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jazzluca · 2 years

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DEAD END *G1* ( Deluxe ) Generations LEGACY

DEAD END, il quarto componente in ordine di uscita del Menasor Legacy è per me solo il terzo della banda, con buona pace di Wildrider che spero di recuperare presto, ma forse mi è andata meglio così, sennò la discesa qualitativa del gruppo l'avrei sentita maggiormente, dato che il team è partito col botto ma appunto è declinato lentamente man mano che stanno uscendo i vari Stunticon.

Cobra qui infatti sfigura non poco come ROBOT paragonato al collega Dragstrip, di cui è pure un retool, visto che entrambi poi diventano le braccia del gigante composito Decepticon; certo, la somiglianza al settei dei cartoni c'è, prima fra tutti la testa con mascherina e visore invece di quella normale del giocattolo G1, e per fortuna non ha un rettangolone come torso come nei cartoni, per carità, ma per via delle forme sembra più basso e tarchiato di Iguana Legacy, sebbene sia più basso effettivamente di solo 1 millimentro!

Colpa in parte delle spalle "allargate" dalle ruote anteriori in cima, giusta citazione mantenuta del design di entrambe le versioni del personaggio, cosa che non si può dire per le ruote posteriori, lasciate nelle parti esterne delle gambe invece che in quelle interne, anche se goffamente mimate dalla scultura.

Per il resto ci siamo, come colorazioni e dettagli riportati sia dal cartone che dal modellino, ma forse sono io che lo vedo poco riuscito dalla trasposizione del settei a questo Generations. Non dico sia brutto, ma un po' goffo quello sì. Per altri dettagli, abbiamo il cofano dell'auto dietro la schiena ( assente nel settei, ma vabbè ) non ribaltato come nel giocattolo del 1986 ma slittato sopra il parabrezza, cosa che lo fa accomunare con la precedente versione Combiner Wars.

E forse è proprio la somiglianza con quest'ultimo che non me lo fa andare giù, mi sa, che mi sarei aspettato un D.E. più simile al settei, più longilineo quindi, e passi che non abbia le ruote integrate nelle spalle come nei cartoni, ma per questo allora potevano fare in modo di ruotare le gambe e bacino e sistemare quelle posteriori all'interno dei polpacci.

Ma a parte disquisizioni meramente soggettive, il difettone oggettivo del giocattolo è nei piedini ricavati dallo spoiler posteriore dell'auto ribaltato, esattamente come per Dragstrip, solo che c'è un po' di differenza di grandezza fra l'alettone di un'auto sportiva ed una da F1, e quindi, sebbene sia funzionalissima la trasformazione dei piedi, con tanto di fori sotto che poi saranno ben riciclati per il veicolo, esteticamente sono semplicemente miserelli! ^^'

Prima del … collasso con Breakdown, anche il nostro DeadEnd ha la sua bella coppia di pistole gemelle basate sul design di quella originale, con tanto di pinna sulla canna e mirino, più l'aggiunta di un tocco di viola brillante su quest'ultime parti, così come hanno ben 3 spine in più oltre alla classica impugnatura, una per lato e una dietro, peccato però che invece le pistole dei precedenti Stunticon avessero invece un foro su un lato, in modo da poterle unire in un'arma unica bicanna, cosa qui invece non possibile.

A livello di fori per armi, infine, abbiamo quelli succitati sotto i piedi, ed un paio per avambraccio, più uno per stinco, ma null'altro, tipo dietro la schiena, per via del cofano che la copre.

La TRASFORMAZIONE, per quanto perlopiù pedissequa a quella di Dragstrip, tranne per la rotazione del bacino e poco altro, resta comunque interessante applicata al nostro Dead End, con in più la testa che si ribalta a nascondersi nel torso dopo aver divelto la schiena, e sistemando quindi il cofano a coprire le spalle slittate in su.

L'AUTOMOBILE SPORTIVA è un'ottima riproduzione della Porsche 928 originale, con i caratteristici fari tondi sul cofano, l'accenno di alettone ed il vetro sul tettuccio ( che nel giocattolo G1 non si notava per via del simbolo termico di fazione ^^' ); molto bella la colorazione con un amaranto / bordeau brillante ed i vetri neri, e tocco doveroso la striscia gialla decentrata che attraversa l'auto, come nel giocattolo originale ma non invece nei cartoni, ed onestamente è meglio così, alla faccia della show accuracy.

Anche i cerchioni argentati sono una gioia per gli occhi, ben scolpiti alla faccia di quelli giustamente criticati per la loro banalità di Dragstrip, e non danno fastidio i fori fra lunotto ed alettone, perfetti per sistemare le pistole gemelle e ricreare, ora sì decentemente, l'arma a due cannoni tipica degli Stunticon ed altri combiner Scramble dell'86.

Peccato solo per la mancanza di simboli di fazione, che sulle portiere come il G1 sarebbe stato il top, ma effettivamente questo ben di Primus di auto un difetto ce l'ha, ovvero il fatto che non si riesce a fissare bene il retro, sopratutto i piedi ripiegati, con la carrozzeria che resta quindi un po' sfaldata, così. ^^'

Come già per Dragstrip, la trasformazione in BRACCIO SINISTRO di Menasor è legato all'esostruttura dello stesso, attaccandolo alla parte del rimorchio di Motormaster adibita, che poi si allunga, spezzando in due l'auto che diventa mera decorazione dell'arto praticamente già pronto del gestalt Decepticon.

Poco da dire sulla modalità di arto superiore sinistro, in quanto Dead End ne è una mera decorazione sul braccio già pronto, anche se ribadiamo che la trasformazione dello stesso con l'auto che si spezza almeno da un po' di senso all'agganciamento. Le due pistole, sistemate sempre nei fori nel retro dell'auto, ma ora rivolte verso il pugno, sono un'aggiunta carina, anche se come posizione sono sfasate rispetto a quelle di Dragstrip.

Infine, una discreta aggiunta al team, meglio come auto che non come robot, a parte le mie personali reticenze per l'aspetto del personaggio dei cartoni, ma effettivamente potevano renderlo meno somigliante al precedente Combiner Wars, ma ovviamente è un acquisto doveroso per chiunque voglia completare il gruppo degli Stunticon Legacy.

#transformers #dead end #cobra #stunticon #menasor #pentacar #ultrax #decepticon #distructor #generations #combiner #deluxe #legacy #porsche #hasbro #review #recensione

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deadend-ed · 4 years

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FIGHT ME!!!!

#@BlindedScientist #Deadend-ed #...yep

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perceptor-offical · 4 years

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Hey perceptor! Did you get a new upgrade...? And you got weapons on you now....?

..hmm. Do I know you?

#deadend-ed

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f4liveblogarchives · 4 years

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Fantastic Four Vol 1 #233

Fri May 01 2020 [01:13 AM] Wack'd: We open on Deeden State Correctional Facility. It is, the narration tells us, incredibly hellish, but not infamously, because no one ever leaves to tell the tale. It is here David Munson is about to be condemned to death. [01:13 AM] Wack'd: (Also yes Deeden sounds like Deadend, this is its nickname, and what I'll call it because I'll probably just forget not to) [01:14 AM] maxwellelvis: Sounds more like Dee-Dee to me [01:15 AM] Wack'd: Anyway, David--or Davey as the priest calls him--is pissed because he didn't kill the guy he's being put to death for killing [01:15 AM] Wack'd: He killed lots of other people, sure, but not this one guy [01:16 AM] Wack'd: Anyway Davey gets electrocuted to death. And the priest sets about satisfying Davey's last request: [01:16 AM] Wack'd: Deliver a letter to one Mr. Jonathan Storm. [01:17 AM] Bocaj: DUN DUN DUN [01:18 AM] Wack'd: Did the Baxter always have this spiffy awning? I feel like it didn't.

[01:19 AM] Wack'd: Oh hey, a modern update on the Baxter cutaway. We get to watch this priest explore while Sue gives him the rundown. [01:20 AM] Wack'd: Unfortunately they've arrived in the middle of a Johnny/Ben showdown. (Johnny had plastered a photo of Christopher Reeves over Ben's bathroom mirror.) [01:22 AM] Wack'd: Thank you Reed for explaining Ben's damage. And thank you Sue for getting POed over something that has been going on for literal years that you've never gotten POed about before.

[01:23 AM] maxwellelvis: All for the sake of making the priest feel very very uncomfortable. [01:23 AM] Bocaj: I think its specifically because it happened in front of a priest [01:23 AM] maxwellelvis: "Should I wait outside until this blows over, my son?" [01:23 AM] Bocaj: Sue at her worst might be very 'how dare you let others see us as we are' [01:24 AM] Wack'd: Fair [01:25 AM] Wack'd: Anyway, Davey wants Johnny to clear his name. His mom never knew what a shit he was, see, and since he's getting executed for something he is actually innocent of, there's a chance she'll never have to find out. [01:25 AM] maxwellelvis: It might have helped if his defense wasn't "Yes, I'm GLAD, GLAD THE BASTARD'S DEAD! GLAD, YOU HEAR ME?! But I didn't shoot him." [01:25 AM] Bocaj: Ha [01:26 AM] Bocaj: God this is reminding me abstractly of the time that Batman stopped Joker from being executed because the specific thing he was being executed he didn't do. But only that very specific thing. [01:26 AM] maxwellelvis: "(Because if I had killed him, it wouldn't have been with a gun)" [01:26 AM] Wack'd: As for why Johnny, well, Davey knew him from bullying Johnny in high school. (He's not in Strange Tales. I checked.) [01:26 AM] maxwellelvis: Oh boy, this trope [01:27 AM] maxwellelvis: Yep, good ol' Davey Munson. Been here the whoooole time. [01:30 AM] Wack'd: Sick burn on Ed Koch outta nowhere

[01:31 AM] Wack'd: (Though actually he's been in office for three years at this point so *shrug*) [01:31 AM] Wack'd: (It took Johnny two hours to get here by Fantasticar so maybe we're not even in NYC anymore? I dunno) [01:31 AM] maxwellelvis: "How'm I doin'? How'm I doin'? I'm not doin' so well." [01:32 AM] Wack'd: Hey, more silent panels! Artsy

[01:32 AM] maxwellelvis: Silent AND black-and-white with zero grayscale [01:32 AM] Wack'd: Anyway, it seems pretty open and shut. No gloves, fingerprints all over the gun, and plenty of witnesses. [01:33 AM] Wack'd: But. [01:33 AM] maxwellelvis: Just one more question [01:33 AM] Wack'd: Johnny just doesn't believe Davey was smart enough to use a silencer [01:33 AM] maxwellelvis: Wow [01:34 AM] Bocaj: 😐 [01:34 AM] Bocaj: Damning with faint praise [01:35 AM] Wack'd: Anyway, Johnny heads to the scene of the crime, where he finds the stockroom. He thinks it's weird that the victim would've been back here with the lights out and the store closed. [01:35 AM] maxwellelvis: Wow, I was just joking up above with the Columbo routine. [01:35 AM] Wack'd: Also, it's weird that this liquor store is run by Abraham Lincoln, right? Not just me?

[01:36 AM] maxwellelvis: "PISS OFF!" [01:36 AM] Wack'd: It's a conspiracy?!

[01:37 AM] Bocaj: Those meddling Avengers or Spider-Man [01:37 AM] Wack'd: Anyway, Johnny gives chase, and the guy says "there's no way the cops could pin that hit on me", and we're like halfway through the issue so I guess now Johnny goes home and does something else. [01:38 AM] Wack'd: Dishonest Abe was too stupid to memorize H's phone number so now Johnny has a lead in the form of said phone number. [01:39 AM] Wack'd: Finds the warehouse, takes out a buncha dumb thugs. [01:40 AM] Wack'd: Johnny, that's torture, and on top of being ineffective it's generally frowned upon.

[01:41 AM] maxwellelvis: Did he turn into a completely different guy for one panel? [01:41 AM] Wack'd: Looks like a coloring error, yeah [01:42 AM] maxwellelvis: Also, is Byrne the first guy to draw Johnny's eyes as glowing when he's the Torch? [01:42 AM] Wack'd: Maybe? [01:42 AM] Wack'd: Anyway H turns out to be a member of the Mafia. Or the Maggia I guess but fuck that it's the Mafia. [01:42 AM] maxwellelvis: That was a thing the first season of the 90's cartoon did, have his eyes and mouth glow like that. [01:43 AM] Wack'd: Oh hey, a Dick Tracy villains convention!

[01:43 AM] maxwellelvis: Hammerhead! [01:44 AM] Wack'd: Fight fight fight [01:44 AM] maxwellelvis: His one special technique won't be quite as effective against a guy who can fly and catch fire. [01:46 AM] Wack'd: He's able to go toe-to-toe with Johnny because he's got an exosuit. [01:46 AM] maxwellelvis: Ahh. Damn Maggia resources. [01:46 AM] maxwellelvis: But I like that Hammerhead isn't so committed to his gimmick as to commit tactical suicide here. [01:48 AM] Wack'd: Johnny manages to short-circuit the suit by melting some of its fuses. But Hammerhead doesn't realize his suit isn't working anymore and escapes by jumping off the building. [01:48 AM] Bocaj: And nothing of value was lost. [01:48 AM] Wack'd: He disappears before hitting the ground though and Johnny can't find him so he's probably fine. [01:49 AM] maxwellelvis: If he's got a power suit, he's probably got a teleporter. [01:50 AM] maxwellelvis: Anyways, that'd explain why Morrie was so worried as to specifically namedrop Spider-Man earlier. [01:50 AM] Wack'd: Anyway, here's the summation.

[01:50 AM] Wack'd: Given the issue opens with Johnny picking on Ben I was expecting, like, something about bullying being a slippery slope or Johnny at least reevaluating his behavior but no he's a good good boy [01:51 AM] Wack'd: I like the twist that the mom knew the whole time, though. [01:52 AM] Wack'd: A better story woulda, like, tied things up thematically on that end too. Maybe get Sue involved? But it's cute. [01:53 AM] maxwellelvis: It's a sign of something that so far your criticisms have been mostly possible missed opportunities or ways to hypothetically improve the story. [01:53 AM] Wack'd: Yeah [01:54 AM] Wack'd: I think to a degree the modern era of comics storytelling is still kinda coming into its own, Fantastic Four has been spinning through so many creative heads it hasn't really had time to catch up [01:55 AM] maxwellelvis: Yeah, this is still technically the Bronze Age. [01:55 AM] maxwellelvis: I think the Dark Age kicks in in the mid-80's, but there's no real crystalizing thing you can point to. [01:56 AM] maxwellelvis: It's more gradual than dividing things into ages would make you think. [01:56 AM] maxwellelvis: Anyways, this is why I find John Byrne to be such a frustrating figure: [01:56 AM] maxwellelvis: There's no denying he's gifted, but he's just so unbearable as a person. [01:56 AM] Wack'd: Heh [01:59 AM] Wack'd: Regardless I'm just really 'gized to know that I'm reading a story that's not gonna be abruptly cut off and paved over [01:59 AM] maxwellelvis: Yeah, that is one advantage of a long run like Byrne's.

#1981 #John Bryne #The Main Book

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transparentfestivalapricotfreak · 4 years

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ok so i'm really trying to recover and it's not been easy. when i finally thought that i've managed to start, i feel so empty. i feel like eds were what made me, me. as i watch the number on the scale go up, i feel like absolute shit.

i also have a friend who i suspect is anorexyc, and i don't know what to do. i try to support and encourage her cause i know how difficult it was, but i cannot stop thinking about how i suffered then, how if i had pushed on, i could look like her now.

i'm so jealous of her. she's skinny and super smart and though it's superficial, i really want to be like that.

she's such a good friend but everytime i see her i get so triggered about the past and i feel like i'm relapsing. i cannot stop thinking about it. it sucks. i feel like such a bad friend.

all these flashbacks are killing me and i'm slowly sliding back into depression.

ever since i've started my recovery, i've been having anxiety. i cannot stop thinking about what others think of me. i cannot stop thinking that they may be talking shit about me. it's so suffocating. i feel like i'm sliding back into my ed.

i feel like i can't breathe. every time i cross the road, i just want to run across.

stress from exams are not helping at all. i really hate myself so much. i know everyone is struggling but can i just focus on myself first? when will it be time for me to have some 'me' time? i've just been procrastinating and binge watching videos over and over again to block out the stress but i feel even more stressed it kills me slowly.

i feel like i'm at a deadend.

what can i do?

#ed things #fat #smaller waist #calories #ed recovery #anarecia #recovery #small waist #not pro just using tags #depression #anxiety #anarexya #anarexyc #ed

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doesithavetobeaspider · 4 years

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Deadenders #15 by Ed Brubaker and Warren Pleece

#you can crush me but you can't crush my spirit #aaaaah #my spirit!#saul barrison #deadenders

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fullmetalirin · 6 years

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Fullmetal Alchemist OG vs. Brotherhood: Hughes’ Investigation (OG 25, BH 10)

1:1 comparison this time, so Brotherhood comes across a little more favorably.

Fullmetal Alchemist Episode 25: "Words of Farewell"

Deciding to follow Scar to get clues about the philosopher's stone, the brothers take Winry with them when she notices that Rush Valley, a town best known for its automail shops, is en route. As they leave, Hughes investigates the fifth laboratory, discovering a connection between it and the war in Ishbal. He confronts the key suspect in it, Juliet Douglas, but is then attacked by Lust. He escapes the two women and tries to telephone Mustang with his information via telephone booth, only to be attacked by Envy, disguised as Ross before he assumes Gracia's form to deliver the death blow. Hughes is posthumously promoted to the rank of a brigadier general. In a flashback, Mustang and Hughes conspire together to ensure the tragedy in Ishbal never happens again.

We open with a flashback to just after Ishbal. Mustang is a mess. He's planning to resurrect the people he killed. Hughes apparently wasn't there, and scolds Mustang for going to the front lines if he couldn't handle the consequences.

Mustang's gun takes focus in the shot when Hughes says there are easier ways to kill yourself.

Mustang says the only reason he didn't try it was out of fear for his own life.

Bradley notices Hughes is sticking his nose where he shouldn't and pays him a visit to say he already investigated it and it's all handled. His coverup is that Grand was working with Ishbalan radicals, which seems like a pretty dubious story. Given Ed's reaction to Ishbal, possibly the truth of the massacre was kept from the public, so it's not unbelievable Ishbalans would work with Grand.

Hughes has found a list of higher-ups other than Grand who are also connected. The shot focuses on Sloth in the background, calmly writing something.

Bradley encourages Hughes to pursue the matter, I guess to lull him into a false sense of security.

Bradley says Sloth is the only one who knows Marcoh's safe location. We already know from episode 22 that she's working with the homunculi, so this may actually be intended as misdirection – see, Bradley didn't know, maybe he's still a good guy… Which of course is brilliant, because that's just how plausible deniability works in real life.

Hughes notices Sloth's nametag doesn't match the name Bradley called her by.

Brosh is listening in on the strategy meeting, but Ross says she doesn't want to get involved in any more crazy stuff.

Ed says he's given up on the Philosopher's Stone and wants to find another way to restore their bodies, so they're going to ask Izumi for help. Armstrong realizes this is because he doesn't want to place the others in the way of danger.

Comedy when Winry talks about Rush Valley.

Elicia is sad to see Ed go.

Cartoon skit when they talk about how mad Izumi would be.

Ah, what they actually plan to do is get Scar to tell them the secret of Ishbal's Stone. Since Ishbal didn't have alchemy, they think they might have used an alternate method. Seems like grasping at straws, but they are pretty desperate.

Al says Scar isn't a bad person, but Ed can't forgive him for using alchemy to kill.

PTSD dream with Scar and Kimblee. It's an actual dream, very distorted.

The master tells Scar he's wrong to seek vengeance while outside, an Amestrian gang wrecks their camp.

Scar kills them. Once again, the skulls are not visibly damaged in the character models.

Ah, Hughes is pointing out how odd it is that the homunculi are destroying people who get close to the Stone if they want people to make one.

Sloth calls Hughes to say she'll escort him to Marcoh's location. Hughes figures out that her given name matches that of the soldier who started the Ishbal war. That soldier was not only supposedly dead at the time, but continued to rise through the ranks poshumously.

Hughes confronts her on this. What was his plan here, exactly?

Why does Lust only extend her claws halfway instead of killing him outright?

Hughes notices her tattoo.

I do have to wonder why Envy doesn't shoot Hughes in the back while they're running? It's possible he wants to see what Hughes will do, I suppose.

Hughes calls Mustang only to discover he's already left for Central.

Hughes coldly cuts Envy-Ross’ throat, which is a really strong image that really cements how brutal and effective Hughes can be when he wants to.

When Hughes dies, we finish the flashback from the opening: Mustang tells him his plan to become Fuhrer.

Mustang says he's tempted to use human transmutation to bring back Hughes.

Mustang cries, and pretends it's the rain. The sky is clear.

We end with the Elrics reflecting on everything Hughes has done for them. Dramatic irony!

Ed sees… Hughes' ghost…?

Credits roll at the end, so I guess this is the end of season 1.

FMA Brotherhood Episode 10: "Separate Destinations"

Führer King Bradley appears at the hospital and warns the Elric brothers to be careful around the military, and he then exits through a window to evade his subordinates. Edward and Alphonse decide to go to the town of Dublith to visit their alchemy teacher, Izumi Curtis, to ask her for information about the philosopher's stone. They agree to take Winry with them when she notices that Rush Valley, a town known for creating the best automail in the world, is on the way to Dublith. Meanwhile, Hughes links the problems in Liore, the fifth laboratory, and the Ishval civil war. He discovers a connection, but is then attacked by Lust. He escapes her and tries to contact Mustang with his information at a public telephone booth, only to be pursued and gunned down by Envy, disguised firstly as Ross, and then as his wife Gracia. Hughes is posthumously promoted to the rank of brigadier general while his murder is investigated by Mustang, who concludes via Armstrong that a high ranked member of the military may be responsible for ordering Hughes' death.

We open with a flashback to Ishbal, and we get the full speech. So Mustang was openly talking about treason while in a crowd of soldiers. Okay then. We also get a shot of Mustang's super fireballs, similar to the flashback in OG.

Bradley looks directly at him and gives him a death glare. So Bradley apparently knew about this the whole time and at no point tried to kill Mustang, because…?

We cut to Mustang in the present day instead of Hughes because of course we do. He's about to move to Central.

Cartoon shift when the heroes reflect on their leads apparently deadending.

Same scene with Brosh and Ross.

Bradley pays Ed a visit. He gives the same "You know too much LOL J/K" speech he gave Hughes in OG. Ed and Al remain in cartoon form throughout the scene.

Bradley claims there's an enemy faction infiltrating the government. The Stone researches went missing only days before the Fifth Laboratory's collapse, not years as in OG.

Bradley tells everyone to be cautious, but keep investigating.

Comedy as Bradley's subordinates call for him and he sneaks away.

Cartoon face as the brothers freak out about Izumi.

Skit with Winry wanting to go to Rush Valley is very similar, but we see the map and locations more clearly.

Hughes tells Ed to marry Winry. Stop being creepy, Hughes.

Hughes reiterates that Winry can stay with them whenever she's in Central.

Gracia tells Hughes to come home safe. Ohoho.

The brothers really are intending to visit Izumi, apparently? Similar cartoon skit when they talk about how she'll kill them.

There have been rebellions in the north area as well. Hughes is worried the government will be overthrown. Oh no…?

Less of Sheska, but also less of Hughes abusing her. She's just in the background looking tired.

Hughes' logic is much less clear. He just mutters something about the uprisings and human sacrifices and wonders who ordered everything. He for some reason doesn't think it's the Fuhrer, because he thinks he needs to tell him immediately.

Lust ambushes Hughes in the archive room. How do they even know he knows anything dangerous at this point? If this is all it takes to get you killed, they should be killing all the heroes at this point.

Hughes notices the tattoo, and we get a closeup shot in case you didn't.

Hughes is much more badly injured by Lust's attack, visibly staggers and collapses.

I think this is our first confirmation homunculi can survive lethal attacks?

Hughes talks to the telephone operator, who sees that he's bleeding. I'd say that's shoddy planning on the villains' part, but Hughes proceeds to tell her nothing, so the idiot ball's just getting passed around today. Even if he didn't trust her, he could have had her send a coded message to Mustang or something.

Hughes doesn't want to use an internal line, so he goes to the phone booth.

Hughes has to give a code to connect to Mustang from an outside line. This is where he drops the photo: he needs to open his notebook to get the code.

Envy-Ross pulls a gun on Hughes while he's in the phone booth. Why did he even bother transforming? Given what happens later I guess they were planning to frame Ross, but why does Envy put up an act? That this is so obviously not Ross completely ruins the effect. Envy also does not just shoot him immediately, because…?

And Envy is still talking. Why.

No shot of Envy looking at the photo.

Hughes yells "WHAT ARE YOU?!" when Envy turns into Gracia. I'm sorry, that completely ruins the effect of the scene for me. If he had time to talk he had time to throw the knife. Less is more.

We cut away for the gunshot.

Mustang actually does pick up, and Hughes clutches for the receiver before Envy just hangs up. Why didn't Envy use Hughes' voice to screw with Mustang? That would have been actually clever.

Envy sneers about humans being idiots. Except he's in his default form in a place where anyone could see him, so methinks the pot is calling the kettle black.

Hughes' family photo gets covered over with his blood. It works I guess, but I feel like it's over-the-top.

And Hughes gets last words apologizing to his family for being late. Too much.

We see the scene with Ed before the funeral. I don't like that. I think it has stronger impact at the end, especially since it leads us effectively into the next arc.

Elicia's tone is less even: she starts off pretty calm and ends hysterical. I think that's too much like how an adult would behave, not a child. We do get more focus on Gracia crying, though.

We get a date on the grave. Hughes was born 1885, making him 29.

Mustang says the same line about human transmutation, but he adds that he understands how the Elrics felt when they did it.

Nothing about him wondering why Hughes didn't tell him the Elrics were in trouble.

Riza explicitly points out it's not raining, which I think dilutes the emotion of the moment.

We end with Mustang investigating, which I believe is covered in the next OG episode. Armstrong can't tell him who the suspects are, so he deduces someone higher up must have issued a gag order. He also deduces from Armstrong telling him the Elrics were in Central but didn't find the Stone that it's related to the Stone, which seems like more of a stretch.

Conclusion

Mustang's taking over Brotherhood again. He's the subject of the beginning and ending, rather than Hughes.

I'd say that plotwise, Brotherhood is tighter here, but OG is stronger tonally. As usual, Brotherhood feels rushed to me. Everything proceeds too fast; we don't get a clear sense of just what Hughes was onto, and as a consequence it makes less sense why the villains are targeting him specifically. OG feels more professionally directed; the cinematography and the flow of the action just work better for me. Hughes revealing a specific important detail also makes this worthwhile to the audience; his death was not in vain.

I find it notable how different the flashback is in OG. There it's a moment of vulnerability and human weakness. Much like Mustang's suicide attempt, it truly shows how affected he is by his sins. In Brotherhood it's just a vehicle to deliver exposition.

The addition of the Ishbal camp scene in OG is probably a controversial move. I can understand people who feel it's distracting, but personally I like having multiple plates spinning in an episode.

It's annoying how much time the villains take killing Hughes, though, in both continuities. Why were they giving him so much time to investigate, when they already knew he knew too much? Why didn't they just have Envy walk up to his office in disguise and shoot him? I get the impression Sloth was trying to lure him away from witnesses in OG, but that shouldn't have been necessary in the first place. This whole thing is framed like they really are outside infiltrators and not controlling the entire government; it's subterfuge for the audience's sake, not for the characters'. Knowing Bradley is also in on it, he could have just, I dunno, arrested Hughes and rushed an execution without trial. “On what charge?” “I’m a dictator, there doesn’t have to be one!” Who’s going to stop him? It’s not like he can even be assassinated!

#fullmetal alchemist #fma #fullmetal alchemist brotherhood #fma 2003 #liveblog

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ohaithe-re · 4 years

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UIUCTF 2020: Cricket32

This writeup will be an example in using angr to “automatically” solve this problem. But along the way, we’ll find two deficiencies in angr, and show how to fix them! Beyond being a writeup of this problem -- there is very little information specific to this challenge -- this can serve as an angr use and development tutorial.

Challenge:

We are given a file cricket32.S, which contains 32-bit x86 assembly and instructions for assembling:

// gcc -m32 cricket32.S -o cricket32 .text str_usage: .string "Usage: ./cricket32 flag\nFlag is ascii with form uiuctf{...}\n" str_yes: .string "Flag is correct! Good job!\n" str_nope: .string "Flag is not correct.\n" .global main main: mov $str_usage, %ebx xor %esi, %esi SNIP jmp printf

Note that the -m32 flag will force gcc to compile a 32-bit executable. The assembly is pretty short, but has a few hard-to-interpret instructions, such as aaa (ASCII Adjust After Addition), sahf (Store AH into Flags), and so on. It's possible these are filler meant to distract; it's also possible that they're being used as part of some bizarre check, or as data (if the program is reading its own code).

Approach

Instead of trying to reverse engineer this ourselves, we'll be using angr to solve for the input. For background, angr is a tool that turns the problem of "get this program into this particular state" into a constraint problem. We interact with angr mostly through the functions explore(), which tells to seek out various states (such as printing "Success!"), and add_constraints(), which let us tell angr rules about the input or states of the program. Let's dive in!

After compiling cricket32, we open it up in IDA to see what addresses we might care about:

We see that if the code reaches 0x12BD, it will load str_nope, and then proceed straight to loc_12BC and printf. This is our failure condition. We'll load the binary in angr and tell to find an input that allows us to avoid that address, 0x12BD.

import angr import claripy project = angr.Project("./cricket32", auto_load_libs=True) flag_len = 32 arg1 = claripy.BVS('arg1', flag_len*8) initial_state = project.factory.entry_state(args=["./cricket32", arg1])

Here arg1 is our symbolic representation of the argument to the binary. We've allocated 32 bytes to (flag_len), hoping this is enough. Since arg1 can have zero-bytes, effectively being shorter than 32, this will work as long as the flag is at most 32 bytes long.

Running the above code produces the output:

WARNING | 2020-07-19 20:08:15,647 | cle.loader | The main binary is a position-independent executable. It is being loaded with a base address of 0x400000.

so the address that we wanted to avoid, 0x12bd, will actually be 0x4012bd. Let's now explore for that address:

sm = project.factory.simulation_manager(initial_state) sm.explore(avoid=[0x40128D])

Unfortunately, we are left with the result <SimulationManager with 26 avoid (7 errored)>. When angr explores paths, it has a few different "stashes" that paths can be in. There are:

active: paths that have not been fully explored yet

deadended: which is paths that terminated the program

avoid: paths that reached somewhere we didn't want it to

found: paths that found an explicit destination request (we gave no such destination here)

errored: indicating that angr was unable to continue with a path.

Ideally we would have had a deadended path here, meaning that a program successfully terminated without reaching the avoided point of 0x4012bd. Since we didn't, let's take a look at the errors.

sm.errored[0] will get the first state in the errored stash, and on the console we get:

What's 0x4012a2? Looking in IDA again, we see the crc32 edx, dword ptr [esi] instruction. The crc32 instruction is used to compute a cyclic redundancy check. This is a somewhat complicated operation, and generally rare, so it's not terribly surprising that angr doesn't know how to translate it into constraints. As suggested, we can implement a hook to emulate this.

Angr Hooks

A hook in angr is used to modify or replace a piece of code. A syscall instruction may, for instance, invoke some complicated kernel behavior, and hooking it could allow us to substitute our own behavior; or a simple call might be hooked to modify the execution. When writing a hook, it is important to remember we are working with symbolic values, not actual integers, so that we ultimately return a mathematical expression representing the modified state.

Our hook will intercept the crc32 instruction, emulate it, and then return control flow at the end of the instruction. The crc32 instruction is 5 bytes long, so our hook starts:

def crc32_hook(state): pass project.hook(0x4012a2, crc32_hook, length=5)

Next we need to implement the correct behavior. Since all computations must be symbolic, we can't just use a library implementation of CRC32. Additionally, most CRC32 implementation use the "CRC-32" specification, with the 0x04C11DB7 polynomial (essentially a magic number). The x86 crc32 instruction instead uses the "CRC-32C", or "Castagnoli", specification, with the 0x1EDC6F41 polynomial. Some googling turns up this implementation of CRC-32C we can adapt.

CRC_TABLE = ( 0x00000000, 0xf26b8303, 0xe13b70f7, 0x1350f3f4, # ... SNIP ... 0xbe2da0a5, 0x4c4623a6, 0x5f16d052, 0xad7d5351, ) table_dict = {i: claripy.ast.bv.BVV(CRC_TABLE[i],32) for i in range(256)} def get_crc32_table_BVV(i): i = i.to_claripy() return claripy.ast.bool.ite_dict(i, table_dict, 0xFFFFFFFF) def crc32c(dst,src): b32 = src crc = dst for i in [3,2,1,0]: b = b32.get_byte(i) shift = (crc >> 8) & 0x00FFFFFF onebyte = crc.get_byte(3) crc = get_crc32_table_BVV(onebyte ^ b) ^ shift return crc

Here we need to do a symbolic table lookup, which we can implement with ite_dict. ite_dict(i, table_dict, 0xFFFFFFFF) means that we use the key-value pairs in table_dict to look up i; the default value will be 0xFFFFFFFF is not in the dict (but in our case it always will be). Then our crc32c method computes the update to running CRC32 dst using the four bytes in src. Our hook is then:

def crc32_hook(state): crc = state.regs.edx addr = state.regs.esi b32 = state.memory.load(addr).reversed print('CRC32 accessing ',b32) state.regs.edx = crc32c(crc, b32)

This clearly not a drop-in replacement for any crc32 instruction: we've hard-coded that the source operand is dword ptr [esi] and our destination is edx. But that will work for our purposes here. After adding our hook, we reload the initial state and explore as before. The search continues for a few seconds, until we get a very long stack trace that eventually ends:

RecursionError: maximum recursion depth exceeded while calling a Python object

Urk.

Removing recursion

This turns out to stem from a shortcoming of how ite_dict is implemented. It passes the dictionary to ite_cases, which loops a claripy.If expression -- essentially a ternary operator. In our case, this produces an expression like

claripy.If(i == 0, 0x00000000, claripy.If(i == 1, 0xf26b8303, claripy.If(i == 2, 0xe13b70f7, claripy.If(i == 3, 0x1350f3f4, ... <255 levels like this> ))))

and when Z3 (the backend constraint solver) tries to analyze this, it balks at the depth of the expression. There are two options now: (1) implement a better version of ite_dict, or (2) use a table-free imeplemtation of CRC-32C. In the competition, we used option (2). Googling some more for how to generate the table leads us to this page on generating the table. Instead of generating a table and storing it, we can just "recompute" (symbolically) the value each our crc32 instruction is hit. This leads to the code,

def get_crc32_calc_BVV(i): crc = i.zero_extend(32 - i.size()); if isinstance(crc, angr.state_plugins.sim_action_object.SimActionObject): crc = crc.to_claripy() for j in range(8): shift = ((crc >> 1) & 0x7FFFFFFF) cond = crc & 1 > 0 crc = claripy.If(cond, shift ^ 0x82f63b78, shift); return crc

The crc.to_claripy() here is necessary in case angr passes us a SimActionObject instead of an actual symbolic value. Then the rest of the operations work just like the C code in the link above, with the claripy.If replacing C's ternary operator. Then we replace the appropriate line in our crc32c function to use get_crc32_calc_BVV instead of get_crc32_table_BVV. Looking at our code so far:

import angr import claripy #copy implementation from https://medium.com/@chenfelix/crc32c-algorithm-79e0a7e33f61 def get_crc32_calc_BVV(i): crc = i.zero_extend(32 - i.size()); if isinstance(crc, angr.state_plugins.sim_action_object.SimActionObject): crc = crc.to_claripy() for j in range(8): shift = ((crc >> 1) & 0x7FFFFFFF) cond = crc & 1 > 0 crc = claripy.If(cond, shift ^ 0x82f63b78, shift); return crc def crc32c(dst,src): b32 = src crc = dst for i in [3,2,1,0]: b = b32.get_byte(i) shift = (crc >> 8) & 0x00FFFFFF onebyte = crc.get_byte(3) crc = get_crc32_calc_BVV(onebyte ^ b) ^ shift return crc def crc32_hook(state): crc = state.regs.edx addr = state.regs.esi b32 = state.memory.load(addr).reversed print('CRC32 accessing ',b32) state.regs.edx = crc32c(crc, b32) project = angr.Project("./cricket32", auto_load_libs=True) flag_len = 32 arg1 = claripy.BVS('arg1', flag_len*8) initial_state = project.factory.entry_state(args=["./cricket32", arg1]) sm = project.factory.simulation_manager(initial_state) project.hook(0x4012a2, crc32_hook, length=5) sm.explore(avoid=[0x40128D])

At the end we are left with: <SimulationManager with 6 deadended, 33 avoid>. Fantastic! That means 6 paths successfully terminated without hitting 0x4012bd. Each of these SimStates are listed in sm.deadended. To get the input, we can call state.make_concrete_int(arg1), which will return arg1 as a big integer; then .to_bytes(32,"big") to turn it into a string:

>>> for state in sm.deadended: ... state.make_concrete_int(arg1).to_bytes(32,"big") ... b'uiuc\xdbK\xdf\x9d\xf0N\xd6\x95cket_a_c\xddL\xc7\x97it}\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00' b'\xdaD\xd1\x9ftf{a_cricket_a_c\xddL\xc7\x97\xc6Y\xd9\xfc\x00\x00\x00\x00' b'uiuctf{a\xf0N\xd6\x95\xccF\xc1\x88_a_crack\xc6Y\xd9\xfc\x02\x00\x00\x00' b'\xdaD\xd1\x9f\xdbK\xdf\x9d\xf0N\xd6\x95cket_a_c\xddL\xc7\x97\xc6Y\xd9\xfc\x10\x10\x00\x00' b'\xdaD\xd1\x9ftf{a_cri\xccF\xc1\x88\xf0L\xfb\x9frack\xc6Y\xd9\xfc \x01\x00' b'uiuctf{a\xf0N\xd6\x95\xccF\xc1\x88_a_c\xddL\xc7\x97\xc6Y\xd9\xfc\x01\x04\x01\x08'

We see that angr has found 6 solutions that technically would work as input to the program, and indeed several start with uiuctf{ -- a sign we're on the right track! But they're filled with non-printable characters. The astute eye might piece together the flag from the above malformed fragments, but the "right" thing to do is to do tell angr that each byte of input will be printable ASCII (or zero).

Cleanup

for b in arg1.chop(8): initial_state.add_constraints((b == 0) | ((b > 31) & (b < 127))) for i in range(len("uiuctf{")): b = arg1.chop(8)[i] initial_state.add_constraints(b == ord("uiuctf{"[i]))

It's important to note that -- perhaps a bit surprisingly -- compound constraints are formed using | and &, not Python's or and and keywords. arg1.chop(8) breaks the 256-bit vector arg1 into a list of 8-bit bytes, and we add a constraint for each byte. The second loop actually forces that the flag starts with uiuctf{. Probably not strictly necessary, but will definitely accelerate solving. This code gets inserted right before initial_state = project.factory.... The evaluation now takes less than a minute, and ends with

<SimulationManager with 1 deadended, 26 avoid> >>> >>> for sol in sm.deadended: ... print(sol.posix.dumps(1)) ... sol.make_concrete_int(arg1).to_bytes(32,"big") ... b'Flag is correct! Good job!\n' b'uiuctf{a_cricket_a_crackit}\x00 @@\x00'

Flag get!

A reality check

In practice, progress wasn't quite this linear. Some gotchas I encountered were:

Needing to use .to_claripy() in the hook -- if you don't, the hook runs fine, and then you get weird and inscrutable errors later.

Figuring out what the recursion error was coming from. Was determined by shrinking the dictionary size and watching the problem go away (although of course no solution was found).

Lots of byte-ordering issues. angr will often store the bytes the opposite order you expect, so e.g. forcing the string to start with uiuctf{ was something initally done backwards.

LOTS more byte-ordering issues in implementing the CRC. And sign-bit madness. If you think translating bit-fiddly C code to Python is bad, try translating bit-fiddly C code to symbolic Python with unusual endianness.

This program is small enough that it might have been very routine to solve with angr in just a few lines of code, or that IDA might have decompiled it into something very readable. angr was thwarted by the crc32 instruction. It is worth noting that, had the binary been 64-bit, angr would have known how to do a CRC32; 32-bit executables are less supported. And IDA refused to parse the main code chunk as a function, because it couldn't handle the jump-to-the-middle-of-an-instruction we see at 0x12ba. IDA already parsed an instruction at 0x1278, so a jump to 0x1279 broke it. Finally, the ASCII-Adjust operations (aaa) are pretty rare, and I was surprised that angr supported them. I doubt many decompilers would.

Postscript: A better ite_dict

During the competition, I use a loop implementation of CRC-32 that didn't use a table. In practice, there's little reason why a table couldn't be used, if the if-then-else statement went in a binary tree instead. So I wanted to try that too! Code:

#Improved version of ite_dict that uses a binary search tree instead of a "linear" search tree. #This improves Z3 search capability (eliminating branches) and decreases recursion depth: #linear search trees make Z3 error out on tables larger than a couple hundred elements.) # Compare with https://github.com/angr/claripy/blob/f2c1998731efca4838a4edb9dec77e0424c5f691/claripy/ast/bool.py#L164 def ite_dict(i, d, default): i = i.ast if type(i) is claripy.ast.base.ASTCacheKey else i #for small dicts fall back to the old implementation if len(d) < 4: return claripy.ast.bool.ite_cases([ (i == c, v) for c,v in d.items() ], default) #otherwise, binary search. #Find the median: keys = list(d.keys()) keys.sort() split_val = keys[len(keys)//2] #split the dictionary dictLow = {c:v for c,v in d.items() if c <= split_val} dictHigh = {c:v for c,v in d.items() if c > split_val} valLow = ite_dict(i, dictLow, default) valHigh = ite_dict(i, dictHigh, default) return claripy.If(i <= split_val, valLow, valHigh) def get_crc32_table_BVV(i): i = i.to_claripy() return ite_dict(i, table_dict, 0xFFFFFFFF)

With this modified version of get_crc32_table_BVV, the table-based code ran fine. Interestingly, it took several minutes to solve -- quite a bit slower than the "slow" and "complicated" loop-based implementation. In general though, I expect the binary tree would be faster for Z3 to analyze than a linear expression. I've created a pull request to get this improvement into angr, hopefully. :)

EDIT: It got merged -- hooray for CTFs leading to productive behavior!

#crc32 #hacking #reversing #Reverse Engineering #uiuctf #ctf #python #angr

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lesliesacksgallery · 6 years

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#StaffPicks | Ed Ruscha by Diana McNeill - Through the lens of Ed Ruscha, we see re-imaginings of otherwise ordinary urban and rural imagery such as roadside gas stations, buildings and signage. Ruscha extrapolates fragments of familiar imagery and rebrands it within a new context to great effect. - Dead End, 2014, is a perfect example of his ability to filter language and meaning often through visual Americana and turn out a larger universal truth or contemplation. This edition is part of Ruscha's Rusty Signs series, a set of six prints produced with Mixografia and their unique relief printing process. The texture of the paper has been treated giving the illusion of a grimy, oxidized sign and the text is printed in relief emulating hammered steel. Each composition in the series is presented in various states of rust and wear conveying a truly authentic replica of weathered and corroded signage. - Of this body of work Ruscha notes, "Since a very young age, my attention has always been on signs of every kind--some that I have painted by hand and others that are blank or enigmatic. These new editions are about neglected and forgotten signs from neglected and forgotten landscapes." This is in keeping with Ruscha's practice of isolating visual components of our culture as independent objects and transforming them into works of art. - Ed Ruscha, Dead End 2, from Rusty Signs, 2014, Mixografia print, 24 x 24 inches, edition of 50 - #edruscha #ruscha #deadend #rustysign #mixografia #forgotten #landscape @dianalatigra (at Leslie Sacks Gallery) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bppn17Flzp-/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=b4r3gphk2nsq

#staffpicks #edruscha #ruscha #deadend #rustysign #mixografia #forgotten #landscape

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jazzluca · 2 years

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Separati alla nascita, il Dead End Legacy ed il Combiner Wars, più un omonimo Bayformer misconosciuto! #transformers #transformersg1 #transformerstoys #transformersgenerations #transformersrotf #Transformerslegacy #transformersprimewars #transformerscombinerwars #legacy #decepticon #distructors #stunticon #menasor #pentacar #dragstrip #iguana #motormaster #barracuda #deadend #cobra #hasbro #hasbrocommunity https://www.instagram.com/p/CnOpzhqMh5W/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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charliestaplerasmedia · 8 years

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Analysis of Film openings by Charlie Stopler

The Watchmen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVUDdQS2UxA

Straight away, it is a clearly a superhero film. The opening credits montage set to Bob Dylan’s timeless “The times they are a-changin” is well constructed and sets the nature and tone of the twisted world of Watchmen to great effect. The montage opens by introducing the reality of real-world superheroes in the 1940s with Hollis Mason, dressed as Nite Owl, punching out a criminal as cameras flash around him. Instantly noticeable is the decision to present the entire scene in slow motion, a brilliant inclusion that, when combined with Dylan’s tune, creates a hypnotic, nostalgic effect perfect for the arrangement, while “warner bros. pictures and paramount present” is above his head in large text. A few shots later, Snyder captures an image of the minutemen posing for a picture in 1940. The costumes and general aesthetic work in these early depictions are authentic and stunning.

Most notably, the montage works to detail the turbulent nature of superhero popularity as depicted in the media leading up to the present-day of the novel. After initial successes and stardom, heroes are shown to be murdered, retire, go mad, and fall out of favour with the public. In sequence, Dollar Bill is shown dead at a crime scene with cameras flashing about, Sally Jupiter is shown pregnant at a party with the rest of the minutemen under the banner “Happy retirement Sally”, and Mothman is shown attempting to flail and fight his way out of the arms of men in white coats taking him into an ambulance. Snyder depicts the rise and fall of the original Watchmen superhero.

Some of the most fun moments of the montage come from depicting bits and pieces of Watchmen’s alternate version of history. The heroes of Watchmen are shown to have had a direct impact on many major historical moments of the 60s. One shot faithfully recreates the Zapruder tape assassination of JFK only to pan away to a hill, revealing the Comedian incriminatingly holding a rifle, while another twists the moon landing by showing Dr. Manhattan’s face in the reflection of a space helmet, while yet another depicts Richard Nixon being elected for a third term. All these things help to add to the idea that in this film, these superheros have had a direct impact on our past.

Mission impossible: Ghost Protocol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJCvU-91eAo

The great thing about the sequence is the explosive start when a fuse is lit as the music begins. As its lit “Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions present” is shown in large text, establishing the main distributors and producers. This is followed by “A Tom cruise Production”, showing that he is a huge part of the films success.This fuse is subsequently featured throughout the entire sequence and ties the whole thing together, with the camera following it wherever it goes. With burning circuit boards, skyscrapers with graphically-overlaid blueprints, an underwater shot, bullets, missiles and fast cars, the viewer tends to miss the fact that some of the movie ending (such as the circular car park) is featured in these opening credits. The audience also sees this with the props used in the title sequence such as the fuse which is lit (symbolising an explosion), Missiles, Guns/Bullets and even fast sports cars. There are various camera scenes and angles such as close ups, long shots and cinematic/establishing shots.

Overall, a captivating and thrilling sequence. It gives hints as to what the film is going to be about and includes objects and scenes from the film without revealing the story line. Rewatching it after having seen the film creates a whole new experience watching the title sequence as you recognise everything shown. The classic mission impossible theme tune that everyone knows and loves is used, creating nostalgia and excitement from the start. Following the fuse is a clever and innovative idea which keeps us engaged in the action.The "Ghost Protocol" font is very misty and a faded grey giving the audience the feel of a ghost or something quite mysterious. The title sequence shows the Production Company and Producers first, then it goes into the title of the film and the rest of the casts. The font for the title of the film is different to the others, it is much bolder and more attractive to the audience to make sure that they read the name of the film.

Fight Club https://vimeo.com/90519890

The opening starts with a quick sound of an old classical music and after about 2 seconds the soundtrack changes into a loud, full of beat tune and it being low key creates a creepy atmosphere. The movement on the screen is fast paced in dark colours and it is supposed to reflect the inside of someone's brain. The camerawork shows very precise details and there are sort of electrical impulses running through the brain that can represent different feelings, in case of this atmosphere it is more likely to be fear and confusion. The scale is changed the whole time, so the audience are able to see close ups of different lobes and also medium shots of other brain chords, nerve connections and particles. What is also interesting to notice that as the sequnce goes on the pores seem to be more and more clogged. Overall this represents and shows that the film will have a lot to do with someone's thinking, mental stability and there is going to be a lot to think about for the audience as well.

The credits are going on at the same time and Brad Pitt has one of the main roles, which will attract more audience. As the credits finish the pulling out of the brain fades into an extreme close up of what we discover to be a gun inside someone's mouth. At the same time there is diegetic narration that mentions the name "Tyler Durdan." This establishes two characters for the audience and creates an enigma, as we are wondering what is the link between them. At the same time another enigma is created as the person who holds the gun speaks, but we can only see a close up of his arm and later backside, which creates a mystery of who he is. He mentions the time of "3 minutes" and asks if the other person has any "last words to mark the occasion." This is another confusion for the audience, as we are wondering why he is so specific with time and if the occasion is killing the man or something else.

There is a slight humour to break the tension as the man attempts to talk with the gun in his mouth and when his mouth is free he says "I can't think of anything." This little moment in the opening is a huge enigma, as the film has a non-linear narrative and as it starts at the end, we have no idea what is the story behind what is going on. The antagonist-potential killer and the protagonist-victim are established, as well as the mysterious persona Tyler Durdan. The setting is in the dark and the atmosphere with gun is very tense and nerving, which creates a worrying mood. Just from this little clip the genre of the film can be established as a thriller and there are a lot of enigmas and puzzles created for the audience right from the start.

Shaun of the Dead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCso753oVfw

This film follows the experience of midde-class English 20 year olds survival of the zombie apocalypse by hiding in a pub. It is a clever parody of the zombie genre. It can be seen as a zombie-romantic-comedy as the main character Sean (played by Simon Pegg) attempts to win his girlfriend back while trying to survive. The opening sequence shows many people doing their boring, mundane deadend jobs as if they were on autopilot. It gives the audience the impression that they are not yet zombies, but are basically zombified by doing their routine jobs every day with little thought or regard. It questions social norms. Cleverly, at the end of the film the same people are shown doing the same jobs expect this time they are zombies. This is a clever method to show how mundane working life can be.

The first shot is of someone pushing trolleys slowly while “Universal pictures Studiocanal and Working title films” is shown, confirming the producer and distributor. The lighting is bright throughout, unlike most zombie films that use darkness to create suspense and fear. For example, the supermarket during the day shown is an unconventional place for a horror to be filmed. The camera then cuts to people waiting at a bus stop who check their clocks in sync, reinforcing the idea of people turning into zombies by doing the same thing every day. The whole opening sequence is a mid-shot with a slow pan that cuts to the next shot. This shot is repeated which again adds to the idea of mundane conformity zombifying people. It makes the audience feel less involved, like an onlooker.

The next shot is different to the rest, indicating change of pace and story. It starts with a low angle shot of some feet stumbling with a large shadow, accompanied by zombie like groaning. This is typical in horror and zombie films to make someone seem more frightening. The camera then pans up to reveal that it is not a zombie, it is Shaun the main character yawning, stumbling as he has just woken up. This perhaps is a mockery of the usual horror genre.

The next shot is of Shaun and Ed. Their close relationship is shown when they sit next to each other both with their feet on the table. We hear “player 2 has entered the game” as shaun pick up the controller. His instant joining into the game signifies the close bond they share. Ed then says “haven’t you got work?” followed by a voice saying “player two has left the game”. Shaun gets up as quickly as he sat down, reinstating the idea that having to do the same tasks everyday is like already being a zombie.

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