title: Anglican Communion

text: Early in its development following the English Reformation, Anglicanism developed a vernacular prayer book, called the Book of Common Prayer. Unlike other traditions, Anglicanism has never been governed by a magisterium nor by appeal to one founding theologian, nor by an extra-credal summary of doctrine (such as the Westminster Confession of the Presbyterian churches). Instead, Anglicans have typically appealed to the Book of Common Prayer (1662) and its offshoots as a guide to Anglican theology and practise. This has had the effect of inculcating in Anglican identity and confession the principle of "lex orandi, lex credendi" ("the law of praying [is] the law of believing").


title: Anglican Communion

text: Protracted conflict through the 17th century, with radical Protestants on the one hand and Roman Catholics who recognised the primacy of the Pope on the other, resulted in an association of churches that was both deliberately vague about doctrinal principles, yet bold in developing parameters of acceptable deviation. These parameters were most clearly articulated in the various rubrics of the successive prayer books, as well as the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (1563). These articles have historically shaped and continue to direct the ethos of the communion, an ethos reinforced by its interpretation and expansion by such influential early theologians such as Richard Hooker, Lancelot Andrewes and John Cosin.


title: Anglican Communion

text: With the expansion of the British Empire and the growth of Anglicanism outside Great Britain and Ireland, the communion sought to establish new vehicles of unity. The first major expressions of this were the Lambeth Conferences of the communion's bishops, first convened in 1867 by Charles Longley, the Archbishop of Canterbury. From the beginning, these were not intended to displace the autonomy of the emerging provinces of the communion, but to "discuss matters of practical interest, and pronounce what we deem expedient in resolutions which may serve as safe guides to future action".


title: Anglican Communion

text: One of the enduringly influential early resolutions of the conference was the so-called Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1888. Its intent was to provide the basis for discussions of reunion with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, but it had the ancillary effect of establishing parameters of Anglican identity. It establishes four principles with these words:


title: Anglican Communion

text: As mentioned above, the Anglican Communion has no international juridical organisation. The Archbishop of Canterbury's role is strictly symbolic and unifying and the communion's three international bodies are consultative and collaborative, their resolutions having no legal effect on the autonomous provinces of the communion. Taken together, however, the four do function as "instruments of communion", since all churches of the communion participate in them. In order of antiquity, they are:


title: Anglican Communion

text: Since there is no binding authority in the Anglican Communion, these international bodies are a vehicle for consultation and persuasion. In recent times, persuasion has tipped over into debates over conformity in certain areas of doctrine, discipline, worship and ethics. The most notable example has been the objection of many provinces of the communion (particularly in Africa and Asia) to the changing acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals in the North American churches (e.g., by blessing same-sex unions and ordaining and consecrating same-sex relationships) and to the process by which changes were undertaken. (See Anglican realignment)


title: Anglican Communion

text: Those who objected condemned these actions as unscriptural, unilateral, and without the agreement of the communion prior to these steps being taken. In response, the American Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada answered that the actions had been undertaken after lengthy scriptural and theological reflection, legally in accordance with their own canons and constitutions and after extensive consultation with the provinces of the communion.


title: Anglican Communion

text: The Primates' Meeting voted to request the two churches to withdraw their delegates from the 2005 meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council. Canada and the United States decided to attend the meeting but without exercising their right to vote. They have not been expelled or suspended, since there is no mechanism in this voluntary association to suspend or expel an independent province of the communion. Since membership is based on a province's communion with Canterbury, expulsion would require the Archbishop of Canterbury's refusal to be in communion with the affected jurisdictions. In line with the suggestion of the Windsor Report, Rowan Williams (the then Archbishop of Canterbury) established a working group to examine the feasibility of an Anglican covenant which would articulate the conditions for communion in some fashion.


title: Anglican Communion

text: The Anglican communion consists of forty-two autonomous provinces each with its own primate and governing structure. These provinces may take the form of national churches (such as in Canada, Uganda, or Japan) or a collection of nations (such as the West Indies, Central Africa, or Southeast Asia).


title: Anglican Communion

text: In addition to the forty-two provinces, there are five extraprovincial churches under the metropolitical authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.


title: Anglican Communion

text: At its Autumn 2020 meeting the provincial standing committee of the Church of Southern Africa approved a plan to form the dioceses in Mozambique and Angola into a separate autonomous province of the Anglican Communion, to be named the Anglican Church of Mozambique and Angola (IAMA). The plans were also outlined to the Mozambique and Angola Anglican Association (MANNA) at its September 2020 annual general meeting. The new province is Portuguese-speaking, and consists of twelve dioceses (four in Angola, and eight in Mozambique). The twelve proposed new dioceses have been defined and named, and each has a "Task Force Committee" working towards its establishment as a diocese. The plan received the consent of the bishops and diocesan synods of all four existing dioceses in the two nations, and was submitted to the Anglican Consultative Council.


title: Anglican Communion

text: In September 2020 the Archbishop of Canterbury announced that he had asked the bishops of the Church of Ceylon to begin planning for the formation of an autonomous province of Ceylon, so as to end his current position as Metropolitan of the two dioceses in that country.


title: Anglican Communion

text: In addition to other member churches, the churches of the Anglican Communion are in full communion with the Old Catholic churches of the Union of Utrecht and the Scandinavian Lutheran churches of the Porvoo Communion in Europe, the India-based Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian and Malabar Independent Syrian churches and the Philippine Independent Church, also known as the Aglipayan Church.


title: Anglican Communion

text: The Anglican Communion traces much of its growth to the older mission organisations of the Church of England such as the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (founded 1698), the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (founded 1701) and the Church Missionary Society (founded 1799). The Church of England (which until the 20th century included the Church in Wales) initially separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 in the reign of Henry VIII, reunited in 1555 under Mary I and then separated again in 1570 under Elizabeth I (the Roman Catholic Church excommunicated Elizabeth I in 1570 in response to the Act of Supremacy 1559).


title: Anglican Communion

text: The Church of England has always thought of itself not as a new foundation but rather as a reformed continuation of the ancient "English Church" ("Ecclesia Anglicana") and a reassertion of that church's rights. As such it was a distinctly national phenomenon. The Church of Scotland was formed as a separate church from the Roman Catholic Church as a result of the Scottish Reformation in 1560 and the later formation of the Scottish Episcopal Church began in 1582 in the reign of James VI over disagreements about the role of bishops.


title: Anglican Communion

text: The oldest-surviving Anglican church building outside the British Isles (Britain and Ireland) is St Peter's Church in St. George's, Bermuda, established in 1612 (though the actual building had to be rebuilt several times over the following century). This is also the oldest surviving non-Roman Catholic church in the New World. It remained part of the Church of England until 1978 when the Anglican Church of Bermuda separated. The Church of England was the established church not only in England, but in its trans-Oceanic colonies.


title: Anglican Communion

text: Thus the only member churches of the present Anglican Communion existing by the mid-18th century were the Church of England, its closely linked sister church the Church of Ireland (which also separated from Roman Catholicism under Henry VIII) and the Scottish Episcopal Church which for parts of the 17th and 18th centuries was partially underground (it was suspected of Jacobite sympathies).


title: Anglican Communion

text: The enormous expansion in the 18th and 19th centuries of the British Empire brought Anglicanism along with it. At first all these colonial churches were under the jurisdiction of the bishop of London. After the American Revolution, the parishes in the newly independent country found it necessary to break formally from a church whose supreme governor was (and remains) the British monarch. Thus they formed their own dioceses and national church, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in a mostly amicable separation.


title: Anglican Communion

text: At about the same time, in the colonies which remained linked to the crown, the Church of England began to appoint colonial bishops. In 1787, a bishop of Nova Scotia was appointed with a jurisdiction over all of British North America; in time several more colleagues were appointed to other cities in present-day Canada. In 1814, a bishop of Calcutta was made; in 1824 the first bishop was sent to the West Indies and in 1836 to Australia. By 1840 there were still only ten colonial bishops for the Church of England; but even this small beginning greatly facilitated the growth of Anglicanism around the world. In 1841, a "Colonial Bishoprics Council" was set up and soon many more dioceses were created.


title: Anglican Communion

text: In time, it became natural to group these into provinces and a metropolitan bishop was appointed for each province. Although it had at first been somewhat established in many colonies, in 1861 it was ruled that, except where specifically established, the Church of England had just the same legal position as any other church. Thus a colonial bishop and colonial diocese was by nature quite a different thing from their counterparts back home. In time bishops came to be appointed locally rather than from England and eventually national synods began to pass ecclesiastical legislation independent of England.


title: Anglican Communion

text: A crucial step in the development of the modern communion was the idea of the Lambeth Conferences (discussed above). These conferences demonstrated that the bishops of disparate churches could manifest the unity of the church in their episcopal collegiality despite the absence of universal legal ties. Some bishops were initially reluctant to attend, fearing that the meeting would declare itself a council with power to legislate for the church; but it agreed to pass only advisory resolutions. These Lambeth Conferences have been held roughly every 10 years since 1878 (the second such conference) and remain the most visible coming-together of the whole Communion.


title: Anglican Communion

text: The Lambeth Conference of 1998 included what has been seen by Philip Jenkins and others as a "watershed in global Christianity". The 1998 Lambeth Conference considered the issue of the theology of same-sex attraction in relation to human sexuality. At this 1998 conference for the first time in centuries the Christians of developing regions, especially, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, prevailed over the bishops of more prosperous countries (many from the US, Canada, and the UK) who supported a redefinition of Anglican doctrine. Seen in this light 1998 is a date that marked the shift from a West-dominated Christianity to one wherein the growing churches of the two-thirds world are predominant, but the gay bishop controversy in subsequent years led to the reassertion of Western dominance, this time of the liberal variety.


title: Anglican Communion

text: The churches of the Anglican Communion have traditionally held that ordination in the historic episcopate is a core element in the validity of clerical ordinations. The Roman Catholic Church, however, does not recognise Anglican orders (see "Apostolicae curae"). Some Eastern Orthodox churches have issued statements to the effect that Anglican orders could be accepted, yet have still reordained former Anglican clergy; other Eastern Orthodox churches have rejected Anglican orders altogether. Orthodox bishop Kallistos Ware explains this apparent discrepancy as follows:


title: Anglican Communion

text: One effect of the Communion's dispersed authority has been the conflicts arising over divergent practices and doctrines in parts of the Communion. Disputes that had been confined to the Church of England could be dealt with legislatively in that realm, but as the Communion spread out into new nations and disparate cultures, such controversies multiplied and intensified. These controversies have generally been of two types: liturgical and social.


title: Anglican Communion

text: The first such controversy of note concerned that of the growing influence of the Catholic Revival manifested in the Tractarian and so-called Ritualist controversies of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This controversy produced the Free Church of England and, in the United States and Canada, the Reformed Episcopal Church.


title: Anglican Communion

text: Later, rapid social change and the dissipation of British cultural hegemony over its former colonies contributed to disputes over the role of women, the parameters of marriage and divorce, and the practices of contraception and abortion. In the late 1970s, the Continuing Anglican movement produced a number of new church bodies in opposition to women's ordination, prayer book changes, and the new understandings concerning marriage.


title: Anglican Communion

text: More recently, disagreements over homosexuality have strained the unity of the communion as well as its relationships with other Christian denominations, leading to another round of withdrawals from the Anglican Communion. Some churches were founded outside the Anglican Communion in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, largely in opposition to the ordination of openly homosexual bishops and other clergy and are usually referred to as belonging to the Anglican realignment movement, or else as "orthodox" Anglicans. These disagreements were especially noted when the Episcopal Church (US) consecrated an openly gay bishop in a same-sex relationship, Gene Robinson, in 2003, which led some Episcopalians to defect and found the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA); then, the debate re-ignited when the Church of England agreed to allow clergy to enter into same-sex civil partnerships, as long as they remained celibate, in 2005. The Church of Nigeria opposed the Episcopal Church's decision as well as the Church of England's approval for celibate civil partnerships.


title: Anglican Communion

text: "The more liberal provinces that are open to changing Church doctrine on marriage in order to allow for same-sex unions include Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Scotland, South India, South Africa, the US and Wales". The Church of England does not allow same-gender marriages or blessing rites, but does permit special prayer services for same-sex couples following a civil marriage or partnership. The Church of England also permits clergy to enter into same-sex civil partnerships. The Church of Ireland has no official position on civil unions, and one senior cleric has entered into a same-sex civil partnership. The Church of Ireland recognised that it will "treat civil partners the same as spouses". The Anglican Church of Australia does not have an official position on homosexuality.


title: Anglican Communion

text: The conservative Anglican churches, encouraging the realignment movement, are more concentrated in the Global South. For example, the Anglican Church of Kenya, the Church of Nigeria and the Church of Uganda have opposed homosexuality. GAFCON, a fellowship of conservative Anglican churches, has appointed "missionary bishops" in response to the disagreements with the perceived liberalisation in the Anglican churches in North America and Europe.


title: Anglican Communion

text: Debates about social theology and ethics have occurred at the same time as debates on prayer book revision and the acceptable grounds for achieving full communion with non-Anglican churches.


title: Simulacra and Simulation

text: Simulacra and Simulation () is a 1981 philosophical treatise by the philosopher and cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard, in which the author seeks to examine the relationships between reality, symbols, and society, in particular the significations and symbolism of culture and media involved in constructing an understanding of shared existence.


title: Simulacra and Simulation

text: Simulacra are copies that depict things that either had no original, or that no longer have an original. Simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time.


title: Simulacra and Simulation

text: "Simulacra and Simulation" is most known for its discussion of symbols, signs, and how they relate to contemporaneity (simultaneous existences). Baudrillard claims that our current society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that human experience is a simulation of reality. Moreover, these simulacra are not merely mediations of reality, nor even deceptive mediations of reality; they are not based in a reality nor do they hide a reality, they simply hide that nothing like reality is relevant to our current understanding of our lives. The simulacra that Baudrillard refers to are the significations and symbolism of culture and media that construct perceived reality, the acquired understanding by which our lives and shared existence are rendered legible. (These ideas had appeared earlier in Guy Debord's 1967 "The Society of the Spectacle".) Baudrillard believed that society had become so saturated with these simulacra and our lives so saturated with the constructs of society that all meaning was becoming meaningless by being infinitely mutable; he called this phenomenon the "precession of simulacra".


title: Simulacra and Simulation

text: Part of the three order simulacra, the second-order simulacra, a term coined by Jean Baudrillard, are symbols of a non faithful representation to the original. Here, signs and images do not faithfully show us reality, but might hint at the existence of something real which the sign itself is incapable of encapsulating.


title: Simulacra and Simulation

text: While the first-order simulacra is a faithful copy to the original and the third order are symbols that have become without referents, that is, symbols with no real object to represent but pretends to be a faithful copy of an original. Simply put, a third-order simulacra are symbols in themselves taken for reality and further layer of symbolism is added. This occurs when the symbol is taken to be more important or authoritative of the original entity, authenticity has been replaced by copy (thus reality is replaced by a substitute).


title: Simulacra and Simulation

text: The consequence of the propagation of second-order simulacra is that, within the affected context, nothing is "real," though those engaged in the illusion are incapable of seeing it. Instead of having experiences, people observe spectacles, via real or metaphorical control screens. Instead of the real, we have simulation and simulacra, the hyperreal.


title: Simulacra and Simulation

text: In his essay "The Precession of the Simulacra," Baudrillard recalls a tale from a short story by Borges in which a king requests a map (i.e. a symbol) to be produced so detailed that it ends up coming into one-to-one correspondence with the territory (i.e. the real area the map is to represent); this references the philosophical concept of map–territory relation. Baudrillard argues that in the postmodern epoch, the territory ceases to exist, and there is nothing left but the map; or indeed, the very concepts of the map and the territory have become indistinguishable, the distinction which once existed between them having been erased.


title: Simulacra and Simulation

text: Among the many issues associated with the propagation of second-order simulacra to the third-order is what Baudrillard considers the termination of history. The method of this termination comes through the lack of oppositional elements in society, with the mass having become "the silent majority," an imploded concept which absorbs images passively, becoming itself a media overwritten by those who speak for it (i.e. the people are symbolically represented by governing agents and market statistic, marginalizing the people themselves). For Baudrillard this is the natural result of an ethic of unity in which actually agonistic opposites are taken to be essentially the same. For example, Baudrillard contends that moral universalism (human rights, equality) is equated with globalization, which is not concerned with immutable values but with mediums of exchange and equalisation such as the global market and mass media.


title: Simulacra and Simulation

text: "Simulacra and Simulation" identifies three types of simulacra and identifies each with a historical period:


title: Simulacra and Simulation

text: Baudrillard theorizes that the lack of distinctions between reality and simulacra originates in several phenomena:


title: Simulacra and Simulation

text: A specific analogy that Baudrillard uses is a fable derived from "On Exactitude in Science" by Jorge Luis Borges. In it, a great Empire created a map that was so detailed it was as large as the Empire itself. The actual map was expanded and destroyed as the Empire itself conquered or lost territory. When the Empire crumbled, all that was left was the map. In Baudrillard's rendition, it is conversely the map that people live in, the simulation of reality where the people of the Empire spend their lives ensuring their place in the representation is properly circumscribed and detailed by the map-makers; conversely, it is reality that is crumbling away from disuse.


title: Simulacra and Simulation

text: When Baudrillard refers to the "precession of simulacra" in "Simulacra and Simulation", he is referring to the way simulacra have come to "precede" the real in the sense mentioned above, rather than to any "succession" of historical phases of the image. Referring to "On Exactitude in Science", he argued that just as for contemporary society the simulated copy had superseded the original object, so, too, the map had come to precede the geographic territory (c.f. Map–territory relation), e.g. the first Gulf War (which Baudrillard later used as an object demonstration): the image of war preceded real war. War comes not when it is made by sovereign against sovereign (not when killing for attritive and strategic neutralisation purposes is authorised; nor even, properly spoken, when shots are fired); rather, war comes when society is generally convinced that it is coming.


title: Small Soldiers

text: Small Soldiers is a 1998 American action comedy film directed by Joe Dante and written by Gavin Scott, Adam Rifkin, Ted Elliott, and Terry Rossio. It stars Kirsten Dunst and Gregory Smith, along with the voices of Frank Langella and Tommy Lee Jones. It depicts two factions of toys which turn sentient after being programmed with a military microprocessor, putting in danger when one faction ultimately turns lethal.


title: Small Soldiers

text: Released on July 10, 1998, in the United States, the film received mixed reviews, but grossed $87.5 million on a $40 million budget. "Small Soldiers" marks the last on-screen film role of Phil Hartman, who was murdered two months before the film's American premiere, and is dedicated in his memory. It was also the final film role of Clint Walker.


title: Small Soldiers

text: When top defense contractor GloboTech Industries acquires the Heartland Toy Company, CEO Gil Mars commissions toy designers Larry Benson and Irwin Wayfair to develop toys capable of "playing back". Mars selects Larry's "Commando Elite" action figures for the project, with Irwin's "Gorgonites" — peaceful monsters intended to be educational toys — as their enemies. Facing a tight deadline, Larry unwittingly equips the toys with GloboTech's X1000 microprocessor.


title: Small Soldiers

text: Working at his family's toy store, teenager Alan Abernathy persuades delivery driver Joe to give him a shipment of the new GloboTech toys, activating Chip Hazard, head of the Commando Elite, and Archer, the Gorgonites' leader. Alan develops a crush on his neighbor Christy Fimple, and returns home to discover Archer in his backpack, realizing the toys are essentially self-aware and capable of learning. That night, Chip Hazard activates his comrades to attack the Gorgonites, and Alan finds the store in disarray and the new toys missing. Christy helps clean up, and Alan calls GloboTech to file a complaint. Larry and Irwin hear his message, and discover the X1000 is a military-grade artificial intelligence chip, susceptible to EMPs.


title: Small Soldiers

text: Following Alan home, the Commando Elite interrogate Archer, but Alan intervenes and is wounded by Nick Nitro, whom he partially destroys in the garbage disposal. His parents hear the commotion, but refuse to believe his explanation about the toys. Alan and Archer find the Gorgonites hiding in the store's dumpster; unlike the militant Commando Elite, the Gorgonites were programmed with Irwin's original friendly and inquisitive personalities, and merely seek to find their home, which they believe to be in Yosemite National Park. Tapping the Abernathys' phone line, the Commando Elite learn of Alan's interest in Christy. Infiltrating her house, they capture her younger brother Timmy, sedate their parents, and use Nick Nitro's AI chip to transform Christy's "Gwendy" fashion dolls into reinforcements. Taking Christy hostage, they demand that Alan surrender the Gorgonites.


title: Small Soldiers

text: Alan and Archer sneak into the Fimples' house and rescue Christy. The Commando Elite pursue them with improvised vehicles built in the Fimples' garage, but are destroyed in a fiery crash; only Chip Hazard survives. At the Abernathys' house, Alan, Christy, and the Gorgonites try to convince their families of the truth about the toys, and Irwin and Larry arrive to talk to Alan about his voicemail. Chip Hazard arrives with a new army of Commando Elite and more improvised vehicles and weapons, having hijacked a recall shipment driven by Joe, and lays siege to the house, cutting off the electricity. When Irwin suggests an EMP, the group realizes they can overload the nearby power lines. Christy, Irwin, and Larry make their way to the Fimples' house to ensure a larger surge, and the Gorgonites emerge and fight back against the Commando Elite. Climbing the utility pole, Alan is attacked by Chip Hazard, who battles and defeats Archer, but Alan thrusts him into the power transformers as Larry and Irwin wedge open the breakers, triggering the EMP blast and destroying the toys.


title: Small Soldiers

text: In the morning, as the authorities clear up the aftermath, Mars arrives by helicopter, paying off Joe and both families for the damage, and instructs Larry and Irwin to repurpose the Commando Elite for military use. Alan and Christy start a relationship, and he discovers the Gorgonites survived the EMP underneath the Fimples' satellite dish. Alan brings the Gorgonites to Yosemite, sharing a goodbye before sending them off in his father's toy boat to find their home.


title: Small Soldiers

text: "Small Soldiers" was Hartman's last on-screen role before his death and the film is dedicated to his memory.


title: Small Soldiers

text: Excluding Jones and Dern, the Commando Elite are voiced by cast members from the 1967 film "The Dirty Dozen". Dern replaced "The Dirty Dozen" actor Richard Jaeckel, who died before shooting began. Excluding Langella and Cummings, the Gorgonites are voiced by cast members from the 1984 film "This Is Spinal Tap". The film was the last role for Walker before his retirement from acting.


title: Small Soldiers

text: On making the film, director Joe Dante recalled, "Originally I was told to make an edgy picture for teenagers, but when the sponsor tie-ins came in the new mandate was to soften it up as a kiddie movie. Too late, as it turned out, and there are elements of both approaches in there. Just before release it was purged of a lot of action and explosions." On the film's special effects, Dante stated, "We were planning to use a lot of Stan Winston's puppets—he had made some very elaborate puppets that could do a lot of things. But in practice, we found it was much simpler and cheaper to let the CGI people do the work after we'd shot the scenes. So, I would say, it's one-third puppetry and the rest CGI in "Small Soldiers", even though the original idea was to do mostly puppetry."


title: Small Soldiers

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, 49% of 45 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average score is of 6.2/10. The critical consensus states, ""Small Soldiers" has plenty of visual razzle-dazzle, but the rote story proves disappointingly deficient in director Joe Dante's trademark anarchic spirit." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Small Soldiers

text: Siskel & Ebert gave it Two Thumbs Down. Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, saying: "The toys are presented as individuals who can think for themselves, and there are believable heroes and villains among them. For smaller children, this could be a terrifying experience." Caroline Westbrook of "Empire Magazine" gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and said: "It's "Gremlins" with toy soldiers, except not quite as dark or funny."


title: Small Soldiers

text: Filmmaker Gregory P. Grant filed suit against Steven Spielberg, DreamWorks and Universal Pictures for copying his film "Ode to GI Joe", which played at film festivals and earned him a Student Academy Award.


title: Small Soldiers

text: A soundtrack containing classic rock blended with hip hop was released on July 7, 1998, by DreamWorks Records. It peaked at 103 on the "Billboard 200". The film score was composed and conducted by veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith. In addition, a video game based on the film was developed by DreamWorks Interactive and released by Electronic Arts on September 30, 1998. Kenner Products (a subsidiary of Hasbro) produced a line of toys, which featured the Gorgonites and the Commando Elite. Burger King teamed up with the film to promote their new product, the Rodeo Burger. They created a line of kids' meal toys tied to the film. They were met with some controversy after the film received a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Burger King executives claimed this caught the company by surprise as they were led to believe the film would receive no higher than a PG rating. According to Joe Dante, the MPAA gave the film a PG-13 rating due to the scene in which the Commando Elite put drugs in Phil and Marion's drink. While the pamphlet accompanying the toys included the disclaimer "While toys are suitable for children of all ages, the movie "Small Soldiers" may contain material that is inappropriate for younger children," some restaurants accepted an exchange for Mr. Potato Head toys.


title: Small Soldiers

text: A remake of "Small Soldiers" was in development by 20th Century Fox called "Toymageddon". The script was purchased in January 2014, and director Justin Lin was set to produce the film. The story was described to be set in a "toy factory that begins to run amok." At that time it was not explicitly stated to be a remake of "Small Soldiers".


title: Small Soldiers

text: Due to the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney on March 20, 2019, Disney later in August cancelled the film along with over 200 other projects, which revealed the film was intended as a remake of "Small Soldiers".


title: Mycelium

text: Mycelium (plural mycelia) is a root-like structure of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are found in and on soil and many other substrates. A typical single spore germinates into a monokaryotic mycelium, which cannot reproduce sexually; when two compatible monokaryotic mycelia join and form a dikaryotic mycelium, that mycelium may form fruiting bodies such as mushrooms. A mycelium may be minute, forming a colony that is too small to see, or may grow to span thousands of acres as in "Armillaria".


title: Mycelium

text: Through the mycelium, a fungus absorbs nutrients from its environment. It does this in a two-stage process. First, the hyphae secrete enzymes onto or into the food source, which break down biological polymers into smaller units such as monomers. These monomers are then absorbed into the mycelium by facilitated diffusion and active transport.


title: Mycelium

text: Mycelia are vital in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems for their role in the decomposition of plant material. They contribute to the organic fraction of soil, and their growth releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere (see carbon cycle). Ectomycorrhizal extramatrical mycelium, as well as the mycelium of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, increase the efficiency of water and nutrient absorption of most plants and confers resistance to some plant pathogens. Mycelium is an important food source for many soil invertebrates. They are vital to agriculture and are important to almost all species of plants, many species co-evolving with the fungi. Mycelium is a primary factor in a plant's health, nutrient intake, and growth, with mycelium being a major factor to plant fitness.


title: Mycelium

text: "Mycelium", like "fungus", can be considered a mass noun, a word that can be either singular or plural. The term "mycelia", though, like "fungi", is often used as the preferred plural form.


title: Mycelium

text: One of the primary roles of fungi in an ecosystem is to decompose organic compounds. Petroleum products and some pesticides (typical soil contaminants) are organic molecules (i.e., they are built on a carbon structure), and thereby show a potential carbon source for fungi. Hence, fungi have the potential to eradicate such pollutants from their environment unless the chemicals prove toxic to the fungus. This biological degradation is a process known as bioremediation.


title: Mycelium

text: Mycelial mats have been suggested as having potential as biological filters, removing chemicals and microorganisms from soil and water. The use of fungal mycelium to accomplish this has been termed mycofiltration.


title: Mycelium

text: Knowledge of the relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and plants suggests new ways to improve crop yields.


title: Mycelium

text: When spread on logging roads, mycelium can act as a binder, holding disturbed new soil in place preventing washouts until woody plants can establish roots.


title: Mycelium

text: Alternatives to polystyrene and plastic packaging can be produced by growing mycelium in agricultural waste.


title: Mycelium

text: Fungi are essential for converting biomass into compost, as they decompose feedstock components such as lignin, which many other composting microorganisms cannot. Turning a backyard compost pile will commonly expose visible networks of mycelia that have formed on the decaying organic material within. Compost is an essential soil amendment and fertilizer for organic farming and gardening. Composting can divert a substantial fraction of municipal solid waste from landfills.


title: Adam Granduciel

text: Adam Granofsky (born February 15, 1979), better known under his stage name Adam Granduciel, is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is the frontman and primary songwriter of the indie rock band The War on Drugs, with whom he has recorded five studio albums, and a former member of Kurt Vile's backing band The Violators.


title: Adam Granduciel

text: Adam Granduciel was born in Dover, Massachusetts. His father Mark Granofsky is a first-generation American who was born to Russian-Jewish immigrants.


title: Adam Granduciel

text: He attended the Roxbury Latin School of West Roxbury. A French-language pun by a teacher there inspired his stage name; "du ciel" means "of sky" in French. He is a graduate of Dickinson College, where he studied painting and photography.


title: Adam Granduciel

text: Granduciel began a relationship with actress Krysten Ritter in August 2014. In February 2019, Ritter revealed that she and Granduciel were expecting their first child. Their son, Bruce Julian Knight Granofsky, was born on July 29, 2019. In 2021 they were reported as “drifting apart” in their relationship and split after 7 years together. This was later denied. A source close to Krysten Ritter later denied the pair’s split, telling "In Touch", “This is not true and they are still together.”


title: Rice University

text: William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities in the United States.


title: Rice University

text: Opened in 1912 as the Rice Institute after the murder of its namesake William Marsh Rice, Rice is a research university with an undergraduate focus. Its emphasis on undergraduate education is demonstrated by its 6:1 student-faculty ratio. The university has a very high level of research activity, with $156 million in sponsored research funding in 2019. Rice is noted for its applied science programs in the fields of artificial heart research, structural chemical analysis, signal processing, space science, and nanotechnology. Rice has been a member of the Association of American Universities since 1985 and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".


title: Rice University

text: The university is organized into eleven residential colleges and eight schools of academic study, including the Wiess School of Natural Sciences, the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the School of Social Sciences, School of Architecture, Shepherd School of Music and the School of Humanities. Rice's undergraduate program offers more than fifty majors and two dozen minors, and allows a high level of flexibility in pursuing multiple degree programs. Additional graduate programs are offered through the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business and the Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies. Rice students are bound by the strict Honor Code, which is enforced by a student-run Honor Council.


title: Rice University

text: Rice competes in 14 NCAA Division I varsity sports and is a part of Conference USA, often competing with its cross-town rival the University of Houston. Intramural and club sports are offered in a wide variety of activities such as jiu jitsu, water polo, and crew.


title: Rice University

text: The university's alumni include more than two dozen Marshall Scholars and a dozen Rhodes Scholars. Given the university's close links to NASA, it has produced a significant number of astronauts and space scientists. In business, Rice graduates include CEOs, founders of Fortune 500 companies and 3 billionaires; in politics, alumni include congressmen, governors, cabinet secretaries, judges, and mayors. Two alumni have won the Nobel Prize.


title: Rice University

text: Rice University's history began with the demise of Massachusetts businessman William Marsh Rice, who had made his fortune in real estate, railroad development and cotton trading in the state of Texas. In 1891, Rice decided to charter a free-tuition educational institute in Houston, bearing his name, to be created upon his death, earmarking most of his estate towards funding the project. Rice's will specified the institution was to be "a competitive institution of the highest grade" and that only white students would be permitted to attend. On the morning of September 23, 1900, Rice, age 84, was found dead by his valet, Charles F. Jones, and was presumed to have died in his sleep. Shortly thereafter, a large check made out to Rice's New York City lawyer, signed by the late Rice, aroused the suspicion of a bank teller, due to the misspelling of the recipient's name. The lawyer, Albert T. Patrick, then announced that Rice had changed his will to leave the bulk of his fortune to Patrick, rather than to the creation of Rice's educational institute. A subsequent investigation led by the District Attorney of New York resulted in the arrests of Patrick and of Rice's butler and valet Charles F. Jones, who had been persuaded to administer chloroform to Rice while he slept. Rice's friend and personal lawyer in Houston, Captain James A. Baker, aided in the discovery of what turned out to be a fake will with a forged signature. Jones was not prosecuted since he cooperated with the district attorney, and testified against Patrick. Patrick was found guilty of conspiring to steal Rice's fortune and he was convicted of murder in 1901 (he was pardoned in 1912 due to conflicting medical testimony). Baker helped Rice's estate direct the fortune, worth $4.6 million in 1904 ($ million today), towards the founding of what was to be called the Rice Institute, later to become Rice University. The board took control of the assets on April 29 of that year.


title: Rice University

text: In 1907, the Board of Trustees selected the head of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy at Princeton University, Edgar Odell Lovett, to head the institute, which was still in the planning stages. He came recommended by Princeton's president, Woodrow Wilson. In 1908, Lovett accepted the challenge, and was formally inaugurated as the institute's first president on October 12, 1912. Lovett undertook extensive research before formalizing plans for the new Institute, including visits to 78 institutions of higher learning across the world on a long tour between 1908 and 1909. Lovett was impressed by such things as the aesthetic beauty of the uniformity of the architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, a theme which was adopted by the institute, as well as the residential college system at Cambridge University in England, which was added to the Institute several decades later. Lovett called for the establishment of a university "of the highest grade," "an institution of liberal and technical learning" devoted "quite as much to investigation as to instruction." [We must] "keep the standards up and the numbers down," declared Lovett. "The most distinguished teachers must take their part in undergraduate teaching, and their spirit should dominate it all."


title: Rice University

text: In 1911, the cornerstone was laid for the institute's first building, the Administration Building, now known as Lovett Hall in honor of the founding president. On September 23, 1912, the 12th anniversary of William Marsh Rice's murder, the "William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Letters, Science, and Art" began course work with 59 enrolled students, who were known as the "59 immortals," and about a dozen faculty. After 18 additional students joined later, Rice's initial class numbered 77, 48 male and 29 female. Unusual for the time, Rice accepted coeducational admissions from its beginning, but on-campus housing would not become co-ed until 1957.


title: Rice University

text: Per William Marsh Rice's will and Rice Institute's initial charter, the students paid no tuition. Classes were difficult, however, and about half of Rice's students had failed after the first 1912 term. At its first commencement ceremony, held on June 12, 1916, Rice awarded 35 bachelor's degrees and one master's degree. That year, the student body also voted to adopt the Honor System, which still exists today. Rice's first doctorate was conferred in 1918 on mathematician Hubert Evelyn Bray.


title: Rice University

text: The Founder's Memorial Statue, a bronze statue of a seated William Marsh Rice, holding the original plans for the campus, was dedicated in 1930, and installed in the central academic quad, facing Lovett Hall. The statue was crafted by John Angel. In 2020, Rice students petitioned the university to take down the statue due to the founder's history as slave owner. In January 2022, the Board of Trustees announced plans to relocate the statue within the academic quadrangle.


title: Rice University

text: During World War II, Rice Institute was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, which offered students a path to a Navy commission.


title: Rice University

text: The residential college system proposed by President Lovett was adopted in 1958, with the East Hall residence becoming Baker College, South Hall residence becoming Will Rice College, West Hall becoming Hanszen College, and the temporary Wiess Hall becoming Wiess College.


title: Rice University

text: In 1959, the Rice Institute Computer went online. 1960 saw Rice Institute formally renamed William Marsh Rice University. Rice acted as a temporary intermediary in the transfer of land between Humble Oil and Refining Company and NASA, for the creation of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (now called Johnson Space Center) in 1962. President John F. Kennedy then gave a speech at Rice Stadium reiterating that the United States intended to reach the Moon before the end of the decade of the 1960s, and "to become the world's leading space-faring nation". The relationship of NASA with Rice University and the city of Houston has remained strong .


title: Rice University

text: The original charter of Rice Institute dictated that the university admit and educate, tuition-free, "the white inhabitants of Houston, and the state of Texas". In 1963, the governing board of Rice University filed a lawsuit to allow the university to modify its charter to admit students of all races and to charge tuition. Ph.D. student Raymond Johnson became the first black Rice student when he was admitted that year. In 1964, Rice officially amended the university charter to desegregate its graduate and undergraduate divisions. The Trustees of Rice University prevailed in a lawsuit to void the racial language in the trust in 1966. Rice began charging tuition for the first time in 1965. In the same year, Rice launched a $33 million ($ million) development campaign. $43 million ($ million) was raised by its conclusion in 1970. In 1974, two new schools were founded at Rice, the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management and the Shepherd School of Music. The Brown Foundation Challenge, a fund-raising program designed to encourage annual gifts, was launched in 1976 and ended in 1996 having raised $185 million ($ million). The Rice School of Social Sciences was founded in 1979.


title: Rice University

text: On-campus housing was exclusively for men for the first forty years, until 1957. Jones College was the first women's residence on the Rice campus, followed by Brown College. According to legend, the women's colleges were purposefully situated at the opposite end of campus from the existing men's colleges as a way of preserving campus propriety, which was greatly valued by Edgar Odell Lovett, who did not even allow benches to be installed on campus, fearing that they "might lead to co-fraternization of the sexes". The path linking the north colleges to the center of campus was given the tongue-in-cheek name of "Virgin's Walk". Individual colleges became coeducational between 1973 and 1987, with the single-sex floors of colleges that had them becoming co-ed by 2006. By then, several new residential colleges had been built on campus to handle the university's growth, including Lovett College, Sid Richardson College, and Martel College.


title: Rice University

text: The Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations was held at Rice in 1990. Three years later, in 1993, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy was created. In 1997, the Edythe Bates Old Grand Organ and Recital Hall and the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, renamed in 2005 for the late Nobel Prize winner and Rice professor Richard E. Smalley, were dedicated at Rice. In 1999, the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology was created. The Rice Owls baseball team was ranked #1 in the nation for the first time in that year (1999), holding the top spot for eight weeks.


title: Rice University

text: In 2003, the Owls won their first national championship in baseball, which was the first for the university in any team sport, beating Southwest Missouri State in the opening game and then the University of Texas and Stanford University twice each en route to the title. In 2008, President David Leebron issued a ten-point plan titled "Vision for the Second Century" outlining plans to increase research funding, strengthen existing programs, and increase collaboration. The plan has brought about another wave of campus constructions, including the erection of the newly renamed BioScience Research Collaborative building (intended to foster collaboration with the adjacent Texas Medical Center), a new recreational center and the renovated Autry Court basketball stadium, and the addition of two new residential colleges, Duncan College and McMurtry College.


title: Rice University

text: Beginning in late 2008, the university considered a merger with Baylor College of Medicine, though the merger was ultimately rejected in 2010. Select Rice undergraduates are currently guaranteed admission to Baylor College of Medicine upon graduation as part of the Rice/Baylor Medical Scholars program. According to History Professor John Boles' recent book "University Builder: Edgar Odell Lovett and the Founding of the Rice Institute," the first president's original vision for the university included hopes for future medical and law schools.


title: Rice University

text: In June 2019, the university's president announced plans for a task force on Rice's "past in relation to slave history and racial injustice", stating that "Rice has some historical connections to that terrible part of American history and the segregation and racial disparities that resulted directly from it".


title: Rice University

text: In 2021, in response to requests from community members and Rice students for a Community Benefits Agreement for the Rice Innovation District, President Leebron chose instead to pursue a development agreement with the City of Houston. The proposed agreement will not include a community coalition as a signatory, although that is typically how Community Benefits Agreements are structured.


title: Rice University

text: Rice's campus is a heavily wooded tract of land in the museum district of Houston, located close to the city of West University Place.


title: Rice University

text: Five streets demarcate the campus: Greenbriar Street, Rice Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Main Street, and University Boulevard. For most of its history, all of Rice's buildings have been contained within this "outer loop". In recent years, new facilities have been built close to campus, but the bulk of administrative, academic, and residential buildings are still located within the original pentagonal plot of land. The new Collaborative Research Center, all graduate student housing, the Greenbriar building, and the Wiess President's House are located off-campus.


title: Rice University

text: Rice prides itself on the amount of green space available on campus; there are only about 50 buildings spread between the main entrance at its easternmost corner, and the parking lots and Rice Stadium at the West end. The Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum, consisting of more than 4000 trees and shrubs (giving birth to the legend that Rice has a tree for every student), is spread throughout the campus.


title: Rice University

text: The university's first president, Edgar Odell Lovett, intended for the campus to have a uniform architecture style to improve its aesthetic appeal. To that end, nearly every building on campus is noticeably Byzantine in style, with sand and pink-colored bricks, large archways and columns being a common theme among many campus buildings. Noteworthy exceptions include the glass-walled Brochstein Pavilion, Lovett College with its Brutalist-style concrete gratings, Moody Center for the Arts with its contemporary design, and the eclectic-Mediterranean Duncan Hall. In September 2011, Travel+Leisure listed Rice's campus as one of the most beautiful in the United States.


title: Rice University

text: Lovett Hall, named for Rice's first president, is the university's most iconic campus building. Through its Sallyport arch, new students symbolically enter the university during matriculation and depart as graduates at commencement. Duncan Hall, Rice's computational engineering building, was designed to encourage collaboration between the four different departments situated there. The building's foyer, drawn from many world cultures, was designed by the architect to symbolically express this collaborative purpose.


title: Rice University

text: The campus is organized in a number of quadrangles. The Academic Quad, anchored by a statue of founder William Marsh Rice, includes Ralph Adams Cram's masterpiece, the asymmetrical Lovett Hall, the original administrative building; Fondren Library; Herzstein Hall, the original physics building and home to the largest amphitheater on campus; Sewall Hall for the social sciences and arts; Rayzor Hall for the languages; and Anderson Hall of the Architecture department. The Humanities Building, winner of several architectural awards, is immediately adjacent to the main quad. Further west lies a quad surrounded by McNair Hall of the Jones Business School, the Baker Institute, and Alice Pratt Brown Hall of the Shepherd School of Music. These two quads are surrounded by the university's main access road, a one-way loop referred to as the "inner loop". In the Engineering Quad, a trinity of sculptures by Michael Heizer, collectively entitled "45 Degrees, 90 Degrees, 180 Degrees", are flanked by Abercrombie Laboratory, the Cox Building, and the Mechanical Laboratory, housing the Electrical, Mechanical, and Earth Science/Civil Engineering departments, respectively. Duncan Hall is the latest addition to this quad, providing new offices for the Computer Science, Computational and Applied Math, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Statistics departments.


title: Rice University

text: Roughly three-quarters of Rice's undergraduate population lives on campus. Housing is divided among eleven residential colleges, which form an integral part of student life at the university (see Residential colleges of Rice University). The colleges are named for university historical figures and benefactor. Rice does not have or endorse a Greek system, with the residential college system taking its place. Five colleges, McMurtry, Duncan, Martel, Jones, and Brown are located on the north side of campus, across from the "South Colleges", Baker, Will Rice, Lovett, Hanszen, Sid Richardson, and Wiess, on the other side of the Academic Quadrangle. Of the eleven colleges, Baker is the oldest, originally built in 1912, and the twin Duncan and McMurtry colleges are the newest, and opened for the first time for the 2009–10 school year. Will Rice, Baker, and Lovett colleges are undergoing renovation to expand their dining facilities as well as the number of rooms available for students.


title: Rice University

text: The on-campus football facility, Rice Stadium, opened in 1950 with a capacity of 70,000 seats. After improvements in 2006, the stadium is currently configured to seat 47,000 for football but can readily be reconfigured to its original capacity of 70,000, more than the total number of Rice alumni, living and deceased. The stadium was the site of Super Bowl VIII and a speech by John F. Kennedy on September 12, 1962, in which he challenged the nation to send a man to the moon by the end of the decade. The recently renovated Tudor Fieldhouse, formerly known as Autry Court, is home to the basketball and volleyball teams. Other stadia include the Rice Track/Soccer Stadium and the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium. A new Rec Center now houses the intramural sports offices and provide an outdoor pool, training and exercise facilities for all Rice students, while athletics training will solely be held at Tudor Fieldhouse and the Rice Football Stadium.


title: Rice University

text: In early 2019, Rice announced the site where the abandoned Sears building in Midtown Houston stood, along with its surrounding area, would be transformed into "The Ion," the hub of the 16-acre South Main Innovation District. President of Rice, David Leebron stated "We chose the name Ion because it's from the Greek ienai, which means 'go'. We see it as embodying the ever-forward motion of discovery, the spark at the center of a truly original idea."


title: Rice University

text: Students of Rice and other Houston-area colleges and universities making up the Student Coalition for a Just and Equitable Innovation Corridor are advocating for a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), a contractual agreement between a developer and a community coalition. Residents of neighboring Third Ward and other members of the Houston Coalition for Equitable Development Without Displacement (HCEDD) have faced consistent opposition from the City of Houston and Rice Management Company to a CBA as traditionally defined, in favor of an agreement between the latter two entities without a community coalition signatory.


title: Rice University

text: In August 2021, an economic development agreement that would provide Rice Management Company with up to $65 million in cost reimbursement from local taxes was given initial approval by the Midtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone. The agreement does not require a Community Benefits Agreement in exchange for funding. Final approval requires a vote by the Houston City Council.


title: Rice University

text: Rice University is chartered as a non-profit organization and is governed by a privately appointed board of trustees. The board consists of a maximum of 25 voting members who serve four-year terms. The trustees serve without compensation and a simple majority of trustees must reside in Texas, including at least four within the greater Houston area. The board of trustees delegates its power by appointing a president to serve as the chief executive of the university. David W. Leebron was appointed president in 2004 and succeeded Malcolm Gillis who served since 1993. The provost, six vice presidents, and other university officials report to the president. The president is advised by a University Council composed of the provost, eight members of the Faculty Council, two staff members, one graduate student, and two undergraduate students. The president presides over a Faculty Council which has the authority to alter curricular requirements, establish new degree programs, and approve candidates for degrees.


title: Rice University

text: The university's academics are organized into several schools. Schools that have undergraduate and graduate programs include:


title: Rice University

text: Rice's undergraduate students are admitted from a centralized admissions process, which admits new students to the university as a whole, rather than a specific school (the schools of Music and Architecture are decentralized). Students are encouraged to select the major path that best suits their desires; a student can later decide that they would rather pursue study in another field, or continue their current coursework and add a second or third major. These transitions are designed to be simple, with students not required to decide on a specific major until their sophomore year of study. Rice offers 360 degrees in over 60 departments. There are 40 undergraduate degree programs, 51 masters programs, and 29 doctoral programs.


title: Rice University

text: Faculty members of each of the departments elect chairs to represent the department to each School's dean and the deans report to the Provost who serves as the chief officer for academic affairs.


title: Rice University

text: The Rice Management Company manages the $6.5 billion Rice University endowment (June 2019) and $957 million debt. The endowment provides 40% of Rice's operating revenues. Allison Thacker is the President and Chief Investment Officer of the Rice Management Company, having joined the university in 2011.


title: Rice University

text: Rice is a medium-sized, highly residential research university. The majority of enrollments are in the full-time, four-year undergraduate program emphasizing arts & sciences and professions. There is a very high level of research activity. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools as well as the professional accreditation agencies for engineering, management, and architecture.


title: Rice University

text: Each of Rice's departments is organized into one of three distribution groups, and students whose major lies within the scope of one group must take at least 3 courses of at least 3 credit hours each of approved distribution classes in each of the other two groups, as well as completing one physical education course as part of the LPAP (Lifetime Physical Activity Program) requirement. All new students must take a Freshman Writing Intensive Seminar (FWIS) class, and for students who do not pass the university's writing composition examination (administered during the summer before matriculation), FWIS 100, a writing class, becomes an additional requirement.


title: Rice University

text: The majority of Rice's undergraduate degree programs grant B.S. or B.A. degrees. Rice has recently begun to offer minors in areas such as business, energy and water sustainability, and global health.


title: Rice University

text: , men make up 51.5% of the undergraduate body and 64% of the professional and post-graduate student body. The student body consists of students from all 50 states, including the District of Columbia, two U.S. Territories, and 83 foreign countries. Forty percent of degree-seeking students are from Texas.


title: Rice University

text: The Rice Honor Code plays an integral role in academic affairs. Almost all Rice exams are unproctored and professors give timed, closed-book exams that students take home and complete at their own convenience. Potential infractions are reported to the student Honor Council, elected by popular vote. The penalty structure is established every year by Council consensus; typically, penalties have ranged from a letter of reprimand to an 'F' in the course and a two semester suspension. During Orientation Week, students must take and pass a test demonstrating that they understand the Honor System's requirements and sign a Matriculation Pledge. On assignments, Rice students affirm their commitment to the Honor Code by writing "On my honor, I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this (examination, quiz or paper)."


title: Rice University

text: Rice is noted for its applied science programs in the fields of nanotechnology, artificial heart research, structural chemical analysis, signal processing and space science, being ranked 1st in the world in materials science research by the Times Higher Education (THE) in 2010.


title: Rice University

text: For fall 2020, Rice received 23,443 freshmen applications of which 2,346 were admitted (10.0%) up from a record-low 8.7% acceptance rate in 2019. The middle 50% range of SAT scores for the class of 2023 were 1470–1560; the middle 50% range of the ACT Composite score was 33–35.


title: Rice University

text: Rice was ranked tied at 17th among national universities and 108th among global universities, 6th for "best undergraduate teaching", 5th for "Best Value", and tied for 16th "Most Innovative" among national universities in the U.S. by "U.S. News & World Report" in its 2022 edition. "Forbes" magazine ranked Rice University 21st nationally among 650 liberal arts colleges, universities and service academies in 2019, 19th among research universities and 2nd in the South.


title: Rice University

text: In 2020, Rice was ranked 105th in the world by the "Times Higher Education World University Rankings". In 2020, Rice was ranked tied for 95th internationally (41st nationally) by the "Academic Ranking of World Universities". Rice University was also ranked 85th globally in 2020 by "QS World University Rankings". Rice is noted for its entrepreneurial activity, and has been recognized as the top ranked business incubator in the world by the Stockholm-based UBI Index for both 2013 and 2014.


title: Rice University

text: The "Princeton Review" ranked Rice 4th for "Best Quality of Life", 8th for "Happiest Students", 10th among the most LGBT friendliest colleges, and one of the top 50 best value private colleges in its 2020 edition. Rice was ranked 41st among research universities by the Center for Measuring University Performance in 2007.


title: Rice University

text: In 2011 the Leiden Ranking, which measures the performance of 500 major research universities worldwide, using metrics designed to measure research impact ranked Rice 4th Globally, for effectiveness and contribution of research. In 2013 the university was again ranked first globally for quality of research in natural sciences and engineering, and 6th globally for all sciences.


title: Rice University

text: Situated on nearly in the center of Houston's Museum District and across the street from the city's Hermann Park, Rice is a closed campus filled with greenery and close to amenities in the nation's fourth-largest city. Rice's campus adjoins Hermann Park, the Texas Medical Center, and a neighborhood commercial center called Rice Village. Hermann Park includes the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Houston Zoo, Miller Outdoor Theatre and an 18-hole municipal golf course. NRG Park, home of NRG Stadium and the Astrodome, is two miles (3 km) south of the campus. Among the dozen or so museums in the Museum District was (until May 14, 2017) the Rice University Art Gallery, open during the school year from 1995 until it closed in 2017. Easy access to downtown's theater and nightlife district and to Reliant Park is provided by the Houston METRORail system, with a station adjacent to the campus's main gate. The campus recently joined the Zipcar program with two vehicles to increase the transportation options for students and staff who need but do not otherwise have access to a vehicle.


title: Rice University

text: In 1957, Rice University implemented a residential college system, which was proposed by the university's first president, Edgar Odell Lovett. The system was inspired by existing systems in place in England and at several other universities in the United States. The existing residences known as East, South, West, and Wiess Halls became Baker, Will Rice, Hanszen, and Wiess Colleges, respectively.


title: Rice University

text: Each residential college has its own cafeteria (serveries) and each residential college has study groups and its own social practices.


title: Rice University

text: Although each college is composed of a full cross-section of students at Rice, they have over time developed their own traditions and "personalities". When students matriculate they are randomly assigned to one of the eleven colleges, although "legacy" exceptions are made for students whose siblings or parents have attended Rice. Students generally remain members of the college that they are assigned to for the duration of their undergraduate careers, even if they move off-campus at any point. Students are guaranteed on-campus housing for freshman year and two of the next three years; each college has its own system for determining allocation of the remaining spaces, collectively known as "Room Jacking". Students develop strong loyalties to their college and maintain friendly rivalry with other colleges, especially during events such as Beer Bike and O-Week. Colleges keep their rivalries alive by performing "jacks," or pranks, on each other, especially during O-Week and Willy Week. During Matriculation, Commencement, and other formal academic ceremonies, the colleges process in the order in which they were established.


title: Rice University

text: Baker 13 is a tradition in which students run around campus wearing nothing but shoes and shaving cream at 10 p.m. on the 13th and the 31st of every month, as well as the 26th on months with fewer than 31 days. The event, long sponsored by Baker College, usually attracts a small number of students, but Halloween night and the first and last relevant days of the school year both attract large numbers of revelers.


title: Rice University

text: According to the official website, "Beer Bike is a combination intramural bicycle race and drinking competition dating back to 1957. Ten riders and ten chuggers make up a team. Elaborate rules include details such as a prohibition of "bulky or wet clothing articles designed to absorb beer/water or prevent spilled beer/water from being seen" and regulations for chug can design. Each residential college as well as the Graduate Student Association participates with a men's team, a women's team, and alumni (co-ed) team. Each leg of the race is a relay in which a team's "chugger" must chug of beer or water for the men's division and for women before the team's "rider" may begin to ride. Participants who both ride and chug are referred to as "Ironmen". Willy Week is a term coined in the 1990s to refer to the week preceding Beer Bike, a time of general energy and excitement on campus. Jacks (pranks) are especially common during Willy Week; some examples in the past include removing showerheads and encasing the Hanszen guardian."


title: Rice University

text: The morning of the Beer Bike race itself begins with what is by some estimations the largest annual water balloon fight in the world. Beer Bike is Rice's most prominent student event, and for younger alumni it serves as an unofficial reunion weekend on par with Homecoming. The 2009 Beer Bike race was dedicated to the memory of Dr. Bill Wilson, a popular professor and long-time resident associate of Wiess College who died earlier that year.


title: Rice University

text: In the event of inclement weather, Beer Bike becomes a Beer Run. The rules are nearly identical, except that the Bikers must instead run the length of the track.


title: Rice University

text: Rice Coffeehouse began in Hanszen College, where students would serve coffee in the Weenie Loft, a study room in the old section's fourth floor. Later, the coffee house moved to the Hanszen basement to accommodate more student patrons. That coffeehouse became known as Breadsticks and Pomegranates, and closed due to flooding. Demand for an on-campus Coffeehouse grew and in 1990, the Rice Coffeehouse was founded.


title: Rice University

text: The Rice Coffeehouse is a not-for-profit student-run organization serving Rice University and the greater Houston community. Over the past few years, it has introduced fair-trade and organic coffee and loose-leaf teas.


title: Rice University

text: Coffeehouse baristas are referred to as K.O.C.'s, or Keepers of the Coffee. Rice Coffeehouse has also adopted an unofficial mascot, the squirrel, which can be found on T-shirts, mugs, and bumper stickers stuck on laptops across campus. The logo pays tribute to Rice's squirrel population, claimed by students to be unusually plump and frighteningly tame.


title: Rice University

text: Formerly known as Willy's Pub, The Pub at Rice is Rice's student-run pub located in the basement of the Rice Memorial Center. It opened on April 11, 1975, with Rice President Norman Hackerman pouring the first beer. The original name was chosen by students in tribute to the university's founder, William Marsh Rice. After the drinking age in Texas was raised in 1986, the pub entered a period of financial difficulties and in April 1995, was destroyed in a fire. The space was gutted but renovated and remains open. On February 15, 2022, the Rice Thresher announced the rebranding of Willy's Pub as The Pub at Rice.


title: Rice University

text: Rice Bikes is a full-service on-campus bicycle sale, rental, and repair shop. It originated in the basement of Sid Richardson College in February 2011. In 2012, Rice Bikes officially became the university's third student-run business. Rice Bikes merged with a student-run bicycle rental business in 2013, and operations moved to the Rice Memorial Center in 2014. In 2017, the business moved to the garage of the Rice Housing and Dining department's headquarters.


title: Rice University

text: Rice Bikes sells refurbished bicycles bought from students and functions as a full bicycle repair shop.


title: Rice University

text: Rice has a weekly student newspaper ("The Rice Thresher"), a yearbook (The Campanile), college radio station (KTRU Rice Radio), and now defunct, campus-wide student television station (RTV5). They are based out of the RMC student center. In addition, Rice hosts several student magazines dedicated to a range of different topics; in fact, the spring semester of 2008 saw the birth of two such magazines, a literary sex journal called "Open" and an undergraduate science research magazine entitled "Catalyst".


title: Rice University

text: "The Rice Thresher" is published every Wednesday and is ranked by Princeton Review as one of the top campus newspapers nationally for student readership. It is distributed around campus, and at a few other local businesses and has a website. The "Thresher" has a small, dedicated staff and is known for its coverage of campus news, open submission opinion page, and the satirical Backpage, which has often been the center of controversy. The newspaper has won several awards from the College Media Association, Associated Collegiate Press and Texas Intercollegiate Press Association.


title: Rice University

text: The Rice Campanile was first published in 1916 celebrating Rice's first graduating class. It has published continuously since then, publishing two volumes in 1944 since the university had two graduating classes due to World War II. The website was created sometime in the early to mid 2000s. The 2015 won the first place Pinnacle for best yearbook from College Media Association.


title: Rice University

text: KTRU Rice Radio is the student-run radio station. Though most DJs are Rice students, anyone is allowed to apply. It is known for playing genres and artists of music and sound unavailable on other radio stations in Houston, and often, the US. The station takes requests over the phone or online. In 2000 and 2006, KTRU won Houston Press' Best Radio Station in Houston. In 2003, Rice alum and active KTRU DJ DL's hip-hip show won Houston Press' Best Hip-hop Radio Show. On August 17, 2010, it was announced that Rice University had been in negotiations to sell the station's broadcast tower, FM frequency and license to the University of Houston System to become a full-time classical music and fine arts programming station. The new station, KUHA, would be operated as a not-for-profit outlet with listener supporters. The FCC approved the sale and granted the transfer of license to the University of Houston System on April 15, 2011, however, KUHA proved to be an even larger failure and so after four and a half years of operation, The University of Houston System announced that KUHA's broadcast tower, FM frequency and license were once again up for sale in August 2015. KTRU continued to operate much as it did previously, streaming live on the Internet, via apps, and on HD2 radio using the 90.1 signal. Under student leadership, KTRU explored the possibility of returning to FM radio for a number of years. In spring 2015, KTRU was granted permission by the FCC to begin development of a new broadcast signal via LPFM radio. On October 1, 2015, KTRU made its official return to FM radio on the 96.1 signal. While broadcasting on HD2 radio has been discontinued, KTRU continues to broadcast via internet in addition to its LPFM signal.


title: Rice University

text: RTV5 is a student-run television network available as channel 5 on campus. RTV5 was created initially as Rice Broadcast Television in 1997; RBT began to broadcast the following year in 1998, and aired its first live show across campus in 1999. It experienced much growth and exposure over the years with successful programs like "Drinking with Phil”, “The Meg & Maggie Show”, which was a variety and call-in show, a weekly news show, and extensive live coverage in December 2000 of the shut down of KTRU by the administration. In spring 2001, the Rice undergraduate community voted in the general elections to support RBT as a blanket tax organization, effectively providing a yearly income of $10,000 to purchase new equipment and provide the campus with a variety of new programming. In the spring of 2005, RBT members decided the station needed a new image and a new name: Rice Television 5. One of RTV5's most popular shows was the 24-hour show, where a camera and couch placed in the RMC stayed on air for 24 hours. One such show is held in fall and another in spring, usually during a weekend allocated for visits by prospective students. RTV5 has a video on demand site at rtv5.rice.edu. The station went off the air in 2014 and changed its name to Rice Video Productions. In 2015 the group's funding was threatened, but ultimately maintained. In 2016 the small student staff requested to no longer be a blanket-tax organization. In the fall of 2017, the club did not register as a club.


title: Rice University

text: "The Rice Review", also known as R2, is a yearly student-run literary journal at Rice University that publishes prose, poetry, and creative nonfiction written by undergraduate students, as well as interviews. The journal was founded in 2004 by creative writing professor and author Justin Cronin.


title: Rice University

text: "The Rice Standard" was an independent, student-run variety magazine modeled after such publications as "The New Yorker" and "Harper's". Prior to fall 2009, it was regularly published three times a semester with a wide array of content, running from analyses of current events and philosophical pieces to personal essays, short fiction and poetry. In August 2009, the "Standard" transitioned to a completely online format with the launch of their redesigned website, ricestandard.org. The first website of its kind on Rice's campus, the "Standard" featured blog-style content written by and for Rice students. "The Rice Standard" had around 20 regular contributors, and the site features new content every day (including holidays). In 2017 no one registered The Rice Standard as a club within the university.


title: Rice University

text: "Open", a magazine dedicated to "literary sex content," predictably caused a stir on campus with its initial publication in spring 2008. A mixture of essays, editorials, stories and artistic photography brought Open attention both on campus and in the Houston Chronicle. The third and last annual edition of "Open" was released in spring of 2010.


title: Rice University

text: Rice plays in NCAA Division I athletics and is part of Conference USA. Rice was a member of the Western Athletic Conference before joining Conference USA in 2005. Rice is the second-smallest school, measured by undergraduate enrollment, competing in NCAA Division I FBS football, only ahead of Tulsa.


title: Rice University

text: The Rice baseball team won the 2003 College World Series, defeating Stanford, giving Rice its only national championship in a team sport. The victory made Rice University the smallest school in 51 years to win a national championship at the highest collegiate level of the sport. The Rice baseball team has played on campus at Reckling Park since the 2000 season. , the baseball team has won 14 consecutive conference championships in three different conferences: the final championship of the defunct Southwest Conference, all nine championships while a member of the Western Athletic Conference, and five more championships in its first five years as a member of Conference USA. Additionally, Rice's baseball team has finished third in both the 2006 and 2007 College World Series tournaments. Rice now has made six trips to Omaha for the CWS. In 2004, Rice became the first school ever to have three players selected in the first eight picks of the MLB draft when Philip Humber, Jeff Niemann, and Wade Townsend were selected third, fourth, and eighth, respectively. In 2007, Joe Savery was selected as the 19th overall pick.


title: Rice University

text: In 2004–05, Rice sent its women's volleyball, soccer, and basketball teams to their respective NCAA tournaments. The women's swim team has consistently brought at least one member of their team to the NCAA championships since 2013. In 2005–06, the women's soccer, basketball, and tennis teams advanced, with five individuals competing in track and field. In 2006–07, the Rice women's basketball team made the NCAA tournament, while again five Rice track and field athletes received individual NCAA berths. In 2008, the women's volleyball team again made the NCAA tournament.


title: Rice University

text: In 2011 the Women's Swim team won their first conference championship in the history of the university. This was an impressive feat considering they won without having a diving team. The team repeated their C-USA success in 2013 and 2014.


title: Rice University

text: In 2017, the women's basketball team, led by second-year head coach Tina Langley, won the Women's Basketball Invitational, defeating UNC-Greensboro 74–62 in the championship game at Tudor Fieldhouse.


title: Rice University

text: Though not a varsity sport, Rice's ultimate frisbee women's team, named Torque, won consecutive Division III national championships in 2014 and 2015.


title: Rice University

text: In 2006, the football team qualified for its first bowl game since 1961, ending the second-longest bowl drought in the country at the time. On December 22, 2006, Rice played in the New Orleans Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana against the Sun Belt Conference champion, Troy. The Owls lost 41–17. The bowl appearance came after Rice had a 14-game losing streak from 2004 to 2005 and went 1–10 in 2005. The streak followed an internally authorized 2003 McKinsey report that stated football alone was responsible for a $4 million deficit in 2002. Tensions remained high between the athletic department and faculty, as a few professors who chose to voice their opinion were in favor of abandoning the football program. The program success in 2006, the "Rice Renaissance," proved to be a revival of the Owl football program, quelling those tensions. David Bailiff took over the program in 2007 and has remained head coach. Jarett Dillard set an NCAA record in 2006 by catching a touchdown pass in 13 consecutive games and took a 15-game overall streak into the 2007 season.


title: Rice University

text: In 2008, the football team posted a 9–3 regular season, capping off the year with a 38–14 victory over Western Michigan University in the Texas Bowl. The win over Western Michigan marked the Owls' first bowl win in 45 years.


title: Rice University

text: Rice Stadium also serves as the performance venue for the university's Marching Owl Band, or "MOB." Despite its name, the MOB is a scatter band that focuses on performing humorous skits and routines rather than traditional formation marching.


title: Rice University

text: Rice Owls men's basketball won 10 conference titles in the former Southwest Conference (1918, 1935*, 1940, 1942*, 1943*, 1944*, 1945, 1949*, 1954*, 1970; * denotes shared title). Most recently, guard Morris Almond was drafted in the first round of the 2007 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz. Rice named former Cal Bears head coach Ben Braun as head basketball coach to succeed Willis Wilson, fired after Rice finished the 2007–2008 season with a winless (0–16) conference record and overall record of 3–27.


title: Rice University

text: Rice's mascot is Sammy the Owl. In previous decades, the university kept several live owls on campus in front of Lovett College, but this practice has been discontinued, due to public concern regarding animal welfare.


title: Rice University

text: Rice also has a 12-member coed cheerleading squad and a coed dance team, both of which perform at football and basketball games throughout the year.


title: Rice University

text: , Rice has graduated 98 classes of students consisting of 51,961 living alumni. Over 100 students at Rice have been Fulbright Scholars, 25 Marshall Scholars, 25 Mellon Fellows, 12 Rhodes Scholars, 6 Udall Scholars, and 65 Watson Fellows, among several other honors and awards.


title: Rice University

text: Rice's distinguished faculty and alumni consists of five Nobel laureates, a Turing Award winner, two Pulitzer Prize award winners, six Fulbright Scholars, 29 Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Recipients, 14 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1 Abel Prize winner, 3 members of the American Philosophical Society, 35 Guggenheim Fellowships, 12 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 2 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 10 members of the National Academy of Sciences, five fellows of the National Humanities Center, and 86 fellows of the National Science Foundation.


title: Rice University

text: In science and technology, Rice alumni include 14 NASA astronauts; Robert Curl, Nobel laureate discoverer of fullerene; Robert Woodrow Wilson, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation; David Eagleman, celebrity neuroscientist and "NYT" bestselling author; and NASA former Apollo 11 and 13 warning systems engineer and motivational speaker Jerry Woodfill.


title: Rice University

text: In athletics, Rice alumni incldude: Lance Berkman, Brock Holt, Bubba Crosby, Harold Solomon, Frank Ryan, Tommy Kramer,Jose Cruz, Jr., O.J. Brigance, Larry Izzo, James Casey, Courtney Hall, Bert Emanuel, Luke Willson, Tony Cingrani, Anthony Rendon, and Leo Rucka, as well as three Olympians (Funmi Jimoh '06, Allison Beckford '04, and William Fred Hansen '63).


title: Takehito Koyasu

text: When Koyasu was in junior high school, he, as an aspiring screen actor himself, was such a movie buff that he would watch movies every day without going to school. By chance, he saw the scene before Tetsurō Hoshino's departure in "Adieu Galaxy Express 999" where a group of nameless soldiers take him on the 999 and send him on his way, and was impressed by it. This sparked his interest in voice acting, and since then it has been his policy to aim for "three-dimensional acting." After graduating from high school, he entered a training school. In 1988, he made his voice acting debut in "Wowser", and in 1989, he played his first regular character as Gai, the King Yaksha in "Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato". Although he was a regular character in the series, he was in the position of a villain whose inner workings were rarely discussed in the story, so it was difficult for Koyasu to grasp the role and he had to do several dozen retakes for a single line. He later said that although his name recognition as a voice actor had increased, he did not feel like he was doing his best.


title: Takehito Koyasu

text: Afterwards, Koyasu played the role of Minos in the OVA "Aries" released in 1990. The OVA was based on a fantasy manga of the same name that was being serialized at the time, and the voice actors for the main characters were to be decided by a magazine reader's vote. Since Koyasu had appeared in "Shurato" shortly before this, he had some recognition among the viewers, and he received the most votes for the role of Hades, the main character. However, at the time, Koyasu was still an unknown name in the voice acting industry, and the production members voiced their concerns about giving the lead role to a newcomer like Koyasu. As a result, the results of the readers' poll were rejected, and Koyasu was given the role of Hades' subordinate Minos, a role with little screentime.


title: Takehito Koyasu

text: In "Tekkaman Blade", Koyasu played the main character's rival, Tekkaman Evil (Shinya Aiba). Koyasu himself has often said in interviews that this is his favorite character, and after a period of sluggish performance, he put his voice acting career on the line to play the role, which ultimately led to his recovery. He also said that when he was playing the character, he thought he was really great, but when he watched the footage again later in life, he thought he was terrible at it, which led him to believe he was making progress.


title: Takehito Koyasu

text: In the late 1990s, Koyasu worked on conceptualizing for the media franchise "Weiß Kreuz". He also formed the voice acting unit "Weiß" consisting of voice castmates Shin-ichiro Miki, Tomokazu Seki and Hiro Yūki, and became the first male voice actor to appear on the cover of a voice acting magazine and the first voice actor to make a music clip. In 2000–2001, he was active in music under the name ZAZEL.


title: Takehito Koyasu

text: After working as a member of Production Baobab (1988–1998), Koyasu established his own representative office, T's Factory, in 1998. On May 5, 2020, on the occasion of his birthday, the official website and Twitter account of T's Factory were opened, and his profile was also released at the same time.


title: Takehito Koyasu

text: In 2020, Koyasu made his first appearance with his son, voice actor Kōki Koyasu, in an advertisement for "Duel Masters". In April, he and Kōki teamed up for their own radio show, "Takehito & Kōki's KOYASU RADIO."


title: Takehito Koyasu

text: Koyasu's name "Takehito" comes from the fact that his birthday is on Children's Day. His motto is to "make two-dimensional into three-dimensional." His hobby is writing novels and he professes to like video games. He has played every game he has appeared in, but he is not very good at action or shooting games.


title: Enemy (2021 film)

text: Enemy is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Anand Shankar and produced by Vinod Kumar under the banner of Mini Studios. The film features Vishal, Arya, Mirnalini Ravi, and Mamta Mohandas in the lead roles, while Prakash Raj, Thambi Ramaiah, and Karunakaran play supporting roles. The film received mixed reviews from critics and audience.


title: Enemy (2021 film)

text: 1996: In Ooty, Chozhan Ramalingam and Rajiv Paarirajan are two friends who are trained by Paarirajan, Rajiv's father who is an ex-CBI officer. He enables them to join the police force. Although given equal training, Chozhan appears to best out Rajiv, causing the latter to turn jealous of the former. One day, Chozhan and Rajiv are playing chess in which Rajiv wins. While Rajiv leaves Chozhan pondering over the outcome, he sees Paarirajan dead on the floor. The boys are escorted to the police station and although Chozhan tells the inspector and Ramalingam, Chozhan's risk-averse father, that he can bust the killer using his skills, Ramalingam takes Chozhan away, leaving Rajiv alone.


title: Enemy (2021 film)

text: 2021: Chozhan becomes a departmental store owner, run by Ramalingam in Singapore. However, he has now evolved into a part-time vigilante and secretly thwarts minor crimes and corruption to help the Tamil community, One day, a gas company near his store suddenly bursts, which kills 11 Tamil people and severely injures five more. Chozhan nabs Joseph, the painter, who is behind the mess and hand him over to the police. The next day, the Indian External Affairs minister, who comes to Singapore to address the Tamil people struggles to speak at the gathering and Chozhan immediately senses that her artificial cardiac pacemaker had been tampered with, and shoots to save her.


title: Enemy (2021 film)

text: Chozhan is caught by the police but is later released after they realized that he saved her. As soon as Chozhan tips off the police, they capture the culprit at a hotel revealed to be Rajiv, who is now a hardened assassin, who was hired by the Beijing corporate businessman to kill the External affairs minister. However, Rajiv escapes by threatening the policemen by killing their families. Chozhan meets up with Rajiv, who reveals the incident that happened on the day they separated: Rajiv was confronted by Paarirajan who berated him for misusing his skills to loot some money, which made Rajiv kill his father. He also overheard him saying that Chozhan would eventually overshadow Rajiv in anything, thus inciting him to develop a permanent deep hatred for Chozhan.


title: Enemy (2021 film)

text: Upon hearing this, Chozhan warns that he would pay for his mistakes. Instead, Rajiv argues that he has evolved and grown in multiple ways and is way too advanced for Chozhan to intercept, while challenging him to rescue one of his close ones that he would soon kidnap. Chozhan calls everyone for a surprise engagement with Ashvitha. He did this to make sure his loved ones are always with him so none of them get kidnapped by Rajiv. At his engagement with Ashvitha, Chozhan realizes that his cousin's daughter, Pinky has gone missing from her school excursion. Soon, Rajiv contacts him and informs him that he kidnapped Pinky from her school to kill her, but Chozhan responds by abducting Rajiv's pregnant wife Anisha. Chozhan threatens to kill Anisha if anything happens to Pinky.


title: Enemy (2021 film)

text: Chozhan and Rajiv meet in order to exchange their kins. As Rajiv releases Pinky over to Chozhan, Chozhan says that he would not let go of this issue easily. He makes a deal with Rajiv: he will safely transport Anisha back to India if Rajiv surrenders to the police for the deaths of the 11 people. Rajiv agrees reluctantly and surrenders himself. As Chozhan transports Anisha to the airport, The hitman, who was sent by Beijing businessman to kill Rajiv learns about Anisha's connection to Rajiv, where he follows and slits her throat in the washroom. In prison, Rajiv finds out about Anisha's death on TV and is anguished. He thinks Chozhan had broken his deal and escapes the prison, by swallowing prawns making him choke and allergies. He plots against Chozhan by kidnapping the children of his area and addresses the community that in order to save their children, Ramalingam must die.


title: Enemy (2021 film)

text: Rajiv attempts to brainwash someone into shooting Ramalingam to ensure the safety of their children. No one does so, so Rajiv extorts Ramalingam alone to commit suicide by drinking rat poison. In the meantime, Chozhan saves the children. When Chozhan returns to his community with the children, Ramalingam dies, not before telling Chozhan to finish Rajiv. Chozhan confronts Rajiv inside a skyscraper and after an intense combat, Chozhan kicks Rajiv off the building and grabs him by his leg. In the end, he divulges that he wasn't Anisha's murderer and the Beijing corporates were behind it. Rajiv gets shocked after knowing the truth and tries to convince Chozhan to pull him up, but Chozhan drops him off the building leading to his death. Several years later, Chozhan takes his son and lays flowers on his father's grave, and also on Rajiv's grave.


title: Enemy (2021 film)

text: The principal photography of the film began in November 2020 and the shoot wrapped up on 12 July 2021.


title: Enemy (2021 film)

text: The songs were composed by S. Thaman and Sam C. S. while the latter did the film score. This marks Thaman's third collaboration with Vishal after "Pattathu Yaanai" and "Ayogya", as well as with Arya after "Settai" and "Meaghamann", plus Sam's second collaboration with both Vishal and Thaman after the aforementioned "Ayogya".


title: Enemy (2021 film)

text: The film was initially scheduled to be theatrically released on 14 October 2021, but then pushed to 4 November 2021. The satellite and digital rights of the film were sold to Zee Tamil and SonyLIV on 18 February 2022.


title: Enemy (2021 film)

text: Ranjani Krishnakumar of Film Companion wrote, "Enemy is like Vishal’s dance — full-bodied, hard-working, energetic, confident, but entirely devoid of knack. That doesn’t make it unwatchable though."


title: Enemy (2021 film)

text: The Times of India gave the film 3 out of 5 writing "Arya as Rajiv looks perfect and menacing. His character holds the audience with its rage. Only if the writing had been little better, his role could have possibly been one of the best villain acts. Vishal, too, lives up beyond the expectations and does justice to his role. RD Rajasekhar's visuals add up to the hype and the cuts (Raymond Derrick Crasta is the editor) look fast-paced for an engaging thriller. The stunt sequence in the climax is neatly done and definitely deserves a mention." Behindwoods gave the film 2.5 out of 5 writing "Overall, the film works well technically and engages you well. The entertainment quotient is mostly fulfilled by the various action scenes and the film does justice to the action-drama genre. Vishal and Arya carry the film throughout on their shoulders and also save it from disappointing you. Though not a great film by any means, Enemy will satisfy you." Moviecrow gave the film 2.5 out of 5 writing "Despite the issues with the writing Enemy is a watchable affair."


title: Enemy (2021 film)

text: Only Kolywood gave the film 2.25 out of 5 writing "Vishal brings out a convincing performance in the lead role, as he has lots to do in the film including song sequences. The actor is particularly spectacular in the action blocks. Arya offers excellent support, playing the negative role to perfection and also carrying out the fight sequences in the right way."