Entertainment
The Netflix Film That Nearly Killed A Decades-Old Franchise Is Secretly Brilliant
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
After a controversial purchase by Amazon for a cool billion dollars, it’s fair to say the James Bond franchise is as healthy as it has ever been. But nearly four decades ago, the failure of a single film nearly did what villains like Blofeld and Goldfinger had always failed to do: kill 007, once and for all. That movie was Licence to Kill (1989), and after it became the least profitable film in Bond history, producers put the popular film series on hold until they could develop a movie that would leave general audiences both shaken and stirred.
However, Licence to Kill is an excellent Bond film, and this Timothy Dalton classic only seemed overly serious compared to the goofiness of the Roger Moore movies; these days, Dalton’s more serious Bond fits right in with the more grounded and violent world of the Daniel Craig 007 movies. The truth is that Licence to Kill has been in need of a critical reevaluation for almost 40 years, and that reevaluation starts right now. All you have to do is grab your remote (just don’t grab the exploding one!) and stream this misunderstood spy classic on Netflix.
Some Serious Bond-age
The premise of Licence to Kill is that after James Bond’s friend Felix Leiter (a CIA agent and longtime girlfriend) is tortured and his new wife is killed, 007 becomes obsessed with getting revenge on the attackers. This interferes with his job as a secret agent, and when his boss objects, Bond resigns from MI6 to become a rogue agent. Now, without his titular licence to kill or the resources of his government, Bond must engage in a globe-trotting mission of vengeance, one where a single mistake could easily cost him his life.
The cast of Licence to Kill has some familiar Bond faces in it, including Desmond Llewelyn as Q, 007’s faithful tech guru. Similarly, Robert Brown reprises his familiar role as M, and Caroline Bliss returns to once again play Moneypenny alongside Dalton’s Bond. Most surprisingly, David Hedison returns to play Felix Leiter for the first time in 16 years; he previously played the plucky CIA agent in Live and Let Die.
A Cast Full Of Surprises
There are some other pleasant surprises in the cast (including Benicio del Toro in a minor role), but the real highlight here is Timothy Dalton, who gives his James Bond more of the brooding intensity found in the original books by Ian Fleming. He spends more time cracking heads than cracking jokes, and he takes very clear pleasure in doling out pain to some of the worst people in the planet. In this way, Dalton is a very interesting precursor to Daniel Craig, whose era as Bond was famous for its more grim and gritty portrayal of 007.
License to Kill ended up earning $156.1 million against a budget of $32 million, which may seem like a solid profit on paper. However, after accounting for inflation, this was actually the least successful Bond movie ever made, one that featured strong competition from various box office bangers like Batman, Ghostbusters II, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the latter featuring original 007 actor Sean Connery. Because of this, producers took a break from making new Bond films for a few years before reinvigorating the franchise with GoldenEye (which starred Pierce Brosnan as a more affable secret agent) in 1995.
Shaken, Stirred, And Bleeding
When Licence to Kill came out, reviewers found it as enjoyable as a ride in an Aston Martin. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 79 percent rating, with critics praising Timothy Dalton’s Bond as more intense than any incarnation of the character we had seen before. While noting that his intensity and the film’s much darker tone may not be everyone’s cup of tea (or martini), the critics also praised this Bond film for a variety of chase and fight scenes that reliably keep you on the edge of your seat.
As the critics hinted at, how much you enjoy Licence to Kill will largely depend on what you want out of a James Bond film. Sean Connery originally transformed Bond’s more dour literary character into a lighthearted secret agent who was more interested in cracking dry jokes and bedding beauties than dispensing violence. By contrast, Dalton’s Bond is on a mission of righteous rage, and this permeates the mostly grim tone of an action film as unforgiving as it is unrelenting.
I’m also a big fan of the Ian Fleming Bond novels, and until Casino Royale came along, Licence to Kill was the only film in the franchise to capture the spirit of those books. In Fleming’s novels, 007 is not a flamboyant secret agent; rather, he is a cold and calculating government killer who can get surprisingly emotional when something bad happens to someone he cares about. In this sense, Dalton’s Bond is very book accurate, as he’s willing to forsake his entire career and risk multiple international incidents in order to avenge his friend.
The Darker Side Of 007
Personally, I’ve always found the darker tone of License to Kill part of its charm: it’s unlike any of the 007 films before Daniel Craig began playing Bond, and it’s actually better than most films in the Craig era. Plus, I found Roger Moore far too goofy as Bond, so I appreciated the seriousness of Dalton as a kind of course correction for the franchise. He wasn’t what ‘80s audiences wanted to see on the big screen, but now that Craig made the idea of a very serious Bond popular again, more and more fans of the franchise have rediscovered the joys of Dalton’s stone-cold killer version of 007 in Licence to Kill.
Licence to Kill nearly destroyed one of the most beloved movie franchises of all time, but beneath its bad reputation hides one of the best James Bond movies ever made. To discover what happens when Bond ditches the license but never stops killing, all you have to do is stream this blockbuster spy thriller on Netflix. You might not be all that shaken or stirred, but trust me: you’ll be seriously entertained from beginning to end!
Entertainment
That wild Scarpetta ending, explained
After eight time-jumping, case-blending episodes, Scarpetta ends with a bang. Well, more of a bludgeon.
The Prime Video series based on Patricia Cornwell‘s books — namely, the first Dr. Kay Scarpetta book, Postmortem (1990), and Autopsy (2021) — finishes up its first season with some answers, but then leaves major question marks and red herrings flapping about in the air.
Let’s get into what happened, what Scarpetta (Nicole Kidman/Rosy McEwen) found out, and what burning questions we have for Season 2 (which Amazon has confirmed is coming). Obviously, spoilers ahead.
Who is killed in Scarpetta?
Nicole Kidman as Scarpetta.
Credit: Connie Chornuk / Prime
Scarpetta could have really given us more information about the murder victims.
In 2026, there are two women murdered: Gwen Hainey, biomedical engineer at Thor Labs, who was selling U.S. biotech secrets to Russia, and runner Cammie Ramada, whose death was ruled as “accidental” despite being anything but.
In 1998, there are five women murdered: ER surgeon Lori Petersen’s killing begins the series, after the murders of Cecile Tyler, Brenda Steppe, and Patty Lewis. Then, journalist Abby Turnbull’s (Sosie Bacon) sister, Hannah, is also murdered.
Who is the killer in Scarpetta?
Jake Cannavale as Pete Marino, Rosy McEwen as Dr. Kay Scarpetta.
Credit: Connie Chornuk / Prime
There are two killers in Scarpetta, one in the past and one in the present.
1998 killer: Roy McCorkle
Through glittery government soap and emergency call records, ’90s Scarpetta figured out the identity of the serial killer she, homicide detective Pete Marino (Jake Cannavale), and FBI profiler Benton Wesley (Hunter Parrish) had been investigating. The killer is Roy McCorkle (Martin De Boer), a local 911 dispatcher who had chosen his victims based on their voices.
2026 killer: August Ryan
In the present, the murderer is revealed to be a copycat. Officer August Ryan, the braces-wearing cop Scarpetta has worked with since the ’90s murders, is the killer of Gwen Hainey and Cammie Ramada.
Scarpetta first meets Officer Ryan at the murder scene of Lori Peterson in Berkley Heights in 1998. “I was never the first on a scene before, of a grisly murder,” he tells her, visibly affected by the violence. This murder ignited Ryan’s penchant for violence but his traumatic past also played a part (more on that below). Later, at the scene of McCorkle’s death, Ryan calls him a “murdering bastard,” and scorns “what he did to those women,” despite those being actions he will repeat 28 years later.
In 2026, Ryan is the first person Scarpetta talks to at the crime scene where Gwen Hainey is found in episode 1. Ryan leads Scarpetta to the victim, pretending to have just encountered the scene he created. Ryan then meets Scarpetta and Marino at the condo where Gwen Hainey was attacked — he even smugly declares that he “found” the murder weapon and reports that Matt Peterson’s fingerprints are all over it (Lori Peterson’s husband, the main suspect of the 1998 murders), which sends Scarpetta and Marino off course. In episode 4, Ryan does it again, leading medical examiner Dr. Debbie Kaminsky (Ashley Shelton) to Cammie Ramada’s body, a crime scene he also created.
Motive? “I did it to impress just the right gal,” Ryan says in the finale, referring to Scarpetta herself.
What’s with the 3D-printed organ business?
In Scarpetta, Thor Labs is a tech company that 3D prints human organs. And though the storyline goes off on a tangent with dead astronauts, the most important thing is that the company links the murder victims in 2026.
Mashable Top Stories
Gwen Hainey and Cammie Ramada both bear skin grafts, pieces of biosynthetic skin made by Thor Labs. Remember, Hainey was a biomedical engineer there, working on the Thor Orbiter Project (3D printing human organs in space). In the finale, Scarpetta receives a call from Officer Blaise Fruge (Tiya Sircar) saying there was a third person in Thor’s skin test group, but Fruge is cut off before naming them.
“That’s how he met them,” Fruge says. “They were in the same group.”
That person? August Ryan, who, as a child, burned his arm on a train track the night he witnessed his uncle committing sexual assault. Presumably, Ryan was after a skin graft. As to the pennies? Ryan’s uncle distracted him with a penny during his crime, one the kid was trying to retrieve from the hot track when he was burned; pennies were left at the murder sites of Gwen Hainey and Cammie Ramada, and Scarpetta finds a penny on her dining room table.
What’s the deal with Maggie and Reddy?
Maggie Cutbush (Stephanie Faracy/Georgia King) spends the present-day storyline basically being a creep and an anti-feminist pain in the ass, but there’s more going on here than meets the eye.
In the ’90s, Maggie was appointed Scarpetta’s assistant when her computer was hacked for information about the Peterson case. Scarpetta wrongfully accused Maggie and fired her. However, the culprit was Dr. Elvin Reddy (Alex Klein), Scarpetta’s professional rival, who also tampered with evidence to discredit Kay.
Now, Dr. Reddy is a piece of work. He wanted Scarpetta’s job of Virginia’s chief medical examiner back in the ’90s, so always had a chip on his shoulder. Reddy hires Maggie as his own assistant, and the show suggests an abuse of power and sexual harassment. In episode 4, Scarpetta looks into Cammie Ramada’s death, ruled as “undetermined” by medical examiner Kaminsky. But Scarpetta finds out that Reddy (chief medical examiner by this point) had shown up at the autopsy with a bunch of FBI agents (the crime scene goes across federal and district lines) and essentially bullied Kaminsky to rule Cammie Ramada’s death an accident.
In the present, Maggie is deployed again as a “direct line” between Scarpetta’s office and Reddy, now health commissioner (and Scarpetta’s boss). Importantly, Reddy and Maggie know Scarpetta’s secret: She killed McCorkle in self-defense in the ’90s — and Marino covered it up for her. Scarpetta did the autopsy, then lied about the findings, but notably, Reddy came into the morgue and indicated he knew there was more to the killer’s death than Marino’s bullets.
In the finale, Maggie flips the script telling Scarpetta she has proof to bring their dodgy boss down. “Pick a crime,” she says. “I’ll get you everything you need to nail the bastard. Leave me out of it, and I’ll leave you out of it.”
What’s going on with Benton Wesley?
Simon Baker as Benton Wesley.
Credit: Connie Chornuk / Prime
Scarpetta’s cardboard husband, Benton Wesley, has dark secrets. We know he left his wife and kids for Kay, and is having an affair with his FBI cybercrime partner Sierra Patron (Anna Diop). We also know he had a traumatic childhood involving neurodivergence and reading disturbing material before his career as a serial killer profiler.
In the finale, Scarpetta tracks Wesley to his definitely illegal interrogation truck at home using Find My Friends, and he warns her to stop investigating Gwen Hainey and Cammie Ramada “before it’s too late” without elaborating. He’s also sent hacker Jinx Slater (Luke Jones) to jail for his girlfriend Gwen Hainey’s murder, presumably to keep the FBI’s Thor Orbiter investigation under wraps.
However, during the scene, Wesley gets…creepy, saying he has some “strange behaviours” and that “there are some creatures that I enjoy to watch suffer,” which seems like he’s about to confess to his “real self” being real dark. We all saw him watch that fly die in pain, and we won’t forget his creepy childhood lair in the basement. But then he simply asks for a divorce. What a fake-out.
Is Matt Peterson actually innocent?
Matt Peterson (Graham Phillips/Anson Mount), the husband of Lori Peterson, appears to be Scarpetta‘s red herring. He’s the guy Marino (Bobby Cannavale) suspected and punched, who runs a cultish grief farm (where Lucy inexplicably ends up in the finale — girl, wyd). But is he actually as innocent as he seems? Sure, he just happened to meet Gwen Hainey in a bar trying to bring his wife back to life with 3D-printed organs. But in episode 1, when a young Marino is interviewing a young Peterson, the suspect mentions one of the first things he noticed meeting Lori in college was her “contralto” voice. “Stopped me in my tracks,” he says. “Its actual tone was perfection.” Marino counters, asking, “You notice a thing like that, huh?” How did McCorkle choose his victims? Their voices. Still a red herring?
Who “killed” Janet?
Ariana DeBose as Lucy Farinelli-Watson.
Credit: Connie Chornuk / Prime
Both Kay and Dorothy (Jamie Lee Curtis) say they didn’t “kill” Janet, the AI version of Lucy’s (Ariana DeBose) wife that she’s been talking to daily since her real death, but she’s sure one of them did it. So, was it one of them? Or was it, say, Blaise Fruge, who wanted to exact a little bit of revenge on her lover for walking out during their argument about Blaise losing her job thanks to Lucy’s “joy ride” to The Orchard? Or perhaps Janet did find a code back door to walk out of…
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Who’s at the door?
In the final moments of Scarpetta, we see that Kay has absolutely baseball-batted Ryan to death. Then, someone arrives at the door, sees everything, and Scarpetta’s reaction is one of pure shock: “Oh no.”
Who could it be? Is it Lucy coming home from her grief session? Is it Marino coming back to declare his feelings? Is it Fruge, following her partner Ryan’s whereabouts? Or is it someone we haven’t met yet?
Scarpetta is now streaming on Prime Video.
Entertainment
Iran-linked hackers launch cyberattack against U.S. medtech company Stryker
U.S. medical technology company Stryker is currently experiencing a massive cyberattack, which has shut down their computer systems and, as a result, even closed the company’s offices.
An Iran-linked digital activist collective known as Handala is claiming credit for the cyberattack against Stryker. This would be the first major cyberattack carried out in the wake of the U.S. war in Iran. Cybersecurity researchers have warned that U.S. companies face an elevated threat risk, primarily from Iran-linked hacktivist groups.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the cyberattack began around midnight on Wednesday as Stryker employees watched data being wiped from company computers in real-time. The company described the attack as a “global network disruption” linked to its Microsoft environment.
During the attack, Handala’s logo also appeared on the Stryker login portals, leaving employees scrambling to unplug their computers. Per the WSJ, in some of the company’s departments, reportedly 95 percent of computers were wiped.
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Stryker’s computer network is effectively unusable as of now, and the company reportedly sent employees home and closed its corporate offices entirely.
“Stryker is experiencing a global network disruption to our Microsoft environment as a result of a cyber attack,” the company said in a statement posted to its website. “We have no indication of ransomware or malware and believe the incident is contained. Our teams are working rapidly to understand the impact of the attack on our systems.”
Stryker manufactures a variety of medical devices such as surgical tools and emergency service equipment. The company has 56,000 global employees and generates $25 billion in revenue each year.
Handala claimed it was launching a “new chapter in cyber warfare” with the attack on Stryker. The hacker group claimed the cyberattack was in retaliation for the bombing of an Iranian school, which Iranian officials say left 175 people, mostly children, dead. An ongoing military investigation has so far found that the U.S. is primarily at fault for the strike on the school, according to the New York Times.
The Iran-linked group said it targeted Stryker as the company works with U.S. military, having recently signed a $450 million contract for medical devices last year, and having previously acquired Israeli company OrthoSpace.
Topics
Cybersecurity
Politics
Entertainment
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra with Privacy Display launches today. Its already a #1 best seller.
There’s a new King of the Hill in the smartphone world. At least, if you’re an Android user.
After a two-week pre-order period, Samsung officially launched the Galaxy S26 Ultra, its next-gen flagship phone. The Galaxy S26 Ultra is unique among recent mobile launches for having a genuinely new hardware feature, a rarity in the age of annual release cycles and iterative updates. (We did see some cool stuff at Mobile World Congress 2026, however.)
The Galaxy S26 Ultra introduces the world’s first Privacy Display, which operates at the pixel level. This feature blacks out the whole screen, specific apps, or notifications from those around you, and it’s legitimately very cool. Once again, the Korean tech giant is introducing features that Apple has no answer to. See also: the Galaxy Z Trifold.
A notification blacked out by Privacy Display.
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable
The phone is already listed as a No. 1 best seller at Amazon. If you’ve been eyeing an upgrade, or if you’re considering defecting from iOS to Android, here’s a quick download on the new AI smartphone.
Free Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra at AT&T With Trade-in and Unlimited Plan
at AT&T Wireless
The Galaxy S26 Ultra: By the numbers
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is priced at $1,299.99, about $100 more than Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max. The phone features an impressive list of specs and camera array. Based on our testing, the custom Snapdragon processor inside will easily set a new high score on the Geekbench 6 mobile processor leaderboard.
Mashable Light Speed
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Display: 6.9-inch AMOLED display
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Refresh rate: Adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz
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Processor: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor
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Resolution: 3120×1440
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Storage: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB storage options
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Battery: 5000 mAh (31 hours of video playback)
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Durability: IP68 rated, Corning Gorilla Armor 2, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2
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Cameras: 200MP main wide lens camera, 50MP ultra-wide lens, 50MP telephoto lens with 10x optical zoom, 10MP lens with 3x optical zoom, front-facing 12MP selfie camera
Is the Galaxy S26 Ultra worth it?
The Korean tech giant has a steep asking price for its fancy new handset. We named this smartphone a Mashable Choice product, and you can check out our full Galaxy S26 Ultra review and camera test.
Frankly, it may be too much phone, both literally and figuratively, for most people. But if you want the best possible Android phone, this is it.
Where to find deals on the Galaxy S26 Ultra
You can buy the new Samsung flagship anywhere phones are sold. If you have a phone to trade in, you can find trade-in offers at AT&T and T-Mobile. Both of these companies are offering the device for free with eligible plans and trade-ins.
In addition, if you buy the phone at Samsung, you get a $150 Samsung credit you can use to save money on the new Galaxy Buds4 Pro, the Galaxy Watch Ultra, and a ton of other Samsung gadgets.
Meanwhile, Amazon is offering a $200 gift card with purchase.
$1,299.99
at Amazon
$1,499.99
Save $200
$1,299.99
at Amazon
$1,699.99
Save $400
That wild Scarpetta ending, explained
Iran-linked hackers launch cyberattack against U.S. medtech company Stryker
