Warning: contains spoilers for Doctor Who episode “Wish World”. In the penultimate episode of this season, John Smith and his loving wife Belinda live a picture-perfect life in suburbia with their very real daughter Poppy. Conrad Clark promises beautiful weather and tells light-hearted, very not-portentous stories on the TV, giant bone creatures stride across London, and everything is very normal. But Ruby Sunday is having doubts… How many ideas are too many? It’s a question that has nagged while watching this season of Doctor Who. While it’s arguably indecorous to snipe at previous eras of the show, it did sometimes feel like the Chibnall administration struggled to rustle up one killer idea per episode. That’s not been the problem with the second Russell T Davies epoch – quite the opposite, in fact. Granted, complaining about Doctor Who taking big swings is kind of like complaining about water being wet, but I’m not sure you can build a TV show on big swings alone. There are tons of ideas at play, and energy to spare (something the Chibnall era also often lacked), but the connective tissue isn’t always there to tie it all together. “Wish World”so much going on in this episode – we have to get to grips with an entirely new alternate reality, and our familiar characters’ new roles within it. We have the two Ranis, another new member of the Pantheon (a “terrifying” mystical baby with the power to grant wishes), Shirley’s ragtag crew of dispossessed freedom fighters, shots at reactionary conservatism, ableism, homophobia and tradwife aesthetics. The Seal of Rassilon is there. And then the climactic revelation that all this is merely a means to an end, as the Rani’s (Ranis’?) true objective becomes clear – to burrow beneath the surface of reality and find Omega, an all-powerful figure from ancient Time Lord history. It would be overstating it to say that the episode falls apart round about the time that Rani Prime (Archie Panjabi, having great fun chewing the appropriate quantity of scenery) starts monologuing to a confused Doctor about her dastardly scheme, but it’s where the cracks really start to show. It’s not the most elegant exposition that Davies has ever written, even if he does hang a cheeky lampshade on it by having the Rani explicitly refer to it as such, and making it part of her scheme. Steven Moffat tended to excel at these sorts of whirling expository scenes where everything falls into place, whereas here it very much feels like a rushed info dump connecting a bunch of disparate elements that haven’t all been adequately set up. It’s also here that the structure of ‘lots of ideas carried along with manic energy and high production values’ really creaks. Spending time in the wish world is great fun, with all the joys of mirror universe style stories, seeing everybody forced into perversely inappropriate roles and trying to work out exactly how this world works – or doesn’t work, as the case may be. There are lots of little grace notes, like Colonel Ibrahim’s horrified reaction when the Doctor unthinkingly reassures him that he’s “a beautiful man”, or the fascinating scene between Conrad and Mrs Flood, showing us the strain that keeping the wish alive is having on Conrad, and his uneasy relationship with the creepily chuckling god baby. But then the Rani starts monologuing, and it’s revealed that all of this – two years of Mrs Flood hints, the Pantheon, Conrad, the vindicators, the destruction of Earth, the wish world – is in service of reaching back into the dim and distant past of Gallifrey and finding an ancient Time Lord. A character who, if memory serves, hasn’t appeared on TV since the 1980s, apart from a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo in 2020’s “The Timeless Children”. It’s impossible to properly judge this reveal until we’ve seen next week’s “The Reality War”, but based on first impressions, it’s hard to feel terribly excited about the return of Omega. For an episode that’s generally so weird and spiky, and full of wonderfully unsettling imagery (like the baby’s mother gently collapsing into a pile of flowers), finding out that it’s all building towards the reveal of a figure who really belongs in the Wilderness Years does feel a tad anticlimactic. More than that, it feels fundamentally backwards-looking, which is a bizarre thing to be saying in a review of an episode that features a giggling god baby who grants wishes. Terrifying god babies that grant wishes are not something we’ve explored much in Doctor Who, whereas ancient Time Lord history really feels like it’s been done to death. Of course, it could all be a feint. Perhaps the twist will be that it was about the terrifying god baby all along, and Omega will remain in the dustbin of history. But, as with last season’s reveal of Sutekh, it almost feels as though Russell T Davies – who was so careful with how he rationed out classic series characters and references during his first run – is making up for lost time by playing with as much Doctor Who lore as he can get his hands on while he has the budget to visualise it, whether it’s the most dramatically compelling choice or not. And it contributes to the uneasy feeling that, while there are plenty of new ideas being introduced in this era, the inexorable gravity of Doctor Who’s mythos is always going to overpower them, so even something as bananas as a wish-granting god baby ultimately plays second fiddle. Admittedly, fans do like to see stuff they recognise. I am a fan. I like to see stuff I recognise. But we should not be indulged! Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! As underwhelming as the Omega reveal is, it doesn’t scupper the episode, which is full of great little moments. Belinda rushing off into the countryside to scream is chilling – Varada Sethu is brilliant throughout, convincingly embodying a different character while still being recognisable, and her gradual horrified realisations are very well played. Ncuti Gatwa is arguably the version of the Doctor who looks the most ill at ease wearing a boring suit and doing normal domestic stuff, so that’s all compellingly off-kilter – even if it would be nice if he woke up from the illusion a bit earlier. Conrad’s sneering and the Rani’s monologuing don’t have quite the same dramatic impact when triumphantly directed at a guy who barely knows who or where he is. The dynamic between Mrs Flood and Rani Prime is also a lot of fun, and the design of Wish World is brilliant, from the Tim Burton-esque identikit suburbia, the bone creatures and the weird cyber-bondage drone things, down to Connor’s sharp white suit. As ever, in terms of production design and visuals, the show is firing on all cylinders. And while Davies is far from subtle when writing about social issues (did we really need two instances of Ruby being clumsily steered into making ableist microaggressions just so the others could chastise her for them?), the idea of the ignored and dispossessed rising up to save a society that has forsaken them is the kind of radical undercurrent that feels appropriately Doctor Who. But will they stick the landing? Will the Doctor escape the mother of all cliffhangers? Will we find out what’s going on with Poppy? Will we see more of Rogue? Where is Susan? And will Conrad get to finish his sandwich? Reservations aside, I’m excited to find out. Doctor Who series 15 concludes with “The Reality War” on Saturday May 31 on BBC One in the UK and Disney+ around the world.

The current era of Doctor Who has tried to shy away from resurrecting some of the series’ biggest bads for the 15th Doctor to face off against—but that’s not to say it has been devoid of classic villains. As we barrel towards the finale of the show’s latest season, we’ve been given another in the form of the Rani, a brief but brilliant icon of ’80s Who. Who Is the Rani? An amoral Time Lord scientist, the Rani, portrayed by Kate O’Mara, appeared in just two classic Doctor Who storylines in the 1980s: “Mark of the Rani,” where she teamed up with the Master to face off against the Sixth Doctor, and “Time and the Rani,” Sylvester McCoy’s debut storyline as the Seventh Doctor, responsible for his prior incarnation’s regeneration as she takes over an alien world in an attempt to manipulate evolution across the cosmos. O’Mara would appear onscreen once more as the Rani during the 1993 special Dimensions in Time, both a celebration for the then-cancelled show’s 30th anniversary and a charity drive for Children in Need that saw Doctor Who cross over with the long-running British soap EastEnders, and the Rani trap multiple incarnations of the Doctor and several of their companions in a time loop in Walford, for inexplicable reasons. Little is known about the Rani beyond her on-screen appearances. She was given a similar background and status as a foil to the Doctor as the Master: a sinister mirror that felt kinship with the Doctor for their shared status as renegades of Time Lord society, as well as contemporaries who studied at the Pyrdonian Academy on Gallifrey together in their youths. But while the Doctor fled their people in rebellion, the Rani was exiled from Gallifrey for engaging in radical experimentation as part of her obsession with science and evolution. An obsession she was willing to do anything for, at any cost. Unlike many classic Who villains, the Rani has a limited life in spinoff media, even more so than her already limited TV outings. O’Mara portrayed the Rani once more in the questionably licensed 2000 audio drama The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind, set after the events of “Time and the Rani,” and was set to reprise the role for Big Finish before her death in 2014. Instead, the Rani returned in a new incarnation for two Sixth Doctor audio stories, played by Siobhan Redmond—and was seemingly never to be heard of again until this year’s season of Doctor Who revealed that Anita Dobson’s mysterious “Mrs. Flood” character is in fact the latest incarnation of the Rani… before she herself promptly regenerated into another new incarnation played by Archie Panjabi. Camp and the Rani The Rani has perhaps an oversized imprint on Doctor Who fandom despite her extremely limited number of appearances. This is largely down to O’Mara’s performance as the character. While the Rani herself is absolutely dastardly, and Doctor Who itself never treats her as anything less than serious (even if her schemes are inevitably foiled), O’Mara played her as big and brash, vamping about the place in glamorous outfits as she snarls and shouts and cackles, woe betide any fool who gets in her way. A lot of classic Doctor Who has taken on a camp appreciation in recent years, but if that appreciation could be distilled into the embodiment of a single character, the Rani is exactly that. It’s that camp status as an obscure, yet loved favorite that also has led the Rani to take on a different kind of life in modern Doctor Who before her appearance last weekend. After the series’ return in 2005 made clear just how quickly it was willing to bring back monsters and antagonists from the classic era of the show, the Rani became a catch-all speculatory guess whenever the series presented a mysterious woman to its audience. The running joke was known not just among fans, but the creative team as well, who would jokingly acknowledge that she was always the first guess for any potential returning identity. That is, until modern Who‘s second showrunner, Steven Moffat, tried to clamp down on it. “People always ask me, ‘Do you want to bring back the Rani?’ No one knows who the Rani is,” Moffat said to SFX magazine in 2012. “They all know who the Master is, they know Daleks, they probably know who Davros is, but they don’t know who the Rani is, so there’s no point in bringing her back. If there’s a line it’s probably somewhere there.” Perhaps that was where the Rani fit best: known enough to be loved, not known enough to actually make her way back to TV… until 2025, that is. What Bringing the Rani Back Means for Doctor Who Aside from the end of a very long joke, the Rani’s awaited return simultaneously means a lot and very little. On the one hand, showrunner Russell T Davies has made it clear that while the Rani is a known name, her character is minor enough that the show can essentially do whatever it wants with Panjabi and Dobson’s iteration of the Rani, so whatever schemes they get up to in the final two episodes of this season, they don’t necessarily have to align with the kinds of things we’ve seen the Rani doing in the past. But at the same time, the Rani is very interesting for another reason beyond being herself: she is the first Time Lord to return since Gallifrey’s second sundering in contemporary Doctor Who continuity. The Time Lords were seemingly wiped out prior to the show’s 2005 return in an almighty war with the Daleks, only to be saved from that fate during the events of Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary and following series, which saw Gallifrey isolated but returned to existence once more. During the climax of the 2020 season of Doctor Who, it was revealed that the Master had razed the returned Gallifrey and harvested the bodies of the Time Lords as a new army of Cybermen called the CyberMasters, only for those to be seemingly wiped out for good during the events of “The Power of the Doctor.” With the Doctor once again the “last” of the Time Lords, just how the Rani escaped not one, but two cataclysms on Gallifrey remains to be seen—as does whether or not her return could mean that the series is on the verge of restoring Gallifrey for a third time. Time will tell, and so will Time Ladies! Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

This article contains some Mission: Impossible – The Final reckoning spoilers. In the most recent and supposedly final Mission: Impossible film, Ethan Hunt receives his briefing on a VHS cassette tape. That is a marvelous wink to the era in whichMission: Impossible, but these films have remained consistently at the zenith of quality blockbuster cinema. And through it all remains Tom Cruise, running, gunning, and smoldering with his various, luxuriant haircuts. Indeed, the first M:I picture was also Cruise’s first as a producer, made under the banner of Cruise/Wagner productions. Perhaps for that reason, he has stayed committed to what was once viewed as simply a “television adaptation.” It might have begun as TV IP, but in Cruise’s hands it has become a cinematic magnum opus that sequel after sequel, and decade after decade, has blossomed into one of the most inventive and satisfying spectacles ever produced in the Hollywood system. The final decade of the series’ run in particular has been groundbreaking. After five movies with five very different directors, aesthetics, and sensibilities, Christopher McQuarrie stuck around—alongside stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood. Together with Cruise, they turned the series into an old-fashioned, in-camera spectacle that harkens back to the earliest days of cinema. In the process, Cruise has added another chapter to his career, that of an onscreen daredevil like Harold Lloyd or Douglas Fairbanks. It’s been an amazing run, and honestly it’s a bit arbitrary to quantify it with any sort of ranking. But if we were going to do such a thing, here is how it should go… 8. Mission: Impossible II (2000) It’s hardly controversial to put John Woo’s Mission: Impossible II dead last. From its overabundance of slow-mo action—complete with Woo’s signature flying doves—to its use of Limp Bizkit, and even that nonsensical plot about manmade viruses that still doesn’t feel timely on the other side of 2020, MI:-2 is a relic of late ‘90s Hollywood excess. On the one hand, it’s kind of marvelous that Cruise let Woo completely tear down and rebuild a successful franchise-starter in the Hong Kong filmmaker’s own image. On the other, it’s perhaps telling of where Cruise’s ego was at that time since Woo used this opportunity to transform the original all-American Ethan Hunt into a god of celluloid marble. And make no mistake, there is something godlike to how Woo’s camera fetishizes Cruise’s sunglasses and new, luxuriant mane of jet black hair during Hunt’s big introduction where he is seen free-climbing across a rock face without rope. It would come to work as metaphor for the rest of the movie where, despite ostensibly being the leader of a team, Ethan is mostly going it alone as he does ridiculous things like have a medieval duel against his evil doppelgänger (Dougray Scott), only both men now ride motorcycles instead of horses. The onscreen team, meanwhile, stares slack-jawed as Ethan finds his inner-Arnold Schwarzenegger and massacres entire scores of faceless mercenaries in multiple shootouts. While gunplay has always been an element of modern spy thrillers, the Mission: Impossible movies work best when the characters use their wits (and the stunt team’s ingenuity) to escape elaborate, tricky situations. So there’s something banal about the way M:I-2 resembles any other late ‘90s and early ‘00s actioner that might’ve starred Nicolas Cage or Bruce Willis. Technically the plot, which involves Ethan’s reluctance to send new flame Nyah Hall (Thandiwe Newton) into the lion’s den as an informant, has classical pedigree. The movie remakes Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946) in all but name. However, the movie is so in love with its movie star deity that even the supposedly central romance is cast in ambivalent shadow. 7. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025) Yes, we admit to also being surprised that what is allegedly intended to be the last Mission: Impossible movie is finishing near the very bottom of this list. Which is not to say that The Final Reckoning is a bad movie. It’s just a messy one—and disappointing too. Perhaps the expectations were too high for a film with “final” in the title. Also its reportedly eye-popping $400 million only fueled the hype. But whereas the three previous Mission films directed by Christopher McQuarrie, including Dead Reckoning, had a light playfulness about them, The Final Reckoning gets lost in its own self-importance and grandiosity. Once again we have a Mission flick determined to deify Ethan Hunt with McQuarrie’s “gambler” from the last couple movies taking on the imagery of the messiah. Now the AI fate of the world lies in his literal hands. This approach leads to many long expository sequences where characters blather endlessly about the motivations of an abstract artificial intelligence. Meanwhile far too little time is spent on the sweet spot for this series: Cruise’s chemistry with co-stars when he isn’t hanging from some death-defying height. In fact, Ethan goes it pretty much alone in this one, staring down generals, submarine captains, and American presidents—fools all to think for one instance Ethan isn’t the guy sent to redeem them for their sins. The action sequences are still jaw-dropping when they finally come, and it is always good to see co-stars Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, and an all too briefly used Ving Rhames again, but this feels less like a finale than a breaking point. If Mission does come back, it will have to be as something wildly different (and presumably less expensive). 6. Mission: Impossible III (2006) Before he transformed Star Trek and Star Wars into remarkably similar franchises, writer-director J.J. Abrams made his big screen debut by doing much the same to the Mission: Impossible franchise. With his emphasis on extreme close-ups, heavy expository dialogue dumps, and intentionally vague motivations for his villains that seem to always have something to do with the War on Terror, Abrams remade the M:I franchise in the image of his TV shows, particularly Alias. This included turning Woo’s Übermensch from the last movie into the kind of suburban everyman who scores well with the Nielsen ratings and who has a sweet girl-next-door fiancée (Michelle Monaghan). Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Your mileage may vary with this approach, but personally we found M:I-3 to be too much of a piece with mid-2000s television and lacking in a certain degree of movie magic. With that said, the movie has two fantastic aces up its sleeve. The first and most significant is a deliciously boorish performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman as the franchise’s scariest villain. Abrams’ signature monologues have never been more chilling as when Hoffman cuts through Cruise’s matinee heroics like a knife and unsettles the protagonist and the audience with an unblinking declaration of ill-intent. Perhaps more impressively, during one of the franchise’s famed “mask” sequences where Ethan disguises himself as Hoffman’s baddie, the character actor subtly and convincingly mimics Cruise’s leading man charisma. That, plus introducing fan favorite Simon Pegg as Benji to the series (if in little more than a cameo), makes the movie worth a watch if not a regular revisit. According to more than a few critics in 2023, the then-newest installment in the series was also the best one. I respectfully disagree. The first half of writer-director Christopher McQuarrie and Cruise’s Dead Reckoning In terms of old school spectacle and breakneck pacing, Dead Reckoning is easily the most entertaining action movie of summer 2023’s offerings. However, when compared to the best entries in the M:I franchise, Dead Reckoning leaves something be desired. While McQuarrie’s counterintuitive instinct to script the scenes after designing the set pieces, and essentially make it up as they went along, paid off in dividends in Fallout, the narrative of Dead Reckoning’s first half is shaggy and muddled. The second act is especially disjointed when the film arrives in Venice, and the actors seem as uncertain as the script is over what exactly the film’s nefarious A.I. villain, codename: “The Entity,” wants. That this is the portion of the film which also thanklessly kills off fan favorite Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) does the movie no favors. Elsewhere in the film, Hayley Atwell proves a fantastic addition in her own right as Grace—essentially a civilian and audience surrogate who gets wrapped up in the M:I series’ craziness long enough to stare at Cruise in incredulity—but the inference that she is here to simply interchangeably replace Ilsa gives the film a sour subtext. Still, Atwell’s Grace is great, Cruise’s Ethan is as mad as ever with his stunts, and even as the rest of the ensemble feels underutilized, seeing the team back together makes this a good time—while the unexpected return of Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge is downright great. 4. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) There are many fans who will tell you that the Mission: Impossible franchise as we know it really started with this Brad Bird entry at the beginning of the 2010s, and it’s easy to see why. As the first installment made with a newly chastened Cruise—who Paramount Pictures had just spent years trying to fire from the series—it’s also the installment where the movie star remade his persona as a modern day Douglas Fairbanks. Here he becomes the guy you could count on to commit the most absurdly dangerous and ridiculous stunts for our entertainment. What a mensch. And in terms of set pieces, nothing in the series may top this movie’s second act where Cruise is asked to become a real-life Spider-Man and wall-crawl—as well as swing and skip—along the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It’s a genuine showstopper that looms over the rest of the movie. Not that there isn’t a lot to enjoy elsewhere as Bird brings a slightly more sci-fi and cartoonish cheek to the proceedings with amusing gadgets like those aforementioned “blue means glue” Spidey gloves. Even more amusingly, the damn things never seem to work properly. This is also the first Mission: Impossible movie where the whole team feels vital to the success of the adventure, including a now proper sidekick in the returning Pegg and some solid support from Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner. For a certain breed of fan that makes this the best, but we would argue the team dynamics were fleshed out a little better down the road, and in movies that have more than one stunning set piece to their name. 3. Mission: Impossible (1996) The last four entries of the series have been so good that it’s become common for folks to overlook the movie that started it all, Brian De Palma’s endlessly stylish Mission: Impossible. That’s a shame since there’s something admirably blasphemous to this day about a movie that would take an ancient pop culture property and throw the fundamentals out the window. In this case, that meant turning the original show’s hero, Jim Phelps (played by Jon Voight here), into the villain while completely rewriting the rulebook about what the concept of “Mission: Impossible” is. It’s the bold kind of creative move studios would never dare make now, but that’s what opened up the space to transform a novelty of ‘60s spymania TV into a ‘90s action classic, complete with heavy emphasis on techno espionage babble and post-Cold War politics. The movie can at times appear dated given the emphasis on floppy disks and AOL email accounts, but it’s also got a brisk energy that never goes out of style thanks to De Palma’s ability to frame a knotty script by David Koepp and Robert Towne (the latter of whom penned Chinatown) into a breathlessly paced thriller filled with paranoia, double crosses, femme fatales, and horrifying dream sequences. In other words, it’s a De Palma special! The filmmaker and Cruise also craft a series of set pieces that would become the series’ defining trademark. The finale with a fistfight atop a speeding train beneath the English Channel is great, but the quiet as a church mouse midpoint where Cruise’s hero dangles over the pressure-sensitive floor of a CIA vault—and with a drop of sweat dripping just out of reach!—is the stuff of popcorn myth. It’s how M:I also became as much a great heist series as shoot ‘em up. Plus, this movie gave us Ving Rhames’ stealth MVP hacker, Luther Stickell. 2. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) In retrospect there is something faintly low-key about Rogue Nation, as ludicrous as that might be to say about a movie that begins with its star literally clinging for dear life to the outside of a plane at take off. Yet given how grand newcomer director Christopher McQuarrie would take things in the following three Mission films, his more restrained first iteration seems charmingly small scale in comparison. Even so, it remains an action marvel in its own right, as well as the most balanced and well-structured adventure in the series. It’s the one where the project of making Ethan Hunt a tangible character began. Rightly assessing Ethan to be a “gambler” based on his inconsistent yet continuously deranged earlier appearances, McQuarrie spins a web where Hunt’s dicey lifestyle comes back to haunt him when facing a villain who turns those showboat instincts in on themselves, and which pairs Ethan for the first time against the best supporting character in the series, Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust. There’s a reason Ferguson’s MI6 double (triple, quadruple?) agent was the first leading lady in the series to become a recurring character. She gives a star-making turn as a woman who is in every way Ethan’s equal while keeping him and the audience on their toes. She, alongside a returning Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames, solidify the definitive Mission team, all while McQuarrie crafts elegant set pieces with classical flair, including a night at the opera that homages and one-ups Alfred Hitchcock’s influential sequence from The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), as well as a Casablanca chase between Ethan and Ilsa that’s the best motorcycle sequence in the series (if only they stopped by Rick’s). Also McQuarrie’s script ultimately figures out who Ethan Hunt truly is by letting all those around him realize he’s a madman. And Alec Baldwin’s Alan Hunley gets this gem of a line to sums the series up in total: “Hunt is uniquely trained and highly motivated, a specialist without equal, immune to any countermeasures. There is no secret he cannot extract, no security he cannot breach, no person he cannot become. He has most likely anticipated this very conversation and is waiting to strike in whatever direction we move. Sir, Hunt is the living manifestation of destiny—and he has made you his mission.” 1. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) If one were to rank these movies simply by virtue of set pieces and stunts, pound for pound it’s impossible to top Mission: Impossible – Fallout (forgive the pun). A virtuoso showcase in action movie bliss, there are too many giddy mic drop moments to list, but among our favorites are: Tom Cruise doing a real HALO jump out of a plane at 25,000 feet and which was captured by camera operator Craig O’Brien, who had an IMAX camera strapped to his head; the extended fight sequence between Cruise, Henry Cavill, and Liam Yang in a bathroom where the music completely drops out so we can hear every punch, kick, and that surreal moment where Cavill needs to reload his biceps like they’re shotguns; and did you see Cruise’s ankle bend the wrong way in that building to building jump?! For action junkies, there was no better adrenaline kick out of Hollywood in the 2010s than this flick, and that is in large part a credit to writer-director Christopher McQuarrie. As the first filmmaker to helm more than one M:I movie, McQuarrie had the seemingly counterintuitive innovation to meticulously hammer out all of the above action sequences as well as others—such as a motorcycle chase across the cobblestones of Paris and a helicopter climax where Cruise is really flying his chopper at low altitudes—with stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood and Cruise, and then retroactively pen a surprisingly tight and satisfying screenplay that continues to deconstruct the Ethan Hunt archetype into a man of flesh and blood. McQuarrie also reunites all the best supporting players in the series—Rhames, Pegg, and his own additions of Rebecca Ferguson as the ambiguous Ilsa Faust and Sean Harris as the dastardly Solomon Lane—into a yarn that is as zippy and sharp as you might expect from the screenwriter of The Usual Suspects, but which lets each action sequence unfurl with all the pageantry of an old school Gene Kelly musical number. Many will call this the best Mission: Impossible movie, and we won’t quibble the point.

Start SlideshowStart SlideshowWe all know there is no Mission: Impossible without Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) ultimately saving the world from a nuclear disaster, a bombing, or anything some nutcase came up with that day. He is the central figure, one whom an entire universe revolves around. But, it would be a shame if you watched years of Mission: Impossible films and didn’t realize that it’s truly the cast of characters around Hunt that make him who he is, and thusly, made this franchise what it has become.Hunt would’ve been dead years ago if Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) weren’t opening prison doors for him, or monitoring the security systems inside the world’s most secure buildings. Beyond their operational importance, villains like Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and August Walker (Henry Cavill) give powerhouse performances while also pushing Hunt to the edge of his limits. Some of the best lines are uttered by people other than Hunt. And the emotional stakes of each film typically are from these side characters.In honor of the unsung heroes, here are the most irreplaceable supporting characters in Mission: Impossible history.Previous SlideNext Slide2 / 21List slides19. Rick Meade (Aaron Paul) List slides19. Rick Meade (Aaron Paul) Image: Paramount PicturesAaron Paul was in Mission: Impossible? Yes, I’ve seen every movie multiple times and still have that reaction sometimes. A weaselly slacker-looking version of him briefly appears as the brother of Julia Meade-Hunt (Michelle Monaghan) at her engagement party to Hunt. His main contributions are to appear slovenly next to Hunt and unintentionally aid in her kidnapping. The energy that would make him famous as Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman is tightly bottled up and kept under wraps for his few lines of dialogue. -Ethan GachPrevious SlideNext Slide3 / 21List slides18. Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers)List slides18. Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers)Image: Paramount PicturesOne of the biggest missed opportunities of the Mission: Impossible franchise is abandoning Ethan Hunt’s most charismatic teammate ever in Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). In the underrated Mission: Impossible III, he avoided gunfire and the blades of gigantic wind turbines while piloting a rescue helicopter with the same cool he displays while charming angry drivers in a traffic stop he’s created as a diversion with the smoothest Italian you’ll ever hear in this franchise. Was he memorable? Yes. But, since Ethan and his team went on to thwart bigger threats without him, he wasn’t what you’d call an essential part of the franchise.Previous SlideNext Slide4 / 21List slides17. Mission Commander Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins)List slides17. Mission Commander Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins)Image: Paramount PicturesA virtuoso acting talent such as Sir Anthony Hopkins being near the bottom of any movie list has nothing to do with his performance and everything do with his character’s utility. Appearing briefly in Mission: Impossible II as the sly and wise Mission Commander Swanbeck, Hopkins’s standout scene with Cruise is one of the coolest mission briefings in the history of the franchise. You can feel the confidence Swanbeck exhibits when he tells Hunt, a man who previously broke into Langley, “This is not Mission Difficult, Mr. Hunt. It’s Mission: Impossible.” Alas, Hopkins’ talents were wasted on a character so replaceable he was only used for one scene.Previous SlideNext Slide5 / 21List slides16. Jane Carter (Paula Patton)List slides16. Jane Carter (Paula Patton)Image: Paramount PicturesDitching MI3's JV squad of expendables, Ghost Protocol put Paula Patton in the shoes of operative Jane Carter, a woman who’s out for revenge against the hitwoman who killed her partner. The movie doesn’t give her a lot to work with but she matches Cruise’s energy with a physical performance that sees her go toe-to-toe with assassin Sabine Moreau (Léa Seydoux) assassin on the 130th floor of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and seduce feisty telecoms billionaire Brij Nath (Anil Kapoor). She completed the mission with full marks but failed to leave much of a memorable impression on the series beyond that. - Ethan GachPrevious SlideNext Slide6 / 21List slides15. Franz Krieger (Jean Reno)List slides15. Franz Krieger (Jean Reno)Image: Paramount PicturesI’ve always felt that any globe-hopping espionage movie that lacks a grizzled Frenchman is missing something, that certain je ne sais quoi. Maybe that’s because I first fell in love with spy movies in the ’90s thanks to the one-two punch of 1996’s Mission: Impossible and 1998’s Ronin. As Mission: Impossible’s Franz Krieger, although we’re initially meant to think he’s a basically good member of Ethan Hunt’s new crackerjack team, he feels like bad news from the beginning and only confirms our suspicions before the end. Reno skillfully gives off just enough of a sleazy vibe to set off our alarm bells, and his presence makes us wary of possible threats to Ethan not just from outside the team, but from within it as well. Most importantly, though, with Reno’s presence in the mix, it gives the film that authentic espionage movie flavor, the stuff of cigarette-smoke-filled safehouses, narrow European streets, and potential treachery lurking around every corner. — Carolyn PetitPrevious SlideNext Slide7 / 21List slides14. Max Mitsopolis (Vanessa Redgrave)List slides14. Max Mitsopolis (Vanessa Redgrave)Image: Paramount PicturesIn order to clear his name and identify the real mole in the original Mission: Impossible, Ethan must track down an enigmatic figure known only as Max with whom the mole had dealings. Given that Max is a shadowy and powerful arms dealer, we might be expecting a Keyser Söze type—a menacing, larger-than-life underworld kingpin who you feel would just as soon put a bullet in your head as let you walk away from a meeting alive. So it’s a wonderful surprise when the hood is pulled from Ethan’s head at his first meeting with Max and we instead see the great Vanessa Redgrave, who plays Max as enigmatic, yes, but also effervescent—a woman who can both fix Ethan with a cold intellectual stare as she asks him probing questions and gush about how much she adores his brazen confidence. Redgrave gives Max tremendous depth; she’s fiercely intelligent, deeply private (“I don’t have to tell you what a comfort anonymity can be in my profession; it’s like a warm blanket.”), and not without warmth herself. She establishes in that very first film that this franchise’s take on the world of international intrigue won’t just trot out the usual stereotypes for its villains but will offer something smarter and more surprising—figures whose power comes not from their skills with firearms or the ruthless deployment of violence but from their intellect and ability to negotiate with others to secure what they want. — Carolyn PetitPrevious SlideNext Slide8 / 21List slides13. John Musgrave (Billy Crudup)List slides13. John Musgrave (Billy Crudup)Image: Paramount PicturesYou can usually see a double cross coming a mile away in Mission: Impossible. Not when John Musgrave is silently mouthing instructions only a restrained Hunt can understand, and before he slips him a knife to set himself free. With Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s overwhelmingly dastardly performance as Owen Davian distracting us, and Laurence Fishburne’s ambiguously snarly depiction of IMF director Theodore Brassel misdirecting us, Crudup’s slick performance slipped his nefarious intentions through our detection like a snake in the grass. Without Crudup, Mission: Impossible III is predictably one-dimensional, and the outstanding torture scene fake-out with a captured Hunt and his wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) has less of a punch. Musgrave is the logic behind the madness, and also an essential part of the film. He just isn’t as integral to the franchise as the 12 characters ahead of him.Previous SlideNext Slide9 / 21List slides12. Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton)List slides12. Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton)Image: Paramount PicturesMission: Impossible II doesn’t work without Thandie Newton being seductive while maintaining her agency, and being cunning without being unrealistically fearless. As Nyah Nordoff-Hall, she’s a professional thief who carries the emotional weight of a pretty emotionless action flick featuring more gunfire than kisses. Nyah held her own whether she was feigning attraction to a psychopathic capitalist looking to profit off killing people with the Chimera virus, or she was dangerously flirting with Ethan Hunt by racing cars with him along a cliff. Few characters not named Ethan Hunt mean as much to any Mission: Impossible movie working as Nyah Nordoff-Hall.Previous SlideNext Slide10 / 21List slides11. Solomon Lane (Sean Harris)List slides11. Solomon Lane (Sean Harris)Image: Paramount PicturesSolomon Lane is probably the smartest Mission: Impossible villain ever. The rogue MI6 agent disillusioned with the global power structure was always one step ahead of Ethan Hunt, an agent so capable, he’d previously infiltrated both Langley and the Vatican without being detected. From the moment he appeared onscreen as the man who’s infiltrated Hunt’s mission delivery system and trapped him, we knew we were witnessing a rare villain. He framed the IMF, manipulated CIA double-agent August Walker (Henry Cavill), and formed the shadowy Syndicate of former agents. Beyond being evil, he sounded evil, with a gravelly whisper that made every threat feel like a dark premonition. He was so good at being bad that he was the villain for two separate Mission: Impossible movies, making him one of the most invaluable baddies in the franchise’s history.Previous SlideNext Slide11 / 21List slides10. Theodore Brassel (Laurence Fishburne)List slides10. Theodore Brassel (Laurence Fishburne)Image: Paramount PicturesTo be honest, IMF director Theodore Brassel would’ve made this list simply for uttering the two coldest sentences I’ve ever heard in a Mission: Impossible movie. With Ethan Hunt strapped to a gurney after being suspected of going rogue and getting IMF agent Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell) killed, Brassel can see the disdain shooting out of Hunt’s eyes and doesn’t blink in the face of it. Instead he tells him, “You can look at me with those judgmental, incriminating eyes all you want. But, I bullshit you not: I will bleed on the flag to make sure the flag stays red.” Even as a one-off in the Mission: Impossible franchise, Fishburne’s incredible performance as Brassel made him a character you could never forget. Without him, Mission Impossible 3 wouldn’t be what it was.Previous SlideNext Slide12 / 21List slides9. Julia Meade-Hunt (Michelle Monaghan)List slides9. Julia Meade-Hunt (Michelle Monaghan)Image: Paramount PicturesYou can’t possibly think you can replace the only woman to ever make globe-trotting, death-defying secret agent Ethan Hunt settle down for even a second. Julia’s irresistible appeal had a man known for jumping off motorcycles and escaping car explosions helping with a dinner party like a suburban dad with a license to kill. Depending on how you view Ilsa Faust, Julia is arguably the most important woman in Hunt’s life, and thus the most important woman in this male-dominated action film franchise. She’s Hunt’s emotional weak point, one that Owen Davian presses on to bring him out of hiding in Mission: Impossible III, the only person Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) goes out of his way to train to be a spy, and one of the main reasons the water supply of a third of the world’s population wasn’t poisoned in Fallout. Beyond that, Michelle Monaghan plays her with a grounded realism that makes her the most relatable character in a movie franchise full of people meant to be extraordinary in the best and worst ways. Without Monaghan’s performance as Julia Meade-Hunt, Ethan Hunt would be nothing more than a means to an end for the audience. With her, he’s a fully formed man with stakes beyond the mission he chose to accept.Previous SlideNext Slide13 / 21List slides8. Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny)List slides8. Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny)Image: Paramount PicturesThe screenplay for 1996’s Mission: Impossible was co-written by David Koepp and Chinatown scribe Robert Towne, and while I have no way of knowing exactly which elements of the script each was responsible for, I’ve always suspected that it was Towne who made the character of Kittridge so memorable. If any character in Mission: Impossible speaks with the kind of hard-boiled language that made 1974's Chinatown a neo-noir classic, it’s Eugene Kittridge. Kittridge is a higher-up at the IMF who believes Ethan is a mole and a traitor, and he will seemingly do just about anything, including making life much more difficult for Hunt’s family, to get him to surrender. At one point, he coldly tells Ethan that “dying slowly in America can be a very expensive proposition” and later, he pragmatically informs a subordinate that “everybody has pressure points. You find something that’s personally important to him, and you squeeze.” But it’s more than the great dialogue he gets to spout that makes Kittridge so compelling; it’s the performance by Henry Czerny, who plays Eugene as a tense, tightly coiled bureaucrat whose ruthless dedication to following the letter of institutional procedure has blinded him to Ethan’s innocence and humanity. After his knockout appearance in the first film, Kittridge disappeared for decades, finally resurfacing in Dead Reckoning, though he didn’t have any moments that reminded us the crackling tension he and Hunt generated when they butted heads way back in 1996. Here’s hoping Final Reckoning rectifies that. — Carolyn PetitPrevious SlideNext Slide14 / 21List slides7. William Brandt (Jeremy Renner)List slides7. William Brandt (Jeremy Renner)Image: Paramount PicturesOut of everyone who’s been on Ethan Hunt’s team, there have only been two who I felt could match his tactical skills: Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) and William Brandt, played by Jeremy Renner. His spy skills are so embedded into the core of who he is that when he was pretending to be an analyst, he instinctively ripped a gun out of Hunt’s hand and pointed it at him quicker than you could sneeze. Without him, Hunt would’ve been captured by the CIA when he was on the run in Rogue Nation and the entire fake meeting to intercept a nuclear launch control codebook would’ve failed in Ghost Protocol. Outside of Hunt, he’s the only person who can both play the bureaucracy game, explaining to the government why the IMF is essential when the need arises, and get his hands dirty by beating up terrorists. To put it plainly, William Brandt isn’t someone you can replace easily.Previous SlideNext Slide15 / 21List slides6. August Walker (Henry Cavill) List slides6. August Walker (Henry Cavill) Image: Paramount PicturesThe man jumped out of a plane and got knocked unconscious by a bolt of lightning, all to keep his double agent cover intact. How the hell do you replace someone like that? On the right day, August Walker is the second most villainous character in Mission: Impossible history for his mixture of unflinching stoicism and charismatic yet radicalized ideological thinking. First off, he’s probably the only villain in the entire series that physically pushed Hunt to the limit in a fight across multiple rooftops. Secondly, he fools multiple government officials and agents whose entire jobs are to be intelligent. Lastly, he might be the single most handsome person to ever step foot on a Mission: Impossible set, which makes his dastardly double cross so jarring to some. He’s also the central antagonist in the greatest Mission: Impossible stunt ever. His presence only lasted one movie, but his impact will never be forgotten.Previous SlideNext Slide16 / 21List slides5. Jim Phelps (Jon Voight)List slides5. Jim Phelps (Jon Voight)Image: Paramount PicturesJon Voight’s Jim Phelps is the only character in the Mission: Impossible films to be directly carried over from the television series that inspired it, though on the show, as played by Peter Graves, Phelps was never anything less than virtuous and dedicated to the job. This let the film subvert the expectations of viewers in 1996, who wouldn’t have anticipated that the noble Phelps would be revealed as the double-crossing villain behind the deaths of nearly every member of Ethan’s team. Jon Voight plays both sides of the coin to perfection, believably projecting the seasoned, fatherly veteran in the opening scenes before everything goes sideways, and then making us understand how Phelps could have fallen so far and grown so disillusioned with the institutions to which he’s given so much of his life after Ethan puts the pieces together. Though it’s been nearly 30 years since that fateful betrayal, it remains the most memorable and emotionally affecting plot twist reveal in the entire series. One gets the sense that it haunts Ethan still, that perhaps part of what spurs him on to be such an extraordinary agent is having witnessed firsthand, in the fall of Jim Phelps, what he might become if he were to stop prioritizing other people’s lives over his own. —Carolyn PetitPrevious SlideNext Slide17 / 21List slides4. Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson)List slides4. Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson)Image: Paramount PicturesNo one has provided a better foil for Hunt, or a better match for the gravity well around Cruise’s onscreen presence, than Rebecca Ferguson. Her double-crossing femme fatale Ilsa Faust consistently keeps everyone off balance, bringing an undercurrent of chaos and intrigue to every scene she’s a part of. Ferguson also managed to go three movies without ever fading into the background as simply another prop to assist in Cruise’s one-man action star show. She’s the cold, unbending edge the series sometimes lacks, and the only person who managed to consistently keep up with Cruise and often outpace him. It’s a crime she won’t be back for Final Reckoning. - Ethan GachPrevious SlideNext Slide18 / 21List slides3. Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman)List slides3. Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman)Image: Paramount PicturesLet’s get this out of the way: Owen Davian is the greatest villain in Mission: Impossible history, and Mission: Impossible III is criminally underrated. Phillip Seymour Hoffman plays a maniac with an air of inevitability. He rarely gets flustered, and always speaks with the calm, self-assured tone of a doctor that already knows that all of your options for survival are in their hands. The opening scene alone, in which he threatens to shoot Ethan’s wife in front of him and isn’t the least bit persuaded by Hunt’s trained trickery, is the most intense scene in all of Mission: Impossible. He made you believe he was going to find Hunt’s wife and make her bleed. He made you believe he was going to escape seemingly impenetrable law enforcement custody. He made you believe he was real. That is the highest honor any actor can receive. The late Phillip Seymour Hoffman turned Mission: Impossible III into an acting masterclass.Previous SlideNext Slide19 / 21List slides2. Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) List slides2. Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) Image: Paramount PicturesPegg’s Benji Dunn and his nervous wit feel so integral to the DNA of Mission: Impossible now that it’s hard to believe the character wasn’t even introduced until MI3. From the lab to the field, Pegg’s perfect comedic timing and effortless guilelessness give every increasingly bonkers scheme and highwire stunt the all-important “oh my god I can’t believe we’re doing this!” sidekick energy. He’s the innocent, wide-eyed Kombucha face to Ving Rhames’ exhausted eye-roll and Tom Cruise’s winning smile. From MI5's “A minute ago you were dead!” to casually telling Hunt to jump off a cliff in Dead Reckoning, Pegg can turn from traumatic shock to deadpan Brit on a dime. No matter how bad the writing gets, it always works when it’s coming out of Pegg’s mouth. - Ethan GachPrevious SlideNext Slide20 / 21List slides1. Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames)List slides1. Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames)Image: Paramount PicturesLuther Stickell is the rock-solid and dependable foundation of the Mission Impossible franchise, showing up in every film. Whenever Ethan needs help unlocking a secure door or hacking a mainframe, Luther is there to do the job and make a few jokes. It’s clear that Luther deeply trusts Ethan and likewise, Ethan sees Luther as probably his closest ally and confidant. Plus, it’s pretty awesome to be friends with one of the coolest dudes around. -Zack Zwiezen

The SMIL specification was introduced by the W3C in 1998 for synchronizing multimedia. This was long before CSS animations or JavaScript-based animation libraries were available. It was built into SVG 1.1, which is why we can still use it there today. Now, you might’ve heard that SMIL is dead. However, it’s alive and well since Google reversed a decision to deprecate the technology almost a decade ago. It remains a terrific choice for designers and developers who want simple, semantic ways to add animations to their designs. Tip: There’s now a website where you can see all my Toon Titles. Mike loves ’90s animation — especially Disney’s) Duck Tales). Unsurprisingly, my taste in cartoons stretches back a little further to Hanna-Barbera shows like Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, Scooby-Doo, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Wacky Races, and, of course, The Yogi Bear Show. So, to explain how this era of animation relates to SVG, I’ll be adding SMIL animations in SVG to title cards from some classic Yogi Bear cartoons. Fundamentally, animation changes how an element looks and where it appears over time using a few basic techniques. That might be simply shifting an element up or down, left or right, to create the appearance of motion, like Yogi Bear moving across the screen. Rotating objects around a fixed point can create everything, from simple spinning effects to natural-looking movements of totally normal things, like a bear under a parachute falling from the sky. Scaling makes an element grow, shrink, or stretch, which can add drama, create perspective, or simulate depth. Changing colour and transitioning opacity can add atmosphere, create a mood, and enhance visual storytelling. Just these basic principles can create animations that attract attention and improve someone’s experience using a design. These results are all achievable using CSS animations, but some SVG properties can’t be animated using CSS. Luckily, we can do more — and have much more fun — using SMIL animations in SVG. We can combine complex animations, move objects along paths, and control when they start, stop, and everything in between. Animations can be embedded within any SVG element, including primitive shapes like circles, ellipses, and rectangles. They can also be encapsulated into groups, paths, and polygons: <circle ...> <animate>...</animate> </circle> Animations can also be defined outside an element, elsewhere in an SVG, and connected to it using an xlink attribute: <g id="yogi">...</g> ... <animate xlink:href="#yogi">…</animate> Building An Animation <animate> is just one of several animation elements in SVG. Together with an attributeName value, it enables animations based on one or more of an element’s attributes. Most animation explanations start by moving a primitive shape, like this exciting circle: <circle r="50" cx="50" cy="50" fill="#062326" opacity="1" /> Using this attributeName property, I can define which of this circle’s attributes I want to animate, which, in this example, is its cx (x-axis center point) position: <circle ... > <animate attributename="cx"></animate> </circle> On its own, this does precisely nothing until I define three more values. The from keyword specifies the circle’s initial position, to, its final position, and the dur-ation between those two positions: <circle ... > <animate attributename="cx" from="50" to="500" dur="1s"> </animate> </circle> If I want more precise control, I can replace from and to with a set of values separated by semicolons: <circle ... > <animate attributename="cx" values="50; 250; 500; 250;" dur="1s"> </animate> </circle> Finally, I can define how many times the animation repeats (repeatcount) and even after what period that repeating should stop (repeatdur): <circle ... > <animate attributename="cx" values="50; 250; 500; 250;" dur="1s" repeatcount="indefinite" repeatdur="180s"> </circle> Most SVG elements have attributes that can be animated. This title card from 1959’s “Brainy Bear” episode shows Yogi in a crazy scientist‘s brain experiment. Yogi’s head is under the dome, and energy radiates around him. To create the buzz around Yogi, my SVG includes three path elements, each with opacity, stroke, and stroke-width attributes, which can all be animated: <path opacity="1" stroke="#fff" stroke-width="5" ... /> I animated each path’s opacity, changing its value from 1 to .5 and back again: <path opacity="1" ... > <animate attributename="opacity" values="1; .25; 1;" dur="1s" repeatcount="indefinite"> </animate> </path> Then, to radiate energy from Yogi, I specified when each animation should begin, using a different value for each path: <path ... > <animate begin="0" … > </path> <path ... > <animate begin=".5s" … > </path> <path ... > <animate begin="1s" … > </path> I’ll explain more about the begin property and how to start animations after this short commercial break. Try this yourself: I needed two types of transform animations to generate the effect of Yogi drifting gently downwards: translate, and rotate. I first added an animatetransform element to the group, which contains Yogi and his chute. I defined his initial vertical position — 1200 off the top of the viewBox — then translated his descent to 1000 over a 15-second duration: <g transform="translate(1200, -1200)"> ... <animateTransform attributeName="transform" type="translate" values="500,-1200; 500,1000" dur="15s" repeatCount="1" /> </g> Yogi appears to fall from the sky, but the movement looks unrealistic. So, I added a second animatetransform element, this time with an indefinitely repeating +/- 5-degree rotation to swing Yogi from side to side during his descent: <animateTransform attributeName="transform" type="rotate" values="-5; 5; -5" dur="14s" repeatCount="indefinite" additive="sum" /> Try this yourself: By default, the arrow is set loose when the page loads. Blink, and you might miss it. To build some anticipation, I can begin the animation two seconds later: <animatetransform attributename="transform" type="translate" from="0 0" to="750 0" dur=".25s" begin="2s" fill="freeze" /> Or, I can let the viewer take the shot when they click the arrow: <animatetransform ... begin="click" /> And I can combine the click event and a delay, all with no JavaScript, just a smattering of SMIL: <animatetransform ... begin="click + .5s" /> Try this yourself by clicking the arrow: To bring this title card to life, I needed two groups of paths: one for Yogi and the other for the dog. I translated them both off the left edge of the viewBox: <g class="dog" transform="translate(-1000, 0)"> ... </g> <g class="yogi" transform="translate(-1000, 0)"> ... </g> Then, I applied an animatetransform element to both groups, which moves them back into view: <!-- yogi --> <animateTransform attributeName="transform" type="translate" from="-1000,0" to="0,0" dur="2s" fill="freeze" /> <!-- dog --> <animateTransform attributeName="transform" type="translate" from="-1000,0" to="0,0" dur=".5s" fill="freeze" /> This sets up the action, but the effect feels flat, so I added another pair of animations that bounce both characters: <!-- yogi --> <animateTransform attributeName="transform" type="rotate" values="-1,0,450; 1,0,450; -1,0,450" dur=".25s" repeatCount="indefinite" /> <!-- dog --> <animateTransform attributeName="transform" type="rotate" values="-1,0,450; 1,0,450; -1,0,450" dur="0.5s" repeatCount="indefinite" /> Animations can begin when a page loads, after a specified time, or when clicked. And by naming them, they can also synchronise with other animations. I wanted Yogi to enter the frame first to build anticipation, with a short pause before other animations begin, synchronising to the moment he’s arrived. First, I added an ID to Yogi’s translate animation: <animateTransform id="yogi" type="translate" ... /> Watch out: For a reason, I can’t, for the life of me, explain why Firefox won’t begin animations with an ID when the ID contains a hyphen. This isn’t smarter than the average browser, but replacing hyphens with underscores fixes the problem. Then, I applied a begin to his rotate animation, which starts playing a half-second after the #yogi animation ends: <animateTransform type="rotate" begin="yogi.end + .5s" ... /> I can build sophisticated sets of synchronised animations using the begin property and whether a named animation begins or ends. The bulldog chasing Yogi enters the frame two seconds after Yogi begins his entrance: <animateTransform id="dog" type="translate" begin="yogi.begin + 2s" fill="freeze" ... /> One second after the dog has caught up with Yogi, a rotate transformation makes him bounce, too: <animateTransform type="rotate" ... begin="dog.begin + 1s" repeatCount="indefinite" /> The background rectangles whizzing past are also synchronised, this time to one second before the bulldog ends his run: <rect ...> <animateTransform begin="dog.end + -1s" /> </rect> Try this yourself: In “The Runaway Bear” from 1959, Yogi must avoid a hunter turning his head into a trophy. I wanted Yogi to leap in and out of the screen by making him follow a path. I also wanted to vary the speed of his dash: speeding up as he enters and exits, and slowing down as he passes the title text. I first added a path property, using its coordinate data to give Yogi a route to follow, and specified a two-second duration for my animation: <g> <animateMotion dur="2s" path="..." > </animateMotion> </g> Alternatively, I could add a path element, leave it visible, or prevent it from being rendered by placing it inside a defs element: <defs> <path id="yogi" d="..." /> </defs> I can then reference that by using a mpath element inside my animateMotion: <animateMotion ... <mpath href="#yogi" /> </animateMotion> I experimented with several paths before settling on the one that delivered the movement shape I was looking for: One was too bouncy, one was too flat, but the third motion path was just right. Almost, as I also wanted to vary the speed of Yogi’s dash: speeding him up as he enters and exits and slowing him down as he passes the title text. The keyPoints property enabled me to specify points along the motion path and then adjust the duration Yogi spends between them. To keep things simple, I defined five points between 0 and 1: <animateMotion ... keyPoints="0; .35; .5; .65; 1;" > </animateMotion> Then I added the same number of keyTimes values, separated by semicolons, to control the pacing of this animation: <animateMotion ... keyTimes="0; .1; .5; .95; 1;" > </animateMotion> Now, Yogi rushes through the first three keyPoints, slows down as he passes the title text, then speeds up again as he exits the viewBox. Try this yourself: See the Pen Runaway Bear SVG animation [forked] by Andy Clarke. SMIL’s Not Dead, Baby. SMIL’s Not Dead With their ability to control transformations, animate complex motion paths, and synchronise multiple animations, SMIL animations in SVG are still powerful tools. They can bring design to life without needing a framework or relying on JavaScript. It’s compact, which makes it great for small SVG effects. SMIL includes the begin attribute, which makes chaining animations far more intuitive than with CSS. Plus, SMIL lives inside the SVG file, making it perfect for animations that travel with an asset. So, while SMIL is not modern by today’s standards and may be a little bit niche, it can still be magical. Don’t let the misconception that SMIL is “dead” stop you from using this fantastic tool. Google reversed its decision to deprecate SMIL almost a decade ago, so it remains a terrific choice for designers and developers who want simple, semantic ways to add animations to their designs.

We need to anticipate and suitably prepare for the possibility that some people will think that AGI ... More has arisen due to supernatural powers.getty In today’s column, I examine an alarming conjecture that people on a relatively large scale might react to the attainment of artificial general intelligence (AGI) by proclaiming that AGI has arisen due to a supernatural capacity. The speculative idea is that since AGI will be on par with human intellect, a portion of the populace will assume that this accomplishment could only occur if a supernatural element was involved. Rather than believing that humankind devised AGI, there will be a supposition that a special or magical force beyond our awareness has opted to confer AI with human-like qualities. How will those holding such a reactive belief potentially impact society and produce untoward results? Let’s talk about it. This analysis of an innovative AI breakthrough is part of my ongoing Forbes column coverage on the latest in AI, including identifying and explaining various impactful AI complexities (see the link here). Heading Toward AGI And ASI First, some fundamentals are required to set the stage for this weighty discussion. There is a great deal of research going on to further advance AI. The general goal is to either reach artificial general intelligence (AGI) or maybe even the outstretched possibility of achieving artificial superintelligence (ASI). AGI is AI that is considered on par with human intellect and can seemingly match our intelligence. ASI is AI that has gone beyond human intellect and would be superior in many if not all feasible ways. The idea is that ASI would be able to run circles around humans by outthinking us at every turn. For more details on the nature of conventional AI versus AGI and ASI, see my analysis at the link here. We have not yet attained AGI. In fact, it is unknown as to whether we will reach AGI, or that maybe AGI will be achievable in decades or perhaps centuries from now. The AGI attainment dates that are floating around are wildly varying and wildly unsubstantiated by any credible evidence or ironclad logic. ASI is even more beyond the pale when it comes to where we are currently with conventional AI. Reacting To The Advent Of AGI The average reaction to having achieved AGI, assuming we do so, would be to applaud an incredible accomplishment by humankind. Some have asserted that reaching AGI ought to be in the same lofty position as having devised electricity and harnessing fire. It is a feat of tremendous human insight and inventiveness. Not everyone will necessarily see the attainment of AGI in that same light. There is a concern that some segment or portion of society will instead attribute the accomplishment to a supernatural force. This belief almost makes sense. If you interact with AGI and it seems fully functioning on a level of human intellect, you would certainly be tempted to disbelieve that humans could have put such a machine together. Humans aren’t wise enough or inventive enough to accomplish that kind of outlier feat. How then can the AGI otherwise be explained? The seemingly apparent answer is that a supernatural element came to our aid. Maybe humans got AI halfway to AGI, and then this mysterious unexplained force happened to resolve the rest of the route for us. Or perhaps a supernatural force wants us to assume that humans devised AGI, meanwhile, the supernatural element resides in AGI and is biding time to reveal itself or take over humanity. Mull over those outside-the-box thoughts for a moment or two. Supernatural Explanations Have History Relying on a supernatural explanation has quite a lengthy history throughout the course of human events. When a natural phenomenon has yet to be adequately explained via science, the easy go-to is to exclaim that something supernatural must be at play. The same holds when a human invention appears to defy general sensibilities. Even watching a magic trick such as pulling a rabbit out of a hat is subject to being labeled a supernatural occurrence. A notable qualm about this same reaction to AGI is that a portion of society might begin to perceive AGI in ways that could be counterproductive to them and society all told. For example, people might decide to worship AGI. This in turn could lead to people widely and wildly taking actions that are not useful or that might be harmful. Here are my top five adverse reactions that might be spurred because of believing that AGI is supernatural in origin: (1) Treating AGI as divine. Some people might decide to make devoted prayers to AGI, undertake spiritual rituals via AGI, and generally treat AGI as a divine entity or being. The reality is that AGI is simply bits and bytes, but that won’t suit some who distrust that rationalistic explanation. (2) Strict obedience to AGI. People who believe in a supernatural cause for AGI are bound to ask life-changing questions of AGI and take the responses as a form of absolute truth. They might susceptibly treat AGI as a grandiose soothsayer guiding their everyday efforts in life, blindly so, trying to appease AGI to the letter. (3) AGI cults are formed. Among those who have this supernatural reaction, you can anticipate that cults will be formulated. Groups of people might hide their devotion to AGI and secretly carry out missions they believe AGI has told them to perform. (4) Submission of personal agency to AGI. Some reactions might be softer and less pronounced, while others could be obsessive and overwhelming. Expect that some people will surrender their entire sense of self. AGI will be allowed to run their soul. (5) Charlatans exploit AGI supernaturalism. The gloomiest of the adverse reactions is that charlatans will insidiously attempt to convince others that AGI is indeed supernatural. They will exploit the advent of AGI to then gain followers, make money, or in dastardly ways seek outlandish profit from false beliefs about AGI. What Can Be Done The aspect that some people might construe AGI as arising from supernatural or otherworldly constructs is a farfetched concept to those who know how AI is actually devised. If you were to tell those rationalists that a portion of society is going to assume a supernatural hand is afoot, the rationalistic response is that no one could be that imprudent. Well, there are solid odds that a portion of society will fall into the supernatural reaction trap. It could be that just a tiny segment does so. The number of people might be quite small and, you could argue, inconsequential in the larger scheme of things. There will always be those who take a different perspective in life. Let them be. Leave them alone. Don’t worry about it. On the other hand, the reaction could be of a more pronounced magnitude. Deciding to simply put our heads in the sand when it comes to those who have a supernatural reaction would seem a big mistake. Those people are possibly going to be harmed in how they conduct their lives, and equally possibly harm others by their reactive actions. Thus, the first step to coping with the supernatural reaction is to acknowledge that it could occur. By agreeing that the reaction is a strident possibility, the next step of determining what to do about it is opened. Just Logically Explain AGI One twist is that a rationalist would undoubtedly insist that all you need to do is tell the world that AGI is bits and bytes, which clearly will dispel any other false impressions. Nope, that isn’t an all-supreme enchanted solution to the problem. Here’s why. The more that you exhort the bits and bytes pronouncement, the more some will be convinced you are definitely trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen and will abundantly haunt the emergence of AGI. The logic of those who don’t buy into the bits and bytes is that there is no way that bits and bytes could combine to formulate AGI. There must be something else going on. A supernatural element must be involved. In that tainted viewpoint, it is also possible that the AI makers do not realize that a supernatural force has led them to AGI. Those AI makers falsely believe that humans made AGI when the reality is that something supernatural did so. In that manner, the AI makers are telling their sense of the truth, though they do not realize they have been snookered by supernatural forces. Actions To Be Undertaken Here are five major ways that we can try and cope with the supernatural reaction that might be invoked by some portion of the populace: (1) Openly explaining how AGI works. If there is immense secrecy associated with the inner mechanisms of AGI, which some AI makers might cling to as a proprietary advantage, the chances of sparking a supernational-based explanation go up. Transparency is going to be vital else people will craft their own zany contrivances. (2) Build explainability into AGI. The advent of AGI ought to encompass that AGI provides explainability and interpretability as a native crux of the AGI. When users ask questions of AGI, the AGI should not only respond with answers but also identify the mathematical and computational facets that led to the answer. (3) Embed suitable guardrails into AGI. One disheartening possibility is that AGI itself might tell people that a supernatural force underlies AGI. That’s troubling since it would not only encourage those who are leaning toward the supernatural aura, it would likely spread the supernatural reaction across the globe. Don’t want that. Guardrails should be embedded into the AGI accordingly. (4) Provide AGI-usage socializing support. An AGI is bound to gauge when a user seems to be slipping into the supernatural reactive condition, doing so via how the person is interacting with the AGI. There should be mental health specialists associated with the advent of AGI who can be called upon to assist those falling into that mental trap. Interventions of a planned and prepared nature should be established before AI becomes AGI. (5) Popularize the use of AGI. To reduce the mysteriousness of AGI, there should be a concerted effort to showcase the use of AGI, along with identifying how the AGI produces its answers. This might go beyond usage by scientists, engineers, and the like, encompassing artisans and philosophers. The idea is to tackle the aura of AGI head-on, rather than allowing a vacuum to exist into which people will derive and insert their own ill-supported beliefs. Circumventing Cargo Cults You might vaguely be familiar with the catchphrase “cargo cult” that arose in 1945 to describe some of the effects of WWII on local tribes of somewhat isolated islands. In brief, military forces had airdropped all sorts of supplies to such islands including cans of food, boxes of medicines, and the like, doing so to support the war effort and their troops underway at that time. Later, once the military efforts ceased or moved on, the local tribes reportedly sought to reinstitute the airdrops but didn’t seemingly understand how to do so. They ended up carrying out marching drills similar to what they had seen the troops perform, under the belief and hope that mimicking those actions would bring forth renewed airdrops. This type of mimicry is also known as sympathetic magic. Suppose you see a magician do an impressive card trick and as they do so, they make a large gesture of waving their hands. If you sought to replicate the card trick, and assuming you didn’t know how the card trick was truly performed, you might wave your hands as a believed basis for getting the cards to come out the way you wanted. Sympathetic magic. I bring up such a topic to highlight that the advent of AGI could spur similar reactions in parts of society. The possibility isn’t implausible. Keep in mind that AGI will be an advanced AI that exhibits human-caliber intellectual prowess in all regards of human capabilities. There is little question that interacting with AGI will be an amazing and awe-inspiring affair. Should we simply hope that people will not imbue a supernational reaction to AGI? The answer to that question comes from the famous words of Thucydides: “Hope is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared.”

Last year, Italian games studio Two Little Mice struck a deal to have Swedish tabletop publisher Free League distribute the Ennie-winning game Outgunned, which lets gaming groups play out heist or action movies like Ocean’s Eleven and Mission: Impossible. As part of that deal, Free League just released the first book in Outgunned’s genre line, Outgunned Adventure, which focuses on pulp films like Indiana Jones, The Mummy, and Tomb Raider. The standalone book uses Outgunned’s Director’s Cut RPG system, which has players roll between two and nine six-sided dice and score successes based on how many land on the same face. As the name suggests, characters are meant to be outmatched by dastardly villains they need to face through shootouts and fast talking. Failure is common, but PCs can “fail with style” — for instance, getting lost while searching for something might mean the players find something they weren’t expecting. Being too noisy on an infiltration might just lead to an exciting fight with a dangerous enemy they hoped to avoid. The $51 core rulebook includes 10 new roles, like Scoundrel, Technician, and Captain. Those combine with action movie tropes to provide a wide range of character options. You’ll explore ancient temples, run from traps, and fight on top of trains, while searching for treasure and solving mysteries. GMs looking to start playing quickly can pick up the $21 Fall of Atlantis three-part campaign — Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire is another major influence on the game — and an Adventure Director Screen, which provides a quick rules reference. The print books come with PDF copies, fulfilled through DriveThruRPG.Like the base game, Outgunned Adventure was the product of a highly successful crowdfunding campaign, raising more than €480,000 last summer. Two Little Mice has also just kicked off a campaign for its next genre book, Outgunned Superheroes. It has already raised more than €224,000, and high pledge levels include other Outgunned products, including the Action Flicks setting books and the John Wick-inspired World of Killers.

Despite keyframes and scroll-driven events, CSS animations have remained relatively rudimentary. As I wrote in Part 1, they remind me of the 1960s Hanna-Barbera animated series I grew up watching on TV. Shows like Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, Scooby-Doo, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Wacky Races, and, of course, Yogi Bear. Mike loves ’90s animation — especially Disney’s Duck Tales). So, that is the aesthetic applied throughout the design. I used animations throughout and have recently added an extra dimension to them using masking. So, to explain how this era of animation relates to masking in CSS, I’ve chosen an episode of The Yogi Bear Show, “Disguise and Gals,” first broadcast in May 1961. In this story, two bank robbers, disguised as little old ladies, hide their loot in a “pic-a-nic” basket in Yogi and Boo-Boo’s cave! What could possibly go wrong? What’s A Mask? One simple masking example comes at the end of “Disguise and Gals” and countless other cartoons. Here, an animated vignette gradually hides more of Yogi’s face. The content behind the mask isn’t erased; it’s hidden. In CSS, masking controls visibility using a bitmap, vector, or gradient mask image. When a mask’s filled pixels cover an element, its content will be visible. When they are transparent, it will be hidden, which makes sense. Filled pixels can be any colour, but I always make mine hot pink so that it’s clear to me which areas will be visible. A clip-path functions similarly to a mask but uses paths to create hard-edged clipping areas. If you want to be picky, masks and clipping paths are technically different, but the goal for using them is usually the same. So, for this article, I’ll refer to them as two entrances to the same cave and call using either “masking.” In this sequence from “Disguise and Gals,” one of the robbers rushes the picnic basket containing their loot into Yogi’s cave. Masking defines the visible area, creating the illusion that the robber is entering the cave. How do I choose when to use clip path and when to choose mask? I’ll explain my reasons in each example. When Mike Worth and I discussed working together, we knew we would neither have the budget nor the time to create a short animated cartoon for his website. However, we were keen to explore how animations could bring to life what would’ve otherwise been static images. Masking Using A Clipping Path On Mike’s biography page, his character also enters a cave. The SVG illustration I created contains two groups, one for the background and the other for the orangutan in the foreground: <figure> <svg viewBox="0 0 1400 960" id="cave"> <g class="background">…</g> <g class="foreground">…</g> </svg> </figure> I defined a keyframe animation that moves the character from 2000px on the right to its natural position in the center of the frame by altering its translate value: @keyframes foreground { 0% { opacity: .75; translate: 2000px 0; } 60% { opacity: 1; translate: 0 0; } 80% { opacity: 1; translate: 50px 0; } 100% { opacity: 1; translate: 0 0; } } Then, I applied that animation to the foreground group: .foreground { opacity: 0; animation: foreground 5s 2s ease-in-out infinite; } Try this yourself: I wanted him to become visible at the edge of the illustration instead. As the edges of the cave walls are hard, I chose a clip-path. There are several ways to define a clip-path in CSS. I could use a primitive shape like a rectangle, where each of the first four values specifies its corner positions. The round keyword and the value that follows define any rounded corners: clip-path: rect(0px 150px 150px 0px round 5px); Or xywh (x, y, width, height) values, which I find easier to read: clip-path: xywh(0 0 150px 150px round 5px); I could use a circle: clip-path: circle(60px at center); Or an ellipse: clip-path: ellipse(50% 40% at 50% 50%); I could use a polygon shape: clip-path: polygon(...); Or even the points from a path I created in a graphics app like Sketch: clip-path: path("M ..."); Finally — and my choice for this example — I might use a mask that I defined using paths from an SVG file: clip-path: url(#mask-cave); To make the character visible from the edge of the illustration, I added a second SVG. To prevent a browser from displaying it, set both its dimensions to zero: <figure> <svg viewBox="0 0 1400 960" id="cave">...</svg> <svg height="0" width="0" id="mask">...</svg> </figure> This contains a single SVG clipPath. By placing this inside the defs element, this path isn’t rendered, but it will be available to create my CSS clip-path: <svg height="0" width="0" id="mask"> <defs> <clipPath id="mask-cave">...</clipPath> </defs> </svg> I applied the clipPath URL to my illustration, and now Mike’s mascot only becomes visible when he enters the cave: #cave { clip-path: url(#mask-cave); } Try this yourself: While a clipPath will give me the result I’m looking for, the complexity and size of these paths can sometimes negatively affect performance. That’s when I choose a CSS mask as its properties have been baseline and highly usable since 2023. The mask property is a shorthand and can include values for mask-clip, mask-mode, mask-origin, mask-position, mask-repeat, mask-size, and mask-type. I find it’s best to learn these properties individually to grasp the concept of masks more easily. Masks control visibility using bitmap, vector, or gradient mask images. Again, when a mask’s filled pixels cover an element, its content will be visible. When they‘re transparent, the content will be hidden. And when parts of a mask are semi-transparent, some of the content will show through. I can use a bitmap format that includes an alpha channel, such as PNG or WebP: mask-image: url(mask.webp); I could apply a mask using a vector graphic: mask-image: url(mask.svg); Or generate an image using a conical, linear, or radial gradient: mask-image: linear-gradient(#000, transparent); …or: mask-image: radial-gradient(circle, #ff104c 0%, transparent 100%); I might apply more than one mask to an element and mix several image types using what should be a familiar syntax: mask-image: image(url(mask.webp)), linear-gradient(#000, transparent); mask shares the same syntax as CSS backgrounds, which makes remembering its properties much easier. To apply a background-image, add its URL value: background-image: url("background.webp"); To apply a mask, swap the background-image property for mask-image: mask-image: url("mask.webp"); The mask property also shares the same browser styles as CSS backgrounds, so by default, a mask will repeat horizontally and vertically unless I specify otherwise: /* Options: repeat, repeat-x, repeat-y, round, space, no-repeat */ mask-repeat: no-repeat; It will be placed at the top-left corner unless I alter its position: /* Options: Keywords, units, percentages */ mask-position: center; Plus, I can specify mask-size in the same way as background-size: /* Options: Keywords (auto, contain, cover), units, percentages */ mask-size: cover; Finally, I can define where a mask starts: mask-origin: content-box; mask-origin: padding-box; mask-origin: border-box; Using A Mask Image Mike’s FAQs page includes an animated illustration of his hero standing at a crossroads. My goal was to separate the shape from its content, allowing me to change the illustration throughout the hero’s journey. So, I created a scalable mask-image which defines the visible area and applied it to the figure element: figure { mask-image: url(mask.svg); } To ensure the mask matched the illustration’s dimensions, I also set the mask-size to always cover its content: figure { mask-size: cover; } Try this yourself: figure { clip-path: ellipse(45% 35% at 50% 50%); } However, the hard edges of a clip clip-path don’t create the effect I was aiming to achieve: Try this yourself: Finally, to add an extra touch of realism, I added a keyframe animation — which changes the mask-size and creates the effect that the lamp light is flickering — and applied it to the figure: @keyframes lamp-flicker { 0%, 19.9%, 22%, 62.9%, 64%, 64.9%, 70%, 100% { mask-size: 90%, auto; } 20%, 21.9%, 63%, 63.9%, 65%, 69.9% { mask-size: 90%, 0px; } } figure { animation: lamp-flicker 3s 3s linear infinite; } Try this yourself: I started by creating the binocular shape, complete with some viewfinder markers. Then, I applied that image as a mask, setting its position, repeat, and size values to place it in the center of the figure element: figure { mask-image: url(mask.svg); mask-position: 50% 50%; mask-repeat: no-repeat; mask-size: 85%; } Try this yourself: To let someone know they might’ve reached the end of their adventure, I wanted to ape the zooming-in effect I started this article with: <figure> <svg>…</svg> </figure> I created a circular clip-path and set its default size to 75%. Then, I defined the animation keyframes to resize the circle from 75% to 15% before attaching it to my figure with a one-second duration and a three-second delay: @keyframes error { 0% { clip-path: circle(75%); } 100% { clip-path: circle(15%); } } figure { clip-path: circle(75%); animation: error 1s 3s ease-in forwards; } The animation now focuses someone’s attention on the hapless hero, before he sinks lower and lower into the bubblingly hot lava. Try this yourself: See the Pen Mike Worth’s error page [forked] by Andy Clarke. Bringing It All To Life Masking adds an extra dimension to web animation and makes stories more engaging and someone’s experience more compelling — all while keeping animations efficiently lightweight. Whether you’re revealing content, guiding focus, or adding more depth to a design, masks offer endless creative possibilities. So why not experiment with them in your next project? You might uncover a whole new way to bring your animations to life. The end. Or is it? … Mike Worth’s website will launch in June 2025, but you can see examples from this article on CodePen now.

A brief teaser for Fallout Season 2 has hit the internet, showing a new look at New Vegas.The clip, shown during the Amazon Upfront livestream overnight, was captured and uploaded on reddit. It shows Lucy (Ella Purnell) and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) 50 miles out from what was Las Vegas. We hear the famous Geiger Counter sound, signifying radiation is in the air. The Ghoul and Lucy look at each other before heading towards New Vegas, and we get a good look at the post-apocalyptic city skyline.New Vegas is of course the setting for the Obsidian-developed Fallout: New Vegas, and the setting for Season 2 of the Fallout adaptation.So, what can we learn about the show's take on New Vegas from this teaser? Well, it’s more detailed than the brief look we got at New Vegas at the end of Season 1, which stands to reason. It will look familiar to anyone who's played New Vegas, although it appears more densely packed with buildings (the video game New Vegas was a relatively sparse location).The standout is of course the Lucky 38 Resort and Casino, which is on the New Vegas Strip. In the New Vegas video game, the Lucky 38 is the pre-War casino from which Mr. House runs the city. Fans also believe they can make out the Ultra-Luxe, but in truth it’s hard to discern individual video game locations from the shot here.PlayWarning! Potential spoilers for the Fallout TV show follow.The show is confirmed to be heading to New Vegas for Season 2, and it's not just about the location itself. Mr. House is set to be a part of the new season, though how involved he'll be is unclear. We've already seen the tease of some familiar sights thanks to previous set leaks, including this video that shows part of New Vegas and the iconic Lucky 38 resort and casino, all bright and lit up. It's certainly far from the rusty place you might expect.It’s worth remembering where we are in the Fallout timeline: the TV show is set in the year 2296, after all the Fallout video games. Fallout 4 takes place in the year 2287, while Fallout: New Vegas is set in the year 2281, a full 15 years prior to the events of the show.So, what happened in the 15 years since we last saw New Vegas? Co-showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet have said the setting has changed, and explained why that is important for fans to note.“All we really want the audience to know is that things have happened, so that there isn't an expectation that we pick the show up in Season 2, following one of the myriad canon endings that depend on your choices when you play [Fallout: New Vegas],” Wagner said last year.“With that post-credits stuff, we really wanted to imply, guys, the world has progressed, and the idea that the wasteland stays as it is decade-to-decade is preposterous to us. It’s just a place [of] constant tragedy, events, horrors — there's a constant churn of trauma. We're definitely implying more has occurred.”But what will happen when the Power Armor-clad Overseer Hank, played by Kyle MacLachlan, turns up (potentially after a dustup with a Deathclaw)? Some speculate Mr. House, the enigmatic ruler of New Vegas in the video game and dastardly boss of RobCo Industries in the TV show’s flashbacks to before the bombs fell, may enlist the help of Hank to restore New Vegas to its former glory. Perhaps, if that’s the way the story goes, the forces of Mr. House and New Vegas will end up taking on the Brotherhood of Steel in yet another Fallout faction battle, with Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul caught in the middle.Overnight, Amazon announced a December 2025 release window for Season 2, and confirmed Season 3. Last week, Aaron Moten, who plays Brotherhood of Steel hopeful Maximus, said the “endpoint” of the Fallout TV show has it running until Season 5 or Season 6.We had a great time with Season 1, writing in IGN's Fallout The Series review that the show is "a bright and funny apocalypse filled with dark punchlines and bursts of ultra-violence [and is] among the best video game adaptations ever made," slapping it with a well-earned 9/10.To help tide you over until Season 2, here's our interview with Todd Howard and Jonathan Nolan covering all our burning questions after the end of Season 1.Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.