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| Ultimate Movie Series |
 Title text: Sadly, none of the 14 Land Before Time films manage to make the list, although a small but devoted fan contingent argues that The Great Longneck Migration should beat out Guardians of the Galaxy. |
Explanation
This comic lists fifteen films from different movie franchises, combined into a single "ultimate movie series". Randall has done so for each entry in the series by comparing the movies that occupy the corresponding slot in their own series and selecting what he considers the best movie. (For example, for the first slot, he would compare movies like The Godfather, Star Wars / A New Hope, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and so on.) This is absurd due to the movies being unrelated, and especially later on, heavily dependent on previous movies that are not present in the list.
The title text mentions The Land Before Time series, a franchise consisting of animated adventure films centered around dinosaurs, but states that none of the 14 films would beat out any of the films already listed. But there is a "devoted fanbase" for the 10th film (The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration), which thus thinks it should beat out other candidates for the 10th entry.
| No. | Movie | Franchise | Total in franchise | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Godfather (1972) | The Godfather (film series) | 3 | The 1st film in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather trilogy. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. |
| 2 | The Empire Strikes Back (1980) | Star Wars | 12 | The Empire Strikes Back, while subtitled as "Episode V", was the second Star Wars film to release. It is often regarded as the best in the series and among the greatest films ever made; the place on the listing implies Randall believes it to specifically be the greatest direct sequel, as the second entry, of any franchise. |
| 3 | Return of the King (2003) | The Lord of the Rings | 3 | The 3rd film in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy (and the 3rd live-action Middle-earth film released). |
| 4 | Fury Road (2015) | Mad Max | 5 | The 4th installment in George Miller’s Mad Max franchise (following Mad Max, The Road Warrior, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome). |
| 5 | Prey (2022) | Predator | 7 | The 5th solo/mainline Predator film, after Predator, Predator 2, Predators, and The Predator. |
| 6 | Fallout (2018) | Mission: Impossible | 8 | The 6th film in the Mission: Impossible franchise. |
| 7 | The Force Awakens (2015) | Star Wars | 12 | The second Star Wars film in the list, Episode VII: The Force Awakens was generally well-received. In watching the ultimate movie series, a viewer would likely be confused due to the absence of the film Episode VI: Return of the Jedi between Empire and The Force Awakens. |
| 8 | First Contact (1996) | Star Trek | 13 | The 8th movie in the franchise overall, and the second of the Next Generation-era films. |
| 9 | Badlands (2025) | Predator | 9 | Including the two Alien vs. Predator crossover films, Badlands is the ninth, rather than the seventh, Predator film. |
| 10 | Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) | Marvel Cinematic Universe | 38+ | The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an extremely expansive series of movies and television shows that has made active releases since 2008. Guardians of the Galaxy is the tenth such film, even though it is the first in its own sub-trilogy containing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. It was better-received than many other films in the franchise's Phase Two. |
| 11 | Star Trek (2009) | Star Trek | 13 | The 11th Star Trek feature film overall (following six Original Series films and four Next Generation films) and the first in the "Kelvin Timeline" reboot. |
| 12 | Moonraker (1979) | James Bond | 27 | The 12th James Bond feature film released if you include the non-Eon 1967 comedy Casino Royale (it is the 11th official Eon Productions Bond film). |
| 13 | Beyond (2016) | Star Trek | 13 | The 13th Star Trek feature film overall (and the 3rd in the J.J. Abrams-produced reboot series). |
| 14 | Doctor Strange (2016) | Marvel Cinematic Universe | 38+ | The 14th film released in the MCU (following Captain America: Civil War). |
| 15 | Air Bud Returns (2027) | Air Bud | 14 | The comic humorously asserts that the relatively low-stakes and still unreleased Air Bud Returns will be the best 15th movie of any franchise. Few franchises have reached 15 films, but contenders that Air Bud Returns supposedly defeats include the well-received Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (MCU) and Never Say Never Again (James Bond). |
Transcript
- The Ultimate Movie Series
- Constructed by taking the best Nth installment from any franchise:
- I: The Godfather
- II: The Empire Strikes Back
- III: Return of the King
- IV: Fury Road
- V: Prey
- VI: Fallout
- VII: The Force Awakens
- VIII: First Contact
- IX: Badlands
- X: Guardians of the Galaxy
- XI: Star Trek (JJ Abrams)
- XII: Moonraker
- XIII: Beyond
- XIV: Doctor Strange
- XV: Air Bud Returns (2027) (presumably)
This Week's Explanation for Improvement
As part of the Explanation Improvement Project, each week the community selects one older, stagnant, or otherwise neglected explanation to expand and polish together. This week's pick is comic 2500: Global Temperature Over My Lifetime, you can help us by editing its explanation!
To get involved with the project, you can also nominate an explanation that you think should be improved, or vote on current nominations!
| Global Temperature Over My Lifetime |
 Title text: I was really impressed by the accuracy of some of the report's predictions about fossil fuel consumption. Then I realized, oh, right, of course. |
Explanation
|
Welcome to This Week's Explanation for Improvement! Anyone is encouraged to help explain comic 2500: Global Temperature Over My Lifetime; click here to get started! If you are new to wiki editing, you can read our editing FAQ for guidance. Here are some suggestions for improving this explanation: .svg){kind=icon} Mention if the predictions have held up
.svg){kind=icon} Explain Randall's own life events, such as his "first middle school dance"
.svg){kind=icon} Mention other recurring themes and other comics where he has mentioned climate change predictions
.svg){kind=icon} Explain the report which can be accessed by clicking the comic image on xkcd.com
.svg){kind=icon} Verify the accuracy of the other predictions
|
This is Randall Munroe in his role as a meticulous, conscientious presenter of scientific data. The activities shown in Randall's lifeline, whether learning to ride a bike or even getting married, pale into insignificance when the consequences of unprecedented global average temperature rise are understood and accepted. In particular, he shows that back in 1982, two years before Randall was born, Exxon wrote an internal report predicting the rise of global temperatures due to fossil fuel use, and 40 years later their prediction (shown as the X in a circle at the top-right) is being shown to be right on track. Unfortunately, that report was hidden and not seen until much later, and the world has been slow to respond with the urgency needed to reverse the damage being done to the planet.
The Wikipedia article global temperature record has some telling graphs to supplement Randall's. This one: Global Average Temperature is the global average temperature change for the modern era, since data started being collected regularly in 1850. This one: 2000 Year Temperature Comparison reconstructs 2000 years of temperatures.
And this comic is a small segment of another comic: 1732: Earth Temperature Timeline.
The comic itself links to the referenced Exxon document about CO2 emissions.
The comic was published on the same day that the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its 2021 Assessment Report
One of the entries is I somehow graduate despite spending most of my time playing Mario Kart. Mario Kart is a popular video game series developed by Nintendo, and has been a recurring theme on xkcd. Hewing close to the comic's timeline, 127: The Fast and the Furious, which contains an early Mario Kart joke, was released in July 2006.
The title text refers to the fact that Exxon, being a fossil fuel company, is likely to make better predictions on fossil fuel use as they are involved in fossil fuel production themselves.
Transcript
- [Graph of temperature over time, titled:]
- "Global average temperature
- Over my lifetime
- [smaller text]
- (60-month running June average, NOAA NCEI time series)"
- [The X axis is in years, going from 1980 to a little after 2020. Each decade is marked.]
- [The Y axis is in °C, with the "20th century average" at the bottom, up to +1°C (from the average), labelled every 0.2°C.]
- [Certain points and periods on the graph are marked and contain descriptions of events and actions that occurred in Randall's life.]
- November 1982
- Exxon International report predicts that fossil fuel use will raise global temperatures to about 1°C above their normal levels within 40 years
- October 1984
- I’m born in Easton, PA
- Summer 1991
- I learn to ride a bike
- Spring 1992
- My elementary school celebrates Earth Day and I learn about the greenhouse effect
- 1993-1996
- I get very into Star Wars and Animorphs
- Fall 1996
- I stand around awkwardly at my first middle school dance
- Spring 2002
- I get accepted into college
- Spring 2006
- I somehow graduate despite spending most of my time playing Mario Kart
- Summer 2006
- I see An Inconvenient Truth in the theater and feel anxious
- Fall 2011
- I get married
- Summer 2012
- I read headlines about a global warning “pause” and hope that maybe things aren’t so bad
- 2013-2021
- I read more about climate science and get steadily more alarmed
- Spring 2016
- I read the 1982 Exxon report
- June 2020
- Global 60-month average reaches +0.94°C, Easton, PA is 2°C hotter than normal for the fifth year in a row
- Today
- (no description)
- 2022 (near future)
- [Large X within a circle] 1982 Exxon Prediction
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