The Hunger Games (2012)

As punishment for a past rebellion, each of the twelve districts of the nation of Panem is forced by the victorious Capitol to annually select two tributes, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18, to fight to death in the Hunger Games. In District 12, Katniss Everdeen volunteers after her younger sister Primrose is initially chosen by lot. She and the male tribute, Peeta Mellark, are escorted to the Capitol by chaperone Effie Trinket and their mentor Haymitch Abernathy, a past District 12 victor and alcoholic. Haymitch impresses on them the importance of gaining sponsors, as they can provide gifts of food and supplies during the Games. During part of a series of televised interviews, Peeta publicly expresses his love for Katniss, which she initially takes as an attempt to earn sponsors for himself but later learns that it could help her. While training, Katniss observes the Careers: Marvel, Glimmer, Cato, and Clove, tributes from Districts 1 and 2 who have been training for the Games from a young age.

At the start of the Games, Katniss ignores Haymitch’s advice and grabs supplies from the ground around the Cornucopia, a place filled with food, weapons and other supplies where the contestants start, and narrowly escapes being killed by Clove; about a quarter of the tributes are killed in the initial melee, and only eleven survive the first day. Katniss tries to stay as far away from the other competitors as possible, but Head Gamemaker Seneca Crane triggers a forest fire to drive her back towards the others. She runs into the Careers, with whom Peeta has seemingly allied, and flees up a tree. The Career pack fails to kill her and Peeta advises them to wait for her to come down.

The next morning, while the Careers and Peeta sleep, Katniss notices Rue, District 11’s young female tribute, hiding in an adjacent tree. Rue silently draws her attention to a nest of poisonous tracker jackers, genetically modified wasps that can cause hallucinations and death. Using a serrated knife, she cuts the branch holding the wasps, causing it to fall and release them onto the Careers. Marvel, Cato and Clove escape, while Glimmer succumbs to the venom and dies. Katniss is stung, and becomes disoriented from the venom, hallucinating the death of her father. After Rue helps Katniss recover from the poison, they become friends. Katniss devises a plan to destroy the cache of supplies that the Careers have been hoarding. After Katniss succeeds, Cato angrily kills a boy from District 3 who was supposed to be watching the supplies. Marvel finds them and kills Rue with a spear, and Katniss shoots him in the heart with an arrow, killing him. Katniss comforts Rue with a song; after the girl dies, the grieving Katniss places flowers around her body. She then holds three fingers up to a camera, as a way to honor Rue towards District 11 and to show a symbol of disgust towards the Capitol. The people of District 11 watch and then riot, leading President Snow to warn Crane that these Games are not turning out well.

Haymitch persuades Crane to change the rules to allow two winners if they are from the same district, suggesting that this will quiet the unrest. When this change is announced, Katniss searches for Peeta, finding him wounded after fleeing from the Careers. He tells her Cato found out that he was intending to return to Katniss, leading him to stab Peeta with a sword. After she moves him to safety, they hear an announcement that what each survivor needs the most will be provided at the Cornucopia. Despite Peeta’s strong opposition, Katniss leaves to get medicine for him. Clove attacks and pins her down; she then boasts about her part in Rue’s death. Katniss is saved when Thresh, District 11’s male tribute, kills Clove. He spares Katniss’s life — once — for Rue’s sake. The medicine heals Peeta.

The two devise a plan to leave fatal Nightlock berries out for Cato so they can kill him, but Peeta disappears and Katniss is horrified to find the berries on his jacket. Peeta is found fine, and they discover District 5’s female tribute whom Katniss had dubbed “Foxface” (due to her appearance and agile nature which allowed her to escape the wrath of the Careers) dead after consuming the fruit. For the finale of the Games, Crane has wild beasts unleashed into the arena which attack and kill Thresh. The beasts chase Katniss and Peeta onto the roof of the Cornucopia where Cato is hiding, and after a long fight, the two subdue him and throw him to the beasts below, which maul him. Katniss then proceeds to shoot and kill Cato, ending his misery.

Katniss and Peeta think they have won, but Crane cancels the rule change: there can be only one victor. Katniss then convinces Peeta to eat Nightlock berries with her. Just before they do, they are hastily named co-winners of the 74th Hunger Games.

Afterward, Haymitch warns Katniss that she has made many enemies by her acts of defiance. Snow has Crane locked in a room where the only source of food is nightlock. As Katniss and Peeta return to District 12, Snow ponders the situation. Katniss encourages Peeta to forget what happened between them in the Games, devastating him.

Directed by	Gary Ross
Produced by	Nina Jacobson Jon Kilik
Screenplay by	Suzanne Collins Gary Ross Billy Ray
Based on	The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Starring	Jennifer Lawrence Josh Hutcherson Liam Hemsworth Woody Harrelson Elizabeth Banks Lenny Kravitz Stanley Tucci Donald Sutherland Alexander Ludwig Isabelle Fuhrman Amandla Stenberg
Music by	James Newton Howard
Cinematography	Tom Stern
Edited by	Stephen Mirrione Juliette Welfling
Production company	Color Force
Distributed by	Lionsgate Films
Release dates	March 12, 2012(Los Angeles premiere) March 23, 2012(United States)
Running time	142 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$78 million
Box office	$694.4 million

The Imitation Game (2014)

MATTHEW GOODE stars in THE IMITATION GAME

In 1951, two policemen, Nock and Staehl, investigate a break-in at the home of mathematician Alan Turing, whose suspicious behavior and absence of war records causes Nock to believe that Turing may be a Soviet spy. The police send a man to follow Turing into a pub, where he hands an envelope to a male prostitute, who is arrested shortly after and confesses that Turing is a client. Staehl is ready to charge Turing with gross indecency, but Nock is still convinced that Turing is a spy, and begs Staehl to interrogate Turing for half an hour, whereupon the latter begins to disclose his top-secret activities during the war.

In 1939, after Britain declares war on Germany, Turing is accepted by Commander Alastair Denniston of the Royal Navy for a code-breaking job at Bletchley Park, working alongside Hugh Alexander, John Cairncross, Peter Hilton, Keith Furman, and Charles Richards. They are instructed to break the code of Enigma, which, asMaj Gen Stewart Menzies of the MI6 explains, allows the Germans to attack British and American shipping, leading to famine and the loss of life. Turing works in isolation from the others, to the disappointment of his colleagues, and he concentrates all of his efforts in creating a machine, as opposed to calculating by hand. When Denniston refuses to fund the machine’s construction, Turing writes to Winston Churchill, who arranges the funding and names Turing as the team leader. Turing immediately fires Furman and Richards, who are linguists rather than mathematicians, and orders the others to construct the machine with him.

There is a flash-back to 1927 when Turing was in secondary school, where he was heavily bullied by other students, but was rescued by a boy named Christopher Morcom. The latter introduces him to recreational cryptography, and arouses Turing’s romantic feelings, but dies after the spring break because of bovine tuberculosis, leaving Turing scarred.

Turing’s team, which needs more people, places a crossword puzzle in the newspaper, and conducts a mathematical examination for candidates, eventually selecting Jack Good and Joan Clarke. Clarke is prevented by her parents from working with an all-male team, so Turing asks her to become one of the telegraph clerks, who are female, and conveys cryptographic materials to her living quarters in secret. The machine is eventually finished, and Turing names it Christopher, but it takes too long to execute, whereas the ciphers of Enigma are changed on a daily basis. Denniston wishes for the machine to be destroyed and Turing fired, but the other cryptographers threaten to quit. Denniston, reconciles and says he will give the team one month to decode an encrypted German message with the machine. During this time. Clarke’s parents pressure her to leave Bletchley because she is unmarried, alone and want her home so Turing proposes to her so she can stay. At the engagement party, Hugh begins to flirt with a coworker of Joan’s named Helen. As they flirt, Helen jokes how she has a crush on a German but cannot pursue him because she suspects he has a girlfriend based on the messages. Turing asks how she knows and Helen clarifies that because the messages start with the same word, she suspects that must be someone’s name. Because of this, Turing realizes that the machine can be sped up by prerecognizing routine phrases such as “Heil Hitler,” and the recalibrated machine starts to quickly decode transmissions. However, the team realizes that, should the Royal Navy act on the new information, the Germans may realize that Enigma is broken and redesign it, thereby voiding the team’s work.

As such, the team conceals the success of the machine from Denniston, and delivers the results to Menzies, who uses his influence to prevent the team from being fired. Menzies works with the team to determine which pieces of information can be used while arousing the least German suspicion. Around this time, Turing discovers that Cairncross is a Soviet spy, but Cairncross argues that the Soviets are allied with the UK, and threatens to expose Turing’s homosexuality if he tells anyone. Turing finds Menzies in Clarke’s home, suspecting her of being a spy. When Turing reveals that the spy is Cairncross, the latter explains that he already knew, and has been using Cairncross to leak information of low importance. Shortly after, fearing that Clarke is in trouble because of her secret involvement with the team, Turing reveals to her that he is a homosexual, hoping to drive her away. She is unfazed by this and Turing lies that has never cared for her. They break up but she refuses to leave. As the war ends, Menzies tells the team to destroy all of their work and never speak of their achievements to the world.

In 1951, back in the interrogation room, Nock is stunned by the story and says that he cannot judge Turing. However, Staehl has the charges pressed and Turing is given a choice of 2 years in prison or chemical castration. Turing chooses the latter. He is visited at home by Clarke, who witnesses his physical and mental deterioration. She comforts him by saying that his work saved millions of lives.

In the end, the team is shown in 1945 burning all of their documents, and a caption reveals that Turing committed suicide in 1954 at the age of 41.

Directed by	Morten Tyldum
Produced by	Nora Grossman Ido Ostrowsky Teddy Schwarzman
Written by	Graham Moore
Based on	Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges
Starring	Benedict Cumberbatch Keira Knightley Matthew Goode Rory Kinnear Charles Dance Mark Strong
Music by	Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography	Óscar Faura
Edited by	William Goldenberg
Production companies	Black Bear Pictures Bristol Automotive
Distributed by	StudioCanal (United Kingdom) The Weinstein Company(United States)
Release dates	August 29, 2014(Telluride Film Festival) November 28, 2014(United States)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$14 million
Box office	$233.6 million

Bridge of Spies (2015)

In 1957 Brooklyn, New York, Rudolf Abel retrieves a secret message from a park bench and reads it just before FBIagents burst into his rented room. He prevents discovery of the message, but other evidence in the room leads to his arrest and prosecution as a Soviet spy.

James B. Donovan, a lawyer who specializes in insurance settlements, is asked by his partners to take on Abel’s defense. The United States believe that Abel is a KGB spy, but want him to have a fair trial to reduce the Soviet Union‘s chance to use it for propaganda. Donovan meets with Abel in prison, where the Russian agrees to accept his help. Abel refuses to cooperate with the U.S. government on any revelations of the intelligence world.

Although Donovan takes his work seriously, no one—including the prosecuting attorneys, the judge, his firm, or his family—expects him to mount a strong defense of Abel. His efforts to seek acquittal are met with shock and anger by the American public; he is deluged with hate mail and his life is threatened, but he continues to fight.

Abel is found guilty of all charges, but Donovan convinces the judge to sentence him to 30 years imprisonment, rather than death, on the grounds that Abel may one day be valuable as a bargaining chip with the USSR. Donovan subsequently appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court that the evidence presented by the prosecution is tainted by an invalid search warrant, but loses 5–4.

In the meantime, Francis Gary Powers goes on a U-2 spy plane sortie over the Soviet Union, where he is shot down and captured. He is convicted and subjected to interrogation. Frederic Pryor, an American economics graduate student, visits his German girlfriend in East Berlin just as the Berlin Wall is being built. He tries to bring her back into West Berlin, but is stopped by Stasi agents and arrested as a spy.

The USSR sends a backchannel message to Donovan, via a false letter to Abel from his “family,” proposing a prisoner exchange: Abel for Powers. Donovan has heard of Pryor’s capture and insists on a 2-for-1 exchange instead. Though the CIA is interested only in Powers’ return, it allows Donovan to negotiate for Pryor as well, on condition that the Abel-for-Powers deal is not jeopardized.

The East German government, which is holding Pryor, suddenly pulls out, insulted that Donovan did not inform them that the USSR was a party to the negotiation. The CIA wants to leave Pryor behind and finish the exchange. Donovan threatens East Germany by saying unless Pryor is returned, the entire deal will be scrapped and Abel interrogated, and the USSR will blame East Germany for any damage. East Germany capitulates, and the exchange is simultaneously conducted atGlienicke Bridge and Checkpoint Charlie, freeing the three men. Donovan gains credit for his achievement.

Directed by	Steven Spielberg
Produced by	Steven Spielberg Marc Platt Kristie Macosko Krieger
Written by	Matt Charman Joel Coen Ethan Coen
Starring	Tom Hanks Mark Rylance Amy Ryan Alan Alda
Music by	Thomas Newman
Cinematography	Janusz Kamiński
Edited by	Michael Kahn
Production companies	DreamWorks Pictures Fox 2000 Pictures Reliance Entertainment Participant Media TSG Entertainment Afterworks Limited Studio Babelsberg Amblin Entertainment Marc Platt Productions
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (North America) 20th Century Fox (International)
Release dates	October 4, 2015(New York Film Festival) October 16, 2015(United States) November 26, 2015(Germany)
Running time	141 minutes
Country	United States Germany
Language	English
Budget	$40 million
Box office	$165.5 million

The Martian (2015)

Matt Damon portrays an astronaut who faces seemingly insurmountable odds as he tries to find a way to subsist on a hostile planet.

On November 25, 2035, the crew of the Ares III manned mission to Mars is exploring the Acidalia Planitia on Martian solar day (sol) 18 of their 31-sol expedition. An unexpectedly strong dust storm threatens to topple their Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), forcing them to hastily leave the planet. During the evacuation, astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is struck by debris and lost in the storm; the last telemetry from his suit indicates no signs of life. With Watney believed dead, and the storm worsening by the second, mission commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) orders the remaining crew to return to their orbiting vesselHermes without him.

Watney awakens after the storm to a low oxygen warning, in pain, and makes his way to the “Hab”, or “habitat”, the crew’s base of operations. He removes a piece of antenna from his suit’s biomonitor—which caused the erroneous life-sign readings—which has lodged in his torso, forcing him to perform surgery on himself. He begins a video diary and realizes that his only chance of rescue is the arrival of the Ares IV crew at the Schiaparelli crater, 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) away, in four years. Calculating that he has enough food to last only 300 sols (roughly 309 days), Watney, a botanist, improvises a farm inside the hab, with Martian soil fertilized with human waste, water produced by extracting hydrogen from leftover rocket fuel, and potatoes saved for a Thanksgiving meal. He begins to modify the only functional rover to make long journeys across Mars to reach the rescue spot.

Back on earth, Watney is memorialized extensively with NASA holding a funeral for him. While reviewing satellite photos of Mars, mission director Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and satellite planner Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis) see evidence of Watney’s activities and realize that he has survived. NASA administrator Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) makes plans with PR Director Annie Montrose (Kristen Wiig) to release the news of Watney’s survival. Despite the objections of Hermes flight director Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean), Sanders decides not to inform the Ares III crew, believing it would distract them from their mission.

Watney takes the rover to retrieve the Pathfinder probe, which fell silent in 1997. Using the lander’s camera, he establishes rudimentary communication with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team using the hexadecimal system. NASA instructs Watney to modify the rover to link with Pathfinder so they can communicate via text. Watney becomes angry when he learns that the crew has not been told of his survival, and Sanders authorizes Henderson to inform them.

Henderson and JPL director Bruce Ng (Benedict Wong) formulate a plan to send a space probe to Mars and resupply Watney with enough food to survive until Ares IV’s arrival. When the Hab’s airlock malfunctions and explosively decompresses, destroying Watney’s crop, Sanders orders the team to speed up the supply mission by skipping the safety inspections. As a result, the supply probe explodes shortly after liftoff.

The China National Space Administration offers NASA the “Tai Yang Shen”(太阳神, Sun God), a classified booster rocket that can carry a payload to Mars. Meanwhile, JPL astrodynamicist Rich Purnell (Donald Glover) devises a trajectory to send Hermes back to Mars with the Ares III crew, using the Chinese booster to resupply Hermes for an additional eighteen months instead of sending the supplies to Watney, cutting his wait time by more than two years. Sanders rejects the plan, refusing to risk the crew, but Henderson surreptitiously sends the details to Hermes. Lewis and her crew vote unanimously to execute the plan, and NASA—powerless to stop them—proceeds with the resupply as Hermes flies by Earth, using its gravity to slingshot them back to Mars.

After 461 sols, Watney begins the 90 sol journey to Schiaparelli, where the MAV for the Ares IV mission has been prepositioned. To rendezvous with Hermes, Watney makes drastic modifications to reduce the MAV’s mass, removing equipment including the windows, nose cone, and exterior panels. With Watney on board the gutted MAV, the Hermes crew launches it remotely, but it does not reach the planned speed and altitude. Lewis has Hermes use its maneuvering thrusters to change course and explosive decompression of its own internal atmosphere to adjust its speed. When even that is not enough, Lewis uses a Manned Maneuvering Unit to approach Watney’s vessel, but still cannot reach him. Watney pierces the glove of his pressure suit and uses the escaping air as a miniature thruster to reach Lewis. The crew is reunited as crowds around the world cheer the news.

After returning to Earth, Watney becomes a survival instructor for new astronaut candidates. Five years later, on the occasion of the Ares V mission launch, those involved in Watney’s rescue have begun new lives.

Directed by	Ridley Scott
Produced by	Simon Kinberg Ridley Scott Aditya Sood Michael Schaefer Mark Huffam
Screenplay by	Drew Goddard
Based on	The Martian by Andy Weir
Starring	Matt Damon Jessica Chastain Kristen Wiig Jeff Daniels Michael Peña Kate Mara Sean Bean Sebastian Stan Aksel Hennie Chiwetel Ejiofor
Music by	Harry Gregson-Williams
Cinematography	Dariusz Wolski
Edited by	Pietro Scalia
Production companies	Scott Free Productions Kinberg Genre TSG Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	September 11, 2015 (TIFF) October 2, 2015(United States)
Running time	141 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$108 million
Box office	$630.2 million

Sully (2016)

On January 15, 2009, US Airways pilots Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles board US Airways Flight 1549 from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte Douglas International Airport. Barely three minutes into the flight, at an approximate altitude of 2,800 feet (approx. 850 m), the Airbus A320 hits a flock of Canada geese, disabling both engines. Without engine power or airports within a safe distance, Teterboro Airport being the closest, Sully decides to ditch the aircraft on the Hudson River. Sully manages to land the aircraft in the Hudson without any casualties. The press and public immediately hail him as a hero, but the incident leaves him with PTSD, repeatedly envisioning the plane crashing into a building.

Afterwards, Sully learns that preliminary data reports from ACARS suggest that the left engine was still running at idle. Theoretically, this would have left him with enough power to return to LaGuardia or land at Teterboro. Furthermore, the board of inquiry claims that several confidential computerized flight simulations created from all available data conclude that the plane could have been landed safely at either airport even with both engines disabled. Sully, however, maintains that he lost both engines, which left him without sufficient time, speed, or altitude to safely land at any airport.

Sully realizes that the NTSB is angling to have the accident deemed pilot error, which would effectively end his career. In a bid to save his reputation, he arranges to have the simulator pilots available for live demonstrations at the public hearing on the accident. When both simulations land at the airport successfully, Sully counters that the simulations were unrealistic because the pilots immediately knew what actions to take, thus eliminating the human factor and not accounting for the amount of time that pilots would have needed in reality to assess their situation and attempt unsuccessfully to restart failed engines, as was the case with Sully and Skiles. When pressed, the board admits that the simulator pilots were allowed multiple practice sessions prior to the successful simulations shown at the hearing.

Conceding Sully’s point, the board orders a rerun of the simulations with a 35-second pause after the bird strikes before any emergency diversions are attempted. When revised accordingly, the LaGuardia simulation ends with the flight plowing through the lead-in lights short of the runway, and the Teterboro simulation with the flight crashing into a building short of the airport.

After a short break, the board reveals that the left engine has been recovered from the Hudson River, showing indisputable signs that it was completely destroyed by the bird strikes. In light of these findings, the board officially finds that the loss of US Airways Flight 1549 was unavoidable, and that Sullenberger acted correctly in executing the only viable option available to him as the pilot in command to save the lives of all aboard. When asked if he would have done anything differently, First Officer Skiles replies: “I would have done it in July.”

The end credits feature a reunion montage of the real passengers and crew of Flight 1549 at the Carolinas Aviation Museum, where the accident aircraft is on display.

Directed by	Clint Eastwood
Produced by	Clint Eastwood Frank Marshall Allyn Stewart Tim Moore
Written by	Todd Komarnicki
Based on	Highest Duty by Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow
Starring	Tom Hanks Aaron Eckhart Laura Linney
Music by	Christian Jacob The Tierney Sutton Band Clint Eastwood
Cinematography	Tom Stern
Edited by	Blu Murray
Production companies	Village Roadshow Pictures Flashlight Films The Kennedy/Marshall Company Malpaso Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	September 2, 2016(Telluride) September 9, 2016(United States)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Box office	$155.4 million

Finding Dory (2016)

One year after reuniting Nemo with his father, Marlin, Dory has become a helping hand in raising Nemo. One day during a lesson with Nemo’s class, Dory recalls through a childhood flashback that she has a family. She decides to look for them but finds her short-term memory loss to be an obstacle. The only thing she remembers is that they lived at the Jewel of Morro Bay.

Marlin and Nemo accompany Dory in her quest. With the help of Crush, they ride a water current to California. Upon arrival, Dory accidentally awakens a predatory squid, who immediately pursues them, almost devouring Nemo during the chase. Marlin tends to his son afterwards and yells at Dory for almost getting him killed. Feeling hurt, Dory travels to the surface to seek help and is captured by staff members from the nearby Marine Life Institute after being caught insix pack rings.

Dory is sent to the Quarantine section and tagged. There she meets a grouchy but well-meaning, seven-leggedoctopus named Hank. Dory’s tag shows that she will be sent to a permanent aquarium in Cleveland. Due to a traumatic ocean life, Hank wants to live in the aquarium instead of being released back into the ocean, so he agrees to help Dory find her parents in exchange for her tag. In one exhibit, Dory encounters her childhood friend Destiny, a nearsighted whale shark who used to communicate with Dory through pipes, and Bailey, a beluga whale who believes he has lost his ability toecholocate. Dory learns that the rest of her regal blue tangs species are being moved to Cleveland. She subsequently has flashbacks of life with her parents and struggles to recall details.

Marlin and Nemo attempt to rescue Dory. With the help of two sea lions named Fluke and Rudder and a common loon named Becky, they manage to get into the Institute. Dory finally remembers how she became separated from her parents: she overheard her mother crying one night, left home to retrieve a shell in hopes of cheering her up, and was pulled away by an undertow current.

Dory reunites with Marlin and Nemo in the pipe system. Back in Quarantine, they locate the tank of blue tangs who tell them that Dory’s parents escaped the Institute a long time ago to search for Dory but never came back. This leaves Dory under the impression that they died. Hank retrieves Dory from the tank, accidentally leaving Marlin and Nemo behind. He is then apprehended by one of the employees and unintentionally drops Dory into the drain flushing her to the ocean. Whilst wandering aimlessly, she comes across a trail of shells, remembering that when she was young, her parents had set out a similar trail to teach her how to find her way back home. At the end of the trail, Dory finds an empty home with multiple shell trails leading away from it. As she turns to leave, she sees her parents Jenny and Charlie in the distance and joyfully reunites with them. They tell her they have spent years forming trails for her to follow in the hopes that she would eventually find them.

Marlin and Nemo end up in the truck taking various aquatic life to Cleveland. Destiny and Bailey escape from their exhibit to help Dory rescue them. Once on board the truck, Dory persuades Hank to return to the sea with her, and together, they hijack the truck and drive it down a busy road before crashing it into the water, freeing all the fish. Dory, along with her parents and new friends, return to the reef with Marlin and Nemo.

In the post-credits scene, the Tank Gang from the first film, still trapped inside their plastic bags, (which are covered with algae,) reach California one year after floating across the Pacific Ocean. They are promptly rescued by some humans in a lifeboat, with Bloat asking for the second time, “Now what?”

Directed by	Andrew Stanton
Produced by	Lindsey Collins
Screenplay by	Andrew Stanton Victoria Strouse
Story by	Andrew Stanton
Starring	Ellen DeGeneres Albert Brooks Hayden Rolence Ed O’Neill Kaitlin Olson Ty Burrell Diane Keaton Eugene Levy
Music by	Thomas Newman
Cinematography	Jeremy Lasky
Edited by	Axel Geddes
Production company	Walt Disney Pictures Pixar Animation Studios
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release dates	June 8, 2016(El Capitan Theatre) June 17, 2016(United States)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$200 million
Box office	$1.001 billion

Pitch Perfect 2 (2016)

Three years after the events of the previous film, the Barden Bellas are now led by Beca Mitchell (Anna Kendrick) and three-time super senior Chloe Beale (Brittany Snow). The Bellas have become ICCA champions each of these three years. However, the group becomes involved in a national scandal called Muffgate when a wardrobe malfunction causes Fat Amy’s (Rebel Wilson) pants to rip while performing at President Barack Obama‘s birthday gala. This leads to the Bellas’ suspension from the ICCAs, meaning they are banned from holding auditions, and damages the group’s reputation significantly. Beca makes a deal to allow the Bellas to be reinstated should they win the World Championship of a cappella. A cappella commentators John Smith (John Michael Higgins) and Gail Abernathy-McKadden-Feinberger (Elizabeth Banks) doubt the group’s chances, as no American team has ever won the world title.

Freshman Emily Junk (Hailee Steinfeld) starts her college career, hoping to follow in her mother Katherine’s (Katey Sagal) footsteps by being a Bella. At orientation, she watches an a cappella performance by the Treblemakers, now led by Beca’s boyfriend Jesse Swanson (Skylar Astin). Emily meets him and tells him her dream of joining the Bellas. Benji Applebaum (Ben Platt), Jesse’s best friend, overhears this and develops an awkward crush on her.

The Bellas learn that German a cappella group Das Sound Machine (who are also the current World Champions) have replaced the Bellas on their victory tour. Additionally, Beca has started an internship at recording studio Residual Heat, something only Jesse knows about so that the Bellas won’t question her commitment. On her first day she watches her egocentric boss (Keegan-Michael Key) degrade his assistant, causing her to realize the negative points of a career in producing music.

Emily goes to the Bellas’ sorority house to audition for them because of their absence from the auditions. She is initially rejected by Fat Amy, but in a desperate attempt, she announces her Legacy Bella relation to her mother, who is very well known in the a cappella community. When she sings her unfinished song “Flashlight,” she succeeds in joining because of the rules of suspension stating that the Bellas can’t hold any auditions, but Emily technically came to them. At the initiation party, Benji nervously tries to ask Emily out, but she kindly rejects him with the reason being that it’s her first day of college. Bumper Allen (Adam Devine) returns, from being backup to John Mayer, as Barden security and starts hooking up with Amy.

At a car show where the ICCA winners are due to perform, the Bellas scout their replacements, German powerhouse “Das Sound Machine” (DSM) – led by intimidating duo Pieter Krämer (Flula Borg) and Kommissar (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen), who take delight in mocking the all-girl group. To her own surprise, Beca is too dazzled by Kommissar’s striking appearance to win any verbal spars she engages her in. Determined to beat DSM at Worlds, the Bellas rehearse a new set that is similar to DSM’s style. After one rehearsal, Beca shows off her mashup skills to her boss by helping produce Snoop Dogg‘s Christmas album. In turn, her boss offers her a chance to become a producer by listening to her demos. Later, the Bellas are invited to an exclusive riff-off, but end up losing to DSM in the final round when a nervous Emily flubs an attempt to sing “Flashlight,” an original song she also performed for her Bellas audition. Not only was the song not from the right category (“90’s Hip-Hop Jamz”), but original songs are frowned upon by the a cappella groups in attendance.

Having gone through Beca’s demo samples, her boss expresses disappointment that all of her songs are mashups. He gives her another chance to add to her covering experience with the Bellas and come forth with original content. Because of this with the current events, Beca is becoming stressed out with both careers. Fat Amy reassures her confidence after revealing her knowledge of her internship. The next night, Bumper makes a romantic attempt to get serious with Amy, but she rejects him as she likes to not be “tied down by anything.” The next day at the warmups, the Bellas’ chance of winning end in disaster when the performance makes John and Gail question the Bellas’ identity and sets Cynthia-Rose’s (Ester Dean) hair on fire by pyrotechnics. In order to regain harmony and sync, Chloe takes them to a retreat led by former leader Aubrey Posen (Anna Camp). Before going, Emily goes to Katherine for help. She worries about the Bellas’ relationships and her possibility of soloing at the ICCAs. Katherine then reassures her that going to the Worlds is bigger than the ICCAs and that the Bellas won’t end now.

The boot camp gives the group physically challenging tasks in order to help with their harmony, but to no avail. Beca shows her frustration over the camp activities not helping the group and is pressured by Amy to reveal her internship. She starts a heated argument with Chloe over herself being the only one thinking about life beyond the Bellas and Chloe’s obsession with winning Worlds. Beca storms off but is captured by a bear net. Chloe sees this as a win but becomes concerned for her safety when the net starts to rip and fall. Lily (Hana Mae Lee) manages to get her down.

The girls calm down and talk about their dreams and future. Beca reveals that her stress was caused by her independence in doing everything under extreme pressure and wishes that she can have Emily’s confidence. Emily returns those feelings about her being intimidatingly good and reveals that just wants to be a Bella, not a Legacy. Beca then offers her to produce “Flashlight” at the studio. When the group realizes that they may not see each other after graduation, they regain harmony by singing “Cups (When I’m Gone).” Fat Amy realizes that she made a mistake with Bumper and goes to win him back, before getting trapped by a net.

She rows across the lake to him, singing “We Belong” to him, with the Trebles and Bellas watching from their houses. Bumper initially rejects her, but he ends up joining her in the song. At the studio, Emily and Beca present their song to Beca’s boss, in which he envies their talent and looks forward to producing with them.

The senior Bellas graduate and they all head off to Copenhagen for the World Finals, with Jesse and Benji to cheer them on. Benji wishes Emily luck before the start of Worlds and she kisses him. The performance of DSM and the crowd’s reaction discourage the Bellas, but Fat Amy gives them one of her pep talks and brings back the spirit to the group. Their performance starts with a handclap introduction and they rock the Worlds with their real sound. Suddenly, they perform a harmonized version of “Flashlight” with Aubrey, Katherine, and other past Bellas joining in. The Bellas win the championship and repair the damaged legacy. As the senior Bellas leave Barden, they give Emily a belated proper initiation with Fat Amy showing her how to do the last tradition: christening the house by sliding down the staircase.

In a mid-credits scene, Bumper performs on The Voice, receiving a reluctant attitude from Adam and choosing Christina as his coach. He then makes her uncomfortable when he lengthens his hug to her.

Directed by	Elizabeth Banks
Produced by	Elizabeth Banks Paul Brooks Max Handelman
Written by	Kay Cannon
Based on	Characters by Kay Cannon Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate a Cappella Glory by Mickey Rapkin
Starring	Anna Kendrick Rebel Wilson Hailee Steinfeld Brittany Snow Skylar Astin Adam DeVine Katey Sagal Anna Camp Ben Platt John Michael Higgins Elizabeth Banks
Music by	Mark Mothersbaugh
Cinematography	Jim Denault
Edited by	Craig Alpert
Production company	Gold Circle Films
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	April 20, 2015 (Las Vegas) May 15, 2015(United States)
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$29 million
Box office	$287.1 million

Mechanic: Resurrection (2016)

 

After faking his death, Arthur Bishop has been living quietly in Rio de Janeiro with the name Santos. He is approached by a woman who states that her employer wishes for Bishop to kill three targets and stage them as accidents. Bishop takes a picture of her and fights off her mercenaries before escaping. Bishop goes to Thailand and takes shelter at the beach house of his friend, Mae. He investigates the woman and learns that her employer is a man named Riah Crain.

An attractive young woman named Gina Thorne arrives at the shore and, when she asks Mae for some first aid items, Mae notices a split lip and bruising on her arm that suggest she is being treated badly. That evening, Mae notices the young woman being attacked in her boat and convinces Bishop to go out to help. He boards the boat, but his attempts to warn off the man go unheeded and in the ensuing altercation the man falls, hits his head on a piece of the boat’s equipment and is killed. Mae arrives, to take Gina to shore, and Bishop quickly explores the ship for clues before setting fire to it to cover his tracks. Bishop learns that the young lady is called Gina, and is working for Crain and confronts her, who reveals that she was working in a children shelter in Cambodia and Crain threatened those children and forced her to arrive at Bishop’s location. Bishop deduces that Crain’s plan was to make him fall for her before she is kidnapped and thus Bishop will be forced to accept the mission. Later, Bishop notices Crain’s operatives watching him and gets intimate with Thorne. He reveals to her that he and Crain were sold to a gangster when they were orphan children. They were trained as warriors until Bishop escaped. Bishop and Thorne end up having sex before they are both abducted the next morning. Bishop is brought to Crain, who gives the identities of the three targets.

The first target of Bishop is a warlord named Krill, who is incarcerated in a Malaysian prison. Bishop travels to Malaysia and gets himself imprisoned to access Krill. Bishop gains Krill’s trust by killing a man already planning on killing Krill. Bishop meets with Krill and kills him and Bishop escapes the prison with the help of Crain’s operatives.

Bishop is informed that he only has 36 hours to kill the next target, Adrian Cook, who runs an underage trafficking ring in Sydney, Australia. Cook goes for a swim in his glass pool outside his high-rise apartment. Bishop breaks the glass, causing the water to spill out with Cook plummeting to his death. Once again, Bishop makes a clean getaway.

Bishop finds the boat where Thorne is held and attempts to save her, but fails. He is informed that he has 24 hours to kill the last target, Max Adams, who is an arms dealer in Bulgaria. Adams and Bishop decide to work together against Crain. Bishop fakes Adams’ death and tells Crain that the job is done. They arrange a meeting; but Crain is revealed to be planning to have Bishop killed.

Bishop kills Crain’s men before heading toward Crain’s boat, where he fights more mercenaries before getting to Crain. Bishop finds Thorne, and they discover that Crain has the boat rigged to explode. Bishop puts Thorne in an underwater escape chamber pod to let her escape and goes to find Crain and defeats him in hand to hand combat. Bishop leaves Crain chained with an anchor chain to the boat and escapes moments before the boat explodes, killing Crain. Thorne is told that there have been no survivors.

Thorne returns to Cambodia to continue her work. She is surprised when Bishop shows up. The last scene shows Max Adams reviewing security footage, which shows Bishop escaping in another escape chamber from Crain’s boat. Adams deletes the video to fake Bishop’s death once more.

Directed by	Dennis Gansel
Produced by	John Thompson Robert Earl David Winkler William Chartoff
Written by	Philip Shelby Tony Mosher
Story by	Brian Pittman Philip Shelby
Based on	Characters by Lewis John Carlino Richard Wenk
Starring	Jason Statham Jessica Alba Tommy Lee Jones Michelle Yeoh Sam Hazeldine Rhatha Phongam Natalie Burn
Music by	Mark Isham
Cinematography	Daniel Gottschalk
Edited by	Michael Duthie Todd E. Miller Ueli Christen
Production company	Davis Films Chartoff-Winkler Productions Millennium Films
Distributed by	Summit Entertainment
Release dates	August 22, 2016(ArcLight Hollywood) August 26, 2016(United States)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States France
Language	English
Budget	$40 million
Box office	$56.7 million

Storks (2016)

Cornerstore is a place known for delivering babies and its employees are storks, along with other birds. The current CEO of Cornerstore, a stork named Hunter, discontinues the baby delivering business, seeing more profit by converting the company to a postal service. However, the last baby that was made before the baby production shut down is taken in by the company and they name her Tulip.

Eighteen years later, Tulip, now a teenager, is working to promote new ideas for Cornerstore, but they always backfire. Meanwhile, Junior, Cornerstore’s top delivery stork, is about to be given his much coveted position as boss of Cornerstore while Hunter is about to be promoted as Chairman. In order to be promoted, Hunter demands that Junior discharge Tulip from the company, due to her antics causing Cornerstore to suffer losses. Despite wanting his promotion very badly, Junior cannot find the heart to fire Tulip due to her kindness and hard work, therefore distracting her into believing that she is being transferred to the mail room as a kind of promotion, and ordering her to never leave it, to which she hesitantly obeys.

Meanwhile on Earth, a young boy named Nate Gardner feels lonely because his parents, Henry and Sarah, are too busy to spend time with him, and yearns for a younger brother. When his parents scoff at the idea, and he learns from an old brochure about Cornerstore and their former baby-making reputation, he writes a letter asking for a baby brother and sends it to Cornerstore. The letter makes its way to Tulip, who got so bored of waiting, disobeys Junior’s orders and puts the letter in a slot just outside the room, which is revealed to be the shut down baby factory (as she was supposed to put it in a containment of letters right next to her). Junior tries to intervene and stop the machine, but dislocates his wing in the process, and to their surprise, a baby girl is created inside a metal container, whom they later name Diamond Destiny.

Knowing that Hunter will cease his future position of becoming boss for creating an unauthorized infant and for not firing Tulip as he was supposed to do, Junior agrees to secretly help deliver Diamond Destiny. As Junior’s wing is broken, they use Tulip’s flying machine for transportation. When Tulip taunts Junior why he wants to become boss, he sees red, making Tulip become concerned for the safety of Diamond Destiny, and they crash into a frozen tundra. After a brief argument, Junior takes Diamond Destiny in the hopes of getting back to Cornerstore but is ambushed by two wolf leaders named Alpha and Beta and their pack and taken to their cave, where Tulip was also captured. The two manage to save Diamond Destiny, whom the wolves have fallen in love with, and escape.

Back at Cornerstore, an employee named Pigeon Toady learns of Diamond Destiny’s existence. He goes after Junior and Tulip to get Diamond Destiny, in the hope that Hunter will fire Junior and he will get the promotion instead. Upon reporting back to Hunter, Toady and Hunter scramble the coordinates Junior and Tulip have been following to mislead them to a different location. After another brief encounter with the wolves, Junior and Tulip run into Jasper, a old stork that was ultimately responsible for Tulip being orphaned and the shut down of baby delivery after he broke her address beacon and wanted to keep her to himself. Jasper reveals that he had searched all of Tulip’s lifetime attempting to fix the beacon that would show Tulip’s home and that he needed the final piece which Tulip had on her the whole time. At this point, Junior reveals that he was supposed to fire Tulip, leaving her in tears. But, now knowing where her family is, Jasper decides to take her to be reunited with them while Junior sadly continues to deliver Diamond Destiny by himself.

Junior is captured and tied up by Hunter and his cronies at the false location and they kidnap Diamond Destiny. Tulip comes to rescue Junior without having met her family and the two resend themselves back to Cornerstore. After fighting an army of penguins, Junior and Tulip are chased into the abandoned baby making room and start up the machine as a distraction. As thousands of babies are being made, Hunter angrily comes at Junior and Tulip with a large body armor, but with the playful help of Diamond Destiny, Junior and Tulip cause the Cornerstore package factory to fall, taking Hunter with it and seemingly killing him. Before he falls to his doom, Hunter takes Junior, Tulip, and Diamond Destiny with him but they fly back up and it is revealed that Junior’s wing was not broken at all.

Junior rallies the storks, as well as the other birds, to help deliver the babies to the families who wanted them including the Gardners, and upon delivering Diamond Destiny, Junior sees through a vision of what the infant will become to be: a woman that will love her family, take ninja class, and get married. At first, Nate is disappointed that he didn’t receive a brother, but when he goes to feed Diamond Destiny, she flings the bottle across the street using her ninja skills, therefore changing Nate’s mind. The storks and former employees of Cornerstore reunite Tulip with her family, and she and Junior continue their job of delivering babies as co-bosses of Stork Mountain. In the end, every family now knows that storks deliver babies once again.

Directed by	Nicholas Stoller Doug Sweetland
Produced by	Brad Lewis Nicholas Stoller
Written by	Nicholas Stoller
Starring	Andy Samberg Katie Crown Kelsey Grammer Keegan-Michael Key Jordan Peele Jennifer Aniston Ty Burrell Danny Trejo Stephen Kramer Glickman
Music by	Mychael Danna Jeff Danna
Edited by	John Venzon
Production company	Warner Animation Group RatPac-Dune Entertainment Stoller Global Solutions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	September 17, 2016(Regency Village Theater) September 23, 2016(United States)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$70 million
Box office	$109.7 million

Suicide Squad (2016)

In the aftermath of Superman‘s death, intelligence officer Amanda Waller assembles Task Force X, a team of dangerous criminals imprisoned at Belle Reve Prison consisting of elite hitman Deadshot, former psychiatrist Harley Quinn, pyrokinetic ex-gangster El Diablo, opportunistic thief Captain Boomerang, genetic mutation Killer Croc, and specialized assassin Slipknot. They are placed under command of Colonel Rick Flag to be used as disposable assets in high-risk missions for the United States government. Each member has a nano bomb implanted in their neck, designed to detonate should any member rebel or try to escape.

One of Waller’s intended recruits is Flag’s girlfriend Dr. June Moone, an archaeologist possessed by a witch-goddess known as the “Enchantress”. Enchantress quickly turns on Waller, deciding to eradicate humankind with a mystical weapon for imprisoning her. She besieges Midway City by transforming its populace into a horde of monsters, and summons her brother to assist her. Waller then deploys the squad to extract a high-profile mark from Midway, which is reported to be under a terrorist attack.

Harley’s homicidal lover, the Joker, finds out about her predicament and tortures Belle Reve Security Officer Griggs into leading him to the facility where the nano bombs are made. There, he blackmails one of the program’s scientists into disabling Harley’s bomb. On approach, the squad’s helicopter is shot down, forcing them to proceed on foot to their target. Boomerang then convinces Slipknot that the bombs are a ruse to keep them in check. Slipknot attempts to escape and is killed via his nano bomb, while the squad is attacked by Enchantress’ minions. They eventually manage to fight their way through to a safe room, where they learn that their mark is Waller herself, who is attempting to cover up her involvement in Enchantress’ siege.

The squad escorts Waller to a rooftop for extraction, but the arriving helicopter has been hijacked by the Joker and his men, who open fire on the squad while Harley climbs aboard. The helicopter is shot down by Waller’s men, however, and Harley jumps out while the Joker seemingly perishes in the explosion, after which Harley rejoins the squad. Alerted to Waller’s whereabouts, Enchantress’ minions arrive and kidnap her. Deadshot finds Waller’s confidential files and learns the truth about Enchantress. Flag is then forced to confess the truth, causing the squad members to abandon him. With Waller compromised, Flag relieves the squad of the mission, but chooses to continue. Realizing they have an opportunity to prove themselves, they soon rejoin him and locate Enchantress at a partially-flooded subway station. Killer Croc and a group of Navy SEALs, led by Lieutenant GQ Edwards, go underwater to plant a bomb underneath her brother. El Diablo embraces his abilities and manages to hold Incubus down long enough for the bomb to detonate underneath, killing them both as well as Edwards.

The remaining squad members battle Enchantress together, but are ultimately defeated. Enchantress offers to fulfill their deepest desires in exchange for their allegiance, and Harley feigns interest in order to get close enough to cut out Enchantress’s heart. Killer Croc then throws explosives into Enchantress’ weapon and Deadshot shoots them, destroying the device. Flag takes Enchantress’s heart and crushes it, finally freeing June from the curse. Waller, still alive, emerges, and the squad members are returned to Belle Reve with ten years off their sentences. All but Captain Boomerang are allowed special privileges. The Joker, who survived the crash, breaks into the penitentiary and reunites with Harley. In a mid-credits scene, Waller meets with Bruce Wayne, who agrees to protect her from the backlash of Enchantress’s rampage in exchange for access to the government’s files on the expanding metahuman community.

Directed by	David Ayer
Produced by	Charles Roven Richard Suckle
Written by	David Ayer
Based on	Characters fromDC Comics
Starring	Will Smith Jared Leto Margot Robbie Joel Kinnaman Viola Davis Jai Courtney Jay Hernandez Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Ike Barinholtz Scott Eastwood Cara Delevingne
Music by	Steven Price
Cinematography	Roman Vasyanov
Edited by	John Gilroy
Production company	DC Entertainment RatPac-Dune Entertainment Atlas Entertainment
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	August 1, 2016(Beacon Theatre) August 5, 2016(United States)
Running time	123 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$175 million
Box office	$742.4 million