Showing posts with label Scifi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scifi. Show all posts
The Signal (2014)
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Three MIT students - Jonah, Nic and Haley - are on a road trip to take Haley to California, a decision that's stressing Nic & Haley's relationship. Haley feels Nic is distancing himself from her and Nic explains he doesn't want his muscular dystrophy to hold her back. During their stay in a hotel, Nic and Jonah discover that the hacker NOMAD (who nearly got Jonah and Nic expelled for breaking into MIT servers), has found their location and is taunting them with strange and ominous emails. They track NOMAD to an abandoned house in the middle of Nevada near their path and decide to go after him. After finding nothing in the house, Nic and Jonah black out as Haley is pulled into the air by an unseen force.
Nic, now with 2.3.5.41 tattooed on his arm, wakes up in a strange and sterile underground research facility, where he is questioned by Dr. Wallace Damon, the head of the "transition group" in helping with his strange situation. He tells Nic what they encountered near the house was an EBE: an extra-terrestrial biological entity. Nic remains in disbelief. He is taken to his room where he hears Jonah talking to him through a small vent in the wall, saying his "body feels weird." Nic also notices that his legs, which were previously weak but functional, were now completely numb. When Dr. Damon questions Nic again, Nic tries to get answers about Haley's condition (who is in a coma at the time), but to no avail. After another night, a security alarm goes off and Jonah disappears. Nic and other personnel in the facility find large scorch marks running across the walls. Nic asks Damon where Jonah went, but Damon says Jonah was "never recovered" from the house. Nic tries to break Haley out, but is stopped. After they restrain Nic, he's shocked to discover that his legs have been amputated and replaced by prosthetic legs, made from alien technology. Using these new limbs, Nic breaks himself and Haley out, only to discover they're in the middle of nowhere.
After hijacking a semi-truck, Nic and Haley try to find a way around a seemingly endless canyon that extends around the facility and surrounding area. At a visitor's center, they soon come across Jonah disguised as one of the facility's men dressed in a white HAZMAT. Jonah reveals that he too had limbs taken from him, as his forearms have been replaced with the same alien technology. Jonah speculates that they're all in Area 51 and that this is all a test. After Nic discovers alien tech also implanted on Haley's spine, the trio drive up to a military checkpoint where Jonah tries to hack into their systems only to be shot at, eventually fatally. Nic and Jonah hug as Jonah prepares for his final stand to enable Nic and Haley's escape. He uses his remaining strength and alien tech to subdue the group of soldiers. However, Nic and Haley's escape is short-lived; as they approach the only bridge that would take them over the canyon to the outside world, they soon run into Damon and his military men who blow out the truck's tires. Haley is evacuated by chopper beyond the canyon and, knowing that Nic has mastered use of his legs, Damon tells Nic "you can't reach her." After hearing a loud horn coming from the sky, Nic realizes Damon is NOMAD. Damon then explains that it was Nic who came looking for him, that this was his fault, and adding that Nic is "the perfect integration of human will and alien technology. Our finest achievement." Agitated and emotionally compromised, Nic's bionic legs enable him to sprint at sonic speed across the bridge in the direction of Haley's chopper where he hits an invisible barrier and breaks through.
Nic finds himself inside what appears to be a different facility that is behind the image of the outside world beyond the canyon. Turning back toward the bridge, he sees Damon remove his helmet to reveal he's actually a robotic alien AI. Nic walks towards a window and realizes he isn't in a facility, but is on an alien ship numbered 2.3.5.41 that is about to dock at their home-world (signaled by the horn).
Godzilla (2014)
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Fifteen years later, Joe's son Ford, a US Navy explosive ordnance disposal officer, returns from a tour of duty to his family in San Francisco but has to immediately depart for Japan after Joe is detained for trespassing in the Janjira quarantine zone. Determined to reveal the disaster's true cause, Joe persuades Ford to accompany him to their old home within the zone to retrieve vital data. They successfully retrieve the data but are captured and taken to a secret facility within the plant's ruins. Inside, a giant winged creature emerges from containment and escapes, destroying the facility. Joe is severely wounded and later dies. The incident is reported around the world as a major earthquake.
Serizawa, Graham and Ford join a US Navy task force led by Admiral William Stenz on the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga to search for the creature, dubbed "Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism," ("MUTO"). The scientists reveal how a 1954 deep sea expedition triggered the appearance of Godzilla, a prehistoric alpha predator; how early nuclear tests were really attempts to kill him; that Project Monarch was formed secretly to study Godzilla; and that the MUTO caused the Janjira destruction. Ford reveals that Joe had monitored echolocation signals that indicated the MUTO was communicating with something.
The MUTO is found feeding off the wreckage of a Russian nuclear submarine it deposited in a forest in Hawaii. The military attacks and the battle shifts to Honolulu International Airport where Ford is waiting for a flight home. Godzilla arrives, causing a tsunami that devastates Waikiki. After briefly fighting Godzilla, the MUTO flies away, and Honolulu is left in ruin. Meanwhile, at a Nevada nuclear waste facility, a second, larger and wingless MUTO, emerges and devastates Las Vegas. The scientists deduce that the second MUTO is female, the two were communicating and will meet to breed.
After the military fails to stop Godzilla when he arrives at the Golden Gate Bridge, Stenz accepts Serizawa's advice and orders the military to withdraw to allow the three monsters to fight. While they battle, soldiers, including Ford, enter the city by HALO jump to find and disarm the warhead. Unable to disarm the warhead at the nest, they put it on a boat for disposal at sea. Ford blows up the nest before the MUTO eggs can hatch, causing the female to leave the battle. Godzilla then kills the male, using his tail to crush the MUTO against a building. The female finds and kills the team on the boat but Ford is saved when Godzilla kills the female by firing his atomic breath down her throat, thus decapitating her. Godzilla then collapses from injury and exhaustion after roaring in victory. Ford pilots the boat out to sea, and is rescued before the warhead detonates.
The next day, Ford finds his family at an emergency shelter. In the city ruins, Godzilla, thought to be dead, suddenly awakens and returns to the ocean hailed 'King of the Monsters".
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
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Two years after the Battle of New York,[4] Steve Rogers works in Washington D.C. for the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. under Director Nick Fury, while adjusting to contemporary society. Rogers and Agent Natasha Romanoff are sent with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s counter-terrorism S.T.R.I.K.E. team, led by Agent Rumlow, to free hostages aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel from Georges Batroc and his mercenaries. Mid-mission, Rogers discovers Romanoff has another agenda: to extract data from the ship's computers for Fury. Rogers returns to the Triskelion, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters to confront Fury and is briefed about Project Insight: three Helicarriers linked to spy satellites, designed to preemptively eliminate threats. Unable to decrypt the data recovered by Romanoff, Fury becomes suspicious about Insight and asks senior S.H.I.E.L.D. official Alexander Pierce to delay the project.
On his way to rendezvous with Maria Hill, Fury is ambushed by assailants led by a mysterious assassin called the Winter Soldier. Fury escapes to Rogers's apartment, and warns Rogers that S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised. After handing Rogers a flash drive containing data from the ship, Fury is gunned down by the Winter Soldier. Fury dies in surgery, and Hill recovers the body. The next day, Pierce summons Rogers to the Triskelion. When Rogers withholds Fury's information, Pierce brands him a fugitive. Hunted by S.T.R.I.K.E., Rogers meets with Romanoff. Using data in the flash drive they discover a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. bunker in New Jersey, where they activate a supercomputer containing the preserved consciousness of Arnim Zola. Zola reveals that ever since S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded after World War II, Hydra has secretly operated within its ranks, sowing global chaos with the goal that humanity would willingly surrender its freedom in exchange for security. The pair narrowly escape death when a S.H.I.E.L.D. missile destroys the bunker.
Rogers and Romanoff enlist the help of former USAF pararescueman Sam Wilson, whom Rogers befriended, and acquire his powered "Falcon" wingpack. Deducing that S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jasper Sitwell is a Hydra mole, they force him to divulge that Zola developed a data-mining algorithm that can identify individuals who might become future threats to Hydra's plans. The Insight Helicarriers will sweep the globe, using satellite-guided guns to eliminate these individuals. Rogers, Romanoff, and Wilson are ambushed by the Winter Soldier, who kills Sitwell. During the fight, Rogers recognizes the Winter Soldier as Bucky Barnes, his friend who was captured and experimented upon during WWII. Hill manages to extract the trio to a safehouse where Fury, who had faked his death, is waiting with plans to sabotage the Helicarriers by replacing their controller chips.
After the World Security Council members arrive for the Helicarriers' launch, Rogers broadcasts Hydra's plot to everyone at the Triskelion. Romanoff, disguised as one of the Council members, disarms Pierce. Fury arrives and forces Pierce to unlock S.H.I.E.L.D's database so that Romanoff can leak classified information, exposing Hydra to the public. Following a struggle, Fury shoots Pierce dead. Meanwhile, Rogers and Wilson storm two Helicarriers and replace the controller chips, but the Winter Soldier destroys Wilson's suit and fights Rogers on the third. Rogers fends him off and replaces the final chip, allowing Hill to take control and have the vessels destroy each other. Rogers refuses to fight the Winter Soldier in an attempt to reach his friend, but as the ship collides with the Triskelion, Rogers is thrown out into the Potomac River. The Winter Soldier rescues the unconscious Rogers before disappearing into the woods. With S.H.I.E.L.D. in disarray, Romanoff appears before a Senate subcommittee and Fury, under the cover of his apparent death, heads to Eastern Europe in pursuit of Hydra's remaining cells. Rogers and Wilson decide to find the Winter Soldier, while Rumlow, who was a double agent for Hydra, is hospitalized following the Triskelion's destruction.
In a mid-credits scene, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, at a Hydra lab, proclaims that the "age of miracles" has begun as scientists examine an energy-filled scepter1 and two prisoners: one with superhuman speed, the other with telekinetic powers. In a post-credits scene, the Winter Soldier visits a Bucky memorial at the Smithsonian Institution.
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
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In the future, robots known as Sentinels are exterminating all mutants, as well as any humans who seek to help them. A band of mutants evades the Sentinels with the help of Kitty Pryde, who can project a person's consciousness into the past. Pryde's group convenes with Storm, Wolverine, Professor Xavier, and Magneto at a monastery in China. Pryde sends Wolverine's consciousness to 1973 to prevent Mystique from assassinating Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels. Following the assassination, Mystique was captured, and her DNA was used by Trask's company to create Sentinels, whose ability to adapt to any mutant power makes them almost invincible. Xavier and Magneto advise Wolverine to find both of their younger selves for help.
Wolverine awakens in 1973. At the X-Mansion, he encounters Xavier and Beast. Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters has closed after most of the teachers and students were drafted for the Vietnam War. Xavier, now a broken man, is overusing a serum which allows him to walk and suppresses his telepathy. Wolverine explains his mission and persuades Xavier to help free Magneto from a prison cell beneath the Pentagon, where he is being held for allegedly assassinating President John F. Kennedy. They rescue Magneto with the help of Peter Maximoff, a mutant with superhuman speed.
In Washington D.C., Trask unsuccessfully lobbies Congress to gain support for his Sentinel program. Meanwhile, in Saigon, Mystique prevents William Stryker from appropriating a group of mutant G.I.s for Trask's research. Mystique investigates Trask's office and discovers he has been capturing mutants to use in experiments. Xavier, Magneto, Beast, and Wolverine fly to Paris to intercept Mystique. In Paris, Mystique impersonates a South Vietnamese general to infiltrate the Paris Peace Accords with Trask, who is trying to sell his Sentinel technology to communist nations. Xavier, Magneto, Beast, and Wolverine arrive as Mystique is about to kill Trask. Magneto tries to kill Mystique to ensure her DNA cannot be used for the Sentinels, but she jumps from a window. The fight spills onto the street in view of the public, allowing Magneto and Mystique to escape. During this time in the future, Pryde's control over Logan weakens, who injures Pryde.
Trask is saved, but the world is horrified by the existence of mutants. President Richard Nixon approves Trask's Sentinel program and arranges an unveiling ceremony. Trask's scientists recover Mystique's blood from the street. Meanwhile, Magneto—who has recovered his telepathy-blocking helmet—intercepts the prototype Sentinels in transit and laces their polymer-based frames with steel, allowing him to control them. At the mansion, Xavier stops taking his serum and slowly regains his mental powers, while losing the ability to walk. Through Wolverine, Xavier speaks to his future self and is inspired to work for peace between humans and mutants once again. He uses Cerebro to track Mystique, who is heading to Washington D.C.
As Xavier, Wolverine, and Beast search for Mystique, Nixon unveils the Sentinel prototypes at the White House. Magneto commandeers the Sentinels and attacks the crowd, then sets the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium around the White House as a barricade. Nixon and Trask, accompanied by the Cabinet, Secret Service officers, and Mystique (disguised as a Secret Service member), are taken to a safe room. Wolverine and Beast try to stop Magneto, but he pits a Sentinel against them and then throws Wolverine into the Potomac River. In the future, the X-Men make their final stand as a large army of Sentinels attack the monastery. In 1973, Magneto pulls the safe room from the White House and prepares to kill Nixon and his Cabinet. Mystique, disguised as Nixon, incapacitates Magneto with a plastic gun. Xavier persuades Mystique to spare Trask and allows her and Magneto to flee. Mystique's actions are seen as a mutant saving the President, leading to the cancellation of the Sentinel program. Trask is arrested for trying to sell American military secrets.
Wolverine wakes up in the future to find Iceman, Rogue, Colossus, Pryde, Beast, Storm, Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Xavier alive. In 1973, Mystique impersonates Stryker and takes custody of Wolverine.
In a post-credits scene, a crowd chants to En Sabah Nur, who is using telekinesis to build pyramids as four horsemen keep watch nearby.
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
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A race of aliens called Mimics has taken over continental Europe. General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson), head of humanity's United Defense Force, orders Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), a public affairs officer and former advertising executive, to cover combat on the beaches of France during the next day's assault on the Mimics. Cage objects to the dangerous assignment and threatens to use his public relation skills to turn the public against Brigham when the casualties start increasing from the invasion, for which he is arrested and knocked out. He wakes in handcuffs at a forward operating base at Heathrow Airport and discovers he has been labeled a deserter and put on combat duty for the invasion under the command of Master Sergeant Farell (Bill Paxton).
The invasion is a disaster for the humans. Cage manages to kill a large Mimic, but dies as he is sprayed with its acid-like blood. He then wakes up at Heathrow the previous morning. No one believes his story that he knows the invasion will fail. He repeats the loop of dying on the beach and waking at Heathrow until he encounters Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), who recognizes his ability to anticipate events and tells him to locate her the next time he "wakes up".
Cage finds Vrataski at Heathrow. Together they meet up with each other with Dr. Carter (Noah Taylor), a former government scientist and expert in Mimic biology. Cage learns that the kind of Mimic he killed in his first loop, an "Alpha", resets time when it is killed to give the Mimics an advantage in battle. Cage inherited this ability when he was doused in the Alpha's blood as they both died. Vrataski had this ability in a previous battle but lost it after receiving a blood transfusion. She tells Cage that they must hunt the Mimics' hive mind, the Omega.
Over succeeding loops Vrataski trains Cage into a more effective soldier. After getting discouraged from these loops he travels to London, there he realises and sees the Mimics were planning on overrunning London during the invasion on the beach. He and Vrataski spend several loops learning how to survive the battle on the beach and get inland based on his vision of the Omega hiding in a Bavarian Alps dam. After numerous loops end in Vrataski's death, Cage decides to hunt the Omega alone, abandoning her and the rest of the invasion to doom on the beach. When he arrives at the dam, he discovers that the Omega is not there. He manages to kill himself before an Alpha can steal his blood and prevent him from resetting the day. Back at Heathrow, he tells Vrataski and Carter that his vision was a trick.
Cage and Vrataski adopt a new approach: they infiltrate the Ministry of Defence in search of a prototype built by Carter that will allow Cage to discover the Omega's true location. After several failed loops they obtain the device, which reveals that the Omega is located under the Louvre Pyramid in Paris. They are injured as they flee, and Cage's life is saved by a blood transfusion, but it removes his ability to reset the day.
Vrataski frees Cage and they return to Heathrow, where they convince his squad to help destroy the Omega. The other squad members sacrifice themselves to get Cage and Vrataski beneath the Louvre. Vrataski distracts a waiting Alpha while Cage advances on the Omega. The Alpha kills them both, but not before Cage primes and drops a grenade belt into the Omega's core, destroying it and neutralizing the other Mimics.
Cage's body absorbs the Omega's blood. He wakes up en route to his meeting with Brigham the day before. Brigham announces that Mimic activity has ceased following a power surge in Paris. Cage is never arrested and he goes to Heathrow, where he finds his squad mates, including Farell. None of them recognize him and treat him respectfully as an officer, as he is once again a Major. He meets Vrataski, who does not recognize him either. She asks what he wants, as she had many times before, and he smirks and laughs.
The Giver (2014)
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In the year 2048, after a war, the community has decided to get rid of different races and feelings. All the citizens have had their memories erased; except for the Receiver of Memory. As the Receiver of Memory is the only individual in the community who has the memories from before, he must advise the Chief Elder, and the other Elders, on the decisions for the community. Jonas is to become the next Receiver of Memory, and progressively receive memories, from the past receiver, The Giver. Jonas learns of the Giver's past and of his child, Rosemary. She preceded Jonas as Receiver of Memory, and was so distraught from the memories that she committed suicide, by what the Community call releasing. They regard its nature as mysterious; the audience learn that it is death by lethal injection. Jonas begins to teach his findings to his friend Fiona, who he decides to share the idea of feelings with. Fiona is unsure of how she feels about feelings, but they kiss while together privately.
Jonas also shares his memories with the baby his father brought home to their house, Gabe, and develops a close relationship with him after discovering he shares the same mark on his wrist Jonas does, the mark of a potential Receiver of Memory. Jonas decides that everyone should have the memories of the past and eventually, the Giver and Jonas decide that the only way they can help the community is to go past the border of what they call Elsewhere, beyond the community, therefore releasing the memories back into the community. Jonas sneaks out at curfew, and decides to get Gabe at the Nurturing Center, who is to be released of weakness. Asher, his other longtime friend besides Fiona, tries to stop him before he leaves the neighborhood, but Jonas quickly punches him. Asher lies on the ground, stunned, and Jonas rides his bike to the Nurturing Center. He tells Fiona his plan and wants to take her with him, but she refuses and instead helps him retrieve Gabe. Before he leaves, she kisses him and helps him escape.
Meanwhile Jonas's mother and Asher, go to the Chief Elder to tell them Jonas is missing. Guards are sent to contain Jonas, who they say has become "dangerous", but Jonas gets one of their motorcycles and drives off the cliff near the Giver's dwelling into "The Elsewhere". Asher is assigned, by the Chief Elder, to use a drone to find Jonas and "lose" him but when Asher finds Jonas stumbling through the woods, he captures him with the drone. After Jonas implores Asher to think that if he ever cared for Jonas to let him go, Asher drops him into a river, setting him free. Jonas stumbles through the land of Elsewhere, while Fiona has been condemned to be "released" for helping him. Just as she is about to be released by Jonas's father, the Giver steps in and stalls the Chief Elder with memories of his daughter, Rosemary, trying to call out the Chief Elder, in which she succeeded. Eventually, Jonas finds a sled like one he rode in a memory from the Giver and makes his way beyond the border of Elsewhere, releasing memories and color back into the community and saving Fiona because Jonas's father realizes what he was really doing. Jonas and Gabe return to the house of his memories, where people are singing Christmas carols, and his voiceover says that back in the community, he swears he hears music too, or maybe just an echo.
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
Sixty-five million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, beings known as the Creators detonate many metallic devices known as Seeds, wiping out most life on Earth. In the present, a geologist named Darcy Tyril discovers a dinosaur corpse covered in a strange metal in the Arctic.
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Five years have passed since the Battle of Chicago and humanity has grown fearful of the Autobots and joint combat operations between them have been severed. Officially the Autobots are granted sanctuary but secretly, even without the U.S. President's knowledge, Cemetery Wind, an elite CIA unit headed by paranoid agent Harold Attinger and team leader James Savoy, tasked with hunting down the remaining Decepticons, is also secretly hunting down Autobots, believing them to be a threat, and have killed most of them. With the aid of the Transformer bounty hunter Lockdown, they ambush and brutally kill Ratchet. Their primary target, however, is Optimus Prime, whom Lockdown personally wants alive.
Meanwhile in rural Texas, Cade Yeager, a struggling inventor, and his friend Lucas buy an old truck to strip it for parts in hopes of sending Cade's daughter Tessa to college. Cade soon discovers that the truck is an injured Optimus Prime and repairs him. After locating Optimus in Texas, Cemetery Wind and Lockdown travel there and confront Cade, Tessa, and Lucas. Optimus comes out of hiding and attacks the operatives, allowing Cade and his friends to escape. They are saved by Tessa's secret boyfriend, Shane Dyson, with whom they escape, though Lucas is killed by Lockdown's grenade. While in hiding, tensions between Cade, his daughter and Shane rise due to the fact that the two teenagers kept their relationship secret. Optimus, meanwhile rallies the last remaining Autobots: Bumblebee, Hound, Drift, and Crosshairs. Cade hacks into a drone he took from the attack in Texas, and learns that Cemetery Wind is working with a corporation called KSI. They decide to infiltrate KSI headquarters in Chicago for information.
Meanwhile, Joshua Joyce, the head of KSI, shows Tyril that he has perfected transformium, the codeable, molecularly unstable metal that of which the Transformers are comoposed. He has imprisoned Brains to decode dead Transformers' brains and utilize their data for human-created Transformers. He shows Tyril his prized creation, Galvatron, who was created using data from Megatron's brain. Optimus and the Autobots storm the facility, free Brains, and start to destroy the facility. Joyce stops them, and when he explains that humans don't need the Autobots anymore, now that they can create their own Transformer soldiers, the Autobots leave.
Attinger forces Joyce to launch Galvatron and another man-made Transformer, Stinger, to pursue the Autobots. Galvatron and Optimus battle before Lockdown wounds and captures Optimus, along with Tessa, into his ship, where he locks Optimus in the middle of his trophy room, which also houses the Dinobots, who are regarded as legendary knights. Lockdown explains that the Creators want Optimus back. Before leaving, Lockdown gives Cemetery Wind a Seed, a bomb that can cyberform any area of land, giving Cade, Shane, and the Autobots time to board the ship. Cade and Shane save Tessa, and escape with Bumblebee. The other Autobots save Optimus and escape on the detachable section of Lockdown's ship containing the trophy room, before Lockdown's ship enters deep space. Optimus and Brains reveal that Galvatron is Megatron reincarnated, and that he has been manipulating KSI to build an army and steal the Seed in order to wipe out humans and create more Decepticons. Joyce retreats to Beijing with Tyril and his business associate, Su Yueming, to use the production facilities there. Cade warns Joyce, who decides to go back on his deal with Attinger. As the two argue, Galvatron activates by himself and infects all the KSI prototypes, enabling him to command them to do his bidding.
As the Autobots try to retrieve the Seed in Hong Kong, their ship is shot down by Galvatron's army, leaving Hound and Bumblebee to fight the battle outnumbered. Knowing this, Optimus releases and tames the Dinobots. With their help, they destroy Galvatron's army. Lockdown returns and uses a magnetic weapon in an effort to reclaim Optimus and the Dinobots. However, Optimus destroys it and proceeds to fight Lockdown. Cade, after managing to evade and kill Savoy, tries to help but is held at gunpoint by Attinger, who is disgusted by Cade's choice to side with the Autobots. Optimus saves Cade by killing Attinger, but Lockdown impales Optimus with his sword into a wall. Cade and Bumblebee distract Lockdown while Tessa and Shane take the sword out of Optimus, who then kills Lockdown. Galvatron retreats, vowing to battle Optimus another day. Optimus sets the Dinobots free and requests the Autobots to protect Cade and his family before flying into space with the Seed, sending a message to the Creators that he is coming for them.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
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In 1988, following his mother's death, a young Peter Quill is abducted from Earth by the Ravagers, a group of space pirates led by Yondu Udonta. Twenty-six years later on the planet Morag, Quill steals an orb, after which he is intercepted by Korath, a subordinate to the fanatical Kree, Ronan. Although Quill escapes with the orb, Yondu discovers his theft and issues a bounty for his capture, while Ronan sends the assassin Gamora after the orb.
When Quill attempts to sell the orb on the Nova Empire capital world, Xandar, Gamora ambushes him and steals it. A fight ensues, drawing in a pair of bounty hunters: the genetically engineered raccoon Rocket, and the tree-like humanoid Groot. The Nova Corps arrives and arrests all four, imprisoning them in the Kyln. While there, a powerful inmate, Drax, attempts to kill Gamora due to her association with Ronan, who killed his family. Quill dissuades him by saying that Gamora can bring Ronan to him, at which point Gamora reveals that she has betrayed Ronan, unwilling to let him use the orb's power to destroy entire planets such as Xandar. Learning that Gamora has a buyer for the orb, she, Quill, Rocket, Groot, and Drax work together to escape from the Kyln.
Elsewhere, Ronan meets with Gamora's adoptive father, the titan Thanos, to discuss her betrayal and the loss of the orb. Accompanied by Drax, Quill's group escapes the Kyln in his ship — the Milano — and flee to Knowhere, a remote criminal outpost in space built in the giant severed-head of a Celestial. A drunken Drax summons Ronan while the rest of the group meet Gamora's contact, the collector Taneleer Tivan. Tivan opens the orb, revealing an Infinity Stone, an item of immeasurable power that destroys all but the most powerful beings who wield it. Suddenly, Tivan's tormented assistant grabs the Stone, triggering an explosion that engulfs Tivan's archive.
Ronan arrives and easily defeats Drax, while the others flee by ship, pursued by Ronan's followers and Gamora's sister Nebula. Nebula destroys Gamora's ship, leaving her floating in space, and Ronan's forces leave with the sphere. Quill contacts Yondu before following Gamora into space, giving her his helmet to survive; Yondu arrives and retrieves the pair. Rocket, Drax, and Groot threaten to attack Yondu's ship to rescue them, but Quill negotiates a truce by convincing Yondu that they can recover the orb. The group agrees that facing Ronan means certain death, yet despite that they also understand they must stop him from using the Infinity Stone to destroy the galaxy. On Ronan's flagship, the Dark Aster, Ronan embeds the Stone in his warhammer, taking its power for himself. He contacts Thanos, threatening to kill him after the destruction of Xandar; hateful of her adopted father, Nebula allies with Ronan.
Near Xandar, the Dark Aster is confronted by the Ravagers, the Nova Corps, and Quill's group, which breaches the Dark Aster. While Ronan uses his empowered warhammer to destroy the Nova Corps fleet, Drax kills Korath. On the Dark Aster, after Gamora defeats Nebula (who escapes), she unlocks Ronan's chambers, but the group finds themselves outmatched by his power until Rocket crashes the Milano through the Dark Aster and into Ronan. The damaged Dark Aster crash-lands on Xandar, with Groot sacrificing himself to shield the group. Ronan emerges from the wreck and prepares to destroy Xandar, but Quill distracts him, allowing Drax and Rocket to destroy Ronan's warhammer. Quill grabs the freed Stone, and with Gamora, Drax, and Rocket sharing its burden, they use it to disintegrate Ronan.
In the aftermath, Quill tricks Yondu into taking a container supposedly containing the Stone, then gives the real Stone to the Nova Corps. As the Ravagers leave Xandar, Yondu remarks that it turned out well that they did not deliver Quill to his father per their contract. Quill's group, now known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, have their criminal records expunged, and Quill learns that he is only half-human, his father being part of an ancient, unknown species. Quill finally opens the last present he received from his mother: a cassette tape filled with her favorite songs. The Guardians leave in the rebuilt Milano along with a sapling cut from Groot.
In a post-credits scene, Tivan sits in his destroyed archive with two of his living exhibits: a canine cosmonaut and an anthropomorphic duck.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is an upcoming 2014 American science fiction adventure film directed by Francis Lawrence with a screenplay by Peter Craig and Danny Strong. It is the first of two cinematic parts based on the novel Mockingjay, the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy, written by Suzanne Collins, and the third installment in The Hunger Games film series, produced by Nina Jacobson and Jon Kilik and distributed by Lionsgate. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Jeffrey Wright, Donald Sutherland, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It is the sequel to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and will be followed by the concluding entry, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.
The story continues to follow Katniss Everdeen who, after escaping the Third Quarter Quell, becomes a reluctant hero and symbol of hope for the nation of Panem. Principal photography for both parts of the film began on September 23, 2013 in Atlanta, before moving to Paris for two weeks of filming and officially concluding on June 20, 2014 in Berlin, Germany.
Part 1 is scheduled to be released on November 21, 2014 in the United States, and has landed atop Fandango's list of most-anticipated films for 2014
Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) finds herself in District 13 after she literally shatters the Games forever. Under the leadership of President Coin (Julianne Moore) and the advice of her trusted friends, Katniss spreads her wings as she fights to save Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and a nation moved by her courage.
The Hunger Games Catching Fire
One year after the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark return home to District 12. After a hunt in the woods with her friend Gale Hawthorne, Katniss is visited at her home by President Snow. He tells her that her decisions in the arena have triggered rebellions, especially in District 8, and also warns her to use the upcoming Victory Tour to show Panem that her acts of rebellion in the arena were just to show love towards Peeta. She reluctantly accepts.
During the first visit in the Victory Tour, which is held in District 11, an old man holds up the three-fingered sign that's occasionally used in District 12 to show respect and admiration for someone. Peacekeepers interpreted this as an act of rebellion, and dragged the man to the front of the stage in the square and shoot him dead with a pistol, much to the horror, shock and dismay of Katniss. Haymitch angrily tells her "you never get off this train" which means that Katniss and Peeta are mentors for the District 12 tributes and act as a "distraction" to the districts so that the people of Panem will forget "what the real problem is."
Katniss, Peeta, Effie and Haymitch return home and Katniss quickly goes to Gale. They both devise a plan to run away, but fail. The Capitol sends Peacekeepers to District 12 to crack down on the citizens. The new head Peacekeeper, Romulus Thread, whips Gale after Gale attacked Romulus to stop him from killing an old woman. Haymitch convinces Thread to leave Katniss, Peeta and Gale alone as they are loved ones to the country. While Katniss is watching TV with her family, she, Peeta and Haymitch learn that the previous victors from each district will be selected for the 3rd Quarter Quell. At the reaping, Effie draws Katniss and Haymitch's names, but Peeta volunteers to take Haymitch's place.
The victors from each district visit President Snow's palace for a royal dinner party. While having a dance, Katniss meets new head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. After the dinner party, the victors are sent to the training center and a hotel. Haymitch warns Katniss that the tributes are furious at being returned to the games and advises a reluctant Katniss to make allies. During the interviews with Caesar Flickerman, Katniss wears a wedding dress, but her stylist Cinna rigs it to transform into the representation of a mockingjay. President Snow witnesses this and sends Peacekeepers out to kill Cinna before Katniss is elevated into the arena.
Katniss and Peeta make alliances with the District 4 tributes, Finnick Odair and Mags, a few minutes into the games. Finnick saves Katniss by throwing a trident into a male from District 5 who was trying to kill Katniss. While the group is trudging through the jungle, Peeta accidentally hits his machete against the force field, electrocuting him and stopping his heart. Finnick resuscitates him. Before going to sleep, Katniss notices a poison fog coming for them at a fast pace, and the group flees. When Peeta is incapacitated by the fog, Mags walks into it, sacrificing herself and allowing Finnick and Katniss to carry Peeta to safety. After fleeing from a group of wild and extremely ferocious mandrills, Katniss, Peeta and Finnick escape to a beach where they ally with Wiress and Beetee from District 3, and Johanna Mason from 7.
Wiress is in shock from a blood storm and repeatedly says "Tick-Tock." Katniss realizes that the arena is set up like a clock, with disasters occurring every hour and lightning striking at midnight. The group is then attacked by the Career pack in which Wiress is killed in the fight but Katniss and Johanna kill two of the Careers, sending the surviving Careers back into the jungle. Beetee devises a plan to electrocute the last two Careers by combining a spool of wire and lightning, sending Katniss and Johanna to help prepare the trap. The women are ambushed by the remaining Careers; Johanna attacks them, incapacitates Katniss and slits the tracker out of her arm before disappearing. Shaken by Johanna's assault, Katniss returns to the tree and finds Beetee knocked out next to a metal tipped spear wrapped with the wire. Katniss is now suspicious of potential secret foes and attempts to kill Finnick, but he reminds her to 'remember who the real enemy is,' as Haymitch had advised her prior to the games. Seeing that the lightning is about to strike, Katniss attaches the remaining wire to an arrow and shoots it into the force field just as the lightning hits, taking down the dome's force field as well as the Capitol's surveillance.
Haymitch and Plutarch Heavensbee break into the arena and rescue Katniss, Beetee and Finnick. Katniss awakens in the aircraft and finds Haymitch, Finnick and Plutarch talking. Plutarch tells Katniss that they are heading to district 13, headquarters of the new rebellion, but that Peeta and Johanna were taken hostage by the Capitol forces. Plutarch sedates Katniss as she argues with Haymitch. She later awakens with Gale by her side, who tells her that her family survived, but District 12 no longer exists.
Hunger Games
The dystopian nation of Panem consists of a wealthy Capitol ruling twelve poorer districts. As punishment for a past rebellion and as a way to demoralize the districts to quell social uprising, each district must provide two "tributes" - one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 selected by lottery (the "Reaping") - every year to compete in the televised Hunger Games; they must fight to the death in a vast arena, with the sole survivor rewarded with fame and wealth.
In District 12, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to be the female Tribute when her younger sister Primrose is initially drawn. She and the male Tribute Peeta Mellark, a boy her age from the same village, are escorted to the Capitol by chaperone Effie Trinket and their mentor Haymitch Abernathy, a past District 12 victor and severe alcoholic. Haymitch impresses on them the importance of gaining sponsors as they can provide gifts of food and supplies during the Games. During part of a series of interviews, Peeta publicly expresses his love for Katniss, which she initially takes as trying to earn sponsors' favor, but later learns his love is earnest. While training, Katniss observes the Career Tributes Marvel, Glimmer, Cato and Clove, from Districts 1 and 2, who have been illegally training for the Games since a young age.
At the start of the games, Katniss ignores Haymitch's advice and tries to acquire supplies from the Cornucopia, the central point of the arena, and narrowly avoids being killed; nearly half the Tributes are killed in the initial melee. Katniss tries to stay as far away from the other competitors but the gamemaster Seneca Crane directs his agents to trigger events on the field to force her back towards the others. She runs into the Careers, with whom Peeta has allied, and escapes up a tree, where she finds Rue, District 11's female Tribute, hiding. The two work together to knock a nest of poisonous tracker jackers onto the Careers, killing Glimmer and forcing the others to flee. Rue helps Katniss tend to her wounds, becoming friends, and they work a plan to secretly destroy a cache of supplies the Careers have been hoarding, causing the Careers to distrust each other. Marvel discovers them and kills Rue before Katniss can help her. Katniss shoots and kills Marvel with an arrow, then mourns for Rue's loss, making sure her moment of sorrow is captured on the broadcast. The people of District 11, taken by Katniss' action, start a riot. President Snow warns Crane that this turn of events does not bode well for the Games.
When Crane returns, Haymitch suggests that he alter the game rules to allow two winners to make things interesting. When this change is announced, with the stipulation that the winners have to be from the same district, Katniss searches for Peeta, finding him wounded after fleeing from the Careers. After moving him to safety, Katniss leaves to get medicine from the Cornucopia, where Clove attempts to kill her. Katniss is saved when Thresh, District 11's other tribute, arrives and kills Clove, believing she had killed Rue, sparing Katniss's life out of respect for the kindness she showed Rue. Katniss returns with the medicine and prepares Peeta for the final hours of the game. Crane sends out wild beasts that kill Thresh, leaving only Cato, Katniss, and Peeta alive. Katniss and Peeta make it to Cornucopia where Cato is waiting and threatens to kill them both as the wild animals approach. Katniss gets the upper hand, and Cato falls to the ground and is eaten by the beasts.
Morning arrives, and Katniss and Peeta are still alive. They think they are the victors, but Crane shuts the district rule down, only allowing one victor. Katniss then convinces Peeta to enact a double suicide with her by ingesting nightlock, which she had obtained in the woods. When the two are about to take the poison, Crane changes his mind again, because he sees that their double suicide will ruin the Games by eliminating anyone from becoming Victor. They are both crowned victors of the 74th Hunger Games. Haymitch warns Katniss she has made great enemies with her act of defiance. Snow condemns Crane to his death for being manipulated by Katniss and Peeta. In the end of the film, Snow is shown walking up a stairway, perhaps pondering his next course of action.
World War Z
A worldwide zombie outbreak erupts in several metropolitan areas around the world; those bitten by the creatures become zombies themselves. Former UN investigator Gerry Lane, his wife Karin, and their two daughters manage to escape the outbreak in Philadelphia and take shelter with a Hispanic family in Newark, while waiting for special evacuation the next day thanks to Gerry's friend UN Deputy Secretary-General Thierry Umutoni. Their hosts choose not to accompany them when they flee the next day, and are subsequently killed by zombies. Their son, Tommy, manages to escape, and Gerry's family takes him in. They are flown to an offshore U.S. Navy carrier group where Umuntoni is overseeing the remaining worldwide governments' reactions.
The scientists there believe they must find the first case of the zombie outbreak, believed to be in South Korea. A team is dispatched to go, and Gerry is coerced into going with them under the threat of having his family sent to a potentially unsafe mainland refugee camp. The team lands at Camp Humphreys, where the surviving soldiers hold back zombie attacks: the zombies are fast and vicious, and once bitten, a person turns within seconds. Gerry learns that a Korean doctor was the first to come down with the rabies-like infection, after being bitten by a soldier he was treating whom local villagers had captured when he tried to attack them. A former CIA operative held at the base reveals that Israel had reacted a week before the outbreak, building giant walls around Jerusalem, and suggests that Gerry talk to Mossad agent Jurgen Warmbrunn.
Gerry is flown to Jerusalem and is brought to Jurgen Warmbrunn. The Mossad agent reveals they had intercepted a message from the Indian army on fighting the rakshasa ("zombies"). He and other Israeli experts convinced the government to build the wall to protect themselves. As Gerry is escorted back to his plane by the IDF, zombies are drawn to the loud music playing in the city and pile themselves against the wall, forming a mound of bodies that allows many to clear the wall. As the city is quickly overtaken by zombies, Gerry and the IDF members battle their way to escape. On their way, Gerry notices that the zombies avoid attacking an old man, and in another instance, a young feeble boy. A zombie bites Gerry's IDF escort and he quickly amputates her hand, which prevents her from being infected. Eventually, Gerry and the same female IDF member, who only identifies herself as Segen , are able to board the last passenger jet leaving the city.
Gerry recounts the zombie attacks and remembers seeing sick, injured, and elderly people passed over by the zombie hordes, which leads him to believe this is evidence of some way to deal with the hordes. He contacts Umuntoni to help convince the pilots to take them to Cardiff where an operational WHO facility is located. Nearing approach, a single zombie is discovered on the plane, and most of the passengers are quickly infected and converted. Seeing no other option, Gerry uses a grenade from Segen's pack to rupture the cabin and blow out the zombies, but this also causes the plane to crash. Gerry and Segen survive, though Gerry is impaled by a piece of shrapnel. They make their way to the WHO facility, where Gerry blacks out.
Gerry wakes up a few days later, nursed back to health. He contacts Umuntoni to help convince the WHO employees of his identity, but learns that Karin and his family were shipped to the mainland, as they believed he had died in the plane crash. Gerry explains his theory that the zombies ignore the infirm for the healthy, and suggests injecting themselves with a deadly but curable disease to mask themselves from the zombies. The WHO scientists agree but point out the pathogens are located in one of the zombie-infected labs. Gerry, Segen, and another WHO scientist carefully work through the infested labs but are detected. Segen and the WHO scientist get to safety, while Gerry finds himself in the vault with the pathogens, cornered by a lone zombie. Without the ability to identify the strains in storage, many of which could kill him, Gerry injects himself with one of the samples and finds himself still alive. His hypothesis is proven correct as the zombie enters the vault but does not attack, allowing him to walk back to safety with more samples as the rest of the zombies run right past him. Gerry is then treated for the disease.
In a voice-over, Gerry explains they were able to use these diseases to create a masking agent, allowing them to rescue refugees still trapped by zombies and fight against them. He says that this isn't the end and our war has just begun, but there is hope as people have used the masking agent to evacuate people or fight back. The final scene shows Gerry and Segen being taken to the mainland refugee camp where Gerry is reunited with his family.
Lucy (I) (2014)
Lucy is a 25-year-old American woman living and studying in Taipei, Taiwan. She is tricked into working as a drug mule by her new boyfriend, whose employer is a Korean mob boss and drug lord named Mr. Jang. Lucy delivers a briefcase to Mr. Jang containing a highly valuable synthetic drug called CPH4. She is captured and a bag of the drug is forcibly sewn into her abdomen and that of three other drug mules who will also transport the drug for sales in Europe. While Lucy is in captivity, one of her captors kicks her in the stomach, breaking the bag, releasing a large quantity of the drug into her system. As a result, she begins acquiring increasingly powerful and enhanced physical and mental capabilities, telepathy, telekinesis, mental time travel, and she can choose not to feel pain or other discomforts, in addition to other abilities. She kills off her present captors and escapes.
Lucy travels to a nearby hospital to get the bag of drugs removed from her abdomen. The bag is successfully removed, and Lucy is told by the operating doctor of the volatile nature of the drug and its destructive side-effects. Sensing her growing physical and mental abilities, Lucy returns to Mr. Jang's hotel, assaults him and his bodyguards, and telepathically extracts the locations of all three drug mules from his mind.
At her shared apartment, Lucy begins researching her condition and contacts a well-known scientist and doctor, Professor Samuel Norman, whose research may be the key to saving her. After Lucy speaks with the professor and provides proof of her developed abilities, she flies to Paris and contacts a local police captain, Pierre Del Rio, to help her find the remaining three packets of the drug. During the plane ride she starts to disintegrate as her cells destabilize from consuming a sip of champagne, which made her body inhospitable for cellular reproduction. Only by consuming more CPH4 was she able to prevent her total disintegration. Her powers continue to grow, leaving her able to telepathically incapacitate armed police and members from the Korean drug gang. Lucy recovers the drug and hurries to meet Professor Norman, with whom she agrees to share everything she now knows, after he points out that the main point of life is to pass on knowledge. Jang and the mob also want the drug and a gunfight ensues with the French police.
In the professor's lab, Lucy discusses the nature of time and life and how people's humanity distorts their perceptions. At her urging, she is intravenously injected with the contents of all three remaining bags of CPH4. Her body begins to metamorphose into a black substance, spreading over computers and other objects in the lab, as she transforms these into an unconventionally shaped, next generation supercomputer that will contain all of her enhanced knowledge of the universe. She then begins a spacetime journey into the past, eventually reaching the oldest discovered ancestor of mankind, implied to be Lucy, and touches fingertips with her. Meanwhile, back in the lab, after an RPG destroys the door, Mr. Jang enters and points a gun at Lucy's head from behind, intending to kill her. He shoots, but in an instant before the bullet strikes, Lucy reaches 100% of her cerebral capacity and disappears within the space time continuum, where she explains that everything is connected and existence is only proven through time. Only her clothes and the oddly shaped black supercomputer are left behind. Del Rio enters and fatally shoots Mr. Jang. Professor Norman takes a black, monolithic flash drive offered by the advanced supercomputer created by Lucy's body before the machine disintegrates to dust. Del Rio asks Professor Norman where Lucy is, immediately after which, Del Rio's cell phone sounds and he sees a text message: "I AM EVERYWHERE."
