title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: Milo, as a reward for saving Atlantis from Rourke and Helga, elects to stay in Atlantis with Kida, with whom he has fallen in love, and the rest return to the surface, promising to keep their adventures secret to preserve Atlantis's safety. During the film's epilogue, Whitmore alone learns the truth, from photographs taken by Mrs. Packard as well as an Atlantean crystal sent to him by Milo.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: The idea for "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" was conceived in October 1996 when Don Hahn, Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, and Tab Murphy lunched at a Mexican restaurant in Burbank, California. Having recently completed "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" the producer and directors wanted to keep the "Hunchback" crew together for another film with an Adventureland setting. Drawing inspiration from Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas" (1870), they set out to make a film which would fully explore Atlantis (compared to the brief visit depicted in Verne's novel). While primarily utilizing the Internet to research the mythology of Atlantis, the filmmakers became interested in the clairvoyant readings of Edgar Cayce and decided to incorporate some of his ideas—notably that of a mother-crystal which provides power, healing, and longevity to the Atlanteans—into the story. They also visited museums and old army installations to study the technology of the early 20th century (the film's time period), and traveled underground in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns to view the subterranean trails which would serve as a model for the approach to Atlantis in the film.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: The filmmakers wanted to avoid the common depiction of Atlantis as "crumbled Greek columns underwater", said Wise. "From the get-go, we were committed to designing it top to bottom. Let's get the architectural style, clothing, heritage, customs, how they would sleep, and how they would speak. So we brought people on board who would help us develop those ideas." Art director David Goetz stated, "We looked at Mayan architecture, styles of ancient, unusual architecture from around the world, and the directors really liked the look of Southeast Asian architecture." The team later took ideas from other architectural forms, including Cambodian, Indian, and Tibetan works. Hahn added, "If you take and deconstruct architecture from around the world into one architectural vocabulary, that's what our Atlantis looks like." The overall design and circular layout of Atlantis were also based on the writings of Plato, and his quote "in a single day and night of misfortune, the island of Atlantis disappeared into the depths of the sea" was influential from the beginning of production. The crew wore T-shirts which read "ATLANTIS—Fewer songs, more explosions" due to the film's plan as an action-adventure (unlike previous Disney animated features, which were musicals).


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: Dean DeBlois, who worked as co-head of story for "Mulan", originally joined the project. However, DeBlois grew unsatisfied with his work on "Atlantis" and realized that he wanted to work with his friend Chris Sanders as co-writer and director on "Lilo & Stitch". He spoke with Thomas Schumacher, then-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, about this and Schumacher allowed him to leave "Atlantis" to work in Sanders' film.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: Marc Okrand, who developed the Klingon language for the "Star Trek" television and theatrical productions, was hired to devise the Atlantean language for "Atlantis: The Lost Empire". Guided by the directors' initial concept for it to be a "mother-language", Okrand employed an Indo-European word stock with its own grammatical structure. He would change the words if they began to sound too much like an actual, spoken language. John Emerson designed the written component, making hundreds of random sketches of individual letters from among which the directors chose the best to represent the Atlantean alphabet. The written language was boustrophedon: designed to be read left-to-right on the first line, then right-to-left on the second, continuing in a zigzag pattern to simulate the flow of water.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: Joss Whedon was the first writer to be involved with the film but soon left to work on other Disney projects. According to him, he "had not a shred" in the movie. Tab Murphy completed the screenplay, stating that the time from initially discussing the story to producing a script that satisfied the film crew was "about three to four months". The initial draft was 155 pages, much longer than a typical Disney film script (which usually runs 90 pages). When the first two acts were timed at 120 minutes, the directors cut characters and sequences and focused more on Milo. Murphy said that he created the centuries-old "Shepherd's Journal" because he needed a map for the characters to follow throughout their journey. A revised version of the script eliminated the trials encountered by the explorers as they navigated the caves to Atlantis. This gave the film a faster pace because Atlantis is discovered earlier in the story.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: The character of Milo J. Thatch was originally supposed to be a descendant of Edward Teach, otherwise known as Blackbeard the pirate. The directors later related him to an explorer so he would discover his inner talent for exploration. The character of Molière was originally intended to be "professorial" but Chris Ure, a story artist, changed the concept to that of a "horrible little burrowing creature with a wacky coat and strange headgear with extending eyeballs", said Wise. Don Hahn pointed out that the absence of songs presented a challenge for a team accustomed to animating musicals, as action scenes alone would have to carry the film. Kirk Wise said it gave the team an opportunity for more on-screen character development: "We had more screen time available to do a scene like where Milo and the explorers are camping out and learning about one another's histories. An entire sequence is devoted to having dinner and going to bed. That is not typically something we would have the luxury of doing."


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: Hahn stated that the first animated sequence completed during production was the film's prologue. The original version featured a Viking war party using "The Shepherd's Journal" to find Atlantis and being swiftly dispatched by the Leviathan. Near the end of production, story supervisor John Sanford told the directors that he felt this prologue did not give viewers enough emotional involvement with the Atlanteans. Despite knowing that the Viking prologue was finished and it would cost additional time and money to alter the scene, the directors agreed with Sanford. Trousdale went home and completed the storyboards later that evening. The opening was replaced by a sequence depicting the destruction of Atlantis, which introduced the film from the perspective of the Atlanteans and Princess Kida. The Viking prologue is included as an extra feature on the DVD release.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: At the peak of its production, 350 animators, artists and technicians were working on "Atlantis" at all three Disney animation studios: Walt Disney Feature Animation (Burbank, California), Disney Feature Animation Florida (Orlando), and Disney Animation France (Paris). The film was one of the few Disney animated features produced and shot in 35mm anamorphic format. The directors felt that a widescreen image was crucial, as a nostalgic reference to old action-adventure films presented in the CinemaScope format (2.39:1), noting "Raiders of the Lost Ark" as an inspiration. Because switching to the format would require animation desks and equipment designed for widescreen to be purchased, Disney executives were at first reluctant about the idea. The production team found a simple solution by drawing within a smaller frame on the same paper and equipment used for standard aspect ratio (1.66:1) Disney-animated films. Layout supervisor Ed Ghertner wrote a guide to the widescreen format for use by the layout artists and mentioned that one advantage of widescreen was that he could keep characters in scenes longer because of additional space to walk within the frame. Wise drew further inspiration for the format from filmmakers David Lean and Akira Kurosawa.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: The film's visual style was strongly based upon that of Mike Mignola, the comic book artist behind "Hellboy". Mignola was one of four production designers (along with Matt Codd, Jim Martin, and Ricardo Delgado) hired by the Disney studio for the film. Accordingly, he provided style guides, preliminary character, and background designs, and story ideas. "Mignola's graphic, the angular style was a key influence on the 'look' of the characters," stated Wise. Mignola was surprised when first contacted by the studio to work on "Atlantis". His artistic influence on the film would later contribute to a cult following.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: The final pull-out scene of the movie, immediately before the end-title card, was described by the directors as the most difficult scene in the history of Disney animation. They said that the pullout attempt on their prior film, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "struggled" and "lacked depth"; however, after making advances in the process of multiplaning, they tried the technique again in "Atlantis". The scene begins with one piece of paper showing a close-up of Milo and Kida. As the camera pulls away from them to reveal the newly restored Atlantis, it reaches the equivalent of an piece of paper composed of many individual pieces of paper ( or smaller). Each piece was carefully drawn and combined with animated vehicles simultaneously flying across the scene to make the viewer see a complete, integrated image.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: At the time of its release, "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" was notable for using more computer-generated imagery (CGI) than any other Disney traditionally animated feature. To increase productivity, the directors had the digital artists work with the traditional animators throughout the production. Several important scenes required heavy use of digital animation: the Leviathan, the "Ulysses" submarine and sub-pods, the Heart of Atlantis, and the Stone Giants. During production, after Matt Codd and Jim Martin designed the "Ulysses" on paper, Greg Aronowitz was hired to build a scale model of the submarine, to be used as a reference for drawing the 3D "Ulysses". The final film included 362 digital-effects shots, and computer programs were used to seamlessly join the 2D and 3D artwork. One scene that took advantage of this was the "sub-drop" scene, where the 3D "Ulysses" was dropped from its docking bay into the water. As the camera floated toward it, a 2D Milo was drawn to appear inside, tracking the camera. The crew noted that it was challenging to keep the audience from noticing the difference between the 2D and 3D drawings when they were merged. The digital production also gave the directors a unique "virtual camera" for complicated shots within the film. With the ability to operate in the z-plane, this camera moved through a digital wire-frame set; the background and details were later hand-drawn over the wireframes. This was used in the opening flight scene through Atlantis and the submarine chase through the undersea cavern with the Leviathan in pursuit.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: Since the film would not feature any songs, the directors hired James Newton Howard to compose the score after the directors heard his music on "Dinosaur". Approaching it as a live-action film, Howard decided to have different musical themes for the cultures of the surface world and Atlantis. In the case of Atlantis, Howard chose an Indonesian orchestral sound incorporating chimes, bells, and gongs. The directors told Howard that the film would have a number of key scenes without dialogue; the score would need to convey emotionally what the viewer was seeing on screen.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: Gary Rydstrom and his team at Skywalker Sound were hired for the film's sound production. Like Howard, Rydstrom employed different sounds for the two cultures. Focusing on the machine and mechanical sounds of the early industrial era for the explorers, he felt that the Atlanteans should have a "more organic" sound utilizing ceramics and pottery. The sound made by the Atlantean flying-fish vehicles posed a particular challenge. Rydstrom revealed that he was sitting at the side of a highway recording one day when a semi-truck drove by at high speed. When the recording was sped up on his computer, he felt it sounded very organic, and decided to use it in the film. Rydstrom created the harmonic chiming of the Heart of Atlantis by rubbing his finger along the edge of a champagne flute, and the sound of sub-pods moving through the water with a water pick.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" had its world premiere at Disney's El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on June 3, 2001 and a limited release in New York City and Los Angeles on June 8; a wider release followed on June 15. At the premiere, "Destination: Atlantis" was on display, featuring behind-the-scenes props from the film and information on the legend of Atlantis with video games, displays, laser tag, and other attractions. The Aquarium of the Pacific also loaned a variety of fish for display within the attraction.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: "Atlantis" was among Disney's first major attempts to utilize internet marketing. The film was promoted through Kellogg's, which created a website with mini-games and a movie-based video game give-away for UPC labels from specially marked packages of "Atlantis" breakfast cereal. The film was one of Disney's first marketing attempts through mobile network operators, and allowed users to download games based on the film. McDonald's (which had an exclusive licensing agreement on all Disney releases) promoted the film with Happy Meal toys, food packaging and in-store decor. The McDonald's advertising campaign involved television, radio, and print advertisements beginning on the film's release date. Frito-Lay offered free admission tickets for the film on specially marked snack packages.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" was released on VHS and DVD January 29, 2002. During the first month of its home release, the film led in VHS sales and was third in VHS and DVD sales combined. Sales and rentals of the VHS and DVD combined would eventually accumulate $157 million in revenue by mid-2003. Both a single-disc DVD edition and a two-disc collector's edition (with bonus features) were released. The single-disc DVD gave the viewer the option of viewing the film either in its original theatrical 2.39:1 aspect ratio or a modified 1.33:1 ratio (utilizing pan and scan). Bonus features available on the DVD version included audio and visual commentary from the film team, a virtual tour of the CGI models, an Atlantean-language tutorial, an encyclopedia on the myth of Atlantis, and the deleted Viking prologue scene. The two-disc collector's edition DVD contained all the single-disc features and a disc with supplemental material detailing all aspects of the film's production. The collector's-edition film could only be viewed in its original theatrical ratio, and also featured an optional DTS 5.1 track. Both DVD versions, however, contained a Dolby Digital 5.1 track and were THX certified. Disney digitally remastered and released "Atlantis" on Blu-ray on June 11, 2013, bundled with its sequel "".


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: Before the film's release, reporters speculated that it would have a difficult run due to competition from "Shrek" and "." Regarding the market's shift from traditional animation and competition with CGI films, Kirk Wise said, "Any traditional animator, including myself, can't help but feel a twinge. I think it always comes down to story and character, and one form won't replace the other. Just like photography didn't replace painting. But maybe I'm blind to it." Jeff Jensen of "Entertainment Weekly" noted that CGI films (such as "Shrek") were more likely to attract the teenage demographic typically not interested in animation, and called "Atlantis" a "marketing and creative gamble".


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: With a budget of $100 million, the film opened at #2 on its debut weekend, behind "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" earning $20.3 million in 3,011 theaters. During its second weekend, it would drop into fourth place behind the latter film, "Dr. Dolittle 2" and "The Fast and the Furious", making $13.2 million. The film's international release began September 20 in Australia and other markets followed suit. During its 25-week theatrical run, "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" grossed over $186 million worldwide ($84 million from the United States and Canada). Responding to its disappointing box-office performance, Thomas Schumacher, then-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, said, "It seemed like a good idea at the time to not do a sweet fairy tale, but we missed."


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that of professional critics have given "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" a positive review; the average rating is . The site's consensus is: ""Atlantis" provides a fast-paced spectacle, but stints on such things as character development and a coherent plot". Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 52 out of 100 based on 29 reviews from mainstream critics; this was considered "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: While critics had mixed reactions to the film in general, some praised it for its visuals, action-adventure elements, and attempt to appeal to an older audience. Roger Ebert gave "Atlantis" three-and-a-half stars out of four. He praised the animation's "clean bright visual look" and the "classic energy of the comic book style", crediting this to the work of Mike Mignola. Ebert gave particular praise to the story and the final battle scene and wrote, "The story of "Atlantis" is rousing in an old pulp science fiction sort of way, but the climactic scene transcends the rest, and stands by itself as one of the great animated action sequences." In "The New York Times", Elvis Mitchell gave high praise to the film, calling it "a monumental treat", and stated, ""Atlantis" is also one of the most eye-catching Disney cartoons since Uncle Walt institutionalized the four-fingered glove." Internet film critic James Berardinelli wrote a positive review of the film, giving it three out of four stars. He wrote, "On the whole, "Atlantis" offers 90 minutes of solid entertainment, once again proving that while Disney may be clueless when it comes to producing good live-action movies, they are exactly the opposite when it comes to their animated division." Wesley Morris of the "San Francisco Chronicle" wrote positively of the film's approach for an older audience: "But just beneath the surface, "Atlantis" brims with adult possibility."


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: Other critics felt that the film was mediocre in regards to its story and characters, and that it failed to deliver as a non-musical to Disney's traditional audience. Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a C+ rating, writing that the film had "gee-whiz formulaic character" and was "the essence of craft without dream". Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" said the storyline and characterizations were "old-fashioned" and the film had the retrograde look of a Saturday-morning cartoon, but these deficiencies were offset by its "brisk action" and frantic pace. Todd McCarthy of "Variety" wrote, "Disney pushes into all-talking, no-singing, no-dancing and, in the end, no-fun animated territory." Stephanie Zacharek of "Salon" wrote of Disney's attempt to make the film for an adult audience, "The big problem with Disney's latest animated feature, "Atlantis: The Lost Empire", is that it doesn't seem geared to kids at all: It's so adult that it's massively boring." Rita Kempley of "The Washington Post" panned the film, calling it a "new-fashioned but old-fangled hash" and wrote, "Ironically Disney had hoped to update its image with this mildly diverting adventure, yet the picture hasn't really broken away from the tried-and-true format spoofed in the far superior "Shrek"."


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: In 2015, Katharine Trendacosta at io9 reviewed the film and called it a "Beautiful Gem of a Movie That Deserved Better Than It Got" and said that the film deserves more love than it ended up getting. Ricky Brigante of InsideTheMagic considers the film the "most underrated, under-watched, and under-appreciated" Disney canon film, praising it for its themes and characters. Lindsay Teal considers "Atlantis" to be "a lost Disney classic". Describing the film as highly entertaining, she praises the writing and characterisation – in particular, Sweet, Helga and Kida. In particular, much praise has been given to the character of Kida. Summer has regarded the character of Kida as one of her favourite roles and even considers the character among the official Disney Princess line-up.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: Several critics and scholars have noted that "Atlantis" plays strongly on themes of anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism. M. Keith Booker, academic and author of studies about the implicit messages conveyed by media, views the character of Rourke as being motivated by "capitalist greed" when he pursues "his own financial gain" in spite of the knowledge that "his theft [of the crystal] will lead to the destruction of [Atlantis]". Religion journalist Mark Pinsky, in his exploration of moral and spiritual themes in popular Disney films, says that "it is impossible to read the movie ... any other way" than as "a devastating, unrelenting attack on capitalism and American imperialism". Max Messier of FilmCritic.com observes, "Disney even manages to lambast the capitalist lifestyle of the adventurers intent on uncovering the lost city. Damn the imperialists!" According to Booker, the film also "delivers a rather segregationist moral" by concluding with the discovery of the Atlanteans kept secret from other surface-dwellers in order to maintain a separation between the two highly divergent cultures. Others saw "Atlantis" as an interesting look at utopian philosophy of the sort found in classic works of science fiction by H. G. Wells and Jules Verne.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: When the film was released, some viewers noticed that "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" was similar to the anime "", particularly in its character design, setting, and story. The similarities, as noted by viewers in both Japan and America, were strong enough for its production company Gainax to be called to sue for plagiarism. According to Gainax member Yasuhiro Takeda, they only refrained from doing so because the decision belonged to parent companies NHK and Toho. Another Gainax worker, Hiroyuki Yamaga, was quoted in an interview in 2000 as saying: "We actually tried to get NHK to pick a fight with Disney, but even the National Television Network of Japan didn't dare to mess with Disney and their lawyers. [...] We actually did say that but we wouldn't actually take them to court. We would be so terrified about what they would do to them in return that we wouldn’t dare."


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: Although Disney never responded formally to those claims, co-director Kirk Wise posted on a Disney animation newsgroup in May 2001, "Never heard of "Nadia" till it was mentioned in this [newsgroup]. Long after we'd finished production, I might add." He claimed both "Atlantis" and "Nadia" were inspired, in part, by the 1870 Jules Verne novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea". However, speaking about the clarification, Lee Zion from "Anime News Network" wrote, "There are too many similarities "not" connected with "20,000 Leagues" for the whole thing to be coincidence." As such, the whole affair ultimately entered popular culture as a convincing case of plagiarism. In 2018, Reuben Baron from "Comic Book Resources" added to Zion's comment stating, "Verne didn't specifically imagine magic crystal-based technology, something featured in both the Disney movie and the two similar anime. The Verne inspiration also doesn't explain the designs being suspiciously similar to "Nadia"'s."


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: Critics also saw parallels with the 1986 film "" from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli (which also featured magic crystals, and "Atlantis" directors Trousdale and Wise both acknowledged Miyazaki's works as a major influence on their own work) and with the 1994 film "Stargate" as Milo's characteristics were said to resemble those of Daniel Jackson, the protagonist of "Stargate" and its spinoff television series "Stargate SG-1"—which coincidentally launched its own spinoff, titled "Stargate Atlantis".


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: "Atlantis: the Lost Empire" was meant to provide a springboard for an animated television series entitled "Team Atlantis", which would have presented the further adventures of its characters. This show would have been akin to an animated steampunk version of "The X-Files" and feature a crossover with "Gargoyles". However, because of the film's underperformance at the box office, the series was not produced. On May 20, 2003, Disney released a direct-to-video sequel called "", consisting of three episodes planned for the aborted series. In addition, Disneyland planned to revive its Submarine Voyage ride with an "Atlantis" theme with elements from the movie and the ride was promoted with a meet-and-greet by the movie's characters. These plans were canceled and the attraction was re-opened in 2007 as the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, its theme based on the 2003 Disney·Pixar animated film "Finding Nemo", which was far more successful commercially and critically.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: The soundtrack to "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" was released on May 22, 2001. It consists primarily of James Newton Howard's score and includes "Where the Dream Takes You", written by Howard and Diane Warren and performed by Mýa. It was also available in a limited edition of 20,000 numbered copies with a unique 3D album cover insert depicting the Leviathan from the film. A rare promotional edition (featuring 73 minutes of material, compared to the 53 minutes on standard commercial editions) was intended only for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters but was bootlegged and distributed with fan-created artwork. Concerning the promotional edition, Filmtracks said, "Outside of about five minutes of superior additional material (including the massive opening, "Atlantis Destroyed"), the complete presentation is mostly redundant. Still, "Atlantis" is an accomplished work for its genre."


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: There are several video games based on the film. "" was developed by Zombie Studios and published by Buena Vista Games, a subsidiary of Disney Interactive. It was released on May 1, 2001, for the Microsoft Windows platform and was a first-person shooter game, the first of two games based on the film developed by Zombie Studios and released for UPC labels from Kellogg's products for promotion. "" (commonly known as "Atlantis: Trial by Fire") was the second game developed by Zombie Studios and published by Disney Interactive, and was released May 18, 2001, for the Microsoft Windows platform.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" is an action game developed by Eurocom for the PlayStation console which was released June 14, 2001. The player controls Milo, Audrey, Molière, Kida and Vinny as they traverse Atlantis, unlocking its secrets. Some features in the game unlock others (such as a movie) by finding items hidden throughout the game. THQ released "Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire" for the Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color. On Game Boy Color, it is a platform game in which the player controls Milo and three other characters from the film across 14 levels on a quest to discover Atlantis. On Game Boy Advance, it is a platform adventure-based game that hinges on searching and collecting crystals over 10 different levels including an epic battle against Rourke, the evil mercenary captain. The game was met with average to mixed reviews upon release. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 74% and 73 out of 100 for the PlayStation version; 65% for the Game Boy Color version; and 56% and 51 out of 100 for the Game Boy Advance version.


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: Additionally, Milo, Kida, Helga, Audrey, and Vinny are playable heroes in the mobile game "Disney Heroes: Battle Mode".


title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

text: On June 15, 2021, Disney posted on Twitter: "20 years ago today, Milo Thatch journeyed to Atlantis. Happy anniversary to this epic 2001 adventure!" A limited commemorative pin was also released by the company for the anniversary. Cast and crew of the movie also celebrated its anniversary by doing a 5-hour livestream through several platforms in an event organized by fans of the film, which was planned the year before in advance.


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: Doug Jones (born May 24, 1960) is an American actor, contortionist, and mime artist. He is best known for portraying non-human creatures, usually via heavy make-up and visual effects. He has most notably collaborated with acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, appearing in the films "Mimic" (1997), "Hellboy" (2004), "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006), "" (2008), "Crimson Peak" (2015), and "The Shape of Water" (2017).


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: Jones's other roles include "Hocus Pocus" (1993) and its sequel (2022), "Tank Girl" (1995), "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (2005), "" (2007), "Absentia" (2011), "" (2016), and "The Bye Bye Man" (2017). He has appeared in the science fiction series "Falling Skies" (2013–15) and del Toro's horror series "The Strain" (2014–16). Since 2017, he has portrayed in the science fiction series "".


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: Jones was born in Indianapolis, the youngest of four brothers, and attended Bishop Chatard High School. He graduated from Ball State University, where he parlayed his background as a mime into portraying the school mascot "Charlie Cardinal."


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: Jones started his career in the television and movie industry as a 1980s advertising character, "Mac Tonight." He worked as a contortionist, saying, "You'd be surprised how many times that comes into play in commercials. They'll want somebody to hold a box of Tide funny or something. I once squished into a box for a commercial for relaxed fit jeans." In 1994, he appeared in an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries" as Gordon Page, Jr., a young man with autism who disappeared from a treatment center in 1991.


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: Although known mostly for his work under prosthetic makeup, such as the zombie William "Billy" Butcherson in the Walt Disney Pictures Halloween film "Hocus Pocus", or the lead spy Morlock in the 2002 remake of the 1960 film "The Time Machine", he has also performed without prosthetics in such films as "Adaptation", "Mystery Men", and "Batman Returns", and indie projects such as Stefan Haves' "Stalled", AntiKaiser Productions' "Three Lives", Phil Donlon's "A Series of Small Things", and as Cesare in David Fisher's 2005 remake of the 1920 silent classic "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: Jones played Abe Sapien in "Hellboy"; the voice was performed by an uncredited David Hyde Pierce in the first film, but Jones's voice was used in the sequel. Explaining the challenge of working so often in rubber suits and prosthetics, he notes, "I have to make that a part of my being and my physicality and again, acting is a full-body experience and that's a part of it when you're doing a costumed character."


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: In 2005, he worked again with Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, starring as the Faun in del Toro's multiple-Academy Award-winning Spanish-language fantasy/horror project "Pan's Labyrinth". He also has a secondary role in the film as the Pale Man, a gruesome creature with a penchant for eating children. Working once more under heavy prosthetics in both roles, he was also required to learn large amounts of dialogue in Spanish, although ultimately his voice was redubbed anyway, by Pablo Adan. That same year also brought success for "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", the film receiving three awards at the Screamfest Horror Festival in Los Angeles, including the Audience Choice Award. In 2006, Jones appeared in the feature films "The Benchwarmers" and "Lady in the Water", and reprised his role as Abe Sapien by voicing the character in the new "Hellboy Animated" television project, recording two 75-minute animated films.


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: In February 2007, Jones's likeness was used for Nvidia's "Human Head" tech demo. In June 2007, he appeared in "" as the Silver Surfer (though Laurence Fishburne provided the character's voice). He reprised his role as Abe Sapien in "", once more under the direction of del Toro, for which he provided both the voice and body performance. He played two other roles in the film: the Angel of Death and the Chamberlain, both under heavy prosthetics. In 2009, del Toro announced on BBC Radio that Jones would be playing the monster in his upcoming version of "Frankenstein".


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: In 2007, Jones was disappointed to learn that his voice part of the Silver Surfer had been dubbed by another actor (Fishburne) when the film was released. Upon inquiry, he determined that studio pressure had been imposed in order to add more "names" to the movie. As Jones gained greater clout in the industry, he eventually was able to add a clause to his contracts ensuring that no English dialogue of his characters would be dubbed. Roles that include other languages may be dubbed, however. This came into play in "Pan's Labyrinth" – Jones learned enough Spanish to voice his characters. Still, the decision was made to use a native speaker in order to access the language's nuances adequately.


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: Jones starred as himself in "Sockbaby 4", the fourth installment of the Internet martial arts comedy series "Sockbaby".


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: Jones appeared in the French-language film "Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque)", written and directed by French comic book author Joann Sfar and produced by Universal Europe. Jones played La Gueule ("The Mug"), the grotesque fantasy muse and malicious doppelganger who teases, guides, and accompanies Serge Gainsbourg throughout his life. He was fitted with prosthetics designed and created by the Academy Award-winning Spanish FX shop DDT Efectos Especiales, with whom he had already worked on "Pan's Labyrinth"; the FX technicians requested specifically that Jones be given the role of the Mug creature, due to his ability to perform (without complaining) with heavy prosthetics and elaborate special effects. As in "Pan's Labyrinth", Jones performed his lines phonetically, this time speaking in French; his voice was redubbed by Éric Elmosnino, who also played Gainsbourg. Director Joann Sfar liked Jones's speech patterns so much that he asked Elmosnino to mimic it when he performed the creature's lines. The film was released in France on January 20, 2010.


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: In January 2010, Jones signed a book deal with Medallion Press to model a nonfiction comedic coffee table book called "Mime Very Own Book", co-authored by Adam Mock and Scott Allen Perry and photographed by Eric Curtis. The book was due for publication in December 2011.


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: Jones plays Dr. Henry Vataber in the web series "Universal Dead". In late June 2010, it was announced that "Universal Dead" would be made into a feature film. He appeared in the independent film "The Candy Shop", a "modern fairy tale" shedding light upon child sex trafficking, created by the American film studio Whitestone Pictures.


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: Jones played the "Operator," a fictional entity based on the Internet myth known as the "Slender Man," in "" a 2014 film adaptation of the popular "Marble Hornets" YouTube series.


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: Jones was cast as Commander Saru in "", which premiered September 24, 2017. That same year, Jones reunited with Guillermo del Toro, this time in a romantic lead role, the Amphibian Man (the "asset") in the Academy Award winning "The Shape of Water".


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: Jones describes himself as a "dyed-in-the-wool Christian from the Midwest", to the point that he was initially apprehensive about his role in "Hellboy" due to the titular character's demonic nature.


title: Doug Jones (actor)

text: In 1984, Jones married his college sweetheart, Laurie Pontoni. They relocated to Los Angeles in 1985 to further his acting career.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: Amadeus is a 1984 American period biographical drama film directed by Miloš Forman and adapted by Peter Shaffer from his 1979 stage play "Amadeus". Set in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the 18th century, the film is a fictionalized story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart from the time he left Salzburg, described by its writer as a "fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri". Mozart's music is heard extensively in the soundtrack. The film follows a fictional rivalry between Mozart and Italian composer Antonio Salieri at the court of Emperor Joseph II. The film stars F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart. Abraham and Hulce were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, with Abraham winning.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: "Amadeus" was released by Orion Pictures on September 19, 1984, thirteen days following its world premiere in Los Angeles on September 6, 1984. Upon release, it received widespread acclaim and was a box office hit, grossing over $90 million. Considered by many to be one of the greatest films of all time, "Amadeus" was nominated for 53 awards and received 40, including eight Academy Awards (including the Academy Award for Best Picture), four BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and a Directors Guild of America award. , it was the most recent film to have more than one nomination in the Academy Award for Best Actor category. In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked it 53rd on its 100 Years... 100 Movies list. In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: Amadeus (film)

text: In the winter of 1823, Antonio Salieri is committed to a psychiatric hospital after a suicide attempt, during which his servants overhear him confess to murdering Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The young priest Father Vogler approaches Salieri for elaboration on Salieri's confession. Salieri recounts how, even in his youth in the 1760s, he desired to be a composer, much to his father's chagrin. He prays to God that if He makes Salieri a famous composer, he will, in return, promise his faithfulness. Soon after, his father dies, which Salieri takes as a sign that God has accepted his vow. By 1774, Salieri has become court composer to Emperor Joseph II in Vienna. Seven years later, at a reception in honor of Mozart's patron, the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Salieri is shocked to discover that the transcendentally talented Mozart is obscene and immature. Salieri, a devout Catholic, cannot fathom why God would endow such a great gift to Mozart instead of him and concludes that God is using Mozart's talent to mock Salieri's mediocrity. Salieri renounces God and vows to take revenge on Him by destroying Mozart.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: Mozart's alcoholism deteriorates his health, marriage, and reputation at court, even as he continues to produce brilliant work. Salieri hires a young girl to pose as Mozart's maid and discovers that Mozart is working on an opera based on the play "The Marriage of Figaro", which the Emperor has forbidden. When Mozart is summoned to court to explain, he manages to convince the Emperor to allow his opera to premiere, despite Salieri and the advisers' attempts at sabotage. When Mozart is informed that his father has died, he writes "Don Giovanni" in his grief. Salieri recognizes the dead commander in the opera as symbolic of Mozart's father and concocts a scheme; he leads Mozart to believe that his father has risen to commission a "Requiem". He then plans to kill Mozart once the piece is finished and premiere it at Mozart's funeral, claiming the work as his own. Meanwhile, Mozart's friend Emanuel Schikaneder invites him to write an opera for his theatre. Mozart obliges despite his wife Constanze's insistence that he finish the "Requiem", as the opera is a riskier venture financially. After arguing with Mozart, Constanze leaves with their young son, Karl.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: The opera in question, "The Magic Flute", is a great success, but the overworked Mozart collapses during one performance. Salieri takes him home and persuades him to continue the "Requiem", offering to take the bedridden Mozart's dictation; the two lay down the opening of the "Confutatis" together. The next morning, Mozart thanks Salieri for his friendship, and Salieri admits that Mozart is the greatest composer he knows. Constanze returns and demands that Salieri leave immediately. In her guilt, she locks the unfinished "Requiem" away in a cabinet, keeping it away from both composers; as she and Salieri argue, Mozart dies from exhaustion. Mozart is taken out of the city and unceremoniously buried in a mass grave.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: Back in 1823, Vogler is too shocked to absolve Salieri, who surmises that the "merciful" God preferred to destroy His beloved Mozart rather than allow Salieri to share in the smallest part of his glory. Salieri promises, with bitter irony, to both pray for and absolve Vogler along with all of the world's mediocrities as their "patron saint". As Salieri is wheeled down a hallway, absolving the hospital's patients of their own inadequacies as he passes by, Mozart's laughter rings in the air.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: In his autobiography "Beginning", Kenneth Branagh says that he was one of the finalists for the role of Mozart, but was dropped from consideration when Forman decided to make the film with an American cast.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: Mark Hamill, who replaced Tim Curry as Mozart towards the end of the run of the stage play on Broadway, recalled in an interview that he read with many actresses auditioning for Mozart's wife Constanze and after the reads, Forman decided to not cast him because of his association with the character of Luke Skywalker, believing that the audience would not believe him as the composer. Tom Hulce reportedly used John McEnroe's mood swings as a source of inspiration for his portrayal of Mozart's unpredictable genius.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: Meg Tilly was cast as Mozart's wife Constanze, but she tore a ligament in her leg the day before shooting started. She was replaced by Elizabeth Berridge. Simon Callow, who played Mozart in the original London stage production of "Amadeus", was cast as Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist of "The Magic Flute".


title: Amadeus (film)

text: The film was shot on location in Prague and Kroměříž. Notably, Forman was able to shoot scenes in the Count Nostitz Theatre in Prague, where "Don Giovanni" and "La clemenza di Tito" debuted two centuries before. Several other scenes were shot at the Barrandov Studios and Invalidovna building, former "hôtel des invalides", built in 1731-1737.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: "Amadeus" holds a score of 89% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 151 reviews, with an average rating of 8.9/10. The site's consensus states: ""Amadeus" liberties with history may rankle some, but the creative marriage of Miloš Forman and Peter Shaffer yields a divinely diabolical myth of genius and mediocrity, buoyed by inspired casting and Mozart's rapturous music." Giving the film four out of four stars, Roger Ebert acknowledged that it was one of the "riskiest gambles a filmmaker has taken in a long time," but added "(here is the genius of the movie) there is nothing cheap or unworthy about the approach," and ultimately concluded that it was a "magnificent film, full and tender and funny and charming". Ebert later added the film to his Great Movies list. Peter Travers of "People" magazine said that "Hulce and Abraham share a dual triumph in a film that stands as a provocative and prodigious achievement." Stanley Kauffmann of "The New Republic" put it on his list of films worth seeing. In one negative review, Todd McCarthy of "Variety" said that despite "great material and themes to work with, and such top talent involved," the "stature and power the work possessed onstage have been noticeably diminished" in the film adaptation. The film's many historical inaccuracies have attracted criticism from music historians.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: The film grossed $52 million in the United States and Canada and by November 1985, while still in theaters overseas, had grossed over $90 million worldwide to date.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, winning eight (including Best Picture). At the end of the Oscar ceremony, Laurence Olivier came on stage to present the Oscar for Best Picture. As Olivier thanked the academy for inviting him, he was already opening the envelope. Instead of announcing the nominees, he simply read, "The winner for this is "Amadeus"." An AMPAS official quickly went onstage to confirm the winner and signaled that all was well, before Olivier then presented the award to producer Saul Zaentz. Olivier (in his 78th year) had been ill for many years, and it was because of mild dementia that he forgot to read the nominees. Zaentz then thanked Olivier, saying it was an honour to receive the award from him, before mentioning the other nominees in his acceptance speech: "The Killing Fields", "A Passage to India", "Places in the Heart" and "A Soldier's Story". Maurice Jarre won the Oscar for Best Original Music Score for his scoring of "A Passage to India". In his acceptance speech for the award, Jarre remarked "I was lucky Mozart was not eligible this year".


title: Amadeus (film)

text: The film along with "The English Patient", "The Hurt Locker", "The Artist", and "Birdman" are the only Best Picture winners never to enter the weekend box office top 5 after rankings began being recorded in 1982. The film peaked at No. 6 during its 8th weekend in theaters. Saul Zaentz produced both "Amadeus" and "The English Patient".


title: Amadeus (film)

text: From the beginning, writer Peter Shaffer and director Miloš Forman both were open about their desire to create entertaining drama only loosely based on reality, calling the work "fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri".


title: Amadeus (film)

text: The idea of animosity between Mozart and Salieri was popularized by Alexander Pushkin in 1830 in his play "Mozart and Salieri". In it, Salieri actually murders Mozart on stage. The play was made into the opera "Mozart and Salieri" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 67 years later, which in turn had its first screen adaptation by silent-film director Victor Tourjansky in 1914.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: Another significant departure in the film is the portrayal of Salieri as a pious loner trapped in a vow of chastity, when in reality he was a married family man with eight children and at least one mistress.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: Mozart was indeed commissioned to compose a Requiem Mass by an anonymous benefactor. In reality, the patron turned out to be Count Franz von Walsegg, who was grieving after the death of his wife.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: "Amadeus" premiered in 1984 as a PG-rated movie with a running time of 161 minutes. Director Miloš Forman introduced an R-rated version with nearly 20 minutes of restored footage. This version was released by the studios as a "Director's Cut" on September 24, 2002. Forman justified why those scenes were cut in the first place in the 1995 supplemental material for Pioneer's deluxe LaserDisc. However, he explains why the scenes were eventually restored in a subsequent 2002 interview with "The A.V. Club":


title: Amadeus (film)

text: The soundtrack album reached No. 1 in the Billboard Classical Albums Chart, No. 56 in the Billboard Popular Albums Chart, has sold over 6.5 million copies and received thirteen gold discs, making it one of the most popular classical music recordings of all time. It won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album in 1984.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: All tracks on the album were performed specifically for the film. According to the film commentary by Forman and Schaffer, Marriner agreed to score the film if Mozart's music was completely unchanged from the original scores. Marriner did add some notes to Salieri's music that are noticeable in the beginning of the film, as Salieri begins his confession.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: In 1985 an additional album with the title "More Music from the Original Soundtrack of the Film Amadeus" was issued containing further selections of music that were not included on the original soundtrack release.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: The "Masonic Funeral Music" was originally intended to play over the closing credits, but was replaced in the film by the second movement of the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor (included on the Original Soundtrack Recording).


title: Amadeus (film)

text: In 2002, to coincide with the release of the Director's Cut of the film, the soundtrack was remastered with 24-bit encoding and reissued with the title "Special Edition: The Director's Cut – Newly Remastered Original Soundtrack Recording" on two 24-karat gold CDs. It contains most of the music from the previous two releases, but with the following differences.


title: Amadeus (film)

text: The following pieces, previously released on "More Music from the Original Soundtrack of the Film Amadeus", were not included:


title: Action film

text: Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life-threatening situations, a dangerous villain, or a pursuit which usually concludes in victory for the hero.


title: Action film

text: Advancements in computer-generated imagery (CGI) have made it cheaper and easier to create action sequences and other visual effects that required the efforts of professional stunt crews in the past. However, reactions to action films containing significant amounts of CGI have been mixed, as some films use CGI to create unrealistic, highly unbelievable events. While action has long been a recurring component in films, the "action film" genre began to develop in the 1970s along with the increase of stunts and special effects.


title: Action film

text: This genre is closely associated with the thriller and adventure genres and may also contain elements of drama and spy fiction. Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identifies Action Film as one of eleven super-genres in his screenwriters' taxonomy, claiming that all feature-length narrative films can be classified by these super-genres.  The other eleven super-genres are Crime, Fantasy, Horror, Romance, Science Fiction, Slice of Life, Sports, Thriller, War, Western and Vigilante.


title: Action film

text: Some historians consider "The Great Train Robbery" (1903) to be the first action film. During the 1920s and 1930s, action-based films were often swashbuckling adventure films, in which actors such as Douglas Fairbanks wielded swords in period pieces or Westerns. Indian action films in this era were known as stunt films.


title: Action film

text: The 1940s and 1950s saw "action" in a new form, through war and cowboy movies. Alfred Hitchcock ushered in the spy-adventure genre while also establishing the use of action-oriented "set pieces" like the famous crop-duster scene and the Mount Rushmore finale in "North by Northwest" (1959). The film, along with the war-adventure "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), inspired producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to invest in their own spy-adventure in the James Bond series, based on the novels of Ian Fleming.


title: Action film

text: In Japanese cinema, the 1950s saw the emergence of jidaigeki action films, particularly samurai cinema, popularized by filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. His 1954 film "Seven Samurai" is considered one of the greatest action films of all time, and was highly influential, often seen as one of the most "remade, reworked, referenced" films in cinema. It popularized the "assembling the team" trope, which has since become a common trope in many action movies and heist films. Its visuals, plot and dialogue inspired a wide range of filmmakers, ranging from George Lucas and John Landis to Quentin Tarantino and George Miller. Kurosawa's "Yojimbo" (1961) was also remade as Sergio Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964), which in turn established the "Spaghetti Western" action genre of Italian cinema, while Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress" (1958) later inspired "Star Wars" (1977).


title: Action film

text: The long-running success of the James Bond films or series (which dominated the action films of the 1960s) introduced a staple of the modern-day action film: the resourceful hero. Such larger-than-life characters were a veritable "one-man army"; able to dispatch villainous masterminds after cutting through their disposable henchmen in increasingly creative ways. Such heroes are ready with one-liners, puns, and dry quips. The Bond films also used fast cutting, car chases, fist fights, a variety of weapons and gadgets, and elaborate action sequences.


title: Action film

text: Producer-Director John Sturges' 1963 film "The Great Escape", featuring Allied prisoners of war attempting to escape a German POW camp during World War II, and featuring future icons of the action genre including Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson, is an example of an action film prototype.


title: Action film

text: During the 1970s, gritty detective stories and urban crime dramas began to evolve and fuse themselves with the new "action" style, leading to a string of maverick police officer films, such as "Bullitt" (1968), "The French Connection" (1971) and "The Seven-Ups" (1973). "Dirty Harry" (1971) essentially lifted its star, Clint Eastwood, out of his cowboy typecasting, and framed him as the archetypal hero of the urban action film. In many countries, restrictions on language, adult content, and violence had loosened up, and these elements became more widespread.


title: Action film

text: In the 1970s, martial arts films from Hong Kong became popular with worldwide audiences, as Hong Kong action cinema had an international impact with kung fu films and most notably Bruce Lee films. The "chopsocky" or "kung fu craze" began in 1973, with a wave of Hong Kong martial arts films topping the North American box office, starting with "Five Fingers of Death" (1972) starring Indonesian-born actor Lo Lieh, followed soon after by Bruce Lee's "The Big Boss" (1971) and "Fist of Fury" (1972). This inspired the first major Hong Kong and Hollywood co-production, Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" (1973). Lee's death the same year led to a wave of "Bruceploitation" films in Asian cinema, a trend that eventually came to an end with the success of several kung fu action-comedy films released in 1978: Jackie Chan's "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" and "Drunken Master", and Sammo Hung's "Enter the Fat Dragon".


title: Action film

text: The success of Hong Kong martial arts cinema inspired a wave of Western martial arts films and television shows starting in the 1970s, and later the more general integration of Asian martial arts into Western action films and television shows since the 1980s. The first major American martial arts star was Chuck Norris, who initially made his film debut as the antagonist in Lee's "Way of the Dragon" (1972), before he went on to blend martial arts with 'cops and robbers' in films such as "Good Guys Wear Black" (1978) and "A Force of One" (1979).


title: Action film

text: From Japan, Sonny Chiba starred in his first martial arts movie in 1973 called the "Karate Kiba". His breakthrough international hit was "The Street Fighter" series (1974 debut), which established him as the reigning Japanese martial arts actor in international cinema. He also played the role of Mas Oyama in "Champion of Death", "Karate Bearfighter," and "Karate for Life" (1975–1977). Chiba's action films were not only bounded by martial arts, but also action thriller ("Doberman Cop" and "" - both from 1977), jidaigeki ("Shogun's Samurai" - 1978, "Samurai Reincarnation" - 1981), and science fiction ("G.I. Samurai" - 1979).


title: Action film

text: In the 1980s, Hollywood produced many big budget action blockbusters with actors such as Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lorenzo Lamas, Michael Dudikoff, Charles Bronson and Bruce Willis. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas paid their homage to the Bond-inspired style with "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981). In 1982, Sylvester Stallone starred in "First Blood", the first installment in the Rambo film series which made the character John Rambo a pop culture icon. That same year, the successful action-comedy "48 Hrs." popularized the buddy cop action subgenre, in which two police officers who are mismatched in personality and temperament, and often race and age as well, are forced to work together to solve a crime. There had been previous such films, including Kurosawa's "Stray Dog" (1949) and the American action film "Freebie and the Bean" (1974), but "48 Hrs." established a template that was copied by many other action films, including the "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Lethal Weapon" franchises, and later the "Bad Boys" and "Rush Hour" franchises. The genre has even extended to films that partner a human with a dog (such as the "K-9" film series), and with a supernatural creature (such as the films "Alien Nation" (1988) and "Bright" (2017)).


title: Action film

text: In Hong Kong action cinema, Jackie Chan developed into his own distinct style in the early 1980s, starting with the likes of "The Young Master" (1980) and "Project A" (1983), involving a mixture of martial arts, physical comedy, and dangerous stuntwork, including Chan performing many of his own stunts. This culminated in Chan's action-crime film "Police Story" (1985), which is considered to be one of the greatest action films of all time. It contains a number of large-scale action scenes with elaborate stunts, including a car chase through a shanty town, Chan being dragged along by a double-decker bus, a climactic fight scene in a shopping mall featuring many glass panes being broken that escalates to Chan sliding down a pole covered with dangling lights from several stories up, which is revered as one of the greatest stunts in the history of action cinema.


title: Action film

text: 1984 saw the beginning of the "Terminator" franchise starring Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger. This story provides one of the grittiest roles for a woman in action and Hamilton was required to put in extensive effort to develop a strong physique.


title: Action film

text: The 1988 film "Die Hard" was particularly influential on the development of the action genre. In the film, Bruce Willis plays a New York police detective who inadvertently becomes embroiled in a terrorist take-over of a Los Angeles office building high-rise. The use of a maverick, resourceful lone hero has always been a common thread from James Bond to John Rambo, but John McClane in "Die Hard" is much more of an 'everyday' person whom circumstance turns into a reluctant hero. The film set a pattern for a host of imitators, like "Under Siege" (1992) and "Sudden Death", which used the same formula in a different setting.


title: Action film

text: By the end of the 1980s, the influence of the successful action film could be felt in almost every genre.


title: Action film

text: Like the Western genre, spy-movies, as well as urban-action films, were starting to parody themselves, and with the growing revolution in CGI (computer generated imagery), the "real-world" settings began to give way to increasingly fantastic environments. This new era of action films often had budgets unlike any in the history of motion pictures. The success of the many Dirty Harry and James Bond sequels had proven that a single successful action film could lead to a continuing action franchise. Thus, the 1980s and 1990s saw a rise in both budgets and the number of sequels a film could generally have. This led to an increasing number of filmmakers to create new technologies that would allow them to beat the competition and take audiences to new heights. The success of Tim Burton's "Batman" (1989) led to a string of financially successful sequels. Within a single decade, they proved the viability of a novel subgenre of action film: the comic-book movie.


title: Action film

text: Another important development in action cinema came from Hong Kong during the late 1980s to early 1990s: the heroic bloodshed genre (including the "gun fu" and "girls with guns" sub-genres). John Woo's breakthrough film "A Better Tomorrow" (1986) largely set the template for the heroic bloodshed genre, which went on to have a considerable impact on Hollywood. The action, style, tropes and mannerisms established in 1980s Hong Kong heroic bloodshed films were later widely adopted by Hollywood in the 1990s, popularized by Hong Kong inspired Hollywood action filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Luc Besson, and eventually John Woo himself (following his transition to Hollywood).


title: Action film

text: Action films also became important in the direct-to-video market. The "Chicago Tribune" reported in 1994 that


title: Action film

text: In the 2000s, action films began to fuse into tent-pole pictures in other genres. Examples include "The Matrix", "The Dark Knight", and 2009's "Star Trek".


title: Action film

text: In "The Fast and the Furious", the action film staple of the car chase is the central plot driver, as it had been in the "Smokey and the Bandit" films of the 1970s. As of January 2022, the "Fast & Furious" franchise is one of the highest-grossing film franchises of all time.


title: Action film

text: Sylvester Stallone's "The Expendables" was noted for its use of nostalgia for 1980s action films, with several notable actors from that era starring alongside new actors in the genre such as Jason Statham.


title: Action film

text: The superhero sub-genre, led by Marvel Comics-inspired movies, has proven to be a popular mainstay. The "Marvel Cinematic Universe" is currently the highest-grossing film franchise.


title: Action film

text: Currently, action films requiring extensive stunt work and special effects tend to be expensive. As such, they are regarded as mostly a large-studio genre in Hollywood, although this is not the case in Hong Kong action cinema, where action films are often modern variations of martial arts films. Because of their roots and lower budgets, Hong Kong action films typically center on physical acrobatics, martial arts fight scenes, stylized gun-play, and dangerous stunt work performed by leading stunt actors. On the other hand, American action films typically feature big explosions, car chases, stunt doubles and CGI special effects.


title: Action film

text: Hong Kong action cinema was at its peak from the 1970s to 1990s, when its action movies were experimenting with and popularizing various new techniques that would eventually be adopted by Hollywood action movies. This began in the early 1970s with the martial arts movies of Bruce Lee, which led to a wave of Bruceploitation movies that eventually gave way to the comedy kung fu films of Jackie Chan by the end of the decade. During the 1980s, Hong Kong action cinema re-invented itself with various new movies. These included the modern martial arts action movies featuring physical acrobatics and dangerous stunt work of Jackie Chan and his stunt team, as well as Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung; the wire fu and wuxia films of Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Yuen Woo-Ping and Tsui Hark; the gun fu, heroic bloodshed and Triad films of John Woo, Chow Yun-Fat and Ringo Lam; and the girls with guns films of Michelle Yeoh, Cynthia Rothrock, Yukari Oshima and Moon Lee.


title: Action film

text: This style of film is split into two styles, with one involving "faraway, exotic lands" where the villains and the action become unpredictable. The second style that emerged of this genre in the 1980s involved the "Rambo" and "Missing in Action" film series.


title: Action film

text: Films that combine the intensity of a horror film with the fighting or brutality of an action film, often by showing human protagonists fighting against deadly supernatural creatures. Examples include the "Predator" and "Resident Evil" film series, and various zombie films.


title: Action film

text: Featuring guns, explosions, elaborate, and apocalypse set pieces, this movie type first developed in the 1970s in such films as "Dirty Harry" and "The French Connection," and became the exemplar of the Hollywood mega-blockbuster in the 1980s in such works as "Die Hard" and "Lethal Weapon". These films often feature


title: Action film

text: a race against the clock, lots of violence and a clear—often flamboyantly evil—antagonist. Though they may involve elements of crime or mystery films, those aspects take a back seat to the action. Other significant works include "Hard Boiled", "Speed".


title: Action film

text: In United States cinema, vigilante films gained prominence during the 1970s with "touchstones" like "Death Wish" and "Dirty Harry", both of which received multiple sequels. The 1974 film "Death Wish" has been described as officially starting the genre, causing many cheap imitations and knockoffs such as "Vigilante" and "Vigilante Force", with the most financially successful being 1980's "The Exterminator".


title: Action film

text: The "Los Angeles Times" reported, "Vigilante vengeance was the cinematic theme of the decade, flourishing in the more respectable precincts of the new American cinema even as it fueled numerous exploitation flicks," referring to "Taxi Driver" as a respectable example of the genre. It reported in 2009 that such films were making a comeback after "the comparatively prosperous and peaceable 1990s", with examples like "Walking Tall" (2004), "Death Sentence" (2007), "Law Abiding Citizen (2009)", "" (2019), "Cobra (1986)", "Taken (2008)", and "John Wick (2014)".


title: Action film

text: Having elements of thriller and sometimes science fiction films, the main conflict of this genre is some sort of natural or artificial disaster, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, pandemics, etc. Examples include "Independence Day", "Daylight", "Earthquake", "Geostorm", "2012", and "The Day After Tomorrow".


title: Action film

text: A subgenre of the action film, martial arts films contain numerous hand-to-hand combat scenes between characters. They are usually the films' primary appeal and entertainment value and are often the method of storytelling, character expression, and development. Martial arts films contain many characters who are martial artists. These roles are often played by actors who are real martial artists. If not, actors usually fervently train in preparation for their roles. Another method of going around this issue is that the action director may rely more on stylized action or filmmaking tricks. Examples include Hong Kong action films such as the "Police Story" franchise, "Kung Fu Hustle", "Fearless", "Fist of Legend", "Drunken Master", "Enter the Dragon", "Shanghai Noon", "Iron Monkey", "Flash Point", and "Shaolin Soccer", as well as "The Karate Kid", "A Force of One", "Ninja Assassin", "", "The Octagon", "Kill Bill", "Bloodsport", "Lone Wolf McQuade", "Mortal Kombat", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "", "Champion of Death", "Karate Bearfighter", "Doberman Cop", "", "Big Trouble in Little China", "Charlie's Angels", and "The Street Fighter" series.


title: Action film

text: Sharing many of the conventions of a science fiction film, science fiction action films emphasize gun-play, space battles, invented weaponry, and elements weaved into action film premises. Examples include "G.I. Samurai", "", "The Matrix", "Total Recall", "Minority Report", "Inception", "The Island", "Timecop", the "Men in Black franchise", "Aliens", "I Robot", "Transformers", "The Hunger Games", "Equilibrium", "District 9", "Serenity", "Akira", "Paycheck", "Predator", Planet of the Apes, "RoboCop", "Avatar", "Mad Max 2", "Divergent", "They Live", "Escape from New York", "Demolition Man", "Virtuosity" and "The Fifth Element".


title: Action film

text: In which the hero is generally a government agent who must take violent action against agents of a rival government or (in recent years) terrorists. They often revolve around spies who are involved in investigating various events, often on a global scale. This subgenre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way (such as the adaptations of John Le Carré) or as a basis for fantasy (such as James Bond). It is a significant aspect of British cinema, with leading British directors, such as Alfred Hitchcock and Carol Reed, making notable contributions and many films set in the British Secret Service. The subgenre showcases a combination of exciting escapism, heavy action, stylized fights, technological thrills, and exotic locales. Not all spy films fall in the action genre, only those showcasing heavy action such as frequent shootouts and car chases fall in action, spy films with lesser action would be in the thriller genre (see the spy entry in the subgenres of thriller film). Action films of this subgenre include "Casino Royale", the "", "Ronin", "True Lies", "Salt", "From Paris with Love", "The International", "Patriot Games", "xXx", "Miss Congeniality", and Jason Bourne in "The Bourne series".


title: Action film

text: An action subgenre featuring adventurous and heroic characters known as swashbucklers. These films are usually set in the past period and feature swordfighting scenes. The amount of actual violence was usually limited as the bad guys are thrown aside or knocked by the hilt of the swords and not really killed, except for the lead antagonist.


title: Action film

text: "Time Out" magazine conducted a poll with fifty experts in the field of action cinema, including actors, critics, filmmakers and stuntmen. Out of the 101 films ranked in the poll, the following films were voted the top ten best action films of all time.


title: Action film

text: Actors from the 1950s and 1960s, such as John Wayne, Steve McQueen, and Lee Marvin, passed the torch in the 1970s to actors such as Bruce Lee, Tom Laughlin, Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris, Clint Eastwood, and Sonny Chiba. In the 1980s, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover had a popular string of "buddy cop" films in the "Lethal Weapon" franchise. Beginning in the mid-1980s, actors such as ex-bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone wielded automatic weapons in a number of action films. Stern-faced martial artists Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme made a number of films. Bruce Willis played a Western-inspired hero in the popular "Die Hard" series of action films.


title: Action film

text: In the 1990s and 2000s, Hong Kong actors such as Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Chow Yun-fat appeared in a number of Hollywood action films after achieving international stardom in the previous decade, and American actors Wesley Snipes and Vin Diesel both had many roles.


title: Action film

text: While Keanu Reeves and Harrison Ford both had major roles in science fiction action films ("The Matrix" and "Blade Runner", respectively), they later branched out into a number of other action sub-genres, such as action-adventure films.


title: Action film

text: American actor Matt Damon, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his sensitive portrayal of a math genius working as a janitor in "Good Will Hunting", later morphed into an action hero with the car-chase-and-gunfire-filled "Jason Bourne" franchise. Same thing happened to star Tom Cruise, who turned into a mature action star with the , "Jack Reacher", and other films. Leonardo DiCaprio is another good example of it, but without a film franchise as the previous. European action actors such as Belgian Jean-Claude Van Damme ("Bloodsport", "Hard Target", "Timecop"), French Jean Reno ("Ronin" and ""), Swedish Dolph Lundgren ("Showdown in Little Tokyo", "Universal Soldier", "The Expendables"), Irish Colin Farrell ("S.W.A.T.", "Daredevil", "Miami Vice"), and English Jason Statham ("The Transporter", "The Expendables", "Crank") appeared in a number of action films in the 1990s and 2000s.


title: Action film

text: Female actors with major, active roles in action films include Gal Gadot, Brie Larson, Elizabeth Olsen, Lucy Liu, Michelle Yeoh, Cynthia Rothrock, Yukari Oshima, Moon Lee, Cynthia Khan, Michelle Rodriguez, Milla Jovovich, Kate Beckinsale, Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Uma Thurman, Sandra Bullock, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hamilton, Sanaa Lathan, Geena Davis, Halle Berry, Emily Blunt, Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Q, Keira Knightley, Charlize Theron, Demi Moore, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Lawrence, Annette O'Toole, Jennifer Connelly, Brigitte Nielsen, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lori Petty, Jessica Alba, and Jamie Lee Curtis. After a successful career in stunts, Zoë Bell has recently crossed over to become an action star in her own right and Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano have both come from a mixed martial arts background to action roles.


title: Action film

text: Increasing numbers of films starring women as the action heroes are being produced. These are celebrated by Artemis Women In Action Film Festival which honours women who work as actors, stuntwomen, and directors in action films. Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media works to document the onscreen time and representation in women in all film types with a view to improving the equality of work for actresses. Analysis of the lines spoken in action films shows many recent films in this genre are dominated by male dialogue. Analysis of the lines in 2016's biggest blockbusters show that despite much hype about the lead female in "Rogue One", and the female characters in "Suicide Squad" and "", these characters still had limited share of dialogue.


title: Action film

text: Some male actors appear to champion the cause of women in action films. Tom Cruise has been applauded for his asexual onscreen relationships with recent female co-stars, Cobie Smulders in "" and Emily Blunt in "Edge of Tomorrow". Tom Cruise has been honoured with an Artemis Action Rebel Award for his work in championing strong female heroes in film.


title: Action film

text: Notable action film directors from the 1960s and 1970s include Sam Peckinpah, whose 1969 Western "The Wild Bunch" was controversial for its bloody violence and nihilist tone. Influential and popular directors from the 1980s to 2000s include James Cameron (for the first two "Terminator" films, "Aliens", "True Lies"); Andrew Davis ("Code of Silence", "Above the Law", "Under Siege", "The Fugitive"); John Woo (Hong Kong films such as "The Killer" & "Hard Boiled", and Hollywood films such as "Broken Arrow" & "Face/Off"); Jackie Chan ("Project A" 1 & 2, "Police Story" 1 & 2, "Armour of God" trilogy); John McTiernan (the first and third "Die Hard" films, "Predator", "Last Action Hero"); Ridley Scott ("Black Rain", "Black Hawk Down"); Tsui Hark ("Once Upon a Time in China" franchise); Steven Spielberg ("Indiana Jones" franchise); George Miller ("Mad Max" franchise); Paul Verhoeven (the original "RoboCop" & "Total Recall", "Starship Troopers"); The Wachowskis ("The Matrix" trilogy), Robert Rodriguez ("Mexico Trilogy", "From Dusk till Dawn", "Machete" duology), and Michael Bay (the first two "Bad Boys" films, "The Rock", "The Island" & the "Transformers" pentalogy).


title: Action film

text: Movie producers who are best known for their involvement in action films include Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, Avi Lerner, Boaz Davidson, Jerry Bruckheimer (together with Don Simpson before Simpson's death in 1996, then by himself afterward), Joel Silver, Akiva Goldsman, John Davis, Basil Iwanyk, Gale Anne Hurd, and Neal H. Moritz. Luc Besson and Tsui Hark have also produced many action films outside of the ones they have directed.


title: Ontology

text: In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality.


title: Ontology

text: Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exist on the most fundamental level. Ontologists often try to determine what the categories or highest kinds are and how they form a system of categories that encompasses classification of all entities. Commonly proposed categories include substances, properties, relations, states of affairs and events. These categories are characterized by fundamental ontological concepts, including particularity and universality, abstractness and concreteness, or possibility and necessity. Of special interest is the concept of ontological dependence, which determines whether the entities of a category exist on the most fundamental level. Disagreements within ontology are often about whether entities belonging to a certain category exist and, if so, how they are related to other entities.


title: Ontology

text: When used as a countable noun, the words "ontology" and "ontologies" refer not to the science of being but to theories within the science of being. Ontological theories can be divided into various types according to their theoretical commitments. Monocategorical ontologies hold that there is only one basic category, but polycategorical ontologies rejected this view. Hierarchical ontologies assert that some entities exist on a more fundamental level and that other entities depend on them. Flat ontologies, on the other hand, deny such a privileged status to any entity.


title: Ontology

text: While the etymology is Greek, the oldest extant records of the word itself is a New Latin form , which appeared


title: Ontology

text: The first occurrence in English of "ontology", as recorded by the "Oxford English Dictionary", came in 1664 through "Archelogia philosophica nova..." by Gideon Harvey. The word was first used, in its Latin form, by philosophers, and based on the Latin roots (and in turn on the Greek ones).


title: Ontology

text: Ontology is closely associated with Aristotle's question of 'being "qua" being': the question of what all entities in the widest sense have in common. The "Eleatic principle" is one answer to this question: it states that being is inextricably tied to causation, that "Power is the mark of Being". One problem with this answer is that it excludes abstract objects. Another explicit but little accepted answer can be found in Berkeley's slogan that "to be is to be perceived". Intimately related but not identical to the question of 'being "qua" being' is the problem of categories. Categories are usually seen as the highest kinds or genera. A system of categories provides a classification of entities that is exclusive and exhaustive: every entity belongs to exactly one category. Various such classifications have been proposed, they often include categories for substances, properties, relations, states of affairs or events. At the core of the differentiation between categories are various fundamental ontological concepts and distinctions, for example, the concepts of "particularity and universality", of "abstractness and concreteness", of "ontological dependence", of "identity" and of "modality". These concepts are sometimes treated as categories themselves, are used to explain the difference between categories or play other central roles for characterizing different ontological theories. Within ontology, there is a lack of general consensus concerning how the different categories are to be defined. Different ontologists often disagree on whether a certain category has any members at all or whether a given category is fundamental.


title: Ontology

text: Particulars or individuals are usually contrasted with universals. Universals concern features that can be exemplified by various different particulars. For example, a tomato and a strawberry are two particulars that exemplify the universal redness. Universals can be present at various distinct locations in space at the same time while particulars are restricted to one location at a time. Furthermore, universals can be fully present at different times, which is why they are sometimes referred to as "repeatables" in contrast to non-repeatable particulars. The so-called problem of universals is the problem to explain how different things can agree in their features, e.g. how a tomato and a strawberry can both be red. Realists about universals believe that there are universals. They can solve the "problem of universals" by explaining the commonality through a universal shared by both entities. Realists are divided among themselves as to whether universals can exist independently of being exemplified by something ("ante res") or not ("in rebus"). Nominalists, on the other hand, deny that there are universals. They have to resort to other notions to explain how a feature can be common to several entities, for example, by positing either fundamental resemblance-relations between the entities (resemblance nominalism) or a shared membership to a common natural class (class nominalism).


title: Ontology

text: Many philosophers agree that there is an exclusive and exhaustive distinction between "concrete objects" and "abstract objects". Some philosophers consider this to be the most general division of being. Examples of concrete objects include plants, human beings and planets while things like numbers, sets and propositions are abstract objects. But despite the general agreement concerning the paradigm cases, there is less consensus as to what the characteristic marks of concreteness and abstractness are. Popular suggestions include defining the distinction in terms of the difference between (1) existence inside or outside space-time, (2) having causes and effects or not and (3) having contingent or necessary existence.


title: Ontology

text: An entity "ontologically depends" on another entity if the first entity cannot exist without the second entity. Ontologically independent entities, on the other hand, can exist all by themselves. For example, the surface of an apple cannot exist without the apple and so depends on it ontologically. Entities often characterized as ontologically dependent include properties, which depend on their bearers, and boundaries, which depend on the entity they demarcate from its surroundings. As these examples suggest, ontological dependence is to be distinguished from causal dependence, in which an effect depends for its existence on a cause. It is often important to draw a distinction between two types of ontological dependence: rigid and generic. Rigid dependence concerns the dependence on one specific entity, as the surface of an apple depends on its specific apple. Generic dependence, on the other hand, involves a weaker form of dependence, on merely a certain type of entity. For example, electricity generically depends on there being charged particles, but it does not depend on any specific charged particle. Dependence-relations are relevant to ontology since it is often held that ontologically dependent entities have a less robust form of being. This way a "hierarchy" is introduced into the world that brings with it the distinction between more and less fundamental entities.


title: Ontology

text: Identity is a basic ontological concept that is often expressed by the word "same". It is important to distinguish between "qualitative identity" and "numerical identity". For example, consider two children with identical bicycles engaged in a race while their mother is watching. The two children have the "same" bicycle in one sense ("qualitative identity") and the "same" mother in another sense ("numerical identity"). Two qualitatively identical things are often said to be indiscernible. The two senses of "sameness" are linked by two principles: the principle of "indiscernibility of identicals" and the principle of "identity of indiscernibles". The principle of "indiscernibility of identicals" is uncontroversial and states that if two entities are numerically identical with each other then they exactly resemble each other. The principle of "identity of indiscernibles", on the other hand, is more controversial in making the converse claim that if two entities exactly resemble each other then they must be numerically identical. This entails that "no two distinct things exactly resemble each other". A well-known counterexample comes from Max Black, who describes a symmetrical universe consisting of only two spheres with the same features. Black argues that the two spheres are indiscernible but not identical, thereby constituting a violation of the principle of "identity of indiscernibles".


title: Ontology

text: The problem of "identity over time" concerns the question of "persistence": whether or in what sense two objects at different times can be "numerically identical". This is usually referred to as "diachronic identity" in contrast to "synchronic identity". The statement that "[t]he table in the next room is identical with the one you purchased last year" asserts diachronic identity between the table now and the table then. A famous example of a denial of diachronic identity comes from Heraclitus, who argues that it is impossible to step into the same river twice because of the changes that occurred in-between. The traditional position on the problem of "persistence" is endurantism, the thesis that diachronic identity in a strict sense is possible. One problem with this position is that it seems to violate the principle of "indiscernibility of identicals": the object may have undergone changes in the meantime resulting in it being discernible from itself. Perdurantism or four-dimensionalism is an alternative approach holding that "diachronic identity" is possible only in a loose sense: while the two objects differ from each other strictly speaking, they are both temporal parts that belong to the same temporally extended whole. "Perdurantism" avoids many philosophical problems plaguing "endurantism", but "endurantism" seems to be more in touch with how we ordinarily conceive "diachronic identity".


title: Ontology

text: Modality concerns the concepts of possibility, actuality and necessity. In contemporary discourse, these concepts are often defined in terms of possible worlds. A possible world is a complete way how things could have been. The actual world is one possible world among others: things could have been different from what they actually are. A proposition is possibly true if there is at least one possible world in which it is true; it is necessarily true if it is true in all possible worlds. "Actualists" and "possibilists" disagree on the "ontological status" of possible worlds. Actualists hold that reality is at its core actual and that possible worlds should be understood in terms of actual entities, for example, as fictions or as sets of sentences. Possibilists, on the other hand, assign to possible worlds the same "fundamental ontological status" as to the actual world. This is a form of modal realism, holding that reality has "irreducibly modal features". Another important issue in this field concerns the distinction between "contingent" and "necessary beings". Contingent beings are beings whose existence is possible but not necessary. Necessary beings, on the other hand, could not have failed to exist. It has been suggested that this distinction is the highest division of being.


title: Ontology

text: The category of "substances" has played a central role in many ontological theories throughout the history of philosophy. "Substance" is a technical term within philosophy not to be confused with the more common usage in the sense of chemical substances like gold or sulfur. Various definitions have been given but among the most common features ascribed to substances in the philosophical sense is that they are "particulars" that are "ontologically independent": they are able to exist all by themselves. Being ontologically independent, substances can play the role of "fundamental entities" in the "ontological hierarchy". If 'ontological independence' is defined as including "causal independence" then only self-caused entities, like Spinoza's God, can be substances. With a specifically ontological definition of 'independence', many everyday objects like books or cats may qualify as substances. Another defining feature often attributed to substances is their ability to "undergo changes". Changes involve something existing "before", "during" and "after" the change. They can be described in terms of a persisting substance gaining or losing properties, or of "matter" changing its "form". From this perspective, the ripening of a tomato may be described as a change in which the tomato loses its greenness and gains its redness. It is sometimes held that a substance can have a property in two ways: "essentially" and "accidentally". A substance can survive a change of "accidental properties" but it cannot lose its "essential properties", which constitute its nature.


title: Ontology

text: The category of "properties" consists of entities that can be exemplified by other entities, e.g. by substances. Properties characterize their bearers, they express what their bearer is like. For example, the red color and the round shape of an apple are properties of this apple. Various ways have been suggested concerning how to conceive properties themselves and their relation to substances. The traditionally dominant view is that properties are universals that inhere in their bearers. As universals, they can be shared by different substances. Nominalists, on the other hand, deny that universals exist. Some nominalists try to account for properties in terms of resemblance relations or class membership. Another alternative for nominalists is to conceptualize properties as simple particulars, so-called tropes. This position entails that both the apple and its redness are particulars. Different apples may still exactly resemble each other concerning their color, but they do not share the same particular property on this view: the two color-tropes are "numerically distinct". Another important question for any theory of properties is how to conceive the relation between a bearer and its properties. Substratum theorists hold that there is some kind of substance, "substratum" or "bare particular" that acts as bearer. Bundle theory is an alternative view that does away with a substratum altogether: objects are taken to be just a bundle of properties. They are held together not by a substratum but by the so-called "compresence-relation" responsible for the bundling. Both substratum theory and bundle theory can be combined with conceptualizing properties as universals or as particulars.


title: Ontology

text: An important distinction among properties is between "categorical" and "dispositional" properties. Categorical properties concern what something is like, e.g. what qualities it has. Dispositional properties, on the other hand, involve what powers something has, what it is able to do, even if it is not actually doing it. For example, the shape of a sugar cube is a categorical property while its tendency to dissolve in water is a dispositional property. For many properties there is a lack of consensus as to how they should be classified, for example, whether colors are categorical or dispositional properties. Categoricalism is the thesis that on a fundamental level there are only categorical properties, that dispositional properties are either non-existent or dependent on categorical properties. Dispositionalism is the opposite theory, giving ontological primacy to dispositional properties. Between these two extremes, there are dualists who allow both categorical and dispositional properties in their ontology.


title: Ontology

text: "Relations" are ways in which things, the relata, stand to each other. Relations are in many ways similar to properties in that both characterize the things they apply to. Properties are sometimes treated as a special case of relations involving only one relatum. Central for ontology is the distinction between "internal" and "external" relations. A relation is "internal" if it is fully determined by the features of its relata. For example, an apple and a tomato stand in the "internal relation" of similarity to each other because they are both red. Some philosophers have inferred from this that internal relations do not have a proper ontological status since they can be reduced to intrinsic properties. "External" relations, on the other hand, are not fixed by the features of their relata. For example, a book stands in an "external" relation to a table by lying on top of it. But this is not determined by the book's or the table's features like their color, their shape, etc.


title: Ontology

text: States of affairs are complex entities, in contrast to substances and properties, which are usually conceived as simple. Complex entities are built up from or constituted by other entities. Atomic states of affairs are constituted by one particular and one property exemplified by this particular. For example, the state of affairs that Socrates is wise is constituted by the particular "Socrates" and the property "wise". Relational states of affairs involve several particulars and a relation connecting them. States of affairs that "obtain" are also referred to as facts. It is controversial which ontological status should be ascribed to states of affairs that do not obtain. States of affairs have been prominent in 20th-century ontology as various theories were proposed to describe the world as composed of states of affairs. It is often held that states of affairs play the role of truthmakers: judgments or assertions are true because the corresponding state of affairs obtains.


title: Ontology

text: Events take place in time, they are sometimes thought of as involving a change in the form of acquiring or losing a property, like the lawn's becoming dry. But on a liberal view, the retaining of a property without any change may also count as an event, e.g. the lawn's staying wet. Some philosophers see events as universals that can repeat at different times, but the more dominant view is that events are particulars and therefore non-repeatable. Some events are complex in that they are composed of a sequence of events, often referred to as a process. But even simple events can be conceived as complex entities involving an object, a time and the property exemplified by the object at this time. So-called process philosophy or process ontology ascribes ontological primacy to changes and processes as opposed to the emphasis on static being in the traditionally dominant substance metaphysics.


title: Ontology

text: The word 'real' is derived from the Latin word "res", which is often translated as 'thing'. The word 'thing' is often used in ontological discourse as if it had a presupposed meaning, not needing an explicit philosophical definition because it belongs to ordinary language. Nevertheless, what is a thing and what is real or substantial are concerns of ontology. Different views are held about this. Plato proposed that underlying, and constituting the real basis of, the concretely experienced world are 'forms' or 'ideas', which today are generally regarded as high abstractions. In earlier days, philosophers used the term 'realism' to refer to Plato's belief that his 'forms' are 'real'; nowadays, the term 'realism' often has an almost opposite meaning, so that Plato's belief is sometimes called 'idealism'. Philosophers debate whether entities such as tables and chairs, lions and tigers, philosophical doctrines, numbers, truth, and beauty, are to be regarded as 'things', or as something or nothing 'real'.


title: Ontology

text: Ontological theories can be divided into various types according to their theoretical commitments. Particular ontological theories or types of theories are often referred to as "ontologies" (singular or plural). This usage contrasts with the meaning of "ontology" (only singular) as a branch of philosophy: the "science of being" in general.


title: Ontology

text: One way to divide ontologies is by the number of basic categories they use. "Monocategorical" or "one category ontologies" hold that there is only one basic category while "polycategorical ontologies" imply that there are several distinct basic categories. Another way to divide ontologies is through the notion of ontological hierarchy. Hierarchical ontologies assert that some entities exist on a more fundamental level and that other entities depend on them. Flat ontologies, on the other hand, deny such a privileged status to any entities. Jonathan Schaffer provides an overview of these positions by distinguishing between "flat" ontologies (non-hierarchical), "sorted" ontologies (polycategorical non-hierarchical) and "ordered" ontologies (polycategorical hierarchical).


title: Ontology

text: "Flat" ontologies are only interested in the difference between existence and non-existence. They are "flat" because each flat ontology can be represented by a simple set containing all the entities to which this ontology is committed. An influential exposition of this approach comes from Willard Van Orman Quine which is why it has been referred to as the Quinean approach to meta-ontology. This outlook does not deny that the existing entities can be further subdivided and may stand in various relations to each other. These issues are questions for the more specific sciences, but they do not belong to ontology in the Quinean sense.