title: Romanian Revolution

text: Riots and protests resumed the following day, 17 December. The rioters broke into the district committee building and threw party documents, propaganda brochures, Ceaușescu's writings, and other symbols of Communist power out of windows.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: The military was sent in to control the riots, because the situation was too large for the "Securitate" and conventional police to handle. The presence of the army in the streets was an ominous sign: it meant that they had received their orders from the highest level of the command chain, presumably from Ceaușescu himself. The army failed to establish order and chaos ensued, including gunfire, fights, casualties, and burned cars. Transportor Amfibiu Blindat (TAB) armoured personnel carriers and tanks were called in.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: After 20:00, from Piața Libertății (Liberty Square) to the Opera, there was wild shooting, including the area of Decebal bridge, Calea Lipovei (Lipovei Avenue) and Calea Girocului (Girocului Avenue). Tanks, trucks and TABs blocked the accesses into the city while helicopters hovered overhead. After midnight the protests calmed down. Colonel-General Ion Coman, local Party secretary Ilie Matei, and Colonel-General Ștefan Gușă (Chief of the Romanian General Staff) inspected the city. Some areas looked like the aftermath of a war: destruction, rubble and blood.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: On the morning of 18 December the centre was being guarded by soldiers and "Securitate" agents in plainclothes. Ceaușescu departed for a visit to Iran, leaving the duty of crushing the Timișoara revolt to his subordinates and his wife. Mayor Moț ordered a party gathering to take place at the university, with the purpose of condemning the "vandalism" of the previous days. He also declared martial law, prohibiting people from going about in groups of larger than two.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Defying the curfew, a group of 30 young men headed for the Orthodox cathedral, where they stopped and waved a from which they had removed the Romanian Communist coat of arms leaving a distinctive hole, in a manner similar to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Expecting that they would be fired upon, they started to sing "Deșteaptă-te, române!" (""Awaken thee, Romanian!""), an earlier patriotic song that had been banned in 1947 (but then partially co-opted by the Ceaușescu regime once he fashioned himself as a nationalist). Hungarian protesters also chanted "Români, veniți cu noi!" ("Romanians, come with us", to convey that the protest was by and for all citizens of Romania, not an ethnic minority matter). They were, indeed, fired upon; some died and others were seriously injured, while the lucky ones were able to escape.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: On 19 December, local Party functionary Radu Bălan and Colonel-General Ștefan Gușă visited workers in the city's factories, but failed to get them to resume work. On 20 December, massive columns of workers entered the city. About 100,000 protesters occupied Piața Operei (Opera Square – today Piața Victoriei, Victory Square) and chanted anti-government slogans: ""Noi suntem poporul!"" ("We are the people!"), ""Armata e cu noi!"" ("The army is on our side!"), ""Nu vă fie frică, Ceaușescu pică!"" ("Have no fear, Ceaușescu is falling!")


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Meanwhile, Emil Bobu (Secretary to the Central Committee) and Prime Minister Constantin Dăscălescu were sent by Elena Ceaușescu (Nicolae being at that time in Iran) to resolve the situation. They met with a delegation of the protesters and agreed to free the majority of the arrested protesters. However, they refused to comply with the protesters' main demand (resignation of Ceaușescu) and the situation remained essentially unchanged.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: The next day, trains loaded with workers from factories in Oltenia arrived in Timișoara. The regime was attempting to use them to repress the mass protests, but after a brief encounter they ended up joining the protests. One worker explained, "Yesterday our factory boss and a party official rounded us up in the yard, handed us wooden clubs and told us that Hungarians and 'hooligans' were devastating Timișoara and that it is our duty to go there and help crush the riots. But I realised that wasn't the truth."


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Upon Ceaușescu's return from Iran on the evening of 20 December, the situation became even more tense, and he gave a televised speech from the TV studio inside the Central Committee Building (CC Building) in which he spoke about the events at Timișoara in terms of an "interference of foreign forces in Romania's internal affairs" and an "external aggression on Romania's sovereignty."


title: Romanian Revolution

text: The country, which had no information about the Timișoara events from the national media, heard about the Timișoara revolt from Western radio stations like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, and by word of mouth. A mass meeting was staged for the next day, 21 December, which, according to the official media, was presented as a "spontaneous movement of support for Ceaușescu," emulating the 1968 meeting in which Ceaușescu had spoken against the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: On the morning of 21 December, Ceaușescu addressed an assembly of approximately 100,000 people to condemn the uprising in Timișoara. Party officials took great pains to make it appear that Ceaușescu was still immensely popular. Several busloads of workers, under threat of being fired upon, arrived in Bucharest's Piața Palatului (Palace Square, now Piața Revoluției – Revolution Square) and were given red flags, banners and large pictures of Ceaușescu. They were augmented by bystanders who were rounded up on Calea Victoriei.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: The speech was typical of most of Ceaușescu's speeches over the years. Making use of Marxist-Leninist rhetoric, he delivered a litany of the achievements of the "socialist revolution" and Romanian "multi-laterally developed socialist society". He blamed the Timișoara uprising on "fascist agitators". However, Ceaușescu was out of touch with the people and completely misread the crowd's mood. The people remained unresponsive, and only the front rows supported Ceaușescu with cheers and applause. About two minutes into the speech, some in the crowd began to jeer, boo, whistle and yell insults at him, a reaction unthinkable for most of his rule. Workers from a Bucharest power plant started chanting "Ti-mi-șoa-ra! Ti-mi-șoa-ra!", which was soon picked up by others in the crowd. In response, Ceaușescu raised his right hand in hopes of silencing the crowd; his stunned expression remains one of the defining moments of the end of Communism in Eastern Europe. He then tried to placate the crowd by offering to raise workers' salaries by 200 lei per month (about 19 U.S. dollars at the time, yet a 5–10% raise for a modest salary) and student scholarships from 100 to 110 lei while continuing to praise the achievements of the Socialist Revolution. However, a revolution was brewing right in front of his eyes.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: As Ceaușescu was addressing the crowd from the balcony of the Central Committee building, sudden movement came from the outskirts of the massed assembly, as did the sound of (what various sources have reported as) fireworks, bombs or guns, which together caused the assembly to break into chaos. Initially frightened, the crowds tried to disperse. Bullhorns then began to spread the news that the Securitate was firing on the crowd and that a "revolution" was unfolding. This persuaded people in the assembly to join in. The rally turned into a protest demonstration.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: The entire speech was being broadcast live nationwide. Censors attempted to cut the live video feed and replace it with Communist propaganda songs and video praising the Ceaușescu regime, but parts of the riots had already been broadcast and most of the Romanian people realised that something unusual was in progress. Ceaușescu and his wife, as well as other officials and CPEx members, panicked; Ceaușescu's bodyguard hustled him back inside the building.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: The jeers and whistles soon erupted into a riot; the crowd took to the streets, placing the capital, like Timișoara, in turmoil. Members of the crowd spontaneously began shouting anti-Ceaușescu slogans, which spread and became chants: ""Jos dictatorul!"" ("Down with the dictator"), ""Moarte criminalului!"" ("Death to the criminal"), ""Noi suntem poporul, jos cu dictatorul!"" ("We are the People, down with the dictator"), ""Ceaușescu cine ești?/Criminal din Scornicești"" ("Ceaușescu, who are you? A criminal from Scornicești").


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Protesters eventually flooded the city centre area, from Piața Kogălniceanu to Piața Unirii, Piața Rosetti and Piața Romană. In one notable scene from the event, a young man waved a tricolour with the Communist coat of arms torn out of its centre while perched on the statue of Mihai Viteazul on Boulevard Mihail Kogălniceanu in the University Square. Many others began to emulate the young protester, and the waving and displaying of the Romanian flag with the Communist insignia cut out quickly became widespread.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: As the hours passed many more people took to the streets. Later, observers claimed that even at this point, had Ceaușescu been willing to talk, he might have been able to salvage something. Instead, he decided on force. Soon the protesters—unarmed and unorganised—were confronted by soldiers, tanks, APCs, USLA troops ("Unitatea Specială pentru Lupta Antiteroristă", anti-terrorist special squads) and armed plainclothes "Securitate" officers. The crowd was soon being shot at from various buildings, side streets and tanks.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: There were many casualties, including deaths, as victims were shot, clubbed to death, stabbed and crushed by armoured vehicles. One APC drove into the crowd around the InterContinental Hotel, crushing people. A French journalist, Jean-Louis Calderon, was killed. A street near University Square was later named after him, as well as a high school in Timișoara. Belgian journalist Danny Huwé was shot and killed on 23 or 24 December 1989.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Firefighters hit the demonstrators with powerful water cannons, and the police continued to beat and arrest people. Protesters managed to build a defensible barricade in front of the "Dunărea" ("Danube") restaurant, which stood until after midnight, but was finally torn apart by government forces. Intense shooting continued until after 03:00, by which time the survivors had fled the streets.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Records of the fighting that day include footage shot from helicopters that were sent to raid the area and record evidence for eventual reprisals, as well as by tourists in the high tower of the centrally located InterContinental Hotel, next to the National Theatre and across the street from the university.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: It is likely that in the early hours of 22 December the Ceaușescus made their second mistake. Instead of fleeing the city under cover of night, they decided to wait until morning to leave. Ceaușescu must have thought that his desperate attempts to crush the protests had succeeded, because he apparently called another meeting for the next morning. However, before 07:00, his wife Elena received the news that large columns of workers from many industrial platforms (large communist-era factories or groups of factories concentrated into industrial zones) were heading towards the city centre of Bucharest to join the protests. The police barricades that were meant to block access to Piața Universității (University Square) and Palace Square proved useless. By 09:30 University Square was jammed with protesters. Security forces (army, police and others) re-entered the area, only to join with the protesters.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: By 10:00, as the radio broadcast was announcing the introduction of martial law and a ban on groups larger than five persons, hundreds of thousands of people were gathering for the first time, spontaneously, in central Bucharest (the previous day's crowd had come together at Ceaușescu's orders). Ceaușescu attempted to address the crowd from the balcony of the Central Committee of the Communist Party building, but his attempt was met with a wave of disapproval and anger. Helicopters spread manifestos (which did not reach the crowd, due to unfavourable winds) instructing people not to fall victim to the latest "diversion attempts," but to go home instead and enjoy the Christmas feast. This order, which drew unfavourable comparisons to Marie Antoinette's haughty (but apocryphal) "Let them eat cake", further infuriated the people who did read the manifestos; many at that time had trouble procuring basic foodstuffs such as cooking oil.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: At approximately 09:30 on the morning of 22 December Vasile Milea, Ceaușescu's minister of defence, died under suspicious circumstances. A communiqué by Ceaușescu stated that Milea had been sacked for treason, and that he had committed suicide after his treason was revealed. The most widespread opinion at the time was that Milea hesitated to follow Ceaușescu's orders to fire on the demonstrators, even though tanks had been dispatched to downtown Bucharest that morning. Milea was already in severe disfavour with Ceaușescu for initially sending soldiers to Timișoara without live ammunition. Rank-and-file soldiers believed that Milea had actually been murdered and went over virtually "en masse" to the revolution. Senior commanders wrote off Ceaușescu as a lost cause and made no effort to keep their men loyal to the regime. This effectively ended any chance of Ceaușescu staying in power.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Accounts differ about how Milea died. His family and several junior officers believed he had been shot in his own office by the Securitate, while another group of officers believed he had committed suicide. In 2005 an investigation concluded that the minister killed himself by shooting at his heart, but the bullet missed the heart, hit a nearby artery and led to his death shortly afterward.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Upon learning of Milea's death, Ceaușescu appointed Victor Stănculescu minister of defence. He accepted after a brief hesitation. Stănculescu, however, ordered the troops back to their quarters without Ceaușescu's knowledge, and also persuaded Ceaușescu to leave by helicopter, thus making the dictator a fugitive. At that same moment angry protesters began storming the Communist Party headquarters; Stănculescu and the soldiers under his command did not oppose them.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: By refusing to carry out Ceaușescu's orders (he was still technically commander-in-chief of the army), Stănculescu played a central role in the overthrow of the dictatorship. "I had the prospect of two execution squads: Ceaușescu's and the revolutionary one!" confessed Stănculescu later. In the afternoon, Stănculescu "chose" Ion Iliescu's political group from among others that were striving for power in the aftermath of the recent events.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Following Ceaușescu's second failed attempt to address the crowd, he and Elena fled into a lift headed for the roof. A group of protesters managed to force their way into the building, overpower Ceaușescu's bodyguards and make their way through his office before heading onto the balcony. They were unaware they were only a few metres from Ceaușescu. The lift's electricity failed just before it reached the top floor, and Ceaușescu's bodyguards forced it open and ushered the couple onto the roof.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: At 11:20 on 22 December 1989, Ceaușescu's personal pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Vasile Maluțan, received instructions from Lieutenant General Opruta to proceed to Palace Square to pick up the president. As he flew over Palace Square he saw it was impossible to land there. Maluțan landed his white Dauphin, #203, on the terrace at 11:44. A man brandishing a white net curtain from one of the windows waved him down.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Maluțan said, "Then Stelica, the co-pilot, came to me and said that there were demonstrators coming to the terrace. Then the Ceaușescus came out, both practically carried by their bodyguards ... They looked as if they were fainting. They were white with terror. Manea Mănescu [one of the vice-presidents] and Emil Bobu were running behind them. Mănescu, Bobu, Neagoe and another Securitate officer scrambled to the four seats in the back ... As I pulled Ceaușescu in, I saw the demonstrators running across the terrace ... There wasn't enough space, Elena Ceaușescu and I were squeezed in between the chairs and the door ... We were only supposed to carry four passengers ... We had six."


title: Romanian Revolution

text: According to Maluțan, it was 12:08 when they left for Snagov. After they arrived there, Ceaușescu took Maluțan into the presidential suite and ordered him to get two helicopters filled with soldiers for an armed guard, and a further Dauphin to come to Snagov. Maluțan's unit commander replied on the phone, "There has been a revolution ... You are on your own ... Good luck!". Maluțan then said to Ceaușescu that the second motor was now warmed up and they needed to leave soon but he could only take four people, not six. Mănescu and Bobu stayed behind. Ceaușescu ordered Maluțan to head for Titu. Near Titu, Maluțan says that he received the national flights denial and had to land to not get shot down by the army.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: He did so in a field next to the old road that led to Pitești. Maluțan then told his four passengers that he could do nothing more. The Securitate men ran to the roadside and began to flag down passing cars. Two cars stopped, one of them driven by a forestry official and one a red Dacia driven by a local doctor. However, the doctor was not happy about getting involved and, after a short time driving the Ceaușescus, faked engine trouble. A bicycle repairman was then flagged down and drove them in his car to Târgoviște. The repairman, Nicolae Petrișor, convinced them that they could hide in an agricultural technical institute on the edge of town. When they arrived, the director there guided the Ceaușescus into a room and then locked them in. They were arrested by local police at about 15:30, then after some wandering around, transported to the Târgoviște garrison's military compound and held captive for several days until their trial.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: On 24 December Ion Iliescu, head of the newly formed Council of the National Salvation Front (FSN), signed a decree establishing the Extraordinary Military Tribunal, a drumhead court-martial to try the Ceaușescus for genocide and other crimes. The trial was held on 25 December, lasted for about two hours and delivered death sentences to the couple. Although nominally the Ceaușescus had a right of appeal, their execution followed immediately, just outside the improvised courtroom, being carried out by three paratroopers with their service rifles.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Footage of the trial and of the executed Ceaușescus was promptly released in Romania and to the rest of the world. The actual moment of execution was not filmed; the cameraman only managed to get into the courtyard just as the shooting ended.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: In footage of the trial, Nicolae Ceaușescu is seen answering the ad hoc tribunal judging him and referring to some of its members—among them Army General Victor Atanasie Stănculescu and future Romanian Secret Service head Virgil Măgureanu—as "traitors". In the same video, Ceaușescu dismisses the "tribunal" as illegitimate and demands his constitutional rights to answer to charges in front of a legitimate tribunal.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: After Ceaușescu left, the mood of the crowds in Palace Square grew celebratory, perhaps even more than in the other former Eastern Bloc countries because of the recent violence. People cried, shouted and gave each other gifts mainly because it was also close to Christmas Day, a long-suppressed holiday in Romania. The occupation of the Central Committee building continued.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: People threw Ceaușescu's writings, official portraits and propaganda books out the windows, intending to burn them. They also promptly ripped off the giant letters from the roof making up the word ""comunist"" ("communist") in the slogan: "Trăiască Partidul Comunist Român!" ("Long live the Communist Party of Romania!"). A young woman appeared on the rooftop and waved a flag with the coat of arms torn out.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: At that time, fierce fights were underway at Bucharest Otopeni International Airport between troops sent against each other with the claim that they were going to confront terrorists. Early in the morning, troops sent to reinforce the airport were fired upon. These troops were from the UM 0865 Câmpina military base, and were summoned there by General Ion Rus, commander of the Romanian Air Force. The confrontation resulted in the deaths of 40 soldiers, as well as eight civilians. The military trucks were allowed entrance into the airport's perimeter, passing several checkpoints. However, after passing the last checkpoint, they were fired upon from different directions. A civilian bus was also fired upon during the firefight. After the firefight, the surviving soldiers were taken prisoner by the troops guarding the airport, who seemed to think that they were loyal to Ceaușescu's regime.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: However, the seizure of power by the new political structure FSN, which "emanated" from the second tier of the PCR leadership with help of the plotting generals, was not yet complete. Forces considered to be loyal to the old regime (spontaneously nicknamed "terrorists") opened fire on the crowd and attacked key points across the city: the television, radio and telephone buildings, as well as Casa Scânteii (the nation's print media center, which serves a similar role today under the name of the "House of the Free Press", ) and the post office in the district of Drumul Taberei; Palace Square (site of the Central Committee building, but also of the Central University Library, the national art museum in the former Royal Palace, and the Ateneul Român (Romanian Athaeneum), Bucharest's leading concert hall); the university and the adjoining University Square (one of the city's main intersections); Otopeni and Băneasa airports; hospitals and the Ministry of Defence.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: During the night of 22–23 December, Bucharest residents remained on the streets, especially in areas under attack, fighting (and ultimately winning, at the cost of many lives) a battle with an elusive and dangerous enemy. With the military confused by contradictory orders, actual battles ensued, with many real casualties. At 21:00 on 23 December, tanks and a few paramilitary units arrived to protect the Palace of the Republic.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Meanwhile, messages of support were flooding in from all over the world: France (President François Mitterrand); the Soviet Union (General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev); Hungary (the Hungarian Socialist Party); the new East German government (at that time the two German states were not yet formally reunited); Bulgaria (Petar Mladenov, General Secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party); Czechoslovakia (Ladislav Adamec, leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and Václav Havel, the dissident writer, revolution leader and future president of the Republic); China (the Minister of Foreign Affairs); the United States (President George H. W. Bush); Canada (Prime Minister Brian Mulroney); West Germany (Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher); NATO (Secretary General Manfred Wörner); the United Kingdom (Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher); Spain; Austria; the Netherlands; Italy; Portugal; Japan (the Japanese Communist Party); SFR Yugoslavia government and Moldavia.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: In the following days, moral support was followed by material support. Large quantities of food, medicine, clothing, medical equipment, and other humanitarian aid were sent to Romania. Around the world, the press dedicated entire pages and sometimes even complete issues to the Romanian revolution and its leaders.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: On 24 December, Bucharest was still a city at war. Tanks, APCs and trucks continued to patrol the city and surround trouble spots in order to protect them. At intersections near strategic objectives, roadblocks were built; automatic gunfire continued in and around University Square, the Gara de Nord (the city's main railroad station) and Palace Square. Yet amid the chaos, some people were seen clutching makeshift Christmas trees. Doctors at one Bucharest hospital reported not sleeping for days and treating as many as 3,000 civilians due to the fighting. "Terrorist activities" continued until 27 December, when they abruptly stopped. Nobody ever found out who conducted them, or who ordered them stopped.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: The total number of deaths in the Romanian Revolution was 1,104, of which 162 were from the protests that led to the overthrow of Ceaușescu (16–22 December 1989) and 942 during the fighting that occurred after the seizure of power by the new FSN. The number of wounded was 3,352, of which 1,107 occurred while Ceaușescu was still in power and 2,245 after the FSN took power. Official figures place the death toll of the revolution at 689 people, many of whom were civilians.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Figures by FSN officials in January 1990 claimed that as many as 7,000 people died during four days of bitter street fighting in December.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: The Central University Library was burned down in uncertain circumstances and over 500,000 books, along with about 3,700 manuscripts, were destroyed.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: The Revolution brought Romania vast attention from the outside world. Initially, much of the world's sympathy went to the FSN government under Ion Iliescu, a former member of the CPR leadership and a Ceaușescu ally prior to falling into the dictator's disfavour in the early 1980s. The FSN, composed mainly of former members of the second echelon of the CPR, immediately assumed control over the state institutions, including the main media outlets such as the national radio and television networks. They used their control of the media in order to launch attacks against their political opponents, newly created political parties that claimed to be successors to those existing before 1948.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Much of that sympathy was squandered during the Mineriads. Massive protests erupted in downtown Bucharest as political rallies organised by the opposition parties during the presidential elections, with a small part of the protesters deciding to stand ground even after Iliescu was re-elected with an overwhelming majority of 85%. Attempts by police to evacuate the remaining protesters resulted in attacks on state institutions, prompting Iliescu to appeal to the country's workers for help. Infiltrated and instigated by former Securitate agents, in the following days a large mass of workers, mainly miners, entered Bucharest and attacked and fought with anti-government protesters and gathered bystanders.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: On the eve of the first free post-communist elections day (20 May 1990), Silviu Brucan—who was part of the FSN—argued that the 1989 Revolution was not anti-communist, being only against Ceaușescu. He stated that Ion Iliescu made a "monumental" mistake in "conceding to the crowd" and banning the PCR.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: While other former ruling Communist parties in the Soviet bloc reconfigured themselves into social democratic or democratic socialist parties, the PCR melted away in the wake of the revolution, never to return. However, a number of former PCR politicians remain prominent on Romania's political scene. Iliescu, for example, remained the central figure in Romanian politics for more than a decade, losing the presidency in 1996 before regaining it in 2000; he retired for good in 2004.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: The FSN chose between the two economic models that political elites claimed were available to post-Communist Eastern European countries: shock therapy or gradual reforms. The FSN chose the latter, slower reforms, because it would have not been possible to convince the people who were already "exhausted" after Ceaușescu's austerity to undergo further sacrifices.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: Nevertheless, the neoliberal reforms were implemented, although not all at once: by the end of 1990, the prices were liberalised and a free currency exchange rate, devaluing the leu by 60%. The land of the state-owned collective farms was distributed to private owners and a list of 708 large state-owned enterprises to be privatised was devised.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: In 1991 Romania signed an agreement with the IMF and began the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, with the first privatisation law being passed in 1991. In 1992, the Stolojan government began an austerity plan, limiting wages and further liberalising prices. The economic situation deteriorated and inflation as well as unemployment increased substantially. The austerity measures, which by 1995 included a decrease in social spending, led to an increase in poverty.


title: Romanian Revolution

text: The neoliberal reforms were accelerated after the Democratic Convention won the 1996 elections, the government using its prerogatives to pass a package of laws, removing subsidies, passing reforms on unemployment benefits and greatly increasing the number of privatised companies.


title: Lesley-Ann Brandt

text: Lesley-Ann Brandt (born 2 December 1981) is a South African actress. Brandt has acted in a number of New Zealand television series and first came to international notice with her role as a slave girl Naevia in the series "". From 2016 to 2021, she played the role of Mazikeen on the television series "Lucifer."


title: Lesley-Ann Brandt

text: Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Brandt is Cape Coloured of Indian, German, Dutch, and Spanish descent. She is a fluent Afrikaans speaker and lists yoga, hockey, and baseball among her interests. In South Africa, she played competitive field hockey.


title: Lesley-Ann Brandt

text: In 1999, Brandt immigrated to Auckland, New Zealand, with her parents and her younger brother Brian Brandt. Brandt started work in retail sales in Auckland before securing work as an information technology recruitment consultant. Following some modelling work, she was cast in a number of New Zealand television advertisements. She studied acting and was trained in the Meisner technique in 2008.


title: Lesley-Ann Brandt

text: Brandt's first significant acting role was in the New Zealand television series "Diplomatic Immunity". Brandt has appeared in guest roles on the New Zealand hospital soap opera, "Shortland Street", and "This Is Not My Life", a science fiction series set in the 2020s in the fictional town of Waimoana.


title: Lesley-Ann Brandt

text: Brandt had a role as Naevia in the first season "" and the prequel miniseries "". She originally auditioned for the role of Sura but auditioned for the role of Naevia instead. Brandt did not return due to production delays following the death of Andy Whitfield, and she was replaced by Cynthia Addai-Robinson. Brandt had a role in the New Zealand coming-of-age feature film "The Hopes & Dreams of Gazza Snell" about the victim of a kart racing accident, was filmed in Howick, a suburb of East Auckland.


title: Lesley-Ann Brandt

text: Brandt guest starred in the "" episodes "Smooth Criminal" and "Food for Thought". Brandt was featured in the film "InSight" in which she plays nurse Valerie Khoury. In May 2010, Brandt guest starred on "Legend of the Seeker", another Rob Tapert/Sam Raimi production filmed in New Zealand. She appeared in the second-season finale "Tears" in the role of Sister Thea. In 2011, she guest appeared in TNT's "Memphis Beat", which was followed by a lead role as Cassie in Syfy's highest rated original feature for 2011, "Zombie Apocalypse", which also starred Ving Rhames and Taryn Manning. She appeared in the feature film "Drift" with Sam Worthington and Xavier Samuel, and "Duke" starring "CSI: NY" star Carmine Giovinazzo.


title: Lesley-Ann Brandt

text: In 2013, she had a recurring role in the third season of "Single Ladies" as Naomi Cox. In 2014, she guest starred as Larissa Diaz/Copperhead on "Gotham", and appeared as the recurring character Lamia in "The Librarians". In 2015, she won the role of Maze in the FOX television series "Lucifer". She replaced actress Lina Esco and Brandt had reportedly tested for the role and was reconsidered afterward.


title: Lesley-Ann Brandt

text: Brandt married her boyfriend of six years, actor Chris Payne Gilbert, in 2015. The couple's first child, son Kingston Payne Brandt-Gilbert, was born in July 2017.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play "French Without Tears", in what was his breakthrough role. He won his first Tony Award for his performance as Henry VIII in the play "Anne of the Thousand Days" in 1949. He won his second Tony for the role of Professor Henry Higgins in the stage production of "My Fair Lady" in 1957.


title: Rex Harrison

text: In addition to his stage career, Harrison also appeared in numerous films. His first starring role was opposite Vivien Leigh in the romantic comedy "Storm in a Teacup" (1937). Receiving critical acclaim for his performance in "Major Barbara" (1941), which was shot in London during the Blitz, his roles since then included "Blithe Spirit" (1945), "Anna and the King of Siam" (1946), "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" (1947), "Cleopatra" (1963), "My Fair Lady" (1964), reprising his role as Henry Higgins which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor, and the titular character in "Doctor Dolittle" (1967).


title: Rex Harrison

text: In 1975, Harrison released his first autobiography. In June 1989, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He was married six times and had two sons: Noel and Carey Harrison. He continued working in stage productions until shortly before his death from pancreatic cancer in June 1990 at the age of 82. His second autobiography, "A Damned Serious Business: My Life in Comedy", was published posthumously in 1991.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Reginald Carey Harrison was born on 5 March 1908 at Derry House in Huyton, Lancashire, the son of Edith Mary (née Carey) and William Reginald Harrison, a cotton broker. He was the youngest of three children and had two older sisters, Edith Marjorie Harrison (1900-1976) and Sylvia Margaret Sackville (née Harrison), Countess De La Warr, DBE (1903 or 1904-1992). He was educated at Liverpool College. After a bout of childhood measles, Harrison lost most of the sight in his left eye, which on one occasion caused some on-stage difficulty. To lift Harrison’s spirits up after undergoing this challenge, his mother took him to the theatre. Harrison became determined to pursue a career in acting after seeing a production at a local theatre when he was a child. He refused to take acting lessons and he never took an acting lesson during his six decade long career. Despite his refusal to take acting lessons, he managed to land his very first acting gig when he was 16 years old. Harrison supported Everton FC. He gave himself the stage name “Rex” when he was a child after learning that the name meant “king” in Latin.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Harrison first appeared on the stage in 1924 in Liverpool. His acting career was interrupted by World War II, during


title: Rex Harrison

text: which he served in the Royal Air Force and reached the rank of Flight Lieutenant. He acted in various stage productions until 11 May 1990. He made his West End debut in 1936, appearing in the Terence Rattigan play "French Without Tears", which proved to be his breakthrough role, and established him as a leading light comedian of the English stage.


title: Rex Harrison

text: He alternated appearances in London and New York in such plays as "Bell, Book and Candle" (1950), "Venus Observed", "The Cocktail Party", "The Kingfisher" and "The Love of Four Colonels", which he also directed. He won his first Tony Award for his appearance at the Shubert Theatre as Henry VIII in Maxwell Anderson's play "Anne of the Thousand Days" and international superstardom (and a second Tony) for his portrayal of Henry Higgins in the stage musical "My Fair Lady", where he appeared opposite Julie Andrews.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Later appearances included Pirandello's "Henry IV", a 1984 appearance at the Haymarket Theatre with Claudette Colbert in Frederick Lonsdale's "Aren't We All?", and one on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre presented by Douglas Urbanski, at the Haymarket in J. M. Barrie's "The Admirable Crichton" with Edward Fox. He returned as Henry Higgins in the revival of "My Fair Lady" directed by Patrick Garland in 1981, cementing his association with the plays of George Bernard Shaw, which included a Tony nominated performance as Shotover in "Heartbreak House", Julius Caesar in "Caesar and Cleopatra", and General Burgoyne in a Los Angeles production of "The Devil's Disciple".


title: Rex Harrison

text: Harrison's film debut was in "The Great Game" (1930). His first starring role was in the romantic comedy "Storm in a Teacup" (1937), opposite Vivien Leigh. Other notable early films include "The Citadel" (1938), "Night Train to Munich" (1940), "Major Barbara" (1941)—filmed in London during The Blitz of 1940, a role for which he received critical acclaim, "Blithe Spirit" (1945), "Anna and the King of Siam" (1946), "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" (1947), and "The Foxes of Harrow" (1947). He is best known for his portrayal of Professor Henry Higgins in the 1964 film version of "My Fair Lady", based on the 1956 Broadway production (which in turn was based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play "Pygmalion"), for which Harrison won an Oscar for Best Actor.


title: Rex Harrison

text: He also starred in 1967's "Doctor Dolittle". At the height of his box office clout after the success of "My Fair Lady", Harrison proved a temperamental force during production, demanding auditions for prospective composers after musical playwright Leslie Bricusse was contracted and demanding to have his singing recorded live during shooting, only to agree to have it re-recorded in post-production. He also disrupted production with incidents with his wife, Rachel Roberts and deliberate misbehavior, such as when he intentionally moved his yacht in front of cameras during shooting in St. Lucia and refused to move it out of sight due to contract disputes. Harrison was at one point temporarily replaced by Christopher Plummer, until he agreed to be more cooperative.


title: Rex Harrison

text: He starred in the 1968 comedy "The Honey Pot", a modern adaptation of Ben Jonson's play "Volpone". Two of his co-stars, Maggie Smith and Cliff Robertson, were to become lifelong friends. Both spoke at his New York City memorial at the Little Church Around the Corner when Harrison died in 1990.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Harrison was not by any objective standards a singer (the "talking on pitch" style he used in "My Fair Lady" was adopted by many other classically trained actors with limited vocal ranges); the music was written to allow for long periods of recitative, or "speaking to the music". Nevertheless, "Talk to the Animals", which Harrison performed in "Doctor Dolittle", won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1967.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Despite excelling in comedy (Noël Coward described him as "The best light comedy actor in the world—except for me."), he attracted favorable notices in dramatic roles such as his portrayal of Julius Caesar in "Cleopatra" (1963) and as Pope Julius II in "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (1965), opposite Charlton Heston as Michelangelo. He also acted in a Hindi film "Shalimar" alongside Indian Bollywood stars Dharmendra and Zeenat Aman as well as appearing opposite Richard Burton as one of two aging homosexuals in "Staircase" (1969).


title: Rex Harrison

text: Alexander Walker wrote: "in looks and temperament, Rex went back to the Elizabethans. They would have called him 'a man of passionate parts'. His physique and looks were far more striking once middle age had literally stretched too smooth and callow a youthful face into a long, saturnine physiognomy, whose hooded eyes and wide mouth had satyr-like associations for some people."


title: Rex Harrison

text: Harrison was married six times. In 1942, he divorced his first wife, Noel Margery Colette-Thomas, and married actress Lilli Palmer the next year; they later appeared together in numerous plays and films, including "The Four Poster". Whilst married to Palmer, he built a villa at Portofino, San Genesio, where over the years he hosted showbiz royalty including Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud and real ex-royalty in the Duke of Windsor and his wife.


title: Rex Harrison

text: In 1947, while married to Palmer, Harrison began an affair with actress Carole Landis. Landis took her own life in 1948 after spending the evening with Harrison. Harrison's involvement in the scandal by waiting several hours before calling a doctor and police briefly damaged his career and his contract with Fox was ended by mutual consent. Harrison and Palmer divorced in 1957.


title: Rex Harrison

text: In 1957, Harrison married the actress Kay Kendall. Kendall died of myeloid leukaemia in 1959. Terence Rattigan's 1973 play "In Praise of Love" was written about the end of this marriage, and Harrison appeared in the New York production playing the character based on himself. Rattigan was said to be "intensely disappointed and frustrated" by Harrison's performance, as "Harrison refused to play the outwardly boorish parts of the character and instead played him as charming throughout, signalling to the audience from the start that he knew the truth about [the] illness." Critics however were quite pleased with the performance and although it did not have a long run, it was yet another of Harrison's well-plotted naturalistic performances.


title: Rex Harrison

text: He was subsequently married to Welsh actress Rachel Roberts from 1962 to 1971. In 1980, despite his having married twice since their divorce, Roberts made a final attempt to win Harrison back, which proved to be futile; she took her own life that same year.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Harrison then married Elizabeth Rees-Williams, divorcing in 1975; finally, in 1978, he married Mercia Tinker, his sixth and final wife. Harrison's eldest son Noel Harrison became an Olympic skier, singer and occasional actor; he toured in several productions including "My Fair Lady" in his father's award-winning role; Noel died suddenly of a heart attack on 19 October 2013 at age 79. Rex's younger son Carey Harrison is a playwright and social activist.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Harrison's sister Sylvia was married to David Maxwell Fyfe, a lawyer, Conservative politician and judge who was successively the lead British prosecutor at Nuremberg, Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor (head of the English judiciary); after his death she married another Cabinet minister, Lord de la Warr.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Harrison owned properties in London, New York City and Portofino, Italy. His villa in Portofino was named San Genesio after the patron saint of actors.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Having retired from films after "A Time to Die", Harrison continued to act on Broadway and the West End until the end of his life, despite suffering from glaucoma, painful teeth, and a failing memory. He was nominated for a third Tony Award in 1984 for his performance as Captain Shotover in the revival of George Bernard Shaw's "Heartbreak House". He followed with two successful pairings with Claudette Colbert, "The Kingfisher" in 1985 and "Aren't We All?" in 1986. In 1989, he appeared with Edward Fox in "The Admirable Crichton" in London. In 1989/90, he appeared on Broadway in "The Circle" by W. Somerset Maugham, opposite Glynis Johns, Stewart Granger, and Roma Downey. The production opened at Duke University for a three-week run followed by performances in Baltimore and Boston before opening 14 November 1989 on Broadway.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Harrison died from the effects of pancreatic cancer at his home in Manhattan, New York City, on 2 June 1990 at the age of 82. He had only been diagnosed with the disease a short time before. The stage production in which he was appearing at the time, "The Circle", came to an end upon his death.


title: Rex Harrison

text: His body was cremated, some of his ashes being subsequently scattered in Portofino, and the rest being scattered at his second wife Lilli Palmer's grave at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, in the Commemoration section, Map 1, Lot 4066, Space 2.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Harrison's second autobiography, "A Damned Serious Business: My Life in Comedy" (), was published posthumously in 1991.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Rex Harrison has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one at 6906 Hollywood Boulevard for his contribution to films, and the other at 6380 Hollywood Boulevard for his contribution to television. Harrison is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979.


title: Rex Harrison

text: Due to his association with the checked wool hat which he wore both in the Broadway and film versions of "My Fair Lady", the style of headwear was often named "The Rex Harrison."


title: Rex Harrison

text: Seth MacFarlane, creator of the animated series "Family Guy", modelled the voice of the character Stewie Griffin after Harrison after seeing him in the film adaptation of "My Fair Lady".


title: Rex Harrison

text: Ex-CIA chief of disguise Jonna Mendez stated in 2019 that a mask of Harrison was used by multiple CIA agents for covert work. The moulds of his face were larger and so could fit over a smaller agents face. The molds were made from aluminium and bought from Hollywood film facilities. She mentioned that his likeness was "taking part in a lot of operations". According to Mendez, Rex Harrison's aluminium facial props mold was used as a baseline for over-the-head masks that the agency would create and use operationally. The masks came in small, medium and large sizes, with Rex's mold becoming the agency's standard "large" size. Subsequently, many undercover operatives' real identities were disguised by masks bearing Rex's facial features.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: Ip Man (Chinese: 叶问 / 葉問) is a 2008 Hong Kong biographical martial arts film based on the life of Ip Man, a grandmaster of the martial art Wing Chun and teacher of Bruce Lee. The film focuses on events in Ip's life that supposedly took place in the city of Foshan during the Sino-Japanese War. The film was directed by Wilson Yip, and stars Donnie Yen as Ip Man, with martial arts choreography by Sammo Hung. The supporting cast includes Simon Yam, Lynn Hung, Lam Ka-tung, Xing Yu, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, and Tenma Shibuya. The film was a co-production between China and Hong Kong, and was the last film to be distributed by Mandarin Films.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: "Ip Man" is the first film in the "Ip Man" film series. It premiered in Beijing on 10 December 2008, and was released theatrically in Hong Kong on 19 December 2008, receiving widespread acclaim from critics and audiences. Before the film's release, Raymond Wong announced that there would be a sequel; a second installment titled "Ip Man 2", was released in April 2010, a third installment titled "Ip Man 3" was released in 2015, and "Ip Man 4: The Finale" was released in 2019. "Ip Man" grossed more than US$22 million worldwide, despite not being released in North America and most of Europe. Following its success, the film was nominated for 12 Hong Kong Film Awards, winning awards for Best Film and Best Action Choreography.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: In 1935, Foshan is a hub of Southern Chinese martial arts, where the various schools' students compete against each other. Ip Man, the most skilled martial artist in town, maintains a discreet profile while building a reputation for skill through friendly, closed-door competitions with other masters. One day, a local troublemaker named Yuan loses his kite, which lands in a tree in the Ip family's back yard. While retrieving it, Yuan witnesses Ip defeating fellow kung fu master Liu in a sparring match. Although Ip and Liu had agreed that the news of who won would remain a secret, Yuan unwittingly spreads the story around town, inadvertently embarrassing Liu. Yuan's brother Lin, a restaurant owner and disciple of Liu, publicly embarrasses Yuan as he tries to arrange a rematch between Liu and Ip, and Yuan runs away from home.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ip and his family are forced to move into a decrepit apartment after the Imperial Japanese Army confiscates their house for use as a military headquarters. Running out of valuables to sell for food, Ip gets a job at a coal mine alongside Lin, who hopes to reconcile with his brother but has so far failed to track him down. General Miura, a Japanese Karate master, sets up an arena where Chinese martial artists can challenge his military trainees for a bag of rice. Former police officer Li Zhao, now an interpreter for the Japanese, visits the mine to recruit anyone willing to fight. Ip at first declines to participate, but agrees to go when Lin fails to return from a match.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: At the arena, Ip witnesses Liu being shot in the back of the head by Miura's sadistic deputy, Colonel Sato, for picking up a bag of rice from a prior victory after yielding to three karateka in a second challenge. Deducing that Lin was killed in his fight against Miura, Ip demands a match with ten karateka at once, whom he brutally defeats. His skill arouses the interest of Miura, who insists that Ip return as soon as possible. Refusing to accept all 10 bags of rice offered for his victory, Ip quietly picks up Liu's blood-stained bag and gifts it to his surviving family.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: Jin Shanzhao, a highly-skilled Northern Chinese martial arts master who once defeated all the masters in Foshan except Ip, now leads a bandit gang and harasses the workers at a cotton mill run by Ip's friend Chow Ching-chuen. Ip agrees to train the workers in Wing Chun for self-defence. The workers are able to stall the gang when they return long enough for Ip to arrive and defeat Jin and Yuan, now a part of the gang. After running Jin's gang out of Foshan, Ip confronts Yuan and gives him a small tin that belonged to Lin after informing him of his brother's death. Yuan opens the tin and finds his kite inside; this motivates Yuan to leave the gang.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: When Ip does not return to the arena, Miura sends Sato and two soldiers to track him down. After overpowering them at the apartment, Ip and his family flee and hide in Li's house. The Japanese learn about the cotton mill and take the workers hostage. Despite Li's warnings, Ip surrenders himself to the Japanese while arranging for his wife and son to be sent to Hong Kong for protection. Miura asks Ip to train the Japanese soldiers in Chinese martial arts, but Ip refuses and challenges Miura to a match. Though Sato insists on executing Ip, Miura accepts the challenge to uphold his honor and crush the Chinese spirit; Sato threatens Ip with death if he does not allow the General to win.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: With the people of Foshan watching, Ip defeats Miura after a long and hard fight. Looking over the cheering crowd and seeing his wife and son, Ip is shot in the shoulder by Sato. As the crowd overwhelms the Japanese soldiers, Li manages to kill Sato with his own gun. Ip is taken away by Chow amid the chaos and manages to escape with his family to Hong Kong. A closing montage and captions reveal that Ip spent the rest of his life working to spread the teachings of Wing Chun, establishing a school and training several students, including Bruce Lee.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: The idea of an Ip Man biopic originated in 1998 when Jeffrey Lau and Corey Yuen discussed the idea of making a film based on Bruce Lee's martial arts master. However, Paragon Films Ltd, the studio producing the proposed film, closed and the project was abandoned. Producer Raymond Wong decided to develop his own Ip Man film with full consent from Ip's sons, and had filmmakers head to Foshan to research Ip's life. Ip Chun, Ip Man's eldest son, along with martial arts master Leo Au-yeung, Jun Gao, and several other Wing Chun practitioners served as technical consultants for the film. Principal photography for "Ip Man" began in March 2008 and ended in August; filming took place in Shanghai, which was used to architecturally recreate Foshan. During filming, conflicts arose between the producers of "Ip Man" and filmmaker Wong Kar-wai over the film's working title. Wong, who had been developing his own Ip Man biopic, clashed with the producers after learning that their film would be titled "Grandmaster Ip Man" (), which was too similar to the title of Wong's film, "The Grandmaster".


title: Ip Man (film)

text: "Ip Man" is the first film based on the life of Ip Man. It also marks the fourth film collaboration between director Wilson Yip and actor Donnie Yen. The two also reunite with co-star Simon Yam after 2005's "". The screenplay for "Ip Man" was written by Edmond Wong, the son of film producer Raymond Wong. Wong was the screenwriter of Yip and Yen's second collaboration, 2006's "Dragon Tiger Gate". Ip Man's eldest son, Ip Chun, his student Leo Au-yeung, and Changquan gold medalist To Yu-hang served as technical consultants for the film, providing advice on the film's story and martial arts choreography. The music for the film was provided by veteran Japanese composer Kenji Kawai, who also served as a composer on the 2006 film, "Dragon Tiger Gate" which featured Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen as director and actor respectively.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: The film was originally conceived in 1998 when Jeffrey Lau and Corey Yuen first thought of the idea of making a film based on Ip Man's life. Donnie Yen signed onto the project, hoping to star as Ip, with Stephen Chow co-starring as Bruce Lee. Yen had signed the contract and received part of the acting fee. However, the studio producing the film closed, and the project was abandoned.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: In December 2007, plans to make a new Ip Man film were announced with the filmmakers researching Ip's life in Foshan. Producer Raymond Wong stated that the film would take on a similar look and feel to "". On 26 February 2008, a press conference for the film was held in Foshan, where it was announced that Wilson Yip would be directing the film, while Yen would appear in the leading role as Ip. Lynn Hung, Lam Ka-tung, Simon Yam were announced to be appearing in supporting roles, while Sammo Hung would serve as the film's martial arts choreographer. Casting director Zhang Yan Bin spent three months casting actors in various roles for the film. He had completed casting during principal photography in March 2008.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: Principal photography for "Ip Man" began in March 2008, and was completed by the end of August. A majority of the film focuses on events surrounding Ip Man that took place in Foshan in the 1930s and 1940s during the Sino-Japanese War. Since the buildings in modern-day Foshan are architecturally different from the ones of the film's period, the filmmakers decided to shoot the film in Shanghai.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: Filming first took place in a storeroom in the industrial district of Shanghai. Having difficulties scouting a cotton factory suitable for shooting, set designers decided to recreate one in the style of the 1930s. They spent weeks transforming an abandoned storeroom into the Zhen Hua Cotton Mill Factory, a 1930s cotton mill factory founded by Ip's friend Chow Ching-chuen (played in the film by Simon Yam) during the Sino-Japanese War. It was where Ip Man first taught Wing Chun openly to the public.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: Production designer Kenneth Mak included Western elements in his design, since Foshan, in earlier years, was a unique place where Chinese and Western cultures converged. Pillars were made to resemble English lampposts, and Western lighting, chairs, and tableware were also used. To convey the culture and feel of the time, the buildings were made to look obsolete and worn out. Apart from historical references, Mak also created a glass house which was used in a scene in the film.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: The martial arts choreography was designed by Sammo Hung and veteran fight and stunt coordinator Tony Leung Siu-hung. Hung had previously collaborated with Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen as an actor in the 2005 film "". He was hired as the choreographer mainly because of his experience on the 1978 film "Warriors Two" and 1982's "The Prodigal Son", both of which involved Wing Chun. When asked how he would work with Yen to direct the action scenes, Hung replied matter-of-factly, "With my mouth."


title: Ip Man (film)

text: Yen described the role as the most emotionally and mentally difficult in his career. He spent months preparing for the role by going on a strict diet which consisted of eating one meal a day, training in Wing Chun, and learning more about Ip Man through his two sons. This was all in the hopes of portraying an erudite and cultured Ip Man, as well as bringing out the special traits of Wing Chun. Yen even went as far as to stay in character after filming, wearing his costume and changing his voice and movement patterns. While rehearsing a fight scene, Yen was reportedly injured when an axe wielder accidentally slashed the side of his left eye. Yen also had a masseur on set as he could not raise his right shoulder due to an injury.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: Japanese actor Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, who holds a black belt in Judo, found it "difficult" working under Hung's command. In one scene, he suffered a mild concussion after receiving four consecutive blows from celebrated fight co-ordinator Edward 'Sweco' Chan. Hung later praised Yen and Ikeuchi's performances in the film, even though Ikeuchi was not trained in Chinese martial arts and was not given a lot of complex moves.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: "Ip Man"'s original title was controversial. It was disputed when film director Wong Kar-wai announced plans to make his own Ip Man film with Tony Leung Chiu-wai while filming "2046". Wong had planned his own Ip Man biopic titled "The Great Master" (一代宗师), with Leung playing the role of Ip. Wong's film, however, had been in development hell, having been announced several years earlier. Producer Raymond Wong wanted to name his film "Grandmaster Yip Man", which bore a resemblance to the title Wong Kar-wai wanted to use for his film.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: To settle the dispute, Raymond Wong publicly retracted the film title, stating "Actually, all along, we have called our film "Ip Man", but our mainland investors said that Yip Man was a great master of his times, so we changed our title to "Grandmaster Yip Man" out of respect for him." In a 2008 interview, Raymond Wong revealed that "The Great Master" was in development. Wong Kar-wai's Ip Man film, titled "The Grandmaster", was released on 8 January 2013 in China.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: "Ip Man" premiered in Beijing, China on 10 December 2008, only two days prior to its release in China. The film was later released in Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand on 18 December 2008, one day prior to its release date in Hong Kong. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 2 October 2009. In 2010, Mandarin Films sold North American distribution rights for the film to distributor Well Go USA.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: Prior to its theatrical release in China, "Ip Man" held a test screening in Beijing on 4 December 2008. The film was highly praised, based on survey sheets returned by the audience. Donnie Yen's portrayal of Ip Man was repeatedly hailed as the year's best performance. High praise was also given to the film's co-stars, Fan Siu-wong, Lam Ka-tung, and Lynn Hung. "Ip Man" also received positive reactions from film critics. "Salon" Andrew O'Hehir deemed "Ip Man" a "well-paced and satisfying piece of Chinese-nationalist pulp," referring to the film's heavy anti-Japanese sentiment.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: Derek Elley of "Variety Magazine" wrote in his review, "Yen, who's taking on real star charisma in middle age, is aces as Ip, with a simple dignity that exactly mirrors the movie's own and a gracefulness in combat that's very different from his trademark whiplash style." Malaysian film critic Lim Chang Moh of "The Malay Mail" awarded the film three stars out of four, writing that the film was "nicely balanced with great martial arts action and an engaging narrative." Lim later placed the film at number six in his list of "Top Ten Movies of 2008." Jen Ogilvie of "Fortean Times" wrote, "what carries "Ip Man" is its dramatic charge: it is the story's entanglement in the real horrors of Japanese occupation that pulls the viewer in and builds tension into the fight scenes."


title: Ip Man (film)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 86% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "At once beholden to the established conventions of the genre and delightfully subversive of them, "Ip Man" is one of the most exciting – and refreshingly character-driven – martial arts films in years." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Ip Man (film)

text: The film was never meant to be a true biographical film to Ip Man's life, but to broadly touch on the elements from his life. Most of the central turns of the plot are there only for the purpose of making a movie more exciting, including the scenes depicting duels between Ip Man and the Japanese, including Consul General Miura Yoshiaki (三浦義秋), as well as Ip Man encountering hardship during the Second Sino-Japanese War.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: Ip Man's eldest son, Ip Chun, would have preferred the film to be shot on location in Foshan and noted the mansion was grander than the original one.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: "Ip Man" grossed ¥14,948,157 (US$2,188,982) on its opening weekend in China. The film's revenues increased largely by 86.1%, grossing ¥27,812,224 (US$4,073,201) to retain second place at the box office. The film experienced a small decrease in revenue in its third weekend, dropping 10.5% to ¥24,889,189 ($3,645,112), though remaining in second place. "Ip Man" continued to decrease in revenue, grossing ¥19,956,454 (US$2,922,695) in its fourth week while staying in second place. After six weeks of theatrical release, "Ip Man" grossed a total of ¥93,740,529 (US$13,728,640). The film was China's 13th highest-grossing film of 2008.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: During its opening weekend in Hong Kong, "Ip Man" came in first place at the box office, grossing HK$4.5 million (US$579,715). In its second week, "Ip Man" moved to second place, while grossing HK$6,156,765 (US$789,303) with a 36.2% increase in revenue. The film continued to decrease in revenue in its third week, grossing HK$3,494,366 ($447,981), while staying in second place at the box office. "Ip Man" moved to third place in its fourth week, grossing HK$2,075,250 ($266,055). After seven weeks of theatrical release in Hong Kong, "Ip Man" had grossed HK$25,581,958.69 (US$3,300,847) domestically. The film ranks as the 8th highest-grossing film in Hong Kong of 2008. In total, the film had grossed $22,108,789 worldwide, despite not being released in North America and most of Europe.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: "Ip Man" was released on DVD and Blu-ray formats on 13 February 2009. Releases include single-disc and two-disc special-edition formats. Features for the special edition include deleted scenes, a making-of featurette, a theatrical trailer, interviews with director Wilson Yip and actor Donnie Yen and featurettes on both Ip Man and Wing Chun martial arts. "Ip Man" was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on 27 July 2010. A 3-disc Deluxe Collector's Edition was released in China, but only contains Mandarin-dubbed soundtracks and no English subtitles.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: In the United Kingdom, "Ip Man" was 2011's seventh best-selling foreign-language film on physical home video formats, and the second best-selling Chinese film (below "Ip Man 2").


title: Ip Man (film)

text: "Ip Man" is the first film in a tetralogy. Donnie Yen reprised the lead role in the sequel "Ip Man 2", the second feature film based on the life of Ip Man. The film focuses on Ip's movements in Hong Kong as he attempts to propagate his discipline of Wing Chun martial arts; at the end it also briefly introduces a young Bruce Lee prior to becoming one of Ip's most famed disciples. "Ip Man 2" was released theatrically in Hong Kong in late April 2010. Lynn Hung and Fan Siu-wong reprise their supporting roles, while martial arts choreographer Sammo Hung appears as a master of Hung Ga martial arts.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: Yen expressed his lack of interest in making a third film, feeling that, ""Ip Man 2" will incontrovertibly become a classic, bettering the first." Yen later stated that after "Ip Man 2", he would no longer be involved in a film based on Ip's life. While both Donnie Yen and Raymond Wong were not keen on making a third Ip Man film, director Wilson Yip expressed interest in making one that would focus on the relationship between Ip and Bruce Lee. While "Ip Man 2" very briefly shows Lee as a child, Yip hoped to find a suitable actor to portray Lee as an adult for the third installment.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: In January 2014, "Variety" reported that "Ip Man 3" would begin shooting in 2015 with Donnie Yen reprising his role as Ip Man and Wilson Yip returning to direct. The film was initially scheduled for a late 2015 release, but eventually it was released in early 2016.


title: Ip Man (film)

text: "Ip Man 4" was released in 2019. Yen again plays the lead role, with Yip as director and Kwok-Kwan Chan as Bruce Lee.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: The National Capital Region (NCR) is a planning region centred upon the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi in India. It encompasses Delhi and several districts surrounding it from the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The NCR and the associated National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) were created in 1985 to plan the development of the region and to evolve "harmonized policies for the control of land-uses and development of infrastructure" in the region. Prominent cities of NCR include Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, and Noida.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: The NCR is a "rural-urban" region, with a population of over 46,069,000 and an urbanisation level of 62.6%. As well as the cities and towns, the NCR contains ecologically sensitive areas like the Aravalli ridge, forests, wildlife and bird sanctuaries. The Delhi Extended Urban Agglomeration, a part of the NCR, had an estimated GDP of $370 billion (measured in terms of GDP PPP) in 2015–16.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: The National Capital Region (NCR) and its planning board were created under the National Capital Region Planning Board Act of 1985. That 1985 Act defined the NCR as being the whole of Delhi; the Haryana districts of Gurgaon, Faridabad and Sonipat, Rohtak (then including Jhajjar tehsil) and the Rewari tehsil then in Mahendragarh district; and the Uttar Pradesh districts of Bulandshahr, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut (then including Baghpat tehsil), and Ghaziabad (then including Hapur tehsil), and some part of the Rajasthan district of Alwar. The 1985 boundary of the NCR covered an area of .


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: Prior to the creation of the NCR, an area described as the Delhi Metropolitan Area (DMA) was described in the 1962 Master Plan for Delhi. That plan defined the DMA as comprising the National Capital Territory and the "ring towns" of Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Ballabhgarh, Gurgaon, Bahadurgarh and Loni, also certain rural areas, which had a population of the somewhat less than 2.1 million in 1951. The following "Master Plan for Delhi", approved in August 1990, added Noida, Bahadurgarh and the then-proposed township of Kundli to the DMA, which consequently covered an area of 3,182 km.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: Gautam Budh Nagar district was created in 1997 out of the existing NCR districts of Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr. The city of Noida was the location of the new district's headquarters. Also in 1997 Baghpat district was created from Baghpat tehsil of Meerut district.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: In July 2013, the NCR was expanded to include three more districts, Bhiwani, and Mahendragarh in the state of Haryana, as well as Bharatpur in the state of Rajasthan. This brought the number of districts in the NCR to 19 (outside Delhi NCT), with the total NCR area increasing 34% to 45,887 km. Subsequently, Charkhi Dadri district was separated from Bhiwani district in 2016.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: On 9 June 2015, the Government of India approved the inclusion of three more districts in NCR – Jind, Panipat, Karnal in the state of Haryana and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. covering a total area of 50,566 km. Shamli district of U.P. was added to the NCR in December 2017. As of 2021, there are a total of 24 districts in the NCR, excluding the 11 districts of Delhi.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: On 9 January 2018, the government of Uttar Pradesh formally proposed the extension of the NCR to cover the districts Aligarh, Bijnor, Hathras and Mathura.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: Under the "Draft Regional Plan 2041", it has been proposed to limit the NCR region to 100-km radius from Rajghat in Delhi for more focused and sustainable development of the region. Government of Haryana has requested NCRPB for at least one-third reduction of its share in the NCR region.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: A total of 24 districts in three neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan along with whole of the National Capital Territory of Delhi constitute the National Capital Region (NCR) of India.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: The areas and populations (per 2011 census, prior to the addition of Muzaffarnagar, Jind, Karnal and Shamli) of these component districts are set out below:


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: The planning body for the region is the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB). It has issued two regional plans, the "Regional Plan 2001, National Capital Region" approved in 1988, and the "Regional Plan 2021, National Capital Region" approved in 2005. Topics covered by the 2001 plan included transport, telecommunications, power and water supply, waste and sewerage, education, health, the environment, housing and the "counter magnet" areas. The 2021 plan extended these with the additional topics of social infrastructure, heritage, tourism, rural development, and disaster management.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: The 51% of pollution in NCR is caused by the industrial pollution, 27% by vehicles and 8% by crop burning, consequently there are plans to create a 1,600 km long and 5 km wide The Great Green Wall of Aravalli green ecological corridor along Aravalli range from Gujarat to Delhi to be connected to Sivalik hill range with the planting of 1.35 billion (135 crore) new native trees over 10 years. About 46% of the National Capital Region, home to 40 to 50 million people, is not connected to sewage networks. Sewage from these areas flows into stormwater drains that empty directly into the Yamuna.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: The 2001 Regional Plan defined the "Delhi Metropolitan Area" (DMA) as comprising the controlled areas of contiguous towns of Ghaziabad–Loni and Noida in Uttar Pradesh; Faridabad–Ballabharh, Gurgaon, Bahadurgarh, Kundli and extension of Delhi Ridge in Haryana. The total area of DMA was , excluding the area of Delhi.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: Under the 2021 Regional plan, the Delhi Metropolitan Area was redesignated as "Central National Capital Region" (CNCR) wherein new areas were added. The CNCR comprises controlled areas of contiguous towns of Ghaziabad–Loni and Noida in Uttar Pradesh; Gurgaon–Manesar, Faridabad–Ballabgarh, Bahadurgarh, and Sonipat–Kundli in Haryana. The total area of CNCR (excluding NCT of Delhi) is approximately .


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: The 2021 plan estimated the 2001 population of the CNCR outside of Delhi to be over 2.8 million, while Delhi's population was 13.8 million, yielding a total CNCR population of 16.6 million. the most recent population estimates have spanned 25.7 to 26.5 million people.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: The 1985 Act (§2.c and §8.f) gives the NCRCB the ability to select districts outside of the NCR to act as "counter magnets", with a view to developing them further.


title: National Capital Region (India)

text: "Counter-magnet" cities are identified as those that can be developed as alternative centres of growth and attract migrants to them rather than Delhi. The criteria for selecting counter magnet towns are: that they should have their own established roots and potential of growth, and should not be centres of either religious, strategic or environmental importance. The "counter magnet" cities should be given priority when allocating funding for development of land, housing and infrastructure.


title: Die Hard 2

text: Die Hard 2 (also known by its tagline Die Harder) is a 1990 American action-thriller film and the second installment in the "Die Hard" film series. The film was released on July 4, 1990, in the United States. The film was directed by Renny Harlin, and written by Steven E. de Souza and Doug Richardson. It stars Bruce Willis as John McClane. The film co-stars Bonnie Bedelia, William Sadler, Art Evans, William Atherton, Franco Nero, Dennis Franz, Fred Thompson, John Amos, and Reginald VelJohnson.


title: Die Hard 2

text: As with the first film, the action in "Die Hard 2" takes place on Christmas Eve. McClane is waiting for his wife to land at Washington Dulles International Airport when terrorists take over the air traffic control system. He must stop the terrorists before his wife's plane and several other incoming flights that are circling the airport run out of fuel and crash. During the night, McClane must also contend with airport police and a military commander, none of whom want his assistance.


title: Die Hard 2

text: The film was preceded by "Die Hard" (1988) and followed by "Die Hard with a Vengeance" (1995), "Live Free or Die Hard" (2007), and "A Good Day to Die Hard" (2013).


title: Die Hard 2

text: On Christmas Eve, two years after the events of the previous film, John McClane is now a lieutenant with the L.A.P.D, who arrives at Dulles International Airport to pick up his wife, Holly. Meanwhile, a plane carrying corrupt foreign military leader General Ramon Esperanza is also headed to Dulles under extradition for using U.S. funds to buy drugs. Waiting to meet Esperanza's plane is disgraced former Colonel William Stuart and a group of ex-military sympathizers who supported Esperanza's actions. Suspicious, McClane follows two of Stuart's men into a restricted baggage sorting area where a gun fight ensues. McClane kills one man, but the other escapes.


title: Die Hard 2

text: With the help of his friend, Sergeant Al Powell, he discovers that the dead man's fingerprints correspond to an American soldier who died in a helicopter accident two years ago. Putting this together with Esperanza's imminent arrival, McClane reports his concerns to the airport police chief, Carmine Lorenzo, and air traffic control director Ed Trudeau, but neither believe him. They are convinced when Stuart and his men, operating out of a church on the outskirts of the airport, cut all communications with incoming airplanes, disable all runway lighting, and demand that Esperanza's plane be allowed to land without interference. Under Stuart's direction, Trudeau orders all air traffic controllers to have all planes in Dulles airspace hold in the air despite their low fuel warnings.


title: Die Hard 2

text: McClane becomes worried about Holly's plane and enlists the help of the airport janitor Marvin to fight back. Chief airport engineer Leslie Barnes decides to try using an unfinished antenna array to communicate with the stranded circling airplanes. Carmine sends an airport SWAT team with him, but Stuart's men kill them all and destroy the antenna. Barnes is saved by McClane. In retaliation, Stuart crashes a British airplane killing eveyone onboard by impersonating air traffic control and faking the airplane's altimeter reading. Once Esperanza's plane lands, McClane wounds Esperanza before Stuart and his men arrive. They blow up the plane and take Esperanza to the church, but fail to kill McClane. A U.S. Special Forces team arrives, led by Major Grant, for whom Stuart is a protégé.


title: Die Hard 2

text: Grant's men and McClane attack the church. McClane kills one of Stuart's men and gives chase with his gun, but the mercenaries escape on snowmobiles. Confused as to why he failed to wound anyone, McClane realizes the gun was filled with blanks, meaning Grant's team is secretly cooperating with Stuart, and the firefight was staged. Grant, Stuart, their men, and Esperanza all rendezvous at an airport hangar where a Boeing 747 that they demanded, is waiting for them. On Holly's flight, arrogant reporter Richard Thornburg becomes suspicious as to why the plane hasn't landed. He taps into the cockpit communications and records an earlier surreptitious transmission from Barnes to all the circling airplanes describing the situation. In the airplane's lavatory, he broadcasts the recording live on television, leading to a panic in the airport terminal which prevents McClane and Carmine from getting to the 747. Holly subdues Thornburg with a fellow passenger's stun gun.


title: Die Hard 2

text: McClane asks a news crew to fly him via helicopter to intercept the 747. McClane jumps onto the wing and uses his coat to jam the aileron, preventing the plane from taking off. McClane kills Grant and in the struggle with Stuart, opens the fuel valve in the wing. After Stuart kicks McClane off the wing, McClane uses a cigarette lighter to ignite the fuel trail, exploding the plane and killing everyone on board. The fire trail also serves as a landing guide for all airborne aircraft, including Holly's, to land safely. After McClane and Holly are reunited, Marvin picks them up in his airport cart and drives them away.


title: Die Hard 2

text: Additional cast members include Stuart's henchmen: Don Harvey as Garber, John Costelloe as Sergeant Oswald Cochrane, Vondie Curtis-Hall as Miller, John Leguizamo as Burke, Robert Patrick as O'Reilly, Tom Verica as Kahn, Tony Ganios as Baker, Michael Cunningham as Sheldon, Peter Nelson as Thompson, Ken Baldwin as Mulkey, and Mark Boone Junior as Shockley. Patrick O'Neal appears as Telford, Major Grant's radio operator.


title: Die Hard 2

text: The screenplay was adapted from Walter Wager's 1987 novel "58 Minutes". The novel has the same plot but differs slightly: a police officer must stop terrorists who take an airport hostage while his daughter's plane circles overhead, and has 58 minutes to do so before the plane crashes. Roderick Thorp, who wrote the 1979 novel "Nothing Lasts Forever", upon which "Die Hard" was based, receives credit for creating "certain original characters", although his name is misspelled onscreen as "Roderick Thorpe".


title: Die Hard 2

text: One of the writers of the screenplay, Steven E. de Souza, later admitted in an interview for the book "Action Speaks Louder: Violence, Spectacle, and the American Action Movie" that the villains were based on America's "Central American" meddling, primarily the Iran–Contra affair.


title: Die Hard 2

text: The film was originally budgeted at $40 million. Bruce Willis was paid $7.5 million for reprising his role for the film. Producer Joel Silver was accused of profligate spending and it was claimed the film cost $62–70 million. Fox domestic distribution president Tom Sherak dismissed the $70 million claim as "absurd". It was reported at the end of filming that Silver had been relieved of day-to-day producing duties.


title: Die Hard 2

text: Scenes of Dulles airport in the snow were to be filmed in Denver but was scrapped due to warm weather. Some outdoor scenes were filmed in Alpena, MI, while others needing to accommodate the landing of the 747 with snow were filmed at former Kincheloe Air Force Base in Kincheloe, MI. Other scenes were filmed on a sound stage in Los Angeles using fake snow.


title: Die Hard 2

text: "Die Hard 2" was the first film to use digitally composited live-action footage with a traditional matte painting that had been photographed and scanned into a computer. It was used for the last scene, which took place on a runway.


title: Die Hard 2

text: According to Franco Nero, Silver got the idea to cast him after he saw movie posters of Nero hanging in the office of their mutual accountant. Nero did not want to do "Die Hard 2" because he did not like the script and he had committed to do the film "Breath of Life". Finally, Silver scheduled Nero's scenes in such a way that the actor could do both films.


title: Die Hard 2

text: In a trailer for the film screened during Christmas 1989, the film had a planned release date of June 29, 1990. This was brought forward to June 22; however, following claims of the film running over time and budget, the release date was pushed back two weeks to July 4.


title: Die Hard 2

text: The film debuted on video in the United States in February 1991 and was the most rented video in its first week above "Navy SEALs" and sold a record 505,000 units for rental.


title: Die Hard 2

text: The film became available on DVD on March 9, 1999, followed by a 2-Disc Special Edition DVD on July 10, 2001, as part of the Die Hard Ultimate Collection DVD and re-released again in early 2005 as a Widescreen Edition and June 19, 2007, followed by a Blu-ray release on November 20, 2007, and a re-release on January 29, 2013.


title: Die Hard 2

text: "Die Hard 2" exceeded all expectations by outdoing the box office success of "Die Hard". The film had the largest pre-opening, earning $3.7 million from 1,828 theaters. For six years, it would hold this record until it was surpassed by "Independence Day" in 1996. It had a wide release in 2,507 theaters in the United States and Canada, grossing $21.7 million its opening weekend. "Die Hard 2" went on to gross $117.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $122.5 million internationally, earning over $240 million worldwide, almost doubling that of "Die Hard". The film was re-released internationally in 1993 and made $216,339 more, which totaled its gross to $240.2 million.


title: Die Hard 2

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Die Hard 2" has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads: "It lacks the fresh thrills of its predecessor, but "Die Hard 2" still works as an over-the-top – and reasonably taut – big-budget sequel, with plenty of set pieces to paper over the plot deficiencies." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Die Hard 2

text: Roger Ebert, who gave the original film a mixed review, described the sequel as "terrific entertainment", despite noting substantial credibility problems with the plot. Jay Boyar of the "Orlando Sentinel" dubbed the film as being as disappointing a sequel as "Another 48 Hrs." and "RoboCop 2", and said, Whatever small pleasure there is to be found in this loud dud is due mostly to the residual good feelings from the first film... As played by Bruce Willis, McClane is still an engaging character, even if he is much less amusingly drawn this time. Willis is in there trying, but the qualities that helped to make his character sympathetic in the first film are missing. McClane no longer worries openly about his personal safety, as he did in the original movie. His quasi-cowboy personality from "Die Hard" is all but forgotten – he has become more of a Rambo and less of a Roy Rogers. And though the filmmakers try to establish McClane as resistant to advanced technology, this promising idea isn't developed."Empire" magazine rated the film three out of five stars, while stating, "It's entertaining nonsense that doesn't quite manage to recapture the magic of the original. Still, there are some nice moments here, and Willis is on solid ground as the iconic McClane."


title: Die Hard 2

text: Gene Siskel ranked the film as the sixth best movie of 1990. "Maxim" magazine ranked the film's plane crash #2 on its list of "Greatest Movie Plane Crashes".


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: There are many variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Some are believed, or have been stated, to be of particular importance due to their potential for increased transmissibility, increased virulence, or reduced effectiveness of vaccines against them. These variants contribute to the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: , only the Omicron variant is designated as a circulating variant of concern by the World Health Organization.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 may have resulted from recombination events between a bat SARS-like coronavirus and a pangolin coronavirus through cross-species transmission. The earliest available SARS-CoV-2 viral genomes were collected from patients in December 2019, and Chinese researchers compared these early genomes with bat and pangolin coronavirus strains to estimate the ancestral human coronavirus type; the identified ancestral genome type was labeled "S", and its dominant derived type was labeled "L" to reflect the mutant amino acid changes. Independently, Western researchers carried out similar analyses but labeled the ancestral type "A" and the derived type "B". The B-type mutated into further types including B.1, which is the ancestor of the major global variants of concern, labeled in 2021 by the WHO as alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omicron variants.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: Early in the pandemic, the relatively low number of infections (compared with later stages of the pandemic) resulted in fewer opportunities for mutation of the viral genome and, therefore, fewer opportunities for the occurrence of differentiated variants. Since the occurrence of variants was rarer, the observation of S-protein mutations in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) region interacting with ACE2 was also not frequent.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: As time went on, the evolution of SARS-CoV-2's genome (by means of random mutations) led to mutant specimens of the virus (i.e., genetic variants), observed to be more transmissible, to be naturally selected. Notably, both the Alpha and the Delta variants were observed to be more transmissible than previously identified viral strains.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: Some SARS-CoV-2 variants are considered to be of concern as they maintain (or even increase) their replication fitness in the face of rising population immunity, either by infection recovery or via vaccination. Some of the variants of concern show mutations in the RBD of the S-protein.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: The following table presents information and relative risk level for currently and formerly circulating variants of concern (VOC). The intervals assume a 95% confidence or credibility level, unless otherwise stated. Currently, all estimates are approximations due to the limited availability of data for studies. For Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, there is no change in test accuracy, and neutralising antibody activity is retained by some monoclonal antibodies. PCR tests continue to detect the Omicron variant.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: SARS-CoV-2 variants are grouped according to their lineage and component mutations. Many organisations, including governments and news outlets, referred colloquially to concerning variants by the country in which they were first identified. After months of discussions, the World Health Organization announced Greek-letter names for important strains on 31 May 2021, so they could be easily referred to in a simple, easy to say, and non-stigmatising fashion. This decision may have partially been taken because of criticism from governments on using country names to refer to variants of the virus; the WHO mentioned the potential for mentioning country names to cause stigma. After using all the letters from Alpha to Mu (see below), in November 2021 the WHO skipped the next two letters of the Greek alphabet, Nu and Xi, and used Omicron, prompting speculation that Xi was skipped to avoid offending Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The WHO gave as the explanation that Nu is too easily confounded with "new" and Xi is a common last name. In the event that the WHO uses the entirety of the Greek alphabet, the agency considered naming future variants after constellations.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: While there are many thousands of variants of SARS-CoV-2, subtypes of the virus can be put into larger groupings such as lineages or clades. Three main, generally used nomenclatures have been proposed:


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: Each national public health institute may also institute its own nomenclature system for the purposes of tracking specific variants. For example, Public Health England designated each tracked variant by year, month and number in the format [YYYY] [MM]/[NN], prefixing 'VUI' or 'VOC' for a variant under investigation or a variant of concern respectively. This system has now been modified and now uses the format [YY] [MMM]-[NN], where the month is written out using a three-letter code.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: Variants that appear to meet one or more specific criteria considered during the COVID-19 pandemic may be labeled "variants of interest" or "variants under investigation" ('VUI') pending verification and validation of these properties. Once validated, variants of interest /VUI may be renamed "variants of concern" by monitoring organizations, such as the CDC in the US. A related category is "variant of high consequence", used by the CDC if there is clear evidence that the effectiveness of prevention or intervention measures for a particular variant is substantially reduced.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: As it is currently not known when the index case or "patient zero" occurred, the choice of reference sequence for a given study is relatively arbitrary, with different notable research studies' choices varying as follows:


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: The variant first sampled and identified in Wuhan, China is considered by researchers to differ from the progenitor genome by three mutations. Subsequently, many distinct lineages of SARS-CoV-2 have evolved.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: Viruses generally acquire mutations over time, giving rise to new variants. When a new variant appears to be growing in a population, it can be labelled as an "emerging variant". In the case of SARS-CoV-2, new lineages often differ from one another by just a few nucleotides.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: Variants that appear to meet one or more of these criteria may be labelled "variants under investigation" or "variants of interest" pending verification and validation of these properties. The primary characteristic of a variant of interest is that it shows evidence that demonstrates it is the cause of an increased proportion of cases or unique outbreak clusters; however, it must also have limited prevalence or expansion at national levels, or the classification would be elevated to a "variant of concern". If there is clear evidence that the effectiveness of prevention or intervention measures for a particular variant is substantially reduced, that variant is termed a "variant of high consequence".


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: Listed below are the variants of concern (VOC) recognised by the World Health Organization . Other organisations such as the CDC in the United States have at times used a slightly different list; for example, the CDC has de-escalated the Delta variant on 14 April 2022, while the WHO did so on 7 June 2022.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: The Omicron variant, known as lineage B.1.1.529, was declared a variant of concern by the World Health Organization on 26 November 2021.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: The variant has a large number of mutations, of which some are concerning. Some evidence shows that this variant has an increased risk of reinfection. Studies are underway to evaluate the exact impact on transmissibility, mortality, and other factors.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: Named Omicron by the WHO, it was identified in November 2021 in Botswana and South Africa; one case had travelled to Hong Kong, one confirmed case was identified in Israel in a traveler returning from Malawi, along with two who returned from South Africa and one from Madagascar. Belgium confirmed the first detected case in Europe on 26 November 2021 in an individual who had returned from Egypt on 11 November. Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) in its January 2022 bulletin noted that Omicron is in community transmission in India where new cases have been rising exponentially.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: According to the WHO, BA.1, BA.1.1, and BA.2 are the most common sublineages of Omicron globally . BA.2 contains 28 unique genetic changes, including four in its spike protein, compared to BA.1, which had already acquired 60 mutations since the ancestral Wuhan strain, including 32 in the spike protein. BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1. It was causing most cases in England by mid-March 2022, and by the end of March, BA.2 became dominant in the US. , the sublineages BA.1 to BA.5 including all their descendants are classified as variants of concern by the WHO, the CDC, and the ECDC (with the latter excluding BA.3).


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: On 25 May 2022, the World Health Organization introduced a new category for potentially concerning sublineages of widespread variants of concern, called VOC lineages under monitoring (VOC-LUMs). This decision was made to reflect that already in February 2022, over 98% of all sequenced samples belonged to the Omicron family, and there has been significant evolution within this family.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: Listed below are the Variants of Interest (VOI) which are recognised by the World Health Organization. Other organisations such as the CDC in the United States may at times use a slightly different list.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: Defined as variants with genetic changes suspected to affect virus characteristics and some indication of posing a future risk, but with unclear evidence of phenotypic or epidemiological impact, requiring enhanced monitoring and repeat assessment after new evidence.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: The WHO defines a previously circulating variant as a variant that "has demonstrated to no longer pose a major added risk to global public health compared to other circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants", but should still be monitored.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: The variants listed below had previously been designated as variants of concern, but were displaced by other variants. , the WHO lists the following under "previously circulating variants of concern":


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: First detected in October 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom from a sample taken the previous month in Kent, lineage B.1.1.7, labelled Alpha variant by the WHO, was previously known as the first Variant Under Investigation in December 2020 (VUI – 202012/01) and later notated as VOC-202012/01. It is also known as 20I (V1), 20I/501Y.V1 (formerly 20B/501Y.V1), or 501Y.V1. From October to December 2020, its prevalence doubled every 6.5 days, the presumed generational interval. It is correlated with a significant increase in the rate of COVID-19 infection in United Kingdom, associated partly with the N501Y mutation. There was some evidence that this variant had 40–80% increased transmissibility (with most estimates lying around the middle to higher end of this range), and early analyses suggested an increase in lethality, though later work found no evidence of increased virulence. As of May 2021, the Alpha variant had been detected in some 120 countries.


title: Variants of SARS-CoV-2

text: On 16 March 2022, the WHO has de-escalated the Alpha variant and its subvariants to "previously circulating variants of concern".