Sean Connery's 10 best movies: From Dr No to The Untouchables
The first ever James Bond had a varied career on the big screen – combining his iconic 007 role with all sorts of other film projects. Here are the 10 best.
Is there a greater giant of cinema than Sean Connery? From the 1960s to his retirement in the early 2000s, he was never anything less than a superstar. It’s a run of length, quality and commercial success that can only really be rivalled by his one time co-star and friend, Harrison Ford. Though he appeared in more than 60 films across six decades, Connery will never not be James Bond, the role that ignited his career and brought his vast presence, complete with the shoulders of a heavyweight boxer, a toupee and his unmistakable and oft imitated voice to the world. Coincidentally, he would play 007 seven times on screen over a period of 20 years but with an ambition and drive befitting his rise from working class childhood in Edinburgh to milkman to lifeguard to Hollywood icon. During his lifetime, some critics could be sniffy about Connery’s acting, forever linking him to his most famous role but over his career, he would work with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Brian De Palma, John Huston, Sidney Lumet (five times) and Steven Spielberg. Connery had many phrases to his career. From his Bond heyday to his determination to tackle more complex material throughout the back half of the '60s and all of the '70s before maturing into playing mentor like figures in the '80s and '90s. He would ultimately bag an Academy Award in the late 1980s. Below, we have ranked Sean Connery’s 10 greatest films. 10. Dr No (1962) In terms of cinema, there is before Dr No and after Dr No. The unexpected success of the first James Bond film in 1962 did not just birth the multi-billion pound franchise that is still ongoing but it was the earnest start of his film career after a decade of hustling in small roles and in regional theatre, the former bodybuilder went from a nobody to the biggest star in the world overnight. In his first outing as 007, Connery already has his trademark confidence, wit and poise to go with his incredible physical presence. Where to watch in the UK: Available to rent and buy from various platforms Where to watch in the US: Available to rent and buy from various platforms 9. The Anderson Tapes (1971) Connery’s first film after he said goodbye to Bond for good, The Anderson Tapes – complete with a funky Quincy Jones score – is a pretty prescient movie about electronic surveillance, pre-dating The Conversation and Three Days of the Condor. Connery isn’t too far away from his Bond persona here as a charming thief, complete with his womanising charm and imposing cool, but The Anderson Tapes and director Sidney Lumet, ask more of the Scot, especially with its downbeat ending. Where to watch in the UK: Plex Where to watch in the US: Plex 8. The Hill (1965) View Green Video on the source website Coming amidst Connery’s mid-'60s push to diversify his roles at the height of Bond mania, The Hill is a gruelling prison war drama, the antithesis to lightly toned capers such as The Great Escape and Von Ryan’s Express. Amid a fascinating ensemble that included Ian Hendry, Michael Redgrave and Ossie Davis, Connery portrays an imprisoned soldier raging against the machine as he and his fellow inmates are subjected to relentless abuse by commanding officers. Connery is remarkably restrained (not something that could be said often) as a man on the edge in this striking, visceral film about fear and justice. Where to watch in the UK: Available to rent and buy from various platforms Where to watch in the US: Available to rent and buy from various platforms 7. The Rock (1996) In just his second film, Michael Bay somehow earned the trust of Sean Connery with the legend’s name power central to the success of The Rock. Expertly cast as an MI6 agent long held captive by the US government, The Rock is an endless sugar rush that has come to synonymise both Bay’s irrepressible style and the '90s action bonanza in general. Connery’s chemistry, both with Ed Harris’s earnest and Nicolas Cage’s typically offbeat chemical super freak is a hoot and a holler. The absolute best of its kind. Where to watch in the UK: Disney+ Where to watch in the US: FXNOW 6. From Russia with Love (1963) Connery’s second outing as 007 is a darker, more complex affair than Dr No, with its tone much closer than Ian Fleming’s books than virtually all of the adaptations. Despite a relatively mixed contemporary reception, From Russia with Love has endured as one of the most beloved Bond’s and was seen by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson as the benchmark for the series.. A particular highlight is watching Connery face off against the film’s marvelously crafted villains in the forms of Robert Shaw’s SPECTRE assassin and Lotte Lenya and her poison tipped shoes as Rosa Klebb. Connery’s personal favourite from his time in the role. Where to watch in the UK: Available to rent and buy from various platforms Where to watch in the US: Available to rent and buy from various platforms 5. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) The centrepiece of Connery’s later career role as playing a mentor character in a broad action-adventure film, the combination of Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford brought out something fresh in the actor. Playing Indiana Jones’s equally rambunctious father, Connery is an abundance of charm, humour and rascally adventure. These days, The Last Crusade feels from another planet, with its large scale on multiple exotic locations shoot, light caper tone and centrally, two synergistic performances from two behemoths of cinema. “She talks in her sleep,” remains one of the funniest line delivers you’ll ever hear. Where to watch in the UK: Prime Video Where to watch in the US: Disney+/Paramount+ 4. Marnie (1964) View Green Video on the source website At the height of his Bond fame, Connery was admittedly a touch fed up of both the pressure that the role brought and its limitations on him as an actor. So Connery set out to broaden his horizons and willed into existence a collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock on Marnie. A brilliant, if controversial mystery and an example of Hitchcock’s films getting more explicitly darker towards the end of his career, Marnie also served as a fitting example of Connery’s early ambition and determination to work with best directors. Where to watch in the UK: Available to rent and buy from various platforms Where to watch in the US: Available to rent and buy from various platforms 3. The Offence (1972) Across the course of his career, Connery collaborated with Sidney Lumet five times, the most he worked with any director. On each film, Connery would inhabit a very different role but none darker than in The Offence. One of the lesser known works in both men’s careers, The Offence was a passion project of Connery’s and saw him go to the greatest depths he found as an actor, playing a tortured police veteran, haunted by years on the murder beat. A startling, unforgettable film. Where to watch in the UK: Prime Video Where to watch in the US: Prime Video/MGM+ 2. Goldfinger (1964) Mention Sean Connery to anybody and there’s a very high chance that their brain will immediately flash up images of Goldfinger – whether that’s his garishly stylish round of golf with the titular villain or his discovery of Jill Masterson suffocated in gold paint.. In many ways, the quintessential Bond film, it’s the first one to lean in more on the humour that would become more prevalent in the series during Roger Moore’s stint as 007. Goldfinger is also the first Bond film Connery utters the now immortal line: “A martini. Shaken. Not stirred.” Positively shocking. Where to watch in the UK: Available to rent and buy from various platforms Where to watch in the US: Available to rent and buy from various platforms 1. The Untouchables (1987) View Green Video on the source website Connery finally won an Oscar for his portrayal of a supposedly Irish incorruptible cop that helps Elliot Ness take down Al Capone. The non-accent aside, it’s a mighty performance as Connery eats the screen up from Kevin Costner, relishing in David Mamet’s punchy, endlessly quotable script. Connery’s real tour de force comes in his climactic death scene – a trademark Brian De Palma set piece – it’s all fury and fear and an amazing showcase for the proud Scotsman, whose actual acting abilities could be overlooked in favour of his star quality. It’s the Chicago way. Where to watch in the UK: BBC iPlayer/Paramount+/Netflix Where to watch in the US: Kanopy/Hoopla Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
What it takes to be James Bond – the audition test every 007 has to pass
What skills does a potential 007 have to demonstrate before they get the part?
If you want to be James Bond, you used to have to pass a very specific test – but the decision over who earns the licence to kill no longer rests solely with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson. The long-time Bond custodians have entered a new partnership with Amazon MGM Studios, which recently took creative control of the franchise in a landmark deal. As the series enters a new era, its famously secretive audition process could be about to change. For decades, Broccoli and Wilson tested every would-be Bond to make sure their martini was shaken and not stirred, that they could tell a Walther PPK from a Glock 9mm, and most importantly, that they could believably be the object of desire for audiences worldwide. They even had a signature audition scene: one lifted straight from From Russia with Love (1963). It’s a sequence any self-respecting Bond fan knows well – the moment Sean Connery’s 007 returns to his hotel room to find Tatiana Romanova, the Soviet honeytrap sent to seduce him, waiting in bed wearing nothing but a black velvet choker. After dispatching assassin Krilencu with his ally Kerim Bey, Bond strolls back to his suite, gun still in hand. Bond, such is his style, quickly makes himself comfortable with Miss Romanova and compliments her attractiveness only to be met with the self-deprecating retort: "I think my mouth is too big." As he leans in for a kiss, Bond comes back with a barb as only he can: "No, it’s the right size. For me, that is." Wilson explained the choice of scene during the 60th anniversary celebrations for Dr No at the BFI: "We always use the same scene and that’s the one in From Russia with Love where Bond comes back to his room after the assassination... anyone who can bring that scene off is right for Bond. It’s tough to do." Wilson also made a point to mention that they always need a good actress to read the Tatiana part, but kept the names of any of the women to have worked the audition process under his hat. It’s clear why that moment endured as a testing ground. The scene calls for Bond to be sexy, confident and beguiling and rather emphasises his '60s approach to espionage. It’s a bit of acting that really embodies the Bond character and what a performer needs to bring to the role that has always been more than shooting and seducing. Emitting that level of debonair confidence is not easy, especially with a character as familiar as Bond, it can easily turn to parody and the scene allows an actor to find the right tone as 007. Now, as Bond 26 moves ahead under Amazon MGM’s stewardship, it’s unclear whether that same classic scene will still be used to test potential agents. With Denis Villeneuve (Dune, Blade Runner 2049) set to direct and new producers Amy Pascal and David Heyman joining the team, the next 007 could be chosen through a very different kind of process — one reflecting Amazon’s global ambitions for the franchise rather than Eon’s traditional methods. Regardless, who are some of the actors that could be auditioning – with this scene, or by some other method? Who is the next Bond? The hunt for Daniel Craig’s successor continues quietly, though casting decisions will now be made within Amazon’s new creative framework rather than by Broccoli and Wilson. Reports suggest a soft reboot is on the table – reintroducing Bond as a younger, yet battle-hardened agent at the start of his career. Bookmakers still have Aaron Taylor-Johnson as favourite – ticking the boxes of age, experience and British charm, while ther names mooted by fans and critics have included Henry Cavill, James Norton, Regé-Jean Page, Jack Lowden and Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù – all potential candidates to bring fresh life to the world’s most famous spy. Whoever dons the tuxedo next, one thing’s for sure: the rules of the game are changing. Read more: Who will play James Bond in Denis Villeneuve's movie? Rumours explained Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
What happened to Halle Berry's James Bond spin-off that never was?
Jinx Johnson could have made the perfect lead for a 007 spin-off.
It’s always been rare for an A-list female star to face off against James Bond. No Time to Die has the scene-stealing Ana de Armas, Britt Ekland was already a name by the time she appeared in The Man with the Golden Gun and Michelle Yeoh was a household actress in China, but 007’s leading ladies tend to be younger, lesser-known actresses on the up. The one big exception is of course Halle Berry, who played CIA agent Jinx in the much-maligned Die Another Day. When she was cast opposite Pierce Brosnan for his final adventure as 007, Berry had already won an Oscar (and been nominated for another), starred as Storm in X-Men and made an infamous appearance in Swordfish alongside John Travolta and Hugh Jackman. Despite the film’s many, many faults – shoddy CGI, Madonna, Toby Stephens’s villain – Jinx is a charismatic standout and endures as one of the most popular Bond girls despite being in one of the least popular movies. In fact, she would have been perfect to lead her own action movie. Want to own the entire James Bond movie box set? Now's your chance Despite the Bond films running for 60 years and counting, there has never been a big-screen spin-off – no Blofeld origin story, no adventures of Q and Moneypenny, no action franchise based around Felix Leiter. But there was very nearly a Jinx stand-alone film featuring Berry reprising her role. After Jinx proved a hit with the fans, producer Barbara Broccoli had the idea of letting the American agent branch out on her own and front her own big budget action movie. There had earlier been talk that Michelle Yeoh would lead a Tomorrow Never Dies spin-off, but the Jinx movie was very real. The general idea was for an alternative series to run in conjunction with the main Bond films so that there was less of a gap for the studio between releases, with the Jinx spin-off intended to hit the big screen sometime in 2004. A script by regular Bond scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade was commissioned with the idea being that the film would be a Euro thriller more in the vein of The Bourne Identity than the glamorous globe-trotting jaunts people were accustomed to from 007. The film would also have seen the late Michael Madsen reprise his Die Another Day role as Damian Falco, who was basically her M. Javier Bardem, before his breakout performance in No Country for Old Men and later appearance in Skyfall, was also eyed as the male lead. Jinx even found itself a director in Stephen Frears – an odd choice given he was best known for his realistic dramas about British society such as My Beautiful Laundrette, Dirty Pretty Things and Prick Up Your Ears. All looked good but then MGM got very cold feet over the proposed budget of $80 million – even though that was nearly half of what it paid to finance Die Another Day. The early 2000s was marked with the emergence of female action heroes such as Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider films, Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil, Kate Beckinsale in Underworld and the trio of Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu in Charlie’s Angels, which only seems to emphasise the lost opportunity of a Halle Berry-led spin-off. Read more: Why GoldenEye 007 is still the greatest James Bond game On Her Majesty's Secret Service could have changed the Bond franchise forever Younger actors who auditioned for Bond didn't have the "gravitas", casting boss reveals According to Variety, Barbara Broccoli was not too happy MGM pulled the plug on the film. The publication wrote: "The play was foiled when MGM got cold feet about the film’s $80 million budget. "That decision left Broccoli incensed. One of her main goals as steward of 007 has been to shake off some of the chauvinism that characterised Bond’s appearances in the novels and early films." Berry herself has also acknowledged why her Jinx movie never saw the light of day: "It was very disappointing. It was ahead of its time. Nobody was ready to sink that kind of money into a Black female action star. They just weren’t sure of its value. That’s where we were then." Talk of Berry as Jinx recurred as recently as 2019 among Bond fans after her kick-ass appearance in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum where she plays a deadly assassin with a couple of dogs that are a little more than just good companionship. Berry’s role in John Wick also served as a reminder of what she and Bond fans lost out on when MGM shelved the spin-off in favour of pressing ahead with the 21st 007 film, which at that time still had Brosnan attached. Buy the James Bond novels from Waterstones With it now being 25 years since Berry played Jinx, the spin-off is going to remain the one that got away. With Amazon now owning MGM, it feels inevitable that Bond will be expanded to include spin-offs and other adventures away from the main series (especially with the ever-increasing gap between instalments). So why not have a female spy lead a spin-off? Ana de Armas's Paloma is right there. Visit our Film hub for the latest news and features. If you're looking for something to watch, check out our TV Guide or Streaming Guide. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
How to watch the Jurassic Park movies in order
Here's how to watch all the movies from the dinosaur franchise in order.
More than 30 years after Steven Spielberg changed sci-fi adventure forever with rampaging raptors and a T-Rex that shook the screen, the franchise is once again evolving. When Jurassic Park was released in 1993, it did more than just set a new standard for visual effects; it also ushered in a new era of blockbuster storytelling. With its combination of cutting-edge technology and Spielberg's trademark sense of wonder, the picture became an instant hit. Unsurprisingly, it remains his highest-grossing effort, surpassing E.T., Jaws, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Originally only intended as a stand-alone adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel, the movie sparked a deluge of merchandise, video games, exhibitions and real-life theme park rides at Universal Studios. With the upcoming seventh instalment Jurassic World: Rebirth soon joining the dinosaur series, it promises a darker, more realistic return to the primal dread and ethical questions that made the original a classic. Ahead of its release, here's a complete watch list to bring you up to date with the prehistoric action. How to watch the Jurassic Park movies in order Jurassic Park (1993) When released in 1993, Jurassic Park became the highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing Steven Spielberg’s own ET in the process. Inspired by groundbreaking special effects and immaculate dinosaur animatronics as well as Spielberg’s typically impeccable direction, Jurassic Park became the rare blockbuster to receive widespread critical acclaim and has since become one of the most loved films ever made. Starring Sam Neill and Laura Dern as a couple of palaeontologists and Jeff Goldblum as chaos theorist Dr Ian Malcolm, the trio become trapped in Jurassic Park after industrial sabotage wrecks the security precautions freeing regenerated dinosaurs. The original and the best. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) After author Michael Crichton wrote a sequel to his book – somewhat at the urging of Spielberg – the great director wanted to adapt that too. Featuring only Goldblum and Richard Attenborough from the first film, The Lost World depicts John Hammond’s (Attenborough) attempts to redeem himself as he reckons with the consequences of his creation. Though an enormous commercial success, The Lost World has never been anybody’s favourite Jurassic Park film and Spielberg has voiced his displeasure with it on many occasions. Talking about the sequel, he said: "My sequels aren't as good as my originals because I go onto every sequel I've made and I'm too confident. "This movie made a ka-zillion dollars, which justifies the sequel, so I come in like it's going to be a slam dunk and I wind up making an inferior movie to the one before. I'm talking about The Lost World and Jurassic Park." Read more: Jurassic Park at 30: Lex star Ariana Richards breaks down iconic scenes Jurassic Park III (2001) The first film made without the input of Spielberg or Crichton, Jurassic Park III was instead directed by Joe Johnston and saw Neill and Dern reprise their roles from the first film – albeit the later in little more than a cameo. With production starting before a script was finished, Jurassic Park III came out as bit of a mess, but the film has found itself as something a cult favourite these days due to its action and genre thrills. Jurassic World (2015) A fourth Jurassic film was planned as far back as 2001, with several more attempts made throughout the rest of the decade. Set over 20 years after the events of the original film, a theme park made up of genetically created dinosaurs is finally open to the public before one of the creatures escapes and goes on a rampage. Featuring an all-new cast made up of Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and Vincent D’Onofrio, Jurassic World replicated the financial success of the first film and Spielberg and Neill also voicing their support for the movie. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2019) Expanding on the events of Jurassic World and also throwing it back to the original with the return of Goldblum in a small role, Fallen Kingdom charts a dinosaur rescue mission as several entities seek to make a profit of what is left of the fallen theme park including selling the creatures at auction. Following the pattern of the original trilogy, Fallen Kingdom was not received anywhere near as well as Jurassic World, with the film increasingly reliant on CGI over animatronics and criticism aimed at the lack of chemistry between Pratt and Howard. Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) Continuing the Hollywood trend of bringing back old faces for new films, Dominion featured the trio of Neill, Dern and Goldblum together for the first time since the original Jurassic Park. The other big development is dinosaurs now live in relative harmony alongside humans after the events of Fallen Kingdom. Despite being a behemoth at the box-office, Dominion proved to be the least popular Jurassic film, with critics unimpressed with the movie’s dialogue, rehashed set-pieces and the newer characters. And stomping into cinemas with the seventh instalment in the franchise is Jurassic World: Rebirth. Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025) With a darker, more survival-led tone, this new chapter written by David Koepp and directed by Gareth Edwards, brings back the essence of the first Jurassic Park released in 1993. Set five years after Dominion and introducing fresh faces to the franchise, Scarlett Johansson plays Zora Bennett, a covert-ops expert in charge of a mission for biotech behemoth ParkerGenix. She is joined by palaeontologist Dr Henry Loomis (played by Jonathan Bailey) and veteran ship captain Duncan Kincaid (played by Mahershala Ali). On a secluded island, they encounter a civilian family: Reuben Delgado and his children, and face new perils. This latest instalment addresses the ethical ramifications of resurrecting prehistoric life, and traces the carnage back to its origins. All films in the Jurassic Park franchise are available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video. Try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days. Plus, read our guides to the best Amazon Prime series and the best movies on Amazon Prime. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Conjuring 4: Release date, cast and news for Last Rites
The Warrens are returning for another investigation into the paranormal.
Of all the new horror franchises to have emerged since the turn of the century, few, if any, have been more prolific than The Conjuring Universe – which has spawned multiple spin-offs in addition to the three films in the main series. Now, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga are set to return for what is being touted as their final outing as Ed and Lorraine Warren, which is fittingly titled The Conjuring: Last Rites. A fourth film was first reported to be in development back in 2022, and ever since then more details have been filtering through about the project, including the return of franchise veteran Michael Chaves as director and some intriguing plot details. And in May 2025, we got our best glimpse yet of the film courtesy of some first-look images unveiled by Entertainment Weekly, the first teaser trailer and a new behind-the-scenes featurette which sees series creator James Wan describing the film as "the end of an era". The clip also includes footage from the set of the new film and input from Chaves, Wilson and Farmiga – with the latter teasing that the film will include a demon which "has a vendetta" and "what it wants is very, very personal". You can view the featurette and trailer in full at the bottom of this page. So, what lies in wait for Ed and Lorraine Warren this time? What will be the subject of their next investigation into the paranormal? And when can we expect to see it land in cinemas? Read on to find out everything we know so far about The Conjuring: The Lat Rites. The Conjuring: Last Rites release date As things stand, the film is slated for release on Friday 5th September 2025 – so it is arriving well in time for spooky season. That comes more than four years after the last film in the main series – 2021's The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It – and two years after the last spin-off, The Nun II. Should anything move around with that release date, we'll post any updates here – but as things stand you can get that early September date in your diary. The Conjuring: Last Rites cast It wouldn't be The Conjuring without Ed and Lorraine Warren, and series stalwarts Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga unsurprisingly are set to reprise their roles in the fourth entry. Meanwhile, Mia Tomlinson (The Beast Must Die) is joining the franchise as the Warren's daughter Judy – who was previously played by Sterling Jerins in previous Conjuring films and by McKenna Grace in spin-off Annabelle Comes Home – while Ben Hardy is set to play her boyfriend Tony Spera. Shannon Kook will also reprise his role as Drew Thomas, while other actors in the cast include Rebecca Calder (Wrath of Man), Elliot Cowan (Foundation), Kíla Lord Cassidy (The Wonder) and Beau Gadsdon (The Railway Children Return) – although details on their characters are still sparse at this stage. We'll post any updates right here as and when we get them! The Conjuring: Last Rites plot The film has been scripted by Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick – based on a story by the latter and James Wan – and it sees the Warrens team up for one last case in 1986, five years after the events of the previous film. Although exact plot details are still filtering through, we know that the film will see the Warrens take on the notorious Smurl case – which saw Pennsylvania couple Jack and Janet Smurl claim that they and their family had been traumatised by a demon for 12 years. Beyond that, though, details are still under wraps, with the official logline reading simply: "Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reunite for one last case as renowned, real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren in a powerful and spine-chilling addition to the global box office-breaking franchise." We'll post more details as we get them! The Conjuring: Last Rites trailer The first trailer was released on Thursday 8th May and gives us a good look at another very spooky case for the Warrens – check it out below: View oEmbed on the source website Meanwhile, at the same time Warner Bros also released a featurette which further teased what to expect from the new film. You can find that below: View oEmbed on the source website Read More: Real-life Conjuring house How to watch the Insidious movies in order Best horror movies on Netflix Inside the Warrens’ Occult Museum Conjuring: The Last Rites will be released in UK cinemas on Friday 5th September 2025. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Is Christopher Nolan really the man to save James Bond?
Fresh rumours have suggested Nolan could be the man to direct the first film in 007's new Amazon era.
Christopher Nolan directing a James Bond movie has been a mutual dream for the Oscar winner and fans of the series for over a decade. With the Broccoli family foregoing creative control over the world’s most famous spy to Amazon MGM Studios after more than 60 years, the future of 007 has not been this uncertain since the end of the Cold War. The corporation will surely want to make a bombastic splash with its first Bond film knowing sceptical fans will need to be won over and won over quickly. With that, it is no coincidence that just days after the Broccolis sold up for the princely sum of $1 billion, rumours began circulating that Amazon was intent on wooing Nolan to the series. According to a report from The Wrap, there is “mutual interest” between Amazon and Nolan to put together the director’s dream Bond film to follow-up The Odyssey. That alone poses problems for Amazon given Nolan’s take on the Greek fable is going to keep him occupied at least until next summer and likely longer given Universal will be looking to replicate Oppenheimer’s awards success, which means a director tied up by media duties and Oscar campaigns. If all goes well (and in Hollywood, nothing goes smoothly), Nolan would be available for a 2027 shoot with a tight turnaround likely to get the film into cinemas by the end of 2028 – still over three years away – and six years on from No Time to Die, the biggest gap since Pierce Brosnan took over the martini glass from Timothy Dalton. That could work in Amazon’s favour as the idea of Daniel Craig as Bond floats to the back of the mind and allows Nolan to imprint his own 007 on the world but for fans of the series, another three years of waiting seems difficult to stomach. There is of course the issue of would Nolan direct Bond anyway. He has been effervescent about the series and its influence on his work – Inception features a none-too-subtle homage to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, while Tenet felt like a dry run for a James Bond movie – but this is not the first time the great British director has been linked to the job. While he’s been the fantasy choice to direct a Bond film ever since his Batman Begins days, Nolan proposed a 007 film in earnest after he was finished on Tenet. Nolan (like Quentin Tarantino before him) wanted to set the film in the 1960s and imagined it as a two-parter. It’s not known how far talks got and how much of a plot was developed but Nolan and Barbara Broccoli could not find a compromise regarding final cut, echoing similar issues with Danny Boyle over No Time to Die. On Bond, the producer is king, the director more of a hired hand than creative visionary, which is a stark contrast to how Nolan operates and a red line to him ever getting involved in franchise filmmaking again. Read more: James Bond losing its long-time producers is a huge shift – but what does it mean for 007's future? <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=james+bond+radiotimes+comment&sca_esv=a7afae622429358f&rlz=1C5GCCM_en&sxsrf=AHTn8zp1GqNVXBt85VpN9S_cqMk_UKaXPQ%3A1741341137553&ei=0cHKZ6zFIeWehbIPia_DoAQ&ved=0ahUKEwjs8b6f2feLAxVlT0EAHYnXEEQQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=james+bond+radiotimes+comment&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiHWphbWVzIGJvbmQgcmFkaW90aW1lcyBjb21tZW50MgcQIRigARgKMgcQIRigARgKSIQJUHRYjwhwAXgAkAEAmAF9oAHbBqoBAzQuNbgBA8gBAPgBAZgCCaACwwbCAgoQABiwAxjWBBhHwgIIEAAYCBgNGB7CAgsQABiABBiGAxiKBcICCBAAGKIEGIkFwgIIEAAYgAQYogTCAgUQIRigAcICBhAhGBUYDZgDAIgGAZAGCJIHAzQuNaAH8i4&sclient=gws-wiz-serp">James Bond's future hinges on the Broccolis' successors – not just the franchise owners Amazon would have to give Nolan complete creative control over casting and final cut for a conversation to even become serious, a nervous proposition for any studio when dealing with the prospect of a $300 million budgeted film, let alone one they are betting their entire future on. But Nolan is the golden goose of cinema with 25 years' worth of providing the commercial and critical goods for studios, and if The Odyssey takes off like Oppenheimer he will again have a blank cheque for whichever project he wishes to pursue. What could a Christopher Nolan-directed James Bond film look like? Chris Nolan does spectacle and he does it well. He has put together some of the most memorable action set-pieces of the last two decades. From blowing up half of Gotham in his Dark Knight trilogy to the physics-bending bombast of Inception and Tenet, Nolan has passed his audition for Bond several times over. His hiring would signal real intention by Amazon to prove that James Bond is in safe hands and maybe even push the series into more experimental and daring directions – an older Bond once again starring Pierce Brosnan has also been rumoured. The idea of letting more artistic directors try to imprint their mark on the series is also exciting, as while the Broccolis were careful stewards of Ian Fleming’s creation, they had their formula and it was not a risqué one. Nolan’s hire would also widen the net over who will take over Daniel Craig’s Tom Ford suit. While the Broccolis had a firm view of a younger Bond around 30 that can support the franchise over an extended period, Nolan coming for a one (or two) shot deal means virtually any actor would see the role as an enticing one. Surely near the top of his list would be previous collaborators Robert Pattinson, Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy. For the Bond fan, there are few more tantalising prospects than Christopher Nolan in the director’s chair and even though it is a pipe dream, it is impossible not to get excited at the idea of him creating a 1960s-set spy epic that blends his penchant for operatic action, meticulously crafted plot and haunted, reluctant heroes. Sponsored by Vue Save up to 30% on the latest releases at Vue in 2025 Are you a movie lover who always wants to be up to date with the latest releases? Then you're in luck, as RadioTimes.com readers can enjoy new films at Vue Cinemas for less. Customers will receive up to 30% off films with Vue Pass, as long as they have a RadioTimes.com account. It's a great time for new releases, with films such as Wicked, Nosferatu, The Brutalist and Moana 2 taking UK cinemas by storm. Head to your nearest Vue to catch these movies and more for up to 30% less if you're signed up as a RadioTimes.com member. Save up to 30% with Vue Pass Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
With Halloween upon us, film fans might be looking to get stuck into the Scream franchise, and wondering how to watch the iconic series in order. The franchise already comprises six features and a series, and it's only set to get bigger, with a seventh Scream film from Christopher Landon (Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones) also on the horizon. It's now been confirmed that Neve Campbell will be returning to lead the upcoming movie as her iconic character Sidney Prescott, after sitting out the previous entry following a pay dispute. Fortunately, there's no confusing continuity to get your head around with the Scream franchise – compared to, say, the MCU – as each movie follows on from the next, all with the same universe of characters. So, without further ado, read on for everything you need to know about the release order. How to watch the Scream movies in order of release Scream Released: 1996 The first Scream movie made a splash when it first aired, and it took the more meta approach to a masked serial killer that creator Wes Craven had used previously with his seventh entry in The Nightmare on Elm Street series - New Nightmare. With a plot that kept people guessing right until the end and a memorable mix of characters all primed to be targeted by the killer, Scream was an instant success, and it is little wonder that sequels followed in quick succession - even if they did not quite match the heights that the first film had. Where to watch: Scream is streaming on Paramount+, which is also available through Amazon Prime Video Scream 2 Released: 1997 While not quite as strong as the first film, Scream 2 largely succeeds because it once again nails the meta tone that the franchise is known for. While the first played up to the tropes of a standard slasher flick, the second leaned heavily on it being a sequel - and all the expected twists and turns that it entails. There was a great cast assembled for this one, too, including Jerry O'Connell, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Laurie Metcalf and Timothy Olyphant, and they played alongside the returning characters well and helped give us a story that, while not doing too much to change things up from the original, still made it feel fresh. We're still not sold on the killer's identity with this one, though... Where to watch: Scream 2 is streaming on Paramount+ and Amazon Freevee Scream 3 Released: 2000 Arguably the worst movie out of the six so far, Scream 3 had some things working for it, but the concept was starting to feel a tad tired three entries in - and while there were some surprises, like the shocking death of a Scream original early on, it was hard to invest in a franchise that, at this point, felt repetitive. To jump to the defence of Scream 3, though, it was a film that was heavily influenced, and hampered, by the studio in response to several real-world violent acts that many blamed slasher movies for. The violence was toned down and the comedy was dialled up, and while that worked in places, Scream was always a horror franchise first and a comedic one second, and Scream 3 is the perfect example of why it should always stay that way. Where to watch: Scream 3 is streaming on Paramount+ and Amazon Freevee Scream 4 Released: 2011 It took a long time for another instalment in the franchise, with an 11-year gap between the third and fourth films - coincidentally the same amount of time between the fourth and fifth entries. And it was a welcome return, as not only did Scream 4 end up being better received than the previous one, the meta jokes regarding reboots landed perfectly. Not only that but the new cast that appeared alongside the returning faces were fun to watch with Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Anthony Anderson and Adam Brody all making a great impression. Killer twist when the serial killer was revealed too. Where to watch: Scream 4 is streaming on Paramount+, which is also available on Amazon Prime Video Scream (2022) Release date: 2022 Confusingly named the same as the first film, the 2022 Scream is mostly a sequel to Scream 4 – but also a bit of a reboot, as it centres its story on new characters while also having the likes of Sidney, Gale and Dewey an integral part of the plot. Set 25 years after the original film, Ghostface returns to Woodsboro and begins targeting a new group of teenagers who have a connection to the original characters. Tara Carpenter is the daughter of original killer Billy Loomis, while Vince Schneider is his accomplice Stu Macher’s nephew. Heavier on the meta than the scares, Scream proved there was still life yet in the series, with Neve Campbell delivering her best performance across the films. Where to watch: Scream (2022) is available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video Scream VI Release: 2023 The first Scream film without Campbell and the first to be set outside of Woodsboro, Ghostface instead takes his murderous ways to New York, continuing his focus on the Carpenter sisters. Hayden Panettiere also returns from Scream 4 as Kirby to help the Carpenters unravel the mystery. Not as well received as the previous film, Scream VI found some inspiration in switching its setting to New York and having a particularly gnarly finale, though the lack of presence from original cast members was felt, with only Courteney Cox having an extended cameo. Where to watch: Scream VI is streaming on Paramount+, which is also available on Amazon Prime Video Bonus: The Scream TV series More of a bonus watch, this. There was also a TV series of Scream that ran for three seasons between 2015 and 2019, and while it is not directly connected to any continuity that the movies gave us, the general feel remains the same – and it is interesting to see how they handle telling a tale over a longer period of time than the movies allowed. Watch movies in order The Conjuring and Annabelle movies in order Star Wars movie order X-Men movies in order DC movies in order Marvel movies in order Fast & Furious movies in order Terminator movies in order Pixar movies in order Batman movies in order Bond movies in order Muppet movies in order If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Is No Escape on Netflix based on a true story?
The 2015 film stars Owen Wilson and Lake Bell and has recently been making a splash on streaming.
No Escape is your standard high concept thriller focused on an American family trapped abroad in an unspecified Asian country in the middle of a revolution. Starring Owen Wilson in one of his rare dramatic roles, as well as Lake Bell and 007 himself Pierce Brosnan, No Escape is exactly what it says on the tin. But there's one interesting twist – it is kind of, but not really, based on a true story. Read on for everything you need to know. Is No Escape based on a true story? Strictly speaking, No Escape is an entirely fictional story and a thriller in the vein of Taken, but the events of the film can very loosely claim to be inspired by a true story. Written by brothers John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle, the duo were motivated by a 2006 trip to Thailand taken by John and their father shortly after the country had undergone a bloodless coup d'état that removed Thaksin Shinawatra from power following various corruption allegations. "Right before we got to Thailand, a coup overthrew the prime minister," said John. "There’d been no previous warning. There was a feeling of anxiety in the air. So I started thinking about that. If it went badly, what would I do?" The brothers also acknowledged that other revolutionary acts and terrorism incidents inspired the screenplay. "But all sorts of things happened after that," says John. "The Arab Spring, the attack on the Taj Mahal Hotel in India… So we studied all of those things to see what parts would make it into the script. "We have two little sisters who are very similar to the girls in the movie, and we’ve traveled with them extensively. A lot of our own family made it into the script." Though inspired by the experience in Thailand, the country in No Escape remains unnamed, likely for political reasons - as they actually did shoot the film in the Southeast Asian country. The 2006 coup in Thailand was also a great deal less violent than the one depicted in the film. In reality, the Thai military took control of the government while Shinawatra was out of the country and enacted martial law. In No Escape, the political upheaval is depicted as violent and revolutionary and led by rebels, with riots erupting in the streets and one particular instance of rebels executing Americans - none of which, of course, happened in real life. There is also a subplot in No Escape about western conglomerates looking to exploit the resources of poorer countries, which is not thought to be a factor in the real Thai coup. Nor was there an American family in Thailand at the time being pursued across the border by the military; the Dwyer family are entirely a creation of the Dowdle brothers. In short, the Dowdle siblings took a real-life event and used it as a very broad jumping off point for their thriller, and have never claimed it is based on true events beyond the inspiration of the Thai coup they almost experienced while on their holidays. View Green Video on the source website No Escape is now streaming on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Captive State ending explained: Do the resistance succeed?
The 2019 sci-fi film starring John Goodman is now streaming on Netflix.
Sci-fi, dystopias, John Goodman. Captive State had all the elements for a hit when it was released in 2019 but the movie Gods didn’t rule in its favour, with it coming and going from cinemas with little fanfare. Now, thanks to Netflix, the morally murky and very twisty thriller is getting a new lease of life. The setting is Chicago and the state is under martial law following an alien invasion in an alternate version of 2019. Many are trying to flee the city, including the Drummond family. After breaking through the city’s barriers, the family of four are confronted by the aliens who quickly kill the parents, orphaning Gabriel and Rafe Drummond. Fast forward nine years and the human race has capitulated to their alien invaders but a resistance group operates underground that is now headed by Rafe (Jonathan Majors). The alien-led dystopia tracks the movements of every human through implants, while criminals are sent to other planets and the aliens mine Earth for resources. Not all humans are anti-alien. Chicago police commander William Mulligan (Goodman), who was previously the Drummond brothers’ father’s partner is what you would term pro-alien. His mission is also to neutralise the resistance, which is called Phoenix. If you've seen the film and want some clarification about how that mission goes, read on to have the Captive State ending explained. Captive State ending explained: Do the resistance succeed? As the film goes on, Mulligan begins leaning on Gabriel regarding the resistance but refuses to give him any information. Not long after, the resistance launch a successful attack against the aliens but it only brings further oppression as specialist hunters are brought in to bring down its leadership. Rafe survives the assassinations after being shot and arrested by Mulligan before he can swallow his cyanide pill. Gabriel is also arrested by the authorities. Mulligan tortures Rafe and shows Gabriel, convincing him to contact the secret network the resistance operate within in an attempt to meet with their leader. Gabriel then meets a prostitute named Jane Doe (Vera Farmiga) who confusingly knows him by name. She is abruptly and shockingly killed during a police raid. In the aftermath of the raid, we learn that Jane bugged her own brothel to record important people in compromising positions, including current police commissioner Eugene Ivoe (Kevin Dunn). It is revealed that Ivoe divulged secrets about the alien operation which led to the resistance attack, with him subsequently removed from office and sent to another planet. Mulligan is promoted in his place. Gabriel is mourning the failed resistance attempt to overwhelm the aliens, with Rafe now also deported from the planet. He is then visited by Mulligan, who gives him a memory card. Later, watching the video contained on the card, Gabriel begins to piece together the various parts of the puzzle. The video is of his own baby shower and shows Mulligan enjoying beers with his parents as well as Jane Doe and other members of the resistance. The clip ends with Mulligan urging Gabriel to continue the efforts of the resistance. With his promotion, Mulligan is now able to meet with the aliens at their base, which is underneath Chicago. As he descends into their base, he ignites a suicide bomb, sacrificing himself to blow up the aliens, seemingly revealing himself as a deep cover agent all along who was loyal to the resistance. Over the end credits, text reveals that rebellions grew all over the planet and successfully repelled the alien occupation. Director Rupert Sanders clarified that Mulligan was in fact a resistance agent: “My co-writer Erica Beeney and I always had the intention of revealing Mulligan as the real Trojan horse. How we executed that in the final frames of the film was an open discussion. “Did we want to make it explicit, or just infer it? Should audiences leave wondering 'ok, he’s in the Closed Zone, what will happen next?' “But while making the film we decided that we needed to understand the full impact. With that came the shocking end moment, and that’s where the real power of the film lies.” View Green Video on the source website Captive State is now streaming on Netflix. If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide or visit our Film hub for all the latest news. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Mea Culpa ending explained: What happens to Mea and Zyair in wild Netflix movie?
Tyler Perry's latest film is quite the ride.
Tyler Perry, the prolific actor-writer-director-producer best known for the Madea franchise, is back with Mea Culpa, his overtly soap opera take on two throwback Hollywood staples – the legal thriller and erotic thriller. Starring Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland in her first leading role and Moonlight’s Trevante Rhodes, Rowland plays Mea – a high-powered defence attorney in Chicago who takes the case of Zyair (Rhodes), an artist accused of murdering his girlfriend and to whom all the evidence points. If you've seen the film and are wondering what on earth you've just watched, read on for a full recap and ending explainer for Mea Culpa. What in Mea Culpa on Netflix? We start with Mea’s unhappy home life where she suspects her husband, a drug addict who recently lost his job, of infidelity. Relations aren’t much better with her terminally ill mother-in-law who appears to resent her very existence. Mea’s brother-in-law, Ray, is also the district attorney. She then meets Zyair in her office where he is commanding and authoritative and set to stand trial for the murder of his girlfriend. Crucially, no body was ever found but brain fragments were in one of his paintings and her blood had soaked through into a below apartment. He appears to be the only possible killer and does not exactly carry himself like an innocent man but vehemently professes his innocence. Mea takes the case and quickly appears to be beguiled by the overtly sexual Zyair as her own marriage peters out. He tries to seduce her and she rebuffs him and they take it in turns to try and professionally separate before agreeing to continue with the case. Mea and Zyair finally have sex in a surreally elaborate sequence in his art studio in which they both become plastered in paint. The guilt of the adultery begins to grind down Mea and she leaves Zyair both as a client and a lover. Mea Culpa on Netflix ending explained Mea confesses to sleeping with Zyair to her husband in front of his entire family who, led by his crazy mother, banish her from their house. There’s then a sudden cut to Mea on holiday in the Dominican Republic as a news report broadcasts that Zyair has accepted a plea deal and the case won’t go to trial. Shortly afterwards and rather preposterously Mea sees a hotel maid who looks exactly like the woman Zyair supposedly killed, with the attorney now thinking her client turned lover was innocent after all. And it turns out to be the woman that was thought dead, leading Mea to smell a conspiracy. Mea returns to her husband’s home where she discovers one of Zyair’s paintings in a closet of his sister Charlise, meaning she also slept with the artist as he painted the women he had sex with. View oEmbed on the source website Things then begin to get really crazy as Mea gets boxed in by Ray and her mother-in-law as the atmosphere grows tense. Her husband’s mum then reveals that she had been faking her cancer the entire time and had never even been diagnosed and the whole plot was part of a conspiracy to help Ray win favour with the city to run for mayor, thinking winning a high profile case would make him popular with Chicagoans. It was his idea to fix Zyair for murder from the start so that he could simultaneously boost his profile and get revenge on his adulterous partner. It then kicks off in the kitchen as Ray tries to kill Mea, first by poisoning her with wine then guns get draw, kitchen knives are wielded and frying pans are thrown around. As Mea and Chalise try and escape from the house, Charlise gets stabbed while Mea makes it out to the car. Ray and his mother desperately try and stop her but she successfully runs away after crashing the car – appearing to kill her mother-in-law with the impact. Fleeing on foot, Mea’s husband Kal sees and picks her up and appears confused by what’s going on and calls the police. Only he doesn’t. He calls his brother instead, revealing his explicit participation in the complicated scheme. Fearing for her life again, Mea swerves the car into an oncoming lorry which kills Kal. A news report then reveals that Ray has been arrested and charged with a number of offences as the scheme has been brought to light. The final shots show the actually completely innocent Zyair being exonerated and he gives a brief press conference outside of court where he thanks Mea for her help. She is watching in the shadows when she receives a text from the artist asking to meet but instead she throws her phone in the bin, ready to go about her life anew. Mea Cupla is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Haunt ending explained: what happens to the masked killers?
The 2019 horror film has been causing a splash on Netflix.
Haunt may be finding its way into Netflix viewers’ hearts a little after spooky season has ended, but as far as we're concerned, there’s no bad time for a throwback slasher flick. Originally released in 2019 to little fanfare, Haunt is written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the duo behind A Quiet Place and the Adam Driver vs the dinosaurs movie, 65. Like their other work, Haunt has a simple high concept, following a group of young people on Halloween night as they become trapped in a haunted house that preys on their fears. Many, many murders follow as the gang become threatened by masked killers. If you want to know what happens at the end, read on to have the Haunt ending explained. Haunt ending explained: what happens to the masked killers? Before entering the haunted house attraction, the friends – Harper, Bailey, Nathan, Evan, Angela and Mallory – are forced to give up their phones and sign a liability waiver, which they do all too willingly. Not long after entering the house, the group is split up, with Bailey encountering eerie armholes. After putting her arm into one of the holes, she is promptly cut with a straight razor. Shortly after, with the group reunited, they witness the first death as Mallory is brutally impaled through the head by a person wearing a witch mask. Figuring out that the threats posed by the haunted house are very real, the rest of the group attempts to escape, with Evan finding another person seemingly trapped inside – though given he’s wearing a ghost mask, he should have been a little more weary when accepting him as a friend. Evan and the masked man actually make it outside before he kills Evan with a hammer and gruesomely rips his face off while Angela is also picked off inside. What is left of the group appears to turn the tide on the attackers after Harper kills two of them only to find out one of the masked killers was in fact Bailey, as she had earlier been kidnapped by the masked figures. Earlier, Nathan ended up in the haunted house’s operation room and managed to get word to Harper’s boyfriend that they were in danger. The boyfriend shows up, seemingly to save the day, only to get promptly murdered by the killer in the clown mask. Nathan and Harper work together to take out another of the killers before coming across a figure in a vampire mask. Vampire Mask unlocks the truth of the situation for the viewer – and Nathan and Harper – as he explains that the haunted house workers are all part of a cult that mutilates their own faces so they match their masks. We see that underneath the vampire mask there are no scars yet as he was new to the cult. After Vampire Mask is killed, Nathan and Harper fight their way out of the house, taking down more of the masked cultists. Though Nathan takes a bullet, they make it to a car and drive away. We’re then shown that not all of the cult killers were defeated and the one wearing the clown mask is still standing. He burns down the haunted house attraction as Harper and Nathan receive medical attention at a hospital. While recovering at the hospital, Harper is handed a release form eerily similar to the one the whole group were forced to sign at the beginning of the film and realises that any remaining members of the cult would know where she lives. At the very climax of the film, the clown-masked killer arrives at Harper’s home intending to finish her off but she has been expecting him. Harper created a trap of her own that immediately ensnares the killer. She then emerges to blow him away with a shotgun as the film ends. Haunt never offers any complex explanation for the haunted house killers beyond the suggestion they’re all part of some murderous cult – with the filmmakers keen to keep the antagonists' motivations a mystery as they celebrate the slasher genre in this throwback flick. View Green Video on the source website Haunt is now streaming on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Lodge ending explained: Were they in purgatory?
The chilling horror flick from 2019 has recently landed on Netflix.
This article contains discussion of subjects including bereavement and mental health issues that some may find upsetting. Though originally released in the pre-pandemic days of 2019, horror-thriller The Lodge has now come to Netflix and is already racking up a catalogue of fans as an alternative Christmas movie. Starring Riley Keough and Richard Armitage as a recently engaged couple as well as Clueless legend Alicia Silverstone and Knives Out’s Jaeden Martell, the film deals with creepy cults, strange families, and the Biblical. Directed by Austrian duo Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, The Lodge received positive reviews upon its premiere at Sundance Film Festival nearly five years ago, with Keough's performance earning particular praise. If you've watched the film and need a breakdown of its chilling ending, read on to have The Lodge ending explained, but be warned – there are spoilers ahead. The Lodge ending explained: Were they in purgatory? The film opens with the suicide of Laura Hall (Silverstone), who takes her own life after ex-husband Richard (Armitage) informs her he will be marrying Grace (Keough), a woman he met while researching cults who once was the sole survivor of a mass suicide. To recover from the ordeal, Richard, his two children with Laura, and Grace decide to spend Christmas in a remote cabin that comes with a very heavy dose of Catholic imagery – something that horror movie tropes dictate will not end well. Meanwhile, the children do not particularly warm to Grace and set about trying to find out more about their step mother. Mysterious things also start occurring not long after Richard has to depart the lodge for a work matter and more or less everything vanishes overnight. Clothing, food, the dog, Grace’s medication – all basic necessities gone. Grace’s first instinct is to believe the children were playing a cruel prank on her, but they insist otherwise and the three of them begin to believe something supernatural is occurring. Richard’s son Aiden also begins saying he thinks they are in the afterlife and reveals that he had a dream about the the three of them dying of carbon monoxide poisoning. Grace’s mental state soon begins to deteriorate, partly brought on by the conditions of the cabin and withdrawal from her medication, and she eventually begins having a nervous breakdown after being tortured by vivid dreams involving her mass-murdering father. View oEmbed on the source website After going for a walk, she returns to the cabin to find the children praying over a newspaper article saying the family died of carbon monoxide poisoning shortly before Christmas, with Aiden imploring that they are all in purgatory. To convince the other two, he hangs himself but appears to survive which prompts Grace to have a full breakdown, heading outside to the cold where it looks as if she might freeze to death. As the children finally begin to worry about her, they finally admit that Grace’s initial instinct was, in fact, correct and they were playing a terrible prank and had orchestrated everything, having drugged her and hidden all of their possessions. But Grace is too far gone from trauma to believe them and has become convinced they are actually in purgatory and says they need to work to get to heaven. To continue the twist ending, Grace begins self-flagellating and declaring they must sacrifice for God, with Richard soon returning to find his new wife holding his gun. Grace shoots and kills Richard and the children attempt to escape but are trapped by the terrible weather. She then marches them back in the house and they sit around the dining table (complete with Richard’s corpse) as Grace sings a hymn. After bounding and gagging the children, a gun rests on the dining table, their fate seemingly in Grace’s hands as the film cuts to black. What is the meaning of The Lodge? The Lodge mainly deals with the idea of trauma and how it can also be weaponised by those wishing to take advantage of somebody else, as Grace is particularly vulnerable to seemingly paranormal happenings and harsh Catholic iconography because of her cult upbringing. The children attempt to take a sort of revenge on Grace for the death of their mother with their twisted game, only to realise too late that they have done irrevocable damage to her. The ending of the film, with Grace committing murder and brutalising the children, also emphasises the cycle of abuse that often accompanies trauma. View Green Video on the source website The Lodge is now streaming on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
One Life director on "incredibly powerful" experience of filming in real locations
James Hawes spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com about shooting the emotional new film starring Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn.
One Life director James Hawes has opened up about the emotion of filming scenes where the events of the film took place. The period drama tells the true story of Nicholas Winton and how he helped rescue hundreds of Jewish children in Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War, and a lot of its filming actually took place in Prague - where many scenes are set. Hawes discussed the impact of filming in the city exclusively with RadioTimes.com, explaining: "It was incredibly powerful to be filming in Prague, and constantly have people coming up to us and talking about how their family was linked to it, how they either helped some of the children or the refugees, Jewish and otherwise, how their grandparents had sent them off on the train, because obviously, some of the children came back to Prague afterwards. "So you felt it coming through the stones, you felt a pride in the people of the city that we were telling this story, and it was partly their story." Hawes also explained how he first came across the story, which was immortalised through an episode of That’s Life! in 1988, which saw Winton reunited with many of the now-adult children he had saved from the Nazis. The director, who has previously helmed episodes of Slow Horses, Doctor Who and Black Mirror, said: "I heard of Nicholas Winton's story the way most people did, which is that clip on YouTube, guaranteed to make you cry any time of the day or night or week or year. "And I have a confession here, which is [that] my second ever job in the industry was [as] a trainee researcher on that show. Read more: Maestro true story: Leonard Bernstein's children on new film Bernstein's children on Bradley Cooper's "pleasing" Maestro changes "I'm not going to tell you [that] it might or might not have been quite close to the time that Nicholas Winton was on. "So I worked with Esther [Rantzen] and I had a particular interest in that show and its impact on the British public, frankly, and the BBC, because I think this is a piece of television history, as well as a piece of European history." One Life features both Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn as Winton, while Helena Bonham Carter portrays his mother, Babi, and the cast is rounded out by Jonathan Pryce, Romola Garai, Lena Olin and Samantha Spiro as Esther Rantzen. The film is based on the book If It’s Not Impossible…The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton, which was written by Barbara Winton, his daughter. One Life is released in UK cinemas on New Year's Day, while a digital exhibition curated in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, titled ONE LIFE: Sir Nicholas Winton and Portraits of Kindertransport Refugees, is available at npg.org.uk. If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide or visit our Film hub for all the latest news. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Helena Bonham Carter wishes her part in One Life was “bigger”
"It was such a great story and I wanted to be a part of it but it’s not a very big part and I wished it was bigger."
Helena Bonham Carter has said that she wishes her part in One Life was “bigger”. Bonham Carter plays Babi Winton in the true-life period drama about how her character’s son, Nicholas Winton, saved hundreds of Jewish children in Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s as the Second World War was about to break out. Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press, Bonham Carter detailed her path to the role, commenting: “I was approached about two years ago and I thought it was one of these sort of things that would never happen. Then [Anthony] Hopkins said he was going to be in it. Then Johnny [Flynn]. It just sort of coalesced.” The Harry Potter star also discussed how she wanted a bigger role in the film: “It was such a great story and I wanted to be a part of it but it’s not a very big part and I wished it was bigger.” Bonham Carter, who has Jewish heritage and has previously played a role in Holocaust education in the UK, also talked about how her own family’s history relates to the story. She said: “The other thing that has to be said is it's sort of in my DNA because I come from, not German, but Austrian Jewish heritage. And on top of that, on both sides, both my grandparents helped a lot of Jewish people get visas out of Nazi Europe. So it was in my DNA.” Read more: Maestro true story: Leonard Bernstein's children on new film Bernstein's children on Bradley Cooper's "pleasing" Maestro changes Meanwhile, Bonham Carter also reflected on filming One Life during the height of the Russia-Ukraine war: “When we filmed it, this time last year, it was in the middle of the Ukrainian crisis. So obviously, there were refugee children. That was incredibly relevant when we're forming and now it's smack in the middle of this horrendous situation.” As well as Bonham Carter, One Life – which is directed by James Hawes – stars Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn as Nicholas Winton with a supporting cast made up of Jonathan Pryce, Romola Garai and Lena Olin. One Life is released in UK cinemas on New Year's Day while a digital exhibition curated in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery titled ONE LIFE: Sir Nicholas Winton and Portraits of Kindertransport Refugees is available at npg.org.uk. If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide or visit our Film hub for all the latest news. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Disquiet ending explained: Does Sam escape the hospital?
Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars in the horror film that has recently arrived on Netflix.
Warning: Contains spoilers for Disquiet on Netflix. Starring the one-time Henry VIII, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Disquiet is the latest Netflix horror-thriller pushing audiences to the edge of their seat. Meyers portrays Sam, a flashy tech entrepreneur who is severely injured in a car accident after being hit by a drunk truck driver. In a move somewhat reminiscent of 28 Days Later, he wakes up in a virtually abandoned hospital, with the last thing he can remember being his wife saying she loves him. After waking, Sam is in the hospital next to a seemingly comatosed patient. Only, the patient is very much alive and kicking, and possesses a level of agility usually reserved for professional athletes. Sam is attacked and is forced to fight the man off with a scalpel when a mysterious nurse appears and sedates the patient before disappearing with him. There is plenty of other weirdness in the hospital. One woman named Monica is at the facility for breast enhancement, and as she is lying on the surgery table waiting for her anaesthetic, she realises that the doctors have no faces. She is actually not killed during the surgery, but after she wakes up, she is attacked by three very bloody women whose modesty is protected by bandaging. Sam hears her screams as she is attacked and comes to Monica’s help, and after assaulting one of the women, the two escape before running into a Black man named Carter who is in the hospital because he was shot by a racist police officer. In a bit of convoluted plot mechanics, the cop is also in the hospital, injured in the encounter that landed Carter in hospital. The gang of three look to escape the hospital and move towards a fire exit, but Sam notices that fire is slowly rising up the building from the route they were looking to flee down. Sam is then knocked out by an orderly who appeared to threaten harm but actually comes in peace, and mops up his wounds before he wakes. This is when another character – the wheelchair-bound Virgil – appears and suggests to Sam that they head to the roof as all lines of communication within the hospital have been severed. The doctor who earlier treated Sam’s wounds again reappears, and instead suggests the ground floor as the best route of escape from the horrors of the hospital. Both Virgil and the doctor seem to know an impossible amount about Sam’s life. What happens at the end of Disquiet? Sam looks outside and sees nothing but darkness, and speculates that the US has been hit by a terrorist attack - but the true force behind Disquiet is far more supernatural. Nothing is as it seems in the hospital, with it being revealed that Sam and the rest of the characters, apart from Virgil and the doctor, are all trapped in limbo, a world between life and death. Sam and the others were killed in the real world and have ended up in the hospital on their way to the afterlife, which explains their inability to escape the hospital in any way. People become stuck in the hospital when they either die there or choose to stay and become the vicious inhabitants that have been attacking the characters. Virgil and the doctor are acting as a sort of God and Satan, with Virgil attempting to take the souls to heaven while the doctor desires to drag them to hell. Sam and Monica continue their search for an exit and they enter the morgue where numerous bodies reanimate, and they realise that the zombies are in fact the people that led to all of the characters ending up in hospital. Everyone but Sam is taken by an invisible force, with the doctor seemingly behind everything, when Virgil rescues him. The two head to the maternity ward where Sam is visited by an apparition of his wife, who tells him to return to his family. It’s during the conversation with his beloved wife where Sam learns that he is in limbo, and that his earlier encounters with the old man were in fact elder, more deranged versions of himself. Sam realises that the only route out of the hospital is through the roof, and he resists temptation to go through the basement - and after he makes it to the roof, he wakes up in the real world to tell his wife he loves her. View Green Video on the source website Disquiet is now streaming on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Is Pain Hustlers on Netflix based on a true story?
Netflix’s new Emily Blunt and Chris Evans film is the latest to tackle America’s opioid crisis.
Pain Hustlers is the latest Netflix project to explore the opioid crisis, following in the footsteps of Painkiller and The Fall of the House of Usher, which landed on the streamer earlier this year. Although the new film has a slightly different tone to its predecessors, it tells a similarly harrowing tale, revolving around a pharmaceutical company that sells a new opioid called Lonafen. The new dark comedy boasts a star-studded cast including Emily Blunt and Chris Evans and naturally, fans have been left wanting to know about the true story that inspired it. So, is Pain Hustlers based on a true story, is Lonafen a real drug and is Blunt's character Liza Drake a real person? Read on for everything you need to know. Pain Hustlers true story: Is Lonafen based on a real drug? The genesis for Pain Hustlers is a New York Times article of the same name from journalist Evan Hughes which featured his reporting into a pharmaceutical company that was convincing doctors to prescribe their new drug – a liquid fentanyl-based painkiller called Subsys – as a form of treatment for cancer patients. While Lonafen is a fictional drug, it is based on the actual drug Subsys. Upon reading the story, screenwriter Wells Tower recalls: "I was just astounded by this incredible story. I found it mind-blowing that these people, who for the most part have no medical training, have so much influence over the medications we’re prescribed. "And they have this influence because they’re bribing doctors to prescribe medications, in this case fentanyl, even to patients who don’t need it. I knew we had a story on our hands that could offer some really shocking insights into how American medicine works." Insys Therapeutic filed for bankruptcy in 2019 with a number of top executives found guilty of racketeering with founder Kapoor sentenced to five years in prison. Is Liza Drake a real person in Pain Hustlers? While much of the story is loosely grounded in the real-life rise and fall of the company Insys Therapeutic and its founder John Kapoor, the company at the heart of the story – Zanna – is fictionalised and headed up by a figure named Jack Neel (Andy Garcia), while the lead character of Liza (Emily Blunt) is an entirely original creation. Director Yates said about adapting the story for the film: "With the exception of Liza, they're all kind of loosely based on existing characters from that pharma world. But we gave Wells licence to create his own unique version of people. "They're inspired by, I would suggest, rather than biographical per se. And Liza was our invention, a single mum with a daughter struggling with health issues, a dreamer, undervalued but incredibly capable." View oEmbed on the source website Pain Hustlers is available to watch now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Film and Drama coverage, or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now and celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who with a special issue of Radio Times. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Hereditary ending explained: What happens to Annie?
What really happened at the end of Ari Aster's acclaimed debut horror?
One of the most talked about horror films of the last decade, Ari Aster’s Hereditary set the template for what some call “elevated horror”, in the sense that the film is slow, atmospheric and more interested in the metaphysical than slasher kills. A surprise success when it was released in 2017, Hereditary (which was conceived as a family drama) follows a grieving family who start to become tormented by a demon in the aftermath of the death of their mysterious grandmother. Toni Collette stars as Annie, who, at the beginning of the film, attends her mother’s funeral and is surprised by the amount of people there to pay their respects. Afterwards, she goes to brief counselling in which she reminisces about their fraught relationship that only began to heal after the birth of Annie’s daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro), who is the only one really upset by the death. Charlie is a horror movie child in the sense that she makes creepy dolls and does weird things with animals – particularly one thing with a pigeon that is deeply disturbing. She later accompanies her brother Peter (Alex Wolff) to a party, where her severe nut allergy is triggered after eating a piece of cake. Peter then races Charlie to the hospital in his car, and she sticks her head out of the window for air. Charlie is then decapitated by a wooden post with an occult symbol carved into it. Suffering from shock, Peter leaves Charlie’s headless body in the back of the car where it is found by their mother the next morning. Once again struck by grief, Annie makes friends with a woman named Joan (Ann Dowd), who conducts a seance for the two of them in which she appears to contact her deceased grandson. Awed by the seance, Annie insists her family attend one of their own to contact Charlie. Things, of course, take a very spooky turn as objects begin to move by themselves and Annie seemingly becomes possessed by the spirit of Charlie. Annie then sees images in Charlie’s sketchbook that depict Peter’s eyes scratched out and, when attempting to burn the book in the fireplace, her clothes go up in flames instead. Annie slowly begins to discover her mother’s relationship to the occult, finding books that contain references to demons before eventually realising that her mother (Kathleen Chalfant) was Queen Leigh, the leader of a coven. Hereditary ending: What happens to Annie and her family? Peter is confronted outside of his school by Joan and she attempts to expel his spirit from his body for the demon king, and it becomes clear soon after that he has become possessed. Meanwhile, Annie once again wants to burn Charlie’s sketchbook but cannot bring herself to do it. She attempts to convince her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) to throw the book into the fireplace but he refuses and she slings it in anyway but Steve immediately bursts into flames and dies. Peter later discovers his father’s corpse and the family home has become overtaken by naked coven members and a possessed Annie starts chasing him. Once in the attic, he watches as his mother beheads herself before he jumps out of the window. Waking up, he heads to Charlie’s treehouse where the naked coven members dance around along with the headless corpses of his mother and grandmother. Peter is then crowned and addressed as King, with him being the male body the demon was always after. The coven hail him as their ruler, just for being a man. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now and celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who with a special issue of Radio Times. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Inception ending explained: Is it a dream?
Does Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi heist thriller Inception have the most talked about ending of the 21st century? Never has a spinning top been analysed in more detail, as fans and critics alike debate how 'real' Inception’s final scenes are. Inception, the first film Nolan made after the career-altering success of The Dark Knight, sees Leonardo DiCaprio portray Cobb, a professional thief whose speciality happens to be entering people’s dreams and stealing thoughts from their subconsciousness. Because of reasons explained much later in the film, Cobb is a fugitive from America and wants to go back home to his family, so accepts a job from businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe) that he thinks is near-impossible. His mission is to plant an idea inside the head of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the son of a corporate rival who is imminently set to inherit his father’s business upon his passing. Saito wants Cobb to plant the idea to break up Fisher’s father’s conglomerate of companies. The job requires Cobb to create several dream worlds to plant the idea deep enough within Fischer’s subconsciousness. Because of dreams appearing to be as realistic as the real world, Cobb carries with him a small spinning top that tells him if he’s dreaming or not – if it falls, he’s in the real world. Due to the deepness of the dreams, Cobb and his team are also at risk of never returning to the real world, as dying in a dream would usually wake the sleeping person - but in this instance, they would be trapped in limbo. This is particularly important given Fischer’s subconsciousness has been trained to defend itself in the form of a private army. Cobb also reveals that he has been to limbo after experimenting with dreams with his deceased wife Mal, where they experienced 50 years in one night and began to lose their grasp on reality. DiCaprio's character reveals that Mal did not want to return to reality and their children, and that he performed inception on her to try and convince her to come home - but it didn’t work and she still believed she was dreaming. Mal then killed herself and framed Cobb as her murderer in an attempt to get him to do the same, but he refuses and flees America. After a series of wildly inventive action set-pieces across three different dream levels and warding off a murderous projection of his dead wife, Cobb succeeds in planting the idea within Fischer’s subconsciousness - but he and Saito are lost to limbo. What happens at the end of Inception? View oEmbed on the source website Cobb searches across decades for Saito in limbo, eventually finding a much older man who he reminds of their deal. Saito remains good to his word and Cobb passes freely through US customs and returns home to his children. When arriving home, Cobb places the spinning top on a table and the camera watches as it spins and spins before cutting to black, with Cobb not waiting to see if it falls or not. Since the film’s release, the final scenes of Inception have been analysed like the Zapruder film, with some fans thinking it’s a dream sequence and others convinced Cobb has returned to the real world. But Michael Caine – who appears in the final sequence – puts it simply: "When I got the script of Inception, I was a bit puzzled by it, and I said to [Nolan], 'I don't understand where the dream is.' "I said, 'When is it the dream and when is it reality?' He said, 'Well, when you're in the scene, it's reality.' So, get that – if I'm in it, it's reality. If I'm not in it, it's a dream." Nolan himself has deliberately been vague despite being asked about the scene in virtually every interview he has done since, but it is most likely as simple as Cobb performed his job and Saito gave him what he promised. View Green Video on the source website Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now and celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who with a special issue of Radio Times. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Cat Person director explains why she cast Succession's Nicholas Braun
The Cousin Greg star has a very different role in the new thriller.
Cat Person is a very 2023 film. The darkly comedic thriller explores the perils of 21st century dating as it follows college student Margot after she goes on a date with Robert after meeting online. Based off a New Yorker short story of the same name, Margot soon realises that Robert is not exactly who he said he was – specifically his two cats don't appear to actually exist. The film stars BAFTA nominee Emily Jones from CODA and Succession's Nicholas Braun – aka Cousin Greg – as Robert, with an impressive supporting cast that includes Isabella Rossellini, Geraldine Viswanathan, Hope Davis and Michael Gandolfini. Cat Person is also directed by Susanna Fogel, who previously helmed action-comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me and co-wrote breakout hit Booksmart. Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Fogel explained the casting of Braun, which is his first post-Succession role. View oEmbed on the source website "So I wanted an actor who men like, and Nick is kind of a cult favourite from Succession," she said. "He's not a man who's polarising to men, per se, he's a man that they're like, 'Oh, I like that guy, it's Cousin Greg. Cool!' "I wanted that bias to be positive for him so that he could be pushed to some pretty extreme places, and you're still kind of aligned with him more than you otherwise would be. "And so you empathise with her being aligned with him and her wanting to root for him, because you're kind of rooting for him. Her talking herself into forgiving him for things and you are too, and I wanted your experience to parallel Margot's basically." Read more: The Killer cinematographer says film should be seen in cinema Five Nights at Freddy's director reveals how game creator influenced film Fogel also discussed expanding Robert so male viewers could resonate with him: "It was important to figure out a way for men to... I didn't want to make a movie for an echo chamber of women who already identify with Margot and understand what's wrong with Robert. I wanted men to also see it and relate to him or her or both. "So I needed to create a character that would bring men into the conversation too – because they may have been forced in the conversation against their will when the story was in The New Yorker, but that doesn't mean they're going to see a movie about a woman if they don't feel like it's about them or applies to them, or is piquing their interest." Cat Person is out now in cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now and celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who with a special issue of Radio Times. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Pain Hustlers cast: Meet the stars of Netflix pharma drama
Emily Blunt and Chris Evans lead the all-star line-up of acting talent.
Directed by Harry Potter supremo David Yates, Pain Hustlers is a timely story about America’s opioid crisis that stars Emily Blunt, Chris Evans and Andy Garcia. Blunt plays a recently unemployed single mother who begins work for a pharmaceutical company that is engaging in illegal business practices such as bribing doctors to prescribe their highly addictive drugs, with Garcia as the boss of the business. The thriller – inspired by a true story - is out now on Netflix, so let’s take a look at its all-star cast and where you may have seen some of them before. Pain Hustlers cast: Meet the stars of Netflix film Emily Blunt is Liza Drake Who is Liza Drake? Drake is the heart of Pain Hustlers as a single mother in need of a job and money to pay for her daughter’s medical care. After taking a job at a pharmaceutical company, she becomes involved in the firm’s illegal schemes and sees her morality tested as huge sums begin rolling in when America becomes gripped by an opioid epidemic. What else has Emily Blunt been in? Possibly the best working leading lady to have not received an Oscar nomination, Blunt’s long career has seen her gain acclaim for her performances in the likes of The Devil Wears Prada, Sicario and most recently Oppenheimer. She has also starred in a number of blockbusters such as Edge of Tomorrow, Mary Poppins Returns and Looper. Chris Evans is Pete Brenner Who is Pete Brenner? Pete is a sales rep for a Florida-based pharmaceutical company who is incredibly brash and only cares about the bottom line – the archetypal sleazebag salesman. What else has Chris Evans been in? The world best knows Chris Evans for his portrayal of Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since hanging up his shield, he has appeared in Knives Out, The Gray Man, Ghosted and voiced Buzz Lightyear. Andy Garcia is Jack Neel Who is Jack Neel? Jack Neel is the founder of a pharmaceutical firm that purports to have made a miracle pain killer called Lonafen inspired by the death of his wife from cancer. Neel’s aim to make the world a better place is increasingly overtaken by his greed. What else has Andy Garcia been in? Oscar-nominated for his role in The Untouchables, Andy Garcia has been a cinema stalwart for 40 years, also appearing in The Godfather Part III, Infernal Affairs and the Ocean’s trilogy. In more recent years, he has starred in The Mule, Wrath of Man and The Expendables 4. Catherine O’Hara is Jackie Drake Who is Jackie Drake? The mother of Liza, she is just as greedy as the rest of the players and causes a lot of problems for her daughter as well a taking a liking to Jack. What else has Catherine O’Hara been in? She was the mum in Home Alone and worked with Martin Scorsese on After Hours and is much loved for her work in Beetlejuice, but in recent years she is best known for TV show Schitt’s Creek, for which she won an Emmy and Golden Globe. Brian d’Arcy James is Dr Nathan Lydell Who is Dr Nathan Lydell? Dr Lydell is the first doctor that Liza convinces to start prescribing their opioid-based drug and makes a fortune through their amoral business partnership. What else has Brian d’Arcy James been in? A known Broadway star, d’Arcy James has appeared on screen more often in recent years with roles in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, the Oscar-winning Spotlight and Damien Chazelle’s First Man. Chloe Coleman is Phoebe Drake Who is Phoebe Drake? Phoebe is Liza’s daughter with a serious (and costly to treat) brain condition that induces seizures. Her illness serves as Liza’s inspiration to become involved in the racketeering. What else has Chloe Coleman been in? Despite only being 14, Coleman has appeared in a number of big Hollywood blockbusters such as 65, My Spy and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Jay Duplass is Brent Larkin Who is Brent Larkin? Larkin is an executive at Zenna – the pharmaceutical company at the centre of Pain Hustlers’ story. He serves as a rival to Pete and looks after the company’s marketing. What else has Jay Duplass been in? Duplass has made a number of films alongside his brother Mark such as Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives at Home, and also starred in the hit TV show Transparent. Pain Hustlers is available to watch now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Film and Drama coverage, or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10 – subscribe now and celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who with a special issue of Radio Times. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Nowhere ending explained: Do Mia and her baby survive?
The Spanish-language thriller has been a surprise hit on Netflix.
Netflix has its issues – and its critics – but over the years it has been an excellent platform for non-English language films and TV shows that would otherwise have received only a minor release or, perhaps, no release at all. The latest unexpected hit to arrive on the streaming service has been the Spanish-language thriller Nowhere, which has been viewed almost 30 million times in the last two weeks. Nowhere takes place largely in one location – a container that has been bumped into the sea by a hellacious storm. Inside the container is a heavily pregnant woman named Mia (Anna Castillo), a refugee from a near-future dystopian Spain that has returned to a dictatorship following an economic crisis. Mia and her husband Nico decide to flee for Ireland after losing their first child who was taken away from the military and secure passage on a cargo ship, but the couple get quickly separated and put in different containers. Mia’s container is washed off the boat by the storm and soon after she has to give birth underwater, eat anything she can get her hands on including raw fish, and survive rising water levels with a newborn baby she names Noa. She is determined to survive for her daughter and manages to force a hole in the roof of the container, allowing her to send off SOS messages while floating in the middle of nowhere without any idea if help will arrive. After nearly three weeks out at sea, she receives a phone call from Nico, who tells Mia he has been shot by the army and is going to die soon. Mia tells him of his daughter and he tells her to continue fighting and that he will always be with them in spirit. Then the container starts to sink… Nowhere ending explained: Do Mia and her baby survive? Faced with certain death if she stays on the container, Mia constructs a small makeshift raft in the hopes of floating to a safe land for baby Noa. As Noa floats away, Mia appears to come to terms with her situation, accepting her almost certain death by drowning after weeks at sea. As death for mother and daughter looks certain and with seagulls circling overhead, we cut to a small fishing vessel called Mickey and hear very distinctive Irish accents that belong to a father and daughter. It’s revealed that Mia had managed to float all the way to near the coast of Ireland. The father and daughter notice the raft holding baby Noa and reel it in to discover the infant still alive and relatively well given the circumstances. They then discover a thin line attached to the raft that is submerged below the water and are eventually able to pull Mia’s unconscious body from the sea. Mia looks dead. She is not breathing, but the young Irish woman gives her particularly emphatic CPR on the deck of the small fishing vessel. Mia’s chest is pounded on until she eventually stirs and coughs water out of her lungs. Nowhere then concludes with Mia and Noa reunited and brought safely to the shores of Ireland, just as originally intended. View Green Video on the source website Nowhere is now streaming on Netflix. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10, PLUS a £10 John Lewis and Partners voucher delivered to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Mission: Impossible has an Ilsa Faust problem
Was Rebecca Ferguson's character treated poorly in Dead Reckoning - Part 1? What do you reckon?
**WARNING: This article includes major spoilers for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1** Mission: Impossible has an Ilsa Faust problem. The MI6 agent turned Ethan Hunt love interest turned kind of not dies seemingly twice in the latest instalment, Dead Reckoning – Part 1. The awe-inspiring blockbuster that features everything from Tom Cruise riding a bike off a cliff to Tom Cruise dangling from a train edging into the abyss to Tom Cruise waving away the attention of four of the most beautiful women on the planet opens with Faust seemingly dead in the Arabian desert. She’s been tracked down by bounty hunters and appears to fail at holding them off, with Ethan turning up too late to save her. We’re shown Faust lying face down in the sand and Hunt looking forlorn. But it’s a fakeout. Not a very good one, given Rebecca Ferguson featured prominently in the trailers in locations that are very much not sand dunes, and the reveal isn’t uncovered until a fair bit later in the film. But it may have been a deliberate move given the third act twist. Mission: Impossible – like virtually all action franchises – doesn’t really dabble with killing off protagonists. It’s a series that stands on the shoulders of technical mastery, ingenious set-pieces and, well, Tom Cruise, rather than any kind of emotional heft. Which makes the storytelling in the final third even more baffling. To cut to the chase: Faust is killed off after a fight on a Venetian bridge with Dead Reckoning’s AI-loving villain Gabriel, played with debonair charm by Esai Morales. He had earlier propositioned Vanessa Kirby’s Alanna to kill either Faust or latest M: I addition Grace – a thief played by Hayley Atwell who is in possession of the film’s MacGuffin – with Hunt indelibly tasked with saving one at the expense of the other. This is usually the bit where the hero miraculously saves both women, but while he keeps Grace from harm, Ilsa – the best addition the series has had – gets stabbed in the heart, echoing flashbacks that recur throughout the film of Gabriel killing a woman from Hunt’s pre-IMF past. It’s a moment that is supposed to hit hard, especially given a running theme throughout the movie that people close to Hunt are going to get hurt - but it’s the moves that follow that prevent the plot point from working properly. The ethereal Ferguson is irreplaceable, but the script promptly replaces her Ilsa Faust with Atwell’s Grace - because heaven forbid there be two women on an IMF team. Grace literally gets anointed as Hunt’s new female sidekick within minutes of Ilsa’s death, and the moment feels somewhat ghastly given Faust is a badass femme fatale superspy while Grace is closer to the damsel in distress archetype. Read more: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 review | The epitome of popcorn cinema Mission: Impossible's Simon Pegg would "love" a Benji and Ilsa spin-off The Mission: Impossible series has had something of a difficult relationship with women. While the IMF team has largely stuck to the same members (Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner), the women of the films have not been treated to the same longevity, with Ferguson the first female star to appear in more than one instalment. The move to kill off Faust and have her replaced by another brunette seemed to embody the legitimate criticism that can be levelled at the series over its dispensable attitude towards female characters. It was a move that feels doubly dubious because of the audience's connection to the character, as Ferguson quickly became a fan favourite thanks to her charisma, rapport with Cruise and ability to snap an anonymous henchman in half with her thighs. The decision, likely to generate jeopardy for the viewer and create a sense that no character is safe, instead makes Faust seem expendable as the team swiftly depart for their mission. Of course, the reaction to her death by her so-called friends was so subdued in the film that fans are speculating that it is another fakeout - and that she’s not dead at all. Even though director Christopher McQuarrie appeared to put a definitive stamp on Faust’s death in a recent interview, some are still hopeful that it is a long play to outwit Gabriel and his sentient AI. It wouldn’t be the first time the series has offed a character before staging a miraculous resurrection. The opening of the very first Mission: Impossible saw Hunt’s entire IMF team massacred in a job gone wrong, only for double-crossing husband and wife team Jim and Claire Phelps (Jon Voight and Emmanuelle Beart) to return later. The audience spends the majority of Ghost Protocol believing Hunt’s wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) is dead, only for her to turn up very alive at the end. And even Hunt himself appeared to get a bullet in the head in the second film, but it turned out to be a bad guy in one of the series’s trademark masks. The point is, the old bait and switch is part of Mission: Impossible lore, which is what is giving fans hope that Ilsa Faust will live to kill another day. But for now, she looks very dead, a move McQuarrie and co are going to come to regret. They’re going to find out you can’t just replace a Rebecca Ferguson. View Green Video on the source website Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 is now available to own and rent on various digital platforms, including Amazon. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10, PLUS a £10 John Lewis and Partners voucher delivered to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Nun II ending explained: Is Maurice saved from Valak?
The latest entry in the Conjuring franchise is currently showing in UK cinemas.
The Conjuring Universe has become something like the horror equivalent of the MCU, grossing billions of dollars, spawning spin-offs upon spin-offs and achieving a level of previously unprecedented enduring success for a series within the genre. The latest instalment – The Nun II – continues the story from the first film about a possessed nun in 1950s Romania. Starring Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet and Bonnie Aarons from the previous movie, plus the addition of Storm Reid, The Nun II once again follows Sister Irene (Farmiga) as she seeks to prevent the demon Valak from obtaining a relic that could give the evil entity superpowers. The relic Valak seeks is the eyes of St Lucy, the patron saint of the blind, as it would restore the power that was taken away from him by God - and in the pursuit of the artefact, the demon has been on a killing spree all across Europe. As a result of her experience with Valak from the first film, Sister Irene is sent by the cardinal to investigate the murders and the demon. Concurrently, The Nun II finds Maurice from the first film in France, working at a boarding school which just so happens to be where the eyes of St Lucy are buried. Maurice was previously revealed to have been possessed by Valak and to be the man who was being exorcised in The Conjuring. His storyline follows a similar path to that of the first film, with him falling under the control of Valak - eventually consumed by him entirely. Along the way, Irene learns the story of St Lucy; how she was a martyr who was set on fire but did not burn, though she had her eyes gouged out and later recovered. Investigating the boarding school, Irene finds that Maurice has been completely possessed by Valak and the demon takes control of the relic. The Nun II ending explained: Is Maurice saved from Valak? Once Valak takes possession of St Lucy’s eyes, he appears to become all-powerful and raises Irene into the air like he had done with previous victims. Irene is set on fire by Valak, but like St Lucy, she does not burn - and it’s revealed that the nun is actually a descendant of the martyred saint (as is Lorraine from The Conjuring). Along with fellow nun Debra (Reid), Irene prays using the words of intuition (Jesus’s words at The Last Supper) and their father turns the wine in the room into the blood of Jesus, which then washes over Valak, who is sent in flames back to Hell. It appears the demon is finally dead, but those who have seen other instalments in the series already know Valak is back haunting the living by the 1970s, when The Conjuring takes place. The nuns also appear to save Maurice from Valak again, and it seems he gets to live happily ever after - but again, we already know that is not the case. We are aware from The Conjuring that Maurice gets exorcised by the Warrens and tries to kill his wife before killing himself. This suggests that, once possessed, a person can never be truly rid of Valak - instead, the demon just stays dormant for a while. Is there a post-credits scene in The Nun II? There isn’t – but there is an important mid-credits scene featuring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as Lorraine and Ed Warren. Simply put, the two are shown receiving a phone call from a priest eager to send them on their next mission in what acts as a tease for the next instalment in the franchise. Jumping forward in the timeline to the 1980s, where The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is set, the scene suggests that they are setting up another Conjuring movie rather than a Nun sequel. Already announced, The Conjuring: Last Rites is expected to be the next film in the series, and will also serve as the conclusion of the Warrens' story. View Green Video on the source website The Nun 2 is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on tonight. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10, PLUS a £10 John Lewis and Partners voucher delivered to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast
The Little Things ending explained: Who is the killer?
The Denzel Washington, Rami Malek and Jared Leto serial killer mystery leaves viewers with some big questions.
The Denzel Washington-led thriller The Little Things has landed on Netflix two years after its official release, introducing a brand new audience to the film’s controversial ending. The movie, which also stars Rami Malek, follows Los Angeles police detectives Joe ‘Deke’ Deacon (Washington) and Jimmy Baxter (Malek) as they attempt to hunt down a serial killer whose MO is similar to that of an unsolved case from Deke's past, which still haunts the detective. Their investigation for the most recent murder leads the pair to the incredibly creepy Albert Sparma (Jared Leto), who likes to taunt the detectives about their failure to solve the case, and who even admitted to a killing he couldn't have possibly committed. So we're led to believe, anyway. Eventually, when cornered by Baxter, Sparma says he will take the detective to the body of one of the dead women, which Baxter of course accepts, with Deke following behind in his car – leading to the surprising climax. So, what does the ending of The Little Things mean and who was the real killer? Read on for everything you need to know. The Little Things ending explained: Who was the real killer? Sparma takes Baxter to what he says is the burial place of one of his victims but though the cop digs and digs and digs some more for a body, nothing is found. All the while, Sparma taunts the detective and even mocks his ability to protect his daughters, causing Baxter to lose it and beat Sparma to death with a shovel. Deke arrives with the intent to cover up Sparma’s murder, with the film suddenly flashing back to five years previously to show the senior cop accidentally shooting a missing girl and the incident being hushed up by the coroner. Deke tells Baxter to forget about Sparma or else it will consume all of him, even as the younger cop continues to search for a body in the desert but none can be found. Moving to the very final sequence of the film, Baxter is at home when he receives a package in the mail featuring a red hair clip identical to the one worn by one of the murder victims. The film then cuts to Deke burning all of Sparma’s things as well as a brand new box of hair clips with the red one missing. Deke bought the hair clip and sent it to Baxter to try and make him think that he did the right thing and could now reach closure. What does the ending mean in The Little Things? By the time the credits roll, we don’t find out who killed the women. We don’t know if it was Sparma or not. All we know is that Deke now wants Baxter to believe Sparma was the killer so that he didn’t suffer from the same torment he did. Hancock was also ambiguous about the ending when asked about it by Entertainment Weekly: "I can make an argument either way. I mean, he does say, 'I've got to work tomorrow, come on let's go,' which is a hint that nothing's going to happen out there." He continued: "If he was taking him out there to go and find a body, then he certainly wouldn't be going to work the next day. Or is he lying?" Hancock revealed that Leto came to his own conclusion, but never shared his decision as he continued: “He asked me, ‘What do you think?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know.’ I said, ‘I don’t know and that’s not what the movie’s about’.” “Either he was guilty and the crimes are going to stop or he’s not and the crimes might keep going on. So, it’s an ugly ending any way you look at it, it’s all about the grey.” He continued: “He said, ‘I think I have to come to a decision about this.’ I said, ‘I understand that completely, just don’t tell me.’ So he made a decision for himself and we were there to capture it.” Read more: Gone Girl ending explained: Why does Amy [SPOILER] Nick? American Psycho ending explained: Was it all in Patrick Bateman's head? No Country for Old Men ending explained: What does it mean? Heart of Stone ending explained: What happened to Rachel? View Green Video on the source website The Little Things is available to watch now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10, PLUS a £10 John Lewis and Partners voucher delivered to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
"Proof that movie stars never die" – In defence of the Expendables films
The fourth entry in the starry action series is about to arrive in UK cinemas.
Rewinding back to the halcyon days of 2010, action cinema was not in the healthy place it is now. Tony Scott was about to release his final film before his death, Michael Bay had become a full-time Transformer and John Wick was still four long years away. Tom Cruise wasn’t yet quite the all-conquering stunt supremo he would soon become and Arnold Schwarzenegger was busy being the Governator rather than the Terminator. Then The Expendables were born. Sylvester Stallone was enjoying something of a career renaissance after the best part of a decade spent in the commercial wilderness following a number of flops such as D-Tox and Driven. But after revisiting his iconic characters Rocky and Rambo, Sly was experiencing a late noughties revival. Enough time had also passed since the '80s and early '90s glory days that maybe the world was ready for unapologetic machismo, baby-oiled biceps and mugging one-liners. For the first film, Stallone lined up a team of A-listers, D-listers, professional wrestlers and Hollywood leftovers with himself leading the ensemble. He was joined by two bonafide stars in Jason Statham (as a character called Lee Christmas) and Jet Li, one-time star Dolph Lundgren, UFC legend Randy Couture, former wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin, comic actor and physical behemoth Terry Crews and Hollywood outcasts Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts. It wasn’t exactly a who’s who of action legends, but it was enough. Upon release, The Expendables received largely negative reviews from the critics - but for action fans who wanted an overdose of men on a mission taking names and severing limbs, it was basically the ABBA Gold of action movies. All of the stars get to deal out their greatest hits – Statham and Jet Li exhibit their martial arts brilliance, Crews mans the biggest and loudest gun you have seen and heard in your life and Stallone (painted-on moustache and all) gets to reembody that bruising killer trope he plays as well as anyone. While the first film was a touch light on on-screen A-listers, the behind-the-camera team was basically an Avengers of action talent. The stunts were handled by John Wick director Chad Stahelski with Hong Kong legend Corey Yuen choreographing all of Jet Li’s work and the storied Spiro Razatos on second unit duties. Despite some choppy editing – most infamously during the Jet Li-Dolph Lundgren fight – The Expendables succeeded in achieving its aims of being a throwback '80s actioner as gleefully large as Sly’s neck muscles. Read more: A Haunting in Venice location guide: Where was the latest Poirot film shot? The new era of James Bond? Who Christopher Nolan could cast as 007 Then The Expendables 2 made the first film look like a My Little Pony commercial in comparison. While Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis popped up for a cameo in the original, they’re both fully-fleshed members of the ensemble now, completing the '80s holy trinity of Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Willis – a fanboy moment for any self-respecting action fan. Adding in a deliciously evil Jean-Claude Van Damme as the lead villain with straight-to-DVD legend Scott Adkins as his main henchman and it could not go wrong. Everybody’s signature moves are wheeled out like a photo album at a family gathering. There are 'yippee-ki-yays' and 'I’ll be backs' and spinning heel kicks just like you remember. It’s low-hanging fruit, but it’s damn good fruit. View oEmbed on the source website There is a surreal quantity to the films. Watching them is akin to playing with action figures, especially by the time of the not-as-good third one that adds Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Wesley Snipes and actual Frasier Crane to the cast. The movies are also proof that movie stars never die. All of the men (and it is a bigger sausage fest than a Richmond factory) perform their schtick as if they’re still Mick and Keith on the road, never missing a beat, and there is a childish giddiness to watching larger-than-life icons blow hordes of anonymous henchmen to smithereens. With the fourth movie arriving this week after a decade-long gap since the third, mainstream Hollywood action cinema has moved on by lightyears. This is something the series perhaps even recognises itself – with Stallone sidelining himself and allowing Statham to lead the cast. Of the old school, only Lundgren and Couture return, with a lengthy international cast of martial arts gods and young bucks joining the ensemble. There’s The Raid’s Iko Uwais, Ong-Bak’s Tony Jaa, rap legend 50 Cent, Megan Fox, Levy Tran and Jacob Scipio filling in for the likes of Schwarzenegger and Li. Let’s hope they can prove The Expendables aren’t expendable. View Green Video on the source website Expend4bles is showing in UK cinemas from Friday 22nd September. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on tonight. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10, PLUS a £10 John Lewis and Partners voucher delivered to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The new era of James Bond? Who Christopher Nolan could cast as 007
In a world where Nolan directs Bond, what does the new 007 look like?
Christopher Nolan has long been the James Bond series’ unicorn. For many fans, it is the dream combination of material and director, with Nolan himself going on record to highlight the influence of 007 on his career. Now, a new report has surfaced from World of Reel, claiming that Bond producers are “zeroing in” on hiring Nolan to write and direct the next two 007 films, which would be the first without Daniel Craig in the lead role in more than 20 years. In the past, Nolan has been vocal in his concerns about how much creative control he would have over a Bond film given the tight grip Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson maintain over the franchise, and the director would almost certainly want the final decision over whoever was next going to be ordering a martini (shaken, not stirred). With the Bond series currently in flux due to the departure of Craig and the ongoing actors and writers strikes, the timing may be right for Nolan to be able to put his own stamp on the series, so below we've highlighted four stars who could be the Oppenheimer director’s 007 and what those potential movies may look like. Robert Pattinson After starring in Nolan’s sci-fi take on the spy thriller, Tenet, the former Twilight star is an obvious candidate to front his Bond film. In many ways, his role in Tenet served as an audition to play Bond and his performance as Batman is evidence that he can front a blockbuster. Also put forward by Danny Boyle to be the next Bond, Pattinson has easy movie star charisma but is young and youthful looking while also lacking the physicality of a Craig or Connery. Given what Nolan accomplished with his own Batman trilogy, it’s fair to expect a Bond starring Pattinson would tap into the darker, more psychological aspects of the character while being able to hit all the right action beats like he did in Tenet. Read more: Who will be the next James Bond? Cillian Murphy An uneasy superstar due to his general distrust of fame and public attention, 2023 has belonged to Cillian Murphy, thanks of course to his lead performance in Oppenheimer – the highpoint of an already long and illustrious career. A frequent collaborator of Nolan, Murphy wouldn’t be the first Irishman to play Bond but would certainly be the most intense actor to become 007. As Peaky Blinders proved, Murphy is more than adept at playing a leading bruiser with pathos and for lack of a better phrase, just looks the part with his angular cheekbones, ease in a tux and cool detachment. It has long been a wish of many Bond fans for the series to throw in a period instalment set in the 1950s or '60s and with Murphy’s old-fashioned looks, he would be the perfect actor if Nolan had a desire to visit the world of Cold War espionage through the cipher of Ian Fleming’s superspy. Tom Hardy Ever since he burst his way into the public consciousness after his remarkable turn in Bronson, Tom Hardy has been a favourite among Bond fans to pick up a Walther PPK whenever Daniel Craig moseyed off into spy retirement. Another frequent collaborator of Nolan, Hardy would certainly bring something to Bond that hasn’t been seen before with his intensity, physical prowess and ability to put his own take on well-worn tropes. Hardy is also a purple belt in jiu-jitsu and has been backed by Pierce Brosnan to take over the mantle. Nolan most prominently used Hardy as the hulking and villainous Bane in The Dark Knight Rises but his character in Inception has a hint of Bond with his debonair charisma and pithy one-liners. His casting would also allow Nolan to embrace a more maverick Bond – someone with edge and darkness – not unlike what Timothy Dalton brought to the role – especially given Hardy has always eschewed playing up his pin-up looks. It’s very easy to imagine Nolan and Hardy combining to make a very violent, tortured Bond. Jack Lowden A wildcard option is Scottish star Jack Lowden, best known for his performance in Apple’s spy series Slow Horses, which is distinctly more John Le Carre than James Bond, but the 33-year-old is an eclectic talent who more than holds his own against Gary Oldman – no easy feat. Lowden has worked with Nolan before – as part of the ensemble of Dunkirk – and a couple of other young actors from that film, namely Harry Styles or Barry Keoghan, could easily be sitting in this spot. Lowden’s Slow Horses co-star Kristen Scott Thomas has publicly said the Scot would be “very good” in the role and she’s not at all wrong, while he has also been backed by Sam Neill. Because of his lesser profile than the likes of Hardy and Murphy, it would be easier for Nolan to mould his idea of Bond around Lowden rather than tailor the character to the actor giving the director more of a blank canvas to work from. Despite having not really embraced dapper roles, Lowden’s red carpet appearances act as proof that he can look the part as well as act the part. View Green Video on the source website James Bond films including No Time to Die, Casino Royale and many more are available to rent or buy on Prime Video. Sign up for a 30-day free trial and pay £8.99 per month after that. Read more of our Film coverage, or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10, PLUS a £10 John Lewis and Partners voucher delivered to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Bull ending explained: What happens to Bull and his son?
The 2021 film has created a splash since landing on Netflix.
*WARNING - CONTAINS FULL SPOILERS FOR BULL* Some films on Netflix come and go while others have legs and last long in the watch lists of users. Bull, the violent and grisly revenge thriller starring Neil Maskell, is very much the latter. While it originally flew under the radar upon its initial 2021 release, after landing on Netflix it found its audience and became an unexpected summer hit on the streaming platform. Bull stars Maskell (Hijack, Litvinenko) as the eponymous character who hunts down members of his former gang, led by his father-in-law (David Hayman), to find his estranged son. It all gets a little complicated during its conclusion, and if you were left scratching your head after watching it all unfold, we're here to help. Read on to have the Bull ending explained and to find out exactly what happens in this gruesome revenge thriller. Bull movie: Netflix ending explained Earlier in the film, we are shown a flashback to a fateful night where Bull is double-crossed by his wife and father-in-law. He is burned alive in front of his son, with the gang believing him to be dead, which is why they’re so shocked when his vengeful rampage begins. It’s witnessing this event that also turns his son towards heroin. View Green Video on the source website After finding his son, Bull takes him to a church and lays him at the altar until a vicar (Daniele Lydon) comes the next morning. They look at Bull and scream, scared that he has entered a place of God. We then see that Bull’s eyes have turned entirely black, as if he is the Devil. He asks the vicar for his son’s salvation and leaves, with the last shot being an image of Bull standing over a grave. Is Bull a demon? It’s the same grave we see in the film’s opening – presumably Bull’s grave. At the beginning of his underworld odyssey, Bull says he came from Hell, and the film’s ending implies this is literally true - that he made a deal with the Devil to save his son, adding a metaphysical tilt to what was, up to that moment, a gritty story steeped in reality. Without stating so specifically, it is fair to assume that Bull was allowed out of Hell to avenge his murder after actually dying when he was set on fire by his father-in-law. Bull is really dead in every scene of the film (except the flashbacks) and has to return to Hell once his quest for revenge and salvation is over. It would also explain why Bull seemingly comes from nowhere and why he bears no scars from the night he was set on fire. Bull also takes no notice of witnesses or the matter of leaving evidence behind during his murder spree, killing people in broad daylight and in increasingly grisly fashion. Read more Best series to watch on Netflix this August - updated Best movies to watch on Netflix right now Bull is now showing on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only £10, PLUS a £10 John Lewis and Partners voucher delivered to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Steven E de Souza on 35 years of Die Hard: "Bruce broke the steroid ceiling"
The screenwriter talks to RadioTimes.com about the actors who turned down the role, writing for Alan Rickman and coining the iconic "yippee-ki-yay" line.
John McClane was very nearly played by Arnold Schwarzenegger – and that would have made Die Hard a very different action classic. Steven E de Souza, the screenwriter of the iconic movie, is talking to RadioTimes.com ahead of the film's 35th anniversary and has opened up about the road of bringing the film to screen. “Arnold would not have worked because he was such a physical specimen," he says on the prospect of Schwarzenegger potentially playing McClane. "At the time when the Die Hard script went out, we were coming off Commando and Rambo and all these giant guys. "[Casting Bruce Willis] opened the door for a lot more normal looking guys like Keanu Reeves being in action movies. Bruce broke the steroid ceiling.” The number of action stars that turned down Die Hard is now the stuff of Hollywood lore. Virtually every big name in the business said no before TV star Willis was selected off the back of the success of Moonlighting. De Souza thinks he knows why all the big names were not eager to sign on: “James Caan passed on it. He said the first 25 pages were the guy hiding and trying to call for help and that he didn’t get it. And that was probably the reason every other actor turned it down. It was the antithesis of what we had trained audiences to expect from action heroes.” The role was also originally offered to Frank Sinatra, who at that point was in his seventies. The thought still makes de Souza chuckle: “The script had to be offered first to Frank Sinatra because of a contractual thing but fortunately he said he was too rich and too old to do it because, as I always say, the chases through the building would have been on a rascal scooter.” Die Hard, of course, made Willis one of the biggest and most beloved stars on the planet, and he would reprise his role as McClane three more times before his retirement in 2022, but it also ushered the very unusual phrase 'yippee-ki-yay motherf*****' into the popular lexicon. The line was a joint effort between de Souza and Willis - something of a tribute to cowboy TV host Roy Rogers, who was popular in the US in the 1950s. “When I first met Bruce, as soon as I opened my mouth he knew I was from Philadelphia, and we grew up about 30 miles apart and watched all the same TV shows. And one of those shows was the Roy Rogers Show where he would say yippee-ki-yay, so it wasn’t an obscure line. I confess, I don’t think I wrote motherf*****. I think I wrote yippee-ki-yay asshole in the script and Bruce suggested motherf*****.” Read more: Commando screenwriter Steven E de Souza: "I blame Sylvester Stallone for screwing up the ending!" John McTiernan on Die Hard: 'I didn't set out to reinvent the action movie' In addition to boasting arguably the most iconic action hero and the most quoted one-liner in history, the film also includes one of cinema’s most memorable villains in Hans Gruber, played by the late and great Alan Rickman in his first screen role. De Souza reveals that he ended up tailoring the character to Rickman’s abilities: “I met him at a wardrobe fitting and knew that he could do anything I gave him so I wrote for him. I made the character more elegant, educated and with all this bespoke clothing so the opposite to blue collar Bruce.” The writer – who also penned screenplays for Commando, The Running Man and Street Fighter – also admits he tapped into the political atmosphere of the Reaganite '80s: “At that time in America, there was a lot of paranoia about foreign companies buying American companies, and a Japanese company had just bought Columbia Pictures. So the script leans into that. And we leaned into the xenophobia of the time by having the guy mock American culture and things like that.” Die Hard is currently available to watch on Disney Plus. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only £1 with delivery to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Katherine Kelly: "If everyone's going one way, I want to go the other way."
The actor speaks exclusively to RadioTimes.com about her new comedy Ruby Speaking and her extensive career to date.
"If everyone's going one way, I want to go the other way," says Katherine Kelly, reflecting on her long and varied career. "I don't swim with the tide." Kelly first came to prominence in 2006 as the unpredictable and headstrong Becky McDonald in Coronation Street, who she played until 2012 before deciding to seek out a new challenge. But the roles that were typically on offer at the time, such as tortured cop or "woman who cries a lot", were of no interest to Kelly, whose CV includes Happy Valley, Mr Selfridge, The Night Manager, Doctor Who spin-off Class, Netflix's Criminal: UK and her latest work, Ruby Speaking. The ITVX sitcom, which was co-created by and stars comedian Jayde Adams, follow an ensemble of working class Bristolians during their 9-5 call centre grind. Kelly plays their slightly terrifying and deluded boss Vicky, who may or may not think she's actually the head of a major corporation. "She's a mash up of TED Talks, wellness podcasts and Oprah," Kelly says over Zoom from her home in Yorkshire. Her "gurus" are Meghan Markle, Amanda Holden and Matthew McConaughey, which gives you a fascinating insight into how she approached the character. Kelly was also eager to avoid the evil comedy-boss stereotype: "The b*tch boss has been done to death. I didn't want to go down the road of The Devil Wears Prada. I thought 'we've seen that, let's do something different.'" For Kelly, variety is always the aim of the game: "Inevitably, in this job, when you do a period drama, you're going to get offered another period drama, but that's not what interests me. Drama in its various forms has traditionally been her wheelhouse since leaving Coronation Street eleven years ago, but she's a dab hand at comedy too, with BBC One's Black Ops and Ruby Speaking allowing her to flex different muscles. Kelly is also one of the most prolific actors working in the UK today, with this year alone seeing her take on three new projects. She attributes her ceaseless drive to her working class upbringing in Barnsley, which is worlds away from the gilded floors of Broadcasting House: "My dad left school at 15 with no qualifications and went to work down a coal mine. All my family have worked in them. I have that thing of not having any sense of entitlement, or expecting things to come to you. You have to go and do it yourself." View Green Video on the source website Her background has also ensured that the thrill she gets from acting has yet to wane. "I'm in a vocation and a job that I love. I'd do it anyway, I just made a living out of it. I’ve never lost that sense of gratitude and I think gratitude is probably one of the hardest things to hold on to. You're blessed when you get to my age and still love your job because most of my friends don’t." Kelly channels that passion through her production company to pave the way for the next generation of budding artists: "I'm very much into giving people an opportunity or a chance to shine, and there are a lot of jobs in this industry that people don't know exist. It's not just an actor or a camera person, there's all these fabulous role in between and I want to make sure people get an opportunity." The next time Kelly will be on our screens, it'll be in ITV's Yorkshire Ripper drama The Long Shadow, which is set to air this autumn and is a complete 180 from Ruby Speaking. Kelly has taken on the daunting task of playing Emily Jackson, one of Peter Sutcliffe's earliest victims, alongside a vast ensemble that includes Daniel Mays, David Morrissey, Charley Webb and Michael McElhatton. The show also has extra significance for Kelly given that she's both from the region and moved back there during the pandemic. "I actually don't remember it all going on, as it was before my time, but there is a long shadow in Yorkshire of that horrific time. I felt very privileged to be asked to be a part of it." There are themes tackled in The Long Shadow that are sadly still relevant today, such as a justice system not fit for purpose (Sutcliffe was questioned nine times by the police before he was arrested). As Kelly says, the show will explore the "women he attacked [who] were dismissed", adding: "They [the police] didn't believe them at the time, and they live on and have their stories to tell." And so, Kelly continues to push herself in new and challenging directions. Some actors can struggle to shed their soap star skin, but she did that the moment she first appeared in Mr Selfridge, and everything that has followed since has felt like an expansion of her talents, with Ruby Speaking the perfect home for her charm and charisma. It's an expansion that doesn't appear to have any limits. Ruby Speaking will premiere on ITVX on Thursday 22nd June 2023. Check out more of our Comedy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. Take part in the Screen Test, a project from Radio Times and the Universities of Sussex and Brighton, to explore the role of television and audio in our lives. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only £1 with delivery to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Scott Adkins would be “stupid” not to reprise John Wick role in spin-off
The Killa Harkan star spoke exclusively to RadioTimes.com ahead of an event at the London Action Festival this weekend.
*WARNING: This article contains spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 4* Scott Adkins has said he would be “stupid” to not return for any John Wick spin-off or prequel that would involve his villain from the fourth movie, Killa Harkan. Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com ahead of the London Action Festival – where the cult action star will be taking part in a panel alongside fellow John Wick alum Mark Dacascos to discuss their careers and the $1 billion grossing franchise – Adkins opened up about his biggest role to date and the prospect of reprising it in the future. Discussing the possibility of playing Killa Harkan again in a prequel or spin-off (the character is killed in John Wick: Chapter 4), Adkins said: “Of course I would [return]. It was a fantastic opportunity to be a part of the John Wick franchise. If they were to do a spin-off that involved other characters, of course I would say yes. I’m not stupid.” Adkins also revealed his initial reaction to finding out his movie star jaw and athlete’s physique would be hidden behind a gregarious fat-suit: “My first thought was 'oh s***, nobody is going to recognise me' - but after five minutes, I was like 'this will be great because it’s more of a challenge to create a cool character like that.'” Harkan proved to be a fan favourite with moviegoers, with reports of audible gasps when the character pulls off a jumping spinning kick on the titular assassin and dog lover. Adkins, who is best known for his work on the cult direct-to-DVD action circuit with films like the critically acclaimed Avengement, Accident Man and the much adored Undisputed sequels, also has nothing but great things to say about his partner in action, Keanu Reeves, saying it is “unheard of” for a star of his stature to embrace the physicality of making the John Wick movies. “At his age, and having gone so much – he’s a wealthy guy – he doesn’t need to do it, he could get the stunt man more often. But he really loves his job and is super passionate about it. He doesn’t take the position he’s in for granted and he considers himself very lucky to have this job and to entertain people.” “He says ‘I am the ceiling of what is possible in a John Wick film’, meaning the better he is, the better the movie will be.” The action icon is also currently mourning the passing of the great Ray Stevenson, who Adkins worked with on the Accident Man movies. Commenting on The Punisher star’s death, Adkins said: “It was very shocking to hear that news. And Ray holds a special place in my heart because Accident Man was a passion project since I was a kid. I needed a name to close the financing of the movie and I wanted Ray to badly play the part, and he said yes so it was perfect - especially with the character being called Big Ray. He was a great guy and it’s a big loss for the industry. He’s got a Star Wars series coming out and that was going to be massive for him. He was great in RRR. Just a great guy.” On a more positive note, Adkins is also raring for the London Action Festival and is glad to see the genre – often maligned in the mainstream – get its due. Now in its second year, the festival features an extravaganza of events for action fanatics including a special screening of The Italian Job, a Q&A with Die Hard and Commando screenwriter Steven E deSouza, and a sit down with Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio. For John Wick fans, the main show is undoubtedly Adkins’ event, where he will share the stage with Dacascos and share memories of their time being adversaries to the deadly assassin and their lengthy careers in martial arts movies. View Green Video on the source website The Villains of John Wick with Special Guests takes place as part of the London Action Festival on Saturday 24th June 2023. Visit our Film hub for the latest news and features, or find something to watch tonight with our TV Guide and Streaming Guide. Take part in the Screen Test, a project from Radio Times and the Universities of Sussex and Brighton, to explore the role of television and audio in our lives. Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only £1 with delivery to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.