You often hear about filmmakers being overruled by studios, especially when they don’t have the sort of pull necessary to dig their heels in and push back. This tends to happen more often with filmmakers who aren’t as experienced working in certain budget ranges. Who can forget the infamous firing of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from Solo: A Star Wars Story? It was probably the most expensive project that the directing duo had ever worked on, and the studio wasn’t too pleased with their improvisational style. They were eventually replaced by the Oscar-winning Ron Howard, who has proven himself to be a reliable studio hand over decades. Solo remains an anomaly in an industry where such decisions are made more often than you’d imagine, but are rarely revealed to the public.

For instance, Tim Miller didn’t get along with Terminator: Dark Fate producer James Cameron; Gareth Edwards was said to have been sidelined on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story; and Marc Forster was effectively removed as the director of World War Z, the massive zombie epic starring Brad Pitt. This week, another of Pitt’s former collaborators revealed that he, too, had been overruled by the studio on a movie they’d worked on some years ago. This is the first time that anyone involved in the project has confirmed that there was bad blood on set, and who could be more reliable than the supposed captain of the ship? We’re talking about James Gray and his sci-fi epic Ad Astra, which was released in 2019. Despite what Gray has to say about the experience, the movie opened to positive reviews and has found a devoted cult fanbase.

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz
Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive?
The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.

💊The Matrix

🔥Mad Max

🌧️Blade Runner

🏜️Dune

🚀Star Wars

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

01

You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do?
The first instinct is often the truest one.

APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it.
BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don’t keep you alive.
CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who’s pulling the strings.
DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it.
EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can’t fix a broken galaxy alone.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely?
What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.

AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don’t need resources — you can generate them.
BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it.
CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity.
DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on.
EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

What kind of threat keeps you up at night?
Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.

AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant.
BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left.
CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you’re a problem, you’re already out of time.
DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn’t even know I was playing.
EThe Empire tightening its grip until there’s nowhere left to run.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

How do you deal with authority you don’t trust?
Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.

ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it.
BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better.
CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy.
DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can’t beat a system you refuse to understand.
EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

Which environment could you actually endure long-term?
Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.

AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters.
BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest.
CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions.
DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand.
EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire’s attention rarely reaches.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart?
The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.

AA tight crew of believers who’ve seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose.
BOne or two people I’d trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks.
CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice.
DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last.
EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all?
Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.

AI won’t harm the innocent — even the ones who’d report me without hesitation.
BI do what I have to to protect the people I’ve chosen. Everything else is negotiable.
CThe line shifts depending on who’s asking and what’s at stake.
DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people’s future, even if it’d help now.
ESome lines, once crossed, can’t be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

What would actually make survival worth it?
Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.

AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it.
BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving.
CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out.
DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations.
EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else’s boot.

REVEAL MY WORLD →

Your Fate Has Been Calculated
You’d Survive In…

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

The Resistance, Zion

The Matrix

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.

You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.

The Wasteland

Mad Max

The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.

You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.

Los Angeles, 2049

Blade Runner

You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.

Arrakis

Dune

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.

A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Star Wars

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

Here’s What James Gray Had To Say About ‘Ad Astra’

On the sidelines of the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival, where his period drama Paper Tiger premiered in competition, Gray said that he prefers working on a small scale after his experience on Ad Astra. “I control everything completely on this (Paper Tiger) and, actually, I didn’t on Ad Astra. That film was taken away from me. That’s not my cut of the movie,” he told Brut. “You get into discussions and debates, there’s a studio, then the studio (20th Century Fox) got sold to Disney. You get caught in that stuff. The movie was $80 million, Paper Tiger was $15 million,” Gray added, revealing that his cut of Ad Astra, unlike other directors’ cuts, would’ve been shorter than the version that was released. Ad Astra, which reportedly underwent extensive reshoots after poor test screenings, grossed $135 million worldwide and is now sitting at a “Certified Fresh” 83% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.