title: Indianapolis 500

text: In 2010, Bruton Smith (owner of Speedway Motorsports, Inc.), offered $20 million to any driver, IndyCar or NASCAR, who can win both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day starting in 2011, a feat that had never been accomplished. For 2011, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway moved the start time of the Indy 500 back to 12:15 PM EDT (prior to 2005, the engines started at 10:52 AM EST; under the modern schedule, engines start around 12:05 PM for a start around 12:15 PM), which re-opened the window for travel. Brad Keselowski suggested that he would consider answering the challenge in 2014. It was announced on March 4, 2014, that Kurt Busch would attempt to qualify for the 2014 Indianapolis 500, driving a fifth car for the Andretti Autosport team. Busch completed all 500 miles at Indy to finish sixth but dropped out of the 600 with a blown engine just past the 400-mile mark.


title: Indianapolis 500

text: For 2019, NBC Sports and the Speedway changed the start time. The engines started at 12:38 PM for a start time of 12:45 PM.


title: Indianapolis 500

text: Many people promote and share information about the Indianapolis 500 and its memorabilia collecting. The National Indy 500 Collectors Club is an independent active organization that has been dedicated to supporting such activities. The organization was established January 1, 1985, in Indianapolis by its founder John Blazier and includes an experienced membership available for discussion and advice on Indy 500 memorabilia trading and Indy 500 questions in general.


title: Indianapolis 500

text: The Indianapolis 500 has been the subject of several films and has been referenced many times in television, movies, and other media.


title: Indianapolis 500

text: Louis Meyer requested a glass of buttermilk after winning his second Indy 500 race in 1933. After winning his third title in 1936, he requested another glass but instead received a bottle. He was captured by a photographer in the act of swigging from the bottle while holding up three fingers to signify the third win. A local dairy company executive recognized the marketing opportunity in the image and, being unaware Meyer was drinking buttermilk, offered a bottle of milk to the winners of future races. Milk has been presented each year since then, apart from 1947 to 1955. Modern drivers are offered a choice of whole, 2%, and skim.


title: Indianapolis 500

text: At the 1993 Indianapolis 500, winner Emerson Fittipaldi, who owned and operated an orange grove, notoriously drank orange juice instead of milk during the televised winner's interview. He eventually relented and also drank from the milk bottle later in the post-race ceremonies after the broadcast was over, but the public relations damage had already been done. The snub led to Fittipaldi being booed at the next ChampCar race, the Milwaukee Mile, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the heart of dairy country, and by some, as late as 2008 in which he drove the pace car. In 2016, as a promotion, the track gave out commemorative bottles of milk to 100,000 attendees to toast the winner with milk after the race.


title: Indianapolis 500

text: Female participation of any sort at Indianapolis was discouraged and essentially banned throughout the first several decades of competition. As such, female reporters were not even allowed in the pit area until 1971. There have been nine female drivers to qualify, starting with Janet Guthrie in 1977.


title: Indianapolis 500

text: Sarah Fisher has competed nine times, the most of any woman. Danica Patrick led 19 laps in the 2005 race and ten laps in the 2011 race, the only times a woman has led laps during the race. Pippa Mann has raced in Indy five consecutive times between 2013 and 2017.


title: Indianapolis 500

text: Radio coverage of the race dates back to 1922. The race has been broadcast live on the radio in its entirety by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network since 1953.


title: Indianapolis 500

text: The Hulmans did not allow live television coverage of the 500 until 1986, largely to maximize gate attendance. The race was briefly televised live in 1949 and 1950 on WFBM-TV (today's WRTV), after which the practice was discontinued. From 1964 to 1970, the race was broadcast live on closed-circuit television in theaters around the country. From 1965 through 1970, a highlighted version of the race was shown on ABC's "Wide World of Sports". From 1971 through 1985, an edited same-day, tape delay broadcast of the race was shown in prime time. The race broadcast was edited down to either two or three hours in duration (including commercials).


title: Indianapolis 500

text: From 1986 through 2018, ABC televised the race live in its entirety. However, at the request of the Speedway, Indianapolis affiliate WRTV was required to blackout the live broadcast and carry it on tape delay in prime time to encourage local race attendance; WRTV would air the ABC primetime lineup in the afternoon. In 2007 (the first year in which the race was carried under the ESPN on ABC branding), the race was first aired in high-definition. In 2016, the IMS declared a sell-out of race tickets for the 100th running of the event, meaning that WRTV would be allowed to air the race live for the first time since 1950.


title: Indianapolis 500

text: Under the live coverage arrangement, the Indianapolis affiliate of the network airing the race airs that day's programming in a transposed arrangement, with network primetime programming airing during the race and transmitted to the affiliate in advance (for instance in 2019, WTHR aired the season finale of the NBC primetime series "Good Girls" at 2 p.m. local time), while the race airs on tape delay in prime time.


title: Indianapolis 500

text: Coverage of time trials on ABC dates back to 1961. ABC covered time trials in various live and in tape-delayed formats from 1961 to 2008 and from 2014 to 2018. ESPN (and later along with ESPN2) carried various portions of time trials from 1987 to 2008. Versus covered time trials from 2009 to 2013. Practice sessions have been streamed live online dating back to at least 2001.


title: Indianapolis 500

text: In 2019, coverage of the Indianapolis 500 moved to NBC, as part of a new three-year contract that unifies the IndyCar Series' television rights with NBC Sports (the parent division of its current cable partner NBCSN), and replaces the package of five races broadcast by ABC with an eight-race package on NBC. The Indianapolis 500 is one of the eight races; this contract ended ABC's 54-year tenure as broadcaster of the race. WTHR is now the local broadcaster of the race under this contract; the existing blackout policy remains, though speedway officials have left the door open to allowing WTHR to air the race live in the event of a sellout. In contrast with the usual sell-out policy, in 2020, the race aired live on WTHR, as the Speedway ran the first three meetings (NASCAR in July, the Indianapolis 500 in August, and Road to Indy in September) behind closed doors as a result of COVID-19 cases in the state (the third INDYCAR meeting, the October road course races, admitted 10,000 spectators each day). The race was also shown live in 2021 on WTHR due to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's restricted capacity amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. WPBI-TV 16.2 in Lafayette also blacks out live coverage of the race to prevent viewers from the Indianapolis market from trying to view the race in that neighboring market and airs the race in tape delay. The first day of qualifying is no longer broadcast on television, and streamed only on Comcast's OTT service.


title: Sardar Udham

text: Sardar Udham is a 2021 Indian Hindi-language biographical historical drama film directed by Shoojit Sircar, and produced by Rising Sun Films in collaboration with Kino Works. The screenplay is written by Shubhendu Bhattacharya and Ritesh Shah, with Bhattacharya also writing the story based on team research, and Shah also writing the dialogues, while playing a supporting role. Based on the life of Udham Singh, a freedom fighter from Punjab who assassinated Michael O'Dwyer in London to avenge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar, the film starred Vicky Kaushal in the titular role, along with Shaun Scott, Stephen Hogan, Amol Parashar, Banita Sandhu and Kirsty Averton in supporting roles.


title: Sardar Udham

text: The film was officially announced in March 2019, with principal photography began on April. In a marathon schedule of 7 months, the makers completed the shooting of the film in December 2019. Set in India and England, principal photography took place in Russia and India, with few sequences in United Kingdom and Ireland. "Sardar Udham" features musical score composed by Shantanu Moitra, cinematography handled by Avik Mukhopadhyay and editing done by Chandrashekhar Prajapati.


title: Sardar Udham

text: Initially being delayed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, the makers headed for a direct-to-digital premiere through the streaming service Amazon Prime Video. The film released on 16 October 2021, during the Dusshera weekend and eventually received widespread critical acclaim, with praise directed on Kaushal's performance, direction, screenplay and technical aspects. The film was also noted for its realistic portrayal of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, being depicted in an extended and graphic sequence. "Sardar Udham" was listed by several publications as one of the best Hindi films of 2021, while" Forbes" named it 2021’s Best Hindi film with a social message.


title: Sardar Udham

text: "Sardar Udham" won 9 Filmfare Awards from 14 nominations, including Best Film (Critics) and Best Actor (Critics) (for Kaushal), thus becoming the most-awarded film at the ceremony.


title: Sardar Udham

text: The film goes back and forth from the present, where Sardar Udham Singh is in London, to his past when he was part of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) and explores his reasons for assassinating Indian Civil Service officer Michael O'Dwyer. Udham (known as Sher Singh) is released from prison at Punjab in British India. He is constantly being watched by the colonial authorities. He leaves India and goes to USSR during what appears to be winter. From there he makes his way to London by ship. Even though the British authorities are on the lookout for him, he successfully evades them and lives in London, making a living as a salesman and then a welder. He is shown in front of Caxton Hall, making his way inside where O'Dwyer is giving a speech on his time as Lt. Governor of Punjab and how he had suppressed a major uprising. Udham makes his way to O'Dwyer and shoots him, and is arrested.


title: Sardar Udham

text: Udham is appointed a lawyer who slowly gets Udham to tell his backstory. Udham is brought to court and in spite of a good lawyer, the judges sentence him to death. Upon hearing this, Udham makes an impromptu speech where he denounces British rule in India and reaffirms his support for the Indian freedom movement. Udham protests the conditions of his detention and goes on a 42-day fast, but is force-fed to break it. He slowly opens up to the investigating inspector and tells him the reasons for the assassination. Udham also got the title of Shaheed-E-Azam.


title: Sardar Udham

text: In 1919, Udham is a young adult working in a textile mill near Amritsar, with a girlfriend who is mute. On 13 April 1919, General Dyer on order from O'Dwyer opens fire on a crowd of 20,000 peaceful protestors inside Jallianwala Bagh. Udham is sleeping unaware of the massacre, until his friend wakes him up, mortally wounded and bleeding profusely. He hears about the massacre and rushes to the grounds to help. It is shown that along with a few other volunteers, Udham finds survivors and gets them to a makeshift hospital which is overwhelmed itself. He is later executed and shown to have a photo of Bhagat Singh, taken when Bhagat was in prison during his final days.


title: Sardar Udham

text: After the Independence of India, Udham's ashes are brought to India upon the request of Punjab Chief Minister Giani Zail Singh and were immersed in Sutlej river. His ashes were immersed where his idol Bhagat's ashes were immersed. In the final scene, Gen. Dyer and O'Dwyer give their own accounts to the Hunter Commission.


title: Sardar Udham

text: A film based on the life of the Indian revolutionary Udham Singh was announced in March 2019, with Shoojit Sircar directing the film and has Vicky Kaushal playing the lead character. Shoojit decided to cast Kaushal in the lead, because he wanted an "actor who is ready to give his heart and soul to the film" and the latter, hailing from Punjab, similar to Udham Singh, also a native of Punjab. Kaushal stated it as his dream project as he admired of Shoojit's filmography, further saying "The way he is looking at the character (Udham Singh) and the world is extraordinary as well as beautiful. Plus, it's also a big honour for me that finally, I am going to be directed by him. Honestly, that's something that will take time to sink in". The film marked the second Indian project to be based on the life of the Indian revolutionary after the Raj Babbar-starrer "Shaheed Udham Singh" (2000).


title: Sardar Udham

text: The film's storyline traces from Singh's age of 20 to 40, showcasing the events of Jallianwala Bagh massacre, to the assassination of Michael O'Dwyer, the Governor of Punjab (India) who was responsible for the incident. The idea was initially pitched to be presented in mid-1990s, after Shoojit read about the events and life of Udham Singh, when he was a student at the Shaheed Bhagat Singh College in Delhi, but had waited for two decades due to his extensive research about Udham Singh, with Shoojit wanting to showcase Udham's life to the current generation of younger audiences. Initially, the role was offered to Irrfan Khan, and his son Babil Khan was reported to play the younger version of Udham Singh. However, due to the former's health issues, he stepped out doing the role and insisted Kaushal to play the lead. Kaushal had undergone physical transformation to represent the younger version of Singh, losing 15 kilograms within two months. He also appeared in a rugged look for few sequences, and shared the stills of his transformation in his social media accounts, closer to the film's release, which was praised by fans and celebrities alike.


title: Sardar Udham

text: In November 2019, Banita Sandhu who worked with Shoojit in "October" (2018) confirmed her presence, saying that she will play an important role in the film. Television and theatre actor Amol Parashar was assigned to play the role of Indian freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. Amol told in an interview with "The Indian Express", saying "I didn’t have to copy any other actor’s interpretation because nobody knows how tall he was, how he walked. It’s only through the written accounts, which mostly are about his ideas and thought process. Now we needed to create a person who’s believable. It was more about his energy." The film also has British actors Shaun Scott, Kirsty Averton and Stephen Hogan playing prominent roles. Originally titled "Sardar Udham Singh", the title was later changed to "Sardar Udham".


title: Sardar Udham

text: On the centennial year of Jallianwala Bagh massacre on 13 April 2019, the makers started the principal photography began in London, with a 25–day schedule being filmed and the team moved to Russia in late-April, while also filming for several sequences in St. Petersburg. Since the film is set in the pre-Independence era, Shoojit wanted to recreate the settings, characters and things related to that period. Since, being his first period film, he felt difficult to research about the things used, as "there are few records available and those there are were speculative". He gained ideas on recreating that period by watching American and European cinema, documentaries and collected archived pictures from online medium. Four days before the shooting of the film kickstarted, Kaushal faced injuries while shooting for another film and had 13 stitches on his cheek. But Shoojit advised him to come with the shoot saying that Sardar Udham will also have stitches, and shot for his portions with a real scar in his face.


title: Sardar Udham

text: The film makers shot a month-long schedule in Russia and the team headed to Ireland and Germany during mid-June 2019. With a three-month shooting in parts of Europe and other countries, the team returned to India to commence the second schedule in Amritsar, Punjab in October 2019. The schedule went on for 25 days where sequences featuring the massacre and its aftermath being shot. Vicky Kaushal stated in an interview on the recreation of the incident as "it was physically exhausting, heart-wrenching and emotionally numbing as an individual, but as an actor, we have to be prepared at all sorts. To be thrown into that reality, almost a reality, to imagine yourself in that space. I had to react to dead bodies and all that bloodshed and bloodbath." Since, the crew were not allowed to shoot the incidents at Jallianwala Bagh, the makers recreated few portions in the empty sets in Punjab. Some scenes were also shot at Hoshiarpur. The team returned to Europe for shooting few sequences in November. The makers wrapped up the shooting of the film on 27 December 2019, after consecutively filming for 6–7 months and spanning four seasons. The portions involved in London, were recreated in Russia, excepts for few sequences which were shot in United Kingdom and Ireland.


title: Sardar Udham

text: The film's post-production works were scheduled to begin during mid-March 2020, but however was delayed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India. On 8 June 2020, the makers decided to begin post-production activities for the film with Shoojit activating a four-phase plan starting with editing process, which go on for 15–20 days. Chandrashkehar Prajapati was the editor of the film, and during the editing process, only the director, editor and his assistants, were allowed inside the editing room, working while strictly adhering to social distancing protocols and had to complete all editing works before the night curfew at 7:00 p.m. He also felt grateful that the film industry has developed an app that allows them to share edited content, frame by frame, with explanatory comments, back and forth through online. Shoojit wanted to resume visual effects in the second phase of post-production, but was pushed further, as it needed a larger number of crew of about 150–200 people.


title: Sardar Udham

text: Composer Shantanu Moitra worked on the film's score during June 2020. After few relaxations announced during mid-September 2020, the makers resumed work on visual effects. Later, work on the sound design was resumed in October, as the last phase in the post-production process. A part of the sound design was happened in Europe and another part took place in-house in Kolkata. Other activities such as digital intermediate, color grading and pre-visualization eventually, began during early-2021. As per the suggestion of cinematographer Avik Mukhopadhyay, and other crew members — executive producer Kumar Thakur, art directors Mansi Mehta and Dmitriy Malich — the makers focused on the use of colour palettes with a gray-colored theme during the foreign sequences, and a sepia colored theme for the sequences in Amritsar. Vicky Kaushal completed dubbing for his portions within September 2021.


title: Sardar Udham

text: The soundtrack to "Sardar Udham" featured six instrumental compositions used in the film score curated and composed by Shantanu Moitra. Though the film does not feature any songs, Moitra composed the film score during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period in June 2020. Before the start of the shoot, he recorded one instrumental track by considering the state of Udham Singh's mind in that music piece. The work on the film's musical score began during the pre-production phase, where he and his musical team planned and designed the film score in his home space. The tunes were produced by George Joseph, each tracks were curated carefully based on the life and events revolving around Udham Singh. On 2 October 2021, the entire album consisting of instrumental tracks were released by Zee Music Company. The lead actor, Vicky Kaushal, who shared the entire music album through social media and music platforms called it as the "soul of the film".


title: Sardar Udham

text: In the film's review published in the magazine "The Week", Aiswarya Venugopal stated about the music, saying "the six instrumental tracks composed by Shantanu Moitra, flows perfectly as it depicts different phases of Udham's life". Umesh Punwani of "Koimoi" stated that the "background score shines in the second half". A reviewer from "Deccan Herald" too praised the exclusion of songs in the film as it caters "realistic storytelling". Apart from Moitra's work in the score, the sound design performed by Dipankar "Jojo" Chaki was highly praised for reflecting the authenticity of the pre-Independence era. However, video creator Anmol Jamwal, shared his opinions on the film, praised Moitra's score as it infused with the visuals in the right manner, but, he felt that a composition of a poetry had "enhanced the quality of the film, in few disturbing scenes about the incident being showcased".


title: Sardar Udham

text: In June 2019, Shoojit Sircar announced that the film would be released theatrically on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti (2 October 2020), while also rumoured to be clashing with "Satyameva Jayate 2" and "Jayeshbhai Jordaar". However, in March 2020, the film was later scheduled for release on 30 December 2020, which was also postponed, since the post-production works were affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India. Despite the delays, Shoojit decided to release the film in theatres unlike other major Hindi films, which debuted on digital streaming platforms ever since the closure of theatres across the country due to the pandemic.


title: Sardar Udham

text: In September 2021, the producers headed for a direct-to-digital release, considering that theatres were reopened but only in limited states, and also the government did not allow permission to resume operations of theatres in Maharashtra until 22 October 2021. The producers later sold the distribution rights of the film to Amazon Prime Video, which scheduled for a release date of 16 October 2021, coinciding with Dusshera weekend. On 27 September 2021, the makers released the teaser of the film, which introduced its theme and premise in a unique way. Three days later, on 30 September, the official trailer of the film was launched at an event in Mumbai, with the presence of Vicky Kaushal and Shoojit Sircar, along with the film's crew. The trailer received positive response from fans.


title: Sardar Udham

text: Kaushal shared his working stills of the film prior to the release, and also shared facts about Udham Singh, in his Instagram account. On 15 October 2021, a day prior to the release, a special screening of Sardar Udham was conducted to the press, critics and celebrities at a theatre in Mumbai. On the night of the same day, Amazon Prime Video released the film earlier ahead of the scheduled release of 16 October, in more than 240 countries and also in Hindi, Punjabi and English languages.


title: Sardar Udham

text: The film received widespread critical acclaim, praising the performances of Kaushal and the supporting cast, realistic portrayal of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the setting of the pre-independent India, technical aspects, script and direction.


title: Sardar Udham

text: Shubhra Gupta of "The Indian Express" gave a positive review stating it as "a long, unhurried re-creation of a turbulent slice of India’s colonial past, going back and forth from Punjab to London, with a few detours here and there". Anna M. M. Vetticad of "Firstpost" also gave a positive review stating "Shoojit Sircar has chosen to recount a remarkable (and painful) true story with a reliance on facts and facts alone", and further stated "The atrocities committed by the British colonisers in India are epitomised by the cruelty of Jallianwala Bagh. It is nothing short of a feat that Sircar has managed to chronicle that tragedy and its aftermath without turning his film into a call for vendetta. Both in terms of artistic merit and the political statements it makes, "Sardar Udham" is a landmark for Indian cinema."


title: Sardar Udham

text: Namrata Joshi of "National Herald India" wrote "Shoojit Sircar’s biopic of the patriot is a stunning slice of history mirroring our fractious present and cautioning us about the pitfalls of the future". Saibal Chatterjee of "NDTV" stated "The brilliantly lensed biopic also draws power from lead actor Vicky Kaushal's intense and intuitive performance. Sircar combines a portrait of shocking brutality with a depiction of one man's determination not to back off from his risky stratagem. There is a phenomenal degree of craft in "Sardar Udham" but none of it is employed for mere effect. There is great deal of soul, too, in this magnificently crafted film." Renuka Vyahare of The Times of India stated "This film is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode but beware; the wait tries your patience. The intention is to give a lull before the storm treatment to storytelling. The non-linear, non-verbose narrative struggles to hold your attention even an hour into the movie. The re-enactment of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre is unsettling to watch and that is the very reason why this story needed to be told." Writing for "The Week" magazine, Aishwarya Venugopal stated "For the biopic of a revolutionary, the film does not throw punch dialogoues or the over-used trope of jingoism. Instead, Sircar takes the viewer smoothly, yet painfully, through his turbulent life". Anuj Kumar of "The Hindu" stated "Shoojit Sircar explores contentious definitions and concerns, as India continues to grapple with the idea of dissent, and Section 144 remains a repressive tool in the hands of the government of the day".


title: Sardar Udham

text: Soumya Srivatsava of "Hindustan Times" wrote "Sardar Udham, if there was ever any doubt, also proves once again that Shoojit Sircar is in top form and among the most dependable filmmakers in Hindi cinema right now. From slices of lives to biographies on historical heroes, he has been able to give his distinct stamp to any idea he has picked up. Hope the streak continues another 20 years." Nandini Ramanath of Scroll.in stated ""Sardar Udham" follows a handful of biopics about a historical figure whose colourful life readily lends itself to fictionalisation. The creators, bravely but also puzzlingly resist the temptation to include what might have been a shoo-in. The non-linear screenplay by Shubendu Bhattacharya (who also has a story credit) and Ritesh Shah is based on facts but takes creative licence with them." On the other hand, Syed Firdaus Ashraf of "Rediff" gave a mixed review saying "You neither get goosebumps nor the adrenaline rush of desh bhakti (patriotism), which a film like Sardar Udham should give every Indian. But a story of an unsung hero is needed to be told and hats off to Shoojit Sircar for doing that."


title: Sardar Udham

text: Several publications listed "Sardar Udham" as one of the best Bollywood films of 2021, which includes: "The Indian Express" (Shubhra Gupta and Minnasa Shekhar), "Film Companion" (Anupama Chopra), "Hindustan Times" (Devarsi Ghosh), "The Hindu" (Anuj Kumar), "India Today" (Anandita Mukherjee) and "Firstpost" (Subhash K. Jha).


title: Sardar Udham

text: A biopic was made on the revolutionary Udham Singh, as "Shaheed Udham Singh" (2000) before "Sardar Udham" was conceptualised. The film's producer Iqbal Dhillon sent a public notice to Kaushal and Sircar claiming over the copyright of the film's biopic. The notice had stated "We, Surjit Movies and Iqbal Singh Dhillon are the producers and the sole, exclusive and absolute owners of copyrights and all other rights and to all the works of the Punjabi and Hindustani film "Shaheed Udham Singh: Alias Ram Mohammed Singh Azad"." In defence, few sources had stated that team did not borrow anything from that film and further added that by 2000, all his life’s work is copyright free and the team will not have any trouble for the film, unless the family of Udham Singh have any issue with the content.


title: Sardar Udham

text: The film was shortlisted among 14 other Indian films to be submitted at the 94th Academy Awards under the nomination of Best Foreign Film category. However, it was not selected. The jury members — Bengali music composer-director Indraadip Dasgupta and production designer Sumit Basu — criticised the length of the film and its delayed climax, which was the reason for not being selected to the nominations. The latter, however, stated that the film projects "hatred towards the British". The decision from the jury members received some backlash, calling their reasons "baseless". However, the director Shoojit Sircar and Vicky Kaushal respected the jury's decision as "a personal and subjective opinion". They however supported the Tamil film "Koozhangal", which was selected as the official entry to the award ceremony, but that was also not nominated.


title: Venmo

text: Venmo is an American mobile payment service founded in 2009 and owned by PayPal since 2013. Venmo was aimed at friends and family who wish to split bills, e.g. for movies, dinner, rent, or event tickets etc. Account holders can transfer funds to others via a mobile phone app; both the sender and receiver must live in the United States. On Venmo, a little social network, users can observe how others who are sending money to one another interact with amusing emoticons. In 2021 the company handled $230 billion in transactions and generated $850 million in revenue.


title: Venmo

text: By default, Venmo publishes every peer-to-peer transaction (excluding the amount), a feature shown by researchers to reveal sensitive details about users' lives in some situations. In 2018, the company settled with the Federal Trade Commission about several privacy and security violations related to this and other features, and made changes to the corresponding settings. However, Venmo continued to attract criticism for exposing users to possible privacy risks.


title: Venmo

text: Venmo was founded by Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail, who met as freshman roommates at the University of Pennsylvania. According to Kortina, the duo were initially inspired to create a transaction solution while, in the process of helping start a friend's yogurt shop, they "realized how horrible traditional point of sales software was". At a local jazz show, Kortina and Magdon-Ismail conceived the idea of instantly buying an MP3 of the show via text message. Finally, the idea was cemented when Magdon-Ismail forgot his wallet during a trip to visit Kortina. The process of settling their debt was a considerable inconvenience, especially compared to the possibility of mobile phone-based transactions. Shortly after, they began working on a way to send money through mobile phones. Their original prototype sent money through text messages, but they eventually transitioned from text messages to a smartphone app.


title: Venmo

text: On January 27, 2016, PayPal announced that Venmo was working with select merchants who would accept Venmo as payment. Initial launch partners included Munchery and Gametime. All merchants that accept PayPal can now accept Venmo. As of May 2018, Venmo's merchant product did not permit "selling goods or services in person"; however, research into mobile payment trends among mom-and-pop restaurants in New York City that month revealed a grey market use case whereby some Chinese takeouts and food trucks used personal Venmo QR codes to accept payments from customers. This QR payment behavior was similar to that used via Chinese mobile applications WeChat and Alipay within these same establishments.


title: Venmo

text: In October 2020, PayPal announced that Venmo along with PayPal services will allow users to purchase and use cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin in select international markets starting in the first half of 2021.


title: Venmo

text: On April 20, 2021, Venmo announced that it is beginning its roll out for the ability to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies using the platform. However, only selected users have access to the feature and it is estimated that the cryptocurrency transfers will become available for the whole userbase only in May 2021.


title: Venmo

text: Users can create an account via a mobile app or website and provide basic information and bank account information. One must have a valid email address and an American mobile phone number to use Venmo. Recipients of transactions can be found via phone number, Venmo username, or email.


title: Venmo

text: Users have a Venmo balance that is used for their transactions. They can link their bank accounts, debit cards, or credit cards, to their Venmo account; alternatively users can order a Venmo MasterCard and pay through it. Paying with a bank account or debit card is free, but payments via credit card have a 3% fee for each transaction. Some credit card providers may charge cash advance fees for Venmo payments. If a user does not have enough funds in the account when making a transaction, it will automatically withdraw the necessary funds from the registered bank account or card.


title: Venmo

text: When users first create an account, total transactions cannot exceed $299.99 until their identity is verified. After their identity has been verified, users can send up to $2,999.99 in each seven day period.


title: Venmo

text: Since 2008, cash transfers using Venmo have not been instantaneous and could be canceled after an initial transfer is sent. Like traditional wire transfers, they can take one to three business days to become final.


title: Venmo

text: In January 2018, PayPal rolled out an instant transfer feature on Venmo, allowing users to deposit funds to their debit cards typically within 30 minutes. A fee is deducted from the amount for each transfer; 1% or $10, whichever is less. The standard bank transfer (typically completed within 1–3 business days) is available for no fee.


title: Venmo

text: In 2018, Venmo released a new physical debit card available for users. The card runs on the MasterCard network and offers ATM access and overdraft protection. It can be used anywhere that accepts MasterCard, and it enables up to $400 in daily ATM withdrawals, though transactions at non-MoneyPass ATMs come with at least $2.50 in withdrawal fees.


title: Venmo

text: In addition, the service offers a reload function, which, when enabled, takes money from a user's linked checking account in $10 increments if their Venmo balance drops too low to cover a purchase. Customers could be subject to fees or other consequences from their bank if they overdraft that account. Card purchases show up in a user's Venmo transaction history, and the card can be canceled from within the app. These features make the card similar to a traditional bank debit card, but adds the ability to directly track spending in-app.


title: Venmo

text: Venmo includes social networking interaction; it was created so friends could quickly split bills, whether that is for movies, dinner, rent, tickets, etc. When a user makes a transaction, the transaction details (stripped of the payment amount) are shared on the user's "news feed" and to the user's network of friends. This mimics that of a social media feed. There is a "world wide" Venmo feed, a "friends only" feed, and then personal feed. Venmo encourages social interaction on the application through comments using jokes or emojis and/or likes. In 2016, around 30% of approved Venmo transactions included at least one emoji.


title: Venmo

text: Early on, Venmo required new users to sign up through Facebook, which made it easy to find peers they wanted to pay and also provided Venmo with free marketing. For users not friends on Facebook, the application allowed the opportunity to search by username and phone number. Profiles are personalized with profile pictures, usernames and Venmo transaction history. The transactions can be made private, but most users keep the default and do not change the privacy settings. Venmo does not have either buyer or seller protection.


title: Venmo

text: Venmo includes three social feeds: a public feed, a friends feed, and a private feed. By default, all Venmo transactions are shared publicly. Anyone who opens the app to the public feed, including people who do not themselves use Venmo, can see these publicly shared posts. The privacy settings can be changed so that all posts are either shared only with a user's Venmo contacts, or even kept private. If posts are shared only with contacts, they still appear in a friends feed, whereas private transactions are only visible to the two parties involved in the transaction. If two users involved in a single transaction have differing privacy settings, Venmo applies the more restrictive level. Users can override their overall preference for any individual transaction, including after the transaction has been made.


title: Venmo

text: Venmo has claimed that its security is "bank-grade". However, journalists, security researchers, the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) and the Federal Trade Commission have all disputed this claim.


title: Venmo

text: In February 2018, the FTC settled with Venmo, after an investigation uncovered false representations about "bank-grade" security and failures to comply with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Safeguards Rule and Privacy Rule. Under the settlement, Venmo would be required to undergo third-party audits every two years for the following ten years. The FTC also complained that Venmo "misled consumers about the extent to which they could control the privacy of their transactions" and misrepresented the availability of funds for withdrawal.


title: Venmo

text: Venmo states that customers need not worry about their security or privacy, and encourages users to set up a PIN to increase security. On July 17, 2018, "The Guardian" published an article showing that Venmo is insecure because privacy protection is not set by default. According to the researcher who found this privacy issue, Venmo publishes all transactions along with names openly into the World Wide Web.


title: Venmo

text: The Better Business Bureau has reported that some scammers exploit the cancellation period to appear to pay, but ultimately avoid paying for an item.


title: Venmo

text: In November 2018, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that Venmo, in the first quarter of 2018, had suffered $40 million in operating losses—nearly 40% more than it had budgeted for—due to "a wave of payments fraud".


title: Venmo

text: A 2018 study analyzed over 200 million public transactions and found that Venmo "reveals a massive amount of private details about users' lives by default". The same year, the company reached a settlement with the FTC after the FTC had accused Venmo of "misleading" users about the privacy settings changes required to make transactions completely private. In 2019, another researcher downloaded and analyzed seven million transactions, concluding that although Venmo had made some minor improvements limiting mass-scraping, the data still put users at risk for various forms of cyber attacks.


title: Venmo

text: In 2019, Mozilla and the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote an open letter "to express our deep concern about Venmo's disregard for the importance of user privacy, and to call on Venmo to make two critical changes to its privacy settings: make transactions private by default, and give users privacy settings for their friend lists".


title: Venmo

text: Venmo's social model has attracted attention from researchers. A research group from University of Washington observed that the social feed in Venmo differs from other social networks in that activity is driven by financial transactions. A user could make a trivial transaction to make a post (e.g., sending someone $0.01, or requesting $0.02), but only one participant in their studies reported ever doing this. Further, neither reading the feed nor sharing a transaction memo publicly or with friends is necessary to send or receive money.


title: Venmo

text: On Venmo, people transact with both friends and businesses via the app. Analysis of public transactions identifies a spectrum of use patterns, from regular users who create transactions for a variety of expenses, to niche users who use Venmo with a small cluster of friends to pay for just a few things (e.g., bills among roommates).


title: Venmo

text: A May 2021 investigation by BuzzFeed News reportedly managed to find the Venmo account of United States president Joe Biden after "less than 10 minutes of looking for it"; BuzzFeed News additionally states that the Venmo app "leaves everyone ... in the world exposed" and states that it reveals a major privacy concern.


title: Venmo

text: Venmo came under scrutiny from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2021 over the company's treatment of their customers owing money for transactions. PayPal, the company operating Venmo's platform, announced through a regulatory filing in February that it had received a civil investigative demand from the CFPB "related to Venmo's unauthorized funds transfers and collections processes, and related matters." Venmo has a history of using aggressive tactics to threaten debt-owing users, ranging from seizing the funds from the user's other PayPal accounts to sending debt collectors after users. Customer service emails showed the company notifying users it could involve a collection agency over debts from $3,000 to as low as $7 in 2019, in some instances even when the customer in question had been scammed. Such practices continued during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: White noise

text: In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used, with this or similar meanings, in many scientific and technical disciplines, including physics, acoustical engineering, telecommunications, and statistical forecasting. White noise refers to a statistical model for signals and signal sources, rather than to any specific signal. White noise draws its name from white light, although light that appears white generally does not have a flat power spectral density over the visible band.


title: White noise

text: In discrete time, white noise is a discrete signal whose samples are regarded as a sequence of serially uncorrelated random variables with zero mean and finite variance; a single realization of white noise is a random shock. Depending on the context, one may also require that the samples be independent and have identical probability distribution (in other words independent and identically distributed random variables are the simplest representation of white noise). In particular, if each sample has a normal distribution with zero mean, the signal is said to be additive white Gaussian noise.


title: White noise

text: The samples of a white noise signal may be sequential in time, or arranged along one or more spatial dimensions. In digital image processing, the pixels of a "white noise image" are typically arranged in a rectangular grid, and are assumed to be independent random variables with uniform probability distribution over some interval. The concept can be defined also for signals spread over more complicated domains, such as a sphere or a torus.


title: White noise

text: An "infinite-bandwidth white noise signal" is a purely theoretical construction. The bandwidth of white noise is limited in practice by the mechanism of noise generation, by the transmission medium and by finite observation capabilities. Thus, random signals are considered "white noise" if they are observed to have a flat spectrum over the range of frequencies that are relevant to the context. For an audio signal, the relevant range is the band of audible sound frequencies (between 20 and 20,000 Hz). Such a signal is heard by the human ear as a "hissing sound", resembling the /h/ sound in a sustained aspiration. On the other hand, the "sh" sound in "ash" is a colored noise because it has a formant structure. In music and acoustics, the term "white noise" may be used for any signal that has a similar hissing sound.


title: White noise

text: The term white noise is sometimes used in the context of phylogenetically based statistical methods to refer to a lack of phylogenetic pattern in comparative data. It is sometimes used analogously in nontechnical contexts to mean "random talk without meaningful contents".


title: White noise

text: Any distribution of values is possible (although it must have zero DC component). Even a binary signal which can only take on the values 1 or 0 will be white if the sequence is statistically uncorrelated. Noise having a continuous distribution, such as a normal distribution, can of course be white.


title: White noise

text: It is often incorrectly assumed that Gaussian noise (i.e., noise with a Gaussian amplitude distributionsee normal distribution) necessarily refers to white noise, yet neither property implies the other. Gaussianity refers to the probability distribution with respect to the value, in this context the probability of the signal falling within any particular range of amplitudes, while the term 'white' refers to the way the signal power is distributed (i.e., independently) over time or among frequencies.


title: White noise

text: A generalization to random elements on infinite dimensional spaces, such as random fields, is the white noise measure.


title: White noise

text: White noise is commonly used in the production of electronic music, usually either directly or as an input for a filter to create other types of noise signal. It is used extensively in audio synthesis, typically to recreate percussive instruments such as cymbals or snare drums which have high noise content in their frequency domain. A simple example of white noise is a nonexistent radio station (static).


title: White noise

text: White noise is also used to obtain the impulse response of an electrical circuit, in particular of amplifiers and other audio equipment. It is not used for testing loudspeakers as its spectrum contains too great an amount of high-frequency content. Pink noise, which differs from white noise in that it has equal energy in each octave, is used for testing transducers such as loudspeakers and microphones.


title: White noise

text: White noise is used as the basis of some random number generators. For example, Random.org uses a system of atmospheric antennae to generate random digit patterns from white noise.


title: White noise

text: White noise is a common synthetic noise source used for sound masking by a tinnitus masker. White noise machines and other white noise sources are sold as privacy enhancers and sleep aids (see music and sleep) and to mask tinnitus. The Marpac Sleep-Mate was the first domestic use white noise machine built in 1962 by traveling salesman Jim Buckwalter. Alternatively, the use of an FM radio tuned to unused frequencies ("static") is a simpler and more cost-effective source of white noise. However, white noise generated from a common commercial radio receiver tuned to an unused frequency is extremely vulnerable to being contaminated with spurious signals, such as adjacent radio stations, harmonics from non-adjacent radio stations, electrical equipment in the vicinity of the receiving antenna causing interference, or even atmospheric events such as solar flares and especially lightning.


title: White noise

text: There is evidence that white noise exposure therapies may induce maladaptive changes in the brain that degrade neurological health and compromise cognition.


title: White noise

text: The effects of white noise upon cognitive function are mixed. Recently, a small study found that white noise background stimulation improves cognitive functioning among secondary students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), while decreasing performance of non-ADHD students. Other work indicates it is effective in improving the mood and performance of workers by masking background office noise, but decreases cognitive performance in complex card sorting tasks.


title: White noise

text: Similarly, an experiment was carried out on sixty-six healthy participants to observe the benefits of using white noise in a learning environment. The experiment involved the participants identifying different images whilst having different sounds in the background. Overall the experiment showed that white noise does in fact have benefits in relation to learning. The experiments showed that white noise improved the participants' learning abilities and their recognition memory slightly.


title: White noise

text: A random vector (that is, a partially indeterminate process that produces vectors of real numbers) is said to be a white noise vector or white random vector if its components each have a probability distribution with zero mean and finite variance, and are statistically independent: that is, their joint probability distribution must be the product of the distributions of the individual components.


title: White noise

text: A necessary (but, in general, not sufficient) condition for statistical independence of two variables is that they be statistically uncorrelated; that is, their covariance is zero. Therefore, the covariance matrix "R" of the components of a white noise vector "w" with "n" elements must be an "n" by "n" diagonal matrix, where each diagonal element "R" is the variance of component "w"; and the correlation matrix must be the "n" by "n" identity matrix.


title: White noise

text: If, in addition to being independent, every variable in "w" also has a normal distribution with zero mean and the same variance formula_1, "w" is said to be a Gaussian white noise vector. In that case, the joint distribution of "w" is a multivariate normal distribution; the independence between the variables then implies that the distribution has spherical symmetry in "n"-dimensional space. Therefore, any orthogonal transformation of the vector will result in a Gaussian white random vector. In particular, under most types of discrete Fourier transform, such as FFT and Hartley, the transform "W" of "w" will be a Gaussian white noise vector, too; that is, the "n" Fourier coefficients of "w" will be independent Gaussian variables with zero mean and the same variance formula_1.


title: White noise

text: The power spectrum "P" of a random vector "w" can be defined as the expected value of the squared modulus of each coefficient of its Fourier transform "W", that is, "P" = E(|"W"|). Under that definition, a Gaussian white noise vector will have a perfectly flat power spectrum, with "P" = "σ" for all "i".


title: White noise

text: If "w" is a white random vector, but not a Gaussian one, its Fourier coefficients "W" will not be completely independent of each other; although for large "n" and common probability distributions the dependencies are very subtle, and their pairwise correlations can be assumed to be zero.


title: White noise

text: Often the weaker condition "statistically uncorrelated" is used in the definition of white noise, instead of "statistically independent". However, some of the commonly expected properties of white noise (such as flat power spectrum) may not hold for this weaker version. Under this assumption, the stricter version can be referred to explicitly as independent white noise vector. Other authors use strongly white and weakly white instead.


title: White noise

text: An example of a random vector that is "Gaussian white noise" in the weak but not in the strong sense is formula_3 where formula_4 is a normal random variable with zero mean, and formula_5 is equal to formula_6 or to formula_7, with equal probability. These two variables are uncorrelated and individually normally distributed, but they are not jointly normally distributed and are not independent. If formula_8 is rotated by 45 degrees, its two components will still be uncorrelated, but their distribution will no longer be normal.


title: White noise

text: In some situations one may relax the definition by allowing each component of a white random vector formula_9 to have non-zero expected value formula_10. In image processing especially, where samples are typically restricted to positive values, one often takes formula_10 to be one half of the maximum sample value. In that case, the Fourier coefficient formula_12 corresponding to the zero-frequency component (essentially, the average of the formula_13) will also have a non-zero expected value formula_14; and the power spectrum formula_15 will be flat only over the non-zero frequencies.


title: White noise

text: A discrete-time stochastic process formula_16 is a generalization of random vectors with a finite number of components to infinitely many components. A discrete-time stochastic process formula_16 is called white noise if its mean does not depend on the time formula_18 and is equal to zero, i.e. formula_19 and if the autocorrelation function formula_20 has a nonzero value only for formula_21, i.e. formula_22.


title: White noise

text: In order to define the notion of "white noise" in the theory of continuous-time signals, one must replace the concept of a "random vector" by a continuous-time random signal; that is, a random process that generates a function formula_9 of a real-valued parameter formula_24.


title: White noise

text: Such a process is said to be white noise in the strongest sense if the value formula_25 for any time formula_24 is a random variable that is statistically independent of its entire history before formula_24. A weaker definition requires independence only between the values formula_28 and formula_29 at every pair of distinct times formula_30 and formula_31. An even weaker definition requires only that such pairs formula_28 and formula_29 be uncorrelated. As in the discrete case, some authors adopt the weaker definition for "white noise", and use the qualifier independent to refer to either of the stronger definitions. Others use weakly white and strongly white to distinguish between them.


title: White noise

text: However, a precise definition of these concepts is not trivial, because some quantities that are finite sums in the finite discrete case must be replaced by integrals that may not converge. Indeed, the set of all possible instances of a signal formula_9 is no longer a finite-dimensional space formula_35, but an infinite-dimensional function space. Moreover, by any definition a white noise signal formula_9 would have to be essentially discontinuous at every point; therefore even the simplest operations on formula_9, like integration over a finite interval, require advanced mathematical machinery.


title: White noise

text: Some authors require each value formula_25 to be a real-valued random variable with expectation formula_10 and some finite variance formula_1. Then the covariance formula_41 between the values at two times formula_30 and formula_31 is well-defined: it is zero if the times are distinct, and formula_1 if they are equal. However, by this definition, the integral


title: White noise

text: over any interval with positive width formula_46 would be simply the width times the expectation: formula_47. This property would render the concept inadequate as a model of physical "white noise" signals.


title: White noise

text: Therefore, most authors define the signal formula_9 indirectly by specifying non-zero values for the integrals of formula_25 and formula_50 over any interval formula_51, as a function of its width formula_46. In this approach, however, the value of formula_25 at an isolated time cannot be defined as a real-valued random variable. Also the covariance formula_41 becomes infinite when formula_55; and the autocorrelation function formula_56 must be defined as formula_57, where formula_58 is some real constant and formula_59 is Dirac's "function".


title: White noise

text: In this approach, one usually specifies that the integral formula_60 of formula_25 over an interval formula_62 is a real random variable with normal distribution, zero mean, and variance formula_63; and also that the covariance formula_64 of the integrals formula_60, formula_66 is formula_67, where formula_46 is the width of the intersection formula_69 of the two intervals formula_70. This model is called a Gaussian white noise signal (or process).


title: White noise

text: In the mathematical field known as white noise analysis, a Gaussian white noise formula_9 is defined as a stochastic tempered distribution, i.e. a random variable with values in the space formula_72 of tempered distributions. Analogous to the case for finite-dimensional random vectors, a probability law on the infinite-dimensional space formula_72 can be defined via its characteristic function (existence and uniqueness are guaranteed by an extension of the Bochner–Minlos theorem, which goes under the name Bochner–Minlos–Sazanov theorem); analogously to the case of the multivariate normal distribution formula_74, which has characteristic function


title: White noise

text: where formula_78 is the natural pairing of the tempered distribution formula_79 with the Schwartz function formula_80, taken scenariowise for formula_81, and formula_82.


title: White noise

text: In statistics and econometrics one often assumes that an observed series of data values is the sum of a series of values generated by a deterministic linear process, depending on certain independent (explanatory) variables, and on a series of random noise values. Then regression analysis is used to infer the parameters of the model process from the observed data, e.g. by ordinary least squares, and to test the null hypothesis that each of the parameters is zero against the alternative hypothesis that it is non-zero. Hypothesis testing typically assumes that the noise values are mutually uncorrelated with zero mean and have the same Gaussian probability distributionin other words, that the noise is Gaussian white (not just white). If there is non-zero correlation between the noise values underlying different observations then the estimated model parameters are still unbiased, but estimates of their uncertainties (such as confidence intervals) will be biased (not accurate on average). This is also true if the noise is heteroskedasticthat is, if it has different variances for different data points.


title: White noise

text: Alternatively, in the subset of regression analysis known as time series analysis there are often no explanatory variables other than the past values of the variable being modeled (the dependent variable). In this case the noise process is often modeled as a moving average process, in which the current value of the dependent variable depends on current and past values of a sequential white noise process.


title: White noise

text: These two ideas are crucial in applications such as channel estimation and channel equalization in communications and audio. These concepts are also used in data compression.


title: White noise

text: In particular, by a suitable linear transformation (a coloring transformation), a white random vector can be used to produce a "non-white" random vector (that is, a list of random variables) whose elements have a prescribed covariance matrix. Conversely, a random vector with known covariance matrix can be transformed into a white random vector by a suitable whitening transformation.


title: White noise

text: White noise may be generated digitally with a digital signal processor, microprocessor, or microcontroller. Generating white noise typically entails feeding an appropriate stream of random numbers to a digital-to-analog converter. The quality of the white noise will depend on the quality of the algorithm used.


title: White noise

text: The term is sometimes used as a colloquialism to describe a backdrop of ambient sound, creating an indistinct or seamless commotion. Following are some examples:


title: White noise

text: The term can also be used metaphorically, as in the novel "White Noise" (1985) by Don DeLillo which explores the symptoms of modern culture that came together so as to make it difficult for an individual to actualize their ideas and personality.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: Death Note is a 2017 American supernatural crime thriller film loosely adapted from the Japanese manga of the same name created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. The film is directed by Adam Wingard and written by Charles and Vlas Parlapanides, and Jeremy Slater. The film stars Nat Wolff, LaKeith Stanfield, Margaret Qualley, Shea Whigham, Paul Nakauchi, Jason Liles, and Willem Dafoe, and follows the story of an American high school student named Light Turner (portrayed by Wolff) who finds a mysterious supernatural notebook known as the "Death Note", which can kill anyone whose name is written in its pages, using it to murder criminals under the alias of “Kira”, while a secretive detective only known as L (portrayed by Stanfield) seeks to find him.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: "Death Note" was screened at FrightFest in London and was subsequently released on Netflix on August 25, 2017, receiving mixed reviews from critics. A sequel is in development, with Greg Russo attached to write the screenplay.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: In Seattle, Washington, high schooler Light Turner stumbles across the "Death Note," a mysterious leather-bound notebook with instructions that state that by writing a person's name down within it, that person will die in the manner prescribed. Light meets the death god Ryuk, the notebook's owner. Ryuk convinces Light to use the notebook; Light writes down a bully's name and shortly thereafter witnesses him being killed in a freak accident. That night, Light tries it again, using the name of his mother's killer, Anthony Skomal, and learns the next morning from his father James, a police detective, that Skomal died as Light had written. At school, Light shows Mia the book and demonstrates its power by killing a known criminal felon during a televised hostage situation. The two decide to work together to rid the world of criminals and terrorists, with Light deciding on using the name "Kira" (derived from the Japanese trans-literation for "Killer," so as to direct investigative attention away from their continent).


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: Kira's actions draw the attention of enigmatic international detective "L," who deduces Kira is a Seattle-based student with close ties to the police and indirectly concludes Kira can only kill by knowing the name and face of their victim. Working with James and the police, L has several FBI agents track Light and other suspects. Light refuses to kill them when Mia suggests it, but soon the agents commit mass suicide, which Light believes Ryuk made them do. James threatens Kira over public broadcast but when he fails to be killed, L confronts Light about being Kira and prepares the police to thoroughly search Light's home. Light decides to use the Death Note to force L's personal assistant Watari to travel to Montauk, New York and find L's adoption record there; Light plans to burn the notebook page with Watari's name once he knows L's name to stop Watari's death, then kill L. Mia helps to sneak the notebook out before the search.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: Light and Mia go to the school dance, using the event to ditch L and the police. Light recovers the notebook just as Watari contacts him with L's name from the orphanage he was raised in, but Light cannot find the page in the notebook where Watari's name is written. Watari is then killed by security for trespassing before he can reveal L's name. Light discovers Mia took Watari's page, caused the agents' suicide, and has written Light's name in the book, set to kill him at midnight, but she offers to burn his page if he turns the notebook over to her. Light flees, telling Mia to meet him at the Seattle Great Wheel. Enraged at Watari's death, L leaves on a personal manhunt against Light, while James orders L to be detained. L corners Light, but a Kira Supporter, hearing that Light is Kira, knocks L out, letting Light escape. Mia meets Light at the wheel and they ride to the top. There, Mia steals the notebook, but realizes too late this was Light's plan: Light has written her death in the notebook contingent on her taking it. Ryuk then makes the wheel collapse, sending Mia falling to her death, while Light and the notebook fall into the nearby waters. L witnesses the page with Light's name lands in a burning barrel.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: Before meeting Mia, Light had used the book to coerce a criminally-charged doctor to rescue him and put him into a medically-induced coma, while having another criminal recover the Death Note and continue Kira's killings before returning the book to his bedside, killing both after their role is complete. Meanwhile, L is ordered off the case for his apparent misconduct, but in defiance, he raids Mia's home, finds the notebook page with the agents' names and deduces its capabilities. In a hysterical fit, he considers writing a name (implied to be Light's). When Light wakes from his coma at a hospital with James, who has come to conclude Light is Kira, by his side, he tries to convince James that his actions were "the lesser of two evils," prompting Ryuk to laugh and comment that "humans are so interesting."


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: Producer Masi Oka makes a cameo as Detective Sasaki: a Tokyo police detective investigating one of Light's murders. Christopher Britton, who played Sochiro Yagami, James Turner's original counterpart from the manga, in the English dub of the "Death Note" anime, makes a cameo appearance as Aaron Peltz, a serial child molester and one of Light's victims.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: In 2007, the Malaysian newspaper "The Star" stated that more than ten film companies in the United States had expressed interest in the "Death Note" franchise. The American production company Vertigo Entertainment was originally set to develop the remake, with Charley and Vlas Parlapanides as screenwriters and Roy Lee, Doug Davison, Dan Lin, and Brian Witten as producers. On April 30, 2009, "Variety" reported that Warner Bros., the distributors for the original Japanese live-action films, had acquired the rights for an American remake, with the original screenwriters and producers still attached. In 2009, Zac Efron responded to rumors that he would be playing the film's lead role by stating that the project was "not on the front burner". On January 13, 2011, it was announced that Shane Black had been hired to direct the film, with the script being written by Anthony Bagarozzi and Charles Mondry. Warner's studios planned to change the background story of Light Yagami into one of vengeance instead of justice and to remove Shinigami from the story. Black opposed this change, and it had not been green-lit. Black confirmed in a 2013 interview with "Bleeding Cool" that he was still working on the film. In July 2014, it was rumored that Gus Van Sant would replace Black as the film's new director, with Dan Lin, Doug Davison, Roy Lee and Brian Witten producing through Vertigo Entertainment, Witten Pictures and Lin Pictures.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: On April 27, 2015, "The Hollywood Reporter" revealed that Adam Wingard would direct the film, that Lin, Lee, Jason Hoffs, and Masi Oka would produce, and that Niija Kuykendall and Nik Mavinkurve would oversee the studio. Producers stated the film would receive an R rating. In April 2016, TheWrap reported that because Warner Bros. had decided to make fewer films, the studio put the film into turnaround but allowed Wingard to take the project elsewhere. Within 48 hours, Wingard was reportedly approached by nearly every major film studio. On April 6, 2016, it was confirmed that Netflix had bought the film from Warner Bros. with a budget of $40–50 million and a recent draft of the script being written by Jeremy Slater. Production officially began in British Columbia on June 30, 2016, (where Vancouver doubled as Seattle) overseen by DN (Canada) Productions, Inc. Atticus Ross and Leopold Ross composed the score for the film.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: On September 29, 2015, Nat Wolff was cast in the lead role. On November 12, 2015, Margaret Qualley joined the film as the female lead. In June 2016, LaKeith Stanfield joined the cast. On June 30, 2016, it was announced that Paul Nakauchi and Shea Whigham had joined the cast. On August 2, 2016, Willem Dafoe was announced to voice the Shinigami Ryuk. In the wake of Dafoe's casting, Brian Drummond, who voiced Ryuk in the English dub of the anime, voiced his approval citing the casting of Ryuk. Oka, one of the film's producers, announced that he also has a role in the film.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: Early casting announcements, similar to other Hollywood productions based on Japanese manga such as "Dragonball Evolution" and "Ghost in the Shell", resulted in accusations of whitewashing. In response, producers Roy Lee and Dan Lin stated that "Our vision for "Death Note" has always been to...introduce the world to this dark and mysterious masterpiece. The talent and diversity represented in our cast, writing, and producing teams reflect our belief in staying true to the story's concept of moral relevance—a universal theme that knows no racial boundaries."


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: Wingard addressed the concerns over the film, explaining that the film is an American take on the "Death Note" story, stating, "It's one of those things where the harder I tried to stay 100 percent true to the source material, the more it just kind of fell apart... You're in a different country, you're in a different kind of environment, and you're trying to also summarize a sprawling series into a two-hour-long film. For me, it became about; what do these themes mean to modern day America, and how does that affect how we tell the story." Wingard also stated that he mainly attempted to make a unique and different take on the original manga, while also trying to keep the core themes and elements of the original manga intact, such as the cat and mouse dynamic between the main protagonists: Light and L, the themes of morality and justice, the difference between good and evil, certain characteristics and elements of the original manga characters (such as Light's father still being a police officer, L's mannerisms and personality traits, along with his background and past originating from a secluded orphanage, Light being depicted as an intellectually-gifted and introverted high school student, Ryuk's personality traits and affinity for apples).


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: The film was screened at FrightFest in London, before being released on Netflix on August 25, 2017. On July 20, 2017, the film was screened early for audiences at San Diego Comic-Con International 2017.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: On March 22, 2017, Netflix released a teaser of the film on YouTube. An additional trailer was released on June 29, 2017.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: "Death Note" received mainly mixed reviews. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 37% based on 76 reviews, and an average rating of 4.73/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""Death Note" benefits from director Adam Wingard's distinctive eye and a talented cast, but they aren't enough to overcome a fatally overcrowded canvas." Metacritic gave the film a score of 43 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: Jeanette Catsoulis for "The New York Times" wrote that the film "feels rushed and constricted" compared to the volume of the source material, but praised how Wingard's direction focused on "mood over mayhem" to make the adaptation his own. Peter Debruge for "Variety" said that he felt that Wingard took the film adaptation towards a "Donnie Darko"-styled work that would capture the interest of more Western audiences compared to the original work, but made the work capture the feel of a theatrical film rather than a work confined to its original medium. Debruge also wrote that despite the philosophical concepts of murdering via the Death Note, "the movie never quite reckons with just how twisted a concept it's peddling, and that's easily the scariest thing about it". Brian Tallerico for Rogerebert.com gave the film one of four stars, stating that the changes that Wingard had made from the original work did not serve any artistic or thematic purpose, nor captured the cat-and-mouse game between Light and L that was core to the original work, and because the producers "refused to make Light the antihero he needed to be", the addition of Mia as a love interest "[left] the project hollow at its center" — but mainly praised the performances of Stanfield and Dafoe.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the original creators of "Death Note", have praised the film, with the former stating, "In a good way, it both followed and diverged from the original work so the film can be enjoyed, of course by not only the fans, but also by a much larger and wider audience".


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: Director Adam Wingard deleted his Twitter account after receiving backlash from the negative reviews.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: A few months after release, it was discovered that the images of the train accident in the movie were real footage of a 2010 train collision in Buizingen, Belgium in which 19 people died. Both the rail operator and survivors have criticized this as disrespectful to the victims.


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: In an interview with "Heat Vision", Wingard stated that Netflix had wanted to make at least two films, and would if the success of the first film merited it, saying, "There are definitely lots of places to go, and we know generally where we would take it. Hopefully, people will watch it and Netflix will order a sequel. They definitely are ready to. They just need people to watch it."


title: Death Note (2017 film)

text: On August 22, 2018, "The Hollywood Reporter" reported that a sequel was in development, with Greg Russo writing the script. On April 20, 2021, Russo revealed that the sequel would be more faithful to the manga than the first film. On September 21, 2021, Oka stated that the sequel promises fan criticism of the first film will be taken into account.


title: Telephone number

text: A telephone number is a sequence of digits assigned to a landline telephone subscriber station connected to a telephone line or to a wireless electronic telephony device, such as a radio telephone or a mobile telephone, or to other devices for data transmission via the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or other public and private networks.


title: Telephone number

text: A telephone number serves as an address for switching telephone calls using a system of destination code routing. Telephone numbers are entered or dialed by a calling party on the originating telephone set, which transmits the sequence of digits in the process of signaling to a telephone exchange. The exchange completes the call either to another locally connected subscriber or via the PSTN to the called party. Telephone numbers are assigned within the framework of a national or regional telephone numbering plan to subscribers by telephone service operators, which may be commercial entities, state-controlled administrations, or other telecommunication industry associations.


title: Telephone number

text: Telephone numbers were first used in 1879 in Lowell, Massachusetts, when they replaced the request for subscriber names by callers connecting to the switchboard operator. Over the course of telephone history, telephone numbers had various lengths and formats and even included most letters of the alphabet in leading positions when telephone exchange names were in common use until the 1960s.


title: Telephone number

text: Telephone numbers are often dialed in conjunction with other signaling code sequences, such as vertical service codes, to invoke special telephone service features.


title: Telephone number

text: When telephone numbers were first used they were very short, from one to three digits, and were communicated orally to a switchboard operator when initiating a call. As telephone systems have grown and interconnected to encompass worldwide communication, telephone numbers have become longer. In addition to telephones, they have been used to access other devices, such as computer modems, pagers, and fax machines. With landlines, modems and pagers falling out of use in favor of all-digital always-connected broadband Internet and mobile phones, telephone numbers are now often used by data-only cellular devices, such as some tablet computers, digital televisions, video game controllers, and mobile hotspots, on which it is not even possible to make or accept a call.


title: Telephone number

text: The number contains the information necessary to identify the intended endpoint for a telephone call. Many countries use fixed-length numbers in a so-called closed numbering plan. A prominent system of this type is the North American Numbering Plan. In Europe, the development of open numbering plans was more prevalent, in which a telephone number comprised a varying count of digits. Irrespective of the type of numbering plan, "shorthand" or "speed calling" numbers are automatically translated to unique telephone numbers before the call can be connected. Some special services have special short codes (e.g., 1-1-9, 9-1-1,1-0-0, 1-0-1, 1-0-2, 0-0-0, 9-9-9, 1-1-1, and 1-1-2 being the Emergency Services numbers in many countries).


title: Telephone number

text: The dialing procedures ("dialing plan") in some areas permit dialing numbers in the local calling area without using an area code or city code prefix. For example, a telephone number in North America consists of a three-digit area code, a three-digit central office code, and four digits for the line number. If the numbering plan area does not use an overlay plan with multiple area codes, or if the provider allows it for other technical reasons, seven-digit dialing may be permissible for calls within the area.


title: Telephone number

text: Special telephone numbers are used for high-capacity numbers with several telephone circuits, typically a request line to a radio station where dozens or even hundreds of callers may be trying to call in at once, such as for a contest. For each large metro area, all of these lines will share the same prefix (such as 404-741-"xxxx" in Atlanta and 305-550-"xxxx" in Miami), the last digits typically corresponding to the station's frequency, callsign, or moniker.


title: Telephone number

text: In the international telephone network, the format of telephone numbers is standardized by ITU-T recommendation E.164. This code specifies that the entire number should be 15 digits or shorter, and begin with an international calling prefix and a country prefix. For most countries, this is followed by an area code, city code or service number code and the subscriber number, which might consist of the code for a particular telephone exchange. ITU-T recommendation E.123 describes how to represent an international telephone number in writing or print, starting with a plus sign ("+") and the country code. When calling an international number from a landline phone, the + must be replaced with the international call prefix chosen by the country the call is being made from. Many mobile phones allow the + to be entered directly, by pressing and holding the "0" for GSM phones, or sometimes "*" for CDMA phones.


title: Telephone number

text: The 3GPP standards for mobile networks provide a BCD-encoded field of ten bytes for the telephone number ("Dialling Number/SCC String"). The international call prefix or "+" is not counted as it encodes a value in a separate byte (TON/NPI - type of number / numbering plan identification). If the MSISDN is longer than 20 digits then additional digits are encoded into extension blocks (EF) each having a BCD-encoded field of 11 bytes. This scheme allows to extend the subscriber number with a maximum of 20 digits by additional function values to control network services. In the context of ISDN the function values were transparently transported in a BCD-encoded field with a maximum of 20 bytes named "ISDN Subaddress".


title: Telephone number

text: The format and allocation of local telephone numbers are controlled by each nation's respective government, either directly or by sponsored organizations (such as NANPA in the US or CNAC in Canada). In the United States, each state's public service commission regulates, as does the Federal Communications Commission. In Canada, which shares the same country code with the U.S. (due to Bell Canada's previous ownership by the U.S.-based Bell System), regulation is mainly through the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.


title: Telephone number

text: Local number portability (LNP) allows a subscriber to request moving an existing telephone number to another telephone service provider. Number portability usually has geographic limitations, such as an existing local telephone company only being able to port to a competitor within the same rate centre. Mobile carriers may have much larger market areas, and can assign or accept numbers from any area within the region. In many telephone administrations, mobile telephone numbers are in organized in prefix ranges distinct from land line service, which simplifies mobile number portability, even between carriers.


title: Telephone number

text: Within most North American rate centres, local wireline calls are free, while calls to all but a few nearby rate centres are considered long distance and incur toll fees. In a few large US cities, as well as many points outside North America, local calls are not flat-rated or "free" by default.


title: Telephone number

text: In the late 1870s, the Bell interests started utilizing their patent with a rental scheme, in which they would rent their instruments to individual users who would contract with other suppliers to connect them; for example from home to office to factory. Western Union and the Bell company both soon realized that a subscription service would be more profitable, with the invention of the telephone switchboard or central office. Such an office was staffed by an operator who connected the calls by personal names. Some have argued that use of the telephone altered the physical layout of American cities.


title: Telephone number

text: The latter part of 1879 and the early part of 1880 saw the first use of telephone numbers at Lowell, Massachusetts. During an epidemic of measles, the physician, Dr. Moses Greeley Parker, feared that Lowell's four telephone operators might all succumb to sickness and bring about paralysis of telephone service. He recommended the use of numbers for calling Lowell's more than 200 subscribers so that substitute operators might be more easily trained in such an emergency. Parker was convinced of the telephone's potential, began buying stock, and by 1883 he was one of the largest individual stockholders in both the American Telephone Company and the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company.


title: Telephone number

text: Even after the assignment of numbers, operators still connected most calls into the early 20th century: "Hello, Central. Get me Underwood-342." Connecting through operators or "Central" was the norm until mechanical direct-dialing of numbers became more common in the 1920s.


title: Telephone number

text: In rural areas with magneto crank telephones connected to party lines, the local phone number consisted of the line number plus the ringing pattern of the subscriber. To dial a number such as "3R122" meant making a request to the operator the third party line (if making a call off your own local one), followed by turning the telephone's crank once, a short pause, then twice and twice again. Also common was a code of long and short rings, so one party's call might be signaled by two longs and another's by two longs followed by a short. It was not uncommon to have over a dozen ring cadences (and subscribers) on one line.


title: Telephone number

text: In most areas of North America, telephone numbers in metropolitan communities consisted of a combination of digits and letters, starting in the 1920s until the 1960s. Letters were translated to dialed digits, a mapping that was displayed directly on the telephone dial. Each of the digits 2 to 9, and sometimes 0, corresponded to a group of typically three letters. The leading two or three letters of a telephone number indicated the exchange name, for example, "ED"gewood and "IV"anhoe, and were followed by 5 or 4 digits. The limitations that these systems presented in terms of usable names that were easy to distinguish and spell, and the need for a comprehensive numbering plan that enabled direct-distance dialing, led to the introduction of all-number dialing in the 1960s.


title: Telephone number

text: The use of numbers starting in 555- (KLondike-5) to represent fictional numbers in U.S. movies, television, and literature originated in this period. The "555" prefix was reserved for telephone company use and was only consistently used for directory assistance (information), being "555–1212" for the local area. An attempt to dial a 555 number from a movie in the United States results in an error message. This reduces the likelihood of nuisance calls. QUincy(5–5555) was also used, because there was no Q available.


title: Telephone number

text: Phone numbers were traditionally tied down to a single location; because exchanges were "hard-wired", the first three digits of any number were tied to the geographic location of the exchange.


title: Telephone number

text: The North American Numbering Plan of 1947 prescribed a format of telephone numbers that included two leading letters of the name of the central office to which each telephone was connected. This continued the practice already in place by many telephone companies for decades. Traditionally, these names were often the names of towns, villages, or were other locally significant names. Communities that required more than one central office may have used other names for each central office, such as "Main", "East", " Central" or the names of local districts. Names were convenient to use and reduced errors when telephone numbers were exchanged verbally between subscribers and operators. When subscribers could dial themselves, the initial letters of the names were converted to digits as displayed on the rotary dial. Thus, telephone numbers contained one, two, or even three letters followed by up to five numerals. Such numbering plans are called 2L-4N, or simply 2–4, for example, as shown in the photo of a telephone dial of 1939 (right). In this example, "LAkewood 2697" indicates that a subscriber dialed the letters "L" and "A", then the digits "2", "6", "9", and "7" to reach this telephone in Lakewood, NJ (USA). The leading letters were typically bolded in print.


title: Telephone number

text: In December 1930, New York City became the first city in the United States to adopt the two-letter and five-number format (2L-5N), which became the standard after World War II, when the Bell System administration designed the North American Numbering Plan to prepare the United States and Canada for Direct Distance Dialing (DDD), and began to convert all central offices to this format. This process was complete by the early 1960s, when a new numbering plan, often called "all number calling" (ANC) became the standard in North America.


title: Telephone number

text: In the UK, letters were assigned to numbers in a similar fashion to North America, except that the letter O was allocated to the digit 0 (zero); digit 6 had only M and N. The letter Q was later added to the zero position on British dials, in anticipation of direct international dialing to Paris, which commenced in 1963. This was necessary because French dials already had Q on the zero position, and there were exchange names in the Paris region which contained the letter Q.


title: Telephone number

text: Most of the United Kingdom had no lettered telephone dials until the introduction of "Subscriber Trunk Dialing" (STD) in 1958. Until then, only the director areas (Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Manchester) and the adjacent non-director areas had the lettered dials; the director exchanges used the three-letter, four-number format. With the introduction of trunk dialing, the need for all callers to be able to dial numbers with letters in them led to the much more widespread use of lettered dials. The need for dials with letters ceased with the conversion to all-digit numbering in 1968.


title: Telephone number

text: In the middle 20th century in North America when a call could not be completed, for example because the phone number was not assigned, had been disconnected, or was experiencing technical difficulties, the call was routed to an intercept operator who informed the caller. In the 1970s this service was converted to Automatic Intercept Systems which automatically choose and present an appropriate intercept message. Disconnected numbers are reassigned to new users after the rate of calls to them declines.


title: Telephone number

text: Outside of North America operator intercept was rare, although it did exist, for example it was sometimes used in Ireland. However, in most cases, calls to unassigned or disconnected numbers resulted in an automated message, either giving specific or a generic recorded error message. Some networks and equipment simply returned a number unobtainable, reorder or SIT (special information) tone to indicate an error.


title: Telephone number

text: In some networks recordings for error messages were (and still are) preceded by an SIT tone. This is particularly useful in multilingual contexts as the tone indicates an error has been encountered, even if the message cannot be understood by the caller and can be interpreted as an error by some auto-dialling equipment.


title: Telephone number

text: Telephone numbers are sometimes prefixed with special services, such as vertical service codes, that contain signaling events other than numbers, most notably the star (*) and the number sign (#). Vertical service codes enable or disable special telephony services either on a per-call basis, or for the station or telephone line until changed. The use of the number sign is most frequently used as a marker signal to indicate the end of digit sequences or the end of other procedures; as a terminator it avoids operational delays when waiting for expiration of automatic time-out periods.


title: Telephone number

text: Fictitious telephone numbers are often used in films and on television to avoid disturbances by calls from viewers. For example, The United States 555 (KLondike-5) exchange code was never assigned (with limited exceptions such as 555–1212 for directory assistance). Therefore, American films and TV shows have used 555-xxxx numbers, in order to prevent a number used in such a work from being called.


title: Telephone number

text: The film "Bruce Almighty" (2003) originally featured a number that did not have the 555 prefix. In the cinematic release, God (Morgan Freeman) leaves 776–2323 on a pager for Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) to call if he needed God's help. The DVD changes this to a 555 number. According to Universal Studios, which produced the movie, the number it used was picked because it did not exist in Buffalo, New York, where the movie was set. It did exist in other cities, resulting in customers' having that number receiving random calls from people asking for God. While some played along with the gag, others found the calls aggravating.


title: Telephone number

text: The number in the Glenn Miller Orchestra's hit song "Pennsylvania 6-5000" (1940) is the number of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. The number is now written as 1-212-736-5000. According to the hotel's website, PEnnsylvania 6-5000 is New York's oldest continually assigned telephone number and possibly the oldest continuously-assigned number in the world.


title: Telephone number

text: Australian films and television shows do not employ any recurring format for fictional telephone numbers; any number quoted in such media may be used by a real subscriber. The 555 code is used in the Balmain area of Sydney and the suburbs of Melbourne. Although in many areas being a prefix of 55 plus the thousand digit of 5 (e.g. 55 5XXX), would be valid, the numbering system was changed so that 555 became 9555 in Sydney and Melbourne, and in the country, there are two new digits ahead of the 55.


title: Telephone number

text: Tommy Tutone's hit song "867-5309/Jenny" (1981) led to many unwanted calls by the public to telephone subscribers who actually were assigned that number.


title: Real Steel

text: Real Steel is a 2011 American science fiction sports drama film starring Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo and co-produced and directed by Shawn Levy for DreamWorks Pictures. The film is based on the short story "Steel", written by Richard Matheson, which was originally published in the May 1956 edition of "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction", and later adapted into a 1963 "Twilight Zone" episode. The film features a former boxer (Jackman) whose sport is now played by robots. He must build and train his own robot with his son. "Real Steel" was in development for several years before production began on June 24, 2010. Filming took place primarily in the U.S. state of Michigan. Animatronic robots were built for the film, and motion capture technology was used to depict the rodeo brawling of computer-generated robots and animatronics, respectively.


title: Real Steel

text: "Real Steel" was released by Touchstone Pictures in Australia on October 6, 2011, and in the United States and Canada on October 7, 2011, grossing nearly $300 million at the box office. It received mixed reviews, with criticism towards the plot but praise for the visual effects, action sequences, and performances of the cast. The film was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 84th Academy Awards.


title: Real Steel

text: In 2020, human boxers are replaced by robots. Former boxer Charlie Kenton owns Ambush until it is destroyed in a fight against a bull belonging to promoter and carnival owner, Ricky. Having bet with Ricky that Ambush would win, Charlie absconds before Ricky can collect.


title: Real Steel

text: After the fight, Charlie learns that his ex-girlfriend died and he must attend a hearing deciding the future of their son, Max, a robot-boxing fan with nearly no contact with Charlie since his birth. Max's maternal aunt, Debra, and her wealthy husband, Marvin, want full custody. Charlie bargains to cede custody of Max for $100,000, half in advance, and Marvin negotiates that Charlie retain custody of Max for three months while Marvin and Debra go on vacation. Settling into a gym owned by Bailey Tallet, the daughter of Charlie's former boxing coach, Charlie acquires the once-famous Noisy Boy, which is destroyed against another robot boxer, Midas. While scavenging for replacements in a junkyard, Max discovers Atom, an obsolete, dilapidated but mostly intact sparring robot designed to withstand severe damage, with a rare "shadow function" to mirror and memorize handler or opponent movements.


title: Real Steel

text: At Max's behest, Charlie pits Atom against Metro and is victorious. Max integrates Noisy Boy's voice command hardware with Atom, and convinces Charlie to assist in streamlining Atom's movements. This results in a series of victories, culminating in Charlie being offered a fight in World Robot Boxing with Atom against national champion Twin Cities. The fight starts with Atom on the attack, but Twin Cities easily takes the offensive. Charlie notices a hitch whenever Twin Cities throws a right punch, and exploits this to win by knockout. Elated by their success, Max challenges undefeated global champion Zeus, with the audience squarely on their side. After the fight, Ricky and his two henchmen attack Charlie for bailing earlier and rob him and Max of their winnings, prompting a defeated and dejected Charlie to return Max to Debra.


title: Real Steel

text: This upsets Max, and when Charlie tries to convince him that living without him is better for Max, Max reveals he always wanted Charlie to fight for him and be there as a father. After Max leaves, Charlie returns to Tallet's Gym. While talking with Bailey about the events, the two kiss, revealing their attraction to each other. Persuaded by Bailey, Charlie arranges the fight with Zeus, and convinces Debra to allow Max to witness the fight.


title: Real Steel

text: Zeus dominates early, knocking Atom down with its first punch, though Atom survives the first round, stunning the audience. Ricky was cornered by fight bookmakers during his escape, having bet $100,000 with Finn on Atom's first-round defeat. Meanwhile, in the ring, Atom lands multiple punches and withstands further attacks but makes no definitive progress. Late in the fourth round, Atom's voice-response controls are damaged, forcing Charlie to fight Zeus with Atom's shadow function. Atom wards off Zeus long enough to deplete its power core, at which point Charlie directs Atom to begin its counterattack against a tired and helpless Zeus. With Zeus's programmers unable to compensate, the designer, Tak Mashido, intervenes and controls Zeus. Atom gives Zeus a sound beating, who barely avoids losing by knockout. Zeus wins by decision and remains undefeated, but with Mashido's group left humiliated by the near-loss and Zeus critically damaged. Atom is triumphantly labeled the people's champion as Max and Charlie celebrate despite the match result.