From Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ===== In 1950, attorney Charles Phalen is contacted by an elderly man named "Brushy Bill" Roberts. Brushy Bill tells Phalen that he is dying and wants to receive a pardon that he was promised 70 years before by the governor of New Mexico, claiming that he is really William H. Bonney aka "Billy The Kid", whom "everyone" knows to have been shot and killed by Pat Garrett in 1881. Phalen then asks if Bill has any proof that he is the famous outlaw. Brushy Bill's story begins with the remaining Regulators having gone their separate ways. Billy has become part of a new gang with "Arkansas" Dave Rudabaugh (Slater) and Pat Garrett (Petersen). The New Mexico governor has issued warrants for the arrests of those involved in the Lincoln County Wars, including Billy, Doc Scurlock (Sutherland), and Jose Chavez y Chavez (Phillips), who are dragged into town and imprisoned to await hanging. Meanwhile, Billy meets with the new governor Lew Wallace who agrees to pardon Billy if he testifies against the Dolan-Murphy faction. Billy soon finds out that he was tricked into being arrested with no chance of testifying against his old enemies. After escaping, Billy along with the help of Rudabaugh and Garrett, pose as a lynch mob to spring Doc and Chavez from jail. When the gang successfully escape Lincoln, Billy mentions the Mexican Blackbird (a broken trail only a few others and he know that leads to Mexico). Garrett decides not to go with the gang, and instead, opens a boarding house. Rudabaugh, clearly in competition with Billy, wants to lead the gang. As they make a run for the border along with farmer Hendry William French (Alan Ruck) and 14-year-old Tom O'Folliard (Balthazar Getty), cattle baron John Simpson Chisum (James Coburn) and Governor Wallace approach Garrett to offer him the job as Lincoln County sheriff and $1000 to use whatever resources he needs to hunt Bonney down and kill him. Garrett agrees, and forming a posse, begins his pursuit of the gang. Chisum was approached by Billy earlier in the film, and Chisum refused to help. So, Billy steals some of his cattle to get money they can use to get to Mexico. Billy and the gang soon come to the town of White Oaks, where they meet with former companion, Jane Greathouse (Jenny Wright), who runs a local bordello. Later that night, the town lynch mob comes for the gang and is intent on a hanging. Deputy Carlisle tries to negotiate a deal, "the Indian" (Chavez) for a safe ride out. Billy refuses the offer and pushes the deputy out the door, who is then accidentally killed by the lynch mob. Garrett soon tracks Billy to the bordello, but is too late. In response to rebuffs by Jane, Garrett uses his newfound power as Lincoln County sheriff to declare her bordello a "house of sin", and burns it down. Jane decides to strip naked to humiliate the townsfolk and leave town. Meanwhile, Billy and his gang are continuously tracked by Garrett's posse, narrowly evading capture, but Tom (being mistaken for Billy) is soon shot dead by Garrett. As they hide out, Billy admits that the Mexican Blackbird does not exist; it was just a pawn to get the gang back together and to keep riding. Doc is angered and tries to leave for home, but he is shot by one of Garrett's men and sacrifices himself to enable his friends to escape an ambush. Billy the Kid is soon brought back into Lincoln by Garrett and is sentenced to death by hanging. He is then visited by Jane Greathouse, who arranges to leave a pistol in an outhouse. Billy uses the pistol to kill two guards and escapes to Old Fort Sumner. By the time he arrives, Dave has abandoned the group to make his way to Mexico, and Chavez is dying from a bullet wound he sustained during the ambush that killed Doc. During the night, Garrett finds Billy unarmed. Billy asks Garrett to let him run to Mexico and tell the authorities that he killed him. Garrett declines because he believes Billy would not be able to resist coming back to the United States (which would lead to Garrett's death for lying). Billy turns around, forcing Garrett to have to shoot him in the back, which he does not. In the morning, a fake burial is staged for Billy, and Garrett's horse is seen being taken by an unknown figure (implied to be Billy). Brushy Bill admits he never stole a horse from someone he did not like, and further admits he did not just like Garrett, he loved him. Phalen, convinced that Brushy Bill is Billy the Kid, agrees to help him. The epilogue reveals that Arkansas Dave was beheaded once he reached Mexico to discourage more outlaws from crossing the border; Garrett's book detailing his pursuit of Billy was a dismal failure and he is eventually shot and killed in 1908; Brushy Bill met with the governor of New Mexico, but despite corroboration from several surviving friends of the Kid, he was discredited and died less than a month later; whether or not Brushy Bill was Billy the Kid remains a mystery. The final shot shows Billy pointing his gun at an off-screen target, saying to the target "I'll make you famous". ===== Eccentric tycoon Donald Sinclair devises a game to entertain the high rollers who visit his Las Vegas casino. He arranges for six competitors to race to Silver City, New Mexico, where $2 million is in a train station locker. Sinclair's guests place bets on who will win. The racers consist of brothers Duane and Blaine Cody, businesswoman Merrill Jennings and her mother Vera, football referee Owen Templeton, the Pear family led by Randy Pear, narcoleptic Italian tourist Enrico Pollini, and no nonsense attorney Nick Schaffer. They initially agree not to play, but greed takes over and they start to race. The Codys destroy the airport radar after they cannot get a plane ticket. They decide to split up. They have a locksmith create a duplicate key for the locker, but he overhears their plan and absconds with the key. The brothers give chase, and the locksmith gets away in a hot air balloon. They catch him and leave him and an unlucky cow hanging from the balloon's anchor rope. While flirting with girls driving on the highway, the brothers lose control and crash into a monster truck rally. Their car is flattened by a monster truck, so they steal the truck and drive it to Silver City. Owen is kicked out of a taxi in the desert as the driver's revenge for making a bad call at a football game. Finding a gas station, he cons a bus driver out of his uniform and hijacks a busload of Lucille Ball cosplayers. The bus crashes after hitting the dangling cow. Owen has an emotional breakdown and reveals that he is not the bus driver, resulting in the enraged women chasing him. Owen escapes and rides a stolen horse to Silver City. Merrill and Vera are given malicious road directions and crash their rental car. They happen upon a group trying to set a land speed record. They steal the rocket car and drive it until it runs out of fuel. Disoriented after hitting Mach 1, the two merge with a group of mental patients loading on a bus for Silver City. The Pear family visit a Klaus Barbie museum (mistaking it for a museum about the doll), where they steal Hitler's staff car, after the Cody brothers sabotage their rental van. When his family insists on ending the trip, Randy slips sleeping pills in their milkshakes. The Neo-Nazis find their stolen car, so Randy loads his sleeping family into a semi-truck headed for Silver City. Nick chooses not to participate but changes his mind when he meets Tracy Faucet, who offers him a lift in her helicopter. Tracy uses her helicopter to attack her cheating boyfriend. Her aerobatics damage the helicopter, and they do a hard landing. They hijack the boyfriend's truck and drive to Silver City. Enrico falls asleep at the start and wakes up hours later. Hailing a taxi, he is struck by an ambulance. Zack, the driver, offers Enrico a ride. Zack is going through Silver City on his way to deliver a transplant heart. Zack opens the cooler for Enrico to see the heart, which gets lost through the open passenger window. It is stolen by a dog, which is then electrocuted by an electric fence. Zack decides to kill Enrico for his heart. Enrico escapes by jumping onto a passing train to Silver City. He reaches the locker first, only to fall asleep before opening it. The rest of the racers make it to the station at the same time and fight to open the locker, only to find it empty. Sinclair's assistant Grisham and Vicki, a call girl from Vegas, are driving off with the money. The locksmith maneuvers the balloon to drop the cow on Grisham. The locksmith jumps into the back seat. He ties the money to the balloon, which gets away from him. The racers chase the balloon in a stolen bus, eventually crashing into a charity concert, where the dangling bag has snagged. The band (Smash Mouth) and crowd mistake the money for a donation. The group doesn’t want to donate the money, but eventually does. Nick horrifies an arriving Sinclair and his partners by announcing that they will match any money raised. The racers dance while Sinclair cries over losing at least $19 million in his game. ===== Scott Howard is a 17-year-old high school student who is sick of being average. Living in a small town in Nebraska, his only claim to popularity is playing on the Beavers, his school's basketball team (which is very unsuccessful), and fawning after his crush Pamela Wells, who is dating his rival Mick. Mick plays for the Dragons, an opposing team who tends to bully Scott on the court. Completely oblivious to his best friend Boof's affections, he constantly rebuffs her advances due to their history together. After a series of startling changes such as long hair suddenly sprouting, hands suddenly getting hairy, he decides to quit the team, but his coach, Finstock, changes his mind. Scoring a keg with his friend Stiles for a party, Scott and Boof end up alone in a closet and Scott gets rough when they begin making out, accidentally clawing Boof's back. When he returns home, he undergoes a strange transformation and discovers he is a werewolf. His father Harold confronts him and reveals he too is a werewolf, and that he had hoped Scott would not inherit the curse because "sometimes it skips a generation". Scott reveals his secret to Stiles, who agrees to keep it a secret, but when Scott becomes stressed on the court at the next basketball game, he becomes the wolf and helps win their first game in three years. This has an unexpected result of fame and popularity as the high school is overwhelmed with "Wolf Fever", which quickly alienates Scott from Boof and from his teammates as he begins to hog the ball during games. Stiles merchandises "Teen Wolf" paraphernalia and Pamela finally begins paying attention to Scott. After he gets a role as a 'werewolf cavalryman' in the school play alongside her, she comes onto him in the dressing room and the two have sex. Later, after a date set up to make Mick jealous on purpose, Pamela tells Scott that she is still seeing Mick and is not interested in Scott as a boyfriend, much to his disappointment. Harold tells Scott he is responsible for vice principal Rusty Thorne breathing down his neck, due to a scare he had given him when he was in high school, and advises him to be himself and not the wolf. With the upcoming spring dance, Boof agrees to go with Scott, but only if he goes as himself, not the Wolf. Scott goes alone as the Wolf and has a great time. However, Boof is not impressed with this. She takes Scott out into the hallway and they kiss, which turns Scott back into himself. When they return to the dance, everyone pays attention to him, including Pamela. Mick gets upset, insults Boof and taunts Scott until the Wolf comes out and angrily attacks him. The crowd looks shocked at his change of character and he runs out of the hall, right into Thorne, who threatens to expel Scott from school. Harold appears and tells his son to go home, then tells Thorne to leave Scott alone. He intimidates Thorne by growling into his face, causing the Vice Principal to pee himself. Scott renounces using the wolf, quitting the play and the basketball team, who have come to expect it. During the championship game, Scott arrives and rallies his teammates to play without the wolf in order to win the game. Despite the odds, the team begins to play together and they make ground against the Dragons. During the final quarter, behind by one point, Scott is fouled by Mick at the buzzer. He makes both shots, winning the game and the championship to everyone's delight. Brushing past Pamela, Scott kisses Boof as his father comes down and hugs the two of them. Mick tells Pamela that they should leave, but she tells him to "drop dead" and storms off while everyone else celebrates the victory. ===== Danny Madigan is a teenager living in a crime-ridden area of New York City with his widowed mother, Irene. Following his father's death, Danny takes comfort in watching action films, especially those featuring the indestructible Los Angeles cop Jack Slater, at his local movie theater owned by Nick, who also acts as the projectionist. Nick gives Danny a golden ticket once owned by Harry Houdini, to see an early preview of the latest Jack Slater film before its official release. During the film, the ticket stub magically transports Danny inside the fictional world of the film, interrupting Slater in the middle of a car chase. After escaping their pursuers, Slater takes Danny to the LAPD headquarters, where Danny points out the fictional nature of the world, such as the presence of a cartoon cat detective named Whiskers, and that Slater's friend John Practice is played by the same actor who was the antagonist that killed Mozart from Amadeus and should not be trusted; Slater takes these as part of Danny's wild imagination. Slater's supervisor, Lt. Dekker, assigns Danny as his new partner, and he instructs them to investigate criminal activities related to mobster Tony Vivaldi. Danny guides Slater to Vivaldi's mansion, having recognized its location from the start of the film. There, they meet Vivaldi and his henchman, Mr. Benedict. Danny explains the criminal deeds that the two had carried out from the film, but Slater has no evidence, and they are forced to leave; however, Benedict is curious as to how Danny knew of what transpired, and he and several hired guns follow Slater and Danny back to Slater's home. There, Slater, his daughter Whitney, and Danny thwart the attack, though Benedict ends up getting the ticket stub. He discovers its ability to transport him out of the film. Slater learns of Vivaldi's plan to murder his rival mob by releasing a lethal gas during a funeral atop a skyscraper. He and Danny go to stop it, but are waylaid by Practice, who reveals that Danny was right as he was working for Vivaldi. Whiskers kills Practice, saving Slater and Danny, and the two manage to prevent any deaths by the gas release. Learning that Vivaldi's plan has failed, Benedict kills him, and he uses the stub to escape into the real world, pursued by Slater and Danny. Slater becomes despondent upon learning the truth, as well as his mortality in the real world, but cheers up after spending some time with Irene. Meanwhile, Benedict devises a plan to kill Arnold Schwarzenegger, the one portraying Slater in the film, from which he then can bring other villains from other films into the real world and take over. To help, Benedict brings the Ripper, the villain of the previous Jack Slater movie, to assassinate Schwarzenegger. Danny and Slater learn of this and race to the premiere. Slater saves Schwarzenegger and electrocutes the Ripper. Benedict appears and shoots Slater, critically injuring him. Danny subdues and disarms Benedict, allowing Slater to grab his revolver and say: "No sequel for you." to him and kill him by shooting his explosive glass eye; however, this also causes the stub to be lost. With Slater losing blood, Danny knows that the only way to save him is to return him to the fictional world, since he is indestructible there. The figure of Death from the film The Seventh Seal, who had previously escaped his film, appears before them. Danny holds Death at gunpoint, but Death clarifies he was simply curious of Jack Slater as "a man who could not die". Death then suggests that he search for the other stub of the ticket. Danny finds the stub and is able to take Slater back into the film, with his wounds instantly healing. Danny returns to the real world before the portal closes. A recovered Slater then enthusiastically embraces the true nature of his reality when he talks to Dekker about his new plan, appreciating the differences between it and the "real" world. ===== James "The Grim Reaper" Roper (Damon Wayans), the undefeated heavyweight boxing champ of the world, defeats his latest challenger with ease and visits an after-party thrown by the Rev. Fred Sultan (Samuel L. Jackson), a conniving and manipulative businessman who also acts as Roper's fight promoter. The Sultan relays some bad news to everyone: The fight was a financial flop. He deduces the reason that boxing events have become far less profitable is because audience members are sick of watching only black boxers fight each other. The Sultan predicts that a white contender, even one without a viable chance of winning, would create a huge payday for all involved in the fight (citing the Larry Holmes vs. Gerry Cooney battle in 1982 and the playing of the race card in that instance as a precedent), and he vows to either find or "create" a white contender in no time at all. After failing to find a white boxer currently in the sport suitable by any means, he discovers that Roper actually lost to a white boxer, Terry Conklin (Peter Berg), back in his amateur days. The Sultan and his unethical crew (which contains actors Cheech Marin, Jon Lovitz, Salli Richardson and Corbin Bernsen) find Conklin in Cleveland, where he fronts a heavy metal band, advocates peace and Buddhism, and constantly preaches progressive social issues. Conklin is uninterested in returning to boxing to face Roper, though he is eventually coaxed through ego- stroking by the Sultan and a promise of $10 million to help his quest in eradicating homelessness. Conklin arrives in Las Vegas, where he is "cleaned up," and starts to train for his return to the ring. Thanks to shady dealing, Conklin suddenly is named the No. 8 challenger in the world. Boxing pundits (including Bert Sugar who portrays himself in the film) and officials easily see the scam unfolding and label the fight a disgrace. No matter, though, as the prospect of a white vs. black fight appears to be as lucrative as first hoped. Conklin gets in shape quickly, regaining some of his old form, while Roper dismisses the fight as a joke - to the point where he puts on 25 pounds and is barely able to run after an ice cream truck. Meanwhile, crusading television journalist Mitchell Kane (Jeff Goldblum) has finally gathered enough evidence to disgrace the unethical Sultan, but at the last moment, Kane is seduced by power and joins the Sultan's squad. As the Sultan's ego grows, Kane sees an opportunity to usurp him in power. Though Conklin was never believed to stand a chance in the fight, Kane recognizes that Conklin may actually win, and has Conklin sign with him, rather than the Sultan. Throughout all this, the true top contender to the heavyweight title, Marvin Shabazz (Michael Jace), and his manager Hassan El Ruk'n (Jamie Foxx) are repeatedly denied the rightful chance to a fight, and they proceed to cause a headache for everyone involved in the hype scam. The Sultan and his crew (using the media) heavily promote the fight and publicize the white vs. black angle, even fabricating an Irish ancestor for Conklin. The racial angle works, and money starts to pour in. On the fight day, millions tune into Pay-Per-View for the fight, and Kane is confident about a new era beginning with a Conklin upset. The fight begins, and Conklin gets in only one good punch before the out-of-shape Roper easily dispatches his foe - which was the plan all along. Conklin quits boxing again; Kane's plan falls short; the Sultan cleans up financially; Roper's critics are silenced; and Shabazz, refusing to wait any longer, attacks the champ inside the ring. As the two fistfight, the Sultan screams to not give away something they can sell. Shabazz then knocks out Roper during their ongoing melee inside the ring. Sultan then proceeds to step over Roper's unconscious body and promotes the next fight; Shabazz vs Roper. ===== Young genius Matilda Wormwood is a 6-year-old first grader who is regularly neglected and mistreated by her father Harry who is a used car salesman, her mother Zinnia who is a bingo player, and her older brother Michael. She is smart, independent and frequently goes to the public library where she finds solace in the fictional worlds of the books. When Matilda's parents refuse to enroll her into school, she retaliates against them, first by adding hydrogen peroxide bleaching agent to her father's hair tonic and then by gluing his hat to his head. When Harry rips up the library's copy of Moby-Dick (which he had found offensive because of the title) and forces Matilda to watch television instead, Matilda becomes increasingly enraged until the television explodes. Harry sells a car to Miss Agatha Trunchbull, the tyrannical principal of Crunchem Hall Elementary School, in exchange for her admitting Matilda as a pupil. At school, Matilda makes friends but discovers Trunchbull's harsh punishments of the students, while Matilda's teacher, Miss Jennifer Honey, takes a liking to Matilda due to her intelligence; Honey requests Matilda be moved up to a higher class, but Trunchbull refuses. Miss Honey tells the Wormwoods about Matilda's genius- level intellect, but they ignore her while Matilda discovers that her father is under surveillance by undercover FBI agents Bob and Bill (with whom Zinnia flirts) because of his illegal dealings. Her parents refuse to believe her as they assume that the agents are "speedboat salesmen". In an attempt to hide it, one of Matilda's friends puts a newt in Trunchbull's water jug to scare her. Trunchbull accuses Matilda, whose anger at the injustice leads her to telekinetically tip the glass over, splashing the newt onto Trunchbull. However, Matilda is then unable to display her powers to Honey during a test run. Honey remarks that often one's confidence in themselves leads them to prove it to others, only to have them mess up. Honey invites Matilda over to her house for tea and reveals a secret: when she was two, her mother died and her father, a doctor, invited his wife’s stepsister, Miss Trunchbull, to live with them and look after her, but Trunchbull abused her; when Honey was five, her father died of an alleged suicide and left everything to Trunchbull. When Matilda and Honey sneak inside Trunchbull's house to obtain some of the latter's belongings, Trunchbull's sudden return prompts the duo to barely escape without getting caught. Matilda trains her telekinetic power by making objects fly around the house and thwarting the FBI agents who threaten to put her in an orphanage. Having practiced her ability, she returns to Trunchbull's house in an attempt to scare her away with telekinesis, but Trunchbull discovers Matilda's presence upon finding her hair ribbon. The next day, after Matilda reveals her powers to Honey, Trunchbull visits the class to make Matilda confess. Matilda magically writes a message on the blackboards, posing as the vengeful soul of Miss Honey's deceased father, Magnus, who accuses Trunchbull of murdering him. Trunchbull attacks the students, but Matilda keeps them safe and she and the other students permanently force her out of the school, and Honey moves back into her true home. The FBI uncovers enough evidence to prosecute Harry, forcing the Wormwoods to flee to Guam. They stop by Honey's home to fetch Matilda, who refuses to go with them and says she would rather be adopted by Honey; remorseful for never understanding her daughter, Zinnia and Harry both sign Matilda's adoption papers and leave. Matilda lives happily with Honey, who then becomes the new principal of Crunchem Hall. ===== In 1969, a platoon of soldiers fight in Vietnam, ending with a soldier dying on a helicopter. As they prepare to be sent into action again, a platoon of the 3d Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), receives five new recruits as replacements—Beletsky, who constantly complains that he won't be able to remember everything he has been taught; Languilli, who is obsessed with sex and annoyed when people mispronounce his name; Washburn, a quiet, conservative man and the only African-American in the batch of replacements; Bienstock, who is outgoing and has volunteered for combat duty in Vietnam; and finally Galvan, the quietest but most promising of the new soldiers. Taken under the wing of their war-weary squad leader, Staff Sgt. Adam Frantz, the recruits spend their early days filling sand bags and struggling to sleep before being placed in Frantz's squad. They are then given a crash-course in battlefield skills, including everything from oral hygiene to a demonstration by a Viet Cong deserter on how skilfully enemy troops can penetrate perimeter U.S. defenses. Frantz does his best to prepare the new soldiers for combat, but expresses frustration before the VC deserter silently penetrates a barbed wire barrier and aims a rocket launcher at them. Aside from the replacements, the platoon has a new commander, Lieutenant Eden, and Sergeant First Class Worcester. The platoon's machine gun team is composed of the burly Private Duffy and his mismatched, bespectacled companion, Private Gaigin. There are also three African-American veterans in the unit: Motown, "Doc" Johnson and Sgt. McDaniel (who has less than a month left on his tour), all of whom have first-hand knowledge of the racial discrimination still practiced in the army. The new arrivals get their first, sudden taste of war when a quiet spell beside a river is interrupted by an enemy mortar barrage. Frantz calls for counter battery fire ending the attack. Several civilians are killed in the exchange and one of the replacements, Galvan, is decapitated by a shell fragment. The death of a soldier further riles up Staff Sgt. Frantz. Soon, the platoon takes part in a major operation and is air-lifted into the A Shau Valley. Shortly after disembarking at the landing zone, they come under automatic weapons fire and a firefight ensues. The North Vietnamese soldiers withdraw after suffering at least one apparent casualty. McDaniel is also killed. This loss provokes considerable bitterness and tension from "Doc" Johnson, who blames Frantz for not getting the short-timer McDaniel a less dangerous assignment. The battalion is initially ordered to reconnoiter a nearby mountain, but is unexpectedly diverted and commences an assault on the enemy-held Hill 937 which soon grows into a major battle as unexpectedly heavy resistance is encountered. The North Vietnamese, rather than using hit-and-run tactics, as they had in previous engagements, instead defend well-entrenched positions. The platoon is forced to attack the hill repeatedly against stubborn opposition. Between assaults, US air-strikes steadily strip away all vegetation with napalm and white phosphorus, leaving the hill a barren, scorched wasteland. In one assault, a battle-crazed and wounded Duffy, wielding an M60, seems on the verge of carrying the day as enemy resistance begins to crumble. However, botched air support by helicopter gunships causes several friendly casualties, to the horror of Lt. Eden and his radio telephone operator, Murphy. The assault fails and Duffy is among the fatalities. In between attacks, the shrinking platoon tries to rest, chattering about social upheaval and unrest back home. Bienstock is devastated by a letter from his girlfriend, whose college friends have told her that it is immoral to remain partnered with a soldier. Beletsky gets a letter on tape from his girl back home and Frantz is surprised (and moved) that she mentions his name. Sergeant Worcester describes to his comrades the alienation and hostility he encountered on his return home from his previous tour of duty, along with the collapse of his marriage and how a good friend, whose son had been killed in Vietnam during the Battle of la Drang in 1965, had been driven to an emotional breakdown by cruel phone calls from anti-war college students gloating over his son's death. Frantz relates a story on how he volunteered for the airborne. "The only reason I went airborne was Collins," he said. However, when orders came down for a dangerous operation, "Collins" refused to participate. Later, Frantz also has a confrontation with a TV reporter, telling him that he has more respect for the NVA on the hill than for the reporter. The increasingly exhausted platoon continues their attempt to capture Hill 937, but to no avail. The tenth assault takes place in torrential rains. Gaigin is killed, Beletsky and "Doc" Johnson are both wounded. Before he is evacuated, Doc tells Frantz and Motown to capture the hill so that they will at least have something to be proud of, but appears to succumb to his wounds moments later as a medevac helicopter lands. Beletsky, despite having received a "million dollar wound," decides to return to his unit. The eleventh and final assault is mounted by the remaining troops whose bitterness and exhaustion is overcome by desperation and unit pride. The final enemy positions are overrun but the cost is heavy. Lieutenant Eden is seriously wounded, losing his arm. Murphy, Worcester, Motown, Bienstock and Languilli are all killed before the few remaining troops make it to the summit. Frantz, stunned by the loss of so many friends, is dazed and wounded by an enemy bayonet. Beletsky, also wounded, but enraged, leads the final push to the summit. A bleeding and weak Frantz also makes it to the top and rests by a stump alongside Beletsky and Washburn as the battlefield finally goes silent. The final image is the now battle-aged, tear-streaked and haunted face of Beletsky as he gazes at the carnage below. Constant radio chatter is overheard, but there is no reply. ===== A fleet of helicopters sprays for medflies and reveals all the characters along the path of their flight. Dr. Ralph Wyman (Matthew Modine) and his wife, Marian (Julianne Moore), meet another couple, Stuart (Fred Ward) and Claire Kane (Anne Archer) – an out-of- work salesman and a party clown respectively – at Zoe Trainer's (Lori Singer's) cello concert and make a spontaneous Sunday dinner date. Marian's sister, Sherri (Madeleine Stowe), is married to philandering cop Gene (Tim Robbins), who invents unbelievable stories to hide his affair with Betty Weathers (Frances McDormand). Betty is in the process of divorcing one of the helicopter pilots, Stormy (Peter Gallagher). Waitress Doreen Piggot (Lily Tomlin) is married to an alcoholic limo driver, Earl (Tom Waits). Television commentator Howard Finnigan (Bruce Davison) lives with his wife, Anne (Andie MacDowell), and their young son, Casey (Zane Cassidy), next door to Zoe and her mother, cabaret singer Tess (Annie Ross). Their pool cleaner is Jerry Kaiser (Chris Penn), whose wife, Lois (Jennifer Jason Leigh), works from home as a phone sex operator, tending to the children while she talks off strange men. Jerry and Lois are friends with Doreen's daughter, Honey (Lili Taylor), and her husband, Bill (Robert Downey Jr.), who works as a makeup artist. The day before Casey's eighth birthday, Doreen hits him with her car as he is running to school. Casey appears fine and refuses Doreen's offer of a ride home, as she is a stranger. His mother Anne comes home from ordering his birthday cake to find him slumped lethargically on the couch. His father Howard convinces her to take Casey to the hospital, where he remains unconscious. The baker, Andy Bitkower (Lyle Lovett), calls the next day to inform Ann that the cake is ready, but Howard, wanting to keep the line free, briskly ends the conversation. The baker immediately calls back, incensed at being hung up on. While the Finnigans maintain their vigil, Bitkower continues to call and harass the couple. Howard's estranged father Paul (Jack Lemmon) turns up at the hospital and recalls that Casey's hospitalization reminds him of the day that Howard was in a car accident as a boy. When Howard's mother went to her sister's house, she found her undressed in the presence of her husband, who she was attempting to seduce. That led to the estrangement between father and son. Stuart and his two friends, Gordon (Buck Henry) and Vern (Huey Lewis), harass Doreen at the diner before they head out on their three-day fishing trip. On the first day, they find a young woman's body, submerged near some rocks. After some debate, they decide to tie her to the rocks, continue fishing, and report the body when they are done. When he comes home, Stuart eventually admits to Claire what they had done, and she is disgusted that they could fish for days with the woman's body nearby. The body is identified as a 23-year-old woman who was raped and murdered, and Claire visits the funeral home out of a sense of guilt. Stormy visits Betty's house while she is away with their son Chad (Jarrett Lennon), ostensibly to pick up his mother's clock, but instead spends the day destroying her belongings. Bill and Honey entertain themselves in the apartment that they are watching while its owners are on vacation by taking some pictures of Honey in which Bill has made her up to look as if she has been brutally beaten. Gene abandons the family dog on a strange street because he cannot endure its barking, but after several days of his distraught children's inquiries, he returns to the neighbourhood and retrieves the dog, who has been picked up by Vern's family. The Wymans get into a massive argument just before their dinner party with the Kanes. Marian admits to an affair. Both couples alleviate their stress by drinking heavily, and the party lasts all night long. One day, Casey's eyes begin to flutter. Anne's excitement grows, but just as he appears to be waking, he suddenly dies. Seeing that and being overwhelmed, Howard's father and the boy's grandfather, Paul, leaves the hospital while the distraught couple returns home and informs Zoe of Casey's death. The next day, they go to the bakery to shame Bitkower over his abuse of them. When he learns why they never picked up the cake, he asks them to stay and gives them baked goods. Zoe, worn to the breaking point by her mother's alcoholism, the little boy's death and her isolation, commits suicide by starting her car engine inside the garage; she plays the cello as she asphyxiates from carbon monoxide. Later that day, her mother discovers Zoe dead and drinks herself into a stupor. When Honey picks up the pictures from the fotomat, they are mixed up with Gordon's. He is horrified to see the pictures of Honey, who appears to have been beaten badly, and she is horrified by the pictures Gordon took of the submerged body on his fishing trip. They walk away from each other, memorizing each other's license plates. Honey and Bill are on their way to a picnic with Jerry and Lois. In the park, Jerry and Bill meet two young women they encountered earlier, and Bill quickly makes an excuse to divvy up into couples. As he and one of the girls walk away from Jerry and the other girl (Susie Cusack), they hear her scream. They turn around to see Jerry hitting her in the head repeatedly with his beer can, killing her, just before a major earthquake strikes. In the aftermath, Jerry's murder of the girl could be attributed to a falling rock during the earthquake. ===== Secret Service Agents Frank Horrigan and Al D'Andrea meet with members of a counterfeiting group at a marina. The group's leader, Mendoza, tells Horrigan that he has identified D'Andrea as an undercover agent, and forces him to prove his loyalty by putting a gun to D'Andrea's head and pulling the trigger. Horrigan shoots and kills Mendoza's men, identifies himself as an agent, and arrests him. Horrigan investigates a complaint from a landlady about an apartment's absent tenant, Joseph McCrawley. He finds a collage of photographs and newspaper articles on famous assassinations, a model-building magazine, and a Time cover with the President's head circled. When Horrigan and D' Andrea return with a search warrant, only one photograph remains, which shows a much younger Horrigan standing behind John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. Horrigan is the only remaining active agent who was guarding the President that day, and he is wracked with guilt over his failure to react quickly enough to the first shot, shielding Kennedy from the subsequent fatal bullet, which could have saved the President's life. This guilt drove Horrigan to drink excessively; eventually his family left him. Horrigan receives a phone call from McCrawley, who calls himself "Booth". He tells Horrigan that, like John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, he plans to kill the President, who is running for reelection and is making many public appearances around the country. Horrigan, despite his age, asks to return to the Presidential Protective Detail, where he begins a relationship with fellow agent Lilly Raines. Booth continues to call Horrigan as part of his "game," even though he knows that his calls are being traced. He mocks Horrigan's failure to protect Kennedy but calls him a "friend". Booth escapes Horrigan and D'Andrea after one such call from Lafayette Park, but unknowingly leaves fingerprints in the process. The FBI matches the prints, but because the person's identity is classified, they cannot disclose it to the Secret Service. The FBI does notify the CIA. At a campaign event in Chicago, Booth pops a decorative balloon. Horrigan, who has a cold, mistakes the pop for a gunshot. Because of this error, he is removed from the protective detail by White House Chief of Staff Harry Sargent and head of security detail Bill Watts, but he is left in charge of the Booth case. Horrigan and D'Andrea learn from the CIA that Booth is Mitch Leary, a former assassin who has suffered a mental breakdown and is now a "predator". Leary, who has already killed several people as he prepares for the assassination, uses his model-making skills to build a zip gun out of composite material to evade metal detectors and hides the bullets and springs in a keyring. D'Andrea confides to Horrigan that he is going to retire immediately because of nightmares about the Mendoza incident, but Horrigan is able to dissuade him from doing so. After Leary taunts Horrigan about the President facing danger in California, Horrigan and D' Andrea chase him across Washington rooftops, and Leary shoots and kills D'Andrea. Horrigan asks Raines to reassign him to the protective detail when the President visits Los Angeles, but a television crew films him mistaking a bellboy at the hotel for a security threat, and Watts and Sargent once again force Horrigan to leave the detail. Horrigan connects Leary to a bank employee's murder and learns that Leary, who has made a large campaign contribution, is among the guests at a campaign dinner at the hotel. He sees the President approach Leary and jumps into the path of the assassin's bullet, saving the President's life. As the Secret Service quickly removes the President, Leary uses Horrigan – who is wearing a bulletproof vest – as a hostage to escape to the hotel's external elevator. Horrigan uses his earpiece to tell Raines and sharpshooters where to aim; although they miss Leary, Horrigan defeats him, leaving him hanging from the edge. Though Horrigan attempts to save him, Leary commits suicide by letting go and falling to his death. Horrigan, now a hero, retires, as his fame makes it impossible for him to do his job. He and Raines find a farewell message from Leary on Horrigan's answering machine. Horrigan and Raines leave the house and visit the Lincoln Memorial. ===== On the morning of the 30th anniversary of the Glorious Revolution of the Twenty- Fifth of May (and as such the anniversary of the death of John Keel, Vimes' hero and former mentor), Sam Vimes is caught in a magical storm while pursuing Carcer, a notorious criminal. He awakens to find that he has somehow been sent back in time. Vimes's first idea is to ask the wizards at the Unseen University to send him home, but before he can act on this, he is arrested for breaking curfew by a younger version of himself. Incarcerated in a cell next to his is Carcer, who after being released joins the Unmentionables, the secret police carrying out the paranoid whims of the Patrician of the time, Lord Winder. When he is taken to be interrogated by the captain, time is frozen by Lu-Tze, who tells Vimes what has happened and that he must assume the identity of Sergeant-At-Arms John Keel, who was to have arrived that day but was murdered by Carcer. It is stated that the event which caused Vimes and Carcer to be sent into the past was a major temporal shattering. Vimes then returns to the office, time restarts and he convinces the captain that he is Keel. Young Vimes believes Vimes to be Keel, allowing Vimes to teach Young Vimes the lessons for which Vimes idolized Keel. The novel climaxes in the Revolution. Vimes, taking command of the watchmen, successfully avoids the major bloodshed erupting all over the city and manages to keep his part of it relatively peaceful. After dealing with the Unmentionables' headquarters he has his haphazard forces barricade a few streets to keep people safe from the fighting between rebels and soldiers. However, the barricades are gradually pushed forward during the night (by Fred Colon and several other simple-minded watchmen) to encompass the surrounding streets until Vimes finds himself in control of a quarter of the city, dubbed "The Glorious People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road", with a still alive Reg Shoe as one of the leading figures. The ruler, Lord Winder, is effectively assassinated by the young Assassin's Guild student Havelock Vetinari, and the new Patrician Lord Snapcase calls for a complete amnesty. However, he sees Keel as a threat and sends Carcer to lead a death squad of Unmentionables, watchmen and the palace guard to murder Keel. Several policemen (the ones who died when the barricade fell in the original timeline) are killed in the battle, as is Reg Shoe; Vimes manages to fight off the attack until he can grab Carcer, at which point they are returned to the future and Keel's body is placed in the timeline Vimes has just left, to tie things up, as in the "real" history, Keel died in that fight. Vimes' son is born, with the help of Doctor "Mossy" Lawn, whom Vimes met while in the past, and Vimes finally arrests Carcer, promising him a fair trial before he is hanged. A subsequent conversation with Lord Vetinari reveals that the Patrician alone knows Vimes took Keel's place, also that he fought alongside Keel's men against Carcer's death squad. He proposes that the old Watch House at Treacle Mine Road (where Keel was sergeant, and which was destroyed by the dragon in Guards! Guards!) be rebuilt. ===== Based on a play by Lucille Fletcher, Night Watch is a suspense thriller about a woman named Ellen Wheeler (Elizabeth Taylor), who one night, during a raging thunderstorm, frantically tells her husband John (Laurence Harvey) that from the living room window she has seen a murder being committed in the large old deserted house next door. John calls the police, but a search of the old house turns up nothing. The next morning, Ellen notices a freshly planted bed of Laburnum in the garden next to the old house that was not there before. She calls the investigating detective, Inspector Walker (Bill Dean), and suggests that the body of the murder victim she witnessed may be buried there. Inspector Walker then questions the nextdoor neighbor of the old house, Mr. Appleby (Robert Lang), who confirms that he planted the trees the night before during the storm, but refuses to let the police search the garden or dig up the plants he just planted. Ellen is revealed to be recovering from a mental breakdown that occurred after her unfaithful first husband, Carl, was killed a few years earlier in an auto accident with his paramour. Ellen was traumatized by having to identify the bodies in the local morgue. Inspector Walker confides to John that Ellen may be mentally ill and suggests rest and a doctor. Ellen continues to maintain that she saw a murder in the deserted house, but there is no proof and John remains skeptical. Ellen's visiting friend Sarah Cooke (Billie Whitelaw) is equally skeptical and tries humoring Ellen by suggesting that she sees what she thinks she sees because of her recent breakdown. When both Ellen and Sarah see a man enter the old house the following night, they call the police, who find Mr. Appleby wandering around with a flashlight and arrest him for trespassing. A second search of the house and excavation of the garden reveal nothing, and Inspector Walker closes the case. John then brings over a psychiatrist friend of his, Tony (Tony Britton). After learning about the death of Ellen's first husband and her nervous breakdown, Tony suggests going to a clinic in another country for a few weeks. Ellen agrees to do so. That evening, Ellen claims to John and Sarah that she saw another body in the old house next door, that of a woman. Ellen is then sedated by John and Sarah, who think that Ellen may be losing her mind. The following evening, as Ellen prepares to leave for the airport she suddenly accuses John and Sarah of having an affair and plotting to drive her insane in order to commit her to an asylum, and she refuses to accept their denials. Ellen reveals a house key that she found, which belongs to the old house across the courtyard, but John still denies cheating on her or having anything to do with what has been going on. Ellen then runs into the old house and lets herself inside using the key, and both John and Sarah chase after her. It is here that Ellen lures both of them to the second floor room where she claimed to have seen the two bodies, and violently attacks and stabs both them to death with a butcher knife, positioning them in exactly the same manner that she claimed to have seen the two bodies. The film's denouement reveals that Ellen had only pretended to be insane by claiming to have seen two murders in the house next door as part of a complex scheme of hers to murder both John and Sarah for their affair. Mr. Appleby, who had grown up in John and Ellen's house before they purchased it, makes a surprise appearance, startling Ellen and congratulating her on pulling off her complex scheme. After informing her that he won't go to the police, as Inspector Walker won't believe him either, Ellen asks Mr. Appleby to look after her house as well as the garden. Mr. Appleby happily agrees to do so as Ellen bids him goodbye and departs. ===== Androzani Minor is the only source of the spectrox drug, produced by bats within the desert planet's cave systems. The citizens of neighboring Androzani Major rely on spectrox for its life-extending capabilities. Spectrox mining is controlled by Trau Morgus's business conglomerate, but is threatened by Sharaz Jek, a masked figure who hides within the cave systems and controls an army of androids that disrupt mining efforts. Morgus has publicly funded the military operation led by General Chellak to defeat Jek, but secretly employs gunrunners Stotz and Krelper to supply Jek with weapons to profit from the war. The TARDIS lands on Androzani Minor, and the Fifth Doctor and Peri start to explore the caves. They both get caught briefly in a sticky substance but move on. The two are captured by Chellak, who believes them to be aiding the gunrunners. Chellak communicates their image to Morgus who does not recognise them and orders their execution. At their execution, Chellak discovers that Jek had been able to replace them with androids. In Jek's lair, the Doctor and Peri complain about illness, and the real Salateen diagnoses that they had stepped in raw spectrox, which is lethal; the anti-toxin is the milk of the queen bat, but due to the recent war, the bats have descended to the deepest levels of the mine that are devoid of oxygen. Jek explains that he is at war with Morgus as his actions led to his dis-figuration. Jek leaves the two under guard of his androids while he meets Stotz and Krelper. The Doctor reprograms the androids to allow them to escape. They are caught in the middle of one of the battles, and Peri is captured by Chellak, while the Doctor is forced to leave with Stotz and Krelper. Stotz decides to take the Doctor to see Morgus directly, and communicates with him holographically en route. Morgus sees the Doctor alive, and believing the military is deceiving him, kills the President of Androzani and makes his own arrangements to travel to Androzani Minor to set things right. The Doctor commandeers Stotz's ship and flies it back to the surface of Androzani Minor, setting off to rescue Peri. Chellak initiates a major attack against Jek's androids, which ends up costing him his life as well as most of the soldiers and androids. During this, Jek rescues Peri as she starts to succumb to the spectrox poisoning. At his base, Jek activates the cooling system to help soothe Peri's aches. The Doctor, starting to also feel the effects, arrives at the base. Jek takes pity on the two, and directs the Doctor to where he can find the queen bat and providing him with an oxygen tank. Morgus lands by Stotz's crashed ship, and learns that his shrewd secretary has deposed him from power. Morgus quickly deals with Stotz to get Jek's supply of spectrox and leave together to profit, and Stotz kills Krelper. They follow the heat signature from Jek's cooling system to find his base. Morgus, Stotz, and Jek get into a fight, and end up killing each other. The Doctor finds the queen bat and collects two vials of her milk. Returning to the base, he collects Peri and wearily carries her out of the caves, dropping one of the two vials before he can get to the TARDIS. He sets the TARDIS in motion and feeds Peri the remaining vial. Peri quickly recovers but finds the Doctor lying in pain on the floor. The Doctor explains that there was only enough bat's milk left to cure her, but his body will shortly regenerate, though it feels different from his previous regenerations. The Doctor begins to hallucinate images of his past companions urging him to continue to fight for his life. The Doctor says 'Adric?' before the Master yells that he must die and the regeneration completes, with the Sixth Doctor suddenly alert and active though with a new face. When Peri asks what is happening, the Doctor replies, "Change, my dear, and it seems not a moment too soon..." ===== Ruth is a self-sufficient woman who makes her living as a ghostwriter for self-help books. She lives with her boyfriend, Art Kamen, and acts as a stepmother to Art's two teenage daughters, Dory and Fia. Meanwhile, as Lu Ling is showing signs of dementia, Ruth struggles to juggle her mother's illness, her job, and her relationship. As an adult, Ruth struggles to understand her mother and her strange behavior during Ruth's childhood. Although she loves her mother, she also resents her for having criticized her harshly when she was young and forcing her to obey strict rules. Lu Ling believed that young Ruth had the ability to communicate with the spirit world, and often expected her to produce messages from the ghost of Lu Ling's long- dead nursemaid, Precious Auntie, by writing on a sand tray. Lu Ling's autobiography makes up the middle section of this book. This story within a story describes Lu Ling's early life in a small Chinese village called Immortal Heart. Lu Ling is raised by a mute, burned nursemaid called "Precious Auntie." It is later revealed that Precious Auntie sustained her injuries by swallowing burning ink resin. Although the oldest daughter in her family, Lu Ling is ignored by her mother in favor of her younger sister Gao Ling. However, Precious Auntie was entirely devoted to caring for Lu Ling. Lu Ling's story goes further back, describing Precious Auntie's childhood as the daughter of a local bonesetter. The teen-aged Precious Auntie is the only person who knows the location of a hidden cave where many ancient "dragon bones" can be found, knowledge that she retains even after being burned and coming to live with Lu Ling's family. After the discovery of the Peking Man, fossilized bones and information about where they might be found becomes extremely valuable. A local family, the Changs, wish to arrange a marriage between Lu Ling and their son Fu Nan because they believe that Lu Ling can lead them to the fossil cave. Lu Ling's family approves of the marriage, but Precious Auntie violently opposes it. Unable to speak in detail, she writes Lu Ling a long letter explaining her reasons, but Lu Ling does not read it to its end. Only after Precious Auntie's death does Lu Ling learn that her nursemaid was actually her mother, and that the woman she had thought to be her mother is actually her father's sister. After Precious Auntie's death, Gao Ling marries Fu Nan and Lu Ling is sent away to a Christian orphanage where she completes her education, grows up and becomes a teacher. Here, she meets her first husband, Pan Kai Jing. Lu Ling lives in the orphanage as a teacher through World War II, often going to extreme lengths to protect the students from the Japanese soldiers and other dangers. A few years later, she is reunited with Gao Ling. The two "sisters" immigrate to America separately and marry a pair of brothers, Edmund and Edwin. Lu Ling's second husband dies from a hit and run accident when Ruth is just two years old. Ruth struggles growing up as the child of a single parent who believes in curses and ghosts. Once Ruth learns the details of her mother's past, she gains a new understanding of her and her seemingly erratic behavior. Answers to both women's problems unfold as Lu Ling's story is finally revealed in its entirety. ===== Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), a traveler from the fictional nation of Krakozhia, arrives at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, only to discover that his passport is suddenly no longer valid. The United States no longer recognizes Krakozhia as an independent country after the outbreak of a civil war, and Viktor is not permitted to either enter the country or return home as he is now stateless. Because of this, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seizes his passport and airline ticket. With no other choice, Viktor settles in at the terminal with only his luggage and a Planters peanut can, much to the frustration of Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci), the temporary customs director of the airport. Dixon is being considered for a promotion and becomes obsessed with getting rid of Viktor. Later, Dixon lets Viktor be a "free man" in the transit lounge, and cannot leave it. Viktor goes in a renovation zone where a gate will be renovated, and makes it his home. He then befriends and assists airport employees and travelers. Among them is a flight attendant named Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones), whom he sees periodically and tries to woo, presenting himself as a building contractor who is frequently traveling. Viktor had been hired by an airport contractor and paid under the table after he impulsively remodeled a wall at the renovation zone. One day, Dixon pulls Amelia aside and questions whether she knows Viktor's true situation. Amelia confronts Viktor at his makeshift home, where he shows her that the Planters peanut can contains a copy of the "A Great Day in Harlem" photograph. His late father was a jazz enthusiast who had discovered the famous portrait in a Hungarian newspaper in 1958, and vowed to collect the autographs of all 57 of the musicians featured on it. He died before he could get the last one, from tenor saxophonist Benny Golson. Viktor has come to New York to do so. After hearing the story, Amelia kisses Viktor. After nine months, his friends wake Viktor with the news that the war in Krakozhia has ended, and he gets a green stamp, allowing him to leave the airport. Amelia also asked her "friend"—actually a married government official with whom she had been having an affair—to get Viktor a one-day emergency visa to fulfill his dream, but Viktor is disappointed to learn she has renewed her relationship with the man during this process. Moreover, Viktor finds out that Dixon must sign the visa. Seizing the opportunity, Dixon threatens to cause trouble for Viktor's friends, most seriously by deporting janitor Gupta (Kumar Pallana) back to India to potentially face a charge of assaulting a police officer. Unwilling to let this happen, Viktor finally agrees to return home to Krakozhia. When Gupta learns of this, however, he runs in front of a plane as it taxies to the terminal, resulting in his deportation, effectively taking the burden off Viktor. The delay gives Viktor enough time to get into the city. Dixon attempts to have his officers detain and arrest Viktor, but they instead let him leave the airport. Viktor arrives in New York at the hotel where Benny Golson is performing and finally collects the last autograph. Then he gets in a taxi, telling the driver, "I am going home." ===== Dr. Sullivan Travis (aka "Dr. T.") (Richard Gere) is a wealthy Dallas gynecologist for some of the wealthiest women in Texas who finds his life beginning to fall apart starting when his wife, Kate (Farrah Fawcett), suffers a rare type of infantalizing syndrome of wealthy women, receding into a childlike state and, after she disrobes in a shopping mall fountain is committed to the state mental hospital. When Dr. T visits Kate, she rebuffs his kisses as improper and he sees her pre-teen psychic age cannot be brought back to adulthood by his affection. Dr. T's eldest daughter, Dee Dee (Kate Hudson), is planning to go through with her approaching wedding despite the secret that she is romantically involved with Marilyn (Liv Tyler), the maid of honor. Dr. T's youngest daughter, Connie (Tara Reid), is a spunky conspiracy theorist who has her own agenda including sharing with her father how she discovered Dee Dee and Marilyn are lovers. While Marilyn is on his examining table for the first time, she surmises her condition is caused by the stress of being the maid of honor for her friend Dee Dee. Dr. T realizes she is Dee Dee's lover and becomes embarrassed mid-examination asking Carolyn, Dr. T's loyal secretary (Shelley Long), to finish. Carolyn has romantic feelings for him, which are not mutual: in a farcical scene at the workday end, she locks the office door and gives him a shoulder-massage from behind his chair, secretly disrobing while emphasizing his need for a loving wife. Refreshed but unaware of her intentions, he goes to the coat closet, turns and finds she has vanished. From under the desk, she says he never empties his trash baskets. Approaching the desk he glimpses her state of dress and quickly leaves. Meanwhile, Dr. T's alcoholic sister-in-law, Peggy (Laura Dern), meddles in every situation she stumbles into. She is currently divorced and has moved into his house with her three young daughters. At his golf club, Bree (Helen Hunt), a golf pro, gets accidentally soaked by the automatic sprinklers and he offers a towel and his dry golf cart and they decide to play the round together. Accepting his offer for dinner, she says she knows a better place than his suggested restaurant, next they're taking grocery bags into her condo. She moves quickly and gracefully turning on the stereo music by Lyle Lovett, the grill on the balcony, putting steak on, going upstairs, into one room, then walking nude across the balcony to the shower. After dinner, she takes a bottle of wine upstairs, briefly hesitating he follows her and they become lovers. She provides friendship and comfort in his difficult office and personal life. As Dee Dee's wedding begins the skies are darkening and thunder increasing. As the procession is blown by increasing wind, Dee Dee bypasses her groom, embraces and kisses Marylyn and the skies open up sending all the guests for shelter. Inspired, Dr. T drives his open top convertible to Bree's house where he asks her to marry and run away with him. He offers to fulfill her every need and she asks why she would need that (this is what caused Kate's syndrome according to her psychologist). She says she has made other plans. Dr. T. asks if she is with Harlan, one of his golfing/hunting buddies, She replies: “I’m not with anyone.” Distraught, Dr. T. drives off into the storm and into a tornado as it crosses his path and is lifted into the air, tumbles in debris; the scene fades to the morning after. The camera view pans to reveal distant mountains surrounding a vast desert flat land. His nearby car is found by three young Spanish speaking children. A little girl in a white dress with a veil sees the doctor badge on the front grill of the car Exclaiming “Dr!”. They find & lead him, still dazed, to a circle of seven tiny houses where a woman is in labor. Galvanized by the sight, he immediately washes his hands, drops his wedding ring into the basin, takes charge and delivers the baby, holding it and rejoices “it’s a boy!” ===== In 1980s Germany at the height of the Cold War, 19-year-old Karl Koch (August Diehl) finds the world around him threatening and chaotic. Inspired by the fictitious character Hagbard Celine (from Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's Illuminatus! Trilogy), he starts investigating the backgrounds of political and economic power and discovers signs that make him believe in a worldwide conspiracy. At a meeting of the Chaos Computer Club, Karl gets to know the student David (Fabian Busch). David and Karl are able to hack into the global data network—which is still, at this point, in its early stages—and their belief in social justice propels them into espionage for the KGB. Driven by contacts with a drug dealer—and by increasing KGB pressure to hack successfully into foreign systems—Karl spirals into a cocaine dependency and grows increasingly alienated from David. In a drug-addled state, Karl begins to sit in front of his computer for days at a time. Perpetually sleepless, he also grows increasingly delusional. When David publicly reveals the espionage activity in which the two men have been engaged, Karl is left alone to face the consequences. Collapse soon follows. Karl is taken to a hospital to deal with his drug addiction and mysteriously dies after his supposed hacking of Chernobyl . ===== A young girl named Fuu is working as a waitress in a tea shop when she is abused by a band of samurai. She is saved by a mysterious rogue named Mugen and a young rōnin named Jin. Mugen attacks Jin after he proves to be a worthy opponent. The pair begin fighting one another and inadvertently cause the death of Shibui Tomonoshina, the magistrate's son. For this crime, they are to be executed. With help from Fuu, they are able to escape execution. In return, Fuu asks them to travel with her to find "the samurai who smells of sunflowers". ===== Jack Carver has left his mysterious and bitter past behind him and dropped out of society to run a boat-charter business in the South Pacific. He is hired by a woman named Valerie Constantine to take her secretly to an uncharted island in Micronesia. After Val takes off on her own with a jet ski, Jack's boat is blown apart by a rocket. With the help of a man named Doyle, Jack travels across the various islands, battling mysterious mercenaries in search for Val. Through encounters with Trigens (genetically altered beasts) and information from Doyle, Jack soon discovers that the island is part of an experiment involving genetic modification, funded by the genetic company Krieger Corp. and led by its CEO, Dr. Krieger. As the game progresses, it becomes clear that the Trigens, who are running loose, are becoming too large a problem for the mercenaries to handle, and that the experiments are not limited to just primate mutations, but have moved on to mutating humans (possibly mercenaries). When Jack finally catches up with Val, she is being taken to another area by a helicopter which is stopped by Jack. After swimming to shore, Val reveals that she is an undercover CIA agent and is investigating Krieger's operations. After further exploration, Jack must again search for and rescue Val while the human Trigens have escaped (freed by Jack) and have begun a revolt against the mercenaries on the island. After rescuing Val, they split up again and reunite when Jack has killed the mercenary commander, Crowe. Information Crowe had with him indicates Krieger has a tactical nuke on the island, which he intends to use as a last resort in covering his tracks should his projects be investigated. After the Department of Defense has supposedly analyzed the situation, Jack and Val steal the nuclear weapon, despite Jack's protests. Before entering the factory, Doyle warns that the mutagen might infect them when the blast goes off, and advises them to take a mutagen-resistant serum before arming the nuke. Inside the factory, they do so and arm the nuke, which detonates directly behind Jack and Val as they exit the factory, leaving them unconscious. While Jack and Val are unconscious, Krieger captures them before leaving to his main base in a helicopter. Jack, kicked off the helicopter, has to fight through the Trigen- infested area to rescue Val and escape the islands with his life. Upon reaching a mercenary weapons cache, Jack notices his arm is turning green. Doyle responds that the mutagen concentration on the air might be too strong for the antidote, but Krieger is working on a cure in a laboratory nearby. Jack is thus directed to find Krieger, who has injected himself with the mutagen but is ultimately defeated. With his last breath, Krieger reveals that there is no cure for the mutagen. Doyle reveals the "antidote" they took earlier was the very mutagen they were trying to protect themselves from and reveals that he plans to sell the mutagen formula on the black market before fleeing. After battling through a horde of Trigens, Jack catches up with Doyle and kills him. Jack then escapes just before the volcano, in which Krieger's main offices are located, erupts. Both he and Val are cured from the mutagen and manage to sail off on a boat. ===== The planet Lagash ("Kalgash" in the novel) is constantly illuminated by at least one of the six suns of its multiple star system. Lagash has areas of darkness (in caves, tunnels, etc.), but "night" does not exist. A skeptical journalist visits a university observatory to interview a group of scientists who warn that civilization will soon end. The researchers explain that they have discovered evidence of numerous ancient civilizations on Lagash, all destroyed by fire, with each collapse occurring about 2,000 years apart. The religious writings of a doomsday cult claim that Lagash periodically passes through an enormous cave where mysterious "stars" appear. The stars are said to rain down fire from the heavens and rob people of their souls, reducing them to beast-like savages. The scientists use this apparent myth, along with recent discoveries in gravitational research, to develop a theory about the repeated collapse of society. A mathematical analysis of Lagash's orbit around its primary sun reveals irregularities caused by an undiscovered moon that cannot be seen in the light of the six suns. Calculations indicate that this moon will soon obscure one of Lagash's suns when it is alone in the sky, resulting in a total eclipse that occurs once every 2,000 years. Having evolved on a planet with no diurnal cycle, Lagashians possess an intense, instinctive fear of the dark and have never experienced a prolonged period of widespread darkness. Psychological experiments have revealed that Lagashians experience permanent mental damage or even death after as little as 15 minutes in the dark, and the eclipse is projected to last for several hours. The scientists theorize that earlier civilizations were destroyed by people who went insane during previous eclipses and—desperate for any light source—started large fires that destroyed cities. Oral accounts of the chaos from crazed survivors and small children were passed down through the ages and became the basis for the cult's sacred texts. Present-day civilization is doomed for the same reasons, but the researchers hope that detailed observations of the upcoming eclipse will help to break the cycle of societal collapse. The scientists are unprepared, however, for the stars. Because of the perpetual daylight on Lagash, its inhabitants are unaware of the existence of stars apart from their own; astronomers believe that the entire universe is no more than a few light years in diameter and may hypothetically contain a small number of other suns. But Lagash is located in the center of a "giant cluster," and during the eclipse, the night sky—the first that people have ever seen—is filled with the dazzling light of more than 30,000 newly visible stars. Learning that the universe is far more vast—and Lagash far more insignificant—than they believed causes everyone, including the scientists, to go insane. Outside the observatory, in the direction of the city, the horizon begins glowing with the light of spreading fires as "the long night" returns to Lagash. ===== The novel follows the life of Clay, a rich, young college student who has returned to his hometown of Los Angeles, California for winter break circa 1984. Through first-person narration, Clay describes his progressive alienation from the culture around him, loss of faith in his friends, and his meditations on events in his recent past. After reuniting with his ex-girlfriend Blair, and friends like Trent, now a successful model, Clay embarks on a series of drug-fueled nights of partying, during which he has one-night stands with both sexes. While partying, he tries to track down his best friend from high school, Julian, with whom he hasn't spoken in months. In between descriptions of his days and nights, Clay recounts a vacation spent with his parents and grandparents, during which he seemed to be the only person concerned that his grandmother was dying of cancer. Over time, Clay becomes progressively disillusioned with the party scene as he witnesses the apathy of his friends towards the suffering of one another and those around them: at one party, he watches as the revellers joke and take Polaroids of his friend, Muriel, while she injects heroin; at another, he and Blair are the only two who exhibit revulsion when Trent shows a snuff film, which sexually excites several partygoers. Clay ultimately tracks down Julian, who borrows a large sum of money from Clay. At first, Julian says that the money is for an abortion, but Clay doesn't believe him. Later, when Clay asks Julian to pay him back, Julian brings him to meet his abusive pimp, Finn. It is revealed that Julian has become a heroin addict and turned to prostitution in order to pay off a debt to unnamed drug dealers. Believing what he has been told, yet still feeling an empty desire to witness this awful scene for himself, Clay accompanies Julian to a rendezvous in a hotel room with a married closeted businessman from Indiana, where he is compelled by the john to watch the man and Julian have sex for several hours. After attending a concert with his friends, Clay accompanies them to an alleyway, where they stare, fascinated, at the corpse of a young man, presumably dead by overdose. Afterward, Clay follows the group back to the home of his drug dealer, Rip, who wants to show off his latest acquisition: a twelve-year-old sex slave whom Rip has been keeping drugged in his bedroom. When Clay tells Rip, "I don't think it's right," Rip says, "What's right?" Clay leaves, but Trent decides to stay so that he can participate. Now feeling completely isolated and with winter break coming to an end, Clay reflects on the brutal nature of his surroundings as he returns to college in New Hampshire. ===== The film follows various plot arcs all occurring on New Year's Eve of 1981. Monica is throwing a big New Year's bash and is desperately afraid no one will attend. Early on the only person to have arrived is her friend Hillary. As she tries to convince Hillary to stay, various other groupings of individuals are shown making their way to the celebration. The film follows several characters as they spend New Year's Eve in New York City before eventually showing up at Monica's party. The party guests are: Val and Stephie, teens from Ronkonkoma who get lost in the seedy Alphabet City section of the borough and wander into a punk club where they meet Dave and Tom, who have a "package" they need to deliver; ditsy and awkward Cindy, who is on a dinner date with the paranoid Jack; Lucy and her best friend Kevin, who are struggling with the sexual tension between them; Kevin's feminist ex-girlfriend Ellie, who walks in on Kevin and Lucy making out in a restroom stall; a dim-witted and flirtatious bartender; competitive friends Bridget and Caitlyn who attempt to ditch Bridget's boyfriend Eric, (who is also Monica's ex-boyfriend); and the eccentric cab driver who takes them all around town throughout the evening in his disco-themed taxi. Eventually, all the characters find their way to the party, although in the meantime Monica has passed out after drowning her sorrows in alcohol. She wakes up the next morning to find many unrecognizable people on her floor, including Stephie who tells her what a big hit her party was. Monica is thrilled (even though she missed it all), especially when she finds out that Elvis Costello showed up. The final montage shows Polaroids of the party, narrated by the disco cabbie, mostly featuring the unlikely romances from the party and the unconscious Monica being propped up by her party guests. ===== Four lifelong stoners and friends (Kenny, Thurgood, Scarface, and Brian) live together in New York City. Thurgood, a janitor at a medical laboratory, brings home some unusually potent marijuana given to him by an unscrupulous scientist at the lab, and the four smoke it. When Kenny, a gentle kindergarten teacher, is out on a munchie run, he is arrested for accidentally killing a diabetic police horse by feeding it junk food. His friends are forced to find $1,000,000 to bail him out before the other prisoners take advantage of his gentle nature. Scarface gets the idea to have Thurgood steal medical marijuana from his work so that the three of them can sell it to raise money to free Kenny. While visiting Kenny in prison, Thurgood meets Mary Jane and pursues a romantic relationship, which is strained by his having to conceal his marijuana smoking and dealing from her, as she is adamantly anti drug. When the success of the friends' marijuana business grows enough to raise the ire of local drug lord Samson Simpson, Samson extorts the friends for $20,000 a week. Mary Jane dumps Thurgood when she finds out Thurgood is dealing drugs. The friends plan a robbery of the medical laboratory to increase their earnings enough to both fend off Samson and free Kenny, but are arrested when they try to execute the plan. Thurgood strikes a deal with the police to wear a listening device to a meeting with Samson in exchange for freeing Kenny and dropping the charges against him and his friends. The friends meet with Samson and the plan works. Kenny and his friends are freed and Thurgood meets with Mary Jane to say that he is giving up marijuana and wants to get back together. The film ends with the two reuniting. ===== The game is set in Krynn, world of the Dragonlance saga, during the War of the Lance. ===== Louden Swain is a high- school wrestler who has just turned 18 and decided that he needs to do something truly meaningful in his life. He embarks on a mission or, in a Native American term, a vision quest, to drop two weight classes to challenge the area's toughest opponent, Brian Shute, a menacing three-time state champion from nearby rival Hoover High School, who has never been defeated in his high school career. In his zeal to drop from 190 pounds to 168 pounds, against the wishes of his coach and teammates, he disrupts the team around him and creates health problems of his own. Meanwhile, his father has taken on a boarder named Carla from Trenton, New Jersey, passing through on her way to San Francisco. Though she is older, Louden falls in love with her and begins to lose sight of his goals as a wrestler. Worse, his drastic weight loss culminates in an unhealthy situation where he gets frequent nosebleeds which, Louden assumes, is due to a lack of iron in his diet (which costs him a match that he should have won). The two finally admit their love for each other, but Carla realizes she is distracting him from his goals. She decides to move out and continue on to San Francisco, but not before seeing Louden's big match in which he pins Shute in the final seconds with a hip throw and thus winning the match and celebrating his victory. The movie ends with Louden noting, "...I guess that's why we got to love those people who deserve it like there's no tomorrow. 'Cause when you get right down to it—there isn't." ===== Joe Slovak is a brilliant first-year med student whose nonconformist approach to life is tested when he enrolls in gross anatomy, the toughest course in med school. His schoolfriends include Kim, a pregnant woman; Miles, a buttoned-down blue-blood; Laurie, an ambitious student determined to make it; and David, an overanalyzer who is also his roommate. Joe's freewheeling, independent style creates funny moments in the classroom, but puts him at odds with the demanding department head, Dr. Woodruff, who questions whether her easygoing "class rebel" has what it takes to be a doctor. Meanwhile, Joe falls in love with his lab partner Laurie, who won't let anything, especially romance, interfere with her plans. And while Joe's never done anything by the book, he proves he does have what it takes to succeed -- without changing his ways. However, Joe's ways and the ways of medicine come to a head when he is ordered to do an extra credit assignment by Dr. Woodruff involving a complex diagnosis. Joe correctly diagnoses it as a serious, difficult-to-treat chronic illness and learns the patient is Dr. Woodruff herself. ===== Bashō by Buson.Bashō (right) and Sora (left) parted at Yamanaka Onsen [Buson] Oku no Hosomichi Handscroll Oku no Hosomichi was written based on a journey taken by Bashō in the late spring of 1689. He and his traveling companion Kawai Sora (河合曾良) departed from Edo (modern-day Tokyo) for the northerly interior region known as Oku, propelled mostly by a desire to see the places about which the old poets wrote in an effort to "renew his own art."Keene 1999a: 311. Specifically, he was emulating Saigyō, whom Bashō praised as the greatest waka poet;In his Oi no Kobumi, "The Records of a Travel-worn Satchel". See Bashō 1966: 71. Bashō made a point of visiting all the sites mentioned in Saigyō's verse.Keene 1999: 681. Travel in those days was very dangerous, but Bashō was committed to a kind of poetic ideal of wandering. He traveled for about 156 days altogether, covering almost ,Shirane 1998: 20. mostly on foot. Of all of Bashō's works, this is the best known. This poetic diary is in the form known as haibun, a combination of prose and haiku. It contains many references to Confucius, Saigyō, Du Fu, ancient Chinese poetry, and even The Tale of the Heike. It manages to strike a delicate balance between all the elements to produce a powerful account. It is primarily a travel account, and Bashō vividly relates the unique poetic essence of each stop in his travels. Stops on his journey include the Tokugawa shrine at Nikkō, the Shirakawa barrier, the islands of Matsushima, Hiraizumi, Sakata, Kisakata, and Etchū. He and Sora parted at Yamanaka, but at Ōgaki he briefly met up with a few of his other disciples before departing again to the Ise Shrine and closing the account. After his journey, he spent five years working and reworking the poems and prose of Oku no Hosomichi before publishing it.Bashō 1996b: 13. Based on differences between draft versions of the account, Sora's diary, and the final version, it is clear that Bashō took a number of artistic liberties in the writing.Shirane 1998: 225. Keene 1999a: 313–315. An example of this is that in the Senjūshu ("Selection of Tales") attributed to Saigyō, the narrator is passing through Eguchi when he is driven by a storm to seek shelter in the nearby cottage of a prostitute; this leads to an exchange of poems, after which he spends the night there. Bashō similarly includes in Oku no Hosomichi a tale of him having an exchange with prostitutes staying in the same inn, but Sora mentions nothing.Keene 1999: 772. Keene 1999a: 313. ===== Nashawn Wade (Kevin Hart) claims that he has loved planes since he was a baby, but he has a horrible experience with a typical airline: his dog Dre was classified as a checked baggage instead of a carry-on, he eats a horrible airline meal, his buttocks gets stuck in the toilet while he has diarrhea (due to his meal) during turbulence, and Dre is fatally sucked through a jet engine (after a stewardess accidentally opens the cargo door). In response to the torture he has, he sues the airline and is awarded $100,000,000 by the jury. He decides to use the money to start his own airline, called N.W.A. (Nashawn Wade Airlines), whose acronym and logo are a pop culture reference to rap group N.W.A. The airline specifically caters to African Americans and hip hop culture. The terminal at the airport is called the Malcolm X terminal, where two non-working TSA Agents, Jamiqua (Mo'Nique) and Shaniece (Loni Love), are goofing off instead of checking belongings. The plane is a heavily modified Boeing 747SP, customized with low-rider hydraulics, spinners, blended winglets to compensate for the drag from the decorations, and a dance club. The safety video is also a parody of the Destiny's Child song "Survivor". After taking off from Los Angeles International Airport, Nashawn must deal with a multitude of problems, starting with his acrophobic captain, Captain Mack (Snoop Dogg). At a cruising altitude of Flight Level 330, it is revealed that he has never left the ground because he learned to fly on computer simulators in prison. Meanwhile, his cousin Muggsey (Method Man) sets up a miniature casino and strip joint in one of the areas of the plane (as seen in the workprint and unrated versions of the film), and Nashawn's ex-girlfriend, Giselle (K. D. Aubert) is on board and less than happy to see him. Meanwhile, the Hunkee family, the only caucasian passengers on board, must also deal with their own problems; Elvis Hunkee's (Tom Arnold) daughter is turning 18 and plans to use her newfound freedom by drinking and having sex, his son has transformed from an exact duplicate of him to a stereotypical wigger, and his wife has found a new interest in black men after viewing pictures in a pornographic magazine. Captain Mack seemingly dies after eating mushrooms that the co-pilot, First Officer Gaemon (Godfrey), uses to soothe his genital crabs. Nashawn attempts to contact Gaemon, who is incapacitated after slipping near a hot tub, forcing Nashawn to attempt to land the plane himself. Nashawn lands the plane safely, using the airplane stewardess' (Sofía Vergara) flight knowledge which she learned while having sex in the cockpit with the pilot on another plane. The plane lands in the middle of Central Park instead of John F. Kennedy International Airport, and the spinners are stolen from the plane. Nashawn reconciles with his ex- girlfriend after earlier revealing to her that he only broke up with her so she would not give up her college opportunities for him. The movie ends with Nashawn telling the audience the fate of his crew. He claims that he and his ex-girlfriend are back together taking their relationship slow this time around, his cousin Muggsey has started a strip club and gambling casino located in another airplane similar to the club in Nashawn's plane, Elvis Hunkee has begun a sexual relationship with one of the abrasive airline security guards (Mo'Nique), and Elvis Hunkee's son has become a major music video director but has disappeared shortly after filming a Michael Jackson video. Captain Mack later wakes up with both his chain and clothing stolen. ===== André Morell as Professor Bernard Quatermass, in a scene from the fourth episode Workmen discover a pre-human skull while building in the fictional Hobbs Lane (formerly Hob's Lane, Hob being an antiquated name for the Devil) in Knightsbridge, London. Dr Matthew Roney, a paleontologist, examines the remains and reconstructs a dwarf-like humanoid with a large brain volume, which he believes to be a primitive man. As further excavation is undertaken, something that looks like a missile is unearthed; further work by Roney's group is halted because the military believe it to be an unexploded Second World War bomb. Roney calls in his friend Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Rocket Group to prevent the military from disturbing what he believes to be an archaeological find. Quatermass and Colonel Breen, recently appointed to lead the Rocket Group over Quatermass's objections, become intrigued by the site. As more of the artefact is uncovered additional fossils are found, which Roney dates to five million years, suggesting that the object is at least that old. The interior is empty, and a symbol of six intersecting circles, which Roney identifies as the occult pentacle, is etched on a wall that appears to conceal an inner chamber. The shell of the object is so hard that even a borazon boron nitride drill makes no impression, and when the attempt is made, vibrations cause severe distress in people around the object. Quatermass interviews local residents and discovers ghosts and poltergeists have been common in the area for decades. A hysterical soldier is carried out of the object, claiming to have seen a dwarf-like apparition walk through the wall of the artifact, a description that matches a 1927 newspaper account of a ghost. Following the drilling, a hole opens up in the object's interior wall. Inside, Quatermass and the others find the remains of insect-like aliens resembling giant three-legged locusts, with stubby antennae on their heads giving the impression of horns. As Quatermass and Roney examine the remains, they theorize the aliens may have come from a planet habitable five million years ago – Mars. While clearing his equipment from the craft, the drill operator triggers more poltergeist activity, and runs through the streets in a panic until he finds sanctuary in a church. Quatermass and Roney find him there, and he describes visions of the insect aliens killing each other. As Quatermass investigates the history of the area, he finds accounts dating back to medieval times about devils and ghosts, all centred on incidents where the ground was disturbed. He suspects a psychic projection of these beings has remained on the alien ship and is being seen by those who come into contact with it. Quatermass decides to use Roney's optic-encephalogram, a device that records impressions from the optical centers of the brain, and see the visions for himself. Roney's assistant, Barbara Judd, is most sensitive; placing the device on her, they record a violent purge of the Martian hive to root out unwanted mutations. Quatermass concludes that in its most primitive phase mankind was visited by this race of Martians. Some apes and primitive pre- humans were taken away and genetically altered to give them abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis and other psychic powers. They were then returned to Earth, and the buried artifact is one of the ships that had crashed at the end of its journey. With their home world dying, the aliens had tried to change humanity's ancestors to have minds and abilities similar to their own, but with a bodily form adapted to life on Earth. However, the aliens became extinct before completing their work. As the human race bred and evolved, a percentage retained their psychic abilities that surfaced only sporadically. For centuries the buried ship had occasionally triggered those dormant abilities, which explained the reports of poltergeists; people were unknowingly using their own telekinesis to move objects around, and the ghost sightings were traces of a racial memory. The authorities, and Breen in particular, find this explanation preposterous despite being shown the recording of Barbara's vision. They believe that the craft is a Nazi propaganda weapon and the alien bodies fakes designed to create exactly the impressions that Quatermass has succumbed to, and decide to hold a media event to stem the rumors that are already spreading. Quatermass warns that if implanted psychic powers survive in the human race, there could also still be an ingrained compulsion to enact the "Wild Hunt" of a race purge, but the media event goes ahead regardless. The power cables that string into the craft fully activate it for the first time, and glowing and humming like a living thing it starts to draw upon this energy source and awaken the ancient racial programming. Those Londoners in whom the alien admixture remains strong fall under the ship's influence; they merge into a group mind and begin a telekinetic mass murder of those without the alien genes, an ethnic cleansing of those the alien race mind considers to be impure and weak. Breen stands transfixed and is eventually consumed by the energies from the craft as it slowly melts away and an image of a Martian "devil" floats in the sky above London. Fires and riots erupt, and Quatermass succumbs to the mass psychosis and attempts to kill Roney, who lacks the alien gene and is immune to alien influence. Roney manages to shake Quatermass out of his trance, and remembering the legends of demons and their aversion to iron and water, proposes that a sufficient mass of iron connected to wet earth may be sufficient to short-circuit the apparition. Quatermass acquires a length of iron chain and tries to reach the "devil" but succumbs to its psychic pressure. Roney manages to walk up to the apparition and hurls the chain at it, resulting in him and the spacecraft being reduced to ashes. At the conclusion of the final episode Quatermass gives a television broadcast, at the end of which he delivers a warning directly to camera: "If we cannot control the inheritance within us, this will be their [the Martians'] second dead planet." ===== Thousands of former employees are outraged with military businessman R. J. Hacker (G. D. Spradlin), who had closed down his weapons manufacturing plant, Hacker Dynamics. At a conference held at the former plant, he pins the blame for the shutdown of his business on the current President of the United States (Alan Alda), who has just arrived. The president defends his own belief that the future of the children is more important than war, which has caused major decline in his approval rating. After the conference, he expresses to confidantes General Dick Panzer (Rip Torn) and National Security Advisor Stuart Smiley (Kevin Pollak), revealed to have ties with Hacker, his discontent about not having an enemy to engage in war. An attempted negotiation with Russian President Vladimir Kruschkin (Richard E. Council) to start a new cold war with Russia fails, and the president's suggestion of a war on international terrorism is deemed too absurd. Serendipitously, American sheriff Bud Boomer (John Candy) offensively criticizes Canadian beer while attending a hockey game between the neighboring nations in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The ensuing brawl ends up on the news and catches Stuart's attention; Stuart, in turn, collects more information about Canada from a CIA agent named Gus (Brad Sullivan), and suggests Canada as their new enemy during a cabinet meeting. Before long, television channels are littered with anti-Canada propaganda, which Boomer believes wholeheartedly. He prepares for war by distributing guns to his fellow sheriffs, including his girlfriend Honey (Rhea Perlman) and their friends Roy Boy (Kevin J. O'Connor) and Kabral Jabar (Bill Nunn). After they apprehend a group of Americans "dressed as Canadians" attempting to destroy a hydroelectric plant, despite Gus's protests that they are just Americans, they sneak across the border to litter on Canadian lands, which leads to Honey being arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In a rescue attempt, Boomer, Roy Boy and Kabral sneak into a Canadian power plant and cause a countrywide blackout. When the president learns of this, he orders Boomer's immediate removal from Canada before it is too late. Hacker, seeking revenge on the president for shutting down his business, uses a software program ("Hacker Hellstorm") to activate missile silos across the country. The president learns that the signal causing the activation of the silos originated from Canada, and summons Hacker. Hacker offers to sell a program to the president that can cancel out the Hellstorm—for $1 trillion. Stuart, fed up with the president being too busy to give Hacker the money, realizes that Hacker, getting up to leave, is the one controlling the silos, not Canada, and, after storming up, takes the operating codes from him required to stop the Hellstorm (accidentally killing Hacker in the process). The president orders Stuart's arrest, despite his protests that he is now able to give the codes to the president so they could deactivate the missiles, which are aimed at Moscow. As the launch time approaches the president pleads with Canadian Prime Minister Clark MacDonald (Wallace Shawn) over the phone to stop the launch. Meanwhile, Honey was taken to a mental hospital upon her capture and escaped all the way to the CN Tower. She discovers the central computer for the Hellstorm located at the top and destroys it with a machine gun, aborting the launch sequence. She then reunites with Boomer, who had tracked her to the Tower, and they return to the United States via a speedboat. An ending montage reveals the characters' fates: Boomer realizes his dream of appearing on Cops; Honey has been named "Humanitarian of the Year" by the National Rifle Association; the president was defeated in the next election by a large landslide and now hosts Get Up, Cleveland; Stuart served eight months in prison, but was pardoned by the new president; Panzer committed suicide after learning that Hogan's Heroes was fictional; Gus was last spotted heading to Mexico in a tank; Hacker's body has been viewed daily at Republican National Headquarters; Kabral has become a hockey star, winning the Hart Memorial Trophy three years in a row; Roy Boy's whereabouts become unknown; and MacDonald is "still ruling with an iron fist". ===== Broadcast eleven years after a similar program, Special Bulletin, Without Warning starts in an identical fashion, with the beginning of "regular programming", in this case the opening of a murder mystery film with the title Without Warning, starring Loni Anderson (appearing in a cameo). Within moments, however, the program is interrupted with a news bulletin of a series of three earthquakes, one of them located in the Thunder Basin National Grassland area of Wyoming. The "movie" resumes but a few moments later is interrupted for good as coverage begins of a Halloween night meteor impact on the United States. Over the course of the film it is learned that additional impacts had been reported in southern France and a remote area of China. A scientist notes that the objects hit in a mathematically precise way and suggests the impacts may have been deliberate. Soon, lone survivors are found at the Wyoming and France impact sites: a young girl and a young Frenchman. The girl had been reported missing from a city hundreds of miles away from the impact. Both people are severely burned and are speaking in unintelligible syllables. The three impact sites begin broadcasting an ear-piercing radio signal that cripples aircraft flying within latitudes immediately surrounding the impacts. Then, another larger object is detected moving towards the North Pole. The United States, despite protests from world leaders and scientists, orders several aircraft to intercept the object before it impacts with the earth and destroy it using nuclear weapons. This is successful, although all the aircraft are destroyed, apparently by a signal coming from the new object. A scientist, named Dr. Avram Mandel, who has been studying the impacts is flown by an F-16 to a U.S. military base where reporters are being briefed on the latest incident. He reveals that his determination is that the impacts were in fact an attempt at first contact by an alien species and that, by destroying the follow-up aircraft, Earth has declared war on the aliens. As if that wasn't enough, more than two-thirds of the public (or 72% for that matter) now believe that the objects have been connected to alien life, according to a telephone poll. Other mysteries occur. At one point, the population of an entire town vanishes without a trace. It has been suggested that this occurred not as a result of the attacks, but in fact may have been a reference to one of the more extreme interpretations of the rapture. The town's name is Faith, Wyoming, supporting this reference. Dr. Mandel's fears are confirmed when he later reveals that there are three more objects, each 2 miles wide, approaching Earth. Unlike last time, when they were aimed (intentionally, it is suggested) at lightly inhabited areas, these new objects have been directly aimed at Washington, D.C., Moscow, and Beijing--not coincidentally, the capital cities of the three biggest holders of nuclear weapons. Over the course of the night, the young Frenchman and the young girl are identified as Jean-Paul Chounard and 8-year-old Kimberly Hastings, respectively, before eventually dying. Over the next few tense minutes, nuclear weapons are launched to intercept these three objects successfully (although Washington is nearly hit). With a sigh of relief, the news anchors report success. Meanwhile, scientists are able to finally decipher the young girl and the young Frenchman's speech. It turns out they are each speaking a fragment of a message. When combined (although not complete as the assumed third survivor is never located), the message appears to be reciting of the message from the U.N. Secretary General that had been included on a special recording sent with the Voyager space probes. Moments later, astronomers detect hundreds more asteroids, all heading towards Earth. As anchor Sander Vanocur and a terrified Dr. Caroline Jaffe, realizing that aliens were indeed behind all that has happened, await the inevitable destruction of the planet, hearing reports of cities and entire countries being destroyed worldwide, Vanocur solemnly quotes from William Shakespeare, "The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves," as a rumble is heard and the picture cuts to static. The nature of the aliens and their reason for contacting Earth is never revealed, and they are never seen. Similarly the exact nature or reasoning of their "hello" message—the crashing of three meteor-like objects into Earth—is left a mystery, as is the intent and purpose of the follow-up vessel that is destroyed by the military. A third survivor of the original impacts is assumed throughout, but given the remote region in which the Chinese impact occurred, this individual is never located during the time frame of the film. ===== A handsome young man wakes up to a female voice telling him to open his eyes. He drives to an empty city. He wakes again, this time to a woman in his bed. He tells her not to leave him messages on his alarm clock. From a prison cell in Madrid, the 25-year-old man, César (Eduardo Noriega), tells his story to psychiatrist Antonio (Chete Lera) while wearing a prosthetic mask. Flashbacks reveal the following events: Good-looking César is attractive to women. At his birthday party, he flirts with Sofía (Penélope Cruz), his best friend Pelayo's (Fele Martinez) date. Later, he takes her home and stays the night, but they do not sleep together. The next morning, César's obsessive ex-lover Nuria (Najwa Nimri) pulls up outside Sofía's flat, offering him a ride and sex. On the way to her house, however, she crashes the car with the intent to kill them both. César survives the crash but is horribly disfigured, beyond the help of cosmetic surgery, so he decides to wear a mask to conceal his face. Sofía cannot bear to see him and tries to keep her distance. After César's disfigurement, he begins to have a series of disorienting experiences. Drunk, César falls asleep in the street. On awakening, everything has changed: Sofía now claims to love him and the surgeons restore his lost looks. But as he makes love to Sofía one night, she suddenly changes into Nuria. Horrified, César smothers her with a pillow and kills her. Yet everyone else believes Nuria was indeed the woman everyone else calls Sofía, and he is imprisoned for her murder. While he is confined to the prison, fragments of his past return to him as if in a dream. It is revealed that, shortly after falling asleep drunk on the street, César signed a contract with Life Extension, a company specializing in cryonics, to be cryogenically preserved and to experience extremely lucid and lifelike virtual reality dreams. Returning to their headquarters, under supervision by prison officers, he discovers they specialize in cryonics with a twist: "artificial perception" or the provision of a fantasy based on the past to clients who are reborn in the future. He commits suicide at home shortly after signing the contract and is placed in cryonic suspension. Duvernois, the L.E. representative who explains César's experiences to him while dreaming, reveals that the era is 150 years in the future and César's time from about the midpoint of the movie onward has been a dream, spliced retroactively into his actual life and replacing his true memories. At the end of the film, he decides to wake and be resurrected by committing suicide. Convinced his life since the drunken night in the street has been a nightmarish vision created by Life Extension, César leaps from the roof of the company's high-rise headquarters, and the film ends, apparently ambiguously, on a black screen with a woman saying, "Abre los ojos." ===== After winning a civil war against his late father Seyid (who is unfortunately eaten by his own soldiers) Seth, Oxford-educated emperor of the fictional nation of Azania, makes it his goal to modernise his country. He recruits Basil Seal, a shiftless college friend and heir to an English political family in the country after stealing his mother’s jewellery to pay for his ticket, to preside over the newly established Ministry of Modernization, with the help of Krikor Yokoumian, a successful Armenian shopkeeper and fixer. Basil enters into the society of the capital, Debra Dowa. This consists mainly of various newly ennobled Azanians, including the head of the Army General Connolly, a former Irish game-warden, and his local wife of no name recently created the Duke & Duchess of Ukaka, the Minister of the Interior Earl Boaz and the Earl of Ngama; the representatives of the British diplomatic corps, interested only in the legation garden and gossip from home at the expense of any interest in local affairs, headed by a failed career diplomat Sir Samson Courteney; Monsieur Ballon, the French freemason consul, determined that all actions on the part of the British are in fact coded pieces of a great master plan and his wife, generally believed to be having an affair with General Connolly after French agents overhear a game of consequences at a party; and two members of the RSPCA, Dame Mildred Porch and Miss Sarah Tin, who the Azanians believe are there to assist in creating more efficient ways to be cruel to animals. After a period of rapid but haphazard modernisation, including renaming the street the Anglican Cathedral is on “Place Marie Stopes”, Emperor Seth launches his own currency. This last act is the start of his downfall. Unbeknownst to Seth and the Ministry, the French consul Ballon plans a coup d'état. At a "Birth Control Parade" organized by Seth, Ballon and several religious leaders overthrow the Emperor and install his senile uncle Achon. The British nationals in Debra Dowa flee the town to impose on Sir Samson’s begrudging hospitality. Blind, senile Achon dies upon coronation, having spent 50 years in prison after supposedly being eaten by lions, and Seth dies in hiding, killed by his own Minister who is in turn killed on Basil’s orders. Basil attends Seth's funeral feast and discovers afterwards that he has eaten the stewed remains of his girlfriend Prudence Courteney, the coddled daughter of the British Minister, whose plane had vanished after the evacuation of the British compound. With no heir to the monarchy, the League of Nations steps in and claims the country as a League of Nations Mandate. Basil returns to England and disturbs his old friends because he has become serious. ===== Dr. Douglas "Doogie" Howser (Harris) is the son of David (James B. Sikking) and Katherine Howser (Belinda Montgomery). As a child, he twice survived early-stage pediatric leukemia after his father — a family physician — discovered suspicious bruising. The experience contributed to the younger Howser's desire to enter medicine. Possessing a genius intellect and an eidetic memory, Howser participates in a longitudinal study of child prodigies until his 18th birthday. He earned a perfect score on the SAT at the age of six, completed high school in nine weeks, graduated from Princeton University in 1983Courie, Katie. at age 10, and finished medical school four years later. At age 14, Howser was the youngest licensed doctor in the country. As a newspaper article (one of several noting some of Doogie's aforementioned accomplishments that are shown in the series' opening title sequence) stated, he "can't buy beer... [but] can prescribe drugs". The series begins on Howser's 16th birthday; the cold open of the pilot episode shows him stopping his field test for his driver's license to help an injured person at the scene of a traffic accident. Howser is a second-year resident surgeonHe began his residency in September 1988, a year before the pilot. at Eastman Medical Center in Los Angeles, and still lives at home1782 Amalfi Drive, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. with his parents. His best friend and neighbor, Vinnie Delpino (Max Casella), is a more typical teenager—climbing through Howser's bedroom window to visit—and connects him to life outside of medicine. Howser has kept a diary on his computer since 1979; episodes typically end with him making an entry in it, making observations about the situations he had experienced or learned in the episode. Howser seeks acceptance from both children his age, and his professional colleagues. Many episodes also deal with wider social problems: AIDS awareness, racism, homophobia, sexism, gang violence, access to quality medical care, and losing one's virginity are topics, along with aging, body issues, and friendship. Howser initially has a girlfriend, Wanda Plenn (Lisa Dean Ryan), but they break up after she leaves for college; he also begins a trauma surgery fellowship and moves into his own apartment. Bochco intended to end the show with a "season-long story arc for Doogie where he becomes disaffected with the practice of medicine and quits medicine to become a writer".Doogie Howser M.D., Season 1 DVD ABC abruptly canceled the show due to low ratings, preventing Bochco and the show's writers from implementing the storyline other than Howser's resignation from Eastman and departure for Europe in the final episode. ===== Mowgli, a young orphan boy, is found in a basket in the deep jungles of India by Bagheera, a black panther who promptly takes him to Raksha, a mother wolf who has just had cubs. She and her mate, Rama, raise him along with their own cubs and after ten years, Mowgli becomes well acquainted with jungle life and plays with his wolf siblings. Bagheera is pleased with how happy Mowgli is now, but also worries that Mowgli must eventually return to his own kind. One night, the wolf pack parents meet at Council Rock, having learned that Shere Khan, a man-eating Bengal tiger, has returned to the pack's part of the jungle. Pack leader Akela decides that Mowgli must leave the jungle for his own safety. Bagheera volunteers to escort him to a "Man-Village." They leave that very night, but Mowgli is determined to stay in the jungle. He and Bagheera rest in a tree for the night, where Kaa, a hungry Indian python, tries to devour Mowgli, but Bagheera intervenes. The next morning, Mowgli tries to join the elephant patrol, led by Colonel Hathi and his wife Winifred. Bagheera finds Mowgli, but after a fight, decides to leave Mowgli on his own. Mowgli soon meets up with the laid-back, fun- loving sloth bear Baloo, who promises to raise Mowgli himself and never take him to the Man-Village. Shortly afterward, a group of monkeys kidnap Mowgli and take him to their leader, King Louie the orangutan. King Louie offers to help Mowgli stay in the jungle if he will tell Louie how to make fire, like other humans. However, since he was not raised by humans, Mowgli does not know how to make fire. Bagheera and Baloo arrive to rescue Mowgli and in the ensuing chaos, King Louie's palace is demolished to rubble. Bagheera speaks to Baloo that night and convinces him that the jungle will never be safe for Mowgli with Shere Khan around. In the morning, Baloo reluctantly explains to Mowgli that the Man-Village is best for him, but Mowgli accuses him of breaking his promise and runs away. As Baloo sets off in search of Mowgli, Bagheera rallies the help of Hathi and his patrol. However, Shere Khan himself, who was eavesdropping on Bagheera and Hathi's conversation, is now determined to hunt and kill Mowgli himself. Meanwhile, Mowgli encounters Kaa once again, who again attempts to eat him, but he escapes thanks to the unwitting intervention of the suspicious Shere Khan. As a storm gathers, a depressed Mowgli encounters a group of friendly vultures who accept Mowgli as a fellow outcast. Shere Khan appears shortly after, scaring off the vultures and confronting Mowgli. Baloo rushes to the rescue and tries to keep Shere Khan away from Mowgli, but is nearly killed. When lightning strikes a nearby tree and sets it ablaze, the vultures swoop in to distract Shere Khan, while Mowgli grabs a large flaming branch and ties it to the tiger's tail. Shere Khan, who is terrified of fire, panics and runs away. Bagheera and Baloo take Mowgli to the edge of the Man-Village, but Mowgli is still hesitant to go there. However, his mind abruptly changes when he is smitten by a beautiful young girl from the village who is coming down by the riverside to fetch water. After noticing Mowgli, she "accidentally" drops her water pot. Mowgli retrieves it for her and follows her into the Man-Village. After Mowgli shrugs to Baloo and Bagheera, to show that he has made up his mind and chosen to go to the Man-Village, Baloo and Bagheera decide to head home, content that Mowgli is safe and happy with his own kind. ===== The novel is a series of recollections by the members of Troop D, a Pennsylvania State Police barracks in western Pennsylvania. After Curtis Wilcox, a well-liked member of Troop D, is killed by a drunk driver, his son Ned begins to visit the barracks. The cops, the dispatcher and the custodian quickly take a liking to him. The troopers begin telling Ned about the "Buick 8". The Buick 8, which resembles a vintage blue 1953 Buick Roadmaster, has been in storage in a shed near the barracks since 1979, when it was left at a gas station by a mysterious driver who then disappeared. The car, they discover, is not a car at all. It appears to be a Buick Roadmaster, but the steering wheel is immobile, the dashboard instruments are useless props, the engine has no moving parts, the ignition wires go nowhere, the car heals itself when damaged and it repels all dirt or debris. Sandy Dearborn, now Sergeant Commanding of Troop D, is the main narrator of the book, and tells the story to Ned, discussing various things that have happened with the car and his father's fascination with it. The car will frequently give off what they dub "lightquakes", or large flashes of purple light over an extended period of time. These lights will occasionally "give birth" to strange plants and creatures that are not like anything in our world. Two people have disappeared in the vicinity of the car—Curtis Wilcox's former partner Ennis Rafferty, as well as an escaped lowlife named Brian Lippy. It is later suggested that perhaps the Buick was actually a portal between our world and another. After hearing the story of the Buick and how it has been kept secret by Troop D for so long, Ned becomes convinced that the car was somehow related to the death of his father in a seemingly random road accident. After all, the gas station attendant who first reported the Buick sitting in front of the station was the same man who, years later, would kill his own father. Sandy cautions him to keep from obsessing over the Buick ("There are Buicks everywhere", he later warns), but after leaving Ned at the Troop D facility to eat at a diner, he realizes that Ned never asked whether anyone considered destroying it. He deduces that Ned is determined to destroy the Buick, and that the Buick wants to use that impulse to take Ned into the other world. Sandy returns to the shed to find Ned sitting in it, Ned having poured gasoline under the car while holding a pistol and a match. Just as Sandy pulls Ned out, the Buick transforms into a portal, trying to draw both Ned and Sandy inside of it. The rest of the staff arrive on the feeling that something bad may happen, all of them helping recall the story of the Buick's origin at their station, and manage to pull Ned and Sandy free, but not before Sandy glimpses into the world on the other side of the Buick. He sees Lippy's swastika necklace and cowboy boots, along with Ennis's Stetson hat and Ruger gun. One last story is told, revealing that destroying the Buick actually was discussed. However, they come to theorize that the Buick functions as a sort of regulator valve between the worlds, and that destroying it would do more harm than good. They decide that it is safest to watch over the Buick, in the hope that whatever supernatural force will eventually dissipate and expire. Eddie J ends up killing himself and Ned becomes a State Trooper. He looks in on the Buick and tells Sandy the crack in the windshield hasn't healed. ===== Millionaire Sam Stone (Danny DeVito) hates his wife Barbara (Bette Midler). He plans on murdering her to gain control of her $15 million family fortune and run off with his mistress Carol (Anita Morris). He goes home to murder his wife, but he can't find her. The phone rings and an anonymous man tells him that Barbara has been kidnapped and if Sam informs the media or the police, or if any of their detailed demands are not met, they will kill his wife. Overjoyed, Sam informs the media and the police and deliberately disobeys all of the kidnapper's demands, believing this will ensure his wife's death. The kidnappers are Ken (Judge Reinhold) and Sandy Kessler (Helen Slater), who want revenge on Sam for stealing Sandy's fashion designs, along with the Kesslers' life savings. Barbara is imprisoned in the Kesslers' basement, where she proves difficult to the amateur kidnappers. Sam doesn't show up with the ransom on several occasions, even when the price is dropped, and it becomes obvious that Sam really wants his wife dead. Carol, having learned of Sam's plan to kill Barbara, secretly intends to blackmail Sam, with the help of her handsome but dim-witted boyfriend Earl (Bill Pullman). Knowing Sam plans to dump his wife's body in the Hollywood Hills at night, Carol has Earl lie in wait with a video camera. He mistakenly films a rendezvous between a prostitute and her client performing noisy sex in the front seat of a car. Earl, hearing the woman's screams, thinks the murder is happening right in front of him. Without watching the tape, Carol sends an anonymous copy to Sam, who thinks Carol has sent it to him as a tittilating birthday present. He tells Carol he will do the same thing to her, causing her to think he plans to kill her. Carol sends another anonymous copy to police chief Henry Benton (William G. Schilling) -- who happens to be the prostitute's client. Benton, thinking that he is being blackmailed, asks for the demands. Carol tells him to arrest Sam Stone for murdering his wife. Benton orders a search of Sam's house, planning to plant evidence, but is surprised when real evidence turns up—a bottle of chloroform Sam intended to use to sedate his wife, and pictures of Sam with Carol. The kidnapping investigation, which has led to Ken by now, is immediately called off, and Sam is arrested. Sam now faces the unhappy prospect of having to get his wife back in order to prove his innocence. While being held captive in the Kessler's basement, Barbara takes up exercising to relieve her boredom and loses at least . Unexpectedly, Barbara bonds with Sandy, letting Barbara wear some of her dress designs to show off her new figure. Barbara loves them, and offers to go into business with Sandy. Permitted to leave, Barbara later returns to the Kessler residence when she finds out from the newspaper about Sam's mistress; Barbara now realizes Sam wanted her dead. Unbeknownst to Barbara and the Kesslers, a notorious local serial killer, The Bedroom Killer, had just entered their home and confronts both Barbara and Ken. In a scuffle, the killer falls down the basement steps and dies. Barbara, Ken, and Sandy now set a revenge plot in motion against Sam. Desperate to prove his wife is alive, Sam offers to pay the ransom the moment Ken calls him again. Armed with Barbara's inside knowledge of Sam's finances, they have increased the ransom to equal Sam's entire net worth: over $2 million. Sam is outraged, but has no choice. He withdraws the cash, but begs the police to watch the drop-site. Carol finally views the videotape in a video store, but unknowingly puts the image on every TV in the store, and the police chief is recognized by his wife. Carol realizes now Barbara really was kidnapped. Carol learns the time and place of the ransom drop. Sam waits with his life savings in cash in a briefcase. Ken arrives in disguise to get the money, but then scores of hidden police suddenly appear. Sam gives the briefcase to Ken, but Earl arrives with a gun, intent on robbing Sam. He instead tries to rob Ken (who is holding the briefcase). In the ensuing confusion, Earl is captured by the police. Ken takes the briefcase and drives toward the waterfront, with many police cars following him. He drives onto — and eventually off of — the end of Santa Monica Pier with the ransom cash inside. The police search the water and bring up the car, with the body of the Bedroom Killer inside (dressed in Ken's clothes and disguise). Only a few thousand dollars are recovered from the ocean. Although he has lost all his money, Sam holds out hope that Barbara will now definitely be killed and he'll inherit her $15 million fortune. However, Barbara shows up and misidentifies the serial killer as her kidnapper. The police walk away in satisfaction. Sam, meanwhile, is taken aback by how great Barbara looks with her weight loss. She beats him up in retaliation for all he did and didn't do during her kidnapping, and pushes him into the water. On a nearby beach, Ken emerges from the water in scuba gear, carrying the briefcase with the ransom cash. Sandy runs to embrace him. They are joined by Barbara and all celebrate on the beach together. ===== In the summer of 1963, Frances Houseman, nicknamed Baby, is vacationing with her parents, Jake and Marjorie Houseman, and her older sister Lisa, at Kellerman's, an upscale Catskills resort which is owned by Max, Jake’s friend. Exploring one night, Baby secretly observes Max instructing the waiters, all Ivy League students, to romance the guests' daughters, no matter how unattractive. She also sees Max demeaning the working class entertainment staff, including Johnny Castle, one of the resort's dance instructors. Baby is attracted to Johnny, and dances briefly with him after his cousin, Billy, takes her to one of the staff's secret “dirty” dancing parties. Baby learns Johnny's dance partner Penny is pregnant by Robbie, a waiter and womanizer who attends Yale School of Medicine and who now has his eye on Lisa. When Robbie refuses to help Penny, Baby, without giving a reason, borrows money from her father to pay for Penny's abortion. At first, Penny declines as it would cause her and Johnny to miss a performance at another nearby resort, costing them the season's salary, but Baby volunteers to stand in for Penny. During her dance sessions with Johnny, they develop a mutual attraction, and except for their failure to execute a climactic lift, Johnny and Baby's performance is successful. Back at Kellerman's, Penny is gravely injured by the botched abortion, and Baby enlists her father's help to stabilize Penny. Angered by Baby's deception, and assuming Johnny got Penny pregnant, Dr. Houseman orders Baby to stay away from him. Baby sneaks off to apologize to Johnny for her dad's treatment of him, but Johnny feels he deserves it due to his lower status; Baby reassures him of his own worth and then declares her love for him. The two continue seeing each other, but Baby keeps it secret from her father, who now refuses to talk to her. A scene from the dancing finale Johnny rejects an indecent proposal by Vivian Pressman, an adulterous wife, who instead sleeps with Robbie, inadvertently foiling Lisa's own plan to lose her virginity to him. When Vivian spots Baby leaving Johnny's cabin she feels spurned and attempts revenge on Johnny by claiming he stole her husband's wallet. Max is ready to fire Johnny, but Baby backs up his alibi, revealing she was with him during the time frame of the theft. The real thieves Sydney and Silvia Schumacher are caught, but Johnny is still fired because of his liaisons with Baby. Before leaving, Johnny tries to talk to Dr. Houseman, but is only accused of now trying to get at Baby. Baby later apologizes to her father for lying, but not for her romance with Johnny, and then accuses him of class prejudice. At the end-of-season talent show, Dr. Houseman gives Robbie a recommendation for medical school, but when Robbie admits that he got Penny pregnant, and then insults her and Baby, Dr. Houseman angrily grabs the recommendation back. Johnny arrives and disrupts the final song by bringing Baby up on stage and declaring that she has made him a better person, and then they do the dance they practiced all summer, ending with a successful performance of the climactic lift. Dr. Houseman admits he was wrong about Johnny and reconciles with Baby, and all the staff and guests join Baby and Johnny dancing to "(I've Had) The Time of My Life". ===== Young and reckless Detroit Police Department detective Axel Foley's (Eddie Murphy) latest unauthorized sting operation goes sour when two uninformed officers intervene, resulting in a high-speed chase through the city which causes widespread damage. His boss, Inspector Douglas Todd (Gilbert R. Hill), reprimands Axel for his behavior and threatens to fire him unless he changes his ways on the force. Axel arrives at his apartment to find it has been broken into by his childhood friend, Mikey Tandino (James Russo). Mikey did time in prison, but ended up working as a security guard in Beverly Hills, thanks to a mutual friend, Jenny Summers (Lisa Eilbacher). Mikey shows Axel some German bearer bonds and Axel wonders how he got them, but chooses not to question him about it. After hanging out at a bar, they return to Axel's apartment, where two men, Zack (Jonathan Banks) and Casey (Michael Champion), knock Axel unconscious, confront Mikey about the bearer bonds and then kill him. Axel asks to investigate Mikey's murder, but Inspector Todd refuses to allow it because of his close ties to Mikey. Axel uses the guise of taking vacation time to head to Beverly Hills to solve the crime alone. He finds Jenny working in an art gallery and learns about Mikey's ties to Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff), the gallery's owner. Posing as a flower deliveryman, Axel goes to Maitland's office and tries to question him about Mikey, but is thrown out a window by Maitland's bodyguards and arrested. At the police station, Lieutenant Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox) assigns Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton) and Detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) to follow Axel. Taggart and Billy have a humiliating encounter with Axel that night (when Axel directs the staff at his hotel to send them food to distract them, while he sneaks up behind their undercover Mercury and plugs its tailpipe with bananas, causing it to stall.) As a result, Billy and Taggart do not get along with Axel at first, but the three do begin to develop a mutual respect after they foil a robbery at a striptease bar. On the trail of Mikey's killers, Axel sneaks into one of Maitland's warehouses, where he finds crates full of coffee grounds, which he suspects were used to pack drugs while covering their scent from police dogs. He also discovers that many of Maitland's crates have not gone through customs. After being arrested again, this time after a scuffle with Zack at Maitland's country club, Axel admits to Bogomil that Maitland must be a smuggler. Police Chief Hubbard (Stephen Elliott), who has learned of Axel's ill-advised investigative actions, orders that Axel be escorted out of town. However, Axel convinces Billy to pick up Jenny instead and take her with them to Maitland's warehouse, where a shipment is due to arrive that day. Axel and Jenny break into the warehouse and discover several bags of cocaine inside a crate. Before Axel can get this newfound evidence to Billy, Maitland and his associates arrive. Maitland takes Jenny and leaves Axel to be killed, but after some hesitation, Billy enters the warehouse and rescues Axel during a brief gunfight in which he kills Casey. Taggart tracks Axel and Billy to Maitland's estate, where he joins the two in their efforts to rescue Jenny and bring Maitland to justice. Together, the trio wipe out a number of Maitland's men, including Zack. With Bogomil's help, Axel then fatally shoots Maitland and rescues Jenny. Bogomil fabricates a story to Hubbard that covers for all the participants without discrediting the Beverly Hills PD. Realizing that his exploits while "on vacation" are likely to get him thrown off the Detroit PD, Axel requests that Bogomil smooth things over with Inspector Todd; when Axel mentions the possibility of setting up shop as a PI in Beverly Hills, Bogomil nervously agrees to wipe the slate clean for him. Later, Taggart and Billy meet Axel as he checks out of his hotel, and pay his bill. Axel invites them to join him for a farewell drink, and they accept. ===== American astronaut Earl Jensen is stranded in space intentionally by the head of the Department of Space. Years later, he returns to Earth. To gain the people's trust, he tells a touching story of the time he has spent on a planet of mutant aliens. Most of the aliens in this story are oversized human body parts. It is later revealed that Jensen has really spent his time in space crossbreeding animals to create an army of mutants, in order to exact his revenge on the corrupt Department of Space head. ===== The game takes place in three locations with the player working for a small smuggling company named Exotic Imports (EI or EXO for short). The story focuses on the activities and objectives given by The Colonel to EI. It starts in Russia, where the player finds out who they are working for and the basics of the game. Then, after being told to leave immediately from the area by Shodi (The main client) to Vietnam, Exotic Imports then learns of the CIA being involved after the Russians track 2 kg of Weapons Grade Plutonium. This takes you back to Russia, where Frank (Your Boss) asks the Colonel what is happening with the "nukes" and involvement from the CIA. Frank, only caring for money, agrees to continue smuggling nuclear devices. However, the rest of EI decide not to, and try to stop a missile which would cause WWIII. This reveals the Colonel's intentions, and Frank escapes with all the passwords, showing his plans. EI stop Frank, and then it shows the player flying off in a helicopter with a cheque for $100,501,000. ===== Trailer for Lady in the Lake Tired of the low pay of his profession, hard-boiled Los Angeles private detective Phillip Marlowe submits a murder story to Kingsby Publications. He is invited to the publisher's offices to discuss his work, but soon realizes it is merely a ploy. A few days before Christmas, publishing executive Adrienne Fromsett hires him to locate Chrystal Kingsby, the wife of her boss, Derace Kingsby. One month earlier, Kingsby’s wife had sent her husband a telegram saying she was heading to Mexico to divorce him and marry a man named Chris Lavery. But, according to Fromsett, Lavery says he has not seen Chrystal for two months, and the telegram appears to be fake. It becomes obvious to Marlowe that Fromsett wants her boss for herself - for his money, as she later admits. Marlowe goes to see Lavery, who claims to know nothing about any trip to Mexico. Lavery, however, says that Mrs. Kingsby was a beautiful woman before revising it to "is." He sucker-punches the detective, and Marlowe wakes up in jail. He is questioned by Captain Kane (Tom Tully) and a belligerent Lieutenant DeGarmot. Marlowe refuses to divulge anything, and Kane releases him. Marlowe learns that a woman's body has been recovered from a lake on which Kingsby owns property, and that Kingsby's caretaker, Mr. Chess, was charged with the murder of his wife Muriel. Fromsett suspects that Chrystal is the real killer, as she and Muriel hated each other. Little Fawn Lake was also where Chrystal was last seen. Marlowe learns that Muriel was an alias for a woman named Mildred Havelend and that she was hiding from a tough cop, whose description fits DeGarmot. Marlowe goes to see Lavery again. Inside the unlocked house, he encounters Lavery's landlady, Mrs. Fallbrook, holding a gun she claims to have just found. Upstairs, he finds Lavery dead, shot several times. He also finds a handkerchief with the monogram "A F". Before calling the police, Marlowe goes to the publishing house to confront Fromsett, interrupting a Christmas party. In private, she denies killing Lavery. Kingsby, learning that Fromsett had hired Marlowe to find Chrystal, tells her theirs will be strictly a business relationship from now on. A furious Fromsett fires the private eye, but Kingsby immediately hires him to find his wife. Marlowe informs the police of Lavery's death. At the scene, he suggests that Muriel was hiding from DeGarmot. DeGarmont slaps Marlowe, and the two men scuffle. Kane takes Marlowe into custody, releasing him only out of Christmas spirit. Marlowe obtains more information on Muriel from a newspaper contact. She had been a suspect in the suspicious death of her previous employer's wife. The investigating detective, DeGarmot, ruled that death a suicide; the victim's parents strongly disagreed. Marlowe finds the parents have been intimidated into silence. His car is then run off the road by DeGarmot. Regaining consciousness after the crash, Marlowe gets to a pay phone and calls Fromsett for help. She takes him to her apartment, where she claims that she has fallen in love with him. They spend Christmas Day together while he recovers from his injuries. Kingsby receives a telegram from his wife, asking for money and, unable to find Marlowe, goes to Fromsett's apartment to ask her if she has seen the detective. Marlowe agrees to give Kingsby's money to Chrystal, as Kingsby is being followed by police detectives. Placing his trust in Fromsett, Marlowe instructs her to have the police trail him, following a trail of rice he will leave. The woman Marlowe meets turns out to be Mildred Havelend, alias the "landlord" Mrs. Fallbrook, alias Muriel. She killed Chrystal - the "lady in the lake" of the title - in addition to her former employer's wife and Lavery. DeGarmot was in love with Havelend and helped her cover up the first murder. Then she fled from him and married Chess. Havelend pulls a gun on Marlowe in her apartment. DeGarmot tracks them down, having overheard Fromsett speaking to Captain Kane and following Marlowe's trail of rice. He plans to kill them both with Havelend's gun and stage it to look like she and Marlowe shot each other. DeGarmot then shoots a pleading Mildred several times. Kane arrives just in time to gun down his own crooked cop. In an epilogue, Marlowe and Fromsett decide to leave for New York City to start a new life together. ===== A voiceover by the child Jeremiah (Justin Pierre Edmund) guides the viewer through the film. Rev. Henry Biggs (Courtney B. Vance) is the pastor of a small struggling African American Baptist church in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of New York City. Membership is declining, Henry is pulled in a hundred directions by his parishioners' needs, and the church's finances are in trouble. Henry is under intense pressure from real estate developer Joe Hamilton (Gregory Hines) to sell the church's property so that Hamilton can build luxury condominiums on the site. Henry has also become neglectful of his wife, Julia (Whitney Houston), and his son, Jeremiah. Julia worries that her marriage is failing. Unsure that he can make a difference in his parishioners' lives and beginning to lose his faith, Henry prays to God for help, which comes in the form of Dudley (Denzel Washington), a witty and debonair angel. Dudley tells Henry that he is an angel sent by God to help him, but Henry is deeply suspicious of Dudley. Julia, however, is instantly charmed by the handsome and unflappable angel. With Christmas approaching, Henry's schedule becomes increasingly burdensome, and Dudley begins to spend most of his time with Julia and Jeremiah. Rev. Biggs' secretary, Beverly (Loretta Devine), becomes comically defensive and aggressive, believing Dudley is there to take her job. Julia's wasp-tongued mother, Margueritte (Jenifer Lewis), is also suspicious of Dudley, because she believes the newcomer will break up her daughter's marriage. Dudley and Julia go ice skating, and then later spend an evening in the jazz club where Julia once performed. After Henry confronts Dudley, Dudley realizes that he is falling in love with Julia. So, Dudley turns his attention to Hamilton and manages to disrupt his schemes to get Henry to sell the church. Henry now realizes that his family is the most important thing in his life, and he resolves to be a better husband and father. At the church's Christmas pageant, Henry finds his faith in God renewed and ties to his family restored. With his work done, Dudley gives the Biggs family a fully decorated Christmas tree as a gift. Dudley then erases all memories of himself from everyone he has met, and although he attends midnight service on Christmas Eve, no one recognizes him. However, Jeremiah, who has the faith of a child, still remembers Dudley, and wishes him a merry Christmas. A subplot present throughout the film focuses on Julia's singing talents. Once a popular nightclub singer, she is now a star in the church choir. This subplot provides for several set pieces in which the choir performs, and Gospel music plays a significant role. It also provides comic relief in the form of a domineering choir member, played by Houston's real life mother, Cissy. ===== Composer Richard Parker and his wife Priscilla live an ordinary suburban life until they meet their new neighbors Eddy and Kay Otis. The two couples became friends. Kay's talent for blues singing gets Richard's attention, while Eddy is attracted to Priscilla. It becomes clear that Eddy is a scam artist when he fakes a neck injury after an auto accident for the insurance proceeds (the majority of which he offers to the Parkers as a gift). Eddy chastises Richard for not living dangerously, and suggests they swap mates for an evening. The plot takes a nasty turn when Richard does sleep with Kay (supposedly without her realizing that he is not her husband) and Kay turns up dead the next morning, bludgeoned to death by a baseball bat. Later, it is revealed that Eddy spent the night elsewhere in order to establish an airtight alibi. Richard's semen is found in her body, and his fingerprints are on the bat (from when the two couples played a friendly game of softball earlier the previous day), so he's charged with the crime. Priscilla disowns and divorces Richard due to his infidelity. Eddy soon becomes Priscilla's lover and a substitute father to Richard's daughter, Lori. A distraught Richard finally finds a ray of hope when he hear's Kay singing in a radio talent show and realizes she's alive. With the help of private investigator David Duttonville, who was hired by the insurance company from which Eddy is attempting to collect a $1.5 million indemnity claim, Richard tracks her down and learns the truth of how he was betrayed. Kay is guilt- ridden over her part in it, but terrified by Eddy's threat to implicate her if she testifies. Eddy, anticipating what Richard intends to do next, murders Kay and slips away. Implicated in a second murder, Richard flees the scene as police sirens approach. Priscilla discovers a plane ticket Eddy used on the night of the second murder. Realizing Eddy's guilt, she worries over what to do about it. Richard performs a commando-style raid on Eddy's house, but Eddy, anticipating this move as well, reveals to Priscilla his plan to murder her and shoot Richard as a homicidal intruder. Working together, Richard and Priscilla eventually kill Eddy using the original murder weapon, the baseball bat. Richard and Priscilla are later seen moving into a very secluded house with no neighbors visible for miles. ===== The film begins with Kaydee “Caine” Lawson and his best friend Kevin "O-Dog" Anderson entering a liquor store to buy some malt liquor, where a Korean cashier and his wife rush them to pay for their drinks and leave. After their purchase, the cashier inadvertently insults O-Dog by saying, "I feel sorry for your mother." Offended, O-Dog briefly argues with the cashier, then kills him and his wife with his gun, takes the surveillance tape, robs the clerk's wallet and the cash register, and flees the store with Caine. In a flashback, it is revealed that Caine's father was a drug dealer who was killed in a drug deal gone wrong when Caine was 10, and that his mother was a heroin addict who died of a drug overdose. This led to Caine being raised by his grandparents in the crime-ridden Jordan Downs housing projects. O-Dog proudly shows off the surveillance tape to his admiring friends, much to Caine's annoyance. Later, as Caine and his cousin Harold are on their way from a party, they are carjacked, resulting in Harold being shot and killed and Caine being wounded. O-Dog learns of the carjackers' whereabouts and he, Caine, and their friend A-Wax, an OG, hunt them down together and kill them, avenging Harold's death. Caine and O-Dog are arrested after a failed car theft attempt, and even though Caine's fingerprints match those taken from a bottle at the liquor store on the night of the robbery, Caine is soon released as the police fail to link them to the crime. Caine's friends Stacy and Sharif try to convince him to leave with them to Kansas, and both Caine's grandfather and Sharif's father warn Caine that he'll either end up dead or in jail if he doesn't change his ways. Caine, on the other hand, ignores all advice. After buying a Ford Mustang from a chop shop, Caine carjacks another young black man for his gold Dayton wire wheels and his jewelry, then purchases a large quantity of cocaine that he plans to sell as crack. He also meets a local girl named Ilena and eventually has sex with her. While driving one night, Caine and Sharif are pulled over and beaten by cops. The two are dumped in a Hispanic neighborhood, but the Hispanic gang members were nice enough to take them to a hospital instead of beating them even more as the cops anticipated. While Caine is hospitalized, his friend Ronnie tells him that she has found a job in Atlanta and invites him to come with her. Caine is hesitant at first, but ultimately agrees to go. At a party, Chauncey, a confederate of Caine in an insurance scam, drunkenly makes sexual moves towards Ronnie. Caine comes to her rescue and starts pistol-whipping Chauncey. Ilena calls to inform Caine that she is pregnant, but he refuses to believe that the child is his and drops her. Chauncey retaliates for Caine's assault by sending a copy of the surveillance tape to the police, who begin scouring the area for Caine and O-Dog, who are now wanted for the murders of the cashier and his wife. Meanwhile, Caine beats up Ilena's cousin when he confronts him outside Caine's grandparents' house about the pregnancy. This proves to be the last straw for Caine's grandparents, who throw him out of the house despite his pleading to stay. Ilena's cousin gathers his friends to get revenge on Caine. As Caine and Ronnie are getting ready to leave for Atlanta, Ilena's cousin and his friends drive by Ronnie's house and engage a drive-by shootout, with O-Dog shooting back at the attackers. Sharif is killed and Caine is mortally wounded while he is trying to protect Ronnie's son, Anthony. As Caine slowly dies in Stacy's arms, he sees flashbacks of the events that led to this outcome. Caine recalls his grandfather asking him if he cares whether he lives or dies, and he realizes in his dying moment that he does but it is too late by this time. ===== Galápagos is the story of a small band of mismatched humans who are shipwrecked on the fictional island of Santa Rosalia in the Galápagos Islands after a global financial crisis cripples the world's economy. Shortly thereafter, a disease renders all humans on Earth infertile, with the exception of the people on Santa Rosalia, making them the last specimens of humankind. Over the next million years, their descendants, the only fertile humans left on the planet, eventually evolve into a furry species resembling sea lions: though possibly still able to walk upright (it is not explicitly mentioned, but it is stated that they occasionally catch land animals), they have a snout with teeth adapted for catching fish, a streamlined skull and flipper-like hands with rudimentary fingers (described as "nubbins"). The story's narrator is a spirit who has been watching over humans for the last million years. This particular ghost is the immortal spirit of Leon Trotsky Trout, son of Vonnegut's recurring character Kilgore Trout. Leon is a Vietnam War veteran who is affected by the massacres in Vietnam. He goes AWOL and settles in Sweden, where he works as a shipbuilder and dies during the construction of the ship, the Bahía de Darwin. This ship is used for the "Nature Cruise of the Century". Planned as a celebrity cruise, it was in limbo due to the economic downturn, and due to a chain of unconnected events the ship ended up allowing humans to reach and survive in the Galápagos. The deceased Kilgore Trout makes four appearances in the novel, urging his son to enter the "blue tunnel" that leads to the afterlife. When Leon refuses for the fourth time, Kilgore pledges that he, and the blue tunnel, will not return for one million years, which leaves Leon to observe the slow process of evolution that transforms the humans into aquatic mammals. The process begins when a Japanese woman on the island, the granddaughter of a Hiroshima survivor, gives birth to a fur-covered daughter. Trout maintains that all the sorrows of humankind were caused by "the only true villain in my story: the oversized human brain". Natural selection eliminates this problem, since the humans best fitted to Santa Rosalia were those who could swim best, which required a streamlined head, which in turn required a smaller brain. ===== ===== The elderly British employees of the Permanent Assurance Company, a staid London firm which has recently been taken over by the Very Big Corporation of America, rebel against their much younger corporate masters when one of them is sacked. Having locked the surviving supervisors in the safe, and forced their boss to walk a makeshift plank out a window, they commandeer their Edwardian office building, which suddenly weighs anchor, uses its scaffolding and tarpaulins as sails, and is turned into a pirate ship. The stone office building starts to move as if it were a ship. Sailing through the City of London, they then proceed to attack The Very Big Corporation of America's (VBCA) skyscraper, using, among other things, wooden filing cabinets which have been transformed into carronades and swords fashioned from the blades of a ceiling fan. On ropes, they swing into the board room and engage the executives of VBCA in hand-to-hand combat, vanquishing them. After their hard- earned victory, the clerks continue to "sail the wide accountan-sea" (as they sing in their heroic sea shanty). Sailing into history as they continue on to further conquests. However, they unceremoniously end up falling off the edge of the world, due to their belief about the shape of the world being "disastrously wrong". Typical of how the Pythons would weave previously 'terminated' plot lines into later scenes of the same episode (like Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition in the TV show, or the recurring theme of the swallows carrying coconuts in the movie Holy Grail), The Crimson Permanent Assurance suddenly re-emerges in the middle of the main feature of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (this time with both Eric Idle and Michael Palin added as members of the VBCA). After the donor scene, the movie shifts to follow a modern board room debate about the meaning of life (and that people are not wearing enough hats). This debate is happening at the Very Big Corporation of America headquarters building in the same room that witnessed the battle in the short film. The debate is halted when one executive asks, "Has anyone noticed that building there before?" which turns out to be the marauding old London building/pirate ship of the Crimson Permanent Assurance. The audience gets to briefly see the attack of the pirates from the angle of the victims in the board room. The raid is halted by a modern skyscraper falling onto the moving Permanent Assurance Company building; with a voice- over apologizing for the temporary interruption due to the "unwarranted attack by the supporting feature". ===== A doe gives birth to a fawn named Bambi, who will one day take over the position of Great Prince of the Forest, a title currently held by Bambi's father, who guards the woodland creatures against the dangers of hunters. The fawn is quickly befriended by an eager, energetic rabbit named Thumper, who helps to teach him to walk and speak. Bambi grows up very attached to his mother, with whom he spends most of his time. He soon makes other friends, including a young skunk named Flower and a female fawn named Faline. Curious and inquisitive, Bambi frequently asks about the world around him and is cautioned about the dangers of life as a forest creature by his loving mother. One day out in a meadow, Bambi briefly sees The Great Prince but does not realize that he is his father. As the Great Prince wanders uphill, he discovers the human hunter named "Man" by all the animals is coming and rushes down to the meadow to get everyone to safety. Bambi is briefly separated from his mother during that time but is escorted to her by the Great Prince as the three of them make it back in the forest just as Man fires his gun. During Bambi's first winter, he and Thumper play in the snow while Flower hibernates. One day his mother takes him along to find food when Man shows up again. As they escape his mother is shot and killed by the hunter, leaving the little fawn mournful and alone. Taking pity on his abandoned son, the Great Prince leads Bambi home as he reveals to him that he is his father. Next year, Bambi has matured into a young stag, and his childhood friends have entered young adulthood as well. They are warned of "twitterpation" by Friend Owl and that they will eventually fall in love, although the trio view the concept of romance with scorn. However, Thumper and Flower soon encounter their beautiful romantic counterparts and abandon their former thoughts on love. Bambi himself encounters Faline as a beautiful doe. However, their courtship is quickly interrupted and challenged by a belligerent older stag named Ronno, who attempts to force Faline away from Bambi. Bambi successfully manages to defeat Ronno in battle and earn the rights to the doe's affections. Bambi is awakened afterward by the smell of smoke; he follows it and discovers it leads to a hunter camp. Bambi is warned by his father that Man has returned with more hunters. The two flee to safety, although Bambi is separated from Faline in the turmoil and searches for her along the way. He soon finds her cornered by Man's vicious hunting dogs, which he manages to ward off. Bambi escapes them and is shot by a hunter. Meanwhile, at the "Man's" camp, their campfire suddenly spreads into the forest, resulting in a wildfire from which the forest residents flee in fear. Bambi, his father, Faline, and the forest animals manage to reach shelter on a riverbank. The following spring, Faline gives birth to twins under Bambi's watchful eye as the new Great Prince of the Forest. ===== A wrecking ball destroyes an abandoned building, the impact knocking over a magic lamp inside and causing it to land on a boombox. The genie inside decides to make residence inside the boombox from there on. Meanwhile, a 12-year-old boy named Max (Francis Capra) goes to school. He greets his friend, Jake (portrayed by Jake Glaser, director Paul Michael Glaser's son), with a goofy face and is chastised by his teacher. Max is confronted by a gang of bullies, who hold him on the bathroom floor and spray paint his outline. The bullies chase Max through Brooklyn. Max is chased into the abandoned building, where he discovers the boombox and accidentally unleashes the genie inside. The genie, who introduces himself as Kazaam (Shaquille O'Neal), a 5,000-year-old genie, tells Max that he is now Max's genie and proves it to him by demonstrating his powers, which results in Kazaam disappearing off the face of the earth. Max returns home to find that his mother is marrying a fireman named Travis (John Costelloe). It is revealed that his mother lied to him about his real father's whereabouts, and that he is actually located in the city. Max set out to search for his father in the hopes of rekindling their relationship. He suddenly encounters Kazaam during his travels, who pesters Max into making a wish. Max eventually finds his father, only to learn that he is a musical talent agent who specializes in unauthorized music. Max goes to his personal secret hideout and tells Kazaam about his father. They decide to have a bike race through Max's hideout, during which Kazaam shows off his powers. Kazaam finally convinces Max to make his first wish, which consists of junk food raining from the sky. While eating all of this, Max suddenly realizes that he owns Kazaam until he makes his last two wishes. Max and Kazaam go out to see Max's father again. After getting past an intimidating bodyguard, Max is introduced by his father to the other employees of the agency and invited to a nightclub. The owner of the nightclub, Malik (Marshall Manesh), shows interest in Kazaam upon the realization that he is a genie, and he hopes to control Kazaam through Max's father. The next day, Kazaam stays in Max's home and passes himself off as Max's tutor. Max confesses to Kazaam that he and his father aren't really connecting, though Kazaam attempts to shirk the issue with some rapping. Max attempts to wish for his father and mother to fall back in love, but Kazaam cannot grant this wish because he is not a djinn, and therefore not free to grant ethereal wishes. Later that day, Max witnesses his father being assaulted by Malik and his minions and goes to Kazaam for help. Kazaam just received a record deal as a professional rapper and is unable to help Max. After school, when Max's father demand his son to hand over the Record Tape that he stole last night, he does. Then he leaves realizing that he won't get a second chance with him. Later that night, Max is kidnapped by Malik and takes possession of Kazaam's boombox, causing Max's father to understand the error he made, though he is also held hostage as well. Malik, having taken control of Kazaam's boombox, is now in control of Kazaam himself. Max is pushed down an elevator shaft by Malik. He summons Kazaam in the hopes that he will do his bidding. While Kazaam is initially powerless against his master, he soon breaks free from his oppression and defeats Malik and his minions. Kazaam transforms Malik into a basketball and then slam dunks him into a garbage disposal. However, he then finds Max's lifeless body, and wishes that he could have granted Max's wish to give his father a second chance at life. Then, in his sorrow, Kazaam finally becomes a djinn, and is therefore able to do this for Max. With him officially a djinn, he pulls Max out of harm's way and carried out of the burning building by Travis. Max's father then shows up and tells him that he hopes to rekindle the bonding with his son, before he takes off with authorities. Kazaam is then last seen walking off being grilled by his girlfriend because he doesn't have a job, while at the same time, ecstatic over his newfound freedom. ===== In 1970, 121 year-old Jack Crabb, the oldest man in the world, is residing in a hospice and recounts his life story to a curious historian. Among other things, Crabb claims to have been a captive of the Cheyenne, a gunslinger, an associate of Wild Bill Hickok, a scout for General George Armstrong Custer, and the sole white survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. ===== The film centers on the Essenbecks, a wealthy industrialist family who have begun doing business with the Nazi Party. On the night of the Reichstag fire, the family's conservative patriarch, Baron Joachim von Essenbeck, who represents the old aristocratic Germany and detests Adolf Hitler, is murdered. Herbert Thalmann, the family firm's vice president, who openly opposes the Nazis, is framed for the crime. He escapes the grasp of the Gestapo, but his wife Elizabeth and their children do not. The family's empire passes to the control of an unscrupulous relative, the boorish SA officer Konstantin. Waiting in the wings are his son Günther, a sensitive and troubled student, and his nephew, Martin, an amoral, sexually deviant playboy who is secretly molesting his young cousin as well as a poor Jewish girl. Martin is dominated by his possessive mother, Sophie, the widow of Baron Joachim's only son, a fallen World War I hero. Friedrich Bruckmann, an employee of the family firm and Sophie's lover, ascends in power despite his lowly social status, thanks to Sophie's support and the SS officer and family relation Aschenbach, who pits family factions against each other to move their steel and munition works into state control. Friedrich kills Konstantin in the SS coup against the SA during its 1934 meeting to deal with its dissatisfaction with Hitler. Known as The Night of the Long Knives, the SA meeting and the subsequent executions of its leaders by the SS is portrayed as a homosexual orgy and bloody gangster-style massacre. Aschenbach then dismisses Friedrich, who now controls the family fortunes, as a weak social climber and not a loyal Nazi. Herbert Thalmann then returns to the family table. He reveals that his wife and children were sent to Dachau concentration camp, where his wife died; he is handing himself over to the Gestapo in return for the freedom of his children. Aschenbach makes a deal with the discounted and ignored heir, Martin, to remove Friedrich and Sophie from control, so that Martin may get what is owed him. Martin has sex with his mother, who falls into a catatonic state. Now in the SS, Martin allows Friedrich, who by decree has inherited the name and title of von Essenbeck, to wed his mother, and then hands them poison to commit suicide. He then hands over the family's steelworks to the Nazi government, which means that the way to war is more than secured. ===== Less than a year after the events of Guilty Gear, reports of a newly discovered commander Gear surfaced. Amid concern about a second war, another Holy Knights Tournament begins; whoever captures and kills Dizzy will receive 500,000 World Dollars. She is defeated, but her life is spared by Sol Badguy, as she proves to be inoffensive. Shortly after, she is found by Ky Kiske, the police chief of the United Nations and ex-chief of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights. He entrusts her care to Johnny and May, members of the Jellyfish Air Pirates, who welcome her as one of their own. Jam Kuradoberi, a bounty hunter and struggling chef, claims the credit for Dizzy's disappearance so she can collect the reward and finance her restaurant. ===== The Dogfather was a parody of The Godfather, but with canines as part of the Italian organized crime syndicate. It consists of the Dogfather (voiced by Bob Holt impersonating Marlon Brando) and his henchmen Pug and Louie (both voiced by Daws Butler). There were some cartoons that Louie was not in where Pug is voiced by Bob Holt. The Dogfather was later broadcast as part of the NBC Saturday morning cartoon series The Pink Panther and Friends. ===== NSA official Thomas Brian Reynolds meets with U.S. Congressman Phil Hammersley (R-NY) in a public park to discuss support for a new piece of counterterrorism legislation the U.S. Congress is pushing that dramatically expands the surveillance powers of intelligence agencies over individuals and groups. Hammersley remains committed to blocking its passage, since he believes it would almost totally destroy the privacy of U.S. citizens. Reynolds, determined to have the bill pass so as to gain a long-delayed and anticipated promotion within the NSA, has his team murder Hammersley, spread heart pills over his car, place his body in the car and push it into a lake to simulate the cause of death as a heart attack. In the aftermath, they discover that wildlife researcher Daniel Zavitz had a camera aimed in the woods at their location. Zavitz inspects the footage and, realizing he has captured the congressman's murder, calls a journalist he knows. The call is monitored by Reynolds' team who attempt to break into Zavitz's apartment to retrieve the tape. Realizing he is in danger, Zavitz transfers the video to a disc before fleeing the apartment ahead of Reynolds' men. Zavitz bumps into an old college friend, labor lawyer Robert Clayton "Bobby" Dean, and slips the disc into his shopping bag without his knowledge. Shortly afterwards, Zavitz is killed when he collides with a fire truck on a stolen bicycle; Reynolds' men later kill the journalist he had called. When Reynolds and his team discover that Bobby might have the video and after failing to convince him (under the guise of police officers) to allow them to search his shopping purchases, they, believing that Bobby and Zavitz were in collusion together, raid his house and plant surveillance devices. They then disseminate false evidence to implicate Bobby of working with the family of mafia kingpin Paulie Pintero and having an affair with ex- girlfriend Rachel Banks. The subterfuge destroys Bobby's life: he is dismissed from his job, his bank accounts are frozen, and his wife Carla throws him out of the house. Bobby believes Pintero is behind the smear campaign as revenge for a prior case, with help from Brill, a secretive contact of Rachel's. Bobby sets up a meet with Brill, to which the NSA sends an impostor, but the real Brill rescues Bobby. Brill explains that his pursuers are NSA agents and rids him of tracking devices hidden in his clothing. With Bobby and Brill in hiding, the NSA agents kill Rachel and frame Bobby for the murder. Bobby obtains the disc and Brill identifies Reynolds in the recovered video, but the disc is destroyed during an escape from an NSA raid. Brill, whose real name is Edward Lyle, tells Bobby of his past as a communications expert; he was stationed in Iran during the Iranian Revolution; his partner, Rachel's father, was killed, but Lyle escaped, and has been in hiding since. Lyle tries to urge Bobby to take cover, but the lawyer is determined to clear his name. Bobby and Lyle trail another supporter of the surveillance bill, U.S. Congressman Sam Albert (R-NH), videotaping him having an affair with his aide. Bobby and Lyle "hide" one of the NSA's bugs in Albert's room so Albert will find it and have the NSA start an investigation into Albert's tapping. Lyle also deposits money into Reynolds's bank account to make it appear that he is taking bribes, putting pressure on Reynolds. Lyle contacts Reynolds to set up a meeting to exchange the video and get Reynolds to incriminate himself. Reynolds' men instead ambush the meeting and hold Lyle and Bobby at gunpoint, demanding the tape. Bobby tells them that the Hammersley murder footage is in the hands of Pintero, understanding Pintero's restaurant is under FBI surveillance. Bobby, Reynolds, and the NSA team enter Pintero's restaurant. With the use of ambiguous language, Bobby convinces Pintero that Reynolds is after the incriminating video Bobby blackmailed him with and the encounter turns into a massive gunfight that kills the mobsters, Reynolds, and several members of his NSA team. During this ordeal, Lyle uses subterfuge and acting to goad FBI surveillance that Pintero is kidnapping cops, prompting a raid. Lyle escapes while the FBI rescues Bobby and uncovers the entire conspiracy. The U.S. Congress is forced to abandon the bill to avoid a national scandal, although they cover up the NSA's involvement to preserve the agency's reputation. Bobby is cleared of all the charges and is reunited with his wife. Lyle leaves Bobby a "goodbye" message via his TV as he is watching, showing himself relaxing in a tropical island with his cat, Babe. ===== Alvíss comes to Thor to claim Thor's daughter as his bride, saying that she had been promised to him earlier. Thor refuses as he had not been at home at the time, then tells Alvíss that he may take the young woman if he can correctly answer all of Thor's questions. The dwarf's replies act as an exhaustive list of the sentient mythological entities among men, Æsir, Vanir, jötnar, dwarfs, and elves. For example, the heavens have the following names, according to Alvíss: ===== The series was about two toads, El Toro and Pancho, who live in the Mexican city of Tijuana. Throughout the cartoon they try to eat their prey, but always get outsmarted. They would sometimes themselves be targeted by a bird, Crazylegs Crane, and would in turn always outsmart him. The series introduced two characters who later got their own series. The Blue Racer first appeared in "Snake in the Gracias" before getting his own series in 1972. Crazylegs Crane also spun off to his own series for television in 1978 on ABC. Both characters were voiced by Larry D. Mann, except in "Flight to the Finish" where Bob Holt voiced Crazylegs Crane. El Toro was voiced by actor Don Diamond and Pancho voiced by Tom Holland. Crazylegs Crane was voiced by Larry D. Mann. Directorial duties were split between Hawley Pratt, Art Davis, Grant Simmons, and Gerry Chiniquy. When the series began airing in 1976 as part of The Pink Panther Laugh and a Half Hour and a Half Show, re-dubbed Tijuana Toads and renamed it Texas Toads to make the series less offensive. A laugh track was added to the new soundtrack, and the toads were given the new names of Fatso and Banjo. Producer David H. DePatie later commented on the process: ===== The cartoon is about a 14- or 15-year- old named Randolf, or Randy to his friends, whose town's pigeons transform him into a mysterious, comical, and lovable hero named Pigeon Boy. The pigeons spy on the town residents without being noticed very much. When they see something fishy is going on in the city, they summon Pigeon Boy. Only Randy's two best friends, Arthur and Chloe know about this hero side of him, but they don't tell him that they know; if Randy is aware that any one knows, he has vowed to give up the hero within him and never save his town again. ===== ===== Stanley Moon works as a cook in a Wimpy's restaurant and is infatuated with the waitress Margaret Spencer but lacks confidence and is too socially inhibited to approach her. In despair at his life, he attempts suicide by hanging but is interrupted by a man claiming to be the Devil, incarnated as George Spiggott. When Stanley accuses George of being delusional, he offers Stanley a "trial wish". Stanley wishes for a raspberry ice lolly, and George takes him to buy one from a nearby shop. Spiggott is in a game with God, trying to be the first to gather 100 billion souls. If he achieves this first, he will be readmitted to Heaven. He is also busy with minor acts of vandalism and spite, helped by his staff of the seven deadly sins, notably Lust and Envy. In return for his soul, Spiggott offers Stanley seven wishes. Stanley uses these trying to satisfy his love for Margaret, but Spiggott twists his words to frustrate him. All of Stanley's wish scenes feature characters played by Peter Cook, George explaining that "There's a little of me in everyone." Stanley is told that blowing a raspberry will free him from the effects of a wish, if he changes his mind. # Stanley first wishes to be more articulate. George Spiggott turns him into a talkative and pretentious intellectual with a strong Welsh accent. Margaret becomes an equally pretentious character, who enthusiastically agrees with all of Stanley's beliefs. Stanley stresses the importance of breaking free from one's social and moral constraints. When Stanley makes his move, however, she is horrified and starts screaming "rape". # In his second wish, Stanley wishes to be a multi-millionaire with Margaret as his "very physical" wife. She ignores him and his lavish gifts, instead having affairs with his friends. # In the third wish, Stanley is a rock star. However, his fame is very short lived and he is usurped by a new band ("This year's most exciting discovery, Drimble Wedge and The Vegetation") whose lead singer sings in a hypnotic, monotone voice about his disdain for anyone except himself ("You fill me with inertia"). Margaret, one of many entranced groupies, screams with excitement as she and other fans mob Drimble. # Stanley comments in passing that he wishes he was "a fly on the wall" and George seizes on the opportunity to use this as Stanley's fourth wish. They both become flies on the wall in a morgue, where the police inspector is showing Margaret various dead bodies, hoping that she will identify one as Stanley. When the inspector invites Margaret to a vice squad party, Stanley launches an attack on him. # Stanley wishes for a quiet life in the countryside, with children, and Margaret making the anniversary dinner. It soon becomes apparent, however, that Margaret is another man's wife. While deeply in love, even the attempt to consummate their affection drives both Stanley and Margaret into emotional agony. # Stanley attempts to frame a sixth wish that George cannot ruin for him. He wishes that he and Margaret loved one another, lived away from the big city, and would always be together. However, George turns him into a nun of the Order of Saint Beryl, or the Leaping Beryllians, who glorify their founder by jumping on trampolines (expanding on a sketch that previously appeared in Cook and Moore's TV show Not Only... But Also). Margaret is also a nun in the order, but refuses to consider consummating their love as they are both women. Stanley attempts to escape the wish by blowing a raspberry, to no effect, and he returns to London to confront George. # When Stanley tries to use his seventh wish, George reveals he has already used it: his trial wish for an ice lolly. Ultimately, Spiggott spares Stanley eternal damnation because he has exceeded his quota of 100 billion souls and can afford to be generous. Stanley is duly returned to his old job and life, wiser and more clear-sighted. Spiggott ascends to Heaven to meet God, but is rejected again; St Peter explains that when he gave Stanley back his soul, Spiggott did the right thing, but with the wrong motive. In the closing scene, Stanley and Margaret are back in the restaurant. Stanley finally asks her out but she says she's already doing something, though she does suggest perhaps another night. Stanley smiles, happy that he has found the courage to talk to her. Spiggott tries to entice Stanley again, but Stanley turns him down. Frustrated, Spiggott leaves and threatens revenge on God by unleashing all the tawdry and shallow technological curses of the modern age. ===== The series opens by showing how various Golden Age heroes have adjusted to life after World War II. The members of the Justice Society of America and All-Star Squadron have mostly retired. Tex Thompson, formerly known as the Americommando and Mr. America, has returned from Europe a war hero and has used his fame to start a political career, resulting in him being elected a senator. He then recruits several former heroes to create a new group of heroes for the 1950s. The group includes Robotman (who is slowly losing touch with his humanity), the Atom and Johnny Thunder (who are both looking for somewhere to belong), and Dan the Dyna-Mite (Daniel Dunbar), who is lost after the death of his mentor TNT. Thompson oversees various experiments on Dunbar which change him into the incredibly powerful Dynaman. Other retired heroes are suffering from their own problems. The McCarthy hearings have resulted in Green Lantern being blacklisted due to his job as the head of a media corporation. Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle were married and eventually divorced. Quick is now a television reporter while Belle is dating journalist John Law (formerly the Tarantula). Starman has suffered a nervous breakdown after realizing that his research into cosmic energy helped in the development of the atom bomb. Captain Triumph (Lance Gallant) has retired and is trying to lead a normal life, despite his twin brother Michael's ghost urging him to become a hero again. Hourman is fighting his addiction to the Miraclo pill that gives him his powers. The hero Manhunter (Paul Kirk), who has also returned from Europe, is suffering from memory loss and being hunted by strange men. He meets up with Thompson's former sidekick from his Mr. America days, Bob Daley AKA Fatman, and hides out while coming to terms with his demons. Eventually, the two of them seek the help of Hawkman, who helps Manhunter regain his memories. Those memories reveal a dark secret about Thompson: During the final days of the war, the super-villain known as the Ultra-Humanite, who worked as one of Hitler's scientists at Dachau, transferred his brain into Thompson's body. While Manhunter is recovering his memories, Thompson's aide and lover Joan Dale, the former Miss America discovers his personal diary. Concerned with Thompson and Dunbar's increasingly strange behavior, she enlists former thief Paula Brooks, also known as the Tigress, to pick the lock and open the diary. The two of them, along with Gallant (whom Brooks was dating), discover not only that Thompson is actually the Ultra-Humanite, but also that he had performed another brain swap, that of Adolf Hitler's brain into Dunbar's body. They call Johnny Quick to inform him about the contents of the diary at about the same time Carter Hall calls him about Manhunter's revelations. This sets the stage for an explosive and tragic final showdown in Washington, D.C.. As Miss America attempts to reveal the truth about Tex Thompson and Dynaman before the assembled heroes, she is murdered by Robotman, who knew but didn't care about Tex and Dynaman's secrets. The Atom is finally convinced by Hourman that Tex and Dynaman are evil. Johnny Thunder, still brainwashed by Thompson's "dream" and blinded by his desire to belong somewhere, orders Yz, his thunderbolt, to kill Hourman. Yz attempts to obey the command but is so torn between his duties to his master and his own moral standards that he suffers a breakdown and flies, screaming, into the heavens (presumably forever) leaving Thunder guilt-ridden. Dynaman admits the truth about himself and proceeds to kill several heroes, including Tarantula, Human Bomb, Sportsmaster (a reformed villain), Doll Man and Red Bee, as well as disabling Doctor Mid-Nite by destroying his goggles and Hawkman by tearing off his wings. Thompson battles Manhunter, who snaps Thompson's neck after both of them fall out of a window. Lance Gallant and Robotman fight and kill each other. Dynaman is killed when Liberty Belle rams what is left of Starman's cosmic rod through his chest. She is able to do this after Dynaman is distracted by Adam Blake AKA Captain Comet, a young hero who joins the others in the fighting. Despite numerous injuries and deaths, the heroes are triumphant. The last pages show Manhunter recovering and returning to Africa (he disappeared in 1951); Paula returns to a life of crime after being driven over the edge at witnessing Lance's death; Ted Knight recovers and marries; Al Pratt grows more mature after the incident, in contrast to Johnny Thunder who "never changed", and Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle reconcile. Meanwhile, a new generation of superheroes, led by Captain Comet, is born and Quick looks forward to "a new age, as pure as sterling silver". The last page is a splash page showing Captain Comet and various other Silver Age heroes including Martian Manhunter (hovering behind his human identity John Jones), the Challengers of the Unknown, the Doom Patrol, Green Arrow, Elongated Man, Aquaman, Adam Strange, Animal Man, The Creeper, and Metamorpho, as well as successors such as Hal Jordan (Alan Scott's successor as Green Lantern), Ray Palmer (Al Pratt's successor as The Atom), Cliff Steele (Robert Crane's successor as Robotman and a member of the Doom Patrol), and Barry Allen (Jay Garrick's successor as The Flash). ===== Todd Howard (Jason Bateman), the cousin of Scott Howard, has recently been accepted into Hamilton University on a full athletic scholarship on the recommendation of Coach Bobby Finstock (Paul Sand), who was Scott's basketball coach at Beacontown High. Finstock's hope is that Todd has the family genes to become a werewolf and turn Finstock's new struggling boxing team into championship contenders. Having never been very good at sports, and because he is more interested in being a veterinarian, Todd is certain that Finstock has the wrong guy. During a meet and greet reception of school alumni, Todd has his first "wolf-out" while dancing with a seductive hostess. At first, Todd is horrified by his "family affliction", and fellow students begin to harass him. Then, during his first boxing match, after nearly getting knocked out, Todd has his second "wolf-out" only this time he is able to display his supernatural agility and strength and has a dramatic come from behind victory, thus earning the admiration of the students as well as the strict Dean Dunn (John Astin). With his newfound fame comes girls, top grades and even the dean's car but as the year goes on, Todd realizes that he is losing his friends and self-respect. Todd seeks out advice from his uncle, Scott's father, Harold Howard (James Hampton), who helps Todd comes to terms with his responsibilities and prepares him for the championship. Todd also reconnects with his girlfriend, Nicki (Estee Chandler), who helps him regain his focus of being humble. Todd then decides that he will fight his championship match against Steve "Gus" Gustavson (Robert Neary), who Todd had prior issues with, as himself rather than the wolf much to the dismay of all except his uncle, girlfriend and Professor Tanya Brooks (Kim Darby). Brooks, who unbeknownst to Todd is also a werewolf, intimidates Dean Dunn with glowing red eyes, growling, and swaying her tail. After losing round after round, and nearly getting knocked out, Todd is tempted to become the wolf until he sees Nicki mouth the words "I love you" to him. This gives Todd the strength to overcome Gus and knocks him out to a roaring ovation. ===== In San Francisco, down-on-his-luck naval aviator Lt. Tuck Pendleton resigns his commission and volunteers for a secret miniaturization experiment. He is placed in a submersible pod and both are shrunk to microscopic size. They are transferred into a syringe to be injected into a rabbit, but the lab is attacked by a rival organization, led by scientist Dr. Margaret Canker, that plans to seize the experiment and steal the miniaturization technology. Experiment supervisor Ozzie Wexler, knowing their intentions, escapes with the syringe. A chase ensues with one of Canker's henchmen, Mr. Igoe, which ends at a nearby shopping mall. After being shot, Ozzie injects Tuck and the pod into an unsuspecting Jack Putter, a hypochondriac Safeway grocery clerk, the first person he comes into contact with. On regaining consciousness, Tuck is unaware of what has happened and believes he has been injected into the rabbit. After attempts to radio the lab are unsuccessful, he navigates the pod to the optic nerve and implants a camera so he is able to see what the "host" sees. Realizing he is inside a human, he makes contact by attaching another device to Jack's inner ear, enabling him to talk to Jack. He explains that the pod has only a few hours' supply of oxygen and needs his help in order to extract him by going back to the lab. At the lab, the scientists explain to Tuck and Jack that the other group stole one of two computer chips that are vital to the process. Their mastermind is Victor Scrimshaw. His henchmen include Canker, Igoe, and "The Cowboy". Jack contacts Tuck's estranged girlfriend, Lydia Maxwell, a reporter who has had dealings with The Cowboy. They learn that he plans to buy the computer chip from Scrimshaw. After locating and knocking him unconscious, Tuck uses the pod's equipment to control Jack's face muscles, altering his features so he looks like The Cowboy. Lydia and Jack, posing as The Cowboy, meet with Scrimshaw to steal the chip from him. However, as they are about to take possession of it, Jack's nervousness overrides the transformation of his face, exposing the scam. Igoe captures him and Lydia and takes them to their laboratory. While imprisoned, Jack and Lydia share a kiss, which, unknown to them, transfers Tuck into Lydia's body through their saliva. Once taken to the laboratory, the criminals shrink Igoe and inject him into Jack to locate Tuck, kill him, and obtain the other chip that is attached to the pod. Once Igoe has been injected, Jack and Lydia escape, steal back the chip, and order everyone, including Scrimshaw and Canker, in the laboratory at gunpoint into the miniaturization device. However, not knowing how to operate it, they only manage to shrink everyone to half the original size. Tuck, now inside Lydia, finds a growing baby and realizes that she is pregnant with his child. By going to her eardrum and playing their song (Sam Cooke's "Cupid"), he is able to alert them what has happened. Jack and Lydia kiss again to transfer him back. They frantically drive back to the lab in order to enlarge him, not realizing that the shrunken Scrimshaw and Canker are hiding in the back seat. While they attempt to subdue Jack and Lydia, Igoe locates Tuck in Jack's esophagus and attacks him. Tuck disables Igoe's craft and he is killed after Tuck drops him into Jack's stomach. Back at the lab, with only minutes of supplemental oxygen left in the pod, Jack follows Tuck's instructions to eject it from his lungs by making himself sneeze. Tuck and the pod are successfully enlarged, and he is reunited with Lydia and finally gets to meet Jack in person. The film ends at Tuck and Lydia's wedding, held at Wayfarers Chapel, where Tuck wears the chips from the experiment as cufflinks. When they climb into the limousine, it is revealed that The Cowboy is the driver and the shrunken Scrimshaw and Canker are hiding inside a suitcase in the trunk. Now confident and in control of his life, Jack recognizes The Cowboy and jumps into Tuck's vintage 1967 Mustang, pursuing the limousine to rescue the newlyweds. ===== One year after their previous misadventures, Ben Healy (John Ritter) and his adopted son Junior (Michael Oliver) move from Cold River, Illinois to the quiet community of Mortville, Oregon to start over, following Ben and Flo's divorce. Moments after they arrive, dozens of women line up in their front yard, all wanting to date Ben. On Junior's first day of third grade, he finds that Igor Peabody (Gilbert Gottfried), the adoption agent from the first film, is the principal at his new school. Horrified, Igor promptly promotes Junior to sixth grade. There, Junior meets Murph (Eric Edwards), the school bully, and gets on his bad side when he tapes him to the chalkboard. Murph retaliates by dropping the school's satellite dish on Junior, but it misses him and hits Ben instead, knocking him out. When Ben comes to, he sees the school nurse, Annie Young (Amy Yasbeck in a different role than in the original film), and becomes smitten with her. Junior, annoyed at Ben's sudden love interest, attempts to vandalize Annie's picture hanging in the hall, only to be foiled by Trixie (Ivyann Schwan), Annie's daughter, who is as sadistic as Junior. When Junior confronts Trixie for harassing him, Trixie states that she can harass anybody she wants and punctuates her point by giving Junior a lit M-80. Junior panics and promptly flushes it, and it explodes right when his teacher, Mr. Thorn (James Tolkan), sits on the toilet. Throughout the film, Junior and Trixie engage in an escalating prank war. Ben decides to date again to find a new wife and mother, but Junior is against it. He thwarts Ben's first date by phoning her jealous former husband, who storms into the restaurant and picks a fight with Ben. Junior also videotapes his irresponsible babysitter having sex with her boyfriend and broadcasts it to the entire neighborhood. Ben reminds Junior they are new in town and must attempt to fit in. That evening, Ben's father, Big Ben Healy (Jack Warden) and his Jack Russell terrier, Nippy, arrive to live with them after he loses all of his money in a bad investment. Ben's second date goes even worse when Junior rewires the doorbell, and the woman gets electrocuted. Around the same time, LaWanda DuMore (Laraine Newman), the richest, snootiest, kid-hating woman in Mortville, takes an interest in Ben, while being horrified by Junior's past, which includes the Union Carbide plant explosion. While Ben and Junior are gone, she redecorates the house to impress Ben. Meanwhile, Ben takes Junior to a carnival. After being taunted by Trixie and Murph for being too short to ride the Crazy Dance, as well as seeing Trixie cheat her way on by wearing platform shoes, Junior tampers with the ride by turning its settings up to warp speed, causing everyone, including Trixie and Murph, to get sick and vomit all over each other and the entire ride to eventually break down. On the way home, a disappointed Ben makes Junior promise to behave. However, when Junior learns that LaWanda redecorated his room with a clown theme, which he detests, he swiftly reneges on his promise and retaliates by putting live cockroaches in her dinner. Disgusted and angered, she threatens to send him to boarding school in Baghdad when she is his mother. He tries to tell Ben this, but Ben refuses to believe him, saying Junior is no longer credible. At a school function, a puppet show goes awry. Ben is surprised to see Trixie, not Junior, was behind it, and that Annie is her mother. Ben tries to tell Annie he understands what it is like raising a problem child and thinks they can help one another. She acknowledges she likes him, but if they date, Trixie's behavior will only get worse. Ben proposes to LaWanda, believing she is the only woman who will marry him. By a chance meeting in a pizza restaurant, Ben, Annie, Junior and Trixie dine together and have a good time, even after the food fight that the kids start with Igor gets them banned from the restaurant; Junior and Trixie apologize for pranking each other and become best friends, deciding their parents should date. Junior tries to stop the wedding by switching LaWanda's blood sample with that of a rabid dog. Handcuffed by animal control and sent to the hospital for observation, LaWanda is more determined than ever that the wedding go on. Junior then switches LaWanda's chart again with a patient having surgery to enlarge his nose, believing it will make LaWanda so ugly that Ben will not want to marry her. The night before the wedding, Junior and Trixie make a wish at the town Love Rock that their parents will get together. At the altar the next day, LaWanda reveals she had last-minute plastic surgery to fix her nose. Just then, Trixie appears operating a bulldozer with the Love Rock, and LaWanda, revealing herself as a child hater (which makes Ben realize Junior was telling the truth about her), gets trapped underneath. Ben tells Annie that she is the one he really wants and suggests Big Ben should marry LaWanda himself, which he does. Junior puts Trixie's firecracker in his slingshot, causing the cake to blast off and land on LaWanda and Big Ben. Junior, Ben, Annie and Trixie then walk off into the sunset as the film comes to a close. ===== In 1984, high school sophomore Samantha "Sam" Baker is hopeful her 16th birthday is the beginning of a great new year, but is shocked when her family forgets because her older, vain sister Ginny is getting married the next day. Her frustration is compounded by the fact that her crush, senior Jake Ryan, has no idea how she feels. At school, she reveals her feelings about Jake in a "sex quiz" she tries to give her friend Randi which, unbeknownst to Sam, Jake intercepts. Meanwhile, Jake asks his friend Rock about Sam, having noticed her looking at him in their independent study class. Rock dismisses her as an immature child, but Jake says he is frustrated by his girlfriend Caroline's partying ways. On the bus ride home, geeky freshman Ted, who has a crush on Sam, repeatedly flirts with her only to have Sam reject him. At home, Sam's day gets worse when she discovers she must sleep on the sofa because her grandparents and a foreign exchange student named Long Duk Dong are all staying at the house for the wedding. Her grandparents also have forgotten her birthday and make Sam take Dong with her to a dance at school that night. At the dance, Sam pines after Jake as he slow dances with Caroline while it doesn't take long for Dong to attract the large-breasted jock, Marlene. Ted embarrasses Sam by dancing with her after bragging to his geek friends, Bryce and Cliff, that they are dating. When Sam runs away, the geeks bet Ted a dozen floppy disks that he can't get physical with Sam. Ted accepts, but Bryce and Cliff demand Sam's underpants as proof of his success. Jake, having seen Ted and Sam dance, asks Ted about Sam. Ted finds Sam in the auto shop where she opens up to him about her family forgetting her birthday and her feelings for Jake. Ted tells her Jake asked about her and Sam excitedly asks if she should talk to Jake or wait for him to come to her. Ted, despite his feelings for Sam, encourages her to approach Jake. Before she leaves, Ted tells her about his bet and asks to borrow her panties. Later, in the boys bathroom, Bryce, Cliff, and Ted charge the other geeks one dollar to see Sam's underwear. At Jake's house, Caroline and her friends have started a wild party. Jake, angry with Caroline, retreats to his bedroom and tries calling Sam, but her grandparents yell at him for waking them up and tell him Sam isn't interested. After the party ends, Jake is furious at the damage left behind. He finds Ted hiding under a glass coffee table after he angered some jocks by knocking over their beer can pyramid. Ted gives Jake Sam's underwear and tells him Sam is interested in him. Jake says he is tired of his relationship with Caroline and offers to let Ted drive a drunken Caroline home in his father's Rolls Royce. The next morning, Sam's mother apologizes to Sam for forgetting her birthday and everyone heads to the church for the wedding. Jake arrives at Sam's house where a hungover Dong miscommunicates that Sam is at church getting married. In the church parking lot, Jake finds Caroline and Ted making out in the back of his dad's banged-up Rolls. Jake and Caroline agree to break up, but remain friends. Jake then drives to the church just in time to meet an incredulous Sam after her sister's wedding. That night at Jake's house, Jake gives Sam her underwear and a birthday cake with 16 candles on it. He tells her to make a wish, but she says her wish already came true. The two kiss as the film fades to black. ===== In Los Angeles, Billie York is murdered by a man known as Mr Jigsaw because she possesses a microfilm that can turn cocaine into cookies. Her former partner, Wes Luger, who is about to retire, is assigned the case by the reluctant captain Doyle, who dismisses it as a suicide but gives Luger the case. The catch is that Luger will have to be partnered with Jack Colt, a burned out cop who recently lost his dog, Claire. The two visit Harold Leacher, who tells them that Colt's former general in the Vietnam War, Mortars, is heading the operation. Meanwhile, Jigsaw and Mortars visit Mike McCraken, whom Jigsaw murders after he loses the microfilm. After finding the body, Colt and Luger go to Rick Becker, who claims that he laundered money with York (the money actually being in the laundry machine), but Rick is shot multiple times by unknown assailants, forcing Colt and Luger to go to the Wilderness Girls factory. The head, Destiny Demeanor, claims no knowledge of the operation during the trial, but she is revealed to be working for Mortars and his gang. Destiny and Colt hang out at Colt's house, while Mortars sends a helicopter to destroy Colt's house (a trailer that is actually a mansion in the inside), but they accidentally destroy John McClane's house. Due to lack of evidence, Doyle dismisses the case, but Colt still decides to stop the operation, much to the dismay of Luger. Luger is a by-the-book cop after, he took an unscheduled break from his crossing guard duties (as a child), which led to an old lady being run over by a car and killed. Colt breaks in and Destiny, now having fallen in love with Colt, attempts to stop Mortars, but Mortars shows that he was the one who kidnapped Claire, and shows him Rick and Claire chained to a wall (Rick actually having survived the incident). Mortars shoots Destiny, who clings to life long enough to confess her feelings for him. Colt manages to catch up with Mortars, but then Luger shows up, having considered what Colt said to him earlier. He shoots and kills Mortars, and Colt kills Jigsaw, but starts a fire that destroys the whole factory. Doyle shows up, and asks Luger to stay in the force. Luger agrees, but as long as Colt is his partner. In the end, Destiny, having survived, shows up with Rick and Claire, and the team dances to "Bohemian Rhapsody". ===== Former Las Vegas showgirl Rachel Phelps (Margaret Whitton) inherits the Cleveland Indians baseball team from her deceased husband. Phelps hates Cleveland and wants to relocate the team to Miami. The Indians' contract with Cleveland contains an escape clause stipulating that the team may relocate if attendance for the entire season is below 800,000. That means they have to finish dead last to relocate to Miami. Determined to put together the worst team in the Major Leagues, Phelps hires Lou Brown (James Gammon), the manager for the Toledo Mud Hens, to manage the team and promotes former manager Charlie Donovan (Charles Cyphers) to general manager. During spring training in Tucson, Arizona, the team's shortcomings become evident. The team's lone star, third baseman Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen), is an egotistical prima donna whose skills have faded. Staff ace Eddie Harris (Chelcie Ross) has to rely on illegally doctoring the baseball due to his weakening arm. Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert), a voodoo-practicing Cuban import with significant power, cannot hit curve balls and clashes with the devoutly Christian Harris. Veteran catcher Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger), a former star who had spent the last few years playing in the Mexican League after his knees gave out, has lost so much strength on his throws that he cannot reach second base. The two players who draw the most attention are brash young outfielder Willie Mays Hayes (Wesley Snipes), who showed up at spring training without an invitation, and pitcher Rick Vaughn (Charlie Sheen), a convicted felon released from a California prison after serving time for stealing a car. Hayes claims he can "run like Hayes", and "hit like Mays". He proves to be the fastest player on the team, but is unable to hit. Vaughn has a fastball in the mid 90s, but has no control over it, which earns him the nickname "Wild Thing". The team predictably starts the season on a losing streak. Lou then discovers Vaughn's control issues stem from an uncorrected visual impairment. After being fitted with glasses, Vaughn's performance improves with additional coaching and assistance from Taylor, and the team begins to win. Meanwhile, Taylor tries to reunite with his ex-girlfriend Lynn (Rene Russo) despite her being engaged to another man. Phelps, angered by the team's improvement, tries to demoralize them by removing team amenities. She replaces their chartered team jet, first with a rickety propeller plane and then an old bus. She then refuses to fix their workout equipment, and even has the hot water to the locker room turned off. Despite her efforts the team continues to win and brings themselves into contention for the division championship. Eventually Charlie decides to reveal Phelps's plan to Lou. Lou then calls a team meeting and announces that all of the players on the current roster would be released or sent back to the minors at the end of the season. With nothing to lose, Taylor states to the team that they should focus on winning the pennant. If they win the division, Phelps can't move the team or get rid of them. For added motivation, they use a cardboard cutout of Phelps from her showgirl days, peeling off sections of clothing for each game they win. The team succeeds in tying with the New York Yankees for first place in the American League East division, leading to a one-game playoff to determine the division championship. Lou decides to start Harris in place of Vaughn due to Harris's experience. Vaughn then ends up in bed with a woman who he later finds out is Roger's wife Suzanne Dorn (Stacy Carroll), who had sex with Vaughn as revenge for her husband being unfaithful during a victory party. In the playoff game in Cleveland, the game is scoreless until the top of the seventh when the Yankees take a 2-0 lead, but in the bottom of the seventh, Cerrano finally gets a good pitch and hits a home run to tie the game. The ninth inning begins with Harris loading the bases after recording two outs. The Yankees best hitter Clu Haywood is next to bat. Earlier in the season Haywood faced Vaughn and hit a home run. Lou decides to bring in Vaughn to relieve Harris. Vaughn strikes out Haywood on three straight fastballs with the third pitch clocked at 101 miles per-hour. In the bottom of the inning, the Yankees bring out "The Duke" (Willie Mueller), their headhunting closer. Hayes singles and steals second base. Taylor lays down an unexpected bunt. Hayes advances to third, then catches the Yankees off guard by dashing for home. He scores, and the Indians win the game. As the team celebrates, Dorn punches Vaughn in the face for what happened the night before but then quickly pulls him up so they can keep celebrating. Phelps is upset the team won the division championship. Taylor spots Lynn in the stands, no longer wearing her engagement ring. The two rush to hug each other as the city celebrates the victory. ===== Soon after World War I is over, Naval Aviator "Spig" Wead (John Wayne), along with John Dale Price (Ken Curtis), tries to prove to the Navy the value of aviation in combat. To do this, Wead pushes the Navy to compete in racing and endurance competitions. Several races are against the US Army aviation team led by Captain Herbert Allen Hazard (based on General Jimmy Doolittle—played by Kenneth Tobey). Wead spends most of his time either flying or horsing around with his teammates, meaning that his wife Minnie, or "Min" (Maureen O'Hara), and children are ignored. The night Wead is promoted to fighter squadron commander, he falls down a flight of stairs at home, breaks his neck and is paralyzed. When "Min" tries to console him he rejects her and the family. He will only let his Navy mates like "Jughead" Carson (Dan Dailey) and Price near him. "Jughead" visits the hospital almost daily to encourage Frank's rehabilitation ("I'm gonna move that toe"). Carson also pushes "Spig" to get over his depression, try to walk, and start writing. Wead achieves some success in all three goals."John Wayne Film Set For Capitol" (Deseret News and Telegram (February 16, 1957, page A7; photograph included) After great success in Hollywood, Wead returns to active sea duty with the Navy in World War II, developing the idea of smaller escort, or "jeep," carriers which follow behind the main fleet as auxiliary strength to the main aircraft carrier force. He returns to active combat duty in the Pacific, witnessing first hand kamikaze attacks. The film's battle scenes, based around aircraft carriers, include real combat footage. Following a 50-hour shift during combat operations, Wead has a heart attack and is retired home before the war ends. When he leaves the carrier he is serving in for the last time, he receives eight side boys in honor of his contributions to aviation—all of them Navy admirals or Army generals. Director John Ford is represented in the film in the character of film director John Dodge, played by Ward Bond. ===== Will Randall is bitten by a Black Wolf while driving home in Vermont. Afterwards, he gets demoted from editor-in- chief of a publishing house when it gets taken over by tycoon Raymond Alden, who replaces him with Will's protégé Stewart Swinton. Will finds out that Stewart had begged Raymond for the job behind Will's back and suspects that Stewart is having an affair with his wife Charlotte, after he smells Stewart's scent on her clothes. Will bites Stewart on the hand while entering his apartment and rushes to the room to find Charlotte half-naked. His worst fears are confirmed and he leaves without saying a word. Will becomes more aggressive as he starts taking on the characteristics of a wolf. With the help of Raymond's headstrong daughter Laura, Will sets out for his new life. His first werewolf transformation takes place at Laura's estate, where he wakes up at night and hunts down a deer. In the morning, Will finds himself on the bank of a stream, with blood all over his face and hands. He visits Dr. Vijav Alezais, who gives him an amulet to protect him from turning completely into a wolf. However, he can't persuade Will to infect him. That night, Will transforms into a werewolf again: he breaks into the zoo and steals handcuffs from a policeman. Muggers want his wallet, but Will attacks and bites the fingers off of one of them. He wakes up in his hotel, with no memory of what happened. Will organizes a mutiny of writers, who threaten to leave the publishing house unless he is retained as editor-in-chief. Raymond agrees and Will's first act is to fire Stewart, urinating on his shoes in a bathroom and claiming he is "marking his territory". While washing his hands, Will finds the fingers in his handkerchief and realizes he's wounded someone. He cuffs himself to a radiator in his hotel room, but Laura arrives and downplays his belief that he's werewolf. The next morning, Detective Bridger knocks on Will's door to inform him that Charlotte was found dead in Central Park with canine DNA on her. Will wonders if he murdered Charlotte, but doesn't know that Stewart killed her. Believing Will is a murderer, Laura goes to the police station. There she runs into Stewart, who makes an animal-like pass at her while sporting increasingly obvious werewolf traits (noticeably, golden eyes). Laura hurries away, making arrangements for her and Will to leave the country. After killing two guards at the estate, Stewart corners Laura in the barn with the intention to rape her, but Will intervenes and the two fight; in the end, Stewart is shot to death by Laura. Still in a half-human state, Will has a brief moment with Laura and then runs into the forest. Minutes later, Laura herself shows heightened senses when the police arrive, telling Bridger that she can smell vodka on his breath. The final scene is a close-up of her eyes turning into golden wolf eyes (hinting that she herself has transformed into a werewolf), and of Will finally turning into a full wolf, presumably for eternity, howling for Laura. ===== At the height of the Great Depression, aspiring singer Olive Stanton dreams of getting a job as an actress with the Federal Theatre Project. Playwright Marc Blitzstein is working on his new musical, The Cradle Will Rock, but lacks the inspiration to finish it. While attending a public protest, he is visited by two imaginary figures representing his late wife and the famed German playwright Bertolt Brecht. They encourage him to make the play more relevant to the times rather than an abstract concept. At the same time, the FTP faces increasing pressure from the federal government, which has begun investigating alleged leftist infiltration of American society through the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The WPA, faced with the threat of losing its budget, cuts funding for all FTP productions, lays off thousands of workers, and orders all ongoing projects, including The Cradle Will Rock, to cease their activities. The local unions for the musicians and actors refuse to let them perform without federal approval, forcing the show to close. Rather than give in, the show's director, Orson Welles, and producer, John Houseman, set up an improvised performance in a shuttered theater, with Blitzstein as both the cast and the orchestra. As he begins the first song, the other actors suddenly appear in the audience and perform the entire play without setting foot on the stage. A group of workers destroy the mural Man at the Crossroads, following a dispute between Nelson Rockefeller and Diego Rivera over the latter's explicit support for communism. As the cast and audience break into celebration, a group of former FTP performers stage a mock funeral down the street outside. The procession walks into present-day Times Square, which is lined with billboards advertising Broadway plays. ===== The story begins in Harlem 1986, and Nino Brown and his gang, the Cash Money Brothers (CMB), become the dominant drug ring in New York City once crack cocaine is introduced to the streets. His gang consists of his best friend, Gee Money; enforcer Duh Duh Duh Man; gun moll Keisha; Nino's girlfriend, Selina; and her tech-savvy cousin, Kareem. Nino converts the Carter apartment complex into a crack house. Gee Money and Keisha kill rival Fat Smitty, the CMB throws out the tenants, and Nino forces the landlord out onto the streets naked. Meanwhile, undercover detective Scotty Appleton attempts to make a deal with stick-up kid Pookie, but Pookie runs off with the money. Appleton chases Pookie and shoots him in the leg, but the police let him go. Nino's gang successfully run the streets of Harlem over the next three years. When Det. Stone comes under pressure, Appleton volunteers to infiltrate Nino's gang and is partnered with loose- cannon Nick Peretti. Elsewhere, mobster Frankie Needles attempts to collect taxes from Nino, who refuses to pay. While Appleton and Peretti spy on Nino and his gang as they hand out Thanksgiving turkeys to the poor, Appleton spots Pookie, now a crack addict, as the man beats his junkie girlfriend. Instead of arresting him, Appleton gets Pookie into rehab. Later Pookie offers to help bring down Nino. Against his better judgment and the disapproval of Stone and Peretti, Appleton recruits Pookie as an informant in the Carter. When Pookie relapses, Gee Money realizes that he is wired, and he orders the Carter destroyed. The cops find Pookie's bloody corpse, but it is booby-trapped; Peretti defuses the explosives seconds before it explodes. Angry, Nino warns Gee Money not to make such a costly mistake again. After Pookie's funeral and no longer needed by Stone, Appleton and Peretti go undercover as drug dealers. After bribing Frankie Needles, Appleton infiltrates the CMB, due in part to Gee Money's increasing ambition and drug use. Though Nino distrusts them, he agrees to do business. After relating an anecdote about his own violent initiation into a gang, Nino warns that he will kill both Appleton and Gee Money if there are any problems. Appleton gains Nino's trust when he reveals information about Gee Money's side deal and saves Nino from a gun-toting old man who had earlier appealed to police for help against Nino. While Nino, Appleton, and the CMB attend a wedding, Peretti sneaks into Nino's mansion to collect evidence. Don Armeteo sends hitmen to assassinate Nino, and a massive shootout erupts between the CMB and his hitmen. When Nino uses a child as a shield, Appleton attempts to shoot Nino behind his back. Keisha is gunned down as she sprays bullets into the hitmen's van as they escape. Later, Selina condemns Nino for his murderous activities, and Nino throws her out. Nino later kills Don Armeteo and his crew from a speeding motorcycle in retaliation for the wedding shootout. Stone, Appleton and Peretti arrange a sting operation to nab Nino. Kareem, who knows that Appleton and Pookie were connected, blows Appleton's cover, and a shootout ensues. Peretti saves Appleton by killing the Duh Duh Duh Man, and Nino escapes. That night, Nino confronts Gee Money, who accuses Nino of egotism, and Nino regretfully kills him. After the gang's collapse, Nino holes up in an apartment and continues his criminal empire solo. Scotty and Nick assault the complex, and Scotty brutally beats Nino, revealing that it was his mother that Nino killed in his gang initiation. Nick talks Scotty out of killing Nino, who is taken into custody amid threats of retaliation. At his trial, Nino pleads guilty to a lesser charge, claims to have been forced to help the gang due to threats, and identifies Kareem as the leader. When Nino is sentenced to only one year in jail, Scotty is outraged. As Nino speaks with reporters outside of the courtroom, the old man again confronts Nino and shoots him in the chest. Scotty and Nick are both satisfied as Nino falls over the balcony to his death. As onlookers look down at Nino's body, an epilogue states to the viewers that decisive action must be taken to stop real-life Nino Brown analogues. ===== Shane O'Shea is a young Jersey City man in the late 1970s, handsome enough to eventually become a bartender at Studio 54. He leaves behind his small-town life in New Jersey to come to New York City and be part of the hip scene. Shane comes to Studio 54, gaining admittance by officially taking off his uncool small-town shirt. There, he befriends aspiring singer Anita and her husband, Greg Randazzo. Things between Shane, Anita and Greg develop into a love triangle and inevitably fall apart. Shane begins a real relationship with soap-opera actress Julie Black. Shane gets sucked into the hard-partying scene at Studio 54; as his life spirals downward, so does the club. The beloved Disco Dottie dies one night, and Shane is upset and refuses to continue. Shane is fired and bounced from the nightclub in disgrace. Moments later, the FBI raids the club and arrests owner Steve Rubell for tax evasion. Shane and Julie break up, but decide to remain friends. Shane, Greg and Anita drift apart as their lives go in different directions. Years later, the three get together and go to the recently reopened Studio 54, where Rubell is hosting again for one night. They are glad to see him, but notice that he appears frail and sick. In his narration, Shane reveals that Rubell died afterwards, and they all realized that "the party was over". ===== In 1988 New York City, Roberta Guaspari, a recently divorced violinist, lives with her two sons, Alexi and Nicholas Tzavaras, and her mother, Assunta Guaspari. With Assunta's encouragement, Guaspari attempts to rebuild her life and is recommended to the head teacher of East Harlem's Central Park East School. Despite having little experience in actual music teaching, she accepts a substitute violin teaching position at Central Park East. With a combination of her toughness and determination, she inspires a group of children, and their initially skeptical parents. The program slowly develops and attracts publicity, eventually expanding to Central Park East II and River East Schools. Ten years later, the Central Park East, Central Park East II and River East School string programs work with the New York City Board of Education to help eliminate funding for the programs, which leads to Guaspari's early dismissal. Determined to fight the budget cuts, she enlists the support of former pupils, parents and teachers and plans a benefit concert, Fiddlefest, to raise money so that the program can continue. But with a few weeks to go and all participants furiously rehearsing, they lose the venue. However, Arnold Steinhardt, the husband of a publicist friend, is a violinist in the Guarneri Quartet, and he enlists the support of other well-known musicians, including Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman. They arrange for the concert to be mounted at Carnegie Hall. On the day of Fiddlefest, Guaspari and her students perform with Perlman, Steinhardt, Stern, Mark O'Connor, Michael Tree, Charles Veal Jr., Karen Briggs, Sandra Park, Diane Monroe, and Joshua Bell, increasing donations and making the event a massive success. In the epilogue, descriptions show Guaspari and the Opus 118 program's activities after the events in 1991. ===== While vacationing in Switzerland, pediatrician Chris Nielsen (Robin Williams) meets artist Annie Collins (Annabella Sciorra). They marry and have two children, Ian (Josh Paddock) and Marie (Jessica Brooks Grant). Their idyllic life ends when the children die in a car crash. Four years later, Chris is also killed in a car crash. Unaware that he is dead, and confused that no one will interact with him, Chris lingers on Earth. He sees Annie's attempts to cope with his loss and attempts to communicate with her, despite advice from a presence that this will only cause her more pain. When his attempts cause more sorrow, he decides to move on. Chris awakens in a Heaven that he has created with his imagination; his surroundings are a mountainous landscape that resembles a painting created by his wife, and is similar to a place where the two desired to spend their old age. Chris is accompanied in Heaven by Albert Lewis (Cuba Gooding Jr.), his friend and mentor from his medical residency, and Leona (Rosalind Chao), a stewardess whom Chris once admired in the presence of his daughter; he later comes to recognize "Leona" as his daughter Marie. Meanwhile, Annie is wracked with guilt for the deaths of Chris and their children, and commits suicide. Chris, who is initially relieved that her suffering is done, grows angry when he learns that those who die by suicide go to Hell; this is not the result of a judgment made against them, but rather their own tendency to create "nightmare" afterlife worlds based on their pain. Chris is adamant that he will rescue Annie from Hell, despite Albert's insistence that no one has ever succeeded in doing so with someone who died by suicide. Aided by a "tracker" (Max von Sydow), Chris and Albert descend into Hell. On the journey there, Chris realizes that "Albert" is truly Ian, and parts ways with him before his search for Annie. Chris and the tracker arrive at a dark and twisted version of Chris and Annie's house. The tracker then reveals himself as the real Albert and warns Chris that if he stays with Annie for more than a few minutes he may be permanently trapped in Hell, advising that all Chris can reasonably expect is an opportunity for a final farewell to Annie. Chris enters their now-horrific looking home to find Annie suffering from amnesia, unable to remember her suicide, and visibly tortured by her decrepit surroundings. Unable to stir her memories, the tracker sees Chris give up his quest to save Annie from Hell. But instead of returning to Heaven, Chris chooses to join Annie forever in Hell. As he declares to Annie his intent to stay, his words parallel something he'd said to her as he left her in an institution following the children's deaths, and she regains her memories while Chris is making her nightmare his. Annie, wanting nothing more than to save Chris, ascends to Heaven, taking Chris with her. Chris and Annie are reunited with their children in Heaven, and all appearances are restored. Chris proposes reincarnation, so he and Annie can experience life together again. The film ends with Chris and Annie meeting again as young children in a situation that parallels their first meeting. ===== During the SETI program, Earth's scientists send out transmissions (shown to be the Arecibo message) with information about Earth and its inhabitants, DNA structure, etc., in hopes of finding life beyond Earth. They then receive transmissions from an alien source on how to create endless fuel effortlessly. Therefore, the scientists assume that this is a friendly alien species. From a second alien transmission, the scientists receive information about an alien DNA along with instructions on how to splice it with human DNA. A government team led by Xavier Fitch (Ben Kingsley) goes forward with the genetic experiment attempting to induce a female, under the (later proved to be mistaken) assumption that a female would have "more docile and controllable" traits. One of the hundred experimental ova produces a girl named Sil (Michelle Williams), who looks like a normal human but develops into a 12-year-old in 3 months. Sil's violent outbursts during sleep make the scientists consider her a threat. They try to kill her using cyanide gas but she breaks out of her containment cell and escapes. The government assembles a team composed of anthropologist Dr. Stephen Arden (Alfred Molina), molecular biologist Dr. Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger), "empath" Dan Smithson (Forest Whitaker) and mercenary Preston "Press" Lennox (Michael Madsen) to track and destroy Sil. Sil matures rapidly into an adult (Natasha Henstridge) in her early twenties and makes her way to Los Angeles. Her body strength, regenerative ability and intelligence make tracking her extremely difficult. The scientists fear she may mate with human males and produce offspring that could eliminate the human race. Sil is intent on producing offspring as soon as possible, and kills several people to prevent them from notifying the authorities or simply to use their clothing. Sil first tries to mate with Robbie (Anthony Guidera), but after sensing that he is diabetic, she rejects him. Unsatisfied, he tries to rape her, prompting her to kill him by puncturing his skull with her tongue. She then tries to mate with John Carey (Whip Hubley), a man she meets after a car accident. They swim in Carey's hottub where Sil forces him to open his swimming trunks in order to mate, but he refuses. This act is interrupted by Preston and Laura. She kills Carey, morphing into her alien form, a bipedal mutant with tentacles on her shoulders and back, and flees naked into a forest without being seen by the team. She pretends to be a rape victim to kidnap a woman (Marliese K. Schneider) in order to assume her identity. Sitting in the car near Carey's home, she reads Fitch's lips, as she had done earlier, learning of their plan to stake out the nightclub for her return. There, she is seen by Dan, prompting a car chase. She fakes her death by crashing the car, which she has previously filled with gasoline containers, into a high-voltage transformer, using the kidnapped woman as a stand-in for her own body. After cutting and dyeing her hair, Sil takes an attraction to Preston, having dreamed of him the previous night. After the team celebrates their apparent victory, she stalks them in their hotel, and they do not recognize her. Arden, who is upset at being single, walks into his room to find Sil waiting there. She has intercourse with Arden, which results in her instantly getting impregnated by him, then kills him when he realizes who she is. Dan senses that Sil is in the hotel and he alerts Preston, Laura, and the rest of the team. She morphs again, escapes and they follow her into the sewers where Fitch is subsequently killed. Sil gives birth and Dan finds her offspring (Kurtis Burow) in a cavern behind the sewers. The child morphs into alien form and attacks him and he incinerates it, Press also killing Sil. The trio leaves the area. The last scene shows a rat chewing on one of Sil's severed tentacles; it starts to mutate into a vicious beast and devours another rat. ===== On April 18, 1987 at a local bar, 24-year-old waitress Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster) is brutally gang raped by three men who are cheered and encouraged by onlookers. Based upon a lack of strong evidence, including Sarah's own checkered past and her demeanor before the rape, Deputy district attorney Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) offers the three men a plea bargain to a lesser offense which, although having a similar sentencing range, would make them eligible for parole sooner. Enraged, Sarah feels betrayed by Murphy. Against advice of the District Attorney, Murphy prosecutes three onlookers for their solicitation in encouraging the other men to rape Sarah. At trial, Sarah is finally able to tell her story, but is unable to identify the onlookers. A conviction seems unlikely until the fraternity brother of one of the attackers testifies in a flashback as to what he recalls. With all three onlookers convicted, Sarah's attackers will likely not be paroled. ===== Down-and-out keyboardist Chance (Rory Cochrane) sees redemption in touring with dub-pop band Future Pigeon, fronted by the lovely Rocket (Beth Orton). But to make the band, he needs a signature sound—which he finds in the futuristic '69 "Molotron" keyboard. Chance's dreams are put on hold on the eve of the tour, when the Molotron is swiped from his car. Southlander follows Chance and his friend Ross Angeles (Ross Harris) as they track down the stolen keyboard through the pages of the Southlander, a local rag that publishes classified ads for musical equipment. The journey quickly turns into a surreal trip through LA's underground music scene. ===== A Union cavalry brigade led by Colonel John Marlowe (John Wayne)—a railroad construction engineer in civilian life—is sent on a raid behind Confederate lines to destroy a railroad and supply depot at Newton Station. Major Henry Kendall (William Holden), a regimental surgeon who is torn between duty and the horror of war, is constantly at odds with Marlowe. While the unit rests at Greenbriar Plantation, Miss Hannah Hunter (Constance Towers), the plantation's mistress, acts as a gracious hostess to the unit's officers. But she and her slave, Lukey (Althea Gibson), eavesdrop on a staff meeting as Marlowe discusses his battle strategy. To protect the secrecy of the mission, Marlowe is forced to take the two women with him. Initially hostile to her Yankee captor, Miss Hunter gradually comes to respect him and eventually falls in love with him, despite him being a Yankee. In addition to Kendall and Miss Hunter, Marlowe also must contend with Col. Phil Secord (Willis Bouchey), a politically ambitious officer who continually second-guesses Marlowe's orders and command decisions. Several battles ensue, including the capture of Newton Station, later a fire fight during which Lukey is killed, and a skirmish with boy cadets from a local military school (based on the actual Battle of New Market). After destroying the crucial supply line, and with Confederate forces in pursuit, the brigade reaches a bridge that must be stormed in order to access the Union lines. After taking the bridge, Marlowe's men rig it with explosive charges, and Marlowe bids Hannah farewell. Kendall chooses to remain behind with some badly wounded men—knowing he will be captured with them—rather than leave them unattended until Confederate medical personnel arrive. Marlowe, though wounded, kisses Miss Hunter goodbye, lights the fuse and is the last of his men to cross the bridge before it is destroyed, halting the Confederate advance. Their mission accomplished, he and his brigade continue on toward Baton Rouge. ===== Jim McAllister is a beloved civics teacher at an Omaha, Nebraska, high school. One of his students, Tracy Flick, is an overachieving senior whom he resents. Dave Novotny, Jim's best friend and fellow teacher, lost his job and his wife after Tracy's mother discovered that her daughter was having a sexual relationship with him. Jim is bitter that his best friend suffered reasonable consequences for having sex with a minor, while Tracy's mother intervened to protect Tracy from further harm. Tracy announces that she is running for student body president and informs Jim that they will be spending time together, since he oversees student government. Appalled by this and the fact that Tracy is running unopposed, Jim encourages Paul Metzler, a popular football player, to enter the race. Sidelined because of a broken leg, Paul finds his candidacy gives him new purpose; it also infuriates Tracy, who resents Paul's effortless popularity and privileged upbringing. Paul's younger sister Tammy is dumped by her girlfriend, Lisa Flanagan, who becomes Paul's girlfriend and campaign manager. Deeply hurt, Tammy exacts revenge by running for president on a nihilistic platform that student government is a sham. The three candidates make their campaign speeches to the student body at an assembly. Tracy draws polite applause while Paul receives a warm reception, despite giving a halting and lackluster speech. Tammy delivers a defiant address in which she denounces the election and vows to dissolve student government if she wins. Tammy's speech rallies the students to a rowdy standing ovation, but it also gets her suspended from school. While working on a yearbook project during the weekend, Tracy sees that one of her campaign posters has come untaped from the wall. She tries to secure it but accidentally rips the poster apart. In a fit of rage, she destroys the other candidates' campaign posters and discards them in a dumpster, unaware that Tammy sees this. When Jim confronts Tracy the next day with his suspicion that she removed the posters, Tracy feigns innocence and threatens to sue the school. In a ploy to get permanently expelled, Tammy falsely claims she vandalized the posters and produces them as proof, having retrieved them from the dumpster. Tammy is expelled, her name is struck from the ballot, and her parents enroll her in a private Catholic school for girls—much to her delight. The day before the election, Jim visits Linda Novotny, Dave's ex-wife, who initiates sex by kissing him. Linda asks Jim to rent a motel room for an after-school rendezvous, but she fails to show. When Jim drives to Linda's house to find her, he is stung by a bee, causing a severe allergic reaction on his right eyelid. He returns home to find Linda and his wife talking. Knowing his encounter with Linda has been exposed, he spends the night in his car. During the next day's election, Jim oversees the tally of the ballots, despite being sleep-deprived and disfigured from the bee sting. After the ballots are counted, Tracy wins by a single vote—cast by Paul, who votes for her because he thinks it dishonorable to vote for himself. During the ballot-counting, Jim spots Tracy dancing gleefully in the hall after a student counting votes surreptitiously signals that she won. Jim secretly disposes of two of Tracy's ballots and declares Paul the winner. When a janitor discovers the two discarded ballots in the trash and shows them to the principal, Tracy becomes president and Jim is forced to resign. Jim's wife refuses to forgive him for his tryst with Linda and throws him out of their house. Divorced and humiliated, Jim leaves Nebraska and fulfills a longtime dream of moving to New York City, where he becomes a tour guide at the American Museum of Natural History and begins dating a new woman. Tracy attends Georgetown University, while Paul enrolls at the University of Nebraska. Tammy finds a new girlfriend at her all-girls school. Jim encounters Tracy one last time during a trip to Washington, D.C., when he sees her getting into a limousine with a Republican congressman. Disgusted at Tracy's success, Jim impulsively hurls a cup of soda at the limo as it drives away. Jim later speaks to a group of elementary school students at the museum, refusing to respond to the raised hand of a bright girl who reminds him of Tracy. ===== During a bank robbery hostage situation, an undercover FBI agent, Art Jeffries (Bruce Willis), attempts unsuccessfully to negotiate for more time to defuse the situation. The FBI storms the bank killing the robbers, but Jeffries's cover is blown, so he is given a boring desk job. A nine-year-old autistic savant boy, Simon Lynch (Miko Hughes) is given an adult puzzle book by his teacher, and deciphers with his eye a phone number in a numerical puzzle. It was published in the magazine by two National Security Agency code creators, Dean Crandell and Leo Pedranski, to see if anyone could decipher it. The code, called "Mercury", is allegedly so complex that its creators believed no computer on Earth could decipher it. Simon phones the number, and Pedranski and Crandell report the situation to their boss, division chief Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Kudrow (Alec Baldwin). He severely rebukes the pair for their unauthorized actions, and describes Simon and his abilities as a national security threat. Two assassins, Peter Burrell and Shayes, are deployed by Kudrow to terminate the boy and his parents, Martin and Jenny Lynch. Posing as a police detective, Burrell gains entry to the Lynch household and unceremoniously shoots both Simon's mother and father with a silenced pistol. He is unable to find Simon himself when he searches the house. Upon hearing approaching sirens (Martin was able to call 911 before dying), Burrell stages a murder-suicide and is driven away from the house by Shayes. Jeffries is sent to investigate and finds Simon in a hidden crawl space in his bedroom closet. Simon is taken to a protection ward at the hospital, where Burrell poses as a doctor and makes another attempt on Simon's life. Simon is saved by the timely arrival of Jeffries, who, upon meeting Burrell and deducing his true nature, flees the premises with the boy. Later, while on a train, Shayes attacks the pair and is killed by Jeffries in self- defense. The NSA, under Kudrow's direction, frames Jeffries as kidnapper of Simon. However, fellow agent Tommy Jordan knows that he isn't. Jeffries borrows Jordan's car and takes Simon back to his house. Simon again calls the telephone number written into the code and Jeffries is able to talk to Crandell and Pedranski. Crandell arranges a meeting via encoded e-mail at the Wrigley Building. The next morning Jeffries goes to the meeting, leaving Simon under the care of a woman in a coffee shop, Stacey Siebring. Jeffries meets Crandell who tells him about "Mercury" and Kudrow, but Crandell is shot dead by Burrell before he can reveal everything. Jeffries returns to the coffee shop, and Stacey says she and Simon have become friends and Simon agrees. Jeffries and Simon then leave, but later in the middle of the night, Jeffries and Simon go to Stacey's house, asking for a place to stay. Stacey reluctantly agrees but tells Jeffries that she was going on a business trip to Des Moines the next morning. Meanwhile, Pedranski, having learned Crandell's fate, also tries to reveal Kudrow's unlawful actions by writing letters on a typewriter: one to Jeffries and a carbon copy to the Senate Oversight Committee. But Burrell tracks Pedranski down and murders him as well, and confiscates the letters. However, the assassin overlooks the carbon copies, which his girlfriend, NSA analyst Emily Lang, takes to the FBI. Jordan discreetly arranges for her to meet with Jeffries to show them both the carbon paper of the letter, which, being covered in Pedranski's fingerprints, is crucial evidence. After the meeting Jeffries gives Stacey Jordan's number in case of an emergency. Jeffries goes to Kudrow’s home during his birthday party, and demands that Kudrow announce on national TV that the Mercury Encryption Project is a failure. Jordan, under Jeffries suggestion, arranges for Simon to go into the Witness Protection Program. After the meeting, Jeffries calls Jordan, who explains that the Witness Protection meeting is going to happen, though they are unaware that their conversation is being monitored by Kudrow. When Jeffries returns and finds Stacey and Simon gone, he learns from Jordan that they are not in any danger and will meet them at a pick-up point, just as Jordan is given an order to head to the FBI director's office. There Kudrow tries to have FBI SAC (Special Agent in Charge) Lomax help turn the tables on Jeffries by using his authority and the fact that Jordan arranged the Witness Protection under false pretenses. He tells them that the NSA is taking over the protection program. After Kudrow leaves, Jordan shows the carbon paper evidence to Lomax and confirms that the fingerprint markings on it were Pedranski's, now fully validating the evidence against Kudrow. Jeffries, with Jordan and an FBI task force's help, sets a trap at the meeting spot. Armed with a machine gun, Burrell fires at the FBI squad resulting in a shootout, while Kudrow attempts to escape with Simon on a pre-arranged helicopter. Jordan protects Stacey from the killer's fire. Jeffries leaps from the chopper, knocking Kudrow back, then disarming him when he tries to shoot the boy. They fight on the roof, but Simon walks to the edge of the roof and gets Kudrow's gun, giving it to Jeffries who forces the corrupt NSA chief back. Burrell is impaled and slashed to death by glass shards when the helicopter's propellers shatters the windows in front of him. In a last-ditch effort, Kudrow picks up Simon to throw him off the building, but is shot multiple times at point-blank range by Jeffries. He falls to his death, but not before crashing through a glass ceiling. Jeffries later visits Simon (now living with foster parents) at his school. He embraces the FBI agent as a welcome friend, having finally accepted him as a person he trusts. ===== Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) is a schoolteacher in small-town Honesdale, Pennsylvania, living with her boyfriend Hal (Tom Amandes) and her daughter Caitlin (Yvonne Zima). Eight years earlier, she was found washed ashore on a New Jersey beach, pregnant with Caitlin and totally amnesiatic. Having never remembered her real name, "Samantha" has hired a number of ineffective private investigators to discover her past, the latest being a lowlife named Mitch Henessey (Samuel L. Jackson). During the Christmas holidays, Samantha is involved in a car accident and suffers a brief concussion; when she recovers, she finds she possesses skills with a knife that she cannot explain. Shortly thereafter, the family home is broken into by "One-Eyed Jack" (Joseph McKenna), a convict who escaped from jail after seeing Samantha's face on television. Samantha demonstrates her fighting prowess by killing Jack bare-handed. Worried that she poses a danger to Hal and Caitlin, Samantha leaves with Mitch, who has found a suitcase belonging to her, to seek out answers. The suitcase contains a note directing them to Dr. Nathan Waldman (Brian Cox). They arrange to meet at a train station, unaware that government agents are tapping the doctor's calls. En route, Samantha discovers the bottom of the suitcase contains a disassembled sniper rifle which she can expertly reassemble, along with other weapons. When Samantha and Mitch go to meet Waldman at the station, they are attacked by a team of agents who shoot numerous bystanders, but the two escape with Waldman's help. The doctor informs Samantha that she is really an expert CIA assassin, Charlene Elizabeth "Charly" Baltimore, who had disappeared eight years prior. Unsure if they can trust Waldman, Samantha and Mitch leave him behind and seek another contact named on a note in the suitcase, Luke (David Morse), believing he may be Charly's fiancé. Waldman catches up with them and tries to warn them that Luke is actually Charly's last assassination target, "Daedalus". However, Luke kills Dr. Waldman, then straps Samantha to a waterwheel and tortures her by repeatedly submerging her in cold water. After being tortured, she is finally jolted into remembering her past life. Samantha frees herself, kills Luke, and escapes with Mitch. Samantha completes her physical transformation back to Charly, cutting her hair and dying it platinum blonde. Charly realizes that her "Samantha Caine" personality was a cover to get near to Daedalus eight years earlier. A psychological-operations specialist named Timothy (Craig Bierko), with whom Charly once had a romantic relationship, kidnaps Caitlin. Charly and Mitch learn about Daedalus' involvement in "Project Honeymoon", which she disrupted on her mission, resulting in One-Eyed Jack's incarceration; "Project Honeymoon" was intended to be a false flag chemical bomb detonation in Niagara Falls, planned by the CIA in an attempt to blame Islamic terrorists and secure more funding. Charly realizes that Timothy and a new group is plotting to restage the attack, led by CIA Director Leland Perkins (Patrick Malahide). In Niagara Falls, where Timothy has taken Caitlin, he captures Mitch and Charly. She tells Timothy that he is Caitlin's biological father and implores him not to hurt their daughter, but Timothy locks Charly and Caitlin in a freezer to kill them. Charly and Caitlin break out of the freezer by detonating barrels of kerosene and then freeing Mitch, who helps Charly attack the staging area. This forces Timothy to launch the attack early; meanwhile, Caitlin locks herself in a cage on the truck carrying the bomb. Charly chases the truck, overpowers its driver, diverts it from a Christmas parade, and overturns it on the Niagara Falls International Bridge leading to Canada. Charly frees Caitlin but they cannot get away from the bomb, which is about to explode, as Timothy and his agents attack them from a helicopter. Mitch suddenly arrives in a car, picking up Charly and Caitlin and entering Canada just before the bomb explodes, which kills Timothy and his forces and destroys the bridge. In an epilogue, Charly has returned to her assumed identity of Samantha Caine, moving with Caitlin and Hal to a remote farmhouse and declining an offer from the president to join the state department (which could imply rejoining the CIA). Mitch enjoys the publicity attracted by his role in the crisis and is interviewed by Larry King on television about Perkins, who was indicted for treason. ===== U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Aaron Hallam, a former United States Delta Force operator, has spent much of his career performing covert assassinations in service to the government. These missions leave the sensitive and intelligent Hallam conflicted and it is implied that he was either set up, or that the government became dissatisfied with the results of his more recent assignments, that results in his current predicament. In the wilderness of Silver Falls State Park, Oregon, Hallam encounters two deer hunters equipped with expensive scoped rifles. Hallam tells them that, because of these sophisticated scopes, they are not "true hunters." They pursue him through the woods but are no match for his skill and use of traps. He eventually kills the pair with his knife. L.T. Bonham, a former civilian instructor of military survival and combat training, now lives secluded deep in the woods of British Columbia, working for the Wildlife fund. He is approached to help apprehend Hallam, one of his former students. According to the authorities, Hallam has gone renegade after suffering severe battle stress from his time in the Kosovo War. The FBI provides recent photos showing how Hallam butchered the hunters. Bonham agrees and is asked to work with FBI task force, led by Assistant Special Agent in Charge Abby Durrell. Bonham tracks Hallam and discovers his personal effects within a hollow tree trunk deep in the woods. When he emerges from the tree, Hallam is standing over him. Hallam immediately recognizes Bonham, who feigns ignorance, and asks why he never answered any of his letters. Bonham attacks, but in the ensuing hand-to-hand fight is beaten near unconscious. Suddenly, Hallam is shot from behind with a tranquilizer dart and the FBI task force, which had been tracking Bonham, sweeps in to capture Hallam. During his interrogation, Hallam is uncooperative and looks mainly to Bonham, who he regards as a father figure of sorts. When he begins to mention a military black operation he participated in, Bonham cuts him off for his safety. The FBI is unsure of how to treat their would-be murder suspect, and Hallam is soon in the custody of his former JSOC fellow operators, who tell the FBI that Hallam cannot stand trial due to the classified operations he had participated in while deployed abroad as a result of his military service. While being transported, the operatives indicate that they intend to kill Hallam to ensure his silence. However, Hallam manages to kill all the operatives and escape. Alerted to the incident, Bonham and the FBI team track Hallam across the city and back into the wilderness, where Hallam consistently evades them. As he had been taught by Bonham, he crafts an improvised knife by making a fire and forging a blade from pieces of scrap metal. Convinced that the FBI's tactics aren't working and before more men are lost, Bonham strikes out on his own to find Aaron. Crafting his own knife out of stone, he goes into the wilderness and the search quickly becomes a fight to the death between teacher and student. In a vicious knife fight beside a waterfall, Bonham's knife is broken and he suffers severe wounds but manages to stab Hallam to death with his own knife. The FBI arrives too late, and Bonham walks away without saying a word. Returning to his home in British Columbia, Bonham starts to burn the letters Hallam referenced earlier, in which Hallam expressed his concerns over the things he had done as a government assassin. ===== The game is set on the planet Mobius, which is inhabited by bean-like creatures. Doctor Robotnik conceives of a plan to bring terror to the world by kidnapping the citizens of Beanville and turning them into robot slaves, and eventually creating an army that will help him rid the planet of fun and joy. To achieve this, he creates the "Mean Bean-Steaming Machine" in order to transform the bean-like creatures into robots. Putting his plan into motion, Robotnik sends out his Henchbots to gather all the bean-like creatures and group them together in dark dungeons so they can be sent to the Mean Bean-Steaming Machine. The rest of the game's story revolves around the player character, "Has Bean", and their journey to stop Robotnik's henchmen by breaking into the dungeons and freeing the bean-like creatures. ===== Cody, Anita, Eileen and Lily work together in a brothel. When Anita is abused by a customer, Cody kills the man. Narrowly escaping from a lynch mob, they are pursued by Pinkerton detectives hired by the widow of the man they'd shot. A man they meet on the road, McCoy, warns them of the pursuit. They discuss riding to Oregon and starting a new life by taking up a claim to land inherited by Anita when her husband died of cholera. Cody offers to fund their new start from savings she has accumulated over the years. They go to the bank where Cody's savings are held. As she tries to close her account and make a withdrawal, the Pinkerton detectives catch up with her and try to arrest her. Leaving the bank manager's office, they find themselves in the middle of a bank robbery being staged by Kid Jarrett, a former lover of Cody. He helps her escape from arrest but takes her money and tells her to find him. During the escape, Eileen is arrested. Cody decides to go after the money and Kid Jarrett, telling Anita and Lilly to wait in hiding. Anita and Lilly return to town to break Eileen out of jail. Cody's meeting with Kid Jarrett and Frank Jarrett does not go well. Kid Jarrett has not forgiven her for running out on him. He flogs her. Later, she is found unconscious by McCoy, who brings her to a healer in town and puts the Pinkerton detectives off her trail. McCoy, Cody and the other three women meet up on the ranch of a farmer who'd been guarding Eileen's cell (and whom they'd tricked into releasing her). Cody plans revenge on Kid Jarrett. They foil a train robbery and steal his loot, at the cost of Lilly being abducted. In turn, they abduct Frank Jarrett, Kid's father. Regrouping again on the ranch, Anita leaves the others, frustrated with their revenge-motivated misadventures. She goes to a lawyer in town and finds out that the claim to land is only valid in the hands of her husband - as a woman, she cannot claim the land in Oregon. Frank Jarrett antagonizes his captors until McCoy shoots him. Cody sends away McCoy. Meanwhile, Lilly is being raped by her captors. McCoy stages a one-man rescue attempt and is captured, but Lilly escapes. Reunited, Cody, Anita and Eileen go to rescue Lilly and meet her on the road. When she tells them that McCoy has been captured, they continue towards Kid Jarrett's hide out, and offer to trade the stolen loot for McCoy, who has been flogged and tortured. Kid agrees, then shoots McCoy as soon as the loot is handed over. He gives Cody the money he stole from her (although in close up it clearly is mid-20th century currency). While retreating, one of Lilly's would-be rapists taunts her, triggering a shootout that results in the deaths of Kid's entire gang. After the shootout, Eileen marries the rancher, while Lilly, Cody and Anita head west to start a new life, mentioning the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896. On the trail they overtake the Pinkerton detectives, who do not see them. ===== Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke (John Wayne) is posted on the Texas frontier with the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Regiment to defend settlers against attacks by marauding Apaches. Colonel Yorke is under considerable pressure due to the Apaches using Mexico as a sanctuary from pursuit, and by a serious shortage of troops in his command. The action of the movie is set in the summer of 1879 ("fifteen years after the Shenandoah"). Tension is added when Yorke's son (whom he hasn't seen in fifteen years), Trooper Jefferson Yorke (Claude Jarman Jr.), is one of 18 recruits sent to the regiment. He had flunked out of West Point but immediately enlisted as a private in the Army. In a private "father-son" meeting in the commanding officer's tent, Trooper Yorke informs his father that he does not expect, nor want, any special treatment because he is his son. He asks that he be treated like any other soldier—to which the colonel somewhat reluctantly agrees. By his willingness to undergo any test and trial, Jeff is befriended by a pair of older recruits, Travis Tyree (Ben Johnson) (who is on the run from the law) and Daniel "Sandy" Boone (Harry Carey Jr.), who take him under their wings. With the arrival of Yorke's estranged wife, Kathleen (Maureen O'Hara), who has come to take the underage Yorke home by buying him out of his enlistment, further tension is added. During the Civil War, Yorke had been forced by circumstances to burn Bridesdale, his wife's plantation home in the Shenandoah valley. Sergeant Major Quincannon (Victor McLaglen), who put the torch to Bridesdale, is still with Yorke and is a constant reminder to Kathleen of the episode. In a showdown with his mother, Jeff refuses her attempt to buy him out of the Army by reminding her that not only the commander's signature is required to discharge him, but his own as well; and he chooses to stay in the Army. The tension brought about in the struggle over their son's future (and possibly the attentions shown to her by Yorke's junior officers) rekindles the romance the couple once felt for each other. The Apaches attack the Fort one night. Many of them are killed by the awakened troopers, but they succeed in freeing their leader, who had been captured at the start of the movie. Two U.S. Marshals from Texas arrive at the post with a warrant for Trooper Tyree's arrest on a manslaughter charge. Confined to the post hospital, with the connivance of the regimental surgeon (Chill Wills) and Sergeant Major Quincannon he breaks jail, steals Colonel Yorke's horse, and goes on the run, intending to stay away until the marshals head back to Texas. Yorke is visited by his former Civil War commander, Philip Sheridan (J. Carrol Naish), now Commanding General of the Military Division of the Missouri, the headquarters responsible for pacifying the Great Plains. Sheridan has decided to order Yorke to cross the Rio Grande into Mexico in pursuit of the Apaches and kill them all, an action with serious political implications since it violates the sovereignty of another nation. If Yorke fails in his mission to destroy the Apache threat, he will have to face a court-martial. Sheridan, in quiet acknowledgment of what he is asking Yorke to risk, promises that if it comes to that, "the members of the court will be the men who rode down the Shenandoah with us" during the Civil War. Yorke accepts the assignment. Yorke leads his men toward Mexico, only to learn that a wagonload of children from his fort, who were being taken to Ft. Bliss for safety – ironic in that the fort was named for a famous mathematician, William Wallace Smith Bliss, and it was failing mathematics that caused Jefferson Yorke to flunk out of West Point – has been captured by the Apaches. Tyree trails the Apaches to their hideout in Mexico and then rejoins his regiment with the information and a plan to rescue the children. After permitting three troopers--Tyree, Boone and Jeff-- to infiltrate the ruined church in the Mexican village where the Indians have taken the children, Yorke leads his regiment in an all-out attack. The cavalrymen rescue all of the children unharmed, though Colonel Yorke is wounded by an arrow that he orders Jeff to remove. He is taken back to the fort by his victorious troops, where Kathleen meets him and holds his hand as he is carried on a travois into the post. After Colonel Yorke recovers, Tyree, Boone, Jeff, Navajo Scout Son of Many Mules, and Corporal Bell are decorated. At the ceremony, Trooper Tyree is given a furlough to continue his run from the law when one of the Texas marshals reappears, stealing General Sheridan's horse for the purpose. As the troops pass in review (with the regimental band playing Dixie at the General's request to please Mrs. Yorke), the movie closes. ===== In Los Angeles, single mother Carla Moran is violently raped in her home by an invisible assailant. A subsequent episode of poltergeist activity causes her to flee with her children to the home of her friend Cindy Nash. They return to Carla's home and the following day, Carla is nearly killed when her car mysteriously goes out of control in traffic. Urged by Cindy to see a psychiatrist, Carla meets with Dr. Sneiderman and tentatively agrees to undergo therapy. A subsequent attack in her bathroom leaves bite marks and bruises, which Carla shows to Dr. Sneiderman, who believes she has inflicted them on herself, despite the marks showing up in places impossible for her to reach. Carla explains to Sneiderman that she suffered a variety of traumas in her childhood and adolescence, including sexual and physical abuse, teenage pregnancy, and the violent death of her first husband. Dr. Sneiderman believes her apparent paranormal experiences are delusions resulting from her past psychological trauma. Carla is attacked again, this time in front of her children. Her son tries to intervene, but he is hit by electrical discharges and his wrist is broken. Dr. Sneiderman urges Carla to commit herself to a psychiatric hospital for observation, but she refuses and becomes angry when Sneiderman goes so far as to suggest she has incestuous feelings for her son. After Cindy witnesses an attack, the two discuss possible supernatural causes. While visiting a local bookstore, Carla happens to meet two parapsychologists, whom she convinces to visit her home. Initially skeptical, they witness several paranormal events and agree to study the home. During their study, Dr. Sneiderman arrives and confronts Carla, trying to convince her that the manifestation is in her mind, but she dismisses him. Reassured that her case is being taken seriously, Carla begins to relax. Her boyfriend, Jerry Anderson, visits and she suffers a particularly disturbing attack, which he witnesses. Hearing the commotion, Carla’s son enters the room and believes that Jerry is harming her, prompting him to attack Jerry. Later at the hospital, Jerry is so troubled by the experience that he ends their relationship. Desperate for a solution to her problem, Carla agrees to participate in an elaborate experiment carried out by the parapsychologists. A full mock-up of her home is created to lure the entity into a trap. Liquid helium will be used to freeze the entity, once inside. Before the experiment can begin, Dr. Sneiderman unsuccessfully tries to convince Carla to leave. The entity arrives but unexpectedly takes control of the liquid helium jets and uses them against Carla. She defiantly stands up to it, stating that even if it kills her, it can never have her. Dr. Sneiderman rushes in and saves her. As they look back, they see the entity frozen for a brief period into a very large mass of ice. It eventually breaks free and vanishes, but Dr. Sneiderman realizes that Carla was telling the truth the whole time. Carla returns to her house the next day. The front door slams by itself and she is greeted by a demonic voice which says, "Welcome home, cunt". She calmly opens the door, exits the house, gets in a car with her family and leaves. A closing disclaimer verifies that Carla and her family have moved to Texas. Carla still experiences attacks from the entity, although they have lessened in frequency and severity. ===== Edward Carnby (Christian Slater) is a supernatural detective who specializes in the occult and other paranormal subjects. He was apparently the subject of strange experiments when he was a child, leaving him with heightened abilities as well as a "sixth sense" that allows him to sense the paranormal. Throughout the film, we also learn that Carnby used to work for Bureau 713, a secret government organization that seeks to protect the world from paranormal dangers. In his spare time, Carnby investigates the disappearance of the Abkani, an ancient Mayan-like civilization that worshipped demonic creatures from another dimension. Central to the plot are several artifacts un-earthed in 1967 and now on display at the city's Museum of Natural History, at which Carnby's girlfriend Aline (Tara Reid) is the assistant curator. Carnby soon finds himself investigating the very scientist who conducted experiments on him as a child, while working with Aline and former protégé (now rival) Commander Richard Burke (Stephen Dorff), his replacement at Bureau 713, to stop an invasion of the demonic creatures who are pouring through a portal opened by the Abkani artifacts. ===== Machiko Kyō, Marlon Brando, and Glenn Ford in The Teahouse of the August Moon Misfit Captain Fisby (Glenn Ford) is sent to Americanize the village of Tobiki on Okinawa, the largest of the Ryukyu Islands. His commanding officer, Colonel Wainwright Purdy III (Paul Ford), assigns him a wily local, Sakini (Marlon Brando), as interpreter. Fisby tries to implement the military's plans by encouraging the villagers to build a school in the shape of a pentagon, but they want to build a teahouse instead. Fisby gradually becomes assimilated to the local customs and mores with the help of Sakini and Lotus Blossom, a young geisha (Machiko Kyō). To revive the economy, he has the Okinawans manufacture small items to sell as souvenirs, but nobody wants to buy them. These include cricket cages and wooden Japanese footwear called geta. Then Fisby makes a happy discovery. The villagers distill a potent sweet potato brandy in a matter of days which finds a ready market in the American army. With the influx of money, the teahouse is built in next to no time. When Purdy sends psychiatrist Captain McLean (Eddie Albert) to check up on Fisby, the newcomer is quickly won over. This, even after Fisby greets McLean wearing geta, an army bathrobe (which Fisby claims is his kimono) and what Fisby terms an "air-conditioned" straw hat (the latter being headwear worn by Okinawan farmers). McLean later proves to be enthusiastic about organic farming. When Purdy doesn't hear from either officer, he shows up in person and surprises Fisby and McLean, the latter wearing a yukata (summer-weight kimono). They are leading a rowdy song at a party in full swing in the teahouse. Purdy orders the building and distillery destroyed. In a burst of foresight, the villagers break up old water urns rather than the brandy storage and only dismantle the teahouse, hiding the sections. The village is chosen by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP) as an example of successful American-led democratization. This leads to Colonel Purdy's regretting his actions and to reassembling the teahouse. ===== On June 15, 1904, the steamboat General Slocum catches fire and sinks in New York's East River. Two boys, Blackie Gallagher (Mickey Rooney) and Jim Wade (Jimmy Butler), are rescued by a priest, Father Joe (Leo Carrillo), but are orphaned by the disaster. They are taken in by another survivor, Poppa Rosen (George Sidney), who lost his young son in the sinking. The boys live with Poppa Rosen for a short while; then Rosen, a Russian Jew, is trampled to death by a policeman's horse after he heckles Leon Trotsky at a Communist rally and a melee breaks out. The boys remain close friends, though their lives diverge. Studious from the very beginning, Jim (played as an adult by William Powell) gets his law degree and eventually becomes the assistant district attorney. Blackie is a cheerful, happy-go-lucky kid who loves to throw dice and trick other kids out of their money; he (Clark Gable) becomes the owner of a fancy, if illegal, casino. Though his casino is regularly "raided", the cops have been paid off and business resumes immediately after they leave. Blackie's girlfriend Eleanor (Myrna Loy) loves him, but pleads with him in vain to marry her and give up his dangerous life. Jim is elected district attorney. Blackie, always a supporter and admirer of Jim's, knowing that he is incorruptible, arranges to meet him for a celebration, but something comes up, and he sends Eleanor to keep Jim company at the Cotton Club until he can join them. Jim and Eleanor talk the night away. Afterward, she gives Blackie one last chance to marry her and settle down. When Blackie refuses, she leaves him. Months later, Jim and Eleanor meet by chance and start keeping company (she informs Jim that she has not seen Blackie for months). Meanwhile, Blackie kills Manny Arnold (Noel Madison) for not paying his gambling debts. Jim summons him to his office, where he tells him that he and Eleanor are going to get married. Blackie is sincerely happy for both of them. Jim also informs his friend that he is a suspect in the Arnold murder. However, there is no real evidence, so the crime goes unsolved. Though Jim invites him to be the best man at his wedding, Blackie discreetly turns him down. After returning from his honeymoon, Jim runs for governor of New York. Snow (Thomas E. Jackson), who had been his chief assistant until Jim fired him for corruption, threatens to tell reporters that Jim covered up for Blackie in the Arnold case. Though untrue, this would lose Jim a close race for the governorship. By chance, Blackie and Eleanor meet at the horse track. Eleanor tells Blackie about Snow. Blackie shoots Snow dead in a washroom of Madison Square Garden during a hockey game. A beggar who pretends to be blind sees him leave the scene of the crime. Jim has no choice but to prosecute Blackie. Blackie is convicted and sentenced to death. Jim wins the election, partly because the public knows that Jim is so honest he prosecuted his childhood friend. Eleanor tries to get him to commute the sentence to life imprisonment, revealing Blackie's selfless motive for killing Snow, but that only makes things worse. When Jim remains steadfast, Eleanor leaves him. At the last moment, Jim hurries to Sing Sing Prison and meets Blackie, together with Father Joe, who is now the prison's chaplain. Jim finally offers to commute the death sentence, but Blackie turns him down. Father Joe leads Blackie to the electric chair while saying last rites. A few days later, Jim calls a special joint session of the New York Legislature. He reveals how the murder helped him win the election, and how at the end he compromised his principles and was willing to commute his friend's sentence. He then tenders his resignation. When he leaves, Eleanor is waiting for him. She tells him that she was wrong about him, and they leave together to start a new life. ===== Mega Man 5 takes place during the 21st century, about two months after the events of Mega Man 4, when the mad scientist Dr. Wily once again attempted to take over the world. Proto Man, secret brother and once ally to the world's greatest hero Mega Man, leads an army of robots in a series of destructive attacks on the world. To cripple the world's defenders, he kidnaps his own creator, the genius scientist Dr. Light. Mega Man wonders why Proto Man is doing this, but with little choice left, he sets out to stop him, assisted by Beat, a robot bird gifted to him by Dr. Cossack. Mega Man prevails over a new group of eight powerful "Robot Masters" working under Proto Man: Star Man, Gravity Man, Gyro Man, Stone Man, Crystal Man, Charge Man, Napalm Man, and Wave Man. Mega Man then makes his way to Proto Man's fortress and confronts his fellow creation, who nearly destroys the protagonist in the process. However, a second Proto Man arrives just in time, revealing the first as Dark Man, one of Dr. Wily's newest robots. Mega Man vanquishes the impostor, then pursues Wily to his newest hideout, defeats him, and saves Dr. Light. However, the fortress begins collapsing, and while Mega Man is distracted from holding up the ceiling from crushing himself and Dr. Light, Wily manages yet another retreat. Just after Wily escapes, a familiar whistle is heard, and part of the ceiling is blasted away, allowing Mega Man and Dr. Light to also escape. As the two watch the castle collapse from a distance, their mystery savior is revealed to be Proto Man, who quietly slips off unnoticed. ===== ===== Detectives Chris Lecce and Bill Reimers are assigned to the night shift on a stakeout of Latina waitress Maria McGuire. Maria's former boyfriend, Richard "Stick" Montgomery, has escaped from a prison following a brawl with several guards, with help from his cousin, Caylor Reese, who helped him escape in a truck. The FBI asks for cooperation from Lecce and Reimers in capturing Montgomery. They believe Montgomery may return to an old girlfriend, Maria McGuire, who lives in Seattle. Meanwhile Lecce is going through a divorce from his wife. He comes home and finds out that she moved out and took his furniture, leaving him in despair. Montgomery telephones McGuire but the line gets cut off so the calls cannot be traced. He has a large amount of money that he secretly hid in an armchair prior to his incarceration. Lecce and Reimers spy on McGuire, hoping Montgomery will turn up at her door so they can arrest him. Lecce pretends to be a telephone lineman, in order to get close to McGuire. He also helps McGuire's brother Ray to get a job so he can stay out of trouble. Fate takes a turn for the worse as Lecce falls in love with Maria and the Seattle police suspect him as one of Montgomery's allies. While Lecce is asleep in McGuire's bed, Montgomery and Reese break into her house, with Montgomery shooting Lecce in the face. Lecce wakes up, however, to find out it was only a nightmare. Realizing he slept in, he must leave the house without being seen. At the police station, Reimers scolds him for sleeping with Maria, and reminds Lecce that he's a good cop who made one mistake. After killing a cashier in a gas station, Montgomery and Reese have a run-in with several officers waiting for them outside Seattle, causing a shootout and having their car to crash into the river. Montgomery manages to escape from the vehicle before it sinks, with Reese wounded and dying in the sunken car. Lecce tells his secret to Maria, but she starts to get upset, only to run into Montgomery, who tells Chris and Maria that he stashed half-million dollars in a couch that he bought for her years prior. He was hoping that he and Maria would have a great life together in Canada, but Lecce ruined it for them. After capturing Reimers, Montgomery plans to murder both cops. The climax of the film takes place at a paper mill, where Lecce and Montgomery have a shootout, resulting in Montgomery being shot in the chest. McGuire and Lecce start a relationship. ===== In 1975, after having served five years of a 30-year prison sentence, Carlito Brigante is freed on a legal technicality exploited by his close friend and lawyer, Dave Kleinfeld. Carlito vows to end his criminal activities but is persuaded to accompany his young cousin Guajiro to a drug deal held at a bar. Guajiro is betrayed and killed by his suppliers and Carlito is forced to shoot his way out. Later, Carlito takes Guajiro's $30,000 from the botched deal and uses it to buy into a nightclub owned by a gambling addict named Saso with the intention of saving $75,000 to retire to the Caribbean. As nightclub co-owner, Carlito declines several offers for a business partnership with a hot-headed young gangster from the Bronx named Benny Blanco. Carlito also rekindles his romance with his former girlfriend Gail (who calls him “Charlie”), a ballet dancer who moonlights as a stripper. Kleinfeld develops a love interest with Benny's girlfriend, Steffie, a waitress at the club. Benny's frustration with Carlito's constant rejections boils over and he confronts Carlito one night at his table. Carlito publicly humiliates Benny, who reacts by manhandling Steffie. Fueled by his now-extensive use of alcohol and cocaine, Kleinfeld brazenly pulls out a gun and threatens to kill Benny, but Carlito intervenes. Despite being personally threatened by Benny himself, Carlito lets Benny go unharmed; a decision which alienates Carlito's bodyguard Pachanga. Kleinfeld, who stole $1 million in payoff money from his Italian Mafia boss client, Anthony Taglialucci, is coerced into providing his yacht to help Taglialucci break out of the Rikers Island prison barge. Kleinfeld begs for Carlito's assistance in the prison break, and Carlito reluctantly agrees. Under cover of night, Carlito, Kleinfeld, and Taglialucci's son, Frankie, sail to a floating buoy outside of the barge where Taglialucci is waiting. As they pull Taglialucci aboard, Kleinfeld kills him and Frankie and dumps their bodies in the East River. Carlito immediately severs his ties with Kleinfeld and decides to leave town with Gail. The next day, Kleinfeld barely survives a retaliatory assassination attempt at his office. Carlito is apprehended by police and taken to the office of District Attorney Norwalk, where he is played a tape of Kleinfeld offering to testify to false criminal allegations against Carlito. Norwalk advises that he is aware that Carlito is an accomplice to the Taglialucci murders in an attempt to leverage him into betraying Kleinfeld, but Carlito refuses. Carlito visits Kleinfeld in the hospital, where Kleinfeld confesses to selling Carlito out. Having noticed a suspicious man dressed in a police uniform waiting in the lobby, Carlito secretly unloads Kleinfeld's revolver and leaves. The man is Taglialucci's other son, Vinnie, seeking vengeance for his brother and father. Vinnie sneaks into Kleinfeld's room and shoots him dead. Carlito buys train tickets to Miami for himself and Gail, now pregnant. When he stops by his club to get the stashed money, Carlito is met by a group of East Harlem Italian gangsters led by Vinnie. The Italians plan on killing Carlito, but he manages to slip out through a secret exit. The Italians pursue him throughout the city's subway system and into Grand Central Terminal, where they engage in a gunfight. Carlito kills all of his pursuers except Vinnie, who is shot and killed by police. As Carlito runs to catch the train where Gail and Pachanga are waiting for him, he is ambushed by Benny, who shoots Carlito several times with a silenced gun. Pachanga admits to Carlito that he is now working for Benny, only to be shot dead by Benny as well. Carlito hands a tearful Gail the money and tells her to escape with their unborn child and start a new life. Carlito is wheeled away on a gurney to be taken to hospital. As he dies, Carlito stares at a billboard with a Caribbean beach and a picture of a woman. The billboard then comes to life in his mind, and the woman, now Gail, starts dancing. ===== In the spring of 1969, Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate) is about to graduate from high school, and decides to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps rather than go to college. He is sent to Vietnam, leaving behind his middle-class family, his girlfriend Juanita (Rose Jackson), and small-time crook Kirby (Keith David), who is like a second father. Anthony's close friend, Skip (Chris Tucker), later joins Curtis' Recon squad after flunking out of Hunter College and his other friend Jose (Freddy Rodriguez), is drafted into the United States Army. Once in Vietnam, Curtis and his squad lose several fellow marines during combat, and commit several atrocities of their own, such as executing enemy prisoners and beheading corpses for war trophies. When Anthony returns to the Bronx in 1973, after four years of service, he finds returning to "normal" life impossible. He finds Skip now an Agent Orange victim and heroin addict, Jose is an amputee with a prosthetic hand and pyromaniac who now works as a postman at the James A. Farley Building, and Cleon (Bokeem Woodbine), a religious yet deadly staff sergeant that was in his squad, is now a devoted minister in Mount Vernon, New York. After being laid off from his job at a butcher shop, Anthony finds himself unable to support Juanita (who had an affair with a pimp while he was on duty) or his daughter. After an argument with Juanita, Anthony meets his girlfriend's sister, Delilah (N'Bushe Wright), who is now a member of the "Nat Turner Cadre", a revolutionary communist militant group. Anthony, Kirby, Skip, Jose, Delilah, and Cleon devise a plan to rob an armored car making a stop at the Noble Street Federal Reserve Bank of the Bronx. The next day, the group strategically position themselves around the street, armed with weapons and disguised with face paint, ready to ambush the truck. The plan goes awry when Cleon is approached by a beat officer who interferes in the robbery, leading to Kirby being shot in the arm and Skip killing the officer when Cleon freezes up (a role reversal to what happens to Skip and Cleon earlier). At the same time, Anthony and Jose are spotted by the driver, causing a large shootout with the security guards. Jose (a demolition expert in the army) plants an explosive device on the escaping truck to blow off the door, but instead it destroys the whole vehicle. Delilah saves Anthony's life by killing one of the guards. A second guard appears and gets into a shootout with Delilah; he shoots her multiple times killing her. As the group collects what cash they can from the burning wreckage, they flee and split up to escape the police. Jose gets cornered in an alley by an approaching police car. When Jose shoots the driver, he is hit by the car and killed as the police car crashes into a wall, crushing Jose. Not long after the heist, Kirby hears that Cleon has been giving out $100 bills and has bought himself a new Cadillac that he can barely afford. Anthony drives over to Cleon's church to speak to him, only to find him being led out the front door in handcuffs by two detectives. Cleon gives up the other robbers as part of a plea bargain. NYPD officers storm Skip's apartment only to find that he has died of a heroin overdose. As Kirby and Anthony prepare to flee to Mexico, police raid the bar. Kirby tries to distract the officers to allow Anthony to flee to no avail, as multiple officers corner Anthony and arrest him. Anthony is convicted and found guilty of the robbery and the deaths of the security guards and the officer that Skip killed. He is sentenced to 15 years to life in prison by the judge (Martin Sheen), himself a World War II veteran. Anthony, furious at his sentence in spite of his years of service for his country, throws a chair at the judge before being escorted away. The films ends with Anthony looking out the window of his prison bus and reflecting on what could've been. ===== Pearl Kantrowitz (Diane Lane) and her husband Marty (Liev Schreiber) are a lower middle class Jewish couple in New York City, where Marty is a television repairman. The movie begins with the couple and their family, including their teenage daughter Alison (Anna Paquin), their young son Danny (Bobby Boriello), and Marty's mother Lillian (Tovah Feldshuh), going to their Catskills summer camp retreat, Dr. Fogler's Bungalows, which they attend each summer. Marty has to stay in New York during the week due to his work, and can thus only visit his family on weekends. This leaves Pearl feeling lonely and isolated. Pearl got pregnant at the age of 17 and she feels she missed enjoying her youth. With the absence of Marty, Pearl is attracted to the new "Blouse Man" Walker Jerome (Viggo Mortensen). Meanwhile, Alison is neglected and she experiences her first period, her first date, and her first kiss as she enters a relationship with another boy at the camp, Ross Epstein (Joe Perrino). Marty is unable to visit the family because he has to repair more television sets than usual, due to the impending Moon landing. While the whole town celebrates Neil Armstrong's historic Moon walk, Pearl has sex with Walker. Marty's mother Lillian learns of the affair and tries to persuade Pearl to break it off. The affair continues when Marty cannot get up to visit on the weekend because of the traffic jam caused by the Woodstock festival, which is within walking distance of the bungalow colony. Pearl goes to the festival, and unbeknownst to her, Alison goes as well with Ross and her friends despite her mother previously forbidding it. Alison becomes upset after seeing Pearl and Walker carousing while on LSD. Marty learns of the affair and confronts Pearl while Alison confronts her mother in an emotional scene. Pearl is forced to deal with her love of her family and her conflicting yearning for marital freedom. Pearl finally makes her decision to stay with Marty and tells Walker she cannot go away with him. Walker says he understands. The final scene shows Pearl and Marty dancing together, first to Dean Martin's "When You're Smiling" and then to Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze", after Marty changes the station. ===== Several months after the events of The Fly, Veronica Quaife gives birth to a larval sac and dies from shock. The sac splits open to reveal a seemingly normal baby boy. Anton Bartok, the owner of the company that financed Seth Brundle's teleportation experiments, adopts the child and names him Martin. Martin grows up in a clinical environment. His physical and mental maturity is highly accelerated, and he possesses a genius- level intellect, incredible reflexes, and no need for sleep. He knows he is aging faster than a normal human, but is unaware of the true cause, having been told his father died from the same rapid aging disease. At age three, Martin has the physique of a 10-year-old and frequently sneaks around to explore the Bartok complex. He finds a room containing laboratory animals and befriends a dog. The next night, he brings it food but finds it missing. He enters an observation booth overlooking Bay 17. There, scientists have reassembled Brundle's Telepods, but have been unable to duplicate the programming that enabled them to teleport living subjects. An attempt to teleport the dog fails, leaving it horribly deformed. It maims one of the scientists, horrifying young Martin. Two years later, Martin's body has matured to that of a 25-year-old. On his fifth birthday, Bartok presents Martin with a bungalow on the Bartok facility's property. He also offers Martin a job: repair his father's Telepods. He apologizes about the dog and assures Martin that its suffering was brief. When Martin is uneasy about the proposition, Bartok shows him Veronica Quaife's videotapes, which documented Seth Brundle's progress with the Telepods. Seeing his father describe how the Telepods ostensibly improved and energized his body, Martin accepts Bartok's proposal. As he works on the Telepods, Martin befriends an employee, Beth Logan. Beth invites Martin to a party at the specimens division, where he learns that the mutated dog is still kept alive and studied. Thinking Beth is aware of the dog's imprisonment, Martin argues with her, leaves the party, and goes to the animal's holding pen. The deformed dog, in terrible pain, still remembers Martin, and he tearfully euthanizes it with chloroform. Martin reconciles with Beth and rearrives at his father's "eureka" moment when he realizes the Telepods' computer need to be creative to analyze living flesh. Martin shows Beth his perfected Telepods by teleporting a kitten without harm. They become lovers, but Martin shows signs of his eventual mutation into a human-fly hybrid. Martin devises a potential cure for his condition, which involves swapping out his mutated genes for healthy human genes. Martin shelves this idea when he realizes the other person would be subject to a grotesque genetic disfigurement. Eventually, Martin learns that Bartok has hidden cameras in his bungalow. Martin breaks into Bartok's records room, where he learns of his father's true fate. Bartok confronts Martin and explains that he has been waiting for his inevitable mutation. He reveals his plan to use Martin's body and the Telepods' potential for genetic manipulation for profit. Martin's insect genes fully awaken and his transformation into a human-insect hybrid begins, and he escapes from Bartok Industries. Bartok is unable to use the Telepods, as they are locked by a password. Martin also installed a computer virus which will erase the Telepods' programming if the wrong password is entered. Bartok orders a search for Martin. Martin goes to Beth and explains the situation, and the two flee. They visit Veronica Quaife's old confidant, Stathis Borans, who confirms for Martin that the Telepods are his only chance for a cure. They keep running, but Martin's physical and emotional changes become too much for Beth to handle, and she eventually surrenders them both to Bartok. Without revealing the password, Martin becomes enveloped in a cocoon. Bartok interrogates Beth for the password. Shortly after, the fully transformed Martin emerges from his cocoon and breaks into Bay 17. He grabs Bartok, forces him to type in the password, "Dad", and drags Bartok and himself into a Telepod. Martin gestures Beth to activate the gene-swapping sequence, and Beth complies. When he and Bartok emerge, Martin is restored to a fully human form. Bartok is transformed into a deformed monstrosity, and ends up kept in the same enclosure as the mutated dog. ===== The film begins as Karen Powell goes into labor during a Halloween party and is rushed to the hospital by her husband, Brian, and their friends. Although the delivery is successful, the baby is extremely premature, born after only ten weeks of pregnancy. Strangely, the infant seems to be a normal, healthy, full-term baby. After examinations and tests, the infant, now named Jack, is found to have an exaggerated form of Werner syndrome. Dr. Benfante and Dr. Lin diagnose a very rare autosomal recessive disorder. Their prognosis is that Jack will develop and age at a rate four times as fast as an average child, rendering him "sick as frick" as Dr. Lin explains colloquially. Jack is next seen ten years later as a ten-year-old boy in the body of a forty-year-old man. Four boys lurk outside his house, swapping rumors of a "monstrosity" of a boy their age who cannot go to school. He scares them away by dipping a fake eye into slime and throwing it at them from his window. He is extremely childish due to his secluded life. He has only socialized with his parents and his tutor, Lawrence Woodruff, who introduces the idea that he should go to public school. His parents initially balk, for fear Jack could be emotionally hurt. When he first attends school, he is cast away by several kids since he looks like a 40-year-old man. His dad later gives him some encouragement and both agree to install a basketball hoop to help him fit in. At school the following days, Louis picks him on his team to play basketball with some bullies and they win the game. After school, Louis asks Jack to help him by pretending to be the school principal to help him look good in front of his mom Dolores. Afterwards, they become friends and Louis invites him to a clubhouse with other kids, having him eventually get adult magazines and other such adult items for his group of friends. Jack attempts to be a normal kid, but when he deals with his first crush, and heartbreak of confessing to his teacher, Miss Marquez, he falls down a flight of stairs while attempting to leave, and is rushed to the hospital. His doctor explains that he suffered a shocking severe strain (which could've been a rare form of angina), and that, because of his Werner syndrome, his internal clock is starting to run out. Realizing the dangers it might entail for his health, his parents decide to withdraw him from school, which upsets him. He sneaks out of the house and goes to a bar, where he gets drunk and befriends a man named Paulie, and tries to hit on Dolores. However, he gets into a fight with a bully and both are arrested. Dolores bails Jack out, and comforts Jack after dropping him off home. Upon returning home, he locks himself in his room and doesn't go out for weeks. Karen speculates that perhaps he realized the fragility of his life and is now scared of facing the outside world again. He also doubts the need to study as he realizes that he wouldn't have the time to use any of the knowledge. Meanwhile, his friends continue coming to his house, hoping that he will come out and play, but he refuses. Finally, Louis has an idea: he brings the entire class over as they take turns yelling "Can Jack come out and play?" and participate in various games and fun activities right in front of the yard. The next day he decides to go back to school. Seven years later, an elderly- looking Jack and his four best friends are at their high school graduation. He delivers the valedictory speech, in which he reminds his classmates that life is short, and urges them to "make your life spectacular," as the five of them drive off into the future. ===== The film begins with chemistry professor Barney Cousins (Jeff Bridges) at his cabin, seemingly perfecting methods in which to conduct a successful kidnapping. He is so dedicated to his craft that his wife Helene (Lisa Eichhorn) and his daughter Denise (Maggie Linderman) suspect he is having an affair. Jeff Harriman (Kiefer Sutherland) goes on vacation with his girlfriend Diane Shaver (Sandra Bullock), who vanishes without a trace at a gas station. Three years later, Jeff has become obsessed with finding out what happened, posting fliers and following leads relentlessly. Exhausted, he stops at a diner and meets a waitress named Rita (Nancy Travis) who sympathizes with his plight and looks after him. A year later, the two are a couple and have settled in an apartment in Seattle. Jeff, who is attempting to write a novel, meets with a publisher who suggest that he write a book about the disappearance. Knowing this will upset Rita, he hides his project, buys a used military uniform at a surplus store and uses army reserve drills as a cover to continue his search. One weekend, Rita is at home and curious about his project. She goes to the computer and cracks a code using several letters of Diane's name, accessing Jeff's rough draft of a children's book. After reading it, she discovers it's actually about Diane's disappearance. Rita tracks Jeff to his motel room and angrily confronts him. Jeff finally tells the truth about how Diane disappeared and commits to only Rita. Following her ultimatum, Jeff abandons the search and burns the missing posters of Diane. Some months later, Barney is on campus and discovers Diane's missing posters covered with other fliers. He surmises that Jeff has given up his quest for the truth. He decides to bait Jeff by sending him a letter to meet him at a country club to learn the truth about Diane, which Jeff does. While Barney secretly watches, Rita confronts Jeff again and tells him they are done. Rita records an answering machine at their home, indicating that she has broken up with Jeff. When Jeff returns, he changes the message without Rita knowing. Barney arrives at Jeff's door and admits that he was responsible for Diane's disappearance. Jeff attacks him and demands answers. Barney promises to show Jeff what happened to Diane, but only if he agrees to go through exactly the same thing she did. Barney explains about his past: he broke his arm after jumping off a roof when he was a child, and when he became a husband and father years later, he saved a little girl from drowning. He states that this experience lead him to an epiphany: With capability of great good also, could there come capability of great evil? The kidnapping of Diane was an attempt to answer that hypothesis. In a short series of flash-backs, the build-up to the crime is shown: when Diane was purchasing drinks for herself and Jeff, Barney invites her to check out his work from France in his car and kidnaps her, calming her with chloroform. Then Jeff is taken to the gas station where his lover went missing, and is told that if he drinks a cup of coffee which has been drugged, he will discover her fate by experiencing it. He does, and wakes up to find he has been buried alive in a coffin. Rita calls home and listens to the changed message on the answering machine, which records Barney's voice. Realizing that Jeff is in danger, she talks with the next door neighbor who witnessed the attack. She learns of Barney's identity and goes to his home and meets his daughter Denise. Not knowing the circumstances and on her way to meet a boy, Denise rides with Rita and gives her directions to her father's cabin. When Rita arrives, a violent fight ensues with Barney eventually gaining the upper hand. Barney offers Rita the same deal that he offers Jeff but Rita outsmarts him. She lies to Barney and tells him that she has kidnapped Denise. She gets Barney to drink drugged coffee but does not realize the drug takes 15 minutes to take effect. She goes in search of Jeff and finds a fresh mound of dirt. Believing that he has been buried alive, she digs him out but is thwarted at the last minute by Barney. Jeff climbs out of the grave, kills Barney with the shovel, and embraces Rita. He sees another grave and finally accepts Diane's death. Jeff and Rita reunite selling the story as a novel to a publishing company. ===== The film is set in Argentina in 1983, in the last year of the country's last military dictatorship, during which a campaign of state-sponsored terrorism produced thousands of killings and torture of accused political leftists and innocents alike, who were buried in unmarked graves or became desaparecidos. Alicia Maquet, a high school history teacher, and her husband, Roberto Ibañez, a government official, live in Buenos Aires with their adopted daughter, Gaby, 5. Alicia, like other members of the Argentine upper class, is not aware of how much killing and suffering has gone on in the country, and naively believes only guilty people are arrested. Alicia's views are challenged by a fellow teacher, Benítez (Patricio Contreras), and some of her students. During a discussion about the death of Argentinean founding father Mariano Moreno, one student, Costa, argues that the government-issued history textbooks are "written by murderers." Ana, Alicia's longtime friend, returns from exile in Europe and explains why she never told Alicia she was leaving. At first Alicia laughs as she tells of her apartment being ransacked by officials, but soon begins to sob as she describes being held captive, tortured and raped for having lived with a man labeled as a subversive, even though she hadn't seen him in two years. She says that while she was held captive, she witnessed pregnant women leave to give birth but return without their babies, whom she believes were sold to rich couples. Alicia increasingly wonders about Gaby's origins and Alicia asks questions about Gaby's birth, a topic her husband has told her to ignore. Alicia asks why they celebrate the day they brought her home rather than the day she was born, and whether or not Roberto actually met Gaby's mother. Roberto insists it was a normal adoption. Costa continues to provoke his classmates, and one day Alicia arrives to see newspaper accounts of the desaparecidos taped to the blackboard. When Alicia reports the student, Benítez intervenes to protect him. Alicia gradually becomes friendly with Benítez as her research brings her closer to the truth. While seeking Gaby's hospital birth records, Alicia learns of an organization searching for missing children. She meets Sara, whose pregnant daughter was kidnapped by the armed forces, and believes Gaby may be her granddaughter. Sara has a photo of her daughter at Gaby's age, looking identical to Gaby. Roberto faces stress at work due to the machinations of his colleagues, several of whom disappear over the course of the film. Ana confronts him and accuses him of denouncing her and causing her arrest. He also comes into friction with his liberal father and brother, who frown on his ties to the ruling conservative military elite and argue in favor of social justice. Alicia brings Sara home to meet Roberto, and he becomes furious. That evening, Alicia surprises Roberto when she tells him that Gaby is not home, saying, "How does it feel not knowing where your child is?" Although she tells him that Gaby is at his mother's house, he becomes enraged and assaults her. The violence is interrupted by a telephone call from Gaby. While Gaby sings "En El País de Nomeacuerdo" (In The Country of Idonotremember), a nursery rhyme, to Roberto, Alicia gets her purse and walks out the door, leaving her keys behind. The film's final shot shows Gaby sitting in a wicker rocking chair at her adopted grandparents' house, continuing to sing. ===== Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball is one of the few games in the Sonic franchise set in the universe of the animated series Sonic the Hedgehog. The evil scientist Doctor Robotnik has built a fortress on top of a volcano to transform the animals of planet Mobius into robot slaves. The volcano's magma fuels the fortress and the pinball machine-like defense systems. The volcano is kept in stable condition with Chaos Emeralds. Sonic the Hedgehog and his friend Tails mount an aerial assault on the fortress. Sonic is knocked into the waters that surround the volcano, but surfaces in the caves below the fortress. He infiltrates the defenses, absconds with the Chaos Emeralds, and frees the animals. Without the Chaos Emeralds, an eruption begins to destroy the fortress. Sonic destroys Robotnik's escape ship. Tails rescues Sonic, while Robotnik falls into the volcano, which sinks into the ocean and explodes. ===== Head begins at the dedication of the Gerald Desmond Bridge. As a local politician struggles with his microphone during the dedication speech, the Monkees (Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Michael Nesmith) suddenly interrupt the ceremony by running through the assembled officials to the sound of various horns and sirens. Micky then jumps off the bridge into the water below. He floats around, unconscious, as several mermaids attempt to revive him. The scene then transitions into a living room, in which the Monkees are having a kissing contest with a young woman, who pronounces them all "even." Then the opening song plays, filling the screen with images from the film, and ending with the execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém followed by a woman screaming. However, the woman is not screaming in terror but in excitement, as the Monkees are about to take the stage at a concert. When the Monkees arrive, they lead the audience in a cheer of "WAR!" The movie meanders along, alternating between scenes with the group and scenes with individual members. Each Monkee takes a turn in the spotlight, experiencing confusion and dissatisfaction with their situation. Together, they repeatedly find themselves trapped in some form of enclosure, from a vacuum cleaner to a large black box (which Micky says represents their universe). When trapped, they are alone and spend their time trying to find a way out, but each time they escape they have little control over the situations they find themselves in. Any initiative they do take is invariably short-lived. Eventually, Peter discovers a swami he believes to have "the Answer", but when Peter tries to share this with the rest of the group, they initially ignore him. When they finally decide to listen, Davy becomes enraged with Peter's conclusion: "I know nothing." Davy then goes on a rampage through the studio and the lot, eventually landing the group back inside the black box, which is then flown out to the desert. There they are released, only to face all their antagonists from the film. The Monkees flee on foot, ending up at the bridge dedication shown at the beginning of the film. This time, we see all four Monkees jump from the bridge, still pursued by their enemies. As each Monkee lands in the water below, he begins to swim away. However, they soon discover that they are actually inside an aquarium on the back of a truck. The movie ends with the truck driving away, the Monkees still trapped in the glass box. ===== Dave Kovic runs a temporary employment agency in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., and has a side job impersonating President Bill Mitchell. He is requested by Secret Service agent Duane Stevensen to make an appearance as the president at a hotel. Dave assumes it is a matter of security, but it is really to cover up Mitchell's extramarital affair with a White House staffer. Mitchell suffers a severe stroke during the rendezvous, leaving him in a coma. White House Chief of Staff Bob Alexander and Communications Director Alan Reed convince Dave to continue impersonating the president, telling him that Vice President Gary Nance is mentally unbalanced. Only Bob, Alan, the president's Secret Service detail (led by Duane), and the medical staff know of the switch. First Lady Ellen Mitchell leads a separate life, rarely seeing the president, in contrast to their public image of a closely knit couple. The public is notified that Mitchell has had a "minor circulatory problem of the head". With Dave established as president, Bob and Alan send Nance on a 12-nation goodwill tour of Africa and implicate him in savings and loan fraud. Once Nance is forced to resign, Bob plans for Dave to nominate him as vice president, whereupon Mitchell will have a more serious stroke and Bob will ascend to the Presidency. Dave's enthusiasm revives Mitchell's popularity. He visits a homeless shelter with Ellen, who does not understand why he has taken a sudden interest. Bob forges Mitchell's veto of a funding bill that includes the shelter. When Dave is confronted about the veto by Ellen, he confronts Bob, who offhandedly tells him that if he can cut $650 million from the federal budget he can keep the shelter. Dave has his accountant friend Murray Blum help him rewrite the budget so that the project may be reinstated. To make sure that Bob doesn't interfere, Dave does it publicly during a televised cabinet meeting. Realizing that Dave is attracted to her – while her husband has long since ceased any such interest – Ellen tricks Dave into revealing the truth. Dave and Duane show her Bill on life support in the White House basement. She and Dave decide to leave the White House. However, after a night out, they realize all the good they could still do and decide to return. The next morning, Dave blackmails Bob into resigning by threatening to reveal the switch to the public, then announces a plan to find a job for every American who wants work. A few days later, Nance returns from Africa and confronts Dave about the savings and loan scandal, insisting they both know there is no merit to the allegations. Dave talks to Alan, who reveals the whole plan was Bob's idea. Meanwhile, Bob reveals the real Mitchell's involvement in the savings and loan scandal while pushing his own candidacy for the presidency. Dave continues to push the jobs program. A few nights later, Nance tells Dave that whatever happens to them because of the scandal, he finds the jobs program a wonderful idea. After spending some time with the vice president, Dave tells Ellen that Nance is a good man and would make a great president. Realizing what Dave has planned, Ellen tells him that she does not want to lose him. The next day in a joint session of Congress, Dave admits to Mitchell's role in the scandal, but introduces evidence proving that Bob was the mastermind and Nance is innocent. Bob realizes that Alan has betrayed him as Dave clears Nance of the charges. After apologizing to Nance and the country, Dave fakes a stroke and makes a switch with the real Mitchell in an ambulance en route to the hospital. Nance becomes acting president under the terms of the 25th Amendment and is sworn in as president five months later when Mitchell dies. Bob and eight other members of the Mitchell administration are indicted two days after Dave's jobs initiative passes. Dave decides to run for city council and Ellen comes to the office to volunteer. As they embrace, Duane stands guard outside the office door. ===== Sethe is a former slave living on the outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio shortly after the Civil War. An angry poltergeist residing in the family home terrorizes Sethe and her three children, an act which causes two of them to run away forever. Eight years later, Sethe (Oprah Winfrey) lives alone with her daughter, Denver (Kimberly Elise). Paul D. (Danny Glover), an old friend from Sweet Home, the plantation Sethe had escaped from years earlier, finds Sethe's home, where he drives off the angry spirit that inhabits it. Afterwards, Paul D. proposes that he should stay and Sethe responds favorably. Shortly after Paul D. moves in, a clean and seemingly mentally handicapped young woman (Thandie Newton) named Beloved finds her way into Sethe's yard and is taken in by her. Denver is initially happy to have Beloved around, but learns that she is Sethe's reincarnated daughter. Nonetheless, she chooses not to divulge Beloved's origins to Sethe. One night, Beloved, aware that Paul D. dislikes her, immobilizes him with a spell and proceeds to rape him. Paul D. resolves to tell Sethe what happened, but instead asks her to have a baby with him. When Stamp Paid (Albert Hall) a co-worker of Paul D who has known Sethe for many years learns of Paul D's plans for a family with Sethe, he pulls a newspaper clipping featuring Sethe and tells her story to the illiterate Paul D. Years ago, Sethe was raped by the nephews of Schoolteacher (Jude Ciccolella), the owner of Sweet Home. She complained to Mrs. Garner (Angie Utt), Schoolteacher's sister-in-law, who confronted him. In retaliation, Schoolteacher and his nephews brutally whip Sethe, leaving a "tree" of keloid scars on her back. Heavily pregnant with her fourth child, Sethe planned to escape. Her other children were sent off earlier to live with Baby Suggs (Beah Richards), Sethe's mother-in-law, but Sethe stayed behind to look for her husband, Halle (Hill Harper). Sethe was assaulted while searching for him in the barn. The Schoolteacher's nephews held her down, raped her and forcibly took her breast milk. When Halle fails to appear, Sethe ran off alone. She crossed paths with Amy Denver (Kessia Embry), a white girl who treated Sethe's injuries and delivered Sethe's child, whom Sethe named Denver after Amy. Sethe eventually reached Baby Suggs' home, but her initial happiness was short-lived when Schoolteacher came to claim Sethe and her children. In desperation, Sethe slits her older daughter's throat, and attempts to kill her other children. Stamp Paid manages to stop her and the disgusted Schoolteacher departs. Paul D., horrified by the revelation and suddenly understanding the origin of the poltergeist, confronts Sethe. Sethe justifies her decision without apology, claiming that her children would be better off dead than enslaved. Paul D. departs shortly thereafter in protest. After Paul D.'s departure, Sethe realizes that Beloved is the reincarnation of her dead daughter. Feeling elated yet guilty, Sethe spoils Beloved with elaborate gifts while neglecting Denver. Beloved soon throws a destructive tantrum and her malevolent presence causes living conditions in the house to deteriorate. The women live in squalor and Sethe is unable to work, having become physically and mentally drained by Beloved's parasitic nature. Denver becomes depressed yet, being inspired by a memory of her grandmother's confidence in her, she eventually musters the courage to leave the house and seek employment. After Denver finds employment, women from the local church visit Sethe's house at the request of her new co-worker to perform an exorcism. Their motive for doing so is partly tempered with guilt; years before, they failed to warn Sethe of Schoolteacher's impending arrival. The women from the church comfort the family, and they are praying and singing loudly when Denver's new employer arrives to pick her up for work. Sethe sees him and, reminded of Schoolteacher's arrival, tries to attack him with an icepick, but is subdued by Denver and the women. During the commotion, Beloved disappears completely and Sethe, freed from Beloved's grip, becomes permanently bedridden. Some months later, Paul D. encounters Denver at the marketplace. He notices she has transformed into a confident and mature young woman. When Paul D. later arrives at Sethe's house, he finds her suffering from a deep malaise. He assures Sethe that he and Denver will now take care of her. Sethe tells him that she doesn't see the point, as Beloved, her "best thing", is gone. Paul D. disagrees, telling Sethe that she herself is her own best thing. ===== The show starred D. L. Hughley as the main character, vending machine salesman Darryl Hughley. Elise Neal portrayed Darryl's wife Yvonne. Former Living Single co-star John Henton portrayed the couple's best friend Milsap from the "old neighborhood", who often visited the family and helped them out (much resemblance to Willona visiting James and Florida on Good Times). Ashley Monique Clark portrayed Darryl and Yvonne's 12-year-old daughter Sydney, and Dee Jay Daniels portrayed their 10-year-old son Michael; both children sometimes acted out and sometimes caused complete chaos. Michael's best friends included Ronnie (Preston Wamsley), Otto (played by Connor Matheus in Seasons 1 and 2, then Ian Meltzer in Seasons 3 and 4), and Miles (Martin Spanjers). The show's initial plot involved successful vending-machine business owner Darryl Hughley moving his family from a South Los Angeles ghetto to West Hills, a predominantly white neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. Darryl and his family try to adjust to living in an all-white area while trying not to forget who they are and where they came from. Darryl and Yvonne befriend their new neighbors, Sally and Dave, who are Darryl's polar opposite. The story has many racial themes that are usually comedic as Darryl makes fun of other races, especially his white and Korean neighbors. ===== MiG-31 Firefox A joint British-American plot is devised to steal a highly advanced Soviet fighter aircraft (MiG-31, NATO code name "Firefox") which is capable of Mach 6 (hypersonic flight), is invisible to radar, and carries weapons controlled by thought. Former United States Air Force Major Mitchell Gant, a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war, infiltrates the Soviet Union, aided by his ability to speak Russian (due to his having had a Russian mother) and a network of Soviet dissidents, three of whom are key scientists working on the fighter itself. His goal is to steal the Firefox and fly it back to friendly territory for analysis. However, the KGB has gotten wind of the operation and is already looking for Gant. It is only through the dissidents that Gant remains one step ahead of the KGB and reaches the air base at Bilyarsk, where the Firefox prototype is under heavy guard. The dissidents working on the Firefox help Gant infiltrate the base. Dr. Pyotr Baranovich, one of the scientists, informs Gant that there is a second prototype in the hangar that must be destroyed. The diversion will allow Gant to enter the hangar and escape with the first Firefox. Gant knocks out Lt. Colonel Yuri Voskov, a Soviet pilot assigned to take the first prototype on its maiden flight during a visit from the Soviet First Secretary. The scientists cause an explosive disruption, but the second prototype is undamaged. As the guards kill the scientists, Gant uses the commotion to enter the Firefox and fly it off the base. Evading the Soviets' attempts to stop him, Gant barely reaches the Arctic ice pack and lands, making a rendezvous with a US submarine whose crew refuels and rearms the aircraft. However, Gant's last-minute refusal to kill Voskov has consequences; the Soviet pilot flies the second prototype, with orders to intercept him at the North Cape area. Gant completes the rendezvous and is on the way home when Voskov engages him in a dogfight. After a long battle, Gant finally remembers to fire one of his rearward missiles and Voskov's plane is destroyed. Satisfied that there are no other Soviet forces chasing him, Gant begins his flight to safety. ===== A team of Soviet scouts is sent behind enemy lines to find the location of the German armor forces. The Soviets wait until night, and open up with an artillery barrage. As the guns fire, the team advances. The team successfully slips behind enemy lines. Many dramatic scenes follow. In one, a German soldier is captured and interrogated. In another, the team calls an airstrike on German positions, causing great damage and casualties. One man even kills a German soldier with his pistol during the air attack. This tract of scenes finds the main characters successfully finding the location of the German armor. They are eventually cornered in a barn, with Germans attacking on all sides. During the battle, the team leader sends a radio message, telling the location of enemy armor. The team is eventually overrun and wiped out. ===== Cousins Bo, Luke, and Daisy Duke run a moonshine business for their Uncle Jesse in Hazzard County, Georgia. The cousins' primary mode of transportation is an orange 1969 Dodge Charger that the boys affectionately refer to as the "General Lee". Along the way, the family is tormented by corrupt Hazzard County Commissioner Jefferson Davis Hogg, widely known as "Boss Hogg", and his willing but dimwitted henchman, Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane. After Rosco has the General Lee impounded after Bo and Luke's attempt to run away from a daughter of one their many moonshine customers, Billy Prickett, a famous stock-car driver, enters Hazzard to participate in the rally. Meanwhile, Rosco plants a fake moonshine still ("'cause he's too dumb to find the real one") in Uncle Jesse's barn and seizes the Duke property in the interest of eminent domain for Boss Hogg, forcing the family to temporarily reside with neighbor and Uncle Jesse's love-interest, Pauline. Pauline informs the Dukes that Rosco seized another farm on charges, so Bo and Luke investigate a local construction site and find geologic core samples with the help of bait-shop owner Sheev. Meanwhile, Coltrane makes arrangements to seize the General Lee as "evidence" from the local auto body shop run by the Dukes' friend Cooter Davenport, who instead turns the car into a hot rod and applies a new paint job and horn, in return for finally getting payment for all the work he has done ("...'cause that's how this works...") for the boys in the past. Sheriff's car at location in Thousand Oaks, California After retrieving the General Lee before Rosco can, the Dukes go to Atlanta to visit a local university geology lab, meeting with Katie-Lynn Johnson, a Hazzard county girl and the Duke boys' love interest, and her Australian roommate Annette. At the lab, they discover Boss Hogg's intentions of turning the county into a strip coal mine. They are later arrested by the Atlanta Police Department after running from campus police. Back in Hazzard, Daisy learns, with the help of Sheriff's Deputy Enos Strate, that Billy Prickett has been hired by Boss Hogg to participate in the rally as a ringer. Boss Hogg then heads to Atlanta, where he informs the Duke boys, in lock-up, that they are too late to stop him and reveals that the vote on Hogg's proposition is at the same time as the rally, explaining Billy Prickett's involvement. During a transfer from detainment, Daisy helps the boys escape from the patrol car, and they speed home to try to inform the townsfolk, escaping the Atlanta Police, and the Georgia State Patrol after Bo outmaneuvers the city cops (who's furious at Luke after finding out that he and Katie-Lynn snuck up into the Dukes’ hayloft without him knowing about it). Upon returning home, the Dukes discover that Boss Hogg and Rosco had taken Uncle Jesse and Pauline hostage, an obvious trap for the boys, and that Billy is in on the scheme because he is ashamed of the town's low status. The two race to the farmhouse to cause a distraction to the waiting Hazzard County Sheriff's deputies and Georgia State Troopers, while Daisy and Cooter rescue Jesse and Pauline. Meanwhile, the college girls head to the rally with Sheev to inform the townsfolk about the vote on the strip-mining ordinance. Because of Sheev's armadillo hat and lack of pants, no one listens to him, so Bo leaves for the rally while Luke and Jesse team up to foil the county and state police who are chasing Bo, interfering with the race. Upon crossing the finish line first, before Billy, the two continue racing across town, leading the townsfolk to the courthouse just in time to vote against Boss Hogg's proposed ordinance. At the courthouse, Daisy takes advantage of the governor of Georgia's presence and TV cameras to convince him to pardoning the boys, so Uncle Jesse takes the opportunity to knock out Boss Hogg and gets a pardon for assaulting a county commissioner at the same time. The final scene shows a cook-out at the Dukes' house where Pauline convinces Uncle Jesse, who could not be found because he was "using the meat smoker", to get up and play the television series' main theme. Bo and Luke are romantically involved with the girls in the General Lee when they are caught by Luke's other love-interest Laurie Pullman from the introduction of the film, who proceeds to chase them with a shotgun as they drive away. ===== Gaylord "Greg" Focker is a nurse living in Chicago. He intends to propose to his girlfriend, Pam Byrnes, but his plan is disrupted when they are invited to the wedding of Pam's sister, Debbie, at their parents' house on Long Island. Greg decides to impress Pam's parents first, and propose to her in front of her family, but this plan is put on hold when the airline company loses his luggage which contains the engagement ring. At the Byrnes's house, Greg meets Pam's father, Jack, mother, Dina, and their beloved cat, Jinx. Jack becomes immediately suspicious towards Greg and openly criticizes him for his choice of career as a male nurse and anything else he sees as a difference between Greg and the Byrnes family. Greg attempts to impress Jack, but his efforts fail. He becomes even more uncomfortable after he receives an impromptu lie detector test from Jack and later learns from Pam that Jack is a retired CIA operative. Meeting the rest of Pam's family and friends, Greg still feels like an outsider. Despite efforts to impress her family, his inadvertent actions make him an easy target for ridicule. Greg unintentionally gives Debbie a broken nose and a black eye during a pool volleyball game, uses a malfunctioning toilet which floods the Byrnes's backyard with sewage, and sets the wedding altar on fire. Several misunderstandings also cause Jack to believe Greg is a marijuana user after Pam's weed-using brother, Denny, frames him. Later, Greg loses Jinx and replaces him with a stray whose tail he spray paints to make him look like Jinx which happens to also make a mess of the house (though the real Jinx is later found). By now, the entire Byrnes family, including Pam, agrees that it is best for Greg to leave Long Island until the wedding concludes. Desperate to save himself, Greg reveals he has seen Jack engaging in some secret activity with some shady characters, and is planning a secret mission after the wedding, thus he was just as secretive as Greg was. Jack angrily reveals that the secret mission was a surprise honeymoon for Debbie and her fiancé Bob, and Greg realizes he has only dug himself deeper into a hole. Unwillingly, Greg goes to the airport where he is detained by airport security for insisting that his luggage stays with him rather than be checked. Back at the Byrnes's house, Jack attempts to convince Pam that Greg was lying to her about everything. He claims to be unable to find records of anyone named "Greg Focker" ever taking the Medical College Admission Test which Greg claimed he had passed with the initial intention of becoming a doctor. Upon learning that Greg's real name is Gaylord (when his suitcase finally arrives), and being presented with proof from Pam that he did in fact pass the test, being told off by Dina over his consistent picking apart of any man Pam brings home (and that he didn't even like Pam's previous fiancé, Kevin, until after they broke up), and hearing Pam make a heartfelt call to Greg, Jack realizes that Pam truly loves Greg. He rushes to the airport, convinces airport security to release Greg, and brings him back to the Byrnes's house. As Greg is proposing to Pam, Jack and Dina listen in on their conversation from another room, agreeing that they should now meet Greg's parents (though both are visibly worried about this). After Debbie's wedding, Jack views footage of Greg recorded by hidden cameras that he had placed strategically around the house in which Greg calls Jack a "psycho" and mocks him and exposes Denny as the true marijuana user. ===== Two years after the events of the first film, LAPD sergeants Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh are pursuing unidentified suspects transporting an illegal shipment of gold krugerrands. The Afrikaner apartheid government of South Africa subsequently orders Los Angeles consul-general Arjen Rudd (Joss Ackland) and security agent Pieter Vorstedt (Derrick O'Connor) to warn both detectives off the investigation; they are reassigned to protecting an obnoxious federal witness, Leo Getz (Joe Pesci), after an attack on Murtaugh's home. It soon becomes clear that both cases are related: after an attempt on Leo's life, Riggs and Murtaugh learn of the former's murky past laundering funds for vengeful drug smugglers. Leo leads them to the gang, but upon dispatching his would-be assassin and returning with backup they are confronted by Rudd, who invokes diplomatic immunity on behalf of his unscrupulous "associates." Though instructed to leave the case alone, Riggs begins to openly harass the South African consulate, defying Rudd and romancing his secretary, Rika van den Haas (Patsy Kensit), a liberal-minded Afrikaner who despises her boss and his racial philosophy. Murtaugh enlists Leo's help in creating a scene at the consulate that wins the support of anti-apartheid protesters outside. Vorstedt is dispatched to murder all of the officers investigating them while Murtaugh deduces that Rudd is attempting to ship funds from his smuggling ring in the United States to Cape Town via Los Angeles Harbor. Two assassins attack Murtaugh at his home, but he kills them both with his contractor's nail gun, though Leo is abducted in the process. After killing many of the investigating officers, Vorstedt seizes Riggs at van den Haas' apartment and discloses that he was responsible for the death of Martin's wife years earlier during a botched assassination attempt on Riggs. He has his men kill Rika by drowning her and orders them to do the same to Riggs, who escapes and brutally kills both of the men. He phones Murtaugh, declaring an intention to pursue Rudd and avenge his wife, Rika, and their fallen friends; the other policeman willingly forsakes his badge to aid his partner. After rescuing Leo and destroying Rudd's house, they head for the Alba Varden, Rudd's freighter docked in the Port of Los Angeles, as the South Africans prepare their getaway with hundreds of millions in drug money. While investigating a guarded 40 foot cargo container at the docks, Riggs and Murtaugh are locked inside by Rudd's men. They break out of the box, scattering two pallets of Rudd's drug money into the harbor in the process. Riggs and Murtaugh engage in a firefight with some of Rudd's men aboard the Alba Varden before separating to hunt down Rudd. Riggs confronts and fights Vorstedt hand-to-hand, culminating when Riggs stabs Vorstedt with his own knife and crushes him by dropping a cargo container on him. Rudd retaliates by shooting Riggs in the back multiple times with an antique Broomhandle Mauser pistol. Rudd again invokes diplomatic immunity upon seeing Murtaugh aim his gun at him; Murtaugh fatally shoots him, revoking the claim. He then tends to Riggs, sharing a laugh with him as more LAPD personnel respond to the scene. ===== Peter Beaupre, Alice Ribbons, Burton Jernigan, and Earl Unger are four internationally wanted spies working for a North Korean terrorist organization. After stealing a $10 million missile-cloaking microchip, the spies put it inside a remote control car to sneak it past security at the airport. However, a woman named Mrs. Hess inadvertently takes the spies' bag containing the car, while returning home to Chicago. The four spies arrive in Chicago and systematically search every house in Hess's suburban neighborhood to find the chip. 8-year-old Alex Pruitt is given the remote control car by Hess for shoveling her driveway, but she lectures him for scratching in public. He returns home and discovers that he has chickenpox and must stay out of school. The next day, Alex discovers the spies while spying on his neighbors. After two failed attempts at reporting them, Alex attaches a camera to the remote control car and uses it to spy on them, leading to the spies chasing it when they spot it. Wondering what they want with the toy car, Alex opens it and discovers the stolen chip. He informs the local Air Force Recruitment Center about the chip while asking if they can forward the information about the chip to the right authorities. The spies finally realize that Alex has been watching them and decide to break into his house. Alex rigs the house with booby traps with help from his pet rat Doris and his brother's loud-mouthed parrot. Beaupre, Alice, Jernigan and Unger break in, spring the traps, and suffer various injuries. While the four pursue Alex around the house, he flees and rescues Hess, who has been duct taped to a chair in her garage by Alice. Beaupre ambushes Alex, but Alex uses a bubble gun resembling a Glock to scare him off and rescue Hess. Meanwhile, FBI agents arrive at Alex's siblings' school after being tipped off. Alex's family brings the agents and the police to their house, where they arrest Alice, Jernigan, and Unger. However, Beaupre flees to the snow fort in the backyard. The parrot drives the remote control car into the snow fort and threatens to light fireworks, which are lined around the inside. Beaupre offers a cracker in exchange for silence, but the parrot demands two. Since Beaupre has only one, the parrot then lights the fireworks and flees. Beaupre is discovered and arrested. Later, the Pruitts, Agent Stucky, and Hess celebrate with Jack returning home from a business trip, while Alex's house is being repaired. The spies are shown to have contracted Alex's chickenpox during their mugshots. ===== A week before his retirement, L.A.P.D. Sergeant Roger Murtaugh (Glover) and his partner Martin Riggs (Gibson) are demoted to uniform duties after trying to defuse a bomb before the bomb squad arrived, causing the destruction of an otherwise empty office building. While on street patrol they witness the theft of an armored car, and help to thwart the crime assisted by armored car driver Delores (Delores Hall). One of the two thieves gets away, but the other is taken into police custody. The suspect is found to be a known associate of Jack Travis (Wilson), a former LAPD lieutenant who is believed to be running an arms smuggling ring in Los Angeles. The department is further concerned that the thieves were using armor-piercing bullets, informally referred to as "cop killers". Riggs and Murtaugh are re-promoted and assigned to work with Sergeant Lorna Cole (Russo) from internal affairs to track down Travis. Travis is currently negotiating with mobster Tyrone (Millar) regarding his arms deal. The armored car thief that escaped is brought to Travis, who subsequently kills him in front of Tyrone for putting the police on his trail. Travis then uses his old (but still valid) police credentials to enter the interrogation room and kill the suspect in custody before he can be interviewed. Travis is unaware that closed-circuit cameras have been installed in the station, and Cole is able to affirm Travis' identity. While the three are reviewing the footage, their good friend Leo Getz (Pesci) - who has been helping Murtaugh sell his house - arrives and immediately recognizes Travis from several prior business deals and his love of ice hockey. Murtaugh, Riggs, and Getz narrowly miss capturing Travis at a hockey match that afternoon where Getz is shot in the arm and is hospitalized. However, Getz manages to provide them with information of a warehouse Travis owns, which they suspect is where he has stored his arms shipments. Riggs and Murtaugh contact Cole for backup before they raid the warehouse, and then stop to get something to eat while they wait for her. As they wait for their food, they witness a drug deal which they step in to stop. A gun fight breaks out, and Murtaugh kills one of those involved who had fired back at them, while the rest escape. Murtaugh is shocked to find the dead man is Darryl, a close friend of his son Nick. With Murtaugh emotionally distraught, Riggs goes with Cole to the warehouse, where they successfully overpower Travis' guards and secure his next arms shipment delivery. That night, Riggs and Cole find they have feelings for each other and sleep together. Riggs later finds Murtaugh drunk in his boat, still overwhelmed with guilt, and helps to counsel him in time for Darryl's funeral. There, Darryl's father passionately insists that Murtaugh find the person responsible for giving Darryl the gun. Cole finds that Darryl's gun, the armor-piercing bullets, and the arms they recovered were originally in police custody, meant to be destroyed, and were likely stolen by Travis; they assure that his credentials are completely revoked from the system. They further tie the guns to Tyrone and interrogate him. Tyrone quickly reveals what he knows of Travis' plans, including an auto garage where many of his henchmen work from. Riggs, Murtaugh, and Cole are able to take several of the men into custody there. Meanwhile, Travis finds he cannot use his credentials anymore, and has one of his men hack into the computer system to find another arms storage area. He then forces Captain Murphy (Steve Kahan) under gunpoint to take him to this new facility so he can steal the guns using Murphy's credentials. Cole finds the evidence of hacking and Murphy's absence, and the three, along with a rookie cop who looks up to Riggs and Murtaugh, go to intercept Travis. They are able to rescue Murphy and stop Travis and his men before he can take the weapons, but the rookie is killed as they give chase, and Riggs and Murtaugh vow to stop Travis. Getz provides information on a housing development under construction by a company owned by Travis. Getz tries to join them but they shoot his tires out to stop him from coming. Riggs and Murtaugh instead bring Cole along to infiltrate the site at night, and find themselves met by Travis and his men who have been waiting for them. A large-scale gunfight breaks out, in which Riggs sets the construction site on fire and most of Travis' men are killed. Cole appears to be shot by Travis and falls, inciting Riggs. When Travis uses a bulldozer to chase down Riggs, using its blade as a bullet shield, Murtaugh tosses Daryl's gun, now loaded with the armor-piercing bullets, to Riggs, who then shoots and kills Travis through the blade. Cole is found to be alive and safe, having worn two protective vests. Riggs admits his love for her as she is taken away in a chopper. The next day, Murtaugh's family are celebrating his retirement, when Murtaugh reveals to Getz that he has decided to not sell the house and stay with the force, preserving his partnership with Riggs. As the film ends, Riggs announces to Murtaugh that he and Cole are in a relationship. ===== Lorna Cole (Rene Russo) is pregnant with LAPD Sergeant Martin Riggs' baby; they are not married, but both are thinking about it. LAPD Sergeant Roger Murtaugh's daughter Rianne (Tracie Wolfe), is also pregnant. Due to issues with the department's insurance carrier over Riggs and Murtaugh's actions as sergeants, the Police Chief has Captain Murphy (Steve Kahan) promote them to captains. The officers along with Leo Getz (Joe Pesci) come upon a Chinese immigrant smuggling ring after running an ocean-going vessel aground, though the captain of the boat escapes. In the subsequent investigation, Murtaugh finds Hong (Eddy Ko) and his family hiding from US Immigration officers to avoid deportation. Murtaugh offers them shelter in his home, and their families, along with Riggs and Cole, quickly bond. Hong reveals he is looking for his uncle, a skilled engraver, who had paid for their passage to the United States. Riggs discovers through Lorna that Murtaugh's yet-to-be-born grandchild from Rianne is by Detective Lee Butters (Chris Rock), which Murtaugh cannot possibly tolerate as he did not want his daughter to marry a police officer, and that Murtaugh still does not know who the father is due to the family hiding it from him. Continued investigation of the smuggling ring leads the officers to "Uncle" Benny Chan, a crime boss operating from a Chinatown restaurant. There, they are introduced to high-ranking Triad negotiator Wah Sing Ku (Jet Li). Chan forces them out of his restaurant when the officers show no probable cause. Outside, Riggs spots the escaped captain and tries to give chase but fails to capture him. However, Ku later intercepts the captain and kills him as punishment for attracting the police's attention. Chan and Ku take steps to eliminate all those in on their plans. Hong is able to contact his uncle, but this leads the Triads to Murtaugh's house. Ku and the Triad thugs kidnap the Hongs, tie up Murtaugh, his family, Riggs and Cole and set the house ablaze. Ping, Hong's grandson, has evaded capture and helps to free the others in time. Though Riggs and Murtaugh chase down and kill some of the Triad members, Ku escapes. Ku brings Hong to his uncle at a warehouse, where he has been engraving plates for a counterfeiting operation for Ku and Chan in exchange for transit for his family. Ku kills Hong in front of his uncle to assure his continued work. The officers confront Chan at his dentist's office (using Getz as a distraction) to interrogate him for more information but are unable to get any leads, and during which Riggs and Butters accidentally reveal (from inhaling the laughing gas they used to interrogate Chan) that Butters is the father of Rianne's child. Later, as they discuss what they know with Detective Ng (Calvin Jung), who has worked on cases involving the Chinese government before, Ng recognizes that Ku must be trying to negotiate with a corrupt Chinese general for the release of the Four Fathers, high-ranking Triad members that include Ku's brother (Conan Lee). New information leads them to the abandoned warehouse where they find the bodies of Hong, his uncle, and Chan, the latter two killed by Ku after they served their usefulness. Knowing that Ku plans to use counterfeit money, the police intercept the exchange between Ku and the general, telling the general that the money is fake. The enraged general reacts by executing most of the Four Fathers before being shot and killed by the Triads, at which a firefight breaks out between the Triad, the general's private army and the police, and most of the Triad and army are killed. Ku attempts to escape with his brother, but his brother is shot and killed by Murtaugh (who was aiming at Ku). Riggs and Murtaugh pursue Ku to a pier where they engage him in a brutal fistfight. Murtaugh impales Ku through the stomach with a rebar before being knocked out by Ku, after which the pier collapses and sends Riggs and Ku into the water. Riggs is able to find a Kalashnikov assault rifle and finish off Ku, while Murtaugh recovers in time to rescue Riggs from a piece of concrete that had pinned him underwater. Later, Riggs visits his dead wife's grave and asks her for advice about his impending marriage with Lorna, about which he still has doubts; Getz arrives and offers a heartfelt childhood story (where in the process, he admits that Riggs and Murtaugh are like his family) that gives Riggs both a new light on the situation and a new perspective of Getz, himself. They soon discover Lorna is about to give birth and race to the hospital, where Riggs and Lorna are ceremonially married by a rabbi just before she enters labor. Their son and Rianne's daughter are born, and Murtaugh accepts Butters as his son-in-law (due to the latter having taken a bullet for him during the shootout). Murphy gives Riggs and Murtaugh their rank of Sergeant back since the city is insured again and Hong's family is granted asylum. ===== In a formal concert, Tom, in a tuxedo as the soloist, is performing a piano version of "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2". Jerry, who is sleeping inside the piano, is rudely awakened, then sits on top of the piano to mock the cat by "conducting" him. Tom flicks Jerry off the piano and continues playing. Jerry arises from under one of the keys. Tom plays tremolo on this key, hammering Jerry's head with it, and then unsuccessfully tries to smash the mouse beneath the keys. When Tom lifts his fingers, the piano continues playing by itself, with Jerry manipulating the felts from inside. To quiet him, Tom whacks Jerry with a tuning tool. In retaliation, Jerry slams the piano keyboard lid onto Tom's fingers and then pops out on the far right of the piano to attempt to cut Tom's finger with a pair of scissors as he plays a very high note. After six misses, Jerry substitutes a mousetrap for the white keys just below it. Tom plays the keys on either side for a few seconds, but eventually his finger gets caught in the trap. Jerry prances up and down on the piano, upon which Tom climbs onto the piano in pursuit, continuing to play with his feet. As Tom gets back down on his seat, Jerry dances around on the felts, momentarily changing the tune ("On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"). Tom then plays a chord where Jerry is bounced repeatedly, while making insulting faces at the cat with each bounce, Tom eventually catches Jerry and throws him into the piano stool. Jerry then crawls out of an opening and manipulates the seat's controls, cranking it up and sending it crashing down, causing Tom to land on the keys. Now completely fed up, Tom stuffs Jerry into the felts and then goes crazy on the piano. The felts start bashing Jerry about, spanking him, and squashing him to and fro. Eventually, Jerry emerges in a very angry mood, breaks off some felts and, using them as drumsticks, plays the finale of the rhapsody in one last retaliation. Jerry constantly increases the tempo of his playing, causing Tom to collapse in exhaustion at the end of the rhapsody, the sleeves of his tuxedo jacket now hanging around his wrists. The audience then applauds for the performance, and Jerry takes the praise for himself as a spotlight shines on him. ===== In a paranoid delusion, moribund US Air Force general Quinten unilaterally launches an airborne preventive nuclear attack upon the Soviet Union from his command at the Sonora, Texas, Strategic Air Command (SAC) bomber base by ordering the 843rd Bomb Wing to attack using war plan "Wing Attack Plan R", which authorises a lower-echelon SAC commander to retaliate after an enemy first strike has decapitated the US government. He attacks with the entire B-52 bomber wing of new aircraft, each armed with two nuclear weapons and protected with electronic countermeasures to prevent the Soviets from shooting them down. When the US President and cabinet become aware the attack is underway, they assist the Soviet defence interception of the USAF bombers, to little effect, because the Soviets destroy only two bombers and damage one, the Alabama Angel, which remains airborne and en route to its target. The US government reestablishes the SAC airbase chain of command, but the general who launched the attack, the only man knowing the recall code, kills himself before capture and interrogation. His executive officer correctly deduces the recall code from among the general's desk pad doodles. The code is received by the surviving bomber aircraft, and they are successfully recalled, minutes before bombing their targets in the Soviet Union, save for the Alabama Angel, whose earlier-damaged radio prevents its recalling; it progresses to its target. In a last effort to avert a Soviet–American nuclear war, the US President offers the Soviet Premier the compensatory right to destroy Atlantic City, New Jersey; at the final moment, the Alabama Angel fails to destroy its target, and nuclear catastrophe is averted. ===== At fictional Columbus University, we are introduced to three incoming freshmen - two white, one black. They are, respectively: Kristen Connor and Remy; Malik Williams, a high-school track- star who is attending CU on an athletic scholarship. Kristen and Malik get roommates: Monet, who is black, for Kristen; Wayne, who is white, for Malik. Both sets of roommates generally get along. Monet and Malik attend a dorm party hosted by Fudge White, an Afrocentric and militant senior. Remy, Fudge's roommate, is upset at the loud rap music being played so late. He flags down the all-white campus police to break up the party. Fudge is upset that the cops, led by Sergeant Bradley, come down hard on the black students...yet allows the room down the hall to continue playing their equally-loud "hillbilly" music. On the way back to her dorm, Kristen meets Taryn, an openly-lesbian junior. Taryn warns her about walking alone late at night, and invites her to a student group. Malik and Kristen's introductory political science class is taught by Professor Maurice Phipps, a conservative black man from the West Indies. Professor Phipps challenges the class to determine who they are for themselves, rather than letting others categorize them. Fudge and his friend Dreads play loud music, which disrupts Remy's studying. When Remy complains, Fudge just threatens him. Remy moves out and gets a new roommate: David, who is Jewish. Later, Remy loses at a video game to Malik, who further mocks him. Frat boy Billy rapes a drunken Kristen. Monet finds Kristen crying on her bed, then fields a call from Billy, who uses a racial slur when she does not let him speak to Kristen. Angered, Monet turns to Fudge, who recruits his friends to confront Billy at a frat party. Kristen points out Billy to the black students, who pull him outside and force him to apologize to Monet (not knowing that he raped Kristen). Kristen joins Taryn's student group on harmony between different races and cliques. Eventually, Kristen opens up to Taryn about her rape. Taryn urges Kristen to report the rape, while attempting to console her. As days pass, Kristen becomes increasingly attracted to Taryn. Remy becomes increasingly isolated. He is treated to a drink by Scott Moss, a white supremacist and neo-Nazi skinhead. Remy hits it off with Scott's skinhead friends: Erik, James, and hulking weight-lifter Knocko. Malik confronts Phipps about a paper, arguing for a better grade. When Phipps shows him the various spelling and grammar errors, Malik calls him a sellout for the "white establishment". Phipps angrily responds that the world owes Malik nothing, that Malik must work for himself to make a difference in the world. When Malik's teammates confront him over a poor performance at a track meet, he responds with Fudge's militant Afrocentric ideology. He walks away and flirts with fellow runner Deja. She becomes his girlfriend, and shows him how to write a better essay. Remy spends more and more time with Scott and his gang. Scott, preaching his racist beliefs, gradually convinces the troubled Remy that "the white man is endangered". He shaves his head and is welcomed into Scott's group. After attending a rape awareness rally with Taryn, Kristen asks to spend the night. Taryn rebuffs her, wanting Kristen to be sure. Kristen eventually starts separate relationships with Wayne and Taryn, who are unaware that Kristen is sleeping with both of them. Remy confronts Malik with racial slurs. Remy later pulls a handgun on Malik and David, hurling racial slurs at them both as he packs his belongings and drops out of the university. Again Sergeant Bradley assumes Malik is at fault, and lets Remy escape. Malik moves in with Fudge and his fellow roommates, while Remy moves in with Scott and his fellow Neo-Nazis. Fudge's gang wins a rumble against Scott's. Scott convinces Remy not to drop out of Columbus, because the white supremacists need not only soldiers...but also educated people, such as lawyers, to fight for their cause. Yet Remy, intimidated by Malik, considers violence to be inevitable and therefore the only answer. When Remy insists that he is "for real", Scott shows him a collection of guns - including a sniper rifle - which he keeps hidden in his dorm. Scott challenges Remy to kill for the white race. Kristen and Monet organize a peace festival for the benefit of their fellow students. Malik and Deja attend. Remy opens fire, with Scott's rifle, from a rooftop. Deja is hit and dies in Malik's arms. Malik intercepts Remy and tries to strangle him, but the campus police prevent him from doing this. Remy apologizes for all that he has done, and then turns Scott's gun on himself before Sergeant Bradley can stop him. A few days later, Malik and Phipps discuss his future at the university. Phipps displays his trust in Malik's judgment. Later, Malik and Kristen - who is also taking Phipps' course, but has never spent time with Malik until today - chat near a statue of Christopher Columbus which has been converted into a memorial site. Kristen feels responsible for Deja's death (because it was Monet's and her Peace Fest), but Malik insists she's not. Fudge and Taryn (among others) graduate from Columbus University, with the CU flag girls performing for their commencement-ceremony. The film's closing shot finds Phipps strolling from his office underneath the United States flag fluttering in the wind; the caption "unlearn" is typewritten over the flag, as we fade to the end credits. ===== Goliath, the circus strongman (Nat Pendleton) and the midget, Little Professor Atom (Jerry Maren), both employed by Wilson's Wonder Circus, are accomplices of bad guy John Carter (James Burke) who is trying to take over the circus, owned by Jeff Wilson (Kenny Baker). Julie Randall (Florence Rice), Jeff's girlfriend, performs a horse act in the circus. Jeff has hidden $10,000 in cash, which he owes to Carter, in the cage of Gibraltar the gorilla (Charles Gemora). When Jeff goes to retrieve the money to give to Carter from Gibraltar's cage on the circus train, Carter has Goliath and Atom knock out Jeff and steal the $10,000. Jeff's friend and circus employee, Antonio 'Tony' Pirelli, (Chico), summons attorney J. Cheever Loophole (Groucho) to investigate the situation. Loophole discovers Carter's moll, Peerless Pauline (Eve Arden), is hiding the money, but she outwits him and he fails to retrieve it. Later, Tony and Punchy (Harpo) search Goliath's stateroom on the circus train for the money, but are unsuccessful. With Carter about to foreclose on the circus, Loophole discovers that Jeff's aunt is the wealthy Mrs. Susanna Dukesbury (Margaret Dumont), and he tricks her into paying $10,000 for the Wilson Wonder Circus to entertain the Newport 400, instead of a performance by French conductor Jardinet (Fritz Feld), and his symphony orchestra. The audience is delighted with the circus; when the blustery Jardinet arrives, Loophole, who delayed the Frenchman's arrival by implicating him in a dope ring, disposes of the conductor and his orchestra by having Tony and Punchy cut the moorings on a floating bandstand as they play Wagner's prelude to act III of Lohengrin at the water's edge. Meanwhile, Carter and his henchmen try to burn down the circus, but are thwarted by Tony and Punchy, along with the only witness to the robbery: Gibraltar the gorilla, who also retrieves Jeff's money from Carter after a big trapeze finale, which features Tony shooting Mrs. Dukesbury out of a cannon. ===== The cartoon ostensibly stars Andy Panda (voice of Sara Berner) and his father, Papa Panda (voice of Mel Blanc), but it is Woody Woodpecker (voice of Blanc) who steals the show. Woody constantly pesters Papa Panda by pecking at his house roof, tempting him to try to kill the woodpecker with his shotgun. Andy, meanwhile, tries to sprinkle salt on Woody's tail in the belief that this will somehow capture the bird. To Woody's surprise, Andy's attempts prevail (comically, the mound of salt placed on Woody's tail is so heavy that he cannot run away), and in an ending very similar to 1938's Daffy Duck & Egghead, two other woodpeckers arrive to take Woody to the insane asylum but then prove to be crazier than he is. ===== A car pulls up short on a New York City street, and Montgomery "Monty" Brogan gets out with his buddy Kostya to look at a dog lying in the road. The animal may have been mauled in a dogfight so Monty intends to shoot him, but changes his mind after he looks it in the eye. Monty decides to take the dog to a nearby clinic instead. A few years later, in 2002, Monty is about to begin serving a seven-year prison sentence for dealing drugs. He sits in a park with Doyle, the dog he rescued, on his last day of freedom. He plans to meet childhood friends Frank Slaugherty and Jacob Elinsky at a club with his girlfriend Naturelle Riviera. Frank is a hotshot trader on Wall Street; Jacob is an introverted high school teacher with a crush on 17-year-old Mary, one of his students. Monty visits his father, James, a former firefighter and recovering alcoholic who owns a bar, to confirm their plans to drive to the prison the following morning. Monty's drug money helped James keep the bar, so a remorseful James sneaks a drink when Monty goes to the bathroom. Facing himself in the mirror, Monty lashes out in his mind against everyone else: all the New York stereotypes he can think of, from the cabbies to the firefighters, the corner grocers to the mobsters, as if he hates them all. Finally, he turns on himself, revealing that he is actually angry for getting greedy and having not given up drug dealing before he was caught. In a flashback, Monty remembers the night he was arrested. DEA detectives come to Monty's apartment while he's still there. They find the drugs immediately and not after any real search, suggesting that Monty had been betrayed. Monty sold drugs for Uncle Nikolai, a Russian mobster. Kostya tries to persuade Monty it was Naturelle who turned him in, since she knew where he hid his drugs and money. Monty refused to turn state's evidence against Nikolai, but he's not sure what Nikolai will do at the club that night. Monty remembers how he met Naturelle when she was 18, hanging around his old school, and how happy they were. He asks Frank to find out if it was Naturelle who betrayed him. Jacob sees Mary outside the club, so Monty invites her inside with them. Discussing what kind of a future Monty can have after prison, Frank says they can open a bar together, even though he told Jacob he believes Monty's life is over, and that Monty deserves his sentence for dealing drugs. Frank accuses Naturelle of living high on Monty's money, not caring where it came from, but she reminds Frank that he knew as well and said nothing. The argument culminates in Frank's insulting Naturelle's ethnicity, followed by her slapping Frank and leaving. Jacob, meanwhile, finds the courage to kiss Mary, but both appear to be in shock afterwards and go their separate ways. Monty and Kostya go see Uncle Nikolai, who gives Monty advice on surviving in prison. Nikolai then reveals it was Kostya, not Naturelle, who betrayed Monty, and offers him a chance to kill Kostya in exchange for protecting his father's bar. Monty refuses, reminding Nikolai that he had asked Monty to trust Kostya in the first place. Monty walks out, leaving Kostya to be killed by the Russian mobsters. Monty returns to his apartment and apologizes to Naturelle for mistrusting her. At the park, he transfers custody of Doyle to Jacob. Then he admits that he is terrified of being raped in prison, whereupon he asks Frank to brutally beat him, saying if he goes in ugly he might have a chance at survival. Frank refuses, so Monty deliberately provokes him. Frank is goaded into taking out his frustration, leaving Monty bruised and bloody, with a broken nose. Frank is in tears as Monty gets up and goes home. Naturelle tries to comfort him as Monty's father arrives to take him to Federal Correctional Institution, Otisville. On the drive to prison, Monty once again sees a parade of faces from the streets of the city. James suggests they go west, into hiding, giving Monty a vision of a future where he avoids imprisonment, reunites with Naturelle, starts a family, and grows old. As the fantasy ends, we see Monty, his eyes closed and face still bruised, sitting in the passenger's seat of the car, which has driven past the bridge to the west and towards prison. ===== While exploring near the center of the galaxy, the Federation starship USS Enterprise is caught inside an energy/matter vortex and its computer systems fail. A being named Lucien appears on the bridge, repairs the ship's systems and takes the crew to explore his planet, Megas-Tu, on which differing physical laws allow the existence of magic and witchcraft. Suddenly fearful at the approach of other Megans, Lucien teleports the crew back onto the Enterprise to prevent their being discovered. While waiting, the Enterprise crew experiment with using magic. Lucien warns the crew that their experiments will draw unwanted attention, but it is too late. The Enterprise crew are transported to what appears to be Salem during a witch trial in 1691. The Megans are an ageless species that, at one time, lived on Earth. Contrary to modern assumption, those executed during the witch trials were all real witches, and this was how the Megans were driven from Earth. The Megans put humanity and the Enterprise crew on trial for what humans did to their people. Captain Kirk testifies that humanity has progressed since 1691. On examining their ship's records, the Megans conclude that the Enterprise coming to Megas-Tu was a freak accident and they need not fear human incursion. However, Lucien is condemned to eternal isolation for bringing humans to the Megans' world. Kirk argues that this is unreasonably cruel punishment in the case of Lucien, who alone among the Megans sought out humans for companionship. The Megans claim Lucien is Lucifer, but Kirk only scoffs at this, as he does not believe in the historicity of Christian traditions, and engages the Megans in a magical battle to the death to determine Lucien's fate. The Megans then reveal that their threat to punish Lucien was only a test to determine if humanity had truly changed. On the basis of Kirk's compassion, they would welcome future human visits to their planet. They return the Enterprise to its native universe. ===== While the Federation starship USS Enterprise escorts two robot cargo ships carrying quintotriticale, a new seed grain, to famine-stricken Sherman's Planet, it encounters a Klingon battlecruiser, commanded by Captain Koloth, firing on a Federation scout ship. The Enterprise beams the pilot aboard. The Klingons use a new energy weapon which incapacitates the starship, and demand they hand over the pilot. First Officer Spock hypothesizes that such a powerful weapon must require all the Klingon ship's energy, and Lt. Uhura notices that the two cargo ships have not been disabled. Captain Kirk has the cargo ships set a course to ram into the Klingon ship. With their energy expended, the Klingon ship is forced to flee, but damages one of the cargo ships. Since the Enterprise cargo hold lacks sufficient space, the crew must dangerously load the ship's decks with the grain. The pilot is Cyrano Jones, an intergalactic trader well known to Kirk and crew. He got out of his task of cleaning up the tribbles on Space Station K-7 using a glommer, which preys on tribbles. Jones is now selling "safe" tribbles genetically engineered to be sterile. The Klingons attack again, disabling the engines of the remaining cargo ship and bathing the Enterprise in a radiation which rapidly increases the growth of the tribbles aboard. Kirk still refuses to hand over Jones, ostensibly because he is a Federation citizen, but actually because he suspects the Klingons would not have violated Federation space unless Jones were of great value to them. The Klingons again use their new weapon. Kirk responds by having the tribbles beamed over to their ship. Now at a disadvantage, Koloth admits that Klingon planets are being overrun by tribbles sold by Jones. The glommer, which was created by the Klingons via genetic engineering and stolen by Jones, is their only hope of controlling them. Kirk returns it, but the huge tribbles scare it away. Koloth orders his first officer to shoot the large tribble, only to inadvertently free smaller ones inside. Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, having discovered in advance that the large tribbles are actually tribble colonies, injects the remaining tribbles on the Enterprise with a serum to slow down their metabolic rate. ===== Paul Groves (Peter Fonda), a television commercial director, takes his first dose of LSD while experiencing the heartbreak and ambivalence of divorce from his beautiful but adulterous wife (Susan Strasberg). He starts his trip with a "guide," John (Bruce Dern), but runs away and abandons him out of fear. Experiencing repetitive visions of pursuit by dark hooded figures mounted on black horses, Paul sees himself running across a beach. As Paul experiences his trip, he wanders around the Sunset Strip, into nightclubs, and the homes of strangers and acquaintances. Paul considers the roles played by commercialism, sex, the role of women in his life. He meets a young woman, Glenn (Salli Sachse), who is interested in people who take LSD. Having learned from Paul recently that he would be taking LSD, she has been looking out for him. Max (Dennis Hopper) plays a role as another friendly guide to his trip. Glenn drives Paul to her Malibu beach house, where they make erotic love, interspersed in his mind with a kaleidoscopic riot of abstract images intercut with visions of pursuit on a beach, a scene that is a sly homage to Ingmar Bergman's film, The Seventh Seal (1957). Driven into the surf by his pursuers, Paul turns and faces both of them, and they reveal themselves to be his wife and Glenn. As the sun rises, Paul returns to his normal state of consciousness now transformed by the trip and steps out to the balcony to get some fresh air. Glenn asks him whether his first LSD experience was constructive. Paul defers his answer to "tomorrow." His face is frozen in close-up, and his image cracks like glass through an animation special effect. ===== Big-talking rough-and-tumble truck driver Jack Burton wins a bet with his restaurant owner friend Wang Chi. To make sure he follows through on payment, Jack accompanies him to the airport to pick up Wang's Chinese fiancée Miao Yin. A Chinese street gang, the Lords of Death, tries to kidnap another Chinese girl at the airport, who is being met by her friend Gracie Law, intending to sell her as a sex slave. After Jack intervenes, they take Miao Yin instead. Jack and Wang track the Lords of Death to the back alleys of Chinatown, where they find a funeral procession that quickly erupts into a battle between the Chang Sing and Wing Kong, two ancient Chinese warrior societies. When "The Three Storms" – Thunder, Rain, and Lightning, mighty warriors with weather-themed powers – appear, slaughtering the Chang Sing, Jack attempts to gun his big-rig through the crowd, but runs over David Lo Pan, a man directing the Three Storms. Horrified, Jack exits his truck, but finds Lo Pan unfazed and glowing with magic. Wang hurriedly guides Jack through the alleys; the two escape the carnage and mayhem, but Jack's truck is stolen. Wang takes Jack to his restaurant, where they meet with Gracie, her journalist friend Margo, Wang's friend Eddie Lee, and magician Egg Shen, a local authority on mysticism and Lo Pan. They try to explain to an incredulous Jack (who only wants his truck back) the ancient knowledge and sorcery the Chinese brought with them to America. The group devises a plan to infiltrate a brothel, where they believe Miao Yin is held. They break in with some difficulty, but are interrupted by the Storms tearing off the ceiling and making off with Miao Yin, taking her to their master Lo Pan. Jack and Wang track down the front business used by Lo Pan and impersonate telephone repairmen to gain access, but are quickly subdued by Rain. After being tied up and beaten by Thunder, the two meet Lo Pan – however, he now appears as a crippled old man. Wang tells Jack that Lo Pan needs a special green-eyed girl to break an ancient curse, and he intends to sacrifice Miao Yin. Centuries ago, Lo Pan, a great warrior and even greater wizard, was defeated in battle by the first sovereign emperor, Qin Shi Huang. The Emperor cursed Lo Pan with incorporeality; although Lo Pan can be temporarily granted a decrepit body by supplication to the gods, he must marry a woman with green eyes to appease Ching Dai, the God of the East, and sacrifice her to satisfy the Emperor. When Jack and Wang's friends attempt to save them, they are also captured. After getting the drop on Thunder, Jack, Wang, and Eddie escape and free many women kept in holding cells in the process. During the escape, a horrible orangutan- like monster recaptures Gracie before she escapes. Lo Pan notes that Gracie has green eyes, too, and decides to sacrifice Gracie while making Miao Yin his unwilling wife. Wang and Jack regroup with the Chang Sing and Egg Shen, and as a group they enter a cavern to return to Lo Pan's headquarters. Egg pours each of the group a potent potion that Jack says makes him feel "kind of invincible". The group interrupts the wedding ceremony, which breaks out into a battle. Wang kills Rain in a sword duel, while Jack and Gracie chase the newly-alive Lo Pan. Wang joins them, and just when all seems lost, Jack kills Lo Pan with a skillful knife throw. Thunder – who had been distracted with Wang – reappears, and, enraged at finding Lo Pan dead, swells up and explodes. Jack, Wang, Gracie, and Miao Yin are cornered by Lightning in a corridor, who triggers a collapse with his powers. Egg rescues them with a rope and kills Lightning by dropping a stone Buddha statue on him when he tries to follow. After finding Jack's truck and dealing with the remaining Wing Kong guards, the group busts out and escapes back to Wang's restaurant. The group celebrates their victory in the restaurant with the rescued women; Wang and Miao prepare to marry, while Eddie pairs with Margo. Egg sets off on a long- due vacation – Jack suggests his homeland, but Egg says that China is in the heart. Though Gracie offers to join him in his travels, Jack decides to keep on trucking alone and give himself time to decide. Unbeknownst to him, the orangutan-like monster survived the battle in the labyrinth and has stowed away on his truck. ===== Set at the fictional Bayview Retirement Home near Bournemouth, the show was based around Diana Trent and her relationship with Tom Ballard, a former accountant with semi-feigned dementia. He has been exiled there for the convenience of his family. Diana is a cynical, retired photojournalist who has found herself consigned to the retirement home after a career documenting some of the 20th century's most dangerous events has left her single and with no one in her life outside of her niece, and later, her great-niece. Her frustration at the prospect of years of being alternately patronised and ignored at Bayview is soon channelled into attempts to subvert the régime of the retirement home and taunting the staff regarding their flaws and corrupt nature. Though retired, Diana remains connected with several powerful journalists, which she uses to blackmail the board of directors at Bayview (and Bayview manager Harvey Bains) to stay in Bayview despite her disruptive behaviour. Her only known living relatives are her niece Sarah and later, Sarah's daughter Diana. Sarah runs a modelling agency and loves Diana, though Diana is emotionally distant from her niece, going so far as to tell people that her niece runs a prostitution ring and constantly attempts to kill her with poison. Her nickname for Sarah is 'The Clapham Strangler'. As the series progresses, the two become closer after Sarah undergoes a whirlwind courtship and marriage that results in pregnancy; the marriage fails but produces "the Diana of the Future," as the new Great-Aunt Diana blesses the newborn. Just before Baby Diana arrives, the great-aunt-to-be reveals that much of her hostility towards the world stems from the fact that she is infertile; this incapability is one of her very few regrets in life. Tom is a kindly but deluded old duffer who frequently lives in a fantasy world following his retirement as an accountant. A widower for at least a decade, his increasingly eccentric behaviour leads his alcoholic and adulterous daughter-in-law Marion and henpecked son Geoffrey to move him into Bayview where he finds himself living next door to Diana. The two form an unlikely partnership and discover that they are able to wreak havoc amongst the younger staff and management in the home in order to create a more tolerable living environment for themselves and their fellow residents. Tom's optimistic, cheery demeanour and unencumbered Anglican Christianity contrast Diana's dark cynicism and avowed atheism, as both attempt to influence the other's world view. The manager of Bayview is Harvey Bains, who runs the establishment with his assistant, the homely, spinsterish and pious Jane Edwards. Bains is a penny-pinching weasel whose management style involves trying to run the retirement home profitably while keeping the residents (whom he variously dubs "oldies", "inmates", "units", "wrinklies', or "droolers") passive in order to make himself look good before the eyes of the board of directors. Both Tom and Diana refer to Bains as "the idiot Bains", a reference to Harvey's general lack of common sense regarding his various schemes to promote himself and Bayview to the outside world. Jane, Harvey's put-upon assistant, is a naïve and religious woman who is madly in love with Harvey, in spite of Harvey's utter disdain for her. Jane serves as a foil for Diana; although Diana loathes Jane's religious piety and optimistic outlook on life, she seems to genuinely care about Jane's wellbeing, as evidenced by her and Tom's attempts to help Jane when it comes to the matter of dealing with Harvey's manipulation of Jane's love for him. During the third series, Tom and Diana get together as a couple after a one-night stand, though Diana is far more casual about the new state of their relationship, much to the chagrin of Tom, who wants a committed relationship. In series four, Diana's financial situation collapses and Tom discovers that his room is infested with damp. Tom forces Harvey to upgrade him to a new apartment in Bayview and allow Diana to live with him as his lady friend. By series five, the two become engaged along with Harvey and Jane, who first get together as part of a cynical scheme to get Harvey accepted into an exclusive country club. When the plan fails, and Jane responds by quitting her job to begin the process of becoming a nun, Harvey realises that he has come to enjoy Jane being in his life and the two go through with their vows. But Diana gets cold feet regarding her impending marriage to Tom (much to her niece Sarah's shock). Tom discovers this before the wedding and saves Diana from having to either go through with the wedding or have her niece sever all ties with her aunt, by calling off the wedding just as the two were about to say "I Do". Much of the humour is derived from flying in the face of conventional expectations about how the elderly ought to behave in their old age and how many of the residents do not want to settle down. One character, Basil Makepeace, is forever propositioning the female residents of the home, bragging about his innumerable conquests (on one occasion he muses about the indignities of growing old, commenting that now "three or four times...a night is all I can manage"). As an octogenarian, he does quite well. The other source of humour comes from the lengths that Harvey Bains will go to in his quest for success and how he and Marion scheme to separate Tom and Diana, the two blights on their mutual existences. The series is also unusual in that it is told largely from the vantage point of the (largely well adjusted) elderly characters, with most of the younger characters depicted as buffoons, who are either neurotic or inept. ===== Haru Yoshioka is a quiet and shy high school student who has a suppressed ability to talk with cats. One day, she saves a cat from being hit by a truck on a busy road. The cat she saved turns out to be Lune, Prince of the Cat Kingdom. As a thanks, the cats give Haru gifts of catnip and mice, and she is offered the Prince's hand in marriage. Her mixed reply is taken as a yes. Wanting none of this, Haru hears a kind, female voice, which tells her to seek Muta, a large white cat and to seek directions for the cat bureau from him. Muta leads her there to meet Baron (the same Baron from Whisper of the Heart), who is a cat figurine given life by the work of his artist, and Toto, a stone raven who comes to life much like the Baron. Soon after meeting them, Haru and Muta are forcefully taken to the Cat Kingdom, leaving Toto and the Baron in the human world to follow the group from the air. The Baron and his crow friend find the entrance to the Cat Kingdom on Earth: Five lakes forming a cat's paw. Haru is treated to a feast at the castle of the Cat Kingdom and she begins to slowly turn into a cat with tan paws, ears, nose, tail, whiskers, and for a second she gets fangs, though still mainly human, so that she will make a suitable bride for the Prince. At the feast, Baron (in disguise) dances with Haru as part of the entertainment, and reveals to her that the more she loses herself in the kingdom, the more cat-like she will become, and that she has to discover her true self. When Baron is discovered and is forced to fight the guards, he and Haru are helped by Yuki, a white female cat who works as a servant in the palace and who had tried to warn Haru to leave the Cat Kingdom before she was taken to the castle. After Yuki shows them an escape tunnel, Haru, the Baron, and Muta move through a maze to a tower, which contains a portal to Haru's world. The King goes through a series of efforts to keep them in the Cat Kingdom long enough for Haru to remain trapped in the form of a cat and have her as his daughter-in-law. Lune and his guards return to the Cat Kingdom to reveal the King was not acting on his behalf and that he has no desire to marry Haru; he has instead planned on proposing to Yuki. Muta is revealed to be Renaldo Moon, a notorious criminal in the Kingdom (having devoured a whole lake of fish in one session), and Yuki as being the strange voice who had advised Haru to go to the Cat Bureau. In her childhood, Haru had saved Yuki from starvation by giving her the fish crackers she was eating, and Yuki has now repaid her kindness. Muta tells Haru "I respect a woman who stands up for herself" after she rejects the King's marriage proposal outrightly and proceeds to help her escape from the King's soldiers. Eventually Baron, Haru and Muta escape the realm of cats, with the aid of Prince Lune and Toto, and Haru discovers her true self and tells Baron how she has come to like him. He tells her the doors of the Cat Bureau will be open for her again. Haru returns to the human world with more confidence in herself; after learning from her friend, Hiromi, that her former crush has broken up with his girlfriend, she simply replies "it doesn't matter anymore." ===== The story of Mega Man & Bass varies slightly depending on which player character is chosen. It begins one year after the events of Mega Man 8 when a robot villain named King breaks into Dr. Wily's laboratory and then the Robot Museum to collect the data blueprints for the creations of Dr. Light. Dr. Light alerts the hero Mega Man that he must go at once to the Robot Museum to confront this new enemy. Meanwhile, Bass (Mega Man's rival and Wily's greatest creation) hears of the new criminal's appearance and decides to prove himself the stronger robot by defeating King. Proto Man is the first to arrive at the scene. King divulges his plan to him; he desires to create a utopia in which robots rule the world over humans. To accomplish this, King seeks to create an unstoppable army using the data and invites Proto Man to join him. Proto Man refuses and attempts to attack, but King counters and slices his body in half. Proto Man then teleports back to the lab for repairs while King escapes with the data, instructing his minions to handle the heroes. With their own motivations, Mega Man and Bass set out to put a stop to King's plans. After vanquishing eight powerful robots under allegiance to King, the duo infiltrates his castle and engages him in combat. Proto Man interrupts the fight and again attempts to defeat their new nemesis. Putting all of his remaining energy into a blast, Proto Man manages to destroy King's shield and loses consciousness, allowing Mega Man and Bass to best King in battle afterwards. King questions why they fight so hard for humans when robots are the superior species. The pair explains that humans are the ones who created robots in the first place, which confuses King. The villain reveals that his creator is Dr. Wily, who then appears on a video monitor. When King asks the evil inventor why robots fight each other for the sake of humans, Wily strengthens his "brainwashing level" and restores his power. Mega Man and Bass engage King in another battle and defeat him, but not before the latter teleports Proto Man out of his castle. The castle begins a self-destruct sequence and the protagonists escape without King. Mega Man and Bass confront Dr. Wily in his newly regained laboratory. When Wily is beaten, Bass demands to know why he deceived him. Wily explains that he created King simply to test Bass' abilities. Wily shows him written plans for making a newer version of King to join with Bass in this venture, promising that the two would be invincible together. Proto Man appears and immediately destroys these plans. Wily then demands Bass to destroy Proto Man, but Bass is unsure. Proto Man tells Bass that although he is a strong robot of free will, he can never defeat his rival because he has nothing for which to fight. Bass doesn't care and forces Proto Man to leave, saying that he will still destroy Mega Man to prove his cause. Mega Man returns home where his sister Roll presents him a letter from King, who has somehow escaped the destruction of his castle. King wishes to atone for his own crimes against humans and hopes for them to be friends if they were to meet in the future. ===== ===== Rae Ingram (Nicole Kidman) is involved in a car crash which results in the death of her son. Her older husband, Royal Australian Navy officer John Ingram (Sam Neill), suggests that they help deal with their grief by heading out for a vacation alone on their yacht. In the middle of the Pacific, they encounter a drifting boat that seems to be taking on water. A man, Hughie Warriner (Billy Zane), rows over to the Ingrams' boat for help. He claims that his boat is sinking and that his companions have all died of food poisoning. Suspicious of Hughie's story, John rows over to the other ship, leaving Rae alone with Hughie. Inside, John discovers the mangled corpses of the other passengers and video footage indicating that Hughie may have murdered them in a feat of extraordinary violence. John rushes back to his own boat, but he's too late as Hughie awakes, knocks out Rae and sails their yacht away, leaving John behind. As John attempts to keep Hughie's ship from sinking and catch up with them, Rae awakens and tries to convince Hughie to go back for her husband. Hughie denies her request and keeps on sailing, alternating between kindness and bouts of rage. John manages to get through to his wife on the radio, but the water damage makes him unable to reply save for clicks on his boat's radio receiver. He can respond only yes or no to her questions. John assures her that he is following close by. Rae tries to stall the yacht by turning off the engine and tossing the keys overboard. Her dog jumps in to retrieve the keys and brings them back as he had done earlier with his fetch ball. Hughie starts the yacht back up and tries to convince Rae to be friends with him. Rae accepts, attempting to earn his trust. After a while, she goes back to the radar room to contact John. A blip appears on the edge of the radar's range, signifying the damaged boat. She soon learns that it is too far gone and will sink in the next several hours. With John unable to come to her rescue, Rae assures her husband that she will come back for him. John's radio shorts before Rae has a chance to tell him that she loves him. Unable to make further contact with him, Rae breaks down and cries. Hughie comes down to see Rae sobbing, and heads over to soothe her. Rae formulates a plan to seduce Hughie and gain his trust long enough for her to get to the shotgun on deck. She and Hughie start to make out and undress on the floor. Rae stalls for time by telling him that she has to go to the bathroom. She runs on deck to assemble the shotgun, but Ben the dog follows her. Before she has a chance to load the gun, the dog starts barking causing Hughie to go investigate. In a panic, Rae leaves the gun behind and takes cigarettes down with her as an excuse for being on deck. She eases his suspicion by kissing him and taking him to the bedroom where she undresses and makes love. Later, Rae fixes some lemonade, and places a heavy dose of her prescription sedatives into Hughie's drink after noticing the bottle on the counter. Claiming to go get dressed, Rae heads back for the shotgun, and is discovered soon after. As a fierce storm approaches, Rae and Hughie come to blows. Hughie takes hold of the shotgun, but the effects of the sedative cause him to aim poorly and shoot the radio by mistake. Rae eventually takes hold of a harpoon gun and locks herself in the bedroom. As the door opens she fires off a harpoon. Seeing blood she pushes it open, only to discover she killed her dog. Hughie comes out of hiding to strangle her, but passes out from the drugs. Rae ties him up and sails back to rescue John. Hughie comes to and cuts himself free with a shard of broken mirror, but after making his way to Rae, she shoots him in the shoulder with a harpoon and knocks him unconscious. She then sets him adrift in the boat's life raft and continues to look for her husband. Meanwhile, the damage and the storm have caused the other boat to sink almost completely. The storm intensifies and breaks the boat's main mast, trapping John below deck. The water rises and eventually he is submerged over his head, able to breathe only through a piece of pipe leading to the deck. The only way he can go is down into the boat's hull, in search of an opening. He takes one last breath from the pipe and dives. Through a gaping hole in the bottom of the boat, John emerges back on the surface. He sets the wreck on fire to signal his location to Rae, who is now desperate to find him. Dusk sets in as Rae notices the flames and sets course to the faint fire on the horizon. Without any means to signal his wife, all John can do is wait on a piece of floating debris. After night falls, the pair reunite when Rae arrives and pulls John aboard. Later they find the life raft and Rae shoots it with a flare, setting it on fire. The next day they are relaxing on deck when John takes a break from washing Rae's hair to prepare breakfast for her. Her eyes closed, Rae feels a pair of hands begin massaging her scalp and assumes it is John, but when she opens her eyes she sees a bloody Hughie, who begins to strangle her. While Rae struggles, John arrives from below deck. Seeing Rae being attacked, John shoots Hughie in the mouth with a flare, killing him instantly. ===== Billy Behan is an impoverished Irish American fifteen year-old living in The Bronx with his schizophrenic mother, who supports the family by working at a laundry. Billy runs with a gang of other boys his age, whose antics primarily consist of seeking out places in the city where they can spy on the successful mobsters whom they idolize. One afternoon, the boys are present when Dutch Schultz—who has gone into hiding to avoid being arrested for tax evasion—arrives to inspect a warehouse being used to store bootlegged beer. Billy demonstrates his skill at juggling for Schultz, who calls him a "capable boy" and gives him money. Billy, taking the event as a sign, tracks down an office in the Bronx where Schultz runs an illegal gambling operation and infiltrates it by pretending to be a delivery boy. Otto Berman, Schultz's accountant and second in command, is impressed with Billy's cunning and hires him on as a janitor, using the position to begin mentoring Billy in the ways of mafia life. Over the course of the summer, Billy grows close to both Schultz, who maintains control over his crumbling empire through violence and intimidation, and Berman, who is attempting to steer things towards more legitimate business ventures. Near the end of the summer, Berman tasks Billy with spying on the gangsters who regularly congregate at a nightclub Schultz owns. During his tenure there, Billy witnesses one of Schultz's lieutenants, Bo Weinberg, meeting with a pair of men affiliated with the Italian mafia. Based on Billy's information, Schultz has Weinberg and his girlfriend, a socialite named Drew Preston, kidnapped at gunpoint. Billy follows Schultz and Weinberg out to a riverboat, where he witnesses Schultz torture and murder Weinberg by throwing him into the East River with his feet encased in cement. Before Weinberg dies, he makes Billy promise him to protect Drew. Schultz assaults Drew, then takes her and Billy back to her apartment with instructions to retrieve her belongings. While Drew gathers her things, Billy learns that her husband, Harvey, is a closeted homosexual, and that they share a marriage of convenience in which Drew acts as a beard in exchange for financial security and the opportunity to thrill seek by dating gangsters. Seeing Schultz as simply the latest in a line of sexual conquests, Drew agrees to become his moll in exchange for her life. Schultz amicably turns himself in to the authorities, based on the condition that he be allowed to choose the site of his trial. Schultz and his attorney, Dixie Davis, choose a small farming community in upstate New York, then arrive several weeks before jury selection and buy an entire floor of the local hotel. Schultz presents himself as a philanthropic businessman unjustly persecuted by the government, Billy as an orphan boy whom he has taken under his wing as a business apprentice, and Drew as a governess employed to supervise Billy's education. Schultz uses his fortune to buy several townspeople out of debt, and cements his position within the community by having himself and Billy become members of the local Catholic church. Billy, who is already Catholic, is enrolled in Sunday school; during registration, Billy, believing that he is now solidly a part of the gang, gives himself the nickname "Bathgate" after the street where his apartment is located. Schultz, meanwhile, who is religiously Jewish, must be baptized into the church. Lucky Luciano, the most powerful gangster in the Italian mob, drives in from Manhattan to stand as Schultz's godfather, an act which Schultz believes will also earn him high standing with the Italian mob. One afternoon, Drew gets drunk and asks Billy to tell her how Bo died. Afterwards, she attempts suicide by jumping off of cliff; the attempt fails when she lands in a pond. Billy finds her and helps her back to the hotel. Sensing Billy's ambivalence towards her treatment by Schultz, Drew seduces him and gains his confidence. Concurrently, she also drives a wedge between Schultz and the rest of his men by instructing him in elocution and etiquette, causing him to become more critical of his men's uncivilized behavior. Berman, realizing that Schultz is in danger of losing his empire, instructs Billy to take Drew to the races at Saratoga Springs during the trial, ostensibly to hide her scandalous presence from the press, as Schultz is married. While they are away, Billy and Drew begin an affair. At Saratoga, Billy realizes that the real reason Berman sent Drew to Saratoga was to have her killed, as she has become a liability. Billy arranges for ostentatious flowers, chocolates, and other gifts to be delivered to Drew during the race to draw attention to her, making it impossible for the two hitmen sent by Berman to seize her without being noticed. The ruse buys enough time for Harvey, whom Billy contacted beforehand, to collect her from the race and take her out of the country before the hitmen can act. Schultz is acquitted of tax evasion in New York, but federal prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey announces plans to charge Schultz with federal tax evasion. Schultz flees to Newark and sets up an office in the back room of a chophouse. Against Berman's council, Schultz decides to assassinate Dewey and orders Billy to shadow him to and from work for a week in order to determine the best time to murder him. Word reaches Luciano, who orders Schultz to call off the assassination. During a meeting, Billy informs Schultz that, during their time together, Drew informed him that Bo was making plans with Luciano for Bo to take over his empire if and when Schultz were to be incarcerated or killed. An enraged Schultz decides to declare war on Luciano by going ahead with the assassination attempt. The night before the assassination is to take place, gunmen storm the chophouse and shoot Schultz, Berman, and Schultz's bodyguards. Billy is small enough that he is able to escape out of a bathroom window. Billy returns, where the dying Berman gives Billy the code to Schultz's personal safe. Billy later accompanies Schultz to the hospital and sits with him while he dies. In his death throes, Schultz babbles a stream of consciousness monologue, portions of which lead Billy to the location of his hidden fortune. Billy finds and hides Schultz's money; Luciano calls on Billy to ask him about the location of Schultz's fortune, but Billy manipulates him into believing that Dixie Davis knows where the money is hidden. Luciano dismisses Billy with an offer to potentially come and work for him one day. The next year, a messenger from Drew arrives at Billy's home with an infant son, the product of his and Drew's time in Saratoga Springs. Now a father, Billy decides to use Schultz's money to fulfill Berman's dream of organized criminals becoming legitimate businessman, and founds a corporation that enjoys financial success into the 1980s. ===== Agorastocles is in love with a woman named Adelphasium who is a slave that belongs to the pimp Lycus. Like Agorastocles, she and her sister Anterastilis were stolen (as children) from Carthage and sold. Agorastocles was purchased as an adopted son, whereas the girls were bought to become prostitutes. Milphio, the slave of Agorastocles, attempts to help his master obtain Adelphasium. Their plan is to trick Lycus and get him into legal trouble. Eventually, Hanno arrives from Carthage, and they soon discover he is the cousin of Agorastocles' parents as well as the father of the two girls. The pimp loses in the end, and the story concludes with a happy family reunion. Hanno gives Agorastocles his blessing to marry his daughter.Cf., H. J. Rose, A Handbook of Latin Literature (London: Methuen 1936; 3d ed. 1954, reprint Dutton 1960) at 51-52. =====