title: Sun Yat-sen

text: Because of these failures, Sun's leadership was challenged by elements from within the Tongmenghui who wished to remove him as leader. In Tokyo, members from the recently merged Restoration society raised doubts about Sun's credentials. Tao Chengzhang () and Zhang Binglin publicly denounced Sun with an open leaflet called "A declaration of Sun Yat-sen's criminal acts by the revolutionaries in Southeast Asia". This was printed and distributed in reformist newspapers like Nanyang Zonghui Bao. Their goal was to target Sun as a leader leading a revolt for profiteering gains.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: The revolutionaries were polarized and split between pro-Sun and anti-Sun camps. Sun publicly fought off comments about how he had something to gain financially from the revolution. However, by 19 July 1910, the Tongmenghui headquarters had to relocate from Singapore to Penang to reduce the anti-Sun activities. It is also in Penang that Sun and his supporters would launch the first Chinese "daily" newspaper, the Kwong Wah Yit Poh in December 1910.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: To sponsor more uprisings, Sun made a personal plea for financial aid at the Penang conference held on 13 November 1910 in Malaya. The high-powered Preparatory Meeting of Sun's supporters was subsequently held in Ipoh, Singapore - at the villa of Teh Lay Seng, chairman of Tungmenghui - to raise funds for the Huanghuagang Uprising, a.k.a. the Yellow Flower Mound Uprising. The Ipoh leaders were Teh Lay Seng, Wong I Ek, Lee Guan Swee and Lee Hau Cheong. The leaders launched a major drive for donations across the Malay Peninsula. They raised HK$187,000.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: On 27 April 1911, revolutionary Huang Xing led a "Second Guangzhou Uprising" known as the Yellow Flower Mound revolt against the Qing. The revolt failed and ended in disaster; the bodies of only 72 revolutionaries were identified (86 were found). The revolutionaries are remembered as martyrs.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: On 10 October 1911, a military uprising at Wuchang took place, led again by Huang Xing. The uprising expanded to the Xinhai Revolution, also known as the "Chinese Revolution" to overthrow the last Emperor Puyi. Sun had no direct involvement in it as he was in Denver, Colorado at that time, having spent much of the year in the US in search of support from ethnic Chinese there. So it was Huang who was in charge of the revolution that ended over 2000 years of imperial rule in China. On 12 October 1911 when Sun learned of the successful rebellion against the Qing emperor from press reports, he returned to China from the United States, accompanied by his closest foreign advisor, the American "General" Homer Lea, he had met in London, where they unsuccessfully tried to arrange British financing for the future Chinese republic. Sun and Lea sailed for China, arriving there on 21 December 1911.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: On 29 December 1911 a meeting of representatives from provinces in Nanking (Nanjing) elected Sun Yat-sen as the "provisional president" (). 1 January 1912 was set as the first day of the First Year of the Republic. Li Yuanhong was made provisional vice-president and Huang Xing became the minister of the army. The new Provisional Government of the Republic of China was created along with the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China. Sun is credited for the funding of the revolutions and for keeping the spirit of revolution alive, even after a series of failed uprisings. His successful merger of minor revolutionary groups to a single larger party provided a better base for all those who shared the same ideals. A number of things were introduced such as the republic calendar system and new fashion like Zhongshan suits.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: Yuan Shikai, who controlled the Beiyang Army, the military of northern China, was promised the position of president of the Republic of China if he could get the Qing court to abdicate. On 12 February 1912 Emperor Puyi did abdicate the throne. Sun stepped down as president, and Yuan became the new provisional president in Beijing on 10 March 1912. The provisional government did not have any military forces of its own. Its control over elements of the New Army that had mutinied was limited and there were still significant forces which still had not declared against the Qing.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: Sun Yat-sen sent telegrams to the leaders of all provinces requesting them to elect and to establish the National Assembly of the Republic of China in 1912. In May 1912 the legislative assembly moved from Nanjing to Beijing with its 120 members divided between members of Tongmenghui and a Republican party that supported Yuan Shikai. Many revolutionary members were already alarmed by Yuan's ambitions and the northern based Beiyang government.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: Tongmenghui member Song Jiaoren quickly tried to control the parliament. He mobilized the old Tongmenghui at the core with the mergers of a number of new small parties to form a new political party called the Kuomintang (Chinese nationalist party, commonly abbreviated as "KMT") on 25 August 1912 at Huguang Guild Hall Beijing. The 1912–1913 National assembly election was considered a huge success for the KMT winning 269 of the 596 seats in the lower house and 123 of the 274 senate seats. In retaliation the national party leader Song Jiaoren was assassinated, almost certainly by a secret order of Yuan, on 20 March 1913. The Second Revolution took place where Sun and KMT military forces tried to overthrow Yuan's forces of about 80,000 men in an armed conflict in July 1913. The revolt against Yuan was unsuccessful. In August 1913, Sun Yat-sen fled to Japan, where he later enlisted financial aid via politician and industrialist Fusanosuke Kuhara.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In 1915 Yuan Shikai proclaimed the Empire of China with himself as Emperor of China. Sun took part in the Anti-Monarchy war of the Constitutional Protection Movement, while also supporting bandit leaders like Bai Lang during the Bai Lang Rebellion. This marked the beginning of the Warlord Era. In 1915 Sun wrote to the Second International, a socialist-based organization in Paris, asking it to send a team of specialists to help China set up the world's first socialist republic and in the same year received Indian communist M.N. Roy as a guest. At the time there were many theories and proposals of what China could be. In the political mess, both Sun Yat-sen and Xu Shichang were announced as president of the Republic of China.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: China had become divided among regional military leaders. Sun saw the danger of this and returned to China in 1916 to advocate Chinese reunification. In 1921 he started a self-proclaimed military government in Guangzhou and was elected Grand Marshal. Between 1912 and 1927 three governments were set up in South China: the Provisional government in Nanjing (1912), the Military government in Guangzhou (1921–1925), and the National government in Guangzhou and later Wuhan (1925–1927). These governments in the South were established to rival the Beiyang government in the North. Yuan Shikai had banned the KMT. The short lived Chinese Revolutionary Party was a temporary replacement for the KMT. On 10 October 1919 Sun resurrected the KMT with the new name Chung-kuo Kuomintang, or "Nationalist Party of China".


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: By this time Sun had become convinced that the only hope for a unified China lay in a military conquest from his base in the south, followed by a period of political tutelage that would culminate in the transition to democracy. In order to hasten the conquest of China, he began a policy of active cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Sun and the Soviet Union's Adolph Joffe signed the Sun-Joffe Manifesto in January 1923. Sun received help from the Comintern for his acceptance of communist members into his KMT. Revolutionary and socialist leader Vladimir Lenin praised Sun and the KMT for their ideology and principles. Lenin praised Sun and his attempts at social reformation, and also congratulated him for fighting foreign imperialism. Sun also returned the praise, calling Lenin a "great man", and indicated he wished to follow the same path that Lenin had. In 1923, after having been in contact with Lenin and other Moscow communists, Sun sent representatives to study the Red Army and in turn the Soviets sent representatives to help reorganize the KMT at Sun's request.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: With the Soviets' help, Sun was able to develop the military power needed for the Northern Expedition against the military at the north. He established the Whampoa Military Academy near Guangzhou with Chiang Kai-shek as the commandant of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA). Other Whampoa leaders include Wang Jingwei and Hu Hanmin as political instructors. This full collaboration was called the First United Front.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In 1924 Sun appointed his brother-in-law T. V. Soong to set up the first Chinese Central bank called the Canton Central Bank. To establish national capitalism and a banking system was a major objective for the KMT. However Sun was not without some opposition as there was the Canton volunteers corps uprising against him.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In February 1923 Sun made a presentation to the Students' Union in Hong Kong University and declared that it was the corruption of China and the peace, order and good government of Hong Kong that turned him into a revolutionary. This same year, he delivered a speech in which he proclaimed his Three Principles of the People as the foundation of the country and the Five-Yuan Constitution as the guideline for the political system and bureaucracy. Part of the speech was made into the National Anthem of the Republic of China.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: On 10 November 1924, Sun traveled north to Tianjin and delivered a speech to suggest a gathering for a "national conference" for the Chinese people. It called for the end of warlord rules and the abolition of all unequal treaties with the Western powers. Two days later, he traveled to Beijing to discuss the future of the country, despite his deteriorating health and the ongoing civil war of the warlords. Among the people he met was the Muslim warlord General Ma Fuxiang, who informed Sun that he would welcome his leadership. On 28 November 1924 Sun traveled to Japan and gave a at Kobe, Japan.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: For many years, it was popularly believed that Sun died of liver cancer. On 26 January 1925, Sun underwent an exploratory laparotomy at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) to investigate a long-term illness. This was performed by the head of the Department of Surgery, Adrian S. Taylor, who stated that the procedure "revealed extensive involvement of the liver by carcinoma" and that Sun only had about ten days to live. Sun was hospitalized and his condition was treated with radium. Sun survived the initial ten-day period and on 18 February, against the advice of doctors, he was transferred to the KMT headquarters and treated with traditional Chinese medicine. This too was unsuccessful and he died on 12 March at the age of 58. Contemporary reports in "The New York Times", "Time", and the Chinese newspaper "Qun Qiang Bao" all reported the cause of death as liver cancer, based on Taylor's observation.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: Following this the body then was preserved in mineral oil and taken to the Temple of Azure Clouds, a Buddhist shrine in the Western Hills a few miles outside of Beijing. He also left a () penned by Wang Jingwei, which had a widespread influence in the subsequent development of the Republic of China and Taiwan.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In 1926, construction began on a majestic mausoleum at the foot of Purple Mountain in Nanjing, and this was completed in the spring of 1929. On 1 June 1929, Sun's remains were moved from Beijing and interred in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: By pure chance, in May 2016, an American pathologist named Rolf F. Barth was visiting the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Guangzhou when he noticed a faded copy of the original autopsy report on display. The autopsy was performed immediately after Sun's death by James Cash, a pathologist at PUMCH. Based on a tissue sample, Cash concluded that the cause of death was an adenocarcinoma in the gallbladder that had metastasized to the liver. In modern China, liver cancer is far more common than gallbladder cancer and although the incidence rates of either in 1925 are not known, if one assumes that they were similar at that time, then the original diagnosis by Taylor was a logical conclusion. From the time of Sun's death until the appearance of Barth's report in the "Chinese Journal of Cancer" in September 2016, the true cause of death of Sun Yat-sen was not reported in any English-language publication. Even in Chinese-language sources, it only appeared in one non-medical online report in 2013.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: After Sun's death, a power struggle between his young protégé Chiang Kai-shek and his old revolutionary comrade Wang Jingwei split the KMT. At stake in this struggle was the right to lay claim to Sun's ambiguous legacy. In 1927 Chiang Kai-shek married Soong Mei-ling, a sister of Sun's widow Soong Ching-ling, and subsequently he could claim to be a brother-in-law of Sun. When the Communists and the Kuomintang split in 1927, marking the start of the Chinese Civil War, each group claimed to be his true heirs, a conflict that continued through World War II. Sun's widow, Soong Ching-ling, sided with the Communists during the Chinese Civil War and served from 1949 to 1981 as vice-president (or vice-chairwoman) of the People's Republic of China and as honorary president shortly before her death in 1981.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: A personality cult in the Republic of China was centered on Sun and his successor, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Chinese Muslim Generals and Imams participated in this cult of personality and one party state, with Muslim General Ma Bufang making people bow to Sun's portrait and listen to the national anthem during a Tibetan and Mongol religious ceremony for the Qinghai Lake God. Quotes from the Quran and Hadith were used among Hui Muslims to justify Chiang Kai-shek's rule over China.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: The Kuomintang's constitution designated Sun as party president. After his death, the Kuomintang opted to keep that language in its constitution to honor his memory forever. The party has since been headed by a director-general (1927–1975) and a chairman (since 1975), which discharge the functions of the president.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: Sun Yat-sen remains unique among 20th-century Chinese leaders for having a high reputation both in mainland China and in Taiwan. In Taiwan, he is seen as the Father of the Republic of China, and is known by the posthumous name "Father of the Nation, Mr. Sun Zhongshan" (, where the one-character space is a traditional homage symbol). His likeness is still almost always found in ceremonial locations such as in front of legislatures and classrooms of public schools, from elementary to senior high school, and he continues to appear in new coinage and currency.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: On the mainland, Sun is seen as a Chinese nationalist, proto-socialist, first president of a Republican China and is highly regarded as the Forerunner of the Revolution (). He is even mentioned by name in the to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. In recent years, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party has increasingly invoked Sun, partly as a way of bolstering Chinese nationalism in light of Chinese economic reform and partly to increase connections with supporters of the Kuomintang on Taiwan which the PRC sees as allies against Taiwan independence. Sun's tomb was one of the first stops made by the leaders of both the Kuomintang and the People First Party on their pan-blue visit to mainland China in 2005. A massive portrait of Sun continues to appear in Tiananmen Square for May Day and National Day.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In 1956 Mao Zedong said "Let us pay tribute to our great revolutionary forerunner, Dr. Sun Yat-sen!...he bequeathed to us much that is useful in the sphere of political thought."


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: Sun Yat-sen spent years in Hawaii as a student in the late 1870s and early 1880s, and was highly impressed with the economic development he saw there. He used the independent Kingdom of Hawaii as a model to develop his vision of a technologically modern and politically independent and actively anti-imperialist China. Sun Yat-sen was an important pioneer of international development, proposing in the 1920s international institutions of the sort that appeared after World War II. He focused on China, with its vast potential and weak base of mostly local entrepreneurs.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: He also proposed "If we use existing foreign capital to build up a future communist society in China, half the work will bring double the results." and "It is my idea to make capitalism create socialism in China".


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: Sun Yat-sen was born to Sun Dacheng () and his wife, Lady Yang () on 12 November 1866. At the time his father was age 53, while his mother was 38 years old. He had an older brother, Sun Dezhang (), and an older sister, Sun Jinxing (), who died at the early age of 4. Another older brother, Sun Deyou (), died at the age of 6. He also had an older sister, Sun Miaoqian (), and a younger sister, Sun Qiuqi ().


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: At age 20, Sun had an arranged marriage with fellow villager Lu Muzhen. She bore a son, Sun Fo, and two daughters, Sun Jinyuan () and Sun Jinwan (). Sun Fo was the grandfather of Leland Sun, who spent 37 years working in Hollywood as an actor and stuntman. Sun Yat-sen was also the godfather of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, American author and poet who wrote under the name Cordwainer Smith.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: Sun's first concubine, the Hong Kong-born Chen Cuifen, lived in Taiping, Perak (now in Malaysia) for 17 years. The couple adopted a local girl as their daughter. Cuifen subsequently relocated to China, where she died.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: During Sun's exile in Japan, he had relationships with two Japanese women: 15-year-old Haru Asada, whom he took as a concubine up to her death in 1902; and another 15-year-old school-girl Kaoru Otsuki, whom Sun married in 1905 and abandoned the next year while she was pregnant. Otsuki later had their daughter Fumiko adopted by the Miyagawa family in Yokohama, who did not discover her parentage until 1951, 26 years after Sun's death.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: On 25 October 1915 in Japan, Sun married Soong Ching-ling, one of the Soong sisters. Soong Ching-ling's father was the American-educated Methodist minister Charles Soong, who made a fortune in banking and in printing of Bibles. Although Charles had been a personal friend of Sun, he was enraged when Sun announced his intention to marry Ching-ling because while Sun was a Christian he kept two wives, Lu Muzhen and Kaoru Otsuki. Soong viewed Sun's actions as running directly against their shared religion.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In most major Chinese cities one of the main streets is named "Zhongshan Lu" () to celebrate his memory. There are also numerous parks, schools, and geographical features named after him. Xiangshan, Sun's hometown in Guangdong, was renamed Zhongshan in his honor, and there is a hall dedicated to his memory at the Temple of Azure Clouds in Beijing. There are also a series of Sun Yat-sen stamps.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: Other references to Sun include the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung. Other structures include Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall subway station, Sun Yat-sen house in Nanjing, Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum in Hong Kong, Chung-Shan Building, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Guangzhou, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei and Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall in Singapore. Zhongshan Memorial Middle School has also been a name used by many schools. Zhongshan Park is also a common name used for a number of places named after him. The first highway in Taiwan is called the Sun Yat-sen expressway. Two ships are also named after him, the Chinese gunboat Chung Shan and Chinese cruiser Yat Sen. The old Chinatown in Calcutta (now known as Kolkata), India has a prominent street by the name of Sun Yat-sen street.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In Russia, a village in Mikhaylovsky District of Primorsky Krai was named in honor of him. There are streets named after him in Astrakhan, Ufa and Aldan. There was a street that was named after Sun in the Russian city of Omsk until 2005 when it was renamed in honor of the recipient of the title Hero of Soviet Union Mikhail Ivanovich Leonov.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In George Town, Penang, Malaysia, the Penang Philomatic Union had its premises at 120 Armenian Street in 1910, during the time when Sun spent more than four months in Penang, convened the historic "Penang Conference" to launch the fundraising campaign for the Huanghuagang Uprising and founded the "Kwong Wah Yit Poh"; this house, which has been preserved as the Sun Yat-sen Museum (formerly called the Sun Yat Sen Penang Base), was visited by president-designate Hu Jintao in 2002. The Penang Philomatic Union subsequently moved to a bungalow at 65 Macalister Road which has been preserved as the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Centre Penang.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: The Nanyang Wan Qing Yuan in Singapore have since been preserved and renamed as the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall. A Sun Yat-sen heritage trail was also launched on 20 November 2010 in Penang.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: Sun's US citizen Hawaii birth certificate that show he was not born in the ROC, but instead born in the US was on public display at the American Institute in Taiwan on US Independence day 4 July 2011.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: A street named "Tôn Dật Tiên" (Sino-Vietnamese name for Sun Yat-Sen) is located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: The "Trail of Dr. Sun Yat Sen and His Comrades in Ipoh" was established in 2019, based on the book "Road to Revolution: Dr. Sun Yat Sen and His Comrades in Ipoh".


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: St. John's University in New York City has a facility built in 1973, the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, built to resemble a traditional Chinese building in honor of Sun. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is located in Vancouver, the largest classical Chinese gardens outside of Asia. There is the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park in Chinatown, Honolulu. On the island of Maui, there is the little Sun Yat-sen Park at Kamaole. It is located near to where his older brother had a ranch on the slopes of Haleakala in the Kula region.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In Chinatown, Los Angeles, there is a seated statue of him in Central Plaza. In Sacramento, California there is a bronze statue of Sun in front of the Chinese Benevolent Association of Sacramento. Another statue of Sun Yat-sen by Joe Rosenthal can be found at Riverdale Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and there is another statue in Toronto's downtown Chinatown. There is also the Moscow Sun Yat-sen University. In Chinatown, San Francisco, there is a 12-foot statue of him on Saint Mary's Square.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In late 2011, the Chinese Youth Society of Melbourne, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China, unveiled, in a Lion Dance Blessing ceremony, a memorial statue of Sun outside the Chinese Museum in Melbourne's Chinatown, on the spot where their traditional Chinese New Year Lion Dance always ends.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In 1993 Lily Sun, one of Sun Yat-sen's granddaughters, donated books, photographs, artwork and other memorabilia to the Kapi'olani Community College library as part of the "Sun Yat-sen Asian collection". During October and November every year the entire collection is shown. In 1997 the "Dr Sun Yat-sen Hawaii foundation" was formed online as a virtual library. In 2006 the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Spirit labeled one of the hills explored "Zhongshan".


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: The plaque shown earlier in this article is by Dora Gordine, and is situated on the site of Sun's lodgings in London in 1896, 8 Grays Inn Place. There is also a blue plaque commemorating Sun at The Kennels, Cottered, Hertfordshire, the country home of the Cantlies where Sun came to recuperate after his rescue from the legation in 1896.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: A street named Sun Yat-Sen Avenue is located in Markham, Ontario. This is the first such street name outside of Asia.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: "Dr. Sun Yat-sen" () is a 2011 Chinese-language western-style opera in three acts by the New York-based American composer Huang Ruo who was born in China and is a graduate of Oberlin College's Conservatory as well as the Juilliard School. The libretto was written by Candace Mui-ngam Chong, a recent collaborator with playwright David Henry Hwang. It was performed in Hong Kong in October 2011 and was given its North American premiere on 26 July 2014 at The Santa Fe Opera.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: The life of Sun is portrayed in various films, mainly "The Soong Sisters" and "Road to Dawn". A fictionalized assassination attempt on his life was featured in "Bodyguards and Assassins". He is also portrayed during his struggle to overthrow the Qing dynasty in "Once Upon a Time in China II". The TV series "Towards the Republic" features Ma Shaohua as Sun Yat-sen. In the 100th anniversary tribute of the film "1911", Winston Chao played Sun. In , one of the starships of the China Navy is named the "Sun Yat-sen".


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In 2011, there is also a Mandopop group called "Zhongsan Road 100" () known for singing the song "Our Father of the Nation" ().


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: At one time CCP general secretary and PRC president Jiang Zemin claimed that Sun Yat-sen advocated a movement known as the "New Three Principles of the People" () which consisted of "working with the soviets, working with the communists and helping the farmers" (). In 2001 Lily Sun said that the CCP was distorting Sun's legacy. She then voiced her displeasure in 2002 in a private letter to Jiang about the distortion of history. In 2008 Jiang Zemin was willing to offer US$10 million to sponsor a Xinhai Revolution anniversary celebration event. According to "Ming Pao" she could not take the money because she would no longer have the freedom to communicate about the revolution.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In 1981, Lily Sun took a trip to Sun Yat-sen mausoleum in Nanjing, People's Republic of China. The emblem of the KMT had been removed from the top of his sacrificial hall at the time of her visit, but was later restored. On another visit in May 2011, she was surprised to find the four characters "General Rules of Meetings" (), a document that Sun wrote in reference to Robert's Rules of Order had been removed from a stone carving.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In 1940, the Republic of China (ROC) government had bestowed the title of ""father of the nation"" on Sun. However, after 1949, as a result of the Chiang regime's arrival in Taiwan with two million soldiers and martial law, his ""father of the nation"" designation only continued on in Taiwan.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: Sun had visited Taiwan briefly on only three occasions - in 1900, 1913 and 1918 - or four, if counting 1924 when his boat had stopped in Keelung Harbor, but he had not disembarked.


title: Sun Yat-sen

text: In November 2004, the ROC Ministry of Education proposed that Sun Yat-sen was not the father of Taiwan. Instead, Sun was a foreigner from mainland China. Taiwanese Education minister Tu Cheng-sheng and Examination Yuan member , both of whom supported the proposal, had their portraits pelted with eggs in protest. At a Sun Yat-sen statue in Kaohsiung, a 70-year-old ROC retired soldier committed suicide as a way to protest the ministry proposal on the anniversary of Sun's birthday 12 November.


title: American Sniper

text: American Sniper is a 2014 American biographical war drama film directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jason Hall. It is loosely based on the memoir "American Sniper" (2012) by Chris Kyle, with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. The film follows the life of Kyle, who became the deadliest marksman in U.S. military history with 255 kills from four tours in the Iraq War, 160 of which were officially confirmed by the Department of Defense. Although Kyle was celebrated for his military successes, his tours of duty took a heavy toll on his personal and family life. The film was produced by Eastwood, Robert Lorenz, Andrew Lazar, Bradley Cooper, and Peter Morgan. It stars Cooper as Kyle and Sienna Miller as his wife Taya, with Luke Grimes, Jake McDorman, Cory Hardrict, Kevin Lacz, Navid Negahban, and Keir O'Donnell in supporting roles.


title: American Sniper

text: The world premiere was on November 11, 2014, at the American Film Institute Festival, followed by a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 25, 2014, and a wide release on January 16, 2015. The film became a major success, with a worldwide gross of over $547 million, making it the 13th most successful film at the 2014 worldwide box office, the highest-grossing war film of all time unadjusted for inflation, the highest-grossing film with a wide release during the month of January, and Eastwood's highest-grossing film.


title: American Sniper

text: The film received positive reviews, with praise for Cooper's lead performance and Eastwood's directing. At the 87th Academy Awards, "American Sniper" received six nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for Cooper, ultimately winning one award for Best Sound Editing.


title: American Sniper

text: Growing up in Texas, Chris Kyle is taught by his father how to shoot a rifle and hunt deer. Years later, Kyle has become a ranch hand and rodeo cowboy, and returns home early, to find his girlfriend in bed with another man. After telling her to leave, he is mulling it over with his brother when he sees news coverage of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings and decides to enlist in the Navy. He qualifies for special training and becomes a sniper with the U.S. Navy SEALs.


title: American Sniper

text: Kyle meets Taya Studebaker at a bar, and the two soon marry. He is sent to Iraq after the September 11 attacks. His first kills are a woman and boy who attacked U.S. Marines on patrol with a Russian-made RKG-3 anti-tank grenade. Kyle is visibly upset by the experience, but later earns the nickname "Legend" for his many kills. Assigned to hunt for the al-Qaeda leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Kyle interrogates a family whose father offers to lead the SEALs to "The Butcher", al-Zarqawi's second-in-command. The plan goes awry when The Butcher captures the father and his son, killing them while Kyle is pinned down by a sniper. This sniper goes by the name Mustafa and is an Olympic Games medalist from Syria. Meanwhile, the insurgents issue a bounty on Kyle.


title: American Sniper

text: Kyle returns home to his wife and the birth of his son. He is distracted by memories of his war experiences and by Taya's concern for them as a couple – she wishes he would focus on his home and family.


title: American Sniper

text: Kyle leaves for a second tour and is promoted to chief petty officer. Involved in a shootout with The Butcher, he helps in killing him. When he returns home to a newborn daughter, Kyle becomes increasingly distant from his family. On Kyle's third tour, Mustafa seriously injures a unit member, Ryan "Biggles" Job, and the unit is evacuated back to base. When they decide to return to the field and continue the mission, another SEAL, Marc Lee, is killed by gunfire.


title: American Sniper

text: Guilt compels Kyle to undertake a fourth tour, and Taya tells him she may not be there when he returns. Back in Iraq, Kyle is shocked to learn Biggles died in surgery to repair the wounds he sustained. Assigned to kill Mustafa, who has been sniping U.S. Army combat engineers building a barricade, Kyle's sniper team is placed on a rooftop inside enemy territory. Kyle spots Mustafa and takes him out with a risky long distance shot at , but this exposes his team's position to numerous armed insurgents. In the midst of the gunfight, and low on ammunition, Kyle tearfully calls Taya and tells her he is ready to come home. A sandstorm provides cover for a chaotic escape in which Kyle is injured and almost left behind.


title: American Sniper

text: After Kyle gets back, on edge and unable to adjust fully to civilian life, he is asked by a Veterans Affairs psychiatrist if he is haunted by all the things he did in war. When he replies it is "all the guys [he] couldn't save" that haunt him, the psychiatrist encourages him to help severely wounded veterans in the VA hospital. After that, Kyle gradually begins to adjust to home life.


title: American Sniper

text: Years later, on February 2, 2013, Kyle says goodbye to his wife and family as he leaves in good spirits to spend time with Eddie Ray Routh, a veteran suffering from PTSD at a shooting range. An on-screen subtitle reveals that Kyle was killed that day by Routh, followed by archive footage of crowds standing along the highway for his funeral procession. More are shown attending his memorial service.


title: American Sniper

text: On May 24, 2012, it was announced that Warner Bros. (WB) had acquired the rights to the book with Bradley Cooper set to produce and star in the screen adaptation. Cooper had thought of Chris Pratt to play Kyle, but WB agreed to buy it only if Cooper would star. In September 2012, David O. Russell said he was interested in directing the film. On February 2, 2013, Chris Kyle was murdered. On May 2, 2013, it was announced that Steven Spielberg would direct. Spielberg had read Kyle's book, though he desired to have a more psychological conflict present in the screenplay so an "enemy sniper" character could serve as the insurgent sharpshooter who was trying to track down and kill Kyle. Spielberg's ideas contributed to the development of a lengthy screenplay approaching 160 pages. Due to WB's budget constraints, Spielberg felt he could not bring his vision of the story to the screen. On August 5, 2013, Spielberg dropped out of directing. On August 21, 2013, it was reported that Clint Eastwood would instead direct the film.


title: American Sniper

text: On March 14, 2014, Sienna Miller joined the cast. On March 16, 2014, Kyle Gallner was cast, as was Cory Hardrict on March 18, 2014. On March 20, 2014, Navid Negahban, Eric Close, Eric Ladin, Rey Gallegos, and Jake McDorman also joined the cast, as did Luke Grimes and Sam Jaeger on March 25, 2014. Kevin Lacz, a former Navy SEAL, was also cast and served as a technical advisor. Another former Navy SEAL, Joel Lambert, also joined the film, portraying a Delta sniper. On June 3, Max Charles was added to the cast to portray Kyle's son, Colton Kyle.


title: American Sniper

text: Principal photography began on March 31, 2014 in Los Angeles; it was also shot in Morocco. On April 23, the "Los Angeles Times" reported that ten days of filming set in an Afghan village was set to begin at the Blue Cloud Movie Ranch in the Santa Clarita area. On May 7, shooting of the film was spotted around El Centro; a milk factory was used as the abandoned date factory which insurgents close in on from all directions at the climax of the film. The pier and bar scenes were filmed in Seal Beach, California.


title: American Sniper

text: Cinematographer Tom Stern shot the film with Arri Alexa XT digital cameras and Panavision C-, E- and G-Series anamorphic lenses. The film is Eastwood's second to be shot digitally, after "Jersey Boys".


title: American Sniper

text: There is no "Music by" credit on this film. Clint Eastwood, who has composed the scores for most of his films since "Mystic River" (2003), is credited as the composer of "Taya's Theme". Joseph S. DeBeasi is credited as composer of additional music and as music editor. The film also features the song "Someone Like You" by Van Morrison, which plays during the wedding scene, and "The Funeral" by Ennio Morricone.


title: American Sniper

text: "American Sniper" grossed $350.1 million in North America and $197 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $547.1 million, against a budget of around $58 million. Calculating in all expenses and revenues, "Deadline Hollywood" estimated that the film made a profit of $243 million, making it the second-most profitable film of 2014 only behind Paramount's "". Worldwide, it is the highest-grossing war film of all time (breaking "Saving Private Ryan" record) and Eastwood's highest-grossing film to date. It is the seventh R-rated film to gross over $500 million.


title: American Sniper

text: In North America, it was the highest-grossing film of 2014, the highest-grossing war film unadjusted for inflation (and, on an adjusted basis, second to "Saving Private Ryan" with $379 million), the fourth-highest-grossing R-rated film of all time (behind "The Passion of the Christ", "Deadpool", and "Deadpool 2"), Warner Bros.' fourth-highest-grossing film (behind "The Dark Knight", "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2"), and the eighth-highest-grossing Best Picture nominee film (behind "Avatar", "Titanic", "Star Wars", "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", "Toy Story 3", "" and ""). It became the seventh Warner Bros.' film to earn over $300 million in the U.S. and Canada and the 50th film to reach the mark. It earned as much as the combined earnings of all of the other 2014 Best Picture nominees. On March 8, 2015, it surpassed "" to become the highest-grossing film of 2014, making it the first R-rated film since "Saving Private Ryan" (1998) and the first non-franchise film since "Avatar" (2009) to top the year-end rankings.


title: American Sniper

text: "American Sniper" premiered at the AFI Fest on November 11, 2014, just after a screening of "Selma" at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles. In North America, the film opened to a limited release on December 25, 2014, playing at four theaters—two in New York, one in Los Angeles, and one in Dallas—and earned $610,000 in its opening weekend ($850,000 including Christmas Day) at an average of $152,500 per venue debuting at #22. The following week the film earned $676,909 playing at the same number of locations at an average of $169,277 per theater, which is the second-biggest weekend average ever for a live-action movie (previously held by 2001's "Moulin Rouge!"). "American Sniper" holds the record for the most entries in the top 20 Top Weekend Theater Averages with 3 entries (at #12, #14 and #17). It earned a total of $3.4 million from limited release in three weekends.


title: American Sniper

text: The film began its wide debut across North American theaters on January 16, 2015 (Thursday night showings began at 7:00 pm). It set an all-time-highest Thursday night opening record for an R-rated drama with $5.3 million (previously held by "Lone Survivor"). The film topped the box office on its opening day grossing $30.5 million (including Thursday previews) from 3,555 theaters setting January records for both biggest debut opening (previously held by "Cloverfield") and single-day gross (previously held by "Avatar"). In its traditional three-day opening the film earned $89.2 million which was double than expected and broke the record for the largest January opening (previously held by "Ride Along") and the largest winter opening, which is also Eastwood's top opening as a director (breaking "Gran Torino"s opening). The three-day opening is also the biggest opening weekend for a drama film (previously held by "The Passion of the Christ"), the second-biggest debut for a Best Picture Oscar nominee (behind "Toy Story 3"), the second-biggest debut for an R-rated film (behind "The Matrix Reloaded"), and the third-biggest for a non-comic book, non-fantasy/sci-fi film (behind "Furious 7" and "Fast & Furious 6"). It also set an IMAX January opening and single weekend record with $10.6 million (previously held by "Avatar" in its fourth weekend) and an R-rated IMAX debut record (previously held by "Prometheus"). It earned $107.2 million during its four-day Martin Luther King weekend setting a record for the biggest R-rated four-day gross.


title: American Sniper

text: In its second weekend, the film expanded to 3,705 theaters making it the second-widest launch for an R-rated movie (behind the film itself). It grossed an estimated $64.6 million in its second weekend, declining only by 28%—and set the record for the second-best hold ever for a movie opening to more than $85 million and also set the record for the eighth-largest second-weekend gross. In just 10 days of release, the film surpassed "Pearl Harbor" ($198.5 million) to become the second-highest-grossing war film in North America. By its second weekend, Box Office Mojo had already reported that the film was on poise to become the highest-grossing film of 2014 in North America, a record that was, at the time held by "" ($334 million), judging from its gradual decline and strong holdovers. It became the highest-grossing IMAX film of January grossing $18.8 million from 333 IMAX theaters. On Thursday, January 29, 2015–35 days after its initial release, the film surpassed "Saving Private Ryan" ($216.5 million) to become the highest-grossing war film in North America, unadjusted for inflation.


title: American Sniper

text: By its third weekend of wide release, the film expanded to 3,885 theaters (180 additional theaters added), breaking its own record of being the widest R-rated film ever released. The film topped the box office through its third weekend earning $30.66 million, which is the second-highest Super Bowl weekend gross (behind ""). After topping the box office for three consecutive weekends, the film was overtaken by "" in its fourth weekend.


title: American Sniper

text: The film had the biggest debut weekend for a Clint Eastwood film, and went on to become the director's top-grossing film of all time in each of the countries in which it was released. In Italy the film opened at number two with $7.1 million, Eastwood's best opening of all time, and Warner Bros.' second-biggest opening for a non-franchise U.S. film there; it went on to top the box office the following weekend as well. Its other largest openings occurred in France ($6.3 million), where it topped the box office for four consecutive weekends, Australia ($4.3 million, $4.6 million including previews), the UK, Ireland and Malta ($3.8 million), Spain ($3.2 million), Japan ($2.8 million), Mexico ($2.6 million), Brazil ($1.8 million), and South Korea ($1.2 million). In total earnings, its largest market outside of the U.S. are Italy ($23 million) and France ($22.8 million).


title: American Sniper

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 72%, based on 294 reviews, with an average rating of 6.90/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Powered by Clint Eastwood's sure-handed direction and a gripping central performance from Bradley Cooper, "American Sniper" delivers a tense, vivid tribute to its real-life subject." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, audiences gave "American Sniper" a rare grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: American Sniper

text: Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" called the film "A taut, vivid and sad account of the brief life of the most accomplished marksman in American military annals." Justin Chang of "Variety" gave the film a positive review, saying: "an excellent performance from a bulked-up Bradley Cooper, this harrowing and intimate character study offers fairly blunt insights into the physical and psychological toll exacted on the front lines". David Denby of "The New Yorker" gave the film a positive review, saying "Both a devastating war movie and a devastating antiwar movie, a subdued celebration of a warrior's skill and a sorrowful lament over his alienation and misery." Keith Phipps of "The Dissolve" wrote that the film, while well made, missed a chance to explore the toll that such service exacts on soldiers. Chris Nashawaty of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a C+, saying "The film's just a repetition of context-free combat missions and one-dimensional targets." Elizabeth Weitzman of "New York Daily News" gave the film four out of five stars, saying "The best movies are ever-shifting, intelligent and open-hearted enough to expand alongside an audience. "American Sniper" ... is built on this foundation of uncommon compassion." Kyle Smith of the "New York Post" gave the film four out of four stars, saying "After 40 years of Hollywood counterpropaganda telling us war is necessarily corrupting and malign, ... "American Sniper" nobly presents the case for the other side."


title: American Sniper

text: Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "Bradley Cooper, as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, and director Eastwood salute Kyle's patriotism best by not denying its toll. Their targets are clearly in sight, and their aim is true." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of "The A.V. Club" gave the film a B, saying ""American Sniper" is imperfect and at times a little corny, but also ambivalent and complicated in ways that are uniquely Eastwoodian." James Berardinelli of "ReelViews" gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying ""American Sniper" lifts director Clint Eastwood out of the doldrums that have plagued his last few films." Rafer Guzman of "Newsday" gave the film three out of four stars, saying "Cooper nails the role of an American killing machine in Clint Eastwood's clear-eyed look at the Iraq War." Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" gave the film a positive review, saying "Eastwood's impeccably crafted action sequences so catch us up in the chaos of combat we are almost not aware that we're watching a film at all." Claudia Puig of "USA Today" gave the film three out of four stars, saying "It's clearly Cooper's show. Substantially bulked up and affecting a believable Texas drawl, Cooper embodies Kyle's confidence, intensity and vulnerability." Joshua Rothkopf of "Time Out New York" gave the film four out of five stars, saying "Only Clint Eastwood could make a movie about an Iraq War veteran and infuse it with doubts, mission anxiety and ruination." Dean Obeidallah praised the film, saying "His focus was not on whom we were fighting, but the unbearably high price Americans pay for waging war regardless of its target. The film is a cautionary tale for Americans about why we must avoid war. It is not a celebration of waging it."


title: American Sniper

text: The film drew some negative reviews. Matt Taibbi, in "Rolling Stone", wrote that the movie turned the complicated moral questions and mass-bloodshed of the Iraq war into a black and white fairy tale, without presenting the historical context. Alex von Tunzelmann of "The Guardian" argued that the film presented a simplified black and white portrayal of the Iraq war, and that it features the distortion of facts into unreliable myths based upon previous legends. David Masciotra of "Salon" criticized the movie's focus on physical rather than moral courage as the ultimate manly virtue. Cavalry scout sniper Garett Reppenhagen stated that he did not view Iraqi civilians as savages, but as part of a friendly culture for which the movie has furthered ignorance, fear, and bigotry. Inkoo Kang of "TheWrap" gave the film a negative review, saying "Director Clint Eastwood's focus on Kyle is so tight that no other character, including wife Taya (Sienna Miller), comes through as a person, and the scope so narrow that the film engages only superficially with the many moral issues surrounding the Iraq War." Several other articles have also been critical of the movie.


title: American Sniper

text: Cair's communications director Ibrahim Hooper wrote "I think a lot of the controversy about the movie [American Sniper] is not about its actual content, but more with the life and the views of the actual sniper, who had who had written a number derogatory things about Islam and Arabs ... so that seeps into it beyond even the content of the movie itself... This movie has elicited a wide variety of emotions from a kind of the super-patriotism reactions to the reaction that it perpetuates anti-Muslim stereotypes and even violence. So, there's a broad range of opinions about the movie and it's good to have those opinions aired and discussed."


title: American Sniper

text: Responding to critics, Eastwood said that "American Sniper" shows "what [war] does to the people left behind", and that presenting "the fact of what [war] does to the family and the people who have to go back into civilian life like Chris Kyle did" is the "biggest antiwar statement any film" can make. He stated: "One of my favorite war movies that I've been involved with is "Letters from Iwo Jima" and that was about family, about being taken away from life, being sent someplace. In World War II, everybody just sort of went home and got over it. Now there is some effort to help people through it." He also said: "I was a child growing up during World War II. That was supposed to be the one to end all wars. And four years later, I was standing at the draft board being drafted during the Korean conflict, and then after that there was Vietnam, and it goes on and on forever ... I just wonder ... does this ever stop? And no, it doesn't. So each time we get in these conflicts, it deserves a lot of thought before we go wading in or wading out. Going in or coming out. It needs a better thought process, I think."


title: American Sniper

text: Bradley Cooper stated that much of the criticism ignores that the film was about widespread neglect of returning veterans, and that people who take issue with Kyle should redirect their attention to the leaders who put the troops there in the first place. He said: "We looked at hopefully igniting attention about the lack of care that goes to vets. [Any] discussion that has nothing to do with vets, or what we did or did not do [for them], every conversation in those terms is moving farther and farther from what our soldiers go through, and the fact that 22 veterans commit suicide each day." Cooper said that an increasing number of soldiers are returning from conflict psychologically damaged, only to be more or less discarded.


title: American Sniper

text: Former First Lady Michelle Obama and former Republican Party vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin also spoke out in support of the movie.


title: American Sniper

text: One aspect of the film that received negative comment was its use of a fake baby doll in one scene, which was said to look obviously artificial and that it was a distraction to critics and viewers. In at least one media screening of the film, the audience laughed out loud at how artificial the doll appeared. When discussing the film's prospects for winning an Academy Award, Fandango critic Dave Karger said, "The reason why "American Sniper" is not going to win is because of the plastic baby." In "The Telegraph", journalist Mark Harris said, "That plastic baby is going to be rationalised by Eastwood "auteur" cultists until the end of days." In response, screenwriter Jason Hall replied, "Hate to ruin the fun but real baby #1 showed up with a fever. Real baby #2 was no show. [Clint voice] 'Gimme the doll, kid.


title: American Sniper

text: Upon its first week of release on home media in the U.S., the film topped both the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks overall disc sales, as well as the Blu-ray Disc sales chart in the week ending May 24, 2015.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: Event Horizon is a 1997 science fiction horror film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson and written by Philip Eisner. It stars Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan and Joely Richardson. Set in 2047, it follows a crew of astronauts sent on a rescue mission after a missing spaceship, the "Event Horizon", spontaneously appears in orbit around Neptune, only to discover that a sinister force has come back with it.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: The film had a troubled production, with filming and editing rushed by Paramount when it became clear that "Titanic" would not meet its projected release. The original 130-minute cut of the film was heavily edited by the studio's demand, to Anderson's consternation.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: On release, the film was a commercial and critical failure, grossing $42 million on a $60 million production budget. However, it began to sell well on home video; its initial DVD release sold so well that Paramount contacted Anderson to begin working on a restoration of the deleted footage, but it had been either lost or destroyed. In the years since, the film has slowly built a cult following and is referenced in other works of popular culture.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: In 2047, a distress signal is received from the "Event Horizon", a starship that disappeared during its maiden voyage to Proxima Centauri seven years earlier. The ship mysteriously reappears in a decaying orbit around Neptune, and the rescue vessel "Lewis and Clark" is dispatched to investigate. Its crew—Capt. Miller, second-in-command Lt. Starck, pilot Smith, medical technician Peters, engineer Ensign Justin, doctor D.J., and rescue technician Cooper—is joined by Dr. William Weir, the "Event Horizon"s designer. He briefs them on the ship's experimental gravity drive with a simple visualization of how it folds space-time. The distress signal consists of a series of screams and howls but D.J. believes he hears the Latin phrase ("Save me").


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: Upon boarding the "Event Horizon" the crew finds evidence of a massacre. As they search for survivors, the ship's gravity drive activates and briefly pulls Justin into a portal while also causing a shock wave that damages the "Lewis and Clark". The crew are all forced to board the "Event Horizon" while Justin emerges in a catatonic state. He attempts suicide by decompression, but is saved by Miller, forcing the crew to place Justin in stasis.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: The crew begins having hallucinations corresponding to their fears and regrets. Miller sees a subordinate he was forced to abandon to his death; Peters sees her son with his legs covered in bloody lesions; Weir sees an eyeless vision of his late wife urging him to join her. They discover a video log of the "Event Horizon"s crew fornicating and mutilating each other shortly after first engaging the gravity drive. The log ends with a shot of the "Event Horizon"s captain, holding his own eyes gouged from their sockets and speaking the Latin phrase from the earlier distress call. D.J. translates the phrase as ("Save from hell").


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: Weir explains that the ship's drive opened a gateway to a hellish dimension outside the known universe, and that the "Event Horizon" has attained sentience. Miller decides to destroy it and orders an evacuation while Peters is lured to her death by a hallucination of her son. Weir, who has gouged out his own eyes and is possessed by the evil presence, destroys the "Lewis and Clark" and kills Smith. Weir then kills D.J. by vivisecting him and corners Starck on the bridge. Miller confronts Weir, who overpowers him and initiates a 10-minute countdown to activate the gravity drive return to the other dimension.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: Cooper uses his space suit's oxygen supply to propel himself back to the ship and appears at the bridge window. Weir shoots at him, shattering the window causing Weir to be sucked into space by the decompression. Miller, Starck and Cooper survive and manage to seal off the ship's bridge. With their own ship destroyed, Miller plans to split the "Event Horizon" in two with explosives and use its forward section as a lifeboat. He is attacked by hallucinations which turn out to be the resurrected Dr. Weir. Miller fights him off and detonates the explosives, sacrificing himself.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: The gravity drive activates, pulling the ship's stern section into a black hole. Starck and Cooper enter stasis beside a comatose Justin and wait to be rescued. Seventy-two days later, the wreckage of the "Event Horizon" is boarded by a rescue party who discover the survivors in stasis. Starck sees Weir posing as one of the rescuers and screams in terror, but wakes up and realizes that it was a nightmare. Cooper and the rescue team try to calm the terrified Starck as the doors close.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: After "Mortal Kombat" (1995) was a commercial success in the United States, English director Paul W. S. Anderson was inundated with screenplay offers, as well as the opportunity to direct the "Mortal Kombat" sequel "" (1997) and the upcoming "X-Men" (2000). He turned down the offers in favor of making an R-rated horror film, wanting to shift away from making another PG-13 film. Paramount Pictures sent him Philip Eisner's original script for "Event Horizon", which they had been trying to develop with producers Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin. According to Eisner, he first pitched its concept to Gordon as a "haunted house story in space", which the producer thought had potential: "Luckily", said Eisner, "he liked the idea enough to trust me to do it."


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: Anderson's initial reaction to the script, which involved the cruiseship "Event Horizon" experiencing a series of hauntings by "tentacular" aliens, it having crossed the threshold of their planet or "dimension", was that it bore striking resemblance to "Alien" (1979). Producer and longtime collaborator Jeremy Bolt felt it was a "terrific concept" but was "very dense" in terms of length and the storyline was "a bit lost." Anderson didn't want to direct a mimicry of "Alien", so he gave the script a major rewrite, picturing a "classic haunted house movie." He incorporated significant influences of moderately successful horror films such as Robert Wise's "The Haunting" (1963) and Kubrick's "The Shining" (1980), because they created suspense from the unknown—the evil presence was hidden from the viewer—and their endings induced ambiguities of perception in the audience. He said he was also interested in the concept of Hell, and of "the ship itself being possessed rather than going 'Oh, it's an alien consciousness that is doing this,'" and added these to the script. Anderson also said that the science fiction film "Solaris" (1972) was inspiration for "Event Horizon".


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: Screenwriter Philip Eisner acknowledged that "Warhammer 40,000" influenced the story. In the setting of "Warhammer 40,000", spaceships travel the galaxy by passing through "the Warp"—a parallel dimension where faster-than-light travel is possible, conceptually similar to "hyperspace" in "Star Wars"—but which is also inhabited by evil spirits that can infiltrate the ship and possess the crew if said ship isn't properly shielded. Fans consider "Event Horizon" to be an unofficial prequel to "Warhammer 40,000", when humankind discovers the Warp and learns of its dangers the hard way.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: Anderson modeled the "Event Horizon" ship after Notre Dame Cathedral. Effects supervisors Richard Yuricich and Neil Corbould kept most visuals in-camera, and moving sets were constructed for the gyrosphere gravity drive and the revolving tunnel.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: As Anderson explained, directors usually have a standard 10-week editing period to produce a film's first cut, as guaranteed by the Directors Guild of America. However, due to the short production schedule, the rapidly approaching release date, and the fact that principal photography had not finished, Anderson agreed to a six-week editing period, and promised to deliver the film by August 1997, as Paramount wanted a hit film before "Titanic's" planned September release date. When the main unit wrapped, Anderson was supposed to start editing the film, but he had two weeks of shooting left with the second unit, shortening post-production to just four weeks, during which only a rough cut could be assembled. He noted that at two hours and 10 minutes, it was overly long, with weak direction and acting that could have used another editing pass; unfinished special effects; and a poor sound mix.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: In test screenings, the cut was poorly received. There were complaints about the extreme gore, and Anderson and producer Jeremy Bolt claim that some members of the test audience fainted. Paramount executives, who had stopped watching the dailies before any of the gore was shot, and were seeing the complete film for the first time along with the audience, were similarly shocked by how gruesome it was, and demanded a shorter runtime with less gore. Anderson agreed that while his first cut was too long, Paramount forced him to make one that was instead too short, and that the film would benefit by the restoration of around 10 minutes of footage, including some of the deleted gore.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: When the initial DVD release was a surprise hit, the studio and Anderson became interested in assembling a director's cut, but found that the excised footage had not been carefully stored and much of it had gone missing. The director's cut was abandoned and instead a special-edition two-DVD set was released, featuring one deleted scene, two extended scenes, and a few shots of deleted material in the included making-of featurette. The footage is of "video" quality.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: Known deleted scenes include a meeting scene between Weir and people in charge of the mission in which they discuss "Event Horizon", some dialogue of which remained present in the theatrical trailer; more backstory for Cooper and Justin, including a stronger explanation for Justin entering the black hole; a deleted backstory of the relationship between Starck and Miller; additional scenes explaining what the gateway to hell/black hole is; Miller finding a tooth floating in "Event Horizon"; a longer version of the scene where Peters hallucinates that her son's mangled legs are covered in maggots; a scene where Weir hallucinates that Justin turns into his wife Claire; a bloodier version of Weir's wife Claire's suicide; a longer version of the scene where Miller finds D.J.'s vivisected body with his guts on the table; and a longer version of the "Visions From Hell" scene during Miller's final fight with Weir, with more shots of "Event Horizon"'s crew being tortured.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: The "bloody orgy" video was also longer. As Anderson was sometimes too busy filming other scenes, second-unit director Vadim Jean filmed some parts of it. Real-life amputees were used for special effects scenes where "Event Horizon" crew members were mutilated, and pornographic film actors were hired to make the sex and rape scenes more realistic and graphic.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: The film's final ending was a combination of two unused alternate endings. One did not have a jump scare at the end when the last two survivors are found by another rescue crew and Starck hallucinates that she sees Weir, although there was a similar version of the scene included in this ending where she hears screams of the "Event Horizon" crew and screams before Cooper wakes her. This was the film's original ending in the shooting script. The second ending had Miller fighting with the burned man from his visions at the core instead of with Weir, but this was changed due to the negative test screening.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: In an "Event Horizon" Q&A in 2011, Anderson was asked when extra footage would be made available. "Never," he said, explaining that much of it was gone forever. However, in a 2012 interview, he announced that producer Lloyd Levin had found a VHS tape with his original rough cut. He said that after finishing "", he planned to watch the recovered footage for the first time since assembling the film. In a January 2017 interview, he reiterated that a director's cut would never be released, as the footage no longer existed. Asked about the VHS tape, he said neither he nor Levin had seen it yet, as Levin had moved to Spain; however, he was still excited about watching it at some point.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: Michael Kamen was hired to compose the film's score. Director Paul W. S. Anderson, a fan of hybrid genre music, invited the electronic dance music duo Orbital to collaborate with Kamen and to provide synthesized sounds for the film's unsettling atmosphere.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: A soundtrack album was released which combined various cues from the score into four tracks of approximately ten minutes.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: "Event Horizon" was released on August 15, 1997 and was a box office failure, grossing only $26,616,590 against a $60 million production budget in the United States. Internationally it grossed nearly $16 million, for a worldwide total of $42 million.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, "Event Horizon" holds an approval rating of 31% based on 86 reviews and an average rating of 5/10. Its consensus reads, "Despite a strong opening that promises sci-fi thrills, "Event Horizon" quickly devolves into an exercise of style over substance whose flashy effects and gratuitous gore fail to mask its overreliance on horror clichés." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 35 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, commending its atmosphere and noting the opening portion as particularly well crafted; however, he felt it never managed to become the intense, thought-provoking experience it wanted to be. "The Washington Post" critic Stephen Hunter called the film "pointlessly loud", with more devotion to style rather than scares and a more satisfying explanation of its supernatural experiences. In a lukewarm review, "Empire" magazine wrote: "That the film never fulfils its promise is down to its over reliance on horror vagaries in a precision-built sci-fi milieu, ultimately leaving too many unanswered queries. A sharper script and a more credible solution could have turned this impressive hokum into a force to be reckoned with". Ebert and some other critics noted the influence of Tarkovsky's "Solaris" on "Event Horizon".


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: The film had some early supporters. "Total Film" gave it 3 out of 5, stating: "Excellent special effects and an "Alien"-esque feel make this supernatural horror film ("'The Shining" in space,' as most critics have called it, pretty accurately) well worth a look." "Entertainment Weekly" gave it a B−, stating, "Just when you've written off this deep-space nightmare as a late-summer melange of "Alien", "Fantastic Voyage", "The Shining", and a dozen more forgettable otherworldly thrillers, it unleashes some of the most unsettling horror imagery in years", whereas "Time Out" magazine mentioned that "despite its shortcomings, this is never dull. The movie avoids "Alien" space monster clichés brilliantly and the soundtrack contains more of the 'Boo!' effects than I've heard since "Halloween"."


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: In the years since its release, the film has built a cult following and has been referenced in other works of popular culture. During its 25th anniversary release, Anderson said, "It's finally got the reaction now that I was hoping it would get 25 years ago."


title: Event Horizon (film)

text: In August 2019, a television series based on the film was reported to be in development by Paramount Television and Amazon Studios. Horror filmmaker Adam Wingard is set to executive produce and possibly direct it. Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin, who produced the original film, are also involved.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Aladdin is a 1992 American animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 31st Disney animated feature film and the fourth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it is based on the Arabic folktale of the same name from the "One Thousand and One Nights". The film was produced and directed by John Musker and Ron Clements from a screenplay they co-wrote with the writing team of Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. Featuring the voices of Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, and Jonathan Freeman, the film follows the titular Aladdin, an Arabian street urchin, who finds a magic lamp containing a genie. With the genie's help, Aladdin disguises himself as a wealthy prince and tries to impress the Sultan in order to win the heart of his free-spirited daughter, Princess Jasmine, while the Sultan's evil vizier Jafar plots to steal the magic lamp for his own uses.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Lyricist Howard Ashman first pitched the idea, and the screenplay went through three drafts before then-Disney Studios president Jeffrey Katzenberg agreed to its production. The animators based their designs on the work of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, and computers were used for both finishing the artwork and creating some animated elements. The musical score was written by Alan Menken and features six songs with lyrics written by both Ashman and Sir Tim Rice, who took over after Ashman's death.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: "Aladdin" was released on November 11, 1992. It received positive reviews from critics (particularly for Williams' performance). It was a commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1992 with an earning of over $504 million in worldwide box office revenue. Upon release, it became the first animated feature to reach the half-billion-dollar mark and was the highest-grossing animated film of all time until it was surpassed by "The Lion King" (1994).


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: "Aladdin" garnered two Academy Awards, as well as other accolades for its soundtrack, which had the first and only number from a Disney feature to earn a Grammy Award for Song of the Year, for the film's "A Whole New World," sung by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle. The film's home video VHS release also set a sales record and grossed about $500million in the United States. success led to various derived works and other material inspired by the film, including two direct-to-video sequels "The Return of Jafar" (1994) and "Aladdin and the King of Thieves" (1996), an animated television series, and a Broadway adaptation. A live-action film adaptation directed by Guy Ritchie was released on May 24, 2019.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Jafar, a ruthless sorcerer and the royal vizier of the Middle Eastern city of Agrabah, seeks a lamp hidden within the Cave of Wonders. The cave's guardian tells him that only one person is worthy to enter: "the diamond in the rough", whom Jafar later identifies as a young street urchin named Aladdin. Meanwhile, Princess Jasmine is upset by her obligation to marry a prince due to the law rather than for love. Concealing herself, she escapes the palace and is saved from an angry merchant by Aladdin and his pet monkey Abu. As a bond between Aladdin and Jasmine develops, the palace guards capture Aladdin on Jafar's orders, during which Jasmine reveals herself. She confronts Jafar to demand Aladdin's release, but he lies to her, saying Aladdin has been executed.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Disguised as an elderly beggar, Jafar frees Aladdin and Abu and brings them to the cave, ordering them to retrieve the lamp. The guardian grants Aladdin entry, but warns him to touch nothing but the lamp. Aladdin finds both the lamp and a magic carpet inside, but Abu greedily grabs a large jewel, triggering the cave's collapse. Aladdin gives the lamp to Jafar, who throws him and Abu into the collapsing cave, though not before Abu steals it back. Trapped, Aladdin rubs the lamp and meets the genie who lives inside it. The Genie grants Aladdin three wishes, though Aladdin tricks him into freeing them all from the cave without using a wish. Upon learning that the Genie desires to be released from servitude, Aladdin promises to use his last wish to free him. Aladdin uses his first wish to become a prince, intending to woo Jasmine.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Jafar's parrot Iago suggests to his master that he can become Sultan by marrying Jasmine. Aladdin, as "Prince Ali Ababwa," arrives in Agrabah with a large host, but Jasmine is angered when her father, the Sultan, discusses her marriage with only Aladdin and Jafar. As a means of apologizing, Aladdin takes Jasmine on a ride with the magic carpet. When she infers his true identity, he claims that he only dresses as a commoner to escape the stresses of royal life. After Aladdin brings Jasmine home, the palace guards capture him on Jafar's behest and throw him into the sea. The Genie appears and saves Aladdin at the cost of his second wish. Aladdin returns to the palace and exposes Jafar's plot, prompting the latter to flee, but not before he glimpses the lamp and determines Aladdin's true identity.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Fearing that he will lose Jasmine if the truth is revealed, Aladdin breaks his promise and refuses to free the Genie. Iago steals the lamp, and Jafar becomes the Genie's new master. He uses his first two wishes to become both Sultan and the world's most powerful sorcerer. He then exposes Aladdin, exiling him, Abu, and the carpet to a frozen wasteland. The three escape and return to Agrabah, where Jasmine tries to help Aladdin steal the lamp back. Jafar notices and overpowers her, Abu, and the carpet with his magic. Aladdin taunts Jafar for being less powerful than the Genie, tricking him into using his last wish to become an all-powerful genie himself. Now bound to his new lamp, Jafar ends up trapped inside it, taking Iago with him. The Genie then throws Jafar's lamp far into the desert, banishing Jafar and Iago to the Cave of Wonders for 10,000 years.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: With Agrabah returned to normal, the Genie encourages Aladdin to use his third wish to regain his royal title and legally marry Jasmine. Aladdin instead decides to keep his promise and frees the Genie. Realizing Aladdin's nobility, the Sultan changes the law to allow Jasmine to marry whoever she chooses. The Genie bids the group a fond farewell and leaves to explore the world, while Aladdin and Jasmine start their new life together.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: In 1988, lyricist Howard Ashman pitched the idea of an animated musical adaptation of Aladdin. Ashman had written a 40-page film treatment remaining faithful to the plot and characters of the original story, but envisioned as a campy 1930s-style musical with a Cab Calloway/Fats Waller-like Genie. Along with partner Alan Menken, Ashman composed several songs and added original characters such as Aladdin's friends named Babkak, Omar, and Kassim to the story. However, Michael Eisner did not think a story set in the Middle East would be commercially appealing, and their project was removed from active development. Ashman and Menken were later recruited to compose songs for "Beauty and the Beast" (1991). Linda Woolverton, who had also worked on "Beauty and the Beast", used their treatment and developed a draft with inspired elements from "The Thief of Bagdad" (1940), such as a villain named Jaf'far, an aged sidekick retired human thief named Abu, and a human handmaiden for the princess. Then, directors Ron Clements and John Musker joined the production, picking "Aladdin" out of three projects offered, which also included an adaptation of "Swan Lake" and "King of the Jungle"—that eventually became "The Lion King" (1994). Before Ashman's death in March 1991, he and Menken had composed "Prince Ali" and his last song, "Humiliate the Boy."


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Musker and Clements wrote a draft of the screenplay, and then delivered a story reel to studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg in April 1991. Katzenberg thought the script "didn't engage," and on a day known by the staff as "Black Friday," demanded that the entire story be rewritten without rescheduling the film's November 25, 1992 release date. Katzenberg requested for Clements and Musker to not be heavily dependent on Ashman's vision, and the removal of Aladdin's mother, remarking, "Eighty-six the mother. The mom's a zero." Katzenberg also influenced in changing the plot element about Jasmine's marriage, which originally had her required by law to be married by sixteen, to remove the age—the Sultan only says "your next birthday"—and make it more specific that her suitor needed to be a prince, which would also set up the ending where the Sultan, inspired by Aladdin's altruism, changes the law to make Jasmine able to marry anyone she deems worthy.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Screenwriting duo Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were brought in to rework the story, and the changes they made included the removal of Aladdin's mother, the strengthening of the character of Princess Jasmine, and the deletion of several Ashman and Menken's songs. Aladdin's personality was rewritten to be "a little rougher, like a young Harrison Ford," and the parrot Iago, originally conceived as an uptight British archetype, was reworked into a comic role after the filmmakers saw Gilbert Gottfried in "Beverly Hills Cop II" (1989), who was then cast for the role. By October 1991, Katzenberg was satisfied with the new version of "Aladdin". As with Woolverton's screenplay, several characters and plot elements were based on "The Thief of Bagdad" (1940), though the location of the film was changed from Baghdad to the fictional Arabian city of Agrabah.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: According to 1994 article in "The Advocate", Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg asked Thomas Schumacher, an openly gay producer, if any of the gay references in the film offended him, such as a scene where the Genie turns into an "effeminate clothier", and another in which he tells Aladdin that "I really like you too, kid, but that doesn't mean I want to pick out curtains with you". Schumacher responded that such references were in "good fun", remarking that "I know we all argue amongst ourselves, but why try to deny the fact that swishy fashion designers exist? They do! What are we running from? Show me ten hairdressers; I'll show you eight gay men".


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: The design for most characters was based on the work of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, which production designer Richard Vander Wende also considered appropriate to the theme, due to similarities to the flowing and swooping lines found in Arabic calligraphy. Jafar's design was not based on Hirschfeld's work because Jafar's supervising animator, Andreas Deja, wanted the character to be contrasting. Each character was animated alone, with the animators consulting each other to make scenes with interrelating characters. Since Aladdin's animator Glen Keane was working in the California branch of Walt Disney Feature Animation, and Jasmine's animator Mark Henn was in the Florida one at Disney-MGM Studios, they had to frequently phone, fax or send designs and discs to each other. The animators filmed monkeys at the San Francisco Zoo to study their movements for Abu's character. Iago's supervising animator Will Finn tried to incorporate some aspects of Gottfried's appearance into the parrot's design, especially his semi-closed eyes and the always-appearing teeth. Some aspects of the Sultan were inspired by the Wizard of Oz, to create a bumbling authority figure. Andreas Deja, Jafar's supervising animator, tried to incorporate Jonathan Freeman's facial expressions and gesturing into the character. Animator Randy Cartwright described working on the Magic Carpet as challenging, since it is only a rectangular shape, that expresses itself through pantomime—"It's sort of like acting by origami." Cartwright kept folding a piece of cloth while animating to see how to position the Carpet. After the character animation was done, the carpet's surface design was applied digitally.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Designed by a team led by supervising animator Glen Keane, Aladdin was initially going to be as young as thirteen, and was originally made to resemble actor Michael J. Fox. During production, it was decided that the design was too boyish and lacked appeal, so the character was made eighteen and redesigned to add elements derived from actor Tom Cruise and Calvin Klein models.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: For the scenery design, various architectural elements seen in 19th-century orientalist paintings and photographs of the Arab world were used for guidance. Other inspirations for design were Disney's animated films from the 1940s and '50s and the 1940 film "The Thief of Bagdad". The coloring was done with the computerized CAPS process, and the color motifs were chosen according to the personality—the protagonists use light colors such as blue, the antagonists darker ones such as red and black, and Agrabah and its palace use the neutral color yellow. Computer animation was used for several elements of the film, such as the tiger entrance of the Cave of Wonders and the scene where Aladdin tries to escape the collapsing cave. Some of the software that was used was Pixar's RenderMan.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Musker and Clements created the Genie with Robin Williams in mind; even though Katzenberg suggested actors such as John Candy, Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy, Williams was approached and eventually accepted the role. Williams came for voice recording sessions during breaks while filming two other films he was starring in at the time, "Hook" (1991) and "Toys" (1992). Unusually for an animated film, much of Williams's dialogue was ad-libbed. For some scenes, Williams was given topics and dialogue suggestions, but allowed to improvise his lines. It was estimated that Williams improvised 52 characters. Eric Goldberg, the supervising animator for the Genie, then reviewed Williams's recorded dialogue and selected the best gags and lines that his crew would create character animation to match.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: The producers added many in-jokes and references to Disney's previous works in the film, such as a "cameo appearance" from directors Clements and Musker and drawing some characters based on Disney workers. Beast, Sebastian, and Pinocchio make brief appearances, and the wardrobe of the Genie at the end of the film—a Goofy hat, a Hawaiian shirt, and sandals—are a reference to a short film that Robin Williams did for the Disney-MGM Studios tour in the late 1980s.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: In gratitude for his success with Touchstone Pictures' "Good Morning, Vietnam", Robin Williams voiced the Genie for SAG scale pay—$75,000—instead of his asking fee of $8 million, on condition that his name or image not be used for marketing, and his (supporting) character not take more than 25% of space on advertising artwork, since Williams' film "Toys" was scheduled for release one month after "Aladdin"s debut. For financial reasons, the studio went back on the deal on both counts, especially in poster art by having the Genie in 25% of the image, but having other major and supporting characters portrayed considerably smaller. The Disney Hyperion book "Aladdin: The Making of an Animated Film" listed both of Williams's characters "The Peddler" and "The Genie" ahead of main characters, but was forced to refer to him only as "the actor signed to play the Genie."


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Disney, while not using Williams' name in commercials as per the contract, used his voice for the Genie in the commercials and used the Genie character to sell toys and fast food tie-ins, without having to pay Williams additional money; Williams unhappily quipped at the time, "The only reason Mickey Mouse has three fingers is because he can't pick up a check." Williams explained to "New York" magazine that his previous "Mork & Mindy" merchandising was different because, "the image is theirs. But the voice, that's me; I gave them myself. When it happened, I said, 'You know I don't do that.' And they [Disney] apologized; they said it was done by other people." Disney attempted to assuage Williams by sending him a Pablo Picasso painting worth more than $1 million at the time, but this move failed to repair the damaged relationship, as the painting was a self-portrait of Picasso as the artist Vincent van Gogh and apparently really "clashed" with the Williams' wilder home decor. Williams refused to sign on for the 1994 direct-to-video sequel "The Return of Jafar", so it was Dan Castellaneta who voiced the Genie. When Jeffrey Katzenberg was replaced by Joe Roth as Walt Disney Studios chairman, Roth organized a public apology to Williams. Williams would, in turn, reprise the role in the second sequel, "Aladdin and the King of Thieves", in 1996.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: "Aladdin" was the third—after "The Little Mermaid" (1989) and "Beauty and the Beast" (1991)—and final Disney film Alan Menken and Howard Ashman had collaborated on, with Tim Rice taking over as lyricist after Ashman had died in March 1991. Although fourteen songs were written for "Aladdin", only seven are featured in the film, three by Ashman and four by Rice. Menken, Ashman, and Rice were praised for creating a soundtrack that is "consistently good, rivaling the best of Disney's other animated musicals from the '90s." The Special Edition soundtrack released in 2004 included four songs in early animation tests, and a music video of one, "Proud of Your Boy," performed by Clay Aiken, which also appears on the album "Disneymania 3". The version of the song "A Whole New World" performed by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle, which plays over the end credits, is, , the only Disney song to win a Grammy Award for Song of the Year.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: The filmmakers thought the moral message of the original tale was inappropriate, and decided to "put a spin on it" by making the fulfillment of wishes seem like a great solution, but eventually becoming a problem. Another major theme was avoiding an attempt to be what the person is not—both Aladdin and Jasmine get into trouble pretending to be different people, and the Prince Ali persona fails to impress Jasmine, who only falls for Aladdin when she finds out who he truly is. Being "imprisoned" is also presented, a fate that occurs to most of the characters—Aladdin and Jasmine are limited by their lifestyles, Genie is attached to his lamp, and Jafar to the Sultan—and is represented visually by the prison-like walls and bars of the Agrabah palace, and the scene involving caged birds which Jasmine later frees. Jasmine is also depicted as a different type of Disney Princess, being rebellious against the royal life and the social structure.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: A large promotion campaign preceded "Aladdin"s debut in theaters, with the film's trailer being attached to most Disney VHS releases (including "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" in April 1992 and "Beauty and the Beast" in October that year), and numerous tie-ins and licensees being released. "Aladdin" was released on November 11, 1992 in two theatres (the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles and the City Cinemas 1, 2 and 3rd Avenue in New York City) and grossed $196,664 in its first 5 days. The film expanded to 1,131 theaters on November 25, 1992, grossing $19.2 million for the weekend, finishing second at the US box office, behind "". It took eight weeks for the film to surpass "Beauty and the Beast" as the most successful animated Disney film at the domestic box office (surpassed by "The Lion King" in 1994).


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: By February 1993, it surpassed "Batman Returns" to become the highest-grossing 1992 film domestically. In the United States, the film held the top spot for five times weekly and breaks the record for the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve with $32.2 million during its 22-week run. "Aladdin" was the most successful film of 1992, grossing $217 million in the United States and over $504 million worldwide. It was the biggest gross for an animated film until "The Lion King" two years later, and was the first full-length animated film to gross $200 million in the United States and Canada. Additionally, it was the first film to cross that mark since "" (1991).


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Outside of the United States and Canada, the film grossed $200 million in 1993, and $250 million by January 1994. In Europe, "Aladdin" defeated "Jurassic Park" to become the continent's box office leader. It set an opening weekend record in South Africa. By 2002, the film had grossed $287 million overseas and $504 million worldwide. Currently, it is the 35th highest-grossing animated film and the third highest-grossing traditionally animated feature worldwide, behind "The Lion King" and "The Simpsons Movie" (2007). It sold an estimated 52.4million tickets in the United States and Canada. When adjusted for inflation (in 2022 dollars), its domestic gross totals $491.4million.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: The film was first released in VHS on September 29, 1993, as part of the Walt Disney Classics line, although, it was not officially advertised until October 1. In its first three days of availability, "Aladdin" sold 10.8 million copies, setting the fastest sales record and grossing about in the United States. In less than three weeks, the VHS release of "Aladdin" sold over 16million units and grossed over in the United States. Upon release of the Sega Genesis video game adaptation in November, "Aladdin" sold about home video units, earning over in the United States. It was the best-selling home video release up until its record was later broken by "The Lion King". This VHS edition entered moratorium on April 30, 1994. A THX-certified widescreen LaserDisc was issued on September 21, 1994, and a Spanish-dubbed VHS for the American market was released on April 14, 1995. In Japan, 2.2million home video units were sold by 1995.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: On October 5, 2004, "Aladdin" was re-released onto VHS and for the first time released on DVD, as part of Disney's Platinum Edition line. The DVD release featured retouched and cleaned-up animation, which had been prepared for the film's planned but ultimately cancelled IMAX reissue in 2003, and a second disc with bonus features. Accompanied by a $19 million marketing campaign, the DVD sold about 3 million units in its first month. The film's soundtrack was available in its original Dolby 5.1 track or in a new Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix. The DVD went into moratorium in January 2008, along with its sequels.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: According to an insert in the "Lady and the Tramp" Diamond Edition release case, "Aladdin" was going to be released on Blu-ray as a Diamond Edition in Spring 2013. Instead, "Peter Pan" was released on Blu-ray as a Diamond Edition on February 5, 2013, to celebrate its 60th anniversary. A non-Diamond Edition Blu-ray was released in a few select European countries in March 2013. The Belgian edition (released without advertisements, commercials or any kind of fanfare) comes as a single-disc version with its extras ported over from the Platinum Edition DVD. The same disc was released in the United Kingdom on April 14, 2013. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on a Diamond Edition Blu-ray on October 13, 2015. The film was released on Digital HD on September 29, 2015. Upon its first week of release on home media in the United States, the film topped the Blu-ray Disc sales chart and debuted at number 2 at the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert chart, which tracks overall disc sales behind the disaster film "San Andreas". The film's Blu-ray release sold 1.81million units and grossed $39 million, .


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: "Aladdin" was re-released on HD and 4K digital download on August 27, 2019, with a physical media re-release on Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 10, 2019, as part of the "Walt Disney Signature Collection".


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that of critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of . The site's consensus reads, "A highly entertaining entry in Disney's renaissance era, "Aladdin" is beautifully drawn, with near-classic songs and a cast of scene-stealing characters." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 86 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "universal acclaim." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" grade.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Most critics praised Robin Williams's performance as the Genie, with Janet Maslin of "The New York Times" declaring that children "needn't know precisely what Mr. Williams is evoking to understand how funny he is." Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" commented that Williams and animation "were born for one another." Warner Bros. Cartoons director Chuck Jones even called the film "the funniest feature ever made." James Berardinelli gave it out of 4 stars, praising the "crisp visuals and wonderful song-and-dance numbers." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" said the comedy made the film accessible to both children and adults, a vision shared with Desson Howe of "The Washington Post", who also said "kids are still going to be entranced by the magic and adventure." Brian Lowry of "Variety" praised the cast of characters, describing the expressive magic carpet as "its most remarkable accomplishment" and considered that ""Aladdin" overcomes most story flaws thanks to sheer technical virtuosity."


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Some aspects of the film were widely criticized. Ed Gonzalez of "Slant Magazine" wrote a negative review, describing the film as racist, ridiculous, and a "narcissistic circus act" from Robin Williams. Ebert, who had generally praised the film in his review, considered the music inferior to its predecessors "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast", and claimed Aladdin and Jasmine were "pale and routine." He criticized what he saw as the film's use of ethnic stereotypes, writing: "Most of the Arab characters have exaggerated facial characteristics—hooked noses, glowering brows, thick lips—but Aladdin and the princess look like white American teenagers."


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: One of the verses of the opening song "Arabian Nights" was altered following complaints from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). The lyrics were changed in July 1993 from ""Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face"" in the original release to ""Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense,"" with the change first appearing on the 1993 video release. The original lyric was intact on the initial CD soundtrack release, but the re-releases use the edited lyric. The Broadway adaptation also uses the edited line. The subsequent line however, ""It's barbaric, but hey, it's home,"" was left intact. "Entertainment Weekly" ranked "Aladdin" in a list of the most controversial films in history, due to this incident. The number has been described in reviews as "simultaneously glamorizing and barbarizing the Arab world." The ADC also complained about the portrayal of the lead characters Aladdin and Jasmine. They accused the filmmakers of anglicizeing their features and giving them Anglo-American accents, in contrast to the other characters in the film, which have foreign accents, grotesque facial features, and appear villainous or greedy.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Concerns were also raised to another scene. When Aladdin is threatened by the tiger Rajah on the palace balcony, Aladdin quietly says a line that some people reported hearing as ""Good teenagers, take off your clothes,"" which they considered a subliminal reference to promiscuity. However, according to the commentary track on the 2004 DVD, while Musker and Clements did admit Scott Weinger ad-libbed during the scene, they claimed "we did not record that, we would not record that," and said the line was ""Good tiger, take off and go..."" and the word "tiger" is overlapped by Rajah's snarl. After the word tiger, a second voice can be heard which has been suggested was accidentally grafted onto the soundtrack.


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Animation enthusiasts have noticed similarities between "Aladdin" and Richard Williams' unfinished film "The Thief and the Cobbler" (also known as "The Princess and the Cobbler" under Allied Filmmakers and "Arabian Knight" under Miramax Films). These similarities include a similar plot, similar characters, scenes and background designs, and the antagonist Zig-Zag's resemblance in character design and mannerisms to Genie and Jafar. Though "Aladdin" was released first, "The Thief and the Cobbler" initially began production much earlier in the 1960s, and was mired in difficulties including financial problems, copyright issues, story revisions and late production times caused by separate studios trying to finish the film after Richard Williams was fired from the project for lack of finished work. The late release, coupled with Miramax purchasing and re-editing the film, has sometimes resulted in "The Thief and the Cobbler" being labeled a rip-off of "Aladdin".


title: Aladdin (1992 Disney film)

text: Alongside its role in the Disney Renaissance, "Aladdin" is often credited as the catalyst in the rise of casting film stars as voice actors in Hollywood animated films with the success of Robin Williams's Genie performance. Entertainment writer Scott Meslow wrote that compared with the character of Aladdin, "Williams's Genie is the character audiences responded to, and—more importantly to Disney—its most marketable character by far," which he concludes led to the "celebrification" of later animated films such as "Shark Tale" (2004) and "Puss in Boots" (2011).