The former CIA counterterrorism officer John Kiriakou looks at counterterrorism scenes in movies and TV and breaks them down for realism.

Kiriakou explains the counterterrorism efforts done to directly address the September 11 attacks — commonly known as 9/11 — such as the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, which ultimately led to his killing, in "Zero Dark Thirty," featuring Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, and Chris Pratt; and the CIA's interrogation techniques — such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation — to detainees, such as the Al-Qaeda members Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in "The Report," starring Adam Driver. He breaks down the plausibility of weapons used by terrorists, such as the use of weapons of mass destruction, particularly nerve agents, in "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation," with Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg; and the cyberterrorism attack in "Skyfall," featuring Daniel Craig and Judi Dench. Kiriakou looks at more counterterrorism strategies, such as the drone attack in "Homeland" S4E1 (2014), starring Claire Danes; and the collaboration of intelligence agencies in "Body of Lies," featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crow, and Oscar Isaac. He also reacts to the depiction of other real-life terrorist attacks, such as the 2008 Mumbai attacks in "Hotel Mumbai," starring Dev Patel; the Munich Massacre, which involved the Palestinian militant organization Black September, in "Munich," with Daniel Craig and Eric Bana; and the depiction of the hijacking of the Indian Airlines Flight 814, which landed in Kandahar International Airport in Afghanistan — then a stronghold of the Taliban — in "IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack" E5 + E6 (2024).

Before 9/11, Kiriakou served as a counterterrorism operations officer in Athens, Greece; and after the 9/11 attacks, Kiriakou was appointed chief of counterterrorist operations in Pakistan, where he oversaw a series of military raids on Al-Qaeda safe houses, resulting in the capture of numerous Al-Qaeda members, including leading the raid that captured Abu Zubaydah — who was then believed to be Al-Qaeda's third-highest-ranking member. He left the CIA in 2004, and in 2007, he went public with his information about the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques," a program of systematic torture of detainees. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison, where he pleaded guilty to a charge of revealing information that identified a covert agent. He went on to become a senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a terrorism consultant for ABC News. He has written various books and teaches and speaks around the country, focusing on the CIA, terrorism, torture, and ethics in intelligence operations.

You can follow Kiriakou on LinkedIn:

Here is a link to Kiriakou's books.

Firearms expert Patrick McNamara rates gun technique in movies.

McNamara talks about recovering ammo on the battlefield in "John Wick: Chapter 2," starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and Common. He explains how to handle different types of machine guns in "Rambo: First Blood Part II," starring Sylvester Stallone; and "Pulp Fiction," starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, and Bruce Willis. He critiques James Bond's shooting form in "Die Another Day," starring Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry and Judi Dench; and "No Time to Die," starring Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, and Ana de Armas. He breaks down how to fire at a moving target in "Deadpool," starring Ryan Reynolds. He discusses firing two guns at once in "The Bourne Identity," starring Matt Damon and Clive Owen. He describes shooting range exercises in "S.W.A.T.," starring Colin Farrell, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jeremy Renner; and "Lethal Weapon," starring Danny Glover and Mel Gibson. He looks at shooting in dark environments in "Sicario," starring Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, and Benicio del Toro. He analyzes the reload techniques displayed in "Scarface," starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. He walks us through different sniper positions in "Mad Max: Fury Road," starring Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, and Nicholas Hoult. Finally, he deconstructs Tom Cruise's shooting stance in "Collateral," also starring Jamie Foxx and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Patrick McNamara served for 22 years in Army special operations forces. He is president of TMACS, where he trains people in tactical marksmanship.

You can learn more about safe gun-handling techniques from Patrick here:

https://www.youtube.com/@patmcnamara

https://www.tmacsinc.com/

• The surreal ending of Luca Guadagnino's "Queer" may stump some fans.
• The film is based on William S. Burroughs' incomplete novel of the same name.
• The surreal ending is partly based on Burrough's life.

Director Luca Guadagnino's new erotic drama, "Queer," attempts to provide an ending to the unfinished classic 20th-century William S. Boroughs novel of the same name.

"Queer" — Guadagnino's second movie of the year following the hyped tennis drama "Challengers," his highest-grossing film yet — is based on a semi-autobiographical novel that Burroughs started writing in the 1950s. He published it unfinished in 1985.

The film and book are based on Burroughs' experience living with a heroin addiction in Mexico City in the 1940s and 1950s.

"Queer" tells the story of two lovers trying to find a hallucinogenic drug.

Both the novel and movie adaptation of "Queer" follow two protagonists and have a similar plot.

The insecure William Lee (Daniel Craig) becomes infatuated with and tries to charm Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey), a young expat whom he meets in Mexico City.

Allerton is based on Burroughs's real-life love interest, Adelbert Lewis Marker: their relationship ended in heartbreak for the writer.

Allerton is sexually curious but not wholly interested in Lee. They journey together through South America to find a drug called Yage (ayahuasca) in the hope it will give Lee telepathic powers.

They don't find Yage in the book, but the movie takes a different approach.

When Lee and Allerton reach Dr. Cotter (Lesley Manville), a Yage expert, they persuade her to let them try it, leading to hallucinogenic scenes where Lee and Allerton's body fuse together.

Critics have described these scenes as "trippy" and "body-horror-surreal."

The pair achieve telepathy after taking the drug, and Allerton tells Lee, "I'm not queer. I'm disembodied," making it clear that there is no future for their relationship.

Guadagnino told Variety in September he enlisted the help of Justin Kuritzkes, the screenwriter for "Challengers," to write the script for "Queer," including the ending.

"Justin can be more precise about this, but I remember that we said, 'What is unfinished, we want to try to finish,'" Guadagnino said. "And in doing that, we have to understand why it was unfinished and how Burroughs would have finished it."

Guadagnino said the pair also spoke to Oliver Harris, a leading expert on Burroughs' life and a professor of American literature at Keele University, UK.

According to the film's production notes, the phrase "I'm not queer. I'm disembodied" came from Burroughs' journals, and reflects his unease about identifying as gay.

The final section of the movie is based on the novel's epilogue

The final part of the film is set two years after the trip to the jungle, and shows Lee's return to Mexico City.

This is based on the novel's epilogue, where Lee searches for Allerton, discovers he has left Mexico City, and dreams about him.

Instead of a dream, the movie enters another hallucinogenic, surreal sequence, where Lee sees himself in a doll house. In the following scene, Lee and Allerton are in a room, and Allerton places a glass on his head.

Lee shoots at the glass with a gun, but hits Allerton's forehead instead. There is no blood, and Allerton soon disappears.

This scene may be based on Burroughs accidentally shooting and killing his wife Joan Vollmer while they lived in Mexico City, which he wrote about in the 1985 introduction to "Queer."

"I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan's death, and to a realization of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing," he wrote.

Per Burroughs' biography, he used a glass on her head as a target, in a similar fashion to the scene in "Queer," to prove he was good at shooting, but hit her forehead. Burroughs was convicted of murder and given a two-year suspended sentence.

The film's final scene shows Lee back at his apartment, old and dying. Lee imagines Allerton appearing in his bed, draping a leg over his.

Guadagnino told Entertainment Weekly that this scene is meant to show Lee's lasting and "profound" connection with Allerton.

He said: "The task that we gave ourselves was always to make this a very romantic movie and a testament to this romanticism between Lee and Allerton, no matter how much they are in sync or not throughout this story of their encounter."