Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2136

IRON FIST Episode Three Recap: Knock Out or Tap Out

Warning: This recap contains spoilers for the Iron Fist episode, “Rolling Thunder Cannon Punch.” If you haven’t watched yet, in the words of Colleen Wing: “That would be a mistake.”

The setting: Chikara Dojo. The time: super late at night. In fact, it’s so late that Colleen Wing is sleeping peacefully in her bed right up until the moment she hears someone trying to break in. The culprits are that same group of hired men from Rand Industries led by lead body-man Shannon, and they need to be taught a lesson about what happens when you catch a Colleen Wing sleeping. She deftly wields a practice sword against each of them in turn before Shannon informs her they’re not here for her. They’re looking for Danny – who, if you’ll recall, punched his way out of that psychiatric facility at the end of the last episode.

Even as Colleen holds Shannon at practice swordpoint and backs him out of her home, a drop of blood falls from the ceiling and onto his shoulder. Its source? None other than Danny Rand, of course, hiding in the rafters. Fortunately, Shannon doesn’t pick up on anything wonky and once the coast is clear, Danny drops down to the floor. He promises Colleen there won’t be any more trouble, but she points out that even mercy has its limits and that he’ll need to be out before she wakes up.

It’s safe to say Ward isn’t really looking forward to having a talk with Harold about what happened with Danny, since what lead up to that revolves around Ward directly disobeying his father’s orders. He finds dear old dad sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber and attempts to assure Harold that Danny will be found in short order, especially since he’s not a very “sophisticated” person. Whatever that means. Harold brings up the subject of an ongoing deal Rand Industries is conducting – trying to buy a pier from a man named Patel – and suggests that Joy be brought on as a closer, since Ward is having some difficulty in negotiations. Ward insists he can handle it on his own, but Harold’s not convinced – and delivers a hard jab to Ward’s side that leaves him stunned in more ways than one. “If you just do things my way, it’ll all work out for you,” Harold says.

Back at the dojo, Colleen is snapped out of her morning meditation by some blaring hip-hop music – apparently, this is Danny’s jam for practicing his morning tai chi. Colleen asks why he hasn’t left yet and Danny says he’s worried for her safety; even though Colleen handled herself very capably with her middle-of-the-night attackers, one of them still managed to land a blow. As far as Danny’s concerned, however, he never should’ve gotten close enough to begin with. Their conversation eventually leads to an impromptu sparring session, with Danny touting the benefits of internal strength over external force and concluding with the demonstration of a move called the Leopard Punch. All you really need to know here is that their fighting styles are worlds apart – oh, and they also have a little bit of tension, if you know what I mean. Danny promises he’ll make up for the break-in and the dojo’s locked door by paying Colleen’s rent for the next six months if she lets him crash for a week. Colleen agrees, but on three conditions: he sleeps in a designated corner, he doesn’t go anywhere near her martial arts students, and he uses the bathroom at Starbucks. To Danny, this seems like a fair deal.

Danny continues the theme of making amends with those he’s inadvertently wronged. His next stop? Joy’s apartment. He waits for her on her front step this time, surrounded by flowers and citrus fruit, and the two of them swap stories. Joy shares how she struggled with her grief after Harold’s death, and Danny confesses he’d had his own dream about her father at the hospital. (Of course we, the audience, know that it wasn’t actually a dream, but Joy does seem a little rattled by Danny’s admission.) Once inside, she presents him with an offer – $100 million for his shares of Rand Industries, but there’s a caveat: he has to change his name. Danny bristles at the suggestion, but Joy points out that the world already believes Danny Rand is long dead. For Danny, however, the deal is insulting. “It’s not about money,” he tells her. “I thought you understood.”

Eventually, he makes his way to the Rand graves, studying his own name alongside the names of his parents. There are fresh flowers atop each gravestone, which means someone has to be paying for them to be there. A quick search leads him to a former intern from Rand’s legal department who is now one of the most prominent lawyers in this universe: Jeri Hogarth. (We last saw her at the end of Daredevil‘s second season, offering Foggy Nelson a job at her firm.) She’s not too keen about being ambushed on the street by a “homeless hipster,” but after Danny lists off several factoids that only he would remember Hogarth puts down the pepper spray and they talk. She’s been handling the Rand estate since the family was declared dead and tells Danny she can help him get his business back – more than that, she’ll get him the money he’s worth. Once again, Danny protests that money isn’t the issue but as far as Hogarth is concerned, money is the only language the Meachums understand.

Remember that creepy message that was left on Harold’s window last episode? It was from none other than the Hand, who show up in person to make sure their message has been heard. Up until now, Harold Meachum has always seemed like a man in control but he’s literally brought to his knees in fear by a message from Madame Gao. It’s unclear why the Hand has such a hold over Harold, but what is clear is that the real forces at work are darker and more powerful than we originally thought.

We all know how much Hogarth hates to lose, and she’s realizing Danny’s case against the Meachums may be harder to prove than they both originally thought. All records of Danny Rand’s former existence – right down to his library card – have been erased. Danny remembers he has an old X-ray on file from when he broke his arm skateboarding, but one of Ward’s hired men has already beaten him to the punch – and in the scuffle, the X-rays go up in flames. Danny puts two and two together and angrily confronts Ward and Joy at lunch, making one last attempt at reconciliation. “I’m not your sister; he’s not your brother,” Joy says, finally setting Danny off. “You can’t deny me what’s mine, what my father meant for me to have.” And with that out in the air between all of them, Danny storms out.

When Hogarth and Danny finally face off against the Meachums and their lawyers, all seems hopeless until Hogarth presents a piece of undeniable evidence: a homemade clay pot made by Danny for Joy on her birthday. On the bottom is young Danny’s thumbprint, preserved after all these years. Ward questions how Hogarth was able to acquire it, but the answer isn’t important: it’s enough to establish identity and it will most definitely hold up in court.

While Danny and Hogarth are heading out, something about Ward piques Danny’s interest; he eavesdrops on a call Ward makes to an unknown person and then tails him to a fancy office building. Security is too tight on the upper floors so Danny proceeds to scale the building from the outside until he can jimmy open a window on the penthouse level. That’s when someone steps out from the shadows and pushes him off the ledge! Cut to black.

EXTRA COMMENTARY

Colleen confronts one of her students about participating in illegal cage match fights for money; in a later scene, she shows up at the underground event and ends up competing under the name “Daughter of the Dragon” (where, coincidentally, she practices the Leopard Punch Danny taught her). Now we know how she’s going to wind up in this scene from an earlier trailer.
Danny Rand’s nickname for Jeri Hogarth used to be “J-Money.” YES.
The flashbacks continue: in a brief scene, we see a young Danny with a shaved head and wearing a robe, taking blows from monks wielding short staffs. Perhaps a training exercise designed to teach him how to handle pain?
Joy continues to wrestle with whether or not she’s on Danny’s side; she clearly gave Hogarth & co. the evidence they need to win Danny’s case, but treats Danny very differently when Ward is around. Between that and her manipulation of the Patel pier deal, I’m thinking she’s one to keep an eye on.

Let’s talk episode three! What did you like? What did you not like? Chat away in the comments or feel free to hit me up on Twitter with your thoughts.

Keep the Fist Train rolling by reading episode 4’s recap right here!

Images: Netflix.

IRON FIST Episode Two Recap: A Fistful of M&Ms

Warning: This recap contains spoilers for the Iron Fist episode, “Shadow Hawk Takes Flight.” If you haven’t watched yet, in the words of Colleen Wing: “That would be a mistake.”

When we last left our wayward Iron Fist, he’d found himself on the receiving end of some very rude drugging courtesy of Joy Meachum – and woken up in what appeared to be a hospital of some kind. Turns out it’s Birch Psychiatric Hospital, a fact Danny learns from a doctor sitting at his bedside… shortly before the doctor, who really isn’t a doctor at all but another patient named Simon, jabs a fork into Danny’s neck to try and offer him an easy way out. Some orderlies show up to haul Simon away just in time, but this isn’t the first rough encounter Danny’s going to be involved in during his time at Birch.

That time, as we eventually discover, is 72 hours; as the real doctor, Dr. Edmonds, informs Danny, it was either a psychiatric facility or prison time after the Meachums handed him over to the law. Normally, Danny wouldn’t even break a sweat facilitating an escape, but the drugs the doctors are forcing him to take every eight hours have numbed him to the point where he’s unable to focus his chi – which is what enables him to call upon the power of the Iron Fist.

Back at Rand Industries, Joy’s having mixed emotions about drugging Danny in the first place; in spite of Ward’s attempts to convince her they did the right thing in sending him to a facility where he’ll get help, she still has her doubts. Those doubts begin to weigh on her even more when she receives a call from Dr. Edmonds; she doesn’t realize it at the time, but Edmonds wants her to corroborate a memory from a story Danny had told in one of their sessions. Between Danny’s version and Joy’s, enough of the details overlap that Edmonds is firmly convinced: Danny isn’t lying about his identity.

However, there are other parts of Danny’s story that seem too unbelievable to be real; ever since “the Incident” (a.k.a. the Battle of New York in The Avengers), there are all sorts of people popping out of the woodwork and claiming to have superpowers. The more Danny shares about his time on K’un L’un, the crazier he appears – and without the ability to back it up, one can’t blame Edmonds for being skeptical. During a later session, he asks Danny to show him the power of the Iron Fist in action, but thanks to the cocktail of drugs coursing through his bloodstream, Danny can’t tap in to what he needs to make that happen – and Edmonds won’t let Danny leave if he thinks he’s less than sane.

All the while, someone has been watching over Danny: Harold Meachum has tapped into the video feed at Birch, studying Danny on a series of monitors from his secret penthouse location. Harold decides that Dr. Edmonds isn’t asking Danny the right questions and he tells his assistant Kyle to pull the car around: he’s going to Birch himself. He wakes up Danny in the middle of the night, giving him an injection to keep him just on the side of lucid, and proceeds to interrogate him. It’s unclear whether Danny believes he’s in a dream of some kind (since he believes Harold to be dead) or if the drugs contain a truth serum, but either way Danny tells Harold everything: the location of the monastery in K’un L’un, his position as the latest in a long line of Immortal Iron Fists, and his role as the sworn enemy of the Hand (which is a name you should recognize from a show called Daredevil). It is Danny’s duty to destroy the Hand, the reason why he has returned to this dimension after a 15-year absence. When Harold returns to his penthouse, there’s a cryptic message written on a window that says WHERE DID YOU GO, along with a handprint. Turns out it was written from the outside, and the penthouse is on the top floor of the building. Creeeeeeepy.

Danny may have his destiny ahead of him, but Ward appears to be on a mission of his own: getting rid of Danny in whatever way he can. If he can’t finish Danny off with hired thugs, the next obvious step is fabricating evidence that will put Danny behind bars permanently. He seeks out Colleen at her dojo, presenting her with what he hopes will be an irresistible offer: a check for $50,000 if Colleen will sign something attesting to the fact that Danny had threatened her – or, at the very least, made her feel uncomfortable. Colleen isn’t going to be easily bought – by Ward, or by his attempts to convince her that he’s doing this to keep everyone safe.

At Rand, Joy goes on a trip down memory lane looking through old childhood photos. One of them in particular sparks an idea, a test she can issue to find out if Danny really is who he says he is – and it involves M&Ms. As children, they would eat the candy together, every single color: except the brown ones. Joy messengers a bag to the hospital, and when she gets it back, hand-delivered by Colleen Wing (who also returns the unsigned papers and bribery check), it’s missing all the brown M&Ms. As far as Joy is concerned, only the real Danny Rand would know that – but according to Ward, “a bunch of M&Ms doesn’t prove anything.” Joy insists they need to get Danny out of Birch, but Ward stands his ground, leading Joy to wonder aloud, “What are you so afraid of?”

Harold’s got his intern Kyle looking up everything he can on the Iron Fist – which amounts to a beer line and a clothing line, but nothing helpful. All that considered, he remains convinced that Danny could still be valuable to him, especially given his relationship to the Hand, and tells Ward to have him moved to a more secure facility. Ward goes an entirely different route, however, one that involves Danny being beaten to death by a group of Birch’s more violent patients. Even as Danny staggers under the force of several blows, he begins to smile as he realizes: the drugs are wearing off. He channels the power of the Iron Fist to rip himself free of his straitjacket’s bindings and quickly takes down the other patients as well as the orderly in the hallway outside. With a running start, Danny punches his way through a metal door and escapes out into the night.

EXTRA COMMENTARY

In terms of flashbacks, we haven’t moved much beyond the first episode; part of Danny’s story seems to be about constantly reliving the moment of the plane crash and his parents’ resulting deaths. Hopefully future eps will delve further into what happened after the warrior monks from the Order of the Crane Mother discovered Danny on that snowy mountainside. We do finally get the names of those monks, though: Chodak and Tashi.
One of Colleen Wing’s methods for training her students is to take them out into the field – namely, the streets of New York – and give them a beatdown. I couldn’t help but chuckle when she added insult to injury by verbally trashing their performance: “You move about as fast as a pig… swimming in gravy.”
Remember the birds from the last episode? Apparently they represent Danny’s chi. The more you know.
Ward’s caller ID name for Harold on his phone is literally “Frank N. Stein.”
We finally get to see our first glimpse of the Iron Fist! The shot of Danny’s hand glowing from inside the straitjacket was a pretty cool effect.

Things are starting to pick up in this episode! What are your thoughts on the show so far? Sound off in the comments or feel free to reach out to me on Twitter to discuss.

Keep on reading! Click here for our recap of episode 3!

Images: Netflix.

IRON FIST Premiere Recap: So Fresh and So Clean

Warning: This recap contains spoilers for the Iron Fist episode, “Snow Gives Way.” If you haven’t watched yet, in the words of Colleen Wing: “That would be a mistake.”

Well, this is it, folks. At last, we’ve made it to the story of the final Defender, the remaining superhero who will team up alongside Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage when their worlds inevitably collide in the upcoming Defenders crossover series. His name is Danny Rand, and after a 15-year period during which he was presumed (and declared) dead, he’s finally made it back to his original stomping grounds of New York City.

We’re first introduced to Danny as he walks down the streets of Manhattan, an early-oughts Outkast song blaring through the earbuds of his old-school iPod. A man selling peanuts doesn’t believe Danny when he points to a tall skyscraper—Rand Industries headquarters—and claims it’s his building. Based on what Danny’s wearing alone, he’s a far cry from the rich kid he used to be. The former golden child of Wendell Rand is met with equal confusion from the receptionist at the front desk, and when security tries to escort him out of the building Danny takes them out with smooth efficiency, batons and all.

By the time Danny makes it up to the executive suites, his time is already limited, but there’s just one person he’s hoping to see: his father’s long-time business partner, Harold Meachum. Harold’s not around anymore; his children, Ward and Joy, have taken over the business, and they inform Danny that Harold died of cancer twelve years ago. “All our parents are gone now,” Danny sadly muses, but neither of the Meachum children are interested in a reunion. Ward’s already calling security. After Danny’s escorted away by more guards (with guns), Joy starts to consider the possibility that he could be telling the truth.

Once he’s kicked out of the Rand building, Danny heads to the one other stronghold of his youth: his family’s former brownstone. No one’s home, but an open window on the second floor provides an easy way in. A few conveniently-placed photographs reveal that Joy owns the brownstone now – something Danny decides to use to his advantage. If Ward isn’t willing to talk to him, maybe Joy will at least hear him out.

When he approaches her later outside the apartment, Joy’s already got her security on speed dial but she hesitates when Danny brings up a childhood memory of the two of them playing for the same soccer team. For a second, Danny’s getting through—until he lets it slip that he may have engaged in a little B&E-ing earlier. While he’s trying to literally back his way out of the conversation, he steps out into the street and in front of a taxi, but NYC cabs are no match for the reflexes of the Immortal Iron Fist. Danny flips over the cab with almost no difficulty and then makes a quick exit.

While practicing tai chi in the park, Danny strikes up a conversation with a woman who understandably mistakes him for a homeless person. Her name is Colleen Wing, and if you’re wondering if you’ve heard that name before I have three words for you: Luke Cage finale. She’s putting up more fliers for her dojo, and Danny asks her if she’s got any job openings. “I’ve already got someone who cleans up,” she replies, walking away before he can get a word in.

Danny’s next great plan to try and connect with the Meachum family is to hijack Ward’s car from valet service—with Ward in it. (Never mind the fact that Danny doesn’t actually have a driver’s license, and, as he reveals to Ward, the last time he drove a car it was sitting on his dad’s lap.) Ward pulls out a gun from the glove compartment and points it at Danny, but Danny disarms him easily and tosses the gun away. He’s not interested in getting any money from the Meachums. He just wants answers about what happened to his parents and the company that bears his name. What Ward wants is proof that Danny is who he says he is, even though DNA tests and fingerprinting are an impossibility. Danny leaves, but not before crashing Ward’s car at the top level of the Rand Industries parking garage and running away on foot.

Colleen’s wrapping up a class at her dojo when Danny shows up. The two make small talk about various martial arts techniques, and Colleen asks Danny where he learned his stuff. “K’un L’un,” he answers, which marks the first of what will likely be many more references to a very significant location in Iron Fist mythology. Before Colleen kicks him out, she gives him a pair of shoes—probably to prevent him from picking up tetanus from walking around barefoot on the streets of New York.

Once Danny is officially shoe-clad, however, he’s confronted by Shannon, chief security guard at Rand Industries, as well as other two others brandishing guns. Apparently Ward is looking to get rid of Danny once and for all. Danny leads the three thugs on a chase through a parade in Chinatown, quietly dispatching them amongst a celebration involving fireworks and loud music. If Ward wants to off Danny, he’s going to have to try a lot harder.

Meanwhile, Ward is summoned to an office building in the dead of night – by none other than his own father, Harold Meachum. Harold (who appears to be very much alive) has been hiding out in a penthouse, quietly manipulating events from behind the scenes. When it comes to Danny Rand, he informs Ward he’ll be calling the shots on how to move forward.

Danny seeks Joy out for another attempt at convincing her of the truth – by waiting for her in her office. (Someone’s got to teach this guy about boundaries.) At first, it seems like Joy’s finally willing to give him a chance – but then Danny realizes he’s been drugged via the tea she’s served him. When Danny wakes up he’s strapped to a hospital bed, but a nurse quickly gives him an injection to put him under again.

EXTRA COMMENTARY

This is the first time we see Danny begin to experience flashbacks to the plane accident that killed both of his parents and left him stranded in the Himalayas 15 years ago. It looks like the show is going to spend some story jumping back and forth between Danny’s present and his past, if the brief shot of the two monks who discover him is any indication.
Based on another, even earlier flashback that highlights the dynamic between young Danny and the Meachum siblings, Ward has apparently always been a dick. Props for character consistency.
There are a lot of cuts to birds, which I’m guessing is a reference to Danny’s attempts to focus his chi?
Harold’s treatment of his intern Kyle makes Miranda Priestly look like a saint.
This episode is without a doubt the definition of a slow burn, so it remains to be seen how quickly the plot will start ramping up – both by way of action and narrative. (In other words: we haven’t seen Danny’s fist glow… yet.)

That’s it for the Iron Fist premiere! What are your first impressions of the show and its characters? Feel free to discuss in the comments or come and find me on Twitter.

Do some binge-reading! Episode 2’s recap is right here!

Images: Netflix.

BATMAN Reanimated – Cats Fly in ‘You Scratch My Back’

One of the best things about The New Batman Adventures was the unfolding mystery drama about why Dick Grayson stopped being Robin. It’s fairly obvious if you think about it, really, but the cartoon did a great job of making us wait for the answer. Along the way, though, they gave us episodes that showed us that the relationship between Batman and now-Nightwing was very fraught…perfect for certain manipulative burglars to exploit, say. The first of these episodes is “You Scratch My Back,” a real game of Cat and Mouse (with wings).

Yes, I’m speaking of course about Catwoman, Batman: The Animated Series‘ go-to anti-heroine/anti-villainess and pseudo-love interest of Batman. What that show did so well was to always pair Catwoman with another, usually less exciting villain, so that he/she could be the real threat and Catwoman could jump across lines of criminal and crime-fighter, with Batman almost always saying “Thanks, but I still gotta take you to jail.” That’s changed slightly for this episode; Catwoman is still up against another, sort-of generic baddie, but this time she’s much more conniving, far more criminal than crime fighter.

The episode starts with Nightwing staking out shipping yard and is joined by Batman and Batgirl, whose assistance he’s not really looking for. He tells them he’s on the trail of South American gunrunners. As the truck drives up, Nightwing springs into action, taking out the thugs, but getting some unwanted assistance from Batgirl. Batman, however, lifts not a finger, but Catwoman, coming out of nowhere, does. Batgirl later asks Nightwing why he didn’t try to catch Catwoman and he says the felonious feline is turning a new leaf. Batgirl is clearly worried about her friend, but he doesn’t want to hear it. Later, as Nightwing tracks the crew of smugglers–led by Enrique El Gancho (aka Ricky the Hook)–he’s joined by Catwoman who says she wants to take down these criminals and would like Nightwing’s help. She can’t go to Batman, obviously, because he’d never believe her.

Batman and Batgirl, however, follow Nightwing and Catwoman, seemingly not trusting their former friend to make the right choices, but Nightwing also recognizes it and attempts to lose them. Ultimately, it seems like not only does Catwoman want to be partners with the newly solo former Robin, but she might also have an attraction to him, which he’s all for. But not everything is as it seems, and several double crosses ensue before the episode’s end. Ultimately, allegiances aren’t what we thought they were.

It struck me watching this episode again that few and far between were the episodes of TAS that actually dealt with Batman and his relationships with…anybody, really. Most of the episodes were very standalone, on purpose, so they could be shown out of order in reruns and it wouldn’t be a big deal. With this show, though, there’s already been a much greater focus on interpersonal relationships, and in “You Scratch My Back,” we have tension between Batman and Nightwing, Batgirl and Nightwing, Nightwing and Catwoman, and Batman and Catwoman. Ricky the Hook is incredibly forgettable but he doesn’t need to be all that important, because he and the smugglers are just a MacGuffin to get all of our main characters talking and interacting.

Now comes the time in the review when I talk about the new designs of all the characters. Let’s start with Nightwing, whom the animators had an easier time with because he had an all new costume to play with. The black onesie with the blue bird logo is the classic Nightwing look, and has remained so pretty consistently, save some red on occasion. The real crazy thing is his hair…why they decided to give him emo mullet in this cartoon is anyone’s guess, but I’m going to blame it on 1997.

Catwoman’s new look…jeepers creepers. The TAS version of the costume felt fairly standard cat-burglary, with a little nod to Michelle Pfeiffer’s cowl in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns. That’s also why the traditionally brunette Selina Kyle was a blonde in the cartoon. For New Batman, she’s a brunette with short hair, just like her comic counterpart. So I like that. What I don’t like is how much they took a hard left turn on her costume toward the Pfeiffer suit, with it now being completely black and angular. And why they decided to give her a white-gray-blue pallor when she’s in the costume is totally beyond me. She’s not a zombie. Or maybe she is; I don’t know her afterlife.

“You Scratch My Back,” succeeds in being one of the best examples of the family drama at work in The New Batman Adventures and a quite effective chamber piece for four of the show’s most prominent characters. Thank heck Robin wasn’t in this episode; we’ve had far too much of tiny Tim Drake already, nice to have a breather. We’ll get more of why Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne had their falling out as the series progresses, but it’s interesting to leave them in this episode with begrudging respect. And, Catwoman gets to be a bad guy, and that’s pretty great, I think.

Next week, we get the return of one of my favorite villains from TAS: Arnold Wesker, aka The Ventriloquist and his mob boss puppet Scarface. It’s an episode fittingly called “Double Talk.”

Let me know in the comments what YOU think of this Catwoman redesign, and about shirtless Nightwing, obvs.

Images: WB Animation

Kyle Anderson is the associate editor for Nerdist. He’s written the animation retrospectives Batman: Reanimated, X-Men: Reanimated, Cowboy Rebop, and Samurai reJacked. Follow him on Twitter!

Spiders Eat Twice as Many Animals a Year as We Do

Every year, humans eat around 400 million tonnes of animal protein — roughly the weight of every living human (weird). Our stomachs are pretty big, but compared to the humble spider, that’s basically nothing. Recently, a team of Swiss and Swedish scientists calculated that globally, spiders eat up to 800 million tonnes of prey annually — primarily juicy insects but also frogs, lizards, fish and small mammals — twice as much as we eat.

Spiders can out-eat us, sure, but what about the biggest mouths on the planet, the whales? Yup. Whales eat somewhere between 280 million to 500 million tonnes of prey annually, so spiders consume 30 to 60 percent more than the largest creatures to ever live.

The arachnids’ incredible appetite is a good thing, though, because what we tell ourselves when we see a spider across the room but are too lazy to get up and do anything about it is true: They help keep the insect population in check.

“Our calculations let us quantify for the first time on a global scale that spiders are major natural enemies of insects,” Martin Nyffeler, from the University of Basel in Switzerland, told New Scientist. “In concert with other insectivorous animals such as ants and birds, they help to reduce the population densities of insects significantly. Spiders thus make an essential contribution to maintaining the ecological balance of nature.”

Ninety percent of a spider’s prey is made up of insects, meaning that annually, they devour up to 720 million tonnes of of them. Can you imagine a world with 720 million tonnes’ more insects each year? Thank you, spiders.

Featured image: Roman Vanur

Edgar Wright, Jon Hamm, and the BABY DRIVER Cast Reveal Their MARCH BADNESS Ultimate Villain Picks

The world of writer-director Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver is filled with bad people doing bad things, who just so happen to be awfully likable. That’s because both Wright and his stellar ensemble cast—including Ansel Elgort, Jon Hamm, and Eiza Gonzalez—understand what it takes to make a good villain. That is awfully convenient for us because all month long at Nerdist, we’re running our March Badness competition, a March Madness-style contest in which we pit the greatest villains in all of pop culture against one another to determine who is the baddest of them all. And unlike other pretenders to the throne out there, this is one and only March Badness that you need in your life. While at Nerdist’s Backyard Bash at SXSW, Edgar Wright, Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez, and Ansel Elgort came by to talk about the making of their excellent new movie, reveal their ideal heist music, and perhaps most importantly, tell us their picks for March Badness. Their answers just may surprise you. Or at the very least they’ll give you something to argue about with your friends this weekend.

If you want to get involved in March Badness and influence the evil-lution of this year’s competition, simply head on over to our Twitter page to vote in our daily polls so you can get involved in the supervillainous showdown.

Who do you think will win March Badness? My money is on Darth Vader. Let us know your picks in the comments below.

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).

What Does Phasma’s New Weapon Say About Her THE LAST JEDI Role?

Prior to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, many fans assumed that Gwendoline Christie‘s Captain Phasma was going to be the new Boba Fett. And they were right, just not in the way that anyone wanted. Phasma’s armor was badass, but much like Fett himself, she was unceremoniously disposed of…and this time, it didn’t even happen onscreen! However, Phasma clearly survived Starkiller Base’s garbage chute, and the early signs point to her having a much bigger role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Today’s Nerdist News is intercepting orders from the First Order that may offer some clues about Phasma’s new role.

There are potentially minor spoilers ahead for The Last Jedi! And we mean minor, but we don’t want to hear any complaints. You’ve been warned!

Join host and Zam Wesell’s secret bounty hunter protégé, Jessica Chobot, as she examines a recent report from Making Star Wars. According to that usually reliable rumor site, Phasma will be wielding a new spear that makes her look “killer.” Now, we’re never going to knock the power of spears in the Star Wars universe. Ask the Empire how well they did against the Ewoks’ spears on Endor. But we’re thinking that this spear may indicate that Phasma isn’t a captain anymore. Perhaps she’s been promoted to directly serve under Supreme Leader Snoke, or maybe she’s going to personally pursue Finn and the other Resistance members throughout the film. Remember, only Finn and Chewie know that Phasma gave up the codes for Starkiller Base’s shields. So she may have a very personal vendetta against our heroes.

Given the rumors that The Last Jedi will have some narrative similarities to The Empire Strikes Back, those Boba Fett and Phasma comparisons may have more to them than we initially guessed. Here’s hoping she meets a better fate in the third movie!

What do you think about the latest rumors for Captain Phasma? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

Capcom is Re-releasing All of the Classic NES DISNEY AFTERNOON Games

In the early ’90s, the Disney Afternoon gave us a full two-hour-+ block of shows featuring beloved characters, including the giant among them, DuckTales. And before Nintendo switched to the SNES, Capcom adapted four of the Disney Afternoon shows into games for the NES. For the better part of two decades, those games have been officially locked away. But starting next month, all six of the Disney Afternoon games will be back in play!

Capcom has announced The Disney Afternoon Collection, which will include Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, DuckTales, DuckTales 2, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers 2. Note that titles will be released in all of their 8-bit glory, so all of the classic quirks and gameplay should be intact. Capcom is also adding a few new features to these titles. For example, Boss Rush and Time Attack modes, as well as a Rewind feature that may help players make some of those tricky jumping maneuvers.

All six of these titles were released when Capcom was creating some of the best platformers in the business, which means that these are some really fun games. By itself, DuckTales is still considered to be a classic, and it was given a modern remake just a few years ago. Now we’ll get a chance to hear the “Moon Theme” on our awesome sound system!

The Disney Afternoon Collection will be released on April 18 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

Which of the classic Disney Afternoon games were your favorites? Make the leap down to the comment section and share your thoughts below!

Image: Capcom

We TOTALLY think Darkwing Duck is in the DuckTales universe

Schlock & Awe: WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH

A little while back here in Schlock & Awe, I wrote up the movie One Million Years B.C., a movie about the anachronistic, not at all real time in pre-history when hirsute men and bikini models ran around alongside dinosaurs. Ultimately, I came down on the side of that movie having enough going for it to make it a good movie. Well, Hammer knew a hit when they had one, so in 1970, they made another humans-and-stop-motion-dinosaur movie, but this one’s just delightfully hilarious.

It’s When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, now out on a gorgeous looking Blu-ray from Warner Archive.

Hammer was the kind of mid-level studio that would try to strike while the iron was hot. After their initial ’50s Frankenstein and Dracula movies, they made a tons of sequels of both. They also made a string of mummy movies, Psycho-esque thrillers, general vampire movies, and sci-fi chillers. So when they had a bona fide hit on their hands with One Million Years B.C. — their biggest hit to date, and the biggest hit they’d ever have — the British studio wanted to keep the momentum going. All-told, they made four movies that were lovingly called the “Cave Girl” series, but only once more did they try to replicate the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion… this movie.

But before we get to those effects, let’s talk about the storyline. A narrator takes us back to a time before civilization, a time when men and beasts ran together, a time “before the moon.” Okay, let’s stop right there. A time…before the moon. I feel like this line was added strictly to explain all the day-for-night shooting that took place, where there’d obviously be no moon. Because the moon is INCREDIBLY old. The Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, and the moon formed not super long after, at about 4.51 billion years ago. So, like, I guess that’s still 30,000,000 years between formation of Earth and the moon, but the earliest life on Earth didn’t appear until at the EARLIEST 4.28 billion years ago. And that was like single cell organisms. This science lesson is almost entirely to appease Kyle Hill, but it’s also because COME ON, MOVIE!! I don’t know what was actually on the Earth before a Mars-sized chunk of debris hit it and caused the moon to form, but I’m damn skippy it wasn’t dinosaurs and bikini ladies.

Okay, so now that that’s out of the way, we can have some fun. As with One Million B.C., this movie largely follows the foibles of two different tribes of cavepeople. The first one is rather hateful, and routinely sacrifices three attractive blonde women to the sun gods in exchange for…prosperity? Maybe. At the beginning of the movie, during one such sacrifice, a particularly smart sacrificee, Sanna (Victoria Vetri), escapes the ritual and jumps into the ocean. Naturally, the high priest is not happy about this, and spends most of the movie looking for her.

She is eventually found by the manly dude Tara (Robin Hawdon) from the other tribe, who takes her to his seaside village, just in time for it to be attacked by a large swimming dinosaur. After immolating the dinosaur using a stockpile of flammable oil, Tara takes Sanna to his tribe’s feast, where a brunette woman named Ayak becomes jealous of the newcomer, owing to her love of Tara. Sanna and Ayak are made to fight in the water, and just as her former tribe arrives and Sanna runs off. The men give chase and are each in turn killed by some kind of dinosaur or snake or vulture or whatever. Sanna hides in the empty egg shell of a dinosaur in a nest and falls asleep. The other egg hatches, and the dinosaur (of a nonexistent species of quadrupedal predator [all predatory dinosaurs are bipedal by default]) thinks Sanna is its sibling. Cute!

She can’t stay with the family of dinosaurs for long, and her tribe and Tara looking separately find her. She and Tara are eventually reunited and get it on, but the honeymoon is brief because those damn high priests are after them. The final showdown includes a beach full of giant fiddler crabs and the “parent” dinosaur of Sanna’s shell brother helping to save everybody, just as the moon begins to form (because fine, why not?).

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth is certainly nowhere near as good as One Million Years B.C., but it’s not terrible either. It was written and directed by Hammer veteran Val Guest, who did one of my favorite early Hammer flicks, The Quatermass Experiments. While the direction is quite good, instead of using indeterminate grunts or nonsense words, the script created a vocabulary of 25 words and phrases to mean different things. You eventually get so irritated by the continued use of the same word for “Look!” or “Death!” that muting it would almost be preferable.

That said, the dinosaur stop-motion footage is beyond excellent, and that is definitely the reason this movie is worth a watch. There are some truly great sequences designed by effects photographer Jim Danforth and it ranks right up there with Harryhausen’s stuff in the earlier movie. In addition to the dinosaurs already mentioned, Danforth and his team created sequences of Chasmosaurus and Rhamphorhynchus and even a giant anaconda. And there’s a quick shot — perhaps as an homage to Harryhausen’s misjudged idea in the previous film — of a real lizard dressed up to look like a dinosaur. Many effects people who came later point to this movie as a breakthrough for believable stop-motion effects, and it shows.

But it’s also impossible not to look at this movie cynically. There’s an innocence to One Million Years B.C., even with the scantily-clad Raquel Welch, but because she had become such a sex symbol — and because Hammer was across the board trying to up the sex in all of their movies to contend with the bigger budget American movies — they decided to make the fur bikinis even more revealing, and show actual nudity and sex scenes. It feels much more like an exploitation movie.

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth is still an enjoyable dino flick, just don’t watch it with the kiddos.

Images: Warner/Hammer

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. He writes the weekly look at weird or obscure films in Schlock & Awe. Follow him on Twitter!

Lindsey Stirling Covers BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’s Songs

Back in the early days of Lindsey Stirling‘s rise to YouTube and music stardom, she often performed epic violin covers of movie and video game themes while sharing her love of cosplay as well. Now that Stirling is on tour, she rarely gets a chance to revisit her roots…but when she does, it’s a very special occasion!

Just in time for Beauty and the Beast‘s live-action remake later this week, Stirling has posted a video she filmed while on tour in which she covered many of the best songs by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman. Naturally, Stirling performed while wearing a recreation of Belle’s famous blue dress from Disney’s animated classic. And in a clever way of mashing up her cosplay character and herself, Stirling’s cover of “Belle” was filmed while she walked around the various stagehands who were setting up one of her concerts.

There may have been some in-jokes happening during Stirling’s covers for “Something There” and “Gaston,” as the various members of her team assumed similar roles to their animated counterparts. By the time that “Be Our Guest” came up, Stirling let her fans get in on the fun as she greeted them in costume and even danced alongside them for the video. She followed that with a stunning reprise of “Belle.” Naturally, the only way to close out the video was with a cover of the “Beauty and the Beast” title theme. As a whole, the video was simply breathtaking.

What did you think about Stirling’s new Beauty and the Beast video? Be our guest, and share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Image: Lindsey Stirling