Entertainment
Prophetic Sci-Fi Docudrama On HBO Max Sets The Tone For Our Future Dystopia
By Robert Scucci
| Published
If you’re wondering why speculative, apocalyptic sci-fi thrillers aren’t often presented through a documentary framework centered on real-life world events and public figures, it’s because it leads to disasterpieces like 2073; a film with a clear message that’s delivered to is audience in the most disjointed way possible. As ambitious as this film may be, it’s incredibly difficult to watch, and highlights a unique problem: it’s not allegorical, but rather too real to handle. I wish I was as original as Rotten Tomatoes reviewer Glenn Dunks, who simply referred to this film as “Doomscrolling: The Movie,” because that’s exactly what 2073 is despite the promising thumbnail and synopsis you’ll see when looking to stream the title on Max.
I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed, because even though 2073 is categorized as a documentary and a thriller, it’s, like, 10 percent thriller, if that, and the rest is just the kind of stuff you’ll see while swiping through your Instagram feed in a panic while wondering how close we actually are to the dystopian reality that, according to the film, we’re fast approaching.
The Future Is A Bleak Place In 2073
2073 starts with promise as it follows the point of view of a lone woman simply known as “Ghost” (Samantha Morton). Living under a long-abandoned shopping mall with other condemned humans, narrations from Ghost explain just how fargone society has become, and aims to tell a story about how humanity arrived at such a bleak destination. In constant fear of getting investigated and silenced (killed) by the government, Ghost dumpster dives for food and supplies when it’s safe to do so, and retreats back underground to her dilapidated compound occupied by other survivors who are equally worse for wear.
And let me tell you, these post-apocalyptic scenes are absolutely stunning. I wanted to learn more about how society functions in the year 2073, and I would have loved to see more of this. The hierarchy of power, the desire to reeducate the masses so they can overthrow their oppressors, and the state of constant surveillance that society is living through is captivating, to say the least, and this fictional yet unfortunately believable setting is fertile ground for some next-level storytelling about a society in disrepair that hasn’t yet discovered how to pick up the pieces and start the next chapter in our collective human history.
Well, That Got Dark
The best part about 2073 is the sequences set in the dystopian future that will fill any sensible viewer with an absolute sense of dread, and then suddenly the worst possible thing ever happens: we get a documentary that’s reminiscent of the fear-mongering Zeitgeist film series that did a great job pointing out the dangers of a totalitarian government, but never even tries to reassure audiences by presenting a viable, or even realistic, solution to the problems we face so we can actually make concerted efforts to get on the right side of history and prevent such a bleak future from happening.
In other words, 2073 is trying to be two different movies: a dystopian sci-fi thriller set in a fictional not-so-distant future, and a documentary using real, archival footage from the present day used to explain how this dystopia was created.
But therein lies the problem.
While watching the documentary sequences that make up most of 2073’s runtime, I felt like Alex from A Clockwork Orange, who was forced to sit in front of television sets with his eyes pried open so he could take in all of the footage at an alarming rate. This kind of delivery strips the mystique from the more interesting story – the fiction set in 2073 – that could have been used as a vehicle to propose solutions for a society that’s been driven underground by the powers that be.
Two Different Failed Films In One
While I appreciate what 2073 was trying to accomplish, it left a bad taste in my mouth because it comes off as if it’s preaching to a choir that’s already aware of the current state of affairs, but feels powerless to act in any meaningful ways to prevent things from getting worse.
We already know that wealth is concentrated in such a way that keeps the working class under its ruler’s thumb. We already know that politicians and tech bros are sweeping humanity under the rug so a select few people in power can explore space while the rest of us suffer. We already know that data mining billionaires and chronically online worry warts are a terrible combination for humanity because it suggests how artificial intelligence will soon control the masses as it finds a way to become smarter than the humans it’s aimed to manipulate.
That’s all well and good, but what do we do about it? The interesting story – the story I wanted to see – in 2073 is how future humans cope with societal collapse and set their sights toward a brighter future. What we get instead is a rapid-fire news feed of the present day that’s beamed into our eyeballs as if to say “there’s nothing you can do about this,” and “we’re already doomed.”
Streaming 2073 On Max
If you’re looking for an ultra-condensed rundown of current affairs as told through various news sources that leads to a high-concept depiction of the future that may very well become a reality, then 2073 might pique your interest. But if you’re expecting to see how humanity aims to rise from the ashes through its speculative sci-fi storytelling, you’re going to be gravely disappointed. By juxtaposing real-life, present-day world events with what is by all measures a work of fiction, 2073 misses the mark on both fronts because it’s real, it’s scary, and it offers a disturbing take on how we’re collectively marching down a miserable path at an alarming rate, but never uses the fiction it establishes to meaningfully explore how we’re going to get out of this seemingly unavoidable mess.
2073 gets an A for effort and concept, and an F for execution. If you want to see how messed up the world is, just fire up your news apps, or hop on TikTok or Instagram, to get a crash course because it’s basically the same thing. If you want to just get it over with quickly and move on with your life, you can stream 2073 on Max.
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.
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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
Rivalry continues as Nuggets host Timberwolves for Game 1
