Larry Fabbroni is an architect, strategic advisor, and Chief Innovation Officer for Practice of Architecture. Throughout his career, he has led efforts to reform studio culture and innovate practice. He earned his MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. In 2017, as leaders in the AIA’s Young Architects Forum (YAF), we led the launch of the Practice Innovation Lab (PIL) and hosted a symposium that imagined new architectural practice models. At that time, we already felt that practice innovation was overdue in a profession that has not seen scaled disruption to its business model in over a century. Today, we are confident that there has never been a more critical time for the profession to embrace innovation. Redefining Innovation Henley Hall: Institute for Energy Efficiency by KieranTimberlake, Santa Barbara, California | KieranTimberlake’s research expertise creates value beyond a baseline labor model.  Currently, artificial intelligence dominates strategy conversations, but just as we saw back in 2017, larger patterns prompt calls for innovation. Talent attraction is increasingly challenging, disruptive technology continues to emerge, and actors from outside our industry show growing interest in the space. While incremental innovation has long been a part of the profession, relatively few firms have adopted new practices that create value beyond a baseline labor model. Firms such as KieranTimberlake have shown that research expertise can do this. MASS Design has pioneered a mission-driven approach. BIG has taken on the role of architect-as-developer. Snøhetta houses a product design division. We could continue to list great firms that have pushed the boundaries of practice, but they represent exceptions that have yet to be recognized as new standards. Indeed, the confluence of those factors that led to the original PIL continues to make the case that the time for scaled innovation is now. A Melting Iceberg: Incremental Changes Depleting the Profession Powerhouse Telemark by Snøhetta, Vestfold og Telemark, Norway | Photo by Ivar Kvaal | Snøhetta houses a product design division, innovatively presenting a alternative business model for firms.  One of the dangers of operating in a slow-moving industry is that change is difficult to detect and even more challenging to comprehend. If an iceberg loses 1% of mass per year, it’s tough to take notice, but the end result is catastrophic. This is what is happening to our profession. For newcomers, if it feels like there are increasingly more attractive opportunities elsewhere, that’s because there are. For seasoned professionals, if it feels like it’s become more challenging to maintain the same levels of prosperity, that’s because it has. Less(er) Talent In some ways, the shift towards companies recognizing “talent” as their most excellent resource has bewildered architects: we have always relied on talent. However, the patterns of talent leaving our profession are concerning. We say “feel” because there is no significant data. We spoke to Kendall A. Nicholson, Senior Director of Research at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), who confirmed that aggregated data on graduate placement does not exist. So we inquired about what placement looks like at several programs around the country. Omar Khan, Head of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture, informed us that approximately 90% of students pursue a minor to expand their horizons, and that in 2022, nearly one in three graduates entered the tech sector. Khan stated that these opportunities aren’t just student-driven — large innovative companies increasingly seek the value that graduates of architecture schools will provide. This increasing difficulty in capturing the talent that architecture schools are producing results in a shrinking and diluted talent pool. For a profession so reliant on human resources, this presents extreme risk. Pay Gaps In an increasingly expensive world, we are not able to compete for the best talent with emerging industries. It’s easy to understand why a popular career pivot for architects has become UX design. Designing user experience for websites pays significantly better than designing the same for the built environment. According to Glassdoor, 2023 entry-level UX designers earned an average of $78K, while the AIA salary calculator suggests architecture grads can expect to earn an average of $59 K. The talent we do attract into the profession often loses interest when they experience low pay and long hours, all while most firms lack clear paths and criteria for advancement or compensation increases. A Smaller Piece of the Pie Examining data in isolation, one might conclude that the profession continues to grow; the number of architects has increased substantially over the last century, and this trend has persisted in recent years. The problem with this growth is that the estimated share of the US GDP for Architectural Services has shrunk over time. This is not a manageable number to measure before 1999, when NCARB first aggregated local jurisdictional data. Due to limitations in industry economic data, we’re only showing data since 2011 for the purposes of this article. In that time, the number of architects has grown, the market size for services has grown, but the share those services represent as a portion of the US GDP has declined — by 15% if we use US Census data to almost 30% if we use industry research data (we used IbisWorld.com, however we found data that suggested a worse and others that offered a slightly better picture). To put it another way, architecture is a stagnant industry with a shrinking share of the economy. It’s challenging to examine this data and emerge feeling confident about the profession, but there is a silver lining. The biggest impediment to innovation for architects is not a lack of talent, but rather the business model. Design thinking has been widely adopted throughout the world as a key component of innovation processes; however, the problem is that we operate in the realm of professional services, which inherently is not well-suited to promoting innovation. Reliance on that formula is causing our iceberg to melt. The Tsunami: The AI Tidal Wave is Here The Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture by MASS Design Group, Rwanda | MASS Design has pioneered a mission-driven approach that creates value beyond a baseline labor model.  As we confront the exodus of talent, it is easy for both firm owners and clients to imagine AI bringing efficiencies and replacing “CAD-monkeys” with machines. However, any firm that wants to operate — and win — as anything more than a low-cost provider will need a strategy to increase value, not just cut costs. AI is merely part of the toolbox required to confront a perfect storm of forces. Jobs will Disappear Goldman Sachs predicts that as much as 37% of our industry tasks will be replaced by AI. Many see this as a pathway to lower costs and increased profits. However, that is short-sighted. Markets will adjust quickly and demand lower costs for services; additional new value will need to be articulated and proven, and this will only happen through innovation. New Jobs will Emerge (but fewer of them) AI prophets often emphasize that technological innovation has historically led to net employment gains. Previous World Economic Forum estimates predicted losses of up to 85 million existing jobs worldwide, with parallel gains of as many as 97 million new jobs. However, these estimates were revised in the WEF 2023 Economic Outlook, which now anticipates a net loss of 14 million jobs. This stark outlook signals an even greater need for architects to become more innovative. The 2024 RIBA AI Report indicates that 41% of architecture firms were already utilizing AI, though current tools are indeed just the beginning. Marketing, business development and content creation will be standard areas of AI deployment moving forward. Still, revolutionary changes will come in how we learn, not only to use new tools, but also to collaborate with digital agents. How will this happen? We can theorize, but it is not possible to know for sure until it arrives, so we need to have a plan before we can see the tidal wave from land. The Alien Invasion: Outsiders Are Entering Our Orbit VIA 57 West by BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, New York City, New York | BIG has pioneered a new model for practice by taking on the role of architect-as-developer. For years, we’ve heard cries that “architects gave away the role of master builder.” But how much did architects actually give, and how much was taken by innovative competition? This distinction is critical because the wagons are circling, and the AEC space has become ever more attractive to investors. Venture Capital and Private Equity Investment The numbers are often difficult to parse because architecture can impact so many verticals and does not operate as its own sector in the investment realm; however, the trends suggest a groundswell is underway. A 2023 McKinsey report shows that construction tech deals nearly doubled from 2019 to 2022, growing by 85%. At the same period, the number of deals increased by 30%, indicating that interest continues to grow. An increasing size of deals also suggests a maturity of the market. As interest in infrastructure investments has declined from its high in 2020, and along with real estate, has been blunted by high interest rates, institutional investors continue to see opportunities in the AEC space. Firm Acquisitions AEC firms that deliver predictable returns have proven to be attractive targets for PE firms. In the second quarter of 2024, private equity firms accounted for over one-third of AEC firm mergers and acquisitions. For M&A deals, the industry has seen an increase in attractiveness with expanded infrastructure spending as a catalyst. However, this interest can also be tied to the lack of innovation that has resulted in an industry ripe for consolidation. M&A orchestrators generate large amounts of profit by streamlining operations, eliminating redundancies, and then stamping out competition. An entire community has been built around this, with AEC Advisors hosting an annual “Private Equity Summit” that brings together CEOs of AEC firms with PE investors. Startups As an extension of the growing interest from venture capital in the space, there is an upward trend in the AEC space being targeted for disruption by entrepreneurs who see an industry that represents a significant portion of the global GDP. AEC Works, a project of e-verse that catalogs AEC startups and investors, lists nearly 800 startups from around the world, with almost 200 identified as “architecture-focused.” The signal is clear: startups are looking to figure out how to do what you do cheaper, better, or perhaps both. Combining this environment with depleted talent pools, a declining share of GDP, and revolutionary technology, it is a correct response to be alarmed. Significant change is inevitable. It is time for architects to see the same opportunities that investors and entrepreneurs see, and learn to navigate within these spaces. The Great Opportunity Throughout history, new actors have enjoyed a “leap-frog” effect and been able to surpass established incumbents to reshape industries, markets and economies. From climate change to pandemic ripple effects, to the housing crisis, to generational shifts in the workforce, there are many forces that directly impact the work of architects and call for innovation. The need for new ways of designing and delivering different components of the built environment is ever-present and will be solved by teams that either include — and might be led by — architects, or those that do not. Most end users will only care if the resulting product is superior. This time of tension is indeed a time of great opportunity. Architects who embrace innovation in pursuing new iterations of our dated business models may actually achieve what many of us have dreamed of from the start: to leave a positive mark on the world. We think the future of the profession depends on it. Top image: Powerhouse Telemark by Snøhetta, Vestfold og Telemark, Norway The post Architects, Your Real Competition Isn’t AI — It’s Business Complacency appeared first on Journal.

Nintendo has predicted it will sell 15 million Switch 2s in its current financial year. Analysts think the number is conservative; Nintendo says the price of the Switch 2 is what’s holding back that estimate. But what does that mean, really? Is it a reasonable target? If Nintendo hits it, does that guarantee the Switch 2 will be a massive hit? If a console sells out at launch, what does that tell us? Is there still a chance of a Wii U-style flop?It’s impossible to know for sure, but a look at all of Nintendo’s past console launches can provide some clues. I’ve dug deep into past Nintendo sales figures to determine which Nintendo consoles enjoyed the best launches. To get a more reliable picture than that initial, almost inevitable sellout, I’ve defined the launch as the console’s first year (or rather, first four financial quarters) on the market.Note that Nintendo only started reporting quarterly sales for its systems in the mid-2000s, and the earliest data is annual at best and hard to come by, so some of these numbers are approximate. Note, too, that older systems had staggered launches across the three major markets (Japan, North America, and Europe), sometimes over several years, slowing down their potential sales.Still, there are some surprising results here that put Nintendo’s 15 million forecast for Switch 2 in context. Selling that many units would definitely not be bad news — but it doesn’t indicate a slam-dunk, either.Image: James Bareham/Polygon1. Game Boy AdvanceFirst four quarters: approx. 18.1 millionLifetime: 81.51 million (5th overall)Release: March-June 20012. 3DSFirst four quarters: 15.03 millionLifetime: 75.94 million (6th)Release: February-March 2011There’s a clear pattern to Nintendo’s two fastest sellers; they were successors to massive hits (the Game Boy and DS) in the handheld market, where Nintendo enjoyed total dominance. Nintendo was so bullish about Game Boy Advance, following the decade-long reign of the Game Boy format, that it forecast an astonishing 24 million sales in its first year, while 3DS followed Nintendo’s biggest seller ever. Both sold well, but neither quite lived up to their forebears.Photo: Nintendo3. SwitchFirst four quarters: 14.86 millionLifetime: 152.12 million (2nd, for now)Release: March 20174. WiiFirst four quarters: 13.17 millionLifetime: 101.63 million (4th)Release: November-December 2006The Switch and the Wii are the only Nintendo consoles with sales over 10 million in the first year and over 100 million in their lifetimes. Quarter for quarter, they both sold incredibly consistently over time. This is surely what Nintendo would like all its hardware launches to look like, and what it’s hoping for with the Switch 2.5. DSFirst four quarters: 8.83 millionLifetime: 154.02m (1st, for now)Release: November 2004-March 2005It’s a surprise DS didn’t launch more strongly, considering the runaway early sales of its handheld predecessor, Game Boy Advance. But its launch games weren’t the best and it took a while for the console’s strange design to find its eventual massive casual audience. In its fifth quarter — holiday 2005 — it suddenly took off.Shigeru Miyamoto proudly regards his purplest child, the GameCube. Photo: Lucy Nicholson/AFP via Getty Images6. GameCubeFirst four quarters: approx. 6.7 millionLifetime: 21.74 million (10th)Release: Sep 2001-May 20027. Nintendo 64First four quarters: 5.80 millionLifetime: 32.93 million (9th)Release: June 1996-March 1997The two Nintendo home consoles made during PlayStation’s ascendency enjoyed reasonably strong launches but petered out due to a lack of software support. GameCube sold 30% of its lifetime total in its first year on sale — an unfortunate achievement that beats even Wii U’s dismal ratio.Photo: James Bareham/Polygon8. Game BoyFirst four quarters: 3.93 millionLifetime: 118.69 million (3rd)Release: April 1989-September 1990The legend of Game Boy is that it was an instant smash, thanks to the high-stakes acquisition of Tetris. But while its launch was healthy for the time, it didn’t begin to indicate what Nintendo’s defining handheld would achieve — sales in the first year (before it reached Europe) were just 3% of what it would go on to sell across Game Boy and Game Boy Color.9. Wii UFirst four quarters: 3.91 millionLifetime: 13.56 million (11th)Release: November-December 2012Nintendo’s most recent (but not its worst) flop actually started quite strongly, shifting over 3 million units in its first quarter — but then suffered a catastrophic drop-off, selling less than 900,000 worldwide during the rest of its first year on sale. Looking past the initial holiday sell-out, the signs of the disaster to come were clear.Nintendo paid tribute to its two trailblazing home systems with the NES and SNES Classic mini-consoles. Image: Shai Ben-Dor/Vox MediaFirst four quarters: approx. 2.9 million (mostly Japan)Lifetime: 49.1 million (8th)Release: November 1990-June 1992 Launch sales: 2.5 million by end of 1984 (Japan only)Lifetime: 61.91 million (7th)Release: July 1983 to 1987 and laterBoth Nintendo’s early home consoles launched strongly in Japan but took a long time to take off in the West. The NES didn’t fully launch in the U.S. and Europe until 1986, amid caution after the 1980s video game crash, while the SNES was beaten to market in the West by the Sega Genesis and suffered as a result. 12. Virtual BoyLaunch and lifetime sales: 770,000Release: July-August 1995You can’t get a worse launch than being discontinued within a year of going on sale!—What does this mean for Switch 2’s launch?If Nintendo meets or exceeds its target of 15 million Switch 2s sold in its first financial year, it will rank among the top Nintendo console launches ever. A Wii U-style flop looks very unlikely, unless sales drop off sharply after its first few months.But the most telling comparisons here are Nintendo’s top two launches: Game Boy Advance and 3DS. Like Switch 2, they were both conservative, easy-to-understand sequels to huge sellers in a market sector Nintendo had total control of. And while both reached respectable lifetime totals, they got nowhere near the lifetime sales of their more innovative predecessors.Could this be Switch 2’s fate? Judging by Nintendo’s launch history, it’s possible — maybe even likely.See More:

This article contains spoilers for Hacks season 4 episode 7. Hollywood changes people. But rarely has the glitz and glamor of Tinseltown changed somebody more quickly than Dance Mom on Hacks. In the fourth episode of the fourth season of this beloved comedy on HBO Max (Hey, we get to call it “HBO Max” again!), Julianne Nicholson’s unnamed character is introduced as a humble, middle-aged TikTok content creator from rural Alberta who just wants to dance…hence: Dance Mom. Recognizing that Deborah Vance’s (Jean Smart) late night show has a female demographic problem, her co-manager Kayla Schaeffer (Megan Stalter) identifies Dance Mom as a potential solution. Dance Mom might as well have been constructed in an Ellen DeGeneres laboratory to appeal to middle America. Her humble Canadian origins and inoffensive personality shine through in her first meeting with Jimmy LaSaque (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla as they show her around some major Los Angeles landmarks like Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard, and, of course, the Ripley’s Believe It or Not on Hollywood Boulevard. “I feel like the Beverly Hills Chihuahua!” Dance Mom exclaims as she takes in all the beautiful people wearing makeup in the daytime. This is only her second time in the States, with the first being a trip to the Heinz (as in Ketchup) History Center in Pittsburgh as a child. It takes some convincing but Dance Mom agrees to try out for Deborah’s show. She’s then invited on to perform that same day after Deborah and lead writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) alienate the studio audience with an argument. Thankfully, Dance Mom’s wholesome routine wins the audience back and she becomes a mainstay for the show, counterbalancing Deborah’s caustic sense of humor with a cheerful smile. Two episodes later Dance Mom is living in Adam Levine’s 12-bedroom mansion; has blown through $1 million in 48 hours on cars, clothes, and whippets; and has lost a crucial Old Navy brand ambassadorship. Oh, and she doesn’t have any kids by the way. The rapid rise and fall of Dance Mom represents the kind of fun a long-running comedy can have when it’s firing on all cylinders. Through three (very heavily-awarded and acclaimed) seasons, Hacks has its most important dynamic down pat. The creative push and pull between platonic soulmates Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels give Hacks all the energy it needs to drive multiple seasons of comedic storytelling. With the time it has left over for B-plots and C-plots, the show can afford to get experimental. While a less confident series might have spread the dancing Albertan’s degeneracy across a whole season, Hacks maximizes its impact with a two-episode whip cut. One day Dance Mom is respectfully declining sparkling water (“Not for me, too spicy”), the next day she’s yeeting a spent “Astro Gas” canister while yelling “Steve Nash!,” which is obviously the Canadian version of “Kobe!”* *It must be pointed out that someone on the Hacks writing staff really knows ball. Of course, the saga of Dance Mom wouldn’t hit quite as hard without the right performance. Thanks to Julianne Nicholson, series showrunners Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky have found exactly that. Even before Hacks gave her the opportunity to lounge around Adam Levine’s place, Nicholson has been having a hell of a year. Hulu subscribers may recognize her Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond, the creative lynchpin of sci-fi/thriller Paradise. Before that, the Massachusetts-born actress won an Emmy for playing beleaguered mother Lori Ross in Mare of Easttown. As evidenced by her most notable characters’ hyper-regional specificity (Delaware County, Alberta, and a post-apocalyptic underground bunker), Nicholson is a versatile performer. Through many of her roles though, she brings a similar sense of impishness. Lori Ross, Sinatra, and Dance Mom all possess a child-like sense of frustration and disappointment to varying degrees, as though they woke up one day in adult bodies without their consent. In that way, Nicholson brings a welcome Carrie Coon vibe to the table. And anyone who knows anything about Den of Geek knows we don’t make that comparison lightly. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Nicholson brings not only an offbeat gravitas to the role but a sense of pure joy at being able to cut loose. With only three episodes left to go in Hacks season 4, it remains to be seen how much further Dance Mom can fall. If this is it, however, one can’t say that Dance Mom didn’t go out her way: by doing a lot of drugs and dancing…but mostly the drugs. New episodes of Hacks season 4 premiere Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on (soon-to-be HBO) Max, culminating with the finale on May 29.

Table of Contents Table of Contents 10. Top Gun: Maverick (2022) 9. Edge of Tomorrow (2014) 8. Rain Man (1988) 7. Jerry Maguire (1996) 6. Tropic Thunder (2008) 5. Collateral (2004) 4. Minority Report (2002) 3. Magnolia (1999) 2. A Few Good Men (1992) 1. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) With Tom Cruise, nothing ever really ends. May 23 marks the release of his latest Mission: Impossible adventure, and while it’s subtitled The Final Reckoning, Cruise and his regular director Christopher McQuarrie have confirmed there are more films to come. Through doggedness, dedication, and risk to life and limb, the 62-year-old Cruise has built a lasting career as a leading man that seems never to wane. Here are his ten best films, featuring performances both solidly in and out of his comfort zone. Recommended Videos Top Gun: Maverick (2022) Paramount Pictures Like most of Cruise’s filmography, Top Gun: Maverick, the long-delayed sequel to the abysmal ‘80s schlock-fest Top Gun, is more than the sum of its parts. Its maneuvering of a sixty-year-old Cruise from flight instructor back into the cockpit is labored, its decision to actively avoid the identity of a country against which Cruise goes on a bombing run is cowardly (it’s clearly Russia), and Cruise’s love scenes with Jennifer Connelly are borderline silly. However, Maverick is an old-fashioned Hollywood adrenaline rush, chock-full of vintage Cruise stunt work, and the aerial photography looks spectacular. Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Warner Bros. Pictures Cruise’s third and best collaboration with writer Christopher McQuarrie, Edge of Tomorrow, adapts a bonkers Japanese novel that is essentially a cross between Groundhog Day and Independence Day. Cruise is Major William Cage (a perfect Tom Cruise character name), enlisted in a war against an invading alien species called the Mimics. Long story short, Cage gets trapped in a time loop on the day of his death at the Mimics’ hands that allows him to learn their strategies. Emily Blunt delivers a superior action performance as his love interest and comrade-in-arms. Rain Man (1988) MGM Cruise made his name as the everyman ballast for performances by more outwardly dynamic character actors (Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, Tim Curry in Legend). The prototypical example is Rain Man, the only Tom Cruise movie so far to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Here, Cruise is the frustrated steward of his estranged brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an autistic savant. The film has its weaknesses, but Cruise hits all of his beats ably, and his exasperation with Raymond’s eccentricities is a perfectly tuned demonstration of audience surrogacy. Jerry Maguire (1996) TriStar Pictures Cruise’s nose for a football movie that would wind up being endlessly quotable has put him in any number of iconic scenes over the years, and Cameron Crowe’s script for Jerry Maguire has a panoply of them. (Cruise alone has both “Help me help you” and “You complete me,” Renee Zellweger gets “You had me at hello,” and Cuba Gooding Jr. gets the unbeatable “Show me the money.”) The movie is the ultimate instance of Cruise’s trademark wide-grinning mania thanks to Cruise’s titular Jerry, a sports agent stretching himself to his limit as he struggles to do the unprofitable work of representing his clients ethically (unthinkable!). Tropic Thunder (2008) DreamWorks Cruise is, along with Tom Hanks, the defining cinematic leading man of the past forty years, but a little of him can often go a long way. No surprise that some of his most sneakily memorable performances have been supporting roles, including in Ben Stiller’s gonzo Hollywood satire Tropic Thunder. Cruise plays Les Grossman, a studio executive transparently based on Harvey Weinstein, who is called on to negotiate when the star of a Vietnam War film he’s producing is kidnapped by a drug cartel. Cruise famously gave Stiller two conditions for taking the role: “I want to have fat hands, and I’m gonna dance.” Mission accomplished. Collateral (2004) DreamWorks Michael Mann’s action thriller stars Cruise in a rare villain role as Vincent, a hitman who commandeers the taxi of Los Angeles cabbie Max Durocher (Jamie Foxx). It’s a great, clean setup, with a finely structured beginning that establishes Max’s attention to detail and pride in his craft — Max is a man who has control of his car and whose car is his control. Then, when Cruise explodes in the frame with a gray shock wig that looks so wrong on him, Mann drives home the point that Vincent is from another universe. Collateral is electric movie-making, lean and tight most of the way through. Minority Report (2002) 20th Century Fox The smartest film Steven Spielberg directed in the first decade of the twenty-first century was the Philip K. Dick adaptation of Minority Report. Cruise plays a police chief utilizing psychics to arrest criminals before they commit their intended crimes. Scott Frank’s (The Queen’s Gambit) script raises moral conundrums years ahead of its time, and Cruise quite effectively applies his regular action-film persona to its worthy explorations. Magnolia (1999) Ghoulardi Film Company Cruise’s third Oscar nomination came for his outrageous performance as misogynistic motivational speaker Frank T.J. Mackey in Magnolia. In a role that predated widespread public knowledge of the icky “pickup artist” movement of seduction, Cruise deconstructs the bravura front that had not yet come to be known as toxic masculinity. “Women are sheep,” he tells his followers in a riveting monologue delivered straight to the camera; “they have patterns that must be stopped, interrupted, and resisted.” But of course, such walls as these are made to fall, and in a later scene at the deathbed of his father (Jason Robards), Cruise powerfully conveys the trauma, loneliness, and pain that have led Mackey to this point. A Few Good Men (1992) Castle Rock Entertainment Aaron Sorkin was a bartender at Broadway’s Palace Theatre when he began writing what would become his 1989 play A Few Good Men on the back of cocktail napkins. The film Sorkin would later adapt from his Broadway smash is among the smartest and most quotable studio films of the 1990s. Naturally, the courtroom movie is ultimately stolen by Jack Nicholson, whose role as a Marine colonel implicated in a murder earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. But Cruise, as the Navy lawyer prosecuting the case, is one of the worthiest screen partners Nicholson has ever had, with herky-jerky, caffeine-inflected energy that steels to certainty in the courtroom. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Stanley Kubrick Productions The other picture from Cruise’s banner year of 1999, Eyes Wide Shut, is a perfect storm of world-beating celebrity (he co-starred with his then-wife Nicole Kidman), Hollywood royalty (it was writer-director Stanley Kubrick’s final film), and superb mise-en-scène. It was a story of sexual jealousy decades in the making, and Cruise was the perfect choice for the role of a repressed elite who falls apart trying to see behind the curtain of a world closed to him. (Just imagine if Kubrick had made the film in the 1960s and cast his original choice for the lead, Woody Allen!)

Researchers reviewed ocean floor samples collected during the Deep Sea Drilling Project in 1975. Credit: Deposit Photos / Oleg Dorokhin Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. There was a time long ago when the Atlantic Ocean didn’t exist. The general understanding among geologists is that the body of water originated between 83 to 113 million years ago, when South America and Africa split into their two respective continents to form the Equatorial Atlantic Gateway. However, Earth’s marine history appears to require a multimillion-year revision thanks to a recent discovery roughly half a mile beneath the ocean floor. The evidence is explored in a study published in the June edition of the journal Global and Planetary Change. According to geologists at the UK’s Heriot Watt University, gigantic waves of mud and sand sediment about 250 miles off the coast of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa indicate the Atlantic Ocean actually formed around four million years earlier than previous estimates. To understand just how intense all of this movement was, imagine waves that are about half a mile long and over 300 feet high.  “A whole field formed in one particular location to the west of the Guinea Plateau, just at the final ‘pinch-point’ of the separating continents of South America and Africa,” study co-author Uisdean Nicholson explained in a statement. Nicholson and their colleagues initially came across these layers of mud waves after comparing seismic data with core samples collected from wells during the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) of 1975. Five layers in particular were utilized to recreate the tectonic processes that broke apart the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana during the Mesozoic Era. “One layer was particularly striking: it included vast fields of sediment waves and ‘contourite drifts’—mud mounds that form under strong bottom currents,” said Nicholson. These waves initially formed as dense, salty water poured out from the newly created Equatorial Atlantic Gateway, “like a giant waterfall that formed below the ocean surface,” he added. Just before the geologic event, huge salt deposits formed at the bottom of what is now the South Atlantic. After the gateway opened, the underground mudfall occurred when dense, relatively fresh Central Atlantic water in the north combined with very salty waters in the south. The resulting sedimentary evidence examined by the study’s authors now indicates this opening seems to have started closer to 117 million years ago. “This was a really important time in Earth’s history when the climate went through some major changes,” explained study co-author Débora Duarte. “Up until 117 million years ago, the Earth had been cooling for some time, with huge amounts of carbon being stored in the emerging basins, likely lakes, of the Equatorial Atlantic. But then the climate warmed significantly from 117 to 110 million years ago.” Duarte and Nicholson believe part of that major climatic change  helped from the Atlantic Ocean, as seawater inundated the newly formed basins. “As the gateway gradually opened, this initially reduced the efficiency of carbon burial, which would have had an important warming effect,” said Duarte. “And eventually, a full Atlantic circulation system emerged as the gateway grew deeper and wider, and the climate began a period of long-term cooling during the Late Cretaceous period.” The ramifications go beyond revising Earth’s geological timeline or the gateway’s role in Mesozoic climate change. Better understanding the influence of oceanic evolutionary journeys on ancient climate patterns can help to predict what the future holds for the planet.  “Today’s ocean currents play a key role in regulating global temperatures,” explained Nicholson. “Disruptions, such as those caused by melting ice caps, could have profound consequences.”