The Dead Zone (film)

# The Dead Zone (film)

## Abstract

The Dead Zone is a 1983 American science-fiction thriller film directed by David Cronenberg. The screenplay, by Jeffrey Boam, is based on the 1979 novel of the same title by Stephen King. The film stars Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, Martin Sheen, Anthony Zerbe, and Colleen Dewhurst. Walken plays a schoolteacher, Johnny Smith, who awakens from a coma to find he has psychic powers. The film received positive reviews. The novel also inspired a television series of the same name in the early 2000s, starring Anthony Michael Hall, the pilot episode of which borrowed some ideas and changes used in the 1983 film.

In the novel, the phrase "dead zone" refers to the part of Johnny's brain that is irreparably damaged, resulting in his dormant psychic potential awakening. When some information in Johnny's visions is beyond his perception, he considers that information as existing "in the dead zone." In the film adaptation, the phrase "dead zone" is that part of his psychic vision that is missing—a blank area that he cannot see. This "dead zone" refers to an outcome that is not yet determined, meaning Johnny can change the future.

## Plot

After having a headache following a ride on a roller coaster in Castle Rock, Maine, schoolteacher Johnny Smith politely declines when his girlfriend Sarah asks if he wants to spend the night with her. As he drives home through stormy weather, he has a car accident that leaves him in a coma. Awakening under the care of neurologist Dr. Sam Weizak, Johnny learns that five years have passed, and Sarah is now a married mother.

Johnny discovers that he has gained the ability to psychically see aspects of people's lives (past, present, and future) through physical contact. As he touches a nurse's hand, he sees her daughter trapped in a fire. He also sees that Weizak's mother, long thought to have died during World War II, is still alive, and how a pushy reporter's sister committed suicide, hinting at abuse by his hand.

With physical therapy, Johnny relearns to walk but retains a limp and must use a cane. Sarah reestablishes contact with him, but she is torn between her love for him and her family. They eventually drift apart.

As news of his gift spreads, Sheriff George Bannerman from the nearby Castle Rock asks Johnny for help with a series of murders. At first Johnny declines, but he eventually agrees to help. Through a vision at the crime scene, he discovers that deputy Frank Dodd is the killer. Before Bannerman can arrest him, Dodd commits suicide. Dodd's mother shoots Johnny, before being killed by Bannerman.

Johnny moves to a different town and lives a more isolated life as he grows physically weaker due to his psychic abilities. Despite Weizak's concerns, Johnny refuses further treatment. He tutors children, working from home. The wealthy Roger Stuart hires Johnny to tutor his son, Chris. Through Stuart, Johnny meets Greg Stillson, a superficially charismatic third-party candidate for the United States Senate, for whom Sarah and her husband, Walt, volunteer. Stuart warns Johnny that Stillson is dangerous.

Johnny receives a vision of Chris and two other boys drowning in a local pond during an ice hockey game. He implores Stuart to change his plans, but he refuses and fires Johnny. Chris, however, stays home and lives, while the two other boys drown. Johnny realizes he has a "dead zone" in his visions, where the future is changeable.

At a political rally, Johnny shakes Stillson's hand and has a vision of Stillson as President ordering a pre-emptive nuclear strike. Johnny seeks out Weizak's advice, asking, for instance, if he would have killed Adolf Hitler if he had the chance, knowing beforehand the atrocities Hitler would commit. Weizak replies that he would have had no choice but to kill him. Johnny leaves Sarah a letter, telling her that what he is about to do will cost him his life, but is a worthwhile sacrifice.

Sarah and her family attend a rally for Stillson. Johnny also sneaks in with a rifle; he shoots at Stillson but misses. In the ensuing commotion, Stillson grabs Sarah's baby and holds him as a human shield, which a photographer captures on film. Before Johnny can fire again, he is shot by Stillson's bodyguard. Johnny touches Stillson's hand and foresees that, after the photograph is published, Stillson's career ends in disgrace and he commits suicide, thus averting the nuclear attack. Johnny lies dying as Sarah embraces him and tells him that she loves him.

## Cast

- Christopher Walken as Johnny Smith

- Brooke Adams as Sarah Bracknell

- Tom Skerritt as Sheriff George Bannerman

- Herbert Lom as Dr. Sam Weizak

- Anthony Zerbe as Roger Stuart

- Colleen Dewhurst as Henrietta Dodd

- Martin Sheen as Greg Stillson

- Nicholas Campbell as Deputy Frank Dodd

- Simon Craig as Chris Stuart

- Géza Kovács as Sonny

- Sean Sullivan as Herb Smith

- Jackie Burroughs as Vera Smith

- Barry Flatman as Walt Bracknell

- Peter Dvorsky as Dardis

- Leslie Carlson as Brenner

## Production

### Development

After King's novel The Dead Zone was released in 1979, Lorimar Film Entertainment began developing a film adaptation. Producer Carol Baum gave the book to screenwriter Jeffrey Boam and asked him to write a screenplay. "I saw it had great possibilities and agreed to do it," Boam said. He developed a script with director Stanley Donen, who left the project before the film had reached production at Lorimar. Boam completed his first draft for the film on the same day as Ronald Reagan 's election as president.

Lorimar eventually closed its film division after a series of box-office failures, and soon after, producer Dino De Laurentiis bought the rights to The Dead Zone. He initially disliked Boam's screenplay and asked King to adapt his own novel. De Laurentiis then reportedly rejected King's script as "involved and convoluted"; however, David Cronenberg, who ultimately directed the film, said that he was the one who decided not to use the script, finding it "needlessly brutal". De Laurentiis commissioned another script from Andrzej Żuławski, but rejected it and returned to Boam. Cronenberg later questioned the quality of the script De Laurentiis read as it was initially written in Polish, translated to English, and then translated to Italian. The film was finally on track to be made when De Laurentiis hired producer Debra Hill to work with Cronenberg and Boam.

Cronenberg initially rejected De Laurentiis' offer to direct the film, but accepted the position after meeting Hill. Cronenberg received five scripts for the film, including one from King which he described as "the worst one by far". Although Cronenberg did not write Fast Company he was involved in the writing process and made edits during film. The Dead Zone was his first film in which he did not have any involvement in writing the script. It was also his first film that did not have any Canadian content.

Boam abandoned King's parallel story structure for The Dead Zone ' s screenplay, turning the plot into separate episodes. Boam told writer Tim Lucas in 1983, "King's book is longer than it needed to be. The novel sprawls and it's episodic. What I did was use that episodic quality, because I saw The Dead Zone as a triptych." His script was revised and condensed four times by Cronenberg, who eliminated large portions of the novel's story, including plot points about Johnny Smith having a brain tumor.

Cronenberg, Boam, and Hill had script meetings to revise the screenplay page by page. Boam's "triptych" in the screenplay surrounds three acts: the introduction of Johnny Smith before his car accident and after he awakes from a coma, a story about Smith assisting a sheriff in tracking down the Castle Rock Killer, and finally Johnny deciding to confront the politician Stillson. Boam said he enjoyed writing character development for Smith, having him struggle with the responsibility of his psychic abilities, and ultimately giving up his life for the greater good. "It was this theme that made me like the book, and I particularly enjoyed discovering it in what was essentially a genre piece, a work of exploitation," he said. In Boam's first draft of the screenplay, Johnny does not die at the end, but rather has a vision about the Castle Rock Killer, who is still alive and escaped from prison. Cronenberg insisted that this "trick ending" be revised. Boam submitted the final draft of the screenplay on November 8, 1982.

Boam stated that Donen wanted the film to be told from an outside point of view while Cronenberg wanted it from Johnny's perspective. King is reported to have told Cronenberg that the changes the director and Boam made to the story "improved and intensified the power of the narrative."

Before Christopher Walken was cast as Johnny Smith, Bill Murray was considered for the role as it was King's first choice. Cronenberg initially wanted Nicholas Campbell to portray Johnny, but the director wound up casting him as the Castle Rock Killer instead. Cronenberg also wanted Hal Holbrook to portray Sheriff Bannerman but De Laurentiis objected.

In addition to Donen, both John Badham and Michael Cimino were also considered to direct.

### Filming

The financial failure of Videodrome occurred during the filming of The Dead Zone. Shooting started in early January 1983 and took place in the Greater Toronto Area and the Regional Municipality of Niagara of Cronenberg's native Ontario, Canada. The so-called Screaming Tunnel, located in nearby Niagara Falls, Ontario, was also used as the backdrop for one scene. The gazebo was built by the film crew and donated to Niagara-on-the-Lake. It was Cronenberg's first film to utilize stereophonic sound.

According to a David Cronenberg interview on the DVD, The Dead Zone was filmed during a relentless deep freeze in southern Ontario, which lasted for weeks, creating an authentic atmosphere of subzero temperatures and icy, snow-packed terrain, which made for great natural shooting locations, despite it being almost too cold for cast and crew to tolerate at times. Canada's Wonderland, a theme park 30 km north of Toronto 's city limits, was also used as a filming location.

### Music

The music soundtrack, composed by Michael Kamen, was recorded by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, London, at the famous EMI Abbey Road Studios. Michael Kamen conducted the recording sessions; the orchestra was contracted and led by Sidney Sax. This is the only Cronenberg film since The Brood (1979) for which Howard Shore was not composer.

## Release

The film's premiere was planned for the Toronto International Film Festival, but three days before the showing Paramount removed it as the studio did not want negative reviews six weeks before the film's theatrical release. Daniel was premiered instead.

Cronenberg criticized the film's theatrical distribution and stated that it could have been number one at the box office had its distribution been better. The head of marketing at Paramount, David Rose, was arrested for embezzling money and Cronenberg theorized that Rose might have taken money meant for the marketing of the film.

Cronenberg showed his own Dolby stereo version of the film in Toronto for a month as none of the theaters were playing that version and broke even without concessions.

## Reception

The Dead Zone received very positive reviews on release. It holds an approval rating of 89% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 54 reviews, with an average score of 7.7/10. The site's consensus reads, " The Dead Zone combines taut direction from David Cronenberg and a rich performance from Christopher Walken to create one of the strongest Stephen King adaptations." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 69 out of 100 based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars, describing The Dead Zone as by far the best of the half-a-dozen cinematic adaptations of King's novels to that date. He praised Cronenberg's direction for successfully weaving the supernatural into the everyday, and noted believable performances by the entire cast, especially Walken: "Walken does such a good job of portraying Johnny Smith, the man with the strange gift, that we forget this is science fiction or fantasy or whatever and just accept it as this guy's story." Janet Maslin of The New York Times referred to the film as "a well-acted drama more eerie than terrifying, more rooted in the occult than in sheer horror." Robin Wood stated that it was the first film by Cronenberg that he could admire and called it a "healthy development".

Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader was more critical of the film, describing it as "By no means a bad film, just a disappointingly bland and superficial one... in which director David Cronenberg relinquishes the one thing that had always set him apart from his Canadian colleagues: his willingness to follow his intuitions rather than the logic of a script."

### Box office

The film grossed $20.8 million in the United States and Canada). Worldwide, it earned theatrical rentals of $16.3 million.

## Works cited


The Death of Stalin

# The Death of Stalin

## Abstract

The Death of Stalin is a 2017 political satire black comedy film written and directed by Armando Iannucci and co-written by David Schneider and Ian Martin with Peter Fellows. Based on the French graphic novel La Mort de Staline (2010–2012), the film depicts the internal social and political power struggle among the members of the Soviet Politburo following the death of leader Joseph Stalin in 1953. The French-British-Belgian co-production stars an ensemble cast that includes Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Dermot Crowley, Paul Chahidi, Adrian McLoughlin, Paul Whitehouse, and Jeffrey Tambor.

The film premiered on 8 September 2017 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was released theatrically in the United Kingdom by Entertainment One Films on 20 October 2017, in France by Gaumont on 4 April 2018, and in Belgium by September Film Distribution on 18 April 2018. It received critical acclaim and various accolades, including nominations for two British Academy Film Awards, one of which was for Outstanding British Film, and 13 British Independent Film Awards, four of which it won. There was fierce opposition to the film in Russia, where it was seen as "anti-Russian propaganda", and it was banned there, as well as in Kyrgyzstan, for allegedly mocking the Soviet past and making fun of the USSR.

## Plot

On the night of 1 March 1953, Joseph Stalin calls the Radio Moscow director to demand a recording of the just-concluded live recital of Mozart 's Piano Concerto No. 23. The performance was not recorded; not wanting to anger Stalin, the director hurriedly refills the now-half-empty auditorium, fetches a new conductor to replace the original one, who has passed out, and orders the orchestra to play again. Pianist Maria Yudina initially refuses to perform for the cruel dictator, but ultimately is bribed to comply.

Meanwhile, Stalin is hosting a tense, but rowdy, gathering of Central Committee members at his home, the Kuntsevo Dacha. As Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov leaves, NKVD -head Lavrentiy Beria reveals to Nikita Khrushchev and Deputy Chairman Georgy Malenkov that Molotov is to be part of the latest purge. When the concert recording arrives, Stalin finds a note Maria slipped in the record sleeve, admonishing Stalin and expressing hope for his death. He reads it, laughs, and suffers a cerebral haemorrhage. Despite hearing him fall, Stalin's guards, fearful of being punished for disturbing him, do not enter his office.

Stalin's housemaid discovers him unconscious the next morning. The members of the Central Committee each learn about the situation through their own networks and rush to the dacha. Beria, the first to arrive, finds Maria's note. Once Malenkov, Khrushchev, Lazar Kaganovich, Anastas Mikoyan, and Nikolai Bulganin arrive, the Committee finally decides to send for a team of doctors. Most of the best doctors in Moscow have been arrested for being part of an alleged plot, thus the doctors who can be found are not impressive. After a brief bout of terminal lucidity, Stalin dies. While the members of the Committee return to Moscow, Beria's order for the NKVD to take over the Soviet Army –held security postings across Moscow is carried out.

Beria and Khrushchev vie for the support of Molotov and Stalin's children, Svetlana and her unstable, alcoholic brother Vasily. Beria has Molotov removed from the list of those to be rounded up, and has Molotov's wife released from prison. The Committee names Malenkov chairman. Essentially a puppet of Beria, Malenkov further exerts control by hijacking Khrushchev's proposed reforms, such as releasing political prisoners and loosening clerical restrictions. Khrushchev is relegated to planning Stalin's funeral.

After Beria learns Khrushchev and Maria are casually acquainted, he threatens Khrushchev with Maria's note. To create problems for the NKVD, Khrushchev reverses Beria's order to halt all transportation into Moscow. When 1,500 arriving mourners are killed, the Committee wants to blame junior NKVD officers. Beria angrily dissents, believing that would amount to blaming him, and threatens his colleagues with documents detailing their involvement in various purges.

Irate over the supplanting of the military by the NKVD, Marshal Georgy Zhukov agrees to support Khrushchev in a coup against Beria, provided it occurs after Stalin's funeral the next day and Khrushchev can get the rest of the Committee on board. With time running out, Khrushchev cannot get Malenkov to discuss his plan, but he tells everyone else that the decision is unanimous, and they commit themselves. Khrushchev gives Zhukov the greenlight, and the Soviet Army reclaims its posts from the NKVD. Zhukov, assisted by a group of soldiers led by Kiril Moskalenko, storms into a meeting of the Committee and arrests Beria.

Malenkov does not intervene and reluctantly signs Beria's death warrant, horrified at what he had done to his victims. At Beria's emergency trial, Khrushchev accuses him of counter-revolutionary activities, sexual assault, and pedophilia, and immediately declares him guilty after evidence of the final accusation is delivered by the Soviet army. Beria begs for his life but is summarily shot in the head, and Zhukov has his body burned in the courtyard. Despite Svetlana's protests, Khrushchev sends her to Soviet-occupied Vienna, while keeping Vasily in Russia, where he can be watched. He concurs with Kaganovich that Malenkov is too weak to lead.

In 1956, Maria is the soloist at another performance of Concerto No. 23. Having triumphed over other members of the Committee to become the new leader of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev attends. Brezhnev, who will succeed Khrushchev in 1964, eyes Khrushchev from his seat.

## Cast

- Adrian McLoughlin as Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the USSR

- Steve Buscemi as Nikita Khrushchev, 1st Secretary Moscow Committee

- Simon Russell Beale as Lavrenti Beria, Head of NKVD Security Forces

- Paddy Considine as Yuri Andreyev, director of Radio Moscow

- Rupert Friend as Vasily Stalin, Stalin's son

- Jason Isaacs as Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Head of the Soviet Army

- Olga Kurylenko as Maria Veniaminovna Yudina, a pianist

- Michael Palin as Vyacheslav Molotov, Foreign Secretary

- Andrea Riseborough as Svetlana Stalina, Stalin's daughter

- Dermot Crowley as Lazar Kaganovich, Minister for Labour

- Paul Chahidi as Nikolai Bulganin, Minister for Defence

- Paul Whitehouse as Anastas Mikoyan, Minister for Trade

- Jeffrey Tambor as Georgy Malenkov, Deputy to Stalin

- Tom Brooke as Sergei, an audio engineer for Radio Moscow

- Justin Edwards as Spartak Sokolov (Conductor 1)

- Paul Ready as NKVD Officer Delov, who is tasked with finding the girl from the picture with Stalin

- Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Musician 1

- Nicholas Woodeson as Boris Bresnavich (Conductor 2)

- Sylvestra Le Touzel as Nina Khrushcheva, Khrushchev's wife

- Nick Sidi as NKVD Officer Bogdan Kobulov, Beria's right-hand man

- Jonny Phillips as NKVD Officer Pervak, who assists Stalin, and then Malenkov

- Alex Harvey-Brown as Soldier guarding Stalin's bedroom

- Tim Steed as Sergeant guarding Stalin's bedroom

- June Watson as Matryona Petrovna, Stalin's housemaid

- Daniel Tuite as NKVD Officer Sliminov, who tells Beria Stalin is ill

- Karl Johnson as Dr. Pavel Lukomsky, a retired doctor brought in to examine Stalin

- Cara Horgan as Lidiya Timashuk, who helps round up the doctors

- Dan Mersh as Ice Hockey Coach

- Richard Brake as Anatoly Tarasov, Vasily's assistant

- Eva Sayer as Young Waitress molested by Beria

- Diana Quick as Polina Molotova, Molotov's wife

- Jonathan Aris as Mezhnikov, the funeral arranger

- Gerald Lepkowski as Leonid Brezhnev, part of the execution squad led by Zhukov

- Luke D'Silva as Kirill Moskalenko, part of the execution squad led by Zhukov

The film's credits reveal that several other historical figures are depicted in the film in small roles, among them Zhou Enlai (played by Dave Wong) and Marshal Ivan Konev (played by Daniel Fearn).

## Production

During the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, it was announced that production on the film was set to begin in June, and that Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi, Olga Kurylenko, Timothy Dalton, Toby Kebbell, Michael Palin, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, and Andrea Riseborough were in "advanced talks to join the project." By the time filming started on June 20, Adrian McLoughlin and Paul Whitehouse had joined the cast, and Jason Isaacs had replaced Dalton as Georgy Zhukov, while Rupert Friend had replaced Kebbell as Vasily Stalin. Production wrapped on 6 August 2016.

Scenes were shot on location in Kyiv (exterior scenes and the exteriors of the Public Enemies building and the NKVD building), Moscow (the Red Gate Building), and the United Kingdom (Blythe House, Battersea Park, Mansion House, Fulham Town Hall, Goldsmiths' Hall, Shoreditch Town Hall, Freemasons' Hall, Alexandra Palace, and Hammersmith Town Hall in London, Mongewell Park in Oxfordshire, Black Park in Buckinghamshire, and Wrest Park in Bedfordshire). The film's score was composed by Christopher Willis, who tried to write in the style of Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich.

## Release and reception

### Box office

The Death of Stalin was screened in the Platform section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released in theatres by eOne Films in the United Kingdom on 20 October 2017, and by IFC Films in the United States on 9 March 2018. The film grossed $8 million in the United States and Canada and $16.6 million in other territories (including $7.3 million in the UK), for a worldwide box office total of $24.6 million.

### Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 254 reviews, with an average score of 8/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: " The Death of Stalin finds director/co-writer Armando Iannucci in riotous form, bringing his scabrous political humor to bear on a chapter in history with painfully timely parallels." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 based on 43 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 5/5 stars, writing that "fear rises like gas from a corpse in Armando Iannucci's brilliant horror-satire" and that it "is superbly cast, and acted with icy and ruthless force by an A-list lineup. There are no weak links. Each has a plum role; each squeezes every gorgeous horrible drop." Sandra Hall of The Sydney Morning Herald gave the film 4.5/5 stars, describing it as "a devastatingly funny dissection of power politics, stripping the mystique from it and those who worship it." Donald Clarke of The Irish Times gave the film 4/5 stars, writing that it "starts in a state of mortal panic and continues in that mode towards its inevitably ghastly conclusion".

Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph also gave the film 4/5 stars, writing: "Depending on your point of view, The Death of Stalin is either a sly, wintry satire on Armando Iannucci's usual theme of squawking political idiocy, or an insidious attempt to destabilise the Russian establishment with relentless dagger-blows." Peter Howell of the Toronto Star gave the film 3.5/4 stars, writing: "Shifting eastwards from the Anglo-American japes of In the Loop and Veep, director/co-writer Armando Iannucci doesn’t stint on brutal truth — or lethal legend."

Christopher Orr of The Atlantic praised the film's humour and performances and wrote that it "seems precisely attuned to the current moment: a capricious, unpredictable leader, basking in a cult of personality; the introduction of ' alternative facts '; the swift, party-wide swerves on subjects as various as negotiating with North Korea, paying off porn stars, and even Russian efforts to subvert a U.S. election." Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote that the film was "ten times funnier, by my reckoning, than it has any right to be, and more riddled with risk than anything that Iannucci has done before, because it dares to meet outrage with outrage."

Raphael Abraham of the Financial Times wrote: "As this coven of vampiric apparatchiks feasts on the remains of Stalinism, the unremitting blackness of the situation at times threatens a full comedy eclipse. But the discomfiting balancing act of humour and horror is precisely Iannucci's game—and only he could pull it off with such skill." Thomas Walker, in The Objective Standard, agreed, adding that the film "dives deep into the psychology of those living under such a system and lays bare the self-destructive mind-set of those who grasp wildly for power."

Matthew Norman of the Evening Standard gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "For all dream-team cast and assured direction, despite capturing the laughable sycophancy of the apparatchik the film isn't that funny." Peter Debruge of Variety wrote: "If only the end result were as funny as the idea that anyone would undertake a film about the turmoil surrounding the Soviet despot's demise."

Former U.S. President Barack Obama included The Death of Stalin on a list of his favourite films of 2018.

### Russia and former Soviet bloc

Nikolai Starikov, head of the Russian Great Fatherland Party, called The Death of Stalin an "unfriendly act by the British intellectual class", and part of an "anti-Russian information war". In September 2017, the head of the Public Council of the Russian Ministry of Culture said Russian authorities were considering a ban on the film, alleging that it could be part of a "western plot to destabilise Russia by causing rifts in society". Russian online newspaper Vzglyad called the film "a nasty sendup by outsiders who know nothing of our history". The Communist Party of the Russian Federation called the film "revolting", and Alexander Yushchenko, a spokesman for the party, said it was an attempt to spark discontent.

On 23 January 2018, two days before the film's scheduled release in Russia, a screening was attended by State Duma MPs, representatives of the Russian Historical Society, members of the Ministry of Culture's Public Board, and film industry members. Two days later, the Ministry of Culture withdrew the film's distribution certificate. Several cinemas screened the film in late January, and, though they claimed they had not heard the exhibition license had been revoked, the Ministry sued these theatres.

According to the results of a poll conducted by the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTSIOM), 35% of Russians disapproved of the Ministry of Culture's decision to keep the film from Russian screens, while 30% supported the ban and 35% were neutral. 58% of Russians said they would be willing to watch the film in cinemas if the ban were lifted. According to Iannucci, by January 2019, the film had been illegally downloaded 1.5 million times in Russia.

A group of lawyers from Russia's Ministry of Culture; Era Zhukova, the daughter of Marshal Zhukov; cinematographer Nikita Mikhalkov; Vladimir Bortko; and Alexey Levykin, head of the Russian State Historical Museum, petitioned Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky to withdraw the film's certification, saying: " The Death of Stalin is aimed at inciting hatred and enmity, violating the dignity of the Russian (Soviet) people, promoting ethnic and social inferiority. We are confident that the movie was made to distort our country's past so that the thought of the 1950s Soviet Union makes people feel only terror and disgust." The authors said the film, set to be released on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, denigrated the memory of Russian World War II fighters, with the Russian national anthem accompanied by obscene expressions and offensive attitudes, and historically inaccurate decorations.

In addition to Russia, the film was banned in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Armenia and Belarus were the only members of the Eurasian Economic Union to allow its release: in Armenia, it premiered in two cinemas in Yerevan on 25 January 2018, while, in Belarus, it premiered after an initial delay. In Kazakhstan, the film was only screened at the Clique Festival.

## Historical accuracy

Several academics have argued there are historical inaccuracies in The Death of Stalin. In response, Iannucci has said: "I'm not saying it's a documentary. It is a fiction, but it's a fiction inspired by the truth of what it must have felt like at the time. My aim is for the audience to feel the sort of low-level anxiety that people must have when they just went about their daily lives at the time."

Historian Richard Overy wrote that the film "is littered with historical errors", and called it "entertainment, but poor history". Among his examples in support of this are that:

- Molotov was not the foreign minister when Stalin died. He had been sacked in 1949, but became foreign minister again in the post-Stalin reshuffle.

- Marshal of the Soviet Union (not Field Marshal) Zhukov was a local field commander when Stalin died, having been exiled to the provinces due to Stalin's paranoid jealousy of him. Zhukov became deputy minister of defence in the post-Stalin government, but he was not the commander of the Soviet Army in March 1953.

- Khrushchev, not Malenkov, chaired the meeting to reorganise the government after Stalin's death.

- Beria was arrested three months after Stalin died, not almost simultaneously, and that was precipitated by the 1953 East German uprising, not a fictional massacre of mourners in Moscow, which is based on an incident in which 109 people were trampled to death during the funeral. He was executed six months after being arrested. Beria had not been head of the security forces since 1946.

- Svetlana was not sent to Vienna. She remained in the Soviet Union working as an academic and translator before ultimately defecting to America in 1967 and becoming a naturalised citizen of the United States in 1978.

Overy wrote that those killed in the Great Purge or sent to Gulags "deserve a film that treats their history with greater discretion and historical understanding". Iannucci said he "chose to tone down real-life absurdity" to make the work more believable.

The Radio Moscow portion of the film is a retelling of an apocryphal story first recorded in Solomon Volkov 's book Testimony (1979), which Volkov claimed were the memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich. However, in Testimony, Maria Yudina is awakened in the middle of the night in 1943 or 1944, not 1953, and brought in to record, and the recording brings Stalin to tears, moving him to pay Yudina 20,000 roubles in appreciation. The story served as the loose basis for The Stalin Sonata, a 1989 BBC radio play by David Zane Mairowitz. While, like the film, the original story has Yudina send a letter to Stalin, its contents are different, as she supposedly wrote to thank Stalin for the money, adding that she would donate it to the restoration of a church and would be praying for his sins to be forgiven. While the real Yudina was fired on one occasion for her ideological disagreements with Stalin's regime, her family was not killed.

Dr. Lydia Timashuk is described in the film as a willing accomplice in the Doctors' plot, which is discussed as a past, rather than current, event, and is portrayed as an eager agent in the roundup of Moscow doctors for Stalin's care, who, in a deleted scene, dies in a mine field around Stalin's dacha after her sexual advances to Beria are rejected. In reality, she had no involvement in the events surrounding Stalin's death, and was an unwilling pawn in the Doctors' plot, after which she became embittered by the labels of informer and anti-Semite that followed her until her death in 1983.

Bogdan Kobulov is depicted in the film as being shot dead during Beria's arrest by officers acting under orders given by Zhukov. In reality, he was arrested and executed alongside Beria months later.

In the film, Vasily Stalin and Anatoly Tarasov are seen at a practice of the Soviet Union national ice hockey team, which has been depleted by a recent plane crash. There really was a plane crash in which 11 players on the VVS Moscow ice hockey team died, and star player Vsevolod Bobrov really did survive because he missed the flight, but the crash happened on 5 January 1950, more than three years before Stalin's death.

The NKVD was superseded by the MVD in 1946, almost seven years before the death of Stalin.

Samuel Goff of the Department of Slavonic Studies at the University of Cambridge, though opining that the film's historical discrepancies could be justified as helping to focus the drama, wrote that turning Beria into "an avatar of the obscenities of the Stalinist state" missed the chance to say "anything about the actual mechanisms of power", and argued that Iannucci's approach to satire was not transferable to something like Stalinism, and the film is "fundamentally ill-equipped to locate the comedy inherent to Stalinism, missing marks it doesn't know it should be aiming for."


Ballykissangel

# Ballykissangel

## Abstract

Ballykissangel is a BBC television drama created by Kieran Prendiville and set in Ireland, produced in-house by BBC Northern Ireland. The original story revolved around a young English Roman Catholic priest as he became part of a rural community. It ran for six series, which were first broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2001. It aired in Ireland on RTÉ One and in Australia on ABC TV from 1996 to 2001. Repeats have been shown on Drama in the United Kingdom and the series also has been shown in the United States on some PBS affiliates.

The series was made and set during the Celtic Tiger economic period in Ireland and this features mainly through Tony Doyle’s character, Brian Quigley. The show is also set amid the backdrop of the Catholic Church scandal and explores controversial themes of the time such as divorce (which had only been legalised a year before the series began), and pre-marital sex. Dervla Kirwan’s and Niall Toibin’s characters are often at odds, symbolising the social conflict between traditional Ireland and social liberalisation.

Significant changes in the cast occurred at the end of series 3 following the departure of central characters Peter Clifford and Assumpta Fitzgerald. A band of new characters were brought in and characters that previously had little story were expanded, such as Kathleen, Niamh, Frank and Brian.

The show faced a decline in ratings from a peak level of 10 million viewers to 4.8 million and was eventually cancelled in 2001.

The name of the fictional village in which the show was set is derived from Ballykissane, a townland near Killorglin in County Kerry, where the show's creator, Kieran Prendiville, holidayed with his family as a child. The village's name in Irish is shown as "Baile Coisc Aingeal", which means "The town of the fallen angel", on the sign outside the post office.

The show was filmed in Avoca and Enniskerry in County Wicklow.

## Main cast

- Tina Kellegher as Niamh Quigley (Series 4–5)

- Niall Tóibín as Fr. Frank MacAnally

- Frankie McCafferty as Donal Doherty

- Joe Savino as Liam Coughlan

- Áine Ní Mhuirí as Kathleen Hendley

- Dierdre Donnelly as Siobhan Mehigan

- Gary Whelan as Brendan Kearney

- Stephen Tompkinson as Fr. Peter Clifford (Series 1–3)

- Dervla Kirwan as Assumpta Fitzgerald (Series 1–3)

- Tony Doyle as Brian Quigley (Series 1–5)

- Birdy Sweeney as Eammon Byrne (Series 1–5)

- Peter Hanly as Ambrose Egan (Series 1–5)

- Bosco Hogan as Dr. Michael Ryan (Series 1–5)

- Peter Caffery as Padraig O'Kelly (Series 1–4)

- Don Wycherley as Aidan O'Connell (Series 4–5)

- Lorcan Cranitch as Sean Dillon (Series 4–5)

- Colin Farrell as Danny Byrne (Series 4–5)

- Kate McEnery as Emma Dillon (Series 4–5)

- Victoria Smurfit as Orla O'Connell (Series 4–5)

## Episodes

The programme ran for six series from 11 February 1996 to 15 April 2001. Almost all episodes were 50 minutes in duration.

### Series overview

## Home media

All six series have been released in Region 1, 2, and 4. In 2010, four years after the release of series 5, series 6 was released on Region 2, along with a box set of series 1–6.

The ninth episode of series 3, "The Waiting Game", was omitted from early Region 2 series 3 DVDs and all the Region 4 (Australian) DVD releases.This is not the case with the 2010 box set or any Region 1 (North America) sets, all of which contain this episode.

## International broadcasts

Repeats of the show were formerly aired every weekday on Virgin Media Three in Ireland. In the Netherlands and Flanders, ONS started broadcasting Ballykissangel in 2020.

## In other media

Father Peter Clifford and Assumpta Fitzgerald make a guest appearance in the 1996 Father Ted Christmas special " A Christmassy Ted ", where they appear in a dream Father Ted Crilly has.

In 1997, both Father Clifford and Assumpta Fitzgerald made guest appearances in a Comic Relief edition of The Vicar of Dibley entitled "Ballykissdibley", where the lead characters from both shows participated.


Spokane Transit Authority

# Spokane Transit Authority

## Abstract

Spokane Transit Authority, more commonly Spokane Transit or STA, is the public transport authority of central Spokane County, Washington, United States, serving Spokane, Washington, and its surrounding urban areas. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 9,215,700, or about 36,000 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2024.

Originally conceived in 1980, and authorized by voters on March 10, 1981, STA provides public transportation within the Spokane County Public Transportation Benefit Area (PBTA). As of 2023, STA's service area has a population of approximately 471,000 across 248 square miles (640 km) including the cities of Spokane, Spokane Valley, Cheney, Liberty Lake, Airway Heights, Medical Lake, the Town of Millwood, and unincorporated areas between and around those cities.

It began operating service in 1981 after acquiring the assets of the city-operated Spokane Transit System. The agency can trace its roots to a number of private transit operators extending back to 1888. While the 98th largest metropolitan area in the United States, Spokane ranks 20th in transit ridership per capita using 2019 ridership data.

## Services

Spokane Transit provides multiple services:

- Fixed Route Bus Service. Spokane Transit operates 51 bus routes throughout its service area on published schedules. Most routes run 365 days a year. Additionally, STA operates routes during major community events such as the Lilac Bloomsday Run, Hoopfest, and the Spokane County Fair & Expo.

- Paratransit. Pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Spokane Transit provides accessible transportation to persons with disabilities within 3 ⁄ 4 mile (1 km) of every fixed route.

- Rideshare. Previously Vanpool. A service which matches people traveling to or from similar locations and provides a publicly owned car or van at a fixed price per month.

### Fixed routes

Spokane Transit has 51 fixed routes operating year-round on published schedules. Routes are numbered to reflect service class by the number of digits as described in the table below. Key geography is reflected in the first digit of regular service, while numbering of target service with triple reflects key markets and underlying geography through the combination of digits. Routes have distinct weekday, Saturday and Sunday schedule patterns. Most national holidays operate on a Saturday schedule with New Year's day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas day operating on a Sunday schedule.

### Bus rapid transit

As of 2023, Spokane Transit has one bus rapid transit line within the region as part of its planned High Performance Transit network, with a second in development.

The first line, the City Line, began service in July 2023 and traverses from east–west through Downtown Spokane and the University District, running between the Browne's Addition neighborhood and the Spokane Community College Transit Center.

A second line, with a working project name of Division BRT, is currently in design and planned to run north–south through Spokane along Division Street, with a goal of starting construction in 2026 and commencing service between 2027 and 2029 dependent on the opening of the North Spokane Corridor.

## Passenger facilities and amenities

### Transit centers

Spokane Transit operates four transit centers as of June 2023:

- STA Plaza, in downtown Spokane

- Pence-Cole Valley Transit Center (VTC), in Spokane Valley

- Spokane Community College Transit Center, in Chief Garry Park in East Spokane

- West Plains Transit Center, near Four Lakes

### Park-and-ride lots

Spokane Transit operates a total of 14 park-and-ride facilities throughout its service area, several of which are operated through cooperative agreements with other property owners to allow parking access to transit services.

### Bus stops

At the end of 2022, Spokane Transit served 1,778 bus stops throughout its service area.

### Bicycle accommodation

All fixed routes have buses with racks that can fit three bikes on the exterior of the bus. Most park and ride lots feature bike lockers that can be rented on a monthly basis. The New Flyer Xcelsior 60' articulating electric buses implemented on the City Line accommodate bikes on board the bus via the rear doors.

## Fares and passes

### Fare structure

Fare structure as of May 2023:

As of October 2022, the standard fare costs $2.00 and permits the rider to board any route for a period of two hours from initial purchase or validation on the bus. On October 1, 2022, Spokane Transit inaugurated a new accounted-based fare collection system, known as the Connect fare system. The fare system includes online account management, a smart card known as the Connect card, and a mobile app, STA Connect. The new system caps fares collected on a daily and monthly basis and includes several discount programs. A "Rider's License" allows youth ages 6–18 to ride with zero fare. Traditional fareboxes remain on all fixed route coaches, allowing riders to pay with cash or older media as described below.

### Fare media

As of 2021, fares on Spokane Transit can be paid in cash, or with pre-paid passes and transfers programmed to magnetic stripe cards or RFID smart cards. The fare payment platform went live on December 4, 2006, after a three-day transition period with no fares collection while new fare boxes were installed. STA's prior system, while also accepting cash, utilized paper transfers and metal coin tokens.

STA launched the Connect Card with a companion eConnect app on October 1, 2022. The fare collection system, developed by INIT, can accept the Connect Card via NFC and the mobile eConnect app. The Connect Card and mobile eConnect app are linked to an online account-based fare management system. Users can reload balances via the app, at the STA Plaza, or partnered retail locations. The pass allows for fare-capping and allows users to lock the cards if a card is lost or stolen.

In July 2023, the system began accepting contactless payments including Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and digital wallets (Apple Pay and Google Pay) with onboard fare collection boxes as well as off-board fare validators and fare vending machines.

### Pass programs

Spokane Transit provides multiple fare instruments, including employee, youth, and college passes. Additionally, organizations may participate in the Universal Transit Access Pass (UTAP) program with a "utility charge" for each ride taken by eligible participants. Spokane Transit currently maintains UTAP contracts with Eastern Washington University, Washington State University Spokane, Community Colleges of Spokane, Whitworth University, Gonzaga University and the University of Washington School of Medicine in Spokane (via Gonzaga University); City of Spokane for employees and elected officials; and, Spokane County for employees and elected officials.

## Governance

Spokane Transit is governed by a board of directors which includes nine positions filled by elected officials who must be appointed by the municipal jurisdictions that form the agency, and one position appointed by the Board upon recommendation by the labor organizations representing the public transportation employees within the local public transportation system pursuant to state law.

Originally, the board consisted of 2 members from the City of Spokane, 2 members from the Spokane County Commission, 1 member from each of the Cities of Airway Heights, Cheney, Medical Lake, and the Town of Millwood, and one additional member alternately held by an official from the City of Spokane and Spokane County. The City of Liberty Lake was incorporated in August 2001, and the City of Spokane Valley was incorporated in March 2003, necessitating a change in board membership.

Currently the board consists of:

- City of Spokane, 3 members

- Spokane County, 2 members

- City of Spokane Valley, 2 members

- The small cities, 2 members (combined)

- Labor representative, 1 member (non-voting)

The board of directors is also advised by the following committees:

- Board Operations Committee

- Planning & Development Committee

- Performance Monitoring & External Relations Committee Citizens Advisory Board

- Citizens Advisory Board

The executive team for Spokane Transit Authority consists of the following positions:

- Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

- Chief Operations Officer (COO)

- Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

- Chief Planning and Development Officer

- Chief Human Resources Officer

- Chief Communication and Customer Service Officer

## Fixed route fleet

As of December 2022, Spokane Transit has 177 buses in its fleet. Included in the fleet are:

## History

### 1880s–1970s: Predecessors

Transit history in the Spokane area dates back more than 130 years beginning with the inaugural trip of a horse-drawn streetcar running between downtown Spokane and the Browne's Addition neighborhood to the west in 1888. The first electrically powered streetcar began operations November 1889 and traveled between downtown Spokane through what is now the University District. Over the next several decades, multiple private interests constructed and operated streetcars and cable cars typically as an integral part of a real estate development plan.

By 1896, the leading streetcar system was the Spokane Street Railway Company, with 23 miles of railway. Its network of lines was described as a "cartwheel" that emanated from a "hub" at the intersection of Riverside Avenue and Howard Street in downtown Spokane.

By 1910, streetcar lines were owned and operated by two competing companies: Washington Water Power and Spokane Traction Company. In addition to urban street railways, each company had interests in electric Interurban lines that stretched as far away as Moscow, Idaho. In that year, streetcar and interurban ridership peaked at 37.98 million rides.

The decade following 1910 was a time of intense competition for the streetcars, with growing automobile ownership and private jitneys that threatened the viability of a divided transit system. By the end of the decade, Spokane Traction Company fell into receivership and underwent reorganizations that were unsuccessful in returning the system to profitability. In 1922, Spokane citizens overwhelmingly voted to amend the city charter to reduce taxes and other special assessments imposed on streetcar operations and infrastructure, enabling the formation of a unified streetcar system featuring "universal transfers" between lines and empowering the company to convert some lines to trolleybuses on its own discretion. Following the successful measure, the Spokane United Railway Company was formed as a subsidiary to Washington Water Power (later, Avista Corporation), creating a unified electric streetcar system.

The street railway system was gradually phased out through the 1930s to make way for motorized coaches. Bus ridership reached a peak in the Spokane area in 1946 with 26 million passengers. The system was purchased by Spokane City Lines Company (part of National City Lines) in 1945, and later turned over to the City of Spokane in 1968. Upon acquisition by the city, funding for the system was derived from a $1 household tax.

### 1980s: Reorganization into regional system

In 1980, a municipal corporation was created to administer mass transit services for a new public transportation benefit area (PTBA). The new PTBA represented a shift in funding and operational model of Spokane Transit System from a city model to a regional model. Due to rapid inflation in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the flat $1 city tax on households that had funded Spokane Transit System was no longer keeping up with the rising costs of its era. The household tax model had another major disadvantage; because the tax depended on the quantity of households within the tax boundaries, its revenues would only increase with the construction of new households. Meanwhile, most residential growth was occurring outside Spokane city limits. Furthermore, the flat tax on households had been viewed by some as a very regressive tax.

An election was held on March 10, 1981, to determine the future of public transportation in the Spokane region. The election measure, which passed and was subsequently implemented the following month of April 1981, replaced the $1 tax on households within Spokane city limits with a 0.3% sales tax to be applied throughout the public transportation benefit area. The shift in the transit agency's funding and administrative model was not isolated to Spokane. Many other cities and regions in Washington state including the cities of Vancouver and Tacoma, as well as King County, Pierce County, Snohomish County, and Clark County had already shifted from a city household tax model to a county-wide transit system funded by sales tax.

In addition to adapting its funding model to reflect the current economic times, the shift to a regional model allowed the transit agency to heavily increase bus service to areas beyond Spokane city limits. Prior to the election, service outside city limits was limited, since no tax subsidies were collected outside the city limits.

The restructured system operated under three branches; Spokane Transit Authority for Regional Transportation (START) was the administrative body, the Spokane Transit System (STS) name remained for the fixed route bus operation, and Spokane Area Special Transportation Agency (SASTA) operated the paratransit services. The three names were unified about one and half years later in September 1982 under the Spokane Transit Authority name and brand. The name change officially took effect on September 23, 1982, after the START Board passed a resolution renaming the municipal corporation to Spokane Transit Authority.

In September 1989, Spokane Transit opened the Valley Transit Center, an off-street passenger facility located on 4th Avenue at University Road in Spokane Valley, featuring a large passenger island with covered seating. The facility included a park and ride lot among other amenities.

### 1990s

At the urging of the downtown business community, Spokane Transit built a transit center in 1995 to replace the historic Howard and Riverside hub which required that buses park along many downtown streets for passengers to make transfers. Not only was this uncomfortable for passengers, who were forced to wait for buses in the weather, but it also made the streetside businesses less accessible to customers. The bus center, known as "The Plaza" was constructed as an indoor urban park at a cost of approximately $20 million including property acquisition costs. With its high, daylight ceiling, imported Italian tile, and cougar statues leaping over a waterfall between the up- and down- escalators, it generated great controversy.

In September 1998, Spokane Transit implemented a major revision of the bus network, the largest change to the bus network in 17 years. Routes were consolidated to provide more frequency on busy corridors and all route numbers were revised, primarily according to geography.

In addition to the local sales tax, a major revenue source was Washington State's motor vehicle excise tax which provided matching funds. After statewide Initiative I-695 was passed in 1999, the legislature eliminated the matching funds even though the initiative was later found unconstitutional.

### 2000s

The period after the elimination of the motor vehicle excise tax was a time of unprecedented change for Spokane Transit. As its undesignated cash reserves balance fell, Spokane Transit attempted to increase its tax authority from 0.3% to 0.6% in September 2002, but it was rejected by voters 48% to 52%. Research following the failed ballot measure pointed to limited understanding of the agency's organizational structure, performance and financial conditions.

Spokane Transit created task force to study changes that could be made to regain the support of the community, while simultaneously preparing for a potential 40% service decrease. After increased public participation, and 69% voter approval, Spokane Transit increased the sales tax from 0.3% to 0.6% in October 2004, subject to a sunset of the tax in 2009. In May 2008, voters reauthorized the additional 0.3% sales tax with no sunset clause, with nearly 69% in favor.

SRTC and STA jointly created the Light Rail Steering Committee (LRSC) in early 2000 which was responsible for studying the creation of a light rail corridor from Downtown Spokane to Liberty Lake. This effort was preceded by significant study by the SRTC. In 2006 the committee published a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) which evaluated several rail and bus alternatives for the corridor. The committee stated preference for a single-track rail corridor using diesel multiple units (DMU) that would cost less than half the conventional light rail system. The travel demand modeling performed as part of the DEIS forecast less than 3,500 daily boardings on the 15.5-mile system in 2025. An advisory vote in 2006 elicited a negative response to continued planning and investment in the light rail project.

In 2008, transit consultants Nelson-Nygaard Associates recommended changes to transit operations downtown while retaining the use of the Plaza transfer facility.

### 2010s

Spokane Transit adopted a new comprehensive plan, Connect Spokane, in June 2010, to guide system planning and growth. The plan calls for a network of high performance transit with frequent service connecting key neighborhoods and activity centers throughout the region.

In response to a significant decline in sales tax revenue resulting from the Great Recession, Spokane Transit undertook service reductions in 2010 and 2011. Despite the cuts, ridership increased, reaching an all-time high for Spokane Transit Authority in 2014, with 11.3 million passengers on its fixed route system.

In 2016, voters approved an increase in the sale tax dedicated to public transit to implement the STA Moving Forward plan. The plan called for more and better service, new connection facilities, include new transit centers and stations, and investments in six high performance transit lines.

In 2018, Spokane Transit opened the West Plains Transit Center, an investment of the STA Moving Forward plan. The addition of the transit center allows passengers between the cities of Cheney, Medical Lake and Airway Heights to travel between those cities without transferring in Spokane at the STA Plaza. As part of the 2018 changes, STA also increased frequency on service to the West Central neighborhood, introduced larger buses on North Division Street and introduced a new express route to the Valley Transit Center.

### 2020s

Like public transport agencies across the globe, STA was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Fixed route ridership dropped from 9.97 million passenger boardings in 2019 to 5.24 million passenger boardings in 2021. STA's ridership began to recover in 2022, with May 2022 experiencing a year-over-year increase of 29.6% on fixed route, 38.7% on Paratransit and 37.0% increase on Vanpool. In October 2022, STA launched a new fare collection system which allows for mobile payments in addition to previous payment methods, as well as introduced fare capping.

In July 2023, STA launched City Line, the organization's first bus rapid transit line.

## Planned developments

Spokane Transit participates in regional transportation and land use planning activities. It is a member jurisdiction of the Spokane Regional Transportation Council (SRTC), and sends a member of its board to serve on SRTC's board.

### High Performance Transit Network

In 2010, STA developed a preliminary proposal for what it calls a "High Performance Transit Network" (HPTN) comprising 14 corridors of premium all-day frequent transit service. The preliminary proposal does not specify the operating modes for each corridor but suggests that the corridors will operate at a speed appropriate to the access provided and urban characteristics of the operating environment. The HPTN vision is an element of the agency's proposed comprehensive plan, referred to as "Connect Spokane".

Also in 2010, STA and the City of Spokane initiated an alternatives analysis to study transit improvements in and around the downtown core. This "central city transit alternatives analysis" considered "High Performance Transit" improvements that can be made to increase mobility and stimulate in-fill development. The locally preferred alternative was adopted in July 2011, calling for an east–west alignment for an electric, rubber-tired vehicle, and was dubbed the Central City Line.

In 2016, the central city transit plan took the form as the Central City Line project, later named the City Line, a bus rapid transit line that began service in 2023. It is the first phase of a number of high performance transit lines in Spokane and is the region's first bus rapid transit corridor.

The future Division Street BRT, running from downtown Spokane to unincorporated Mead, WA, would be the second BRT corridor in the region. In March 2022, the Washington State Legislature passed a 16-year transportation program, programming funding for various projects and initiatives, with an emphasis on moving people in cleaner, more efficient ways. The program included $50 million to Division Street bus rapid transit.


List of films with post-credits scenes

# List of films with post-credits scenes

## Abstract

Many films since the 1980s and earlier have featured mid- and post-credits scenes, also known as credit cookies. Such scenes often include comedic gags, plot revelations, outtakes, and/or hints about sequels.