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A complex mission to Mercury that began its epic space voyage six years ago has encountered critical thrust problems that controllers say could imperil plans to study the closest planet to the sun. 

BepiColombo, a joint European and Japanese mission, is on its way to reach Mercury on Sept. 5 for the first of three crucial flybys intended to put the robotic spacecraft on the correct course around the planet next year. In October 2025, its two science probes — one operated by the European Space Agency and the other by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency — would separate from a module to then investigate the planet's surface and magnetic field.

But whether those science operations can still happen as planned is uncertain. During a maneuver on April 26, the electric propulsion module, which runs on solar energy, didn't provide enough power to the spacecraft's thrusters, according to ESA. About 11 days later, engineers had restored the spacecraft's thrust almost to its previous level, but still 10 percent lower. 

"A team of experts is restlessly working on understanding the root cause of the problem and further impact on the remainder of the trajectory," Camille Bello, a spokesperson for ESA, told Mashable. 

SEE ALSO: How a NASA nuclear rocket engine could unleash the solar system Mercury is perhaps the most understudied of the rocky worlds in the solar system. Credit: NASA / JHU Applied Physics Lab / Carnegie Inst. Washington

To adjust for the spacecraft's lower thrust level, the team has extended the duration of the propulsion arc so the craft can get back on track with the planned flybys between September and January 2025. As to what led to the thrusting issue, engineers are still trying to figure that out, scrutinizing every last bit of available data.

"We know that we are dealing with an issue with the availability of electrical power from the Mercury Transfer Module," Bello said. "The electric propulsion thrusters themselves are fine." 

Mercury is perhaps the most understudied of the rocky worlds in the solar system. Hot and harder to reach than even Saturn, it hasn't enjoyed the level of exploration that other planets around the sun have received. Only two previous spacecraft, both NASA missions, have flown to the Swift Planet, nicknamed for its fast orbit around the sun.

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BepiColombo, launched in October 2018 on an Ariane 5 rocket from a French spaceport in South America, seeks to study the polar craters filled with ice, the planet's magnetic field, and the enigmatic "hollows" on the surface. Mercury's outer shell is covered in ancient lava flows, pitted by space rocks for the past 4 billion years or so.

By expanding knowledge of Mercury's composition, atmosphere, and magnetism, scientists can better understand how rocky, Earth-like planets came to be.

But this isn't the first rough patch for BepiColombo. Last year, mission controllers performed a significant course correction to compensate for earlier thruster outages. Without it, BepiColombo might have veered about 15,000 miles off track and onto the wrong side of the planet, according to ESA.

The mission's many years of sequential flybys are necessary because of how difficult it is to get to Mercury's orbit. Credit: ESA

The mission's many years of sequential flybys are necessary because of just how difficult it is to get to Mercury. To enter orbit around the planet, the spacecraft needs to be flying slow enough to be reeled in by Mercury's gravity. Too fast and it will skip right past. The trouble is, as the spacecraft gets closer to the sun, it picks up speed like a bicycle downhill. 

Slowing down in the vacuum of space is no easy feat. The careful choreography of swinging around planets is a way for the spacecraft to burn off energy without carrying excessive amounts of fuel that would otherwise render the spacecraft too heavy to launch in the first place. 

If mission control can sufficiently counter the spacecraft's power problem, science operations could begin in the spring of 2026.

Mars is collecting artifacts.

Without the large, powerful camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which observes Martian terrain for past evidence of water and how the Red Planet is changing, we might miss it. But the craft captured the space agency's defunct InSight lander and surrounding landing site, slowly being blanketed in desert dust.

"Can you spot @NASAInSight?" NASA asked on X (formerly Twitter). "The retired lander was recently spotted by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. By studying InSight's landing site over time, scientists can see how quickly dust accumulates, which helps estimate the age of other surface disturbances."

SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.

The InSight lander's mission ended in December 2022, after four productive years of investigating geologic activity on Mars. The NASA robot measured over 1,300 marsquakes, including a "monster" temblor, providing further evidence that Mars isn't nearly geologically dead. It analyzed Mars' core, and also beamed back daily weather reports.

Yet unlike NASA's Perseverance and Curiosity rovers, which are nuclear-powered, the InSight lander ran on solar power. Martian dust had expectedly whittled down the power of the lander by blanketing its solar panels in a thick layer of sediment. Eventually, its batteries died.

At the center of the image below is InSight. Looking closely, you can see its two deployed circular solar panels sandwiching the main body.

NASA's retired InSight lander collecting dust on the flat plains of Elysium Planitia. Credit: NASA The InSight lander's solar panels deployed during testing in 2015. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Lockheed Martin Space Tweet may have been deleted

Other past Martian explorers also rest quietly in the Red Planet's global desert, including the Phoenix lander, Opportunity rover, and Ingenuity helicopter. NASA has spotted discarded landing gear and parachutes, too.

One day, perhaps, these relics of early Martian exploration will be protected, similar to national park sites on Earth today.

For now, InSight collects dust on the flat equatorial plains of Elysium Planitia.

TL;DR: Through May 22, navigate any project with ease with a lifetime license to Microsoft Project Professional 2021, on sale for $19.97.

Project managers are professional task jugglers. They have to see to it that a project is completed — not to mention done well — on time and on budget. They must also oversee team performance, all the while knowing that they are personally accountable for the project's outcomes. It's no easy job, but the right project management tools can help.

Microsoft Project stands out as one of the original project management software systems, and it has built-in tools that allow you to track timelines, budgets, and resources efficiently. Through May 22, you can grab a lifetime license to Microsoft Project Professional 2021 for Windows on sale for under $20.

We won't say that Microsoft Project will make project management a walk in the park, but it brings you pretty close. Whether you're fiddling with a small task or navigating a long-term project, this intuitive app packs the tools to get it done.

Pre-built templates are available to give you a head start on any deliverable, while timesheets let you track time spent on project to accurately measure team productivity.

If you're having a tough time estimating timelines, you can either let the program auto-populate start and end dates based on dependencies (which you can tweak as needed), or you can make visual representations of schedules to reveal the bigger picture. You can even run what-if scenarios to see if your plans are foolproof. There's also an option to access built-in reports that point out inefficiencies, allowing you to see specific points of improvement.

This offer is only available to new users, and you'll need a device running Windows 11 or 10, or Windows Server 2019.

Keep all of your projects on track with a subscription to Microsoft Project.

Until May 22 at 11:59 p.m. PT, a lifetime license to Microsoft Project 2021 for Windows is on sale for only $19.97, no coupon necessary.

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Opens in a new window Credit: Retail King Microsoft Project 2021 Professional (Windows PC) $19.97 at the Mashable Shop
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TL;DR: Through May 22, up your productivity with Microsoft Office Home & Business 2019 for Mac, on sale for a one-time payment of just $24.97 (reg. $229).

As arguably the most-recognized office software, a Microsoft Office suite comes in handy for professionals and students alike. If you aren't running it on your Mac, this might be a good time to install it. You can get lifetime access to the 2019 version of MS Office for your Mac computer on sale for $24.97 (reg. $229) through May 22.

Office 2019 for Mac has been specifically designed to take advantage of the unique features of the Mac OS. Whether you're drafting a proposal in Word, analyzing data in Excel, or creating a presentation in PowerPoint, the software is tailored to help you accomplish your tasks efficiently.

In addition to the three core apps, you also get Outlook to manage your emails and calendar and Teams Classic 2019 to stay connected with your team at work. You will also have access to OneNote, a digital note-taking app.

One of the bigger advantages of Office Home & Business 2019 is that it only requires a one-time purchase. This means no recurring subscription fees. You will have access to Office on one Mac for life and free customer service.

While this isn't the most current version of Office, this 2019 version has had several updates since its prior 2016 version. It is supported by the three most recent Mac operating systems.

For Mac users, this is a comprehensive, all-in-one suite of productivity tools that combines classic features with some newer upgrades at an affordable price.

A lifetime license to Microsoft Office Home & Business 2019 for Mac is on sale for just $24.97 (reg. $229) until May 22 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

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Hold on to your oat-milk lattes, avocado toasts, and açaí bowls! IG influencers Chantal Hurst (@papernroses) and Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_) paint a Pinterest-perfect vibe that makes me feel hectic compared to their clean aesthetic.

Their carefully curated lifestyles on their Instagram accounts are the visual equivalent of a chilled-out Colbie Caillat song or an easy-breezy Jason Mraz tune. (Or for the Gen Z readers who can smell the elderly Millennial seeping from my pores, Sabrina Carpenter's chic-and-polished "Espresso" jam.)

Meanwhile, after peeling my eyes off my phone and looking around my messy room and cluttered desk, my environment encapsulates the entire Screamo genre.

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A post shared by Chantal | Digital Planner (@papernroses)

After scrolling through their Instagram accounts with intense curiosity, there seems to be one thing they have that I don't: an iPad Air and the mastered art of digital planning.

What is digital planning — and how is the iPad Air involved?

So what, exactly, is digital planning?

A screenshot of Hurst's Instagram account. Credit: Chantal Hurst (@papernroses)

To put it succinctly, it's a way to organize the tasks in your life by using a device — the iPad Air is one of the most popular — to set a structured plan for yourself. (It's also worth noting that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 is another tablet one can use for digital planning for those who prefer the Android ecosystem.)

Many users like to download PDFs, from Etsy for example, for digital planning. You can import these templates into apps like Goodnotes, Notability, and other journal-friendly, planning-oriented apps. There's a planning template for almost everything:

• Meal planning

• Wedding planning

• Budget planning

• Teachers' planning

• Student note-taking

• Skincare planning

Hell, there are even PDF templates for iPad users with a green thumb. Boyd told Mashable on a call that, in addition to the more clerical type of organizing, she uses her iPad Air to organize her gardening and planting tasks.

Boyd uses a gardening digital planning template for her iPad Air. Credit: Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_)

Plus, when it comes to traditional, physical planners, you'd have to buy several of them that serve your needs, which would only add to your clutter — and defeats the purpose of adding organization to your life. With the iPad Air, on the other hand, you can download as many planners as you want, which can all be saved on one device.

SEE ALSO: Apple iPad Air 2024 (13-inch) review: More space for the 'I use it as a laptop' folks iPad Air: A tool for digital planning (and getting your life together)

First, let's do a big-picture zoom out. Apple recently unveiled the new iPad Air.

13-inch iPad Air shot in Mashable's studio Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

What's new about this refresh? It's got a faster M2 chip. To put this into perspective, this means that the iPad Air is fast AF for a tablet. (It's almost as zippy as my own 15-inch MacBook Air, and comes close in performance to the likes of the Asus ZenBook Duo and HP Victus 16, a friggin' gaming laptop.)

The iPad Air now comes in a bigger size: a 13-inch model.

Hurst's Vision Board on the 13-inch iPad Air Credit: Chantal Hurst (@papernroses)

For the uninitiated, the iPad Air line typically comes in one size, a 10.9-inch one, but now, there's an additional 30 percent larger tablet that delivers more screen real estate — perfect for the, "I use the iPad Air as a laptop" folks. The more spacious profile allows for more typing comfort when the Magic Keyboard is attached. (There's a new Magic Keyboard, too, by the way.)

13-inch iPad Pro with the new Magic Keyboard Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

Some use the new iPad Air as a companion for work and school. Others are artistic hobbyists, so alongside the new Apple Pencil, it's a mid-tier tablet from Apple's iPad line that lets them sharpen their talents.

However, zooming back in to the point of this article, there is a growing niche of users who are using the iPad Air to get their chaotic lives in order: the digital planning community.

Screenshot of Boyd's aesthetic instagram Credit: Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_)

What makes the lifestyles Hurst and Boyd show off in their social media posts so enticing is that they've found a way to make planning fun — there's also something therapeutic and calming about the aesthetics of their Instagram that mimics the soft, serene and soothing vibes I'd want to emulate for my own life. Their videos make it feel like they've all found a way to exude organization and orderliness with nothing but an iPad Air.

Boyd plans her week on the iPad Air. Credit: Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_)

Both collectively have over 100,000 followers, with many asking for tips on how they, too, can calm the chaos in their lives by diving into the world of digital planning. I decided to hop on a call with them to get advice on how I can leave my disorganized life behind — and finally embrace the elegant tranquility and orderly peace they've found for themselves.

Why not use your iPhone or MacBook?

I'm crossing my fingers for the debut of a touchscreen MacBook one day, but as Boyd and Hurst pointed out to Mashable, it doesn't have this capability — and therefore doesn't support a stylus. The Apple Pencil is an ideal tool to have for the digital planning process. Both explained that the Apple Pencil Pro helps them scribble out their thoughts, tasks, and to-dos in a more fluid manner.

Boyd holding the Apple Pencil Pro. Credit: Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_)

You may be thinking, "I already have an iPhone! Why do I need an iPad Air?"

iPhone 15 Pro models Credit: Stan Schroeder / Mashable

Of course, you don't need anything. However, your iPhone, which is no larger than 6.7 inches, won't give you enough screen real estate to take advantage of the expansive PDF templates digital-planning enthusiasts love to use.

How to get started with digital planning via iPad Air

First, you're going to need an iPad Air, of course. For her part, Boyd, better known as @flourishplanner_, uses the new 13-inch iPad Air — she has the blue one with 1TB of storage.

Next, you're going to need a stylus. Hurst, whom we know as @papernroses, uses the new Apple Pencil Pro with her iPad Air. As I mentioned during my hands-on experience with the Apple Pencil Pro, it has several new features, including a novel squeeze perk. This lets you squeeze the lower-end of the Pencil with your pointer finger and thumb.

Boyd using the squeeze feature on the iPad Air. Credit: Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_)

"Squeeze function on Apple Pencil Pro is going to increase productivity especially in apps like Goodnotes and Freeform," Hurst told Mashable. "[It's] less time switching between tools or quickly undoing mistakes; I can see this being really helpful taking notes in meetings or during lectures if you’re a student."

Hurst has been using the iPad since 2019. The device allowed her to gain some semblance of orderliness and organization with her day job at the time — and she hasn't looked back. "iPad really changed the trajectory of my life personally," she said.

Hurst using the squeeze feature on the iPad Air. Credit: Chantal Hurst (@papernroses)

Next, you've got to download some apps. Which ones does Hurst suggest? "Procreate and Goodnotes," she said, which are respectively $12.99 and free with in-app purchases. "They're the best apps and they're so inexpensive, which is crazy for all the things that they're able to provide just regular people with," she added.

Another app Hurst suggests is Zinnia, another freebie with paid in-app purchases. "It has a lot of pre-built planners for all sorts of things. You can use it to plan out which books you're reading. You can use it to pregnancy journal. You can use it to scrapbook — all sorts of stuff," she said.

Hurst warned that it's easy for one to procrastinate when it comes to planning simple things like an annual physical or that every-six-months trip to the dentist, and the iPad Air, alongside the aforementioned apps and templates, ensures that those to-do's get done.

Boyd video editing on the iPad Air Credit: Kristine Boyd (@flourishplanner_)

Boyd, who started using iPad in 2018, concurs with Hurst. Procreate and Goodnotes are her favorite apps. "I plan on my iPad every morning. I'll sit down and write my to-do list for the day. And I love doing it on iPad because I can use all of these different highlighters and colors."

Boyd also recommends Freeform, a free, pre-installed Apple app. "It's basically like an endless canvas and I love using that for brainstorming with brain webs — and you can keep zooming out and have more space."

Digital planning tips

Interestingly, some people aren't aware that the iPad Air features a split-screen feature, which isn't exclusive to the iPad Air — it works on other iPad models as well as the MacBook. For example, as Hurst explained to Mashable, you can pull up Pinterest on the left and Procreate on the right to get some inspiration from the visual discovery platform.

Hurst's weekly digital planner on the 13-inch iPad Air Credit: Chantal Hurst (@papernroses)

Boyd suggests getting a matte screen protector, like this one, as it grips the screen a little better. "It makes it feel more natural," she said. She also recommends the Magic Keyboard. "It's my favorite keyboard for the iPad. It's just so easy because it connects with Bluetooth. You can snap it on and it just transforms your iPad to basically like a little laptop."

Magic Keyboards on the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models. Credit: Chantal Hurst (@papernroses)

The iPad Air has a starting price of $599, and comes in the 11-inch model, which you can grab from Apple's official store. If you want to step your game up, you can get the 13-inch model, which has a price tag of $799.

Opens in a new window Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable 13-inch iPad Air $799.00
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TL;DR: Through May 22, get this 9-inch wireless car display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility on sale for $99.97 (reg. $179.99).

For many car owners, upgrading to a newer model just to access the latest tech isn't an option. Whether due to budget constraints or sentimental value, keeping an older car running can mean missing out on modern conveniences.

However, there’s an affordable solution that can bring today's technology to almost any vehicle: this 9-inch wireless car display (compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), is on sale for just $99.97 (reg. $179.99) through May 22.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility allow you to access your phone's key apps directly from the dashboard. This means you can use navigation apps, play music, send messages, and make calls through a familiar interface, all without touching your phone. You also have the option to use voice assistants like Siri and Google Assistant for hands-free commands. It's not just safer; it's also more convenient. 

Adding a 9-inch display to an older car can instantly transform the driving experience. With this addition, vehicles lacking built-in displays can gain a modern touchscreen hub that can bring an aged car into the future.

It also has phone mirroring capabilities (for those apps not supported by Apple CarPlay or Android Auto) and built-in speakers. You can also use Bluetooth to transmit to your car speakers, FM wireless transmission audio, and AUX output audio.

Installation is straightforward, and all you need is the included suction cup and self-adhesive mount.

Whether commuting to work, running errands, or heading out on a road trip, this display can help bring your vehicle into the modern age without breaking the bank.

This 9" wireless car display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility is on sale for $99.97 (reg. $179.99) through May 22.

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Opens in a new window Credit: RochasDivineMart 9-inch Wireless Car Display with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto Compatibility & Phone Mirroring $99.97 at the Mashable Shop
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TL;DR: Through May 22, get a 13-in-1 Dual-HDMI Docking Station on sale for $49.99 (reg. $70).

Sometimes, the difference between a good workday and a great one can come down to the tools we use. So it makes sense that finding the right gadgets to streamline your workflow can be a huge benefit. One standout solution for tech-savvy professionals is this 13-in-1 USB-C Docking Station. It's on sale for $49.99 (reg. $70) for a limited time.

Expand the functionality of your desktop or laptop with this docking station, which was designed to transform your workspace into a more efficient and connected environment. Connect your laptop to dual 4K monitors with excellent display quality — helpful for graphic designers, video editors, and anyone who needs more screen real estate.

The docking station's 5Gbps data transfer rate helps you move files quickly between devices. This speed could be especially helpful for photographers, videographers, and other professionals who handle large files regularly and can't afford to waste time waiting for transfers to complete. 

One of the standout features of this docking station is its ability to deliver up to 100W of charging power through its USB-C charging port. This means you can charge laptops, tablets, and other high-powered devices without needing multiple power sources, keeping your space clean and organized. It also features three USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 ports.

Connect nearly everything from your keyboard and mouse to external storage drives and more, all through a single device that sits neatly on your desk. Don't miss this chance to get a sleek hub to support your professional life at a limited-time reduced price. 

This handy 13-in-1 Dual-HDMI Docking Station is on sale for $49.99 (reg. $70).

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Opens in a new window Credit: Tech Zebra 13-in-1 Docking Station with Dual HDMI $49.99 at the Mashable Shop
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From time to time, the sun discharges billions of tons of solar matter, traveling millions of miles per hour, straight at Earth.

Yet humans and life on the surface aren't physically harmed by the intense space radiation. That's why, when the strongest solar impact to occur in over 20 years recently hit, you may have been blithely unaware — except for the resulting atmospheric light show, as magnificent glowing auroras appeared in unusual places.

Not all worlds, like the moon and Mars, have such protection. Yet Earth boasts both a robust magnetic field and atmosphere, which keep dangerous cosmic particles away from our fragile flesh.

SEE ALSO: NASA's Voyager is in hostile territory. It's 'dodging bullets.'

"Without those we would be in real trouble," Bennett Maruca, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware who researches the sun, told Mashable.

Tweet may have been deleted Earth's protective magnetic field

Some 1,800 miles beneath your feet lies a giant, blazing-hot ball of metal.

Earth's core is largely made of molten iron and nickel — an ideal fluid to conduct electricity. As it swirls around and around it acts similar to an electric generator, creating electrical currents that naturally produce a big magnetic field. As the graphic below shows, the magnetic field loops out from the poles, trapping harmful solar energy a safe distance away (and in some cases deflecting these energetic solar particles).

Ultimately, many particles slam into Earth's atmosphere, following magnetic lines to the poles where they deposit energy and produce fantastic atmospheric radiance (popularly called the Northern Lights in the Northern Hemisphere).

An image of a CME impacting an illustation of Earth's magnetic field, shown by the blue lines. Credit: SOHO / LASCO / EIT (ESA & NASA)

The instigators of the recent lights were "coronal mass ejections," or CMEs, from the sun. These are great masses of hot gas (plasma), essentially a chunk of the sun, hurled into space. When they collide with Earth, they can create robust "geomagnetic storms," which are disturbances in Earth's magnetic field from these solar shocks.

"Multiple coronal mass ejections from the sun sparked an extreme geomagnetic storm around the Earth last week [May 11], creating stunning auroras, even in places where the northern lights are rarely seen," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explained. "The Southern Hemisphere also reported remarkable auroras from the storm."

Earth's protective atmosphere

Our planet's upper atmosphere also shields us from harmful solar activity, not just coronal mass ejections, but also the relentless solar wind and solar flares (explosions of light from the sun's surface). 

"It's a planetary kevlar vest," Maruca emphasized.

Well above our clouds and weather, both the ionosphere and thermosphere (together ranging from some 50 to 400 miles up) absorb charged particles and damaging radiation, like X-rays and UV rays.

"We're well-protected by the natural systems here."

"We're well-protected by the natural systems here," Andrew Layden, chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Bowling Green State University, told Mashable.

Of course, astronauts on the International Space Station (and in the coming years on the moon or Mars) aren't protected by these natural buffers; hence the extra shielding on the station. Airline workers, working at higher altitudes, may potentially have some exposure risk, too, though this is an ongoing area of research.

The dangers to our technology

Extreme eruptions from the sun, located 93 million miles away, can't physically hurt us. But our electrical and communication systems are vulnerable. "It's not our biological systems at risk – it's our technology," Maruca said.

During the May 2024 solar storms, many farming tractors, reliant on GPS satellite guidance systems, went offline. In 2003, airlines rerouted flights, at great cost, to avoid communication blackouts. In 1989, an extreme solar storm fried a $10 million transformer at Salem Nuclear Power Plant in New Jersey. The same CME knocked out power to millions in Québec, Canada. It hit Earth's magnetic field, and then, wrote NASA astronomer Sten Odenwald, "Just after 2:44 a.m. on March 13, the currents found a weakness in the electrical power grid of Quebec. In less than two minutes, the entire Quebec power grid lost power. During the 12-hour blackout that followed, millions of people suddenly found themselves in dark office buildings and underground pedestrian tunnels, and in stalled elevators."

A coronal mass ejection imaged on Feb. 27, 2000. Credit: SOHO ESA / NASA

Even bigger solar storms are inevitable.

The largest such episode ever observed was the Carrington Event, in 1859, The solar storms produced auroras so bright, they awoke Rocky Mountain gold miners at 1 a.m., and people could reportedly read newspapers by the eerie atmospheric light.

Such an event today — if not properly prepared for — could stoke widespread electrical blackouts and fry communications satellites. "If that were to occur today it would do a lot of damage," Layden said. "No one knows when that Carrington-level event is going to happen again." A report from the National Academies says that an estimate of "$1 trillion to $2 trillion during the first year alone was given for the societal and economic costs of a 'severe geomagnetic storm scenario' with recovery times of 4 to 10 years."

"It's a staggering figure," Maruca said.

Thankfully, we have space weather prediction experts, such as those at NOAA, who can provide warning of an incoming blast of charged particles and radiation. Power utilities, for example, can temporarily shut down electric grids to avoid permanently-damaged infrastructure.

It's only a matter of time. "Investing in space weather prediction is a good thing to do," Layden said.

One could argue that thrillers are among the best movie genres. On one hand, it’s because there’s such a wide variety of methods a filmmaker can use to thrill an audience — from psychological spooks to the mounting suspense of crime movies, from the shocks of a horror thriller to real-world scenarios a movie can fictionalize to send anyone into a state of anxious frenzy. But it's also because thrillers are just so damn gripping and fun to devour.

We've let our heart rates suffer and anxiety levels skyrocket to curate a list of the very best thrillers you can find on Netflix, all of which offer a smorgasbord of exhilaration and intrigue. There's trashy thrills, high-stakes action, badass revenge flicks, crime capers, a gothic period piece, and even a plummet down the terrifying paths student debt will send you.

1. Missing

In Missing, the 18-year-old June (Storm Reid) tries to find her mother (Nia Long) after she goes missing while vacationing in Colombia with her new boyfriend (Ken Leung). What sets this apart from your typical thriller is that it takes place entirely on screens. Just as the 2019 film Searching from Aneesh Chaganty updated the found footage subgenre for the digital age, Missing (which was produced by Chaganty) uses everything from MacBook screens and FaceTime calls to Ring security cameras and SnapChat videos to tell a story entirely dependent on technology. That may seem like a cheap gimmick, but it works surprisingly well for a story about surveillance and identity in the modern day. 

SEE ALSO: 'Missing' review: a twisty whodunnit where Gen Z's internet habits save the day

Throughout Missing, June uses every imaginable piece of modern-day consumer tech to find her mom and solve the case. Apple location tracking, Google account history, a Citizen-style reporting app, TaskRabbit, WhatsApp, live tourist cams, and even the good old Notes app are all vital tools in June’s search. Missing is a fun, twist-laden ride that never sacrifices its emotional story for its clever visual techniques. — Oliver Whitney, Freelance Contributor

How to watch: Missing is now streaming on Netflix.

2. Burning

Lee Chang-dong’s Burning is many things: a strange love story, a mystery about a missing woman, a study of violence and masculinity, and a portrait of class collision in South Korea. The slow-burn psychological thriller starts off with Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in), a working-class man and aspiring writer who becomes involved with Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), a woman from his childhood. Then a mysterious wealthy man named Ben (a chilling Steven Yeun) suddenly enters the picture, and Jong-su brews with jealousy over the handsome stranger. He’s suspicious of the guy, and grows concerned for Hae-mi’s safety. Where Burning goes from there is strange and haunting, laced with hypnotizing visuals and an atmosphere of unease. It’s the type of thriller that defies genre expectations, refuses to give easy answers, and remains mesmerizing throughout, both visually and narratively. — O.W.

How to watch: Burning is now streaming on Netflix.

3. See You Yesterday Credit: Linda Kallerus / Netflix

See You Yesterday takes the suspense and high stakes of a time-travel premise and applies it to a story about anti-Black police violence. In Stefon Bristol’s film, which he co-wrote with Fredrica Bailey, Eden Duncan-Smith plays C.J., a high school science wiz who’s dedicated to building a time machine with her best friend Bash (Danté Crichlow). As the pair are hard at work fine-tuning their invention, C.J.’s older brother Calvin (Brian Bradley, aka Astro) is shot and killed by a police officer. C.J. decides, as anyone with a time machine rightfully would, that she’s going to go back in time and save him. Yet as every time travel movie warns us, toying with the past can be a messy affair that may only make things worse. 

SEE ALSO: Police killings are a mental health crisis for Black people. They deserve real solutions.

Tying the levity and playfulness of a Back To the Future-esque story with something as grave and harrowing as police brutality might not sound like a natural tonal fit, but Bristol makes it work. See You Yesterday doesn’t use time travel as a genre gimmick, but more as a means to comment on the violence Black Americans continue to face at the hands of police. Ultimately, it’s an empowering and thought-provoking way into a story about doing anything to protect the people you love from those who violently wield power over you, no matter the cost. — O.W.

How to watch: See You Yesterday is now streaming on Netflix.

4. I Care a Lot

Rosamund Pike once again gets to play an icy and manipulative cool girl in J Blakeson’s black comedy thriller I Care a Lot. This time around, her character is so monstrous and nasty she makes Gone Girl’s Amy Dunne look saintly. 

Meet Marla Grayson, a vape-smoking con artist with a sharp blonde bob and a fierce gaze that will shrivel you upon glance. Marla’s get-rich scheme targets elderly folks — so evil! — by getting legal guardianship over them and forcing them into nursing homes. Then, she sells all their belongings and keeps the profit. The next victim of Marla and her girlfriend Fran’s (Eiza González) scam is a wealthy woman named Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), but it turns out she’s not exactly who the couple think she is. Without spoiling the rest, just know it involves explosions and kidnappings and Peter Dinklage as a mob boss. — O.W.

How to watch: I Care a Lot is now streaming on Netflix.

5. Omar

In the first few minutes of Omar, we watch a man patiently stand beside a giant concrete wall, hoist his body up with a rope, dodge bullets from a sniper as he reaches the top, then frantically slide down the opposite side with bleeding, torn hands. After racing through back alleys and streets he finally arrives at his destination: his best friend’s home. Omar (Adam Bakri) is a Palestinian baker who lives in the occupied West Bank. 

The 2013 film from Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad blends suspense with drama and romance to tell a story distinctly from the perspective of a Palestinian person living under Israeli occupation. Over the course of the film, we follow Omar as he climbs the towering wall that separates him from his friends, exchanges sweet love letters with his girlfriend Nadia (Leem Lubany), is beaten in the street by Israeli Defense Forces soldiers, plans an attack of armed resistance, and then later, as he’s captured and tortured in prison by an Israeli police agent. 

Omar offers a rare depiction of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails who have reported over the years experiences of torture and abuse and of being held without trial or charges. Abu-Assad expertly grounds the tender hopefulness of a personal love story within a larger story that speaks to the horrors Palestinians report experiencing under violent occupation. — O.W.

How to watch: Omar is now streaming on Netflix.

6. The Call Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

It's 2019, and Seo-yeon (Park Shin-Hye) is traveling back to her childhood home after visiting her estranged, ill mother. Once she arrives there, she gets a strange call from a distressed woman named Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo), who seems to have dialed the wrong number. But the woman calls again, and again, and eventually Seo-yeon realizes that she and Young-sook have something in common — they’re both living in the same exact house, but not at the same time. Young-sook is calling from 1999, 20 years in the past, and Seo-yeon soon learns that her fate is intertwined with that of her new mysterious friend. A psychological thriller with a simple but engaging premise, The Call is layered with one twist after another that will keep you on edge until the climactic finale. — O.W.

How to watch: The Call is now streaming on Netflix.

7. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore Credit: Netflix

Some of the best thrillers aren’t about big heists or complex murder mysteries, but about normal people dealing with normal, everyday crap. In I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, that normal person is Melanie Lynskey’s Ruth, a depressed nursing assistant who’s having a terrible day. Her house has just been burglarized, and she just wants her goddamn laptop and grandma’s silverware back. With the help of her neighbor Tony (a kooky Elijah Wood sporting a rattail), Ruth sets out on a mission of vigilantism to track down her things and right some wrongs, leading a series of violent shenanigans. This Macon Blair film is a satisfying revenge thriller that also gives Lynskey the badass, complex leading role she’s long deserved. If you enjoyed her in Yellowjackets and as the ruthless rebel leader in The Last of Us, you’ll absolutely love her here. — O.W.

How to watch: I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore is now streaming on Netflix.

8. The Old Guard Credit: Aimee Spinks / Netflix

In The Old Guard, Charlize Theron leads a team of badass, immortal mercenaries — what’s not to love? Based on Greg Rucka’s comic book, the film from Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King, Love & Basketball) follows Theron’s Andy and her team of centuries-old assassins who can pop bullets out of their bodies and heal from gnarly wounds in no time. The team includes an ancient gay couple, Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli), Matthias Schoenaerts as Booker, Chiwetel Ejiofor as their ex-CIA boss Copley, and the newest recruit, a young Marine named Nile (KiKi Layne, the film's MVP) who’s just discovering her regenerative abilities. After being sent on their latest mission, the team gets ambushed by a Big Pharma CEO (Harry Melling of Harry Potter fame) who wants to steal their abilities — for profit, of course. Full of thrilling action set pieces, slick fight choreography, and even some Medieval flashbacks, Prince-Bythewood’s film is a hugely entertaining blockbuster in every sense. The film sets up the rich world of Rucka’s comics, which we’ll surely see more of when the sequel (or perhaps sequels) eventually hits Netflix. — O.W.

How to watch: The Old Guard is now streaming on Netflix.

SEE ALSO: 'The Old Guard' is a slick and smart action blockbuster from Netflix 9. Eye For an Eye

In the Spanish dramatic thriller Eye For an Eye, Mario (Luis Tosar) is the head nurse at an assisted living facility who gets assigned to an unlikely new patient: a retired, infamous drug lord. Antonio (Xan Cejudo) has just been released from prison due to his deteriorating physical health and prefers to live out his final days in a nursing home, rather than around his erratic sons who’ve taken over the cartel business. But as Mario begins to care for Antonio, sudden flashbacks to a past incident reveal that the nurse has a secret agenda for the drug lord. Led by strong performances, Eye For an Eye is a bleak-as-hell film that unflinchingly explores how far one may go for revenge. — O.W.

How to watch: Eye for an Eye is now streaming on Netflix.

10. The Irishman Credit: Netflix

It’s Scorsese directing De Niro and Pacino, on screen together for the first time since 1995’s Heat! What more do you need to know? Perhaps some convincing is necessary, though, to get you to sit down for the gargantuan three and a half hours that is The Irishman. The truth is, Scorsese earns that runtime in this sprawling crime epic, which beautifully examines the psychological toll of being witness to and complicit in a life of crime. 

The decades-hopping film opens with an aging Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) as he recounts his life as a (younger, CGI de-aged) hitman involved with the mob, the corrupt Teamsters union, and union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). The phenomenal cast also includes an excellent (as usual) Joe Pesci as Philadelphia mob boss Russell Bufalino, as well as Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Kathrine Narducci, Jesse Plemons, and Stephen Graham. — O.W.

How to watch: The Irishman is now streaming on Netflix.

11. The Beguiled

Sometimes the mere presence of a man is enough to instigate ominous tension. In Sofia Coppola's gothic Civil War thriller The Beguiled — a remake of the 1971 Clint Eastwood film of the same name — Colin Farrell plays a wounded Union soldier who falls ill near a Confederate all-girls' school. Nicole Kidman's headmaster Miss Farnsworth allows him to stay until his health restores, but an atmosphere of sexual unease and jealousy begins to pervade the school as each girl vies for the handsome soldier's affection, especially Kirsten Dunst's Miss Edwina Morrow. The Beguiled soon crescendos into a frenetic thrill ride of violence, secrets, and one very unforgettable meal. Most memorably, Coppola gives us an all-timer line: a distraught Farrell screaming, "You vengeful bitches!" — O.W.

How to watch: The Beguiled is now streaming on Netflix.

12. Emily the Criminal

Known best for her offbeat deadpan humor, Aubrey Plaza gets to fully immerse herself in a high-stress dramatic role in Emily the Criminal, and it's a real treat to watch. She plays Emily, an artist suffocated by her $70,000 of student debt and a criminal record preventing her from landing a reliable job. Everything is stacked against her until a coworker hooks her up with a side gig doing credit card fraud, sending her down a new path of danger and financial success.

SEE ALSO: 11 best true crime docs about scammers, con artists, and deadly deceptions

Most crime thrillers put us in the shoes of long-time, professional swindlers, yet Emily the Criminal feels especially relatable as a story about the way anyone — especially those of us buried in debt — could consider illegal routes out of pure desperation. While the film could benefit from a keener analysis of the systems in place that directly lead to crime and inequities in the first place, it's really Plaza's performance that makes this film shine. She does a phenomenal job of channeling a young woman breaking under the pressure of financial instability, and also one who grows more daring and outspoken the deeper she gets. — O.W.

How to watch: Emily the Criminal is now streaming on Netflix.

13. The Woman in the Window Credit: Netflix

If you like your thrillers absolutely over the top and oozing with melodrama, may I introduce you to Joe Wright's deliciously entertaining The Woman in the Window? Based on the A.J. Finn bestseller of the same name, this thriller finds Amy Adams camping it up as Anna Fox, a child psychologist with an extreme case of agoraphobia that prevents her from leaving her Manhattan brownstone. One evening, after guzzling wine and popping prescription medication, Anna believes she's witnessed a murder across the street. But as the detectives begin to question her sanity, Anna also starts to lose a grip on what's real.

Of course, you've seen this all before, and that's kinda the point. A mash-up of Rear Window meets Gaslight and filled with a dozen and a half other references to classic noir that Anna actually watches throughout the movie, The Woman in the Window is more of a cheesy love letter to a subgenre than a successful recreation of one. But boy, does that give way to some good, trashy fun. — O.W.

How to watch: The Woman in the Window is now streaming on Netflix.

14. Triple Frontier Credit: Netflix

There's nothing like a good ensemble in a crime film, and Triple Frontier has one of the strongest in years. Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Pedro Pascal, Garrett Hedlund, and Charlie Hunnam play five former Special Forces military operators in this J.C. Chandor thriller. Feeling neglected by their government, the men decide to get in on a heist to steal $75 million from a drug cartel in a South American jungle. But as greed sets in and tensions rise, things start going off the rails.

SEE ALSO: Everyone is thirsty for Pedro Pascal. Has the internet gone too far this time?

Triple Frontier isn't the explosive action mayhem you'd expect from say, The Expendables, but instead Chandor brings a more restrained, taut suspense to his sequences, including a memorable tracking shot during the heist. The real glue that holds it all together though is the all-around excellent work from his stellar cast, especially Isaac and Pascal, a duo that one can only hope will team up again. — O.W.

How to watch: Triple Frontier is now streaming on Netflix.

15. The Guilty Credit: Glen Wilson / Netflix

Some of the sharpest tension arises from showing less on screen and leaving the most intense moments up to our imagination. That's the approach Antoine Fuqua takes in The Guilty, a remake of the Danish film of the same name; the narrative unfolds over the course of one day, in one location, with the majority of the action taking place offscreen. 

SEE ALSO: Jake Gyllenhaal was directed from a van for his latest film — and he has thoughts

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Joe, an LAPD officer working as a 911 dispatch operator who receives a call from a woman who's been abducted. Over a series of phone calls where Joe tries to solve the crime, we watch the tension grow and burst through Gyllenhaal’s performance alone, forcing us to envision what's happening on the other end of the line. It's a gimmick that works, largely thanks to Gyllenhaal's ability to convincingly play a man becoming completely undone over the course of 90 minutes. — O.W.

How to watch: The Guilty is now streaming on Netflix.

16 - 18. The Fear Street Trilogy Credit: Netflix

Leigh Janiak deserves far more acclaim than she's gotten for her Fear Street movies. Her trilogy of throwback teen horror thrillers both pay homage to and cleverly reinvent the tropes of genre staples, most notably by having queer and female characters take the lead. The filmmaker's trio of interconnected films span three decades to tell a story about a town plagued by a curse, but each movie has its own distinct genre aesthetic with heavy doses of gore and shocking chills.

SEE ALSO: All the horror movie references in Netflix's 'Fear Street' trilogy

In Fear Street Part One: 1994, a love letter to slashers of the '90s, a masked killer wreaks havoc on the small town as a gang of friends attempt to stop the killings. In Fear Street Part Two: 1978, we hang out with a new set of teens at a summer camp, nodding at everything from Friday the 13th to Sleepaway Camp. And in Fear Street Part Three: 1666, a spooky ode to folk horror, the origins of the previous movies' mysteries are soon revealed. The Fear Street trilogy may be horror first, but Janiak laces all three movies with an exciting suspense that keeps you hooked until the very end. — O.W.

How to watch: The Fear Street Trilogy is now streaming on Netflix.

SEE ALSO: The 28 best queer horror movies now streaming 19. Intrusion

In this home invasion thriller, Freida Pinto's therapist Meera and her architect husband Henry (Logan Marshall-Green) relocate from Boston to New Mexico to live in a newly built modern home in a majestic desert landscape. The two seem like the picturesque couple, but their sense of everyday safety is rocked when their house is broken into one night. More strange occurrences follow, and soon after it happens again when a group of masked invaders return.

While there's nothing especially new in Intrusion that you haven't seen done in other home invasion movies, there is a twist here. Things take a sharp turn when Meera begins to grow suspicious of the person she trusts most, and tension brews as she wonders if there are more clues tied to the intruders themselves. — O.W.

How to watch: Intrusion is now streaming on Netflix.

20. The Killer Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

David Fincher's bleak, cynical, and oddly fun film about a contract killer (Michael Fassbender) explores both the mundanities of the profession and what it takes to be really, really good at it. Well, except for when he botches the hit that opens The Killer, that is. Fassbender's unnamed assassin makes a rare miss, shooting a dominatrix instead of her client and his target. This mistake causes him to become the prey, but he refuses to give up his role as a predator and begins tracking down those who would punish him for his transgression.

How have Fincher and Fassbender never worked together before The Killer? The Zodiac director's work demonstrates a cold precision, which seems like a natural fit for an actor who is often at his best in films that require a reined-in performance, like Shame and Steve Jobs, not to mention Prometheus and its sequel. Fassbender's deadpan narration may lull less-engaged viewers to sleep, but they'll miss a smart, sharp film with a mordantly funny script from Andrew Kevin Walker and a great score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Fassbender is the draw here, but his loner character is surrounded by a solid supporting cast including Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell, and Arliss Howard. — Kimber Myers, Freelance Contributor

How to watch: The Killer is now streaming on Netflix.

21. The Novice

Sports films are generally known for their inspirational bent, but this indie about a rookie rower is decidedly less uplifting. Instead, The Novice focuses on how athletics and competition can simply be another avenue to channel one's obsessive tendencies, even though it may initially appear healthier than other fixations. 

Isabelle Fuhrman is best known for the intensity she brought to the title role in Orphan and its prequel, and that quality works equally well here. The actress stars as Alex, a college freshman who joins her school's rowing team. She quickly invests all her energy into making the varsity squad, neglecting her studies and everything else in her life, including growing wounds on her palms from too-frequent practice on the rowing machine.

The Novice feels as emotionally raw as Alex's injury, but this directorial debut from sound editor Lauren Hadaway is polished, with an attention to form that any rower would appreciate. Hadaway was inspired by her own time as a rower in college, bringing an authenticity to both the film's characters and its depiction of the sport. This is a gripping, unsettling film, but its 97-minute runtime speeds by at a pace that most athletes would envy. — K.M.

How to watch: The Novice is now streaming on Netflix.

22. Dark Waters

What makes this Todd Haynes movie so gripping and utterly gutting is its basis in fact — and the sheer magnitude of people affected by the on-screen crimes committed by a corporation in search of profits. Dark Waters is based on the work of Cincinnati lawyer Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), who fought chemical giant DuPont for the harm it inflicted on a small West Virginia community and its efforts to cover up those harms. 

In other hands, Dark Waters could've been a perfunctory environmental legal thriller that invokes righteous anger, but Haynes is such a fine craftsman that it never skimps on quality. Frequent Haynes cinematographer Edward Lachman composes some gorgeous shots, offering far more beauty than the mere workman-like competence required by the genre. Ruffalo leads a cast of talented actors, including Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Pullman, Bill Camp, and Victor Garber. 

Given the presence of these stars, Dark Waters underperformed with just $11 million at the domestic box office, making the conspiracy-minded part of my brain question if it was intentionally buried. This is the type of movie that should've gotten more discussion and awards attention, but it's not too late to discover this enthralling hidden gem. — K.M.

How to watch: Dark Waters is now streaming on Netflix.

23. Inside Man

On its surface, Spike Lee's Inside Man appears to be a standard, if very well-made, heist movie starring the director's frequent collaborator Denzel Washington. The Oscar winner plays Keith Frazier, a New York City detective called in along with his partner (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to help when a bank heist in lower Manhattan turns into a hostage situation. Yet this 2006 film has more on its mind than just money, resulting in a smart movie with history and commentary woven amidst its expected thrills. 

This is one of Lee's most mainstream offerings, casting big stars Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, and Christopher Plummer alongside the stalwart presence of Washington. Its marketing even made it look like a crowd-pleasing blockbuster, resulting in the filmmaker's biggest financial success yet in his decades-long career. And while it's in the minority of entries in the director's filmography that he didn't write himself, it still feels like a Spike Lee movie at its core, with Washington as its star, the trademark double dolly shots, and sharp social criticism. Inside Man balances being wildly entertaining and thought-provoking, providing both plot twists and trenchant observations. — K.M.

How to watch: Inside Man is now streaming on Netflix.

24. X Credit: Courtesy of A24

Ti West's horror movie about the filming of a porno that goes horribly wrong could have been content to just be full of titillation and terror, and it probably still would've been pretty great. However, it ups the ante by adding some real substance to its sexy, bloody cocktail. Set in 1979, X follows an adult film director (Owen Campbell), his girlfriend (Jenna Ortega), and his stars (Mia Goth, Brittany Snow, and Scott Mescudi) as they attempt to make a dirty movie on a rural Texas property owned by an elderly couple who weren't informed of what kind of picture they were making. The cast and crew are dispatched in creative ways, and it's fun, funny, and super violent, anchored by a strong performance by Goth. 

X marked the first entry in the X trilogy, followed by the prequel Pearl in 2022 and the sequel MaXXXine,  which is slated for release this July. West is clearly a director who loves film and isn't afraid to wear his influences on his rolled-up sleeves. The House of the Devil pays homage to the supernaturally scary flicks of the '70s and '80s, while In a Valley of Violence is a love letter to the Western. Meanwhile, X nods to down-and-dirty horror movies like 1974's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as well as actual dirty movies, resulting in a gory good time. — K.M.

How to watch: X is now streaming on Netflix.

25. The Gift

Though Joel Edgerton is primarily known for appearing in front of the camera with roles in Warrior, The Great Gatsby, and the Star Wars saga, he made a masterfully creepy directorial debut with this 2015 shocker. The Australian actor also wrote and co-stars in The Gift, a film whose benign title belies exactly how much it will mess you up.

Rebecca Hall and Jason Bateman star as a married couple who have just moved back to the husband's childhood town, while Edgerton plays a guy who went to high school with Bateman's character and who just… keeps showing up. The Gift has elements of your standard stalker thriller, but it's so much more than that, with Edgerton's screenplay proving to be disturbing on so many levels. As a well-crafted tale that explores just how monstrous men can be (it turns out: pretty monstrous!), The Gift should probably come with a warning for those with past traumas lingering close to the surface. For a movie with no gore and little on-screen violence, it displays a truly impressive level of nastiness, which is both praise for Edgerton and a warning for viewers. — K.M.

How to watch: The Gift is now streaming on Netflix.

26. Oldboy

The celebrated centerpiece of Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy, Oldboy is a nightmare of violence and insanity from its opening moments, where Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) appears to dangle a man with a cute pup off a building. If you're even a little tempted to nope out at the thought of the dog in peril, now's your chance to exit, because Oldboy only gets wilder from here. But if you stay, you'll be treated to one of the all-time great revenge thrillers and a modern classic of Korean cinema. 

After a particularly serious bender, frequently drunk Dae-su is inexplicably kidnapped and then held captive for 15 years. During his imprisonment, he learns he has been framed for his wife's murder, and their young daughter was adopted, turning him into a fugitive without any family. When he is released just as mysteriously, he embarks on a mission of vengeance against his captors, but they aren't done with his torture yet. 

Oldboy overflows with indelible images — a man emerging from a trunk, an octopus being eaten alive, an oft-imitated but never-equaled one-shot hallway brawl — and it all adds up to a movie that crawls into your psyche. Park is a master of the mindfuck, and you'll never look at a hammer or a dumpling (or, really, anything in your life) the same way after watching this brutal but brilliant film. — K.M.

How to watch: Oldboy is now streaming on Netflix.

27. Devil in a Blue Dress

One of the great tragedies in this world is that we have gotten three Equalizer movies starring Denzel Washington but only one Easy Rawlins film. And it's not like there's a shortage of source material; Walter Mosley has written over a dozen novels about the detective, beginning with Devil in a Blue Dress, which was adapted by writer/director Carl Franklin in 1995.

In this evocative, hard-boiled mystery set in post-war Los Angeles, veteran Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins is struggling to find work. A white P.I. (Tom Sizemore) asks for help in locating a missing white woman (Jennifer Beals) who spends a lot of time in Black social circles, luring Easy into a world where nothing is as it seems.  

As predictably great as Washington is as Easy Rawlins, this is the rare instance where the Oscar winner might not give a film its best performance. That honor goes to a young Don Cheadle, who plays Easy's wild card of a friend Mouse. Cheadle is the ace up the movie's sleeve, bringing an electric, unpredictable energy to the role that hints at the huge career to come. — K.M.

How to watch: Devil in a Blue Dress is now streaming on Netflix.

28. Gerald's Game Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Director Mike Flanagan is best known for his Netflix TV series including The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and The Fall of the House of Usher, but fans shouldn't skip this gnarly little psychological thriller from 2017 based on a Stephen King novel. Gerald's Game is spare but suspenseful, with a setting almost entirely within the confines of an isolated lake house. Its cast is equally minimal, serving as a showcase for Carla Gugino's acting prowess since she carries practically the entire film on her shoulders. 

SEE ALSO: Where you've seen 'The House of Usher' cast before: Welcome to the Flanaverse

The Flanagan favorite stars as Jessie, a woman who is stuck handcuffed to a bed when her husband, Gerald (Bruce Greenwood), dies mid-coitus. With the keys out of reach, Jessie mentally revisits past traumas as she desperately tries to escape and survive horrors real, remembered, and imagined. Gugino doesn't usually star in movies, but she gets to do so much here as her character runs the gamut of emotions in her moment of desperation. Gerald's Game fits a lot into its small package with some truly gasp-inducing scenes, and it exists as a chilling companion to the director and star's collaborations in TV. — K.M.

How to watch: Gerald's Game is now streaming on Netflix.

29. A Walk Among the Tombstones 

Vengeance is mine, saith Liam Neeson. This grimy crime thriller from 2014 isn't too far from his signature role in Taken, but we're not complaining. In A Walk Among the Tombstones, Neeson's character also has a very particular set of skills, which he puts to good use against some very bad men. Here he offers his gravelly growl as Matt Scudder, a private unlicensed detective and recovering alcoholic who is drawn into investigating the grisly exploits of two sociopaths who are leaving the corpses of women in pieces around the city. 

Set in New York in 1999, A Walk Among the Tombstones has an air of Y2K hysteria and a sense of unease coursing through the streets. Writer/director Scott Frank adapted the film from a novel by prolific mystery writer Lawrence Block, and he brings a nice attention to detail and atmosphere. The script mentions Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe by name, and it's certainly drawing from that hallowed tradition of private eyes on the page and screen. Frank may not reinvent the wheel, but he executes the well-worn form of the neo-noir with style. Meanwhile, Neeson does great work as the matter-of-fact Scudder, with his performance making it worth watching some of the film's more disturbing moments. A Walk Among the Tombstones has some pretty sick stuff. You may want to take a shower afterward, but it won't wash away the lingering ball of anxiety in your stomach. — K.M.

How to watch: A Walk Among the Tombstones is now streaming on Netflix.

Opens in a new window Credit: Netflix Netflix Get Deal

UPDATE: May. 16, 2024, 11:18 a.m. EDT This article has been updated to reflect Netflix's current streaming selection.

Max has become a streaming service we can't live without.

The library boasts thousands of hours of endless movie magic, from hallowed Hollywood favorites in the Turner Classic Movies collection to nerdy essentials like The Lord of the Rings and Aliens to the works of directors like Chantal Akerman, Wong Kar-wai, Robert Altman, and Akira Kurosawa. Not to mention, Barbie.

Picking the best (and distinguishing them from our personal favorites) was no easy task, but we somehow managed.

In no particular order, here are the best movies on Max.

1. Parasite (2019) Credit: Curzon Artificial Eye / Kobal / Shutterstock

Four years have passed, and it’s still wild that a film like Parasite took home the Best Picture trophy at the Oscars back in 2020. Not only was Bong Joon-ho’s black comedy thriller the very first non-English language film to grab Hollywood’s highest honor, but it was also by far the most audacious film to do so. The South Korean filmmaker’s anti-capitalist parable follows the Kims, a poor family just barely getting by, who decide to infiltrate the lives of the wealthy Park family, who reside in a luxurious modern home. First Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik) pretends to be a student to get a job tutoring the Parks’ daughter. Then he gets his sister Ki-jung, aka “Jessica” (cue air quotes) a job as their son’s art therapist. Eventually, the entire Kim family is on the Parks’ payroll, without the Parks realizing they’re related. 

But Parasite is so much more than a class-conscious story about a scheming family. Bong has long been a master of genre mash-up filmmaking, and with Parasite, he further blends tingling suspense with biting humor, startling violence, and unforgettable set pieces. Parasite is one of those rare films that was fully deserving of the massive hype around it, and still is.

How to watch: Parasite is now streaming on Max.

2. Aliens (1986)

Every sequel faces the challenge of living up to its predecessor, but Aliens had the particularly tough challenge of following sci-fi horror masterpiece Alien. They’re two phenomenal, though different, films. The beauty of James Cameron’s sequel is how it does its own thing and takes Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) story in an exhilarating, action-packed direction, instead of trying to recreate the slow, atmospheric horror of Ridley Scott’s Alien.  

Aliens reunited us with our heroine 57 years after the events of the first film. After awakening, Ripley decides to go back to the planet where she first encountered the Xenomorph, now that the Weyland corporation has lost contact with a human colony living there. Joined by a crew of Marines including Michael Biehn's Hicks, Bill Paxton's Hudson, and Jenette Goldstein’s Vasquez (one of coolest female action characters cinema's seen), Ripley heads back to LV-426 and takes the young orphan Newt (Carrie Henn) under her wing.

How to watch: Aliens is now streaming on Max.

3. Barbie (2023) Credit: Warner Bros / Moviestore / Shutterstock

Sweet, smart, and surprisingly subversive for a billion-dollar blockbuster, Barbie is a blast. Movies about toys are not supposed to be this thoughtful or this good, but apparently no one told that to director Greta Gerwig, who wrote Barbie with her long-term partner, Noah Baumbach. The comedy stars Margot Robbie as Barbie, the stereotypical beautiful blonde in a Barbieland populated by every imaginable kind of Barbie, a handful of Kens (led by a delightful Ryan Gosling), and one lone Allan (Michael Cera). She starts having very un-Barbie-like thoughts about, like, death, so she journeys to the real world, where she discovers things are not as idyllic as they were back in female-led Barbieland. 

In addition to being 2023’s top-grossing film, Barbie earned eight Oscar nods and one win. However, many believed it didn’t get the nominations it deserved for either Robbie as lead actress or Gerwig as director, who perhaps made their hard work look effortless. Some viewers also complained that it was too revolutionary in its feminism, while others found it too moderate, echoing the monologue from America Ferrara’s character that undoubtedly got the actress an Oscar nomination. Yet despite its small number of detractors, Barbie remains a crowd-pleasing winner, brimming with intelligence, optimism, and so much pink paint. — Kimber Myers, Freelance Contributor

How to watch: Barbie is now streaming on Max.

4. In the Mood for Love (2000)

In the Mood for Love is a favorite among many cinephiles (including this one!) for a reason — it’s one of the most sublime examples of how to tell an emotional story through the language of cinema. But you don’t need to be a film scholar or know anything at all about filmmaking or foreign movies to enjoy this romance, which relies on the power of showing over telling. 

It’s a simple story about two neighbors who soon discover a secret about their respective spouses. Set in 1960s Hong Kong, Tony Leung’s Chow Mo-Wan and Maggie Cheung’s Su Li-Zhen hardly speak more than a few words to each other, but through their encounters in the hallway of their apartment building and the staircase of a local noodle shop, something begins to blossom — a longing, a sadness, a desire to be seen. The incredible thing about In the Mood for Love is how filmmaker Wong Kar-wai captures these universal emotions and tells a relatable story about love and yearning through visuals, sound, and performances using minimal exposition. Bursting with a radiant red and golden color scheme, stunning ‘60s womens’ fashion, and a soundtrack of multinational music, In the Mood for Love is more of an experience than a traditional romance, and one that grows more beautiful with each rewatch.

How to watch: In the Mood for Love is now streaming on Max.

5. Moonlight (2016) Credit: David Bornfriend / A24 / Kobal / Shutterstock

You can look back on some Oscar Best Picture winners and wonder, “Was that movie really that good?” That’s far from the case for Moonlight. Barry Jenkins’ stunning triptych about queer Black masculinity is a film that’s only grown with beauty and emotional depth in the years since it rocked the Oscars with the infamous La La Land mix-up. 

For the uninitiated, Moonlight tells a coming-of-age story about Chiron, a young Black man from Miami, over the course of three chapters in his life. First we meet him as 10-year-old Little (Alex Hibbert), who’s taken under the wing of a compassionate local drug dealer named Juan (Mahershala Ali) and his girlfriend (Janelle Monáe). In the next chapter, Little has grown into a teenager (Ashton Sanders), who’s picked on by bullies and starts to notice feelings emerge for his best friend Kevin (Jharrel Jerome). Then we reunite with Chiron as a grown man in the form of the hulking Trevante Rhodes, who goes by the name Black. Every bit of Moonlight is coursing with lyrical poetry, from its sumptuous blue-infused visuals to Nicholas Britell’s tear-inducing score and the lead trio’s performances. It’s the rare Best Picture winner you don’t forget about easily.

How to watch: Moonlight is now streaming on Max.

6. Paris, Texas (1984)

Paris, Texas opens on a man named Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) wandering through the Texas desert wearing a red ball cap and an old dusty suit, carrying nothing but a jug of water. Travis doesn’t speak much, but in time we learn bits and pieces of the happy life he once had with a young son and a wife who’s gone missing, and of the future he’s dreaming of. Wim Wenders’ film is a difficult one to categorize, but probably best described as a road movie about dreamers and wanderers. We spend lots of time in cars and dingy motels with Travis and his brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell), as they drive from Texas back to Los Angeles, and later, as Travis searches for his wife. It’s a slow, meditative film about loneliness and uncertainty, brimming with sun-soaked landscape shots and images lit by neon signs. Once you tune into its wavelength, Paris, Texas is a film that will smack you right in the heart. 

How to watch: Paris, Texas is now streaming on Max.

7. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

If a movie could feel like getting a shot of adrenaline injected straight into your eyeballs — again, and again, and again — then that movie would be Mad Max: Fury Road. George Miller’s road warrior action epic is an absolutely bonkers ride from the very first scene to the last. After Tom Hardy’s apocalypse survivor Max escapes from the white-haired and pasty-skinned baddie Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), he teams up with Charlize Theron’s brutal-as-hell Furiosa to outrun the evil warlord. Really, Fury Road is just one continual chase sequence filled with tricked-out apocalyptic cars and semi-trucks, flame-throwing and guitar-playing sickos, a crew of badass female survivors, and some of the most gorgeous desert battles you’ve ever seen. With its eye-popping production design, blazing orange desert look, roaring sound design, and unrelenting suspense, Mad Mad: Fury Road remains an action spectacle like no other. 

How to watch: Mad Max: Fury Road is now streaming on Max.

8. The Devil Wears Prada (2006) Credit: Moviestore / Shutterstock

Need I waste time explaining why The Devil Wears Prada continues to be one of the most rewatchable and quotable comedies? Meryl Streep never misses a note as the scathing Anna Wintour-esque Miranda Priestly. Stanley Tucci is at his Tucci-est as a fashion magazine art director who comedically balances pity and concern for Anne Hathaway’s Andy. Emily Blunt is delightfully unlikable as Miranda’s vicious personal assistant. And, of course there’s the joyous Hathaway, whose Andy we can’t help but root for. The Devil Wears Prada has given us so much, from the perfect needle drop of Madonna’s “Vogue” for Andy’s makeover montage to gifting the internet with the Chanel boots meme. It’s also the film that pops into your mind every time you pass a brick of Jarlsberg in the cheese aisle and think, “Good god, $8 worth is a lot of cheese for a sandwich.”

How to watch: The Devil Wears Prada is now streaming on Max.

9. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

You may have never heard of the 1975 Belgian-French film Jeanne Dielman until recently, when the magazine Sight and Sound named it the greatest film of all time. “But wait, don’t film people consider Citizen Kane the best movie ever?” you may be thinking. For 40 years, that Orson Welles classic dominated the list, soon followed by Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Not anymore. The boys got bumped down for Chantal Akerman’s radically feminist, avant-garde marvel to reign, and deservingly so. 

So what makes Jeanne Dielman so incredible? On paper it admittedly doesn’t sound like much, but the act of watching it is almost hypnotic. Throughout the movie we slowly see a lonely widow and mother (Delphine Seyrig) meticulously do housework, like peel potatoes, grocery shop, and make the bed. Jeanne also earns money through sex work, hosting men at her home before her son returns from school. Throughout the monotony of it all, a palpable dread grows until Akerman’s character study culminates in one of the most shocking endings of all time. If a film could somehow be tedious and enthralling at the same time, Jeanne Dielman is it.

How to watch: Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is now streaming on Max.

10. Blood Simple (1984)

The Coen brothers’ very first film is a must-see for fans of the versatile filmmakers, or just anyone who loves Fargo. Blood Simple is a lean crime thriller that’s oozing with style, taut with suspense, and features an early taste of the duo’s signature dark humor. It has all the makings of a slick neo-noir with a simple story involving a secret affair, a murder plot, and a private eye.

Frances McDormand, in her feature film debut, plays Abby, a Texas housewife who begins an affair with a bartender named Ray (John Getz). But Abby’s husband, Marty (Dan Hedaya), is Ray’s boss, and when he starts to suspect her of infidelity, he hires a private detective (an incredible M. Emmet Walsh) to snoop around and spy on the new couple. The neon and blood-drenched visuals paired with an eerie electronic score from beloved composer Carter Burwell and killer performances all around make Blood Simple one of the all-time best first films. Fun fact: This is also the film where McDormand met now-husband Joel Coen.

How to watch: Blood Simple is now streaming on Max.

11. Under the Skin (2013) Credit: Film4 / Filmnation / Jw/ Kobal / Shutterstock

During her decade-long blockbuster run as Marvel’s Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson starred in this spare sci-fi oddity from 2013. Under the Skin is a truly strange and discomfiting film that crawls its way just where its title promises. Johansson plays “The Female,” an alien being who looks like a human woman (specifically, like Johansson in a short black wig). She uses her appearance to lure men in Scotland to their gruesome deaths in an inky black void. The central themes of Under the Skin are up for debate — and you won’t be able to stop thinking about this movie — but it’s fascinating to watch a film where gender roles are flipped and men are the ones who need to worry about what will happen if they walk home alone in the dark.

Director Jonathan Glazer went on to make the 2023 Oscar-winning drama, The Zone of Interest, which is also streaming on Max. What makes Glazer’s latest film so disturbing is its basis in reality and the unseen horrors of the Holocaust, yet somehow the converse applies here, too. Under the Skin feels eerie and otherworldly, like nothing we’ve watched before, which is what makes it so unnerving. This film also doesn’t hesitate to show some of its terrors, and it’s like witnessing something humans weren’t meant to see. An absolute nightmare in the best of ways, Under the Skin is a singular cinematic experience that leaves you with a primal, deep-seated discomfort. — K.M.

How to watch: Under the Skin is now streaming on Max.

12. 20th Century Women (2016)

Set in 1979, 20th Century Women is a coming-of-age film told through the eyes of a young teenage boy raised by women. 15-year-old Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann) lives with his single mother, Dorothea (Annette Bening playing the kinda cool mom you wish was your own), who runs a boarding house for women out of their old Santa Barbara home. Twentysomething photographer Abbie (Greta Gerwig) lives there, and 17-year-old Julie (Elle Fanning) slips in and out of Jamie’s window to tell him about the boys she’s hooked up with. Surrounded by these women, Jamie’s introduced to books on feminism and conversations about birth control, cervical cancer, heartbreak, and menstruation. He goes to his first punk concert, jams out to The Strokes records, and gets drunk for the first time. 

20th Century Woman isn’t just any run-of-the-mill coming-of-age movie, though. Filmmaker Mike Mills constructs the film like a cinematic scrapbook, using voiceover montage sequences full of archival footage, found photos, and object portraits to tell each woman’s story. It’s a unique artistic approach that lends a stylish edge to a story bursting with sweetness.

How to watch: 20th Century Women is now streaming on Max.

13. Eighth Grade (2018)

Coming-of-age movies love to revel in the nightmarish drama and humor that is high school, but what about middle school? We’re talking a time of peak excruciating awkwardness, of pimples and puberty, of popular mean girls and gross boys. Now add in social media and you’ve got Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, a film that captures all the embarrassing particulars of being a tween in the digital age. 

We follow Elsie Fisher as Kayla Day, a shy girl in her last week of eighth grade. She uploads makeup tutorials to her YouTube channel and selfies to Instagram, a strong distinction from the quiet persona she has at school. She tells her crush she gives blow jobs before Googling what those even are. She goes to a pool party and has a full-blown panic attack — the most relatable scene for any person who was the anxious, quiet kid at a party full of cool kids. Really, it’s a horror movie about adolescence in the age of social media, but one that’s fresh with a sharp sense of humor and compassion for those tough coming-of-age hurdles.

How to watch: Eighth Grade is now streaming on Max.

14. The Player (1992) Credit: Spelling International / Kobal / Shutterstock

The Player opens with an eight-minute tracking shot across a Hollywood movie studio as executives and assistants panic over a Variety headline, hear a terrible pitch about a sequel, and chat about the decline in quality filmmaking. “The pictures these days are all cut, cut, cut,” one character laments as he praises classic film tracking shots… during a literal tracking shot. 

Robert Altman’s 1992 film isn’t just a meta film about Hollywood, it’s one of the best, funniest, and smartest satires about the movie business. Tim Robbins plays the vice president of a major studio who’s been getting threatening postcards from a scorned screenwriter he never called back. Paranoia builds as his life starts to mirror the plot of a classic crime thriller — there’s a murder, a mysterious girl, and probing detectives — all while he greets celebs at elite restaurants at his day job. It’s all hilarious and perfectly meta, poking fun at the state of Hollywood and modern blockbusters in commentary that remains relatable even today. Come for the sharp sardonic humor, stay for the 65 cameos of celebrities playing themselves, which are some of the film’s best punchlines.

How to watch: The Player is now streaming on Max.

15. Brooklyn (2015)

If you’re a sucker for tender period romances that lead to wholesome cries, Brooklyn is the film. Saoirse Ronan is as Irish as ever as Eilis Lace, a young girl from a small town in southeast Ireland. It’s the early 1950s, and after struggling to find stable work at home, Eilis decides to emigrate to New York City. She gets a job at a department store and moves into a Brooklyn boarding house, but she can’t help missing home and feeling so alone in her new world. Then she meets Tony (Emory Cohen), a charming Italian guy, and a sweet love story takes hold. But back home there’s another great guy (Domhnall Gleeson) who may stir things up a bit. While on first glance, Brooklyn could easily be mistaken as any mid-rate period drama, it’s elevated by its trio of strong performances (most notably Ronan, who is nothing short of wonderful in a role that earned her a second Oscar nom), an excellent screenplay by author Nick Hornby (About a Boy), and its stunning cinematography that glows with warmth.

How to watch: Brooklyn is now streaming on Max.

16. A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

In A Woman Under the Influence, Gena Rowlands gives what many have rightfully deemed one of the greatest performances in film. She plays Mabel Longhetti, a mother and housewife who’s known to exhibit some rather erratic behavior. Mabel is often giddy and bursting with childish excitement one moment, then erupts into angry outbursts or desperately clings at affection the next. Perhaps she struggles with bipolar or borderline personality disorder. Or maybe her troubled marriage to Nick (Peter Falk) and the housewife box she’s been confined to are ushering her into a full-on nervous breakdown. That’s essentially what the John Cassavetes film is — a harrowing portrait of a woman, and a marriage, falling apart at the seams. 

A Woman Under the Influence is a prime example of what makes Cassavetes’ filmmaking so riveting, and it’s a great introduction for anyone interested in exploring the filmmaker who’s known for laying the foundation for American independent cinema. But still, this is Rowlands' film. She captivates every moment she’s on screen with a performance that feels so real, off-the-cuff, and lived in that you may mistake it for improvisation. It isn’t, and proves why Rowlands was one of the best of her generation.

How to watch: A Woman Under the Influence is now streaming on Max.

17. The Lobster (2016) Credit: Bfi / Irish Film Board / Canal+ / Film4 / Cnc / Greek Film Center / Kobal / Shutterstock

For fans of brutally dark humor, or of recent Oscar nom Poor Things, may I introduce you to the delightful chaos that is The Lobster. Also from Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, the 2015 black comedy stars Colin Farrell as a lonely divorcee who checks into a hotel for singles. But there’s a catch to this matchmaking service: Residents have only 45 days to find a new partner or else they’ll be, literally, transformed into an animal. Don’t worry, they get to choose the animal! 

Farrell’s David choses a lobster. He’s having a hard time finding a mate, though, despite attending dances, going on hunting trips, and having other weird experiences involving hot tubs, sexual offers, and silent discos. Eventually he meets a woman played by Rachel Weisz and things take a turn. The rest of The Lobster, an outrageously absurd film with shocking violence and morbid humor, is best left discovered on your own. 

How to watch: The Lobster is now streaming on Max.

18. The Dark Knight (2008)

It's daunting to pick just one Batman movie from the literal dozens available on Max, but in the end the top spot could only go to 2008’s The Dark Knight, written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Mask of the Phantasm, we will avenge you — someday).

The Dark Knight is more than the obvious peak of Nolan’s Batman trilogy and the final, mesmerizing performance that won Heath Ledger an Oscar. Over a decade later, the film’s exploration of nuance within the poles of good and evil remains as prescient as ever. We’re drawn to the chaos and fury of Ledger’s Joker, yes, but we are as compelled by Bruce’s struggle (Christian Bale) and Harvey’s fall from grace (Aaron Eckhart). You don’t get a line like “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain” without seriously contemplating its meaning. — Proma Khosla, Entertainment Reporter

How to watch: The Dark Knight is now streaming on Max.

19. Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Easily one of the greatest movie musicals ever made, Singin’ in the Rain tells the story of Hollywood’s shift from silent films to talking pictures. Caught in this transition is leading man Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly), whose leading lady Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) has the most grating voice imaginable. With the help of his best friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor) and aspiring actor Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), he plans to make a movie musical. What follows are some of the best musical numbers in history, with showstopping choreography accompanying catchy tunes. The title number is an absolute joy, as are “Good Morning” and the comedic masterpiece “Make ‘Em Laugh.” But it’s the 13-minute “Broadway Melody” sequence in all its Technicolor glory that solidifies Singin’ in the Rain as one of the all-time greats. — Belen Edwards, Entertainment Reporter

How to watch: Singin' in the Rain is now streaming on Max.

20. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) Credit: Pierre Vinet / New Line / Saul Zaentz / Wing Nut / Kobal / Shutterstock

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy remains the gold standard for fantasy adaptations: It’s epic in scope and full of memorable characters and performances. Most impressively, the trilogy is consistently great. Choosing the best movie from the three is tricky, but I’ve got to give the edge to The Two Towers. The battle of Helm’s Deep is still the best fantasy battle put to film, and the introduction of Rohan, the Ents, and Gollum (Andy Serkis) deepens the already well-established world of Middle Earth. Gollum in particular elevates the movie to a whole new level, with Serkis and the visual effects team nailing one of the most iconic characters of the books. Max has the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in its library, as well as the extended editions if you want even more Middle Earth goodness. — B.E.

How to watch: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is now streaming on Max.

21. Stop Making Sense (1984)

If you watch Stop Making Sense only knowing Talking Heads through cultural osmosis, prepare to be a full-blown fan in less than its 88-minute runtime. One of the greatest concert films ever, this Jonathan Demme-directed documentary is a warm, weird welcome into the world of the new wave band. Stop Making Sense doesn’t provide context or give behind-the-scenes peeks; instead, this 1984 film is just what you’d have witnessed as an audience member attending a Talking Heads show at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood in December 1983.

Stop Making Sense opens with a sparse stage, initially populated only by frontman David Byrne, his guitar, a microphone stand, and a boombox. He launches into a stripped-down version of “Psycho Killer,” no less iconic at its bare bones. As the show progresses, Byrne’s fellow band members — Bernie Worrell, Alex Weir, Steve Scales, Lynn Mabry, Ednah Holt, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison, and Chris Frantz — begin to join him one or two at a time per song, with the sound layering and building as the group grows. 

In “Life During Wartime,” Byrne sings, “This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco,” but sir, I beg to differ. Hips are moving and hearts are pounding to the beat, and it feels like you’re there with the band. Even before the appearance of the big suit, you’ll wish time machines existed so you could have been there in 1983. Still, Stop Making Sense is an amazing experience all on its own. — K.M.

How to watch: Stop Making Sense is now streaming on Max.

22. Rashomon (1950) Credit: Daiei / Kobal / Shutterstock

Akira Kurosawa is rightly considered one of Japan’s greatest filmmakers, and Rashomon is his best known film in the United States. When it premiered in 1950, its unique storytelling device in which the same events are told from the perspective of four different witnesses (one of whom is actually dead) was such a revelation in filmic structure that the movie became eponymous with the concept — hence, the Rashomon Effect. Through this effect, the relatively simple tale of a priest, a bandit, a samurai, a woodcutter, and a woman becomes a complex analysis of truth and perspective that earns its place as a keystone of 20th century filmmaking. — Alexis Nedd, Senior Entertainment Reporter

How to watch: Rashomon is now streaming on Max.

23. Grey Gardens (1975) Credit: Archive photos / Getty Images

In their famed 1976 film Grey Gardens, brothers and documentary team Albert and David Maysles pay a visit to a dilapidated mansion in the Hamptons. There, they profile the intriguing and tragic lives of a reclusive mother and daughter, both named Edith Beale, in a strange and winding character study unlike any other.

Relatives of First Lady Jackie Kennedy, the life stories of "Little Edie" and "Big Edie" are sensationalized in the documentary, and many argue that the film takes an inherently exploitative view of its subjects and their apparent mental health conditions. But as far as fascinating footage goes, Grey Gardens is a must-watch — capturing a unique family at the heart of a broader dialogue about the decline of political royalty and ‘60s-era Americana. — Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter

How to watch: Grey Gardens is now streaming on Max.

24. Spirited Away (2001)

If you want to get into the beautiful, captivating films of Studio Ghibli, the vast majority of which are on Max, Spirited Away is a great place to start. It’s the story of Chihiro, a young girl trapped in a spirit world who must work to free her parents from a witch’s curse, and it’s a perfect movie. Everything about it, from the visuals to the characters to the score, grabs you tightly and immerses you in director Hayao Miyazaki’s imaginative world of spirit bathhouses, soot sprites, dragons, and more. There’s beauty in Spirited Away’s most elaborate sequences, but also in its quiet moments too, like a train ride or a meal shared between friends. These are the moments when you’ll find yourself crying without fully knowing why. All you’ll know for sure is that Spirited Away is amazing and you’ll never want it to end. — B.E.

How to watch: Spirited Away is now streaming on Max.

UPDATE: May. 16, 2024, 5:30 p.m. EDT This article has been updated to reflect the latest streaming options.

Opens in a new window Credit: Max Max Get Deal

UPDATE: May. 18, 2024, 5:00 a.m. EDT This story has been updated with new laptop deals, pricing, and availability.

The very best laptop deals at a glance: Best laptop deal under $300 Dell Inspiron 15 (3520) $299.99 at Dell.com (save $30) Get Deal Best laptop deal under $600 HP Chromebook Plus x360 14ct-cd000 $589.99 at HP.com (save $200) Get Deal Best laptop deal under $900 Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M2) $849.99 at Amazon with on-page coupon (save $149.01) Get Deal Best laptop deal under $1,200 Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M3) $949.99 at Amazon with on-page coupon (save $149.01) Get Deal

A new laptop is almost certainly a splurge, but keeping your eyes peeled for deals can make it much easier to pull the plug on an upgrade. The good news is that you've got options at a variety of price points via Best Buy, Amazon, and beyond, whether you're looking for an everyday workhorse, a cheap Chromebook for homework, a 2-in-1 Windows PC for drawing, or a powerful premium gaming laptop.

SEE ALSO: Here's when to buy a laptop, whether you need the latest specs or a great deal

Read on for our running list of the best laptop deals as of May 18. (And if you don't see any models that check all the boxes on your spec wish list, come back soon: We add new picks every other week.)

Best laptop deal under $300 Opens in a new window Credit: Dell Dell Inspiron 15 (3520) $299.99 at Dell.com
$329.99 Save $30.00 Get Deal Why we like it

This Dell laptop features a 12th-generation Intel Core i3 processor (from early 2022), 8GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, and a 15.6-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It's nothing spectacular and a little outdated, but this is a spec sheet we rarely see at this price point: Many cheap, entry-level PCs under $300 have dinky discontinued Intel Pentium/Celeron CPUs, 4GB of RAM, pokier eMMC flash storage that maxes out at 128GB, and/or 60Hz refresh rates. (Hell, even some nicer laptops don't have 120Hz refresh rates — M3 Apple MacBook Air included!)

More laptop deals under $300

• Acer Aspire Go 14 (AMD Ryzen 3 7320U, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) — $299.99 $349.99 (save $50)

• Acer Chromebook 315 (Intel Celeron N4020, 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC) — $179 $219.99 (save $40.99)

• Acer Chromebook Plus 514 (AMD Ryzen 3 7320C, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) — $299.99 $399.99 (save $100)

• Acer Swift 1 (Intel Celeron N4020, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD) — $229.99 $369.99 (save $140)

• ASUS M515 (AMD Ryzen 3 3250U, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) — $249.99 $329.99 (save $80)

• Dell Inspiron 14 3420 (Qualcomm Snapdragon, Adreno 690, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $299.99 $499.99 (save $200)

• HP Laptop 15z-fc000 (AMD Athlon Silver 7120U, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) — $279.99 $499.99 (save $220)

• HP Laptop 17z-cp200 (AMD Athlon Gold 7220U, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) — $299.99 $559.99 (save $260)

Best laptop deal under $600 Opens in a new window Credit: HP HP Chromebook Plus x360 14ct-cd000 $589.99 at HP.com
$789.99 Save $200.00 Get Deal Why we like it

Read Mashable's full review of the HP Chromebook Plus x360 14c.

The HP Chromebook Plus x360 14c is a 14-inch ChromeOS convertible that we got a chance to review this winter. Its dim display and noisy, low-res webcam didn't impress Mashable tech editor Kim Gedeon, "[but] its robust aluminum chassis, flexible postures (e.g., tablet and tent modes), wide range of ports, and fantastic keyboard may leave you hooked," she said. (It walked away with a 4/5 rating.) The configuration with a 12th-gen Intel Core i3 CPU, 8GB of memory, and 128GB of storage is marked down to $589.99 on HP's website, which is a 25% savings.

More laptop deals under $600

• Acer Aspire 3 (AMD Ryzen 5 7520U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $399.99 $499.99 (save $100)

• Acer Chromebook 516 GE (Intel Core i5-1240P, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $549 $649 (save $100)

• ASUS Vivobook 16 (AMD Ryzen 5 5625U, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $389.99 $549.99 (save $160)

• Dell Inspiron 14 7440 2-in-1 (Intel Core 3 100U, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $499.99 $649.99 (save $150)

• Dell Inspiron 16 5635 (AMD Ryzen 7 7730U, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $599.99 $999.99 (save $400)

• Dell Inspiron 16 7635 2-in-1 (AMD Ryzen 5 7530U, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $499.99 $749.99 (save $250)

• Dell XPS 13 9315 (Intel Core i7-1230U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $599 $799 (save $200)

• HP Envy x360 14z-fa000 (AMD Ryzen 5 8640HS, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $599.99 $949.99 (save $350)

• HP Laptop 14t-ee000 (Intel Core i3-1315U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $419.99 $749.99 (save $330)

• HP Pavilion Aero 13z-be200 (AMD Ryzen 5 7535U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $479.99 $899.99 (save $420)

• HP Pavilion Laptop 15z-eh300 (AMD Ryzen 5 7530U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $369.99 $649.99 (save $280)

• Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i, 15-inch (Intel Core 5 120U, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $584.99 $739.99 (save $155)

• Lenovo Yoga 6, 13-inch (AMD Ryzen 5 7530U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $449.99 $699.99 (save $250)

Best laptop deal under $900 Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple MacBook Air, 13-inch (M2) $849.99 at Amazon
$999.00 Save $149.01 with on-page coupon Get Deal Why we like it

Read Mashable's review of the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air (M2).

The 13-inch version of Apple's previous-gen MacBook Air won a Mashable Choice Award upon release in mid-2022, with tech and games reporter Alex Perry praising its peppy M2 processor, superb battery life, satisfying keyboard, and lightweight frame. A permanent price drop spurred by March's release of its (very comparable) predecessor has brought it down to a new starting price of $999, and a $149.01 discount at Amazon scoots it down to a record-low $849.99. (As far as MacBooks are concerned, that's budget laptop territory.) Note the on-page coupon you'll have to apply before checkout.

More laptop deals under $900

• Acer Aspire 5 (Intel Core i7-1355U, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $799.99 $999.99 (save $200)

• Acer Aspire 5 Spin 14 (Intel Core i5-1335U, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $649.99 $749.99 (save $100)

• Acer Nitro 5 (Intel Core i7-12650H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $899.99 $1,279.99 (save $380)

• Acer Nitro 16 (AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $899.99 $1,199.99 (save $300)

• Acer Nitro V 15 (Intel Core i5-13420H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $699.99 $749.99 (save $150)

• Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 (Intel i5-13500HX, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $849.99 $1,199.99 (save $350)

• Acer Swift X 14 (Intel Core i5-13500H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $899.99 $1,099.99 (save $200)

• ASUS ROG Flow X13 (AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS, AMD Radeon Graphics, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $699.99 $1,249.99 (save $550)

• ASUS TUF Gaming F15 (Intel Core i5-12500H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) — $699.99 $899.99 (save $200)

• Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7440 (Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $899.99 $1,099.99 (save $200)

• Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7630 (Intel Core i7-13700H, Intel Iris Xe, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $799.99 $1,299.99 (save $500)

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TL;DR: Series 11 of Love Island is available to stream for free on ITVX. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

Don't worry if you've not got any exciting plans for this summer. You don't need to be sunning yourself on a picture-perfect beach somewhere exotic, surrounded by beautiful people all vying for your attention. You don't need to leave the house to live the dream this summer, because Love Island UK is back on our screens.

If you want to watch Love Island UK for free from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.

When is series 11 of Love Island UK?

The 11th series of Love Island UK starts on June 3. Maya Jama is back to present the series, with Iain Stirling returning as narrator.

How to watch Love Island UK for free

The 11th series of Love Island UK is available to live stream for free on ITVX.

ITVX is geo-restricted to the UK, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect to a secure server in the UK. This quick and easy process tricks streaming services like ITVX into providing you with access from anywhere in the world.

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4. Visit ITVX

5. Watch Love Island UK for free from anywhere in the world

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Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for May 18's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Wordle.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles used to be available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it. Unfortunately, it has since been taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

A taste of the sea.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no letters that appear twice.

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter B.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to Wordle #1064 is...

BRINY.

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Reporting by Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

Connections is the latest New York Times word game that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for May 18's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

Tweet may have been deleted

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer. If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

Tweet may have been deleted

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

Want a hit about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Catdog

• Green: Tight corners

• Blue: Team bonding games

• Purple: Spring loaded items

Featured Video For You Connections: How to play and how to win Here are today's Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Animals Whose Names Are Two Animals

• Green: Sharp Turns

• Blue: Classic Party Games

• Purple: Things with Spring/s

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to Connections #342 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Animals Whose Names Are Two Animals: BULLDOG, CATFISH, HORESEFLY, TURTLEDOVE

• Sharp Turns: DOGLEG, HAIRPIN, SWITCHBACK, ZAG

• Classic Party Games: CATEGORIES, CHARADES, FISHBOWL, WEREWOLF

• Things with Spring/s: CLOCK, MATTRESS, MOUSETRAP, TRAMPOLINE

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Is this not the Connections game you were looking for? Here are the hints and answers to yesterday's Connections.

With Season 14, Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has been tantalizing new viewers with the inviting charisma of the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and his chipper companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). But for longtime Whovians, these fresh adventures have proven to be rich with Easter eggs referring back to deep-cut show lore — and teasing exciting new possibilities. 

We've broken down the clues of "Space Babies" and "The Devil's Chord," even digging deep into the emerging mystery of Susan Twist. Now, it's time to look into "Boom," a war-centered episode that features the return of former showrunner Steven Moffat as the ep's screenwriter. 

Here are all the Easter eggs we've found in Doctor Who's "Boom."

Susan Twist returns. Susan Twist as Tea Lady in "The Devil's Chord." Credit: Disney+ screenshot

The English actress has been popping up on British television since her debut on an episode of the cop drama The Squad back in 1980. But recently, she's been driving Whovians into fan-theory frenzies by appearing in four episodes of Doctor Who (and counting). Here, she pops up as the face of the artificial intelligence-powered ambulance, which seeks out combat situations and then administers help as it sees fit. Regrettably, that can lead to some very dubious employment of euthanasia. (RIP, John Francis Vater (Joe Anderson)). 

SEE ALSO: 'Doctor Who's Susan Twist mystery: Breaking down the clues and fan theories

In our thorough breakdown of Susan Twist's appearances on Doctor Who, we spin out the possibilities of what her curious repeated casting means. In "Boom," her character is the least human so far, and also the most deadly. 

"The Skye Boat Song" is sung.

The inciting incident of "Boom" is the Fifteenth Doctor stepping on a landmine. Thankfully, he has the presence of mind to freeze immediately, staving off its violent reaction. To keep himself calm, he sings, "The Skye Boat Song."

"Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing.

Onward, the sailors cry!

Carry the lad that’s born to be King

Over the sea to Skye."

"It's sweet and it's sad," Fifteen says of the song to Ruby. "And it's about soldiers fighting. But it's sad, like a lullaby." 

Dating back to 1782, this Scottish adaptation of a Gaelic song tells the tale of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, who, after facing defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, narrowly escaped being captured by German soldiers. This detail could tie back to "Boom" in its sad story of soldiers at war.

Notably, the song has been previously employed on Doctor Who back in 1968, when the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) played it on a recorder in "The Web of Fear." Take a listen: 

The moon and the president's wife get a mention.  The Doctor and Ruby look each other while he's on a landmine in "Boom." Credit: Disney+

When "The Skye Boat Song" fails to cure the Doctor of his nerves, he tries another tactic, reciting a poem: 

"I went down to the beach

And there she stood, 

Dark and tall, at the edge of the wood.

'The sky's too big. I'm scared,' I cried. 

She replied, 'Young man don't you know there's more to life

Than the moon and president's wife?'"

Admittedly, we can't place the origin of this poem.

However, it does remind us of something Missy (Michelle Gomez) once said of the Doctor. In "The Magician's Apprentice" (Season 9, Episode 1), companion Clara (Jenna Coleman) asks the fascinating frenemy Missy how long she's known the Doctor. Missy replies, "Since always. Since the Cloister Wars, since the night he stole the moon and the president's wife, since he was a little girl. One of those was a lie; can you guess which one?" 

Later, the Doctor and Clara again speak of moons and presidential wifery in "Hell Bent," an episode in which Twelve convinces an armed squad of soldiers to drop their guns and join his side against a villainous president Rassilon. Retelling the tale to Clara, he touches on Missy's gossip with a correction. "That was a lie put about by the Shobogans. It was the President's daughter. I didn't steal the moon, I lost it." 

On a thread in the Gallifrey subreddit, a user suggests this line means the President's daughter is actually the First Doctor's granddaughter Susan, whom Fifteen mentions in "The Devil's Chord." Coincidence or clue? 

V for Villengard John Francis Vater (Joe Anderson) is an Anglican Marine in "Boom." Credit: Disney+

The landmine the Doctor is standing on is made by Villengard, as he explains: "Biggest weapons manufacturer in recorded history. Supplied all sides in all conflicts for the past two centuries in this sector." He later adds, "War is business, and business is booming."

This ties back to Doctor Who lore, in which Villengard is a planet known for weapons manufacturing. As a screenwriter, Moffatt has previously referred to Villengard in the two-part episode "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances," then in "Twice Upon a Time," when it is found in ruins by the First Doctor (David Bradley) and the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi). 

But what Fifteen shares with Ruby is for focusing on this particular landmine from the Villengard: "I had to deactivate one of these [Villengard land mines] once. At a lesbian gymkhana. Underwater. For a bet. Except it wasn't live and I wasn't standing on it. And I lost that bet. Sorry! Wrong moment for this story!"

Steven Moffat found inspiration for "Boom" in "Genesis of the Daleks." The Doctor stands on a landmine. Credit: Disney+

Talking to DoctorWho.tv, the "Boom" screenwriter said, "I had this idea of the landmine, which of course is a short sequence in 'Genesis of the Daleks' that I happened to love when I was a kid."

Broadcast in 1975, "Genesis of the Daleks" featured a scene in which the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) steps on a landmine and pauses before it explodes. In one tense sequence, his companion, medical officer Harry Sullivan (Ian Marten), saves him by placing rocks beneath it to stabilize the device. 

"I thought, 'What if you did it for a whole episode?'" Moffat continued. "The Doctor on a knife's edge, one wrong move and it's all over. It would take so much away from him; he can't run about, he can't bamboozle people, and he literally can't move. I thought, 'That's something that I haven't done.'"

"Dad to dad." The Doctor holds Vater's casket. Credit: Disney+

Vater might be dead, but as his daughter Splice says, he's not gone. She means on a spiritual level. But within the episode, the Doctor talks to the AI slice of Vater swallowed up by the Villengard AI algorithm. The Doctor appeals to Vater, asking him to essentially hack the AI ambulance (played by Susan Twist) and save the day by de-activating the landmine, preventing the Doctor from becoming an accidental bomb that could blow up the whole planet.

In his plea, Fifteen says, "Dad to dad." So, who are the Doctor's children? 

The First Doctor canonically has 13 children. However, the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) revealed in his run that the Doctor's children had all died in the Last Great Time War. But then came "The Doctor's Daughter," a Tennant-era episode in which the Doctor was unknowingly sampled with a progenation machine that birthed a twenty-something blonde and bubbly daughter dubbed Jenny, born to serve as a soldier — a vocation which the Doctor abhorred. Despite their differences, this father-daughter duo bonded to save the day. Then she took off on her own uncharted adventures. 

Bonus fun fact: Georgia Moffett, who played Jenny, is the real-life daughter of the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison. And she married David Tennant after he played her father on Doctor Who. 

Here come the Anglican Marines.  Anglican Marines look scared in "Boom." Credit: Disney+

Doctor Who is no fan of guns or war, so for much of the episode he mocks the Anglican Marines. Specifically, he chastises the soldiers for starting a war with smoke and shadows, blaming their religion. "Faith," he snarls, "The magic word that keeps you from ever having to think for yourself."

To hammer the point home, he later issues a cynical "thoughts and prayers," suggesting it is up to them to save themselves. Prayers won't save them. But a dad dedicated to protecting his kid will. 

"Fish fingers and custard is my favorite." 

This bizarre snack is a callback to the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith). When the Doctor first met young Amy Pond (Caitlin Blackwood), he was desperate to find a food he would enjoy eating with his newly regenerated mouth. After a lot of failed attempts (yogurt, bacon, baked beans), the Doctor discovered his favorite snack to be fried fish fingers and sweet custard. 

"Boom" reveals the small but sweet detail the Doctor has maintained a taste for the funny food pairing. But it also might be that little Splice, orphaned by holy war, reminds him of his long-lost companion, Amy. 

Ruby's snow returns.  Credit: Disney+

There's something special about Christmas foundling Ruby Sunday, and snow seems to be a clue. It fell the night she was born and left at a church on Ruby Road. It fell in the TARDIS when she was present, and in "Boom" it falls seemingly because she's been critically injured. (Such precipitation is a noted first for the planet.)

We're not sure yet what this means. But once Ruby is safe and peace restored, the Doctor says something curious about snow… and death.

"Dying defines us," he tells Ruby. "Snow isn’t snow until it falls." Does this mean Ruby is destined to die? And perhaps her fall will not be the end, but a new beginning? 

The Doctor breaks the fourth wall again.  Splice talks to her dad. Credit: Disney+

When the Doctor delivers the snow line, adding meaningfully, "We all melt away in the end," you might think he's looking at Mundy and Splice, who stare off into the planet's horizon, a newly formed family. But while Ruby seems to be looking off into the mid-distance, the Doctor is looking straight into the camera, talking directly to the TV audience. 

"But something stays," he adds, as Vater's hologram waves goodbye. "Maybe the best part." 

The Doctor also broke the fourth wall in "The Devil's Chord," as did Maestro. But before we can make sense of what all this meta business means, he continues talking to us with a bit of poetry…

"A sad little man once told me: What survives of us is love." 

This is the last line of the show, before a single snowflake flurries from the departing TARDIS. It is also the last line of the poem "An Arundel Tomb" by English poet Philip Larkin, published in 1954. The celebrated piece of poetry describes a monument in Chichester Cathedral, where the statues of a knight and a maiden lie on their backs, holding hands gently. Though the figures that inspired them are dead, their love lives on through this monument. 

The Doctor's remark suggests he's hung with Larkin at some point and values the idea that love lasts beyond death. What might this mean for the Doctor's lost children and granddaughter? 

Doctor Who streams Friday at 7:00 p.m. ET on Disney+, where available, and simultaneously on May 11 at midnight on BBC iPlayer in the UK.

Why are Whovians losing their collective cool over Susan Twist? Well, it's because the elderly English actress is popping up again and again on Doctor Who, and in a very timey-wimey way. 

Sure, all kinds of actors have appeared on the iconic series over its decades of television, sometimes more than once; one even got upgraded from Pompeii resident to Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi). But there's something especially curious about Twist's appearances, as they've all come in a recent jumble. 

This collision of cameos has got fans theorizing all kinds of possibilities for what Season 14 showrunner Russell T Davies has up his sleeve. With the latest episode, "Boom," there are fresh clues to who Twist is really playing. So, let's pick through the appearances and the fan theories one by one. 

Susan Twist in "Wild Blue Yonder"  Susan Twist as Mrs. Merridew in "Wild Blue Yonder." Credit: Disney+ screenshot

This episode was the second of the 60th anniversary specials, which saw David Tennant and Catherine Tate reprising the roles of the Doctor and Donna respectively. In this adventure, the two are flung far into the future, where they are plagued by creepy doppelgängers of themselves. But Twist pops up before these freaky sci-fi events. FAR before. We're talking the opening sequence set in 1666 England. 

There, a dashing Isaac Newton (Bernard Cribbins) is on the brink of "discovering" gravity. On his walk to that fateful apple tree, he comes across Mrs. Merridew (Twist), a smiling, bonneted servant who tells him, "Don't come back until you find a really good idea, sir!" 

And that's it — so brief a moment, longtime Whovians took no notice of it on its own. 

Susan Twist in "The Church on Ruby Road"  Susan Twist as a concert-goer in "The Church on Ruby Road." Credit: Disney+ screenshot

Moving along to "Special 4" — as Disney+ has labeled the Christmas special, "The Church on Ruby Road" — we find Susan Twist again in a role so brief, you may have well missed it. The first full episode featuring Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor also introduces his new companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). A foundling who lives in London, when Ruby's not searching for her birth parents or rescuing newborns from sky-sailing gremlins, she's in a band! 

SEE ALSO: 'Doctor Who' Christmas specials ranked, and where to watch them

On December 22, 2023, Ruby is playing keyboard at a Christmas concert at a bar. The Doctor is watching this performance, but he's not the only one. A long-haired woman yells out to the lead singer, "Give it some welly!" Then she requests a song, saying, "Can you do 'Gaudette'?" 

If you don't recognize that title, it may be because this rowdy concert attendee (also played by Twist) is referencing a Christmas carol that dates back to the 16th century. So despite her vaguely flower-child vibe, with her paisley jacket, long locks, and headband, her references go way, way back. 

Susan Twist in "Space Babies" Susan Twist as as Comms Officer Gina Scalzi in "Space Babies." Credit: Disney+ screenshot

The premiere episode of Doctor Who Season 14, which sees Davies' return as showrunner, also brings Twist back — this time aboard an abandoned space station repurposed as a baby center. Well, sort of. 

SEE ALSO: 'Doctor Who's 'Space Babies' is full of Easter eggs

The Doctor and Ruby discover the video logs of the crew, who left under protest of the company directive to abandon the babies. In one video, Twist pops up in a teal and gray crew uniform (giving Star Trek vibes), and introduces herself as Comms Officer Gina Scalzi before signing off in the year 21506. So from her first appearance to this one, Twist's face is popping up across 19,840 years. 

Susan Twist in "The Devil's Chord" Susan Twist as Tea Lady in "The Devil's Chord." Credit: Disney+ screenshot

Released the same day as "Space Babies," episode 2 of Season 14 imagined a world without music, courtesy of the maleficent Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon). The Doctor and Ruby were hoping to take in the groovy mood of 1963 London — and more specifically the recording of the Beatles' first album at what would someday be known as Abbey Road Studios. But the beat is off. Music is bad, and people feel bad. And while Ruby and the Doctor are looking to give John Lennon and Paul McCartney a pep talk, a chatty cafeteria worker butts in with a bizarre interjection. 

SEE ALSO: 'The Devil's Chord' on 'Doctor Who': Your questions answered

They're buying tea in the studio's cafeteria, when Tea Lady (Twist!) offers two cups for half a crown. The pair are mock outraged by the price, and she responds, "Take it or leave it, sweetheart." The Doctor chides, "That is daylight robbery," and she replies, "That's me: Margaret Lockwood in The Wicked Lady. Now there was a woman. Statuesque!"

The Wicked Lady is a film from 1945, in which Margaret Lockwood played Barbara Skelton, a noblewoman who steals a friend's affluent betrothed and then hits it off with a rakish highwayman. So, that robbery connection explains why the character is referencing this movie. But what is Davies doing with this dialogue? 

Susan Twist in "Boom." 

Written by former showrunner Steven Moffat, this third episode of Season 14 takes Ruby and the Doctor to a war-torn planet, where weaponized Anglican priests are fighting the Kastarions — a seemingly invisible enemy. But these mysterious foes aren't the only trouble. An overenthusiastic AI ambulance can also be a major threat, as a recently blinded John Francis Vater (Joe Anderson) discovers when the ambulance non-consensually euthanizes him into a pocket-sized "casket" made of smelted marine.

SEE ALSO: 'Doctor Who': Decoding the Easter Eggs of "Boom"

And guess who is the face of the wickedly stoic ambulance? Yup. Susan Twist plays the AI ambulance created by the weapons manufacturer Villengard. 

What does all this mean? Here are some fan theories. 

Fan theory: Susan Twist is The One Who Waits.

In "The Devil's Chord," Maestro mentions being a part of a "Pantheon" of god-like beings, which we already know includes their father The Toymaker ("The Giggle," Special 3). But before the musical villain is gobbled up by an iconic piano, they cry out a warning: "The One Who Waits is almost here!" 

This suggests The One Who Waits is a part of this Pantheon, and maybe even its most powerful member. So, The One Who Waits may well be the Big Bad of Season 14. 

Perhaps this is why Twist is popping up again and again, with more screen time and more important parts to play in the Doctor's adventures. If she is The One Who Waits, is this how the powerful being is crawling closer and closer to the Doctor? Unbound by time and space as both the TARDIS and the Doctor are, this would make The One Who Waits a fearsome foe to be sure. 

Fan theory: Susan Twist is Ruby's birth mother.  The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) stands in the snow. Credit: Lara Cornell / Bad Wolf / BBC Studios

Something strange is going on with this Ruby Sunday. She's not your average Christmas-born foundling. "The Church on Ruby Road" showed that coincidence and bad luck follow her. "The Devil's Chord" revealed there's a song in her heart, but also something that scared Maestro enough to proclaim, "This creature is wrong!"

Even the Doctor has slyly given Ruby a TARDIS scan, though he hasn't shared with the audience what he found. 

There are other strange elements about her origin. The Doctor's memory of it changes, with her cloaked mother turning toward him in an apparent warning. And then there's the recurring snowfall, which follows Ruby into the TARDIS and onto the warring planet with no clear explanation. Could it be that Susan Twist is somehow a part of the Ruby Sunday mystery? What a twist that would be! 

Fan theory: Susan Twist is Ruby Sunday. Millie Gibson is Ruby Sunday. Credit: Lara Cornell / Bad Wolf / BBC Studios

In "The Devil's Chord," the Doctor mentioned that in 1963, he was living in London with his granddaughter Susan on Totter's Lane. This aside slyly reveals to Whovians new and established that a character can cross their own timeline. And perhaps whatever Ruby really is allows her to do this, resulting in two actresses secretly playing the special companion. 

Alternatively, Davies might be pulling a Moffat move from Season 6, episode 10, "The Girl Who Waited." In that misadventure, an alternate version of Amy Pond is trapped in a resort planet for 36 years alone. Could it be that Susan Twist is playing an alternate reality version of Ruby Sunday? And could the title "The Girl Who Waited" be a clue that this alternate version might also be The One Who Waits? 

Fan theory: Susan Twist is... Susan Foreman? 

Back again to "The Devil's Chord," where the Doctor name-drops his granddaughter Susan but says he has no idea if she survived the Time Lord genocide. Ruby seems astonished he hasn't looked into this. But is it possible his granddaughter is looking for him? 

Susan Foreman was the first companion of the First Doctor when the show began in the 1960s, but she hasn't been a major part of the lore of the relaunched TV series until Davies brought her up in Season 14. Her role was originated by Carole Ann Ford, who has reprised the part in podcast adventures, most recently 2023's Doctor Who: Once and Future. So, you might well wonder, why would Davies recast her? Maybe bringing back Ford would give the game away too soon. 

With decades of lore to play with and all of time and space as his playground, Davies has fans in a tizzy over what the meaning of Susan Twist's curious recurring roles will be. But in "The Devil's Chord," he dropped a meta clue with the controversial final song number, "There's Always a Twist at the End" — as "Susan Twist" has always been in the end credits so far this season.

Perhaps this wasn't just a gleeful bit of song-and-dance spectacle, but Davies warning us to keep an eye on this actress. And if her last name is a clue, then perhaps her first name is as well. Perhaps this Susan Twist could be the new Susan Foreman, searching the whole of the universe and existence for her long-lost grandfather, The Doctor.

Only time (and more episodes of Doctor Who) will tell. 

How to watch: New episodes of Doctor Who drop every Friday night at 7:00 p.m. ET on Disney+, where available, and simultaneously at midnight on BBC iPlayer in the UK. The season finale airs June 22.

OpenAI is famously not all that open. Dazzling, cutting-edge AI products emerge without warning, generating excitement and anxiety in equal measure (along with plenty of disdain). But like its product development, the company's internal culture is unusually opaque, which makes it all the more unsettling that Jan Leike, the departing co-head of its "superalignment" team — a position overlooking OpenAI's safety issues — has just spoken out against the company.

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Something like this was partly anticipated by those watching OpenAI closely. The company's high-profile former chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, abruptly quit on Tuesday, too, and "#WhatDidIlyaSee" became a trending hashtag once again. The presumptuous phrasing of the hashtag — originally from March, when Sutskever participated in the corporate machinations that got CEO Sam Altman briefly fired — made it sound as if Sutskever had glimpsed the world through the AI looking glass, and had run screaming from it. 

SEE ALSO: Google ups the AI ante with investment in ChatGPT rival Anthropic

In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, Leike gave the public some hints as to why he left.

He claimed he had been "disagreeing with OpenAI leadership about the company's core priorities for quite some time," and that he had reached a "breaking point." He thinks the company should be more focused on "security, monitoring, preparedness, safety, adversarial robustness, (super)alignment, confidentiality, societal impact, and related topics."

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"These problems are quite hard to get right, and I am concerned we aren't on a trajectory to get there," Leike said, noting that he felt like he and his team were "sailing against the wind" when they tried to secure the resources they needed to do their safety work. 

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Leike seems to view OpenAI as bearing immense responsibility, writing, "Building smarter-than-human machines is an inherently dangerous endeavor." That makes it potentially all the scarier that, in Leike's view, "over the past years, safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products."

Leike evidently takes seriously the company's internal narrative about working toward artificial general intelligence, also known as AGI — systems that truly process information like humans, well beyond narrow LLM-like capabilities. "We are long overdue in getting incredibly serious about the implications of AGI," Leike wrote. "We must prioritize preparing for them as best we can. Only then can we ensure AGI benefits all of humanity."

In Leike's view, OpenAI needs to "become a safety-first AGI company" and he urged its remaining employees to "act with the gravitas appropriate for what you're building."

This departure, not to mention these comments, will only add fuel to already widespread public apprehensiveness around OpenAI's commitment, or lack thereof, to AI safety. Other critics, however, have pointed out that fearmongering around AI's supposedly immense power also functions as a kind of backdoor marketing scheme for this still largely unproven technology. 

You might want to sit down for this seismic, mind-blowing news: The next iPhone could have a better battery than the current one.

That's according to prolific Apple prognosticator Ming-Chi Kuo, at least. Kuo wrote on his Medium page that Apple is considering bumping up the energy density in future iPhone batteries. Apple could potentially increase the amount of juice in a battery of the same size as the existing ones, or preserve the current battery life in a smaller unit to make space for other stuff inside the phone.

SEE ALSO: iPhone 16: Release date, price, specs, features, and other rumors

iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, and iPhone 16 Pro may get left out

Per Kuo, this will be featured on the iPhone 16 Pro Max only. The other three new iPhones will likely not include this change.

Another detail Kuo dropped is that Apple will apparently switch from aluminum battery cases to stainless-steel ones. According to Kuo, doing so would trade a little bit of heat dissipation for stronger resistance to corrosion, thereby (at least theoretically) giving the battery a longer lifetime. It could also help make the batteries easier to replace, thus complying with various international regulations requiring devices to be repairable.

None of this is going to be as exciting or eye-catching as the various software features Apple is sure to add to the next batch of iPhones, but making batteries stronger is always a good thing.