Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2159

ALIEN: COVENANT Prologue Scene Is Full of Signs and Portents

We know to be scared if somebody feels sick in an Alien movie. One day, maybe the characters will reach that same level of self-awareness.

Or, perhaps, they just enjoy faking us out. In this mini-movie, billed as an a official prologue to Alien: Covenant, we see James Franco start to feel ill, and we know he won’t be the first guy to die. I mean, don’t we? Maybe not. Ridley Scott might be playing some mind games.

More to the point, we also see Danny McBride bringing his Danny A-game, without compromising the atmosphere of doom. And yeah, that’s Michael Fassbender. So what does that mean for the official synopsis?

Set aboard the Covenant, a colonization ship on its way to a remote planet to form a new human settlement, the main crew (all couples) and their android, Walter, enjoy their final meal together before cryosleep.

Walter, eh? That’s a new name for David. It also looks like Katherine Waterston will be a more Ripley-like heroine, in that you don’t necessarily expect her to be the survivor. And maybe she won’t be. Maybe we’re still being faked out. I like that they’re trying to subvert everything we think we know. Now, how will Walter react when he meets David’s severed head? Will he do what the internet does worst, or will he try to communicate on civil basis? And more importantly, will Danny McBride try to punch the sun, as he promised in the deleted scenes from Hot Rod?

Let’s hear your thoughts in comments.

Alien: Covenant opens on May 19, 2017.

Image: Fox

How acidic is a Xenomorph’s blood?

THE EXPANSE Recap: I Came An Awful Long Way to Find You

Fair warning: this recap includes spoilers for The Expanse, and they’ll go off if you don’t keep pressing the touch screen every minute—don’t say we didn’t warn you ahead of time!

Whoooooooooooaaaaaa. Okay. Deep breath. Let’s do this.

After the last episode sent the universe’s largest ship/religious institution on a collision course with no collision, “Home” had a monumentally difficult task on its hands. Eros was (somehow) moving, loaded with bombs, playing host to lovable old salt Miller (Thomas Jane), and holy hot damn did The Expanse nail this to the frakking wall.

After some initial confusion and a sciency-wiency explanation as to how the Laws of Thermodynamics are still totally in tact, Eros took off toward Earth. The UN scrambled in desperation, questioning whether AI tech from Mars was propelling the asteroid and crunching some quick numbers to decide that it was three times larger than the rock that killed off the dinosaurs. The people of Earth were not having a great day.

Errinwright (Shawn Doyle) called an MIA Mao (François Chau) to shout with furious impotency. The diplomat was backed into an impossible situation where he had to talk through the situation in the war room while pretending not to know exactly what was going on and who was behind it, even as Martian paranoia and saber rattling intensified. Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) handled the situation with far more grace, guiding the dozen minds with mankind in their hands through the hopscotch of changing scenarios.

The biggest change? The asteroid. Disappeared. From radar. This thing has some moves.

Naturally, Mars refused to help. Ice cold, Mars. Ice cold.

Meanwhile, Miller’s day was even worse. Trapped with a bomb that required babysitting, he took on the task of lugging it through the station to find the heart of the infection. The whole trek was delivered in arduous detail as Holden (Steven Strait), Naomi (Dominique Tipper), and the rest of the crew cheered him on from the Rocinante. She was key to this moment—imploring her compatriots to risk their asses for the guy willing to risk his, guiding him through the rougher parts of the journey even when the communicator was fritzing.

Inside Eros, Miller climbed a trillion ladder rungs (without planning his bomb/strap situation very well) and crawled deeper inside the belly of the beast. That included the casino, where a machine reminded us that “everyone’s a winner on Eros!” This did not seem to be true.

Miller dropping the nuke with a thud and his calm “Aw, crap,” was peak Miller. It was perfect timing, all things considered, to give us the best line reading of his entire run on the show.

Back on earth, Avasarala had the presence of mind and moment to convince her counterparts to hand over control of the ridiculous amount of nukes to Colonel Johnson, a.k.a. “a mad terrorist,” so that he could guide the missiles to their destination using Rocinante’s laser painting. As long as the ship had direct visual, everything was gonna be fine.

So…that didn’t happen. “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly,” right?

Eros sped up, forcing Holden to choose between failing earth and keeping his crew alive, or saving earth but flying the Roci at potentially fatal speeds. With Miller’s sacrifice on his mind, he made the call to juice them up to a 15 G burn. (This looked like it hurt a lot.)

With an evacuation looming, Avasarala’s recognition of the Rocinante’s crew’s sacrifice embittered her own desire to save herself by leaving the planet. Her husband Arjun (Brian George) wasn’t surprised by her decision, and they shared a sweet, tear-less goodbye with doom hanging in the air.

This whole episode was a ping pong match of failed plans and narrowed options. By the end, Miller was hearing the voices of the “dead,” and following a swarm of electric blue Will o’ the Wisps. The digital icicle effect was incredibly cool—the show never fails to impress visually—and we ended up finding good ol’ Julie Mao (Florence Faivre) herself at the very heart of the Protomolecule mass. The rock’s speed and continual echoes about her ship “the Razorback,” made Miller wonder if maybe she was the seed crystal. What if she also infected the thing infecting her? What if the key to saving billions on earth is to do the exact opposite of what they’re doing?

So, acting on instinct, he asked the Rocinante to back off, and we watched the flower of Miller’s season-and-a-half-long quest start to bloom.

The thriving, active center of the Protomolecule resembled brain activity with its pulsing blue nodes and connective strands all connecting to Julie. It’s insane. To be a human locked inside a God’s consciousness.

Miller woke Julie and tried to get her to change the course of the Eros with wavering results, but it was clear from his first words that he knew he was meant to remove his mask, breathe deep, kiss Julie, and make sure that she wasn’t alone. It was a graceful, beautiful sacrifice that perfectly capped a grueling, shifting journey for the soused detective with a hipster haircut. I cannot imagine a better ending to Miller than what the show gave him. It was the kind of moment that you’re lucky to have an acting talent like Jane on your roster. He ate up every line with a sympathetic compassion that never scratched the hardened leather exterior held together by snappy comebacks and witticisms. In other words, it was harrowing and beautiful and still quintessentially Miller.

So they headed to Venus. They were heading in that direction anyway, right?

With the crisis averted, we had to time to collectively catch our breath as the implications for what happened landed on Avasarala, the Rocinante crew (that toast!), and then on the Venetian atmosphere as Mao and Miller started something new together.

SOME STRAY THOUGHTS:

Oh my God.
Oh my God.
Oh my God.

Make sure your CAPS LOCK is off (or on, who are we to judge) and tell us what you thought of that ending in the comments section.

Images and GIFs: Syfy

LEGION Recap: Chapter 3

Spoilers for Legion follow. Don’t read on if you’re not caught up! Shall we begin?

I don’t know about you, but I’m still reeling from the end of this latest Legion episode. But enough preamble. Let’s get into it.

Chapter 3 starts with Dr. Melanie Bird, who owns a very strange robotic coffee maker that tells her the story of the poor woodcutter and his wife while she’s waiting for her brew. Roughly half of all folk tales start out that way, so let’s be more specific: after rescuing a crane from a trap, they’re visited by a young woman in white who offers to make clothes that they can sell in exchange for room and board, so long as they never watch her work. Naturally they break that promise, and discover that their new tenant was actually the crane the whole time. Hmmm, what an interesting allegory about birds that I’m sure won’t be metaphorically relevant to the plot of Legion in future episodes!

Bird and Ptonomy have returned to their memory work with David, and they’re pretty insistent on seeing that time David made a giant telekinetic mess out of his kitchen. He and his girlfriend Philly fought a lot, and we learn that the fight that triggered this incident began when Philly walked in on David and Lenny smoking their blue vapor in his living room.

But the memory stops again; this time it’s absolutely Maybe-Mojo causing problems, and what’s more, nobody except David can see him. Oh good! It’s so good that David and the gang wake up in a different room 600 feet away from the “Memory Cube,” having phased through two solid walls. That’s totally a normal thing that happens to people. Cool, cool.

In the breaks between treatment sessions, David and Syd hang out and bond over their shared experience of being in Syd’s body. Not that Syd is willing to take ownership of it. “It’s not my body,” she says. “That’s how I’ve come to think of it. If anyone can just come and go.” This is the single most devastating thing I’ve ever heard someone say in a superhero story, but at least here’s a silver lining for Syd — she might not have firm control over her physical form, but her very existence outside of herself is proof that the soul is real. Guys, being a mutant sucks.

Speaking of things that suck, another trip to the MRI spells disaster for David; while asked to think of a stressful memory, he thinks of the time he and Amy lost their dog during Halloween and starts hallucinating a giant paper maché version of the World’s Angriest Boy from his traumatizing children’s book. Man, and I thought The Monster at the End of This Book was a head trip.

Despite that abject horror, things seem okay at first, until Head Lenny shows up (triggering speech activity in David’s brain, according to Cary) and starts guilt-tripping David for leaving Amy behind and trusting Bird (“That bitch’s secrets have secrets!”). The stress awakens his powers, and, with Syd along for the ride, he projects himself into the room where Amy is being interrogated by members of Division Three, juuuust as she’s admitting that she would totally give him up if she could. It gets even worse when the Eye spots their astral forms and they have to make a quick getaway back to Summerland.

With Division Three still out there, Dr. Bird doesn’t want to waste any more time: she suggests sedating David just enough to lower his defenses, and going back into his memories again. Syd wants to go too, and she promises David that no matter what she sees, she’ll still love him. Aw!

Inside David’s brain, things get real Eternal Sunlight of the Spotless Mind real fast: the sedated version David manifests as a child, and that makes it all the more terrifying for him when the walls begin to crumble around them and both Mojo and the World’s Angriest Boy start to make their way through. Luckily Syd can see what’s happening, too, and she takes off after David through a series of vents to protect him from the monsters in his mind.

While separated in David’s mind, the Summerland gang starts to wake up one by one, except for Dr. Bird — she follows a whimpering noise into David’s childhood closet, where his copy of The World’s Angriest Boy in the World TRIES TO EAT HER HAND OH MY GOD THIS SHOW IS HORRIFYING. I mean, her hand is fine when she wakes up but gah. “I’m not so sure there are memories,” Syd says ominously, just as the episode comes to a close.

Bleh. Bleeeeeh. Did that ending give you the heebie jeebies, too? Tell us about it in the comments!

Images: FX Networks

THE MAGICIANS Recap: ‘Cheat Day’ Reveals the Darkness Ahead

Warning: the following recap contains major spoilers from Wednesday’s episode of The Magicians, “Cheat Day.” Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Quentin really did reach his breaking point last week on The Magicians. At the start of this week’s hour, “Cheat Day,” we find out that he actually gave up on magic altogether after he couldn’t get Alice back. When the White Lady sent him back to NYC, he started working a cubicle job and living a “normal life”—just like Emily, the girl from season one who accidentally caused Alice’s brother Charlie to become a niffin. The two former magicians befriended each other and bonded over their shared failures as magicians, but things got super weird when Emily showed Quentin her “cheat day” spells she still casts on the down low, and got them both to use an illusion spell to transform into the person they desired the most …and hook up with each other.

Naturally, Quentin had her transform into Alice while she had him transform in the Brakebills professor she had an affair with that caused her to try and change her face, which led to Charlie’s death. Twist: that professor was Brakebills South Professor Mayakovsky! (Now we know why he was banished to the frozen tundra and trapped there forever.) After Emily and Quentin slept together, he realized that what they did made him feel worse than before, and he didn’t want to numb his pain like that anymore. Emily still wanted to use magic to ease her own pain and loss, though, so he ended things. He can’t stay in the normal world forever, thought, right? His existence without magic was so bleak and depressing.

Meanwhile, Julia and Kady started looking for the woman who banished Reynard the first time a few decades ago, but during their research they discovered that Julia was pregnant. That’s right, her god rape resulted in a magical baby, and she wasted no time: she went straight to the gyno to get an abortion. But the fetus (or whatever it is) wouldn’t let anyone or anything terminate it. It even caused the gyno to gouge out her own eyes until she died. Damn. I guess abortion is out of the question now.

And there’s another baby on the way! But this one’s a much happier occurrence, as it’s for Eliot and his Fillorian wife Fen, after his weird, orgy-like night sleeping with his wife in Fillory (while his golem slept with Javier at Brakebills) resulted in a magical offspring. But Eliot has got bigger problems than impending fatherhood, as he was almost assassinated in the castle by Fen’s ex-boyfriend Bayler, a member of the Fillorian United Fighters, aka FU Fighters (best name ever, you guys). However, instead of executing Bayler like he agreed to do with Margo, Eliot sought out Bayler’s opinion on how the FU Fighters wanted to fix Fillory. Smart move, but it’s not one that Margo agreed with. Is there already dissension in their relationship?

MAGICAL MUSINGS:

– Penny’s hands may be grown back and no longer cursed, but he can’t perform magic. He can still travel, but he can no longer take people along for the ride. Dean Fog said they aren’t his hands anymore, and Brakebills didn’t know how to help him, so they sent him to Brakebills South for further tests. That’s where he found out that Mayakovsky is trying to build a “battery” to store magic in for when the Wellspring finally gives out. Will it work? Who knows, but now Penny is going to try and help him in exchange for getting his magic back. First up, he has to travel to Fillory to get magical moss for Mayakovsky.

– Quentin sent an email to Alice’s parents letting them know what happened to her. Did Brakebills not do that already?! That just seems irresponsible on the school’s part, but very mature on Quentin’s.

– The heart-to-heart scene where Kady confessed to Julia that she’d had an abortion before was amazing. I love how this show is handling the controversial topic of rape and abortion in a real, responsible way. I wish this kind of storyline was represented more in pop culture!

– The execution vs. diplomacy lists that Margo and Eliot came up with while researching how to handle his attempted assassination was hilariously extensive. The only diplomacy success they could think of was the Cuban Missile Crisis … and even that had a question mark next to it.

– TWIST: Fen used to be a FU Fighter! She was supposed to be a sleeper agent inside the Fillorian castle, waiting to stage a coup, but she told Bayler she’s not a FU Fighter anymore, now that she’s carrying Eliot’s child. He didn’t take it well—he immediately blackmailed Fen to get her to supply the FU Fighters with inside information or else he’ll tell Eliot just how well he knows Fen. How will Eliot react when he finds out that she was lying to him all this time? Probably not well.

– At the end of the hour, Quentin saw Alice mouthing “help me” at him from across a NYC street. Was she really there, and does that mean Niffin Alice is still alive? Or was he just hallucinating her after a long night of drinking and magic?

QUALITY QUOTES:

Dean Fog, telling Penny who can help his hands: Professor Mayakovsky.

Penny: The drunk perv in the igloo?! Pass.

Kady, after Julia’s pregnancy test was positive: It’s okay, Jules. This is a simple, totally mundane procedure.

Julia: Is it? Because it might not be a simple, totally mundane human embryo.

Eliot, continuing his quest to make magical champagne: At the very least I hope you solved the carbonation issue. We had to dump that last glass in another world, you know. It’s still bubbling. Oh the miles we must walk.

Eliot toasting to his now expecting wife: To our violently-attractive progeny.

Quentin: Is everybody out here really so lifeless?

Emily: Yes, we are. We are, and that’s why we drink.

Quentin: Well, I drank just fine as a magician.

Emily: Yeah, because your world was so overwhelming and scary and you needed a break from it all. Now you’re going to drink because each day is so goddamn dull and that takes a lot more booze.

Margo, after Eliot was almost assassinated in the throne room: Shitiest. Security. Ever.

Eliot: It’s all psychotic. Did you hear how Tick said, “Commoners?”

Margo: When we’re the least snobby people in a room, there’s something wrong with the room.

Bayler, in jail: Leave.

Eliot: You don’t get to say that.

Bayler: And why not?

Margo, sarcastically: Uhhh, because you’re in our castle.

Bayler: Which is on my land.

Eliot: Uh, excuse me, my manners. Um, I’m Eliot, High King of Fillory.

Bayler: And I’m Bayler, a proud soldier of Fillorians United. A FU Fighter.

Margo, whispers cheerfully: Did you … did you say FU Fighter?

Eliot: Margo, behave.

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Margo: Shit, when was the last time either of us dealt with a political insurgency?

Eliot: Unless getting kicked out of a fivesome counts, a first for me.

Margo: Same.

Kady, comforting Julia the night before her abortion: You’re not alone. I’m your “best bitch,” remember?

Quentin: I think I’m drunker than I think I am. Was that a sentence?

Eliot: The man’s life is my burden to bear.

Margo: Get over yourself, Ned Stark.

Mayakovsky: Do you even like magic?

Penny: Yeah, like I like money or food or any other useful shit.

Mayakovsky: Money or food don’t explode in your face.

Mayakovsky, drunkenly telling Penny the reason for his punishment without any remorse: I make love to many students. And then, I fuck the wrong one. Oops.

Emily, as Alice: Anything you want to say?

Quentin, crying: I just really fucking miss you.

Quentin to Emily in the cold light of morning: You said yesterday was cheat day. We can’t cheat everyday.

Margo, when Eliot didn’t follow through on their agreed upon execution: I’m High Queen.

Pick: The queen may voice her opinion, but ultimate judgement belongs to the king.

Margo: So this is what the patriarchy smells like? It’s not the freshest.

What did you think of this week’s episode of The Magicians? Tweet me your thoughts and opinions at @SydneyBucksbaum!

Images: Syfy

The Magicians airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Syfy.

THE 100 Recap: Has Clarke Become the New Jaha?

Warning: the following recap contains major spoilers from Wednesday’s episode of The 100, “A Lie Guarded.” It is a recap, after all! Don’t say we didn’t warn you … 

Who would have thought that Clarke would become the new Jaha on The 100? Honestly, if you had said that our favorite blonde heroine would be sympathizing with crazy kooky Jaha’s old ways of thinking, we would have floated you immediately. But here we are, here she is, and all we can do is just go along with this crazy new world we all live in! Let’s get to recapping “A Lie Guarded,” shall we?

Most of this week’s hour focused on getting Luna to ALIE’s island so they could make more of her Nightblood. That way, everyone could get the Nightblood serum for themselves—Skaikru and Grounders alike—and survive the incoming “death wave” of radiation. Abby, Raven, Murphy, Emori, Nykko and a whole bunch of Skaikru guards set off for Becca’s lab on the island, hoping to find her records on how she created Nightblood so they could reverse-engineer the formula from Luna’s.

But what they didn’t count on was that even though ALIE was destroyed, her drones were still running automatically, shooting at them as soon as they crossed the boundary. After killing Nykko (who sacrificed his own life to protect Luna’s), the drones kept hunting them, so Raven reprogrammed the code on one they shot down to turn them off. Raven also had to convince Luna not to run away so they could all use her blood to survive, so basically Raven is the hero of the week—per usual. They finally found Becca’s lab, and it was amazing—high tech, pristine, and hella spacious. Just think of everything they’re going to be able to salvage and use from the lab to help beef up the Ark! But what else is lurking out there, trying to get inside the lab? What was ALIE trying to keep out?!

Meanwhile, Clarke had to stay behind to supervise Plan B of finishing patching up the ship in case they couldn’t make more Nightblood. Of course, Plan B only saved 100 people, and Clarke’s List, hidden away in the Chancellor’s office, was just begging to be found. When Jasper and Monty were setting up a prank on Clarke (which she was not amused by, to no one’s surprise), Jasper discovered the List, and showed Monty (who knew that the Ark could only save 100 people), that he wasn’t even on it. When Jasper tried to reveal the List to all of Arkadia, Clarke had him arrested—after using a shock baton on him, holy crap—to try and keep him quiet.

Monty couldn’t believe how far Clarke was going to keep the truth quiet from their people, even hurting and locking up her own friends, and rightfully told her she was acting just as badly as the adults on the Ark did when they sent the 100 down to die on Earth. So he did what he thought was best: he read off the List to all of Arkadia, revealing the truth about Clarke’s lies. A mob formed, and surprisingly enough Jaha turned out to be the voice of reason they all followed. He proposed throwing out the List, and running a lottery to see who would be the 100 to get a spot inside the Ark when the end came. It’s not as pragmatic and logical as Clarke’s List that focused on young women who could further the human race and doctors and engineers and an equal amount of all professions, but it did motivate everyone to work for their spot in the lottery. “When Jaha’s looking reasonable, it’s time to reassess.” Jasper’s words could not be more true right now. Is everyone drinking the crazy kool-aid here?!

And in an unfortunately timed turn of events (lol), it looks like the war between Grounders and Skaikru is back on! After Roan grew impatient waiting for Clarke to figure out a way to save everyone, he had Echo spy on Arkadia. She saw them rebuilding their ship, and so she caught Bellamy and another Skaikru out on a hunting party. The “redshirt” blabbed to Echo about their plan to use the Ark to survive the death wave, and that they had a Nightblood. Roan didn’t believe Kane’s assertions that they were only using Luna to manufacture Nightblood for everyone, since that was “blasphemy” in Grounder faith, so Echo killed the Skaikru who talked since “warriors don’t reveal their secrets” and Roan declared war on Skaikru and Trikru.

Roan had his army kill all of Skaikru and Trikru in Polis, and took Bellamy and Kane as hostages. Indra got away in time to warn Trikru, and Octavia escaped Polis before Roan could have her locked up too. She tried to ride to Arkadia to warn them of the Azgeda army marching their way intending to take the Ark for themselves, but Echo followed her. She tried to take Octavia alive, but the warrior in Octavia wouldn’t let that happen. They fought, and Echo ran her through with a sword, and she fell off a cliff into the water below. Hold. Up. Octavia did not just get bested in a sword fight, right?! Our beloved, fierce O cannot be dead!

Believing Octavia to be dead, Roan and Echo told Bellamy, and he broke down in Polis’ jail. That heartbreaking work from Bob Morley in that jail cell scene gave me major chills. I think it was the first time we have ever seen him fully vulnerable. Even in his darkest moments in seasons prior, he didn’t break down so completely like this. Where this will lead Bellamy next, I don’t know. But what he doesn’t know is that—duh—Octavia didn’t die after all, she’s just really badly hurt. Her horse found her on the shore, and she climbed on his back and rode towards Arkadia. That was close!

Other noteworthy moments:

– As much as I’m loving the suicidally cheerful Jasper more than the suicidally depressed Jasper, he’s kind of a dick right now, you guys. But any prank played on Jaha, especially one where he got “floated,” is fine by me. Like I’ve said before, ugh, Jaha. That guy is the worst, but Jasper’s “black rain” fake choking was super not cool. Don’t do that to your friends, dude.

– “Justice and vengeance are not the same thing.” “To me, they are.” Kane and Octavia served up some hard truths in this week’s hour. Octavia’s grown increasingly darker and darker, and killing an innocent boy last week to frame him for stealing the Flame was just her latest in a long line of questionable choices. How dark can she get? How will her injuries affect her psychologically as well as physically?

– Kane and Abby are still going strong, be still my heart! Their slow-burn relationship is like the one glimmer of hope on this show.

– Murphy saving Raven from ALIE’s drones was a pleasant surprise. I love how Murphy will do anything in the name of surviving, even if it means being a good person …for once.

– In addition to acting like Jaha, Clarke is also becoming the person her mother used to be, having Jasper locked up and hurt rather than reveal the truth. It’s just like how Abby had her husband floated rather than reveal the truth to everyone about the Ark failing.

– It’s almost kind of cute how The 100 writers knew they couldn’t use Octavia’s “death” scare as the episode-ending cliffhanger. No one would have fallen for that. Instead, they used her miraculous survival as the final scene. Smart choice.

– Arkadia already has drills in place for when the radiation black rain comes. Let’s hope that serves them well when it actually does come.

– The name of this week’s episode served more than one purpose. “A Lie Guarded” is “ALIE guarded,” referencing the drones acting as security for her island. The title also references Clarke’s List getting exposed.

– According to Emori, there are worse things on the island than ALIE’s drones. Whatever she was warning Murphy about, we’ll for sure meet in the next few episodes as the crew works in Becca’s lab. Let’s see if they’re any scarier than the Reapers, who still haunt my nightmares.

– For as much as the hydrogenerator recovery squad wanted to save Riley from being an Ice Nation slave and how much they all love this random dude that we’ve never met before this season, Clarke didn’t even put him on the List! What good was saving him at the risk of everyone dying later without the hydrogenerator if he wasn’t going to be saved from the death wave anyways?!

What did you think of this week’s The 100? Tweet me at @SydneyBucksbaum!

Images: The CW

The 100 airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.

Inked Wednesday #124 – Batman, Joker, and Nintendo Tattoos

It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time to look at some geeky tattoos! Putting together a gallery of nerdy ink every week means I’m more or less constantly thinking about art I’m going to add to my skin next. (It will probably be something Star Wars related, because duh.) Troy Dunford shared his tattoos with us this week, and they’re focused on DC Comics and Nintendo. Case in point, his moody Batman ink:

Drop down to the gallery below to see two different versions of Batman’s archnemesis the Joker as well as the Nintendo designs I mentioned—they feature Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. The Nintendo art and the Heath Ledger Joker was inked by tattooist Terence Tait out of Cairns Ink Ur Bod Tattoo Company.

If you have nerdy ink on your skin or you’re a tattoo artist that applies pop culture, STEM, music, or other nerd-inspired ink (the spectrum is broad, folks) on a regular basis, then please hit me up because I’d like to highlight you in a future Inked Wednesday gallery. You can get in touch with me via email at alratcliffe@yahoo.com. Send me photos of the tattoos you’d like me to feature (the higher resolution, the better) and don’t forget to let me know the name of your tattoo artist if you have it, as well the name of the shop he or she works out of. If you are the tattoo artist, give me links to your portfolios and/or Instagram accounts so I can share them with our readers.

Images: Troy Dunford

Nerdist Podcast: Jordan Peele

Just before the debut of his critically acclaimed directorial debut, Get Out, Jordan Peele (Key and Peele, Keanu) swings by the Nerdist Podcast! He chats with Chris about their mutual love of old horror films, collecting pop culture memorabilia, and where the idea for Get Out came from. He also discusses the social and political commentary in the film, how the subject of race has informed his creativity, and how Key and Peele become a fan favorite show.

More about Get Out:

Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy and Dean. At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined. The film also stars Bradley Whitford (The West Wing, Transparent) and Catherine Keener (Adaptation, The 40-Year-Old Virgin).

Get Out hits theaters Friday, February 24, 2017. Read our Sundance review of the film here.

Image: Frederick M. Brown / Stringer

New ROGUE ONE Video Brings Jedha and Scarif to Life for STAR WARS

In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, we get to visit the new planets of Jedha and Scarif. Though there are some practical sets, much of the planet and the destruction that takes place was done digitally via Lucasfilm’s VFX and animation studio, Industrial Light and Magic. And the company just released a video they describe as, “a taste of the Oscar-Nominated Visual Effects work behind the destruction of Jedha and the battle on the beaches of Scarif in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” on their YouTube channel.

The video begins with a shot of the Star Destroyer over the main city on Jedha, flashing its pre-vis build and the different layers—including smaller ships flying overhead. We also get to see the destruction of the city in layers as well. We then watch each layer of the beach in Scarif before getting at the planet’s epic battle scene as the AT-ACT walkers are added in. To call it thrilling to watch would be an understatement, and probably why the film is up for Best Sound Editing at the Oscars as well.

Check out the video and let us know what you think in the comments below. (You can also tweet us @JennaBusch/@Nerdist!) How much did you love this movie? Did the CGI characters jar you, or did you feel like they worked well? Are you excited for the upcoming Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi? The film will premiere on December 15, 2017. Less than a year to go!

Image Credit: Disney

Dad’s HARRY POTTER, X-MEN, STAR WARS Napkin Art is Better Than Lunch

When you’re in elementary school, the drudgery of the day-in/day-out of classroom life can really take its toll—at least, that’s what all the kids I know seem to think anyway. (Just wait ’til you’re older, kids.) So the one bright light in a hectic day is lunchtime when you can chill with your friends and open up your lunch box to see something magical.

Ben Risbeck creates incredible pieces of art on his kids’ lunch napkins. They’re a fun way for him to show his daughters how much he loves them every single day. As a talented illustrator, Risbeck is always trying to find reasons to doodle and his creations are awe inspiring.

A boring old sandwich and juice box is made that much better with a napkin featuring Boba Fett or a talking taco. The detail on each napkin is outstanding so it’s amazing that each napkin only takes between 1-5 minutes a piece.

While Risbeck has been doing the napkin art on and off for a few years, it was the beginning of this year’s school year that he decided to commit to doing a drawing each day, except for the times when he’s travelling for work. He’s already created over 200 napkins for the kids.

As for inspiration, the subjects are on a whim but sometimes he ties in the characters to things they’re reading or comics and movies they’ve been discussing. The Risbeck family has a great love of pop culture, his little ones were even featured in our kids cosplay round up from San Diego Comic-Con a few years ago.

The question on everyone’s mind, do the girls actually use the napkins? Personally, I don’t know if I’d want to sully Wolverine’s face with spaghetti sauce but Risbeck says he insists the girls use them and throw them away. Cleanliness before X-Menness, I suppose!

For a closer look at the napkin artwork check out the gallery below. You can see Risbeck’s stunning non-napkin illustrations on his website and all of the daily napkin art on his instagram @benrisbeck.

Would you be thrilled to see some of these unique pieces of art in your lunch bag everyday? Let us know in the comments and tag @nerdist and @justjenn on twitter!

Images: Ben Risbeck

MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 Season 11 Gets Release Date

The not-too-distant future is about to be the right-this-second present and the wait for season 11 of Mystery Science Theater 3000 to land on Netflix will be over. We’ve been eagerly awaiting the 14 Kickstarter-funded episodes for over a year, and the details about them have been kept incredibly secret. Creator Joel Hodgson didn’t want to announce what movies they’d be riffing, but we hadn’t even known a release date for the season…until now that is!

Following a special Kickstarter backers screening Tuesday night of the first episode of MST3K produced since 1999 (of which I was a lucky viewer), it was announced that Friday April 14, 2017, will be the day we can all sit down and marathon the whole season, or parse them out over 14 consecutive Saturdays to mimic the way we had to watch them back in the Comedy Central and Syfy days. Mark your calendars, plan parties, get your Gizmonics Institute jumpsuit out of cold storage, and hunker down for all the cinema-based jokes your little mind can handle.

The reboot of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is created and co-directed by Joel Hodgson and features Nerdist’s own Jonah Ray as hapless space prisoner Jonah Heston as he and his trusty robot sidekicks Tom Servo (Baron Vaughn) and Crow T. Robot (Hampton Yount) are forced to watch terrible movies for the machinations of Kinga Forrester (Felicia Day).

If you’d like to hear from all of them, you can see our interview from Camp Conival in July of 2016:

What movies do you hope get riffed in the new season? What’s your favorite episodes of season 1-10? Let me know in the comments below!

Featured Image: MST3K/Netflix

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!

Could you really write the logo on the moon?