Cindy Rago

Cindy Rago’s got her fingerprints all over some seriously wild rides in modern sci-fi. You’ve seen her work, even if her name didn’t pop up in neon letters. Think about Star Trek Beyond—yeah, that one where the Enterprise crew basically crash-lands on this gnarly planet, and everything goes sideways fast. It’s a mix of those classic Trek vibes and this turbo-charged action, aliens, and those “oh man, are we gonna make it?” moments. Super visual, big energy. She helped make that world tick. Then there’s Terminator Genisys, which, let’s be real, tried to twist the whole time travel game again. The film jumps around, tossing you from the future to the past and back, with Sarah Connor not just running from killer robots but actually flipping the script. The sets? The effects? You can practically feel the sweat and metal. Rago’s touch is in all those little details—the chaos, the tension, the “what if the future is already screwed?” kind of mood. Oh, and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials? That one’s basically a post-apocalyptic sprint through a sunburned wasteland. The characters are running for their lives, dodging sketchy organizations and, honestly, just trying not to get fried in the desert. The look of it, all that scorched earth and ruined cities, feels super raw and gritty. Rago’s work behind the scenes ties it all together, making the danger feel real and the stakes way high. She’s not just along for the ride—she’s shaping how it feels.