Latest news with #apocalypse
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
Is THIS how the world will end? Scientists warn Earth could be flung out of orbit by a passing star - leaving humans to freeze to death
From Armageddon to the Day After Tomorrow, there have been plenty of Hollywood movies about how our world might end. But if there is to be a global apocalypse, what might be to blame for wiping out all life on Earth? Scientists believe they may finally have the answer - and it suggests we could face a grisly demise. In a new study, researchers from the Planetary Science Institute and the University of Bordeaux predict that Earth could be flung out of orbit by a passing star. And without our Sun there to keep us warm, this would leave any inhabitants - including humans - to freeze to death. Thankfully, the chances of this happening are very low. Over the next five billion years, the chance of Earth being flung out of orbit by a passing star is around one in 500, according to the team. 'We find a 0.3% chance that Mars will be lost through collision or ejection and a 0.2% probability that Earth will be involved in a planetary collision or ejected,' the team wrote in their study. For decades, scientists have pondered how the Earth could end. A wandering black hole, giant asteroid impact and nuclear war could all trigger catastrophic disasters, as could the rise of killer robots or the reversal of our planet's magnetic field. In their new study, published in arXiv, Nathan Kaib and Sean Reynold set out to understand whether passing stars could be to blame. 'The long-term dynamical future of the Sun's planets has been simulated and statistically analyzed in great detail,' the pair explained. 'But most prior work considers the solar system as completely isolated, neglecting the potential influence of field star passages.' To answer this question, the pair ran thousands of simuations of our solar system in the presence of passing stars over the next five billion years. Worryingly, their simulations revealed that our solar system's eight planets - as well as dwarf planet, Pluto - are 'significantly less stable than previouly thought'. Pluto faces the greatest risk of being lost through a collision or ejection, with the simulations revealing a five per cent chance. Mars fares slightly better with a 0.3 per cent chance, while Earth has a 0.2 per cent chance of being flung out of the solar system. As for the passing stars to be on the lookout for, the researchers predict that the most dangerous ones are those that come within 100 times as far from the sun as Earth is. According to the simulations, there's about a five per cent chance of such a close encounter over the next five billion years. 'In summary, passing stars can alter the stability of the planets and Pluto as well as the secular architecture of the giant planets over the next 5 Gyrs [5 billion years,' the authors concluded. 'Their significance on the solar system's dynamical future largely depends on the strength of the most powerful stellar passage over this time span, which is uncertain by orders of magnitude. 'This uncertainty in the Sun's future powerful stellar encounters means that the spectrum of future secular evolution and planetary instabilities is broader than that implied by isolated models of solar system evolution.'
Geek Vibes Nation
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
'Blood Quantum' Blu-Ray Review - Zombie Genre Gets A Fresh Perspective With Indigenous Tale
The dead are coming back to life outside. But in the isolated Mi'gmaq reserve of Red Crow, the indigenous inhabitants are immune to the zombie plague. Traylor, the tribal sheriff, must protect his son's pregnant girlfriend, apocalyptic refugees and reserve riffraff from the hordes of walking white corpses. For thoughts on Blood Quantum, please check out our review from its original Blu-Ray release here. Video Quality Blood Quantum returns to Blu-Ray via Shudder with a formidable AVC encoded 1080p transfer that really brings this film to life in a great way. The film was previously released on Blu-Ray in 2020 courtesy of RLJ Entertainment, and this new Blu-Ray does not appear to differ in any significant way outside of the supplements. The cinematography has a slightly desaturated aesthetic with everything appearing a bit drained of color to go with the overall helpless tone. There may not be big, bright colors throughout, but there is a depth to certain hues that this transfer honors. The picture is primarily clear with only brief instances of murkiness during a few of the darkest settings. The transfer maintains an impressive level of detail both in the dimly lit interior sequences and more stark environmental shots. Everything from the smallest facial details to the texture in the production design is quite impressive. Skin tones are natural throughout with some strong details present in certain shots. This is a transfer that delivers a great presentation all around. Audio Quality The film comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that effectively executes the reserved soundscape. There are certainly moments when the infected bring some intensity to the track, but this narrative takes a much more character-based approach which distinguishes it a bit. Activity in the low end delivers some nice texture during the appropriate moments. Environmental effects play a significant role in the film, and this track brings these elements to life quite capably. The rear channels help the sound design feel more three-dimensional. Directionality is quite precise so sounds always present as natural when coming from their respective points. Dialogue comes through crisp and clear without being overwhelmed by any of the other sounds. Shudder has kept up its good work in the sound department. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for those who desire them. Special Features Audio Commentary: Film critic Scout Tafoya provides a commentary track in which he discusses the production of the film, tidbits about various performers, the groundbreaking nature of the feature, and more that is worth a listen. Behind The Scenes Featurette: A 13-minute piece featuring interviews with the cast and creative team that explores the creation of the script, crafting the world, and much more. File Under Miscellaneous – A Short Film by Jeff Barnaby: A seven-minute dystopian short film about genetic modification. Photo Gallery Green Band Trailer (1:44) Red Band Trailer (1:44) Booklet: A multi-page booklet featuring an essay from film critic Mo Moshaty is provided here. Final Thoughts Blood Quantum is one of the better zombie-adjacent films to come out in recent years. While the refreshing point of view is a big reason why, an even larger reason is the care put into the storytelling to give the audience something to care about. The loss of director Jeff Barnaby is a huge blow for cinema as a whole, but we do have terrific movies such as this one that we can appreciate as a part of his legacy. Shudder has released a Blu-Ray with an excellent A/V presentation and some terrific new special features. There is so much working in favor of this film that it would be misguided to pass this one up. Recommended Blood Quantum is currently available to purchase on Standard Edition Blu-Ray or with a Limited Edition Slipcover exclusively through Vinegar Syndrome. Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray. Disclaimer: Shudder and OCN Distribution have supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Want More of ‘The Last of Us'? Read These Books Next.
HBO's propulsive, nail-biting series 'The Last of Us' — based on the acclaimed video game by Naughty Dog — offers a bleak and brutal depiction of the apocalypse, as hardscrabble survivors including Joel (Pedro Pascal), Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) navigate a fallen world crawling with flesh-eating 'infected,' not to mention other healthy humans who range from desperate and mistrustful to aggressively sadistic. The show is violent and at times disturbing — especially in its shocking second season, which recently concluded — but there's more to it than action spectacle. A deep undercurrent of emotion runs through the series, making this story about zombies compulsively watchable, frequently moving and deeply human. While the first season of the show faithfully adapted the eponymous video game, HBO has split the story of its sequel, 2020's The Last of Us Part II, into two installments — meaning that we're leaving things on a considerable cliffhanger. If your craving for killer fungi, survival stories, revenge tales and postapocalyptic considerations of what we owe to each other isn't quite satisfied, these 10 novels can scratch that itch. Severance Not to be confused with another popular 2025 series, this darkly comic novel — published two years before Covid-19 — is an incisive (and prescient) portrait of a society stumbling through a devastating pandemic. The contagion here is Shen Fever, a debilitating fungal disease that turns its victims into (harmless) zombies. Even as it decimates the globe, Candace Chen, a millennial Chinese American woman living in New York City, resolves to see out the end of her contract doing product coordination for a Bible publisher. It's fairly soul-sucking drudgery but, it turns out, an improvement on life after societal collapse, when Candace finds herself sheltering in an Illinois shopping mall with a band of other survivors from whom she's hiding a secret. Manhunt In Felker-Martin's postapocalyptic thriller, a plague that targets testosterone has turned half the population into a brainless mass of murderers and rapists, leaving the matriarchy to reign supreme. But for Beth and Fran, two trans women keeping their hormones in check with home remedies, it isn't only the bloodthirsty men they need to worry about: Roving bands of TERFs view them not as fellow sister-survivors but as interlopers who need to be expunged. A smart book about the politics of gender and the perils of transphobia, 'Manhunt' could easily have turned didactic — but Felker-Martin, a dyed-in-the-wool horror fan, delights in the genre's free-flowing carnage, and that glee is tons of fun. What Moves the Dead Ursula Vernon, writing under a pseudonym, reimagines Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Fall of the House of Usher' as fungus-themed body horror in this slender, atmospheric novel set in the fictitious European nation of Ruravia. Alex Easton, a retired soldier of indeterminate gender, travels to the remote country home of the Ushers, Alex's childhood friends who have taken ill with a mysterious sickness that also seems to be afflicting various wildlife on the manor grounds. The style is Gothic and the tone is gloomy but playful, befitting the connection to Poe — but the creepy fungal growths and malformed hares are entirely Vernon's own. How High We Go in the Dark Nagamatsu's postapocalyptic novel begins like so many others: with the discovery of a virus, unearthed from the melting Siberian permafrost. But as the 'Arctic plague' devastates the globe, the novel breaks into fragments — each a kind of short-form fable about the aftershocks of modern civilization. Some, like a story about a euthanasia theme park that painlessly executes terminally ill children, have the caustic sting of David Foster Wallace; others, particularly a late episode set on a vessel launched into deep space, pose poignant questions about what it means to be human. It's an impressive range of interconnected stories — and that's without mentioning the one about the talking pig. The Road An apocalypse story seemed like a considerable departure for the author of 'All the Pretty Horses,' 'No Country for Old Men' and other beloved westerns. But while the end-of-the-world setting suggests a pivot to sci-fi, the familiar hallmarks of McCarthy's fiction — ultra-spare prose, uncompromising realism — make this entirely of a piece with his previous work. A father and son traverse a barren American landscape in the aftermath of an undisclosed cataclysm, encountering the best and worst of humanity. Amid the desolation, McCarthy offers occasional glimpses of hope, and a beautiful depiction of an unbreakable parental bond. Station Eleven This hauntingly beautiful novel opens with the emergence of a virulent new flu, which kills its victims so rapidly that an actor is felled in the middle of a performance of 'King Lear'; 20 years later, where we lay our scene, most of the world's population has long since been wiped out. The story is centered around Kirsten, an 8-year-old child actor at the onset of the plague, who now roams the area around the Great Lakes with the Traveling Symphony, a troupe of actors who perform classical music and Shakespeare plays for colonies of fellow survivors. Evocative, page-turning and full of intrigue, Mandel's 2014 novel is more relevant than ever post-Covid. (There is also an excellent HBO series adaptation.) Parable of the Sower Butler's novel, published in 1993, is set in 2024 in a United States devastated by climate change, overrun with corrupt white nationalists and governed by a feckless autocrat who promises to 'make America great again.' It is science fiction that blurs disconcertingly into contemporary realism: Scenes of large swaths of California ablaze can be found both in its pages and across this year's news. It is also an astute, heart-pumping story about the meaning of community, and about a teenage girl with an uncanny gift navigating the privileges and dangers that come with it. California Lepucki's understated take on the apocalypse imagines a civilization fractured by a changing climate in which Americans reside in walled-off communities or live as best they can off the land. We follow a 20-something couple — Cal, a survivalist, and Frida, a former banker — as they traverse the Golden State in search of a stable place to land. By narrowing her focus to ordinary human relationships — which, in this new world, are fraught with many of the same tensions (miscommunication, longing, diverging needs) that prevailed in the old one — Lepucki puts a nuanced new spin on an often sensationalized genre. World War Z Subtitled 'An Oral History of the Zombie War' — and written as a follow-up to 'The Zombie Survival Guide,' a fictitious instructional manual for dealing with a plague of the undead — Brooks's cleverly structured novel is told through a series of interviews with survivors of the apocalypse. The sober, pseudoscientific naturalism of Brooks's writing has notes of Michael Crichton (particularly his classic techno-thriller 'The Andromeda Strain'), offering a vividly plausible simulation of how things might go if humankind had to fight off a brain-eating horde. (Spoiler: Not great!) The Girl With All the Gifts Melanie is a guileless 10-year-old girl living in Britain. She is well-mannered, possesses a genius I.Q. … and insatiably craves human flesh. When the book begins, Melanie — one of the 'hungry,' as this world calls its undead — is under observation at a military base in London, but when scavengers attack the facility, she and her teacher are forced to go on the run. In telling this story of humanity's last stand against a devastating fungal infection largely through Melanie's eyes, Carey adds a tragic dimension to a brutal tale — like Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go' if it involved zombies.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Last Of Us' 'The Price' Broke Me More Than Any Episode So Far, And Here's Why
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. SPOILER WARNING: The following article dives deep into two of the most important moments from The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 6. If you have not yet used your Max subscription to catch up on the apocalypse, I recommend you make like a survivor approaching an abandoned building and proceed with caution. I am not much of a gamer, but as a fan of zombie movies, I was very excited for the debut of HBO's series adaptation of the PlayStation hit, The Last of Us, and I can certainly say I have not been disappointed. That being said, I could not say the apocalyptic TV show had a personally emotional effect on me… until I saw the sixth episode of Season 2, 'The Price.' Not only can I confidently say that no program on the 2025 TV schedule (or in any recent year that I can think of) has left me as shaken as The Last of Us with this particular episode, which consists of flashbacks that bridge the gap between seasons. No other episode of this show has left me in such a state of heartbreak and lasting ponderance, which is really saying something when you consider how this show thrives on tragedy. Allow me to explain why it took this long for the series to break me. One of the most talked-about moments from The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 6, sees Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) come across a bitten Eugene (Joe Pantoliano). Joel promises him and Ellie that he will wait for her to come back and bring the ailing man to Jackson to see his wife, the local therapist Gail (Catherine O'Hara, who cried a lot while filming this episode), one last time. Unfortunately, Joel breaks that promise and shoots the man dead before Ellie returns. 'Joey Pants' makes a great case for his second Emmy (which he previously won after shaking up the cast of The Sopranos in Season 3) with this despairing performance that, quite frankly, I am not sure would have had as much of an effect on me if I were not married. Hearing him respond to Joel's promise that he would deliver his last words for Gail with, 'No, I need her last words for me!' and begging for her face to be the last thing he sees really got to me because I would be pleading the same. For my wife to be the last thing I see before I pass is all I can hope for, too. Stream The Last of Us on Max for less by bundling Unless you watch The Last of Us the traditional way, when it airs on HBO, you probably catch up on video game adaptation by streaming on Max, which costs $16.99 per month with a standard plan. However, you could be bundling your subscription with your Disney+ and Hulu account for $29.99 per month, which saves you $6.99 on Max, plus the same price on two more great streaming platforms Deal I could have never anticipated that, after witnessing Eugene's devastating final plea (a welcome change from the Last of Us video games, from what I hear), 'The Price' would tap into my emotions any further. Lo and behold, I was wrecked by the final scene, when Ellie confronts Joel about ruining the chance for a Cordyceps cure by rescuing her from the Fireflies, and he explains he did it out of love for her and would do it again if given the chance. What really did me in was when he tells his surrogate daughter that, if she has children of her own, he hopes she does 'a little bit better than me,' echoing his own father's words from the cold open. At the moment I write this, I am not a parent, but my wife and I intend to have children sometime soon, and yet, to be perfectly candid, the idea of bringing a child into this world terrifies me. Clearly, I have less hazardous circumstances to contend with than Joel did (and I pray it stays that way), but I nonetheless agonize over, not just keeping my children safe, but also doing right by them in a just manner. Thankfully, Ellie's admission that she would be willing to try to forgive Joel for his actions gave me hope that, as long as my approach to parenting comes from a place of love, we will be all right. Inevitably, I have found many reasons to compare this series to a show similar to The Last of Us, The Walking Dead, and even found a similarity between Joel's murder and another tragic character death. However, that hit series never got to me like this show has for the reasons above. So, for my money, The Last of Us reigns as TV's superior zombie apocalypse series for now.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
So We All Agree? The Key Takeaway from 'The Last of Us' Is That Even in an Apocalypse, Pedro Pascal Is Still Zaddy
The Last of Us has had many twists and turns, yet, fans (and writers of the show) can't get over how handsome Pedro Pascal is Viewers of the HBO Max original have created parodies about the fact that even in an apocalypse, Pascal's allure remains unmatched The Last of Us' season 2 finale airs on May 25In a show that is literally about living in a post-apocalyptic world where there is no electricity, no running water, no food and the rules of normal life have gone out the window, Pedro Pascal has emerged the number one pick when it comes to people we would all love to be stuck with in such a trying time. When The Last of Us premiered back in 2023, there was massive chatter surrounding Pascal and his penchant for rescuing desolate children in TV shows. The Chilean actor was fresh off his stint as the Mandalorian in the Disney+ series of the same name, in which he had fans swooning over his chemistry with Baby Yoda. He was in head-to-toe armor and we barely saw his face throughout the series, but that only added to his sexy aura. So, it came as no surprise when Pedro hit the small screen once again as Joel, the guardian of Bella Ramsey's Ellie — an orphaned 14-year-old and the only survivor on Earth known to be immune to the Cordyceps fungus that's destroyed humanity. Tasked to get Ellie to a doctor to use her blood to create a cure for the rest of civilization, Pascal's character was once again in full protective mode. Season 1 Joel is grumpy — and if we're being honest, he's not pleasant to be around. His main mission is to get to Wyoming, where he heard his brother is residing and he takes on Ellie begrudgingly. Really, for the first half of the season, he doesn't indulge any of her questions, he fends off all of her attempts at creating some levity. It feels like he protects her out of duty and obligation, not necessarily care. On paper, he is an unpleasant grouch who, if played by someone else, could come off as off-putting and turn off the audience. On the internet, though, he is deemed as the heartbroken, brooding type because ... well ... Pedro Pascal. His character made a turn for viewers when, in episode 4, he and Ellie decide to sleep in the woods as their journey to Wyoming was still a long way out and they had been driving all day. Not only do we see him finally indulge in one of her terrible puns, but we also see him standing watch through the night, as Ellie peacefully stirs in her sleep. It's a fleeting moment that barely lasts five seconds, but it marked a significant turn in the series and showed Joel as a caring protector. We loved that. Cut to the season finale. Joel kills Jerry Anderson, one of the doctors belonging to the Fireflies organization and the only person remaining who could have used Ellie to make a cure for the Cordyceps infection. The problem, it turned out, was that while Joel and Ellie knew that she was immune and could possibly be the cure, the procedure needed to make said cure would have killed the teenager. Joel, wanting to save Ellie's life, then annihilated everyone at the Fireflies hospital who stood in his way. Unfortunately for him, Dr. Anderson had a daughter named Abby who ultimately sought to avenge his death and would go on to kill Joel in episode 2 of the second season. The stakes in The Last of Us are high and the show is a heavy drama through and through. The internet, though, is a very unserious place and fans of the show have honed in on one particularly hilarious fact. When we first meet Abby and the remainder of the Fireflies in season 2 episode 1, they're debating what their next move is, given that Joel had taken out a majority of their squad. While she is hell bent on finding him, her friends challenge her, citing the fact that not only is he a well-trained smuggler whose name they aren't even sure about, but tracking him down is a task unto its own, given they have no idea what he looks like. Abby retorts, saying, 'Fifties, graying, beard, six foot tall, scar on his right temple. Oh, yeah. They say he's handsome.' That small added fact about his undeniable good looks sent the internet into a frenzy because in the grand scheme of things, no one's looks actually matter. But Pedro, or Joel, rather, is so painfully handsome, whoever was describing him to Abby couldn't overlook that fact. It makes the entire scenario even funnier when you think about the fact that Joel annihilated more than half of the Fireflies present and rescued Ellie with everyone else at gunpoint. And yet, the nurse or whoever described him to Abby was so struck by his handsomeness that they had to let her know about it. Fans on the internet have since taken this one little detail and ran with it, creating parody videos of the moment Joel was described to Abby. 'It all just happened so fast. Your dad was defenseless and [Joel] just shot him,' a TikToker named Kateishly reenacted in her video before going on to say, 'I'm so sorry, Abby. He had dark hair, he was like 6 foot, 6'1.'' Had a scar over his right temple and ... he was so hot, Abby,' she parodies, breaking into fake tears. 'Your dad's killer was so hot. Like a 10/10. He would have been a major contender for hottest man alive, if not the winner.' Another user, Marco De Marlo also did an impression where the hypothetical nurse listed only his most appealing qualities. 'He was tall, maybe 6 feet. He had a scar on his face, gray hair. Lean. He was good-looking, handsome, pretty hot actually. Some may call him a daddy,' he said with a face full of imaginary tears. 'Potentially a trans ally, but I don't know, it's all a blur, I'm sorry.' The parody was brilliant, of course, because Pascal recently had fans applauding him for his unrelenting support of the trans community. While at the London premiere of Marvel's Thunderbolts* back in April, Pascal wore a white T-shirt emblazoned with "PROTECT THE DOLLS." The T-shirt is a part of a larger campaign by American designer Conner Ives, designed to call attention to the global anti-transgender sentiment that trans women are experiencing in several countries. "Dolls" is an affectionate term coined by the LGBTQ+ community to refer to transgender women. Another user, Raeon Artez, pointed out that no matter what flaws the writers have tried to pin on Joel, viewers are so taken by him that they make excuses for his behavior, even when it's questionable. Did he have to kill Eugene? No, but he is 6 feet tall. Did he have to lie and manipulate Ellie about the Firefly situation? No, but he is handsome. For me, Narcos Pedro Pascal reigns supreme over them all. However, I can't deny that even as I was watching The Last of Us, I too found myself captivated by the man's gait. The fight scenes were cool and his full-circle relationship with Ellie is heartwarming, but the moments in which his soft Chilean accent slipped into his dialogue remind me why I became a fan in the first place. There's a lot to be learned from the show, tons of lessons about who we become when our backs are against the wall, the decisions we make for our own comfort vs. for the best of our loved ones and how anger and hatred only beget more anger and hatred. All of it is important and valuable. But paramount above it all, is that Pedro Pascal is a zaddy of the first order. The Last of Us seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Max. Read the original article on People
