Entertainment
Netflix's Sci-Fi Thriller Accurately Predicted The Real Danger Of ChatGPT
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Go to any streaming service’s sci-fi section and, within 10 seconds of browsing, you’ll realize that there are enough evil AI movies that you can watch one every day for a year and still have more to go. The most terrifying one has landed on Netflix.
Though it’s lacking the body count of a M3GAN, or even a Terminator movie, it shows that the real danger of AI isn’t physical, it’s emotional. 2014’sEx Machina is a cerebral thriller that will make you think, and by the time the credits roll, you’ll never look at ChatGPT or Gemini the same way again.
She’s A Robot And That’s Ok
Future Star Wars co-stars Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac play, respectively, tech employee Caleb and eccentric CEO Nathan. Caleb thinks he’s won a special trip out to Nathan’s compound for a week when he’s quickly informed that Nathan’s developed a new type of AI and wants Caleb to determine if she’s achieved true consciousness. Caleb knows that Ava, Alicia Vikander’s breakout role, isn’t real, but as the two bond over several conversations, he starts to have doubts. Even knowing the truth from the beginning, Caleb becomes enraptured by the feminine robot, and that’s when the real problems start.
Ex Machina hit theaters years before AI chatbots became commonplace. In 2026, there are daily stories about someone becoming obsessed with their AI partner and either cutting off the rest of the world or doing something that they can’t come back from because a machine told them to do it. Turns out that Terminator, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, I, Robot, Tau, and countless others missed AI becoming a replacement for human companionship. Her came out a year before Ex Machina, and a decade later, those two are still the gold standards when it comes to the real, emotional cost of dealing with AI.
The Type Of Smart Sci-Fi Studios Left Behind
From the moment it hit theaters, Ex Machina was a success, certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 92 percent critical rating and 86 percent audience rating. It’s a rare smart sci-fi during an era of visual spectacle. Written and directed by 28 Years Later’s writer Alex Garland, it’s far more visually stunning than a film that’s 90 percent dialogue has any right to be. Audiences couldn’t get enough of the philosophical musings, wild twists, and Oscar Isaac’s dance sequence.
The sparse film was a hard sell in theaters with a limited release and then a rapid rollout nationwide. Earning only $37 million, barely twice its budget of $15 million, without taking marketing or theater cuts into account, Ex Machina was not a blockbuster. Instead, it benefited from word of mouth over the last decade. The rising profile of everyone involved in the film certainly helped it grow over time into, not even a cult classic, but a bona fide hit.
Everyone involved in the film has gone on to further success: Gleeson and Isaac with Star Wars, Vikander with Tomb Raider, and even Sonoya Mizuno, who plays the silent housekeeper Kyoko, has appeared in multiple Garland films since. During that time, Ex Machina has only become more relevant, and as AI becomes more integrated into our daily lives, the siren call of machine companionship will become harder for people to ignore.
Entertainment
Lego’s May the 4th Star Wars drop is here, and half the sets are under $50
With May the 4th coming up, my nephew and I are getting ready for our mandatory apartment tradition: hitting up BrickinBad (a local “Lego collector hub”) so he can pick out a new set for us to build together over the weekend. Neither of us is a huge Star Wars fan, but you don’t have to be to appreciate a good Lego build.
Lego’s annual May the 4th drop is known for being an expensive, shelf-clearing event. But looking at the 2026 lineup, the prices are pretty reasonable. Yes, there’s a $250 Ultimate Collector Series ship in the mix, but most sets run just under $50.
The official promotional event runs from May 1 to May 6, but seven of the eight new sets hit shelves early on April 26. But, if you hold off and buy them in May, Lego will throw in exclusive freebies — like a free Darksaber set if you spend over $160.
Whether you’re treating yourself to some new desk decor or taking a kid on a weekend toy run, here’s the full breakdown:
Lego Star Wars The Mandalorian’s N-1 Starfighter (75442)
If you’re going to splurge this Star Wars day, make it this one.
Credit: Lego
It wouldn’t be May the 4th without a ridiculously detailed Ultimate Collector Series model to anchor the event. This 1,809-piece N-1 Starfighter is the priciest set of the bunch at $249.99, but buying it automatically scores you an exclusive Mandalorian and Grogu Display gift. It drops on May 1 for Lego Insiders and May 4 for everyone else, so you’ll want to jump on it before it sells out.
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Lego Star Wars The Razor Crest (75447)
If you want a more affordable weekend project ($250 is kind of steep), Mando’s iconic original ship is a great alternative. This 930-piece version of the Razor Crest hits shelves on April 26, and if you wait to buy it during the May event for $149.99, it qualifies for a free Razor Crest mini-build.
Lego Star Wars Grogu, Mandalorian Apprentice (75446)
Because there’s no such thing as too much Grogu.
Credit: Lego
For fans who prefer building characters over ships, this 1,200-piece model portrays Grogu in his apprentice era. (Holding off to buy this one in May also gets you the free Razor Crest mini-build.) It’s intricate enough to display on an office desk without looking too toy-ish, plus there’s really no such thing as too much Grogu merchandise in your apartment.
Lego Star Wars Anzellan Starship (75445)
A must-have if you love Babu Frik.
Credit: Lego
If you’re a fan of Babu Frik and his adorable droidsmith species, this 701-piece ship is a mid-range option. It drops on April 26 for $74.99 and is another set that’ll score you the free Razor Crest mini-build if purchased during the promotional window.
Lego Star Wars Darth Vader Bust (75439)
Come to the dark side.
Credit: Lego
You can grab this 349-piece Darth Vader bust starting April 26. It’s great if you just want a small, $49.99 piece of the May the 4th action for your desk. If you want to complete a classic trilogy display while building up your cart to hit that $160 Darksaber freebie threshold, you might want to consider adding the Yoda bust to your cart too.
Lego Star Wars AT-RT Attack
A fun, action-focused build.
Credit: Lego
At 297 pieces, this AT-RT Attack is the smallest and most affordable set of the entire drop. It hits shelves on April 26 for $44.99, giving you a quick, action-focused build that qualifies you for the free Razor Crest mini-build. It’s also a great pick if you’re taking a kid on a toy run and don’t want to do any real damage to your bank account.
Lego Star Wars The Mandalorian and Grogu: Allies & Villains (40856)
A solid mid-size build to celebrate the iconic duo.
Credit: Lego
This 661-piece set drops just ahead of the holiday on April 26 and leans heavily into the Mando hype. At just $39.99, get a decent amount of bricks to keep you busy for an afternoon without emptying your wallet. Plus, it’s an easy add-on to throw in your cart if you’re just trying to cross that $160 finish line for the free Darksaber.
Lego Star Wars Yoda Bust (75438)
A quick, affordable build for fans of the original trilogy.
Credit: Lego
If you prefer the classics over the newer Disney+ shows, this 399-piece Yoda bust is a quick and affordable build. It won’t take up your entire weekend to finish, but still helps you hit the $160 minimum to get the free Darksaber set.
Entertainment
Event Horizon Ties Into Another Sci-Fi Universe Nobody Expected
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Fan theories can range from the plausible and very likely, such as the “Pixar connected universe,” or “Elsa and Anna’s brother is Tarzan,” to the unbelievable, “Snowpiercer’s Wilford is Wily Wonka,” or “Jar Jar Binks is a Sith,” but there’s one that’s so perfect, it has to be true: Event Horizon is set in the Warhammer 40k universe.
This theory makes sense from the very beginning, when the titular spaceship activates its gravity engine and travels through a nightmarish dimension that’s full of demons and cosmic horrors. That’s exactly how ships travel in the world of Warhammer 40k, and it’s only the start of the connections.
Event Horizon Traveled Through The Warp
Event Horizon takes place after the ship mysteriously reappears after it was missing for years, with the entire crew dead, and as the Captain’s log reveals, it was the crew themselves that turned violent and killed each other. The Captain, having ripped out his own eyeballs, issues a warning, in Latin of course, to “Save yourself from Hell.” It’s a gruesome, bloody sequence filled with rapid flashes of violence that make it hard to focus, and the first time seeing the film, it’s hard to comprehend what you’re even seeing.
The rescue crew ends up giving into the spreading madness themselves, or rather, Dr. Weir (Sam Neill, the perfect star for a film about cosmic horror), the designer of the Event Horizon, goes mad and has to be put down by the rescue ship’s Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne). And he is, but after he’s sucked into space, Weir comes back having embraced the strange and bizarre Hell-like dimension, and he taunts Miller by showing him visions from the Hell dimension. It’s a dark and disturbing moment, but it’s also an amazing live-scene depiction of Warhammer 40ks The Warp, a strange dimension in which time and space have no meaning, that happens to be filled with Daemons and, in Games Workshop’s universe, is used by humanity as an intergalactic superhighway.
The Influence Of Chaos
The Warp is a dangerous dimension that exists outside of four-dimensional space, but it’s also able to be navigated by psychic humans called Navigators who use the Astronomican, a massive psychic beacon waypoint that you think of as a transdimensional lighthouse, to remain safe while traveling through. In Event Horizon, set in the year 2048, it’s the experimental gravity engine that pulls the ship out of our reality and into The Warp, making it humanity’s first experience with Chaos Deamons and the horrors that lurk outside our universe. Those dangers include the Chaos Gods, Tzeentch, Khorne, Nurgle, and Slaanesh, and amazingly, Paul W.S. Anderson’s sci-fi horror even implies the influence of these beings on the ship’s original crew.
While the rescue crew from the Lewis and Clark is watching the original Captain’s video, it’s clear that the crew is killing each other (that would be Khorne, the Blood God, encouraging slaughter and destruction), but at the same time, it’s clear that Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure, is involved since some of the crew to be “enjoying” themselves. The other two, Tzeentch and Nurgle, may be sitting this one out, but Event Horizon includes one other story beat that touches on the technology of Warhammer 40k. Weir implies during the back half of the film that the ship itself has become possessed by a Deamonic spirit, and of course, that’s a huge part of the Warhammer 40k setting where humanity believes machine spirits power all machines. ]
The Machine Spirits
In the grim darkness of the far future in Warhammer 40k, technology is incredibly advanced but also oddly primitive, with Tech Priests rubbing ointments and saying prayers over military vehicles before they go to war to embolden the machine spirits within. The denizens of The Warp are able to possess technology and infect with their own Daemonic spirits, giving players the option to use twisted versions of the Imperium of Man’s own weapons against them. If that sounds like exactly what happens to the ship in Event Horizon, well, that’s another reason why this is secretly a Warhammer 40k film.
The Event Horizon fan theory may not even be a fan theory, and is instead confirmed thanks to screenwriter Philip Eisner commenting on Twitter in 207 that “I played the sh*t out of 40K, so it was definitely an influence, conscious or otherwise.” Writers who went on to work at Games Workshop to help shape the universe returned the favor, with an attempt to name-drop the ship in one of the game’s official codexes, but the U.K.-based company stopped it from seeing print. Still, it’s a comment straight from the twisted mind behind the film that the classic tabletop miniatures game’s gothic setting had an impact on the film.
Event Horizon Is A Gateway To Warhammer 40k
When Henry Cavill and Amazon bring Warhammer 40k to life, it won’t look like Event Horizon, but there’s no doubt that, intentionally or not, the 1997 sci-fi horror is the perfect companion piece to the grimdark future franchise. If you enjoy the movie, there are multiple Black Library novels out there that you should check out, starting with Xenos by Dan Abnett, the first of the Eisenhorn novels, which isn’t nearly as bloody and gruesome as the movie, but it nails the dark, ominous feeling of something being very, very wrong that first half of the movie does so well.
The Event Horizon/Warhammer 40k fan theory has existed since the film first hit theaters, over a decade after Games Workshop released Rogue Trader, the first game set in the world of 40k. It’s been an enduring fan theory because it honors both the film and the gaming franchise, and it doesn’t demand either one of them, and simply says, “Hey, this would be really cool.” The best fan theories are just that, they’re fun, but this time around, the Sam Neill horror film is also a perfect introduction to how crazy the Warhammer 40k setting can get, and given the cost of running a well-painted 3,000-point competitive army, that might be the most horrifying part of the movie.
Entertainment
Last chance to score the latest Visual Studio Pro for just $43
TL;DR: Visual Studio 2026 brings AI-assisted coding, real-time collaboration, and cross-platform development into one powerful IDE, and it’s on sale only through today.
$42.97
$499.99
Save $457.02
Modern development demands more than just a code editor — it calls for a smarter, faster, and more collaborative environment. And Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026 is designed to simplify things in a very real way.
This latest version leans heavily into what modern developers actually need: speed, flexibility, and smarter tooling. Built as a fully 64-bit IDE, it handles large solutions and complex workloads without the usual slowdowns, which is especially noticeable when you’re working across multiple projects or environments.
Mashable Deals
One of the biggest upgrades here is how seamlessly AI is integrated into your workflow. Instead of feeling like an add-on, features like IntelliCode actively learn from your codebase to suggest entire lines or blocks of code, help refactor on the fly, and reduce repetitive tasks. It’s less about replacing your workflow and more about quietly speeding it up.
On the cross-platform side, Visual Studio 2026 keeps things flexible. You can build everything from .NET MAUI mobile apps to web apps with Blazor, and even target Linux or container-based environments — all without jumping between tools. Add in hot reload, and you can make changes in real time without breaking your flow.
Collaboration also gets an upgrade. With Live Share, teammates can jump into your session, edit, debug, and test code together without needing to clone repos or configure their entire setup. It’s a small shift that can make a big difference in how quickly teams move.
Then there’s CodeLens, which surfaces insights like test status, commit history, and code references directly in your editor, so you’re not constantly context-switching just to understand what’s going on.
Don’t miss this 2026 upgrade while it’s on sale. Get Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026 while it’s just $42.97 (reg. $499.99) through April 19.
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Grabbing this offer? Once your cart hits $100+, add Microsoft Office 2021 and apply GWP4MAC (for Mac) or GWP4WIND (for Windows) at checkout to get a lifetime license for free. Ends April 19.
Gift with $100+ purchase promo ends April 19, 2026. Exclusions apply. Only one promo code applicable per order. Prices subject to change.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Lego’s May the 4th Star Wars drop is here, and half the sets are under $50
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