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Cillian Murphy is set to make his eventual return to the world of 28 Days Later within the upcoming trilogy that 28 Years Later will kick off this summer, but there are a few catches.

Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) revealed vague details about the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer actor’s involvement to IGN. The upcoming trilogy expands on the world Boyle and Alex Garland (Civil War) started with 28 Days Later and its star Cillian Murphy, with a new set of interconnected stories. However, Murphy will not appear in the first film as it introduces a new central character: Spike, a 12-year-old boy portrayed by Alfie Williams whose family (led by Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson) finds itself in the thick of the post-apocalyptic zombie outbreak.

“Although each story completes itself, there’s a handover section to the next film as well. So it’s very ambitious. We haven’t got the money for the third one yet. It will depend how the first one does, I guess,” Boyle shared and explained that Murphy’s return is contingent on how the first two movies do.

“But hopefully if we do ok, they’ll give us the go-ahead for the money and for the third one. Everybody’s standing by for that, really. Including Cillian,” the director confirmed regarding Murphy’s participation.

Currently it’s planned that he will make an appearance at the end of the Nia DaCosta (Candyman)-directed follow-up 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which picks up on the immediate continuation of events from Boyle’s upcoming reboot sequel and is slated to open in theaters next January.

“He is in the second one,” Boyle revealed, “I shouldn’t give away too much. I’ll get killed.” But we can guess that his appearance will only tease the potential of the third film, which Sony has yet to confirm.

Boyle continued, “You know that thing about sequels, you want to push it on and take huge risks.”

“I have to say fair play to [studio Sony Pictures]. They did allow us to take great liberties with [28 Years Later]. They could have said, ‘Oh no, it needs to be more sequel-y. You need to rely on some of the ideas that are in the original. And what do you mean Cillian’s not going to appear in the first one? I thought you said Cillian was going to be in it.’ We said, ‘Yeah, Cillian is going to be in it, but not quite the first one.’ So fair play to them. They’ve put up with a lot.”

28 Years Later opens June 20.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

It is often said that people should get out of their comfort zone if they want to dream up big new ideas, but maybe it all depends on where that comfort zone is. If it is one of the 45,000 or so pubs found across the British Isles, it might be better to stay put. These homey drinking establishments and social hubs have helped foster creativity in a wide range of fields. Here are ten impactful and interesting examples.

Related: 10 Ideas That Scare People to Death

10 Cat’s Eyes

From 1934 onward, the world’s roads became much safer thanks to a remarkably simple invention. Called “cat’s eyes,” these are small studs in the road that gently reflect drivers’ headlights at night, illuminating the shape of the road ahead. Weather-resistant, resilient, and requiring no power, it is no surprise that they were widely adopted around the world. However, they would never have existed were it not for a trip to a Yorkshire pub one foggy night.

The drive home from inventor Percy Shaw’s local pub was full of twists and turns. On that foggy night in 1934, Shaw narrowly avoided what could have been a fatal accident when his headlights were reflected by the eyes of a cat. After this eureka moment, he created a prototype, and by the 1960s, his company was making 2,000 cat’s eyes a day. Shaw became very rich in his lifetime, and he later had a pub named in his honor.^[1]

9 Skyscanner

Percy Shaw is not the only person who has become rich due to a trip to his favorite watering hole. In more recent times, an Edinburgh-based entrepreneur called Gareth Williams dreamed up the flight-comparison platform Skyscanner during a brainstorming session with some friends in a pub. This took place in 2003 after Williams, a keen skier, grew frustrated with the need to check many websites to find cheap flights when he wanted to hit the slopes.

Those two friends, Barry Smith and Bonamy Grimes, would become his co-founders. The trio started with a simple spreadsheet, which soon became a prototype website with a search engine that compared flights from different airlines.

Later that year, the site had grown enough for the co-founders to run it full-time. Despite being some distance from Silicon Valley, Skyscanner became a true tech unicorn, being sold to a Chinese company for £1.4 billion in 2016.^[2]

8 “The Secret of Life”

In February 1953, an excited man walked into an English pub called The Eagle and declared that he, along with a fellow named James Watson, had “found the secret of life.” Had this been announced at a drinking establishment anywhere else in the world, it probably would have been dismissed as the ravings of a madman. But in the university city of Cambridge, there might just be some truth to it. It turned out that there was.

That man was the scientist Francis Crick. The Eagle was the pub of choice for him, Watson, and the other scientists they worked with at the nearby Cavendish Laboratory. Crick was, of course, announcing the discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure. The official announcement was made in the journal Nature, and it would later earn Crick, Watson, and their fellow scientist Maurice Wilkins a Nobel Prize in 1962.^[3]

7 Middle Earth and Narnia

The original name of Crick and Watson’s pub was The Eagle and Child, which was also the name of a famous pub in the rival university city of Oxford. However, this pub did not achieve fame because of its patrons’ great insights into the real world but because of their ability to create new worlds. The patrons in question are J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, two of the 20th century’s leading fantasy authors.

The pair could often be found tucked away in a section of the pub called the “Rabbit Room.” There, they would sit by the fireplace and puff away at pipes while sharing tales of Middle-earth and Narnia, the imaginary worlds where Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series would be set. Other academics from the university would also attend, and the group called themselves “The Inklings.”^[4]

6 Robinson Crusoe and Treasure Island

The Eagle and Child pub dates all the way back to 1650, just a few years before another legendary literary pub opened in the city of Bristol in west England. The Llandoger Trow opened by the city’s harbor in 1664 and was named after a nearby village in Wales and a type of boat that the landlord, Captain Hawkins, used to sail. If this sounds like a scene from Treasure Island, there might be a reason for that.

Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island, is believed to have based the novel’s pub on the Llandoger Trow. It is even said that Blackbeard himself, who was born in the city, used to drink there. But the pub is also thought to have been where Daniel Defoe got the inspiration for his classic novel Robinson Crusoe. He reportedly met real-life castaway Alexander Selkirk there and modeled Crusoe on him.^[5]

5 The Gunpowder Plot

Not all big ideas are successful, even if they are conceived in a pub. This was a lesson that Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators found out the hard way. Still, they hold the rare distinction of having organized a spectacular failure that is celebrated every November in the UK. The now infamous Gunpowder Plot was the brainchild of a militant Catholic called Robert Catesby, who had tired of King James I’s lack of tolerance for Catholics.

In 1604, Catesby and other Catholics gathered in a pub called the Duck and Drake. There, they swore an oath of secrecy, which was no doubt required because they were plotting to kill the king by blowing him up during a visit to the Houses of Parliament. However, somebody could not keep the secret. Following a tip-off, a plotter called Guy Fawkes was caught beneath the building with gunpowder and matches. The gang was captured and brutally executed.^[6]

4 D-Day

Other explosive pub-based plans have been more successful than the Gunpowder Plot. One notable example was finalized at a quaint countryside pub called the Bells of Peover in the spring of 1944. That is where, over meals on two consecutive days, Allied Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower and U.S. General George Patton put the finishing touches to their plans for the invasion of Normandy, a crucial step in liberating Europe from Nazi tyranny.

Patton’s troops had been based in the tiny village of Lower Peover since January of that year, and they trained for their deployment to France in the surrounding countryside. They must have trusted their leaders’ plans. One serviceman’s diary, discovered in the pub decades later, describes how the soldiers were excited for the D-Day landings on June 6. Today, the pub still flies a U.S. flag, and its dining room is known as “The Patton.”^[7]

3 A Heartbreaking Ballad

Running a pub in modern times is much harder than it was in Patton’s day and earlier. Demographic changes, new entertainment options, and the adoption of a more health-conscious attitude among the public make pubs a tough business to be in today. However, one thing that is guaranteed to turn a pub’s fortunes around is being mentioned on a Taylor Swift album. And that is exactly what happened to a London pub called the Black Dog.

A bonus track on Swift’s 2024 album, The Tortured Poets Department, shares its name with the pub. The lyrics narrate a story of the singer tracking a former lover there and seeing them with a younger woman. Swift has some British ex-boyfriends, namely singer Matty Healy and actor Joe Alwyn. While dating the latter, she reportedly spent a lot of time in London, allowing fans to accurately guess the pub’s location.^[8]

2 A Famous Cinematic Pub

Few pubs or bars in films have been as central to the plot as The Winchester in 2004’s Shaun of the Dead. It is where the unusual romantic comedy opens, with Simon Pegg’s Shaun being begged by his girlfriend not to spend every night there. When the zombie apocalypse strikes, Shaun’s plan is to save his loved ones and seek safety inside the pub, mirroring Pegg’s real-life zombie survival plan.

As young actors living in London, Pegg and his co-star Nick Frost would spend their free time in their local pub, The Shepherds. While there, they discussed plans for surviving a zombie apocalypse, with Pegg choosing the pub as his destination to hold out against the hordes. Their friend, the director Edgar Wright, turned the plan into the plot of the film and based The Winchester on The Shepherds, even giving the pub’s staff the same names.^[9]

1 An Important Statistical Distribution

This last idea was actually conceived in a brewery, not a pub. However, the goal was to improve the drinks served in the latter. It just turned out to have a lot of applications besides that. The brewery is also no longer British, although it would have been at the time. The idea in question is William Sealy Gosset’s t-distribution, an important statistical tool that Gosset developed in 1908 while working at the Guinness brewery in Dublin.

Gosset’s inspiration came from another scientist who thought hops with more resin made better beer. However, they could not measure the resin of all the hops in a crop. They could only test small samples and had to make an educated guess about whether the whole crop had high or low resin or if only the ones they had picked out did. Gosset’s t-distribution brought rigor to this process and can be applied to many tests with small samples.^[10]

Christianity has had a choppy relationship with the animal kingdom over the years, from the sacrifices of the Old Testament to the generally favorable status animals enjoy in the modern Christian mindset. Along the way, the Christian Church has had a particularly tough time deciding where it stands, caught between respecting God’s creations on the one hand and preventing their wanton destructiveness on the other.

As a result, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the end of the Enlightenment, Church authorities have wound up persecuting, trying, exorcising, punishing, and otherwise taking on animals of every shape and size—often without much success. And that’s not counting sources of myth or legend—because Saint Patrick did not, in fact, drive the snakes out of Ireland!

Here are ten historical cases of the Christian Church going toe-to-toe with animals.

Related: 10 Slithery Surprises about Snake-Handling Churches

10 Archbishop of Trier Anathematized Swallows, 977–993

The Early Middle Ages aren’t known as the Dark Ages for nothing, as the fall of the Roman Empire had major repercussions for the intellectual and cultural development of Europe, paving the way for some pretty archaic (by both pre–Middle Ages and modern standards) practices to creep in. Following the dissolution of the Empire, Europe metastasized into a church-state of Christendom, where Catholicism reigned supreme, and superstition and barbarism were the orders of the day.

Figures like Egbert (950–993) moved from the nobility into the Church and helped control the masses through this new authority. After training in Egmond Abbey (founded by his own family), Egbert became the Archbishop of Trier in 977—but just because he had the authority didn’t mean he was right.

Egbert sought divine intervention, regularly disturbed by swallows, who chirped and tweeted through his services and defiled his vestments at the Trier Cathedral altar. Rather than contact a bird-handler, he anathematized the swallows, forbidding them to enter the cathedral on pain of death. And it’s said the superstition still holds in Trier that if a swallow flies into the cathedral, it will drop dead.^[1]

9 Saint Bernard Excommunicated Flies, 1124

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was the Christian abbot who co-founded the Knights Templar at a time when religious mysticism and militancy were potent and the Crusades were in full swing.

Despite his exalted position within the Church and his influence as a scion of the French high nobility, Saint Bernard wasn’t always occupied by founding abbeys, going on political maneuvers to influence the papacy, or advocating for holy crusades. No, sometimes he was concerned with everyday pests.

In 1124, Saint Bernard was called upon to deal with a swarm of flies irritating worshippers and the officiating priests in the abbey church of Foigny. Drawing on his mystic connection to God, Bernard cursed and excommunicated the flies. Accounts differ on what happened next, with some claiming the flies fell to the floor dead right there and others merely that the flies were gone by the following day. Either way, supernatural maledictions against animals were considered a win-win for the Church: if the pest departed, the anathema had worked, and if they didn’t, then the failure could be attributed to the sins of the congregation.^[2]

8 Pope Gregory Demonized Black Cats, 1233

The 13th century was a time of heightened superstition in Europe and saw the Church demonizing heretics left, right, and center, linking their lack of belief in Catholicism to the devil. Pope Gregory IX (1145–1241) was a product of these times and led the Catholic Church from 1227, having spent the bulk of his life ascending through the Church’s pillars of power in Rome.

Despite being so wedded to Christian ideology as to ascend to the papacy, Pope Gregory’s love of God’s lands and gifts was not universal. He wasn’t a big fan of black cats.

In 1233, he issued the Vox in Rama papal bull, which condemned the heresy of Luciferianism that was reportedly spreading through Germany, demonized heretics, and designated black cats as an embodiment of Satan. Accounts differ on the results of this edict, as some historians go as far as to claim that this led to the orchestrated extermination of cats by the Inquisition for centuries, contributing to the spread of the plague. What’s for certain is our historically maligned, black-furred friends didn’t fare well.^[3]

7 Sainte Geneviève Monks Burned a Child-Eating Pig, 1266

Despite witchcraft, mysticism, and heresy being popular topics in Medieval Europe, it was nonetheless usually illegal to execute anyone—man, child, or beast—without a trial. This meant pretty much everyone and everything would face a court, more often than not organized and administrated by the Church, which, as the arbiter of morality, played a central role in maintaining and meting out law and order.

If found guilty of a capital crime, humans, dogs, cows, pigs, horses, bulls, corpses, and even inanimate objects were sent to the stake or to the gallows, with the animals sometimes dressed in human clothes.

In 1266, at Fontenay-aux-Roses, a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, a pig was captured after attacking and eating a small child. Tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, the hog was publicly burned by the monks of Sainte Geneviève. This holds the record for the first officially documented animal execution.^[4]

6 Basel Tried a Rooster, 1474

Even in the dying days of the Middle Ages, as Europe headed rapidly into the Renaissance, certain members of the Church still had it in for the animal kingdom. Switzerland was under Catholic rule and Catholic law in the 15th century. It was seized by the same supernatural hysteria that fueled the Inquisition.

Though overseen or conducted by the Church, trials of animals did not often include the accusation of demonic possession or witchcraft—charges usually reserved for wicked humans, or at least those perceived as such. Nonetheless, in 1474 Basel (Bâle), the trial of a rooster (or cock) was a notable exception.

The male bird was charged with laying an egg, and in the eyes of the Church, rooster eggs were the product and tool of witchcraft—and an age-old belief suggested that the egg, if not destroyed, would become either a basilisk (giant snake) or a cockatrice (two-legged dragon). It was successfully argued that this was a case of Satan having entered the rooster, and the bird was publicly burned at the stake.^[5]

5 Bishop of Lausanne Anathematized Beetles, 1478–9

Elsewhere in Switzerland, things weren’t a whole lot more sensible. In Lausanne, a species of bruchus (a type of beetle) was destroying local crops, so the bishop of the time—Benoît de Montferrand (ca. 1446–1491)—stepped in.

The bishop conducted a trial against the bruchus, where evidence of their destruction and the suffering they had caused from local clergy was heard. After a conference with the bishop, it was decided that they would be anathematized. A mandate was issued urging the citizens of Lausanne to pray and commanding the insects to depart from the fields within six days.

But these measures didn’t stick, as a continuation of this case against the bruchus—or possibly a new one—was conducted in 1479. The insects continued doing more damage than ever, and a further trial was conducted, with the court banning and exorcising the insects. As this again had no effect, the Church blamed the sins of the citizens, claiming God had permitted the insect to remain as punishment until they repented their wickedness and gave evidence of their love to Him by presenting allocations of their remaining crops to the Church.^[6]

4 Cardinal Bishop of Autun Cursed the Slugs, 1487

The commune of Autun in central France saw a lot of action taken against animals in the 15th century—but most of it was fruitless. In 1487, having been informed that slugs were eating the crops and devastating several estates across different parts of his diocese, the sitting cardinal bishop of Autun ordered public processions for three days in each parish, enjoining upon the slugs to leave the estates under penalty of being accursed.

In this, as in similar cases from the same time, the clergy members from the area were charged with leading these processions and ensuring that, if the slugs did not depart, they would be excommunicated and smitten with anathema.

The slugs were warned three times to stop consuming the vital herbs of the fields and grape vines, but whether this actually had any effect was not recorded. Unless the slugs were present at the parishes themselves and capable of understanding French, it’s difficult to see how they would have received the message.^[7]

3 Autun Ecclesiastical Court vs. Rats, 1522

But Autun wasn’t finished with the kingdom of fauna yet. In 1522, rats had plundered the barley crops of Burgundy—the province in which Autun sits—eating their way through an entire harvest and angering the peasants who now found themselves in dire hardship.

With a potential uprising on their hands and the whole region facing famine, riots, and disorder, the clerics felt something had to be done—and fast. Thus, the rats were put on trial by an ecclesiastical court (a tribunal established by religious authorities) in Autun.

The rats were represented by attorney Bartholomew Chassenée (1480–1541; “Barthélemy de Chasseneuz” in other records), who made his name defending this case. When the rats themselves did not appear before the court, Chassenée argued that his clients could not be expected to obey their summons because their mortal enemies—cats—were preventing them from attending safely. As such, Chassenée claimed, they had the right to disobey the summons and mitigate the sentence of the judge—a defense that earned him fame throughout the country, launched his high-profile legal career, and saw him undertake several other similar cases in his lifetime.^[8]

2 St. Julien Trial and Proclamation Against Weevils, 1545–6

The destruction of crops and precious resources by pests has been a common problem for most of human history, with only industrialization and the development of chemical deterrents creating any serious defense against them.

However, in the early modern period in southeastern France, there were certainly no pesticides to turn to when the insects came calling. In 1545, vineyard owners in St. Julien found their precious grape vines in peril from the ravages of the Rhynchites auratus, a common form of weevil. The creatures had infested their crops, so the winemakers brought a complaint and trial against them.

The sentence itself was delayed, but the Church issued a proclamation the following year, instructing public prayers and Mass to be celebrated on three days while the Host was borne in procession around the vineyards, all to appease the divine wrath that the weevils were seemingly evidence of. And, for once, it worked: the insects disappeared, not returning to the vineyards for forty-one years (at which point they were tried again).^[9]

1 Franciscan Monastery Sued Termites, 1713

By the 1700s, Europe was in the Age of Enlightenment, enjoying the kind of social, intellectual, and philosophical progress the preceding thousand years could only have dreamt of. Christianity was still the dominant religion, although science and philosophy were challenging many of the superstitions and supernatural elements of the religion previously taken as rote. On the other side of the world, however, old habits died hard.

In 1713, the friars of a Franciscan monastery in Piedade no Maranhão, Brazil, were locked in conflict with termites. The creatures were not just eating and spoiling the monastery’s food supplies but also gnawing through furniture and the building itself.

The friars filed a complaint with the bishop, and the insects were sued by an ecclesiastical tribunal. Naturally, the termites were appointed a lawyer, who argued that they were God’s own creatures and, therefore, had the right to eat, putting the Church in a bind. The final decision resulted in a compromise: the friars were instructed to provide a dedicated habitat for the insects, and the termites were commanded to remain at this site lest they be excommunicated.^[10]

Giant ocean waves engulfing tiny boats are the stuff of nightmares—but it turns out rivers also form flood waves that are nothing to sneeze at.

That’s according to researchers from Virginia Tech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), who measured three large flood waves, also called flow waves, in U.S. rivers via satellite data. They claim their approach is the first of its kind, and could inform flood mitigation and warning efforts.

While tides and wind drive ocean waves, intense rain or snowmelt can trigger river waves, which consist of water surges that can span hundreds of miles. River waves are crucial to the movement of nutrients and organisms, but can also be dangerous.

“Analyzing flow wave dynamics to answer questions such as, ‘How high could water levels rise during a flow wave?’ and ‘How fast do flow waves travel?’ has important implications for human safety, infrastructure design and management, and fluvial ecology,” the researchers wrote in a study published May 14 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The team investigated this phenomenon in data from NASA and the French space agency CNES’ Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite. SWOT can detect the height of almost all bodies of water on Earth’s surface by shooting microwaves at the water and measuring the time it takes for them to bounce back. “In addition to monitoring total storage of waters in lakes and rivers, we zoom in on dynamics and impacts of water movement and change,” Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, a SWOT program scientist who did not participate in the study, said in a NASA statement.

Lead author Hana Thurman, a researcher in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech, found three obvious examples of river waves within the SWOT data. One occurred in Montana’s Yellowstone River in April 2023, when a 9.1-foot-tall (2.8-meter-tall) crest suddenly rose and sped toward North Dakota’s Missouri River. The wave’s peak stretched across 6.8 miles (11 kilometers), and was likely the result of a collapsed ice jam farther up the river.

“We’re learning more about the shape and speed of flow waves, and how they change along long stretches of river,” Thurman explained.

A second and significantly more dramatic river wave took place in January 2024 in the Colorado River in Texas. It was 30 feet (9 m) tall, spanned 166 miles (267 km), and moved at around 3.5 feet (1.07 m) per second for over 250 miles (400 km). The third river Thurman analyzed via SWOT data formed in Georgia’s Ocmulgee River two months later: 20 feet (6 m) tall, stretching across over 100 miles (165 km), and traveling at around a foot (0.33 m) per second for more than 124 miles (200 km). Rainfall likely caused both these cases.

While experts can measure river waves with stream gauges, they are sparsely distributed. As such, “satellite data is complementary because it can help fill in the gaps,” said George Allen, a Virginia Tech hydrologist and co-author of the study. The NASA statement likened stream gauges to highway toll booths—providing measurements at fixed points—while SWOT is more like a traffic helicopter taking aerial photographs as it passes by.

Needless to say, such space-based observations can bolster flood detection and warning systems. “If we see something in the data, we can say something,”  Cedric David, a hydrologist at the JPL, concluded. “For a long time, we’ve stood on the banks of our rivers, but we’ve never seen them like we are now.”

We like to think we’ve got a grip on reality. That the world mostly makes sense, and the things we were taught in school are—more or less—true. But scratch just beneath the surface, and things get ‘weird’ fast.

This isn’t your average trivia list. These are the cracks in the matrix, the “wait, what?” facts that feel more like glitches than knowledge. Hidden truths, subtle illusions, and bizarre phenomena suggest we might only see a sliver of what’s actually going on.

Here are 10 things that might just melt your brain a little—in the best way.

Related: 10 Mind-Blowing Examples of the Placebo Effect

10 College Might Be Making You Less Curious

The structure of higher education often rewards regurgitation over exploration. Students learn to ace tests, not to question assumptions. Curiosity—the engine of real learning—gets quietly smothered under syllabi and Scantrons.

Ironically, the place designed to expand your mind might be quietly narrowing it. College often turns to learn into a performance: grades over growth, memorization over exploration. You start chasing GPA points instead of ideas.

Students are rewarded for staying within the lines—following rubrics, citing the “right” sources, and answering questions that already have answers. Stray too far off the syllabus, and suddenly you’re “off-topic.” Curiosity becomes a risk, not a virtue.

By the time you graduate, you may have mastered APA formatting but forgotten how to wonder.^[1]

9 Octopuses Are Basically Aliens

Not metaphorically—literally. Their RNA editing abilities are so bizarre that some scientists seriously explore the idea that their ancestors came from space via panspermia. Also, they have nine brains. What even is that?

Octopuses aren’t just weird—they’re fundamentally other. They have three hearts, blue blood, and the ability to change color and texture like a living mood ring. Their arms can taste and think independently, and two-thirds of their neurons aren’t in their brain—they’re in their limbs. Each arm is like a semi-autonomous creature attached to a central hub.

Even stranger? Octopuses are masters of camouflage despite being colorblind. They somehow process visual information through their skin, and we still don’t fully understand how.

Then there’s the genetic weirdness: octopuses can edit their own RNA on the fly, essentially rewriting their biological instructions in real time. This is incredibly rare in animals. What are the only other known life forms with this skill? Viruses.

Some scientists have even (controversially) suggested that octopus DNA is so radically different from anything else on Earth that it might point to an extraterrestrial origin—like their ancestors hitched a ride here on a comet.

Are they aliens? Probably not. But are they alien enough to make us question what intelligence even is? Absolutely.^[2]

8 The Earth Breathes

There’s something called the “Chandler wobble”—a real, observed wobble in Earth’s rotation. Combined with atmospheric pressure and oceanic movement, it causes the Earth’s surface to shift, like it’s subtly breathing.

It sounds like a myth, but it’s science: the Earth doesn’t just spin—it wobbles, shifts, and subtly inhales.

In the Chandler wobble, the Earth’s axis drifts in a slow, looping circle. It’s not dramatic—just a few meters over a year—but it’s enough to slightly change your GPS coordinates without you ever moving. Scientists still aren’t entirely sure why it happens.

Then there’s the seasonal “breath” of the planet. During spring and summer in the Northern Hemisphere, vast forests pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere—like a giant inhale. In fall and winter, when those trees shed their leaves and decay, they release carbon back—an exhale.

Even the solid ground beneath us isn’t still. Under extreme conditions—like earthquakes, glacier movements, or even the shifting weight of water reservoirs—the Earth can actually “ring” like a bell. It’s called a free oscillation, and we’ve recorded it.

Put it all together, and our planet stops feeling like a rock—and starts feeling like something much more alive.^[3]

7 Most of History Is a Guess

We act like history is a solid timeline—but in truth, much of what we “know” is based on best guesses, biased records, or literally one guy’s account. Entire centuries have gone “missing” in historical records—the “Phantom Time Hypothesis.”

We like to imagine history as a clean timeline—a neat stack of facts laid out by smart people in museums and textbooks. But the truth? Much of it is stitched together from fragments, myths, and wild speculation.

Entire civilizations vanished without a trace. Languages died with no record. Key events are known from a single source—often written decades or centuries later by someone with an agenda. Think about it: what we know of Socrates comes from his student Plato. Imagine if everything about your life was written down by just one of your friends.

Even the dates are shaky. The Phantom Time Hypothesis—a fringe but fascinating theory—suggests that nearly 300 years of history (between AD 614 and 911) were completely fabricated by medieval scribes to make a ruler’s reign seem more legitimate. Mainstream historians reject it, but the fact that it’s even plausible shows how fragile the scaffolding of “truth” really is.

And don’t forget the historical filter: wars, fires, colonization, censorship—so much has been lost or destroyed. What survives often says more about power than about people. In the end, history isn’t a record—it’s a story we’re still rewriting, one incomplete clue at a time.^[4]

6 Your Mind Makes Up Most of Your Vision

Only a tiny fraction of your visual field is actually in high resolution. Your brain guesses the rest. You’re mostly seeing a hallucination stitched together from memory and assumption.

You’re not seeing the world so much as your brain is guessing it. Only the very center of your visual field—about the size of your thumb at arm’s length—is in sharp focus. The rest? Blurry, low-res input that your brain smooths over with assumptions, memory, and context.

Even stranger: your eyes have a literal blind spot where the optic nerve connects to the retina. There are no photoreceptors there at all. But you never notice it because your brain just fills it in with what it thinks should be there—like Photoshop’s content-aware fill, but in real time.

What you’re “seeing” is less like a live feed and more like a predictive simulation. Your brain uses prior knowledge, expectation, and peripheral data to construct a stable visual world that often doesn’t match what’s actually out there.

This is why optical illusions work. It’s why eyewitness testimony is so unreliable. And it’s why you can stare at something and not see it—because your brain already decided it wasn’t important. Reality, as far as your brain is concerned, is mostly a really convincing hallucination.^[5]

5 Time Moves Faster in Your Head as You Age

Ever wonder why time flies faster as you get older? It’s not just perception—neural transmission and dopamine production both slow down, altering how your brain experiences time.

Remember how endless summers felt as a kid? How a week could feel like a lifetime? That wasn’t just nostalgia—it was neuroscience.

As we age, our perception of time changes dramatically. One theory is that time feels slower when we’re young because everything is new. Novel experiences flood the brain with data, forcing it to process more information, which in turn stretches the sense of time. A single afternoon exploring the woods at age 8 holds as much sensory density as a whole week of routine adulthood.

But there’s also a biological reason: our brains literally slow down. As we age, the rate at which our neurons fire and transmit information decreases. This affects how many “snapshots” of the world our brain can take in per second. Fewer mental snapshots = faster-feeling time.

There’s even research showing that dopamine, which helps regulate time perception, declines as we get older. The clock doesn’t actually tick faster—but the way we experience it compresses. This is why years start to blur. Why December sneaks up on you. Why time doesn’t just fly—it evaporates.^[6]

4 Plants Know When They’re Being Eaten

Plants can “hear” themselves being chewed on and respond with chemical defenses. Some even send chemical warnings to neighboring plants. The idea that plants are passive is just wrong.

They don’t scream (audibly), they don’t run—but make no mistake: plants are far from passive. In fact, they’re shockingly aware of what’s happening to them.

Studies have shown that when a caterpillar starts munching on a leaf, the plant can hear the vibrations of chewing and respond almost immediately by producing defensive chemicals—essentially making itself taste terrible or even toxic. Some release airborne signals that alert nearby plants, preemptively activating their defenses. It’s like a silent neighborhood watch for leaves.

Certain plants even produce specific compounds tailored to the attacker—an insect vs. a fungus triggers different responses, meaning the plant can identify what’s hurting it. Some can send signals down to their roots and across their entire system to warn other parts of themselves: “We’re under attack.”

And it gets weirder. Some studies suggest plants can even learn from repeated stimuli. They’re not just reacting—they’re remembering. They don’t have brains. They don’t have nerves. But they have something we’re only just beginning to understand: a distributed, chemical intelligence that blurs the line between plant and animal.

So next time you’re trimming your houseplant, just know—it might know you’re doing it.^[7]

3 You’ve Never Truly Seen a Mirror Image of Yourself

The “mirror you” is a flipped version that no one else ever sees. Photos aren’t it either—those are flat and distorted. Your actual face is something you’ve never seen with your own eyes. That reflection you stare at every day? It’s not really you.

It’s a flipped version of you that only exists in the mirror. When you look in a mirror, your left side becomes the right side, and vice versa. So, while you may think you’re gazing at yourself, what you see is a reversed, distorted version that doesn’t match how others perceive you.

Even photographs aren’t quite you—they’re two-dimensional, capturing your image in a moment, but they flatten everything and don’t account for the subtle, ever-shifting depth of your actual face.

It gets even weirder. When you look in the mirror, you see a face you’re not used to. Most people have a stronger emotional connection to the flipped version, the one they’ve been seeing in photos, as opposed to the actual version others see. This creates a dissonance when people encounter their “real” face in candid shots—they’re often surprised by how they look, even though it’s objectively their face.

What’s even more unsettling? You’ve never truly seen yourself from someone else’s perspective. You can’t. The closest you’ll ever get is a picture, which is still warped by angles and lighting. Your face, in its true, unfiltered form, exists only in the minds of others—and it’s a version you’ve never experienced firsthand.^[8]

2 Airplanes Are Literally Designed to Flex

The wings of a Boeing 787 can bend more than 26 feet (7.9 meters). Engineers design them this way intentionally—rigid wings would snap under stress. You’re flying in a giant, engineered bird that flaps just a little.

Next time you board a plane, think about this: The wings are designed to bend. A lot. In fact, the wings of a Boeing 787 can flex upward roughly the length of a bus before the structure begins to strain. This isn’t a flaw or an afterthought. It’s by design.

Airplanes fly at altitudes where air pressure is incredibly low, and turbulence is often unavoidable. The wings, made from advanced composite materials, are engineered to absorb and respond to the stresses of flight—bending with the winds rather than snapping. Without this flexing, the forces acting on the plane—especially during high winds or turbulence—could cause severe structural damage. Instead, the wings act like shock absorbers, maintaining stability and strength.

Engineers test this flexibility by subjecting wings to extreme conditions, bending them to their limits to ensure they’ll hold up during normal flight. They can be bent so far that it’s almost impossible to imagine how they’ll snap back into shape. But they do. Time and time again.

This design doesn’t just improve safety—it enhances efficiency. A flexible wing means less drag and more streamlined movement through the air, saving fuel and improving the aircraft’s overall performance.

So, the next time you’re soaring through the sky, know that the wings you’re trusting are bending, flexing, and moving with the air instead of just cutting through it rigidly. The technology is an elegant marriage of physics, materials science, and engineering—literally built to bend without breaking.^[9]

1 We’ve Mapped More of Mars Than Earth’s Oceans

Over 80% of Earth’s oceans are completely unmapped and unexplored. We know more about the surface of the Moon than we do about the terrain beneath our own feet.

We know more about the dusty, red surface of Mars than we do about the vast, hidden depths of our own oceans. It’s hard to wrap your head around, but the fact is that we’ve mapped only about 20% of Earth’s ocean floors in detail, while NASA has mapped nearly the entire surface of Mars.

Why the imbalance? Earth’s oceans are difficult to explore. They’re dark, cold, and under extreme pressure, making it hard to send robots or cameras deep enough to get a complete picture. The vast majority of our ocean floor remains a mystery—vast stretches of the seafloor are only studied from afar through sonar and satellite technology, and much of it remains unseen.

Mars, on the other hand, is much more accessible to our technology. The planet’s surface is visible through telescopes and has been extensively photographed by satellites and rovers. Despite its extreme conditions—no breathable atmosphere, extreme temperatures, and harsh radiation—Mars is a “static” surface, relatively simple to study from a distance.

Our oceans, however, are in constant flux, with currents, tides, and underwater volcanoes reshaping the landscape. In addition to that, the depths—some parts of the ocean are nearly 7 miles (11.3 km) deep—make it clear why mapping the ocean floor is far more complex.

But here’s the kicker: The ocean is a vast, untapped resource, home to countless species, undiscovered ecosystems, and valuable minerals. It could hold the key to understanding climate change, advancing medicine, or even providing new energy sources.

The fact that we’ve spent far more time mapping an alien planet than exploring our own planet’s underworld is a striking reminder of just how much there is still to discover—right beneath the surface of our own home.^[10]

In 1995, the most famous Harvey Comics character not named Richie Rich made his live-action big-screen debut, though the Casper we see throughout his self-titled movie is brought to life mostly through the best CGI money could buy 30 years ago. With Steven Spielberg producing, a post-Addams Family Christina Ricci starring, an excessive amount of cameos, and a plot that addresses death in ways both tragic and silly, Casper crafts a tone that would be unique to any supernatural fantasy. But it’s especially oddball in a movie ostensibly aimed at children.

The directorial debut of Brad Silberling, Casper first hit theaters May 26, 1995, and it was a smash hit, ending up the eighth-highest grossing film of the year (sandwiched between Seven and Waterworld). The biggest kids’ movie of 1995 was Toy Story, which does dig into some existential themes, but doesn’t face the void quite as boldly as Casper does. 

It begins with a death, as the greedy Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty) and her sleazy attorney Dibs (Eric Idle) learn she’s inherited just one thing from her recently departed father, who she’s clearly not mourning whatsoever: Whipstaff Manor. Carrigan has no use for the dilapidated seaside mansion—located in the optimistically named Friendship, Maine—until a paper tucked in with the deed gives her and Dibs the notion that there’s treasure hidden somewhere within.

Elsewhere in the story, another death has shaped a different set of characters: Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman, in a career sweet spot after Sleepless in Seattle and While You Were Sleeping, and just ahead of Independence Day and Lost Highway) and his daughter Kat (Ricci, who soon after began to shift away from kid-oriented roles). Harvey and Kat are still grieving the loss of Kat’s mother; Harvey’s coping mechanism has been to fashion himself into a sort of touchy-feeling exorcist, using his therapy skills to help guide “living impaired” patients into the beyond. 

Beneath that, of course, lurks his hope that he’ll be able to contact his late wife in the great beyond—something Kat puts up with despite being teased about her kooky dad. Harvey promises her that this will be the very last time he uproots his daughter for a ghost hunting gig when they pull up to Whipstaff Manor. As Carrigan and Dibs have discovered, the place is haunted by ghosts so stubborn neither a priest (comedian Don Novello as his long-running character Father Guido Sarducci) nor a Ghostbuster (Dan Aykroyd, in full Ray Stantz mode) can get them out. 

It’s a good thing Casper was released by a different studio than Beetlejuice, because things could’ve gotten really messy there. Instead, we get the newly hired Harvey facing off with (and eventually befriending, though it takes awhile) the Ghostly Trio (Brad Garrett as Fatso, Joe Nipote as Stretch, and Joe Alaskey as Stinkie). The lonely Kat—who attracts bullies even in Friendship, Maine—finds herself bonding with the trio’s nephew, Casper (Malachi Pearson), the Friendly Ghost who’s sadly very friendless.

Except, Casper doesn’t want to be just friends with Kat, does he? Early in the movie Casper travels through electrical lines and zaps his way into Carrigan’s hotel room; there, he ensures she sees a TV program focusing on Harvey, just the expert she needs to deal with her spectral problem. Casper does this because he’s seen the same segment, which features a glimpse of Kat so arresting it makes the ghost of a 12-year-old boy swoon—then scheme to get her into his house.

Kat doesn’t know it’s Casper’s old bedroom when she picks her spot in Whipstaff Manor. Nor does she overhear his delight (“There’s a girl on my bed… yesss!”), which would feel more innocent and cute if there weren’t some other unwholesome come-ons later in the movie. That includes the infamous moment when Casper kisses a sleeping Kat after murmuring “Can I keep you?” 

That cringey line is repeated at the end of the film when Casper briefly gets to be a real boy (played by future horror icon Devon Sawa). Though Kat is thrilled by his corporeal appearance, and his voice is far less squeaky when he’s in human form, “Can I keep you?” still makes her look askance. 

As soon as Casper becomes a ghost again, he’s immediately back in the friend zone, a feeling further underlined by the contrast between Sawa’s teen-dream appearance and Casper’s cartoonish visage. The movie, which has also just given Harvey a sweet if fleeting reunion with his angelic dead wife, goes for a feel-good finale with the Spooky Trio—who indulge in innuendo-laden humor throughout the movie that’s presumably aimed at any adults watching—rocking out to Little Richard’s “Casper the Friendly Ghost” theme as Kat and her father dance.

Less happy endings are handed down to Kat’s junior high foes, who are sent screaming away from the climactic Halloween party at Whipstaff after encountering Casper’s uncles, as well as Carrigan and Dibs, who perish while trying to get their mitts on the “treasure,” which turns out to be an autographed baseball. Carrigan, at least, briefly becomes a ghost who inadvertently ties up all her unfinished business when she finds the baseball. Screaming in protest, she gets booted into the afterlife as a result. (Dibs gets tossed through a window and out of the movie for good.)

The idea that ghosts who resolve their unfinished business are allowed to move on, which is pretty standard supernatural lore, makes Casper’s situation all the more perplexing. In the movie, we learn he became ill and died after playing too long in the snow—then decided to hang around to keep his sorrowful father company. (When Kat asks him what it’s like to die, he grimly describes it as “like being born, only backwards.”)

In turn, the eccentric inventor created a “Lazarus machine” specifically to bring his beloved son back to life. (As Gremlins showed us as well, there’s nothing an Amblin movie loves more than a dad who’s also a chaotic inventor.) It’s still in Whipstaff’s basement and still functional, with just enough juice to revive Harvey after he perishes in an accidental fall.

This raises some questions, namely: why didn’t Casper’s father go ahead and revive him back then? Thanks to a vintage newspaper we learn that he was eventually carted off to the psychiatric hospital because of his “bring ghosts back to life” obsession, but the Lazarus Machine is very well hidden in a secret room. Surely he would have had enough time to resurrect Casper before anyone found out?

The answer, presumably, is that we need Casper to be a ghost for there to be Casper, and for all the elements jerry-rigged around that central point, it’s surprising there aren’t more plot holes. Kat’s party dress, which once belonged to Casper’s mother, is pulled from a trunk and donned over a full outfit of other clothes, which then seemingly disappear on their own and the costume’s a perfect fit? Don’t worry about it. What will happen to Kat and Harvey’s living situation now that Whipstaff’s new owner has fled this mortal coil? Again, don’t worry about it. Are the Spooky Trio ghosts actually Casper’s uncles, as they are in the comics, or are they three unrelated dead guys who’ve taken up residence and routinely order the little guy to serve them platters of junk food? 

Also, though we did poke fun at the special effects’ 1995-ness earlier, they actually look pretty great considering how much the ghost characters have to interact with the human ones. Going cartoony not only keeps Casper and crew looking like their comic-book counterparts, it also keeps what passes for menace in this movie on the gentler side. There’s also a weird comedic disconnect when you realize Harvey has died—a sad moment for the suddenly orphaned Kat—and is now… a goofy-looking phantom instead.

Casper’s popularity spawned a few straight-to-video prequel-sequels and a cartoon series, but somehow has never made it back to the big screen. While that seems unlikely after all this time, a live-action Casper series unconnected to the movie has been in development at Peacock for the past few years. But wherever Casper—who first appeared in November 1945, so happy 80th, buddy—rises from the grave next, we can always keep this 30-year-old, enduringly entertaining oddity.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Sticking with what works is nothing new, especially in gaming. New stories, characters, and mechanics are increasingly rare. Long development times and ballooning budgets only compound the issue, as studios must take a larger gamble with every project. Why take that risk when going with a guaranteed success is safer?

That mindset prompts developers to exploit certain games to no end. They don’t just make sequels. Rather, when studios stumble on a hit, they refuse to move on before milking it dry. In such cases, a single game can spawn remakes, remasters, ports, expansions, spin-offs, and adaptations. Granted, revisiting a beloved tale is a comforting experience, as it lets audiences bask in those familiar feelings and remember why the work resonated with them in the first place. Then again, repeating this strategy can have the opposite effect. With enough exposure, even the most ardent fans may get sick of their old favorites. It’s ultimately up to those fans to decide their breaking point.

Related: Top 10 Most Surprisingly Addictive Video Games You’ll Want to Play Nonstop

10 The Last of Us

Zombie apocalypse tales were already plentiful before The Last of Us, but none matched this game’s runaway success. The title revolved around a broken man named Joel, whose daughter died in the initial outbreak. After several years as a mercenary, he got a job transporting an immune girl called Ellie across the U.S. Their shared struggles eventually brought them closer, letting them regain some sense of family in a ruined world. That father-daughter dynamic fueled the game for years to come.

The Last of Us transcended both its genre and its console. Though initially a PS3 exclusive, it quickly got a remastered edition for PS4. These releases coincided with comic prequels, tabletop games, live readings from the cast, and theme park rides. Over the years, other consoles got ports of the remastered version leading up to the eventual sequel, The Last of Us Part II. Even after this follow-up, the developers remade the original entry, releasing it yet again as The Last of Us Part I. This remake immediately preceded a TV adaptation on HBO. Clearly, fans will never see the last of The Last of Us.^[1]

9 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls was always popular with the role-playing crowd, but the fifth entry brought it to the mainstream. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim placed fans in a Nordic fantasy realm. Here, they functioned as the Dragonborn: a prophesied warrior who absorbed dragon souls and channeled their magic in explosive shouts. They could go anywhere and do anything, exploring the rich world and influencing pivotal events with their nuanced actions. That open-ended appeal was too addictive for its own good.

Skyrim kept its company afloat for over a decade. Just two years after its initial release came the Legendary Edition with all three DLC packs. The next console generation saw the remastered Special Edition, which additionally came to the Nintendo Switch. After these releases, there was a virtual reality edition, aptly titled Skyrim VR. Finally, the game’s 10-year popularity prompted the Anniversary Edition, packaging the previous DLCs with a wealth of new content from both players and developers. It’s easy to see how fans spent hundreds of hours in this mythical wonderland.^[2]

8 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

After a gradual path to the mainstream, this fantasy franchise saw a massive hit with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The threequel saw the monster-hunting Geralt on a search for his adopted daughter, Ciri, whose world-hopping powers made her a target for a sinister band of spectral marauders. Arguably more engaging, though, were the countless hours of exploring the realm, taking on quests, and enjoying every painstaking detail. That adventure attracted legions of genre fans.

The widespread reach caused developers to take note. The two huge expansions—practically full games themselves—led to later releases like the Complete Edition and the Game of the Year Edition. These versions came with all the extra tweaks, fixes, and content. The subsequent Netflix series only furthered that esteem. Though based on the books instead of the games, it prompted yet more players, which drove developers to add a few of its aspects to The Witcher 3. The studio then incorporated these fixings into a next-gen remaster for new systems. All this doesn’t even account for the title’s card game, Gwent, which got several spin-offs incorporating the books’ lore. The developers’ passion for this property knows bounds.^[3]

7 Final Fantasy VII

Each mainline Final Fantasy game was a fresh story in a new world, but one entry defied that tradition time and time again. Final Fantasy VII began with the evil Shinra corporation sapping the planet’s magical energy for its deranged goals. These schemes inadvertently brought disaster, ironically spurred on by the company’s greatest warrior/experiment, Sephiroth. The only hope lay with a ragtag group of heroes led by a former Shinra trooper named Cloud Strife. Only by solving the planet’s age-old mysteries and harnessing its energy could they save it from calamity. That rich mythology and intuitive gameplay shot FFVII to the series’ top tier.

It’s not surprising, then, that it’s received the most attention post-release. On top of porting the classic to other consoles, the developers expanded the world through various spin-offs, prequels, and sequels. They included tales like Advent Children, Crisis Core, and Dirge of Cerberus. In addition, the Kingdom Hearts series featured FFVII characters in recurring guest appearances. This continuing fanfare culminated in the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, which recreated the original tale with updated graphics, voice acting, and a new combat system. The creators will soon become as greedy as Shinra.^[4]

6 Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2

In the vast catalog of Dragon Ball tie-ins, Xenoverse 2 stuck around the longest. It lets players create a custom character and travel through the franchise’s history, affecting pivotal events by fighting alongside the heroes. Developing one’s character hinged on learning from these heroes (or villains). You then pitted those skills against other players in online matches. That continued fan support was what kept the game going.

Xenoverse 2 has steadily added features for a decade. Part of the demand stemmed from the expanding brand. Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Daima aired during the game’s lifecycle, thereby drumming up enthusiasm and providing a consistent source for new DLCs. On top of these additions, fans contributed their own creations through mods. All 40 years of Dragon Ball history gradually gathered into this single title.^[5]

5 Resident Evil

In contrast to its overblown successors, the first Resident Evil was a small-scale affair. The tale involved members of a special task force trying to escape a zombie-filled manor. That goal was a slow burn as they carefully navigated the hazardous place while solving puzzles, gathering resources, and avoiding monsters. Clunky controls aside, the patiently horrific atmosphere and meticulous mechanics made for an immersive survival experience, especially compared to what came after. That hindsight likely fueled the game’s many returns.

The developers sought to recapture Resident Evil’s magic without the frustration. Though originally limited to PlayStation, it soon came to PC and Sega Saturn, each boasting a handful of fresh features. However, the classic quickly returned to PS1 with the Director’s Cut: a slightly adjusted version with new outfits, animations, modes, and item locations. This package itself got a variation called the Dual Shock Ver., which updated the music and supported the recent DualShock controller. Following this were a GameCube remake and a Nintendo DS port. These releases sported yet more modifications in gameplay and aesthetics. Throw in the blockbuster movie series, and fans couldn’t forget this horror story if they tried.^[6]

4 Persona 3

The Persona series is no stranger to re-releases, but Persona 3 got the most attention in this area. Like its peers, the RPG revolved around Japanese schoolchildren. Going about their daily routines, they found their city under attack from shadowy monsters, which they fought using the series’ trademark turn-based combat. The gameplay loop was as dense as ever, but the developers stuffed it still further.

This title received a re-release for seemingly every new feature. Persona 3 FES extended the playtime and added a harder difficulty option; this version became available on subsequent consoles through retro ports. On the other hand, the PSP saw its own rendition with Persona 3 Portable . This title condensed the experience into a visual novel, adjusted the narrative, and revamped the mechanics with Persona 4 as a template. Finally, fans got a full-blown remake in Persona 3 Reload , with all the benefits of modern hardware and recent entries. The tale’s child stars should be seasoned adults by now.^[7]

3 Half-Life

Half-Life mirrored Resident Evil in both narrative and history. Players controlled a scientist as he raced to escape a research station infested with aliens. Although the foundation was a first-person shooter, the game heightened the tension through its maze-like structure and a lack of scripted sequences. The refusal to hold players’ hands resonated, and they certainly showed their gratitude over the years.

Half-Life was another classic nurtured by both developers and fans. The former followed the initial release with expansions like Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay. These packs retold the story with new characters and multiplayer functionality. Plus, they went into subsequent ports on PS2, OS X, Linux, and the Source engine. On the fan side of things, modders used Half-Life’s assets to craft separate titles like Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat. These efforts culminated in a complete remake called Black Mesa. Suffice it to say—Half-Life’s half-life was longer than anticipated.^[8]

2 Grand Theft Auto V

The Grand Theft Auto games popularized open-world chaos, with this pivotal entry taking it to the extreme. *Grand Theft Auto V* juggled three contrasting protagonists as they pulled off daring heists, often amid crooked government oversight and rival gangs. On top of the story’s insanity, players got a kick out of Los Santos, a massive sandbox with a plethora of pastimes. The resulting hype lasted long after its debut.

GTAV enjoyed endless exposure post-release. A year after it first hit PS3 and Xbox 360, the game got a remaster for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. This version came with technical improvements and added gimmicks like first-person mode. Further tweaks came in the following generation with an Expanded & Enhanced version on PS5 and Xbox Series X. Meanwhile, developers continued the content with Grand Theft Auto Online, which used GTAV’s open world for a handful of multiplayer modes. Only after a decade did they leave that world behind. This money-making scheme put the biggest heists to shame.^[9]

1 Pokémon Red & Blue

The pocket monster series has seen an obscene number of entries, but they all stood on the first generation’s shoulders. The original pair of Pokémon games—Red and Blue Version—challenged players to assemble an elite team. Journeying across the land, they caught and trained Pokémon of various types. They then pitted these creatures against other trainers, earned eight badges by beating corresponding gym leaders, and bested the Pokémon League to take the region’s top spot. That simple yet irresistible formula drove multiple generations, but the developers didn’t forget their roots.

The initial Pokémon journey reappeared several times throughout the franchise. Shortly after its debut came Yellow Version: a re-release to resemble the popular anime series, complete with a Pikachu companion. The subsequent Gold, Silver, and Crystal versions also looked backward. Although these games mainly showcased a new setting, they also let players revisit the first generation’s Kanto region and relive the classic journey once again. As if that wasn’t enough, the developers later remade the titles twice: FireRed and LeafGreen for the Game Boy Advance and Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! for the Switch. Gotta play ’em all!^[10]