Entertainment
The Most Influential Sci-Fi Film Of The 1990s Isn't Star Wars Or The Matrix
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
What do you think the most influential sci-fi film of the ‘90s was? You might be tempted to say The Phantom Menace, which continued a beloved franchise, or maybe The Matrix, which redefined the action/science fiction genre.
Where we’re standing, though, it doesn’t get much more influential than Stargate, which kicked off a sprawling franchise and is now streaming on free services like Roku. It’s also a franchise poised for a big comeback, with a new series currently in development at Amazon.
Stargate On Streaming
The plot of Stargate is a little wild if you’re streaming this classic for the first time. Basically, the military discovers a portal on Earth (the titular Stargate) that allows people to travel to a distant and very Egyptian-looking planet. Eventually, they discover an alien menace with surprising ties to Earth’s ancient history. Soon, our characters are in a fight for their lives that may ultimately determine the fate of two different worlds.
Stargate has a better cast than most sci-fi films, starting with Kurt Russell. It also stars James Spader, a film legend turned TV icon thanks to Boston Legal and The Blacklist. Meanwhile, the film’s chief villain is played by Jaye Davidson, who is best known for The Crying Game and has stopped acting in anything outside of shorts since 1994, the same year Stargate was released.
You don’t have to pay anything to watch Stargate when streaming it, but ‘90s audiences were happy to open up their wallets: against a budget of $55 million, this ambitious sci-fi film earned $196.6 million at the box office. It was originally envisioned as the first part of a trilogy of theatrical films, but those two planned sequels were, sadly, never made. However, the movie eventually spawned a hit TV spinoff (Stargate SG-1) that became a major sci-fi franchise, thanks to TV spinoffs like Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe, as well as direct-to-video films Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum.
Obviously, Stargate struck a chord with sci-fi lovers long before streaming was invented, but it failed to impress critics: on Rotten Tomatoes, Stargate has a critical score of 54 percent. Critics generally praised the film’s slick visuals and James Spader’s memorable performance, but they found the script and characterization lackluster. While critics mostly found the movie unimpressive, it has an audience score of 73 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, highlighting how much more general audiences enjoyed the film than critics did.
Why You Should Ignore Critics And Watch Stargate
That’s part of my answer to your inevitable question of why Stargate, a movie critics hated, is a film you should start streaming ASAP. The movie is beloved by sci-fi fans everywhere for many reasons, including its familiar tropes that add up to something that feels refreshingly new. Sure, there’s a sandy planet evocative of Dune and Star Wars and a stable wormhole akin to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but the actual storyline of this film is very different from its science fiction forebears.
Additionally, the critics were right about one thing: James Spader gives a really amazing performance. He is cast as a nerdy scientist thrown unexpectedly into a sci-fi adventure, and Spader himself seems remarkably out of place in this action-packed film. Such fish-out-of-water casting helps make his performance more believable, even as it gives fans of the actor a chance to see a side of Spader they’ve never seen before.
The Most Influential Sci-Fi Of The 1990s
Finally, Stargate is worth streaming because it’s arguably the most influential sci-fi film of the ‘90s, a decade that also brought us bangers like The Matrix. Sure, that mind-warping Keanu Reeves film became a franchise unto itself, but its output pales in comparison to Stargate, which ran for 354 episodes across three TV shows and multiple direct-to-video films, making it one of the longest-lasting sci-fi franchises in history.
Any given room full of nerds will have several passionate Stargate fans, and watching this first film will help you understand what made them fall in love with the franchise in the first place.
Will you find Stargate as compelling as I did, or would you rather blow yourself up than finish streaming this film? You won’t know until you use the gate–er, the TV–to check it out for yourself. Come for the ancient aliens and stay for the stylish premiere of one of sci-fi’s most enjoyable franchises.
Entertainment
The Unfairly Hated Netflix Sci-Fi Thriller That Tells The Truth About Humanity
By Robert Scucci
| Published
Has this ever happened to you? You go to work at your factory job, but you end up tearing your family apart because you keep having horrific nightmares about an impending alien invasion that only you’re aware of. Your daughters hate you because you keep blowing off family night and losing track of long stretches of time, and your wife all but commands you to go see a therapist because your nightmares are keeping her awake at night. She’s made it very clear that she’s at her wits’ end with your silly little dreams.
The oddly specific scenario I’m talking about is exactly what happens in Extinction, a Netflix Original sci-fi action thriller about the threat of an upcoming extinction event that won’t reveal itself until it’s already too late for everybody living on planet Earth to do anything about it.
Ignore That Terrible Review Score And Give Extinction A Chance
Taking an absolute beating on Rotten Tomatoes, Extinction currently touts an abysmal critical score of 32 percent against a slightly more favorable Popcornmeter score on the review aggregator. It’s the kind of score that might make you think that you’re about to get into a by-the-numbers “what if we got invaded by aliens?” kind of premise.
While you’re not wrong to make assumptions about the beats and storylines found in this Ben Young-directed film, it’s probably one of the better straight-to-streaming sci-fi films that I’ve seen in recent years.
He Was Right!
Michael Pena’s Peter may seem like he’s losing his mind because of his vivid nightmares of an imminent apocalypse, but Extinction doesn’t leave you guessing for long. Much to his wife Alice’s (Lizzy Caplan) disappointment, Peter skips out on therapy when he learns other patients are having the same exact dreams as him, which he interprets as some form of divine intervention, clueing him in on what’s to come.
At a party, Peter’s suspicions are confirmed when all hell breaks loose, and a deluge of invading spaceships starts tearing the city apart. I don’t know about you, but if I were getting nagged about my prophetic nightmares, only to find out that they were a legitimate warning that everybody should heed, I’d take pause in my frantic efforts to move my family to safety to briefly say, “Haha, I told you so,” before grabbing the photo album and getting the heck out of town. Sure, I’d do everything I can to protect my family, but thanks to my visions being correct, I’m now pack leader, and everybody has to do what I say.
Aliens Aren’t What They Seem
Looking for answers back at the facility where he works as an engineer in Extinction, Peter learns that his boss, David (Mike Colter), knew more about the invasion than he initially let on. Certain people like Peter were supposed to know about it so they could figure out how to deal with the visitors who are currently decimating the entire city.
Getting seriously wounded during the ensuing catastrophe, Alice needs immediate medical attention, prompting Peter to force one of the visitors to cooperate with him in restoring her vital functions. Meanwhile, his daughters, Hannah (Amelia Crouch) and Lucy (Erica Tremblay), are escorted to a military base, where they’ll probably remain safe for the next several… minutes.
Special Effects Are On Point
With a reported budget of just $20 million (chump change compared to an MCU joint), this Netflix Original wins some serious points for its use of special effects, especially when the alien-invasion first kicks off. Extinction uses a night skyline permeated by dust and fog to its advantage, and there’s no doubt in my mind that a boatload of CGI was used to make everything jump off the screen. But the lighting levels are so perfectly calibrated that it never once took me out of the movie because the film’s color palette does all of the heavy lifting.
As the black and grey horizon finds itself under attack, vibrant pops of red and orange break up the skyline, while the sound design that’s capturing what’s happening on ground-level is an assault on your ears that equally matches the assault that’s occurring on planet Earth, while civilization as we know it potentially arrives at its terrifying conclusion.
Extinction may not boast the most original premise, and received a ton of criticism for being so derivative, resulting in its poor reception. But for its production value alone, you should stream it the next time you’re looking to witness the apocalypse from the safety of your own home.
Entertainment
Hurdle hints and answers for April 26, 2026
If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.
There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it’ll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.
An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.
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If you find yourself stuck at any step of today’s Hurdle, don’t worry! We have you covered.
Hurdle Word 1 hint
A song.
Hurdle Word 1 answer
CAROL
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Hurdle Word 2 hint
Balled up.
Hurdle Word 2 Answer
FETAL
Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today
Hurdle Word 3 hint
A tropical fruit.
Hurdle Word 3 answer
MANGO
Hurdle Word 4 hint
Related to sound.
Hurdle Word 4 answer
SONAR
Final Hurdle hint
Exchange.
Hurdle Word 5 answer
TRADE
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Entertainment
Moon phase today: What the Moon will look like on April 26
We’re now in the Waxing Gibbous phase of the lunar cycle. This means most of the Moon’s face is lit up at this point, making it especially bright in the night sky. Read on to see what details you can spot tonight.
What is today’s Moon phase?
As of Sunday, April 26, the Moon phase is Waxing Gibbous. Tonight, 73% of the moon will be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.
If you’re looking at the Moon with just your naked eye, you should be able to catch a glimpse of the Mare Crisium, Copernicus Crater, and Tycho Crater. If you have binoculars, the Mare Frigoris, Posidonius Crater, and Apennine Mountains should also come into view. And, finally, with a telescope you’ll see all this plus the Apollo 17 landing spot, Rupes Altai, and Rupes Recta.
When is the next Full Moon?
The next Full Moon is predicted to take place on May 1, the first of two in May.
What are Moon phases?
NASA says that the Moon completes a full orbit around Earth in about 29.5 days, during which it passes through eight stages. Although the same face of the Moon is always turned toward us, the portion illuminated by the Sun shifts as it travels along its path, producing the familiar cycle of full, half, and crescent shapes. These variations are referred to as lunar phases, and there are eight altogether:
New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).
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Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.
Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)
Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
Oilers not saying if Tristan Jarry or Connor Ingram will man net in Game 4
The Unfairly Hated Netflix Sci-Fi Thriller That Tells The Truth About Humanity
