From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Walking home one night through the streets of Minneapolis after quitting her rock band and breaking up with her boyfriend, Eddi McCandry discovers that she is being pursued by a threatening man and an even more threatening black dog. They turn out to be one and same: a shapeshifting prankster faerie known as a phouka, who drafts Eddi to be the linchpin in the ongoing battle between faerie's good and noble Seelie Court and the evil Unseelie Court, ruled by the Queen of Air and Darkness. Eddi soon finds herself in a struggle for survival against the Unseelie Court, all while trying to put a new rock band together. Meanwhile, her initial feelings of resentment toward the phouka develop into gratitude for his efforts to protect her against the dark queen, and ultimately turn into love. The novel climaxes in a rock concert playoff between Eddi and the Queen of Air and Darkness, which decides the fate of both faerie courts, as well as the fate of her loved one. ===== The novel is fundamentally the story of five months in the lives of David Bourne, an American writer, and his wife Catherine. It is set mainly in the French Riviera, specifically in the Côte d'Azur, and in Spain. The story begins with their honeymoon in the Camargue, then moves to Spain, then back to France (at a "long low rose-colored Provençal house where they had stayed before... in the pines on the Estérel side of la Napoule" (within easy driving distance to Cannes).The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway, 1986, Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 75 However, early in the book, Catherine seemed to change (from David's point of view -- the novel is entirely from his vantage). While at le Grau du Roi, Catherine announces "I have a big surprise"Hemingway, ibid., p. 11, but does not tell David what it is other than to hint "Oh it's very simple but it's very complicated"Hemingway, ibid., p. 11 and "...I'm going to be changed."Hemingway, ibid., p. 12 She bicycles into town, then returns with "Her hair... cropped as short as a boy's."Hemingway, ibid., pp. 14-15 Later, that night, she tells him "Don't call me girl." and "Please love me David the way I am."Hemingway, ibid., p. 17 and implies that he is changing also ("You are changing," she said. "Oh you are. You are. Yes you are and you're my girl Catherine.") While in Spain, Catherine twice acts jealous about David reading clippings of reviews of his latest book -- rudely saying "you clipping reader" the second timeHemingway, ibid., p. 39 \-- and they have a mild spat. (He: "Why don't you just shut up about the clippings." She: "Why should I shut up? Just because you wrote this morning? Do you think I married you because you're a writer? You and your clippings."Hemingway, ibid., p. 39) After their return to France, the Bournes soon meet a young woman named Marita, with whom they both fall in love. Catherine seemingly continues to explore gender roles, while David gets increasingly uncomfortable. Both Catherine and David sleep with Marita, although not at the same time. David's relationship with his wife deteriorates as she stops adhering to the gender roles expected of her -- sometimes acting jealous of both Marita and his work, then reversing herself. Meanwhile, Marita gradually transitions into the supporting wife role. It eventually develops that Catherine only wants David to work on what is referred to as the "narrative", which is apparently a narrative of their lives, and not his "stories", tales of his childhood and his father. (Catherine characterizes the "stories" as "The dreary dismal little stories about your adolescence with your bogus drunken father."Hemingway, ibid., p. 210) David (who has been somewhat passive in his reactions so far) really starts to react, however, when Catherine suddenly declares that she had "made decisions and planned things", which turns out to mean that she's going to "have the [narrative] manuscript typed up to where it is now and see about getting illustrations."Hemingway, ibid., p. 188 David takes this as interference in his work ("And if I don't want it copied yet?")Hemingway, ibid., p. 188 and gets very upset. He tells Catherine "I'm sick of all of it, Devil [his private name for her]. Sick all the way through me."Hemingway, ibid., p. 196 It culminates when Catherine tells David while they are on the beach that she burned the press clippings.Hemingway, ibid., p. 216 After they return to where they are staying, he finds that the stories he had written are missing too while the "narrative" is intact. "Now he knew that it had happened but still thought it might be some ghastly joke."Hemingway, ibid., p. 219 Catherine confirms that she destroyed the "stories" too: "They were worthless and I hated them."Hemingway, ibid., p. 219 It later develops that she burned them beyond recovery. David is stunned, but lashes out "I'm sorry I ever met you. I'm sorry I ever married you--"Hemingway, ibid., p. 224 Catherine then announces that she is going to leave for Paris "to see about artists for the book [the "narrative"]" and that she will pay him for the destroyed "stories".Hemingway, ibid., pp. 225-226 Although she says that she loves him and will return, the ending implies a separation of David and Catherine is imminent. ===== As the opening credits appear, Bugs Bunny comes on the screen while eating an obligatory carrot and absent- mindedly begins reading them, grossly mispronouncing all of them in the process (e.g. for "Avery" over the correct ) except for the word "story," the first names of Dave Monahan and Fred Avery, and all of Carl W. Stalling's name. As he finishes, he sees the name of the cartoon and becomes exasperated, spitting out his mouthful of the carrot he was eating. After a brief tirade involving ripping apart the opening credits, he finds Cecil Turtle and bets him ten dollars he can win against him in a race. Cecil accepts and, after Bugs takes a big lead, hurries to a telephone center, to a phone intended for turtles only, and rings up his cousins on a telephone, devises a scheme in which they will double as him at significant points along the track while he himself crosses the finish line ahead of Bugs. The plan works, with Bugs being befuddled at what looks like Cecil always being one step ahead of him. After reaching the finish line, thinking he's won, Bugs finds Cecil waiting for him, the apparent victor. Bugs, both furious and perplexed, pays Cecil his owed ten dollars. As Bugs somberly walks away, he suddenly wonders if he'd been tricked. When he turns around, Cecil and his cousins, each with one of the ten dollars in hand, say to him in unison, "Ehhh, it's a possibility," and all of them then kiss Bugs. ===== In 2007, the U.S. government successfully sends a probe to Adelpha, an alien world in a parallel universe. The probe starts transmitting video images of the world back to Earth. Then, just minutes into the mission, an alien life form discovers the probe and damages it, causing an unforeseen backlash of energy that creates a black hole, threatening Earth. After being briefed on the situation by his old friend Major Vernon, former U.S. Navy SEAL Cutter Slade is given the job of escorting three scientists (William Kauffmann, Anthony Xue and Marion Wolfe) on a mission to this alien world to repair the probe and close the black hole. Arriving in Adelpha, Cutter is separated from the three scientists and, to his surprise, is hailed by the natives as their messiah, the Ulukai. The main population of Adelpha are a bipedal species called the Talan. Their technology is comparable to those of ancient China or medieval Europe, however they have psychic abilities that vary depending on each Talan's "essence": fire, earth, water, or spirit. Talan soldiers with the fae (fire) essence use energy weapons that are powered by their psychic abilities. Adelpha is split into several regions that are connected by a system of intercontinental portals known as daokas. These are relics of an ancient civilization, about which the Talan know little. At the time of Cutter's arrival the fire Talan have taken over society and rule through violence and intimidation. This is a relatively recent state of affairs; previously the Talan lived in harmony. As the game progresses, Cutter learns that the four members of the expedition were separated not in location, but in time. Marion arrives shortly after Cutter, but Kauffmann and Xue arrived decades earlier, and the original probe hasn't arrived yet. Upon learning of their predicament Xue became unstable, fell out with Kauffmann, and took over the Talan warrior caste, teaching them to be violent and xenophobic. This directly led to a Talan warrior attacking the probe on sight when it arrives, causing the creation of the black hole that threatens the Earth. Kauffmann realised that he couldn't stop Xue, and started the cult of the Ulukai among the non-warrior Talan before his death, preparing them to help Cutter when he arrives. Cutter weakens the warrior Talan and unites the other castes, and ultimately defeats Xue and his warriors. With Marion's help, he retrieves the lost computer cards needed to repair the probe. Marion is killed by Xue before the repairs can be completed. Following instructions left by Kauffmann, Cutter repairs the probe and strips down its internals so he can use it as a vehicle to return to Earth, where the return of the probe was expected to close the black hole. ===== The game begins with the protagonist; a young boy known as Andy being abused by his teacher for sleeping in class where it is revealed that he has nyctophobia (fear of the dark). Being instructed that same day by his teacher to watch the solar eclipse, Andy takes his beloved dog Whisky to the park where dark forces steal Whisky away, prompting Andy to use his assortment of inventions and machines to get him back. Andy travels to another world called the Darkland in a homemade spaceship which promptly crashes and he has to face an assortment of obstacles to rescue Whisky and find his way home. Throughout the game, Andy is tasked with fighting living shadow creatures and dark monsters while traversing several hostile alien environments such as a canyon, swamp, underwater cave, and lava river. He receives help in this quest from a peaceful alien race called Amigos whom he befriends, and from magic powers he obtains from a meteor referred to as the 'magic rock.' The main antagonist is an evil sorcerer known as the Master of Darkness who intended to capture Andy instead of his dog. Somewhat resembling Andy's teacher from the beginning of the game, the Master of Darkness has an interest in capturing Andy and sends his minions to pursue him. Another major antagonist is the Vicious Servant; a sniveling pink creature that serves the Master but is quick to betray him for personal benefit. After traveling across the varying alien environments and fighting alongside the Amigos, Andy finds himself inside the Master of Darkness' lair where he proceeds to free Whisky and join forces with the Vicious Servant to help overthrow the Master of Darkness. Planning to use the magic rock's power to destroy the black hole at the lair's center. However, Andy is double-crossed by the servant who kicks Whisky into the black hole and sends Andy into an ambush. Andy ends up fending off droves of shadow creatures and successfully following through with his plan, but falls into the black hole himself along with the Master of Darkness as the structure around him collapses. The black hole's center is the heart of darkness and there Andy must fight the Master and face his fears once and for all. Upon succeeding the darkness dissipates and Andy awakens in his treehouse, believing the experience was all just a dream but after Andy and Whisky go to sleep and it's shown Andy has likely gotten over his fear of the dark, the player is shown the Amigos cleaning up the wreckage of Andy's ship and proving the adventure was perhaps real. ===== Roy Strang narrates the book from an (at first) unexplained coma, which he has been in for the previous two years. His life in this state is a miserable affair, surrounded by uncaring doctors and his extremely dysfunctional family. In his fantasy life, he is an adventurer in the wilds of South Africa, where he and his loyal guide, Sandy Jamieson, hunt for the marabou stork. When not hallucinating, Strang tells his life story, beginning in a "scheme" (local authority housing) in Muirhouse, Scotland, with his violent, delusional parents, two half-brothers (one a womanizer, the other flamboyantly gay), and his promiscuous sister, all of whom he despises. When Strang is 12, he and his family relocate to apartheid-era South Africa, where he is repeatedly molested by his uncle. After his father is jailed for the violent assault of a taxi driver and his uncle is killed in a terrorist bombing, the Strangs are forced to return to Scotland, a mere 18 months after they left. Strang grows into a violent, misogynistic thug. He maintains a full-time job as a systems analyst for the fictional investment group, "Scottish Spinsters" (a reference to Scottish Widows). He joins a gang of football hooligans who are attached to Hibernian F.C., the Capital City Service, and led by the fearsome Lexo. Strang enjoys his life as a "top boy," feared by the entire town, until the gang kidnaps a young woman who rejected their advances and gang rapes her; Strang is horrified, but too intimidated to try to stop them. The gang evades prison, but Strang is stricken with guilt and withdraws completely into depression. He briefly revives a few months later when he meets a woman and genuinely feels love for the first time. Around the same time he begins to take ecstasy, and befriends his gay half-brother. His happiness is short-lived, however; the memory of what he has done continues to haunt him, and his depression soon completely engulfs him, taking him away from his lover and his drug-driven escapism. He attempts suicide by asphyxiation, but survives, putting him in a coma. One day, the gang's rape victim visits him in the hospital. She tells him that she has been murdering her rapists one by one, and now she has come for him, revealing that he was by far the most brutal. She then cuts off his penis and stabs him to death. In his final moments, Strang realizes that the only person he has ever really hated is himself, and makes peace with everyone he has wronged and who has wronged him. The novel's other, more stream-of- consciousness narrative, intertwined with the story of Strang's past, takes place in the fantasy world he creates for himself in the coma. At first a bizarre but rousing adventure, it gradually becomes darker as Strang reveals the uglier parts of his life and personality, involving surreal images of brutality and sexual violence. ===== One summer in Springfield, as rock band Green Day perform on Lake Springfield, the band members fail to engage the audience in a discussion about the environment. They are killed when the pollution in the lake erodes their barge, causing it to sink. At their memorial, Grampa Simpson frantically prophesies the destruction of the town by a monstrous and dangerous "EPA" but only Marge takes it seriously. Lisa and her new friend Colin, whom she has fallen in love with, hold a seminar where they convince the town to clean up the lake. Meanwhile, Homer adopts a pig from Krusty Burger, which causes his jealous son Bart, now fed up with his father's carelessness, to look to their neighbor, Ned Flanders, as a father figure. Homer stores the pig's feces in an overflowing silo, which disgusts Marge. Homer attempts to dispose of it safely at Marge's request, but gets distracted and instead dumps the silo in the lake, critically polluting it. Meanwhile, Russ Cargill, the head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency who was the EPA of Grampa's prophecy, informs President Arnold Schwarzenegger on Springfield's pollution crisis and presents five countering options. The President randomly picks the action of enclosing Springfield in a giant glass dome. When Homer's silo is discovered, an angry mob of townspeople ransack the Simpsons' home. The family escapes through a sinkhole in Maggie's sandbox, which destroys their house and car, and flee to Alaska. Homer wins a motorcycle contest at a nearby carnival and is awarded a truck, which the family use to restart their life. After three months of failed escape attempts, cracks start to appear in the dome and Cargill, not wanting news of what he has done to become international, plots to destroy Springfield. In Alaska, the Simpsons see an advertisement featuring Tom Hanks for a new Grand Canyon on the site of Springfield. Horrified that their hometown is in danger, Marge and the kids decide to save it, but Homer objects to help the people who tried to kill them. The family abandon Homer but are captured by the EPA and placed back in the dome. After an encounter with a mysterious Inuit shaman, Homer has an epiphany that he must save the town in order to save himself. Just as he arrives, Homer learns his family is in Springfield and a helicopter lowers a time bomb suspended by rope through a hole in the roof of the dome. Homer climbs to the peak of the dome using super glue and descends the rope, knocking the escaping townspeople and the bomb off. Homer uses a motorcycle to travel up the side of the dome and Bart throws the bomb through the hole, seconds before detonation. The bomb explodes, shattering the dome. The townspeople praise Homer, who rides off with Marge on the motorcycle into the sunset. Springfield celebrates the dome's destruction with restoration while Cargill gets arrested for his crimes. ===== The poem, which in detail bears almost no resemblance to the actual history or cultural setting of the Crusades, tells of the initial disunity and setbacks of the Christians and their ultimate success in taking Jerusalem in 1099. The main historical leaders of the First Crusade feature, but much of the poem is concerned with romantic sub-plots involving entirely fictional characters, except for Tancredi, who is identified with the historical Tancred, Prince of Galilee. The three main female characters begin as Muslims, have romantic entanglements with Christian knights, and are eventually converted to Christianity. They are all women of action: two of them fight in battles, and the third is a sorceress. There are many magical elements, and the Saracens often act as though they were classical pagans. The most famous episodes, and those most often dramatised and painted, include the following: Clorinda attacks Tancredi, one of a series by Paolo Domenico Finoglia Sofronia (in English: Sophronia), a Christian maiden of Jerusalem, accuses herself of a crime in order to avert a general massacre of the Christians by the Muslim king. In an attempt to save her, her lover Olindo accuses himself in turn, and each lover pleads with the authorities in order to save the other. However it is the arrival and intervention of the warrior-maiden Clorinda which saves them (Canto 2). Clorinda joins the Muslims, but the Christian knight Tancredi (in English: Tancred) falls in love with her (Canto 3). During a night battle in which she sets the Christian siege tower on fire, she is mistakenly killed by Tancredi, but she converts to Christianity before dying (Canto 12). The character of Clorinda is inspired in part by Virgil's Camilla and by Bradamante in Ariosto; the circumstances of her birth (a Caucasian girl born to African parents) are modeled on the lead character (Chariclea) from the ancient Greek novel by Heliodorus of Emesa. To prevent the crusaders from cutting timber for siege engines, the Muslim sorcerer Ismen protects the forest with enchantments, which defeat the Christian knights, even Tancredi (Canto 13). Eventually the enchantments are broken by Rinaldo, and the siege engines built (Canto 18).Erminia discovers the wounded Tancred, by Guercino (1619). Another maiden of the region, the Princess Erminia (or "Hermine") of Antioch, also falls in love with Tancredi and betrays her people to help him, but she grows jealous when she learns that Tancredi loves Clorinda. One night she steals Clorinda's armor and leaves the city, in an attempt to find Tancredi, but she is attacked by Christian soldiers (who mistake her for Clorinda) and she flees into the forest, where she is cared for by a family of shepherds, with an old man who weaves baskets (Cantos 6-7). Later in the poem we find her again in the company of Armida's ladies, but Erminia abandons her Muslim people and goes over to the Christian side. When Tancredi is dangerously wounded in combat, she heals him, cutting off her hair to bind his wounds (Canto 19). The witch Armida (modeled on Circe in Homer and the witch Alcina in Ariosto's epic) enters the Christian camp asking for their aid; her seductions divide the knights against each other and a group leaves with her, only to be transformed into animals by her magic (Canto 5). Armida comes across the sleeping Rinaldo, the greatest of the Christian knights, and abducts him in her chariot (Canto 14). He has the same name as a Carolingian paladin count who is a character in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso [III, 30]; he is the son of Bertoldo and was the reputed founder of the House of Este. She intends to kill him but she falls in love with him instead and takes him away to a magical island where he becomes infatuated with her and forgets the crusade. Ascalon, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Carlo and Ubaldo, two Christian knights and close companions of Rinaldo, seek out the hidden fortress, brave the dangers that guard it and find Rinaldo and Armida in each other's arms. By giving Rinaldo a mirror of diamond, they force him to see himself in his effeminate and amorous state and to return to the war, leaving Armida heartbroken (Cantos 14-16). Rinaldo is deposited on a shore where he finds a shield and sword, and the "Mago d'Ascalona" ("Wizard of Ascalon") shows him a vision of the future in the shield, including the glories of the House of Este (Tasso drops in several prophecies of the time between 1099 and his own at various points). Rinaldo resolves to pursue the crusade with all his might (Canto 17).Clorinda Rescues Olindo and Sophronia by Eugène Delacroix.Armida is grief-stricken and raises an army to kill Rinaldo and fight the Christians, but her champions are all defeated. She attempts to commit suicide, but Rinaldo finds her in time and prevents her. Rinaldo then begs her to convert to Christianity, and Armida, her heart softened, consents (Canto 20). (This sequence echoes a similar storyline in Ariosto: the witch Alcina ensnares the knight Ruggiero, but the spell is broken by a magic ring that the good sorceress Melissa brings him; earlier antecedents include Calypso's attempt to keep Odysseus on her island Ogygia and Morgan le Fay taking Ogier the Dane off to a faraway island.) After the enchantments on the forest are broken, finally the Crusaders breach the walls and take the city, with some Muslims remaining in the Temple Mount. But an Egyptian army is known to be arriving in a few days (Canto 18). When they arrive there is a great battle outside the walls, which the Christians win, completing their quest (Canto 20). ===== A washed-up TV action hero—who at the peak of his career was ceremonially deputized by local law enforcement—falsely believes he can solve crimes in real life. His student Jason (played by Todd Field) becomes his sidekick. ===== Ferdinand Griffon is unhappily married and has been recently fired from his job at a TV broadcasting company. After attending a mindless party full of shallow discussions in Paris, he feels a need to escape and decides to run away with ex-girlfriend Marianne Renoir, leaving his wife and children and bourgeois lifestyle. Following Marianne into her apartment and finding a corpse, Ferdinand soon discovers that Marianne is being chased by OAS gangsters, two of whom they barely escape. Marianne and "Pierrot" – the unwelcome nickname meaning "sad clown", which Marianne gives to Ferdinand during their time together – go on a travelling crime spree from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea in the dead man's car. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run. When they settle down in the French Riviera after burning the dead man's car (full of money) and sinking a second car into the Mediterranean Sea, their relationship becomes strained. Pierrot ends up reading books, philosophizing, and writing in his diary. Marianne becomes bored by their living situation and insists they return to town, where they meet one of their pursuers in a nightclub. The gangsters waterboard Pierrot and depart. In the confusion, Marianne and Pierrot are separated. He settles in Toulon while she searches for him. After their eventual reunion, Marianne uses Pierrot to get a suitcase full of money before running away with her real boyfriend Fred, to whom she had previously referred as her brother. Pierrot shoots Marianne and Fred, then paints his face blue and decides to blow himself up by tying sticks of red and yellow dynamite to his head. He regrets this at the last second and tries to extinguish the fuse, but he fails and is blown up. ===== James J. Braddock is an Irish-American boxer from New Jersey, formerly a light heavyweight contender, who is forced to give up boxing after breaking his hand in the ring. This is both a relief and a burden to his wife, Mae. She cannot bring herself to watch the violence of his chosen profession, yet she knows they will not have enough income without his boxing. As the United States enters the Great Depression, Braddock does manual labor as a longshoreman to support his family, even with his injured hand. Unfortunately, he cannot get work every day. Thanks to a last-minute cancellation by another boxer, Braddock's longtime manager and friend, Joe Gould, offers him a chance to fill in for just one night and earn cash. The fight is against the number-two contender in the world, Corn Griffin. Braddock stuns the boxing experts and fans with a third-round knockout of his formidable opponent. He believes that while his right hand was broken, he became more proficient with his left hand, improving his in-ring ability. Despite Mae's objections, Braddock takes up Gould's offer to return to the ring. Mae resents this attempt by Gould to profit from her husband's dangerous livelihood, until she discovers that Gould and his wife also have been devastated by hard times. With a shot at the heavyweight championship held by Max Baer a possibility, Braddock continues to win. Out of a sense of pride, he uses a portion of his prize money to pay back money to the government given to him while unemployed. When his rags to riches story gets out, the sportswriter Damon Runyon dubs him "The Cinderella Man", and before long Braddock comes to represent the hopes and aspirations of the American public struggling with the Depression. After wins against John Henry Lewis and Art Lasky, a title fight against Baer comes his way. Braddock is a 10-to-1 underdog. Mae is terrified because Baer, the champ, is (as portrayed in this highly fictionalized characterization) a vicious man who reportedly has killed at least two men in the ring. He is so destructive that the fight's promoter, James Johnston, forces both Braddock and Gould to watch a film of Baer in action, just so he can maintain later that he warned them what Braddock was up against. Braddock demonstrates no fear. The arrogant Baer attempts to intimidate him, even taunting Mae in public that her man might not survive. When he says this, she becomes so angry that she throws a drink at him. She is unable to attend the fight at the Madison Square Garden Bowl or even to listen to it on the radio. On June 13, 1935, in one of the greatest upsets in boxing history, Braddock defeats the seemingly invincible Baer to become the heavyweight champion of the world. An epilogue reveals that Braddock would lose his title to Joe Louis and later worked on the building of the Verrazano Bridge, owning and operating heavy machinery on the docks where he worked during the Depression, and that he and Mae used his boxing income to buy a house, where they spent the rest of their lives. ===== To keep her secrets confidential, Lisa wants a Turbo Diary, which electrocutes anyone who tries to read it besides the owner, for her birthday after seeing a commercial of it on TV. Homer and Bart go to the mall to get the diary, but the former gets sidetracked by the loads of free food samples and by the time they get to the toy store, the diaries are sold out. After seeing a personalized animated film Ned made for Rod, Homer does the same for Lisa, but when Lisa watches it, she realizes Homer knows nothing about her, upsetting her. Feeling sad, Homer gets an idea from Moe to hire Dexter Colt, a private detective, to find out facts about Lisa. Colt spies on her and builds up information for a report, which Homer uses to bond with Lisa by playing songs she likes and going to a protest against animal testing at a research lab. When Homer goes to Colt to thank him, he gives him a bill for $1000. Homer refuses to pay the bill and runs off to his house as Colt swears revenge. The next morning, someone has vandalized the research lab and stolen all the animals. Chief Wiggum says that, based on the clues, Lisa is the main suspect. Lisa says she is innocent and Homer realizes that she has been framed by Colt. They escape as fugitives in disguise. While on the run, Homer confesses about the report and Colt to Lisa, upsetting her once more. The police track the pair to a motel, but they escape again and find themselves at a circus, where they find all the stolen animals. Colt shows up and chases Homer into a hall of mirrors. As Colt is about to kill Homer, Lisa shows up. After Homer mentions her strong sense of hearing, Lisa, impressed he actually remembered something about her, blinds Colt with a laser pointer Bart gave her for her birthday, resulting in him being arrested. Lisa is exonerated, and the animals are all released back into the wild, until Cletus and his family adopts them. Later, Lisa eventually gets her Turbo Diary, which Bart uses one night to play a prank on Homer. ===== After a series of countrywide auditions, twelve young dancers gain entry to the American Ballet Academy (which is loosely based on the School of American Ballet), the affiliate school of the American Ballet Company (which appears to be based on either the American Ballet Theatre or the New York City Ballet). They work hard, attending classes every day for weeks to make them the best dancers they can possibly be, and in preparations for a final dance workshop which will determine the three boys and three girls who will be asked to join the company. The workshop will also provide an opportunity for the students to showcase their talent to other ballet companies across the country. Gaining a leading part in the workshop is therefore essential. Tensions mount between Jonathan Reeves (Peter Gallagher), the company's aging choreographer and director, and Cooper Nielson (Ethan Stiefel), his best dancer, who also wants to choreograph. They also have issues because Kathleen Donahue (Julie Kent), Cooper's ex-girlfriend and fellow dancer, left him to wed Jonathan. Star student Maureen (Susan May Pratt), a closet bulimic who seems poised for success, discovers that life is passing her by when she meets a pre-med student (Eion Bailey) who shows her the merits of a life without ballet, to the dismay of her controlling stage mother (Debra Monk), herself a failed ballet dancer and current ABC employee. Sweet Jody Sawyer (Amanda Schull), despite underdeveloped turn out, body type issues, and poor footwork, is determined to dance professionally, but it appears less and less likely as the movie progresses that she will be good enough. Jody's parents, Jonathan, Maureen, and ballet teacher Juliette Simone (Donna Murphy) try to convince Jody to move on from dance and attend college. Jody refuses to give up on her dream of being in a professional ballet company. Talented, but smart aleck Eva Rodriguez (Zoe Saldana; doubled by SAB alumna and former NYCB member Aesha Ash) from Boston loves to dance but seems destined to be stuck in the back of the corps because of her bad attitude. Tensions also arise between Charlie (Sascha Radetsky), a naturally gifted fellow advanced student from Seattle, and Cooper over Jody; Charlie has a crush on Jody, who had a one-night stand with Cooper and remains infatuated with him. Despite Jonathan's objections, Cooper choreographs a rock/pop music- based ballet for the workshop. Three ballets are presented; Jonathan and another choreographer create the other two respectively—the two more "traditional" ballets are not danced to actual ballet music, however. The first (not shown, beyond entrances of the corps and soloist from the wings) is to Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, while Jonathan's ballet (choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon) is set to Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto. Cooper's ballet (choreographed by Susan Stroman) mirrors the relationship between himself, Jonathan, and Kathleen. Jody, Charlie, and their gay friend Erik (Shakiem Evans) are set to dance the three lead roles when Erik sprains his ankle in a final rehearsal. To Jonathan's protests and Jody's apprehension, Cooper steps in to fill the role, and the tensions between Jody, Charlie, and Cooper play out on the stage. After the final workshop, Cooper starts his own dance company, much to Jonathan's chagrin, as Cooper's financial backer is a wealthy widow (played by Elizabeth Hubbard) who Jonathan was hoping would donate to American Ballet Company. Cooper asks Jody to be a principal dancer, as her dancing style, though technically deficient, is perfect for his company. He also asks to date her, but Jody turns him down in favor of Charlie. Maureen decides to give up ballet because she finally realizes that ballet is just something she does well and not what she wants in life. She decides to attend regular university and also seek help for her eating disorder. Eva is picked by Jonathan to join ABC after proving her worth in the workshop, surprising everyone by dancing in place of Maureen as the lead in Jonathan's ballet. When Nancy confronts Maureen for quitting, she calls her mother out for her behavior. She points out that ballet was Nancy's passion and that she only did ballet to make Nancy proud because she never got the chance to be a ballet dancer herself. After realizing how unhappy she is, Maureen decided she wants a normal life in attending college and follow her own dreams away from Nancy. Charlie, and fellow advanced students and friends Anna (who was always favored by Jonathan and who danced "Gelsey Kirkland's part" as the lead in the Italian Symphony ballet; played by SAB alumna and former NYCB corps member Megan Pepin) and Erik are also asked to join the American Ballet Company, and Sergei (Ilia Kulik), Charlie and Erik's roommate and friend, joins his girlfriend Galina in the San Francisco Ballet Company. ===== Ellen Pendleton, an aspiring writer who wants to earn additional money, takes a job at a private library run by Gloria. Ellen soon learns that this is no ordinary library: the books in it contain the descriptions of people's lives, accurate to the latest second. When a person dies, that book is to be removed, and Ellen is assigned to collect said books. Gloria warns Ellen not to read the books, as that is something firmly prohibited by her employers. However, temptation gets the better of Ellen when she sees her own book, and opens it to the last page which states exactly what she just did. Ellen is disturbed by her noisy neighbours, Edwin and Carla, and decides to have a little revenge. She re-writes a chapter in Edwin's book to get him a job as a Catholic priest, rendering him ineligible to have married Carla and preventing all their boisterous lovemaking. When Ellen gets home that night, she finds her sister Lori consoling the now never-married Carla, who is on the verge of nervous breakdown due to loneliness. To repair the damage done, Ellen rewrites Carla's book to make her happily married to another neighbour, Doug. Now the problem is that Doug is bankrupt from buying gifts for Carla. Ellen then fixes Doug's problems by giving him real estate wealth, but now he is her landlord and her sister is staging a protest against him for raising the rent. Ellen rewrites her own book so that she and Lori live in a house by the sea instead. She returns home to find that Lori drowned while rescuing a little boy from the ocean. Ellen dashes back to the library and is caught by Gloria, who is incensed when she learns the books have been tampered with. She quickly orders Ellen to gather all the books she rewrote and ushers her out of the library. Much to her amazement, Ellen is met outside by Lori, alive and well. Ellen rings the doorbell of the library, but the door is answered by a man who claims to have been living there for the past ten years and who knows nothing of a library there. Convinced that things are now in order, Ellen and Lori leave. ===== Fed up with her dead-end job with a Minneapolis car rental agency, Martha quits, cashes her final paycheck, and uses the money to purchase an airline ticket to the least expensive international destination she can find - London. At the airport, she meets Daniel, a successful music label executive, who covertly arranges for her to be upgraded to First Class and seated next to him on the flight. When she sells the ticket to another passenger and Daniel finds his seatmate is an obnoxiously loud woman instead of the girl of his dreams, he moves back to the Economy section and takes the vacant seat next to Martha. Before landing in London, he offers her the use of a deluxe suite in a luxury hotel at his company's expense in exchange for a lunch date the following day. Through a series of flashbacks and flashforwards, we learn Laurence, a former bridge champion who now teaches the game to wealthy women, went to the airport to pick up Daniel but missed him because the flight landed early. Instead, he literally runs into Martha, who hits him with a luggage cart while searching for the exit. She coerces him into taking her into the city and invites him to the suite for dinner. While she is in the bathroom, a bouquet of flowers from Daniel is delivered to the suite, and when Laurence sees the attached card, he departs without explanation. The following day, Martha meets struggling actor Frank, who has fled an audition in a panic and has gone to the park to console himself with a half-bottle of whiskey. Having heard about her from Daniel, he realizes who she is and calls Laurence to boast that he is about to make her his conquest. He takes her to a nearby art gallery. Martha slips away and heads for the exit, where she reunites with Laurence, who was looking for the pair. He invites her back to his flat and she accepts. Torn between loyalty to Daniel and love for Martha, Laurence seeks advice from Pederson, a neighbour he mistakenly believes is a psychiatrist, in the early morning hours. In the interim, Martha awakens and seeing a photograph of the three friends, assumes she has been the target of an elaborate practical joke. To get even, she separately invites each of the men to meet her for breakfast and when all three arrive, bearing floral arrangements of varying size, a brawl ensues. Laurence sees Martha running off in the distance but is unable to catch her. Despondent, he goes to a travel agency to purchase a ticket anywhere he can go for £99, which proves to be Reykjavík. At the airport gate, he is told he is being seated in First Class and when he boards the plane, he finds Martha waiting for him. She reveals she was responsible for the upgrade, a trick she learned from Daniel. ===== When Claire (played by Lola Naymark) learns that she is five months pregnant at the age of seventeen, she decides to keep the baby and not to tell the father (who seems to be married). Instead, she quits her current job at a local supermarket and goes to work as an assistant for Madame Mélikian (Ariane Ascaride), an embroiderer for haute couture. Mélikian has just lost her only son in a motorcycle accident. Claire shows her willingness in taking her duties, as well as taking over Mélikian's private order when she is treated in the hospital. ===== In the 2002 OVA Mazinkaiser, Tetsuya fights alongside Kouji against Doctor Hell's forces. The OVA version of Great Mazinger is physically identical to the original, but with black coloring on the arms and legs instead of blue. Great is seriously damaged during the initial battle in the series. It became worse when the captured Mazinger Z attacks the Photon Power Labs even though Tetsuya does his best to defend the lab against Mazinger Z. Lastly, the rampaging Mazinkaiser leaves him badly injured while Great Mazinger is a complete wreck. Consequently, he leaves together with Jun to treat for his injuries. Near the end of the OVA, Tetsuya returns with a new and much more powerful Great, which is discovered in Doctor Juzo Kabuto's laboratory. This is said to be the real Great Mazinger (or "Shin Great Mazinger"). The "true" Great is structurally the same as the earlier version, but the color scheme for the forearms and legs is blue, as in the original 70's version. It is explained that the Great Mazinger made by Doctor Kenzo Kabuto (Kouji's father) is the prototype version seen in the early episodes, whereas Doctor Juzo Kabuto (Kouji's grandfather), who secretly works in an underground laboratory, managed to finish the final version of Great Mazinger. With a tremendous power compared to the prototype version, Tetsuya asked Kouji to confront Dr. Hell in Bardos Island. Kouji, without knowing the true Shin Great Mazinger, was worried and asked Tetsuya if he can handle an entire army of super robots. However, having the confidence with Shin Great Mazinger, Tetusya scolds Kouji of his cockiness. Therefore, Kouji flies off to fight Dr. Hell leaving Tetsuya against an entire army of mechanical beasts. Consequently, Shin Great Mazinger defeated the entire army of Doctor Hell including the possessed Venus Ace (although most of the battle was not shown). After the battle without damage, Great Mazinger decided to find and help Kouji in the Floating Fortress of Dr. Hell. The concept of Shin Great Mazinger is to bring Great Mazinger to the ranks of modern and more powerful robots such as Mazinkaiser and Shin Getter Robo. ===== Max Dembo (Dustin Hoffman), lifelong thief, is released from a six-year stint in prison and forced to report to a boorish and condescending parole officer, Earl Frank (M. Emmet Walsh). One of the conditions of parole is that Max finds a job. At the employment agency, he meets Jenny Mercer (Theresa Russell), who helps him land scale-wage work at a can factory. Jenny accepts his invitation to dinner, where it's clear that she is smitten by this worldly and seemingly gentle ex-con. Earl pays a surprise visit to Max's room, finding a book of matches that Max's friend Willy Darin (Gary Busey) recently used to cook heroin. Although Max clearly has no track marks or other signs of drug abuse, he is handcuffed and dragged back to jail, out of a job and a home. Jenny visits him and gives him her number to call when he gets out. After urine tests prove he's clean, Max is picked up by a smug Earl, who feels he actually gave Max a break by not pursuing the fact that someone had been using drugs in his place of residence, which would result in three more years in prison. During their car ride to a halfway house, Earl pushes Max to name the user. Max, realizing he will never get a break, pummels Earl, takes control of his car, and handcuffs him to a highway divider fence with his pants around his ankles. This stunt now makes straight life impossible. Max returns to a life of crime, robbing a Chinese grocery store and planning bigger heists with some willing old accomplices. After robbing a bank together, Max and his friend Jerry Schue (Harry Dean Stanton) decide to up the ante and clean out a Beverly Hills jewelry store. The job is botched when Max takes too long in trying to steal everything. Willy, acting as getaway driver, panics and takes off, leaving Max and Jerry to flee on foot as police converge on the store. Jerry is shot and dies, while Max shoots a police officer. Max escapes with the loot, settles the score with Willy by killing him, and escapes L.A. with a loyal Jenny by his side. Outside the city limits, though, Max has second thoughts as to their prospects on the lam. He decides to leave Jenny at a gas station for her own good, telling her he will be caught no matter what as he drives away. ===== The Word for World is Forest begins from the point of view of Captain Davidson, who is the commander of a logging camp named Smith camp. Many native Athsheans are used as slave labor at the camp, and also as personal servants. The novel begins with Davidson travelling to "Centralville", the headquarters of the colony, hoping to have a sexual encounter with one of a number of women who have just arrived on the predominantly male colony. When Davidson returns to Smith Camp, he finds the entire camp burned to the ground, and all of the humans dead. He lands to investigate, and while on the ground is overpowered by four Athsheans. He recognizes one of them as Selver, an Athshean who was a personal servant at the headquarters of the colony, and later an assistant to Raj Lyubov, the colony anthropologist. A few months prior to the attack, Davidson had raped Selver's wife Thele, who died in the process, prompting an enraged Selver to attack Davidson. Davidson nearly kills him, before he is rescued by Lyubov; however, he is left with prominent facial scars, which render him easily recognizable. The Athsheans allow Davidson to leave and carry a message about the destruction of the camp back to the colony headquarters. After the attack, Selver roams through the forest for five days before coming upon an Athshean settlement. After recovering from the effects of many days of travel, Selver describes to the people of the town the destruction of his town, known as Eshreth, by the Terrans, who then built their headquarters at the site. He also tells them about the enslavement of hundreds of Athsheans at the various camps. He says that the Terrans are crazy because they do not respect the sanctity of life in the same way that the Athsheans do, which was why he led the attack against camp Smith. After some discussion, the people of the town send messengers to other towns sharing Selver's story, while Selver himself travels back towards the Terran headquarters. An inquiry into the destruction of camp Smith is held at Centralville. In addition to the personnel of the colony, two emissaries from the planets of Hain and Tau Ceti also participate. Lyubov states that the colony's mistreatment and enslavement of the Athsheans led to the attack. Colonel Dongh, the commander of the colony, blames Lyubov's assessment of the Athsheans as non-aggressive. The emissaries state that the rules of Terra's colonial administration have changed since the colony last heard from it; they present the colony with an ansible, which can communicate instantly with Terra and the colonial administration (communication which would otherwise take 27 years in one direction). They also state that Terra is now a member of the "League of Worlds", of which they are emissaries. The colony is forced to release all its Athshean slaves, and minimize contact with them. Davidson is transferred to a different camp under a higher-ranking commander, as punishment for a retaliatory raid that he carried out. However, Davidson violates his orders and leads further attacks against Athshean towns, without the knowledge of his superiors. Following the inquiry, Lyubov visits the Athshean town he had been studying. He meets Selver, hoping to rebuild their friendship, but Selver rebuffs him, telling him to stay away from the town center. Two nights later, Selver leads the Athsheans in a massive attack on Centralville. Although the attack deliberately avoids Lyubov's house, Lyubov leaves during the attack and is killed by a collapsing building. The attack kills all of the women in the colony; the men that survive are herded into a compound and held prisoner. Selver tells them that the attack was in retaliation for Davidson's killings in the south, which the survivors are ignorant of. Selver states that if the Terrans agree to restrict themselves to a small area and agree to avoid conflict with the Athsheans, they will be left in peace until the next Terran ship arrives to take them off the colony. The survivors agree to his terms, and order all their remaining outposts to withdraw, including the one at which Davidson lives. However, Davidson disobeys orders and continues to attack Athshean towns, refusing to return to Centralville. After a couple of weeks, the Athsheans attack Davidson's camp, killing or capturing everybody except Davidson and two others, who escape in a helicopter. Although the others want to return to Centralville, Davidson orders them back to fight the Athsheans. The Helicopter crashes, killing all but Davidson, who is captured. He is taken before Selver, who says that Davidson gave Selver the gift of murder, but that Selver would not kill Davidson, because there was no need. Instead, the Athsheans abandon Davidson on an island that Terran logging has rendered barren. Three years later the Terran ships return and take the surviving colonists off the planet; the commander of the ships states that the Terrans will not return except as observers and scientists, as the planet has been placed under a ban by the League of Worlds. Selver gives Lyubov's research, which he has saved, to one of the emissaries, who tells him that Lyubov's efforts to protect the Athsheans will not be forgotten, and that his work will be given the value it deserves. Selver reflects that although the planet may have been won from the Terrans, his people have now learned the ability to kill without reason. ===== ;Jizzle: the title story Jizzle refers to a monkey purchased by a man working in a circus side-show. The monkey, apparently named Jizzle as a mis-pronunciation of Giselle, has the ability to draw portraits of anyone placed in front of her, and her new owner exploits this talent in the circus. Jealousy builds up between the monkey and the man's wife, culminating when the man finds a picture Jizzle has drawn of his wife apparently sleeping with his friend. After his wife leaves, as a result of the picture, the man begins to tire of Jizzle and mistreats her, eventually giving her away to another worker at the circus. A few days later the new owner appears with Jizzle and a picture she has drawn of the new owner's wife and the old owner in bed together. As the new owner exacts his revenge, Jizzle smirks. Alfred Hitchcock Presents filmed this story, retitling it Maria. ;Technical Slip: deals with the aftermath of a bureaucratic error by a demonic trader. A corporate bureaucracy gives a wealthy old man extra life by taking him back to an earlier part of his life. Crucially, it leaves his memories intact, meaning that he has a chance to alter the "future". ;A Present from Brunswick: sees the Pied Piper of Hamelin's enchanted pipe reappearing in America after World War II, with unforeseen consequences for the inhabitants of a small town. ;Chinese Puzzle: deals with the egg of a Chinese dragon hatching in Wales, much to the astonishment of the local populace. Originally published in Argosy, this story inspired Peter Rudland's design for the cover of early editions. ;Esmeralda: is a performing flea. Though she never managed the bicycle trick, her greatest stunt involved unwittingly sorting out her owner's love-life. ;How Do I Do?: sees a young woman meeting her future self. Her first thought upon travelling to the future or to the past? Buying a new wardrobe. ;Una: sees a genetically created creature fall in love with one of the people who come to investigate its creator's lab. Originally published in Argosy, this story also appears in The Best of John Wyndham (a.k.a. The Man from Beyond) under the title "The Perfect Creature"). ;Affair of the Heart: tells of a man who has proposed to the same woman on the same day for over thirty years. Why, then, does he commit suicide after the 32nd date? ;Confidence Trick: tells of an Underground train-journey to hell itself, and the effects of belief on the part of the travellers. This story inspired the cover artwork for later editions.http://unsubscribedblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/art-of-the-human- skull/ ;The Wheel: takes a brief look at the religiously devout survivors of a near-apocalyptic catastrophe for a humanoid race. ;Look Natural, Please!: presents the story of an iconoclastic young photographer who becomes part of the artistic establishment. ;Perforce to Dream: sees two women discovering that not only have they independently written two near-identical novels based on their recurring dreams, but that many other women share these very same dreams. This story originally appeared in Women's Journal. ;Reservation Deferred: sees a ghost visit a dying teenage woman and change her views about the male-designed afterlife. ;Heaven Scent: originally published in Everybody's, is the story of the scheming secretary of a brilliant inventor. ;More Spinned Against: (which first appeared in Argosy), tells of how the legendary Arachne finds herself in the clutches of a spider-obsessed collector and of the deal she makes with the collector's wife Lydia. Selected stories from this collection make up the bulk of the material collected in Tales of Gooseflesh and Laughter. ===== Nathan Barley, played by Nicholas Burns, is a webmaster, guerrilla filmmaker, screenwriter, DJ and in his own words, a "self- facilitating media node". Whilst desperate to convince himself and others that he is the epitome of urban cool, Nathan is secretly terrified he might not be, which is why he reads Sugar Ape magazine, his bible of cool. Sugar Ape has been described as a spoof of Dazed & Confused and Vice, although Brooker has stated that "the SugarApe "Vice" issue from Ep5 wasn't an assault on Vice magazine I think it just (understandably) ended up looking that way". The website consists of stupid pranks caught on camera, photos of him with attractive women and famous figures (some of them digitally edited to insert himself), and photos of him standing on street corners in major cities around the world. The humour derives from the rapid rise of both the Internet and digital media, and the assumption by publishers and broadcasters that almost any such work is worthy of attention. Barley and his peers are often hired ahead of actual journalists and talented writers trying to make intelligent points, such as the earnest documentary filmmaker Claire Ashcroft (Claire Keelan), and her brother Dan (Julian Barratt), the series' two other central characters. Claire seeks to highlight the plight of the inner city's homeless and drug-dependent; Dan is a jaded, opinionated and apathetic hack who, having written an article for Sugar Ape entitled "The Rise of the Idiots", is appalled to find that "the idiots" in question – Nathan and his contemporaries – have adopted him as their spiritual leader, failing to see that they are the very people he was criticising. While Dan sees a clear distinction between himself and the "idiots", he's frequently forced to compromise his own ethics in order to earn a living, and seems to be fighting the dawning realisation that he may actually be the very thing he despises. At the same time, Claire, who clearly wants to see herself as socially responsible and philanthropic, is doggedly determined to further her own career. Other recurring characters include Nathan's idiot flatmate Toby (Rhys Thomas) and the staff at Dan Ashcroft's magazine, Sugar Ape: asinine chief editor Jonatton Yeah? (Charlie Condou), Ned Smanks (Richard Ayoade) and Rufus Onslatt (Spencer Brown), a pair of gormless graphic designers, and receptionist Sasha (Nina Sosanya). Barley has an inoffensive young assistant called Pingu (Ben Whishaw). The eccentric and ludicrous Doug Rocket, founder member of The Veryphonics, and played by comedian David Hoyle (a spoof of Dave Stewart of Eurythmics), also appears in several episodes. Dan Ashcroft's flatmate is a DJ called "Jones", who appears blissfully unaware of the antisocial cacophony he creates. Jones is played by Noel Fielding, Barratt's partner in comic duo The Mighty Boosh. ===== In 1757, British Army Major Duncan Heyward arrives in Albany, New York during the French and Indian War. He is assigned to serve Colonel Edmund Munro, the commander of Fort William Henry in the Adirondack Mountains. Heyward is tasked with escorting Munro's two daughters, Cora and Alice, to their father. Before they leave, Heyward asks Cora to marry him, but she does not give him an answer. A Mohawk named Magua is tasked with guiding Heyward, the two women, and a troop of British soldiers to the fort, but he is actually a Huron and leads them into an ambush. Mohican Chingachgook, his son Uncas, and his white, adopted son, "Hawkeye", kill all of the Hurons except Magua, who escapes. The trio agrees to take the women and Heyward to the fort. During the trek, Cora and Hawkeye are attracted to each other, as are Uncas and Alice. They find the fort under siege by the French and their Huron allies. They sneak in. Colonel Munro is surprised to see his daughters. Heyward becomes jealous of Hawkeye. Cora tells him she will not marry him. Munro refuses to honor the agreement that the militiamen could leave to protect their homesteads if they were threatened. After Hawkeye helps them sneak away, he is arrested for sedition and sentenced to hang. However, without reinforcements, Munro is forced to accept French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm's offer: the British can leave the fort honorably with their arms. Magua is furious because this robs him of his chance to kill Munro, against whom he bears a grudge. Once Munro, his soldiers and civilians leave the fort, Huron warriors attack and massacre them. Magua personally kills Munro by cutting out his heart. Hawkeye, Uncas, and Chingachgook fight their way out, taking Cora, Alice, Heyward, and a few others. They hide in a cave behind a waterfall, but Magua catches up with them, capturing Heyward and the women. Magua takes his three prisoners to a Huron settlement. While he is addressing a sachem, Hawkeye walks in unarmed to plead for their lives. The paramount chief rules that Heyward is to be returned to the British, Alice be given to Magua for the wrongs done to him by Munro, and Cora be burned alive. Although Hawkeye is told he may leave in peace for his bravery, he offers to take Cora's place. Heyward, who is acting as interpreter, instead trades his life for Cora's. After Hawkeye and Cora leave the village, he shoots Heyward as he is being burned alive. Chingachgook, Uncas, and Hawkeye then pursue Magua's party to rescue Alice. Uncas races ahead, but is killed in personal combat by Magua. Alice then leaps to her death, despite Magua's attempt to dissuade her. Eventually, Hawkeye and Chingachgook slay some of the Hurons. Then Hawkeye holds the rest at bay, while Chingachgook duels and kills Magua. Afterward, Hawkeye and Cora watch as Chingachgook prays to the Great Spirit to receive Uncas, proclaiming himself "the last of the Mohicans." ===== In November 1987, Jamaican sprinter Derice Bannock, a top 100m runner and popular town figure, trains one morning with locals for the upcoming Olympic Trial for the 1988 Summer Olympics, which has been a long-time dream of his. He later meets his best friend, Sanka Coffie, a six-time pushcart champion, at the Annual Pushcart Derby, where Sanka hopes to win his record seventh race. During the race, Sanka smart-talks past the others and wins, but is then pushed off the track by a nearby racer and crashes. Later at the Olympic Trial, Derice fails to qualify when a fellow younger runner trips and falls, taking Derice and another runner - who is bald and more muscular - down with him. While complaining to the President of the Jamaican Olympic Committee, Mr. Barrington Coolidge, and urging him to allow a restart of the race, Derice notices a picture on the wall of Coolidge's office: it is his own father Ben Bannock, who was also a sprinter, standing next to a gold-medal-wearing Caucasian man. Asking Coolidge who the other man in the picture is, he learns that he is Irv Blitzer, an old Olympian friend of Ben who had a plan to recruit sprinters to create a Jamaican bobsled team years ago, and was a two- time American bobsled Gold Medalist at the 1968 Winter Olympics. He finished first in two events again during the 1972 Winter Olympics but was disqualified from the latter for cheating and retired in disgrace to Jamaica, where he leads an impoverished life as a bookie. Intrigued at the idea of getting to the Olympics via bobsledding for Jamaica, Derice leaves Coolidge's office to seek out Blitzer. Before meeting with Blitzer, Derice first seeks out Sanka to get him to join his bobsled team, successfully convincing Sanka after he mentions possible fame on a Wheaties box. They both then go to seek out Blitzer at a nearby Billiards Club. Blitzer is initially hostile and refuses to speak to them; after repeated attempts, Derice finally manages to tell him that he's Ben Bannocks' son and reminds him of his former Olympic dreams, which eventually convinces Blitzer. Hosting a recruitment meeting shortly after, Irv, Derice, and Sanka are disappointed when all the recruits leave after a presentation; however at the end, two familiar men show up - the other runners who fell alongside Derice in the earlier Olympic qualifying race. Both men agree to join the team, although the bald and muscular one, with the unlikely name of Yul Brenner, is still upset over being tripped by the younger runner, Junior Bevil. Over the next several weeks, the four train under Blitzer's guidance, using a wheeled bobsled that they ride down on hillsides; overtime, they improve both their speed and sled coordination. Blitzer eventually tries to talk to Mr. Coolidge to fund them the $20,000 needed to go to the Winter Olympics, but Mr. Coolidge refuses as he thinks the team's inexperience will embarrass the nation. Undeterred, the four sledders try to find various ways to earn money to get in the Olympics, but no sponsor takes the idea seriously and their various fundraisers such as busking and a kissing booth all fail. Junior eventually gets the money by selling his car, and the team heads off to Canada. In Calgary, Blitzer officially registers the team and manages to acquire a practice sled from an old bobsledding teammate Roger, as the Jamaicans have never been in an actual bobsled nor practiced on ice. In the following weeks, they observe ice skaters and hockey players as they practice walking on ice, and workout intensely to gain strength and cold endurance. Derice is particularly inspired by the Swiss Bobsledders' technique and watches their practice runs. In their own practice runs, with their unadorned practice sled, the Jamaicans initially do poorly and are looked down upon by other countries; the East German team is particularly annoyed with them, and their arrogant leader, Josef Grool, tells them to go home, resulting in a bar fight. At the hotel room, Derice and Blitzer reprimand Sanka, Yul, and Junior for their behavior, and Blitzer reminds Sanka, Yul, and Junior what is at stake for the team if they do not start listening to him and Derice. The team resolves to view the contest more seriously, continuing to train and improve their technique, while Yul and Junior begin showing mutual respect for one another over their respective dreams and struggles. The team successfully qualifies for the finals, but are subsequently disqualified due to a technicality which the Olympic committee trotted out as retribution for Blitzer's prior cheating scandal. Frustrated, Blitzer butts in on the committee meeting and confronts his former coach from the 1972 Olympic Winter Games, Kurt Hemphill, now a primary judge of the 1988 Olympic Winter Games. He takes responsibility for embarrassing his country with the scandal and implores the committee to punish him for his mistake, but not punish the Jamaican team, as they had nothing to do with his cheating scandal. Blitzer reminds them that the Jamaicans deserve to represent their country by competing in the Winter Games as contenders. That night at their hotel, the team gets a phone call informing them that the committee has reversed its decision and allows the Jamaicans to compete once again. After attending the Olympics opening ceremony, the team receives a visit from Junior's father, Mr. Bevil, who wants to bring Junior back home, but Junior stands his ground that he must forge his own path in life, earning Yul's respect. The Jamaicans' first day on the track results in more embarrassment and a last place finish. Sanka identifies the problem as Derice trying to copy the Swiss team which he idolizes and convinces him that the best they can do is bobsled "Jamaican". Once the team develops their own style and tradition, the second day improves; the Jamaican team finishes with a fast time which puts them in eighth position. Derice asks Blitzer about why he decided to cheat despite his gold medals and prestige. He tells Derice he aspired to make winning his whole life, citing that "a gold medal is a wonderful thing, but if you're not enough without it, you'll never be enough with it;". Blitzer says that when the Olympics are over, Derice will know if he can think of himself as a champion, medal or no medal. For the first half of the final day's race, it looks as though the team will push into medal contention, until, due to the sled being old, one of the sled's blades detaches from a loosening screw, causing it to flip onto its side as it comes out of a turn, leaving the team meters short of the finish line. Determined to finish the race, the team lift the sled over their shoulders and walk across the finish line to rousing applause from spectators, including Grool, Hemphill, and Junior's father. The team, at the end, feel accomplished enough to return in four years to the next Olympics. A photographer takes a photo of the team, which Mr. Coolidge is seen later adding to his wall photograph collection in his office, adding it just above the photo of Blitzer and Ben Bannock taken 20 years earlier. A brief epilogue states the team returned to Jamaica as heroes, and upon their return to the Winter Olympics four years later, they were treated as equals. ===== A Japanese teen named Yamato Hino, a young sports enthusiast, during a quiet and ordinary day begins to feel strange calls from an indefinite dimension. Frightened and confused, the boy thinks that he had hallucinations but during a thunderstorm a lightning bolt drags him into a parallel world: the ancient kingdom of Mu, ruled by King Muraji whose concern is to defend the capital of his kingdom, attacked by monsters commanded by the evil Dorado of the Empire of Dinosaurs. In the kingdom of Mu, a legend tells of a titanic being that stands ready to defend the population from any threat and the king wants to awaken the giant statue of the god Mazinger; to do this he needs a brave boy whose name is Yamato, the only one capable of awakening the mighty giant. The devout prayers of the king and the princess are heard: the boy arrives to the dimension of Mu and the statue suddenly becomes alive. A luminous beam covers the boy that is absorbed into the body of the statue, which begins to move. When the monsters of Dorado broke through the defenses of the kingdom, God Mazinger defeats the dinosaurs and makes the enemy army flee. And thus the legend becomes a reality. Yamato joins the court of newly crowned Queen Aira Mu, becoming the champion of the Kingdom of Mu, always ready to repel the attacks of the evil Dorado and his fearsome dinosaurs. ===== Fifteen-year-old Billy Casper, growing up in the late 1960s in a poor South Yorkshire community dominated by the local coal mining industry, has little hope in life. He is picked on, both at home by his physically and verbally abusive older half-brother, Jud (who works at the mine), and at school, by his schoolmates and by abusive teachers. Although he insists that his earlier petty criminal behaviour is behind him, he occasionally steals eggs and milk from milk floats. He has difficulty paying attention in school and is often provoked into tussles with classmates. Billy's father left the family some time ago, and his mother refers to him at one point, while somberly speaking to her friends about her children and their chances in life, as a "hopeless case". Billy is due to leave school soon, as an "Easter Leaver", without taking any public examinations (and therefore no qualifications); Jud states early in the film that he expects Billy will shortly be joining him at work in the mine, whereas Billy says that he does not know what job he will do, but also says nothing would make him work in the mine. One day, Billy takes a kestrel from a nest on a farm. His interest in learning falconry prompts him to steal a book on the subject from a secondhand book shop, as he is underage and needs – but lies about the reasons he cannot obtain – adult authorisation for a borrower's card from the public library. As the relationship between Billy and "Kes", the kestrel, improves during the training, so does Billy's outlook and horizons. For the first time in the film, Billy receives praise, from his English teacher after delivering an impromptu talk about training Kes. Jud leaves money and instructions for Billy to place a bet on two horses, but, after consulting a bettor who tells him the horses are unlikely to win, Billy spends the money on fish and chips and intends to purchase meat for his bird (instead the butcher gives him scrap meat free of charge). However, the horses do win. Outraged at losing a payout of more than £10, Jud takes revenge by killing Billy's kestrel. Grief- stricken, Billy retrieves the bird's broken body from the waste bin and, after showing it to Jud and his mother, buries the bird on the hillside overlooking the field where he had flown. ===== The show revolves around the adventures of Denver, the eponymous last dinosaur, who was released from his egg by a group of California teens: Jeremy, Mario, Shades, Wally, and Casey, along with tag- along older sister, Heather. The kids taught Denver the finer points of skateboarding and other pastimes while protecting him from rock concert promoter Morton Fizzback who wanted to use the dinosaur to make money. The series begins when Jeremy, while preparing for his Natural History test, and his friends visit the La Brea Tar Pits – a place in Los Angeles which contains a large collection of extinct animal and plant fossils - and go to the Museum there. At the museum, the friends encounter a gang of bullies. The friends escape the bullies by hiding behind a fence near the tar pits. Behind the fence they find a pit that contains a large prehistoric egg. As the friends are playing with the egg it suddenly cracks and a green friendly dinosaur emerges who, inexplicably, understands English. The kids name him Denver after they spot an advertisement for the city of Denver on a passing bus. The children decide to keep Denver and to keep his existence a secret. Denver is first hidden in a pool house at Wally's home. After Wally's sister discovers Denver they move Denver to the old school gym. After a while, Denver gets kidnapped by the manager Morton Fizzback, who puts Denver on a stage in front of an audience to become rich. When the children confront Morton about his abduction, he becomes paranoid that someone might find out that Denver is a real dinosaur. At the end, Denver is sold to a scientist named Professor Funt, who wants to examine and experiment on him, and use him to become famous. Eventually, Denver gets to return to the gang and rescue them from Nick and his thugs. In addition to his natural skills and abilities, Denver can also, with the help of a piece from the shell of his egg, take the gang with him back to the time whence he came. ===== State trooper Dennis Wells takes shelter from a downpour at a roadside diner. As other customers arrive during the storm, he describes a massacre that he is investigating that occurred at a local motel. The diner patrons witness a near-collision between two cars on the road outside, and a Vietnam veteran named Price enters the diner. While Price is having coffee, he asks for a cold beer but the cook Bob tells him that the diner does not have a liquor license. When Price laments how a cold beer would taste good, a can of beer appears in his hand; when he comments that beer would only make him sleepy, it vanishes. Wells strikes up a conversation with Price, lamenting that he wishes he could have gone to Vietnam. Price is compelled to describe how he fled and abandoned his unit during the war, condemning all of them to die in the jungle, and he relays that he often dreams a reoccurring nightmare in which his unit, "The Nightcrawlers," are hunting him down to exact revenge. Price explains that he and the other soldiers were sprayed with some kind of chemical that gave them the power of mind over matter, which he demonstrates by materializing a t-bone steak on the grill. The trooper, who suspects Price is a dangerous troublemaker, who may be responsible for the motel massacre, pulls his gun on Price but Price melts it with his mind. Wells then knocks Price unconscious. The diner patrons and staff then begin to experience Price's nightmare: ghost- like soldiers materialize, destroy vehicles in the parking lot, and then force their way inside the diner killing Wells. Price regains consciousness and finds a spotlight has been cast upon him. He then calls out "Charlie's in the light!" and the soldiers react by firing their rifles and killing him, thus ending the attack. As Bob the cook is being taken away in an ambulance, he reminds the others that Price said there were still four more soldiers out there who had the same ability. ===== A man named Colin delivers money to an unknown destination in Belfast, taking some of the cash in the process. The recipients realise that money is missing but are then attacked. Soon afterwards, the delivery driver is kidnapped and killed. Later, Colin is murdered whilst swimming. Harold Shand, a London gangster, is aspiring to become a legitimate businessman and is trying to form a partnership with the American Mafia, with a plan to redevelop London Docklands. Shand's world is suddenly destabilised by the murders. He and his henchmen try to uncover his attackers' identities whilst simultaneously trying not to worry their visitors, fearing the Americans will abandon him if they think he's not in full control. Shand's girlfriend, Victoria, tells the Mafia representatives he is under attack from an unknown enemy, but assures them Shand is working to quickly resolve the crisis. She starts to suspect Shand's right hand man, Jeff, knows more about who is behind the attacks than he claims. After some investigation, Shand confronts Jeff, who confesses he sent Shand's friend Colin to Belfast to deliver money raised by Irish Navvies to the IRA. He explains that three of the IRA's top men were killed on the same night after discovering some of the money had been stolen. Shand realises the IRA have come to the conclusion that he sold them out to the security forces and pocketed the missing cash for himself. Vowing to destroy the terrorist organisation in London, Shand loses his temper and kills Jeff in a frenzy. Shand sets up a meeting with the IRA's London leadership. He ostensibly offers them £60,000 in return for a ceasefire but double crosses them and has them shot as they are counting the cash. Believing his enemies are dead, Shand travels to the Savoy Hotel to triumphantly inform his Mafia partners only to find the Americans preparing to leave, having been spooked by the carnage. In response to their derisory comments about the UK, Shand berates them for their arrogance and dismisses them as cowards. Leaving the hotel, Shand steps into his chauffeur-driven car only to find it has been commandeered by IRA assassins. As the car speeds to an unknown destination, Shand contemplates the inevitability of his fate. ===== During the Second World War, the cargo vessel S.S. Cabinet Minister is wrecked off a remote fictional Scottish island group -- Great Todday and Little Todday -- with fifty thousand cases of whisky aboard. Due to wartime rationing, the thirsty islanders had nearly run out of the "water of life" and see this as an unexpected godsend. They manage to salvage several hundred cases before the ship sinks. But it is not all clear sailing. They must thwart the efforts of the authorities to confiscate the liquor, particularly in the shape of misguided, pompous Home Guard Captain Paul Waggett. A cat-and-mouse battle of wits ensues. Although the wreck and the escapades over the whisky are at the centre of the story, there is also a lot of background detail about life in the Outer Hebrides, including e.g. culture clashes between the Protestant island of Great Todday and the Roman Catholic island of Little Todday. (Mackenzie based the geography of these islands on Barra and Eriskay respectively, but in real life they are both Catholic islands). There are various sub-plots including those of two couples who are planning to get married. Mackenzie's prose captures the various accents of the area and also includes much common Gaelic that was in use at the time. The book includes a glossary of both the meaning and approximate pronunciation of the language. ===== Chas (James Fox) is a member of an East London gang, led by Harry Flowers (Johnny Shannon); his specialty is intimidation through violence, as he collects pay-offs for Flowers. Chas is very good at his job, and has a reputation for liking it. His sexual liaisons are casual and rough. When Flowers decides to take over a betting shop owned by Joey Maddocks (Anthony Valentine), he forbids Chas to get involved because he feels Chas' complicated personal history with Maddocks may lead to trouble. Chas is angry about this and later humiliates Maddocks, who retaliates by wrecking Chas' apartment and attacking Chas, who in turn shoots him, packs a suitcase and runs from the scene. When Flowers makes it clear that he has no intention of offering protection to Chas, but instead wants him eliminated, Chas decides to head for the countryside to hide out, but after overhearing a musician talk about going on tour and leaving his rented room in Notting Hill Gate, Chas goes there and pretends the musician was a friend who recommended him. He tells Pherber (Anita Pallenberg), a woman living there, that he is a fellow performer, juggler Johnny Dean. She lives there with Turner (Mick Jagger), a reclusive, eccentric former rock star who has 'lost his demon', and Lucy (Michèle Breton), with whom he enjoys a non-possessive and bisexual ménage à trois. Floating in and out of the house is a child, Lorraine (Laraine Wickens). At first, Chas is contemptuous of Turner, who himself attempts to return the rent paid in advance, but they start influencing each other. Pherber and Turner understand his conflict, and want to understand what makes him function so well within his world. To speed up the process, Pherber tricks him by feeding him a psychedelic mushroom, and Chas accuses her and Turner of poisoning him. He soon accepts it, and in his hallucinogenic state, he experiments with clothing and identity, including the wearing of feminine clothes. Chas opens up, and he begins a caring relationship with Lucy. Before all this, he phones Tony (a trusted friend who refers to Chas as 'Uncle') to help him get out of the country. Flowers and his henchmen use Tony to track Chas to Turner's flat. They allow him to go and collect his things upstairs. Chas tells Turner and Pherber he is leaving, then shoots Turner in the head. As he is led to his death, Chas still wears his feminine clothes and wig, but his face is identical to Turner's. ===== Omar Ali is a young man living in the Wandsworth area during the mid-1980s. His father, Hussein, once a famous left-wing journalist in Bombay, lives in London but hates Britain's society and its international politics. His dissatisfaction with the world and a family tragedy have led him to sink into alcoholism, so that Omar has to be his caregiver. By contrast, Omar's paternal uncle Nasser is a successful entrepreneur and an active member of the Pakistani community. Papa asks Nasser to give Omar a job and, after working for a brief time as a car washer in one of his uncle's garages, he is assigned the task of managing a run-down laundrette and turning it into a profitable business. At Nasser's, Omar meets a few other community members: Tania, Nasser's daughter and possibly a future bride; and Salim, who trafficks drugs and hires him to deliver them from the airport. While driving Salim and his wife home that night, the three of them get attacked by a group of right-wing extremist street punks. Their apparent leader turns out to be Johnny, Omar's childhood friend. Omar tries to reestablish their past friendship, offering Johnny a job and the opportunity to adopt a better life by working to fix up the laundrette with him. Johnny decides to accept and they resume a romantic relationship that (it is implied) had been interrupted after school. Running out of money, Omar and Johnny sell one of Salim's drug deliveries to make cash for the laundrette's substantial renovation. On the laundrette’s opening day, Omar confronts Johnny on his fascist past. Johnny, feeling guilty, tells him that though he cannot make it up to him, he is with him now. Nasser visits the laundrette with his mistress, Rachel. As they dance together in the laundrette, Omar and Johnny make love in the back room, narrowly escaping discovery. At the inauguration, Tania confronts Rachel about having an affair with her father. Rachel accuses Nasser of having invited Tania on purpose to have her insulted, and storms off despite his protests. Later that night, a drunk Omar proposes to Tania, who accepts on the condition that he raise money to get away. Soon after, Salim reveals to Omar that he is on to them, and demands his money back. Omar's father stops by late in the night and appeals to Johnny to persuade Omar to go to college because he is unhappy with his son’s role. Offering Salim a chance to invest in his businesses as a much needed 'clean outlet' for his money, Omar decides to take over two laundrettes owned by a friend of Nasser. Salim drives Johnny and Omar to view one of the properties, and he expresses his dislike of the British non-working punks in Johnny's gang. He attempts to run them over and injures one of them. Meanwhile, Rachel falls ill with a skin rash apparently caused by a ritual curse from Nasser's wife, and decides it is best for all that she and Nasser part ways. The next day Tania drops by the laundrette and tells Johnny she is leaving, asking him to come along. He refuses, implicitly revealing the truth about himself and Omar and she departs wordlessly. After Salim arrives and enters the laundrette, the punks, who had been lying in wait, trash his car. When he runs out, he is ambushed and viciously attacked. Johnny decides to interrupt and defend him, despite their mutual dislike, and the punks turn their attention to him instead. As he refuses to fight back, they beat him savagely until Omar returns and intervenes, protecting Johnny as the punks smash up the laundrette and flee the scene. Nasser visits Hussein, and the two discuss their respective failures, agreeing between them that only Omar's future matters now. Nasser sees Tania at the train platform while she is running away, and he shouts to her but she disappears. Meanwhile, at the laundrette, Omar nurses Johnny, and the two bond. The film ends with a scene of them shirtless and playfully splashing each other with water from a sink. ===== Middle-aged Ezra Cobb helps operate a farm in the rural Midwest with his elderly mother, Amanda, a religious fanatic who has indoctrinated him since childhood to abhor women. Amanda dies following a protracted illness, and Ezra withdraws. Nearly a year after her death, he experiences auditory hallucinations that compel him to exhume his mother. He arrives at her grave one night and digs up her decomposed body, returning it to his home where he cobbles it together using discarded fish skin and wax. Ezra becomes acquainted with Maureen Selby, an eccentric middle-aged woman and proclaimed psychic. One night during a preemptive sexual encounter, he murders her, an event that sets him off on a chain of serial killings. He first sets his attention on a 34-year-old waitress, Mary Ransum, whom he becomes acquainted with. He slashes her tires one night, leaving her stranded at the restaurant after-hours, and then appears under the guise of offering her a ride. She reluctantly agrees to ride with him to his house, where he says he has spare tires. After waiting in the truck for an extended period of time, Mary goes to look for him. In the house, she finds Ezra in a bedroom surrounded by the corpses of his mother and others, his face obscured with a mask made of human flesh. She attempts to flee, but he incapacitates her. Later, Mary awakens bound in a closet, wearing only undergarments. Ezra escorts her to the dining room, where he seats her at a table surrounded by corpses. He becomes aroused and begins molesting her, during which she convinces him to free her arms. She manages to smash a bottle over his head, but he beats her to death with a human femur bone. A short time later, Ezra visits his friend, Harlon, at his house, and discusses Mary's disappearances. In conversation, Ezra references her "being over at his place," a comment Harlon takes in jest. Harlon's teenage son, Brad, arrives with his girlfriend, Sally Mae, who immediately catches Ezra's interest. He later visits her while she works her cashier job at a local store, and shoots her with a rifle; the bullet grazes her head, but does not kill her. Ezra places Sally Mae in the bed of his truck and drives away, but she awakens and escapes on foot, fleeing into the woods. She inadvertently runs over a bear trap earlier set by Harlon and Brad. The trap mangles her foot, and she attempts to hide amidst the underbrush, but Ezra finds her and shoots her to death. Harlon and Brad return to the store and find blood and broken glasses at the cash register, but no sign of Sally Mae; Brad recalls to the sheriff that Ezra was the last person he saw at the store. Ezra brings Sally Mae's corpse to his farm, where he hangs it upside down in the barn and begins skinning the body. Harlon, Brad, and the sheriff arrive and find him in his kitchen, laughing over a bowl of blood. ===== Following the events of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Mike Yates was discharged from UNIT and is now attending a Tibetan meditation centre in rural England. Sarah Jane Smith visits him and they witness some curious events, seemingly organised by a resident called Lupton, and his cronies. Mike and Sarah stumble across Lupton performing an incantation, which conjures up a giant spider. It jumps on Lupton’s back and then disappears. The spider manifests itself in Lupton’s head, telling him to seek out and locate a certain blue crystal. The Third Doctor has developed an interest in psychic ability, but his testing of a clairvoyant called Professor Clegg backfires when his subject has a heart attack. It is triggered when Clegg comes into contact with a blue crystal from Metebelis Three (sent back from the Amazon by Jo Grant), which caused him to see the image of deadly spiders. Sarah returns from the retreat and she and the Doctor swap spider tales. Meanwhile, Lupton has also arrived at UNIT HQ and steals the crystal from the Doctor’s laboratory. A multi-vehicle chase ensues which Lupton escapes by teleporting himself back to the monastery. Once there, the spider reveals that it is plotting against some of its sisters back on Metebelis Three. The spiders and the crystal originate from the same blue planet in the Acteon Galaxy the Doctor the last visited (during The Green Death). The Doctor and Sarah now make for the monastery and tell the deputy abbot, Cho-Je, that something is very amiss. The crystal is taken by Tommy, a handyman with learning difficulties, whose mind is opened and by the power of the crystal. Lupton is teleported to Metebelis Three, unwittingly allowing Sarah to follow him. She soon meets the human slave inhabitants of the planet, a generally dispirited bunch, other than the rebellious Arak, who is in hiding. The planet is ruled by the Eight-Legs or giant spiders, and their Queen is the supreme ruler. They govern using guards chosen from among the planet's Two-Leg (human) population and their own phenomenal mental powers, amplified by the blue stones of the planet. The Doctor arrives and makes contact with Arak, who explains that the Metebelians are the descendants of the crew of an Earth space ship, which crashed hundreds of years before. A spider on board found its way to the Blue Mountains where, through the effect of the crystals, its progeny grew larger and cleverer. The Doctor works out that a “negative” stone can absorb and reject the power of the blue crystals. He starts a revolt among the humans, now protected by these stones, but this is not effective. Far into the Blue Mountains the Doctor explores there and encounters the Great One, an enormous spider which controls the world of Metebelis and desires power over other domains too. She craves the crystal as it will complete a lattice of hundreds of similar crystals on her web and magnify her mental powers immensely. She knows the crystal is still on Earth and sends the Doctor there to get it for her. He flees back to Earth with Sarah, not knowing the Queen spider has now implanted itself in his companion's mind. Tommy has given the crystal to the abbot, K’anpo Rimpoche, who is an elderly Time Lord and the one-time hermit mentor of the Doctor. He now lives in peaceful exile on Earth. He tells the Doctor of Sarah's control and they work together to expel the Queen Spider. A fight breaks out in the monastery between Lupton’s cronies and the Abbot’s men. The Abbot advises the Doctor to take the crystal to the Great One. He suggests that, as the Doctor started this chain of events by removing the crystal in the first place, it is up to him to put it back. He departs in the TARDIS with the crystal. On Metebelis Three, Lupton has been killed by the spiders after falling out with the Spider Queen. When the TARDIS lands, the Doctor heads to the cave of the Great One with the crystal. He warns her of the danger of completing the lattice but she does so anyway. However, the forces unleashed are too strong for the Great One and the positive feedback kills her and the other spiders. A vast wave of deadly radiation floods the cave. The Doctor, now very weak, staggers back to the TARDIS and away. Weeks later, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Sarah are in the Doctor's laboratory when the TARDIS materialises and on exiting it the Doctor collapses on the floor. The abbot K’anpo arrives in his new body, having regenerated into the form of Cho-Je, who was a sort of forward projection of his soul. He tells them that the Doctor will change too and before their eyes the Doctor regenerates into his fourth incarnation. ===== The story is about a robot's confession. Some weeks earlier, its builder, Dr. Charles Link, built it in the basement. Link teaches his robot to walk, talk and behave civilly. Link's housekeeper sees the robot just enough to be horrified by it, but his dog is totally loyal to it. The robot is fully educated in a few weeks, Link then names it Adam Link, and it professes a desire to serve any human master who will have it. Soon afterwards, a heavy object falls on Dr. Link by accident and kills him. His housekeeper instantly assumes that the robot has murdered Dr. Link, and calls in armed men to hunt it down and destroy it. They do not succeed; in fact, they provoke the robot to retaliate, both by refusing to listen to it and by accidentally killing Dr. Link's dog. Back at the house, the robot finds a copy of Frankenstein, which Dr. Link had carefully hidden from the robot, and finally somewhat understands the prejudice against it. In the end the robot decides that it simply is not worth killing several people just to get a hearing, writes its confession, and prepares to turn itself off. ===== The youthful Harold, cloyed with the pleasures of the world and reckless of life, wanders about Europe, making his feelings and ideas the subjects of the poem. In Canto I he is in Spain and Portugal, where he recounts the savagery of their invasion by the French. In Canto II he moves to Greece, uplifted by the beauty of its past in a country now enslaved by the Turks. Canto III finds him on the battlefield of Waterloo, from which he journeys down the Rhine and crosses into Switzerland, enchanted by the beauty of the scenery and its historic associations. In Canto IV Harold starts from Venice on a journey through Italy, lamenting the vanished heroic and artistic past, and the subject status of its various regions. ===== When he is caught by the police for robbing a bakery, Smith is sentenced to be confined in Ruxton Towers in Essex, a borstal (young offenders institution) for delinquent youths. He seeks solace in long-distance running, attracting the notice of the school's authorities for his physical prowess. Smith is offered a light workload for his last six months at Ruxton Towers if he wins in an important cross-country competition against a prestigious public school. For Ruxton Towers to win the cross-country race would be a major public relations boost for the borstal administrators. However, when the day of the race arrives Smith throws victory away: after speeding ahead of the other runners he deliberately stops a few metres short of the finishing line, though well ahead and easily able to win. He lets the other runners pass him and cross the finishing line, thereby losing the race in a defiant gesture aimed against his Ruxton Towers administrators. In deliberately losing the race, Smith demonstrates his free spirit and independence. The response of the borstal authorities to Smith's action is heavy-handed: Smith resigns himself to the drudgery of manual labour he is returned to. However, looking back on his actions, he has no regrets. ===== The film begins with Joe Kavanagh at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, relaying an experience from his past. He states the ritualised greeting: 'My name is Joe and I'm an alcoholic.' He feels that he is not in a position to drink any more with safety. He tells the group that he copes by praying and states that he is grateful to be at the meeting. He then goes round to his friend's place, bangs on the door and pretends to be the police. They then travel in Joe's van where they examine stolen sporting merchandise which is of low quality. Joe and his friends stop at another person's house to pick up more people. A car cuts off the van. Joe later encounters the driver, whom Joe later describes as being 'the woman who tried to kill us all.' He exits his van and asks the woman if she lost her guide dog. The woman, Sarah, states that she is a health visitor. She wants to see Liam and his child, but Joe explains that Liam has an important football game to attend. Joe is very encouraging as a coach. The other team appears in white and black, which are the colours that Joe's team wears. Joe's team express their anger at this and respond by taking their shirts off so that they are able to distinguish between players. The other team scores the first goal of the game. Joe drives Liam home and Liam abruptly tells Joe to pull over and Liam runs up to a male who acts aggressively towards him. Joe does not hear what transpires between Liam and the man. Later, Joe sees Sarah, who is seen struggling with wallpaper in her car. Joe appears to fancy her, as Sarah tells him her name and he flirts with her. Joe then helps an acquaintance of Sarah's to complete a wall papering and paint job in Sarah's flat. Sarah later brings them tea as they paint the ceiling and sing to themselves. They then look outside and notice someone taking photos of them through the window. Joe runs outside with his can of white paint and brush to confront the man who was taking the photos. The photographer tells Joe that he was just doing his job and that he has a bad heart. Joe then paints all over the photographer's car. The car speeds away and manages to knock over a pile of rubbish by the side of the road. Later, Sarah and Joe have dinner together. There is a bottle of red wine on the table, but Joe does not drink any of the alcohol. Sarah's telephone rings and she leaves the kitchen to answer it. Joe is then left alone with the wine. He clears his plate and appears somewhat nervous. When Sarah finishes with her telephone conversation, Joe asks her about the photographs on her wall. Joe later reveals to Sarah that he does not drink, to which Sarah replies: 'Why didn't you say?' Joe reveals that he is an alcoholic and he has not had a drink in ten months. Joe is happy that Sarah knows and that she has been direct in her responses to him. Joe thanks Sarah for her company. Sarah pays Joe for the work that he completed on her flat and they part company. Joe attends the Mayfield Health Centre. Joe tells the receptionist that he would like to see Sarah. The receptionist does not appear to be surprised by his request and says that Joe is free to pop his head around the door. He sees Sarah advising parents on dealing with the changing of nappies. Outside the Health Centre, Joe asks Sarah if she would like to go ten-pin bowling with him and to ring him if she fancies going. They then part company. Sarah speaks with a female colleague, Maggie, and says that Joe seems a bit wild. She states that she is not going to go bowling with Joe. Sarah and Joe bowl together and laugh at their many errors. They occupy Aisle 16 and neither of them are spectacular players. They go back to Sarah's place where she asks him in for a cup of tea. Joe politely says no. Sarah offers him money for a taxi. A friendly argument ensues, at the end of which Sarah finds herself locked out of her flat. Sarah says that she can sleep in her car. Joe states that Sarah can sleep at his place, but not necessarily together. They arrive at Joe's and he shows her around his flat. Joe tells Sarah that he used to be in a band and they won a local talent contest. Joe tells Sarah a story of how he was desperate for a drink one day and what transpired. He went to a music shop and stole some cassettes. He took one of them home and 'got pissed.' He describes the experience as being 'magical.' When Sarah asks him what made him stop drinking, Joe asks her why she wants to know. He is not hostile, but curious. Joe says that he is scared to tell her and that there is a strong chance that she will hate him if he tells. Joe explains that there was a girl he used to drink with and they loved one another. They were both 'just tangled up' and they used to get into terrible arguments and tear one another apart. The audience then sees a flashback where Joe and the girl are returning home from a night out. He states that 'a cloud just descended... really, really dark. And suddenly I hated her. I hated me.' He describes how he tried to open the door, but was unable to; when the partner whom he was with laughed at him, Joe lost control because she found it funny. He beat her by punching and kicking her, while she lay helpless on the ground. He screamed abuse at her. The next day, he had a blackout. Now, he remembers every punch and kick. He states how ashamed and disgusted he is with himself. He is obviously contrite and he has not yet forgiven himself for his actions. Joe sees three men beating up Liam at a football match. Joe attempts to intervene. He helps Liam up and asks him if he is still clean. Liam states that he is. Liam confronts his wife when she comes home. He suspects that she has been using and asks her if she 'takes him for a prick.' Liam then yells that he will leave her to rot, grabs her by her neck and forces her to look at herself in the mirror. Joe goes to Liam's flat and encounters Liam's wife shooting up in the bathroom. An argument erupts between them. Joe offers to help her. She does not want the kind of help that Joe offers. Joe then reluctantly assists her to tie off one of her veins so that she can shoot up. Joe tries to make sense of her incoherent mumbles as she lies prostrate in the bathtub. Joe then goes to a snooker club where he asks after Liam's whereabouts. Joe tells one of the men that he encounters that Liam has a four-year-old boy in an attempt to mitigate matters. Liam says that he does not want them to take liberties. He comes across Liam and is cross because Liam told him that he had stopped dealing. A tearful Liam confesses that he still owes money. Joe also tells Liam that he suspects that his wife is selling her body, and soul, for monetary gains. He is worried that people are going to break his legs. The next day, Joe goes to Stella Maris' B & B to deal with the matter of Liam. In a later scene, Joe gives Sarah a pair of earrings, as well as a ring. Joe tells Sarah that he loves her. Sarah tells him that she does not want it and Joe cannot understand what he has done wrong. Joe is confused as to why Sarah has behaved in this fashion. In the next shot, we see a copy of the Alcoholics Anonymous' small blue Bible as Joe listens to Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D Major and makes notes in a book. When Sarah arrives at his door, she apologises. They drink tea together and later embrace. Joe drives his van and his mates direct him to a place where they rob another van. Joe is shocked with his unwitting role in the robbery of Astral Sports. He still acts as the get-away driver. At the next football match, Joe cleverly remarks that the other team look like budgies because of their blue and yellow striped uniforms. Meanwhile, Sarah reveals to her co-worker Maggie that she is pregnant. Maggie congratulates her. At Sarah's flat, she expresses her reservations about Joe's dealings with Liam. Joe tells her that there are some things that she does not need to know. Sarah accuses Joe of being a drug dealer and asks where he got the money for her earrings and ring. Joe replies that the gang gave him some money. Sarah becomes enraged and asks, 'Are you going to hit me too, Joe?' Joe attends Liam's flat and states that Liam must deal with things himself. Joe returns to his flat with bottles of Smirnoff Vodka. He pours himself a drink, and takes a sip. Liam then goes to Joe's flat, where Joe is very inebriated. Joe calls Liam a 'stupid wee prick.' The alcohol has overtaken Joe and he is hostile to Liam, who needs his help. As Liam witnesses members of the gang coming towards the premises, Liam realises that Joe has passed out and he kisses Joe on his forehead. Joe suddenly snaps awake and realises that Liam has taken his own life by hanging himself. The film concludes with Liam's funeral. ===== Three teenage brothers – gang member Bobby, artistically-minded Alan and 13-year-old Lex – are growing up with their mother on Glasgow's South Side in 1968. Events which will have consequences for all concerned start to spiral out of control when Lex accidentally shoots Malky, the leader of the Garaside Tongs street gang, with an air gun. ===== Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond (Sid James) is Queen Victoria's Governor in the Indian province of Kalabar near the Khyber Pass. The province is defended by the feared 3rd Foot and Mouth Regiment, who are said to not wear anything under their kilts. When a soldier, the inept Private Widdle (Charles Hawtrey) is found wearing underpants after an encounter with the warlord Bungdit Din (Bernard Bresslaw), chief of the warlike Burpa tribe, the Khasi of Kalabar (Kenneth Williams) plans to use this information to incite a rebellion in Kalabar. He aims to dispel the "tough" image of the Devils in Skirts by revealing that contrary to popular belief, they actually wear underpants underneath their kilts. A diplomatic operation ensues on the part of the British, who fail to publicly prove that the incident was an aberration. The Governor's wife (Joan Sims), in the hope of luring the Khasi into bed with her, takes a photograph of an inspection in which many of the soldiers present are found wearing underpants, and takes it to him. With this hard evidence in hand, the Khasi would be able to muster a ferocious Afghan invasion force, storm the Khyber Pass and capture India from the British; but Lady Ruff- Diamond insists that he sleep with her before she parts with the photograph. He delays on account of her unattractiveness, eventually taking her away with him to Bungdit Din's palace. Meanwhile, the Khasi's daughter, Princess Jelhi (Angela Douglas), reveals to the British Captain Keene (Roy Castle), with whom she has fallen in love, that the Governor's wife has eloped, and a team is dispatched to ensure the return of both her and the photograph. Disguised as Afghan generals, the interlopers are brought into the palace and, at the Khasi's suggestion, are introduced to Bungdit Din's sultry concubines. Whilst enjoying the women in the harem, they are unmasked amid a farcical orgy, imprisoned, and scheduled to be executed at sunset alongside the Governor's wife. The Khasi's daughter aids their escape by disguising them as dancing girls, but during the entertaining of the Afghan generals, the Khasi, contemptuous of an annoying fakir's performance, demands that he see the dancing girls instead. After their disguises are seen through, the British and the Princess flee, but Lady Ruff-Diamond drops the photograph on leaving the palace through the gardens. The group returns to the Khyber Pass to find its guards massacred and their weapons comically mutilated, in a rare moment of (albeit tainted) poignancy. All attempts to hold off the advancing Afghan invaders fail miserably, and a hasty retreat is beaten to the Residency. The Governor, meanwhile, has been entertaining, in numerical order, the Khasi's fifty-one wives, each one of them wishing to "right the wrong" that his own wife and the Khasi himself have supposedly committed against him. After a browbeating from his wife, Sidney calls a crisis meeting regarding the invasion, in which he resolves to "do nothing". A black tie dinner is arranged for that evening. Dinner takes place during a prolonged penultimate scene, with contrapuntal snippets of the Khasi's army demolishing the Residency's exterior, and the officers and ladies ignoring the devastation as they dine amongst themselves. Shells shaking the building and plaster falling into the soup do not interrupt dinner, even when the fakir's severed - but still talking - head is served, courtesy of the Khasi. Only Brother Belcher fails to display a stiff upper lip, and breaks his calm by panicking. Finally, at Captain Keene's suggestion, the gentlemen walk outside to be greeted by a bloody battle being waged in the courtyard. Still dressed in black tie, Sir Sidney orders the Regiment to form a line and lift their kilts, this time exposing their (implied) lack of underwear. The invading Afghan army is terrified, and retreats at once. The gentlemen walk back inside to resume dinner, whilst Brother Belcher displays a Union flag bearing the slogan I'm Backing Britain. A plaque in Llanberis, Wales, commemorates the filming nearby ===== Andy (Jim Broadbent), a senior chef in a large London catering facility, buys a dilapidated fast-food van from a disreputable acquaintance named Patsy (Stephen Rea). He plans to clean, restore and put it into service on a local fast-food round. Wendy (Alison Steadman), his hard- working, good-natured and innuendo-prone wife, is sensibly sceptical about the project but understands her husband's ambitions. Their twin 22-year-old daughters (Natalie and Nicola) have profoundly different attitudes: tomboyish Natalie (Claire Skinner), thinks it is a good idea if it will make her father happy, whereas the bitter, shut-in Nicola (Jane Horrocks), contemptuously and typically dismisses Andy as a "Capitalist!" Late at night, an anguished Nicola binges on chocolate and snacks, then forces herself to vomit. Natalie, awake in the next room, overhears her. Aubrey (Timothy Spall), a hyperactive but emotionally labile family friend, is opening a Parisian-themed restaurant named The Regret Rien. Wendy accepts a part-time job as waitress in the restaurant, but her and Andy's initial confidence in the scheme is undermined by Aubrey's unorthodox approach to the interior décor (a cluttered, half- realised combination of outmoded French clichés, such as a bicycle in the bay window, and of tasteless Victoriana, such as a stuffed cat's head framed by broken accordion sconces) and by his menu. His singularly grotesque interpretation of the excesses of nouvelle cuisine includes dishes such as saveloy on a bed of lychees, liver in lager and pork cyst. During the afternoon, whilst the rest of the family are out at work, Nicola's lover (unnamed, played by David Thewlis) comes to the family home to have sex with her. It appears that Nicola only can be aroused by a combination of light bondage and the consumption of chocolate spread from her chest – a practice to which he only reluctantly agrees. He ultimately loses patience with her, accusing her of being "a bit vacant" and incapable of having a sincere, adult conversation or allowing herself to enjoy his companionship. She calls his bluff and loses: Frustrated but resolute, he leaves her and her fragile emotional state deteriorates further. The opening night of The Regret Rien is a disaster. Wendy volunteers her help when it becomes clear that Aubrey's waitress has let him down; she has gone to Prague with her boyfriend. Aubrey forgot to advertise the opening of the restaurant, with the result that no customers turn up. Aubrey gets hopelessly drunk, takes to the pavement and rails against the world, tells Wendy that he fancies her, starts taking his clothes off, and passes out, 'a quivering, sobbing gelatinous blob of disappointment.'Coveney, p. 221 Wendy is forced to deal not only with him but with his glum and passive sous-chef/dogsbody Paula (Moya Brady). Meanwhile, Andy and Patsy have gone to their local pub, where Andy gets uncharacteristically but emphatically drunk and ends up sleeping inside the decrepit fast-food van in his driveway. Wendy returns home from the disastrous opening night of Aubrey's restaurant to find him there: Unnerved by her bizarre evening, she loses her temper with the whole family. Phlegmatic and dry-humoured Natalie enjoys her unconventional work as a plumber, the simple pleasures of a pint and a game of pool, and dreams of visiting the U.S. In contrast, the fidgety and isolated Nicola becomes increasingly agitated, aggressive and reclusive, and Wendy finally confronts her. During the course of their long and anguished confrontation, Wendy makes it clear to Nicola that she is deeply worried about her, wondering why she makes no attempt to get involved with the causes she claims to believe. She tells Nicola of the struggle that she and Andy endured to care for their baby daughters – how it meant she never went to college and Andy working in a "job he hates." It emerges that during an earlier phase of Nicola's bulimia, she almost starved to death. Ashamed and angry, Nicola is convinced that Wendy and the rest of the family hate her. Instead, as the exasperated Wendy tells her "We don't hate you! We love you, you stupid girl!" and leaves the room, deeply upset. The brittle behavioural armour that Nicola has protected her psyche with is now shattered, and she breaks down sobbing. Meanwhile, Andy is seen running his kitchen at work with energy and authority but slips on a spoon, breaking his ankle. Wendy receives the news with a characteristic mixture of sympathy and amusement. She drives him home from the hospital; aided by Natalie she makes him comfortable, and then goes to see Nicola, still in her room. Mother and daughter reconcile. The film ends with Natalie and Nicola sitting peacefully in the evening sunshine in the back garden. Natalie observes that Nicola must own up to her parents about her bulimia. She then asks Nicola "D'you want some money?" and Nicola accepts gratefully, the first time in the film where she has accepted an offer of help. ===== Two veteran cars and their crews are participating in the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run. Alan McKim (John Gregson), a young barrister, and his wife, Wendy (Dinah Sheridan), drive Genevieve, a 1904 Darracq. Their friend Ambrose Claverhouse (Kenneth More), a brash advertising salesman, his latest girlfriend, fashion model Rosalind Peters (Kay Kendall), and her pet St. Bernard ride in a 1905 Spyker. The journey to Brighton goes well for Claverhouse, but the McKims' trip is complicated by several breakdowns, and they arrive very late. As Alan cancelled their accommodation in their usual plush hotel during a fit of pique, they are forced to spend the night in a dingy run-down hotel (with a cameo performance by Joyce Grenfell as the proprietress) leaving Wendy feeling less than pleased. They finally join Ambrose and Rosalind for after-dinner drinks, but Rosalind gets very drunk, and insists on playing the trumpet with the house band. To the surprise of all, she performs a hot jazz solo before falling fast asleep moments later, to Wendy's great amusement. (Kendall mimes the performance of "Genevieve" to a rendition by jazz trumpeter Kenny Baker.) Alan and Wendy have an argument over Ambrose's supposed romantic attentions to her, and Alan goes off to the garage to sulk. Whilst he works on his car in the middle of the night, Ambrose turns up. Angry words are exchanged, and Alan impulsively bets the other man £100 that he can beat Ambrose back to London, despite racing not being allowed by the club. Ambrose accepts the bet—"First over Westminster Bridge." The following morning, despite Rosalind's massive hangover and Wendy's determined disapproval of the whole business, the two crews race back to London. Each driver is determined that his car is the better, come what may, and they both resort to various forms of cheating. Ambrose sabotages Alan's engine, and Alan causes Ambrose to be stopped by the police. Finally, on the outskirts of London (West Drayton), both cars are stopped by traffic police and the four contestants are publicly warned after Alan and Ambrose come to blows. At Wendy's insistence, they decide to call off the bet and have a party instead. But whilst waiting for the pub to open, words are exchanged and the bet is on again. The two cars race neck-and-neck through the southern suburbs of London. But with only a few yards to go, Genevieve breaks down. As Ambrose's car is about to overtake it, its tyres become stuck in tramlines (London's tram network had closed in 1952, but many of the tracks were still in evidence when the film was made that same year) and it drives off in another direction. The brakes on Genevieve fail, and the car rolls a few yards onto Westminster Bridge, thus winning the bet. ===== The whole story takes place in ambiguous circumstances, apparently in a small European village in the late 1800's, roughly 1880-1890. Victor Van Dort, the son of wealthy fish merchants, and Victoria Everglot, the neglected daughter of impoverished aristocrats, prepare for their arranged marriage, which will simultaneously raise the social class of Victor's parents and restore the wealth of Victoria's family. Although both fall in love with each other, Victor ruins their wedding rehearsal by forgetting his vows and acting clumsily, accidentally setting Mrs. Everglot's dress afire. Fleeing to a nearby forest in embarrassment, he practices his vows with a tree and places his wedding ring on a root. However, the root is revealed to be the finger of a dead woman named Emily, who rises from the grave claiming that she is now Victor's wife, and spirits him away to the Land of the Dead. During his time with her, Victor learns that Emily was pitilessly murdered years ago by an unnamed perpetrator on the night she secretly eloped with him, bringing with her some family belongings, which he stole. Desperate to reunite with Victoria, Victor tricks Emily into returning to the Land of the Living by claiming he wants her to meet his parents. Emily brings Victor to the see Elder Gutknecht, the kindly ruler of the underworld, who grants them temporary passage to the Land of the Living. Victor asks Emily to wait in the forest before he reunites with Victoria and confesses his wish to marry her as soon as possible. Before the pair can share a kiss, Emily discovers them and drags Victor back to the Land of the Dead, feeling betrayed and hurt. Victoria quickly tries to tell her parents of Victor's situation, but neither believe her and assume he has left her. Against her will, they decide to marry her to a presumed-wealthy visitor named Lord Barkis Bittern, who appeared at the wedding rehearsal. After reconciling with Emily, Victor learns of Victoria's impending marriage to Barkis from his family's newly deceased coachman. Upset over this news, Victor decides to marry Emily, learning that this will require him to repeat his wedding vows in the Land of the Living and drink a deadly poison in order to join her in death. The dead swiftly prepare for the ceremony and head up to the Land of Living, where the town erupts into a temporary panic upon their arrival until everyone recognizes their loved ones among the dead, and they have a joyous reunion. In the chaos caused by their arrival, a panicked Barkis exposes his intentions to marry Victoria for her supposed wealth, leading her to reject him. Victoria arrives at Victor and Emily's wedding as Victor completes his vows and prepares to drink the poison, only for Emily to stop him when she realizes she is denying Victoria a chance to live happily with him. Just as Emily tries to rekindle Victor and Victoria's relationship, Barkis arrives to kidnap Victoria, causing Emily to recognize him as her previous fiancé and murderer. Victor duels with Barkis to rescue Victoria, whereupon Emily intercedes to save Victor's life. Barkis mockingly toasts Emily for dying unwed and unwittingly drinks the poison that Victor nearly took, causing him to die, which allows the dead – who cannot interfere in the affairs of the living – to take retribution against him for his crimes. Emily, now released from her torment, frees Victor of his vow to marry her and returns his ring to him, allowing him to marry Victoria. As she exits the church, she throws her wedding bouquet to Victoria, and then proceeds to fade away into hundreds of butterflies in the moonlight as Victor and Victoria watch on in each other's embrace. ===== A cat named Lorenzo lounges on a cushion. A black cat passes by, and Lorenzo can't help but express his glee that the stray is missing his tail. Lorenzo flaunts his own luxurious backside accessory, and goads the cat with expansive displays of tailery. As Lorenzo laughs the black cat casts a hex, bringing Lorenzo's tail to energetic life. Lorenzo is little more than perturbed until the tail's incessant motion begins to take its toll. The pampered cat grows both exhausted and desperate, as it becomes apparent that even the most extreme measures (such as high voltage electrocution, drowning, and being run over by a train) will not quiet his tail. At junctures the black cat appears and offers Lorenzo a knife, his intentions clear. Lorenzo resists him just as strongly as he does his tail's advances. Lorenzo is however, finally driven to capitulate and severs his own glorious tail. ===== :For a more detailed background of the main character, see Jason Bourne. With the climactic events of The Bourne Ultimatum behind him, Jason Bourne is able to once again become David Webb, now professor of linguistics at Georgetown University. However, this serenity does not last for long and, when a silenced gunshot narrowly misses Webb's head, the Bourne Persona awakens in him yet again. Bourne's first objective is to get to his longtime friend and handler at the CIA, Alex Conklin. However, unbeknownst (as yet) to Bourne, a Hungarian by the name of Stepan Spalko has now drawn Jason into a web—one which he cannot escape as easily as his professorial façade. Finding Alex dead along with Doctor Morris Panov, Bourne realizes the trap as soon as he hears the police arriving. With his car outside and his fingerprints in the house, he immediately understands that he has been framed. So, with only Conklin's cell phone and a torn page from a notebook to go on, Jason Bourne sets off to find out who's trying to kill him and who killed his friends. After warning Marie and his two children, Jamie and Alyssa, to proceed immediately towards their safe house, he slips through the CIA cordon and makes his way to an independent agent who was talking to Alex Conklin when he was killed. Having received travel plans to Hungary and a mission to meet Janos Vadas, Conklin's contact in Hungary, he proceeds to unravel the truth behind why Alex and Morris Panov were killed. Meanwhile, a group of Chechen terrorists have been fighting a losing battle against Russian invaders when a man named Stepan Spalko appears to solve their problems. Spalko, we later discover, had Conklin and Panov killed and kidnapped a doctor by the name of Felix Schiffer. Schiffer is an expert in bacteriological particulate behavior. Spalko intends to release a bacteriological weapon during peace negotiations between many world leaders to be held in Reykjavík, using the terrorists he is cultivating as a diversion. The book charts Bourne's course from the United States, to France and then to Budapest in Hungary where he learns the final thing he needs to do—to stop Spalko's attack in Iceland. This, of course, all has to be done in the face of a CIA sanction for him to be immediately terminated, as he is believed responsible for the deaths of Conklin and Panov. There is also the matter of Spalko's hired assassin, Khan, who is preternaturally able to track Bourne where everyone else cannot. Khan is revealed In the Bourne Legacy; he is Joshua Webb, David Webb's son from his first marriage, who believes erroneously that he was left for dead by his father in Vietnam. Bourne, however, refuses to believe that Khan is Joshua, convinced that Joshua was killed decades ago, and continually tries to avoid him and the truth. Though Khan is at first working for Spalko, he eventually realizes that he has been used as a pawn in Spalko's personal game. After revealing later on to Bourne that Annaka Vadas, the daughter of Janos Vadas, is a traitor, he begins to feel that Bourne is not the hateful father that he had imagined. Unfortunately, Bourne is still unable to believe Khan is Joshua—until he hacks into the CIA database and discovers that Joshua's body had never been found. In a fit of rage, he attacks Khan, first believing that it is a conspiracy to hurt him, but is later captured by Spalko. After rescuing Bourne from Spalko, Khan makes an uneasy peace with his father. While on the plane to Iceland, however, Khan reveals a piece of information that finally convinces Bourne that Khan is his son. When Bourne subsequently reveals that he lost his memory while undercover as Cain, Khan begins to rethink his views regarding his father. After completing the operation and stopping Spalko, Khan—Joshua—makes up with his father and realizes that his hatred was always a reflection of his personal struggles and that, in truth, he truly loved Bourne. He requests Bourne, however, not to reveal his identity to Marie, in whose life he feels he has no place. ===== Daniel Daréus (Michael Nyqvist) is a successful and renowned international conductor whose life aspiration is to create music that will open people's hearts. His own heart, however, is in bad shape. After suffering a heart attack on stage at the end of a performance, he retires indefinitely to Norrland in the far north of Sweden, to the village where he endured a terrible childhood of bullying. Daniel buys the old elementary school in the village, and soon after is asked to come along one Thursday night and listen to the local choir. He is only asked to listen, and maybe offer some helpful advice, but their intentions of persuading him to help are obvious. He eventually agrees to help, albeit reluctantly. Daniel approaches the parish minister to seek for the position of cantor. He starts helping the choir grow and develop, rediscovering his own joy in music. Almost immediately, Lena (Frida Hallgren), an attractive young girl in the choir, catches his attention. As they grow closer and fall in love, he realises that he is surrounded by the villagers' personal problems. Inger (Ingela Olsson) is married to the respected minister, Stig (Niklas Falk), but has failed to develop a loving sexual relationship with her husband. Siv (Ylva Lööf) is so obsessed with morality that she cannot enjoy herself. Arne (Lennart Jähkel) is so ambitious for the choir's success that he obsesses over tiny mistakes, failing to see that he is making bigger mistakes himself. Tore (André Sjöberg) is mentally handicapped and shunned but is eventually included in the choir; Holmfrid (Mikhael Rahm) has put up with being called "Fatso" by Arne since childhood and eventually stands up to him. Gabriella (Helen Sjöholm) is beaten and abused by her husband, Connie (Per Morberg), a fact that is known and ignored by the whole village. She eventually finds the strength to leave him, as the whole village finds its strength to help her. Connie himself turns out to be the bully who was at school with Daniel and drove him from the village. He blames the choir and Daniel for his wife's decision and beats him up. This lands Connie in jail. The minister, Stig, is jealous of the choir's success and tries to close it down. His failure precipitates his eventual nervous breakdown. The heart of each member of the choir starts to open, as it has always been Daniel's dream. The choir is accepted into the annual "Let the Peoples Sing" competition (Arne has decided to register the choir without previous notice), and they journey to Innsbruck, Austria, to perform. Lena fears Daniel will leave her for his sophisticated friends from the music world, when she see their kissing and hugging him. He dares at last to tell her he loves her and then they make love. On the day of the competition, the choir is ready on stage but Daniel is nowhere to be seen. His heart has been affected by his anxiety, and he has another heart attack. Daniel staggers into the restroom, unsure of how to handle the situation, then stumbles and hits his head on the pipe below a sink, causing him to bleed severely. He lies helplessly on the tile, blood gushing from his head, listening to the choir harmonising over the loudspeakers. The audience in the auditorium is enchanted and sings along. Daniel smiles to himself and turns motionless, thus leaving the viewer to decide whether he lives or dies, completely fulfilled by reaching his goal. The final scene shows Daniel rushing towards his younger self within the wheat fields as he embraces his life's goal, to "create music that will open a person's heart". ===== By the end of the year, Khánh had prevailed in the power struggle with Khiêm and Minh. He despatched Khiêm to Washington as ambassador, being convinced Khiêm was destabilizing Saigon.Kahin, p. 232. In late December 1964, Khánh summoned Thảo back to Saigon. Thảo suspected Khánh was attempting to have him killed, while Khánh thought that Thảo and Khiêm were plotting against him.Tucker, p. 325.Tang, pp. 56–57. Fearing that he would be arrested upon arrival, Thảo attempted to outmanoeuvre Khánh and went underground to plot.Shaplen, pp. 308–09. In the meantime, Khiêm had been putting pressure on Khánh while serving as his ambassador by charging him and the Buddhists of seeking a "neutralist solution" and "negotiating with the communists".Kahin, p. 300. In January 1965, the junta-appointed Prime Minister Trần Văn Hương introduced a series of measures to expand the military and war effort by widening the terms of conscription. This provoked widespread anti-Hương demonstrations and riots across the country, mainly from conscription-aged students and pro- negotiations Buddhists.Kahin, pp. 267–69. Reliant on Buddhist support,Moyar (2004), pp. 774–75. Khánh decided to have the armed forces take over. On 27 January, he removed Hương in a bloodless coup.Moyar (2006), p. 775. Khánh's deposal of Hương nullified a counter-plot involving Hương that had developed during the civil disorders. In an attempt to pre-empt his deposal, Hương had backed a plot led by some Đại Việt-oriented Catholic officers, including Thiệu and Nguyễn Hữu Có. They planned to remove Khánh and bring Khiêm back from Washington, D.C. The U.S. Embassy in Saigon was privately supportive of the aim, but not ready to fully back the move as they regarded it as poorly thought out and potentially a political embarrassment due to the need to use an American plane to transport some plotters, including Khiêm, between Saigon and Washington.Kahin, p. 297. By this time the U.S. relationship with Khánh had broken downKahin, pp. 255–60. and the U.S. became more intent on a regime change as Khánh was reliant on Buddhist support, which they saw as an obstacle to an expansion of the war.Kahin, pp. 294–96. In the first week of February, Taylor told the leading officers that the U.S. was not supporting Khánh,Kahin, p. 298. and they thought that Khiêm was a possible replacement although not among the most preferable. However, the candidates favoured by the Americans fell behind Thảo in their planning.Kahin, p. 299. On 19 February, Thảo and General Lâm Văn Phát began their coup attempt, seizing the military headquarters, the post office and radio station.Moyar (2006), p. 363.VanDeMark, p. 81.Tang, p. 363. Thảo made a radio announcement stating that he would remove the "dictator" Khánh, and would recall Khiêm to Saigon to lead the junta. Although Khiêm was part of the plot, the timing of Thảo's announcement caught Khiêm off-guard, asleep in his Maryland home. When informed of what was happening, Khiêm sent a cable pledging "total support" to the plot. Thảo had planned for Đôn to become Defense Minister and Chief of Staff of the military, but the Dai Việt insisted on installing the Catholic Khiêm. During the announcement of the coup, Phát and others made pro-Diêm speeches and hardline Catholic statements.Kahin, pp. 299–300. By this time, Khiêm was preparing to return to Saigon to join in on the action or take over if it became successful. His colleagues had anticipated that the Americans would give them an aircraft so that Khiêm could return to Vietnam, but second thoughts arose among Taylor and Westmoreland. The two American generals had lost confidence in Khánh, but the pro-Diêm political ideology being expressed by Thảo's supporters on radio alienated them, as they feared that the coup plotters would destabilize and polarize the country in they took power.Kahin, p. 301. The U.S. wanted Khánh out, but were worried that Phát and Thảo could galvanize support for the beleaguered Khánh through their extremely divisive pro-Diêm views, which had the potential to provoke large-scale sectarian divisions in South Vietnam. The Marine Brigade commander, General Lê Nguyên Khang, appealed to the US Embassy in Saigon to not allow Khiêm to depart the U.S. As a result of this, Taylor messaged the State Department that "Regardless what ultimate outcome may be we feel Khiêm's arrival here ... would only add tinder to what this evening appears to be very explosive situation with possibilities of internecine strife between armed forces units ... Urge he not try return [to] Saigon until situation more clarified." After a day of chaos, the coup collapsed when, anti-coup forces swept into the city. Whether the rebels were defeated or a deal was struck to end the revolt in exchange for Khánh's removal is disputed, but most believe the latter as the plotters had met Kỳ beforehand and the collapse was rather orderly.Moyar (2006), p. 364.VanDeMark, p. 82. Although the coup failed and Khiêm did not return, the Armed Forces Council adopted a vote of no confidence in Khánh and Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, and Thi became the most powerful figures in the junta. In the meantime, Thảo and Phát were sentenced to death in absentia. Thao was hunted down and killed in mysterious circumstances by other factions with the military leadership,Shaplen, pp. 310–12.Langguth, pp. 346–47. while Phát evaded capture for a few years before surrendering and receiving a pardon from Thiệu. Despite his failure to take power, Khiêm said he was "very happy. I think my objective has been realized."Kahin, p. 514. The new junta decided to ignore Khiêm's involvement in the coup and he remained in Washington as the ambassador, with no further action taken.Kahin, p. 303. In October 1965 the junta of Kỳ and Thiệu made Khiêm the Ambassador to Taiwan; he served there until mid-1968, then returned to Vietnam and served under President Thiệu as Interior Minister for a year before becoming Deputy Prime Minister at the start of 1969. In September 1969 he became prime minister and defense minister, and he stayed in the role until April 1975 when he resigned and left the country as the communists were in the process of completing their victory over South Vietnam. However, he had little power as Thiệu operated virtually one-man rule.Willbanks, pp. 240–60. ===== Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways-‌‌‌‌‌‌the clothing style changes demonstrating the different seasons in which they were filmed. They are often referred to as the "one horse", "two horses", and "no horse" versions, in reference to a horse-drawn carriage that appears in the first two versions (pulled by one horse in the original and two horses in the first remake). Another film with the same theme was made in 1896, that features another factory (or another entrance to the same factory) with different people. ===== Journey to the East is written from the point of view of a man (called "H. H." in the book) who becomes a member of "The League", a timeless religious sect whose members include famous fictional and real characters, such as Plato, Mozart, Pythagoras, Paul Klee, Don Quixote, Puss in Boots, Tristram Shandy, Baudelaire, Goldmund (from Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund), the artist Klingsor (from Hesse's Klingsor's Last Summer), and the ferryman Vasudeva (from Hesse's Siddhartha). A branch of the group goes on a pilgrimage to "the East" in search of the "ultimate Truth". The narrator speaks of traveling through both time and space, across geography imaginary and real. Although at first fun and enlightening, the Journey runs into a crisis in a deep mountain gorge called Morbio Inferiore when Leo, apparently a simple servant, disappears, causing the group to plummet into anxiety and argument. Leo is described as happy, pleasant, handsome, beloved by everyone, having a rapport with animals – to a discerning reader, he seems a great deal more than a simple servant, but nobody in the pilgrimage, including the narrator, seems to realise this. Nor does anyone seem to wonder why the group dissolves in dissension and bickering after Leo disappears. Instead they accuse Leo of taking with him various objects which they seem to be missing (and which turn up later) and which they regard as very important (and which later turn out not to be very important), and they blame him for the eventual disintegration of the group and failure of the Journey. Years later, the narrator tries to write his story of the Journey, even though he has lost contact with the group and believes the League no longer exists. But he is unable to put together any coherent account of it; his whole life has sunk into despair and disillusionment since the failure of the one thing which was most important to him, and he has even sold the violin with which he once offered music to the group during the Journey. Finally, at the advice of a friend, he finds the servant Leo and, having failed in his attempt to re- establish communication with him or even be recognized by him when he meets him on a park bench, writes him a long, impassioned letter of "grievances, remorse and entreaty" and posts it to him that night. The next morning, Leo appears in the narrator's home and tells him he has to appear before the High Throne to be judged by the officials of the League. It turns out (to the narrator's surprise) that Leo, the simple servant, is actually President of the League, and at points seems like Pablo, from Hesse's Steppenwolf. The crisis in Morbio Inferiore was a test of faith which the narrator and everyone else flunked rather dismally. H. H. discovers that his "aberration" and time spent adrift was part of his trial, and is allowed to return to the League if he can pass any new test of faith and obedience. What he chooses, and the final dénouement, is a stroke of Hesse's typical Eastern mysticism at its finest. Category:1932 German-language novels Category:Novels by Hermann Hesse Category:20th-century German novels ===== An on-screen title sets the action in Korea, 1951. The film tells the story of a young boy, Manuk, who roams a seemingly deserted town to glean and recycle the debris of war. We first meet him in the wreck of an aeroplane, looking for a particular piece of war refuse – a bolt – to turn into a toy soldier for his collection. He sings a song about a bear. Upon hearing the unmistakable low whistle of a train in the distance he runs to the track and places the bolt on the rail. The train thunders past on its urgent mission to carry tanks to the front. Manuk stands mesmerised, and grins widely. Once the train has passed he retrieves the bolt which has become magnetised. He makes his way through the town, pretending to be a soldier engaged in house-to-house fighting until his attention is captured by the drone of aeroplane engines. Silently he watches them slowly cross the sky. His war game begins again as he crouches behind rocks on a ridge overlooking an area with houses jumbled together. A postman cycles down the road below Manuk’s hiding place. Manuk imagines he is with his dad, pinned down by enemy fire. “Dad, there are too many of them,” he cries as the sound of machine guns and artillery fire fill his head. “But we are braver than them,” his father replies in the game. Manuk picks up a rock as if it is a hand grenade, expertly pulls the pin with his teeth and hurls it at the enemy crying “Dad, get down!” He waits, crouched, fingers in ears for the explosion which never comes. Instead, we hear the postman cry in surprise and pain, before crashing his bicycle and shouting at his unseen tormentor. Manuk slinks away and climbs the hill towards his home. He takes a key from a special hiding spot, and approaches the verandah in front of his house. He notices a parcel and hurries to open it. He pulls out an old leather wallet containing a faded black and white photograph of a man crouching with a child dressed as Manuk is now, but much younger. Manuk gently caresses the photograph with his thumb. He then pulls out a set of dog tags, and an old boot. He marches up and down in front of his house, wearing the boots as if he is a soldier on guard. Later, inside the house, he plays with the toy soldiers and tanks he has made from bits and pieces of metal he has found and falls asleep on the floor. His mother appears at the door, saying “Manuk, Mum is home”. ===== After narrowly escaping death during the recent war, Kameda returns to Japan from Okinawa, where he has been confined to an asylum. Because he is subject to seizures of epilepsy and emotional instability, he is considered to be mentally ill. During his journey home, he meets and becomes friends with Akama, who is returning home to receive his inheritance after a long estrangement because of his love for Taeko, who has been the mistress of Tohata since her childhood. Tohata, fearing disgrace for his abusive treatment of Taeko, has agreed to provide a dowry of Y600,000 to Kayama. In a threatening confrontation, Akama offers him Y1,000,000 not to marry her. Despised by women and treated as chattel by the other men, Taeko realizes it is only Kameda who sees who she truly is when he looks deep into her soul and tells her “You’re not that kind of person.” Akama proposes to Taeko, but she delays responding. Akama jealously interprets this to mean that she is really in love with Kameda. His jealousy grows until he ultimately murders Taeko and both men go mad with grief. ===== ===== Lola and Brownie are teenagers in the city of Bundaberg during the 1950s. They fall in love, but because of their age must fight their parents and welfare, who try to keep them apart. Lola falls pregnant and the couple runs away so they can keep their baby and live happily ever after. Lola's mother and the police find them and take Lola home. Brownie joins the crew of a ship so he can sail the coast and look for Lola. Meanwhile, Lola is forced to have an abortion by her mother in Brisbane. After an argument with her mother about Brownie and the abortion, Lola moves to Melbourne, becomes a waitress and bleaches her hair. Lola is reunited with Brownie after he visits the bar where Lola works whilst on shore leave. She returns with Brownie to his ship and they spend the night together in Brownie's cabin, where they are discovered the following morning by Brownie's friend and boss, Bosun. After an argument between Brownie and Bosun as to whether Lola should return to her mother or stay with Brownie, Bosun eventually relents and says that Lola can stay, so long as she is kept "out of sight" from the other sailors. After the ship docks, Lola and Brownie attend a party held by a young couple, Lyle and Mavis. They are squatting in the property with their daughter, Sharon. One night, Lola and Brownie are arrested for underage drinking after being caught leaving a pub. Lola is taken away by her mother and welfare to live with Aunt Westbury, a caretaker in the countryside for a fixed-term of 12 months. She and Brownie are told that they are not allowed to see or contact each other for one year. During Lola's stay in the community placement, a former charge of Aunt's visits the house. During this visit, Lola collects the mail and, after a brief conversation with the postman, realizes that her caretaker has thrown all Brownie's letters in the bin. Lola and the caretaker fight, and Lola runs away. Finding her mother drunk and unsympathetic, Lola returns to Lyle and Sharon's home, only to be arrested and taken to a young offenders' institution to restart and complete her sentence. During this time, a riot is started by the other inmates. After her 18th birthday, Lola is released from jail and is subsequently reunited with Brownie. They return to the house, where Lola discovers that Mavis is heavily pregnant with her and Lyle's second child. Lola wants Brownie to quit his job as a sailor, and stay with her; however, Brownie is unsure and confides in Bosun about his dilemma. Mavis goes into labor. The birth does not go well and both Mavis and the baby die. Although Lola and Brownie offer to adopt Mavis' surviving daughter, they are unable to as they are unmarried. Lyle leaves the child with Lola to give to social services as she will be placed into foster care and Lyle is unable to bear the thought of giving up his only child. Lyle subsequently leaves after telling Lola he intends to travel the world and taking on odd jobs to make ends meet while stopping off at different locations on his travels. He also tells Lola that he is too devastated by recent events to remarry or have another family. En route to the welfare office, Brownie sees Lola and Sharon in the taxi and runs after them. Eventually, Brownie catches up with the taxi and he is reunited with Lola and Sharon. The film ends with their wedding with their families and friends in attendance. ===== After his troopship is sunk in 1942, John Sullivan is saved by Yugoslav Chetniks, whose leader Marko forces John to travel with him up through Greek Macedonia to a village where he has to practice as a doctor. He saves the life of a Jewish girl, Nadia, with whom he falls in love. John is then captured by the Gestapo but escapes. He meets British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents Major Barrington and Captain Meg Fulton. He goes to live with the Partisans. John leaves Yugoslavia.The John Sullivan Story at Crawford Productions ===== The play concerns a dissident, Alexander Ivanov, who is imprisoned in a Soviet mental hospital, from which he will not be released until he admits that his statements against the government were caused by a (non-existent) mental disorder. In the hospital he shares a cell with a genuinely disturbed schizophrenic, also called Ivanov, who believes himself to have a symphony orchestra under his command. Alexander receives visits from the Doctor and from a Colonel in the KGB. Meanwhile, his son, Sacha, is seen in a school classroom with a teacher who attempts to convince him of the genuineness of his father's illness. ===== In the very near future, a race of huge, insectoid aliens are discovered traveling the galaxy. These aliens, which are known as the Uchuu Kaijuu, or Space Monsters (Note: This name is what they are referred to throughout the series, although the Super Robot Wars games names them the "STMC" or "Space Terrible Monster Crowd"), seem dedicated to the eradication of the human species as the latter takes its first steps away from the solar system, and they are getting closer and closer to Earth. Humanity has responded by developing space-going battleships and giant fighting robots. These complex robots—RX-7 Machine Weapons—are actually an advanced type of fighting suit, piloted by a single occupant. As advanced as they are, however, they are being used as trainers for a new weapon, the Gunbuster. Pilot candidates are selected from the best and brightest youth on Earth and the Lunar colony. These are trained at schools around the world. In the year 2023, six years after the first battles with the aliens (the actual battle started in the year 2015 however due to time dilation, two years went by on Earth by the end of the battle), and centers on young Noriko Takaya (タカヤ・ノリコ Takaya Noriko) (voice: Noriko Hidaka). Although Noriko's father was a famous admiral in the space fleet who went missing following one of the first battles of the war, her own talents as a pilot are questionable—especially when compared to the other students. Nonetheless, she has entered a training school on Okinawa, where she is largely influenced by her instructor, Kōichirō Ōta ("Coach Ōta") (voice: Norio Wakamoto), who was one of Admiral Takaya's crew. He has faith that she will overcome her early clumsiness, while other students are critical of her inability, referring to Noriko as the "daughter of defeat". Noriko idolizes the beautiful, competent and talented Kazumi Amano (アマノ・カズミ Amano Kazumi) (voice: Rei Sakuma). Amano is the top RX-7 pilot at the school, and likely the entire world. Coach Ōta shows the extra training which Amano creates for herself, inspiring Noriko to look within herself for strengths which she did not know that she had. Only two Gunbuster pilots from each school will be selected for the real mission. Amano, of course, will be going, and all of the others want the second slot on the team. Takaya is determined to win, not only to be with Amano but also to find (or avenge) her father. She is thrilled to discover that she has in fact been chosen as the second Japanese pilot. Following that selection, conflict between Takaya and other students comes to a head, when the second-best RX-7 pilot at the school publicly challenges her to a one-on-one fight. Planned for late at night, when none of the school authorities will be around to stop it, Ōta learns of the duel and comes to the battleground—but does nothing. He is there to observe, and perhaps to save Takaya's life, if the combat gets too intensive. Takaya is on the defensive from the start, and the older student humiliates her by action and over the radio. As Takaya's RX-7 is pummeled, Noriko realizes that her difficulties are a case of sensory overload—she is getting too much information from the electronic monitoring systems. She turns off her monitors, but as the systems go dark, her opponent is infuriated by the perceived insult and prepares the final, killing blow. Just as it appears that Noriko is doomed, she destroys her opponent's RX-7 with a "Thunder Kick". Her opponent muses that the school rookie has beat her with an advanced maneuver which she hadn't been taught. This is the proof that Ōta was seeking, that Noriko had an innate ability which would be invaluable in the battles to come. Together, with Coach Ōta and Amano, Takaya is sent into space to train with other representatives from all over the solar system in preparation for the attack upon the space monsters. There they are introduced to a Soviet pilot from the moon base by the name of Jung Freud (voice: Maria Kawamura). On their first training mission, Takaya and Amano are stopped by Jung, and challenged to a duel. Amano and Jung become completely involved in the fight, as Noriko trails along, and all three get lost within the machinery of the space station. The fight stops midway, when all three come in contact with the first space monster that was defeated and captured. Once they return they are scolded by their coach, but because of their importance to the missions success as well as building feelings between the coach and them, they are let go with a simple warning. Jung later apologizes for her challenge, and thus begins a friendship with the two. As they move farther into space, the young pilots are placed in their quarters for subspace traveling. On a dare, Takaya is sent into the hangars and meets a male space pilot named Toren Smith (voice: Kazuki Yao). Amano comes into doubt of Takaya's abilities and asks the Coach to end their partnership. Takaya overhears the conversation and ends up partnering with Smith instead. The first true battle between the aliens begin, and the humans realize how vastly outmaneuvered and outnumbered they are. They are able to retreat with limited casualties, but Takaya has lost Smith, and gained an uncontrollable fear towards deep space combat. As their second battle approaches, Takaya is determined to improve and asks the Coach for private lessons. Jung finds out and thinking that she doing so to control Gunbuster, challenges her in space. But even before they are able to fight, Takaya breaks down within her suit and is taken to the infirmary. The captain decides to retreat to Earth, but the fleet is attacked in sub-space, leading to the destruction of the majority of their forces. Once they reach Earth's orbit, only the Exelion and a few minor cruisers are still active. Though their struggle appears bleak, Takaya manages to summon up her strength for the sake of her friends and crew members. She takes control of the incomplete Gunbuster and uses its high-powered weaponry to force the enemy to retreat. The battle is over, but those who remain are faced with the harsh reality of war and its aftermath. Afterwards, the three pilots return to Earth, where things have changed significantly. Due to the effects of time dilation, 10 years of relative time has passed on Earth while the pilots were in space. Takaya's former nemesis who had previously challenged her at school is now the coach for new pilots. Her best friend, Kimiko, is now a mother with a 3-year- old daughter, and Earth has been working on a 70 km long space ship as a form of defense in the event of a space monster attack. While in a peaceful lull, Takaya and friends try to re-adjust to living in a world that has already passed them by. Takaya tries to reconnect with her friend, while Amano tries to share her feelings with the Coach. The peace is broken, however, when Earth is notified that a space monster fleet of unprecedented size is headed towards Earth. After many arguments, the idea of sending the old Exelion as an unmanned black hole bomb, is proposed. The Gunbuster is nominated to escort the bomb there, and then to come home. Takaya and Amano, in separate ships which combine into Gunbuster, are sent out, a trip that will last an hour or more to them, but half a year to everyone back on Earth. As they almost reach their goal, Amano breaks down, admitting that she does not want go forward, since each second forward means the longer she is away from their Coach, who is now dying from space radiation. Takaya is able to convince her to continue, and their mission is a success. Upon returning, they are relieved to learn that the Coach is still alive; he and Amano then get married. The final episode takes place 15 years later. Amano has lived on Earth during this time, but after the Coach passes away, she decides to take on a final mission. The space monsters have resurfaced, and in retaliation Earth has been building a much larger black hole bomb, which has been created using the mass of Jupiter pressured into the size of the moon. Known as Buster Machine III, this weapon is the size of a small planet. When detonated, the bomb and 3,000 'slave mines' placed around the center of the galaxy, will cause a black hole to be formed thereby sucking in and destroying the space monsters. Amano is sent back into space to board the new ship Eltreum, where mobile suits called Sizzlers (buster sized machines, piloted individually) are now used in combat. With the crew present to welcome Amano, she and Takaya share an emotional reunion, though the absence has felt much longer for the former. Takaya has difficulty coming to terms with the fact that so much time has passed on Earth, after only 6 months relative to her. When the final battle begins, Amano is ordered to man the Gunbuster with Takaya, and both fight alongside others to defend the bomb. The alien army is fended off, allowing the black hole bomb to be set. However, when the time comes to activate, they find out the enemies' attacks have damaged 2% of the 'slave generators' required for implosion. Amano and Takaya decide to dive down into the core of Buster Machine III and activate it by using one of Gunbuster's two Degeneracy reactors, even though doing so means they will likely be unable to leave without suffering severe relativistic time dilation during their escape. After the bomb is set off, Noriko and Kazumi spend 12,000 Earth years objective traveling home, although for them only hours or days have passed. Upon arriving in Earth orbit in the damaged Gunbuster, the pilots cannot make contact with anyone nor see any sign of habitation on the planet, suggesting that human civilization is long gone. However, their despair is instantly dispelled when a massive light pattern suddenly appears on the planet saying "WELCOME HOMƎ!" spelled out in simplified Japanese (the final letter, however, is reversed, which indicates the current civilization was mimicking the bygone language). Delighted that their planet is alive and well, the pilots bid the Gunbuster farewell and return to Earth. ===== Karen McCoy (Kim Basinger) is released from prison with nothing but the clothes on her back. Before being incarcerated, Karen was the bank robber of her time but now she wishes for nothing more than to settle down and start a new life. Unfortunately, between a dirty parole officer, old business partners and an idiot ex-husband, McCoy will have to do the unthinkable to save her son (Zack English) and new heartthrob J.T. (Val Kilmer): another bank job. ===== The film opens with the MGM logo, as usual, but with a voice-over saying, "I forgot the opening line" (the voice of James Stewart), replacing the lion roar, and proceeds with The Lecturer regaling his unseen students with a wealth of knowledge of the habits of birds. Owlish Brewster McCloud, living hidden and alone under the Houston Astrodome, dreams of creating wings that will help him fly like a bird. His only assistance comes from Louise, a beautiful woman who wants to help. Wearing only a trench coat, Louise has unexplained scars on her shoulder blades, suggestive of a fallen angel. She warns him against having sexual intercourse, as this could kill his instinct to fly. While Brewster works to complete his wings and condition himself for flight, Houston suffers a string of unexplained murders, the work of a serial killer whose victims are found strangled and covered in bird droppings. Haskell Weeks, a prominent figure in Houston, pulls strings to have the Houston Police call "San Francisco super cop" Frank Shaft to investigate. Shaft immediately fixates on the bird droppings and soon finds a link to Brewster. Brewster eludes the police with the apparent help of Louise but he eventually drives her away—and dooms himself—when he ignores her advice about sex by hooking up with Astrodome usher Suzanne Davis. Suzanne saves Brewster by evading Shaft in her stolen Road Runner. Severely injured after losing Brewster, Frank kills himself. Brewster eventually confesses his responsibility in the killings to Suzanne, who betrays him to the police. A small army of Houston policemen enter the Astrodome, but fail to nab Brewster before he takes flight using his completed wings. Although Brewster escapes the police, he cannot escape a human being's inherent unsuitability for flight. Exhausted by the effort, he falls out of the air, crashing in a heap on the floor of the Astrodome. The film ends with a Circus entering the Astrodome, played by the cast of the film, costumed as clowns, strongmen and other circus performers. The Ringmaster (played by William Windom) announces the names of each cast member, finishing with Brewster, who remains crumpled on the floor. ===== Roger Ramjet is a patriotic and highly moral — if not very bright — hero, who is typically out to save the world, with help from his Proton Energy Pills ("PEP"), which give him "the strength of twenty atom bombs for a period of twenty seconds". The world is invariably saved by defeating the various recurring criminals who populated the series. On government missions assigned by General G.I. Brassbottom, Ramjet encounters various nemeses during his missions. Typically he is caught, and must be rescued by his crew of sidekicks, the American Eagles: Yank, Doodle, Dan and Dee (a play on "Yankee Doodle dandy"). Although his Eagles appear to be children, each of them, except for Dee, flies his own individual ramjet aircraft expertly, and they are obviously much more savvy than their leader. The various recurring criminals include: * Pint-sized gangster Noodles Romanoff and his evil organization N.A.S.T.Y. (National Association of Spies, Traitors and Yahoos). Noodles wears dark glasses, a fedora, and a trench coat. His hands are always jammed into his jacket pockets. His band of No Goods consist of several lookalike henchmen clad in hats and coats, who simultaneously utter incomprehensible phrases of agreement to whatever he says. * The Solenoid Robots, green metal gas mask-faced evildoers from outer space who have a unicycle-like wheel instead of legs and talk in barely understandable electronic voices. * Red Dog the Pirate, a redheaded short, squat scourge of the seven seas with an eye patch, peg-leg and a wiseacre parrot named Carl Bob for a sidekick. * Blond, long-nosed, Zsa Zsa Gabor-accented foreign spy femme fatale Jacqueline Hyde (a play on Jekyll and Hyde). * Dr. Frank N. Schwine, a Boris Karloff soundalike mad scientist who, with the help of his purple propeller beanie-wearing assistant Sidney, keeps creating huge hulking Frankenstein-style monsters only to have them defeated by Roger and become football players. * Count Batguy, a bald Nosferatu-style vampire from Transylvania complete with Bela Lugosi accent. * Dr. What, internationally feared evil genius. * Sexy senorita Tequila Mockingbird (a play on To Kill a Mockingbird) who teams up with her bandito boyfriends the Enchilada Brothers, Beef and Chicken, to stir up revolution in the tiny Latin American country of San Domino. Another recurring, non-criminal character in the series was sportscaster Vincent Yafnarro, who appeared in several sports-related episodes. Roger's tough little old mother, Ma Ramjet, appeared in several episodes; her voice was an imitation of Jonathan Winters' "Maude Frickert" character, and she had her own variation on her son's Proton Energy Pills, "Ma Ramjet's Atomic Vitamins for Old People whose Get-Up-and-Go Got Up and Left." Lance Crossfire (a parody of actor Burt Lancaster), Ramjet's toothy test pilot rival for the affections of his short, Southern-accented sweetheart Lotta Love, is also likely to get in the way. When Lance and Roger cross paths, neither one of them wins: in one episode, the always fickle Lotta ends up going out with General Brassbottom, who promises the two men that he will take care of her. As is his way, Roger does not realize that they have both lost — unlike Lance, who inevitably ends these cartoons with the phrase, "Oh, Roger — Shut up!" ===== Civil engineer Shekhar lives with his wife Chitra and their two young children Arjun and Anu. Chitra delivers her third child, but the daughter is claimed to be stillborn. Two years later, Shekar and his family move to a new apartment complex. The family seems to have moved on from their grief due to the stillborn child incident and live happily. After a few altercations with the kids in the colony, Arjun and Anu are accepted by all the kids as their own. The kids are all for pulling pranks and generally causing a clamor around the apartment colony. One such constant joke, they play on a mentally disabled ex- watchman of the colony, much to the chagrin of his wife. The only tenant they are afraid of is an ex-convict, who lives alone in one of the apartments. On one particular day, Chitra and the kids decided to surprise Shekhar by meeting him at his construction area, unannounced. Nevertheless, on coming to the site, they learned from one of the construction workers that Shekhar has left to conduct an emergency matter elsewhere. When Shekhar returns home for dinner that night, Chitra casually asks him where he was on that day, to which he replies that he was at the construction site the whole day. Chitra feels hurt to hear Shekhar lying and leaves the dining hall. Arjun and Anu too sense that their father is lying to them and leave the place. Nevertheless, before leaving the room, Anu blurts out accusations on her father, saying that he's lying about being at the site the whole day. Shekhar apologises to Chitra and consoles her and they both make up. On New Year's Eve, Arjun slips out late at night with the older children to celebrate while Shekhar is out of town on a business trip. Nevertheless, while dancing with his friends on the road, Arjun sees Shekhar with another woman and is shocked to know that his father has lied to them about going out of the town. Later, Arjun and the other children are hauled by the police back to their homes. Chitra is furious to learn about Arjun's escapade and when Shekhar comes back, asks him to punish Arjun. While Shekhar inquires him about the incident, Arjun, who was still angry at his father, blurts out that he saw Shekhar with another woman on New Year's Eve. Chitra and Anu become shocked on hearing about the incident. Chitra then starts suspecting that Shekhar is having affair with another woman and confronts him about it, but Shekhar swears on both his kids that he is not. A few days later, while on the bus, Chitra spots Shekhar talking to a woman (Saranya Ponvannan). She gets out of the bus and confronts him. Without waiting for his explanations, she rushes back home, packs her bags and threatens to walk out of the house with her kids. Shekhar pleads her to stay but she doesn't stop. Finally, Shekhar comes clean. Their third child, Anjali (Shamili), was born mentally ill and with a terminal illness a few years ago. The doctors did not give the child more than a couple of months to live. To avoid the sadness for a couple of months from an already physically exhausted Chitra and to protect his children from the trauma, he colludes with the doctors to lie to his family that the child was stillborn. But much to the surprise of everyone, the child has made it past her second birthday and is seemingly physically healthy. The woman Shekar was talking to is Anjali's doctor. Although Chitra is saddened by this betrayal, she decides to bring Anjali back home. Anjali is not like a normal child and requires constant attention from both the parents. This causes the other two siblings to dislike Anjali. Moreover, the other kids in the colony and school tease them by making fun of Anjali's condition. One day, the other kids in the colony make fun of Anjali by tying a string of cans behind her. This causes Arjun to fight with the other kids. He gets bruised which saddens Anjali, but a special bond is born between the siblings. Arjun becomes protective of her and challenges the other kids in the colony to a fight if they can't accept her. The kids accept Anjali and all the kids come to love her. This causes the parents of the kids to worry as they don't want their kids to be close with a mentally disabled child. During an apartment association meeting, the parents of the kids demand that Shekar and Chitra either leave the apartment or institutionalize Anjali. The only person to argue for Anjali's presence is the ex-convict. The parents are afraid of him and let it go. But soon, Anjali wins over everyone in the apartment complex and everyone comes to like her. Meanwhile, Shekhar, during a late-night visit to his construction site with Chitra and Anjali, is witness to a murder. He reports this to the police and the murderer is arrested. The murderer is enraged and visits Shekar's house after getting out on bail. He physically assaults and plans on killing Shekhar. But the ex-convict comes to the rescue and kills the murderer in the altercation when he threatens Shekhar's family and is arrested. The ex-convict thanks Shekhar before leaving as Anjali was the only person to show compassion to him. The next morning, Anu wakes up and goes to wake up Anjali, but she doesn't get up. Anjali had died in her sleep. As more and more people come after hearing Anu's screams, they all are saddened by the demise of the girl who taught them acceptance and forgiveness. ===== In The New Adventures of Batman, the "Dynamic Duo" fights crime in Gotham City, encountering the classic Batman rogues gallery as well as some original villains. Complicating matters is Bat-Mite, a well- meaning imp from another dimension called Ergo, who considers himself Batman's biggest fan. As a result, he wears a variant of Batman’s costume and attempts to help him, only to often create more problems. Missing is Alfred, the faithful butler of Batman's alter ego Bruce Wayne; also notable in this series are the inverted colors of the circled "R" on Robin's costume. ===== Honey Bunny has been kidnapped by Wile E. Coyote, Yosemite Sam, Daffy Duck, and Sylvester, and Bugs must travel through 60 levels (80 in the Game Boy version) in order to save her. To get past each level, Bugs must collect all 8 carrots in each level. ===== In 1939 Navy Commander Victor "Pug" Henry has been appointed US Naval attaché in Berlin. During the voyage to Europe aboard , Victor befriends a British radio personality, Alistair Talcott "Talky" Tudsbury, his daughter, Pamela, and a German submarine officer, Captain Grobke. In the television version, he also meets German General Armin von Roon. In the book he only meets Von Roon later at a Berlin dinner party. Von Roon becomes the viewpoint character for the German side of the war and witnesses the German government's worsening persecution of the Jews. Pug quickly recognizes—through his work as the attaché—that Nazi Germany is intent on invading Poland. Realizing that this would mean war with the Soviet Union, he concludes that the only way for Germany to safely invade is to agree not to go to war with the Soviets. Pug submits a report back to Washington—going over his supervisor's head—which predicts the Nazi–Soviet non-aggression pact before it is signed. When the pact is made public, Pug's report draws him to the attention of President Roosevelt, who asks the Navy Commander to be his unofficial eyes and ears in Europe. Although this new assignment again delays his desired sea command, it gives him the opportunity to travel to London, Rome, and Moscow where he meets Winston Churchill, Benito Mussolini, and Joseph Stalin in addition to Adolf Hitler, whom he met in Berlin. Due to Pug's increasing amount of travel and his aversion to many of the cultural events which are enjoyed by his wife, Rhoda, she spends increasing amounts of time alone. Through Pug, she meets a widowed engineer named Palmer (Fred) Kirby, who later will be involved in the first phase of the Manhattan Project. Rhoda and Palmer begin to spend time together attending the opera and other events, but soon this leads to a romantic relationship. For his part, Pug begins a platonic but very close and borderline romantic relationship with Pamela; however, he cannot decide to leave his wife Rhoda for her. After having finally obtained command of a battleship, , he leaves for Pearl Harbor from Moscow, where he has discussed Lend-Lease issues and observed a battle. He flies over Asia and spends time in Manila listening to the radio broadcast of the annual Army–Navy football game. When his flight is approaching Pearl Harbor, they receive the message that an attack is under way. Arriving at the base, they see the burning ships, including his own. Pug's three children each have their own story lines. His older son, Warren, is a United States Naval Academy graduate who enters Navy Flight School in Florida. His daughter, Madeline, begins a job in a radio company. The child most prominent in the story is middle child and younger son Byron, named after Lord Byron, the English poet. Though a Columbia University graduate and holding a naval reserve commission, Byron has not committed himself to a career. In 1939 he accepts a job as a research assistant for an expatriate Jewish author, Aaron Jastrow, who is best known for his book A Jew's Jesus and lives in Siena, Italy. Byron also meets Jastrow's niece, Natalie, and her soon-to-be fiancé, Leslie Slote, who works for the Department of State. Readers later discover that Natalie and Slote are also close friends of Pamela Tudsbury from their time in Paris together. Byron is three years younger than Natalie, but catches her attention by heroically saving her uncle from being trampled by a stampeding horse during the Palio, a festival in Siena. Byron and Natalie visit her family's native town in Poland, Medzice, for a wedding, which occurs the night prior to the German invasion of Poland. They are awakened early the next morning to evacuate as the town citizens flee from the invaders. They travel from Medzice to Warsaw ahead of the invading German army, and at one point the refugees are strafed by the Luftwaffe and many are killed and injured. As they approach Warsaw, they encounter Polish soldiers who confiscate Byron's passport and attempt to commandeer their automobile and leave them stranded. Finally, they are in Warsaw as the Germans begin the siege and are evacuated along with other Americans and citizens of neutral countries. During their encounters with the German and Polish soldiers, Byron repeatedly behaves heroically. Leslie behaves in cowardly fashion under artillery fire, but stands up to the Germans when they attempt to separate Jewish Americans from their group. When Natalie receives the proposal of marriage from Leslie that she has been eagerly awaiting, she realizes that the experience in Poland has changed her heart and that she is now in love with Byron. After much beating around the bush, she admits this to Byron, who promptly offers his own proposal of marriage, which Natalie accepts. She returns to America upon receiving word that her father is quite ill, and she is also able to attend Warren's wedding. Her father dies of a heart attack upon hearing of the invasion of Norway and Denmark on April 9, 1940. In January 1941, she marries Byron and devotes herself to getting her reluctant uncle out of Europe to escape the Nazis, soon discovering she is pregnant. All of the story lines are left as a cliffhanger as the United States is drawn into the war by the attack on Pearl Harbor. Rhoda makes and then retracts a request for a divorce. With USS California damaged and out of action, Pug is given command of a cruiser, . Byron has been trained as a submarine officer. Warren has graduated from Pensacola, married a Congressman's daughter, Janice Lacouture, and is assigned to as a dive bomber pilot. Aaron, Natalie, and Natalie's infant son Louis are trapped in Europe as the war begins. These storylines continue in War and Remembrance. ===== The story involves two fictional countries, the peaceful Republic of Sardun and their aggressive neighbor Gamibia. Unable to defend themselves from a Gamibian incursion, Sardun sends Major Zara and General Byrne-White to ask the help of MegaForce – a secret army composed of international soldiers from throughout the western world, equipped with advanced weapons and vehicles. The MegaForce leader, Commander Ace Hunter, will lead a mission to destroy the Gamibian forces, which are led by his rival, and former military academy friend, Duke Gurerra. While Hunter composes an elaborate battle plan to destroy Gurerra's forces, Zara tries out to become a member of MegaForce. As she executes the various tests, Hunter's feelings of affection toward her grow. And while she passes the tests, he is unable to allow her to participate in their raid, because her presence, as an outsider, would disrupt the trust and familiarity of his force. Eventually, MegaForce successfully para-drops its attack vehicles into Gamibia and Hunter mounts his sneak attack against Gurerra's forces. Although they manage to destroy his base, they are told by General Byrne-White that Sardun has decided they will not be allowed to cross the border into their country because they consider MegaForce too dangerous a global organization. At the same time, Gurerra has set a trap for them at the team's only means of escape – a dry lake bed where the cargo planes will pick them up. Gurerra sends his tanks to secure the lake bed while Hunter comes up with a plan to attack Gurerra from behind by crossing over a mountain range the enemy tanks had turned their backs toward. The plan succeeds, and MegaForce manages to break through Gurerra's tanks, but one of MegaForce's cargo planes is damaged in the process. Having to abandon their high-tech vehicles (which they program to self-destruct), the team successfully makes it on foot to the last plane, except for Hunter. The commander, instead, makes his own dramatic escape on his motorcycle after it deploys airfoils and a rocket motor and catches up with the cargo plane in midair. Although he has lost the battle, Gurerra shows admiration for Hunter's cunning, and he gives his old friend a thumbs up. ===== The game begins with Gerdy attempting to wake his sleeping father, Master Herder Gedryn, who is going to be late for the annual herding competition. It is soon revealed that Gerdy's dad has been placed under a spell by the evil wizard Sadorf. Gerdy is determined to save his dad and the magical island that they live on from Sadorf's evil rule. First he goes to his village to receive herding training from Yggdrasil, a wise old sage, who gives him the Herding Stick. Then he travels to Midmear where he receives the Magic Flute from Red, a magician in training. Soon after that, Gerdy obtains the Magic Horn after beating Efrin, a teenage boy who lives in the Elven Wood. Gerdy heads into the Gold Mine Gorge where he meets Jake, an old gold miner that has recently invented the ladder. However, the ladder cannot support Gerdy's weight, so the young boy must venture on to Belder's Spring. Belder's Spring is an underground spring haunted by the ghost of a miner. Belder, the ghost, gives Gerdy a Magic Feather which will cause him to weigh virtually nothing, allowing him to climb ladders. Gerdy heads up through the mountains to Moonlit Peaks, a snow-covered cliff. There he finds Poric, an old Leprechaun who guards his gold carefully. Gerdy manages to steal Poric's Magic Hammer, allowing him to activate Rainbow Switches. He heads back to Elven Wood, and gets through using his new item. He continues on into Forest Glade, but stops after reaching Crystal Lake. Due to his inability to swim, Gerdy is unable to get to a Gypsy on the other side of a pool. Gerdy explores until he meets a mole living underground. The mole gives him some Magic Gloves, allowing him to push large blocks. Gerdy travels back to Midmear and enters the Ancient Temple. After beating the tricks and traps there, he comes out into Pirate Cove. There he meets a pirate that takes him to an island inhabited by a giant bird. Gerdy defeats the winged terror knows as Skrag, and wins the Magic Swimsuit. He goes back to Crystal Lake and crosses the pool to get to the Gypsy. Gerdy make his way through the rest of the forest to Foxtown. He hitches a ride with a baker to Tournament Island and defeats Sadorf, thus saving the entire Island and his father. ===== Jake at the Farmhouse area in Clarksville One day, the protagonist, Jake, witnesses Daisy, an American Foxhound whom he has a crush on, being taken away by dog-catchers and resolves to rescue her. He follows them from the small town of Clarksville, to a mountain resort called Lake Minniwahwah, and finally to Boom City, using information gained from overhearing conversations between humans to track them down. Throughout his adventure, he is continually harassed by Killer, a Dobermann belonging to a dog catcher. Eventually it is revealed that Miss Peaches, head of a cat food company, is arranging for dogs to be caught, and smuggled to a factory, where they will be made into her cat food. Jake ultimately makes it to the dog pound, and after rescuing a number of dogs and bribing Killer with bones, gains entry to the factory. There, he manages to prevent Daisy from being killed by the machinery as she is taken through it on a conveyor belt, only for Miss Peaches to appear with a shotgun. Jake farts, sending her falling onto the conveyor belt, where she is taken through the machinery which turns her into her own cat food. The epilogue reveals that all the stolen dogs were saved, and that Jake and Daisy are together. ===== Jake Scully is a struggling actor who has lost his role as a vampire in a low-budget horror film after his claustrophobia thwarts shooting. After returning home to discover his girlfriend cheating on him, he splits and is left without a place to stay (the residence belongs to her). At a method acting class, he meets Sam Bouchard, who pays close attention to Scully's revelation of his fears and the childhood cause of his claustrophobia. They go to a bar where Scully is offered a place to stay; Sam's rich friend has gone on a trip to Europe and needs a house- sitter for his ultra-modern home in the Hollywood Hills. During the tour of the house with Scully, Sam is especially enthusiastic about showing Scully one feature: a telescope, and through it a female neighbor, Gloria Revelle, who erotically dances at a specific time each night. Scully voyeuristically watches Gloria each night, until he sees her being abused by a man she appears to know. The next day he follows her when she goes shopping. Gloria makes calls to an unknown person, promising to meet him or her. Scully also notices a disfigured "Indian," a man he had noticed watching Gloria a few days prior. Scully follows her to a seaside motel where apparently Gloria has been stood up by the person she was there to meet. On the beach, the Indian suddenly snatches her purse. Scully chases the thief into a nearby tunnel, but is overcome by his claustrophobia. Gloria walks him out of it, and they impulsively and passionately kiss before she retreats. That night Scully is again watching through the telescope when the Indian returns and breaks into Gloria's home. Scully races to save her but is attacked by Gloria's vicious dog. Gloria is murdered by the Indian with a huge handheld drill. Chemosphere, the ultramodern house used in Body Double Scully alerts the police, who determine it was a botched robbery. However, Detective McLean becomes suspicious after finding a pair of Gloria's panties in Scully's pocket. Although McLean does not arrest him, he tells Scully that his voyeuristic behavior and failure to alert police sooner helped cause Gloria's murder. Later that night, unable to sleep, Scully is watching a pornographic TV channel when he notices that the actress Holly Body dances in exactly the same sensual manner that Gloria did. To meet Holly, he pretends to be a porn producer hiring for a new film. Scully learns from Holly that Sam hired her to impersonate Gloria each night, dancing in the window, knowing Scully would be watching and later witness the real Gloria's murder. Offended at the suggestion she was involved in a killing, Holly storms out of the house. She is picked up by the Indian who knocks her unconscious and drives her away. Scully follows them to an aqueduct where the Indian is digging a grave. During their fight, Scully discovers the Indian is Sam in heavy make-up. Scully was a scapegoat providing Sam, who was Gloria's abusive husband, with an alibi during the murder. Scully is overpowered and thrown into the grave where he is again incapacitated by his claustrophobia. However, he overcomes his fear and climbs out as Sam is knocked into the aqueduct and drowned. During the ending credits, Scully is shown having been recast in his previous vampire role as Holly watches from the sidelines. ===== On 1 September 1939, Germany invades Poland and after which the regulation was promulgated that all Polish Jews should move to the newly created Warsaw Ghetto. As in all the ghettos, a Judenrat was appointed and was responsible for the administration of the ghetto. The film tells the moral dilemmas faced by Adam Czerniaków (Donald Sutherland), head of the Judenrat in the Warsaw Ghetto, who was ordered to carry out orders of the German authorities, including sending Jews to the Treblinka Concentration Camp. A group of Polish Jews decide to rebel against the Germans and not to lend a hand to the murder of their brethren. They begin to organize their people in order to protect the honor of the Jewish people, but Czerniaków as the leader of the Judenrat objects to this activity, fearing violent German retaliation against the Jews in the ghetto. By the close of 1942, people living in the ghetto realize they are doomed as the deportations to Treblinka began. The rudiments of resistance are planned by Mordechai Anielewicz (Hank Azaria) together with Yitzhak Zuckerman (David Schwimmer) and laid the foundation for the Jewish Combat Organization, Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB). The film illustrates the moral dilemmas of members of the Jewish Combat Organization during the preparations for the revolt: "How to remain moral, in an immoral society?" On January 18, 1943, Nazis raid the ghetto again, but this time the Jews resist. The Jewish Combat Organization stops the Nazi raids into the ghetto. Germans return on 18 April 1943, and the uprising in the ghetto breaks out. In the intervening time, many of the ghetto residents construct hidden shelters or bunkers in the basements and cellars of the buildings, often with tunnels leading to other buildings. The handful of fighters who have weapons take to these shelters, giving the uprising the advantage of defensive positions. The fighters hold out for more than a month. In the more than three hours mini-series, we see a realistic and docu-like representation of what happened at the Warsaw ghetto. ===== In 1999 Los Angeles, Hannon Fuller (Mueller-Stahl) owns a multibillion-dollar computer enterprise and is the inventor of a newly completed virtual reality (VR) simulation of 1937 Los Angeles, filled with simulated humans unaware they are computer programs. When Fuller is murdered just as he begins premature testing of the VR system, his friend and protégé, Douglas Hall (Bierko), who is also the heir to the company, becomes the primary suspect. The evidence against him is so strong that Hall begins to doubt his own innocence. Between interrogations by LAPD Detective Larry McBain (Haysbert), Hall meets Jane Fuller (Gretchen Mol), the estranged daughter of Hannon Fuller, who is busy with the shutdown of the new VR system. Hall then romances her. When a local bartender is murdered after he claims to have witnessed a meeting between Hall and Fuller on the night Fuller was murdered, Hall is arrested. He is released when Jane gives him an alibi. With the assistance of his associate Whitney (D'Onofrio), Hall attempts to find a message that Fuller left for him inside the simulation. Entering the virtual reality, Hall becomes a bank clerk named John Ferguson. Fuller left the message with a bartender named Jerry Ashton (D'Onofrio), who read the message and discovered he is an artificial creation. Earlier, Ashton notices that Ferguson switched places with Hall in the men's restroom of the hotel where Ashton works, and began to realize that something was wrong. Frightened and angry, Ashton tries to kill Hall. Hall barely survives to escape the VR. McBain informs Hall that Jane does not exist, as Fuller never had a daughter. Hall tracks her down only to discover her double, Natasha Molinaro, working as a grocery store clerk, but Molinaro does not recognize Hall. This leads Hall to perform an experiment outside the VR system, something that Fuller's letter instructed him to try: drive to a place where he never would have considered going otherwise. He does so, and discovers a point beyond which the world becomes a crude wireframe model. Hall grasps the revelation behind Fuller's message: 1999 Los Angeles is itself a simulation. Jane Fuller explains the truth to Hall: his world is one of dozens of virtual worlds, but it is the only one in which one of the occupants have developed a virtual world of their own. Jane Fuller lives in the real world outside the 90s simulation. After Fuller's death, she entered the virtual version to assume the guise of Fuller's daughter, gain control of the company, and shut down the simulated 1937 reality, a plan foiled by Hall being made the company heir. The virtual Hall is modeled after David, Jane's real-world husband, though Jane has since fallen in love with Hall. David committed the murders via Hall's body, being driven to increasingly jealous and psychopathic behavior from prolonged use of VR to live out his dark fantasies. Whitney enters the 1937 simulation, assuming the body of bartender Jerry Ashton, who has kidnapped Ferguson (Hall's 1937 identity) and bound him in the trunk of his car. When Whitney is killed in a car crash inside the 1937 simulation, Ashton's consciousness takes control of Whitney's body in the 90s simulation and takes Hall hostage. Hall tells Ashton that he is not in the real world, and that they are both products of a VR simulation. Hall takes Ashton to the place where he was 'born': a computer lab. David assumes control of Hall again to kill Ashton and then attempts to rape and murder Jane. Jane is rescued by Detective McBain, who shoots and kills David. McBain at this point has realized the nature of his own reality, and jokingly asks Jane, "So, is somebody going to unplug me now?" She answers "no", so McBain follows with the request "Look, do me a favor, when you get back to wherever it is you come from, just leave us the hell alone down here, okay?" David's death as Hall in the 90s simulation allows Hall's artificial consciousness to take control of David's body in the real world. He wakes in 2024, connected to a VR system. He disconnects the system and finds Jane and her father, the real Hannon Fuller. Jane wants to tell Hall more about the simulation, but as she begins the film ends, the screen image collapsing to a thin line of light before going dark like a computer monitor being turned off. ===== Shakuni is also one of the masterminds behind the Kurukshetra War. His intentions include his desire to avenge the insult Bhishma made. Shakuni's main enmity was with Bhishma, who had brought the proposal of his beloved sister, Gandhari, which Shakuni thought was an insult of Gandhara. Shakuni also stabbed in his own leg and vowed that he will destroy Kuru kingdom and later he changed his vow and vowed to make Duryodhana the emperor of Kuru Kingdom but his this oath (or vow) never succeeded. He mainly worked by inciting hatred between the Kauravas and Pandavas; his plans culminated in the largest war in history. Although he often failed in his tricks against the Pandavas, he never lost faith in his ability to destroy the lineage of Kuru. A far-sighted man, his plan was much bigger than causing plight to the Pandavas; he wanted a full-scale civil war between the branches of Kuru clan, which would destroy the whole clan, fulfilling his revenge. He feared nobody, except Krishna, whom he considered as an obstacle since he knew that only Krishna had the power and influence to foil his plan. Krishna was a shrewd diplomat and statesman, the only person who matched Shakuni's cunning and intelligence. Shakuni wanted a war between the branches of Kuru kingdom since the marriage of Gandhari with Dhritarashtra and Krishna also wanted the war when Draupadi was insulted and when the peace talks of himself were rejected by Duryodhana. Shakuni wanted the war to avenge his sister's humiliation and Krishna wanted the war would happen to show that the righteousness will always triumph over the unrighteousness. Ways in which Shakuni incited war include: * Advising an adolescent Duryodhana to mix poison into Bhima's food twice. * Hiring Purochana to kill the Pandavas in the House of Wax. * Arranging the game of dice between Kauravas and Pandavas which was responsible for Draupadi's humiliation. * Before the war, he advised Duryodhana to feed Shalya's army and put Shalya in his debt, making it compulsory for him to fight on the side of Kauravas.Shalya giving a boon to Yudhisthira http://sacred-texts.com/hin/m06/m06043.htm Shakuni's only saving grace is his extreme love towards his sister Gandhari. Gandhari was petrified of the dark when she was small and preferred to have well-lit places all the time. Being a dutiful wife, she voluntarily blindfolded herself which meant she had to live every second of her life in absolute terror because of the darkness due to blindfold. This does not go down too well with Shakuni, who constantly advises her to take off her blindfold. Time and again, he expresses the anger he felt for the injustice that Gandhari had to go through by leading her entire life with a blindfold. ===== Doug and Skeeter discover a monster that lives in Lucky Duck Lake. At first they are scared of him, but later they find he is nice. Bill Bluff is polluting the lake, and the pollution created this monster. The Monster almost eats the book Moby Dick but Skeeter stops him, and they named him Herman for the book's author, Herman Melville. Doug remembers that he was supposed to meet Patti at Mr. Swirly's. He runs to Swirly's as fast as he can using the quickest short-cuts that he knew. Once he gets there, he does not see Patti. Mr. Swirly says the she was there and looked very upset, and then left with a guy who kept talking about his big plans for a dance. When Doug heard this, he knew that this guy was no one else but Guy Grahm, a snobby upper class-man who wants Patti. Meanwhile, Roger and the A/V nerds are building a robot to kidnap Herman, but when they build the robot it acts like Roger's babysitter. Doug then rushes to the Funkytown night club, where Guy and Patti are working on the dance. He apologizes to Patti there and she accepts his apology. But Guy cuts in and says that Doug is just a stupid little kid. Doug, very angry now, says that he has proof that Bluff is evil and is polluting the lake. Guy calls Doug a liar. Doug then invites them both to the announcement to be held in front of Mr. Dink's house about Herman and the pollution, with Doug knowing he can trust Mr. Dink since his wife is the current mayor of Bluffington. Doug leaves, but the picture of the monster falls out of his pocket without him knowing. Guy realizes that Doug was telling the truth. Guy calls Bluff, who he is tight with. Then at the announcement, Doug sees that a news reporter's camera is inflatable. He realizes that the news company is a fake, that it is supporting Bill Bluff and trying to compensate Bluff to cover up the monster and Bluffco's polluting of Lucky Duck Lake. Doug then has to tell everyone that there has been a mistake, Patti gets mad at him, thinks that he is a liar and walks away with Guy. That night, Bluff finds the boys with Herman and kidnaps the monster. The next morning, Doug knows that this is his last chance to save Herman. He goes to the school newspaper room, hoping to find Guy who can lead him to Bluff. Guy isn't in the room, but Doug sees a newspaper article that says that Mr. Bluff and his men blast a monster to smithereens at a school dance. Doug is at first sad and believes that Herman has died, but he than realizes that the school dance is not until tonight and this is what is being planned to happen so, Doug and Skeeter call Roger and The Sleech twins to help. At the school dance, he has to make the biggest choice of his life, going after Patti or saving Herman. When he does that, Bluff catches Doug and Skeeter in front of Crystal Lake after Herman escapes into it and starts to enslave them, promising to make their lives a living nightmare, but is silenced and told off by his own daughter Beebe, who defends her friends, before then being confronted by Mrs. Dink, who hints at Bluff facing a massive lawsuit from the federal government for polluting Lucky Duck Lake that could bankrupt him and Bluffco unless he agrees to clean up the lake. With little choice, Bluff concedes to clean up the lake to save his own neck, and is left crawling on his knees after Beebe, begging for her forgiveness. Doug then finds Patti in front of the woods and Doug tries to tell her he is in love with her but is interrupted by Herman, who proves that Doug had been telling the truth and Guy lied to Patti, leading to Patti dumping Guy in fury for his deception. Then, the kids say goodbye to Herman. After Herman jumps back into the lake, Doug tells Patti he likes her and Roger almost becomes friends with Doug but is interrupted by the robot. ===== In Hamburg in 1939, Peter Müller and Thomas Berger join their friends Arvid and Otto at a swing club called the Bismarck. They have a good time, dancing and enjoying the music. Peter goes home to find his mother in an argument with the Nazi Blockleiter (block leader). Herr Knopp, head of the local Gestapo, arrives and curtly dismisses the Blockleiter. Herr Knopp begins asking Frau Müller questions about some of her late husband's friends. Herr Müller had been accused of being a communist, and was irreparably damaged by an interrogation at the hands of Nazi agents. At Arvid's house, Thomas accidentally ruins one of Arvid's prized records. Upset, Arvid kicks Thomas, Peter and Otto out. To apologize to Arvid, Peter and Thomas steal a radio (which Peter knows was stolen from a ransacked Jewish home) from a bakery. Thomas escapes, but Peter is caught. Herr Knopp, who is attracted to Peter's mother, intercedes for him; in return, Peter must enroll in the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth). Peter, who has a job delivering books, is asked to spy on his boss, whom the Nazis suspect is working against the Reich. In HJ school, the boys are encouraged to spy on their friends and families. Thomas accuses his father of insulting Hitler, hoping to cause trouble for him, but is unnerved when the Nazis come to his home and take his father away. His subsequent attempts to resume his friendship with Peter and persuade him to collaborate with the Nazis are tinged with fear. Arvid, who is working at a jazz club, refuses to play a German song, lashing out at the club's patrons for being blind to the Nazi agenda. Peter is sympathetic but Thomas loudly argues the Nazi side. Peter angrily proclaims Thomas to be a "fucking Nazi" and storms off. After he is badly beaten by Nazis, leaving him struggling to play the guitar, Arvid realizes there is nothing for him in Germany and dies by suicide. As Thomas begins to believe fully in Nazi ideology, Peter feels as though there is no hope for him. Peter, disenchanted with how his life is coming apart, dresses up and goes to a swing club which is scheduled to be raided by members of the Hitlerjugend. As Thomas begins assaulting the club's patrons he attacks Peter; however, during the fight Peter is able to reach Thomas. Thomas begs Peter to run away but Peter won't. Willie Müller is there and as Peter is driven away by the police, he loudly screams "Swing Heil!" over and over again, proud that his brother stood up for being a swing kid. ===== The story is split between parallel narratives. The odd-numbered chapters take place in the 'Hard-Boiled Wonderland', although the phrase is not used anywhere in the text, only in page headers. The narrator is a , a human data processor/encryption system who has been trained to use his subconscious as an encryption key. The Calcutecs work for the quasi-governmental System, as opposed to the criminal who work for the Factory and who are generally fallen Calcutecs. The relationship between the two groups is simple: the System protects data while the Semiotecs steal it, although it is suggested that one man might be behind both. The narrator completes an assignment for a mysterious scientist, who is exploring "sound removal". He works in a laboratory hidden within an anachronistic version of Tokyo's sewer system. The narrator eventually learns that he only has a day and a half before his consciousness leaves the world he knows and delves forever into the world that has been created in his subconscious mind. According to the scientist, to the outside world this change will seem instantaneous, but in the Calcutec's mind, his time within this world will seem almost infinite. The even-numbered chapters deal with a newcomer to "The End of the World", a strange, isolated Town, depicted in the frontispiece map as being surrounded by a perfect and impenetrable wall. The narrator is in the process of being accepted into the Town. His Shadow has been "cut off" and this Shadow lives in the "Shadow Grounds" where he is not expected to survive the winter. Residents of the Town are not allowed to have a shadow, and, it transpires, do not have a mind. The narrator is assigned quarters and a job as the current "Dreamreader": a process intended to remove the traces of mind from the Town. He goes to the Library every evening where, assisted by the Librarian, he learns to read dreams from the skulls of unicorns. These "beasts" passively accept their role, sent out of the Town at night to their enclosure, where many die of cold during the winter. It gradually becomes evident that this Town is the world inside of the narrator from the Hard- Boiled Wonderland's subconscious (the password he uses to control different aspects of his mind is even 'end of the world'). The narrator grows to love the Librarian while he discovers the secrets of the Town, and although he plans to escape the Town with his Shadow, he later goes back on his word and allows his Shadow to escape the Town alone. The two storylines converge, exploring concepts of consciousness, the subconscious or unconscious mind, and identity. In the original Japanese, the narrator uses the more formal first- person pronoun watashi to refer to himself in the "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" narrative and the more intimate boku in the "End of the World". Translator Alfred Birnbaum achieved a similar effect in English by putting the 'End of the World' sections in the present tense.Rubin, Jay. Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words. ===== The first part, "The Thieving Magpie", begins with the narrator, Toru Okada, a low-key and unemployed lawyer's assistant, being tasked by his wife, Kumiko, to find their missing cat. Kumiko suggests looking in the alley, a closed-off strip of land behind their house. After Toru stays there for a while with no luck, May Kasahara, a teenager who had been watching him camping out in the alley for some time, questions him. She invites him over to her house in order to sit on the patio and look over an abandoned house that she says is a popular hangout for stray cats. The abandoned house is revealed to possibly contain some strange omen, as it had brought bad luck to all of its prior tenants. It also contains an empty well, which Toru uses later to crawl into and think. Toru receives sexual phone calls from a woman who says she knows him. He also receives a phone call from Malta Kano who asks to meet with him. Kumiko calls Toru to explain that he should meet with the clairvoyant Malta Kano, who will help with finding the cat. Malta Kano had come recommended from her brother Noboru Wataya, which is also the name of the cat. Kumiko's family believes in fortune-telling and had previously stipulated that the couple meet with an elderly man, Mr. Honda, for consultations on a regular basis, which they did for some time. (Instead of giving advice, he spends most of their sessions retelling the same story of his experience in the Kwantung Army in the lost tank battle with the Russians at Nomonhan on the Manchukuo-Russian border during World War II.) Toru meets the mysterious Malta Kano at a busy hotel restaurant, and she tasks her sister Creta Kano to further the work. Both sisters wear unusual clothing: Malta a large red hat and Creta unstylish 1960's clothing. Creta meets Toru at his home and begins to tell him the story of her past, involving being raped by Noboru, but abruptly leaves. Toru notices Kumiko is wearing perfume that has been gifted to her by some unknown person. The cat remains missing. Toru is contacted by Lieutenant Mamiya, who informs Toru that Mamiya's old war friend corporal Honda has died and that Mamiya wishes to visit Toru to drop off an item that Honda had bequeathed to him. The first section ends with Lieutenant Mamiya arriving and telling Toru a long tale about his eerie and mystical wartime experiences in Manchukuo in the Kwantung Army, where he sees a man skinned alive. Mamiya was also left to die in a deep well before being saved by corporal Honda. The gift from Honda is an empty box. Kumiko is revealed to be missing at the start of the second part, "Bird as Prophet". Shortly after, Toru finds out through a meeting with Noboru and Malta that Kumiko has apparently been spending time with another man and wants to end her relationship with Toru. Confused, Toru tries several things to calm himself and think through the situation: talking and taking up work with May Kasahara, hiding at the bottom of the well, and loitering around the city looking at people. Work with May involves tallying up people with some degree of baldness at a subway line for a wig company. While at the bottom of the well (of the abandoned house), Toru reminisces about earlier times with Kumiko, including their first date to an aquarium where they looked at jellyfish. He also experiences a dreamlike sequence where he enters a hotel room and speaks with a woman, and notices a strange blue mark on his cheek after he leaves the well. While loitering in the city, he spends most of the day sitting outside a donut shop and people-watching. Through this activity, Toru encounters a well-dressed woman and also a singer he recognizes from his past, whom he follows and beats with a bat after getting ambushed by him. "The Birdcatcher", the third, final, and lengthiest part, ties up most loose ends while introducing a few new characters. The well-dressed woman Toru met while people-watching is revealed to be Nutmeg, whom he sees again when he reverts to people-watching. She hires him to relieve clients, middle-aged or older women, of some kind of inner turmoil that develops inside of them. The blue mark is involved in this somehow, though its power is never fully explained. In return, Toru receives pay and partial possession of the abandoned house that had been purchased to resell by some property agency. Cinnamon, Nutmeg's son, maintains the house and refits the well with a ladder and pulley to open and close the well cap from the bottom. Toru periodically goes to the bottom of the well to think and attempt to revisit the hotel room. The cat, who has been hardly mentioned following Kumiko's disappearance, shows up at Toru's home after nearly a year of being missing. Toru discusses Kumiko's disappearance with Noboru directly and indirectly (through his mole Ushikawa) and eventually arranges for a talk with her through the Internet, using her recollection of the jellyfish date as a means to verify her identity. Finally, Toru is able to travel to the hotel room from the well and confronts the woman, realizing that she is Kumiko and breaking the spell. It is revealed in this reality that Noboru has been beaten into a coma by a bat, with the assailant described to look just like Toru. An unknown man enters the hotel room and attacks Toru, the intruder, with a knife. Toru fights back with the bat and kills the man, before escaping back to the well. In the well, bruised and unable to move, Toru passes out after the well fills with water. Cinnamon saves him, and some days later Nutmeg notifies him that in this reality Noboru had a stroke and is now in a coma. Kumiko sends him a message on the computer to let him know she is alright but intends to kill Noboru by pulling the plug on the life support. She reveals that she did not cheat on Toru with just one man, in fact there were several, and all of them were Noboru's agents – his obsession with their middle sister, continued with Kumiko, triggered sex addiction in her until Noboru stepped in. Subsequently, in a discussion between Toru and May, Toru says Kumiko was successful and is now serving time in jail after admitting the deed—time of her own volition, because she is waiting for the media circus to end so neither she nor Toru are targeted. Toru says that he will wait for her, and bids May goodbye. ===== Professor Brainard (Fred MacMurray) (pronounced BRAY-nard) is an absent-minded professor of physical chemistry at Medfield College who invents a substance that gains energy when it strikes a hard surface. This discovery follows some blackboard scribbling in which he reverses a sign in the equation for enthalpy to energy plus pressure times volume. Brainard names his discovery Flubber, which is a portmanteau of "flying rubber." In the excitement of his discovery, he misses his own wedding to Betsy Carlisle (Nancy Olson), not for the first time, but his third. Subplots include another professor wooing the disappointed Miss Carlisle, Biff Hawk's (Tommy Kirk) ineligibility for basketball due to failing Brainard's class, Alonzo Hawk's (Keenan Wynn) schemes to gain wealth by means of Flubber, the school's financial difficulties and debt to Mr. Hawk, and Brainard's attempts to interest the government and military in uses for Flubber. Shelby Ashton (Elliott Reid), who was interested in Betsy, is given his revenge by the Professor, who keeps on jumping on the top of Shelby's car, until it crashes into a police car, where he is given a field sobriety test. Looking for backers, he bounces his Flubber ball for an audience, but his investment pitch proves so long-winded that most of the crowd has left before they notice that the ball bounced higher on its second bounce than on its first. For a more successful demonstration, he makes his Model T fly by bombarding Flubber with radioactive particles. Other adventures and misadventures result as Flubber is used on the bottoms of basketball players' shoes (in a crucial game) giving them tremendous jumping ability; Brainard (at a school dance) making him an accomplished dancer, and the scheming businessman Alonzo Hawk. Hawk becomes aware of the Professor's car and proposes a way to thwart it, to which Biff makes an actually intelligent proposal, "switch cars". Brianard's debut turns into a mockery when it fails, finding himself with a fake Model T powered by squirrels and pigeons. Realizing it was Hawk's doing, Brainard plays on Hawk's greed by saying (at the time) only 8% of the world's population uses cars, but nearly everyone wears shoes, and gives him a pair of Flubber shoes. However, Hawk cannot stop bouncing, and is blackmailed into revealing where he hid the Professor's car. A bouncing Hawk soon attracts everyone's attention, even a news crew, who interviews a physicist who sees Hawk keeps bouncing higher with each jump and remarks "by 7 tonight, he's going to be in serious trouble!". The police escort the Medfield football team to tackle Hawk on his way down, stopping his bounces. Hawk and Biff then chase after the Professor, who by now has recaptured his car and jumps atop their car like he did to Shelby. Hawk crashes into the same squad car Shelby did, and gets arrested for illegal firearms possession. Brainard convinces Betsy to accompany him to Washington D.C.. Never seeing a flying car before, the military considers it an attack and is ready to open fire until one junior officer recommends against it, as Brainard is atop the United States Capitol building! Now able to convince the government of the merits of Flubber, the Professor finally marries Betsy. ===== The game is set in the year 1997. Dr. Proton is a madman, determined to take over the world with his army of Techbots. Duke Nukem, the eponymous hero, takes upon the task of stopping him. The first episode takes place in the devastated city of Los Angeles. In the second episode, Duke chases Dr. Proton to his secret moonbase. In the third episode, Dr. Proton escapes into the future, and Duke pursues him through time, to put an end to his mad schemes. ===== An old journalist, who has just celebrated his 90th birthday, seeks sex with a 14 year old prostitute, who is selling her virginity to help her family. Instead of sex, he discovers love for the first time in his life. ===== Typical for him, Pasolini's subject is sex: he questions representatives from a variety of social brackets on topics such as virginity, prostitution, homosexuality and sex education. The interviews are made in Italy. The overarching themes are sexual ignorance, confusion and conservatism. The film is divided into four large parts, called "Ricerche" (literally, "searches"), plus a brief prologue, in which Pasolini asks children in a poor area where babies come from (the responses include "flowers," "the stork," "Jesus and God," and "my uncle") and an epilogue, in which Pasolini recites one of his poems about marriage. Also included are conversations with acclaimed author and his friend, Alberto Moravia and psychologist Cesare Musatti, or with poet Giuseppe Ungaretti, or with a group of three women journalists, including Oriana Fallaci. ===== ===== Yogi, Quick Draw, Huck and the rest of the gang encounter a variety of villains such as Captain Swashbuckle Swipe, Smokestack Smog, Lotta Litter, the Envy Brothers, Mr. Hothead, Dr. Bigot (and his henchmen Professor Haggling and Professor Bickering), the Gossipy Witch of the West, J. Wantum Vandal, the Sheik of Selfishness, Commadore Phineas P. Fibber, I.M. Sloppy, Peter D. Cheater, Mr. Waste, Hilarious P. Prankster, and the Greedy Genie, who act as their friends, hosts and/or guests, but embody some of the most common human faults and vices. Yogi and crew would often put up with them which ends with the villains either being repelled or outdone by their actions. ===== The show focused on Leonardo the lion (voiced by Jackson Beck), the well-meaning but often inept king of Bongo Congo, a fictional African nation notable for its bongos. King Leonardo is assisted in all things by a calm, competent skunk named Odie Cologne or "Odie O. Cologne" (voiced by Allen Swift impersonating Ronald Colman). Odie, the one who really keeps the kingdom on an even keel, has been by the king's side since they were children. King Leonardo's permanent foe is the gangster-visaged Biggie Rat (voiced by Jackson Beck impersonating Edward G. Robinson), who routinely attempts to overthrow Leonardo and take over Bongo Congo with Leonardo's incompetent sibling Itchy Brother (voiced by Allen Swift). They are often assisted by an evil German inventor named Professor Messer (voiced by Jackson Beck) or Odie's flirtatious sister Carlotta. Biggie and Itchy's various schemes always end with them either landing in the dungeon or getting away. Episodes of "The King and Odie" that were exclusive to Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales feature Biggie Rat and Itchy Brother employed by Mr. Mad (voiced by Norman Rose), a mad scientist with a domineering personality that even gives a bad vibe to Biggie. Mr. Mad has his own plans for Bongo Congo. When each of his schemes falls through, Mr. Mad disappears "as if by magic" before he can be apprehended. ===== Main Theater in Disney California Adventure. The show begins with Statler and Waldorf in their usual box putting on the glasses, and heckling the audience. A penguin orchestra rises up. They tune and play a fanfare, which leads into the opening. Gonzo appears behind a door and pushes a stick labeled "3D" towards the audience. Kermit the Frog appears and welcomes the audience to Muppet*Vision 3D. He then gives the audience a tour of Muppet Studios, where many of the Muppets are preparing for segments in the show to follow the tour. Many 3D effects are performed at this point by various characters, mainly Fozzie Bear. This includes a noisemaker, a can of springs, and a flower that sprays water. Kermit then takes the audience to the Muppet's top secret laboratory where he explains that they hired scientists from all over the world to come and work there. He then says, "Unfortunately, none of them showed up." He then introduces Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant, Beaker. The show re-introduces Waldo C. Graphic, the world's first computer-generated Muppet, (who first appeared in The Jim Henson Hour.) Waldo is "created" by Dr. Honeydew and Beaker during a demonstration of three-dimensional imagery but he proves to be uncontrollable and wreaks havoc in the lab. Dr. Honeydew tells Beaker to use the lab's inflatomatic to deactivate Waldo. He does so, but instead of being deactivated, Waldo explodes into smaller versions of himself and says that he can start his own football team. Dr. Honeydew then tells Beaker to use the lab's vacuum cleaner to suck up all the Waldos, but also accidentally sucks up the entire lab. All but one Waldo is sucked up and realizing he's free, shape shifts into a taxi cab and drives away. Kermit then reappears and apologizes for the delay since the lab was "sucked up". Fozzie returns and attempts to demonstrate his flying pie but it malfunctions and hits him in the face. Kermit then says, "Fozzie, that's terrible." Fozzie then replies with, "You're right. It needs more sugar." He walks away, and Kermit introduces Miss Piggy's musical rendition of "Dream a Little Dream of Me". Bean Bunny attempts to assist Miss Piggy by using various props to add 3d effects. These include a butterfly on a fishing rod, a bee on a fishing rod, and bubbles blown from a bubble maker. To add the realism, real soap bubbles are blown from the ceiling. Miss Piggy gets annoyed and tells him to knock it off. Bean then gives her a rope, explaining that it's for the water skiing finale. A toy boat pulls Miss Piggy into the pond and gets her wet. Sam Eagle enters the scene and sends Bean away before he ruins the film more. He leaves and meets Waldo and together, they leave the film. Gonzo sees Bean and Waldo leaving and gathers the rest of the Muppets to help him look for Bean. Sweetums (who is a live full-bodied Muppet) comes out into the audience to search for him having already done so on screen. With help from the audience, he finds Bean on the other side balcony, across from Waldorf and Statler. He explains why he ran away and agrees to stay if he can help in the finale. The Muppets decide to let Bean shoot off the fireworks. The finale begins with a toy soldier marching band playing patriotic music. During their performance, Waldo bounces on their heads and one of the tuba players gets his head stuck inside. To make matters worse, since he cannot see, he runs into people and causes them to fall down. Sam then tells Bean to shoot off the fireworks. To show off, Waldo shape shifts into a rocket and zooms around Miss Piggy, who is dressed like the Statue of Liberty, and accidentally tears her skirt off. Waldo then plummets into the penguin orchestra, causing smoke to rise. Sweetums reappears and puts out the fire with water, which infuriates the penguins and they decide to retaliate with a cannon. After Sweetums tells the audience to duck, the penguins fire their cannon and hit the projector. The Swedish Chef, who is operating the projector, then tries to destroy the now out of control Waldo, who he believes destroyed the film and is now all alone on a blank screen, by firing a gun at him. After missing several times (shooting holes in the screen, as well as the theater wall), the Swedish Chef decides to use a cannon. This causes an explosion as the theater blows up, tearing a hole in the screen, as well as "revealing" some bricks and sheetrock throughout the main theater, and revealing what's on the "other side" of the screen: guests at a Disney Park. Kermit then appears on the back of a fire engine through the hole to apologize for the delays. He then bids the audience a final farewell and the curtains close. Waldo appears one last time and shape shifts into Mickey Mouse so that nobody would recognize him. However, he shape shifts back to his true form as a vacuum sucks him up. Bean comments on what a cute ending the show was as the curtains on his balcony close. Waldorf asks Statler what he thought of the show. He asks Waldorf if they have time to go to the bathroom before the next shows starts. He replies with, "We can't you old fool. We're bolted to the seats." Then the curtains on their balcony close and the show ends. A cast member then thanks the audience for coming to see the show and tells them how to exit properly, while reminding them to return their 3D glasses into the bins outside of the theater. Aside from the Muppets on-screen, there are also a number of in-theater Muppets, mostly audio- animatronic, that interact with the show. Statler and Waldorf heckle from a balcony near the screen, an orchestra of penguins rises into sight to perform, and the Swedish Chef "operates" the film projector from the booth above and behind the audience. ===== As the coastal town of Antonio Bay, in Northern California is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary, paranormal activity begins occurring at midnight. Town priest Father Malone discovers his grandfather's diary at the church after a piece of masonry falls from the wall, and the journal reveals that in 1880, the six founders of Antonio Bay (including Malone's grandfather) deliberately sank a clipper ship named the Elizabeth Dane, so that its wealthy, leprosy- afflicted owner Blake would not establish a leper colony nearby. The conspirators used gold plundered from the ship to fund the town. Meanwhile, three fishermen are out at sea when a strange, glowing fog envelops their trawler. The fog brings with it the Elizabeth Dane, carrying the vengeful revenants of Blake and his crew who kill the fishermen. Meanwhile, town resident Nick Castle is driving home and picks up a young hitchhiker named Elizabeth Solley. As they drive towards town, all the truck's windows inexplicably shatter. The following morning, local radio DJ Stevie Wayne is given a piece of driftwood by her son Andy; it is inscribed with the word "DANE", and Andy says he found it on the beach. Intrigued, Stevie takes it with her to the lighthouse where she broadcasts her radio show. She sets the wood down next to a tape player that is playing, but the wood inexplicably begins to seep water, causing the tape player to short circuit. A mysterious man's voice emerges from the tape player swearing revenge, and the words "6 must die" appear on the wood before it bursts into flame. Stevie quickly extinguishes the fire, but she then sees that the wood once again reads "DANE" and the tape player begins working normally again. After locating the missing trawler, Nick and Elizabeth find the corpse of one of the fishermen, Dick Baxter, with his eyes gouged out. The other two are missing, one of whom is the husband of Kathy Williams, who is overseeing the town's centennial celebrations. While Elizabeth is alone in the autopsy room, Baxter's corpse rises from the autopsy table and approaches her, before collapsing. As Elizabeth screams, Nick and coroner Dr. Phibes rush into the room where they see the once-again lifeless corpse has carved the number 3 on the floor. That evening, as the town's celebrations begin, local weatherman Dan calls Stevie at the radio station to tell her that another fog bank has appeared and is moving towards town. As they are talking, the fog gathers outside the weather station and Dan hears a knock at the door. He answers it and is killed by the revenants as Stevie listens in horror. As Stevie proceeds with her radio show, the fog starts moving inland, disrupting the town's telephone and power lines. Using a backup generator, Stevie begs her listeners to go to her house and save her son when she sees the fog closing in from her lighthouse vantage point. As the fog envelops Stevie's house, the revenants kill her son's babysitter, Mrs. Kobritz. They then pursue Andy, but Nick arrives and rescues him. Stevie advises everyone to head to the town's church. Once inside, Nick, Elizabeth, Andy, Kathy, her assistant Sandy, and Father Malone take refuge in a back room as the fog arrives outside. Inside the room, they locate a gold cross in the wall cavity which is made from the stolen gold. As the revenants begin their attack, Malone takes the gold cross out into the chapel. Knowing that they have returned to take six lives in lieu of the six original conspirators who led them to their deaths, Malone offers the gold and himself to Blake to spare the others. At the lighthouse, more revenants attack Stevie, trapping her on the roof. Inside the church, Blake seizes the gold cross, which begins to glow. Nick pulls Malone away from the cross seconds before it disappears in a blinding flash of light along with Blake and his crew. The revenants at the lighthouse also disappear, and the fog vanishes. Stevie gets down from the roof and makes it back to safety. After Elizabeth, Nick, Andy, Kathy and Sandy leave the church, the fog reappears inside the church along with the revenants, and Blake decapitates Malone as the screen cuts to black. ===== In the later years of the Mexican Revolution, wealthy rancher J.W. Grant (Ralph Bellamy) hires four men, all experts in their respective fields, to rescue his kidnapped wife, Maria (Claudia Cardinale), from Jesus Raza (Jack Palance), a former revolutionary leader-turned-bandit. Henry "Rico" Fardan (Lee Marvin) is a weapons specialist, Bill Dolworth (Burt Lancaster) is an explosives expert, the horse wrangler is Hans Ehrengard (Robert Ryan), and Jake Sharp (Woody Strode) is a traditional Apache scout, skilled with a bow and arrow. Fardan and Dolworth both fought in the early days of the revolution, under the command of Pancho Villa, side by side with Raza and some of his band. They have a high regard for Raza as a soldier, but as cynical professionals, they have no qualms about going up against him now. After crossing the Mexican border, the team tracks the bandits to their hideout. Along the way, Dolworth rigs explosives to block an escape route. They watch while Raza's small army captures a government train carrying soldiers and executes all aboard in cold blood. Dolworth explains to Ehrengard that the men on the train were a troop of vicious torturers and killers. He describes how they destroyed a town and killed Fardan's wife. The professionals follow the captured train to the end of the line and retake it from the bandits. Some move on to the bandit camp to observe Raza and his followers — including a female soldier, Chiquita (Marie Gomez) — and to implement a plan to rescue Maria from the camp. Come nightfall, the professionals put their plan into action. Ehrengard stays with the train, which will be their means of escape. Dolworth uses dynamite to blow up the water tower in the camp. Sharp launches dynamite sticks strapped to his arrows to make it appear the camp is being shelled by a much larger force. Fardan knocks out the machine gun sentry on the roof of the quarters where Maria is being held. Dolworth joins Fardan at Maria's quarters, and they sneak in together to rescue Maria. Seconds later Raza also enters through another door to the warm embrace of Maria - the two are clearly lovers - leading Dolworth to conclude, "we've been had". The two knock Raza out and force Maria to come with them, but Fardan orders Dolworth not to kill Raza. Back at the train, Ehrengard has been overwhelmed by a bandit force, who lie in wait to ambush Fardan, Dolworth and Sharp upon their return. The professionals use Maria as a human shield to convince the bandits to hand the train back to them, as Raza has given strict instructions that Maria must not be harmed. First by train, then upon horseback, the professionals and Maria retreat into the mountains, pursued by Raza and his men. The professionals evade capture by lighting the fuse placed earlier, bring down the walls of a pass, blocking the bandits' path and delaying their pursuit. Maria confirms the professionals' suspicion: they have not rescued Grant's kidnapped wife but Raza's willing mistress. The two have been lovers since their youth. Maria's father wanted her to have the prestige that marriage to Grant would bring, and his wish was a command. She made the mistake of telling Grant that she loved another man—hence his hatred for Raza. Her kidnapping was, in actuality, an escape to Mexico with her true love. As Raza and his bandits pursue the retreating professionals, Dolworth fights a rearguard action to allow the other men to escape with Maria. In the battle, Raza is wounded. He and Chiquita attempt to escape, but Dolworth shoots her and captures the weakened Raza. The professionals, with Maria and Raza, reach the U.S. border and are met by Grant and his men. Grant tells Fardan that their contract has been satisfactorily concluded, even before Maria is safely handed over to him. As Maria tends the wounded Raza, Grant says to one of his men, "Kill him." Before the man can fire, Dolworth shoots the gun out of his hand. The professionals step in to protect Maria and Raza. Fardan says, "We made a contract to save a lady from a nasty old kidnapper—who turns out to be you." They collect the wounded Raza, put him on a wagon and, with Maria at the reins, send both back to Mexico. The professionals follow the wagon. ===== The story's narrator and a handful of strangers find themselves trapped together in a freeway truck stop diner after semi-trailers and other large vehicles are suddenly brought to independent life by an unknown force and proceed to gruesomely kill every human in sight. Cars, which remain unaltered, are swiftly battered into wreckage and pedestrians are massacred by rampaging trucks and buses. The six survivors hiding in the diner include the narrator, as well as an elderly counterman, a trucker, a young man named Jerry, his girlfriend, and a salesman named Snodgrass. As the story begins, the counterman and the trucker attempt to radio any other survivors, but the two-way radio fails for unknown reasons. Snodgrass, cracking under the strain, attempts to flee across the stop's parking lot and is hit by a truck. Snodgrass gets propelled into a drainage ditch, taking hours to die from internal bleeding. The situation worsens when the diner's power goes out. The counterman instructs the survivors that they will need to consume the perishable meats and collect good potable water from the restrooms. While the employee's restroom is inside the diner, the men's and ladies' room are by the outdoor gas station, and the narrator's attempt to gather fresh water from those places nearly costs him his life when the trucks realize what he is trying to do. Some time later, a glimmer of hope appears when the trucks begin to run out of gas and a few literally stand still from lack of fuel. An enormous semi-truck noses up to the diner and starts blasting its horn erratically. Jerry remembers from his time in the Boy Scouts that the horn blasts are Morse Code, and translates that the trucks are demanding humans start pumping fuel. The trucks assure they will not attack people who refuel them. The narrator is outvoted when he suggests they comply with this, and a bulldozer arrives and proceeds to attack the diner. The narrator and Jerry destroy the bulldozer with improvised Molotov cocktails, but the diner is half-destroyed and Jerry and the trucker are killed. The remaining three humans surrender and, taking turns, start pumping the gas into the mile-long string of waiting trucks. When the narrator exhausts the fuel reserve of the truck stop's gas station, a fuel tanker arrives to replenish the fuel cisterns. When the narrator is at a point of collapsing, he is relieved by the counterman, who starts pumping gas for his "shift". The narrator says that he will have to show the girl how to handle a fuel pump, and that she will do it because she wants to live. The narrator thinks to himself that perhaps this will last only until the trucks run out of fuel, rust, and fall apart, but he then has a grim vision of forced assembly lines churning out new generations of trucks, and the trucks, aided by construction vehicles and tanks, doing great efforts such as draining the Okefenokee Swamp and paving much of the wild backcountry, stamping it into a great plain. The story ends as a pair of planes fly overhead, and the narrator laments "I wish I could believe there are people in them". ===== In Tokyo, a weak, unassertive boy named Sena Kobayakawa enters the high school of his choiceDeimon Private Senior High School. Sena's only remarkable physical abilities are his running speed and agility, which are noted by the school's American football team captain Yoichi Hiruma. Hiruma forces Sena to join the Deimon Devil Bats football team as its running back. To protect his identity from other teams who want to recruit him, Sena is forced to publicly assume the role of the team secretary and enter the field under the pseudonym of "Eyeshield 21" wearing a helmet with an eyeshield to hide his features. The makeshift team initially takes part in the spring football tournament hoping to win through the strength of their new "secret weapon". However, the extremely weak team is eliminated early by the Ojo White Knights, one of the best football teams in Japan. After Deimon's defeat, the spring tournament is revealed as secondary in importance to the fall tournament, where the teams compete for the chance to play in the Christmas Bowlthe high school football league championship. Hiruma, Ryokan Kurita, and Sena regroup and slowly build a real team from misfits and students looking to define themselves, such as Tarō "Monta" Raimona baseball player who can only catchand the Ha-Ha Brothers. Other characters slowly join the team, and the series follows the building and growth of the Deimon Devil Bats and its members, and rival teams as they all strive to achieve their goal of playing in the Christmas Bowl. Some time after the Deimon Devil Bats win the Christmas Bowl and they become the best team in the country, Japan begins to gather the best football players to form a team to represent it at the American Football Youth World Championship, where a Most Valuable Player (MVP) will be awarded an NFL contract and $3 million. Team Japan reaches the final against Team America, in which the game ends as a tie, and both teams are declared winners. Both teams are unsatisfied with this and return to the field for their own, improvised "overtime", causing chaos with officials. It is unclear which team wins the unofficial extra period, but Panther of Team America holds the MVP trophy aloft, winning the professional contract with the San Antonio Armadillos. The series concludes with Sena becoming the captain of the Devil Bats after Hiruma and Kurita leave school to attend college. In his final year of high school, Sena is invited to Notre Dame High School. In the final chapter, the main characters are in college or playing amateur-league football while employed. ===== Ian Wyndham (Nicholls) is an English businessman who lives with his American musician girlfriend, Samantha Andrews (Hewitt), in London. Taking us through a day in Ian and Sam's life, the film opens by showing different events such as Sam getting burnt on a kettle, Ian's watch breaking, Sam getting Coca-Cola on her and Ian being interrupted by Sam during an important meeting at work. Sam gets angry at Ian as he always treats her as his second priority and tells him that she just wants him to love her. Ian makes one last attempt to reconcile with Sam. An angry Sam gets into a taxi and asks Ian whether he is coming in or not. The taxi meets with an accident and Sam dies. A heartbroken Ian goes back to his apartment, finds Sam's notebook and opens it, finding a song she was working on. He falls asleep clutching the notebook close to him. When he gets up the next morning, he hears Sam talking and sees her in the bed right next to him. He is scared at first but after the initial confusion, Ian comes to the conclusion that the previous day must have been a dream. Ian feels happy to have Sam by his side. The events of the next day are similar to those he already experienced in the dream, although occurring at different times and in different ways. Ian is sure that he had a premonition and that the end of the day will be same and Sam will die. Sam gets Coca-Cola spilt on her. But Ian's watch remains in working order. After talking to the taxi driver he realizes that the driver is the man from the dream who asks Ian to love Sam. After convincing her to come with him, they travel to Ian's rural home town. In the town below, the two have drinks and Ian tells Sam about his father, who lost his beloved job before becoming an alcoholic and dying sometime later. The two travel back to London and Ian takes Sam on the London Eye as another surprise. They then travel back to their apartment and Ian takes a page from her notebook and brings it to a nearby photocopying shop while Sam travels to her concert with her violin. Before the show begins Ian gives the photocopied pages to an organizer. After the performance in which Sam is a violinist, the organiser announces Sam's name as the next performer. A nervous Sam proceeds onto the stage as the orchestra begins to play the song printed on Ian's photocopied sheets. She sings the song she wrote for Ian in her notebook and the crowd burst into applause at her performance. Instead of going to Tantra, the restaurant that Ian had made reservations for, they go to a more intimate restaurant that Sam chooses, but Ian loves it as well. Ian gifts her a bracelet with meaningful charms. They have a nice time. After the dinner, as both of them are standing outside of Tantra, where they ate in the dream, Ian tells Sam why he loves her. As the taxi pulls over and Sam gets in, she asks him again whether he is getting in or not. This time Ian gets in and sees that the cab driver is the same again. As the clock strikes 11, the taxi meets with an accident. The same scene is repeated again, when Sam's friend is shown running in the hospital corridor. Only this time, unlike the dream, its Sam who is sitting and crying instead of Ian, implying that Ian died in the crash. The film ends with a montage of Sam packing up the apartment she shared with Ian while looking at his watch, finally getting to the top of the mountain that she tried to climb with Ian while stopping at the cabin that they stopped at, and then performing onstage while wearing the bracelet that Ian gave her with tears in her eyes but smiling.. ===== While playing the trumpet in a burning room, the protagonist's voice is heard in narration. His story begins with him posing as "Danny Parker", a speed freak addicted to methamphetamine, who hangs out with friends while indulging in drugs. He also moonlights as an informant for two corrupt cops, Gus Morgan and Al Garcetti. He is trying to set up a large meth score with notorious drug dealer Pooh Bear, an eccentric psychopath who lost his nose to excessive snorting of "Gak" (meth), while also attempting to set up a sting operation for Morgan and Garcetti. When he returns home, Danny sheds his clothes and his personality, and basks in his past life as trumpet player "Tom Van Allen". He reveals to an abused neighbor named Colette that he was once happily married, only to watch as his wife was gunned down by masked thieves during a stopover at the Salton Sea. When meeting with Pooh Bear, Danny becomes fearful of Pooh Bear's displays of bizarre homicidal behavior, so he tapes a gun to the bottom of a table. Danny's parents-in-law track him down, believing he has sunk into depression after his wife's death, but he tells them he doesn't want their help. As the deal approaches, it becomes known that Danny is not only working for the police but FBI agents working to take down Morgan and Garcetti, who have committed multiple murders. It is also revealed that they were the men who killed his wife and wounded him as they robbed a drug dealer. Danny had started his own investigation when he found out who Morgan was and delved into the drug underworld to become a believable junkie. On the night of the deal, Danny, with the help of his best friend Jimmy, leads the FBI to the wrong location. Meanwhile, Danny arrives at Pooh Bear's house. At the dinner table, surrounded by Pooh Bear's armed friends, tensions rise and one of Pooh Bear's men tries to kill Danny, who retrieves the gun he stashed earlier and shoots the rest of the gang. Shot in the chest by Pooh Bear, Danny collapses to the floor. Pooh Bear, wounded in the leg, goes to take a shot of meth while mumbling incoherently. Morgan and Garcetti arrive, find the massacre, and Garcetti kills Pooh Bear, whose drug-filled hypo drops to the floor. Garcetti is then killed by Danny, whose life was saved by a bulletproof vest. Morgan is shot twice by Danny, who reveals to Morgan that he knows he murdered his wife. Morgan manages to snatch Danny's gun away, but finds it empty. Danny finds Pooh Bear's syringe on the floor and plunges it into Morgan's neck, then picks up a pistol and briefly contemplates suicide, but then shoots Morgan several times and flees. Back in his apartment, he dons his Tom Van Allen identity again, but is shot by Colette's "boyfriend", who is in fact an agent tasked with exacting vengeance for the Mexicali Boys, a leader of whom Danny turned in to the police before the events of the film's present day timeline. Collette says she was forced to betray Danny because her daughter was being held hostage. The room catches fire, and Danny plays one more tune on his trumpet before passing out. He regains consciousness to find that Jimmy has saved him from the fire and taken him to a hospital. After he recovers, he leaves the city, and the identities of Danny and Tom, behind. ===== In the early 1950s, Cuban brothers and musicians Cesar and Nestor Castillo flee from Havana, Cuba after getting into a violent dispute with the mobster owners of a club where they performed. Eventually ending up in New York City, the brothers work at menial jobs while attempting to revive their musical careers. At a nightclub where Cesar briefly crashes the act of mambo star Tito Puente, they make new friends and connections, as well as meeting cigarette girl Lanna Lake, who falls quickly into a love affair with Cesar. Nestor, in the meantime, remains oblivious to other women while continually composing his ode to his lost Cuban love, Maria. He writes version after version of the same ballad, "Beautiful Maria of My Soul", until by chance one day he encounters Delores, a shy but attentive young woman who wishes to become a schoolteacher. When she becomes pregnant, they decide to get married. Fate intervenes one night at a club, where the Castillo brothers have a part-time job. Nestor's love ballad captures the interest of one of the customers, who turns out to be the Cuban bandleader and American television star Desi Arnaz. After a pleasant evening in Nestor and Delores's home, Arnaz invites the struggling Castillos to sing and act on an episode of his sitcom series, I Love Lucy. Fame does not last, however. Nestor is not as ambitious as his brother and desires nothing more than to own his own small club. He is in love with Delores, but lacks the passion he felt for his beloved Maria back home. Cesar suppresses his true feelings, believing that a woman like Delores would actually be perfect for him. He reveals to Nestor that Maria left him for a Cuban mobster in exchange for cancelling a contract hit against Nestor. One snowy night, the Castillo brothers' car veers off the road and into a tree. Cesar, in the back seat of the vehicle, is barely hurt, but Nestor, who was driving the vehicle, is killed. To honor his brother's memory, a devastated Cesar opens his own small club. Delores pays him a visit and asks him to sing "Beautiful Maria of My Soul". ===== An extract from Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain serves as a preface, in which refugees from Troy flee to the island of Britain, and establish a new kingdom. Unlike in Geoffrey's narrative, however, that dynasty eventually produces a series of weak rulers who usher their kingdom into decline. Alexander of Macedon and his Greek forces are on their way to the coronation of India's new king when they are blown off course in a storm. They arrive in Britain and discover the poor state of the country. Alexander takes charge and appoints the brothers Betis and Gadifer as kings of England and Scotland, respectively. He then leaves for Babylon. Betis renames himself "Perceforest," as one who dares to "pierce" and "purge" the evil forest to root out Darnant the Enchanter and bring freedom and justice to the land. Perceforest and Gadifer take on Darnant's descendants, a group of magic-wielding knights, and drive them out. However, the successful leadership of the two brothers is fated not to last, and native English and Scottish knights are forced to step into the breach to quell rebellion and fend off invasion. Perceforest eventually regains his powers and, as king of Britain, creates a chivalric society. Specifically, he founds the Franc Palais of free equals with the best knights, paralleling the Round Table. "Thus the romance would trace back the model of ideal civilization that it proposes, a model also for the orders of chivalry created from the 14th century onwards, to a legendary origin where the glory of Alexander is united with the fame of Arthur."Mihaela Voicu, Histoire de la littérature française du moyen âge, xii.1, Bucharest, 2003 e-text (in French), 2014 King Perceforest also abandons polytheism in favor of a monotheistic god and, under the influence of the hermit Dardanon, advances a new religion that will serve as a transition toward Arthurian Christianity. Meanwhile, Perceforest's knights, often with the help of a guardian spirit named Zephir, engage in heroic and romantic acts of derring-do in Britain as well as in the Low Countries. Tragedy comes to prevail as Perceforest's eldest son becomes infatuated with a Roman girl, whose treachery enables Julius Caesar to launch an invasion in which Perceforest and all his forces are annihilated and the kingdom is utterly destroyed.Nigel Bryant (translator), A Perceforest Reader: Selected Episodes from Perceforest: The Prehistory of Arthur's Britain, Cambridge: D.S.Brewer, 2012, in the section "The Story." The third generation comes to restore the land. Ourseau, a grandson of Gadifer, secures the assassination of Julius Caesar. Another grandson, Gallafur, marries Alexander's granddaughter, the "Maiden of Dragons," to give Britain a new royal house. Gallafur also embeds the sword in the stone that one of his descendants will draw out to become king. And it is Gallafur who casts out many of the enchantments that still plague Britain. Nonetheless, tragedy triumphs a final time in this work, as Britain is invaded by the Sicambrians, a group of Trojans. They destroy Alexander's Greek dynasty, leaving a void that only the coming of Arthur will fill. An elaborate frame story tells how the "Greek" manuscript was discovered by count William of Hainault in a cabinet at “Burtimer” Abbey; in the same cabinet was deposited a crown, which the count sent to king Edward. ===== The novel describes the naval career of a young gentleman during the period of British Mastery of the seas in the early 19th century. The hero of the title is introduced as 'the fool of the family', son of a parson and heir presumptive to the influential Lord Privilege. This forms a subplot among several others that run alongside the main narrative which mainly concerns the young man's journey from adolescent to adulthood amidst a backdrop of war at sea. One of the key components of the tale is Peter's relationship with the various shipmates he meets, mainly an older officer who takes young Simple under his wing and proves invaluable in his sea education, and also a post captain who suffers from Münchausen syndrome, among others. ===== ===== An experienced burglar, Luther Whitney, breaks into a billionaire's house with the intent of robbing it. While there, he witnesses the President of the United States and the billionaire's wife having sex. However, their lovemaking turns violent and Secret Service agents burst in and kill the woman, which Whitney also sees. The reason Whitney was able to witness the murder was because he was behind a large one-way mirror that was a secret door into a large closet where the billionaire would sit and watch when his wife had sex with another man. Whitney escapes, but not before the Secret Service learns of his presence; they blame the wife's murder on Whitney. Whitney goes on the run from the President's agents while a detective tries to piece together the crime. ===== Chuck (voiced by Jerry Dexter) and Nancy (voiced by Janet Waldo) come across a cave off the coast of Maine where they find a mysterious chest containing halves of a strange ring. When they first joined the rings, they end up transported back to the fabled land of the Arabian Nights where they meet their genie Shazzan (voiced by Barney Phillips). Shazzan creates a magical flying camel named Kaboobie (voiced by Don Messick) to serve as their transportation. Shazzan tells Chuck and Nancy that he can't return them home until they deliver the two rings to his rightful owner. Shazzan is very large, being able to hold Chuck, Nancy and Kaboobie in the open palm of his hand. He is wise and jolly in nature, usually appearing with a cheerful "Ho-ho ho-HO!" and addressing the two children as his "little masters". Chuck and Nancy each wear one half of the broken ring, which has to be joined to bring forth their magical servant. A frequent plot device is that the two teenagers became separated, most often by the act of a villain. They can not summon the omnipotent genie until they manage to find each other. Once Shazzan materializes, it is extremely bad news for the villain. ===== Jack, the protagonist of the game, must make his way through 16 levels set within a pyramid in order to defeat the demon Belzebut and rescue the royal Pamera family. ===== M. Hulot (Jacques Tati) is the dreamy, impractical, and adored uncle of nine-year-old Gérard Arpel, who lives with his materialistic parents, M. and Mme. Arpel, in an ultra-modern geometric house and garden, Villa Arpel, in a new suburb of Paris, situated just beyond the crumbling stone buildings of the old neighborhoods of the city. Gérard's parents are entrenched in a machine-like existence of work, fixed gender roles, the acquisition of status through possessions, and conspicuous displays to impress guests, such as the fish-shaped fountain at the center of the garden that, in a running gag, Mme. Arpel activates only for important visitors. A replica of Villa Arpel at the Cent Quatre in Paris Each element of Villa Arpel is stylistically rather than functionally designed, creating an environment completely indifferent to the comfort, or lack of comfort, of its occupants. In choosing modern architecture to punctuate his satire, Tati once stated, "" ("geometrical lines do not produce likeable people"). From inconveniently-located stepping stones, to difficult-to-sit-on furniture, to a kitchen filled with deafeningly loud appliances, every facet of Villa Arpel emphasizes the impracticality of a dedication to superficial aesthetics and electrical gadgets over the necessities of daily living. Despite the superficial beauty of its modern design,Weinberg, Larry, Mon Oncle, InteriorDesign.net, 23 October 2008 Article the Arpels' home is entirely impersonal, as are the Arpels themselves. In fact, M. and Mme. Arpel have completely subordinated their individuality to maintain their social position and their shiny new possessions. Tati emphasizes his themes surrounding the Arpel lifestyle (as well as M. Arpel's automatonic workplace, Plastac) with monochromatic shades and cloudy days. By contrast, Monsieur Hulot lives in an old and run-down city district. He is unemployed, and gets around town either on foot or on a VéloSoleX motorized bicycle. Gérard, utterly bored by the sterility and monotony of his life with his parents, fastens himself to his uncle at every opportunity. Hulot, little more than a child himself at times, is completely at home with Gérard, but also completely ineffectual at controlling his horseplay with his school friends, who take delight in tormenting adults with practical jokes. Exasperated at their relative's perceived immaturity, the Arpels soon scheme to saddle him with the twin yokes of family and business responsibilities. ===== The animated portions of the show focused on a canine private investigator named Ace Hart. The Muppet portions of the show focused on the interactions between Ace Hart and his animator Eliot Shag (who, like Ace, is a German Shepherd). Eliot would illustrate the stories while Ace would go traverse through it, occasionally breaking the fourth wall to speak with Eliot about the various troubles with the story. In one episode, Eliot even enters Dog City himself to join Ace in solving a mystery. A recurring gag was that many of the characters in the cartoon were seemingly based on the residents of Eliot's apartment building. The bulldog crime-boss Bugsy Vile was inspired by the building's grouchy bulldog superintendent Bruno. Ace's love interest Rosie was based on Eliot's deep feelings for his neighbor Colleen, and so on. The Muppet characters were unaware of this. In the first episode, Bruno asks Eliot how a loser like him could have created a great character like Bugsy. Eliot replies, "Sometimes it just stares me right in the face." Later series included segments from other shows Eliot worked on, including skits featuring the main Dog City characters and a superhero series starring the Batman parody Watchdog. ===== ===== Trisana (Tris) Chandler meets Kethlun (Keth) Warder, a glass mage with a dangerous power: lightning. During their first meeting, he was unconsciously using his unknown ambient powers and accidentally created a living dragon out of glass. Tris saves the dragon from being smashed by Keth, and names it Chime. She later finds out that he had been struck by lightning less than a year ago, and this left him paralyzed and with a great fear of lightning. He learned to walk again, but his speech is a little slow, and he lost his ease at glass-blowing. A twenty-year-old man just as stubborn as Tris, Keth won't accept Tris or any of her teachings. He argues with her constantly, and refuses to learn about his lightning abilities, fearing a relapse into paralysis. Tris is surprisingly patient with him as she guides him through meditation and control over his powers. Eventually, Keth learns to trust Tris' instincts, and grudgingly accepts her as his teacher. Meanwhile, mysterious murders are taking place. All the murdered women are Yaskedasi, female entertainers who are looked down upon in the town for their immodesty. But when one of the murdered Yaskedasi turns up in the town's central fountain, everyone starts to take notice. The town has a culture of thanatophobia, an irrational fear of death. Each time a person dies, the place must be cleansed by the town's priests when they perform the traditional cleansing ceremony. This ceremony is not only religious, but magical as well, effectively erasing all traces of the murderer, making it impossible for the authorities to track the killer, nicknamed the 'Ghost' by locals. Keth has been asked to attempt to find the Ghost by way of glass balls that only he can make. These balls hold scenes of past crimes in them, causing him to be a suspect at first. Keth and Tris struggle, first against the local authorities, then against each other in the creation of these globes. When Keth's friend Yali is killed by the Ghost, the race takes on new meaning. ===== More tells the story of an inventor who lives in a drab, colorless world. Day by day, he toils away in a harsh, dull, and dehumanizing job, his only savior being the memories of the bliss of childhood. But at night, he works secretly on an invention that could help him relive those memories and spread their joy to everyone in his despair-filled life. When he finishes the invention, it changes the way people look at the world. His success changes him, however, because he loses an important part of himself. 1998 More: Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming: Internet Archive ===== The plot follows the Cars, who go to the moon in a candy-shaped spaceship in order to assist the Queen of the Moon. The Bitter Gourd King and his gourd troopers are attacking the World of Sweetness with bitter juice, and the Queen needs the help of the cars. Wolfie and his family come with the Cars by accident. At one point the Gourd King kidnaps Beetle's family, and Weslie comes to tears upon seeing his parents. ===== The entire book is spread out over eight weeks of time, compared to the two or three in Book 1, titled simply Abarat. The book picks up several weeks after the original had left off; weeks wherein Candy Quackenbush and Malingo the Geshrat (a character introduced in the first book) have traveled from Hour to Hour to evade the bounty hunter Otto Houlihan. Christopher Carrion's whereabouts are revealed only in the second quarter of the book, wherein he plots with the Sacbrood in the Pyramids of Xuxux. Sacbrood are terrifying insects of all shapes and sizes which Christopher Carrion has been breeding in order to help him create Absolute Midnight. Under the cover produced by the Sacbrood, he expects, the destroyers called the Requiax will emerge from under the Sea of Izabella (which surrounds the Abarat) and annihilate everything they see, giving Carrion the opportunity to re-organize the world according to his will. Candy begins to develop powers of great magic, with which she frees the mysterious beings called Totemix from their imprisonment in the Twilight Palace on the island of Scoriae. Malingo, separated from her on the carnival island of Babilonium, joins with others of Candy's acquaintance to form a force of resistance against the armies of Midnight. Candy is eventually captured by Letheo, the lizard-boy servant of Christopher Carrion, and taken to the island Efreet. The enchantress Diamanda, having died of an encounter with a monster, travels as a ghost to the human world, where she finds her also ghostly husband Henry and with him works to prepare Candy's home town for the flood resulting from its imminent meeting with the Abarat. When this meeting occurs, Henry's opening of the factory farm which is the town's only industrial outlet is used as a comment on the variety-deprived lives of chickens raised in such factories. This book introduces readers to new characters including Finnegan Hob, the would-be husband of Princess Boa, who is discovered by other characters in search of himself. Having persuaded him to give up his vendetta against the Abaratian dragons, whom he blames for his fianceé's death, the seekers travel to Efreet, where Candy is held prisoner by Christopher Carrion. They rescue Candy and at her request return her to the human world, where she intends to hide from the Abarat's perils. The two worlds meet in a dramatic climax, wherein it is revealed by the magician Kaspar Wolfswinkel that Princess Boa's soul is contained within Candy's body, having been placed there by the Fantomaya in obedience to the belief that Princess Boa, or her reincarnation, could halt the Abarat's progressive degradation and revitalize the Abarat as a whole. Christopher Carrion clashes with his grandmother Mater Motley, having learned that she had concealed Candy's dual nature from him, and is severely wounded in the process (whether he dies or not is unclear). Candy and most of the major characters return to the Abarat when it is withdrawn from the human world. There, Mater Motley assumes control of Gorgossium Island, where she executes all of Christopher Carrion's living supporters. The remains of Kaspar Wolfswinkel's six hats, the source of his power, are left in the human world. ===== ===== ===== Mike, a struggling actor with a tattooed arm, auditions for a role as an Italian man. He delivers a profanity-laced anecdote in an Italian accent, about getting into a fight with another man in a restaurant for looking at his girlfriend. The anecdote ends with Mike saying that he discovered the man was a homosexual, so he beat up his girlfriend instead, and is surprised that she doesn't call him anymore. The casting director expresses interest and has Mike speak Italian before telling him they'll get back to him. When the director asks Mike where the monologue came from, Mike says that it's a true story that happened to his friend. Outside, Mike calls his manager without an Italian accent. He complains about the monologue, which wasn't a true story, saying it was offensive and worries that it will keep him from getting the job. He wipes the fake tattoo off his arm and goes to his next audition. At an audition for a commercial, Mike meets a black actor in the waiting room and the two of them talk about their careers. Mike tells the actor about the audition he just left, and again complains that he thought his monologue was offensive. The actor tells Mike he has just landed a role in an international commercial, but Mike says he doesn't want to do commercials because no great actors have had to do commercials. Before he can audition, the director tells Mike that his skin is "a little too light" and not to bother auditioning. He suggests Mike audition for a Spanish role in a soap opera instead. Mike goes to another audition and reads with a Cuban accent alongside a Hispanic actress. The two of them are portraying an argument, but when the actress launches into Spanish, Mike is unable to continue. As they leave the audition, the actress guesses correctly that Mike doesn't speak Spanish. She suggests that he try out for a soap opera which is looking for Hispanic actors, but Mike says he doesn't want to do soaps because no great actors have ever done them. Mike attends another audition, where the woman reading with him tells him that she really thinks he could do well. Mike does the reading with her in a heavy urban accent, but the casting directors cut the audition short, saying they're looking for more of a "Wesley type". Mike moves on to another audition, where they are expecting him from a previous audition. The casting director sees on his resume that Mike can rap; Mike launches into a hip-hop routine. Afterwards, Mike sits down and does a monologue about being a young man watching his father on stage in a performance of Raisin in the Sun. During his father's performance, Mike came to believe that his father wanted him to be a great black actor. After his father died, Mike realized that his father wanted him to be a great actor full stop. When the monologue is finished, the casting director is impressed with Mike's performance, but admits that they are supposed to be casting an actor with dreadlocks. Mike leaves with a promise that they will contact him if they can cast him instead. The film cuts to Mike sitting silently and angrily at a booth in a diner. He can overhear an actress talking to another man about how frustrated she is to be typecast as a blonde bimbo. When the waitress comes, the actress orders coffee that's "not too light, not too dark". Mike chuckles to himself and mouths the words "not too light, not too dark". ===== The first person narrator, a German- speaking man, is sent a letter by a man called the Major who asks the narrator to visit him for a while in Hungary. He invites him to perhaps stay for months or years. The narrator accepts this invitation and wanders for a while through Hungary in order to gain some insight into the land. The two men had gotten to know each other during a trip in Italy and were, for a time, inseparable. The narrator meets a woman dressed as a man and riding astride a horse, and he first mistakes her for the Major himself. The woman, Brigitta, guides him to the home of the Major. After their reunion, the Major shows the narrator around his land and the narrator becomes familiar with his surroundings. The Major is beloved by the people working his land and has a greenhouse in which he grows and sells various grains. He also has vines and cornfields. In Hungary, the Major finally accomplished his goal of finding fulfilling work. The Major tells the narrator that he had considered becoming an artist, but that he lacks the large and simple heart needed to inspire humanity with deep and penetrating words. The Major therefore satisfies himself with practical work. The Major was inspired to do his work on the land by a woman named Brigitta Maroshely, who had begun turning the previously barren landscape in that part of Hungary into something fruitful. The narrator finally is introduced to this energetic and capable woman himself after hearing about her from the Major. The Major spoke of Brigitta with the highest praises. The narrator notices that the Major and Brigitta act almost as if they were in love. This is unremarkable at first, but becomes more and more noticeable as the story progresses. Brigitta’s life story is thrown into the overall story as its own chapter in order to provide background and to make this remarkable woman more understandable. Brigitta lived with her family in a castle, but she more or less lived in her own apartment, isolated from the rest of the family. The development of Brigitta’s strong character is a result of almost complete lack of physical beauty. Brigitta grew up with two lovely younger sisters. As children, Brigitta was ignored by guests, who would always just ask how her more attractive sisters were doing. Brigitta was never noticed by anyone and played by herself most of the time, rejecting pretty dolls and bringing bits of wood and stones into bed with her. Brigitta was, however, clever and learned to ride. The beauty of her sisters attracted much attention when the girls grew older. Brigitta, on the other hand, was just strong and silent. She made her own plain dresses and strange headpieces for herself. A young man, recently returned from travels to the town of his birth, called Stephan Murai, came to one of the family’s social parties. This man was rumored to be one of the finest men that people had ever seen. The parents of Brigitta hoped to attract him to one of the two pretty sisters. Surprisingly, the handsome young man was fascinated by Brigitta and her ways. Murai fell in love with her. It takes Brigitta a long time to be convinced of Murai’s love and tells him it will only lead him to his downfall. She is eventually convinced and loves him immeasurably. They marry with the approval of both sets of parents and bear a son. During his work of the land, Murai meets the beautiful young daughter of a man from the area. They flirt, race horses and joke together and Murai feels drawn to her beauty and light manner. She is quite the opposite of Brigitta. One day Murai lets his feelings out and heartily embraces the young woman. The relationship between the girl and Murai ends after the embrace, but Brigitta had some idea of Murai’s fascination for the girl and confronts him. He clasps both of Brigitta’s hands and tells her that he hates her. Murai leaves and Brigitta must raise her son alone. Brigitta migrates to the region in which the story takes place and starts working the land with her son. Once as Brigitta lay sick with fever in bed, the Major came and cared for her during her illness. He stayed day and night by her bedside. Since that time, the Major and Brigitta experienced a true friendship. Often discussed are the Major’s watchdogs that are supposed to protect his houses from wolves. After a hard winter, the wolves begin to hunt people. During a ride one night, the narrator and the major come across a pack of wolves attacking Gustav, Brigitta’s son. Gustav is bitten in the leg and loses much blood. The Major brings Gustav back to his house and calls for a doctor and for Brigitta. The doctor says that Gustav will be fine, but in a fever for several days. Brigitta stays by her son’s bedside in the Major’s house. The Major, observing the love of Brigitta for her son, begins to weep. The Major tells the narrator that he had always wished to have a son himself. Brigitta overhears, looks at the Major, and they suddenly embrace passionately. The narrator learns that the Major is actually Stephan Murai. After running away from Brigitta, he could not forget about her and could never really think about another woman. He went to Hungary, where Brigitta was living and finds her feverish. She recognizes him as the father of her son when her illness is cured, and they promise to remain just friends. Tense feeling of more than friendship lurked under the surface for many years. When Brigitta’s son is ill, the Major’s heartfelt emotion breaks the treaty of friendship between Brigitta and the Major. Brigitta says that he has finally become a good person and they embrace, verifying the complete fulfillment of their love. All the while, the narrator stands somewhat awkwardly by (as he has for much of the story). He stays with the newly reunited family for the entire winter in Hungary and becomes almost a member of the family himself. At the end, the narrator returns to his fatherland. Category:1844 books Category:Works by Adalbert Stifter Category:Hungary in fiction Category:Austrian novellas ===== The game is about a man named Freeze, his friend Shaun Calderon, and a police officer, Officer Williams. The game features three playable protagonists during single player campaign in the game. Freeze commits crimes with Shaun to get money, which he promptly spends for his family while Officer Williams is trying to stop at all costs the organized crime and felony across the city of Las Ruinas (based on Los Angeles). One night upon returning home, his wife confronts him about these actions. Saying they are a bad influence to their son, she wants him to stop. After an argument, he agrees. The next day, he tells Shaun he wants out of the game. Shaun levels a gun on Freeze, informing him that he must do one last "job"—a narcotics trade. At the deal, Freeze finds the Colombian gang members dead, and police officer Maria Mendoza waiting. Freeze flees with the police in pursuit and loses them. The 2nd Street D-Boys realize Freeze wants out of the gang, and he has to avoid both his former homies and the police. Later, he robs a bank until the police arrive. After a gun fight against the police, he finally reaches his getaway car only to be arrested after being hit by a nightstick. Meanwhile, Mendoza informs Officer Williams of a new criminal, Shaun Calderon. They look for Shaun in his house (with a rookie) only to be found in a gun fight. Officer Williams then finds evidence and gets into Mendoza's car. Officer Williams goes to a club to find Shaun and chases him to the subway. Officer Williams then arrests Shaun but Mendoza kills him and tells Shaun to leave and go to Mexico. Shaun goes to Tijuana and fights his way to a local club called "The Curtains Club". Shaun then robs a casino, fights security and goes to a wealthy man named Saragosa in his penthouse. Shaun then kills him. Freeze breaks out of jail and gets new clothes at the mall while being chased by the police. Freeze then kills Mendoza in the mall and hunts down Shaun, now a wealthy drug kingpin, then saying, "We used to be best friends, until you sold me out. Now, it's nothin' but flowers and a funeral for you, home boy", as Freeze steps on Shaun's neck until he suffocates. The final scene shows Freeze telling Darnell, "From now on, it's just you and me against the world. Now let's do this", as a large number of police officers arrive, with Freeze picking up a gun and pointing it at the police. ===== 7-year-old Ben Wrightman has just moved to the greater Boston area with his mother following his parents' divorce. To cheer the boy up, Ben's kindly uncle Carl brings him to a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park. That day, young Ben is hooked and becomes a die-hard Red Sox fan for life. 23 years later, the adult Ben (Jimmy Fallon) still lives in Boston and works as a school teacher, and has inherited his uncle's season tickets. Almost all of his possessions bear the Red Sox logo (with the exception of his toilet paper, which bears the New York Yankees insignia). On a school trip, Ben meets Lindsey Meeks (Drew Barrymore), a professionally successful workaholic executive. When Ben asks her out, Lindsey initially rejects him, but she later changes her mind and agrees to go out with him. On the evening of their first date, Ben arrives at Lindsey's apartment to find her ill with food poisoning. Ben cares for Lindsey, helping her into her pajamas, cleaning up her bathroom, and bringing a care package with a DVD copy of Road House. Lindsey is charmed by his care and commitment, and the two develop a romantic relationship. That spring, Ben asks Lindsey to accompany him to the Red Sox Opening Day. Lindsey, who knows little about baseball or the Red Sox, learns about the Curse of the Bambino from the season ticket holders who sit near Ben (including Al Waterman, a sponge salesman who also narrates the story). The two continue attending the games together, until one evening when Lindsey attempts to catch up on work by taking her laptop to the game. Lindsey is knocked out by a line drive foul ball by then Baltimore Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada off Mike Myers (which ends up making the late night sports highlight reel). She eventually recovers but stops going to the games. Things take a turn for the worse when Lindsey invites Ben to accompany her to Paris, and he declines because the Red Sox are in the heat of the playoff race. Before leaving for Paris, she tells Ben she is "late" and therefore might be pregnant with his child, and she also expresses concern over Ben's obsession with the Red Sox, which she sees as immature. To prove he is not obsessed, Ben agrees to miss a game against the Yankees to escort Lindsey to her friend's birthday party. Ben and Lindsey enjoy the party, and after making love, he tells her it was one of the best nights of his life. Moments later, Ben receives a call from his ecstatic friend Troy, who informs him that the Red Sox overcame a seven run deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning to pull off one of the greatest comebacks in team history. Ben becomes irate that he missed such an historic Red Sox moment, and angrily blames Lindsey for making him miss the game. Lindsey is heartbroken, and the two separate. Ben soon misses Lindsey and visits her in a futile attempt to reconcile. To prove she means more to him than the Red Sox, he plans to sell his season tickets (for $125,000 – the price for which Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920). Lindsey finds out about his plan during the celebration for her much-anticipated promotion and rushes to the ballpark to stop him. She gets in during the 9th inning of the Red Sox—Yankees playoff game when the Sox are just three outs away from being swept, and Ben is in the stands about to sign the contract finalizing the season ticket sale. Desperate to reach Ben, Lindsey illegally runs across the field, deftly avoiding security personnel by running behind outfielder Johnny Damon and throwing his glove at them. She tears the contract in pieces and tells him that if Ben loves her enough to sell his seats, then she loves him enough not to allow him to do so. The two reunite and kiss in front of the entire crowd. Al narrates the epilogue: the Red Sox won that game and then beat the Yankees three more times to win the American League pennant, later sweeping the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals in four games for their first World Series title in 86 years. Lindsay and Ben travel to Busch Stadium in St. Louis for the decisive Game 4. The two get married, and Lindsey falls pregnant. Al explains that the baby will be named after a famous Red Sox player - Ted Williams Wrightman if it's a boy, "Carla Yastrzemski" Wrightman if it's a girl - with the narrator hoping for a boy. ===== Toaster is the leader of a gang of appliances consisting of a radio, a lamp named "Lampy", a blanket named "Blanky", and a vacuum cleaner named "Kirby" who belong to their "master", a young boy named Rob. They wait every day at Rob's cottage for his return with an increasing sense of abandonment, which causes Blanky to hallucinate about finally seeing Rob coming back. On the second day of July, the appliances are devastated to learn that a real estate broker is selling the house. Not wanting to accept the fact that the Master would abandon them, Toaster decides that the group should head out and find Rob. The appliances connect a car battery to an office chair pulled by Kirby and set out into the world, following Radio's signal broadcast from the city where Rob has moved to. On their journey, the appliances encounter numerous harrowing adventures where they learn to work together. Shortly after stopping to rest within a forest, a nightmare where Rob and Toaster get tortured by an evil smirking clown dressed as a firefighter followed by a violent storm during nightfall wakes Toaster and the others with the storm blowing Blanky up into the trees, and Lampy risks his life by using himself as a lightning rod in an attempt to recharge the group's dead battery. After recovering Blanky the next morning, they try to cross a waterfall, but during an attempt to cross it, everyone falls in except for Kirby, who dives after them and rescues them, and the appliances wash up into the middle of a swamp. After losing both the chair and the battery, the group resorts to pulling a disabled Kirby through the swamp. After losing their balance and almost drowning in a mud hole, they are rescued by Elmo St. Peters, an owner of a spare parts shop, where they get scared by a group of partially dismantled, disfigured, undead appliances, who have lost hope, and try to avoid the risk of being disassembled and having their parts sold. When Radio is removed from a shelf and about to have his radio tubes extracted, the appliances frighten St. Peters by pretending to be a ghost and flee to the city, while most of the worn-out appliances flee the store and return to their masters' homes. Rob, who is now a young adult living in a modern apartment with his family, is about to depart for college, and goes with his girlfriend Chris to the cottage to retrieve the old appliances to take with him. After secretly witnessing this, Rob's newer appliances in the apartment become resentful. When the appliances arrive at Rob's apartment after perusing a phone book, the newer appliances explain that they are "on the cutting edge of technology." After answering Toaster and the other four appliances their question of what they mean by singing their song to them, they kick them into the apartment's dumpster from the window, where they are shortly transported to Ernie's Disposal, a junkyard. Thinking that the cottage has been broken in to and trashed and his original appliances were stolen, Rob and Chris return to his apartment where a black and white TV, who is another appliance owned by Rob that used to be part of the cabin gang, broadcasts false advertisements to encourage him and Chris to go to Ernie's Disposal to find Toaster and the other four appliances and bring them back. At the junkyard, the appliances are tormented by a maniacal crusher with its henchman, an evil tower crane with an electromagnet that picks up junk and places them on its conveyor belt that leads to the crusher. When Toaster and the gang discover that Rob is in the junkyard, they are encouraged that he still needs them after all, and attempt to foil the magnet in order to allow Rob to find them. After being foiled numerous times, the magnet decides to pick up Rob as well as his appliances, and drops them on the conveyor belt. Toaster makes a heroic sacrifice by jumping into the crusher's gears to disable it just in time to prevent it from killing Rob and destroying his appliances. Rob survives and returns to the apartment with all of the five appliances in tow, including the mangled Toaster. Rob repairs Toaster and takes the five appliances with him to college, along with Chris. ===== Bart notices that the water in the bathroom sink always drains counter-clockwise. Lisa explains that water only drains clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere due to the Coriolis effect. Bart makes phone calls to various countries in the Southern Hemisphere to confirm this, such as a research station in Antarctica, Buenos Aires, a village destroyed by a volcano in Chile, and (incorrectly) Burkina Faso. When Lisa points out how expensive overseas calls are, Bart instead makes a collect call to the fictional Sydney suburb of Squatter's Crog in Australia, where a boy named Tobias answers the phone. Bart impersonates an adult bureaucrat and is told the sink and toilet are both draining clockwise. Frustrated, Bart asks Tobias to check his neighbors' toilets. The call takes six hours to complete, since Tobias lives in the rural locality of Squatter's Crog and Bart fails to hang up the phone. Three weeks later, Tobias's father Bruno is billed $900 for the phone call. Bruno calls Bart and demands payment, but Bart only taunts him. However, Bruno's neighbor is a federal Member of Parliament who reports the matter to the Prime Minister. After several letters from the Prime Minister and the Solicitor-General, Australia indicts Bart for fraud. A U.S. State Department official arrives and explains that Bart has worsened already acrimonious Australia–United States relations. When Marge refuses to allow the State Department to imprison Bart for five years to placate Australia, the State Department settles on having Bart publicly apologize in Australia. The Simpsons arrive in Australia and stay in the U.S. Embassy in Canberra. When Bart sees a sign prohibiting foreign visitors from bringing in invasive species, he leaves his pet bullfrog at the airport. A kangaroo puts the frog in its marsupial pouch, introducing it into the wild. Bart makes his public apology, but an unsatisfied Parliament of Australia demands Bart receive a "booting" — a kick on the buttocks with an oversize boot — as corporal punishment. Desperate, Bart and Homer escape and the family flees to the embassy, chased by a large, angry mob. After a stand-off, the two governments propose a compromise: one kick from the Prime Minister, through the gate of the embassy, with a regular wing-tip shoe. Marge protests, but Bart agrees to the punishment. However, Bart dodges the kick, moons the Australians with the words "Don't tread on me" written on his buttocks, and hums "The Star-Spangled Banner". The outraged mob storms the embassy, and the Simpsons and the embassy staff are evacuated by helicopter. From the air, the Simpsons notice that Bart's bullfrog has reproduced and its offspring are wreaking havoc on Australia's ecosystem and farms. They gleefully laugh, unaware a koala has stowed away aboard their helicopter and may inadvertently be introduced to U.S. territories. ===== The film tells the story of four friends who gather in a villa for the weekend, with the express purpose of eating themselves to death. Bouffer is French slang for "eating" (the Italian abbuffata means "great eating"). The first protagonist is Ugo, owner and chef of a restaurant, "The Biscuit Soup". The second is Philippe, a somewhat important magistrate who still lives with his childhood nanny, Nicole, who is overprotective of him to the point of trying to prevent him from having relationships with other women, and who fulfills her own sexual needs with him. The third character is Marcello, an Alitalia pilot and womaniser. The fourth and final main character is Michel, who is an effeminate television producer. The four come together by car to the beautifully furnished but unused villa owned by Philippe. There they find the old caretaker, Hector, who has innocently prepared everything for the great feast, and a Chinese visitor who is there to offer a job to the magistrate in faraway China, which Philippe politely rejects with the phrase "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes" ("Beware of Greeks bearing gifts"), quoting Virgil. Once alone, the four begin their binge. In one scene, Marcello and Ugo race each other to see who can eat oysters faster. They discuss organizing a little "feminine presence" and decide to invite three prostitutes to come to the house the following evening (not four, because Philippe does not want to participate). Their breakfast next day is interrupted by the arrival of a school class who would like to visit the garden of the villa to see the famous "lime-tree of Boileau", under which the French poet used to sit while looking for inspiration. The four willingly invite the class not only into the garden, but also to view the old Bugatti in the garage and to a magnificent lunch in the kitchen. Above all, they get to know Andrea, the young and buxom teacher, whom they spontaneously invite to dinner that evening. Philippe is dismayed at the notion of the school teacher being in the same company as three prostitutes; he warns her, but she appears not to be perturbed. The prostitutes arrive in due course and the atmosphere becomes frivolous and sexually charged, with each of the men howling throughout the film when they are overjoyed. Andrea arrives and embraces the spirit of the party. She is attracted to Philippe, who proposes to marry her. The eating continues unabated. Ugo is responsible for the preparation of the food. Michel, who seems to have been brought up strictly not to break wind, suffers from indigestion. His friends encourage him to let out whatever wind is trapped. Frightened and disgusted by the turn of events, the prostitutes flee at dawn and leave only Andrea. She seems to sense the purpose of the protagonists and decides to help them in their efforts, establishing a tacit agreement and remaining with them until the death of all four. She indulges in sex with all the men after the departure of the prostitutes, while joining them in their binge as well. The first to die is Marcello, after being enraged with his own impotence; he goes to the toilet and causes the sanitary pipes to explode. The bathroom is flooded with sewage, which leaks through the ceiling below, and leaves a nauseous smell even after cleaned up. He becomes exasperated, and realizing the futility of the farce, decides to leave the house at night during a snow storm, in the old Bugatti that he had repaired earlier in the day with great delight. His friends find him the next morning, frozen to death in the driving seat. The first suggestion is to bury Marcello in the garden, but on the advice of Philippe (who, being a judge, warns that there is a severe penalty for the illegal burying of a corpse), they place the body in the villa's cold room, where it remains seated and clearly visible from the kitchen. After Marcello comes Michel, who finds a new dog in the yard sitting in the Bugatti. Already suffering from indigestion and crammed to capacity with food (he cannot even lift his legs practising dance, his favourite pastime), he suffers an attack of bowel movements while playing the piano. Amid flatulence and worse, he is finally able to let it all go, and collapses on the terrace. His friends place him in the cold room next to Marcello. Shortly afterwards, the backyard dogs cause a stir (including another new dog) and Ugo prepares an enormous dish made from three different types of liver pâté in the shape of the Dome of Les Invalides, which he serves to the remaining diners, Philippe and Andrea, in the kitchen in view of the two dead friends. It is decorated with eggs, since Jews see them as symbols of death. However, Philippe and Andrea cannot bring themselves to eat it. Philippe goes off to bed, leaving Andrea to keep Ugo company during his determined effort to eat the entire pâté. Some time later, she later calls Philippe back downstairs to help her stop his friend from stuffing himself to death. They cannot dissuade Ugo, and end up attending to him on the kitchen table, the one feeding him, the other masturbating him until he orgasms and dies at the same time. On the advice of Andrea, his body is left on the kitchen table, in his "domain." The last to die is the diabetic Philippe, on the bench under the lime-tree of Boileau and into the arms of Andrea, after eating a cake she has made shaped like a pair of breasts. He dies on the bench with Andrea and yet another dog who he keeps calling Ugo, just as another delivery of meat arrives. The delivery men react with incomprehension when Andrea instructs them to leave the meat – whole animals, and sides of pork and beef – in the garden (the kitchen and the cold room now containing the bodies of Ugo, Marcello and Michel). The film ends bizarrely with a scene of the garden filled with dogs who begin chasing and dining on the poultry and meat carcasses. ===== Walker works with his friend Mal Reese to rob a major crime operation, ambushing the courier on deserted Alcatraz Island. After counting the money, Reese shoots Walker, leaving him for dead. Reese takes the money and Walker's wife, Lynne. Walker recovers. With assistance from the mysterious Yost, Walker sets out to find Reese and recover his half of the heist: $93,000. Reese used all of the money from the job to pay back a debt to a crime syndicate called "The Organization." Walker goes to Los Angeles where he bursts in on Lynne and riddles her bed with bullets, only to find Reese has long since disappeared. Lynne is distraught; she takes an overdose of sleeping pills. Walker approaches car dealer Stegman for information, smashing a new car and terrorizing him until Stegman says Reese is with Walker's sister-in-law, Chris. Breaking in on Chris, he learns that she despises Reese and admires Walker. Willing to help in any way, Chris agrees to a sexual tryst with Reese inside his heavily guarded penthouse apartment where she will unbolt a door for Walker. Walker ties up some men in an apartment across from the penthouse and has a call made to police to report a robbery, creating a diversion that enables him to slip into the penthouse. With a gun to Reese's head, Walker persuades him to give up the names of his Organization superiors – Carter, Brewster, and Fairfax – so he can make somebody pay back his $93,000. He then forces a naked Reese off the balcony and watches him plunge to his death. After next confronting Carter for his money, Walker is set up. A sniper is assigned to kill him at a money-drop in the paved Los Angeles River bed. Walker, suspecting a trap, forces Carter to get the money in his stead. Carter and Stegman both get shot at the pickup. Yost takes Walker to a house belonging to Brewster. Walker visits Chris in her apartment, which has been trashed by The Organization. He brings her with him to Brewster's house, claiming she will be safer with him. While waiting for Brewster, Chris slaps and punches Walker as he regards her impassively, not defending himself. Then they make love. The following morning, Brewster comes home and is ambushed by Walker, who demands his money. Walker forces Brewster to call Fairfax, but Fairfax refuses to pay. Brewster says the only cash available for Walker is in San Francisco. "The drop has changed, but the run is still the same", he explains. At Fort Point, Walker refuses to show himself as the courier delivers the money. Hiding in the dark is the sniper who shoots Brewster. Yost emerges from the shadows, telling Brewster that it was not Walker who shot him. Brewster calls out to Walker, "This is Fairfax, Walker! Kill him!" Yost/Fairfax thanks Walker (who is still hiding in the darkness) for eliminating his dangerous underlings, telling him: "Our deal's done, Walker. Brewster was the last one." He offers a partnership, but Walker remains silent. Yost/Fairfax and the hit man go away while leaving the money on the ground for Walker. ===== Robert Louis Stevenson in 1885 The main character and narrator is 17-year-old David Balfour. (Balfour is Stevenson's mother's maiden name.) His parents have recently died, and he is out to make his way in the world. He is given a letter by the minister of Essendean, Mr. Campbell, to be delivered to the House of Shaws in Cramond, where David's uncle, Ebenezer Balfour, lives. David arrives at the ominous House of Shaws and is confronted by his paranoid Uncle Ebenezer, who is armed with a blunderbuss. His uncle is also miserly, living on "parritch" and small ale, and the House of Shaws itself is partially unfinished and somewhat ruinous. David is allowed to stay and soon discovers evidence that his father may have been older than his uncle, thus making David the rightful heir to the estate. Ebenezer asks David to get a chest from the top of a tower in the house but refuses to provide a lamp or candle. David is forced to scale the stairs in the dark and realises that not only is the tower unfinished in some places, but the steps simply end abruptly and fall into an abyss. David concludes that his uncle intended for him to have an "accident" so as not to have to give over his nephew's inheritance. Alexander Stoddart's Kidnapped statue at Corstorphine, Edinburgh, depicting Alan Breck Stewart and David Balfour at their final parting on Corstorphine Hill (unveiled 2004). This statue misrepresents the characters' heights: Balfour is supposed to be at least a foot taller than Breck.Kidnapped, Chapter IX: "[Breck] was smallish in stature" and Chapter XXIV: ""O, Alan," says [Balfour], "and me a good twelve inches taller?"" David confronts his uncle, who promises to tell David the whole story of his father the next morning. A ship's cabin boy, Ransome, arrives the next day and tells Ebenezer that Captain Hoseason of the brig Covenant needs to meet him to discuss business. Ebenezer takes David to a pier on the Firth of Forth, where Hoseason awaits, and David makes the mistake of leaving his uncle alone with the captain while he visits the shore with Ransome. Hoseason later offers to take them on board the brig briefly, and David complies, only to see his uncle returning to shore alone in a skiff. David is then immediately struck senseless. David awakens, bound hand and foot, in the hold of the ship, and learns that the captain plans to sell him into slavery in the Carolinas. But the ship encounters contrary winds, which drive her back toward Scotland. Fog-bound near the Hebrides, they strike a small boat. All of the small boat's crew are killed except one man, Alan Breck Stewart, who is brought on board and offers Hoseason a large sum of money to drop him off on the mainland. David later overhears the crew plotting to kill Alan and take all his money. David and Alan barricade themselves in the round house, where Alan kills the murderous Shuan, and David wounds Hoseason. Five of the crew members are killed outright, and the rest refuse to continue fighting. Hoseason has no choice but to give Alan and David passage back to the mainland. David tells his tale to Alan, who in turn states that his birthplace, Appin, is under the tyrannical administration of Colin Roy of Glenure, the King's factor and a Campbell. Alan, who is a Jacobite agent and wears a French uniform, vows that should he find the "Red Fox" he will kill him. The Covenant tries to negotiate a difficult channel without a proper chart or pilot, and is soon driven aground on the notorious Torran Rocks. David and Alan are separated in the confusion, with David being washed ashore on the isle of Erraid, near Mull, while Alan and the surviving crew row to safety on that same island. David spends a few days alone in the wild before getting his bearings. David learns that his new friend has survived, and David has two encounters with beggarly guides: one who attempts to stab him with a knife, and another who is blind but an excellent shot with a pistol. David soon reaches Torosay, where he is ferried across the river, receives further instructions from Alan's friend Neil Roy McRob, and later meets a catechist who takes the lad to the mainland. Kidnapped cover, by William Brassey Hole, London edition, Cassell and Company, 1886 As he continues his journey, David encounters none other than the Red Fox (Colin Roy) himself, who is accompanied by a lawyer, a servant, and a sheriff's officer. When David stops the Campbell man to ask him for directions, a hidden sniper kills the King's hated agent. David is denounced as a conspirator and flees for his life, but by chance reunites with Alan. The youth believes Alan is the assassin, but Alan denies responsibility. Alan and David then begin their flight through the heather, hiding from government soldiers by day. As the trek drains David's strength, his health rapidly deteriorates; by the time they are set upon by wild Highlanders who are sentries for Cluny Macpherson, an outlawed chief in hiding, the lad is barely conscious. Alan convinces Cluny to give them shelter, and David is tended by a Highland doctor. He soon recovers, though in the meantime Alan loses all of their money at cards with Cluny, only for Cluny to give it back when David practically begs for it. When David and Alan resume their flight in cold and rainy weather, David becomes ill again, and Alan carries him on his back down the burn to reach the nearest house, fortuitously that of a Maclaren, Duncan Dhu, who is both an ally of the Stewarts and a skilled piper. David is bedridden and given a doctor's care, while Alan hides nearby, visiting after dark. In one of the most humorous passages in the book, Alan convinces an innkeeper's daughter from Limekilns (unnamed in Kidnapped but called "Alison Hastie" in its sequel) that David is a dying young Jacobite nobleman, despite David's objections, and she ferries them across the Firth of Forth. There, they meet a lawyer of David's uncle's, Mr. Rankeillor, who agrees to help David receive his inheritance. Rankeillor explains that David's father and uncle had once quarrelled over a woman, David's mother, and the older Balfour had married her, informally giving the estate to his brother while living as an impoverished schoolteacher with his wife. This agreement had lapsed with his death. David and the lawyer hide in bushes outside Ebenezer's house while Alan speaks to him, claiming to be a man who found David nearly dead after the wreck of the Covenant and says he is representing folk holding him captive in the Hebrides. He asks David's uncle whether Alan should kill David or keep him. The uncle flatly denies Alan's statement that David had been kidnapped but eventually admits that he paid Hoseason "twenty pound" to take David to "Caroliny". David and Rankeillor then emerge from their hiding places, and speak with Ebenezer in the kitchen, eventually agreeing that David will be provided two-thirds of the estate's income for as long as his uncle lives. The novel ends with David and Alan parting ways on Corstorphine Hill; Alan returns to France, and David goes to a bank to settle his money. =====