title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Despite the near universal acceptance later of the heliocentric idea (though not the epicycles or the circular orbits), Copernicus's theory was originally slow to catch on. Scholars hold that sixty years after the publication of "The Revolutions" there were only around 15 astronomers espousing Copernicanism in all of Europe: "Thomas Digges and Thomas Harriot in England; Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilei in Italy; Diego Zuniga in Spain; Simon Stevin in the Low Countries; and in Germany, the largest group—Georg Joachim Rheticus, Michael Maestlin, Christoph Rothmann (who may have later recanted), and Johannes Kepler." Additional possibilities are Englishman William Gilbert, along with Achilles Gasser, Georg Vogelin, Valentin Otto, and Tiedemann Giese.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Arthur Koestler, in his popular book "The Sleepwalkers", asserted that Copernicus's book had not been widely read on its first publication. This claim was trenchantly criticised by Edward Rosen, and has been decisively disproved by Owen Gingerich, who examined nearly every surviving copy of the first two editions and found copious marginal notes by their owners throughout many of them. Gingerich published his conclusions in 2004 in "The Book Nobody Read".


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: The intellectual climate of the time "remained dominated by Aristotelian philosophy and the corresponding Ptolemaic astronomy. At that time there was no reason to accept the Copernican theory, except for its mathematical simplicity [by avoiding using the equant in determining planetary positions]." Tycho Brahe's system ("that the earth is stationary, the sun revolves about the earth, and the other planets revolve about the sun") also directly competed with Copernicus's. It was only a half-century later with the work of Kepler and Galileo that any substantial evidence defending Copernicanism appeared, starting "from the time when Galileo formulated the principle of inertia...[which] helped to explain why everything would not fall off the earth if it were in motion." "[Not until] after Isaac Newton formulated the universal law of gravitation and the laws of mechanics [in his 1687 "Principia"], which unified terrestrial and celestial mechanics, was the heliocentric view generally accepted."


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: The immediate result of the 1543 publication of Copernicus's book was only mild controversy. At the Council of Trent (1545–63) neither Copernicus's theory nor calendar reform (which would later use tables deduced from Copernicus's calculations) were discussed. It has been much debated why it was not until six decades after the publication of "De revolutionibus" that the Catholic Church took any official action against it, even the efforts of Tolosani going unheeded. Catholic side opposition only commenced seventy-three years later, when it was occasioned by Galileo.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: The first notable to move against Copernicanism was the Magister of the Holy Palace (i.e., the Catholic Church's chief censor), Dominican Bartolomeo Spina, who "expressed a desire to stamp out the Copernican doctrine". But with Spina's death in 1546, his cause fell to his friend, the well-known theologian-astronomer, the Dominican Giovanni Maria Tolosani of the Convent of St. Mark in Florence. Tolosani had written a treatise on reforming the calendar (in which astronomy would play a large role) and had attended the Fifth Lateran Council (1512–1517) to discuss the matter. He had obtained a copy of "De Revolutionibus" in 1544. His denunciation of Copernicanism was written a year later, in 1545, in an appendix to his unpublished work, "On the Truth of Sacred Scripture".


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Emulating the rationalistic style of Thomas Aquinas, Tolosani sought to refute Copernicanism by philosophical argument. Copernicanism was absurd, according to Tolosani, because it was scientifically unproven and unfounded. First, Copernicus had assumed the motion of the Earth but offered no physical theory whereby one would deduce this motion. (No one realized that the investigation into Copernicanism would result in a rethinking of the entire field of physics.) Second, Tolosani charged that Copernicus's thought process was backwards. He held that Copernicus had come up with his idea and then sought phenomena that would support it, rather than observing phenomena and deducing from them the idea of what caused them. In this, Tolosani was linking Copernicus's mathematical equations with the practices of the Pythagoreans (whom Aristotle had made arguments against, which were later picked up by Thomas Aquinas). It was argued that mathematical numbers were a mere product of the intellect without any physical reality, and as such could not provide physical causes in the investigation of nature.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Some astronomical hypotheses at the time (such as epicycles and eccentrics) were seen as mere mathematical devices to adjust calculations of where the heavenly bodies would appear, rather than an explanation of the cause of those motions. (As Copernicus still maintained the idea of perfectly spherical orbits, he relied on epicycles.) This "saving the phenomena" was seen as proof that astronomy and mathematics could not be taken as serious means to determine physical causes. Tolosani invoked this view in his final critique of Copernicus, saying that his biggest error was that he had started with "inferior" fields of science to make pronouncements about "superior" fields. Copernicus had used mathematics and astronomy to postulate about physics and cosmology, rather than beginning with the accepted principles of physics and cosmology to determine things about astronomy and mathematics. Thus Copernicus seemed to be undermining the whole system of the philosophy of science at the time. Tolosani held that Copernicus had fallen into philosophical error because he had not been versed in physics and logic; anyone without such knowledge would make a poor astronomer and be unable to distinguish truth from falsehood. Because Copernicanism had not met the criteria for scientific truth set out by Thomas Aquinas, Tolosani held that it could only be viewed as a wild unproven theory.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Tolosani recognized that the "Ad Lectorem" preface to Copernicus's book was not actually by him. Its thesis that astronomy as a whole would never be able to make truth claims was rejected by Tolosani (though he still held that Copernicus's attempt to describe physical reality had been faulty); he found it ridiculous that "Ad Lectorem" had been included in the book (unaware that Copernicus had not authorized its inclusion). Tolosani wrote: "By means of these words [of the "Ad Lectorem"], the foolishness of this book's author is rebuked. For by a foolish effort he [Copernicus] tried to revive the weak Pythagorean opinion [that the element of fire was at the center of the Universe], long ago deservedly destroyed, since it is expressly contrary to human reason and also opposes holy writ. From this situation, there could easily arise disagreements between Catholic expositors of holy scripture and those who might wish to adhere obstinately to this false opinion." Tolosani declared: "Nicolaus Copernicus neither read nor understood the arguments of Aristotle the philosopher and Ptolemy the astronomer." Tolosani wrote that Copernicus "is expert indeed in the sciences of mathematics and astronomy, but he is very deficient in the sciences of physics and logic. Moreover, it appears that he is unskilled with regard to [the interpretation of] holy scripture, since he contradicts several of its principles, not without danger of infidelity to himself and the readers of his book. ...his arguments have no force and can very easily be taken apart. For it is stupid to contradict an opinion accepted by everyone over a very long time for the strongest reasons, unless the impugner uses more powerful and insoluble demonstrations and completely dissolves the opposed reasons. But he does not do this in the least."


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Tolosani declared that he had written against Copernicus "for the purpose of preserving the truth to the common advantage of the Holy Church." Despite this, his work remained unpublished and there is no evidence that it received serious consideration. Robert Westman describes it as becoming a "dormant" viewpoint with "no audience in the Catholic world" of the late sixteenth century, but also notes that there is some evidence that it did become known to Tommaso Caccini, who would criticize Galileo in a sermon in December 1613.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Tolosani may have criticized the Copernican theory as scientifically unproven and unfounded, but the theory also conflicted with the theology of the time, as can be seen in a sample of the works of John Calvin. In his "Commentary on Genesis" he said that "We indeed are not ignorant that the circuit of the heavens is finite, and that the earth, like a little globe, is placed in the centre." In his commentary on Psalms 93:1 he states that "The heavens revolve daily, and, immense as is their fabric and inconceivable the rapidity of their revolutions, we experience no concussion... How could the earth hang suspended in the air were it not upheld by God's hand? By what means could it maintain itself unmoved, while the heavens above are in constant rapid motion, did not its Divine Maker fix and establish it." One sharp point of conflict between Copernicus's theory and the Bible concerned the story of the Battle of Gibeon in the Book of Joshua where the Hebrew forces were winning but whose opponents were likely to escape once night fell. This is averted by Joshua's prayers causing the Sun and the Moon to stand still. Martin Luther once made a remark about Copernicus, although without mentioning his name. According to Anthony Lauterbach, while eating with Martin Luther the topic of Copernicus arose during dinner on 4 June 1539 (in the same year as professor George Joachim Rheticus of the local University had been granted leave to visit him). Luther is said to have remarked "So it goes now. Whoever wants to be clever must agree with nothing others esteem. He must do something of his own. This is what "that fellow" does who wishes to turn the whole of astronomy upside down. Even in these things that are thrown into disorder I believe the Holy Scriptures, for Joshua commanded the sun to stand still and not the earth." These remarks were made four years before the publication of "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres" and a year before Rheticus's "Narratio Prima". In John Aurifaber's account of the conversation Luther calls Copernicus "that fool" rather than "that fellow", this version is viewed by historians as less reliably sourced.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Luther's collaborator Philipp Melanchthon also took issue with Copernicanism. After receiving the first pages of "Narratio Prima" from Rheticus himself, Melanchthon wrote to Mithobius (physician and mathematician Burkard Mithob of Feldkirch) on 16 October 1541 condemning the theory and calling for it to be repressed by governmental force, writing "certain people believe it is a marvelous achievement to extol so crazy a thing, like that Polish astronomer who makes the earth move and the sun stand still. Really, wise governments ought to repress impudence of mind." It had appeared to Rheticus that Melanchton would understand the theory and would be open to it. This was because Melanchton had taught Ptolemaic astronomy and had even recommended his friend Rheticus to an appointment to the Deanship of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at the University of Wittenberg after he had returned from studying with Copernicus.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Rheticus's hopes were dashed when six years after the publication of "De Revolutionibus" Melanchthon published his "Initia Doctrinae Physicae" presenting three grounds to reject Copernicanism. These were "the evidence of the senses, the thousand-year consensus of men of science, and the authority of the Bible". Blasting the new theory Melanchthon wrote, "Out of love for novelty or in order to make a show of their cleverness, some people have argued that the earth moves. They maintain that neither the eighth sphere nor the sun moves, whereas they attribute motion to the other celestial spheres, and also place the earth among the heavenly bodies. Nor were these jokes invented recently. There is still extant Archimedes's book on "The Sand Reckoner"; in which he reports that Aristarchus of Samos propounded the paradox that the sun stands still and the earth revolves around the sun. Even though subtle experts institute many investigations for the sake of exercising their ingenuity, nevertheless public proclamation of absurd opinions is indecent and sets a harmful example." Melanchthon went on to cite Bible passages and then declare "Encouraged by this divine evidence, let us cherish the truth and let us not permit ourselves to be alienated from it by the tricks of those who deem it an intellectual honor to introduce confusion into the arts." In the first edition of "Initia Doctrinae Physicae", Melanchthon even questioned Copernicus's character claiming his motivation was "either from love of novelty or from desire to appear clever", these more personal attacks were largely removed by the second edition in 1550.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Another Protestant theologian who disparaged heliocentrism on scriptural grounds was John Owen. In a passing remark in an essay on the origin of the sabbath, he characterised "the late hypothesis, fixing the sun as in the centre of the world" as being "built on fallible phenomena, and advanced by many arbitrary presumptions against evident testimonies of Scripture."


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: In Roman Catholic circles, Copernicus's book was incorporated into scholarly curricula throughout the 16th century. For example, at the University of Salamanca in 1561 it became one of four text books that students of astronomy could choose from, and in 1594 it was made mandatory. German Jesuit Nicolaus Serarius was one of the first Catholics to write against Copernicus's theory as heretical, citing the Joshua passage, in a work published in 1609–1610, and again in a book in 1612. In his 12 April 1615 letter to a Catholic defender of Copernicus, Paolo Antonio Foscarini, Catholic Cardinal Robert Bellarmine condemned Copernican theory, writing "...not only the Holy Fathers, but also the modern commentaries on Genesis, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Joshua, you will find all agreeing in the literal interpretation that the sun is in heaven and turns around the earth with great speed, and that the earth is very far from heaven and sits motionless at the center of the world...Nor can one answer that this is not a matter of faith, since if it is not a matter of faith 'as regards the topic,' it is a matter of faith 'as regards the speaker': and so it would be heretical to say that Abraham did not have two children and Jacob twelve, as well as to say that Christ was not born of a virgin, because both are said by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of prophets and apostles." One year later, the Roman Inquisition prohibited Copernicus's work. Nevertheless, the Spanish Inquisition never banned the "De revolutionibus", which continued to be taught at Salamanca.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Perhaps the most influential opponent of the Copernican theory was Francesco Ingoli, a Catholic priest. Ingoli wrote a January 1616 essay to Galileo presenting more than twenty arguments against the Copernican theory. Though "it is not certain, it is probable that he [Ingoli] was commissioned by the Inquisition to write an expert opinion on the controversy", (after the Congregation of the Index's decree against Copernicanism on 5 March 1616, Ingoli was officially appointed its consultant). Galileo himself was of the opinion that the essay played an important role in the rejection of the theory by church authorities, writing in a later letter to Ingoli that he was concerned that people thought the theory was rejected because Ingoli was right. Ingoli presented five physical arguments against the theory, thirteen mathematical arguments (plus a separate discussion of the sizes of stars), and four theological arguments. The physical and mathematical arguments were of uneven quality, but many of them came directly from the writings of Tycho Brahe, and Ingoli repeatedly cited Brahe, the leading astronomer of the era. These included arguments about the effect of a moving Earth on the trajectory of projectiles, and about parallax and Brahe's argument that the Copernican theory required that stars be absurdly large.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Two of Ingoli's theological issues with the Copernican theory were "common Catholic beliefs not directly traceable to Scripture: the doctrine that hell is located at the center of Earth and is most distant from heaven; and the explicit assertion that Earth is motionless in a hymn sung on Tuesdays as part of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Divine Office prayers regularly recited by priests." Ingoli cited Robert Bellarmine in regards to both of these arguments, and may have been trying to convey to Galileo a sense of Bellarmine's opinion. Ingoli also cited Genesis 1:14 where God places "lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night." Ingoli did not think the central location of the Sun in the Copernican theory was compatible with it being described as one of the lights placed in the firmament. Like previous commentators Ingoli also pointed to the passages about the Battle of Gibeon. He dismissed arguments that they should be taken metaphorically, saying "Replies which assert that Scripture speaks according to our mode of understanding are not satisfactory: both because in explaining the Sacred Writings the rule is always to preserve the literal sense, when it is possible, as it is in this case; and also because all the [Church] Fathers unanimously take this passage to mean that the Sun which was truly moving stopped at Joshua's request. An interpretation that is contrary to the unanimous consent of the Fathers is condemned by the Council of Trent, Session IV, in the decree on the edition and use of the Sacred Books. Furthermore, although the Council speaks about matters of faith and morals, nevertheless it cannot be denied that the Holy Fathers would be displeased with an interpretation of Sacred Scriptures which is contrary to their common agreement." However, Ingoli closed the essay by suggesting Galileo respond primarily to the better of his physical and mathematical arguments rather than to his theological arguments, writing "Let it be your choice to respond to this either entirely of in part—clearly at least to the mathematical and physical arguments, and not to all even of these, but to the more weighty ones." When Galileo wrote a letter in reply to Ingoli years later, he in fact only addressed the mathematical and physical arguments.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: In March 1616, in connection with the Galileo affair, the Roman Catholic Church's Congregation of the Index issued a decree suspending "De revolutionibus" until it could be "corrected," on the grounds of ensuring that Copernicanism, which it described as a "false Pythagorean doctrine, altogether contrary to the Holy Scripture," would not "creep any further to the prejudice of Catholic truth." The corrections consisted largely of removing or altering wording that spoke of heliocentrism as a fact, rather than a hypothesis. The corrections were made based largely on work by Ingoli.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: On the orders of Pope Paul V, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine gave Galileo prior notice that the decree was about to be issued, and warned him that he could not "hold or defend" the Copernican doctrine. The corrections to "De revolutionibus", which omitted or altered nine sentences, were issued four years later, in 1620.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: In 1633, Galileo Galilei was convicted of grave suspicion of heresy for "following the position of Copernicus, which is contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture", and was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: At the instance of Roger Boscovich, the Catholic Church's 1758 "Index of Prohibited Books" omitted the general prohibition of works defending heliocentrism, but retained the specific prohibitions of the original uncensored versions of "De revolutionibus" and Galileo's "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems". Those prohibitions were finally dropped from the 1835 "Index".


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Copernicus is postulated to have spoken Latin, German, and Polish with equal fluency; he also spoke Greek and Italian, and had some knowledge of Hebrew. The vast majority of Copernicus's extant writings are in Latin, the language of European academia in his lifetime.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Arguments for German being Copernicus's native tongue are that he was born into a predominantly German-speaking urban patrician class using German, next to Latin, as language of trade and commerce in written documents, and that, while studying canon law at the University of Bologna in 1496, he signed into the German "natio" ("Natio Germanorum")—a student organization which, according to its 1497 by-laws, was open to students of all kingdoms and states whose mother-tongue was German. However, according to French philosopher Alexandre Koyré, Copernicus's registration with the "Natio Germanorum" does not in itself imply that Copernicus considered himself German, since students from Prussia and Silesia were routinely so categorized, which carried certain privileges that made it a natural choice for German-speaking students, regardless of their ethnicity or self-identification.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: The surname "Kopernik", "Copernik", "Koppernigk", in various spellings, is recorded in Kraków from c. 1350, apparently given to people from the village of Koperniki (prior to 1845 rendered "Kopernik", "Copernik, Copirnik", and "Koppirnik") in the Duchy of Nysa, 10 km south of Nysa, and now 10 km north of the Polish-Czech border. Nicolaus Copernicus's great-grandfather is recorded as having received citizenship in Kraków in 1386. The toponym "Kopernik" (modern "Koperniki") has been variously tied to the Polish word for "dill" ("koper") and the German word for "copper" ("Kupfer"). The suffix "-nik" (or plural, "-niki") denotes a Slavic and Polish agent noun.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: As was common in the period, the spellings of both the toponym and the surname vary greatly. Copernicus "was rather indifferent about orthography". During his childhood, about 1480, the name of his father (and thus of the future astronomer) was recorded in Thorn as "Niclas Koppernigk".


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: At Kraków he signed himself, in Latin, "Nicolaus Nicolai de Torunia" (Nicolaus, son of Nicolaus, of Toruń). At Bologna, in 1496, he registered in the "Matricula Nobilissimi Germanorum Collegii, resp. Annales Clarissimae Nacionis Germanorum", of the "Natio Germanica Bononiae", as "Dominus Nicolaus Kopperlingk de Thorn – IX grosseti". At Padua he signed himself "Nicolaus Copernik", later "Coppernicus". The astronomer thus Latinized his name to "Coppernicus", generally with two "p"s (in 23 of 31 documents studied), but later in life he used a single "p". On the title page of "De revolutionibus", Rheticus published the name (in the genitive, or possessive, case) as ""Nicolai Copernici"".


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: There has been discussion of Copernicus's nationality and of whether it is meaningful to ascribe to him a nationality in the modern sense.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Nicolaus Copernicus was born and raised in Royal Prussia, a semiautonomous and multilingual region of the Kingdom of Poland. He was the child of German-speaking parents and grew up with German as his mother tongue. His first "alma mater" was the University of Kraków in Poland. When he later studied in Italy, at the University of Bologna, he joined the "German Nation", a student organization for German-speakers of all allegiances (Germany would not become a nation-state until 1871). His family stood against the Teutonic Order and actively supported the city of Toruń during the Thirteen Years' War. Copernicus's father lent money to Poland's King Casimir IV Jagiellon to finance the war against the Teutonic Knights, but the inhabitants of Royal Prussia also resisted the Polish crown's efforts for greater control over the region.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: "Encyclopedia Americana", "The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia", "The Oxford World Encyclopedia", and "World Book Encyclopedia" refer to Copernicus as a "Polish astronomer". Sheila Rabin, writing in the "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy", describes Copernicus as a "child of a German family [who] was a subject of the Polish crown", while Manfred Weissenbacher writes that Copernicus's father was a Germanized Pole.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: No Polish texts by Copernicus survive due to the rarity of Polish language in literature before the writings of the Polish Renaissance poets Mikołaj Rej and Jan Kochanowski (educated Poles had generally written in Latin); but it is known that Copernicus knew Polish on a par with German and Latin.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Historian Michael Burleigh describes the nationality debate as a "totally insignificant battle" between German and Polish scholars during the interwar period. Polish astronomer Konrad Rudnicki calls the discussion a "fierce scholarly quarrel in ... times of nationalism" and describes Copernicus as an inhabitant of a German-speaking territory that belonged to Poland, himself being of mixed Polish-German extraction.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Czesław Miłosz describes the debate as an "absurd" projection of a modern understanding of nationality onto Renaissance people, who identified with their home territories rather than with a nation. Similarly, historian Norman Davies writes that Copernicus, as was common in his era, was "largely indifferent" to nationality, being a local patriot who considered himself "Prussian". Miłosz and Davies both write that Copernicus had a German-language cultural background, while his working language was Latin in accord with the usage of the time. Additionally, according to Davies, "there is ample evidence that he knew the Polish language". Davies concludes that, "Taking everything into consideration, there is good reason to regard him both as a German and as a Pole: and yet, in the sense that modern nationalists understand it, he was neither."


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Copernicia, a genus of palm trees native to South America and the Greater Antilles, was named after Copernicus in 1837. In some of the species, the leaves are coated with a thin layer of wax, known as carnauba wax.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: On 14 July 2009, the discoverers, from the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany, of chemical element 112 (temporarily named ununbium) proposed to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) that its permanent name be "copernicium" (symbol Cn). "After we had named elements after our city and our state, we wanted to make a statement with a name that was known to everyone," said Hofmann. "We didn't want to select someone who was a German. We were looking world-wide." On the 537th anniversary of his birthday the name became official.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: In July 2014 the International Astronomical Union launched NameExoWorlds, a process for giving proper names to certain exoplanets and their host stars. The process involved public nomination and voting for the new names. In December 2015, the IAU announced the winning name for 55 Cancri A was Copernicus.


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Copernicus is commemorated by the Nicolaus Copernicus Monument in Warsaw, designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1822), completed in 1830; and by Jan Matejko's 1873 painting, "Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God".


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: Named for Copernicus are Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń; Warsaw's Copernicus Science Centre; Copernicus Hospital, in Poland's third largest city, Łódź; and Wrocław International Airport (Copernicus Airport Wrocław).


title: Nicolaus Copernicus

text: A Copernicus Award has been established jointly by the Foundation for Polish Science and the German Research Foundation, to promote Polish-German scientific cooperation.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: Armageddon is a 1998 American science fiction disaster film produced and directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film follows a group of blue-collar deep-core drillers sent by NASA to stop a gigantic asteroid on a collision course with Earth. It stars Bruce Willis with Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Ben Affleck, Will Patton, Peter Stormare, Keith David and Steve Buscemi.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: The film was a commercial success, grossing $553 million worldwide against a $140 million budget and becoming the highest-grossing film of 1998. However, the film received mostly mixed reviews from critics.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: A massive meteor shower destroys the orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis, before entering the atmosphere and bombarding New York City. The meteors were pushed out of the asteroid belt by a rogue comet that also jarred loose a Texas-sized asteroid that will impact Earth in 18 days, causing an event that will wipe out all life on the planet. NASA devises a plan to have a deep core oil driller train a group of astronauts to drill a hole into the asteroid into which they will insert and detonate a nuclear bomb to destroy the asteroid.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: They recruit Harry Stamper, a third-generation oil driller and owner of his own oil drilling company. Harry agrees to help, but on the condition that he bring in his own team to do the drilling. He picks his best employees for the job: Chick Chapel, his best friend and right-hand man; geologists Rockhound and Oscar Choice; and drillers Bear Curlene, Freddie Noonan, Max Lennert, and A.J. Frost (who has been dating Harry's daughter Grace despite Harry's objections). Over twelve days, they train with astronaut Willie Sharp, who will pilot "Freedom" — one of the two shuttles to fly to the asteroid, the other being the "Independence". Before leaving, Chick apologizes to his ex-wife for wronging her and sees his son, who is unaware of his parentage. Grace accepts A.J.'s marriage proposal.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: Following the destruction of Shanghai by another meteor shower, word of the massive asteroid becomes public to the world. Both shuttles take off without incident and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir to take on fuel. During fueling, a spark causes a fire. A.J. and Russian Cosmonaut Lev Andropov manage to board "Independence" before the space station is destroyed.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: Approaching the asteroid, "Independence" is damaged by debris and crashes, killing all on board except Lev, Bear, and A.J. They embark in the shuttle's Armadillo to find the "Freedom" crew, which lands 26 miles from its intended landing site. When the drilling goes slower than predicted, Sharp reports to Mission Control that it is unlikely that the team will reach the depth necessary to destroy the asteroid before "Zero Barrier", the point after detonating the rock will not save Earth. Even though it might cause total mission failure, the President of the United States decides to remote detonate the bomb from Earth. Sharp and Harry have a vicious argument, but agree to defuse the bomb and work together after Harry promises Sharp that he will accomplish the mission. They make progress on drilling, but a missed gas pocket causes a blowout that destroys the Armadillo and kills Max. Just as Harry, NASA, and the world believe the mission to be a failure, A.J. and the others arrive in the second Armadillo.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: A.J. succeeds in drilling the hole to the required depth, but a rock storm kills Gruber and damages the remote detonator, forcing someone to stay behind and manually detonate the bomb. They draw straws; the responsibility falls upon A.J. Harry takes him down to the asteroid's surface, and disconnects A.J.'s air hose, forcing him into the shuttle's air lock. He tells A.J. that he is the son he never had and that he would be proud to have him marry Grace. Using the Armadillo, Harry gives Grace his blessing to marry A.J., and Grace says that she is proud to be his daughter.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: After some difficulty, "Freedom" takes off, but a second blowout causes Harry to lose his grip on the detonator. Just before Zero Barrier, he detonates the bomb and saves the planet. The astronauts land on Earth safely. A.J. and Grace are reunited and Chick reconciles with his ex-wife and estranged son.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: Later, A.J. and Grace are married with the portraits of Harry, Max, Oscar and the others lost on the mission present "in memoriam".


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: According to Bruce Joel Rubin, writer of "Deep Impact", a production president at Disney took notes on everything the writer said during lunch about his script and initiated "Armageddon" as a counter film at Disney. Nine writers worked on the script, five of whom are credited. In addition to Robert Roy Pool, Jonathan Hensleigh, Tony Gilroy, Shane Salerno and J. J. Abrams, the writers involved included Paul Attanasio, Ann Biderman, Scott Rosenberg and Robert Towne. Originally, it was Hensleigh's script, based on Pool's original, that had been given the green-light by Touchstone. Then-producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, hired the succession of scribes for rewrites and polishes. Astronomers would subsequently note that "Deep Impact" was more scientifically accurate.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: Bruce Willis was cast in the film as part of a three-picture deal he cut with the studio to compensate them for the dissolution of 1997's "Broadway Brawler". He received a significant pay cut for the picture as part of the deal.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: In May 1998, Walt Disney Studios chairman Joe Roth expanded the film's budget by $3 million to include additional special effects scenes by Dream Quest Images showing an asteroid impacting Paris. This additional footage, incorporated two months prior to the film's release, was specifically added for the television advertising campaign to visually differentiate the film from "Deep Impact" which was released a few months before.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: Prior to "Armageddon"s release, the film was advertised in Super Bowl XXXII at a cost of $2.6 million.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: Despite a mixed critical reception, a DVD edition of "Armageddon" was released by The Criterion Collection, a specialist film distributor of primarily arthouse films that markets what it considers to be "important classic and contemporary films" and "cinema at its finest". In an essay supporting the selection of "Armageddon", film scholar Jeanine Basinger, who taught Michael Bay at Wesleyan University, states that the film is "a work of art by a cutting-edge artist who is a master of movement, light, color, and shape—and also of chaos, razzle-dazzle, and explosion". She sees it as a celebration of working men: "This film makes these ordinary men noble, lifting their efforts up into an epic event." Further, she states that in the first few moments of the film all the main characters are well established, saying, "If that isn't screenwriting, I don't know what is".


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: The film was also released on VHS and DVD by Touchstone Home Video on November 13, 1998, and would surpass "Pretty Woman" to become Buena Vista Home Entertainment's best-selling live-action title. "Armageddon" then premiered on both VHS and DVD formats on February 1, 1999, in the UK. It was the country's best-selling DVD release, selling over 100,000 copies. However, this record would be surpassed by "The Matrix" later that year. The film was released on a standard edition Blu-ray in 2010 with only a few special features.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: By April 2002, ABC airings of "Armageddon" had already received modifications due to the September 11 attacks that occurred a year prior. The scene where the World Trade Center was hit by meteors and caught on fire was edited out because of its similarity to the attacks.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: Following the 2003 "Columbia" disaster, some screen captures from the opening scene where "Atlantis" is destroyed were passed off as satellite images of the disaster in a hoax. Additionally, the American cable network FX, which had intended to broadcast "Armageddon" that evening, removed the film from its schedule and aired "Aliens" in its place.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: "Armageddon" was released on , 1998 in in the United States and Canada. It ranked first at the box office with an opening weekend gross of , combined with from its first five days. It grossed in the United States and Canada and in other territories for a worldwide total of . It was the highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide and the second-highest-grossing film of that year in the United States, finishing just behind "Saving Private Ryan".


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: "Armageddon" received mostly mixed reviews from film critics, many of whom took issue with "the furious pace of its editing". On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 37% "Rotten" approval rating based on 123 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The critical consensus states, "Lovely to look at but about as intelligent as the asteroid that serves as the movie's antagonist, "Armageddon" slickly sums up the cinematic legacies of producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay." Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: The film is on the list of Roger Ebert's most hated films. In his original review, Ebert stated, "The movie is an assault on the eyes, the ears, the brain, common sense and the human desire to be entertained". On "Siskel and Ebert", Ebert gave it a Thumbs Down. However, his co-host Gene Siskel gave it a Thumbs Up, commenting on the noise and intensity of the film, but also stating that he found the film to be amusing. Ebert went on to name "Armageddon" as the worst film of 1998 (though he was originally considering "Spice World"). Todd McCarthy of "Variety" also gave the film a negative review, noting Michael Bay's rapid cutting style: "Much of the confusion, as well as the lack of dramatic rhythm or character development, results directly from Bay's cutting style, which resembles a machine gun stuck in the firing position for 2 hours."


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: In April 2013, in a "Miami Herald" interview to promote "Pain & Gain", Bay was quoted as having said:…We had to do the whole movie in 16 weeks. It was a massive undertaking. That was not fair to the movie. I would redo the entire third act if I could. But the studio literally took the movie away from us. It was terrible. My visual effects supervisor had a nervous breakdown, so I had to be in charge of that. I called James Cameron and asked "What do you do when you're doing all the effects yourself?" But the movie did fine.Some time after the article was published, Bay changed his stance, claiming that his apology only related to the editing of the film, not the whole film, and accused the writer of the article for taking his words out of context. The author of the article, "Miami Herald" writer Rene Rodriguez, claimed: "NBC asked me for a response, and I played them the tape. I didn't misquote anyone. All the sites that picked up the story did."


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", Bay admitted that the film's central premise "that NASA could actually do something in a situation like this" was unrealistic. Additionally, the largest known potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) is (53319) 1999 JM8, which is only in diameter, while the asteroid in the movie is described as being "the size of Texas". Near the end of the credits, there is a disclaimer stating, "The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's cooperation and assistance does not reflect an endorsement of the contents of the film or the treatment of the characters depicted therein."


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: The infeasibility of the H-bomb approach was published by four undergraduate physics students in 2011 and then reported by "The Daily Telegraph" in 2012:


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: In the commentary track, Ben Affleck says he "asked Michael why it was easier to train oil drillers to become astronauts than it was to train astronauts to become oil drillers, and he told me to shut the fuck up, so that was the end of that talk."


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: Revell and Monogram released two model kits inspired by the film's spacecraft and the Armadillos, in 1998. The first one, "Space Shuttle with Armadillo drilling unit", included an X-71, a small, rough Armadillo and a pedestal. The second one, "Russian Space Center", included the "Mir", with the docking adapter seen in the film, and another pedestal.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: In 2011, Fantastic Plastic released another X-71 kit, the "X-71 Super Shuttle", the goal of which was to be more accurate than the Revell/Monogram kit.


title: Armageddon (1998 film)

text: Armageddon – Les Effets Speciaux was an attraction based on "Armageddon" at Walt Disney Studios Park located at Disneyland Paris. The attraction simulated the scene in the movie in which the Russian Space Station is destroyed. Michael Clarke Duncan ("Bear" in the film) was featured in the pre-show.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: Ayushmann Khurrana (born Nishant Khurrana; 14 September 1984) is an Indian actor and singer who works in Hindi films. Known for his portrayals of ordinary men often battling social norms, he is the recipient of several awards, including a National Film Award and four Filmfare Awards. He has appeared in "Forbes India" Celebrity 100 list of 2013 and 2019, and "Time" named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2020.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: Khurrana won the second season of reality television show MTV Roadies in 2004 and ventured into an anchoring career. He made his film debut in 2012 with the romantic comedy "Vicky Donor", in which his performance as a sperm donor earned him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. Following a brief setback, he starred in the commercially and critically successful "Dum Laga Ke Haisha" (2015).


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: Khurrana established himself with several box-office hits, including the comedy-dramas "Bareilly Ki Barfi" (2017), "Shubh Mangal Saavdhan" (2017), "Badhaai Ho" (2018), "Dream Girl" (2019), and "Bala" (2019); the thriller "Andhadhun" (2018); and the crime drama "Article 15" (2019). His performances as a blind pianist in "Andhadhun" and an honest cop in "Article 15" won him two consecutive Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor, and he also won the National Film Award for Best Actor for the former. This success was followed by several films that gained positive reviews but fared poorly at the box office.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: In addition to his acting roles, Khurrana has sung for several of his films. His song "Pani Da Rang", which he sang and co-composed, earned him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: Khurrana was born in a Punjabi Buddhist family, on 14 September 1984 in Chandigarh to Poonam and P. Khurrana, as Nishant Khurrana. His parents changed his name to Ayushmann Khurrana when he was 3 years old. He was a part of Guru Nanak Khalsa College. He studied at St. John's High School, Chandigarh and DAV College, Chandigarh. He majored in English literature and has a master's degree in Mass Communication from the School of Communication Studies, Panjab University. He did serious theatre for five years. During his college days he has done several plays in Gaiety Theatre, Shimla. He was also the founding member of DAV College's "Aaghaaz" and "Manchtantra", which are active theatre groups in Chandigarh. He conceived and acted in street plays and won prizes in national college festivals such as Mood Indigo (IIT Bombay), OASIS (Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani) and St. Bedes Shimla. He also won a Best Actor award for playing Ashwatthama in Dharamvir Bharati's Andha Yug.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: After completing his graduation and post-graduation in Journalism, his first job was as a radio personality at BIG FM, Delhi. He hosted the show "Big Chai – Maan Na Maan", "Main Tera Ayushmann" and also won the Young Achievers Award in 2007 for it. He was the youngest recipient of the Bharat Nirman Award in New Delhi.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: He also worked in many other MTV shows such as "MTV Fully Faltoo Movies", "Cheque De India" and "Jaadoo Ek Baar". He then turned television host with a multiple-talent-based reality show India's Got Talent on Colors TV, which he co-anchored with Nikhil Chinapa, and "Stripped", which gave latest updates on the Indian TV industry with a comic tinge, again on MTV. At the end of the year, he was also the anchor of the singing reality show "Music Ka Maha Muqqabla" on STAR Plus.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: Apart from hosting the second season of "MTV Rock On" and "India's Got Talent" on Colors, he was also a part of the anchoring team of Extra Innings T20 for Indian Premier League Season 3 on SET Max with Gaurav Kapur, Samir Kochhar, and Angad Bedi, following which he took up the offer of anchoring the dance-based reality show "Just Dance" on STAR Plus.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: Khurrana made his acting debut in 2012 with Shoojit Sircar's romantic comedy "Vicky Donor", co-starring Annu Kapoor and debutante Yami Gautam. Marking the production debut of actor John Abraham, who cameoed in a promotional song, it starred Khurrana in the titular role of a sperm donor. In preparation, he attended acting workshops and interacted with medical professionals. For the film's soundtrack, he sang "Pani Da Rang", which he had written and composed with Rochak Kohli back in 2003. Praising the film's ensemble cast, Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com wrote that Khurrana's "candid disposition and roguish face ensures his street smart drollery works like a breeze". With worldwide earnings of over against a budget of , "Vicky Donor" emerged as a commercial success. At the Filmfare Awards ceremony, Khurrana was awarded trophies for Best Male Debut and Best Male Playback Singer.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: In 2013, Khurrana appeared in "Forbes India" Celebrity 100 list, ranking 70th with an estimated annual income of . He then collaborated with Kunaal Roy Kapur in Rohan Sippy's "Nautanki Saala!" (2013), a comedy based on the French film "Après Vous" (2005). Anupama Chopra found Khurrana to be "earnest" in it but felt that his comedic work was overshadowed by that of Roy Kapur. He also recorded two songs for the film's soundtrack. A year later, Khurrana teamed with Yash Raj Films, as part of a three-film deal, in the romantic comedy "Bewakoofiyaan" (2014), co-starring Sonam Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor, about a young man who has trouble convincing his girlfriend's father to approve of their marriage. Writing for "The New York Times", Andy Webster disliked the film's "strained, contrived humor" but commended Khurrana for "holding his own opposite [Rishi] Kapoor". Both "Nautanki Saala" and "Bewakoofiyaan" were commercially unsuccessful, as was his next release, "Hawaizaada" (2015). In it, he played the scientist Shivkar Bapuji Talpade, for which he lost weight and learnt to speak Marathi. In the same year, Khurrana collaborated with his wife, Tahira Kashyap, to write his autobiography "Cracking the Code: My Journey to Bollywood".


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: Khurrana's career prospects improved when he starred opposite newcomer Bhumi Pednekar in Sharat Katariya's romance "Dum Laga Ke Haisha" (2015). It tells the story of an underachieving man who is married against his will to an overweight woman, and marked his first film where he did not sing any of the songs. Anuj Kumar of "The Hindu" praised him for effectively capturing his character's "diction and body language". Despite minimal promotions, the film emerged as a commercial success, grossing over worldwide against its budget.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: Two years later, after starring in the poorly received "Meri Pyaari Bindu" opposite Parineeti Chopra, Khurrana's career progressed with his two other films releases of 2017, the romantic-comedy dramas "Bareilly Ki Barfi" and "Shubh Mangal Saavdhan", both of which were commercially successful. Adapted from 's French novel "The Ingredients of Love", the former starred him alongside Rajkummar Rao and Kriti Sanon as a writer who gets involved in a love triangle with a tomboyish girl and a timid salesman. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV wrote that Khurrana does a "convincing job of mutating from a brooding jilted lover to a crooked manipulator who puts his own interests above everyone else's". In the latter, he starred opposite Pednekar as a newly engaged man suffering from erectile dysfunction. A remake of the Tamil film "Kalyana Samayal Saadham" (2013), the film, Khurrana hoped, had a humorous take on mental and sexual problems faced by men which would bring wider attention to the topic. Rajeev Masand took note of how well the film handled sexuality without being crude and commended him for "investing the fellow with genuine likeability and an understated charm". Khurrana received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for the latter film.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: 2018 featured Khurrana in two of the highest-grossing Hindi films of the year, both of which won National Film Awards. His first role was in Sriram Raghavan's "Andhadhun", a thriller co-starring Tabu and Radhika Apte, in which he played a blind pianist who unwillingly becomes embroiled in a murder. He lobbied for the part after hearing about it from casting director Mukesh Chhabra, and in preparation, learnt how to play the piano and interacted with blind piano players. Udita Jhunjhunwala of "Mint" praised Khurrana for giving a "taut performance that balances vulnerability with craftiness" and Ankur Pathak of "HuffPost" found his to be "a layered, no-holds-barred performance worth applauding". "Andhadhun" earned worldwide, a majority of which came from the Chinese box office, to become Khurrana's highest-grossing release and one of Indian cinema's biggest grossers. He next starred in "Badhaai Ho", a comedy from director Amit Ravindernath Sharma about a young man whose middle-aged mother gets pregnant. Anna M. M. Vetticad of "Firstpost" considered his performance to be "completely convincing" and commended him for choosing "to work in small films where the star is the story". A surprise blockbuster, it earned over worldwide. For "Andhadhun", Khurrana won the National Film Award for Best Actor and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: The series of huge successful and blockbuster films continued with Khurrana's 2019 releases: "Article 15", "Dream Girl", and "Bala". The formermost was a crime thriller directed by Anubhav Sinha in which he played a righteous police officer solving a rape case. Highlighting caste discrimination in India, the film was inspired by multiple events including the 2014 Badaun gang rape allegations and the 2016 Una flogging incident. It was his first dark and intense character in his film career. Writing for "The Guardian", Wendy Ide commended him for "combin[ing] soulful Bollywood heartthrob charisma with an arrestingly intense performance." "Dream Girl" starred him as a cross-gender actor who speaks in a female voice while working at a call centre which unwittingly attracts male attention. Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in considered his "manic energy and believable Everyman persona" to be the film's highlight. The lattermost was a satire on societal standards of beauty from "Stree" director Amar Kaushik, in which he played a young man who faces societal pressure due to premature balding. He found it physically challenging to play the part due to the heavy layers of prosthetics used on his head. It marked his second film where he did not sing any of the songs. Rajeev Masand opined that Khurrana "cuts a sympathetic figure as another not-instantly-likeable loser" and added that he had "cornered the market when it comes to playing flawed, insecure men with confidence issues". He won another Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for "Article 15" and received a Best Actor nomination at the ceremony for "Bala". That year, he reappeared on "Forbes India" Celebrity 100 list, ranking 37th with an estimated annual income of .


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: For his next project, Khurrana actively looked for another mainstream film that would portray sexuality in a humorous manner. He found it in "Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan" (2020), in which he played a gay man who has trouble convincing his partner's family of their relationship. Shubhra Gupta of "The Indian Express" credited Khurrana for "allowing the film to be so much about" his lesser known co-star Jitendra Kumar. The film's box office was impacted by the shutdown of cinemas due to 2020 coronavirus pandemic. He was next seen in the comedy-drama "Gulabo Sitabo", directed by Sircar and co-starring Amitabh Bachchan. Due to the pandemic, the film premiered directly on Amazon Prime Video. Pallabi Dey Puryakastha of "The Times of India" noted that Khurrana's "body language tellingly portrays sadness and bitterness borne out of poverty".


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: In 2021, Khurrana played a bodybuilder who falls in love with a transgender in Abhishek Kapoor's romantic comedy "Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui". He then reunited with Sinha for the Northeast India-based "Anek" (2022). Khurrana next headlined Anubhuti Kashyap's medical drama, "Doctor G" (2022), with Rakul Preet Singh and Shefali Shah, and starred in Aanand L. Rai's production, "An Action Hero", directed by Anirudh Iyer. Despite positive reviews, none of these films performed well at the box office.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: Khurrana was born in Chandigarh. His father P. Khurrana is an astrologer and an author on the subject of astrology, whereas his mother Poonam is a housewife and she is of half-Burmese descent, and a qualified M.A. in Hindi.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: While Khurrana remains busy with his work in Mumbai, his family still stays in Chandigarh. His brother Aparshakti Khurana is a radio jockey at Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM in Delhi and made his debut in the 2016 Aamir Khan-starrer film "Dangal". The ambience of literature at home influenced Khurrana as well and he took writing as a hobby. He also maintains a blog where he writes in Hindi and it has been received very well by his admirers.


title: Ayushmann Khurrana

text: Khurrana is known for being very close to his family and wife, Tahira Kashyap, who has directed a critically acclaimed film "Toffee". They are childhood friends and parents to a son and a daughter. Both Ayushmann and Tahira are followers of Nichiren Buddhism, helping them get through Tahira's cancer diagnosis.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: Ready or Not is a 2019 American black comedy horror film directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and written by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy. It stars Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O'Brien, Henry Czerny, and Andie MacDowell. It follows Grace (Weaving), a newlywed who is hunted by her spouse's wealthy Satan-worshipping family as part of a wedding night ritual.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: Preparations began in November 2017 when Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, members of the Radio Silence filmmaking collective, were hired as directors. After setting an initial release date, casting occurred from August to October 2018. Principal photography began later that month and concluded in November, in locations in and around Toronto, Canada and the surrounding Ontario area.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: It premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 27, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 21, 2019, by Fox Searchlight Pictures. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances of the cast, Olpin and Gillett's direction, and screenplay. It grossed over $57.6 million worldwide on a $6 million budget.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: As a child, Daniel Le Domas is confronted in his family's mansion by a wounded man named Charles, who begs him for help. Instead, Daniel alerts his family, who arrive in ceremonial masks and robes. Despite his bride's pleas, Charles is shot with a speargun and dragged away into a locked room.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: 30 years later, Daniel's brother Alex, the estranged son of the owners of the successful Le Domas Family Games company, is set to marry Grace, a former foster child. On her wedding day, she meets the Le Domases: Daniel and his snobbish wife Charity; Alex's cocaine-addicted sister Emilie, her oafish husband Fitch, and their young sons Georgie and Gabe; Alex's unpleasant aunt Helene, and his parents Tony and Becky. After the ceremony, Tony explains that his ancestor Victor Le Domas made a deal with a man named "Le Bail" to build the Le Domas fortune in exchange for the family observing a tradition: At midnight on their wedding day every new member draws a game card from Le Bail's puzzle box. Grace draws "Hide-and-Seek", offers a toast to Le Bail, and as she hides the Le Domases arm themselves. Alex enters the mansion's secret passages and finds Grace, who witnesses Emilie accidentally kill a maid whom she mistakes for Grace.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: Alex reveals that his family is cursed: if the new member draws the Hide-and-Seek card, the rest of the family has to find and ritually sacrifice them before dawn or they die instead. The deadly game was last played by Helene's husband, Charles. With the mansion locked down, Alex disables the security system to allow Grace to escape. She is discovered by Daniel, who is disillusioned with his family and gives her a head start before alerting the others, leading Emilie to accidentally kill another maid. Grace's escape is blocked by the family butler, Stevens. She, in turn, splatters the hot tea he was preparing on his face and runs away. Alex is restrained by Daniel and Tony after he attacks the latter. Grace is seen by a third maid, but the maid accidentally crushes herself in a dumbwaiter when she yells for the family.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: Grace runs to the stables where Georgie shoots her in the hand. She knocks him out and then, startled by a goat, she falls into a pit filled with the corpses of the Le Domases' previous sacrifices. She escapes and squeezes through the front gate. Pursued by Stevens, she fights him off, takes his car, and tries to call the police using the car's onboard system. The operator informs her on the recorded call that the car has been reported stolen, remotely turns it off, and says the police have been sent. Stevens subdues Grace with a tranquilizer gun, but she awakens and attacks him, causing the car to crash and kill him. Daniel, nearby the crash, captures Grace after realizing that his father is secretly watching.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: The Le Domases drink from a ceremonial cup, but as they prepare the ritual, they begin to vomit blood. Daniel frees Grace, having laced the cup with a non-lethal dose of hydrochloric acid. Charity shoots Daniel in the neck, leaving him to bleed to death, and Grace disarms her and bludgeons Tony with a lantern. In the ongoing chaos, the mansion is set on fire, and Grace is attacked by Becky, whom she beats to death with Le Bail's box.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: Alex escapes his restraints and goes to rescue Grace, but she pulls away from him. Realizing that she will never trust him and will almost certainly leave him once she escapes, he subdues her to complete the ritual. Grace breaks free from the ritual table after being stabbed in the shoulder, just as the sun rises. The Le Domases brace for death, but nothing happens. Believing themselves safe, Helene attempts to attack Grace but suddenly explodes midstride, with the rest of the family exploding soon after. In his last moments, Alex desperately attempts to apologize to Grace, but she declares she wants a divorce and throws her wedding ring at him as he explodes. Le Bail briefly appears and gives Grace a slight head nod, and she walks out of the burning manor. As the police arrive and ask what happened, Grace replies, "In-laws."


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: In November 2017 it was announced that Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett would direct the film, from a screenplay by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy. "Ready or Not" was produced by Tripp Vinson, James Vanderbilt, William Sherak, and Bradley J. Fischer. Tara Farney, Tracey Nyberg and Chad Villella executive-produced, under their Mythology Entertainment and Vinson Films production banners, respectively.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: From August to October 2018, Samara Weaving, Andie MacDowell, Adam Brody, Mark O'Brien, Melanie Scrofano, Henry Czerny and Elyse Levesque were cast.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: Principal photography was from October 15, 2018 to November 19, 2018 at locations in the Toronto area, including Casa Loma, Sunnybrook Park, the Claireville Conservation Area, and the Parkwood Estate in Oshawa, Ontario.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: The film had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 27, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 21, 2019. "Ready or Not" was released on Digital HD on November 26, 2019, and on DVD and Blu-ray on December 3. The release includes a 42-minute making-of documentary, an audio commentary with star Samara Weaving, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and executive producer Chad Villella, as well as a photo gallery and a gag reel.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: "Ready or Not" grossed $28.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $28.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $57.6 million, against a production budget of $6 million.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross around $6.5 million in its opening weekend and $8–12 million over its five-day opening frame. Playing at 2,818 theaters, it was the widest release in Fox Searchlight's history. It made $1.9 million on its first day, Wednesday, including $730,000 from Tuesday night previews, and $1.1 million on its second. The film went on to debut to $8 million during its opening weekend (and $11 million over its first five days), finishing second on its first two days and sixth for the weekend. It fell just 26% in its second weekend to $5.9 million, finishing fifth.


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, and an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads: "Smart, subversive, and darkly funny, "Ready or Not" is a crowd-pleasing horror film with giddily entertaining bite." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on reviews from 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 71% (including an average 3.5 out of 5 stars) and a 50% "definite recommend."


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: Peter Debruge wrote in "Variety" that "This deliciously diabolical sophomore feature, which hails from the resourceful low-budget trio known as Radio Silence, represents a departure for indie distributor Fox Searchlight, which has a real winner on its hands — that rare "Get Out"-like horror movie capable of delivering superficial diversion alongside deep cultural critique." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" called the film "a decadent blast to watch a comic takedown of the rich done with the rude energy of a horror thriller and the courage of its own manic anti-marriage convictions."


title: Ready or Not (2019 film)

text: Writing for "IndieWire", David Ehrlich describes the film as "wickedly entertaining from start to finish, and painted with enough fresh personality to resolve into something more than the sum of its parts." Leah Greenblatt wrote in "Entertainment Weekly", "Come for the crossbows, etc., and to watch Weaving's star be born in real time; stay for the socio-economic lessons and sweet, sweet revenge." David Sims of "The Atlantic" wrote, "The real fun in "Ready or Not" comes from the ways it subverts its time-tested story, balancing wry commentary and straightforward horror in its portrait of fumbling arrogance and curdled privilege." Bobby LePire rated the film 10/10 and wrote in "Film Threat" that "The acting is incredible, the directing striking and intense, and the screenplay is unbelievably brilliant and funny. I adore every scary and funny second of this movie and highly recommend it to everyone else."


title: Vincent Cassel

text: He first achieved recognition for his performance as a troubled French Jewish youth in Mathieu Kassovitz's 1995 film "La Haine (Hate)", for which he received two César Award nominations. He garnered recognition with English-speaking audiences for his performances in "Ocean's Twelve" (2004) and "Ocean's Thirteen" (2007), as well as "Eastern Promises" (2007), "Black Swan" (2010), and "Jason Bourne" (2016). Cassel is renowned for playing the infamous French bank-robber Jacques Mesrine in "" and "" (both in 2008). In 2020, he portrayed Engerraund Serac in the HBO television series "Westworld".


title: Vincent Cassel

text: Cassel has earned critical acclaim and accolades, including a César Award in 2009 and a Canadian Screen Award in 2016.


title: Vincent Cassel

text: Cassel was born in Paris, France, to journalist Sabine Litique and actor Jean-Pierre Cassel (born Jean-Pierre Crochon). Cassel's brother, Mathias, is a rapper with the group Assassin under the name "Rockin' Squat". His half-sister, Cécile Cassel, is also an actor.


title: Vincent Cassel

text: One of Cassel's first on-screen appearances was a bit part in a 1994 Renault Clio advert which was used in the UK.


title: Vincent Cassel

text: Cassel's breakthrough role was in Mathieu Kassovitz's critically acclaimed film "La Haine" (1995), in which he portrayed a troubled youth living in the deprived outskirts of Paris. For his role in "La Haine", Cassel was nominated for two César Awards, for Best Actor and Most Promising Actor.


title: Vincent Cassel

text: Throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s, Cassel performed in a string of French films. In 1996, he starred opposite Monica Bellucci (before they married) in the moody French film "L'Appartement." The film was a critical success, winning a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language and the first British Independent Film Award for the Best Film in a Foreign Language. The film was also a modest hit in France gaining 55,565 admissions its opening weekend and 152,714 admissions total. Although the film was never released theatrically in the United States, it was released on DVD on 22 August 2006.


title: Vincent Cassel

text: In 1998, he portrayed Henry, Duc d'Anjou in "Elizabeth". In 1999, he portrayed Gilles de Rais in Luc Besson's "." Other notable roles during this period of his career include the violent film "Dobermann" (1997), the genre-bending "Brotherhood of the Wolf" (2001), and the highly controversial "Irréversible" (2002), where he appears fully nude (with Monica Bellucci, after they married).


title: Vincent Cassel

text: Since the early 2000s, Cassel has also appeared in a number of English-language films, such as "Shrek" (as the voice of Monsieur Hood) and "Birthday Girl" (both 2001) "Ocean's Twelve" and "Ocean's Thirteen" (2004, 2007), and "Derailed" (2005). He has also dubbed the voice of Diego "(Denis Leary)" in the "Ice Age" franchise and Rodney Copperbottom "(Ewan McGregor)" in "Robots".


title: Vincent Cassel

text: In 2007, Cassel attracted significant critical acclaim for his performance in David Cronenberg's thriller film "Eastern Promises", in which he starred opposite Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts. The film premiered on 8 September 2007 at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival where it won the Audience Prize for best film on 15 September 2007. "Film Journal International" critic Doris Toumarkine dubbed Cassel's performance "particularly delicious". J. Hoberman of "The Village Voice" wrote that "Cassel literally flings himself into [his role]".


title: Vincent Cassel

text: In October 2008, Cassel was signed to be the face of a new Yves Saint Laurent men's fragrance. The new fragrance, "La Nuit de l'Homme", was launched worldwide in 2009. Cassel appeared in a two-part film about Jacques Mesrine, who was France's "public enemy number one" in the seventies. He won the César Award for Best Actor for his performance as Mesrine. Also that year, he starred in the Portuguese-language, Brazilian film "Adrift (À Deriva)", and made his debut as a singer on Zap Mama's album "ReCreation", singing alongside them on the singles "Paroles, Paroles" and "Non, Non, Non".


title: Vincent Cassel

text: The following year, in 2010, Cassel played Thomas Leroy in Darren Aronofsky's critically acclaimed "Black Swan" (2010), alongside Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, which attracted considerable acclaim. For his performance in "Black Swan", he was nominated alongside his cast for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.


title: Vincent Cassel

text: In 2011, Cassel played the lead role in the French-Spanish thriller-drama film "The Monk", directed by Dominik Moll. "Screen Daily" praised his performance, writing that "Cassel exudes otherworldly gravitas and his singular looks are perfect for the role." That year, he also starred in the German-Canadian historical film "A Dangerous Method", directed by David Cronenberg; in the latter, he starred opposite Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, and Mortensen (marking their second film together). The film premiered at the 68th Venice Film Festival and was also featured at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.


title: Vincent Cassel

text: In 2014, he portrayed The Beast opposite Léa Seydoux as Belle in the French-language adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast". The film was screened out of competition at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. It was released in France on in February 2014 to positive reviews, becoming a box office success. In Japan, the film topped the box office on its release, making it the first non-English-language foreign film to top the Japanese box office since "Red Cliff II" in 2009, and the first French film to top the Japanese box office since Mathieu Kassovitz's "The Crimson Rivers" in 2001.


title: Vincent Cassel

text: In 2016, Cassel was featured in American action thriller film "Jason Bourne", directed by Paul Greengrass; the film is the fifth installment of the "Bourne" film series and a direct sequel to "The Bourne Ultimatum" (2007). Despite mixed reviews, the film was a box office success, grossing more than $400 million worldwide. That year, he also attracted critical acclaim for his performance as Antoine in Xavier Dolan's "It's Only the End of the World", which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. For his work in the film, Cassel won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor; he also received nominations for the César Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Globes de Cristal Award for Best Actor, and the Jury Prize for Best Actor at the Riviera International Film Festival.


title: Vincent Cassel

text: In 2019, Cassel played the lead role in The Specials directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano based on the true story of Stephane Benhamou who ran an organization helping people with Autism find employment and activities outside the confines of the institutionalized setting. It was screened out of competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and Cassel was nominated for the César Award for Best Actor.


title: Vincent Cassel

text: In 2020, he portrayed trillionaire Engerraund Serac, the main antagonist of the third season of the HBO series "Westworld".


title: Vincent Cassel

text: Cassel met Italian actress Monica Bellucci on the set of their 1996 film "The Apartment". They married on 2 August 1999 in Monaco. They have two daughters, Deva (born 12 September 2004) and Léonie (born 21 May 2010). Cassel and Bellucci announced their separation on 26 August 2013. Bellucci filed for divorce the same year. They later divorced. At the age of 15, Deva was Dolce & Gabbana's muse to embody their Dolce Shine perfume and later became their runway model.


title: Vincent Cassel

text: He married 21-year-old French model on 24 August 2018 in Bidart, France, after being in a relationship for more than two years. They have a daughter, Amazonie (born 19 April 2019).


title: Vincent Cassel

text: Besides his native French, Cassel speaks English, Portuguese, Italian, and basic conversational Russian, which he learned for his role in "Eastern Promises". Cassel lived in Rio de Janeiro for five years, before moving back to Paris in 2018, and he used to have Brazilian citizenship. Cassel is known for having a great identification with Brazil, being a practitioner of the martial art of capoeira; he displayed this talent in the movie "Ocean's Twelve".


title: Vincent Cassel

text: Cassel went to different schools, including a Catholic school, eventually becoming irreligious. He opened up about his religious views in an interview, saying: "I’m totally secular myself, and I have a tremendous respect for life. Which means that I essentially believe in God in a certain sense, but I'm not a Catholic or Jewish or Muslim. I'm without a religion."


title: Turtle

text: Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked turtles), which differ in the way the head retracts. There are 360 living and recently extinct species of turtles, including land-dwelling tortoises and freshwater terrapins. They are found on most continents, some islands and, in the case of sea turtles, much of the ocean. Like other reptiles, birds, and mammals, they breathe air and do not lay eggs underwater, although many species live in or around water.


title: Turtle

text: Turtle shells are made mostly of bone; the upper part is the domed carapace, while the underside is the flatter plastron or belly-plate. Its outer surface is covered in scales made of keratin, the material of hair, horns, and claws. The carapace bones develop from ribs that grow sideways and develop into broad flat plates that join up to cover the body. Turtles are ectotherms or "cold-blooded", meaning that their internal temperature varies with their direct environment. They are generally opportunistic omnivores and mainly feed on plants and animals with limited movements. Many turtles migrate short distances seasonally. Sea turtles are the only reptiles that migrate long distances to lay their eggs on a favored beach.


title: Turtle

text: Turtles have appeared in myths and folktales around the world. Some terrestrial and freshwater species are widely kept as pets. Turtles have been hunted for their meat, for use in traditional medicine, and for their shells. Sea turtles are often killed accidentally as bycatch in fishing nets. Turtle habitats around the world are being destroyed. As a result of these pressures, many species are extinct or threatened with extinction.


title: Turtle

text: The word "turtle" is derived from the French or ('turtle, tortoise'). It is a common name and may be used without knowledge of taxonomic distinctions. In North America, it may denote the order as a whole. In Britain, the name is used for sea turtles as opposed to freshwater terrapins and land-dwelling tortoises. In Australia, which lacks true tortoises (family Testudinidae), non-marine turtles were traditionally called tortoises, but more recently turtle has been used for the entire group.


title: Turtle

text: The name of the order, "Testudines" ( ), is based on the Latin word for tortoise, ; and was coined by German naturalist August Batsch in 1788. The order has also been historically known as "Chelonii" (Latreille 1800) and "Chelonia" (Ross and Macartney 1802), which are based on the Ancient Greek word for tortoise: (). Testudines is the official order name due to the principle of priority. The term chelonian is used as a formal name for members of the group.


title: Turtle

text: The largest living species of turtle (and fourth-largest reptile) is the leatherback turtle, which can reach over in length and weigh over . The largest known turtle was "Archelon ischyros", a Late Cretaceous sea turtle up to long, wide between the tips of the front flippers, and estimated to have weighed over . The smallest living turtle is "Chersobius signatus" of South Africa, measuring no more than in length and weighing .


title: Turtle

text: The shell of a turtle is unique among vertebrates and serves to protect the animal and provide shelter from the elements. It is primarily made of 50–60 bones and consists of two parts: the domed, dorsal (back) carapace and the flatter, ventral (belly) plastron. They are connected by lateral (side) extensions of the plastron.


title: Turtle

text: The carapace is fused with the vertebrae and ribs while the plastron is formed from bones of the shoulder girdle, sternum, and gastralia (abdominal ribs). During development, the ribs grow sideways into a carapacial ridge, unique to turtles, entering the dermis (inner skin) of the back to support the carapace. The development is signaled locally by proteins known as fibroblast growth factors that include FGF10. The shoulder girdle in turtles is made up of two bones, the scapula and the coracoid. Both the shoulder and pelvic girdles of turtles are located within the shell and hence are effectively within the rib cage. The trunk ribs grow over the shoulder girdle during development.


title: Turtle

text: The shell is covered in epidermal (outer skin) scales known as scutes that are made of keratin, the same substance that makes up hair and fingernails. Typically, a turtle has 38 scutes on the carapace and 16 on the plastron, giving them 54 in total. Carapace scutes are divided into "marginals" around the margin and "vertebrals" over the vertebral column, though the scute that overlays the neck is called the "cervical". "Pleurals" are present between the marginals and vertebrals. Plastron scutes include gulars (throat), humerals, pectorals, abdominals, and anals. Side-necked turtles additionally have "intergular" scutes between the gulars. Turtle scutes are usually structured like mosaic tiles, but some species, like the hawksbill sea turtle, have overlapping scutes on the carapace.


title: Turtle

text: The shapes of turtle shells vary with the adaptations of the individual species, and sometimes with sex. Land-dwelling turtles are more dome-shaped, which appears to make them more resistant to being crushed by large animals. Aquatic turtles have flatter, smoother shells that allow them to cut through the water. Sea turtles in particular have streamlined shells that reduce drag and increase stability in the open ocean. Some turtle species have pointy or spiked shells that provide extra protection from predators and camouflage against the leafy ground. The lumps of a tortoise shell can tilt its body when it gets flipped over, allowing it to flip back. In male tortoises, the tip of the plastron is thickened and used for butting and ramming during combat.


title: Turtle

text: Shells vary in flexibility. Some species, such as box turtles, lack the lateral extensions and instead have the carapace bones fully fused or ankylosed together. Several species have hinges on their shells, usually on the plastron, which allow them to expand and contract. Softshell turtles have rubbery edges, due to the loss of bones. The leatherback turtle has hardly any bones in its shell, but has thick connective tissue and an outer layer of leathery skin.


title: Turtle

text: The turtle's skull is unique among living amniotes (which includes reptiles, birds and mammals), it is solid and rigid with no openings for muscle attachment (temporal fenestrae). Muscles instead attach to recesses in the back of the skull. Turtle skulls vary in shape, from the long and narrow skulls of softshells to the broad and flattened skull of the mata mata. Some turtle species have developed large and thick heads, allowing for greater muscle mass and stronger bites.


title: Turtle

text: Turtles that are carnivorous or durophagous (eating hard-shelled animals) have the most powerful bites. For example, the durophagous "Mesoclemmys nasuta" has a bite force of . Species that are insectivorous, piscivorous (fish-eating), or omnivorous have lower bite forces. Living turtles lack teeth but have beaks made of keratin sheaths along the edges of the jaws. These sheaths may have sharp edges for cutting meat, serrations for clipping plants, or broad plates for breaking mollusks.


title: Turtle

text: The necks of turtles are highly flexible, possibly to compensate for their rigid shells. Some species, like sea turtles, have short necks while others, such as snake-necked turtles, have long ones. Despite this, all turtle species have eight neck vertebrae, a consistency not found in other reptiles but similar to mammals. Some snake-necked turtles have both long necks and large heads, limiting their ability to lift them when not in water. Some turtles have folded structures in the larynx or glottis that vibrate to produce sound. Other species have elastin-rich vocal cords.


title: Turtle

text: Due to their heavy shells, turtles are slow-moving on land. A desert tortoise moves at only . By contrast, sea turtles can swim at . The limbs of turtles are adapted for various means of locomotion and habits and most have five toes. Tortoises are specialized for terrestrial environments and have column-like legs with elephant-like feet and short toes. The gopher tortoise has flattened front limbs for digging in the substrate. Freshwater turtles have more flexible legs and longer toes with webbing, giving them thrust in the water. Some of these species, such as snapping turtles and mud turtles, mainly walk along the water bottom, as they would on land. Others, such as terrapins, swim by paddling with all four limbs, switching between the opposing front and hind limbs, which keeps their direction stable.


title: Turtle

text: Sea turtles and the pig-nosed turtle are the most specialized for swimming. Their front limbs have evolved into flippers while the shorter hind limbs are shaped more like rudders. The front limbs provide most of the thrust for swimming, while the hind limbs serve as stabilizers. Sea turtles such as the green sea turtle rotate the front limb flippers like a bird's wings to generate a propulsive force on both the upstroke and on the downstroke. This is in contrast to similar-sized freshwater turtles (measurements having been made on young animals in each case) such as the Caspian turtle, which uses the front limbs like the oars of a rowing boat, creating substantial negative thrust on the recovery stroke in each cycle. In addition, the streamlining of the marine turtles reduces drag. As a result, marine turtles produce a propulsive force twice as large, and swim six times as fast, as freshwater turtles. The swimming efficiency of young marine turtles is similar to that of fast-swimming fish of open water, like mackerel.


title: Turtle

text: Compared to other reptiles, turtles tend to have reduced tails, but these vary in both length and thickness among species and between sexes. Snapping turtles and the big-headed turtle have longer tails; the latter uses it for balance while climbing. The cloaca is found underneath and at the base, and the tail itself houses the reproductive organs. Hence, males have longer tails to contain the penis. In sea turtles, the tail is longer and more prehensile in males, who use it to grasp mates. Several turtle species have spines on their tails.


title: Turtle

text: Turtles make use of vision to find food and mates, avoid predators, and orient themselves. The retina's light-sensitive cells include both rods for vision in low light, and cones with three different photopigments for bright light, where they have full-color vision. There is possibly a fourth type of cone that detects ultraviolet, as hatchling sea turtles respond experimentally to ultraviolet light, but it is unknown if they can distinguish this from longer wavelengths. A freshwater turtle, the red-eared slider, has an exceptional seven types of cone cell.


title: Turtle

text: Sea turtles orient themselves on land by night, using visual features detected in dim light. They can use their eyes in clear surface water, muddy coasts, the darkness of the deep ocean, and also above water. Unlike in terrestrial turtles, the cornea, the curved surface that lets light into the eye, does not help to focus light on the retina, so focusing underwater is handled entirely by the lens, behind the cornea. The cone cells contain oil droplets placed to shift perception toward the red part of the spectrum, improving color discrimination. Visual acuity, studied in hatchlings, is highest in a horizontal band with retinal cells packed about twice as densely as elsewhere. This gives the best vision along the visual horizon. Sea turtles do not appear to use polarized light for orientation as many other animals do. The deep-diving leatherback turtle lacks specific adaptations to low light, such as large eyes, large lenses, or a reflective tapetum. It may rely on seeing the bioluminescence of prey when hunting in deep water.


title: Turtle

text: Turtles have no ear openings; the eardrum is covered with scales and encircled by a bony otic capsule, which is absent in other reptiles. Their hearing thresholds are high in comparison to other reptiles, reaching up to 500 Hz in air, but underwater they are more attuned to lower frequencies. The loggerhead sea turtle has been shown experimentally to respond to low sounds, with maximal sensitivity between 100 and 400 Hz.


title: Turtle

text: Turtles have olfactory (smell) and vomeronasal receptors along the nasal cavity, the latter of which are used to detect chemical signals. Experiments on green sea turtles showed they could learn to respond to a selection of different odorant chemicals such as triethylamine and cinnamaldehyde, which were detected by olfaction in the nose. Such signals could be used in navigation.


title: Turtle

text: The rigid shell of turtles is not capable of expanding and making room for the lungs, as in other amniotes, so they have had to evolve special adaptations for respiration. The lungs of turtles are attached directly to the carapace above while below, connective tissue attaches them to the organs. They have multiple lateral (side) and medial (middle) chambers (the numbers of which vary between species) and one terminal (end) chamber.


title: Turtle

text: The lungs are ventilated using specific groups of abdominal muscles attached to the organs that pull and push on them. Specifically, it is the turtle's large liver that compresses the lungs. Underneath the lungs, in the coelomic cavity, the liver is connected to the right lung by the root, and the stomach is directly attached to the left lung, and to the liver by a mesentery. When the liver is pulled down, inhalation begins. Supporting the lungs is a wall or septum, which is thought to prevent them from collapsing. During exhalation, the contraction of the transversus abdominis muscle propels the organs into the lungs and expels air. Conversely, during inhalation, the relaxing and flattening of the oblique abdominis muscle pulls the transversus back down, allowing air back into the lungs.


title: Turtle

text: Although many turtles spend large amounts of their lives underwater, all turtles breathe air and must surface at regular intervals to refill their lungs. Depending on the species, immersion periods vary between a minute and an hour. Some species can respire through the cloaca, which contains large sacs that are lined with many finger-like projections that take up dissolved oxygen from the water.


title: Turtle

text: Turtles share the linked circulatory and pulmonary (lung) systems of vertebrates, where the three-chambered heart pumps deoxygenated blood through the lungs and then pumps the returned oxygenated blood through the body's tissues. The cardiopulmonary system has both structural and physiological adaptations that distinguish it from other vertebrates. Turtles have a large lung volume and can move blood through non-pulmonary blood vessels, including some within the heart, to avoid the lungs while they are not breathing. They can hold their breath for much longer periods than other reptiles and they can tolerate the resulting low oxygen levels. They can moderate the increase in acidity during anaerobic (non-oxygen-based) respiration by chemical buffering and they can lie dormant for months, in aestivation or brumation.


title: Turtle

text: The heart has two atria but only one ventricle. The ventricle is subdivided into three chambers. A muscular ridge enables a complex pattern of blood flow so that the blood can be directed either to the lungs via the pulmonary artery, or to the body via the aorta. The ability to separate the two outflows varies between species. The leatherback has a powerful muscular ridge enabling almost complete separation of the outflows, supporting its actively swimming lifestyle. The ridge is less well developed in freshwater turtles like the sliders ("Trachemys").


title: Turtle

text: Turtles are capable of enduring periods of anaerobic respiration longer than many other vertebrates. This process breaks down sugars incompletely to lactic acid, rather than all the way to carbon dioxide and water as in aerobic (oxygen-based) respiration. They make use of the shell as a source of additional buffering agents for combating increased acidity, and as a sink for lactic acid.


title: Turtle

text: In sea turtles, the bladder is one unit and in most freshwater turtles, it is double-lobed. Sea turtle bladders are connected to two small accessory bladders, located at the sides to the neck of the urinary bladder and above the pubis. Arid-living tortoises have bladders that serve as reserves of water, storing up to 20% of their body weight in fluids. The fluids are normally low in solutes, but higher during droughts when the reptile gains potassium salts from its plant diet. The bladder stores these salts until the tortoise finds fresh drinking water. To regulate the amount of salt in their bodies, sea turtles and diamondback terrapins secrete excess salt in a thick sticky substance from their tear glands. Because of this, sea turtles may appear to be "crying" when on land.


title: Turtle

text: Turtles, like other reptiles, have a limited ability to regulate their body temperature. This ability varies between species, and with body size. Small pond turtles regulate their temperature by crawling out of the water and basking in the sun, while small terrestrial turtles move between sunny and shady places to adjust their temperature. Large species, both terrestrial and marine, have sufficient mass to give them substantial thermal inertia, meaning that they heat up or cool down over many hours. The Aldabra giant tortoise weighs up to some and is able to allow its temperature to rise to some on a hot day, and to fall naturally to around by night. Some giant tortoises seek out shade to avoid overheating on sunny days. On Grand Terre Island, food is scarce inland, shade is scarce near the coast, and the tortoises compete for space under the few trees on hot days. Large males may push smaller females out of the shade, and some then overheat and die.


title: Turtle

text: Adult sea turtles, too, have large enough bodies that they can to some extent control their temperature. The largest turtle, the leatherback, can swim in the waters off Nova Scotia, which may be as cold as , while their body temperature has been measured at up to warmer than the surrounding water. To help keep their temperature up, they have a system of countercurrent heat exchange in the blood vessels between their body core and the skin of their flippers. The vessels supplying the head are insulated by fat around the neck.


title: Turtle

text: Most turtle species are opportunistic omnivores; land-dwelling species are more herbivorous and aquatic ones more carnivorous. Generally lacking speed and agility, most turtles feed either on plant material or on animals with limited movements like mollusks, worms, and insect larvae. Some species, such as the African helmeted turtle and snapping turtles, eat fish, amphibians, reptiles (including other turtles), birds, and mammals. They may take them by ambush but also scavenge. The alligator snapping turtle has a worm-like appendage on its tongue that it uses to lure fish into its mouth. Tortoises are the most herbivorous group, consuming grasses, leaves, and fruits. Many turtle species, including tortoises, supplement their diet with eggshells, animal bones, hair, and droppings for extra nutrients.


title: Turtle

text: Turtles generally eat their food in a straightforward way, though some species have special feeding techniques. The yellow-spotted river turtle and the painted turtle may filter feed by skimming the water surface with their mouth and throat open to collect particles of food. When the mouth closes, the throat constricts and water is pushed out through the nostrils and the gap in between the jaws. Some species employ a "gape-and-suck method" where the turtle opens its jaws and expands its throat widely, sucking the prey in.


title: Turtle

text: The diet of an individual within a species may change with age, sex, and season, and may also differ between populations. In many species, juveniles are generally carnivorous but become more herbivorous as adults. With Barbour's map turtle, the larger female mainly eats mollusks while the male usually eats arthropods. Blanding's turtle may feed mainly on snails or crayfish depending on the population. The European pond turtle has been recorded as being mostly carnivorous much of the year but switching to water lilies during the summer. Some species have developed specialized diets such as the hawksbill, which eats sponges, the leatherback, which feeds on jellyfish, and the Mekong snail-eating turtle.


title: Turtle

text: While popularly thought of as mute, turtles make various sounds to communicate. Tortoises may bellow when courting and mating. Various species of both freshwater and sea turtles emit short, low-frequency calls from the time they are in the egg to when they are adults. These vocalizations may serve to create group cohesion when migrating. The oblong turtle has a particularly large vocal range; producing sounds described as clacks, clicks, squawks, hoots, various kinds of chirps, wails, "", grunts, growls, blow bursts, howls, and drum rolls.


title: Turtle

text: Play behavior has been documented in some turtle species. In the laboratory, Florida red-bellied cooters can learn novel tasks and have demonstrated a long-term memory of at least 7.5 months. Similarly, giant tortoises can learn and remember tasks, and master lessons much faster when trained in groups. Tortoises appear to be able to retain operant conditioning nine years after their initial training. Studies have shown that turtles can navigate the environment using landmarks and a map-like system resulting in accurate direct routes towards a goal. Navigation in turtles have been correlated to high cognition function in the medial cortex region of the brain.


title: Turtle

text: When sensing danger, a turtle may flee, freeze or withdraw into its shell. Freshwater turtles flee into the water, though the Sonora mud turtle may take refuge on land as the shallow temporary ponds they inhabit make them vulnerable. When startled, a softshell turtle may dive underwater and bury itself under the sea floor. If a predator persists, the turtle may bite or discharge from its cloaca. Several species produce foul-smelling chemicals from musk glands. Other tactics include threat displays and Bell's hinge-back tortoise can play dead. When attacked, big-headed turtle hatchlings squeal, possibly startling the predator.


title: Turtle

text: Turtles are the only reptiles that migrate long distances, more specifically the marine species that can travel up to thousands of kilometers. Some non-marine turtles, such as the species of "Geochelone" (terrestrial), "Chelydra" (freshwater), and "Malaclemys" (estuarine), migrate seasonally over much shorter distances, up to around , to lay eggs. Such short migrations are comparable to those of some lizards, snakes, and crocodilians. Sea turtles nest in a specific area, such as a beach, leaving the eggs to hatch unattended. The young turtles leave that area, migrating long distances in the years or decades in which they grow to maturity, and then return seemingly to the same area every few years to mate and lay eggs, though the precision varies between species and populations. This "natal homing" has appeared remarkable to biologists, though there is now plentiful evidence for it, including from genetics.