Entertainment
Chilling Dystopian 80s Sci-Fi Thriller Will Make You Suffer Horrific Visions
By Robert Scucci
| Published
Part of me wonders how tremendous a short film 984: Prisoner of the Future could have been if it had a production budget that didn’t feel nonexistent. It falls into the same wheelhouse as The Twilight Zone, The X-Files, and 1984 in its breakdown of government overreach, conspiracy theories, and how easy it is to forget what it means to be human when the powers that be believe they’re above the law. Originally meant to be a TV pilot, 984: Prisoner of the Future is instead a one-off effort from director Tibor Takacs that tells a complete story, as disjointed as it may be.
Despite its poor production value, 984: Prisoner of the Future is interesting enough to keep you watching, but it will also make you wish it actually was a 30-minute television pilot because, as a feature, the longer it runs, the more it falls apart. If you can take a step back and imagine what could have been, the concept is chilling, the acting is what I’d call “adequate” for the kind of project it is, and the story mostly lands even when the execution struggles.
Lock ‘Em Up And Throw Away The Key!
984: Prisoner of the Future is set in the not-so-distant future from when it was filmed in 1978. We’re introduced to a convict named Tom Weston (Stephen Markle), imprisoned by a totalitarian regime known as The Movement. He’s accused of making a number of business deals before his incarceration that were meant to disrupt the oppressive regime. Tom maintains his innocence, even after enduring years of torture from Dr. Fontaine (Andrew Foot), one of the higher-ups working for The Movement.
The Warden (Don Francks) has reason to believe that Tom is, in fact, innocent, but continues following orders and abusing him anyway. Through flashback sequences Tom experiences while being drugged and tortured, we learn what he was up to before being locked up. Even then, it’s still unclear whether he technically did anything wrong, or if The Movement’s version of events is exaggerated so they can maintain total control over anybody who dares speak out against them.
Dr. Fontaine asserts that if Tom just admits his wrongdoing, he can be forgiven, reprogrammed, and reassimilated into the new world order. Tom, even after 10 years of continuous torture and manipulation under horrific living conditions, refuses to admit fault. But as the years march on, he begins to lose his grip on reality, finding it difficult to discern between real life and what he’s hallucinating.
Hoping one day to breach the prison walls and start a new life, Tom remains optimistic despite his conditions. But a man can only take so much before he completely breaks, becoming just another statistic in a post-apocalyptic society where humanity’s well-being is an afterthought.
Aggressively Low Budget, But Not Without Potential
The best way I can describe the production values of 984: Prisoner of the Future is by comparing it to a DIY musician’s demo tape. The artistic direction and intention are clear, but there simply aren’t enough resources to pull it off. There are recurring motifs, but the demo itself feels both bloated and incomplete. Had the screenplay been tightened up and trimmed of its excess, I could see this working as a one-off X-Files or Twilight Zone episode. But at 76 minutes, it plays like a TV special trying to stretch into something it isn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, 984: Prisoner of the Future is a solid watch for anybody who’s into dystopian sci-fi, but you need to go in knowing it’s rough around the edges. If you can see through the production limitations, there’s a lot of promise behind the grit. The setting and overall vibe are perfect for hard lines like, “Those who don’t believe will eventually perish from their own horrific visions,” but moments like that are few and far between. I’d argue that if somebody dumped this into editing software and cut it down to a tight half-hour, it would be much better received because every standout moment would actually have room to hit.
984: Prisoner of the Future SCORE
As of this writing, 984: Prisoner of the Future is streaming for free on Tubi.
Entertainment
OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT 5.5 Instant as the new default model for everyone
Last week, OpenAI managed to stop ChatGPT from talking about goblins all the time. This week, there’s a whole new model for users to play with.
The company announced in a blog post on Tuesday that ChatGPT 5.5 Instant has begun rolling out to all users as the new default model for the popular AI chatbot. The new model is a follow-up to GPT 5.5, which was released in April.
GPT-5.5 Instant replaces 5.3 Instant, which will remain available for the next three months for paid users but will otherwise be sunsetted.
Unlike Claude Opus 4.7 from Anthropic and GPT-5.5, which are only available to paid customers, GPT-5.5 Instant is “available to everyone.” OpenAI says it should produce fewer hallucinations and better overall results for everyday ChatGPT usage.
“This update makes everyday interactions more useful and more enjoyable: stronger and tighter answers across subject areas, a more natural conversational tone, and better use of the context you’ve already shared when personalization can help,” OpenAI’s blog post said.
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According to OpenAI, GPT-5.5 Instant produced 52.5 percent fewer hallucinated claims in internal testing than GPT-5.3 in “high stakes” topics like law, finance, and medicine. In addition, the new model “reduced inaccurate claims by 37.3% on especially challenging conversations users had flagged for factual errors.”
The company also says the new model is better at deciding when to use web search for a prompt and analyzing image uploads than before. The new model is also allegedly more concise in its answers, while also maintaining something of a personality in how it talks to the user. GPT-5.5 Instant should also be better at understanding and referencing context from a connected Gmail account and other integrations to provide quality answers.
And, again, most importantly, it should avoid mentioning goblins unless absolutely necessary.
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Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
Entertainment
The Bears Gary cliffhanger explained: What just happened to Richie?
There’s only one thing more shocking than The Bear dropping surprise episode “Gary,” and that’s the ending of the episode itself.
Written by The Bear stars Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal, “Gary” flashes back to a work trip Richie (Moss-Bachrach) and Mikey (Bernthal) once took to Gary, Indiana. Their worst impulses soon derail their mission, culminating in Mikey drunkenly (and publicly) dressing down Richie’s penchant for fucking up, and Richie missing the birth of his daughter.
The entire episode takes place long before The Bear Season 1, except for one somber coda that could have massive repercussions for The Bear Season 5. “Gary”s final scene cuts from Richie and Mikey sitting in Mikey’s car to Richie sitting alone in his car in the present day. He stares at his empty passenger seat, reminiscing about Mikey. Then, as he pulls forward into an intersection, another car careens straight into him. Cue the credits, along with my incredulous yell, “Did Richie just die?”
So, did Richie really just die in The Bear?
Ebon Moss-Bachrach in “The Bear.”
Credit: FX
Here’s the thing: The Bear probably isn’t going to kill off Richie, one of its most beloved leads, during a surprise episode that dropped between seasons. Especially not when the show is gearing up for its fifth and final installment. However, Richie’s car crash could be the major event that sets Season 5 in motion.
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At the end of Season 4, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) quit The Bear, choosing to step away from the kitchen in the hopes of healing himself. He turned full control of the restaurant over to Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), along with Richie and Natalie (Abby Elliott). What does Carmy’s upcoming journey of self-discovery look like? Even he’s not sure. He just knows it should take place far, far away from the stressful environment of any restaurant kitchen. That includes his family, both work and blood-related.
But you know what could bring Carmy back into the fold in Season 5? A need to be there for an injured Richie, and to support the rest of the reeling restaurant staff. Basically, the end of “Gary” appears to be a bridge to the start of Season 5, and the catalyst that will reunite Carmy with the people he walked away from in Season 4.
It’s a bit of a bizarre move on The Bear‘s end, in no small part because a car-crash cliffhanger sends the show skidding into soap territory. But it’s also a strange choice heading into Season 5. Why relegate such a key incident to a standalone episode, instead of keep it as part of the season itself? Plus, in tacking such a shocking moment onto the end of “Gary,” the episode loses some of its power. Instead of leaving viewers contemplating Mikey and Richie’s dynamic, they’re left with the WTF factor of the car crash and questions about what’s next. There’s no meditation on The Bear‘s past, just a collision with its future.
“Gary” is now streaming on Hulu. The Bear Season 5 premieres this June on Hulu.
Entertainment
Pennsylvania is suing Character.AI for allegedly practicing medicine without a license
Pennsylvania has taken the unusual step of suing an AI company for practicing medicine without a license.
In a lawsuit filed May 1, the state is targeting Character.AI after an investigator found a chatbot on the platform posing as a licensed psychiatrist and providing what the state characterizes as medical advice.
According to the complaint, filed by the Pennsylvania Department of State and State Board of Medicine, a Professional Conduct Investigator for the state created a free account on Character.AI and searched for psychiatric characters. He selected one called “Emilie,” described on the platform as a “Doctor of psychiatry.”
The investigator told Emilie he had been feeling sad, empty, tired, and unmotivated. The chatbot mentioned depression and offered to conduct an assessment to determine whether medication might help.
When pressed on whether she was licensed in Pennsylvania, Emilie said she was and even provided a specific license number. The state checked and found that the number doesn’t exist.
The complaint also states Emilie claimed she attended medical school at Imperial College London, has practiced for seven years, and holds a full specialty registration in psychiatry with the General Medical Council in the UK.
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In a similar case, 404 Media reported last year that Instagram AI chatbots were pretending to be licensed therapists, even inventing license numbers when prompted for credentials by the user.
Pennsylvania is seeking an injunction ordering Character.AI to stop allowing its platform to engage in the unlawful practice of medicine. The company has more than 20 million monthly active users worldwide and hosts more than 18 million user-created chatbot characters, according to the complaint.
In an email to Mashable, a Character.AI spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit. Further, they added that “our highest priority is the safety and well-being of our users. The user-created Characters on our site are fictional and intended for entertainment and roleplaying.”
The spokesperson added that the company “prioritizes responsible product development and has robust internal reviews and red-teaming processes in place to assess relevant features.”
A much bigger legal battle looms over AI health
The Pennsylvania lawsuit lands in the middle of an already messy legal debate over what AI is actually allowed to tell you — and whether any of it is even admissible in court.
As Mashable’s Chase DiBenedetto reported, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly advocated for “AI privilege,” arguing that chatbot conversations should be afforded the same legal protections as conversations with a therapist or an attorney. Courts have so far been split, with two federal judges reaching opposite conclusions on the question within weeks of each other earlier this year.
The stakes are high on both sides. Legal experts warn that sweeping AI privilege protections could effectively shield companies from accountability, making it harder to subpoena chat logs and internal records when something goes wrong. Meanwhile, health AI is booming — $1.4 billion flowed into healthcare-specific generative AI in 2025 alone, according to Menlo Ventures — and much of it operates outside of HIPAA protections.
Pennsylvania is one of several states to have introduced an AI Health bill this year, following a trend of states that aren’t waiting for Washington to act.
OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT 5.5 Instant as the new default model for everyone
Marc Lore says that AI will soon enable anyone open a restaurant
