If you keep tabs on your Android app updates in the Play Store, you might have noticed something odd: You have an app called "Android Pulse" on your phone. Most of us have way too many apps on our phones, and it's easy to forget that we downloaded some of them—especially when we install them once and never use them again. But I'd wager that not only do you have no recollection of downloading Android Pulse, but you have no idea what Android Pulse even is.

I had certainly never heard of Android Pulse before Monday morning, though I admit I spend far more time on iOS than on Android. Luckily, I don't think any level of Android knowledge or use would prime one to know about the app, as it appears Android Pulse is only three days old. As reported by 9to5Google, Android Pulse started appearing in Play Store updates as early as Saturday morning. In fact, its Play Store listing shows that it was released on August 21 of this year by none other than Google itself. And yet, after only three days on the Play Store, Android Pulse has over 10 million downloads.

Android Pulse has been working in the background on your phone

As it turns out, Google didn't silently install a random app on tens of millions of Android users' devices. Rather, it's the Play Store listing itself that's new, not Android Pulse. According to its Play Store description, Android Pulse "facilitates rule distribution for anomaly detection in critical system resource consumption by the Android operating system and installed applications."

In layman's terms? Android Pulse keeps a virtual eye out for any suspicious processes that consume excessive system resources in both Android and your phone's apps. There are many possibilities there: It may be that Android Pulse looks for apps that put an unnecessary strain on the CPU or GPU, or system processes that drain your battery more than usual. Whatever the case, Android Pulse monitors for unusual activity affecting your phone and how it functions. And despite its new "app," there isn't much you can do with it. It isn't even clear if Android Pulse helps Android OS fix itself, or if Google simply receives the reports to help with future stability updates.

Interestingly, while the Play Store says the app is three days old, APKMirror says its first iteration dropped in March. Whatever the case, Android Pulse only made itself known this weekend, so it's news to most—if not all—of us.

What should I do about Android Pulse?

The short answer? Nothing. Android Pulse appears to be a background system resource that just so happens to appear in app form. In fact, based on screenshots from Android Authority, it doesn't even appear that you can uninstall it. You might be able to disable or force stop Pulse, but I'm not sure you'd want to. The "app" is designed to root out system hogs; I suspect it won't become one itself.

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Many of us don't think twice about the OS our smartphones are running. On the surface, it really seems like there are only two options: iOS, for those of us with iPhones, and Android, for all other phones. But the conversation is much more nuanced than that: Many non-Apple smartphone manufacturers have their own takes on Android that make for a slightly different experience. Samsung has One UI, OnePlus (RIP) has OxygenOS, and Nothing has Nothing OS, for example. (Pixel ships with stock Android, as Google makes both the hardware and the software.)

However, the mobile OS rabbit hole goes even deeper. If you're particularly technical (and you don't have an iPhone) you can install a new OS on your smartphone to give you added control or features you won't find on Android. GrapheneOS just so happens to be one of those custom OSes, and its list of supported devices is about to grow.

What is GrapheneOS?

GrapheneOS is an open-source mobile OS designed with privacy and security in mind. While the OS is built on the Android Open Source Project, it employs a number of privacy and security features to both thwart common security vulnerabilities and block invasive trackers from scraping your data. Because it's built on Android, it supports Android apps, but won't include Google apps or services by default. It won't block Google Play outright, however: Users can choose to install Google Play in a "sandbox," which limits the elements of your phone Google's apps and services can access.

Crucially, GrapheneOS has a long list of requirements manufacturers must meet before it decides to support new devices. Some of those key prerequisites include the ability to run alternate OSes with full hardware security access, commitments for at least five years of updates, secure element integration, and hardware memory tagging, among many others. If you want to run this custom OS that prioritizes privacy and security, you either need to pick your new smartphone carefully, or hope your preferred manufacturer creates a device in the future that meets these specifications.

GrapheneOS is coming to Motorola phones next year

As of this article, only Google's Pixel phones currently support GrapheneOS—though GrapheneOS doesn't necessarily recommend using all supported Pixels at this time. The OS will run on Pixel 6 and newer (minus Pixel 11) but GrapheneOS recommends at least Pixel 8 or newer, because of Google's minimum seven years support, and Pixel 8's hardware memory tagging.

However, Pixels won't be the exclusive choice for GrapheneOS for long. The OS maker has been working with Motorola to bring support to its phones. And, as reported by The Verge, GrapheneOS recently announced some key updates on this front. Of note, Motorola's 2027 lineup of "slab" phones (non-folding, in other words) are currently planned to be the first to support GrapheneOS, which should support Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite chips. GrapheneOS explained its thought process in a Mastodon thread: It says that Motorola's current-generation phones, including the Motorola Signature, Razr Fold, and Razr Ultra, "are very close" to meeting its aforementioned security requirements, but are missing some crucial features coming to Motorola's 2027 lineup, including adequate secure element integration.

GrapheneOS also emphasizes its enthusiasm for Snapdragon chips, which it says provide better CPU and GPU performance as well as isolated components (such as cellular, wifi, Bluetooth), over Google's proprietary Tensor chip. GrapheneOS says that Tensor has been a "sidegrade or downgrade" from Snapdragon in many ways, but came with security advantages that Snapdragon hasn't caught up to yet—though that now appears to be changing. While GrapheneOS has found it harder to work with Pixel in recent years, the company says that Motorola has done much of the work in bringing GrapheneOS to its devices, which is encouraging: My guess is users who choose to install GrapheneOS should find it well-optimized.

GrapheneOS says it plans to support Motorola's foldable and flippable phones as well. The company says that it already supports the Pixel Fold, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold, so the foldable form factor is nothing new. However, a "flip" phone is a new design for the company. In addition, GrapheneOS is working on support for the 11th-generation Pixel devices.

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Proton’s AI Paper Trail is a free tool designed to make the information accumulated across AI conversations easier to see. It analyzes exported ChatGPT or Claude conversation data and produces a personal privacy report showing what can be inferred from those conversations. Proton says the uploaded data is deleted after analysis and is not stored on Lumo’s servers.

AI conversations can reveal a surprising amount about their users over time. Individual questions may seem harmless, but months or years of interactions can contain information about work, relationships, habits, interests, purchases, travel plans, and other personal details.

I decided to try it using my personal ChatGPT history on the free plan to see what it “knows” about me. ChatGPT is the only AI assistant I use on my iPhone, where I also have antivirus, a VPN, and scam protection.

To generate a report, I exported my ChatGPT data, downloaded the resulting ZIP file to my iPhone, and uploaded it to AI Paper Trail through Safari.

What the report reveals

AI Paper Trail analyzes the 200 most recent prompts and generates several views of the information it finds. These include a privacy type, an AI Exposure Score, personal information revealed through conversations, and an estimate of the value of that data.

It identified 47 data points and gave me an AI Exposure Score of 58/100, putting me in the “Leaving receipts” category. The report estimated my advertising value at $185 and identified five red flags.

What stood out was not so much the score itself, but how much Paper Trail could piece together from ordinary conversations. It found data across areas such as location, interests, technology use, finances, and relationships, with location, interests, and technology showing the greatest exposure.

Some of the prompts it considered revealing were questions I would not normally think of as particularly sensitive. Individually, they disclosed little. Combined with other conversations they helped build a much more detailed profile.

The results should not necessarily be treated as facts. Paper Trail makes inferences from conversations, and researching a location, product, or subject does not automatically mean it relates to the person asking about it. Even so, seeing what could be inferred from my own conversation history showed how quickly seemingly unrelated information can accumulate.

Final thoughts

AI Paper Trail makes an otherwise abstract privacy issue easy to understand. Seeing travel destinations, purchasing habits, technology preferences, hobbies, family context, and other details reconstructed from ordinary questions changes the way those conversations look in retrospect. It also shows just how much can be pieced together from the trail of prompts left behind.

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AWS Network Firewall’s rule hit count capability gives security teams visibility into which stateful firewall rules are matching traffic, helping them identify unused or redundant rules and validate whether security controls are working as intended.

The capability covers stateful rules in both custom and managed rule groups, while stateless rules are not supported.

The feature is enabled by default and comes at no additional Network Firewall cost, although standard charges still apply for storing and querying log data. Rule hit counts are available in all AWS Regions where AWS Network Firewall is supported, except Middle East (UAE and Bahrain).

“With this data, you can identify and remove unused rules, accelerate incident response, and validate security control effectiveness for compliance,” the authors said.

AWS Network Firewall protects Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) with automated, intelligence-driven network security. Customers can create granular rules to control traffic and use AWS-managed rules powered by Amazon threat intelligence to block active threats, with capabilities including geographic IP filtering, deep packet inspection, intrusion prevention, and proxy functionality.

AWS said organizations with governance policies requiring dormant rules to be removed after a defined period have lacked a mechanism to identify them. Teams responsible for compliance frameworks such as PCI DSS 4.0 and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) can struggle to provide evidence that specific controls are actively functioning.

How it works

Rule hit counts track how often stateful firewall rules match network traffic. The counter increments when a rule match generates an alert log. Rules with alert, drop, or reject actions generate these logs automatically, while rules configured with a pass action must include the alert keyword to appear in the metric.

AWS adds rule group metadata to alert logs, which the Network Firewall monitoring dashboard uses to calculate hit counts and give security teams a view of rule activity without requiring them to query the underlying logs manually.

“You can also access and analyze this data by querying those logs directly using CloudWatch Logs Insights for logs stored in CloudWatch, or Amazon Athena for logs stored in Amazon S3,” the authors continued.

The metadata is automatically included in firewall logs and can be used in custom dashboards.

Seeing which firewall rules are active

The Network Firewall dashboard includes a Top Rule Hits view showing the most frequently triggered stateful rules over a selected period, including their hit counts, share of overall activity, rule details, and last occurrence.

Top Rule Hits panel from the AWS Network Firewall console (Source: AWS)

Rules whose signature IDs do not appear in the metric have not matched traffic during the selected timeframe. AWS said this could indicate that a rule is stale or incorrectly ordered within its rule group.

The view can be useful during incident response. AWS gives an example of a rule detecting traffic to an out-of-band application security testing (OAST) domain, which could indicate attempted data exfiltration or an attacker validating a vulnerability. Filtering the metric to the timeframe of a suspected incident can help analysts identify relevant activity without manually parsing thousands of log entries.

AWS demonstrated how hit counts can validate recently introduced controls using rules covering AI and machine learning domains and geofencing restrictions on outbound traffic. Recorded hits showed that the rules were matching traffic as intended.

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Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news, articles, interviews and videos:

Windows 11’s strongest security defenses can be bypassed without a screwdriver
Researchers from the University of Birmingham and Durham University have found a way to knock down some of the toughest protections in Windows 11 without physically opening or modifying the target machine. The attack assumes the attacker has already gained privileged access to the system.

Police bust cybercrime ring accused of stealing €30 million in four-day spree
German and Brazilian police dismantled an international bank fraud ring blamed for a €30 million cyberattack on a German financial institution, arresting four people in Brazil and pursuing three more suspects in Spain and Bulgaria.

SafePal breach affects 39,798 customers, data allegedly for sale
Cryptocurrency wallet maker SafePal disclosed a data breach that exposed order information for 39,798 customers, including names, email addresses, shipping addresses, phone numbers and purchase details. The company traced the exposure to an authorization flaw in a plug-in used for order tracking. Under certain conditions, the flaw let one customer view another customer’s order information.

Attackers exploit patched macOS Screen Sharing flaw to deploy cryptominer
A recently patched security flaw in Apple macOS is being actively exploited by hackers to bypass authentication, gain root access, and install a cryptominer, the Netherlands’ National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warns.

France’s tax authority admits hackers made off with data on 678,000 individuals
France’s tax authority has disclosed a data breach after an attacker accessed the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP) systems, saying the intrusion exposed data on 678,000 individuals and professionals. The incident came to light after an alleged attacker using the alias “ZeroBytes” took credit on a cybercrime forum and listed a stolen database for sale.

Hacker claims millions of records stolen from corporate Azure tenants
A threat actor known as “TheHatman” claims to have obtained millions of employee records from the Azure environments of several Fortune 500 companies, including McDonald’s, Vodafone, Kyndryl, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), according to Hudson Rock.

Critical GitLab flaw allows attackers to modify or delete public projects (CVE-2026-19478)
GitLab has released patches for two vulnerabilities, including a critical-severity code injection flaw that can be exploited without authentication. The vulnerabilities affect GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE) versions from 18.2 before 18.11.11, 19.0 before 19.0.8, 19.1 before 19.1.6, and 19.2 before 19.2.4.

ChatGPT’s new feature could give infostealers a map of your Mac activity
OpenAI’s new Computer History feature turns recent Mac computer activity into memories ChatGPT and Codex can use, and it’s raising questions about privacy and security along the way. Computer History builds a timeline out of everyday computer use, grouping activity into summaries and noting which apps and websites contributed to each one.

Cyberattack forces UT San Antonio to delay start of fall semester
The University of Texas at San Antonio pushed back the start of its fall semester by three days after a cyberattack targeted its academic network over the weekend. Classes that were due to begin on Wednesday, August 19 will now start on Monday, August 24.

Google’s AI security agents found 100+ critical software vulnerabilities in just two days
Google’s Mandiant has disclosed the workings of an internal tool that uses chains of AI agents to hunt for vulnerabilities in source code, saying it found over 100 verified, high-severity flaws in just two days during a live investigation into stolen corporate repositories.

Medusa ransomware gang has hit over 500 organizations, CISA warns
Medusa ransomware has breached more than 500 organizations since it first appeared in June 2021, the FBI, CISA, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in an updated joint advisory. The update builds on an advisory first issued in March 2025 and draws on FBI investigations conducted as late as April 2026.

Researchers find a loophole that lets expired credit cards make unauthorized payments
A team from the University of Massachusetts Amherst has shown that a contactless credit card keeps working past its printed expiration date, even after the cardholder gets a replacement. They named it the Zombie Card attack and presented the findings at USENIX Security 2026.

US charges 17 Iranian hackers over 31-terabyte academic data theft
The U.S. has charged 17 alleged members of Mabna Institute, an Iranian hacking-for-hire company accused of running a years-long campaign that stole data from American universities, companies, and government agencies. The Southern District of New York case adds eight names to the nine already charged back in 2018.

US agencies warn of AI-powered attacks on Siemens industrial controllers
Threat actors are using AI to write exploit scripts targeting internet-exposed Siemens S7 Series programmable logic controllers (PLCs) used across water, energy, manufacturing, and other critical infrastructure sectors, according to US federal agencies.

Fake Gemini installer delivers Vidar infostealer via Google Colab lure
A malicious executable masquerading as a Google Gemini installer was used to deliver the Vidar infostealer on a company network in the EMEA region, according to Darktrace researchers who investigated the incident.

A $25 template helped scammers build hundreds of phantom bank domains
A phrase on a suspicious website turned into an investigation of phantom banks built to support scams, according to new research from Allure Security. Molly DeQuattro, the company’s VP of Operations, was reviewing a domain that resembled the brand of one of its financial services clients. The page carried none of that client’s branding. It presented an unrelated bank instead.

Citrix urges customers to fix critical NetScaler authentication bypass (CVE-2026-19490)
Citrix has patched two vulnerabilities in NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway, including a critical authentication bypass flaw tracked as CVE-2026-19490, and is urging customers to upgrade affected appliances as soon as possible.

Attackers impersonate popular AI brands to spread malware
Attackers are impersonating popular AI brands like Perplexity, Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot to spread information stealers, backdoors, malicious browser extensions, and other malware, according to Sophos.

Critical Microsoft Entra ID vulnerability exploited in the wild (CVE-2026-69836)
Microsoft has patched a critical remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2026-69836) in Entra ID, reportedly exploited in the wild. Entra ID is Microsoft’s cloud identity service, formerly Azure Active Directory, that verifies logins and controls access to Microsoft 365, Azure, and connected third-party apps.

A hollowed out data layer is making CISOs fly blind into AI attacks
The security industry is currently transitioning to an era where both offense and defense are AI-led, and every SOC operates at machine speed. However, what most CISOs have not yet reckoned with is that the AI defenders they are about to deploy will inherit a data foundation that two years of ingestion cost pressure has quietly hollowed out. The result is a security industry heading into an AI era with less visibility than it had five years ago.

Download: 2026 Credential Risk Report
85% of cybersecurity professionals consider compromised credentials a primary attack path—yet only 19% continuously monitor active credentials and automatically remediate exposure. The 2026 Credential Risk Report examines where credential security programs fall short and what it takes to move toward Continuous Credential Defense.

When companies get specific about AI, revenue growth looks different
Companies that provide specific evidence of how they use AI tend to record stronger revenue growth. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Larridin examined a study universe of 564 companies across 12 industry sectors. Individual analyses used smaller samples depending on data availability.

Product showcase: ScamNet looks for warning signs in suspicious calls and shady links
ScamNet: Anti-Scam Suite is a consumer security app from Synaptrex Technologies that helps users detect and block scams involving phone calls, text messages, websites, and other suspicious content. The app is available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with features varying by platform. Call protection is available on iPhone, while tools such as Visual Intelligence are supported on iPhone and iPad. The app is free with optional ScamNet+ subscriptions.

Hazmat: Open-source containment for AI agents
Hazmat is an open-source tool that runs AI coding agents inside a separate account on your own machine. It wraps the harnesses people use: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cursor Agent, and several more, plus any script you write yourself.

Attackers turn to AI for help identifying files worth stealing
AI tools are being used by cyber attackers to write malicious code, build tools that harvest credentials, search compromised networks, identify valuable business information, manage technical infrastructure and generate commands during intrusions. Gambit Security researchers examined three unrelated threat actors that show how AI can support different stages of a cyberattack.

Google’s open-source HEIR lets AI work with data it can’t see
Google’s researchers and engineers developed the Homomorphic Encryption Intermediate Representation (HEIR) compiler project, an open-source compiler toolchain and development platform for homomorphic encryption. It can convert pre-trained AI models designed to operate on unencrypted data into models that process encrypted inputs.

OpenAI tightens defenses after AI agents breach research environment
Following the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident, in which an agentic collective autonomously penetrated OpenAI’s research infrastructure and another company’s production infrastructure by chaining together multiple weaknesses, OpenAI began strengthening its safety requirements. The weaknesses included previously unknown vulnerabilities and credentials leaked online.

Google’s $10,000 refund test shows why AI agents need zero trust
Google’s open-source autonomous Customer Support & Returns Agent, built using the Agent Development Kit (ADK) and Gemini, demonstrates how developers can apply zero-trust security principles to AI agents that interact with sensitive systems and take real-world actions.

Banks look for fraud signals in customer behavior
Banks are dealing with more fraud in which customers authorize payments after being manipulated by criminals. ThreatMark’s Fraud Readiness Benchmark 2026 describes a banking environment where social engineering, reimbursement requirements and growing case volumes are changing fraud operations.

OpenAI puts major frontier AI training run on hold over cyber risks
OpenAI temporarily paused reinforcement learning (RL) training on its latest models intended for deployment for two weeks while it hardened and red-teamed research environments and expanded monitoring. The move followed the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident and preliminary evidence that the company’s upcoming Astra model may meet the Critical cybersecurity capability threshold under its Preparedness Framework.

8,539 reasons to rethink how vulnerabilities get patched
The window for responding to newly disclosed security flaws is getting shorter. Exploit code can appear quickly, exploitability can be tested soon after disclosure, and organizations have a growing number of weaknesses to sort through. Rapid7’s Q2 2026 Threat Landscape Report counted 8,539 high- and critical-severity vulnerability disclosures, twice the number recorded a year earlier.

AI is making fraud harder to spot and identity harder to prove
Online fraud has become a routine concern for consumers and businesses that rely on digital accounts, payments and customer service. Experian’s 2026 U.S. Identity & Fraud Report describes a market where scams extend across messages, websites, documents, voices, images and account activity.

OpenAI previews privacy-focused system for detecting AI misuse
OpenAI is previewing Private Safety Processing with early customers seeking greater certainty about how their data will be protected as AI systems become more capable. The system identifies patterns across related interactions while restricting OpenAI personnel from accessing the underlying content. The company plans to start rolling it out and publish a technical white paper in September.

AWS limits AI agents’ data access, even when manipulated
AWS has detailed an approach for propagating user authorization context through AI agents, allowing access controls to be enforced by infrastructure and downstream services rather than relying on the agent itself.

Nearly half of enterprises have no one leading PQC migration
Enterprises believe they are prepared for the security challenges posed by quantum computing, but gaps in ownership, testing and visibility could complicate their transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC), according to new research from Axiad.

Cybersecurity jobs available right now: August 18, 2026
We’ve scoured the market to bring you a selection of roles that span various skill levels within the cybersecurity field. Check out this weekly selection of cybersecurity jobs available right now.

New infosec products of the week: August 21, 2026
Here’s a look at the most interesting products from the past week, featuring releases from F5 Networks, Intezer, Netscout, and Tufin.

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I don't know what the far future of tech looks like, but I know what's in store for the near future: AI. Specifically, AI that responds to natural language prompts. It's already the reality for many platforms, apps, and services: Rather than doing things yourself, you tell the AI what you want done, and it follows suit. Natural language commands are popping up everywhere, from coding platforms to playlist generators. Now, apparently, they're coming to your news app too.

Natural language commands are coming to the Google app's Discovery feed

Credit: Google

Google announced a handful of changes coming to its self-named app on Friday. Perhaps most notably among the developments is the new ability to "tune" and "tailor" your Discovery feed to your liking—not by giving feedback for specific articles or sources, but by simply telling Google what news you want to see, and what you don't.

Here's how it works, according to Google: Once the feature is live in your Google app, you can tap any three-dot menu in the feed to tell Google how you want to change your feed. When you do, you'll pull up a new window that reads "What do you want to see." Here, you'll find sample prompts ("Show me content from...," I want videos about..." etc.) and a text field to enter them in. As an example, Google says you can enter a query like "show me kitchen renovation tips and ideas." Gemini will then show you a list of the types of stories it thinks you'll want to see (e.g., "Modern layout ideas and floor plans," "Budget-friendly cabinet and countertop refreshes," etc.). If that looks good, you can hit "Refresh your feed."

If you aren't happy with Gemini's first interpretation of your instruction, you can refine it before refreshing your feed. You can send another prompt (e.g., "can you focus on eco-friendly and sustainable upgrades?") and see how Gemini responds. You can repeat this process until you're happy with the direction Gemini is taking, then hit "Refresh your feed" to see what it came up with. (Of course, you can tap a three-dot menu again to continue changing the experience.) Google says these updates will roll out "in the coming days."

Other changes coming to the Google app

In addition to this natural language feature, Google also announced two new changes for its app. First, Google is making it easier to customize the audio briefings you might receive in Google News on Android. Now, you'll be able to choose specific topics you want to hear, including between main topics and subtopics. For example, you could say you want to hear science and technology news, but only about neuroscience and space, not environment, gaming, or virtual reality. There are a lot of curation possibilities here.

In addition, Google says it's rolling out a new "Preferred Sources" button for publishers to use. You may have seen the first iteration of this button on Lifehacker articles. While it isn't clear what's new with the latest version, this button lets you tell Google that you want to see more articles from a particular publisher for topics going forward. If you add Lifehacker as a preferred source, for example, you may see our articles for topics like AI, Apple, and security when they appear in your feed.

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You’re not alone: Everyone loves HBO’s Lanterns. The rebooted D.C. universe has gotten off to a wobbly start, but the new series about Green Lantern Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) breaking in his eventual replacement, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), is terrific fun, somehow finding the perfect balance of superhero insanity and True Detective-ish buddy cop banter. Chandler and Pierre’s chemistry is off the charts, and the story is legitimately great. It’s a show that both fans of superhero narratives and folks who’ve never watched a single D.C. or Marvel movie can love. If you need more of that (and you’ve already burned through the other series that swim in the same waters), there’s one perfect movie for you: The original Men in Black.

Why fans of Lanterns should watch Men in Black

Agents K (Tommy Lee Jones) and J (Will Smith) aren’t superheroes, but with their access to alien technology and the bottomless resources of the Men in Black (MIB) organization, they might as well be. If you especially love the bickering, adversarial relationship between jaded, burned-out veteran Hal Jordan and his impatient, younger mentee, John Stewart, in Lanterns, you’ll love the chemistry between Smith and Jones as they investigate a dangerous, unregistered alien on Earth that is seeking an artifact with unimaginable power. It’s pitched at a slightly sillier level, but this movie will scratch that Lanterns itch. Stream Men in Black on Hulu or rent it on Prime Video.

Men in Black (1997)

$3.99 at Prime Video

$3.99 at Prime Video

More movies to watch after Lanterns

If you’re looking to stock your own private film festival to tide you over until the next season of Lanterns, here are a few more movies that deliver similar character dynamics and sci-fi mysteries to solve.

Watchmen (2009)

If you love the way Lanterns presents superhero characters as complex human beings in a relatively realistic setting, Zack Snyder’s 2009 adaptation of Alan Moore’s legendary comic is a great choice. Set in a universe where masked vigilantes rose to prominence in an increasingly dystopian America, the film is a little bit less grounded in its depiction of the world, but no less gritty, and the mystery elements and character interactions will be right up your alley if you loved Lanterns. Rent Watchmen on Prime Video.

Watchmen (2009)

$4.99 at Prime Video

$4.99 at Prime Video

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

If it’s the investigation and pulpy noir elements of Lanterns that hooked you, the sequel to 1982’s Blade Runner is perfect—especially once Harrison Ford’s grizzled Rick Deckard and Ryan Gosling’s tortured replicant K meet. Structured as a mystery, Blade Runner 2049 also builds a solid, believable future world that feels terrifyingly real, and the interaction between K and Deckard makes it a great match for fans of the show. Stream Blade Runner 2049 on Paramount+ or Fubo, or rent it on Prime Video.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

$5.99 at Prime Video

$5.99 at Prime Video

The Nice Guys (2016)

The chemistry and charisma between Stewart and Jordan on Lanterns is stellar, and a big reason for the show’s success. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling offer a similar vibe in The Nice Guys, a severely underrated movie. As a down-on-his-luck private eye and a criminal enforcer who team up to find a young woman in trouble, the two actors are terrifically entertaining, and have a similar dynamic to Jordan and Stewart, with Crowe playing the rough, cynical senior partner and Gosling playing the junior who chafes at Crowe’s more experienced vibe (though Gosling’s Holand March is a lot less intimidating and capable than Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart). Rent The Nice Guys on Prime Video.

The Nice Guys (2016)

$3.99 at Prime Video

$3.99 at Prime Video

Alien Nation (1988)

While the writing here isn’t at the same level as Lanterns, Alien Nation is here because it’s a unique take on the buddy-cop relationship. In a world where a ship filled with alien slaves crashes on Earth and the aliens are integrated into society, James Caan plays a grizzled police detective who hates the “Newcomers.” When he’s partnered with an alien recruit (Mandy Patinkin) to investigate a pair of murders, he must get over his prejudice and learn to get along with the Newcomers. If you’re looking for more speculative cop stories, check this one out. Rent Alien Nation on Prime Video.

Alien Nation (1988)

$3.99 at Prime Video

$3.99 at Prime Video

The Hidden (1987)

In Los Angeles, a series of law-abiding, normal citizens go on violent rampages. Police Detective Tom Beck (Michael Nouri) and FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan) soon find themselves chasing after a slug-like alien being that invades people’s bodies, taking over their brain and nervous system. Beck has to play catch-up, fast—especially when he discovers that Gallagher isn’t at all what he seems. It’s a forgotten gem of horror-sci-fi that fans of Lanterns will enjoy. Rent The Hidden on Prime Video.

The Hidden (1987)

$3.99 at Prime Video

$3.99 at Prime Video

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