"The Social Reckoning"

“We’re way past making friends.”  

The 500 million friends from “The Social Network” (2010) seem quaint now. With nearly billion users in 2019, Facebook (now Meta) appears unstoppable. Its reach far and wide through the corners of the globe.  The good, the bad, the ugly – all of it.  

The brilliant Aaron Sorkin has totally taken the helm and steered the gigantic social media shipwreck story.

“The Social Reckoning” opens the film with a routine traffic stop that turns riveting with hostility. When you visualize the term “radicalized,” this is an incredible illustration of it.  

Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), a young data scientist at Facebook, is a part of the Civic Integrity team, tasked with monitoring global risks and mitigating misinformation, fake news and harmful propaganda.  

Frances has gradually discovered disturbing data about what Facebook is doing, at the same time that investigative reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), began sniffing around, as the country is approaching election year 2020.

When there’s smoke, there’s fire? This is a combustible one, like playing kerosene with matches.

The two meet in secret – from one initial meeting where Frances is filled with fear, then reluctance and hesitancy, to bolder and riskier, and eventually became a full-blown participant.  

Frances believes in Facebook’s mission that they are doing the world good by giving people a voice and connecting them, as well as democratizing access.  Especially for introverts or socially awkward ones, where they could be themselves behind the screen and make friends.  

Frances proclaims over and over that she loves her job, and that she wants to help Facebook, not hurt it, but she could not calm her conscience. She’s acutely aware that she’s violating her employment NDA and could potentially go to prison for her actions - for photographing thousands of pictures of confidential trade secret documents, essentially stealing company property and going up against one of the most powerful corporations and richest men in the world.  

Frances relays that a highly alarming percentage of users who have been directed to join extremist groups come from Facebook’s own algorithms. Then MSI (Meaningful Social Interactions) is another method, which is driven to increase engagement by altering the algorithms to value likes 5x, comments 15x and reshares 30x.  

What’s the number one emotion and what kinds of posts that would push people to reshare? Anger.  Rage-bait posts.  And Facebook senior leaders knew full well.  

With the consequential U.S. presidential election and global COVID colliding, so are false narratives, inflammatory comments, bullying pages, hate speech, and extremist recruitment.  

On the mental health front, teens have also been universally impacted by excessive social media use designed for endless scrolling, causing poor body image, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideations. Facebook is also being used by drug cartels and human traffickers.  

The behind-the-scenes media and political coaching of Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong, mimicking stiff-looking and tight-lipped Zuck) are animated, egged on by investor-turned-critic Charlie Garrigan (Bill Burr) after the fallout of their relationship, while crisis PR strategist Raya Akinola (Wunmi Mosaku) is doing her darndest to humanize Zuckerberg and present himself in a favorable light under congressional microscope.  

At what point should a social media corporation draw the hard digital lines between free speech and intervention by censoring comments?  Is it only when there’s an imminent harm?  How imminent and how would you define that?  How could a company fact-check political ads and mass dissemination of news racing across the world with lightning speed?

The scenes of the capitol insurrection and Facebook chief’s decision-making surrounded by live feed all around are tensely intercut and unfolding in real time. 

How can ONE person make a global impact and at scale?  By inflicting pain that hurts, combined with the power of the press. And that, is a force to be reckoned with. Frances throws the whistleblower gauntlet and takes a strong stand with her conviction in a David vs Goliath showdown.  

Putting growth at all costs over safety guardrails, profit-over-people Facebook has caused widespread polarization and stoked division, leading to life-and-death situations. The Facebook Files are now open to the public.

In true Sorkin’s fashion, “The Social Reckoning” is sharply written with rapid-fire dialogue, counting down war room parallel scenes, and provocative themes with no clean solutions. 

While not quite reaching “The Social Network's” stellar bar, “The Social Reckoning” is a solid companion, engaging and thought-provoking piece.  

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FREE Movie Screening: "Trust Me, I'm a Doctor" (Nationwide)

Atom is providing FREE movie screening nationwide for today, October 10, 2026.

Claim your FREE movie tickets here: (2 tickets/person; while supplies last)

https://www.atomtickets.com/movies/trust-me-im-a-doctor/368785?ref=TrustMeDoctorFreeTixEmail&lid=eu1096ud2bpe

Redemption code: ATOMTRUSTME

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The story of Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, whose life is turned upside down when he is implicated in the death of his former patient, model and reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith.

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"Verity"

"The truth depends on who's telling it.”

If “Verity” reminds of you of last year’s wildly mind-blowing, “The Housemaid,” you’d be right. 

Similar components are there – a young woman moving into a wealthy family’s home and there’s a potential affair between the outsider and the husband.  

With a dash of “Gone Girl,” there may be another thing or two elements in this Colleen Hoover’s adopted novel that might bear similarity to the other films, but that’s about it. The way the story flashes back and progresses is vividly different. 

Vivid is an emphasis here, because the wife and world-renowned author, Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway; “The Devil Wears Prada,” “The End of Oak Street”) is in catatonic state due to a car accident.  

The story is told from Verity’s hidden memoir manuscript, “So Be It,” as read by the Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson, “Materialists”).  The words (voiced by Hathaway) fly off the screen vividly, so darkly descriptive and sensationally salacious.  

It does beg the question how famous crime fiction writers could creatively come up with stuff terrifyingly twisted, such as writing stories from the villain’s viewpoints.  Is it purely from their imaginations or something else in their psyche?  

Talented Lowen is a far lesser-known author, who has written in the similar genre, and has been invited by the publisher to ghostwrite the rest of Verity’s unfinished, profitable book series, “Noble Virtues.”  

Lowen is staying in the Verity’s and her husband’s, Jeremy’s (Josh Hartnett), luxurious lakeside house in Vermont, since Verity has a lot of materials scattered in her home office prior to the crash.

The picturesque wintry setting and distinctively designed house is its own character, lending itself to a noir story and jump scares. 

Located by a frozen lake with falling snow all around, the sprawling mid-century modern house is dazzlingly dominated by warm woods, with sunken shelves, brick walls, wood panel-covered refrigerator, stone sinks and tub adorning parts of the house.  

The lurid manuscript starts from the beginning, where Verity and Jeremy first met at a party, how their chemistry-packed relationship took off right away to where Jeremy asked Verity to move in with him and asked her to marry him during, voiced with intrigue and shown with lascivious details, and not bloodlessly. Then how Verity first became a writer, pregnant with their twin babies, and caring for them once they were born.  The attraction and obsession were palpable.  

If you guess these are all mundane milestones, you’d be wrong. The scenes seductively pull you in little by little, until you’re sucked into a shocking vortex, gasping with startling realizations. And when you think you’ve figured it out, a triple twist come out slashing.  

The troubling, penultimate scenes will make you challenge reality and the head-spinning ending question which unsettling version of the story is true. 

The film does require you to suspend disbelief for an extended period, but if you’re game, you’d be disturbingly entertained.  

“Verity” lacks the intensity and campily entertaining element of “The Housemaid,” but the psychological thriller’s what ifs? are unnervingly fun to think and imagine. 

Who’s manipulating who?  Who would you believe?  What would you have done?  And what would you do?

For a character and movie named “Verity,” don’t believe everything you see and hear! What’s fiction might be real and what’s real might be fiction.

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FREE Movie Screening: "The Influencer Project" (Nationwide)

Atom is providing FREE movie screening nationwide until September 30, 2026.  

Claim your FREE movie tickets here: (2 tickets/person; while supplies last)

https://www.atomtickets.com/movies/the-influencer-project/420452

Redemption code: ATOMINFLUENCER

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From the team that scared the world with "The Blair Witch Project."

An influencer travels to Copenhagen for a documentary about her online fame. However, when an obsessive stalker tracks her every move, she must confront her terror to reclaim power.

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"Fall 2: Deadpoint"

"Are you down?"

“Fall” was the sleeper late summer hit of 2022.  The survival thriller is not only stunning, but also mind-bending. The mega hit propelled a sequel and a trilogy.  

Following the fatal fallout of “Fall,” Jax (Harriet Slater), the grieving sister of the fallen Shiloh/Hunter, has been haunted by the memories of their sisterly relationship.  Shiloh was the brave one, the popular one, as seen from her massive social media followers, as well as the news, which has made her famous posthumously.    

A former college friend of Shiloh, Luce (Arsema Thomas), catches up with sorrow-filled Jax. Luce persuades Jax to follow her belated sister’s footsteps and face her fears, which is to climb and walk the plank of Mount Kwan, Thailand’s most dangerous hike.  This expedition is listed on Shiloh’s bucket list diary as her next daredevil adventure.   

Restrained and reluctant, and rightfully so, Jax ends up joining recalcitrant and reckless Luce in Thailand. Finding the right hiking guide takes a secret code. John (Tom Brittney) is the man for the mission impossible job. John warns them of potential hallucination, headache and nausea for a plank walk at that altitude.  

With the imposing Mount Kwan reaching into the clouds looming in front of her, Jax is once again hesitant, but ends up being roped into the treacherous trek up.  And treacherous is putting it mildly. Death wish is more like it. The trio is illegally climbing up rusty steel ladders with loose bolts up a towering rock mountain.

Once the trio reaches up 4,000 feet above sea level, the plank walk starts – on a rickety, narrow wooden plank with a width of around a little over a foot wide plastered across the side of the mountain, built by centuries ago.  There’s an equally rusty chains where the hikers can clip on and off their flimsy harnesses to move forward one step at a time, and nothing more.  

The plank walk is perilous enough in a sunny, clear weather.  It becomes impossibly deadly when the rain begins, crumbling rocks slide to destroy parts of the plank, leaving Jax and Luce stranded, and separated from John. Panic, paranoia, regret, fear and terror set in.  

The young women are trapped in such high altitude, suspended on a shaky strip of wood, at mercy of the searing sun and pelting rain and moving clouds, with no food and water, and no cell service.  No way out and no means to get help.  The backpack with supplies and radio communication is hung over precariously on a steel bar, remnants of the disintegrating plank, feet away.  

The view atop, looking over the rolling mists, vast valley of clouds, and forested trees down below, is impossibly beautiful, although it’s not something you can marvel in when you’re literally teetering on the edge of life and death.  One slight foot slip, you’re gone. One wrong move, you’ll plummet to your death. 

Jax and Luce try every way possible to get to the backpack, resulting in some of the most harrowing scenes captured.  Extreme leaning and leaping, sliding down the broken beam, hanging on to a single structural bar, swinging between pegs, dangling for dear life – while hungry, dehydrated, exhausted, injured, desperate and scared out of their wits, not to mention a trust issue when something comes to light. 

The filmmaker knows how to make vertigo-inducing scenes look and feel real.  Like the "Fall" before it and "The Walk," the sensations are truly felt; I had shivers running all though my feet and hair stood at the back of my neck.  

The story follows the framework from the first installment, yet a couple of twists keep the film fresh. There’s more human action in “Fall 2” than “Fall,” although the characters’ actions are head-shakingly worthy, leading to a flash point.  

While focusing on the peril, you might miss a clue that sets up for “Fall 3.” The ending shows what to expect in the final installment and I’ll be anticipating with bated breath.   

For both thrill seekers and the timid who love survival thrillers, “Fall 2: Deadpoint” is thrillingly death-defying, as well as a spectacular sky-high jumping point from summer to fall. Don't miss this on the big screen!

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TRIVIA: While Mount Kwan plank walk in Thailand isn't real, Mount Huashan plank walk IS real! Check this out: Huashan Plank Walk | Huashan Cliffside Path Map, Tips, Guides

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"Tony" (Anthony Bourdain)

"I was – to be frank – a spoiled, miserable, narcissistic, self-destructive and thoughtless young lout, badly in need of a good ass-kicking."

Before the one and only, “Anthony Bourdain,” as the world knew him, he was just Tony. 

Cape Cod, Massachusetts, summer of 1975, is where the story begins and ends. One spectacularly messed up summer where a 19-year old Tony (Dominic Sessa) finds himself working as dishwasher, after getting robbed, needing money and a place to stay.  

This is not the Anthony Bourdain everyone knew. A world-famous celebrity chef, best-selling author, television star, global food explorer and traveler. A young, arrogant, reckless and directionless Tony arrives in Provincetown, following a trail of his high school crush, Nancy (Emilia Jones).  

This impromptu trip is after Tony lied to his parents that he got a writer’s fellowship for college.  As an aspiring writer, who is telling everyone that he’s writing a novel. After Tony sees that Nancy has a boyfriend, he gets steaming drunk, acts out, and gets thrown out of a restaurant.  His trouble doesn’t stop there.  He is robbed and out of cash.

Eventually Tony and Nancy run into each other, and Tony decides to keep the writer’s charade.  It’s one lie after and the lies pile up.  In order to impress a girl, he keeps digging into deeper holes.  

Luckily for Tony, he’s taken in by the head chef and owner (Antonio Banderas, "Haywire") of The Flagship, the same no-frill seafood restaurant, who threw him out earlier. For a place to crash, specifically, the chef’s hammock on the porch, Tony works as a dishwasher.

Here is where Tony learns and immerses himself in the pressure-cooker kitchen action and rough-and-tumble culture among the salty characters. Sal (Leo Woodall), who hooks Tony into the bad boy lifestyle, is a standout prick, dishing out one shenanigan after another. 

The kitchen scenes are rough and not for the meek, although eventually Tony forms a bond with his teammates, and especially with the salt-of-the-earth chef-turned-mentor.

Tony can now wake up without having a bucket of cold water thrown over his face, learns discipline and grueling work. Not just washing dishes, he learns to prep food, and it’s not without cuts and burns.  Shucking oysters never looks more nerve-wracking. Amidst the boiling chaos and fast-paced kitchen scenes, the tomato-and-salt moments are quietly grounding.   

Tony does have an eye for the restaurant business.  His fancy Friday special menu idea is well-received, as well as a plan that brings the community together over food. Part of his redemption act also means admitting the truth about his writer charade.  

The film is also atmospheric, like Cape Cod watercolor painting comes to life, where you feel like breathing in the salty air and feeling the sea spray on your face, walking along the white sand dunes and weathered beach shacks, watching fishermen go out to sea, cooking lobsters, roasting freshly caught fish over bonfire, having clambake on the beach. The entire film has a distinct, nostalgic New England beach town feel. 

The film is not meant to cover Bourdain’s entire career.  On the contrary, spiced with a dash of creative license, the story condenses into a slice of beachside life in one summer. 

Sessa plates the portrayal of the legendary culinary figure at the start of adulthood perfectly imperfect.  A formative summer peppered with serious mischiefs that leads to a decision with no reservations that will shape the rest of his life.  

Here's a carefree, unseasoned young man with a whole life ahead of him, carrying those raw kitchen confidential misadventures with him, fueling a new flame to venture into parts unknown, facing a future beyond his wildest imaginations.  

“You think I want to spend the rest of my life working in a f*** kitchen?" Ah, the irony.

Inspired by the early chapters of the Anthoy Bourdain's memoir “Kitchen Confidential,” Tony” serves up a briny, consequential coming-of-age story, seasoned with a blend of authenticity, chaos and care.

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"The End of Oak Street"

What happens if your neighborhood is suddenly dropped into the dinosaur era?  That’s the Steven Spielberg's-inspired, absurd premise of “The End of Oak Street” and it’s madly effective.  

The film, tinted in golden hues, focuses on the Platt family, living in an idyllic suburbia in the 1980s, with their dog, Starbuck.  There are block parties and shared barbeques celebrating summer, neighbors watching out for one another, and kids playing on the streets and riding bikes together.  

Greg (Ewan McGregor; “The Impossible,” “Perfect Sense,” “Haywire”) and Denise (Anne Hathaway, “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Ocean 8,” “One Day”) have had marital problems, which they’ve tried to hide from their teenage son, Brian (Christian Convery) and daughter, Audrey (Maisey Stella). 

Greg drinks and he has been secretly laid off, trying to generate cash through delivering pizza.  Denise has been writing a novel at home, fantasizing about traveling solo and leaving everything behind.  Audrey dreams to go to Cornell to study astronomy, even though she knows her family wouldn’t be able to afford it.  Brian is acting out and secretly smoking.    

One night, there’s a rainstorm, bright lights and booming sound.  Other than power outage and no running water, it seems to be a temporary inconvenience.  It soon becomes a life-and-death ordeal, however, when they spot a dinosaur in their neighborhood.  And another and another.  Their neighborhood has been transported into millions of the years into the past, trampled on and overrun by these dangerous prehistoric creatures.

The jaw-dropping shock, panic, and fear turn into real nightmares when the family realizes there’s no way out.  Their neighborhood is surrounded by prehistoric plants, forest, volcano and lake, dinosaurs roaming around freely and hunting for food, as if they’re in their natural habitat.  

These predators mean business and it’s brutal.  Man-eating dinosaurs are nothing new, but the way the scenes are shot is stellar. Not only is a surreal to see so many magnificent species – land, air, and water (considerably more than “Jurassic World”) and when they start the gnawing and chomping, but also when sightings are unseen, things are rustling around, ransacking, falling down, shaking, cracking and breaking apart.  

There are genuinely tense and heart-stopping action sequences. The more terrifying ones are not the ones stomping out in the open; it’s the ones creepily creeping up or slithering with silence, before loudly opening up their predator-teeth mouths, cornering and trapping people. Hathaway is a force here. That said, there are also sightings and interactions that will bring out chuckles and laughter.  

This is a movie that doesn’t explain the why, but the what and how are executed really well, and how it ends just works (don't think too hard!). You’re riding along strapped in your seat with your hands gripping the steering wheel without knowing which direction to go and run for escape.  

Filled with terror and heart, “The End of Oak Street” takes you on a bewilderingly wild ride.  

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Mystery Movie Screening: Major Motion Picture Studio Comedic Action-Adventure (San Diego, CA)

FREE mystery movie screening, if you're in the San Diego area:

Major Motion Picture Studio Comedic Action-Adventure.

Wednesday, August 12, 2026; 6:30 p.m.

AMC Mission Valley; 1640 Camino Del Rio N., San Diego, CA, 92108

Age group:  7-49 year olds; Parents/guardians 50+ bringing 7-16 year olds.

The movie has not yet been rated but is believed to be rated ‘PG-13’. The studio cannot guarantee the rating that the film will ultimately receive.

To get FREE tickets: 

https://www.previewfreemovies.com/invite/1ED20C3C36A245E26978ACD5AE182452

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FREE Movie Screening: "Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie" (San Diego, CA)

In partnership with Paramount Animation, Spin Master Entertainment and Nickelodeon Movies, FREE movie screening, if you're in the greater San Diego area:

August 9, 2026 - 10 a.m.

AMC Mission Valley, 1640 Camino Del Rio N., San Diego, CA 92108

Get your FREE movie tickets here: (limited availability, first-come, first served)

https://gofobo.com/screenings/movie_landing/U0RNb3ZpZVBBV1M%3D//

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The PAW Patrol pups crash land on an uncharted tropical island filled with dinosaurs after their ship gets caught in a mysterious storm. They meet Rex, a pup who has been stranded on the island for years and has become an expert in all things dino-related. When the Patrol’s archrival, Mayor Humdinger, begins recklessly mining in hopes of exploiting the island for its natural resources, he inadvertently causes a huge, dormant volcano to erupt. The pups are thrown into a series of high-stakes, dino-sized rescues bigger than anything they’ve done before, as they must stop Humdinger before everything on the island goes extinct.

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"Spider-Man: Brand New Day"

“Even if no one remembers me, I'll keep protecting them."

The movie picks up several years after the end of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” where Doctor Strange casts a worldwide spell to save mankind, which in turn wipes everyone’s memory of Peter Parker as Spider Man (Tom Holland, “The Avengers” series). No one remembers him ever existed, including his love, MJ (Zendaya; “The Drama;” "The Greatest Showman") and best friend, Ned (Jacob Batalon, “Spider-Man” series).   

After an amazing trilogy, if you think there’s not much story to tell, you’d be wrong.  Wiping the slate clean changes everything. Gone is the jovial high school kid with a close circle of people who love Peter.  A more mature Peter is heartbroken and utterly alone and you could feel it in his bone, thanks to Holland’s tormented performance.  MJ and Ned, now in college, have their own ordinary lives without him.    

Peter returns to his street-level roots, as your friendly neighborhood Spider Man, catching bad guys all over town and teaming up with street cops.  And the cinematography is a love letter to New York City, filled with so many exceptional camera work, breathtakingly crisp shots of Spider Man slinging, leaping, falling, flipping, soaring, spiraling, somersaulting, navigating the air, skyscrapers and the ground (as if you're swinging along with him). It’s an absolute pleasure to watch.

The action scenes have beautiful visual style.  The elegant ninja fighting with fluid movements and the rough-and-tumble Hulk confrontation with rubbles suspended in the air are distinctively captured.

The central villain is a mysterious figure (Sadie Sink), who can rapidly jump into and inhabit people’s mind, one after another in close proximity, leading them to act outside of their control. 

One major target is the Department of Damage Control (DoDC). The elusive teenager with powerful telepathic abilities is looking for a valuable asset inside of the DoDC vault and will not to stop until she gets it. The stakes are raised when she knows thar MJ is Spider Man’s Achilles heel.

A classic case of MacGuffin?  Not quite, not even close. Expect an inspired reveal that ties to the larger MCU plan. A couple of Avengers have solid cameos. 

While this is a darker Spider-Man, Peter has never lost his self-sacrificing soul and the humor is still there. The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) makes an unlikely ally.  

Seeing the trio together again, even without MJ’s and Ned’s memories of Peter, is heartwarmingly nostalgic, as if five years haven’t passed.  While the web-slinging actions are spectacular, the personal moments are emotionally resonant. The isolation, anguish, longing. One particular scene will deceptively tug at your heartstrings.   

“With great power comes responsibility” has never been truer in “Spider Man: Brand New Day.”  There is no multiverse or space or galaxy here, and truthfully, it's refreshing.  It's a triumphant return of the superhero, yet human web-slinger.  

Hopefully Mavel can get back to human stories and grounded characters that matter like this. And while nothing will be comparable to the original Avengers at its prime, with a particular Easter egg hatched in the movie, it sets up a promising potential for Marvel’s next phase.  

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FREE Movie: "Illusion" (Global - July 24-26, 2026)

What if the very way we form beliefs is the root of our separation?

"Illusion" challenges one of humanity’s most deeply held assumptions: that unity requires sameness.

Through a provocative blend of science, archaeology, and philosophy, it explores a bold idea that our beliefs are not truths we discover, but constructs we inherit, absorb and defend.

Reality is not built from one viewpoint, but from many. ""Illusion" asks you to look again.

The future of humanity may not depend on becoming one. It may depend on understanding how we are many.

Watch ILLUSION Free | Global Viewing Weekend July 24–26, 2026 

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2026 Comic-Con: Paramount Lodge+

One of the most immersive Comic-Con experiences is back for its 3rd year!  Produced by 15|40 Productions, Paramount Lodge+ returns to San Diego July 23, 26, 2026 with "Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender," "Dutton Ranch," "Star Trek: Strange New World," "South Park" and more. 

Fans can spend 50 minutes enjoying a variety of interactive activations, cool photo ops, premium swags, and select food & beverage (located at the Happy Does Bar, 340 Fifth Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101).

No Comic-Con badge needed.

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2026 Comic-Con: Wildwood - The Forest is Calling Portal

Across America, mysterious portals are starting to appear beckoning fans to enter the world of Wildwood. The Forest is Calling Portal Experience is set to make its grand debut outside the Hard Rock Café at San Diego Comic Con on July 23, 2026 (through July 26, 2026) before moving on to multiple cities across the United States.

Inspired by Colin Meloy's beloved novel and brought to life through Laika's signature handcrafted artistry, the experience transports fans to this enigmatic, mystical world through the “Impassable Wilderness".

This is the first physical manifestation of the world of Wildwood and the beginning of a national experiential campaign that unfolds across the country before culminating in the film's theatrical release on October 23, 2026.

Built through a combination of practical fabrication and extensive hand craftsmanship, every scenic element has been individually textured, finished and painted to bring the world of Wildwood to life at human scale. 

No Comic-Con badge needed.

"Wildwood" is Laika’s upcoming stop-motion dark fantasy about Prue McKeel and her classmate Curtis, who venture into a hidden magical forest near Portland to rescue Prue’s kidnapped baby brother. Filled with enchanted creatures and dangerous foes, the quest tests courage and friendship. With stunning handcrafted animation, a star-studded voice cast, and Laika calling it their most ambitious film yet, it promises a richly imaginative cinematic event worth watching.

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2026 Comic-Con: Lanterns Headquarters

WHAT: HBO Max will invite fans to prove their fearlessness at the “Lanterns Training Headquarters” experience. Inspired by the setting of Rushville, Nebraska, the activation unfolds as a guided training journey where fans will receive a briefing from the Guardians and will be evaluated through a series of interactive challenges designed to reveal if they have what it takes to wear the ring. Along the way, guests will move through hands-on experiences including target practice, trust-based challenges, maze navigation, and escape‑room style mystery scenarios set within in‑world environments like a Sheriff’s office and dive bar. The experience culminates for trainees with a custom Green Lantern ring to take home, an opportunity to simulate using a Green Lantern ring on a Snapchat powered interactive mirror.

WHEN: July 23-26, 2026. July 23 (9 a.m. - 6 p.m.), July 24 (11:00 a.m.-9 p.m.), July 25 (11 a.m.- 9 p.m.)

WHERE: LANTERNS Training Headquarters | Venue 808 - 808 J Street, San Diego, CA 92101

No Comic-Con badge needed.

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2026 Comic-Con: The Silo Experience

WHAT: Take an immersive step into the underground world of Silo through a multi-sensory installation that transports visitors into the silo itself, allowing them to experience the tension, intrigue, and atmosphere that has captivated audiences around the world.

WHEN: July 24-26, 2026

WHERE: The Lot, 1st & J, 450 2nd Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101

"Silo" is on Apple TV starring Rebecca Ferguson. It follows 10,000 survivors living in a massive 144-level underground bunker, where all history is forgotten and residents are strictly taught that the surface world is a toxic, uninhabitable wasteland.

No Comic-Con badge needed.

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2026 Comic-Con: FREE Activities & Giveaways

It’s almost time for one of the largest events in San Diego for comic, movie and superhero fans alike.

For those who couldn’t score badges to this year’s Comic-Con at the San Diego Convention Center, there will still be plenty of ways to enjoy the annual festivities at one of the activations or pop-ups throughout San Diego.

What makes all of the Comic-Con festivities even better is that most of the activities outside are FREE and even have giveaways for fans.

Apple TV's Silo, BERO Spider-Man: Brand New Day x Pendry Pop-Up, DC’s Lanterns Training Headquarters, Hulu Animayhem, Nickelodeon’s Fun, Percy Jackson and The Olympians,  Paramount Lodge+, PAWmicon, Petco Park Interactive Zone, Peanut’s x Super7 Adopt-A-Puppy Pop-Up, Stern Pinball Pop-Up Arcade.

Check out new activations and old favorites: Free Comic-Con activations and pop-ups coming to San Diego

For a blast from the past, check out: The MovieMaven: Comic-Con - WonderCon - SXSW

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