The Joker, Lex Luthor, Catwoman, Doomsday, Bane. What makes them so thrillingly watchable? So terribly wonderful? So extremely vital to our super heroes and their worlds? This feature-length documentary explores these questions across seven decades of DC Comics’ hallowed Rogues’ Gallery of infamous evildoers. Narrated by esteemed film villain Christopher Lee,examines the tortured psyches of your favorite animation, comic book, game, TV and feature film baddies – both from the past and into the future – against the backdrop of culture, history and society. Insights from famed creators and storytellers, including Zack Snyder, Guillermo del Toro, Jim Lee, Geoff Johns and Richard Donner, shine a fascinating light on those malevolent, charismatic characters who thrive in the dark.
Professor Brian Cox concludes his exploration of our place in the universe by asking what next for the ape that went to space. Our future is far from certain. In Florida, Brian joins the latest efforts to protect Earth from potential catastrophic events. He joins a team of Nasa astronauts who are training for a future mission to an asteroid - should we ever discover one coming our way - under 30 feet of water in a submerged laboratory that simulates space. It is just one example of how, for our long-term survival, space exploration may well be vital. It is a view shared by Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke, who tells Brian what it was like to escape the confines of the planet. It is a dream that both Nasa and now commercial companies share as they race to get humans back into deep space. But space travel, like every leap our civilisation has ever made, requires energy. Here too, scientists are hard at work attempting to safeguard our future. At the National Ignition Facility in California, Brian witnesses the world's most successful fusion experiment in action. He believes that if their mission succeeds, our civilisation will have unlocked a way to the stars that will not destroy the planet in the process. Brian concludes by returning to the top of the world in Svalbard, where he gains access to our civilisation's greatest treasure, locked away in a vault buried deep in the permafrost.
Vintage footage from the Vietnam war is presented along with narration from both war veterans and Hollywood voice talent. The documentary follows key events and their impact on both the war effort and the American public. The Beginning: The first episode looks at the early months of the Vietnam war from the escalation following the Gulf of Tonkin incident to the grim fighting of the Battle of Ia Drang where a few hundred American soldiers are pinned down by three battalions of North Vietnamese infantry. Using superior air power and reinforcements, the Americans fight the North Vietnamese to a draw.
The film uses drones, hidden and handheld cameras to expose the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture, questioning the morality and validity of humankind's dominion over the animal kingdom. While mainly focusing on animals used for food, it also explores other ways animals are exploited and abused by humans, including clothing, entertainment and research. In words of its writer & director, Chris Delforce, 'Dominion to me is the idea of one group or entity exercising control, power or authority over another, under the belief that they have the right to do so. Often this belief seems to stem from the perception of self-superiority and that might equals right. Through this film I challenge both the notion that animals are inferior, and that we as humans have the right to use and treat them as we please for our own ends – and I briefly examine how this superiority complex has and continues to complement some of humanity's darkest ideologies, asking viewers to consider the similarities between racism, sexism and speciesism.'
Discover the Eras of the Universe and the answer to this big question: When Will Time End? Once the notion that the universe started with a rapid inflation nicknamed the Big Bang became accepted by the majority of scientists, many possible fates are predicted by rival scientific hypotheses, including futures of both finite and infinite duration.
The ultimate fate of the universe is dependent on the shape of the universe and what role Dark energy will play as the universe ages.
Professor Jim Al-Khalili looks at how we have created machines that can simulate, augment, and even outperform the human mind - and why we shouldn't let this spook us. He reveals the story of the pursuit of AI, the emergence of machine learning and the recent breakthroughs brought about by artificial neural networks. He shows how AI is not only changing our world but also challenging our very ideas of intelligence and consciousness.
Along the way, we'll investigate spam filters, meet a cutting-edge chatbot, look at why a few altered pixels makes a computer think it's looking at a trombone rather than a dog and talk to Demis Hassabis, who heads DeepMind and whose stated mission is to 'solve intelligence, and then use that to solve everything else'. Stephen Hawking remarked 'AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilisation. Or the worst'. Jim argues that AI is a potent new tool that should enhance our lives, not replace us.
Narrated by esteemed film villain Christopher Lee,examines the tortured psyches of your favorite animation, comic book, game, TV and feature film baddies – both from the past and into the future – against the backdrop of culture, history and society. Insights from famed creators and storytellers, including Zack Snyder, Guillermo del Toro, Jim Lee, Geoff Johns and Richard Donner, shine a fascinating light on those malevolent, charismatic characters who thrive in the dark.