thereafter.
High-speed debris from the Russian satellite strikes the Explorer and Hubble, detaching Stone from the shuttle and leaving her tumbling through space. Kowalski, using a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), recovers Stone and they return to the Explorer. They discover that it has suffered catastrophic damage and the rest of the crew are dead. They decide to use the MMU to reach the International Space Station, which is in orbit about 1,450 km (900 mi) away. Kowalski estimates they have 90 minutes before the debris field completes an orbit and threatens them again.
On their way to the International Space Station, the two discuss Stone's home life and her daughter, who died young in an accident. As they approach, they see that its crew has evacuated in one of its two Soyuz TMA capsules. The parachute of the remaining Soyuz TMA-14M has deployed, rendering the capsule useless for returning to Earth. Kowalski suggests using it to travel to the nearby Chinese space station Tiangong, 100 km (60 mi) away, in order to board a Chinese module to return safely to Earth.
Out of air and maneuvering power, the two try to grab onto the ISS as they fly by. Stone's leg gets entangled in the Soyuz's parachute cords and she grabs a strap on Kowalski's suit, but it soon becomes clear that the cords will not support them both. Despite Stone's protests, Kowalski detaches himself from the tether to save her from drifting away with him, and she is pulled back towards the ISS while Kowalski floats away to certain death. He continues to support her until he is out of communications range.
Stone enters the space station via an airlock. She cannot re-establish communication with Kowalski and concludes that she is the sole survivor. Inside, a fire breaks out, forcing her to rush to the Soyuz. As she maneuvers the capsule away from the ISS, the tangled parachute tethers prevent it from separating from the station. She spacewalks to release the cables, succeeding just as the debris field completes its orbit and destroys the station. Stone aligns the Soyuz with Tiangong but discovers that its engine has no fuel.
After a poignant attempt at radio communication with an Eskimo–Aleut-speaking fisherman on Earth, Stone resigns herself to being stranded and shuts down the cabin's oxygen supply to commit suicide. As she begins to lose consciousness, Kowalski enters the capsule. Scolding her for giving up, he tells her to rig the Soyuz's soft landing jets to propel the capsule toward Tiangong. Stone then realizes that Kowalski's reappearance was a hallucination, but has nonetheless given her the strength of will to continue. She restores the flow of oxygen and uses the landing jets to navigate toward Tiangong on momentum.
Unable to maneuver the Soyuz to dock with the station, Stone ejects herself via explosive decompression and uses a fire extinguisher as a makeshift thruster to travel the final metres to Tiangong, which is rapidly deorbiting.
Stone enters the Shenzhou capsule just as Tiangong starts to break up on the upper edge of the atmosphere. Stone radios that she is ready to head back to Earth. After re-entering the atmosphere, Stone hears Mission Control, which is tracking the capsule and sending a rescue. But due to a harsh reentry and the premature jettison of the heat shield, a fire is starting inside the capsule.
After speeding through the atmosphere, the capsule lands in a lake, but dense smoke forces Stone to evacuate immediately after splashdown. She opens the capsule hatch, allowing water to enter and sink it, forcing Stone to shed her spacesuit and swim ashore. She then watches the remains of the Tiangong re-enter the atmosphere and takes her first shaky steps back on land.
Cast:
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the movie "Gravity"
Cuarón wrote the screenplay with his son Jonás and attempted to develop the film at Universal Pictures. The rights were sold to Warner Bros. Pictures, where the project eventually found traction. David Heyman, who previously worked with Cuarón on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), produced the film with him. Gravity was produced entirely in the United Kingdom, where British visual effects company Framestore spent more than three years creating most of the film's visual effects, which make up over 80 of its 91 minutes.
Gravity opened the 70th Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2013 and had its North American premiere three days later at the Telluride Film Festival.
Upon its release, Gravity was met with critical acclaim, and has been regarded as one of the best films of the 2010s. Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography, Steven Price's musical score, Cuarón's direction, Bullock's performance, Framestore's visual effects, and its use of 3D were all particularly praised by numerous critics. The film became the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2013 with a worldwide gross of over US$723 million against production budget of only $100 million.
At the 86th Academy Awards, Gravity received ten Academy Award nominations and won seven, including, Best Director (for Cuarón), Best Cinematography (for Lubezki), Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Original Score (for Price). The film was also awarded six BAFTA Awards, including Outstanding British Film and Best Director, the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, seven Critics' Choice Movie Awards and a Bradbury Award.
Plot:
Dr. Ryan Stone, a biomedical engineer from Lake Zurich, Illinois, is aboard the NASA Space Shuttle Explorer for her first space mission, STS-157. Veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski is commanding his final mission.
During a spacewalk to service the Hubble Space Telescope, Mission Control in Houston warns the team about a Russian missile strike on a defunct satellite, which has inadvertently caused a chain reaction forming a cloud of debris in space. Mission Control orders that the mission be aborted and the crew begin re-entry immediately because the debris is speeding towards the Shuttle. Communication with Mission Control is lost shortly thereafter.
High-speed debris from the Russian satellite strikes the Explorer and Hubble, detaching Stone from the shuttle and leaving her tumbling through space. Kowalski, using a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), recovers Stone and they return to the Explorer. They discover that it has suffered catastrophic damage and the rest of the crew are dead. They decide to use the MMU to reach the International Space Station, which is in orbit about 1,450 km (900 mi) away. Kowalski estimates they have 90 minutes before the debris field completes an orbit and threatens them again.
On their way to the International Space Station, the two discuss Stone's home life and her daughter, who died young in an accident. As they approach, they see that its crew has evacuated in one of its two Soyuz TMA capsules. The parachute of the remaining Soyuz TMA-14M has deployed, rendering the capsule useless for returning to Earth. Kowalski suggests using it to travel to the nearby Chinese space station Tiangong, 100 km (60 mi) away, in order to board a Chinese module to return safely to Earth.
Out of air and maneuvering power, the two try to grab onto the ISS as they fly by. Stone's leg gets entangled in the Soyuz's parachute cords and she grabs a strap on Kowalski's suit, but it soon becomes clear that the cords will not support them both. Despite Stone's protests, Kowalski detaches himself from the tether to save her from drifting away with him, and she is pulled back towards the ISS while Kowalski floats away to certain death. He continues to support her until he is out of communications range.
Stone enters the space station via an airlock. She cannot re-establish communication with Kowalski and concludes that she is the sole survivor. Inside, a fire breaks out, forcing her to rush to the Soyuz. As she maneuvers the capsule away from the ISS, the tangled parachute tethers prevent it from separating from the station. She spacewalks to release the cables, succeeding just as the debris field completes its orbit and destroys the station. Stone aligns the Soyuz with Tiangong but discovers that its engine has no fuel.
After a poignant attempt at radio communication with an Eskimo–Aleut-speaking fisherman on Earth, Stone resigns herself to being stranded and shuts down the cabin's oxygen supply to commit suicide. As she begins to lose consciousness, Kowalski enters the capsule. Scolding her for giving up, he tells her to rig the Soyuz's soft landing jets to propel the capsule toward Tiangong. Stone then realizes that Kowalski's reappearance was a hallucination, but has nonetheless given her the strength of will to continue. She restores the flow of oxygen and uses the landing jets to navigate toward Tiangong on momentum.
Unable to maneuver the Soyuz to dock with the station, Stone ejects herself via explosive decompression and uses a fire extinguisher as a makeshift thruster to travel the final metres to Tiangong, which is rapidly deorbiting.
Stone enters the Shenzhou capsule just as Tiangong starts to break up on the upper edge of the atmosphere. Stone radios that she is ready to head back to Earth. After re-entering the atmosphere, Stone hears Mission Control, which is tracking the capsule and sending a rescue. But due to a harsh reentry and the premature jettison of the heat shield, a fire is starting inside the capsule.
After speeding through the atmosphere, the capsule lands in a lake, but dense smoke forces Stone to evacuate immediately after splashdown. She opens the capsule hatch, allowing water to enter and sink it, forcing Stone to shed her spacesuit and swim ashore. She then watches the remains of the Tiangong re-enter the atmosphere and takes her first shaky steps back on land.
Cast:
- Sandra Bullock as Dr. Ryan Stone, a medical engineer and mission specialist who is on her first space mission. According to Cuarón, Stone is "a character who lives in her own bubble," and in the film "she's trapped in her space suit." Bullock's character was extremely demanding and daunting. For her role, she spent long hours by herself being whipped around a sound stage with nothing but hundreds of cameras for company. She called the experience "lonely" and said there was "frustrating, painful isolation" on set, but in the best way and described her working day on the shoot a "morose headspace".
- George Clooney as Lieutenant Matt Kowalski, the commander of the team. Kowalski is a veteran astronaut planning to retire after the Explorer expedition. He enjoys telling stories about himself and joking with his team, and is determined to protect the lives of his fellow astronauts.
- Ed Harris (voice) as Mission Control in Houston, Texas.
- Orto Ignatiussen (voice) as Aningaaq, a Greenlandic Inuit fisherman who intercepts one of Stone's transmissions. Aningaaq also appears in a self-titled short, written and directed by Gravity co-writer Jonás Cuarón, which depicts the conversation between him and Stone from his perspective.
- Phaldut Sharma (voice) as Shariff Dasari, the flight engineer on board the Explorer.
- Amy Warren (voice) as the captain of Explorer.
- Basher Savage (voice) as the captain of the International Space Station.
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Bridge of Spies is a 2015 historical drama legal thriller film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, written by Matt Charman, Ethan and Joel Coen and stars Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan and Alan Alda.
Set during the Cold War, the film tells the story of lawyer James B. Donovan, who is entrusted with negotiating the release of Francis Gary Powers—a U.S. Air Force pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960—in exchange for Rudolf Abel, a convicted Soviet KGB spy held under the custody of the United States, whom he represented at trial.
The name of the film refers to the Glienicke Bridge, which connects Potsdam with Berlin, where the prisoner exchange took place. The film was an international co-production of the United States and Germany.
Bridge of Spies was shot under the working title of St. James Place. Principal photography began on September 8, 2014, in Brooklyn, New York City, and the production proceeded at Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam. The film was released by Touchstone Pictures on October 16, 2015, in the United States and distributed by 20th Century Fox in other territories.
It was a box office success, grossing $165 million worldwide, and received positive reviews, garnering praise for its direction, screenplay, acting, score, and production merits. The film received six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, and won Best Supporting Actor for Rylance.
Plot:
In 1957 New York City, Rudolf Abel is charged with spying for the Soviet Union. Insurance lawyer James B. Donovan is prevailed upon to take on the unenviable task of defending Abel, so that Abel's trial will be seen as fair. Committed to the principle that the accused deserves a vigorous defense, he mounts the best defense of Abel he can, declining along the way to cooperate in the CIA's attempts to induce him to violate the confidentiality of his communications with his client.
Abel is convicted, but Donovan convinces the judge to spare Abel the death penalty because Abel had been serving his country honorably, and he might prove useful for a future prisoner exchange; Abel is sentenced to 30 years.
Donovan appeals the conviction to the Supreme Court based on the lack of a search warrant for the seizure of Abel’s ciphers and photography equipment, but the conviction is upheld. For his principled stand Donovan and his family are harassed, including shots being fired at their home.
In 1960, Gary Powers, a pilot in the CIA's top secret U-2 spy plane program, is shot down over the USSR. He is captured and sentenced in a show trial to ten years confinement, including three years in prison.
Donovan receives a letter from East Germany, purportedly sent by Abel's wife, thanking him and urging him to get in contact with their lawyer, whose name is Vogel. The CIA think this is a back-channel message hinting that the USSR is willing to swap Powers for Abel. They unofficially ask Donovan to go to Berlin to negotiate the exchange; he arrives just as The Wall is going up.
Crossing in to East Berlin, he meets with a KGB officer in the Soviet Embassy and is then directed to Vogel, who represents the Attorney General of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The Attorney General seeks to swap Abel for an American graduate student named Pryor, who had been arrested in East Germany not long before; in the process the GDR hopes to gain official recognition by the United States.
The CIA wants Donovan to forget about Pryor but he insists both Pryor and Powers should be swapped for Abel. In a message to the Attorney General he bluffs that they will either release Pryor with Powers or there will be no deal. The bluff is successful.
As Abel and Powers are poised at opposite ends of the Glienicke Bridge, there is a tense delay until it is confirmed that Pryor has been released at Checkpoint Charlie. The next day, back in the United States, the government publicly acknowledges Donovan for negotiating the deal that rehabilitates his public image. During the end credits the audience also learns that Donovan helped negotiate the release of fighters captured during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
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Set during the Cold War, the film tells the story of lawyer James B. Donovan, who is entrusted with negotiating the release of Francis Gary Powers—a U.S. Air Force pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960—in exchange for Rudolf Abel, a convicted Soviet KGB spy held under the custody of the United States, whom he represented at trial.
The name of the film refers to the Glienicke Bridge, which connects Potsdam with Berlin, where the prisoner exchange took place. The film was an international co-production of the United States and Germany.
Bridge of Spies was shot under the working title of St. James Place. Principal photography began on September 8, 2014, in Brooklyn, New York City, and the production proceeded at Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam. The film was released by Touchstone Pictures on October 16, 2015, in the United States and distributed by 20th Century Fox in other territories.
It was a box office success, grossing $165 million worldwide, and received positive reviews, garnering praise for its direction, screenplay, acting, score, and production merits. The film received six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, and won Best Supporting Actor for Rylance.
Plot:
In 1957 New York City, Rudolf Abel is charged with spying for the Soviet Union. Insurance lawyer James B. Donovan is prevailed upon to take on the unenviable task of defending Abel, so that Abel's trial will be seen as fair. Committed to the principle that the accused deserves a vigorous defense, he mounts the best defense of Abel he can, declining along the way to cooperate in the CIA's attempts to induce him to violate the confidentiality of his communications with his client.
Abel is convicted, but Donovan convinces the judge to spare Abel the death penalty because Abel had been serving his country honorably, and he might prove useful for a future prisoner exchange; Abel is sentenced to 30 years.
Donovan appeals the conviction to the Supreme Court based on the lack of a search warrant for the seizure of Abel’s ciphers and photography equipment, but the conviction is upheld. For his principled stand Donovan and his family are harassed, including shots being fired at their home.
In 1960, Gary Powers, a pilot in the CIA's top secret U-2 spy plane program, is shot down over the USSR. He is captured and sentenced in a show trial to ten years confinement, including three years in prison.
Donovan receives a letter from East Germany, purportedly sent by Abel's wife, thanking him and urging him to get in contact with their lawyer, whose name is Vogel. The CIA think this is a back-channel message hinting that the USSR is willing to swap Powers for Abel. They unofficially ask Donovan to go to Berlin to negotiate the exchange; he arrives just as The Wall is going up.
Crossing in to East Berlin, he meets with a KGB officer in the Soviet Embassy and is then directed to Vogel, who represents the Attorney General of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The Attorney General seeks to swap Abel for an American graduate student named Pryor, who had been arrested in East Germany not long before; in the process the GDR hopes to gain official recognition by the United States.
The CIA wants Donovan to forget about Pryor but he insists both Pryor and Powers should be swapped for Abel. In a message to the Attorney General he bluffs that they will either release Pryor with Powers or there will be no deal. The bluff is successful.
As Abel and Powers are poised at opposite ends of the Glienicke Bridge, there is a tense delay until it is confirmed that Pryor has been released at Checkpoint Charlie. The next day, back in the United States, the government publicly acknowledges Donovan for negotiating the deal that rehabilitates his public image. During the end credits the audience also learns that Donovan helped negotiate the release of fighters captured during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "Bridge of Spies":
- Cast
- Production
- Release
- Reception
- Soundtrack
- See also:
- Bridge of Spies (book), a historical book of the same name that focuses more on the prisoner exchanges
- Hollow Nickel Case
- Bridge of Spies on IMDb
- Bridge of Spies at Box Office Mojo
- Bridge of Spies at Rotten Tomatoes
- Bridge of Spies at Metacritic
- Bridge of Spies at CounterPunch
Sully (also known as Sully: Miracle on the Hudson) is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Todd Komarnicki, based on the autobiography Highest Duty by Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow.
The film stars Tom Hanks as Sullenberger, and co-starring the following:
The film follows Sullenberger's January 2009 emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, in which all 155 passengers and crew survived with only minor injuries, and the subsequent publicity and investigation.
Sully premiered at the 43rd Annual Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2016, and was released in the United States by Warner Bros. on September 9, 2016, in conventional and IMAX theaters. The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $238 million worldwide, but created controversy with its portrayal of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The American Film Institute selected it as one of its ten Movies of the Year.
Plot:
On January 15, 2009, US Airways pilots Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff Skiles board US Airways Flight 1549 from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Three minutes into the flight, at an approximate altitude of 2,800 feet (approx. 850 m), the Airbus A320 strikes a flock of birds, disabling both engines.
Without engine power and judging themselves unable to reach nearby airports (Teterboro Airport being the closest), Sully ditches the aircraft on the Hudson River. The crew and passengers evacuate without casualty. The press and public hail Sullenburger a hero, but the incident leaves him with symptoms of PTSD, and he has a dream in which the plane crashes into a building.
Sully learns that preliminary data from ACARS suggest that the port engine was still running at idle power. Theoretically, this would have left him with enough power to return to LaGuardia or land at Teterboro. The National Transportation Safety Board claims that several confidential computerized simulations show the plane could have landed safely at either airport without engines. Sully, however, insists that he lost both engines, which left him without sufficient time, speed, or altitude to land safely at any airport.
Sully realizes that the Board believes the accident may have been pilot error, which would end his career. He arranges to have the simulations rerun with live pilots, and the results are relayed to the public hearing. Both simulations result in successful landings, one at each airport.
Sully argues that they are unrealistic because the pilots knew in advance of the situation they would face and of the suggested emergency action, and were able to practice the scenario several times. The board accepts that in real life the pilots would have taken some time to react and run emergency checks before deciding to divert the plane.
The two simulations are rerun and relayed to the hearing, this time allowing a 35-second pause before the plane is diverted. The simulated diversion to LaGuardia ends with the plane landing short of the runway, and to Teterboro with a crash into buildings before the airport.
The board announces that analysis of the port engine, now recovered from the river, confirms Sully's account that it was disabled by the bird strikes. The board concludes that Sullenberger acted correctly in selecting the best of the options available to him, which in the event saved the lives of everyone aboard.
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The film stars Tom Hanks as Sullenberger, and co-starring the following:
- Aaron Eckhart,
- Laura Linney,
- Anna Gunn,
- Autumn Reeser,
- Holt McCallany,
- Jamey Sheridan,
- and Jerry Ferrara
The film follows Sullenberger's January 2009 emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, in which all 155 passengers and crew survived with only minor injuries, and the subsequent publicity and investigation.
Sully premiered at the 43rd Annual Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2016, and was released in the United States by Warner Bros. on September 9, 2016, in conventional and IMAX theaters. The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $238 million worldwide, but created controversy with its portrayal of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The American Film Institute selected it as one of its ten Movies of the Year.
Plot:
On January 15, 2009, US Airways pilots Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff Skiles board US Airways Flight 1549 from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Three minutes into the flight, at an approximate altitude of 2,800 feet (approx. 850 m), the Airbus A320 strikes a flock of birds, disabling both engines.
Without engine power and judging themselves unable to reach nearby airports (Teterboro Airport being the closest), Sully ditches the aircraft on the Hudson River. The crew and passengers evacuate without casualty. The press and public hail Sullenburger a hero, but the incident leaves him with symptoms of PTSD, and he has a dream in which the plane crashes into a building.
Sully learns that preliminary data from ACARS suggest that the port engine was still running at idle power. Theoretically, this would have left him with enough power to return to LaGuardia or land at Teterboro. The National Transportation Safety Board claims that several confidential computerized simulations show the plane could have landed safely at either airport without engines. Sully, however, insists that he lost both engines, which left him without sufficient time, speed, or altitude to land safely at any airport.
Sully realizes that the Board believes the accident may have been pilot error, which would end his career. He arranges to have the simulations rerun with live pilots, and the results are relayed to the public hearing. Both simulations result in successful landings, one at each airport.
Sully argues that they are unrealistic because the pilots knew in advance of the situation they would face and of the suggested emergency action, and were able to practice the scenario several times. The board accepts that in real life the pilots would have taken some time to react and run emergency checks before deciding to divert the plane.
The two simulations are rerun and relayed to the hearing, this time allowing a 35-second pause before the plane is diverted. The simulated diversion to LaGuardia ends with the plane landing short of the runway, and to Teterboro with a crash into buildings before the airport.
The board announces that analysis of the port engine, now recovered from the river, confirms Sully's account that it was disabled by the bird strikes. The board concludes that Sullenberger acted correctly in selecting the best of the options available to him, which in the event saved the lives of everyone aboard.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the 2016 Movie "Sully":
Deepwater Horizon is a 2016 American disaster film based on actual events. It was directed by Peter Berg from a screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Matthew Sand. It stars Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, Dylan O'Brien and Kate Hudson.
It is based on a 2010 article by David Barstow, David Rohde and Stephanie Saul on the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Principal photography began on April 27, 2015 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The film premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and was theatrically released in the United States on September 30, 2016. It received generally positive reviews and grossed over $121 million worldwide. The film was nominated for two Oscars at the 89th Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects, and a BAFTA Award for Best Sound at the 70th British Academy Film Awards.
Plot:
On April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon, an oil drilling rig operated by private contractor Transocean, is set to begin drilling off the southern coast of New Orleans, Louisiana on behalf of BP.
Chief Electronics Technician Michael "Mike" Williams (Mark Wahlberg) and rig supervisor James "Mr. Jimmy" Harrell (Kurt Russell) are surprised to learn that the workers assigned to log the cement intended to check the cement quality behind the casing are being sent home early, without conducting a pressure test, at the insistence of BP managers Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich) and Robert Kaluza (Brad Leland).
While Mike prepares the drilling team, including Caleb Holloway (Dylan O'Brien), Harrell meets with Vidrine and persuades him to conduct a test, which only serves to weaken the already poorly placed cement further. His patience thinning, and without waiting for Harrell to confirm the results, Vidrine orders the well to be flowed.
At first, the operation goes smoothly, but the cement job eventually fails completely, triggering a massive blowout that overpowers and kills Keith Manuel, Shane Roshto, Roy Kemp, Karl Kleppigner, Adam Weise and Gordon Jones.
A chain of equipment malfunctions, coupled with a failed attempt to seal the well, ignites the oil, killing Dewey Revette, Stephen Curtis, Jason Anderson (Ethan Suplee) and Donald Clark. Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez), the rig's navigation officer, tries to alert the Coast Guard, only to be overruled by her superior, Captain Curt Kuchta, on the grounds that the rig is not in any imminent danger.
With oil now spewing into the ocean, a frightened, oil covered pelican flies into the bridge of a nearby vessel, which heads towards the rig just as the workers begin a frantic evacuation. Harrell, still alive, although seriously injured in the explosion, is rescued by Mike and assumes control of the situation, only to discover that the rig could not be saved. Dale Burkeen, a close friend of Mike's, sacrifices himself to keep a burning crane from collapsing onto the surviving crew, while Mike and Caleb are able to rescue Vidrine and Kaluza and get them to safety.
As night falls and the burning oil lights up the area, the Coast Guard becomes aware of the incident and sends a ship to collect the survivors, which are being ferried in the lifeboats to the Damon Bankston.
With all the lifeboats full, Mike locates the emergency life raft, but it becomes separated from the rig before he and Andrea can board, causing the latter to suffer a panic attack. Just as the oil in the well itself ignites and destroys the rig, the two jump into the water and are picked up by rescuers, who then ferry them to the Damon Bankston.
Returned home, the workers reunite with their families in a hotel lobby, during which a relative of one of the dead crew members family angrily confronts Mike for failing to save his son, resulting in Mike having a panic attack himself.
The film ends with a series of clips showing the aftermath of the disaster, including testimony from the real-life Mike Williams and the revelation that not a single employee of either Transocean or BP was prosecuted for their actions. Pictures appear of the 11 men who lost their lives before the credits. The movie postscript reads: "The blowout lasted for 87 days, spilling an estimated 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It was the worst oil disaster in U.S. history."
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "Deepwater Horizon" (2016):
It is based on a 2010 article by David Barstow, David Rohde and Stephanie Saul on the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Principal photography began on April 27, 2015 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The film premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and was theatrically released in the United States on September 30, 2016. It received generally positive reviews and grossed over $121 million worldwide. The film was nominated for two Oscars at the 89th Academy Awards: Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects, and a BAFTA Award for Best Sound at the 70th British Academy Film Awards.
Plot:
On April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon, an oil drilling rig operated by private contractor Transocean, is set to begin drilling off the southern coast of New Orleans, Louisiana on behalf of BP.
Chief Electronics Technician Michael "Mike" Williams (Mark Wahlberg) and rig supervisor James "Mr. Jimmy" Harrell (Kurt Russell) are surprised to learn that the workers assigned to log the cement intended to check the cement quality behind the casing are being sent home early, without conducting a pressure test, at the insistence of BP managers Donald Vidrine (John Malkovich) and Robert Kaluza (Brad Leland).
While Mike prepares the drilling team, including Caleb Holloway (Dylan O'Brien), Harrell meets with Vidrine and persuades him to conduct a test, which only serves to weaken the already poorly placed cement further. His patience thinning, and without waiting for Harrell to confirm the results, Vidrine orders the well to be flowed.
At first, the operation goes smoothly, but the cement job eventually fails completely, triggering a massive blowout that overpowers and kills Keith Manuel, Shane Roshto, Roy Kemp, Karl Kleppigner, Adam Weise and Gordon Jones.
A chain of equipment malfunctions, coupled with a failed attempt to seal the well, ignites the oil, killing Dewey Revette, Stephen Curtis, Jason Anderson (Ethan Suplee) and Donald Clark. Andrea Fleytas (Gina Rodriguez), the rig's navigation officer, tries to alert the Coast Guard, only to be overruled by her superior, Captain Curt Kuchta, on the grounds that the rig is not in any imminent danger.
With oil now spewing into the ocean, a frightened, oil covered pelican flies into the bridge of a nearby vessel, which heads towards the rig just as the workers begin a frantic evacuation. Harrell, still alive, although seriously injured in the explosion, is rescued by Mike and assumes control of the situation, only to discover that the rig could not be saved. Dale Burkeen, a close friend of Mike's, sacrifices himself to keep a burning crane from collapsing onto the surviving crew, while Mike and Caleb are able to rescue Vidrine and Kaluza and get them to safety.
As night falls and the burning oil lights up the area, the Coast Guard becomes aware of the incident and sends a ship to collect the survivors, which are being ferried in the lifeboats to the Damon Bankston.
With all the lifeboats full, Mike locates the emergency life raft, but it becomes separated from the rig before he and Andrea can board, causing the latter to suffer a panic attack. Just as the oil in the well itself ignites and destroys the rig, the two jump into the water and are picked up by rescuers, who then ferry them to the Damon Bankston.
Returned home, the workers reunite with their families in a hotel lobby, during which a relative of one of the dead crew members family angrily confronts Mike for failing to save his son, resulting in Mike having a panic attack himself.
The film ends with a series of clips showing the aftermath of the disaster, including testimony from the real-life Mike Williams and the revelation that not a single employee of either Transocean or BP was prosecuted for their actions. Pictures appear of the 11 men who lost their lives before the credits. The movie postscript reads: "The blowout lasted for 87 days, spilling an estimated 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It was the worst oil disaster in U.S. history."
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about "Deepwater Horizon" (2016):
- Cast
- Production
- Release
- Reception
- See also:
Hidden Figures (2016)
YouTube Video of the Movie Trailer for Hidden Figures
Pictured (L-R): Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson, Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, and Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan
YouTube Video of the Movie Trailer for Hidden Figures
Pictured (L-R): Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson, Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, and Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan
Hidden Figures is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder, based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly about black female mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race.
The film stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who calculated flight trajectories for Project Mercury and other missions. The film also features Octavia Spencer as NASA supervisor Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Monáe as NASA engineer Mary Jackson, with Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Glen Powell, and Mahershala Ali in supporting roles.
Principal photography began in March 2016 in Atlanta and was wrapped up in May 2016. Hidden Figures was released on December 25, 2016, by 20th Century Fox, received positive reviews from critics and grossed $230 million worldwide.
It was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2016 and was nominated for numerous awards, including three Oscar nominations (Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Spencer) and two Golden Globes (Best Supporting Actress for Spencer and Best Original Score). It won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Plot:
In 1961, mathematician Katherine Goble works as a human computer in the segregated division West Area Computers of the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, alongside her colleagues, aspiring engineer Mary Jackson and their unofficial acting-supervisor Dorothy Vaughan.
Following a successful Soviet satellite launch where Yuri Gagarin was successfully launched as the first man in space, pressure to send American astronauts into space increases. Supervisor Vivian Mitchell assigns Katherine to assist Al Harrison's Space Task Group, given her skills in analytic geometry. She becomes the first black woman on the team; and in the building, which has no bathrooms for non-white people.
Katherine's new colleagues are initially dismissive and demeaning, especially head engineer Paul Stafford. Meanwhile, Mitchell informs Dorothy that she will not be promoted as the bureaucracy is not planning to assign a "permanent supervisor for the colored group".
Mary is assigned to the space capsule heat shield team, and immediately identifies a flaw in the experimental space capsule's heat shields. With encouragement from the team leader, a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor, she submits an application for an official NASA engineer position and begins to pursue an engineering degree more assertively.
At a church barbecue, widow Katherine meets National Guard Lt. Col. Jim Johnson, and they are attracted to each other, but she is disappointed when he voices skepticism about women's mathematical abilities. He later apologizes, and begins spending time with Katherine and her three daughters.
When Harrison invites his subordinates to solve a complex mathematical equation, Katherine develops the solution, leaving him impressed. The Mercury 7 astronauts visit Langley and astronaut John Glenn is cordial to the West Area Computers.
Katherine becomes better acquainted with her colleagues. Harrison finds Katherine not at her desk one day, and is enraged when she explains that she must walk a half-mile (800 meters) away to another building to use the colored people's bathroom.
Harrison abolishes bathroom segregation, personally knocking down the "Colored Bathroom" sign. Regardless of Stafford's objections, Harrison allows Katherine to be included in their meetings, in which she creates an elaborate equation to guide the space capsule into a safe re-entry.
Despite this, Katherine is forced to remove her name from all the reports, which are credited solely to Stafford. Meanwhile, Mary goes to court and convinces the judge to grant her permission to attend night classes in an all-white school to obtain her engineering degree.
Dorothy learns of the impending installation of an IBM 7090 electronic computer that will replace her co-workers. She visits the computer room to learn about it and successfully starts the machine. Later, she visits a public library, where the librarian scolds her for visiting the whites-only section, to borrow a book about FORTRAN.
While congratulating Dorothy on her work, Mitchell assures her that she never treated her differently due to the color of her skin; Dorothy is unconvinced. After teaching herself FORTRAN and training her West Area co-workers, she is officially promoted to supervise the Programming Department for the IBM, bringing 30 of her co-workers to do the programming. Mitchell eventually addresses Dorothy as "Mrs. Vaughan," indicating her new-found respect.
As the final arrangements for John Glenn's launch are made, Katherine is informed she is no longer needed at Space Task Group and is being reassigned back to West Area Computers. As a wedding and farewell gift from her colleagues (Katherine is now married to Jim Johnson), Harrison buys her a pearl necklace, the only jewelry allowed under the dress code.
The day of the launch, discrepancies arise in the IBM 7090 calculations for the capsule's landing coordinates, and Astronaut Glenn requests that Katherine be called in to check the calculations. Katherine quickly does so, only to have the door slammed in her face after delivering the results to the control room. However, Harrison gives her a security pass to the control room so they can relay the results to Glenn together. Stafford, showing a change of heart, brings Katherine a cup of coffee when she is brought in to relay the results.
After a successful launch and orbit, the space capsule has a warning light indicating a heat shield problem. Mission control decides to land it after three orbits instead of seven. Katherine understands the situation and concurs that they should leave the retro-rocket attached to heat shield for reentry to which Harrison agrees immediately. Their instructions prove correct and Friendship 7 successfully lands in the ocean.
Following the mission, the mathematicians are laid off and ultimately replaced by electronic computers. Katherine is reassigned to the Analysis and Computation Division, Dorothy continues to supervise the Programming Department, and Mary obtains her engineering degree and gains employment at NASA as an engineer.
An epilogue reveals that Katherine calculated the trajectories for the Apollo 11 and Space Shuttle missions. In 2015 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The following year, NASA dedicated the Langley Research Center's Katherine G. Johnson Computational Building in her honor.
Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about the biographical movie "Hidden Figures":
The film stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who calculated flight trajectories for Project Mercury and other missions. The film also features Octavia Spencer as NASA supervisor Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Monáe as NASA engineer Mary Jackson, with Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Glen Powell, and Mahershala Ali in supporting roles.
Principal photography began in March 2016 in Atlanta and was wrapped up in May 2016. Hidden Figures was released on December 25, 2016, by 20th Century Fox, received positive reviews from critics and grossed $230 million worldwide.
It was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2016 and was nominated for numerous awards, including three Oscar nominations (Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Spencer) and two Golden Globes (Best Supporting Actress for Spencer and Best Original Score). It won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Plot:
In 1961, mathematician Katherine Goble works as a human computer in the segregated division West Area Computers of the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, alongside her colleagues, aspiring engineer Mary Jackson and their unofficial acting-supervisor Dorothy Vaughan.
Following a successful Soviet satellite launch where Yuri Gagarin was successfully launched as the first man in space, pressure to send American astronauts into space increases. Supervisor Vivian Mitchell assigns Katherine to assist Al Harrison's Space Task Group, given her skills in analytic geometry. She becomes the first black woman on the team; and in the building, which has no bathrooms for non-white people.
Katherine's new colleagues are initially dismissive and demeaning, especially head engineer Paul Stafford. Meanwhile, Mitchell informs Dorothy that she will not be promoted as the bureaucracy is not planning to assign a "permanent supervisor for the colored group".
Mary is assigned to the space capsule heat shield team, and immediately identifies a flaw in the experimental space capsule's heat shields. With encouragement from the team leader, a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor, she submits an application for an official NASA engineer position and begins to pursue an engineering degree more assertively.
At a church barbecue, widow Katherine meets National Guard Lt. Col. Jim Johnson, and they are attracted to each other, but she is disappointed when he voices skepticism about women's mathematical abilities. He later apologizes, and begins spending time with Katherine and her three daughters.
When Harrison invites his subordinates to solve a complex mathematical equation, Katherine develops the solution, leaving him impressed. The Mercury 7 astronauts visit Langley and astronaut John Glenn is cordial to the West Area Computers.
Katherine becomes better acquainted with her colleagues. Harrison finds Katherine not at her desk one day, and is enraged when she explains that she must walk a half-mile (800 meters) away to another building to use the colored people's bathroom.
Harrison abolishes bathroom segregation, personally knocking down the "Colored Bathroom" sign. Regardless of Stafford's objections, Harrison allows Katherine to be included in their meetings, in which she creates an elaborate equation to guide the space capsule into a safe re-entry.
Despite this, Katherine is forced to remove her name from all the reports, which are credited solely to Stafford. Meanwhile, Mary goes to court and convinces the judge to grant her permission to attend night classes in an all-white school to obtain her engineering degree.
Dorothy learns of the impending installation of an IBM 7090 electronic computer that will replace her co-workers. She visits the computer room to learn about it and successfully starts the machine. Later, she visits a public library, where the librarian scolds her for visiting the whites-only section, to borrow a book about FORTRAN.
While congratulating Dorothy on her work, Mitchell assures her that she never treated her differently due to the color of her skin; Dorothy is unconvinced. After teaching herself FORTRAN and training her West Area co-workers, she is officially promoted to supervise the Programming Department for the IBM, bringing 30 of her co-workers to do the programming. Mitchell eventually addresses Dorothy as "Mrs. Vaughan," indicating her new-found respect.
As the final arrangements for John Glenn's launch are made, Katherine is informed she is no longer needed at Space Task Group and is being reassigned back to West Area Computers. As a wedding and farewell gift from her colleagues (Katherine is now married to Jim Johnson), Harrison buys her a pearl necklace, the only jewelry allowed under the dress code.
The day of the launch, discrepancies arise in the IBM 7090 calculations for the capsule's landing coordinates, and Astronaut Glenn requests that Katherine be called in to check the calculations. Katherine quickly does so, only to have the door slammed in her face after delivering the results to the control room. However, Harrison gives her a security pass to the control room so they can relay the results to Glenn together. Stafford, showing a change of heart, brings Katherine a cup of coffee when she is brought in to relay the results.
After a successful launch and orbit, the space capsule has a warning light indicating a heat shield problem. Mission control decides to land it after three orbits instead of seven. Katherine understands the situation and concurs that they should leave the retro-rocket attached to heat shield for reentry to which Harrison agrees immediately. Their instructions prove correct and Friendship 7 successfully lands in the ocean.
Following the mission, the mathematicians are laid off and ultimately replaced by electronic computers. Katherine is reassigned to the Analysis and Computation Division, Dorothy continues to supervise the Programming Department, and Mary obtains her engineering degree and gains employment at NASA as an engineer.
An epilogue reveals that Katherine calculated the trajectories for the Apollo 11 and Space Shuttle missions. In 2015 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The following year, NASA dedicated the Langley Research Center's Katherine G. Johnson Computational Building in her honor.
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