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2 Years Later, Apple TV’s Most Mind-Bending Sci-Fi Thriller Is Officially Back

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Over the last five years, Apple TV has cemented itself as the go-to destination for long-form sci-fi storytelling. Hits such as Severance and Silo have attracted both acclaim and widespread acceptance, earning rare spots for the streamer on the Nielsen streaming charts. Apple TV’s sci-fi streak also includes major titles such as Foundation, a big-budget adaptation of Isaac Asimov‘s seminal saga, and For All Mankind, the show that got the ball rolling back in 2019. More recently, the streamer has debuted the critically acclaimed Star City, and brought back one of its most offbeat sci-fi titles, Sugar. However, there’s one series that is often left off such lists, and it’s all set to return with a second season this week.

The show in question premiered in 2024 and was created by Blake Crouch, based on his own 2016 novel. Blending elements of time travel and multiverse-hopping, the show was headlined by Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly, with Alice Braga and Jimmi Simpson playing supporting characters. The series follows a physicist from Chicago who is sucked into an alternate dimension after being kidnapped by his counterpart. The show received acclaim for its narrative ambition and for the performances of its cast. The first season now holds a “Certified Fresh” 81% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz
Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive?
The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.

💊The Matrix

🔥Mad Max

🌧️Blade Runner

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🏜️Dune

🚀Star Wars

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01

You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do?
The first instinct is often the truest one.





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02

In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely?
What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.





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03

What kind of threat keeps you up at night?
Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.





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04

How do you deal with authority you don’t trust?
Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.





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05

Which environment could you actually endure long-term?
Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.





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06

Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart?
The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.





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07

Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all?
Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.





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08

What would actually make survival worth it?
Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.





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Your Fate Has Been Calculated
You’d Survive In…

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

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The Resistance, Zion

The Matrix

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.

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  • You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
  • You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
  • You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
  • The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.


The Wasteland

Mad Max

The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.

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  • You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
  • You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
  • You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
  • In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.


Los Angeles, 2049

Blade Runner

You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

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  • You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
  • In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
  • You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
  • In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.


Arrakis

Dune

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

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  • Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
  • You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
  • Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
  • In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.


A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Star Wars

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

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  • You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
  • You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
  • You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
  • In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

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Apple TV’s Overlooked Sci-Fi Series Returns this Week

The site’s consensus notes that the show’s “intriguing ideas are spread a tad thin over its season-long runtime, but fans of foreboding sci-fi will find its residue addictively sticky.” We’re talking, of course, about Dark Matter, which is all set to return with a second season on August 28. The show’s return coincides with the theatrical release of Ridley Scott‘s first sci-fi movie in nearly a decade, The Dog Stars, making this week particularly packed for fans of the genre. Apple TV is currently airing the third season of Silo, headlined by Rebecca Ferguson, which will conclude on September 4. Silo‘s third season has certainly raised the bar for Dark Matter with its 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.


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Release Date
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May 7, 2024

Network

Apple TV+

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Directors

Jakob Verbruggen, Alik Sakharov, Roxann Dawson, Logan George

Writers
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Blake Crouch


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