According to Variety, while we ARE getting a season 2, it probably won’t drop till 2027, which means fans will have to wait a long time to know what’s in store for our new favorite hockey players—or will we?

As many people know by now, Heated Rivalry is actually one of the books in the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid. In fact, it’s not even the first book of the series—that would be Game Changer, which tells Scott and Kip’s story. If you absolutely love the show, it’s worth reading the books, especially since the characters (especially Ilya) shows up in all five of the books. Which leads us to the question: If the first season of Heated Rivalry is based on the entire book of the same name, what will season two cover?

This one’s an easy question to answer: Season 2 will definitely cover The Long Game, which acts as a sequel to Heated Rivalry and follows Shane and Ilya into the next chapter of their lives—this one, officially together.

But if for some reason you won’t read the books (or if you’re debating whether you should) but you don’t want to wait all the way till 2027 to know what happens, have no fear: Walk with me, and I’ll tell you a bit about what we can expect from Heated Rivalry season 2, according to what happens in the book The Long Game.

Spoilers ahead, obviously.

Shane And Ilya Still Aren’t Out, But They Do Start A Charity—And Hockey Camp—Together

In an attempt to change the narrative around their rivalry (and prove to fans that yes, they can actually get along, they don’t hate one another), Shane and Ilya go through with their mental health charity. At this point, they’ve been together for several years, and while they still can’t be open about their relationship (or their sexualities, for that matter), it becomes a little less weird for the two to be seen interacting with one another. That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s any easier for them to keep pretending that they aren’t in love with one another.

Ilya Moves To Ottawa For Shane—Seemingly At The Cost Of His Own Career

Ilya signs on to play for the hockey team in Ottawa so that he’ll only be living two hours away from Shane, and while he doesn’t necessarily regret the decision, that doesn’t make it an easy change for him. After winning the Cup with Boston and being praised as one of the best players in the league, his new team struggles to perform, and Ilya finds himself feeling down about the trajectory of his career. That being said, he does like his new team more than his previous one—he gets along with the players and the coach much better.

Ilya Struggles With His Mental Health (And Finally Gets Help)

A big theme throughout the book is actually mental health, especially relating to Ilya’s character. Through his point-of-view, we learn just how much he’s struggling with the past, the grief of losing his mother, his hidden relationship with Shane, and feeling ultimately unworthy as a person. He does eventually go to therapy, but it’s not a straightforward thing for him—in a way that is very true to life, it shows that healing is not linear, and that choosing to help yourself sometimes means having to do the hard thing to get there. However, he doesn’t tell Shane about his struggles for most of the book, causing much of their miscommunication to come from their general misunderstanding of what’s happening between them and to each of them.

Shane Deals With Homophobia In The League

By the second book, though Shane isn’t publicly out, it’s an open secret in the league that he’s gay (though no one knows he’s in a relationship). While the teammates he’s close to don’t seem to have an issue with it, that doesn’t mean everyone’s cool with it—especially the commissioner of the league, who tells Shane that while they privately support him, they prefer that he doesn’t change his public image by speaking out about his own sexuality or other LGBTQ issues. This adds extra pressure to Shane and Ilya’s relationship, since it now feels as if it’s becoming a threat to their professional careers.

Ilya Is Almost Involved In A Plane Crash—And It Changes The Trajectory Of Everything

While flying between cities for work, the plane Ilya’s team is on has engine trouble, and for a moment, he’s convinced he’s going to die. He writes a heartfelt message to Shane, who sees it later, after it’s already been confirmed that Ilya is safe; but Shane is so shaken up about it that he can’t help but get emotional. They both have a dark moment where they consider what life would be like without the other (or if they had never met), and Shane immediately drives the two hours to Ilya’s house so that he could be there when he got home. When Ilya gets there, Shane proposes to him, and Ilya accepts. While they decide to hide their relationship for a little longer, they agree to be less strict about it.

Shane And Ilya’s Relationship Accidentally Gets Outed

Shane and Ilya’s relationship comes to light when Shane’s teammate and best friend, Hayden, takes a video that accidentally shows Shane and Ilya kissing in the background. The video goes viral, and it doesn’t take long for the news to become a big headline that looms over the two. Not only do they have to deal with fan reactions, but they’re suddenly under the scrutiny of their own teammates (at least, Shane is) and the commissioner of the league, who threatens them to try to force them to sweep it under the rug. Ultimately, Shane and Ilya refuse to allow their relationship to become a secret again and post openly about being together for the first time.

Shane And Ilya Get Married—Twice

While the book ends around when the two finally get married, it’s actually not their first wedding. No, the first is earlier in the book, when Shane and Ilya agree to babysit Hayden’s children. The kids immediately seem to know that Shane and Ilya are in a relationship, and they ask if they can throw them a wedding; the two agree and become surprised at how emotional it makes them. At their second (public) wedding, Ilya tells Hayden’s kids that the wedding they had put on was Shane and Ilya’s real wedding.

Shane Decides To Move To Ottawa And Play On Ilya’s Team

Throughout the book, Ilya’s team starts finding their groove and begin playing better, though still not as great as Ilya was used to his old team playing. But it’s hinted at that the team will get even better in the future—especially because Shane decides to leave Montreal behind (especially after his teammates’ response to his relationship) and move to Ottawa, so he can officially and openly be with Ilya while playing on the same team officially.

The show was created by Canada’s app Crave but syndicated on HBO Max, but it started out as a best-selling book series by author Rachel Reid—so well-selling, it turns out, that once the show aired, the book almost immediately sold out in the U.S. and Canada. Which is a pretty big bummer for fans who want to know what happen with Shane and Ilya but don’t have the patience to wait for the next few weeks.

So whether you can’t get your hands on the book (but need to know NOW) or you don’t really care to read it but want to know what happens, don’t worry—I read it so you don’t have to.

Here’s what we can look forward to this season, according to the book Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid.

Spoilers ahead, obviously.

The first two episodes of the show laid the groundwork for Shane and Ilya—it showed their first meeting, their first flirtations, the first time they ever hooked up. We see Shane’s nervousness about the relationship (not that he would ever admit there was a relationship involved here) and Ilya’s hot and cold nature, especially when he’s reminded of his home country, Russia, and his dysfunctional family. But we also see moments of genuine connection between the two: Ilya trying hard to flirt with Shane over text, Shane’s emotional breakdown after seeing Ilya at an awards show (after Ilya had ghosted him for 6 months), and we also see concern for the other from both sides, even though they only show it in the moments they’re together. The foundation has been set—which means the more complicated aspects of the story are about to come into play.

Ilya Finally Lets His Guard Down—And Shane Gets Scared

When Shane’s team plays against Ilya’s in Boston, he sneaks off to Ilya’s apartment to meet up as planned—but things don’t exactly go the way Shane expected.

After they’re done hooking up, Ilya asks him to stay.

Shane is shocked but warily agrees, and Ilya makes them both tuna melts to eat while they watch a game on TV and talk. It’s the first time they’ve ever really hung out, and even though Ilya seems hell-bent on telling Shane about his other intimate relationships, it’s clear that their own is evolving. It’s even more clear when Ilya calls Shane by his first name for the first time ever.

Shane is so shaken up by this that, even when Ilya asks him again to stay, he leaves the apartment soon after.

Shane Gets His First Celebrity Girlfriend

While out with friends one night, Shane meets Rose Landry, an actress, and is surprised by how well he gets along with her. He decides to take her out, and soon the two begin dating.

It doesn’t take long for reporters to leak the relationship, much to Ilya’s dismay, and both Ilya and Shane continue to avoid one another. However, one night while in the same city, they both go out with their respective friends and end up at the same nightclub. Ilya shows up while Shane is dancing with Rose, and immediately finds a girl he can dance with on the other side of the room. When Shane sees Ilya, he freezes, stunned; and when Ilya realizes Shane is watching him, he also feels a jolt, but decides to try to make him jealous. However, Shane ends up leaving quickly, and Ilya goes home alone.

A few weeks after that, Rose and Shane have a serious conversation, where Rose asks point-blank if Shane is gay, and Shane finally lets himself accept that yes, he is. Rose is supportive and the two promise to remain close friends, though they end their relationship there.

Shane And Ilya Reconnect At The All-Star Game

Shane and Ilya don’t see each other again until the All-Star game, where, for the first time, they’re playing on the same team. While they’re both excited to see the other, Ilya is especially nervous, since he believes Shane is still dating Rose. However, when Shane finally admits to him that he and Rose broke up, Ilya can’t contain his glee.

When it’s finally time for the game, the two of them feel the adrenaline rush of finally getting to play together, so much so that Ilya kisses Shane on the cheek in the middle of the game—and plays it off as him just being playful and excited.

Later, after the game, Ilya finds Shane on the beach, and Shane asks if they can go back to the hotel and talk. When they get there, Shane admits to Ilya that he has come to terms with the fact that he’s gay and brings up the last day they spent together. Shane asks if Ilya would want to be with him, and Ilya says they can’t be together because of Russia’s stance on homosexuality and his own family’s compliance to that. He finally begins to open up about his life, telling Shane that his mother had died when he was young and that his father now has Alzheimer’s.

Ilya’s Father Dies And Shane Gets Injured

Soon after the All-Star game, Shane and Ilya begin texting more casually. They meet up before a game they’re supposed to play against one another, and Ilya admits to Shane that his father is dying. Shane doesn’t hear from Ilya after the game, but learns the next day that Ilya isn’t traveling with his team to the next city. He ends up calling Ilya and finds out he’s gone to Moscow for his father’s funeral.

Shane continues to check up on Ilya, leading to several phone calls between the two (and one in which Ilya admits that he’s fallen in love with Shane and is unsure what to do about it, but he says it in Russian, so Shane doesn’t understand).

Later, while Shane and Ilya play their final game of the season together, Shane gets injured by one of Ilya’s teammates. He’s knocked out cold, though he comes to when the medical team shows up—and that’s when he notices that Ilya stays by his side, panicked, until Shane’s carried out of the arena for medical attention.

The next day, Ilya doesn’t travel with his team and instead goes to visit Shane in the hospital. He tells Shane how scared he’d been, and when Shane asks if Ilya would stay with him at his cabin over the summer, Ilya tells him he’ll consider it.

Scott Hunter Comes Out

Shane fully believes that Ilya is planning to end their relationship, but all of that changes when New York wins the Stanley Cup. Shane and Ilya text back and forth while watching it, and they’re both floored when, on national TV, Stanley Cup champion Scott Hunter kisses a man in celebration.

(To be clear, yes, this is Kip from the third episode of the show, but Ilya and Shane don’t know that. There’s a reason the third episode focused on a different couple.)

This is a catalyst moment for the characters, who realize that maybe want they want is something they could possibly have. Ilya immediately calls Shane and says he’ll spend the summer with him at his cabin.

Shane And Ilya Finally Admit Their Feelings

At Shane’s cabin, Ilya finally admits to Shane that he’s in love with him, and Shane says it back. The two spend the rest of their time there together brainstorming how they could work as a couple, committed to trying to make it work.

While at the cabin, Shane’s father walks in on Shane and Ilya kissing but quickly leaves. Shane and Ilya decide to visit Shane’s parents to finally come clean, with Shane coming out as gay and also admitting that he and Ilya are officially a couple. His parents are shocked, but they are immediately supportive and help the two come up with a plan that will allow them to see each other more often: They decide Ilya should sign on to a new team, and that Ilya and Shane will start a mental health charity together to change the narrative about their rivalry. While they’re still secret about their relationship, they’re officially together.

So, that’s that. But truthfully, if you get the chance to read the book, do it. It may be hard to get your hands on, but if you’re a fan of the show, you’ll probably love all the extra context the books give—including more insight into Shane and Ilya’s minds and why they act the way they do.

You can watch Heated Rivalry on HBO Max or read the book here.

The following interview was lightly edited for readability, and contains spoilers about the events of the series finale.

Richard’s Background And Creating The Last Frontier

TC:

I wanted to ask you, I come from an Italian American family. Your last name literally translates to “of” or “from Ovid”. That’s quite a legacy for a writer and a creative. Are there a lot of writers in your family? Do you have a direct connection, and did you read his work growing up?

Richard D’Ovidio:

No. I, you know, I don’t have any connections to writers. I grew up in Boston. I went to school for accounting, basically. I came out here and started working in a literary agency and so I could read all the contracts and read all the scripts and kinda be inside the machine. But, no, I don’t. I mean, I love Italy, and my mother’s from Sicily, and my dad is Bruzzese. So, you know, I come from a very grounded Italian working class family back in Boston too. So, yeah. No writers.

TC:

I also wanted to ask about your background in horror films. Thought Catalog has a sister website called Creepy Catalog that focuses exclusively on the horror genre. And I was just curious, what aspects of that part of your writing style and experience had the most impact on writing The Last Frontier? Did you lean into shaping the darker sides of the fugitive characters and the villains? Or where did that kind of poke its head in the most?

Richard D’Ovidio:

You know, [series co-creator] Jon [Bokenkamp] and I have the same sensibilities, and I think, you know, the suspense side of it. Keeping up the momentum, the pacing, the kids, you know, when they’re nursing the monster back to life. You know, I love horror. I love action. I love thrillers and suspense, and those aspects of the story, that’s the side that comes through on my end. You know? And Jon, you know, he loves the same things I do. And, you know, we just click when we start talking about different twists and different movies.

And when we go back and start poking our heads into our pasts and how we grew up, that’s always a lot of fun.

The Impact Of Location In The Last Frontier

TC:

There really were just so many diverse influences and genres that came into play here. This series felt like a literal kitchen sink. You had all of these incredibly strong concepts that really could have stood on their own as as a standalone series. You had the prisoners, the CIA conspiracies. Frank to me felt like an Alaskan version of Walt Longmire. Were there any big ideas that didn’t make the cut when you were finally pitching the series?

Richard D’Ovidio:

Well, when we first started with the show years ago, we had come up with, the idea of a prison transport plane crashing in the Hudson and all the criminals escaping onto the Island Of Manhattan. But we didn’t feel like when the law enforcement flew in from the CIA, you know, and they mixed with the law enforcement in New York, it it there was no difference.

And so when we took it out of there and put it into Alaska, which was so vast, and you have this lone marshal, and he’s from a totally different world and a different community and a different family. And then these these bureaucrats or these, you know, CIA suits come in, there’s a complete difference in their their demeanor and their style and everything else. And I think that’s what made it click for us.

TC:

I was going to ask about New York specifically because when I read that, I was shocked. Speaking of location, I also selfishly have to ask about Chicago. I lived there for thirty three years before moving to California. You guys nailed that episode. It really made me feel as homesick as watching The Bear does.

And it was such a crucial part of understanding Frank and his history and his psyche. Beyond the obvious gut punch in that episode, what do you think that time in Chicago symbolizes for Frank and his family? What what was he looking for out there? And is that something you would explore further in a Season Two?

Selfishly, I just want to see all of the winter snow comparisons between Alaska and Chicago and watching Chicagoans save a street parking spot with, like, a plastic chair and all of the other crazy winter rituals that we have that probably don’t happen in in Fairbanks.

Richard D’Ovidio:

No. No. And probably happened in Boston too. When you shovel out a parking spot, you put your chair down. Yeah.

Hopefully, yes. We are definitely, hopefully, we’ll be going back to Chicago. So in the future. But that, you know, that was a break for Frank. I think he was trying to find himself and maybe try and leave his past, which, you know, he realizes that’s who he is when he goes back to Alaska. You know? And he takes this job in Chicago to kind of give him and his wife, who grew up together and are high school sweethearts, another look at the world. You know?

And so when they were there, I don’t wanna give anything away, but his past catches up to him, and then, you know, he goes back to Alaska. And then we’ll see, you know, what happened there, and we’ll hopefully expand on that and why it shaped him. You know? And that’s why he’s such a boy scout in the beginning of the show.

Community, Morality, The Big Finale, And Ends That Don’t Justify The Means

TC:

I really love that aspect of his character because he is so grounded and rooted in his community, but he also has seen more of the world and and has a little bit more of a broader perspective.

With that that grounding in Fairbanks, it felt like a utopia built out of necessity. Right? You have these neighbors who know and respect each other in this very diverse community, and you really illustrated that they had to share resources in order to survive.

How much of that community was written from experience versus something that’s aspirational or a fictional ideal? Had you ever lived in a community like Fairbanks? And if so, where was it?

Richard D’Ovidio:

You know, a lot of it is Jon is from Nebraska. So that aspect, he, you know, he brought to it. And what was really interesting, like, when they set up the mobile command, usually in TV shows, you just see it materialize.

So what we discussed was how do we bring in running water? How do we feed these people? How do we bring in porta-potties? So that aspect of it was relying on the community. We wanted to see everybody come together. And you know, I see a little of that in Boston where we know everybody in our neighborhood, and everybody comes together and helps out whenever there’s a crisis. But Jon is from that small town, and he brings that sensibility to it, which I really loved and and just was supportive of whatever he, you know, whatever he felt like he could connect with.

TC:

Well, you guys did an incredible job of bringing that to life on screen. Jon also described the series as “escapist entertainment”. And it surprised me because I had the opposite impression while I was watching this series, and I mean that as a a huge compliment.

It felt really, really timely and introspective. I thought it confronted the zeitgeist of America’s biggest questions and fears right now instead of running away from them, and, you know, you did it in a really thrilling and thoughtful way.

There’s a lot of distrust of government in general right now, and you really dissect every single layer of the social contract from what two strangers who are both human beings owe to each other to exploring the family unit, local, national, and international government.

My takeaway from the ending was that no matter how low macro level you went, all of these systems are made up of individuals. Every individual is imperfect and makes mistakes, but they can also aspire to be their best, most honorable self. Was I reading that right? What was the overarching point you wanted to make with with that series ending?

Richard D’Ovidio:

Well, everybody thinks what they’re doing is right until they realize, you know, the way they went about it was wrong. I mean, especially with the government [in the series]. You know? They wanted to protect the protect The United States, but the way they executed it was just, you know, illegal and and incorrect. 

You know? And so the same thing goes with Frank and what he decided to do, in Chicago and hiding certain information. The same thing. It was justified in his mind, but the way he got there was, you know, it was just cutting corners, and it wasn’t legal.

And I think that’s what happens in the world right now. Everyone’s trying to justify what they’re doing, and they’re not really taking the honorable route, I guess.

Yeah. I mean, that’s a really good breakdown of what we were trying to do. I mean, it’s much more articulate than I can break it down right now.

TC:

I’m curious. You know, as you’re creating this world, what kind of conversations were you having in the writer’s room about the moral structure of the world and what accountability means for those characters?

We had some accidental and vigilante justice with Bradford’s death. If we trust Frank and Hutch, we do believe the truth will come to light when the archive is in government hands.

But you have the foil of this unchecked, imperfect government and law enforcement against a backdrop of indigenous communities who have been historically negatively impacted by that very same kind of injustice. That whole juxtaposition really had me wanting to see someone held accountable in an official, public, or legal way, even if it was Frank being self sacrificing, you know, in a noble or righteous way.

Was that intentional to kind of leave that out, and how did you decide where you were going to land this series in this really incredible moral gray zone that you had constructed?

Richard D’Ovidio:

Well, you know, in real life, nobody nobody gets brought up? We knew that it would be buried. You know? We wanted an ending like, in Raiders of the Lost Ark where they buried the boxes. It never comes to light, and we wanted that to, you know, to play out. The archive will be handed into responsible hands, but we know that nobody’s gonna be sitting on trial.

Nobody’s going to face, accountability. Because if that comes out, everything’s going to come out. So nobody actually gets put on trial. Once it gets to that place where actually the, you know, skeletons start falling out of the closet, they don’t go to trial. So we didn’t want to end the show on that. We wanted to keep it still kind of buried.

TC:

The visual you brought to mind with Indiana Jones also makes me think of The X Files, you know, all of the the rows and rows of evidence that just kind of sit there untouched.

Richard D’Ovidio:

You know? Yeah. We’re fans of seventies movies like The Parallax View, and we kept going back to those, and the paranoid thrillers of the seventies, and that kind of really is what we wanted to highlight.

Hopes For Season 2

TC:

It feels like Season Two is very much a possibility. Is anything you can tell me about the decision to have Frank throw that gun into a river. It’s setting up so much, especially now that his family is implicated in the decision, and that was the closest I came to screaming at the TV just because that visualization of the metaphoric “water under the bridge” was so strong. It it hit me like a freight train in the best way, and I just I loved that moment.

Richard D’Ovidio:

Well, what we really wanted was Sarah to be strong enough to say,
“We can’t lose our family here”. You know? That was the most important thing. The community, the family, all the units had to circle the wagons.

And we love that about her character in that she’s so strong that she can put something behind them. But there’s a lot to unpack in Season Two, and we have everything coming back. But we also have a lot of new stuff that we’re very excited about.

And, hopefully, there is a season two, and I can tell you that it’s, it’s gonna be surprising, and it’s gonna be different. It’s gonna be shocking.

TC:

I really, really hope I get to see it. I would love to see the story continue and watch these characters develop.

Richard D’Ovidio:

Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. We’re excited too. We just love writing, interesting things. I mean, if it makes us smile and it’s something that’s exciting to us, then then we we we hope that everybody else will fall in line.

Goldtooth has a long background in comedy. He was a founding member of Native American sketch group ‘The 1491s’ known for their work on Rutherford Falls and Reservation Dogs, where Goldtooth was a writer in addition to playing series favorite William “Spirit” Knifeman. He’s also an activist dedicated to raising awareness for Indigenous and environmental causes.

He shared with us how both of these aspects of his career impacted this pivot to an action series, and his thoughts on the big finale, hopes for Season 2 and more.

The following interview was lightly edited for readability, and contains light spoilers about the events of the series finale.

How Dallas Was Introduced To The Series

TC:

There’s just so much going on in the premise of The Last Frontier. I can’t even begin to imagine how does that get condensed into an elevator pitch or synopsis. How was this idea shared to you?

Dallas Goldtooth:

Well, first of all, it was primarily pitched as Con Air meets The Fugitive. It’s a bit dated. Some folks get it. Some don’t. But the concept is that a an airplane carrying a number of hardened convicts crashed lands in the remote wilderness of Alaska, and the local, the US marshals outpost there in Fairbanks has to go and apprehend them.

And one of these convicts though happens to be a rogue secret agent of sorts. And the story really revolves around who is this agent? Why is he on this plane? Why was he on this plane? And what’s what’s his mission?

And from there, it goes into this wide range story of world espionage that takes place in this small community of Alaska. I think the show has a lot of heart. It’s really, really grounded in the sense of community in Fairbanks and, how this crazy wild event of a plane crash could really deeply impact that community.

How Dallas’ Work As A Comedian and Activist Impacted The Last Frontier

TC:

I really admire your activism and love your background in sketch comedy. I think those two things go hand in hand. Americans really express a lot of discontent through humor, and comedy can be so subversive. [Co-creator] Jon Bokenkamp said he really wanted to get your feedback on the POV of an indigenous character as well as for the entire series.

How does the approach to representation change when you are dealing with an action thriller as opposed to a comedy?

Dallas Goldtooth:

Yeah. I think there’s a fine line to all of it. Right? You don’t wanna beat people over the head. I think that’s one of the biggest turn offs for folks is when they feel like they’re being lectured at.

And so, comedy often is the the best disarming methodology to change people’s minds or at least make us think more critically about the world around us. We don’t have comedy, and it only gets a little bit harder. Right? And in this show I’ve had a lot of good conversation with Jon before and during production about little things that we’re like, “Hey. We could work on this or this should be tweaked a little bit”.

Sam Alexander is a culture consultant for the show. He’s Alaska native. Gwichʼin Diné, specifically. And, you know, I really pushed hard. Like, we need to get him more involved, make sure we’re really getting his opinion because I wato to make sure we do right by the communities there in Alaska.

We ended up hiring him to come on board […]. He’s one of the actors in the show. So that was really important for me, but I think it’s just important for the series overall. […] I remember we had this conversation, like, the one of the first times I talk is in, I think, Episode One, I introduced and welcome everybody to, you know, the territories of the lower Tanana people.

And just little snippets like that of acknowledging people in that way goes a long way for those who are from that community.

TC:

In researching some of your activism, I saw that Alaska is a place that’s near and dear to your heart. You’ve raised awareness for indigenous sovereignty and ecological preservation connected to the Ambler Road project—what was it like being part of a project where Alaska, its natural beauty, its wilderness is such a main character, but at the same time, you’re filming the series in Canada. You know, you just spoke to cultural consultants, but was there any prep that you did specifically to kind of embody that Alaskan spirit and the community that we saw on screen?

Dallas Goldtooth:

A lot of conversation. I talked to a lot of, I have a lot of friends in Fairbanks. Because of my organizing work in the past, I have a lot of strong relationships with on the ground people in the very communities that are portrayed in this show. And so I called, talked to them.

I had a lot of deep conversation about, one, is it okay? How do I, I want to come into this in a respectful way. How can I best represent people on screen? The other part of it is, like, I’m in a very privileged position here on a major TV show, on a major streaming platform, why wouldn’t I use that space to uplift the actual fights that the people that we are portraying in this show are going through? The Ambler Road project being one of them.

I mean, the current issue right now, we have a crisis in Western Alaska. We have entire villages who are being flooded because of the remnants of a typhoon. And so, you know, thousands of people have been stranded and are currently being evacuated from their communities. I want to use my platform to uplift that because I think the idea of this show and one of the reasons people like shows about Alaska is because we don’t hear many stories about Alaska. Like, it’s this kind of mythological space that exist way out there. Right?

I mean, that’s why it’s they call it The Last Frontier. But for the people from there, it’s not the frontier. It’s the center of their universe. And so I think it’s key that we remind ourselves that and make sure that we are doing right to uplift the the fights that they’re going through.

TC:

The one thing I really, you know, got invested in with this series was that social relevance and the way it really explores this human social contract all the way from, two strangers to the family unit, local, national, international agencies and governments. And I saw a lot of that nuance in your activism where you’re really involved with local communities and artists in the U.S., but also raising awareness for the Sami people in in Nordic countries. So what do you think the series got right about that balancing act between being a member of a local community, but also a global citizen in a a very digital age where we’re all connected through our phones at the touch of a a button?

Dallas Goldtooth:

It’s a great question. It’s like I said, it’s a hard line to walk because we’re trying to tell a fast paced action drama. And so there is the real estate that’s there is very, very valuable. Right? And so we want to make sure that we are weaving all this in, but at the same time, making sure we’re telling a a good story.

And I think that this dynamic of, like, a local story, this local drama is is hitting this family hard, but there are world implications. I mean, hey. There’s so many stories that do that, but I think that this show does a good job of really making sure that there’s a heart to it, that it does feel real and it’s grounded. 

The the concepts might be kinda out there. Right? The idea of the crash land and all this stuff, but the the personal drama and the stakes at hand feel real, and I think that goes a long way. And I think that there’s a lot of space in here. There is a there is a space to talk about, like, you know, people often feel so overlooked in in remote places of this country but also in the world. In Alaska, that’s especially true where their narratives, their struggles often seem like they they are superseded by whatever’s happening in Washington DC. And that’s definitely a dynamic here of, like, hey who’s in control and who’s I mean, whose lives are on the line here, really? And so that I think there’s a there’s a part that I think the show does fairly well.

Dallas’ Character Hutch, And Relationship With Jason Clarke

TC:

When you talk about the heart that the show has, I think a lot of that does connect to your character, Hutch. You know? And it’s a big part of how we interpret Frank and his morality. The series really pushes that envelope and we kind of see Frank teetering on this pedestal and and waiting to see if if he’s gonna fall. But Hutch’s unwavering trust and that really powerful strong male friendship vouches for his character in a way.

How did you go about building that chemistry with Jason [Clarke] and really creating such a depth from your dialogue together?

Dallas Goldtooth:

I feel very lucky that me and Jason have, like, very similar approaches to camaraderie and building space, and we just connected so, so very well that it actually wasn’t that hard. From day one, we really, really connected very well. He is an absolute professional. Like, I look up to him. I learned so much from him on this project.

And he coached me through through moments and gave me good tips on on acting because I’ve never done something of this nature. But he was also so giving of his time and his experience. And that, on a personal level, built so much trust between us to where he just gave me the space to perform as I want to perform, but also, like, be like, “Hey, I got you. Don’t worry. We can do this together. We can work this out. We can work through the scene”. So I think that that really built up the camaraderie that comes across on screen.

TC:

Did it feel natural to you to embody a character in law enforcement and to be doing these elaborate fight scenes and and learning that choreography, or was there a fish out of water moment?

Dallas Goldtooth:

Well, I think in the very beginning, while we’re going through the rehearsals, and you’re surrounded by, like, professional stuntmen, and they know what they’re doing, and you’re like thrown into the mix. But at the core of it, I’m just a freaking kid that’s enjoying making movies. And so, hell, yeah! I’m going to make believe the crap out of this and be like, I’m an action star here in some way, and I want to do some stunts.

So once you get over that initial anxiety, I really just kind of went with it. And also that’s acknowledgment to the stunt team and Sam Hargraves, who directed that first episode of just like, look. We’re building this together. We’re gonna make it happen, and let’s do it.

The Big Finale And Hopes For Season 2

TC:

The end of the series to me really reminded me of the very first episode because the show felt like this plane full of really big ideas that needed somewhere to land. And I was just on the edge of my seat trying to see, like, how how are they gonna do this? Especially because a lot of the takeaways were being delivered by indigenous characters and, you know, we’ve seen in the past TV and film can sometimes oversimplify those types of messages or have society’s problems magically resolved by people of color or a minority.

But what I saw was a really practical representation of indigenous characters who are doctors operating in native languages and law enforcement agents. We have public servants and politicians participating actively in, you know, the system that the the show has kind of exposed to be somewhat, you know, pretty flawed. What was most important to you in terms of representation for those really powerful final scenes?

Dallas Goldtooth:

Yeah. I think that’s one, just seeing people in those roles where it’s not explicit saying “this is the Native American doctor” or, you know, that that “this is a Native American police officer”. Just seeing people occupy the roles that we literally occupy. Right? It’s just being as we are, I think, goes a long way.

It normalizes the that we exist, that we are here. We’re still we’re active participants in the society that we’re trying to build together. And I think that’s really immense and powerful. And I think you also have good instincts of seeing also, like, the story is chaotic. There’s so much going on, but it’s like it’s it’s a wonderful mess of, like, espionage and danger.

But, really, it’s like a danger that’s external to this community that is kinda like, “We don’t want nothing to do with this. This is not ours to carry”, which is kind of the tale of colonialism in general. Like, “Hey. This is not our mess, but you’re putting it upon us”. So I think that is a really unique dynamic that is played as we go through this series, and I think it also sets up a lot of potential for the story to go in many other directions should we wish to do that.

TC:

That was going to be my next question. So, it felt like the plane touched down and then pulled right back up for a potential Season Two. And I’m really curious, you know, what kind of exploration would you like to see for these characters and this community if the story continues?

Dallas Goldtooth:

I would love to see more more space given to the native stories, native community, native performers. If there’s a season two, I want to see some of the native women in this show shoot a gun. I want to see them shooting some guns. They don’t have to be shooting a bad guy. Just show them hunting because everyone hunts up in Alaska. Let’s show off the skill and give them some agency. I think that’s what really would would get me going to see that happen.

TC:

Any upcoming projects that you’d like to share?

Dallas Goldtooth:

I’m working on a podcast series, and, hopefully, I can get it out by the end of the year. But really, just excited to be promoting this show and help folks come out and watch it and, give us some support.

Netflix’s new series reportedly includes footage that was “stolen,” according to Combs’ attorneys, and which the rapper’s team has never authorized for release. Combs’ spokesperson Juda Engelmayer stated that the material featured in the Netflix trailer was filmed six days before the rapper’s September 2024 arrest, and was in fact intended for Combs’ own long-running personal documentary, which he has been shooting since the age of nineteen. Combs’ representatives also took issue with the fact that Netflix and 50 Cent apparently “misappropriated” the project, and that Combs or his attorneys were not given a screener ahead of time.

Netflix has categorically denied all the claims made by Combs’ legal team. The streaming service shared a statement on the matter through director Alexandra Stapleton, saying the film team had “verifiable proof that all of the footage presented in the film was obtained legally, and all rights are in place for the use of the footage in the film.” Stapleton also said the team “moved heaven and earth” to ensure the anonymity of the individual who provided the material, and that the fact Combs has been filming himself “obsessively” for decades means that footage of him and his life are “not only voluminous, they are ubiquitous.” Stapleton also said the filmmakers “made numerous attempts” to contact Combs’ legal team ahead of the docuseries’ release in order to “conduct interviews and get comment for use in the film” but were not answered.

This only adds a further layer of tension given that 50 Cent, who has been a long-running public enemy of Combs, was involved in the project. Combs’ team specifically slammed Netflix for enlisting “one of Diddy’s longtime adversaries with a personal vendetta,” which they argue “calls into question the legitimacy of the docuseries.” The cease-and-desist letter explicitly notes that Combs “will not shy away from aggressively litigating this matter, if necessary,” and that he has sued media companies in the past, including filing a $100 million defamation lawsuit against NBCUniversal in February over the same subject matter.

Sean Combs: The Reckoning bills itself as an exploration of Combs’ fame and influence and “investigates the allegations that have followed him through every stage of his career.” The series features “exclusive interviews, never-before-seen footage, and commentary from friends and associates,” and arrives during a tumultuous period for Combs, who is currently serving a four-year federal prison sentence for convictions of transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs was acquitted on more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering in July, but also faces multiple civil cases, many from those who have accused him of sexual abuse.

Ella Enchanted (2004)

A wonderfully messy modern riff on a book that was already a riff on Cinderella, Ella Enchanted definitely polarized people upon release: book purists had Opinions™. One thing everyone could agree on? Anne Hathaway was born to play this part. In the midst of her princess phase, she delivered Ella with the right mix of sweetness, edge, and straight-up movie-star energy. Ella’s predicament was being “gifted” by a well-intentioned but misguided fairy with complete obedience and is what sets her off to find her own agency and take control of her own story. It’s a pleasure to watch Hathaway use that journey as a showcase for pretty much everything she’s great at: comedy, pathos, singing, dancing, heroism … she’s got it all. She even becomes a full-on civil-rights leader for elves and ogres, because why the heck not?

The whole thing is whimsical, it’s funny, it’s unabashedly fairy-tale-camp, and Hathaway grounds it with so much heart that many fans today view the film as the book’s “equally charming” version. Plus, her musical numbers are still criminally underrated.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Pitting yourself against Meryl Streep is nerve-wracking enough, but having to go head-to-head with her as Miranda Priestly is a cinematic trial by fire. Streep weaponizes every furrowed brow and frosty silence, so when naïve and woefully out of her depth Andy Sachs steps into the office, she’s basically on the menu. Yet, Hathaway doesn’t just hold her own –she actually excels. Her Andy is charming, real, and disarmingly earnest, the perfect emotional yin to Miranda’s icy yang. Any other actress would’ve been eaten alive in Streep’s wake, but Hathaway grounds the whole movie in heart and humanity. Andy is an aspiring journalist who takes the job “a million girls would kill for” without really having an interest in fashion or considering it more than a means to an end. After Nigel’s brutally honest (and objectively legendary) wake-up call, she reinvents herself not to get Miranda to like her, but to show herself she’s capable of the job. The process changes her in both small and large ways, putting friendships and relationships to the test and forcing her to confront who she really wants to be.

Full disclosure: This movie is a permanent fixture on my rewatch rotation, and Hathaway is a huge reason why. She gives us a heroine who’s both relatable and imperfect, capable of being both earnestly ambitious and beautifully messy and messy, all at once. It’s an anti-romantic comedy in the absolute best way you’re actively rooting against every man, and only for Andy to choose herself. It’s funny and sharp and stylish and it cemented Hathaway as a bona fide fan favorite.

The Princess Diaries (2001)

When you were five years old, did you ever fantasize about being a princess? Now, at the ripe age of 30, you find that not only was this not possible, but you also had no reason to think it was even remotely within the realm of possibility? Mia Thermopolis is why that fantasy ever felt real. To see the painfully awkward, frizzy-haired, near-invisible 15-year-old realize that her father was secretly Crown Prince Philippe Renaldi of Genovia was the ultimate wish fulfillment. Adapted from Meg Cabot’s popular series of books, the film was Hathaway’s feature film debut and she has publicly stated that being able to hug Julie Andrews every day on set was like living in a dream. C’mon, you’ve got to give it to her. Coming out of nowhere to play a slightly pathetic teenager who turns into a princess because she gets tutored by Julie Andrews is one hell of an introduction to the world. The audience knew right away that she was a star and that we were going to see her have a huge career matched up against Andrews is an intimidating prospect to have from the very beginning, but few could have done it as well as she.

If you were a goofy, frizzy-haired child and everyone and their mother insisted that you “look just like Mia” (as you first saw her tripping over bleachers or getting punched in the face for no reason, of course), that could cut deep, especially since your first lesson in Mia-dom is you’re ugly, but get a blowout and you’re “beautiful”? Man, traumatic! Despite the fact that this movie might have stung a little for us curly girls who have been stuck in our grief over the lack of acceptance since the ‘80s, this film is iconic. It’s so touching, it’s so funny, and it’s so rewatchable. I was a mess of a teenager but adult me is 100% obsessed and super bitter that we don’t have these tutorials, methods, and just broad acceptance of curls like little curly kids do now, while Mia and the rest of us were left in the dust.

Interstellar (2014)

As the Earth spirals into environmental collapse due to dust storms, withering crops, and a climate-change-induced apocalypse, Interstellar drops Anne Hathaway into one of her most quietly intense roles. Her character, Dr. Amelia Brand, is the mission’s chief scientist whose entire purpose is “nearly unfathomable to the minds of humans”: finding a new home for humanity before it’s too late. She and Matthew McConaughey’s Cooper, an ex-NASA pilot who’s been recalled for one last mission, work together to “explore the galaxies” and bring back a glimmer of hope for the human race. Anne Hathaway reunited with Nolan after her stint in The Dark Knight Rises, and Brand is her most “smartest person on the ship” character without ever feeling emotionally removed. While Cooper is the heart of the story, Brand is the mission’s brains, and seeing those two ideas in motion is one of the movie’s best elements. Hathaway makes Amelia the picture of softness in a hard, scientific situation; she’s level-headed but still shatters under the impossible decision she has to make, and she has an unshakeable belief that the human race is worth saving.

We ABSOLUTELY cannot talk about this movie without that monologue of hers. The one where she explains love as something that defies the constructs of time and space. In a film about wormholes and black holes and all the mysteries and vastness of the universe, Anne Hathaway’s monologue about love nearly derails the entire project. It’s one of her least showy performances, but it serves as an important emotional throughline, and Nolan has even gone on record as saying casting her for the part changed the movie. Hathaway herself, meanwhile, has said the part changed her career. Interstellar is the movie many fans credit with realizing just how seamlessly Anne Hathaway can embody smarts, heart, and high-stakes sci-fi action.

Les Misérables (2012)

With less than 15 minutes of screen time, Anne Hathaway gave a performance in Les Misérables that was so sad, so bleak, so gut-wrenching and ultimately unforgettable that she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. As Fantine, the young mother banished from society and forced into prostitution to provide for her child, Hathaway does it all. She lived the role; she lived the suffering. She went without food, lost a tremendous amount of weight, and even asked her husband to leave their home while filming to further wallow in Fantine’s emotional journey. “I needed to go further into that negative place,” she later said. “I needed to fall into a pit.”

Fantine’s suffering in Victor Hugo’s epic has always been heartbreaking, but Hathaway takes it further. Her “I Dreamed a Dream” (sung live, her every breath quivering on camera) is a complete emotional breakdown masterfully captured in one long take. You see the pain in her eyes, hear the weariness in her voice, and feel the fragile determination of a person who has nothing left to lose. It’s the type of acting that makes you wonder how she does it and made even more special by the fact that she’s only in the film for a small sliver of its three-hour running time. Audiences and critics were stunned. Hathaway won over 10 major awards for her work as Fantine, and it’s easy to see why – it’s rare that an actor can make you feel the devastation of a character’s downfall, but the even rarer feat is to make you see the fragile humanity still burning inside. It’s one thing to sing through tears; it’s another entirely to make the whole world cry with you.

Jurassic World: Rebirth had previously earned the actor plenty of box office attention back in the summer, when the blockbuster became one of the year’s highest global grossers with $339.6 million in domestic earnings and $868.8 million worldwide. While it has since been outpaced in total worldwide ticket sales by a number of other films (including A Minecraft Movie, Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch, and the Chinese-produced Ne Zha 2), the combined box office draw from Bailey’s only two film credits this year has outpaced every other actor’s.

Bailey takes on the role of Fiyero in Wicked: For Good, finding himself caught up in the intensifying feud between Elphaba and Glinda as the Wizard grows increasingly more malevolent in the prequel’s second act. Sharing the screen with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, the actor has received plenty of attention for his role, most recently being named PEOPLE’s 2025 Sexiest Man Alive earlier this month. In a statement to PEOPLE about the title, he called it a “completely absurd” yet flattering “honor.”

Bailey has also recently drawn the public’s attention with a statement about potentially withdrawing from acting to give more time to The Shameless Fund, the LGBTQ+ charity he started a few years ago. While he assured fans that he won’t be “vanishing into thin air in 2026,” he did confirm that no movie or television projects are currently in the works for the next calendar year, with the obvious exception of his Bridgerton return when filming on the series’ third season resumes in January.

Wicked: For Good is now in theaters, while Jurassic World: Rebirth is streaming on Peacock, so it appears as though 2025 will remain all about Jonathan Bailey until the calendar year is over. As it stands, the actor’s historic box office performance shows no signs of slowing either.

Represented by one of Hollywood’s biggest agencies, the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium, which oversees production standards and protects authenticity of the Italian product, is looking to place the cheese in films, television shows, and streaming content worldwide. In other words, Hollywood’s latest up-and-comer is not looking for lines, it’s looking for shelf space, screen time, and maybe even a dramatic grating sequence.

United Talent Agency, one of the industry’s largest players, will work with the Consortium to leverage its vast entertainment network, scouting opportunities for the cheese to make appearances on-screen. According to the Consortium, the partnership will work to elevate the cheese’s history, strict production regulations, and its global status as a quality ingredient. As head of marketing Carmine Forbuso said, recent export numbers have shown that the product is more international than ever, with 52% of the total production exported abroad in the first eight months of 2025.

Parmigiano Reggiano has been produced using raw milk and traditional methods in the designated Italian provinces for nearly a millennium. It has Protected Designation of Origin status, meaning that only cheese produced in the designated area can use its name. The handcrafted, tightly controlled pedigree is a key part of its selling points and the reason it’s the ideal candidate to tell its brand story on screen.

Actors have been eating it for years, but Hollywood has always had an appetite for product placement. From Reese’s Pieces in E.T., to sneakers in Forrest Gump, a well-timed product placement can vault a product into cultural history. It seems the time is ripe for a dairy-powered debut. Whether it’s a chef’s counter in a prestige drama, a rom-com kitchen montage, or a documentary about Italian cuisine, Parmigiano Reggiano is looking to make its close-up.

How many cheeses can claim to be represented by the same agency that represents musicians, actors, designers, and bestselling authors? Just one. If all goes to plan, the next time you settle in to watch a Hollywood blockbuster, you might find yourself wondering less about the plot and more about what’s being grated in the background. If Hollywood has a soft spot for breakout stars, it may soon discover that one of its brightest stars is aged, crumbly, and completely irresistible.

Then Ariana gave Cynthia the finger.

It has become one of the most iconically chaotic interviews in the history of entertainment journalism. You know the one. It was the interview that transformed “holding space” into a permanent fixture of the English language. Responding to a nonsensical interview question, Cynthia Erivo tried her best to maintain composure while extending empathy to her openly queer interviewer, despite not understanding what was happening; and Ariana, equally bemused, tried her best to show support for her friend as the latter adlibbed something resembling a complete sentence. Ariana decided that the best way to do this was by lovingly grasping Cynthia’s fingernail. 

The moment highlighted an aspect of Ariana and Cynthia’s friendship that has become a parodied staple of every interview since. These two really love to touch each other. Amateur sketch comedians have portrayed the actresses as sitting in each others’ laps, responding with theatrics to questions as simple as “what’s your favorite color,” and even breastfeeding each other. (I’ll admit, the latter joke went too far even for me, aka someone who has laughed during a Terrifier movie.)

More recently, Grande and Erivo stopped by Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, which along with Las Culturistas has become one of the best outlets for stars to promote a new project. In the episode, Poehler tells Grande about Erivo, “It’s really sweet how you touch each other,” before Grande laughs and Poehler adds, “in a non-sexual way.”

Grande went on to explain, “I channel a lot of energy through my hands. I’m always holding a hand. I’m always squeezing something. I’m always reaching for something.” But she clarified that this wasn’t reserved exclusively for Erivo. “It’s often who I’m with. I like to channel support or energy or whatever. I didn’t even notice that it was a thing about me until that thing happened.”

She’s of course referring to the finger incident, which, by the way, did not end with Grande grasping Erivo’s fingernail. Grande also proceeded to stroke it. “I didn’t know what the f–k was going on,” Grande told Poehler of the infamous finger caress. “I knew it was tender and beautiful, and I just wanted to be supportive… It felt sweet. It felt beautiful.”

And beautiful it was. Haters gonna hate, fakers gonna fake, etc. etc., but the Internet has mostly been here for Grande and Erivo’s powerful, seemingly unbreakable bond. I mean, these two even got matching tattoos on the third day of rehearsals for the first movie — shortly after meeting for the first time in real life. If that’s not proof of deep and lasting platonic love, then what is? I’m accepting submissions. 

And if that platonic love between these two women transforms into something involving finger stroking, hair pulling, and hand-holding, then so be it. Friendships like theirs make the world go round, and young women need more non-toxic representations of female friendships on their screen. Plus, not to sound like a hippie, but we should all touch each other more in general. People are lonelier than ever these days, and we could all, every one of us, alleviate that a bit by hugging our friends, even strangers, a bit longer. (But ask for consent first if you’re literally about to hug a stranger.) 

As for new iconic moments in the For Good press tour, we’re sadly lacking. Outside of Cynthia Erivo physically guarding Ariana Grande’s body when a man accosted the latter at the Singapore premiere of For Good, the press tour hasn’t generated any majorly buzzy moments. Grande and Erivo even had to forgo interviews at the movie’s recent New York premiere because Erivo had lost her voice. Grande didn’t want to do interviews without Erivo at her side, offering further proof that these two had actually become symbiotic on that day when Grande stroked Erivo’s finger, physically fusing their bodies for the rest of time. 

But For Good didn’t really need a major press tour. The first movie was press enough; and plus, it has been our great privilege as normies on the Internet to hold space for Ariana Grande’s sense of touch. May these two never break up. 

You watch the camera pan through a marketplace of commodities that appear ridiculous in their first blush. Flip-over bulletproof desks. Toy-sized “barky” robot dogs that howl for help and guard exits when triggered. Inflatable shields for first graders. Bulletproof backpacks. Ballistic window film. Classrooms retrofitted as reinforced shelters. Bulletproof whiteboards. Alarms. Locks. Framed “wall art” designed to stop rifle fire. One vendor sells a skateboard that also serves as a defensive shield. The seller tells us that “every time there’s a tragedy, it economically benefits my family” and predicts that by the time the film airs he’ll be a $300-million company. This is not parody. This is not fiction. It is all real. It all exists because a country has come to accept the idea that children will be murdered at school and that the answer, somehow, is more gear.

The directors, Zackary Canepari and Jessica Dimmock, take a kind of quiet, disquieting neutrality to their material. They frame their subjects formally, their compositions are mostly still. Their interview subjects sometimes gaze directly at the camera, at other times they sit silently, sometimes covered in convincing prosthetic injuries provided by the companies that specialize in latex bullet-hole makeup for use in these drills. The cinematography lingers on faces, on gestures, on the moments of confusion, or resignation, or humor. There is no narrator telling us what to think. We ALL have heard the title of the film – a phrase that Americans now know well as an empty political placeholder carries its own weight of commentary before a single word is spoken.

Thoughts & Prayers documents an entire national apparatus that has been constructed on the idea that nothing meaningful will be done to stop school shootings. Instead, tens of millions of Americans across the country prepare to survive them. More than 20 million adults have received active shooter training. Ninety-five percent of schoolchildren now practice lockdown drills, some as early as pre-K, where the word “gunman” is sanitized with “dinosaur” in a patently half-hearted attempt to make the threat less foreboding. Children rehearse bleeding out, hiding, and escaping in drills so elaborate that they include the participation of the entire school, SWAT teams, realistic gore makeup, and “fake press conferences” staged by students and school administrators at the end of the simulation.

In Utah, we see teachers trained to shoot in six-week programs that also include tactical weapons familiarization, self-defense, emergency medical care, and certification to carry concealed weapons. In that state, teachers are legally allowed to bring firearms into classrooms without even notifying administrators or law enforcement, and the film shows them enrolling in and training inside high-intensity virtual simulations normally used in police academies. We hear one of these teachers speak about how her heart was beating 133 beats per minute inside of the simulator, and then watch her relive the scenario of rounding a corner and taking down a gunman in an instructional space where an instructor reminds her to take deep breaths and only focus on the threat at hand.

In other locations, teachers learn lockdown techniques, how to barricade rooms, how to disarm an active shooter. In Oregon, we watch educators participate in ALICE training, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. We also see school districts there conduct drills in which masked “shooters” move room-to-room, barking orders and firing blank rounds in hallways. In New York, we hear a young girl describe school shootings as if they are natural disasters, a choice by the filmmakers that then cuts to footage of hurricanes and mass-casualty events. Across states and school-age groups, the message is the same. Normalization. Children and teenagers talk with heartbreaking lucidity about what they live in fear of: fear of walking into classrooms, fear of losing friends, fear of teachers caring more about their own gun rights than about their students.

The final act of the film is centered on one huge drill at a Medford, Oregon, high school in the wake of the arrest of a janitor who confessed to planning an attack at the school. He had weapons, a written plan, explosives. Students are covered with latex injuries. Police and first responders scour the hallways. A podium is festooned with a sign that reads “fake press conference,” where officials practice the messaging of how many were killed, how many wounded, how they responded, and how they wish it had not happened. All of this is clearly simulated, all of it is clear practice. Then, the drill ends and the superintendent simply flips the sign from red to green, changing “fake press conference” to “real press conference.” He turns to face the screen in the exact same tone, acknowledging the sadness of these exercises, and missing the larger point that they make so plain. They are conditioning us to the idea that tragedy is inescapable.

The filmmakers also capture what is often the ideological escape hatch that gets inserted into conversations around gun violence. We see political bickering flit by on television screens within the film. Senators shouting. Pundits accusing one another of politicizing the issue. All of it is fleetingly captured. They almost never linger on this angle. They do let a trainer named Thrasher make the case that the cause of gun violence is actually family structures and a supposed “lack of tribalism.” It’s an astonishing statement, one the film pointedly cuts away from instead of dismantling with argument. A counterpoint to Thrasher is instead provided by a teenager named Quinn who says the simplest, most heartbreaking thing.

“I don’t think that a lot of adults care about our opinions. We go through this every single day. We go through, like, being afraid of going to school because we might get shot, or we might lose a friend, or we might lose a teacher. And a lot of people care about their … rights, I guess, more about, ‘Oh well, I want to have the ability to own a gun, and so I don’t care if you get shot in your class.’ It’s just kind of disheartening. ‘Cause it’s like, oh, you care more about yourself than all of the students in America.”

Thoughts & Prayers is not a call to action, nor a policy argument, nor an essay on solutions. It is a document of what America has agreed to live with. It shows teachers being trained in combat alongside pedagogy. It shows schoolchildren drilled like emergency responders. It shows companies built to profit from the fear that spikes after each massacre. It shows communities treating mass shootings not as crises to stop but as disasters to endure. It shows a country building a $3-billion survival industry because it refuses to stop the conditions that make that industry necessary.

The result is a portrait of a country that has replaced solutions with simulations, prevention with preparation, and policy with products. A country where drills become traditions, trauma becomes routine, and children themselves become the country’s clearest witnesses to the cost of adult indifference.