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 IIIt’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, 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 witsto 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 Hallinto the lion’s den as an informant, has classical pedigree. The movie remakes Alfred Hitchcock’s Notoriousin 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 ReckoningYes, 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 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. 6. Mission: Impossible IIIBefore 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. 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, 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 Faustdoes 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 ProtocolThere 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: ImpossibleThe 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, 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 Towneinto 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 NationIn 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 doubleagent 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, as well as a Casablanca chase between Ethan and Ilsa that’s the best motorcycle sequence in the series. 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 – FalloutIf 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. 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. #mission #impossible #movies #ranked #worst

io9 is proud to present fiction from Lightspeed Magazine. Once a month, we feature a story from Lightspeed’s current issue. This month’s selection is “Through the Machine” by P.A. Cornell. Enjoy! Through the Machine by P.A. Cornell “Steve, over here! Turn to your right. Can we get a smile?” He falls back on his training easily enough, turns to the cameras, gives them his famous crooked smile, tilts his head just so as the flashes go off so they can capture the smoulder that highlights his cheekbones. The one he’s practiced countless times with his manager, Ethel. The red carpet extends before him, and up ahead he sees the actress he’s been paired with in this film. His co-star and onscreen love interest but in reality, a total stranger. He only knows her name because the photographers keep shouting it, asking her to turn so they can capture her svelte profile. She tilts her head obligingly, long blonde hair falling seductively over one eye, teasing the lenses and through them the millions of fans who’ll one day see these images. She’s a pro, like him. She’s clearly had the same kind of training he’s had. She’s been through the machine. It’s a phrase he heard years ago from a late-night talk show host. It refers to the way Hollywood turns you into a product. You start out this average person, just trying to make it as an actor, then as your success grows, more and more people come into your life to turn you into something else. A movie star. A fairy tale ideal of celebrity perfection. He’d told himself that would never be him. He was in it for the art, not the fame and fortune. But here he is. “Steve! Daphne! Can we get some shots of the two of you together?” The blonde up ahead reaches a hand toward him as if beckoning a good friend, though this is the first time they’ve met. She smiles at him in a way that almost looks genuine. He returns his best leading man grin, flashing the expensive set of pearly white teeth his manager arranged for in the earliest days of their partnership. He puts an arm around Daphne. They both pose, turn, look at each other and smile, over and over. Then both look serious, then smile once more. Then she leans in for a peck on the cheek as instructed by the shouting crowd, just before they’re both ushered off to find their places inside, where the film will be screened. Once they’re away from the cameras, he extends his hand to Daphne. “Hi. Steve Randall.” “Nice to meet you,” she laughs. “Daphne Everheart.” “You seen any of it yet?” “Not even the trailer,” she admits. “Did they send you the screenplay?” He shakes his head. Someone in her entourage grabs her by the arm. She gives him a small wave as they lead her off. He wonders if he’ll even see her again after this premiere. Maybe. If the film does well opening weekend, there could be a sequel. They could find themselves at another premiere for a movie they appear in together, but that neither of them has acted in. Steve lets his own people show him past curtains and cocktails to a theater with plush red seating. He takes his place staring up at the screen, trying to conjure up some of the excitement he once felt as a kid about to watch his favorite actors. But the excitement feels more akin to anxiety as the opening credits appear. He sees his own name—or the one his manager gave him, anyway. That’s when he appears. Seeing himself like this is unsettling, to say the least. He turns to the people seated around him and they’re all looking up at this face that resembles him but isn’t him. Do they not see it? Do they not feel that uncanny valley sickness in the pit of their stomachs that weighs his down as the thing on screen billed as Steve Randall starts to speak? It’s his voice, but he’s never said these words. Never read the script they came from. Who wrote this, anyway? He wonders. Or rather, what wrote this? The film’s runtime is ninety-five minutes. It’s a romantic comedy, but the word “comedy” is generous. Steve doesn’t so much as crack a smile. He watches this AI-generated doppelganger and his equally digitized scene partner as they traverse the uneven landscape of the disjointed plot—flimsy even for this genre. They flash smile after smile, kiss with ever-deepening passion—if you can call it that—and ultimately, after a series of contrived misunderstandings, they get their Hollywood ending. All set to an AI-generated score bereft of any feeling that might conjure atmosphere or elicit an emotional response from the viewer. As the lights come up and people start to clap, Steve glances down the row of seats at his co-star. Daphne, seeming to sense his stare, glances back. She looks as though she’s about to be sick but gives him a brave smile—a trained smile—and starts to clap along with everyone else. He does the same. This is his job now, after all. The scan was taken a couple of years ago, during pre-production on a movie in which he played an astronaut. They had to scan him for proper fit of the spacesuit they were having made, as well as for some of the more intricate effects. The voice they came by even more easily. From all the ADR he’d done, voicework on some animated stuff, and of course countless interviews already accessible online. He hadn’t given the scan much thought, at the time. It had made sense for the work they were doing. He’d never imagined it would lead to this. There’s an afterparty and people keep coming up and congratulating him on the movie. He says what he’s been trained to say, graciously thanking them for their praise, taking pictures with people for magazines and entertainment shows. Evidence that he is in fact still a real person that exists in the world, even though it’s not him on screen. Not in this movie and not in a handful of others, several of which he hasn’t even seen. If Hollywood could turn you into a product before, this is on another level. His career has become, almost exclusively, one of public appearances. His L.A. agent has him booked for a store opening tomorrow, and a series of meet-and-greets at conventions sometime in the spring. The sorts of gigs that used to be thought of as “has-been” work, but Steve, by all accounts, is still a bona fide movie star. He was People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” just last year. Fans still somehow manage to find out what hotel he’s staying at in any given city all over the world, just so they can catch a glimpse of him walking in and out. How has it come to this? At the end of the night someone pushes him into a shiny black town car and the spectacle of this farce fades away in the car’s rear lights. He exhales, trying to get the image of the thing on screen out of his head. It’s not so bad, he tells himself. SAG made sure he’d get paid for the use of his image. It’s not as much as he might’ve liked, maybe, but it’s decent, and they use it often enough that the cheques enable him to maintain his standard of living. The public appearances add to that. He can’t really complain. But the sick feeling in his stomach remains. • • • When he’s back in New York, he calls his manager. “It was fucking weird, Ethel.” He tells her. “Seeing myself in a film I wasn’t actually in. No chemistry between me and my co-star because, well . . . neither of us was actually there to do any acting. This isn’t what I signed up for.” “Sweet boy,” she says, using her years’ old term of endearment for him, though he hasn’t been a boy in quite some time. “I know. But this is how it works with the studio films these days. Be glad your image is still worth something.” Steve sighs deeply. “I know. It’s just . . . I worked so hard to get here. We both did. The work mattered to me. I miss challenging myself, figuring out who my character is and how to best convey that through my performance. I miss being able to disappear into all those people and live their lives for a time.” “Of course, of course,” says Ethel. “That’s one of the reasons I took you on as a client. Even at sixteen, you had such passion. You loved the art of it. But what’s the alternative, Stefan?” She only ever uses his original name when she’s serious. He knows her hands are as tied as his. It’s this or give up the business altogether. • • • Over drinks with a friend the next night, he airs his frustrations, his tongue loosened by more than a few shots with beer chasers. “I’m bored,” he tells Frank, who doubled for him in an action film franchise that now continues without need of either of them. “I miss acting. It’s like all they left me with are the worst parts of fame. The parts where I still can’t walk down the street in peace without some paparazzo shoving a lens in my face, and where I can still get cancelled online for any stupid shit I might say without thinking. But the good parts, they’ve all been taken over by some digital version of me that frankly gives me the creeps.” “I hear ya, Steve,” Frank says, raising his beer. “It’s not just you though, brother. At least you still have a marketable presence. Companies still send you free clothes and shit so you can be spotted using it.” “Sure,” he tells Frank. “But all that amounts to is that I’m now pretty much just this human billboard. I’m not even an actor anymore.” “You’re breaking my heart, man. But think about guys like me. We were getting your crumbs even in the good times. If you think things have gotten rough for you, imagine what’s left for us. I haven’t been called for a stunt gig in months. And that last one ended up cancelled last minute when they decided it was cheaper to use AI. I’ve got a family to support, and all three kids are gonna need braces. Not to mention the first wife who’s on my back if I’m even half a second late with her alimony. What I wouldn’t give for my ugly mug to be in demand.” Steve knows he’s right and feels bad for whining. Things could be so much worse. Whatever jobs he’s lost to AI, there are countless more jobs lost by less famous actors, crew, and other support personnel like PA’s and craft services. He can’t begin to imagine how they’re all making ends meet these days. Many of the ones he’s still close with, like Frank, work multiple jobs, even outside the industry, just to cover what their once stable careers did. “Drinks are on me tonight, by the way,” he tells Frank. “You’ll get no argument here, pal.” • • • Later, in the privacy of his loft, Steve allows himself the luxury of self-pity. He can’t help thinking of the kid he once was. The chubby little dork with the accent. Too shy to talk to girls. Pushed around by the guys he so wanted to be. Acting freed him from all that. It had allowed this kid who didn’t feel comfortable in his own skin to become someone else. In time, it had given him confidence, and as he continued to hone his craft, it had brought him the attention he’d craved and opportunities he’d never imagined. It hasn’t always been easy. There’d been plenty of lean years before his big breakout role turned him into a household name. Years during which covering rent had been a struggle, and meals had often consisted of half-eaten scraps left by patrons of the restaurants in which he’d waited tables. But he’d loved acting enough to stick with it, and he’d thought it worth all the sacrifices. He gave up his very name for this profession. He lost the accent and the baby fat. He’s spent a sizeable portion of his income on fixing his teeth, and on five-hundred-dollar haircuts sometimes paired with a treatment to achieve that perfect shade of chestnut brown or a shave that still left enough stubble to keep him looking “manly” in a marketable way. He’s gotten regular tans to conceal his naturally pale complexion—a condition the L.A. agent refers to as his “vampire” look. He’s hired a stylist, a personal trainer, and a dietitian to help him maintain what the grueling workouts have chiselled him into. He’s had more hours of media training than he’s had acting classes. Hell, at times he’s even dated women he’s been told to date. All of it to create this perfect image of Hollywood glamour intended to seduce audiences into filling theater seats. He’s been put through the machine—and willingly let it happen—just so he can go on doing what he loves. He hadn’t realized this image wasn’t him. It was just a product. Something that could be sold, and then re-sold again and again, with little if any say from him as to how it might be used. Feeling down about his situation, Steve turns to Instagram. He doesn’t follow any fan accounts but now and then, when he’s alone, he looks up the hashtag that bears his name. The fans have a way of making him feel better about himself. Their comments on his pictures—especially the shirtless ones—always make his day. Their support for the charities he’s championed over the years warms his heart. Sure, there are always trolls, but those are in the minority and easy enough to block. He scrolls through his feed and finds the People photo shoot. His feelings about the shoot are a mix of pride and embarrassment. Pride that the chubby kid with the Polish accent showed his high school bullies up, but a little shame at the fact that he still cares so much about what they might think. Still, a few of the pictures from the shoot are really good. He recalls how the photographer’s great sense of humor put him at ease, and how welcoming the magazine staff were. Continuing to scroll, he comes across a picture of himself he never took. This isn’t one of those amazing fan art images he’s seen over the years made by outstandingly talented artists that managed to capture not just his appearance, but his essence. This is some kind of Frankenimage, clearly AI-generated. His hair is a honey blonde he’s never sported, not even on screen. The cheekbones are oddly exaggerated and too narrow, giving him an almost gaunt appearance. In the picture he holds an infant, staring down at it like a proud father. It hurts him to see it. He’s always wanted a family, but this hasn’t happened for him in real life. Steve scrolls some more and comes across another AI image. In this one he’s dressed in a patent leather getup; cut to reveal tattoos he doesn’t have. A red blindfold covers his eyes. His arms are cuffed behind his back. His expression is one of ecstasy. Behind him stands another known actor who holds the handle of a whip against his chest as he leans in to lick the side of Steve’s face. The actor is a good friend. They’ve worked together a few times but never as onscreen lovers. Fans have imagined their characters as a couple for years, which seemed harmless enough, but seeing this is something else. Against his better judgment, he reads the comments. “I ship them.” “Gorgeous art. Love this.” “Yes, please.” And so on. “I wanna see them getting down in a movie together,” someone’s written. There’s a response to this last comment from someone who’s handle indicates they work for a major studio. “Don’t worry. You won’t have to wait much longer for that. And let’s just say this one’s not going to be the family-friendly fare you’re used to seeing these guys in.” Steve isn’t homophobic. He’s played gay characters more than once and has been fine with kissing or even simulating sex with other male actors. But there’s something about being paired with a close friend in this way without so much as a heads up, that seems like a violation. It’s one thing to work with another actor that you’ve built trust with and talk through a scene to make sure you’re both comfortable depicting something intimate that everyone can be proud of in the end. It’s quite another thing when your image is used to quell strangers’ salacious appetites, in a way you didn’t consent to. Steve feels sick. He takes screenshots of both the AI image and the comment about the movie and texts them to his friend. He follows that up with the message: Did you know about this? The reply comes almost immediately. Fuck. Are you kidding me? Wish I was. Damn man. I love you, but not like that. At least not without the kind of money we used to get for our movies. Steve smiles in spite of himself. At least his friends can still have a sense of humor about these things. I feel like we need to push back on this, he tells his friend. Yeah, I get it man, but we signed the contract. I know we didn’t have much choice, but the law doesn’t care. We agreed to this. Pretty sure it’s too late to stop them. The fans don’t even seem to care it’s not really us, Steve types. Why would they? His friend replies. They don’t even really need us anymore. We just get in the way of their fantasies. Steve doesn’t respond to that. He deletes his Instagram account. He shudders to think of what they’re doing with his image on TikTok. Or worse, on the dark web. • • • “This sucks, Ethel.” Steve puts the phone on speaker and sets it down on the kitchen counter to pour a bowl of cereal. “I’m going stir-crazy here. I need something to challenge my creativity again.” “Well, I heard about one thing, but I’m not sure it’s really for you, so I hadn’t mentioned it,” she says. “What? Tell me?” He opens the fridge and reaches for the almond milk then thinks, screw it, and grabs the whole milk he bought yesterday instead. “There’s this Broadway musical. I know one of the producers, but you’d have to audition.” “That’s exactly what I need right now,” he tells her, over mouthfuls of Frosted Flakes. “It’ll be good for me to go back to my theater roots. It’s been too long since I’ve performed in front of an audience.” He pushes the thought that it’s a musical to the back of his mind. He’s never been known for his singing, but he can work with a voice coach or something. At this point, he’ll do anything to perform again. “It’s been a long time since you’ve had to audition, let alone for live theater,” Ethel says. “Just tell me where and when. I’ve got this.” • • • When he gets the lead in the musical, Steve’s thrilled, but also mildly surprised. He’d felt good about the audition, but he’d heard some of the other actors sing and they were clearly better than he is. He figures they must’ve seen something in him—an intangible quality that suits the part. Why overthink it? His illusions come crashing down early on in rehearsals. During a break, he talks with one of the stagehands. An older guy named Bill. Steve vents a bit about how he can’t really act in the film industry anymore. “Thank god for Broadway. The last refuge for actors like me.” “Yeah. For actors like you,” Bill agrees. Steve isn’t sure what he means by that and says so. “Look, you seem like a decent enough guy,” Bill says, “so don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re here because you’re a name. They need something to put on the billboards that’ll draw a crowd, is all. It ain’t about talent no more.” Steve is taken aback, and his expression must show it. “Don’t get me wrong,” Bill continues. “You’re good. Up there on the big screen, you were a real standout. But this is a whole different animal. All I’m saying is there’s actors more cut out for the stage than you that can’t get hired anymore because the guys who used to work the screen are taking their roles.” Steve’s about to respond when Bill points to a group of actors sitting together talking. “See the guy in the collared shirt?” Bill says. “That’s Wayne Garnet.” Steve knows Wayne from rehearsals. Nice guy. He has a small part but gives it his all. “Wayne’s a Tony-winner. Used to be his name on the marquee. Now even he has to settle for bit parts since AI started taking chunks out of the film industry.” Later Steve Googles Wayne Garnet and finds he’s actually won two Tonys. He’s also known for his singing voice, which he loaned to several animated films before they started digitally recreating it. Steve feels sick. He approaches Wayne during the next rehearsal and offers to bow out to make room for him. Wayne is gracious and tells him not to. “There’s no point, Steve. They’d just get another big name movie star to replace you. My days as the lead are done. I’m just happy I still get to be on stage at all. At least for now.” “What do you mean?” Steve asks. “AI’s coming for all of us,” Wayne says. “It’s not just the film industry. This crap is spreading like a virus throughout the arts. There’s already talk of a new play, AI-written, of course, where instead of live actors they’re projecting digital performers onto the stage. It’s strictly off-Broadway for now, but give it time.” Steve is appalled. Doesn’t know what to say. Wayne continues. “I’ll take whatever I can get these days. You know what they say, ‘There are no small parts.’ I just hope that when the roles run out, someone will want to scan me to use in a projection so I can at least cash a cheque now and then.” • • • At home one night, after the play’s run has ended, Steve settles in to watch TV. He scans his options, stumbling upon one of his early roles. A serious drama in which he played a depressed teen, struggling with his parents’ divorce and his older brother’s untimely death. Even all these years later, the dialogue comes back as he watches one of the more emotional scenes. “It’s not like I don’t want to talk about Tommy,” he mouths along with his younger self. “I do. It’s just that . . .” Young Steve can’t finish because he’s started to cry. Present day Steve remembers shooting the scene—his first time crying on cue. He remembers harnessing all those emotions and tapping into all the pain he’d ever felt, and all of it somehow pouring out of him in that moment. He remembers the director taking him aside later and saying, “You nailed it, kid.” He smiles thinking of this now, but then he’s sad again, missing the sense of accomplishment of pulling off a scene like this. The exhilaration of seeing an audience respond to it later. He watches the remainder of the movie while eating peanut butter by the spoonful right out of the jar. Halfway through he crumbles in an entire Kit-kat bar like he used to do when he was a kid. By the time the credits roll, the jar is empty. • • • Steve’s personal trainer leaves frequent voicemail messages asking when he’s coming back to the gym. He knows he should, but it’s tough to get motivated for a workout when he feels like all anyone’s going to see is his AI clone. Still, it’s in his contract to try to resemble the digital version of himself as much as possible. He knows his skin could use a bit more color these days too, and his hair’s starting to show some gray he hadn’t even realized he had. He makes a mental note to focus more on his appearance. All that can wait until after he returns from the convention though. He’s surprised to find he’s actually looking forward to connecting with his fans again and maybe seeing some of the ones that have become familiar faces over time. The energy at the con is intense, and Steve feels electrified, like he did during his stint on Broadway. One by one he greets his fans as warmly as he possibly can. He makes time to speak with them in the few minutes he has while they take pictures with him. He gives them not his practiced smile, but his real one, and makes sure to thank each one for their continued support. Things get a little weird during the signing. Much of it is what he’s used to, with fans handing him old headshots or pictures from his older films to sign, and in some cases art they’ve made themselves. But he’s also handed quite a few more AI-generated images than he’s used to. He feels like a fraud signing them. Like he’s putting his autograph on someone else’s headshot. Still, he tries to be gracious and humble with the fans. They’ve been there for him through his rise to fame. It’s the least he can do. By the time it’s all over and he’s on his way back to the hotel, Steve’s feeling good about the event. So good, in fact, that he revives his Instagram account to see what fans have been posting. He smiles at the pictures they took with him earlier in the day. Many of the fans are dressed like his characters. Some of the props and signs they’ve brought are so creative, they bring a smile to his face. But soon he notices that not all the comments under the pictures are kind. “Is it just me or is Steve rockin’ the dad bod these days?” someone asks. “Yeah. I hate to say it, but I was a bit disappointed that he didn’t look as hot as he does in Burning Brand II,” replies the account holder. “He’s looking older too. I mean, don’t get me wrong, he was nice and all, I just wish the picture was better.” “Just fix it so he looks hot,” someone else suggests. “Yeah, I probably will.” Steve doesn’t even know what Burning Brand II is. Another of his films he hasn’t seen—or acted in—he assumes. He closes the app and wonders why he even bothers. If the fans don’t care what’s real and what isn’t, why is he even doing this? • • • He goes for a run the next morning. It’s been a while, but he soon finds his rhythm. It’s early in the day and the streets are quiet. He likes this time of day. It’s peaceful. Gives him a chance to clear his head. When he stops for a rest, he notices a small theater. A sign over the door proclaims that the theater shows only movies made by and starring living human beings. The acronym “AI” is painted on one of the windows with a red slash cut diagonally through it. But what really gets Steve’s attention is the man changing the posters. He replaces one with another that features a pensive-looking Daphne Everheart. His former co-star, if you can call her that, looks younger in this poster. He’s never seen her act before and he’s curious. He decides to return later in the day when the theater opens. • • • The film’s called Grace. In it, Daphne plays a young woman trying to convince her wealthy parents to take her seriously as an inventor. The story is moving, as Daphne’s character struggles against societal expectations to achieve her dreams. Steve likes the score too, and decides he’ll stay to read through the credits to see who composed it. He also enjoys the style the director has brought to the project. But what he likes most is Daphne’s performance. She’s good. It kills him to think that someone who was clearly a rising star is now relegated to appearing only as a digital ghost of herself in half-baked movies that would’ve been an embarrassment at another time. How many other talented actors have been forced out of the industry altogether? And what of everyone else whose jobs have been made irrelevant? Steve feels the tears well up, in part because of the movie, but also because of his thoughts. He blinks them away and looks around to see if other people are equally moved. That’s when he notices that nearly every seat in the theater has someone in it. He watches their expressions as they react to Daphne’s performance. He sees the story affect them, and by the end he understands that there are people for whom this art still has meaning. • • • After the movie lets out, he calls Ethel. “I’m thinking of doing something a bit different,” he tells her. “I want to start a production company. Make movies the old way. I have a whole list of people I can call who’d jump at the chance to collaborate on something real again.” “That sounds wonderful, sweet boy. It’s nice to hear some excitement in your voice again.” “I was calling to ask you something,” he tells her. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to get in touch with Daphne Everheart, would you? I don’t have a project yet, but I’d like to gauge her level of interest. I’m sure we’ll find something for her. The world deserves to see how good she actually is at this.” About the Author P.A. Cornell is a Chilean-Canadian speculative fiction writer. A graduate of the Odyssey workshop, her stories have been published or are forthcoming in over fifty magazines and anthologies, including Lightspeed, Apex, and three “Best of” anthologies. In addition to becoming the first Chilean Nebula finalist in 2024, Cornell has been a finalist for the Aurora and World Fantasy Awards, was longlisted for the BSFA Awards, and won Canada’s Short Works Prize. When not writing, she can be found assembling intricate Lego builds or drinking ridiculous quantities of tea. Sometimes both. For more on the author and her work, visit her website pacornell.com. © Adamant Press Please visit Lightspeed Magazine to read more great science fiction and fantasy. This story first appeared in the May 2025 issue, which also features short fiction by R. P. Sand, Gene Doucette, Martin Cahill, Russell Nichols, Meg Elison, Jonathan Olfert, Nancy Kress, and more. You can wait for this month’s contents to be serialized online, or you can buy the whole issue right now in convenient ebook format for just or subscribe to the ebook edition here. 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. #movie #star #endures #hollywoods #dystopian

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen would be the first to tell you: writing a video game is work.At least writing a novel is a one-person operation for most of the time. At least a screenplay for a film only needs to come in around 120 pages, unless you’re working for Martin Scorsese. But writing a video game? That means filling hours of space, bending the material to fit the play, and usually working with a team of other writers to make it all cohere. Sometimes to hit a deadline, you just need to throw words at the wall. Especially when it’s 3 a.m. That can still result in brilliance.All the Frenchy bits and bobs in Clair Obscur have captured the imaginations of players, but few quite like the character of Esquie, and especially one camp conversation in which the oversized gestral reflects on his friend François with Verso. Verso knows François to be a grump, but Esquie insists that “Franfran used to be all ‘Wheeee!’ But now he’s all ‘Whooo.’” Over about a minute, Esquie further defines “whee” and “woo” while players even choose their own whee/woo path through the dialogue tree. It is tremendously silly.“That was me at three in the morning trying to come up with something,” Svedberg-Yen admits with a laugh. “I needed to write seven relationship dialogues for Esquie!”Svedberg-Yen says the script for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 comes in around 800 pages long, which doesn’t even include all of the NPC dialogue or the piles of lore-related documentation written as foundation for the story. To fill that much space, the writer says she grabbed inspiration from everything and everywhere around her. For instance, Svedberg-Yen says Monoco, the floating gestral who later joins the Expedition 33 crew, is based on her dog, and when her pup needed a haircut, she decided to write that into the story. “I was like, OK, that’s going to be the conversation for Monoco and Verso about haircuts. He says, ‘you look like an overgrown mop.’ I literally said that to my dog — and I could use that.”The “whee whoo” sequence made even less sense in the wee hours of the morning, but it felt right. “I knew what I wanted to say, where it’s talking about something heavy and sad and how you can feel the joy and the grief,” Svedberg-Yen says. “And I was so tired. I didn’t have any words. So I was just like, ‘wheeeeee!’”As a fantasy writer, Svedberg-Yen says her number one goal is authenticity, sculpting characters who are born from real places and real circumstances, even if they’re otherworldly. So she doesn’t often question her instincts – even the kooky ones. There was room for moments of levity in the otherwise tragic Clair Obscur because, hey, that’s life. “Did I push it too far at all? Sometimes, when I’m at a loss for words, I’m like, what am I feeling right now? And then I put that into the script. That’s authentic because it is what I am feeling.”See More: #was #tired #behind #clair #obscur

14 May, 2025 In London and Los Angeles, Rob Alderson speaks with Teo Connor about Airbnb's new direction, her career, and the enduring influence of the girl guides. About an hour after CEO Brian Chesky unveiled the new Airbnb app to the world, Teo Connor, the company’s VP of design, takes a moment to reflect on the 18-month project. It’s a key move for Airbnb, which is beefing up its experiences and adding services, so people can book a private chef or a massage through the app. And it was an enormous design challenge for Connor and her team, who had to introduce a dizzying new array of options and information into the UX. “Yeah it was a bit nuts,” she laughs. “But I am really proud that we have been able to make something that feels both familiar and new. It feels magical to pull these three things into an app that people are used to using for one thing.” Teo Connor A big piece of the puzzle was to create the right building blocks that would work for both users and hosts – unglamorous but vital work to create scalable design structures. But for a company that has design woven in its DNA – both Chesky and co-founder Joe Gebbia studied at the Rhode Island School of Design – they also had to create something that looked great too. “We had to be able to condense all this information into three new tabs on the homescreen without it becoming overwhelming,” Connor explains. “How do you do that at scale, and at such density? But also with beauty – we had a lot of conversations about that.” Sitting through Chesky’s presentation on a massive high-definition screen, every pixel of the new app was blown up for everyone to scrutinise. But Connor is clearly satisfied with what she, and everyone else, saw. “We are having to educate people and change their behaviour, so that is a huge challenge,” she says. “But what I love is that when you look at it, it sort of feels inevitable.” We’re changing travel again Rewind a couple of hours and Brian Chesky strides onto the stage to the strains of Ini Kamoze’s Here Comes the Hotstepper. Airbnb has pioneered a way of working that focuses the whole company on a single product calendar, and the summer release is the moment when its new additions are shared with the public. In the past, these changes and updates have been smaller, and sometimes very technical. But this announcement fundamentally changes what Airbnb is, and does. The tagline used in the official release is, “Now you can Airbnb more than an Airbnb.” The audience in Los Angeles includes journalists, influencers, a phalanx of Airbnb staff and a smattering of celebrities. Chesky – whom it feels relevant to note is ripped – speaks for about an hour, explaining the company’s origin story, and the travails of the pandemic, when they lost 80% of their business in eight weeks. This context sets up the company’s new direction. “17 years ago we changed the way people travel, and today we are changing travel again,” he explains. While Airbnb was launched as a more interesting alternative to bland hotels, he acknowledges that hotels provide a range of useful things that people need when they are travelling, from haircuts to massages. Airbnb Services is an attempt to replicate those offerings on the app – the icon is a bell like those you find on hotel reception desks. It launched across 260 cities with ten categories – chefs, prepared meals, catering, photography, personal training, massages, spa treatments, hair styling, make-up and nails. Airbnb Experiences, which first launched in 2016, has been “reimagined from the ground up” to offer people local experiences “hosted” by people who know their cities best. It launched across 650 cities with five categories – history and culture, food and drink, nature and outdoors, art and design, and fitness and wellness. They are also rolling out Airbnb Originals – one-off events often with a celebrity host. One of the biggest shifts is that Airbnb wants these new categories to be used by people in their own cities as well as visitors, heralding a move from being a travel app to an experience, or community, platform. And all of this needs a whole new design system, which is where Connor and her team of 200 designers come in. A series of design challenges There was an overarching design challenge – to bring these new elements into the Airbnb ecosystem in a way that felt integrated and exciting, but didn’t overshadow the accommodation offering, on which the company has built an billion business. But below that, there were a series of “really fun design challenges” to create the spaces and interfaces that would support this new direction. These included the new homescreen, a new profile page, a new itinerary pageand product description pages, or PDPs, which capture these myriad experiences, from historic tours to wine tasting, and bring them to life in a clear and engaging way. “Brian really wanted the PDPs to tell a story, so you could go from the top to the bottom and really quickly discern what this thing was about,” Connor explains. “For a really long time we were talking about having video. But you have to sit back and watch a video, and it can be quite passive.” The solution was a 2×2 grid which quickly communicates the key information, and then a design structure that allows for scanning. Elsewhere, carousels are used to help users browse the broader range of things they can get via the app. The new Experiences flow in the app The designs needed to strike a fine a balance – to demonstrate breadth and abundance, without sacrificing ease-of-use. “We want people to get the information they need and then get back to doing life,” Connor says. “That’s a big thing for us when we’re designing.” That begins, she explains, with an obsession with simplicity that underpins every design review. “We are constantly asking, do people need this? Do they want it? If no, then take it away.” But the team also thinks a lot about the platform’s personality, “using craft and care to make the experience feel delightful.” Chesky talked in his presentation of bringing more depth and vibrancy back to the app, moving away from the flat, and sometimes soulless, big tech experience.. There are lots of nice touches – when you press the hot air balloon icon for Experiences it belches fire, when you hit the Services bell it shakes as if summoning a concierge. “It’s not about creating pretty things just because we can,” Connor says. “The delightful moments always have a utility behind them.” So on the itinerary page, the check-in time has an icon showing an open door with the lights on behind; the check-out time is accompanied by a closed door with a darkened space behind it. How did this happen? Rewind again, and I sit down with Connor in Airbnb’s London office about six weeks before the new app goes live. You wouldn’t know that they are at the business end of such a huge project; Connor is calm and self-reflective. I first met her back in the early 2010s, when she ran her own graphic design studio in London. She joined Apple in 2016 as a human interface designer, and moved to Airbnb in 2021. Was this – working for some of the biggest design-led companies in technology – always the plan? “Not at all,” she laughs. “It’s surprising and magical to me that this small-time graphic designer from London ended up here. I often ask myself – how did this happen?” The answer, she says, involves luck and timing. But it also speaks to her willingness to say yes to new opportunities, an approach she adopted after once saying no. During an internship at a London ad agency, someone offered Connor the chance to design flyers for a local club night. “I got totally freaked out and ghosted the opportunity,” she says. “I’ve always regretted that, not just saying yes and seeing how it went.” She’d always been interested in creativity, often being taken as a kid to London’s museums where she would happily sketch for hours. “I loved and admired artists,” she says. “But deep inside I knew I wasn’t one. I was a bit of a girl scout, a bit practical. I liked making things, and solving things, and helping people.” Connor says her career has been a mix of “going with the flow and wanting to drive the flow.” She did an art foundation course because someone she worked with doing Saturday shifts in a supermarket was doing one, and she thought it sounded interesting. The course was “a real awakening” and introduced her to graphic design, which she’d go on to study at the University of Middlesex. “I did bumble through life a bit, but I am driven to be good at what I’m doing,” she says. “So even though I might fall into something, once I fall into it, I want to do it the best I can.” She admits to being “bamboozled” when Apple first got in touch. “The email felt like spam,” she laughs, “it was from hello@apple or something.” The new Guest Profile page While she had worked on websites before, she wasn’t a digital product designer. And she was happy in London, running her own studio amid the strong creative community that blossomed in the city at that time. “There were all these small agencies doing really cool work and sharing resources. It was an environment I thrived in, and felt comfortable in. So the idea of leaving all that behind, and going to America where I didn’t know anyone, and I didn’t know how things worked, was very nerve-wracking.” But the memory of the club night flyers spurred her on. “I didn’t want to be the person who says no and regrets it. So I went, and it was the best thing I ever did.” Although she hadn’t had much exposure to digital product design, she found that her experience in wayfinding proved very useful. “With wayfinding you are thinking about how to move people though a space, with visuals and graphics, in a way that tells a story. A lot of that thinking is very similar in digital products.” A defining time Connor spent five years at Apple and moved to Airbnb in 2021, initially as senior director of design, before becoming a VP the following year. She saw in Airbnb what appeared to be a very rare opportunity. “It felt like this was going to be a defining time for the company, and that we would really be able to shape something,” she says. It was also exciting to work for someone who was a designer before he was a founder. “I am fortunate to have a leader who understands the value of design,” Connor says. “For a lot of my peers who work at organisations of this scale, a lot of their job is translation, advocating for design, and trying to get a seat at the table. I never need to advocate for design with Brian – he has made space for the design team to be at the heart of the company.” But once a designer, always a designer. Does he often give feedback on specific design details? “Oh 100%,” Connor laughs. “He has this deep knowledge, and this great perspective, because he is looking at the whole company all of the time. But he’s always in the pixels too, asking about the radius of a button or something.” Overseeing 200 designers can be challenging, but she sees the fundamentals as being similar to leading much smaller teams. “I don’t think there’s a huge difference between managing five designers or managing 200, when you break it down,” she says. “The ability to build trust, to empower teams, and to be decisive, these all scale up.” She has built a culture which revolves around courage, and says she is drawn to people who, like her, “have a point of view and speak up for what’s right.” “I think that goes back to the Girl Guide thing again,” she says. In a company like Airbnb, where design and business are very intertwined, does she expect her designers to understand the commercial impact of their work? “I expect them to be curious about it, and want to learn,” Connor says. She tries to encourage this commercial awareness through, for example, inviting other teams in the business to share their insights with the design team, and mandating that project reviews include a discussion of the impact created. “We want to make it easy for the team to understand why these things are linked, and why they’re important,” Connor explains. More senior roles are expected to have more of this business acumen, but she doesn’t miss the days when designers often felt like they needed to have an MBA, to speak the right language. “I want our designers to be designers, first and foremost,” she says. Day one Back at the Airbnb launch event, I ask Connor what happens now. “Well, we’re going to have a really good party,” she says. “But I think we are excited to build on all this work now. “I actually think today is like day one,” she says. “I think that’s how it feels for the company.” Design disciplines in this article Industries in this article Brands in this article What to read next The Guardian unveils redesigned app and homepage Digital Design 7 May, 2025 Aad creates guide to more sustainable digital design Digital Design 4 Feb, 2025 How Ragged Edge gamified credit scores for Checkmyfile Digital Design 26 Nov, 2024 #was #bit #nuts #teo #connor

Airbnb has taken a major step forward in its journey to become an all-in-one travel booking app. The app now lets you book service providers, such as chefs, trainers, or hairstylists, and experiences, such as cooking classes, museum tours, water sports, and more for your trips. "People choose hotels for their services. People choose Airbnbs for the space… Now, we're giving you the best of both worlds—amazing homes with services that make them even more special," says Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, in a press release.The updates are live on the latest version of the app, with the homepage showing two new tabs: Experiences and Services. Services at your doorstepAt launch, Airbnb's services are spread across 10 categories in 260 cities, with more to be added later on. You can now get chefs, photographers, massages, spa treatments, personal trainers, hairstylists, makeup artists, nail specialists, ready-to-eat meals, and catering services delivered to your Airbnb. (Credit: Airbnb)All service providers will have an average of 10 years of experience, Airbnb says. They will be added to the app only after they complete an internal verification process and submit relevant licenses and certifications. Those looking to enroll as service providers can submit an application on Airbnb's website.While booking, users will be able to view each host's qualifications, offerings, and pricing on the details page. In our time with the app so far, we even found portfolios of photographers on their details page. Airbnb says that many services will have an entry-level option of $50 or less.Experiences: Explore like a localThe Experiences tab is designed to help you move around a city with locals who know it the best. At launch, the feature is available in 650 cities, with more being added every day. Recommended by Our EditorsA quick look at the tab displayed the experiences available for each popular tourist city around us. Airbnb classifies its experiences into these categories: landmark, museum, and other cultural trips; food tours, cooking classes, and dining experiences; outdoors, water sports, and wildlife experiences; gallery tours, art workshops, and shopping experiences; workout, wellness, and beauty experiences. (Credit: Airbnb)Like Services, you can select your preferred Experiences after learning about who is hosting them, what they entail, and how much they'd cost. We looked into a cultural trip around Goa, and we could see the name, rating, and reviews of the host, in addition to the places included in the trip and the time required. If you're interested in hosting such experiences, Airbnb is accepting applications for that, too. The platform has also launched a premium version of Experiences called Airbnb Originals, hosted by celebrities. You can get beach volleyball lessons from Olympian Carol Solberg in Rio de Janeiro or pastry-making lessons from chef Raphaelle Elbaz in Paris. Airbnb is also promising a day on set with pop star Sabrina Carpenter in the future.A future update to the app coming later this year aims to make it more social. Airbnb says you'll be able to see who has taken the experience before and ask them about it "with simple and transparent privacy controls."Along with the introduction of new features, Airbnb has made several other changes to its app experience. For example, the Messages tab now lets you share photos and videos, and the Profile tab adds a list of your past trips and people you have met.All of the above updates are part of a $200+ million Airbnb revamp that's just kicked off. The next two stages involve making your Airbnb profile more robust so it's "almost like a passport" and the inclusion of more AI tech, Chesky tells Wired. Source: https://me.pcmag.com/en/mobile-apps/29826/airbnb-now-lets-you-book-meals-haircuts-museum-trips-and-more #airbnb #now #lets #you #book #meals #haircuts #museum #trips #and #more

Airbnb is launching an all-new version of its iOS and Android app that’s designed for more than just booking great places to stay. The new app lets you enhance each trip with opportunities to make memories and enjoy unique experiences around your destination. That’s because Airbnb’s major app redesign supports a new initiative called Airbnb Services, a modern take on hotel amenities for the Airbnb era. Airbnb Services, at your service With Airbnb Services, the company is expanding from being primarily known for connecting travelers with a place to call home for a few nights. Going forward, Airbnb aims to make booking things to do as much a part of the product as finding places to stay. No need to spend time researching local experts, sorting through recommendations, or juggling reservations in different apps. Airbnb Services offers a trusted vetting process with the same easy-to-use booking system you’re already using. Airbnb Services isn’t just an add-on to the stay booking experience either. The new app treats Airbnb Services with the same attention and care that users expect when booking a place to stay. The idea is simple: hotels offer amenities like fine dining and fitness centers, and Airbnb changed how people book stays. Now, Airbnb wants to change how people discover local experts who provide great services in photography, cooking, wellness, and more. Airbnb Services is launching today with 10 categories across 260 cities to start: Chefs – Fully customizable in-home meals from professional chefs. Photography – Personalized photo sessions from experienced photographers. Massage – Restorative massages including Swedish, deep tissue, and reflexology from certified therapists. Spa treatments – Facials, microdermabrasion, body scrubs, and other treatments provided by licensed estheticians. Personal training – Yoga, strength training, HIIT, and more, with personal trainers, including renowned fitness professionals and world champion athletes. Hair – Professional haircuts, blowouts, and more from experienced stylists. Makeup – Makeup for every day or special occasions from professional makeup artists. Nails – Manicures and pedicures from experienced nail specialists. Prepared meals – Ready-to-eat meals prepared by professional chefs. Catering – Full-service catering with custom menus, decor, and equipment, plus setup and cleanup. Like Airbnb stay listings, Airbnb Services are meant to be for everyone. For that reason, the company says that prices on many offerings start below $50. Expect the service to go live in more cities regularly over time. Airbnb Experiences and Originals, reimagined and unique Alongside Services, Airbnb is putting more weight behind Experiences, its curated lineup of activities hosted by locals, as part of its effort to provide great solutions for making the most of each trip. The company says each Experience is vetted for quality, with a focus on expertise, authenticity, and strong guest feedback. Hosts are chosen based on their connection to the location and their ability to deliver something memorable, not just a generic tour. A new addition called Airbnb Originals takes things up a notch. These are exclusive experiences created just for Airbnb, often hosted by public figures and celebrities. You can make pastries with chef Raphaelle Elbaz at the cult-favorite French Bastards bakery in Paris or play beach volleyball with Olympian Carol Solberg on Rio’s Leblon Beach. Originals also include over-the-top moments with big names like Megan Thee Stallion, who invites guests to become their anime alter-ego in her Otaku Hottie Quest. You can also join Sabrina Carpenter on the Short n’ Sweet set for a day of glam, dancing, and espresso, or hang out with Patrick Mahomes to learn how to throw the perfect spiral and eat Kansas City barbecue. And you don’t have to be traveling to take part in Airbnb Experiences. Airbnb wants Experiences to be something you actually want to book in your own city too. 9to5Mac’s Take Pairing Airbnb stays with services feels so natural it’s surprising it didn’t exist already. But the reason Airbnb Services works now is because it is built on years of product iteration and a global network of partners who make it possible. Airbnb Services, along with Experiences and Originals, turns the app into something like a world menu—not just places to stay, but things to do and memories to make along the way. The redesigned app is full of rich iconography, fluid animations, and thoughtful choice that sets the tone before the trip even begins. It adapts to what you’re doing, whether you’re planning, traveling, or reminiscing afterward in a way that should feel rewarding to use. Airbnb is making Experiences more social too. Later this year, you’ll be able to see who else is attending before you book, message the group or individual guests during the experience, and stay connected afterward. The idea is to make it easier to join with friends or meet new people along the way and stay connected. Seeing technology get out of the way and embrace human connection in a way that people want and need is so refreshing to see. For a company that’s nearly 20 years old and such a part of everyday life, Airbnb has built an app experience that’s both new and actually gives you a reason to plan your next trip. Pulling that off is neither easy nor guaranteed, yet Airbnb is doing both with a sense of fun and intention that’s delightful to see. Download the all-new version of Airbnb for iOS and Android today. Happy travels! Check out these iPhone apps and accessories Follow Zac on X. Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel Source: https://9to5mac.com/2025/05/13/airbnb-app-redesign-services-experiences-originals/ #airbnb #beautifully #redesigns #app #enhance #how #you #spend #your #trip #not #just #where #stay