1.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
2.
Science fiction film
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Science fiction films have often been used to focus on political or social issues, and to explore philosophical issues like the human condition. The genre has existed since the years of silent cinema. The next major example in the genre was the film Metropolis - being the first feature length science fiction movie, from the 1930s to the 1950s, the genre consisted mainly of low-budget B movies. After Stanley Kubricks landmark 2001, A Space Odyssey, the fiction film genre was taken more seriously. This definition suggests a continuum between empiricism and transcendentalism, with science fiction film on the side of empiricism, and horror film, however, there are numerous well-known examples of science fiction horror films, epitomized by such pictures as Frankenstein and Alien. The visual style of fiction film can be characterized by a clash between alien and familiar images. This clash is implemented when alien images become familiar, as in A Clockwork Orange, as well, familiar images become alien, as in the films Repo Man and Liquid Sky. For example, in Dr. Strangelove, the, distortion of the make the familiar images seem more alien. Finally, alien and familiar images are juxtaposed, as in The Deadly Mantis, Science fiction films appeared early in the silent film era, typically as short films shot in black and white, sometimes with colour tinting. They usually had a theme and were often intended to be humorous. In 1902, Georges Méliès released Le Voyage dans la Lune, generally considered the first science fiction film, several early films merged the science fiction and horror genres. Examples of this are Frankenstein, a adaptation of Mary Shelleys novel. Taking a more adventurous tack,20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a based on Jules Verne’s famous novel of a wondrous submarine. In the 1920s, European filmmakers tended to use science fiction for prediction and social commentary, as can be seen in German films such as Metropolis and Frau im Mond. In the 1930s, there were big budget science fiction films, notably Just Imagine, King Kong, Things to Come. Starting in 1936, a number of science fiction comic strips were adapted as serials, notably Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers and these serials, and the comic strips they were based on, were very popular with the general public. Other notable science fiction films of the 1930s include Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Doctor X, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, F. P. The 1940s brought us Before I Hang, Black Friday, Dr. Cyclops, The Devil Commands, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Man Made Monster, It Happened Tomorrow, It Happens Every Spring and The Perfect Woman
3.
Horror film
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Horror film is a film genre that seeks to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on their fears. Inspired by literature from authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, the macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes. Horror may also overlap with the fantasy, supernatural fiction and thriller genres, Horror films often deal with viewers nightmares, fears, revulsions and terror of the unknown. Plots within the genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event. Another of his projects was 1898s La Caverne maudite. Japan made early forays into the genre with Bake Jizo and Shinin no Sosei. The era featured a slew of literary adaptations, with the works of Poe and Dante, in 1908, Selig Polyscope Company produced Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In 1910, Edison Studios produced the first filmed version of Frankenstein, the macabre nature of the source materials used made the films synonymous with the horror film genre. Before and during the Weimar Republic era, German Expressionist filmmakers would significantly influence later productions, the first vampire-themed movie, Nosferatu, was made during this period, though it was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stokers Dracula. Other European countries also, contributed to the genre during this period, though the word horror to describe the film genre would not be used until the 1930s, earlier American productions often relied on horror themes. Some notable examples include The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera, The Cat and the Canary, The Unknown, and The Man Who Laughs. Many of these films were considered dark melodramas because of their stock characters and emotion-heavy plots that focused on romance, violence, suspense. The trend of inserting an element of macabre into American pre-horror melodramas continued into the 1920s, directors known for relying on macabre in their films during the 1920s were Maurice Tourneur, Rex Ingram, and Tod Browning. Ingrams The Magician contains one of the first examples of a mad doctor and is said to have had a influence on James Whales version of Frankenstein. The Unholy Three is an example of Brownings use of macabre and unique style of morbidity, he remade the film in 1930 as a talkie, during the early period of talking pictures, Universal Pictures began a successful Gothic horror film series. Tod Brownings Dracula was quickly followed by James Whales Frankenstein and The Old Dark House, some of these films blended science fiction with Gothic horror, such as Whales The Invisible Man and featured a mad scientist, mirroring earlier German films. Frankenstein was the first in a series of remakes which lasted for years, the Mummy introduced Egyptology as a theme, Make-up artist Jack Pierce was responsible for the iconic image of the monster, and others in the series. Universals horror cycle continued into the 1940s with B-movies including The Wolf Man, the once controversial Freaks, based on the short story Spurs, was made by MGM, though the studio disowned the completed film, and it remained banned, in the UK, for thirty years
4.
Jack Nicholson
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John Joseph Jack Nicholson is an American actor and filmmaker, who has performed for over 60 years. Nicholson is known for playing a range of starring or supporting roles, including satirical comedy, romance and dark portrayals of antiheroes. In many of his films, he has played the eternal outsider, Nicholsons 12 Academy Award nominations make him the most nominated male actor in the Academys history. Nicholson has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, one for the drama One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and he also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the comedy-drama Terms of Endearment. Nicholson is one of three actors to win three Academy Awards. Nicholson is one of two actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s. He has won six Golden Globe Awards, and received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2001, in 1994, he became one of the youngest actors to be awarded the American Film Institutes Life Achievement Award. He played Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubricks horror film The Shining, the Joker in Tim Burtons superhero film Batman, other films include the legal drama A Few Good Men, the Sean Penn-directed mystery film The Pledge, and the comedy-drama About Schmidt. Nicholson was born on April 22,1937, in Neptune City, New Jersey, Nicholsons mother was of Irish, English, and German descent. She married Italian-American showman Donald Furcillo in 1936, before realizing that he was already married, biographer Patrick McGilligan stated in his book Jacks Life that Latvian-born Eddie King, Junes manager, may have been Nicholsons biological father, rather than Furcillo. Other sources suggest June Nicholson was unsure of who the father was, in 1974, Time magazine researchers learned, and informed Nicholson, that his sister, June, was actually his mother, and his other sister, Lorraine, was really his aunt. By this time, both his mother and grandmother had died, on finding out, Nicholson said it was a pretty dramatic event, but it wasnt what Id call traumatizing. I was pretty well psychologically formed. Nicholson grew up in Neptune City, New Jersey and he was raised in his mothers Roman Catholic religion. Before starting high school, his family moved to an apartment in Spring Lake, nick, as he was known to his high school friends, attended nearby Manasquan High School, where he was voted class clown by the Class of 1954. He was in every day for a whole school year. A theatre and an award at the school are named in his honor. In 2004, Nicholson attended his 50-year high school reunion accompanied by his aunt Lorraine and he served a tour of duty in the Air National Guard. Nicholson first came to Hollywood in 1954, when he was 17 and he took a job as an office worker for animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM cartoon studio
5.
The Living Daylights
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The Living Daylights is the fifteenth entry in the James Bond film series and the first to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by John Glen, the title is taken from Ian Flemings short story The Living Daylights. It was the last film to use the title of an Ian Fleming story until the 2006 instalment Casino Royale, the film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli, his stepson Michael G. Wilson, and his daughter, Barbara Broccoli. The Living Daylights was generally received by most critics and was also a financial success. James Bond is assigned to aid the defection of a KGB officer, General Georgi Koskov, covering his escape from a hall in Bratislava. During the mission, Bond notices that the KGB sniper assigned to prevent Koskovs escape is a female cellist from the orchestra. Disobeying his orders to kill the sniper, he shoots the rifle from her hands, then uses the Trans-Siberian Pipeline to smuggle Koskov across the border into Austria. In his post-defection debriefing, Koskov informs MI6 that the KGBs old policy of Smiert Spionam, meaning Death to Spies, has been revived by General Leonid Pushkin, Koskov is later abducted from the safe-house and assumed to have been taken back to Moscow. Bond is directed to track down Pushkin in Tangier and kill him to forestall further killings of agents, Bond agrees to carry out the mission when he learns that the assassin who killed 004 left a note bearing the same message, Smiert Spionam. Bond returns to Bratislava to track down the cellist, Kara Milovy and he determines that Koskovs entire defection was staged, and that Kara is actually Koskovs girlfriend. Bond convinces Kara that he is a friend of Koskovs and persuades her to him to Vienna. They escape Bratislava while being pursued by the KGB, crossing over the border into Austria, meanwhile, Pushkin meets with arms dealer Brad Whitaker in Tangier, informing him that the KGB is cancelling an arms deal previously arranged between Koskov and Whitaker. During his brief tryst with Milovy in Vienna, Bond visits the Prater to meet his MI6 ally, Saunders, as he leaves their meeting, Saunders is killed by Koskovs henchman Necros, who again leaves the message Smiert Spionam. Bond and Kara promptly leave for Tangier, where Bond confronts Pushkin, Pushkin disavows any knowledge of Smiert Spionam, and reveals that Koskov is evading arrest for embezzlement of government funds. Bond and Pushkin then join forces and Bond fakes Pushkins assassination, inducing Whitaker, meanwhile, Kara contacts Koskov, who tells her that Bond is actually a KGB agent and convinces her to drug him so he can be captured. Koskov, Necros, Kara, and the captive Bond fly to a Soviet air base in Afghanistan, the pair escape and in doing so free a condemned prisoner, Kamran Shah, leader of the local Mujahideen. With the Mujahideens help, Bond plants a bomb aboard the plane carrying the opium. Meanwhile, the Mujahideen attack the air base on horseback and engage the Soviets in a gun battle, during the battle, Milovy drives a jeep into the back of the plane as Bond takes off, and Necros also leaps aboard at the last second
6.
Paul Verhoeven
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Paul Verhoeven is a Dutch film director, film producer, television director, television producer, and screenwriter. Verhoeven is active in both the Netherlands and Hollywood, explicit violent and/or sexual content and social satire are trademarks of both his drama and science fiction films. He is best known for directing the films RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Showgirls, Starship Troopers, Verhoevens film Turkish Delight received the award for Best Dutch Film of the Century at the Netherlands Film Festival. His films altogether received a total of nine Academy Award nominations, mainly for editing, Verhoeven won the Saturn Award for Best Director for Robocop. His Dutch war film Black Book was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language, and was voted the best Dutch film ever by the Dutch public in 2008. In contrast, he won the Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture and Worst Director for Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven was born on 18 July 1938 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is the son of school teacher Wim Verhoeven and hat maker Nel van Schaardenburg, although he was born in Amsterdam, the family lived in the village of Slikkerveer. In 1943 the family moved to The Hague, the location of the German headquarters in the Netherlands during World War II, the Verhoeven house was near a German military base with V1 and V2-rocket launchers, which was repeatedly bombed by allied forces. Their neighbours house was hit and Verhoevens parents were almost killed when bombs fell on a street crossing, from this period, Verhoeven mentioned in interviews, he remembers images of violence, burning houses, dead bodies on the street, and continuous danger. As a small child he experienced the war as an adventure and compares himself with the character Bill Rowan in Hope. Verhoevens father Wim Verhoeven became head teacher at the Van Heutszschool in The Hague, sometimes they watched informative films at home with the schools film projector. Paul Verhoeven and his father liked to see American films that were in the cinema after the liberation. They went as many as ten times to see The War of the Worlds, Paul Verhoeven was a fan of the Dutch comic Dick Bos. The character Dick Bos is a detective who fights crime using jujutsu. Verhoeven himself liked comic drawing, he created The Killer, a character in a detailed story full of revenge. Other fiction he liked were Frankenstein and the Rice Burroughs Barsoom series, Verhoeven attended public secondary school Gymnasium Haganum in The Hague. Later, beginning in 1955, he studied at Leiden University, Verhoeven graduated with a doctorandus with a double major, in mathematics and physics. Verhoeven made his first film A Lizzard Too Much for the anniversary of his students corps in 1960, in his last years at university Verhoeven also attended classes at the Netherlands Film Academy
7.
Predator (film)
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Predator is a 1987 American science-fiction action film directed by John McTiernan. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the leader of a special forces team who are on a mission to rescue hostages from guerrilla territory in Val Verde in Central Americas Northern Triangle. Kevin Peter Hall co-stars as the titular antagonist, an advanced form of extraterrestrial life secretly stalking and hunting the group. Predator was written by brothers Jim and John Thomas in 1985, filming began in April 1986 and creature effects were devised by Stan Winston. The films budget was around $15 million, 20th Century Fox released it in the United States on June 12,1987, where it grossed $59,735,548. Initial critical reaction was mixed, criticism focused on the thin plot, in subsequent years, critics attitudes toward the film became positive, and it has appeared on a number of best of lists. It spawned two sequels, Predator 2 and Predators, and two films with the Alien franchise, Alien vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator. Another film, The Predator, is scheduled for 2018, a spacecraft flies near Earth and releases a bright object which enters the atmosphere. CIA agent and liaison Colonel George Dillon, a former commando, the team discovers the wreckage of a chopper and three skinned corpses, whom Dutch identifies as members of a U. S. Army Special Forces unit he knew personally. They reach the insurgent camp and kill the soldiers, including a Soviet intelligence officer searching through secret CIA documents, confronted by Dutch, Dillon admits the mission was a setup to retrieve intelligence from captured operatives and that the dead unit disappeared weeks earlier in a failed rescue. After capturing a guerilla named Anna, the proceeds to extraction. Anna escapes and is chased by Hawkins, but they are ambushed by the creature and it spares Anna but kills Hawkins and drags his body away. Dutch organizes a manhunt, during which Blaine is killed by the creatures plasma weapon, an enraged Mac initiates a firefight which wounds the creature, revealing luminescent green blood, but fails to draw it out. The unit regroups and questions Anna, learning that their stalker is a creature locals call el demonio que hace trofeos de los hombres and that night, Mac mistakes a wild pig for the creature and kills it. In the confusion, the creature steals Blaines body, leading Dutch to realize their enemy uses the trees to travel, the next day, an attempt to trap the creature fails, leaving Poncho injured. Mac and Dillon pursue the alien, but it outwits and kills them both and it catches up with the others, killing Billy and Poncho and wounding Dutch. Realizing the creature does not target unarmed prey because there is no sport, the creature pursues him through a river, causing its cloaking device to malfunction. Though the creature is only a few feet from Dutch, he does not see him, Dutch realizes that mud covering his body is masking his heat signature from the creatures thermal sensor
8.
Lance Henriksen
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Henriksen is also notable for his voice acting, having voiced Kerchak the gorilla in Walt Disney Animation Studios Tarzan and Admiral Steven Hackett in BioWares Mass Effect video game trilogy. Henriksen was born in New York City and his father was a Norwegian merchant sailor and boxer nicknamed Icewater who spent most of his life at sea. His mother, Margueritte Werner, struggled to work as a dance instructor, waitress. His parents divorced when he was two old, and he was raised by his mother. As he grew up, Henriksen found himself in trouble at various schools, Henriksen served in the United States Navy from 1955–58 and attained the rank of Petty Officer Third Class. Henriksens first job in the world was as a designer of theatrical sets, in fact. It was also around this time that Henriksen taught himself to read, for his first role, he put the entire script to tape with the help of a friend, learning everyones part in addition to his own. In his early 30s, Henriksen graduated from the prestigious Actors Studio, in film, he first appeared in It Aint Easy in 1972. Henriksen went on to portray a variety of supporting roles in noteworthy genre films such as Dog Day Afternoon, Steven Spielbergs Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Damien, Omen II. When James Cameron was writing the film The Terminator, he had originally envisioned Henriksen, regardless, the role ultimately went to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Henriksen did appear in the film, in the role of Sergeant Hal Vukovich. Henriksen is perhaps best known for portraying the android Bishop, an artificial life-form, in Aliens and he also played Charles Bishop Weyland, the man Bishops appearance was based on, in Alien 3 and Alien vs. Predator. Henriksen and Bill Paxton are the two actors to have been killed by a terminator, a xenomorph and a predator. Henriksen also portrayed vampire leader Jesse Hooker in Kathryn Bigelows vampire cult film Near Dark and he acted in a movie called Stone Cold with Brian Bosworth in 1991. He played the character Chains Cooper, Hard Target is one of Henriksens favorite films. He especially enjoyed working with director John Woo, saying He let me do some work as an actor. No never came out of his mouth, it was always What could this be, hes one of the greatest directors ever, gentle, communicative and supportive. He caught everything that was important to me as an actor on film, the times Ive seen my work and gone Jesus, they cut the behaviour, the motivation, the only reason I made the movie in the first place
9.
Richard Dawson
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Richard Dawson was a British-American actor and comedian, and a game show host and panellist in the United States. In 1984, he became an American citizen while retaining his British citizenship, Dawson was born Colin Lionel Emm in Gosport, Hampshire, England, on 20 November 1932 to Arthur and Josephine Emm. At the age of 14 he ran away home to join the British Merchant Navy. On 8 January 1963, Dawson appeared in an episode of the Jack Benny Program, Season 13, Dawson is the audience member sitting next to Jack. He is almost unrecognisable because of the glasses and fake mustache, in 1963, Dawson appeared in an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show in the role of dapper entertainer Racy Tracy Rattigan. In 1964, he appeared in The Invisibles, an episode of The Outer Limits, a 1964 episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. He played a soldier in the 1962 film The Longest Day, in 1965, Dawson had a small role at the end of the film King Rat, starring George Segal, playing 1st Recon paratrooper Captain Weaver, sent to liberate allied POWs in a Japanese prison. Dawson had by then moved to Los Angeles, California and he gained fame in the television show Hogans Heroes as Cpl. Peter Newkirk from 1965 to 1971 and he had a minor role in Universals Munster, Go Home. A year later, Dawson released a psychedelic 45 rpm single including the songs His Childrens Parade, in 1968, Dawson was in the film The Devils Brigade as Private Hugh McDonald. Following the cancellation of Hogans Heroes, he was a regular joke-telling panellist on the syndicated revival of the game show Can You Top This. in 1970. He was also a regular on Rowan & Martins Laugh-In from 1971–73 and he portrayed a theatre director in the first season of McCloud and was a panellist on the 1972–73 syndicated revival of Ive Got a Secret. He played himself on an episode of The Odd Couple, after Laugh-In was cancelled in 1973, game show pioneer Mark Goodson signed Dawson to appear as a regular on Match Game 73, alongside Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly and host Gene Rayburn. During his time on Match Game he would occupy the centre seat. Family Feud was a hit, eventually surpassing the ratings of Match Game in late 1977. In 1978, he left Match Game and won a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Game Show Host for his work on Family Feud, one of Dawsons trademarks on Family Feud, kissing the female contestants, earned him the nickname The Kissing Bandit. Television executives repeatedly tried to get him to stop the kissing, after receiving criticism for the practice, he asked viewers to write in and vote on the matter. The mail response was 704 against and 14,600 in favour, on the 1985 finale, Dawson explained that he kissed contestants for love and luck, something his mother did with Dawson himself as a child
10.
Jessica Tandy
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Jessica Tandy was a British stage and film actress. She appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film, born in London to Jessie Helen Horspool and commercial traveller Harry Tandy, she was only 18 when she made her professional debut on the London stage in 1927. During the 1930s, she appeared in a number of plays in Londons West End, playing roles such as Ophelia. During this period, she worked in a couple of British films. Following the end of her marriage to the British actor Jack Hawkins, she moved to New York in 1940 and he became her second husband and frequent partner on stage and screen. She received the Tony Award for best performance by a Leading Actress in A Play for her performance as Blanche Dubois in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948, Tandy shared the prize with Katharine Cornell and Judith Anderson in a three-way tie for the award. Over the following three decades, her career continued sporadically and included a role in Alfred Hitchcocks horror film, The Birds. Along with Cronyn, she was a member of the acting company of the Guthrie Theater. In the mid-1980s she had a career revival and she appeared with Cronyn in the Broadway production of Foxfire in 1983 and its television adaptation four years later, winning both a Tony Award and an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Annie Nations. During these years, she appeared in such as Cocoon. At the height of her success, she was named as one of Peoples 50 Most Beautiful People and she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1990, and continued working until shortly before her death. The youngest of three siblings, Tandy was born in Geldeston Road in Hackney, London and her father, Harry Tandy, was a travelling salesman for a rope manufacturer. Her mother, Jessie Helen Horspool was the head of a school for handicapped children who was from a large fenland family in Wisbech. Her father died when Tandy was 12, and her mother subsequently taught evening courses to earn an income and her brother Edward was later a prisoner of war of the Japanese in the Far East. Tandy was educated at Dame Alice Owens School in Islington, Tandy began her career at the age of 18 in London, establishing herself with performances opposite such actors as Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud. She entered films in Britain, but after her marriage to Jack Hawkins failed, during her time as a leading actress on the stage in London she often had to fight for roles over her two rivals, Peggy Ashcroft and Celia Johnson. In 1942, she married Hume Cronyn and over the years played supporting roles in several Hollywood films. Tandy became a citizen of the United States in 1952
