Money, Money, Money

Changing the face of money: The new $100 bill includes 3D security tricks — and hidden secrets galore

Have you seen the long-anticipated new $100 bill yet? The new money makeover is so busy and yet so cool that it could make you want to save a few.

It was nearly three years ago when the Federal Reserve board announced redesign plans for the Ben Franklin-faced bill. However, the release date's been continuously pushed back with the problems attributed to production issues. Now, currency collectors and financial institutions are expecting the note to finally begin circulating Oct. 8.

For starters, the new note has a sweet 3D ribbon on its face, making various designs (on the ribbon) look in motion. This and a number of other security features are designed to make the new $100 bill easy for consumers and merchants to authenticate and difficult for counterfeiters to replicate.

Here are some key features that are all so National Treasure (nerdy, I know) :

The 3-D Security Ribbon is cool enough for a movie. When you tilt the note back and forth while focusing on the blue, you will see the bells change to 100s as they move from right to left. If you tilt the bill side to side, they move up and down.

A Security Thread can be seen if held up to the light. The thread runs vertically to the left of Ben's face. Ever so patriotically, the thread is imprinted with the letters USA and the numeral 100. This is repeated along the thread. Also, under ultraviolet light the thread glows pink.

There is a Bell in the Inkwell. The inkwell color shifts from copper to green if you tilt the note. This effect gives off the illusion that a bell appears and disappears inside the inkwell.

The Watermark didn't change. When you hold the bill up to the light you see a faint and rather sad picture of Ben in the (one) blank space to the right of the portrait. The watermark is visible from both sides of the note.

Color-Shifting Ink turns the numeral 100 in the lower (front) right corner of the note from copper to green.

And those are just the main security features. There are still more Where's Waldo? type things to keep you interested. Microprinting on Ben's jacket collar that can only be seen with a magnifying glass, for instance.

It took nearly a decade for officials from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve system and the United States Secret Service to design, create and unveil the new bill.

So, let the countdown begin and here's to hoping we all get paid!

The new $100 bill brings 3D tricks to American money.

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Movie Review

20-year-old YouTube horror creator's Backrooms is an auspicious debut

Photo courtesy of A24

Chiwetel Ejiofor in Backrooms.

YouTube has become such a big part of the culture that it was only a matter of time before content creators started making waves in big screen filmmaking. Interestingly, most of them have made their names in the horror genre, including Danny and Michael Philippou (Talk to Me, Bring Her Back), Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach (the recent Iron Lung), and now Kane Parsons with Backrooms.

Set in 1990, the film centers on Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who owns a rundown furniture store in a nondescript city. He is divorced and seemingly depressed, two things that come up in his multiple sessions with his therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve). Lately, he has taken to sleeping in the store instead of going home, which allows him to notice strange electrical activity when the lights are supposed to be turned off.

When investigating the issues one night, he discovers a mysterious opening that leads to a completely different structure with a seemingly endless amount of rooms and corridors. Some of them are innocuous and some of them contain strange and creepy elements. With nothing else of interest in his life, Clark returns to the area night after night, eventually drawing in his employee, Kat (Lukita Maxwell), her boyfriend Bobby (Finn Bennett), and Mary.

The 20-year-old Parsons, helped by a number of well-known producers, demonstrates an astonishing level of filmmaking prowess for a first-time feature filmmaker. There is no trace of amateurishness in the progression of the story or the visual style of the film. Whatever confusion arises comes from the plot itself, which is designed to raise way more questions than answers.

Clark’s journey into the bewildering collection of rooms is full of intrigue instead of scares for most of the film, but when Parsons decides to amp things up, he really goes for it. The final third of the film contains some haunting imagery that defies description or explanation. It seems clear that Parsons’ preferred method of storytelling is to keep the audience off-balance, unable to predict what comes next.

What he also seems to understand, however, is that you have to give the audience something to hold on to, and in this case it’s the backstories of Clark and Mary. Both seem to be living differing versions of pathetic, uninteresting lives, but things revealed in their sessions broaden the scope of their stories. The strange world they find seems to reflect their respective traumas, giving a tenuous connection to reality that keeps the film from becoming too frustrating.

Ejiofor and Reinsve, both of whom are Oscar nominees, give the film an air of legitimacy that allows viewers to follow whatever odd roads Parsons wants to go down. Because it’s impossible to tell where the film is heading, the steady acting of Ejiofor and Reinsve is crucial in its success. Maxwell, Bennett, and Mark Duplass are good in brief appearances, but don’t appear enough to have a huge impact.

The ambiguous nature of Backrooms lends it the possibility of becoming a franchise, as Parsons could seemingly take it in any direction he wanted and have it feel part of the larger whole. Given how well done this and other recent films by YouTubers have been, the melding of the two seemingly disparate mediums makes more sense than ever.

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Backrooms opens in theaters on May 29.

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