title: The Coldest Game

text: The first scene is one of a Grand Master chess match. One of the players (the American) walks out to the table where the other (the Russian) is already seated. The American looks dazed and has a blood stain on his hand.


title: The Coldest Game

text: We cut back to seven days earlier, when the American chess player, an unkempt middle aged man, is talking to a taxi driver who addresses him as the ‘professor’ and drops him off at his apartment. As the chess player walks in, a car pulls up outside the apartment. We cut to a scene in a bar where the chess player is in a card game with three others and switches off a TV news item about the upcoming chess match between Soviet champion Alexander Gavrylov and the American Konigsberg. The chess player wins the card game, takes the money and then receives his cut from the barman. This seems to be a source of income for the chess player.


title: The Coldest Game

text: An attractive girl in the bar (Agent Stone) approaches the chess player, whom she recognizes as Joshua Mansky, a brilliant mathematician and former champion chess player. She offers a proposal, only for Mansky to walk out of the bar before hearing it; he is followed out of the bar by another man (Agent White) who bundles him into the back of the car that was waiting outside his apartment. His agent kidnappers take him on board a plane, drugged. He wakes up in a safe room in the US Embassy, where their conversations are secure, and meets Agent Novak, who leads the operation. We learn that Mansky is a genius who defeated Konigsberg twenty years before but has an unpredictable temperament. He has some part to play in the winning of the Cold War.


title: The Coldest Game

text: He is told he will have to compete in a chess tournament against Alexander Gavrylov in the Polish capital, Warsaw as Konigsberg, the earstwhile American contender, has died. Per tournament rules, Mansky is the only eligible substitute for Konigsberg, as Mansky was the last person to beat him; Konigsberg was found dead by Soviet poisoning.


title: The Coldest Game

text: Mansky agrees to play. However, his drinking problem becomes apparent when he is found unconscious in his hotel room. Amphetamine drugs help him to regain consciousness before he has to go on to the chess match stage to make his first official appearance as the replacement American player. He is unable to make the first ceremonial move on the chess board after his opponent as he sees 8900 moves at one time.


title: The Coldest Game

text: Mansky is housed in the hotel venue of the chess match Palace of Culture and Science and meets the hotel director (Alfred Slega) who also seems to like alcohol. The hotel director is told by a Soviet general major (General Krutov, Russian counter-intelligence) to 'look after' Mansky, implying he will keep the American chess player drunk.


title: The Coldest Game

text: The film cuts to 4 days before the opening scene. Mansky recalls he got drunk with the hotel director in the morning and does not recall the day at all including the first chess game. Agent Stone reveals that he won the game in 32 moves only. Mansky's eccentric behaviour and alcoholism is revealed to be partly due to his sheer brilliance, with alcohol slowing his brain function enough to operate more normally.


title: The Coldest Game

text: The Russian general major meets Gavrylov, and encourages him to keep playing on despite losing the first match. He tells Alfred to deny the American delegation alcohol. However, Mansky continues to access alcohol, smuggling it from functions he attends as part of the Chess social evenings.


title: The Coldest Game

text: In the second game, a hypnotist in the audience blocks Mansky's thoughts and he concedes the game. Agent White pursues the hypnotist out of the chess game theatre, but is stopped by members of the Soviet group, who threaten his family who they know a lot about, including his wife being pregnant. Among the tournament attendees is a Soviet officer who is working with the Americans, Agent White tells Agent Stone they call him Gift. He is not sure how to identify him.


title: The Coldest Game

text: Alfred Slega befriends Mansky, and comes to him via a secret back door into his room wardrobe that allows passage into the toilets in the lobby, where he hides some alcohol for Mansky to secretly use as needed. He shares his personal experience of Soviet influence over communist Poland with Mansky, and views the Warsaw Pact as merely a continuation of the Nazi occupation. Together, they sneak in and out of the hotel through the Warsaw sewers, and Mansky learns the topography of the city through the Hotel Director as if it were a chess board. Alfred possesses a red book that allows immunity from questioning from Soviet troops. They go to a bar where they meet many of the Director’s friends, who support Mansky in the chess more than Gavrylov, and who are sympathetic to American values.


title: The Coldest Game

text: The next day Agent White visits Mansky’s room, which is now shown to be bugged by the Soviets. He tells Mansky that someone may approach him in Soviet uniform that he can trust, who has a scar at the back of his right hand. Before Agent White can say anymore, he dies in Mansky’s arms, poisoned. Mansky calls Agent Stone, who asks Mansky why Agent White came into his room. Mansky says the room is bugged, but Agent Stone tells him the room is clean. Mansky becomes distraught, so Stone takes him to the US embassy on medical grounds, where they try to brief him on the latest in Cuba. The third game is considered a draw due to his feigned illness.


title: The Coldest Game

text: The agents tell Mansky about John Gift, a code name for a high ranking Soviet officer who is a spy, who only Agent White was working with. He was going to deliver the blueprints for the warheads in Cuba, but the Soviets stung the Americans in Moscow with the assistance of a spy within the Americans; given Gift was coming to Warsaw for the tournament, the chess game is in fact a game within a game, Gift searching for an opportunity to provide critical information to the Americans regarding Soviet capabilities and intentions in Cuba. Gift knows he can trust Mansky, as clearly he cannot be a spy. Agent Stone tells Mansky he needs to get the microfilm of the blueprints from Gift, hidden within a champagne cork. To do this, Mansky has to make the next game a draw, so the Soviet delegation comes to the after-match social event.


title: The Coldest Game

text: General Krutov explains to one of his staff that Americans call a democracy one in which they discriminate against women and Black peoples, and perpetuate social inequality between the rich and the worker, and force poorer nations to give away their riches to the USA, waging war against those who do not follow the American model by nationalising their industries. Mansky's relates to Agent Stone on their return to the hotel his prior assistance to Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project, which birthed the profoundly destructive power of nuclear weapons into human hands, for which he remains regretful.


title: The Coldest Game

text: During the fourth game, Mansky looks to the audience often during the game, his thinking obviously not on the game, speculating who might be John Gift. In a break period, he goes to the lobby toilets to drink some of the hidden alcohol whereupon General Krutov’s staff member enters his cubicle and hands him a cork. Agent Stone then enters the cubicle, and tells Mansky to keep the cork despite Mansky offering it to her. Then both her and the other Soviet are attacked and killed in the toilet by a man in Soviet uniform. Mansky returns to the game, which is back to the opening scene of the film. His brain, suddenly transformed by the alcohol, switches on and he proposes a draw to the judges. His opponent turns this down disdainfully, as Mansky is clearly in a bad position from the earlier passage of play. Mansky then makes a number of quick moves in the game interspersed by countermoves by an increasingly frustrated Gavrylov and when he proposes a draw again to the judges, Gavrylov agrees and he applauds Mansky, squaring the series 2-2. When Mansky asks to go back to the US embassy he is told the American delegation have to stay in the hotel quarantined, Mansky goes back to his room, and the usual social event after the match carries on without him, the rest of the Soviet delegation being present along with Gavrylov. Alfred smuggles some alcohol out of the event and brings it to Mansky’s room via the secret entrance in his wardrobe. Mansky asks him for help; Alfred switches on the radio loud, clearly knowing the room is bugged. Alfred says he cannot help Mansky leave the hotel, but gives him the red book, and says to not allow the Soviets to trace it back to him in case Mansky gets caught. Mansky goes into the lobby toilets by the secret passageways, and escapes into the city to head to the US embassy.


title: The Coldest Game

text: The world is now 24 hours from a confrontation between the USA and the USSR. At the US embassy, in the safe room, he recounts the events to Agent Novak – and says that Gift killed Stone, who was going to kill Mansky. Gift gave him another cork, and soaked the one Mansky had gotten earlier in Stone’s blood, to help him identify the bad one. He then told Mansky to remember the word Rakirovka. It still is not clear to Novak whether Stone is the spy or not, and he has four hours to give President Kennedy a decision on whether to place a blockade around Cuba or not. Mansky is not sure who to trust, as Agent White did not tell Novak about the scar on Gift’s hand either.


title: The Coldest Game

text: Novak tells Mansky that the cork soaked in Stone’s blood says the nuclear weapons are ready; the one given by Gift suggests the Soviets are bluffing. President Kennedy wants to communicate with Mansky by secure telegram, who wonders whether Gift is not on the American’s side at all. Using a riddle, Mansky passes a message to the President, and Kennedy announces a blockade of ships to Cuba containing offensive material. Mansky tells Novak to thank Gift.


title: The Coldest Game

text: General Krutov and the Soviets find the dead bodies in the lobby toilet, and he discovers Mansky’s secret is alcohol, realising that the Hotel Director Alfred must have befriended Mansky. Novak tells Mansky that Rakirovka means castling, meaning imminent danger. Krutov realises with Kennedy’s announcement that the Soviets have lost this battle, and orders a search for the spy in their midst, and for the Hotel Director to be summoned to him, who he tortures, as he knows Alfred put Mansky in the room with the secret passage, and is sympathetic to America.


title: The Coldest Game

text: At the fifth and deciding game, Mansky sees Gift outside in the lobby. A man in Soviet uniform is then seen to exit the hotel via the secret passages Mansky has been using all this time, whilst Gavrylov awaits for Mansky to appear at the chess table. At the exit of the secret passages into the alley leading into the streets of Warsaw, Krutov and his team are waiting. The man in the Soviet uniform they apprehend coming out of the secret passage is actually Mansky, whilst Gift uses the red book which Alfred gave to Mansky to leave the hotel which is under quarantine by Krutov to try to find the spy. Gift is wearing Mansky’s clothes. Novak rushes into the alley and stops Krutov from killing Mansky as he is protected by diplomatic immunity. Mansky cannot appear in the final game, which is forfeit, and Gavrylov wins the tournament.


title: The Coldest Game

text: Novak flies Mansky back to the USA. The press at the airport accuse Mansky of having humiliated the USA despite him having avoided nuclear war without their knowing. Novak says to Mansky that he is a citizen hero and will be looked after, and hands him a hip flask. Novak exits the car and Gift enters the car to join Mansky, who gives Alfred’s red book to him, saying he was killed. Gift says he saw the Soviet order of attack. Mansky tells Gift that Novak wants to take care of them, but gives Gifts the hip flask, and leaves the car, not wanting Novak’s protection.


title: The Coldest Game

text: Talks commence between the United States and the Soviet Union, which ultimately result in mutual deescalation steps such as the withdrawal of nuclear-tipped missiles from some territories. The final montage goes on to mention later nuclear arms control agreements such as the INF of 1987, and later US assistance with nuclear disarmament in former communist countries in the Eastern Bloc after the Revolutions of 1989.


title: The Coldest Game

text: However, the epilogue notes: "In February 2019, the United States suspended compliance with the INF treaty. The same day, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia also suspended the INF treaty and will develop new intermediate-range missiles."


title: The Coldest Game

text: "Our moral imperative is to work with all powers for that day when the children of the world will grow up without the fear of nuclear war." - Ronald Reagan


title: The Coldest Game

text: Filming took place from February to April 2018 in Warsaw. William Hurt, originally cast as Joshua Mansky, suffered an accident while returning from the film set to his apartment, just a few days into shooting, and was replaced by Bill Pullman.


title: The Coldest Game

text: "The Coldest Game" was the last film produced by Piotr Woźniak-Starak, who died shortly before the premiere. His death was ruled an accident. The cause of death was head trauma caused by a "sharp-edged tool", and it was claimed that the movie producer fell off his boat into a lake and had his head crushed by the propeller of his own boat. His cell phone remained on the boat. A 27-year-old woman who was also on the boat survived, and the movie producer's bodyguard reportedly attempted a suicide soon after.


title: The Coldest Game

text: The film premiered on September 18, 2019 at the 44th Gdynia Polish Film Festival to positive critics' reviews and was released in Polish theaters on November 8, 2019.


title: The Coldest Game

text: Writing for the "Chicago Reader", Jamie Ludwig said: "You'd expect a film that involves espionage and a high-stakes chess tournament during the height of the Cold War to leave you on the edge of your seat. But then there's "The Coldest Game". Bill Pullman (who stepped into the lead role after the original actor William Hurt was injured just before production began) gives a fantastic performance as Professor Joshua Mansky... kidnapped by government agents and brought to Warsaw to compete against the Russians at chess after their first pick was murdered. However, Pullman alone can't make up for a premise that never completely gels, immemorable characters (Robert Więckiewicz as the Palace of Culture and Science director is a welcome exception), and loads of cliches. A few moments of dark humor beg to transform the film into a Vonnegut-type satire - it might have been better served had it been steered in that direction."


title: The Coldest Game

text: In a 2 stars out of 4 review, Roger Moore from "Movie Nation" wrote: "I'm a sucker for a good Cold War thriller. A middling one? Yeah, I'll sit through one of those, too. The Coldest Game falls in the latter category... The whole affair - again, fictional - is a jumble of U-2 flights and intrigues, "quiet" rooms (bugs are everywhere) and booze. Pullman keeps up with it all, but he lost me here and there. But the Mid-Century Soviet fashion, furniture and design is properly gloomy... The performances are solid even when the story is at its most convoluted. And there are third act twists that atone for some of what's lacking in the first two."


title: The Coldest Game

text: Demetrios Matheou from the Screen Daily wrote: "This Cold War thriller [...] features a fruity premise and respectable talent on either side of the camera [...] And yet the end result of what is a clearly enthusiastic enterprise is remarkably average." He noted that the potential of a movie combining "spy intrigue, the historical crisis and the renowned temperament of the chess elite", obviously evoking the Fischer-Spassky match, was wasted. He had some praise for Pullman and Więckiewicz's performances and found the scenes depicting the pair's drunk escapade "effective", but also stated the chess matches were "a botched business, presented with no logic or tension". "A clunky script and endemic hyperactivity in all departments results in the kind of film that is more guilty pleasure than edge-of-seat thriller".


title: The Coldest Game

text: John Serba, writing for the Decider, gave the movie a negative review, centering his critism on Pullman's character, which he considered cartoonish and hammy. "A couple of the twists [...] are pretty good. The movie is reasonably strong down the stretch as it meets but doesn't surpass expectations of its genre. It's slickly produced in the sense that it has the clean, digital look of a production with a low budget that's trying to look expensive. It's fine. But the movie hinges on Pullman", whose "characterization of a hopeless boozer is so far over the top, it makes Charles Bukowski look like Ned Flanders. His character as written is thin-shaved lunch meat, and he just stacks up the ham."


title: The Coldest Game

text: Common Sense Media, which rates movies based on their family-friendliness, gave the movie 1 out of 5 stars because of high amounts of violence (4/5), language (4/5) and drinking, drugs and smoking (5/5).


title: The Coldest Game

text: Based on these reviews, the film holds an approval rating of on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of .


title: The Coldest Game

text: An important question in the movie is whether the Soviets already have nuclear warheads in Cuba, or are yet to ship them to Cuba. As told by Soviet general Gribkov in 1992 (and repeated in the 2003 book "Wilson's Ghost" by McNamara & Blight), Soviet forces in Cuba at that point "did" have nuclear warheads there: 162 of them, including at least 90 tactical nuclear warheads; these warheads were just 90 miles from US shores. Furthermore, on October 26, 1962, the warheads were moved from their storage sites to positions closer to their delivery vehicles (missiles), to be launched in case of American invasion. According to McNamara, the Americans did not believe Soviet warheads were already in Cuba; if both Gribkov and McNamara are telling the truth, then the Americans decided on the course of action while not knowing how real the threat was.


title: The Coldest Game

text: The method of killing shown in the movie, dubbed "the last vodka" in the movie - injecting alcohol directly into the victim's bloodstream to fake accidental death from overdrinking - has long been alleged to be used by former communist secret service operatives in Poland to eliminate opponents and witnesses (or to perform example killings to scare others into silence). These allegations came mainly from anti-communists, including members of the opposition from the times when Poland was a one-party authoritarian communist state. A notable example is Sylwester Zych, a priest whom the police blamed for the death of one of their own. In 1989, Zych died, officially from alcohol poisoning, but surprisingly the concentration of alcohol in one of his arms was much higher than elsewhere in his body, suggesting the alcohol was injected in the arm, not taken orally.


title: NBA Finals television ratings

text: This is a list of television ratings for NBA Finals in the United States, based on Nielsen viewing data. The highest rated and most watched NBA Finals series was the 1998 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz, which averaged an 18.7 rating / 33 share and 29.04 million viewers on NBC. That series also featured the highest rated and most watched NBA Finals game, as the Sunday night averaged a 22.3 rating / 38 share and 35.89 million viewers. The 1987 NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics was the highest rated and most watched NBA Finals series on CBS, averaging a 15.9 rating / 32 share and 24.12 million viewers. Game 7 of the 1988 NBA Finals registered the network's highest rated and most watched NBA game with a 21.2 rating / 37 share.


title: NBA Finals television ratings

text: The 2015 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers was the highest rated NBA Final series on ABC averaging an 11.6 rating / 21 share and 19.94 million viewers. The 2017 NBA Finals featuring the same two teams was the most watched NBA Final series on ABC averaging an 11.3 rating / 22 share and 20.38 million viewers. Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals registered the network's highest rated and most watched NBA game with an average 15.8 rating / 29 share and 31.02 million viewers. It was the first basketball game to draw more than 30 million average viewers in 18 years, and only the seventh non-NFL sports telecast (excluding the Olympics) to have done so since 1998.


title: NBA Finals television ratings

text: The 2019 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Toronto Raptors had a drop in American viewership. Analysts cited the presence of a Canadian team (Canadian viewership does not count towards U.S. Nielsen ratings, leading to only one U.S. home market being reflected in viewership), as a factor in the drop. At the same time, the presence of the Toronto Raptors in the NBA Finals boosted Canadian viewership to record levels.


title: NBA Finals television ratings

text: For the 2020 NBA Finals, the ratings dropped to a historic low, with one of the games drawing only 5.9 million viewers. The average viewers figure over 6 games was 7.5 million, which is a 51% decline from the previous year. Some have claimed this was due to the players' political activism; others have claimed this was due to the finals being played out of season caused by the COVID-19 pandemic even though more audience stayed at home, as other sports such as the NHL playoffs and the MLB playoffs also showed a significant decline in ratings.


title: NBA Finals television ratings

text: Figures are expressed as Rating/Share. Rating represents the percentage of US TV households that watched the game, Share represents the percentage of TV sets in use that were tuned to the game. Note that game-by-game viewership for pre-2000 series were generally unavailable.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: Renegade is an American television series that ran for 110 episodes spanning five seasons, first broadcast between September 19, 1992, and April 4, 1997. The series was created by Stephen J. Cannell. Executive producers included Cannell, Stu Segall, Bill Nuss, and Richard C. Okie.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: The series stars Lorenzo Lamas as Reno Raines, a police officer who is framed for a murder he did not commit. Raines goes on the run and joins forces with Native American bounty hunter Bobby Sixkiller, played by Branscombe Richmond. Stephen J. Cannell also had a recurring role as the main villain, crooked police officer Donald 'Dutch' Dixon.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: The show had the following voiceover before every episode, provided by Don LaFontaine, summarizing the plot of the series:


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: "Renegade" is the story of San Diego police officer Reno Raines, an ex-Army Ranger, who was called to Bay City, California, by his good friend District Attorney Harry Wells. Harry hired Reno to work under cover, exposing corrupt police officers. In a meeting with Harry Wells and Bay City Police Lieutenant Donald 'Dutch' Dixon, Reno explains he has enough evidence to press charges of murder and robbery against Dixon's partner Buzzy Burrell. Not wanting to be implicated in any crimes, Burrell and Dixon break convicted murderer Hogg Adams from prison to kill Raines. Later that night, Hogg busts into Reno's hotel room, aiming for Reno, but shooting his fiancé, Valerie Prentiss, instead. Hogg flees the hotel and Burrell is seen rushing in to make sure Reno is dead. Dixon arrives moments afterward and kills Burrell with Reno's weapon.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: Framed for the murder of Officer Burrell, Reno Raines goes on the run. Dixon sends professional bounty hunter Bobby Sixkiller, a former Marine, after him, but Reno instead saves his life and gains his trust. Bobby realizes that some things were not right with Dixon. Reno then works as a bounty hunter alongside Sixkiller and his sister Cheyenne (Kathleen Kinmont) while searching for Hogg's brother Hound Adams, the one person who can clear his name and bring down Dixon — a witness who, fearing for his own life, will only come forward if Reno kills Dixon, something which he is unwilling to do.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: Using the alias "Vince Black", Reno travels the country to look for bounties, whom Bobby turns in for a percentage of the reward money (knowing that Reno would be arrested if he attempted to turn in the criminals himself). He also helps people at the same time and proves the innocence of those he believes to be innocent. On many occasions, law-enforcement officers (and other people) learn who Reno really is, but never turn him in once they trust and believe him. Eventually, Dixon becomes a US federal marshal, giving him the ability to chase Reno with federal assistance.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: In season three, Reno goes after Dixon when he learns an $80,000 reward is out for Dixon's capture and arrest for the murder of another Bay City officer. It all turns out to be an elaborate ruse set by Dixon to trap and capture Reno. Reno is arrested and put on trial for Buzzy Burrell's murder. Hound Adams agrees to testify for the defense, for a very large fee, that he knows who really killed Burrell, but when questioned on the witness stand, he implicates Reno, instead, as Burrell's killer. With no evidence to prove that Dixon bribed Hound to lie on the stand, Reno is found guilty of Burrell's murder and sentenced to death. Deciding not to wait for his sentence to be carried out, Reno escapes from prison with the help of a convict who was bribed by Dixon to kill Reno. The convict, chosen by Dixon because he knew he was dying of cancer and had nothing to lose, instead gives the bribe money to his lawyer to hold on to with instructions to send to the police should anything happen to his family.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: As the series is coming to an end in season five, Dixon kills his own wife Melissa, and she dies in Reno's arms. She knew what Dixon was doing and was ready to help turn him in. Their adult son, Donald Dixon Jr., believes the newspaper articles (from Dixon Sr.'s testimony) and also goes for Reno. In the final episode, Reno, Bobby, Donald Jr., and Dixon's boss Marshal Jack Hendricks go after Dixon. Dixon shoots and wounds Hendricks and goes on the run. The marshals then put out a reward for his capture. The last scene shows Reno and Bobby discussing whether to go for him now or let him see what it is like to be a wanted fugitive. They choose the former, thus partially ending Reno's predicament while leaving a full conclusion ambiguous.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: For many years after the show had aired, it was thought that the show had ended on a cliff-hanger, without any resolution to the main plot of Reno clearing his name and that the story would have been wrapped up in a hypothetical season six, with Dixon on the run and Reno pursuing. However, a "series finale" episode was in fact filmed, where Dixon is captured by Reno and Reno Raines is fully exonerated for the crimes that Dixon had in fact committed. According to Lorenzo Lamas, the episode was never aired or offered in the final syndication package because every episode - with the exception of the obvious multi-part episodes and the few episodes focused solely on the Reno/Dixon plot - was written as a standalone story that did not have to be viewed in chronological order. It was felt that a "conclusion" would prevent TV series buyers from airing the episodes out of order, which often happens with shows in syndication.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: "Renegade" did not air on one specific American television network but instead was a syndicated series. Stephen J. Cannell created the show in order to capitalize on the burgeoning market for syndicated series. Star Lorenzo Lamas saw it as an opportunity to use his real-life martial arts and motorcycle riding skills in a character role. Fearing that separation from his wife Kathleen Kinmont would hurt their marriage, he persuaded Cannell to give her a co-star role as Cheyenne Phillips. Cannell later recalled that 10-15 actors auditioned for the part of "Dutch" Dixon before Lamas suggested that Cannell play the part himself.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: To sell the show, Cannell had Ralph Hemecker direct a montage set to "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi and showed it at a television convention. This montage was later repurposed as the title sequence, albeit with "Wanted Dead or Alive" replaced by a theme composed by Mike Post and a voice-over by Don LaFontaine.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: The series was primarily filmed in San Diego, California, and surrounding suburbs. A large number of stunt motorcycles were kept in stock to serve as Reno Raines' Harley-Davidson, but one model was kept polished and undriven for use in what Lamas called "glamour shots".


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: Though it saw good ratings, the show's first season was panned by critics, and Cannell and Lamas themselves were openly dissatisfied with the scripts. In a late 1993 interview, Lamas elaborated that he felt the writers had sidelined the main plot and regular cast of characters in favor of stories which centered around the guest cast, and also pointed out plot holes in the series formula: "Reno would just show up to where he needed to be, but how did he get there? Why doesn't he leave the country? Why does he hang around and wait to be picked up by a cop who sees his poster?" The recurring character Hound Adams (played by Geoffrey Blake) was introduced in season two in an effort to give the plot direction. Though the show would be on the air for five seasons, it never became a critical success.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: Lamas and Kinmont divorced in 1993. According to Lamas, their working relationship deteriorated after he had his new girlfriend, Shauna Sand, cast in a recurring role on the show in 1995, and reportedly Lamas petitioned to have Kinmont fired in response to disparaging remarks she made about Sand on "The Howard Stern Show". Rather than being recast, the character of Cheyenne was dropped from the series.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: Anchor Bay Entertainment (under license from the Cannell Studios) released the first three seasons of "Renegade" on DVD in Region 1 in 2005–2006.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: On October 14, 2009, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to several Stephen J. Cannell series, including "Renegade." They subsequently re-released the first two seasons as individual boxed sets.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: On October 12, 2010, Mill Creek released "Renegade: The Complete Series" on DVD in Region 1. The 20-disc set features all 110 episodes of the series on DVD for the first time.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: On May 27, 2022, Visual Entertainment released "Renegade - The Complete Collection", a special collection featuring all 110 episodes of the series.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: The season-two finale, "Carrick O'Quinn", was a backdoor pilot for a "Renegade" spin-off series with O'Quinn played by Don Michael Paul.


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: In the Carrick O'Quinn episode, O'Quinn was head of a police commando squad, which accidentally blinded a judge named


title: Renegade (TV series)

text: Feeling guilty on making the judge blind, O'Quinn quit the force and helped out the blind judge without revealing who he really was.


title: Nathan Collins

text: Nathan Michael Collins (born 30 April 2001) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers and the Republic of Ireland national team.


title: Nathan Collins

text: Collins began his career with youth club Cherry Orchard, where his father David and uncle Eamonn both started their careers. He joined English club Stoke City in January 2016 after being recommended by scout Tony Bowen, assistant manager Mark Bowen's brother. Collins made his first-team debut on 9 April 2019 away at Swansea City. His first start came ten days later when he played the full 90 minutes of Stoke's 1–0 loss away to Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium. Collins signed a new five-year contract with Stoke in July 2019.


title: Nathan Collins

text: Collins started the first few matches of the 2019–20 season and was given the captain's armband by Nathan Jones against Leeds United, becoming Stoke's youngest captain in the process. He was sent off for the first time in his career in an EFL Cup defeat at Crawley Town for a mis-timed challenge on Panutche Camará. Collins remained on the fringes of the first team for the rest of the season under the management of Michael O'Neill, making a total of 17 appearances in 2019–20. Collins played 27 times in 2020–21 before he suffered a season ending foot injury playing against Norwich City on 13 February 2021.


title: Nathan Collins

text: On 24 June 2021, Collins joined Premier League club Burnley for an undisclosed fee, signing a four-year contract with the club. He scored his first two goals for the club in a pair of home ties during April 2022, against Everton and Southampton. Collins became a key member of Burnley's side in the second half of the 2021–22 season as the side fought against relegation. Burnley were relegated after a 2–1 defeat against Newcastle United on the final day of the season.


title: Nathan Collins

text: On 12 July 2022, Collins signed for Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers on a five-year contract for a fee of £20.5 million, an all-time record transfer fee for an Irish player.


title: Nathan Collins

text: Collins made his debut competitive appearance for Wolves in 2–1 defeat away to Leeds United on the opening weekend of the 2022–23 Premier League season, playing the full 90 minutes in central defensive pairing with Max Kilman.


title: Nathan Collins

text: Collins received a straight red card for a high challenge on Jack Grealish during the first-half of Wolves's home Premier League game against Manchester City on 17 September 2022, resulting in a three-match suspension. The game ended in a 3–0 loss.


title: Nathan Collins

text: Collins made his Republic of Ireland U17 debut against Kazakhstan on 17 October 2016 and was later made captain of the team. He made his senior debut on 12 October 2021, coming on as a late substitute in a 4–0 friendly victory against Qatar. On 14 June 2022, Collins scored his first goal for Ireland in a 1-1 draw with Ukraine in the UEFA Nations League.


title: Nathan Collins

text: Collins' family includes a number of other footballers, including his grandfather, Michael Collins who captained Transport to the FAI Cup in 1950, his father Dave Collins who played with Liverpool and Oxford United among others. His uncle, Eamonn Collins, played with many sides including Southampton and Portsmouth before going on to manage St Patrick's Athletic and later becoming a football agent, with his clients including Nathan Collins. His older brother Josh Collins previously played for UCD and Waterford in the League of Ireland Premier Division. Nathan's uncle Mick Collins played for St Patrick's Athletic and Dundalk before later becoming a scout at Manchester City for 20 years, his son Mikey Collins (Nathan's cousin) is also an ex-footballer who played for Liverpool in his youth career before playing in Sweden, Italy, Cyprus and Holland, as well as representing Ireland up to U21 level.


title: Outkast discography

text: The discography of Outkast, an American hip hop duo (consisting of rappers André 3000 and Big Boi), consists of six studio albums, one compilation album, one soundtrack album, one video album, 32 singles (including eight as featured artists), three promotional singles, and 21 music videos. In 1992, Outkast became the first hip hop act to be signed to the label LaFace Records; with their first studio album "Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik" (1994) that debuted at number 20 on the US "Billboard" 200. "Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik" spawned the commercially successful single "Player's Ball", which reached number 37 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. It was later certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Their following two albums, "ATLiens" (1996) and "Aquemini" (1998), were commercially successful in the United States; both albums peaked at number two on the "Billboard" 200, and were certified double-platinum by the RIAA. Three singles were released from each album; all three from "ATLiens" charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100, with "Elevators (Me & You)" peaking at number 12, making it the most successful. The lead single from "Aquemini", "Rosa Parks", peaked at number 55 on the "Billboard" Hot 100: two more singles, "Skew It on the Bar-B" and "Da Art of Storytellin' (Pt. 1)", were released from the album. In 1998, Outkast collaborated with hip hop group Goodie Mob on the single "Black Ice (Sky High)" and with rapper Cool Breeze on the single "Watch for the Hook"; the singles peaked at numbers 50 and 73 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, respectively.


title: Outkast discography

text: Outkast's fourth studio album "Stankonia" was their first to achieve success outside the United States; as well as peaking at number two on the "Billboard" 200, it appeared on the Australian, German and United Kingdom albums charts, along with several others in Europe. Although the lead single "B.O.B" only peaked at number 69 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, the following single "Ms. Jackson" became their first to top the "Billboard" Hot 100, and peaked in the top ten of many other singles charts. The album's third single "So Fresh, So Clean" peaked at number 30 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. A compilation album, "Big Boi and Dre Present... OutKast", was released in 2001, with "The Whole World" as the album's only single.


title: Outkast discography

text: In 2003, Outkast released a double album, "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below", that became their first album to reach number one on the "Billboard" 200. It was later certified 11-times-platinum by the RIAA, and was certified double-platinum in the United Kingdom by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and in New Zealand by Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ). The lead single, "Hey Ya!", peaked at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and also topped the Australian and Swedish singles charts. "The Way You Move", a collaboration with singer Sleepy Brown, also topped the Hot 100, and the third single, "Roses", reached the top ten in many territories. "Ghetto Musick" and "Prototype" were released as the final two singles from the album. In 2006 Outkast released their sixth studio album, "Idlewild", which also served as the soundtrack to the film of the same name. The first single from the album, "Mighty O", peaked at number 77 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The second "Morris Brown" was a moderate hit on the charts, the third single only peaked at number 100 and the following two singles "Hollywood Divorce" and "The Train" did not chart. Idlewild was met with lukewarm reviews from music critics and from fans. The album was certified platinum by the RIAA.


title: José María Giménez

text: José María Giménez de Vargas (; born 20 January 1995) is a Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a central defender for La Liga club Atlético Madrid and the Uruguay national team.


title: José María Giménez

text: After starting out his professional career with Danubio FC, Giménez moved to Spain, signing for Atlético Madrid ahead of the 2013–14 season. A solid, powerful and fast moving defender, Giménez settled quickly with the club, winning four major titles with the latter, including the La Liga title in his debut season.


title: José María Giménez

text: At international level, Giménez made his Uruguay debut in 2013, and has since represented the nation at three FIFA World Cups and four editions of the Copa América.


title: José María Giménez

text: Born in Toledo, Giménez made his professional debut for Danubio F.C. in the Uruguayan Primera División on 17 November 2012 (when the manager was Juan Ramón Carrasco) against River Plate in which he started and played the full 90 minutes as Danubio lost the match 2–0.


title: José María Giménez

text: On 25 April 2013, it was confirmed that Giménez had signed for €900,000 with Spanish side Atlético Madrid, and would join the club in the pre-season of the 2013–14 season. On 14 September, Giménez made his "Atleti" – and La Liga – debut, starting in a 4–2 home win over UD Almería.


title: José María Giménez

text: Giménez scored his first goal for the club on 6 December 2014, opening a 2–0 win away to Elche CF to move Atlético into second place. He also scored a header against their biggest rival Real Madrid in Atlético's 2–0 win in the Copa del Rey in January 2015.


title: José María Giménez

text: On 20 February 2019, Giménez scored the opener in 2-0 home win against Italian champions Juventus to give Atlético the advantage in the first leg of the Round of 16 fixture in the UEFA Champions League.


title: José María Giménez

text: Giménez participated for Uruguay at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup as the team finished as runner-up to France.


title: José María Giménez

text: He debuted for the Uruguay senior team in a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Colombia on 10 September 2013.


title: José María Giménez

text: On 2 June 2014, Giménez was named in Uruguay's squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals. The 19-year-old defender made his tournament debut against England in the team's second group match, deputising for the injured captain Diego Lugano in a 2–1 victory for "La Celeste".


title: José María Giménez

text: Giménez scored his first international goal in a 1–0 friendly win against South Korea on 8 September 2014. In May 2015, he was named in Uruguay's squad for the 2015 Copa América by coach Óscar Tabárez. On 20 June, he scored Uruguay's goal in a 1–1 draw with Paraguay which saw both teams progress to the knockout stage.


title: José María Giménez

text: In May 2018 he was named in Uruguay's provisional 26-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. On 15 June, with the score tied at 0–0, he scored the winning goal in the final minute of Uruguay's opening game of the World Cup against Egypt.


title: José María Giménez

text: In March 2019, Tabárez included Giménez in the final 23-man Uruguay squad for the 2019 Copa América in Brazil. He headed the equaliser in the 2–2 group draw with Japan in Porto Alegre, and was the only Uruguayan in the Team of the Tournament despite a quarter-final exit.


title: José María Giménez

text: José is married to Regina Iafolla, who he had been dating since they were teenagers. They have two children together, Lautaro and Luciano.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story is a 2008 American sports film produced by John Davis and directed by Gary Fleder. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Charles Leavitt from a 1983 book "Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express", authored by Robert C. Gallagher. The film is based on the life of Syracuse University football player Ernie Davis, the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy, portrayed by actor Rob Brown. "The Express" explores civil rights topics, such as racism, discrimination and athletics. It was the film debut of Chadwick Boseman as Floyd Little.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: The film was a co-production between the film studios of Relativity Media and Davis Entertainment. It was commercially distributed by Universal Pictures theatrically, and by Universal Studios Home Entertainment for home media. Dennis Quaid and Charles S. Dutton star in principal supporting roles. The original motion picture soundtrack with a musical score composed by Mark Isham, was released by the Lakeshore Records label on October 28, 2008.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: "The Express" premiered in theaters nationwide in the United States on October 10, 2008. Despite receiving generally positive reviews from critics, the film was a box office bomb, grossing just $9.8 million against its $40 million budget. The Blu-ray version of the film, featuring deleted scenes and the director's commentary was released on January 20, 2009.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: Ernie Davis is a young African American growing up in Pennsylvania with his uncle Will Davis Jr. in the late 1940s. Davis lives with his extended family, including his grandfather, Willie 'Pops' Davis, who guides and educates him. Davis' mother, Marie Davis eventually returns to their residence to inform the family that she has remarried and can now afford to raise Ernie at her own home in Elmira, New York. Upon relocating to Elmira, Davis enrolls in a Small Fry Football League and excels on the field as a running back.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: Several years later, Syracuse University football head coach Ben Schwartzwalder searches for a running back to address the absence of Jim Brown, the graduating player completing his All-American senior season. Schwartzwalder is impressed with Davis after viewing footage of him playing for Elmira Free Academy and took his team to a state championship. Schwartzwalder convinces Brown to accompany him on a recruiting visit to see Davis and his family in hopes of luring him to commit to Syracuse. After their visit, Davis decides to enroll at Syracuse and spurns the recruiting efforts of other colleges.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: At the start of the 1959 college football season, Davis immediately excels playing for the varsity team, to lead Syracuse to victories over several college football teams. After Syracuse defeats UCLA to conclude the regular season undefeated, the team decides by choice to play the 2nd ranked Texas Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl Classic. Before the game, university officials receive letters threatening attacks to Davis if he plays, but both Schwartzwalder and Davis defy the threats. During the game on January 1, 1960, Davis boldly attempts to lead his team to victory but is hampered by an injured leg and biased officiating. Towards the end of the game, Davis scores a crucial touchdown to preserve a Syracuse lead. The matchup concludes with a victory for Syracuse, and its first national championship. After the game, a banquet is held for the two teams, but when Davis is not allowed to attend, the rest of the Syracuse team leaves with him in a show of solidarity.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: In 1961, Davis goes on to win the Heisman Trophy following his senior season in college. He later becomes a professional athlete in the National Football League and signs a contract with the Cleveland Browns. Later, however, following a series of health concerns, Davis is taken to a hospital to undergo medical testing. During a routine practice session, team owner Art Modell informs Davis he will be unable to play the upcoming season due to his condition. Subsequently, Davis holds a press conference and announces he has been diagnosed with leukemia. No longer able to play, Schwartzwalder asks Davis to accompany him on a recruiting trip, to talk to highly prized prospect Floyd Little, who shows to be as much in awe of Davis as Davis had been earlier with Jim Brown. The Cleveland Browns honor Ernie by allowing him to suit up in uniform and join the team while running out before a televised game. Prior to the game, Schwartzwalder meets Davis and tells him that Little has decided to play at Syracuse.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: The film's epilogue displays a series of graphics stating that Davis died on May 18, 1963 at the age of 23; while in condolence, President Kennedy expresses sympathy for Davis' fine character as a citizen and an athlete.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: The premise of "The Express" is based on the true story of Ernie Davis, the charismatic athlete who became the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy, college football's greatest achievement. Excelling in high school football, Davis was later recruited by dozens of predominantly white universities. A local sports columnist dubbed him the "Elmira Express". Davis was told of his terminal illness, leukemia, during the summer of 1962. According to a saddened Art Modell, he said "They told him as gently as they could that it was an incurable case of leukemia. It was awful, but the way he took it, it seemed like much more of a blow to me and his teammates than it was to him."


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: Following the NFL draft which saw the Washington Redskins trade their pick of Davis to Cleveland for Hall of Fame running back Bobby Mitchell, Davis signed a $100,000 contract with the Browns. On May 16, 1963, Davis visited Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell. He promised to make a career comeback even though he looked terminally ill. Two days later on May 18, Davis died from the then-incurable disease. Fellow teammate and close friend John Brown, remembered him as a "genuine gentle man as well as a gentleman." President John F. Kennedy called Davis "an outstanding young man of great character" and "an inspiration to the young people of this country." The book titled "Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express", authored by writer Robert C. Gallagher, became the basis for the film.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: Filming began in April 2007 at Chicago area locations including Lane Technical High School, Amundsen High School, J. Sterling Morton West High School in Berwyn, Northwestern University in Evanston (at Ryan Field, the Northwestern Football stadium), Aurora, Mooseheart, the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Hyde Park (at the former Windemere Hotel) and at Memorial Park and on Walnut Street and Olde Western Ave. in Blue Island. It concluded its fifty-three-day shoot at Syracuse University. Meticulous research was undertaken over several months to recreate the period uniforms and locations depicted, including the creation on film of several stadiums such as Archbold Stadium, that no longer exist. Existing buildings that were not on the Syracuse University campus had to be digitally removed from shots, such as the Carrier Dome.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: The original motion picture soundtrack for "The Express" was released by the Lakeshore Records label on October 28, 2008. It features songs composed with considerable use of the violin, trombone and cello. The score for the film was orchestrated by Mark Isham. Michael Bauer edited the film's music. Original songs written by musical artists Vaughn Horton, Frankie Miller, Ralph Bass, Ray Charles, and Lonnie Brooks, among others, were used in-between dialogue shots throughout the film.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: Journalists and film critics noted that a scene of "racist vitriol" involving the October 24, 1959 game between Syracuse and West Virginia University was fictitious and, as "Film Journal International" critic Frank Lovece noted, "veers remarkably toward outright slander." He further points out that the game was "falsely shown as taking place at WVU's Mountaineer Field" in Morgantown, West Virginia, "rather than at Syracuse's own Archbold Stadium," the Orangemen's home field at that time in New York state. Syracuse quarterback Dick Easterly, who played with Davis, said shortly after the movie's release, "I don't blame people in West Virginia for being disturbed. The scene is completely fictitious."


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: The film suggests that Syracuse University had to win the 1960 Cotton Bowl to be named college football's national champion, when in fact the selection was made at the end of the regular season. This practice did not change until the late '60s.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: Bobby Lackey, quarterback for the 1959 Texas Longhorns, stated in 2008 that the racial tensions and Longhorn behavior depicted in the New Year's Day 1960 Cotton Bowl Classic were made-up "stories to try and sell more movie tickets", and justifies the action of his roommate, Larry Stephens, as just "trying to get the guy (Davis) into a fight so he could get him thrown out of the game because their athletes were so much better than ours." However, John Brown, a black offensive tackle for Syracuse, stated that there were "guys who called us racist names on the field", including a Texas lineman who kept calling him "a big black dirty [expletive]." Brown says that the player has since apologized and that he has forgiven the player. Additionally, Al Baker, Syracuse's black fullback, said after the game, "Oh, they were bad. One of them spit in my face as I carried the ball through the line." Patrick Whelan and Dick Easterly, both white players for Syracuse, said that although the film may have fictionalized parts of the story, the 1960 Cotton Bowl Classic was the team's worst confrontation with racism.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: Other inaccuracies are more along the line of the discrepancies in any fictionalized depiction of historical events. For example, the film places the 1959 Penn State game in the first three of Syracuse's season, with Syracuse winning 32–6, when it was actually the seventh game and Syracuse had their toughest challenge of the season, winning a close 20–18 game to advance to a 7–0 record. The order of scoring in the 1960 Cotton Bowl Classic was adjusted in the film for dramatic tension. Syracuse actually won the Cotton Bowl 23-14, but the film claims that the final score was 23-15, and that Texas had a chance to tie on the game's last play.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: Art Modell is shown giving Jim Brown his first Cleveland Browns jersey in a photo op, but Modell did not purchase the Browns until four years after Brown joined the team. The scene in which Washington Redskins owner George Preston Marshall and Modell arrange a major trade was actually made by Browns coach and general manager Paul Brown behind Modell's back, adding to the tension between the two.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 61% based on 114 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "This inspirational sports biopic set in the civil rights era is interesting even for non-football fans, and features a great performance by Dennis Quaid as tough-but-fair football coach." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average to reviews, the film received a score of 58 based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: Roger Ebert wrote: ""The Express" is involving and inspiring in the way a good movie about sports almost always is. The formula is basic and durable, and when you hitch it to a good story, you can hardly fail. Gary Fleder does more than that in telling the story of Ernie Davis ("The Elmira Express"), the running back for Syracuse who became the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy, in 1961." Jim Lane, writing in the "Sacramento News & Review", said of actor Brown, "the 16-year-old newcomer held his own with Sean Connery; here, he carries the film in partnership with Dennis Quaid". Impressed, he exclaimed, "The film is predictable but inspiring, without going overboard into Brian’s Song tear-jerking. Fleder (expertly assisted by cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau and editors Padraic McKinley and William Steinkamp) ices the cake with some first-rate game footage." Roger Ebert in the "Chicago Sun-Times" called it "special" while remarking, "There is a lot of football in the movie. It's well presented, but there is the usual oddity that it almost entirely shows mostly success."


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: In the "San Francisco Chronicle", Peter Hartlaub wrote that the film "deserves plenty of credit for abandoning the ""Remember the Titans"/"Glory Road"" school of screenwriting as laid out above and exploring the racial issues in Davis' story in more realistic terms." He thought Quaid gave a "memorable performance" by portraying Schwartzwalder as "sort of an accidental civil rights hero." Mike Clark of "USA Today", said the film was "an entertaining race-laced contest of wills". He found the football scenes filled with "kinetic" energy, and the lead performances to be "appealing". The film however, was not without its detractors. Peter Rainer of "The Christian Science Monitor", believed the film was a "compendium of virtually every sports movie cliché ever contrived" and that the storyline was "milked for every drop of inspirational uplift." Left equally unimpressed was Anthony Quinn of "The Independent". Commenting on the segregational history, he said "we have to suffer apologetic non-dramas like this, the story of a fleet-footed black footballer (Rob Brown) who hits the big time just as his racial conscience starts to bother him". He thought the screenplay was "stewed in such pieties, served up as warm and homely as apple pie – only there's no taste to it." Graham Killeen of the "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel", added to the negativity by saying, "Producer John Davis ("The Firm", "Behind Enemy Lines"), no relation to Ernie, and director Gary Fleder ("Kiss the Girls, Don't Say a Word") are masters of the predictable, the safe and the bland. And Davis' story doesn't play to their strengths." He ultimately called the film "an all-brawn, no-brain pigskin potboiler".


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: Writing for the "Boston Herald", Stephen Schaefer said the subject matter was a "paean to a supremely talented if largely unfamiliar sports hero, one which scores both on and off the field." James Berardinelli writing for "ReelViews", called the film "an engaging and at times powerful tale of one individual's struggle against the system" and noted that "as a story of courage and inspiration, this works as well as any sports-related bio-pic." Berardinelli also thought that although Ernie's depiction of "on-field accomplishments were extraordinary, it was the environment in which he struggled to achieve them that makes him the worthy subject of a motion picture." Describing some pitfalls, Wesley Morris of "The Boston Globe" said the film was "especially egregious since it bundles the civil rights era, garden-variety bigotry, and the achievements of Ernie Davis". He didn't believe Davis was "as bland as ""The Express"" makes him out to be. Aside from managing to get made at all, the movie doesn't do Davis's legacy any favors by giving us the store-brand version of his life." Morris however, was quick to admit "There is so much ripe material here for a socially or historically curious movie." But he frustratingly noted that the filmmakers were more interested in "making a safely commercial football drama that doesn't deviate from the genre's shorthand imagery and plot points."


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: The film premiered in cinemas on October 10, 2008 in wide release throughout the U.S.. During its opening weekend, the film opened in a distant 6th place grossing $4,562,675 in business showing at 2,808 locations. The film "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" soundly beat its competition during that weekend opening in first place with $17,502,077. The film's revenue dropped by 52% in its second week of release, earning $2,191,810. For that particular weekend, the film fell to 12th place screening in 2,810 theaters but not challenging a top ten position. The film "Max Payne", unseated "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" to open in first place grossing $17,639,849 in box office revenue. During its final week in release, "The Express" opened in 31st place grossing $151,225 in business. The film went on to top out domestically at $9,793,406 in total ticket sales through a 4-week theatrical run. Internationally, the film took in an additional $14,718 in box office business for a combined worldwide total of $9,808,124. For 2008 as a whole, the film would cumulatively rank at a box office performance position of 146.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: Following its cinematic release in theaters, the Region 1 code widescreen edition of the film was released on DVD in the United States on January 20, 2009. Special features for the DVD include; deleted scenes with optional commentary by director Gary Fleder; "Making of "The Express""; "Making History: The Story of Ernie Davis"; "Inside the Playbook: Shooting the Football Games"; "From Hollywood to Syracuse: The Legacy of Ernie Davis"; and feature commentary with director Gary Fleder. During its release in the home media market, "The Express" ranked number eleven in its first week on the DVD charts, selling 97,511 units totalling $1,949,245 in business. Overall, "The Express" sold 370,534 units yielding $6,566,801 in revenue.


title: The Express: The Ernie Davis Story

text: The widescreen high-definition Blu-ray Disc version of the film was also released on January 20, 2009. Special features include "Making of "The Express""; "Making History: The Story of Ernie Davis"; "Inside the Playbook: Shooting the Football Games"; "From Hollywood to Syracuse: The Legacy of Ernie Davis"; "50th Anniversary of the 1959 Syracuse National Championship"; and deleted scenes with optional commentary by director Gary Fleder.


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: A mora (plural "morae" or "moras"; often symbolized μ) is a basic timing unit in the phonology of some spoken languages, equal to or shorter than a syllable. For example, a short syllable such as "ba" consists of one mora ("monomoraic"), while a long syllable such as "baa" consists of two ("bimoraic"); extra-long syllables with three moras ("trimoraic") are relatively rare. Such metrics are also referred to as syllable weight.


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: The term comes from the Latin word for "linger, delay", which was also used to translate the Greek word χρόνος : "chrónos" (time) in its metrical sense.


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: The general principles for assigning moras to segments are as follows (see Hayes 1989 and Hyman 1985 for detailed discussion):


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: In general, monomoraic syllables are called "light syllables", bimoraic syllables are called "heavy syllables", and trimoraic syllables (in languages that have them) are called "superheavy syllables". Some languages, such as Old English and present-day English, can have syllables with up to four morae.


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: A prosodic stress system in which moraically heavy syllables are assigned stress is said to have the property of quantity sensitivity.


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: For the purpose of determining accent in Ancient Greek, short vowels have one mora, and long vowels and diphthongs have two morae. Thus long "ē" (eta: ) can be understood as a sequence of two short vowels: "ee".


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: Ancient Greek pitch accent is placed on only one mora in a word. An acute (, ) represents high pitch on the only mora of a short vowel or the last mora of a long vowel ("é", "eé"). A circumflex () represents high pitch on the first mora of a long vowel ("ée").


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: In Old English, short diphthongs and monophthongs were monomoraic, long diphthongs and monophthongs were bimoraic, consonants ending a syllable were each one mora, and geminate consonants added a mora to the preceding syllable. In Modern English, the rules are similar, except that all diphthongs are bimoraic. In English, and probably also in Old English, syllables cannot have more than four morae, with loss of sounds occurring if a syllable would have more than 4 otherwise. From the Old English period through to today, all content words must be at least two morae long.


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: Gilbertese, an Austronesian language spoken mainly in Kiribati, is a trimoraic language. The typical foot in Gilbertese contains three morae. These trimoraic constituents are units of stress in Gilbertese. These "ternary metrical constituents of the sort found in Gilbertese are quite rare cross-linguistically, and as far as we know, Gilbertese is the only language in the world reported to have a ternary constraint on prosodic word size."


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: In Hawaiian, both syllables and morae are important. Stress falls on the penultimate mora, though in words long enough to have two stresses, only the final stress is predictable. However, although a diphthong, such as "oi," consists of two morae, stress may fall only on the first, a restriction not found with other vowel sequences such as "io." That is, there is a distinction between "oi," a bimoraic syllable, and "io," which is two syllables.


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: Most dialects of Japanese, including the standard, use morae, known in Japanese as "haku" () or "mōra" (), rather than syllables, as the basis of the sound system. Writing Japanese in kana (hiragana and katakana) is said by those scholars who use the term "mora" to demonstrate a moraic system of writing. For example, in the two-syllable word "mōra", the "ō" is a long vowel and counts as two morae. The word is written in three symbols, , corresponding here to "mo-o-ra", each containing one mora. Therefore, scholars argue that the 5/7/5 pattern of the "haiku" in modern Japanese is of morae rather than syllables.


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: The Japanese syllable-final "n" is also said to be moraic, as is the first part of a geminate consonant. For example, the Japanese name for "Japan", , has two different pronunciations, one with three morae ("Nihon") and one with four ("Nippon"). In the hiragana spelling, the three morae of "Ni-ho-n" are represented by three characters (), and the four morae of "Ni-p-po-n" need four characters to be written out as .


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: Similarly, the names "Tōkyō" ("To-u-kyo-u", ), "Ōsaka" ("O-o-sa-ka", ), and "Nagasaki" ("Na-ga-sa-ki", ) all have four morae, even though, on this analysis, they can be said to have two, three and four syllables, respectively. The number of morae in a word is not always equal to the number of graphemes when written in kana; for example, even though it has four morae, the Japanese name for "Tōkyō" () is written with five graphemes, because one of these graphemes () represents a "yōon", a feature of the Japanese writing system that indicates that the preceding consonant is palatalized.


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: The "Contracted sound" (拗音) is represented by the three small kana for "ya" (ゃ), "yu" (ゅ), "yo" (ょ), these do not represent a mora by themselves and attach to other kana, all the rest of the graphemes represent a "mōra" in their own"."


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: There is a unique set of "mōra" known as "special mora" (特殊拍) which can't be pronounced by itself but still count as one mora whenever present, these consist of "nasal sound" (撥音) represented by the kana for "n" (ん), the "geminate consonant" (促音) represented by the small tsu (っ), the "long sound" (長音) represented by the long vowel symbol (ー) or a single vowel which extends the sound of the previous "mōra" (びょ「う」いん) and the "diphthong" (二重母音) represented by the second vowel of two consecutive vowels (ばあ「い」).


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: This set also has the peculiarity that the drop in pitch of a word (so called "downstep") can not fall on any of these "special mora" under any conditions, which is especially useful for learners of the language trying to learn the accent of words.


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: The above rule doesn't apply to ん (the nasal N) which for the Japanese doesn't qualify as special and the drop in pitch can fall on ん, for example in the word 日本 (にほん/nihon), where に starts low, the pitch raises and peaks at ほ, then drops at ん and continues low through the following particle if it is present.


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: In Luganda, a short vowel constitutes one mora while a long vowel constitutes two morae. A simple consonant has no morae, and a doubled or prenasalised consonant has one. No syllable may contain more than three morae. The tone system in Luganda is based on morae. See Luganda tones and Luganda grammar.


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: In Sanskrit, the mora is expressed as the "mātrā". For example, the short vowel "a" (pronounced like a schwa) is assigned a value of one "mātrā", the long vowel "ā" is assigned a value of two "mātrā"s, and the compound vowel (diphthong) "ai" (which has either two simple short vowels, "a"+"i", or one long and one short vowel, "ā"+"i") is assigned a value of two "mātrā"s. In addition, there is "plutham" (trimoraic) and "dīrgha plutham" ("long "plutham"" = quadrimoraic).


title: Mora (linguistics)

text: Sanskrit prosody and metrics have a deep history of taking into account moraic weight, as it were, rather than straight syllables, divided into "laghu" (, "light") and "dīrgha"/"guru" (/, "heavy") feet based on how many morae can be isolated in each word. Thus, for example, the word "kartṛ" (), meaning "agent" or "doer", does not contain simply two syllabic units, but contains rather, in order, a "dīrgha"/"guru" foot and a "laghu" foot. The reason is that the conjoined consonants "rt" render the normally light "ka" syllable heavy.


title: 2021 Argentine Primera División

text: The 2021 Argentine Primera División - Liga Profesional (officially the Torneo Socios.com for sponsorship reasons) was the 131st season of top-flight professional football in Argentina. The league season began on 16 July and ended on 13 December 2021.


title: 2021 Argentine Primera División

text: Twenty-six teams competed in the league: the 24 teams that took part in the previous Primera División season as well as two promoted teams from the 2020 Primera Nacional (Sarmiento (J) and Platense). Boca Juniors were the defending champions.


title: 2021 Argentine Primera División

text: River Plate won their 37th national league championship with three matches to spare after they defeated Racing 4–0 on 25 November 2021.


title: 2021 Argentine Primera División

text: The competition was run under a single round-robin, contested by 26 teams (24 from the previous edition plus 2 promoted from Primera Nacional). The champions qualified for the 2022 Copa Libertadores as "Argentina 2". The qualification for international tournaments was determined by an aggregate table of the 2021 Primera División and 2021 Copa de la Liga Profesional first stage tournaments.


title: 2021 Argentine Primera División

text: The 2021 Argentine Primera División champions, 2021 Copa de la Liga Profesional champions and 2019–20 Copa Argentina champions earned a berth to the 2022 Copa Libertadores, while the 2020 Copa de la Liga Profesional play-off winners qualified for the 2022 Copa Sudamericana. The remaining berths to the 2022 Copa Libertadores as well as the ones to the 2022 Copa Sudamericana were determined by an aggregate table of the 2021 Argentine Primera División and 2021 Copa de la Liga Profesional first stage tournaments. The top three teams in the aggregate table not already qualified for any international tournament qualified for the Copa Libertadores, while the next five teams qualified for the Copa Sudamericana.


title: 2021 Argentine Primera División

text: Relegation at the end of the season would be based on coefficients, which take into consideration the points obtained by the clubs during the present season (aggregate table points) and the two previous seasons (only seasons at the top flight are counted). The total tally is then divided by the number of games played in the top flight over those three seasons and an average is calculated. The three teams with the worst average at the end of the season would have been relegated to Primera Nacional. Relegation was suspended by AFA at the end of the 2019–20 season until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the points earned in this season will count towards relegation in the 2022 season.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is a 2013 first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is a standalone expansion to "Far Cry 3" and the eighth overall installment in the "Far Cry" franchise. "Blood Dragon" is a retro-futuristic parody of 1980s action films, cartoons and video games, and takes place on an open world island. Players assume the role of military cyborg Sergeant Rex "Power" Colt. Gameplay is largely similar to "Far Cry 3", though several systems from the base game were simplified or removed, and it introduces the titular blood dragon, a massive reptile-like creature that can shoot laser from their eyes and be lured to attack hostile outposts.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: The game's development was completed in about six months. It was part of Ubisoft's initiative to release downloadable content that would appeal to newcomers to the series, and the team was tasked to create something unexpected as "Far Cry 3" downloadable content. The game was inspired by movies from the 1980s such as "The Wraith" and "Terminator", and recent movies like "Manborg" and "Hobo with a Shotgun". The director for "Hobo with a Shotgun", Jason Eisener, became the game's informal advisor after befriending the game's director, Dean Evans. Michael Biehn was invited to provide his voice for the game's protagonist, while Australian synthwave duo Power Glove composed the game's soundtrack.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon" was released for PlayStation 3 on April 30, 2013, and for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on May 1, 2013. The game received generally positive reviews upon release, and was praised for its gameplay, soundtrack and its 1980s influence, but opinions were divided on the game's attempts at humor. The game was a commercial success for Ubisoft, as it sold 1 million copies by August 2013. A remastered version of the game was released in December 2021 would be available for players who purchased the "Far Cry 6" season pass. While the game did not have a sequel, a spin-off, "Trials of the Blood Dragon", was released in 2016. Netflix is currently producing an animation series based on "Blood Dragon" titled "Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix".


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: "Blood Dragon" is a standalone expansion to "Far Cry 3", which is an first-person shooter video game. In the game, the player controls Rex "Power" Colt, a cyborg military commando stranded on an unnamed island. Like the main game, it allows players to use various means to approach their objectives; for instance, players can use various firearms such as pistols, assault rifles, shotgun, and sniper rifles, and explosives like grenades to kill their opponents. Alternatively, they can utilize stealth tactics such as distracting enemies by throwing a die, or performing silent takedowns with a large knife. Enemies can also be tagged using Rex's camera. The game features a simplified character progression system. With sufficient cyberpoints (the game's equivalent of experience), new skills and combat perks, such as increased health or increased defense, are automatically unlocked. At the beginning of the game, most of the skills unlocked by the end of "Far Cry 3", such as swimming for an indefinite duration underwater and chained combat takedowns, are already unlocked. The crafting system featured in "Far Cry 3" was removed in "Blood Dragon".


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: The island is an open world that is about half the size of "Far Cry 3". Players can hunt wildlife, complete side missions to unlock new weapon upgrades and attachments, and liberate enemy outposts and garrisons. The unnamed island is the home of the blood dragons, as well as various wildlife such as cybersharks and mutant cassowaries. Blood dragons are blind, but they can shoot lasers from their eyes and hunt using their sense of smell. Players can throw cybernetic hearts to lure blood dragons to an enemy base, which would help Rex to wipe out nearby enemies. The only way to collect cybernetic hearts is to rip them from the corpses of fallen enemies. Blood dragons are infused with the lights of neon, and the color the neon lights reflect their hostility status. Red means that the beast is already attacking, yellow suggests that the beast is being cautious, while green means that they are calm. The game features 13 hostile garrisons that the players can liberate. Hostile enemies will call for reinforcements and activate the alarms if they detect the presence of Rex in their compound. These bases have an energy shield that must be deactivated before a blood dragon can enter the compound. Once liberated, these outposts became fast travel points for the players, though they can also freely exploring the world on foot or by various vehicles. As the player explores the world, they will find various collectibles in the form of VHS tapes and CRT TVs.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon" is set in a dystopian version of 2007 where the world is suffering the aftermath of a nuclear war. Ubisoft described the game as "an 80s VHS vision of the future" where the player must "get the girl, kill the bad guys, and save the world".


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: The player controls an American cybernetic super-soldier named Sergeant Rex "Power" Colt (Michael Biehn). He and another American cyber-soldier, T.T. "Spider" Brown (Phil LaMarr), travel to an unnamed island to investigate Colonel Sloan (Danny Blanco Hall), an elite agent who has gone rogue. Rex and Spider confront Sloan, who knocks Rex out and kills Spider.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: Rex is awoken by Sloan's assistant Dr. Elizabeth Darling (Grey DeLisle), who, disillusioned with Sloan's goals, betrays him. He teams up with Darling to overthrow Sloan's plan to revert the world to a prehistoric-like state with his rockets, armed with the blood of the "blood dragons" that roam the island. After liberating bases, saving scientists, and killing animals, Rex fights Sloan's other assistant, Dr. Carlyle (Robin Atkin Downes), who has used the blood of blood dragons to turn humans into zombie-like creatures called "the running dead". After he fights Dr. Carlyle's cyber soldiers and blood dragons, Dr. Carlyle is killed by his own AI, who had been mistreated and acted out of revenge.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: Rex goes into a parallel dimension where he fights legions of Colonel Sloan's running dead. Upon defeating them, he gets the Killstar, an arm-mounted laser gun that allows him to defeat Sloan at the cost of his own vitality. After Rex and Darling have sex, she is abducted the following morning. Rex makes an assault on Sloan's base with the Killstar and the Battle Armored Dragon Assault Strike System (B.A.D.A.S.S.).


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: Rex confronts Sloan who, having programmed Rex, prevents him from attacking. Darling and Spider's memories remind Rex of his humanity, and he impales Sloan with his robotic hand and fires the Killstar, killing him. Darling appears and informs Rex of his success in stopping Sloan's plans, then proceeds to destroy the base. They embrace while looking on at the destruction, as Darling looks behind with purple eyes and a sinister gaze.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon" is a standalone expansion for "Far Cry 3", which was released in late 2012. At the time, Ubisoft was experimenting with a new approach to release downloadable content (DLC) for their games. The company wanted to release additional content appealed to new and pre-existing players. It first experimented with "The Tyranny of King Washington", a DLC for "Assassin's Creed III" that is set in an alternate timeline. The team intended to continue this approach for "Far Cry 3", and allowed the developers to abandon its characters and the settings. Ubisoft welcomed all types of idea for the DLC, and they were approached by Dean Evans, who had previously worked on "Assassin's Creed III" and "", about a game that is set in "a 1980s vision of the future". Franchise director Dan Hay and Ubisoft executives in Paris were pleased with the idea, and gave Evans approximately six months to complete its development.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: The game was heavily inspired by B-movies released in the 1980s and the early 1990s. Since Hay gave the team free rein to create something unexpected, Evans used the opportunity to "resurrect a VHS-era aesthetic he felt was lost to the times". At the time, the release of nostalgic films such as "Manborg" and "Hobo with a Shotgun" made him believe that "Blood Dragon" would yield similar success, since the genre was underrepresented in the video game industry. Evans contacted director Jason Eisener after watching "Hobo with a Shotgun;" the two soon became friends, and Eisener became "Blood Dragon"s informal adviser, with Evans regularly sending assets and soundtracks to him. Ubisoft also invited Eisener to visit their Montreal office to brainstorm additional ideas and read the game's script. Initially, the team planned to include a boss battle in "Blood Dragon", which would involve Rex fighting "the Plague", characters from "Hobo with a Shotgun." The idea was scrapped due to the game's limited development time.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: Initially, Ubisoft considered hiring Dolph Lundgren for the lead role, Rex "Power" Colt, but Evans met Michael Biehn, who was known for his roles as Kyle Reese and Dwayne Hicks, during a Q&A session for "The Victim", and decided that he would be the perfect candidate to voice Rex. Evans contacted Jennifer Blanc to set up a meeting, but he was initially reluctant to meet with Evans due to his unpleasant experience voicing Hicks in "", his only voice role for a video game. Biehn changed his mind after meeting Evans, as he found the 1980s influence to be inherently interesting. The team described Rex Colt as "Michael Biehn in "Terminator" - but if he was the Terminator". Biehn portrayed Rex as "somebody that was old and done [wiping out blood dragons] 100 times". Evans added that Rex was "bored" and "cynical" about the events happening in the game. As a result, the team had Biehn record satirical one-liners with a hoarse voice.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: To ensure that the game captured the aesthetics of the 1980s movie, Evans held weekly "Cyborg Nights", where the development team gathered together to watch films such as "RoboCop", "Predator", and "The Wraith". The cutscenes featured in the game are slideshow-styled 16-bit animations. Evans also asked the team to design the characters as if they only have a budget of $150. Many characters in the game looked like action figures, and the team incorporated found objects into their design that is commonly seen in "B-movie sci-fi". According to Evans, the team was proud of the script, which was "bad", and boasted about having "predictable and one-dimensional characters", "terrible story" and "minimal emotions" during early preview events. He further remarked that "Blood Dragon" did not "make much sense", and that the game was designed to be "ridiculous", "fun", "stupid" and "honest". The team hoped that the game could evoke the feeling of playing with action figures when players were young.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: Since the game had a very short development cycle, many systems, such as skill trees and crafting, were either removed or streamlined significantly. Evans said the essence of the game is entirely about "running around with very big guns and shooting cyborgs in their faces whilst trying to avoid dragons that fire lasers from their eyes". Most of the enemy designs were simple, but creating the blood dragons was challenging for the team due to their massive size; the developers had to rethink the island's design to ensure that the dragons can fully interact with the environment without clipping into the terrain. Many features were cut from the game since the team became over-ambitious: one deleted ending involved Rex eating Sloan's heart before transforming into a giant to battle a massive dragon, and a boss fight with Sloan was replaced with cutscenes. At one point the game included self-aware quick-time events, such as "press A to show emotions" and "press A to cry", but this was subsequently removed from the game.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: Australian synthwave duo Power Glove composed the game's music. Evans asked Eisener, who worked with the duo previously on "Hobo with a Shotgun", to help him reach them. The soundtracks were produced fairly early during the game's development, as Evans wanted to use them as a baseline for the game's development. According to Evans, this allowed the team to understand more about the atmosphere and the tone the game was striving for. Concept arts were sent to Power Glove for inspiration. The team first composed the Blood Dragon theme, the theme for Rex Colt, and "Omega Force". The production of the soundtrack went smoothly, as the team rarely needed to ask the duo to revise their soundtracks. The soundtracks produced were mainly electronic music that paid homage to John Carpenter and "Terminator" films. To capture the retro vibe, the team also recruited the sound designer of "Airwolf" to serve as the game's audio director.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: In March 2013, "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon" was found listed on a Brazilian ratings site. On April 1, 2013, Ubisoft released a teaser video and website for "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon", leading many to believe that it was an April Fools' Day joke. Suspicions that the game was real were further confirmed when Power Glove uploaded music from the soundtrack to SoundCloud. The game was leaked on April 7, 2013, due to an exploit in Ubisoft's digital distribution service, Uplay, which led a temporary closure until the exploit was fixed. On April 8, 2013, the game was listed on the Xbox Live Marketplace.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: On April 11, Ubisoft officially confirmed the game's release with a new trailer, and that the game would be released on PlayStation Network on April 30, and on Xbox Live Arcade and Microsoft Windows on May 1. The trailer was animated in a 1980s style, including all the tropes of poor voice acting and imperfections designed to make the video look like a VHS tape. A live-action video titled "Blood Dragon: The Cyber War" was released on April 16, 2013. The virtual box art cover for the game was designed by James White, who had previously created artwork for the film "Drive".


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: A remastered version of "Blood Dragon" was included in the season pass for "Far Cry 6". The remastered version, titled "Classic Edition", was released on December 16, 2021 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, and launched for Google Stadia on July 7, 2022.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: The game received generally positive reviews according to Metacritic upon release. The game was nominated at the D.I.C.E. Awards for Downloadable Game of the Year, and won the VGX award for Best DLC. The game sold over 500,000 copies in two months, which surpassed Ubisoft's expectations, and its success also boosted the sales of "Far Cry 3". At Gamescom 2013, the game was announced to have sold over 1 million copies.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: The tone and the theme of the game received mixed reviews. According to "GameSpot"s Kevin VanOrd, "Blood Dragon" is "fascinatingly entertaining", its writing more clever than most other shooters in the market and that it was "hard not to be charmed from the moment it begins". Mitch Dyer from "IGN" liked the 80s influence and described the experience as entering the mind of a nine-year-old kid where action figures come to life. Sinan Kubba from "Joystiq" compared Rex Colt to Duke Nukem, and lauded Ubisoft for successfully "combin[ing] crazy ideas with classy writing", a feat that the original game failed to achieve. Dan Whitehead from "Eurogamer" agreed that the game was dumb, adding that it "wears its idiocy like a shield", but remarked that some players may not enjoy this kind of humor. Matt Bertz from "Game Informer" thought that the story was hilarious, but commented that the crass humor featured in the game, similar to the 1980s movie, may alienate some of its players. Jim Sterling from "Destructoid" and Alex Wiltshire from "PC Gamer" were more critical of the game's humor; Sterling thought that some of the jokes were banal and lame. The game's soundtracks received critical acclaim. The cutscenes were generally liked; VanOrd compared them to older games such as "Metal Gear" and "Shadow of the Beast", though Dyer noted that some of these cutscenes were too long.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: The gameplay received generally positive reviews. Most critics liked the blood dragons, as their presence gave players an additional way to clear outposts and garrisons. They found the blood dragons' interaction with other enemies to be an engaging experience. However, several critics remarked that it was not too challenging to kill a blood dragon in the game. Wiltshire added that they were not interesting to fight, and were more interesting as an ally than an enemy. Whitehead praised the game's progression and pacing, noting that the game ends before it overstays its welcome. Bertz disliked some of the side objectives for disrupting the game's pacing, and thought that some of the quests were repetitive and boring. VanOrd and Dyer liked how most of the skills in "Far Cry 3" were already unlocked at the beginning of "Blood Dragon", with Dyer noting that this made Rex a very powerful character. Many critics remarked that the gameplay strengths of "Far Cry 3" remain in "Blood Dragon". While several critics were disappointed by the lack of new gameplay additions, Arthur Gies from "Polygon" thought that "Blood Dragon" was a more manageable game due to its smaller size and simplified systems.


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: Evans initially planned for a sequel, though "Far Cry 4" director Alex Hutchinson later added that the game would not have a follow-up. Although no sequels to "Blood Dragon" have been released, a "Trials" game titled "Trials of the Blood Dragon" was developed by RedLynx and released by Ubisoft in 2016. Evans left Ubisoft in March 2018 after his project was cancelled internally. Following the success of "Blood Dragon", Ubisoft continued to release spin-offs for the series using assets built for mainline games, which led to the release of "Far Cry Primal" in 2016 and "Far Cry New Dawn" in 2019. Blood dragons return as enemies in "Dead Living Zombies", the final DLC pack for "Far Cry 5".


title: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

text: It was announced that Ubisoft was collaborating with Adi Shankar to develop an animated series titled "Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix". The show was announced to be in production for Netflix during June 2021.


title: Immaculate Reception

text: The Immaculate Reception is one of the most famous plays in the history of American football. It occurred in the AFC of the National Football League (NFL), between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 23, 1972. With the Steelers trailing in the last 30 seconds of the game, Pittsburgh quarterback Terry Bradshaw threw a pass attempt to John Fuqua. The ball either bounced off the helmet of Raiders safety Jack Tatum or off the hands of Fuqua, and, as it fell, Steelers fullback Franco Harris caught it just before it could hit the ground and ran for a game-winning touchdown. The play has been a source of unresolved controversy and speculation ever since, as many people have contended that the ball only touched Fuqua or that it hit the ground before Harris caught it, either of which would have resulted in an incomplete pass by the rules at the time. Kevin Cook's "The Last Headbangers" cites the play as the beginning of a bitter rivalry between Pittsburgh and Oakland that fueled a historically brutal Raiders team during the NFL's most controversially physical era.


title: Immaculate Reception

text: NFL Films has chosen it as the greatest play of all time, as well as the most controversial. The play was also selected as the Greatest Play in NFL History in the NFL Network's 100 series. The play was a turning point for the Steelers, who reversed four decades of futility with their first playoff win ever, and went on to win four Super Bowls by the end of the 1970s.


title: Immaculate Reception

text: The play's name is a pun derived from the Immaculate Conception, a dogma in the Catholic Church. The phrase was first used on air by Myron Cope, a Pittsburgh sportscaster who was reporting on the Steelers' victory. A Pittsburgh woman, Sharon Levosky, called Cope before his 11 PM sports broadcast on the 23rd and suggested the name, which was coined by her friend Michael Ord. Cope used the term on television and the phrase stuck. The phrase was apparently meant to imply that the play was miraculous in nature (see Hail Mary pass for a similar term).


title: Immaculate Reception

text: The Oakland Raiders had been to the postseason four previous times. In 1967 they won the AFL Championship before losing Super Bowl II against the Green Bay Packers. The following three seasons they made it back to the AFL/AFC Championship Game, but lost to the eventual Super Bowl champions in all three instances (New York Jets in 1968, Kansas City Chiefs in 1969, Baltimore Colts in 1970). The "Immaculate Reception" game thus marked their return to the postseason after missing out on a playoff berth the year before.


title: Immaculate Reception

text: The Pittsburgh Steelers, on the other hand, had appeared in the postseason only once, losing against the Philadelphia Eagles, 21–0, in an NFL divisional playoff game on December 21, 1947. The Steelers' fortunes began to change, however, in 1969, when they hired head coach Chuck Noll, who would win four Super Bowls in six years with the team between the 1974 and 1979 seasons. That streak would begin two years after the "Immaculate Reception" game.


title: Immaculate Reception

text: The 1972 season marked the third year after the AFL-NFL merger, which had the Steelers move to the newly formed American Football "Conference" despite not having been a member of the American Football "League". Thus, this was the third year in which a playoff meeting between the Raiders and the Steelers could take place outside a Super Bowl.


title: Immaculate Reception

text: Having missed the playoffs the year before, the two teams met in the opening game of the season (on September 17), which Pittsburgh won, 34–28. In that game, the Steelers took leads of 17–0 and 27–7 on a blocked-punt return touchdown and two rushing touchdowns by Terry Bradshaw. Oakland would fight back with three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including a 70-yard touchdown pass from Daryle Lamonica to Mike Siani, but Pittsburgh prevailed.


title: Immaculate Reception

text: Both teams would end up winning their respective division. Pittsburgh's 11–3 record put them one game over the Cleveland Browns, who earned the AFC's wild-card spot, and Oakland's mark of 10–3–1 ousted the Kansas City Chiefs by 2½ games. Until 1975 the home teams in the playoffs were two of the three division champions decided based on a yearly divisional rotation. The Miami Dolphins hosted the wild-card team in the first round of the playoffs, which set up the matchup between Pittsburgh and Oakland.


title: Immaculate Reception

text: The teams played to a scoreless tie at the half, with Oakland's longest gain coming on an 11-yard completion from Daryle Lamonica to Fred Biletnikoff. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, came fairly close to a scoring chance, but passed up on a field-goal attempt from the Oakland 31-yard line. Instead, John Fuqua was stopped by Jack Tatum on a fourth-and-2 run to turn possession over to the Raiders. (Interestingly, it would be another collision by these two players that led to the "Immaculate Reception" late in the fourth quarter). On its first possession of the second half, however, Pittsburgh opted for a field goal, with Roy Gerela's successful 18-yard attempt accounting for the first score of the game.


title: Immaculate Reception

text: Later in the third quarter, Lamonica was intercepted for the second time in the game — both times by a Steelers linebacker (Andy Russell in the first quarter, Jack Ham in the third). Lamonica's latest turnover prompted Raiders head coach John Madden to put Kenny Stabler into the game at quarterback.


title: Immaculate Reception

text: After an interception thrown by Terry Bradshaw in Oakland territory — the Steelers' only turnover of the game — Stabler turned the ball back over to Pittsburgh, when he fumbled the ball inside the Oakland 25-yard line. This led to another field goal by Gerela to extend the Steelers' lead to 6–0.


title: Immaculate Reception

text: Stabler would, however, successfully lead Oakland down the field, when he capped a fourth-quarter drive with a 30-yard touchdown run. The ensuing extra point by George Blanda gave Oakland a 7–6 lead with 1:17 left, setting up the dramatic ending to the game.


title: Immaculate Reception

text: Trailing the Oakland Raiders 7–6, the Pittsburgh Steelers faced fourth-and-10 on their own 40-yard line with 22 seconds remaining in the game and no time-outs. Head coach Chuck Noll called a pass play, 66 Circle Option, intended for receiver Barry Pearson, a rookie who was playing in his first NFL game.


title: Immaculate Reception

text: Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw (1 in diagram), under great pressure from Raiders linemen Tony Cline and Horace Jones, threw the ball to the Raiders' 35-yard line, toward halfback John "Frenchy" Fuqua. Raiders safety Jack Tatum collided with Fuqua just as the ball arrived (2). Tatum's hit knocked Fuqua to the ground and sent the ball sailing backward several yards, end over end.