Thor

In Norse mythology, Thor (/θɔːr/; from Old Norse Þórr) is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing and fertility. The cognate deity in wider Germanic mythology and paganism was known in Old English as Þunor and in Old High German as Donar (runic þonar ᚦᛟᚾᚨᚱ), stemming from a Common Germanic *Þunraz (meaning "thunder").

Ultimately stemming from Proto-Indo-European religion, Thor is a prominently mentioned god throughout the recorded history of the Germanic peoples, from the Roman occupation of regions of Germania, to the tribal expansions of the Migration Period, to his high popularity during the Viking Age, when, in the face of the process of the Christianization of Scandinavia, emblems of his hammer, Mjölnir, were worn in defiance and Norse pagan personal names containing the name of the god bear witness to his popularity. Into the modern period, Thor continued to be acknowledged in rural folklore throughout Germanic regions. Thor is frequently referred to in place names, the day of the week Thursday ("Thor's day"; Old English Thunresdæg, Thunor's day; German "Donnerstag" Donar's day; Dutch "donderdag") bears his name, and names stemming from the pagan period containing his own continue to be used today.

Chris Hemsworth

Chris Hemsworth (born 11 August 1983) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as Kim Hyde in the Australian TV series Home and Away (2004) and as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). He has also appeared in the science fiction action film Star Trek (2009), the thriller adventure A Perfect Getaway (2009), the horror comedy The Cabin in the Woods (2012), the dark fantasy action film Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), the war film Red Dawn (2012) and the biographical sports drama film Rush (2013).

Also in 2015, Hemsworth starred in the action thriller film Blackhat, had a comedic role in the fifth installment of National Lampoon's Vacation series, Vacation, and headlined the biographical thriller film In the Heart of the Sea.

Early life

Hemsworth was born in Melbourne, to Leonie, an English teacher, and Craig Hemsworth, a social-services counsellor. He was raised both in Melbourne and in the Australian Outback in Bulman, Northern Territory. He has stated, "My earliest memories were on the cattle stations up in the Outback, and then we moved back to Melbourne and then back out there and then back again. Certainly most of my childhood was in Melbourne but probably my most vivid memories were up there in Bulman with crocodiles and buffalo. Very different walks of life." He attended high school at Heathmont College before his family again returned to the Northern Territory, and then moved a few years later to Phillip Island. He is the middle of three boys; his brothers Luke (older) and Liam (younger) are also actors.

Superhero Movie

Superhero Movie is a 2008 American comedy spoof film written and directed by Craig Mazin, produced by David Zucker and Robert K. Weiss, and starring Drake Bell, Sara Paxton, Christopher McDonald, and Leslie Nielsen. It was originally titled Superhero! as a nod to one of David and Jerry Zucker's previous films Airplane!.

Superhero Movie is a spoof of the superhero film genre, mainly the first Spider-Man, as well as other modern-day Marvel Comics film adaptations. The film follows in the footsteps of the Scary Movie series of comedies, with which the film's poster shares a resemblance. It was also inspired by, and contains homages to, some of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker's earlier spoof films such as Airplane! and The Naked Gun.

Production began on September 17, 2007, in New York. It was released on March 28, 2008 in the United States, and the UK release was June 6, 2008, and received $9,000,000 on its opening weekend and was #3 at the box office.

Plot

Rick Riker (Drake Bell) is an unpopular student at Empire High School. He lives with his Uncle Albert (Leslie Nielsen) and Aunt Lucille (Marion Ross), and his best friend, Trey (Kevin Hart), is also his confident. Rick has a crush on Jill Johnson (Sara Paxton), but she is dating bully Lance Landers (Ryan Hansen). One day, Rick and his class go on a school field trip at an animal research lab that is run by terminally ill businessman Lou Landers (Christopher McDonald), who is Lance's uncle. During the trip, Rick accidentally saturates himself in animal-attraction liquid, which causes a group of animals to hump him. This also leads a chemically enhanced radioactive dragonfly to fly onto Rick's neck and bite him.

Evolution

Evolution is change in the heritable traits of biological populations over successive generations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including the levels of species, individual organisms, and molecules.

All life on Earth shares a common ancestor known as the last universal ancestor, which lived approximately 3.5–3.8 billion years ago, although a study in 2015 found "remains of biotic life" from 4.1 billion years ago in ancient rocks in Western Australia. According to one of the researchers, "If life arose relatively quickly on Earth ... then it could be common in the universe."

Repeated formation of new species (speciation), change within species (anagenesis), and loss of species (extinction) throughout the evolutionary history of life on Earth are demonstrated by shared sets of morphological and biochemical traits, including shared DNA sequences. These shared traits are more similar among species that share a more recent common ancestor, and can be used to reconstruct a biological "tree of life" based on evolutionary relationships (phylogenetics), using both existing species and fossils. The fossil record includes a progression from early biogenic graphite, to microbial mat fossils, to fossilized multicellular organisms. Existing patterns of biodiversity have been shaped both by speciation and by extinction. More than 99 percent of all species that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates of Earth's current species range from 10 to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented.

Thor: The Dark World

Thor: The Dark World is a 2013 American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Thor, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2011's Thor and the eighth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was directed by Alan Taylor, with a screenplay by Christopher Yost and Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely. It stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, and Rene Russo. In Thor: The Dark World, Thor teams up with Loki to save the Nine Realms from the Dark Elves led by the vengeful Malekith, who intends to plunge the universe into darkness.

Development of Thor: The Dark World began in April 2011, when producer Kevin Feige announced plans for a sequel to follow the crossover film The Avengers. In July 2011, Kenneth Branagh, the director of Thor, withdrew from the project. Brian Kirk and Patty Jenkins were considered to direct the film before Taylor was hired in January 2012. The supporting cast filled out in August 2012, with the hiring of Eccleston, Dennings, and Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Principal photography began in September 2012 in Surrey, England with filming continuing in Iceland and London, before wrapping up in December 2012. Thor: The Dark World was converted to 3D in post-production.