The Twilight Zone has always been political. Countless episodes of the original series tackled politics, directly as well as indirectly–from The Mirror, which parodied Fidel Castro, to The Shelter, which concerned the mutually assured destruction policies of the Cold War. Last year’s Twilight Zone revival, publicly helmed by comedy and horror auteur Jordan Peele, trod a similar path, with mixed results (which is fine–there were episodes of the 1960s series that missed the mark as well). The reboot’s second season, available now on CBS All Access, continues the tradition, and the three episodes sent to press ahead of Season 2’s release skewer some of the internet’s favorite bogeymen: “Karens,” incels, and whiny, entitled, self-centered men.
Each of these three episodes features a signature Twilight Zone conceit. In “Meet in the Middle,” for example, a man named Phil (Westworld’s Jimmi Simpson) begins hearing a voice in his head (Community’s Gillian Jacobs) and wonders whether she’s a real person or a figment of his imagination. There’s commentary burbling beneath that mystery; the character could be generously described as “picky” when it comes to women. Anyone online in 2020 will recognize in Phil the traits of your average garbage incel dude–the kind of guy who comments on Pornhub videos and feels the need to criticize women’s appearances while wondering without a shred of self-awareness why so many people have him blocked on Twitter. Any woman who falls short of his long list of imagined, hypothetical ideals gets judged as shallow and boring, and it’s their fault he’s #foreveralone. There’s a reason he falls so hard for the female voice in his head as it becomes clear that she checks his every box–she’s the ideal woman he always imagined was out there, as he dismissed and belittled every actual woman he encountered in real life, from Tinder dates to his therapist.
In “The Who of You,” a struggling actor named Harry (Ethan Embry) discovers on his most desperate day that he has the ability to jump into other people’s bodies by simply looking them in the eye. A succession of new victims get transferred into Harry’s sleeve (sorry), while he jumps from host to host and attempts to abscond with a big bag of money. As Peele’s narrator points out, Harry is the type of person who thinks he’s the center of the universe–a clear-cut sociopath. He’s ineffective when trying to communicate with others, blames everyone around him for his own failings, and believes life’s deck is unfairly stacked against him, when in reality, he’s just a whiny, selfish a-hole. You have encountered this “reply guy” countless times on Twitter and in comments sections–I guarantee it. And the last thing you’d want is for him to spontaneously develop a superpower that puts his extreme lack of empathy to the test.
In the last of the three episodes sent to press, “You Might Also Like” takes aim partially at the vapid, worshipful capitalism that sees consumers lining up every 12 months to get another brand new iPhone that’s once again incrementally better (or sometimes actively worse–still missing you, headphone jack) than their current one. The episode stars Gretchen Mol as Janet Warren, a bonafide “Karen.” She’s a prim, activewear-equipped housewife who’s never satisfied despite having everything she ever wanted. She exists in a pristine world in which everyone around her is obsessed with The Egg, a new product that an unidentified company has promised “will make everything OK forever.” Nobody knows what it does, but everybody wants one. The episode is interspersed with vaguely unsettling commercials for The Egg and other dystopian products.
“You Might Also Like” also features the return of the Kanamits, an alien species that originally appeared in the iconic 1962 episode “To Serve Man” (you know, the one with the human cookbook reveal). Naturally, when Mrs. Warren encounters these blue-hued, big-noggined beings, she demands to speak to their supervisor–yes, really. Subtle, this one is not.
Like so many chapters of The Twilight Zone that have come before, these episodes span the gamut from silly to disturbing. Their attempts at social commentary aren’t hard to decipher, but that doesn’t make them less incisive. If nothing else, their portrayals of modern, internet-driven stereotypes are more or less accurate, and many viewers will recognize them immediately. With all of The Twilight Zone’s 2020 episodes dropping at once (rather than week-to-week like the first season), the three we’re able to discuss currently present just a small slice of what the show’s second season has to offer. But if you live your life online (and these days, who doesn’t?) they’re worth tuning in for.
Under this program, people can get an Xbox Series X with no cost upfront and pay it off over the course of two years. This is a common business practice in the world of smartphones, but it’s new for console. Microsoft has been trialling the program since the Xbox 360 days. However, the Xbox Series X launch will mark Microsoft’s biggest push yet in that regard, Spencer said.
“Xbox All Access is going to be critical to both our launch for Xbox Series X as well as just the overall generation,” Spencer said during a GameLab speech, as reported by GI.biz.
Spencer went on to say that the response to Xbox All Access in the test markets has been “great.” The program is currently limited to a few countries, including the US and Australia, but Spencer said Microsoft is keen to expand the program to other places around the world.
“You’re going to see a much broader market and retailer support for All Access,” he said. “It matches a model customers use for many other devices they buy. And if you have services attached to those devices that people love, it just becomes an easier way to bring a great product to customers.”
Xbox All Access will not only help improve Xbox game console sales by offering a lower upfront price point, but it comes bundled with Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass. Digital subscription services like these are critical for Microsoft, as the company loses money on every console sold.
Crystal Dynamics gave an extensive look into its upcoming Marvel’s Avengers game including story details, the game’s antagonist, and lots of Thor gameplay. The video also showed how customization works, as well as its heroes “tech trees”, which is the game’s talent system.
Full Marvel’s Avengers presentation: https://youtu.be/u52gatfT-0U
The Pokemon Company also revealed Pokemon Unite, a Pokemon themed MOBA coming to Nintendo Switch and Mobile, and will feature 5v5 combat. There’s no release date yet, however.
After a delay the Cyberpunk 2077 Night City Wire event is definitely happening on June 25 at 9AM PT / 12PM ET. Cyberpunk 2077 will release for PS4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and PC on November 19 with PS5 and Xbox Series X upgrades coming alongside the consoles.
Meanwhile, Play For All keeps on trucking. Play For All is multi-week summer gaming celebration and charity event featuring special guests like Troy Baker, Danny O’Dwyer, and many familiar GameSpot faces. We’ve already raised thousands of dollars for #BlackLivesMatter and COVID-19 Relief Efforts thanks to all of you! Be sure to tune in every day between 12PM and 2PM PDT for interviews, livestreams, and everything in between.
After Microsoft announced it was shutting down Mixer and moving to work more closely with Facebook Gaming, some wondered what impact this could have on the Xbox dashboard.
Currently, the dashboard on Xbox One contains advertisements and links to Mixer streams. Some were wondering if Facebook Gaming streams will replace them in the carousel. That won’t be the case, according to Xbox’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb.
“If you are asking if the current Mixer integration in the dashboard is just going to become Facebook Gaming. The answer is no,” Major Nelson said on Reddit.
Warning: This post obviously contains massive spoilers for The Last of Us Part 2. If you’re not finished yet, we recommend you turn back now.
The Last of Us Part 2 is a story about obsession, anguish, trauma, and vengeance. It centers on the inability of some of its characters to let go of their pain, and the massive harm they do to themselves and others as a result.
But even though the revenge aspect of The Last of Us Part 2 is pretty straightforward, its structure is anything but. The game uses multiple flashbacks to alter your perception of characters and events as they unfold. Which people know what information, and at what time, changes how The Last of Us 2 wants you to see and interpret its characters. Most of the twists in the story are flashbacks that work to change your perception of the characters when given new context.
The final act of the story begins after the confrontation between Abby and Ellie in the theater. By this point, we’ve seen the two parallel revenge stories of the protagonists: Abby and her friends, former Fireflies who were part of the Salt Lake City group from the previous game, tracked down and killed Joel to take their revenge. In turn, Ellie followed them to Seattle and killed several of Abby’s friends–while fighting and killing her way through a whole host of other members from the WLF, the Seattle group Abby and her friends joined following Joel’s rampage at the end of the first game. Prior to the confrontation, Ellie has killed Jordan, Nora, Owen, and Mel, who was pregnant. When Abby arrives at the theater, she kills Jesse and shoots Tommy in the head before taking on Ellie.
Abby wins the fight, but is attacked by Dina before she has a chance to kill Ellie. Abby knocks out Dina and prepares to execute her, before Ellie reveals she’s pregnant. Though Abby is prepared to kill Dina to get back at Ellie for Owen and Mel, Lev stops her. Once again, Abby lets Ellie go, telling her if Abby ever sees her again, she’ll kill her.
A lot of time passes, as we see next. Abby and Lev track rumors of the Fireflies to Santa Barbara, California, where they successfully discover remnants of that group–but they’re captured by the Rattlers, a vicious group of slavers who live in the area. Meanwhile, Ellie attempts to move on with her life with Dina and her baby, JJ, living in the farmhouse Dina had previously dreamed of having. But Ellie can’t shake visions of Joel or the trauma she still carries. When Tommy shows up with rumors about Abby (he survived his gunshot wound but now visibly limps and can’t go after Abby himself), Ellie finally decides she can’t let go and heads to Santa Barbara.
Once again, Ellie’s quest nearly kills her in Santa Barbara.
Though Ellie’s need for closure nearly kills her, she fights through the Rattlers and finds Abby. The slavers have doomed her and Lev to a slow death on the Pillars, a group of stakes they tie victims to, crucifixion-style. Ellie finds and saves the pair, with Abby guiding her to nearby boats where they can escape–one of which is the boat we’ve been seeing on the main menu screen this whole time. But despite helping them get away from the Rattlers, Ellie can’t let her vengeance go, and threatens to kill Lev in order to force Abby to fight her. Even though both women are hurt, Ellie is armed and easily wins the fight (although Abby manages to bite off two of Ellie’s fingers in the course of the battle). In the final moments, though, Ellie doesn’t kill Abby. Broken and sobbing, she lets Abby and Lev leave.
At this point, we see the final flashback between Ellie and Joel from the night before his death. We already knew that Ellie learned the truth about what Joel did to the Fireflies when he took her out of the hospital at the end of The Last of Us. Ellie articulates more of what she’s feeling here, explaining that she’s angry with Joel for a lot of things, but not just the lie or the killings. Joel robbed Ellie of her agency and of purpose when he killed the Fireflies. But she also wants to try to forgive him, she says. We got hints of this early in the game, too, when Ellie tells Dina she’s hoping to watch a movie with Joel after their patrol. It’s the first step Ellie wants to take in repairing their relationship. Of course, she’ll never get the chance.
In the final moments, Ellie returns to Dina’s farmhouse, but finds she and JJ are gone, along with all of their possessions. All that’s left in the house are Ellie’s belongings, packed in the room where she did her art and wrote songs. Ellie lingers there a moment, taking up Joel’s guitar and attempting to play a song–but missing two fingers, she can’t really play it. As the camera lingers on the window, we see Ellie leave the farmhouse and set out into the woods alone, leaving everything behind.
Ellie leaves behind Joel, and seemingly, her former life, in the final moment of the game.
There’s one final tidbit: the menu screen once you’ve finished the game. Instead of showing the boat floating in fog as we see it in Santa Barbara, we see it on a brighter shore with the Catalina Casino visible in the distance. It seems that Abby and Lev made it to their destination and perhaps found the Fireflies waiting there.
What It All Means
Obviously, there’s a whole lot going on in the end of The Last of Us Part 2. Abby fights for and perhaps earns her redemption, largely thanks to Lev, who helps Abby to let go of her anger and need for revenge and tempers her worst instincts. Ellie, on the other hand, can’t let go of her obsession or her trauma. Trying to find a way to deal with both costs Ellie literally everything.
First, let’s look at the final flashback between Ellie and Joel. Throughout the story, The Last of Us Part 2 has recontextualized Ellie and her motivations through flashbacks. At first, we think she’s purely looking to avenge her surrogate father, about whom she cared deeply. It’s also assumed that Ellie never knew about what happened in Salt Lake City, and therefore doesn’t know what Joel did to the Fireflies or why Abby and her friends would be after him. Later, we discover Ellie does know that Joel, for all intents and purposes, deserved what happened to him–he wasn’t innocent and probably didn’t need or deserve avenging. We also discover that Ellie doesn’t care what Joel did or didn’t do; she cares about killing the people who killed him.
The final flashback gives us more insight into what’s going on with Ellie. When Joel killed the Fireflies and stopped the procedure that could have created a cure, he took a lot from Ellie–her agency in making decisions for herself and a death that could be meaningful. The Last of Us imagines a world where everyone is waiting on what is very likely to be a horrific, painful, and most importantly, meaningless death. Ellie, on the other hand, was someone whose death could have helped others. She made being immune and potentially helping others a big part of her identity. Joel took that identity and the purpose that came with it away from her.
So Ellie’s obsession with revenge becomes pretty nuanced, and there’s a lot of trauma baked into it. Yes, Ellie cared deeply for Joel, in spite of her anger for him, but that’s only part of what’s going on with her. The implication in the final flashback is that being immune gave Ellie purpose. In the years following, she seems somewhat listless and despondent. Instead of fighting for something in trying to get to Salt Lake City and become part of a cure, Ellie is now just living, and having a hard time with that fact. Some of the things that marked who she had become, including being immune, are things she now has to hide. But perhaps, as she grows into her place in Jackson (and specifically finds the beginnings of a future with Dina), she’s starting to let go of her former purpose and identity and adopt a new one. She was also beginning to find a way to forgive Joel.
The boat shrouded in fog is an image from the final confrontation between Ellie and Abby, and it suggests the darkness in which Ellie finds herself lost.
That all ends when Abby shows up and kills Joel. Suddenly, Ellie’s possible future is upended. As with her anger with Joel about the loss of the possibilities of the Fireflies, her rage at Abby is about the loss of her opportunity to fix things with Joel. And that flashback seems to suggest that Ellie’s obsession with revenge might not even be about Joel so much. It’s really about purpose and identity. Getting Abby becomes a defining part of Ellie and fills that need to find something to fight for. Giving it up means giving up that purpose, as much as it means giving up Joel (and on finding a way to forgive him), succumbing to grief, and admitting that everyone and everything Ellie sacrificed along the way was wasted. Ellie finds at the farmhouse that she’s haunted by all that unresolved trauma. She can’t live with it, and she doesn’t know how to deal with it, except to succumb to her obsession once more.
So Ellie goes after Abby one last time, but she doesn’t kill her. It might be that Ellie’s grief at everything she’s lost finally catches up to her, or perhaps that the act of actually killing Abby isn’t alleviating any of Ellie’s pain or need for purpose. Ellie’s flashes of Joel in those final moments are pointed, as is the last flashback–to a moment that combines the pain and anger Ellie felt toward Joel with the beginning of healing. Ellie lets Abby go, and in so doing, lets go of her anger–at Abby and at Joel.
The tragedy is that coming to that point has cost Ellie literally everything. The return to the farmhouse shows all that Ellie has lost because of her obsession. Joel is dead, as is her friend Jesse; Tommy is a broken man who lost his wife; Ellie’s chance at a family with Dina is over. When Ellie tries and fails to play guitar, she finds that her revenge has even (at least temporarily) cost her something that still allowed her to feel close to Joel, as we saw throughout the game.
So Ellie leaves everything behind and sets out on her own. It really feels like Ellie is abandoning who she was. She gives up her old identity, much of which has been lost or destroyed because of her actions. She walks off almost into the sunset in the last moments of the game. It’s not clear where she’s headed, but it’s very clear what she’s leaving behind.
It seems pretty metaphorically poignant that the main menu screen no longer shows a dark boat shrouded in fog, but the brighter, more hopeful shore of Catalina Island.
There’s one shining spot, though: after completing the game and returning to the main menu, you’re treated with a new image of a boat on the bright, daylit beach of Catalina Island. The implication, of course, is that Abby and Lev reached their destination. But the shot also replaces the darkened image of the boat immersed in fog in Santa Barbara, and in the background, you can see storm clouds clearing away. Ellie and Abby both passed through the darkness and fog the old menu screen represented, and we’re treated to a new, brighter one, where we can see the future in the distance.
Of course, that’s one interpretation of the ending of The Last of Us Part 2. Let us know what you think Naughty Dog wants us to take away from Ellie’s journey and its aftermath in the comments below.
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Prolific director and cinephile Quentin Tarantino was originally pitched on the idea of releasing his Oscar-winning Hateful Eight film on iPhones instead of theaters by NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell.
In a new profile piece on Shell by The Wall Street Journal (via IndieWire), the CEO recalls a time when Tarantino was looking for financing for The Hateful Eight, which was difficult at the time, due to the director’s desire to shoot the film in 70mm and retrofit theaters so they would be able to properly display the movie.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Jeff Shell, at the time the head of the Universal studio, voiced his own pitch. ‘What if we released it on iPhones?’ he said. ‘Great,’ Mr. Tarantino replied, and stormed out of the meeting.”
Tarantino would end up working with The Weinstein Company on The Hateful Eight, with the film going on to gross over $155 million at the worldwide box office and earn iconic composer Ennio Morricone his first Academy Award.
Day 5 of IGN Expo has wrapped up and there were some new reveals, announcements, and a bunch of Avengers. We’ve collected today’s biggest news, trailers, and more below in case you missed anything.
A special bonus Expo Day to accompany the big Avengers War Table livestream. It wasn’t all just Iron Man and Thor though. There was a first look at some new gameplay for titles like Fall Guys, and as always we are still supporting important causes like the World Health Oragnization and The Bail Project which you can still donate to at donate.ign.com.
What did you think about IGN Expo Day 5? – and IGN Expo as a whole? What was your favorite thing announced during the show? Let us know with a Yap below!
Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix finally revealed new details about Marvel’s Avengers. IGN was able to interview the developers to find out more about Avengers including a deep dive into its story and gameplay.
Dreamscaper is a new action-RPG roguelike where our hero ventures into an ever-changing dream world to fight dark forces. The deep dive shows off the combat, story, and world of Dreamscaper coming to Steam Early Access.
While fans of Warcraft may never get a follow up to 2016’s origin story film, director Duncan Jones has opened up about his cancelled plans for a trilogy. In a response to a fan on Twitter, Jones discussed the potential plots for the remaining two movies.
The overall arc for the trilogy would have seen “the fulfilling of Durotan’s promise to give his people a new home,” according to Jones. The second film would center around the young Go’el, who was picked up by the humans at the end of Warcraft.
Go’el (who would grow up to become Thrall, leader of the Horde faction) would’ve been a young orc slave in Blackmoore’s gladiator camp where he befriends a Tauren warrior who tells him of a new area where he and his allies could settle.
The third film would’ve focused on freeing the orcs around the Eastern Kingdom and gathering an army before sailing across the sea to Kalimdor and founding the legendary city of Orgrimmar, the future capital city of the orcs.
three, the gathering horde army and freeing of orcs around the Eastern kingdom before a dangerous trip across the sea to Kalimdor, & the founding of the 1st Azerothian city of Orgrimmar.
Basically the trilogy was the fulfilling of Durotan’s promise to give his people a new home.
It was definitely a treat to see such iconic characters on the silver screen, but fans can still get their fix in World of Warcraft. The long-running MMORPG has been going strong for more than fifteen years and is set to showcase more of its next expansion, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, on July 8.
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Matthew Adler is a Features and News writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @MatthewAdler and watch him stream a variety of games on Twitch.
In early May, CD Projekt Red announced an E3-style broadcast dubbed Night City Wire. As we draw closer to the event, anticipation for what we’ll see and hear about Cyberpunk 2077 builds. We know quite a bit about Cyberpunk 2077 from the bits of information we’ve acquired from announcements like the E3 2019’s Xbox briefing with Keanu Reeves and behind-the-scenes looks at gameplay. But there’s still plenty we don’t know about and hopefully, some of that curiosity will be satiated with Night City Wire. If you don’t want to miss out, here’s how you can tune in.
CD Projekt Red’s Night City Wire is scheduled for June 25 at 9am PT/ 12pm ET/ 5pm BST. If you’re in Australia, then that’s June 26 at 2am AEST. We’ll be hosting a pre-show 30-minutes before the event begins so make sure to join us. We’ll be looking forward to seeing your comments and sharing our predictions. Stick around immediately after the show for our impressions.
How to Watch Night City Wire
You can watch the Cyberpunk 2077 event here and across all of our major platforms and channels as part of our Summer of Gaming Event. Here’s a list of all places you can watch the Night City Wire livestream:
Thanks to a tweet from the Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account, we have a good idea about what to expect to see at Night City Wire. The tweet described it as a 25-minute episode, suggesting this will be the first of more episodes planned, and revealed it’ll include a new trailer, fresh gameplay footage, and a chat with the developers about a game feature called “braindance”.
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Felicia Miranda is SEO Editor at IGN and you can find her on Twitter at @FeliciaVagabond.
Netflix is releasing some classic films and fan-favorite returning series to its lineup for July 2020.
To get things started, Netflix is dropping the hotly anticipated second season of The Umbrella Academy on July 31 and the debut of a new fantasy series on July 17, titled Cursed, which is based on the illustrated novel of the same name from legendary comic artist Frank Miller and author Thomas Wheeler. According to Netflix, Cursed “is a re-imagining of the Arthurian legend, told through the eyes of Nimue, a teenage heroine with a mysterious gift who is destined to become the powerful (and tragic) Lady of the Lake.”
On the movie front, Netflix is releasing the Karate Kid trilogy, the hilarious Star Wars parody, Spaceballs, and the DC animated classic, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. All of the aforementioned movie titles will be available to stream on July 1.
Check out the slideshow gallery below for a spotlight of some of the most notable July Netflix offerings, followed by the full list (U.S. Netflix only):
