GoneTrending

This post contains spoilers for ‘The Falcon and The Winter Solider.’

This past weekend, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier concluded and gave Marvel fans the moment they’ve all been waiting for: the inauguration of the next — and rightful — Captain America, Sam Wilson. In addition, fans finally got to see the broody Bucky Barnes achieve something resembling peace of mind and closure, something that he’s been sorely needing for the past 80 years or so.

However, just like its Disney+ predecessor, WandaVision, The Falcon and Winter Soldier finale did more than tell a fantastic story — it set things in motion for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in some pretty major ways, establishing not only the next Captain America but new villains and dynamics. So, what’s next for Sam, Bucky, and The Avengers in the MCU’s phase four? As always, Marvel Studio is keeping things delightfully open-ended, but has provided us with enough information to keep us psyched and speculating. Here are a few of our big questions and what we know so far.

Will The Falcon and the Winter Soldier get a second season?

As of right now, there are no plans for a second season. Much like WandaVision, the short-and-sweet six-episode mini-series seemed more interested in setting up the universe’s upcoming full-length features rather than becoming an entity in itself.

Ooh, what kind of full-length features?

Last week, Deadline reported a new Captain America movie is in the works, with The Falcon and The Winter Soldier showrunner Malcolm Spellman at the helm. While Marvel is staying tight-lipped about the film’s director and cast, Spellman’s involvement could easily mean the movie will feature Anthony Mackie reprising his role as the new Captain America and will follow his next steps in the star-spangled boots. Captain America 4 could even feature former Cap, Chris Evans himself, who earlier this year was rumored to be reprising his role in the MCU at some point, though, if true, would presumably in some small, supplemental way. However, at least one character in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is sure to get more screen time: Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who (in the comics) is an antagonistic double-agent working for the Russian spy ring Leviathan and the (wait for it) former lover of one Nick Fury. Fontaine might make her next appearance in Black Widow, which hits theaters July 9.

Apart from Sam and Val, what’s next for everyone else?

It’s highly unlikely we’ve seen the last of Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp), and Eli Bradley (Elijah Richardson). Bucky, for example, could have roles in the upcoming Avengers or Captain America movies. In addition, he also has close ties with Wakanda and could make an appearance in the Black Panther sequel and/or Disney+’s upcoming Wakanda series. Also on the side of good is Joaquin, who inherited Sam’s old wings in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and appears to be on track to become the next Falcon and serve alongside his newly promoted friend.

Baron Zemo is an interesting one, being a character we already have quite a bit of rocky history with. However, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier showrunners seemed intent on making his character both more charming and redeemable in the series, leaving us speculating he might be around more. He was last seen headed to The Raft, a prison where, in the comics, Zemo created the villainous super-group called The Thunderbolts. John Walker and Sharon Carter are also a couple of characters seemingly up to no good, with Walker joining Fontaine to potentially use his super-solider talents outside the law and Sharon possibly setting herself up in a pretty cushiony role as double-agent.

Out of all of these characters however, Eli Bradley might just be one fans should be most excited about. In the comics, Eli joins the Young Avengers as Patriot, a hero modeled after Captain America. As we see the next generation of Avengers start to emerge — Cassie Lang as Stinger, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, Riri Williams as Ironheart, Kate Bishop as Hawkeye, and America Chavez as Ms. America — we see the future of the MCU, and it’s looking to be quite a cast of diverse and enthusiastic newcomers.

And speaking of additions everyone is pretty stoked about, we haven’t forgotten that Disney purchased Fox a couple of years back and therefore has rights to the X-Men. While WandaVision has a much closer relationship with the X-Men, that didn’t stop The Falcon and The Winter Soldier from containing one big ol’ homage to the X-Men in the shape of Madripoor, a fictional Southeast Asian city commonly associated with Wolverine and his son, Daken. In addition, a scene from the upcoming Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings takes place in the seaside city, and all this overlap cannot be a coincidence. Fingers crossed we finally get a chance to see Daken in action in Shang-Chi.

Until then, Marvel fans have something to look forward to with Loki, which hits Disney+ on June 11.

Movie fans of a certain age may remember that eliminating late fees was one of Blockbuster’s final, fatal mistakes early in the new millennium. But one Oklahoma woman rented Sabrina The Teenage Witch from the wrong store and ended up charged with a federal crime as a result.

The New York Times shared a wild story on Monday of a Norman, Oklahoma, woman who ended up with a bit of a legal mess afrer failing to return a VHS based on an Archie Comics character. Caron Scarborough Davis had a 21-year-old warrant out for her arrest filed by a now-shuttered movie rental store.

Prosecutors said that Ms. Davis had failed to return a copy of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” a television sitcom that aired from 1996 to 2003. She rented the tape from a video store in Norman, Okla., in 1999, according to court documents.

She was charged with embezzlement of rented property, and a warrant was issued for her arrest in March 2000. The store where she rented the tape, Movie Place, closed in 2008, according to KOKH Fox 25 in Oklahoma.

As the Times piece notes, it’s actually unclear if the VHS is of the 1996 movie, the show that ran seven seasons that used that film as its unofficial pilot, or any of the made-for-tv movies that starred the same cast. Presumably, it’s one of the movies given that sales of full seasons on VHS were more rare than movies for a variety of reasons, not to mention the fact that the retail value of the missing VHS was $58.59, much more in line with a single film at the time.

Davis apparently learned about the warrant when she got married and tried to change her name at the state’s DMV.

“I thought I was going to have a heart attack,” she said.

Ms. Davis said motor vehicle officials referred her to the district attorney’s office for Cleveland County, Okla., where a woman explained the charge against her.

“She told me it was over the VHS tape and I had to make her repeat it because I thought, ‘This is insane,’” Ms. Davis said. “This girl is kidding me, right? She wasn’t kidding.”

Thankfully for Davis, the charge was dropped by local authorities due to the “best interest of justice,” which is another phrase for the store that requested the warrant is no longer in business.

The whole piece is really interesting and also includes an interview with the manager of the last remaining Blockbuster, which was chronicled in a very good documentary on, ironically, Netflix, last year. And it serves as a good reminder that just because the membership card in your old wallet may no longer work, you should probably check to see if that copy of Encino Man you “forgot” to return may cost you a lot more in legal fees than you should have just paid in late fees.

Running Wild With Bear Grylls (Nat Geo, 9:00pm) — Funnyman Keenan-Michael Key joins Bear to do the daredevil-in-nature thing, and there’s an unorthodox method of transportation involved as they go on an adventure in Ireland’s lava fields. The landscape is positively lunar in places, and there’s a 200-food cliff involved too. This sounds like a not-so-funny and life-altering experience, yet hopefully in an ultimately positive way.

National Geographic Presents: IMPACT with Gal Gadot (National Geographic on YouTube) — This short-form documentary series will run for six episodes to tell powerful stories of women who are leading violence-and-poverty-stricken communities. From Brazil to Puerto Rico, Michigan, California, Louisiana, and Tennessee, this series will show these women standing up while remaining unafraid to dream and lead. Each episode will release weekly before debuting as a full-length documentary special on the Nat Geo channel.

9-1-1 (Fox, 8:00pm) — Calls involving parents and children are the name of the game tonight, including a birthday party run amuck.

9-1-1: Lone Star (Fox, 9:00pm) — Disaster (and a bloody one at that) strikes at an ice cream shop, and a boy gets lost at his own birthday party while Owen’s seeing an “intervention.”

Pray, Obey, Kill (HBO, 9:00 & 10:00pm) — Tonight will see a double-dose installment of a five-part documentary series from investigative journalists Anton Berg and Martin Johnson in a project directed by The Bridge‘s Henrik Georgsson. Follow along while Berg and Johnson retrace what happened on a frigid night when a small Swedish village saw a woman murdered and a neighbor shot before a nanny confessed to the acts of violence while citing a strange motivation.

Debris (NBC, 10:00pm) — Debris off the coast ends up affecting a diver to the point where he inadvertently erases his sister’s existence, as Bryan and Finola are plotting their next move.

Breeders (FX, 10:00pm) — Martin Freeman’s starring turn in this comedy enters the sophomore season with new parenting challenges. This week, Ally and Paul are having major problems, and Paul refuses to discuss what happens while Luke won’t go to school.

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Magic Johnson, Kate Upton, Moneybagg Yo

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Anna Kendrick, Phil Donahue, Marlo Thomas

In case you missed these picks from the weekend:

Mortal Kombat (Warner Bros. film on HBO Max) — We’ve got another blockbuster-type movie in our living rooms this weekend, and this incarnation promises to be R-rated to the max with plenty of carnage in tune with the video game. Among other qualifications to that point, James Wan produced, so that makes sense! In all seriousness, this is a more serious treatment than the 1990s film, and we’ll get to see Sub-Zero hunting down MMA fighter Cole Young, and someone will end up being the loser of the “finish him” concept. HBO Max released the first seven minutes of the film ahead of time, if you’d like to get a taste of the bloodshed coming to your TV screen.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Disney+ series) — It’s finale time. Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes are still doing their buddy action-comedy thing, but things accelerated quickly (to put it mildly) when John Walker turned Captain America into a villain and got booted from the gig. This led to an honest-to-God surprise cameo, but there’s still plenty of loose ends to clean up. Who’s the Power Broker? Can the show decide if the Flag Smashers are baddies, or nah? Let’s all root for an action-packed finale with clarification on the Sharon Carter/Batroc issue and then send Bucky to Aruba, alright?

Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers are, without a doubt, the team everyone is most interested in as the 2021 NFL Draft approaches. With the Jaguars set to take Trevor Lawrence first overall and the widespread assumption that Zach Wilson is going to the Jets, the Niners now control the draft with what they do with the No. 3 pick after trading up.

We know they are going to take a quarterback, but there has been significant debate about which of the three remaining top QBs will head to the Bay Area. Reports have indicated that Shanahan’s favorite QB is Alabama’s Mac Jones, but they’ve also gone to see Ohio State’s Justin Fields and North Dakota State’s Trey Lance. Whatever the case, it seems all but assured that a new starter is headed to San Francisco, which would push Jimmy Garoppolo out the door.

On Monday, Shanahan and GM John Lynch confirmed that they are looking for a new starting quarterback during a pre-Draft press conference.

Naturally, that led to a question about Jimmy G’s future and whether he’d be traded over the course of this weekend’s Draft, and Shanahan decided to take the route of nihilism with his answer.

Well, that is certainly one way to avoid answering a question about trade rumors. Hopefully Jimmy G survives the weekend, whether that’s in San Francisco or being dealt elsewhere, and by Thursday night we will finally learn who Shanahan and Lynch settled on with the third pick. Go Niners, eat at Arby’s.

Earlier this month, a Facebook post by Tyfanee Fortuna went viral for her hilarious description of Prancer, a Chihuahua she was fostering. Fortuna was frustrated because she had tried to make the dog seem presentable to potential adopters for months, but nothing was working.

So, she went for broke by taking the brutally honest route, and people loved her candor.

“Ok, I’ve tried. I’ve tried for the last several months to post this dog for adoption and make him sound…palatable. The problem is, he’s just not,” Fortuna wrote. “There’s not a very big market for neurotic, man hating, animal hating, children hating dogs that look like gremlins. But I have to believe there’s someone out there for Prancer, because I am tired and so is my family.”

---

One of the big reasons it was tough finding a home for the dog is because he hates men.

“Prancer only likes women. Nothing else. He hates men more than women do, which says a lot,” she wrote. “If you have a husband don’t bother applying, unless you hate him.”

The dog is also terribly nervous and really, really angry.

“Every day we live in the grips of the demonic Chihuahua hellscape he has created in our home,” she continued. “If you own a Chihuahua you probably know what I’m talking about. He’s literally the Chihuahua meme that describes them as being 50% hate and 50% tremble. If you’re intrigued and horrified at how this animal sounds already, just wait….there’s more.”

Fortuna went on to describe the dog in terms familiar to horror fans, calling him a “chucky doll in a dogs body” and a “vessel for a traumatized Victorian child.”

The post went viral on Facebook earning over 70,000 shares. Although it was a great read for a lot of people, it still seemed hard to imagine anyone brave enough to adopt such an unpleasant beast.

However, when Ariel Davis, 36, from New Haven, Connecticut read the post, it inspired her to reach out to the Second Chance Pet Adoption League, located in Morris Plains, New Jersey, the shelter managing Prancer’s adoption.

Davis thought that Prancer reminded her of an old dog she once had.

“I had a dog that I adopted probably about seven years ago and I raised him from a puppy and he was a Chihuahua/Jack Russel Terrier mix,” she told Today. “He had a lot of the same qualities as Prancer, he was a little neurotic and he barked a lot and he didn’t work well with other people and other animals. I spent a lot of time working with him and understanding his personality and learning about myself through him.”

Unfortunately, Davis had to give up both of her dogs to loving families when she went to rehab a few years back for marijuana addiction.

But after being clean for three years, she thought she was able to care for a dog again. “I read the article, I connected to it, and I was like you know what, why not? I’ll just send them an email. What’s the worst that could happen?” she said.

Davis thought she had the perfect home for the dog because as a lesbian with a female roommate, so there’s not a lot of men coming around the house. “It just felt like a perfect match… and the rest is history,” she said.

Davis and Prancer have been living together for a week and things are going pretty well.

“He is a small, neurotic dog and it’s been hard coming from a chaotic home,” she said. But he does great on walks and has made a wonderful impact on Davis’ life. “We’re one week into the adoption and he’s really changed my life, too.”

Davis and Prancer look like they have a wonderful future together.

“He’s helped me get out of the house actually and we go on walks and I want to take him to the beach,” she said. “He’s helping me get out of my shell and one of my goals is to help him become more adjusted to seeing other people.”

In a time when local businesses across the country are reeling from the pandemic and everyone could use an extra dose of joy, businesses in Christiansburg, Virginia are delighting the masses and getting some free marketing with a friendly sign war that has gone wildly viral.

It all started two weeks ago when Bridge Kaldro Music posted this message to Super Shoes, a neighboring business across the street: “Hey Super Shoes! Wanna start a sign war?”

After a few days, the shoe store took up the challenge: “Hey Bridge Kaldro! Our shoe strings are stronger than your guitar string.”

It was on.

“Your shoestring never got anyone a date,” wrote Bridge Kaldro.

“Keep your play dates,” retorted Super Shoes. “We specialize in solemates.”

---

Solemates. Clever.

Soon other businesses joined in, and the result is a friendly, socially-distanced flame game that’s leaving people in stitches.

Radio station COOL 106.3FM shared a collection of the signs on Facebook in a post that’s been shared nearly 400,000 times.

Kabuki Japanese Steakhouse hopped into the who’s-better-for-a-date fray: “Shoes and strings help get the date, but we seal the deal.”

To which Bridge Kaldro flung back: “What a ‘croc.’ IDK what stinks worse, your shoes or Kabuki’s sign.”

And that’s when the puns began.

“You got to b-sharp to make good shoe-shi and we won’t string you along,” wrote Kabuki.

Then they got sassy.

“Y’all got Crocs, but we got Godzilla. We shreddin’ this war like Kaldro shreds guitars.”

And Super Shoes pushed back with a practical point.

“Mosh pits and raw fish: Both more dangerous than shoe shopping.”

Then Bridge Kaldro called down the thunder on other businesses across the street.

“Anyone else? Come at me bro. Lookin’ at you 2 across the road.”

Soon a whole slew of businesses chimed in, including a pharmacy, church, gas station, and even a local library.

The Hampton Inn almost seemed to have the last word…

But it wasn’t over.

More and more signs have popped up all over town. Someone even created a Christianburg, VA Sign War Facebook group so people could see how the battle is progressing. As of this morning, it has more than 21,000 members—and the signs just keep on coming.

Jill Lawson

Kayla Cumbee Walton

Steve Costa

Even the sign shops in town got in on it.

Signarama/Kevin Altizer

The sign war is a positive for so many reasons, from the simple delight it’s bringing to the people observing it to the dollars it’s bringing to the businesses participating.

Ed Bridge, the owner of Bridge Kaldro, told WSLS 10 News that he had never heard of a sign war until the idea was suggested by an employee.

“I’m just so humbled because this is bigger than my little music store,” Bridge said. “If we can put this whole area a little bit more on the map for people coming to visit, why not?”

Kabuki Japanese Steakhouse owner Yoshi Koeda said business has been booming since he joined in the sign war.

“It’s amazing free advertisement for all of us,” he said. “That’s probably the best part of everything.”

Who knew that one employee’s idea to challenge another business to a sign war would escalate into something so epic? Just goes to show you how a little fun can go a long way.

Thank you, Christiansburg, for giving the whole world something to enjoy together. We definitely needed it.

Olivia Rodrigo recently had the tough task of following up her mega-hit “Drivers License,” but she did just fine with “Deja Vu,” which has managed a respectable peak at No. 8 on the Hot 100 chart. Early on during the whirlwind success of “Drivers License,” though, Rodrigo thought the song would be a bit of a problem for her creatively.

In a new Elle feature, Rodrigo said, “I thought I was going to be really in my head, like, ‘I’m never going to write a song as good as that again.’ [Instead,] this song has given me a lot of confidence in my voice.” She also noted that she’s all for people dissecting her love live because of “Drivers License,” saying, “It’s truly any songwriter’s dream. There’s something so powerful in being vulnerable and open, like, ‘This is my life, and I’m f*cking sad.’ Or, ‘I’m insecure.’ That’s what makes songwriting so special.”

She later touched on what she thinks her “brand” is, saying, “I think songwriting has really helped me home in on what I like about myself and my art. I just want to be effortless, I guess. Whether it’s in my fashion or my songs or my social media, I want to just be like, ‘Yo, this is me. And I’m sometimes weird as f*ck, and I’m sometimes polished and put together.’ I think that’s the antithesis of a brand.”

Read the full feature here.

The 2021 Oscars certainly had some controversy, but what they apparently didn’t have was a lot of eyeballs pointing at them. Ratings for the latest edition of the Academy Awards set records in a bad way, with reports indicating a 58 percent drop in viewership from 2020.

As Variety detailed, Sunday night’s telecast was the lowest-rated ceremony since 2018, which was the previous low in the event’s history. No matter how you look at the numbers, it’s pretty bleak.

Per Nielsen Live+Same Day preliminary national numbers, an average of 9.85 million viewers tuned in on Sunday evening to watch a more intimate and stripped-down version of the Oscars in the midst of a pandemic. That’s a 58.3%, 13.75 million viewer drop-off from last year. The Academy’s third host-less show in a row scored a 1.9 rating among adults 18-49 in the fast national ratings, a 64.2% dip from 2020.

For comparison, last year’s ceremony garnered a 5.3 rating in the key demographic and 23.6 million viewers per the night’s time-zone adjusted fast national charts.

In other words, the Oscars lost more viewers from last year than actually watched the show on Sunday night.

Why viewers didn’t show up is anyone’s guess, and given the circumstances, it’s likely any educated guess can nail at least one factor in what’s going wrong for the fledgling event. The host-less format didn’t go over well with critics, and pandemic safety rules have made every live televised event land somewhere in the entertainment uncanny valley of sorts. There’s also the issue of actually seeing the movies nominated for awards in the first place. With theaters closed across the country for large portions of the pandemic-stricken year and many still hesitant to see films in person, the award-worthy films may have been overlooked by huge portions of the potential audience unable to see them in more traditional ways.

There’s also the continued fragmentation of viewership across cable, streaming, and other entertainment options after a fatigued public after a difficult year for basically everyone. Whether viewers weren’t interested in a Steven Soderberg-directed broadcast or simply didn’t want to watch maskless celebrities accept awards is anyone’s guess, but the numbers here do not paint a pretty picture.

[via Variety]

Last night, Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe won the Oscar for their short film, Two Distant Strangers. Among other things, the movie is perhaps the most bleak-yet-realistic-feeling time loop movie ever made. A loop in which Carter, played by rapper Joey Badass, tries any number of ways to keep from getting murdered by a police officer, only to land on the same violent result, thereby resetting the cycle. It’s an idea that feels tremendously potent right now — the same month as the Chauvin verdict and the killings of Daunte Wright, Ma’Khia Bryant, and Andrew Brown Jr., all by police.

But the truth is, as Free stated in his acceptance speech last night, the plot of Two Distant Strangers has always been relevant for Black Americans. And it will continue to be relevant for as long as our current system of policing remains in place — colliding headlong with both overtly personal and more broadly systemic forms of racism. As Free says, “Until we address the actual issues, this will never stop.”

In the days preceding the Oscars ceremony, I spoke to Free and Roe about their co-directed film, the systems that perpetuate police brutality, and what questions they hope the film’s newfound audience will walk away asking themselves. Spoilers for Two Distant Strangers to follow.

Two Distant Strangers is a time-loop movie. When I think of that genre, what comes to mind is Groundhog Day and Palm Springs. In both of those, you have a white male protagonist who is able to make his single day progressively better. In this movie, the construct is very similar but our protagonist is Black and he’s not able to improve his situation, though his actions change.

Did you intend this movie to contrast Palm Springs and Groundhog Day on any level?

Free: I didn’t even know Palm Springs existed until we were starting our movie, to be honest. I am well aware of Groundhog Day, of course, but it wasn’t until we were partway through our process that I saw Palm Springs. I didn’t know it was a movie that used that trope until I watched it. I was like, “Oh wow, what interesting timing.”

But it was more about just connecting to the feeling of what it feels like in reality. I mean, Martin always uses the example of how in our movie, the Groundhog Day trope is a metaphor for life, which doesn’t necessarily play out that way in the other movies that use it. I think that’s why it was a more direct inspiration because of all the scenarios it has been used in, the scenario in which Black people keep getting killed by police in the same manner — it feels like we’re living the reality of it.

One of the conservative or pro-police arguments we hear so often is, “Well, did this person, who was shot by the police, properly acquiesce?” The movie goes out of its way to show Carter as charming, funny, and self-confident, but he also makes himself progressively more accommodating to the cop. Was that layer always central to the story?

Free: From the beginning, what I was thinking was that the only way it would connect beyond the Black experience and connect for other audiences is that if I made the character unimpeachable in every way I could imagine. He had to, at every turn, be innocent. He had to be. There could never be a moment where you could question his behavior or character because that opens that door. That’s the door that always opens in real life. It’s like if you do anything that — which is almost always white people in these scenarios — deems as bad behavior toward a police officer and interaction with the police officer, then that somehow justifies you being shot.

For him, it needed to be him portraying the average Black American just going about their life, doing very mundane things, going to work, going home, seeing friends, seeing family. Just like trying to enjoy their life and being caught up in these moments that we also find ourselves caught up in. I think about my own experiences, that’s how it happened. I’m just living my life, and then all of a sudden there’s a cop present. Occasionally, that ended up with guns pointed at me for reasons to this day still don’t make sense. It’s a very scary way to live your life, not knowing or knowing that at any given moment, someone can just decide to take your life for whatever reason. If you don’t immediately bow to authority from someone who is essentially asking you to give that up because they simply say so — it’s a challenging way to live.

It was important that people saw him do everything possible to not open that door. People have asked, “Why didn’t he fight back? Why didn’t he shoot the cop?” And it’s like, “Well, what happens to Carter if his goal is to go home to his dog and he shoots a police officer? Let’s say the loop stops when he shoots the police officer, does he just get to go home and live his life?”

Of course not like, “Okay, you shot the cop who’s killed you a hundred times. Now, guess who’s coming to your front door? Guess what happens?” It’s a ridiculous assertion, I think, for people to stop the logic there. “Well, why didn’t he shoot him?” Okay, and then what? You wouldn’t do that in real life, that was kind of good thinking behind it.

The movie mixes very subtle metaphors and very clear metaphors. The blood in the shape of Africa at the close, for instance, is on the nose but also really worked for me as a viewer. It added depth. On the flip side, one of the things that felt the most realistic to me — even as a white male with all the privilege that entails — was how police officers ramp up so fast.

How have people reacted to how those police interactions escalate in the movie?

Free: I’ve heard that mostly from Black people, who say that it’s almost watching a memory in the way that this stuff went on for them. I mean, me and Martin, we screened the movie a couple of weeks ago for a couple of people from BAFTA. One of them was a Black gentleman, and he talked about how the film felt like a recreation of his younger adult life. It’s that for so many. So many people. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to make this particular story. I could have thrown in 10 more scenarios of his trying to escape.

I mean, it’s exactly what you described. It’s what happens. I have had a couple of times where police officers would tell me at the end of a stop or something, whether that stop is justified or not, I always pretty much keep the same temperament and they’re like, “I’m going to let you go because you were respectful.” And I was like, “You’re not going to harm me because I’m going to behave a certain way?” You’re supposed to remain calm no matter what I do, as long as I’m not trying to physically harm you.

If I’m yelling, that shouldn’t change the way in which you, the person with the gun, behaves. But for some reason, there’s this sense of domination that they have when it comes to their interactions where you’re expected to behave like a well-mannered person at every turn. No matter what they say or do. That’s just a lot to ask of the public, the general people they are encountering, who are unarmed and just kind of living their lives.

As far as the blood, that was actually not written that way. That was unintentional. That actually happened on its own. I mean, Martin, do you want to talk about it?

Roe: It was the last shot, on the last day, and we were stealing it because we ran out of time on the location. The location very kindly let us back a couple of days later just to pick up that shot. Cause we knew we really wanted it. And then, the blood just started pouring out and Travon was punching me in the arm — “It looks like Africa.” We tidied it up a little bit in post, ’cause it was once the universe gave us that we were like, “Well, let’s finish off the job.”

I mean, obviously, everybody catches it and it’s become the visual metaphor of the film. It was a gift from the universe that one.

It comes at the end of the car ride, which I think is an incredibly successful sequence and deeply agonizing. Can you guys speak to choosing that moment as the climax? The film has been doing short chops and jump cuts and then that sequence is really long. What do you want to share about that moment?

Roe: Did you think it was the climax?

For me? Yes, the tension created in the car ride was the climactic event.

Roe: Well good, I’m glad. ‘Cause, we worked really hard for that. Travon, do you want to say why?

Free: If you notice a lot of times when the country finds itself having these conversations, the talk of community policing comes up and all these different things police can do to better connect with the black communities they police. You see police playing basketball with kids and you see police throwing water balloons with kids. It’s always Black kids; always innocent kids. We’ve also seen that even when these programs exist, cops still kill some of these kids who actually participated in these programs in these neighborhoods. To me, I think the notion is so ridiculous that in order for you to not kill the people in my community, you have to know me.

First of all, that you’d have to know me. Then, that you have to know me on a level that involves you playing games and sports with me. For you to see me as a human being worthy of not being shot at a moment’s notice. I’ve for the last, I don’t know how many years now, between working at The Daily Show and coming back to L.A., in Hollywood and near Hollywood. It’s mostly white people and I’ve yet to see the police playing basketball with the white kids. I have yet to see any of those programs be deemed necessary for police to stop killing white people. We know that police kill a lot of white people. In terms of sheer numbers, they kill a lot of white people. They just happen to kill Black people three times more. It’s that type of prescriptive behavior that ignores the actual problem.

In that car ride, that’s Carter doing those things. That’s his version of the basketball game. It’s like, “Let me get to know. Let me try to disarm you. Let me show you that I’m a person with thoughts and feelings. I met a girl that I like, and also, I read books. I’m pretty knowledgeable about the situation with which my people find themselves in.”

Even when you think he’s connecting and they’re connecting, even though they agree to disagree, that they found some human common ground, the end result is the end result. Because that’s the reality. It does not change the reality of the way in which they see you. It’s why they are the scorpion and the frog, because the scorpion does not know how to not behave like the scorpion.

When I think about the type of police officers who would take a selfie in the spot where they killed Elijah McClain or the type of police officers who would watch another police officer abuse a dog and then ask each other to make sure that the cameras were off — things where you feel like there’s so much humanity lacking in those situations — that to me is what Merk represents in that last moment. He represents the thing we don’t want to reckon with, which is people like that exist and we continue to ignore it. The cop who shot the young man in Kenosha is back on the force. It’s the thing that we just continue to ignore the reality of — what these situations actually mean and the impact that they have.

Until we address the actual issues, this will never stop. It will never stop. The Band-Aid prescriptions just have to end. It can’t be about community policing. It has to be changing the way police behave and are training to do their jobs.

The movie is nominated for an Oscar. On the day of this phone call, it’s on the front page of Netflix. As more people see it, what are some of the conversations that you hope to hear people having about the film?

Free: I hope that especially given what happened this past weekend [the killing of Daunte Wright], that people now can connect even more emotionally with the actual community who’s feeling that pain. I don’t think there’s been a movie like ours previous that has done anything like this with this particular subject matter to this effect. I think now that you have a “companion piece” to the pain that you see on the news, I hope it actually allows people to connect on a deeper level with what they see when they see a mother and brother crying in a video about the loss of their son.

Now, you have a better idea of what she’s actually feeling. I hope that translates into more questions about the actual solution to the problem. To not think that it’s always just a few bad apples or we just need to like talk more with the people in the community. I hope it leads to people being so exhausted and so tired and so hurt that they really want to wrestle with the real issue of how to solve the problem. The problem is not us. The problem is not the victims. The problem is not the people who are encountering the police. It is the police, and they have to change their behavior in order for this to stop.

Roe: I hope that it becomes a curio in ten to 15 years’ time. That people look at it and can’t really understand what it’s referring to.

Two Distant Strangers is available to stream on Netflix.

Korn was a defining nu-metal group of the ’90s and ’00s, so there is probably a good amount of people out there who have gotten tattoos of the band. That’s a major way to pay tribute to a group, but not necessarily an uncommon one. Now, though, somebody has taken it a step beyond that by naming their baby Korn. The problem, though, is that while that baby is legally named Korn, the whole thing was actually an accident.

A new mother, an illustrator and video game developer named Kells Tate, went viral over the weekend after revealing that a mistake at the hospital led to her new child to be legally named Korn. Sharing a photo of the birth certificate that shows the child’s legal first name is in fact “Korn,” Tate wrote, “THE HOSPITAL MESSED UP MY BABYS NAME AND WE JUST GOT THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE AND ITS KORN MY BABYS NAME IS LEGALLY KORN.” That tweet spread and racked up over 138,000 likes since this weekend.

In a follow-up, Tate clarified that the name was supposed to be Kora and that thankfully, it shouldn’t be a major issue to update official documents to reflect the child’s intended name. Given this saga, Tate noted that she now knows a lot more about the band Korn, the word “corn,” and the name Kora than she used to. Tate also clarified that Kora isn’t named after the titular character from the Nickelodeon series The Legend Of Korra.

This situation should be resolved soon, as Tate has mailed the necessary paperwork to have the baby’s name officially corrected.

As for the band Korn, they have yet to address the child that mistakenly bears their name, but if they catch wind of the story, they’ll presumably be a bit bummed that “Korn” didn’t stick as the baby’s name.

Korn is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.