COVID-19 Statement | Casino of the Rockies

I've always known about Bond. As a boy, I was an avid GoldenEye N64 player and, like all my peers, loved Austin Powers. But that's really where the education ends.
In my late-teens and twenties, I became averse to action films. So by the time Casino Royale would've been released, I'd have been much more interested in, say, the latest Sofia Coppola flick.
However, in the intervening years, I've mellowed out. And during the quarantine, I've started consuming movies I've missed out on. Eventually, I landed on Casino Royale. It ignited my Bond fascination and I immediately began poring over this sub to find out which films I should watch/avoid.
That said, my Bond journey is a little chaotic. Maybe a little predictable. But here are my thoughts—in the order that I watched them—with a score that does not necessarily reflect the film's quality or impact on the franchise, but how much I enjoyed it (taking in consideration the time period, etc.)
First, I tackle the Daniel Craig oeuvre:
​

• Casino Royale (2006) - 10/10

Maybe because it's my first, maybe because there's a bit of recency bias... But to me, it has the best writing, pacing, characterization, and cinematography of all the Bond films I've seen—and arguably the best Bond girl.
​

• Quantum of Solace (2008) - 7.5/10

Sure, it has problems—notably the third act—and both the villain and Bond girl aren’t particularly memorable but Craig is mesmerizing and the pacing is great. It probably helps that I watched it immediately after Casino Royale.
​

• Skyfall (2012) - 9/10

The third act has some pacing problems but aside from that, it’s damn near perfect. Deakins' cinematography is breath taking.
​

• Spectre (2015) - 6.5/10

The first half is much better than I expected based on reviews, but the latter devolves into disappointingly amateurish writing and blockbuster cliches. Also, is it just me or did Craig and Léa Seydoux have zero chemistry?
​
Out of Craig films. So I decided to go to another heralded film, primarily because it was directed by Martin Campbell, who helmed Casino Royale...
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• GoldenEye (1995) - 8.5/10

Bronsan isn't given much to work with in terms of dialogue, but is still quite enjoyable. The story, villain(s), set pieces, and cinematography are all top notch, even if the score isn't.
​
Quite enjoyed that. Let's do the next Bronsan...
​

• Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) - 2/10

A jarring drop in overall quality and plausibility. Awful cinematography, silly gadgetry, a paltry villain—a complete chore to get through.
​
Yikes, let's back up. I'm ready to try the tried-and-true classics....
​

• Goldfinger (1964) - 8.5/10

Outdated action sequences and effects aplenty, but the story is great, the cinematography is often stunning and Connery is fantastic. I get why he has the reputation he did—it wasn't just that he was Bond first.

• From Russia with Love (1963) - 9/10

Razor-sharp Bond flick without any of the silliness that Goldfinger proudly wore. I can't stress how much I enjoyed Robert Shaw in this role; he's a top tier villain. The train scene was a major highlight.
​
Now I'm becoming curious about Timothy Dalton's tenure...
​

• The Living Daylights (1987) - 7.5/10

Dalton soars as Bond, veering surprisingly close to Craig’s performance at times. The villain is unmemorable, but there's something about this film that kept me engaged. Hard to put my finger on.

• License to Kill (1989) - 4/10

I was ready for more Dalton, but this was not my cup of tea. A sloppy hodgepodge of 80s trends de jour (Sharks! Drugs! Exotic locale!) Dalton is excellent, but can’t deter from overall subpar acting, a drab color palette and poor set design.
​
I need to get the bad taste out of my mouth. I heard this next film was severely underrated...
​

• The World is Not Enough (1999) - 7/10

Nice blend of silliness, over-the-top action mixed with some some gritty moments, and so-bad-they're-good puns. Yes, Denise Richards is tragically miscast but… Robert Carlyle is a great villain. The Bond and M relationship feels like a precursor to Skyfall.
​
Though I've been noticeably avoiding the Moore films out of lack of interest, my good friend told me this next film is in his top 5...
​

• For Your Eyes Only (1981) - x/10

Christ, what was that opening? Score sounds like something out of Rocky. I don't dislike Moore at all, but this story is so bland. I can't even score it because even after finishing 75% of it, I can't bring myself to finish.
​
~~~ thanks for reading, sorry for the novel. Any recommendations for where I should go next?

Hey everyone, great to be back again. Some of you might remember a similar title from a post I made back in April, where I made a list of the top 250 movies with 13 sources, or a preview of this list I made last month.
I want to emphasize that this is NOT an official ranking nor my personal ranking; it is just a statistical and, personally, interesting look at 500 amazing movies. These rankings reflect the opinions of thousands of critics and millions of people around the world. And I am glad that this list is able to cover a wide range of genres, decades, and countries. So before I get bombarded with "Why isn't X on here?" or "How is X above Y?" comments, I wanted to clear that up.
I sourced my data from Sight & Sound (both critic and director lists), TSPDT, iCheckMovies, 11 domestic websites (Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, IMDb, Letterboxd, TMDb, Trakt, Blu-Ray, MovieLens, RateYourMusic, Criticker, and Critics Choice), and 9 international audience sites (FilmAffinity, Douban, Naver, MUBI, Filmweb, Kinopoisk, CSFD, Moviemeter, and Senscritique). This balance of domestic/international ratings made the list more well-rounded and internationally representative (sites from Spain, China, Korea, Poland, Russia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, and France).
As for my algorithm, I weighted websites according to both their Alexa ranking and their number of votes compared to other sites. For example, since The Godfather has hundreds of thousands of votes on Letterboxd but only a couple thousand on Metacritic, Letterboxd would be weighted more heavily. After obtaining the weighted averages, I then added the movie's iCheckMovies' favs/checks ratio and TSPDT ranking, if applicable. Regarding TSPDT, I included the top 2000 movies; as an example of my calculations, Rear Window's ranking of #41 would add (2000-41)/2000=0.9795 points to its weighted average. I removed movies that had <7-8K votes on IMDb, as these mostly had low ratings and numbers of votes across different sites as well. For both Sight & Sound lists, I added between 0.5 and 1 point to a movie's score based on its ranking, which I thought was an adequate reflection of how difficult it is to be included on these lists. As examples, a #21 movie would have 0.9 points added while a #63 would have 0.69 points.
So without further ado, the statistical top 500 movies ever made. I separated the scores into overall, critics, domestic, and international columns to make comparisons easier. This list on Letterboxd.

Ranking	Title	Overall Score	Critics	Domestic	International	Year	Director
1	The Godfather	93.89	97.73	90.50	89.36	1972	Francis Ford Coppola
2	The Godfather: Part II	91.93	93.30	89.04	88.06	1974	Francis Ford Coppola
3	Seven Samurai	91.05	97.38	87.63	85.90	1954	Akira Kurosawa
4	12 Angry Men	90.45	95.45	88.74	88.62	1957	Sidney Lumet
5	City Lights	89.94	96.75	85.67	85.93	1931	Charlie Chaplin
6	The Good, the Bad and the Ugly	89.45	91.20	87.81	86.59	1966	Sergio Leone
7	The Shawshank Redemption	89.41	82.95	89.49	89.18	1994	Frank Darabont
8	Psycho	89.29	95.23	85.70	85.01	1960	Alfred Hitchcock
9	Modern Times	89.28	95.55	85.21	85.37	1936	Charlie Chaplin
10	Schindler's List	89.08	93.80	87.22	87.29	1993	Steven Spielberg
11	Pulp Fiction	88.85	92.60	87.69	86.42	1994	Quentin Tarantino
12	Rear Window	88.63	97.65	85.40	83.33	1954	Alfred Hitchcock
13	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	88.55	87.38	86.28	86.97	1975	Miloš Forman
14	Apocalypse Now	88.54	93.85	85.24	83.48	1979	Francis Ford Coppola
15	Tokyo Story	88.49	98.30	85.16	83.76	1953	Yasujirō Ozu
16	Spirited Away	88.34	93.78	86.80	85.91	2001	Hayao Miyazaki
17	GoodFellas	88.03	91.48	87.00	84.03	1990	Martin Scorsese
18	Vertigo	88.02	95.60	84.05	82.76	1958	Alfred Hitchcock
19	Singin' in the Rain	88.01	97.65	83.95	83.13	1952	Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
20	Sunset Boulevard	88.00	95.45	85.44	84.22	1950	Billy Wilder
21	Citizen Kane	87.83	99.03	83.06	82.22	1941	Orson Welles
22	Harakiri	87.79	85.83	88.00	86.29	1962	Masaki Kobayashi
23	Rashomon	87.74	96.55	83.52	82.73	1950	Akira Kurosawa
24	Once Upon a Time in the West	87.71	86.65	85.48	84.62	1968	Sergio Leone
25	Fanny and Alexander	87.54	97.30	83.15	83.00	1982	Ingmar Bergman
26	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	87.40	92.59	86.06	85.38	2003	Peter Jackson
27	Andrei Rublev	87.39	91.90	83.80	83.94	1966	Andrei Tarkovsky
28	The Passion of Joan of Arc	87.39	94.65	83.88	83.57	1928	Carl Theodor Dreyer
29	Sherlock Jr.	87.36	96.45	83.64	85.60	1924	Buster Keaton
30	Bicycle Thieves	87.35	94.70	83.91	83.46	1948	Vittorio De Sica
31	Casablanca	87.35	98.00	85.25	82.62	1942	Michael Curtiz
32	Some Like It Hot	87.28	95.30	82.11	83.73	1959	Billy Wilder
33	Persona	87.22	88.20	84.28	83.07	1966	Ingmar Bergman
34	Children of Paradise	87.21	95.33	84.81	83.27	1945	Marcel Carné
35	Taxi Driver	87.14	93.88	83.60	82.06	1976	Martin Scorsese
36	The Dark Knight	87.08	88.81	86.96	84.80	2008	Christopher Nolan
37	Metropolis	87.03	96.00	82.92	84.01	1927	Fritz Lang
38	Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans	87.02	93.95	82.23	84.02	1927	F. W. Murnau
39	Stalker	87.02	92.30	83.86	83.29	1979	Andrei Tarkovsky
40	Pather Panchali	86.96	94.35	84.40	82.80	1955	Satyajit Ray
41	Lawrence of Arabia	86.95	97.65	83.76	81.49	1962	David Lean
42	M	86.91	96.20	84.34	82.92	1931	Fritz Lang
43	Ordet	86.82	98.10	83.08	82.55	1955	Carl Theodor Dreyer
44	It's a Wonderful Life	86.77	90.45	85.17	84.90	1946	Frank Capra
45	Satantango	86.76	90.45	84.58	84.21	1994	Béla Tarr
46	Parasite	86.72	96.34	86.55	83.15	2019	Bong Joon-ho
47	The 400 Blows	86.70	96.70	83.14	82.60	1959	François Truffaut
48	Ikiru	86.56	93.80	85.48	84.29	1952	Akira Kurosawa
49	Mirror	86.50	95.60	82.75	82.34	1975	Andrei Tarkovsky
50	Come and See	86.50	90.50	85.22	83.13	1985	Elem Klimov
51	The Apartment	86.48	92.00	84.09	82.99	1960	Billy Wilder
52	The General	86.45	91.45	82.59	83.87	1926	Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman
53	Grave of the Fireflies	86.43	95.13	85.85	82.97	1988	Isao Takahata
54	Le Trou	86.41	89.95	85.46	85.14	1960	Jacques Becker
55	The Battle of Algiers	86.37	95.40	82.64	81.24	1966	Gillo Pontecorvo
56	A Man Escaped	86.34	96.50	83.67	82.03	1956	Robert Bresson
57	Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb	86.34	95.85	84.37	83.03	1964	Stanley Kubrick
58	Paths of Glory	86.25	92.30	84.97	84.48	1957	Stanley Kubrick
59	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	86.24	88.75	85.61	84.31	2001	Peter Jackson
60	All About Eve	86.23	96.95	83.69	83.20	1950	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
61	Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back	86.21	86.93	87.05	83.29	1980	Irvin Kershner
62	High and Low	86.16	86.55	86.08	84.26	1963	Akira Kurosawa
63	The Great Dictator	86.15	91.10	84.25	85.03	1940	Charlie Chaplin
64	The Silence of the Lambs	86.12	88.68	85.29	84.17	1991	Jonathan Demme
65	2001: A Space Odyssey	86.06	88.35	82.93	81.54	1968	Stanley Kubrick
66	North by Northwest	86.03	96.38	83.17	81.74	1959	Alfred Hitchcock
67	Double Indemnity	85.91	94.38	83.84	83.12	1944	Billy Wilder
68	Ugetsu	85.91	97.25	82.69	81.91	1953	Kenji Mizoguchi
69	Woman in the Dunes	85.91	93.95	84.71	83.77	1964	Hiroshi Teshigahara
70	Sansho the Bailiff	85.88	95.50	84.24	82.21	1954	Kenji Mizoguchi
71	Once Upon a Time in America	85.87	86.10	83.84	85.53	1984	Sergio Leone
72	City of God	85.86	84.08	86.39	84.00	2002	Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
73	Late Spring	85.81	94.75	83.74	82.27	1949	Yasujirō Ozu
74	Barry Lyndon	85.80	87.95	82.44	82.30	1975	Stanley Kubrick
75	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	85.78	88.78	85.00	84.29	2002	Peter Jackson
76	Raging Bull	85.77	90.48	82.01	81.80	1980	Martin Scorsese
77	Chinatown	85.72	94.08	83.32	80.69	1974	Roman Polanski
78	Alien	85.69	91.73	84.76	82.62	1979	Ridley Scott
79	Ran	85.68	94.70	83.93	82.52	1985	Akira Kurosawa
80	The Seventh Seal	85.67	92.10	83.52	82.13	1957	Ingmar Bergman
81	The Kid	85.61	92.85	82.91	84.94	1921	Charlie Chaplin
82	Wild Strawberries	85.51	90.05	83.38	82.24	1957	Ingmar Bergman
83	A Brighter Summer Day	85.50	93.38	84.07	81.01	1991	Edward Yang
84	8½	85.48	91.20	82.59	81.09	1963	Federico Fellini
85	The Pianist	85.38	88.69	83.31	84.80	2002	Roman Polanski
86	The World of Apu	85.38	93.20	84.38	83.09	1959	Satyajit Ray
87	La Dolce Vita	85.37	94.38	81.40	80.48	1960	Federico Fellini
88	Star Wars	85.33	90.03	85.22	81.92	1977	George Lucas
89	The Best of Youth	85.31	88.78	85.31	83.64	2003	Marco Tullio Giordana
90	The Gold Rush	85.29	94.55	81.93	83.59	1925	Charlie Chaplin
91	The Third Man	85.26	96.50	82.91	80.21	1949	Carol Reed
92	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre	85.20	96.68	82.77	81.81	1948	John Huston
93	I Am Cuba	85.18	93.60	82.00	83.44	1964	Mikhail Kalatozov
94	The Lives of Others	85.14	89.03	84.12	82.73	2006	Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
95	Witness for the Prosecution	85.13	92.65	83.67	84.99	1957	Billy Wilder
96	Touch of Evil	85.11	95.70	81.36	79.65	1958	Orson Welles
97	WALL-E	85.10	92.09	82.82	82.64	2008	Andrew Stanton
98	Scenes from a Marriage	85.02	86.85	84.80	83.06	1974	Ingmar Bergman
99	To Be or Not to Be	84.99	89.58	82.52	83.39	1942	Ernst Lubitsch
100	A Separation	84.92	94.24	83.34	80.90	2011	Asghar Farhadi
101	The Night of the Hunter	84.91	96.93	81.17	79.06	1955	Charles Laughton
102	Three Colors: Red	84.87	96.78	83.32	80.78	1994	Krzysztof Kieślowski
103	Yojimbo	84.87	91.55	83.85	82.99	1961	Akira Kurosawa
104	Back to the Future	84.85	89.38	84.47	81.94	1985	Robert Zemeckis
105	My Neighbor Totoro	84.84	87.53	83.44	83.17	1988	Hayao Miyazaki
106	In the Mood for Love	84.84	83.87	82.55	81.20	2000	Wong Kar-wai
107	Princess Mononoke	84.83	81.18	85.02	84.24	1999	Hayao Miyazaki
108	Saving Private Ryan	84.82	90.35	83.94	82.50	1998	Steven Spielberg
109	Cinema Paradiso	84.78	82.30	84.73	83.43	1988	Giuseppe Tornatore
110	La Jetée	84.75	89.25	83.27	81.80	1962	Chris Marker
111	The Wages of Fear	84.71	94.60	82.99	82.80	1953	Henri-Georges Clouzot
112	Das Boot	84.68	90.13	83.62	82.71	1981	Wolfgang Petersen
113	Fight Club	84.65	71.18	86.39	84.95	1999	David Fincher
114	Nights of Cabiria	84.64	92.25	82.72	83.13	1957	Federico Fellini
115	La Strada	84.61	92.60	80.79	82.78	1954	Federico Fellini
116	Amadeus	84.53	89.55	82.88	82.59	1984	Miloš Forman
117	Forrest Gump	84.50	76.90	83.06	86.12	1994	Robert Zemeckis
118	Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse	84.49	90.41	85.03	81.69	2018	Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Bob Persichetti
119	The Lion King	84.45	88.28	77.22	84.09	1994	Rob Minkoff, Roger Allers
120	Inception	84.43	82.07	84.18	84.17	2010	Christopher Nolan
121	Whiplash	84.42	89.53	84.87	81.96	2014	Damien Chazelle
122	The Shop Around the Corner	84.40	94.43	80.85	82.37	1940	Ernst Lubitsch
123	Rififi	84.38	92.00	83.03	81.58	1955	Jules Dassin
124	Umberto D.	84.38	92.63	82.20	81.75	1952	Vittorio De Sica
125	Army of Shadows	84.37	95.30	82.98	80.50	1969	Jean-Pierre Melville
126	Blade Runner	84.34	85.85	82.57	80.29	1982	Ridley Scott
127	Samurai Rebellion	84.33	89.05	82.85	83.84	1967	Masaki Kobayashi
128	Close-Up	84.31	85.70	81.99	80.69	1990	Abbas Kiarostami
129	The Circus	84.29	90.35	81.69	83.14	1928	Charlie Chaplin
130	Raiders of the Lost Ark	84.19	89.33	84.31	80.57	1981	Steven Spielberg
131	Grand Illusion	84.18	95.35	81.85	79.78	1937	Jean Renoir
132	A Clockwork Orange	84.18	82.78	82.37	82.51	1971	Stanley Kubrick
133	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	84.07	89.37	83.36	80.57	2004	Michel Gondry
134	A Woman Under the Influence	84.01	87.40	82.51	80.40	1974	John Cassavetes
135	The Cranes Are Flying	84.00	89.30	82.76	82.40	1957	Mikhail Kalatozov
136	Yi Yi	83.91	91.25	82.48	79.64	2000	Edward Yang
137	To Kill a Mockingbird	83.91	89.13	81.98	82.20	1962	Robert Mulligan
138	The Matrix	83.90	77.78	84.54	83.06	1999	Wachowski Sisters
139	The Sting	83.90	85.73	82.71	83.36	1973	George Roy Hill
140	The Mother and the Whore	83.87	94.55	81.24	79.82	1973	Jean Eustache
141	Se7en	83.86	72.15	84.91	84.48	1995	David Fincher
142	Early Summer	83.85	94.45	82.19	82.01	1951	Yasujirō Ozu
143	Werckmeister Harmonies	83.80	91.73	80.89	81.93	2000	Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky
144	Coco	83.80	86.21	82.73	83.66	2017	Adrian Molina, Lee Unkrich
145	Toy Story	83.76	95.03	82.30	80.15	1995	John Lasseter
146	It Happened One Night	83.76	90.83	81.46	81.76	1934	Frank Capra
147	Reservoir Dogs	83.74	84.68	83.12	81.99	1992	Quentin Tarantino
148	Unforgiven	83.73	88.55	82.24	81.59	1992	Clint Eastwood
149	The Deer Hunter	83.73	87.68	80.57	82.06	1978	Michael Cimino
150	The Young and the Damned	83.72	87.10	82.58	80.82	1950	Luis Buñuel
151	The Best Years of Our Lives	83.68	92.63	81.19	81.20	1946	William Wyler
152	The Leopard	83.66	97.30	79.56	79.57	1963	Luchino Visconti
153	Time of the Gypsies	83.65	86.05	83.31	82.29	1988	Emir Kusturica
154	Ali: Fear Eats the Soul	83.61	96.70	80.51	79.97	1974	Rainer Werner Fassbinder
155	Raise the Red Lantern	83.57	90.25	82.37	81.81	1991	Zhang Yimou
156	Terminator 2: Judgment Day	83.57	82.00	84.11	81.83	1991	James Cameron
157	The Shining	83.55	75.35	84.08	81.80	1980	Stanley Kubrick
158	Viridiana	83.54	92.95	80.68	80.81	1961	Luis Buñuel
159	Portrait of a Lady on Fire	83.52	93.59	83.08	80.02	2019	Céline Sciamma
160	Greed	83.51	97.05	80.65	80.64	1924	Erich von Stroheim
161	Gone with the Wind	83.48	92.90	80.01	81.68	1939	Victor Fleming
162	There Will Be Blood	83.48	89.65	81.91	79.02	2007	Paul Thomas Anderson
163	L.A. Confidential	83.46	91.63	82.08	80.81	1997	Curtis Hanson
164	Paris, Texas	83.46	83.95	82.89	81.66	1984	Wim Wenders
165	Throne of Blood	83.45	91.30	82.18	81.49	1957	Akira Kurosawa
166	Toy Story 3	83.43	93.55	81.61	80.32	2010	Lee Unkrich
167	Memento	83.43	85.20	83.78	80.76	2000	Christopher Nolan
168	On the Waterfront	83.37	93.00	82.23	79.52	1954	Elia Kazan
169	Trip to the Moon	83.37	94.70	79.96	82.83	1902	Georges Méliès
170	The Rules of the Game	83.33	96.55	80.45	78.02	1939	Jean Renoir
171	Red Beard	83.32	74.15	83.41	83.27	1965	Akira Kurosawa
172	The Grapes of Wrath	83.32	95.45	80.42	80.34	1940	John Ford
173	Au Hasard Balthazar	83.29	98.08	77.93	77.54	1966	Robert Bresson
174	Autumn Sonata	83.29	84.85	83.09	82.66	1978	Ingmar Bergman
175	Annie Hall	83.28	93.18	80.58	80.58	1977	Woody Allen
176	The Conformist	83.27	96.68	79.92	78.58	1970	Bernardo Bertolucci
177	Rocco and His Brothers	83.24	84.73	81.95	81.68	1960	Luchino Visconti
178	Dersu Uzala	83.23	74.75	82.35	83.37	1975	Akira Kurosawa
179	Cool Hand Luke	83.21	93.05	82.22	79.83	1967	Stuart Rosenberg
180	Monty Python and the Holy Grail	83.18	91.98	82.96	79.30	1975	Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
181	Le Samouraï	83.18	92.35	82.45	79.40	1967	Jean-Pierre Melville
182	Aliens	83.18	88.73	83.29	79.61	1986	James Cameron
183	PlayTime	83.16	93.50	80.22	78.80	1967	Jacques Tati
184	The Bridge on the River Kwai	83.14	90.58	81.93	80.24	1957	David Lean
185	The Red Shoes	83.13	93.15	82.82	79.96	1948	Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
186	American Beauty	83.10	87.15	81.93	81.13	1999	Sam Mendes
187	To Live	83.10	84.00	82.16	82.46	1994	Zhang Yimou
188	Battleship Potemkin	83.10	95.85	77.81	80.41	1925	Sergei Eisenstein
189	Day of Wrath	83.09	93.40	81.07	81.29	1943	Carl Theodor Dreyer
190	All Quiet on the Western Front	83.07	92.85	80.05	81.48	1930	Lewis Milestone
191	It's Such a Beautiful Day	83.07	91.25	83.62	79.77	2012	Don Hertzfeldt
192	Full Metal Jacket	83.06	81.53	82.21	82.54	1987	Stanley Kubrick
193	The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari	83.05	96.40	79.84	81.83	1920	Robert Wiene
194	Kes	83.03	97.80	79.59	80.55	1969	Ken Loach
195	The Usual Suspects	83.02	80.23	84.08	81.48	1995	Bryan Singer
196	The Cameraman	83.00	93.90	80.77	81.57	1928	Edward Segdwick, Buster Keaton
197	Aparajito	83.00	90.90	81.81	81.20	1956	Satyajit Ray
198	The Elephant Man	83.00	83.00	82.10	81.87	1980	David Lynch
199	Rebecca	82.98	90.08	81.08	80.93	1940	Alfred Hitchcock
200	Make Way for Tomorrow	82.97	95.80	81.72	80.14	1937	Leo McCarey
201	The Great Escape	82.97	87.68	82.29	80.66	1963	John Sturges
202	Your Name	82.97	84.55	84.07	81.29	2016	Makoto Shinkai
203	Limelight	82.92	88.00	79.85	83.02	1952	Charlie Chaplin
204	Breathless	82.92	91.95	78.88	79.10	1960	Jean-Luc Godard
205	Underground	82.91	80.75	81.26	82.64	1995	Emir Kusturica
206	The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance	82.88	91.90	81.08	79.53	1962	John Ford
207	Aguirre: The Wrath of God	82.87	94.55	80.46	78.62	1972	Werner Herzog
208	Oldboy	82.86	78.98	84.00	81.27	2003	Park Chan-wook
209	Up	82.84	90.28	81.32	80.86	2009	Pete Docter
210	Anatomy of a Murder	82.84	94.00	80.57	80.02	1959	Otto Preminger
211	The Wild Bunch	82.84	90.35	79.45	80.12	1969	Sam Peckinpah
212	The Hunt	82.75	82.08	82.79	82.62	2012	Thomas Vinterberg
213	Il Sorpasso	82.74	95.75	82.84	79.57	1962	Dino Risi
214	The Last Laugh	82.74	95.25	79.47	81.61	1924	F. W. Murnau
215	A Streetcar Named Desire	82.73	94.60	79.89	80.26	1951	Elia Kazan
216	Life Is Beautiful	82.73	68.45	83.60	85.57	1997	Roberto Benigni
217	A Short Film About Love	82.71	87.10	81.90	81.89	1988	Krzysztof Kieślowski
218	The Shop on Main Street	82.71	94.45	82.15	80.43	1965	Ján Kadár, Elmar Klos
219	Rio Bravo	82.71	92.10	80.46	79.80	1959	Howard Hawks
220	Roman Holiday	82.70	84.55	80.74	82.42	1953	William Wyler
221	Ivan's Childhood	82.69	94.80	81.25	80.37	1962	Andrei Tarkovsky
222	The Exterminating Angel	82.68	91.10	81.66	80.17	1962	Luis Buñuel
223	Trainspotting	82.68	85.20	81.57	81.21	1996	Danny Boyle
224	The Last Picture Show	82.67	94.15	79.90	79.56	1971	Peter Bogdanovich
225	The Truman Show	82.64	89.63	79.70	82.15	1998	Peter Weir
226	Memories of Murder	82.64	82.88	82.68	80.94	2003	Bong Joon-ho
227	Faust	82.62	89.70	80.23	81.94	1926	F. W. Murnau
228	Sans Soleil	82.62	83.90	79.45	80.51	1983	Chris Marker
229	Song of the Sea	82.57	87.63	80.59	82.23	2014	Tomm Moore
230	Léon: The Professional	82.55	67.38	84.05	84.07	1994	Luc Besson
231	Fargo	82.54	87.45	82.36	79.19	1996	Coen Brothers
232	Solaris	82.54	89.95	80.91	79.69	1972	Andrei Tarkovsky
233	Sweet Smell of Success	82.52	96.53	80.81	77.62	1957	Alexander Mackendrick
234	For a Few Dollars More	82.52	79.28	82.38	83.15	1965	Sergio Leone
235	White Heat	82.51	90.65	80.77	81.24	1949	Raoul Walsh
236	Brief Encounter	82.50	88.35	80.81	81.03	1945	David Lean
237	Wings of Desire	82.49	85.70	81.30	80.42	1987	Wim Wenders
238	Diabolique	82.47	90.70	81.27	80.73	1955	Henri-Georges Clouzot
239	An Autumn Afternoon	82.45	91.95	81.68	79.85	1962	Yasujirō Ozu
240	The Tale of the Princess Kaguya	82.44	90.63	81.16	80.43	2013	Isao Takahata
241	Amarcord	82.41	85.95	79.26	80.73	1973	Federico Fellini
242	Heat	82.40	79.08	82.03	81.73	1995	Michael Mann
243	L'Atalante	82.40	95.60	78.32	78.10	1934	Jean Vigo
244	Django Unchained	82.39	83.44	82.23	81.94	2012	Quentin Tarantino
245	Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels	82.38	95.50	78.73	79.69	1975	Chantal Akerman
246	Kind Hearts and Coronets	82.38	95.60	80.80	79.72	1949	Robert Hamer
247	Dog Day Afternoon	82.37	88.40	81.11	79.80	1975	Sidney Lumet
248	Forbidden Games	82.37	93.75	80.36	80.99	1952	René Clément
249	The Crowd	82.35	93.35	79.21	81.23	1928	King Vidor
250	Notorious	82.35	96.78	79.96	78.21	1946	Alfred Hitchcock
251	Mary and Max	82.35	88.05	80.95	82.42	2009	Adam Elliot
252	Persepolis	82.34	88.95	80.09	80.77	2007	Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
253	Howl's Moving Castle	82.33	78.71	82.63	83.10	2004	Hayao Miyazaki
254	Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind	82.33	85.10	81.54	82.03	1984	Hayao Miyazaki
255	Safety Last!	82.33	92.25	80.95	81.10	1923	Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
256	Rosemary's Baby	82.32	94.78	79.99	78.69	1968	Roman Polanski
257	L'Avventura	82.32	92.10	79.08	78.03	1960	Michelangelo Antonioni
258	The Searchers	82.32	93.90	78.16	76.66	1956	John Ford
259	La Haine	82.30	90.60	82.38	79.56	1995	Mathieu Kassovitz
260	Three Colors: Blue	82.30	88.28	81.55	79.23	1993	Krzysztof Kieślowski
261	Chungking Express	82.30	79.95	82.29	80.73	1994	Wong Kar-wai
262	Inside Out	82.29	93.66	80.27	79.85	2015	Pete Docter
263	Where is the Friend's Home?	82.28	89.25	81.22	80.21	1987	Abbas Kiarostami
264	Cries and Whispers	82.27	85.45	81.02	80.80	1972	Ingmar Bergman
265	Napoleon	82.22	93.25	81.89	78.99	1927	Abel Gance
266	Paper Moon	82.19	83.08	81.37	81.29	1973	Peter Bogdanovich
267	The Spirit of the Beehive	82.17	89.83	79.31	78.91	1973	Víctor Erice
268	A Special Day	82.16	90.20	81.11	81.25	1977	Ettore Scola
269	Nostalghia	82.15	83.00	80.91	81.23	1983	Andrei Tarkovsky
270	Network	82.13	85.45	82.36	79.08	1976	Sidney Lumet
271	L'Eclisse	82.11	84.70	79.78	78.81	1962	Michelangelo Antonioni
272	Mr. Smith Goes to Washington	82.09	80.83	81.78	81.15	1939	Frank Capra
273	Sanjuro	82.09	91.90	81.67	80.85	1962	Akira Kurosawa
274	Badlands	82.06	93.38	79.77	77.21	1973	Terrence Malick
275	Vivre Sa Vie	82.06	85.20	80.12	79.83	1962	Jean-Luc Godard
276	Nobody Knows	82.06	87.18	81.12	81.15	2004	Hirokazu Koreeda
277	No Country for Old Men	82.05	90.68	80.56	78.47	2007	Coen Brothers
278	Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring	82.05	86.05	80.76	80.62	2003	Kim Ki-duk
279	La Notte	82.04	78.35	81.45	81.11	1961	Michelangelo Antonioni
280	The Celebration	82.04	84.23	81.34	80.08	1998	Thomas Vinterberg
281	In the Name of the Father	82.04	84.90	81.14	81.85	1993	Jim Sheridan
282	I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang	82.02	89.55	80.18	81.56	1932	Mervyn LeRoy
283	Shoplifters	82.01	92.39	80.60	79.31	2018	Hirokazu Koreeda
284	Finding Nemo	82.01	92.60	80.13	78.76	2003	Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
285	Z	81.98	87.55	82.21	79.59	1969	Costa-Gavras
286	The Phantom Carriage	81.96	95.00	80.01	80.32	1921	Victor Sjöström
287	Manhattan	81.95	86.23	80.50	79.81	1979	Woody Allen
288	Rome, Open City	81.94	95.40	80.45	79.27	1945	Robert Rossellini
289	Children of Heaven	81.93	80.15	81.24	82.01	1997	Majid Majidi
290	The Green Mile	81.92	71.93	82.95	84.38	1999	Frank Darabont
291	The Iron Giant	81.91	86.61	80.88	79.95	1999	Brad Bird
292	The Sacrifice	81.90	80.30	80.47	81.37	1986	Andrei Tarkovsky
293	The Philadelphia Story	81.90	94.95	79.79	77.86	1940	George Cukor
294	The Twilight Samurai	81.90	86.10	81.07	81.13	2002	Yôji Yamada
295	Before Sunset	81.88	87.79	81.42	78.41	2004	Richard Linklater
296	Before Sunrise	81.86	84.40	82.24	79.44	1995	Richard Linklater
297	Castle in the Sky	81.85	81.63	81.49	82.06	1986	Hayao Miyazaki
298	The Departed	81.84	86.92	82.82	79.04	2006	Martin Scorsese
299	Brazil	81.83	90.23	80.61	78.37	1985	Terry Gilliam
300	Incendies	81.81	83.85	81.88	80.74	2011	Denis Villenueve
301	The Maltese Falcon	81.81	95.65	80.24	77.28	1941	John Huston
302	The Wizard of Oz	81.77	98.03	79.38	77.17	1939	Victor Fleming
303	Le Cercle Rouge	81.76	90.03	80.81	78.54	1970	Jean-Pierre Melville
304	Monsieur Verdoux	81.76	89.80	78.55	81.34	1947	Charlie Chaplin
305	The Return	81.72	84.85	80.02	80.96	2003	Andrey Zvyagintsev
306	Secrets & Lies	81.71	90.73	80.29	78.66	1996	Mike Leigh
307	The Hidden Fortress	81.70	91.25	80.79	80.72	1958	Akira Kurosawa
308	Pan's Labyrinth	81.69	92.59	81.60	76.08	2006	Guillermo del Toro
309	Amélie	81.69	79.64	81.96	80.27	2004	Jean-Pierre Jeunet
310	Ben-Hur	81.67	86.93	79.86	80.22	1959	William Wyler
311	Fitzcarraldo	81.67	75.80	81.06	81.21	1982	Werner Herzog
312	American History X	81.63	70.13	83.58	83.00	1998	Tony Kaye
313	Ace in the Hole	81.62	79.10	80.88	81.36	1951	Billy Wilder
314	Capernaum	81.62	81.83	80.52	82.18	2018	Nadine Labaki
315	Still Walking	81.61	90.30	80.92	79.48	2008	Hirokazu Koreeda
316	All About My Mother	81.61	88.77	79.56	78.80	1999	Pedro Almodóvar
317	The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie	81.60	92.28	78.82	78.83	1972	Luis Buñuel
318	Platoon	81.60	88.70	79.52	80.45	1986	Oliver Stone
319	Farewell My Concubine	81.60	80.50	80.49	81.04	1993	Chen Kaige
320	Letter from an Unknown Woman	81.59	93.10	79.84	79.31	1948	Max Ophüls
321	The Grand Budapest Hotel	81.58	87.64	80.72	79.19	2014	Wes Anderson
322	The Virgin Spring	81.58	82.45	80.70	80.66	1960	Ingmar Bergman
323	The Red Balloon	81.57	90.20	79.93	80.30	1956	Albert Lamorisse
324	Stagecoach	81.57	94.58	77.69	78.94	1939	John Ford
325	Mulholland Drive	81.56	80.61	79.60	77.87	2001	David Lynch
326	A Matter of Life and Death	81.49	92.60	81.91	76.27	1946	Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
327	High Noon	81.48	90.58	79.27	78.94	1952	Fred Zinnemann
328	Orpheus	81.48	96.20	79.88	78.90	1950	Jean Cocteau
329	Life of Brian	81.47	82.98	80.78	79.81	1979	Terry Jones
330	Casino	81.46	74.23	81.54	81.75	1995	Martin Scorsese
331	Kagemusha	81.44	82.93	80.01	80.43	1980	Akira Kurosawa
332	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	81.43	76.08	80.53	81.85	1969	George Roy Hill
333	In a Lonely Place	81.43	92.45	80.42	78.77	1950	Nicholas Ray
334	Scarface	81.43	71.30	81.97	82.18	1983	Brian De Palma
335	A Short Film About Killing	81.42	87.35	79.89	80.38	1988	Krzysztof Kieślowski
336	Beauty and the Beast	81.41	92.05	79.28	78.32	1946	Jean Cocteau
337	The Hustler	81.39	92.45	80.43	78.97	1961	Robert Rossen
338	Cléo from 5 to 7	81.38	91.65	80.03	79.11	1962	Agnès Varda
339	Fireworks	81.37	90.15	80.01	79.63	1997	Takeshi Kitano
340	Room	81.36	88.41	80.43	79.48	2015	Lenny Abrahamson
341	Mad Max: Fury Road	81.35	90.39	79.76	77.80	2015	George Miller
342	Steamboat Bill, Jr.	81.32	95.75	79.30	79.23	1928	Charles Reisner, Buster Keaton
343	Judgment at Nuremberg	81.31	71.58	82.24	83.03	1961	Stanley Kramer
344	The Straight Story	81.30	87.15	79.64	79.88	1999	David Lynch
345	Meshes of the Afternoon	81.29	96.25	77.91	79.99	1943	Maya Deren, Alexandr Hackenschmied
346	Alice in the Cities	81.28	86.70	79.60	80.20	1974	Wim Wenders
347	Akira	81.28	80.90	81.12	79.98	1988	Katsuhiro Otomo
348	Good Will Hunting	81.27	79.38	81.97	81.05	1997	Gus Van Sant
349	The Miracle Worker	81.25	85.15	78.88	81.55	1962	Arthur Penn
350	Talk to Her	81.25	87.48	79.33	78.71	2002	Pedro Almodóvar
351	The Graduate	81.24	85.58	78.91	79.97	1967	Mike Nichols
352	Beauty and the Beast	81.22	92.28	79.20	78.77	1991	Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
353	The Heiress	81.19	94.45	80.20	79.76	1949	William Wyler
354	Fantasia	81.18	93.03	76.76	79.95	1940	Samuel Armstrong, James Algar
355	Au Revoir les Enfants	81.18	94.25	80.14	78.92	1987	Louis Malle
356	Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri	81.18	88.62	79.36	79.90	2017	Martin McDonagh
357	Inglourious Basterds	81.17	79.05	81.06	80.51	2009	Quentin Tarantino
358	Elevator to the Gallows	81.16	90.45	79.31	78.56	1958	Louis Malle
359	Gladiator	81.16	75.39	81.69	81.52	2000	Ridley Scott
360	Through a Glass Darkly	81.15	93.60	81.11	78.86	1961	Ingmar Bergman
361	Million Dollar Baby	81.15	87.41	77.43	80.72	2004	Clint Eastwood
362	Days of Heaven	81.15	90.75	80.19	77.08	1978	Terrence Malick
363	Do the Right Thing	81.15	90.78	80.26	77.04	1989	Spike Lee
364	Out of the Past	81.14	91.40	80.73	77.92	1947	Jacques Tourneur
365	Strangers on a Train	81.11	93.30	80.01	78.68	1951	Alfred Hitchcock
366	Blue Velvet	81.11	83.48	78.98	77.09	1986	David Lynch
367	That Obscure Object of Desire	81.09	89.40	79.59	78.11	1977	Luis Buñuel
368	What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?	81.08	80.23	80.74	80.75	1962	Robert Aldrich
369	My Night at Maud's	81.07	88.15	79.51	79.42	1969	Éric Rohmer
370	The Earrings of Madame de…	81.07	92.15	80.36	77.05	1953	Max Ophüls
371	The Conversation	81.04	89.23	80.03	77.44	1974	Francis Ford Coppola
372	The Killing	81.03	91.50	79.51	79.21	1956	Stanley Kubrick
373	The Servant	81.03	87.83	79.45	78.57	1963	Joseph Losey
374	The Intouchables	81.03	67.15	82.13	84.70	2011	Olivier Nakache, Éric Toledano
375	The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp	81.01	94.15	81.57	75.44	1943	Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
376	Jaws	81.01	90.98	79.91	75.70	1975	Steven Spielberg
377	Winter Light	81.01	73.55	81.51	79.95	1963	Ingmar Bergman
378	Love Exposure	81.01	80.88	82.23	79.55	2008	Sion Sono
379	Hiroshima Mon Amour	81.00	92.95	80.13	77.99	1959	Alain Resnais
380	Day for Night	80.98	92.55	80.21	78.27	1973	François Truffaut
381	Ratatouille	80.97	92.73	78.72	78.68	2007	Brad Bird
382	Ghost in the Shell	80.97	81.43	79.98	81.15	1995	Mamoru Oshii
383	Germany Year Zero	80.95	92.00	77.80	80.03	1948	Roberto Rossellini
384	Spotlight	80.93	93.00	79.75	77.55	2015	Tom McCarthy
385	Die Hard	80.93	79.58	81.11	79.43	1988	John McTiernan
386	Laura	80.93	93.80	79.70	78.47	1944	Otto Preminger
387	Sleuth	80.93	89.95	79.16	80.87	1972	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
388	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	80.92	88.64	79.69	77.84	2007	Julian Schnabel
389	The Handmaiden	80.92	85.99	82.55	77.41	2016	Park Chan-wook
390	Stand by Me	80.90	80.20	81.28	79.54	1986	Rob Reiner
391	Wolf Children	80.90	80.15	80.40	81.27	2012	Mamoru Hosoda
392	Marriage Story	80.88	92.86	79.40	77.75	2019	Noam Baumbach
393	Shoeshine	80.87	93.75	79.02	79.38	1946	Vittorio De Sica
394	Freaks	80.85	84.70	77.66	80.31	1932	Tod Browning
395	Nosferatu	80.85	93.75	78.29	79.14	1922	F. W. Murnau
396	Dial M for Murder	80.84	77.60	81.17	81.31	1954	Alfred Hitchcock
397	Amour	80.81	90.90	77.74	78.19	2012	Michael Haneke
398	12 Years a Slave	80.80	94.00	79.74	76.94	2013	Steve McQueen
399	The Nightmare Before Christmas	80.77	85.38	79.26	79.69	1993	Henry Selick
400	Cabaret	80.77	84.68	77.34	80.69	1972	Bob Fosse
401	Central Station	80.77	83.28	80.91	78.52	1998	Walter Salles
402	Landscape in the Mist	80.74	71.35	80.76	80.28	1988	Theo Angelopoulos
403	1917	80.73	84.37	80.65	79.33	2019	Sam Mendes
404	Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages	80.71	93.98	75.69	78.01	1916	D. W. Griffith
405	Call Me by Your Name	80.71	91.25	79.43	77.87	2017	Luca Guadagnino
406	Midnight Cowboy	80.71	82.98	79.10	79.50	1969	John Schlesinger
407	Shadow of a Doubt	80.70	94.38	79.31	76.04	1943	Alfred Hitchcock
408	Interstellar	80.70	74.16	81.30	82.25	2014	Christopher Nolan
409	Hannah and Her Sisters	80.69	88.95	79.15	77.98	1986	Woody Allen
410	Monsters, Inc.	80.68	85.29	79.37	80.08	2001	Pete Docter, David Silverman
411	The Testament of Dr. Mabuse	80.65	85.85	79.40	79.38	1933	Fritz Lang
412	Downfall	80.64	83.53	81.54	78.55	2004	Oliver Hirschbiegel
413	Being There	80.64	87.30	79.42	78.06	1979	Hal Ashby
414	The Killer	80.63	92.60	79.27	78.66	1989	John Woo
415	My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown	80.63	93.23	78.13	79.15	1989	Jim Sheridan
416	Jean de Florette	80.60	88.40	80.18	79.69	1986	Claude Berri
417	The Big Lebowski	80.57	74.80	82.28	78.57	1998	Coen Brothers
418	The King's Speech	80.57	90.86	78.50	78.59	2010	Tom Hooper
419	Whisper of the Heart	80.55	79.98	80.80	80.31	1995	Yoshifumi Kondō
420	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	80.54	93.08	77.22	77.82	1982	Steven Spielberg
421	Infernal Affairs	80.54	79.83	79.92	80.22	2002	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak
422	The Prestige	80.54	72.22	82.71	81.38	2006	Christopher Nolan
423	Our Hospitality	80.54	92.85	77.72	79.58	1923	Buster Keaton, John G. Blystone
424	Zootopia	80.53	85.22	78.84	80.18	2016	Byron Howard, Rich Moore
425	Toy Story 2	80.49	92.59	78.51	77.05	1999	John Lasseter, Ash Brannon, Lee Unkrich
426	Klaus	80.48	75.00	81.07	81.41	2019	Sergio Pablos
427	The Big Sleep	80.45	92.10	79.74	77.58	1946	Howard Hawks
428	Ford v Ferrari	80.45	83.94	79.37	80.01	2019	James Mangold
429	Dead Poets Society	80.44	78.70	79.43	80.75	1989	Peter Weir
430	The Terminator	80.43	89.08	78.26	78.13	1984	James Cameron
431	Naked	80.43	84.48	80.39	77.34	1993	Mike Leigh
432	Dangal	80.41	83.00	79.68	80.56	2016	Nitesh Tiwari
433	Kwaidan	80.40	81.80	79.75	79.42	1964	Masaki Kobayashi
434	The Man Who Would Be King	80.40	90.55	78.24	77.79	1975	John Huston
435	Wild Tales	80.38	82.57	80.48	79.22	2014	Damián Szifron
436	Groundhog Day	80.38	80.08	79.31	79.35	1993	Harold Ramis
437	Catch Me If You Can	80.38	83.44	78.74	80.57	2002	Steven Spielberg
438	I Vitelloni	80.36	90.28	77.64	78.06	1953	Federico Fellini
439	The Big Heat	80.35	92.90	79.27	77.87	1953	Fritz Lang
440	The Double Life of Véronique	80.35	82.63	80.19	77.87	1991	Krzysztof Kieślowski
441	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	80.35	82.58	80.19	78.43	1966	Mike Nichols
442	Requiem for a Dream	80.33	71.39	81.39	80.93	2000	Darren Aronofsky
443	Rope	80.33	79.20	80.31	79.30	1948	Alfred Hitchcock
444	Love and Death	80.33	89.83	77.55	78.50	1975	Woody Allen
445	The Remains of the Day	80.29	86.88	78.75	78.80	1993	James Ivory
446	Jules and Jim	80.28	93.70	78.30	77.94	1962	François Truffaut
447	The Gospel According to Matthew	80.28	88.30	76.50	78.52	1964	Pier Paolo Pasolini
448	How to Train Your Dragon	80.27	81.97	79.45	80.24	2010	Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois
449	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2	80.27	88.50	78.81	78.53	2011	David Yates
450	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	80.26	87.05	79.46	79.79	1958	Richard Brooks
451	The French Connection	80.26	93.35	78.04	76.89	1971	William Friedkin
452	Opening Night	80.25	78.05	80.50	79.25	1977	John Cassavetes
453	Hotel Rwanda	80.24	84.54	79.34	79.40	2004	Terry George
454	4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days	80.22	92.51	77.76	76.22	2007	Cristian Mungiu
455	Tampopo	80.22	92.40	81.20	77.01	1985	Juzo Itami
456	Scarface	80.22	93.50	76.43	79.55	1932	Howard Hawks, Howard Hughes
457	The Face of Another	80.21	87.50	79.61	79.34	1966	Hiroshi Teshigahara
458	The Roaring Twenties	80.21	86.20	77.79	80.68	1939	Raoul Walsh
459	Pickpocket	80.20	93.80	76.41	76.47	1959	Robert Bresson
460	Kiki's Delivery Service	80.20	85.45	79.87	78.84	1989	Hayao Miyazaki
461	A Prophet	80.19	89.61	79.53	76.14	2009	Jacques Audiard
462	Zelig	80.19	90.00	76.50	80.29	1983	Woody Allen
463	Trouble in Paradise	80.18	88.20	79.35	77.62	1932	Ernst Lubitsch
464	Gran Torino	80.17	76.27	78.57	82.36	2008	Clint Eastwood
465	Last Year at Marienbad	80.16	88.25	78.29	77.37	1961	Alain Resnais
466	All the President's Men	80.15	85.95	80.48	76.46	1976	Alan J. Pakula
467	Breaking the Waves	80.15	79.85	78.46	79.55	1996	Lars von Trier
468	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	80.14	74.28	81.44	80.57	1989	Steven Spielberg
469	Divorce Italian Style	80.12	91.00	79.28	78.26	1961	Pietro Germi
470	Edward Scissorhands	80.12	78.65	78.09	80.73	1990	Tim Burton
471	The Thing	80.12	67.98	82.60	79.34	1982	John Carpenter
472	Perfect Blue	80.11	74.05	80.91	80.09	1997	Satoshi Kon
473	Down by Law	80.10	79.03	78.98	79.61	1986	Jim Jarmusch
474	Bringing Up Baby	80.10	90.75	78.25	76.45	1938	Howard Hawks
475	The Phantom of Liberty	80.09	85.10	78.89	78.66	1974	Luis Buñuel
476	Bonnie and Clyde	80.07	85.38	78.16	78.23	1967	Arthur Penn
477	The Incredibles	80.07	89.69	79.77	75.78	2004	Brad Bird
478	Rocky	80.04	79.73	79.17	79.29	1976	John G. Avildsen
479	His Girl Friday	80.03	94.15	79.24	76.72	1940	Howard Hawks
480	Mommy	80.03	80.79	80.39	79.13	2014	Xavier Dolan
481	Mon Oncle	80.03	88.00	78.03	78.76	1958	Jacques Tati
482	My Fair Lady	79.99	91.85	77.53	78.00	1964	George Cukor
483	Charade	79.98	85.55	79.37	78.72	1963	Stanley Donen
484	Stalag 17	79.95	87.13	79.62	77.79	1953	Billy Wilder
485	Boyhood	79.95	97.08	76.08	75.95	2014	Richard Linklater
486	The Secret in Their Eyes	79.95	82.49	81.27	77.67	2009	Juan José Campanella
487	Ninotchka	79.95	90.15	77.99	78.50	1939	Ernst Lubitsch
488	Pierrot le Fou	79.94	81.75	77.84	76.65	1965	Jean-Luc Godard
489	The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser	79.94	89.10	78.30	78.27	1974	Werner Herzog
490	Stroszek	79.94	88.40	79.50	77.77	1977	Werner Herzog
491	A Hard Day's Night	79.93	93.73	76.82	77.08	1964	Richard Lester
492	Onibaba	79.90	74.75	79.42	79.96	1964	Kaneto Shindo
493	Repulsion	79.85	92.68	77.29	76.57	1965	Roman Polanski
494	Like Stars on Earth	79.85	80.50	79.54	79.86	2007	Aamir Khan, Amole Gupte
495	Duck Soup	79.84	92.33	79.01	74.92	1933	Leo McCarey
496	Carlito's Way	79.83	70.28	79.16	82.01	1993	Brian De Palma
497	Nashville	79.82	93.23	76.89	74.92	1975	Robert Altman
498	The Triplets of Belleville	79.82	88.97	76.57	78.66	2003	Sylvain Chomet
499	Dr. Mabuse the Gambler	79.81	85.10	76.88	79.98	1922	Fritz Lang
500	Gone Girl	79.79	83.03	79.32	78.87	2014	David Fincher

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RR link
Previous chapter (RETRO COSMOS)
​ #2 - THE TWISTED HEIST ​
A star had just gone out in the distance, sending its entire system, planets and moons, into oblivion. So, what was a simple life compared to a sun? Did the human existence that earthlings highly cherished in the past deserve so much fuss?
I would say no, of course, because I’m a cat. Our condition to us felines will never have to pale in front of a shiny astronomical object. Mine specifically, don’t you think?
Oswald Avery was merely a Homo sapiens. A retired buccaneer, fermenting his adulterated wine on the carcass of a drifting supercargo; all under the remodeled features of a former Galactic Trade Company’s pilot. Alas, regardless of the genetic disguise, the FID rarely lied. It hadn’t fooled us and the masks had fallen off. Just like him.
I’m such a poet.
Anyway… Avery had had a long life of crimes and adventures. He was full of energy in his youth. And as in the universe, nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed, this energy was reincarnated in a nice amount in our bank account once the old picaroon flatlined.
“We finally got it! And it was a traditional Martian contract. Payable remotely, on condition that the FID is validated. How about that?”
“God… Lee … you’re talking to yourself and it’s only 8 a.m.,” Ali grunted behind me.
My couch potato of an associate had her head still stuck in the cereal box she was nibbling before falling asleep binge-watching Captain Caveman on ABC.
“To begin with, it’s 8 p.m., Martian Time. And we do have a positive balance in our bank account for the first time in months! Do you know what that means, partner?”
“Shopping, bitches!” she shouted as she hurled herself into the void, gliding to the bathroom in the weightlessness.
With the cardboard box on the top of her head, this sugar bishop was swimming after the remnant cereals that floated on her path like Ms. Pac-Man.
“Hell! Have I just opened Pandora’s box?”
The liner Danaë and its forty-eight post-nuclear Baltimore-XVIII heavy reactors made its annual cruise from Lunapolis to the suburbs of Ceres, in the belt. Its figurehead with the effigy of the Greek princess was a two hundred meters long, green ceramic statue. The size of the ship exceeded some inhabited asteroids’ diameter so it possessed its own substantial gravitational field.
“It’s quite a symbol of the decline of humanity,” I said to Ali, pointing with my chin at this unique work of art.
“Why?” my partner asked without caring whatsoever. “Spill the beans, Plato.”
The Kitty had obtained permission to dock and began its approach. I concluded then:
“Humanity no longer erects great and beautiful things without turning them into a shopping mall.”
The gold and ivory Danaë was one of the most luxurious epicenters of human decadence in the system; comprising hotels, casinos, megastores and amusement parks spread over a dozen centrifugal rings. There was something for everyone’s wallet, ready to be emptied, whether one was welcomed at the port or had joined during the crossing.
And to my great regret, the cape of the Danaë was just passing by us that week.
“I believe we should keep our savings for the maintenance of the Swallow. The dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree. Some parts need to be changed…”
“You’re such a bore with your adult talks,” my partner said as she left the fitting room of a luxury chain overlooking the main deck. “What do you think of that? Sexy as fuck, right?”
Her camisole didn’t hide a single inch square of flesh and I subtly pointed it out to her:
“It’s a bit of a back-alley Sally.”
I took a blow on the nose which, this time, was amply justified.
“There’s nothing chicer than Borderline. You don’t know anything about fashion. It’s crazy!”
She was furious. It was entertaining. But she was right. The human female fads were way over my head and I wasn’t a good adviser. Mostly because I didn’t care. At all.
Fortunately, the upscale shopping mall where we were staying had provided us with a free assistant who was even more servile than a decerebrate canine. As usual, the robot carrier that accompanied us did the job by flattering her with its unbearable honeyed tone:
“I find you charming, Madame. Here we have the latest fashionable lingerie on Mars. It’s an ephemeral collection that appears to have been specially made to mold your discreet curves, which seem to have been sculpted by the seraphim.”
Ali gave me a satisfied look that I pretended to ignore. Then she backtracked into the fitting room to put her black suit and pink jacket back on.
I took the opportunity to climb on the shoulders of this silly robot, servant of our servants and last link in this hierarchy whose origins go back to Ancient Egypt.
“One more move like this and I’ll turn you into a gum dispenser.”
The automaton apologized before my partner’s head emerged from behind the silk curtains which were far too fragrant for my taste.
“I just checked; it’s too expensive anyway. I ain’t buying it,” she announced. “Can you order a taxicab to take us to the hotels’ ring? You’d be a sweetheart.”
Happy to leave this irascible human with her robotic slave, I proceeded to the nearest service terminal. By the time I requested a vehicle, a flying cigarette dispenser could light me a Lucky.
“It’s forbidden to smoke in our store, Monsieur.”
The customer attaché, in his blue silk suit with elephant legs, had appeared out of nowhere. Yet, with such a shiny tie, this punk should have dazzled me from the Kuiper belt.
“Please be kind and get me a Pepper Coke instead of ruining my eyesight…” I grumbled in response.
I was in an awful mood. I definitely hated shopping. And people. Yet the pedestrian avenues of the Danaë had a very exceptional population density. Perms were making a strong comeback, as were neon tattoos and overly open flowered shirts. Under the false UVA/B sun, it was a true dance of flesh, steel and plastic bodies with assumed nudity. Implants and surgery erased the hazards of the genetic lottery for better or worse. It was so superficial. So futile. So human.
“Hello, handsome!” Ali cried out, a large smile across her face. “Lee? You didn’t tell me you knew Christophe Lambert! You know I'm a huge Highlander fan!”
My partner had just joined me, arms loaded with bags massive enough to live in it, start a family and park my chromic Pontiac Firebird. All were filled with C$400 t-shirts and sneakers that she didn’t need and would only put on once.
“No smell. Hologram,” I conclude by throwing my cigarette butt through the smiling ghost.
“Shame!” Ali sighed.
She then looked at her terminal, and continued:
“Do you think I have time to grab a watch module? There are sales in the Japanese aisle! I saw some GD-8 that would go well with my new Game Pocket! This boat is fucking rad!”
Ali could not stop humming Who wants to live forever. I had to rub my temples to avoid a migraine before the arrival of our taxicab five minutes later.
These were miniature limousines with double fake leather benches, facing each other at the back. There was a minibar with expensive multicolored drinks and sugar-soaked snacks, the sapiens’ primary source of calories and high Gs space travel drug. For the sensitive, the smart-fridge provided diet sodas with aspartame, but no one took it. Finally, there were free Gauloise cigarettes next to the ashtray on the armrest. And even Tylenol!
“What a time to be alive!”
Right after leaving the fashion district, a soft voice of a young woman, who appeared to us through the armored porthole separating her from her customers, finally emerged from the cockpit:
“Good evening! I’m Miss Meera. At your service. Hotel de Saint-Malo, correct?”
I nodded. She smiled at us. She was beautiful with her incredibly dark night metal skin that contrasted strongly with her silvery-white hair. She also had charming ivory eyes with absolutely no reflection. They were a mesmerizing void of light.
In fact, it was so rare to deal with a real person, and not an AI, that we engaged rapidly in a lovely and honest discussion with Meera. We were mostly talking about life on the Danaë. As she stated, the rules on board were very strict, even military. All was done to make sure that the customer had the most pleasant time at the expense of everything else. Finally, according to her, her condition wasn’t the most to be pitied in the cosmos. And she was fully satisfied with this precarious semi-nomadic existence.
“And what about you? Are you here on vacation or in transit for work?” she eventually asked. “What do you do for a living?”
Should we have told her that we were executing infamous people so Ali would collect expensive t-shirts and I could fulfill my nicotine addiction?
“Don’t get me wrong but I saw that you had a gun. Are you in the police… or are you pirates?”
It wasn’t the first time someone asked us this question. Although weapons were allowed on most ships and stations, it wasn’t wise to display them unless you were looking for trouble. Unfortunately, hiding such a large caliber under such a tight vest was a Herculean task.
“You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone”, simply quoted Ali, her forehead against the window covered with scented stickers.
Meera laughed before continuing:
“Very well, Al Capone. I understand that you’re not the type to let yourself be taken advantage of.”
The taxicab entered the central expressway after the water park then suddenly swerved violently to the left.
“What is going on?” I gasped.
After crushing the safety railing, we fell from one rotating bridge to the other in a frantic cavalcade. Judging by Meera’s swear words, this ride wasn’t part of the show.
Avoiding the stalls of an art market and a group of children coming out of an arcade, the driver finally managed to recover in extremis. It was about time, because within seconds we were passing through the transparent protective wall of the hotels’ deck.
“A thousand apologies! Another one of those mor… clients from the Middle System who doesn’t know how to use a rental car,” she shouted through the window. “Are you guys hurt?”
“No, thanks to you,” I replied, my tail spiked over my head, taped to Ali’s neck now decorated with bloody scratches.
Although my human forehead now had a bump on it the size of a golf ball, it was true that Meera had just saved our lives. This young girl had unsuspected driving talents despite taxicabs’ lack of handling. She didn’t belong here, playing the steward in a yellow circus uniform. This woman should have been a fighter pilot; or a NASCAR driver on Canyon Creek.
“In any case, here you’re almost in front of your hotel,” she replied. “You don’t have to pay anything, and I apologize again for the scare.”
From the outside, the taxicab now looked like a can of nutrigel after going through a crusher. Yet, it still worked. May God Darwin bless Venusian steel.
After thanking her, we wished Meera a good day. But the cockpit window suddenly went down on the passenger side. The smile of the driver had faded. She had tears at the corner of her white eyes.
“Wait!” she asked. “This weapon… do you really know how to use it?”
So, life on the Danaë wasn’t so sweet. As Meera explained to us in a secluded alleyway, a trio of criminals had come to threaten her a few days earlier, after finding she was a bodacious driver. They were preparing a heist in one of the flying city’s fifty casinos. The young woman was now ready to pay the price to settle the case.
“What is your opinion about this whole situation?” I asked Ali, once in our room, a small yet cozy suite whose glass walls overlooked the vacuum of space.
My human had applied a brownish ointment on her hump, which disappeared soon after, leaving only a slight pinkish hematoma.
“Meera said she would provide us with more details tomorrow. However, if she ponies up the cash, I don’t see why we would refuse. We ain’t mercs but these three guys must have a bounty on their heads. Let’s do our job, right?
“Indeed…”
All we had to do was wait for more instructions. Fortunately, it had been months since we had been able to take days off except on miserable gas stations full of drug addicts, implants scavengers and prostitutes.
After another morning of shopping, Ali went to the thalassotherapy center of the neighboring hotel. Her main occupation? Overeating sushi made by 3D nutrigel printing while getting massages.
Alas, I didn’t have the time to bask under the false sun of the lakeside resort and get my belly stroked. As a good captain, I had to go to the maintenance to fix the numerous damages of the Kitty. As always, the bill would be higher than expected.
Everything was orchestrated so that we would never hold a positive balance in this corrupted system. We had to chain contract after contract.
But Meera’s gig didn’t sound right. There was something I didn’t like and I couldn’t catch it yet. All my cat sensors were in the red. Unfortunately, the bounty hunter’s ones only saw the green of the bills.
Don’t judge me.
The young taxicab driver had finally contacted Ali again by holoconference in the early afternoon, shortly before I joined her at the exit of the tanning booths. Or as I called them: human toasters.
“Have you finished roasting like a Thanksgiving turkey?” I asked her as she plunged into the icy water of the adjacent basin, under the lustful gaze of a group of cadets from the Marine Academy.
“Meera will pick us up with a new taxicab in the hotel parking lot,” she whispered once back to me. “Alongside her, we will meet two of the criminals at the burglary location, shortly before midnight.”
“Go on.”
“We take care of these guys and we catch up with the last one: the band leader, in the storage cavities of the hangar reserved for the ship’s logistics. Below the last rotating ring.”
In Eve’s costume, Ali came out of the basin, not without deliberately drenching me. The water had a nasty chemical taste from being filtered day after day.
“Do you have any intelligence on these jokers?” I insisted while lighting a cigarette.
“The Broadway Gang. Three brothers. C$45,000 for the trio. We will also be able to recover at least C$10,000 of Techno-federal tax on their ship depending on its condition. Easy cash with the dollar credits that Meera promises us…”
Now sitting on the ledge, my partner splashed her feet to demonstrate her eagerness to head back swimming.
“Excellent! This will pay for the maintenance and allow us to save some money on our way to the belt.”
“Can I go now?” she asked, sliding back into the water.
“You may,” I had concluded before seeing her leave for her absurd wanderings that would fill her afternoon.
I myself was very busy making eyes at the wealthy guests of the hotel restaurant to glean a few pieces of Peking duck or juicy crabs. They were real farm animals from Mars. Not nutrigel. It was worth abandoning a little dignity aside.
With a full belly, I finally joined Ali in the middle of the evening. Arriving in the corridor of our suite, I crossed the group of cadets noticed near the swimming pool. They seemed tired but blissfully smiling as they just discovered the nirvana. And I knew why…
“Ali? Are you ready?” I said as I walked through the half-open bedroom door.
Her dressing gown had been thrown on the floor. Her gun and badge were resting on the bedside table against a giant bottle of Koala Springs soda and a pyramid of little Yoyo Mints.
To be honest, I expected a bigger mess.
“Gimme five minutes,” she replied while in the shower.
An hour later, we met Meera in the staff parking lot behind the recycling stations. Without further discussion, we joined the expressway in the taxicab. Between two noisy info-ads, the radio played Sweet Transvestite then the rest of the mythical Rocky Horror soundtrack.
“I wonder what Tim Curry’s up to these days,” asked Ali while browsing the intraweb on her implant.
“Being legendary as usual,” I answered.
Afterwards, the casino was in sight. But once on the forecourt illuminated by the gold and silver bulbs, we heard gunshots and screams. My partner and I quickly realized that this was a violent robbery rather than a modest heist.
“What the fuck, Meera?” Ali asked, turning to the porthole that separated us from the cockpit.
There was a hint of irritation in her voice.
Meera remained mute, her hands on the wheel and her gaze forward. In the rear-view mirror the young woman looked panicked.
The right door of the vehicle suddenly opened and two men sat down in front of us. They were wearing theater masks: the first was Melpomene, the sad grimace of tragedy; the second, Thalia, the twisted smile of comedy. Each brigand carried a huge metal block under his arm; drawers that were sure to be full of cash. On the other hand, they held their still smoking ZeG-4 machine guns even more firmly.
When they saw us, they both gasped, in unison:
“What the fuck, Meera?”
One… two. One… two.
Four holes in their faded tuxedo. Four bullets as big as a cat’s eye that silenced them forever, before slowly repainting the bench in red.
“What the fuck was that? You killed them!” Meera shouted this time, as she started the electric engine. “You had tasers at your disposal, you psychos!”
She had finally turned around. Her voice was quivering. She was no longer panicked, but angry.
The tasers must have slipped between the seats because I hadn’t seen them. My partner raised her eyebrows and it made me realize that their use had never been in mind.
“We’re bounty hunters, not 9 to 5 social workers!” continued Ali. “Now, you gotta motor, otherwise the cops will shoot our ass on the spot before we could even meet the third dude!”
Meera put her foot on the pedal and one could almost hear the noise of the thrusters melting the white asphalt.
“I can perceive the sirens, Ali,” I concluded before Meera entered the ring's external road reserved for logistic transport.
We then had the shortest car chase we had taken part in. The Danaë security forces may not have had the best elements in the system, but Meera’s talents didn’t give them a chance. We had crossed half a dozen rotative bridges to the rhythm of Take on Me, zigzagging between expressways and maintenance tunnels to arrive before the song ended at the deserted logistics hangar.
It was similar to a huge supermarket with honeycombed shelves. Each of these garages, dimly illuminated by red LEDs, housed a delivery or transport vessel. There was the most impressive fleet I had ever seen.
In one of the first level’s cells stood, between a set of clamps, a Swift-0 scout, from Peugeot Corp, with wings spread. The Swifts were small and very high-end single-seaters. They could be modified to integrate weapons systems, but their primary characteristics were velocity and evasion.
Leaning on the flank of the mono-turbine, the last of the three criminals, a tall blond man with a “Chevy Chase” prominent chin was looking down on the approaching taxicab.
“Were they planning to escape on that ship? The three of them?” I remarked when the vehicle stopped a few meters from the small vessel.
But Meera ignored me.
“Hand me the money, I’m going out. That was the agreement.”
The porthole opened at its base, allowing us to pass the steel cash drawers. Once the taxicab’s ignition was turned off, only their holographic numbers glowed in the dark.
“It’s all over if his cronies don’t stick their noses out of the car,” Ali replied, finally giving the second drawer away. “He’s going to figure out that it went south. He will kill you!”
Outside, the man was getting impatient. Blinded by the taxicab’s headlights, he came closer before exclaiming:
“Zéphyr, are you there? Where are my brothers? Security is closing all the departure modules. We will be stuck here, for fuck’s sake!”
He now had a gun in his hand. A machine gun identical to those of his companions currently bathed in their blood, nailed to the seats.
“Zéphyr? Wait… I know that name!” I meowed to myself.
The doors and portholes of the taxicab were locked. Ali and I were now stuck in the back with the two flatlined and most wanted criminals on the ship.
“Sorry guys, but I’ll handle the rest.”
Miss Meera, alias Zéphyr, smiled at us through the armored glass just before leaving the cockpit by the driver’s door.
“What a fucking piece of shit… Lee? Do you have a plan? I think the windows are bulletproof. I don’t feel like testing. Especially if it’s bouncing around with us inside, we will be turned into ground beef!”
“Did you forget who I am, my dear?”
I was already crawling under the seat, between a pair of Méduse shoes and half nibbled fried rat wings. It was time to demonstrate all my infiltration skills learned from Ninja Gaiden. Unfortunately, both the crab and the duck slowed me down and my belly remained for a few seconds stuck under the driver’s seat with my head on the brake pedal. How outrageous!
From the porthole, I saw Ali watching what was happening in front of us, near the ship. Our eyes met for a brief moment and I could read on her lips: “diet kibble”.
“Better off dead!” I shouted.
My paw reached the bottom of the dashboard, activating the mechanical opening of doors and windows. And, accidentally, the loudest horn in this dimension.
“My bad!”
My sapiens immediately jumped outside, pointing her gun to Zéphyr. Surprised by the thunderous din, her target pivoted towards us, uncovered, turning her back to the human with the magnificent chin and his ZeG-4 who yelled:
“What in the whole universe is that? Wait! I know her! Did you bring us bounty hunters? You were clearly planning to double-cross us!”
The man shouted and his gun produced a rain of bullets. It first hit the windshield of the taxicab, passing through the conductor compartment where I was. The rounds bent the windscreen, but it held. This wasn’t, however, the case for the hood, protecting the engine and the reservoir full of coolant, which ended up covering the seat and my face.
Fortunately, the sticky alcohol allowed me to escape from this trap and jump out of the vehicle through the window I had previously opened. But, once again, a fire ring enveloped the ZeG-4’s cannon.
“This is how I die…” I meowed, eyes closed.
I was violently tackled and hit the ground. Zéphyr had saved me at the last moment, just before bullets obliterated the front of the taxicab.
Other projectiles ricocheted off the metal money drawers on the floor and got lost in the ceiling, activating the fire sprinklers. This incident triggered a silent light alarm throughout the hangar while the mobster prepared a new salvo.
“Don’t hurt my pilot, you narbo!” roared my partner.
Ali, this time taken as a target, retaliated. She fired a single shot towards the rascal with a formidable precision. No one knew how to handle such a heavy gun as she did. She was my human. She was the best in her field: murder.
And I taught her everything. Almost.
The leader of the robbers tried to reload the magazine of his weapon, unaware that his heart had been punctured a few seconds before. Adrenaline was doing its job. But the blood loss caused by the explosion of the aorta at its base, near the ventricles, gradually stopped him in his gesture. His pressure dropped and the bloodstream no longer reached the brain sufficiently. He was already in a coma when his shoulders touched the ground. He was luckier than the average Joe and died a few seconds later.
“Is everything all right?”
My voice was trembling, still in shock from this disaster. I was wet and frozen.
Zéphyr got up with difficulty. Next to us, one of the metal drawers was opened, revealing a bunch of green bills and a much stranger booty: an eight-inch gold diskette with suspicious Chinese symbols.
Well… I couldn’t read them but Chinese symbols on stuff are always suspect, aren’t they?
But there were more important matters. Because my partner, on the other hand, stayed on the ground. Blood was dripping from her black suit and mixed with the clear firefighting fluid that was falling like an endless rain.
I tried to talk to her again but my voice was lost in a groan.
“Why are you whining, you big baby? It’s just blood.”
With her nose in a puddle, my sapiens smiled at me. Her left hand was compressing her abdomen. The bullet had passed through the external oblique muscle, far from the stomach.
It wasn’t that bad after all but she had scared me. And that deserved a scratch on the wrist that made her scream:
“What the fuck?”
“And the medical expenses? Have you thought about medical expenses? We don’t have insurance!”
“God, Uncle Scrooge! I hate you!”
“We won’t be able to fix the Kitty with your heroic outbursts!” I fulminated to mask my joy of seeing her in one piece.
“I will kill you, Muppet! I almost died! I don’t give a fuck about your rusty trash can which flies like a brick!”
It was true that we hadn’t had a fight for a long time.
“Guys…” intervened Zéphyr.
“What?”
Ali and I had spoken together.
“These three ruffians had planned to steal the diskette drive from me once I got back. I needed a hand, so… thank you… I guess.”
“You’re welcome,” my human answered dryly while sitting.
Although Zéphyr saved me, I didn’t share the same kindness:
“Wait, we’re not letting him go! Do you know who he is?”
Zéphyr. Prince of thieves. And yes, he wasn’t much of a princess either. Just an androgynous cyborg. A breakout king wanted throughout the entire system for his affiliation with the Data Brokers’ Guild. With an incredible bounty of C$800,000, she or he… whatever… was the knight of the brokers’ chessboard.
“I think we’ve had enough for today,” Ali said. “Unless you hope to go after him with these big fat guts of yours.”
“By the 79 moons of Jupiter, you shall pay for this, woman!” I meowed, angry.
My ears were backwards and my hairs were spiky. But soaking wet, it just made Ali and Zéphyr laugh.
Disgrace!
“He’s so cute when he’s furious,” he joked.
Now on his knees, the night-skinned androgynous was blotting Ali’s wound with a torn piece of fabric from his driver’s uniform.
“But more seriously, I need to go. With the bounty, you’ll be able to repair your vessel. As for the hospital fees, I will contact a good friend who will take care of you for free. She’s the ship’s chief medical officer.”
“Thank you,” I simply replied as he helped my partner get back on her feet.
“It’s the least I can do. I wasn’t interested in money. More important information is contained in this,” he said as he was picking up the floppy disk.
This golden diskette must have been worth a lot of cash for Zéphyr to play a taxicab driver to ensure coverage. I had perceived that something was fishy!
Then, halfway to his Swift-0, Zéphyr stopped. I witnessed his hesitation.
“There was nothing personal, you know. We’re all just trying to make our way. The best we can…”
And he ultimately left before adding:
“Maybe we’ll see each other again! You seem like fun.”
Before fleeing away, Zéphyr abandoned one of the boxes near the criminal’s corpse. Thus, he validated the theory of a robbery that had gone wrong. When the security arrived a few minutes later, we were the heroes of the day. And with a little bribe, nobody cared about Zéphyr’s missing ship.
This whole story surely left us a bitter taste. A feeling of defeat and humiliation that the swimming pool under the synthetic sun couldn’t make disappear even a week after.
“He undoubtedly played us as we were rookies, with his little face of a young innocent girl in distress,” I said to Ali right after the end of the daily Brett Maverick.
This old show was dispensed on a couple of giant screens suspended by drones.
Until now, Ali had remained silent on her deckchair; with a brick of sour juice stuck between her breasts and a pair of straws between her teeth. Only inaudible grunts emanated from her mouth since the departure of the sexually unclassifiable mugger.
“I wonder what information this fucking cyber-Tootsie could have been looking for in that casino,” my human mumbled as she squeaked her rainbow flip-flops.
“Admit that it’s not really that question that puts you in such a state…” I answered, now well installed on my motorized buoy that I had gotten as a gift in a diet kibbles package.
“You bet! I will have a nasty tan mark on my stomach with these bandages!” she exploded, spitting out her plastic straws with infinite curls.
My float slipped towards the ledge as a robot came to bring us our next glucose overdose.
Ali finally added:
“I swear that if we run into him again, I’ll smack his fucking angel face.”
Back to business!