Fan hopes were high heading into 2025 that Marvel could deliver a stellar year, with three exciting new movies lined up. However, the year started on a terrible note with the release of Captain America: Brave New World, one of the worst entries into the MCU of the decade so far. Intended to restart the Captain America saga, with Anthony Mackie taking over as the titular superhero and Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres taking over as Falcon, but instead, a critical disaster and box office flop emerged, with this hurting Mackie’s leading-man reputation in the franchise.
In fact, Mackie’s recent run of feature projects has been very underwhelming, especially when considering his involvement in both Captain America: Brave New World and Netflix’s The Electric State, a widely panned sci-fi effort adapted from Simon Stålenhag’s 2018 illustrated novel. Before both of these, Mackie’s only movie role in 2024 came in a similarly divisive sci-fi thriller, only this time, audiences reacted much more positively, thanks in no small part to an electric lead performance from the new Captain America.
The movie in question is Elevation, a 2024 effort often likened to A Quiet Place, which starred Mackie alongside the likes of Morena Baccarin and some admittedly disappointing CGI monsters. Directed by George Nolfi, Elevation flew almost instantly under the radar, no doubt thanks to a short domestic theatrical release that lasted two weeks and never grew beyond 1,416 locations nationwide. In total, Elevation earned just $3.4 million in global box office revenue, split between a $2.3 million domestic haul and a further $1.1 million from overseas markets. In November 2024, the film debuted outside the U.S. top ten and never recovered.
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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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‘Elevation’ Is Bouncing Back on Streaming
Less than two years since its underwhelming box office run, Elevation is bouncing back on the streaming charts. At the time of writing, the movie is one of the ten most-streamed on HBO Max in the U.S. The film only ranks in one other country globally, scoring an eleventh-place finish in the Honduran Apple TV store. Other films currently proving popular on HBO Max are the controversial 2026 adaptation of Wuthering Heights, Marty Supreme, Mortal Kombat, The Devil Wears Prada, Crazy Rich Asians, and Gerard Butler‘s sci-fi sequel Greenland 2: Migration, which is topping the charts.
Elevation is streaming on HBO Max. Stay tuned to Collider for the latest streaming stories.
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