From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo and the rest of the Muppets have graduated from Danhurst College and entertain their fellow graduates with their theatrical production of Manhattan Melodies. Upon the suggestion of taking the show to Broadway, the Muppets proceed with the idea, certain they will become stars instantly. Arriving in Manhattan, the group meet producer Martin Price (Dabney Coleman), but the police arrive and reveal he is a wanted con artist named Murray Plotsky. Plotsky is arrested, leaving the Muppets' hopes dashed. They try other theatrical producers to no avail, leading to their morale and finances taking a nosedive. Thinking they are becoming a burden to Kermit when he snaps at them, the rest of the Muppets agree to go their separate ways for new occupations, though Miss Piggy secretly remains in Manhattan to keep an eye on Kermit. Though disappointed by the development, Kermit vows to make the show a hit and enlists the assistance of diner owner Pete (Louis Zorich), his daughter Jenny (Juliana Donald) who is an aspiring fashion designer, and the diner's staff of rats led by Rizzo. Attempting to promote the show, Kermit first poses as an eccentric producer bragging about the musical's quality but the producer he meets (John Landis) discards the script after Kermit makes his exit. Kermit then poses as a famous playwright, having the rats insert a caricature picture at Sardi's restaurant by replacing Liza Minnelli's picture with it. When Liza Minnelli comes in and notices it missing, she asks Vincent Sardi Jr. if she did something wrong to get it removed. When the rats are exposed, Sardi discovers Liza's picture near Kermit. This causes Kermit and the rats to get thrown out of the restaurant. Kermit learns from letters that Scooter got a job as a house manager at a movie theater in Cleveland, Ohio where he finds The Swedish Chef as the popcorn server and Lew Zealand as a dedicated viewer of a 3-D movie; Fozzie joins some other bears in hibernating within the forests of Maine where he has a hard time hibernating; Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem have a gig in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania performing in a retirement home; The Great Gonzo and Camilla the Chicken are trying to make a successful water act in Michigan; and Rowlf the Dog is working at a dog kennel in Delaware. While in Central Park, Jenny comforts Kermit about his losses, while an envious Miss Piggy watches. When a thief steals her purse, Miss Piggy borrows a pair of roller skates and furiously gives chase until she captures him, but reunites with Kermit in the process and they make up. Piggy takes a job at Pete's diner. Kermit then receives a letter from producer Bernard Crawford (Art Carney) who is interested in the musical. However, the letter was actually written by his son, Ronnie Crawford (Lonny Price), who is struggling to prove himself as a producer and believes that "Manhattan Melodies" is good. Bernard himself is hesitant but agrees to fund the show. A thrilled Kermit heads back to the diner but is so happy that he walks into oncoming traffic and is struck by a passing car. The rest of the Muppets are summoned back to New York, only to discover that Kermit has disappeared. At the hospital, Kermit's doctor discovers that he has lost memory of his life. He makes his way to Madison Avenue where he meets a trio of frogs, Bill, Gill, and Jill, who work in advertising and offer him a job when he comes up with a slogan. He takes the job and begins going by "Phil." The rest of the Muppets search for Kermit, with Gonzo at one point trying to persuade Mayor Edward I. Koch to assist. Bill, Gill, Jill, and Kermit/"Phil" end up visiting Pete's diner where Kermit's friends recognize him when he plays the show's opening number with spoons. At the Biltmore Theatre on opening night, the Muppets try to help Kermit remember. When Kermit laughs at the idea of being in love with Miss Piggy, she karate chops him, restoring his memory. Kermit, realizing the show needs more Muppets, requests that the Madison Avenue frogs, the dogs, the bears, the chickens, and others become supernumeraries. The show is a success, culminating in what is intended to be a staged wedding between Kermit and Miss Piggy's characters, only for a real minister to appear. With all of the Muppets, the Sesame Street Muppets, and Uncle Traveling Matt from Fraggle Rock present, Kermit and Miss Piggy get married as the film ends. ===== East German dissident Alex Holbeck (Martin Sheen), living in Paris, hosts a radio program aimed at Iron Curtain countries. Bodley (Michael Lonsdale), a CIA agent, recruits Alex to take on a dangerous assignment. Alex is sent to East Berlin on a mission to steal an Enigma code scrambler. This is part of an attempt to stop the Russian assassination of five Soviet dissidents planned for Christmas Day. Alex does not know is that the CIA already has a code scrambler. By stealing the scrambler in Berlin, they are trying to convince the Russians that they do not have a copy. On arrival in Berlin, Alex finds that the East German police and KGB knows that he is there. Alex must use numerous disguises and escape from a number of capture attempts. He seeks shelter with his former lover, Karen Reinhardt (Brigitte Fossey), before moving on, as it is too dangerous for her. Karen and a number of Alex's other old friends are arrested and tortured by the police in an attempt to gain information about Alex's whereabouts. As he gets more desperate, Alex enlists Karen's help again; she seduces Dimitri Vasilikov (Sam Neill), the KGB man in charge of the hunt for Alex, to obtain information. In the end, Dimitri catches Alex and Karen and finds the scrambler hidden in an exhibition artifact. As he is in love with Karen, he lets them go, but keeps the scrambler, which was in fact not needed. On Christmas Day, the assassination attempt is successfully thwarted. ===== ===== Captain Kirk, Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, and Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott of the Federation starship USS Enterprise are enjoying therapeutic shore leave at a night club on planet Argelius II. Mr. Scott ("Scotty") is introduced to Kara, a dancer at the club, and leaves with her. As Kirk and McCoy make their way through an evening fog to another club, they hear a scream, and find the dancer dead on the ground and Scotty standing against a nearby wall, clutching a bloody knife. Scott is detained and interrogated by Mr. Hengist, an administrator from Rigel IV and head of Argelius's police operations. Jaris, the Prefect of the planet, appears and bids his wife, Sybo, employ the Argelian empathic contact to determine the truth. While she prepares for the ritual, Lieutenant Karen Tracy, an Enterprise medical specialist, beams down with a psycho-tricorder, interviews Scott, and is murdered. The evidence again points to Scott. Sybo proceeds with the empathic contact ritual. The participants hold hands as in a seance, and Sybo begins to speak of a "monstrous, terrible evil", "a hunger that never dies", which has been named "Kesla", "Beratis", "Redjac." The altar fire goes out, and Sybo screams. When the lights come on, Scott is holding Sybo's dead body. The Prefect, over Hengist's objections, agrees to continue the investigation aboard the Enterprise. Both Scott and Kara's fiancé Morla are questioned under "accuracy scan" by the computer, which confirms the testimony of both. Scott also speaks of a cold, evil presence during Sybo's ceremony, and the computer again verifies the accuracy of the statement. Kirk queries the computer on the names spoken by Sybo, including "Redjac". The computer responds with "Red Jack", a name given to the serial killer better known as Jack the Ripper. That, and Sybo's mention of a "hunger that never dies", suggests to Kirk that an immortal, non-corporeal entity might be involved. "Beratis" is found to be the name of a serial killer on Rigel IV. Suspicion falls on Hengist, not least because the murder weapon was made on Rigel IV. Hengist attempts to flee, but Kirk punches him and apparently kills him. Maniacal laughter is then heard from the computer, apparently the entity, which has jumped from Hengist's body to the computer, from which it can control the ship. The entity begins to threaten the crew to generate the fear it feeds on. Kirk orders Doctor McCoy to administer fast-acting tranquilizers to all hands, and Spock ties up the computer by ordering it to compute the value of to its last decimal place. After attempting to possess Jaris, the entity returns to the body of Hengist, which is immediately tranquilized. Kirk carries Hengist to the Transporter Room, where he is beamed into space at "maximum dispersion". Spock notes that the entity will survive only as separate bits of energy before perishing. He then suggests that the tranquilized crew resume their shore leave. ===== The novel follows the stories of victims of a fictional school shooting in North Vancouver in 1988. Coupland has expressed his concern that the killers of the Columbine High School massacre received more focus than the victims; this is his story about the victims of tragedy.Didcock, Barry. "Prophet & Loss". "The Sunday Herald", September 14, 2003. The novel is told in four parts, each with a different narrator and focus. ===== In Kansas, Mary Henry is riding in a car with two other young women when two men challenge them to a drag race. During the race, the women's car plunges off a bridge into a river. Three hours after the police start dredging the water to look for them, Mary miraculously surfaces on land, but cannot remember how she survived. Mary moves to Salt Lake City, where she has been hired as a church organist. While driving through the desert, Mary's radio starts playing nothing but strange organ music, and she has visions of a ghoulish, pasty- faced figure (simply called "The Man" in dialogue). She also sees a large, abandoned pavilion on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. A gas station attendant tells her the pavilion was first a bathhouse, then a dance hall, and finally a carnival before it closed. In town, Mary rents a room. She meets the proprietor who informs there is another lodger staying there. Mary unpacks her suitcase and goes to the church where she will be playing the organ. At the Church she meets the minister and plays the organ for the first time. At the minister's offer, Mary takes a ride out to the pavilion at the lake. She is stopped from entering by the minister who warns her that to enter would be illegal. When she returns to her lodgings Mary meets a man, John, the only other lodger, who wants to become better acquainted. The blonde newcomer though is not interested. That night, she becomes upset when she sees The Man downstairs and retreats to her room. Soon, Mary begins experiencing terrifying interludes when she becomes invisible and inaudible to the rest of the world, as if she simply is not there. When The Man appears briefly in front of her in a park, she flees, right into the arms of a Dr. Samuels. He tries to help her, acknowledging he is not a psychiatrist. Mary's new employer, the minister (Art Ellison), is put off when she declines a reception to meet the congregation. When she practices for the first time, she finds herself shifting from a hymn to eerie music. In a trance, she sees The Man and other ghouls dancing at the pavilion. The minister, hearing the strange music, denounces it as sacrilege and insists upon her resignation. Terrified of being alone, Mary agrees to go out with John. When they return home, he follows her to her bedroom door. John tries to convince Mary to let him stay the night, but she walks away, apparently uninterested. Nevertheless, he follows her to her bedroom, where she sees The Man in the mirror. Frightened, she tells John what has been happening to her. He leaves, believing she is losing her mind. After going back to Samuels' office, Mary believes she has to go to the pavilion. However, Mary is confronted by The Man and his fellow ghouls. She tries frantically to escape, boarding a bus to leave town, only to find that all the passengers are ghouls. It is just a nightmare; she awakes in her car. In the end, she is drawn back to the pavilion, where she finds her tormentors dancing, a pale version of herself paired with The Man. When she runs away, the ghouls chase her onto the beach. She collapses as they close in. The following day, Samuels, the minister, and police go to the pavilion to look for Mary. They find her footprints in the sand and they end abruptly. Back in Kansas, her car is pulled from the river. Mary's body is in the front seat alongside the other two women. ===== In Central Park Zoo, Samson the Lion tells his son Ryan stories of his adventures in the Wilds of Africa. When the zoo closes, all the animals are free to roam. Samson, Benny, Bridget, Larry, and Nigel compete in a turtle curling championship while Ryan visits friends. Ryan accidentally causes a stampede which head to the game. Samson and Ryan have an argument and Ryan storms off before Samson can apologize. Ryan wanders into a green Intermodal container just before he gets shipped away by a truck, which the legend tells will take him to the wild. With the help of a pigeon, Hamir, Samson and Benny go after him, sneaking into a garbage disposal truck with Nigel, Larry, and Bridget; Benny is accidentally thrown overboard by Bridget. After passing through Times Square and nearly being crushed in the garbage disposal, the group encounters a pack of rabid stray dogs. Samson escapes through the sewer rather than fighting. There, they take directions to the docks from two streetwise alligator brothers, Stan and Carmine. The next morning, the four friends steal a tugboat during a hectic escape from New York harbor. With help from Larry, they drive the boat and reunite with Benny, who has enlisted a flock of Canadian geese to help lead the crew toward Ryan's ship. Days later, Nigel goes mad and, under the impression they have hit an iceberg, jumps overboard. The boat runs aground in Africa, where all the animals in the area are being evacuated by the carriers, as a nearby volcano erupts. They witness Ryan run into the jungle. Samson attempts to find him. After failing to eat a crude Hyrax, it soon becomes clear that Samson has never been in the wild before, to which he forlornly confirms. The rest of the group head back to the ship, but Samson continues to search for his son. While walking, Samson sees plants and rocks change colors. Nigel is abducted by a group of wildebeests who reside in the volcano, and their leader Kazar, pronounces him "The Great Him", based on an "omen" he received when he was young: about to be devoured by lions, a toy koala fell from a plane and scared the lions away, saving his life. Kazar wants to change the food chain; he would rather see "prey become predators" and vice versa. For this, he needs to eat a lion. Bridget and Larry are also captured and held hostage. Ryan hides up an old tree, but a gang of vultures led by Scraw and Scab attack him under orders from Kazar. The branch breaks and traps his paw. Samson hears Ryan's cries and runs to save him, scaring off the birds. The two reunite but are interrupted by a herd of wildebeests. Ryan is shocked when Samson tells him to run. The two retreat to a tree where Samson reveals the truth. He was born in the circus and like Ryan, was unable to roar. Samson's volatile father disowned him and allowed him to be sent to the zoo, where he lied to avoid the humiliation. The wildebeests discover them and, in the chaos, send the tree over the cliff, with Samson still hanging on. Ryan is captured and taken to the volcano. Benny finds Samson and gives him the confidence to be himself, even if he is not from the wild. They find two chameleons named Cloak and Camo, who were leading Samson to the volcano and are also trying to defeat Kazar's army. Samson uses the chameleons' camouflage abilities to slip into Kazar's lair. Nigel tries his best to stall the wildebeests from cooking his friends, and eventually Samson fights Kazar but is quickly beaten. Ryan, seeing Samson in danger, climbs onto a catapulting device and launches himself at Kazar, finally letting out a roar. With Kazar distracted, Samson manages to overpower him. Ryan tells Samson that he is happy to have him for a dad. The other wildebeests are touched by this and refuse to serve Kazar any further. Samson gains the courage he needs and roars powerfully enough to push back a charging Kazar. The animals, along with the wildebeests flee except Kazar, who is trapped in the erupting volcano, in which he gets crushed to death by a falling rock. The animals manage to escape on the boat and travel back to the New York Zoo. ===== Sixteen years after Caroline Crale is convicted for the murder of her husband Amyas, her daughter Carla Lemarchant approaches Hercule Poirot. In the meeting, Carla claims her mother was innocent, and told her so in the letter she received at age 21, from her mother. She fears that her fiancé will leave her if the truth behind the murder is not found. Poirot agrees to her request and begins researching the case. He learns that on the day of the murder, there were five other people at the Crales' home, whom he dubs "the five little pigs" — Phillip Blake, a stockbroker; Meredith Blake, Phillip's brother and an amateur chemist; Angela Warren, Caroline's much younger half-sister; Cecilia Williams, Angela's governess, and Elsa Greer (now Lady Dittisham), a young woman who is the subject of Amyas's latest painting. The police investigation discovered that Amyas was poisoned by coniine, found in a glass from which he had drunk cold beer. The poison had been stolen from Meredith's lab by Caroline, who confessed to stealing it because she planned to use it to commit suicide. As the police learned Caroline had provided the bottle of cold beer, they determined she was the murderer. Her motive was believed to be her husband’s plan to divorce her and marry Elsa, his latest mistress. He had had mistresses before but never left Caroline. Interviewing each of the five other suspects, Poirot notes that none of them have an obvious motive: the Blake brothers have differing views about Caroline; Elsa recalls overhearing an argument between Caroline and Amyas, in which he swore he would divorce his wife and she made a bitter remark of "you and your women" in response; Amyas was about to send Angela away, based on a remark heard by the Blake brothers; Meredith recalled seeing Amyas give his painting a "malevolent glare"; Cecilia witnessed Caroline wiping the beer bottle of fingerprints while waiting by Amyas's body. Angela is the only one to believe her sister is innocent. Assembling the suspects together, along with Carla and her fiancé, Poirot reveals that Caroline was innocent, yet chose not to defend herself in court because she believed Angela had committed the murder. His investigation revealed that Angela had been angry with Amyas, and was planning a prank, unaware of the tensions between her sister and Amyas. Angela had handled the beer bottle, but added nothing to it, as her sister had stopped her. Caroline took that bottle of beer to bring to her husband. When she later found her husband dead, Caroline assumed her sister had added something to the bottle, and acted to take the blame away from her sister. When the police charged Caroline with murder, she did not fight for herself, suspecting no other guilty party. Caroline saw this as a way to atone for her own action in childhood against her sister, when she had thrown a paperweight at the little girl, which left her blind in her right eye and scarred down the right side of her face. Poirot saw Caroline’s action of wiping off the bottle as proving that she was not guilty. Caroline assumed the poison was in the bottle when it was in the drinking glass per the police's findings. Poirot then reveals that Angela had been in Meredith's lab to steal some valerian to use as part of that prank that never happened. Poirot states that the murderer was Elsa Greer. Elsa took his promise to marry her seriously, unaware Amyas spoke to keep her only until the painting was done. Upon hearing Amyas reassuring his wife that he was not leaving her, and was in the same category as his previous mistresses, Elsa felt betrayed and wanted him dead. When Caroline and Amyas spoke later, misheard in part by the Blake brothers, his remark was about his plans to send Elsa away when the painting was finished. Elsa had seen Caroline take the coniine in Meredith's lab; Elsa took it from Caroline’s room under the pretence of fetching a cardigan, and then used it in a glass of warm beer she gave Amyas; his remark of "everything tastes foul today" revealed to Poirot that Amyas must have drunk something before the cold beer Caroline brought, which had tasted foul, and that was the warm beer given him by Elsa. As he painted, Amyas did not know he had been poisoned until he began to grow weaker, at which point he knew; the painting itself and the "malevolent glare" noticed by Meredith revealed that Amyas knew that it was Elsa. Poirot's explanation solves the case to the satisfaction of Carla and her fiancé. Then Elsa speaks alone with Poirot. Although the chances of getting a pardon or a conviction are slim with circumstantial evidence, Poirot plans to present his findings to the police. Elsa confirms the measure of her defeat, as she felt that Amyas and Caroline had escaped together, leaving her own life to be empty. ===== The play features an elderly Athenian citizen, Chremylos, and his slave Cario or Carion. Chremylos presents himself and his family as virtuous but poor, and has accordingly gone to seek advice from an oracle. The play begins as he returns to Athens from Delphi, having been instructed by Apollo to follow the first man he meets and persuade him to come home with him. That man turns out to be the god Plutus — who is, contrary to all expectations, a blind beggar. After much argument, Plutus is convinced to enter Chremylos's house, where he will have his vision restored, meaning that "wealth" will now go only to those who deserve it in one way or another. The first part of the play examines the idea that wealth is not distributed to the virtuous, or necessarily to the non-virtuous, but instead it is distributed randomly. Chremylos is convinced that if Plutus's eyesight can be restored, these wrongs can be righted, making the world a better place. The second part introduces the goddess Penia (Poverty). She counters Chremylos's arguments that it is better to be rich by arguing that without poverty there would be no slaves (as every slave would buy his freedom) and no fine goods or luxury foods (as nobody would work if everyone were rich). After Plutus's eyesight is restored at the Temple of Asclepius, he formally becomes a member of Chremylos's household. At the same time, the entire world is turned upside-down economically and socially. Unsurprisingly, this gives rise to rancorous comments and claims of unfairness from those who have been deprived of their riches. In the end, the messenger god Hermes arrives to inform Chremylos and his family of the gods' anger. As in Aristophanes's The Birds, the gods have been starved of sacrifices, since human beings have all directed their attention to Plutus, and they no longer pay homage to the traditional Olympian gods. Hermes, worried about his own predicament, actually offers to work for the mortals and enters Chremylos's house as a servant on those conditions. ===== In April 1994, tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi peoples led to genocide in Rwanda, where corruption and bribes between politicians were routine. Paul Rusesabagina, manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines, is Hutu, but his wife Tatiana is Tutsi. Their marriage is a source of friction with Hutu extremists, including Georges Rutaganda, a goods supplier to the hotel who is also the local leader of Interahamwe, a brutal Hutu militia. As the political situation in the country worsens following the assassination of the president, Paul and his family observe neighbors being killed, initiating the early stages of the genocide. Paul curries favor with people of influence, bribing them with money and alcohol, seeking to maintain sufficient influence to keep his family safe. When civil war erupts and a Rwandan Army officer threatens Paul and his neighbors, Paul barely negotiates their safety and brings them to the hotel. Upon returning with them, he finds his receptionist Gregoire occupying the presidential suite threatening to rat them out if he is put back to work. More evacuees arrive at the hotel from the overburdened United Nations refugee camp, the Red Cross, and various orphanages, among which Tatiana desperately searches for her brother, sister- in-law, and two nieces. As the situation becomes more violent, Paul must divert the Hutu soldiers, care for the refugees, protect his family, and maintain the appearance of a functioning hotel. He eventually gains the protection of the Rwandan army general Augustin Bizimungu, who threatens Gregoire back to work. Low on supplies, Paul and Gregoire drive to collect hotel supplies from Georges Rutaganda and witnesses Tutsi hostages being treated violently by the Hutu militia. Georges explains to Paul that the "rich cockroaches'" money is going to be valueless because all of the Tutsis will be dead. Paul expresses disbelief that the Hutu extremists will wipe out all of the Tutsis, but Georges replies: "Why not? We are halfway there already." They return to the hotel through the dark and thick fog, on a road that Georges recommends. At one point, Paul believes they have gone off the road and tells Gregoire to stop. When Paul exits the vehicle, he sees the riverside road is full of bodies and realizes that Georges was correct in his estimation that half the Tutsis are already dead. The UN peacekeeping forces, led by Canadian Colonel Oliver, are unable to take assertive action against the Interahamwe because the peacekeepers are forbidden to intervene in the conflict and prevent the genocide. The foreign nationals are evacuated, but the Rwandans are left behind. When the UN forces attempt to evacuate a group of refugees, including Paul's family, Gregoire betrays them by informing the Interahamwe of the evacuation, and they are ambushed and forced to turn back. In a last-ditch effort to save the refugees, Paul pleads with General Bizimungu for assistance. However, when Paul's bribes no longer work, he blackmails the general with threats of him being tried as a war criminal if he doesn't help. Soon afterward, Paul's family and the hotel refugees are finally able to leave the besieged hotel in a UN convoy. They travel through retreating masses of refugees and militia to reach safety behind Tutsi rebel lines and are reunited with their nieces. The end title cards explain that Paul saved at least 1,200 Tutsi and Hutu refugees. He and his family, who adopted the two nieces, moved to Belgium, but Tatiana's brother Thomas and his wife were never found. The genocide came to an end in July 1994 when the Tutsi rebels drove the Hutu militia and the Interahamwe across the border into the Congo. At least 1 million people died in the genocide. George and the general were tried and sentenced for war crimes. ===== Joe has planned an afternoon in the English countryside with his partner, Claire. As they prepare to open a bottle of champagne, a hot air balloon drifts into the field. The pilot catches his leg in the anchor rope, while the only passenger, a boy, is too scared to jump down. Joe and three other men rush to secure the basket. Just as they grab on, wind rushes into the field, and at once the rescuers are airborne. Joe manages to drop to the ground, as do the others, except for one who is lifted into the sky. They watch as the man falls to his death. Recalling the events at dinner with his friends Robin, Rachel, and Claire, Joe reveals the impact the incident has had on his battered psyche. The balloon eventually landed safely, the boy unscathed. Joe later goes to retrieve the body of the fallen man with fellow rescuer Jed Parry. Jed feels an instant connection with Joe—one that, as the weeks go by, becomes ever more intense. Days later, Joe, feeling guilty, spends time trying to map out ways that could have saved the man. One day, he receives a phone call from Jed, telling him to come outside so that they can talk about what happened. Joe looks out the window and sees Jed standing across the road from his house staring up at Joe's window. Joe is reluctant but Jed promises that he will leave Joe alone if he comes outside and talks to him. After Jed makes some comments that make Joe uneasy, he decides to leave, telling Jed to leave him alone. Not too long after this, Joe visits a local bookshop and Jed makes an appearance, appearing to have followed Joe. Joe is confused and angered by this and tells Jed that he does not want to see him at all. Jed is hurt by this and continues to tell Joe to "be brave" and admit what passed between them at the field. Joe is lecturing at the college where he works. At lunch, he sits down with a colleague and then spots Jed sitting at the table next to him. He shouts at Jed, causing a scene when Jed tells him to "be brave" again. Joe tells Jed that all he wants is for Jed to leave him alone. After hearing this, Jed leaves the restaurant. Joe then visits the wife of the man who had died and she tells him that she believes that he was having an affair after the police returned a picnic basket for two that was found in his car, along with an unknown woman's scarf. After hearing this, he decides to figure out who was with the man on the day he died. On Joe's birthday, Claire makes him a special birthday dinner. At dinner, it is clear to see the strain on their relationship. After Claire sees that Joe is lost in thought and not paying her any attention, she angrily clears the table. She is fed up with Joe's behaviour and lack of communication. The next day, Joe goes swimming and sees Jed standing by the window of the pool. Joe asks Jed to meet him in the café. They talk and Joe demands to know why Jed won't leave him alone. Jed, once again, makes Joe uneasy and he leaves. Later, Joe and Claire are joined by Robin and Rachel, Claire's brother and his new girlfriend. Joe then tells Claire that he had planned to propose to her on the day of the accident. She asks Joe if he's changed his mind and he remains silent. This drives another wedge between them and the evening is ruined. The next day at Joe's lecture, Jed appears in the classroom and sings to Joe. They then go outside and Jed talks about how Joe is sending him signals, using a curtain reference. Joe is confused, tells Jed to leave and then later that night researches the significance between stalkers and "curtain signals". He finally concludes that Jed standing beneath his window every night watches him draw the curtains, thinking that the way they are drawn is a secret message (such as "come and see me", "I love you", or "talk to me"). After explaining this to Claire, he looks out of the window and sees Jed sitting in the park across from his house watching him. Joe asks Claire to come to the window and look at Jed but she, frustrated, goes back to sleep. The next morning, Claire comes down the stairs and tells Joe that it is over between them. Joe, angry, pays a visit to Jed and they argue. Joe then gets drunk before going to Robin and Rachel's house where he stays the night. When he wakes up, his friend tells him that Claire just called and that Claire had told him to come over as Jed was in their house. Joe races to his house and enters the living room to find Jed and Claire sitting next to each other on the sofa. Jed looks as if he has been beaten up and falsely blames Joe. Claire appears to believe Jed's story. Joe loses his temper and then out of the blue, Jed stabs Claire with a kitchen knife and she falls to the floor, bleeding profusely. Joe then pretends to accept Jed into his life and they kiss. As they kiss, Joe grabs hold of the knife from Jed and stabs him. Jed falls to the floor, while Joe rushes to Claire's aid and phones an ambulance. Joe is back on the field where it all started, with the wife and daughter of the man who died. They are joined by a couple who explain that the woman's husband had not cheated on her but was giving the couple a lift in his car. The picnic basket and scarf were theirs, and they were too embarrassed to intercede, as they were having an affair. The wife is happy to discover the truth and sad that she had believed her husband was cheating. Joe then tells the man's daughter her father was very brave. After this, Joe is joined by Claire, who survived the stabbing; they are still separated. As they sit on the grass and talk, Joe tries to find apologize for what happened to them. Claire says, "Don't say anything". During the ending credits, Jed, who also survived, is shown in a mental institution and appears to be obsessively writing a letter. He smiles. ===== Darwinia was created as a digital theme world for artificially intelligent polygons by Dr. Sepulveda. Housed in a massive network of surplus Protologic 68000 machines from the 1980s, Darwinia is a world where the single-poly Darwinians, with their simple, but growing AI, can grow and evolve. Darwinia is also where the world can visit to see them frolicking in their natural, fractal habitat. A Darwinian lives a life working and growing, until the eventual death of the Darwinian, which releases their digital soul to later be reincarnated. However, the player arrives in the midst of an emergency. Darwinia has been infected by a computer virus, and Sepulveda is in near panic, watching decades of research being corrupted and being used up. Sepulveda enlists the player, a curious hacker who stumbled across Darwinia by accident, to aid him in rescuing the Darwinians and drive off the computer virus. The player is given access to the combat programs, simple tools that originally began as mini- games. These are now the only means of attack against the virus. As the player progresses, it soon becomes clear this is not enough, and that triggers the third aspect of the gameplay, which is evolution. The first two levels of the video game act as an introduction and allow the player to familiarize themselves with the controls. After that, Dr. Sepulveda begins assigning tasks that span several levels to achieve a long-term objective. The first task involves clearing the virus population from and reactivating the Mines and Power Generator to provide resources for the Construction Yard. Once done, the Yard begins producing armored units, allowing the player to move on. The next task involves the reincarnation of Darwinians: the Soul Repository in the center of Darwinia collects the floating souls, and sends them down to the Receiver, where the Darwinians gather them and send them to the Pattern Buffer to be reprogrammed with the main Darwinian blueprint code, where they are sent to the Biosphere to be reborn. The player must clear the Viruses from all the facilities and reactivate them. In the final level of the game, Sepulveda traces the Viral infection back to its source, which is e-mail spam. After Sepulveda had accidentally flashed an image of his face across the skies of Darwinia, The Darwinians had assumed him to be God. They then re-aligned a portal inside Darwinia in an attempt to communicate with God. The Darwinians managed to access Sepulveda's computer, downloading several files and eventually downloading the Spam. The e-mails were infected with a very nasty strain of internet virus which corrupted the Darwinians. The player is tasked to destroying the few remaining e-mails. ===== The drama begins with Davey in his apartment room, mentally preparing for a big fight against Kid Rodriguez. On the other side of the building across the courtyard, he gazes upon Gloria, an attractive taxi dancer, getting ready for work. As they both walk out of the building, they run into each other but say nothing. Gloria is picked up by her boss Vincent. As Davey is losing his fight, Gloria is dealing with her boss in his office as he tries to kiss her repeatedly. That evening Davey is awakened by screams coming from Gloria's apartment. As he looks across the courtyard, he sees that Gloria is being attacked by Vincent. He runs to her room, but Vincent has made his getaway. Davey comforts Gloria and she goes to sleep comfortable that Davey is in the room to protect her. However, Vincent is not deterred and proceeds to interfere in their lives. When they decide to leave town, Davey and Gloria arrange to get money they are each owed. Gloria tries to get money from Vincent at the dance hall, and Davey asks his manager to meet him there as well. When a street performer steals Davey's scarf, he chases after him. Davey's manager arrives but does not see Davey. Vincent sends two goons out to rough Davey up, but they mistake the manager for Davey and kill him in the alley. Vincent kidnaps Gloria and has his two goons hold her hostage. Davey returns to Gloria's apartment and sees the police across the courtyard in his apartment. They assume he killed his manager. Davey leaves to rescue Gloria, but he is captured and restrained as well, leading to a chase and confrontation in an abandoned warehouse full of mannequins. During the struggle, Davey kills Vincent and rescues Gloria. He and Gloria are cleared of all charges by the police, and Davey buys a train ticket back to the West Coast. At the train station, Davey assumes she will not join him, but at the last minute, Gloria rushes in, and they kiss. ===== Scientists invent a brain–computer interface enabling sensations to be recorded from a person's brain and converted to tape for others to experience. The team includes estranged husband and wife Michael and Karen, as well as Michael's colleague Lillian. At CEO Alex's instruction, the team demonstrates the device to investors to gain financing. Karen dons the recorder while working with Michael and Lillian. When Michael plays the tape back, the group realizes that emotional experiences are also recorded. Michael tapes his memories of times with Karen, which he shares with her, leading to their reconciliation. Lillian is pressured by backers to admit Landon to the team, whom she sees as part of the military-industrial complex. She disagrees with their plan to have the invention developed for military use. One team member, Gordy, has sexual intercourse while wearing the recorder, and shares the tape with colleagues, including Hal. Hal splices one section of the tape into a continuous orgasm, which results in sensory overload, leading to his forced retirement. Tensions increase as the possibilities for abuse become clear. Suffering from heart problems and a constant cigarette smoker, Lillian suffers a heart attack while working alone. Realizing she is about to die, Lillian records her experience. Michael later decides to experience Lillian's recording, but nearly dies when his body simulates a heart attack. Michael modifies his console to filter the physical output, and replays the tape. He sees "memory bubbles"—moments from Lillian's life. Michael experiences Lillian's memories of a humorous exchange with Michael as he plays with an industrial robot, a surprise birthday party, and being devastated when Alex tells her that an earlier project is cancelled. Scientists wanting to discover the machine's military capabilities are monitoring the equipment as Michael plays Lillian's tape. They have Gordy experience the tape, but Landon ignores the advice of the monitoring staff that Michael made modifications to his terminal. Gordy dies from experiencing Lillian's heart attack. Michael's playback is cut short by Hal, but having witnessed the near-death experience makes Michael curious to see the entire tape. Alex has the recording locked away and tells Michael he will not be allowed to view it. When he returns to work, Michael walks in on Landon and outside technicians going through his research records. Alex responds to his protests by firing Michael and Karen. Michael attempts to hack into the lab's computers. Hal advises him to look under "Project Brainstorm", a program the military created to use their invention for torture and brainwashing. Michael accesses a tape from his den and quickly stops viewing it because of its disturbing nature. Michael and Karen's son Chris inadvertently views the tape, causing him to have a psychotic experience that results in his hospitalization. Alex visits and Michael confronts him about Project Brainstorm, blaming Alex for his son's condition. Alex denies any knowledge of the project, then informs Michael of Gordy's death. Michael vows to destroy his work and enlists the help of Karen and Hal. Michael and Karen head to the Pinehurst Resort and, realizing they are under surveillance, stage a fight that results in Karen leaving for Hal's house. As the two feign reconciliation over the phone, Michael accesses the Brainstorm computer via another phone line while Karen hacks into the system, sabotaging the robots that manufacture the interface terminals. Karen shuts down the security system, locking the staff outside and enabling Michael to load Lillian's tape and experience it uninterrupted. With the plant in chaos, Robert orders Michael's arrest. Karen leaves the house to meet with Michael. Hal and his wife, Wendy, send the last of Karen's commands to the company computers, shutting down the plant. Karen meets with Michael while the tape is playing. Michael bears witness to the afterlife, experiencing a vision of hell before traveling away from Earth and through the universe, even after the tape ends. He ultimately has visions of angels and departed souls flying into a great cosmic Light. Michael then collapses. Karen sobs, believing him dead. She pleads for Michael to stay alive. Awakening from the experience, he weeps with joy and embraces Karen. ===== Alvin's family is migrating west. When they try to cross the Hatrack River, an unknown force known as the Unmaker tries to stop the as-yet-unborn Alvin from being born - since Alvin would be the seventh son of a seventh son, therefore possessing incredible powers as a Maker. The force sends a tree down the river to crush the wagon the pregnant Mrs. Miller is riding in. Her eldest son Vigor diverts the tree, but is mortally wounded in the act. Because a seventh son must be born while the other six are alive, Vigor desperately clings to life until Alvin is born. Help is dispatched at the insistence of five-year-old "torch" (a person who, among other things, can see the life forces of people and under certain conditions, their myriad alternate futures) Peggy Guester, who sees Alvin and Alvin's possible future as a Maker. As the years pass, Alvin avoids numerous attempts of an unknown force trying to kill him, often helped by the intervention of a mysterious protector. Alvin's father, a non-believer in God, believes that a water spirit is trying to kill Alvin. When Alvin is seven, a new Reverend, named Thrower, arrives in town, trying to build a church. Alvin's father refuses to help, but Mrs. Miller has all of her sons work on building the church. When the ridgebeam is being placed onto the church in construction, it shivers and breaks, seemingly about to fall on Alvin. However, mid-air, it breaks in two, and misses Alvin - yet another example of Alvin's near-death experiences. When Alvin goes home, he provokes one of his sisters by poking her, so they get revenge on Alvin by putting needles into his night gown. Alvin avenges himself by using his knack to send cockroaches after his sisters. The plan works, Alvin winning a victory over his sisters. However, afterwards, he has a vision he dubs Shining Man, who makes him promise only to use his knack for good. When Alvin is ten, "Taleswapper" (William Blake) a traveling storyteller arrives in the town Alvin's parents have founded. After stopping by Alvin's brother-in-law's house (who directs Taleswapper to the Miller house), he visits the church, where he notices that the altar has been touched upon by an evil entity. Reverend Thrower kicks him out, and Taleswapper goes to the Millers' place, where his timely intervention stops Mr. Miller from killing Alvin. Taleswapper is welcomed in. Taleswapper helps to put a name to the unknown force that tries to stop Alvin from realizing his true powers as a Maker: the Unmaker. Meanwhile, the Reverend Philadelphia Thrower becomes a tool of the Unmaker - the evil force that touched the altar. Soon the Miller family goes to a quarry to cut out a millstone. Here one of Alvin's knacks is revealed - single-handedly he cuts the millstone through hard rock. During the night, Taleswapper and Mr. Miller guard the millstone. Mr. Miller tells Taleswapper a story about how a force is trying to use him to kill Alvin. Taleswapper advises Mr. Miller to send Alvin away to someplace where he may be safe. The next day, the millstone is taken home. The Unmaker finally manages to injure Alvin, by making a millstone fall on him. Taleswapper encourages him to heal himself. Alvin does so, but finds that a part of his bone he cannot heal alone. He realizes that he might need outside help to heal himself. Reverend Thrower (acting as a surgeon) attempts to kill him, but finds himself blocked by a mysterious force. Alvin heals himself (with the aid of his brother Measure, who performs the surgery). Alvin is contracted as an apprentice to a blacksmith in the town on the Hatrack River where he was born. Taleswapper meets Peggy. It is revealed that she, using her torch powers and Alvin's birth caul, had protected Alvin all these years, and the Unmaker was only able to hurt Alvin with the millstone because Alvin himself overrode her powers. The book's sequel, second in the tales of Alvin's life, is Red Prophet. ===== In 1985, Rose Daniels' husband, Norman, beats her while she is four months pregnant, causing her to miscarry. Rose considers leaving Norman but dismisses the idea: Norman is a policeman, and is excellent at finding people. He also has a violent temper and has been recently accused of assaulting and raping a black woman named Wendy Yarrow. The subsequent lawsuit and internal affairs investigation has made him even more volatile. Nine years later, Rose is making the bed. She sees a drop of blood on the sheet that dripped from her nose the night before, when Norman had punched her in the face for spilling iced tea on him. Rose realizes that she has passively suffered through Norman's abuse for fourteen years and that if she continues to put up with it, he will eventually kill her. Rose departs on a bus with their bank card. Once Norman realizes that Rose is gone, he resolves to hunt her down and kill her. Rose arrives in a Midwestern city, disoriented and afraid. At the bus station, she meets a man named Peter Slowik, who guides her to a local women's shelter. She quickly makes several friends and, with the help of shelter director Anna Stevenson, gets an apartment and a job as a hotel housekeeper. When Rose tries to pawn her engagement ring, she takes a liking to a painting of a woman in a rose madder gown. She trades her ring for the painting, which has no signature. Bill Steiner, the owner of the pawnshop, asks her for a date. Rose falls in love with him, but she is afraid to begin a new relationship. Rose discovers that the painting seems to change from time to time. Eventually she is able to travel through it. On the other side, she encounters a woman called Dorcas, who resembles Wendy Yarrow. She also sees the woman in the painting, whom she calls "Rose Madder" because of her gown and her evident madness. Rose Madder asks Rose to rescue her baby from an underground labyrinth inhabited by a blind, one-eyed bull called Erinyes who orients by his sense of smell. Dorcas leads Rose to the edge of the temple grounds. Dorcas cannot enter the labyrinth, as she is afflicted by the same mysterious illness as her mistress, and Erinyes would be able to smell her. Before Rose parts from Dorcas, she is made to strip naked and rip her nightgown into several strips. One is soaked in Dorcas' blood and tied around a rock. Rose enters the temple, where she manages to save the child, escape Erinyes, and return the baby girl to Rose Madder, who promises to repay her. Rose returns to her world and puts the strange incident at the back of her mind. Norman arrives in the city, attacks some of Rose's friends from the shelter, and then goes to Rose's apartment. He kills a policemen assigned to protect her, poses as one of them in the patrol car, and sees Rose and Bill returning from the police station. He attacks them, almost strangling Bill, but Rose is able to fight him off because she believes she is wearing the golden arm circlet Rose Madder had given her. After injuring Norman, Rose carries Bill to the apartment, where she sees the circlet on her table and realizes she has been fighting Norman alone the whole time. Rose tricks Norman into following her into the painting, then leads him to Rose Madder, who kills him. Rose returns to her world with instructions from Rose Madder to "remember the tree". She eventually marries Bill and has a daughter, but finds that the violent rages that characterized both Norman and Rose Madder have begun to spring up within her. She remembers that Rose Madder allowed her to take some seeds home with her, which she plants along with Norman's police ring in a secret grove by her favorite lake. The seed grows into a beautiful but deadly tree. She revisits the tree periodically as it grows, and is able to release her rage and go on with her life. ===== The story is set within a framing narrative told by a supporting character from The Prisoner of Zenda. The frame implies that the events related in both books took place in the late 1870s and early 1880s. This story commences three years after the conclusion of Zenda, and deals with the same fictional country somewhere in Germanic Middle Europe, the kingdom of Ruritania. Most of the same characters recur: Rudolf Elphberg, the dissolute absolute monarch of Ruritania; Rudolf Rassendyll, the English gentleman who had acted as his political decoy, being his distant cousin and lookalike; Flavia, the princess, now queen; Rupert of Hentzau, the dashing well-born villain; Fritz von Tarlenheim, the loyal courtier; Colonel Sapt, the King's Bodyguard; Lieutenant von Bernenstein, the loyal soldier. Queen Flavia, dutifully but unhappily married to her cousin Rudolf V, writes to her true love Rudolf Rassendyll. The letter is carried by von Tarlenheim and his servant Bauer to be delivered by hand, but Fritz is betrayed by Bauer and it is stolen by the exiled Rupert of Hentzau and his loyal cousin the Count of Luzau-Rischenheim. Hentzau sees in it a chance to return to favour by informing the pathologically jealous and paranoid King. Rassendyll returns to Ruritania to aid the Queen, but is once more forced to impersonate the King after Rupert fatally shoots Rudolf V in a remote hunting lodge. After tracing Bauer to the house of Mother Holf, Rassendyll and Rupert engage in an epic duel. Hentzau is mortally wounded and Rassendyll burns the letter. However, he is assassinated in the hour of triumph by Bauer —and thus is spared the crisis of conscience over whether or not to continue the royal deception for years. Rassendyll is buried as the King in a state funeral, while Sapt and Rassendyll's servant James stage a fire at the hunting lodge that burns the King's body beyond recognition. Rudolf V is buried as Rudolf Rassendyll, while Flavia reigns on alone, the last of the Elphberg dynasty. ===== In 1769 Vienna, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria tells her daughter Maria Antonia she is to marry the Dauphin Louis-Auguste. Marie is excited to become the future Queen of France but grows dismayed upon learning her husband is a shy man more at home with locksmithing than attending parties. After countless attempts to please him, Louis reveals he cannot produce heirs, prompting Marie to associate with the power-hungry Duc d'Orleans. On her second wedding anniversary, Madame du Barry, King Louis XV's mistress, gifts Marie with an empty cradle and a poem critical of her inability to produce an heir. Despite Marie's outrage, Louis proves to be too weak to stand up to his grandfather. Sometime later, Marie meets Swedish Count Axel Fersen at a costume ball, during which she wagers and loses an expensive necklace. Count Mercy, the Austrian ambassador, scolds her for her wanton behaviour but she pays him little mind. Marie then hosts a ball in an attempt to make amends with du Barry and please Count Mercy. The attempt fails, however, when du Barry draws attention to Louis' absence and Marie responds with a reference to du Barry's past. The King decides to annul the marriage, prompting Louis to defend Marie. Marie, meanwhile, flees to Count Mercy's residence after learning she is to be sent back to Austria. While there, she reunites with Fersen, who professes his love for her. Realising she too has fallen in love with Fersen, Marie goes to tell Louis but learns she cannot leave him as the King is dying of smallpox and Louis himself is still fond of her. She agrees to remain and they ascend to the throne following the King's death. Despite Marie's attempts to continue their relationship, Fersen refuses to risk ruining her reputation and tells her to fulfil her duties as France's Queen. She goes on to give birth to daughter Marie Thérèse and son Louis Charles. Some years later, when the Dauphin has grown into a young boy, peasants throw stones at Marie's carriage while she has taken her children for a drive. She is shocked at the intense dislike displayed by the people of France. She blames d'Orleans for inciting them. Marie later rejects a jeweller's expensive and elaborate necklace, but she is framed by court insiders plotting to acquire the necklace for themselves, and the Affair of the Diamond Necklace erupts. Marie is outraged, but d'Orleans tells the royal couple to abdicate the throne in favour of the Dauphin under the regency of d'Orleans. The French Revolution comes, and the royal family is taken prisoner. Fersen returns with a plan of escape, but when the Dauphin tells a guard that his father is a locksmith, the King is recognised and arrested after a former priest at Versailles identifies him. The King is put on trial and sentenced to death, and spends his last night with his family, his children not realising this is the last night they will spend with their father. Marie is heartbroken, but is then separated from her children, put on trial and condemned to death. The Dauphin, too young to understand what is going on around him, is forced to testify against his mother. The night before she is executed, Fersen goes to the prison and they pledge their love to each other, with Marie telling him that she will never say goodbye. The next morning she goes bravely to her execution, which Fersen witnesses from a distance. ===== Tono-Bungay is narrated by George Ponderevo, who is persuaded to help develop the business of selling Tono-Bungay, a patent medicine created by his uncle Edward. George devotes seven years to organising the production and manufacture of the product, even though he believes it is "a damned swindle".H. G. Wells, Tono-Bungay, Book II, Ch. 2, §2 (New York: Modern Library, n.d. [1937]), p. 154. He then quits day-to-day involvement with the enterprise in favour of aeronautics, but he remains associated with his uncle, who becomes a financier of the first order and is on the verge of achieving social as well as economic dominance when his business empire collapses. George tries to rescue his uncle's failing finances by stealing quantities of a radioactive compound called "quap" from an island off the coast of West Africa, but the expedition is unsuccessful. George then engineers his uncle's escape from England in an experimental aircraft he has built, but the ruined entrepreneur turned financier catches pneumonia on the flight and dies in a village near Bordeaux, despite George's efforts to save him. The novel ends with George finding a new occupation: designing destroyers for the highest bidder. ===== Sean and Anna are a married couple living in New York City. While scenes of Central Park are shown on screen, Sean is heard lecturing to an unseen audience, explaining that he does not believe in reincarnation. After the lecture he goes jogging, collapses, and dies. Ten years later, Anna has accepted a marriage proposal from her boyfriend, Joseph (Danny Huston). When Clifford, Sean's brother, arrives at Anna's engagement party, his wife Clara excuses herself, saying she forgot to wrap Anna's gift. Instead, she buys a replacement after hurriedly burying the original gift while a young boy secretly looks on. At a party for Anna's mother, the boy, who has followed Clara, claims to be Anna's deceased husband, Sean, and warns her not to marry Joseph. At first Anna dismisses the boy's claim. When Anna receives a letter from him the next day warning her not to marry Joseph she realizes the boy truly believes he is her reincarnated husband. That night Anna and Joseph discuss the letter. Since the building watchman seems to know the boy and that his name is Sean, Joseph calls to get more information. When Sean answers the phone, Joseph rushes downstairs to confront him. He takes him to Sean's father and the three of them order Sean to leave Anna alone. Sean refuses to recant his story and Anna watches Sean collapse in his father's arms. Sean leaves a message on Anna's answering machine, which her mother overhears. That day at lunch, Anna's mother mentions that Sean wants to meet Anna in the park and that she will know whereabouts. Anna hurries to Central Park and finds Sean waiting in the spot where her husband died. He offers to submit to questioning. Anna's brother-in-law Bob, a doctor, talks to Sean, recording his responses on tape. Sean answers all the questions, even giving intimate details of Anna and Sean's sex life. Sean is brought to Anna's by his mother and he is able to identify parts of the apartment. Everyone except Anna remains doubtful. Anna's family become worried, particularly her sister Laura, who treats Sean with contempt. When Anna misses an appointment with her fiancé to spend time with Sean, Joseph begins feeling worried, not merely about the boy but about Anna's odd behavior. His jealousy is made plain when he physically attacks Sean. When Sean runs out, Anna follows him and Sean kisses her on the lips. Anna seems convinced by the boy's story and asks Clara and Clifford to meet him. Clara encounters Sean at the door and asks him to visit her later. When he visits he brings a backpack full of Anna's love letters to Sean. This package was Clara's spiteful engagement gift, which the boy had secretly unearthed and read the night of the party. We learn that Clara had been Sean's lover before his death, and that he gave the letters to her unopened as proof of his love. Clara had been jealous that Sean would not leave Anna, but at the last moment abandoned her plan to give Anna the letters. When Clara points out to Sean that if he were really a reincarnation he would have come to her first, Sean runs out, confused. When Anna finds Sean, she suggests they run away and marry when he is of legal age. He tells Anna that since he loves her he can not be the reincarnated Sean. Anna apologizes to Joseph, and they are married at the beach. Sean writes a long letter apologizing to Anna, wondering why he had the delusion of being her husband. Anna wades into the sea in anguish after the ceremony. Joseph gradually pulls her back to the shore and whispers into her ear. ===== Orphaned at a young age, brothers Shekhar Malhotra (Shashi Kapoor) and Amit Malhotra (Amitabh Bachchan) lead independent lives. Shekhar is a squadron leader with the Indian Air Force, and Amit is an emerging writer. Shekhar has fallen in love with the lovely Shobha (Jaya Bachchan), while Amit seeks to woo the attractive Chandni (Rekha). Amit finds professional success as a playwright in Delhi, enjoying a successful launch into the circles of Delhi's intellectual elite. His passion and dedication to his craft win Chandni's affections, and they share a brief, blissful courtship. Chandni's parents prepare to arrange her wedding to Amit. Both Shekhar and Amit plan to marry at the same time, but Shekhar is killed in air combat against PAF, leaving a pregnant Shobha behind. Taking pity on Shobha, Amit marries her and writes to Chandni to forget him. This news breaks Chandni's heart. She goes on to marry Dr. V.K. Anand (Sanjeev Kumar), who is in love with her. Tragedy strikes once more, and Shobha loses her child in a car accident. With no child to bind them together, Amit and Shobha drift apart. Amit runs into Chandni and they secretly rekindle their romance. They meet on the sly until a fateful night when Chandni accidentally hits a passerby on the way home from a tryst with Amit. The police get involved, but Amit manages to hush the matter up. But the secrecy of the affair is endangered by the fact that the police inspector in charge of investigating the accident is Shobha's cousin (played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda), who is determined to expose Amit's affair with Chandni. Soon, Amit decides that he can no longer continue his loveless marriage to Shobha and wishes to reconcile with Chandni. This news shatters Shobha - who had long known of Amit's affair - but she does not lose hope. She believes that if her love is true he will return to her. Similarly, Chandni's husband Dr. Anand is aware of and devastated by Chandni's infidelity. Dr. Anand leaves on a business trip, assuring Chandni he will be back soon, hopeful that she will be there when he returns. Amit and Chandni leave town to start a new life elsewhere, but tragedy strikes. Chandni's husband Dr. Anand's plane crashes, causing the lovers to rush to the wreckage site visible to them from the overhead helicopter they are making their escape in. Rushing into the fray to save Dr. Anand, Amit is confronted by Shobha, who in a moment of turmoil reveals that she is expecting his child. When Dr. Anand is rescued from the wreckage, Chandni realises her love for her husband. The film ends with a song depicting Amit and Shobha living happily in marriage and an end title saying, "Love is faith and faith is forever". ===== Set around the capture and escape of Geronimo, a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache, the film is a period drama involving a love affair between Lieutenant Parker and Pauline, Major Wilkins’ daughter, and the jealous Captain Gray. Gray secretly releases Geronimo held prisoner at Fort Sill and Parker is dispatched to find Geromino. After succeeding in throwing the blame on Parker, Gray receives orders from Major Wilkins to take both Parker and Geronimo prisoners. Pauline learns of the ruse, however, and while attempting to warn Parker, is captured by Geronimo who also takes Parker prisoner. Parker and Pauline manage to escape. Subduing Captain Gray and his men, Geronimo prepares to execute them. Rescued by Lieutenant Parker, Gray nonetheless has him jailed to face a court-martial but Pauline finally clears Parker of the charges against him. ===== Professor Alfred Kinsey is interviewed about his sexual history. Interspersed with the interview are flashbacks from his childhood and young- adulthood. The young child years show his father, a lay minister of the Methodist church, denouncing modern inventions as leading to sexual sin, then in early adolescence, humiliating Kinsey in a store by denouncing its keeper for showing him cigarettes, while his adolescence shows his experiences as a Boy Scout and a late teenage scene shows Kinsey disappointing his father by his chosen vocational intentions. The adult Kinsey teaches at Indiana University as a professor of biology lecturing on gall wasps. Kinsey falls in love with a student in his class, whom he calls Mac, and marries her. Consummation of their marriage is difficult at first, because of a medical problem Mac has that is fixed easily with minor surgery. At the university, Professor Kinsey, who is affectionately called "Prok" by his graduate students, meets with them after hours to offer individual sexual advice. At a book party celebrating Kinsey's latest publication on gall wasps, Kinsey approaches the dean of students about an open-forum sex education course as opposed to the anti-sex propaganda taught in a general health education class. It is approved, but on the grounds that it is open only to teachers, graduate or senior students, and married students. Kinsey begins teaching the sex course to a packed auditorium. Kinsey continues answering students' questions in personal meetings but his answers are severely limited by the paucity of scientific data about human sexual behavior. This leads Kinsey to pass out questionnaires in his sexual education class from which he learns of the enormous disparity between what society had assumed people do and what their actual practices are. After securing financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Kinsey and his research assistants, including his closest assistant, Clyde Martin, travel the country, interviewing subjects about their sexual histories. As time progresses Kinsey realizes that sexuality within humans, including himself, is a lot more varied than was originally thought. The range of expression he creates becomes known as the Kinsey scale, which ranks overall sexuality from completely heterosexual to completely homosexual. The first sexological book Kinsey publishes, which is on the sexual habits of the male, is a large-scale success and a best seller. Kinsey turns his research to women and is met with more controversy. With the release of the volume on female sexual behavior, support for his work declines in a time when Senator Joseph McCarthy's witch hunts against Communists and homosexuals (the latter known as the Lavender Scare) lead the Rockefeller Foundation to withdraw its financial support, fearing that it be labeled "Communist" for backing the subversion of traditional American values. Kinsey feels he has failed everyone who has ever been a victim of sexual ignorance. A customs officer is tipped off to an importation of some of Kinsey's research material, which only exacerbates the financial hardship of Kinsey's research organization. Kinsey suffers a heart attack, and is found to have developed an addiction to barbiturates. Meeting with other philanthropists fails to garner the support needed. Still, Kinsey continues his taking of sex histories. Returning to the initial interview, Kinsey is asked about love and whether he will ever conduct research on it. He responds that love is impossible to measure and impossible to quantify, but that it is important. Kinsey and Mac pull over to the side of the road for a nature walk. She remarks about a tree that has been there for a thousand years. Kinsey replies that the tree seems to display a strong love in the way its roots grip the earth. The two walk off together, Kinsey remarking "there's a lot of work to do". ===== The novel is set in the 10th century. The Caliph of Baghdad, Al-Muqtadir, sends his ambassador, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, on a mission to assist the king of the Volga Bulgars. Ahmad ibn Fadlan never arrives, as he is conscripted by a group of Vikings to take part in a hero's quest to the north; he is taken along as the thirteenth member of their group to comply with a soothsayer's requirement for success. In the north, the group battles with the 'mist-monsters', or 'wendol', a tribe of vicious savages (suggested by the narrator to have been possibly relict Neanderthals) who go to battle wearing bear skins. Eaters of the Dead is narrated as a scientific commentary on an old manuscript. The narrator describes the story as a composite of extant commentaries and translations of the original story teller's manuscript. The narration makes several references to a possible change or mistranslation of the original story by later copiers. The story is told by several different voices: the editor/narrator, the translators of the script, and the original author, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, who also relates stories told by others. A sense of authenticity is supported by occasional explanatory footnotes with references to a mixture of factual and fictitious sources. ===== In The Lyre of Orpheus, the executors of the will of Francis Cornish (the subject of What's Bred in the Bone) find themselves at the head of the "Cornish Foundation". The 5 directors of the Foundation, the 3 remaining Frank Cornish's estate executors, being Professor the Reverend Simon Darcourt, Arthur Cornish, and Maria Cornish, and Professor Clement Hollier and Stratford actor Geraint Powell, are called upon to decide what projects deserve funding. They decide that a hitherto-unfinished opera by E. T. A. Hoffmann (aka ETAH) will be staged at Stratford, Ontario; to this end, they hire a brilliant young composition student, Hulda Schnakenburg, to complete the opera as the work necessary to qualify her for a PhD., while Darcourt is charged with the completion of the libretto, which James Planché had attempted to write. The opera to be completed is King Arthur or the Magnanimous Cuckold. The storyline follows the writing and then production of the opera, and the plot of the story arcs in a way that parallels the legend of King Arthur, and in particular the triangle of King Arthur, his queen, Guenevere, and Lancelot. Geraint Powell, an actor who serves on the Board of the Cornish Foundation, by deception fathers a child by Maria Cornish, forcing Arthur Cornish to choose between a generous or vindictive response. The Lyre of Orpheus explores not only the world of early eighteenth century opera, but also follows Darcourt's research into the life of the benefactor and artist, Francis Cornish, leading to a discovery that forces Darcourt to conclude that a painting previously attributed to an unknown fifteenth century painter, known only as "The Alchemical Master", was in fact the work of Francis Cornish himself. This painting, entitled The Wedding at Cana, features the portraits of many of the people who appeared as characters from Blairlogie, the fictional town in Ontario that was the setting of the second book of the trilogy, What's Bred in the Bone. A further plotline involves the sexual and artistic flowering of PhD candidate Hulda Schnakenburg ("Schnak") under the hand of Gunilla Dahl-Soot, a distinguished Swedish musicologist who serves as Schnak's academic advisor and becomes her lover. The book explores a number of themes, including the pursuit of life beyond the ordinary or comfortable routine and which is exemplified in the artistic quest to produce the opera or in Darcourt's quest to uncover the truth behind the painting of The Wedding at Cana. The theme of marriage is examined through the relationship between Arthur and Maria Cornish, a relationship that must withstand the test of infidelity. And the modern approach to relationships is mocked in the dysfunctional common-law situation of two minor characters, Al and Mabel, who present themselves in Toronto to monitor and record the production of the opera from start to finish. As often happens in Davies' novels, all is not simple; for example, the ghost of Hoffman (ETAH), trapped in Limbo as a result of the unsatisfactory state of his artistic work, attends and comments on the ongoing proceedings. Nor is all peaceful among the characters, as they react to Powell's seduction of Maria Cornish, Dahl-Soot's seduction of Schnak, and the inevitable tensions created by the effort to mount an operatic production. ===== Much of The Ill-Made Knight takes place in the fabled Camelot. The Ill-Made Knight is based around the adventures, perils and mistakes of Sir Lancelot. Lancelot, despite being the bravest of the knights, is ugly, and ape-like, so that he calls himself the Chevalier mal fet - "The Ill-Made Knight". As a child, Lancelot loved King Arthur and spent his entire childhood training to be a knight of the round table. When he arrives and becomes one of Arthur's knights, he also becomes the king's close friend. This causes some tension, as he is jealous of Arthur's new wife Guinevere. In order to please her husband, Guinevere tries to befriend Lancelot and the two eventually fall in love. T.H. White's version of the tale elaborates greatly on the passionate love of Lancelot and Guinevere. Suspense is provided by the tension between Lancelot's friendship for King Arthur and his love for and affair with the queen. This affair leads inevitably to the breaking of the Round Table and sets up the tragedy that is to follow in the concluding book of the tetralogy - The Candle in the Wind. Lancelot leaves Camelot to aid people in need. Along the way, he meets a woman who begs him to climb a tree and rescue her husband's escaped falcon. After he removes his armor and does so, the husband appears and reveals that he only wanted Lancelot to remove his armor so that he can kill the knight. Despite being at a disadvantage, Lancelot manages to kill the man and tells the wife "Stop crying. Your husband was a fool and you are a bore. I'm not sorry" (though he reflects that he is). Later, he comes across a man attempting to murder his wife for adultery. Lancelot attempts to protect the woman (who denies the charges) by riding in between the two; however the man manages to cut off his wife's head. The man then throws himself at Lancelot's feet and asks for mercy to avoid being killed. It was revealed later that the man was punished by being charged to take his wife's head to the Pope and ask for forgiveness. Finally, Lancelot comes to a town where the inhabitants beg him to rescue a young woman named Elaine, who is trapped in a tower. The tower is full of steam and she is forced to sit in a tub of boiling water. He manages to save her and her father has him spend the night. That night, the servants and Elaine devise a plan in which the servants get Lancelot drunk and trick him into thinking Guinevere is in the house. When he awakens in the morning, he discovers that he actually slept with Elaine. Furious at the loss of his virginity (which he believes also cost him the ability to work miracles) and frightened at the thought that Elaine might have a baby, he leaves. He later confesses the affair to Guinevere, who forgives him. They later discover that Elaine did have a baby, which she named Galahad (Lancelot's real name). She brings the baby to Camelot to show to Lancelot and together they spend time with Galahad. Guinevere is furious at this (as she asked Lancelot not to do that) and Lancelot goes mad and runs from the castle. Two years later he is found by Elaine's father (who does not recognize him) and is kept as a fool until Elaine recognizes him and cares for him. He lives with Elaine for some time, but then returns to Camelot. When Galahad grows older, he is brought to Camelot as well, to be knighted. The Ill-Made Knight also deals with the quest for the Holy Grail. Arthur notices that the drop in crime has caused the Knights of the Round Table to fall back into their old habits (especially Gawaine, Agravaine, and Mordred, who found their mother in bed with one of Sir Pellinore's sons and murdered both in a fit of rage). In order to give the Knights a new goal, he sends them to find the Holy Grail. The quest ends when Sir Galahad, Sir Percival, Sir Bors, and Sir Pellinore's daughter find the grail. Sir Lancelot apparently saw the four in a room, with the Grail, an old man, and several other knights; however he was unable to enter the room himself (when he tried he was knocked out). One of the knights returned with the news that the Grail could not be brought to England and as a result Sir Galahad and the other knight brought it to Babylon (and neither of them could return to England as well). Sir Pellinore's daughter died when she allowed her blood to be taken to cure a dying princess. Later on, Elaine commits suicide after Lancelot tells her that he will not return to stay with her permanently. The book ends with Lancelot performing a miracle, which is a miracle in and of itself due to the fact that he is not a virgin (which had been the requirement for being able to do so). ===== Rob Salinger (Dudley Moore) is an overworked television reporter. He is happily married to Micki (Ann Reinking), a lawyer who is a candidate to become a judge. Rob wants a child badly, but Micki is reluctant due to a previous miscarriage and wanting to focus on her career. On an assignment, Rob interviews a young cellist, Maude Guillory (Amy Irving). He is smitten with her and begins a relationship with her. When she becomes pregnant, the two decide to get married, with Maude and her father, professional wrestler Barkhas Guillory (Hard Boiled Haggerty) planning the wedding. Rob prepares to confess to Micki and get a divorce. But before he can reveal his affair with Maude, Micki stuns him by announcing that she, too, is pregnant. She confesses that she initially planned on having an abortion as pregnancy would interfere with her career and not tell him, but realized how much she wants to have a family with him. However, she cannot exert or stress herself too much as it would endanger her and the baby. Rob becomes a bigamist. With his television boss and best friend Leo (Richard Mulligan) covering for him, he sees one wife during the daytime and the other at night, using work as an excuse. He gets away with it until the fates collide: Micki and Maude going into labor at the same time, in the same hospital, on the same floor. The two women end up becoming friends, but realizing that Rob had been dishonest with them, they ban Rob from their lives and the lives of the children. Rob follows them around, spying on both families from a distance. Eventually, Rob reconciles with both Micki and Maude, though it is not clear if the two women are aware he has reconciled with the other. The film ends with the women pursuing their careers: Micki as a judge presiding in a courtroom, Maude playing cello in a symphony orchestra. The film closes with a shot of Rob in a park years later, with two babies and his six other children he has had over the years with Micki and Maude. ===== Shortly after the All-Valley Karate Tournament, Sensei John Kreese becomes furious with Johnny Lawrence for failing to win the first place and attacks him in the parking lot. Miyagi confronts Kreese and passively immobilizes him. Miyagi threatens to strike a deadly blow but instead, comically honks Kreese's nose and walks away. Johnny and his friends decide to leave Cobra Kai after seeing Kreese's true colors. Six months later, Daniel visits Mr. Miyagi's house after previously attending a senior prom, and furiously explains that Ali has dumped him for a football player from UCLA and Daniel's mother received a business opportunity in Fresno. Miyagi tells Daniel that he also spoke to his mother and she has agreed to let Daniel stay with him. Miyagi receives a letter notifying him that his father is sick. He plans to return to his home village on Okinawa Island and brings Daniel with him after he begs to come along. Miyagi explains that he fell in love with a woman named Yukie, who was arranged to marry his best friend Sato, son of the richest man in the village and fellow karate student of his father. Upon announcing his intentions to marry Yukie, Sato challenged him to a fight to the death to save his honor. Rather than fight, however, Miyagi left the country. Miyagi explains to Daniel that Sato is still holding a grudge against Miyagi, because there is no time limit in a man's honor. In Okinawa, Miyagi and Daniel are greeted by Chozen Toguchi, who takes them to meet Sato and reveals that he is Sato's nephew. Sato demands to fight Miyagi, who adamantly refuses. Arriving at the village, Miyagi and Daniel are welcomed by Yukie and her niece Kumiko. They discover that Sato has become a rich industrialist whose father's supertrawlers have destroyed the local fish population, impoverishing the other villagers. Miyagi's father had found a way to save the village economy by farming vegetables. They are forced to rent property from Sato, who owns the village's land title. Yukie reveals that she never married Sato because of her love for Miyagi. After Miyagi's father dies, Sato gives him three days to mourn out of respect before their fight. Miyagi shows Daniel the secret to his family's karate — a handheld drum that twists back and forth illustrating the "drum technique", a block-and-defense karate move that Daniel begins to practice. Miyagi grieves for his father, with Daniel consoling him and telling him about his own father's death. Some time later, Daniel accidentally exposes corruption in Chozen's grocery business. Chozen accuses Daniel of insulting his honor and they have a series of unpleasant confrontations. Their feud comes to a head when Chozen and his cronies attack Daniel and vandalize Miyagi's family property. The group is quickly defeated and runs off after Miyagi arrives. Miyagi and Daniel plan to return to Los Angeles before the situation gets worse. However, Sato shows up with bulldozers and threatens to destroy the village if Miyagi refuses to fight. Forced to comply, Miyagi gives in on the condition that Sato signs the village's land title permanently over to the villagers regardless of the fight's outcome. Sato begrudgingly agrees after Miyagi describes the condition as a "small price" to pay for his honor. On the day of the fight, a typhoon arrives. Villagers take cover at a nearby shelter, but Sato is trapped when his family's dojo is leveled by the storm. Miyagi and Daniel rush to rescue him. After carrying Sato to safety, Daniel attempts to rescue a child on top of a nearby bell tower. Sato orders Chozen to help, but when he refuses, Sato rushes to assist Daniel himself. He then disowns his nephew for refusing to assist, and an enraged Chozen runs off into the storm in disgrace. The next morning, as the villagers are rebuilding, Sato returns with his bulldozers — only this time to help rebuild the village. Sato hands over the land title to the village and asks for Miyagi's forgiveness, which he accepts. Daniel and Kumiko approach Sato about hosting the upcoming O-bon festival in a nearby ceremonial castle, to which he agrees and invites Daniel to join in the celebration. While Kumiko is performing a dance at the festival, a now- vengeful Chozen ziplines into the presentation, taking her hostage and demanding to fight Daniel to the death. After a ferocious fight, Daniel is eventually overwhelmed by Chozen. Miyagi, Sato and the crowd respond by twisting handheld drums they brought to the celebration, inspiring Daniel. Seemingly confused, Chozen closes in for the kill, but Daniel is able to deflect Chozen's attacks and land counter-attacks using the drum technique. Daniel grabs the vanquished Chozen, raising his hand and threatening to end Chozen's life saying, "Live or die, man?!". Chozen chooses death, but, remembering the way Miyagi handled Kreese earlier, Daniel honks Chozen's nose and drops him to the ground. Daniel embraces Kumiko, while Miyagi looks on proudly. ===== Song of Solomon opens with the death of Robert Smith, an insurance agent and member of The Seven Days, an organization that kills white people in retaliation for the racial killing of blacks. Smith's attempt at flight and his subsequent death function as the symbolic heralding of the birth of Macon "Milkman" Dead III. A crowd of people gather to watch the attempted flight, including Milkman's mother, Ruth, his two sisters First Corinthians and Magdalene (called Lena), his aunt Pilate, and his friend later in life, Guitar. The appearance of Smith on the roof causes Ruth to go into labor. Given the chaos that follows and the immediate need of the pregnant mother, the hospital admits her and she delivers her son, Macon Dead III—the first African-American child to be born in the hospital. The novel picks up again with Macon Dead III when he is four years old: He grows stifled, alienated, and disinterested in his home life and life in Southside. Also at four years of age, Macon is given his nickname, Milkman. Functioning as an escape from her repetitive life and loveless marriage and also as a way to feel a mothering connection to her son, Ruth still breastfeeds Milkman. One day, she is caught in the act by Freddie, one of Macon Dead Jr.'s employees, who proclaims Macon Dead III to be "A milkman. … Look out, womens. Here he come." Pilate, a bootlegger and quasi witch-woman, becomes a central figure in the novel as Milkman grows through adolescence and into his thirties. Pilate was highly influential in Milkman's birth and conception. With her sister-in-law, Ruth Foster Dead, locked in an abusive and loveless marriage with Pilate's brother Macon Dead Jr., Pilate brews a "love potion" of sorts to coerce Macon Dead Jr. into conceiving Milkman with Ruth. Traveling up from Pennsylvania, Macon Dead sought to make a life for himself and was successful both in terms of managing real estate and in marrying Ruth, the daughter of the only black doctor in town. Their father, an illiterate farmer, is swindled into giving up his land and is subsequently murdered when he refuses to move. Fleeing, Macon and Pilate as children come across a cave that contains bags of gold. Pilate does not allow Macon to take the gold, claiming that it would be stealing and that they would be in enough trouble for killing the white man. Consequently, Macon resents his sister for the missed opportunity at riches. The two siblings parted ways shortly after the incident in the cave. Pilate wanders for a time, working in New York State as a migrant worker and again in Virginia, continually ousted by the communities for her absence of a navel. She eventually settles in a community on an island off of the coast of Virginia and there becomes pregnant with her daughter Reba. She roams for a period of about twenty years, collecting rocks from everywhere she lives, until Reba becomes pregnant with Hagar. Deciding that Hagar needs her extended family, Pilate moves her daughter and granddaughter to Michigan to be nearer her brother Macon. For Milkman, while in his teens, Pilate becomes the first glimpse into his family's past. He also forms a sexual connection with his cousin Hagar. Milkman's relationship with his family is strained, particularly towards his father. He has very little connection with his sisters and "Part One" of the novel ends with Lena admonishing Milkman for his selfishness. Milkman's relationship with his mother and father is strained by the ambiguity of truth. Macon's resentment for Ruth comes from his perception that she had an obsessive, sexual relationship with her father and her daily attempts at emasculating him. Ruth, however, maintains that the scene that Macon describes to Milkman is exaggerated by Macon, and that she was merely kissing her father's hands, a part of him that was unaffected by the illness that killed him. Additionally, Milkman becomes alienated from Hagar, whose sexual attention becomes easier to obtain the longer they are together. Milkman eventually spurns Hagar and she becomes obsessed with him, attempting to kill him once a month, but never following through. Milkman is equally alienated from the community of Southside and this alienation manifests chiefly in his relationship with Guitar, a member of the Seven Days. Guitar is a foil to Milkman. Where Milkman is stifled and disinterested, Guitar is motivated and ambitious in his pursuit of vengeance against white oppression. Where Milkman is a person missing a life to "risk all for," Guitar continually "risks all" in his endeavors. Milkman eventually mentions to Macon the bag that hangs from the ceiling of Pilate's modest home. The bag is heavy and Pilate mentions that it contains her "inheritance." Macon interprets "inheritance" to mean the gold that was left behind in the cave. Macon assumes that Pilate returned to the cave and claimed the gold for her own. Macon then sends Milkman and Guitar on a "quest" to steal the bag of gold from Pilate. Milkman and Guitar succeed in stealing the bag from Pilate, but are stopped by the police and arrested after the police discover that the bag contains, not gold, but human bones. Macon Dead and Pilate both go to the police station to try to free the two young men. Macon attempts to use his influence and money to persuade the police to release the men, but ultimately it is Pilate who frees them by acting like a worn-out, subservient, old black woman even though Milkman has never seen his aunt as anything less than tall, strong, and commanding. For Guitar, Pilate's performance elicits hatred toward her and deepens his misogyny. "Part Two" of the novel positions Milkman making a journey south to Pennsylvania in search of the gold that must still be in the cave. There he meets the Reverend Cooper who knew Milkman's father when he lived near Danville as a boy. Cooper shares tales of Macon Dead that surprise Milkman and begin the connection between Milkman and his past. He eventually finds the land where his grandfather lived and an old house that stands upon it. There he encounters Circe, an impossibly old ex-servant of the Butler family who has outlived their last descendant to view the collapse of the family and their estate. She relates the tale of Macon Dead Sr.'s body washing up from his grave and being moved to the cave where Macon Dead's children found the gold. She also tells Milkman of a Native American woman named Sing and a black man whom she married named Jake. Milkman leaves and finds the cave but no gold and only one human skeleton where there should have been two. He deduces that Pilate must have retrieved the gold and taken it to Virginia where they had ancestors, so he sets off in search of it. Milkman stumbles across Shalimar, Virginia, by accident. While out hunting with some older men from Shalimar, Milkman is attacked by Guitar who has followed him to Virginia. Guitar is under the impression that Milkman has taken the gold and shipped it away and thus wants revenge. Struggling, Milkman discharges his gun, missing Guitar and scaring him off. The hunters return and Milkman tells them that he discharged his gun by accident, never mentioning that his friend had just tried to murder him. Shortly thereafter, Milkman is told of the Byrd house. There he can find a woman, Susan, who might be able to connect the fragments of Milkman's ancestry. Once more, the woman named Sing whom Circe mentioned earlier is spoken of to Milkman and he feels that he is getting closer to discovering his family history. When Milkman goes to the Byrd house the first time, he is offered little information. He leaves the house, wary that Guitar is stalking him in the woods somewhere, but he promises to visit again. On his way back to town he encounters Guitar, who claims that Milkman took the gold for himself and Milkman, explains that there never was any gold and that he did not take it. Guitar does not believe Milkman. The following day, Milkman observes the children of the town playing and singing the "Song of Solomon." Milkman hears the song for the first time and remembers that Pilate sang a similar song back in Michigan. Milkman begins to piece together what little he knows about his family history and the history of the song. Eventually, it dawns on him that the song is about his family. He later returns to the Byrd house and is able to confirm his suspicions through the information that Susan relates. After this, he heads back to Michigan to find Pilate. While Milkman is gone in Virginia, Hagar has sunk into a terrible depression from him having spurned her earlier. She eventually catches a glimpse of herself in a mirror and comes alive again, thinking that if she fixes herself up then Milkman would want her. Pilate and Reba scrape up money and Hagar spends it on dresses, makeup, and a haircut. The effort amounts to little, and Hagar succumbs to her grief. A collection is taken up by the community to bury Hagar, and Pilate sings a mournful song at her granddaughter's funeral. Milkman thinks it only appropriate that Macon Dead Sr. be finally laid to rest in his ancestral home in Shalimar. Milkman finds Pilate at her home and is greeted by her knocking him unconscious as repayment for the grief that caused her granddaughter to die. When he comes to, Milkman convinces her to travel with him to Virginia and bury her father. They make the journey and decide to bury Macon Dead Sr. overlooking the ravine. After placing the bones in the grave, Pilate is killed by a gunshot from Guitar that was intended for Milkman. The novel ends with Milkman leaping toward Guitar for a final battle. The novel leaves the outcome unresolved, but finally it seems that Milkman has learned to "fly." ===== Sylvia Chang plays a director who intends to make a romance film and begins to wonder about the role fate plays in relationships. She ends up re-examining her own first love in a completely different light. The story is set in two different periods of time, one in the 1970s where Gigi plays the teenage Xiao-rou, and the other in the 1990s where Sylvia plays the older Xiao-rou. Takeshi Kaneshiro plays the role of a shy teenager, Ho-jun, who falls in love with Xiao-rou (played by Gigi Leung). Their relationship turns intimate but faces fierce objections from their parents. Karen Mok plays Chen- li, Xiao-rou's best friend, whom Xiao-rou confides in. This teenage love soon fizzles out owing to misunderstandings and Ho-jun, after many years, turns to marry Chen-li. One day, Chen-li reveals that she is a lesbian and that they both love the same girl - Xiao-rou. Ho-jun meets Xiao-rou on a trip to Japan and upon knowing that Ho-jun is already married, Xiao-rou returns home and gets herself engaged. Ho-jun manages a last attempt to reunite with Xiao-rou by flying to Hong Kong and telling her that he is already a divorcee, but it is to no avail. Years later, Xiao-rou finds out that Ho-jun's wife was actually Chen-li. She discovers this only after Chen-li has died. Chen-li leaves a message for Xiao-rou asking her for forgiveness. As Xiao rou prepares to fly back to Hong Kong from Japan, she receives a present from Ho-jun. In the box were photographs, taken when Ho-jun was thinking about Xiao-rou and of their brief moments of happiness. It is only at the end of the film when it is tactfully revealed that the director Sylvia Chang was actually re-enacting her own teenage romance. ===== Representative Jack Tanner of Michigan (Michael Murphy) is an obscure liberal Democratic politician who struggles to find a voice in the early 1988 Democratic primaries. His campaign manager, T.J. Cavanaugh (Pamela Reed), uses an unscripted, impassioned hotel-room speech caught on camera as part of an advertising campaign focusing on Tanner's authenticity and integrity. Using the slogan "For Real", Tanner emerges from a wide field of contenders to battle for the nomination against two high-profile and better- funded candidates: Jesse Jackson and eventual nominee Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. With Tanner are his college-aged daughter Alexandra (Cynthia Nixon), whose illness was why he earlier left politics and who has left college for the duration of the campaign, and his girlfriend Joanna Buckley (Wendy Crewson), Dukakis' deputy campaign manager. Others who appear on camera are Emile Berkoff (Jim Fyfe), a compulsive statistician with a crush on Alexandra; Deke Conners (Matt Malloy), an East Village filmmaker hired to produce Tanner campaign ads; and Andrea Spinelli (Ilana Levine), T.J.'s innocent and ditzy but well-meaning assistant. The candidate's father, General John Tanner (E.G. Marshall), who has a contentious relationship with his son, also occasionally appears. Although Tanner does not win the nomination, he does run a serious and credible race. The series ends on a cliffhanger after Dukakis officially becomes the Democratic candidate and Tanner considers a third party run. ===== The primary character in the play is Agnes, a daughter of the Vedic god Indra. She descends to Earth to bear witness to problems of human beings. She meets about 40 characters, some of them having a clearly symbolical value (such as four deans representing theology, philosophy, medicine, and law). After experiencing all sorts of human suffering (for example poverty, cruelty, and the routine of family life), the daughter of gods realizes that human beings are to be pitied. Finally, she returns to Heaven and this moment corresponds to the awakening from a dream-like sequence of events. ===== In a dark room, a large illuminated balanced-arm desk lamp named Luxo Sr. sees a small yellow ball with a blue stripe and a red star on the front rolling up to him. He eyes the ball curiously, and pushes it away, but the ball comes back to him. He pushes it away again, but it rolls past him as Luxo Jr., his happy and excited son, hops over and plays with the ball. Luxo Jr then balances himself on top of the ball and bounces on it excessively, causing it to deflate. Luxo Jr. flips the deflated ball onto its side and looks up at Luxo Sr., who gently admonishes his son. Luxo Jr. then hops offscreen in shame, but is later seen playing with a beach ball. Luxo Sr. looks at the camera, then shakes his head in embarrassment. ===== Sam Deeds is the sheriff of Rio County in Frontera, Texas. A native of Frontera, Sam returned two years ago and was elected sheriff. Sam's late father had been the legendary Sheriff Buddy Deeds, who is beloved by the town, remembered as a unique individual with a great sense of fairness and justice. As a teenager Sam had problems with his father and the pair routinely argued and fought. Sam is particularly disapproving of efforts by local business leader Mercedes Cruz and Buddy's former chief deputy, Mayor Hollis Pogue, to enlarge and rename the local courthouse in Buddy's honor; he considers it an unneeded waste of taxpayers' money. As a teenager, Sam had been in love with Mercedes's daughter Pilar, but the courtship was strongly opposed by Buddy and Mercedes. After a chance meeting, Sam and the widowed Pilar, now a local teacher, slowly resume their relationship. Colonel Delmore Payne has recently arrived in town as the commander of the local U.S. Army base. Delmore is the son of Otis "Big O" Payne, a local nightclub owner and leading figure in the African-American community. The two are estranged because of Otis's serial womanizing and abandonment of Delmore's mother when Delmore was a child. Two off-duty sergeants from the base discover a human skeleton on an old shooting range on the base along with a Masonic ring, a Rio County sheriff's badge, and later, an expended pistol bullet, very unusual on a rifle range. Sam brings in Texas Ranger Ben Wetzel to help with the case. Wetzel tells Sam that forensics identify the skeleton as that of Charlie Wade, the infamously corrupt and cruel sheriff who preceded Buddy. Wade mysteriously disappeared in 1957, taking $10,000 in county funds, after which Buddy became sheriff. Sam investigates the events leading up to Wade's murder. He learns that Wade terrorized the local African-American and Mexican communities, including extorting money from local business owners on a monthly basis and numerous murders where he asks his innocent victims to show him any weapon they might have, to then justify shooting them for "resisting arrest". Wade used this method to murder, in front of Deputy Hollis, Mercedes' husband, Eladio, having discovered he was running an illegal smuggling operation in Rio County without bribing Wade. Sam also uncovers secrets about his father's nearly 30-year term as sheriff that reveal Buddy's own corruption. He visits Wesley Birdsong, a Native American and a roadside tourist stand owner, who reveals that Buddy was a wild young adult after his service in the Korean War but settled down after becoming a deputy sheriff and marrying Sam's mother; but he reveals that Buddy did have a mistress, whose name Wesley claims to have forgotten. Sam travels to San Antonio, where he visits his marginally mentally ill ex-wife Bunny and searches through his father's things, where he discovers love letters from Buddy's mistress. Otis tells Sam that Buddy's focus was on the county political machine while Wade's focus was on money. The janitor at the sheriff's office reveals to Sam that he worked on Buddy's home while incarcerated in the local jail. A local reporter uncovers that Buddy forcibly evicted residents of a small community to make a lake that made Frontera a popular tourist destination with Buddy and Hollis receiving lakefront property. Sam confronts Hollis and Otis about Wade's murder. Wade discovered Otis was running an illegal gambling operation at the nightclub, after he had previously warned Otis against running numbers in the club. A furious Wade violently attacked Otis, ordered him to hand over the monthly extortion money, and then was about to use his "resisting arrest" setup to kill Otis. Buddy arrived just as Hollis shot Wade to prevent Otis's murder. The three buried the body and took the $10,000 from the county and gave it to Mercedes—who was destitute after Eladio's recent death—to buy her restaurant. Hollis reveals that Buddy and Mercedes did not take up until some time later. Sam decides to drop the issue, saying it will remain an unsolved mystery. Hollis voices concern that, when the skeleton is revealed to be Wade, people will assume Buddy killed him to take his job, to which Sam states that Buddy's legend can handle it. Pilar meets Sam at an old drive-in theater where Sam shows her an old photo of Buddy and Mercedes and tells her Eladio died 18 months, rather than "a couple months", before she was born, revealing Buddy is Pilar's father. Both are hurt over the deception but decide that, since she cannot have any more children, they will continue their romantic relationship, despite the knowledge that they are half-siblings. ===== Paul Javal, a young French playwright who has found commercial success in Rome, accepts an offer from vulgar American producer Jeremy Prokosch to rework the script for German director Fritz Lang's screen adaptation of the Odyssey. Paul's wife, Camille Javal, joins him on the first day of the project at Cinecittà. As the first discussions are completed, Prokosch invites the crew to join him at his villa, offering Camille a ride in his two-seat sportscar. Camille looks to Paul to decline the offer, but he submissively withdraws to follow by taxi, leaving Camille and Prokosch alone. Paul does not catch up with them until 30 minutes later, explaining that he was delayed by a traffic accident. Camille grows uneasy, secretly doubting his honesty and suspecting that he is using her to cement his ties with Prokosch. Her misgivings are heightened when she sees Paul grope Prokosch's secretary, Francesca. Back at their apartment, Paul and Camille discuss the subtle uneasiness that has come between them in the first few hours of the project, and Camille suddenly announces to her bewildered husband that she no longer loves him. Hoping to rekindle Camille's love, Paul convinces her to accept Prokosch's invitation to join them for filming in Capri. Prokosch and Lang are locked in a conflict over the correct interpretation of Homer's work, an impasse exacerbated by the difficulty of communication between the German director, French script writer, and American producer. Francesca acts as interpreter, mediating all conversations. When Paul sides with Prokosch against Lang by suggesting that Odysseus actually left home because of his wife's infidelity, Camille's suspicions of her husband's servility are confirmed. She deliberately allows him to find her in Prokosch's embrace, and in the ensuing confrontation she declares that her respect for him has turned to contempt because he has bartered her to Prokosch. He denies this accusation, offering to sever his connection with the film and leave Capri; but she will not recant and leaves for Rome with the producer. After an auto crash in which Camille and Prokosch are killed, Paul prepares to leave Capri and return to the theater. Lang continues to work on the film. ===== The Second Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon land the TARDIS on board Space Station Camera in the Third Zone on a mission for the Time Lords, who have also installed a teleport control on the TARDIS. The Doctor explains that the station is a research facility and that they have to talk to Dastari, the Head of Projects. The Androgum cook Shockeye drugs the meals of the station's scientists. The Doctor tells Dastari that the Time Lords want the time experiments of Kartz and Reimer stopped. The Doctor warns that the distortions from the Kartz-Reimer experiments are on the verge of threatening the fabric of time, but Dastari refuses to order them to cease, accusing the Time Lords of not wanting another race to discover the secrets of time travel. Dastari and the others collapse from the drugged meals. Chessene, an Androgum technologically augmented to mega-genius levels, lowers the station's defences to allow the Sontarans to attack. Jamie sees the Doctor appear to die by the Sontarans before fleeing. Inside the TARDIS, the Sixth Doctor has a vision of his second incarnation being put to death. Since he is still alive, he is concerned that he may have died in the past and only exists now as a temporal anomaly. He decides to consult his old friend Dastari to see if he can help. The Doctor and Peri arrive on the station and find no signs of life. The station computer demands that the Doctor leave and, when he refuses, tries to kill him and Peri by depressurising the passageway. The Doctor opens a hatch and drags his unconscious companion through to another section. The Doctor discovers Dastari's day journal and the Time Lords' objections to the Kartz- Reimer experiments. In Spain, Chessene, Shockeye and a Sontaran, Major Varl, take possession of a hacienda by killing its owner, Doña Arana. Dastari and the Sontaran Group Marshal Stike carry an unconscious Second Doctor towards the hacienda. Peri is attacked by a humanoid in rags. The Sixth Doctor and Peri find that Peri's attacker was Jamie, who has been hiding all the while. Under hypnosis, Jamie tells the Sixth Doctor that the Sontarans killed the Second Doctor. The Sixth Doctor explains to Jamie and Peri that what Jamie saw was an illusion designed to make people believe the Doctor was dead and not investigate further. He theorises that the Sontarans also kidnapped Dastari as he is the only biogeneticist in the galaxy who could isolate the symbiotic nuclei that gives Time Lords the molecular stability to travel through time. The Sixth Doctor puts himself into a telepathic trance to determine where his past incarnation is being held. He narrows it down to the Seville area, where the Sontaran spaceship landed. Dastari reveals his plan to dissect the Second Doctor's cell structure to isolate his symbiotic nuclei and give them to Chessene. The Second Doctor protests that her barbaric Androgum nature, coupled with the ability to time travel, will mean that there will be no limit to her evil. Finding the hacienda, Peri interrupts the operation. Sneaking into the cellar, the Sixth Doctor examines the Kartz-Reimer module, a prototype time machine modelled on Time Lord technology, explaining to Jamie how it works. The Sontarans overhear him. Outside, Shockeye knocks Peri out and brings her to the hacienda kitchen. Stike threatens to kill Jamie unless the Sixth Doctor gets into the module and primes it with his symbiotic print, and the Doctor does so. The Sixth Doctor primes the module, and he and Jamie escape the Sontarans. Chessene has a contingency plan after discovering the involvement of two Time Lords. She asks Dastari to implant the Second Doctor with some of Shockeye's genetic material, turning the Doctor into an Androgum. They also intend to eliminate the Sontarans. Chessene interrupts Shockeye when he attempts to cook an unconscious Peri, and stuns him so that Dastari can remove his genetic material. The Sixth Doctor revives Peri, and tells Jamie and her that what he revealed to the Sontarans was not true -- he had lied because he had heard Stike approaching. The machine worked for the Doctor, but will not for them because the Doctor has taken the briode nebuliser. Before they can release the Second Doctor and escape the hacienda, Shockeye shows up with Peri. Dastari has implanted the Second Doctor with a 50 percent Androgum inheritance, and when Shockeye wakes in a rage, he finds a kindred spirit in the transformed Doctor. They decide to go into the town to sample the local cuisine. Dastari lures the Sontarans into the cellar, where Chessene attacks them. Varl is killed, but Stike manages to escape. He tries to use the module, but without the nebuliser, it severely burns him. Stike staggers towards his battlecraft, forgetting about the self-destruct Varl had set. The ship explodes. The Sixth Doctor, Peri, and Jamie follow the Second Doctor into Seville, hoping to cure him before the change becomes complete. Dastari and Chessene are also looking for them, knowing that unless the Second Doctor undergoes a stabilising operation, he will eventually reject the Androgum transfusion. The Second Doctor and Shockeye go to Las Cadenas restaurant ordering gargantuan amounts of food. When the restaurant's owner Oscar demands that they pay, Shockeye fatally stabs Oscar, just as the Sixth Doctor and the others arrive. Shockeye leaves the Second Doctor, who slowly reverts to normal. As they leave the restaurant, Chessene and Dastari appear, taking them back to the hacienda at gunpoint. Chessene and Dastari find the nebuliser on the module missing, and the Sixth Doctor tells them how he primed the machine for Stike. To test the truth of the Doctor's claim, they replace the nebuliser and send Peri on a trip with the module. The Sixth Doctor, however, confirms to the Second Doctor that the nebuliser is sabotaged, with a thin interface layer so it would work once, for Peri. The Sixth Doctor frees himself, and goes to save Jamie from being eaten by Shockeye in the kitchen. He encounters Shockeye in the kitchen, and the Androgum wounds him with a knife. Shockeye pursues him through the grounds. The Doctor ambushes Shockeye, covering his head with Oscar's butterfly net and pressing the cyanide-soaked cotton wool to his face, killing him. Chessene sees the Doctor's blood and starts licking it. Dastari realises that no matter how augmented she may be, Chessene is still an Androgum, and decides to free the Second Doctor, Peri, and Jamie. When Chessene sees this, she shoots and kills Dastari. She tries to shoot the Second Doctor and Peri, but Jamie throws a knife at her wrist, making her drop the gun. Chessene goes into the module, hoping to escape, but the sabotaged module explodes, killing her. The Second Doctor uses a Stattenheim remote control to summon his TARDIS. As the Sixth Doctor and Peri make their way back to their own TARDIS, the Doctor tells her that from now on, it will be a healthy vegetarian diet for both of them. ===== In October 1957, news of the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik 1 reaches the town of Coalwood, West Virginia, where most residents work in the coal mines. As the townspeople gather outside to see the satellite orbit across the sky, Homer Hickam is inspired to build his own rockets to escape Coalwood. His family and classmates do not respond kindly, especially his father John, the mine superintendent, who wants Homer to join him in the mines. Homer teams up with math geek Quentin Wilson, who shares an interest in aerospace engineering; with the support of friends Roy Lee Cooke and Sherman O'Dell, and their science teacher at Big Creek High School, Miss Freida J. Riley, the four construct small rockets. While their first launches fail, they experiment with new fuels and designs and eventually succeed. Though the local paper runs a story about the boys, they are accused of starting a wildfire with a stray rocket and are arrested. After John picks up Homer, Roy Lee is beaten by his abusive stepfather, Vernon. John intervenes and rescues Roy Lee, warning Vernon that he will protect Roy Lee as Roy Lee's late father would have. The four abandon rocketry and destroy their launch site. In a mining accident, John is injured rescuing others, and Ike Bykovsky, a mine worker who let Homer use the machine shop for rocketry and transferred underground for better pay, is killed. Homer drops out of high school to work in the mine and provide for his family while his father recovers. Later, Homer is inspired to read a book on rocket science from Miss Riley, learning to calculate the trajectory of a rocket. Using this, he and Quentin locate their missing rocket and prove it could not have caused the fire. The boys present their findings to Miss Riley and the school principal, Mr. Turner, who determines the catalyst was a flare from a nearby airfield. Homer returns to school by special invitation; the boys return to rocketry and win the school science fair. With the opportunity for one of them to participate in the National Science Fair in Indianapolis, they elect Homer. The workers' union goes on strike against John. While the family eats dinner, Vernon shoots into the kitchen but misses John, who dismisses Homer and Jim's fears, leading to a heated argument with Homer. With the mines set to close and resenting his father's pressures, Homer storms out of the house, vowing never to return. At the fair, Homer's display is well- received, and he enjoys popularity and some sightseeing. Overnight, someone steals his machined rocket part model – the de Laval nozzle – and his autographed picture of Dr. Wernher von Braun. Homer makes an urgent phone call home, and his mother, Elsie, implores John to end the ongoing strike so that Mr. Bolden, Bykovsky's replacement, can use the machine shop to build a replacement nozzle. John relents when Elsie, fed up with his lack of support for their son, threatens to leave him. With the town's support and replacement parts quickly sent to Indianapolis by bus, Homer wins the top prize and is bombarded with college scholarship offers. He is also congratulated by von Braun himself, not realizing his idol's identity until he has gone. Homer returns to Coalwood a hero and visits Miss Riley, who is dying of Hodgkin's lymphoma. At the launch of their largest rocket yet – the Miss Riley – John, who never attended any of the launchings, is given the honor of pushing the launch button. The Miss Riley reaches an altitude of – higher than the summit of Mount Everest. As the town looks up to the skies, John slowly puts his hand on Homer's shoulder and smiles, finally showing Homer that he is proud of him. An epilogue, using real footage, reveals the true outcomes of the main characters' lives. ===== Shining in the Darkness is set in the Kingdom of Thornwood. The king's daughter and the main character's father have vanished, while the evil sorcerer Dark Sol (not to be confused with his father, Shining Force villain Darksol) has appeared to threaten the kingdom. The main character is charged to find the Arms of Light, rescue the princess and his own father, and stop Dark Sol. In Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict, it was revealed Dark Sol is the son of Darksol and Mishaela, the villains of Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention. After the final defeat of Darksol, the child Dark Sol was whisked away by Oddeye, the foremost Greater Devil of Darksol's archenemy, Zeon. Therefore, Dark Sol's role in Shining in the Darkness places its entry in the timeline sometime following the events of Shining Force II. This revelation also supported by a possible reference to Darksol, when Theos mentions "a Dark Wizard" who once wielded the same Dragonbreath spell as Dark Sol. ===== Giftpia follows the protagonist Pockle, a resident of Nanashi Island, who, on the day of his coming of age ceremony, oversleeps and misses the whole thing. The mayor of the island, Mayer, is so incensed that he orders Pockle's arrest and a fine of five million "Mane" (the game's currency) to recoup the costs of the event. Thus, it is up to Pockle to work off his huge debt. At the game's start, Pockle must cope with heavy restrictions: an early curfew, a ball & chain, having his face pixelated and having robot police chief Mappo supervise him. Throughout his adventure, Pockle is assisted by his dog Tao and his girlfriend Kyappa. There is also a large cast of supporting characters that live on Nanashi Island and interact with Pockle, including a bartender that goes by Peevee and a radio DJ called DEEJ. Pockle eventually encounters an old man who will give him some mushroom soup and teach him about other paths to adulthood via helping others. Giftpia is similar to Nintendo's Animal Crossing in that both games place an emphasis on interacting with other characters. In order to meet the game's five million Mane requirement, the player must initially take menial jobs such as fishing, collecting fruit, or repairing signs. After meeting the old man, the player must travel the island, collecting its residents' wishes, and fulfill them. However, the player has numerous restrictions that are lifted as the game progresses. For instance, if the player stays out after curfew, ghosts will chase Pockle to his house. If he does not make it back, he will be put to sleep, making him vulnerable to theft. The player is also responsible for making Pockle eat, as he will otherwise starve to death. ===== Chaz and Alys explore the town of Piata Phantasy Star IV takes place 1,000 years after the events of Phantasy Star II. After an event called the Great Collapse, much of the once-thriving planet Motavia has been reduced to desert, and life has become progressively more difficult for the planet's inhabitants. To make matters worse, there has been a marked increase in the numbers of the "biomonsters," a catch-all term for the strange and violent aberrations of Motavia's flora and fauna. Keeping these creatures under control is the job of "hunters". During an investigation into such an outbreak, Chaz Ashley, a young hunter, learns of the relationship between the biomonster problem and the planet's ecological crisis. The planet is in the process of returning to its original desert state as the climate and biosphere-controlling devices installed over a thousand years previous begin to fail. The reasons behind the malfunctions are clarified as the plot unfolds, relating directly to the events of Phantasy Star II. Chaz and his allies connect the world's troubles to a cult leader called Zio, "The Black Magician," whose aims appear to be total annihilation, not only of Motavia, but of the whole Algol solar system. The heroes stop Zio in order to restore the computer systems maintaining Motavia. However, it soon becomes clear that Zio is merely the vanguard to a much larger enemy, long buried in the past. The secrets of the Algol star system are revealed as Chaz and company discover both the nature of the threat to their worlds as well as the safeguards placed in a time long forgotten. ===== In a barren world caused by wars waged in the 20th century and now forgotten, most live from hand to mouth in enclaves known as "market-towns" or "dog-towns", scrounging out a bare subsistence harvesting hardy crops, raising dogs as food, and trading in trinkets from the past. What little entertainment exists comes primarily from a brutal sport known as The Game. It is played by bands of roving teams known as juggs, who challenge local teams. They might be considered professional athletes, as they make their living through the tribute paid by the town people, should they defeat the local team. Their trophy is the dog skull from the town. The Game involves two armoured teams of five attempting to score by placing a dog skull on the opposing team's goalpost. One unarmed player—the "quick"—runs with the skull while being protected by his/her teammates from attack by the opposing team. However, not all in this time live so sparsely. The Nine Cities, buried deep underground, are home to affluent and powerful members of the aristocracy. Each of The Nine Cities fields its own team of juggs in an organization known as The League, and its membership is maintained with a fresh stream of new players who are proven veterans of the travelling "dog-town" games by their collection of trophy skulls. Members of The League live in luxury almost equal to that of aristocrats. It is a dream among roving juggs to be good enough to get The League's attention and, with it, all of the luxuries afforded a League player. The team consists of Sallow (Rutger Hauer), Dog-Boy (Justin Monjo), Mbulu (Delroy Lindo), Big Cimber (Anna Katarina), and Young Gar (Vincent D'Onofrio). Sallow, the team leader, has played in the League of the Nine Cities before, but was cast out because of his indiscretions with an Overlord's daughter. Kidda (Joan Chen), an ambitious peasant girl, joins the team after a game in her dog town where she virtually destroyed her competition. She and Gar inspire Sallow to challenge The League and expunge his past. But Kidda and Gar do not realise that the City games are for much more than honour and victory, they will need to fight for their very survival. The Game is played much harder and meaner in the Nine Cities. ===== The film begins with Lallan Singh (Abhishek Bachchan) shooting Michael Mukherjee (Ajay Devgn) on his bike, resulting in him falling off the Howrah Bridge into the water below which is witnessed by Arjun Balachandran (Vivek Oberoi). The flashback of the characters prior to the incident then unveils. Lallan is a goon, originally from Bihar but settled in Kolkata, West Bengal because his brother Gopal Singh (Sonu Sood) has left him alone and he had no option of earning back home. He loves, marries and abuses his wife, Shashi Biswas (Rani Mukerji). He gets into a contract under Gopal's recommendation to run errands and work as a hitman for Prosenjit Bhattacharya (Om Puri), a politician. Michael is an influential student leader who wants politicians like Prosenjit to keep away from college elections. His closest associates are his best friends Vishnu (Karthik Kumar) and Trilok (Abhinav Kashyap). Among the two, Vishnu acts as a partner to Michael. Michael, in his personal life, is in love with his neighbour Radhika (Esha Deol) who lives with her uncle and aunt. Prosenjit is worried when he hears news of students standing in the election. He uses every possible way to get them out of politics. First he provides scholarship of a prestigious foreign university to Michael. When Michael refuses the bribe, he orders his goon Gopal to take control. Gopal orders Lallan to beat up Trilok, which he does; but faces very strong retaliation from Michael and his fellow students. Arjun Balachandran (Vivek Oberoi) is the carefree and spoiled son of an IAS officer. He wants to relocate to the U.S. for a better future. He falls in love with Meera (Kareena Kapoor), whom he just met. Arjun asks Meera for coffee and takes her to the beach and realizes that Meera loves him back. One day, Arjun proposes to Meera, prompting her to playfully avoid him by getting into a taxi. Arjun gets lift from Michael, who is travelling in the same direction to catch up with Meera, who is going that way. Suddenly, Michael is hit by three bullet (shot by Lallan), and falls off the bridge. He is critically injured but is saved by Arjun and Meera. Lallan finds out that Michael is recovering from his injuries and this is witnessed by Arjun, who follows him to apprehend him, only for Lallan to beat him up badly and leave him with a broken arm. After staying by his side until his recovery, Arjun changes his mind and joins hands with Michael to contest in elections. Lallan later kills Gopal when he finds out that he had been instructed by Prosenjit to take him out due to Lallan leaving an eyewitness (Arjun) behind the bridge incident. He confronts Prosenjit, who brainwashes him to work for him and orders him to kidnap Arjun, Vishnu and Trilok. However, they escape with the help of Lallan's ally Dablu (Vijay Raaz), who has a change of heart after realizing that their profession was interfering with their personal lives, causing Sashi to leave Lallan for her hometown. He convinces Lallan, however to no avail and is killed by him when he aids Arjun's escape. While running, Arjun calls Michael for help, but Lallan easily catches and beats him up. Michael arrives at the nick of time to rescue Arjun at Vidyasagar Setu. A fight ensues between the three men where Lallan is overpowered by Michael, who spares him and leaves him for the police. Lallan is handed to the police. Michael, Arjun, Vishnu and Trilok win the four seats they had contested for and thus enter into politics. ===== The film begins with Julie sitting on a park bench reading a book of magic spells when a woman (Céline) walks past, and begins dropping (à la Lewis Carroll's White Rabbit) various possessions. Julie begins picking them up, and tries to follow Céline around Paris, sometimes at a great pace (for instance, sprinting up Montmartre to keep pace with Céline's tram). After adventures following Céline around the Parisian streets--at one point it looks as if they have gone their separate ways, never to meet up again--Céline finally decides to move in with Julie. There are incidents of identity swapping, with Céline pretending to be Julie to meet the latter's childhood sweetheart, for example, and Julie attempting to fill in for Céline at a cabaret audition. The second half of the film centers around the duo's individual visits to 7 bis, rue du Nadir-aux-Pommes, the address of a mansion in a quiet, walled off grounds in Paris. While seemingly empty and closed in the present day, the house is yet where Céline realizes she knows as the place where she works as a nanny for a family--two jealous sisters, one widower, and a sickly child. Soon, a repetitive pattern emerges: Céline or Julie enters the house, disappears for a time, and then is suddenly ejected by unseen hands back to present day Paris later that same day. Each time either Céline or Julie is exhausted, having forgotten everything that has happened during their time in the house. However, each time upon returning via a taxi the women discover a candy mysteriously lodged in their mouth. It seems to be important, so each makes sure to carefully save the candy. At one point, they realize that the candy is a key to the other place and time; sucking on the sweet transports them back to the house's alternative reality (in this case a double reference to both Lewis Carroll and to Marcel Proust's madeleine) of the day's events. The remainder of the film consists of the two women attempting to solve the central mystery of the house: amidst the jealous conniving of women of the house over the attentions of the widower, a young child is mysteriously murdered. But this narrative is one that repeats like a stage play, with exact phrases they soon learn well enough to start joking about. Each time they repeat eating the candy, they remember more of the day's events. Just as if reading a favorite novel, or again watching a beloved movie, they find that they can enter the narrative itself, with each twist and turn memorized. Far from being the passive viewers/readers that they were at first--and most movie viewers always are--the women come to realize that they can seize hold of the story, changing it as they wish. Now, even as the plot continues to unfold in its clockwork fashion, the women begin to take control, making it "interactive" by adding alterations to their dialogues and inserting different actions into the events unreeling in the house. Finally, in a true act of authorship, they change the ending, and rescue the young girl who was originally murdered. Both realities are fully conjoined when, after their rescue of the girl from the House of Fiction, the two not only discover themselves transported back in Julie's apartment, but this time it isn't another "waking dream" for the young girl, Madlyn, has joined them, safely back in 1970s Paris. To relax, Céline, Julie, and Madlyn take a rowboat on a placid river, rowing and gliding happily along. But something isn't quite right. They go silent upon seeing another boat quickly coming to pass them on the water. On that boat we see the three main protagonists from the house-of- another-time: that alternate reality has followed them back to their world. But Céline, Julie, and Madlyn see them as the antique props they are, frozen in place. The film ends as we watch Céline this time, half nodding off on a park bench, who catches sight of Julie hurrying past her, who in her White Rabbit way, drops her magic book. Picking it up, she calls and runs after Julie. ===== Roadside Picnic is a work of fiction based on the aftermath of an extraterrestrial event called the Visitation that simultaneously took place in half a dozen separate locations around Earth over a two-day period. Neither the Visitors themselves nor their means of arrival or departure were ever seen by the local populations who lived inside the relatively small areas, each a few square kilometers, of the six Visitation Zones. The zones exhibit strange and dangerous phenomena not understood by humans, and contain artifacts with inexplicable, seemingly supernatural properties. The title of the novel derives from an analogy proposed by the character Dr. Valentine Pilman, who compares the Visitation to a picnic: In this analogy, the nervous animals are the humans who venture forth after the Visitors have left, discovering items and anomalies that are ordinary to those who have discarded them, but incomprehensible or deadly to those who find them. This explanation implies that the Visitors may not have paid any attention to, or even noticed, the human inhabitants of the planet during their visit, just as humans do not notice or pay attention to grasshoppers or ladybugs during a picnic. The artifacts and phenomena left behind by the Visitors in the Zones were garbage, discarded and forgotten, without any preconceived plan to advance or damage humanity. There is little chance that the Visitors will return again because for them it was a brief stop, for reasons unknown, on the way to their actual destination. ===== Godzilla cells brought into space by Biollante, in 1990, and Mothra, in 1993, are exposed to intense radiation from a black hole, resulting in the birth of "SpaceGodzilla", which quickly makes his way to Earth, destroying a NASA space station along the way. Meanwhile, members of the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center arrive at Birth Island in order to plant a mind control device on Godzilla. The Cosmos, Mothra's twin priestesses, appear to psychic Miki Saegusa and warn her of SpaceGodzilla's arrival. M.O.G.U.E.R.A. (Mobile Operations G-Force Universal Expert Robot: Aero-type), a mecha built by the JSDF to replace Mechagodzilla, is sent in to intercept SpaceGodzilla, but suffers damage in the process. SpaceGodzilla lands on Birth Island and attacks Godzilla's offspring, Little Godzilla. Godzilla intervenes but finds himself overwhelmed by SpaceGodzilla, and is powerless to stop his clone from trapping Little Godzilla in a crystal prison. SpaceGodzilla leaves for Japan with Godzilla in pursuit. Shortly thereafter, the Yakuza abduct Miki and bring her back to their base in Fukuoka in an attempt to use her psychic abilities to gain control over Godzilla. Miki is saved by a rescue team before SpaceGodzilla arrives. SpaceGodzilla lands in central Fukuoka and forms a massive fortress of celestial crystals. M.O.G.U.E.R.A. arrives to once again to fight SpaceGodzilla, but is still no match for him. Godzilla arrives in Kagoshima Bay and fights SpaceGodzilla, but SpaceGodzilla easily gains the upper hand. The JSDF discovers that SpaceGodzilla is using Fukuoka Tower as a power converter, using it to transform the Earth's core into an energy that SpaceGodzilla can absorb, slowly killing the planet. While Godzilla wrestles with SpaceGodzilla, M.O.G.E.R.A. splits into two different mechas: the Star Falcon, a flying battleship, and the Land M.O.G.U.E.R.A., a tank with a large drill in front of it. The mechas damage the crystal fortress while Godzilla pushes over Fukuoka Tower, cutting off SpaceGodzilla's energy supply. M.O.G.U.E.R.A. quickly reforms and blasts off SpaceGodzilla's crystal-like shoulder formations, weakening him. SpaceGodzilla critically damages M.O.G.U.E.R.A., but is subsequently incinerated by Godzilla's supercharged atomic heat ray. SpaceGodzila is destroyed, but the JSDF claims that if they keep polluting space another SpaceGodzilla may appear someday. Godzilla makes his way back to Birth Island after Miki uses her psychic powers to remove the mind control device from his neck which he turns to her and nods in gratitude. Little Godzilla is then freed from the crystal prison and begins blowing tiny radioactive bubbles. ===== The Devil runs a computer simulation to analyze souls to determine individual weaknesses to exploit. The program settles on Elliot Richards (Brendan Fraser), a geeky, over-zealous man working a dead-end job in a San Francisco computer company. He has no friends and his co-workers avoid him. He has a crush on colleague Alison Gardner (Frances O'Connor), but lacks the courage to ask her out. After Elliot is ditched by his co-workers at a bar while trying to talk to Alison, he says he would give anything for Alison to be with him. The Devil, in the form of a beautiful woman (Elizabeth Hurley), overhears him and offers to give Elliot seven wishes in exchange for his soul. As a test, Elliot wishes for a Big Mac and a large Coke. The Devil takes him to McDonald's and places the order. Elliot has to pay for it, because, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch." After taking Elliot to her office, based at a nightclub in Oakland, the Devil convinces Elliot to sign her contract, and delivers further wishes. Each wish has Elliot living them out with Alison and his co-workers in surrogate roles. However, the Devil always spoils his wishes by adding something he does not expect or want. After going through five wishes, Elliot is arrested after confessing his story to a priest who believed he was drunk. The Devil, dressed as a police officer, throws him in a cell, telling him that she likes him, and it would not hurt to have her as a friend. Elliot's cellmate tells him that he cannot sell his soul as it belongs to God, and although the Devil may try to confuse him, in the end he will realize who he truly is, and what his purpose is. Elliot questions the man as to his identity, but the response is simply "a really good friend". Elliot asks the Devil to cancel their contract. When the Devil refuses, Elliot states he will not use his final wish. The Devil teleports them to Hell. When the Devil pushes him to make a final wish, Elliot wishes that Alison could have a happy life - with or without him. The Devil sighs and Elliot falls into the depths of Hell. He wakes up on a marble staircase, wondering if it is Heaven. The Devil tells him that a provision in the contract's fine print states that a selfless wish voids the contract. Elliot admits that despite her manipulation of him he has come to like the Devil and regards her as a friend. She advises that Heaven and Hell can be found on Earth; it is up to humans to choose. Elliot asks Alison out, but discovers she is already dating another man. He continues with his life, with a better understanding of who he is. Elliot is confronted by Bob, one of his co-workers, who ridicules Elliot at the encouragement of his co-workers. Elliot grabs a terrified Bob by the shirt, but lets go, simply saying, "Nice talking to you." At home, he meets a new neighbor, Nicole, whose looks resemble Alison's but whose personality, interests and fashion sense are much closer to his. He offers to help her unpack and they begin a relationship. While the two walk along a boulevard, the Devil and Elliot's cellmate, both dressed in white, are playing chess. The Devil's computer program lists Nicole and Elliot's foibles, which they tolerate. ===== We find the girls in town going about their lives without any memories of their past exploits or ability to transform. Tsubomi is approached by Rama, the cat, whom, at first, she does not understand. But the Earth, specifically the Tokyo otaku district of Akiba, is under attack by a trio of powerful alien women along with their minions. The explosions around her restore her memories and she reassembles the rest of the Papillon team to defend the town. The Papillon team is reassembled and the enemies are won over by the team's magical-girl powers and their "charms". ===== Archie Moses is a small-time thief in Los Angeles who smuggles drugs for drug lord Frank Colton, who launders his drug money through a car dealership. Moses is unaware that his best friend, Rock Keats, is actually LAPD undercover cop Jack Carter, who befriended him only to infiltrate Colton's gang. Carter has Moses include him in Colton's next drug shipment, secretly planning to arrest Colton and take in Moses, whom he has come to care about, unharmed. Carter's undercover status is revealed before he can enact his plan, however, and a hurt Moses pulls a gun on him. During the raid on Colton's warehouse, an out of control crane hits Moses in the back, causing him to accidentally shoot Carter in the head. Moses then flees the state, and is subsequently found and arrested. Carter miraculously survives and makes a full recovery with the aid of his physical therapist, Dr. Traci Flynn, with whom he falls in love. Moses is brought into custody, and he agrees to testify against Colton, but the trial is set to take place at the other side of the country. Carter's superior officer, Capt. Jensen, orders him to personally transfer Moses to the courtroom. Carter harbors resentment against Moses, and tensions escalate once the simple transfer goes awry. Colton learns through bribed federal agents and LAPD officers of Moses' attempt to testify against him. As they flee from Colton's men, Carter and Moses slowly mend their friendship, and are successful in returning to Carter's precinct. However, Colton apparently holds Flynn hostage, and blackmails Carter into turning Moses over in order to save Flynn. Carter and Moses pretend to comply with Colton, and shoot their way through Colton's guards. It is later revealed that Flynn is on Colton's payroll, and is responsible for leaking Carter's and Moses' whereabouts to Colton. Moses takes a bullet in the shoulder to save Carter's life, giving Carter time enough to arrest Flynn; Moses then shoots Colton dead. Moses gives the incriminating documents on Colton to Carter, who allows him to escape. Moses heads to Mexico to become a bullfighter, with Carter and Moses' mother later accompanying him. ===== The USS Enterprise is ferrying a senior officer, Commodore Stocker, to Starbase 10 where he is due to assume command. On the way, the ship makes a stop at planet Gamma Hydra IV to resupply the research station there. A landing party consisting of Captain Kirk, First Officer Spock, Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, Chief Engineer Scott, navigator Ensign Chekov, and Lieutenant Arlene Galway beam down to the facility. The station seems completely deserted, until Ensign Chekov discovers the body of a man who apparently has died of old age, and panics. Robert Johnson, a member of the station crew, appears with his wife Elaine. Both claim to be in their late 20s, yet appear 50 years older. The two soon die in the Enterprise sickbay. Mr. Spock and civilian scientist Dr. Janet Wallace begin an investigation. Their only clue is a comet that passed Gamma Hydra IV recently. Soon the landing party, with the exception of Chekov, begin to age rapidly as well. Lt. Galway ages most rapidly and soon dies. By now they have learned that the comet gave off low-level radiation that most likely caused the aging effect. As Kirk continues to age, he becomes increasingly forgetful, including ordering the use of an obsolete code despite having recently been told the code had been broken by the Romulans. This leads Commodore Stocker to order Spock to convene a hearing, in which Kirk is found unfit to command. With Spock also afflicted, Stocker assumes command, and orders a direct course to Starbase 10, ignoring warnings that this will take the ship through the Romulan neutral zone. Meanwhile, Kirk, McCoy, and Spock discuss Chekov's immunity to the affliction. Remembering Chekov's fright at the discovery of the dead body, McCoy surmises that Chekov's increased adrenaline levels may have had some effect, and recalls that adrenaline had once shown promise as a treatment for radiation sickness. Mr. Spock and Dr. Wallace, assisted by Nurse Chapel, begin work on an adrenaline-based compound to test on the landing party. As Enterprise enters the neutral zone, Romulan vessels attack, ignoring all attempts at contact. Stocker, having no field command experience and paralyzed with indecision, considers surrendering, but is reminded that Romulans do not take prisoners. In sickbay, Spock announces that the drug is ready, warning that it may kill as well as cure. Kirk insists on taking the first injection. The drug reverses the aging effect, and Kirk races to the bridge to relieve Stocker. Kirk bluffs the Romulans by sending a message to Starfleet Command, deliberately using the broken code, warning that Enterprise will self-destruct using the "corbomite device", which will also destroy any nearby ships. The Romulans move to a safe distance, giving Enterprise room to make a surprise escape. ===== On New Year's Day 1975, Archie Jones, a 47-year-old Englishman whose disturbed Italian wife has just walked out on him, is attempting to commit suicide by gassing himself in his car when a chance interruption causes him to change his mind. Filled with a fresh enthusiasm for life, Archie flips a coin and then finds his way into the aftermath of a New Year's Eve party. There he meets the much-younger Clara Bowden, a Jamaican woman whose mother, Hortense, is a devout Jehovah's Witness. Clara had been interested in the unattractive, anti-social Ryan Topps, but their relationship falls apart after Ryan becomes a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Archie and Clara are soon married and have a daughter, Irie, who grows up to be intelligent but with low self-confidence. Also living in Willesden, London, is Archie's best friend Samad Iqbal, a Bengali Muslim from Bangladesh; the two men spend much of their time at the O'Connell's pub. Archie and Samad met in 1945 when they were part of a tank crew inching through Europe in the final days of World War II, though they missed out on the action. Following the war, Samad emigrated to Britain and married Alsana Iqbal, née Alsana Begum, or "Miss Alsana," in a traditional arranged marriage. Samad is a downtrodden waiter in a West End curry house, and is obsessed by the history of his supposed but unlikely great-grandfather, Mangal Pandey, a Hindu soldier from Uttar Pradesh, not Bengal, who is famous for firing the first shot of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (though he missed). Samad and Alsana have twin boys, Magid and Millat, who are the same age as Irie. Samad in particular finds it difficult to maintain his devotion to Islam in an English life; he is continually tormented by what he sees as the effects of this cultural conflict upon his own moral character—his Muslim values are corrupted by his masturbation, drinking, and his affair with his children's music teacher, Poppy Burt-Jones. In an attempt to preserve his traditional beliefs, he sends 10-year-old Magid to Bangladesh in the hope that he will grow up properly under the teachings of Islam. From then on, the lives of the two boys follow very different paths. To Samad's fury, Magid becomes an Anglicised atheist and devotes his life to science. Millat, meanwhile, pursues a rebellious path of womanising and drinking—as well as harbouring a love of mob movies such as The Godfather and Goodfellas. Angry at his people's marginalisation in English society Millat demonstrates against Salman Rushdie in 1989 and eventually pledges himself to a militant Muslim fundamentalist brotherhood known as "Keepers of the Eternal and Victorious Islamic Nation" (KEVIN). The lives of the Joneses and Iqbals intertwine with that of the white, middle-class Chalfens, a Jewish-Catholic family of Oxbridge-educated intellectuals who typify a distinctive strain of North London liberal trendiness. The father, Marcus Chalfen, is a university lecturer and geneticist working on a controversial 'FutureMouse' project in which he introduces chemical carcinogens into the body of a mouse and is thus able to observe the progression of a tumour in living tissue. By re-engineering the actual genome and watching cancers progress at pre-determined times, Marcus believes he is eliminating the random. The mother, Joyce Chalfen, is a horticulturist and part-time housewife with an often entirely misguided desire to mother and 'heal' Millat as if he were one of her plants. To some extent, the Chalfen family provides a safe haven as they (believe themselves to) accept and understand the turbulent lives of Irie, Magid, and Millat. However, this sympathy comes at the expense of their own son, Joshua, whose difficulties are ignored by his parents. Originally a well-moulded "Chalfenist", Joshua later rebels against his father and his background by joining the radical animal rights group "Fighting Animal Torture and Exploitation" (FATE). Meanwhile, after his return from Bangladesh, Magid works as Marcus's research assistant on the FutureMouse project, while Millat becomes further involved in KEVIN. Irie, who has been working for Marcus, briefly succeeds in her long-hidden attraction to Millat but is rejected under his KEVIN-inspired beliefs. Irie believes that Millat cannot love her, for he has always been "the second son" both symbolically and literally; Millat was born two minutes after Magid. Irie makes Magid the "second son" for a change by sleeping with him right after her romantic encounter of Millat. This causes her to become pregnant, and she is left unsure of the father of her child, as the brothers are identical twins. The strands of the narrative grow closer as Millat and KEVIN, Joshua and FATE, and Clara's mother Hortense and the Jehovah's Witnesses all plan to demonstrate their opposition to Marcus's FutureMouse—which they view as an evil interference with their own beliefs—at its exhibition on New Year's Eve 1992. At the Perret Institute, Hortense and the other Jehovah's Witnesses sing loudly in the hallway. Samad goes out to hush them, but when he arrives, doesn't have the heart to make them stop. When he returns, it suddenly strikes him that the founder of the Perret Institute and the oldest scientist on Marcus Chalfen's panel is Dr Perret, the Nazi he captured during World War II. Enraged that Archie did not kill him all those years ago, Samad runs over and begins cursing Archie. Just then, Millat advances on the table of scientists with a gun. Without thinking, Archie jumps in front of him and takes a bullet in the thigh. As he falls, he knocks over the mouse's glass cage, and it escapes. At the novel's end, the narrator presents us with different "end games" in the style of television. Magid and Millat both serve community service for Millat's crime, since witnesses identify both as the culprit. Joshua and Irie end up together and join Hortense in Jamaica in the year 2000. Mickey opens up the previously men-only O'Connell's pub to women, and Archie and Samad finally invite their wives along with them. ===== The game is set in the year 20,031. The player takes on the role of Trent Hawkins, a skilled spaceship pilot. While on the planet Tyrian, a hostile drone shoots his best friend, Buce Quesillac. Before dying Buce warns Trent that the drone belonged to the militaristic MicroSol megacorporation. MicroSol has discovered Gravitium (the game's brand of Unobtainium) on Tyrian and seeks to keep it a secret. Now on MicroSol's hit list, Trent manages to secure a small, armed spacecraft and set out the free world of Savara. ===== Although the authors of the game stated that their universe is of second importance to the rules, nonetheless the universe as developed in the rulebooks has been adopted and expanded by many fans. The official universe is an example of a military space opera with numerous stellar factions fighting for control of the known space. The main political entities include four major human powers, dozens of smaller human powers and three alien races. The game is set around the year 2188. Major human empires:Full Thrust: Fleet Book Vol. 1 *NAC — The "New Anglian Confederation" was formed in 2057. The NAC colonies fall under a constitutional monarchy. Their Royal Space Navy descended from the British Royal Navy, and is an amalgam of former British, Canadian and United States forces. Their official language is English and their capital is on the planet Albion. Their symbol is a stylized "A" shape with three bars of red, white and blue in the center. *NSL — The "Neu Swabian League" was formed in 2101 after the split of the European Space Force. Their official language is German and their navy is known as the Kriegsraumflotte. Their capital is located on the planet Neu Salzburg. Their symbol is a stylized black eagle with spread wings on a field of red. *FSE — The "Federal Stats Europa" (aka "Federated States of Europe") was formed in 2101 after the split of the European Space Force. Their colonies fall under a democratic council core government. Their official language is French and their space navy is known as L'Astromarine des FSE. Their symbol is stylized gold bull's head with a gold star between the horns upon a field of blue. *ESU — The "Eurasian Solar Union" was formed in 2079. Their colonies fall under a primarily communist republic government made up of an amalgam of former Russian and Chinese societies. Their naval fleet, literally Military Space Fleet is known as Voyenno-Kosmicheskiy Flot in Russian and Taikong Jiann Dwee in Chinese. Their capital world is Nova Moskva. Their symbol is a red star with a gold edge on a red field. *IJSN — The "Imperial Japanese Star Navy" was formed in 2108 with the threat of war from the ESU and the need to expand territory in search for resources. Their official language is Japanese and their writing is the Kanji script. Their naval command structure has fallen from the long-standing corporate structure back to the military doctrine. The capital world is Nihhon Prime. Their symbol of a rising red sun with red sun beams over a white background. Minor human powers — There are also many smaller powers, such as Free Cal-Tex, the Pan- African Union, the League of Latin American Republics, etc. Other human powers also include various mercenary units allied to the highest bidder and numerous smuggling and pirate gangs operating within and outside the territories. Alien species:Full Thrust: Fleet Book Vol. 2 "The Xeno Files" *Kra'Vak — The Kra'Vak, (their name translated as "People of the Sorrow Killer"), are clan- based bipedal anthropoids with a mix of reptilian and insectoid features. They communicate with a guttural language that is hard for humans to comprehend thus making relations with them very difficult. Relations are complicated further by the fact that Kra'vak pass through several gender and behavioral stages as they age which make them somewhat unpredictable as members of one stage are more aggressive and territorial than those in another stage. Kra'vak technology is similar to humans, but in some cases they are not as advanced. They favor powerful non-energy based weaponry such as railguns and missiles, and they also lack shield technology. *Sa'Vasku — The Sa'Vasku are extremely long-lived semi-aquatic lifeforms resembling giant nearly-immobile jellyfish. They are an ancient race that has seen many space-faring species rise and fall. Little is known of their race except for the fact that they seem obsessed with balance and are fearful of change. They believe young space- faring races like humans are too naive to be left unchecked and they ruthlessly oppose their expansion into space. Sa'Vasku technology is biosynthetic and their spaceships are alive, genetically created and grown for specific purposes. Their construct ships are equipped with various "weapon organs" that generate energy beams or launch spore projectiles. *Phalon — The Phalons are a carbon-based, oxygen-breathing species, somewhat humanoid in physique however they have multi-jointed limbs, exoskeletal hides and flat triangular-shaped heads dominated by single tri-lensed eye. They have three sexes, fertile males and females, and a more numerous asexual group that comprises most of their military force. Like the Sa'Vasku, Phalon technology is bio-synthetic in nature however they use genetically grown materials like humans use metal and plastic, building snail-like spaceships that are made from organic components but are not "alive" in their own right. The Phalon thinking-process is similar to humans, and the two species can carry on meaningful conversations, however Phalons are completely amoral. They take what they want without considering payment, and do what they wish without any regard to consequence. ===== Oswald becomes stranded for a night near Cairo at the desert mansion of a wealthy businessman, Abdul Aziz, whose wife and adult daughter are both very beautiful. Oswald plots to seduce either the wife or daughter, and believes he has succeeded after a woman slips into his bedroom under cover of darkness and spends several passionate hours with him, although he cannot see her face and she refuses to converse with him. The next day, Oswald leaves the house none the wiser as to which of the two women he has slept with. The story ends with a twist as Mr. Aziz reveals to Oswald that he has a second daughter who lives in seclusion in another part of the house – because she has incurable leprosy. ===== Paul Linden (David Farrar), a wealthy and prominent architect, returns home to Marylebone, London. He brings his new wife: beautiful, French, 24-year-old Nichole (Noelle Adam), whom he has just married in Paris. Paul is anxious to introduce Nichole to his teenage daughter Jennifer (Gillian Hills), but Jennifer appears less than happy about her father's remarriage and coldly rejects Nichole's friendly overtures all evening. After Paul and Nichole go to bed, Jennifer sneaks out to the Off-Beat café in Soho for an evening of rock music and dancing with her friends, including Dave (Adam Faith), a youth from a working-class background who plays guitar and writes songs; Tony (Peter McEnery), a general's son whose mother was killed in the Blitz and who has a drinking problem (although beatniks frown on alcohol); and Dodo (Shirley Anne Field), Tony's well-bred girlfriend. Dave and Jennifer are attracted to each other. The next day Nichole plans to meet Jennifer at Saint Martin's School of Art, where she is studying, so they can have lunch together. At lunchtime, Nichole arrives at St Martin's, but is told that Jennifer has left and gone to the Off-Beat. Nichole goes to the café and confronts Jennifer in front of her friends, who are impressed by Nichole's youth, good looks, and knowledge of modern jazz. The fact that her friends, especially Dave, seem to like Nichole upsets Jennifer. Nichole leaves, reminding Jennifer to be home for her father's important business dinner that night. As Nichole leaves, she passes Greta (Delphi Lawrence), the star performer at the strip club across the street. Greta recognises Nichole and greets her by name, but Nichole ignores her, to Greta's annoyance. Jennifer and her friends see this encounter and wonder how Greta and Nichole might know each other. Jennifer suspects that Nichole was also a stripper before meeting her father. That night at Paul's business dinner, Jennifer tries to embarrass Nichole in front of the guests by bringing up the encounter with Greta, making sure to emphasise that Greta is a stripper. After the guests leave, Paul questions Nichole, who says that she knew Greta in Paris and that they were in ballet together but Greta pursued a different way of life and Nichole lost track of her. Paul accepts her explanation, but Jennifer goes to the strip club to ask Greta directly. Greta at first claims she made a mistake and doesn't really know Nichole, but under pressure from her boyfriend, strip club manager Kenny King (Christopher Lee), she reveals that she and Nichole worked together as strippers and occasional prostitutes in Paris. Jennifer, encouraged by Kenny, becomes enamoured with the idea of becoming a stripper herself. Jennifer is caught by Paul and Nichole coming home from the strip club at 3 am and an angry confrontation results. Jennifer taunts Nichole by telling her she has spoken with Greta and threatens that if Nichole doesn't stay out of her life, Jennifer will tell Paul about Nichole's background. Nichole visits the strip club to tell Kenny and Greta to stay away from her stepdaughter, but Kenny says that Jennifer will be welcome at the club any time and that if Nichole interferes he will tell Paul about her past. Jennifer and her friends have a wild night including dancing at Chislehurst Caves, a dangerous car race, and a game of "chicken" on railway tracks where the last person to leave the rails before the train arrives (Jennifer) wins. Throughout the evening, Jennifer and Dave dare each other to increasingly dangerous behaviours as a way of flirting. Jennifer invites everyone to continue the party at her house, as her father is out of town and Nichole presumably won't interfere for fear Jennifer will reveal her past. Jennifer accepts a dare to "strip like a Frenchie" and begins a striptease to music, but when she gets down to her underwear Nichole bursts from her bedroom and stops her. Then Paul suddenly arrives home and breaks up the party, throwing all of the beatniks out of his house including Dave. Jennifer angrily tells her father about Nichole's activities in Paris. Nichole, crying, admits it is true and explains she only did it because she was broke and hungry. Paul and Nichole profess their love for each other and reconcile. Jennifer goes to the café, but now finds it boring. She walks out on her friends and meets Kenny across the street at the strip club. Kenny invites her to go to Paris with him and have him train her to be a star stripper. Greta, performing onstage, is told by stage manager Simon (Nigel Green) that Kenny plans to leave her and go off with Jennifer. Just as Kenny makes a pass at Jennifer, a woman's hand is shown stabbing Kenny to death with a letter opener. The club staff, thinking Jennifer killed Kenny, lock her up and call the police. Jennifer screams that she didn't do it, and the real culprit, jealous Greta, emerges from behind a curtain. Meanwhile, Dave, Tony and Dodo confront some Teddy Boys who vandalise Tony's car and smash his guitar. Paul and Nichole arrive on the scene searching for Jennifer just as the police drag her, in hysterics, out of the strip club. The police release Jennifer to Paul and Nichole, and they head for home, arms around each other, as Dave throws his broken guitar in a rubbish bin and proclaims "Funny, only squares know where to go." ===== In the novel, Cory Mackenson shares with the reader his experiences in the twelfth year of his life. The year begins when his father attempts to rescue a driver as his car plunges into Saxon's Lake, only to discover the man has been beaten to death. Cory spends the rest of the year, despite multiple distractions, attempting to find out who killed this stranger before his father's dreams drive him into the depths of the lake too. Boy's Life is a story of coming of age in the south, an all too real reality mixed with the magic and fantasy of childhood. Cory gets up early to help his father work his milk route. As they discuss Cory's plans for the future, they drive through their little town of Zephyr, Alabama. When Cory's father begins to drive past Saxon's Lake, they are both shocked when they see a car race across the road in front of them and plunge into the lake. Cory's father dives into the water to rescue the driver only to discover the man has been horribly beaten and strangled. Someone has stripped the dead man naked and handcuffed him to the steering wheel to prevent his body from ever rising to the surface again. Cory and his father rush to the nearest house, which happens to be a brothel managed by a woman named Grace, and call the police. Unfortunately, there is little the police can do without a victim, a name, or a motive. People talk about the murder for weeks, disturbed that such a thing could happen in their small town. However, with no progress on the legal end of things, people soon forget. Easter comes. Cory and his family attend church with both sets of grandparents. The day is extremely hot and the church is packed. Within moments of the pastor beginning his sermon a nest of wasps become agitated in the attic and wasps begin invading the church. Within moments the entire congregation is rushing for the doors, hoping to escape their horrible stings. Not long after Easter, Cory's bike breaks down and doesn't work anymore. Cory goes to retrieve it with his father, but they learn that the junk man has picked it up. At the junk man's house, Cory learns that his bike has already been crushed. However, Cory and his father get to see a tooth that possibly came from the mythic creature that lives in the Tecumseh, Old Moses. Not long after this, rains bring a swelling of water in the river, leading to a flood. The whole town of Zephyr rushes to Bruton to build a temporary dam to hold the waters back. While there, Cory goes to the home of a local woman whose father is having a heart attack. Cory is left alone with a little boy while his mother and the boy's mother move the old man to dry ground. A creature floats into the house and attempts to attack Cory and the boy. Cory manages to fend him off with a broom, shoving it so far in the back of its throat the creature backs off. As a result of his heroics, Cory is invited to visit the Lady, the honorary leader of Bruton, and promised a new bike. School finally gets out. Cory and his friends rush off to make plans for their summer. When Cory gets home, he discovers that he has received the promised bike from the Lady. The bike is new and has everything a boy could want, including what Cory believes is a golden eye in the headlamp. A few days later, Cory and his friends meet at the baseball field. A new boy in town, Nemo Curliss, watches them toss the ball for a time. Cory invites him to play too. Nemo turns out to have a powerful pitching arm, strong enough to bruise Davy Ray's hand when he catches Nemo's pitch. As they play ball, the Branlins come upon them. The Branlins begin to tease the younger boys as they often do. When the Branlins begin picking on Nemo, Cory and his friends defend him. The Branlins begin to beat the boys, leaving Cory and Davy Ray hurt, but Johnny Wilson with a concussion. One afternoon at the public pool, Cory hears a new song by a new group called the Beach Boys. Cory is excited by this new song. However, a local preacher is not as impressed. In fact, he has a special church service to lecture the community on the evils of this new music. Cory and his family attend out of curiosity. During the sermon, the preacher pulls out a monkey he calls Lucifer. Lucifer becomes frightened by the crowd and attacks the preacher. Lucifer then attacks the congregation before escaping through the open door. A short time later, Cory spends a week with his paternal grandparents, Jaybird and Sarah. Cory dislikes his Granddaddy Jaybird because he always wakes him before dawn and makes Cory do some of the harder chores around the farm. On Cory's last day at the farm, Granddaddy Jaybird takes him to the store to buy ice cream salt. However, instead of going home, Granddaddy Jaybird takes Cory to a house where an illegal poker game is going on. Cory waits for several hours outside and finally gives up, deciding to walk home. Finally Cory is picked up by the local doctor who drives him back to the farm. As a deal with his father to go to Jaybird's, Cory is allowed to go camping alone with two of his friends. The boys walk deep into the woods and settle down for the night. Cory tells a scary story. In the middle of the story, they see a car drive past their campsite. The boys follow the road and find two men waiting in their car. The boys watch as another car drives up and the men transact some kind of business with these new arrivals. Ben becomes covered with spiders and screams out, attracting the attention of the men. The men chase the boys through the woods. Cory is separated from his friends. The following day Cory comes across a girl skinny dipping in a pond. The girl takes him home, cleans his wounds, and arranges for him to get a ride to a phone. Cory wins third prize in a writing contest. The mayor calls and asks Cory to meet him at his office. Once there, Cory sees a hat with a green feather in it and jumps to the conclusion that the mayor is the killer. Cory becomes frightened and runs off. However, the feather on the mayor's hat does not match the one Cory found at Saxon's Lake. Cory wins a plaque and has to read his story at a ceremony. A few days later, Cory is invited to have dinner with Vernon Thaxter, the son of the local bank owner. Back at school, Johnny brings his collection of arrowheads. After school, the Branlins attempt to steal the arrowheads. Johnny fights Gotha, using the boxing techniques he learned from a book during his long recuperation from his concussion. At the same time, Cory leads Gorda off on his bike and causes him to fall into a ditch filled with poison ivy. Neither Branlin ever teases or bullies Cory and his friends again. One afternoon Cory comes home from school to learn that Rebel, his dog, has been hit by a car. Cory rushes to the vet to see his dog, only to learn he is dying. Cory prays death away. Rebel recovers, but he is never quite right. One night Cory hears someone talking to his dog. Cory realizes it is a young boy who once lived down the street, but died in a fire. Cory realizes it is time to give up Rebel. Cory arranges to have the vet put Rebel down. A short time later, Cory is riding his bike in town and is kidnapped by Donny Blaylock, one of the men he saw transacting business during his camping trip. Donny plans to hurt Cory, but instead he is distracted by the memory of a man he killed on that road. There is a car accident and Cory is freed. However, Donny is arrested for murder. The sheriff, it turns out, has been taking bribe payments from the Blaylocks. As a result, he is leaving town. However, before he leaves, the sheriff wants Donny to be taken by the state police. The sheriff asks Tom Mackenson for help. At first Tom refuses, but later agrees. There is a shootout that ends when Biggun Blaylock's ammunition turns into green garden snakes. A short time later, the Brandywine Carnival comes to town. At the carnival, Cory and his friends see everything from the haunted house to a baby with one eye. Cory drags them off to see a creature that appears to be a triceratops. Davy Ray is deeply affected by seeing this animal, so when Cory learns the next day that someone helped the animal escape, he suspects it was Davy Ray. That fall, when hunting season begins, Cory finds himself thinking about parrots and green feathers. However, before Cory can investigate his suspicions, he learns that Davy Ray has been shot in a hunting accident. Cory and his family rush to the hospital. Cory tells Davy Ray a story about a solitary traveler. The following morning, Cory learns that Davy Ray has died. Cory does not know how to deal with the death of his friend, especially when his mother and pastor tell him he must have faith that Davy Ray is somewhere better. When Cory learns that the vet and his wife had a green parrot in their home the night the stranger from Saxon's Lake was killed and that they both are allergic to milk and therefore would not have thought of seeing a milk man out before dawn, he begins to suspect they killed the man. At the same time, Cory's father finally goes to see the Lady after he goes to her for help dismantling a bomb. At this meeting, Cory's father is told the number thirty-three is important. The only thing Tom can find with that number is a bus that comes to town every other day. Tom takes a job at the gas station where the bus drops off passengers and waits. On the day someone finally gets off the bus, Cory goes to the vet's house to spy on him, to try to prove he killed that stranger. Tom learns that the dead stranger was a Neo-Nazi who helped hide a couple of German officers in Zephyr years before. The man came to town to blackmail these Germans to start a new life. Tom cannot imagine which of his neighbors might be German officers who could be so cruel as to pick and choose which Jewish prisoners should die. However, when Tom learns the German officer was a veterinarian, he begins to suspect Dr. Lezander, the local vet. Tom and his new companions go to the vet's house where they discover Cory is being held against his will. Dr. Lezander takes off with Cory. Tom follows. When they reach the road that runs beside Saxon's Lake, the triceratops comes out of the woods and attacks Dr. Lezander's car, pushing it into the water. Tom saves Cory, but can do nothing for Dr. Lezander. Cory returns to Zephyr many years later with his own family. The town was abandoned after the paper mill closed down in the 1970s. Cory drives to all his familiar haunts, finally stopping at his family's home. Before leaving, Cory decides to drive to the Thaxter mansion. There, Cory discovers that the mansion was given to an orphanage for boys and several people he knew in childhood still live there, working with the little boys. ===== L'Amour fou follows the dissolution of the marriage between Claire, an actress (played by Bulle Ogier), and Sebastien, her director (Jean-Pierre Kalfon). It is black and white with two different film gauges (35 mm and 16 mm) employed at different times throughout the film. The film focuses on a long cycle of self-destruction in Claire and Sebastien's relationship. The central event in the film's narrative is a three-week period of preparation by a theater group for a production of Racine's version of Andromaque. A crew films the preparations of the theater company in handheld 16 mm, while the rest of the film is shot in 35 mm. This framework allows Rivette to focus on the act of direction, in the formation of an artwork and the dissolution of a relationship. ===== The game closely follows the plot of the film. MI6 agent James Bond is sent to Bilbao, Spain to meet a Swiss banker and retrieve money for Robert King, a friend of M who purchased a classified report from the Russian Atomic Energy Department. The report, which was taken from a dead MI6 agent, is believed to contain information about terrorists who have attacked King's oil pipeline in Kazakhstan. Bond asks the banker who killed the MI6 agent, but he is unexpectedly killed by an assassin. Bond escapes with the money and takes it to the MI6 headquarters in London. A terrorist group then launches an attack on the MI6 headquarters, prompting Bond to pursue the assassin through a London Underground station. Bond offers her protection, but she ultimately kills herself by exploding a hot air balloon. The MI6 traces the recovered money to a KGB agent-turned-terrorist known as Renard, who previously kidnapped King's daughter, Elektra. M assigns Bond to protect Elektra, who is about to oversee the construction of an oil pipeline in Azerbaijan. During a tour of the pipeline's proposed route in the mountains, Bond and Elektra are attacked by a hit squad in armed, paraglider-equipped snowmobiles. Bond suspects the attack was caused by Elektra's head of security, Davidov, and decides to kill him before taking his place on a flight to a Russian ICBM base in Kazakhstan. There, Bond meets nuclear physicist Christmas Jones and learns that Renard managed to steal plutonium from a nuclear warhead. To get a lead on where Renard might be hiding, Bond visits a former Russian mafia adversary, Valentin Zukovsky, who reveals that Elektra was in exchange for the use of a submarine currently being captained by his nephew. Jones realises that if Renard were to insert the stolen plutonium into the submarine's nuclear reactor, the resulting nuclear explosion would destroy Istanbul, sabotaging the Russians' oil pipeline in the Bosphorus. In Istanbul, Bond and Jones are captured by Elektra's henchmen. Jones is taken aboard the submarine, while Bond is taken to the Maiden's Tower. With the help of Zukovsky, Bond kills Elektra and boards the submarine. Ultimately, Bond finds Renard in the submarine's reactor and kills him before escaping with Jones. ===== Bogwood, Washington is a pleasant suburban community with a special distinction—it has more garages per capita than any other town in America. Not surprisingly, Bogwood is also the "Garage Sale Capital of the U.S.A." When retirees Doris & Clayton Fenwick decide to empty their nest of retro-modern antiques, they set the wheels in motion for a frantically funny "g-sale" involving Bogwood's most avid garage sale junkies: Angela Cocci (an obsessive market researcher), Ed LaSalle (a beleaguered computer programmer and creator of the cult fantasy roleplaying game "Caves & Beasts"), Dick Nickerson (a retired star of the 60s sitcom "Pot o' Gold"), and BJ Harwood & Helen Ziegler (partners and owners of a trendy retro-modern antique store). These colorful characters try to outmaneuver each other to score their ultimate garage sale treasure: an antique board game worth a fortune. ===== Set in feudal times, the story begins in the Kingdom of Didd. Young peasant, Bartholomew Cubbins lives on the outskirts of the kingdom with his family; He wears a simple red hat with a single white feather that has remained within the family for generations. One day, Bartholomew is sent into the town to sell some berries, when he comes across King Derwin riding through a street; As per law, one is supposed to remove his or her hat when the king passes by, but Bartholomew apparently does not follow the rule, despite having a hat in his hand and is ordered to remove the hat on his head. Bartholomew does so, but another hat mysteriously appears; when he attempts to remove this one, yet another one appears. For unknown reasons, whenever Bartholomew removes one hat, another one appears on his head. The young boy is taken to the castle where numerous people attempt to remove the hat from Bartholomew's head, but all attempts end in failure; The royal hatter runs away in terror, the King's young nephew fails to shoot the hats off with arrows, A great bowman similarly fails with a long bow, Wizards attempt to curse the hat away, but claim that their spell would only work in "Ten Short Years". The King, exasperated by all the attempts, sends Bartholomew to be executed, but once again the laws get in the way; A person cannot be executed by the Executioner with his or her hat on. The King's Nephew suggests throwing Bartholomew from the highest tower as a punishment. The King, while mildly upset by the idea, agrees. Bartholomew begins to push his hats off rapidly as they climb the tower. As this continues, the hats begin to grow in extravagance and beauty from the 451st hat onwards; The 451st Hat has two feathers, while the 452nd Hat has three and the 453rd hat has three feathers and a small gem and so on. Ultimately the 500th hat, is revealed as the greatest, studded with massive gems, plumes of feathers from rare birds and gilding, although Bartholomew seems unaware of the fact. The king is stunned by the beauty of the hat, but the Nephew is more incensed than before at the sight of it. He tries to push Bartholomew off the tower, against the King's wishes which results in him being spanked as a punishment. King Derwin grants Bartholomew a reprieve, requesting for all 500 hats in exchange for 500 gold coins. Bartholomew agrees and is sent home with his massive reward, while the King keeps all of the hats in a massive chest to admire for years to come. The story ends with the narrator admitting that no one knows or ever knew what caused this strange event, but it is more than likely that it will never happen again. ===== Nobody Knows tells the story of four siblings and their young mother who move into a small apartment in Tokyo. The film begins when the family is moving into a small rented apartment. Only the eldest, Akira is known to the landlord, while the youngest boy and girl, Shigeru and Yuki, hide in separate suitcases. The elder sister, Kyōko, comes separately by train. All the children have different fathers. They are not allowed to go to school or to be seen by others, and only Akira is allowed to go outside. Yet, the family seems to be happy. Things begin to change when their mother leaves home for a few months, leaving only a small amount of money for them. Then, Akira's rank in the family shifts overnight and he becomes the surrogate head of the family. They barely manage to scrape through life, with Akira having to ask money from Yuki's possible fathers. Luckily, their mother soon returns with gifts for the children. However, their mother is not back for long. She tells Akira that she has a new boyfriend, and that after she gets married, the children can lead normal lives. She then leaves again, with the promise that she will be back for Christmas. She does not keep her promise, and Akira and Kyōko have to play the role of parents. Akira soon finds out that she has already married and left them forever, though he does not tell the rest. Money soon becomes short, and they cannot afford to pay their rent. Their meals consist of instant cup noodles bought from the local mini-mart. On Yuki's birthday, she asks to go to the train to wait for their mother. Her mother does not appear, but on the way back, Akira promises Yuki that one day, he will bring take her on the Tokyo Monorail to see the airplanes take off at Haneda Airport. Akira soon befriends two video- game loving boys who are his age. They frequently come to Akira's house to play video games, and Akira starts to neglect his siblings. Their ties become strained. Later, the two boys bring Akira to the mini-mart and dare him to shoplift. Akira refuses to do so and the two boys leave him. After that, Akira lets his siblings go outside and play at a park nearby. He also lets them visit the mini-mart and buy things they like. As winter turns to spring, the bills have piled up and the phone, electric, gas, and water have all been turned off. They consequently must make use of the local park's public toilet to wash themselves, and the tap for their water. It is on one of these trips that Shigeru starts a conversation with a high school student, Saki, and this soon blossoms into a friendship between all of them. Saki frequently visits them and helps take care of them. However, when she offers to earn money to give to them by visiting a Karaoke lounge with a man, Akira distances himself from her, rejects the money she offers, and runs home. Summer approaches, and money remains very tight. Suddenly, Yuki falls off a stool while trying to reach for something and dies. At that time, Akira was playing baseball. The children are shocked, and Akira has to go find Saki to borrow money in order to buy a dozen or so boxes of Yuki's favorite chocolate candies which are then placed with Yuki's dead body and stuffed bunny into a suitcase. Akira and Saki then take the Tokyo Monorail to an open field near Haneda Airport's runway and bury the suitcase containing Yuki in a hand-dug grave. The children's lives then go on as usual, and the film ends with Akira, Kyōko, Shigeru, and Saki still together walking home. ===== Set just after World War I, The Death Ship describes the predicament of merchant seamen who lack documentation of citizenship and cannot find legal residence or employment in any nation. The narrator is Gerard Gales, a US sailor who claims to be from New Orleans, and who is stranded in Antwerp without passport or working papers. Unable to prove his identity or his eligibility for employment, Gales is repeatedly arrested and deported from one country to the next, by government officials who do not want to be bothered with either assisting or prosecuting him. When he finally manages to find work, it is on the Yorikke, (possibly a reference to the Shakespeare play Hamlet) the dangerous and decrepit ship of the title, where undocumented workers from around the world are treated as expendable slaves. The term death ship refers to any boat so decrepit that it is worth more to its owners overinsured and sunk than it would be worth afloat. The title of the book is translated directly from the German Das Totenschiff; in English, they are called coffin ships. ===== A hideous, vindictive, spiteful couple known as the Twits live together in a brick house without windows. They continuously play nasty practical jokes on each other out of hatred for one another, ranging from Mr. Twit hiding a frog in his wife's bed that he claims is a monster, to Mrs. Twit tricking her husband into eating worms in his spaghetti. They also keep a family of pet monkeys from Africa, the Muggle- Wumps. The Twits, who are retired circus trainers, are trying to create the first upside-down monkey circus, leaving the monkeys to stand on their heads for hours on end. If they fail to do what Mr. Twit says, Mrs. Twit beats them with her cane. Mr. Twit also coats tree limbs with a strong sticky glue Hugtight in hopes of catching birds for Mrs. Twit to make into a bird pie. The monkeys try to warn the birds before they land on the tree, but the English- speaking birds do not understand the monkeys' African language. One week, the Roly-Poly bird flies in from Africa to visit the monkeys and, acting as an interpreter of languages, saves the birds from sitting anywhere Mr. Twit has spread glue. Mr. Twit tries several times to catch the birds, spreading the glue on an increasing number of perches, but the Roly-Poly bird changes his warning to reflect the new traps. Tired of chasing the birds, the Twits decide to buy guns to kill them. The Muggle-Wumps, tired of being forced to stand on their heads, with the help of the birds use Mr. Twit's powerful glue to attach the couple's furniture to their ceiling while they are away to trick them into thinking that they are upside down and that their ceiling is actually their floor. The birds also smear glue on the Twits' heads, which permanently fixes them to the ground when a panicked Mr. Twit suggests that they stand on their heads so that they are 'the right way up' after they first walk into the upside down living room. Stuck on their heads with all their weight pressing down on them, they catch the 'Dreaded Shrinks' (a disease that Mr. Twit had convinced Mrs. Twit that she had earlier in the book as one of the aforementioned pranks), their bodies compressing 'downwards' so that they eventually shrink away into nothing, leaving the Muggle-Wumps free to escape. ===== While 8-year old George Kranky's parents are out grocery shopping, his maternal grandmother bosses him around and bullies him. She intimidates George by saying that she likes to eat insects and he wonders briefly if she's a witch. To punish her for her regular abuse, George decides to make a magic medicine to replace her old one. He collects a variety of ingredients from around the family farm including deodorant and shampoo from the bathroom, floor polish from the laundry room, horseradish sauce and gin from the kitchen, animal medicines, engine oil and anti-freeze from the garage, and brown paint to mimic the colour of the original medicine. After cooking the ingredients in the kitchen, George gives it as medicine to his grandmother, who grows as tall as the house, bursting through the roof. When his grandmother doesn't believe it was George who made her grow so tall, he proves it by feeding the medicine to one of his father's chickens, which grows ten times its original size. As they return home, George's parents can't believe their eyes when they see the fattest chicken ever and the grandmother. George's father grows very excited at the thought of rearing giant animals so that they can end world hunger, which makes his family rich and famous. He has George feed the medicine to the rest of the farm's animals, causing them to become giants as well. However, his grandmother begins complaining about being ignored and stuck in the roof, so Mr. Kranky hires a crane to remove her from the house. Her extreme height has her sleeping in the barn for the next few nights. The following morning, Mr. Kranky is still excited about George's medicine and announces that he and George shall make gallons of it to sell to farmers around the world. George attempts to recreate it, but is unable to remember all the ingredients. The second version makes a chicken's legs grow extremely long, and the third elongates a chicken's neck to bizarre proportions. The fourth has the opposite effect of the first and makes animals shrink. George's grandmother, now even more angry she's sleeping in the barn, storms over and starts complaining loudly that she's once again sick of being ignored. She sees the cup of medicine in George's hand and erroneously mistakes it for tea. Much to his and Mrs. Kranky's horror, and Mr. Kranky's delight, she drinks the entire cup and shrinks so much that she vanishes completely. At first, Mrs. Kranky is shocked, confused and distraught about the sudden, and very strange disappearance of her mother, but soon accepts that she was becoming a nuisance anyway. In the last page, George is left to think about the implications of his actions, feeling as though they had granted him access to the edge of a magic world. ===== The story is told from the point of view of Billy, a young boy who has always dreamed of owning a sweet shop. His ambition is strengthened by the fact that there is an abandoned building named The Grubber, an old English word for a sweet shop, near where he lives. One day, he finds that the old building has been renovated and has become the head office for The Ladder less Window-Cleaning Company. Billy then meets its workers: A Giraffe with an extendable neck; a Pelican, or "Pelly" as he is called by the others, who has a flexible upper beak; and a singing and dancing Monkey, all of whom he quickly befriends. Having only recently arrived in England, all the animals are finding it hard to acquire the right food to feed themselves. This includes fish for the Pelican, especially his favourite salmon; walnuts for the Monkey; and pink and purple tinkle-tinkle tree flowers for the Giraffe, who happens to be a "Generous Giraffe" and therefore can eat no food other than these flowers. Billy and the animals all band together when they receive a letter from the Duke of Hampshire asking them to clean the 677 windows of Hampshire House. Things go smoothly when they get there until, while cleaning the windows of the Duchess's bedroom, the Giraffe and the Monkey spot a burglar attempting to steal the Duchess's jewels. The Pelican then flies in and catches the burglar, holding him prisoner in his beak despite the burglar's attempt to shoot his way out. Soon the police arrive to arrest the burglar, whom the Chief of Police identifies as "The Cobra", one of the world's most dangerous cat burglars. As a reward for retrieving the Duchess's jewels, the Duke invites The Ladder less Window-Cleaning Company to live on his estate as his personal helpers. Since he is the owner of the only tinkle- tinkle tree plantation in England, as well as thousands of walnut trees and an enormous salmon river, all three starving animals have found the answer to their prayers. Billy's dreams also come true because the Giraffe, Pelican, and Monkey will no longer need the Grubber building; with a little help from the Duke, the Grubber is revived into the most fantastic sweet shop for miles around, and the story ends with Billy running the shop and The Ladder less Window-Cleaning Company continuing their business. ===== The comic is set after World War II, with the Nazis seeking the Philosopher's Stone in an attempt to resurrect dead Nazis. Along with the beautiful Russian major Nadia, Indiana Jones gathers the pieces of the philosopher's stone. ===== Yargo tells the story of Janet Cooper, a young woman from Avalon, New Jersey, who is abducted by aliens from the planet Yargo. During her interplanetary adventures with these intelligent but emotionless extraterrestrials, she falls in love with their leader. ===== On the second to last day of the season, Chapel's team, the Atlanta Hawks, are about to play against the New York Yankees. Chapel receives news from a friend in the media that he is about to be traded. Just the night before, his girlfriend Carol did not show up at his hotel room, and Chapel reaches the conclusion that it is time to move on and finally make the transition from boyhood to manhood. Over half the book tells the story of that final game, with flashbacks from the pitching mound and dugout to incidents throughout Chapel's life. Chapel is determined that his last game will also be his greatest, even though, with all the young new players on the Yankees, they are a far superior team. As he strikes out his opponents one after the other, he soon becomes aware of the fact that he has held the Yankees at bay thus far, not allowing one hit from the more talented Yankees team. He soon becomes determined to pitch a perfect game. Meanwhile, he reflects on his personal life, and especially on Carol, whom he finally realizes that he loves, even though he has never shown her that he really does. That morning Carol told him she was going to London and was leaving immediately, so the two key passions of his life, Carol and baseball, are about to vanish forever. As the game proceeds, Chapel feels the sharp pain in his arm that comes with age. Nevertheless, he refuses to give up the pitching mound, and chooses instead to divert his attention by delving deeper into his life and his relationship. At the end of the game, he has pitched a perfect game and retires from baseball with a new dignity. After the celebrations, he heads to the hotel and dials Carol's home, where he plans to go to tell Carol his feelings. With baseball behind him, he has grown from a boy who has led a life into manhood. This short book was discovered after Shaara's death, and publishing was arranged by his son, author Jeffrey Shaara. The book was made into a movie by Sam Raimi. ===== As the story begins, Fred Platt, the main character, is about to place a telephone call to a college friend he hasn't seen in years. Platt, as the opening sentence indicates, comes from 'old money' -- he is three generations removed from its acquisition. He wants to acquire a job without the contaminating hand of his father's connections. Accordingly, he calls his old friend Clayton Thomas. Clayton is now an executive in the advertising wing of a large chemical company, hence the story's title. The drama in the story consists of Fred's horror at Clayton's gauche, new-money ways, a horror that he with some effort suppresses in the interest of asking Clayton for work. Some nice touches arise from Fred's brief conversations with each of the two secretaries through whom his phone call must pass before he can talk to Clayton. For example, the second secretary asks, "About what was it you wished to speak to him?" and one senses an earnest and newly educated woman's effort to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition. Fred, when he does finally reach Clayton, asks (in counterpoint), "Who are all these girls you live in the midst of?" Category:1959 short stories Category:Short stories by John Updike ===== An American couple, The Forrests, want to introduce a visiting English friend to an authentic American billionaire. They take him to a dinner party where he meets a Texan businessman, John Born. The Forrests and their friend, Donald King, and Mr. Born discuss the recent re- election of President Dwight David Eisenhower and a gas bill that the President vetoed earlier in the year. The history that provoked Updike to write a story about such a conversation has been largely forgotten in the intervening half century, but at that time he was able to assume most of his readers would know that on February 6, 1956, Senator Francis Case of South Dakota had said on the U.S. Senate floor that a lobbyist for a natural gas company had left $2500 in cash in an envelope waiting for him, presumably in exchange for his vote on the deregulatory bill. This set off an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and forced creation of a select Senate committee to look into lobbying practices. The deregulation bill passed anyway, although President Eisenhower vetoed it on February 17. In the fictional discussion of these events, as Updike portrays it, Mr. Born claims that he is in possession of a trillion feet of natural gas that he has no incentive to sell unless some similar bill is passed in the next session of Congress and signed. On their way home, the Forrests and Mr. King are a bit confused. They wonder how many zeros are in a trillion -- American and UK conventions on that differed -- and whether he meant a trillion feet (305 million km) spread out along a pipeline or a trillion cubic feet (28 km³). ===== The show features the efforts of Ares, the god of war, played by Kevin Tod Smith, who attempts often to destroy his younger half-brother to win over Zeus' good graces. Among his group is his nephew Strife (Joel Tobeck), who is the rather weaker member of the team. Strife's mother is Discord, goddess of retribution (Meighan Desmond), who acts more level-headed and power hungry than her counterpart on more than one occasion. The series has two other villains: Hera, queen of the gods and Hercules' stepmother; and Apollo, god of the sun and Hercules' half-brother. The storyline follows Hercules (Ryan Gosling) as he attends Cheiron's Academy to train in the arts of the warrior under the wise headmaster Cheiron the Centaur (Nathaniel Lees). He makes friends with the future king of Corinth Prince Jason (Chris Conrad) and a thieving former member of a bandit group named Iolaus (Dean O'Gorman), who was sentenced to train at the academy as an alternative to prison for his crimes. Hercules also meets the academy's first female cadet, Lilith (Jodie Rimmer). Other characters of interest include Kora, the innkeeper who unknown to Hercules and his friends is a devotee of Artemis: Goddess of the Hunt. As the series develops, Kora is revealed to have special powers which allow her to do Artemis' bidding. There are hints of romance between Hercules and Kora, although their friendship keeps it all innocent. ===== The Federation starship USS Enterprise orbits the planet Neural, a primitive world that Captain Kirk has visited before. On the planet, Kirk and First Officer Spock notice a group of villagers apparently preparing for an ambush. Kirk is surprised to see them with firearms, and their quarry seems to be a group of Hill People, one of whom, Tyree, Kirk recognizes. Forbidden to use phasers, Kirk throws a rock toward the villagers, causing one of their guns to go off. A chase ensues and Spock is shot. Once back aboard the Enterprise, Spock is taken to sickbay. Sensors detect a Klingon vessel in orbit around the planet, and Kirk suspects the Klingons of having supplied the firearms to the villagers. Kirk returns with McCoy, both in native dress, to investigate. The two are attacked by an indigenous creature called a Mugato,A horned white- furred gorilla-like creature, pronounced "mu-GAHT-u" which bites Kirk with its poisonous fangs before McCoy can kill it with his phaser. McCoy is unable to call for help, as the Enterprise has left orbit to avoid detection by the Klingons. A friendly group of Hill People arrive and take Kirk and McCoy to their camp, where Kirk discovers that his friend Tyree is now their leader. Tyree is married to Nona, a Kahn-ut-tu woman who can cure the mugato bite. Nona has been urging Tyree to acquire firearms for their tribe. On hearing of Kirk's arrival, Nona enters the cave and spies McCoy using his phaser to heat rocks. Nona is intrigued and quizzes Tyree about the mysterious guests. She then proceeds to treat Kirk, pressing a mahko root into cuts on their hands. At the conclusion of the ritual she claims that Kirk is now hers, and Tyree explains that, according to legend, he will be unable to refuse her anything as a result of the treatment. When Kirk recovers, he asks Tyree about the villagers' weapons. Tyree says he saw them for the first time a year ago and believed the villagers were making them. Kirk and McCoy decide to reconnoiter the village that night. Once there, they locate a forge in which they find a chrome steel drill and virtually carbon-free iron, evidence of outsiders' involvement. Soon a Klingon appears with the village leader, who discuss the manufacture of improved weapons. Kirk and McCoy surprise and overpower them, taking a flintlock weapon and escaping with Tyree's help. The next day, Kirk shows the Hill People how to use the weapon, but Tyree refuses to handle it. McCoy protests, but Kirk counters that both warring parties must be put on an equal footing if both are to survive. Nona tries to seduce Kirk with the help of local herbs. A mugato attacks Nona and Kirk disintegrates it with his phaser. Nona then knocks Kirk unconscious, flees with the phaser, and coming upon a group of villagers, offers them the weapon. Not believing her story, they assault her. When Kirk, McCoy, and Tyree appear, the villagers believe she has led them into a trap, and kill her. Tyree now demands more "fire stick" weapons to avenge his wife's death. Kirk reluctantly orders Mr. Scott to manufacture and beam down a hundred flintlocks for the tribesmen. Mr. Scott questions the unusual order, and Kirk answers, "Serpents for the Garden of Eden." ===== Three children of the Merrye family live in a decaying rural mansion with their protector and chauffeur, Bruno (Chaney). The children suffer from "Merrye Syndrome", a genetic affliction unique to members of their family, which causes them to mentally, socially and physically regress down the evolutionary ladder, starting in late childhood. Two distant relatives arrive with their lawyer and his secretary in order to examine and claim the property as rightful heirs. Bruno's shaky control over the children deteriorates; murder, chaos and insanity ensue.http://www.rickmcgrath.com/jack_hill_movies/spider_baby.html/ The siblings, Ralph (Haig), Virginia (Banner), and Elizabeth (Washburn), are inbred, demented, and dangerous. These overgrown children exhibit playful innocence mixed with brutality and feral madness. Virginia is known as "Spider Baby" because of her obsession with spiders. She stalks and eats bugs, moving with a strange and spider-like grace. She also enjoys trapping unsuspecting victims in her rope "web", "stinging" them to death using two butcher knives. After murdering an innocent delivery man (Moreland), Virginia cuts off one of his ears, which she keeps in a match box. Ralph is a sexually advanced, but mentally deficient simpleton who moves through the house via the dumb-waiter. Unable to speak, Ralph communicates with only grunts and leers. He becomes sexually aroused with the arrival of the two visiting women. The mysterious Aunt Clara, Aunt Martha, and Uncle Ned, who have regressed even further than the Merrye siblings, live in the cellar. The skeleton of the family's dead father is kept in a bedroom and is kissed goodnight by Virginia. Bruno, the children's sworn and loving protector, has been able to maintain control and keep the family secrets hidden. But when the snooping, greedy cousin Emily (Ohmart) and her brother Peter (Redeker) arrive to take possession of the property, the bizarre behavior of the Merrye clan is revealed. Peter, Emily, their lawyer Schlocker (Schanzer), and his assistant Ann Morris (Mitchel) insist on staying at the house. Dinner is served after Ralph happily kills a cat for the main course. The revolting meal includes insects, mushrooms, and a garden salad made of weeds. Virginia and Elizabeth murder Schlocker, eventually dumping his body into the basement, where the demented beastly relatives apparently eat him. Bruno leaves on an errand. Despite warning the children to "behave", events spiral downhill as the Merrye kids run amok. The basement dwellers are unleashed. Meanwhile, Emily models some black lingerie as Ralph peeks in. After being chased and then raped by Ralph, Emily becomes sexually aggressive and murderous. Bruno returns and realizes that he has lost control of the children and of their secret unsavory lives. He lights a bundle of dynamite, blowing himself, the house and the children to bits. This seems to kill all carriers of "Merrye Syndrome". Peter, who managed to escape the house with Ann, is recounting the story as the movie comes to a close. Addressing the audience, he explains that, as the sole remaining heir, he inherited the Merryes' vast family fortune, married Ann and wrote a book on the strange "Merrye Syndrome" phenomenon. He adds that his particular branch of the family was distant enough to be immune to the syndrome. However, the camera cuts to Peter's young daughter, who eerily resembles Virginia, admiring a spider in its web. ===== A year has passed since the events of Crocodile Dundee, and Mick Dundee and Susan "Sue" Charlton are living happily together in New York. Although Mick's ignorance of city life is a hazard when he attempts to continue his former lifestyle, like blast fishing in Manhattan's waters, Sue's writing has made him a popular public figure. He later goes to work for Leroy Brown, a mild-mannered stationery salesman trying to live up to his self-perceived 'bad guy in the streets' image. While working for the DEA in Colombia, Sue's ex-husband Bob (mentioned, but not seen, in the first movie) takes photographs of a drug cartel leader's murder of an unknown person, and is spotted by one of the cartel's sentries. He sends the photographs to Sue before being murdered himself. Colombian Cartel leader Luis Rico and his brother and top lieutenant, Miguel, go to New York City to retrieve the photos. The gangsters take Sue hostage, leading Mick to ask Leroy for help. Leroy contacts a local street gang, whom Mick asks to create a distraction by caterwauling at the mansion's perimeter, leading most of the cartel's guards on a wild goose chase while Mick rescues Sue. Rico goes into hiding to avoid arrest, and after his henchmen fail a subsequent attempt to kill Sue, Mick decides to take Sue to Australia to fight on familiar ground. In Walkabout Creek, Mick is enthusiastically welcomed back by friends. After provisioning, he and Sue take refuge on his personal land, named Belonga Mick ('Mick's Place'; see bilong in Tok Pisin). Here, Sue discovers that Mick legally owns land almost twice the size of New York State, including a gold mine. Rico and his men track their quarry to Australia, where they hire some local thugs to assist them, but their Aboriginal tracker abandons them when he hears that their quarry is Mick (the implication being that Mick is a good and respected friend of his). The gangsters then take Mick's friend Walter as a hostage, but Mick saves his friend by faking an attempt on Walter's life. Walter convinces the gangsters that Mick's failed attack was due to Walter being the only person suitable to guide them, so they take him as a replacement tracker. He then leads the gangsters on a false trail through the Outback territory, during which Mick, with the help of his Aboriginal friends that he summoned with a bullroarer, manages to reduce the opposition's numbers one by one, leaving the rest increasingly nervous. In the end, he retrieves Walter from Rico and Miguel, leaving the latter to face him alone. Tired of chasing Dundee, Rico sets a bushfire to corner Mick, but Mick regains the upper hand, captures Rico, and switches clothes with him to lure Miguel into a vulnerable position. Sue and Walter, observing them from a distance, mistake Mick for Rico and take shots at him. Walter shoots Mick, though not fatally, and Rico tries to escape but is shot by Miguel (who mistakes him for Mick). Rico loses his balance and falls to his death in an escarpment. Miguel is, in turn, shot and killed by Sue. Though thinking at first that Mick is dead, they soon re-unite with him (Walter's bullet had only hit Mick in the side), and Sue and Mick embrace. When Mick asks her whether she is ready to go home, Sue replies "I am home", concluding the film. ===== Gil Buckman, a St Louis sales executive, is trying to balance his family and his career. When he finds out that his eldest son, Kevin, has emotional problems and needs therapy and that his two younger children, Taylor and Justin, both have issues as well, he begins to blame himself and questions his abilities as a father. When his wife, Karen, becomes pregnant with their fourth child he is unsure he can handle it. Gil is also frustrated and fearful that the financial burdens of another child and office politics at work are turning him into the detached workaholic he despised his own father, Frank, for being. Humbled by family and work issues, Gil opens up to Frank about his doubts as a parent. Frank tells him that he worries too much, and they have a reconciliation of sorts with Frank telling Gil that worry for one's children never ends. Gil's older sister, Helen, is a divorced bank manager whose wealthy good-for-nothing ex-husband wants nothing to do with their kids, Garry and Julie, and spends more time with his own second family. Garry, who has just entered puberty, is quiet and withdrawn and likes to be alone in his room with a mysterious paper bag. At first Helen worries that it contains drugs or alcohol, but it actually contains pornography. Julie is still in high school, but is not interested in her education. She and her boyfriend, Tod Higgins, get married, she becomes pregnant, and Tod moves into Helen's house. Helen asks Tod to talk with Garry believing he would be more comfortable confiding to another male. Tod is able to reassure Garry that his obsession with girls and sex is normal for a boy his age, to Garry's relief. This also increases Helen's respect for Tod. Eventually she supports Tod and Julie's relationship to the extent that when Julie wants to break up with Tod, Helen orders her to face her fears and work on their relationship. Helen also starts dating Garry's science teacher, giving Garry a father figure he has long been without. Gil and Helen's younger sister, Susan, is a middle school teacher married to scientist and researcher Nathan Huffner. They have a precocious daughter, Patty. Susan wants more children but Nathan is more interested in Patty's cognitive development. Susan lashes out by eating junk food and compromises her diaphragm as a plan to get pregnant against Nathan's wishes. She eventually gets so frustrated that she leaves Nathan, who eventually comes to one of her classes and serenades her to win her back promising her he will try to change. She agrees to move back home. Second youngest Larry, is the black sheep of the family but is Frank's favorite. Rather than settle into a career, he has drifted through life trying to cash in on get-rich-quick schemes. He has recently shown up along with his biracial son, Cool (the result of a brief affair with a Las Vegas showgirl), asking to borrow money from Frank. It soon becomes apparent that he needs it to pay off gambling debts ($26,000 worth) or he will be killed. Frank is disillusioned but still loves him and tries to help. Frank refuses to bail him out completely, but offers to teach him the family business so he can take over for Frank who has to put off retirement to pay off the debt. However, Larry instead suggests another get-rich-quick scheme which involves him going to Chile. Frank agrees to look after Cool knowing that Larry will most likely never return. The family is reunited at the hospital when Helen gives birth to a daughter. Frank holds Cool. Tod and Julie are together, raising their son. Susan is visibly pregnant. Gil and Karen are now the parents of four. ===== Cynthia (Zhang Ziyi) and a Japanese student, Itami (Tôru Nakamura), have fallen in love in Japanese controlled Manchukuo prior to the war when Itami is forced to return to Japan. Years later, in Shanghai, Szeto (Liu Ye) and Tang Yiling (Li Bingbing) have fallen in love. Cynthia has also returned to Shanghai now as a member of Purple Butterfly, a powerful resistance group against the Japanese occupation, led by Xie Ming (Feng Yuanzheng). After a case of mistaken identity and a shootout at a railroad station that leaves Yiling dead, Szeto finds himself an unexpected pawn in the battle between former lovers Cynthia and Itami who has also come to Shanghai, now as a member of the Japanese secret police unit tasked with dismantling Purple Butterfly. ===== Like most of Kay's novels, this contains a large amount of political intrigue and religious strife. At the opening of the novel, the peninsula of Al-Rassan (formerly known as Esperaña when under Jaddite control) is split between three Jaddite kingdoms in the north (Valledo, Ruenda and Jaloña) and Asharite kingdoms in the south, of which Cartada and Ragosa figure most prominently in the story. After centuries of being dominated by the Asharites, the Jaddite kingdoms are regaining their strength, while the once-powerful khalifate of Al-Rassan is divided and vulnerable. In Fezana, a city in the north of Al-Rassan close to the borderlands with Valledo, Jehane unwittingly prevents one of her patients, a merchant named Husari ibn Musa, from being executed by Asharite King Almalik of Cartada during a purge of Fezana's leading citizens. By giving Husari shelter when the danger is revealed, Jehane puts her own life in danger. As a result, she flees Fezana at the same time that the Jaddite commander Rodrigo Belmonte of Valledo and his company have come to Al-Rassan for their parias gold - regular tribute given to the Jaddite kingdoms. A different group of Valledans, led by the brother of the powerful constable of Valledo, brutally attack a village outside the walls of Fezana. Rodrigo steps in to halt the slaughter of the villagers, leading to the eventual death of the brother. As a result, Rodrigo is exiled by King Ramiro. Rodrigo and Jehane make their way to Ragosa, to the court of King Badir. Almalik set up the purge in Fezana to be blamed on his longtime courtier Ammar ibn Khairan. Ammar joins forces with the king's heir (also called Almalik) and assassinates the father. The new king Almalik II then exiles Ammar from Cartada and Ammar also travels to Ragosa. Rodrigo, Ammar and Jehane are brought together in the court of King Badir, where Ammar and Rodrigo are hired as mercenaries, and Jehane as a physician. They form a close connection which forms the heart of the story. Jehane develops feeling for Ammar but sees her relationship with Rodrigo to simply be that of friends. The admiration of the two men for each other is obvious, as they are the 'best' each nation has to offer. However the shelter and stability they find in the wealthy and worldly city of Ragosa is threatened by events occurring far beyond the city walls. The Jaddites begin a holy war against the Asharite kingdom of Ammuz and the Kindath city of Soriyya, in a rough parallel to the Crusades. Clerics from Ferrieres urge the kings of the Jaddite kingdoms of Esperaňa to launch their own wars of reconquest against their Asharite neighbours. To the south of Al- Rassan, in the Majriti Desert lands, the Muwardis, who practice a stricter version of the Asharite religion, are impelled to intervene in the affairs of Al-Rassan, as much to repel the Jaddites as to cleanse the Asharite lands of their luxury-loving leaders. Both the Jaddites and the Asharites also exhibit violent outbreaks against the Kindath. Jehane's father, the famed physician Ishak ben Yonannon and her mother, Eliane, are rescued by Rodrigo just as a violent mob in Fezana storm the Kindath quarter with the intent of massacring its residents. Ishak then performs an astonishing operation on Diego, the young son of Rodrigo, who has been savagely assaulted by the Muwardi. The deep loyalties of Rodrigo Belmonte and Ammar ibn Khairan to Valledo and Cartada respectively mean that their eventual conflict becomes inevitable. The two finally meet on the battlefield, each at the head of opposing armies. The two commanders duel and one is killed. The story concludes with an afterword set some years in the future, which reveals firstly that the Jaddite kingdoms have recaptured Al-Rassan (mirroring the Reconquista) and eventually the identity of the victor of the duel. ===== Young private detective Cordelia Gray walks into the London office she shares with former police detective Bernie Pryde to find her partner has committed suicide. Pryde has left everything, including his unlicensed handgun, to Cordelia, who keeps the failing agency open out of gratitude. When she returns to her office from the funeral service, she is visited by her first client, Elizabeth Leaming, assistant to prominent scientist Sir Ronald Callender, whose son Mark recently died in suspicious circumstances. Cordelia travels to Cambridge, where Mark had left university despite decent grades and the prospect of a considerable inheritance from his maternal grandfather. She meets Mark's friends, who are reluctant to talk and attempt to convince her that Mark's death was a suicide, as the police investigation had determined. Cordelia decides to move into the rundown cottage on the estate where Mark had taken a gardening job. As she sifts through Mark's effects, trying to get a clearer picture of his life, she becomes ever more convinced that his death could not have been suicide. Repeatedly, Mark's friends try to lead her away from the investigation but Cordelia is determined to succeed in her first solo case. Returning to the cottage one night and finding an effigy hanging from the same hook on which Mark's body had been suspended only convinces her that foul play was involved. She finds out that a certain Nanny Pilbeam, formerly nanny to Mark's mother, had attended Mark's cremation and goes to question her. The old woman tells Cordelia that she went to see Mark in his college and gave him a Book of Common Prayer that his mother had wanted him to have when he turned 21. Cordelia finds the book in the cottage, discovering in it evidence that Lady Callender could not have been Mark's mother. Returning to the cottage the following night, someone attacks Cordelia, throws her down a well, and replaces the cover. She is saved by a combination of her own resourcefulness and the good luck that the cottage owner notices the well has been tampered with. Cordelia in turn lies in wait with Bernie's gun in order to ambush her would-be killer, who turns out to be Sir Ronald's laboratory assistant. However, he escapes in his van, only to die in a collision with a truck. Certain now of her case, Cordelia continues to Sir Ronald's house, where Miss Leaming takes her gun from her and leads her to Sir Ronald. Cordelia privately accuses him of the murder of his son, which he eventually admits, sure that nothing can be proved against him. Miss Leaming, however, who has overheard him, enters the office and shoots him with Cordelia's gun. Miss Leaming confesses to Cordelia that she was Mark's true mother but was prevented from telling him by Sir Ronald. Lady Callender had been infertile and died shortly after Mark's birth. Sir Ronald had murdered Mark when he was close to discovering the truth, so as not to lose his wife's fortune. Cordelia sympathises with Miss Leaming and the two rearrange the crime scene to look like yet another suicide. The case, however, is referred to Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh, who had originally commanded Bernie Pryde and then sacked him. Word arrives during their interview that Leaming has been killed in a car crash, allowing Cordelia to maintain the fiction they concocted together. Pryde is vindicated posthumously, as Dalgliesh admits to Cordelia, based on his observation of her abilities, that she has been well- trained. In private conference with his superiors, Dalgliesh believes he has worked out the true facts of the case, but says there is little point in disturbing the official story, since everyone involved except Cordelia is now dead. Cordelia returns to the agency and receives her next client, a man who believes his wife might be cheating on him. ===== Professor Edward Johnston leads an archaeological study of the village of Castlegard, near LaRoque Castle in Dordogne, France, the site of the 1357 hanging of Lady Claire, sister to Arnaut de Cervole. Her martyrdom led France to win the Hundred Years War against the English. Johnston's team includes Scottish archaeologist André Marek; Johnston's students Kate Erickson, Josh Stern, and François Dontelle; and his son Chris who is infatuated with Kate. While excavating a nearby monastery, they find a sarcophagus containing the remains of a French knight with a lopped ear, holding the hand of his lady, an unheard-of practice for the time. Johnston travels to the American headquarters of the ITC Corporation, his project's sponsor, to inquire whether or not they have tampered with the site. The students later discover a pair of Johnston's bifocals and a note begging for help, although both date over 600 years old. When the students contact ITC, the company invites them to its headquarters. There, the team is introduced to ITC president Robert Doniger and vice- president Steven Kramer. Doniger reveals that in the process of developing teleportation technology, they locked onto a stable wormhole to 1357 Castlegard. Johnston was invited to see the past for himself, but his group has not returned, and they want the students to go back in time to locate him. All but Josh volunteer to go. The volunteers are stripped of all modern technology save for pendant-shaped markers they can use to initiate their return. The students are joined by a security team including ITC's head of security Frank Gordon and two former military men. On arrival in 1357, the team finds itself in the path of a young woman chased by English knights; the security men are killed while protecting the group, although one activated his marker shortly after priming a grenade. When his body arrives in the present, the grenade detonates and shatters much of the teleportation device. Josh aids Kramer in making repairs. The team evades the knights, and the woman leads them to the English-controlled Castlegard. They are captured and brought before Lord Oliver de Vannes and his second in command, DeKere. The team members are stripped of their markers, and de Vannes kills François, believing he is a French spy. The others are imprisoned along with Johnston, who is revealed to have promised de Vannes that he can make Greek fire for the English in exchange for his life. They make their escape but are pursued by the English. Gordon and Johnston are recaptured, while the others make for the monastery, led by the woman. DeKere reveals himself to Gordon and Johnston as former ITC employee William Decker; he had frequently used the teleportation device but was not told by ITC that each use damaged his DNA until it was too late, at which point he would die on a return trip. He plans revenge on ITC and kills Gordon. De Vannes orders his knights to march on LaRoque castle, and DeKere brings Johnston along. At the monastery, Marek, Kate, and Chris meet de Cervole and realize the woman is Lady Claire; they have changed history by saving her. Marek, who has become infatuated with Lady Claire, is given a horse to rescue his friends. Kate and Chris help to swing the upcoming battle in the French's favor by leading de Cervole's men through the monastery tunnels they had previously mapped to the castle. As the battle starts, Marek is captured in his rescue attempt; Lady Claire is also kidnapped. Marek manages to free himself, Lady Claire, and Johnston, while Chris helps de Cervole defeat de Vannes. Enraged, DeKere slashes off Marek's earlobe, and Marek realizes he is destined to be the knight in the sarcophagus. Marek defeats DeKere, recovers the markers, gives them to the others, and says his goodbyes as he runs off to help the French assure victory and restore history. As the three returnees activate their markers, in the present Josh and Kramer have finished the repairs after coming to learn that Doniger has attempted to sabotage their attempts; Doniger fears that when the students' stories become public, ITC will suffer great financial losses. As the machine activates, Doniger races into it, attempting to block the teleportation, but instead he is sent back to 1357, where he arrives outside the castle and is presumably killed by a charging knight. Chris, Kate, and Johnston safely return. Later, the team returns to the Castlegard ruins, re-examine the sarcophagus, and find that Marek and Lady Claire led a prosperous life after the war and had three children: Christophe, Katherine, and François. ===== In 007 Racing, a high ranking European diplomat and businessman plans to hijack a shipment of NATO weapons and smuggle them to international terrorists inside cars that roll off the assembly line of his automotive plants. As Bond, it is up to the player to stop him. The gamer is supplied with some of the most famous gadget-filled cars from the Bond universe to thwart the evil villain. The story opens with Bond rescuing Cherise Litte from an Eastern European country (presumably Estonia) and getting her over the border in his Aston Martin DB5. Upon his return to London he is informed by M that a freighter carrying top secret NATO weapons including laser-guided surface-to-air missiles, long-range missiles, missile shields, latest GPS technology and Q equipped BMW 750iL bound for Halifax was intercepted in the Labrador Sea, south of Greenland. Bond is tasked with finding the cargo. His mission takes him to New York City, where he is met by his friend from the CIA Jack Wade. Upon arriving in New York he is informed by a villain that a bomb has been planted on his car and that any attempt to defuse it or slow down the vehicle will cause it to explode. Bond jettisons the car in the Hudson River. Bond continues on with finding the electromagnetic pulse device that was stolen and destroying ten computers in distribution center from which a car transporter carrying the smuggling cars. He intercepts the transporter with his Aston Martin. Bond then goes to Mexico with his BMW Z3, to where he was pointed by questioning the transporter driver, the henchman Whisper. He is trying to track Zukovsky and once he manages, he finds out that behind everything is Dr Hammond Litte, Cherise's father, and that her rescue was just a decoy mission aiming to distract him from the freighter. Bond then engages in race with Xenia Onatopp and her Ferrari F355 after which he gets captured and taken to Louisiana. He manages to escape and finds the stolen BMW, after which he pursues and destroys the boat driven by Jaws. Back in New York, Bond downloads the files from four limousines with his BMW Z8 and discovers that Litte's real plan is to release a deadly virus that will kill millions. Bond then goes to the Baltic Sea with his Lotus Esprit and after infiltrating opponent's underwater base he destroys the plane transporting the virus. ===== The Federation starship Enterprise is on a routine inspection of an unmanned station at Gamma II. Captain Kirk, Communications Officer Lt. Uhura and navigator Ensign Chekov attempt to transport, but disappear before the system is activated. Observing no signs of life from the station, Commander Spock orders a system-wide search for their missing crew members. No trace of them is found, but Spock discovers a faint ion trail, and orders the ship to follow it despite the protests of Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, and Chief Engineer Scott. Meanwhile, Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov find themselves in a gladiator arena on a strange planet. They are attacked by four humanoids and defend themselves for a time but are finally subdued. A humanoid calling himself Galt, Master Thrall of Triskelion, informs the three they are to be trained to participate in games to entertain his masters, the Providers. Each is fitted with a "collar of obedience" that engages when they disobey the Master Thrall's orders. Uhura, Chekov, and Kirk are assigned individual "drill thralls": Lars, Tamoon, and Shahna, respectively; Uhura and Chekov do not get along comfortably with their instructors, but Kirk develops a rapport with Shahna. After a period of training, the Providers bid for the new thralls in their currency, "quatloos". During a run among ancient ruins outside the arena complex, Kirk tries to gain information about the Providers from Shahna, but her collar is activated when she begins to speak too freely. Kirk protests that he should have been the one punished, and when they are returned to their cells, Shahna expresses her appreciation for this. When she moves to embrace him, Kirk knocks her unconscious, and uses her key to free himself, Uhura, and Chekov, but they are stopped by Galt. The Enterprise follows the ion trail where they find a planet with a humanoid settlement. As Spock and McCoy prepare to beam down, the voice of Provider One warns them not to make the attempt. Kirk's voice is also heard, and he brings them up to date. Kirk then challenges the Providers to show themselves and finds himself in an underground chamber, where the Providers are revealed to be three disembodied brains. Kirk offers them a wager: he and his two officers will fight an equal number of thralls. If Kirk and his party win, the Providers will free them, give up their games, and teach the thralls to govern themselves. If they lose, the entire Enterprise crew will become thralls. The Providers agree, but stipulate that Kirk must battle three thralls alone. The match is quickly arranged and, as the Enterprise crew watches from above, Kirk is able to kill two thralls and injure a third. Galt sends in Shahna. Kirk manages to subdue her, and she surrenders. The Providers declare that Kirk has won the wager and unlock the thralls' collars. Shahna expresses a desire to follow Kirk to the stars, but he answers that she and the other thralls must first learn to live in their newfound freedom. ===== The film is about a poor married couple living in New York City. The husband works as a musician and must often travel for work. When returning, his wallet is taken by a gangster. His wife goes to a ball where a man tries to drug her, but his attempt is stopped by the same man who robbed the husband. The two criminals become rivals, and a shootout ensues. The husband gets caught in the shootout and recognizes one of the men as the gangster who took his money. The husband sneaks his wallet back and the gangster goes to safety in the couple's apartment. Policemen track the gangster down but the wife gives him a false alibi. ===== After being connected to the death of a woman in London, Bond is called in by M to aid the investigation. Returning from Hereford, Special Air Service Sergeant Pearlman tags along by driving Bond back, during which they are attacked and involved in a high-speed chase on an English motorway. Upon safely returning to headquarters, Bond is briefed on the investigation by M and Chief Superintendent Bailey. The woman, whom Bond does not know, was found dead with Bond's telephone number. She is a member of a cult society known as "The Meek Ones", operated by a Father Valentine. With additional information from the CIA, the British Secret Service learn that Valentine is an alias for Vladimir Scorpius, an arms dealer for several terrorist organisations. As the country's general election approaches, by the use of brainwashed cult members, Scorpius has begun a "holy war" against every man, woman, and child. The cult members, thinking themselves to be pure, moral, and unsullied, sacrifice their lives for "the greater good of humanity" believing that by performing this "death task" that they will achieve paradise. Throughout the novel, The Meek Ones commit several acts of terrorism, including bombings and assassinations of British politicians. Throughout the horror, Bond meets Harriett Horner, an IRS agent working undercover in England and investigating a credit card company run by Scorpius. The two work together along with Pearlman to attempt to track down Scorpius. After an interrogation of a captured cult member, Horner is taken captive by Scorpius' men. Additionally, Pearlman confesses to Bond that he was secretly giving Scorpius information for the benefit of his daughter who had been brainwashed. Together the two set out for Scorpius' base of operations in South Carolina, having Scorpius believe Pearlman was taking Bond captive. At Scorpius' island, Bond meets up with Horner once again and the two actually marry at the behest of Scorpius. Knowing that the marriage is invalid, Bond agrees to go ahead with it thinking it would buy him time until he can escape. On the night the two decide to escape, Harriett is killed by a water moccasin. At the same time the FBI is conducting a raid of Scorpius' island, which further angers Bond since her death was in vain. Bond returns to the island, finding Scorpius attempting to flee. After giving chase, Bond successfully gets the upper hand and forces Scorpius to die in a similar manner to that of Horner. ===== In a raffle, Mr. Bean wins a holiday by train to Cannes, a video camera, and €200. Before catching his train, Bean causes chaos while sampling French seafood cuisine in a Paris restaurant at Gare de Lyon. Once on the platform, Bean asks a Russian movie director Emil Duchevsky (Karel Roden) to film him boarding the train using his new video camera. Bean keeps asking for retakes, until the train leaves with Bean and Duchevsky's son, Stepan (Max Baldry) on the train and Duchevsky is left behind. Bean and Stepan get off at the next station. Duchevsky's train does not stop at the station, and he holds up a mobile phone number, but accidentally covers up the last two digits. Attempts at calling the number are fruitless. They board the next train but Bean has left his wallet, passport, and ticket in the telephone booth, and they are thrown off the train at the next stop. Bean busks as a mime and buys the pair bus tickets to Cannes. Bean manages to lose both his ticket and Stepan so he sets out walking and hitchhiking. The next morning, he wakes in what appears to be a quaint French village under attack from German soldiers. It transpires to be a film set for a yoghurt advertisement directed by Carson Clay (Willem Dafoe), and Bean becomes an extra in the advert until he accidentally destroys the set in an explosion while recharging his camera. Continuing to hitchhike, Bean is picked up by French actress Sabine (Emma de Caunes), on her way to Cannes Film Festival where the film in which she makes her debut is to be presented. At a service station they find Stepan dancing with a band and take him with them. The trio end up driving through the night. Sabine sees on TV that Bean is suspected of kidnapping Stepan. She doesn't go to the police as she does not want to be late for her film premiere, which is in just one hour. To avoid detection, Bean disguises himself and Stepan as Sabine's mother and daughter to gain entry to Sabine's premiere. At the festival, Bean and Sabine are shocked to see that Sabine's role has been cut from the film. He plugs his video camera into the projector, projecting his video diary. The footage in the camera aligns well with director Carson Clay's narration, winning acclaim from the audience, who enthusiastically cheer Bean, Sabine, and Clay; Stepan appears as the film ends, and is reunited with his father. After the screening, Bean leaves and finally arrives at the beach, where he and the other characters of the film mime a large French musical finale. After the credits, Bean writes "FIN" (finish) in the sand with his foot before the camera's battery dies, ending the film. ===== The plot concerns the marriage of Michael Anton and Pauline Barclay, who meet when he tends to her bloodied brow in his family's grocery store, located in a primarily Eastern European enclave in Baltimore, in December 1941. They marry after Michael is discharged from the Army with a permanent injury caused by a deliberate shot from someone he assaulted. Michael and Pauline settle in a small apartment above the store, but their widely different temperaments and expectations quickly create dissension in the relationship. He is repressed, controlling, and quiet; she is loud, emotional, and romantic. At Pauline's insistence, they move to the suburbs, where they raise three children: Lindy, George and Karen. "Lindy, who has always been a stubborn, willful child, becomes increasingly defiant as a teenager, and one day, she just leaves home -- and doesn't return. Her disappearance -- like the abrupt, sometimes violent events that occur in many Tyler novels, propelling heretofore passive characters into a re-evaluation of their lives -- does not bring her parents closer together, but instead results in another round of accusations and recriminations." Kakutani, Michiko (January 9, 2004) "Books of the Times: He's Stodgy, She's Zany, Till Death Do Them Part,” New York Times. Lindy runs away to San Francisco in 1960 and becomes involved in the growing drug culture. Eight years later, her parents retrieve Pagan, Lindy's three-year-old son, while Lindy detoxes in a rehab community. "The lives of the Antons, of course, are not just about fighting; Pauline and Michael are also tied to each other by their children, by shared adventures and, as the years pass, by bonds of memory and inertia. Caring for aging parents, witnessing the illnesses and travails of friends, adapting to a move to the suburbs -- these are all experiences that bind Pauline and Michael to each other, even as their very different temperaments and interests increasingly pull them apart." The slowly crumbling marriage finally dissolves when Michael leaves Pauline on their 30th anniversary. For Michael, convinced that he and Pauline didn't have the faintest idea what they were doing when they married or how to conduct a marriage (that they were "amateurs"), divorce is a salvation. For Pauline, it's a tragedy that leaves her in despair. The last third of the novel pursues how Michael, Pauline, and their children deal with moving on with the rest of their lives after the divorce. Michael remarries and Pauline forms new friendships but struggles with loneliness and dealing with day-to-day demands of an older single woman living in a big old house. ===== Two months following Zero's victory over Elpizo, the Dark Elf remains at large. During this time, Ciel has finished her research on a new energy supply to end the crisis, dubbed the "Ciel System". While en route to Neo Arcadia to propose the Ciel System in hopes of ending the conflict and the genocide of Reploids, a spaceship with the Dark Elf's energy reading crashes to Earth. Zero sets out to investigate, but instead finds the remaining Guardians (Harpuia, Fefnir, and Leviathan) fighting against a gigantic Reploid named Omega and a scientist named Dr. Weil — both who were banished to space due to their crimes in instigating the Elf Wars and turning the Mother Elf into the Dark Elf a century prior. Dr. Weil reveals he has resurrected Copy X, who resumes his rule over Neo Arcadia, much to Harpuia's chagrin. The Guardians, suspecting that Copy X is being heavily influenced by Dr. Weil, defect from Neo Arcadia. Zero and Dr. Weil go their separate ways in search of the Dark Elf. The Dark Elf appears in a human residential district in Neo Arcadia, leading Dr. Weil and Copy X to launch a missile in order to incapacitate it. Although successful in capturing the Dark Elf, the incident kills thousands of humans. Following this event, Ciel rescinds her offer of the Ciel System, leading Dr. Weil and Copy X to brand the Resistance as Mavericks and subsequently launch an invasion against them. The Resistance is able to delay the invasion until Zero locates Copy X. During the ensuing battle, Copy X is betrayed and killed by Dr. Weil, who declares himself the new ruler of Neo Arcadia and announces his true intention for capturing the Dark Elf: to fuse it with Omega and link them with a frequency transmitter that would enable Omega to control the minds of every Reploid on Earth. Zero confronts and defeats Omega, who reveals his true form: a body that looks exactly like Zero. Dr. Weil reveals that while Zero was powered down during his 100-year hibernation, he had transferred Zero's conscience and memories to a copy body and stole Zero's original body to be used by Omega due to its unmatched fighting abilities. Despite this revelation, Zero and the Guardians destroy his original body, killing Omega for good. Omega's death results in a massive explosion, which frees the Dark Elf from Dr. Weil's corruption, but kills Harpuia, Fefnir and Leviathan. While Zero is unconscious, X appears and tells Zero that it's up to him to protect the Earth and defeat Dr. Weil. Finally out of power, X vanishes forever. The Dark Elf, known as the Mother Elf once more, delivers Zero to the Resistance Base before flying away. ===== The narrator of the novella is the journalist Paul Pokriefke, who was born on 30 January 1945 on the day that the Strength Through Joy ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff, was sunk. His young mother-to-be, Tulla Pokriefke (born in Danzig, and already known to readers from two parts of the Danzig Trilogy, Cat and Mouse and Dog Years), found herself among the more than 10,000 passengers on the ship and was among those saved when it went down. According to Tulla, Paul was born at the moment the ship sank, on board the torpedo boat which had rescued them. His life is heavily influenced by these circumstances, above all because his mother Tulla continually urges him to fulfill his 'duty' and to commemorate the event in writing. In the course of his research, the narrator discovers by chance that his estranged son Konrad (Konny) has also developed an interest in the ship as a result of Tulla's influence. On his website ('blutzeuge.de') he explores the murder of Gustloff and the sinking of the ship, in part through a dialogue in which he adopts the role of Gustloff, and that of David Frankfurter is taken by another young man, Wolfgang Stremplin. The two eventually meet in Schwerin, Konny's and Gustloff's hometown. Wolfgang, though not Jewish, projects a Jewish persona. He spits three times on the former memorial to Gustloff, thus desecrating it in Konny's eyes. Konny shoots him dead, mirroring the shooting of Gustloff by Frankfurter; after the deed he hands himself in to the police and states that, "I shot because I am a German"; Frankfurter had said, "I shot because I am a Jew". The narrator is eventually forced to realise that his imprisoned son has himself become a new martyr, and is celebrated as such by neo-Nazis on the Internet. ===== The narrator, who speaks throughout the entire cartoon, opens the story by talking about a planet far off in space. On this planet, there is a race of Martians who are advanced and have happiness all throughout their lives, except for one Martian who is fed up with his homeworld's perfect society. Levitating in the air, passing through solid objects, and projecting images from his blue antenna do nothing but bore him. When an attractive female Martian offers to pitch some love to the Martian, he just turns her away, causing her to melt. The Martian then goes to see a psychiatrist, who recommends that he must travel to another world to cure his boredom. The Martian leaves the planet in a flying saucer that is launched by slingshot and sent deep into space. After some time (including punching a leaking hole in the Big Dipper), he enters the Earth's solar system and stops at Earth. Observing typical urban scenery and activities of the people on Earth (television antennas, people with huge and little cars, children watching Cowboys and Indians on TV, and teenagers dancing to jukebox tunes), the Martian decides he likes this planet and to land there, so he can bestow the people of Earth with his planet's more superior culture. As the Martian's flying saucer lands in Atlanta, Georgia, a crowd of people gather round the ship, and seeing the Martian, they run away screaming "Monster!" The Martian is confused about the monster everybody is talking about and gets arrested by the police for landing in a "no parking" zone. After he gets questioned by the authorities he is put in a jail cell, but the Martian leaves the cell by passing through the walls, causing the prison guard to cry out for his mother while he sounds the escape whistle. The next morning, a tall man and a short man are reading the newspapers about the Martian's escape. The tall man makes a comment about the Martian based on the newspaper's description ("Terrible thing, this raving alien monster, roaming the countryside, devouring innocent people, striking terror into the hearts of millions, and leaving behind a trail of chaos and destruction") to which the short man scolds "If you can't say anything nice about someone, you shouldn't say anything at all." As the tall man walks away, the Martian goes up to the short man and hugs him, causing the short man to turn white with fright and call the Martian exactly the same description the tall man gave before fleeing in terror. Still confused about the "monster", the Martian vows to seek out and destroy it. As the Martian passes a construction site, he spots a steam shovel at work. Assuming that this is the monster everybody is talking about, he whips out a ray gun labeled as an ACME Atom Rearranger, and shoots the steam shovel, turning it into a dragon that licks the now white with fright construction worker that was operating it, and waddles off with him on its back. Satisfied that the "monster" has been destroyed, the Martian walks off confidently, eager to do more good deeds for Earth. As the Martian passes a red-haired boy reading a comic book, the boy says "Hello, monster" directly at the Martian. Confused as to what the boy just said, the Martian asks the boy if he really called him "monster", to which the boy nods, showing him something that he had found in his comic book: a page with a picture of the Martian that informs the reader that a space monster has no nose, which the Martian indeed does not have. The Martian gets the idea to remove his antenna and put it on his face to pass it off as a nose, but the boy leaves and says "Goodbye, monster." Now realizing he is the monster, the Martian sinks back into depression and runs through a nightmarish landscape, a dark voice all around him calling him "monster" and berating him to go home. Just as the Martian ducks into an alley, the narrator recommends that the Martian could just commit suicide, since nobody loves him. The Martian takes out his ray gun and prepares to blow his brains out, when the narrator helps him remember that somebody does love him. Taking this advice to heart, the Martian puts his antenna back in place on his head and remembers the female Martian he had turned down earlier. As the narrator says someday, a new constellation will appear, the Martian, now wanting to seek happiness back on his home planet, blasts off back home, which is seen as a star in a constellation of stars that form a heart. The narrator concludes the story by saying that when this new constellation does appear, no one will ever be bored on the Martian's planet. ===== Bounty hunter Jack Walsh is enlisted by bail bondsman Eddie Moscone to bring accountant Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas back to Los Angeles. The accountant had embezzled $15 million from Chicago mob boss Jimmy Serrano before skipping on the $450,000 bail Moscone had posted for him. Walsh must bring Mardukas back within five days, or Moscone defaults. Moscone says the job is easy, a "midnight run", but Walsh demands $100,000. Walsh is then approached by FBI Agent Alonzo Mosely, who wants Mardukas to be a witness against Serrano and orders Walsh to keep away from Mardukas. Walsh takes no notice of this and instead steals Mosely's ID, which he uses to pass himself off as an FBI agent along his journey. Serrano's henchmen Tony and Joey offer Walsh $1 million to turn Mardukas over to them, but he turns them down. Walsh captures Mardukas in New York City and calls Moscone from the airport, not knowing that Moscone's line is tapped by the FBI and that his assistant Jerry is secretly tipping off Serrano's men. However, Mardukas fakes a panic attack on the plane, forcing the two men to travel via train. When Walsh and Mardukas fail to show up in Los Angeles on time, Moscone brings in rival bounty hunter Marvin Dorfler to find them. Dorfler tracks them to the train and attempts to take The Duke from Walsh, but Walsh gets the drop on him and leaves the train. However, he discovers when he attempts to purchase bus tickets with a credit card that Dorfler canceled the card. Without funds, he is forced to rely on other means to get across the country, including stealing cars, borrowing his ex-wife's car in Chicago, and hitchhiking. Meanwhile, word of the skirmish on the train reaches Mosely's ears and he leads a task force to find Walsh and Mardukas. Walsh eventually reveals that, 10 years before, he was an undercover officer in Chicago trying to get close to a drug dealer who had almost the entire police force on his payroll. Eventually, just as Jack was going to bust the dealer, he had heroin planted in his house by corrupt cops. In order to avoid either going to prison or working for the dealer, Walsh resigned from the force, left Chicago and became a bounty hunter, while his wife divorced him and married a corrupt lieutenant. Since then, however, Walsh has clung to the vain hope that he will one day be reunited with his ex-wife. Later, Mardukas learns that the drug dealer was Serrano, with Walsh not caring about the likelihood of Mardukas getting murdered by the man who ruined Walsh's life. In Arizona, Dorfler takes Mardukas away from Walsh, who is later found by Mosely and arrested. In Mosely's custody, Walsh is allowed his right to make phone calls and while arguing with Moscone over the phone, Walsh realizes that Dorfler intends to turn Mardukas over to Serrano for $2 million. However, Dorfler accidentally reveals to Serrano's men where he is keeping Mardukas and is knocked unconscious by Serrano's men, who go after Mardukas themselves. Walsh calls Serrano's men and bluffs that he has computer disks created by Mardukas with enough information to put Serrano away, but promises to hand the disks over if Serrano returns Mardukas to him unharmed. Jack arranges a deal with Mosely to frame Serrano in turn for his release and to allow him to deliver Mardukas to Moscone. He meets up with Serrano while wearing a wire and being watched by the FBI. Dorfler spots Mardukas and interrupts the exchange, unknowingly disabling the wire. After Serrano takes the disks, the FBI closes in, arresting Serrano and his henchmen. Mosely turns Mardukas over to Walsh with enough time to return him to Los Angeles before midnight. However, Walsh calls Moscone to confirm he's made the deadline, then promptly lets Mardukas go. Before parting, Walsh gives Mardukas the watch his wife gave him before their marriage. In return, Mardukas gives Walsh $300,000 in a money belt he had been hiding, insisting that it is a 'gift' not a payoff—since Walsh had already chosen to let him go. Walsh accepts and flags down a taxi, asking the driver if he has change for a $1,000 bill, but the taxi drives away, so he heads home on foot. ===== The story begins on July 23, 1773, in the Boston silversmith shop of elderly Ephraim Lapham, where Johnny is a promising 14-year-old apprentice. It is understood that someday he will marry Mr. Lapham's granddaughter Cilla to keep the shop within the Lapham family. The shop soon receives a challenging and urgent order from wealthy merchant John Hancock to make a silver dish to replace one that Mr. Lapham fashioned decades before. While preparing Hancock's order, Johnny's hand is badly burned when Dove, an older apprentice resentful of Johnny, deliberately gives him a cracked crucible that leaks molten silver. Johnny's hand is crippled beyond use, and he can no longer be a silversmith. Johnny's youthful pride is crushed by the injury, which has made him useful only as an unskilled errand boy. He goes off to find a new job that will accept his crippled hand. After a series of rejections, Johnny reaches the low point of his young life. While searching for jobs, he encounters in a printshop a young typesetter named Rab Silsbee, who is friendly to him. He then decides to turn to Mr. Lyte, a wealthy Boston merchant. Johnny explains that his mother told him that he and Mr. Lyte are related and as a last resort, to turn to him for help. Lyte requests the proof, and Johnny shows him a silver cup with the Lyte family's crest. Lyte says it was stolen from him in a burglary, and Johnny is arrested because it was believed that he had stolen it. Eventually, Johnny is freed by the court after Rab brings Cilla to court and she testifies that he showed her his cup before the burglary ever took place. Johnny settles into a job delivering a weekly newspaper, the Boston Observer. The Observer is a Whig publication, and Johnny is introduced to the larger world of pre-revolutionary Boston politics by his new friend Rab. Johnny learns to ride and care for Goblin, a beautiful but skittish horse used to make deliveries, and moves in with Rab in the attic of the newspaper's shop. As months go by and tension between Whigs and Tories rises, Johnny becomes a dedicated Whig himself. Johnny matures and re-evaluates many personal relationships, including that with Cilla, who becomes a trusted friend and fellow Whig. Johnny and Rab take part in the Boston Tea Party, in which Boston patriots throw a shipload of tea into the harbor rather than allow the ship's owner to unload the tea and pay a tax imposed by Parliament without the consent of the people of Britain's American colonies. In retaliation Britain sends an army to occupy Boston and closes the port, inflicting hardship upon the inhabitants of this commercial and trading town. Johnny acts as a spy for the Sons of Liberty, a secret organization of Boston Whigs fomenting resistance to Britain when in addition to his newspaper deliveries, he is paid by British officers to carry their letters to outlying towns. He becomes a trusted member working with prominent Whig leaders John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere and Doctor Joseph Warren. Rab is also a member and drills with the Minutemen at Lexington, but he frets at not having a modern musket with which to fight. Johnny, unable to fight because of his hand, obtains a musket for Rab by helping a British soldier to desert. However, he is badly disturbed when the deserter is caught and executed. The novel reaches its climax in April 1775 with the outbreak and immediate aftermath of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Prior to the battle, the leading Whig leaders convene in the attic where Johnny and Rab sleep. James Otis Jr., once an active member but recently shunned by the group due to his recurrent bouts of insanity, comes to the meeting uninvited. Otis, quite sane on this night, stands hunched under the sloped beams of the Observer's attic and explains to those present what the impending fight with the British is really about: "We give all we have . . . even life itself—only that a man can stand up." Although the beginning of the war has brought about the death of Rab, the scorned American militia have defeated the powerful British army in their first battle. Johnny submits to an operation by Doctor Warren that will repair his hand and allow him to take up Rab's musket. ===== In July 1849, in the middle of the dilapidated town Goldville, Little Kitty observes near a gathering, a poster announcing a young prospector Beans about to hunt for gold in Red Gulch. Little Kitty takes the poster and shows it to Porky. Meanwhile, Beans strikes gold from a mountain slot machine, rides off to Goldville and puts the word out, making all the locals leave in pursuit of the gold source. Beans and Porky followed by Ham and Ex head off to the gold source and get digging. Suddenly Beans uncovers a trunk containing a book on how to find gold. Then a greedy bandit spies Beans' bag of gold and snitches it with a lasso fired from his rifle. Beans pursues the bandit on Porky's request hoping to get Little Kitty's hand in marriage. After a wild gunfight, Beans supercharges his car dragging the bandit, the bag of gold and Porky along and back to Goldville. Porky reveals that what the bandit stole was in fact his lunch bag. ===== Becker, a hotshot American marketing executive (played by Roberts) from The Coca-Cola Company, visits their Australian operations in Sydney and tries to figure out why a tiny corner of Australia (the fictional town of Anderson Valley) has so far resisted all of Coke's products. He literally bumps into the secretary (played by Scacchi) who is assigned to help him. Eventually Becker discovers that a local producer of soft drinks run by an old eccentric has been successfully fending off the American brand name products. The executive vows an all out marketing war with the eccentric but eventually comes to reconsider his role as a cog in Coca- Cola's giant corporate machinery. Along the way there are humorous subplots involving the office manager's violent ex-husband, Becker's attempt to find the 'Australian sound', and an odd waiter who is under the mistaken belief that Becker is a secret agent. =====