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Man of the Year (2006 film)
Encyclopedia
Man of the Year is a 2006 Comedy film directed and written by Barry Levinson
and starring Robin Williams
in the lead role. In addition to Williams, the film features Christopher Walken
, Laura Linney
, Lewis Black
and Jeff Goldblum
.
In the film, Williams portrays Tom Dobbs, the host of a comedy/political talk show, based loosely on the real-life persona of Jon Stewart
. With an offhand remark, he prompts 4 million people to e-mail their support, then he decides to campaign for President
.
The film was released October 13, 2006 and was filmed in Toronto and Hamilton, Canada and parts of Washington, D.C..
), a comedian and host of a satirical talk show who is able to tap into people's frustrations with the sharply divided, special-interest driven political climate. In specific, he makes fun of the American Two-party system
. During his warm-up act, an audience member suggests that he run for President. At first, Dobbs laughs off the idea, but following a popular groundswell of support, later announces on the air that he will stand as a candidate. Through his efforts, he gets on the ballot in 13 states and participates in one of the national debates with the Democratic incumbent President Kellogg and Republican U.S. Senator Mills.
A parallel plot follows Eleanor Green (Laura Linney
), who works at a voting machine company called Delacroy. According to a television commercial in the movie, the entire United States will be using Delacroy voting machines for the Presidential election. Shortly before the elections, Eleanor notices an error in the voting system, but the head of the company, James Hemmings purposefully ignores her warnings. Initially, Dobbs approaches the campaign seriously - perhaps too seriously, to the chagrin of his staff, especially his manager Jack Menken (Christopher Walken
). That turns around the night of the Presidential debates, where, fed up with the posturing of the other candidates, he shifts back into comedian mode, managing to keep the audience laughing and make serious points simultaneously. From then on, he resumes his showman persona, thoroughly shaking up the political landscape. Dobbs surges in polls after the debates, but remains in a distant third to Kellogg and Mills.
Election Day arrives and polls show Dobbs at 17% with Kellogg and Mills tied in the 40s. Dobbs performs better than expected, although not well enough to be close to either of the two major candidates. Early returns show Kellogg beating Mills everywhere. Eleanor says that this is part of the error in the voting systems. Then all of a sudden, Dobbs starts winning states. He first wins Virginia, then North Carolina and then big states such as California, New York and Texas. He now stands at 146 electoral votes and the news states if he wins the remaining states he is on the ballot in, he will become President. Soon afterwards, results show that Tom Dobbs has indeed won the race for President, beating out Kellogg and Mills. Dobbs is extremely shocked - like the rest of the world. While Dobbs and his crew move from shock to celebration, Eleanor remains unconvinced. She considers revealing the computer error to the public, but is attacked in her home by Delacroy Agents and injected with a cocktail of drugs. Upon going to work, her behavior is erratic in the extreme and she is hospitalized for drug abuse. The company uses this as a pretext to fire her. Upon recovering in the hospital, she realizes that very few people would believe her story, but decides that if nothing else, she must tell Dobbs.
Though still suffering from the aftereffects of the drugs in her system, Eleanor eventually makes her way to Jack Menken's birthday party. There, she unconvincingly impersonates an FBI Agent but manages to catch Dobbs' eye, the two dance through the evening and Dobbs gives her his telephone number. Eleanor cannot bring herself to tell Dobbs that he is not really the President-Elect
. Later, Dobbs tries to get back in contact with Eleanor by calling Delacroy. This immediately raises the suspicions of the Delacroy leaders and they redouble their efforts to silence Eleanor. Eleanor calls Dobbs and he whisks her off to a paintball fight, followed by Thanksgiving dinner. At dinner, she finally gets him alone to tell him that the elections were a fraud, then leaves. Dobbs wrestles with the idea that he should not have been elected as President and finally decides to break Eleanor's news to the public in a major speech. However, Delacroy pre-empts his announcement with one of their own, stating that Eleanor was caught attempting to throw the election for Dobbs, but that her efforts had no impact on the polls. Eleanor becomes increasingly fearful for her safety, a feeling that is soon justified as Agents break into the hotel room where she is staying to confiscate her computer, the only evidence she had.
Desperate, Eleanor first flees to a mall, where she is found by a Delacroy Agent but escapes. She then drives to find a pay phone so that she can call Dobbs for help. She manages to reach him but is not able to communicate anything before the Delacroy Agent's truck crashes into the phone booth on purpose; she escapes just before the collision but is still injured and is hospitalized a second time. Dobbs goes to the scene and though he cannot understand what she is trying to say, he is convinced that she was telling the truth about the election. During the Weekend Update section of the sketch comedy TV show Saturday Night Live
, he finally announces to the public that the elections were flawed and that he should not be President. Dobbs declines to accept victory in a phony election and another election is held in which Dobbs chooses not to participate. President Kellogg wins another term, though, perhaps chastened by the Dobbs phenomenon, is much more sensitive to the populace as a whole rather than the special interests and Dobbs returns to his career as a talk-show host, with Eleanor at his side as his producer and wife. The executives of Delacroy were convicted of fraud. The last seconds of the film shows a mock Time magazine
Person of the Year
cover with Dobbs chosen as Person of the Year.
Appearing as themselves
originally considered Howard Stern
for the role of Tom Dobbs. However, scheduling conflicts prevented Stern from taking on the part.
giving a rating of 20%. It debuted at #3 at the box office its opening weekend, with a theatrical gross of $12,550,000. Most of the critics noted the abrupt change in tone from comedy to conspiracy film. Many critics rated the entire movie negatively, calling the early humor of the film uninspired and less biting than that of the real-life television comedians Dobbs was modeled after (such as Jon Stewart
and Stephen Colbert
); others argued that the early political humor of the film was both funny and on-target, but argued that the change in tone to a conspiracy film damaged its effectiveness, and many criticized the love story aspect between Williams and Linney. Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com
wrote, "It's a comedy, a political thriller, a love story: Barry Levinson's Man of the Year tries to be all things to all people and fails on every count — a little like the generic, ineffectual politicians it's pretending to excoriate".
James Berardinelli of Reelviews.net felt it "makes telling points and has a lot to say, but it loses its voice along with its consistency around the mid-way point". Josh Larsen of the Sun Publications line of newspapers asked straight out, "What is it about Robin Williams that he often appears in these wild misfires, pictures that are so full of promise yet so disastrous in execution?" Frank Lovece
of Film Journal International
placed the well-regarded Levinson's challenge and failure within a larger context: "If satire is what dies on a Saturday night, then political-satire movies are what die on Fridays. Maybe we're used to the TV topicality of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
or Real Time with Bill Maher
, whereas movies are months in the making, turning their current events into history. Yet successful satire needn't be topical - witness Network
, Election
, Dr. Strangelove - because some verities are timeless. Since when, after all, hasn't there been a populist saying, 'Throw the rascals out'?"
Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...
and starring Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
in the lead role. In addition to Williams, the film features Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
, Laura Linney
Laura Linney
Laura Leggett Linney is an American actress of film, television, and theatre. Linney has won three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has been nominated for three times for an Academy Award and once for a BAFTA Award...
, Lewis Black
Lewis Black
Lewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena...
and Jeff Goldblum
Jeff Goldblum
Jeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum is an American actor. His career began in the mid-1970s and he has appeared in major box-office successes including The Fly, Jurassic Park and its sequel Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and Independence Day...
.
In the film, Williams portrays Tom Dobbs, the host of a comedy/political talk show, based loosely on the real-life persona of Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
. With an offhand remark, he prompts 4 million people to e-mail their support, then he decides to campaign for President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
.
The film was released October 13, 2006 and was filmed in Toronto and Hamilton, Canada and parts of Washington, D.C..
Plot
The story opens with Tom Dobbs (Robin WilliamsRobin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
), a comedian and host of a satirical talk show who is able to tap into people's frustrations with the sharply divided, special-interest driven political climate. In specific, he makes fun of the American Two-party system
Two-party system
A two-party system is a system where two major political parties dominate voting in nearly all elections at every level of government and, as a result, all or nearly all elected offices are members of one of the two major parties...
. During his warm-up act, an audience member suggests that he run for President. At first, Dobbs laughs off the idea, but following a popular groundswell of support, later announces on the air that he will stand as a candidate. Through his efforts, he gets on the ballot in 13 states and participates in one of the national debates with the Democratic incumbent President Kellogg and Republican U.S. Senator Mills.
A parallel plot follows Eleanor Green (Laura Linney
Laura Linney
Laura Leggett Linney is an American actress of film, television, and theatre. Linney has won three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has been nominated for three times for an Academy Award and once for a BAFTA Award...
), who works at a voting machine company called Delacroy. According to a television commercial in the movie, the entire United States will be using Delacroy voting machines for the Presidential election. Shortly before the elections, Eleanor notices an error in the voting system, but the head of the company, James Hemmings purposefully ignores her warnings. Initially, Dobbs approaches the campaign seriously - perhaps too seriously, to the chagrin of his staff, especially his manager Jack Menken (Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
). That turns around the night of the Presidential debates, where, fed up with the posturing of the other candidates, he shifts back into comedian mode, managing to keep the audience laughing and make serious points simultaneously. From then on, he resumes his showman persona, thoroughly shaking up the political landscape. Dobbs surges in polls after the debates, but remains in a distant third to Kellogg and Mills.
Election Day arrives and polls show Dobbs at 17% with Kellogg and Mills tied in the 40s. Dobbs performs better than expected, although not well enough to be close to either of the two major candidates. Early returns show Kellogg beating Mills everywhere. Eleanor says that this is part of the error in the voting systems. Then all of a sudden, Dobbs starts winning states. He first wins Virginia, then North Carolina and then big states such as California, New York and Texas. He now stands at 146 electoral votes and the news states if he wins the remaining states he is on the ballot in, he will become President. Soon afterwards, results show that Tom Dobbs has indeed won the race for President, beating out Kellogg and Mills. Dobbs is extremely shocked - like the rest of the world. While Dobbs and his crew move from shock to celebration, Eleanor remains unconvinced. She considers revealing the computer error to the public, but is attacked in her home by Delacroy Agents and injected with a cocktail of drugs. Upon going to work, her behavior is erratic in the extreme and she is hospitalized for drug abuse. The company uses this as a pretext to fire her. Upon recovering in the hospital, she realizes that very few people would believe her story, but decides that if nothing else, she must tell Dobbs.
Though still suffering from the aftereffects of the drugs in her system, Eleanor eventually makes her way to Jack Menken's birthday party. There, she unconvincingly impersonates an FBI Agent but manages to catch Dobbs' eye, the two dance through the evening and Dobbs gives her his telephone number. Eleanor cannot bring herself to tell Dobbs that he is not really the President-Elect
President-elect
An -elect is a political candidate who has been elected to an office but who has not yet been sworn in or officially taken office. These may include an incoming president, senator, representative, governor and mayor.Analogously, the term "designate" An -elect is a political candidate who has been...
. Later, Dobbs tries to get back in contact with Eleanor by calling Delacroy. This immediately raises the suspicions of the Delacroy leaders and they redouble their efforts to silence Eleanor. Eleanor calls Dobbs and he whisks her off to a paintball fight, followed by Thanksgiving dinner. At dinner, she finally gets him alone to tell him that the elections were a fraud, then leaves. Dobbs wrestles with the idea that he should not have been elected as President and finally decides to break Eleanor's news to the public in a major speech. However, Delacroy pre-empts his announcement with one of their own, stating that Eleanor was caught attempting to throw the election for Dobbs, but that her efforts had no impact on the polls. Eleanor becomes increasingly fearful for her safety, a feeling that is soon justified as Agents break into the hotel room where she is staying to confiscate her computer, the only evidence she had.
Desperate, Eleanor first flees to a mall, where she is found by a Delacroy Agent but escapes. She then drives to find a pay phone so that she can call Dobbs for help. She manages to reach him but is not able to communicate anything before the Delacroy Agent's truck crashes into the phone booth on purpose; she escapes just before the collision but is still injured and is hospitalized a second time. Dobbs goes to the scene and though he cannot understand what she is trying to say, he is convinced that she was telling the truth about the election. During the Weekend Update section of the sketch comedy TV show Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, he finally announces to the public that the elections were flawed and that he should not be President. Dobbs declines to accept victory in a phony election and another election is held in which Dobbs chooses not to participate. President Kellogg wins another term, though, perhaps chastened by the Dobbs phenomenon, is much more sensitive to the populace as a whole rather than the special interests and Dobbs returns to his career as a talk-show host, with Eleanor at his side as his producer and wife. The executives of Delacroy were convicted of fraud. The last seconds of the film shows a mock Time magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
Person of the Year
Person of the Year
Person of the Year is an annual issue of the United States newsmagazine Time that features and profiles a person, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year."- History :The tradition of selecting a Man of the Year...
cover with Dobbs chosen as Person of the Year.
Cast
- Robin WilliamsRobin WilliamsRobin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
as Tom Dobbs - Christopher WalkenChristopher WalkenChristopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
as Jack Menken - Laura LinneyLaura LinneyLaura Leggett Linney is an American actress of film, television, and theatre. Linney has won three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has been nominated for three times for an Academy Award and once for a BAFTA Award...
as Eleanor Green - Lewis BlackLewis BlackLewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena...
as Eddie Langston - Jeff GoldblumJeff GoldblumJeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum is an American actor. His career began in the mid-1970s and he has appeared in major box-office successes including The Fly, Jurassic Park and its sequel Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and Independence Day...
as Stewart - David AlpayDavid AlpayDavid Alpay is a Canadian actor.-Education:Alpay had planned to pursue a career in neuroscience when he was studying at Earl Haig Secondary School in North York, Ontario. He even went so far as to win the University of Maryland, Baltimore's Brain Bee in grade 12...
as Danny - Faith DanielsFaith DanielsFaith Daniels became nationally known for her role in anchoring some of America's most popular news and talk show programs....
as Moderator - Rick RobertsRick Roberts (actor)Rick Roberts is a Canadian actor. His most substantial role to date is as Donald D'Arby in the series Traders, for which he was nominated for a Gemini Award. He played Elizabeth Berkley's husband in the Lifetime made-for-television movie Student Seduction. Roberts has also appeared in L.A...
as James Hemmings - Karen HinesKaren HinesKaren Hines is a Canadian actress, writer and director. She is the artistic director and producer of "Keep Frozen: Pochsy Productions."Hines has appeared in several television series, including many of Ken Finkleman's satires such as The Newsroom, Foreign Objects, and Married Life for which she was...
as Alison McAndrews - Linda KashLinda KashLinda Kash is a Canadian actress.An alumna of Second City, she played Trudy Weissman in the 1998 Jean Smart sit-com, Style & Substance...
as Jenny Adams - Jacqueline PillonJacqueline PillonJacqueline Patricia Pillon is a Canadian actress. She is best known as the voice of Matt from Cyberchase.- Early life :...
as Security Tech
Appearing as themselves
- Tina FeyTina FeyElizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer, known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live , the NBC comedy series 30 Rock, and films such as Mean Girls and Baby Mama .Fey first broke into comedy as a featured player in the...
- Amy PoehlerAmy PoehlerAmy Meredith Poehler is an American comedian, actress and voice actress. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls with Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is...
- Chris MatthewsChris MatthewsChristopher John "Chris" Matthews is an American news anchor and political commentator, known for his nightly hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which is televised on the American cable television channel MSNBC...
- James CarvilleJames CarvilleChester James Carville, Jr. is an American political consultant, commentator, educator, actor, attorney, media personality, and prominent liberal pundit. Carville gained national attention for his work as the lead strategist of the successful presidential campaign of then-Arkansas governor Bill...
Casting
Director Barry LevinsonBarry Levinson
Barry Levinson is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, and producer of film and television. His films include Good Morning, Vietnam, Sleepers and Rain Man.-Early life:...
originally considered Howard Stern
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
for the role of Tom Dobbs. However, scheduling conflicts prevented Stern from taking on the part.
Reception
Man of the Year received mostly negative reviews, with the critics' aggregate site Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
giving a rating of 20%. It debuted at #3 at the box office its opening weekend, with a theatrical gross of $12,550,000. Most of the critics noted the abrupt change in tone from comedy to conspiracy film. Many critics rated the entire movie negatively, calling the early humor of the film uninspired and less biting than that of the real-life television comedians Dobbs was modeled after (such as Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
and Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
); others argued that the early political humor of the film was both funny and on-target, but argued that the change in tone to a conspiracy film damaged its effectiveness, and many criticized the love story aspect between Williams and Linney. Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
wrote, "It's a comedy, a political thriller, a love story: Barry Levinson's Man of the Year tries to be all things to all people and fails on every count — a little like the generic, ineffectual politicians it's pretending to excoriate".
James Berardinelli of Reelviews.net felt it "makes telling points and has a lot to say, but it loses its voice along with its consistency around the mid-way point". Josh Larsen of the Sun Publications line of newspapers asked straight out, "What is it about Robin Williams that he often appears in these wild misfires, pictures that are so full of promise yet so disastrous in execution?" Frank Lovece
Frank Lovece
Frank Lovece is an American journalist, author, comedy performer and comic book writer. He was additionally one of the first professional Web journalists, becoming an editor of a Silicon Alley start-up in 1996....
of Film Journal International
Film Journal International
Film Journal International is a motion-picture industry trade magazine published by the American company Prometheus Global Media. It is a sister publication of Adweek, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and other periodicals....
placed the well-regarded Levinson's challenge and failure within a larger context: "If satire is what dies on a Saturday night, then political-satire movies are what die on Fridays. Maybe we're used to the TV topicality of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
or Real Time with Bill Maher
Real Time with Bill Maher
Real Time with Bill Maher is a talk show that airs weekly on HBO, hosted by comedian and political satirist Bill Maher. Much like his previous show, Politically Incorrect on ABC , Real Time features a panel of guests that discuss current events in politics and the media...
, whereas movies are months in the making, turning their current events into history. Yet successful satire needn't be topical - witness Network
Network (film)
Network is a 1976 American satirical film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer about a fictional television network, Union Broadcasting System , and its struggle with poor ratings. The film was written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet...
, Election
Election (1999 film)
Election is a 1999 American comedy film adapted from a 1998 novel of the same title by Tom Perrotta. The plot revolves around a three-way election race in high school, and satirizes both suburban high school life and politics...
, Dr. Strangelove - because some verities are timeless. Since when, after all, hasn't there been a populist saying, 'Throw the rascals out'?"
See also
- Head of StateHead of State (film)Head of State is a 2003 comedy film directed, written by, and starring Chris Rock and also co-starring Bernie Mac. The film's title refers to that function of the President of the United States, the other two functions being head of government and commander in chief.-Plot:Mays Gilliam is an...
, a 2003 Chris RockChris RockChristopher Julius "Chris" Rock III is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer and director. He was voted in the US as the 5th greatest stand-up comedian of all time by Comedy Central...
film of the same kind - Pat PaulsenPat PaulsenPatrick Layton "Pat" Paulsen was an American comedian and satirist notable for his roles on several of the Smothers Brothers TV shows, and for his campaigns for President of the United States in 1968, 1972, 1980, 1988, 1992, and 1996, which had primarily comedic rather than political objectives,...
- Stephen Colbert presidential campaign, 2008Stephen Colbert presidential campaign, 2008On October 16, 2007, satirist Stephen Colbert officially announced that he would run for President of the United States. This came after weeks of being pressured to do so by the public and stating that he would need a sign, which came from Aragorn giving him the sword Anduril...